#i know this isn’t directly related but also the joke in the bond episode where jr wants to buy the evil lair and convert it an airbnb | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thoughts-on-bangtan · 3 years

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What’s going on with JK interjecting himself into everything v does? I hate the narrative of Jk being jealous. However you could see this coming to a head with JM. jm looked done during a recent clip of them in green. He kept looking at TK and V arm around Jk and tonight’s muster Vmin had a moment and jk grabbed v. Taejin moment and jk grabs v. Vmin moment jk pours water on JM. Then JM separates TK. I’m starting to feel bad for JM, cause Now he’s being branded jealous. Tae has to see JM hurt.

Usually we ignore asks like this because this constant need for drama and making yourself worry due to things that are not really there is just too much on every level and the only real answer that comes to my head is a single word: No.

But, you know what, here are some of our thoughts beyond that single word, even if it all still boils down to it anyway:

Bangtan are a seven member band and MUSTER is the celebration of them all, their 8th anniversary and a show to entertain us and to give them what they are so dearly missing even if only in an ontact version. They aren't paid actors playing a script, and concerts/MUSTER isn't an episode of some TV show with the question of will they or won't get get together or will the jealous secondary character get in the way of their love once more. JK isn’t jealous and he also doesn’t “ruin” moments, the way some claim (you know who I mean), nor does he try to pull Tae away from members or display some kind of possessiveness over any of them in any manner.

Why do you insist on basically character-assassinating JK over and over again when we know he isn’t that kind of person based on everything we know about him and have seen of him and his interactions with the members and people around them?

In the past JK said he is basically like an amalgamation of all the members along with parts of himself, that he loves his members dearly and that they all take good care of him (BTSxGame Caterers). Just yesterday for FESTA did JK say that Tae is his friend and Jimin said JK is his younger brother/dongsaeng. Why, instead, can’t we be happy seeing JK and Tae interact again so freely and happily like they used to years ago before their awkwardness arose (according to them)? Why, instead, must you come into our asks and twist the situation into something it isn’t?

How many times do we have to turn around and around and around and think of this question and narrative just phrased differently until we finally stop? Until we can finally lay to rest the evil JK trying to destroy vmin narrative or the weird notion that somehow Tae, Jimin and JK have been living in the worlds most convoluted, unrealistic and dramatic love triangle for the last ten years? These things only happen in teen dramas but not in real life. This isn’t Vampire Diaries Bangtan Edition where at the end of season eight basically every character had a thing with every character or whatever.

Vmin are something special and their closeness and the love they have for each other has no relation to JK, or any of the other members, nor do their interactions with JK, or any other members, change that fact in any way. We’ve seen so many cute and fun interactions today, and just like all the other vminnies and OT7s, we are now going back to enjoying those instead. ByeBye.

From anon: I hope you saw how Jin directly told Joon to hop off the car and he called Taehyung instead. But I guess that goes against the Namjin agenda 🤣

Another Ta*j*nist, hello, only the second time we’ve had one of you come to us. Since I can’t add the video, here is a description of what it shows: Namjoon, Seokjin, Hobi and Tae walk toward two of the Chicken Noodle Soup cars for the next performance. Hobi gets into the first car, Namjoon in the one behind it, Tae without much thought gets into the first one while Seokjin approaches the second car, communicates something with Namjoon who gets out of the car and swaps places with Tae.

The ultimate proof of Ta*j*n being real, is that it, since that’s what the tweet claims? None of this goes against my/the “Namjin agenda”, since there is no agenda to begin with, and everything this moment tells me is that there was a plan for who was supposed to go with who but either Namjoon or Hobi made an error and Seokjin/Tae fixed it. Just like Jimin and JK automatically stayed behind and Yoongi walked toward the third car. Do you really believe that with an expensive and extensive production such as MUSTER something even as “trivial” as who will go into which car with who isn’t planned and discussed in advance? Can you imagine what chaos would take over the stage if everyone would do what they want? And no, this isn’t be “explaining away” “””evidence”””, it’s me being rational when faced with nonsense. Sorry. I usually try to be friendly, nice, but this is ridiculous.

Also are you really naive enough to believe that moments such as this one, or what the first anon described, on stage can challenge these bonds built and nurtured for nearly a decade? That something as trivial as this (this being the moment anon talked about, not the bond Tae and Seokjin have) is somehow stronger “”proof”” than everything we have of the last eight years? Is this some kind of joke? Are we just being pranked?

EDIT: Since some people love twisting words in my mouth--the anon and the video/profile that the video for this moment came from was a shipper, so if I “trivialized” or downplayed something, then it wasn’t Tae and Seokjin as friends and how much they love each other in that way, there is no doubt about that in my mind even for a second, I merely wanted to show that such a small moment of them taking a car together isn’t “””proof””” enough to discredit both vmin (and everything we have about them that leads us to believe what we believe) and namjin (same case) and “crown” ta*j*n (in a romantic sense) as winners or whatever. Tae and Seokjin are wonderful together and one of my favorite duos (my bias wreckers even) so don’t even try to come for me for trivializing them or downplaying their bond, since I didn’t, just because I basically said I don’t ship them nor see any potential/”proof” for their supposed romance in that moment (or any other one).

What is it with people that instead of focusing on how fun the show was, how much the members enjoyed it, and how lucky we are to see them on stage again, people just focus on either negativity or trying to create ways to have their gotcha moments against other shippers? Aren’t you tired? Are you really ARMY at all?

Just like everyone else we want to enjoy MUSTER and celebrate how fun these two concerts were, so these asks? Any new ones coming in will simply be deleted if they are equally as nonsensical. If you want drama, find someone else who is as into it as you are because we are not.

#answered ask #answered ask by admin 1

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innovativestruggles · 4 years

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Daisuke & Suzue’s Relationship - A Consolidation Post

Hey gang, so given that we have 2 episodes left and absolutely zero idea as to what Daizue’s relationship is, I have decided to put together a spectrum of information. A lot of the stuff I am posting here have already been speculated to some degree, but it is nice to have it all in one big post where you can see what’s been gathered so far.

When I write about speculations, I always base everything on canonical evidence. Of course, there will be elements of personal bias and opinions intermeshed within, but I will try and separate facts from opinions as much as possible so that you can also draw your own conclusions.

For the purpose of this post, I will exclude all novel content, considering the anime is vastly different from the novel. I will start with the OP and work my way towards Episode 9. Originally I was going to wait until Episode 10 to complete this post, but I decided that it probably wouldn’t matter, considering Daizue’s relationship may not be revealed until Episode 11 and they most likely would be focusing on the battle with Shigemaru in Episode 10 rather than delve any deeper into Daizue’s relationship.

WARNING: This is a long post

The Opening

I want to look at this from the perspective of a complete newbie, who has zero knowledge of the novel or what the fandom is speculating. When looking solely at the OP, this is how it is seen;

1. Suzue is a beautiful character who is heavily sexualised

2. The show centres around a handsome rich boy with unlimited money

3. Selling the idea of sassy detective work

Suzue plays the perfect Bond girl trope. From the way she is shown in the OP in lingerie, to being tied to Daisuke’s car, to being bridal carried at the very end. As a newbie watching this OP, all I see is, hot rich guy and his hot, sexy, gorgeous sidekick woman whom he develops a sexual relationship with.

If we all take a step back and just see the bigger picture, anyone, including non-anime watchers, who look at this OP would immediately associate Daisuke and Suzue as some sort of couple/love interests or two characters with immense sexual tension. There is no doubt about that.

So what am I trying to say here? Well, it is clear as day that the FKBU creators were deliberate in the way they showcased Daizue’s relationship. The OP is a foreshadow of what is to come or it implies the way the entire show is set out.

But y’know...to me, the biggest foreshadow was that bridal carry!

Oops...wrong one...I meant this one below 😏

Episode 2

We are skipping Episode 1 as Suzue did not debut until Episode 2.

1. Suzue’s introduction She introduced herself as Suzue Kambe. That was it. Normally, whether it be in an anime or manga, a person would introduce themselves and their relationship (whether directly or indirectly), to another character. This was deliberately left out to keep viewers guessing.

2. Daisuke’s non-existent response Daisuke did not elaborate on his relationship with Suzue. Remember when Haru said something along the lines of “a woman with black hair entered this building,” to which Daisuke replied “woman with black hair you say?” There was no further explanation of who Suzue was to him or how they knew each other, or what sort of relationship they have.

3. Haru’s question was diverted When Haru asked Suzue, “who the hell are you?” Suzue’s response was “I’ve been following Daisuke’s orders...” Again, no further elaboration/explanation. The question was also diverted and she did not properly answer his question.

4. Haru’s assumption Haru made the assumption, as we found out in Episode 4, that Suzue and Daisuke are married. But this was not explored at the time in Episode 2. Again, another deliberate attempt to conceal information, considering we did not even get to see Haru’s assumption of Daizue’s relationship at the time.

5. Suzue’s use of Daisuke’s name No use of nii-san or nee-chan to indicate a sibling relationship and no honourifics were used. The interesting thing here was, Suzue was shown to drop the honourifics from Daisuke’s name in only this episode. Whether it was a mistake or a deliberate attempt to drip feed viewers information at the time, we don’t know. But let’s just say it was a deliberate attempt on the creators part - it needs to make sense. What I’m trying to say here is that Suzue should be in a relationship close enough to Daisuke to be able to drop the honorific but also be in a professional/lower position to continue addressing him with ‘sama.’ So in essence, Daisuke and Suzue’s relationship is most likely more complex than meets the eye.

6. Suzue’s professionalism Daisuke and Suzue’s relationship is too formal and professional to be considered to be some kind of sibling/family/close relative situation. Suzue works for Daisuke. That is the end point. She follows his every instructions and obeys all his orders. Even if she were a Kambe, she has to be a very, very, very distant relative to even submit to that level of obedience. If she were a closer relative but of a lower ranking than Daisuke’s family, there is absolutely no way she would be put in such a subservient position (more on this later).

Based on the 6 above points, personally, what I see is a deliberate attempt to create drama amongst fans lmao! But jokes aside, you cannot take it on face value that they are just relatives (or siblings at the time when it was first released) because as you can see, there are so many clues in this episode alone that does not make any sense.

Episode 3

Suzue only made a brief appearance here but I’d like to add a couple things.

1. Grandma’s focus on Daisuke Grandma barely acknowledged Suzue, and given that Suzue herself is a Kambe, I find this incredibly odd. Grandma was very focused on Daisuke, from his work relationship to his behaviour, and Suzue was...ignored.

2. Grandma explicitly stated to Haru about Daisuke that she is “his grandma” This piece of information was only available in the English subtitles. Remember that in Japanese language, there is no ‘his’ or ‘her.’ It is gender neutral. But I take it that the subtitles are official subtitles which gave us a bit more of a clue into Daizue’s relationship. We know at this stage here that Grandma is only Daisuke’s grandma and not Suzue’s.

With the above 2 points, if Suzue were a sibling or a closer relative, there would be more focus on her too. And I know the show is about Daisuke and Haru, so why would Suzue get any attention? But precisely this is the reason! Because the show centres a lot around the Kambe family conflict and you would think Suzue would be more involved in this conflict if she were closely related. But she is not involved. To me, this just screams outsider. Poor Suzue.

Episode 4

Alright, here we go on this roller coaster episode.

1. Suzue addressed Daisuke as ‘Daisuke-sama.’ Kudos to know this because no bloody sibling would say this shit to their elder sibling. So that theory has been written off long ago now.

Anyways I’d like to point out that there are times where lower members of a family, known as ‘branch’ families, would address the head family with polite honourifics. It’s quite rare nowadays in modern Japan, but in saying that, richer more exclusive families may still tend to do this and some still fight over the title of head of family. So in essence, anyone who succeeds as head of family (together with their immediate family) will obviously be addressed with polite honourifics.

Just to let you know, branch families can either be closer relatives or very, very distant relatives (so distant that it is negligible they are related to the head family). We don’t know how big the Kambe family is and what the dynamics are like when it comes to the next successor. The bigger the family, the more likely members will want to fight over the title for head of family - usually once when the current head of family and their immediate family are all dead. What I’m trying to point out here is that Suzue may well still be a relative (I’m not gonna deny that during this first point I’m making), considering the above explanation I just made.

2. Daisuke did not elaborate on the type of relative Suzue was to him Another obvious one here. The creators love playing games with the viewers. The fact that Daisuke did not elaborate on his relationship with Suzue was a huge red flag. In the sense that we do not know whether Suzue is a close relative, a distant relative, married into the Kambe family or adopted. The creators are still keeping the viewers guessing!

3. Daisuke’s body language and expression This may be more opinionated base, but you can make judgements for yourself by rewatching the scene again. When Daisuke tells Haru that Suzue is a relative, there was almost a stilted, discomforting demeanour, as if he did not want to discuss the topic. This was heavily exacerbated and reinforced by his tone of voice, which may indicate he could be hiding something?

4. Haru’s assumption that Daisuke and Suzue are married Considering the fandom thinks Daizue look so similar, Haru clearly didn’t. So on his end, they looked more like husband and wife than siblings or relatives..

5. Suzue’s infatuation with Daisuke It was too obsessive. Lovey dovey and just ... plain questionable. I mean, Suzue could still be a relative and do this but the way it was set up was very jarring. As in, Suzue displays a sense of professionalism and obedience towards Daisuke that screams master and servant - not infatuation.

Normally in anime shows where a character is infatuated over another, there isn’t that simultaneous level of professionalism displayed between the characters. So whether the character is a relative or not, it would be believable. But in Suzue’s case, professionalism + infatuation + relative does not make any sense to me. Also, Do NOT confuse loyalty with professionalism! They are two separate things. Suzue displays both! Characters you see in other anime may display loyalty and infatuation. The biggest incongruence to me with regards to Suzue is the infatuation and professionalism!

From something like this...

To something like this...

6. Suzue attended to Daisuke’s everyday needs Honestly if this wasn’t the most jarring thing, I seriously don’t know what was. I swear, not even the lowest member of a branch family would attend to a head family’s every day needs like a servant/maid. It makes no sense. Considering Daisuke is rich enough to have multiple maids that could attend to his every day needs, and that his butler Hattori could probably do what Suzue does, I do not understand the need for Suzue to do all these personal things for Daisuke.

7. The anime creators deliberately did this episode in a way that would confuse fans even more When you add: Daisuke saying “Suzue is a relative” + Suzue’s weird infatuation + addressing Daisuke with ‘sama’ = you are going to get the biggest explosion of confusion.

It almost felt like the creators wanted to balance things out for the viewers. That is, “I want Daisuke to say Suzue is a relative, but I also don’t want the viewers to think she is a relative either.” There you go, they nailed it with this episode.

8. Daisuke cooked for Suzue At first I didn’t think much of this scene other than Daisuke’s weird way of making up to Suzue for being petulant LOL. But then I thought about how Grandma and butler were just standing there, uninvited to eat food made by Daisuke...it just goes to show that Daizue’s relationship runs a lot deeper than meets the eye. More important than Grandma that is for sure.

Episodes 5 and 6

Suzue did not make much of an appearance in these two episodes, but what I continued to see was the undying loyalty and continued professional relationship between Daisuke and Suzue. Despite Suzue’s injury in Episode 5, she continued to assist Daisuke (or tried to) in a manner that screams ‘I am forever your servant. Ask and ye shall receive’ kinda vibe LOL

When she knows Daisuke is safe, Suzue keeps her cool, calm demeanour and powers on with the professionalism, but that weird infatuation kicks in otherwise... what an odd relationship they have...

Episode 7

1. The lack of Suzue in the family photos No Suzue could be seen in the family album. And yes, some people pointed out the baby in the ‘pink’ onesie was Suzue. Could be. But highly doubt it. Someone mentioned that the onesie used to be red but faded over time to a pinkish colour because it has been more than 27 years. That’s also a plausible explanation. Tbh, that entire photo album just screamed Daisuke.

2. All other photos pointed to the fact that Daisuke was raised as an only child No Suzue present or any indication that she was there at the time those photos were taken

Episode 8

Oh boy, the fun episode LOL

1. You can try and see it both ways here.

a. Suzue was just trying to warn Daisuke about HEUSC. That was all. Nothing else.

b. Definitely fanservice. Suzue could have done this in so many other ways. It was obviously a deliberate part on the creators’ side to bring forth a sexually suggestive scene that really further questions Daizue’s relationship. And the way they zoomed in on certain features (yeah we love their lips almost touching and Suzue’s ass in the air whilst her legs were pressed in between Daisuke’s) perhaps suggested something more explicit between the two (or implied to be in the future), but then again, the zooming in of their lips could just emphasise HEUSC’s ability to lip read rather than anything sensual. But ya know, I reckon it probably was both.

Again, this whole scene puts more question marks on their relationship as to ‘What kind of relatives are they?’ or ‘Are they really relatives?’ or ‘What is their true relationship?’

Zooming in on Suzue moving her ass and legs in between Daisuke was completely unnecessary unless they are implying something sexual. Yeah goodbye.

This was obviously more necessary to describe HEUSC’s ability to lip read...but the way it was zoomed in and emphasised between them...

