#And built up a whole bunch of hype

[mintandcreme]

:)

[thethronezone]

Primarchs at the birth of their child

Mortation keeps trying to tell the midwives how to do their job. He's not doing it to be a dick but he really comes of that way. He's wearing those plastic shoe covers.

Fulgrim has the balloons, he's got the confetti cannon ready, he's documenting the whole thing. Probably has an artist in the room, making a commemorative painting.

Angron is pacing around the room and glaring at the midwives, freaking them out. Has to be escorted out so they can do their jobs in peace. Still pacing outside the room.

Magnus is so fascinated by the process that he almost forgets to comfort the mother of his child. Spouts a bunch of random fact about pregnancies, childbirth and the human body to distract them from the pain.

Konrad is freaking the midwives out but they are too scared to ask him to leave. He's not even trying to be scary for once, he's just super focused on the delivery and can't look away. He hasn't blinked even once in twenty minutes. One of the midwives are crying.

Lorgar won't stop yapping. Oh what a glorious moment! Praise God! Another member for his flock to guide! Asks if he can save the umbilical cord and the afterbirth. For religious purposes. Lorgar, you fucking freak, no.

Perturabo keeps complaining the whole time. Why is it taking so long? Are the midwives sure they know what they are doing? The room is not big enough. Grumbles when the midwives throw him out.

Horus brought the entire Luna Wolves legion with him, they are all waiting in the hallway right outside the delivery room. He's filming the whole thing, providing commentary like it's a sport event.

Alpharius is there. Omegon is also there, disguised as a doctor. In fact, every midwife just might be an Alpha Legionnaire. They are all pretending everything is normal.

Sanguinius is acting like he's the one giving birth. He's crying so much. He's just- he's just so darn happy. The midwives don't have the heart to tell him to calm down. Is getting weirdly hungry?

Vulkan is yet another one that has to be escorted out of the delivery room. He was just too damn cheerful and kept interrupting the midwives by telling them how happy he was and that he's so excited to be a father. Like bro, they get it, but stop shaking their hands.

Jaghatai is right there, holding the hand of the mother to his soon-to-be born child. His leg is also vibrating at the speed of sound. He's so damn hyped but keeps calm so he won't be thrown out.

Dorn is unhappy because the birth is not taking place at the hyper secure, secret bunker he built for just this moment. He's barricading the room for "security reasons". Was asked to leave but straight up just said "no" and they couldn't do anything about it.

Leman is another Primarch that brought his entire legion with him. He was also promptly shoved out of the delivery room cause he kept getting in the way of the midwives. Stands outside the door, whining, wanting to be let back in.

Lion just stands in the corner, unmoving, barely saying anything except every now and then when he tells the midwives to work faster. Is internally freaking out about the whole thing.

Roboute falls asleep in a chair, covered by the baby blanket, and only wakes up when the delivery is well under way and almost done. Please forgive him, he ain't gotten a good night's sleep in years.

Corvus is also freaking out, though compared to Lion, is much more vocal about it. He's already convinced he's going to be an awful dad and that the child will hate him. Corvus, please, chill.

Ferrus is trying to distract himself from the fact he's about to be a father by focusing on the tools and the scientific aspect of it all. He is also freaking out but refuses to show it.

[emilywaters]

Bluelock headcanons except it's femlock

● Barou is lowkey scared of tampons (same)

● From ages 5 to 12, Reo had only Smiggle stationary, like the full fruit smelling backpack, pencil case, erasers, the whole thing. She was the envy of all the preteen kids in school.

● Chigiri and Kunigami were the gay awakening seniors of their respective schools. Like that one older girl you obsess over as a kid and then grow older and realise you totally had a crush on her.

● Rin absolutely cannot stand hair in her face, like the only time her hair is untied is when she's washing it. She sleeps with it in two plaits.

● Aryu lowkey walks around like she's being filmed for an impromptu shampoo ad.

● Kurona has gotten in trouble for biting people, but in her defence, they were wondering if her teeth were sharp, so she's just being an immersive teacher.

● Nagi is permanently clogging the drains in the bluelock communal baths.

● Sae is really good at never have I ever by sole virtue of being absolutely boring.

● Shidou is really good at never have I ever by sole virtue of being exceptionally extreme in her achievements. She hasn't had her first kiss, but she has kicked a rock through the glass windows of 2 classrooms, a true two birds with one stone situation.

