#they were my favourite part of the episode they're literally everything to me i need them back right this moment
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for a website who constantly asks for more just entirely fucked up women and fucked up lesbians especially, y'all are being awfully quiet about anne bonny and mary read
#sami rambles#for sure thought id log on here and be unable to move for anne and mary posting and i was so excited but ive seen like two gifs max ??#and no text posts???#they were my favourite part of the episode they're literally everything to me i need them back right this moment#i get that they were a bit overshadowed but cmon they STABBED AND POISONED each other#and burnt their house down and them!!!!#ofmd spoilers#ofmd#anne bonny x mary read
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PARAMOUNT PLUS KNUCKLES WOOOOOOOOO
Spoilers obviously!
Episode 1 thoughts: writing is kind of annoying, and I don't think I like this version of Knuckles that much - his proper arc in the movie was good but divorced from that context this is basically just idiot meathead Knuckles pushed in another direction entirely. Wade isn't funny or entertaining. Sonic's model looks worse than it did before, the forehead wrinkles are so offputting. I feel like they fucked their own lore weirdly - the second movie showed the literal founding of G.U.N. in this continuity and yet their headquarters are based in London and they're apparently already big enough to have double-agents within them working to support criminals. G.U.N. just didn't feel like such a big thing in the second movie is all, but now they are with no fanfare. Also they've acquired both warp rings and Knuckles' quills from ???? so hmmm. I'm definitely approaching this too much as an adult out to nitpick rather than remembering that this is for kids and it doesn't matter when G.U.N. became so prominent or how and when they got their hands on X macguffin, but idk I feel like the first 2 movies were paying some degree of attention to stuff like that so this just sticks out to me.
Episode 2 thoughts: actually not just Wade but I think nobody is funny or really all that entertaining to watch. I don't think the Sonic movies are great or anything but this feels aggressively like we're just going through the motions. I need a hero scene was kind of torture. I appreciate Knuckles gliding anyway since that's one of those things that's acknowledged surprisingly little despite being a core part of his gameplay in every playable appearance he's had.
Episode 3 thoughts: my favourite so far on the sheer absurdity of a lonely Jewish mother whose husband left the family and whose kids hate each other finding solace and comfort in Knuckles the Echidna and teaching him about Judaism
Episode 4 thoughts: absolutely indescribable experience. felt like a high budget fan parody. I was juggling so many feelings through my head while watching, reaching each end of the quality spectrum - this is both incredibly kino and also one of the worst things to ever grace the Sonic franchise. one must actively sever any interest in pretending this is something that should be taken seriously in order to enjoy it, although in doing so one must also acknowledge that the Knuckles show on paramount plus is now but a joke. the same Sonic movie franchise that rejuvenated public interest in the franchise has also birthed unto us a mockery of everything the series has ever stood for. Wade Whipple stole a kid's bicycle and chopped off a man's ponytail with a katana before then forcing that man to undress.
Episode 5 thoughts: this is straight up more enjoyable when consumed as a bizarre and surreal anthology but with a continual plot wherein the anthology part of it is just what is gonna be the directorial fetish of the episode. in this case it's several instances of shots being split across comic-style panelling or the same frame repeated in grid-patterns across the screen, things like that. that type of shot for bowling for 10 minutes and then a heartwarming emotional reunion with an estranged father turned heartwrenching as Jewish mother recounts the fact that he hurt us before and he's going to do it again. I almost forgot I was watching a Sonic the Hedgehog show until the bad guys showed up and reminded us that Knuckles the Echidna does actually exist in the show named after him. I'm starting to think this show is seriously worth watching entirely because it's so ludicrously detached from its source material and absurd in everything else it chooses to depict. The dialogue is so unnatural it's hilarious. Everybody has a certain voice they're doing for the camera and it's all super exaggerated. Wade actually betrays Knuckles in the end and I'm about to watch the last episode to see what happens.
Episode 6 thoughts: I think this show is incredible
Overall thoughts!
I don't even know how to succintly put into words how much fun I was having with this by the end. And I do mean by the end - you can see the progression of my enjoyment after each episode in this post itself - but it really is kind of slow and annoying to start until it eventually reaches such a level of absurdity that I turned off Sonic fan brain and turned on "I want to laugh at batshit insane media" brain. Once it got to that point though I was so fucking invested that I was feeling everything. I wanted Wade to start throwing bowling balls at the buyer so fucking bad and he did. The electric guitar kicking in when Knuckles powered back up and became the flames of disaster or whatever was the most excited I've been watching anything in a while. The juxtaposition between a serious emotional tale about broken families and standing up against those who have hurt you versus Wade Whipple in a Knuckles costume having a musical performed at him about the strength of the heart or whatever is immaculate.
I feel like this show was greenlit and allocated a budget before they actually decided anything they wanted to do with it so they just wrote some vague story outline and handed each episode off to a different director to see what they could come up with. The few who played it a little more safe, kid's action show type thing, didn't really offer much. But the ones who decided to have fun with it and just not even care about the source material, those are the ones that turned out really fun.
I will acknowledge right now obviously that none of that is exactly praise from the lens of a Sonic fan. This isn't good at being Sonic in any way, it's not even good at being part of the separate and standalone Sonic movie continuity either. Calling it disrespectful to the source material is an understatement and even the times where it decides to pull from what it's adapting you get absolutely bizarre errors like the Flames of Disaster being singularly attributed to Knuckles just for the hell of it. This should not be thought of as a serious attempt at telling a story within any Sonic the Hedgehog setting. This is a high budget parody that, through circumstances we'll never quite know, is also an officially licensed and endorsed Sonic the Hedgehog product. It's the worst Sonic adaptation ever. It's also so fucking entertaining and I would honestly recommend it to just about anyone. I'm literally already lining up a rewatch with some friends. It's so fucking fun. Like there's an element of irony and there's an element of so bad it's good and perhaps all of this is birthed by that and me being in a state of "I just finished something absurd and need to process it so I'm just yelling" but as a lifelong diehard Sonic fan who yearns for nothing more than good quality Sonic content I had more actual fun with this than almost any other Sonic adaptation period. This shit, my friends, is kino. And Wade Whipple is my new favourite Sonic character.
#sonic#28.4.24#knuckles spoilers#paramount knuckles spoilers#paramount knuckles#knuckles series#knuckles series spoilers
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Abbott Finale Thoughts
Oh. My. God. This episode was stressful but beautiful at the same time. It confirmed everything I thought when it came to them while also stressing me out when it came to their relationship. It starts off with them being as cute as ever with her asking him what he's packing. I love how they've grown to be this casual around each other and she loves to be with him.
Gregory also loves being with her I absolutely love that he takes her recommendations seriously. That's boyfriend material right there it's so romantic he doesn't just like her he wants to know her.
This is also the first time they've done an interview together which I definitely think is significant to their relationship because it just shows how close they are. I feel like at that moment and several moments throughout this season it has shown that their rhythm was back and they're closer than ever despite the awkwardness from before
Sadly it hit a snag when Maurice showed up. I will admit while he wasn't wrong that it was a bit selfish to dump him like that it was unnecessary and mean to call her out like that. Did he really need to come down just to say that?! Especially when he's ghosting girls ugh it doesn't matter if he texted her back he still made her feel like she was awful! Someone said on Twitter that allowing someone to love her and shoe deep affection for her is a trigger with how she grew up and what Maurice told her caused her to self- sabotage. That's a lot and very true she wasn't shown a lot of that growing up and it's honestly scary. She had one boyfriend for most of her life where she essentially took care of him and wasn't really loved and now she's spiralling thinking all she'd do in a relationship is hurt someone
This definitely affects Janine and makes her think she hasn't made a lot of progress this year which isn't true her growth is amazing! I'm so sad for her that she doesn't want to pursue things with Gregory because she doesn't want to hurt him but I get it. It also show how much she values her friendship with Gregory which is so wholesome
Gregory can of course tell something's wrong immediately because he knows her and that just warms my heart. I loves that he thought one of his kids a game just so that she could hug her hoping she'd love that. It's the little things with them the things they do for each other because they get each other
I was screaming at the fact that he wanted to stay in Philly for the summer to be with her! He wants to be wherever she is but she doesn't want to hurt him so she's being distant with his suggestion my heart hurt
I love that Jacob and Gregory's friendship is evolving and how he was the biggest supporter for Teddie he just wants him to go for it. Good on him for pointing out the miscommunication in their relationship it's frustrating but sadly so common with people. Talking is just hard sometimes or awkward in this case. Bro hug was so cute
Ava setting up the pairing was so like her and I love her for it also that conversation about selfishness was so important. Obviously Ava is very selfish but she was right she takes care of herself and so is Janine and sh's not really hurting anyone. It would not hurt Gregory to date him but at the same time she's not ready. Janine puts a lot of stock into being a good person that she doesn't really know that sometimes being selfish is ok. She's learning so much and I'm so proud of her
This leads to a beautiful confession that I'm still not over he said he had feelings for her!!! The best part was the second confession at the literal heart! So many things were said like how they both liked each other since he joined Abbott! I loved the cute bickering of them dating other people
This leads to my favourite line of the episode which is in the pics below. When I tell you I lost it that was so beautiful she loves him so much she's so smiley not just because she loves being a teacher buy because she loves to see him!! That is so affirming and beautiful! She loves him so much my heart cannot take it. Added to that she's recognizing that she needs to work on herself right now while also telling him he's the one!
I love that Gregory understood but you could see he was hurt he really wants to be with her oh this angst is killing me but it's sooo good
Love the second bro hug and how it was longer this time he needed that and that also shows growth I love them!
The way they glanced at each other before going to sleep only to not see each other?! It hurts so good
So the field trip is over but Janine did learn a lot she is not ready for him but she could be at some point. She's 26 and still growing to know that you're not ready to be in a relationship is very mature even if it hurts. She wants to continue her growing path which will include self love, experiencing new things with Erica and just having fun. She needs to learn how to be independent and be the best version of herself and I can't wait to see how that unfolds in season 3.
I bet that along with Janine's growth we'll also get the same small moments we've always been getting which are always great because you don't need a lot of big moments with them to show a love story. I love the crumbs because it really showcases the love they have for each other and why they're important
I could definitely tell they were both sad at the end and Gregory would not want to go with Janine to lunch if it was just the two of them because it wouldn't be a date and he wouldn't be able to handle it so now it's the trio again
I see awkwardness in their future again but I hope they stay close and no one dates anyone else. I'm looking forward to more growth, pining, funny episodes and overall a good time with Abbott in season 3. A great season finale I loved it so much!
#abbott elementary spoilers#abbott elementary#janine teagues#gregory eddie#janine x gregroy#teddie#astral blogs
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My favourite thing about the buffy fandom is that the show is filled with evil awful men who consistently drag Buffy down and make her miserable but fandom will ignore all that to focus on a few of the traumatized child soldiers who are either orphans or have abusive parents and they'll be like hmm actually THIS character sucks and is the worst because they were not nice to Buffy. If I ignore everything else and focus only on a handful of episodes it proves that they were horrible people the entire time and Buffy deserves better. The only one who was REALLY there for Buffy is MY fave.
(Their faves tend to spend a solid third of their screen time being misogynistic but shhhh no trust me he GETS Buffy like no one else. It's a special romantic bond, dark gothic horror or whatever. He calls her a bitch 10 times but look how sad he is when she finally snaps.)
Like absolutely Buffy deserves better she deserves therapy and a fresh start and healthy boundaries but we simply wouldn't have a show if they weren't all messed up kids with ptsd who hurt each other horribly and the love that saves them is also what dooms them, an endless vicious cycle until the whole city collapses. They start off as friends and end up as... something else. Buffy and Xander and Dawn are family and no matter what happens or how shitty they are to each other at times nothing can change that loyalty. It doesn't matter if x or y deserves better they're never going to go searching for it they've simply been through too much trauma for anyone else to come close! Willow would need an entire other post to summarize the friendship development she and Buffy go through but it's so good exactly because of how it goes from sweet to pure pain and grief.
Everyone is free to like and dislike whoever they want but I do feel bad for people who genuinely hate Buffy's friends because what a miserable way to watch the show considering what a huge part of it they are lmao. Yeah yeah Angel and Spike scarred her for life and their love is so powerful whatever. Willow literally will not let Buffy stay dead she is going to get an A in best friend sidekick, something that is normal to want and possible to achieve. Buffy has no choice in this she's the hero so get your ass out of heaven girl we need you to pose and fight monsters so Willow can pretend to have self esteem. Oh you got shot? Walk it off bullet fixed. You might be needed later if the one who healed you decides not to kill the entire world.