2. The creators made Haru see Daizue walk out the room A hugely obvious attempt at forwarding Daizue’s relationship. I mean, putting Haru in that position completely threw the spanner in the works. He was obviously informed by Daisuke that Suzue “is just a relative,” yet he saw them walk out from Daisuke’s bedroom looking all...well...looking like they just had the most amazing time in there.

Even though it was obvious to us viewers what Haru was thinking, we were never shown Haru questioning the situation in relation to ‘Wait a minute, didn’t Daisuke say she was a relative? What the f did I just see then?’ We don’t get that point of view from Haru so we don’t know what he was speculating in relation to their relationship. I mean, Haru could just be as confused as we were! The only advantage Haru got over us viewers was that he could have just asked them for more clarity around their relationship. Clearly he was just being too polite lmao

3. Daizue did not attempt to clarify the situation I mean, unless they were both stupid and seriously thought Haru wouldn’t think they got up to no good, despite it being so clear as day that Haru thought otherwise, they did not say anything. Again, another deliberate part on the creators’ side to create further confusion. They really like making Daizue keep their mouths shut when it comes to anything to do with their relationship backstory...

The creators went one step further and made Daisuke adjust his shirt. LOLOL

And even further by making Suzue’s hair all messy and dishevelled...

4. Suzue mentioned ‘your father and mother’ to Daisuke when discussing HEUSC Big red flag here that would completely forever bury the sibling theory. It sounds to me that Daisuke and his family are very separate from Suzue.

Episode 9

We are in the present now!

1. Daisuke tells Grandma that only the Kambe family, that is, he himself and Grandma, could infiltrate the system This may imply that Suzue is not a true Kambe or she may have been adopted into the family. It would also help discredit the theory that she may be a lower ranking member of the Kambe family/a branch family of the Kambe. It may also imply that Daisuke may have been hiding something from Haru about Suzue when he said ‘Suzue is a relative’ or he was outright lying.

Other materials

Their appearances

On surface level, they do have some similarities but if you look a bit closer, their eye colour is different (Daisuke’s is a deep blue and Suzue’s is more violet), hair colour is different (Daisuke’s is more black and Suzue’s is more charcoal) and eye and eyebrow shape are different. Tbvh, if they made Suzue’s eye and hair colour completely different, you would see the contrast more. It’s just that the creators deliberately designed the two this way to evoke more confusion.

Concluding opinion: It is obvious to me that the creators are drip feeding us information about Suzue. Here with this post, even when analysing it on a spectrum, I gathered two things from it over time.

a) Suzue is not a blood relative

b) The relationship between Daisuke and Suzue is a lot more complex

Just remember that Daisuke trusts Suzue with his life. So the level of mutual understanding and trust between the two is incredibly profound.

Again, these are all very speculative and a lot of the fandom have garnered their own information over the course of the episodes. This is what I (and a lot of DaiSuzu fans) have dissected so far.

Although the entire show is centred around Daisuke and Haru and their detective work with regards to the Kambe family, I feel like Daizue’s relationship is like that mini side story. Whether they will delve into it or not in the next two episodes is anyone’s guess really. As I said earlier, if anything, the reveal would most likely occur at the very end of Episode 11.

Anyways, share your thoughts and feel free to refute! But PLEASE, be respectful.

P. S. I will keep adding to this if I think of more stuff. It’ll be part of a new “edit section.” I’ll just reblog it so people can see it easier!

#after reading all this in chronological order...can you see how information was dripped fed to us very slowly?#what do you conclude based on this gradual reveal of info?#i want to hear your thoughts!#this was fun to write btw #only 2 eppys to go #MAYBE THEY WILL DO A REVEAL NEXT WEEK?#OR HAVE A BIGGER SET OF CLUES FOR US THEN?#i would be so happy #regardless #THEY BETTER GIVE US A NICE CLEAR EXPLANATION AS TO WHAT DAIZUE'S RELATIONSHIP IS #omg they better not put it up in the air #i'd go mental #daisuzu #daizue #daisuke kambe #suzue kambe #balance unlimited

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rachelbethhines · 4 years

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Tangled Salt Marathon - Keeper of the Spire

You wouldn’t know it upon first watch, but today’s story is one of the few non-filler episodes of season two.

Summary: In order to acquire the third scroll piece, Rapunzel, Eugene, Cassandra and Lance travel to the home of the Keeper of the Spire and meet Calliope who informs them the third piece is kept inside the Spire’s vault at the top of the mountain. The group begins the long journey to the Spire's vault the following day and become increasingly annoyed by Calliope’s rude, arrogant and inconsiderate behavior. Despite Calliope's treatment, Rapunzel insists they still need her help all while they being dangerously pursued by the vault's protector, the Kurlock. The group eventually reach the Spire's vault, but again encounter the Kurlock and discover Calliope is not the real Keeper of the Spire.

Once Again, ‘Destiny’ Isn’t a Goal

If you want to build up some sort of mystery with the scroll pieces and what awaits Rapunzel at the end of her quest, then that’s fine. But at some point you have to actually explain what her destiny actually is, how the scroll connects to it, and most importantly, why she needs to fulfill it.

We’re never given a reason for why Rapunzel needs to reconnect to the moonstone, nor why she couldn’t have just stayed home and did nothing. The scroll itself doesn’t tell her anything and what it leads up to has nothing to do with ‘destiny’ and ultimately comes to nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Indeed, much like the quest itself, things would have been better for everyone had she not found the scroll at all.

Meet the Best Written Character In the Show

No, I’m not exaggerating. Calliope is the only recurring character in the series not to get royally screwed over by last minute rewrites and poor pacing. In fact her arc may have actually been improved by the dumb creative decisions of season three.

Which is a problem because she’s not a main character. Her story and arc shouldn’t be more well rounded than Rapunzel’s. It’s also clear, given how the writers try to pitt her as annoying thorn in the heroes sides that is only tolerated because she’s useful, that they weren’t expecting the general audience to identify with her, and so her subsequent portrayal as the most developed character in the show is fully accidental.

We Finally Get Some Indication of Cassandra’s Age

Well first off, we probably shouldn’t be getting such information about our deuteragonist this late in the game, but also, putting Cass in her early 20s recontextualizes her arc the same way Varian being 14 recontextualizes his conflict, but in the opposite direction. A 24 year old is more accountable for their actions than a 14 year old. Always will be.

And before people try to get all pedantic on me; yes she’s only 23 here, and Varian is currently 15. What I meant is those are their ages at the start of their villain arcs, because the linear progression of time is a thing.

This Joke Actually Highlights One of the Bigger Problems of Season Two

I laughed when I first heard this joke, but that’s cause I was under the assumption that they would go on to develop a friendship between Cass and Lance as the season went on. But they don’t.

Cass never has any focus episodes that aren’t about her failing relationship with Rapunzel. She never interacts with the other four people that she’s traveling with outside of group scenes like this. Not even with Eugene, who we spent the whole previous season establishing a bond with.

This undermines Cassandra’s arc in several ways. She less well rounded and developed without other people in her life besides Rapunzel; it ignores her place in the show as the older and wiser friend if she’s so majorly co-dependent upon only person. It also ignores what was set up in season one in order to push a certain narrative later that clashes with what we the audience already know.

Plus there’s the added effect of other characters getting poor representation within the story.

So Why Didn’t the Others Come Along Again?

I understand not being able to take the caravan upto the top of the mountain, but the road was wide enough to get it up this far. Also it didn’t take you all day to get here so you could just walk back to camp.

But let's get to the real reason why the caravan was left behind. The writers wanted and excuse to get rid of Hookfoot and Shorty. Because they didn’t want to write them into the story. Because they have nothing to do with the overall plot and together they’re one too many characters to keep up with and give stuff to do to. Which begs the question of why they were ever included into the season at all.

Also why leave Adria behind? She was the one who sent them up here. She’s the one who has a vested interest in getting Rapunzel to the end of her journey. She’s the only one driving the plot at the moment, so why not have her present to do just that?

Rapunzel is a Hypocrite

There’s not a single description that Rapunzel says here that couldn’t be applied to herself.

Which would be funny if the writers ever actually acknowledged this within the series.

Having parallels simply exist on their own and not actually inform the story is bad writing. Same with character flaws; acknowledge them, use them to advance both the plot and the characters, and build off of them to establish character dynamics. This is in part why Calliope is the better written character between the two of them.

Behold, the One and Only Time Lance and Rapunzel Hold a Conversation with One Another!

Speaking of characters not getting enough focus.... It’s just a set up for a recurring gag in the episode, but this is indeed the only point in the series where Lance and Rapunzel talk, about anything.

It’s not just Cass who is prevented from establishing relationships, it’s literally everyone. All of Rapunzel’s focus episodes alternate between Cassandra, Eugene, or a random side character. Cassandra only gets focus when with Rapunzel. Eugene only gets development with either Rapunzel or on his own. Lance is only ever shown interacting with Eugene or Adria, outside of some highly specific one off instances like here. Hookfoot is left out in the cold save for three episodes and two of them double as New Dream folder.

We’ve managed to pair the cast down to only six, as opposed to a whole kingdom’s worth of characters, and yet they have less development here than they did in season one. The group does not feel like a group, and that is a problem.

How is This Meant to be Encouraging?

Ok, I get what the writers were going for here. Calliope has low self esteem. she feels useless because she’s lost her only support group, her mentor. So Rapunzel is ‘inspiring’ her to fulfill her dream of becoming the new keeper of the spire.

However, this is an incredibly bad take.

Calliope lacks self esteem because she’s lonely. Her dream of becoming the keeper is directly tied to her father figure, who up till now was the only person who gave a damn about her. She only wants to impress Rapunzel because she wants a friend and she believes that she needs to be useful in order to get that. And here is Rapunzel and the narrative reinforcing that belief under the guise of ‘achieving a dream’.

No fuck that!

You don’t need to have a ‘purpose’ to have friends.You shouldn’t have to prove yourself useful just be respected and included. Also, Rapunzel doesn’t even befriend her. She just uses Calliope to get what she wants and then avoids her for the rest of the show; only checking up on her out of obligation in season three.

So not only are we denied another female friendship in a show bereft of female relationships, but we also have a character who can be easily read as autistic by the audience needing to prove she’s useful to society in order to be accepted.

Ugh!

And yeah, I said autistic. We have a character who fails to pick up on social cues, hyperfixates upon her special interests, is rejected by society for trying to share these special interests, and she even pulls out her magic linked rings to fiddle with when stressed, which can be coded as a stim. I’m not saying that this was the writers’ intent, but nevertheless these are traits that people on the autism spectrum tend to identify with.

So how insulting is it to watch this episode and see someone you could relate to being constantly put down by the heroes behind their back and then never apologize for it, even when said character admits their own fault?

So Are We Ever Going to Get Any Background on this Spire?

So the spire is one of the few places that is plot important in the show. Yet we never find out why it exists, who built it, how it came to hold such important plot devices, nor the story behind the keepers who guard it. It’s just there, and that’s infuriating because it’s both a lack of much needed worldbuilding and lore.

Still A Better Dad than Frederic

Leaving for months on end without telling you loved ones why and where you’re going is a shitty thing to do. Doubly so if its just to teach your kids ‘a lesson’. However, The Keeper still winds up being a better parental figure than most of the other dads (besides Cap, who is awesome) in the series. That’s how low the bar has been dropped by Chris and his weird ideas on parenting.

So What Was the Lesson Here?

Ok first off, Calliope didn’t need to be reminded of anything. The Keeper says as much. She was always persistent. The only lesson that she does learn is not to lie but apparently that’s not what we’re supposed to take from this episode.

But what are we supposed to take away? Because Rapunzel doesn’t learn anything either. There’s no admittance of wrongdoing on her part and she does not change her outlook or behavior from this encounter.

Calliope at least learns to become more self assured after this episode and remains honest and true to herself once the episode is done with. Rapunzel however is the same. You can’t claim that this is ‘Rapunzel’s story’ (Chris’s words not mine) if it’s only random side characters who are allowed to grow. Which is yet another reason why the main cast of characters don't get the development and interaction that they should.

That’s also why Calliope is better written than the main character and she shouldn’t be. It’s a bewilderingly oversight of basic writing.

Conclusion

I don’t mind this episode. As I said in the beginning, it is one of the few non-filler episodes in season two. However, there’s a lot of problems with it to the point where I can’t actually call it good, just mediocre.

#tangled #anti-tangled #anti-rapunzel #tangled the series #rapunzel's tangled adventure

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wildselkie · 4 years

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Top 10 Scenes in TDP Season 1 (pt. 1/3)

*not ordered in which is better or worse, but it will be in chronological order*

Also some things are worded weirdly. I have a pain in the ass time trying to get my thoughts across in words so... I thank you for your patience :))

_________________________________________

1) The scene where Callum, Ezran, and Rayla find the dragon prince. Ep. 2

I think this is one of the more pivotal moments in the show. I mean it is literally the scene that sets the story in motion after all! Two human princes, an elf assassin, and the lost dragon prince (who was thought to be dead/gone/egg destroyed(?)).. this is just IT.

*also i’m aware that Ez probably found the egg first cos he already knew about this secret area but still

2) Viren (attempts to) proposes the idea to trade his life in for Harrow. Ep. 3

Now there are other well thought and well written posts on this scene with Viren and Harrow, so I won't waste your time with all the gushy stuff. I find this scene important because it shows the lengths that Viren would go for his friend. Whether he's doing out of the goodness of his heart or some other selfish reason... maybe both(?)..

!WARNING! MINI VIREN POST ALERT EVEN THO I SAID I WOULDN'T GET INTO IT

In the book Moon, it dives deeper into the plot along with expressing the characters' thoughts and feelings. As for Viren, it's stated in the book that he wanted to:

"offer his life for Harrow's, but he wanted him to understand that this was more than just a sacrifice of a subject to his king. This was personal"

"... he would need to be straightforward. He wanted to say simply I love you and I will die for you" (Ehasz 80).

I have no doubts that Viren didn't not love Harrow or anything of the sorts, but at the same time it feels like there was another motive. Maybe there was, who knows.

All we know about Viren is that he's a father of two (Claudia & Soren), divorced/ separated from his wife, and he's a dark mage. Of course there's some more (like he's taller than Harrow according to the character line up)... also his staff... like if you look at it, it's the same one as the mage who faced Sol Regem all those centuries (?) ago. Maybe he's related to him, or possibly descended from one of the followers. I'd imagine that teaching dark magic may be a thing within his family and ancestors... he taught Claudia dark magic. That doesn't prove anything but it's a small thought.

ANYWAY-- this scene is one of many scenes that show Viren in a vulnerable state. The book gives a look into how he felt when he decided to sacrifice himself and everything. It's just interesting and I'm here for it.

3) Amaya and her weapons grade baguette Ep. 4

On a less serious and more fun note, the fact that Amaya is a breakfast connoisseur is just perfect. Amazing. Fantabulous.

"As a breakfast connoisseur, she was offended that Ezran would neglect a hearty morning meal" (Ehasz 120).

I only emboldened and italicized "offended" because in the show YOU CAN LITERALLY SEE HER FACE WHEN EZ TELLS HER.

Bruh she was so offended lmaooo

It's right at 13:36 time in the show... the slow zoom in and all 😂

4) Amaya and Gren meeting Viren at the statue Ep. 5

I’m trying to see if I should have paired this with the first scene where Amaya arrives first. That scene is pretty calm but has a somber feeling. It introduces the relationship of Amaya and Sarai without having to directly say it.

But this scene here is... interesting. Not in a good way or bad way, but we see they’re reminiscing of the past. At some point, they all got along nicely. Callum even noted in his spellbook that Viren’s family became like a second family to him when he moved to the castle.

This interaction was cute tho. It started out positive (sort of) with them joking about Viren eating the last jelly tart which pissed Sarai off lol. But then Viren went on to apologize to Amaya and reassured her that what he does is out of the goodness of his heart and love for Katolis. But...

“Aaaaand, he’s back, Amaya thought” (Ehasz 150).

And then went on to sign that he’s on a bunch of bs. See? Even Amaya knows he’s full of shit lol. But really tho... it makes me wonder how much of bs Viren goes on even before the events of the current story line.

5) Rayla saves Bait from the sea monster Ep. 5

Let us give a round of applause for Rayla going against her fear of water to save Bait, the grumpy frog who hates her. I think this just goes to show how compassionate Rayla really is. This would include the time when she goes back to grab bait back in the banther lodge in episode 4.

6) Viren giving his kids their *secret* missions Ep. 6

Okay this isn’t just one scene. I cheated yeah yeah whatever >:3

When Viren is telling Soren what he must do when he finds the princes, at first he doesn’t fully get it, but then.. OH n0

Viren’s intentions are starting to unfold and come together as one. Like, this man just told his own SON that should he find the princes, he should kill them. This 18 yr old bby

bruh

And Viren didn’t say it aloud, but he heavily implied it. Only to then gaslight him later on when Claudia confronts him in prison.

As for Claudia, Viren tells her that she must retrieve the egg. And do everything in her power to bring it back, even if it means that she’ll have to sacrifice Soren... her own damn brother ;-;

7) When Callum finally lets Rayla hold the egg Ep. 6

This scene is pretty big. Rayla knows that Harrow is long gone and is trying to find a way to tell them. Obviously she doesn’t choose the best time to try it.

