Okay, Dr. Smith is now making herself "useful" by giving French lessons to some of the colonist children, and I was going to make a joke about her not really knowing French and just faking it like Chang teaching "Spanish" on Community, but the show just basically implied that that's actually the case. Smith has probably been bullshitting her way through "French lessons" for about a year, and Judy has probably been letting her get away with it because it keeps her out of trouble.

Actually, Dr. Smith is a lot like Chang. She's an unpredictable back-stabber that none of them really like or trust, but she's been a part of the group for so long that everyone just sort of accepts her. She's Aunty Con-Artist.

Top 10 favorite animated Female Characters

Since it's International Woman's day, I thought it would be fun to talk a little bit again about some of my favorite animated female characters in media.

I go into details and cover more characters on this list so I'll try not to just repeat myself too much and just offer some overall thoughts on why I like these people.

Also, be careful with possible spoilers.

Catra, from She-Ra

I like the overall sense of tragedy that surrounds this character, how all she wants is to feel loved and accepted but because she just happened to be on the bad guys' side she keeps facing defeat after defeat, both from the heroes' side and from her own allies that keep abandoning her.

She's just so used to getting trashed by life that she can't even see the people that do try to be on her side anymore but instead of trying to change she just keeps digging deeper and deeper into her own downfall because that's all she knows.

She's someone who's lost and needs help but she's also so angry at those that ended up finding happiness without her that she won't even admit that she needs help, and I find it so interesting to watch her path of self-destruction while still hoping that she can realize her mistakes one day.

Lake, from Infinity Train

Very similar to Catra, another character who just keeps getting the short end of the stick, but this time she doesn't let her misery mold who she is, in fact, what's so cool about Lake is that she keeps rejecting the idea of letting anyone mold who she is.

She refuses to accept the cards that she was given and instead keeps trying to find new cards, or a new table, or a new player, just anything to change her situation because she refuses to accept she was born to not be happy and continues to seek for that happiness, no matter how far it might be.

Reagan, from Inside Job

My little ball of antisocial-ness. Reagan is that person that's just so used to living in her own little world that she's just totally unprepared to deal with the actual world around her.

She's an absolute mess when it comes to dealing with other people and getting out of her comfort zone, but when she does get into her comfort zone she just turns into a total badass who's always in control of the situation.

I love seeing the constant shift between Reagan the little dork and Reagan the boss lady. It just works so well to create such a likable and charming character that I never get tired of watching.

Kumoko, from I'm a Spider, so what?

Speaking of charming dorks...

If Reagan is an antisocial mess, Kumoko is an antisocial natural disaster. She spent years locked in a dark cave away from any form of civilization with her only other options of frequent communication being her own inner voices, which ended up driving her insane and in return making an absurdly funny and crazy Deadpool-like character.

This is one of those characters I could just hear going on rambles for forever. One moment she might be talking about food, and the next she might be talking about blowing up the world. Every second her thought process keeps shifting from one thing to another, and observing how she comes to these conclusions is always so engaging.

She's just so freaking funny and charming.

Asa, from Chainsawman part 2

Another antisocial mess!

Asa is kinda of a mix from the characters from before, in the sense that, she's terrible at dealing with people, AND she also keeps getting sh*t on by life.

But what I really, really respect about her is that she never uses that as an excuse to be a bad person. Even though she has all the reasons in the world to be the worst human being alive, she never ever makes her problems be someone's problems, she never uses her pain as an excuse to hurt others, even though people keep tempting her to.

Asa is what I describe as the basic essence of being a true hero, someone who doesn't let their misery change who they are and what they believe in.

Makima, from Chainsawman

One of my all-time favorite antagonists.

Talking about Makima involves a lot of spoilers so if you wanna know more just click on these past posts:

-Why I like Makima

-Bad Person vs Bad Character

-The importance of "Fun to Watch"

Nanahoshi, from Jobless Reincarnation

This is the character that taught me the importance of struggles in storytelling, why characters need walls to overcome, conflicts to defeat, challenges to face, and how facing these challenges show their true character.

She's another person who, just like Catra, Lake, Asa, and others, had a lot of bad luck in life, but again, how she chooses to face these challenges is what makes her awesome.

She kept fighting and moving forward even when things seemed hopeless and as a result, she ended up becoming one of the great genius of the world she lives in. She's the kind of person you wanna root for and want to celebrate whenever she does get a win.

She basically said "no, I'm not gonna let the fact that the entire world is working against me keep me down!"

Aggie, from Paranorman

This one is just fascinating.

A young girl who ended up receiving punishment for something completely out of her control and decided to take revenge by dishing out 100 times more punishment to her offenders.

Aggie is amazing because she represents the pain and suffering of prejudice as well as its futility. She shows that in its basic form, mindless hate is just a force of destruction that does nothing but break and corrupt, taking over you and molding you into becoming something you never wanted to be, and even worse, spreading it to others.

She's the embodiment of so many powerful themes and messages while still at the end of the day being just a simple little girl, one that got hurt by the world and now is doing all she can to show how that pain can affect you and those around you.

Momiji, from Good Luck Girl

My all-time favorite mentor character. I like how she represents one of the most important parts about the process of teaching and guiding someone, that being the frustration of teaching someone who doesn't want to be taught.

Even though the girl she's trying to help doesn't give a damn about her, Momiji still continues to stay by her side and helped her realize what she's missing by living life the way she's living, and what she could gain in return.

She's the best mentor because she's the mentor that doesn't give up on her student or gives up on the lesson she's trying to teach while also not caring too much about being appreciated, and just caring about doing her job.

Michi, from Even if you don't do it

Michi is the character that teaches the importance of loving yourself just as much as you love others.

For the longest time, she assumed that being happy was about trying to accept others and their needs while keeping inside her own needs and her own wishes of happiness.

She assumed that all the things that kept bothering her weren't worth thinking about it because she never felt her problems were important or big enough to be actually dealt with, and only after a long time of piling these things up was that she realized... She wasn't happy, and more than that, she had the right to be happy, even if that meant saying "no" to what other people asked of her.

I feel like this is such an important theme to talk about, the idea of remembering you matter just as everyone else and your needs matter just as everyone's needs, and watching her journey as she realizes that and finally manages to find peace in her life felt extremely satisfying.

___________

___________

And that's about it, I think. Hope you have a great International Women's day!

The Voyage So Far: Enies Lobby

east blue (1 | 2) || alabasta (1 | 2) || skypiea || water 7 || enies lobby || thriller bark || paramount war (1 | 2) || fishman island || punk hazard || dressrosa (1 | 2) || whole cake island || wano (1 | 2)

this is still one of my very favorite nami panels. i think she’s really great through all of water 7 and enies lobby in general, actually, even though she isn’t really one of the characters in focus for a lot of it- like zoro and sanji, she stays pretty steadfast and very badass even though everything that happens, and never gives up on robin for a moment despite being one of the ‘weaker’ members of the crew. and it’s always fun to see her playing with lightning.

one of my favorite jokes from the first half or so of enies lobby is the strawhats both being completely unsurprised that luffy charges in ahead of them as soon as they arrive AND being able to find him immediately by following the explosions. they know him so well. 

luffy’s never been scared of dying, going all the way back to when he told coby he was fine with dying for his dream back in chapter two or three. that conversation is what his exchange with blueno here reminds me of- blueno asks him how long he intends to keep fighting, and luffy says until he dies, like there’s nothing to it.

it’s always been a trait of his to face death unflinching with a grin, so long as it’s for the sake of something he cares about, be it his crew or his brother or his dream, and i just really like that about him.  

i’ll go into it in the dressrosa post too, but i think it’s really impressive just how long oda held off on giving luffy any sort of significant power-up. he gets his first big power boost in the whole series here, forty volumes in. i’ve always liked that oda is very conservative with power boosts like this, because it both keeps the series’ powerscaling in check and makes the times it does happen much weightier. this is a monumental moment, and it feels like it.

also, i love the way gear two is drawn pre-timeskip, especially with the steam. it looks very cool and atmospheric.

i really like how united the strawhat crew feels throughout enies lobby, after all the internal turmoil and discord of water seven. even though the matter of usopp leaving the crew is still unresolved, they’ll all together once more, on the same page, and fully united in the goal of saving robin, whatever consequences it might bring. 

the tree of knowledge has such a cool design- it looks massive, and even more than that, it looks old. you look at that tree and you know its been there for easily thousands of years. its seen entire eras of history, and it would be priceless even without the countless books stored inside it.

and then it burns.

i’m so endlessly sad about the tragedy that is robin’s relationship with her mother. they never even got to see each other until their world was ending, and even then only for a couple minutes.

olvia is a very interesting character, because she’s someone who chose her dream over the people she loved. that’s not an inherently good or bad choice, but it is a choice she made, and it’s what led to the ending she and robin had to have. i’ve wondered a lot what might have happened if she chose the other way, if she never left or if she came back sooner or if she chose to flee the buster call with robin, and how different (and almost certainly better) robin’s life would have been if she had.

in a way, olvia reminds me a lot of kouzuki toki. they both die in order to fling a light of knowledge and hope into the future, and they both send their children away and choose to stay behind to choke on ash for the sake of a better tomorrow. 

i didn’t really notice until putting these panels together, but a lot of things burn in enies lobby. ohara burns, and the pluton plans and the world government flag, and enies lobby itself, and at the end, the going merry burns, too. if you extend it back to water seven, there’s the galley-la headquarters, too. in an arc that deals so much with the preservation and destruction of history and knowledge, it’s a fitting motif. 

the world government flag burning is still to this day one of the most striking panels out of a series full of them, in my opinion. in one act, the strawhats proclaim their absolute defiance against the world government, and their willingness to make enemies of the greatest power in the world for the sake of their friend.

it’s also another one of those moments that’s interesting to think about in the context of luffy’s past. it was a ship flying that same flag that shot sabo down, and while luffy wasn’t there to see it, i don’t think he’s oblivious to that fact, especially given how he says just before this he understands robin’s enemies perfectly.

dadan told him and ace that there was nothing they could do against the whole world, and luffy went and did it anyways.

sometimes i just think about how scary it must have been for robin, someone who’s been weighed down by the shackles of her past with no escape in sight for so very long, to open herself up and let herself hope, for life and freedom and a dream that’s always been out of reach. 

franky has a lot of really great moments between this arc and water seven- his conversation with usopp as usopp is working on merry and his talk with robin on the sea train are two others. it’s almost impressive how quickly he becomes an immensely likable character once we start getting to know him, given how he’s first introduced as an absolute piece of shit.

his burning of the pluton plans is a favorite of mine, and i think it might be because, like so many people before and after him, he’s choosing here to stake all his hopes on the strawhats, on luffy’s ability to pull off the impossible and on robin’s goodness. when robin’s only ever been chased and hated and called a demon by the world, franky chooses to trust her and luffy with the legacy his dad died for, and neither of them let him down.

monster point looks SO FUCKING TERRIFYING in enies lobby, and i LOVE it. look at that. franky is seven and half feet tall, and in front of monster point he’s tiny. monster point is huge, and dead-eyed, and a force of absolute destruction. i do kind of wish we got to see chopper go completely feral like this more often. he deserves to be terrifying!

i love how much FAITH all the rest of the strawhats continue to have in usopp throughout enies lobby. he left the crew and they really would have a right to be angry at him if they chose to, but it doesn’t even seem to cross any of their minds. they’re just happy he’s okay, and they include him again without missing a beat, because he’s still their friend and they know down to their bones they can trust him, even after everything. 

i’ve always really loved zoro and kaku’s little moment of post-battle banter here- zoro relays paulie’s message about cp9 being fired, kaku says he’s out of a job, zoro tells him to try the zoo, and kaku cracks up.

it feels very real to me for whatever reason, and i think part of it ties back into how well one piece handles morality with its characters- zoro and kaku are genuinely pretty similar people who get along decently, it just happens that they wound up on opposite sides. there are series where you’d never see moments like this due to the lines between good and bad being so firmly drawn, and i love how one piece blurs those lines so much they may as well not exist a lot of the time.

this is the other sequence, along with luffy climbing the drum rockies barehanded, that always makes me physically cringe to look at. it looks so painful. robin is so nearly powerless here, but not quite- she can still buy time for her crew to catch up, even if it’s only seconds, even if she risks shattering her teeth or even her jaw in the process. she’s spent so long giving up and has only just started daring to hope- she’s not about to go gentle.

there aren’t many panels that give me catharsis like this one. there really aren’t.

oda’s villains are usually complicated and awful and often a little admirable, if only for how clever or how terrifyingly powerful they are, but every now and then he comes up with someone who’s just pathetic and cowardly and pointlessly cruel. spandam is like this, obviously, and so is orochi, and the celestial dragons, and i’d argue flampe from whole cake island as well. and there’s nothing like seeing characters like them- weak, cruel people so assured in their own power and rightness- get obliterated.

one of the things i really like about enies lobby is that nobody really gets sidelined- everybody gets multiple chances to shine. luffy, usopp, and obviously robin are the most in focus, obviously, but zoro, sanji, nami, chopper, and even franky all get a bunch of individual awesome moments. oda’s ability to handle his cast satisfyingly is consistently really impressive (if sometimes strained in huge ensemble arcs like dressrosa or wano) and it really shows here, i think.

i just really love the entire climax of enies lobby. much like the arc as a whole, it just feels triumphant, even though the situation is extremely dire. luffy unlocking gear three, robin’s cuffs getting unlocked, usopp shooting spandam and the marines all the way from the tower of justice- it’s all just good, a long chain of much-needed victories and catharses, and it feels very good to read.

i’ll always be impressed by just how much characterization oda manages to give merry, a boat. she’s only really a character in water seven and the end of enies lobby, only about two chapters of which she actually speaks in. and yet i don’t think you’d find a single one piece fan who disagrees that merry’s death is easily one of the most heartwrenching in the entire series.

i love the reactions of the strawhats to robin’s thanks. they’ve just gone through hell to save her, most of them are beat to shit and they all risked their lives, and yet they all just smile, or brush it off, because to them there’s nothing else they could have done. it’s all worth it, so long as they got her back, so long as she’s safe and happy.

merry’s funeral just hits me in the chest every single time i read it. it’s tragic, of course, but there’s also something almost lovely about it, something peaceful about her getting to go out on her own terms, carrying her crew to safety one last time, defying every rule of the universe to do it. just like a strawhat pirate.

oda’s ability to communicate emotion through expressions really comes through here, too. merry has the only lines in this scene, fitting for her death in the limelight, but the shots of every other crewmate’s face let us know at a glance just what they’re all feeling and just how strongly they’re feeling it.

you know, i’d forgotten we only learn the name of the new world after enies lobby. we only get proper exposition about the revolutionary army and the yonkou here, too, despite them being set up since loguetown and jaya (or alabasta, or even chapter one if you count from shanks’s introduction) respectively. oda’s ability to parse out exposition and explanation so we always have just the right amount of information is really impressive- we always have more questions, but we also always have the feeling that those questions have answers, and that sooner or later they’ll be revealed.

points at shanks. i just think he’s neat.

it’s my opinion that one of the great joys of one piece is seeing luffy and the crew rise up in the world, and seeing them gain more and more notoriety. i love nothing they do ever happens in a vacuum- everything has impacts, and there are always outside eyes watching, and often those impacts are things that they never could have predicted.

ace and blackbeard is still, i think, definitely one of the coolest looking fights in the whole series. it’s not all that often we get to see two people with extremely flashy and showy abilities go all-out against each other, and the resulting fireworks are still really something to behold, despite how badly it all ends. 

VLD8x07 – “Day Forty Seven”

8x07 – “Day Forty Seven” (I have no idea why the episode’s title officially does not have a hyphen between Forty and Seven like it should.)

This is another episode that is an absolute waste of time. Again, I’m not fundamentally against episodes of shows that are less directly tied to the main story. Episodes like this can be great for doing more detailed character study. But with the executive producers having complained about how there wasn’t enough time in the show to include vital fallout and character follow-up to plot events, when the episodes of this season’s main story are so complicated and confusing and needed more time to depict and explain what happens, having episodes like “Day Forty Seven” are a waste of time because that time is blatantly needed for other, more important content.

Before this episode, I already didn’t like Rizavi, and I only liked the potential that Kinkade had. But since both of them commit crimes in this episode and also violate the trust and privacy of their fellow officers, I can’t say that my opinion of them has improved.

I do, however, really like Hunk in this episode.

Look, it’s Kinkade. He’s the main character of this episode. It’s another episode that significantly shoves the show’s main characters to the side in order to pretend that the side characters are interesting. Yes, Hunk and Allura each get a bit of focus for a couple of scenes in this episode, but it’s predominantly not about them. Almost the entirety of this episode is focused on side characters, and none of them are interesting.

After I watched season eight for the first time however many months ago that was now, thinking of this episode in context of the whole of season eight made me wish that this episode had been centered not on Kinkade but on Curtis. What if Curtis had been filming personal videos throughout the episode? I know the show did not even slightly plan on having Shiro and Curtis end up together, that the series Shiro-Curtis wedding epilogue was a really, really late-production addition, but I can’t help but think about how, even if they didn’t have much time to set up anything between Shiro and Curtis, how this episode would have been the perfect time to hint at it. Have Curtis with the video camera, have him get a shot of Shiro in the distance, have him linger on Shiro a beat or two too long, have Veronica or someone come up beside him and ask him what he’s filming, have Curtis turn the camera on that person, who’s shown looking at Shiro, realizing that Curtis had been gazing at Shiro, and have that person conclude, “Oh, I see what you were looking at.” If the show absolutely couldn’t include any more, that would have worked to set up the plausibility of a Shiro-Curtis relationship developing. But again, having Shiro and Curtis end up together was a hasty super-late addition. There could be no set-up for it because the executive producers, story editor, and writers weren’t planning on having Shiro end the show with anyone. I can’t help but to think, what if, though.

