Bastian's Bastion

I finally got around to rewatching all of Good Omens from Episode 1 to 12 in preparation for the movie which I'm still pissed about. My first point is that after Neil Gaiman's exposure as being on the same level as JK Rowling in being the worst famous authors ever, Prime Video decided to brutalize the final season into an hour and a half special with a subpar conclusion to the story. They should have just kicked Neil off the production team and made a six episode final season entirely without him. Or honestly, since companies are all evil anyway, why didn't they just ignore it an continue as scheduled?

Well the movie turned out to be ultimate mediocrity anyway. First off, Maggie and Nina were completely absent, which further works to disconnect this story from everything else.

Frankly, each season feels eerily isolated for no good reason. Only beings of a higher position carried over from season 1, leaving Anathema, Newton, The Them, and Witchfinder Shadwell and Madame Tracy behind in the dust, when in the book those characters were the ones that the plot actually revolved around. You'd be surprised how little Aziraphale and Crowley matter in the book. I was thoroughly disappointed when I read it.

But anyway, season two leads with two new characters, Nina and Maggie, who are both unoriginally named after the actors that portray them, who were carried over from the chattering order of nuns from the prologue of season 1. I love Nina and Maggie, but where the other characters? None of it feels connected without the full cast or at least more of the original cast being present, rather than these two random side character actors.

The other missing thing is honestly the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter. Sure, destroying the further prophecies that are delivered to Anathema Device at the end of the original stories works as a thematic end to a stand alone story, but then they decided to adapt Neil Gaiman's unpublished sequel. They should've planned for the possibility of a follow-up, especially if it was a series based off the works of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Weren't they held with great praise?

Season two ended up being a self-contained story essentially with zero connection to season one, save for only the Angels, Beelzebub and the Metatron. They made this the groundwork for the "Epic" conclusion where Jesus vanishes and the Metatron is killed and the book of life is stolen. Why wasn't the book of life made more important in season two? One mention isn't good enough for settup. Then Jesus, who is the other main driving conflict in the movie, gets completely ignored by everyone and then when Aziraphale and Crowley finally find him close to the end but close enough to the end of the movie, they suddenly don't give a shit and leave him. It's like he didn't even need to be in the movie for the story to work. It was all so rushed and barely thought through.

And Michael was a shitty final antagonist. A twist villain is not something we needed from this franchise. Then we meet Satan and God, who for some reason has been recast after being mostly forgotten about in season two. And is god in this universe a feminine being, nonbinary or fluid? It's unclear.

Anyway everything was rushed and had zero time to be fleshed out, like the other members of the store association from season 2. Simple additions to make the world feel more real that would've been fixed by having filler. Filler, a dying art in the world of television. Good Omens' worst flaw is being six hour-long episodes. I would've gladly taken twelve half-hour episodes for each season.

I cannot believe that after all those years Neil never went back to the plotted out sequel and wrote it. Wasn't that his and Terry Pratchett's thing? Even after Pratchett's death, there was nothing. I would've at least started after the first season of the show released so that season two would actually have source material to go off of, rather than a bullet point list of barely fleshed out bullshit.

The following is how I would've done this dumpster fire of a show

I would've not made Anathema burn the further prophecies of Agnes Nutter, but maybe deliver them to Aziraphale at his bookshop, or just keep them. They would be useful for the plot of the second book and season. I think the other store owners of Whickber Street could've been introduced, some with established relationships to Aziraphale in season one to further detail his attachment to Earth rather than just his bookshop and the one place to spend time in beside Heaven.

In the twelve or more episodes (each being a half hour and not a second longer) of season 2, I would keep Maggie and Nina because I do love them, but also Anathema Device, as well as Shadwell and Madame Tracy, who I think it would be humorous if she actually had the ability to commune with the dead but didn't know and thought she was just a scam artist. Newton Pulsifer is optional, but he would make a nice addition as well. I think the only other main characters that don't need to be in season two are Adam the Antichrist and the Them. Adam is more or less just a random boy, although he still has his hellhound, so maybe he does serve a purpose. i would shelve him for the third season which, like the movie would be much more involved with heaven and hell.