They were in a dire situation that could potentially kill them (even tho they had plenty of those moments already). The reason why this scene is so big is because it shows her struggle to break the bad news (ever since the right binding fell) as she continues to grow closer to them. Here you can see Callum passing the egg to her, despite her hand being in the terrible state that it is in. It is also the scene where right before passing it, he finally tells Rayla that he trusts her.

8) Human Rayla!! Ep. 7

Human Rayla is so corny but it’s the good kind of corny. One of the best comedic jokes in the series!

That is all cos human Rayla needs an AU of being a nighttime tv host or smthg

9) Viren and Runaan Ep. 8

yo this is alot okay. The scenes with these two introduced some Moonshadow philosophy and such (ie. not being scared of death). Runaan being the stoic and serious assassin that he is. And Viren not having any of this shit.

There are three major things here:

Runaan knows about the mirror and is most likely aware of who Aaravos is. He literally says, “That mirror? You have found something worse than death.” Goddamn...

And then Viren just... trapped his soul.. his essence into a goddamn coin. Just like that? wow. And hold it, almost admiring it in front of Gren.

Also this is the first time we officially see Viren in that form. In the beginning of episode 5 we are given a darkened silhouette of Viren and the butterflies. But here we see the damage resulted from years of having done dark magic, and it’s horrifying. He is the high mage and all but goddamn. I mean with every action there are consequences so-

10) Callum destroying the primal stone Ep. 9

I feel like this is one of the “of course it’s this one!” scenes but it really is! Callum realizes that only a sky dragon can be hatched in the eye of storm and there he is with a literal storm in his hand. By now, Callum has come to understanding what feels right and that being a mage is his destiny. But he also understands that he needs to sacrifice some things for new beginnings. This whole journey was to get the lost dragon prince home and restore balance and peace and with the egg starting to die... well you can’t really do that without the egg.

It’s at 18:50 where he realizes all of this. It’s one of the big boy moments in the show. Seriously, it’s a big moment and the suspension helped get the feels in. And we got a cute baby dragon!!

End, begin. it’s all the same. (pls someone get that reference ;-;;;)

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Some honorable mentions:

- Episode 7: Claudia and Soren interacting. I love their sibling bond; it’s so silly and sweet and I love it. It makes me wish I had an older brother of some sort.

Ellis and Ava,, I like the flashback story given when they meet the dragang. I just like it, okay? Smol chiald w/ smol wolf pup and a hippie Lujaane seeing the beauty & strength in Ava.

CGI Coran. That all I have to say about that guy lmao

- Episode 8: When the group is going up the cursed caldera and they encounter that giant leech. Like can we just appreciate Callum’s funny way of making out a plan? Fat respect for that.

Another is when the group split up and waited for the leech to leave. The conversation between Ellis and Callum were sweet as was the one between Rayla and Ez. I loved Ellis’s admiration for Callum being a mage. And her expectations of what a mage was is pretty hilarious. So wholesome. The same goes for Ez when he gave Rayla that daily fill of positivity.

Like... Ellis is telling Callum how smart and confident and cool he is. And meanwhile Callum is like... it’s not me, it’s this. *whips out primal stone* And she goes on to tell him that she believe he’ll be amazing with or without the stone.

And Rayla is telling Ez how she failed in her job of killing the enemy. And Ez is telling her how she’s awesome at everything she does.

this is the positive wholesome shit I come for like... this is parallels but GODDAMNIT it’s so.. ;;;;-;;

Yo this is long ENOUGH! Thank you so damn much if you read to the end. You’re the real beauties. Anywho... uh parts 2 and 3 will be up soon.

It’s 11 now so I need some sleep. goodnight kids

#callum #ezran #rayla #tdp #the dragon prince #zym #hot brown morning potion #applause for the beautiful show that is tdp #tdp soren #moonshadow elves

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cuttoothed · 5 years

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Contrary to much opinion I’ve seen, I don’t believe we have good evidence that Peter Lukas is canonically socially anxious. That interpretation has taken off in fandom since episode 144, and especially since 151, however I don’t believe it's particularly backed up by the text.

I’ll preface this by saying that people are absolutely within their rights to head canon characters however they would like, and that if Peter having social anxiety makes him relatable for you or is a concept you enjoy, that's great. What I'm disagreeing with is the idea that it's canon, which I've seen a lot of people stating as fact in the past number of weeks.

Let's look at all the dialogue relating to Peter's methods of communicating, from those two episodes.

TMA 144

PETER: I’m absolutely delighted with your progress, and I believe you deserve some straight answers.

MARTIN: But not from you.

PETER: Oh, no. That sort of conversation makes me very uncomfortable. No, I’m owed a favor by a friend of mine. I’ve asked him to stop by once he’s back in the country.

"That sort of conversation" means one where he has to give "straight answers". Peter doesn’t state that he’s uncomfortable with conversation generally, only when it involves communicating directly and openly about a topic. And “uncomfortable” doesn’t necessarily mean he’s anxious about it. It simply means he doesn’t like those kinds of conversation.

TMA 151:

SIMON: Yes, well you have to understand how it is with Peter. He finds talking to people directly very difficult, especially explaining the more esoteric side of things? Charming chap, I’m sure you agree, absolutely lovely, but even if you can convince him to actually give you a straight answer, he’s just not that good at actually putting these things into words. Something to do with his upbringing, I think. I’m pretty sure he was home-schooled, you know.

You could interpret "directly" to mean "face-to-face", but in the context of the conversation, I think it makes more sense to interpret "directly" as "straightforwardly". Peter doesn't like to communicate in a direct and unambiguous way. He’s not good at communicating information clearly.

TMA 151:

SIMON: All right. Let’s try one of those analogies Peter finds so annoying.

An analogy is a comparison made typically for the purpose of explaining or clarifying. Peter doesn't like those.

TMA 151:

SIMON: He is what he is, Martin. For a creature of the Lonely, the urge is always to isolate, never to communicate or connect. I suspect that’s why he’s so keen on wagers, it allows him a framework for cooperation that doesn’t risk any sort of intimacy.

Peter uses a wager system as a way to get people to do things for him without having to build social currency through meaningful relationships, because as a servant of the Lonely, his instincts run against building relationships. Extrapolating a bit here, but this seems to be how he leverages people that he can't simply pay to do what he wants (Mikaele Salesa, Simon Fairchild). In other situations, I imagine money is the way he gets what he wants without building relationships.

To me, none of this paints a picture of a guy suffering from social anxiety. It shows a devotee of the Lonely, to whom the idea of open communication and cooperation are antithetical. Those are things that bring people together; the Lonely thrives on isolation. It isn't that he struggles with honest communication and building meaningful relationships, it's that he doesn't want those things for himself - or for anyone else. Remember:

For a creature of the Lonely, the urge is always to isolate, never to communicate or connect.

Simon's quip about Peter's upbringing and homeschooling is disarmingly sympathetic, but we need to take this in the context that we're hearing about it from a 500 year old monster, who throws people off tall objects "for a joke" and finds the idea of all the horror being a "grand cosmic joke" appealing. It's not to be taken at face value.

This interpretation also explains why Peter has no problem rambling on to Martin at length, as long as he doesn't have to tell him anything meaningful. It's the same way he was able to chatter blandly at Brian Finlinson before sending him to the Lonely. It's talking without genuine communication, without any risk of building bonds or understanding.

Again, I'm all for every fanon interpretation of Peter or any other character. Socially awkward Peter trying to put the moves on Elias while dying inside? Love it! Suave lothario Peter seducing his assistant with lavish displays of wealth? Yes please! Peter who's been traumatized into an avatar of isolation by his upbringing? I've written it myself!

I’m not trying to spoil anyone’s fun, by any means. But “Peter has social anxiety” is starting to be accepted in the fandom as canon, and it is far from proven (I would argue not even well supported) by the text. The fact that Peter doesn’t feel the drive towards human connection - deliberately avoids it, in fact - is an interesting aspect of his personality as an avatar of The One Alone. It’s intriguing to see how that character trait drives his behavior.

If he did suffer from an anxiety disorder, that would also be an interesting character trait to explore, but it’s a very different one from what I believe the writing points to in canon.

#the magnus archives #peter lukas #meta

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magaprima · 4 years

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Part 2 Episode 3 Thoughts (5/5)

When Sabrina and Nick are sealing the doors and banishing his familiar, and Lilith appears behind them and says ‘Ms Spellman. Mr Scratch, I presume. May I see you in my office?’, it’s one of the moments, like in the sports hall, where she looks genuinely like the teacher. Like when she first took on the role of Ms Wardwell, she was so fake, she looked so unnatural in the role, in the office, it was clear she was trying to blend and failing miserably and didn’t know what the hell to do to be a mortal school teacher. But by this point, she’s been there several months and you can just tell. She acts so natural in the role, she is the Principal here. Even the way she has come over to the two of them, and you can see the other students watching, she looks like a teacher who is being the dance chaperone and has followed two students making trouble in the halls. Despite resenting being made to stay in this role, she’s excelling at it.

Also the fact that there are students behind her looking on, you get the vibe Sabrina and Nick’s whole chaotic moment with the werewolf has been noticed, and that is entirely the reason Lilith has left the dance. She’s actually legitmately doing the job of limiting witch damage control, and both Nick and Sabrina look so sheepish at being caught. This whole scene is such a small moment but I love it. Especially Lilith’s polite teacher smile at the end that says there’s no option to refuse; they have to got to her office.

Then we cut to her office and Nick pacing and ranting, but the whole camera angle and the way Lilith is stood behind the giant leather chair behind her giant desk, gives all foreshadowing for the fact she will become Queen. She looks like a woman stood at her throne while her subjects speak. I do love a bit of cinematographic foreshadowing.

The way Lilith is subtly nodding at Nick’s whole retelling, and there’s a lot of eye flickers to the side as if she’s thinking about something, I think could imply that the cougar story she tells is true, even if the whole ‘my former high priest’ isn’t. I genuinely feel Lilith has seen something that makes her think Nick’s story is not a surprise or even unique. Or possibly it’s her previous experience with Stolas that she’s thinking of; his constant prodding at her, making her doubt herself, questioning things...either way, Lilith definitely has experiences, either personally or by association, that made Nick’s story unsurprising for her. Which makes me wonder; familiars are meant to be loyal entirely to their witch, but Nick’s familiar goes against his wishes, and Stolas fully betrays Lilith, so how loyal are really. Is the reason Sabrina has such a bond with Salem because her calling for him was about equals; they’re meant to be loyal to each other. It’s not a one way street.

Also the way Nick tells the story to Lilith too, the way he leans forward, speaking directly to her, he clearly trusts her just as Sabrina does. Whether Lilith likes it or not, whether she realises it or not, the woman clearly gives off a mentor vibe that means all these young folk keep running to her, even the mortal ones.

But back to the cougar story, and my belief that it’s a genuine story Lilith is telling and not a fabrication. The way she adds ‘a cougar’ as an after-thought, it’s too certain, too well-remembered. It’s not like she’s said ‘oh someone had a wolf familiar’ or, ‘I remember someone having a girlfriend and their familiar didn’t like it’, she hasn’t just plucked things out of the air (such as she did when she was explaining to Sabrina why she’d been spying on her in the Exorcism episode). This is more confident, sure, no back-pedalling. I fully believe the cougar thing happened to someone Lilith knew....but who? Perhaps he was genuinely a High Priest, even if not her High Priest as she claims? Or maybe a warlock she knew centuries ago? I just feel this is a hint that Lilith has known other people intimately besides the Dark Lord and before her time in Greendale, but yet again they were lost to her. Maybe the friend was the High Priest’s wife? Or was Lilith the one who set the wheels in motion for it to happen? Because she doesn’t exactly speak with upset about it. Was this another task the Dark Lord set her? Or was it something she did for her own reasons?

I mean she says the familiar was infected in such a way that there’s an emphasis on the word ‘infected’ that makes me suspicious about the cause behind this story, like maybe there was some outer influence. I mean if you can make a love spell you can make a jealousy one....but alas, this is another one of those instances where we get hint of backstory but never learn anymore.

But when she says ‘rabid with jealousy’ she looks at Sabrina, which reminds us that Lilith does feel jealously towards Sabrina currently, because the Dark Lord wants her to be his Herald. At the end of the previous episode, Lilith literally says ‘I’ll be damned, Stolas, before I let Sabrina become his herald’, so there is a strong jealousy vibe at the moment. Which makes me think when she says ‘You have to put that bitch down’, that Lilith might be thinking about a certain half-witch and her own situation, as we know attacking and killing Sabrina does become an active plan for Lilith briefly in the near future. It’s definitely an oddly vicious thing to say if she was only thinking of Nick and his familiar....

And then we get a totally different, calm, relaxed vibe when she’s back at the cottage with Adam 2.0. We pan through the flames, reminding us of Lilith’s hellish origins even as we see her in this domestic moment. Now in the last episode, Lilith was made to kneel before the Dark Lord and clean his feet, and here someone is doing that for her; Adam 2.0 is massaging her feet, he’s on the floor while she’s in the chair. In this dynamic she isn’t being forced to serve and to kneel, but being pampered and allowed to have the literal higher position.

“I must admit I never imagined the evening playing out like this”

Lilith literally started her time with Adam 2.0 with planning to kill him and get rid of him quickly and within the space of a few hours, that has totally flipped. Like we have had a total 180 here already, which goes to show, as MG said, Lilith has no defence for kindness and understanding which is all he has shown her in the short time she’s known him.

However when he asks how she originally saw it ending and she says ‘would you believe me if I said in a mass murder?’, Adam doesn’t laugh like ‘haha yeah right, what a lark, Mary’, he looks up, he tenses, so much so that he squeezes her foot, hurting it. I find this an odd reaction. Why would he react so seriously to ‘Mary’ joking about a mass murder? Is he that much of a goody-goody that even joking about murder makes him tense? Or is it something more than that? Is there more to Mary than meets the eye (I always say it was odd and not safe/professional/etc for her to put off calling the doctor for the girl/Lilith until the morning and taking her back to her cottage. And when Lilith starts speaking with a demonic voice, Mary doesn’t look confused, she looks like ‘oh shit’ and backs away calmly...so I don’t know?)? Or is there more to Adam than meets the eye? I don’t know; it’s one of the two, I feel.

“A girl could get used to this”

Lilith genuinely means this, she’s even looking at Adam fondly. I think she’s remembering not only what she had asked for from the original Adam, but how it was in the beginning with Lucifer. She’s remembering a gentler, nicer time. A more affectionate time. Before blood and betrayals and abuse. And remember, a part of her is still that girl created in the Garden, that never goes away, no more than Sabrina’s mortal heritage will never go away now that she’s signed the Book, and that part is tempted into this calm normalcy. And it’s the first true respect and affection she’s experienced in millennia.

She watches Adam intensely as he kisses her feet, and you just know she’s thinking of the reverse, of when she was washing the Dark Lord’s feet, and how that was demanded of her, to humble her. And here Adam is pampering her feet as a way to show his love and affection. It’s the first time ever she’s been receiving and she can’t turn her eyes away. And when he says ‘the Goddess you are’, she really doesn’t take her eyes off him. She’s drawn in, fascinated, and the thought of anyone calling her a Goddess appeals to her so much--

And that’s precisely when Stolas cuts in. He can see what’s happening. He can see the affect the foot massage, the Goddess treatment, is having, that it has the potential to make Lilith question things, remember her own power and question the Dark Lord, and Stolas is the Dark Lord’s lackey and spy...so he breaks the moment.

“I don’t think your bird likes me”

I love that Adam tunes into that easily. It’s what made me wonder if Adam was something more than mere mortal, that he knew more of what was really going on, but as far as we know or have seen in the series so far, he was just a plain, old mortal, who apparently knows when animals don’t like him.

“You never mind Stolas. You just keep doing what you’re doing”

But Lilith ignores her familiar, ignores whatever he said, dismisses Adam’s concerns and returns the focus on her, on the two of them, and as she watches him, you can just see how much this simple act is making Lilith rethink things, considering her position, especially in relation to the Dark Lord as it would be all too easy and tempting for her to start drawing parallels. I think this is the first glimpse of Lilith shifting her perspective a little.

#episode stuff

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thevagueambition · 4 years

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Atla, Zukka and Sokka :)

ATLA

Favorite character: Zuko, 100%. He’s a character I relate to a lot, eg the whole “hard work vs natural talent” thing... I even have a costume, although I didn’t get a chance to use it when I meant to so I haven’t really done so yet OTL

Least Favorite character: Hmm, god, I don’t know.... Bumi, maybe? As a comedic character he feels a bit too “haha crazy” and he doesn’t really (imo) work well as a dramatic one...

