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skyeslittlecorner · 4 months

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can you post some photos on chapter five? ive been struggling to get to it and im impatient if ykwim 😭😭

Don't worry anon, I got you covered! Let's break this chapter for three parts - one for story and for one for both H-scenes. There are a lot of things to look forward to~

Warning: HEAVY SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT. In fact, I'll try to shorten the whole thing and focus on plot-relevant facts, so for those who want to go through chapter 5 on their own, come back when you're done! (Or just skip to h-scene, they are marked.)

Ch5 - STORY

First, I would like to warn that my opinion about it may be unpopular. As someone who hadn't paid much attention to Hades before, I fell in love with it after this episode. I adore ch5. A lot of people hate these boys to the core for what they did, and I understand and respect their opinion, but I'm with Hades here. I would love to analyze their behavior in more detail, but we don't have time for that today.

Summarizing this chapter is going to be hard because a lot of things happened. Let's go!

We start by going down a slide sponsored by Leviathan and his Lovecraftian friends (TM). But worry not! It seems we have friends even in the realm of death. Say hello to grandpa!

We talk a little, being in a questionable mood. Well, who wouldn't be? But we have the opportunity to know Solomon better, and I'm getting to understand why all devils love him. By the way, it turns out that we are his last descendant.

Sorry Solomon, you're still a peepaw.

He also advises us not to be afraid of Leviathan and not to be submissive to him, and then in a brilliant way he sends us back to the world of the living. Of course, our beautiful king is delighted.

We take Grandpa's advice to heart and finally stand up to Levi. He's surprised, but he doesn't try to kill us again (for now). We witness him hanging one of his subjects, who dared to ask about an accident from 311 years ago.

Fun fact. Devils must have much stronger spines. Do you know how people used to die by hanging? The first methods involved cutting off oxygen, but later they involved into breaking the cervical spine and this was considered a standard hanging execution. Leviathan must be gentle (how bad it sounds in this context), he could kill instantly with a loop like that.

Back to the point. We find out that we also have a noose around our neck, and Leviathan makes use of it. We're hanging, but we finally begin to meet Leviathan's nobles one by one.

Glasyal plots (and ends up hanging for it), Foras argues with him, along the way we learn that Leviathan needs us in his plan, and, you know, maybe killing us isn't the smartest thing he can do. Only Barbatos realizes that maybe it's a good idea to stop hanging us like wet laundry. He's the only one so openly nice to us.

Remember that.

Another fun fact, our MC is of medium height (~160 cm I guess). Leviathan is 187cm, Foras should be similar. I only noticed this because I myself am 180 cm so they are not so strappingly tall for me.

Foras wants to take us away from Levi and explain everything calmly, but the king does not agree. We learn that the guys know where the seed from the Tree of Knowledge is. We're supposed to go with them, and we have about a 50/50 chance of survival. Also, we have the opportunity to see a very rare phenomenon, a joking Leviathan.

Sweetie.

Colossally shortening the rest, the cavalry arrives! You didn't have to. I haven't had time to fuck them yet.

And this cavalry is very much at odds with the nobles of Hades. Most of the time is them arguing. Fortunately, they didn't kill each other…

...because Barbie decided to kill us.

Barbatos is poisoning us to force Bimet and Valefor to join the plan. While we are unconscious, we have flashes of Leviathan's past, which is too sad to analyze considering that we are about to jump to hot scenes now. Besides, most of us already know what this is about. Experience it for yourself. Really. We also learn that not only angels experimented on children, and a little about Mammon's childhood.

In the end, we learn that in Ch6 we must visit the abandoned laboratory in Tartaros, where the seed from the tree of knowledge should be, because as Solomon's descendants, we may be the only ones who will not be killed by it.

Ch5 - VALEFOR H-SCENE

(I really wanted to post CG from Valefor's scene here, but I don't know if Tumblr will block it.)

TIME FOR DESSERT!

Bimet is the first to realize that we lack devil energy. He wants to take care of it, but Valefor brushes him off, sends him to scout, and overall Bimet is our wingman, what a bro lol

Since we are away from Satan and Gehenna, we cannot summon Minhyeok's room. MC thinks she's outgrown it anyway. So we can count on the next scenes to be more and more creative.

It all starts with us telling Valefor that he reminds us of Mammon. And what a beast it brings out of him.

And he loves it.

...aaand then, someone wants to interrupt. Bimet informs us about this and goes to chase them out. Valefor stands with us at the door to see if anyone else is coming. Yes. Naked. With us. In us.

Fortunately, no one catches us and after the entire session we fall asleep in our knight's arms.

I really would like to do more screenshots, but tumblr is blocked… and there's one more part to come.

Ch5 - LEVIATHAN H-SCENE

At least you look beautiful and the platform won't block you.

And here's what I love the most. It was sick. I'd love to experience it again.

I would love to make a whole post ONLY about this and just leave the screenshots.

We are in Leviathan's office, and he interrogates us when we feel like we are lacking devil energy. We want to go to Bimet, but do you think our jealous king will allow it? Oh no no no. And of course, his hands land on our chin and then our neck. He doesn't like our hickeys.

We start asking him valid questions like "why are you jealous of us if you hate us?" So he silences us with a kiss. A deep, suffocating kiss. This is also how Leviathan discovers that we gain their energy through "intercourse with the devil".

And how can I not fall in love with this idiot.

The conversation that follows gives us some light on his approach to sex and to relationships in general. Which is… sad. It fits him perfectly, but it's sad. And I would also like to analyze this someday, this character is beautiful and how he's written is even more beautiful, especially from writer's point of view. He does not want the admiration of his people or the hatred of angels. The only thing he can believe and consider to be sincere is that someone's dislike. This is something that might actually turn him on.

At first he rules, he asks questions and he hangs us. And he does everything he can to piss us off. He hands us a whip and lowers us down.

Just disliking him isn't enough, and he works diligently to make us hate him. He insults Minhyeok, us, wishes us dead, and the more he sees our anger, the more he gets excited and talks more. He knows that we are connected to Satan and we will know how to release our anger. On him.

He finally got what he wanted. We straddle him and, with the help of Satan's strength, begin to strangle him. Neither you nor he are gentle.

Also, his words (unfortunately, I already have a limit on screenshots). "Do not bite your lips. Bite mine instead." I beg, let me violate him even more.

Compliment from Leviathan, nice. In the end, we fall asleep cuddled up to him, and he has no intention of giving us up to anyone. As in the case of Sitri, he only opens up to us when we are so unconscious that we do not see his softer side.

꧁:･ ✡ ･:꧂

AND THATS ALL! What a ride it was, I hope I was a good guide. One day I will go into the Hades boys in more depth, but for now, let this be a shortcut for everyone who is still struggling with ch5.

#whb #what in hell is bad #whb leviathan #whb foras #whb glasyalabolas #whb barbatos #whb bimet #whb valefor #whb spoiler

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my-deer-friend · 5 months

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I saw your kapelusznik post and i need to know what did you think of 1670??

Absolutely LOVE it.

I highly recommend everyone check out the first episode at least - even though it's in Polish and about Poland, it's very accessible and the humour carries through (source: my non-Polish husband losing his shit multiple times per episode).

It manages to find that incredibly rare balance of treating its source material with cleverness, understanding and respect without taking itself seriously as a hilarious slice-of-life mocumentary. It parodies historical and modern nonsense alike, with a distinctly Polish - or should I say Sarmatian - flair. The characters are solid archetypes brought to life with a real warmth and depth.

Sure, lots of it is purposefully anachronistic (and my only, extremely minor gripe is that I think they pushed Aniela just a little too far into modern wokeness), but there are some truly excellent details to delight history lovers and Poland enjoyers alike.

If you're on the fence, please check out the first episode!

#1670 #1670 netflix #there are SO many quotes i'm going to be repeating like an obnoxious stuck record #the whole 'bóg honor ojczyzna' part at the duel is one of the most Lines of all time #the liberum veto scene!!#maciej <333 my sad wet man

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welcometothejianghu · 24 days

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Welcome to another round of W2 Tells You What You Should See, where W2 (me) tries to sell you (you) on something you should be watching. Today's choice: 有翡/Legend of Fei.

Legend of Fei is a 2020 adaptation of priest's webnovel Bandits that tells the story of a competent yet sheltered young swordswoman, the terrible gremlin boy who decides they're married now, and their various friends as they venture into the jianghu to acquire the legendary MacGuffin that will do ... uh, something, probably.

This show is a delight. It is pure goofy, tender-hearted sincerity. It has so many precious baby angels with adorably pinchable cheeks performing so many fetch quests in so many styrofoam dungeons. It is funny on purpose and funny on accident. It is 51 episodes of rollicking, slapdash, green-screened adventure.

I am trying real hard here not to bite on @agendratum's wonderful rec post for the series, which includes the words "discount word of honor with teens," a phrase that lives rent-free in my head. Go look at their work for a more detailed character guide. What I have here are a mere five reasons above and beyond said post that you should watch this darling little show.

1. All the production values of a sixth-grade class play

This show flopped pretty hard, and I can understand why. It was a highly anticipated drama with two big-name headliners. Fans expected a lot from it! And what they got is something that looks and feels like a mid-budget syndicated UPN show from 1993, complete with how all the high-schoolers are played by actors in their thirties.

