In Which I Rant a Little and Review Arrow

Today, I watched an episode of Arrow, went to Target with my mom and sister, spent a bulk of my evening de-Easter-Grassing Celestia and Luna ponies, watched an episode of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, and then spent till now de-Easter-Grassing Cadance.

If you have figured out that I'm going to rant about Easter-Grassed Doll Hair, you'd be right. I have always hated that stuff. It would periodically show up in Barbie dolls when I was younger. We'd play with them a little and then go to brush their hair, only to find out it was made impossible by EASTER GRASS. Yes, it makes the hair look more shimmery while in the box. Yes, it makes the hair look terrible once the doll or pony is out of the box. Yes, it tangles the hair very easily. Yes, I just spent a good three-ish hours cutting it out of my ponies' hair with a razor. Yes, it was annoying. No, they shouldn't put it in toys.

This stuff was in every single hair plug the ponies had. It looked horrible. It was annoying as all get out to find, especially in pink, yellow, and purple hair. There was A LOT of the stuff, too. See Figure A.

Figure A.

Anyway... I mentioned I watched Arrow today, yes? Here's your SPOILER WARNING. If you have not seen this week's episode of Arrow, go away and come back later. There are lots of SPOILERS in the following review. Oh, and a SPOILER for River Song's identity, if you haven't gotten there in Doctor Who yet.

Arrow - "Dead To Rights" - Review

This episode was fun. It also blew my mind there at the end, that was fun. I spent a good five minutes pacing in my room freaking out. I was not expecting to see Ms. Alex Kingston show up and proclaim that Sarah Lance might be alive. Alex Kingston, for those who don't know, has been on Doctor Who for the last... three, four years?... as Professor/Doctor River Song/Melody Pond/Mels. That's two Doctor Who alumns to show up as parents on Arrow. Gah! Oh, and I also thought Mrs. Lance was dead for some reason... but meh.

Speaking of Doctor Who alumns, I really, really enjoyed John Barrowman in this episode. I think that's partially because I'd rather see him in action instead of trying to look creepy. He doesn't do creepy well. My completely unrelated weird crossover fan observation: I was slightly disappointed when Mr. Merlyn did not come to with a gigantic gasp of breath any of the times he came to. But that's just me being a little weird and nerdy...

But that's a good segue into how awesome Felicity was this episode. I like that she's getting some combat training from Diggle instead of just sitting at a desk. However, the quick costume change from work-out gear to work gear was a little... disconcerting. But she was awesome anyway. Quite the Oracle-type-person... which I keep saying.

The other big reveal of the episode was Tommy being told point blank that Olly is the vigilante. I don't think it bodes well. I think Tommy's going to end up being a villain. I think he's going to hold Olly not trusting him as a big thing and that'll be part of what sends him to the villain side. I do like that he's keeping Olly's secret, though. It's nice. I'm also wondering when Olly's going to tell Dig and Felicity that Tommy knows.

Can't wait for the next episode. Hope we get some answers to some of my questions, because those questions are important.

Obelisk War Coverage

Basically, today's thing is Battledome centric. Really easy battles with various members of the other team. Yay.

Housekeeping

Buffy took precedence over TVD, sorry. Hopefully, I'll be watching Supernatural and TVD tomorrow. I'll also be styling some ponies so... ya know, that'll be fun.

Love ya, Jessie.

Beauty and the Beast - Movie Review

Just gonna go ahead and start this off with a SPOILER WARNING even though I think that a) it goes without saying for anything titled "review" and b) if you have not seen Disney's Beauty and the Beast, you've been living under a rock for a decade or so.

My first memories of Disney's Beauty and the Beast are of a really late night at my aunt's apartment. It was dark, and Beauty and the Beast filled the screen with bright color. I was wearing a sweat-suit... and that's pretty much all I remember of that. I spent a good deal of my childhood absolutely enamored with this movie. I very much wanted to be Belle. I was really into books and brunette like she was. Belle was my second favorite Disney princess after Jasmine, because Jasmine had a pet tiger. I remember endlessly playing with the Belle and Beast McDonald's toys we had.

My most recent rewatch of Beauty and the Beast was spurred by one of my favorite podcasts: Professor Dave's Ark In Space (PDAIS). They did an episode entirely devoted to discussing this movie and why, even today, we're still enamored with it. It was a great episode, go look them up. They do a much better job talking about the movie than I do.

As for my rewatch, my little sister and I watched our VHS copy of the movie. It was a lot of fun discovering things we'd missed the first jillion times through and a lot of fun for me to point out some things to my sister I'd learned from listening to PDAIS. I think we spent a good chunk of the movie talking about the characters and what we thought their roles in the household were... and such nonsense. At one point we'd decided that Cogsworth was the Butler and Lumiere was the Beast's Manservant. Later I decided that Lumiere was the Butler and Cogsworth was the head of the household... or whatever. Downton Abbey might have informed this decision a little...

Over a decade on, Beauty and the Beast holds up extremely well. I enjoyed rewatching it and I can't wait till my nephew is old enough to watch it. I fully intend to show him the copy we have on VHS... assuming our VHS players still work, of course.

Now, some of you might know that there was a more recent re-release of Beauty and the Beast with an added scene/song. I have seen it. I didn't enjoy it as much. I also might have taken part of the added bit the wrong way... but I stand by not liking the movie nearly as much with the added bit in. I wish Disney would stop trying to ruin my childhood by adding stuff to their movies.

Housekeeping

I did not watch Arrow tonight. I'm not watching Supernatural tonight. I'll attempt to watch the episodes tomorrow and get reviews up ASAP. 

If you have any interest in the current Neopets plot -- from now on referred to a Obelisk War -- tonight is your last chance to sign up to a team... I think. That's what it sounded like anyway. The War Starts Tomorrow! I'll be covering the war from the perspective of my chosen team: Order of the Red Erisim... when I have time, anyway.

Last thing, semi-related to the bit above, I changed the look of the blog. It's temporary and we'll be going back to the black and blue look after the Obelisk War is over.

Love ya, Jessie.

The Golden Compass - Review

Funniest thing that happened to me today: It's extremely windy here. So much so that we've apparently been issued a "Wind Advisory" by the national weather service. So anyway, we (my mom, sister, and nephew) were getting in the car after walking around Babies 'R' Us. I'd moved a cart away from our minivan and darted into the passenger seat. As I was trying to get in and close the door, the cart came careening toward the van. My mom, sister, and I all screamed like we were in a horror movie... and then spent the next five minutes laughing hysterically. The cart went on its merry way into the parking lot, away from Babies 'R' Us.

Also, there were no Once Upon a Time initial reactions yesterday and no Once Upon a Time review today because the Oscars were on. I didn't watch them and apparently missed one of my favorite actresses falling on her face. Meh. I'd have rather had Once Upon a Time on.

Instead, I have a book review for you. If you have not read The Golden Compass/Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman, there are SPOILERS in my review.

His Dark Materials, Book I: The Golden Compass/Northen Lights by Phillip Pullman - Review

This is one of those books that's apparently a favorite of every book nerd in my generation. They read it in school, I think, and really liked it. I didn't read it until a couple years ago and just recently finished rereading it. I reread it, not because I liked it the first time through, but because I didn't like it and feel sort of obligated to like it. I've heard some people talk about it recently and felt like I should give it another chance. I did, and I still don't like it.

