like this is the woman who in season one was the first person to notice something was off with the official story and was mocked and called crazy but turned out to be right, but now she’s the butt of the joke and doesn’t know what’s going on and comes up with bad plans

at the end of season one she refused to force el look for will in the upside down and got her explicit permission and took so much care to make sure she didn’t get hurt in the process even though will’s life was on the line, and now she’s totally willing to toss jonathan to the wolves and to keep will out of doing something that is objectively not that dangerous (like it’s riding in a car with steve not even in the upside down and dustin has done it a ton of times)

idk like jonathan has gotten completely flattened, too, i can’t believe they went all in on the least interesting byers this season

no that's so real you're So right. like the whole Thing in s1 was that joyce was fucking Right. jonathan was prickly and rude with nancy but so gentle with his brother and he and joyce had a complicated difficult relationship but there was so much love there.

i think honestly the problem is that like. joyce and jonathan were designed around will's disappearance. they had very tight character arcs built around that. and the duffers kinda haven't known what to Do with them ever since s1 ended. like in s2 it worked because they kinda just. threw will into danger again and let them play out a lot of the same beats as s1. but ever since then jonathan and joyce have both been lacking in direction and as a consequence they kinda end up as like flattened love interests to nancy and hopper. the duffers also like so obviously haven't known how to do anything interesting with will this whole time like they spent a solid two and a half seasons Just on him being sad and gay and doing literally nothing else.

another problem is that the show is pretty intent on like. having these distinct separate Groups of characters that interact. in s1 this made sense because nobody Knew what the other groups were experiencing. but now oftentimes in order to achieve this segmentation and get the groups they want they need to make these characters like rock dumb or completely indifferent to each other's safety.

THE HEREAFTER | completed

pairing: steddie word count: 96.6k rating: e

summary

Dustin, Robin, and Nancy make it out. That’s all that matters. Steve isn’t self-sacrificial, at least not intentionally, but it’s no question that he’d get those three out of literal hell before himself. It only makes sense. So now, he’s stuck in the Upside Down with a half-dead nerd he barely knows.

A journey through Steve’s relationships with himself and the most important people in his life: a lesbian, a know-it-all kid et al., his ex-girlfriend, a DM (whatever the hell that is), the DM’s uncle, and everyone else who seems to have wormed their way into his life since 1983.

(Or, how getting trapped in Hell on Earth with Eddie “The Freak” Munson puts every other relationship Steve has ever had into perspective.)

scary boy!!

Day 1 of infiltrating the crew.

One of them got too far from the group. Paralysed him and took his form.

Returned to the ship. Everyone keeps asking me where my pants are.

Day 2 of infiltrating the crew.

We have taken off. I have explained that one of the 'native lichens' made me allergic to pants. The rest of the crew seems to accept this.

Day 3 of infiltrating the crew.

I have been helping out around the ship while learning its secrets. And also trying to figure out where my quarters are supposed to be. Got it right fourth time. Managed to talk my way out of three awkward encounters.

Fourth one, not so much. I think I'm dating Crewman Eloise now.

Day 4 of infiltrating the crew.

Brought Eloise some breakfast and used my cunning skills to pump her for information.

So successful that I contrived to bring everyone else breakfast. I am a genius.

Day 5 of infiltrating the crew.

The captain keeps asking for Crewman Vitsie. They are obviously incompetent and lazy and have not responded. Captain sounds very irate. Perhaps I should find Vitsie and eat him to improve crew morale.

Day 6 of infiltrating the crew.

... I'm Crewman Vitsie. Got yelled at by the captain. Grovelled handsomely and explained that I am incompetent and lazy. I think I got away with it.

Day 7 of infiltrating the crew.

Space pirates. Why is it always space pirates?

Replicated one of them, infiltrated the ship, ate their captain. Very greasy.

Swapped back to my Vitsie disguise and pretended I snuck on board and shot the captain.

Luckily nobody asked about why I now weigh 50% more

Day 8 of infiltrating the crew.

Captain mentioned he knew I was a shiftshaper. Now hiding in an airduct. I'm not crying. That's... just... OK I might be crying. Eloise was going to put on a movie and I was really looking forward to it.

Day 9 of infiltrating the crew.

Captain has been yelling into an airvent for the last hour. They say they figured it out immediately.

Turns out Vitsie was an asshole, and they just liked me better.

NGL, feeling kind of proud.

Captain says since I saved the ship from greasy space pirates, they'll call it even if I promise not to eat any more crew.

Asked if that includes Robins from Engineering. Captains says Robins included because he's the only one who knows how to fix the toilets.

This is reasonable.

Day 10 of infiltrating the crew.

btw, idk if this will be seen by any of the countless people who already have seen and reblogged this post, but heres the original guide posted on how to make the chibi-rocky! the OP also has a separate guide for a more accurate rocky, though obviously less simple of a guide than the little thingy shown off

anyways,

The charmingly animated witch dance from the 1987 anime film Grimm’s Fairy Tale: The Golden Bird (グリム童話 金の鳥). Directed by the late great Toshio Hirata (平田敏夫).  A hidden cartoony gem from Madhouse & Toei Animation, loosely based on the tale of The Golden Bird that was made famous by The Brothers Grimm.

Special thanks to Animation Obsessive on Twitter for bringing this movie to my attention. Follow them for more rare, interesting & underappreciated animation tidbits from around the world.