#some thoughts

Surprisingly I've managed to avoid spoilers for it this whole time. We're about half way through and it's been enough episodes now to form some thoughts at this point.

What I'm not enjoying:

As far as my disappointment goes, first and foremost I'm bummed they're really not going for anything approaching well developed character arcs here. The characters are all very flat and way too well adjusted compared to their original counterparts. There's little room for any kind of meaningful growth.

And adding to that point, there's really not much in the way of stakes either, beyond "oh no, another bad guy same as the last! let's just rinse and repeat a battle sequence."

It's also really stingy with giving you any breathing room in order to manipulate the tension at all. Just all around very flat and repetitive.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I understand this is essentially a children's cartoon, and I'm not expecting high art. But the original Adventure had a lot more soul to it, and even beyond the nostalgia goggles, it was still constructing a decent narrative and decent character arcs especially for a kids cartoon of its time, you know?

Finally, it's really just not giving a shit about any of the interpersonal relationships outside of the two sibling dynamics and well, Taichi and Koushirou at least which, I'll take it.

What I am enjoying:

Honestly? Mostly the Digimon! Seeing them all being given more life with better animation is really nice, and having them come off as a little older/wiser than in the original gives them more personality. They also have more of a relationship with each other it seems, which is a nice touch.

I'm also enjoying the plot in a broader sense, even if the pacing and tension is leaving a lot to be desired. There's very much an "okay I wanna see where this goes" feeling, and I do appreciate that. But again, it's much more focused on the Digimon themselves and how things are going to play out there.

So I'm going to clean my space, vacuum with a brand bew vacuum that I got on Sunday.

I downloaded a workout plan to get ready for my ½ marathon and tomorrow I'm starting it off with a 5k run.

I honestly can't wait to go out for a run. I've been going out at 6 am just before work and it feels so good.

I also got those hudge Medjool dates that everybody is talking about. Having a date or two and some water before a run is a game changer. And tomorrow I get to try those hudge ones. I used to struggle with running so early, before breakfast. But not anymore, now I can do a 10k before freakfast if I eat a date or two and that's such a good hack.

I also think I'm gonna make a matcha chia puding to have as a treat. Just to nurture myself a little bit. I'm always so hard on myself whenever I make a mistake and it's something I want to change. I'm working on showing myself love even when I mess up.

Recently, I came across the post that is floating around Tumblr that “depression is an evolutionary parasite” and it meshed with me. Then I came across the comment to one of my posts that the photo of Mitch McConnell with his wife that’s on the USA today article is from 2023 and manipulated by AI and you can’t trust USA today even, because they’re hiding the truth from you. Are either of these claims true? Are they false? Is the person saying they’re false lying to me? Is the person saying their true lying to me? Are either of these things for or against the side of trying to generate vague feelings of disillusionment in me?

That’s the point when I started to not like this rectangle in my hand. I returned two e-books early to the library that I was winding my way through.

I just looked warily at this rectangle here in my hand. Maybe I’m feeling pathetic here, but one of the things that I feel is important most of my life is to recognize when the powers influencing you have more strength than your ability to resist. That their ability to persuade and influence you will overwhelm your resistance, and you should be aware of listening to them at all.

I’m starting to realize that the powers that be which are running websites and social media companies have powers and abilities to influence my actions, behavior, and thinking in ways that I am not strong enough to be aware of are happening and may not be able to have the logistical space to unpack and define as part of my daily life. How am I being influenced here? What actions and behaviors am I being actively or passively influenced towards or away?

Alastor praising Pendleton's looks. Alastor playfully touching Pendleton's hair and kissing his nose and cuddles him

Sigh.

You know, I don't think I will be watching this, not even inofficially. If this trailer was meant to make me completely uninterested in seeing the continuation of this story, then job well done, I guess. Because from this trailer it's all about Bloom, Damien and Vexius. The other Winx are a complete afterthought and their only purpose seems to be "to get protected" by Bloom, not even help her against the dangers awaiting her in any way or something. Nah, miss me with that shit.

None of the rest of the implications we get are anything interesting either. The Trix want to take revenge on Vexius and use Bloom's Dragon Flame to do it. Vexius wants to summon some random dark force to help him. And also to turn Damien evil which isn't totally exactly the same thing he already did in the Part 1 finale. BOOOORING.

Literally the only thing that would interest me is if any of the other Winx get any kind of subplot in these episodes because the main plot is ass and only revolves around Bloom anyway. We get one shot of Diaspro in her fairy form apparently attacking Bloom, that might be marginally interesting? Otherwise I've got nothing. Oh yeah, and none of the specialists apart from Sky seem to play any kind of role either, including Robin, they don't even appear. Timmy at least made it into the background of one shot, good for him, I guess. But this is the Bloom & Damien show now so who needs any of the other characters?