I think part of that dislike has to do with the main character, Lyra Belacqua (later renamed Lyra Silvertongue). I don't know exactly what it is about her that irks me, but there are a few things I can pinpoint. Okay, maybe it's one thing, but it seems like two: Lyra's sudden change in character from the second to the third parts of the book. Lyra is supposed to be incredibly observant and insightful, but she flat out does not notice when Lord Asriel starts acting like she's the dirt on his shoes and is much more interested in Roger than his daughter turning up out of the blue. Another part of this is how she addresses Iorek Byrnison. She goes from just calling him Iorek or Iorek Byrnison to calling him "dear" or "my dear." It's because of this that she all of a sudden seems to speak in a much more "grown up" manner than before. It bugged me. A lot.

Another thing that seriously bugs me is the way the adults tend to be either really sympathetic or really not. There's not inbetween here. Well, except for the ones who are just there. There's also no reason given as to why they are the way they are. Lyra's fairly unfazed by it, too, I noticed. Not worrying a bit when characters go from trying to sweet-talk her to trying to essentially kill her or something.

So, essentially my main problem with The Golden Compass is the utter lack of relatable characters. Or rather, the utter lack of believable characterization of any of the characters. Lyra's a brat who's weirdly observant when she needs to be and completely oblivious otherwise. Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are too caught up in their self-centered mentalities to be either good parents or villains. Farder Coram gets next to no characterization outside of doting on Lyra and having earlier been a lover of Serafina's. Iorek Byrnison... he's a bear bent on protecting the girl who gave him back his armor and revenge. Lee Scoresby is by far the most interesting of the bunch because all his characterization is done through his talk with Serafina. Serafina Pekkala is interesting only because we get so little information about her. And finally, Pantalaimon is Lyra's  daemon, conscience, and soul who she never listens to, ever.

Speaking of daemons, they were one of the only things I liked, along with the Alethiometer. The daemons remind me a lot of traditional witches familiars. The shapes they take are interesting and about the only thing expanded upon well enough in the book. The Alethiometer was a nice way of moving the plot along without Lyra actually knowing what was going on. Which I didn't get the reasoning for... I'm not saying I always need the plot spelled out for me, but when Lyra is essentially stumbling from one thing to the next in order to get to her father... and then things go all to hell... the book was barely holding my interest halfway through!

The last thing I liked was the storyline involving the church vs. science. It wasn't fleshed out at all because Lyra didn't really care much about it, but I thought it was much more interesting than what Lyra was doing. I'm always intrigued to see how the church is dealt with in fantasy novels.

Even though I wasn't fond of The Golden Compass, I'm currently reading The Subtle Knife. So far, my opinion of Lyra has only worsened. I haven't decided yet if I will be continuing on to the third book, as was my intention when deciding to reread The Golden Compass.

Housekeeping

I have no idea what I'm going to be doing tomorrow. Tuesdays are always a bit weird when there's nothing on TV on Mondays...

Love ya, Jessie.

Order of the Red Erisim

I've had an awfully weird day today, at least in terms of odd timing things... I woke up at 1:30 PM, which I haven't done in a very long time, and my schedule's been all wonky because of that. I did, however, have some time to find out that my chosen team for the current Neopets Plot has gotten a Neopedia article! I figured I'd go ahead and make a blog post about that.

If you have no interest whatsoever in Neopets or their plot strands, I encourage you to come back tomorrow for my initial reactions for Once Upon a Time. Hopefully, those will be up tomorrow. Also, if you've already read the Neopedia Article, there's not going to be any new information here, really. Oh, and this is very link-heavy for easy access to potentially unknown information.

Order of the Red Erisim

If it bites, zap it. If it doesn't, take it home and study it.

Turn out, I was right in assuming that the Order of the Red Erisim were made up completely of magic users. The Order is completely devoted to studying magic and everything that pertains to it.

From what I can gather about the members of the Order, there are 5 new members as of this plot:

1. Rasala the Bright - A red female Bori. Head of the Order of the Red Erisim. She appears on the "Mysterious Outskirts" page after you join the Order.
2. Alshemar of the Seventh Scroll - A male Ogrin.  Rasala's former teacher. Lives in the forests of Meridell.
3. Belisarius - A male Tonu prone to mumbling.
4. Ganfrey - A male Mynci, apparently a friend of Hilda's.
5. Hilda the Hedgewitch - A female Bruce. Champion of the Cauldron Throwdown seven years running. Apparently has a Naalala who likes to eat spellbooks.

Members essentially grandfathered into the Order from previous events:

1. Seradar - A male purple Gelert. Royal Sorcerer of Brightvale in the employ of King Hagan. Originally from The Darkest Faerie Game.
2. Morguss - A green female Moehog. Mother of The Court Dancer. Originally of the Battle for Meridell Plot.
3. Jerdana - A blue female Aisha. Also known as The Protector. Originally appeared in The Darkest Faerie Game. Later featured in the Altador Plot as the sorceress responsible for suspending Altador in slow time.

And... that's essentially it for the Order at this point... The War starts in 4 Days. Join us.

Housekeeping

All information used for this post came from the Order of the Red Erisim Neopedia Article and the NeoDex. I also grabbed some links from Neopets' Gallery of Evil. It's entirely probable that I plagarized stuff... with such a small amount of information, it's practically impossible not to.

Universe willing, tomorrow I'll have Once Upon a Time initial reactions for you.

Love ya, Jessie.

Stand By Me - TVD - Review

First, I'd like to say that I'm sorry for not sticking a SPOILER WARNING on my initial reactions. In my defense, I feel like if something's labeled "Initial Reactions" there's an implied SPOILER WARNING there. Just sayin'.

Secondly, this is the actual SPOILER WARNING for the following review. If you have not seen last night's episode of The Vampire Diaries, please leave and come back later. There won't be any plot/event updates or a Housekeeping section this evening, so you can't skip down to those. The following review contains SPOILERS.

The Vampire Diaries - "Stand By Me" - Review

I did not enjoy this episode so much. I understand why it had to happen. I understand why things happened as they did. I understand that Elena is essentially the main character and so her reactions to things should be what we're invested in. I get it. I still didn't like how focused on Elena's grieving the episode was. It bugged me. A lot. Elena's grieving probably wouldn't have bothered me so much if she hadn't been grieving for the entire series. First for her parents, then for Jemma, then for Alaric, and finally for Jeremy. I'm tired of it. I'm glad Damon made her shut off her humanity. It should be interesting to see how she deals with that, even if they end up turning her humanity back on at the end of the episode... which is a prediction and not a spoiler.

On to a different topic now: Silas/Shane. I've expressed before how much I would like Shane to die. I'm not happy that Silas has essentially taken over Shane's form. Mind you, it's nice to see an actual supernatural being brainwashing Bonnie now. I'm still not entirely happy with how easily she's been brainwashed, but it should be interesting to see how this plays out. Oh, and I thought Silas could only make the dead appear before people... Shane's alive. Or was, when Silas was using his form to talk to Bonnie, as evidenced by Shane surprising Rebekah on the beach. Yeah, that was a little weird.

Couple of other things... Caroline's continuous calling Tyler was nice. It shows she actually leans on him for emotional support. Damon getting emotional about what Elena needs was also nice. If people weren't sold on him actually caring for her, that should have proved it to them.