● Otoya changes her hair like every week; it's the world's biggest mystery how her hair isn't completely fried. (Hiori has a betting pool going, the most popular theory being that it's just a bunch of different wigs mixed and matched.)

● Bachira made those little paper fortune teller/chatterbox things, but all the results were really hyper-specific and definitely started a fight somewhere.

● Zantetsu was called a nerd once, and that was like the highlight of her year.

● Niko has glasses, but the sky will fall before she wears them (she also had an emo bangs era)

● Nanase tried to give herself bangs in the bluelock bathroom at 3 in the morning, hyped up by Bachira and Kurona; it did not end well (no one knows what the three of them were doing together at 3 in the morning)

● Kaiser 100 percent started rumours about ghosts in bluelock ("it was built over a prison cemetery. Why do you think it's called Blue Lock?") Ness is never sure whether to believe them or not, but you'll never see her in the corridors past six pm.

● There were edits of Karasu and Yukimiya to that one senpai song after u20 and during the neo egoist league, and no one in bluelock knows what to do with that information. ("Does that count as defamy?")

● "Dude, stop staring at my tits."

"Well, there isn't much else to stare at." - A u20 locker room conversation. Aiku is probably involved somewhere.

And the most important headcanon for last

● Isagi is a girlkisser.

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

arcane s2 - review

okay so now that i have given my two cents on caitvi and i've had enough time to digest s2 of arcane, what do i think about the rest of it?

overall, i have mixed feelings about it. i didn't hate it but i feel like a lot of the themes and ideas were poorly executed, especially compared to s1.

(huge spoilers to arcane below!)

but let me start with the positives:

the animation OBVIOUSLY. huge props to the animators, s1 was already phenomenonal and s2 lived up to the hype, animation-wise. the fight scenes especially were just *mwah* chef's kiss.

the character designs were great. caitlyn looks a lot prettier with the middle parting. vi's emo phase is really hot. jinx's designs in the alternate universe and the finale were iconic. jayce's beard and disheveled look was just chef's kiss. jesus viktor was hot as fuck.

the voice actors did an amazing job obviously, and i didn't expect anything less from them.

jayce's and viktor's relationship was so good despite not having all that much screentime when you think about it. they interact in the beginning when viktor wakes up from his hex-coma and then reunite and fight and make up in the final few episodes. but because of their relationship that was built up in the first season, it all worked out smoothly and made for a very natural progression in their relationship.

jinx's redemption was pretty good. not the BEST but it was carried out well enough, especially in just 9 episodes. i didn't feel like it was rushed or undeserved. her sacrifice in the end was heartbreaking but it felt natural and not shoehorned in for some added angst.

and now for the negatives:

1. the pacing was really bad, in my opinion. they had only 9 episodes but they stuffed in so many subplots into this season that it felt overwhelming.

maybe i'm just stupid but i couldn't keep up with half of the stuff that was going on and some parts of the finale didn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

like the whole storyline with mel and ambessa and the black rose was a blur to me. i honestly don't know what happened in the end after ambessa dies.

the whole deal with singed and vander and whatnot was also really murky. like i get the overall premise but it was really hard for me to grasp every single detail.

maybe this is just a me problem and i'm too dumb to follow more than two storylines at the same time. but s1 already had a lot going on and it was still a tad bit easier to follow.

s2 was just crammed with a whole bunch of different characters pursuing different goals and facing different obstacles, 9 episodes weren't enough to give all of it a satisfying conclusion. and as a result, some of the arcs felt rushed and unfinished.

like what happened to the whole found family thing with sevika, jinx and isha? they were beginning to get closer and form a good relationship but then suddenly, sevika is pushed out of the image and we never see how she reacts to jinx and isha's death.

2. while i don't think that caitvi is abusive, i still don't think the ship was great. it was just super rushed and there is a grain of truth to what caitvi antis are saying.

like yeah, caitlyn being an enforcer and seeing nothing wrong with it was.. questionable. wasn't the whole point of s1 that enforcers were ruining the lives of the people in zaun? wasn't police brutality and classism the main theme of this series? how come vi's parents were killed by enforcers and she was unfairly imprisoned for years by enforcers, but somehow she ends up dating an enforcer?

before s2 came out, i expected caitlyn to give up her job after realizing how corrupt it was. i thought that would be the natural progression of her arc, especially since she's seen how much the people of the undercity has suffered at the hands of enforcers. but nope, she keeps her job and it's never addressed in the end.

i don't think that caitlyn hitting vi once out of frustration and once out of necessity makes her a domestic abuser. but i do think it's kind of icky for vi to end up in a relationship with an enforcer, and for the show to frame it in a semi-positive manner. it's not entirely romanticized but the problems with it aren't really addressed either.

