My Promise To You:
Added 2025-07-04 08:29:47 +0000 UTCSo the last poll was VERY divided. Which likely explains why I got backlash both ways; from skipping the episode to complaining about the episode.
Judging by the comments a lot of you would still rather I just watched the episodes and enjoyed them. Which (realistically) is never going to be the case.
I came up with an analogy I was rather proud of:
I like watermelon. On it's own it's refreshing and sweet, and really good! But I don't like watermelon in my lasagna.
Half the time I get frustrated with these episodes, isn't because they're not good. It's because the placement and duration of them, give me severe tonal whiplash. When we're right in the meat of our dish, really enjoying the meat of the plot, only to realise someones put a big chunk of watermelon in the middle of it. There's a time and place for watermelon, but it's not in the middle of lasagna.
I will not be able to please all of you because I will never be able to force myself to eat said meat covered watermelon and act like I'm enjoying it. So what can I do? And what am I willing to do?
1. If an episode pops up that feels like watermelon in my lasagna, I'll start to press the fast forward 10 seconds button at a time, to skim through it. The moment something important happens, aka; when the meat of the lasagna becomes the focus again, I will stop skipping and pay attention.
2. If the episode feels like it partially belongs, and is stomachable. Maybe it's just a little watermelon sauce in the lasagna and not a full piece of random watermelon. Then I'll watch the episode, as I currently do now. And I'll judge this based on how the episode is making me feel. If it's outright frustrating me and I know all I'll be doing is complaining, then I'll resort to step 1.
3. If I get to the end of the episode and I feel like I've cut a lot out, I'll make a decision about returning to the episode once I finish the show. Aka, I'll eat the watermelon after I'm FINISHED eating the lasagna. I'll take note of any episodes like this and revisit them if they fall into the bracket of point 1. Especially if you guys all believe the episode to hold some kind of important message.
OR
4. I'll add some extra fun behind the scenes stuff into the reaction, just for you guys. Maybe telling a bunch of jokes, or giving extra commentary on where my thought process is for the episode before and what I'd expected to see from the current episode I'm on.
Between point 3 and 4, I'll see what mood I am in that day, and how much of the episode I cut. Hopefully this will please most of you. And if none of this makes you happy, and you cannot acknowledge that I refuse to sit and smile through something I am not enjoying, and don't feel like you're getting your money's worth. Then you're financially stable adults (I hope). And you can make the decision to leave my Patreon.
Comments
Like any other reactor, you don't have to react to every single episode. I've seen where someone was asked by subs to react only to a specific episode of a show. You could take suggestions through your comments to react to episodes that are storyline significant and other recommend episodes. Remember, we're on this rollercoaster ride with you and we may feel the same way about episode continuity. Although, you may have to suffer through some episodes that ARE germane to a shows storyline. In other words, don't feel obligated to having to react to every episode. Just give a heads up at the end or the beginning of an episode if you will be skipping an episode and why just so we know what to expect and all should be fine.
Michael Ward
2025-07-09 11:49:00 +0000 UTCYou are more than reasonable. And you did the right thing. Escapism is an absolute waste of an episode; set in the middle of the "show's been cancelled and we have to rush to the end" phase. Was it, Sugar? Steven and Connie talking and the actual call for help, take like 5 minutes. That's 10 minutes wasted, at a time when we needed all we could get. We didn't know about the movie or the Future season. Imagine if a roller coaster slammed to a halt, so the riders could listen to a funny park employee anecdote, halfway through. Filler and cool down episodes are fine and even necessary; but not at the literal climax.
Tarot-Sovereign
2025-07-08 02:49:39 +0000 UTC