I had another "vampire powers" issue this episode. Apparently, running water in the sink prevents vampires from hearing things they would otherwise normally hear with their super-hearing. I call bullshit. That was Stefan acting a bit like Elena was still human. Or something. That just had me saying "Really?" at my TV screen.

One last thing: it appears Klaus is now gone. Yay! I'm so glad we didn't have to deal with his crap with everything else going on. Though it might have been more amusing than watching Elena break down.

Anyway... next week actually looks more promising than this week. I'm looking forward to seeing Elena act like a vampire without the guilt of her human side.

Love ya, Jessie.

Stand By Me - TVD - Initial Reactions

• The ring's not gonna bring him back.
• Yup, that's the reason. Kind of a duh.
• This is gonna be one of those episodes where I get really annoyed with Elena.
• So we're just... ignoring the fact that Shane was there?
• Or, ya know, not. Because Silas healed his legs. I would really like him to just die.
• She's being delusional.
• If you're a vampire, running water isn't really going to disguise your words.
• Yup, totally gonna annoy me tonight.
• This isn't something that surprises me.
• Nice use of "human shield."
• Yeah, fuck you, Shane.
• Also the logic that's told to little girls about little boys being mean to them. I was told that at least once.
• There are reasons I love Rebekah.
• Hayley knew Katherine. Interesting.
• She's getting over your crappy manipulation, Shane.
• Nice, Silas. Real nice. I do not like it.
• So where is Silas, anyway?
• Except of course she's going along with it anyway.
• Wohoo for mind control. And yes, I am calling mind control.
• Good for you, Matt.
• This is not going to end well.
• So Rebekah's gonna get in league with the Hunter because she's afraid of Silas.
• Okay, now I'm calling Shane as Silas.
• The third massacre is gonna have to be vampires.
• Damon's with me. Goody.
• Yup, not going to end well at all.
• Elena's gonna decide to do it.
• And April's totally gonna be the big cata- I'm totally wrong.
• Go Elena, shut down the crazy witch.
• And this is where Elena completely breaks down.
• What the heck?
• She's got a pretty good plan, actually.
• Sane Elena's kind of manic.
• Maybe not so sane, but she made a lot of sense.
• This is gonna be fun.
• Poor Caroline. Both of her best friends gone off the deep end essentially, her boyfriend mia...
• That's not what their problem is.
• Fuck the Greater Good. I hate the Greater Good.
• Yup, Shane's totally dead. Good.
• Or not. Gah! Why can't he be dead?
• Got this feeling Matt's gonna die.
• Men and their unsaid feeling stuff. Gah!
• Good. Bye bye house.
• Goodbye diary.

Dodger's Best Friend With Benefits

I've pretty much been floored for most of the day by the most insane and annoying headache. Not sure what caused it, but it hurts like no one's business. Gah!

You also might have noticed that this post is devoid of TVD initial reactions. That's because I have a little time to kill earlier in the day before TVD airs. I should have initial reactions on that for you later.

Right now, I have a giant SPOILER WARNING for you. If you have not seen this week's episodes of Arrow or Supernatural, I must kindly ask you to either skip down to the Gaiaonline section or just leave and come back later. Yes, I said Gaiaonline section. There's stuff.

Arrow - "Dodger" - Review

This episode was a lot of laughs, at least from the perspective of how much I like seeing Olly and Diggle be awkward. Them on their dates was just amazingly funny. And for once, Olly didn't have to cut his date short. McKenna did that for him. How nice of her.

I really enjoyed Felicity as part of the "Green Arrow" team. Yes, I'm giving them a name. They need one for the sake of simplicity. Anyway... Felicity was just awesome. She's the tech-girl, she's acting a bit as Olly's conscience, she's being bait, she's getting bombs attached to her neck... okay, that part had me rolling my eyes. While it was quite awesome that Olly was able to take down the Dodger, I thought Felicity going after him herself in that moment was a bit... weird. Don't get me wrong, I like that the girl can take initiative, but it made her virtually useless when she shouldn't have been. And then she soldiered through it, which was good. Oh, and another thing, why did Felicity have to ditch the glasses and the geek-chic for totally Barbie-Girl-Glam? She could have at least kept the glasses. Just sayin'.

A bit more of Olly's backstory was revealed here, too. We got that guy who I totally wasn't buying essentially being left to die by Olly. I think it was a good choice on his part, but I was taken out of those moments by the beat-up-guy himself. Don't know what it was about him, but he just wasn't right. Good on Olly for leaving him behind. That might come back to bite him in the butt, but... I don't think so.

Last on my list of things to talk about: Roy Harper. I like him. I really, really do. True, I had a little brain-fart during the episode on who he was, but now that I know for sure, I'm happy. For those who don't know (or didn't read my initial reactions), Roy Harper is Green Arrow's sidekick and hero in his own right in the DC comics. He went by Speedy while being Green Arrow's sidekick, then switched to Arsenal, then apparently Red Arrow. Yeah... I don't know much more than that. Go read the Wiki. Anyway, I like that Roy's connected to Olly through Thea. I smell a romance between the pair blossoming at some point.

Let me know what you thought about this episode in the comments, pretty please. I feel all cut-off and stuff.

Supernatural - "Man's Best Friend With Benefits" - Review

Familiars in the Supernatural universe remind me a lot of Digimon. Ya know, without the digital-ness and evolution involved. I quite like how they're explained, though my question based solely on this episode is: why haven't we seen them before? None of the witches we've seen before had familiars, including the really old feuding couple. I think that's a little hinky, but meh.

My hopes for the boys not talking about who's doing the tasks were dashed against some very sharp rocks this episode. I get that Dean's worried about Sam. I get that Dean would rather being doing the tasks. I get that Sam has issues with Dean not being okay with the situation. I get it. It doesn't need to be hammered into my head over two episodes. And yes, I know, both Sam and Dean have a track record for hashing and rehashing and rehashing stuff to death. I know. It's annoying.

This episode was some nice solid filler. I liked it. I laughed. I was not emotionally invested in any of the goings on. Let me know what you thought in the comments. And yes, I'm begging for comments. Just comment already.

Gaiaonline - 221 B Mini-Event

It's 2-21-13. Kind of looks like 221B if you squint. Gaia is full of nerds. Some of those nerds like Sherlock Holmes. So we get a puzzle to solve for... something.

Personally, I'm not into puzzles. However, this one is throwing everyone for a loop. It's been up since this morning and no one has solved it yet. It's so frustrating, people are going off on ridiculous tangents based on tenuous links. This annoys me. Be that as it may, I highly encourage you to go check it out and join in the fun.

Thanks devs, you suck.

Neopets - Tyrannian Plot

The time has come to choose your side! You have a week to decide which of the six factions you'll be joining. As a member of the Order of the Red Erisim, I must encourage you to join us. Magic should control magic. We know what we're doing.

Housekeeping

Initial Reactions for TVD coming tonight, hopefully.

Some of the section headers contain links.

I'd really love to interact with you guys, so leave me comments. We can argue about stuff, or agree about stuff, or just gush about nerdy goodness.

Love ya, Jessie.

Dodger - Initial Reactions

Standard SPOILER WARNING. If you have not seen tonight's Arrow, please leave the blog and return later. My initial reactions contain SPOILERS. For those new to the blog, they're what I do in place of live tweeting. Unexpected SPOILERS are worse than ones you've been warned about.