3. i feel like the themes of classism wasn't as well addressed in this season as it was in the first one. the first season had a strong message and it stuck to it. the second season was all over the place and then suddenly, there's viktor and the whole glorious evolution or whatever, and the conflict between piltover and zaun is pushed aside.

i like that sevika becomes part of the council in the end but is she the only one representing the undercity? is one person enough to speak for all these people in zaun? at least it's true to real life, i guess.

overall, i felt like the message was a lot more murky in this season. this ties to my first complaint because while s1 had a lot of storylines too, they followed a common theme. war, classism, and how privilege and the lack thereof affects people. s2's storylines are just all over the place and none of them seem to follow a theme. at least some of them could have been discarded.

4. i briefly mentioned this before but the fact that jinx stops experiencing her hallucinations never made sense to me. especially after she accidentally killed silco, shouldn't they get worse? it is implied that she has schizophrenia and c-ptsd so i really don't understand how silco's death suddenly got rid of most of her symptoms.

she still sees and hears the hallucinations from time to time and her mental state is definitely far from stable, but it was still such a huge jump from her psychotic breakdown in the s1 finale.

so yeah, these are my thoughts about arcane s2. there were more pros than cons but the cons still outweigh the pros, simply because of how much impact they had on the plot.

i'm generally not one to demand more seasons or episodes out of a series where the writers have already told the story they wanted to tell, but arcane s2 was so rushed and so filled to the brim with different characters and storylines, i couldn't help but feel like it would have benefited from having more episodes to play everything out more slowly.

i still liked this series a lot and i enjoyed watching it, but i'm not blind to its flaws and i try not to be biased.

[whentherewerebicycles]

a complete list of things women can do in the universe of christopher nolan's oppenheimer

be sultry and depressed

correct oppenheimer for misquoting marx

be one-upped by oppenheimer because actually he read das kapital in the original german. sorry you're so dumb lol

tell oppenheimer he needs to get laid

refuse to believe he can read sanskrit

challenge him to read sanksrit during sex

seem unimpressed by him reading sanskrit during sex

sit in a class with a bunch of physics dudes

tell oppenheimer you're too silly and ordinary to understand quantum physics but could he explain it to you in very small words

drink martinis

be married many times, but nobody gets you like oppenheimer

drink more martinis

ride horses in the desert

cheat on your husband with oppenheimer. nobody gets you like oppenheimer

babytrap oppenheimer

have psychological problems

have an affair with oppenheimer

cast a sulky, baleful gaze at oppenheimer's wife while having sex with oppenheimer in an interrogation room in a scene so hilariously bad i had to excuse myself from the theater to laugh and write down a funny note about it to myself on my phone

get drunk in the dark while the baby screams

ask your husband (oppenheimer) to get rid of the baby. just take him somewhere. just give him to someone else

yell at oppenheimer for putting country over pussy. who does this great man think he is

ask where the martinis are

tell oppenheimer that nobody else can do this nobody else in this whole wild world he is the Only Man for the Moment. hype him up girl he’s gotta build that bomb

move to the middle of nowhere for your husband's job

point out that none of the men thought to add a kitchen to the houses they built. a woman needs a kitchen

be pregnant

type

kill yourself

have another martini

damage your reproductive organs by handling radioactive material

put up the sheets

bring in the sheets

wreck oppenheimer's career by being a communist

throw a glass at a wall and scream because your idiot husband oppenheimer won't admit that his boss shanked him politically

snark at the guy interrogating your husband but in a kind of confusing way that achieves nothing. you did your absolute best with that scene emily you were not given much to work with i do not lay the blame at your door

not shake a man's hand

it's happy hour somewhere girl. treat yourself to a martini

[outivv]

I’m so disappointed with the natlan teaser because like. Girl. All of those characters would straight up look better if they had even the tiniest bit of melanin don’t even lie hyv.

