just muddling through

personally, kind of hated the tadc finale, which is a shame since I thought episodes 7-8 were so amazing. The pacing was bad, the dialogue was clunky and awkward, the character motivations were... strange, the ending was forced and the resolution with Caine as well as Jax were incredibly unsatisfying. Some of the shots were great, the Jax mind palace had a bit of potential, but honestly it felt like a confused mess that didn't follow or naturally build on what preceded it, let alone wrapping it up well. endings are hard, though, and I'm happy the series was made.

Sidenote there are many things I think are excellent in the movie, and others that are neutral to positive adaptational changes. The movie lasered in effectively on the core emotional journey and character growth that was a bit blunted in the book - also it was super funny, I'm cool with whatever in the service of a good joke, visual drama and a good cry. I DO in fact have a gripe with how Rocky was translated in the epilogue scene. Wtf, there's no reason for Grace to still understand him only in terms of simple cute babyish language. Where's my foul mouthed mechanical engineer? Rocky's written a bit too much like a cutesy mascotish character in the movie at times imo, although to be fair his chemistry with grace had a LOT more heart.

saw phm in the theater, which mainly confirmed for me once and for all that I just don't like theaters very much. it was a lovely movie (I'm pretty sure!), but there's so much other sensory garbage going on, there are no subtitles and the sound is a Loud Yet Indistinct Bad Time, so it's tough to get completely immersed