If the plot with Gabriel and Beelzebub is really necessary, though I'm not really a fan of it, we'll go with that. So Anathema reads a prediction at the end of season 1 and book 1 that says something vaguely about a power vacuum and a naked man. There should just be more content of Anathema, Newton, Shadwell and Tracey being relevant in the story and helping get everything to go the way it's supposed to. I think it would make sense if Madame Tracy had some way of connecting with Gabriel's lost self through her reading.

Oh, and the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. They haven't just been destroyed, have they? Obviously Death wasn't, but Famine, War and Pollution aren't just gonna go away. If any of them had to go, Pollution could go since in the first book/season a joke is made about Pestilence being retired. Pestilence could come out of retirement. Should they be involved in the plot heavily? Maybe they don't need to be, but it would be nice to connect with the previous season/book. They could come back with more importance in book/season 3.

Shax as a character is kind of pointless, and I think she could be replaced and just have beelzebub take on a more central role in the story since she is the one in love with Gabriel. By the end of the season/book, the shopkeepers of Whickber Street should be even more developed, and Crowley and Aziraphale should have had their falling out, and Beelzebub and Gabriel should have escaped to Alpha Centuri, or better yet, the center of the universe where the eternal flame sits if I want them to have any relevance in season/book 3.

In the third book/season, Shadwell and Newton Pulsifer I don't think needs to be central to the plot. They should still be present, but maybe they just appear on the side of Anathema and Madame Tracy. Anathema definitely needs to be. Madame Tracy is optional. Her purpose in the season/book could be less than in season/book 2. Nina and Maggie should be relevant if it has to be any of the Whickber Street shopkeepers. I don't understand why they weren't in the movie. Their relationship matters. Crowley and Muriel would have an interesting dynamic if the story of book/season 3 started a little earlier than right before Aziraphale's plan to return Jesus to Earth went through.

We need to bring back the Hellhound and the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Perhaps the horsemen can be the ones orchestrating the conspiracy. It would work, actually. Death can pull a fast one on the metatron and steal the book of life (which should be at least seen in book/season 2 for more settup) which he can use to bring back any of the horsemen that were destroyed in season/book 1. They will have the desire to reattempt armageddon and search for the hellhound. Then Jesus will escape to Earth and Anathema will know everything because the further prophecies of agnes nutter will have all the answers, she just needs to look.

During this season (which is again 12 or more episodes, each being half an hour), Nina and Maggie should complete their romance arc after having two full seasons of development and getting to know each other. The Horsemen will target Jesus and try to pair him with the hellhound so that he can cause armageddon to begin (Adam is no longer the antichrist so they need someone of equal significance).

I really like Uriel and I wish she hadn't been killed. I would rather it be Michael because she sucks. And the way the world falls apart as the book of life's pages felt so lazy and dumb like yeah they're just falling out like puzzle pieces. Even the scene where they watch it happen on the globe in heaven just has zero urgency in it when the world is literally ending. This won't happen. A lot of things will be deciphered by Anathema and Aziraphale until the horsemen destroy Agnes Nutter's final predictions to prevent them from knowing how to win. The almost end of the world will have more meteors and chaos like season/book 1.

Nina and Maggie will have their romantic "We're about to die so fuck it" kiss, and Jesus will decide to sacrifice himself by jumping into the eternal flame with help from Beelzebub and Gabriel. That way the horsemen will not be able to successfully bring about the end of everything. Crowley and Aziraphale will have had their reconnection after Aziraphale wins back the bentley because I think that was a really well done part, one of the only good parts of the movie, it feels right. Crowley and Aziraphale will admit their love for each other as well.

I think that having God appear in a human form at all is unneeded. God isn't human, and doesn't need a material form and clothes. I think God will remain a holy light and voice (voice provided by Frances McDormand) when it appears before Aziraphale and Crowley at the end of the show/book. Satan also should not have a random human form and should appear more monstrous. I don't like the choice of actor that they had in the movie. Also, asking to recreate the entire universe where everyone is human and there is no heaven and hell but somehow all the relevant characters (excluding the ones that only appeared in previous seasons because fuck the original cast I guess) know each other in some way and these two randoms with the faces and names of Crowley and Aziraphale have a completely aside romance that I don't give a flying fuck about because they aren't the actual Aziraphale and Crowley is dumb.