I’m gonna go on a fat rant here so below the cut, fair warning because it’s messy as fuck I’m just pissed off

No because how are you going to straight up take the inspirations, and clear liberties from Aztec, Māori, Qichwa, Nigerian, Hawaiian, Native American, And Mayan (according to this image from @ HYVboycott on Twitter highly recommend btw they have good info imo)

And then you’re not gonna represent them in terms of their skin color??? Yes there are pale people in all these countries and pale people apart of these cultures, HOWEVER the vast majority of people, or the native people are not typically fucking white. I am white and I literally am darker than the majority of the genshin characters, even in winter when I don’t fucking tan. Like the genshin characters don’t even look ALIVE for Christ’s sake. Hyv are a bunch of cowards who take inspiration from poc, and don’t properly represent them, even in their other games like honkai Star rail. Boothill is Native American. Blatantly. “Oh, no he’s not!!” Yes the fuck he is, his entire backstory is based off of native people, he’s also part Hispanic because the original cowboys were Hispanic people called vaqueros, his home planet in the original CN version of honkai Star rail is literally two native tribes put together I believe. He is Native American, and Hispanic, and hyv TOOK that inspiration and that culture and then was too much of a coward to AT LEAST make him tan. Don’t even get me started on aventurine. So it’s not just with genshin that they do this shit, it’s a hyv problem as a whole, but with genshin it’s so like… common, and genshin has so many issues that make it feel like a cash-grab kinda game, and like the devs are just spitting in our face CONSTANTLY, especially when it comes to characters, and representation. It’s so depressing to see a game that at first had so much fucking promise, now just be such a fucking letdown after like what? 5? 4? Years? Like you’ve built up so much hype, and lore, and excitement just for Sumeru and Natlan not having any representation like fuck off. Hyv CAN fix these issues, they just don’t want to and they have expressed that time and time again by making dark skinned enemies, and enemies with dreadlocks. They know that they can, they just don’t want to because they’re too pussy. And it’s not because they’re a Chinese company, I mean obviously I understand that there is a complicated relationship with tan skin and China, HOWEVER that is no excuse because genshin, honkai Star rail, zenless zone zero, and honkai impact 3rd are all worldwide games and they need to appeal to their WORLDWIDE customers, and I’ve seen plenty of CN players fucking just as pissed off that there isn’t any actual diversity for like any of their games. Plus other Chinese companies have made diverse games, like Dislyte which I’m honestly a huge fucking fan of because of their diversity. Having diversity would BENEFIT hoyoverse a hell of a lot, but they are just trying to appeal to greasy old white men who are the same men who have a tantrum while making a reaction video to a game trailer and go “OH MY GOD SHE ISNT GOT ENOUGH!! LOOK AT HER!! SHE ISNT SEXY!!”, “OH MY GODDD THEY HAVE PRONOUNS NOW!! THE WOKE SNOWFLAKES GOT TO THEM”, and “OH MY GOD ASSASSINS CREED IS MAKING A BLACK SAMURAI THE MAIN CHARACTER!! NOOOO THATS NOT HISTORICALLY ACCURATE!!” Because they’re all pathetic, and that’s who hoyoverse is trying to cater to.

Okay I’m done, this went all over the place but I’m so pissed off so fuck hyv, give them the feedback they deserve, have a great day.

[theinstagrahame]

It's a bad day, and I've been dragging my heels on this. But, I got a bunch of neat new TTRPG stuff in October, so here's what landed in my mailbox.

Break!! - A few years ago, I stumbled on some art on Twitter. It was fun, it was vibrant, and it felt inviting. I wanted to know more, looked into the artist, and discovered it was spot art for an upcoming RPG called Break!! So, I kept an eye on it. The book is beautiful, well laid-out, and really cool, so maybe one good thing came from Twitter*.

The Electric State - Tales from the Loop and Things from the Flood have been pretty high on my "To Play" lists for years. A follow-up, set in a similar (or the same?) world was kind of an instant pickup. Not as interested in the movie, but the game seems pretty rad.

The Geologist's Primer - I picked up the Herbalist's Primer when it came out, and was really impressed with the quality and care that went into it, so when I saw "That but for rocks" was in the works, I was definitely already in. Also excited for the follow up "Mushrooms next time".

Starkhollow Hall - I accidentally fell into a Gothic Fiction kick over Spooky Month, so the timing of this was perfect. I don't know a ton about the GUMSHOE system, but I do feel like what I know about it makes it a perfect fit for the genre. Gothic heroines (and I guess heroes) are at their best when they know there's a dangerous mystery at the heart of what's happening around them, and go looking for it anyway.