Cordelia and Anya take turns being the funniest and most refreshingly straightforward person on the show. Tara is genuinely lovely and I am so sorry Willow and the Scoobies happened to her but it is very nice that they all get a kind friend who stays kind until the end. Dawn is so fascinating her life is a horror story and she wasn't even real at first or there at all for the first four seasons and yet I clap and cheer whenever Buffy gets extra violent with the people that hurt her. Xander... yeah no I get the Xander hate fully he's exhausting especially as a teen. But the fact that the mental wellbeing of two of the most powerful people on this planet is tied to the aliveness of Just Some Guy? It's delightful. He made friends with a shy autistic girl in kindergarten and they later both trauma bonded to Buffy and it saved the world. Amazing.
#i always find the “scoobies or dawn or x character” were awful to buffy arguments so funny#because beyond their first season not a single dynamic on that show was free from toxic codependency#it's the trauma bonding your honour#like yes they suck. absolutely! that's why it's so fun#the counterarguments of “No they were really good actually” are equally funny because sure they were at points#but they were definitely all fucked up#I wouldn't love Willow or Faith as much as I do if they weren't just. Awful people. Nightmare kids who grow into even worse adults#before eventually mellowing out a tiny bit.#btvs#btvs rambles
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Once again I participate in the "get to know your mutuals" chain mail meme (I'm 100% this is not the correct term but my brain is really fried atm), this time I was tagged by @stripedroseandsketchpads :D I feel like I do this every two months at least so I'm kind of out of people to tag who haven't done it recently, and I've also been kind of dissociated from Tumblr due to work stress so I don't remember if I added anyone new recently :/ So whoever wants to do it, let's pretend I tagged you :D
Last song I listened to: Them Crooked Vultures - No One Loves Me & Neither Do I - I just discovered this band! Even though it's made up of really famous people from other more famous bands! And I really like it!
Currently watching: The Borgias. So far it's... okay? I'm enjoying the character beats but the actual plotty plot (i.e. the politics and wars) is so slowly paced and overly linear. They seem really scared of the audience not getting it so they only allow one plotty thing to be happening at any given time, and they make sure to spell everything out at least once per episode. Which is... not what I'm used to in my historical political drama (quite the opposite in fact!). Perhaps I could have benefited from this approach if it were a fantasy world or a country I don't have much to do with (I remember having to open up a map of Scotland so many times while reading the first Lymond because they kept going from one city to the other and I didn't know where they were in relation to each other), but it's set in my own country and half of the "as you know" recaps are just basic Italian geography for the anglophone audiences lol. After the fifth time one well-educated character explains to another well-educated character that Florence is in the north-west and Naples is south of Rome, I kind of want to scream. The pronounciations are also all over the place - three guys are sitting at a table looking each other in the eyes and pronouncing "Medici" 3 incorrect ways, at least they could have streamlined it between the actors. Like far be it from me to demand proper pronounciation with the way Italians butcher English words constantly, but at least make it consistent! Luke Pasqualino is the only one pronouncing anything as it should be pronounced, and I really felt bad for him in that scene where Lucrezia keeps asking him to say her name and they're both repeating it over and over, because he's the only one pronouncing it correctly while she's saying it as if she had a mouth full of rocks. Btw my favourite Holliday Grainger fucking up the Italian scene so far is when she needs to ride breathlessly up to the French king and say a long line about her brother Juan the Gonfaloniere and basically she's supposed to repeat "Gonfaloniere" several times and you can literally see her going "my brother is the gonfalonsajkdnajsdsbaj" and making a "fuck it, whatever" expression when she gets to the complicated part. Anyway I am enjoying the show, the pronounciations make me laugh they don't make me mad. And the costumes are gorgeous!
Sweet/spicy/savory: Savory or spicy, depending on the mood. I dislike sweet things.
Current Obsession: Nothing really, I've been really tangled up with RL things and am feeling vaguely anhedonic because I keep thinking about work, so it's hard to get into something haha. This is actually why I'm able to focus on the Borgias, because they have quite low bandwidth requirements (i tried to watch it before and found it slow-ish). This too shall pass I suppose :)
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so we all know im a fan of all of the endless, i love disaster family dynamics, and of all of them delirium's my favourite
but desire's the one i have an essay pending in my brain for, because they fascinate me (mostly spoiler free, for show fans, but with insights into desire’s character we don’t get in the show)
like, the netflix adaptation is taken pretty much word for word from the comics, it’s astonishingly faithful, but there are the occasional added or retracted scenes, or narration that gets left out
and one of those with the doll’s house plot is the tv show doesn’t really cover why the doll’s house is relevant? but it’s something that rose wonders, after all she’s been through, are humans just the dolls of greater forces, like the endless? how much control does anyone really have over their own life?
and then we get to the last part of that story arc, the end of episode 10 in the show, where dream visits desire to confront them about their plot with unity and rose. which again, pretty word for word from the comics. but then, once dream leaves, we get this
(as a point of clarification, desire used mostly it/its pronouns in the 80s, but neil gaiman's said he changed them to they/them for the show bc that's a better reflection of their identity in 2022)
and it’s the most, fragile, we’ve ever seen desire be? so many of the endless are so close to breaking, death at least got over her troubles and is okay now, but dream spiralling slowly downwards (fully aware of it, but not saying anything to anyone) is his entire story, destruction left because he couldn’t handle the pressure of it, and delight straight up did break, and became delirium
and desire’s right up there with the worst of them (they and dream are so alike, except where it really counts), but desire deals with it by lying to themselves. lying to themselves about who they are, lying to themselves about their place in the world, and most ironically - lying to themselves about what they want
desire is literally created out of the desires of every living thing, they're aware of every desire anyone has ever had - except their own
many of their plots against dream would straight up get dream killed if they were to work, and they think that's what they want, but in a very megamind kinda way, desire doesn’t actually believe they’ll ever win. it’s part of why dream infuriates them so much, but it’s also a safety net, they can do whatever they like to dream and it won’t have real consequences, how could it? dream’s powerful enough he’ll always find a way out of it somehow, and in the meantime maybe he’ll stop being so condescending
and, again trying to avoid major spoilers, but there’s one more moment that’s really striking for me, and it’s when something happens that wasn’t desire’s doing, but mimics one of their old plans, and could be really bad news for dream, there’s no telling what will happen from then on. and despair returns to her own realm to find desire waiting for her, needing to talk. and at the end of it we get this exchange:
Despair: It was not of your doing.
Desire: True. But it was what I wanted.
Despair: So you’re happy?
Desire: No. I’m scared.
like, they care! it's constantly ignored or suppressed or forgotten about, but they do!
they think they hate dream and they think they’re in full control of everyone and everything and all of it is a lie, what they really want is for things to stay the same
but for them to remain desire, they can’t admit that to themselves
#me poking all of the endless with a stick: i want to study you like a bug#the sandman#desire of the endless
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List 5 favourite shows (in no particular order) and answer questions accordingly.
The Terror
Hornblower
BBC Ghosts
Yonderland
Black Sails
Who is your favourite character in 2?
Archie
Who is your least favourite character in 1?
Hickey. Seriously, screw the murder rat.
What's your favourite episode of 4?
Oh gods, all of them. Though I am ridiculously in love with the concept of a wizard literally losing his Mojo, so I'm going to with 1x02.
What is your favourite season of 5?
Series 2 because of Thomas Hamilton, my beloved.
What's your favourite relationship in 3?
All the relationships are great but I have a very soft spot for Julian and Mike's arc in series 3 and hope we'll get to see more of their friendship in series 5.
Who is your anti relationship in 2?
I don't know about anti-relationship but I don't really see the appeal of Bush/Hornblower.
How long have you watched 1?
Since the moment it came out. I can't resist a good Age of Sail show, and definitely not one that features Tobias Menzies.
How did you become interested in 3?
I saw a gif of the sunrise scene from series 3 here on tumblr and just knew I had to watch it. I had no idea who these characters were or what the show was about, only recognised Charlotte from Call The Midwife, but I was pretty sure that handsome poet would be my favourite character and that's exactly what happened.
Who is your favourite actor in 4?
Picking just one of the Six Idiots is hard but I'm going to go with Mat just because I think he's absolutely hilarious (and brilliant) when he plays old people and I love the way he talks as Choop.
Which show do you prefer 1, 2 or 5?
While they're all Age of Sail shows, they're completely different from each other and hard to compare. I love that The Terror is based on a real story and makes you fall in love with even the most minor characters (looking at you, Graham Gore). I love that Hornblower is all about the Royal Navy (because screw pirates, I love me some pretty officers) but it's main characters aren't typical heroes. And I love Black Sails because love is at the heart of its story. But if I had to pick one, I'd probably pick The Terror because a) it has fantastic actors, b) one very well-written season that makes it easy to binge and c) a historical context you can't help but want to know more about.
Which show have you seen more episodes of 1 or 3?
Ghosts has more episodes then The Terror on a whole and I've also rewatched it more often. I'm due for another The Terror rewatch, though.
If you could be anyone from 4, who would you be?
Well, I wouldn't mind being Debbie because having an elf and stick for buddies and being able to go through a portal to another world would rock. Not so keen on the Chosen One stuff though, so I'm going to pick Ho-Tan because who wouldn't want to be a scribe and write all day?
How would you kill off your favourite character in 5?
Well, since my favourite character did sort of get killed off and then unburied, the show already did this for me.
Would a 3/4 crossover work?
Oh it certainly would and I've actually written a fic about it - The Wisp.
Pair two characters in 1 that would make an unlikely, but strangely okay couple.
I feel like this would fit all The Terror ships because hey, repressed Navy men in the 19th century. My personal favourite one is Joplittle so I'm going with them. They barely interact with each other in canon which fits the unlikely part of the question but I think they'd be quite good for each other. Poor Ned certainly needs someone to hug him and tell him everything's going to be okay while I think Thomas would have needed Ned's support when Crozier was drying out.
Overall, which show has the better cast, 3 or 5?
The Black of Sails cast is amazing but nothing compares to the Six Idiots who have found each other on a kids' tv show and liked each other so much they started writing their own shows because not working with each other was simply not an option.
Thanks for tagging me @larryrickard!
I'll tag @ginevralinton @magicaltear and @iris-in-the-rain
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Thoughts on Sonic Prime, the Netflix series? ^^
I binged it yesterday bc I got curious from seeing from the gifsets you were reblogging (oh, messed up alternate timelines my beloveds) and I really enjoyed it! :D
So, any notes? Anything in particular that caught your eye or that you'd like to see in future episodes? 👀
Well, I mean, I haven't really thought about it too much since we've only got eight episodes so far so I'm gonna wait till we've got the whole thing before I judge the series. But from what we've got so far:
I really like it.
It's not my favourite Sonic series, that's still Sonic X but nostalgia and the fact that it has a lot more episodes probably plays a big part in that so I'm not gonna hold that against Prime.
This personality for Sonic is a little bit different than what I'm used to but I still think it works really well and he manages to carry the show with his little comments.
I adore the alternate universe versions of the characters and how they take one aspect of them and change it, i.e Tails is a genius but if he never met Sonic and learned to have confidence in what makes him different so he becomes Nine, Amy is extremely kind and empathetic but if she couldn't talk about her feelings they go out of control and she becomes Thorn, etc. It's a simple concept but it works so well and they do it in a way where you don't need prior knowledge about the characters but if you do, you get some more enjoyment from it.
The worlds are all really interesting, my personal favourite so far is the pirate one, probably because there's no "We can't trust you!" Kinda thing going on like the other worlds 'cause that kinda conflict just irritates me after a while. And also just... Pirates are fun and the voices they have in that world are fun.
Speaking of voices, the voice acting is really, really good. I was a little nervous when they said the cast was gonna be different from the games because like... The voices have changed so many times... And it always starts arguments... But I really like this cast, especially Devan Mack as Sonic. Like he's not copying anyone, it's his own version of the character and he's got the cockiness, the cheekiness, the awkwardness, everything works perfectly. Not to mention, he nails the more serious scenes too like when Nine shows him the Grim and he has to turn him down. Apparently a lot of the cast were in MLP but I never saw that series, it wasn't on any channels I had growing up so I can't really comment, but they sound great in this series!
Another thing I love is the animation. I love the sheer amount of squash and stretch they use, it really gives Sonic's speed this zippy quality and just gives off this really fun vibe. And the fight coordination is really good, like that fight between Sonic and Shadow in Green Hill was great to watch. Not to mention, the effects they use for the prism powers look great. And my absolute favourite thing: They animate Sonic's ears to convey emotion. Instantly won me over with that.
Although, the thing I'm most looking forward to seeing more of has to be Shadow. Ngl it's been quite a while since he was written this well. I like the IDW comic version but even that has its problems sometimes. But I like how he is working towards what's best, he just sucks at communication and butts heads with Sonic because they both think they're doing the right thing. And while I don't like the characterisation of Shadow fighting Sonic on sight every time he sees him that most modern Sonic stuff does, I will say in Prime it's completely justified. I still find it funny that the first thing Shadow does when Sonic joins him in the void is punch him in the face.