This show is comically janky and earnest. Stunt people fall down before they're hit. Breakaway furniture abounds. Actors bounce gently off "stone" walls. Damn near everything was filmed on sound stages with greenscreens. (Filming ran from September 2019-January 2020, stopped for pandemic reasons, and finished March-April 2020. While this certainly is not the only cause of the show's jankiness, it definitely contributed.)

This it not a show with no money; this is a show with an appropriate amount of money spent poorly.

The flow and pacing of the story are as smooth as a car crash. So many times, a scene with Characters A and B will be happening, the show will cut (sharply) away to a different storyline, and by the time it jumps back, Character A is in a completely different location and Character B has departed. When did that happen? Why did that happen? Where are we now? No time to ask questions! Establishing shots are for weenies! This director knows filmmakers who maintain narrative continuity, and they're all cowards.

Speaking of the narrative: I've seen Saturday morning cartoons from the '80s with more depth. I would be hard-pressed to explain what exactly is happening that's driving the plot. There's big business with a deposed emperor and a forever war happening on some distant front and disgruntled veterans of the army that's fighting it ... but, like, it doesn't matter? All those machinations are barely relevant to the plot at hand, which can be summed up thus: Bad Guys want Thing, Good Guys go on adventures to stop them from getting Thing.

And I am listing all this messiness as a selling point -- as the show's primary selling point, in fact -- because I think it's all charming as heck. This show is plain, unpretentious fun. It's a downright romp! It's got a very teenager's-eye-view of the inscrutable situation driving the whole plot, which does a good job of drawing attention to how maaaaybe this whole situation is bullshit and the grownups should stop killing themselves and other people because of it.

Here's a good metric: If the Ye Olde Haixing parts of Guardian warmed your heart, you are in exactly the right frame of mind for this.

There's no way to tell how much of this campy, underfunded aesthetic was intentional, and how much was the result of both poor budgeting and way too many cooks in the production and screenwriting kitchens. I'm not going to say this was a labor of love, because it was at best a labor of like. Everybody onscreen is giving it their all, but no one's giving the same all as anyone else. Go into it expecting that and nothing more, and you'll have a great time.

2. Punching the Bechdel Test into next week

Are you someone who loves c-dramas, except for the part where you're like, gee, I sure wish there were some girls in this? Oh, my friend, there are so many girls in this.

I actually kept being stunned while watching it by just how many girls are in it. Old girls! Young girls! Evil girls! Nice girls! Rich girls! Poor girls! Strong girls! Weak girls! Just a whole lot of girls!

Truly, it's not just how many female characters there are, but the sheer variety of them. The main octet includes an awkward tomboy who can kick your ass, a spunky brat who's not above crocodile tears to get what she wants, and a soft femme who's a brave little toaster despite having zero martial arts skills. The show absolutely loves them all and thinks they've all got important things to contribute, no matter how hard they can or can't punch.

And that's before we get into how many female side characters there are, both heroes and villains. I've seen that some people hate on these side characters. Those people are wrong.

Maybe the best part is how much they interact. There are many scenes with multiple female characters in them, sometimes with male characters too, and sometimes just the girls. Because this is a jianghu story with martial artists, several of the female characters have unique skills that they pass on to other, younger female characters. Women are often the honored masters of things who have competent all-ladies support staff. And there's no sense that they wash out after a certain age -- even the grannies can still school you as needs be.

...Of course, the sad thing is, I'm touting all this ladyfolk representation when maybe 20% of the total listed cast is female (doing quick math from the MyDramaList cast page). Pound for pound, the Untamed's listed cast has a (slightly) greater female:male ratio, and nobody would call that a girl-forward show. It just makes a difference when what female characters you have, you push toward the front of the narrative and give them reasons to have relationships with one another, instead of making them occasional props in the background while real (read: male) people get to be people.

The entire reason the Bechdel-Wallace Test exists is not to praise or condemn any individual piece of media, but to comment on larger trends in the depiction of women in fiction. It's not a problem when one thing doesn't pass the test; it's a problem when nothing passes the test, or when the things that do pass skate by on single moments and technicalities. The more things that fail its three criteria, the more that indicates the prevalence of an attitude that regards women only as accessories to men's stories.

Legend of Fei is aware that not only do women have inner lives, but they relate to one another in very specific, culturally informed ways. The female characters in this are not just male characters with incidental she/her pronouns. Zhou Fei not only gets to be the protagonist who goes on the whole hero's journey of growth and change, but along the way she also gets to have some complicated interactions with her own gender and how much expected modes of femininity do and don't suit her. But it's also not because she's Not Like The Other Girls! It doesn't make her better or worse to be that way. It just makes her more like her mom -- and if there's one thing I know that makes a teenage girl break out into a cold sweat, it's the idea that she's anything like her mom.

This little drama is hardly some revolutionary piece of thought-provoking feminist insight, or anything like that. It's just that if you're feeling the lack of ladies in your c-dramas and wish to see girls on film (as it were), Legend of Fei may be what you're looking for!

3. Chaotic bisexual (asexual?) extravaganza!

priest's work is queer as fuck, and while this story itself does not rise to the level of being textually gay, there's still a great big rainbow flag flying over the whole business. You can rest assured that when two dudes or two ladies are giving one another meaningful looks, it is not an accident. We all know who's writing this.

Do you like relationship charts? Because I've got a doozy for you:

How many of these are me making jokes? Way fewer than you think.

There are of course some actual canon couples in there, and the amount of real estate they take up in the narrative means your affection for them will make or break your affection for the show. Fortunately, all the teen pairings are super-cute!

Zhou Fei embodies the bisexual stereotype of liking all the ladies and maybe one dude. Xie Yun falls so hard and fast for this beautiful butch-by-local-standards that his head spins. Together, they are the romantic backbone of the story, and they are just a treat.

I've seen people say these two have no chemistry, and I think that's bullshit, but okay, let's assume that's your read on it. You can still understand why they like one another, beyond your standard, he's a boy, she's a girl, what more do you want? Zhou Fei likes Xie Yun because he's funny, emotionally available, and socially unacceptable. Xie Yun likes Zhou Fei because she's fierce on the outside and warm on the inside. Sure, they're in love, but what's more important is that they're good partners and great friends.

(I think it helps that even though the characters are supposed to be around the same age, Zhao Yiling is literally a decade older than Yibito is, and he clearly thinks even off-camera that she's dreamy.)

Also, it's great when he helps her sheathe her sword. This is a couple that's going to take about three whole minutes to figure out pegging.

Li Sheng and Wu Chuchu are the normie couple. He is big strong boy-man! She is small helpless lady-girl! ...Except no, this is yet another case of a wife guy who thinks his girlfriend's strengths are awesome; it's just that in this case, her strengths are her brains.

The fact that her attack and defense scores are nearly zero does not keep Chuchu from being the most competent person in any given room. She starts out as the girl who's important because she's got an important dad and an important key item, but she winds up being basically Jianghu GameFAQs. She never stops being soft and pink and feminine and tender, and she never learns to fight worth a damn, and none of that keeps her from being a vital (if unfortunately kidnappable) part of the team!

Meanwhile, Li Sheng is never really a male chauvinist, because he's grown up under his aunt, who kicks so much ass. But he is a bit of a cocky teen-boy turdface who needs to get knocked down a few pegs. It's great, then, that the show pairs him with the kind of helpless femme that he's supposed to want, then has him decide the fact that she's miles smarter than he is is the best.

And then there's these dipshits.

Normally in c-dramas, I'm used to triangles that are a strong canonical line between the main guy and his girlfriend, a strong but unacknowledged line between the main guy and his best friend, and maybe a faint dotty wisp between the girlfriend and best friend. Not so here! Ying Hecong, Li Yang, and Yang Jin (L-R above) are a damn near equilateral triangle. I mean, okay, technically they're set up as a more conventional love triangle, where both boys like the same girl, and she does sort-of choose one of them in the end. But in that arrangement, you'd expect the boys to become rivals -- and they never are. In fact, they become special allies who trust and take care of one another more than they do anyone else.

They're a great weird trio. Ying Hecong is a poorly socialized weirdo whose special interests are poisons and befriending snakes. Yang Jin is the chief of Doctor Village, a position that he got not by being a doctor, but by being a dumb jock who didn't realize fast enough why nobody else wanted the job. And Li Yang is the spoiled little sister of Li Shen and cousin of Zhou Fei, prone to getting what she wants by pitching a damn fit about it, who has decided that both of these boys are hers now and she can do whatever she wants with them.

(Li Yan is actually the most Actually A Teen of all the characters, and is the one who makes me wish so much that more of the cast had been played by actual age-appropriate actors. Some character traits are adorably tolerable when someone's twelve and verge on really fucking annoying by the time that same person is twenty-five.)

If you are into OT3s where two partners have to join in solidarity with one another so they can survive their third, you've found your pot of gold. Each one of them is enough of a catastrophe that they need two whole love interests to manage them. Between the three of them, they almost make one well-functioning human being.

Now: A thing to note about all these relationships, and one thing that may be surprising to you about something adapted from a priest novel, is that this show is negative horny. All of the romance is extremely chaste. At no point does any grownup worry that leaving these teens alone with one another will lead to some hanky-panky. Nobody ever volunteers to chaperone, or seems to need one. The adults aren't particularly horny about one another either! This is the kind of universe where people blush while tenderly embracing, then go to pick their baby up from the local cabbage patch.

