Five Things From: Seven Deadly Sins 3×3, The Sacred Treasure Lostvayne

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Five Things From. This time we are looking back at season 3 episode 3 of the Seven Deadly Sins anime, The Sacred Treasure Lostvayne. Which five things stood out and for what reasons? Let’s take a closer look…

1. Numbers Game

A scene early in the episode saw the new villain team having a conversation and all I could think was “why are there so many of them?” There doesn’t need to be that many! An overcrowded cast was what hurt the show’s first season because you can’t develop everyone as well as you would want. Even if they were to trim it down to seven from ten so that they were a sort of evil mirror version of the Sins would at least be a little better! It just makes it harder to get invested!

2. Albion

The group ended up getting teleported to Camelot to battle an enormous, stone golem. They referred to it as an Albion and I wonder where the name came from. Was it chosen as a reference to them being in Camelot and “Albion” is what those who lived in Camelot called England during that time period? Or was it just a coincidence and this is something that Golems are often referred to? I can’t say that I’m overly familiar with their mythology.😅

3. Cannons

The Albion itself was a very formidable adversary that put up a very good fight against Meliodas. It even created a set of cannons out of its own body at one point! Quite often, the Sins are so powerful and as a result some of their battles with foes can be quite anticlimactic. This one managed to remain engaging and entertaining while letting Meliodas show off the almighty power of his newest weapon.

4. Diane VS Gowther

They teased us with a glimpse of Gowther and Diane battling it out before Gowther saw the error of his ways before restoring the memories of those he took with Guila being surprisingly okay about the whole thing. It felt like they were either teasing the potential of a villainous arc or they were  showing how dangerous the powers that Gowther possesses could be if they ended up in the wrong hands.

5. Dolls

We also got a very peculiar bit of origin story about Gowther. It turns out that he was actually a doll which was then bought to life in some way…ok. I guess that explains why he is even less aware of human feelings and emotions than the other Sins are. Still felt pretty random and out-there though. Surely we now have to meet his creator at some point then???

Lessons You Learn from Howl’s Moving Castle

Last year, I finally found time to sit down and watch Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away to do a blog post on. To put it bluntly, I immediately fell in love with it and have watched it two more times since. I have now found the time to try out another one of the studio’s more well-known releases, Howl’s Moving Castle. Watching it I learnt…

1. If you work at a hat shop, leave work wearing a hat. Got to flash that merch!
2. You don’t see many pink and yellow flags in real life.
3. Your attitude towards women is more likely to scare them than your moustache.
4. If one thing comes out of a wall, a lot of things can come out of a wall.
5. Not even a locked door will stop a rude customer.
6. A stressful experience at work can really age you.
7. Some scarecrows dress very fancy.
8. A castle does not need to look like a castle to be a castle.
9. Demons don’t make promises.
10. A fake beard can be very convincing.
11. If your house is filthy and disgusting enough, a cleaner might hire themselves.
12. The kind that cleans is the worst kind of  witch.
13. Don’t faff around a market stall. They can close at a moment’s notice.
14. Looking at fish to buy? You must pick them up by the lips…or mouth, do fish have lips?
15. There is more to life than being beautiful.
16. Some people are too flamboyant to pull off certain disguises.
17. Just because someone can cast a spell, doesn’t mean they can break them.
18. Stairs can be a real killer.
19. You can get very fancy, elaborate wheelchairs.
20. Whatever you do, don’t look down.
21. Sometimes knowing someone else will be there gives you the courage to show up.
22. Some dragons can have multiple tongues.
23. Some people’s bedrooms can look very tunnel and cave-like.
24. Demons respect confidentiality.
25. Hang a curtain up and nobody will notice whatever it is you are trying to hide.
26. Why move when you can redecorate.
27. If your family keeps growing, it is wise to add an extra bedroom and bathroom.
28. Sometimes a place can feel so familiar even though you know you’ve never been there before.
29. The good thing about being old is you’ve got nothing else to lose.
30. Mothers take their kids rapidly ageing surprisingly well.
31. Only idiots believe what they read in the paper.
32. People stop and fight when they’ve got something to truly protect.
33. The best blaze brightest when circumstances are at there worst (but does anyone really believe that?)
34. Grass can hide very muddy mud.
35. It is hard to hurry when you’re crying.
36. A heart is a heavy burden.
37. A kiss can break many a curse.

