#“bad” as in compared to the ratings or their other episodes

[comicaurora]

Just saw the announcement about Heartwood Coven, and I'm super excited!

I know that when you're exploring a genre, either for the first time, or just the first time in a while, sometimes inspirations for new Trope Talks emerge, and as a fan of spaces adjacent to Magical Girl media (Kamen Rider, mostly, but Ultraman, Super Sentai/Power Rangers, and Garo also exist, just to scratch the surface), I honestly find it kind of difficult to think of any tropes in the space that don't just devolve into little trivia factoids, or a 'Yup, that sure is a thing they do!', despite being in the space for decades. But I also know you have a keener eye for media tropes than I personally do.

So, all that is to ask, are there any tropes in that space that have caught your attention recently? This isn't even specifically asking about a potential future video, just in general.

The ingredients for a Sentai/Magical Girl story are very distinctive, especially when compared to other superhero genres!

Comes As A Set! Everyone in a thematic team has acquired their powers the same way, and the powers are very minor variants off of each other - one character might have The Specialest Version where their powers are strongest and their heart is Most Pure, but everyone else will be running at the same power level with almost no specialization. This sounds obvious, but almost no other superhero team does this. Even the X-Men, whose powers are all Being Mutants, come across as a seriously varied menagerie with wildly disparate power levels. Everyone being The Same Thing In A Different Color is pretty unique to this space!

Monster Of The Week: Not the only genre this appears in, but one of the only spaces where it's straight-up down to a science. The big bad of a series like this will only make a real appearance in the grand season finale. Until then, the team will be fighting their lieutenants' minions at a rate of one per episode. The big bad doesn't even usually deign to make the minions themselves, since they're much too busy standing in their recycled animation evil lair. The minions will have unique gimmicks, but will share similar levels of thematic and structural closeness with one another that the heroes do - they'll all be kaiju, or walking evil spells, or disgruntled citizens gifted thematically inconvenient superpowers. Where are these minions coming from? Sometimes the answer is "they cook em up at home" and sometimes it's "they corrupt innocent people so the heroes have to go nonlethal." It doesn't make much difference in the execution, so it's mostly dealer's choice.

So Many Wonderful Toys! These heroes aren't afraid to accessorize, and the merchandising department also says we have to. When the formula needs mixing up, just give someone a new weapon or vehicle or mech or powerup macguffin. And unless you're only giving the upgrade to the Designated Specialest Pure Of Heart one, make sure to bring enough for the rest of the team, because this is a good way to bring in a round of powerups for everyone and give them some new stock animations to reuse every episode!

There's Only One Way To Win And It's Teamwork. My personal gripe with a lot of these stories is that, by nature of the formula, the characters usually end up becoming largely interchangeable in a fight, because nobody is allowed to win before they do the Big Finisher they always use. And if the Big Finisher is "the most specialest pure of heart character remembers their job and blasts them with the Friendship Laser" that means the rest of the gang is basically on minion-punching duty and repeating "no way! my attack had no effect?!" Every fight has to run through everyone's big canned moves, usually one at a time, and since none of them will do any appreciable damage then they'll combine their giant robots or wait for the leader to bust out the Friendship Cannon and the fight will be over. I think this one's genuinely kind of a weakness of the format; it's pretty rare for a single non-leader character to get a day in the limelight or end up having the exact ability the week's bad guy is allergic to. Nobody gets an individual chance to shine unless the writers intentionally break the formula to make it happen.

The Sixth Ranger! You thought your team of five color-coordinated thematically linked cool guys was complete, but surprise! There are more colors/planets/dinosaurs than just the starting five, and some powerfull badass with unknown morals and a frightening reputation has just turned up wearing your team's matching outfit! Because the team comp is so ironclad compared to other superhero formats, this is always very disruptive and kind of a big shakeup that could restructure the whole status quo, unlike in typical superhero teams where individual attendance is optional and it's not a dealbreaker whether or not Wolverine is in this week.

And Your Friend Steve: someone's will they/won't they significant other is constantly hanging around the fights, in or out of a secret identity of their own, and their main contribution is to get kidnapped by the big bad, brainwashed by the big bad, or kidnapped and then brainwashed by the big bad. Outside of their busy schedule their main narrative role is to reinforce the Secret Identity concept that would otherwise risk slipping out of relevance. It's easier to remember your identity is supposed to be secret when Your Friend Steve keeps turning up at fights.

Bumbling Minions, Serious Boss - this is just an observation on my end, but it's quite common for the villain's crew of lieutenants to be somewhat more comedic than the main Big Bad - whether they're just a couple wacky minions or the comedy comes from how flustered they get when they inevitably lose, comedy is derived from them experiencing the wrath of their evil boss after the good guys win. But all this levity drains away as the lieutenants get whittled down and the finale approaches, and even if the villain has seemed clownish in the safe confines of their lair, when they actually go on the warpath and become the main present threat, they stop being funny entirely. Or, failing that, they get usurped by a new, worse villain, and they become the cartoonish lieutenant to the new guy. Villain chains of command get complicated.

The magical girl equivalent of the shonen anime Super Saiyan transformations is Pretty Dresses. The escalating ornate-ness of a magical girl's Pretty Dress corresponds one-to-one to the Bigness and Glowiness of a Super Saiyan's hair and reflects the reality-warping power contained within. Sailor Moon in a lacey bridal gown with gauzey diaphenous wings and a tiara is the kind of threat Goku would save in his contacts as "new sparring partner"

[monkey-wrench-series]

One month on; The future of Monkey wrench as a fully animated indie series.

It’s been exactly one month since Ep 3 of Monkey was released to the public, and as the ever want to be as transparent as possible with indie production it’s time we sat down and had a very important discussion on the future of the series…

So, as we said above, one month has passed from the public release of episode 3, and everything hinges on how well it does.

Below are the metrics for it on Youtube;

Our hope was to have ep 3 hit 500k in two weeks. After 31 days we’re still under 470k views, ad rev as you can see is pitiful and engagement has evaporated. Maybe we set our hopes a little too high?

It’s not all doom and gloom though, this is the first ep to get this many views in this amount of time. Our patreon support has grown by 1/3 after the ep came out and our Scratch & Scritch plushies did ok, see images below;

So as of now, we have enough money for voices, sound and music for episode 4. Voice recording begins next week and I hope to start the animatic for the ep sometime after.

As for the animation portion of production… things are looking a little tricky.

As you should know, animation, especially frame by frame stuff like we do, it’s obscenely time intensive and expensive. For ep 3 we had a rough animation rate of $20.83 per 1 second of animation and the same for clean up with very minimal edits and redos.

Seeing the recent animation pay discourse has honestly shaken us up pretty bad, we had no idea how pitiful our pay had been compared to other indies and we in no way want to exploit anyone for their work on the series.

With both Ash and I putting everything we had saved in Eps 1, 2 and 3 and seeing how below average they’ve all performed and with how little we can afford to pay our animators, on top of burning myself out horrifically doing 3 eps in a row, we’ve sadly had to come to the conclusion that full animation for this series is no longer financially possible at our current support level.

That does not mean we’re stopping production, however.

There are two possible routes we can take;

Route 1; Animatic hybrid.

Over the past week and a half I managed to solo out 5 minutes and 15 seconds of animatic keyframe animation for our recently released outtakes video.

At our current support level I can do the animatic keyframe route for most of the mundane stuff in an ep, and then go into full animation for the ‘good bits’, that way we can pay our animators an actual decent wage. Over time if our support grows we can return to full animation.

Route 2: Kickstart ep 4 for $100k

We have thought about doing a kickstarter type thing to get the $100,000 we’d need for the animation portion of the ep. We want to pay our animators properly for their time and skill and this would be the best route to go if we want to have ep 4 fully animated.

However with our current viewership and engagement with eps 1, 2 and 3 I’m not sure we could hit a goal of $100,000 in the 30 days we need.

Is it a risk worth taking?

What would we do for rewards?

Physical rewards would take money away from animation production and things like animated rewards would take time away from myself working on the ep.

That’s pretty much where my mind has been at the past few days. I’d love to hear your input and thoughts on how you would like us to proceed.

[clueless-fan-critic]

Why Helluva Boss Surpasses Hazbin Hotel In the Best Way Possible

The Helluva Boss Christmas episode dropped and I caught up with Season 2. I love this show so much for so many reasons. But that doesn't diminish Hazbin Hotel in any way at all. In fact, because of the show, it gives us a much deeper appreciation for what Helluva Boss is doing. I mean Hazbin Hotel was cool on Prime, but I want to talk about why Helluva Boss is the "Shrek 2" of the R-Rated animated musical series by a YouTube Animator. And that's a weird mouthful.

Getting Better with No Reward

Helluva Boss makes pretty clear that the "evil" demons of Hell are basically regular people with problems. Whether a majority of demons are born in Hell or damned souls, it's clear that they grow up from children to teens to adults. They have jobs, families, homes, and all the mundane things in our lives. And do in fact die. Possibly? That part is vague in whether they just get erased from existence or reincarnate Chainsaw Man style. But with those in mind, what would exactly be the point of being a "good" or "bad" person?

Throughout the series, many of the demons have some moral code, ethics, empathy, or rationale that sets them apart from the more chaotic and stereotypical demons. What I saw with a lot of characters is they willingly try and change for the better, all without Charlie Morningstar or the promise of Heaven, but redemption. This is especially in the case of Blitzø with a silent O.

Blitzø is one of the more unhinged characters you would see as a demon: immoral, selfish, hedonistic, all those demony things. But we, the audience, get to see his life, his failures, and his pain and how it shaped him. While it doesn't excuse his actions, it does make us understand. Once realizing these feelings, Blitzø tries to confront the consequences of his actions, with some trial and failure. Reconciling with his twin sister Barby: failed. Apologizing to his exes: failed. Talking with Fizzoralli: okay but still some scars, literal and figurative.

In fact, both Blitzø and Charlie share one major quality: attempting to change the status quo of Hell. But Blitzø wants to be seen more than a lackey to other higher demons while Charlie wants to prove people can change for the better. While Charlie's reason is more rooted in selflessness and hope, Blitzø's feels more human and genuine. From what I could see from the show so far, Hell is getting a whole lot bigger in what it can offer.

What's The Big Difference?

Helluva Boss is a more grounded and relatable show than the epic musical of Hazbin Hotel. The show allows for a lot of worldbuilding moments with the different rings of Hell along with their functions and associated demons. We're introduced to imps at the bottom of the demon hierarchy, demon royalty through Stolas and the Goetia royals, and six of the Seven Deadly Sins.

It seems the Seven Deadly Sins hold the most authority compared to the Overlords. It might be that the Overlords are more rich people like CEOs, industrialists, and entertainers while the Sins are like government officials, both holding power and influence but in different areas of life.

Whenever Hell is used in a show, it's represented in a myriad of ways ranging from classic burning pits to existential or nihilistic despair. It does make it clear that Hell is more a dark reflection of life on Earth, but more dirty, vibrant, and chaotic nonetheless. Even the Earth depicted in the show isn't really different aside from the whole demonic powers and magic stuff.

What Makes it More Interesting than its Predecessor?

Helluva Boss uses episodes as vehicles for their characters. Basically, getting to know who we're watching, why they're important, how they are as people, and so on. It doesn't have an overarching story that builds to a final battle. They're just chilling with exploring characters and their impact to others and the present stories in different episodes. Although there are interconnecting plots and stories, the show is mostly episodic.

Its strongest element include the characters, its main cast, supporting, and even one-off jokes, they all leave impressions on anyone who sees them. Millie is given more exploration in later episodes with why she always put up with Blitzø and believes in their business despite his total incompetence and hangups. You think Millie is just this bubbly tank, but shows a much more vulnerable side who wants to be seen more than her "intended role."

