Lords of Kobol, hear my prayer...

++ It has been confirmed that Krysten Ritter is returning as Jessica Jones in Daredevil: Born Again season two. Ever since she voiced her interest in returning I knew there would be a high possibility of it happening, and now it's finally arrived! I'm curious to see what they do, but I know that the Jessica and Matt dynamic is going to be amazing regardless. They were the highlight of The Defenders for me, so seeing them together again is going to be an utter delight. All they need to do is get Elodie Yung back as Elektra, since has has also expressed her wishes of returning in the role as well, and that would be icing on the cake for me.

++ HBO Max has changed its name back after two years of a brief rebranding. This is such a frivolous thing, but I just find it funny since the renaming was so pointless.

++ As someone who watches a lot of YouTube, I've become quite disillusioned by a lot of individual YouTubers over the years. For various reasons, the obvious being the push of the algorithm and the strive for monetization instead of just the passion of creating or talking about something they wanted to share which has ruined a lot of people who I initially used to like watching and seeing that shift has, either soured me to them or left me feeling indifferent and just no longer engaging. Between that and people just making long form videos (ex: the video essay bandwagon) to say a whole lot of nothing (literally an example of "this could've been an email" vibe, just link the wikipedia article you're directly reading from and STFU) I just have very little patience for things that waste my time in such a way. I get wanting to make money, I get that the platform has forced this on creatives who just want to do their own thing, but as I mentioned previously regarding true crime there are a lot of grifters and even sadly people who turn into grifters (anything involving drama or supposed drama, exaggerating or poorly representing a situation just for clicks and views) and it makes it difficult to find anything genuine or authentic and, while it is important to do so, it can be tiring to constantly question the motivations of why someone is making a video about a topic.

I know that YouTube has always had this side to it even in the early days, but with the way everything is online nowadays it can be quite disheartening seeing it so much more. It's why I've become so selective of who I choose to watch more frequently of.

++ The Yuri!!! On Ice movie, Ice Adolescence, has officially been cancelled.

I didn't watch the show, although it's been on my list to and I've only seen some clips (both in Japanese and English dubbed), but I do remember how big it was when it first came out. It gained massive attention and popularity, so when the announcement of a follow-up movie was to happen shortly thereafter along with a teaser trailer fans were understandably excited and happily awaiting for it to arrive. And then nothing. No update announcements for years. I think it's fair to say that while the cancellation announcement wasn't so much of a surprise considering the years wait, it's still disappointing especially for the fans who were holding out some hope that it would happen. What happened behind-the-scenes or why they didn't announce this sooner, we may never know. But it's sad how they really truly fumbled with this.

Speaking of fumbling the ball....

++ Watcher Entertainment has announced they are leaving YouTube for their own streaming service and basically putting their work behind a paywall. The response from the fanbase has been overwhelmingly negative.

( My thoughts on the ongoing situation. )

I don't know. This is still developing so we'll have to wait and see what happens.

++ With YouTube attempting to block anyone from using adblockers, it just really highlights the absolute capitalistic bullshittery that's been happening online over the recent years. Listen, websites need money to continue to exist, we know and understand this. At best, it's an inconvenient annoyance. However, bombarding people with an endless string of unnecessary and oftentimes unskippable ads isn't going to win people over. And forcing people to see them by taking away their choice to block it just so you can get money is going to repel them even more.

++ Because it's nearing Halloween, this is something that's been on my mind recently. I absolutely love holiday special episodes in television shows, which is something I think has been lost in the recent years of streaming that has drastically reduced episode numbers per season. Aside from losing the episodic factor, it doesn't allow us to get these amazing holiday-centric episodes that can be silly and ridiculous or just overall festive in tone. It can be plot-related or just something completely separate. Sure, not all of them are winners, but the joy comes from seeing what the writers can come up with to accommodate to the holiday themed episode, and if nothing else let us be entertained. Halloween and Christmas special episodes are my favorite, though Thanksgiving episodes can also be just as good too, if nothing else than for the autumn aesthetic. And I think that's what I like about these special holiday episodes, it's the aesthetic. Whether it advances the seasonal plot or not, you can always count on those holiday episodes of providing some kind of festive aesthetic vibe.

(Similarly, while I don't really watch them, I can understand the appeal of Hallmark holiday movies, since they provide a similar dedication to the aesthetic of the holiday they're centering the story around. Every scene, every location, every frame is filmed with lights and decorations so you don't forget what holiday they're in, lol.)

I've been rather down lately, so I wanted to share a video that I always go back to whenever I need a pick-me-up. Essentially, it's just Matt Mercer dancing to Lady Gaga. It makes me smile every single time, and hopefully it'll make you smile as well. :)

( The DM stands for Dance Master. )

❤

++ Been making my way through all of Buzzfeed Unsolved, both their Supernatural and True Crime series, and it's made me laugh so many times, mostly with their banter which genuinely makes me happy. I also recently learned that Ryan and Shane both left Buzzfeed earlier this year to make their own company, which makes sense. Aside from everyone saying that they're too good for Buzzfeed anyway, their shows kind of outgrew that company anyway so departing and making their own company would be the next logical step. Puppet History, one of their shows on their new channel, has me cackling. It's so great.

++ It seems that Syfy has been having marathons/airings of Battlestar Galactica and Xena: Warrior Princess, and I have to say this is a perfect time to get introduced or reintroduced to BSG and have kind of a resurgence. So say we all!

++ There are now official releases of promotional stills from the upcoming 2020 version of Dune (which from what I've learned will be split into two movies, considering how dense the story is I'm not surprised). I still maintain my position that I approve with most of the casting except for Timothée Chalamet where I feel like he's miscast. Perhaps once a trailer drops it might be better in motion, otherwise I'm not convinced. With that being said, everyone else looks fantastic. I know everyone's been thirsting over Oscar Isaac's bearded look, but also Zendaya looks amazing as Chani, as I knew she would but I like that we're seeing her with blue eyes in the stills, so it makes me hope that the finished product will amplify the intensely unusual blue-on-blue eyes of the Fremen, something that every adaptation has had issues with but I hope that with today's technology they're able to pull it off well. I like the design of the stillsuits, and it seems that they genderswapped Liet-Kynes which should be interesting. These are just the first looks though, I'm anticipating any kind of teaser trailers to reveal to us the look and feel of the movie itself, along with the possibility of seeing how they do the sandworms. In general though, I'm just curious with how they're going to do certain things from the book. I know that the director claims that they're going to be as faithful as possible, I still don't want them to cut any corners, to not sugarcoat anything and let it be unabashedly weird.

Which brings me to my next point: people unfamiliar with Dune are not only going to be incredibly confused going in, but judging from the way outrage culture has been in recent years especially among the fandom community where purity policing has ruined many a good series/fandoms/fan interactions, I am absolutely certain that the morality police will be clutching their pearls and demanding that Dune be cancelled simply for the fact that this is not a completely wholesome. Furthermore, if this movie succeeds and they're able to adapt the rest of the books, oh boy, their heads are going to explode with how further fucked up and bizarre it all is. It's going to be simultaneously hilarious and exhausting to deal with the levels of "discourse" it will cause.