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon):

Zukka

Hakoda/Bato

Roku/Sozin

Tyzula

Jetko

Character I find most attractive: Zuko. Particularly s3 ofc lol

putting the rest under a cut for length

Character I would marry: idk. not big on marriage really

Character I would be best friends with: Sokka

a random thought: The true hero of ATLA is Iroh and I feel ashamed of not having mentioned his name yet in this

An unpopular opinion: The age difference between Kataang is 2 years which is the exact same age difference between Zutara and neither are particularly weird regardless of the fact that I don’t care about either ship

My Canon OTP: Don’t have one. Sokka/Suki is cute I guess is the closest I come to having strong feelings on a canon ship

My Non-canon OTP: Zukka

Most Badass Character: Toph but also low key Sokka bc he’s a non-bender

Most Epic Villain: That old blood bending woman who gave us all nightmares

Pairing I am not a fan of: Zutara, but that’as as much about fandom behavior back in the day as anything else

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Korra, all of LoK

They gave Toph too little to do in s3 and she SHOULD have had her Zuko outing like all the others >:( Actually Zuko and Toph have a lot in common in certain ways and that was never fully explored

Also obviously SOOOO many characters in this series who were written as straight when they shouldn’t be lol. We get it, it was a kid’s cartoon in the 00s, but they didn’t have to agressively pair off everyone in neat m/f couples by the end of the series

Favourite Friendship: Aang & Zuko

Character I most identify with: Zuko, as mentioned above. He’s also the same MBTI type as me haha (INFP). Also, Sokka mix of being simoultaneously really clever and extremely stupid is a gigantic mood.

Character I wish I could be: Idk... Iroh, in some ways, certainly. Honestly, by the end of the series all the main kids are pretty admirable people. Who wouldn’t want Aang’s kindness, Katara’s righteousness, Zuko’s determination, Sokka’s cleverness, Toph’s independence, Suki’s leadership, etc? Hell, Mai’s bravery and Ty Lee’s loyalty? I love all the main kids.

Zukka

When I started shipping them: Only a year or two ago, actually! I think last time I rewatched The Boiling Rock I was like 👀

Originally when I was an ATLA fan I was still in the “we must adheer to canon” phase of my existence in fandom and then for a good while I was still affected by my... hesitance to look like a, idk, stereotypical slash fan, in the sense that back in the day people were REALLY hostile to slash ships that seemed, idk, contrived. Zukka also just wasn’t a big ship back in the day I don’t think, Jetko has always been more popular.

My thoughts: The cammaraderie that developes between them over their stay at The Boiling Rock is incredibly compelling to me and I think that... the ways in which Sokka holds Zuko accountable through “jokes” but still allows him the space to prove himself is really interesting and probably... something that is actually better for Zuko than either Katara’s rage or Aang’s kindness? Idk.

Also they both have pretty complicated relationships to masculinity and what it means to be a man in their respective cultures and their sort of struggles with that and how those struggles look different due to circumstances like their parental situations and different cultural expectations... Zuko’s is less directly about masculinity per se because the Fire Nation has less strict gender roles, or at least ones that don’t code certain activities as purely masculine endeavours (eg warfare) but certainly there are shades of Ozai’s treatment of Zuko and Azula that are gendered as well as about birth order and it’s interesting how Zuko and Sokka both impose restrictions on themselves about how they should behave and what they should live up to culturally.

What makes me happy about them: I think they complement each other really well. They have a lot in common but are pretty different about their approach to things... I also just really like battle couples lol

What makes me sad about them: Their respective trauma is part of what makes them compelling but it’s certainly also sad, so in that sense...

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: So much of it is modern AU and i don’t care for it lol. Completely ignoring any sense that the Avatar world must have some elements of homophobia bothers me to exist in the ways it does, but as does completely overplaying it, idk. It’s a balance not everyone strikes well. Also obviously when people demonise Suki or Mai to account for them not being in the picture that’s bad.

Things I look for in fanfic: Honestly, more than anything? Good characterisation. This is a ship that lives and dies by good characterisation. I also really like when they’re set during the time at the Western Air Temple.

My wishlist:

Swordfighting duels!! Practicing swordfighting together!! Bonding over swords like the dumb teenage boys they are!! Yes I know about the innuendo that only makes it better!!

Hakoda not just being cool with it but realising about Zuko’s abuse and being like Actually I Am Your Dad Now

I always want fic where the gaang find out about how Zuko got his scar and that with Zukka is even more *chef’s kiss*

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Hmm ending up with, huh? I like Jetko for the drama but not necessarily as endgame. Sukka is pretty cute so I’m down for that but Maiko is.... look, it made sense for the time that Zuko was back in the Fire Nation because but I 100% don’t think it’s something either of them benefits from afterwards. They’re better off as friends imo also Zuko’s gay

My happily ever after for them: I want them to travel the world together tbh? I never quite know how to account for Zuko becoming Fire Lord in my thoughts about him post-canon because... well obviously I hate monarchy and I don’t actually think Zuko would be particularly comfortable being the leader of a nation, so... I don’t know. Maybe after some years, maybe a decade, of guiding the nation back towards stability Zuko starts reforming the country towards something more democratic and becomes less personally involved in the affairs of running the country? I don’t see them as people who would or really could be tied down by each other because they each have responsibilities to their respective communities and I don’t necessarily find “and then they lived in the Fire Nation palace together for the rest of their lives” compelling...

Sokka

How I feel about this character: I love him so much. His character developement is so compelling and as one of the very few prominent non-bending characters he is also compelling in the ways that situate him within the world and forces him to look for other things to contribute with. Again, the ways in which he is undeniably very clever but simoultaneously kind of dumb is also just... Very Good and Relatable lol. He was someone I overlooked a bit for a while but I think Sokka’s Master really awakened me to how great he is and on rewatches he became one of my faves. Also, you just gotta love any character that uses sarcasm as a shield lol.

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: Zuko, primarily, as discussed above. I’m fine with both Yue and Suki as canon ships but I’m not really invested in it. When I was younger I liked Sokka/Toph somewhat but actually Toph is a lesbian so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ You could always do Suki/Toph, kill two birds with one stone you know

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: Gotta love a good father-son relationship <3

My unpopular opinion about this character: I don’t know what the popular opinions about him are tbh. I’ll use this to say I think ADHD!Sokka makes sense though

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: Hmm, idk... the episodes he had that were focused on him were very good and did a good job of exploring his inner life in the face of how often he’s a comedic character, so it would have to be more in terms of his relationships with other characters. More interactions with Zuko would have been good ofc ! :3c

Favorite friendship for this character: Hm, probably Aang. Protective Older Brother Mode for a character that isn’t even technically his sibling is Very Good.

My crossover ship: I don’t really have crossover ships

#ask #atla #thanks for asking! <3 #rainhalydia

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msbeccieboo · 5 years

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Arrow 7x14 brain dump

I loved this episode!! I think I hadn’t really hyped it up too much in my mind so that undoubtedly helped, and sure, there was a lot of superfluous shit, but I feel like I just have to come to terms with that now, and overall it delivered on some areas I’d hoped it to, and also in lots that I hadn’t expected it to! As always, succinctness is not my speciality, and I think this one is at an all-time record length (*titters*), so get comfortable…

Olicity

SHE TOLD HIMMMMM!!!! I think that was just my minimum requirement for the episode, which is probably why I ended up loving it; we got lots more than that!! Olicity didn’t get as much air time as I would have liked for the episode immediately following the Olicity Baby Reveal, but I think the episode delivered quality, where quantity was definitely lacking.

I loved the parallel of Felicity’s nightmare with Oliver’s from 7x01 respectively. In the first half of the episode we could see that she still was doubting herself and her ability to keep the baby safe, which although wasn’t stated explicitly, was clear to me at least, and I am so glad we saw that and not just immediate baby-bliss. This lead into poor Oliver trying and failing to get in touch with William 😭 by filling up his answering machine (to which we later find FF William discovering an answer machine-style cassette…subtle as ever there arrow writers).

The next time we saw Olicity was in an OTA scene (at long last), which I will delve into later, but special mention to Oliver’s little Felicity Smile™ when she cracks her OTA joke 😍.

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Continued under the cut

The most wonderful Olicity scene for me wasn’t the big reveal, but the sofa scene. I loved this so so much. For the first time, Oliver really acknowledged Felicity’s pain from when he was in prison, and acknowledged that he hadn’t acknowledged it haha. This in and of itself made me tear up…Oliver the GROWTH 😭😭

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But then he continued!! He told Felicity that he thought there was a better way than killing Diaz, but that he had no right to make that call for her. He would back any move of hers and have her back “no.matter.what” *ugly crying*.

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Furthermore, he wants her to make her choice so she can get closure on Diaz, allowing Olicity to move forward!!!

This recognition and support are what Felicity has needed from Oliver for months!! He has likely only just been able to come to these realisations himself recently, after dealing with his own crap, and losing William etc, but he came to them on his own, before knowing about the baby and knowing he would have to ‘do better’. He knows there has been a distance between him and Felicity and he will do his part to allow her to help herself so they can come back together, and it is glorious!!!

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This scene could have only been improved by some hand holding or other canoodling, but I am more than happy with the scene as we got it!!

Then at last we come to the big reveal. I must say I think they could have and should have given more time and attention to this scene; I can only hope that they didn’t because of all the fluffy parent-to-be-ness that we are about to see unfold over the coming episodes??? Let a girl dream for now at least! Stephen and Emily, as usual, killed it with what they had to work with. From Oliver’s gentle acknowledgement of Felicity’s go-to comfort food, mint chip, to Felicity’s explanation of why she didn’t need to kill Diaz; she needed her family to live in the light and their children to know that they would do anything for them….wait, what??? *cue Oliver’s gorgeous confused puppy face* Your children, because…

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Felicity’s beautiful smile when she told him, and Oliver’s sappy happy face when he realised….YAAAAAASSSS!!!! My heart exploded!! Then, *end scene* 😡. But you know what, at this moment in time I’m still so floaty-happy for them that I can live with this!

Flash Forwards

Oh my wow I love the Clayton-Smoak-Queen siblings!!! You can clearly see Oliver and Felicity in both of them; but Will is still obviously a mini-Felicity, whereas Mia is SO MUCH OLIVER, which is so bittersweet, given that she seems to have been raised by Felicity alone (WHYYYY?!?! *sobs*).

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Mia, it seems, has a somewhat typical love/hate relationship with her Mother, which I’m sure lots of us can identify with. On one hand she clearly resents Felicity’s paranoia, her insistence on ‘bonding’ with things such as the Rubik’s cube and tech, which she doesn’t seem to have an interest in, but then her love for her shines through with her insistence of going after her alone (hello mini Oliver) and the line “my Mom is the only person I care about” 😭😭😭

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Then our gorgeous grown up Will 😍 is all Felicity in his belief in Oliver as a hero and his techy geekdom, but HELLO OLIVER in the way he instantly loves and sticks up for his sister (even with them arguing, he just softened, and even turned on Dinah when she questioned Mia) and talks about family, despite how he has come to feel abandoned by Olicity. That last line in his scene with Mia where he says “Well did it work?” could have been spoken by Stephen himself; his expression, his intonation…perfect Oliver impression Ben, well done, A+! They work so well together on screen; I loved their back-and-forth in their scenes. I can’t wait to see them interacting more, especially, I hope, in the all FF episode. I think they will be a force to be reckoned with!

The bro-sis Rubik’s cube solving champions discover the mini answering phone cassette, which Mia can’t even comprehend; “can you hack it?” lol (makes me feel suuuper old). This has surely got to at least contain some of Olicity’s attempts to contact William, to let him know he wasn’t abandoned, and at most, another of Felicity’s clues. I just can’t wrap my head around the blatant plot-hole that is Olicity not ever managing to get in touch with William, even with the crazy tech skills on both ends of the dynamic?? I call bullshit! I need to know what’s going on guysssss!!!

Elsewhere, Connor supposedly didn’t know about Mia’s heritage (so no baby OTA growing up together *sad face*), except he secretly did cos his adopted father Dig asked him to watch over her! So Connor isn’t JJ?? Where is JJ?? ISTG Larry if you erased another baby Diggle I will travel through time and kill you myself!! Connor and Mia are clearly super close (shipping them already), and the hurt on Mia’s face when she found out Connor had lied to her the whole time broke my heart!! I also need a scene with Roy and Mia soon; did anyone else notice how as soon as Mia revealed her parentage, he dropped his bow from pointing on her…YAAAAASS UNCLE ROY!!! But why does no one but Dig know about Mia’s existence???? Did Olicity go into hiding?? Is this why they never managed to contact William again? Whaaaat??? Je suis confuse!!!

Bonus: Future OTA, or FTA, if you will, is totally going to be a thing I’m sure of it! The actors seem so much fun and are always interacting on social media/live tweeting etc. It is so nice to have cast so actively participating in promotion this year. It’s at a point now where I would definitely give a next generation series a watch, and I can’t wait for the all flash forward episode now, even though the whole future set-up seems harrowingly disparate from what we would like to imagine. I need to know more damnit!!

OTA/Delicity

OTA has finally (just about) reunited!!!! It’s only been 6437280462308 years guys!! Dig finally realises he’s been keeping the Diaz secret from Olicity for too long, so he offers them up the truth, in a “SPONTANEOUS OTA MOMENT”. Honestly, Felicity’s sass in this scene and all the Dig scenes to be fair is just a beautiful thing to see. Felicity rightfully tells John that this is the second time he has prioritised his ARGUS work over his friends’ safety and he looks rightfully ashamed of himself. Oliver naturally doesn’t agree with using Diaz, but has suddenly become official OTA reconciliator, and trusts Dig to get shit done, eventually offering his help with Felicity’s blessing and assistance.

With OTA officially back in the field and like 57 things going on, Felicity takes her chance on taking out Diaz, confronting him with a gun again, and finally telling him that she is in fact stronger than him, and hence doesn’t need to kill him…Dig is ultimately left to decide between helping Oliver capture Dante, or Felicity stop Diaz and praise the salmon ladder he chooses to help Felicity!!

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I loved Felicity realising her own strength, and maintaining her ‘light’, seeing and knowing that her teammate finally had her back!! Dig tells her that although Dante was the mission objective, Diaz (and by that he meant Felicity) was his priority!! My Delicity heart!!!!! Dig has one last ace up his sleeve, later telling Olicity that he realised how letting Diaz go last time had hurt Felciity, and that the most important thing should be to just protect his OTA family!!! And just like that, OTA RISES FROM THE ASHES!!!

Bonus: OMG I just realised that the Brothers and Sisters theme of the episode relates to OTA as well!! 😭😍😭😍😭😍

Felicity/BS

When did I become a BS stan?? Who even am I? What do I believe in? 😱 🤷‍♀️🤯

I love Felicity’s relationship with BS. I want to be friends with both of them. I want to drink wine with BS whilst Felicity grumbles about drinking de-caff coffee. I think I need more sleep. Forgive me fandom friends for I have sinned 🙈😂😂

I see people saying that their friendship doesn’t make sense, and no, if you look directly from S6 to now, it doesn’t. But if you watch S7 episode-by-episode you can totally believe that they got to the place they are in now. They’ve grown from reluctant allies, to gaining a mutual respect, to growing to like one another. And the shade is still totally there on both parts from Felicity’s “fake lawyer” (CLASSIC LINE), to BS calling Felicity out on her chocolate consumption haha.

So BS knew about the baby before Oliver did. I am not majorly angry with this because…she just guessed!! Felicity didn’t tell her. Felicity was mortified that she’d put it all together and begged her to not tell anyone. Our girl was just coming to terms with it herself, and working out how to tell Oliver, which she is perfectly entitled to do.

The scene where BS brings Felicity food and gives her a pep talk was totes adorbs 😍 Do I wish it was the type of conversation Felicity had had with Oliver instead? Sure, and I’m sure we will in the future, and we got different Olicity goodies in this episode in its place.

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BS is all over Felicity being preggers…I’m wondering if maybe she lost a baby or lost someone with a baby on E2?? She just seems to be all about looking after Felicity, and the baby, to almost an excessive point, with random pregnancy knowledge thrown in there too 🤔

Side-note: I am all about Felicity eating ALL OF THE FOOD in this episode hahaha! “I ate that much choc before I was pregnant” LOOOOOL!! She continues to be the cutest.

Source:felicitysmoakgifs

Emiko/Oliver

Oh Oliver. I feel for him so much with Emiko. He just wants to get to know her, and make up for lost time and poor choices by Robert. He misses Thea. He is blinded by his love for his new sister. This is why whenever they try to tell us ‘Oliver doesn’t trust people’ I’m like HUH?! I see Oliver as probably the most naturally trusting person on the show, only his experiences have proven him wrong so often. He has to believe in others, so he can believe in himself after everything he has been through/done. He gives almost everyone the benefit of the doubt, especially family, even when it’s blatantly obvious that they don’t deserve it. Oliver has such a big heart, and loves his family so deeply and at times, blindly. And here, with Emiko, that is what he is doing (when he should have been at home celebrating baby-making with some more practice baby-making 😉). I don’t like Emiko…oh she’s working with the Big Bad, shocker! I thought that she would turn out dead or a villain, given as she isn’t part of the ‘mark of 4’ gang in the future. I’m not convinced she’s full-on evil though, not yet at least. But the concept of her being a baddie kind of makes sense as to why they’ve made her so unlikeable. That said, I really enjoyed the ‘sibling rivalry’ scenes they shared. Oliver in her personal space “do you have to stand right there?”, Oliver critiquing her arrows, “don’t touch my things!” 😂😂 I do think they spent too much time on them in this episode (even though it was called Brothers and Sisters, I know). I just can’t be bothered to get too involved with her storyline, for the minute at least, as I think it will be temporary.