Five Things From: Modern Family 4×5, Open House of Horrors

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Five Things From. This time we are looking at season 4 episode 5 of Modern Family, Open House of Horrors. Which five things stood out and for what reasons? Let’s take a closer look…

1. Horror

We all know that Claire is a big fan of Halloween but her enthusiasm has come back to bite her this time. In a short flashback, she definitely made things a little to gory and visceral for the small children trick or treating at her house. She even gave that one poor man a heart attack! Phil argued, saying that all she did was make a bit of spit and pee come out of him. He claimed that a similar thing happens with him when he sees monkeys in people clothes…erm, ok.

2. Royal Pains

Lily really wanted to dress up as a princess for Halloween and it was revealed to be because she was told by Mitchell that her real mum was a princess. The honest talk they had with her at the end was poignant and sweet but they should have had that talk as soon as she started asking about her mum. If they hadn’t had lied, that bird would have still been alive…apparently.

3. Jay

Just no Jay no. Don’t try and be flirty with the much younger police officer. It made him come across as rather creepy. I know there is the ongoing story with Jay struggling to come to terms with his age but having him awkwardly flirt with young police officers is not the way to make you sympathise with him. His fancy dress costume, coined “Medieval Knievel was spot on.

4. Rudeness

Those two teens who turned up to trick or treat at Jay and Gloria’s were very rude. Not only were their skeleton and lemon costumes basic at best, they were extremely rude saying that Gloria looked too old to be pregnant. Whatever age she should be, she looks good for it and also I don’t think she is too old to be having a baby. Jay, arguably but not Gloria.

5. Ending on a high-note

Manny trying to get in with the cool kids and ending up getting egged by his own mother was hilarious and also taught him an important lesson to not try and get in with people solely based around you thinking that they’re cool.

Five Things From: The Owl House 2×16, Hollow Mind

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of five Things From. This time we are looking back at season 2 episode 16 of The Owl House, Hollow Mind. Which five things stood out and for what reasons? Let’s take a closer look…

1. A Half-Century Reign

We found out that Emperor Belos has been in charge of the Boiling Isles for 50 years! This was given as the reason as to why many people weren’t jumping on Luz’s words about Belos being evil. They didn’t just have the people seem ignorant or dismissive; I liked that they gave a reasoning to why they weren’t all rallying in outrage. King worded it very well when saying, “No one wants to think they’ve wasted their life following the wrong person”. That is both true and rather sad.

2. What a Command

When trying to detain a masked group of vigilantes (who we didn’t get to see but I think Raine has something to do with it), Hunter made quite the order. I want to know if “I forbid you to flee” would ever actually work in any situation.

3. Backstory

This episode gave us lots of backstory on Belos and it was all very dramatic. Focussing in more on Luz’s horror as she realised how everything played out and connected together was very well done. Even if you weren’t overly surprised yourself, you still felt the emotion through Luz as she is such an investible character.

4. The Mystery of the Golden Guard

They did manage however to throw in some more mystery and intrigue in regard to the history of the Golden Guard. Hunter is not the nephew of Belos like he was led to believe. They also suggested that Belos kills the Golden Guards as they all end up turning on him eventually. Hunter looks the most like whoever Belos based him on and they are saying that he is something called a Grim Walker…I have so many questions but am very intrigued. It just adds another layer of sinisterness to Belos who could have been in danger of just being a generic dictator.

5. The Collector

Who is this mysterious collector being who was talking to Belos. It was very childlike and playful. It reminded me of a similar entity seen in the Full Metal Alchemist anime. How much is Belos pulling the strings here? Is the collector the one with all of the real power? Overall a damn fine episode!

