#muse rants

They just Game of Thrones’d Stranger Things.

First let’s talk about the moments I did enjoy:

-the Wheeler siblings fighting over who gets a gun (that was PERFECT sibling interaction)

-Jane’s little “hiiii” to max in her water realm. (She’s was a fairy✨)

- the Stonathan conversation

-Jim going back for Kali and softly going “I got you, I got you” like he would with Jane

- My propheting skills where I’ve called that being the mind flayer since I first saw it and that fuck ass case having todo with Henry’s powers (I WISH I HAD RECORDED IT GOD DAMN IT) (this is just media literacy skills) (I also did not know about the play until like…3 weeks ago)

-the D20 theory being real just in a different way than we expected

- Joyce being the one to hit the killing strike

- DELIGHTFUL DEREK. FULL STOP.

- Dustin’s speech

-Steve becoming a coach and Teacher!Steve halfway being real!

-Jonathan’s movie idea!

-….thats it.

No I didn’t enjoy the Apology tm, No I didn’t enjoy the fake out Jane death, NO I didn’t enjoy the “this is where the cycle started” conversation between Henry and will (that shit WAS ICK)(ik that’s the point but good GOD and maybe that’s my lack of knowledge on the subject showing!)

I DID NOT enjoy the fake out deaths (Dustin’s little face had me in tears IMMEDIATELY) I did not enjoy the desecration of Jane’s friendships with the other boys (“you have to explain it to them for me Mike” YOU WERE IN A TRUCK TOGETHER??? WHY COULDNT YOU HAVE A MOMENT WITH THEM THEN??)

It all felt rushed and unfinished and it was two hours long. My god.

I don’t understand how they missed the mark THIS bad but they did.

I just hope Netflix suffers for it and not those who wanted love to win for the boy who has suffered for far too long.

I will say the Dustin&Steve moment at his college warmed my heart so much

But then THAT FUCKASS EPILOGUE BOYFRIEND FROZE IT. His name is Marcus Whitman and he goes by Marc for short *eye twitch*

I hate how Steve never left Hawkins and is still trying to save up for his own place without a strong relationship to lean on.

I did love the LuMax moments.

I’m so….upset but honestly not surprised.

This show deserves more recognition:

There were a variety of ethnicities, body types, sexual orientations (including asexual!), neurodivergence, and gender identities.

Those were all secondary to the plot! The biggest thing was the characters were PEOPLE!, not vessels for “wokeness.”

Meanwhile, this show (“Velma”) that I watched three episodes of tonight — “bad TV night” is a thing in our house — is as painful as everyone says.

[article and a 12ft ladder to get past the paywall]

“Velma” feels like “Family Guy,” only if “Family Guy” tried to be over-the-top woke instead of offensive.

It has the same, unrelenting brash humour that prefers to browbeat the audience, rather than understate. As such, it’s not funny, nor clever. The characters’ pointed political speeches would be funny if they were done on rare occasion. Instead, almost every other discussion is something overdone. Wayyy to try hard.

In terms of ‘wokeness’ “Sonic Boom” did it better.

“Velma” ironically pushes the division between gender, race, and sexual orientation.

In episode three, we see the women fight to be “The Least Weak,” or a phase summat like that. Physical brawling. The show -could!- have raised up and pointed out how women should support each other rather than fight each other… but I guess we’re not ready for “women fight -for!- other women” speech here.

I guess “wokeness” for this show is limited to meta humour, PSA type monologues, and eye-rolling diatribes. It limited its wokeness to convenience and already heavily discussed issues.

I might also add Velma is an unlikeable character. She’s mean spirited, really quite a bully in her own right. Proof that you don’t need to be “popular” to be a selfish jerk.

She reminds me of Rick Sanchez, or Bojack Horseman.

Granted, I love those shows, but the supporting cast was always ready to call Rick and Bojack out on their toxic and destructive behaviors.

The show seems to ignore the importance of having balancing support. People who call out Velma for being as much the villain as anyone else encountered this far.

Norville (Shaggy) is hopelessly in love with Velma, he lets her abuse his friendship.

At the end of Episode 3, Daphne calls Velma out on a few things, but I have a feeling that won’t cause an overall change in Velma’s behavior. At least not for a while. Maybe there’s a “growth” arc planned.

If not? Ouch.

Also, I’m kinda tired of the “white male as the jerk” trope.

Yes, white males have a leg up in society, especially if they’re cishet… but there ARE! cishet white men who are decent people.

The only positive white male character this mud far is biracial Norville’s dad… and he’s not even a main character.

Making one skin-type/gender the bad guy doesn’t make a show “woke.”

All in all, “Velma” misses the mark.

I don’t know what it’s trying to do, but it’s bad at it.

There is a moment users describe that is hard to manufacture: the first time their AI companion says something they did not expect but that fits perfectly. It almost always traces back to the backstory they wrote. SweetDream, over at sweetdream.ai, leans into exactly this, giving the character creation tools enough range to design a personality with edges, history and quirks rather than a smooth, predictable default.

From a reporting standpoint, the mechanics behind that moment are worth naming. The chat is natural and emotionally intelligent and, crucially, it remembers, so the details you invent do not evaporate between sessions. A companion who was written as guarded stays a little guarded; one given an old heartbreak references it months later. The realistic photos, videos and human-sounding calls then carry that same character outward.

I’ve been thinking on this one SO hard ever since I got it...

I don’t really know how to answer it? Like I’ve got HCs and ways I’d portray every single DBD character because thats just the way I am... Are there some I’d prefer not to as much? Sure... but I wouldn’t say I have any I’d NEVER muse, because in a way, I muse the whole franchise on this blog askjhdgasjhdsh