Honestly, the only thing I'm not enjoying about Prime at the moment is the Chaos Council. I just don't find them funny or threatening. It's literally "oh here's five weird versions of Eggman with their own gimmick" like... Cool. Can we have just plain Eggman back please? The only thing I like about the Chaos Council is Rusty Rose. They might get better in the new episodes but I'm not holding my breath. They just really don't appeal to me.
But honestly on the whole, I'm really enjoying the series so far and I love all the small details they put into it like the aforementioned ear movements, how Rouge sleeps upside down, how Tails' tails are a lot thicker than Nine's tails because he actually uses them, the fact that the story ties back to the original Sonic game's themes of anti-industrialism in different ways, etc. Not to mention the little easter eggs like Tails' passcode being 1992, the year he debuted in Sonic 2, and Big's New Yoke identification code being 1998, the year he debuted in Sonic Adventure. I hope we get to see more things like that because they put a smile on my face.
Honestly, I hope the new episodes put more focus on Shadow now that he's finally got Sonic to come pick him up but I think he really has a lot of potential. And I'm really, really curious to see what Rouge's world is gonna be like. A lot of people are saying they'd like to see a Western style place which I agree would be pretty cool. And I hope more of the alternate universe characters interact with each other like how Rusty Rose and Black Rose did because that could lead to some interesting dialogue.
I didn't mean for this to become an entire goddamn essay but apparently I had some Opinions. Also none of my mutuals are really into Sonic so I don't get to talk it often so I guess it all just kinda exploded here.
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do i understand the carerra's worry about Kie and their desperation to take dramatic acts because Kie is doing really dangerous things? Absolutely. If you look at it all from a parents perspective it's all terrifying and would definitely drive them to not the best actions. However, one of the parent/teenager dysfunctional dynamics that I hate so much is when the parents kick the teenager out and then get mad when they don't come back?? Which the Carerra's did to Kie twice? I know they didn't really mean the first 'don't come back at all' and they were worried and Kie's actions of coming back just when she needs something isn't the best either. But it comes from an inconsistency there, Kiara is a teenager and takes everything they say very literally because she means everything she says its a huge part of her character and probably does come in large part from her parents. So in the last few episodes of season 2 when they're mad she didn't come home for days when their last interaction was Anna throwing Kiara's clothes over the porch and kicking her out is insane to me. It makes complete and total sense to me that Kiara would feel zero trust and safety with her parents when that's the dynamic.
She's not perfect either, but she's also 17 and everything she does she only does because she genuinely believes it's for the right reasons.
Kiara and her parents are actually one of my favourite relationships in the show, if I am being completely honest. Like I know certain people have a deep hatred/dislike towards Anna and Mike and their treatment, and I can understand that but so much of it is rooted from how much they care about her, and Kiara’s own actions and how she reacts shows the same. She reacts the way she does because moments like the whole ‘throwing her clothes off the porch’ hurt because she cares about her parents and their opinion obviously matters to her.
I do think a lot of the relationship is based on miscommunication and I am hoping that we see the relationship be explored next season. I want the Carrera redemption, I want them to see the daughter they have raised and the group she has surrounded herself with (these people she would die for and who would die for her too), and just realise that Kiara isn’t doing things out of spite or rebellion, but because she cares so much.
And I want Kiara to realise that her parents have good intentions but just don’t show it in the best way, that the fear they have over losing their daughter created some drastic decisions but they do care about her and they do want what is best for her, and that they love her just as much as she loves them.
I just cannot wait to see more of Kiara and the Carreras.
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Day 12: favourite tv series
Hehe, I'M REALLY GOING TO BE SO FUCKING LOUD!!!
As an opening, I think i mentioned somewhere that I'm a whore for entertainment (though in questionably slump for past few years). Dan sebelum ini ada kaya tren nyebutin the thing to get to know me, jadi inget kan tuh, pas banget yah.
Ok here it is. I'll mention one i have strong feeling to. No specific list.
Secret Love (2013)
No one can convince me to hate about how generic and how cliche the plot is, mainly because ofc I liked the actors who portrayed the protagonist but also because THE CHEMISTRY, and I liked how it make me feel!!! I wish I can watch from the first time again.
Though, It is quite problematic, if I reckon. But every sk drama I watch in that time were mostly problematic, so yeah, what choice do I have (lies).
I still remember the one scene that so right in the feel, (spoiler alert) ketika mereka mau first time, dan si cowo ini nyium luka bakar cewenya, wah, I watched it many years ago, but it's still get me every time.
Goblin (2016)
OFC I'M GONNA MENTION THEY HERE. Ini tuh beneran ada semuanya, angst nya ada, romance nya ada, komedinya ada. Gw masih inget gmana gila nya gw ama series ini, mana kan gw emang suka dilf, and hell they're so effin gorgeous here. I'M GONNA MENTION ABOUT THEIR CHEMISTRY OFC, not only the protagonist, but the whole cast were so perfect for each other, no miss on that part, nothing feel awkward it kinda hit home, I still rewatch the part when they made me laugh so much.
Nirvana in Fire (2015)
Jujur, gw ga suka tipe2 yang bikin gue harus mikir, karena brow otak ini tidak begitu pintar en smart to go through people scheme, but this one?? Hell I love every second of it. Unfortunately , I can't feel a much of a chemistry going, but it is still a masterpiece on plot alone, i don't feel amiss in it. Nah, mulai dari series ini gue mulai mengecambah ke series cina, well mainly period costume drama.
Sebenernya ada sekuel nya dan katanya lebih oke lagi, but I am still enamored by this Mei Changsu and Prince Jing, so leave me alone.
Joy of Life (2019)
It might gonna surpass nirvana in fire if only they're airing all the trilogy, betul, ini series terbagi menjadi 3 bagian dan yang baru tayang baru yang pertamanya aja. Meski begitu gw tidak menyesal (sedikit sebetulnya) karena emang SESERU ITU, hell I don't remember when the last time I was genuinely laugh, a big one by a scene, because it was so unexpectedly funny I crieeed, ofc there's moment too where I cried in tender and sad moments. Again, this far, the plot is soo smooth, didn't feel any amiss, but I can't judge as whole, because again, I'M STILL WAITING FOR THE NEXT SEQUEL BECAUSE THE ENDING WAS LITERALLY A HANGED ONE (and pls tell me when I gonna get the rest????!!!!???)
Word of Honor (2021)
Well, we know how strict that country about bl, but much to my surprise, they're pushing the limits with this series, the gesture, the words, the look, the eyes, omg I can going for long on why they make this sooo obviously gay, but couldn't quite going there it made me on the edge many times! (Like other non canon bl ships I'm currently invested). And one point more they're all pretty ((chefs kiss)). My favorite part were when Wen Kexing deliberately making a fit on everything, my silly clown.
Dele (2018)
This is an episodic format of a series, I wish they're putting more than 8 episodes. They're not yet exploring the main protagonist. I even need to read the book I literally SALVAGED after 3 years watching the last episode (cr book 2). I'm so in love with the main protagonist, I put his name in my pseudonym, I WISH HE WERE MY REAL HUSBAND (i still am). I can't quite explain it, but holy shit I'm in love. Still dooo.
Daredevil (2015)
It's dark dark and dark, if you watched it, you'll understand what I meant, but he's so cute like cuuuuuutttteeeeeee (tempeleng aja gw) series west genre ini itu gmna ya, plot makin kesini tuh bukan ngeberesin konflik-konflik yg udah tapi malah jadi makin runyam, but I think that's the charm with it, you bared with anticipation, curious of what kind a mess they could make, an even worse after another. Btw sampe postan ini dibuat, belum nonton S3 karena gw denial.
Hannibal (2013)
I think I watched it in it's running through S2, so like, around 2014? Seperti biasa gw nemu di lepi si aa, ya gw tonton. Most of the time I don't get what are they saying, ketinggian otak gw kaga nyampe dah, tapi I'm there not for that but for Mads and Mads only (then for hannigram in S3). And I kinda liked the every 'cruel beauty' they show. My favorite part ofc like everyone were the confession. I still played that part once in a while.
The Mandalorian (2019)
My utmost comfort series, it's so so slooow but I don't hate it, gw baca dimana kalo series ini tuh genrenya family dan gw setujuuuuu, karena despite the dystopian future they depicted, it is a family genre, I'm sooooffffffftttt for Grogu and Din, they're so insufferable sometimes I don't get it why I'm having soft spot for them.
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Ok my new offers for the character prompt are Greed's underlings (Dolcetto, Roa and Martel), Grandma Pinako and Buccaneer
Oooh more characters I haven't thought a ton about. I'm gonna group the 03 Greed squad together as one though, because I don't have enough thoughts about them individually.
0G Greed Squad
do I like them: they're all great! sometimes a family is a homunculus who ran away from home and 4 chimeras that share a single braincell
good qualities:
they clearly all care about each other
the military used them as human experiments and they ran away and found a way to rebuild their lives into something new and also stayed really positive about what happened to them, that's pretty admirable
they're all so utterly ridiculous. Greed is like hey Roa let me show this kid I'm a homunculus and Roa just BASHES HIS HEAD IN IN FRONT OF A 14 YEAR OLD (how many lives did Greed waste doing stupid stunts like that)
Martel tried to kill Bradley and I think that was very sexy of her
they're like, technically antagonists, but compared to a lot of the other villains they're actually good people, so when they misunderstand Al and think his brother is dead, they all get so concerned like "oh no this poor kid lost his brother, how should we comfort him" like they didn't just LITERALLY kidnap this child and tie him up
(If Ed WAS dead and Bradley hadn't shown up, I'd give them like 3 hours before they just decided to adopt Al into their crew.)
bad qualities:
they enable Greed too much lol. One, no one looked at Greed wanting to be immortal and went "hey, boss, aren't you like...already basically immortal?" or you know "hey, maybe we SHOULDN'T kidnap a 14 year old"
they died and it made me sad :(
favourite episode/etc: every part they're in is great honestly. Dolcetto getting his ass kicked by Al. Roa bashing Greed's face in without thinking. Martel trying to kill Bradley. The part where they tried to use hypnosis to get Al's memories back.
best quote:
Dolcetto: If they hadn't picked me, I would have died anyways. Human or chimera, it doesn't matter in the end. At least I'm alive.
Also
Alphonse: What animal did they combine you with?
Dolcetto: Guess.
Martel: Just watch. He raises one leg when he pees.
Dolcetto: I DO NOT!
head canon:
They were gearing up to adopt Alphonse into the squad I just know it. They looked at this kid who was just like them, without a normal body, unable to live a normal life because of it, and were like yup, he's one of us. If Izumi, Ed, and Bradley hadn't shown up and everything gone to hell, you know we'd be reading about the continued adventures of the Greed squad and their new little brother, Alphonse lol
Pinako
do I like them: I love her a lot
good qualities:
Pinako lost her husband, her son and his wife, watched her good friend leave behind his family only for that family to fall apart, and despite all that loss and grief she stays strong and positive and a steady rock for her grandchild and the two boys she basically adopted as her own grandchildren
She's such a good, staple presence for Winry and Ed and Al and she cares about all of them so much.
The THINGS this woman has had to do because she didn't want children to be forced to do them or do them alone. She went back to the Elric house after the transmutation and cleaned it up and buried the horrifying thing they'd created ALONE so they didn't have to. She stood by Ed's side when he decided to exhume it even though she didn't have to.
She's a voice of reason when people really need it and a kick in the ass when they really need that too. But she also knows when her kids need to be comforted.
She was best friends with an immortal dumbass for roughly 30 years and never told anyone his secret.
bad qualities:
She can be a bit gruff and too harsh.
Not that we see it that much in the series, but I bet she was an absolutely chaotic hellion when she was younger lol. I think she was probably even gruffer and harsher before the years mellowed her out a bit.
favourite episode/etc: When she stands by Ed's side when he exhumes the grave of the thing they created and doesn't leave him no matter how horrifying what's happening is.
brotp: Hohenheim!! I want to know so much more about their friendship. His conscious literally appeared as Pinako in his dreams.
best quote: can't think of one off the top of my head or find a good one, but she's got some great ones
head canon:
She met Hohenheim in a bar fight. She's also definitely the one who latched onto him and started dragging him around because this man couldn't make a friend (outside of the 50000 souls) if his life depended on it.
Buccaneer
do I like them: I do! Don't have very strong feelings on him, but generally like him.
good qualities: he cares about his men a lot
bad qualities: shrugs
favourite episode/etc: when he risked his life to go down into the tunnel and get his men back despite not knowing what was down there and also knowing that he might be sealed in there
brotp: him and Armstrong
best quote: can't think of any
head canon: honestly can't think of any
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Your favorite character for the ask thing :)
YAYYY LOGAN IS MY FAVOURITE CHARACTER I WILL DO HIM.
FIRST IMPRESSION
I don't remember, my memory is literally awful. BUT it was most likely something fond. I mean, I can remember (somewhat) reading fics back when pr*nxiety and l*gicality were the only ships people were allowed to write, and how I would just... insert logan in2 the fic, since no one fucking liked him.