Even my jokes about Zhou Fei's fuckable grandpa are just jokes, because nobody actually wants to fuck him. They all want to duel him, or to fuss over his health, or to follow him around and bask in his nobility. He has two kids, but we never meet their mom(s?). He deflects the obvious interest of multiple beautiful women with ease. He is the perfect man, both fuckable and unfuckable at once.

This may be what's having people read the main pair as having no chemistry. They have a lot of chemistry! It's just not a particularly sexual chemistry. It's extremely tender and playful, and there's plenty of physical intimacy. But it's not horny.

And that's not on the two actors. I've seen both of them look at someone else like they wanted to eat that boy alive. That was a choice this show made, to play all the romance about as spicy as when the puppets on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood hold hands. The only hints of horniness are in the fighting/injured bits, because sex is a big no-no, but nice polite violence is always okay! (Hey, uh, culture? We need to have a talk about this.)

4. The Grownups

As you may have gathered, most of this show is about the younguns. But a great deal of the supporting weight is carried by characters who are supposed to be of their parents' generation (even if most of their actors are only a decade or so older than the "teens").

I cannot fully in this post detail my great affection for every adult character; I wouldn't have room for anything else. So here's my top-three shortlist of the most memorable old folks.

If you like your ladies badass and crazy, Duan Jiuniang is here for you. Her grip on reality is ... well, it's complicated, but it doesn't stop her from being able to roast you from the inside out with her special skill. She's a terrible teacher and an even worse step-grandma who's made a lot of life choices that weren't what she wanted, but were what she needed to do to survive. I have no idea where she got those hideous leggings, but I kind of want a pair. She doesn't stick around past her one arc, so enjoy her while you've got her.

Speaking of crazy, the Phoenix, Mu Xiaoqiao, is a beautiful, tragic, genderqueer, completely insane middle-aged drama queen with a pipa to play and an ax to grind. I would watch an entire hundred-episode drama just about his campy antics. Hands-down my favorite character in the show. I'm not even going to say anything more. This bitch must be experienced. Love you, baby.

This fucking DILF. Holy shit. Shen Tianshu has a chocolatey voice and the world's most inconvenient prosthetic hand. At first his facial hair seems excessive, but then you see him without it in flashbacks and you're like, no! put it back! put it back! Frankly, I'm glad for the tufty brows, because this man does so much eyebrow acting, and you wouldn't want to miss a sinister moment of it.

And he's not the only one! Every single villain is running with full Bad Guy From A Power Rangers Episode vibes. No piece of scenery remains unchewed. They're what make this whole thing feel like you're watching a stage play. Every arched brow, every expansive hand gesture, every maniacal laugh, all of it plays to the nonexistent back row. (In fact, one of them -- Eyepatch Guy -- was so over the top that we had to look up his whole deal. Shockers, he's got an opera background.) If you have affection for the points I discussed in selling point #1, you will have love extra for the adult antagonists.

If you've ever watched a show made for a young audience starring young actors, you know exactly the grownup vibe I'm talking about. No, real adults don't act like this. But these are not real adults -- they are adults seen through the lens of a YA narrative, where everyone has big emotions and ultimately pretty simple motivations. Violence is acceptable but sex is not, and sexualized violence is especially not. You can threaten the kids but you (mostly) can't kill them. Parents should be removed from the main storyline, by death if necessary (offscreen preferred). By the end of the story, all adults must defer to the wisdom and battle strategies of the kids or be ready to be taken down by them. The lessons of age and experience are ultimately only useful once handed to the next generation.

Which is fine! ...provided it's the vibe you're expecting. I'd put this as another item in the list of probable reasons that this show did not go over as well as it should have.

5. We use every part of the Wang Yibo

Okay, so if you're like me, your introduction to this beautiful man was the Untamed, where 95% of his job is to keep every one of his facial muscles from doing anything -- and, if you're like me, you then watched some Untamed behind-the-scenes stuff and went, holy shit, this boy can make expressions?

This boy can make so many expressions.

I'm not going to argue that Wang Yibo was necessarily miscast as Lan Wangji, because that's not a fight I'm interested in having with internet strangers. I do, however, think it's undeniable that the Untamed misused him by all but ignoring his two primary skills: his giant goofy smile, and his being a dancer.

Legend of Fei makes use of both of these to great effect. Xie Yun is a gremlin who can't fight but can dodge. The show loves to leave the camera on him and let him spin and duck his way out of battles with his own mischievous grace. Wang Yibo does a remarkable amount of his own flipping and fighting, with and without wires. In a world of stunt doubles and smash cuts, it's a delight to watch.

My favorite thing about Xie Yun is that he likes that girl so much. He looks at her like she's the best thing in the world. He is her biggest hype man. He's all wife guy. Every time she's stronger and butcher and meaner than he is, he's pulling out his pompoms and cheering her on. He is in no way emasculated by the fact that she kicks so much more ass than he does. He is actually her wife, and he knows it. Kick their asses, baby, he'll be your flower.

Wang Yibo sells that devotion with each look in her direction. He brings every piece of his inherent chaotic good energy to the role. He's a comedic scamp right up to the point where he rips your heart out. If you are at all a Yibito fan, you owe it to yourself to get this show in front of your eyeballs so you can see what trouble that precious baby boy has gotten himself into this time.

Bonus: Do you like Word of Honor? Because this is how you get Word of Honor.

So I'm betting a lot of you did what I did, which was that you watched Word of Honor, and you loved it, so you went to read the book, and you were like, the fuck? Because Faraway Wanderers is also great, but uh, after a certain point, they're two very different stories.

While I cannot prove this, I would place a large amount of money on the screenwriter for Word of Honor's having been very aware of this production while doing the adaptation. See, in case you haven't read it, Faraway Wanderers itself barely spends a page of time with anything outside of what the main dads-and-kids quintet is doing, which makes for a fun danmei webnovel, but doesn't translate so well to live-action. I am almost certain that in the same way that they used frog DNA in Jurassic Park to fill in the gaps in the dinosaurs' code, this screenwriter (who is a priest fan) used Bandits/Legend of Fei to build out Faraway Wanderers' moments into a whole drama.

The timeline goes like this:

June 2010: priest publishes Qi Ye

October 2010: priest publishes Faraway Wanderers

November 2015: priest publishes Bandits

September 2019: Legend of Fei starts filming

June 2020: Word of Honor starts filming

December 2020: Legend of Fei airs

February 2021: Word of Honor airs

So yeah, it's not like the Word of Honor screenwriter could have watched Legend of Fei prior to penning the Word of Honor script. But there's too many similarities to be coincidence. To be clear, I'm not accusing the Word of Honor screenwriter of ripping off Legend of Fei. Watching it is more like seeing bits of Word of Honor's first draft. The Color of Ocean and Heaven and its five tokens become the World's Armory and the Glazed Armor. Wu Chuchu becomes Gao Xiaolian. Mu Xiaoqiao becomes the drama version of Xie Wang. All the nonsense with Yu Wenzhi and the Demons becomes all the nonsense with Zhao Jing and the Scorpions. Someone with more time than I have could probably make a thorough accounting of the number of times scenes with Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu visually parallel moments Xie Yun and Zhou Fei have, and how often those scenes were in bits not related to the original Faraway Wanderers plot.

And I think this is great. It's why, even though a lot of Word of Honor was not in priest's original text, Word of Honor is still very priest-flavored. Frog DNA, you know?

All of which is to say: If you love Word of Honor, you owe it to yourself to watch Legend of Fei. It's much sillier and straighter, and it's way less sexually charged, but it's got a very similar vibe, and it's fascinating to see what the two have in common. Think of them as two distant cousins, where you're like, sure, I can definitely see how you're related, but ... huh.

Ready to embark on your journey?

So many options! It's on iQiyi (VIP), Viki, and YouTube.

We watched it on iQiyi, and the subtitles were ... well, they made some interesting choices. You could always tell what they meant, but the actual phrasing was often wonky. Occasionally, where you'd expect a "Dammit!" or "Crap!" these subtitles would have someone exclaim, "Screwed!" And we never stopped laughing about the poor villain whose name those subs rendered as "Pathetic Clam." I cannot tell you if the other subtitles are any more polished, but I can promise that the awkward translations just added to the charm.

Do I have a soft spot for well-meaning television that does not have the means to achieve its goals but tries anyway? You better believe it.

Just a pile of precious cutie pies.

#legend of fei #有翡 #rec post #i made this

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raygirlramblings · 7 months

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What do you think about the Captain Laserhawk series? If you watched it yet, at least.

’If I watched it’ XD

Oh rest assured I watched it. ❤️

Overall I really liked it. The animation was SWEET HONEY GOODNESS. Bobbypills pulled out the stops and it SHOWED. I loved all the style changes, I love the pixel art, I even enjoyed the VR stuff because it was unique and weird.

The voice acting was also TRES BON. Special round of applause for Rayman’s English VA because by god he had a job and a half and he NAILED IT. Also loved Marcus’s voice, and Bullfrog of course 💚 just a lot of very high quality work went into this and the voice acting was pretty much spot on from the first episode.

I will say the series felt rushed. I know it’s only 6 episodes but with the time they had there could have been some edits and cuts to keep things snappy while also freeing up time to spend with the main 4 (and the Warden) to cement their relationship.