Following the initial reactions, I'll have a little update about the current Neopets plot, so feel free to skip down to that or skip it all together. I won't be offended.

Arrow - "Dodger" - Initial Reactions

• Someone's gonna steal a ridiculously large gem.
• That one guy's being mind-controlled or threatened somehow.
• The dude who play Gaius Baltar on Battlestar Galactica.
• Freaking out Felicity...
• Good girl, Felicity. Olly needs someone who'll actually stand up to him once in a while.
• Says the guy who essentially agreed to train him on the thought that he might actually survive.
• And there's the answer to the question I was going to ask...
• Lol, Olly and Diggle.
• That is a very sparkly bowtie, Mr. Bad Guy.
• Why are there so many gigantic gems out there?
• Nice.
• Lol, no messing with Diggle's not-relationship.
• Her way's gonna be much more fun for us techies... not that I'm actually a techie, but, ya know.
• Looks like Thea needs to hit the gym for some more stamina with the running.
• Olly is so awkward with the crap flirting.
• He's so awkward, it's hilarious.
• Oh look, another random dude on the island.
• Why is she calling Detective Lance? Was that Detective Lance?
• Why does the name Roy Harper sound familiar to me? Wiki on commercial...
• Don't bring up your date's dead husband on your date.
• Yay for awkward conversations.
• Not buying this guy's story despite the being beat up and stuff...
• Fast guy...
• Nice diversion.
• Oh duh. Roy Harper is Speedy/Arsenal/Red Arrow. I knew that.
• No one wants to talk about bad dates.
• That's what I love about rich good guys. Just buy the super expensive lures.
• Roy looks more like he'd be Superboy than Speedy... but meh.
• Oh good, Mrs. Queen's getting out of being a bad guy.
• Or I could be wrong... mmmnn... can't tell.
• Goodness, Felicity cleans up really well. But that's kind of a given.
• And of course Felicity's going after him alone.
• Yeah, that was predictable.
• Of course the guy with the bike had to be a "ruffian."
• So why does Dodger have a thing for those particular period pieces? Ya know, things I think about during car chases.
• Ouch.
• Lol, we had to have that line somewhere in there, didn't we?
• This is the part where Olly stabs that guy.
• Or not. Leaving him is much the same thing.
• Yay for Diggle.
• I officially like Roy.
• Stereotypical talking about stuff without talking about stuff. Fun, but slightly annoying.
• I thought he got kicked off that case.
• Olly's face amuses me.
• Oh, but now Mrs. Queen's getting involved with the Triad. Goody.

Tyrannian Plot Update

Turns out, I was right. We get to pick sides in the war for the obelisk. Yay. However, we've also got a sixth party in the running. No mystical crazy war's complete without a team of undead, right?

As I mentioned before, I'm going to be joining the Order of the Red Erisim. From here on in, I'll essentially be updating from that end of things.

Housekeeping

So, universe willing, I'll have a couple reviews and TVD initial reactions for you tomorrow. Hopefully, things won't be like last week with the ridiculous tiredness and shtuff.

Love ya, Jessie.

Trial and Error Down the Rabbit Hole

Again, I'm tired. This is just a normal thing for me, which is annoying. But I've got those reviews done finally. A SPOILER WARNING goes without saying almost... if you haven't seen last week's episodes of Supernatural and The Vampire Diaries, please go away and come back later. Sorry for the delay. Oh, also minor SPOILER for this week's TVD, though it is in the trailer so... I don't technically count that as a SPOILER, but some people do. Also, minor SPOILERS for Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. Ya know, if you care.

Supernatural - "Trial and Error" - Review

I pretty much called the big parts of the episode before it really got going. Namely: The stable girl was the one who made the deal and Sam would be killing the Hell Hound. Both were super obvious.

Kevin. Kevin sort of reminds me of Buffy Summers in that they're both rather desperate to go back to living a normal life. That said, I'm not happy with Dean pushing Kevin to finish with the tablet a.s.a.p. The fact that Kevin's listening to Dean instead of Sam makes the entire situation worse. He's going to end up killing himself, I can feel it.

I also have a problem with Dean just up and deciding Sam's future is more important than his. It bugs me, but I'm not exactly sure why. Now that Sam and Dean know where each other stands, we hopefully won't have to touch on it again. Hopefully. Rehashing their views over and over is getting old.

Overall, this episode had a predictable plot with beasties we already know everything about. While it was kind of fun seeing the Hell Hounds, I wasn't impressed by them at all. Other than that, I don't really have much to say about the episode.

The Vampire Diaries - "Down the Rabbit Hole." - Review

I must apologize in advance if I mix stuff from this episode up with stuff from last episode. They bleed together in my head... sort of.

So, Elena's finally decided she's going to have to be okay with being a vampire. I had thought we'd been over that. Gah! Whatever, I'm done with Elena... and apparently next week, she's going crazy. Joy.

Klaus and Caroline have another talk about how they're so similar... except not. Klaus doesn't get it. He has no compassion and that's why Caroline will never get with him. He can go ahead and lover her all he wants, she's not having any of it. Klaus also doesn't understand the concept of mental hurt. He says he'll never hurt Caroline, but that's exactly what he's doing/has done.

I found Damon and the new Hunter together entertaining. Though it did bring up this thing I have about people listening to other people. If you just assume everyone's lying, you'll get them nice and pissed at you. If someone tells you something, take it as the truth. The Hunter believes Damon is lying despite Damon insisting he's telling the truth. This bugs me. A lot. And it's a thing that's done in a lot of fiction, I've noticed.

I thought the whole Bonnie and Jeremy stuff was... meh. It was there, it got them to Silas. Joy. I'm slightly disappointed that Katherine showed up. I was so looking forward to Elena having to fight some manifestation of herself... or something. Kind of like Buffy seeing The First manifesting as herself in Season 7 of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. Which reminds me, Silas' power really reminds me of The First.

But yeah... that was a fun episode. I'm glad one of the core group has died... again. I hope Jeremy stays dead this time. I got tired of him sometime in second season.

Neopets - Tyrannian Plot

As of today we've got five factions vying for the Obelisk thing:

1. Thieves Guild
2. The Sway
3. Order of Red Erisim
4. Brute Squad
5. Seekers

The Seekers kind of remind me of Watchers and Men of Letters from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and Supernatural... just sayin'.

I'm still really hoping we get to choose our faction and do something with teams. Personally, I'm with the Order of Red Erisim. I like magic. In regards to magic in fiction, I've always been of the opinion that people who understand the magic should be allowed to work without interference from people who have no idea what they're doing. So... that's why I'm with the Order.

Housekeeping

Tomorrow is Arrow! Yay! The header for the Neopets section is a pair of links to pertinent places. And uhm... yeah... that's pretty much it for this post. Have a great day/evening/night.

Love ya, Jessie.

Once Upon a Time - "Manhattan"

Okay so... I've had a rough couple of days, at least in terms of sleep. I was babysitting while Once Upon a Time was on last night so I watched it this evening instead. However, I'm not exactly going to do a review or initial reactions for the episode. Instead, I'm going to do a bit of a hybrid thing. Except bullet-points, observations, and random bits of ranting.

If you have not seen this week's episode of Once Upon a Time, please leave the blog now and come back later. This hybrid-thing will contain SPOILERS.

