I just went through my blog and re-read all of my posts tagged as "analysis" and I'm loving the dichotomy I've displayed over the past year or so.

Some times it's: "Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir continues to be the single worst show I've ever seen and here's a wall of textual evidence to prove it."

Other times it's: "Homelander is an exceedingly interesting and nuanced villain who is so emotionally repressed that the only people he will kill are those who mean nothing to him, and those who mean everything to him. No in-between."

And then in some posts I'm just like: "I've read Bible stories and have decided that God is an irredeemable asshole and I'm going to kill him in real life."

Right? He keeps saying it's to protect her and she's like I don't want that and he's like fuck that bc it's not really the real reason. It was so obvious when he was happy as fuck with his new powers and Kimiko was dying in the van like... And his face when butcher opened the trunk full of V, he was talking about helping them but you could see it was really about getting more V. They showed us how insecure he's become about starlight and her superpowers it's not so much that he he wants to protect her it's that HE wants to protect HER , he can't even stomach her opening a couple of jars for him which is the most telling thing for me and then them having him open that jar for her this episode especially since he and the audience knows she can open it herself just really says it all. She opened those jars after he couldn't as in she was helping him, he just did it himself when she didn't need him to bc it was actually for himself which is basically a microsome of how this whole thing is going down. He's gonna do some absolutely vile shit by the end of the season.

Oh yeah he's falling into that horrible mindset and, ironically, I think it'll be Billy to snap him out of it - to be his Canary in the coal mine - to say "this isn't you. This is me. We need less people like me and more people like you."

Because Hughie is a stand-in for Billy's brother. And whats happening is what Hughie turning into what Billy's dad wanted his brother to be, and Billy failing to protect Hughie this way.

I think this all began once Hughie realized Victoria was a supe, and that everything he believed has crumpled to dust (sort of like in the beginning of s1 when Hughie realized Supes were bad despite being a supe fan) so he's searching for something to give him purpose and to make an impact so he's leaning into Billy's ways despite everyone, even Billy, recognizing that it's not healthy. It's like how guys see girls like a 'bad boy' and try to mirror the behavior without understanding what is really attracting them.

Again, he's only trying to prove to himself - not to the team, and not to Annie - that he's not worthless, which is a struggle we can also say he shares with Homelander and A-Train this season.

how're you finding the boys show?

uhhh… hoo boy. that’s a complicated question. short answer? it’s… mediocre.

long answer?

i want to approach the tv show as objectively as possible, but that’s really difficult when i’ve read the source material and have a list of how many slurs were said in it. so i might be a bit biased, but still, i’m trying to see the merits in it.

the good things about this show: they change a lot of the comics. that’s good. they cut down on the abuse annie endures and is willing to endure in the future. they don’t make the seven do 9/11 again. also, some of the filmmaking decisions they make are remarkably competent, my favorite so far being this interaction between homelander and the deep (taken from my notes):

“in the show, we see the deep manipulating annie and using his power as leverage for sexual favors from her. then, in the next episode, we see a reverse of this situation: homelander manipulates the deep and uses his power as leverage to get the deep to be quiet about something. in this sense, the deep manipulates/abuses, and in turn is manipulated/abused himself. it's furthered by the fact that this is the most direct shot of this: homelander's hand around the deep's neck draws attention to his throat, mirroring the exact type of sexual abuse that the deep inflicted on annie, and the deep's eyeline guides us to homelander's crotch, solidifying the pseudo-sexual dynamics of this scene.”

also, they gave the female a name. bare fucking minimum, but they did it!

but, uh. unfortunately that’s kind of where my compliments end. and. that sucks? i don’t like that! i want to enjoy the boys! but.

the problem is that the boys doesn’t try hard enough to address the problems of the source material. yes, they did what they could to change things, but the fundamental problems of the universe the boys exists in are still there:

superheroes are, at best, immoral because they participate in an immoral system, no matter how hard they try to be good. at worst, they are fundamentally and unchangeably evil.