God will reveal at the end of the final book/season that everything has always gone according to its plan because it is all powerful. Every almost end of the world was when God changed its mind. Crowley will be given back his angelic status but neither he nor Aziraphale will be required to return to Heaven. Madame Tracy (if she is relevant in this season/book) will be stripped of her ability to commune with the afterlife because God changes its mind. The Hellhound is returned to hell and Crowley suggests that God actually begin to populate other solar systems and galaxies throughout the universe so that it isn't as empty. This is the first suggestion that Crowley makes since the prologue of season/book 2 which brings his character full circle as God decides to do what he suggested.

Spoilers for literally the whole final episode, by the way. And yes, this is posted before it releases for free on youtube. No, I didn't go to see it in theaters. Tiktok had my back. I didn't even seek it out, it just came onto my FYP. At that point why would I not just watch it?

It wasn't... bad. I think if there had to have been a jax-centered episode it shouldn't have been the finale, though. We were all told someone was going to abstract in episode 7, but then nobody did. Maybe she should have.

The scene where Jax tells Pomni that she doesn't want to go is one of the most emotionally resonant things to me. I also commend Michael Kovach for his voice acting in this episode. I think it stood out from the other episodes, and I think he was better here than in the entirety of Murder Drones. God, Murder Drones. I don't even want to think about that.

I wonder why Gooseworx didn't just make Jax the main character to begin with if she was going to be a self-insert. By comparison Pomni might be the least developped character in the show.

This clearly did not turn out to be the I have no mouth and I must scream adaptation we all expected. They came so close with Caine's shit loss in episode 8, but it kind of fell flat.

I saw the digital recreation revelation coming a mile away. My time with The Hollow prepared me for this (Shoutout to the Hollow Fandom. They could fit in a special ed short bus.) I didn't figure it out until episode 7, though, unlike MatPat, who figured it out before episode 2 even came out.

I just wish it was played for more of the devastating fact that it was. They're all trapped in a digital world with just the five of them for all of eternity while their real selves live their lives. If only they acted like it.

Bubble was a massive red herring, especially when Gooseworx said Bubble was a boy we all thought this meant Bubble was the bubble boy computer virus, nope. Bubble is just Bubble, and Bubble disappeared when Caine disappeared. If Bubble were Bubble Boy, Bubble wouldn't've vanished because Bubble Boy can't be deleted.

It isn't explained in the slightest how they get the circus to regain its color, or how Caine returns. And Caine had a lot of stuff around him that should've been developed more, like the pictures.

It's so painfully obvious that this show needed more time to flesh out its story and characters. Gooseworx said we'd get an episode meant to develop each of them. A focus episode. We got focus, but not for whole episodes for some. In my opinion Gangle and Jax are really the only two that get actual focus episodes that develop who they are. The rest of the characters have their development sprinkled around in the rest of the runtime.

Not even Pomni received any character backstory development in a focus episode. It's shown that she does become a kind of leader for the group, but it would be nice to have that come out to shine somewhere besides the penultimate episode.

The fact that another person never appears after Pomni is also disappointing. That is one of the best plot ideas that could've happened, and it didn't. Pomni could've exercised her leadership skills in a less stress-based situation if she had a new person to help acclimate themselves into the digital circus.

The fact that there is no payoff to Gummigoo's character is insane, and shows to me that he is literally just furry fan service, which doesn't even need to be there since we have Jax.

The ending to the show we got wasn't the worst... per se... but I still would not say it's that good... I'd put it in the same tier as the finale of Beastars Season 4. Episode 9 should have been split into two episodes instead of being an hour long. Clearly the show was rushed and didn't have nearly enough runtime, I don't know if that's Gooseworx's fault or if Glitch wouldn't let her make the show longer, though she seemed satisfied with what she had made (Idk why)

So here's what I would've done instead.