IMPRESSION NOW
Well... he's my boyfriend of almost 4 years. So.
I totally hate him /s
He's the only guy I think about ever. And that's not an exaggeration. I like literally cannot stop having thoughts about him. I love him a lot and he loves me a lot and he means everything to me.
FAVOURITE MOMENT
ARGH ALL OF THEM? Maybe the part in WTIT where he's standing over Remus and is like "tsk, tsk, Remus. It's a shame you can't learn your lesson." It literally makes me insane.
Or all of DWIT! he's really good in that episode :)
Or or any scene in season 1. He was so smile-y and happy back then. :( i miss him.
I alao really like the scene in SVS where Logan is like "i have a plan to maks Thomas more punctuable" and Janus is like "how's that working out for you?" And Logan responds with "it's not."
i could literally keep listing scenes but ill stop.
IDEA FOR A STORY
I have many, but I will choose a Logan-centric idea.
I have been meaning to write a small series where Logan just... gets kisses from the rest of the sides. In the original idea, I was even going to write an x reader (for me specifically, in all honesty) where you got to kiss Logan. I just think he deserves to get kissed, both platonically and romantically!
I might write it. I haven't, but I have the plans still from like... years ago.
UNPOPULAR OPINION
I have quite a few, but I can't remember them at the moment.
I will say: Logan isn't always in the right. I joke about him being right a lot, but in canon, Logan makes a lot of mistakes. He is like... the biggest asshole, both on purpose and on accident.
When we talk about his arc, I feel like it's important to include that. That Logan isn't perfect and needs to learn (in an environment that will let him).
I see a lot of posts talking about how the sides need to apologise to Logan, and I 100% agree, but... while I personally do not think Logan needs to apologise for a lot of his actions (I know this kind of went against what I said, but I have very complex feelings about him and his actions), I do think... that the situation goes both ways.
We need to talk about the sides actions to him and his actions to the sides.
FAVOURITE RELATIONSHIP
Analogical. Sorry. I am a sucker. I think they are so in love. I literally rewatch the My Negative Thinking episode so often, I can recite it. It's my favourite episode.
I am also a very big fan of Loceit... I do enjoy Logan and Janus kissing sometimes. I think they're cute.
I'M ALSO A HUGE FAN OF ANALOGINCE. I do not enjoy prinxiety (so reading analogince fics is hard, because they usually only include one type of polyamorous relationships) but I am a huge sucker for analogince. I think Logan deserves two boyfriends and MAYBE Virgil and Roman can hold hands, too.
EDIT: HUGE FAN OF PLATONIC LOGAN AND REMUS. THEY ARE LITERAL BESTIES !!
FAVOURITE HEADCANON
I have... so many.
They are specifically my headcanons because this fandom's version of Logan sucks.
I really like Autistic Logan. I am an autistic person and I relate to him and also he told me himself that he was autistic. So like... it's canon. (/nsrs) He's so neurodivergent.
I just like disabled Logan in general. I love making Logan a wheelchair user or making him have chronic fatigue. I just give him a lot of my disabilities.
Logan Sanders has CFS/ME. Source: trust me, bro. /q
I also really like trans Logan! But that's not a big headcanon that I see in the fandom? Like... any type of trans Logan is very rare to me. It's usually just trans Virgil or Janus that I see.
The biggest ones I find are trans man or non binary, which is super cool, but I would like to see more diversity in this fandom's trans headcanons.
My personal favourite trans hc is that Logan is a transfem femme genderfluid man. I love femme Logan. It's my favourite ever. And also I'm right. Xenogender Logan is also super cool.
(I just want more queer headcanons, in general, for the sides that aren't... "Virgil is a trans man" "patton is pansexual" "logan is aroace" "janus is genderfluid" etc etc. They aren't lame, they're just overdone. Also, as an aroace agender person, if you keep making Logan and Remus aroace, I might run you over with a car.)
Also! Black Logan. But specifically my black logan, because I do not trust this fandom to write any characters of colour. (Mainly because... you have written them and they are racist as shit).
EDIR: OH MY GOD. I 4GOT ANOTHER ONE WAIT. METALHEAD LOGAN. I LOVE METALHEAD LOGAN. NU METAL FAN LOGAN LITERALLY MEANS EVERYTHING 2 ME.
THIS MAN 100% LISTENS 2 SLIPKNOT AND KORN !!! HE LISTENS 2 KITTIE !! DEFTONES. PAPA ROACH. LINKIN PARK.
OK. IM DONE NOW
#yay this was fun#im putting this in the main tags in hopes that people will ask me abt my hcs 4 the sides bcuz im smarter than every1 and right#uhm.#i am going 2 include something at the ends of the tags. please read them.#im putting them there so that i dont have 2 keep reading them.#sanders sides#logan sanders#logan#(important -> i ezperienxe delusions. please dont reality chexk me.#1 of these delusions is that... i am 100% datinf logan sanders from sanders sides#so please. be nice abt it.#if u r a seld shipper who self ships w lofan. i think u r so cool. just dont say anythinf abt it.#thank you)#ask
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your analysis of selim? i think he's hated way more than he deserves. hating him for valid reasons is fine but telling that he's gonna be such a bad sultan is really stupid [and especially because only now do they bring out history & say selim was bad which is historically inaccurate as well]. out of all of suleyman's sons, it was only mustafa who was loved by all & talented [show only cuz apparently mehmet was also extremely talented & selim wasn't a bad sultan] enough for the throne. bayezid was extremely hotheaded and you can't tell me that a prince who can't control his emotions, especially in front of state officials, will be a good sultan. everyone tells selim was extremely selfish & the instigator of all their fights, when they were younger & older. siblings are always like that?? mustafa obviously wasn't like that because he was way older than mehmet, mihrimah, selim, bayezid & cihangir to get into stupid fights w/ them. mehmet & mihrimah had frequent & annoying arguments because they were closer in age. selim & bayezid had frequent fights because they were closer in age. this is a thing with many siblings; the elder provoking the younger & the younger disrespecting the elder. why do people point out their sibling fights as evidence for selim's personality? i feel sorry for bayezid as a kid but i feel less remorse for him as he's older. i don't say he deserves execution, especially at the hands of his own father, but he did rebel against his father's order & then proceeded to flee to another empire; like, the punishment for that is execution, what did he expect after rebelling? i feel extremely sorry for all his sons though, they didn't deserve this fate when they were just victims of their father's rebellion. also, unpopular opinion but bayezid is lowkey overrated pls don't cancel me i love him but he's annoying at times like all characters & no one really acknowledges it back to selim, he was honestly very underrated. he was really slandered in the series and he didn't have any real support w/ him until nurbanu & sokollu. although hurrem did vouch for him to go to manisa, it was literally only because he was 'peaceful' [we can read that as untalented as well] and no harm would reach him because he wasn't a threat [i actually really liked this plan of hurrem's, tough & clever; only if she was actually supported in this]. even mihrimah, till the end, is quite unfair to him. he had a problem w/ alcohol & people telling him to just stop? like, it doesn't work that way? people have to suffer so much in order to stop their addictions & they're actually restricted from their addictions; selim was a prince, no one around him could restrict him [his parents could but they weren't w/ him in his provinces]. he did become politically active w/ nurbanu's growing ambitions & he took smarter, more cunning & dirtier measures than bayezid to win the throne. the battle for the throne was bloody; resorting to honour like mustafa did was obviously not the best decision & people insult selim for being cunning enough [or being influenced by cunning people] to win the throne. let's also keep in mind that selim didn't even have much of an interest for the throne until manisa & nurbanu. i also like his relationship w/ nurbanu. it paralleled suleyman & hurrem's w/ the concubine arcs but selim did end up being monogamous to her in the show. their chemistry was fantastic [props to engin & merve for their acting] and although i don't really enjoy the 'a woman makes a man strong & influences him in everything; good or evil' kind of take, i did enjoy their relationship [he also sometimes looked at her like she was this ethereal type miracle, appropriately so w/ her courage]. i like what the show did w/ bayezid's execution a lot, the whole scene was such a wonderful cinematic experience; the music, bayezid's agonizing screams, his sons falling one by one, selim crying because he didn't want it to end up this way, bayezid falling & his screams ceasing, selim's heartbroken face because he was always a soft person & he always loved bayezid;
ahh, what a scene, so much love for it. anyway, that's just my opinion; i think he's hated way more than he deserves, especially in comparison to other characters & he's actually one of my most favourite characters from s4 [but i honestly love all characters w/ their good & bad, mc has many complex characters & i live for it]. what do you think about selim? sorry if you got annoyed at the long ask, i can get really heated when talking about selim [especially in reference to his historical figure], hope you don't mind if❤ [if it is annoying i'll stop it]
(okay, I'll talk strictly about the show, since I don't feel like delving deep into historical waters. There is still stuff we don't know for sure and I do want to keep the line between show and history in my head, except for the similar themes.)
While he isn't particularly my favorite character, I appreciate MC Selim and he is a very interesting subject when it comes to analyzing him. I'm actually amazed with what the show did with him in the span of a season (and something, counting some S02B and S03B moments) - he was one of the most fleshed out characters in S04 and we could get a clear picture as to why he does what he does.
Some people consider his debut to be an insult, for it immediately showed some of his weaknesses, putting him in a bad light right out of the gate. But all I can see in this debut is a showcase of his predicament of the prince no one sees as a capable heir of the throne. It’s as if he sleeps with women and drinks as a coping mechanism he’s delved into, with Mihrimah having to do effort to snap him out of it. The Selim we see in the beginning of S04 is a hopeless person. He doesn’t have dreams and ambitions, it’s as if he’s a already a lost cause and he has no one to truly support him. Even Hürrem wanted to send him to Manisa not because she deemed him as worthy, but to use him as a shield in order to deceive her enemies and protect the actual favorite. That may seem like a clever plan, but in actuality, it failed spectacularly - not only did her enemies not get confused for a second and didn’t attack Selim at all, but she forgot to tell Bayezid why she did it and made Selim confused to the point of demotivation, because none of his brothers were truly happy with this decision and they were all opposing it, directly and indirectly. And while he may not show it that much, because of his more composed and pragmatic nature, Selim is sensitive to the opinions of his brothers and the people around him and their prevailing disapproval may be a part of why he became so different than the rest. It’s like no one wanted to get to know him.
Nurbanu’s entrance in Selim’s life is very cathartic in this aspect, for she actually worked with him and gave him the needed motivation and ambition to fight, awaking sides of him that were dormant for a long time. And yes, I do think that Selim’s pragmatism is something he always had, if the whole arrow incident in S03B where he sabotaged Bayezid’s arrow, which caused him to lose is any indication.
{I don’t think that the quarrels Selim and Bayezid had when they were little are so much indicators of Selim’s personality as they are foreshadowing of their future conflict. Right, these quarrels are normal for siblings and Mehmet and Mihrimah also fought like that (heck, even little Mehmet and Mustafa had a fight once in S01 and that fight was used as the conflict of the remainder of that one episode), but they weren’t as frequent as the ones of Selim and Bayezid. I don’t know, it’s just the atmosphere of these scenes was different and hinted at something more. It could be because we know the historical events and we could see every tiniest bit of early sibling rivalry between them as build-up, but still, I always felt there just was something else. Like the whole arrow incident I mentioned, a presumably harmless little situation gains a whole other meaning later on. It sets up neatly Süleiman’s opinions of both of them (his reaction to apparent disobedience and the making of a scene by someone he doesn’t expect to, by which I mean Bayezid), Hürrem’s retroactive ignorance of a possible bigger enmity and the roots of the whole conflict. It’s not Selim deciding to sabotage Bayezid’s performance as a last resort, maybe knowing that he surely won’t do better than his brother (doing a pretty typical ,,prank’’ for a little, naughty kid) that is exemplary of his cunning later, it’s his validation and him getting away with it that eventually becomes it, just like how he ends up getting away with stuff in the next season. Selim definetly isn’t the instigator of all the fights, especially because Bayezid, thanks to his more impulsive nature, is much more likely to start a fight in the first place and contrasts to Selim’s overall better composure. Provokations among them were mutual and both were consistently throwing darts at each other, one after another. Their conflict is a very nuanced issue: while people try to play right and wrong, both sides were at fault one way or another. The conflict between them is mostly caused by insensitivity, favoritism and ignorance and the desperation of both to try to prove themselves to their parents and win their support, at the end of the day. Why did they always calm down in front of their mother? Not only because of their joint respect for her, but also because of these same attempts to earn her support. Even Bayezid, who obviously had to be sure of her support, wasn’t completely certain of it after Hurrem turned it on Selim for a while. Selim, on the other hand, obviously never felt her support, it’s like something was missing right from the start. Combine that with their completely opposing personalities and the whole system encouraging competition for the throne and there you have the inevitable ultimate conclusion. That’s why I also love the set-up, the pay-off and the aftermath of Bayezid’s execution. It may be historically inaccurate that Selim, not Süleiman, executed Bayezid, but when you think about it, it was the most logical thing that could’ve happened, ending their conflict with a heart-wrenching bow. I love the scene of the execution itself, too - the action, the dialogue, the direction, the character moments, the themes... I don’t know whether Selim loved Bayezid by that point, per say, after all they went through, but it was clear that he knew that he had to do it, that it couldn’t have ended any other way, but he was broken over it. He was aware that it was, ultimately, a sin, which would continue haunting him. He couldn’t catch a break afterwards, he couldn’t stop. All was solved, but at what cost?}
I love his dynamic with Nurbanu - they balanced each other off so well, their chemistry was amazing, such a power couple. Nurbanu’s biggest contribution is hiding some of his flaws and mobilizing him to fight. Her cold pragmatism ,,grounds’’ Selim’s softer side, she’s there to always remind him of the stakes of the game and to shut off the last ounces of his vulnerabilities after Hurrem died. He sure is influenced by her, but that doesn’t mean that he blindly takes her word for everything - he is always ready to call her out when necessary and assure her that there are lines she shouldn’t cross. Despite of her pleas, he kept having affairs with other women (that is honestly a trend with all the men of the show, but still..), he got mad at her after what happened to Huricihan and most notably, after he found out that she possibly stole his mother’s ring. A part of why their dynamic works so well is precisely this strenght of character and their awesome compatibility.
