K-Pop and K-Dramas: BTS Muster, Sowoozoo Day 1

Screenshot of Kim Taehyung, Kim Namjoon, Min Yoongi, Jeon Jungkook, Kim Seokjin, Jung Hoseok, and Park Jimin from the first day of Muster, Sowoozoo. Copyright goes to BTS and Hybe Entertainment.

Hey! Hallie here!

I’m one of the crazy people who not only stayed up all night to watch the first day of this Muster, but I’m also planning to do it again for the second day. You’ll see the post on the second day really soon here, but today I’m going to be talking about the first day of Sowoozoo. There are a lot of rumored changes between the set list of the first and second concert days, so there’s no telling as of now what differences my sister will be discussing in our next post on this Muster. But there were already so many surprises that I found myself screaming in excitement at parts. So let’s get into this!

Concept:

This concept reminded me a bit of Magic Shop. It started out with a vehicle moving around the stage with the members inside to transport them to center stage. This was seriously reminiscent of the Magic Shop rising out of the floor for the first song during the 5th Muster. Similarly, there were skits in between a few of the songs and videos during costume changes that told the story of Sowoozoo. While I really enjoyed the Sci-Fi, RV-like vehicle moving around the stage, I didn’t feel this story was as well thought-out as some of their other concepts. In videos we see that BTS are searching for something inside the bus, each member with a job to help them navigate the wasteland they’re driving through. It’s fun to see them interact in this fictional scenario, but it feels aimless. About halfway through the story the vehicle goes on red alert, promising a direction for the story. But it turns out it’s just a flat tire. The narrative makes a bit of a big deal about Jin, Jungkook, and Namjoon exciting the vehicle to change the tire. They have to put on what are basically hazmat suits to even exit it. But I couldn’t really get past the hilarity behind the fact that the only conflict introduced was a flat tire. The skits in between songs felt similarly aimless. They used a fictional technology to connect to ARMY and their memories, but none of the memories they discussed connected very well. I could watch the members talk about their past and their passions all day, but I couldn’t really get behind these skits as parts of an overall story. I still love when they go for a more whimsical concept for their concerts, though. I enjoyed this concept, but it didn’t quite reach the level of Magic Shop.

First Songs:

They opened up with “Life Goes On” which they performed inside of the vehicle. I love seeing smaller sets like this, especially when they can move around the stage. I also loved seeing their new looks during this first song. Namjoon’s new hairstyle is amazing. I wasn’t completely sold by the Neapolitan look he had before this concert, but I love his yellow color with the shaved sides. I think this might be one of my favorite Namjoon hairstyles in a while. And let’s not forget that these men were wearing lots of short sleeves, meaning we got to see how buff Namjoon has been getting. Speaking of short sleeves, Jungkook blew everyone away with his confidence in showing off his new sleeve. His tattoos suit him very well and I’m so glad he’s incorporating them into his performance looks. Jin has kept his hair pretty natural recently, but the lighter brown is gorgeous on him. Yoongi went blonde. Which is insane because he also keeps to his natural colors fairly often. The color, plus the longer length swept back, has understandably drawn a lot of attention. Hoseok went back to the bleached blonde color. I loved this color on him in the first place, but the teal color of his mic and ear pieces made it stand out even more. Jimin’s hair is black now, which is a result of his hair becoming very unhealthy after several drastic dye jobs in a row. I know he didn’t exactly pick this color, but I do really like his black hair. Lastly we have Taehyung. I wasn’t sure about his perm when he first revealed it, but it’s definitely growing on me. It’s cute and that’s just what Tae was going for.

After “Life Goes On” we hopped right into “Butter”. We’ve seen a lot of “Butter” recently, but it never does get old. And with the yellow and white color scheme for the costumes, it was very fitting. After this we saw the tropical remix for “Dynamite”. There was a very colorful, summery feel to the planetary set on the stage, and the tropical remix only intensified this aesthetic. Then we heard “Moving On” which is something we haven’t heard in a while. They pulled out this song to address quarantine and the message was comforting. Following this was “Stay” and “Fly to My Room”. The members split up for these songs. Jin, Namjoon, and Jungkook spent a bit more time playing around the stage for “Stay” while Taehyung, Jimin, Hoseok, and Yoongi used a bedroom set for their performance.

Mid-Concert Songs:

After a brief intermission we came back to the set for “Daechwita”. The group I was watching the concert with was so excited by just the set, we were already screaming the moment we saw it. But what followed was even more exciting. Yoongi played the role of the mad king, sitting on his throne while the other members of BTS filled other roles from the music video and joined his performance of the song. Jimin played the role of the modern Agust D, opening up the song with the first few lines. He doesn’t rap often, but his sweet tones were uniquely enjoyable. After this Jin and Jungkook arrived, playing the fighting men they portrayed in the original music video. Jin and his facial hair were excellent, as he also doesn’t rap. Jungkook really showed off his skill here. He doesn’t rap often anymore but he still has the skill for it. Next Namjoon appeared as the executioner preparing to execute Taehyung. Namjoon killed it, as always, but Taehyung’s fake facial hair and his hilarious “death” stole the show. Taehyung thoroughly enjoyed his own verse before Hoseok stepped up as the scroll keeper. Hoseok received the most difficult part of the song and I nearly stood up at how incredible he was. Yoongi, of course, ended the song with his usual impressiveness. This was the highlight of the concert for me.

It didn’t feel like they could match the energy “Daechwita” served, but “IDOL” was used excellently to keep up the energy. After this we got our first ever performance of “Dis-ease”! This performance was done among the live footage of ARMYs being projected where the audience would be. They also used pre-recorded ARMY singing to give the performance more of a concert feel. It was bitter-sweet to see the members perform next to ARMY without actually being able to interact with them. “Fire” followed to bring up the energy once more, and “So What” and “Not Today” were used to give the members time to enjoy the stage.

Encore:

The encore was pretty short here, but it was just as beautiful as it usually is. It started with “Wishing on a Star” which is another song we haven’t heard in a while. The members came out in concert shirts and more comfortable outfits, as they usually do, but I really do like to see them allowed to be a bit looser for the last part of the concert. Following this song were some of the most heartfelt songs BTS has performed for ARMY. One is “A Supplementary Story: You Never Walk Alone”. Around this time they also talked a bit about how strange it is that they’ve reached their 8th anniversary (Hoseok also reminded the audience that it wasn’t the birthday of the the bugs attacking them while they were standing on stage). They closed the concert out with “Mikrokosmos”. I don’t feel there will ever be a more perfect closing song than “Mikrokosmos”. It’s gorgeous and gives a nice nostalgic feeling to leave the concert with. The fireworks were a bit crazy as they left stage, which caused Jin to cough a few times through the concert, but they made the ending feel complete. I was sad to leave the concert. I imagine I’ll be even more sad after the next concert. Still, I feel like this is by far the best virtual concert experience I’ve had over quarantine and I’m so grateful to have experienced it.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

K-Pop and K-Dramas: Imitation Episode 6

Screenshot of (left) Lee Junyoung and (right) Jeong Yunho from ‘Imitation’. Copyright goes to KBS and Kakao Entertainment.

Hi! It’s Annie!

Last week I started seeing some hope in this show, even if it was a little small. At least things started picking up with some characters and we started getting a little development for the main characters specifically. Somehow, this episode managed to screech completely to a halt even after all of that. Part of it was because any attempt that they made at going forward with the plot this episode, ended up being so confusing that it almost didn’t matter. And that was when they even attempted to move forwards with the plot. Once again, this won’t be a rave review, but I’ll get into it anyways. As always, SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

The Good:

The Acting- I’m always going to put this category in the good. Everyone’s acting gets better by the episode. People who aren’t as experienced at acting seem to be more calm with it as it goes on as well. It’s just really good!

Shax- Definitely my favorite part of this episode was anything involving Shax. Where the show fails at showing the bond between other characters, it completely succeeds at showing the bond between the members of Shax. We got more of the leader of Shax this episode having to step up and deal with the situations involving Ryok. And, more importantly, we got Dojin and Hyuk going to hilarious lengths to try and figure out what’s going on between Maha and Ryok. This included a hilarious moment where they had to hide in Ryok’s bed and pretend to be Ryok sleeping. Every time we get more of the members of Shax, I enjoy my experience watching the show more as a whole.