Forsaken - Kyle Tam is, honestly, a designer to watch. I picked this up because it was part of an Afterthought Committee project, which is a team I've also really enjoyed work from (my game Water Landing is built off of their game Cast Away). Does a better job of establishing a sort of grimdark/Soulsbourne vibe than some stuff that explicitly tries to.

Iron Edda Reforged - The pitch for this caught me immediately: Cyberpunk Norse Mythology. Tracy Barnett is another Designer to Watch, and I really like all of their stuff--haven't played the original Iron Edda, but have heard it on Party of One and really dug it. Was really hyped to see this come into being.

Electrum Archive v2 - I went through a Weird Sci-Fi phase this year, and the original Electrum Archive was an early pick for it. I really loved the world, the way each class worked differently, and the magic/currency/MacGuffin that it used. Obviously I wanted more, because the second book is here.

Alice is Missing - Silent Falls - My friends and I have been talking about the prospect of another Alice is Missing game since playing the first one about two years ago. It was a really memorable experience, partly due to the game's really compelling design, and to some of the in-moment decisions we made (I played the facilitator character, who starts the game having returned after a long absence, and another player immediately got pissed at them for sorta abandoning the group. it created an interesting play dynamic for the whole session)

Kill Him Faster - I picked up a previous Kovidae Games book as a lark: a collection of exercise-based RPGs. I nearly ignored their other stuff, but this had a pretty compelling pitch: What if time-travel was invented mostly so people could speedrun murdering Hitler. Since Eat the Reich came out, I've thought a bit about Hitler Revenge Fantasy as a genre, and honestly, I'm kinda into it. He was a loser, and deserves to be reduced to a video game villain and killed over and over again; so, yeah. Let's kill him faster next time.

Splat (issue 5) - I'm not usually one for essays and interviews, but this is a zine featuring and by some folks I really like and respect, and this one is packed with thoughts about the state of the indie TTRPG scene and industry from a diverse and immensely talented group. It's honestly a must-read.

(Already getting a few things for the next edition, but also feeling too garbage after the Clusterfuck Election to think about doing anything else today...)

---

footnote: * Technically, two good things came from Twitter. I also once expressed sorrow that I'd missed out on a limited T-shirt from a web comic artist that said "Sorry, Glenn, the only Beck I listen to has two turntables and a microphone", and the creator saw it and had an extra in my size.

[ijustreallylikecaptainamericaok]

stevescott for the ship bingo! i would love to hear more of your thoughts on them ♡♡♡

Oh, boy, okay, lol.

Okay, I realize some of this probably seems contradictory, but let me explain.

From a canon perspective, I don't need it to be "real" or to happen, because I've had enough ships go canon only to be ruined and Marvel in particular is not very nice to or good with the canon ships I do like and I just like playing with dolls in the sandbox, lol. All I really wanted as far as canon was for them to be friends, which we only kinda sorta got because God forbid the MCU lets me Steve have anything nice for more than two seconds.

That said, I do think Scotty having a big ol' unrequited crush on Steve is totally canon. For the record, I don't think TPTB intended that reading, but then they let Paul Rudd loose and we got what we got, lol. I mean, seriously, Steve and Scott have barely ten minutes of screen time together and most of the time Scott's all breathless and starry-hearteyes, hyping him up at every opportunity, checking him out, feeling him up, defending the honor of his ass, what else am I to think other than he's got a massive, stupid crush that he's probably had since he was twelve? Like, Coulson and Steve I can read as awkward hero worship, but Scotty? No way. That dude wants to eat him.

But on top of Scott's obvious crush, I think they've got more in common than they might seem at first glance. They have similar moral compasses and know what it's like to be punished for following them. They both know what it's like to lose big chunks of time and parts of their life right along with it. They're earnest softies, but also have occasionally dry senses of humor. They both have a case of "I'm gonna suffer in silence and hope no one notices," though it manifests differently for each of them. They're also both really bad liars, lol.

I also like to think (or at least how I tend to write their dynamic) is a each-has-what-other-needs type of situation. In that, Scott has a cheerful, nurturing personality that I think Steve would benefit from being around and Steve is a steady and safe presence that Scott needs. Another thing I firmly believe, they would be the slowest of burns, because 1) Steve is the world's slowest snail (affectionate) and 2) Scott would be second-guessing it the whole time because surely he must be imagining it, there's just no way, until the day Steve suddenly turns around lays one on him... and probably for a little while after that, too. Unfortunately, I'm not great at finishing long fics, so I tend to write them when they're either already together or right at the cusp of it happening. It's a shame because they really are built to have a bunch of 100k slow burn fics for them.