Believe me I was happy to see so much Rayman but his story wasn’t the main focus and should never have been. We needed more time with Jade and Pey’j. If the Warden has this deep emotional story behind her that we’re supposed to buy into we need more time with her. Sarah and Dolph having a backstory chat in VR was too little too late.

But I will forgive a lot for some stuff they did so right:

Alex is such a dick and he was so much fun to watch. His and Dolph’s relationship was fascinating, and it was so cute watching them in the first episode being a couple and it felt so NATURAL.

RED IS A MASSIVE DOUCHE FUCK HIM XD But god was it fun to have such an open bigot be an antagonist.

All the weird propaganda Eden was using Rayman for. The Rayman Kids stuff was especially grim. I want a ‘I’m a Rayman Kid’ badge SO BAD YOU GUYS.

Bullfrog was such a charming boy. I loved every moment he was on screen. It clear he was the fave character of the team. I loved his relationship with Pey’j, and I hope (if s2 is a thing) that he gets to partner up with Rayman because THAT WOULD BE GLORIOUS

RAYMAN USES HIS LIMBLESSNESS AS A TACTIC. I lost my marbles when he raises his hands and one of them is missing. YES. BOBBYPILLS NAILED IT.

All the little pixel animations were just so joyous and delightful. Perfect.

All the alternative styles for the cut-aways. For the Rayman TV spots, and the VR episode looking like a Phantasmagoria let’s play, the crazy taxi/Driver mini game, just so well observed and suitable for the time. A++++

So yeah, I give the show my thumbs up. It’s obviously not for everyone and it is QUITE THE INTENSE RIDE AND NOT APPROPRIATE FOR KIDS, but I would recommend it as a quality animated work. I hope the people sharing that handful of weird Rayman screenshots on Twitter and going ‘WTF?!?!’ Actually give the series a chance.

Obviously I can discuss every tiny detail from every episode but that would take waaaaaay too long 😩. But thank you so much for asking!

#captain laserhawk #Raygirl’s ramblings #long post #Captain Laserhawk spoilers

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ctrl-alt-em · 8 months

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I have a lot of Thoughts about Delacy.

On detail that stood out to me was that Delacy doesn’t have a proper holster for his gun Rooster. This whole time I pictured him having a simple but nice holster that stood out from the straw hat and worn overalls, something that showed he spent what little money he had on his gun or that he got it someone in his home life like his father. But no, it’s homemade from scrapes of leather. Delacy left home with only the clothes on his back, his gun, three crumbled dollars, and a holster he made himself and then got on a train for the first time in his life while not even knowing if he needed a ticket to ride. Delacy ran away.

And after it all and he got his $2000, his home life and parents weren’t something he was in a rush to get back to. The idea of the group going their separate ways was upsetting to him. While he would like his parents to know if he died, he didn’t leave home with the intention of earning money to provide for his family and then returning home. (I would like to note, despite having parents, Delacy doesn’t use a last name. He’s only ever just Delacy, whereas all the other members of the posse have full names.)

While he doesn’t want to go home to his biological family, Delacy still wants a family and to be cared for. He found that with the posse. In the first episode, Delacy intimidated the saloon owner into giving him a bottle of whiskey, which he then found out tasted awful. In multiple instances after that, he requested whiskey or implied he drank it. But when the group was at the saloon after the bounties were done, he doesn’t force himself to drink whiskey because he thinks it’s gross and feels like he can acknowledge it aloud. During their adventure at the World’s Fair, Delacy felt safe enough to act his age with Edie. He’s excited to meet his hero. He takes Edie’s word seriously at the hall of oddities and assumes she has all the answers. It didn’t occur to him that she might not have all the answers to his questions. In their forced duel, trigger-happy Delacy refused to harm Nate and instead of pulling his gun, he sat down like a kid. He trust that the real Nate wouldn’t hurt him and they’d only known each for, what? A week? At Dead Man’s Worth, Garnet didn’t think Delacy was the kid of kid you could hug, but after the duel Nate picks him up into a hug. When Delacy first met the others, he’s putting on a forced act, pretending to be what he thinks an adult is (or acting how an adult in his life actually is, a heavy drinker that solves problems with aggression perhaps), but by the end, he feels safe enough around them and shows much more of his true personality and age.

While he is a bit of a cold killer and hasn’t fully developed an understanding of death yet, he still believes in honesty (see threatening a sideshow barker about the hand), justice in a way (people shouldn’t be lied to in any way and the hand should be buried with its proper owner) and is rather genuine when he feels like he can be. He was starstruck meeting Billy Joe and delighted to just catch a glimpse of Buckthorn the horse. He likes cotton candy and a gun tricks. He liked that Billy Joe liked cotton candy too (at least as far as he overheard). He didn’t even hesitate signing a contract when Billie Joe asked and only changed his mind when Edie reminded him of Nate. He takes what everyone he trusts says at face value (to the point of being ready to shoot someone due to a metaphor).

Delacy is young, naive, a bit dense, and ready to shoot, but he is, at his core, a good kid who just needed adults in his life that will encourage him to find less violent solutions and to act on his kindness in productive ways. Garnet and Nate have helped him learning more about interacting with people. Edie acknowledges his young age but still takes him seriously and trusts him and in the end, she offers him a way to use his shooting skills to help people. She takes him as her monster-hunting apprentice. Even Silas, who barely interacted with Delacy, grew to like the kid enough he would acknowledge Humble Ned (a devious, spindly legged beast, no matter how humble he is) as good people for Delacy’s sake.

Delacy might have left the farm with the help-wanted ad seeking adventure and fortune, but I think he found something he needed a lot more.

#I intended to just make a short post about Delacy and is homemade slapped together holster #and it turned into this #I love my son Delacy #I have thoughts on that boy #this doesn’t even cover my thoughts and Delacy and Conquest #who do I have to kill to get a season 2 of deadlands #oxventure deadlands #the four adults went looking for fortune and adventure #and found themselves a little brother/nephew/grandson #delacy oxventure #edie valentine #garnet monroe #nathaniel jansen #silas flint #oxventure #wildcards posse

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dustteller · 6 months

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I just finished watching all the available episodes of The Apothecary Diaries, and I have to say that it surprised me!

The premise of an apothecary working for the emperor's consorts and solving medical mysteries is already a gun one, but the execution really elevated the concept past entertaining romcom to genuinely fantastic storytelling. It's not revolutionary, but it's certainly deeply endearing, and I really enjoyed how it found a balance between lighthearted comedy and acknowledging the awful aspects of sex work and being a woman/lower class in a world where neither are valued. It doesn't explore the darker side in detail, at least not so far, but it still does a fantastic job in making the horrible parts feel like a real part of the setting while still making the choice to focus on the women's joy even when faced with hard situations. I guess I just appreciate these things being openly discussed without immediately having it be a psychological story about dealing with trauma?

The characters are also soo good, and while most lack depth (its been nine episodes, so for a cast this big, that can be excused), usually their schtick is strong enough that it can easily carry their appearances. You also get the sense that while a lot of these characters do fill out comedic roles/archetypes, there's a lot more going on beneath the surface. Their schtick is fun, but its not all they have, its just there to help the audience familiarize themselves and bond with the charcaters while their entire personality is unearthed. The entire cast is genuinely absolutely delightful and reasonable and feel incredibly real while also being really funny.

The romance portion is also really really fantastic. Both Maomao and Jinshi are hilarious little freaks, and their dynamic is so fun to watch. Maomao is such a good take on the cold, blunt, genius character, who is socially challenged but very far from frigid. She's practical and logical while also keeping a very strong emotional core founded in empathy and genuine care for the people around her. Her obsession with poison is also pulling triple duty, as it 1) serves to break her cold facade and provides comic relief in the form of an ongoing gag, 2) gives the reader a strong understanding of her guiding motives/desires, and 3)gives her role as a medical investigator narrative justification. Of course she'd know what was used to poison someone, that's her whole thing! Jinshi himself is a counterpart to Maomao's colder tendencies, being very clingy and emotional. This show is not afraid of making him a pathetic little obsessed man, and it's all the better for him. Unlike other possesive and obsessed male leads, Jinshi manages to mostly stay away from the creep factor by being so uttely pathetic and cringe that he never really comes across as an actual threat. Couple that with him actually being very respectful of Maomao, only engaging in light flirting, and how he never actually wants to change her (most rapey MLs try to break the FL out of their feisty charcater or demean her for it while showing her how they're more powerful), and Jinshi makes for a very good love interest that also feels like a very safe comfortable person, which I feel matches the tone of the show very well. He's also as much of a freak as Maomao ("she wants to crush me like a bug <3333🥰🥰🥰), so they're very well matched there, too. He's such a petty loser, and that makes him a stronger character.

The story seems to be ramping up, and while I don't think it'll ever lose the lighthearted tone, I'm excited about how it already seems to promise a more in-depth exploration of the world it's set up the scaffolding for. For what it's worth, I also think the show has done a very good job at making the world feel expansive and mysterious, while also balancing that wholesomeness, which for a show centered around sex workers is quite the feat.