Kinkade brushes his teeth while Leifsdottir sleeps within arm’s reach. There’s a bathroom sink next to their beds in the barracks? “I know it seems strange, but before Earth was attacked, I didn’t go anywhere without my camera,” Kinkade says. Who would think that it was strange that someone interested in videography would engage in videography but stopped because aliens invaded and occupied Earth for three years? This is supposedly funny: “Back home, people asked me why I like recording things. They also asked me why I didn’t talk that much. To both of those things, I’d always say, ‘Hmm.’” This kind of feels like this line was specifically written in response to criticism that Kinkade didn’t really ever say anything in season seven. Cut to Kinkade doing pull-ups. Granted, I haven’t spent a lot of time in gyms in my life, but the time that I have, I have never heard anyone counting their reps out loud while they were doing them. Romelle is puzzled by Kinkade’s recording, and James comments about how this is something Kinkade’s known for. Okay, we get it, he makes videos. “Being a fighter pilot was actually his back-up plan,” James says of Kinkade. Being a fighter pilot is hard, it’s not realistic that it would be anyone’s back-up plan.

“It’s true: I learned to shoot with a camera before I learned to shoot with a rifle.” Is that supposed to be impressive or something? Honestly, it mostly sounds like the writer thought he was being clever using two meanings of the word “shoot.” “I guess filming is just a small piece of the larger puzzle that makes up the picture of who I am.” How would we have figured this out without his exposition to tell us – in other words, this is the type of thing people are talking about when they say that in writing you should show, not tell. We don’t need Kinkade to tell us this because by fundamental nature of this episode being framed as his videography, we are being shown. And then we get a cliché gun assembling moment.

There’s a sequence of meandering shots of Kinkade walking to his fighter, touching his fighter, shocking himself by touching some electrical part of its system. I guess maybe he accessed the system because he was going to do maintenance? Fighter pilots don’t do the maintenance of their craft, at least from the impression I have about how it works in the U.S. Air Force they don’t. There are maintenance specialists who do that work, not the pilots.

This almost feels like a lampshade of criticism about this episode: Rizavi comes in and says, “Please tell me this is going to be more exciting than that project you did for Mr. Pollard’s biology class about yeast.” This episode isn’t really more exciting than that. Rizavi forces her way into Kinkade’s project.

They interview Pidge. The Atlas is heading somewhere there’s a disabled Robeast. Pidge asks if she “needs to explain that the Robeast was one of the ones used in Honerva’s galactic ritual?” I guess this line is supposed to be about Pidge commenting on the process of successfully constructing a documentary? It feels more like unnecessary exposition because the audience of this show would easily know the context of the referenced Robeast because that was just last episode. Pidge continues with more telling exposition. Rizavi turns to Keith to try to make their recording more exciting by asking Keith about the danger of the mission. Keith’s dialog is more unnecessary exposition.

Save us Hunk from this empty episode. Hunk asks to be in their movie, but then, “Wait, if this is an action movie – is it? – I don’t want to be in it.” At least I got a little laugh out of that. Rizavi complains about Hunk interfering in their filming their documentary. All I can think of is why didn’t Kinkade or Rizavi lock down the location for filming with Pidge and Keith then if they didn’t want to be bothered. They’re literally just sitting in the mess hall.

Hunk has a new recipe of a cake. Kinkade is actually interested and asks Hunk if he can watch Hunk work. Hunk’s cool with the idea. Rizavi, who butted her way into Kinkade’s personal project, complains. Of the four MFE pilots, the only reason I dislike James more than Rizavi is because James is such a blatant, cruel bully. Rizavi is not an interesting, likable character, and I really wouldn’t mind if she hadn’t been in this series.

Thankfully an emergency interrupts this waste of time. The ship is called to battle stations. Somehow, as Kinkade pulls Rizavi out of the mess hall through a door in front of where the camera is pointing, the camera tumbles over backwards away from that door and ends up not still in the mess hall, but in a corridor. The Holt’s dog finds and picks up the camera. He enters an elevator which opens onto the bridge directly behind Shiro. Guess what isn’t supposed to be behind Shiro on the bridge: An elevator. The door behind Shiro on the bridge opens to a corridor, as seen literally last episode when Zethrid came to the bridge. So, this inconsistent animation falls somewhere in with ignored established set design and/or bad storyboarding. Also, how is the dog able to make the elevator function? He doesn’t push any buttons to indicate the bridge as a destination, nor is he able to give a verbal command to the elevator to go to the bridge. This elevator just automatically goes to the bridge.

Of course, the entirety of the dog carrying the camera is contrived to keep going with the videography framing of the episode. The Atlas is being attacked by a giant squid. The MFE ships and Voltron fly around outside the Atlas. There are huge explosions in the clouds outside. None of this action scene means anything because the conflict is not defined, not connected to any character. It’s just meaningless action.

Since they can’t see the squid because of the clouds, so someone, Curtis maybe?, establishes a visual by scanning for the “biometrics” of the squid. The squid then seems to, like way too many large creatures do in this series, shoots a blaster beam at the Atlas. It scares the dog, who drops the camera and runs. The mice briefly look into the camera. Then the camera somehow falls down a corridor. How did it get into a corridor to fall down it? Did the other side of the door behind Shiro suddenly become a corridor again instead of the elevator it was a few seconds ago? The camera tumbles down a hallway and ends up in the room where Sam and Slav work, where Sam finally explains that the gravity has been knocked out. One, the camera hitting the walls of the hallway would have decreased its momentum in a near-zero gravitational situation. Two, despite falling into this room with notable speed, as soon as the camera sights on Sam and Slav it instantly stops moving. But the gravity isn’t on, so it shouldn’t stop hard like it does. I don’t know why I’m trying to analyze this. The camera’s relocation is totally contrived.

Slav complains about something being red, and thus he can’t grab it like Sam says. It’s not important. I don’t know why this piece of a scene even exists. The camera gets hit by a box that floats by and suddenly the camera is out in another hallway to film miscellaneous crew moving through the hallway. There’s a shipwide announcement that the Atlas is going to transform. The dog comes back to pick up the camera in its mouth, the camera conveniently floating right in line of the dog’s mouth as it floats down the hallway. Contrived.

There is ten seconds of blackness and dog breathing because that’s worth spending time on, then we hear Colleen talk to the dog while we get four more seconds of blackness before she pulls the camera out of the dog’s mouth. Shiro’s shipwide communications announces a countdown of the Atlas transforming, and Colleen is all, “Oh no,” like she just realized she’s in an unsafe location. Colleen is floating still in the corridor but then starts moving down the corridor, but there’s no gravity, and she’s not shown to have been close enough to a surface that she could push off of in order to move down the hall. Yeah, I still want accurate depictions of easily known scientific understanding on this show, even though I know I won’t get it.

The camera and/or the hallway shakes as if the camera is sitting on something and the gravity is on despite the fact that the camera is floating in near-zero gravity, so there would be no shaking whatsoever. Somehow a panel in the hall as part of the transformation process does not smash up the camera, but just knocks it, sending it spinning until the camera suddenly stops spinning without anything being there to stop it. Unless something stopped it, it would have kept spinning being in near-zero gravity. Basic laws of inertia.

It conveniently stops to point out a window where giant squid and the MFEs and Voltron still are fighting. And the camera loses power.

Cut to later when Kinkade has somehow reacquired his camera despite the hugeness of the Atlas. The whole action sequence was a waste of time. Kinkade floats down a hallway and runs into someone who I’ve never seen before and don’t know. The guy is going to be leaving the Atlas to take samples of something back to Earth. It’s a moment that’s portrayed, especially with the music, like it’s supposed to be some kind of emotional goodbye, but I have no idea who this guy is. The scene is 35 seconds long, and I have no idea why it exists at all. So, I google and eventually find out that this character is named Seok Jin and was done in memory of an animator and storyboard artist who died during the show’s production. I can understand wanting to memorialize a coworker, but there’s nothing about this scene that conveys that. It just seems like a miscellaneous waste of time within the context of the episode’s story. Without googling to find out, the scene is just confusing.

It still weirds me out that there’s so much floating on the Atlas, but objects (which includes people) do not follow the laws of physics that would govern their floating. Through the window into the mess hall, the dog and Sal are standing and sitting like they’re in gravity, but just on this side of the window where the camera is in the hallway, there is no gravity.

Cut to Kolivan being interviewed. It’s supposed to be funny. He’s boring and Rizavi makes fun of him being boring. This is a waste of screen-time. Rizavi says that they need to get someone more exciting in here. Cut to Coran.

Thank you, Coran, please save us from this absolutely pointless, uninteresting episode!! His antics are funnily delivered. The information of his storytelling does nothing to tell us anything new because it was only a retelling of a few of the events last episode. And then the scene is done. Coran is severely underused this season. Eliminate all the time given to the MFE pilots and to Sam and give it instead to Coran, please. Back to the standard boring that is this episode.

Now, Rizavi is interviewing Sam. There are several shots of a bunch of displays that don’t reveal anything important. Slav complains about Altean writing on the Atlas. The Atlas might be based on Altean technology, but it was built by humans on Earth, so why did they build the Atlas so that the writing used on the Atlas was in Altean? Did the Galaxy Garrison during the three years of the occupation of Earth make everyone learn to read Altean? This is something absolutely illogical but it’s in here because it was supposed to be seen as a joke. It just seems wrong to me.

“Our gravity generator is actually a fluid system, ever changing depending on the specific needs of the location,” Sam says. In other words, the show is lampshading the fact that they didn’t bother to create this episode or the series to actually follow the laws of physics. In other other words, people like me who expect the experience of being in a space ship to have even the most basic respect for and understanding of what the experience would be like can just shut up. The show actively rejects the expectation that it try to be at least somewhat realistic. It’s amazing that the show’s creative team is admitting to being this lazy.

Kinkade condescendingly calls Slav “weird” when Slav freaks out about landing on a crack. Anyone else remember how respectful Shiro was over Slav’s freaking out about cracks in 2x10 “Escape from Beta Traz?”

Cut to Colleen in the plant room. I was going to call it hydroponics, which tends to be a sort of trope in space-based science fiction, but hydroponics is specifically growing without having soil to plant things in. And the first shot is of Altean flowers growing in soil. So, plant room. I haven’t been shy in past episodes about how much I do not like Colleen. She, like her husband, should be in prison for what they did in 7x01 “The Last Stand Part 1.” She gives a tour of the plant room. “So much recycled poop,” she’s happy to point out. Yeah, this episode feels like we’re walking among some recycled poop.

Rizavi grabs the camera and puts together some footage of “extreme space harvesting” and its stylized as overwhelming “extreme” video. It’s supposed to be funny, juxtaposing “extreme” style with this empty talk about plants. I’m a science-loving guy, so I know I could actually find someone passionately talking about plants to be fun. Colleen doesn’t talk passionately about plants. She says the most generic statements possible because to have her genuinely depicted as nerding out over plants would require too much research about plants for the writer to bother with on this show. So, this is a waste of time.

Thank you, Hunk for interrupting. Hunk wants some specific yeast. I actually like that Kinkade, who had earlier been referenced as having done an old school project on fermentation, is interested in what Hunk’s doing. He had earlier been interested in watching Hunk cook too. They’re both small moments, but it’s just enough that it makes me want to see Hunk and Kinkade become friends. Hunk says, “I think I’ve got the topping down, but I’m still trying to figure out the sweetbread.” Did the writer of this show not know that sweetbread isn’t bread? Sweetbread is the thymus or pancreas of a creature. It’s not bread, it’s meat. But Hunk wants yeast, so he’s baking, so he means actual bread.

Cut to Rizavi and Kinkade floating down a hallway. The Atlas has come to some star system. They try to interview Lance about his going down to a planet, and Lance freaks out. I have no idea why Lance is freaking out. It’s played for humor, but it has no foundation. It’s just trying to make fun of someone having anxiety over something they have never been shown to have anxiety over. It’s such a meaningless moment.

Rizavi sneaks, against protocol, the camera into the meeting room. Shiro, Sam, Coran, and Veronica, and I guess Rizavi and Kinkade too, monitor the Paladins on their mission to the planet. They’re checking out one of the fallen Robeasts from last episode. Surprise, the Paladins get attacked by some ship that pops off the Robeast. The Paladins fire on it with their bayards, Shiro orders the Atlas to target and fire on it. It’s such meaningless action.

Somehow, in putting this documentary together, Rizavi and Kinkade get access to helmet cam footage from Pidge. Why her helmet cam recorded everything with a blue filter, I don’t know. The footage that Shiro and crew were watching on screen on the Atlas was normal, not tinted some color. Hunk says he has no sign of a pilot inside the ship. Keith calls out to the other Paladins and Pidge totally unnecessarily says, “Keith’s found something, let’s go.” It’s a waste of dialog because everything her line does was already accomplished by Keith’s line. They’ve found the tube that the Altean Robeast pilots are in when they pilot the Robeasts.

Almost 17 minutes into the episode (my number includes the time needed for the opening title sequence) and we finally have actually gotten to something that matters to the show. They’ve been capturing the Alteans pilots. Kinkade says that this is the sixth Altean pilot they’ve “recovered from the powered-down Robeasts after Honerva escaped Oriande.” Where are they getting six from? I would assume when the white hole went boom that that destroyed any Robeasts there. So, are they just getting them from the planets where they were siphoning quintessence? There were only four such Robeasts for that, not six. Where did the other two come from? Kinkade says that Allura has tried but they won’t talk to her.

Cut to a clear shot of an “authorized personnel only” sign. In other words, it is a violation of the rules for them to be bringing this camera here. Why are so many characters on this show, characters who are supposed to be members of at least a partially military organization, so blatantly violate the law, protocol, and rules? Why did this show so strongly write a message to the kids who were the target audience of this show that there’s nothing wrong with violating rules? It makes the show feel like the people in the creative team who produced this show were all a bunch of really immature people.

Kinkade covers his camera temporarily, but we hear Rizavi give orders to someone that “Commander Shirogane says that you two are needed on the bridge.” So, Rizavi just falsified orders. That, in the U.S. military, would result in a court martial and potential punishment of dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of pay, and/or five years confinement.

This show has flagrantly displayed an anti-military disdain, particularly in how Sam Holt and Iverson were never punished for their severe insubordination against Admiral Sanda in 7x08 “The Last Stand Part 2.” Here, knowing that Rizavi is not subject to punishment for this, the show continues to demonstrate a disdain for the military. It’s offensive that this show wants the appearance of military action, but similar to how they want the appearance of space science, they don’t want to have to actually do the work to write the characters to behave in the necessary ways to achieve that. Maybe it’s not a disdain for the military (still feels like it though), but maybe the creative team for this show are just lazy and think that things like what Rizavi just did isn’t a big deal even though it’s a huge deal.

Kinkade and Rizavi are revealed to have lied their way into a security center so that they can use the Atlas’s security system to sneak and get secure footage they absolutely are not allowed to have. This would be another crime they’re committing.

Allura and Romelle try talking to Tavo, a Colony Altean who Romelle says she grew up alongside. Romelle looks a lot younger than Tavo does, so how did they grow up together? She asks him to trust her, but he says that his people were told that Romelle was a traitor and says he “can see now that it is true.” Allura says she’s “done with all of them” and gets up and leaves.

Rizavi sneaks the camera to secretly record a private conversation between Allura and Lance. Yeah, I really don’t like Rizavi. I really wish this show didn’t portray her behavior as being acceptable. What she is doing is wrong. She is betraying her fellow officer’s trust. Allura is talking to Lance about official, serious stuff, and Rizavi gets a look on her face like she knows the scene is going to turn romantic. This is the writer severely ahead of what the plot is actually depicting.

Allura talks to Lance, saying, “You have no idea what it’s like to find out […] you’re not the last of your kind, only to be rejected by them.” This moment is more that makes me think Allura is heavily depressed this season, and why, aside from her being a female character of color who’s killed off to fix everyone’s problems, her death at the end of the series is so infuriating. I like how Lance responds to her. He says, “I don’t.” I like that he doesn’t try to diminish what she’s feeling by arguing against or trying to negate her having said, “You have no idea what it’s like […].” He’s actually being very supportive right now. He does say he wishes he could make things better for her. He acknowledges how much he recognizes the suffering in her experiences and says her perseverance is one of the reasons he fell in love with her.

Allura and Lance hug and go in for a kiss, and before they can kiss, Kinkade grabs the camera and says, “No, that’s private.” The whole thing was private. You violated their trust and their privacy the whole time and you only care right before they kiss? Clearly since it’s part of this episode, Kinkade didn’t destroy the footage, so he never recognizes that everything before the kiss was as private as the kiss itself. And of course, Rizavi is annoyed at Kinkade for his having blocked filming the kiss. Again, I just can’t help but to question how the executive producers and writer thought it was okay to send a message with this episode that this behavior is acceptable.