Jongho as Hyuk- I think in the last two episodes Hyuk has become my favorite character. He has such a bright and funny energy to him that makes it difficult to look away from him. And with having such limited acting experience, Jongho blows his portrayal of Hyuk out of the water. Jongho has never once looked awkward playing this role. In fact, he plays it so well it almost feels like it was written specifically for him. Hyuk is a sweet and understanding character who is also incredibly observant. He’s often the smartest character on the show. Sometimes there’s so much going on, that it’s just a giant relief when Hyuk appears on screen. I can say with confidence that Hyuk is the scene-stealer of this show.

Yunho as Yoojin- We got a little more character development for him this episode. And also, Yunho looked the most comfortable playing Yoojin this episode than he has in any episode before this. There might have been a couple brief awkward moments in past episodes, but there was not one in sight in this one. And I actually liked that they’re moving forward with the Yoojin auditioning for movies plot line. It seems like one of the only plot points this episode actually moved forward with. Even though Yoojin did get cast as some kind of mafia member who tries to beat up Ryok in a movie, and I don’t think anyone would ever cast Yunho as anything mafia related. He may be tall, but he is definitely not intimidating. He’s too sweet for that. Yoojin is very similar, but I digress. Yoojin now also knows that Maha is with Ryok and that Hyunoh has a girlfriend that he’s hiding from the team. With this new information, it makes me wonder if we’ll see more of a flawed side of Yoojin. It’s at least a set up for that, but this show does have some issues with carrying storylines out, so we’ll really have to see how that goes.

Realism- The main thing this show was praised for this episode was actually a scene with Sparkling that was brutally honest about the lives of idols. In the scene their manager makes each member weigh themselves and then yells at several members for weighing 2kg more than they had the last time he weighed them. For those of us who live in the US (who stupidly decided that we were going to have different units of measurement for everything unlike the rest of the world), that’s about a four pound difference. That’s absolutely insane and very sadly accurate. It was nice to see the show tackle this problem in such a real way. Though the show only throws scenes like this in every once in a while, they still are addressing things like this very well.

The Bad:

Maha- I never know what’s going on with Maha, and I feel like that only increases by the episode. Maha, especially in this episode, felt like a robot to me. She would play a specific role in the scene that she was in and then she would shut down after her purpose in the scene was over. Most of her actions this episode were decided by other characters. I don’t think she had one moment of true agency. There is a moment where Yoojin goes to see her to celebrate because he’s been cast in a movie, and this is around the time where Ryok is going to pick up Maha. Of course, Yoojin doesn’t know this and Maha doesn’t tell him. So while he’s excitedly trying to tell her the news that he’s been cast, Ryok gets out of the car and tries to drag Maha with him to the car in a fit of jealousy. Maha acts like she has no choice in the situation, practically ignores Yoojin without even really apologizing to him, and then leaves with Ryok. In a separate scene where Maha should have had agency, Riah drags her away from Ryok and then convinces Maha to change her phone number so that Ryok can’t call her again. Maha does all of this without question. She feels like a puppet that can be easily yanked around by other characters. Does she have a personality at this point? I’m honestly not sure.

Ryok- After all the good character development with Ryok last episode, I was not expecting this. Especially because there was absolutely no build up to whatever happened in this episode. I’m still not quite sure what that was. Ryok randomly shows up at Maha’s place and at first I thought it was because he found the defaced picture of himself amongst Maha’s gifts in her gift bag. But he shows up with this really cheesy smile on his face with no purpose, they talk about nothing, they get caught, and then Ryok just leaves. His manager gets so mad at this little interaction that he tells him that Maha can’t be his girlfriend and then forces him to go on this nature show without his phone for a while. I thought that this was going to mean that Ryok would be out for most of the episode and there would be some drama involving Maha trying to get a hold of him and thinking that he doesn’t care about her. But there was literally no plot relevance that I could see for him being stranded there. He was probably there for five minutes of the episode and then he was back as usual and still trying to date Maha. And he was also really mean to Yoojin and then pretended like it never happened when Yoojin showed up to set. Ryok had no character development in this episode and nothing that he did made any sense. Everything was so choppy with this character.

Main Romance- I don’t understand this at all. By the end of this episode the show acts like Maha and Ryok are dating now, but there is absolutely no build up to this. We know that Ryok has feelings for Maha, but he’s never been able to properly express his feelings to her. And the show never stops to tell you how Maha feels so I’m not even one hundred percent sure that she likes him back at this point. Trying to wrap my head around the timeline of this relationship is giving me a headache.

Sparkling- Besides the really heartbreaking scene of them getting weighed, nothing really happened with Sparkling this episode. Again. San and Seonghwa basically got nothing once again this episode. I don’t think they ever will at this point. Hyunoh has also been a little weird. The past few episodes his only function is to insult Yunho and then go in the corner and tell his girlfriend to stop being upset at him and also to stop calling him. I’m sure she’s thrilled. He’s been doing the exact same thing for about three episodes now and there has been no development with that. I can only hope that Yunho overhearing Hyunoh’s latest conversation will end in something plot relevant. But unfortunately, that still leaves San and Seonghwa with nothing to do.

The Evil Manager- Shax has an evil manager that we know is evil because he’s always just a couple seconds away from evil-y twirling his evil mustache. This character has no plot relevance, he does nothing, and seeing him always just confuses me. It makes me feel like there’s another plot going on in the background that the viewers are completely missing.

La Lima- She’s had about one scene per episode and no character development. This episode she pulls Maha aside and tells her to stay away from Ryok because Ryok is hers. I honestly didn’t even know she was friends with Ryok never mind romantically interested in him because she’s been in so little of the series. She’s supposed to be a main character, but I always wonder what her function in the plot is.

Hyunji and Riah- Riah has officially been relegated to the overprotective friend. I worried that this would happen in my last post and this episode officially confirmed my fears. And Hyunji’s only function this episode was to have a line once again confirming that she has a crush on Yoojin. We know, guys. Can you actually develop that sub-plot romance since the show is half way over instead of just mentioning it?

The Pacing- Every episode except for maybe two has felt like a filler episode. And there’s only twelve episodes in the series. I’m fairly certain that there’s not much plot in this show to begin with. Nothing is concise and I always find myself confused as to what the show is trying to be.

As you can probably tell, this was one of my least favorite episodes of this show. That doesn’t mean that there wasn’t some good in it, but I feel like I’m finding less and less to defend about it. I’ve already said this, but it’s not a show I would necessarily recommend. At this point I’m just watching it for ATEEZ and my sister already gave up on it. It doesn’t help that the series is only twelve episodes long and it feels like nothing has happened even though we’re officially half way through everything. Maybe the last few episodes will have some urgency, but I’m not super hopeful about that. I don’t hate watching this show by any means! But I do wish that it was so much better than it is.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Star Wars: ‘The Bad Batch’ Episode 6 and 7 Review

Screenshot of Omega and Rex from episode seven of ‘The Bad Batch’. Copyright goes to The Walt Disney Company.

Hey! Hallie here!

I’ve been pairing up episodes of ‘The Bad Batch’ for reviews, both because each episode is short and because nothing much has been happening. Episode seven ended up involving a lot more plot progression than I expected. Which is probably a good thing now that we have less than ten episodes left for this season (series?). In any case, I’ll be focusing quite a bit more on episode seven than episode six because of this. So let’s quickly dive into episode six so we can get to the really important stuff we saw in episode seven. SPOILERS ahead!

Episode 6, “Decommissioned”:

The Good:

The Martez Sisters: I really enjoy both of these characters and it’s nice to see how much they’ve changed since they spent time with Ahsoka. Rafa is still as sassy and difficult as always, but she has a clear morality. So much so that she’s slow to trust any of the Batch because they aren’t fighting against the Empire. Rafa also challenges Hunter in both leadership skills and general fighting capabilities. It’s clear she knows what she’s doing and she shouldn’t be underestimated. Trace is as kind as ever despite being at odds with Clone Force 99. She’s the first to snatch the droid head all of them have been tasked with recovering, but she also stops to save Omega when Omega finds herself stuck in a sea of broken down battle droids. Trace then comes up with the idea to reactivate some of the battle droids to take out the droid police. She’s clearly more capable now than she ever was before. These two end up working incredibly well with The Bad Batch. Hunter and Rafa bounce off of each other well and serve as efficient protectors. Meanwhile Trace can match both Tech’s intelligence and Omega’s kindness. Trace also gets the line “Is there an echo in here?” which leads to a hilarious interaction with Echo. This joke might have been my favorite moment in the whole episode.