Anyways, long story short, I think the nine episodes that are out so far are really great, and the story thrives through how utterly endering it is. I am charmed by the world and the characters and what the plot has promised us, and while I don't expect it to revolutionize anime or whatever, it's still a masterclass in narrative shorthand and the act of balancing its heavy themes, especially when it comes to the characters themselves. There's so many of them that are so fun and memorable that I didn't mention, but who absolutely deserve their own posts, and that's only nine episoded into a comedy show, which I think goes to show how strong of a start this series has. Overall, I'd rate the show so far an 8/10, and I'm really excited to see what will come from the next 15 episodes.

#my thoughts #the apothecary diaries #maomao #jinshi

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intuitive-revelations · 6 months

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One major implication I don't think that episode really took the time to settle on is the implication that the Toymaker has already massively messed up the universe?

Toymaker: I came to this universe with such delight. And I played them all, Doctor. I toyed with supernovas, turned galaxies into spin tops. I gambled with God and made him a jack-in-the-box. Toymaker: I made a jigsaw out of your history... did you like it? Toymaker: The Master was dying and begged for his life with one final game, and when he lost, I sealed him for all eternity within my gold tooth.

And later:

Toymaker: Do you think a grand total of two can cause me to shiver when I've played against the Guardians of Time and Space and shrank them into voodoo dolls?

So to summarise:

It's implied the universe is now even more destroyed by the Toymaker's reality warping. Granted we don't know what the scale of this is, unlike the Flux, but it's possibly proportionally quite big considering how little of the universe is left already? That being said, he could have done this in history before the Flux, since it was a linear event, in which case this is far less of an issue.

That being said, it's likely this was reversed by the Toymaker being banished - so we're probably not going to see galaxy-sized spin-tops in the future. How many people died, and if they come back however, is less clear.

The Master (presumably dying after POTD), and the Black and White Guardians (at least - possibly the other 3 guardians too, excluding the Toymaker - though they're the main ones, and it's "order and chaos" specifically which are mentioned in the episode) have all gamed with the Toymaker and lost. The tooth!Master is at least left in our universe, and may possibly be secure with UNIT. The fate of the Guardians is a bit less clear, as is the implications for the balance of the universe.

But perhaps the biggest thing, and the one the episode actually took the time to give us a confused 14 reaction shot to:

The Toymaker has a made a 'jigsaw' out of the Doctor's history (or maybe history in general, although he does say 'your').

So what does that mean?

The hint is that the Doctor has already experienced whatever it is... so what was it that he caused with his interference?

To me there's perhaps three possible options:

The Star Beast - this would be an oddly minor thing to refer to, but arguably makes the most sense in the 'arc' of the specials. Perhaps he's referring to the Doctor encountering Beep the Meep for the first time again? ie. taken one jigsaw piece and exchanged its position in his timeline. For now this might be my headcanon regarding it, but would be really odd to be the intention, especially since we're already disregarding most of the other appearances of the Toymaker in the EU? It's also of course not the first time we've had an adaptation of an EU story in the main show without referencing the original (the no. 1 example being Human Nature - there are others like The Lodger and Dalek, but they're different enough that they can co-exist in a continuity with their source material).

The Timeless Child / Fugitive Doctor - RTD has said he's not going retcon the arc, but this arguably makes the most sense as a 'puzzle' being made out of the Doctor's history? Especially with regards to the Fugitive Doctor anyway, given there's the additional complications of her a) being the "Doctor", b) having a Police Box TARDIS, yet c) seemingly being from around the time of the Anchoring of the Thread.

The Toymaker's being time-wimey, it hasn't happened yet / it's nothing in particular - While it would be a bit confusing to contradict the one detail we got in the episode, this is always a possibility too. After all, there was a lot of sequel hooking all across these specials, so it might be something RTD will come back to, especially if we are going to be seeing more of the past Doctors in future series? Hopefully not by the biregeneration theory he gave about them all being split retroactively, because that is literally insane and doesn't even make the little sense the 14-15 one does....wtf.

So overall, what do I think?

Well I think I can be somewhat forgiving with the damage to the rest of the universe, just because it's implied that it might be reset, and the scale/lethality was never established. Plus like I said, there is some justification to the proportional issue not being too bad when combined with the Flux.

The Black and White Guardians implication is... interesting. We are gradually building up more and more of those 'Great Old One' / pre-universe elements in (New)NewWho, so there's a good chance this could come back in the future. It probably won't have immediate effects on the universe, as the Guardians seemed to be more concerned with specific dangers like the Key to Time. It could perhaps lead to more Eternals popping up across the universe, given the Guardians were the only force they really answered to. RTD I think is also quite aware of some of the Eternal-type lore too, since he played around with it quite a bit in those Series 1 articles talking about the Time War.

The Master's obviously coming back and as silly as this was, it does at least justify him being alive after POTD. It actually opens up the possibility of seeing Dhawan himself again too, which would be great! The nail-polished hand picking it up felt like a bit of a trolling moment, after how underwelming all the theories of who did it were when the End of Time came along. Someone pointed out that Kate actually has the same nail-polish, which would be interesting. Perhaps when we next see the Master, they'll be in UNIT captivity, Delgado style?

Finally, the jigsaw line, which is possibly the most interesting. Originally I was going to lean towards this being nothing / a vague setup for future past-Doctor stuff, since that seems to be the default, but now that I've laid it out... I think this could be a setup for more Fugitive!Doctor appearances. It makes the most sense from a story perspective anyway, given what the Toymaker said and some of the questions surrounding her not being answered, whether or not it's the direction the franchise would actually want to go.

After all, as controversial as the Timeless Child lore was, as far as I'm aware Jo Martin was pretty well recieved, and I'm sure RTD would love to look for opportunities to do more with her somehow. Whether he'd want something so continuity dependent from a showrunning perspective, however, is a bit more questionable.

#Doctor Who #The Giggle #The Toymaker #The Timeless Child #Martin!Doctor #Fugitive Doctor #The Master #Dhawan!Master #DW Meta #DW Spoilers #Doctor Who Spoilers #again I think this does kinda reinforce my complaint that we didn't get enough of the Toymaker messing with the outside universe #cause this was largely told not shown #can you imagine if we got scenes of him warping space #destroying galaxies #galactus style etc.?#maybe even a Dhawan cameo of him losing to the Toymaker?

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best-underrated-anime · 10 days

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Best Underrated Anime Group C Round 4: Wasteful Days of High School Girls vs Kiznaiver

#C7: Wasteful Days of High School Girls (Joshikousei no Mudazukai)

Comedy with high school girls with unique personalities

#C5: Kiznaiver

A bunch of teenagers are forced to share pain

Details and poll under the cut!

#C7: Wasteful Days of High School Girls (Joshikousei no Mudazukai)

youtube

Summary:

As she heads off to her entrance ceremony at Sainotama Girls' High School, Akane Kikuchi muses over her grade school dream of becoming a manga artist and the lack of progress that she has made. When she finally arrives at school, she is surprised to learn that she is once again in the same class as her two best friends: the deadpan and emotionless Shiori Saginomiya and the hyperactive and ridiculous Nozomu Tanaka. Tanaka then comes to the obvious realization that she can't achieve her grade school dream of being popular with the boys and getting a boyfriend by going to an all-girls high school.

In desperation, she begins asking the girls in her class to introduce her to their guy friends. Her classmates, however, are anything but ordinary. From a grandmother-loving loli to a reclusive chuunibyou to an overly analytical stalker, each one is given a fitting nickname by Tanaka to accentuate their weirdness. And so begin the wasteful days of these high school girls, each day kicked off with a simple question: "Hey, wanna hear something amazing?"

Propaganda:

Wasteful Days of High School Girls is fast-paced and genre-savvy, subverting a lot of high school anime tropes in ways that are really delightful even if you yourself aren't that familiar with high school animes. But most of all it is cool in a way that only awkward, weird, realistic teenagers can be. It probably won't make you long for your own high school days (if they are in the past), but that is a good thing, because sometimes only a good comedy can really lay bare what life is really like when you're a teenager.

The thing that makes this show so amazing is the characters. These are anime characters with some real Character with a capital C. Everyone is such a real and unique human personality; not just the main trio but all their classmates too AND the teacher and even the nurse that only appears in like one episode!

This is a show with the lowest of stakes and it still manages to feel like something incredibly significant has happened when you get to the end of it. And something incredibly significant has happened! Life happened! An entire year of it!

Trigger Warnings: [Not Stated]

#C5: Kiznaiver

youtube

Summary:

Katsuhira Agata is a quiet and reserved teenage boy whose sense of pain has all but vanished. His friend, Chidori Takashiro, can only faintly remember the days before Katsuhira had undergone this profound change. Now, his muffled and complacent demeanor make Katsuhira a constant target for bullies, who exploit him for egregious sums of money. But their fists only just manage to make him blink, as even emotions are far from his grasp.

However, one day Katsuhira, Chidori, and four other teenagers are abducted and forced to join the Kizuna System as official "Kiznaivers." Those taking part are connected through pain: if one member is injured, the others will feel an equal amount of agony. These individuals must become the lab rats and scapegoats of an incomplete system designed with world peace in mind. With their fates literally intertwined, the Kiznaivers must expose their true selves to each other, or risk failing much more than just the Kizuna System.

Propaganda:

Kiznaiver is an extremely underrated work of Studio Trigger’s and is definitely one of their bests. Not just for the animation, but for the impactful story as well. The characters just feel so real, and this show just makes you think about human connection and how much we might care for each other if we shared our pain. Although it can get a little confusing at the end, the sheer raw emotion is what makes up for everything. Every single one of the characters gets developed in ways that made me smile like an idiot.