Episodes would cap at 25 minutes. Some episodes could be less than that, but not longer. There's just no need. After the first four episodes, (although I think there is more that should've been delved into regarding Kinger in episode 3,) we should've gotten more time with Gummigoo. At some point an episode that gets back to him and why he was clearly aware of something Pomni wasn't aware of in episode 4 would be needed.

Before the episode Untitled, we need an actual Ragatha episode and an actual Zooble episode. These don't even have to be a full 25 minutes. Then we need Pomni's focus episode. Hint more at her backstory than just what she mentioned in Untitled.

After that, there would be Beach Episode, but I we need to include more beach and also it should end with Jax abstracting just after the revelation that they weren't actually going to escape the circus. I have mixed feelings about Abel just because he was foreshadowed for several episodes just to be an AI that gets deleted. Honestly I would replace him with Gummigoo and have Caine force him to trick them.

Then in the next episode we learn Jax's backstory, and if possible end the episode with Caine's deletion. The circus will fall apart, Bubble can be Bubble Boy and cause chaos, Pomni now knows that you can see an abstraction's memories by coming into prolonged contact with them, so they do that with the others like Queenie, Scratch, Ribbit and Kaufmo. They'll find out that they're trapped there forever, and then the next episode will run basically like the last 20 minutes of The Last Act with that Caine sequence, except maybe he isn't going to have a change of heart. I'd like a bad, hopeless ending if they're just gonna live there forever.

The Dirtifiers.

Tomoé and her Peafowl Miraculous Transformation stole the show. An absolutely gorgeous form. Now that we've seen this, I desperately want to see Émelie and Colt and their Transformations.

Having Kagami question what emotion was used to bring her into existence and not being given a clear answer is compelling for her. I'm glad that she has essentially entirely broken free of her mother's control.

The Dirtifiers themselves, they were pretty obvious once episodes began to come out and the number of possibilities reduced. One thing I can say about Ella and Etta in this episode is that they are significantly less obnoxious than in Sapotis. Here, they were excited about being older sisters, and they wanted to help Marlena by painting the nursury. They genuinely had fun trying to be helpful, whereas in Sapotis, they were only interested in causing mischief.

It was also great to see other superheroes besides Chat Noir get hit by Chrysalis' Anti-Akumas. Whoa, their grey-scale outfits actually looked cool. Aside from Mylène, whose outfit was already grey. It just made the color in her hair look washed out.

Lastly, the bombshell of the episode in the end credit. It was foreshadowed in season five, and we all (I hope all of us) thought she was being sarcastic in Yaksi Gozen, but as it turns out, she wasn't. Lila is Kagami's sister, and Tomoé's daughter. How this is the case, is still unclear. I have to assume Lila is the result of a relationship with a man that did not please Tomoé, or she is a Sentimonster like Kagami, or she is adopted. I am confused. I don't like this reveal.

Queen of the Dreadzone.

This episode is a whole fuck-ton of nothing. Chloé came back, showed us that she's still the poorly written victim of abuse and character-assassination that she was in seasons four and five, and then left again. They didn't even try to get her in contact with Lila and be an actually threatening villain.

Marinette sees Noé Luxus, who I think should have been Zoé's father, and has no thoughts or opinions on the revelation that he is a Bourgeois, despite the fact that she said in Noé that she'd be suspicious about and keep him in mind.

I like that the plot point with Max receiving a letter at the end of A Fairy Good Night has been tied into the main plot with Lila sending them out to cause unrest. i.e. Sabrina and Chloé's gifts in this episode. Marinette discovers the post stamp and puts two and two together.

Then at the end of the episode, it's revealed that Lila, disguised as Daphne or Iris, I don't know, is in Shanghai, preying on Fei Wu. I hope to god that this comes into play in Nemesis or Secret Protocol. Aside from that, I like how this disguise looks compared to how it appeared in the London Special.

Out of the two episodes that released today, the Dirtifiers is, in my opinion, the better episode. Queen of the Dreadzone failed to make me give a shit about Chloé again. Thomas hates her so much, but he still involves her. She should've just stayed in London, she serves no further purpose.