enjoying superheroes (even in our real world) is still a moral failing, because if you were REALLY a good person, you’d defend YOURSELF.

superheroes are still treated in this weird nightmarish way where they are simultaneously politicians, actors, and businesspeople.

but, ultimately, the boys fails on a very fundamental level because of how it was made. it is clearly desperately trying to take the original concepts of the book, concepts that aren’t entirely terrible on their own, and make them into something better. but it doesn’t try hard enough, and it trips over itself when trying to take a “middle ground”, and, most importantly:

the boys is a tv show about capitalism and businesses and what happens when you let businesses run politics. but that message is completely undercut by the fact that the boys is a fucking AMAZON PRIME ORIGINAL.

i’m sorry, but you simply can’t critique the dangers of capitalism (in a lukewarm way, but still) and be produced by fucking amazon. you simply can’t!

other things bother me about the show, like how long the episodes are, and the blue-green-zack-snyder-esque filter they use for the whole thing, and how the dialogue can be stilted, and how, like the comics, i find most of the bureaucratic bullshit to be mind numbingly boring, and how the marketing flipped after the first season to be like THIS IS THE CRAZIEST THING EVER when doom patrol has been doing it better and weirder since 2019, but. that’s really all secondary to the fact that the boys just… misses the mark.

it’s painfully mediocre, and it’s sad, because i know they could do better: but like i say in my notes, “you can paint the walls all you want, but the house is still built on a shitty foundation”.

Interesting little moments from The Boys 3.06:

Homelander actually thinks Annie/Starlight is there supporting him

Soldier Boy says he blacked out in midtown NYC then asked what happened after herogasm explodes

Soldier Boy is from Phily, Cap is from Brooklyn, Soldier Boy ios wearing a Giants Jersey

I don't know who casted Herogasm but I did not see a single natural tit lol

Smart move would have been for Annie to tell Neuman yes regardless of what she was going to do - but that was supposed to set up what she did later

The comments scrolling by in the live feed

I'm impressed with Kimiko's fighting skills considering it's her first fight ever without her powers and she has never trained without them.

Getting Frenchie out of that lock would have been a process

Frenchie didn't choose.

weird that the thing that made annie notice MM's OCD was tapping on a steering wheel - there's so many more obvious things

I know that's how OCD is monologued on TV but it just isn't logical like that - like I don't think MM went to that much therapy?

MM remembered the love sausage (sigh)

MM responds to Herogasm with "Fuck me" which is not the message he wants to send.

"nom nom nom nom nom nom"

This is what Kripke thinks is wild - Hilarious.

"I founded it in '52"

"Ben" and "Liberty" - Not possible.

just… Goro Miyazaki starting his animation career with having a son kill his father, the king of a kingdom where magic is disappearing, and run away and Hayao (possibly ending) his career with a young boy refusing to take on his family’s powerful legacy over a magical world, knowing the world would die without him in favor of not abandoning his family and choosing to live contentedly in the mundane world…

Here's a neat detail:

Not to talk about season 1 Good Omens in the year of our Lord and Season 3 announcement 2023, but I kind of just realized another little moment that's very sweet and true to real life.

I really like that Crowley isn't just fine again after he learns Aziraphale survived the bookshop burning after all. Normally in stories when there's a "surprise, I'm alive!" moment, the characters just kind of celebrate for a minute and then move on business as usual. But Crowley doesn't. He continues to be visibly be shaken and a little unfocused throughout his conversation with Aziraphale, and when he has to explain what happened, he starts crying again.

I don't know I just thought that was a really nice detail because anyone who's experienced similar whiplash in real life knows about that... residual grief period I guess? I think this was a core memory that informed a lot of Crowley's behavior in season 2, you don't ever really forget that moment you lost them no matter how brief. There's just something very loving and vulnerable in him being like "I thought you were gone, and even though I know now you're ok, I want you to know just thinking about it upsets me deeply."

Rise Ramblings #325

So, we also know that this boy is bad at basketball.

Like, really bad.

Yeah, th-that was just terrible.

But, it made me think.

