So I finally got around to watching arcane and good fucking gods it wrecked me.

So first of all: I went in blind, nobody warned me, I don't play League and good gods I don't think I ever binged 18 episodes of anything that quickly. I mean first of all let's talk about the elephant in the room: I am so in it for Jayvik and I don't see how you could disagree. Like, fellas, is it gay to find your bro in a different timeline so he can show you that human imperfection is actually a good thing sometimes and cause you to get over your internalised ableism? Come on. And no I don't care what the lead writer said, I'm with the animation team here and besides, as a person who has written more than I'd care to admit? Writers usually don't know shit about what they're writing. Especially when it comes to who is gay for whom. Anyway, that aside for a moment (and I do want to write a bit of a character analysis about Viktor at some point because ya boi has a new blorbo to add to the collection), my gods it's so good. Like I do love myself a political intrigue plot (to the detriment of my VTM players' sanity), while I am indeed not one of them I am all for lesbians getting their messy girl rep, I have a lot of thoughts about Ekko's plotline that I have yet to fully put into words, Jinx is a very fun character (and written shockingly well), the music slaps and the voice acting is incredible. Like I am a sucker for a good voice and hey hit it perfectly. I do have beef with the german dub (which I accidentally started watching with and then had playing in the background while doing some writing in german recently) though, partially because I dislike most german dubs, partially because they took my boi Viktor's accent. I'm not saying it's integral to his character but my gods does it work in the english version and I think it would have in a german dub too, but german dubs don't do accents or dialects unless like 110% necessary, that's nothing new. Oh, also, the visuals are gorgeous, the animation is *so* good and good gods is the general aesthetic pretty. Now here's my little piece of criticism though: If I'm not very mistaken they animate Viktor's cane wrong more often than not, man would cause himself hip and knee issues from that, you use both canes and crutches opposite your bad leg. Come on, that's like two minutes googling "how to use a cane". But alas, I suppose it could have been worse and seeing how that's my only big complaint? They've won in my book. The ending emotionally destroyed me but yeah, still.

TLDR: Go watch arcane. It's good. It'll cause you emotional damage but it's good.

So I watched Hazbin Hotel

I know, I know, I'm pretty late but omgomgomg it's so good. Is it for everyone? No. Do I as a neurodivergent musical theatre kid who had a pretty intense emo phase some years ago fall right into the target demographoc? Fuck yes. I watched it with a friend and while they found it paced a little too quickly (which I sort of get) I have to say I don't entirely mind. Would I have liked a little more time to re-introduce the characters for people who didn't see the pilot? Yes. Would I have loved to see more of the characters that didn't get a lot of backstory? Also yes. But in the end I don't mind the fast pacing, it sort of reminds me of Invader Zim, really. Could it be slower? Yes. But there is a certain messy, hyperactive charm to the break neck speeds both shows have at points.

Also can we please please please talk about the songs for a second? Because fucking gods, this is what you should do when you have a voice cast that's at least partially pulled from broadway and animation if you ask me. I also like that they did fully commit to the bit with two bangers of songs per episode (and the "oh my god they're singing" at the end of loosers lives in my head rent free). Now this might be slightly controversial but I don't entirely love charlie's songs (not because they're bad songs, I just don't entirely vibe with her singing voice but that's just me I also couldn't stand the singing voice of Karen in the mean girls broadway cast) but fucking hells every other song makes up for it, I still have poison playing in my head on loop.

And then there's the character writing. The beautiful mess that it is. Well first of all: there isn't a single neurotypical person in this show and you can't change my mind on that. Aside from that... I have to say it's a bit of a mixed bag. Charlie is a fucking delight to watch, I love Angel's character writing, it's really well done, I adore the sass in Alastor and I love myself a hypnotic bastard as well as a sarcastic mess so of course Vox is one of my favourites (don't get me wrong I mean favourites as in "I like the writing and I'd quite like to punch that screen in" no as in "omg he's so nice" (looking at you tumblr)). Regardless I can't help but feel that most other characters fall a bit flat. It's a bit basic, a bit one note but honestly that's fine. The cast is huge, they can't all be perfectly fleshed out in eight episodes, this isn't good omens.

But yeah I absolutely fucking love this dumb little show with it's dumb little characters and dumb little musical theatre ass songs /pos. It's just fucking amazing and exactly my vibe.

The Data ramble

So we can all agree that Data very much has emotions, even before the chip, yeah? Now, I'm a lazy fuck and can't be bothered finding exact episodes to site that I can't remember of the top of my head (which is why I don't do video essays and do this shit instead) but if you've seen tng you know what I mean. Data was meant to be this emotionless robot who doesn't understand humanity but is keen on learning. Instead he comes across as a neurodivergent guy trying to person, who's been told so often that he's an emotionless machine that he has internalised it and I feel it in my bones. And I think that is one of the reasons he is a fan favourite. Because that struggle to connect and understand people and the being shut down when infodumping and what have you is fucking relatable. And if you look at it through that lense it's almost escapism. Data is rarely judged for not displaying emotions and beyond being interrupted when he starts to go into detail he is rarely ever actually treated badly because of his "inhuman" (read neurodivergent) traits. There is the occasional person who judges or questions or degrades him, but they are always proven wrong. I mean there are more reasons why Data is a fan fave, because come on, who doesn't love a guy who writes poetry about his cat, but I think that is a significant factor.

Now, why is he written this way? Well very often sentient robots are written by taking away an open expression of emotions, romantic or sexual attraction and slapping on some leds, right? Here's the issue though: We, as emotional human beings have a really hard time writing or acting characters without any emotion. So more often than not you just get a character coded as ace, aro and/or autistic. Is that a fundamental issue? Eh, kinda? I mean you could say that that dehumanises these actual people but personally I think it's okay if there are other, non-robotic characters with those traits included. Does that make tng a bad show? I don't think so. Now I'm biased because it's a comfort watch for me but it's a product of it's time and beyond that there are other problematic issues with tng.

In my opinion problematic faves don't make you a bad person. And problematic elements don't always make a piece of media absolutely abhorent. But we should talk about them. And I'll stop this here before I get horribly off topic. So tldr: I really like tng, data is one of my favourite star trek characters and man's absolutely just autistic.