Five Things From: Modern Family 4×4, The Butler’s Escape

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Five Things From. This time we are looking back at season 4 episode 4 of Modern Family, The Butler’s Escape. Which five things stood out and for what reasons? Let’s take a closer look…

1. Magic

The title “The Butler’s Escape” was referring to a famous escapology trick. Personally, I have heard of and seen variations of the trick but have never heard the “origin story” of the trick that Phil told. The subplot was a good insight into Phil and Luke’s relationship although I felt that the message got a little muddied in the end. Despite being technically good at it, Luke wanted to quit magic as he didn’t enjoy it. Phil disapproved of this and wanted his son to carry on. It seemed as if Phil was trying to live out one of his dreams through his son.

The natural conclusion that looked to be happening was that Phil would allow Luke to quit magic but voiced his worry that the two of them would soon start growing apart. This would have been a suitable end but then they through in the extra plot point of Luke now wanting to quit because kids at school picked on him for it. This would also be a fair enough story to tell but doing them both together just made for a confusing end. Did Luke actually like magic? Did he end up quitting it? It just felt unnecessarily overegged.

2. Teaching

As a teacher myself, I have seen people with the enthusiasm that Cam have disastrously crash and burn. You can introduce the more flamboyant and unique aspects later on but you don’t want to overwhelm the students early on. You need to start by building those genuine relationships with the kids. Get them onside and then you can ramp up your lessons to be extravagant as you want: if your kids trust you, then they will gladly come along for the ride with you. The jumper didn’t help either. You have to build up to wearing that too. That teacher who “accidentally” spilt juice on it did him a favour.

3. Manny

Manny had my favourite quip of the whole episode. While Cam’s debut lesson was spiralling out of control, Manny said to Luke that, “there’s no way he (Cam) ran this past Mitchell”. It was just a fun insight into how they know each other so well as an extended family.

4. Hotels

Speaking of Manny, how unlucky and coincidental was it for Jay that Manny was in that very same hotel? What time of the day even was this? It felt a tad contrived honestly.

5. Jay

Jay was understandably struggling to go to sleep as a result of Gloria’s snoring while being heavily pregnant. Should he have just sucked it up? I can completely get why you could argue he should but also it would be unarguable that the man can’t sleep and is just very tired. Like Gloria said, honesty and separate sleeping areas would have nipped this problem in the bud.

Five Things From: Seven Deadly Sins 3×6, The Chief Holy Knight Atones For His Sins

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Five Things From. This time we are looking back at season 3 episode 6 of Seven Deadly Sins, The Chief Holy Knight Atones For His Sins (what a terrible name for an episode that is, it’s like something from One Piece). Which five things stood out and for what reasons? Let’s take a closer look…

1. Hendrickson

Right…they went about redeeming Hendrickson in a very easy way in my opinion. Oh, he was possessed the whole time so had no control over what he was doing. It just felt like the easy option. I did however love the white outfit that Hendrickson now sports. That was a very cool look. I just feel like he isn’t really atoning if he didn’t actually choose to do the bad things in the first place.

2. Jobs

You did have to feel sorry for Hendrickson though when he revealed what job he was made to do when he was younger. Making a child sit and guard corpses until they have decomposed is awful; that’s a job that would be terrible for anyone, let alone a child. Then because he didn’t do it right, they kicked him out of the town! Who are these awful people.

3. Power Levels

Near the end of the episode, the team reflected on how their combined power levels would only just be enough to beat one of the Ten Commandments and would stand no chance if they battled them all together. Interestingly, King has a higher power level than Meliodas which surprised me as he has always been presented as the strongest. Also, they were counting Ban and Merlin in their calculations which was a bit optimistic. Ban has made it clear that he is off on his own for a while (he will presumably rejoin later on but still) and Merlin is still stone which is apparently extremely hard to reverse. Her soul is somehow now stuck in a magic cube so that she can still communicate and drop functional exposition when needed.