Stolas is another character is breaks the mold of his role. With disastrous results for everyone he cares for. Stolas is the love interest of Blitzø who aids IMP with his magic. He slowly breaks out from being a prince into someone else he hasn't found yet. We see his royal comfort implode in the Sinsmas finale, he loses his status, power, and even his daughter because of a perceived fantasy or escape that would free him. But, like a lot of caged birds, he doesn't fare so well in the real world. Now left with truly nothing but the very person he made his "sacrifice" for. Even uncertain of that as well.

But, the songs from both shows are incredible!!!!

My favorites include Loser, Baby performed by veteran Keith David and newcomer Blake Roman and U 2 Me performed in "Apology Tour" by Bryce Pinkham. Both those songs really connect with me while conveying character moments. The songs in Helluva Boss develop and explore character like a musical would use them for those big "Declaration of Something" anthem. Defying Gravity, We Don't Talk About Bruno, even Cell Block Tango, all are songs that explore one's mindset, opinions, and personal struggles.

Why Should I Watch...?

The Characters, the plots, the songs, the animation, so much F^$King things to admire and love that I can't... I just... 😣 😩 ... I don't know.

Just Watch It and See for Yourself!!!

[desertduality]

HELLO soo I was inspired by the most recent secret life episode to write some tcd angst set in secret life <33 Enjoy :D

Link to Ao3 if you prefer to read there

———----

Scar, despite all odds against him, does hold his own for a little while. Gem is after him, bloodthirsty and intent, for reasons that Scar doesn’t know. She traps his base, she shoots at him, stabs at him — and he survives it all, up until he doesn’t. There are four of them by then, and they hunt him down and pick him off. And he dies. 

These games are fun, is the thing. They get together and they make silly little groups with playful rivalry’s and eventually someone wins. It’s fun. Scar has fun, usually. 

None of them know about the world he came from. That lonely, ravaged, barren world. The zombies had been everywhere, fast and stubborn. Scar had been young and hurt and alone, and had learned to run on broken legs before he learned how to read. 

It’s been a long time ago, now. The memories sneak up on him far less often than they used to, and he’s better. This though, this thing with Gem and the others, it’s hitting him in places that still hurt; places that will always hurt. 

Scar is fresh off his first death, still reeling from being hunted down, and Cleo and Grian are telling him he can’t stay. 

“You’re not one of us,” Grian says, and they’re just playing a game, but Scar is confused. He’d been invited, hadn’t he? But then Cleo had taken it back. 

“Scar!” Bdubs is a distance behind him, sitting atop a horse and calling his name urgently. “Scar, we need to talk to you.”

Scar goes, and hears whispering behind him, something about zombies and spreading. It makes a bit of nerves flare up in his stomach, but he ignores them. He is far enough removed from the past that hearing the word won’t send him into hysterics. He’s even recovered enough that he can handle the sight of a few zombies, even if his heart rate elevates until they’re gone. He’s better, he is. 

Bdubs takes him back to the others, and they explain to him what’s been going on. It’s Gem’s task to spread the Boogeyman curse, one by one, to everyone. He suddenly feels a little bad for trying to burn the book earlier, because this sounds like a good time. Causing some chaos, killing some people, making each other laugh — it's what they’re all here for. It’s why they play the game.

(There’s a small but persistent inkling of unease living behind his rib cage at the fact that they’re comparing themselves to zombies, to an apocalypse, but he ignores it. It’s not important enough to mention it, and he doesn’t want to ruin everyone’s fun.)

They get Etho, and Gem praises him for it, and Scar tries not to compare the fortress the others are defending to the bunkers he used to raid. His brain still makes the connection, as much as he wishes it didn’t. The memories trickle in slowly, making him more and more on edge as the day goes on. It will be over soon, Scar tells himself. Then he can rest, and go back to being better.

Joel has a zombie spawner to farm XP. Scar has used it, has been inside it. He’d been expecting zombies, then. He doesn’t expect it when Joel throws down sixty-four zombie eggs in a row. 

The thin and fraying thread tying him together snaps.

Everyone is screaming and yelling, running, chasing after Joel. There are zombies as far as he can see, in groups and alone, groaning and gurgling into the night. It fills his ears, wraps itself around his mind like a vice, catapults him back to when he was just a kid, fighting the world with his teeth bared and no one at his back. 

Everything goes fuzzy and distant, the noises muffled beneath his heartbeat and heaving breaths echoing endlessly in his ears. He slows to a stop, chest heaving and eyes wide, skin going cold and numb with terror. Nothing makes sense. Everything is wrong. 

There’s something in his hand, and he looks at it, panicked tears prickling at his eyes. He’s holding a sword, and an anguished, confused noise rips itself from his throat. Where’s his gun? Guns are better, guns are safer; guns mean he doesn’t have to get close. 

The moaning of the undead is growing louder, they’re coming for him, and he stumbles forward with gasping breaths, eyes flitting around wildly as he searches for a place to hide. The ground is filled with craters, zombies in every direction, and he blinks desperately to clear his blurry vision, pushing forward with all the desperate agony of a man living on borrowed time. 

He thinks he hears someone call his name, but it can’t be real, it’s just a memory, it’s just his stupid, persistent hope manifesting itself at the worst possible time. He has to get back to his base, his bunker, but nothing looks familiar, no direction looks like the correct way to go—

He runs anyway, passing by a giant stone statue and weaving around holes in the ground and slashing blindly at anything that looks like it’s moving. He spots a tower in the distance, oddly shaped and oddly colored, but a structure nonetheless, and he runs for it. The zombies are here and they never left and he never left and he runs. 

He only makes it halfway. 

There’s a zombie in one of the craters, and Scar doesn’t see it, is too wrapped up in his tunnel vision, and it grabs at his ankle as he walks by. He hits the ground, hard, his knee hitting first before everything else. He hears a sharp crack, and knows it’s broken. 

He twists his head around wildly, tearing his leg out of the zombies cold grip with a yell of pain, dragging himself out of reach just in time for others to bear down on him. His vision becomes a swirling kaleidoscope of hands and teeth, of skin and claws, and he opens his mouth and screams. 

(He won’t know until later, but everyone near spawn hears it. Everyone hears it, and freezes, and turns to look. It sounds like pure terror, like the final cry of a dying man. None of them will ever forget it.)

He swings his sword wildly, slashing and scrambling to get away, but his knee hurts and they’re pushing him down, he can’t get up—

He hears yelling, distantly, but that still can’t be right, no one else is here, no one else can save him—

Scar rolls to the side, and falls into one of the craters, dirt and pebbles sprinkling down on top of him when he hits the ground with a dull thud. He shouts through clenched teeth as the landing jostles his leg, but still pushes himself up and back until his back hits the solid side of the hole. Grass and dirt is still clinging above him, forming somewhat of an overhang. They can’t attack from directly above. Scar grips his sword in violently shaking hands and waits for the hoards to find him. 

He still hears the voices, but he shouldn’t be hearing voices, he’s alone here, he hasn’t heard a human voice not his own since he was six, and he closes his eyes tightly for a few seconds, willing himself back to reality. Something drops to the ground in front of him, and Scars eyes wrench themselves back open, landing on the shadowed figure of a person coming his way. He has both hands on his sword, and he points it at the approaching zombie. 

It speaks. It says his name. 

“Scar,” the figure says, a deep, frantic concern in their voice. “Are you— What happened? Are you okay?”

The cloud that had been blocking the moon slowly drifts away, and Scar gets a good look at the figure — the person — in front of him. He’s human, he’s alive, and Scar knows him, he knows who it is, but he can’t be here, he’s not supposed to be here. This is the world where Scar is young and alone. No one else belongs here. 

The past and the present collide angrily in his head; he doesn’t know what’s real. He doesn’t even know this person's name. The person is crouching a few feet away, empty hands extended imploringly, worry plain in his eyes. Scar’s eyes catch on his shirt, black with gold accents, and can’t help but think that something’s missing. A letter, he thinks, but can’t quite remember which one. 

It doesn’t matter. He’s not really here. 

He must’ve said some of that out loud, because the man’s face drops, something heartbroken pinching at his eyes. Scar feels bad, and doesn’t know why. 

“I’m here, Scar,” says the man, voice trembling. “I’m real. You’re okay.”

The man is a liar. Scar shakes his head, a trembling exhale shaking his tense frame. The sword remains steady. 

“No,” Scar says, voice strained and breaking. “No, you— you can’t be. Not here.”

“Scar—“

“Stop saying my name,” Scar begs. “I don’t know— I don’t know who you are.”

It’s only half true. He recognizes him, knows he’s a friend, but his brain is rebelling against the very thought that he could exist in a place like this. In the place Scar grew up. No. Everyone was either dead or undead, here. Everyone but Scar. This person with sad eyes and gentle hands does not belong. 

“Impulse!” Another voice is calling down at them, and Scar looks up, catching a glimpse of bright orange curls and mismatched eyes. Nothing makes sense. “Is he okay?”

The man — Impulse — looks at him, and then looks up. He can still hear the zombies, everywhere and far too many. 

“Get Grian,” Impulse says, and the person above them freezes for just a moment, and then disappears. 

Grian, Scar thinks. Another name he knows. Another name that doesn’t make sense to be hearing in a world like this. His mind scrambles, his eyes sting, the zombies groan and shriek above him. Nothing makes sense. 

Grian will, some distant and muted part of him says. 

Grian will. 

—————————

Grian is on top of their cobblestone tower — laughing at the sheer amount of zombies and chaos in the distance — when Gem comes tearing up the slope at high speeds, something frantic and determined in her eyes. 

“No zombies allowed!” Grian calls down, grinning, though it dims when she looks up at him. There is something serious and desperate about her gaze. 

“Grian!” She slides to a stop at the base of their castle, face dotted with sweat and panic. “You need to come with me, something—“

“You’re just going to kill me,” Grian says, confused and faltering. “Why would I—“

“It’s Scar,” Gem interrupts, a harsh concern clipping her words. “He’s— Something’s wrong with him, a zombie got him and he screamed.”

Grian tilts his head. “Scar screams all the time.”

“Not like this,” Gem says, sounding genuinely shaken. “Not like this, Grian, please.”

She doesn’t even have her sword out, standing at the base of their fortress with wild eyes and a desperate plea. Something’s wrong with Scar. Something bad enough that everything else has gone out the window. Gem’s not here asking him to play the game. She’s here begging him to pause it. 

“Okay,” Grian says, a new bubble of panic growing in his chest. “I’m coming, let’s go.”

Gem nods at him when he emerges from the tower, and then she takes off running, leaving Grian with nothing to do but follow. It seems to take forever to get there, weaving around hoards of zombies and craters left over from the wither attack. The other server members are mowing through the hoards with swords and axes, and what seems to be extreme prejudice. They all look a bit shaken. The coil of nervous worry in Grian’s rib cage grows. 

Gem stops them at a random crater, and nods. “Down there,” she says, and then throws herself back into the fray, cutting through any undead limbs that reach for her. The surface is a battlefield. 

Grian drops down, and Impulse turns to look at him, grim concern pressing his lips thin. He looks relieved when he sees him, and Grian looks behind him and realizes why. 

Scar is there, hunched against the wall and shaking like a leaf, sword held in trembling hands and fearful eyes flickering between them. Grian’s stomach drops, and he inhales shakily. Scar looks lost, and so very, very afraid. He’s never seen him like this. 

“It’s the zombies,” Impulse says, quietly. “They set him off somehow, I— He barely recognizes me.”

Grian remembers, distantly, Double Life. Scar had fallen into a pit of zombies, and they had both died that day. He hadn’t quite understood why their shared heart had been beating so fast for so long after; he never knew the reason for Scar’s shell-shocked eyes above his trembling smile when they met back up. He still doesn’t know why, but now he knows for sure. Scar is afraid of zombies. 