Very good but severely underrated anime! Would recommend! :)

Trigger Warnings: Emotional Abuse, Fatphobia, Disordered Eating, Implied Sexual Assault (maybe).

The fact that Yuuta is formerly fat is constantly mocked throughout the series, which leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth as a fat person watching the show personally. Yuuta, to maintain his thinness, engages in disordered eating by simply eating a small cube of food every day. Said character is also the subject of an attempted sexual assault by a female character, but I don’t remember correctly if that actually happened or if I just got triggered by the way the scene was portrayed.

When reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.

If you want to criticize one of the shows above to give the one you’re rooting for an advantage, then do so constructively. I do not tolerate groundless hate or slander on this blog. If I catch you doing such a thing in the notes, be it in the tags or reblogs, I will block you.

Know one of the shows above and not satisfied with how it’s presented in this tournament? Just fill up this form with your revisions, and I’ll consider adapting those changes.

New: Starting round 5, screenshots will be included in the poll post. You can submit screenshots through the form linked above, or through here, via ask or dm.

Guidelines in submitting screenshots:

No NSFW or spoilery images.

Pick some good images please. Don’t send any blurry or pixelated ones.

You may send up to 9 screenshots, but not all may be used.

#anime #best underrated anime #polls #poll tournament #tournament #anime tournament #animation #group stage #group stage round 4 #tournament polls #wasteful days of high school girls #joshikousei no mudazukai #kiznaiver #kiznaiver anime #group c

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saltygilmores · 6 months

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THOUGHTS WHILE WATCHING GILMORE GIRLS: SEASON 3, EPISODE 3-“Application Anxiety" (Part 2)

bint. / (bɪnt) / noun. offensive, slang a derogatory term for girl, woman.

According to Mr. College Admissions Dork, the following fatal errors will guarantee your REJECTION! From Harvard. Bad handwriting (how quaint) Your chosen after school activities are considered boring to Mr.Dork. You don't have enough after school activities. Not enough means you're not trying hard enough. You take too many after school activities. Too many means you're trying too hard. As per Mr. Dork, nobody is interested in everything, and if you like too many things you will be !REJECTED! You submitted your application too early. You are a hopeless idiot if you believed the myth of "Early Admission". Ha ha! Dumb idiot kids! You're too intense. Hyper intense students will FAIL their admission interview! Mr. Dork along with his cohort, Mrs Dork, the delightful rays of sunshine they are, seem to find great joy in publicly dragging their own future students, mocking children who dare to dream of Ivy League admission and cover their walls in university paraphernalia, calling them "hungry and immature". These people are assholes. I think Season 1 Spitfire Rory would have pushed these admission dorks right off the stage. QUIPPY! Rory is wetting her pants and Paris is twitching. Let's flash back to early season 2, where Rory was contemplating some potential after school activities. *sparkly flashback music*

The extra cirricular/summer school options visible behind Rory were: Junior life saving, rock climbing, botany, contemporary art, hiking, loom weaving, local geology, role playing (????), field hockey, and Shakespeare. Harvard will be jumping to accept the applicant with a strong Role Playing/Loom Weaving background. I guess the Asshole is technically not wrong that the school newspaper seems passe* with those options available.

The Dot-Com Bust. How quaint. I'm old enough to remember hearing about it at the time (I was still a teenager) but thanks to GG I decided to do a little research on the topic and learned more about it. Thanks Emily!

The notion that college=guaranteed success? How quaint. And Rory majoring in journalism is the cherry on top of the Quaint Jello. It's okay, she couldn't know. The brutal and hilarious truth is that Jess (who didn't finish high school but is already a published author and running his own business by 21) and Dean (who ended up working in construction, which tends to pay very well) were more succesful than Rory with her Yale education in the end. In fact, Rory had the nerve to needle Dean in S4 about his construction job when she has an Ivy League education but won't even take a job waiting tables. Hell, it's even implied that Luke is sitting on a lot of money and he didn't go to college (although maybe not the best example, as that might have been an inheritance, I can't remember if it was ever discussed in detail). Hell, pretty much everyone in Stars Hollow didn't go to college and they seem very happy with their little working class lives. And if Jess didn't dismember Shane and dump her body in the lake she'd have made a good living as a hairstylist or makeup artist. In a later episode this season, Lorelai turns up her nose at the thought of Rory not going to the most elite college and implies that beauty school and community college are beneath Rory. But lemme save that special rant for when that episode comes along. However, in a few moments, Lorelai does tell Rory, "You HAVE to go to college." I get it, okay. I get what she's doing. She wants Rory to reach for the stars and do better in life than she did, get a good education etc etc. But this notion that attendance at an elite college as the only possible means to achieve success and anything less is just short of failure feels short sighted. Emily continues: the competition is fierce for admission, every student takes honors classes and works on the student council, a high GPA is not enough anymore, Rory needs to do something to stand out, extra cirriculars, etc, etc, we know, we know. Emily: Now even celebrities are going to college. I was watching that insipid Kate Hudson and even she talked about going to college. She's going to get in over Rory! Kate Hudson must have been a big deal in the early 2000s (I vaguely remember it) because they reference her a lot. Almost Famous came out in 2000 and How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days came out in 2003 and she made 11 movies total between 2000-2004. So that tracks. Back on her home planet, AmyShermanPalladino must have picked up an Earth People magazine and read about how Kate Hudson was popular with Earthlings. Really funny that Emily is more aware of current pop culture than any character under 35. Lorelai's still over here spouting references to Yo Yo and Dingus from 1973 or whatever. Lorelai: Don't worry about it Mom, Rory's special, she'll get in to Harvard. Emily: Of course Rory's special. She knows that, I know that, you know that, we all know that. Years of that "Rory's a special snowflake who can do no wrong" talk is definitely not going to have adult Rory up to her eyeballs in therapy bills. Rory shows up at Emily's and Lorelai, Rory, and Paris (on the phone) proceed to have a three way simultaneous Nuclear Panic Attack over the Harvard applications. The next morning at the Gilmore abode, Lane is visting and fielding phone calls about her rock band personal ad. Still no Rygalski.

If that's what you want.

A SMALL CHILD IN STARS HOLLOW! HOW DID IT BREACH CONTAINMENT!

This dapper gentleman addresses Luke as "Sir" , orders an "Egg cream" and offers to pay for his meal (so he's definitely an outsider). Another child and then a manchild (Kirk) followup with requests for other malt-shop items that nobody has ever ordered outside of a 1950's Archie comic. ,... Waaaaait a minuuuute. I know what's happening. These children are Taylor's operatives sent to scope out Luke's Diner. The "Taylor Opens an Ice Cream Parlor Next Door" plot will soon have liftoff.

Between telling a small child to go to hell and insulting Dean to his face for no other reason than he felt like it, I could not love Luke more in this episode.

Things googled while watching gilmore girls: *Passe (I definitely think I used this word incorrectly). Bint Common extra cirricular activities Dot com bubble burst Kate Hudson IMDB How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days Almost Famous

#gilmore girls #denise rewatches gilmore girls #application anxiety #gilmore girls season 3 #luke danes #rory gilmore #lorelai gilmore #paris geller #PariMore

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bakerstreetbabble · 3 years

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Granada TV Series Review: "The Copper Beeches" (S02, E01)

Season 2 of Granada's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes starts with a gripping, dramatic episode, complete with a creepy "bad guy" (played to great effect by British actor Joss Ackland), a winsome heroine (the late Natasha Richardson playing Violet Hunter), and a bloodthirsty hound (not that hound, mind you). Honestly, re-reading "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches" just now, I felt like the Granada series took a fairly average story and made it into something much more exciting. Overall, they were very faithful to the source material, but they managed to rearrange a few plot points and use a fine cast to elevate the adaptation beyond its original form.

For one thing, Joss Ackland is extremely creepy as Mr. Rucastle. Sure, he's jovial enough most of the time, but Ackland is a talented enough actor to make every line seem sinister. From the very first time we meet him, we feel as if things just aren't quite right with this "generous" employer. Meanwhile, Natasha Richardson as Violet Hunter gave the role the right balance between a young lady who's getting more and more frightened and the kind of ingenuity that obviously wins the great detective's respect.

Jeremy Brett and David Burke are excellent, as usual, and there's a particularly delightful sequence at the opening of the episode where we are treated to one of Holmes's rants about how Watson has injected too much romance into the stories that Holmes thinks should be cold, logical case studies. We also are treated to a classic Holmes line, as the detective and his sidekick take the train to meet up with Miss Hunter: “Data! data! data! I can’t make bricks without clay.” (This line, which happens back at the flat at 221B Baker Street in the story, is moved a bit later in the TV episode, which I think works quite well.)

I should also mention the little detail of the slight change of setting of Mr. Rucastle's daughter's prison: in the original story, it is merely a mysterious, shuttered wing of the Copper Beeches estate. In the adaptation, however, it has been transformed into a mysterious "turret," which I think works a bit better. That's what I enjoyed about this episode: the writers, while staying quite faithful to the original story, made minor tweaks to the plot, which ended up giving the story a lot more drama and forward momentum.