4. Checkov’s Bracelet

Gowther is back in human form and revealed that he now has a restraint bracelet to keep his powers in check. They have to be implementing the “Checkov’s Gun theory here”: the idea from playwright Checkov that if you establish a character has a gun earlier in the play, it is surely going to be fired at some point. You have to know that the restraint bracelet is coming off again sooner or later!

5. Memories

Why are they punishing people for getting invested in the Diane-King love story, I get that you need to have obstacles, ups and downs but I just want to see them happy. I just hope they don’t drag her memory loss out for too long! It is so much better than the awful Meliodas-Elizabeth romance.

Five Things From: The Owl House 2×15, Them’s the Breaks, Kid

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Five Things From. This time we are looking back at season 2 episode 15 of The Owl House, Them’s the Breaks, Kid. Which five things stood out and for what reasons? Let’s take a closer look…

1. Key Notes

Luz was experimenting with various glyphs at the start of the episode and was making notes about them in her notebook. One of the notes simply read “petrification-bad”. We then saw that she had a petrified figure that she had practiced on. I hope that it was a toy and not a small, innocent creature that she had practiced on! Also, Hooty ate a demon’s arm and nobody batted an eye! I’m pretty sure it was still attached to the rest of it too!

2. Faust

We spent the majority of the episode in a flashback, looking back at Eda’s time at Hexside school for witches. We met Headteacher Faust and he was a truly terrifying being. Credit to the art department because his design was great! He was extremely strict and had an issue with the squeakiness of shoes, although it was actually the squeaky ones he preferred! How can you trust shoes that don’t squeak?

3. Lateness

Faust also earned himself the line of the episode. His expectations were so high that he wasn’t even happy with the students arriving on time! In his eyes, being on time is the beginning of the road to being late. Is he wrong?

4. Threats

The head of the plant coven was making various threats this episode about turning children into mulch for her garden and poisoning people. It was funny how legitimately annoyed she was whenever she was informed that these things she was suggesting were illegal. If nobody would have warned her, I’m pretty sure that she would have followed through with at least some of these.

5. Raine

I don’t really find Raine that much of an interesting character and nothing that happened in this episode really changed that opinion. What I did pick up on however is that they use the they/them pronouns and a little research confirmed that they are a non-binary character. It is really good to see this type of representation in animated shows and I also like that it isn’t the defining trait of the character. They happen to be non-binary while being a fully formed character too. Win-win.

Five Thins From: Modern Family 4×3, Snip

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Five Things From. This time we are looking back at season 4 episode 3 of Modern Family, Snip. Which five things stood out and for what reasons? Let’s take a closer look…

1. Revenge

I don’t know exactly caused psychopath-in-the-making Luke to concoct such a yogurt based plan but the mechanics of it worked perfectly. Setting up yogurt to explode all over whoever opened his locker is slightly drastic and it ended up taking Claire as it’s victim. What worked well with the gag was that they set it up early on as what you thought was a quick, throwaway gag which made it funnier when it surprisingly came back.

2. Spellings

As a teacher, I have come across many different spellings for many different names. I have never though came across a spelling of a name so unnecessary as the spelling of Joe who worked in that clothes shop: Jeoux? I mean, you do you but really?

3. Cats

It was nice to see that Cam and Mitch got a cat like they were talking about previously in the season. However, Cam made a very large jump towards crazy cat person worryingly quickly! That mermaid cat outfit was concerning. What happens to the cats back legs? Does it essentially stop the cat from walking around? Seems a bit cruel to me…

4. Goth Alex

Alex (as many of us do) was going through a goth faze. This led to her having a new friend who it turned out she didn’t really liked anyway. What elevated this from being one-note filler was the moment where Claire somehow ended up shaving a big chunk of this new friend’s hair off! It was still filler but that part was funny.