Cut to Romelle being interviewed. The camera is all up in her face/Romelle’s eyeball is nearly on the lense. Kinkade says, “Please don’t touch that.” Romelle doesn’t really move within her posture much, so it’s not like she was leaning forward far, and the camera zooms out, so it seems like she wasn’t actually anywhere near the camera the way it was made to look.

I’m kind of surprised that Romelle would agree to this interview, since the content is about sensitive (not emotionally sensitive, though that too, but sensitive in a security sense) topic. She still feels like the Colony Alteans are good people, despite the fact that they tried to commit genocide. I know the show seemingly had the planetary populations of the four planets the Robeasts destroyed last episode evacuated, but those Alteans went to those planets fully intending to kill everyone on those planets. They were trying to commit genocide. They’re not good people. I guess in the same way that this show wants to excuse Honerva and Zarkon for committing genocide, the show expects us to forgive the Colony Alteans for trying to do so too? If I’m being lenient, I’d say maybe the creative team of this show just did not realize the severity and full implication of the things they wrote in this story. That doesn’t make what the Colony Alteans tried to do not genocide though.

Romelle says, “If only there was just some way to get through to them.” Behold the foreshadowing.

Cut to the mess hall. James is still bothered by the tentacles of the squid that they fought earlier in the episode. Guess what, I don’t care about James.

Cut to Hunk stirring a mixture, just about to add the yeast.

Cut to an interview with Allura. Kinkade thanks her for doing this. I doubt she would do it if they let her know that they committed two crimes in falsifying orders and recording footage of her conversation with Tavo. I doubt she would do it if they told her that they violated her privacy by recording her conversation with Lance.

Allura expresses some of her frustration with the Colony Alteans. She says, “Oriande was destroyed. Lotor is back.” But he’s not really. Maybe this is just another of the executive producers’ and writers’ notorious audience manipulations, but the show is very much making it look like the narrative is stating that Lotor is still a part of this story. I know the EPs would probably just say that this is just what Allura thinks, not that it’s actually true. But if it isn’t true, then who was piloting the Sincline last episode until Honerva used her space magic to stop it? Even Honerva spoke as if Lotor was still piloting the Sincline. That he’s eventually shown to have been a melted corpse definitely makes the idea that the season was heavily re-edited seem plausible.

Allura’s comments suggest that the methods they had used to track Honerva previously are no longer producing results. They’re not detecting any traces of wormhole generation and the like.

Cut to Hunk in the kitchen. He pulls “an authentic Altean dessert” out of the oven that he plans on giving to the Colony Alteans. While there would be something to the Colony Alteans’ culture that could still possibly be traced by skilled anthropologists to the Altean culture of Allura’s 10,000 years ago, that 10,000 years would have caused the Colony Alteans’ culture to significantly change. Coran gave Hunk this recipe, but it’s not realistic that the Colony Alteans would have preserved this recipe through those millennia.

I really do like that Hunk is again able to find a way to apply his interest in food to his tendency toward wanting to engage in diplomacy. This show has made too many fat jokes about Hunk, but moments like this are genuine and nice.

Hunk says that when Coran gave him the recipe, “I think his memory was like a little bit fuzzy, so I did some improvising. No big woop.” In other words, it’s not “an authentic Altean dessert.” Improvising the recipe is not being authentic. This is so wrong.

Cut to Tova and several other Colony Alteans staring at Hunk’s baking. Eventually Tova tastes it and says that it reminds him of home. For him, home was the Colony, not Altea. But the show is treating it as nearly the same for the sake of convenience. None of these Colony Alteans would actually know what Altea was like.

Hunk points out that he made the dessert with help “from someone raised on Altea.” Hunk tells them that Allura and Coran were there at Altea until it was destroyed and would have remained if they hadn’t been sent away. Anyone else think that it was a failure of this show’s storytelling that we never did get to truly see the destruction of Altea, to see how Coran and Allura survived? The closest we got was Alfor violating his daughter by rendering her unconscious so that she couldn’t object to being sent away.

Tova mentions stories he’s been told about some spot on Altea that was supposedly beautiful. I love Hunk’s line, “They never told me about them, but I’m sure they’d love to tell you themselves.” The door opens and Allura and Coran are waiting to talk to the Alteans.

Cut to Kinkade winding up his day’s recording.

The only thing in this episode that was actually important was that ending scene with Hunk and the Colony Alteans. Emotionally, it was a nice scene if I set aside my issues with the realism of an “improvis[ed]” recipe being presented and effectually functioning as “authentic.”

I really did not like how otherwise the episode is a giant waste of time. I really did not like how Rizavi and Kinkade’s behavior is treated as okay when some of it is criminal and some of it is a violation of others’ privacy. I really don’t like how the show is glossing over that these Alteans tried to commit genocide. The story can still have Allura needing to talk to them while acknowledging the severity of what the Alteans were doing.

There really were only two things that was worth watching in this episode. One, the short scene of Coran’s antics when he retells the story of last episode. Two, Hunk’s small storyline, especially when he actually gives the dessert to the Alteans.

As much as i don't like echo.If you see it from her view( and Spacekru cuz they didn't seem happy about it either) Clarke did betray them. Yeah they don't know what happened and stuff but still. I don't think Echo is going to try to kill Clarke but i think we the bellare fam are reaching when we say bellamy would turn on echo this season.As much as we don't like he does love her. but we'll what the confrontation between clarke and echo is about

I know this ask really wasn’t this deep, and I know it wasn’t centered around what Echo would or wouldn’t do, but let’s dive into that for a moment, shall we? Because I went deep with this response, and Echo’s moral compass has a lot to do with my ultimate argument of what Bellamy would or wouldn’t do. That is, of course, Bellamy would absolutely turn on Echo if she tries to hurt Clarke.

I’m also gonna apologize in advance, because I know this ask wasn’t sent with any kind of bad energy or intention, but the longer I kept writing this response the less cool with it I got, and I get very passive aggressive towards the end, so... you’ve got that to look forward to. 

I mean... Echo is the only one of Spacekru who was immediately like, “Yep, Clarke betrayed us, makes sense. I’ll deal with her at the first opportunity.” The last they heard, Clarke and Bellamy were negotiating for peace. Murphy, Emori, and Raven seemed more confused than anything, which is the actual correct reaction to have, given how relatively unbothered the others seemed about it. Bellamy—and Harper and Monty, to a lesser extent—know the context of why Clarke is already in the valley, and they know she also doesn’t want a war in the last survivable land on the planet. For all they know, Clarke has been doing what she always does and working with an ulterior motive from the inside, which considering the, “If [Clarke’s] on their side...” makes this point of view likely. These are also people who know Clarke far better than Echo ever will. If she was a good spy, she would realize the importance of that.

And... Echo is also the only one who has jumped on every opportunity to betray allies without a second thought. Even when we just look at season five. She’s been wanting to kill Shaw since she first met him, despite having proven himself as trustworthy and valuable. She pushed Raven into betraying him in the first place. 

Despite appearances, I want to like Echo. I do. But even when you’re trying, it is very difficult to like a character when they are constantly making decisions that go against the best interests of literally every actual likable character on the show. That being said, let’s look at what has happened in the text.

So far this season, Echo has done the following: been a terrible spy (canonically, this has been stated explicitly by Diyoza once and Raven twice, possibly more that I’m forgetting), shoved a flash drive into the bullet wound of a woman she told she’d keep safe less than a half hour previous (the merits of which are up for debate, but not on this post, please for the love of god), chosen to go behind Raven’s back to sell Shaw out to Diyoza (which Raven asked her not to do because she had another plan already), threatened to kill Shaw on numerous occasions (despite that being incredibly strategically illogical considering he’s the only pilot, as Raven points out), and immediately rejects the idea that Bellamy and Clarke had a valid, separate plan because of how she thinks Octavia would’ve reacted, despite Bellamy and Clarke very obviously knowing Octavia far better (in which case the actual outcome of Bellamy and Clarke’s plan doesn’t matter, because Echo had no context, she just decided her plan was superior).

That’s not even everything, but the paragraph is long enough.

My point here being that Echo’s characterization this season can be pretty much summed up as, “I don’t care if it doesn’t make complete sense or hurts people I care about, this is what I’ve decided is right, and I’m not going to listen to anyone else’s opinions about it.” If that kind of sounds like Octavia’s characterization this season, too... yeah.

I don’t know if Echo is going to try to kill Clarke. What I do know, based on what I’ve seen from her this season, is that even if given evidence to the contrary or opposed by Murphy, Raven, or Emori, if Echo comes to the conclusion that Clarke (or Madi!) is a threat, she’s going to try to take her out of the equation. 

Echo is, as of now, under the impression that Clarke (and Madi, by extension) are not a part of her family. And, to be fair, they’re not. But they’re Raven’s family. And Murphy’s. And Monty and Harper’s. But most importantly, Clarke (and Madi) are very much a part of Bellamy’s family.

Therein lies the tension.

The idea that Bellamy wouldn’t turn on Echo if she were to turn against Clarke is... laughable at best. I never said Bellamy doesn’t love Echo. What I am saying is that the line where Bellamy says he loves Echo specifically was cut from 5x06 for a reason. Echo was completely removed (with the exception of a couple frames of nose) from the end of 5x03 for a reason. And the fact that it was the same editor for both of those episodes has not escaped my notice (shoutout to you, Daniel Martens).

Look. This whole season has been a giant neon sign above Bellamy’s head saying, “ASK ME WHAT I’D DO TO PROTECT CLARKE GRIFFIN.” And the response is a resounding, “Whatever it takes.”

Bellamy didn’t want to harm the Eligius prisoners in cryo. But when he found out that Clarke was alive and in danger, he was willing to trade all 283 of their lives for hers without hesitation. 

Bellamy had never wanted to hurt Octavia. Ever. In fact, there was a whole episode this season about how he wasn’t willing to hurt her, even while she was directly threatening Echo’s life. I’m sure a lot of people don’t, but I definitely remember 5x06. Bellamy’s response to that was to run away. 

What did it take for Bellamy to turn against Octavia, his sister, his responsibility, the person he’s been trying to keep safe at his own expense, for four and a half seasons? What did it take? 

Octavia looked him in the eye and told him she was going to execute Clarke. That was the real beginning of the ever-expanding Blake sibling rift finally tearing open. 

Without even mentioning Octavia calling out Bellamy’s feelings for Clarke: Octavia knew he’d come to her, but she thought he was going to beg. Even Octavia, who knows how Bellamy feels, didn’t think that he’d poison her. 

Bellamy Blake poisoned Octavia because he couldn’t let her kill Clarke Griffin.

So, let me just make sure I have this right. You think that Bellamy Blake, who, upon seeing who his sister had become, poisoned her for threatening Clarke’s life and later denounced her as his family... wouldn’t also do that to Echo?

In case anyone has gotten this far and is still somehow unconvinced that that opinion is... wrong... I’ll go a step further.

Bellamy and Echo’s conversation in 5x01 is incredibly important, in that it outlines their relationship’s downfall... perfectly. It also plays into my theory that Echo hasn’t actually changed, but that’s not the point of this. So, jumping around a little:

Bellamy: “Wouldn’t it be easier to just step outside?”

The conversation quite literally opens with a callback to who the two of them were six years ago, the last time we saw them. 

Bellamy: “Nothing is gonna change on the ground.”

Considering that literally the first thing that changes on the ground is that Bellamy finds out Clarke is alive? Self-explanatory, next.

Echo: “I’m still banished. What if Octavia tries to—”Bellamy: “No, she won’t.”

She did. Almost immediately.

Echo: “You do remember I almost killed your sister.”Bellamy: “My sister will understand... she’ll forgive you, too.”Echo: “Bellamy, it took you three years.”

Hold on... let me just queue up 5x08 real quick...

Clarke: “I’m sorry that I tried to...”Bellamy: “Kill my sister?”Clarke: “Suddenly I’m the one letting my heart rule my head.”Bellamy: “Mama bears don’t think. They just protect their young.”

Six years later and the Bellarke Near-Instantaneous Forgiveness is still kicking, got it. Next?

Bellamy: “Whatever we run into down there, Octavia will be the least of our worries.”

If this one needs explaining, then I can’t help you.

At the end of that scene, Echo goes to follow Bellamy out, then turns back and grabs her sword. She’s choosing the person she was on the ground.

There is one important aspect of that 5x01 conversation that I saved for the end here, specifically because we haven’t seen it be proven false like all the rest. Yet. But after 5x11, there’s a foundation.

Bellamy: “We’re family, and nothing can change that.”

5x11 showed us a pivotal moment in Bellamy’s character arc. He is no longer willing to hold on to relationships that hurt himself or the people he loves, even if the relationship he’s cutting off is with someone he loves. 

Octavia was his family. Octavia’s choice to try and execute Clarke started Bellamy’s active opposition of her behavior and her actions (as opposed to his passive opposition throughout the show until this moment). In 5x11, Bellamy explicitly told Octavia, the audience, and himself, that Octavia is no longer his family. 

It took Bellamy three years to forgive Echo for her actions on the ground. When he sees her again, there’s the distinct possibility of Bellamy either being told or realizing for himself that... she is making the same decisions she would’ve made six years ago. And if she tries to kill Clarke? They’re right back where they were in 4x01.

If you still think for one moment that Bellamy Blake wouldn’t be willing to stop calling Echo family for the same reasons he denounced his sister, who had been family for almost his whole life? I don’t know what else to say to you.

I've been wanting to make a post for this for a while, but haven't really gotten the chance to sit down and write it. I've had ideas swirling around in my head about the things that I want to see happen this seaon, and I think that I have enough ideas to make a worthy reddit post. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. (Some of these you may have seen in other posts like this before.)The scenes/events/ideas I would like to see in season 3 (in no particular order) are;At least one interaction between El and one of Mike's parents. I think Ted and El meeting would be funny because I remember in season 1 Ted scoffed at the idea of his son being with a girl. That would be an interesting scene.A scene something along the lines of Mike have dinner at El's house with Hopper and El. That would make for some interesting conversation. I think some of the most enjoyable things about Stranger Things are just regular things that happen in everyday life to all of us, which is why the characters and story lines are relatable. Anyone can relate to having an S/O over for dinner going over to an S/O's house for dinner and eating with their/your parents.A conversation between Dustin and Steve and Max and Lucas. The trailer eludes to Dustin still being upset that Max fell for Lucas rather than him. I think Dustin might try to reach out to Steve for some help about it.I think it would be really funny if the gang was to discover that Billy and Karen (I think that's the name of Mike's Mom...?) were having a thing going on, and Mike and Max were to have this "wtf" moment. It would surely stir up some drama in the Wheeler and Hargrove households.Steve fighting with his famous bat. If he doesn't use it once this season I'm gonna lose my shit... Whether it's an Upside Down monster, a zombie, a person, I don't care, he just needs to use it.Jonathan and Steve have some kind of moment. I don't what terms they were on when season 2 ended EXACTLY, but it would be cool if they were forced to come together, or even just a legitimate conversation between them. Although based off the groupings we see in the trailer, I doubt this is likely.We see the Steve appears to be getting either tortured or interrogated or something in the trailer. Something that I would like to see implemented into this scene is perhaps Dustin and the others being forced to watch. This would make this scene 10 times more intense and scary.A sleepover with El and Max. They talk about girl things, and Max gives El lessons about the real world. Things like "Okay, El, I know you like Mike, but you can't just be glued to him at ALL times. Also, there are other things to eat besides Eggos." That sort of thing. Just the two of them hanging and talking in classic sleepover setting; sleeping bags, snacks, flashlights, that type of thing. Would love this.A group trip to the mall. I mean the whole group. This might be evident, but it seems like things have been split up in the trailer. In a lot of the shots with the kids, Dustin is nowhere to be seen. He is obviously with Steve, Erica, and Robin. But before this split happens, I need to see the six of them in the mall.This might be a but of a stretch, but I'm sure we are all familiar with the shot of those uh... butts... in the trailer. My bet is that it is some kind of show happening in the mall. And in the mall, the four pubescent teenage boys get a little bit *ahem* distracted by them, and then Max and El are like "Guys wtf." That would be funny. Even something along the lines of El using her powers to turn their hands away would make this scene even more enjoyable.As it's been said countless times, I think it's very necassary to have interaction between El and Will. Two characters that have barely looked at one another, I think that it is very important they talk more.Flashbacks. Looking at the trailer, a lot of things have changed. An example of this would be the room that El has. Some people have pointed out that it looks Rory (the toy dinosaur Mike showed El when he met her) is on her shelf in her room. A scene that explains how that got there in a flashback would be absolutely beautiful. Flashbacks to after the snowball after Season 2, Valentine's day, the last day of school, all that. These are things I think we need.An argument between Hopper and El about Mike. I don't really know what the circumstances would be, but I think that there is evidently going to be some tension between Mike and Hopper. Hopper is probably gonna be a really protective Dad and when we see that Mike and El are kissing in her bedroom... Hopper might not be happy about this. This kind of conflict would really stir the pot and make the show interesting.Hopper and Joyce getting together. Based on the trailer, it seems pretty likely, but it needs to be said.Will and Dustin time. I think it would be interesting if the couples went off and did some kind of double date thing and Will and Dustin just decided to hang out, and they got some bro time to maybe talk about the fact that they seem to be the odd ones out. I think these characters might have a lot in common this season.A double date with our couples.A Mileven scene with Foreigner's I Want To Know What Love Is. It's such beautiful song released in 1984. And it matches the "Summer of Love" theme of the new season and Mike and El even more. Or maybe a sequence showing all the couples with the song, but I think the gem here is Mileven.An "I love you," line from Mike or El to Mike or El. Either one is great. I think each possibility would bring a lot to the relationship. I think I would like it more if El said it. It would really be a great demonstration of how much she has grown and changed in the last 3 seasons. This would be GOLDEN, and I think it's the one I want most on this list.Erica to be a likable character. I just hope she's not just an annoying nuissance. I have faith that the Duffers did a great job.As much as I hate to say it, I think the chances of Steve dying this season are high. It's the third season, and if the Duffers are talking about making 4 or 5 seasons, they can't keep the same characters alive this long. I'm not gonna get deep into this, cuz that's not what this post is about, but I just hope that if Steve does die, he does it while swinging his bat, sacrificing himself for his children to carry his legacy on.And ending that is not a cliff hanger. I don't know if because season 2 had a happy ending, that means season 3 is gonna have a sad ending. (S1; Sad, S2; Happy, S3; sad...some kind of pattern? idk) I really want Season 3 to end on a happy note.That's it. If you made it to the end, thanks for taking the time to read my ideas!​ via /r/StrangerThings

Rewatch 110: This World Inverted

Look, I love everything about the Alternate Dimension. I do, it’s cute and fun and light. It also makes no sense whatsoever and I can only shut down my brain for so long.