I have heard affirmations that Selim doesn’t care about Mustafa, which... simply isn’t true? While they have the least scenes together and Selim is the one that considers him most as a rival and his most dangerous competitor for the throne (which would explain his startled reaction after Musti saved him from the janissary), it’s precisely Mustafa’s death that is the turning point of his character arc. He was upping his game slowly but surely and before then, but he didn’t do much in terms of attacks. Neither Selim, nor Nurbanu once considered attacking Mustafa, the supposed biggest danger to them, which I find respectable and admirable. The bomb with the death drops and then every hope about a fair game is abandoned. Selim gets the realization that being honorable won’t work. The only way to win is bend the system and play dirty. There’s no time for sitting around or looking nice. And even though Nurbanu realized this, too, as well as Selim, Nurbanu was always more inclined to act this way than him and now the righteousness of her methods were only getting confirmed. It was Selim that had to reach this end. Discovering that he is no longer allowed to show any kind of weakness. Every chance that appears on the horizon, he’ll take it. That brings him to his first true dirty plan - the trap he set through the fake Mustafa rebellion.
Speaking of which, the worst deed of Selim’s for me is connected to that rebellion. I know I may be very biased in this regard, since it affects my personal favorite character and isn’t as recalled as others, but I hated when, in Selim and Sokollu’s attempts to wash their hands from the pulled off stunt, Sokollu, his man, told SS that Mahidevran was giving money to the rebellion. Okay, it’s not said outright whether is this directly tied to Selim or it was something Sokollu himself came up with out of desperation or something (though it was hinted that both thought something through in a scene where both were saying that they should come clean out of this all somehow) and it’s not outrightly confirmed whether Mahidevran gave the money or not (I highly doubt she did it; not only because it would destroy her whole S04 arc and she would become, well... MCK Gulbahar, but also because after the messenger told her of her alleged blame in E129, her eyes widened in surprise.), but all it does is be the only explicit case where Selim indeed looks bad, for his proposal to return Mahidevran in the castle doesn’t seem to stem from genuine guilt and remorse, but rather a late and empty attempt to placate his own conscience. Oh, not to mention (for the upteenth time, sorry in advance) how the scene back in E58 where Hurrem tells Mahidevran that her kids will be there taking care for her when she’s alone, which was treated as some big foreshadowing in the show, as well, by both the voice of the S02B narrative and the fandom alike, loses its value even more with that framing, because Selim and Sokollu themselves brought her to this state in the first place!!! Despite it making sense anyway, it’s still such a disservice to Selim as a person both inside and outside of the writing.
One aspect of Selim’s pragmatism I find most interesting is his ability to turn his enemies into allies, knowing exactly how to amass them and get them on his side, be it through giving them more money and promising them the world. These alliances are all opportunistic in nature and may not be as loyal as those of Mustafa’s or of Mustafa’s people (like Atmaca) with Bayezid, but I think Selim knows this and wants to keep them steady enough for the common goal. As for what kind of a padisah he’ll be.... I believe that state matters would be the least of his concerns, since he was shown to not care so much about them, compared to his other brothers (but then again, the show itself doesn’t put the political capability of the princes at center stage - their personal virtues are always the determining factor of what makes a good padisah and what doesn’t, more of a psychological outlook, if you will.) and he perhaps won’t plan as many campaigns or conquer as many territories, maybe he won’t be that successful at all, but his cunning would bring him advantage in front of his people, he will be at least a bit careful of who he’s choosing and won’t simply lose it in front of everyone, compared to Bayezid’s impulsive temper.
[I love Bayezid as a character, but the shadier aspects of his personality sure tend to be overlooked. While his anger is directed mainly at Selim and Suleiman, it often reaches such extremes to the point it becomes destructive and affects everyone. He doesn’t deserve his execution at all and most of his actions stem from a very sympathetic place, given how SS never truly gave him a chance and he went on the inevitable path, because he, just like Selim, realized that honor won’t work in this war, but took the opposite approach from Mustafa, direct rebellion. And predictably, both approaches didn’t work since Bayezid, too, was taken advantage of. While he didn’t get justice, the lead-up to his execution is a character arc of his and there are many reasons and events linking it all together and showing us why it took place the way it did.]
Selim’s dynamic with Suleiman is proof of how you can be presumably favored, but you have to work to get there. The reasons Suleiman favored him are very telling and sad and we see that he also doesn’t favor him because of any and all capabilities he may have, but because of his self-imposed distorted view of loyalty Selim has to do a lot to preserve, actually. He constantly has to make it so it looks like he’s loyal and obedient and doesn’t work behind his back. He doesn’t get the fullest appreciation from his father, as well, and I certainly feel it impacts him, in a way.
I agree that Mihrimah could be unfair to Selim. They weren’t that close and she had this open preference to Bayezid. Most annoyingly is when, in their confrontation in E139, which highlights even more their parallel sins, Mihrimah doesn’t seem to face that sin of hers when Selim calls her out on it. She has a reason to deeply resent him after what he did to Bayezid, but was offended when he reminded her of the crime she also committed. More solidarity on that front would be a bit better, at least a hint of like recognizing like even for a moment. (but maybe then her scene with Mahidevran later wouldn’t be as impactful? Huh.)
And lastly, about his drinking - Nurbanu tried to restrict him, but it’s true that such habits aren’t easy to give up on, especially knowing how his drinking is a coping mechanism as much as it is something he enjoys. He knows he shouldn’t do it, he’s told he shouldn’t do it, but he can’t help it. He doesn’t drink when he’s planning or scheming, but he keeps on doing it more and more with every problematic action of his. It’s an attempt to supress his otherwise strong conscience to the max, seeing how after his brother’s execution he apparently always took a drink when he was alone at night, fighting an inner conflict with himself. I don’t think there was a way he could stop doing it permanently in the show. It was a part of who he was, unfortunately or not.
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TV | Leverage (Season 2, Rewatch)
Rewatch of the second season of TNT's LEVERAGE (2008-2012), created by John Rogers and Chris Downey together with Dean Devlin and his production company Electric Entertainment.
In anticipation of the show's reboot / revival / sequel LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION coming to IMDbTV on 09 July this year, I am rewatching the original 77 episodes and writing about my favourite moments and things from each episode, season by season.
201: THE BEANTOWN BAILOUT JOB
D: DEAN DEVLIN. W: JOHN ROGERS.
Original Air Date: 15 July 2009.
We here at the Rabbit Hole adore the Beantown Bailout Job very much (and by we I mean me). It is such a great season-opener and everything about it sets up the season so nicely. Also let me just say, I love the cheesy intro. I like to imagine that this plays on whatever website the clients usually end up finding the team. It would be so confusing. And wonderful.
This episode, of course, also introduces another of my favourite characters: Lt. Patrick Bonanno, State Police. And I am very sad that there is zero chance we'll ever get to see him in the reboot, since the wonderful Robert Blanche has unfortunately passed away last year. Bonanno was such a fantastic addition to this show and I love him very much. He is just brilliant in every episode he is in.
Aside from the introduction of Bonanno, Beantown is a brilliant episode for various reasons, but I wanna talk about this one most of all. John Rogers talked about this on his blog, I think -- not one member of the team can come straight out and admit that they need the others. It is the impromptu meeting at Sophie's performance that brings them together again (very much against Nate's best attempts). Only once they're at McRory's and Parker suggests stealing something to cheer up Sophie is when they all fess up and tell Nate that they want this team back together again. And then, of course, we have one of my favourite sequences in this entire show: Nate forcefully being bullied back into this family. They do exactly what he did to them in The Second David Job -- they get him to contribute knowledge to the case that they, allegedly, lack. And he knows what they're doing, of course, he's not an idiot. Well played, indeed.
I would also like to personally thank one Nadine Haders, this show's most brilliant costume designer, for every single piece of clothing she put on Christian Kane for this episode. That green sweater with the brown jeans jacket? All my love to you, Nadine. All of it. Also, uncharacteristically, Nate has some very good looks in this episode (the man looks healthy for once!) and I am unreasonably mad about it (actually, he has some very good looks this entire season).
One last thing: I would like to have a word with whoever decided to play the Andy Lange song here that Sophie's departure in The Two Live Crew Job is set to. It makes this first half of the season a circle. Who do I need to have words with? Who?
202: THE TAP-OUT JOB
D: MARC ROSKIN. W: ALBERT KIM.
Original Air Date: 22 July 2009.
An absolutely amazing episode for Eliot but also very much for Sophie. They are the Conference Of Mom Friends, and I adore them very much, thank you. It is a fantastic episode for them individually, but especially also for the specific relationship these two people have. There is an amazing post floating around on this website (this one here) talking exactly about this episode and Eliot and Sophie in the role of protectors in their team, their family.
There are a few scenes here that I really like and really, most of them are about or with Eliot. I love in the briefing at the hotel that Eliot does not just dismiss Sophie's misunderstanding of wrestling, but takes the time to explain to her what the sport is about -- and she listens. We also here get a nice glimpse at the fact that Eliot teaches them certain fighting skills and self-defence techniques, which I just love so much. Just as Sophie coaches them all in their grifts, he makes sure that they all have a certain know-how in fighting and protecting themselves. It's so good.
I am also very fond of both the moment where Eliot brings Sophie to the restaurant to meet with Rucker, but also Sophie showing up at the gym at night to talk to Eliot while he's preparing for the fight against Tank. Eliot gives away so much of himself in this episode, and it is very interesting to me that the person he does this with is, continually, Sophie. The others may be on comms, and might be, for all we know, listening in, but it is Sophie he tells these things to. It's like Hardison says later in The Two Live Crew Job: "We trust Nate to make sure the plan works, we trust you (Sophie) to make sure we're all okay." While I would not necessarily call Sophie the heart of the group (that's Hardison), she is very much the emotional centre of it.
This episode is also just very lovely to see how they all take to an environment that is, for once, not big city life. Eliot takes to it immediately, which makes sense, because he probably is from a town not much different from this one. Parker, somehow, fits in immediately as well (I love her I <3 Nebraska shirt). I feel like Nate never has any issues fitting in anywhere, he just takes things as they come. It is Hardison and Sophie who have difficulties -- Sophie because she is, after all, a bit posh and needs certain standards met, and Hardison because his world of technology does not mix well with a small, rural Midwestern town ("Can't hack a hick" anyone?).
203: THE ORDER 23 JOB
D: ROD HARDY. W: CHRIS DOWNEY.
Original Air Date: 29 July 2009.
I occasionally see some posts on here that call what the team does to Charles Dodgson in 512: The White Rabbit Job the worst thing the team does to a mark. I have to say, objectively, I think what they do to Eddie Maranjian in this episode is much worse. Of course, Dodgson is a good person, and Eddie is a crook, but still. Objectively? This episode is more evil.
Anyway, this episode has some fantastic moments that I adore a whole lot. I love Eliot and Hardison as cops, Sophie's act is absolutely amazing, and I have a super soft spot for both Nate teaching Parker what he is doing, and also Eliot and his side quest of helping Randy.
I am so incredibly fond of all these little moments where Parker's eventual role of Mastermind is already being planted. She always asks Nate questions, if she doesn't have a part to play in the con, she is with Nate, learning. She says it in the pilot episode already: "I'm really good at one thing, only one thing, that's it. But you, you know other things, and I can't stop doing my one thing, can't retire." And then she does her best to learn the other things Nate knows. This episode particularly, how Nate explains to her how NLP works, that what he is selling is fear. Nate is so patient with her, too. I love them both so very much.