Once Upon a Time - "Manhattan"

• Rumple's so excited to go to war. It's kind of sad, really.
• No one like surprises, Emma.
• Oh look, Cora's all modern and stuff.
• That "I can't run" scene was decidedly less epic than I'd thought it was going to be. The chase scene directly after, equally so.
• Gold bought Henry a hotdog? That's cute.
• I'm sure people are angry that all that was in the box was Baelfire's name. Kind of reminds me of when The Doctor met River Song. At the same time, I could have sworn the box glowed when August opened it.
• Future Sight is complicated. I thought the puzzle metaphor was nice, but it lacks some stuff. Choice, being one of them. Possible alternate universes spawning from those choices being another. The future would have to be a whole lot of puzzles all crammed into one box in order for the puzzle metaphor to work properly. At the same time, I guess the number of pieces would drop as you got closer to one goal... but then a bunch more would spring up... Timey Whimey Stuff Makes My Head Hurt.
• I did not see Rumple breaking his own leg coming. As soon as I saw that mallet, I cringed.
• I really don't like Milla. Most people would be happy their significant other came home and didn't die, even if they did a "cowardly" thing to get home.
• Seriously, Cora has to be using some kind of mind-control on Regina. I do not buy nor like Regina's sudden turn around. It just doesn't make sense to me. I see her as stronger than that. Also, one lie makes Emma the same as Regina? WTF Henry? Gah! I hate him, really I do.
• Oh joy, Henry has a big destiny and Rumple apparently wants to kill him. I'm not exactly happy about either of those things for various reasons.

Tyrannian Plot

I mentioned a little while ago that I'm following the current plot running on Neopets. As of right now, we've got four teams who want the obelisk thing. Not sure what's going to happen with the teams, but hopefully we'll be able to pick our team for the remainder of the plot. It'd be an interesting twist on the usual Neopets plots.

As a slight side note, the heading for this section is a link that'll take you to the "Mysterious Outskirts," the hub for the Tyrannian Plot.

Housekeeping

I am going to try my hardest to get Supernatural and TVD reviews up tomorrow. This is a goal I have set for myself and so it should get done. If it doesn't... eh, I dunno. I'm tired.

Love ya, Jessie.

Magical Mystery Cure - Review

SPOILER WARNING SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen the season three finale of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and do not want to SPOIL yourself, please leave the blog and come back after you've watched it. The following review is full of SPOILERS. Oh, and this is the most image-heavy blog post I've ever done... but I couldn't help it! It needed the visual aids!

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic - "Magical Mystery Cure" - Review

So... I think I spent a great majority of this episode crying. ALL OF MY FEELS, MAN!

Ahem... Now for the review-y part of the review...

I thought the premise of the episode was an interesting one. Though I'm surprised Twilight Sparkle didn't follow the sort-of-unspoken-rule of not reading spells out loud until you know what they do. Obviously, this can lead to bad things, like you fraking up your friends' lives, for example... But anyway, I thought it was interesting how each of the Mane Six (minus Twilight) attempted to handle their altered destinies. I'm also glad they did that eye-rewind thing when they got their cutie marks back. It made it very clear that the spell had worked across time and wasn't just a sudden thing. Which makes me momentarily wonder how the altered Mane Six got their cutie marks... seeing as they all sucked at what they did...

Oh, and I gotta talk about the music. It made me cry. It was just so AWESOME! I can't properly articulate how wonderful it was. I gotta find somewhere to download that so I can cry some more...

Now for my fan-girling over random stuff: It was nice seeing some Crystal Ponies in with the regular ponies during the coronation. Also during the coronation, I saw Time Turner standing with Dinky Hooves. For those who don't know, Time Turner is known by fans and official merchandise as Doctor Whooves. Dinky Hooves is supposedly (according to fan-shtuff) The Doctor and Derpy Hooves' love-child... or something. It's cute, okay?!

First time:

 When I noticed it:

We also got to see Vinyl Scratch from the front for once! Shining Armor's apparently too manly to cry and has to make up an excuse for doing so... Liquid Pride. I might just have to use that. And uh... Derpy made a second or two appearance! Found that out thanks to the following picture from Memebase...

It's really hard to miss just watching it, but she's there! And all derp-eyed, too! I'm a happy Brony. Oh, oh! And the Mane Six's coronation dresses! I love, love, love all of them but Twilight's... and that's growing on me... slowly.

Finally, the Twilicorn thing. I'm totally okay with it. I'm glad the Elements of Harmony were involved with the transformation. I'm glad Princess Celestia didn't just randomly show up and go: "You're a princess now, Twilight Sparkle." I was properly explained, properly set up, and dang it! It made me cry!

Housekeeping

Okay so... the first to pictures in this post are from the Friendship Is Magic Wiki. The second two are screen-grabs by me off YouTube. And the last picture is from Memebase.

Now I'm off to work on a couple pony commissions and babysit my nephew. Really not sure when I'm going to get around to the other reviews I have to do, but... this one had to be posted like now.

Love ya, Jessie.

Arrow - The Odyssey - Review

I'm tired, but I have a review for you. Just one, mind. I'm tired.

If you have not seen this week's episode of Arrow, please leave the blog and come back later. There will be SPOILERS.

Arrow - "The Odyssey" - Review

This is the flashback episode I've been waiting for. The focus is almost solely on the flashback. There's nothing else in the episode to really follow, just Olly getting periodically almost dead while Diggle and Felicity scramble to save him.

Speaking of Felicity, have I mentioned how much I like her? She's brilliant. I want her to be Olly's Oracle. She'd be a great addition to the team. I liked her repoire with Diggle. I like that she's told Olly upfront that all she wants to do if find out what happened to Walter. She also doesn't take crap from Olly, which I like. Can't wait to see how they utilize her as a new member of the team.

I had slightly less problems with the flashbacks than I usually do. This time, I was curious to see A) how the plan went wrong and B) who Fyers had hostage. I was not disappointed on either count. However, Slade stepping in to save Olly at the last minute... I did not see that coming. Part of that has to do with how ruthless I thought Slade was. Turns out, I apparently misjudged him. I did think it was interesting how Slade shoved his blade through Billy's eye, seeing as Slade in the comics and the animated Teen Titans somehow lost his eye... or something. Not sure what happened exactly, but the symbolism was nice.

As for Fyers' hostage... knew it had to be either Yao-fei's wife or child. I also knew Fyers had to have had a hostage because Yao-fei didn't strike me as the kind of guy who'd just switch sides on a whim. Add to that how present-day Olly sees Yao-fei and you get: Fyers has a hostage. Not sure how that ultimately going to play out, but I'm looking forward to it.

Last on my mental list of things to discuss is Mrs. Queen. I think it's a bad decision on Olly's part to just up and drop that line of things... we know she's got a direct line to Mr. Merlyn. We know she's in with this "Undertaking." Olly needs to know these things, which he won't get to because he's dropping that line of investigation. Yes, none of the other people he talked to held up pictures of their family, but none of those other people had them on hand. Mrs. Queen has also shown that she cares very much for her family despite being one of the bad guys. The entire thing's just frustrating.