Teaser

I like how playful and condescending Meliorn is this season. It goes to show how much his punishment will change his approach to shadowhunters in the later seasons.

Honestly, the explanation about the portal shard is such bullshit. “In our dimension, Portals can only open to places you’ve been to. In this other random dimension, there is one - and only one - Portal that can open to wherever you want to go. Convenient, hm?  But we will only use it once in this whole series. Never again. Not even when Valentine is an actual threat to the Downworlders all over the world in this dimension.” I know this gives us the fun Alternate Universe, but “this portal shard isn’t from a warlock’s portal, it’s a seelie portal and it works differently” is a much cleaner explanation.

Oh, look. Being self-righteous and taking things into their own hands have consequences. Clary and Jace are considered criminals. Izzy might face punishment if her involvement is found out. It seems Alec can’t shield you all from the Clave this time.

The shadowhunter culture is so dependent on their mission of killing demons that, once they do it, it ceases to exist. This notion is highly interesting to me.

Rules successfully established: let the episode begins!

Act One

So, which is it Alaric? Should Luke “let the pack handle” his problems or should he not involve the pack? Those are kind of conflicting ideas.

Raphael should never have kids. Or make fledglings. But Luke is a good father, so he helps Simon.

“Shadowhunters need Seelie permission to go through. Only demons can pass through un-aided.” Who the fuck created this rule? Like, in-universe. Who was the Seelie Monarch who thought: “Shadowhunters? Nope. Demons? Yeah, that’s cool.”

Also, lol at Meliorn. He was sending one barely-trained teenager straight to Valentine as retribution for her saving his life. No wonder the Seelie Queen was pissed. Terrible plan.

Act Two

I have so many questions about the Alternate Universe and they are not even about the huge plot-hole of Clary not having a brother and that brother “not” being Jace. How did Valentine and Jocelyn meet? Why do they not know Luke or Hodge?

I remembered it wrong. They didn’t recognize Izzy’s whip in the attack. Pity. Anyway, going rogue has bad consequences. What I don’t get is why this scene is focusing on Lydia so much. She gets the last word against Izzy, she gets the last reaction shot. I don’t care about Lydia. I care about Alec and Izzy. Show me them!

How does Clary know Simon, Alec, Izzy, and Jace? Don’t get me wrong, I love this scene. But how? Clary has a perfect family life, so there’s no need for Jocelyn to leave Valentine and go live close to where Simon lives. Clary meets the Lightwoods via being a shadowhunter and they are not anymore. Did they all go to the same high school?

Izzy is crushing on Valentine while dating Simon. The writers really hate Sizzy.

I thought we were done glorifying Clary white saviorism, but apparently not.

Luke was hiding from Internal Affairs? Since when? They let him go. We didn’t see him getting called back in. This comes from absolutely nowhere.

Act Three

Oooh. So, demons – who can pass through seelie portals at will – are attracted to the Alternate Dimension. This keeps getting more and more forced.

We all complain about Izzy’s casual racism played as badassery, but Jace just called Meliorn “Pointy Ears”.

The use of the cats as an anchor for Clary is incredibly clever. Not only it works in-universe as a difference between the regular dimension and the alternate dimension, it works as a cute wink to book readers. Not only fan service but also functional in the story being told. This is how well-done adaptation works.

“Head of the Institute hat off” is a weird line.

You know, Alec doesn’t come off as very likable for caring only about Izzy and not the fact that he was taking someone to be tortured. But he does come off as smart for knowing how easy it is to buy the Clave’s favor: Alec knows they will let high treason go if that means getting the Mortal Cup.

I enjoy this slightly different dynamic between Clary and Magnus. He has no previous ties to her, so Magnus doesn’t praise every breath Clary takes. He’s still helpful, but with a bite to it that makes watching them interact entertaining.

Just as Jace chose Clary over Alec, now Alec is choosing Izzy over Jace. He’s willing to break their bond if that means saving his little sister.

Act Four

Ignoring how Simon and Luke got that blood-sucking machine, this scene is silly on the right amount. Of course, good thing Simon can now control himself enough to act and get shot like ten times, no problem.

That kiss constitutes sexual harassment. Just saying.

There was all that talk about how the characters’ personalities were the opposite in this episode: like how Izzy is nerdy because Simon is nerdy, Alec is smooth because Magnus is smooth, etc. I don’t think so. I think this is the personalities these characters would have if they weren’t killing-machines or traumatized. Clary is the same. Simon is the same. Magnus, Alec, Izzy, Jace: this is how they’d be if the Shadow World didn’t exist.

Of course, Alec will force the Parabatai bond at the worse possible moment for Jace to be incapacitated. And that’s not even the last time Alec’s timing will be this convenient for the drama.

Oh, the scene that made the fandom think Raj is in love with Alec. Little did we know, Raj is just an asshole.

Act Five

Funny how Magnus performs magic in the middle of the party and nobody notices it.

Aw, Simon. You can’t eat real food anymore. It’s adorable that you forgot that.

Jace’s scared voice combined with Meliorn’s slap got me laughing hard.

Honestly, the convenient timing is pissing me off. Jace goes into the Alternate Dimension minutes before Alec arrives where he was. A complete coincidence. How many of those have to happen for this episode to work?

This is the toughest demon ever. It survived both Jace and Meliorn, and then it almost survived both Clary and Jace. It even poisoned Jace before dying.

Act Six

Stop. Changing. The. Rules. Blood travels through dimensions? Really?

I’m sad watching Alec apologize to Izzy but also, how attractive are these siblings? Honestly, this is ridiculous.

Valentine is such a Villain Sue, he had time to: 1. Notice Jace and Clary arrived by Portal; 2. Quietly, clear the lair from all the Circle Members; 3. Shape-shift into Michael Wayland; 4. Get very dirty; 5. Lock himself in a closet. All in the time it took Jace to activate his Iratze and get up.

i started playing Mass Effect: Andromeda yesterday.

i got a download code for it for christmas like two years ago and just finally redeemed it.

now, for years, i’ve been saying this: “i know that people don’t like Andromeda- it’s very hard to avoid that- but i’ve done my best to avoid looking further into why people don’t like Andromeda because i want to form an opinion for myself. lots of people don’t like Mass Effect 3 either and i fucking adore that game. based on the fact that most people don’t like Andromeda and consider it a total joke but i do see that it has its fans in the Mass Effect tag, i expect that it’s gonna be bad, but i’m gonna like it anyways, though not as much as i like the trilogy.”

and i was absolutely right. so far at least.

it’s definitely not the worst. i mean, unless the question is “the worst Mass Effect game”, in which case, yeah, it is the worst. but that’s not saying much considering the other three are collectively my favorite game of all time.

so, Mass Effect: Andromeda is an extremely flawed game. but it’s not completely worthless like some people say (though i can totally understand why someone would dismiss it as worthless).

it’s pretty ugly (it’s got good lighting, but the animations and textures and human models all look really.... off. and the original version of ME1 was also pretty ugly, but in a charmingly primitive 2007 kinda way; Andromeda’s ugliness lacks that charm, especially since the aforementioned good lighting makes it fail to feel particularly primitive). speaking of the animations, aside from them looking off, a lot of them are extremely stiff and borderline unfinished.

the Angarans as a species are also pretty ugly imo, but 1: that’s extremely subjective, i’ve definitely seen people who are thirsty for Angarans, and 2: that’s also not necessarily a complaint. Angarans just Look Like That. who says these aliens need to conform to our ideals of prettiness. and they’ve got cool stuff going on. Jaal’s neat.

i do like the Remnant. they kinda give off that same precursor vibe as Prothean/Reaper tech without feeling like exactly the same thing again, and it’s pretty interesting that they only disappeared within the last few hundred years rather than 50,000 years ago. and there’s a lot more left of them. they’re somewhat derivative of the Forerunners from Halo, but not too extremely.

now, the aliens i do have an issue with are the Kett. they are so extremely derivative. not only are they derivative of things outside of Mass Effect (i know next to nothing about Warframe and even i can tell that they’re visually a total ripoff of Warframe, and also to an extent Halo), but they’re derivative of things Mass Effect already had, too (gee, an evil race that creates its soldiers by corrupting members of other races? no, that’s not like the Reapers at all).

the game’s writing is mostly fine. nothing’s struck me nearly as hard as anything in the trilogy had this far in (for any of the three games), but the story hasn’t offended me too badly and there’s been stuff i’ve liked. Alec Ryder’s a cool dead mentor character and i did emotionally resonate with him sacrificing himself to save my character’s life, Andromeda manages to bring back a lot of the hard sci-fi elements that ME2 and ME3 both scaled back on from ME1, and i really like the whole disaster scenario that Andromeda inherently presents, and how it makes space feel really big and dangerous in ways the trilogy liked to hint at but never fully explore.

not sure how i feel about the combat yet. largely because of the game’s pacing, and there’s a complaint. the trilogy was pretty good at keeping you on your toes, balancing the combat/exploration gameplay with the downtime gameplay. Andromeda... doesn’t really. it’ll spend way too long on the combat/exploration stuff so i’ll easily start getting bored with it, and then it’ll spend way too long on the downtime stuff so i’ll easily start begging to actually try out the new combat/exploration stuff i’m getting during the downtime, and on top of this, it also means i’m having a really hard time adjusting to the combat. i’m not really having that much fun with the combat yet, but i feel like there’s a very good chance it’s because i just haven’t gotten the hang of it yet (especially coming right off the tail of another playthrough of the original trilogy, a series of games i replay literally every year and have since 2013 so i know them like the back of my hand). the idea of Profiles is interesting, at least.

the Tempest is a cool ship. i had it introduced to me as “a shitty version of the Normandy” and that’s not really fair. yeah, the Normandy’s cooler, but the Tempest is cool too. honestly, i found myself comparing it more to the Normandy SR-1 than the SR-2. It has a much more similar vibe (i mean, hell, you don’t need to go through any loading screens to see the entire ship, and it’s not all centralized around a single elevator). the windows are really really silly from an in-universe perspective but i can forgive that, especially since it’s finally fulfilling the promise that i mistakenly thought some vague blurry ME1 art made years ago- a central ops chamber with a full window view of the top part of the ship. and it’s pretty. Ryder’s bedroom is a lot nicer than Shepard’s, it’s a bedroom that’s much more my speed. i also think it’s funny that they had to rename the Tempest gun so the names didn’t conflict.

and then there’s the characters, and.... i mostly like them.

i’m a little mixed on Cora. she seems a little passive-aggressive. Drack is just store brand Wrex, but that’s not really a bad thing. i mean, could you live up to Urdnot Wrex? no, you couldn’t. so Drack doesn’t offend me, i like him. Tann absolutely sucks but he’s clearly supposed to suck.

but then you’ve got the characters who are on two opposite ends of the spectrum of likability: Vetra and Peebee.

holy shit Peebee sucks and i don’t want anything to do with her. she was one of those things i wasn’t able to avoid hearing about and yeah she sucks just as much as everyone said she does.

Vetra, meanwhile? i adore Vetra so much. i love her. the moment i met her, i just HAD to look her up on the wiki to see if i could romance her, and i was so elated when i saw she was an available bi romance.

and for that matter, i was soon pretty happy to discover the game’s selection of romances: three exclusively straight romances (Cora, Liam, Avela), two exclusively gay romances (Gil and Suvi), and five bi romances (Jaal, Vetra, the witch, Keri, and someone i haven’t met yet named Reyes). that’s a pretty solid mix! especially when the two straight romances are two humans and an Angaran, the two gay romances are both human, and the bi romances are two Asari, a female Turian, a human, and another Angaran. i think i’d adjust it slightly by making one of the straight romances bi, but aside from that, that’s... kinda perfect! this feels really well thought-out, like they tried to make the mix perfect (hell, making one of the Angarans exclusively straight but another one bi feels like they were trying to provide a serious cultural clue for them- namely, that sexual identity is a concept they have)! it’d also be perfect if everyone was bi, but perfect in a different way (pro: you don’t have to worry about sexuality at all, con: it’s kinda boring).

anyways, back to Vetra. it’s a little early to say, since i’ve barely even explored her romance, but........ while probably not my favorite romance (it’d take a lot to dethrone that current champion, Traynor, let alone the other high scorers Garrus and Tali), she’s probably pretty high up there. sassy Turian lady who plays dirty to get things done? hell, i love the Garrus romance so much despite being a lesbian, so i’m absolutely all for my character romancing a Turian with a dark side, and now we get someone other than Garrus to fill that role, and a lady at that! ME1 and ME2 didn’t have any female Turians and ME3 didn’t have nearly enough, and then ME:A just has so many. the same goes for female Salarians, too, actually, but it’s more understandable in-universe for Salarians considering how Salarian gender works. anyways, there’s more that i love about Vetra besides “she’s Garrus 2 but a girl now”, a lot more actually, but that core idea is really enough to get you on board with her, really.

(speaking of Garrus though, he was also the focal point of one of the game’s stupidest moments: at some point Ryder says “An impatient rookie, frustrated with procedure? That's overdone.” which like..... that’s clearly supposed to be making fun of Garrus?? who’s like, the literal most popular character in the franchise???? i’m sorry??? what??? it’s like they’re trying to piss the fandom off intentionally, and “creators intentionally trying to piss their fandom off” generally don’t earn much respect from me unless they’re indie, and even then it’s a tough sell)

but that Garrus thing is cancelled out by another cool thing: the Nexus. the core idea of the Nexus seems to be “the Andromeda Initiative decided to build their own Citadel”, and that’s really fucking cool. it’s interesting to see the challenges of getting something like the Citadel actually up and running, and the Nexus itself is pretty interesting, especially in comparing and contrasting between it and the Citadel. also it has a room dedicated to teaching any local species about the various Milky Way races, and it’s all technically accurate but also a little overly generous in how positive some things are (“Turian culture is proof that peace will always win out!” “Humans may be diverse, but we choose to celebrate that diversity rather than let it divide us!”). and also i love that they actually let you listen to the info about humans as if you weren’t a human yourself because one of my favorite things about ME worldbuilding is how much it feels like humanity is just another one of the races that exists in this world, and humanity are really only the “protagonists” of the story because Shepard/Ryder is human.

Black Panther Review

I absolutely loved Black Panther! The film felt like it belonged in the MCU while successfully carving out its own corner of the universe, making it feel like a world unto itself. Even with its fantastical technological wonders, Wakanda felt real and the incorporation of various African cultures gave the fictional nation a history and texture that made it feel fully-formed and granted a powerful sense of depth to the proceedings. The cast was excellent across the board, supported by writing (from Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole) that gave everyone moments to shine and stellar direction from Coogler to match.  

Full Spoilers...

I didn’t know much about Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) going in, having only seen him in Civil War, Fantastic Four and Avengers cartoons, and an appearance here and there in the comics. Civil War got me interested in the character and Black Panther cemented me as a fan; he’s hands down one of the most engaging characters in the Marvel Universe! Chadwick Boseman is effortlessly cool as T’Challa, a down-to-Earth king, badass superhero, and charming romantic lead. In an unexpected and very welcome twist, none of T’Challa’s inner circle are afraid to call him out or have a bit of fun at his expense (depending on the character), which made them feel like a family and gave him a much more grounded sensibility than I was expecting. I liked seeing T’Challa as a more measured and mature man here, growing nicely from the vengeance-obsessed version we saw previously; his first steps toward ruling Wakanda and deciding what kind of king he wanted to be—and what sort of country he’d like to rule—were great to see. That T’Challa was willing to listen to wisdom from all sides—including his enemies—made him an even more compelling and unique hero. T’Challa is bar none the most likable and relatable royal the MCU has given us, with none of the pompous, somewhat bloodthirsty bravado of Thor or the labor camp-minded royal family on Inhumans. That went a long way to making me sympathize with a monarchy instead of yearning to see it overthrown; T’Challa actually does care about the people under his rule. I do wish we’d gotten to see how T’Challa interacted with and was seen by the common people of Wakanda instead of just his inner circle and the other tribal leaders, but this was a very small nitpick that can easily be remedied in the inevitable Black Panther 2 or even Infinity War.