Etymology:

Regeneration, Translated to Italian: Rigenarazione

Rigenarazione + Gina = Riginarazione

SPOILERS Beyond this point

So Roland is dead. Don't care in the slightest. He was racist. (And yes, it's pretty obvious in the episode even with the subtext. "He betrayed me." "Just because he put rice in the bread dough?" "That's not how it's done!" Like babes, the rice is Sabine. Yes, the connection between rice and a Chinese person is weird. It makes sense coming from Roland, though.

Even in his final days he was a conservative man (As in he was extremely traditional, not talking about conservatism in the American context).

I do like how well his death was portrayed. The "Before" and "After" shots of his house becoming empty, the vintage music, the characters' (illogical) grief, it all works exellently to show the change that occurs when someone in your life passes away. Arguably, I think it's shown better here than it was with Gabriel's death. Probably because we jumped forward about two months to the beginning of Adrien's 10th Grade year.

Spoilers ahead, of course.

The Episode of all time just came out. Marinette's big episode. Everyone thought it would be Lady Chaos. I thought it would be Nemesis. We were all wrong.

Heartfixer is gorgeous and so sad. It was mildly disappointing to see that Marinette resisted akumatization so quickly, but I do believe we saw Ephemeral on screen in season 4 for even less time, so I'm not reall mad. I do wish Heartfixer had gotten out of the lecture hall to go and try to fix Alya's heart, but it's not the end of the world (haha)

Chrysalis was so pressed that she managed to Akumatize Marinette and still not find out if she was Ladybug or not. But I feel like at this point there's no way Lila doesn't know for a fact that Marinette is Ladybug, since Heartfixer refused to respond to the question "Are you Ladybug?" I'm confused as to how she didn't immediately know, though. Monarch was able to tell that Luka knew who Ladybug and Chat Noir were in the Season 5 Episode Migration. Is this a retcon?

I am fairly certain this episode takes place the farthest in the timeline that we've seen so far, even past Lady Chaos which is two episodes further on the production list. It could even be right before whichever two episodes end up actually being the finale of the season.

It was so rushed for no reason. I don't know what happened here.

The gang war at the end of the manga starts halfway through volume 20 and ends about halfway through volume 22. That's a full 2 volumes. In the show, each volume got adapted into about two episodes, give or take an extra ten minutes. Guess how much time the gang war, which, if all the volumes were adapted to at least two episodes, should've technically gotten the last six episodes of the entire series dedicated to it, got. THE LAST TWO EPISODES. And that's being generous. There's about seven minutes cut off from the end of S4 E12 for the ending, and S4 E11 doesn't contain all of the gang war. So less than two episodes. For an event that lasts two volumes and should've had six episodes minimum. Granted, it was fast-paced in the manga as well, so it could've been two to three episodes of fights, but honestly they could've kept everything in if they had just managed their limited time better. They cut an entire battle against one of the gangs and cut another one short just to move along the plot.

And there was barely enough time to do the epilogue anyway! They had to shove some of it into a narrated credits sequence that completely downplays so much. The plotline involving the mayor and his threats against Ogma as well as his connection to the Kines story if I recall correctly could've been so good. They could've kept Ogma's death and explain it as him being silenced by the Mayor, which would be better than the manga where it comes from out of nowhere. Then the press conference which does take place at the same time as the gang war in the manga too could happen and Louis could be completely solely responsible for winning against him. Instead they made Legoshi finish his thing and then run over to destroy the mayor. Haru and Louis as well as the Drama Club (whose plotline I'm getting to after this) were all there and could have had a role to play in defeating the mayor right before lights go out.

Also, during the conference, in the manga, Pina and Riz are watching it on a phone from inside a prison cell. This, I wish had been expanded upon, both in the manga and in the anime. Riz completely disappeared in season 3 with only a cameo at the end of 4 where he wasn't even animated. I wish he'd been more present, meaning he should've been mentioned more. His absence and actions should've had more impact on the story of the two seasons, especially the drama club arc (I'm getting to it.)

They didn't even do the lights out sequence which involved Louis, Yahya, Kyuu (Who I'm also getting to) and the Shishigumi. It rounded out all of them to give some kind of conclusion. The Mayor SHOULD have been defeated as the lights went out (Which SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED) and then they all rush to the Black Market as Legoshi ends his fight with Melon. The blood torches were there at least, but WHY wasn't it the giant tub of blood we see in V20 right before the conference starts? Anyway, the end where Yahya walks through the darkness and doesn't get devoured should have happened and then he arrests Melon.

