Rosenrot

Random thoughts: I had a feeling that Dreschel (I know I'm spelling it wrong, sorry) would fall and run again since his run was shown so early on. Man, he was not a happy camper. I was begging the gods of Mount Midoriyama to tackle and eliminate him, to no avail, of course. I'm going to be twice as pissed if/when he wins it all since technically he should've been out on stage 1. Goddamn safety passes. Really bummed for Nick Hanson. One or two more swings and he would've had it! And R-E-A-L-L-Y bummed for Jessie. Sucks for Sean Bryan. 😐 I'm not exactly a fan, but I don't want to see anybody get hurt (even though it wasn't very serious, luckily). I wonder, is it really necessary to show Karsten Williams' mother every ten seconds? I'm easy, but I snorted at Chad Flexington's occupation ("American Superstar"). I don't like kids in general and I don't care to see them on the course, but I gotta admit, it was a little bit adorable when Jody Avila's son was giving him instructions. Also his story was tragic! I'm scared of (big) dogs as well and I would never go near one again after what happened to him (so kudos to him with the dog shelter thing)! And his wife's like "he's a big guy, he shouldn't be afraid of dogs"! What the fuck, lady?? I think it's a very wise thing to be wary of a strange, angry dog that bites you on your own driveway, whether you're a big guy or not! [shudder] I'm oddly happy for Grant. He's really grown on me. I couldn't have anticipated that happening in a million years, tbh. Same. Maybe it's that lame flapping of the arms.

OH! I didn't know she had died. I've only read No Night Is Too Long but I lllloveddd it. The TV adaptation is also good (I've been trying to find it on DVD for years but no luck). Just wrapped up Clive Barker's Books of Blood vol VI, the only vol I hadn't read yet. Some nice horror and a shout-out from the 80's. And I love me some Harry D'Amour. 🤗

OH, got it. Thanks for clearing that up. I was sure she'd done it!

Why is Drew shirtless and wearing ridiculous swimming goggles? (Probably for the reason Hellga mentioned, but let me have my Drew hating moment.) And why was the Kid wearing some ninja mouth cover thingy? Hey, Brett Sims was shown! ... aaaand he's gone. LOL @ the new beard, tho. I love peculiar beards. NAJEE! 😭 Why must you do this to me, Najee? (At times it sounded like the crowd was chanting "nazi, nazi" and I'm awful, but it was too funny.) Other bummers too - Kevin Bull falling, Barclay falling, The Godfather falling, Labreck falling, Travis Rosen falling, Daniel Gil NOT falling AND having the fastest time. Blergh. Can't believe it's already Vegas day 1. The season always goes so effing quickly. I agree with your main point, but Barclay Stockett is quite experienced in the ninja competition and she couldn't go through the Warped Wall this time (whatever the reason).

At the risk of sounding extremely stupid, I have to ask this, because even after several years of watching ANW, I'm still not sure about this. So let's imagine that three women got a really good result - two getting all the way to the buzzer (like in this episode) and the third one, she fell but got a really good time and is in the top-12 with all the dudes. Does she get to advance? Or is it that only the top-2 women advance (in this case the ones getting the buzzer) even though the rest had top-12 worthy times? Surely that cannot be the case?

Apologies in advance for all the Drew fans out there, but I feel the need to vent. ASDFKDLSLKD HE HAS ALREADY WON ALMOST EVERYTHING WHY CAN'T HE JUST GO AWAY? I don't know what kind of an obstacle they'd have to construct so he would fail! He's just too damn good! He will win it all this year, he absolutely will, and I will have a stroke. On a plus side, maybe he can then retire and I don't have to watch his smug face for years to come. [/vent over] Travis Rosen is a machine, and I'm happy he's through. Also really glad that Niemitalo (my countryman!), Carbone, Stratis and Roman are through! (Though disappointed that Roman got the WWWA treatment.) Also, what does Brett Sims need to do to get shown? That Jody kid made the course look easy. No, he would've advanced to Vegas anyway.

Well, fuck me. When the season started, I would NEVER EVER had guessed that Larissa was going to win. I don't hate her but MEH.

Not sure this is what I wanted when I said "maybe just have new judges altogether"! A case of 'be careful what you wish for', I guess. I'm a wee bit sad, I must admit, but this cheered me up: Maybe this will give a new boost to the show that was getting a little stale (which is to be expected after 11 seasons).

Oh, thanks! I certainly have enjoyed it thus far, even though I don't remember much about Lord John and the Private Matter. When I read it, I didn't even know it was affiliated with the Outlander series (which I've never read or watched, but know the main idea of it). I wonder if Claire is ever mentioned in the Lord John novels.

Greedy ass. Even though I sometimes like him, I wouldn't exactly mourn for him either if he was booted. Maybe just have new judges altogether, perhaps it would freshen up the show. (Ok, they can keep Matt.)

Something tells me the same thing. I hope I'm wrong, though!

Hmm. You're right. Well, I guess the City Finals were exceptionally easy last year then, since there were at least 3 finishers in every city. 🤔 Doesn't seem to be the trend this year.