It was awesome to see such a diverse cast in this film and I’m equally pleased we got to see so many strong women showcased here (I can’t imagine how much more important this film must be for African American and female audiences who are finally getting representation like this onscreen). Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) was awesome from the get-go as a Wakandan spy living in the outside world, working to help those in need. I loved her insistence that she couldn’t settle down as a queen knowing there were people outside Wakanda who could benefit from her skills and Wakanda’s influence. It was refreshing to see a hero’s love interest not only have an important life of her own completely separate from the lead’s arc, but to see her unwilling to sacrifice that life to please her guy. Nyong’O brought an engaging, likable, and determined energy to Nakia and I hope we get to see much more of her as the MCU evolves in a post-Infinity Wars universe. Letitia Wright’s Shuri was another standout, stealing every scene she’s in with an infectious, upbeat energy, and I loved her sister/brother relationship with T’Challa. They felt totally natural as siblings, with her needling him from time to time but still clearly sharing a relaxed, loving bond with him. Shuri is very likely the smartest person we’ve met in the MCU so far, and that’s awesome! Like others have suggested online, I cannot wait to see her become best friends with Peter Parker and outsmart Tony Stark at every turn. I loved that she loved showing off and trying out all the gadgets she made, and it was so cool that this princess got to be the Q to T’Challa’s James Bond. At first I thought it would’ve been better had Shuri remote-piloted the aircraft to shoot down Killmonger’s (Michael B. Jordan) forces instead of Ross (Martin Freeman)—she had the experience with the tech to do it, after all—but my friend pointed out that putting her on the front lines instead was a chance for her to directly stand up and fight for what she believed in instead of repeating what she’d done earlier in the movie, which gave her a bit more range. Plus, her panther blaster gauntlets were cool! I’m really interested to see how running the outreach center in Oakland with Nakia changes Shuri.

Danai Gurira gave an excellent performance as Okoye, leader of Wakanda’s elite Dora Milaje, who became torn between duty to Wakanda—and whatever king ruled it—and loyalty to T’Challa. I went in expecting a stoic warrior, but while Okoye was definitely effortlessly badass, I loved that she was able to have a sense of humor about T’Challa freezing when he saw Nakia (and able to jovially inform Shuri of this fact); it was clear they were more than just king and royal guard, they felt like old friends. Okoye and her Dora Milaje were an awesome facet of Wakandan society and I can’t wait to learn more about them in the future. I think Okoye’s relationship with W’Kabi (Daniel Kaluuya) was perhaps a little too vague—amounting to the two of them referring to each other as “my love” without an explanation of what exactly that entailed—but it didn’t hurt the movie or either character for me. Instead, it added a bit more drama to W’Kabi’s decision to follow Killmonger while Okoye ultimately sided with T’Challa. I still would’ve liked to know more about the details of that relationship, though. Also regarding her relationships, it’s a shame a scene hinting at her being attracted to women was cut, but hopefully that will be fixed in a sequel.

W’Kabi’s insistence that the Wakandans take action to capture Klaue (Andy Serkis) and forcibly help the oppressed around the world was a great contrast to both Nakia’s stealthy attempts at helping outsiders and T’Challa’s initial belief that they should keep Wakanda separate. I loved that he was able to convince T’Challa to hunt down Klaue instead of leaving him to the CIA and that he spoke for a contingent of Wakandans who wanted to take action but not go totally public (at least at first). The fact that someone had to argue for capturing a criminal who’d attacked Wakanda was a great display of how intensely isolated the nation was and W’Kabi’s opinions added to the complexity of Wakandan views on the outside world. It was brilliant (and much more realistic) of the writers not to limit Wakandans to two clearly defined viewpoints. Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) was perfect as T’Challa’s regal mother and I loved what we saw of her relationship with him and Shuri. I also liked that she was genuinely willing to make peace with M’Baku (Winston Duke) to stop Killmonger despite him having earlier challenged T’Challa for leadership of Wakanda. It would’ve been easy to make her stuck in her ways and refuse to go to someone like M’Baku, but while it was a concern that he could become a problem, I liked that she had the faith to offer him the heart-shaped herb to give him the power of the Black Panther. I’m definitely interested in how Ramonda will react to the new era T’Challa is ushering in.

M’Baku was another great character I’m excited to know more about in future sequels. Like I’ve seen pointed out elsewhere, the idea that he and the Jabari tribe could peacefully exist separately from the rest of Wakanda—despite worshipping a different god and speaking a different language—was a refreshing surprise. I was definitely fooled into thinking that M’Baku would want power if Ramonda gave him the heart-shaped herb, so giving her the injured T’Challa instead was a great twist. M’Baku screwing with Ross’ expectations of what “tribal” behaviors were was funny and I’m glad the film smartly didn’t refer to M’Baku by his comics alter-ego, “Man-Ape.” How M’Baku and King T’Challa interact going forward is absolutely something I’m eager to see. Will M’Baku’s help in taking Wakanda back from Killmonger bring them closer together or show him that even with supernatural powers, T’Challa needs help holding his country and is potentially weaker than he seems? Forrest Whitaker’s Zuri was a perfect connection to the history of Wakanda, its treasured ceremonies, and its supernatural aspects, balancing Shuri’s high-tech modernity excellently. It’s impressive how easily the film weaved together supernatural and sci-fi aspects, and the extrapolation of those things into the characters was masterful.  

N’Jobu was only in the movie briefly, but I enjoyed his reaction to the world outside Wakanda. Sterling K. Brown’s performance absolutely sold me on his passion and the impact he’d have on his son, despite his short screentime. John Kani’s T’Chaka was very welcome and it was cool that he got to converse with T’Challa in the afterlife, another supernatural flourish that served to broaden the Black Panther mythos rather than muddle them with too many different sources of weirdness. I liked that T’Chaka’s past sins not only made T’Challa realize he was not perfect, but tied into T’Challa’s decision about whether to reveal Wakanda or not and gave Killmonger another reason to hate Wakanda. I was especially surprised and pleased that this hatred complimented Killmonger’s bigger goal of helping people rise up against their oppressors: his argument with Wakanda was that it stood by while people were enslaved, not solely that T’Challa’s dad killed his. That gave him so much more dimension than just being a revenge-minded villain.

As pointed out elsewhere, the film expertly weaves the mystical, science fiction, space, and superhero aspects of the Marvel Universe together. It also includes an added layer of social relevance in Killmonger’s concern about the state of African-Americans and others whose ancestors were sold as slaves around the world and are still oppressed today. All of this is tied into the film’s MacGuffin, vibranium, but Coogler wisely doesn’t frame the plot around some cliché MCU villain like an evil businessman or government agent seeking to plunder Wakanda’s vibranium (which probably would’ve been the most obvious place to go). Instead, Erik “Killmonger” Stevens has a legitimate point and that makes him the best MCU villain yet. Enemies who are out to burn everything down for no reason can be threatening—at least in terms of power—and corrupt businessmen and governments often make for obvious real-world villain parallels, but I would definitely like the MCU to start putting more effort into giving their villains honorable impulses taken to horrible, destructive extremes. That’s far more interesting and complex: it gives the heroes something to fight beyond a set of cool powers (and gives the audience something to reckon with in the real world and within ourselves). Killmonger being suspiciously watched while viewing a display of his own stolen culture is a perfect example of the simultaneous scrutiny and dismissal of African-American youth in present-day America, instantly giving him a relatable, realistic connection to the audience. Not only does that scene touch on this problem with our society, but it also masterfully ties into the plot. That Erik was able to so thoroughly affect T’Challa, essentially pushing him toward revealing Wakanda to the world so that it could do the most good, was a great twist. While the film does play into the MCU’s formula of a hero and villain with identical powers facing off, Erik’s position as king of Wakanda (a development I didn’t see coming at all; I was sure T’Challa would beat him in the challenge and he’d start an uprising) made the “mirror image” plot point feel much more natural. Their opposing views on how to best run Wakanda also gave them a great argument to fuel their physical battle, and that’s something every superhero movie needs to aim for (I’m more than a little wary about Thanos’ goal of killing half of everything resonating with the Avengers anywhere near as closely as Killmonger and Vulture related to their heroes). Killmonger’s final lines, about wanting to die a free man instead of going back into a cage, were absolutely powerful and affecting.  

Ulysses S. Klaue was fun as an entirely different sort of villain. Serkis was clearly having a blast playing the cartoonish supervillain archetype and I loved it. I’m always up for some classic villainy and this script gave us just the right amount. I didn’t expect Klaue to die, given his status as one of Black Panther’s greatest villains, but I don’t think they were going to do much more with him than what we got. A solid chase/fight with T’Challa with an argument about the Wakandans being hypocritical, an introduction for Killmonger, and a connection to Ross were all we needed from him, and we got just that. I definitely don’t want Everett K. Ross to become the new Agent Coulson, uniting the next generation of Avengers or something; I think the heroes should unite themselves (as a king, T’Challa could certainly lead that charge if Steve Rogers is no longer around). That said, I liked what the movie gave us of Ross and he was played with just the right amount of wonder at Wakandan technology. While I’ve seen criticisms online about him playing such a big role in the climax, like a claim that they still needed a middle-aged white guy to stop the bad guy, I disagree. He had piloting skills and needed Shuri’s tech to get the job done (she even configured the holographic projection to mimic a plane he was familiar with), so it’s not like he was successful just because he was a white guy. This also isn’t a Batman Begins situation, where Batman’s actions on the train with Ras Al Ghul were irrelevant to the finale because Gordon blew up the train tracks. Had T’Challa not defeated Killmonger, Eric still could’ve rallied his supporters and Wakanda would likely be in a civil war. I think Ross helped as much as was needed to be useful, but I don’t think he overshadowed anyone.

The complexities that must arise from five tribes living in such close proximity to each other, coupled with fun aspects like war rhinos, the mystical veldt afterlife, Shuri’s technological wonders, made this a world I want to visit many, many more times! Wakandan society seems like it’s brimming with interesting social structures, so I hope the sequel really digs into how T’Challa and his people relate to one another. I doubt everyone will be happy he revealed their paradise to the world and I wonder how quickly the needs of the international community will start to weigh on the Wakandans. How they balance their own needs with those of the world will be very interesting to see. I also absolutely love that African society here is portrayed as advanced, rather than what we often see in Hollywood films, and I was impressed by how easily a place as fantastical as Wakanda was rendered as a real, breathing community. I think it’s cool how much of Africa was represented here without Wakanda feeling like a generic and homogenous “Africa” (at least to my eyes; someone with African heritage might see that aspect very differently). While pulling aspects of several different African cultures to create the fictional Wakandan culture may be problematic for some (as I’ve seen online), I think the script has enough leeway to say people from those cultures were the ones who founded Wakanda in the first place.

Bucky’s (Sebastian Stan) brief cameo was cool and I would much rather see him find peace and purpose as a figure with the Wakandan War Dogs—if the White Wolf title is a hint he’s supposed to be the MCU version of Hunter, comics’ T’Challa’s adopted brother—than see him take over the Captain America mantle. If he took over as Cap, I have a hard time seeing how he’d be different from Rogers in the role besides being less upstanding and more angsty, neither of which I want to see (if the mantle must be passed, Sam Wilson seems like a chance to explore what today’s Captain needs to be/represent and adding flight to the shield would make for entirely new fight dynamics). In Wakanda, it feels like Bucky can forge an identity for himself.

At this point, I’m far more excited for Black Panther 2 than I am for Infinity War. I want much more of this world and these characters, and I’m excited to see how they interact with the rest of the world now that Wakanda’s no longer a secret. It would be a huge misstep if Wakanda is destroyed in Infinity War, so I hope that film doesn’t go that direction, since it feels like it would derail everything that’s been set up here. Instead, I’m hoping Wakanda is at the forefront of rebuilding the world after Thanos is dealt with.

Black Panther is still in theaters, commanding the box office for an astonishing fifth weekend in a row and it certainly deserves it. If you haven’t seen it yet, what are you waiting for? A trip to Wakanda is definitely worth a trip to the theater!

Check out more of my reviews, opinions, and original short stories here!

Celebrating 150 Episodes!

In television, 150 isn’t typically a huge milestone. Historically speaking, 100 used to be the number ideal for syndication, so that’s usually a much more sought after number to measure the success of a series. 

But that’s from a network perspective. As a fan, 150 episodes of my favourite show is absolutely something worth celebrating! We’ve come quite a long way, and that’s awesome.

Speaking of which, this time ‘round it’s a Dash episode, featuring the Dash family for the first time ever! Can’t get more awesome than that (unless, of course, you add Scootaloo into the mix).

Rainbow Dash’s Family

I once did a very long write-up on how awesome the families are in MLP at explaining why a character turned out the way they did. Often times, we don’t even need flashbacks to figure out how the character developed the way they did. It’s just easy to see from the personalities they grew up around.

Depending on the family, you can even see a mix of nature and nurture---both the traits they inherited, and the ones they developed as a result of their environment.

Taking Rainbow for example, we see how she grew to be so egotistical: she was constantly praised from the time she was in diapers for every little thing she did. Plus, her dad seems a bit proud himself, so there might be some heritability there.

But more than that, we also see that even though Rainbow grew to be embarrassed and annoyed by her parents’ over-enthusiasm, that’s ironically where she herself got her passion. Every time we’ve seen her dork out over the Wonderbolts or Daring Do, we now know where she got that from.

And, I really have to applaud the likable balance writer Josh Hamilton struck for all four starring characters here. You can understand everyone. 

Rainbow’s parents are over-the-top, but you can see the love and support from a mile away. Rainbow Dash herself snaps at them, but at the same time, you can understand why growing up surrounded by that much coddling would be hard. Scootaloo gets fed up with Rainbow’s unappreciative actions, but (in addition to Rainbow’s shouting being understandably shocking for a kid) she flat out says she would’ve killed for that kind of support growing up. 

Everyone is sympathetic, even when they’re misguided or frustrated, and it makes the narrative that much more heartwarming.

On top of that, Rainbow Dash’s parents are both really fun, endearing characters. We’ll mostly remember them for their incredible enthusiasm which provides plenty of great gags and passionate line deliveries, but there’s also little moments that just make them super likable ponies.

The way Bow Hot Hoof lovingly refers to young kids as stuff like “little trotter” and Windy goes out of her way to tell the Wonderbolts they’re all doing great even though she’s so proud of Rainbow specifically. It’s just all really sweet. 

And that’s not even the most likable part. The way they immediately treat Scootaloo with kindness, encouraging her even in small ways all throughout the episode, it’s just about the sweetest thing you could ask for.

Please have these two show up at some point supporting Scootaloo again. Please let this be an on-going thing.

It looks like she’s got some honorary parents to go along with her honorary sister, and the fact that it was her maturity in handling the situation that won the day and mended that family is just... good. This is a pure, good story.

And I have to admit, I was a bit worried from the synopsis. The last Wonderbolts episode centered around Rainbow Dash getting embarrassed became my least favourite in the series. But, they certainly managed to do that story right this time, and I’m certainly glad for it.

Details, Thoughts, and Whatnot

Trying out this format for the smaller stuff I noticed, we’ll see if this works:

That slow progression of Derpy’s eye crossing is adorable (Gif courtesy of nygip on Derpibooru)

Although, one thing I’d like to point out is that even though it definitely affects her performance, she always at least places in the race

Speaking of, I guess she tried to get corrective surgery as a teenager; when I first saw Where the Apple Lies, I thought the implication was that she got in an accident, but if her eyes were already progressively doing that from when she was a filly, it must’ve been some kind of corrective measure that didn’t work

Also: Soarin is always so happy to place, he’s the sweetest one there (Spitfire never gets first, that’s cool, too, and Lightning’s pissed when she gets dethroned by Dash)

Nice lighting you got there. Makes the moment of the reveal that much more well-paced

A part of me wonders if Rainbow Dash was named after her dad. If she ever got the nickname Little Bow in the family, or if her dad’s full name is Rainbow Hot Hoof (because it is spelled that way). Just a thought. 

I also have to wonder if ‘hot hoof’ is referring to a sports career, or if it’s just one of those vague names that doesn’t really tie into his talent (I find it to be a pretty odd name).

What’s kinda neat is that because Rainbow takes after her mom so much, we have a pretty good guess as to what she’ll look like when she’s older: greyed coat, bags under the eyes. I’m the kind of person who find tiny things like that neat, makes the characters feel more real to me if I know they’re not always going to stay the same age.

Maybe Bow and this member of the family (who, by the way, was invited to Hearth’s Warming at Twilight’s castle last year) are twin brothers?

He could be a brother, but he seemed significantly older than Dash, so my guess is Uncle

So, it seems like Dash’s parents know she’s “saved Ponyville” but I wonder if Rainbow Dash underplayed some of the bigger events to keep them from going nuts at ceremonies and stuff (like the ceremony they had for defeating Discord, Twilight’s coronation---which they probably would’ve gone to because they seem to be royalists, but if they knew Dash had a part in that...---etc.)

We don’t know if Scootaloo’s parents are neglectful, dead, or just plain rotten, but it’s interesting to have a set of parents on this show that aren’t all that great [even if it’s probably best to keep them off-screen]

They kept it vague enough that you can say your orphan fanfics are canon! You clever writers, you...

“What’s wrong with a little support?” is a heartbreaking line when you remember she’s Dash’s number 1 fan and has been supporting her since they met

I absolutely adored seeing the Wonderbolts not be jerks, like, at all. It was glorious.