Housekeeping

Tomorrow evening, I have another babysitting date with my nephew... which is going to zap me of energy. Hopefully, I'll get some good quality sleep tonight and be able to review Supernatural and TVD for you guys. If not... *shrug*

Oh, if you're at all interested in Neopets... which you probably aren't, but meh... they've started a new plot thing focusing on Tyrannia. So far we've got a mysterious obelisk and the Thieves Guild doing... something... I'm kind of excited to see what develops. If nothing else, Neopets does a good job with their plot development stuff.

Love ya, Jessie.

Down The Rabbit Hole

We're just gonna save the the usual intro-ish stuff till the Housekeeping section. As of right now, I'm instituting a SPOILER WARNING if you have not seen tonight's episode of The Vampire Diaries. There are SPOILERS in my Initial Reactions.

The Vampire Diaries - "Down the Rabbit Hole" - Initial Reactions

• That guy is Scottish! or is it Irish?
• So who the fuck are you?
• Oh, that's why it showed up...
• You brought that on yourself, Klaus-y.
• Creepy cave...
• Jeremy's hair weirdly slicked...
• That's not comforting.
• Time to do some repelling.
• And Klaus gets to be more ridiculous...
• Lol, Caroline.
• And Klaus also gets to be more annoying.
• Stefan is very much like Angel, except annoying as all get out.
• Jealous Rebekah.
• How is he Shrek? That's a crap reference there, Damon.
• Of course there is...
• Klaus, be an ass.
• Of course there's only one dose. Duh.
• Because he has her under post-hypnotic suggestion.
• Hello Underworld reference.
• Klaus is a gigantic jerk... cuz we totally knew that.
• And of course that guy's dead.
• Or parts of the floor.
• Good girl, Rebekah, telling Stefan.
• Gots to love those dangerous caves.
• Of course he would. He's crazy.
• Why is that so surprising?
• No one cares.
• This is what happens when you're a complete asshole to people.
• Hello Rebekah.
• I enjoy how everyone is so surprised there's only one cure. Also, Elena is annoyingly selfless.
• No shit, Elena.
• Ya know, assuming you get home.
• Nice. Ouch.
• Yeah, make the inexpereienced one go fight off a Hunter.
• It's Grams!
• Dead puppets ftw.
• Silas is like The First from Buffy.
• After you were a giant asshole.
• Why does that matter?
• No, dear, you're not. You're more of an asshole than Caroline is.
• Yeah, and that's what makes you a hell of a lot different than Caroline.
• I hope Elena doesn't get it.
• Come on, Elena, use your vampire-ness.
• Why don't you just go with him, Caroline?
• No one likes you, Shane.
• For a slightly grosser version of that shot, go watch Underworld.
• Dun dun dun.
• He's always been a halfway decent person.
• Hello guy we don't know, says Jeremy's face.
• Prediction: Silas is going to end this.
• Elena says: I don't think so.
• There's more than physical hurt, Klaus. Lots of mental anguish going on in Caroline's head because
• you're a brat.
• Wait... why is Katherine hanging out there? I do not understand.
• Unless she wasn't to kill Klaus.

Housekeeping

Alright, first thing's first:

Next, I've been exhausted all day. Didn't have the motivation to do anything, let alone review Arrow and Supernatural. Those reviews should be coming in the next couple days, along with the review for tonight's TVD. Note I say "should." I have no idea what's going on with my family this weekend so I don't know what I'm going to be getting up to specifically.

That said, I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day. See you sometime this weekend.

Love ya, Jessie.

The Odessey

Supernatural's starting, which means I've got my Initial Reactions for tonight's Arrow ready for you. If you declined to watch Arrow tonight, please leave the blog and come back later because there are SPOILERS. Starting now.

Arrow - "The Odessey" - Initial Reactions

• This talk is going to be interesting...
• Yay for completely random female persuasiveness and exascerbation by him being her son.
• Well that was rather anti-climactic.
• And Felicity gets in on the secret!
• Fun fun ad-hoc surgery.
• I love training montages.
• IRL, you're not allowed to quip.
• This is going to be... was fun.
• First Rule: Don't Die.
• The sad thing is, we know this plan is going to go horribly wrong.
• Yay nightmares.
• Definitely a mine.
• Well that sucks doubly...
• That was kind of awesome.
• Nice way to get someone off a mine without setting it off.
• Oh, come on. Bows are obviously formidable weapons, they've been used for thousands of years.
• She's a very smart girl.
• Yay blond jokes.
• Holy Crap-ola... geek girl gets to save the day. Whadda ya know.
• Of course he did, what'd you expect, Slade?
• Well that's... annoying obvious.
• Gotta love phrase codes.
• That's the one book he read?
• No, he really won't.
• Why is this apparently a surprise?
• Dun dun dun.
• Good for you, Olly.
• Which is exactly what happens.
• Sucky leads, stressing out Diggle.
• How is it her lipstick is still perfect?
• Olly is crappy at sneaking at this point.
• Dun dun dun.
• Hero's don't just save the worthy, Fyers.
• Slade has a totally predictable turn of character there...
• Bye Billy.
• Bye bye plane.
• Even Olly almost pukes when pulling out bullets.
• Lol, that's a horrible joke.
• Yeah, duh, Olly.
• Slade looks odly clean for having been in a big fight and gotten shot.
• I recognize that voice...
• Okay so, the tattoo on the girl is important.
• Nice reaction there, Olly.
• Seriously hope Felicity gets to be his Oracle.
• Bathrooms, breaking tension since forever.
• Maybe you should find that out instead of just offing these people.
• Olly's got the same tat.

Love ya, Jessie.

Games Tiny Ponies Play

Today was much more relaxing than the weekend. Surprising because it's Monday, no?

Anyways... here's the SPOILER WARNING. If you have not seen this weekend's episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic or Once Upon a Time and you care about being SPOILED, you should leave the blog, watch the episodes, and come back to the blog later. There will be SPOILERS.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic - "Games Ponies Play" - Review

I quite enjoyed this episode, though I'm not exactly happy with bits of it. One of the bits I detailed in my review of "Just For Sidekicks." The other bit was... I felt the Mane Six not realizing they had the wrong pony felt like it was insulting their intelligence. Ms. Peachbottom was very obviously not Ms. Harshwhinny. A games inspector, especially an official games inspector, would not have been acting at all like Ms. Peachbottom did. She was just too... ridiculous and laid back. She also wasn't acting like she was inspecting anything. She was surprised by everything the ponies were doing. She was just obviously not the games inspector. Also, the type of luggage being the only thing they had to identify Ms. Harshwhinny... what? Why? That was not explained at all.

I did, however, like that they made the Crystal Ponies all crystal-y. I thought it was a bit odd that they went all crystal-y and suddenly weren't... it made much more sense in this episode. I liked that we had a bunch of new character designs. I liked that we got both Shining Armor and Cadance showing up. I liked watching the Mane Six scramble to get everything just perfect. I liked that Twilight didn't go completely crazy. There should have been more made of that, but it was nice that it was addressed. At the same time, that was something I was going "huh?" about. It seemed like a non-issue that was suddenly an issue. She did fine at the wedding and everything since... meh.

Once Upon a Time - "Tiny" - Review

I think it would have been better for this episode to have been stretched to cover at least one more. The entire giant thing was rushed. Anton was made out to be stupid and completely dense. I had no sympathy for Arlo when he died. I wanted to slap him when he just started talking about "growing beans is what we do!" So annoying. I had no problem with Jack dying the way she did. I had no real connection to her. Also, I'm glad James is dead. Good riddance.