ARGUS/Diaz

This is my let-down of the episode, (and every episode) but you can’t win them all! Suicide squad blah, Diaz blah, Virgil (isn’t he a Thunderbird??) blah, Dante (Highlander!)….kinda blah! The shame is, I think Dante could’ve been a far better villain if they’d made me know/care about him earlier in the season? Maybe they can rescue him? I mean, Prometheus didn’t really come into his own until the last few episodes, so I guess there’s hope???

But Diggle quit-yaaaay!! Bye bye ugly security guard outfit!!

LIZARD BOY GOT LIT UPPPPP!!!

Burn bay burn!! Bye bitch!! I’m pretty sure this is the episode that the actor tweeted his goodbyes after? What a sorry exit if so *evil laugh*. There’s a fair bit of speculation over who killed him, but unless it was Felicity sneaking in in the dead of night to do so, I struggle to care 🤷‍♀️

Massive thank you to the gif makers; you have made this long-ass post more colourful 😘

#arrow #arrow 7x14 #olicity #arrow season 7 #OTA #FTA #beccie's brain #sorry this is so long #but I had to let my thoughts escape

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itspixcelation · 5 years

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Is The Caligula Effect: Overdose Worth Your Time?

I initially wrote this review for an episode of The Pixcelation Show over on my channel, which you can visit by clicking HERE. If that seems like something you’d enjoy, please scroll to the bottom to find the finished video. Thanks!

In the spring of 2018, an anime by the name of Caligula aired. No; before you ask, it’s not at all connected with the incestuous third emperor of Rome, nor is it connected with the 1979 film about the incestuous third emperor of Rome, but rather, it’s reportedly named after ‘the guilt and excitement that comes with doing something that you shouldn’t do.’ It didn’t really do too much for the anime community at large, only receiving a 6.18 on MyAnimeList as of writing. I remember thinking the series was unnecessarily complicated, and, it being deeply rooted in psychology, it tended to play armchair psychologist to an annoying degree, but it was serviceable, at least.

It wasn’t long after I started the series that I discovered it was based on a game released on the PlayStation Vita called The Caligula Effect, but I would’ve never known about it because there was next to no marketing for it here in the west. I suppose such is the fate of a JRPG on one of the most, if not the most, underappreciated consoles in history.

Welcome to the Pixcelation Show; the only series on YouTube to tackle the questions on everyone’s mind, such as ‘do artificially intelligent idols dream of electric sheep?’ I’m pixcelation, and in today’s episode we’re not gonna be discussing the Caligula anime, nor are we gonna be talking about the original game on the PS Vita. No — in today’s episode, we’ll be talking all about the recently released remaster on PS4, Switch and PC, entitled The Caligula Effect: Overdose. In order to be completely up-front with everyone, I feel obligated to disclose that I was given a code for the PS4 version by NIS America, who published the game in the west.

Imagine, for a moment, that the vocaloid Hatsune Miku gained sentience, and because of songs such as The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku, she comes to the foregone conclusion that we’re all practically suicidal and that being in the real world is what made us this way. So, she does what any rational, sentient AI would, and traps us in the matrix. In the world of The Caligula Effect, their Miku, an AI known as μ, believes she can provide humanity with a happier existence within the artificial world she’s created, called Mobius.

In The Caligula Effect: Overdose, you play as an unnamed protagonist, one of the people invited by μ to live within the simulation. It doesn’t take long before they’re able to see the rift, at which point they join a group of rebels fighting back against μ and her Ostinato Musicians, all of whom desire to keep everyone blind, deaf and dumb to the truth about their world. As you come face-to-face with each of the Ostinato Musicians, you begin to unravel the truth behind the truth, and you’ll be forced to take sides in the battle for the future of both Mobius and the real world.

In my opinion, while the story isn’t necessarily anything revolutionary, the characters drive it home with relatable arcs and … well … character. In the Go-Home Club, as well as the Ostinato Musicians, there are incredibly memorable characters that really twist your arm when it comes to picking the ending you’d prefer. In both groups, there are characters that are foils for characters on the opposing side. For example; Kotono, Mifue and Shogo in the Go-Home Club directly oppose Mirei, Sweet-P and Thorn respectively, in both their actions and character arcs. I really liked how they handled that, as it helps to illustrate the idea that, while the Musicians are the enemy, they’re also only human, and as such, while you may want to return to the real world, each of them has their own compelling motive for remaining within Mobius.

In thinking about each respective arc, one thing that I wasn’t the biggest fan of would be how the writers handled certain social issues through the characters. I’ll provide an example; in one of the early arcs, it’s revealed that one of the Musicians is transgender in the real world, and as a result they’re often the butt of everyone’s jokes just because they’re one of the ‘bad guys.’ I found that, when I was given the option to join the Musicians and learn more about this person, they actually seemed to develop into more than just a stereotype, but players who didn’t choose to become a double agent like I did would never know that, and therefore think of them as a joke. The same can be said of another character, who has developed a hatred of overweight people, and as such the game tends to play said people as stereotypes that only exist to stuff their face. I applaud the game for tackling heavy issues such as body dysmorphia and eating disorders, but I could have gone for less of the victims of these conditions being played for laughs.

In-universe, the cannon fodder enemies, called ‘digiheads,’ are created because:

they aren’t aware that Mobius is a simulation, and

they listen to μ’s songs way too much.

I could see people going insane and attacking each other after listening to the same song in a twenty-four hour loop in this reality, especially since each and every stage in the game has its own unique track … that is played … nonstop. I almost lost my mind at first, but thankfully, I either got used to it, or I’m actually a digihead and I’m trying to pull you into Mobius. I really did enjoy the character songs, though; they’re all produced by well-known artists such as DECO*27, Pinocchio-P, 40mP and OSTER Project, among many others, and they add a whole new layer of depth to these characters who only appear a minimum of times in the main story. I kind of wish the Go-Home Club also had character songs, but that might not make too much sense in the story, so I guess that’s something I’ll have to accept.

I have to admit, I had every intention of quitting the game and writing that it was just as good as the anime adaptation, but then I had a change of heart. I decided to give it another shot, and it was then that I discovered there was an option to join the Musicians, as I mentioned earlier. I can’t really tell you why, but playing as Lucid, the musician version of the protagonist, is very fun. Sure — the game doesn’t really change in any meaningful ways until the final battle, but between the character designs of Lucid and the other Musicians, and the fact that you can learn so much more about your supposed enemies, this addition makes that final decision weigh a lot more than it would’ve otherwise.

I won’t sugar-coat it; as much as I adore this game and its aesthetic, The Caligula Effect: Overdose is so desperate to be the next Persona that it’s practically salivating. Think about it: it’s a third-person, dungeon crawling RPG where you control students fighting back against forced they don’t understand in order to solve a prevalent mystery, and their adventures are rooted in psychological themes and motifs. There’s a social system where you can create bonds with not only your teammates, but also with all five-hundred-and-twenty-four students in the school, and as you deepen said bonds, you can help them overcome the trauma that keeps them in Mobius. Its battle system is reliant on powers your characters can only use after they’ve confronted their true selves and accepted that they want to return to reality. It’s probably not a coincidence; the writer who penned the game was Tadashi Satomi, who worked on the first three games in the Persona franchise, so that most likely explains the unnerving similarities, but I’d argue this game takes the social aspect a bit farther than its more shiny cousins.

I’ll give the social system credit where it’s due; it’s the most simple and most complex of its kind. As I said, there are five-hundred-and-twenty-four students in the school, and you’re able to not only become friends with all of them, but you can invite them into your party and fight with them in the main game if you … dislike the main cast, for some reason. It seems a bit overloaded, because the developers seem to expect the player to max out their bonds with every student in the game, but … that’s just too much to ask when some of the students seem to appear based on a random number generator. It’s almost like they wanted to incorporate a system that’d keep players engaged after the main story had concluded, but it ended up manifesting as a chore to work through. I dunno about y’all, but, when I see that there’s over five-hundred students, and I’m expected to resolve every one of their traumas, that’s where I check out. In Persona 3, 4 and 5, there were actual incentives to maxing out social links — not only did it increase your stats, but there were also less than five-hundred to complete, and they all had unique dialogue options that helped the experience feel less like a chore. As a result, you looked forward to the next chapter of each character. In this game, I’m aware that fully completing bonds does seem to improve your stats, but when the dialogue is recycled so often that I skipped a lot of it, there’s no reason for me to care about anything they’re saying. I think this concept is actually really solid, but if it’s filled to the brim with mediocrity, it’s not gonna realize its full potential. I’d love to see a game utilize the interconnected nature of its NPC cast in the same way that this game did, except there’d be more reason to go along with it.

I really have to give the game props for its intuitive battle system, as it turns the concept of being ready for anything on its head. As you engage your target, you select your given attack as you might in any ordinary JRPG, but you’re then given a chance to see what your attacks would do ahead of time, as well as adjust the timing of said attacks. It seems a tad bit like cheating the system since you can see what moves your enemy will make, and cater your turn accordingly. I must admit, however, that as unique as this prediction system is, I found myself caring about it less and less, instead opting to use the same moves over and over again. It may sound cocky to say that I knew the attacks would land, but it’s a disturbingly accurate segue to my next point.

I started my save file on ‘normal’ difficulty, but the longer I played, the more it felt like the easiest difficulty there was. I was grinding like a madman, sure, but there’s no reason the bosses of each chapter should’ve been taken out like a snap from the Infinity Gauntlet. I just expected more of a challenge from normal difficulty, that is to say, any challenge whatsoever. I thought it might pick up towards the endgame, but even the final boss was a breeze to get through. I say all this, but I know that if they were to patch in a more difficult mode like they did with Kingdom Hearts III, I would probably cry, so … I’ll leave it at that.

Here are some things you might want to keep in mind before playing The Caligula Effect: Overdose:

+ If you haven’t played The Caligula Effect, there is quite a lot added to Overdose that was not present in the original. For example, characters Eiji Biwasaka, Ayana Amamoto, Stork and Kuchinashi are all new additions with entirely new dungeons, but they’re integrated really well into the story and don’t feel like additions.

+ If you’re looking to get that sweet, sweet platinum trophy, make sure you keep up with all the character scenarios on both the Go-Home Club’s side and the Ostinato Musicians’ side. It appears that Eiji’s scenario is critically linked with Kuchinashi’s, and if you don’t complete Eiji’s by the time the story takes you to Landmark Tower, PEOPLE WILL STRAIGHT UP DIE, and you’ll be unable to complete the deceased character’s scenarios.

+ If you choose to accept Thorn’s offer to become one of the Musicians, DON’T FEEL BAD. It may start to weigh on your conscience as you betray your friends, but you’re not on the bad route by handing out with the Musicians. In fact, you’re required to max out all of the character scenarios in order to get the true ending. PLUS, if you refuse to join the Musicians, you’ll miss out on a bunch of adorkable moments involving μ, and you won’t want to miss those!

+ If you want to get the bad end, you don’t need to max anyone out — just accept Thorn’s invitation, then at the final battle, choose to stay in Mobius instead of going home, and … well, I’ll let you see for yourself.

+ I’ve heard whispers that it might not be possible to max out Ayana’s scenario unless you’re playing as a female, because of her androphobia. If you’re having issues with Ayana, maybe try again in a second playthrough.

+ If you’d like to explore Mobius a second time, there’s a New Game + option that’ll allow you to increase the enemy level en masse if you’re wanting a challenge, as well as carry over your levels and NPC bonds. It won’t, however, carry over your progress on character scenarios. You can also pick the female protagonist in a New Game +, which helps if you’d like to get that plat.

+ SAVE. SAVE. SAVE. In a game like this, you want to save every chance you get, as when your party dies, it’s lights out. There is NO autosave, NO continues. It takes you right back to the title screen, so be wary of that.

Is The Caligula Effect: Overdose a perfect game? No — not at all. BUT, is it fun? Yes. It’s a unique JRPG that uses the tried and true tropes found in many others of its kind, but at the same time, experiments with other elements of its presentation to create a memorable experience. I may not be motivated to complete the social element of the game, but I struggle to find fault in other areas, such as the character designs, the music and the overall aesthetic.

It deals with some very serious topics, such as body image issues, gender dysphoria or transgenderism, suicide and androphobia, among others, and while at times it can feel as if its poking fun at these issues, for the most part it does handle them with respect, and ultimately shows that these very human characters deal with things that humans too, often struggle with.

If you’re anything like me, you might be tempted to give up on it after the second stage and call it a day, but I implore you to be patient, as the game hits its stride in and after the third dungeon. If I had given up on it like I planned, let’s just say this review would be quite different.

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#the caligula effect #the caligula effect overdose #caligula #anime #gaming #ps4 #nis america #nisa #nippon ichi

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sher-soc-the-famder · 6 years

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OK GAYS I HAVE A THEORY

One that I would very much like to use for a fic eventually, probably isn’t true though it is an interesting idea, and has several points to back it up but whateves XD

SAID THEORY: I don’t think any of the sides were particularly close before the videos started. Yes, the main three knew each other and vaguely got along but I don’t think they spent their free time hanging out and bonding and such. As in, I think they spent most of their times in their rooms unless they absolutely had to leave.

(Have a read more because my thoughts got long, like really long guys rip)

Starting from the beginning we have several different clues that back this up, the very first being Thomas’s first line that kicks the whole series off: “Do I really know myself as well as I should?” as well as “I don’t even know if I know me.”

Thomas himself, is questioning how well he knows himself, whether he means his personality in general, or how connected to his subconscious and motivations he is, is unclear. However it does give us a basis: Thomas is confused about himself. With the sides being a part of Thomas we could connect it into meaning that they don’t know each other; hence Thomas doesn’t know himself.

The first episode, in fact, has a few more moments to help increase the depth of this theory. The one that stands out to me the most has to be this one:

It’s honestly one of my favorite gags, but at the same time. One has to question: why is Patton only talking about this now? If they were spending huge amounts of time together then wouldn’t Patton have noticed the similarities earlier? It could be some sort of inside joke, but the flat look that Logan gives him suggests otherwise

Yes, Logan is upset, maybe a little frustrated that Patton is pointing out what seems like the obvious. However, another thing that sticks out to me is the lack of amusement that seems to accompany Logan’s interactions with Patton later on. This is him being unimpressed through and through.

Which is interesting, seeing as if they did know each other, Logan would perhaps, know and understand that this is normal behavior for Patton.

The other thing from the first episode that catches my interest is just how little the sides talk to each other. They throw out suggestions, often in response to each other but everything is directed at Thomas. Not including the end card they exchange a total of six lines directly to each other, and including the end card there is ten, if my count is right.

Most of which is Logan and Roman dragging on Patton about doing a quartet, which doesn’t strike me as a very friend thing to do. (which also relates to a different theory of mine that I’m working on and have yet to post)

But to get back to the main point, they all act as if they’re used to speaking with Thomas, not each other. They lack the connection and perhaps habit and comfort? in the ability to speak with one another. They’re all participating in the conversation, but it seems more like a class lecture with everything being focused on the teacher than a family talking about things.

Which then leads into my next, somewhat meta point:

Almost all of the episodes after that, don’t have all four sides in them. Way Too Adult- Just Patton, Taking on Anxiety- Just Virgil and briefly Roman, we get them all for a moment in A New Year of Lying but then it’s followed up by The Dark Side of Disney- Roman and Virgil.

It’s at this point that there’s a slight shift, with Mind V Heart- Patton and Logan, before there’s a good stretch of four episode before the next one without all four, My Negative Thinking- Logan and Virgil. (And the very last being the latest, Why Do We Get Out of Bed In the Morning?- Logan and Roman but it’s later on so its not as relevant to this part)

But it’s almost as if they’re struggling to find a pattern that works. Yes if we’re leaving verse it’s probably Thomas trying to figure things out before Joan hops aboard but in verse, it almost seems as if they’re reluctant to be all in the same place. Not to mention that a good 90% of them are two of the sides butting heads.

They still have so many problems to work out in the beginning, and so many different ways to butt heads. It almost seems like there’s no pair of them that can work properly together from the very beginning. Perhaps because they don’t know each other all that well or haven’t tried to work together all that often? :3

To swap back to the episodes, in Negative Thinking, there is one point where Patton is taking care of an injured Roman off screen. Logan responds with:

Which at first seems to contradict the idea that they don’t know each other all that well. At least until you ask: why wouldn’t Patton know that? Patton after all, is the paternal one, so why hasn’t he taken care of Roman before? Surely if he did, he’d have fed him some sort of soup, prompting Logan to tell Patton about the problems of cream based ones.

Which also begs the question: Why hasn’t Logan told Patton about this before? Why are they only finding out about it now?

Then there’s A New Year Of Lying To Myself, where their reactions to being put in the same room is to immediately start arguing. (And Logan’s immediate reaction to Roman appearing is a drawn out No *coughs*) Which meta-wise is the fact that Thomas only really films when conflicted BUT OVERTHINK WITH ME HERE

There’s Growing Up, when they all talk over Patton. Making Some Changes, when they all immediately take different sides as well as need to verbally state which “side” they’re on. Am I Original? When their first thought about DayDream Mode is to leave as soon as possible. Mind V Heart, when Logan and Patton seem unable to even think about things from the other perspective.