In fact, now that they’re past the hazing phase, you kind of even see them being supportive. Fleetfoot tries to tell Dash her parents’ cheering isn’t that bad (before they’re nearly shot out of the sky by fireworks)

Here’s a tiny insignificant detail that I LOVE: when they’re making the pyramid, they made sure to show you that Applebloom is stronger than Sweetie Belle, which makes perfect sense because of AB’s farm chores

Also, what up, my theory that the mane 6 were born in the equivalent of the 80s (same as the franchise) is alive and well

So, while this milestone may not have been a big one in a lot of people’s books, it was definitely well celebrated.

You want more pony? I’ve got you covered with reviews here and editorials here. Have the last three things I’ve done, just to be safe!:

Fluttershy Editorial, Starswirl Theory, and Special Dr. Wolf Reading of Starswirl Theory

Year of the Pony

Special Thanks to Millennial Dan on Deviantart, who made the Microphone vector for the logo!

See You in Season 9 for Episode 200

In which I finally fall in love with ‘My Fair Lady’

I went to see the Lyric Opera production of My Fair Lady last night, and I was absolutely blown away! I cannot imagine a more perfect production of this show could ever exist, just ahhh!!!! SO GOOD!!!! (Spoilers and rampant squeeing ahead!)

Despite the fact that it’s one of the established classic musicals, and I’m an Old Skool Musical Theatre Nerd, I’ve never been especially into My Fair Lady. I like it, it’s got a great score obviously, but I never loved it, because Henry Higgins is such an awful character that I’ve never felt it made any sense for Eliza to come back to him at the end. Until yesterday. 

The show was perfectly cast, and made the characters really come alive for me in a way they never have before. Richard E. Grant is the number one reason I bought a ticket, since he’s been one of my favorite actors for years, and he’s the absolute best Henry Higgins I’ve ever seen. It takes an unbelievable amount of charm and humor to make a character likable who spends the entire show singing about how much he dislikes women and how the lower classes offend his ears, and I’ve never seen anyone manage it before, but Grant does. Unlike the stodgy Rex Harrison, who actually seemed to believe all the nonsense Higgins espouses, Grant seems to understand that it *is* nonsense, and that for all his academic knowledge, Higgins is not a great authority figure, but essentially a very childish character who’s actually clueless about how the real world works, and can’t see anything beyond himself. Thus, his growing realization that having another person in his life with a different point of view -namely Eliza- has actually enriched his life, becomes quite poignant. Both Grant and Lisa O’Hare as Eliza brought a considerable amount of humor and physicality to their roles, which, in addition to making the show funnier, made the friendship that builds up between them feel believable. You could clearly see that they were both having fun, which makes a world of difference in the characters’ relationship. There’s a line in one of the later scenes about Higgins and Eliza having gone to Brighton at one point, presumably for a seaside holiday from their elocution lessons, where Higgins buys Eliza a ring as a souvenir. For the life of me, I could never imagine a curmudgeon like Higgins having done anything of the sort, fun or kindness seeming entirely foreign to such a character, let alone Eliza actually enjoying spending her free time with him, but I could absolutely picture this Higgins and Eliza having done that, and having had a happy day that Eliza would look back on fondly, which makes Eliza giving back the ring after the ball a heart-wrenching moment. Their head-butting was played more as a teasing back-and-forth between them, and it felt genuine when he was kind to her, rather than a momentary lapse in nastiness, so for once I could understand why Eliza would start to fall for him. The fact that Richard E. Grant is hella sexy doesn’t hurt either!

The production surrounding them was gorgeous as well. All very light, airy and open, in keeping with the Art Deco aesthetic of the 1930s setting. The predominant color for all the sets was white, so it was lovely blank canvas for the costumes and the lighting to paint moods onto with different colors. I especially loved the scenes that took place in the morning, with a gorgeous golden yellow light from the side to recreate the rising sun. The beginning of the Ascot scene was breathtaking with all the lords and ladies in their finery silhouetted against a glowing back-lit curtain, which then revealed the rainbow of pastel colors in the ladies gowns when the light shifted. It was spectacular. All the costumes for the ensemble were quite colorful, even the Cockney characters, which gave the production a particularly vibrant quality.

Higgins study was a huge, gorgeous set, two stories high with book shelves all around and art deco railings. *sigh* It moved backward and forward as needed for scene changes, and I’m impressed with the actors who had to actually stand on the upper level while it was moving! Richard E. Grant was actually on a ladder on the upper level for one scene change, and while it looked really cool, I imagine it must be nerve wracking to do!

Moving the action from the 1910s to the 1930s is actually a brilliant idea story-wise, since the social structure of the society is the same, but the role of women in society had changed a great deal from Edwardian times. The idea of Eliza becoming a modern, sophisticated woman of the world who smokes, wears red, and decides what she wants to do with her life (and possibly works alongside Higgins in a very interesting twist to the staging of the final scene) feels like a perfect fit, rather than a disappointment at taming the dynamic cockney girl she was into a prim, proper Edwardian lady. (There was more than a hint of sexual tension when Eliza gives Higgins a fiery rebuff to his appeals to come back to him, and he looks at her standing there, staring him down like a queen in her red dress, and he exclaims ‘I like you like this!’ LOL I’ll bet he does!)

Nicholas le Prevost was very good as Colonel Pickering also. Colonel Pickering is usually a lovable character, and he definitely fulfilled that function here, to the point where, when he says he would miss Eliza if she doesn’t come back, the entire audience went ‘awww!’

I’m not generally a big fan of the scenes with Eliza’s father, since they’re kind of just filler scenes that pause the forward motion of the plot, but they were well done here with energetic dance numbers, so they were entertaining rather than annoying.

The one quibble I have was that the blocking wasn’t as mindful of the audience on the main floor as it should have been. For the Embassy ball, which is usually my favorite scene, they completely ruined it for me by placing a giant bench downstage center, on which the character of the Queen of Whatever-it-is sat, in a giant balloon sleeved dress- completely obscuring the view of the rest of the cast dancing further upstage for those of us in the front section of the main floor seats. Which would have been just inconvenient if we didn’t get to see the pretty dancing, but it also meant we could barely see the actual scene that goes on in pantomime on the dance floor, with Higgins & Eliza dancing, then the Hungarian cutting in, and Eliza being disappointed, Pickering being worried that she’ll be found out, and Higgins watching the whole thing confidently - which is all important character stuff that the audience needs to see to understand the plot! Luckily, I’ve seen the movie so many times that I knew what was going on, but anyone that didn’t would have had a hard time following it, and I’m extremely disappointed that the director never thought to actually consider the sight lines for the audience in this crucial scene. Any idiot can tell you that you put dancers and leading characters downstage, while characters who are watching the scene go upstage, where they can be seen, but not obstruct the main action. I’m really angry about that mess, because it’s the only flaw in an otherwise perfect show. 

And I would have loved to see Eliza and Higgins dance the Embassy Waltz, because it’s my favorite piece of music in the score, and I ship them now (never thought I’d say that..), and also Eliza’s dress was drop dead gorgeous and I wanted to see more of it. All the costumes were lovely, but that one takes the cake. The audience gasped when she walked out in that white Greek goddess dress with that laurel tiara- it was just breathtaking. I like it just as much, and maybe even a little more, than Julie Andrews’ dress in the original Broadway production, which has always been my favorite version of the ball dress. I wish they would release more photos of the production, since I’d love to see that dress up close!

But the acting was really the best thing, even more than the costumes. I’ve never rooted for Eliza to go back to Higgins in my life before, but I couldn’t help it here. Grant didn’t shy away from showing Higgins emotions when he thinks he’s lost Eliza, actually letting him cry when he goes back to his study without her- it was heartbreaking. I loved that when she came back they didn’t just end with the ‘where the devil are my slippers’ line, but had a little extra bit where she has the maids bring in some flowers for his desk, which she happily perches on with pen and notebook in hand, as he sits at the desk and beams at her. I could really picture them working together and being happy together, and it makes me so happy to finally feel like this story has an ending that feels right. I just have so many feels over this production and I wish I could see it again! It’s such a shame they won’t film it or record it for posterity, because I feel like Richard E. Grant is the best Henry Higgins there will ever be, and though Julie Andrews is obviously the quintessential Eliza, Lisa O’Hare gives her a humorous, scrappy, bold quality that’s just as effective, and Grant and O’Hare together are a perfect combination. A slightly softer Higgins and a slightly stronger Eliza make them, finally, a well-matched pair. This production made me fall in love with them, and with My Fair Lady, at last.<3

Winter 2018 Anime Season

What I’m watching:

Hakata Tonkatsu Ramens is easily my favorite new show of the season. I can’t think of anything else that even comes close. The show has very attractive character designs, cool music (that ending theme gives me Cowboy Bebop vibes), and an overall stylish, frenetic feel that puts me in mind of a less crazy Durarara!!. The show touches on some surprisingly dark topics but so far has never been exploitative and keeps a mostly lighthearted tone. The characters are a lot of fun, especially in the way they all connect and interact. It should also be noted that there is very obvious sexual tension between the two male leads, yet it doesn’t feel at all like fanservice or yaoi bait. Instead it feels like a natural part of their growing friendship. The whole cast is interesting. This has to be the nicest group of assassins, information brokers, and torturers I’ve ever seen. This is hands down the show I look forward to the most every week. At the top of my watch list.

Dagashi Kashi Season Two was a bit of a surprise. I didn’t realize season two was coming out now until it popped up on Crunchyroll. I was pretty excited too, because I really enjoyed season one and adored the heroine, Hotaru. I even have a figure of her. I was drawn to Hotaru because she was so entertaining. She’s beautiful, yes (easily one of the top five most beautiful anime ladies, in my opinion), but she’s funny, persistent, and big hearted. Okay, gushing about Hotaru aside, season two is a bit different. For one, the episodes are now half the length of regular anime episodes. This works okay, since season one typically had two self-contained stories per episode. Another difference is that the animation quality seems to have dropped a little. It’s not a huge deal, but it’s noticeable. The third thing is that the Hotaru fanservice has become a lot more overt, which is particularly disappointing for me as a fan of her character. Season one had some fanservice, yes (Hotaru has fairly large breasts), but it was more subtle and a lot funnier. Season two, inspired by the heaps and heaps of pervy Hotaru merchandise that’s come out since season one, has decided to focus a lot more attention on how bouncy her boobs can be. It’s annoying, but it doesn’t make the show unwatchable, so it still has a solid spot on my watch list.

Sanrio Boys is one of two cute, feel-good shows this season (I’ll get to the other one later). It’s basically a “cute boys doing cute things” show with BL undertones that is apparently sponsored by Sanrio, as each boy has a favorite Sanrio character that they’re associated with. The show could have gotten by on being cute and fluffy and I probably would have watched it that way just because I like cute things and have a fondness for Sanrio myself. Thankfully, the show puts in the extra effort to have likable, relatable characters with interesting back stories explaining their connections to their favorite Sanrio characters. A couple of these stories literally made me cry. The friendship between the five main characters is very sweet and comforting. I also have to wonder if some of the stuff in this show is meant to be one big metaphor for being a gay youth. The main character lives in shame and denial about his love of Sanrio because “boys shouldn’t like stuff like that”. He fears being rejected by his classmates, because he was made fun of and bullied in the past over his interests. He even tries to help another character avoid being “outed” as a Sanrio fan before realizing the other boy is open and unashamed about his hobbies. A big part of the series is about him growing to accept himself and the things he likes and gradually opening up to others about it. The theme of the show seems to be, “don’t try to deny who you are, be true to yourself even if that means some people will judge you and reject you”. That’s a very positive message cloaked in Sanrio product placement.

Darling in the Frankxx is this season’s garbage guilty pleasure show. It has attractive art, nice animation, excellent music (that ending theme is so. freaking, good.), an interesting setting, and some truly awesome mecha battle scenes. Which would all come together to make one of the top shows of the season, if the show didn’t have some seriously ridiculous and laughable fanservice that very badly distracts from all the cool stuff. Let me just describe the cockpit situation in these mechs. Each mech must be piloted by a pair of one boy and one girl (typical of shows like this, homosexuality doesn’t seem to exist in this world). The boy sits in the seat. The girl is positioned in front of him, facing forward, on her knees, with her ass in the air, practically shoved in the boy’s face. But it gets better! Weird metal handlebar-looking things are attached to the girl’s skin-tight outfit and spring up on either side of her ass for the boy to hold onto. All together, it literally creates the image of the boy riding the girl like a freaking motorcycle. Without even getting into how ridiculously impractical this setup is (wouldn’t the girl get extremely sore and uncomfortable while trying to stay on her knees on the hard metal cockpit floor during longer battles? Wouldn’t a hot girl’s barely-clothed ass in a teenage boy’s face be extremely distracting when he’s trying to fight monsters?), just the image alone is completely absurd. I could be extremely generous here and say the writers/animators were trying to create some sort of metaphor for how these kids are being exploited by the adults and how their budding sexuality relates to the mysterious process of becoming adults (the show strongly hints that they don’t simply grow naturally into adults). But... it looks like the boys are riding the girls like motorcycles, so nah, I’m not gonna be that generous. The show tries and fails to come across as a serious, thoughtful sci-fi story, which is a shame because it might have had more success in that area if not for the stupidity I’ve outlined above. For now, I’m still watching because it does actually have some good qualities that I enjoy. But it’s pretty much at the bottom of the list.

Killing Bites is another show with fanservice, but it does fanservice right. The chicks are badass (and none of them have the bodies of eleven year old girls, thank God) and, so far, all of them are totally okay with their skimpy clothes and actually seem to feel empowered by them. These ladies enjoy being sexy, and use it to their advantage. There was a problematic scene in episode five but it did reach a satisfying conclusion. The show is action-packed, with fun battles between (generally attractive) people who can transform into animal-human hybrids. The show has plenty of humor as well. It’s nothing too deep or tightly plotted, but it’s good brainless fun.

Dame X Prince Anime Caravan is a super cute and fun otome series, one of the most entertaining ones I’ve seen in a few years. This is primarily because the heroine is refreshingly practical and proactive. She’s not a simple audience-insert who gets passed around between the guys. Instead she’s a spunky, no-nonsense rural princess who is well aware of how absurd her situation is. The guys are such over-the-top caricatures that it’s hard to root for any of them to win her heart. What results is a rare otome series in which you’ll be much more interested in the heroine than any of her suitors. That’s not to say the guys are boring. They’re actually pretty fun characters, and their interactions with the princess are hilarious. The art is very pretty and the music is cute, making this a very watchable show.

School Babysitters is the other sweet, feel-good series I mentioned above. How you feel about this show will depend entirely on how you feel about children (or at least children in anime). The bulk of the series is about an orphaned teenage boy and his little brother, and the school where the older brother is allowed to attend for free if he works after school in the on-campus daycare room to help babysit the teachers’ children. It’s absolutely adorable and heartwarming and is designed to make you say, “Awww!” as often as possible. The show can be really funny at times, and can get surprisingly deep as well. One short scene was absolutely devastating to watch if you’ve ever lost a loved one (and probably even if you haven’t). It was just a quick, simple scene and yet it instantly had me crying my eyes out. Despite this, the general tone of the show is lighthearted and positive. A couple of the kids can get a little annoying (just like real kids...) but never to the point that you’ll want to turn it off. High on my watch list.

Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru Season Two is more enjoyable for me personally than season one. When writing about the first season, I mentioned that I wished the show had focused more on the sword battles and the action than on the cute slice of life stuff. Well, last year’s Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu must have quenched my thirst, because the sweet, funny antics of the sword boys in Hanamaru seem much more entertaining to me now. The art is of course very nice, as per usual. The backgrounds and outfits are still gorgeous. There’s still a healthy dose of poignant melancholy mixed in with the fluff (mostly dealing with the sword boys’ lingering loyalties to their former masters and their inability to change those masters’ fates despite being able to travel back in time). My favorite is Kiyomitsu, who paints his nails every day in an attempt to be cute, which would sound funny and a bit superficial if you didn’t know he was doing this because of his deep-seated fear of being rejected and abandoned by his new master. Despite these sad little moments, the show is by and large a sweet, comforting experience.