One big thing that bothered me: The Giant Wars. Hook told Emma that the giants were killed in a war. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wars usually last longer than a few hours, right? Also, Jack apparently got her sword engraved just to go die with it? Huh? Why? I'm not exactly clear on how that entire thing constituted a war. That was a crap war.

I thought the bit with Gold/Rumple in the airport was interesting. I'm not sure exactly what happened when the shawl was going through the metal detector, but they made it seem like he was having some mental stress there. I'm glad to see he's actually affected by not having magic. He's been using it as a crutch for so long. It's nice to see him freaking out a bit about it.

I'm not at all happy about Regina. I thought when she showed up at the apartment that maybe she was going to tell Snow and Charming about Cora attempting to manipulate her and maybe double cross her. But no, she's just being strangely obsessed with being evil again. I don't like it. I don't like it at all. Her quick turnaround  from "I'm trying so hard to be good" to "Whelp, Mom's back, better be evil again" totally kills her character for me.

Overall, I thought this episode was quite interesting, if mostly filler. Can't wait for next week. My theory: Neil is totally Balefire. Gotta be.

Housekeeping

Sorry if the reviews were disjointed, I'm currently listening to Bronyville while typing. NEVER AGAIN. Bad plan. Makes my brain work harder than it should.

Tomorrow... I have no idea, again. Oh! You should totally head over to Gaiaonline.com right now! They're having their Tenth Anniversary/Valentine's Day Event. It's super fun. There are lots of fun things to do, including a peek at how far the site has come.

Love ya, Jessie.

Tiny - Initial Reactions

I have had a very tiring weekend, but I did manage to watch Once Upon a Time tonight. Yay! So here are my SPOILERIFIC Initial Reactions for you.

Once Upon a Time - "Tiny" - Initial Reactions

• Good mothering, Emma.
• Henry gets to be annoying again. For yay.
• That was an un-epic crossing.
• Not hard at all.
• Technically, she does... under actual law that's in the world they're in.
• Snow looks oddly badass in that outfit with her bow and arrows.
• Yep, let's talk about that... gotta get back.
• A shrunken giant.
• And yep, we gotta have this discussion, too.
• Good question.Gotta love that CG.
• And Hook slinks away...
• Ow.
• Why's Ruby gotta wear a furry coat?
• Time to start shipping Ruby/Belle.
• She's not that bad... seriously. And why not tell her the truth?
• For stuff his brother did.
• Is that Ruby's mom?
• Brother James was really an ass.
• For a medieval kingdom, Enchanted Forest has rather progressive views on women and their clothing.
• And of course, gotta mix up the genders on some of the characters... and then put a Jack The Giant Slayer trailer.
• Of course he hasn't, annoying Henry.
• Nervous Rumple is funny.
• Funky fuzzy memory shtuff.
• The question is why you made amends? That does not make sense.
• She should have gotten her things.
• Obvious manipulation is obvious and seriously annoying.
• That quick? Seriously?
• Seriously obvious manipulation is even more annoying.
• He's incredibly gullible.
• Well this is going to be interesting...
• I'm still annoyed that Regina's evil again, though.
• Are we gonna get warring consciousnesses?
• No magic for you.
• Friends who are using you.
• Yep... totally what humans always do. And no, I'm not being sarcastic.
• Lol, the what the fuck's your name conversation.
• But how did you know that was going to happen?
• Rescue time!
• So the giant war was against a couple giants?
• Why don't you run and go set the beans on fire, papa giant?
• Seriously, why's Ruby gotta wear that coat?
• I'd gotten someone to pick up some better shoes.
• The smart thing would have been to tie some rope around them both so they didn't slip or something.
• Yep, James was an asshole.
• That's some fast-acting poison.
• Where are the female giants?
• This storyline moved way too fast.
• Except a convenient cutting...
• Snow does not like that.
• Lol, dwarves.
• Magic pick axes!
• And of course, the song must be whistled!
• And you can both be not-crazy together.
• That's soooo not what he's having issues with. Mortality is staring him in the face for the first time in a long time.

Love ya, Jessie.

Everybody Hates Wild Betrayal

Just finished watching last night's episode of The Vampire Diaries and figured I'd go ahead an review this week's episode plus the episodes of Arrow and Supernatural from Wednesday. It goes without saying, I think, that there will be SPOILERS for all three episodes. However, if I don't tell you there will be SPOILERS, you'll have a fit. So here you go, a nice big SPOILER WARNING. Think I've said SPOILERS enough?

Arrow - "Betrayal" - Review

I'm not sure where to start with this episode, exactly. It's got a lot going on, some of which matters and some of which doesn't. Some of it... I'm just not sure about. This isn't me saying I couldn't follow the episode, it's just... I don't know how to go about talking about it. So... I guess I'll start with Laurel and Detective Lance.

I think their falling out really needed to happen and I'm glad it did. I'm not entirely happy with the execution of it, but it makes sense with the way things were set up. Also, we get a corrupt police force out of it, which is good and bad. Adds another element to the story, but... it's been done a thousand times. Really hope Detective Lance doesn't turn into a funky copy of Commissioner Gordon from Batman. Anyway... I think Tommy getting pissed at Laurel for apparently lying to him was a little... over the top, I guess. It didn't seem to me like that was something that was foreshadowed at all, which, from Tommy's reaction, it needed to be.

Olly's reaction in keeping Laurel out of things makes sense. I'm not sure I like that she's not going to be able to contact him anymore, but I do think she's going to find a way. Speaking of Olly's reactions to things, I'm not quite happy about his reaction to his mother being involved with "The Undertaking." But whatever, Olly's been quite focused on his family of late, even if it made more sense for him to suspect his mother of stuff. Thea seeing things recently that their mother brushes off as something else was like "BIG TARGET HERE." And yes, I would have thought that even if I didn't know that Mrs. Queen was involved with... stuff.

Oh, and apparently Slade isn't Slade because this new guy is Slade. Yeah... I'm confused. In a good way. I think it's good that the not-Slade guy isn't Slade, but how does he not know his "partner" is still on the island? Something there just doesn't add up. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Supernatural - "Everybody Hates Hitler" - Review

I've never been fond of Golems. They're just... too easy and at the same time too narrow in how they're done. However, I did like how the Supernatural writers did Golems. Mixing and matching what they needed while adding a new twist. It was cool.

Although... why Nazi's? That was just... I'm tired of Nazi's.

It's also kinda cool that the boys have a "Bat Cave" now. Just hope that knowledge doesn't get into the wrong hands. I also liked Dean's sum-up at the end of the episode. Sam's always been more inclined to the Watcher - I mean Man of Letters - thing than Dean ever has been.

Solid episode, even if it is filler. This is the kind of stuff I like. Dour and dreary Supernatural bugs me.

The Vampire Diaries - "Into the Wild" - Review

Hmmm... again with the Klaus drama! Granted, there had to be someone left behind to look after him, but... would it kill them to have an episode that didn't feature Klaus at all? Also, I was surprised that he actually stabbed and bit Caroline. I know he's mad at Tyler, but that he'd take that chance with Caroline... Gah! Of course, I saw him curing her coming a mile away. So obvious. Does not redeem the spoiled little brat at all.