How is this ninja scientist so bad at this game? It’s just hand-eye coordination, after all.

I mean...

His shots aren't terrible, but they just bounce right off the hoop/backboard. It's almost as if he's aiming at a target-

So, wait. What’s the difference between basketball and pizza darts?

...the arc. Arcing the ball requires a light hand. In other words, it requires restraint.

I believe, that Donatello has great aim, but is terrible at restraint because, when he tries to toss something, it misses the mark.

But, when he throws something...

it’s deadly.

2.12 Chimney Begins - 2.09 Hen Begins - 2.16 Bobby Begins Again - 7.04 Buck, Bothered and Bewildered

Tommy's family arc

You know, it's rather interesting to me that Taylor Swift's parasocial relationship with her fans is honestly more akin to a YouTuber than a writer's. When I scroll through her tag on tumblr/Twitter, it's far more regarding the connection to her personal life/relationship developments than the actual metaphors/fictional story she might be telling. Everything comes back to how her songs reflect back on her relationships with Joe/Matty/Travis/Jake/insert ex-boyfriend here. And what fascinates me about it is that even though she complains about it, she leans into that very perception because it strengthens the parasocial bond.

The marketing for TTPD so clearly being about Joe Alwyn and the songs to Matty Healy. The marketing/video for Red TV so CLEARLY being about Jake Gyllenhaal, with so many of the new lines in All Too Well specifically being digs at him (I'll get older but your lovers stay my age, casting an actor that looks like him for the video, specific lines in I Bet You Think About Me). The fact that songs like Getaway Car and Bejeweled and Gorgeous and London Boy and Lavender Haze being picked apart at time of release and long after for signs of relationships crumbling. The way she uses surprise songs in relation to her relationship development with Joe/Matty/Travis. The damn TTPD "stages of grief" playlists where she deliberately undid/changed the meanings of old songs just to keep her audience speculating on her love life.

It's not sexist to point out that her wielding her love life is a marketing tool and that the strongest connection to her audience isn't the strength of her writing/the composition of her music- it's her deliberate crafting of a connection between her music and her personal life, leaving the audience invested in her music as an extension of Taylor the Person/Girlfriend rather than Taylor the Artist.

Me: *reading a post that makes the joke “Peeta dropped the baby bomb, Gale drops bombs on babies”* haha good one

Also me: you’re missing the point! You’re missing the point! YOURE MISSING THE POINT! He grew up starving. His best friend almost died of hunger. Most of his people live in poverty. He watched children die in a bloodbath every year for the capital’s entertainment. The girl he loved went into the games. Was tortured by the capitol. His district was bombed out of existence. Nearly everyone he knew was killed. Their only crime was being fed up of being hungry and oppressed and sharing the same district as Katniss. All those innocent people. Murdered. He had to take refuge in a district that was bombed out of existence and forced to live underground. Of course he joined the war effort. Of course he designed unethical bombs and battle tactics. He wanted revenge. He wanted the capitol to have a taste of their own medicine. He wanted the rebellion to succeed. And tell me you could live through what he did, and that no part of you would be screaming for Justice and vengeance. Gale is you. You are Gale. He represents a part of feelings and actions that reside within us, even if you don’t act on it.

“But he killed prim!” Exactly! Gale loved prim. She was a second family to her. He looked after Katniss’ family. He saved them from the district 12 bombings. He loved her. He never would’ve put her in danger. He never would’ve put in order for a bombing if it would kill Prim. But coin would. And did. She took what was meant to be a tool of Gale’s righteous revenge for all the suffering he and his people suffered through, only for someone in power to take it and use it to kill someone he loved.

There’s some many lessons to take. We can’t control the things we create. War spares no one. Even justifiable rage and actions can end up rebounding and hurting those you love instead of your targets.

“He drops bombs on babies” is too simplistic of a takeaway and does a disservice to the story and Gale.

boyband reid appreciation post because it's never too much

Charles Rowland: an outfit analysis.

I had previously focused only on his pins and patches, but this is a more complete breakdown of his whole attire.