To me, it seems as if there is still so much more that they are learning about each other. Discovering new things, as if they were all meeting for the first time, or at least hadn’t bothered to learn about them before. Which leads to my next (and hopefully final) points.

Their names and their rooms

Room-wise we don’t have huge amounts yet, so most of my evidence is based off of Virgil and Patton’s room. Mostly Patton’s because we know that Virgil didn’t spend a lot of time with the others. There are still some points that I can make however.

In Moving On pt. 1, when they all appear in Patton’s room everyone is looking around like they haven’t seen it before. (Logan- “There seem to be a high concentration of items encompassing your education here Thomas.” Roman- “The show memories! The performances!” Virgil- “Are these all your old journal entries and stories that you wrote in middle school?!”)

Not a single side outside of Patton acts like they’ve been there before. Thomas, the character not the actual person, I’m assuming is the same age as RL!Thomas. So around 27-28-ish around the time the videos start, which gives the sides about three decades to get to know each other.

So why have they never been in Patton’s room before?

And there’s their names.

Until the name reveals not one of them used their real names. It’s all Princey/Prince, Dad/Morality, and Logic. Until Patton slips up with Logan’s name, there’s no indication at all that they have any thing else to call each other. Patton says to Virgil at one point “Not even we know your name” Which means that they did in fact know each other’s name and yet, chose not to use them. Almost as if they’re not comfortable with the fact? Or perhaps they don’t have permission to. Aside from Logan, all of them make a rather big deal, well not a big deal but at least place some importance on revealing their names.

As a sign of trust and closeness with Thomas.

So why not with each other to?

TL;DR All the sides didn’t know each other that well at the start of the series but learned to so that we could get moments like this here:

And I’m so proud of the boys for getting there <3

(also huge thanks for @milomeepit and their help with the screenshots!!(

Peps who wanted to be tagged: @demonvirgil @princeyandanxiety @wisepuma23 @crayonthegreat

#Sanders sides #Patton Sanders #Logan Sanders #Roman Sanders #Meta theory #Soc theory #This got way too long #whoops #Have some thoughts #and some overthinking XD #wear a tin hat with pride

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armageddon-generation · 5 years

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Fixing The Legend of Korra - Book 3

Book 1, Book 2, Book 4

THIS IS MY PERSONAL FAVE BOOK, SO IMPROVEMENTS ARE RELATIVELY MINIMAL. AGAIN, IMAGINING A 28 EPISODE SEASON

REPUBLIC CITY

Further exploration of what opening the portals did to the world

Show what happened to the people forced out of their homes – forced into housing camps.

Bolin works with General Iroh trying to help these people, dressing up as Nuktuk to give the kids the same kind of comforting distraction he needed at that age on the streets – this lays the foundation for his joining Kuvira much later

Have the triads try to exploit the spirits – capturing them and attempting to sell them as exotic pets/batteries (a prelude to what Varrick does in Book 4 that goes horribly wrong). The Spirits go nuts and attack, and Korra has to act as peacekeeper (defending the triads is something she really hates)

During this conflict a triad member is briefly possessed by a spirit. Korra gets it out, but now he has to live deformed. I’m thinking Shady Shin, because he has a direct relationship with the bending brothers (them helping him shows character growth and is an interesting inversion of the dynamic established in flashbacks, where Shin mentored and corrupted them).

As a criminal, Shin also didn’t get his bending back. In this way – first losing his bending, then being possessed by a spirit – his character is a microcosm of everything that’s happened to the world so far, and it would be interesting to see Korra confront this

The new Air Nation takes him in and cares for/attempts to rehabilitate him

KORRASAMI

At this point Asami is aware she’s starting to feel attracted to Korra – she’s much more self-aware and has much more self-control. Korra isn’t yet aware she’s attracted to Asami – growing up in the South Pole with now LGBTQ role models (Kya’s dating life wasn’t very active) it’s not that she wasn’t aware of fluid sexuality, it’s just she never considered that it would apply to her.

They bond not only over Mako, but also their joint responsibilities (Asami is marshalling the democratic Equalists’ political campaign from Book 2)

By the end of the season Korra knows what they have is more than just friendship, but she isn’t emotionally ready to go there

Asami spends much of this Book running after Korra, and that’s important - she’s been swept up in this grand adventure. When Korra gets hurt and has to leave in the finale, Asami is brought down with a bump - in Book 4 they will have to confront that they can’t run away from responsibility or have a fairytale romance. They have to live in the real world

RED LOTUS

When Tonraq and Zuko meet with the twins to guard P’Li, establish they’re building a more positive (if slightly awkward) relationship with their uncle

Obvious thing, but let’s see an origin story for our group – Zaheer rescuing P’Li, Ming Hua losing her arms and learning to live without them (Korra learns about this and it hangs over her when she’s in the wheelchair) and Ghazan developing his lavabending

Firmly establish lavabending is the result of Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom blood mixing, so Bolin’s powers don’t come out nowhere

Have the Red Lotus be the ones who killed Sokka. That raid when Korra was a kid was his last stand. This lends a lot more emotional weight to the characters coming in, and especially if we make them much more likeable with an origin story and greater emphasis on the group dynamic, creating greater emotional conflict within the audience. Plus, this way we actually get to see old Sokka in Korra

Create a genuine will-they-won’t-they between Ming Hua and Ghazan – their attempts at flirting would be Azula-level funny. They never act on their feelings because they’re both destructive and damaged from their long imprisonment (have the group comforting each other over nightmares about being back there). Then end the romance on a tragic note when they die together in the finale – the suicide is double-pronged, a metaphor for their destructive emotional states

I imagine Gazhan and P’Li having a sibling-esque rivalry over who can be the most destructive in battle

Contrast the Red Lotus with the old, out of touch members of the White Lotus trying to manage spiritual activity across the globe – have Jinora, Kai and the new airbenders express frustration towards them.

When Iroh shows up to talk to Korra in the Spirit World, have them discuss his relationship with the White Lotus and how it changed after his death – just as in ATLA, he disapproves of holding on to tradition, honour and the past at the cost of moving forward

Zaheer was an Air Acolyte in his youth; this is a more concrete explanation of how he is immediately such an expert airbender. It also sets up a more intimate and interesting relationship between Zaheer and the new Air Nation – he sees them almost as his children, potential followers

He begged Aang to give him bending, but Aang refused (for the sake of balance – it wouldn’t be natural). Zaheer’s anger, combined with the White Lotus’ stifling attempts at spiritual control (which Jinora can relate to even today) caused him to join the Red Lotus

Zaheer sees in Korra a kindred spirit – not only did she open the portals, but she returned people their bending after Amon took it away; she is willing to upend the ‘natural order’ Aang clung too, the same order Zaheer wants to upend

Korra protests giving people bending wasn’t the point – Zaheer being an airbender doesn’t make him more special than anyone else (the lesson she learnt in Book 1). She restored their bending because those people needed to be whole again

Zaheer’s attitude towards Airbenders like Kai, a former criminal with little respect for tradition, is a dark, exaggerated reflection of Tenzin’s initial reaction – violent disgust

The Red Lotus’ ultimate goal is to end the Avatar cycle, then extract Raava from Korra. The chaos they’re causing by destabilising the Earth Kingdom and removing Korra will cause Vaatu to grow much faster. Then the Red Lotus will combine the two spirits, producing Gaana, the spirit of Harmony from whence Light and Dark came, returning the world to primordial peace

Although they stop the Lotus, the formation of Gaana becomes a far-off dream for Korra, her endgame for when the world no longer needs the Avatar

(Also have Zuko meet with and talk to Iroh at the end of Book 3, now he can enter the Spirit World. Pretty please.)

ZAOFU AND THE BEIFONGS

Because the plot of Book 3 isn’t as dense, we have more time to stretch our legs with character stuff – the calm before the storm. Establish the Beifongs’ personalities in greater detail (because there are a lot of them) – have them argue and love each other the way families do

Asami ADORES the design & technology work in Zaofu and really bonds with Bataar Sr - he represents an ideal version her father she saw when she was a kid, what she wishes Hiroshi could’ve been

Also use this opportunity to establish Bataar Jr’s mounting resentment before Book 4 - especially if Asami is a better mechanic than him

Bataar Jr and Opal have a close bond when we meet them as the only non-bending kids (they and Kuvira are a tight-knit trio) but over our time in Zoafu we see them drift apart as Opal embraces her airbending identity. Bataar is left alone.

Involve Kuvira more directly – establish that she’s the emotional lynchpin of the family, the negotiator whom everyone relies on. At the same time, she’s an outsider, only allowed at mealtimes on special occasions etc, and she’s painfully aware of that

When Mako starts investigating the mole in Zaofu, have Kuvira team up with them – she takes the hardline bad cop role, but they work well together and get results (Korra jokes Mako certainly has a type because of how similar they are)

Kuvira joins Team Avatar in the finale, and also when they go after Iwae, helping Mako and Bolin fight Ming Hua and Gahzaan (much more viciously than the bending brothers), but gets knocked out.

In Book 4 when she argues with Su she pulls this specific example: Su is willing to act (or order Kuvira to act) when it serves her own self-interest (i.e. revenge on Iwae) but not when it means taking responsibility for others. Kuvira is tired of being Su’s powerless pawn (if Su had been there to fight, Kuvira wouldn’t have almost been killed by the Red Lotus)

Bopal – Opal is the first person Bolin lets himself be truly vulnerable with, letting down his walls – Mako is very supportive

Create more moral ambiguity around Su. There was a popular headcanon she was part of the Red Lotus/knew Zaheer in her youth, so I’m making this canon. Su brushed/briefly flirted with being part of the Lotus in her youth (she makes a cameo in the Red Lotus origin episodes). This creates a more legitimate conflict between her and Lin (and the future conflict with Kuvira for hypocrisy)

THE NEW AIRBENDERS

Again, this was really well done in the show, I just want more cute Kainora crushing moments tbh.

Have the new airbenders’ relationship with Shady Shin be a direct measurement of how they learn and live by the Air Nomad culture – moving from hostility, to frustration and wanting to give up, to empathy, sympathy, and finally acceptance. At first Shin is angry and violent towards them, but he soon breaks down – he thinks his life is over. Kai’s relationship with him is particularly important – Kai reminds Shin of a young Mako, and Shin is a reminder of what Kai would’ve been without airbending and Jinora.

By the end of the Book (a few months) Kai invites Shin to Jinora’s Master anointing ceremony, and he stands awkwardly in the background

Kya stays with the new airbenders, which has more weight seeing as she’s not ‘officially’ part of the family – she has been accepted/adopted

KORRA, SPIRITS AND RAAVA

To try and lessen the ridiculousness of the Deus Ex Machina in the Book 2 finale, the Avatar state is heavily neutered during Book 3. Now Korra has no past Avatars to channel, the State is much less powerful, and she must learn to operate without it (as compared to Book 2, where she spammed it with reckless abandon), forcing her to find more diplomatic solutions (setting a good example for the airbenders)

Raava’s light is still growing in Korra after being destroyed by Vaatu – their dynamic is now flipped, where Raava is counting on Korra to be a figure of hope and strength she can rely on. This puts more pressure on Korra, but she copes much better now she doesn’t have a thousand Avatars’ voices whispering in her ear – establish she’s actually finding this freedom from tradition beneficial to her job as the Avatar (change is good!)

Have the spirits act as markers for the emotional states of both characters and places – they infest Lower Ring of Ba Sing Se because they’re attracted to the high concentration of chi there. Their emotional state varies, but generally people are adapting well (they’re used to random shit in the slums by now). Mako and Bolin help their family with spirits (they also find Nuktuk hilarious)

By comparison, in the Upper Ring spirits are far fewer because the upper classes treat them like vermin and are trying to push them out. The few spirits that are there turn Dark easily (Korra has to intervene) showing how, despite its pretty surface, the political structure and people on top in Ba Sing Se are corrupt.

When fighting the Dai Li, have Korra directly confront the fact they were founded by a past Avatar (Kyoshi) – emphasising the pattern where she has to deal with a past Avatar’s mistakes. This season is all about Change, so by the end of it have Korra disband the Dai Li

When Korra goes into the Avatar State for the first time in the finale, this is just Raava desperately trying to defend her from Zaheer

I don't know when we'd fit it in (when Korra confronts Zaheer in the Spirit World? When she's hallucinating because of the poison during the finale?) but I NEED a nightmare sequence of what Red Lotus!Korra would've been like - there are so many cool headcanons and fanarts and fics about this. Show the Red Lotus as a true family unit with Korra as the daughter figure, show Korra letting herself loose with Combustion and Lava bending. Show her inner conflict (and dominance) with Raava, who disagrees with her actions

Also it would be awesome if we saw this Red Lotus Korra meet and team up with a dark Equalist! Asami (they both believe in extreme balance) - this sheds new light on their relationship for Korra, and is the catalyst for her realising her romantic interest in Asami - she's witnessing all this destruction and chaos she caused, but she's still happy because she's with Asami

Emphasise how much Korra has become the centrepiece of Team Avatar – she is everyone’s best friend. To Asami in particular she’s become the catalyst and manifestation of everything she likes about herself – her courage, her enthusiasm about helping people, her friends, her own empowerment – the exact opposite of her father

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hopevalley · 5 years

Text

S6E2: Phone Rings & Heartstrings (Episode Write-Up)

You can also read this on my site here.

And here we are at the beginning of another new season! How do you feel? Like it’s been forever? Like it’s been little more than the blink of an eye? I know for me it’s a combination of both. It’s crazy to think a year has passed since S5! But we’ve made it to the next chapter of When Calls the Heart! I wonder what this season will have in store for us?

Plotlines for this episode:

Motherhood

Laura & College

The Telephone Comes to Hope Valley

Rosemary Plays Cupid

Jesse and Clara

The Saloon Closes

Not related to the episode exactly, but I noticed they didn’t reference Jack’s death directly in the “last time” clip. For a second, I thought they weren’t even going to let him have a speaking line, but they gave him half of a sentence. Also unrelated, the new part of the intro is great! I just wonder why they didn’t take the time to do new character bits for the characters, while they were at it. Some of these are pretty outdated.

So here we are at:

Plot #1: Motherhood!

I’ll admit that I was dreading this part a little bit. It’s hard to say where the line is between “teacher” and “mother.” I was afraid one might eclipse the other (and you know which one would be doing the eclipsing, because this is Hallmark). That said, I think overall they did a pretty good job of including the baby without making him this big overwhelming part of the actual story.

So, we find out that Jack Junior is four months old, making it almost May 1916.

The general ‘plot’ here is as follows: Elizabeth has to go back to work and finds it difficult. Molly, Rosemary, Florence, and Clara have agreed to take turns watching the baby, but it bothers Elizabeth that little Jack won’t have a more concrete schedule; she’d rather have a more stable arrangement.

This isn’t a very long or detailed plot, but it works. Everyone I know who had to go back to work bawled their eyes out when they had to drop their babies off at daycare. I know I would! Elizabeth finding it hard to balance being a mother and a teacher makes sense, but the best part about this is that she doesn’t consider quitting teaching for even a second.

First, I think it’s fair to say she needs the money, but second…she loves it! How can she balance Jack with teaching in a way that feels satisfying? That tells her that her child is getting the best arrangement she can afford while also allowing her to work to provide both the necessities and fun things?

Elizabeth’s slight clinginess isn’t really a shock or a surprise to me. It’s natural. She spent four months doing whatever she wanted with her life and her baby, and to have to hand him over to someone else every day for hours and hours… Well, it wouldn’t feel good.

I think the best part of this plot was that, like I said earlier, it wasn’t overdone. Nothing about it felt overdramatic or unnecessary.

And it wrapped up neatly with the next plot on the list:

Plot #2: Laura & College

Laura is out of school, now. In my opinion, it’s definitely that time. She’s gotta be about 15 or 16 by this point, and that’s when education ended for the majority of people. And it’s nice to get to see that transition, because with characters like Gabe, we just didn’t get it.

Free from the constraints of having to be in the classroom, Laura’s taken a job to help out her dad: working part-time at the mercantile. She loves to read, and devours the books Elizabeth loans her, but she’s given up on the idea of college. It costs too much money, and her dad needs her help.

Elizabeth, determined to find a way to make it work, writes to an acquaintance of hers who is an administrator of a preparatory school in Hamilton. She includes Laura’s grades and a recommendation letter.

Laura is accepted as a corresponding (or correspondence) student! It’ll let her study at home and send in her work (or maybe let her do it under Elizabeth’s supervision), so she’s still free to work and help her dad around the farm.

Unfortunately that leaves her little time to do her schoolwork…

So Elizabeth offers a solution that will benefit them both: Laura can be Jack Junior’s nanny! Then she’ll have a little downtime to work on her schoolwork, and it’ll pay more because it’ll be full-time.

Laura accepts the deal!

Again, this plot wasn’t huge or convoluted; it wasn’t dramatic. It was nice! And I loved how the general ‘motherhood concerns’ plot tied into this one. It didn’t need to be heavily intertwined at all. They just needed to connect. Which they did, and quite well.

