TIGER AND BUNNY: Welcome to your liveblog. Episode 20....

[lady_ganesh]

WHAT DO YOU MEAN 20? WE'RE ALMOST DONE? NOOOOOOOOO



AND THE MINDWIPE. Poor Barnaby. No wonder his head's such a mess, Maverick's been dicking with it for years.

And Tiger can't reach Barnaby, but his phone call reminds Maverick that there's one loose end to tie up.

::OPENING::

Hiii, Rock Bison! I hope there's a Season 2 so you can get a spotlight episode! Also, Nathan needs a boyfriend in Season 2, y/y?

::COMMERCIAL SIGN::

No, Hulu, I'm still not going to watch your stupid Morning After show.

::BACK TO OUR SHOW::

OH GOD, ANTONIO. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH.

"I'm worried about Handsome."

"Me too." And then the dinner show joke, but I do love the way Keith just goes along with calling him Handsome too.

"Did you lose a bet or something?" OMG OMG OMG.

Oh, God, Nathan vs. Kotetsu. Not even close to a contest, there. He gets most of the truth out...

Kotetsu's saved by a phone call, except I suspect it's really his doom...yep. Maverick. Secret talk about Barnaby. Yeah, there's no possible way this will end badly.

HE'S HOLDING HIS EVIL PEN AGAIN

I love the way Kotetsu holds his hat to his chest. It's so cute.

THE EVIL PEN oooooooh look. Do you have to soften them up with the poison to eat their brains, Maverick? WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO DO WITH TIGER'S BRAIN.

"Barnaby is lucky to have a partner who's so concerned about him." FUCK YOU, MAVERICK.

TIGER. DID YOU CATCH ON? BECAUSE THAT WOULD BE NICE.

BUNNY'S PIN. Well, it's still catching on! Nice save, too. WHEW.

Saved by Samantha, except of course he's probably sealing both their fates. Well, shit. (He must be suspicious or he wouldn't have told that story, right? Poor Samantha!)

"I'll tell her to wait for you." Yeah, and then she'll be DEAD.

Terrorists? More Ouburous fake crime, no doubt. Hahaha, Tiger in his ridiculous suit. Where's poor Bunny? Does he need to rest after having his brain scrambled?

SHIT

MEN IN BLACK SUITS

NEVER A GOOD SIGN

Ugh, what an utter asshole Maverick is. Run, Samantha, run! Poor Bunny, he's going to lose everyone he counted on.

Awww, Tiger. Two minutes and you still save the kid. (Wouldn't this mean he has an alibi though? THE TENSION IS KILLING ME.)

How sad is it that I'm also thinking "at least Tiger got some damn points."

Poor Samantha! They're gonna blow her up later, I guess.

Hey, Bunny! Nice to see you among the living.

OH CHRIST, MAVERICK. GET OUT OF HIS HOUSE. YOU'RE SUCH A CREEPY CREEPASS OMG.

Oh, no, you took Bunny to your house. Nice job being even creepier than I'd expected.

SHIT, TIGER, IT REALLY TOOK YOU THIS LONG TO CATCH ON? Oh well, at least you did. LIGHTBULB.

::COMMERCIAL SIGN::

Stand up to cancer! Be careful, if you click that this ad is not relevant to you, Hulu will fuck up your viewing experience. Thanks, Hulu. (I don't like cancer, but I don't like that ad either.

::BACK::

Oh, Maverick. You are such a piece of shit, I don't even want to look at you.

BARNABY, YOU SUCKER.

Tiger. TIGER, YOU MORON. DON'T TELL HIM ANYTHING. TELL YOUR TEAMMATES OR SOMETHING, LIKE A NORMAL PERSON. I understand Barnaby doing it, but I expect better from you. After all this time, I'm disappointed that characters started carrying the idiot ball.

::headdesking forever over ALL OF THIS::

Ugh, Maverick, you CREEP.

"Are you worried about [Kotetsu]? Is he your boyfriend?"

ANOTHER MINDWIPE ohshit

Don't touch the doorknob, you'll leave prints!

An important announcement about the future of Hero TV! This can't end well.

Antonio, you're so sweet. And then Ivan and Keith are all happy their fight wasn't a big deal.

Oh, this is not good. Not good.

Agnes, you're always so excited about anything that might affect the ratings.

Awww, poor Samantha. She loved her ward.