It would be in this moment when the press arrive and Haru approaches the bloodied up Legoshi and kisses him on live Television. Not after he beats his main villain and then hurries to commit domestic terrorism by killing the mayor and clearing up Louis' problem for him. And honestly they didn't have to make Haru kiss Legoshi while he was covered in blood and gore in the show, but I think the message it sends that she does this while he is in his most monstrous state is really cool. Then Yahya would deliver a speech about what it means to be a Beastar and how Legoshi and Louis have both proven themselves and he pardons Legoshi of his crimes. I'm not sure if they state in the manga whether or not Legoshi and Louis accept the title of co-Beastars or not, but I honestly don't mind either option. Even though from a writing perspective it would make more sense for them both to reject it, it doesn't really matter to me.

So then they would return to the meteor festival where the press conference was, I'm pretty sure (The end is getting foggy for me because I only watched it once on the day it came out) And THEN The drama club would start their performance that they were leading up to the whole of season 4. The one about the ancient Herbivores and Carinivores. This is how the drama club plotline should've been ended in the show instead of just saying they did their performance without seeing it at all.

Legoshi and Haru can light their candle like Haru literally said she had wanted to do earlier in the season, and this could be as the play starts or after it ends.

Backtracking, we have Kyuu. Some say she's pointless. I disagree. She is a connection to Louis' history as cattle for sale. She shows us a new side of Legoshi's canine traits, that being the "Stay" and he'll stay forever thing. The strange stands thing they had going on could've been cut, and they could've found another way to include her in the story since they had foreshadowed her in season 3 only to remove her entirely.

NOW, for the trauma egg. The chicken. This is bullshit. Bill and Pina don't involve Aoba at all, and then the chicken dies. There was literally no reason to change this from the manga! The chicken was supposed to live! Bill was supposed to have a hopeful epiphany, not one of gloom and despair!

Now, back to the pardoning thing. Yes, he was framed. Legoshi was on the run for a little part of season 4 because of Melon framing him for the series of Herbivore-Carnivore killings. So they did want Legoshi to need to hide from the cops, and then later not be held responsible. They also wanted to have a confrontation with Melon before the gang war. They could've done all of this exactly like it had been done in the manga if they had just let Legoshi turn white when he woke up and thought he ate Haru. WAS IT THAT HARD TO RECOLOR HIS CHARACTER MODEL?

When he had to hide, he went to Room 701. This would've directly connected his reconnection with his canine friends to the main plot rather than painting it as an isolated filler scene. I hate how they changed this in the show.

Before the confrontation with Melon that resulted in Legoshi needing to hide with the Room 701 Boys, he should've gone to Kopi Luwak with the Shishigumi and Louis to see Deshico. The fact that they cut Louis and Legoshi from this scene and made it happen in season 3 before the drowning ruined it.

The Kines thing was also infuriating. Expanding it and Louis' plot hurt the run time even though they cut content. It was clear they had so much more to tell with the stuff they were developing more than the manga had. They should've gone for five seasons at least, or have their seasons be 2 cours each instead of 1 each to fill the space with scenes and stuff that develops the world more. They could have had Kyuu and the Kines plot AND the Mayor blackmail plot be there and still be well paced, and they could even have parts of episodes be like the Legom segment from season one, except for Beast Complex characters. It would've fit too since Legoshi was living AT Beast Apartments. They could even do two epilogue shorts based on the Beast Complex chapters that were literally about Legoshi and Haru, even the one about Eado and Ako reconnecting. By this time, Volume 2 and 3 of Beast Complex would already have been out since they released after Beastars ended in 2021. The series was just too rushed, both in the manga and the anime, but the anime more so. There were issues with 2D character models and honestly with that they could've just made the anime in 2D and have it look like Paru Itagaki's artstyle. Have y'all seen Sanda? That shit looks good. Imagine Beastars with Itagaki's Sanda style. Peak.