The Bad (Batch):

Cid’s Bar: I know every story needs a home-like location for the characters to reconvene, but I’m growing to deeply dislike Cid’s bar. Why? Because Cid, and the current plot that sees the Batch working for Cid, isn’t serving the story at all. Every episode where the Batch goes out to do a mission for Cid feels like a filler episode. None of the characters end up being explored except for maybe Omega. None of the main plot points are addressed at all. Nothing happens. Since episode four we’ve seen a major slow down in any character development for any of the characters, and now that the series is focusing on Cid’s bar, we’re getting an equally slow plot. I want to see more than just Omega gaining more abilities while the rest of the characters sit behind her and do the same things over and over.

Wrecker: Wrecker’s writing was kind of hilarious in this episode. He was complaining a lot about his headaches from the moment the episode started. When they started their search for the droid head, Hunter sent Wrecker off on his own and Wrecker ended up writhing on the floor in pain. And then Omega called him in because they were in need of help and he jumped up as if nothing happened. He didn’t even mention headaches for the rest of the episode. I know this was all just set up for episode seven, but what was that?

Episode 7, “Battle Scars”:

The Good:

Rex: Ok, put Rex in anything and I instantly love you. Rex is one of the ‘Star Wars’ characters that I am majorly obsessed with, so using him is almost cheating. But hey, I’m not complaining. Rex was introduced into this episode to help move the plot along. Rex drops in to Cid’s bar to check up on The Bad Batch, and through a mix of Tech and Hunter letting it slip that they haven’t removed their inhibitor chips, plus Wrecker getting a massive headache, Rex manages to put together that all of them are in a really dangerous state at the moment. And he’s angry about it. Who can blame him? He just buried a ship full of his brothers. Rex winds up taking the group to a decommissioned Republic ship so they can use the medical facility to remove their chips. Overall, Rex gets some really nice contemplative moments in this episode. I mean, he’s still grappling with the trauma of what occurred when he had his inhibitor chip removed. The scar on his head from where it was extracted is still pretty fresh. He has a lot of ominous lines that lead the viewer to believe that he’s still dwelling on everything that happened while he was under the chip’s control. He even mentions Fives and how he regrettably didn’t understand what Fives was trying to warn him about at the time of his death. I really enjoyed the references to Rex’s age throughout, too. He’s one of the original clones, and that gets him some wisdom that the Batch can look up to. Rex pulled the plot along after a few episodes of floundering, so I hope that he brought in enough momentum for the series to keep moving forward.

Wrecker: We finally, finally got to see his headaches addressed here and the wait paid off. Wrecker grapples with his headaches throughout the entire episode. There isn’t any splotchiness here. And it’s actually heartbreaking. Especially watching him interact with Omega. He goes from joking around with her and taking her to get some celebratory snacks early in the episode, to trying to kill her later on. Unlike Crosshair, watching Wrecker turn on his friends meant something. Wrecker is established as a kind character with a big heart, and though the show still hasn’t done much character development for the Batch, we still know him enough to be attached by now.

Omega: Omega, once again, somehow ended up with the most character development in this episode. Even though she doesn’t have an inhibitor chip and didn’t need it removed. When the Batch learn that the procedure isn’t exactly safe, Omega, understandably, freaks out. She confesses that she doesn’t want to be left alone. Even Hunter’s reassurances aren’t quite enough to console her. Her main convincing comes in the form of a rampant Wrecker. She manages to hide from him just long enough for Rex to figure out what’s going on and stun him, but it’s clear she’s shaken by the entire experience. She still refuses to leave his side once his chip is removed. Her relationship with Wrecker is adorable. It was also nice to see how vulnerable Omega can be when facing the idea of being abandoned by the people she cares about.

The Bad (Batch):

Hunter: After both this episode and episode six Hunter is confronted by someone who urges him to take action in the fight against the Empire (Rex, Rafa). And after every one of these conversations Hunter comes up with some excuse about needing to decide what’s best for his crew and refuses. It feels like Hunter is the reason why these last few episodes have felt like they weren’t going anywhere. Hunter always expresses confusion about what to do next, so the Batch end up staying in the same exact spot. It’s frustrating to see Hunter do this multiple times, as if he isn’t learning anything from the people he’s working with. Hopefully he changes his mind soon.

Character Development: I’ve complained about this a lot but it still hasn’t been fixed so we’re talking about it again. Hunter, Tech, Wrecker, and Echo all have no depth. None. They do the same things each episode and they never learn anything new. This is the main reason I’ve felt so frustrated with this series lately. I really like it. But I know just as much about these characters now than I did in their introductory episodes in ‘Clone Wars’.

Those are my reviews for the last few episodes! I’m saying a lot of negative things for each episode, but I don’t dislike this series by any means! It certainly isn’t the first series I’ve liked to suffer from filler episodes. With this series I feel I’m partly expecting more from it because there isn’t another season confirmed and I’m partly expecting more because it’s a series on a streaming service. Series like these tend to have more concise storylines, but I’m not seeing that from ‘The Bad Batch’. I really do want to like this and I would love to fully get to know all of these characters. As of now I can only hope we see more quality in the future.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

K-Pop and K-Dramas: Love Alarm

Promotional image of (from left) Jung Garam, Kim Sohyun, and Song Kang. Copyright goes to Netflix and Studio Dragon.

Hi! It’s Annie!

I was recently hit with insomnia for some unknown reason and ended up spending a sleepless night watching this drama because it was one of the first ones that came up on Netflix. Now, I know I roast shows a lot. But I can honestly say that I have enjoyed every single K-Drama I’ve watched, including ‘The King: Eternal Monarch’. Yes, the plot of that one was an absolute mess, but I actually liked the characters a lot and I thought the romance was cute. You definitely don’t watch that one for the plot. I don’t know if it was the sleep deprivation making me more annoyed at things, but this is probably the first K-Drama I’ve watched that falls into the dislike category for me. It wasn’t good. I watched the entirety of season one and then skipped through season two because I wasn’t sure I could watch much more of it. So let’s get into what I liked and a lot more of what I disliked. As always for these kind of reviews, SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

The Good:

Lee Hyeyoung- The purest boy and by far my favorite character in the entire show. Hyeyoung at first seems a little bit clingy, but what’s important about this character is that he pulls back when he needs to. Remember when I said it is really common for me to suffer from second lead syndrome because the second lead is usually the nice guy? Definitely applies here. He is the first person to have a crush on Jojo and Sunoh knows this when he starts pursuing Jojo. But instead of getting angry, Hyeyoung decides that it’s Jojo’s choice and actually backs off. We need to see more of that in dramas. In season two after a giant time skip, it is revealed that he still has feelings for Jojo after she breaks up with Sunoh. At first he knows that she won’t ring his love alarm, but tells her that it’s enough for him to have expressed his feelings even if he is rejected. Pretty great right? He also unquestionably defends the honor of all of his friends even if they’ve wronged him. He’s quite a forgiving guy.

The Second Romance- Of course, the first romance in this show is between Jojo and Sunoh, but the second one is between Jojo and Hyeyoung. After the time gap Hyeyoung finds Jojo again and decides to actually try and win her over. He doesn’t expect anything and he also respects her privacy by agreeing not to tell Sunoh. Which was a good idea considering how much Sunoh freaks out when he learns about their relationship. Jojo decides to forgo the love alarm app altogether in order to pursue a relationship with him. And that’s probably the most important part of this relationship. This is the big one that isn’t based off of what the app says. They learn to love each other because of their trust in each other rather than their trust in an app. It’s really sweet!

Jojo- She isn’t a completely blank slate and she’s very reasonable. She has a personality and she stands up for herself in relationships while also focusing on communicating with the people she’s in the relationship with. She never is untruthful about how she feels or her boundaries. There is only one major point in the show where her communication fails, but I’ll get back to that. She also is the kind of nice person who befriends people who are constantly getting bullied without constantly dealing with them in a stance of pity. Over-all, she’s a kind and smart character with personality.

The Bad:

JoJo- Yep, she’s going in both the good and bad. Jojo sometimes suffers from blank slate syndrome. She has more personality than most characters I’ve seen with this, but the plot devices she falls into sometimes takes her agency out of the story. Like her randomly downloading this shield on her phone to prevent people from knowing her feelings at a suggestion. Or when her past trauma drives her to break up with Sunoh even though it actually makes no sense. That entire part of the story was confusing. Like, I know it reminded her of past trauma, but it was also a completely different situation and she was not set up as the type of character to make rash decisions like this.