This was really a top-notch episode to begin the second season of the successful series. Before I wrap up the review, I should probably mention the entertaining final scene, in which Watson is clearly reading his most recent write-up of the events at the Copper Beeches, with no little delight at the effect his "romantic" storytelling has on his friend. By this point in the series, one can easily tell how comfortable David Burke and Jeremy Brett were becoming in their own roles, as well as in the camaraderie shared by the two friends. It really was a very fine episode to begin the second season!

youtube

#jeremy brett #granada holmes #The Copper Beeches #Youtube

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ladyjanesta · 8 months

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Hannibal Season 4

I have a very specific way I want it shot. Nothing like Silence of the Lambs, they're out in the world let's have fun with it.

I want it to cut between the FBI team who have been tasked to hunt them down and them just navigating a new relationship when they have history and just two long time bachelors learning to live with one another (Will's three year marriage notwithstanding as there's no way he was 'himself' whilst with her) whilst also in hiding from the FBI.

Hannibal can't have a pretentious speech ready at all times, especially about basic, tedious day to day life like, you know Hannibal has to buy a shit ton of lint rollers because of Will's dog habit.

Will being sent out to buy a certain ingredient from the market and just slightly getting it wrong, not wrong enough for it to be a problem but Hannibal was very specific in what he wanted, Will not really seeing the problem and Hannibal having to choose to make it an issue or to just let it go.

Just, the little readjustments when sharing your space with another person as an adult.

Does Hannibal snore? Does Hannibal snore loud enough that it keeps Will from sleeping? Does Hannibal occasionally wake up to Will standing over him white knuckling a pillow?

I think it's a huge thing for Hannibal because anyone invited into his space has always been on his terms, plus he's always presented a palatable version of himself in order to escape any negative/suspicious attention. And now he's sharing everything about his life with someone he cannot lie to and can seen who he is down to the bone. That's got to be a hell of an adjustment: being naked after nearly forty years wearing a 'person suit'.

I want to make it known that the FBI parts are shot like a normal, traditional procedural show, complete with tedious aspects like paper work and wrong leads and lots of speculation (Jack is a bit character in this (retired or just dipping out), he pops in and gives his impressions with make sense to us the viewers but is batshit insane when explaining to another person). Lots of beige and petty office politics.

This team is not the all star team, the Murder Husband case is quickly fading from public interest but the FBI has to show they're still trying to catch these two. The Murder Husband Basement is the naughty corner for agents who screw up with their bosses or in the field.

The murder husband side is filmed like The Santa Clarita Diet/Pushing Daisies, shot with a light palette with deep dark macabre overtones. Hannibal just having fun with the fake passport names and Will visibly gathering strength as he introduces himself as Mr Achilles Alphonso Papadopoulos, and his husband Mr Patroclus Papadopoulos. Will catches himself making a cannibal pun and wants to throw himself into traffic but Hannibal is delighted with Will's progress.

Will always gets a middle name. It's a little something just for Hannibal.

I have day dreamed whole episodes about this.

The FBI team go to a crime scene where the Murder Husbands are the main suspects and it's super serious, a monstrous tableau which haunts the team (there's little mini scenes where the team are talking to a (normal) psychiatrist about it and we (the audience) learn just horrific details about the murders/victims) and it cuts to Will and Hannibal arguing over the crime in progress in their murder suits, on how to place the ribcage just so. Is the underlaying theme too pretentious?

Hannibal getting Will's attention in order to wave at him with a severed arm. Will getting Hannibal's attention and pointing at a hideous couch and asking, 'don't you have a suit like that?'

Just two dudes having fun.

Scenes from an opulent dinner party with the camera panning on the certainly human meat plated with such care and attention, cutting to the limp, sad gas station doughnuts that the FBI team have access to. Utterly pathetic, grey toned cheese sandwiches with way too much mayo cutting to beautiful breakfast foods, crafted with love...and human flesh. (I also like to think that Hannibal puts human meat in everything, even things that don't traditionally have meat in them).

At one point the team are looking at photos of Hannibal's meals and one of their stomachs just start growling loudly.

The team realising that Jack Crawford has certainly eaten human flesh.

A mini episode featuring Hannibal's never ending battle against the dog hair in their home, in which he is slowly losing.

One of the FBI team literally bumping into one of the duo but because they're distracted or they've gone face blind staring at their photos in The Basement and it never clicks.

The duo don't even know about the team, that's how out of reach they are, or, Hannibal is in contact as a 'specialist' with one of the team, they have a rapport.

In-jokes, Hannibal sends memes, Hannibal sends memes that he has cleared with Will to the team, etc, etc...

Miriam Lass now has a successful morning cooking show online. She has different cooking attachments for her arm, she's thriving. Her show is sometimes on in the back ground in scenes because everyone watches her, everyone's low key forgotten she was a Ripper survivor.

Hannibal has some of her merch, it's an apron with her on it waving, but at the end of her arm is a whisk attachment. Hannibal has low key forgotten she's a Ripper survivor, Will asks whether wearing the apron is a bit ghoulish and Hannibal has a, 'Oh, right', moment.

The fun is endless.

#hannibal #hannibal nbc #murder husbands #season 4 #cannibalposting

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still-a-morosexual-help · 1 year

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Unnamed GN! MC × Mammon

Fake Fic Title Meme - In which I got sent titles and wrote an extremely detailed summary of the fic I would have written for said title:

Leave a comment?🥺 because they mean the world to me and feed a starving soul🐸

So the last anime episode of S2? Where they're all playing baseball Lucifer, Diavolo, Barbatos, Simeon, Solomon & Luke against Satan, Belphie, Beel, Levi, Asmo & Mammon? Satan was the only one playing seriously from his team with the others all doing there own thing, Mammon actually played well but only when Satan promised to pay him for each time he actively engaged in the game

You know how canonically Mammon is really good at math and able to solve math problems in his head while MC sucks ass at even basic math? & how he's good at making mechanical things/machines to the point that he finds the whole process of it fun meaning he's gotta know & be good at physics too?

ANYWAY;

MC's the water boy, they get to listen to how happy and content Lucifer is about how the day is going and how everyone is enjoying a good, normal family day and nothing catastrophic is happening for once and isn't it terrible that humans coined the phrase "Thank you God" to be used during this kind of miraculous situation but his actual dad is God and they left on bad terms when he rebelled and got kicked out of the house and actually looking back on it yeah he has a fuck ton of Daddy issues what can you expect it's pretty damning after all that his worst fear is his father and all of this is to say he doesn't know who to arbitrarily thank for this day but by Go- oh see here's another one why is his life so hard and then they turn around and listen to Satan maniacally monologue about destroying Lucifer via baseball of all things. So anyway, it's a normal day.

Satan and Mammon are the only ones on their team who are actually playing, though they're still managing to get through just the two of them. Satan is pitching and Mammon catches anything that comes even somewhat towards him, he even goes out of his way to fill in for some of the others and then he immediately extorts Satan because most of Mammon's skill set is behind a paywall. But still it's impressive.

Since Satan's team doesn't really have the needed functioning players and it's just two people they end up taking a lot more breaks than would be normal.

During one of these breaks MC & Mammon are standing under the shade, he's drinking from a bottle of water when they finally ask;

"So how do you do it?"

"Huh??" bored or tired or both.

"How do you," they wave their hand about, "catch the ball every single time?"

He watches them with a tilted head and a cocked eyebrow before shrugging his shoulders and looking away again. "I'm fast."

"Yeah no. It looks like you know where the ball's going to be before Lucifer even hits it..."

He doesn't reply. He's studiously staring at a bird on a tree, tipping the bottle to his mouth, hand clenching around it so hard it crackles.

They look at the tree and the bird and then back at him, again and again as something dawns on their face - until it's transforming from bored curiosity to something of pure manic delight. "WHAT!? What is it!? Is it embarrassing!? It's embarrassing isn't it!"

"No! Shuddup! Fuck off! It ain't embarrassing you-"

"Then why don't you say! What's with that face Mammon!? C'mon tell me! I'm your best-"

They're leaning into him, poking at his cheek while he struggles to push them away, their voices overlap until their words are barely discernible.

They're still poking at his cheek and making their demands and he's choking out complaints and trying to bat them away, and they're both leaning so hard to the right they're in danger of over balancing when he finally croaks out;

"It's math!"

"What" they say as they take a step back, their entire body freezes and their face falls instantly into a blank expression.

"It's math and a little physics too, maybe," Mammon says to the tree again because he's not looking at them and his ears are turning red as he goes on to explain things like wind speed and gravity and different forces acting on the ball, the strength behind Lucifer's hit and the angle he hit it at, making it easy to calculate when and where the ball will land. And because when Mammon starts spilling his secrets he never can seem to stop, he goes on to talk about Satan's reaction time and running speed vs Lucifer's and how once Mammon has the ball he can keep negotiating with Satan to drive up the price Satan is willing to pay for it but how he knows the exact second to stop trying to raise the price because if he pushes for too long and they lose Satan won't be willing to actually pay and he'll lose his trust in Mammon's usefulness during the game. So he needs to calculate the time he has so that he can create a sense of urgency in Satan making him increase the price by leaps and bounds but also allows them to win.

After Mammon finishes he's still facing away and he waits and waits and waits but doesn't get any reply so he whips around ready to snap at them for pushing for an answer and then giving him the silent treatment but he pauses when he finally catches sight of them.