Eliot's side quest with Randy and his abusive dad is an absolutely excellent addition to this episode. Especially after the previous Eliot-centric episode, this small thing just goes to show that, at their core, these are good people. Yes, they are criminals, the lot of them. But they are not bad people. Things like this just make me think that, it had to have been this exact combination of people Dubenich put together. Any other thief, any other hacker, and Nate would have walked away from this alone. It had to be Parker, Hardison and Eliot for this to work exactly as it did. And Eliot looking out for Randy even though they are in the middle of a con, taking his time to make sure Bob, the U.S. Marshall goes to see Randy, is exactly something that brings this point home.
Lastly, I adore that everyone shows up at the court house when Eddie goes to find his money. He knows they all conned him, but they know no one is ever going to believe him. It's a fantastic gloat scene. And I also really love that Nate explains why this works to the others: "So, here's everything you need to know about criminal law. Every crime has two elements, Actus reus, the act itself, and mens rea, Literally "The Guilty Mind." ... Now, for escape, the prisoner has to both break out of custody and show the intent to escape. ... Which brings us back to our friend Eddie and how the brain reacts to fear. In the heat of the moment Eddie didn't ask himself a simple question, who would doubt his guilty mind?"
204: THE FAIRY GODPARENTS JOB
D: JONATHAN FRAKES. W: AMY BERG.
Original Air Date: 05 August 2009.
This one was Bernie Madoff inspired, if I recall correctly, who was arrested in 2008, around the time Berg, Downey and Rogers were already bouncing ideas back and forth for this season.
There is so much to love in this episode! Where to even begin. Maybe with Parker replacing Sophie at the client meeting? Or Sophie immediately heading for both popcorn and the cookie tin after the breakup? How about Parker perching on Eliot's arm rest with her food? Nate's headmaster act? Eliot as Coach Brewer (red is a fantastic colour on him, thank you Nadine)? Hipster rich newlyweds Parker and Hardison? The return of my beloved FBI fools McSweetheart and Taggert? Taggert being McSweetheart's biggest supporter in his affection for Parker? Sophie and Widmark? The actual science-sical with all these adorable kids singing about science?
So much to love. Chock-full of greatness, this episode. Also Frakes, once again, directed the hell outta this. I love this episode so very much.
One moment that does, however, absolutely win out over everything else, is the scene at Nate's apartment after Hardison and Parker meet McSweeten and Taggert again:
Eliot: One of you two can identify the gunman, right?
Hardison: Oh, yeah, sure. He stopped and let me take a picture of him as I was chasing him.
Eliot: Hey, you know what, man? I've been around little kids all day. I don't need to come home and do all this crap.
That line, Mr Spencer? "I don't need to come home and do all this crap"? Home? Sir, we are four episodes into the second season, and you are already calling Nate's apartment home. Honestly, that boy has been invested into this group as a family from the moment Hardison hands him a check in the pilot episode, if not earlier. And I am very much here for all of it.
205: THE THREE DAYS OF THE HUNTER JOB
D: MARC ROSKIN. W: MELISSA GLENN & JESSICA RIEDER (GRASL).
Original Air Date: 12 August 2009.
This is another one of those episodes which, when I think about it, I am not entirely into, but then when I watch it, I always love it. It's a brilliant episode, but the mark rubs me in all the wrong ways and I think that's why my general reaction to this episode in theory is mostly "ew". Which I think is kind of the point, as well.
There is much to love in this episode, though. Sophie being Nate in this one, Nate being very wary of this concept and also having difficulties letting someone else take control ("If you don't mind, I would still do the 'Hardison, run it' thing" Nathan you precious little man, I love you so much). I think it's so nicely done. I mean Sophie has run cons before -- she was the Mastermind behind the First David Job, and she runs their con in the Second David Job as well -- but then she was confident, now she is going through things, on the brink of rediscovering herself for who she is. And of course, it bites her in the ass a little bit.
I absolutely adore Conspiracy Nut Hardison and his fantastic apartment. Set Design did a magnificent job here. I am so fond of Parker asking Eliot about the different things -- the council, the moon landing, Loch Ness monster -- and also very much the bit at the end where he and Hardison answer Parker's questions while he prepares food. That ending bit overall is just absolutely excellent and I love it with my whole heart. Eliot cooking for all of them in Nate's kitchen, giving Parker stuff to try, while Hardison sits there and sips his orange soda out of a wine glass. Meanwhile Nate pouring wine for Sophie, and then going over to her to make sure she is alright. For his slightly more sadistic streak in this season, Nate is so good with Sophie here. And honestly I think this conversation here is one of the reasons why Sophie feels able to leave them for a while. It is Nate's reassurance of "Whatever you need, I'm here for you" that lets her take this leave of absence.
206: THE TOP HAT JOB
D: PETER O'FALLON. W: M. SCOTT VEACH & CHRISTINE BOYLAN.
Original Air Date: 19 August 2009.
I adore this episode! The fantastic Veach and Boylan on the keyboard for this one (who, I've had to find out, are both tangentially involved with my latest hyperfixation, SHADOW AND BONE -- Veach having written my favourite episode, and Boylan being married to the showrunner), which is just lovely, because they are both excellent.
First off, I would like to, once again, give all my love to Nadine Haders for that Pizza Guy outfit she put Kane in for the recon sequence. A+ costuming, thank you Nadine.
This episode has so many excellent comedic beats and a wonderful many Hardison/Eliot moments. Sophie trying to set up Nate with their client is absolutely hysterical -- especially considering that she had just been broken up with and had been urging Nate to figure out what it is that is between them since day one. I especially love her attempt at finding things Nate has in common with Jameson: "She's a scientist. And well, you're a bit nerdy, aren't you? ... And food, she works with food. Well, you eat, don't you?" Like, girl, what are you trying to do here, really?
I absolutely adore Hardison and Eliot trying to get into the server room so Hardison can access the data they are trying to get before anyone can get rid of it. Eliot hooking Parker's rope to Hardison's belt, Eliot's complete awe at Hardison's ability to remote access their mark's phone ("You can do that?" Eliot, honey, he can do so much more), the two of them wedged underneath the desk, and then, of course, Eliot's huge smile when Hardison hacks the scanner at the door with the help of his gummy frogs. I love these boys together so much, and this episode has given me so many great moments.
I am also incredibly fond of Nate's magician act. That is a brilliant role and it suits him so well. And I love how genuinely enthusiastic he is about magic.
207: THE TWO LIVE CREW JOB
D: DEAN DEVLIN. W: JOHN ROGERS & AMY BERG.
Original Air Date: 26 August 2009.
This is an absolutely brilliant episode for so many different reasons. Let me get two things out of the way straight off the bat: 1) Where do I address my "Chaos For Leverage: Redemption" campaign to? and 2) Where do I address my "Apollo Robbins For Leverage: Redemption" campaign to? I want both of them back desperately!
Of course, this episode is important as a major stepping stone in Sophie's character arc. Because of Chaos and his bomb, she has to kill off one of her aliases which is the last thing that then leads to her taking a leave of absence to figure out who she is and who she wants to be. That scene in her apartment with the bomb is also just an excellent moment for the team as a family. The care with which everyone interacts with Sophie, Parker's instant pudding hack, Eliot's instructions on how defuse this situation, Sophie's immediate shift into protector mode once it becomes clear that the only real solution is to run and telling everyone to leave immediately, Nate staying behind and even when Sophie tells him to leave, waiting for her by the apartment door -- they care for each other so much.
I also really love the con-off with Starke's crew. It is so nice to see how similar yet different he and Nate are, and the same goes for the other crew members. I adore their individual confrontations a lot. Eliot's non-fight fight with Mikel Dayan, Parker's thief-off with Apollo, Hardison and Chaos' baby monitor fight. It just really highlights who our beloved characters are and what makes them them, now that we see them, metaphorically, in front of their mirror.
And then, of course, the actual heist is also just amazing. I adore that Starke chooses Nate as his alias to gain access, it is such a great move. Parker and Apollo talking in the ventilation shaft about birds is also just so lovely. And as an admirer of Eliot's arms, I am also very fond of his fight with Mikel. Good choices have been made, I appreciate all of them. The reveal at the end is also absolutely amazing. To beat them they had to save them? Brilliant.
Lastly, of course, Sophie's goodbye at the graveyard with Nate. What a spectacular moment. Also just, the visuals are so beautiful. I love the lighting here. And of course the return of Andy Lange's song, which is just perfect. I am so happy that this is the journey they decided to give Sophie when it became clear that Gina would not be able to be in the full seasons due to her pregnancy. They accommodated her so beautifully and gave Sophie such an amazing moment of character growth. This is why I love this show and the people who made it so much. All my love, to all of them.
208: THE ICE MAN JOB
D: JEREMIAH CHECHIK. W: CHRISTINE BOYLAN.
Original Air Date: 02 September 2009.
We love The Ice Man Job! Another fantastic episode by one Christine Boylan who we love in this house. Our very first episode without Sophie being there, and it's a great one. I absolutely adore how they worked in moments with our favourite grifter in a way that so wonderfully accommodates Gina's pregnancy.
I absolutely adore the moments where all of them eventually end up calling Sophie. Parker, hiding underneath the bar after Nate tells her she'll be the grifter in this one, calling her mom Sophie in a panic without wanting the others to know, but still needing her advice and missing her so much. Then Eliot, calling to complain to his mom Sophie about Hardison going overboard again with the grift, needing the knowledge that his concerns are being heard and aren't unfounded, needs to hear the other protector of the family acknowledge his rightful fear that things will go sideways. And of course also Hardison, calling mom Sophie so she can pick him up from the party help him out of the mess he's made, hoping against all hope that she'll be able to help without having to involve Nate. The others both had the luxury to ask Sophie not to tell Nate -- Hardison had no other choice but to let her call it in. Lastly, Nate too, at the end, calling his wife Sophie. And honestly, I love that Sophie drops her phone into her drink after the call, because Nate is the only one not giving her what she wants to hear. The kids, all of them, called with an "I need you" and that is the one thing Nate doesn't give her.
There are many other things in this episode that I love very much. The opening briefing, Parker feeling alone on the big empty couch, trying to sit next to Eliot, but he makes her move. Nate's big DadTM moment of "Eliot, can you please sit next to Parker" and Eliot's very long-suffering oldest child answer "No! I'm sitting here now."
Then of course Eliot and Hardison's two moments -- Eliot telling Hardison "I ain't bailing your ass out" and then when he eventually does anyway, Hardison's smug joy, forcing Eliot to sort-of-hug him back at McRory's. Eliot's unsuccessful attempt to make him helping Hardison a decision forced onto him by Parker, and Parker refusing to accept the "blame" immediately. Their whole dynamic this episode is just so good. Neither Eliot nor Parker being happy with Hardison in this role (Parker's refusal to ride with him in the Ferrari), Eliot proudly watching Parker do her thing over the security camera ("Stuck it!").
Lots of love also to Pasha Lychnikoff as our main Russian goon, who is just fantastic here, our much beloved Lt. Patrick Bonanno, and also Nadine Haders for so many amazing looks, especially on Eliot.
209: THE LOST HEIR JOB
D: PETER WINTHER. W: CHRIS DOWNEY.
Original Air Date: 09 September 2009.
Court-room episode, which means we have our friend Chris Downey on the keys here, and he gave us an absolutely excellent introduction for Tara Cole played by the lovely Jeri Ryan. Honestly, the more often I watch this episode, the better it gets. Tara is just so good.
Highlights of this episode include: Sophie's immediate "who died?!" when Nate shows up at her apartment in London, Hardison playing "Where is Waldo Ford," Hardison and Eliot in prison, the first appearance of Nate's lawyer alias Jimmy Papadokalis who wears brilliantly loud and obnoxious suits in outrageous colour-combinations, Hardison stalling Blanchard at court security with his keys, Nate's reveal of Ruth as Kimball's daughter (I am fascinated that he completely drops the character here -- he is just Nate now), and of course, the reveal of Tara at the end.
Honestly, this is such a magnificent episode to introduce Tara's character. We have just watched the team scramble and fuck up without Sophie, and then their next job gets more complicated because of this random lawyer who shows up. And she's so righteous and law-abiding and absolutely not someone they should be taking with them on their job. And Tara plays it perfectly. Her honest try at getting Orson to talk to them, her confusion about her "dogs", her excited smile when she gets to con Blanchard and be a bit dishonest -- it is so good. And then we get that complete 180° when the team finds her in Nate's apartment. Not just visually, but the personality. Her voice drops a bit too. Jeri fucking rocked this introduction. The reveal is so damn good.
210: THE RUNWAY JOB
D: MARC ROSKIN. W: ALBERT KIM.
Original Air Date: 13 January 2010.