Sunoh- I never liked this character, he just came off as really presumptuous. He was kind of creepy about cornering Jojo at the beginning of the show and then he continued to be super overprotective. Except for when he randomly crashed a motorcycle for plot. He also forbids Jojo from seeing Hyeyoung even though he has no right to do that and is still not respectful of Hyeyoung after Jojo and Hyeyoung start a relationship. There are several times when she’s with Hyeyoung where Sunoh corners her and tries to force her to admit that she still has feelings for him. I would also like to point out that he has a really nice girlfriend at this point. He always assumed what Jojo feels and never asks her. And when Jojo tells him that she has past trauma she doesn’t want to talk about he’s originally pretty understanding, but then tells her all of his past trauma and tries to guilt trip her afterwards. I’m glad that he was there for her when she needed him, even though all of that was based off of Hyeyoung’s advice and not his own ideas or thoughts, but I wasn’t a fan of how many times he tried to control Jojo’s actions in the show. I also think it’s a little messed up to go after your half-brother’s crush when you know for a fact he’s liked her for a while. He also randomly sends her a shirtless pic as a “gift” and it just gave me massive f- boy energy.

Trauma- Both Sunoh and Jojo have these really ridiculously traumatic backstories. Almost zombie apocalypse degree traumatic. Which is not relatable at all and does not fit in at all with the world of the show. I know K-Dramas have a tendency to kill off the Mother, but this was something else.

Love Alarm- The app itself was weird, confusing, and contradictory. It takes you far too long to actually figure out some of the rules of the app and some of it doesn’t make any sense anyways. They establish that you can turn the app on and off and that sometimes this will help prevent you from showing your feelings to other people. But then they say that members of the LGBTQ+ community are suffering because of this app because it’s accidentally outing them while they’re still closeted. But then the show treats ringing another person’s alarm as a choice. It didn’t make any sense. There was also a moment where Sunoh and Jojo determined whether or not they liked each other by turning on their alarms, and Jojo would not reveal what hers said. This really distressed Sunoh, even though her phone would have told her his feelings for her and not the other way around. He already knew that he had feelings for her. There was just so much weird about this alarm.

The Developer- We all knew the developer was going to end up being Dukgu considering how he wanted to use the love alarm to show Gulmi how he felt, but it was really stupid the way it happened. He faked his own death and then he created an algorithm that will tell people who they should spend their lives with and then he closes it down so that people won’t trust technology too much. He barely learned his lesson. And his character development is so back and forth that you can barely tell who this character is at the end. The faked death was super unnecessary too.

LGBTQ+ Representation- The show attempts it, but never commits to anything at all. There is a very small storyline where Hyeyoung’s love alarm goes off and he realizes that it was accidentally rung by a bully who is bullying another gay man for having rung his alarm. Other than Hyeyoung being understanding but strictly warning the guy not to bully anyone again, this isn’t really touched on further. At first I thought they might end up having Hyeyoung be bisexual, but this storyline really did nothing for the main plot or characters. It really felt thrown in there.

Well, there you have it. The insomnia show that wasn’t much to stay awake for. There are so many dramas you could be watching that are better than this one, I promise you. I kind of wish I had watched ‘Boys Over Flowers’ again instead. But at least Hyeyoung was cute!

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Marvel: ‘Loki’ Episode 1 Review

Screenshot of Tom Hiddleston as Loki in episode 1 of ‘Loki’, ‘Glorious Purpose’. Copyright goes to The Walt Disney Company.

Hey! Hallie here!

The first episode of ‘Loki’ just dropped today! Loki has been my favorite MCU character since I was in high school. I credit this character for helping me through some very difficult times. My attachment to this character, for better or for worse, has put my expectations for this series much higher than I usually like to keep them. And somehow this first episode managed to exceed them. There’s so much I was worried wouldn’t work that ended up blowing me away. There were things I feared wouldn’t be addressed that they covered in this very first episode. And there were even some surprises I didn’t see coming at all. There isn’t much I dislike here, so as I’ve done on some occasions before, my categories for this post will cover what I liked and what I have questions about. Let’s look into it!

What I Liked:

Loki: I’m talking about the character here, not the entire series, though it’s definitely off to a good start. This episode, aside from setting up some of the major plot points, was a giant analysis of Loki’s character. Loki starts out this episode with the arrogance expected of Loki after the first ‘Avengers’ film. He announces his “glorious purpose” to everyone he can, he refuses to admit any wrongdoing for taking the Tesseract, and he shows extreme disregard for any official he comes across in the TVA. He even makes it obvious that he doesn’t believe in the Timekeepers or the singular timeline they’re seemingly in charge of. After trying to escape several times, as is expected, he is taken to what is basically an interrogation room by Mobius. In the interrogation room Mobius shows Loki his recent past to press him on why he does what he does. Loki at first resists his questions by giving answers that reflect his view of himself, but not his actual beliefs. These answers sum up to what he says in the majority of his speeches in ‘Avengers’. His goal is to rule Earth. He wants to rule Earth because he’s born to rule. He feels that the harm he inflicts on others is necessary because they will be much happier under his rule. He feels they will be much happier under his rule because freedom oppresses everyone and ultimately disappoints them. After Mobius peels back these answers he continues to ask Loki if he enjoys harming others. Loki dodges the question, prompting Mobius to show Loki his future. Loki is particularly shaken by Frigga’s death as a result of his own actions. This is a traumatic event that majorly changed Loki in the MCU. Seeing him deny this reality and lash out at Mobius was raw and heartbreaking.

Afterwards he attempts to escape once more, and he has all the means to succeed. He steals the remote that controls the collar in charge of holding him captive and awkwardly threatens someone into returning the Tesseract to him. But after seeing that the TVA has so many versions of the infinity stones that they are rendered basically inconsequential, he realizes that his arrogance blinded him to the power of the TVA. He then returns to the interrogation room to watch the rest of his file. Through watching Frigga’s death again, Thor’s disappointment in him, and then his own death, the audience gets to watch him come to the realization that his quest for power was always fruitless. It resulted in him harming both himself and the people he cared for, despite the fact that he always insisted that harming others was necessary for everyone’s eventual happiness. Mobius finds him defeated (After a hilarious scene where Loki places his collar on Hunter B-15 and takes his frustrations out with the time altering feature). In what is probably the most influential moment of this episode, Mobius asks Loki a final time if he enjoys harming people. And Loki finally says no. He admits to his insecurities and how his harmful actions were only a desperate grab for power to fill a void. There’s still a lot to see from Loki when it comes to character development considering this is only the first episode, but Loki is already experiencing major change. He goes through several emotional highs and lows in just one episode, and the way it all changes him and possibly gives him an option to have a better outcome than the MCU Loki makes me excited for more.

Mobius: I really like Owen Wilson. But Owen Wilson also has the tendency to play pretty campy characters. Because of this, I had no idea how Owen Wilson would even work next to Tom Hiddleston’s Loki. Mobius is such a good character. In just his first scene, where he interacts with a small child to get some information, we see that he is both wise and incredibly kind. He also immediately sees the potential in Loki. But his kindness does not translate to meekness. He immediately takes control of Loki’s interrogation and it isn’t just because he has the remote to control Loki’s collar. He’s harsh with his questions and he isn’t afraid to call Loki out on his bullshit. He makes fun of a lot of Loki’s actions in order to reveal Loki’s insecurities. Whenever Loki displays false confidence, he points out Loki’s failures. He even notes that Loki only ever forced others to become the best versions of themselves through his failures, never actually reaching his own full potential. Which is a horrible truth that forces Loki to reflect. Mobius is so incredible at what he does that he sets Loki onto a path that may cause him to actually fulfill his true potential. He’s one of the most intelligent characters I’ve seen in the MCU and I love his inclusion.

DB Cooper: There’s one incredibly fun scene in this episode that actually implies Loki is responsible for a real life crime. This scene calls back to an unsolved air piracy case from the early 1970’s. In it, a man identified as DB Cooper got onto a plane and claimed he had a bomb in his briefcase. The plane was forced the make an emergency landing to let every passenger off the plane except for him. Once back in the air, the man asked for about $200,000 dollars and jumped off the plane. He was never seen again. The show’s explanation for these actions is that Loki did all of this on a dare and that he was picked up by the Bifrost immediately after jumping from the plane. This type of mischievous fun is something I want to keep seeing from the show as it goes on.