They're standing straight but still like this ->🧍facing him, eyes wide, pupils dilated, face striken and paled - ashen even - he isn't even sure if they're breathing.

"O-oi," he snaps, voice quavering, he rushes towards them and gives them a hard shake by their shoulders "IF I THOUGHT THAT'D FRY YA DUMB BRAIN I WOULDN'T 'VE SAID SHIT YA FUCKIN' IDIOT!" he's shaking them rapidly and they're flopping around like a fucking limp ass noodle and he's not 100% sure whether he's hallucinating the steam coming off their head or not and holy F U C K he killed his best friend, the love of his life, etc etc just 'cos he forgot they didn't have two braincells to rub together, specially when it came to numbers and fuck fuck fuck-

Cut to 15min later - they're sitting on the sidelines sheepishly listening to Lucifer who's looming over them and giving them a very stern yet concerned lecture about overheating and heatstroke and human bodies and how much hell he's going to give them when they return home and he gets them to scrub the whole house down with a toothbrush for managing to cut his life span down by centuries in just a few seconds.

Mammon is standing near them, forehead pressed to the wall, all but dead to the world as he drowns in horrified guilt even as Satan tries to convince him that no humans can't die from being too stupid to comprehend math, he's almost 70% - well maybe 60.....50% sure.. actually wait let him check this - it's not really bringing Mammon any comfort

They rub at the back of their neck and try to weakly apologise but Lucifer's lecture is drowning them out and as they do they catch Asmo staring intensely at them from a few feet away. Their hands drops off their neck as their arm flops down and a look of horror passes through their eyes when they make and hold direct eye contact with Asmo, whose own face is impassive yet still managing to convey something that can be categorised as "mockingly amused" that says plain & simple 'I know what you are'

Because of course being the personification of Lust he felt the exact moment, 15 minutes ago, when there'd being a sudden intense spike of lust just as all their blood instantly rushed south

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If you want more fake fics like this under a variety of AUs (human, different first meeting, mer, witch & familiar etc) check out the whole compilation on AO3 here

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lastweeksshirttonight · 4 months

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I've listened to this almost four times at this point, so I better write some thoughts on it. (Did you need them? Probably not but humor me.)

This whole podcast talks deeply about the emotional toll of COVID and the pandemic, so be advised.

Interview starts at 16:10.

To start, I think a thread that runs through this entire episode is Marc being more cynical or bitter than John about a point, and John pausing to realign himself with what his actual level of cynicism is. You can tell that Marc and John like each other a lot, but there is also a tension to some of their discussions that I find really interesting. Like a mental chess match where Marc has a clear POV and John is trying to subtly spin the response to be closer to his own ideals.

The interview opens with the two of them talking about microphone levels and people not being closer to the mic and how irritating it is when people don't know how to use microphones. I am weak to John talking

I haven't watched Rachel Maddow in a while, is she really doing radio shows about Spiro Agnew? What? Why?

John speaking about context and contextualizing our current dark reality. The way he viewed the pandemic and the extent of society's flaws, and how nothing was fixed was really interesting. For as much as he's said that he's allergic to sincerity, that's just plainly untrue. He really does want to believe in the best of everything around him - he later talks about how he loves his children so much it's painful, and I had the same thought. Marc's darkness is something else though, I would laugh helplessly too at being reminded that 30% of the country wants to kill me specifically (help)

"It will eat your messages and shit them back into your face." I truly enjoy when John goes this blue, it always surprises and delights me.

John wants everything to have a system. He really likes the John Wick coin-based hotel system. I don't quite know how the two of them got from the comfort conspiracy theories can provide in dark times to John Wick but hey.

Marc being mad about having no awards and John being like "you really didn't need to say your bitterness out loud bro" killed me.

John has no idea why LWT was moved into another category. He doesn't even know who he's competing against. The Emmys basically afford him the right to be left alone with his show. I think he values that more than anything in regards to LWT - this topic comes up multiple times in this podcast and John stresses that having no sponsors to be beholden to, no commercials, and seemingly little to no oversight makes them able to do things that just can't be done on commercial television. There are more details to mine about this later, but it seems like, for all the absolute chaos of HBO and Warner and Discovery (something John likens to continually having new fathers around and wondering if he even has to bother learning their names), he's still relatively free to plug away at LWT the way he and his team envision it. Which is a relief to hear, honestly, the delayed announcement of LWT being renewed really made me concerned that Discovery in particular was done dealing with him.

I like how John, when given questions, will often ask clarifying follow-ups in this. He's not one for vagueness as it seems - the one that particularly stuck out to me was Marc relaying how he struggles with pulling his thoughts together on current events, using the Gaza crisis as an example for him before asking how John settles on topics. John's response is to ask if Marc means in general, or om Gaza specifically. The conversation moves into the general and how LWT is made now that it's ten years in (John calls the research department a machine and I can tell Marc is hoping that John literally invented a research machine from his tone of voice), but those are two very different conversations that could be pulled from that one question.

I also love John and Marc taking the piss out of John's show. Truly, if John leaves his desk, you obviously just sat through 30 minutes of the worst human misery possible.

Marc: "Because of your innate Britishness and your sense of humor, that... you do irritate -"

John, sounding like something just activated in his brain and as darkly as I've ever heard him: "I love to."

Marc: " - the right - ???"

My new favorite running theme in John's interviews is his apparently very tense relationship with his lawyers. The nitty gritty of the legal needs of the show, and how John views his lawyers and the frustrations that come with trying to do hard-hitting topics while having lawyers drop out from conflicts of interest, always fascinates me.

John also delves into the security he requires because of the breadth of people he's pissed off. He doesn't seem to care at all and enjoys pissing these people off, despite his wife's concerns. (I'm so sorry Kate you married a deeply weird man) John derives such pleasure from irritating people that it outweighs, say, never being able to go to Thailand without being arrested.

I cannot believe the Sacklers tried to come to the LWT office. Jesus Christ the entitled gall of these people.

Marc offends John with his assessment of England having many destroyed buildings, which leads into him saying, in a way reminiscent of the long-lost American from the Bugle, that he "enjoys the castles". God I miss the American. "How old's this wall? Holy fuck!"

Marc: "What are we gonna do about the futility..."

John: -cracks the fuck up-

Marc, finding his point: "...of..."

John: "Let it hang. Feel free to let that hang in the air. Let's just all enjoy the fact that we're all filling it in and coming up with different, equally valid, depressing ends to that sentence."

John is so severely offended and killed by Marc's suggestion that he did a Q&A tour. The absolute lowest form of entertainment in both of their minds. John mentions that he emphatically told people they could leave before the Q&A they hosted at the John and Seth stand up show I was at because he feels so strongly about this. I wrongly assumed this was because John hates himself and can't imagine people sticking around for him, but in my defense, that's usually the reason he tells people not to do something/shits on his bangs/etc.

(We still have like 30 min of this podcast, why am I like this)

The question of "what's gonna happen" is a pretty dark one, as John notes. He fears the worst but hopes people will work hard to stop the path we're on. Marc wanting to illustrate where we are is pretty ridiculous, as John points out - just look around.

I think Marc talking about what "all right" means to people gets to something that deeply concerns me about what the future of this country will be for me. I don't want to be that cynical but there is a deep well of selfishness in the US (rightfully identified) that does keep the country from uniting and fighting for survival in times like this. We're definitely at that turning point and I really want to hope we don't drive off the cliff.

I am not really emotionally prepared for jokes about John being in prison, I was genuinely a bit concerned about that The Last Time. That's my own problem though.

I didn't expect to get more information about John leaving The Daily Show on this podcast, but that's one of the most interesting things discussed. Marc asks if John left TDS because he felt the freedom he has with HBO wasn't there, and John says that wasn't the case - his contract expired at the end of 2013, after his summer hosting gig. Ideally, and Jon and John had discussed this (!!), the goal was to have John do TDS in the summers so John could, you know, rest. Sleep. Not be beholden to the horrors all the time. But Comedy Central, in John's blunt words, "didn't really care", so he went to HBO. The way that John mentions that "they would have probably kept [Jon] longer" if they'd actually tried to keep John around sounds just a tinge bitter and honestly, yeah. I'm annoyed hearing that we could have had this magical 2-host version of TDS and CC just... sucks. God I hate them. They gave me most of my worldview as a teenager because of TDS, but fucking A man.

Also interesting to hear, however vaguely, that John had some other offers. Wonder what those were. My best guess, based on what else was going on at that time, is TBS (who later made Full Frontal with Samantha Bee and were building around Conan) might have made a play.

I'm not a parent, but I do appreciate the discussion of parenthood, particularly how anxiety-inducing it can be. Hearing John talk about his worries regarding his prematurely-born son definitely resonated, and I'm glad his son is doing well now. ❤️

The brick joke in the middle of the parenting discussion is the hardest I've ever laughed at Marc Maron. Truly. Masterful brick joke.

I don't have an elegant tag for this - there's much more than what I touched on here in the podcast, and I appreciate how deep the conversation gets. It was really nice to listen to this multiple times during my hell day, and to hear John talk deeper about things that he's rarely asked about.

Also I'm sorry I wrote like fucking too many k words on this, I clearly had thoughts

#john oliver #marc maron #wtf with marc maron #last week tonight with john oliver #last week tonight #the daily show with jon stewart #the daily show #lee's tl;dr

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