“Get rid of them,” Grian says, equally hushed, even though everyone has already started. Impulse just nods, one hand on his sword, and climbs out of the crater. Grian turns to Scar. 

“Scar,” Grian starts, voice carefully relaxed. “You’re safe, okay? We’re getting rid of them.”

Scar shakes his head, moonlight catching on the tear tracks on his face, and Grian aches.

“You can’t be here,” Scar says, turning pleading eyes towards him. “You— You can’t be here.”

Grian gets a little closer, and crouches down, doing his best to appear non-threatening. “Why not, Scar?”

“It’s wrong,” Scar says, sounding all of ten years old, terrified and unsteady. “I’m supposed to be alone, you can’t be here.”

“Why are you supposed to be alone?” 

“It’s just me, it’s always just me,” Scar insists, and then he inclines his head upwards, to where the zombies are still groaning. “Me and them.”

Grian swallows, feeling out of his depth and worried. The only reason Scar would have a reaction like this is if it had once been true. Once upon a time, it really had just been Scar and hoards of zombies. And in Scar’s mind, that’s where he was. He’d never left. Grian’s stomach rolled. 

“We’re not there,” Grian says, still unsure where there was. “We’re in Secret Life, Scar. We’re playing a game.”

Scar shakes his head again, violently, and starts trying to stand up. A muffled whine escapes his throat when he puts weight on his knee, but still he stands. Grian wants to grab him and shake him and then wrap him up in several blankets. 

“You’re hurt,” Grian says, a note of pleading in his voice, hands hovering, wanting to reach out. “You shouldn’t be walking, Scar.”

“I’ve walked on worse,” Scar says vacantly, and twists around to look behind him, making a noise of frustration. “My backpack, where’s my— I need—“

“Backpack?” Grian repeats. 

“I need morphine,” Scar says, voice tight with pain and panic. “I need to get out of here. You need to get out of here. You can’t be here.”

Morphine. Scar’s plan is to numb the agony of a broken knee and run on it anyway. Scar says it like it’s normal, like there’s no other choice, like this is the only way. Maybe it was, once. Grian wants to scream and cry and pull the universe apart with his hands. Instead, he grabs Scar’s wrist in a gentle hold. 

“I am here,” Grian says, soft but firmly still, and Scar freezes. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Grian tugs at his wrist making Scar meet his eyes, trying to ground him. Scar blinks at him, hazy and distant, chest heaving. Grian reaches out slowly, and takes the sword from Scar’s hand. 

“Do you remember,” Grian begins, “asking me to be your friend?”

Grian remembers. Scar, with grey skin and crimson eyes, hiding a sheepish grin behind a bouquet of poppies and lilacs. Something like recognition flickers across Scar’s face, and Grian keeps going. 

“We had a llama called Pizza.”

“I blew you up on accident.”

“The moon was falling and you built a rocket upside down.”

“You were my soulmate, of course it was you—“

“You made fun of our bread bridge.”

“You were actually a pretty good mayor, you know.”

Grian lays their memories out between them, holding Scar’s wrist gently in his hands, and doesn’t stop until Scar looks at him and finally seems to see him. His face crumples, awareness flooding his expression, and Grian lowers them both to the ground when Scar’s knees give out. 

“I’m sorry,” Scar says, voice cracking, and he gives an awkward little laugh that makes Grian’s heart twist sharply. “That doesn’t— That hasn’t happened in a while.”

“It’s okay, Scar, don’t apologize,” Grian says, adjusting his grip to hold Scar’s hand loosely. “Do you feel better?”

“I feel like I ran a marathon,” Scar answers, exhaustion in his tone. “I don’t— Thank you. For bringing me back.”

“Of course.” Grian hesitates. “…Where did you go?”

Scar takes a shaky breath, eyes going tired and sad. Grian’s eyes catch on a scar peeking out beneath his collar. 

“I was stuck in a hardcore world when I was a kid,” Scaf says eventually, resigned. “I was the only player in a zombie apocalypse. I had to… let myself die, to get out. But I spent years there.”

Grian stares, quietly horrified. He imagines Scar, so very young and so very alone, running on broken limbs and killing things that once were people every day, and still finding the willpower to survive for years and years. That Scar had grown up in a world without light and still come out of it with a personality bright enough to blind them all — it was nothing short of miraculous. Brilliant, mischievous, stubborn Scar, with enough skeletons in his closet for all of them and the uncanny ability to make them laugh until they were out of breath. 

“You never said anything,” Grian says, careful to keep any accusation out of his voice. He understands. He still wishes he had known, somehow. 

“It’s not fun to hear about,” Scar says, and stares at his broken knee. “And it’s…not easy to talk about, either.”

“I know,” Grian says, squeezing his hand. “But if you ever want to, I’m here. I don’t want— I don’t want this to happen again.”

The zombie sounds have died down, the others having done their damn best to kill them quickly. It’s quiet but for their breathing, slowly slowing down. 

“I’m a lot better,” Scar says, brow furrowed. “That was just, a lot more than I was expecting.”

“It’s okay,” Grian says. “It’s… You don’t have to be better all the time.”

Scar glances at him, his mouth lifting just a bit, looking a little lighter. “Thanks.”

“And you can talk to us.” Grian smiles back. “We can help you when it’s hard.”

Scar lets out a long, slow breath, the shake in his hands finally down to something manageable. Grian is relieved for all of two seconds, and then something mischievous flickers in Scar’s eyes. Grian sighs, because he knows what’s coming—

“That’s what she said,” Scar says, quick and unapologetic, and Grian smacks his shoulder with his free hand. Scar laughs, and Grian just rolls his eyes and grins. 

Yeah. He’ll be fine.

[just-b-wilde]

The Viewer’s Paradox: Two series fandoms

This year, two well-known shows came to an end — The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu) and You (Netflix), which have been with us for a similarly long time, just a year apart. I decided to share a few thoughts and observations about both stories, but also about the fandom reactions and certain “similarities” I couldn’t help but notice.

You might ask — what the hell do these two shows have in common? A story about survival in dystopian Gilead and the tale of a serial killer? Well, there’s something there, I promise!

⚠️ This post contains spoilers for both finales.

Honestly, it was more of a coincidence that I watched both shows around the same time. I’ll even admit that I’ve known You much longer than THT. But I was more of a casual viewer, and after season 2 (which I watched five years ago), I only got around to catching up a few days ago.

The Hate Reactions

Even before I saw either finale, it was impossible to miss the wild fan responses — especially the disturbing hate campaign against Madeline Brewer, who just so happens to appear in both shows (Janine in The Handmaid’s Tale, Bronte in You).

She’s a beloved character in THT, but one of the most hated in You. On social media, the actress was subjected to truly awful bullying — people were saying she "ruined" the show, and many insulted her appearance as well.

I was honestly shocked by how far people will go online (hiding behind their screens, many clearly think they can say anything), and it just felt wrong. Even after watching the finale, I had to go read multiple reviews just to understand what people were so upset about.

Poorly Rated Finales

IMDb ratings for the final episodes:

You: Finale – 5.4 (7.6K ratings) Penultimate – 8.5 (3.6K ratings)

THT: Finale – 5.7 (3K ratings) Penultimate – 9.2 (3.5K ratings)

It really caught my attention that both shows had very highly rated penultimate episodes, but their finales totally flopped. In both cases, fans complained about a drop in narrative quality, unsatisfying resolutions, and weaker writing compared to earlier seasons. And sure — both shows touch heavily on feminism and misogyny. Or maybe people were just… bored?

What I found especially fascinating was this:

In one show, viewers praise something that viewers of the other hate. Namely — the invincible female character trope.

In You, it’s Bronte who brings justice and finally gets the protagonist into the hands of the law after all these years of slipping through the cracks.

But what breaks the logic is that she was severely injured and somehow became nearly unstoppable for the sake of plot. Viewers had a huge problem with that — same as with another character who survived certain death, clearly just for shock value.

It immediately reminded me of the scene with June, who survived being hanged from a height, and in the next scene she’s basically fine — just complaining about a sore throat.

Fan reactions? The opposite. Many people admired June, while many started to hate Bronte.

Who's really the bad guy?

Now to the core of why I’m even writing this: Nick Blaine and Joe Goldberg.

Surprisingly, I found some very interesting parallels between them:

Both experienced childhood trauma and abandonment by their mothers.

Both were willing to kill for love and were portrayed — in some ways — as romantics.

For both characters, there is talk of viewers liking them because of their looks.

But the key difference?

Joe was not a good person. He could “love” someone — and then kill them when they were no longer “the one” or when they “betrayed” him (in his own twisted view). He was a deeply disturbed man who repeated his cycle until it caught up to him.

Nick, on the other hand, was always loyal to his love. Yes, he was capable of violence — but only to protect her or help her. And most of the time, she knew about it. One could even say she counted on that kind of help. Sure, he was part of the “bad side” — but it was about survival.

Joe enjoyed his position. He literally admitted to enjoying the violence he inflicted. Nick carried the weight of his choices. We could see how it affected him.

Yes, their backgrounds and contexts are vastly different — but it’s still astonishing to me how audiences perceive them.

Joe killed over 20 (mostly innocent) people on screen, yet many viewers still feel sympathy for him. I've read several people's reactions that he deserved a happy ending with a woman who would finally accept him. Even after everything.

Nick? He never did anything on screen that made me say “wow, that’s a bad man.” And yet, the clumsy writing of the last few episodes tried to tell us he was bad. Period. Without any real scenes to support it — just a few vague lines of dialogue.

And the story, the promo, and even some of the actors played along with it. Nick ended up as the guy who reaped what he sowed. And many viewers agreed, showing zero empathy for him.

And I keep asking myself: How is this even possible?

Are the audiences of these two shows really that different?

How can one character be written off based on a few inconsistent lines that contradict the rest of the story — while another, a literal serial killer, gets sympathy and understanding?

It honestly blows my mind.

Final thoughts

In the end, the show I didn’t even care that much about (You) turned out to be far more enjoyable to me than the one I had a deep connection with (The Handmaid’s Tale).

Joe is, in my opinion, the true definition of someone who reaped what he sowed. That absolutely does not apply to Nick.

[speedofsoundsketches]

Why was Sonic X a failure in Japan? Why are most Sonic animation and manga books a failure in Japan?

I’ve always wondered about this considering by and large why Sonic doesn’t quite reach the same level of popularity in his home country as he does most anywhere else. I think it simply comes down to the adapted materials being just too weak in comparison to what Japan expects.

We in the US are very fond of Sonic X enough to have been the main driving force behind funding the third season after it dropped in Japan due to low ratings there. I loved it enough as a kid to ask my grandmother to record it on vhs for me if I couldn’t catch a new episode airing. (I sure feel old saying that)

But if we’re being real for a moment, for all the love I have and still have for the show, it’s insanely weak compared to any of its anime contemporaries. Imagine making a largely slower paced, meandering, boring in scale version of the hyper crazy fun world that is the games. And the animation jumps in quality episode to episode. And the stories seem hastily pulled together sometimes just making big leaps in logic or believability and having an annoying kid forcibly dragging the whole show of crazy powered animals down to his level. Everything that bothers me about the films is just a bigger repeat of the worst parts of this show.

And to make things worse, Sonic X released in 2003. Let’s see what other anime were being released at the same time:

Full Metal Alchemist

Astro Boy

One piece

inuyasha

Zach Bell

HE HAD NO CHANCE.

And this is no where near exhaustive. I’m only picking the main ones WE knew about. Japan literally cooks up so much anime in a single years worth of seasons. With all the possible options that Japanese children can watch, Sonic X really just becomes a drop in a bucket. It’s different in the US since we don’t have nearly the same amount of releases in anime as they do in Japan. We typically only bother to localize the ones they can better guarantee will be successful. It’s kinda sad to think that our options are so minuscule that Sonic X was seen as a notable show compared to other US children’s cartoons of the time. (I’m not saying our cartoons are bad btw just very different especially back then).