What I Have Questions About:

Is Loki Really the Mysterious Villain?: Throughout this first episode we see some horrific deeds done by someone bouncing around the timeline. Some members of the TVA even end up brutally burned to death. Mobius is in charge of this case, but he takes a break from it to see Loki’s trial and personally interrogate him. Why? Because, apparently, a variant of Loki is responsible for all of these horrible deeds. Which raises so many questions. Is it really Loki? If it is, what kind of Loki would do these things? What variation of his timeline could have pushed him to such a dark place? It will be interesting to see how Loki has to explore himself to get to the bottom of all of this.

Is the TVA Friend or Foe?: The TVA seems somewhat shady. They’re willing to kill anyone without the slightest warning. We’ve already seen some particularly questionable moments in the trailers with Gugu Mbathta-Raw’s character, Ravonna Renslayer. Is Mobius an outlier in the TVA? Will Loki and Mobius end up at odds with them? And should the Timekeepers even be trusted with the timeline?

What Happened to Loki’s Hair?: This isn’t super important, but how did Loki’s hair get suddenly short? I don’t think this will be answered, but I still found it kind of hilarious that Loki ended up with a new haircut with no explanation.

I loved this episode. It highlighted everything I love about Loki and even addressed some of the issues I had with Loki in the past. While Loki might have been pushed slightly by Thanos into his actions in ‘Avengers’, ultimately his decisions were his own. The fact that he must own up to his actions gives him the control parts of his writing lacked and it makes him an even more complex character. On top of that, the show admits Loki’s death in ‘Infinity War’ was pitiful. He never reached his full potential in the MCU, but he’s being given that opportunity now. And then we also get Loki kicking ass, showing off how intelligent he is by admitting he knew the Avengers were time traveling, and his general fun arrogance. I couldn’t have asked for a better intro to this series.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

K-Pop and K-Dramas: Best K-Pop Places in LA

Photo of the outside of ‘K-Pop Music Town’. All photos were taken off of ‘Yelp’ and are not owned or taken by me.

Hi! It’s Annie!

There’s more drama in the K-Pop world right now. (‘Life Goes On’ is a common phrase guys; I love BTS, but they don’t own it.) So here’s more lighthearted fun content! I’ve talked a little bit about this in some other posts, but recently I took a couple of trips down to LA with a couple friends and my sister to find some of the best stops for K-Pop in Los Angeles. I mentioned a few things briefly, but I figured I would expand more on our trip and give a few tips of my own. Because most of the places we went we really enjoyed, but there were a few places that don’t really make so much sense for us when I think about the possibility of going back. I know I generally don’t write about travel beyond theme parks, but I thought K-Pop, which most of our posts have become about, would be a perfect exemption. So here’s my experience with K-Pop in LA!

Line Store- Hollywood Blvd:

I made an entire post talking about the Line Store if you want to check that out, so I won’t dive too much into this. But it’s always fun to go to! I definitely spent much more money at the store this time around than I generally do. This store does have some general Line Friends merchandise, but very little of it. Know going in that this store is mostly for BTS’s BT21 line. The store features BTS’s hand prints, which I see a lot of people putting their hands in even during covid. I would really not recommend doing that. The store in general has a policy that you shouldn’t touch anything if you aren’t going to buy it. This actually worked out well for my friend who would accidentally touch things and then decide to buy them! I mean, why not right? And literally everything in that store is adorable. We all made out with matching large pillows (specific to our biases) inside bags that have the signatures each of the boys gave their characters on it. It’s seriously one of my favorite things in my room now. The store is also right across the street from the Chinese Theater if you’re feeling like being a little touristy.

McDonalds:

I’m literally just putting this on here because of the BTS Meal. On the Line Friends store day we ended up going to a McDonalds around the LA area. Because it’s a bigger and more popular area, most of these places actually have the BTS themed bags as well as just the sauces. They still don’t have the actual packaging, but the bags are generally there! Definitely not a big K-Pop stop but I figured I would mention it because my friends and I considered it a priority.

Music Plaza-Koreatown:

If you’re looking for K-Pop merchandise that isn’t BTS, or even other BTS merchandise, by far the best place to go is Koreatown. It’s where my friends and I spent most of our full day in Los Angeles. There are two major K-Pop stores that I know of in Koreatown and they’re only about a five minute drive away from each other. Each is in a different mall. The first is Music Plaza in Koreatown Galleria, which is the first stop we made. I would not personally recommend this stop or the shopping mall it’s in. The store itself is not bad at all. They have plenty of albums and merchandise. However, it is a smaller store and sometimes their stock can be limited. In general it’s a little cheaper than the other store, but they don’t seem to have as many options. The shopping mall that it’s in is pretty run down and there aren’t many other places to visit within that mall. We spent barely any time there and my friends and I felt that next time we went we could easily skip this mall and store and spend all our time at the other location.

K-Pop Music Town- Koreatown:

This is in a small outdoor mall, but this K-Pop store is far bigger. Their prices are also a little larger, but we personally had so much more fun at this store. Music Plaza had a handful of things to buy besides albums and posters. This store has everything. From albums, to lightsticks, fans, solo song themed stickers, backpacks, and keychains. This has far more to look at as well as far more stock and album selection in general. Both stores will give you freebies with your purchases, but if you buy enough this store will give you full-sized posters. On top of that, this small mall also features a plethora of other stores to experience. MaDang Courtyard also features a food stall with authentic Korean snacks that you’ve probably seen your favorites eating on Vlives, a sushi place, a Korean movie theater that plays South Korean films, Daiso Japan which is one of the largest Japanese variety store chains, a used book store, and H Mart for if you’re interested in buying international bagged snacks (such as various flavors of Hello Panda, Pocky, or chips that you wouldn’t usually be able to get in the US). Instead of there being only one interesting store, literally everything here is interesting to some degree. My friends and I didn’t eat much of anything (though the food stall was calling my name), mostly because we were planning on eating a big dinner. But we did buy some chips and pocky at the H Mart and sat across from a beautiful arrangement of flowers that is usually there the entire year. It was a really nice place to visit and just geek out at. I you’re looking for some place to stop for K-Pop, I would recommend this place far more than the Galleria. Seriously, just go here.

Aghassi Gopchang-Koreatown:

This is the Korean BBQ place in LA that BTS themselves recommended. And you can bet that they recommended it for a reason. I will admit, at first glance it seems like it’s in the middle of nowhere. Maybe this is one of the reasons why BTS likes it so much. The entrance to this place is also a little difficult to find. There is a door right at the front of the building, unfortunately it is an emergency exit. You’ll have to find the entrance to the parking lot in the building and enter the building through the parking lot. It took us a solid ten minutes to figure out where the entrance to the parking lot was and we accidentally ended up walking through the exit of the parking lot, which wasn’t the safest thing. We seriously almost gave up. Please don’t do what we did. But the restaurant itself was more than worth it. None of us had ever gone to an actual Korean BBQ before and our waiter noticed right away. He was really nice, immediately started talking to us about BTS, and kept a close eye on us the entire time to make sure we were doing ok. He said he had personally seen several members of BTS before, he had cooked for Taehyung before, and he even pointed out where they usually sit when they visit. He also gave us free stuff! Over-all, this was probably my favorite part of the day. The food was amazing and our waiter was the absolute best. I highly recommend it! If you can find the entrance, that is.

If you’re thinking about having a K-Pop day in LA with your friends or even just by yourself (though I wouldn’t recommend going to LA by yourself for safety reasons), I hope this helps! I also want to note that my friends and I were all fully vaccinated and had waited two weeks before we went on this trip and every store requires you to wear your mask at all times. Except for restaurants, of course. Just my reminder to make sure you’re being safe during this time! And have fun if you go on your own K-Pop adventures!

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Star Wars: The ‘Star Wars’ LGBTQ+ Couple That Should Have Been Canon

Screenshot of John Boyega as Finn and Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron in ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’. Copyright goes to The Walt Disney Company.

Hey! Hallie here!