I was actually surprised that Elena still wanted to take the cure. I was under the impression she'd pretty much dropped that because she'd fine being a vampire now. Of course, I probably should have known that she's extremely stubborn and wouldn't give up being human again for anything, which is annoying.

Another annoying thing: Shane. I'm just gonna leave it at that because I'd really just rather not talk about him.

Last annoying thing of the day: Vampires should be able to track their prey through their senses. No one was hunting for Jeremy in a remotely vampire way. I yelled at the computer screen through their drama that they should use their vampire noses or something in order to find him. Did they not just spend a few minutes pointing out that Elena could hear Rebekah talking about her from farther away than a human could have? And then they just... forget about that while looking for Jeremy? What? Why? The following thought popped into my head while thinking about this: At least the Twilight vampires used all their abilities when looking for people.

Anyway... I have no doubt that next week is going to be some thrilling thing about Damon almost dying at the hands of the Hunter; Elena, Rebekah, and Stefan not using vampire abilities to track down their friends; Klaus being annoying as hell; and Shane getting killed by Silas because Silas lies, as all good bad guys do. Not that I actually know all this, but I can dream.

Housekeeping

I got a picture of my nephew smiling today! I'm super happy about this because he's smiled a bunch for my littlest sister to catch on camera, but none for me. But yeah... Did I mention I didn't really have anything "houekeeping-y" to put here?

Love ya, Jessie.

Yeah So...

... Thursdays are just bad. I was awake until 5 AM this morning. I slept from then until about 11:30-ish. An hour-ish later my mom came home and was like: SHOPPING! So there was shopping. Lots of shopping. Lots of hot, sticky weather through which to slog in order to get groceries inside. And then to Wal-Mart.

My little sister bought me this guy after I ogled him in the store:

His name is Finn, after Finn Mikaelson of The Vampire Diaries. All of my unicorns (that aren't MLP or Ty) are named after vampires. Some don't seem to be, but fanfiction crossovers make it so. Also, this shot has my quote cabinet. My grandfather made it for me. I painted it. I wrote all over it. Still do.

And then we went to Denny's. It was uncomfortably warm. The table was sticky. The food wasn't that great. I wasn't really that hungry. So... dinner sucked.

And then we went to the AT&T Store. Everyone got iPhones except me and Nazz. That's okay, though. I like my stupid phone.

Finally, we came home. And then there were recyclables to take to the curb. It's cooled down since earlier, but it's still sticky and gross outside.

I'm exhausted. Hence this... thing. I won't be doing this often at all. For those who are new, I really don't do this often. I think this is actually the first time I've given a blow-by-blow of my day...



Love ya, Jessie.

Betrayal - Initial Reactions

Oh hooray, I'm totally better than yesterday. Like, ten jillion times better. It's amazing what a couple pills and a good night's sleep will get you.

But anyway, I managed to catch Arrow as it aired tonight so I have some initial reactions for you. Oh yeah, SPOILERS.

Arrow - Betrayal - Initial Reactions

• David Anders! He plays a bad guy. He almost always plays a bad guy.
• Thank you for restating stuff for people who haven't been watching.
• Dead plane is dead.
• Who's this guy?
• Lol, burned Mr. Lance. Burned.
• It means you should go back to being a wizard. (Semi-obscure Dresden Reference)
• Except you were both in on it. Good job. Bye bye list copy.
• That chick looks familiar. IMDB on commercial.
• I'm with Olly considering we know what we know about Mommy Dearest.
• Why can't it be both?
• IMDB was a bust.
• Anders has the best evil smirk.
• That's kind of like "Let's kill the Batman."
• This is going to end badly.
• But of course he's gonna follow anyway...
• Awkward.
• Well that was kind of obvious.
• This has been a long time coming. Glad this fight is happening.
• Really should have smashed that, Laurel.
• Except she totally is!
• I'd feel more sorry for Tommy if I knew what exactly his problem was.
• Lol. Good one, Olly.
• Uninteresting Flashback with mystery guy.
• And this is going to be the part where Mr. Lance regrets taking the phone from Laurel.
• Yeah, cuz that was one of those "obviously gonna happen" things.
• BARROWMAN!
• Smooth, Diggle.
• Why do people always walk into obvious crime scenes?
• Wohoo corrupt police people.
• Why's Merlyn's voice all messed up on that recording?
• W00T Slade.
• Why are bad guys never patient? This I do not understand.
• Looks like the quiver's empty.
• Good girl, Laurel.
• Yes, of course you are, you idiot.

Housekeeping

As I type, Supernatural is on, but since I don't do Initial Reactions for that, you're going to have to wait for the review tomorrow.

This week, I've been working on some pony commissions for some people on Gaiaonline. If you're interested in seeing those, click the "My Art" link up in the navigation bar. If not... well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow for some reviews and TVD-ness, universe willing.

Love ya, Jessie.

I Have No Brain Power Left

Like seriously, I'm sick. I'm tired, I'm congested, my head hurts... I have no brain power left to say anything really coherent. However, I realized I hadn't posted anything since... Friday? So... here's a life update in case you missed it:

I Am Sick

You're welcome, Jessie.

As Time Goes By Vertigo

Finally watched Arrow and Supernatural today... those were some very interesting episodes. More on that, though, after the SPOILER WARNING. If you have not seen this week's Arrow or Supernatural, please leave and come back later. There are SPOILERS in these reviews. Also, rather minor spoilers for Buffy: The Vampire Slayer... for no particular reason.

Arrow - "Vertigo" - Review

Okay so, I thought the guy playing The Count was the guy who played Jefferson on Once Upon a Time... but I was wrong, cuz he's the guy who played Lee on Fringe. I do think he did a fantastic job playing a crazy person. I also wish he was sticking around. He'd have been a fun villian. A little like Scarecrow, but more... suave looking.

The conversation Olly had with Laurel about Thea and how he was "working on something" on his end probably would have sounded better if she knew he was The Hood. Just his wording made it sound that way... because really, how much could Oliver Queen do about Thea's predicament just as Oliver Queen?

Speaking of Thea, she did another one of her quick turnarounds. Granted, we've had her thinking her mother's the root of all evil for two episodes, but still! It is, however, understandable considering this isn't the Thea Show, but... it just irks me slightly.

I'm glad Felicity seems to be getting a bigger role on the show than just random IT girl. I like her a lot. She's Olly's Oracle. I thought McKenna Hall was a fun character. I really hope she's going to be around more.

And now... the flashbacks. I cannot express how much the tension is just sucked out of them by virtue of them being flashbacks. Take this episode, Olly is apparently killed by Yao Fei. But we know he's alive in the present. We also saw Olly do that exact same thing to that mob guy before the flashback. So... there was no tension there because we know it must have been Yao Fei who taught him that and that Olly survived into the present. It's incredibly annoying. We know Olly's a bad ass. Enough already!

Supernatural - "As Time Goes By" - Review

This episode reminded me very much of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. The Men of Letters are like Watchers. In fact, they pretty much are Watchers. The elite Hunters are essentially Slayers... without the super powers. Speaking of super powers, Abaddon reminded me very much of Glory. Just the way she handled herself and her dealings with the Winchesters. It was Glory without the crazy fashion sense.

I quite liked this episode, despite more Winchesters time traveling. I can't wait to see what this library of knowledge holds.

Love ya, Jessie.