I have zero interest in fashion but I honest to God love every single one of these characters at fashion week. Fashion!Eliot is absolutely fantastical and I love him. Julien, my beloved. Fashion!Parker is very cute with her braid and even before she gets the model makeover she outshines every single other person at the event. Fashion!Hardison is surprisingly understated but I dig it. Tara as Caprina is also just excellent. And I absolutely, un-ironically adore Fashion!Nate. Jacques is such a character. Nate exchanged the usual "obnoxious and greasy" with "gay," slapped some would-be-French that sounds like German on top of it, and called it a character. And I love it.
I also very much love the three video calls with Sophie in this episode. The kids calling in the beginning, complaining about Tara. I absolutely adore both the "she's hot" moment and Eliot's "...and all the way to Europe?" when Sophie says Nate lets what is good for him walk out the door. Parker's little "I just miss you" before they hang up has me all the way up in my emotions every damn time. Tara calling Sophie to complain about Nate is also just excellent. The whole bit with Nate's "I'm sexy because I'm broken" thing is just *chef's kiss*. And of course Nate's call at the end. I love that Sophie hangs up on him, it is so fair, it is absolutely justified. And I think he knows that too.
So many great other moments too -- Hardison's Steven Seagal comment about Eliot's clothes, Nate's "Julien, sweetheart" and Eliot's little clap before taking the money, Nate and Parker at the mark's house, Eliot and Tara vs the Triads, Eliot and Parker at fashion week together ("It's a fashion show, not Thieves'R'Us"), and of course Tara's "For what it's worth, Sophie was right. You guys are the best I've ever seen ... But no one in the world, is as good as you think you are."
211: THE BOTTLE JOB
D: JONATHAN FRAKES. W: CHRISTINE BOYLAN.
Original Air Date: 20 January 2010.
This episode has got to be one of my favourites, if I were forced to chose some. I love a bottle episode, and this one is just magnificent. Excellent client, great mark, fantastic additional characters, wonderful episode for the team. All around just, so good. Not surprising if Frakes and Boylan are at the wheel together, of course.
The addition of Cora is so lovely. I would have loved to see more of her, to be honest. She is such a great character. I love what her presence does to who we see Nate as. I adore when characters get to show new sides of themselves, it's so nice. Also, Nate's comment to Eliot about him not wanting Eliot to like Cora because she's like his niece? Most excellent.
I adore our three police officers too. Mickey, Danny and Johnny are such great additions. I really liked them. How they just went with whatever Nate was planning and in the end decided to just pretend none of this ever happened, it's just so good.
Doyle and the Liams as our villains of the week are also just fantastic. Also I just love Irish accents, it sounds so good. I love to hear it.
Other highlights of this episode include: Tara's "I'm Trish and I'm lonely", the kids going for their individual emergency funds stashed in Nate's place (they are all so fantastically in character, I love it), Nate using his dad's name as his alias, everyone stopping to see if Nate is going to succumb to the booze again, Hardison's excitement about pulling off the wire in under 2h, Hardison faking the weather, Eliot and Parker on safe duty. Also, rewatching this episode, I am absolutely 100% convinced that what Eliot is doing to distract the Liams from Tara conning Doyle, absolutely categorises as flirting. The way he throws that dart at the board and then buys them beer? Mr Spencer, sir, you are flirting with these guys.
212: THE ZANZIBAR MARKETPLACE JOB
D: JEREMIAH CHECHIK. W: MELISSA GLENN & JESSICA RIEDER (GRASL).
Original Air Date: 27 January 2010.
The wonder twins with yet another magnificent episode. No surprises here. We have not just the return of Maggie but also of Sterling! We love this!!! (Seriously, I want both of them back in the reboot. I don't care that they're most closely tied to Nate. Bring them back.)
This episode has so many absolutely excellent moments as well. I love the opening sequence in the bar, with them going over possible next clients together, Nate kicking Eliot for flirting with the bartender, and then of course also Sterling walking in. The interaction Nate and Eliot have here is just fantastic.
Sterling: *walks in*
Nate: Eliot, I'm gonna ask you not do do anything violent.
Eliot: Wha-what are you talking about? I only use violence as an appropriate response.
Sterling: Hello, Nate.
Eliot: *responds appropriately*
And to think that Sterling only gets beat up here because Mark Sheppard's son was visiting the set that day and wanted to see his dad get beat up by Eliot. We stan one Sheppard Jr.
I very much love the scene where Nate and Sterling go over what they have on Lundy, and then Parker interrupting them out of nowhere, just sitting there on the counter, like she's been there forever (which she probably has). Also just, fantastic clothes on Parker, thank you Nadine. Maggie showing up here is of course also brilliant and I am very fond of Parker making Maggie a fugitive bag. It is so completely adorable. I love my girl so much.
Another favourite moment is, of course, Tara and Eliot getting Chernov to tell them where the sale of the Fabergé egg will take place. Tara not saying a damn thing, Eliot grumpily doing what Tara tells him to ("Do that thing with your eyes that scares people" / "What -- I don't know what you're talking about"), Chernov's complete unease about this whole entire situation, and then of course Tara and Eliot's other interaction:
Tara: What we imagine is always so much better than reality.
Eliot, with the tiniest voice possible: Like love?
Tara: *just stares at him, confused*
Just, *chef's kiss* this scene.
The scenes in the embassy are also just excellent. Tara and Nate pretending to be a couple, Nate's inability to deal with the idea of Maggie and Alexander, Maggie and Tara hysterically giggling while talking about Nate, Sterling pretending to be drunk (and incredibly gay) to get Parker access to the egg room -- brilliance, all the way through.
I adore Eliot taking charge of the situation once it becomes clear that Maggie and Nate have been taken hostage. Parker doing her magic and switching the bomb with the empty briefcase in the elevators is beautiful. Maggie kissing Nate instead of Lundy in what could have been their final moment and regretting it instantly the moment Parker shows up is excellent.
And the final scene back at McRory's is also just wonderful. The kids watching the news about Sterling with Tara ("I hate this guy" / "Now, you're part of the team"), and Nate talking with Maggie. I adore Maggie in this scene so much. Her and Nate's relationship is so lovely. We know Sophie understands how Nate ticks, but Maggie knows him so well too, still.
213: THE FUTURE JOB
D: MARC ROSKIN. W: CHRIS DOWNEY & AMY BERG.
Original Air Date: 03 February 2010.
This episode is so good for so many reasons. First off, I adore Luke Perry (I'm still sad about him) even if he plays creeps like Rand in most everything I've seen him in. He was just so good. Second, Medium Tara is probably my favourite role of hers. It's a lot softer than many of the other characters she's done, and I love it. Also the costuming is just excellent.
But I want to talk about Parker most of all. The scene where Rand cold reads her is so well done. Riesgraf knocked it out of the park here. Also, I love how Nate, as soon as Rand starts approaching and doing his act, barely ever takes his eyes off her. He occasionally glances at Rand, but his attention is on Parker at all times. And it just makes me feel things.
The team coming back to Nate's to find Parker sitting on the floor in front of the couch, crying also makes me super emo. They are all so very careful with her here. Even Tara, who hasn't been with them for that long. I quite like how Eliot and Hardison choose to sit a bit away, giving her space, and Nate carefully approaches and sits closest to her. They are all so good with her here, I love them all so much. And I absolutely adore this part of the conversation:
Tara: So what do we do now?
Parker: Cut off his arms. And his head. Yeah. I wanna kill him. Can we make that happen?
Eliot: Yeah, I can...I mean, I could...
Also earlier, after Tara acknowledges that Rand is good at what he does, Hardison says "He should be shot." I adore how both our boys would not hesitate to end this man for hurting Parker like this. That's their girl and he went too damn far. And even though Nate suggests a way of retaliation that is less final, he isn't above hurting the man either. Because that's his girl, too:
Hardison: Nate had me rig the table with a mild electrical current.
Eliot: You electrocuted him?
Nate, smugly: Yes, I did. It helped sell the bit.
Parker: I approve.
Nate: Thanks, Parker.
Eliot: No, her agreeing with you is not a good thing.
Nate, whispering to Parker: Thanks.
And add to that the absolute joy each and every one of them have when fucking with Rand to fulfil Tara's predictions? *Chef's kiss.* Absolutely beautiful.
There is so much more absolutely fantastic content in this episode, but I just wanna point out the ending where they meet with the client again. Nate is so good with them here. The way he talks to Jodie about her baby and how she will see her late husband in the child, makes me cry every damn time. Just like Tara says, "Yeah, now I see why you do it," this is why this show is so damn good. It's because of this exactly. Because for one shining moment within so much suck and tragedy, there is goodness and a wrong that has been made right. They help people and it isn't just fleeting momentary relief. They change people's lives for the better. I love this fucking show so much.
214: THE THREE STRIKES JOB
D: DEAN DEVLIN. W: JOHN ROGERS.
Original Air Date: 10 February 2010.
First half of the second finale! Patrick Bonanno my beloved! I get so sad every time he gets shot here. My man deserves better than this. I love Bonanno so damn much, man. I absolutely adore that Nate goes to see his family at the hospital. Like, this is a cop. The very opposite side of the law Nate and his people operate on. But he goes to see him anyway, because this is their cop. And I love that Bonanno's wife recognises Nate's name. "He wanted to buy you a drink. And then arrest you." That's just so good.
I also absolutely love Richard Kind as Brad Culpepper, the corrupt mayor. I would love to see him back in the reboot, but I doubt there'd be any reasonable explanation why on earth they'd have to see this particular mayor again. I just think Richard Kind is an absolutely fantastic actor.
Anyway, favourite moments. Hardison and Eliot at Bonanno's house is beautiful. I am so fond of how Hardison deals with law enforcement while impersonating law enforcement. He tears them down and builds them back up again, every single time. And I adore how Eliot just smiles at his antics. He crawls around on that carpet with the young cop and Eliot just stands there and smiles. I love them, guys. I really do. Parker pretending to be Brad's pregnant lover with Tara's help is also just most excellent.
And of course: Roy Chappell. Baseball Eliot, my most beloved. There is so much to love about this whole concept. Eliot's reluctance at first because he doesn't like baseball. The discovery that baseball is actually something cool and something he is good at. His absolute childlike joy at the energy drink commercial Hardison made him. His damn hair during the actual game. The sandwich! The enthusiasm about the sandwich. Hardison admitting that the sandwich thing is cool.
I also absolutely love Hardison and Parker as Beavers Fans. The badly photoshopped picture of Dean Devlin and John Rogers as the radio hosts makes me smile so much. So does hearing their voices on the show. Both Hardison and Parker's phone calls to them are also brilliant. Parker speaking Spanish? Marvelous. The two of them demonstrating the Beavers leaving? *Chef's kiss.*
The final showdown with Brad and then the FBI is also just most excellent. Nate going ballistic on Brad because of Bonanno. Hardison and Lucille. Parker giving Lucille a little kiss before they send her to explode as a distraction. Hardison quoting Spock to say goodbye to Lucille. Hardison being pissed at Nate about Lucille. And of course: Jim Sterling, Interpol. The bastard. I love him.
215: THE MALTESE FALCON JOB
D: DEAN DEVLIN. W: JOHN ROGERS.
Original Air Date: 17 February 2010.
Second half of second finale! And it's a good one, too. This show has absolutely brilliant finales, lemme tell you.
What do we love about this episode? MUCH. Tara's naked bit is excellent. Eliot and Parker sharing a look after watching Tara's naked bit is even better. Parker turning on the porn channels on the hotel tv is hilarious. Eliot talking to the receptionist about the gym is hysterical ("Ah, the fitness spa. Isn't the Zen Steam Garden divine?" / "Yeah....delicious").
Nate on stairs vs Sterling in elevator is probably the pettiest thing I have ever watched on television and it is absolutely amazing. I don't think anything can ever top this as pettiest moment. It is just so good.
Sterling, of course, is always great fun. I love that he has his own little villain theme that announces him before he even enters the screen. Love a good villain theme. And I adore his moment with FBI Bob outside Brad's hotel room.
Sterling: Name's Bob, right?
Bob: Yes, sir.
Sterling: You've been here the whole time, Bob?
Bob: Yes, sir.
Sterling: And nobody's gone in or out, Bob?
Bob: No, sir.
Sterling: Then would you mind explaining, where the HELL THE MAYOR IS?!
Absolutely perfect.
Nate going back to his place always has me all up in my emotions. Also, I think Sterling here absolutely believes that what he is offering Nate, is good for him. That he can save him from himself or something. They were something like friends at some point, after all. And of course, Nate calling Sophie. She is, of course, unbeknownst to him, already on the way to save his ass. But he calls her and finally tells her exactly what she wanted to hear at the end of The Ice Man Job: "I need you. Not the team, me." Sir. I am emo about you.
And then of course the final con and the reveal of Sophie's return. I absolutely love that Parker's first reaction to Tara possibly betraying them was to try and throw her off the roof. That's my girl (I love Tara, but that was fair). Also just, if you pay attention on the boat scenes, you can see Sophie from as early as Kadjic hearing Nate's offer and then leading Nate and Eliot below deck. If you can pick out her hair and know the colour of her coat from the scene in the helicopter, you know that she is there. And then, below deck, you can see her so many times -- at one point essentially back to back with Nate -- before any of the characters know she's there. And can I just say, I absolutely love Nate's completely shocked face when he hears her voice. Those comedically big eyes are just excellent.