We haven’t made a post for Pride Month on this blog yet, so happy Pride Month! While I feel like we should be celebrating the LGBTQ+ community all year round, it’s still nice to have a month dedicated to all the amazing people in this community and the way they embrace themselves! In honor of this I’m going to talk about what is probably my favorite queer couple that was never explored, Poe Dameron and Finn. Or StormPilot, as many fans call them. These two didn’t just win fans over because of their on-screen chemistry. There’s some genuine sweetness behind their relationship in the movies. Oscar Isaac and John Boyega have even voiced their support for the couple. So let’s look into exactly why this couple should have been confirmed on the big screen.

Movie Interactions:

Their first interaction occurred in ‘The Force Awakens’, when Finn decided to defect from the First Order after refusing to participate in the slaughter of a village. Coincidentally, Poe was there too, sent to get some important information for General Leia Organa. Kylo Ren discovered him, however, and took him captive to attempt to torture Resistance secrets out of him. When Finn realized he needed a pilot to escape the First Order, he riskily decided to break Poe out of his cell. Poe was all too happy to help Finn the instant he asked for his help. Poe and Finn became fast friends in the span of only a few minutes during their escape attempt and Poe even gave Finn his name. These two had insane chemistry from the start, and a lot of that is thanks to the flawless way John Boyega and Oscar Isaac bounced off each other in this sequence. And their chemistry only grew throughout the movie. The next time the two are united in the film, Finn believed Poe was dead. He was distraught too, and he made a point to grab Poe’s jacket just before the TIE Fighter they had been in burst into flames. When Poe sees Finn, he embraces him tightly and insists that Finn keep the jacket. How is that not adorable? In ‘The Last Jedi’ Poe and Finn’s paths diverge, meaning they don’t get much screen time together. We do get to see Poe’s concerned reaction when Finn wakes up from the coma he was in at the end of the last movie. Similarly, after the ship the Resistance is in is attacked, Finn runs to Poe to make sure he isn’t injured. There’s also a deleted scene where Poe gives Finn his jacket back, which he personally repaired after it was damaged in the previous movie. Aside from these moments of obvious care, Poe only sticks around to give Finn permission to go on a mission with Rose early in the movie, and give some commands at the end of the movie. ‘Rise of Skywalker’ is perhaps even worse. Poe is exasperated with everyone in the movie, including Finn, and moments that could be touching, like Poe giving Finn the title of general, are skimmed over. There are some cute small interactions, but nothing else. But for a lot of the dismal parts of their relationship, subtext is key.

The Actors:

The subtext, which can mostly be described as things like longing looks or lingering touches, are all provided by the actor. Any scene can be seen as flirtatious based on how the actor chooses to play the scene. And Oscar Isaac has been incredibly open about the flirtatious way he played Poe in his scenes with John Boyega. Oscar Isaac stated that he intended various scenes in ‘The Force Awakens’ specifically to be seen as flirtatious, which explains why Poe reuniting with Finn in that first movie came off as such to so many fans. John Boyega hasn’t made any statements like that himself, but he has voiced his support of the couple. Oscar Isaac and John Boyega continue to interact on social media to tease the relationship despite the fact that the movies have ended. And with the trilogy now complete, Oscar Isaac has expressed how disappointed he is that Disney refused to make Poe and Finn’s relationship romantic. He apparently pushed for the relationship to become canon, but he noted that Disney didn’t seem ready for that. Which is a shame because the flirtation and chemistry came across so well, it seems out of character for them to remain apart by the end of the trilogy.

Disney’s Slip Ups:

Here we get into all the awful ways Disney decided to ignore this relationship. So if you don’t care to read about the blatant homophobia, I suggest you stop here. To carry on, ‘The Force Awakens’ set up the bones for two relationships between the main cast. The first was Poe and Finn, though that was more of an actor choice than the choice of Disney. The second was Rey and Finn. Though there is clearly a strong friendship between them, there are several scenes that suggest that Finn in particular might harbor feelings for Rey. When Rian Johnson took over in the next film, this relationship was completely wiped away. Finn and Rey interacted less than Finn interacted with Poe. Instead, Finn was given a partner-in-crime in the form of Rose Tico, who kissed him for no reason at the end of the film. This seemed like it might be a romantic set-up, but the way it played out certainly didn’t seem like it. Finn was more shocked by the kiss than pleased by it, and he didn’t seem all that happy as the scene ended. Meanwhile, Rey was given a more romantic storyline with Kylo Ren. With the failed relationships between Finn and any female character, plus Rey’s new interest in Ben, it seemed like the perfect time to actually get Finn and Poe together. But instead, the next film played off Finn’s relationship with Rey as unrequited love, allowing Rey to get together with Ben just before his death and Finn to remain straight. And the plot also threw in a possible female love interest for Poe just for fun. The lengths this movie went to apparently prove that Finn and Poe were only interested in women was ridiculous. Not only that, but Disney thought they could throw a kiss between two women in the background of one incredibly short scene to fix the issue. They even went around praising themselves by talking about how “historical” this kiss was. Meanwhile, they had shied away from the actual LGBTQ+ couple so many people, including those working on the movie, were advocating for.

There really isn’t an excuse for Disney here. Poe and Finn have obvious chemistry in all of their scenes, and they had it even at the beginning of the trilogy. And between the actors and the fans loudly advocating for this couple, there was clearly enough incentive for them to move forward with the relationship. Especially because Disney has a terrible track record of representing any minority group at all, let alone the LGBTQ+ community. But Disney resisted it all the way until the end. That said, neither Finn or Poe ended up in any clear relationship by the end of the series. So what’s to say we as the fans can’t just assume they got together anyways?

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

Theme Parks: Universal Return

Promotional image of the inside of ‘The Secret Life of Pets-Off the Leash’ at Universal Studios Hollywood. Copyright goes to Universal Studios Parks and their social media accounts.

Hi! It’s Annie!

Recently I returned to Universal Studios Hollywood after being fully vaccinated and waiting the designated two weeks afterwards to make sure I had no symptoms after the fact. If you are going to return to a theme park I highly recommend making sure you also have done all of those things I mentioned above. For your safety and everyone else’s safety. With the safety precaution out of the way, I had so much fun returning to Universal after over a year and I also have a lot of thoughts. There have been a couple of changes and additions that I was able to enjoy this time around. So, I just figured I would recount my experience with some reviews on the new stuff and some words of warning about some of the other stuff. Let’s go!

The Secret Life of Pets-Off the Leash:

This new ride just opened after it was scheduled to open last year and I can definitely say that it was well worth the wait. The entire facade to the building is disguised like a city apartment complex, complete with a preschool that’s actually one of the exits to the ride. I highly recommend hitting this one first when you get there for a variety of reasons. Firstly, Universal is currently hosting several grad nights for both 2020 and 2021 high school grads, and they only have a couple hours of regular park time to spend towards the end of the day before grad night starts for them. Also, most people who are new to going to the park will be excited for Harry Potter and will start their day out there. My family hit this ride first and we waited for five minutes. Towards the end of the day it was more like an hour long. But this ride is so incredibly cute. The line feels like it’s half the experience. Inside the line you walk through several different apartment rooms within an apartment complex. Each room has its own details that hint at a different sort of person living there. For example, there’s what looks like a very small toddler’s room, a little girl’s room in all pink, a living room with a giant television, and a kitchen. Throughout the line as well as the ride you’ll find several animatronics. In the kitchen there’s a dog using a mixer to scratch himself. Every room is so detailed, and then the ride itself is the same way. Universal has been receiving requests for a long time now hoping that Universal would open a more family-friendly ride that used mostly practical effects. I talked more about this in another post, but Universal is known to over-utilize screens in their rides and to focus more on thrill rides. This is definitely an answer to that. The practical effects in this ride are great! There’s a part where an animatronic dog is shaking after being given a bath and water splashes on the guests. I only have two complaints about this ride. The first is that it moves really slow. While I’m all for having more time in the ride, it moves at such a pace that it would be much much faster to get out and walk. (You aren’t allowed to do that, I just though I’d make that clear just in case. Because ahhhh.) Though I do like seeing every detail so I’m not hugely upset with this. The other is that sometimes the ride suffers from having too many noises going on at once. There was one section of the ride where a construction vehicle was making a lot of noise directly next to a character who was talking to the audience. For all the time we were there, I couldn’t tell what that character was saying because it was much too loud. But over-all I loved this ride! Especially for pride month considering the families that come in to adopt guests in the ride are all different, including an LGBTQ+ family.