So, this is just the same problem with any of the other Japanese based adapted materials like the OVA or mangas. Fun as they are and appreciated by current fans, they’re nothing exceptional enough to grab an audience that gets literally spoiled with the best anime and manga has to offer. You compare these to any other popular manga/anime series and they do not measure up.

[sevasey51]

Connor is in surgery and Y/N started feeling a POTS episode. Not a bad one at all compared to all the other ones. Hannah is the attending on for maternity so she goes to find her. Hannah pulls her into the call room and call Ava for back up.Y/N knows that it’s just going to be a mild syncopal episode.. for once. Ava comes up and they decide to go to the ED to at least put her under watch for a few hours. Hannah calls Will who is on shift down there to let him know and Ava personally goes to let Connor know.

Mild Doesn’t Mean Nothing

Summary: Connor’s in surgery. Y/N feels it coming on—just a mild POTS episode this time. Nothing like the dangerous crashes they’ve seen before. But she knows her body, and she’s not going to wait. She finds Hannah, who moves quickly but calmly, and together with Ava, they make the call to bring her to the ED for monitoring. It’s not dramatic. It’s not catastrophic. But it’s still care. And sometimes, that’s what makes all the difference.

Y/N felt it first in her fingertips.

That telltale static hum. Pins and needles. Not the kind that meant now—but the kind that meant soon.

Her shift on maternity had been calm. Two easy deliveries, a walk with one of the newer nurses, plenty of hydration. But POTS didn’t care about calm. It just… showed up. Whenever it wanted.

She stood quietly from the nurses’ station, hand resting on the edge just in case, and walked down the hallway.

She didn’t need Connor—not yet. He was scrubbed in. And it wasn’t bad. Just lightheaded, a little tightness in her chest. Her heart rate was climbing, sure, but it wasn’t terrifying.

But it was enough.

She knocked once on the attending call room door.

Hannah looked up from her laptop, brow furrowed instantly. “Hey. What’s going on?”

Y/N exhaled slowly. “I think I’ve got a mild one coming on. Not bad. Just… need a minute.”

Hannah was already moving, one hand gently guiding her in by the elbow. “Let’s sit you down.”

The cot was made up and the lights were dim. Y/N sat, grateful to get the pressure off her legs.

“You’re pale,” Hannah murmured, pulling a pulse ox from her bag and checking her wrist. “Heart’s up. You feeling pre-syncope?”

“Definitely. But not bad. Not like usual.”

“Still enough,” Hannah said quietly, pulling out her phone. “I’m calling Ava.”

Y/N smiled faintly. “Of course you are.”

Ava arrived ten minutes later, expression sharp as always—but her voice softened the second she walked in.

“Hey. Heard you’re trying to be all low-drama today.”

“Trying,” Y/N breathed. “Think I’m succeeding.”

“She caught it early,” Hannah added. “Vitals are elevated, but not scary. I’d like her on watch for a few hours though. Just in case.”

Ava nodded. “Agreed. ED has space. Let’s get her somewhere quiet and hooked up.”

Y/N shifted on the cot, already easing onto her side. “You gonna tell Connor?”

“I will,” Ava said. “You know how he is.”

“Yeah,” Y/N murmured. “I don’t want him running out mid-surgery.”

“I’m not going to panic him,” Ava said. “But I’ll go tell him personally.”

Y/N nodded. “Thank you.”

Ava offered a gentle smile. “Of course.”

Down in the ED, Will was at the nurses’ station when Hannah’s name lit up on his screen.

He picked up with a brisk, “Halstead.”

Hannah’s voice came through steady. “Hey, just a heads-up. Y/N’s coming down with me and Ava. Mild episode. She caught it early.”

Will straightened. “She okay?”

“Vitals elevated. Bit tachy, bit dizzy. But she’s lucid, no chest pain, no crash signs.”

“Got a bay open. I’ll meet you there.”

Connor was closing when Ava stepped into the OR antechamber. She waited until he’d stepped out of the scrub room, hair slightly tousled and hands freshly washed.

“Ava?” he asked, frowning. “Everything alright?”

“Y/N’s fine,” she said first. “But she came to Hannah with early symptoms of a POTS episode. She’s okay—mild, she caught it early. But we’re taking her down to the ED just to be safe.”

Connor’s entire body stilled.

Ava held up a hand. “Don’t scrub out, Rhodes. She specifically said not to have you pulled. And she’s right—you’d be sprinting. Let Will monitor for a bit. Come when you’re done.”

Connor exhaled, visibly working through his tension.

“She really caught it early?”

Ava gave a small smile. “I think she’s finally listening to all of us.”

Later, when Connor stepped into the ED bay, she was lying quietly, heart monitor steady and oxygen cannula in place—just precautionary. Will was finishing charting beside her.

Connor walked to her side, eyes scanning every inch of her face.

“I’m okay,” she whispered, voice laced with a smile. “See? Caught it before it turned into a disaster.”

He kissed her temple and sat on the edge of the bed.

“Yeah,” he murmured. “You did good.”

Will handed him a tablet with her vitals log.

“I’ll keep her here another hour or so just to be safe,” he said. “Then you can take her home.”

Connor nodded, squeezing her hand.

“I’ll stay the rest of the shift,” she whispered sleepily.

“You’re staying off your feet,” he corrected gently. “But you’ll still be right here.”

And she didn’t argue.

Because it was just a mild episode.

But that didn’t mean she had to go through it alone.

Not anymore.

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

https://deadline.com/2025/03/with-love-meghan-netflix-ratings-1236323422/

Deadline is reporting that her show was watched 12.6M of hours this week, and per Netflix:

Views: The number of hours viewed divided by the total run time of a movie or episode. For example, if a one-hour show gets 10 hours of viewing, that's 10 views.

Hours viewed: The total amount of time spent watching a movie or TV show.

So, I don’t know how long the episodes are, but if they are 1hr episodes, then:

12.6M of hours viewed /8 hours the total runtime =1.575 M of views (which is bad, meaning that only 1.5M of people watched her show worldwide), and Samba TV is reporting that in US, only 570K people watched the show (which means that 1M people around the world watched it).

If her episodes are 30 minutes then her show is 4hrs in total:

12.6 of hours viewed /4 hrs total runtime =3.15M of views (people) . Well, this number is better but still very few people worldwide for someone who swears is the most famous woman in the world.

And also from both figures, let’s say that at least 300-500K people watched it for ‘hate-watching’+ the press+ some social media people, etc…. And god knows how many times some members of her squad watch it to contribute to those numbers.

It's not better. Not by Meghan's expectations, which were probably set by the docuseries.

These are the Hours Viewed for the docuseries.

First Week of Release:

Second Week of Release:

Third Week:

Fourth Week:

The docuseries dropped off after Week 4.

But look at those numbers, compared to Meghan's show. Meghan's show comes just over 2 years later, and she's pulling a fraction of those views. 12.6m hours watched when her baseline was 81.5m.

The only thing Meghan's show did better was it performed better than Polo did, which never cracked the Top 10 at all. Meaning it was a low bar.

The other thing to remember about Netflix's data is that it doesn't tell you how many people started watching and then stopped. That's one of Netflix's most important metrics, and it's not one they publish. Hence why if you're hate-watching something, it's important to stop watching after 20 minutes or just one episode.

[opinions-about-tiaras]

Ten Years Against Fascism: Star vs. The Forces of Evil in 2025

Today is the 10th anniversary of the premiere of Star vs. the Forces of Evil.

During the 2010s, Disney had a pretty epic run of extremely high-quality YA animation series. They were characterized by being intensely creator-driven, and beginning as humorous episodic adventure shows that eventually morphed into strongly serialized affairs focusing on plot and character development. That run was kicked off with 2012’s Gravity Falls, and would come to an end in 2023 with the abrupt cancellation of The Owl House. Their sophomore outing, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, premiered on January 18th, 2015 on the Disney Channel, before beginning its regular run later that spring on Disney XD.

Of the “big four” series of that era (Gravity Falls, SVTFOE, Amphibia, and The Owl House) SVTFOE is probably regarded as the weakest, and is the least well-remembered and engaged with a decade later. It was far from bad; at the time it was one of Disney’s hottest hits, with crazy high ratings, heavily promoted, with celebrity guest voices (they brought in the lead singer of Fallout Boy to perform music), tie-in books and comics, the works. But it suffered from a flabby last season and an ending that left almost nobody happy. If you look at fandom engagement and the prevalence of fanworks compared to any of the other three series on that list, it isn’t even close to which one lags behind.

And that’s a damn shame, in my opinion, because I re-watched the series in its entirety in preparation to write this post, and SVTFOE slaps hard.

Let’s take a look back at this magical princess from another dimension.

SVTFOE starts off in a fairly direct and nearly formulaic way; frenetic humor, big personalities, straightforward plots that grow out of wacky premises. (Essentially the Adventure Time playbook, really.) It dispenses with secret identities and the pretense that this is taking place in anything other than a fantastic setting. Take Star Butterfly, magical teenage princess from the dimension of Mewni. Give her a wand and a distinct lack of self-control. Send her to Earth and high school and pair her with a straight man. Sic a bunch of monsters who want to GET THAT WAND on her. Let the hijinks ensue.

I mean, hell. Star Butterfly turns her math teacher into a literal magical ogre in the second episode, and she stays that way for the entirety of the series. It’s just… whatever. That’s how it rolls.

That was the premiere, in 2015. In fact, said premiere is still available in its entirety on Youtube, even if you don't have Disney+. The first ten minutes are worth your time as an example of "how to immaculately pace your show" if nothing else.

Wacky and fun and as light and airy as strawberry soda, yeah?

By the series finale in 2019, Star Butterfly was conducting surgery on the universe because the magical powers that were the source of her family's entire identity for hundreds of years had in fact been a tool of conquest, imperialism, genocide, and terror, and in order to prevent a mass campaign of ethnic cleansing she has to detonate them, because her power, privilege, and identity are less important than basic justice.

It was a hell of a ride to get there.

*      *      *

Before we get into the giant myth arc, the political drama, and some of the shipping stuff, I want to jump into a big under discussed aspect, and strength, of SVTFOE; its willingness and ability to be gross and weird and filthy on a lot of different levels.

The animation is the obvious place to start with here; it was rather unique, at the time. All of the big four series of the 2010s adopted very obvious anime-inspired aesthetics; big eyes, small mouths and noses, thick black borders on characters and objects (as opposed to the thinner linework on something like Phineas and Ferb or Kim Possible) with lots of solid, bright, contrasting colors to make things pop. But SVTFOE went in its own direction away from this “house style,” by adopting an explicitly Ren and Stimpy inspired level of being willing to squash, stretch, and deform its characters. There’s an entirely deliberate grossness about it. Smash cuts to peoples fucked-up faces and arms, often covered in pustules and leaking all kinds of fluids, were common. 

It’s a much grosser show in this regard than even Amphibia, and Amphibia takes place in the middle of a disgusting swamp and features at least three characters with poison skin; SVTFOE out-grosses it.

This is unusual for a Disney show. What was also unusual was how filthy it was willing to get, and when I say filthy I mean “this is a show with a predominantly teen cast, and it wasn’t afraid to lean into how thirsty and horny and emotionally twisted up and weird teens can be.”

Let me put it this way. This is a show that wasn’t afraid to show a bunch of high school girls flocking around a boy’s tentacle arm, cooing over it and remarking how they want a tentacle boyfriend.

Yeahhhhhh. That's... look at Janna there, in the middle. The animators knew what they were doing.