From the 1980s to Edwardian wardrobes, I also broke down Edwin’s outfit.

I'm gonna need both Maeve and black noir to make it this season bc i want to see so much more of them especially as part of the boys group also hell yes at your idea of them just dating each other all over the place. I love this show but for something that constancy critiques things like racism and homophobia and sexism and how it manifests in our society it's still very much a very white straight male show which?? How about some queer relationships between your leads dude (part 1)

Like I hope so too because those two characters have so much untapped potential that we got GLIMPSES of this season, especially with the Boys. Maeve and Billy hanging out more would be great, and not in the sense of building up their relationship but because I think we need ANOTHER person who can call him out on his bullshit. And I've said this in other posts but BLACK NOIR AND KIMIKO & FRENCHIE?!?!?! They would work so well together.

That being said, as much as Eric Kripke has been pushed to the front of this series - and like, this isn't a knock against him - he is one of nineteen executive producers, and only wrote three out of, so far, twenty-three episodes. Yes, he's the showrunner, but there are other voices in the mix and Eric doesn't seem like the kind of person to nix ideas that might not appeal to or appear for straight, white, and male audiences. I think season 3 is a perfect example of them shifting away from this being such a white, male, and straight show through having Soldier Boy and - not to sound like Jensen in an umpteenth interview - toxic masculinity take the forefront as the season's villains, with Billy and Hughie falling under its sway. By developing Mother's Milk's backstory, giving him a complex character arc and really pushing him to the forefront of the story instead of focusing on Billy. By having this storyline of Annie not falling into the classic, lovelorn and 🥺 character it feels like she was written to be in the comics (which... talk about a case of American Sitcom Wife between comic Starlight and Hughie) and standing strong for her values against all the people who tried to make her bend as well as being an active agent in a lot of the plans. By, though it might be an unpopular opinion, not moving forward with making Kimiko and Frenchie's relationship romantic in nature - and also giving Kimiko agency and a voice at every turn alongside Frenchie's desire for tenderness that has really been doubled down on this season. I mean, if this show weren't turning away from a white, male, and straight audience would a) there have been the Reddit madness that was hilarious and b) so many men being turned on by Jackles and causing a new generation of Jen-heads? Billy and Hughie are not the driving force of this season nor the heroes they believe they are; they're technically minor antagonists at this point lol. I don't think they'll not be redeemed in the finale, but they've been making some pretty dumb choices all in the effort to make themselves feel better - and we've seen the story not reward them for this by causing rifts between them and the people they care about.

Yes, Supernatural - especially in its earlier seasons - was incredibly sexist and overwhelmingly white, with racist undertones at times and a lot of homophobia that seemed more than making gay people the 'butt of the joke'. But the circumstances and forces at play during Supernatural's early seasons, and the Boys now, couldn't be more different. The writer's rooms are different. Eric isn't the same man he was when Supernatural was in its infancy. There are different people involved. Instead of network television, this is streaming where there's a lot more freedom.

However, I do agree that queer characters on shows that aren't billed as 'gay' do tend to be few and far between without a lot of depth or complexity in their sexuality. We might not see all, if any, of their main male characters engage in queer play or activities, with anyone of the same or a non-binary gender including each other. They're taking strides with Frenchie, who of the Boys is the only confirmed queer character on their roster it seems, and Kimiko, by not taking their relationship into romantic territory - but mainly because of the direction of the story and from actors' and writers' inputs on the relationships.

If the story were to go there, like I've said, I don't see Eric being hesitant about doing so. The hesitance over Destiel - especially towards the end of the series - was majority network with a dash of one or two people in entrenched positions within the creative team. I don't see that, so far, with the Boys. It doesn't seem like they would be afraid if the story took them there, except for maybe Garth Ennis. But there is no active drive to make these choices either instead of being led by the story, which isn't a bad thing but a product of the people behind the wheel I guess which is what you're alluding to. As progressive as people can become, there are still things that they can be unaware of because of the privleges of their lives.