Holy shit, he drugged them all. Okay, I wasn't expecting that.

There's the picture. Poor Samantha. "Doing this will only make him suffer." DIE IN A FIRE, ASSHOLE.

OH GOD

HE IS SO CREEPY

SO MUCH HATE

"Things have changed." Ugh, you asshole. I'M SO SORRY, SAMANTHA

And there's poor Tiger, waiting for her. Shit. The end of this series is going to move fast, isn't it?

...holy shit, they erased Tiger completely? How does he even--

THAT'S ONE HELL OF A POWER. What about the show? What about....

SHOW. YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO FALL APART AT THE END, SHOW

Oh wait. They were the only ones who knew Tiger's true identity, right? That's it.

Hahahah, the mask. "With that beard and mask, anyone could look like him." lolol.

Uh-oh. Here's the shoe dropping.

OH SHIT

KAEDE

I NEVER EVEN THOUGHT ABOUT KAEDE.

SHIIIIIIIIIIT

Kotetsu. Run.

Shit. What is it, two minutes of hundred power, only once an hour? Shiiiiit.

And poor Barnaby's loaded and aimed in his direction. Look at that almost-hint of memory with Bunny. Poor kiddo.

MAVERICK, YOU ARE A HORRIBLE PIECE OF SHIT AND I WILL LAUGH AND LAUGH WHEN YOU DIE, OKAY?

::END CREDITS::

God, I love the pictures in the credits. So much like their characters, for the most part. So, true believers, will the power of Teamwork conquer all? What about that crush (I didn't even get to her freaking about the cucumber slices, lol)? Or will it be Bunny and Tiger all the way?

Ha, see, there's an omake this time, and this was a serious episode too! I'd almost forgotten about Yuri.

And fucking Hulu's not letting me replay the episode preview, wtf Hulu. WTF.

THERE, FINALLY. GOD. Hahah, Tiger takes his fan letters home to read. Hahah, I love the way they cut off Tiger's terrible reading of the next episode title. Maybe Tiger will pull in Yuri, IDK.



OH SHIT, YURI. And Kaede too, and oh hells. And poor Barnaby. Alone again, with that douchebag as his only company.

Comments

[inarticulate]

I am really curious to see where they go with this, because there are only a few directions that would really frustrate and annoy me. Yuri and Kaede and yesssssss ♥ I'm hoping to see more of the other heroes post-brainwipe, too.

I actually found it frustrating but believable that Kotetsu would trust Maverick; what I found more tricky was Maverick's impatience. I'm quite sure that this is really overstepping it and will cause his eventual downfall. Should have stuck to small changes, Maverick! Waaay less chance that you'll miss someone. And since Kotetsu clearly wasn't picking it up until later, he could easily have handled it in a quieter, less flashy way. Perhaps Bunny's memory going wonky kicked Maverick's paranoia into overdrive and pushed him into that sort of miscalculation… hmm. :D

[lady_ganesh]

I am excited to see the heroes hunting down Tiger! Someone on Tumblr was making "The Fugitive" jokes and it was awesome.

Yeah, it was believable in retrospect but still. TIGER.

I think Maverick has probably been a bit nervous about Tiger for a while; my guess is he figured Tiger was the best possible partner for Barnaby because he was kind of a screwup. I don't think he anticipated they'd actually, you know, like each other.

[inarticulate]

my guess is he figured Tiger was the best possible partner for Barnaby because he was kind of a screwup.

Oh, that's very true! I completely forgot that he was the one who'd engineered that, somehow. I think I'm going to be rewatching from the beginning once the show ends just to watch that progression. (For the record, I distrusted Maverick at the beginning, but when he was quiet for episodes upon episodes I just kind of shrugged and dismissed him… just as he was about to get his epic reveal as main villain. :Db so I definitely want to watch again knowing my suspicions weren't unfounded and see what changes.)

Haha, I do love that I started watching regularly just as the series moves to the tense phase of "every ending is a complete cliffhanger," though. Can it be next week yet?!

[lady_ganesh]

Yeah, I need to rewatch too, I'd totally forgotten Yuri knew Tiger's real identity. (Hahah yes, they did some lovely misdirection with Maverick.)

I HOPE SO. WHY ISN'T IT SATURDAY.

[lynndyre]

Aaaaand Yuri is now the only person in power who knows who Kotetsu really is.