Shows of this type (by which I mean TV-Y7 rated shows intended for a primarily Young Adult audience) don’t eschew romance. But it tends to be… very chaste, and very straightforward. Love triangles can be a thing, sure. But usually it isn’t messy, and characters who are weird about it usually have it played for laughs or are depicted as warped or wrong in some way. “Girl character is a crazy stalker girl that lets us make a few Fatal Attraction jokes the parents will get” is practically a trope. (I’m looking in your direction, Mabel Pines.)

That isn’t how SVTFOE rolls.

Star, herself, is a deeply thirsty person in the way that only someone who is fourteen can be thirsty, and the show basically revels in that. She is not traditionally boy-crazy, adopting the aforementioned stalker-style behavior and suddenly becoming a dumb idiot when romance is in the air. Rather, she is a fourteen year old with an active desire for romance who the show allows to be quite open about it (by Disney standards) when she sees someone whose abs she wants to run her face up and down on. Her dumb decisions aren’t “I will entirely deform my personality for the cardboard cutout of a boy I have a crush on” but rather “my ex has invited me on a date, and he is very cool and my feelings about him are ambivalent, so I will accept against my better judgement.”

The show is very up-front that parts of it are a straight-up romantic drama; Scott Pilgrim is specifically cited by the showrunner as an inspiration and influence. Things get messy. People cheat on each other. There are multiple love triangles. People hurt each other and are hurt in turn in ways that, despite them happening in the context of demon battles and court intrigue, are highly believable as “these are things that teens in high-stress situations would do with, for, and TO each other.”

This isn’t something you’re going to get from just about any other show, especially any other Disney show. Those shows usually involve straightforward meet-cutes, adorable crushes, unrequited love played largely for laughs (Phineas and Ferb) or at best a well-executed enemies-to-lovers arc (The Owl House.) That’s when they bother with romance and, yes, let’s be blunt, lust at all. Teens in mainstream YA fiction tend to often be either curiously sexless, or sexy desires are portrayed as kind of gross and weird and shameful.

SVTFOE allows its cast of colorful adolescent weirdos to get filthy with each other. This is still a Disney show; nobody is getting to second base or, god forbid, having premarital adolescent sex. But it really goes the extra mile and it feels real. It feels raw, in a way most other mainstream shows of this sort never, ever do. One of the bigger and more important sub-plots is literally about how sexy miscegenation between a queen and her sexy monster man lover she committed adultery with might bring down a whole kingdom, and this isn’t portrayed as shameful or said queen a disgusting harlot in any way. 

Speaking of the queen of darkness…

*   *   *

One of the big narrative strengths of accomplishing the shows transition from episodic adventures to longer, more serious arcs was establishing ridiculous setting conceits as jokey fun things, and then later revealing them to be of serious, critical importance.

The magical princess has an overbearing mother, just like regular teenage girls! How will they learn to communicate? (Her mother is overbearing because their family line has DONE SOME SHIT.)

Aww, this twelve-minute episode is devoted to Star meeting one of her heroes, who is mysteriously living as a hobo on Earth, and trying to be her apprentice until she realizes that her hero is a bag of mixed nuts. The larfs! (Said hero is an ancient genocide engine and a walking war crime, and will secretly be the series final boss.)

Monsters are trying to steal the magic wand! Fights ensue! (The monsters are trying to steal the magic wand because the humans have magic, the monsters don’t, and the humans have been using that magic to impose a racial hierarchy.)

Star goes through magic-inflected puberty and becomes boy crazy! (The magic inflected puberty is because her family has been fucked up on a basic level by constant exposure to magic and is dangerous and deadly.)

The queen of darkness had returned from her terrible crystal prison! She’s corrupting the youths! (The queen of darkness is a wrongly convicted political prisoner and  the most empathetic, concerned, responsible adult in the whole show.)

All of this is slowly unpeeled over the course of four seasons. Almost everything that shows up as a total joke in season one will turn out to be fairly plot-relevant by season four. Again, the Adventure Time playbook. And it serves as an underpinning to the series main political thrust.

Because, yeah, SVTFOE is an intensely, almost uniquely, political series.

*    *   *

The politics in Disney shows tend to be paper-thin. They’re functionally nonexistent in Gravity Falls, for example, except as jokes. Amphibia and The Owl House approach them through bog-standard “fight the evil empire” lenses. (Yeah, I’m sorry, fellow Owl House fans, Emperor Belos is a great villain but his religious-inflected bigotry is very much soft pedaled; he’s functionally Palpatine in so many ways.)

SVTFOE doesn’t do that. SVTFOE faces this shit head on.

The show starts as basically “Oh, the goofy, somewhat comedic, but also very threatening monsters are obvious villains, out to steal magic for their own nefarious ends.” The theme songs and opening credits and basic structure of the show all support this. Then they pull back the curtain a little bit, and it's like “Oh, okay. The monsters are fully fleshed-out characters and some of them will be Star’s friends. Aww, they have cute monster kids she babysits for!”

Then they pull it back further, and further, and further, until eventually what is made clear to the viewers is that Star Butterfly’s magical kingdom of Mewni is a colonizing force. They have magic. (And corn!) The monsters do NOT have magic. (Or corn.) The humans therefore view themselves as having a manifest destiny to subjugate, drive out, or exterminate the monsters. In the service of this, the Queens of Mewni have at times used their magic to attempt to develop spells of mass destruction, create super-soldiers, and other such mayhem. There have been people who tried to stop it. Those people have their names smeared, are imprisoned in a kind of endless living death for the crime of miscegenation, and have their legacies erased from history.

This isn’t really a giant secret anyone has been concealing, some horrible revelation. (For the most part. There are… SOME horrible revelations.) It’s just part of the background noise. Star never really questions it until one day when she does. She has the privilege for it to be something she doesn’t need to engage with.

And when she tries to stop it, it isn’t easy. The show is very up-front about that! There is no single source of evil that Star can point her magical wand at and make go away by blasting it with multicolored sprinkle unicorn lasers. It’s a constant, unending miasma she has to try and plow through. When not met with hostility, she is met with indifference, which in some ways obviously cuts her even deeper. Her own mother, the walking embodiment of centrist idiocy, becomes so nervous about the social change Star is trying to usher in that she makes common cause with straight-up genocidal fascists.

(A lot of people think the show engaged in character assassination of Queen Moon. I say that given her background, personality, and place in the world Moon’s actions were entirely overdetermined.)

The show is not subtle about this. The physical embodiment of this is a seemingly goofy, out-of-it crusty old relic of bygone days, who clearly is not that smart, has several screws loose, and can’t utter three sentences without it seeming like her brain is going to leak out of her ears.

She seems entirely unthreatening until you discover she’s a thin shell of humanity over a bottomless lake of hate… and that all she has to do is start saying things like “Our Kingdom used to be great! But not anymore!” and she’ll get many worshipful followers willing to do whatever she says, and what she says is “ethnically cleanse Mewni.”

The final climax of the show, which remains endlessly controversial to this day, presents Star with a choice. Magic and the use thereof is central to her, her history, her family, and the life she leads. But magic has been an absolute nightmare for everyone but a thin slice of privileged humans, who are the only ones who can use it and who have the literal embodiments of its various aspects dedicated to upholding their racial supremacy, and a horde of magical crazies have juiced themselves up on it and are going buck wild with the aforementioned ethnic cleansing.

So Star just destroys it. She removes access to magic from the universe, despite the personal cost.

The hell of it is, and this honestly the bravest decision the show ever made, was that this doesn’t secure victory. You can’t kill bigotry like that. Sure, Star stopped it and removed its most powerful tool… this time. All it does is scuttle off into the woods and wait.

“You can get rid of me. It’s soooooo easy. But the sweet thing is… I’ll never really be gone. ‘Cause I’ve got GOOD IDEAS.”

So yeah, that was SVTFOE. It was brave, and bold, and achingly relevant, and despite its flaws doesn’t deserve the bad rap the final season got.

Here’s to ten years of fighting the forces of evil. Because if there’s one thing you should take away from the show, it’s that that fight never ends, but there’s meaning and even joy and love in the struggle.

[uniquepeanutcreatorfire]

Hazbin Hotel vs. The Purge

Today, I'm going to examine and analyze HH's annual extermination by comparing it to another fictional event that I feel is similar in terms of ethical dilemma or morality, the annual purge in The Purge movie franchise. For those who haven't seen the movies, the purge is a 12-hour annual event where all crimes are legal.

Let's start with the purge and what's known about it:

Cause(s): Multiple wars led to an economic collapse and rising social unrest.

Rules: Here's a screenshot-

Outcome(s):  As a result, crime and unemployment rates plummeted to 1% and there's a strong economy. It's seen as a way for people to release their violent tendencies and aggression.

Implication(s): Lower, working classes are specifically targeted as they don't have the protection that upper classes can afford during the purges.

Sounds simple enough (there's more to it, if you don't want to watch all the movies, here's a link to the trilogy explained).

Now moving on to the annual extermination in HH.

Cause(s): This is confusing. The pilot initially presented that the exterminations were due to overpopulation in Hell. However, the actual show doesn't show any hints that the population is rapidly increasing, or overpopulation is causing any issues in Hell. The first episode stated that Heaven started exterminations to ensure sinners never rise against them. I don't see how that's possible since there aren't accessible ways to Heaven from Hell. Lucifer, a former angel, had to get permission from Heaven to get a temporary portal for Charlie so how do you think sinners are going to get up there to be a threat in the first place? Also, I wanted to point out that Charlie's plan to send sinners to Heaven only makes sense if overpopulation was actually a problem. Since there isn't anywhere else to place sinners other than the Pride ring. However, the narrative suggest otherwise.

Rules: It's not clear what the rules are for annual exterminations other than the exorcists can't kill the royal family or hellborns. Is it on a set date and time? Do exorcists go inside buildings? We see that the exterminations take place outside. This begs the question why don't sinners just hide and barricade themselves to avoid getting killed? There could be news broadcast reminding sinners of an upcoming extermination so they can be prepared.

Outcome(s): It's not clear how the exterminations affect Hell's society since the show never gives a glimpse of that. If overpopulation is an issue, it doesn't seem to help at all. Sinners don't seem to care and go on about their business. Let's not explore those who may have lost friends or loved ones. There are also the overlords who lose souls.... poor them, I guess. We can't forget the most important thing...... it's makes Charlie sad.

Implication(s): Heaven apparently never thought this would build hatred towards them, very smart. This is why Adam ended up dead. I want to bring up Lilith being the one who empowered sinners. Since she's been removed from the equation for seven years, what's the point in Heaven doing exterminations anymore? The only message I get from it is "genocide bad". But why is genocide bad in the context of the Hellaverse? There have been killings in HB/HH that are considered no big deals (including humans the imps kill on Earth that contribute to HH's problem further). There's also the black market for angelic weapons that's never brought up. I'm just not invested in the sinners as a whole to care.

Conclusion: The extermination is an interesting concept that can be explore in many aspects like The Purge. It's just not much thought went into it which makes it less compelling.

[adonisnt]

vide aurora borealis | meos amor aeternalis.

a skystar fanfic :]

tags: canon compliant. mostly just angst. hurt no comfort. doomed by the narrative. non-linear storytelling. missed romance (kind of). strangers to lovers to enemies. implied character death(s). canon character deaths. starscream suffers. skyfire also suffers. who suffers more? i don’t know lol.

total wc: ~26k (should be about 25,700 words)

notes: this is also posted to ao3 under the same username [adonisnt] if you don't want to wait for each chapter to come out. this ties into the episode 'fire in the sky' from g1! my first ever transformers fanfic so if it is bad. my fault......

chapter one under the cut :O

Archive 1920118: Starscream’s memory log. Data source: Nova Cronum, nine million years ago.

The cosmos before them is uncannily vast, the smaller ‘bot notes.