5. Vasectomy

Phil was having a vasectomy and was reasonably worried about it. The main takeaway though that the word vasectomy can be used very easily as a pun. For example, when Claire was questioning his choice to have ice cream to make him feel better, he pointed out that it was a vasectomy not a vasecta-you. Alex later declared that “this family needs a dumbass-ectomy”…quality pun content there.

Five Things From: Seven Deadly Sins 3×5, Overwhelming Violence

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Five Things From. This time we are looking back at season 3 episode 5 of the Seven Deadly Sins anime, Overwhelming Violence. Which five things stood out and for what reasons? Let’s take a closer look…

1. Trees

There was a moment at the start of the episode that for a couple of seconds, really confused me. After the forest had been attacked by the Albion, the fairies began to do what they could to restore the forest. They were able to magically move the top of the enormous tree that got broken and for a second it looked like they were just going to balance it back on top of the trunk! It did then show that the tree could magically fuse back together but for a second I was really questioning the fairies’ logic.😅

2. Corpses

Another question I have about the fairy thought process (it looks like I’m picking  on them but I promise you I’m not!) was how long were they planning on keeping Elaine’s corpse there on that bed of flowers for all to see. Fair enough they have a “laying in state” period but surely it can’t stay there forever. Unless they hope to bring her back to life somehow it is a bit odd. And if it so Ban can bring her back, that only works from a logic standpoint if the fairies are in on Ban’s plan.

3. Merlin

Merlin featured in my favourite part of the episode: as she stood face to face with Galand she spoke very confidently to him. It then cut so we could hear what she was actually thinking and she was definitely panicked, showing how she was just chatting absolute shit to this demon in an attempt to appear confident. It was nice to see Merlin acknowledge that she was struggling for a plan as up to now she has been presented as dangerously overpowered.

4. Stone

Galand put an end to his standoff with Merlin by turning her to stone, claiming it was as a result of her lying to him. What I’d like to know is whether this was a power he has that can detect lies and then activates meaning that you have to tell the truth while in his presence. That would be a very exciting power that could be used to unearth various revelations from our characters. The less interesting option would be that he just has a power to turn people to stone and just said that she was lying as a reasoning for this.

5. What’s the word?

Galand used the word traitorous and I always thought that the word was treacherous. Turns out that traitorous (and traitorously) are words in their own right. You just never normally hear them used.

Five Things From: The Owl House 2×14, Reaching Out

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Five Things from. This time we will be looking back at season 2 episode 14 of The Owl House, Reaching Out. Which five things stood out and for what reasons? Let’s take a closer look…

1. What a List

Luz had a to do list at the beginning of the episode and let’s just say it was very adventurous. It contained, “make a new portal to the human realm, learn All the glyphs and essentially what boiled down to defeating the Emperor or at least getting some answers out of him”. A good to do list has at least some quick wins and more manageable goals. You need to be able to cross things off of it pretty regularly to stay motivated. 😅

2. No Beating around the Bush

He didn’t appear in this episode in the flesh, but the short cameo via the wizard messaging app got the Golden Guard a spot in this article. When Luz straight up asked him if he was leaving the Emperor’s Coven and was “good now”, he unsurprisingly did not give her a straight answer. The likelihood of that working was minute surely. She did get a cute picture of his Palismen even if he did send it to her by mistake. And no, that is not a euphemism.

3. Jewels

Both of Amity’s siblings had concealment jewels that created an illusion over them so that they appear more conventionally attractive. Surely this does not help with self-esteem and self-love for the young adult in the Boiling Isles. You have to imagine that so many of the teens use them at school and it is everybody presenting a façade rather than showing people their true self. Either that or it just helps with people who can’t be bothered to groom and dress in the morning.

4. Fighter Names

We didn’t see too much of the Bonesborough Brawl but we did get to see both Luz and Amity compete a little bit. Luz’s opponent has to win the award for best fighter name though as he was referred to as “The Flexecutioner”. What a name, flexing those muscles whilst executing folk.