I wouldn't go that far, but I do think it is stupid. I was actually all for the Speed Pass, I thought it was a nice idea (at least until Drechsel hogged it), but this… I don't know. We'll see, I guess. I like Flip though, and I'm glad he got the pass if someone had to. I lived for Kretsch's run. No gimmicks, no dumb T-shirts, no nothing. Just a great, solid performance. I salute you, sir. (Well okay, he did have a sob story of sorts. But I FF'd it so I didn't mind. 😄) Shumaker what? How did you get past the Spin Hopper but failed on the Warped Wall? I get that it's not an easy obstacle, none of the obstacles are, but imho Spin Hopper at least looks WAY harder. Hunter's already got the Speed Pass but he wants the Safety pass as well? Well what was the point of getting the Speed Pass then if he was gonna run in the City Finals anyway, wasn't the whole point of the pass not having to do that?? Greeedyyy. I did feel for him for that bump on the head, though. Ouch! Is it just me or was this a lot harder than the previous years? I mean, we had two (2!) finishers! Last year in LA we had nine. Not that I mind, mainly just wondering how hard the Vegas course will be.

I've been on a Project Runway S17 binge and haven't had time for MCAU in the last few days, but man oh man. Sounds like Simon and Tessa will be my light in the darkness through this! LOL it almost does, doesn't it? Almost. (OK who am I kidding? It totally does.)

Congratulations, sir/madam! I read it too, in 2012 or so. It's so dense, but I did mostly enjoy it. Just finished Delta of Venus by Anais Nïn. I don't read erotic lit that often (unless I know it's going to be good quality, which it's often not), but as it's by Anais, I gave it a go. It certainly was… interesting. Last night I started Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade by Diana Gabaldon. It's quite literally been ten years since I read the first volume of the Lord John series, so it's high time I continue!

You're correct. He said on IG that he's having a break this year. It said somewhere (maybe Sasukepedia) that he was cut from the broadcast. ☹️

Hey that's right, I didn't even remember Ian! From the original Wolfpack only Ian and Meagan are competing this year (or so I understand), so maybe they just haven't deemed it necessary to mention it. e: Still doesn't explain cutting Ian off completely, though.

Me too. No matter what the dish is, there seems to be a puree involved. I get that it goes with a lot of things (and it's probably fairly quickly made, dunno, never made one 😄), but I just wanna see something… different. Different and innovative. … first I thought for the most of the season that Derek was gay, and now I learn that it's 'naturopathy', not 'neuropathy'. Such a thing as a 'neuropathy student' likely does not exist now that I think about it, but that's literally how I've always read it! Oops. Swiftly from medical to pseudo-medical. 😄

That one guy's gimmick was that he had a lot of cousins? … okay then. Yamauchi, y u do this to me? 😭 I identified strongly with that Tamara Kirk girl because that's exactly what would happen to me on a ninja course. I didn't like Grant at first (and I still think Island Ninja is a stupid name), but he's kinda grown on me. I surprised myself by being happy he finished. Aw. My cat's my best friend too, Jackson! ❤️ I'm so glad he did well! LOL if there's one backstory I can get behind, it's that one. That's exactly how I felt tbh. Glad I'm not alone. 😄

The 'other two blondes' excelled again. Is it just me or this just a really weird top bunch. ?? When they decided Christina would do the main, I was immediately like "I don't think that's a good idea" - I just don't remember her really wow'ing me at any point… and then she went and won! (But still didn't wow me.) I think we need this quote now more than ever: (I still love him, though.)

True, very true. I'm just extra angry at Tim because he got the protein he wanted AND had the most time AND cooked something familiar to him, and still managed to f it up. Derek was of course batshit crazy as usual, but at least he tried something new and took risks, even if they always didn't pay off. And I like crazy. ❤️

Well, so much for my daydream of Derek & Simon finale. 😭 lkdjlkasjkdsls WHY IS TIM STILL THERE????? *deep breaths*

I kinda agree, but then, if they last less than 30 seconds in the qualifiers, they're likely not gonna get very far in the city finals anyway. So it's just like… whatever. I actually found it quite refreshing to see new faces in the Tower. Maybe it's just because I find so many veteran ninjas annoying (I'm not sure why). One of the veterans I don't find annoying is Jamie and of course they WWWA'd his run. 😑 I, too, think there was something off with that Mega Wall. Najee got up last year, so why wouldn't he be able to get up this year, after yet another year of training?

Not sure if MCAU is the right show to preach about food waste. (If they do something reasonable with their food waste, then I stand corrected.) I legit can't believe Anushka missed a whole page on her "apple pie" recipe and yet somehow pulled it off. Tim was of course outstanding. 🙄 Another thing I can't believe. I've got nothing against her, just that… in the beginning she really gave me the vibe that she would be booted off sooner rather than later. Shows what I know, I guess! Couldn't the final top 2 be Derek and Simon? Pretty please? With sugar on top? Oh well. A girl can always dream.

I'll finish the sentence for you: ... and the ones doing it improperly make it look fucking impossible. :D