It’s not as if he hasn’t known how small Cybertron is in comparison to the broader universe, but as he stands at the precipice of the shuttle dock, it’s hard for him to not be aware of how small his home planet really is. He’d heard before that their world was laughably far from being large, yes; he had even seen his partner’s work exploring and charting far off planets, so it’s not like he was unaware that their world is small, and one of many. But he had not even finished seeing all of Cybertron, let alone the rest of the cosmos. For Primus’ sake, his own personal world was fragging founded here all those cycles ago, in this gleaming city of living metal and technomatter, in the academy he had once called home. The bustling air traffic routes and unendingly sprawling terrestrial roads were filled with other Transformers, each with their own personal little worlds; Nova Cronum was its own microcosm, as were all the other cities, their lights shining bravely against the backdrop of that infinite twilight sky.

But even the night sky of Cybertron was minute when compared the grand nothingness above––

The sound of heavy pedefall has his processor’s reverie stalling, though he doesn’t bother looking away from the infinite sky as the larger mech finally comes to stand at his side. “I am sorry for my tardiness, Starscream,” Skyfire apologizes, wringing his servos as he looks to the Seeker, “I was ensuring we had everything we would need for our expedition. It would be deeply unfortunate if we had to end our endeavors early due to being unprepared, especially considering all of the efforts you put in to ensure that we would not run into any complications of that sort.” the darker-hued mech scoffs, rolling his optics but remaining otherwise silent. Skyfire’s thoroughness was something he did appreciate, even if he’d never acknowledge such frail sentiments, and it would be hard for him to genuinely berate the Transformer that he appreciates most.

That fondness does not stop his worries from coming back, though.

…the heavens really do seem so terribly large, if he could choose to be honest with himself. Skyfire’s presentations and theses on the cosmos seemed to be mere make-believe in their descriptions of such allegedly profound grandness. Even in lectures in his youth about intergalactic exploration, space hadn’t seemed so vast; deep space had never been so intimidating. But fear is not something that he particularly likes feeling either, and he can feel his spark-rate accelerating at the vile emotion. What did he even have to be afraid of? It’s not as if they were about to embark on an expedition they had staked both of their reputations on, or like they’d be going trillions of hics away from Cybertron. from home––their home.

Skyfire’s servo startles him out of his pensiveness once more as it comes to rest on his pauldron. The contact is almost spectral, sending a small jolt down Starscream’s backstrut before he quickly recovers enough to regain his composure. The other Transformer, despite his extraordinary size, only ever touches him with the utmost care. It’s still a jarring thing, really, Skyfire’s gentle nature, though Starscream can’t say he’s complaining too terribly about it as the science-inclined scholar smiles down at him. “It will be alright, Star,” he reassures, soft-spoken solely for the Seeker’s sake, “and if we encounter any conundrums, we will solve them. We have done everything we could to prepare, and it is not as if you will be alone. We will be together, as we always are. Trust in our ideas. Everything will be alright.”

How infuriatingly kind.

Starscream’s optics flit to finally drink in Skyfire’s visage, and the sight of his equal’s warm countenance has some of the tension in his optical ridge easing. If he were more of a romantic, he would happily go on with some drivel-driven diatribe about his partner’s looks, or the mercy in every adoring act he offers Starscream so readily, or even about the passion that seeps out from that mech’s every move and machination. “Presuming that I’m worried about anything will never work out well for you,” the smaller mech deflects, scowling, “but if you insist on such platitudes, Skyfire, at least call me by my designation. Letting your spark bleed so carelessly is unbecoming, you know.”

Skyfire merely laughs at the admonishment, shifting to stand closer to his counterpart as he hums, “Forgive me, Starscream.” The sincerity of the apology has Starscream’s wings flaring briefly, though he’s quick to reign in his reaction and veil his surprise once more. “Well,” he begins, failing to maintain his miffed demeanor, “I suppose I can forgive it, this time. We need to leave now, anyway; the dockmechs are going to revoke our time slot, and then we’ll never find your silly planet.”

“Our silly planet,” Skyfire amends softly, his servo’s grasp tightening faintly for a moment before the white Transformer pulls away. Starscream glowers at the correction, though even he isn’t fooled by the ire he tries to display as the two make their way to their specific launch pad. It’s hard for the Seeker to be seriously displeased with the scientist even when he’s in his foulest of moods, and Skyfire’s muted enthusiasm is frustratingly infectious while the two stride down to their departure dock.

Silence falls between them as the two prepare to set off from the same city in which their sparks first connected, and Starscream’s agitation and annoyance acquiesce to his own eager anticipation. A quick glance to Skyfire has the smaller mech smiling fleetingly. Things’ll be fine, his processor concludes as he shifts to his alt-mode, his probability assessments coming back on his HUD with comforting coefficients and minimal errors detected.

They’ll be fine.

With the sound of engines roaring, the two jettison from the deep space exploration docks of Nova Cronum to explore the cosmos together.

Cybertron becomes a mere speck behind them, and the starry universe welcomes them with open arms.

next.

[freriahaha]

Cioccolata IMHO

I've seen a lot of different opinions about Cioccolata under my previous post and now I want to leave my personal one about him.

DISCLAIMER

I apologize in advance, in this rhyme I diss, Giorno fans, get ready to get pissed, I'll mention gory flicks, all kinds of trash And other stuff, all to make a big splash

Now a love letter will begin ⬇️

🟢I'll start with the fact I adore his entire structure, from his name to his abilities, everything harmonizes very well with each other, this kind of chocolate medical mold (hilarious!) is memorable

🟢Green Day is generally my first love, my journey into the world of rock began with this band

🟢Speaking about the idea, I'm really attracted to the type of doctor-killer. Like think about it, to go to medical school, not to treat, but to kill 😂😂😂 This is the madness I adore, he really thinks differently from everyone else 🧐

🟢But I want to note if it weren't for Cioccolata's backstory, he would be no different from the same Mista or Giorno and would remain a background villain for two episodes (which is almost the case) 🤷‍♀️

Seriously. Do you think Mista wouldn't kill half of Rome to achieve his goal? I doubt it. In the end, we are talking about the mafia world, where there are no good and bad. But we're getting off topic...

🟢I like that in any case, he will remain himself. Like take away his Stand, he will still remain dangerous - take away Giorno's Stand.... Giorno will remain an emotionless brat without abilities.🐞

🟢Also JoJo's age rating prevents us from learning more about Cioccolata, 🤔I'm sure that he would do WORSE things than just pseudo-healing. I'll even dare to compare him to the doctor from the Human Centipede (he would do the same thing, I'm sure!!!)

🟢In conclusion, I will say that he is a great, memorable character, but there are some weird unrealistic moments, like how a doctor works under red lighting all alone with a straight face?😂 At least a surgeon has an anesthesiologist and medical staff, Cioccolata, what the hell? 🤣🤣🤣 But okay, that's what it is.

I hope you weren 't too lazy to read this post, because I actually expressed myself sincerely🏳️

[pleasantspark]

Was talking about this with a few friends the other day: A HUGE missed opportunity for Apology Tour was having Stolas talk to the partygoers and come to a realization of how good he has it compared to most. Like the demons at the party could mention the racism, being unable to afford necessities, etc. This could help Stolas learn how hard Blitzo, and all of these people, have had it. And if Stolas DOES go to court in a future episode, he could give a massive "The Reason You Suck" speech towards the Sins and Goetia for allowing such a terrible system to continue. Granted this wouldn't redeem Stolas but it would definitely make him come off as less of a prick.

However, if they had a court scene it's gonna play out like it did in Heaven where the Goetia's gaslight the fuck out of everyone and after that Stolas ain't gonna get character development.

But the typical ignorant behavior Stolas has is similar to that of VivziePop. She complains about being poor despite being well off, she makes problems that only the low class has her problem.

Stolas at this rate is blatant VivziePop fodder for her to write as her mouthpiece. There will be no happy ending for Blitzo as he would be forced to be the tragic scapegoat and constant torture victim.

In a way, Blitz's personal hell is being with Stolas, and I fear for the man. Ignorance and Arrogance is what Stolas is, and no matter of what he does is going to redeem him.

In a way, he is fulfilling that Villain role he was supposed to, albeit depicted as a soft afton au character rather than a character we're supposed to feel bad for.

We need to stop it with the character torture porn episodes because it does no help other than making us feel bad for the actual victim rather than the abusive high class we are perceived to see as the victim.

Stolas and Blitzo were also apparently childhood friends, which is a major conflict.

[big-sankaku]

Link! Like! Love Live! SPECIAL STAFF INTERVIEW ~Beyond Graduation~

[From Love Live!Days March 2025 Issue published on Jan 30th, 2025 and now available online at G’s Channel website] Featuring: Sato Kazuki - A Producer of Link! Like! Love Live

Translator’s note: This is not a word-for-word translation. I’m heavily paraphrasing but I did my best to captures the essence of the contents. This is a second staff interview for this project, you can read the translation for the first one here.

It's been 1.5 years since the official release of "Linkura". We asked Sato Kazuki, a key figure in this project, to tell us about last year progress and important information regarding this year developments.

Overnight, the number of Hasunosora Suki Suki Club members increased dramatically! The surprising effect of Ijigen Fes.

— "Link! Like! Love Live!" (will simply be referred to as "Linkura" for the rest of the interview) celebrated its 1.5 anniversary in November 2024. First of all, let's take a look at the past year.

A: Thanks to everyone, the number of users has increased significantly. The other day we surpassed 800,000 downloads. In addition to that, in April 2024 we introduced a non-app payment service called "App-Pay". With App-Pay, you can buy SisCa cheaply. Sales from the App side are also doing well. Compared to other similar services, the usage rate of App-Pay is fairly high. Since sales through App-Pay are not reflected in the report published by Google and App Store, we sometimes hear people worrying that the app is in bad state. But for now, we would like to inform you, "Don't worry about it!"

— Hasunosora's popularity has increased significantly since the "Ijigen Fes IDOLM@STER★♥Love Live! Uta Gassen" in December 2023, bringing a large number of users to the app. Please tell us your thoughts about it.

A: Not only did the number of users increase, all the songs performed at Ijigen Fes also charted on the Spotify viral chart. I heard that the First Fan Book which was released right after the Ijigen Fes was reprinted on the day of its release. Our popularity skyrocketed suddenly and more people are becoming interested in Hasunosora. We're lucky to have the opportunity to perform alongside our seniors from Love Live, as well as everyone from Idolm@ster. At the same time, I realized that we were able to stand on such a big stage thanks to everyone who supported us for about nine months from the start of service in April 2023 until December when Ijigen Fes took place. 

I was at the venue on the day of the event. Everyone was so enthusiastic! When Nirei Nozomi did a call-and-response, we got a huge response. Perhaps it’s not a big crowd, but I felt an overwhelming passion. I was happy to hear the cheers from our fans. I feel very fortunate that we were able to show you the presence of Hasunosora, the youngest group in the series at that time.

— In the 103rd term main story. After the defeat of Love Live! in January, the excitement reached its peak with Sachi-senpai's graduation. From January to March of the 103rd term, what was the most memorable event for you?

A: January 2024 started with the episode of their Love Live! defeat. That was the "Prologue" of Linkura. With that, we've finally reached the starting line.

「What a long prologue! 」

A: At the end of 2023, Hasunosora made it through the "Love Live! Hokuriku tournament" thanks to the 「Link to Us! Link with Yours!!」, An event where "everyone" worked together to help the club collect mobile data. Then, they were eliminated at the Final. Because of that, it was decided that they were going to do Fes×LIVE at the end of January to express their gratitude to everyone who supported them at Hokuriku Tournament. We gave everyone the highest-ranked ticket for this occasion. This series of events was the user experience we had aimed for since the early stages of the project. So for me personally, it was quite moving to see that we were able to make it a reality

— Can you tell us about the process of the production development for the "Activity Records/Main Story"?

A: First of all, we have a requirement set from the app itself, then we had to adjust it based on what kind of experience we wanted everyone to have with Linkura. For example, in the 103rd term we incorporated an interactive gaming experience, such as a mini-game to collect mobile data in December, and the invitation-only live show in January, while also ensuring that it was an appealing story.

We solidify those as the "blueprint". We've been discussing this and building a solid foundation around it. The Activity Records have no narrative text at all, and are more like an anime script than a visual novel. But the scenario team is really great at choosing their words that I am often moved when reading it (laugh). We put a lot of effort into the production of the Activity Records.

The episode that was released in January, during the 103 term had a huge volume of material, its equivalent of two episodes. Since it had many important scenes, it took a lot of work. Episode 15 in particular, was developed much earlier than the usual schedule, and we created a new, extremely emotional piece of music for the soundtrack.

— Next, episode 18 of 103rd term, featured the former School Idol Club member, Sachi. The episode depicts her graduation and the send-off.

A: Sachi-senpai's graduation episode was, in a way, a trial. It was a major event to allow people to experience the base concept of the app, in which things will progress and members will graduate in real time. I was impressed by the number of people who expressed their sad feeling of her graduation. With Sachi's graduation, I think  people were able to get a taste of how traditions are woven together as members are changed.

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「It took two months to create an Activity Records of three new students joining the club.」

— In April, new members from the 104th class joined, making it 9 members. Regarding user reactions, was there anything you expected or were surprised by?

A: Typically, it's more common to introduce a new character meta-wise before adding them to the game. But this time we didn't release any information in advance. Not even a hint of their existence. It was a huge risk for the app and other aspects of the project, but after discussing it with various parties, we thought this was the best option. Of course, we wanted to create a real-time experience, but more than that, we didn't want to spoil the sentimental mood of the graduation ceremony that will take place from the end of March to April. 

The fourth cherry blossom is a season for farewell and new encounters. First, the users are faced with the harsh reality of saying goodbye, and after that, I want them to experience the new encounters with excitement. For that reason, the "first appearance" of the 104th class members: Ginko, Kozusu, and Hime was a live stream, via With×MEETS. I believe being able to witness their debut firsthand is a precious experience. After that, we provided the Activity Records, detailing how they joined the school idol club and came to participate in the With×MEETS.

However, this meant it was necessary to add episodes for three members in one go. It was inevitable that the content of the Activity Records for the first episode of the 104th class would be massive. In order to allow people to get to know the new members better, we took about two months to create the Activity Records, taking our time carefully.

— It was worth it. I feel like the addition of the first-year students were well-received.

A: Yes, a majority of people welcomed them warmly, which was a big relief. I think the fact that "traditions being passed down in different forms" being a core element of Ginko's episode was able to create a good synergy." While everyone has some degree of rejection to "change", Ginko herself, being a new student, was able to reflect the feelings of the users in an authentic and persuasive way

— The Fes×LIVE, which were held monthly in the 103rd term, has been decreased to once in three months since the start of the 104th term. I heard that you would tell us the reason for this... 

A: Thank you for giving me this opportunity to talk about the topic. The adjustment of the frequency of Fes×LIVE is a combination of various factors, but the biggest reason was budget issues. Fes×LIVE requires six months production time before the actual event. It's not only about the virtual live itself. It involved the whole Linkura environment, including songs, Activity Records, Card Illustrations, etc., This budget change was finalized in October 2023, just before the half anniversary, around the time of our last interview. 

With great struggle to push through, we somehow manage to finish all 103rd term Fes×LIVE. We have decided that we cannot continue to do this in the 104th term. That was the most difficult and toughest decision I had to make in 2023, I ended up feeling unwell and bedridden for a while... 

However, since then, the environment surrounding Hasunosora has changed drastically due to the Ijigen Fes that was mentioned earlier. I believe that "now" we can try a different approach of how to do it. Fes×LIVE is the core experience that we want to create with Linkura. Through some adjustments, I'll try my best to meet everyone's expectations.

— Compared to With×MEETS, Fes×LIVE costs more. How big of a difference?

A: Although it is true that both are "real-time 3D live stream". With×MEETS is a casual talk stream that does not require new resources. Compared to that, Fes×LIVE requires the creation of 3D costumes, the stage itself and also detailed plans for each song and performances. And multiple cameras (to create a Dynamic View experience on the app side). The creative aspect requires a huge amount of preparation and money. The dance formation requires a big space. To accommodate that we need to use one of the largest motion capture studio in Japan. And of course, the preparation of the cast members who will be performing it in real time is also an essential part of it.

— Indeed, it may be similar to With×MEETS but it's not the same thing. Some people suggest to make it smaller in scale, or record it instead of keep it real time. After all, people want it to be held as usual. What do you think about this?

A: Yes, for example, we consider many ideas, like fan meeting or variety show. I asked someone to do the calculations for that, but there was almost no difference in the final cost. As for pre-recorded videos, the resources required are the same, and we might need to refine the motion data. In fact, it might end up adding more cost. Of course, it would be a completely different story if we have a team and setups that are optimized for these plans. But building a new team requires additional budgets and time. If we had the resources to establish that, then we might as well continue Fes×LIVE as is.

— I see... It's something that couldn't be solved by simply adjusting the content.

A: Although the circumstances surrounding Fes×LIVE is as I explained. We will continue to listen to the feedback we receive every day and strive to provide the best possible experience. Every day, the entire team is working hard to see if there is anything we can do to provide everyone with a slightly better experience. 

One of the examples is the With×MEETS karaoke stream, which finally came to fruition at the end of 2023. Fortunately, it was well received. We hope to continue to make adjustments so that it can be held regularly in the future. Also, when a new song is created and no Fes×LIVE, in order to convey the charm and worldview of the song, a lyric video is released on Hasunosora's official YouTube channel.

— Even the release of Lyric Videos are linked to the entire work.

A: That's right. One of our big projects was the surprise reveal of the song "365 Days" during the encore of the "2nd Live Tour ~Blooming with ○○○~" in Hyogo last May. This song was treated as if it was being performed at the same time in-game universe. At the end of the live performance, we released a lyric video and added a song-themed card to the gacha, making it fully connected. A similar attempt was made with the "3rd Live Tour TRY TRI UNITY!!!" that started last November. We also implemented it in the Unit Live. 

To continue promoting "Linkura" in the 104th term, we try to incorporate mixed developments outside of the app as much as possible while keeping the real-time aspect of the project intact. In fact, Fes×ReC:LIVE is one of the projects that was born from this trend.

By the time this interview is published, the finale of the "3rd Live Tour TRY TRI UNITY!!!" will have taken place. That performance will serve as the final link, the culmination of all experiences we offered across 104th term. If you are reading this and don't know about it, I would appreciate it if you look into it in more detail.

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Fes×ReC:LIVE : A novel attempts to capture the feeling of being in a live house. A perfect match for Hasunosora.

— What kind of event is Fes×ReC:LIVE?

A: "103rd term Fes×ReC:LIVE ~first crossing~" is a virtual live event with an audience at a real venue, focusing on a reconstruction of the performances shown at the 103rd term Fes×LIVE. It's a side content that is linked to the 104 term Activity Records. The highlight of the event will be a newly recorded song, DEEPNESS (ReC Ver.), sung by the six members of the 102nd and 103rd class.

As mentioned earlier, the core experience of Linkura is the virtual live concert. However, it has become difficult to hold Fes×LIVE every month. So, one option we explored was the possibility of holding a virtual live at an actual venue. We asked the live concert team to consider it. We were told that if we focused on "reconstruction" then there is a way to make it. Somehow we managed to run the event smoothly without any problems.

Since there is no similar case to it, as usual, it’s something "You wouldn't really understand until you try it". While there are still some issues to be addressed, it seems like everyone who participated enjoyed it very much, so in the future, we would like to connect it more closely with the Activity Records. Ultimately, our goal is to hold an actual "FesxLIVE" in real time at a real venue. 

Fes×LIVE itself, from a technical standpoint, isn't revolutionary. But, with Fes×LIVE you can cheer the characters in real time, engage with the story in a way that lets you revisit the events leading up to that moment, and interact with the members via With×MEETS... I think it's really different from usual 3DCG Live that a lot of people have been doing.

— With live streaming, members can interact directly with fans. This makes for an ideal event for Hasunosora.

A: Speaking of that...The app itself, Linkura, as we stated it in the app description, is a "school idol support app". It was created to give users a meaningful involvement. One of the cases is a crowdfunding campaign. 

At the end of 2023, we held the event "Let's support the members of Hasunosora School Idol Club by donating the mobile data that they need for live streaming so they can safely participate in the Love Live! Hokuriku Tournament!". This is how you can "support your Oshi" with the app. Ideally, we would like the users to participate interactively in the app as much as possible.

— So by sending gifts to streams or purchasing in-game, it’s equivalent to "Use this to eat something nice or go to karaoke!"

A: That's how it feels. I think the feeling of wanting to spend money on things you like as a way to support them and the feeling of spending money for a F2P game, it's something that closely resembles each other... and in order to connect these two, we came up with a somewhat unique structure.

As I mentioned briefly in the previous interview, the original idea behind Linkura was to create a comprehensive and enjoyable multi-media experience within a single app. In the app, you can read the original story, enjoy live streams and live concerts, and decorate your wallpapers/profiles in various ways. For the "game" part, we have the "School Idol Stage (known as "Sukuste").

For a series like Love Live!, where the core experience revolves around supporting the members, I think the most conventional and catchy option is a rhythm game. With the expectation to release it in 2023, after exploring various options, we came up with this musical card game, which will known later as "Sukuste"

— "School Idol Stage" is an authentic card game.

A: When people fall in love with the members of Hasunosora and want to immerse themselves in the story more deeply and stay in touch with it for a long time, our ultimate goal is to create a game that can respond to that desire.

However, when we released it... due to a lack of a tutorial, the initial reaction we got from many people was, "Oh, just like the other titles, it's an idol training simulation game", which gave it the wrong impression. It was a miscalculation on our part.

— After all, it's the world's first "school idol cheering app" (laugh). Now that I've been using the app for a year, I can tell there are differences between it and other games.

A: I'm glad to hear that. There are many benefits of producing multi-media project in an integrated manner within one app. The voice lines you hear when you obtain or train a card not only tell you stories related to the situations depicted in the illustrations, but also short episodes that are not told in Activity Records. The power scaling of the card was designed in a way so players can immerse themselves in the story, music and feel the growth of the character and their relationships as they play the game.

The "KEY of Like!" set, released at the end of last year, is particularly easy to understand. So, if you've never paid attention to card skill before, I highly recommend you to read it carefully this time!

― I was surprised to see some important information about the story casually revealed in voice lines. The first mention of Hime's older sister, who appeared in episode 6 of the 104th term, was revealed at "Murozaki Lattice” voice lines, released on April 13th.

A: Yes, countless of information is only available on those cards. Such as the hidden thoughts of the members that were never spoken about. All the voice lines were written by the scenario team who wrote the Activity Records. This is one of the big benefits of the intensive production I mentioned earlier, and I think it's a very luxurious thing. Even a single line, we put our utmost care into it, so it doesn't contradict the Activity Records or With×MEETS. The voice lines aren't a side content, it's part of the entire work. Those aspects add a significant value to it.

By the way, the content is not biased towards rarity such as R (Rare) or UR (Ultra Rare), so even if you have low-rarity cards that are easy to obtain, it is recommended that you try training them.

― It's amazing that the voice lines for the cards, which depict various situations, are a proper episode that is connected to the story.

It makes you want to collect every single one…

A : In November 2024, we released, "Link! Like! Love Live! 103rd Term Card Illustration BOOK", a book that contains all the illustrations of the cards released in the 103rd term. We thought about putting the voice lines into the book, but the amount of content was so huge that we couldn't fit it. So please get your voice lines from a card in Linkura (laugh).

―  I'll do my best to train my cards (laugh). I'm also curious about the new game mode "School Idol Show" that was recently announced as being in development. For now, is there anything you can tell us about it?

A: "School Idol Show" is a rhythm game mode where you can play Hasunosora’s song on it. As I mentioned earlier, rhythm games are the most popular approach and have a high compatibility of what we want to achieve. In under two years since the release date, as many things have changed, we are finally able to include it to the app.

We would like to gradually build the specific system for the rhythm game mode, but we want you to know that you can play either mode!. Be it Sukuste or the other mode. Usually, when a new mode is added to the app, it can be fun and refreshing, but in the end, having a huge amount of chores like daily missions can be tiring... I think there are many cases like that. In Linkura, we have "School Idol Stage" and "School Idol Show". We are currently developing it in the way that it doesn't really matter if you play only one mode or play both. You can play it as you like. The fact that we can easily set up such a system is one of the strengths of a "school idol support app" that is not game-driven. To the people that only love the School Idol Stage part of the game, or for those who aren't good at card games but would like to try a rhythm game, we hope you can rest assured and wait for the release!

― So it's up to you whenever you want to participate in both modes or just play one that you like. That's refreshing! I'm looking forward to the release!

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「The culmination of these last two years is the Love Live! championship. And then, the graduation of the 102nd class.」

— In January 2025, the Love Live! Finals were held, and although there was an unexpected playoff, Hasunosora School Idol Club achieved their long-awaited victory!

How will things develop from here as the 102nd class will graduate soon?

A:  At the end of the school year, Kozue, Tsuzuri and Megumi will graduate. It's the graduation for the 102nd class. I can't go into specifics … but I can tell you that we will continue doing real-time with 105th class. The 102nd class has truly walked this journey together with all of you. It's sad to part ways, but precisely because "there is a future ahead of this", a "tradition" is born. It will continue to shine forever without fading. More and more, we are going to bring you 'scenery' that you have never seen before with Hasunosora. So please look forward to it!

Translations : Afi English proofreading : Zonic QC: Eagles

[starswhispere]

@any-n-everything Here's why i think Sam and Tucker needed some more thorough development. I mean it's not that they were terrible, and I think the majority of my problems with them suffer from the writing and it being a kids show who's primary goal was to teach kids moral lessons. But Sam had several moments where she disregard what Danny wanted and pushed her own agendas no matter how that affected him and Tucker. Such as the gorilla project (yes it was for Danny's grade but the poor kid got no sleep that night and clearly didn't want to be there), or the one that gets me the most is season 2 episode 1 when she wished Danny and her had never met and then instead of trying to solve the problem in any other way (she already knew at this point that it was the wishing ghost attacking) Like going to get help from any of the other ghost hunter or dealing with the ghost herself which she was shown very capable of doing (and we needed more of because honestly that was a cool aspect of her character) she decided to put her friend, who she supposedly cares about, through the most traumatic experience of his life a second time. She killed him, twice. Because she was the one who egged him on to go in the portal the first time despite him warning her about safety issues, and then she just shoved him in the second time. But then the show wants to convince me she likes him romantically. That's crazy. Not to mention the one time with the trucks that Danny and Tucker liked and she wanted him to use his ghost powers to her advantage despite having in several other episodes berated him for doing the same thing. And (last example I promise) in the show finale when he gave up his ghost powers to protect his family and go back to a normal life because he's been struggling with this for so long, she gets upset! (They all do, I'm not excluding Jazz and Tucker from this, this is just my Sam paragraph). She tells him that she feels she lost a friend and that he's wrong to give up superpowers because now he's not unique or special and she wants friends who are unique and special. Like damn, Sam. Low blow. It's like when a friend only wants to hang out with you to play on your x box and when you don't have the x box they disappear and hate you.

As for Tucker, he's not quite as bad and again I think his character just suffers from the Tv-Y7 rating, but there are a few times where he just straight up disrespects Danny. The only two times we're shown that they get in a fight, Tucker completely does a 180 and makes Danny out to be the bad guy. In the episode where he wishes he has ghost powers he just blames Danny for taking the spotlight and showing off how much better he is, when Danny never did any of that (at that point in the show). Even if Tucker felt that way because of jealousy, he was still really rude with how he spoke to Danny and quite literally put a citizen's life in danger just to upstage Danny. He does it again in the one for where he runs against Dash for class president. (I know that in both of these he was under a ghost influence, but all of the problems started before the ghosts got involved, they just enhanced what he was already feeling.) (And I know Danny and Sam weren't listening to him but that's wildly out of character for Danny and I feel the writers just conformed his personality to the plot to teach the listen to your friends narrative) but he also took that scepter willingly from the mummy ghost. He has like a weird superiority complex that he takes out on people at the most random times. Then in the episode with Nocturne, his best dream is him being all rich and making Danny his janitor! That's not how you think of your best friend! That shows just how much better he thinks he is compared to Danny. Then in the episode where the G.I.W. buys Danny's house and Danny is freaking out, Tucker is like hey man, you have a lot of money now, act like it and enjoy it and calm down. Then gets mad at him when he acts like it and enjoys it! And also he did the same thing as Sam in the finale.

Sorry for the chaotic jumbled mess of thoughts, I have more to say I just can't remember any more specific examples off the top of my head at the moment. But again, he could have worse, I just think they also deserve their own growing and learning moments.

[wherethegoldenleavesfall]

S1E3 The Man with the Umbrella Liveblog

Note: in first episode liveblog, I mean to say that Gihun forget birthday preparations for his daughter. He did not forget her birthday.

As we left off last time, Junho is playing a game of follow the leader.

Driving for 2 hours, 38 minutes. His persistence and stamina is impressive.

Important to text your boss, that you won't be in. Classic work schengians. 👌

Write down a license plate number! I don’t know if that works elsewhere though besides the US.

Junho with 4 live rounds, one blank. Ready to play among us.

Show title I cannot read!

Music fades as Junho gets all sneaky sneak.

Ironic that Gihun is the first scanned in. Microchip? How did none of the players notice any bumps around their necks.

Junho strangling a worker, throwing him overboard. Ruthless, brutal, and efficient.

He is now playing dress up. 👗.

Now he gets to learn rule 1. Oh like the avoxs in the Hunger Games then 🙄.

Basically no talking unless the higher ups allow it.

That rule can be abused and misused in so many ways. Being an employee at this organization is terrible. I would end myself rather than endure forced loneliness.

Maybe that's the point though isolation prevents the workers from joining up together.

We are in the flux point, the in-between basically walking into a fairy ring to get to the true location.

Hm the string being used to determine who is Junho compared to others is a grand idea.

He is the loose thread in the whole operation now.

Seagulls yay!!

As they near the island, still in transit. Honestly it's creepy how they move in sync like forager ants bringing back food.

They bring in the players to be undressed, they are processed, and then redressed to remove their individuality.

Much like living dolls which is beyond horrifying as it takes away a chunk of the players body autonomy.

And the sheer silence, the rapid speed on which they do this. It's bonechilling.

They are being processed now.

And Saebyoek plays what's in my pocket.

001 and 456 together again. In a deranged liminal space. Fun.

Gihun and Ilnam gossiping over Minyeo and her possible bald face lie.

Oh Sangwoo is here!

And they share awkward silence as both ask each other different things like you are here and did you see your mom. Already intense eye contact.

An Ali appears.

Aw, Gihun calling Ali his angel. Ali is happy to see them both. 😀.

Gihun saying at a training camp, well technically they are at "war".

A team up offer already!

Ali is so hesitant and happy that Gihun is including him.

Sangwoo uncomfortable with sir still.

Ilnam is now asking to join up. Sangwoo's look of disgust and dismay is a sight to be seen.

The half lidded death glare he gives Ilnam is peak acting choice. Sangwoo's vendetta against Ilnam is great to see it start with slow annoyance.

He just wanted it to be him and Gihun up against everyone. Just like old times.

Sangwoo is not laughing 😒. He is like oh great more strays.

Where did Sangwoo's glasses go anyway. Did the workers remove them because the glasses gave him a perceived edge.

Deoksu is up his antics. And he is not funny.

Oh Saebyoek is now dragging him. Go girl go.

Minyeo interrupting by flattering Deoksu's ego. I am surprised that his ego cam fit in this room.

Minyeo the ultimate girl boss overconfident queen. Well at least Mr. Bad Jokes and his gang are all gone by the end.

Great choice, Minyeo.

Saebyoek has her eyes on the vents already. Vent gremlin Saebyoek!

187 out of 201. 93% retention rate.

Is this was a school, that is an excellent retention rate. However it's not, meaning 186 people will die here.

Why keep him posted on the 14 not coming back unless he arranged "accidents" for them? Or they are invited back to a later game.

14 people means higher chance they can support each other's stories.

Lunch now. Ilnam has children.

Bringing up the stove to.... a person who tried to end his own life. Gihun does not know about that, though.

And Gihun is eager to hear what Sangwoo had to say. Focus, Gihun essentially.

There is wide array of games all over the world. Personally I think the wall murals are attempts at trolling. The wall murals literally mock the players.

They are sitting in a circle.

Gihun lists all the game possibilities.

Poor Ali is like I don't know how to play any of those. Easy to learn in a limited time span, is Sangwoo making a dig there?

Honestly all in sync marching is creepy still. How do any of them not get lost in this maze.

Poor Junho trying to figure things out fast. Ironic that I am now 29 years old.

And worker 28 staring at Junho through the mask.

A literal prison cell with no color, just white, no entertainment sources whatsoever. This place must go through employees bodies fast, workers included.

So no removing mask, I guess any facial itches means they are up the creek.

No conversing as we seen previously. Junho is like square is greater than me.

No leaving the room. And, they are under surveillance. The circle workers are above the players but beneath everyone else in the pecking order.

Minyeo is being a dramatic diva. She is flatout screaming. She and Gihun should have a screaming/annoying the workers contest.

Who gets a square manager to appear the fastest wins.

The most dramatic 🤣 girlfailure queen ever.

Saebyoek coming along with Minyeo.

They are watched by other workers yet who watches the watchers.

Minyeo smuggling cigarettes and a lighter in her Victoria Secrets Department.

Partnering up together to see if they can find info.

That guard is thinking of all the straws I had to draw. I had to draw the one that is watching over the players at night.

Saebyoek being a vent gremlin. Sneaking over workers heads.

Minyeo is so loud. I love it. You can hear through the vents.

Now the triangle guard is now regretting his life choices. It would be fun they say. Get to a wear a costume and cosplay they say. I gave up the job in retail for this....?

Watching out for your vent gremlin partner.

And they must get so hot in those uniforms.

It's time to go back by order of the triangle guards who wishes that he was never approached by this organization.

There is no toilet paper Minyeo screams. In a bathroom littered with stalls that surely have toilet paper rolls.

Improv is not her strongest skill.

Eww a rat. This facility is a massive osha rights violation.

A worker looks up at the squeak of the vents.

How dare the triangle guards barge in on two ladies.

They are both looking at him. And he is like note to self, go back into retail. The paycheck of this organization is not worth it.

And now Minyeo is bringing up that she will sue him. Maybe in the afterlife, you can sue him.

Like Saebyoek being the straight man to Minyeo's....Minyeoness is what makes the bathroom scene works.

The abrupt turn around of the guard drives me to laughter 😃.

This is comedy gold. Dies of laughter.

How has his phone not died yet?

Junho taking notes on his phone like us. He is smart cookie too as he knows morse code by coughs.

I swear that piggy bank is the most evil mobile setup I ever seen.

Sangwoo cannot sleep. Is he a light sleeper?

He overhears them discussing what Saebyoek saw on her vent gremlin adventures.

See you tomorrow.