5. Sweet Ending

The end of the episode was quite poignant as we learnt that it was the anniversary of Luz’s father passing away. Her and Amity shared a sweet moment at the end and we saw Luz’s mum remembering the anniversary too. The episode ended their on a sad note which still left you with a little smile on your face. Unexpected but sweet.

Five Things From: Modern Family 4×2, Schooled

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Five Things From. This time we are looking back at season 4 episode 2 of Modern Family, Schooled. Which five things stood out and for what reasons? Let’s take a closer look…

1. “My arm is tired”

Jay found the perfect toast ender right there. That teaches us all an important lesson: don’t go into a toast and commit to arm raising without being perfectly sure as to how it is going to end. It was an important toast as they were celebrating the miracle of Hayley going to collage…and the law abiding parenting of Cam and Mitch who were sending Lily to school as legally required.

2. Of all the mums

Sometimes an actress is so known for a particular part that you forget they must have done other roles. When Cam hoped that the parent of the boy he threatened (by saying he would string him up a flag pole and let birds peck his eyes out) would be understanding, I was not ready for who walked in…only the lady who plays obsessive alpha-mum Beverly Goldberg from The Goldbergs!

3. Lesbians

Turns out that Cam is very stereotypical in his views on lesbians. He was going in relentlessly for most of the episode. Are vegetarian lesbians even a stereotype? I did laugh though at Cam and Mitchell explaining why gay men and gay women don’t get along as you may expect.

4. Ass

Of all the wrong things you can grab, grabbing the wrong woman’s ass has to be up there with one of the worst mistakes. Even worse, he grabbed some young teenager girl in front of her dad. How that man avoided getting punched I’ll never know.

5. Phils-osophy: some highlights

“Always look a person in the eye, even if they’re blind.”

“If you get pulled over for speeding, say that your spouse has diarrhoea.”

And my favourite…

“The most amazing things that can happen to a human being will happen to you if you lower your expectations”.

Five Things From: Seven Deadly Sins 3×4, The 10 Commandments on the Move

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Five Things From. This time we are looking back at season 3 episode 4 of the Seven Deadly Sins, The 10 Commandments on the Move. Which five things stood out and for what reasons? Let’s take a closer look…

1. King

Despite the majority of the Fairy kingdom not seeming to be huge King fans, he managed to win them over by bring the only one to not be completely cowardly and stand up to the Albion. The others didn’t even run away, they just stood there! Was he being foolish in taking on the Albion all by himself? Maybe, but it was honourable of him to not want to see the kingdom destroyed under his watch for a second time. The other fairies helped eventually and it was nice to see them rally around King who is quickly becoming one of the more likeable Sins.

2. Ban

Ban had what looked to be the start of an interesting scene but then had very little to do for the rest of the episode as he ended up incapacitated. He argued with a fairy who didn’t want him to be king that he didn’t want to be anyway but then got…plugged into the tree??? They didn’t fully explain it and then he seemed to be free of it later but then still stuck there? It was very odd.

3. Galand

One of the demons (collectively known as the Ten Commandments) called Galand found it hilarious that there were still people around who didn’t just accept the Demons taking over and destroying their land…what a lovely guy. They are setting these guys up to be very powerful though as he was almost off the scale when Hawk used his stats earing (I’m sure it has a proper name that I have forgotten) to check his power rankings. What I did like was how Diane was so scared when she saw him again. There is definite history between the two groups that should be quite interesting to unpack.

4. That’s Mr. Pig! (There’s a cheeky Lion King reference for you)

At one point in the episode, Arthur referred to Hawk as “Sir Pig”. Hawk didn’t seem overly fond of the title. Why was it not Sir Hawk? Either way, it shows how Arthur is a respectful leader, recognising Hawk’s intelligence and value to the group.

5. Double Team

It seemed that Meliodas’ cloning power was much more permanent than I first expected! I thought that it was the equivalent of “Double Team” in Pokemon but that was not the case. They are not as powerful as Meliodas but I imagine that they could still get up to plenty of trouble!