Can you recommend any good tv series, movies, games, books (anything) that has happy lesbians with happy endings? :>

Ooooh okay!I don't watch many movies, but one that comes to mind is Carol ( (2015) dir. Todd Haynes lmao). It has a happy ending, no one dies, it's Very Gay and honestly #aesthetic. Books: like, anything by Malinda Lo, she's a lesbian Asian YA author who writes great books! Ash is my favorite, it's like a lesbian retelling of Cinderella but I hesitate to reduce it to such simple terms. Huntress is a prequel to that in the same world but centuries before. She has another series called Adaptation but I haven't read it, but I'm sure it's good. Bi protag with a lady love interest I think?Wildthorn by Jane Eagland is also very good! Again I think it qualifies as YA but honestly it has rather dark themes. Takes place in Victorian England where our dear protag is wrongly thrown in an insane asylum. It is very gay, and ends very happily, much more so than you'd expect from such a dramatic, dark premise!Sword of the Guardian by Merry Shannon was fun to read, too. I'm a sucker for medieval fantasy of any kind so if it had lesbians, I'm frickin there. MC is a butch lady who masquerades as a dude and ends up as a princess's bodyguard. They fall in love and there is drama. But an ultimately happy end! Not YA, by the way. Also, the writing and world building is not the best, but even a writing snob like me really enjoyed it. The Thousand Names is another amazing book! It is the first book of the Shadow Campaigns series, and of the two protags, one of them is a (freaking delightful) lesbian named Winter Ihernglass (what a cool name, right?). It's an incredibly well-written fantasy setting with rich worldbuilding, magic, and also guns... It's amazing. The story keeps you on the edge of your seat, through fierce battles as well as politics. The other main character is also very likable. Also, though the series hasn't ended yet, Winter has had like 783 Prime Death Opportunities™ and yet she's still alive and well, so like, yay for (dare I say it?) plot armor. Lesbians don't get that very often lol.Games: Dragon Age is what first comes to mind here. Fun little story: I bought DA2 when I was like 13 or so and my baby gay self was absolutely in love with the adorable bi elf Merrill, but yanno... I was still Totally Straight™. Anyway, don't start with the second game in the series, because nothing will make any goddamn sense. Start with...Dragon Age: Origins- the first of the Dragon Age games, and personally my favorite. In all three games, you make your own player character however you like, and there are multiple romance options. In DAO, your female romance option as a lady is Leliana, a charming bisexual bard who is just A+ and my favorite character of the whole damn series. The game itself is great and while you CAN net yourself a tragic ending, you have to do very specific things to get there--as in, a happy ending is VERY achievable. I have only ever gotten some ultra gay happily ever afters. Dragon Age 2 has two awesome bi ladies to romance (the aforementioned Merrill and the amazing pirate queen Isabela). People rag on the game a lot but like, don't worry, it's not as bad as anyone says it is. It has its flaws, but it tells a good story with great characters. Dragon Age Inquisition is the latest installment of the series and has, as your available female romance options as a female main character, a brilliant bi lady named Josephine who is your amazingly skilled chief diplomat, and a delightful lesbian named Sera who I love with all my little gay heart tbh. This game has a LOT to do in it, and as for the endings, some Drama™ happens but as for your relationship, they will remain happily together. The lady main character and Sera even get... gasp... MARRIED. Yup, that's right, you get a Big Lesbian Wedding. It's fucking awesome. Also, Sera ends up with a cute girlfriend if you're not in a relationship with her so like... The lesbians are always happy. And Josephine's romance is really cute! I know I mentioned Sera more bc I've romanced her more, but seriously Josie is like a Disney princess. You literally participate in a duel to win her affections until she stops you mid duel because she's afraid of her love getting hurt. It's so fluffy and cute omg.If you've been following me tho, all that dragon age stuff is probably old news lmao. So here are some more games!Mass Effect: another Bioware game, your main character can be gay! Though there is a lot of Dramu and World Shattering Stuff and the ending is not exactly happy, so I can't really add it to the list. But you can be gay and happy throughout the series. It's just hard to get a good ending, and even the happiest ending is ambiguous. Dragon's Dogma: this is one of my favorite games ever. It's so much fun, another medieval ish fantasy RPG, but the gameplay is amazing. There's a romance system that isn't very in depth, but still relevant to the story, and there are no restrictions based on gender, so you can be a gallant lady knight and rescue the damsel in distress and also smooch her if you're so inclined. The whole game has about 0 differences based on gender do honestly that's pretty cool. As for endings, you can get a happy ending with your character and their love interest. You can also get some not-so-happy endings but it's all based on player choice.Life is Strange is another game whose ending isn't all that happy, but the two main characters, based on player choice, can be in a relationship (implied enough that it IS canon) and both live. There is a shit ton of drama and trigger warnings tho. But really it is an amazing game.In the same vein of Dragon's Dogma, there's Skyrim, where like you can kinda do whatever you want in the game, and one of those things is that you can marry characters regardless of gender. There are some characters who you can't marry because of plot or whatever (in Dragon's Dogma there are only... 3 characters you can't romance iirc whereas there are more in Skyrim) but yeah, you can still be a big ol lesbian. I have never finished Skyrim bc like, again, you kinda just do whatever you want, but the ending is kinda inconsequential in that you can keep doing whatever you want after the main plot is over. So yeah, never ending lesbians. Sweet.I should honestly be able to think of more examples but for the moment I'm having trouble D: @soothinghymn @orlesianwardens what gay games am I forgetting hereTV Shows: I'm not a big TV show watcher here, but there are some good shows w lesbians. Steven Universe comes to mind. Yes it's a kids show, but it is a damn good one. There's drama but it's also very feel-good, and one of the characters is literally a lesbian mad up of two smaller lesbians who are madly in love with each other. Like, shit, that's just awesome.I'm a dork so I'll also give you anime recs, so in that regard I'd recommend Shuumatsu no Izetta/Izetta the Last Witch. It's kind of a spoiler that they get a happy ending, but hey, whatever, they do. The main couple doesn't kiss or anything but it is HEAVILY IMPLIED and there are no other love interests for the characters and they share an amazing bond and just love each other so much, it's great. The show is sliiiightly violent and takes place in like an AU of WW2 which is weird (one of the characters, Izetta, is a witch, so it's like an ~alternate history~ situation where a witch is involved in the war) but the show is still very enjoyable, great soundtrack too.Madoka Magica is kinda iffy, bc while it's my favorite anime of all freakin time, the show has a bittersweet ending. It is relatively happy? And kinda sad? The show is filled with tragedy, but I guess that's kinda the point. And then the follow-up movie is more despair, so... yeah, probably doesn't count as happy.A notable mention is Yuri On Ice, also. It doesn't involve lesbians, but the main couple is gay and they ultimately have a happy ending. There's some inevitable drama but the show is about ice-skating, so while it may seem like the world is sometimes ending, everything turns out okay in the end and no one, like, dies or anything.Anyway, I can't think of much else at the moment, but feel free to ask for more! Maybe I'll be able to come up with more examples later lol.

#sircius - #mainquest character

The sun has long since set when the frail figure hunched over the cluttered desk finishes paging through his 9th book for the evening. It’s another tome on rare herbal medicines, and it was no more helpful than the last one he’d barreled through roughly 30 minutes ago. 

The elderly man - a tiefling named Sircius - fidgets in his chair and moves to seize the next book atop the tall stack sat on the floor next to him: an encyclopedia on rare and extraordinary curses. He spares no time as his hands move quick to peel open the pages and his eyes begin to fly across the text, intently observant of every key word or phrase which may be of interest to him. 

While his eyes scrutinize the book’s contents, his concentration wanders elsewhere; and as if to punctuate the thought at the forefront of his mind, a ragged breath cuts the potent silence, and Sircius instantly turns his head to look at the younger man laying on the bed just a few feet from him. 

His son’s face, as dormant as ever, greets him in return. And although his son, Malerus’ stirring has changed his appearance none, Sircius cannot help but worry if the brief disturbance - uncommon for his son -  is a sign of something worse.  

Something, he's beginning to worry, he may not be able to stop. 

Profile.

Sircius Emberos. Male. 69 years old. School of Divination Wizard. Sage background. Tiefling. True-Neutral alignment. Character strengths: incredibly loyal and protective of those he truly cares about, lets knowledge and reason dictate his actions, cautious, intelligent. Character flaws: cold, distant, stubborn, holds a general disdain for those less intelligent than him, holds no regard for laws or morality when it comes to his interests and the safety of his loved ones.

Sircius Ebmeros and my experience playing him.

There’s perhaps more to Sircius Ebmeros and what he means to me than what lies on the surface.

He was my first-ever character - both for D&D and as a genuine “OC” for me to put actual time and effort into - and with him I really wanted to break the mold, as I knew he would make the first impression for what I could do as both a character conceptualizer and a roleplayer.

My honest perception is that most people gravitate towards starting with and/or playing characters who are very close to themselves in their own personality (which is not a bad thing at all; it offers a transition into roleplaying for those uninitiated to it, and for those with no priority or interest in roleplaying, it’s simply more fun for them); this is very much something I did not want to do. So instead of making my first character an unexciting, passive, amicable, and all-around-cooperative young human female - a definite and obvious reflection of myself - I decided to make Sircius: a temperamental, demanding, isolate, unsociable old tiefling -- who, on the upside, is incredibly smart and cares deeply about family. I decided when making him (and as I do for all characters I create) that every character has a problem, and Sircius’ would be his incredibly ill son. And as the campaign was already lacking a genuine problem to unite our characters, this gave our first chapter a goal: to find Sircius’ son Malerus a cure to his inscrutable disease. Along the way, Sircius Fireball’d a fellow party member, was shot in the kneecap by another, and was threatened more times that I can count about how he needed to behave and play nice with everyone else. So it probably goes without saying that playing Sircius can be exhausting. I constantly have to shut everyone out, turn away help, and pretend to be fine on my own when as a player and a character I know very well that I’m not. It’s difficult sometimes to remain true to Sircius’ character and instigate disagreements within the party, but I have always tried to do so with taste, and never so frequently as to call into question Sircius’ place in the group. Sometimes this means on the rare occasion sacrificing the integrity of the character (i.e. making a call that I’m not wholly convinced Sircius would do), but I find it absolutely necessarily for the continuation of the story. At the end of the day we are all here to play and adventure with each-other, and I would much rather try to reason Sircius into doing something he wouldn’t normally do than leave the party fractured or disbanded because I wanted to stay ~true to the character~. I mean, what kind of story would that be? Not a good one.

So I’m left playing a totally hard-headed, widowed husband, whose only family remaining is his deathly-ill son and a grandson hundreds of miles away from him. And as ridiculously painful as that might sound to play... I actually enjoy it. -- Most of the time, I really do. Some of my most cherished memories I have of D&D are the few deep conversations I’ve had as him with other characters. When someone has finally managed to crack Sircius’ shell it’s incredibly cathartic to let his more compassionate, vulnerable side show. And I’m immensely thankful for those moments because they make him feel like a genuinely likable character despite his obvious flaws - and not just some anal-retentive asshole that everyone has to put up with. Over time, Sircius became more and more palatable as a character as the events of the story unfolded. Eventually Sircius and the party obtained the “miracle cure” that they had sought out. They then returned to the tiefling’s home to revive the ill Malerus. Things did not work out as planned, however, as although the cure resuscitated his son, it also left him both in an essentially vegetative state and made him completely unreceptive to magic, basically making his new condition unquestionably and emphatically incurable.

Now, let me clear up before continuing any further that the result of the miracle cure was never intended by any of us or the DM to be what it was. The cure was always meant to succeed, but as a bit of fun on the DM’s part (I believe), two side-effects were added via rolling on Orrex’s Net Libram of Random Magical Effects. What was rolled was possibly the most depressing and horrifying result I can think of. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t cry when this all happened. Quickly realizing how grim of an outcome this was, the DM set to rectify this.

The unfortunate effects of the cure were kept canon (a reroll was never done, which in retrospect I would have appreciated), but instead of leaving Malerus (and by proxy, Sircius) to his exceptionally dark fate, a cleric - the father of one of the other party members, Eleniel, in fact - gave up his life in order to restore Malerus’. While I can appreciate this as it added drama to the story and changed Sircius’ character and his relationship with Eleniel, the unfortunate rolls on the Net Libram still leave a bad taste in my mouth to this day. It’s something I try to forget about - and often I leave it out of conversation concerning Sircius and the campaign because of how exceptionally dark it is. It’s a little to “real,” and for reasons that I’ll get to later, was very hard for me to accept when it originally happened.

But all of that aside, those events helped shape Sircius into who he is currently. With the full revival of his son, Sircius’ temperament cooled substantially and allowed him to possess and practice gratitude towards his fellow companions. It also gave myself narrative reason to keep Sircius in the story, which worked especially well in Chapter 2 when the party reunited to help Eleniel (whom Sircius now obviously owed after the sacrifice of her father). Because of this his character has developed and established itself well in my mind.

So, it’s probably crazy for me to say now that all of this - Sircius’ story and everything that he has theoretically ever been through - might change in the future. Crazy, maybe, but not unwelcome. 

Mainquest is being heavily considered (and by “heavily considered” I mean basically approved but pending until we get around to it) for a “reboot” down the line. Various reasons have been cited; the most pertinent being the inconsistency of the party and DM (this is a campaign that’s seen 3 different players come and go and also had a DM switch starting in Chapter 2). The DM also seeks to refine and revitalize the story. For us, it’s the campaign that’s seen the most mess, so there’s an innate desire to redo it “right.”

Will this change Sircius as a character? Possibly. Will this change the events that shape him? Likely. But I’m ok with that. Actually, I’m looking forward to it. I enjoy the idea of getting a chance to play as Sircius again and to re-experience and refine his transition from unsociable recluse to.... well, someone tolerable, haha. I would even be up for a more somber take on Malerus’ arc.

You see, what I have neglected to acknowledge leading up to this point - and I suppose if you’ve bothered to read this far you have earned the right to know - is the inspiration for Sircius’ plight; something completely unintended by me until I realized it far too late.

And this is where it gets almost unnecessarily heavy, so feel free to back out here.

During the time I created and played Sircius, I was dealing with problems in my own life -- problems of a kind which I had never faced before. 

I was struggling to cope with a friend’s (the very best friend I had at the time and perhaps will ever have) diminishing medical condition. ALS. We didn’t know at the time; a diagnosis was never made clear until months and months after things started unfolding. To us, she was just slowly losing her ability to do everything for no apparent reason. And it was exceptionally painful for me -- losing her, like that. Being there, but not. I couldn’t fathom the thought of people dying who were important to me -- especially someone who was so important to me as she was. 

So it’s too disgustingly easy now for me to see the overlap between my life and Sircius’. The only thing that really separates us is how the story ends. Malerus got to live, and my friend eventually passed away. -- I guess Sircius was always meant to be the fantasy I could never have in reality.

Since then I’ve learned to cope, to appreciate my best friends’ life for what it was, and to try and let go. -- Very different from Sircius’ experience. But I’m starting to think that an alternative ending to Malerus’ story - with him passing away - wouldn’t be as bad as I originally thought. Would it be a hero’s story? No. Of course not. But Sircius could then serve as a conduit for something more important, I think. 

Maybe. Maybe not. It could be an absolutely terrible idea. -- Also a hell of a lot of pressure on me and my DM to make it work. But I’d at least like to make note of it here: I am not so opposed to anti-stories as I once was.

And so that is my long-winded experience playing Sircius Ebmeros: the grouch of a tiefling who turned out to be something a little bit more. Perhaps he will change in the future in story and/or character, but for now, this is how he remains.

My Thoughts: Red Sister by Mark Lawrence

I keep trying to look for a more adult Harry Potter, and I keep getting disappointed. While this book was good, it still wasn't what I expected. That may be in part my fault because I hyped it up in my mind so much. I felt that the story was lacking though and everything expect Nona wasn't given nearly enough development. Nona is taken in and trained by assassin nuns at a convent, which sounded so cool, but there isn't really any training and I wasn't invested in any of the conflict in the book, and there weren't that many.

Characters: I liked the protagonist Nona. She comes from a poor background, and is always an outcast. She knows what it's like to not have anyone in your corner, but instead of being bitter about it that propels her to treasure her friends and protect those that can't protect themselves. When in prison, she refuses to escape without her friend, and at the convent she bonds with the other girls because she proves her abilities and devotion. Also she has a lot of anger directed toward those that abuse their character, but she isn't stupid. She's actually kind of clever and inquisitive, which helps her a few times in the story. She does have her cute moments too, particularly with Sister Apple. So while she is a fighter, she has a very human and emotional side to her which makes her likable. Aside from Nona, there weren't that many side characters that stood out. Abbess Glass is a bit mysterious with a shrouded past, but she won't back down to anyone. Also she's in charge of the convent, but she admits that she uses the prophecy as tool rather than actually believing in it. She could be an interesting character but I just didn't feel attached to her. Sister Apple is the one in charge of poison studies, and her personality fits that very well. She can be very sweet but that helps cover her shady side so it's easy for her to blindside someone and render them useless (or dead). Sister Wheel was the only other teacher that stood out, but not in a good way. She seemed to show no other purpose other than be mean to Nona, which didn't help move the narrative in anyway so she was kind of a waste of space. There's also two of Nona's friend that got some depth. First is Clera, who hates the nobility and views the world as a game that needs to be one by any means necessary. This is important for her narrative and her dynamic with Nona, which I will elaborate on in the Relationships section. Second is Arabella. She comes from a noble family but unlike Clera, she embraces the convent and rarely brings up her own family. At first she comes off as a bit cold and above everything, mostly due to everyone being in awe that she's “the chosen one,” but once Arabella warms up to Nona, they appear to be kind of similar, aside from their backgrounds which is complete opposite. While there are villains, they aren't really nuanced or they aren't present for very long, usually a combination. Basically don't like any of the nobility because they all come off as corrupt. Nona was a great character but the rest very much felt like side characters.

Relationships: So as I emphasized in the previous section, friendship is very important to Nona. Clera is the first one to take in Nona at the convent, and Nona always feels that sense of friendship with her, but others start to point out to Nona that Clera might not feel the same sense of devotion. Even as Nona becomes suspicious of Clera, she doesn't stop treating her as a friend. It turns out that Clera betrays Nona not once, but twice. Despite this, and to Clera's surprise, Nona still won't abandon Clera and believes there is good in her. For a violent assassin, Nona is pretty pure. Arabella is a different story. Nona doesn't like her at first, and she's sure that Arabella doesn't like her. After Nona goes through the Shield Trials (which further cements Hessa and Nona's friendship because Hessa is the only one that will stand up for Nona), Arabella makes it clear that Nona has earned her respect and the two even take their names together. They continue to grow closer and to the point they either one will fight to protect the other. Nona also let's it slip that she has a crush on Arabella and Apple and one the boys at the fighting pits. So hints of romance, but nothing further, and another cute moment of Nona's.  

