proud to be one of the original barryposters

NOTE 2: this perspective is going to be deeply biased because I was somebody who was obsessed with Blupjeans as the final episodes were coming out. As in, like, shipping them back when we tagged her chalupaa taz and she was still a fan theory. I'd wager that like, 70% of the TAZ fanfic I have ever read is set specifically during Stolen Century Blupjeans. So I have a very big attachment to this specific era and character dynamic.

Logically, I do think that adaptations should be making big swings. Especially this one, like. This is one of the weirdest stories to try and adapt into any medium that is Not a podcast. I think changes were needed to keep the story coherent and paced briskly.

So, all that said:

hate hate hate hate HATE most of the blupjeans changed made for the gn LOL. We somehow got to see Barry and Lup interact less in this version. Which is weird, because… there weren't actually that many interactions for them in TSC, but that makes sense because the scenes we see in TSC are dictated by "what the tres horny boys chose to roleplay", and it is not a surprise that "hey can we serve as a passive spectator to the unfolding love story" wasn't really a big priority. But that wasn't a concern for the GN, so I am pretty baffled by how… empty their romance feels. I understand why the pacing couldn't allow us to give the whole legato monologue, but if we have to cut that then we really need to show some more of their bond for any of this to work.

the accelerated pace on Legato which got us there in FUCKING CYCLE 27?????????????????? 27?????? really not surewhy that happened, especially since fisher was such a non-presence for most of the GN, and thats the only reason i could see why they'd move it earlier. that decision ripple effect'd into one of my least favorite changes, which is (in a narrative beat sense) replacing the "you're locked in, bud, this wave is crashing all around you" taako barry conversation from the beach cycle with lucretia and lups "ogling time" scene. 1) it implies that the rest of the crew didnt even know they were doing the duet together which makes me sad 2) theres no like. reasoning behind why lup goes from "im not taking a lover" -> kissing him in front of other people in less then a year. 3) we're removing a key bit of taako and barry bonding, which i think is crucial for settling their dynamic later in cycles. i mean we later see barry tell taako that he knows taako isnt his biggest fan, which is a change i really do not vibe with. i can see the merit in giving the crush feels scene to lup, since she does have less scenes to work with overall to establish a character, but i really REALLY think we needed it to be taako talking to her then.

TSC, as a narrative, has a pretty hard job: it has to establish lup having a strong bond with two people. we need to believe that she and barry are in love enough to do lich shit, and we need to believe that taako is lup's heart. we need to build up these bonds, and i just… dont think it makes sense as a story to pit these two ideas against each other.

"you wanna go talk for a while" changed to public kiss is downgrade of the century. i really prefer the ambiguity of "wanna go talk for a while".

the letter wasn't even sealed with a kiss : ( how the fuck did lup get her body back

i. okay. so logically i think it is smoother to make them get the light every time. like we just dont have the page space to explain the nitty gritty light stuff, it's a bit ocnfusing and doesnt add as much. but also i kind of hate the change is the problem. it feels too implausible to me that theyd manage to get the light EVERY time + it means we lost out on the lups stand scene.