That said, I don’t know if I’d trust a 15/16-year-old girl with no real babysitting experience to be full-time nanny of my baby! In that way, the solution is…maybe just a pinch too convenient? Wilma was established as being poor, and with a school-age child, maybe she would have been a better choice.

But I can’t deny that there’s a lot of room for future drama with this, too. Laura will have the opportunity to grow as a student and as a nanny! Maybe she’ll make mistakes. Maybe she’ll almost regret accepting it. Maybe… Well, it just leaves things open for some good future potential!

Plot #3: The Telephone Comes to Hope Valley

This plot isn’t really a very big deal, mostly because they skipped through all of the potential drama that would have happened when Abigail had to get people to actually bring the telephone to town. I guess at least Henry mentions that it couldn’t have been easy—and, on the plus side, too, it seems that any of the drama Abigail went through to get the phone there? Was kept from everyone else.

So… the telephone is coming to Hope Valley! There will be a line in the mercantile, the mayor’s office, the jail, and Lee’s office. As Henry says, that’s a good start!

The drama here is all good-natured. Ned tells the company he can definitely figure out the wiring, but uh…he can’t.

He really can’t. He has no idea what he’s looking at, and the directions are confusing…so the big reveal for their four o’clock call is an awkward silent mess. Embarrassing, but also funny in a mostly good-natured sort of way.

The telephone company sends Fiona Miller to straighten things out, which she does, and not without a little sass (or uh, flashin’ a li’l ankle)! She’s easy to like. I hope she sticks around past the second episode, personally, but I can’t quite figure out if she’s meant to be a longstanding cast member or just one of those “couple of episode” characters. It’s easy to imagine it going either way.

Anyway, she fixes things right on up, the phone rings, and Abigail answers it.

Again, another…rather calm plot. It’s giving us a nice set-up for future plotlines by giving the cast access to a telephone. So who knows how things might go? It could be interesting.

That said, the one thing about this plot that I didn’t care for? Bill’s role as a curmudgeon. Was that really necessary? S1 through S4 Bill was a little tactless/thoughtless sometimes, and not emotionally open, but S5 and S6 Bill have been almost unbearably awful. I’ll talk more about this later, but the slight role he played here in this particular plot doesn’t even make sense for his character. He lived in the city for the majority of his life.

I’ll forgive this particular folly if the writers take it in an interesting direction—like Bill being phone-shy (because, for example, he relies a lot on body language/facial expression to have a conversation and gets super awkward on the phone, so he prefers wires due to it giving him the ability to think through what he needs to say and write it down to send). Otherwise it just comes off as more of the same with regards to the figgy pudding plot in the Christmas film: he’s just there to laugh at.

I’m worried that that’ll be the new norm, though. Incoming horrible joke: Bill shouting loudly into the telephone like he’s never used one before. (UGH. Just typing that gave me hives.)

Plot #4: Rosemary Plays Cupid

Now this plot was fun. It was also quiet, kind of muted, not really long, and definitely not meaty. But it served its purpose well. It also gave us some seriously awkward stuff to cringe over that wasn’t Bill’s character. Thank goodness!

So the gist of it is pretty simple: Rosemary decides that Faith and Carson have good teamworking skills, so she ambus—I mean, uh…sets them up! At her house, for dinner! Where everything ends up being awkward and weird, and all Faith and Carson talk about are…beans.

That’s right.

Beans.

Faith eats lots of beans because she can’t cook worth anything, and Carson…does not consume beans. Because they make him gassy. Great dinner conversation!

Afterward, Faith and Carson start to bond a little over how awkward the dinner was (I mean, nothing brings a couple together like complaining about being set up, right?), but Carson gets carried away and says, “Doesn’t she realize how ridiculous that would be?”

Carson was probably trying to make things not-awkward, but all he did was make things…extremely awkward. The worst part (or best part, if we’re talking about the great acting these two did) was how Faith’s face the entire time is kind of like, “Oh crap, I can imagine it…and it’s not bad at all” and Carson drops that “ridiculous” line right on top of it, hurting Faith’s feelings and making everything between them vaguely awful.

Which we didn’t get too much of in this episode. They literally run into each other in the clinic and it’s awkward, but Carson just seems confused about it, and Faith is the one being avoidant.

Rosemary thinks her entire plan was a disaster, but…

Well, we know she got the ball rolling. ;)

Plot #5: Jesse and Clara

I love Jesse and Clara, and here they get a nice, simple little plotline that feels like it’s getting solved in a reasonable amount of time. They’re also both very cute the whole time.

Jesse purchases some land, which comes as a (pleasant) surprise to Clara. He takes her around pointing out where he’d like different buildings to go, and uses the pronoun ‘our’ to describe the barn. When Clara brings it up (“Our barn?”) Jesse responds in the affirmative (“Of course…our barn.”).

Unfortunately Clara thinks this is the beginning of a marriage proposal, but…it’s not. Jesse says it’ll happen eventually, but he wants to be more stable. Clara accepts this, but…it bothers her, so she talks to Abigail about it. Abigail’s advice is mostly to just…talk to Jesse about it, so Clara makes the effort, and Jesse pretty much just repeats himself: he wants to be in a better financial state.

Clara isn’t persuaded by this, because Jesse has a good job already, and gets kind of short/snippy with him. Jesse ends up coming forward and confessing that when he was younger he stole from a general store with some friends and he’s still paying the man back (the parts that his friends got away with).

All is forgiven when he admits that he wants to start with a clean slate: the real reason he hasn’t proposed yet. He doesn’t want something like that marring the beginning of their marriage together. He wants to prove that he’s a better man by making things right where he should, first.

All in all, a pretty good plot. Reasonable. Clara’s disappointment in not getting a proposal was more than understandable. They’ve been courting a long time, so I don’t blame her for thinking it had finally arrived only for it to just be generalized talk.

That said, this could have definitely been a bigger plot? So I’m surprised they left it as just this little thing. Him sending away $10/month could come across as a lot of things if anyone saw him doing it. But props to keeping this storyline simple! The only thing I think I would change is…maybe having Jesse talk to someone else in town he trusts (could have been just about anyone; if Dottie were around I’d probably suggest her, but Lee or Bill would be a good choice, too) to get the incentive to confess the truth to Clara. Even just a small scene where he looks thoughtful, maybe talks to himself a little in that ‘do I tell her’ ‘do I not’ way and then decisively puts down his tools and walks toward town would have gone a long way into making it seem like he was telling her for more reasons than because she’s being snippy and short with him.

Overall, though, a sweet and enjoyable plot. Jesse calling Clara m’dear was so cute it nearly killed me instantly.

Plot #6: The Saloon Closes

This was the meatiest plot of the episode by far, and with good reason: Tom Trevoy’s mother took ill (in a long-term sense), so he and his wife moved to Union City, but he keeps traveling back to Hope Valley to oversee his saloon, but the commute is awful and he isn’t with his family as much as he’d like, so…he decides to sell.

It’s an incredibly profitable business—or at least it has the potential to be, being the only saloon in town, as Henry mentions to Lee—so the fact that it’s going up for sale is a Pretty Big Deal.

Or at least, it is to Bill and Henry.

The short of it is that they both have half the funds ($4,500) and try to get Lee to cough up the other half for a partnership. Lee tells both of them he’ll have to discuss it with Rosemary first. Rosemary (more or less) talks both men into making this venture about her, because of course doing so will get them her approval (even though it’s clear neither of them really want to do these things for her). In the end, she and Lee are split about who they should choose. Rosemary thinks Bill is the safer investment; Lee would like to trust Henry. They disagree so thoroughly that they decide together to not partner with either of them, which leaves Bill and Henry to, uh, partner with one another. They hate the idea but end up talking about it. Unfortunately, they get their money together too late; Tom sells the bar for $1,000 over asking price to an out of town buyer.

How did the out of town buyer even find out about it in less than two days? Who knows.

Suspension of disbelief? Sure, okay. I can buy it easily enough.

Anyway, overall this plot is pretty good. Bill and Henry both make great points about one another: Bill might do the books for the café (we’ve seen him doing this), but he doesn’t oversee daily operations; he’s more or less a silent partner. Henry is definitely a businessman, but he’s had past issues with honesty and, uh, money.

They’re both risks for very different reasons.

But also, they don’t like each other, so it makes sense that they’d make these kinds of digs at each other in order to try and get the upper hand.

I think my favorite part about this plot was at the end when they were working together to try and buy the saloon. I wish we could have gotten that conversation on-screen, though; it would have been great. I’m sure it was mostly about the fact that the investment is pretty sound, they almost can’t lose with it, and do they really want to wait and let someone else buy it? At least if they own it, they can control what happens/how the space is used/et cetera.

Henry and Bill disagree on most things, but neither of them is stupid.

Henry doesn’t know enough about that type of business to be of much use actually doing the physical work involved in keeping it up and running, but he could be great at striking deals and keeping track of profits/loss. Bill knows enough about balancing books to see if Henry’s up to no good, but he’s also a very hands-on kind of guy, so I feel like he could do all right with the ground level kinds of things.

Still, I feel like a partnership between them would go belly-up pretty fast. They just don’t get along in other capacities enough to…make it work long-term, I think.

It’s definitely for the best that someone else bought it up.

But hey, for a second we were able to see Bill and Henry getting along!

Miscellaneous Thoughts:

Molly…had a hair appointment…in…Benson Hills… What? These women are not rich. That was a bad line. Literally anything else could have sufficed. She went to Benson Hills to get a pretty fabric she couldn’t get in town, for example. Or she went there to drop off donations for a church drive. There are so many other things they could have picked that wouldn’t seem ridiculous (not to mention unbelievably shallow in this time period).

Tom…HAS A WIFE???? We’re probably meant to think she’s been around from the beginning, but now it makes me sad she wasn’t around… The saloon owner’s wife could have been a really fun role for somebody to play!

Now, I promised I’d get back to it, so here we go: Bill was easily the worst part about this episode, and the sad thing is, like I’ve said before, he’s my favorite (regular) character! I don’t know why they decided to suddenly swerve Bill into old grumpy-gus curmudgeon territory, but so far there’s been no reason for it; it makes him hard to like and undoes all the character development he went through in the first four seasons. I don’t want to spit out a 3,000-word essay rant about why I hate this, but I figure it deserves a serious mention here, too. I hope this series isn’t going in the direction of making Bill the go-to laugh-at character. That isn’t good humor writing. It’s cheap and lazy. Please don’t let me down, writers.

Also, can I just say how cringey the weird “charming” parts were with Bill in them? You know what I’m talking about. These parts. UGH. They were terrible and weird. I’m not sure what was going on there; it almost feels like bad stage direction. Bill hasn’t done that since Season 2, and even then it was part of a persona he eventually ended up shedding (along with his job as a Mountie). Why bring it back now? It, too, undoes character development. I’ll be keeping a close eye on this.

There were so many random children…I’ve never seen before. I just wanted to point it out.

Why does only Abigail get the ‘modern’ looking telephone?

Baby Jack was cuter in this episode than in most of the stills, and Elizabeth’s nightgown was lovely.

Florence’s expressions aimed at Elizabeth for not leaving fast enough? Priceless. I mean, that’s a good spot of humor there. Nobody is mocking Elizabeth for having feelings, but we can have a good little chuckle at it.

Lee getting busted pretending to take a phone call was so cringey but mostly in a decent way? I don’t think Bill is so tactless he wouldn’t realize what Lee was doing (see my rant about Bill above) but it’s a situation we can all probably relate to a little bit. Nobody likes getting busted for practicing! A better way of doing this scene would be for Bill to look concerned, or amused? Like, “Who are you talking to?” or, “Talking to yourself?” to start out, with no condescension in his tone of voice. But…that’s just me.

Overall Thoughts:

This was a good first regular episode to the season. It definitely gives me hope about the episodes to come! Bring on the good content!

#Season 6 Spoilers #season 6 shenanigans #when calls the heart

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traitor-boyfriend · 6 years

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i don't go into any season of south park with expectations or hopes for what's to come as it's simply too difficult to guess what it is that matt and trey will find themselves wanting to poke fun at, but i really hope next season we get a stan and kyle episode. not just an episode where they're regularly interacting, but an episode that really hones in on the fact that, though the show is about a group of four friends, stan and kyle are two -best- friends

in recent seasons esp it feels like those two are just drifting further and further apart. ever since 'you're getting old', i don't feel like their relationship has been portrayed the same way and it’s steadily getting worse -- given how often they're now pitted against each other, passively not supporting the other, not to mention s19 where they were basically fighting through the entire arc.

i think a lot of this also comes at the expense of matt and trey's eagerness to jump at any possible kyle vs. cartman story line. i think the foil dynamic between those two has yielded a lot of great episodes. but for the last couple seasons it seems they've made kyle so wrapped up in cartman's business that stan has been pushed almost to the background (no thanks to fuckin randy either lmao). like i get excited when stan is on-screen and has lines now b/c he’s had so few comparatively for most of the last two seasons (esp strange given that in past seasons he had significantly more episodes centered around him/his family than the other boys and is often thought to be the main boy of their group). i just want a break from cartman-focused story lines w/ kyle taking umbrage to them as a constant b-plot.

and i don't think this would be as large a problem if kyle wasn't shown to be pretty unambiguously more important to stan than stan is to kyle. we get a lot of opportunities to see this as stan is generally far less often in grave danger or distress than kyle; super best friends, cherokee hair tampons, smug alert, the list, etc. are all good examples of stan going pretty far to save or help kyle, but we don’t have a ton of those moments vice versa. kyle’s moments tend to be more subtle: taking care of stan when’s he’s ill in fun with veal, watching over him when he sleeps in manbearpig, guiding him to safety when stan is stunned in imaginationland, trying to see him through an ego trip such as in butterballs or scause for applause -- little moments.

above all, i think what they bring to each other is that kyle operates as a moral and ethical guide for stan and keeps him grounded, and stan acts as a conduit for kyle to sort through his constant frustration and support him emotionally so he doesn’t let those feelings carry him away. they keep each other’s feet on the ground; they’re often presented as the only two truly sane people, and i think growing up in a little fucked-up town like that forces them to be heavily co-dependent on each other, for better or worse.

a large part of kyle's character is despite being so reactionary, he doesn’t process his negative feelings unless it’s through anger. he doesn’t often cry or allow himself to be sad -- even when heidi broke up with him and insinuated he unwittingly manipulated her, and was ‘sneaky’ for being jewish, he’s mostly just stunned. in the following episode, he doesn’t interact with either heidi or cartman in anyway that indicates he still has tender feelings about the situation. now, in ep9, we know he still does b/c of the phone call with garrison -- you can hear the anguish in his voice.

it seems evident that kyle views being sad as a deterrent to action, and he prefers to deal with things directly and head-on, so he channels those emotions into rage instead because it allows him to do something about it. if anything, he's kind of emotionally illiterate. and i think this is what has caused and keeps causing a large riff between him and stan. stan is far more sensitive and prone to depression, and whenever he's shown going through a rough time, it seems kyle puts in a minimal amount of effort to see him through it before he becomes frustrated and disengages with the situation. the most obvious example of this is you’re getting old, obviously, but raisins is another great one -- stan doesn’t immediately respond to kyle’s attempts to cheer him up in a positive way, so he feels like he’s wasted his time, and quickly resorts to berating the goth kids at the coffee shop and being snide to stan. which isn’t what stan needs; he’s swayed by butters clearly articulating his own heartbreak and sadness in an honest but optimistic way, which is something kyle struggles with. but i don’t think it’s that kyle doesn’t care? he obviously does in assburgers, but he mentions to wendy that being around stan makes him depressed, and kyle is so greatly adverse to feeling that way that he decides the most prudent way to carry on is just to cut stan, his best friend, from his life. a major left turn if you will

so far this season has been absent of all of this, and i think that’s why we see kyle acting the way he is currently after ep9: neither of them is providing each other w that support. there’s still a lot of residual tension left over from seasons 19 and 20 at the expense of kyle being everyone’s constant whipping boy, gender war between the boys and girls, pc principal etc. i feel the most damage that’s come out of this season is on stan’s end; kyle has spent the last half of this arc fighting an uphill battle and fighting it alone, and given all that’s happened, it’s bred a lot of disaffection and upset inside him. heidi becoming cartman 2.0 has only made this worse; kyle can’t effectively speak in his own defense b/c it only fuels both her and eric’s embers to ridicule him, so he’s mostly just been taking it w/out much of a fight. stan’s indifference leaves kyle w no one to turn to, insofar as stan actively contributing somewhat to kyle’s feelings of alienation through discouraging his earlier efforts with heidi, or laughing at heidi and eric’s constant jokes about kyle being like his mother. if there is one thing i wish to (hopefully!) see in this season’s finale, or next season, it would be some reconciliation between stan and kyle -- contrition for past behavior, an admission that neither of them has been putting in the necessary work that bolsters their friendship, reigniting what makes their relationship so special

because, to me, stan and kyle's friendship has always been the heart of the show; it's that nostalgic affection i think so many people can relate to -- the kind of bond you form with your first best friend as a child. the relationship between stan and kyle reminds me so vividly of my best friend when i was ten. we were just like them. it's juvenile and fickle and amazing and unbelievably strong. it's universal. i remember reading some interview snippet w/ trey parker a while back where he described stan and kyle as "two kids who are desperately trying to be the other" or something to that effect and it breaks my heart b/c that's what friendships at that age are! and it's incredible! and it makes me so, so sad to just not quite see that same emotional tether between stan and kyle anymore

#it's 4am and i'm emotional and writing sp analysis b/c i hate myself lmao #south park #kyle broflovski #stan marsh #sp style #not sure how coherent this is but whatever!!#meta

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poipoi1912 · 7 years

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Carisi-centric thoughts on Ep 19x03

Yet another solid episode! This season is going to be a winner. Also, THE BARISI CORNER IS OFFICIALLY BACK :D

But first:

Overall Thoughts

OK, this wasn’t much to write home about, but it was more than serviceable. All three actresses were very good so they kept me engaged, the case was pleasantly twisty but not convoluted, Sonny had significant input as a lawyer (and I loved how Liv was all “we’ll follow Carisi’s suggestion!”) and Barba delivered a heated and eloquent closing argument. I enjoyed it.