World Building: I get that over doing world building in the first book can really way a book down, but I still like to get a sense of the world, especially in the book that first introduces the world. For the first quarter of the book, I did get a solid sense of the world. There was a guide at the beginning that helped make clear some things, like the four tribes and their “abilities.” There was a certain sense of bleakness in a corrupt world, the main character coming from absolute poverty, and the spreading ice. Then there was the convent and it's different classes and levels, which was explained more in the guide than the actual book. There are also different religions that were briefly discussed, but only enough so that I understood the basic differences between each. After Nona enters the convent though, I don't really have any clear sense of the world, whether it's the history, geography, or politics. It's just kind of there. There are the ship hearts that keep being mentioned, and even once it's explained why they're important, I don't really care because it was just glossed over. For me the world building was way too underdeveloped, to the point where it could be a little confusing at times.

Writing: There's a lot that I want to talk about with the writing. First, there is the shifting time line. There's one in the present and one in the future, but you don't realize it's in the future until Nona and Arabella take the name Cage and Thorn, the names of the two nuns int the future time line. While it was interesting to have that, I don't think it was necessary because I didn't think that there was any big reveal or plot twist, and it didn't really contribute to the story line. I admit I think it's hard to do multiple time lines because they have to connect but each one needs to have an independent narrative with it's own twists and turns, which wasn't the case for this. Second there's the chosen one thing, and I'll admit, I don't really have an issue with the chosen trope. Yes, it's done a lot and I would like some variation, which is weird that I admit that because I didn't like the chosen one narrative in this story. People at first think Nona is the chosen one, and are mad about it, then Arabella shows up and people believe she's the chosen one and are happy because she fits their image of the chosen one. Then Abbess Glass confesses to Nona she doesn't believe there is a chosen one. Then it's revealed that Zole is actually the chosen one. While I didn't think that the chosen one narrative worked for this particular book, maybe overall as a series it will, but there were too many twists with this and for some reason I didn't like the exact words “chosen one” being used. This does work from an analytically stand point because it demonstrates how easy it is to manipulate prophecies and faith, and how fickle people are. I also didn't like that nothing was really done to make use of the chosen one trope, except to make Nona a target for nobles, which was kind of pathetic. I mean she's a child, do you really have nothing better to do. Maybe after Game of Thrones I've lost my taste for grim dark fantasy.

Dislike: I didn't like any of the antagonists because they lacked any depth. I found the world building to be a little lack, and the magic system was really obscure. It was just one of those systems where as long as you have the blood, you can will things into place. Also at the climax, I liked that Clera's betrayal was revealed and it made sense, but during the actual battle with Raymal Tacsis, I didn't feel that the stakes were high at all because I knew how things were going to end, so I wasn't invested in the fight at all. There also points were I felt like Nona wasn't the focus of the story, she was just a blank tool moving the story forward, and I never liked those scenes because Nona was one of my favorite, if not my only favorite, part of the story. I also mentioned at the beginning how this was a disappointment because I thought it would be a more adult Harry Potter. Much like how people use Tolkein's world building, people like the aesthetic of magic school without putting in the actual work and development. In Harry Potter, the classes were important and helped the kids solve numerous problems, and I got a sense of what they were learning. In this the classes were there, and I won't say that they're unimportant, but they don't tie into the narrative as well and I have no idea what they're like. I mean they're a big part of Nona's life right now, but they're just glossed over. Disappointing.

Final Thoughts: This book wasn't bad by any means, but it didn't live up to my expectations. I did love that the majority of characters were female, but most of them I wasn't interested in. I did really like Nona, but as of right now I'm not sure if Nona is enough to carry the story forward so I'm not sure if I'll continue the series. Maybe if I hear that there's more political intrigue and the world and characters get more developed, but for now I have other books that take priority on my TBR pile.

New Post has been published on Geniuszone

New Post has been published on https://geniuszone.biz/the-most-beautiful-woman-within-the-world-award/

The Most Beautiful Woman within the World Award

My adoration for women is sincerely an instead innocent one if I am allowed to decide myself. I could be extra than happy to define my criteria that outline my personal judgment because it’s now not righteous to be one’s, own judge. But, I assume I will permit my effects to communicate for themselves.

  The maximum stunning girl inside the world, for maximum exotic splendor, is going to Jennifer Connelly. I cannot get her hair out my head from the movie Blood Diamond. Of course, she’s inside the timber in West Africa following the story of struggle diamonds and does not have time to setup an appointment with a hairdresser. But when a person may be that excellent even under those circumstances, that is what drives me wild. Forget the reality that I’ve been in love along with her given that I first saw her in Labyrinth and I’ve observed her profession all through a number of my maximum preferred movies together with House of Sand and Fog, Dark Water, and He’s Just Not That Into You. Jennifer Connelly steals away with the most beautiful girl inside the international for most distinguished splendor.

  The most beautiful female within the global, for being a surprising hottie, goes to Jenna Fischer. I started out looking The Office whilst it first came out in 2005 and I observed the cute receptionist in the back of the desk. I cherished the way she flirted with Jim and dealt with Michael. I was really rooting for Jim and now he ultimately is along with her, with a child and the entire nine yards. But then, I saw her on the cover of Shape in November 2009. It critically turned into one of those Wow moments. Who in the world is that? The most up to date little hottie to grace the quilt of Shape, and I had no concept that the cool, adorable receptionist from The Office became that excellent. Jenna Fischer takes with the aid of a landslide the most lovely girl in the world for being a sudden hottie.

  The maximum stunning lady within the global, for absolute adorability, goes to Jennifer Aniston. Bursting onto the scene in Friends, she caught every person’s interest along with her wealthy-girl innocence and her superb splendor. The Rachel hairdo became a country-wide hit. Millions of girls tuned in each week simply to look what she become wearing. Even although she could not pass over irrespective of what she wore, she had some of the most well-known outfits including the green dress in TOW No One’s Ready, the yellow get dressed in TOW All The Kissing, and the black dress in TOW Monica’s Thunder. Rachel Green owned that show and Jennifer Aniston went directly to star in such favorites as Office Space, Along Came Polly, and The Break-Up. Jennifer Aniston sweeps the votes for the maximum lovely female in the global for absolute adorability.

beautiful

The maximum beautiful lady in the global, for natural loveliness, is going to Angela Kinsey. Another surprising splendor comes from The Office within the form of Angela Martin. She plays the immediately-laced accountant who cannot stand irrelevant behavior, excessive indulgence or frivolous sports. However, she is going on to have an affair with each Dwight and Andy at the same time displaying us that she too is human and now not above temptation. But then, I noticed Angela Kinsey sport a turquoise shirt with black shorts, excessive heels and directly blonde hair. That’s after I found out how perfectly fabulous she honestly became. That become just the first of many enjoyable other-thanThe Office sightings including the crimson bikini pinnacle and reduce off shorts on a day on the beach along with her daughter, the blue dress on the gold standard of “Meskada” after birthday party, and a slew of red carpet outfits that knock me dead every time I see her. Angel Kinsey blasts the opposition away for the most lovely lady within the world for natural loveliness.

  The maximum beautiful girl inside the global, for the stunning angel, is going to Emily Procter. Of course, I first noticed her as Calleigh Duquesne in CSI: Miami, a beautiful detective who turned into nice to every body, however stern at instances when the scenario referred to as for it. The first episode I watched become when a brand new officer was being delivered to the pressure and certainly one of his first obligations turned into as an observer of the entirety Calleigh became doing. She defined a few matters to get him up to the mark after which she welcomed him to the Miami-Dade Police Department. Her eyes stayed fixed for what seemed like an eternity and she or he flashed that smile that might haunt me for years. Emily Procter triumphs as the maximum stunning lady inside the international for the stunning angel.

  The most beautiful female within the global, for sheer beauty, goes to Sasha Alexander. She hit the scene in her first memorable overall performance as Gretchen, Pacey’s older sister, inside the wildly conflicted, overly dramatic, idealistic global of Dawson’s Creek. She and Dawson share a romance that is laden with an excessive amount of questioning and no longer enough spontaneity, even though as soon as in awhile you see sparks of a real courting in there someplace. She right now became one of the actresses who holds the status, “If she is in it, I will watch it.” Hence, my interest grew to become to NCIS once I saw her natural gorgeousness grace the display because of the large sister type to the group. Obviously, I changed into heartbroken whilst she was murdered by Ari. But, Rizzoli & Isles have come to be the balm that soothes all ails. Sasha Alexander gallops away with the maximum lovely lady in the international for sheer elegance.

  The most lovely girl within the global, for unmatched brilliance, is going to Beth Riesgraf. Repelling into my lifestyles as Parker in Leverage, she is a chunk naïve about certain records of lifestyles even though she is remarkably skilled in cracking safes, scaling homes and gaining entrance whether or not legally or illegally. It’s the strict appearance that comes throughout her face when she is thinking about something as deep as she will, however, her smile is spell binding. You melt while you see her fifty fabulous expressions. Where has she been all my lifestyles? She pulls off fantastically the rock and roll blonde, the directly hair formal and the runway yellow dress with fashion designer pocketbook to fit. Beth Riesgraf lifts the most beautiful woman in the world for unrivaled brilliance.

  The most stunning woman inside the world, for stealing the show, goes to Natalie Portman. Of path, she was in Anywhere But Here and Beautiful Girls at the side of a slew of other large hits. But, I didn’t sit up and word her till a pregnant female with out a shoes is deserted at America’s department keep in Where the Heart Is. Adopted by way of a loopy couple, she grew from an infantile teen into an expert female who eventually learns a way to agree with her coronary heart again. From then on, I have no longer been able to take my eyes off of her. She rocks the harmless appearance in Sesame Street at the same time as dominating sexy in such works as Black Swan and No Strings Attached. Natalie Portman is fingers down the most beautiful lady in the world for stealing the display.

  The most beautiful woman in the world, for general whiplash head turner, is going to Katherine Heigl. When you notice her smile from the facet in that infamous “sucker” scene in The Ugly Truth, your heart passionately screams, “I want to be in that guy’s shoes.” She’s down to earth playful, critically red carpet hot or even pulls off the bad hair day with beauty most runway models could die to embody. I think I love her most when she’s facing her personal mortality in Grey’s Anatomy “Good Mourning” or facing someone else’s “Dream a Little Dream.” It’s in those deadly severe moments which you discover her actual splendor glowing from inside. Katherine Heigl rules the most stunning woman inside the global for general whiplash head turner.

woman

The maximum lovely girl in the global, for dripping warm attractive, goes to Charlize Theron. When she stuck my attention in The Devil’s Advocate, I thought to myself that a person could actually be daft to float far from her right into a meaningless marriage. But, that changed into written into the script. Just have a look at how she rocked Mighty Joe Young, Reindeer Games, The Italian Job, and Hancock. She even made a serial killer seem likable in Monster. But to virtually recognize the jaw-dropping, large coronary, stand-there-with-not anything-to-say natural sexiness Charlize exudes, all you have to do is witness her raw amour as she walks down the hallway leaving layers of clothing behind inside the renowned Dior J’Adore industrial. Charlize Theron demands the maximum stunning girl within the world for dripping warm sexy.

  The most lovely girl in the world, for pure attraction, goes to Christi Paul. The CNN’s Headline News anchor in addition to for In Session on truTV. She is the ultimate female next door with the prom queen beauty. But, there have been some Miss America aspirations that would have come actually as witnessed via her climb from Miss Mansfield to Miss Greater Cleveland as she labored her manner up to running for Miss Ohio in 1993. WDTV became clever to lease her as broadcast journalism just seems to be in her blood. And now you understand where I get my news spoon fed from ordinary. Christi Paul wears the maximum stunning lady inside the international crown for natural attraction.

  Robin Meade in reality stocks the title of pure appeal in conjunction with Christi Paul. With her adorable giggle and the new style she has delivered to the news, I stay on top of what is occurring inside the international today and it is easy to determine out why. Plus, Robin’s tune Welcome Home is a touching tribute to the troops who are preventing remote places and meaning plenty to a veteran like me. But, the reason why I step out of protocol and proportion a identify between these appropriate anchors from CNN is due to the fact their lives are so absolutely comparable. Robin Meade was born in Ohio in 1969. However, she went on to emerge as Miss Ohio in 1992 and became one of the pinnacles ten finalists within the 1993 Miss America Beauty Pageant. They each are married with children and living in Georgia. So, I tap Robin Meade to proportion the most lovely girl in the international for pure attraction with Christi Paul. It’s the maximum stunning girl in the global for crying out loud! I’m sure they don’t have a trouble sharing it.

  The maximum beautiful girl within the international, for knocking my socks off absolutely, is going to Scarlett Johansson. With only one exception, the mysterious skip in 2000, Scarlett has not less than brought us some thing new every yr on the grounds that her inception in 1994 with North. Among my favorites are Lost in Translation, The Perfect Score, and In Good Company just to name some. But, it’s whilst she plays the parts in such films as He’s Just Not That Into You that you see her splendid sensuousness. Her extremely good snort, the elegant look over her shoulder, even her capacity to be innocent while entrenched in uncooked passion makes me fall in love with her again and again. Scarlett Johansson epitomizes the maximum lovely female in the world for knocking my socks off totally.

  The maximum beautiful girl inside the global, for endearing fascination, is going to Julie Bowen. Catching my interest in Ed, I without delay hung on her every scene. I cursed the director and the other actors who have been stealing our treasured time faraway from me. But then, she became the love interest in Happy Gilmore and Adam Sandler’s daydreams are not anything short of inventive. She is the purpose I have become a fan of Boston Legal just like she’s the reason I watch Modern Family now. Her smooth brown eyes can flash extreme every once in awhile. But, her smile! It’s the form of smile that radiates and it’s miles very contagious. Julie Bowen famous utter greatness of the most lovely lady in the world for endearing fascination.

  The most stunning woman in the international, for being drop useless appropriate, is going to Diane Lane. She can not be touched! Since 1979, she has touched my coronary heart and I wasn’t even privy to how deeply then. But, I caught on while she exploded on the display in Streets of Fire. That became the making of history. An all-time favored of mine, I even have enjoyed her in such greats as Chaplin, A Walk on the Moon and Under the Tuscan Sun. But, she brings it home in works like Jack, Judge Dred, and The Perfect Storm wherein she’s no longer the lead however she steals each scene. She’s magnificence and beauty and everything you may say approximately a princess. A proper version of all this is beautiful inside the global, Diane Lane effortlessly exemplifies the maximum stunning female within the international for being drop lifeless fantastic.

world

The most stunning female inside the global, for eternal magnificence, is going to Ashley Judd. So effective in her again tale, she left her mother and sister while they have been nevertheless on the road performing. She went off on her own to do her own factor and what a present she has given us! She’s in a protracted line of favorites to cherish including Double Jeopardy, High Crimes, and Where the Heart Is. She should without problems end up a cult conventional with roles like Eye of the Beholder, Twisted, and Bug. She has the appeal to bring fans from the outskirts into the mainstream due to the fact she may be pleasantly fascinating even if her character might be laid low with alcoholism, is mentally disturbed or grossly psychotic. Her beauty calls for honestly no make-up as she rocks the red carpet in clothes and skirts that she makes look good while trumping the beauty of all the celebrities who flock to take their pics together with her. Ashley Judd certainly is the sector’s maximum lovely lady in the global for everlasting class.

  The maximum beautiful female within the world, for redeeming grace, goes to Dana Delany. A habitual Dana photograph shoot can produce such fantastic photographs because of the pink blouse with horny hair in her eyes, the blue get dressed from Desperate Housewives, and the black blouse staring into the digital camera from Kidnapped. Truly exceptional how results easily she makes all of its appearances. I might not mention her age, that is via far the maximum extraordinary characteristic approximately her beauty. My heart skipped a beat when she leaned towards the tree in Tombstone. I’ve watched each ounce I could find of her on account that, catching vintage reruns of China Beach, Wild Palms and Sweet Surrender. Checking out Multiple Touches of Sarcasm, A Beautiful Life or even Route 30. But now, I could be capable of getting my weekly Dana dosage in Body of Proof. I can’t imagine this global without her! Dana Delany merits most lovely lady within the global for redeeming grace.

  As you can see, these girls are not ranked from one to 3 as being the maximum lovely woman within the international. They are definitely the maximum beautiful girl inside the global. They can not be installed any sort of order in any respect. Furthermore, it was very tough to slender my alternatives down to just those three. But, I did it! I finally narrowed my selections all the way down to best those whom I truly bear in mind to be the maximum beautiful girl inside the world.

  This panel recognizes the reality that there is indeed a very beautiful girl in the international missing from this 12 months’ picks. There are quite a few in truth such as but now not restricted to farmer’s daughters, nuns, librarians, instructors, ex-girlfriends, sisters and my daughter, who are not covered for prison motives concerning my being at the panel, being its handiest panel member and to avoid any allegations of bias. It is only because of a sheer mental meltdown after making my selection that the rest of the maximum beautiful ladies within the world had been no longer covered.