Covid Precautions:

Of course, I couldn’t make a post about going back without mentioning this. Everyone is required to keep their masks on at all times except for while actively eating or drinking in designated dining areas. They are also seating each ride every other row with only one party per row. My sister and I were actually sat alone at the very front of Jurassic World and that was an amazing experience. It almost felt like we had the entire ride to ourselves because no one else was there. And for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, we really did get the entire ride to ourselves considering it’s just one bench. There’s also social distancing places for you to stand throughout the line. Unfortunately, my family were some of the only people heeding these markers. So be prepared to deal with a lot of people who are determined to break all the rules. Though the workers are pretty good at making sure everyone keeps their masks on. Also, if you are sensitive to heat, like me, keep in mind that air conditioned lines are not going to be a fall back for you here. They are limiting the amount of time people spend inside, so most of the lines are outside and you get about five minutes to walk through the inside.

Stunt Cars:

I’m not quite sure what made them decide to do this, put they decided to pull out all the stunt cars for the re-opening. During quarantine they got rid of Whoville inside the Studio Tour, probably because it was not made of heavy materials and much of it was breaking and the paint was also fading. That entire area is now made up of rarer stunt cars. Also, because of the upcoming release of ‘F9’ a bunch of cars from the ‘Fast and Furious’ are displayed in the main plaza area. They’re cool to see!

Food:

I just want to give a general warning; for the most part Universal has shortened the amount of places to eat. This also means less options for those who might be vegan or vegetarian. This is just fair warning, just because a restaurant says it has vegan options on the app doesn’t mean it does. Sometimes it just means that they are prepared to make substitutions to certain meals. Which generally means holding the ceaser dressing on a ceaser salad rather than actually having a substantial vegan meal. There are places to eat that have regular vegan options, but be prepared to hunt for a while.

Over-all I really loved my time back at Universal! Their precautions are very well thought out and most of them are as enforced as possible. It’s really not their fault that people are not heeding the overhead announcements that comes on every five minutes in the line. But for the most part, things are going pretty smoothly. My best advice if you’re going is to plan it out. Make sure you know where you’re planning to eat and where you’re looking to go. But most of the places remain pleasantly accessible without as much hassle as you probably think there will be. And all the new additions are amazing and adorable! I just ask that you please follow the rules.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Theme Parks: Avengers Campus

Professional photo inside Avengers Campus located in Disney’s California Adventure Park. Copyright goes to the Walt Disney Company.

Hey! Hallie here!

Yesterday Avengers Campus officially opened in Disney’s California Adventure Park located in Anaheim, California. It’s pretty large, though you shouldn’t expect anything on the scale of Galaxy’s Edge. They also have a few new areas and new characters that are definitely welcome additions to the park. I have not been to Avengers Campus yet, but the footage released by the lucky few who have been in the park for the last few days has me excited. I don’t think it’s perfect by any means. Disney still hasn’t quite figured out the whole immersive thing yet. But there are some things in this part of the park that seem to be going in the right direction. Let’s talk about some of the good and the bad in Avengers Campus.

The Characters:

There are a ton of characters walking around Avengers Campus. Some characters are available to meet, which they will do socially distanced from guests. Other characters have shows around the area, but it remains unclear whether or not they will also be available for pictures. The characters who guests can meet are Black Widow, Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Iron Man, Thor, Loki, Star Lord, Gamora, Ant Man, The Wasp, Sam Wilson as Captain America, and Steve Rogers as Captain America. Peter Parker has his own entire meet and greet area, plus a stunt show. So you don’t have to worry about getting too little of Spider-Man here. The characters that remain unclear are Doctor Strange, who has a show I will talk about later, and Okoye, who also has her own show. Of this line up, my favorite interactions have come from Ant Man and The Wasp. Both characters have a bit more humor to them because of the nature of the ‘Ant Man’ films. I really appreciate seeing characters have a bit of fun while in the parks and these two definitely seem like they’re able to let loose a bit more. That said, I love all of these characters and it feels like any of them would be incredibly fun to meet.

I do have a few issues, though. The first is that I strongly feel that Steve Rogers should no longer be a character within the Disney Parks. Let me explain. I have no problem with Steve Rogers. In fact, I love him. However, Sam Wilson is Captain America now. When they introduced him in the opening ceremony, they even had Anthony Mackie make a speech about how important it is to have a Captain America that will represent more people. He ended the speech with stating that Avengers Campus wasn’t complete without Captain America. Meanwhile, Steve Rogers was standing in the background for all of this. If Disney wants to commit to a new and more inclusive Captain America, which they should, I don’t think they should have the old Captain America walking around as well. On top of this, fans have already agreed that Disney’s Captain America looks more like John Walker than Steve Rogers. Frankly, he creeps me out now. My second issue is the absence of ‘WandaVision’. I love ‘WandaVision’, as many do, and I would love to see both Wanda and Vision walking around the parks. However, I know that Disney is trying to balance a ton of characters already and the films coming out won’t make that task any easier. Still, there are far more men than women on the roster of characters for Avengers Campus. Making Wanda and Monica Rambeau characters guests can greet would be an excellent way to fix this problem and bring in two of the MCU’s strongest women. Especially because Black Widow isn’t the best female representation.

Shows:

There are currently four shows that occur somewhat randomly around Avengers Campus. The first is the Spider-Man stunt show. This show is short and occurs just before Spider-Man comes out to greet guests. In this show Spider-Man can be seen doing a few flips on the top of his designated building, where the sole ride in Avengers Campus resides. He explains that he’s trying out new equipment on his suit and briefly leaves. Then we get to see the animatronic Disney has been working on for the past few years. The animatronic is a stunt animatronic that is flung from a crane and flips through the air. When he lands, Spider-Man comes back out to climb down the building, and then emerges to meet guests. It’s really a showcase for the animatronic, but can you blame them? It’s amazing! The second stunt show belongs to Black Widow and Black Panther. This show occurs on the other main building inside of Avengers Campus. In it, Black Widow and Black Panther are tasked with getting some Vibranium out of the hands of Taskmaster. We haven’t actually seen Taskmaster in the MCU yet because ‘Black Widow’ has yet to be released. He also isn’t available to meet as of now. In any case, the show is short and more focused on fight choreography, but it’s still fun to see.

The next main show is in it’s own themed area meant to look like an ancient sanctum. From the door located at the very back of these ruins, Doctor Strange will emerge to start his show. Doctor Strange is evidently in another fight with Dormammu and he needs the audience’s help to locate exactly the thing he needs to bring him down. The show is fun and makes some interesting use of projections inside of the door. In the show Doctor Strange will always ask an audience member to name an Avenger who can help him, but he will only take Thor as an answer. It would have been nicer if they altered the show based on the Avenger guests named. Thor is hilarious in this show, though. He’s very clearly sticking to his ‘Ragnarok’ sense of humor now. As for Stephen Strange, I can’t say I’m impressed with anything Disney has done with his characterization in the parks. He always acts too serious and too mystical for it to resemble his character from the film. But that might just be me. Lastly, Okoye gets a show on the grounds of Avengers Campus. This show is basically just Okoye training the audience to be warriors using Dora Milaje training practices, but who wouldn’t want to see that? She also takes a moment of silence every show for the ancestors who have passed on, and I can’t help but feel like it’s a nod to Chadwick Boseman. Though some have also connected it to the losses many have experienced during the pandemic.

Main Attractions:

There are three major locations within Avengers Campus as of right now. One is Web Shooters, the Spider-Man themed ride. This ride isn’t all that impressive. It mirrors Midway Mania in that you spend the entire ride in front of a screen shooting at robotic spiders. Instead of using any sort of shooting mechanism, the ride monitors your arm. You have to extend your arm, like Spider-Man, to shoot at the spiders. Outside of the ride you can purchase a web shooter that the ride will recognize. When wearing it, the ride will upgrade your regular webs to electric webs. I have no idea if this effects your ride experience at all, but it’s something. The line for the ride is nice! Tom Holland did film a pre-show for the ride that shows how the robotic spiders got out of control. Peter Parker is always fun to watch, especially because of his general awkwardness. I also liked the comic references throughout the line. Characters like Squirrel Girl and Moon Girl are featured on a wall of scientists, and both Iron Heart and Miles Morales have their own lockers within the facility (Miles Morales’ signature can also be found on the mural Spider-Man stands in front of to meet guests). Overall I feel like this ride is underwhelming because it was made to be changed over time. It was mentioned that Disney used this ride mechanism specifically so they could switch the theming of it, and I think that was a mistake. Another major location is Pym Test Kitchens, a reference to Hank Pym from ‘Ant Man’. Everything in this restaurant is abnormally sized, from the giant ketchup and mustard, to the large chicken patty on a regular bun that looks much too small, to the pretzels you can actually watch becoming larger. There’s even a meal that comes in a giant spoon. It’s so well done. The final location is ‘Mission Breakout’. I won’t spend time on this because it’s been around for a while, but there is a strange fluid decorating the streets outside of the ride now! So that’s cool!