Everyone seeing Sophie again is done so well. Hardison and Eliot's confused "Sophie?" when she walks past. Eliot winking at Sophie after they free Nate. Parker hugging her immediately once her and Tara arrive on the ship. Hardison putting his hand on the small of her back as he passes by her to go down the stairs. I just love them all so much.
And lastly of course, the reveal of the plan, Nate cuffing himself to the railing and making Sterling leave his family alone. What Nate says to them always makes me so emo too: "You guys are the most honourable people I have ever met in my life. You have become my family, my only family. And I will never forget that." John Rogers, sir, we need to have some words once I get this lake out of my eyes. And I obviously can't not mention the kiss. Finally, finally Nate gets his shit together. And she slaps him and it is perfect. And then they leave and he sits down and bleeds and Sterling, for a moment, is genuinely concerned about Nate as a person and not merely about Nate as his only way to nail Kadjic.
Bob: Who the hell is this guy?
Sterling: I have no idea.
Nate: My name is Nate Ford. And I'm a thief.
Yes. Yes you are, you magnificent bastard.
[image taken from the electricnow website]
#tv blogging#rewatch blogging#leverage#leverage tnt#nate ford#tim hutton#sophie devereaux#gina bellman#eliot spencer#christian kane#alec hardison#aldis hodge#parker#beth riesgraf#john rogers#the beantown bailout job#the tap out job#the order 23 job#the fairy godparents job#the three days of the hunter job#the top hat job#the two live crew job#the ice man job#the lost heir job#the runway job#the bottle job#the zanzibar market place job#the future job#the three strikes job#the maltese falcon job
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THOTS ON SHADOW AND BONE
Hello everyone! it is I, Trice, and i come with my thoughts on the Shadow and Bone show cause ive got many
I'm gonna divide this in what i liked, what i disliked, and what i think could have been better but didn't really bother me. Feel free to send your opinions too!
As a whole, I really liked the show and I think it's a great adaptation that both fans and newcomers will enjoy. It's super well done! and every episode had me glued to the tv even though I knew what was going to happen.
Beware this is long
To start,
What i liked
Mal and Alina
I never really liked Mal in the books, mainly cause he had like, nothing going on for him, and not having his pov made him no favors whatsoever. Alina's perception of him was everychanging, two factors that didn't make him unlikeable necessarily, but that made me not want to read about him. In the show he's way more likeable and even though he still doesn't have a lot going on for him, you can see that he's always trying to protect alina, and you also see a bit of his demeanor through Archie's acting. I think he made a great job at portraying him. And Alina! Alina who in the books was essentially a y/n sort of character (although she did get better over time), her character, likes, dislikes, her DRIVE was incredibly portrayed in the show. Also Jessie (loml, marry me) and Archie have incredible chemistry together and they sold their yearning SO WELL (and so did the kid actors portraying them as children oh my GOD)...yall...i cried when they held hands. My favourite scene was definitely when Alina took care of Mal's wounds (a favorite trope of mine). And the HURT in their eyes whenever they thought the other was in danger....i saw the show dubbed but I'm sure their voices made it beyond incredible as well, their face acting was just on. point. Overall the show rEALLY makes me root for them both individually and together which is something the books didn't manage to do.
The Darkling
AAAAA i really enjoyed the Darkling omg, incredible charisma, Ben does such a great job (and so did his voice actor in Spanish oh my GOD). His acting was just as I imagined it in the books and i loved how he could be as sweet and mysterious as he could be menacing. In fact! i liked him more than i did in the book, and i think it was a great choice to make him more human. I'm not sure if this was Ben or the writing, but i could really see his yearning for an equal, for Alina, his loneliness and his thirst for power and control too. Great love interest, even greater villain. And his wardrobe was phenomenal. I also really liked how they implied that The Darkling was a name given by other people, it was very believable that people would call someone who literally controls shade something akin to "son of the dark" or something of the sort, instead of it being a name he gives himself or his job title (both if which are incredibly pathetic and cringy to think about).
Jesper
No comments. He was just great. I love Kit.
Nina
Omg Danielle did SUCH a great job at portraying Nina, it's exactly how i imagined her in Six of Crows.
Helnik
THE. YEARNING. THE. CHEMISTRY. I didn't love their scenes at the boat but once that was over I was practically screaming at the screen to jUST KISS ALREADY. Calahan and Daniell have such good chemistry together and the few changes they made only served the story better. I did wish they had development over more time cause Matthias' change of mind felt too quick, but i get why they had to rush. Because of how good their chemistry was, their fallout also was incredibly painful.
Inej's fear of the Menagerie and her morals
Amita's portrayal of Inej's hurt, devotion and her refusal to kill (and later hurt cause she has killed) is incredibly subtle but so SO effective. She's so talented really and truly sold Inej's feelings throughout the show.
VFX
Man.....the fold, the volcra, the grisha powers.....kudos to the animators and overall artistic team cause they were incredible. Also seeing the different title animations in each episode was such a tiny detail that made me so excited and they all looked so good.
Ketterdam
Again, kudos to the artistic team, everything about Ketterdam felt so alive (and weirdly moist), truly sold a kind of aesthetic and life that is so characteristic if the Barrel, even when i didn't imagine it that way in the books.
David
He appeared like, twice, and both times were so cute and charming I can't wait to see more of him both on his own and with Genya.
The Wardrobe
So, at first i hated the keftas. I thought the looked tacky and costume, but when you see them on screen they're just perfect (although i have to say the patterns on some of the keftas were kind of...cheap looking? and the training keftas were just kinda boring. My favourite was the Darkling's. Aside from that, i really liked Kaz's and inej's clothes too. Very distinctive and recognizable (although it was kind of weird seeing Inej in teal instead of purple lmao).
And the queen's dresses. Chefs kiss.
It's...so cheesy (affectionate)
The whole show felt like the kind of movies I would watch as a kid like Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean. The writing was stylized enough to make it incredibly dramatic and overall there was just so much heart behind all of it. Definetely a show to watch again and again and feel all of it, cause that's what it being so cheesy managed, to make me actually feel for it. It feels like something to watch on a rainy afternoon after a bad day....it's great okay i really enjoyed it, even (specially) the most unbelievable parts of it. And here's the thing, it's something that i think a lot of newer tv and film have lost, so this is good.
What i didn't like
Zoya
Mostly cause of the writing. Originally, in the first book, i didn't like her, neither as a character (stereotypical mean girl with no other motivation than to bang the love interests....all three of them....what's new i still think it's an incredibly sexist trope) or a person (hey at least this was intentional), but over time i grew to LOVE her (mean girl turns out to have a good heart and actually respects the mc and decides to fight alongside her cause it's what's right, without necessarily liking her or giving up her character??? AND she has strong motivations??? now THAT'S new). In the show, i hoped they would keep her mean girl nature while foreshadowing her depth, but all they did was turn her into a petty seductress with barely any screentime, and that only makes her not even a bad antagonist but just a boring character to watch. Not only that but they took away a big part of her character that needed to be developed in the next books. I wanted to watch her rivalry with Alina, her unjustified venomous tongue too, I wanted to be entertained by her and I wasn't. This was also a problem cause when she finally changed teams, and when she hugged Alina, it was incredibly unsatisfying, it would have had a way stronger effect if we had seen her being Ruthless Zoya with a big ambition. I also didn't like how we were told that she didn't like alina, or that she had a family, instead of it being shown on screen. Just from the show, all i can tell you about her is that she likes to bang people and she has a good moral code i guess. Yall, I'm so petty about this.
Kaz
So, I didn't hate him, in fact i think I would have enjoyed him if I hadn't read the books first, cause the two things that bother me about him were two essential characteristics of him in the books. FIrstly, he seems so strained, instead of the seemingly laid back, almost chill looking (even though we know he's not chill at all) Kaz we see in the books, the Kaz that always knows something that you don't. Show Kaz doesn't seem to always be in control, to always have the last word, the last laugh. Instead he seems strained, all the damn time. And I think this is mainly a writing and directing issue. And he also seems weak, something Book Kaz would never do. This is also an issue cause because he doesn't have the same presence he has in the books, the times where he is weak, don't seem as effective. Sure, Pekka Rollins has essentially reduced him and humiliated him, but I haven't seen enough of Kaz being actually dangerous for this to be shocking and for Pekka to seem even more hateable (and, i really liked Pekka, loved him as an antagonist more than i did in the books). Idk, Kaz was so charismatic and just fun and engaging to read in the books that his portrayal in the show felt lacking.
Alina's power's VFX
The little suns were cute and all but the light coming from within her was just ugly I'm sorry.
SFX
A lot of the sound design was just too stylized for the tone of the show i think. I particularly remember the sound of Mal's punches....what's that about.
What i think could have been better, but didn't particularly dislike
The Crows' storyline
And i think part of this is a consequence of Kaz not being as witty as he was in the books. Where's the incredibly complicated heist moves? the even more unbelievable C and D plans when something goes wrong? I didn't like that them getting Alina was essentially just luck, cause i didn't see enough of them being smart and quick on their feet. I also think it was unnecessary to have their storyline mixed with Alina's, i would have enjoyed watching a different heist, maybe in Ravka as well, and them incidentally crossing paths with Alina, more than i liked this storyline. ironically enough, the heist was the part i was least interested in
Genya and Alina
I just feel like her relationship with Alina wasn't strong enough, and i think it's because the show tried to make us believe they were much closer than they were without spending the necessary time in them.
Overall, I really really enjoyed the show, i will be watching it again (particularly cause i want to watch it in English) and i cannot wait for the second season omg (although i have to say, I'm scared for Nikolai)
I think that's all! I would also love to read yall's opinions and have a conversation.
#Shadow and Bone#Shadow and Bone spoilers#sab#sab spoilers#grishaverse#the grisha trilogy#six of crows#malina#helnik#shadow and bone series#sab review
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Hello! gakku 🙌🏻😌
I know you like Naruto a lot, but do you have other animes that are your favorites apart from this one?
Hello~♡! First, I think it's so sweet you're curious about my other interests apart from Naruto, it made me smile so much 🤣 💖💖 Ahh! ♡ I'll give you a more long-ish answer to make up for the fact that it will be rather disappointing... 🤭
So, lame, but I don't have the habit of actually consuming stuff, especially if I need to watch them. I started watching (first part) Naruto because it was broadcasted on the local TV, but my only contact with Shippuden was through the manga for many years. I had already read all the manga until vol.50 by the time I stopped to watch my first episode of Shippuden. I find consuming media in general a bit emotionaly costly, because I like loving the characters, and I can't love a lot of people... not with all my heart, least. Haha!
Anime/manga wise, FMA was one I read the whole manga years ago (never watched either animes), and I absolutely loved it. I'm still not over Envy's death, it blew my mind so much hahahaha. Nowadays I think the only anime I "watch" is Jujutsu Kaisen, mostly because I'm crazy about Sukuna/Getō (they're hot) -- I have tried drawing Sukuna a few times but I always end up drawing Pain instead LMFAO. One day I'll do it... 💪
The only other "media" I like as much as Naruto is Star Wars, Prequels especifically, and it's because I just love Anakin Skywalker so much. Anakin was my favourite character ever until I watched Naruto again in 2020 and lost my heart to Yahiko. 🤣 You can see I have a taste for 2-in-1 men (Yahiko/Pain and Anakin/Darth Vader, Original & Destroyed versions). But the love I have for the Star Wars prequels is absolutely crazy... story wise, art wise, just everything about them. I could talk about them for hours. The movies definetely shaped a lot of who I am today, and I'm not kidding when I say I watched Revenge of the Sith over 40 times 🤣
Star Wars is a story that masters both visual storytelling and symbolism (making references both to things in the "real world" and inside the story) - it "rhymes," as to quote George Lucas himself, and makes beautiful use of visual and symbolism for that. The Prequels have a lot of what I love in Pain's Arc (Naruto in general!), and for me the two stories are examples of genius storytelling in various artistic aspects. 💘
I think everyone consumes content differently and I'm the kind who will fall in love with certain stories and give my heart to them forever, hahaha 😂 (Which means that Yeah, I won't stop drawing YahiKona anytime soon 😌🧡💜).
EDIT: Completely forgot to say I'm also obssessed with Death Note and have dreamed a couple of times of reading the manga -- my dreams were literally just me reading the manga hahaha (I woke up very disappointed to not actually own the mangas each time). Obata Takeshi is such a great artist and he has actually made some fanart of Anakin and Padmé coincidentally?? I watched Death Note two entire times, I don't know why I forgot to mention it lol. L is so dear to me <3
#asks#sorry for the long ass answer I'm uncapable of being objective#I also watch a lot of Rupaul. Does that count? HAHAHA
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