Also, Maverick is the creepy ugly fat guy in every bad hentai anime that rapes all the girls so first so that the hero can rescue them with his penis. That was the vibe he gave off *before* episode 19.

WHY YOU GOTTA MAKE IT CANON, SHOW???

[lady_ganesh]

I HAD TOTALLY FORGOTTEN YURI KNEW HIS SECRET IDENTITY. Thank goodness for you guys.

[lynndyre]

One of the people on the com made this for next week. ^.^

[lady_ganesh]

I just reblogged that!

[7veils]

Ooh, but you forgot in that first scene, Rock Bison crushing on Agnes. She scored a loyal follower! Yay! That makes one. I'm still not convinced she isn't some sort of pure evil plant instead of just obsessed, but even Dragon Ladies (Dragon Kid: take notes) need faithful oxen, and maybe she'll turn out to be fabulous.

Also, the blimps in every window, all the time! Big Brother is seriously always watching. When all I want to know about Ourobouros is why it lets Maverick kill off their gang members like tiger bait.

Also, totally with you on Maverick. At least Schuldig had the excuse of being royally f**ked up by Rozenkreuz, not to mention the Hairband hair. Nobody who looks like young Axel Rose can be a pure villain.

[7veils]

I just finished watching Episode 20. That's one hell of a cliffhanger.

[lady_ganesh]

I think the only way it makes sense to me is if only a very few people know about the full conspiracy. Some people know parts, but most people know they got, say, extra money to kidnap someone, and then the DA cuts them a good deal because the person who hired them knows a guy. So something goes wrong sometimes, that's the price you pay for doing a big crime. (And remember, they seem to have not gotten killed much before Yuuri.)

[7veils]

That's true, or Maverick is the head of Ourobouros.

[lady_ganesh]

Hmmm. Or Ourburous is a separate separatist group, and Maverick just made Barnaby see the tattoo to put him on the wrong path for years.

[7veils]

Ourobouros as misdirection. That sounds like something Maverick is conniving enough to plan. If Jake and Kriem hadn't been members, it might've even been possible to see them as an underground freedom-fighter liberation movement. Unfortunately, because they held an entire city as hostage, it isn't possible to see that organization in that light.

Sternbilt is a city with major problems, though, and obviously its leaders are being portrayed as weak and self-interested at best, and completely power-crazed batshit evil at worst. It doesn't seem too unrealistic that they would have anarchic elements, as well as people who are just fighting in order not to be exploited.

[lady_ganesh]

They could still be an underground freedom-fighter-type movement, just, you know, an unpleasant one with terrible tactics.

Absolutely. (I wonder what Maverick has 'said' to the Mayor over the years.)

[7veils]

I suspect that Kaede's NEXT power is going to be involved in the restoration of people's memories, if that is ever going to happen. I mean, all she has to do is touch Maverick first.

[7veils]

(Freedom-fighting and holding a city hostage? That's an Orwellian sort of double-speak.)

[lady_ganesh]

(Freedom for NEXTs, hostages for everyone else?)

[7veils]

(Gah! That pretty much encapsulates Orwell.)

My f-list is divided between people who are sure that Yuri knows who Kotetsu is, and those who don't.

[lady_ganesh]

(Well, yes.)

Someone on the comm said Yuri'd handled one of Kotetsu's damage waivers/bills in Episode 5, I think.

[7veils]

He was the magistrate in charge of levying the fine, which was the full amount since no arrest was made — just to be a dick. I can't remember if Kotetsu was wearing his mask at the time or not, but there is a very real possibility in my mind that Kotetsu is a target.

Something that just occurred to me is that maybe the whole messed-up memory Yuri has of murdering the abusive Mr. Legend was one of Maverick's re-constructions, that he may have wanted a vigilante executioner to get rid of the joe-blog criminals he hired to do his dirty work.

Even if not, the fact that Lunatic executed 'Lady Killer' tells me he's no friend of Wild Tiger.

[samsarapine]

I giggled and giggled at your stream-of-conciousness-nesses. Oh, fuck, Tiger is so SCREWED and intellectually STUNTED and HE EFFING TRUSTS and I love him so much even though he's a complete fucking IDIOT!!

[lady_ganesh]

IT'S ALL COMPLETELY IC AND THUS EXTRA FRUSTRATING!