I like this addition to the parks quite a bit. There still isn’t a completely immersive feel to it, but the guest interactions they have throughout Avengers Campus make it feel a bit more successful than anything in Galaxy’s Edge. One of the major things Disney promised with Galaxy’s Edge was the residents of Batuu, as well as some major characters, casually walking around the area and interacting with guests. That isn’t what we ended up seeing in Galaxy’s Edge, but we are seeing it here. And there are so many characters to interact with. This area does thrive on the characters, though, which means the social distancing precautions will take a bit away from the experience until we can get past this pandemic. For now, we can all just enjoy the Shawarma.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

K-Pop and K-Dramas: Imitation Episode 5

Screenshot of Lee Junyoung in ‘Imitation’. Copyright goes to Kakao Entertainment and KBS.

Hi! It’s Annie!

This week was a pretty long one for my sister and I, which I might get into more in a later post. All I’ll say right now is that we went with a couple friends to a Korean barbecue place in LA that BTS recommended and our waiter had cooked for Taehyung before. It was absolutely insane. But it’s Friday again which means another episode of ‘Imitation’ came out and, of course, I always want to review these as soon as possible when they come out. Especially because of how much I want to show my love for ATEEZ after ‘Kingdom’. They did so well! However, in contrast to last week’s episode being one of my favorites, I think that this week’s episode might have been one of my least favorites. I think that’s it for my intro so here’s your regular SPOILER reminder!!!!

The Good:

The Acting- As always, everyone is amazing in their roles.

Hyuk- Going into this show, I was not expecting Jongho to get this much as Hyuk. Every episode I am more and more pleasantly surprised at how much he gets and how lovable Hyuk is as a character. In this specific episode it was revealed that Ryok is a little intimidated of him because Hyuk can read him like a book. I laughed out loud when Hyuk immediately deduced that Ryok had a crush on someone by the end of the episode. He’s such a sweet character with an amazing amount of insight. Definitely the type of character you can’t help but absolutely love. Every time Hyuk is on screen you feel like something is going right. He’s my new comfort character from the show, which I severely needed in this episode because a lot of this episode was a bit cringy. But I’ll get back to that later.

Ryok- I’ll give Ryok that he was really adorable this episode. We finally got to see a softer side of him, which I was really grateful for! In my last review I did say that the show needed to take the time to reflect with the main characters and let Ryok and Maha react to things. That’s exactly what they did with Ryok in this episode. Though Ryok did reveal himself to be a bit clingy, at least we saw that he didn’t know how to handle his emotions and we saw him react accordingly. I also really liked that it was revealed that he has a soft spot for Hyuk which also makes him slightly intimidated because he’s let Hyuk get to know him so well. We’re five episodes in, so almost halfway through the show, but I’m glad that they did decide to let us in on his soft side at some point.

Shax- We always get to see this entire team bonding in some way or another in each episode. I feel like I’m really starting to see and understand their bond!

Tea Party- I’m glad that the show isn’t just giving Maha all the spotlight. I loved that both Hyunji and Riah got offers to market themselves in their own ways and we got to see them doing things by themselves rather than just Maha.

Sub-Plot Romance- At Hyunji’s photoshoot, Yoojin shows up out of the blue and we get to see some genuine interaction between just these two characters. It wasn’t much, but it was something of an actual set up! If they are going to move forward with this romance they have to do it soon though. As I said before, the show is almost halfway done at this point.

Moving Plot- Finally! It feels like the show took a break from moving forward and we’re finally getting to see the show focus on plot. Of course, this means that the romance part of it has surged forwards considering this is a romance based show. I wish some of their other plot points would be treated with more urgency so that they also feel like they’re moving the show. But the romance moving forward did make the entire show feel like it was moving forward.

The Bad:

Maha- This character really frustrates me because I can’t tell what the writers intend her to be. I was happy that we got to see a lot more of Ryok’s emotions in this episode, but we still got almost none of Maha’s. The only reason the romance plot felt like it had urgency was because we at least saw something urgent about it on one side of the relationship. Maha doesn’t even feel like she cares about Ryok at this point, and it’s partly because the show still refuses to stop off with just her and spend time with her emotions. This is probably done so that the audience can project themselves onto her, but it makes her such a lacking character. I still can’t really pinpoint any of her personality traits. I want to get to know her, not for her to be a blank slate.

Sparkling- Again, they have to go here. We still got almost nothing of them. The members of Sparkling are complete non-characters right now excepting Yoojin. In the epilogue to this episode it was revealed that Hyunoh was originally a member of Shax before their debut. It was also revealed that Hyunoh has a girlfriend so his anger towards Yoojin is probably coming from jealousy of his position in the group rather than genuine concerns. But we don’t see nearly enough of his character for me to care about this yet. And then Minsoo and Seyoung got five seconds in this entire episode. At least they got a line each.

Yoojin- This one also pains me a lot. It was completely because of how underutilized he was this episode. We just started to see him get more time and characterization in the last episode, and then they completely dropped the ball. Hopefully this means we’ll pick back up with him next episode. But I want to see his issues beyond Maha. I want to see more of his rivalry with Hyunoh. We just starting seeing that before they decided to turn all of his problems into unrequited love again. His entire personality does not have to revolve around Maha and, really, it shouldn’t. If they keep portraying Yoojin in this way then it’s not going to be realistic if they try to pair him off with Hyunji. Because half his personality so far is pining after Maha. We need some other conflict for this character really fast. Also, I know that a lot of people freak out after stage kisses in media, but it’s so weird to see. Stage kissing is not romantic at all, it’s a semi-awkward blocking direction. So seeing Yoojin freak out over the stage kiss and even seeing Ryok obsess over it too was really odd to me. Speaking of which…

Ryok- Ok, I did mostly like him this episode! But there were a couple times where he border line crossed into stalker territory. Like showing up at Maha’s house uninvited at the end of the episode was weird. In his defense I guess they never figured out a time to meet.

Riah- She was barely in this episode and she’s one of my favorite characters in the show. I just want to see more Riah! She was also relegated to the protective friend and I hope they don’t start making her get super suspicious of Shax because of it. I’ve seen that done way too many times and I want Riah to continue being as unique as she has been.

Hyunji- I get it, she likes Yoojin. But she’s also running the risk of revolving around her unrequited love just like Yoojin is currently doing. It was unnecessary to show her sad conflicted face when Maha and Yoojin fist bumped at dinner. They just fist bumped!

Ji Hak- The manager of Tea Party was weirdly revealed to have a hand in the death of one of the original members of Tea Party. This was probably in the web-toon but there is no need for this. Firstly, this is turning the tragedy in the first episode into a plot device which is not my favorite thing ever. Also, we don’t need yet another character to focus on when the show is already struggling with the characters it already has. This is poorly placed and unneeded.

The Romance- The romance is moving the slightest bit too fast. I know I complain about slow plot a lot, but there should be a nice medium between slow and fast. We probably needed more of a development from when Ryok realizes he has feelings for Maha to the point he was in this episode. The progression all happened in this one episode. And it moving too fast makes me wonder if they’re going to do a misunderstanding leading to a break up or separation plot line, which I’m kind of done seeing in dramas. If they do it in a unique way it could still be good, but I’m really skeptical.

I know there is, once again, a lot in the bad category. I still enjoy watching this show, but it is still a bit of a mess. I always find things that I like in it, but it’s hard to not notice the mess. Once again, I’m going to say that the main thing that’s keeping me watching this is ATEEZ. Either Yunho or Jongho is emphasized every episode and it keeps me interested. But I’m not sure how much I would recommend this show. Especially to people who aren’t ATEEZ fans. It’s always nice seeing their incredible acting abilities every week though! I love the concept of this show, but they need to take more time to develop their characters and less time over-establishing conflicts that the audience already sees.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie