#(i named my guy metaphor because i had no idea what else to name him)

[destiny-islanders]

...is that gonna happen. like. every time?

[anthurak]

Having been rewatching some of Ice Queendom lately, I’d like to talk about something I really wanted to discuss after the series wrapped, but haven’t gotten around to until now.

Namely, the shows use of Jaune, and specifically how it’s one of my biggest issues with the anime.

Now talking about this is somewhat complicated because I don’t have any issues with how Ice Queendom presents and writes Jaune directly. In fact I was actually pretty IMPRESSED watching the show at the frankly keen understanding the writers seemed to have of Jaune’s character and what he’s meant to represent.

Namely, that Jaune is a massive subversion of so many classic male fantasy-hero protagonists. He’s NOT some cool, badass fighter and whenever he tries to be one, he gets his ass handed to him. Instead, he’s able to show his real strength by supporting and helping others.

And there’s a bunch of great subtle details like how Jaune’s dream weapon being this flashy, oversized sword that he just cannot fucking use not matter how hard he tries is just the PERFECT metaphor for his character in the early volumes. A weapon that represents all the ‘big strong hero guy’ expectations Jaune believed he had to live up to at the beginning of the show but is actually IMPOSSIBLE for him to use because that’s NOT what he’s really meant for. And the one time he IS able to wield that sword is though the assistance and support of his friends, namely (dream)Pyrrha, which in turn provides a great hint towards his still-dormant semblance.

Instead, the real issue I have is that every time I look back on Ice Queendom and see Jaune, I can’t help but ask myself ‘Why is Jaune even here?’ Specifically, WHY does the story need Jaune to be Team RWBY’s ‘guest party member’ to go into Weiss’s dream to rescue her from the Nightmare?

Now sure, they bring up the idea that Jaune having just been possessed by a Nightmare basically ‘inoculated’ him to the Grimm and could allow him to be undetected by the Nightmare possessing Weiss. But let’s be real; that’s a justification, NOT a true narrative REASON for Jaune to be going into Weiss’s Nightmare.

Because what actual connection does Jaune even HAVE to Weiss that would give him a thematic reason to be going into her Nightmare? He’s not on her team and they only even met a few weeks ago. Especially given that IQ even removes almost all references to Jaune having any kind of big crush on Weiss. During Ruby’s first visit to the nightmare, we see what Weiss thinks of him:

Lumped in with Nora, Ren, Cardin and literally everyone else she doesn’t have time or patience for.

So what’s the actual narrative potential of Jaune joining Ruby, Blake and Yang to save Weiss? How can he tie into the story of Weiss’s character and Ruby’s, Blake’s and Yang’s attempts to free her?

Simply put, he can’t. And so he DOESN’T. Instead it feels like the only reason Jaune is here is simply because he’s the most prominent supporting character in the franchise.

And the REASON this sticks out to me so much is that I can’t help but think that a different character would have made a far, far BETTER option to join Ruby, Blake and Yang to save Weiss:

PYRRHA.

I mean, the reasons for Pyrrha going into the Nightmare to help Weiss kinda write themselves, right? From minute one it’s clear the Weiss idolizes Pyrrha, and it’s really all but outright stated she has a huge crush on Pyrrha. It’s only natural that Ruby, Blake and Yang would go to her for help getting past Weiss’s emotional defenses in the dream.

Like I think it’s easy to imagine how Ruby might happen upon this idea: In her first entry into Weiss’s Nightmare, Ruby could note that Jaune, Ren and Nora are all in ‘Silly Jail’, but Pyrrha notably ISN’T. And later while scouting or perhaps while fleeing from Weiss, perhaps Ruby catches a glimpse, far off, of Pyrrha within the walls of Weiss’s castle, perhaps looking out a window.

And when Ruby mentions this to the others, Shion could comment that this means that Pyrrha is special to Weiss, and thus keeps her memory ‘close’ to her. At this point we’d probably get Yang chiming in with a quip about how Weiss ‘Hasn’t exactly been subtle about that.’

Then of course, one of Ruby, Blake or Yang hit on the idea that if they brought Pyrrha into the nightmare, she might be able to get past Weiss’s defenses much more easily. Something which Shion confirms to be very likely. From there, RBY seek out Pyrrha for her help much like what happened with Jaune. But with the difference being that Pyrrha being some kind of ‘secret weapon’ feels FAR more natural based on what we already saw in the show up to that point.

And from that point on, I feel like it’s kind of obvious just how well Pyrrha would fit into the narrative and both Weiss’s and Ruby’s character arcs. Like I joked about a ‘White Rose/Schneekos Love Triangle’ while the show was airing, but that’s kind of exactly what we see potentially set up in the first three episodes of IQ:

Weiss is clearly massively enamored with and idolizes Pyrrha, while Ruby really wants Weiss to like her and be friends with her.

And placing Pyrrha into the nightmare as a major figure alongside Ruby, Blake and Yang for Weiss gives the perfect opportunities to play Pyrrha and Ruby off of Weiss. Exploring what Weiss being so enamored with Pyrrha actually means to her, what that could mean for her feelings about Ruby, and how Ruby and Pyrrha could get her to confront those feelings.

Imagine the story making a point about Weiss having essentially put Pyrrha up on the constructed, idealized pedestal instead of knowing the actual Pyrrha, and then contrasting this by showing that Ruby actually embodies so many of the traits Weiss idolizes Pyrrha for.

Which in turn has Pyrrha being the one to help Weiss realize that.

Not to mention on the flipside, this change would give us a lot of Pyrrha and Ruby interaction. Which I think we can all agree would be VERY fun and interesting.

I mean just picture Ruby really wanting Pyrrha’s help to save Weiss, while also clearly repressing a fair bit of insecurity and maybe even a bit of jealousy over how enamored Weiss is with Pyrrha, which in turn leads to a meaningful and cute conversation where Pyrrha gives Ruby a much-needed pep-talk while also diving into Pyrrha’s own well-hidden insecurities and generally revealing just how similar these two really are.

Which in turn perfectly plays into Ruby’s journey to save Weiss across Ice Queendom.

Finally, there is a more subtle, but perhaps most meaningful reason why I think Pyrrha would have made a much better option over Jaune:

For as well as Ice Queendom writes him, we really don’t learn anything new about Jaune that we didn’t already know. The fact is, we know Jaune pretty well after the (at the time of IQ’s release) eight volumes he’s had in the show.

So what if instead of a character we’ve already spent all this time with, what if Ice Queendom focused on a character we only had three volumes to get to know?

A character who, unlike Jaune, Nora, Ren or basically any of the other supporting characters at this time in the story, is no longer around to get focus or development.

Simply put, Pyrrha being the member of Team JNPR to get the most focus in Ice Queendom would have been a chance to explore and develop a character who we simply DON’T have opportunity to do so in the series proper.

[fae-morrigan]

Superfam and Found Family: What it Means to Choose

I have seen a lot of my beloved mutuals talk about adoption as a theme in the superfam, and thats true, thats very much a thing, but thats more a subsection of the larger idea with the superfamily: You get to choose your family, and define your relationship to them.

Clark and Kon come to mind. They've been discussed a lot lately, huh? Namely people saying Clark does not treat Kon well. This is false, by the way, they get along great.

But let's sort of dig into the actual story told by their relationship here: Kon was created by Lex without Clark's consent. Clark had no say in how part of his DNA would be used to create a new life.

(This is coincidentally why it irks me that certain fans will act like Clark is a monster for even HYPOTHETICALLY not wanting a relationship with Kon. Guys, you sound like pro-lifers. Lets watch it!)

Despite this, Clark accepts Kon with open arms. Now, as myself and others have pointed out, Kon's technically... he's not a clone, he's a test tube baby. Technically, biologically, he's Clark & Lex's son. D.. diversity win...?

But thats not how Clark and Kon choose to define their relationship. They instead decide, hey, we were raised by the same people, we're brothers.

Kon is not an outsider to the Superfam, even as he is an outsider to this world- He is welcomed with open arms once it is clear he needs a home. And with Clark and Kon, they get to choose how they define their relationship, not Lex, not anyone else.

Then, John Henry and Nat. John Henry is not Natasha's father, but their relationship is very complex and often veers into that territory, for the simple reason that he shows up for her in that capacity when Natasha's own father fails her.

Even while their relationship has its ups and downs (read 52 guys for THEM), they manage to forge a relationship based on mutual respect, enough to the point where during Steelworks, she is not just his niece, but his partner in building a better tomorrow. It is a fatherly/daughterly relationship built on mutual respect largely independent of their blood relation, built on the security that Clay failed to provide Natasha with.

Of course, to talk about adoption, Clois adopting the twins. I think Phillip Kennedy Johnson handles the topic of adoption EXPERTLY with Otho-Ra and Osul-Ra, specifically as a metaphor for transracial/transethnic adoption.

Clark's relationship with the twins is built throughout the Warworld saga, and does not start... great (they discuss looting his corpse lol), and often they. But Clark understands that the kids are traumatized, and seeks to guide them to a better situation.

Now I would be irresponsible to not mention that, during this time, Clark is still struggling with Jon's age up. He mumbles, disoriented during their first meeting, that the kids are the same age as his son (no they are not). In a less tightly written book by a worse writer, it'd be a thing where Clark completely uncritically finds 'replacement kids' in the twins... Which is NOT what happens here, because PKJ is the GOAT.

In the end, his relationship with the twins is built not only independently of his struggles with Jon, but the way he connects with them helps Clark realize that whats done is done. They need him to be Clark, not a man hanging onto the past he will never get back. To move forward, they must do it together, it won't work if the twins remain on Warworld and he remains mentally in Hamilton. Its why it is SUPER important, also, that in the end, Clark doesn't ask them to come with him- rather, they ask to go with Clark.

(Sidenote: The twins lost not only their parents on warworld, but an older brother, too. Clark isn't the only one who finds a healing way forward via the Ra-El relationships, but that's gonna be another post!) And their hero names, Red Son and Starchild, are from their original culture (the Phaelosians), a culture that was systematically robbed from them when Warworld trafficked them into service. Rather than forcing them to conform to the house of El and their legacy, they help the kids reconnect.

These are his children. They found each other in the scariest place in the universe, and together, they find a way past the things they've both suffered through.

I'm afraid I don't know much about Kara (kara mutuals, reading recs appreciated! i've only ever read WOT and a few issues of the most recent Supergirl run) but I do know that her relationship to Clark is inherently different than it was supposed to be, and she has to roll with it and redefine it accordingly. She was supposed to be older than him, be able to take care of him, but by the time she actually finds him, he's the one doing that for her.

(I dont really have a panel here I fear, so look at the pretty art from Woman of Tomorrow. If someone wants to say more on Kara, you're welcome to hijack my post for a bit!)

Kenan is an example of this theme going kind of sideways and being examined from another angle- He's forced to choose between his two found families, and with either choice, he stands to lose something. Either his connection to Superman, or his connection to home:

Kenan already has a messy relationship with family, considering the soap opera level drama his parents inflict on him in his solo. Now, separated from his culture by circumstances he can't control, Kenan's relationship with the Superfam is forced by circumstance, even as it isn't unwanted. He's forced to make the most of what he has.

Then you have Clark and Jon, where the 'and define your relationship to them' part of my thematic statement REALLY becomes important.

I've seen it argued many times that giving Jon the Superman mantle weakens the theme of found family, but I'd argue it strengthens it, because Jon not having a choice in becoming Superman is EXPLICITLY framed as a bad thing.

Jon's not ready to be Superman. He doesn't even really WANT to be superman. But because of the circumstances of his birth, the world, and his father, push him into it. Clark never asked Jon to be Superman, during the Son-of-kal-el + Warworld era. He assumed he would be.

It tarnishes Clark & Jon's relationship, actively preventing Jon from connecting with his father and the WORLD fully in the way they both want. This is a key theme of Superman: Son of Kal El, from the very moment of Jon's actual birth:

All throughout post-age up Jon is the idea that Jon is just as burdened by the expectations placed upon him by his blood as he is comforted by what the mantle represents.

(I know I use this panel like every analysis but its a GOOD PANEL, SHUT UP) And there's of course the fact that... y'know. Well. Y'know.

Y'KNOW.

I think there's a potentially strong story in either Jon walking away from the mantle entirely, or redefining it to be his own. But first, he's going to have to suffer for the fact he wasn't ready for what many people call his DESTINY, including his abuser.

And where does this leave Jon and Clark?

Here.

The last note before Absolute Power of these two is this bittersweet moment where Jon still isn't fully heard. Where he still doesn't get a full say in what he and Clark's relationship will be. And judging by THIS interview from Mark Waid, this particular idea is about to finally come home to roost:

Lastly, there's of course the Most Found Family Thing Of All that i basically see NO one talk about: The fact that the Irons and the Kents just. Share all their big life events with each other. They're literally not related to each other by blood at all, but throughout PKJ's Action Comics, they ARE family!

Teamwork makes the dreamwork guys!

The superfamily is a wonderfully diverse cluster of relationships and examinations of the way family finds each other. Even moreso than the Batfam, which is often defined by their father-son relationship with Bruce in fanon, the Superfam displays a wide array of the various ways non-nuclear families can build each other.

This is all to say you guys should read PKJ's action comics run. It rules.

(This is also to say Superman 2016 sucks ass.)

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s6 episode 11 thoughts

seems that this one will be a mytharc two parter. i anticipate that mulder will be a pain today. may he prove me wrong.

(this episode has been marked SAFE from cranky mulder! 🎊)

how’s everyone doing? things could definitely be better! but it’s mulder and scully time, which is so important to keep in your schedule, especially when the world looks dark. 

i am intrigued to hear about where cassandra spender has been, and what her son will have to say on the matter… and if she can confirm if CSM is really his father!

(post-episode thoughts: this was another one where so much was happening, it was a bit hard to follow. but. the good thing is that we saw them be losers together. which is always so important to me. also, i definitely saw some spender/krycek tension there, and had a glimpse into a world where the fanfics abound. is that a pairing people write? it just seems to have so much potential from the 2 scenes they had. i was already imagining exactly how that fanart would get drawn. it came to me so clearly. now, whether or not anyone else sees it... you'll have to let me know, because i just got here)

let us begin.

we open with a monitor beeping and people in hazmat suits. oh god. was this a bad idea to watch with an upset stomach? well, they’re slicing into this person’s belly, and the green gas blood comes out. and then it immediately heals!! they must have gotten their hands on a real alien!!! in a railroad car in virginia. sure. where else would you do it? /s

oooo, the people from that evil biological company are here…. and so is a guy named dr. openshaw. his work has been completed, says this guy. 

“25 years. she must seem like an old friend” “yes” (he holds her hand) <- ohh. i don’t like that. friends do not abduct and experiment upon each other.

the others from the team are going out to celebrate, but dr. openshaw will not. did he turn cassandra spender full alien??

wait, what the hell just happened? it’s so dark. allow me to go back a few seconds.

the other guy walked out to go celebrate, and one of the faceless aliens lit him on fire!!! and then the others in the car, too!! he comes in after the doctor and lights HIM on fire as well!!!! but he doesn’t touch cassandra spender… she’s just laying there….

oooo, spooky!

cue intro time!!

i haven’t really thought about the faceless aliens and their colonial resistance efforts since the last mytharc episode. i kinda forgot about them as a whole, especially after FTF. but they’re back, and i hope they win… i think i hope they win, i mean? because they're supposed to be the only hope of resistance against colonization, right? but who is to say they don't have their own ulterior motives?? so maybe i shouldn't hope they win.

we get a full length intro!!! woohoo!!!

CSM is lighting up… saying this is the end. and it was unimaginable. and he begins to recount. we had a perfect conspiracy with an alien race who wished to destroy all human life. and they were going to prepare the way for their invasion. to create for them a slave race of human-alien hybrids. and they had been kept secret for 50 years from men like mulder. plans that would have worked. EXCEPT. a rebel alien race came to destroy them.

is he talking to spender here….?

“had not my own son chosen betrayal. or chosen to betray more wisely” 

OH???? i thought he was explaining the secret plot to spender, but it seems he already figured that out on his own….

now what is afoot here? spender redemption arc?? CSM is over party???

like with FTF, it feels so wrong to hear anyone from the syndicate just talk openly about their plans. you guys have to use weird metaphors and cover stories! you can't just SAY all that!! it will give me tonal whiplash!

in the basement, spender is scribbling notes, when skinner arrives!! yay skinner :) he is writing a progress report, and skinner says he didn’t know they had made any progress on the x files, LMAO

oooo, i see my boy krycek will be featured today…

(i don't know why i said that, to be honest. he is not "my boy". i don't even like him, let alone claim him in any capacity. but i did notice the name in the credits, which i guess is what i was TRYING to say)

ooOOOo, skinner says he knows spender doesn’t give a damn about the x files EXCEPT for his mother’s case. TELL HIM! and that is what he came here to talk about. oh no...

wow. to be a fly on the wall of the car ride during which skinner drove spender down to this… flaming train wreck scene. to find his mother. bet that made the list of top 10 most tense rides in history.

no one knows what happened in the train car, and only cassandra survived (with the exception of dr. openshaw). spender wants to know what THE FUCK happened. can’t blame him. 

he goes to see her!! she smiles at him. and he gets close to her. it's kinda sweet. it would be very sweet if it weren't him.

and she asks to speak to agent mulder, LMAOOOOOOO, i know spender wanted to PUNCH A WALL when she said that!!!!!! oh!!! i actually giggled. 

skinner starts to walk away. spender’s whining about "wAh, aGeNt muLDer iS FoRBidDen frOM SeEiNg hEr" and skinner does not give a fuck, LMAOOO.

“are you afraid of the truth?” <- OHHH?? has skinner become a believer in the alien conspiracy?? i had imagined him not taking any particular sides- BUT he did say that nearly dying has caused him to reevaluate that plan. 

“i want to know who did this to her and why, that’s all i want.” “then why not use every resource available to you?” <- OHHH YEAH!!! use your scary gruff AD voice, skinner!!!! i cheered!!!

CSM is narrating again… he says his son refuses to believe his mother was abducted. even after CSM had him put in charge of the x files, which had so much evidence of their plans, he couldn’t accept it. and when he did come to believe, he turned not to his father, “but to the man i’d ruined”

(cut to a sweaty mulder playing basketball)

LMAOOOOO, i’m sorry. i didn’t know he went out and played rec league games with the boys. this makes me really happy. he needs social interaction.

(i don't even think the dudes he was playing with particularly liked him or had met him before, which kind of makes this even funnier. bro knows no one and does nothing but study aliens)

AND THEY CALL HIM "MILK" LMAOOO

but scully comes to the gym to get him!! so he needs to use his seduction skills and shoot a 3

“hey, homegirl, word up” <- WE NEED TO JAIL THIS MAN, LMAOOOOOOOOOO

“mulder, it’s my distinct impression that you just cheated” <- GET HIS ASS!!!! 🔥

he’s been skipping work!!! going to the gym instead!!! and scully came to see him because someone wants him back very badly!! to talk about an x file!!!

i’m smiling so hard; that was such a silly scene. and i had seen it in GIFs before, but it was very enjoyable to see live. also, very funny that she knew to find him there, OR she called him and asked where he was and then just. left work to come fetch him. both are entertaining options to consider.

WOAH WOAH, mulder does NOT want to see spender, LMAO: “you looking for work, agent spender? because if you are, i got a whole pile in that middle drawer that i’d love to shove down someone’s throat” <- DAAAAMN. he does not forget and forgive. can’t blame him, tbh.

his mother’s been gone for nearly a year. and when she turns up, she’s been operated on, and all the doctors burned alive. 

“the truth is out there, agent spender. maybe you should find it for yourself” <- SO ARE YOU GONNA HELP OR NOT???

he just wants to choose the exact right words to piss this man off. in a way, i respect that. that's what having an annoying coworker is about.

spender furiously walks away.

down at the hospital, we see dr. openshaw from before!! he’s on life support in a big tube!!! and CSM is here to see him. he says he has been tidying things up at the train yard. dr. openshaw is covered in horrible horrible horrible burns, omg.

he tells CSM that she is a success, which he finds hard to understand. “they saved her to expose us”. hmm……

CSM says he won’t let her out of their hands. and dr. openshaw says she must be terminated. CSM looks…. sad. 

dr. openshaw, your burns are so freakishly realistic, i need to thank the prop team, take a deep and grounding breath, and not pass out 

CSM says he’s sorry and TURNS OFF THE LIFE SUPPORT MACHINE??? so they can’t question dr. openshaw 

he says “a man should never live long enough to see his children or his work destroyed” <- does he consider the alien hybrids his CHILDREN?? yuck.

well. that was dark.

CSM calls some guy on the phone to break the news that the project doctors have been killed. and he has called an emergency syndicate meeting. who is this man he speaks to? have i seen him before? am i supposed to know him? if i am, i must confess that i do not recall. sorry.

WAIT! CSM just told this guy i have never seen before that dr. openshaw is dead, but now he’s at this dude’s door!! it must be an alien!!

HE RIPS HIS FACE OPEN?????? AND THEN FAKE DR. OPENSHAW LIGHTS THIS DUDE ON FIRE???

i am so glad i did not watch this episode yesterday when i felt even worse, omfggggg. the SQUELCHING noise…

mulder is at his desk at work. late at night. there’s a woman on his deck of post it notes. anyone know what that is about?

he is looking at photos of the train scene. and the terribly burnt bodies!! how did he get these images? from kersh, somehow?

why is scully here late at night, too?!! she says she didn’t expect to see him here because spender offered him an x file assignment. mulder clarifies it wasn’t an offer. he thinks it’s a set up!!! and that if he moves forward, the powers that be will come down on him in full force!! i can’t blame his suspicion, tbh. they've been getting in a lot of trouble lately.

scully sees the images on his computer. “we’ve seen this before”. good LORD, look at the way he’s looking up at her. holy hell. i’m somewhat shocked, and i have watched 6 seasons now of him looking at her. he's not beating the gazing allegations.

scully repeats that they’ve seen this before, and that this could possibly lead them to who took her and performed those experiments on her. mulder looks deeply conflicted… she tells him spender doesn’t have to know. ooo, scully advocating for sneaking around!

(i thought he would want to square up immediately with whoever it was that took her, but i understand his caution as well, because it does seem a little TOO perfect to all be lining up at this particular time)

scully goes to see her!!! cassandra is so happy to talk to her; omg, she hugs her!! and scully explains to the nurse that she is an old friend!! scully asks if she would like a wheelchair so they can go outside, and she says she doesn’t need one!!! she just… gets up and walks!! 

but she does want a cigarette. LMAO. queen. 

scully is gagged. the nurse from her room is following them out. 

cassandra says she won’t tell anybody what she saw except agent mulder, and scully says she has a surprise. 

(cassandra opens the door and yells excitedly) "agent mulder?!??" (he frantically shushes her) LMAOOOO

“i think i’m gonna pee the floor” “don’t… don’t do that” <-BAHAHAHA, top-tier mulder reaction 

she starts to talk about how when they last saw each other, he was doubting he’d ever see his sister again. and when scully brings up the fact that he thought he did see her (which means they've talked about it!), cassandra says it wasn’t really her. samantha is “out there, with them. the aliens”

(pause for her to light up while mulder looks incredibly pained)

scully tries to redirect. so, you were found in a train car- what was that whole thing about? great question, scully! cassandra says it wasn’t the doctors who cured her; it was the aliens. the doctors were working with the aliens. 

she had told him the aliens were here for good- but now, she knows they aren’t! they want to wipe the humans off the planet and take over the planet.

“infecting all other life forms with a black substance called purity” <-THE ALIEN OIL HAS A NAME?!?!?! TO ME IT HAS JUST BEEN THE BLACK ALIEN OIL FOR SO LONG!!! this is a game-changer

it’s what the aliens are made of. interesting.

she says that a rebel force attacked the doctors, and this rebel force mutilated their faces so they won’t get infected.

she couldn’t tell her son, even though he is in danger, because he wouldn’t believe her!! he’s in danger because he is in with the men who did this to her and scully. 

“and you know who these men are?” “oh, sure. one of them’s my ex-husband” <- CSM LORE?!?!?!?!?! is his name gonna be something like walter?!?!

CSM narrates again. cassandra was realizing she was the culmination of 50 years of work and the center of all the alien plans. and he killed to keep people from learning about her. “when it’s cassandra i should have killed��� cassandra who needed to die” <- hey. don’t like the way you’re saying that, buddy. 

he admits he couldn’t do it, even though he never loved her, because she was the mother of his son. which is... gross.

the faceless aliens used their powers of disguise to infiltrate the syndicate…

CUT TO KRYCEK! or is it really him….? he’s making a presentation to the syndicate. so are they back to being friends again? he says something about "our" research bases and i'm thinking, oh, i didn't realize this was an "our" sort of situation; didn't you just try to sabotage everyone?!

OOOO, the guy from the syndicate who was (presumably) killed by the alien who took dr. openshaw’s face, and is now presumably also an alien, proposes joining the resistance to the squad!! they don't fully buy it.

krycek asks about their vaccines. and the time they’ve bought. and he throws bill mulder’s name in there, too. which seems excessive.

CSM says we can’t sacrifice ourselves for every new threat…. hmm. much to ponder.

tbh, i’m a little confused. like krycek is working for these guys now? he said “our” alien research facilities were destroyed. but you were just in russia... and then you tried to backstab everyone with marita... you know what? i’m not gonna worry about it ❤️ the ways of krycek cannot be understood

the agents have snuck into the basement office that rightfully belongs to them, but has been given to spender and diana!

clicky clicky those keys, mulder….

CSM NAME REVEAL: C.G.B. Spender. 

unfortunately, this doesn’t clear much up, as this replaces a 3 letter series of initials with a new one, but it is fun trivia for someone like me!

OH NOOOO!!! SKINNER CAUGHT THEM!!!!!!! “get up from the desk. get up, turn the computer off, grab whatever you took or printed out, and give it to me” ohhhh….. is he going to yell at them?

scully looks SHOCKED- are they going to be in trouble? but mulder is lowkey mogging over there, lmao

he says we need to go NOW!!! skinner had their back!!!

BUT NO!!! they run into spender!!! who says he will make note that they trespassed into his office in their dismissal report!!!

buddy. it doesn’t sound like your dad can save you at this point. 

speak of the devil, spender goes into his father’s office to tell him that mulder has been brought up to his superiors. and he and scully will be removed from the FBI!!! but now he wants to ask CSM a favor. 

he says he thinks he’s entitled to the truth about his mother. and CSM says maybe it’s better not to know. 

CSM says he needs to prove he can handle the knowledge, which causes spender to say “don’t try me, old man”, and CSM SLAPS HIM ACROSS THE FACE?!!!! he says he gave him the job, which he cannot even do, and spender replies “keeping fox mulder down is not a job, it’s your dirty work” and CSM SLAPS HIM AGAIN!!! HARDER!!!

“you pale to fox mulder” <- OHHHHHHHHH. those are fighting words. 

mulder is back at the gym. and scully comes in!!! with a big box!!!! while he dribbles!!!! 

unemployment activities for them <3

“scully, you wanna go one-on-one? we’ve got nothing but time now that we’re on administrative leave” <- LMAOOO

“aren’t you curious what i’ve got in the box?” yeah, that is so Them. that whole exchange is them boiled down into 2 lines.

they’re going through top secret content in this random gym. good for them!!!

what is in the box...? it’s a photo of CSM and mr. mulder!!! in 1973!! she found out they worked together for 25 years at the state department!!

tbh, i didn't think it looked like either of them in the picture, but, you know. whatever.

she waits for him to say he’s ready before she goes on… oh scully, you are so kind… trying to give him time to process his whole world being rocked… <3

cassandra was first abducted november 27th, 1973- the same day samantha was!! 

and there are names connecting them, like nobel winner in genetics dr. openshaw!!!

CSM narrates that mulder was now armed with names and dates and he would learn their sins. his father’s and his own. 

CSM had one chance to save his legacy….

he gets out of the car to talk to his son. he says he has a new job for spender, saying he deserves a fighting chance. he hands him one of those alien neck popping needles!!! he says he needs to use that on one of the men in the syndicate!!! the one who proposed rebellion!!

i do not predict spender being able to hit that very specific spot and not get gassed by the blood that emerges… is this a death trap?

CSM says you are to talk to this guy and then put that in the back of his neck. and then he says “you can do it, jeffery”, which is crazy. the weaponization of his first name...

spender gets in the car, and krycek is the driver!! he says “watch where you point that” <- yeah, i bet you’re freaked tf out, ratboy 

is CSM sending his son to the wolves….?

krycek brings spender to the maryland house where the guy we saw before lives and got eaten by a faceless rebel… and spender goes to chat with the fellow. he rings the doorbell and gets an answer. he says his father sent him. so do these people know he's CSM's son?!

the guy welcomes him in, saying he has a message from the group. spender is eyeing his neck. he hands him a paper with a name on it… he drops it… and when he tries to stab the guy as he picks it up, he gets choked out!!

AUGH!!!! he rips the dude’s face off!!! but krycek comes behind and shoves the needle in!!!!

guess it was good he was there to make sure the job got done. now i want to know if people were shipping spender and krycek. 

mulder opens his apartment door for skinner!!! who is not allowed to talk to them, but is here anyway!!

mulder is in a sweater and jeans, and it’s super strange, but not entirely a bad thing. just unusual. he explains to skinner that there is a plan to make alien-human hybrids as a slave race once the aliens take over, and that scully found files with proof. yay, scully!!!

skinner is GAGGGGGGED to hear that CSM is spender’s father LMAOOOO!!!! he’s like, you believe this scully?!?

mulder’s talking fast, saying scully has her doubts about the nature of the experiments, but she believes that she was taken and used in them regardless of what exactly they were. and i would have loved to hear what her own answer would have been.

if cassandra was a successful experiment, why would she be in danger? skinner asks a good question. mulder says because the men who did the creating would rather kill her than let her expose them 

“she’s under 24-hour guard” “assigned by agent spender?” (a look of "oh no" crosses skinner’s face)

meanwhile, spender is still sitting there in the house in maryland, over the dead alien, watching the green blood gas bubble out (how is it not killing him?), while krycek asks if he’s never seen one before. and yes, people definitely shipped these two. i see it very clearly now, as krycek explains how hard it is to understand the existence of aliens, but he must accept the responsibility the knowledge demands.

“the great sacrifice by great men like your father” “what sacrifice?” “the sacrifice of your mother” <- OHHHH, krycek i fear you weren’t supposed to say that. or maybe he’s plotting. that man is always plotting. he explains she’s been the subject of experiments for 25 years, and when spender is shocked his father is involved, krycek hits him with the “your father DIRECTS the experiments” <- OHHHH SHOOT!! turn them against each other!!

spender realizes he’s protecting her so the experiments can continue, which is why he got placed on the x files. krycek is def trying to turn them against each other. and he calls him JEFF?! 

spender says he’ll be his own great man and leaves. 

there was a wild tension there. maybe there is a wild tension with everyone krycek uses as a pawn. i will be thinking about it at length.

CSM says he trusts no one. “treachery is the inevitable result of all affairs” okay, that sounds big and fancy! he knows his son’s disloyalty… and that he led mulder and scully to them…. and he’s talking to someone… asking if this person knows why he’s chosen them…

is it diana??? OH YUP, IT IS. she says she’ll help him, and it’s not too late to stop what has been started. which i guess is making sure the aliens become our overlords.

skinner is visiting cassandra, and of course, she is gone from her hospital bed. spender rushes in, and says “he” took her. 

she found scully and mulder??? somehow?!! and someone is now pounding at their door?? cassandra grabs his gun and says "kill me now. you have to shoot me…. or it all starts…" and he pulls out the gun… and tells scully to stand back…… scully says what are you doing, we have to protect her…?! and then the screen goes BLACK….

girl, WHAT! 

there is simply so much going on.

first of all…. i still don’t like spender. sorry. i don’t quite think they’re trying to give him a redemption arc per se, but i still think he’s pretty spineless. 

second of all… diana. i predict some negative consequences of her interacting with mulder. mulder likes to be all “trustno1”, but boy, does he love to trust people. hopefully now that he realizes he’s in love with scully, he at least won’t try to hold her hands again, because. ew. do not fall for her tricks!!! i seriously am warning you, man!!

maybe we’ll get some answers as to what brought her back to DC, though, which could be interesting. maybe she was specifically brought back by CSM for this very purpose. it wouldn't surprise me at all. does she think she is doing the right thing? or is she just going full evil mode?

i tend to be the defender of overhated female characters, but. idk. i don't really feel like picking up my sword to defend diana's honor. but i suppose i don't know the full story yet, so maybe i will want to do this eventually.

scully lugging that big box into the gym… yeah <3 she said "oh, i know a spot!!!" (proceeds to go to some obscure governmental archive and piece together a 50 year old conspiracy like she’s making a page in a scrapbook) 

and i love that for her!!!

and she was so happy to see cassandra again :,) when she turned to the nurse and announced that she was an old friend i was like “oh!!! 🥺” 

and then when she was giving mulder life-changing information, she wanted to make sure he was okay before she kept telling him MORE life-changing information... she is such a good friend <3

i love when mulder is a dweeb. what did he call his job? a "jagoff shoeshine assignment"? nerd! nerd! but he is a morally conflicted nerd, you see, because he wants to find the truth of course, but the truth seems to be revealing itself at a time during which many people want him in trouble. so it makes sense to be cautious.

and skinner! skinner was giving spender hell, but also was the one who had to tell him his mother was back, but then PROCEEDED to give him more hell when he was going on about needing to keep mulder away from her. lmao. and then he nearly was able to prevent the agents from being caught, but alas. he was too late. still, he must have a sixth sense for when those two are committing crimes and need to be stopped. the way they paused when they saw him, because they weren't sure if he was helping them or going to scold them...

i think this about covers all of my thoughts on this episode, except for on the weird predator and prey animal sort of relationship going on between krycek and spender, which is its own beast. curious to see where it goes, and if mulder really does indeed shoot cassandra. and if diana will really become the disciple of CSM.

[zee-has-commitment-issues]

Young Royals Characters as Short 'n' Sweet Songs

this post came to me in a dream but I can't not do it now, so buckle up. No audios for Please Please Please or Espresso because you know exactly which songs those are and you do not need the sample lol.

Taste - Simon

oh I leave quite an impression - In fact he does. you're wondering why half his clothes went missing, my body's where they're at - shout out Simon wearing Wilhelm's blue/green sweater in season 3, shout out the stolen orange sweater in season 2. you'll just have to taste me when he's kissing you - that whole thing where Wilhelm literally told Felice he kissed her to see if it was like kissing Simon. I've been there, done that once or twice - he in fact broke up and got back together with Wilhelm five times.

Please, Please, Please - Sara

Whatever devil's inside you, don't let him out tonight - she in fact dated the worst person on the planet. And please, pleasе, please, Don't bring me to tеars when I just did my makeup so nice - it's giving the valentines dance, it's giving the shooting range scene, it's giving the third year's dinner. I beg you, don't embarrass me, motherfucker - Sara, I'm gonna hold your hand when I say this... And we could live so happily if no one knows that you're with me - they kept their relationship a secret for a reason and she had the common sense to think twice about going public at the valentines ball.

Good Graces - Wilhelm

I won't give a fuck about you - Wilhelm doesn't give a fuck about anyone but Simon When I love you, I'm sweet like an angel - he is in fact the most bashful little guy around his boyfriend. Boy, it's not that complicated, you should stay in my good graces - we have many examples of why that is a good idea, see the difference between how he treats Felice and how he treats August 'Cause no one's more amazin' at turnin' lovin' into hatred - every single member of his family feels this line on a personal level.

Sharpest Tool - Felice

I know you're not the sharpest tool in the shed, we had sex, I met your best friends then a bird flies by and you forget - remember that brief relationship with August? Yeah... that. we were goin' right, then you took a left, left me with a lot of shit to second-guess - she thinks about Sara when she hears this line. You know it, I know it, her friends know it, the bus driver knows it. Everyone knows. Seems like overnight, I'm just the bitch you hate now - literally how everyone treated her after those Wilhelm rumors went around. Or when the school got shut down and for some reason everyone blamed her? Fuck everyone else leave Felice alone.

Coincidence - Marcus (stop booing I'm right)

Now her name comes up once, then it comes up twice -Marcus was in fact the one to bring up Wilhelm's name both once and twice. Last week, you didn't have any doubts, this week, you're holdin' space for her tongue in your mouth - Did someone say Valentines Ball? No? Just me? What a surprise, your phone just died, your car drove itself from L.A. to [his] thighs - lmao Simon claimed his phone died multiple times in order to dodge Marcus. To the point that Marcus went to Rosh and Ayub who then had to pretend they didn't know Simon was going to hook up with his ex. Oh wow, you just broke up again - oh I just know Marcus felt vindicated when Wilmon kept being on again off again after that 💀

Bed Chem - Wilmon (need I explain? No, but I'm going to anyway)

got me scrollin' like out of breath - Wilhelm stalking Simon's instagram... How you pick me up, pull 'em down, turn me 'round oh, it just makes sense - Simon in the hallway scene fr How you talk so sweet when you're doin' bad things - throwback to when Wilhelm dropped like a whole poem full of metaphors over the phone to Simon while high out of his mind. Where art thou? Why not uponeth me? - literally Simon at any given time. that boy is feral.

Espresso - Fredrika (could be Simon too but I'm trying not to repeat)

I can't relate to desperation - Season 2 Fredrika for sure. Season 3 Fredrika took that statement back. And I got this one boy and he won't stop calling - that "one boy" is actually Stella and her poem. he looks so cute wrapped 'round my finger - again, "he" is just Stella staring at her from across the room. My twisted humor make him laugh so often - throwback to when she stated she would be the surrogate for wilmon's royal baby.

Dumb and Poetic - Wilmon (I know I just said I wasn't going to repeat but this is my blog so sue me)

You're so dumb and poetic, it's just what I fall for, I like the aesthetic - Wilhelm and Simon are in fact both dumb and poetic. Both of them. Shoutout football field scene, shoutout Simon's song, shout out the Jubilee speech, shoutout Wille's song. You're so sad there's no communication, but, baby, you put us in this situation - every single music room scene in which they fight about something that could have been avoided by a singular conversation. Just 'cause you act like one doesn't make you a man - because they're not men. They're teenage boys and literally everyone in their lives just decided to forget that for some reason.

Slim Pickins - Nils (also Felice but I'm trying not to repeat)

Guess I'll end this life alone, I am not dramatic, these are just the thoughts that pass right through me - Nils is actually very dramatic, but he also probably thought this many times while he was in the closet. All the douchebags in my phone - in his grindr era Oh, it's slim pickings, if I can't have the one I love I guess it's you that I'll be kissin' - .... *cough* Vincent *cough* I'll just keep on moanin' and bitchin' - Nils 24/7 is bitching about something. He can't not complain about something. "Good job on coming out but it was dumb" BITCH JUST SAY YOU'RE PROUD FOR ONCE.

Juno - Stella

You make me wanna make you fall in love - good old fashioned pop love song seems fitting for Stella. Especially this line, because she is absolutely trying her damnedest to make Fredrika fall in love. late at night, I'm thinking 'bout you - "I scream your name every day, I whisper your name every night" - a real, canonical thing Stella wrote about Fredrika. Can't help mysеlf, hormones are high - that time she danced with Rosh and then pulled a 180 like a month later?

Lie To Girls - literally any girl in this entire fucking show

I'll go for lyrical examples to, but literally every girl in this show was treated so bad. The moms, the main girls, the side girls, the extra girls. Like, some of them were bad people, but they were still treated so bad.

No, don't say it was just an isolated incident that happened once - Felice when August tried to get back at her by kissing her best friend, then going on to date that best friend, and take that best friend's virginity. I've never seen an ugly truth that I can't bend - Sara looking at August. We love to read the cold, hard facts and swear they're incorrect - Linda. We love to mistake butterflies for cardiac arrest - Kristina. Girls will cry and girls will lie and girls will do it 'til they die for you - Stella, Fredrika, Madison, the background older girls, Sara, Felice, August's mom, Felice's mom, Kristina and Linda, the Headmistress, the replacement headmistress. I could go on. I won't, but I could.

Don't Smile - August

Don't smile because it happened, baby, cry because it's over - he cried a lot when he realized it was over with Sara. I think I counted him crying like six times in season three alone. My heart is heavy now, it's like a hundred pounds - and now he also has the weight of the monarchy on his shoulders.

__

So.... that was that. Let me know if you want me to do other albums like this lmao. I don't know why I thought of this.

[maxwell-grant]

Fuck it, can you expand on your thoughts regarding What Can We Know About Thunderman?

One of the funniest and most horrible things I've ever read partially because like 60% of it is just pages and pages of Alan Moore stating industry facts and names with the serial numbers filed off, and if you have enough comic book brainworms to be reading Thunderman in the first place there will probably be at least one or a dozen references here and there that will spring out of nowhere and hit you like a punch in the gut (the one I remember was the Jack Cole one). A lot of the stuff in Thunderman that reads as absurd funny parody or metaphors too stupid to be real are actual industry facts that Moore has knowledge of, and even the stuff that isn't you can trace a direct line of what exactly it's referring to or who exactly this is referencing.

This is a story in part about how horrible it is to be a sicko with comic book brain worms that is mainly understandable if you're exactly that kind of person. Besides all the references to real-life people and events, most of the modern stuff he's making up are still just as incisive and accurate because literally nothing changed, not even in regards to the movie paradigm ("At last he has attained a semblance to a religious figure. Can we stop now?"). Much of this is Moore dunking on Certain Industry Guys he probably knew and interacted with and indirectly bullseyeing on more recent guys, because a lot of these guys are the same. There are your extremes like the one con-goer here who is pretty much just Max Landis verbatim, but there's also so much that's brutally on-point for industry practices and writers ("What if we had Thunderman do something, and then something happened?") that you can fill in your own names.

It's also an incredibly personal and tragic piece because the core story of it, in between vivid descriptions of Greg Land's office space porn oceans and self-destructive daydreams and rolling catastrophes, is about a guy who deeply loves his art form, deeply loves the creators and artists who gave him so much for so little in his life, and deals with so much horrible toxic bullshit that the only way he finds to live, the only way he finds to not be complicit in the pigsty, is to leave it all behind and work the poison out of his system forever. Like he very openly talks about the protagonist leaving it all behind to go write the next big novel and writing that note, and the non-superhero ideas that will come after, as something that nobody is going to care about, but that he has to do. I don't think I could fully appreciate the sequence where he quits his job at comics and walks out of the office feeling better than ever, until I myself got fired from an incredibly stressful job that made a thing I love (video editing) into the bane of my existence, and no amount of money worries in the world could make me not feel at that moment like I was walking home to the sunniest day of the year.

It wasn't only how much better life was without comics that had startled him, but also how the comics business looked, viewed from outside. How small it was; how cruel and how ridiculous. All the warped personalities the industry either attracted, or else bent and fashioned for itself out of naïve enthusiasts who'd been expecting something else. He couldn't understand why he'd not bailed out of the business years ago, though in a way he could. Part of the answer was just plain human inertia, and part was the fact that, from the inside, comics people and their weird behaviour could seem almost normal.

Dan was grateful he'd escaped in time, though he'd admit that even that escape was qualified. Removing himself from the comics field was one thing, stopping thinking about comics was another. Constantly, he'd find his mind alighting on some decomposing gobbet from the mental garbage-tip of trivia that his career had left him with, when that was the last thing he wanted to be thinking of. He probably should have anticipated some sort of reaction - thirty-something years in any field would leave you with a lot of baggage, and especially an enterprise almost designed to be obsessional, like comics -

His fantasy that he could be a proper literary author, living miles from anywhere and shunning interviews like Salinger or Pynchon, had congealed over this last few months from idle dream to psychological necessity. He'd put his farewell dossier together, and it was published without eliciting much in the way of a reaction or response, but the important thing for Dan was that he'd written it. His lip was better and he could speak normally again, since, for some reason, having quit the comics world, he was no longer trying to eat himself alive. Dan was committed, now, to his new life, and there could be no vacillating. Change or die, those were his options.

And putting aside the fact that "Dan" is killed by the Vince Coletta stand-in and the story itself ends in a much bleaker and more horrible note, to me that feels like Moore being very honest, as depressing as it may be, that nothing else he ever does is gonna get the kind of buzz and following and money and praise that he did for his corporate superhero droppings, and he still doesn't regret one bit what he left behind, and he's going to make the weird magic lizard stories he actually wants to do until he dies and try to not think about superheroes ever again even though he will obviously never fully succeed. Not just because it won't leave him alone, but because it's a part of his life. He loves stories, he loves art, he loves comics, and if not now, he very clearly deeply loved superheroes once, and maybe he still does if he can put aside the sheer nightmare bullshit toxicity attached to them that he's dealt with. I'd even point to a recent occasion he did try just that, with the character of Captain Universe, who accomplishes maybe the only real heroic act in LOEG: Tempest when he stops an atomic bomb from leveling England and ends the story with his big heartfelt wedding.

LOEG is the dead last place you'd expect Moore to place a heartfelt send-off to his superhero work, and much of it gets obscured by that asylum sequence where he savages existing IP capes and the farcical elements of the team and other criticisms at the genre, but it's there, and it's maybe the only story that has a happy ending in the book even. With Captain Universe, a character who has no real history, Moore is able to put all feelings for superhero IP and the big two aside and do this platonic ideal of a superhero and the creative possibilities and hopeful fantasy of a superhero. He's willing to poke holes in the guy and ruthlessly make fun of his shitty allies and villains, but LOEG affords Captain Universe an almost shocking degree of dignity (plus the existence of the canceled Superverse, which was going to be a LOEG-esque project with superheroes done with Rick Veitch tying in to The Show, showing Moore had plans to try writing superheroes again on his own terms even after everything). I think Thunderman in large part is about conciliating these feelings with a large degree of autobiography.

That's one emotional core of the story, but mainly I remember Thunderman for being really fucking funny. The EC Comics hearing. The porn ocean odyssey. Stan Lee Stan Lee-ing so hard he nearly gets killed by gangsters over it and one chapter detailing his transition from person to Character. Marvel was all along a CIA conspiracy to promote radiation poisoning. The chapter that's entirely dedicated to Moore stopping the story to riff and review the Superman movies. This books swings widly and it's an incredibly entertaining read.

And maybe the most horrible thing about Thunderman isn't in the way it's protagonist meets it's end or in the final chapter or even *gestures broadly at all of it*, it might just be the chapter before Alan Moore drops his Superman movie reviews, because with it comes the realization that yes, Alan Moore has been to Reddit, and has looked enough into reddit superhero discourse to be able to plausibly imitate it, which means he probably has sat through at least one argument about him too many. The stand-out of that chapter is the bit where he's riffing on Cavill's mustache fiasco and the DCEU, but it also includes some bits that now read as pretty perfect bullseye jabs at the MCU's current state of affairs.

[legendary-defender-of-fandoms]

Because I’m stuck in the Rot, More Thoughts about Wreck it Ralph

I know, I know. It’s just a stupid kids’ movie about a bunch of stupid video game characters going on stupid adventures and making stupid jokes. This REALLY isn’t something worth obsessing over, especially with the myriad of dumpster fires that is The Real World right now. Who gives a shit about cartoons when there’s at least one active genocide, the US is going back to the Bad Old Days, and trillionaires exist?

But the thing is . . . I DO care. I care so much. And I know I shouldn’t.

I was the ABSOLUTE last person who should’ve liked the first Wreck-it Ralph. I knew no one in the cast by name or reputation, I missed the majority of the video game references (like not realizing Tapper was a real-ass game from the real-ass world until much later), and I only went to the opening weekend showing because I was excited for Paperman (the short that played prior to the movie, not the video game character). I told myself I was going to walk out as soon as the movie bored me. I thought I’d be there ten minutes.

And then, the movie started.

By the time the camera pushed in on the Fix-it Felix Jr. screen & we entered the world of the video game characters, I was glued to my seat. But it wasn’t until we faded in on Ralph sitting in his first Bad Anon meeting, pouring his heart & soul out to his fellow Bad Guys (and the audience) that I realized he was me.

I mean, not literally. Obviously. But as the movie kept playing, I kept feeling like someone had ripped out my soul & put it on the big screen. There have been other Disney characters I’ve liked or related to for surface-level similarities (She likes books? I like books! That kind of stuff).

But Ralph hit SO MUCH deeper. He was this guy feeling stuck in a role he wasn’t sure he was meant to play, feeling literally AND metaphorically out of place even in a world where he SHOULD have felt at home, tired of ALWAYS being compared to someone else and found lacking because HIS talents didn’t match the OTHER’S talents, desperate for someone, ANYONE, to see what he had to offer and say “You have value. You matter.” And there were other similarities - the short temper, the clumsiness/tendency towards accidentally breaking stuff, the gap in the top front teeth, etc. But it was the core of his character - feeling lost, being secure in his identity but looking for someone to see him & accept him - that truly resonated with me.

And the rest of the movie. I could talk about what was IN the movie, but I want to talk about what WASN’T in the movie. Like the Bad Anon scenes. It was silly because of who was there, but they played it DEAD serious in the movie. This was not a “D’oh hoh hoh, silly support group for silly people because mental health is for losers” scene - they paid support groups & mental health the respect they deserve! And it was inspiring that Ralph STAYED IN Bad Anon even after getting his “Happily Ever After.” Sure, it was probably just meant to be a framing device, but I saw it as mental health positivity. And there were spin-off short stories that carried the idea of Ralph staying in Bad Anon, further reinforcing the idea that support groups are helpful & there’s nothing wrong with reaching out for help.

And for a plus-size character, Ralph has a surprising lack of fat jokes aimed at him in the first movie. I think Vanellope has one line about him having a go-kart “hidden in the fat folds of his neck,” but I think that’s because she wasn’t allowed to say “Well, unless you have a go-kart hidden in your ass crack.” And there are scenes in the first act when Ralph is clearly too big to comfortably walk through the Niceland Apartment or when his tummy bulges out when he straightens his stolen Hero’s Duty armor, but I saw those more as “Ohh, this is a visual representation of how Ralph feels out of place because this world wasn’t made to accommodate someone like him and/or he’s not prepared for what he’s about to get into” as opposed to “D’oh Ho Ho, he’s FAT.”

It was just so refreshing to see a movie that didn’t go for as many cheap shots as it probably could’ve. Ralph was treated with so much respect in the first movie, and it felt so nice to see someone who I resonated with so thoroughly not being treated like the butt of the joke. The movie became an instant favorite, and Wreck-it Ralph took over a special place in my heart & my brain. On bus rides home from college I’d be on my laptop making music videos about Ralph & Vanellope (NOT SHIPPING THEM AT ALL!!!!!!! I used songs clearly meant to convey familial love like “BBBFF” and “You’ll Be In My Heart”) I eagerly waited for Disney to give us console games based on Sugar Rush & Hero’s Duty (and yes, I DID buy the micro Fix-it Felix Jr. cabinet when it was offered at Walmart, and if there is ever a full cabinet game offered I WILL be the first to buy it, build it, and set every record possible for a cabinet game). When Motorchickensmile published their Love Bug fanfic on Fanfiction.net & posted their art on DeviantArt, I was HOOKED! If that was the ONLY sequel we ever got to Wreck-it Ralph, I would’ve died happy.

Then Disney announced the official sequel. And like the rest of the world, I was PUMPED! A little confused because Ralph didn’t have anything to do with the Internet and it seemed odd to get the arcade characters out of the arcade, but I was hopeful. After all, the first movie was beloved by old school gamers, new gamers, and folks who only knew Pokémon (I.e. me). SURELY they’d know what they were doing with online gaming!

And then I saw the sequel.

There are a lot of scenes from Wreck-it Ralph that live in my head. I saw the movie at least 4 times in theaters, and when the movie went on sale I was there the day it dropped to buy it & put the digital copy on my iPod. But you know that scene when Ralph destroys Vanellope’s go kart while she’s stuck in the tree, and she’s BEGGING him not to, SCREAMING in agony as he obliterates the first thing he ever made that someone saw value in, the promise of her future, a symbol of their shared outcast status but still being worthy? And you can SEE the misery in Ralph’s face, how he HATES doing this, but keeps going because he thinks he has to for the greater good?

Yeah, that’s what Ralph Breaks the Internet did to my perception of Wreck-it Ralph.

Gone were any traces of nuance, maturity, introspection, or even basic intelligence. NOW Ralph is a gross idiot who is SUPER clingy to Vanellope, regularly abandons his game during arcade hours (which, in case folks forgot from the first movie, was a SUPER BIG DEAL THAT COULD’VE ENDED HIS WORLD & KILLED THE NICELANDERS), throws temper tantrums & blubbers like a baby when things don’t go his way. Ralph goes OUT OF HIS WAY to endanger Vanellope just to keep her close, and he NEVER holds himself accountable! The first movie was all about Ralph learning that self worth can’t be measured in medals, but in the sequel he is CONSTANTLY flashing his cookie medal like it’s supposed to mean something. Don’t even get me STARTED on all the fat jokes. And even BEFORE Ralph ruins Sugar Rush, you get the sense that while HE’S obsessed with Vanellope & their friendship, Vanellope is feeling suffocated by this relationship & is desperate to get away from him.

The press releases said the movie was supposed to be about friends growing apart and going away but keeping the bonds of friendship. But to me? The whole thing felt like Disney was saying “Hey, YOU. Yeah, the IDIOT who thought they LIKED this giant man-baby moron? You’re super clingy and stupid. Don’t bother making friends - you’ll smother them with your attempts to bond. They can do so much better than you, and you’re only holding them back. Now, who wants to watch us add insult to injury by stuffing this gorilla in a dress designed for a 14-year-old princess?”

Again, I don’t think that was the INTENDED message of the movie. But it was just SO mean-spirited, especially when compared to the uplifting messages of the first movie. Which I guess was inevitable for a movie trying to be about the Internet, but still.

So, yeah. I had to step away from the franchise. And it HURT! This story - this character - was such a huge part of my life for years, and I had to cut it out. There were periods of time when I’d forget about the franchise for a bit, or have More Important Things to worry about (like that global pandemic, the nut job & his cult trying to overthrow the US government, normal life stuff). But then I’d be hit with a thought about the first movie out of nowhere, and I’d be happy until I remembered how the sequel killed all of its goodwill.

To this day I still have mixed feelings about Ralph. I get excited when he & Vanellope are included in multi-IP projects, then get sad when I remember the sequel, then get mad at myself for getting excited, then get disappointed when I see more Vanellope merch than Ralph merch, then get mad again when I remember how badly the sequel burned me. AND HE’S NOT REAL!!! I’m being driven insane by a guy WHO DOESN’T EVEN EXIST!!!

When Disney announced their version of Animal Crossing, Dreamlight Valley, Ralph & Vanellope were two of the characters featured in the trailer. Two years later we got Vanellope, but the closest we’ve gotten to Ralph is an in-game chess piece. Meanwhile Vanellope’s getting some great interactions with Mike & Sully of Monsters Inc, with Sully taking a paternal shine to Vanellope. And now I’m constantly begging the Dreamlight Valley social medias for updates about Ralph. I’m excited to see him, but also worried because I don’t know if we’ll get the nuanced Bad Guy from Wreck-it Ralph or the clingy buffoon from Ralph Breaks the Internet. I know John C. Reilly won’t be voicing him (because he NEVER voices Ralph outside of the movies & Once Upon a Studio), but I’m also kind of hoping he will? I don’t know if I want my avatar to hug him, or punch him, or leave him stranded in the Vitalys mines, or love-bomb him with cookie medals, or just leave him off mode. I have a space saved right in front of my in-game house for HIS in-game house, but I might just spend the rest of the game on Eternity Isle so I never have to see him.

And again, this is all for some WHO IS NOT REAL!!!!! I know I have problems, I KNOW there’s SO MUCH MORE to worry about than an imaginary guy with ginormous hands! I WISH I could just not care about him, or his movie, or any fictional stories! I WISH I could go on a Disney Cruise and NOT look for his face in the Art of Animation wall art or in the kids’ area wall art! I WISH I could stop looking for him in Disney Lorcana, or mystery mini lines, or multi-IP books! But I also know I can’t. If I let myself give up on him, if I let Disney WIN? He’ll be Forgotten. Locked in that vault with no chance for redemption. There have been too many other characters to suffer that fate. Like Oswald. And I can’t let characters like Oswald or Ralph be forgotten.

[quietwingsinthesky]

You’d like the show Lucifer simply because the guy who plays Lucifer is hot as balls

oh you fool you have no idea the minefield you have just walked into that is my opinions on the tv show Lucifer.

for one, he’s fine, not really my type, but what was more interesting to me is what a handle he had on the character as written in the first few seasons (and hell, he had the charisma to keep me watching long after the show fell the fuck apart, if not to the very end.) Not only the charming-smug playboy aspect, but the incredible amount of anger boiling just below the surface. admittedly, lucifer’s my type of character, and not just cause he gets bonus points for being the devil, but. well. fictional characters who came out the other end of abuse not soft or easy but. fucking difficult to live with. he’s just kind of an asshole, for all his better qualities, and i love that about him.

and oh but if nothing else, i think i’d revisit s1 for just how well it Gets it. the cop show bit of lucifer was always the weakest bit, sort of rote but fun procedural drama (imo also at its best in s1 because of the tension chloe was dealing with in the workplace/with dan as a result of The Case That Went Wrong but it was never great.) but everything else? the way ‘lucifer goes to therapy’ could play both humorously and also for serious drama? that was fantastic. and s1 didn’t feel the need to pull its punches about what was happening here: this is the devil, and what god did to him was wrong and fucked him up.

which is. you know. more than the later show can say about itself or the takes it had on the dynamic between lucifer & god. (if i think about the way the show slowly began to dismiss lucifer’s trauma as it went on, how by the time we got to. what, s5? and we have a scene where god himself describes lucifer’s fall as a temper tantrum, it’s not a moment of horrifying dissonance between what we know about how lucifer was hurt vs how his father is portraying it, but a moment where we’re meant to laugh and agree, yeah, it probably was, lucifer is so dramatic and god is right. and if i think about that coinciding with the show removing lucifer’s agency in the bad shit he did do, literally just having a different character act the role of the devil and removing the whole point of a show about what the devil has to do for redemption- i get quite frustrated. is what im saying.)

s1 left scenes seared onto my fucking brain, though. the show just. Got it. in a lot of ways that i think were lost, especially after the netflix buy-out. early lucifer is so fucking good at fantastical events as allegory for abuse. i cannot get the scene of linda deadnaming him out of my head. (which is just. what’s happening. like lucifer may not canonically be trans (and their commitment to even making him pan as advertised was :/) but oh my god. we just Have a scene of him being deadnamed and its painfully fucking real.) because on the surface, we’re literally just saying fun biblical facts, hey did you know the devil was also called this, once? but the way lucifer reacts to his name, to linda trying to tell him that no maybe god did love the devil, and the way that builds up until it explodes. violently. and he just. flees. tries to literally cover it up. its a good fucking scene. someone in that writer’s room has been trapped with a therapist getting all their information from your family and not listening to you, i swear, because i don’t know how you could get it that accurately stressful without the experience.

or or or. wing scar scene can we TALK about the wing scar scene ive been dying to talk about the wing scar scene. because now it’s not only us the audience reading between the lines of the metaphor to understand lucifer but chloe herself. the wing scars are, in canon, a result of lucifer choosing to cut them off

(and we gotta at least mention what a radical crossover of self-harm and self-determination that act is, esp combined with him keeping them locked up and later burning them completely, and how later seasons dIDNT GET THE POINT AND JUST GAVE HIM THE WINGS BACK YOU DONT GET IT- (they almost did. too. one of the best moments later is amenadiel finding the many, many wings lucifer has to keep cutting off of himself because they grow back. it’s body horror, it’s one of the few moments where we get to see lucifer’s wings being back as the violation of his self and autonomy that it is, and then they fuck it up by going eh he just needs to accept himself and this thing that will forever serve as a connection to his father.) man i wrote a fic about this thats how bad it wormed into my brain.)

but the wing scars. ohhhh that scene. because the literal explanation isn’t what we’re meant to take away from it. it’s fantastic use of emotional whiplash, straight from sex jokes to chloe’s horror at seeing them. lucifer is quite literally honest about what’s happened, but to chloe, he’s dancing around something incredibly fucked up, hiding behind metaphors. and. well. isn’t he? however casually he tries to dismiss it, the scene still ends with him needing her to back off, don’t touch and don’t ask further questions. and. i mean, we’re talking about the guy who has fucked his way through more than half the city, hesitation over being touched is. not really something we associate with him. and yet. it’s a good fucking scene, the scars themselves are still rattling in my brain, and im never gonna stop thinking about what a loss it was that the show eventually started being all silly all the time rather than using the silliness of the character and his antics and him being Thee Literal Devil to disarm you for moments where we have to look in the eyes that Something Horribly Fucking Wrong Happened To Him.

(even the way lucifer himself is a character he’s constructed to live in means that chloe’s insistence that he’s not and can’t be the devil is true, if not literally, because the devil is both a persona developed in response to and labelled as such by trauma.)

i was never really in the lucifer fandom, per say, didn’t participate much. so i dont know how much my opinions on the show reflect other people’s. but yeah, my core enjoyment of it came from it being willing to lean into how fucked it would be for lucifer to have to exist as he is: to be both rejected and still beholden to his father’s whims. to have to serve as warden for his own mother’s prison. to be the devil and lean into it hard when the other option is to buckle under the weight of that role.

man. they had all the pieces. and then they lit the puzzle on fire.

[beyondthefarthestreaches]

Thank you so much for the playlist! I really enjoyed bloodstream, it sounds super good and the singers voice is addictive. Crawl away and Vermillion were also bangers.

If you have notes on your explanations of the songs I'd loveeee to hear it, wanna hear how you interpreted them!!

Okay so this is probably going to be a Wildly long answer so first let me say that I am SO glad you liked the playlist!! I had a grand time making it and I listened to it on repeat for a few weeks just to tweak and move things around.

Also: making the cover art let me flex my editing skills just a tiny bit. It's been so long since I've done anything like that haha.

Anyway! on to the lengthy answer:

Creep - Radiohead: This one is probably the most obvious one. Sort've the soft dipping of the toe into the idea that yeah this guy knows he's a little weird and feels like a loser and he really wants to be good enough for the object of his affection.

Bloodstream - Stateless: ngl I fucking love this song so much. The dreamy vibes, to me, feel like being high and - in this case - high off of another person. "I think I might have inhaled you" "you've gotten into my bloodstream" - THIS is the real start of the obsession. The first peak of elation and adoration. Their being together, part of one another is right and amazing.

Shameful Metaphors - Chevelle: Plainly, this one for me was all about "I fear your eyes closing." Now that he knows the elation of "love," the worst possible thing to him is losing the person he's obsessed with because nothing about his life up until them has mattered.

Breezeblocks - alt-J: This edges towards the darker side of things. He loves them so much, god he does so he's willing to do anything to make them stay. "hold her down with soggy clothes and breezeblocks, germaline disinfect the scene." And of course "Please don't go, I'll eat you whole" - Vore, anyone?

Closer - Nine Inch Nails: Of course, this one is a classic. The kind of fucked up, borderline creepy, lust - "I want to fuck you like animal, I want to feel you from the inside" - and adoration. "I drink the honey inside your hive, you are the reason I stay alive." (Additionally, the concept of "You get me closer to God" in-lore with the concept of Sleep would be fascinating to explore but I actually haven't fully dipped my toes in that water yet).

High Enough - k.flay: He's up again. They're all that he needs - "I only got eyes for you." What else could he ever want?

Heart-Shaped Box - Nirvana: And back down. There's some bitterness, some resentment, some acknowledgement that this "love" is a trap that he's fallen into. Maybe they've lured him into it, maybe it's one of his own making - he's not quite aware enough to be sure but they're getting the blame all the same.

Weak and Powerless - A Perfect Circle: This one is all about admitting that he knows that he's actually weak for them. Everything he is and does is about them - and maybe he kind of wants out.

Die4u - Bring Me the Horizon: So the part of this song that got me is uhh for sure dark but "'Cause the truth of it, you could slit my wrists, and I'd write your name in a heart with the hemorrhage" honestly had me on my knees about it. follow it up with 'This isn't love, this is a car crash" and the way it reminds me of the references to cars/roads/car crashes throughout Sleep Token Lyrics - yeah. ("If my fate is a bad collision and my mind is an open highway", "i was more than just a body in your passenger seat", "between the second hand smoke and the glass on the street", and the bit at 2:30 of Granite that sounds like squealing tires - anyway.)

Follow You - Bring Me the Horizon: This is worship and his desperation for them to stay (even if they don't actually know who he is or that he exists. oof). He would go anywhere and do anything for them.

Crawl Away - TOOL: Aaand right into the deep dark. The fracture in his mind when they refuse him and try to get away - because he doesn't fucking care if they don't want to be with him. They're his, no matter what they do. He loves them and he'd kill them before letting them leave.

Ana's Song (Open Fire) - Silverchair: He's a little sorry. He still needs them so badly, even if they're killing him. Even if they're killing each other.

The Greatest View - Silverchair: Honestly, this one's pretty straightforward. Little stalker guy, just following. Just watching. Deluding himself that they want him back, that they see him, too.

Change (In the House of Flies) - Deftones: This is the impact he's realizing he's had on them, in a way. Where maybe they were naive or carefree before, now they know. They know him, and they know the fear excitement. They think about him now; he's sure he's always on their mind.

Vermillion, Pt.2 - Slipknot: Something I think a lot about is the way many obsessive stalkers struggle with their self worth because it's so tied up in the object of their obsession, and that's where this song comes in. There's a faltering, a misstep, one that's not enough to send him into the rage of rejection, but one that triggers his lack of self worth. He needs them, he wants them, he hates himself.

liMOusIne - Bring Me the Horizon, Aurora: I was annoyed that I wanted this song on this playlist; I really tried to limit myself to a max of 2 songs per artist but liMOusIne just would not leave me alone. He wants them to love him back - to adore him back. "I hope that you wrote all your songs for me, kiss the ground i walk, I'm a fool for you" and then the last bit post chorus "so lock all the doors cause I'm insecure" ties back to his low self esteem. Of course, there's also all the shivery, squirmy, obsessive bits "do you like the way your skin crawls," "I'll swallow the bile for you," "I'll tickle that spot for you."

Thank you for coming to my TEDTalk lmao.

[waxalas]

Hello! I love your fics. I was reading Just This Once again, and it was very bittersweet! How did you approach their dynamic in this one? I'm curious about why you removed Rem from the scenario and had Light directly killing L. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

I'm looking forward to the next We're Here Now and Somniloquy updates. Thanks for publishing your work! <3

Thank you OP for your question :)

It is time for: the Just This Once backstory.

I wrote JTO in bed, after staring at this fanart by @thanatelle, and I was trying to make sense of how Light could have killed L if they loved each other that much.

I’d been writing WHN but was burning out on it, and my mind was starting to wander. WHN is quite soft, and it has a happy endgame, so I wanted to write something else. Something tragic.

Lawlight to me is about two isolated guys finding something in each other for the first time. It can be love. It can be excitement. It can be a reason to keep going. It can be a new understanding of who you are. Who you've been. And who you might want to become.

JTO focuses on understanding. But they are so engrossed in each other, and what they think they understand... What are the things that they misunderstood along the way? Because after all the lies, does the truth morph, and become something else entirely?

I love lawlight and the instant connection it represents, the seemingly perfect understanding of each other, but if it's going to be a tragedy, there needs to be a flaw somewhere. I guess I made the flaw what they did not understand. About each other, and about themselves, because this feeling of connection is actually new for them.

I think lawlight is canonically doomed to fail because it’s new, and they are both emotionally immature. How can you expect them to really meet each other halfway without trying? Without effort? How willing are they to try?

In JTO, if they were going to kiss, I thought it meant they had to be willing to try, but if Light was still going to betray L, and if L was going to accept that, then they would only be trying for a fleeting moment, and without much conviction. In the end, they still prefer sticking to their original assumptions -- they cannot leave Kira behind.

Telling the truth is the method I chose to show them trying, but it’s not enough. They still aren't saying enough. Mostly to themselves. They are so enamored by this idea of finally seeing themselves in someone else that they fail to really see each other, and they skip over things they deem trivial, things they do not yet understand, missing what it was that they actually wanted.

I struggled a bit with the ending paragraph. Originally, it said “Like everything else, they don’t need to talk about it, and unlike anything else, this is much better.” But that’s the thing. Lawlight was never going to happen easily, by itself. It didn’t feel right, so I changed it to what it is now, and it’s the opposite: “Like everything else, they don't talk about it, and unlike anything else, for this they needed to.” That's the dynamic.

As for Rem, I removed her because it’s just not about her. It’s about lawlight. I wanted L to give his name to Light as a sign that he knew Light would kill him. It's his truth. Perhaps it was just a metaphor at first. I don’t know. But he’d always known. And it was part of what doomed them. Rem was also a piece in the games, and JTO is about breaking past that to say the truth.

[sekhithefops]

The Best Games I Played in 2024

So, its been a crazy ass year huh? Great year to say "fuck this, I want to find a good video game and basically hide in it until the real world is less fucked up than the one with monsters and wizards and shit."

Well, as the year draws to a close and with that thought fresh in our minds now, here's my favorite ten games of 2024. A few ground rules.

This is in NO particular order of best to worst, this is just the ones that stood out in my memories this year.

This is for games I personally played in 2024. Some came out before 2024, but I didn't play them until now so it counts.

These are for the games I liked. Some will be Triple-A, some will be Indies, some will be full release, some will be Early Access.

There MAY be spoilers for some games. If this is an issue, exits over there thank you for stopping by.

Ready, here we go then.

Final Fantasy XVI

Having literally just finished this game at time of writing, I can say that it may well be one of my favorite entries to the series now and I cannot for the life of me work out why the fuck this game was so divisive among the fanbase.

I will say this is the darkest Final Fantasy has been story wise since the infamous Type 0 which literally opens like Anime Apocalypse Now, but it also has plenty of moments of levity to balance out the darker spots.

Its not Turn Based Combat, but it is combat directed by Ryota Suzuki, whose name you may recognize if you're familiar with a certain red-coated white haired swordsman with a fondness for pizza. Thats right, same guy who did Devil May Cry V's combat. If you enjoyed beating the everloving hell out of everything as Dante, you might want to consider this one.

But yes, I genuinely consider this one of my favorite entries out of the FF series now. I mean, it literally ends with you punching God in the face.

I'm not kidding, I screenshotted it.

Personally, I really had fun with it and I'm interested to see what the Seventeenth installment will bring... in about 4-5 years give or take.

Metaphor ReFantazio

Good year for RPGs from our friends across the Pacific wasn't it? Metaphor is a story about a young man named Will (or whatever name you gave him) who travels the world on a quest to become elected king because of a giant floating face in the sky telling everyone thats how it works now, while beating up monsters based on the works of Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch that, as it turns out, are the mad remnants of humanity following a war that ended the old world.

Yeah its a weird game... and basically Persona. But still a decent one.

Only complaint I had was that they didn't stick the landing and the final dungeon was such an ordeal I just said 'screw this noise' and went off to do something else. Sorry Will, looks like your country is screwed. Good luck with that.

Resident Evil Village

Yeah, I know. I just now got to Lady Dimitrescu and her big Mommy Milkers. Theres a lot of games out there and only so many hours in the day okay?

Still I'm glad I got there eventually. While I played through VII as well I found the villains from that one ultimately forgettable and the game itself... not bad but I'd played better.

Village however was absolutely the shot in the arm the series needed. The perfect mix of disturbing horror with the monster baby, the puppet creatures, and the like, and the campy batshittery with bombastic villains like Karl "Hillbilly Magneto" Heisenberg who is now a personal favorite of mine.

Outstanding job on this one Capcom, please don't fuck up RE IX okies?

Enshrouded

If you know me you know I'm a sucker for a good survival crafting game. Mix in RPG elements and set it infront of me and five weeks later the police call off the search and give me up for dead.

Enshrouded is a great title, still in early access mind but with a ton of wonderful ideas behind it and I'm very eager to see where the devs are going with all this.

A high fantasy game where you can focus on being a big burly warrior, a cunning rogue with daggers and bow, a mighty sorcerer, or a little of each as you try to rebuild the world and create your own happy little village to survive the apocalypse... with an actual village infact. Normally I don't like survival games with NPC supporters (I find they get in the way as often as not) but somehow Enshrouded did it right. Good job guys.

SPEAKING OF SUCH GAMES...

Nightingale

If Enshroued fits me gameplay wise, this is a game that fits me perfectly in terms of genre and theme, and potentially gameplay eventually.

I am a massive massive massive geek for anything fae-themed. Changeling the Lost/Dreaming? Hell yes. Seanen McGuire's October Daye series? Gimme. Pan's Labyrinth? Wunderbar!

I love survival crafting games as I mentioned above.

And anything with a unique clothing aesthetic has my attention immediately. MMOs get me with this all the time with WoW's transmog and FFXIV's glamour system.

So a game that's dripping with fae lore, a survival crafting title, and set in the Victorian era?

(art by @xhyperwolfx )

Yep, if I'm abandoned by the authorities for Enshrouded, then for Nightingale I'll be off with the faeries and won't reappear for a century like Rip Van Winkle.

Its not perfect yet, but the dev team is doing their damndest and after the last major update I'm very interested to see whats coming next.

Aces & Adventures

This one I had almost forgotten about, but just seeing it in my Steam list again makes me want to play it.

A card game RPG where you take a deck of 52 poker cards and, indeed, go on adventures using them. Pick one of five classes and sally forth to see the world with a lovely narration and a story that appears to be looping on itself with each retelling.

I'm best with the mage myself, but I'm kind of wanting to try other ones too. I can definitely say it's a favorite of mine now and one I recommend for gamers on a budget.

Palworld

And as far as I'm concerned Nintendo is just being a little bitch because PocketPair did so many things fans have been asking them to do for years that they had to pull out a bullshit lawsuit.

Palworld is an explorative game with survival crafting elements and collection RPG elements (yes collection RPGs like Shin Megami Tensei, Digimon Story, and ALL THE OTHER ONES THAT NINTENDO IS CONVENIENTLY IGNORING DO THE SAME THING POKEMON DO YES I'M SALTY) where you wash up on a beach, find a tablet, and then say 'eh, may as well catch 'em all.'

Then team up with them all, have them all help you build a base, have them all let you ride them around the world, have them all even pick up a gun themselves and watch a magical squirrel bust a cap in someone's ass.

Still in early access as well, but I have high hopes that they'll weather the storm of Nintendo's little 'waaaaah we wanna be king shit' tantrum and come out the other side better than before.

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous

I didn't really get into this one until 2024 and bigods I'm sorry to Owlcat for taking so damn long. An outstanding CRPG with a downright dizzying number of possible character builds with around two dozen classes and a dozen archetypes for each, a story based on the Pathfinder Adventure Module of the same name, and a well imagined Mythic Path system where you can literally play god by the end of the game.

Want to be an undead gnome? Well oogity boogity m'lads!

A half orc bard who is becoming a fae lord? Why the hell not!

A dwarven herbalist who rides around on a wolf because of his crippled back and makes healing salves out of magic plants? Godspeed ya mad bastard!

I kept starting over because I kept getting new ideas for new characters to be and come up with stories for and if you've ever glanced at my writing projects like Adventures in Azeroth...

... read my godsdamn fanfic... o_o

Anyways, point is, if something grabs my story brain that thing is basically going to live rent free in my head for the rest of my life.

Their follow up to this, Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader, wasn't bad at all... but Pathfinder was a lot more fun and I do hope Owlcat return to the world of Golaria someday.

SandLand

Out of all of Toryama's properties (miss ya big guy) I would never have thought SandLand would have gotten more than maybe a tiny mobile game tie in.

Instead it got a huge explorative action RPG with some great voice acting (though they could stand the option to tone down the tank chatter,) a bright colorful world, and an interesting story that actually continues on AFTER the end of the short-lived comic series he did for Shonen Jump back in the day.

A surprise I had not expected, but a title I grew to love. I never got around to finishing it and I feel like I should really do something about that someday soon.

Pacific Drive

Easily the most unique and surreal game I've played in the past several years. You wind up in a bizarre exclusion zone where reality has gone all wibbly wobbly on you, bound to an apparently sentient station wagon, and now you have to customize and prepare it to drive across the ruined wastelands in the hopes that you can escape back to civilization.

And... thats it. Drive around and explore, avoid reality warping insanity, and keep your car in one piece as it is your only means of protection and conveyance.

Sounds simple, but its anything but. Hazards will do tons of hurt to your little four door (and indeed may reduce the number of doors entire,) you have to constantly scavenge for bits to repair the car, build tools, and new gear, and there's areas where if you stay out too long you run the risk of a rather unfortunate fate... though whether thats death via radiation sickness or being transformed into a rubber duck is a detail the game never goes into.

An outstandingly imaginative title that I recommend to anyone who loves exploration, or just always wanted to customize a car.

And thats my 2024 in review. Thank you for joining me, and here's hoping I get to do a 2025 in review before the downfall of western civilization due to a combination of climate change disasters, social unrest, and having re-elected an orange clown to the White House.

Happy new year everyone!

[hitomisuzuya]

Wanderer x fem! reader Songfic I guess? SFW. Self indulgent romantic writing.

a/n: Good morning, everyone. I did a piece like this before, but I wanted to touch it up a bit and write it a different way. I know you guys don't fancy my romantic stuff as much as my smut, but I love writing romantically about Scaramouche. Or in this case Wanderer.

I referenced some lyrics from the song Glassy Sky. The parts will be marked by a * It's by far my very favorite song from Tokyo Ghoul OST. It's just beautiful and romantic in every way. I love Tokyo Ghoul by the way 😌 Both the manga and the anime.

Also, someone else's name is attached to this one too. There is only person that can guess the correct name and even know who it is. @xxventiswindblumexx is the only one who will know like automatically as soon as they read this sentence. Right now, I know they know who it is😌. They have seen me write exactly like this about him before.

Enjoy. And props to anyone to knows what anime I am referencing in this one😌 I'll italicize my reference.

The sound of your voice drew Wanderer's attention from the sky above them in Sumeru. *"The sky looks so pretty. Like it's glassy," You murmured, stopping to look up at the sky.

Wanderer scoffed, but didn't say anything. Your voice is one of his favorite sounds in the world, and to him, your very presence had coaxed the moonlight to beam from between the clouds just to look at you when you spoke.

He guessed the moon was the reason for your glassy sky metaphor.

You suddenly raised a hand up towards the sky, reaching out with your fingers. "I'll bet if I did this long enough, I would touch a star."

Wanderer couldn't help but roll his eyes when he scoffed again. "No you wouldn't. The stars in the sky are fake, remember?" He crossed his arms.

You laughed softly. "Oh come on, Wanderer. Just because you can't see something doesn't mean it's not there," Your fingers seemed to brush against the sky, like you were searching for something. "I can see them, they are tucked away behind the imposters."

"How do you know they are really there? Hoaxes are made to trick people." He countered, not being able to take his eyes off of you.

"Wanderer, can't you see them? They are shining quietly in the sky. They are shining brightly for you. They want you to see them." Wanderer knew that if he had a human heart, it would be fluttering. Your tone of voice, it sounded so full of genuine love. Genuine love for him.

You really are pathetically romantic.

"I can feel one, it's right there, at the tip of my fingers," Your fingers seemed to brush against the sky again.

A suddenly uneasy panic gripped him.

Right now, it felt like the sky was going take you away from him. That if he didn't keep his eyes on you, you would be gone in an instant.

This world seemed determined to take everything from and leave him with nothing. The whole world was one big, greedy monster to him. Wanderer could feel the sky's intent to take you away from him as a punishment for scoffing openly at the idea of divine favor after he received his Vision.

He couldn't let that happen.

His hand reached out to snatch your wrist, taking your fingers away from searching the sky. He had to stop you from reaching out to the stars. Otherwise..

"Don't go," Wanderer breathed out quietly, pulling you against him.

"Huh? What's wrong? You asked, confused.

"Stay here with me. Please." He glared up at that glassy, fake sky. How dare those stars think they were even worthy of you. The thought was laughable.

The sky couldn't have you because you were his.

Until he had met you, *there were so many broken pieces of him. They were splintered and slivered, fractured. *Broken into to pieces that were easy scattered by the slightest wind.

You accepted him and loved him just way he was. You put those pieces back together in ways he didn't think were possible. You gave him a heart. Your heart was his heart.

You were love.

You'd even retained your memories of him after he tried to delete himself from history. When he left you as Scaramouche and saw you as Wanderer, he instantly started falling for you all over again, his feelings for you had never really died.

Wanderer had to anchor you somehow against him. He was going to be damned if he lost you again, especially to the sky and the stars of all things.

You felt his arms tighten around you. "Wanderer, calm down, it's okay," You turned around to face him, your fingers brushing against his cheeks and along his jaw. "Nothing is going to take me away from you. So please, stop worrying. I already promised didn't I?"

There it was again, that romantic tone in your voice. He knew your words were spoken with genuine truth for him and only him.

He even felt the truth in your words when you kissed him, your lips soft and honest, kissing romantic intent and love against his lips. Every brush of your fingers echoed the same sentiments, making his skin tingle with passion and true love.

You had this amazing ability to pour these feelings into something almost material for him to feel with your fingers.

It stole his breath away.

Celestia didn't deserve you. And neither did he.

But now that he had you, he wasn't going to give you up or lose you in anyway.

[jadevine]

Inching closer to the modern-day side of my Marvel fanfic's plot

So being a person who wears glasses all the time and has to deal with regular people's often-weird ideas about "not being able to see well," I've got three low-vision/glasses-wearing characters in my Marvel fanfic "The Lightning-Axe," and their powers will never really compensate for their physical eyesight.

Ulupong: Has glasses. A pagan Filipino merfolk prince who also shapeshifts into a cobra (hence his very appropriate name). Besides being a merman who can live and breathe underwater, his only INDIVIDUAL powers are "shapeshifting into a spitting cobra, with the subsequent abilities of 'being the second-most notorious snake in the Philippines'" and "being immune to a LOT of, if not all, poisons." Tends to be a melee fighter because THE BRO CANNOT SEE PAST TEN FEET, do you expect him to be an archer??? It also seems that cobras don't have heat/infrared vision, so this worked out especially great for me!

Sootz': Normal Mayan guy, was born premature and now needs glasses. His powers are "being nice to bats and trying to remove the stigma around them," which helps a LOT in the Otherworld when they end up fighting the Filipino sun-spirit called Araw and Camazotz the bat-god has to end the daytime so their ship can get the fuck away from him.

Araw: The one-eyed primordial Sun of the Tagalogs, implied to be a God-Tier mutant like Kukulkan / Namor. He has fuck-all to do with the Filipino flag as a colonial invention, and he would burn it to ash if he saw one. He lost one eye in a duel with Bathala, and in the story, ancient Tagalogs used to view the mortal world's sun as his other eye and he can't go back to the mortal world proper, or else he'll return to full strength and burn the world just by existing. His powers: Turning into a giant flaming eagle, being immune to most cold temperatures, being immune to most hot temperatures, healing most burn-wounds (but only those caused by FIRE, so ice burns and magical "burns" like the Infinity Gauntlet are out of his jurisdiction) metaphorically "seeing" the multiverse and knowing how a lot of things turned or will-turn out, and not giving a fuck what anyone says about him.

WHO can beat the Tagalog Sun, though? Usually proper deities and very powerful superheroes. The key thing is that he loses his fire-powers at night, so then he "just" becomes a hot immortal Pinoy seer. If you want to beat Araw with water, you need to basically flood the place, or trap him underwater at sunset with some gangster-style cement shoes. (Obviously, he won't drown--but it's gonna take him the night to regain his fire-powers, and by then you've had at least several hours to Run The Fuck Away From Him! He'll still have to LOOK FOR YOU!)

Once the group manages to beat him and he feels extreme remorse over attempting to kidnap Ulupong's girlfriend Lawin and trying to burn off Ulupong's leg, they find out the Sun is a very good ally and he happens to have a history with the Norse gods (in that he got banned from Asgard when Loki and Thor were about three years old).

Unfortunately I made a stupid decision by deciding to worldbuild Talokan's origins, so I've still got about five hundred years of colonization to slog through before we actually MEET these guys!

If anyone wants to check this out alongside my logistics-nerd and grown-up-horse-girl ramblings, please do!

[autisticempathydaemon]

Heya! Here for the match up thingamajig :) ty for doing this, it sounds really fun. go through this in your own time, i know these asks get long 👍🏽 i'll try to provide some useful information here lol Hm. Ok I get two of the mbti personalities on repeat everytime i take the quiz, either INTP (logician) or ISFJ (defender). Right now, it's ISFJ, though I'm able to speak my mind well enough. Idk what my enneagram type is. My friends have called me loyal, stubborn and strong on multiple occasions. Also that I have a "spine of iron", and I take pride in that. I'm the one in the party that pulls everyone in to dance. I love parties, booze or no booze. I'm a social introvert, if that makes sense. I'm good with a crowd but I don't make friends easy. I'm restless sometimes, it manifests as zoomies and tons and tons of art. I've even made art for the fandom :)

As for the song, I've had Rigamarole by ROZET on loop for a while now. Specifically the chorus, "' 'Cause I ain't satisfied, you ain't satisfied, You know I can't lie, You know I'm bored out of my mind, 'Cause I ain't satisfied, you ain't satisfied, Same thing, new day, man, I'd rather die."

My imaginary friend was the guy that leaped over buildings alongside the car :) more than just picturing him running along the ride, i used to pretend he was real and make conversation.

I like my name, but if I had to change it, it'd be Surya. The hindu god of the sun. I've always kind of taken the celestial body as an example for what I should do. To keep burning and keep shedding light, constantly. I like how you can't stare at the sun for too long. I love the moon, but the intensity of the sun speaks to me.

Now to the redacted questions : I lack appeal for Marcus tbh. Idk why, I've tried, he hasn't stuck. I'm platonically attracted to David Shaw, which apparently is an obvious guess. He's a big man in terms of capability, what with being the alpha to the most famous pack in dahlia. I don't wanna befriend him because of his power - I have this thing where I try to make friends with people who I think are better than me, people that make me uncomfortable in my own pride. I think he's capable of shaking me up because of how he handles intense responsibility alng with everything else.

My favourite playlist rn is my "current favs" one lmao. a bunch of screamo rap and trap rock. Idk it's a phase i think.

And last but not least - my guilty pleasure media is bf asmr 👍🏽

Okay, you’re going to think this is just because of the Sun and Sunshine metaphors, but hear me out, I promise, I swear there’s SO many reasons I want to pair you with Elliott-!

The way you describe yourself socially, the kind of friend you are, makes me imagine you and Elliott as just the It Couple, especially at parties. Elliott also strikes me as the social chameleon type who fits in well, balancing that intro-ambivert vibe of mood making and knowing when he needs time alone with you to recharge. It’s that lovely friends to lovers image of y’all being that couple that never makes anyone feel like the third wheel because you’re so genuinely fun to be around.

I also like the bit where you mentioned surrounding yourself with impressive people you admire, because Elliott is so cool. He’s, like, a government-contracted Defensive Dream Designer which must require skill, ambition, creativity, all that jazz. I can see that pairing well with you and your art. Imagine him taking you into dreams and helping you construct visual models of your ideas, bringing them to life for you to recreate, the two of you making art together!

Song:

Hush, hush, the world is quiet/ Hush, hush, we both can't fight it/ It's us that made this mess/ Why can't you understand?/ Whoa, I won't sleep tonight

I like this song for y’all because of the fun, “will they, won’t they”, undeniable tension vibes of it; like, the opening line is literally “I kind of want to be more than friends.” It’s perfect! I also think it’d be a fun party song for dancing, in my non-party going opinion, and Elliott strikes me as an alt/indie kind of guy, so this seems like the genre he’d like.

Runner-Ups:

I like Guy as a runner-up for you because I think he also has that restless energy and bright, sociable nature that would make y’all the absolute best party guests, However, I love Sam as a runner-up because one, “loyal, stubborn, and strong” is also how I’d describe him, Two, I am obsessed with pairing vampires with partners who radiate strong Sun energy, okay, there’s nothing like it.

note: thank you for your patience, I hope you like your results! 💖

Read this post and send me an ask if you’d like a match-up of your own! 💌

[fanghur]

I might have had a particularly crackish idea for crossovers, but spoilers for RWBY volume 9. Fair warning, it’s a doozy of a ramble.

So, the Danny Phantom fandom (Phandom) has created Little Baby Man Danny, which I think is initially @tourettesdog ‘s brain child, but add variations to the idea of it being a contagious condition.  

Consider, if Danny uses portals to other worlds, and being half alive/human, could infect other humans that have, in some way, shape or form, died before,

Example, since the Phandom is on a massive DC crossover kick, Jason Todd being bitten by a little black and white blur, and suddenly, Little Baby Man Red Hood

But let’s go farther afield, shall we? I personally love the Artemis Fowl series, so, Artemis, post Last Guardian resurrection, either doing something he shouldn’t, or something that just happens out of the blue to him (let’s face it, it’ll be funnier), and poof, Little Baby Man Arty, who’s absolutely feral. Everyone else is freaking out because even after developing Atlantis Complex, no one would expect Artemis to turn into a biting, scratching, no-thoughts little chaos creature, Ghost equivalent of rabies or not. And that he keeps hiding in the Fairy Roses, or even growing more anywhere viable for their growth that he settles on (which admittedly isn’t often). Even the most chaotic cat has nothing on a little guy that has ghostly abilities, genius intellect (at least in planning the chaos) and a new disregard for dignity or self preservation to everyone’s, but especially Butler’s and Holly’s dismay (like a fallen bookshelf would be what causes his second death? Ha, no)

The one that really got me on this train of thought, though, is Ruby Rose of RWBY after, well, the Ever After. Ascension, to me, at least, would count as death at least a bit, even if not in it’s base process than certainly with Ruby doing so in a parallel, if not outright, a form of suicide. Yes, it’s still a strech, but let me have this. Little Baby Man Ruby flitting around with her semblance + ghostly flight for maximum chaos, and reverses the whole ‘rest of the team got shrunk and are metaphorically and literally on her shoulders’ from v9, instead team WBY is trying to prevent their leader from disassembling any vaguely interesting weapons in a ten mile radius because interesting and devouring any cookies in an area twice that radius. Bonus for Neo, however you’d like to imagine her post-ascension, or just her appearing just to nope out at seeing this shit. Little Baby Man Ruby annoying Salem and/or Cinder into defeat because their magic ain’t got shit on a tiny ghost thing with Silver Eye anti-Grimm eye blasts the moment either look at her family.

Possibly my favourite part is how a crossover with all of these could work when shoved together. DP and DC crossovers are very popular atm, at least for the Phandom, RWBY and Batman (and the JL as a whole) have official crossovers, and Artemis Fowl also for crossovers but also just a long time fav. 

Listen, I just want to imagine LBMRuby and LBMArty becoming best friends without their repressing emotions or the weight of their worlds and legacies on their shoulders. Let them be little chaotic rose-themed creatures together!! Red Hood, tbh is more to connect as a connection to Batman (Team _WBY running into him again after whichever official crossover and just, ‘Red Hood and Ruby got turned into What?’). Ruby and Jason as Red Buddies, Artemis and Danny being a disaster duo that are both Prime Wayne Adoption material (in their normal forms), Ruby and Danny as Heroes, Artemis and Jason as Criminals, etc..

And the others! Sam bonding with the fairies and Damian over being vegetarian and being eco-friendly, Tucker and Foaly getting a rivalry over tech and their names (’There can only be one Foaly/Foley!’) and Oracle just hacks them both. Jazz taking only look at WBY and the Bat Clan and siting them down when things have settled a bit for some impromptu therapy. Butler, Yang and Blake talking shop about guns, drawing in Damien and Weiss when it extends to bladed weapons (and the Remnantian philosophy on ‘it’s also a gun’ for weapons), before everyone else is giving their two cents in non-lethal weapons.

And for how Little-Baby-Man-ism gets cured? Maybe it’s just time, maybe they swing by the Ever After and chuck them at the Tree for Ascension and free therapy, or maybe a trip to the Far Frozen since it is a ghostly disease. Maybe the others get ghost powers like Danny’s, and shenanigans continue in a different form. 

Like, Artemis gets a ghost form that looks more like the depictions of Fairies as the Fair Folk of lore, all graceful looking and ethereal, with orange roses integrated. Or he ends up like a vampire, though different from Vlad, and that becomes a whole thing. Also, he accidently turns intangible and falls until he lands in Haven City. No one is amused by the idea of Mud Men just falling into their city, least of all the Mud Man in question.

Ruby, ironically, has less of a rose theme when she develops a ghost form, but it leans heavy into plant-like with Tree-likeness instead, and her colours turning from red to the green-red-purple combination of the Leaves. Her arm turns invisible once and Yang uses it as an excuse for all the hand puns she can make esp. referencing her own prosthetic. (”Say that you’ll give me a hand one more time, Yang, and I’ll tell Dad to show Blake all your baby photos” “C’mon, Sis, just gotta lighten up” “was that a pun on my ghost glow?” “Nah, the flying” starts dialing Taiyang “Wait, Ruby!”)

Not many thoughts on Red Hood tbh, I’m not part of the DC fandom specifically, though I enjoy the content, but it seemed rude to ignore him. I’d rather not accidentally butcher him. 

New plants are grown at each of their homes, orange roses and a sapling tree with odd-coloured leaves each give Artemis and Ruby a way to fast-travel to each other’s homes, and Wayne Manor and Amity Park (Sam's greenhouse?) while Danny and Jason are stuck to ‘traditional’ portals. Maybe RWBY’s the only one from a different world, or the others are all from different Earths.

I’ve got a lot of thoughts, obviously, but fuck it, I’m not gonna actually write it into more concrete existence, as opposed to continuously rotating it in my brain. Y’all can take what you’d like, I just want to see if anyone makes anything of this.

TL;DR Give Artemis Fowl and Ruby Rose ghostly Little Baby Man forms alongside Danny. Also Batman’s involved ‘cause why not ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[andromeda-collective]

i have multiple and im going to mention all of them but im starting with THIS FUCKER HERE (blade from honkai star rail) AND I HAVE A VERY STUPID REASON FOR IT

there was an minigame thing with a character named march 7th (dont ask) and there were little events you could encounter throughout it and one of them was that you had to choose between a red and blue pill (or the third option of giving a nonanswer) and since my choice didnt matter at all i went with the red pill because i know that the matrix is a transfem allegory and i also hc march as transfem but then another character made a little comment that blade would ALSO pick the red pill which completely makes sense for his character but since i was still on the transfem allegory mindset i had the thought of "wait does this make blade transfem??" so shes transfem to me now 👍

estrogen would NOT save her. not even REMOTELY. he's a suicidal immortal who physically cannot die because of a ritual his old friend-with-romantic-implications tried who he now wants dead more than anything else. hes basically possessed by evil plants that revive him every time he dies and he goes fucking feral. hes a mass murderer with a bounty of over 8 billion. nothing can save him. but transitioning might make her miserable life slightly more manageable? plus i mean.. throwing your old name away and being a new person? obviously a metaphor for being trans /j

boothill! this is slightly for shipping reasons (turning a het ship wlw for funzies) but mostly projecting my gender-nonconforming transness onto the only southern disabled character i know of. are we different kinds of southern? yes. are we different kinds of disabled? also yes. do i care? absolutely not. (also because butch southern women make the world go round)

also sampo because the idea that this fuck is a cisgender ANYTHING is laughable. this is a nonbinary transfem boymoding for shits and giggles who randomly switches to the girl voice when talking to someone JUST to fuck with them because nobody else would believe them and the person would think theyre losing it. typical masked fool stuff. gaslight gatekeep girlboss.

and then from genshin impact: zhongli. who has CANONICALLY used shapeshifting to become a woman. and has likely done so on more than one occasion. this guy is CANONICALLY GENDERFLUID WHETHER PEOPLE LIKE IT OR NOT. and you can obviously be genderfluid and transfem at the same time so why the hell not :D

most other characters i hc as transfem i dont have much of a reason for, but im gonna list them anyways cause hell yeah

argenti (hsr) - she can have a little estrogen as a treat

dr. ratio (hsr) - no reason i just think it could work

sunday (hsr) - something something religious-trauma-and-giving-into-what-you-once-believed-to-be-sinful

diluc (genshin) - fanfiction on ao3 changed my brain chemistry

kazuha (genshin) - also no reason i just think it fits

sebastian solace (a game on roblox called pressure) - im gonna be honest with you op, i just like putting this fucker in situations. and i would love to see the struggle of medically transitioning when you've been forcibly had your body and dna altered to the point of no longer being human. even ignoring for a few seconds the thought that maybe hrt wouldnt have the same effect (or any effect at all) due to the experiments, how could you will yourself to alter yourself medically in any way after the horrific trauma you've experienced? its between fucking with your already fucked up body or having the dysphoria kill you from the inside out. i am rotating her in my mind even harder now.

p.ai.nter (from same game) on the other hand? a lot simpler. make the ai with guns a girl. also just a funny idea: you know that "put eyelashes on it to make it obvious that its a girl" thing? yeah. painter doing that.

^ TELL ME SHE WOULDNT.

i would apologize for the essay but you did say i was legally required to share so this is your fault /lh

anyways i hope you enjoyed the women

If you see this post you’re legally required to tell me at least one trans woman headcanons you have for a canonically male character, I never get to see transfem headcanons like that, give me them, and for equality of my own please know estrogen could have saved Insector Haga and Dinosaur Ryuzaki I will not elaborate, also Yuya.