Squad Thoughts

More sharing of personal information! I swear, Sonny and Fin have talked to each other more in these last two episodes than they did in the previous 3 2 seasons! And they didn’t need some random case-related segue, either. This week, they were just driving to a crime scene, and they were shooting the breeze on the way there. You know, like normal colleagues do. Like real people do. Not cardboard cutouts. Something small like that, something as silly as stealing candy as a little boy, it can breathe life into a scene which would otherwise be mundane.

The thing is, even when an episode is not as exciting, it’s still worth watching just to see our characters interacting and being friends. That’s what SVU seemed to have forgotten, and it’s also the key to making a watchable procedural. Let’s face it, all the cases have been done before (often by SVU itself, because it’s been on for a hundred years), but the team interactions can )and should) be enough to maintain the viewers’ interest. This season, it’s clear the team dynamics are being cultivated, instead of being ignored, and that makes me happy.

The Barisi Corner

WE'RE BACK.

Just like I hoped, it's like S18 never happened. We're back to the S17 Barisi dynamic of friendly teasing and inside jokes. In the deleted scene from the premiere, we got the classic "booyah, Fordham law" type of interaction, except in its advanced S17 form. Where in S16 Barba would be biting with his remarks, in S17 and in the 19x01 deleted scene he was just making a joke for the sake of a joke, because that's what they do. Sonny tries to impress Barba, Barba is totally impressed, and then he makes a joke to pretend he's not actually appreciative of Sonny's input.

In this episode, we got an even more advanced interaction. We got Sonny making a smart legal observation not just to impress Barba, but because he wanted to contribute to the case. And, just like in S17, Barba was impressed, and then he used a joke not to diss Sonny, but to praise him.

See, there are two kinds of humorous Barisi interactions.

There's "Sassy Sonny Tries to Impress Barba" which comes complete with Sonny's dimples, and Sonny's smirks, and Sonny's cocky remarks like, "Oh, Rafael, are you mad you didn't think about it first?" This type of Barisi interaction always ends with a Barba side-eye and a snarky comeback. When Barba knows that Sonny is flaunting, he's always quick to shut it down. That's the joke. Sonny starts blathering on about a hypothetical argument, just to show off his legal skillz, and Barba is amused, but he also acknowledges the alterior motive, i.e. Sonny's desire to get Barba's approval.

But then there's "Dedicated Sonny Tries to Crack the Case" which comes with Sonny's frown and Sonny's desire to get justice, and Sonny's casual use of legal terminology like "obfuscated." This type of Barisi interaction always ends with Barba subtly praising Sonny, using a joke to cover up a genuine compliment. When Barba knows that Sonny is trying to be helpful, he's always quick to encourage it. That's Barba's favorite thing. Seeing Sonny creatively solving a legal problem with no ulterior motive. Sure, their games are fun, and they've been fun for 3 2 seasons now, but at the end of the day they're both trying to get justice, and Barba loves it when Sonny focuses on their work.

That's the thing. Both Sonny and Barba have evolved. Sonny used to thirst for Barba's approval, early on, in S16, but soon after that he found his confidence, and his footing, and his place on the team. He still tries to show off for Barba, because it's fun, but that's no longer his main motivator when he speaks legalese. Sonny isn't a law student looking to get that A, he's a lawyer looking to get that D. And his actions and words have come to reflect that. Now he doesn't just state the obvious as Barba jokes "save it for night school." Now, Sonny has original ideas which can actually help SVU.

And Barba, who treated Sonny so condescendingly at first, Barba has come to see the change in Sonny as well. The humorous element of their interactions persists, because Barba is a snarky bastard, but now those same interactions are loaded with respect. With friendship. With flirtation. Barba is no longer dismissive of Sonny, and hasn't been for a long while. Barba sees Sonny as a useful presence in the squad, with legal knowledge the other cops don't possess, and it's clear he welcomes Sonny’s observations. It’s right there in his smile smirk. Barba is willing to listen, and he’s even willing to entertain the notion that Sonny just might think of something he didn't, which is beautiful to see :')

Barisi Hopes

Now all I want is that other type of S17 interaction, the quiet support. Sonny always supported Barba in tougher moments, like the death threats (what death threats lol?), or a trial gone wrong, but Barba also supported Sonny, especially during that Catholic Church case, as we all remember. I'm loving the new showrunner's tendency to use humor to display the bonds between our characters, it's just the perfect thing to balance out the grim nature of the cases, but I'd love to see some more muted, more emotional moments between them (between all of them, but Barba/Carisi especially, lol). We have an entire season ahead, so there's still plenty of time. I'll be waiting.

For now, I'm just happy the classic Barisi dynamic is back.

I've said it time and time again, and I don't even mean romantically (that's what fic is for). Those two characters, Barba and Carisi, they have a dynamic that's gold. Clashing personalities (Sonny is dorkier, Barba is more sarcastic), contrasting temperaments (Sonny is sunnier, Barba is a little more bitter), common interests (the law), a reluctant mentor-mentee relationship (which has evolved now that the student is no longer a student, though he's far from being a master), a constant willingness to joke back-and-forth (which keeps building up their relationship and strengthens their bond), fundamental differences which breed a potential for unexpectedly emotional moments ("I admire your...", because Sonny is an openly affectionate person, and Barba and his wide eyes tend to shy away from affection), it's all there.

Good writing, plus a willingness to explore that bond, plus the natural ease Peter and Raul have with each other as actors, plus Sonny’s sweetness and Barba’s sass = television gold. And Barisi gold :’)

Yummy Thoughts

Barba was flirting. End of story. Textbook “there is no heterosexual explanation for this.” And I’m grateful.

Barba Thoughts

I’ve always said it, I prefer seeing “shrewd legal mind” Barba instead of “slave to his emotions” Barba, but the latter sure is fun to watch. That closing was intense, and you could see that Raul really dug his teeth into those lines. I mean, damn. It’s not every week that he gets to really show off, with more than an eyebrow raise or a smirk, but when he does, wow. I was just thinking, they rarely let Raul have a legitimate monologue, even though he’s a lawyer and theoretically we could be watching his opening and/or closing arguments every week. This episode tells me that the writers might be saving those moments, and using them sparingly, so they’ll have more of an impact. And I think they’re right.

That said, I wonder if we’ll be seeing a focus on Barba’s more emotional side, to better juxtapose him to the upcoming ADA, who’ll be more black-and-white and (I’m assuming) less emotional. If so, this was a smart way to start doing that. In this episode, we still saw how smart Barba was, but we also saw a passion we don’t often see from him. I’m assuming Barba and Peter Stone will clash on more than their positions, they’ll clash on philosophy, as well, and I hope this was an example of that. We have to see the “new” (but old) Barba, he has to be established first, under the new showrunner’s reign, and then we can be introduced to Stone, and see what they have in common and what they’ll never agree on.

Stray Thoughts

Just like I thought, last week's dramatic ending (and Sonny’s potential subsequent trauma) was not directly referenced. It may come up again in the future, but again, as I said in last week's post, this is classic Original L&O stuff, a self-contained dramatic episode which ends and is never mentioned again. L&O in its earlier seasons was much less serialized, and I think the new showrunner is bringing that back. I don't mind it.

Another thing I didn’t mind? Flirty Sonny using his masculine wiles to cozy up to that witness and get her to help. Now that’s how you use your assets :D

“CONFIRMED.” I love Fin.

That old high school pic? I love that NBC employs people who have a passion for graphic design :’)

More background on Sonny’s family! The show remembers he has a niece! His mom used to cover for him for childhood shenanigans! He went to confession for stealing candy! Classic Carisi material. And continuity galore. This is the Sonny we know and love.

Amanda dismissively saying “pills, booze” to judge a woman who was on prescribed anxiety meds and enjoyed, like, a beer? Never change, Amanda. actually, please change (that said, yay for continuity!)

What a waste of Annabeth Gish.

So Brooke Shields is the grandma? Wasn’t that what everyone guessed? I was trying to come up with other guesses because I actually believed them when they said “no one has guessed who she’ll play”. Oh well. That said, she looked amazing, and I’ve always liked her. It’ll be nice to have someone with a (seemingly) kinder demeanor fighting against Liv. Not a criminal or a lawyer, you know? We haven’t seen that before.

Amanda and Liv’s jackets keep slaying my existence every week.

WHY DIDN’T WEE SONNY’S REACTION TO “YUMMY”???? HUH???? WHERE IS THAT CLOSE-UP OF HIS SMIRKY DIMPLY LIL’ FACE???

Did I write more than 900 words of this post about a 5-second Barisi interaction? HELL YEAH I DID :D

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asagimeta · 7 years

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Be Mature Scooby Doo! Or: Why Age Of Apocolypse Works And Mystery Incporated Doesn’t

Note: This will contain spoilers for Scooby Doo: Age Of Apocolypse and some heavy dislike of Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated

I just found the first issue of Scooby Doo: Age Of Apocolypse, wich I'll hopefully be buying and reading however many volumes there are for Christmas, and let me just say: This is mature Scooby Doo done right

This is what Mystery Incorporated COULD have been if Cartoon Network had actually decided to go for the older audience they were pitching for and not tried to maintain the younger, grade-school audience that probably didn't care for the franchise anyway

We know via shows like Young Justice and Teen Titans that CN //CAN// do that, and I think they WANTED to do that for Mystery Inc, but they ultimately decided to try to keep the younger audience too and that was their big mistake (as you can tell, I'm not at all a Mystery Incorporated fan, I think the only thing worse to come out of Scooby Doo TV wise is ... *ugh* Be Cool Scooby Doo.... stop the bleeding...)

Mystery Incorporated COULD have been the best Scooby Doo franchise since Zombie Island, if they had //treated// it like Zombie Island, IE: a level of maturity tackling real monsters and darker themes but maintaining some of the classic notions of Scooby Doo such as the chase sequences, catch phrases, and puns, wich are all things Mystery Incorporated DID do.... but the "maturity" was very flat and obviously trying too hard, and you can see that most clearly in comparison to Age Of Apocolypse and Zombie Island, where you can reasonably argue that MI REALLY wanted to shoot for the older audiences and be even darker and more mature than Zombie Island, you're met with the brand new roadblock-argument that is Age Of Apocolypse, the crown jewl of what a mature Scooby Doo could be

AOA is basically Scooby Doo meets The Walking Dead in tone, but it's alot more sci-fi than TWD and focuses considerably less on actual zombies and more on flat-out monsters, now wile I CERTAINLY don't suggest that MI should have included guns and brutally murdering monsters, what I *DO* suggest is keeping the *tone* somewhere in between Zombie Island and AOA, not leaning so much on ... what, A Pup Named Scooby Doo and AOA...? Therein lies the REAL problem

Mystery Incorporated had alot going for it- nice animation, a really good plot, a unique setting, and something that no other part of the Scooby franchise has ever really kept: A linear storyline, but the one big, major, glaring flaw is also the one thing that keeps people loving Scooby Doo all these decades later: The charectors

The charectors in MI were atrocious, often either watered down to their most pun-related and easy-to-reference qualities like Fred (who was reduced to being nothing short of a COMPLETE moron who only had any interest in building traps) or were crafted into something utterly indistinguishable from their usual charector, like Velma, who was ... very oddly rooted in romance? Velma has always been a little sharp, but Velma in MI is downright *mean* most of the time and has such a weird push for romancing Shaggy that it just feels... wrong... in some fundamental way, Velma has always been really great as a female charector because she's rooted in her *own* motivations and not tied around a romantic storyline, but at the same time, she IS allowed to /have/ romantic storylines on the side (Witch's Ghost and Zombie Island are both great examples of this, never is Velma rooted to a love interest but in both cases she makes it clear that she has butterflies for Beau/Ben, yet she never lets that come between her and her motivations as a charector)

Now you may be wondering why I titled this about AOA when I've barely talked about it, well.... I'm about to talk about it

Age Of Apocolypse solves the glaring charector issues that MI has WITHOUT damaging what MI was trying to do- show four people (and a dog) thrown together by circumstance who don't really exactly *like* eachother yet and have to grow to become a solid team, with a heavy dose of maturity and conflict involved in the relationships, this is something that, admittedly, the other versions of Scooby I mentioned never talked about, because the gang was already very well established when things like Zombie Island take place, and though there's mild charector conflict (rooted in individualism, not caring for eachother as a team) it's an almost blink-and-you-miss-it conflict that mostly is just the first ten minutes of the movie, IF that long, AOA however easily has as much conflict as MI without damaging the charectors individually

No idiot trap loving Fred

No overly self-centered, overly romanced Daphne

No brutally harsh, romance seeking Velma

No idiotic and weirdly self-absorbed Shaggy

No .... whatever the HELL they did to poor Scooby Doo

AOA does age up the charectors by probably about a decade, wich counts towards the maturity heavily, but I don't see why they couldn't keep a level of that in MI instead of trying to cater to the older audiences with the plot and the very young audiences with the lack of charectorization and what I very loosely call "humor" (there were a few good jokes, but not many, and they were greatly over shadowed by the relentlessly run-on gags like Fred and the stupid traps)

*SPOILERS AHEAD FOR AOA*

What AOA gives us is Scooby and Shaggy who are as tightly bonded as ever (not Scooby literally getting jealous over Velma what the hell was this show...?) with Shaggy still keeping his generally chill attitude and actually keeping something of a peace-keeper vibe to him, but also with a mature calmness and a sense of smarts (as evidenced by the fact that he trained the most well developed "smart dog" in a highly elite program) Velma is definitely still sharp and a bit harsh but she isn't what I would call mean and her motives and backstory actually give a very clear understanding for why she may be quicker to bite than usual, it isn't rooted in another person's storyline like it is in MI, but in the fact that she screwed up and is one of the people directly responsible for possibly ending humanity, that kind of weight would be heavy on ANYONE'S shoulders and considering it Velma actually carries it pretty well, Daphne is harsher than most of her incarnations, but also has moments of showing sympathy and sensitivity, as evidenced by feeling guilty that she was so harsh on Velma for her hand in possibly ending the world when Velma didn't know what she was doing, and by the fact that she's very easily upset over having killed a guy and has to remind herself with each monster she kills that "These aren't people", it may seem small, given that most of the first issue handles her very brashly, but the shows a level of empathy that none of the others gave at all, Shaggy tries to excuse her actions, Velma is at times cold, and even Scooby- "the most docile of the smart dogs"- doesn't seem to show alot of hesitation in possibly killing people, even if they ARE monsters, but Daphne- in keeping with the gentle spirit she's always had- immediately has a problem with it, Fred is sort of just..... there.... and there honestly isn't alot of his charector that's shown outside of being Daphne's camera guy, but that's true of most incarnations, I can't think of one where Fred really had a legitimate, developed personality outside of The Leader and possibly falling for whatever girl-of-the-day was around such as Thorn and Lena from Witch's Ghost and Zombie Island respectively, Fred might develop later or he might not, but anything is better than that God awfull trap guy from MI

The only people in AOA that legitimately get along the entire time are Scooby and Shaggy, wich is typical, that's always how it's been when the gang has broken apart or disagreed over something (except in MI) and they're the only ones with a clearly defined relationship at the start of the book as trainer-and-companion (Fred and Daphne, though they are clearly partners in work, could be anything in their personal lives, freinds, lovers, divorced, it's unclear)

MI could have been really successfull in showing the building dynamic and charector drama if they had fleshed out the charectors like AOA has already done in a single issue, kept Scooby and Shaggy unwaveringly close, not turned everything into a pun, and not made the majority of the drama centered on romance and family, with a town like Crystal Cove there was alot they could have done, and with the storylines I saw (note: I didn't see every episode, but I did read the longer synopsises of the last six or seven online and I saw probably a full season and a half worth) it could have gone much deeper and darker with the roles the parents played in all of the town drama than it did

MI could have been really great, and AOA shows that there IS a way to make a very mature, adult, Scooby Doo if that's what you're aiming for, but trying to grab an audience of late-teens/young-adults AND keep the audience of six to ten year-olds really isn't going to work, and MI proved that

#Scooby Doo #kid's shows #other

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