WHERE'S THE—

we honor our fallen comrades beneath jove's unblinking eye

One of my favorite things to explore is the way Adrien has been affected by growing up in an arguably abusive household. Normally I think about behaviors he's learned as a defense mechanism (timidity, selflessness, submission, being endlessly good-natured), but this is a good example of learned behaviors that involve imitating something harmful, instead of reacting to something harmful.

So I was watching the English dub of Sentibubbler, and there was a scene that I remember made me feel uncomfortable when I saw it the first time:

I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was.  Then, later in the episode:

And that punched me in the gut.  It scared me.

I don’t think I can write out a whole essay on this rn, but I needed to throw it into the void.  What I can say is that Chat Noir demolished something because he was angry.  I’m not saying that he was angry at Ladybug necessarily, but the situation didn’t go his way, he felt like he wasn’t being heard, and he hit something so hard that it shattered.  And I’m saying he learned that from somewhere.

Pidge: Are you seeing somebody?

Lance: *screaming internally*

Lance: Why? Are you interested?

Pidge: No, I just think it would help if you saw a therapist or something

Septimus Heap has the ultimate found family. You start with the core seven-son family, which is already guaranteed to have at least nine members. Not to mention they have a crazy aunt and at least six uncles, as well as a tree or two.

Throw in an adopted daughter, 1.5 ducks and 0.5 of a cat, the youngest son's adoptive mother/mentor/BFF and semi-adoptive father/kidnapper, the adopted daughter's biological dad, the youngest son's best friend who will someday be the adopted daughter's boyfriend, a ghost uncle, the youngest son's first best friend/adoptive brother from his childhood in the army who is probably also the second oldest son's boyfriend, the youngest son's dragon, and the oldest son's wife.

Oh, and don't forget the ghost uncle's ghost girlfriend, the mother, father, and brother of the oldest son's wife, the second youngest son's girlfriend and her transforming panther, maybe a couple witches (or maybe not), the adopted daughter's ghost mom and ghost grandmother, the oldest son's pet tennis ball, the adopted daughter's pet rock(s), and a centuries-old magical grandpa who you can only see by exiting time.

And we haven't even gotten to the sequel series yet!

For some reason, nothing hits me harder than seeing characters laugh hysterically because of frustration or exhaustion or anger or grief. We always talk about how subversive tears of joy are, but man, laughs of sadness are so much worse. Maybe it's just a me thing, but my chest always gets tight and my breathing shallow whenever a character starts laughing because of a negative emotion. I just. Can't. Handle. It.

And Infinity Train uses this trope two times!

First time with Simon:

You could argue that this is laughter because of insanity, not negative emotions, but it still hits hard. No matter how much you hate him. At least if you're me. Seriously, this was my reaction when I first saw Simon's death/breakdown scene:

The second time Infinity Train pulls this is with Ryan:

This, too, killed me! Emotionally, at least. Why is it always the laughing?!

Anyway, yeah, of course I want Infinity Train to continue, but it might be a good thing that it doesn't if they planned another one of these maniacal laughter scenes in the next season. Not sure I could handle another amazingly animated, amazingly written, amazingly voice-acted breakdown like this.

Ladynoir Spiderman kiss

some orbs before bed

please don’t tag kin or post to other websites

Steris, my queen

yes girl. cry. let it out

Cliffhangers are great, but I hope we get some post-reveal discussions in the next (chronological) episode. If we don't, well, I guess I'll just have to write some myself!

Bonus Panel:

Marinette: Well, you know, considering I just had a breakdown about how dating isn't an option because I'm a superhero--

Alya: Got it. Ladynoir.

Marinette: NO