Also, it has to be said, despite Annie and Hughie's relationship being a major part of the story - romance is not the main drive of the Boys nor has it become a central focus of the story and plot like it had for Supernatural.

I like to say there'd be a polycule between Annie, Hughie, Frenchie, and Kimiko. But I also believe next season will focus on Hughie and Annie probably planning their future because it will be a season heavily about parents and children (Soldier Boy & Homelander, Billy & Ryan). If Victoria doesn't survive the season 3 finale, but that seems less and less likely the more episodes we saw, I figured they might adopt her daughter. Adoption, of any superpowered kid, though seems likely given the cover story Hughie mentioned, because why not take in a super-powered kid? Maybe they adopt the laser-eye baby lol. And while Frenchie is queer, who knows if they will introduce someone male-presenting to be his love interest and not have him reunite with Cherry. While I like Billy and Mother's Milk growing into a romantic relationship, they have set up Billy and Maeve in this season (if she survives that is), and I don't think Monique and Mother's Milk's story is over either.

I do think and would like to see Soldier Boy engage in male-on-male activities in the next season, however 😘

I'm going to make myself cry typing this but here we go..

I think one of the points of Attack on Titan is that humanity is forgetful. Doomed to forget, actually.

Our main cast are heroes, not just the surviving ones. Levi deserves to have statues built of him. The surviving members of the 104th even went on to become politicians, traveling the world to help change things for the better. I have no doubt that they had buildings named after them, streets and parks named after them. There were probably history books specifically dedicated to each and every one of them.

But humans are forgetful.

There were no photos of Eren. He probably only continued to exist in history books, where he was demonized and vilified for decimating the world. By the time their fingers started to get all wrinkly from age, Mikasa and Armin probably forgot what Eren looked like. What he sounded like.

Time passes and humans forget. Statues crumble, buildings rot and fall apart. People forget figures that used to be significant. History books are changed. Even atrocities eventually become dulled in humanities collective memory. Bombs turn everything to dust. Humans are doomed to forget and repeat their mistakes again and again and again.. and I think that's the point.

Thoughts After The Boys 3.07

I want to see homelander lose his powers in the finale.

If it wasn't the kind of show where there's no way they don't bring homelander back s4, it would be great to see SB kill him in the finale, shocking everyone after that last phone call. "that's what a soldier does" mind games.

TBH I've been tired of homelander for some time. Only acceptable story line with him going forward: A powerless homelander has to find his way. He starts S4 depressed. He's let's his hair grow out brown. Who is he without his powers? Without his confidence?

Though they did really lower the stakes with the idea that you can just reshoot up with V and get them back. I have FEELINGS about the brevity in Kimiko's human!Cas storyline. That deserved more time.

And if he does take out homelander or his powers, SB might not even remember. Like momento - if it's real but he kills him, he's on an epic revenge quest and it turns out he had done it all along.

it'd still be better if it was all a con though, I'd laugh

hahahaha good thing they cut their sex scene.

Even if they do take out homelander, SB would still have that connection bc at some point he's going to realize homelander has a son.

I did expect them to subvert our expectations with Hughie in that scene. We believed Hughie completely when he told that man they could all go home after he cured butcher. I expected Hughie to go back on that and kill him or let SB kill him afterwards. To show how much he's changing, the effect of the drugs, the effect working with butcher and SB have had on him, a direct response to his experience with the priest and the nun. So much had happened that the viewer had kind of already forgotten this man had been the one to possess them. But they didn't go that way.

can we talk about how crazily devoted to his team joel "is eternally lonely in every life series" smallishbeans is to the bad boys?

screeching YOU CAN'T TAKE OUR GRIAN!!! and panicking the second anything happens to him? shoving people off bridges and threatening them after they try and attack jimmy? that incredibly smooth disarming of a tnt minecart and his absolute rabid kill on martyn after he stole grian? plus the way he was visibly restraining himself from killing people after getting turned back green was so funny.

he's absolutely batshit insane and devoted to a goal and it's so interesting to see that single-minded focus turned on protecting a group of people.