I think I'm gonna cut it off there, because I've already taken too long to reply, I'm sorry about that. I also wasn't sure what kind of thoughts you wanted, so I just went with what came to mind first, lol. If there's anything specific you had in mind, feel free to let me know. :-)

Thanks!

[gffa]

The latest ending of Ahsoka really made me realize one of the big problems with Felony's writing and why so much of the Masndo-verse and Felony's modern writing falls flat compared to OWK and Andor. Shock value. A BIG twist cliffhanger that leaves us all mouth open and HYPING up the next episode in hope and filling the forums with discussions in anticipation. Understandably, he can't write what we wrote in our heads for 7 days and top that. 1.

2. But once that shock is gone when the story has moved onto the next big thing, or you watch it again when you know what it pays off in, or watch the whole series or season again, it just doesn't hold up. It's empty. Vapid. Because it's all about the shock. The twist. The discussion. The hype fodder. It's not saying anything or adding anything. OWK and Andor was a lot better at that, without the use of the nostalgia baiting that Felony relies on. 3. It becomes an endless circle of low lows and high highs, while OWK and Andor both slowly built up to the crescendo of discussions and speculations and both have stayed in the fandom consciousness alot longer thanks to that. And because they have something to say, both to the world and to the viewer. While with the Felony and the Fraudrou verses, it's just a constant barrage of oh wow, moving on, what's next? ehh, it's over, let's move on.

I feel like one day I'm going to do a longer analysis on why exactly Filoni's writing feels weak to me (where I try to be more fair than I'm usually feeling about his writing), because I don't think he's without a lot of talent and there's certain things he really does get about Star Wars, but I think so much comes back to that he's a writer who is caught in a difficult position--playing in someone else's sandbox but has to now establish his own new corners of that sandbox and I'm not sure he's strong enough to be a big picture kind of guy when he works better in smaller focus. His work on TCW and Rebels is content that we do come back to again and again for analysis, during my rewatches of both those series, those shows hold up! But I think they're ones where he had stronger guardrails up, and he was forced to stick to things in one place. I think live action has been bad for Filoni's writing because of the way so much is structured, that there are multiple series going on and I feel like his writing doesn't have the patience to actually tell a story in a single space, that's why we get Grogu's story being split between The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, that's why we get Mandalore's story being splintered across Rebels, The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and now Ahsoka. We still haven't even seen half of the events that happen in the Mandalore bigger story! And you're right that he and Favreau both lean too hard on the cameos and echoes/rhymes for nostalgia's sake. And those reference points are often extremely fun in the moment! And I'll grant that the Luke episodes are ones I go back to fairly often, because I think there's some really good content in there about what attachment actually means. But I don't think it's that surprising, looking back, how quickly the Favroni shows fell apart for us and how it doesn't feel like they're establishing anything that can support a bunch of books and comics. I suspect that Disney's not allowed to have books/comics/etc. based on Favroni's shows because they want creative control over those characters while they're still actively writing for them, but also I look at the OT and the PT and look how much was built off those movies+TCW as a foundation, I look at how much you're able to still watch those and find new things to analyze, and I just don't feel that with Filoni's writing anymore, not since Rebels, not to that level, anyway. (I'll grant that I've been a lot more excited about the Ahsoka series and what we can say about it/find in analyzing it than I expected, I expected nothing but shitposts like we did with Mandalorian s3, but I've had fun with serious meta in Ahsoka! I was genuinely excited to come on-line after episode 4 and talk about themes and structure and how well Filoni did with that there!) Ultimately, I think Filoni (and Favreau) both have a lot of talent, but I think they're being pushed too hard to make too much too quickly and that it shows that they're making this up as they go along, rather than that they had a vision they've been crafting for years and any kind of idea of where they want the end goal to be. Like, yeah, Lucas wrote some stuff on the fly, he changed his mind about things along the way, but he had an end point in mind for his story, so the echoes/rhymes felt more resonant for me. Favroni don't feel like they have any idea where they're going and so much winds up feeling like shock value and self-reference for nostalgia bad for me instead of something that's Going Somewhere.

[lunion]

I had a friend defend to me that the fourth season os Star vs the forces of evil was good and that the ending was actually good.

This triggered a bunch of memories that are hard to explain, so I'll just paste my messages to him on the topic:

"Star vs the forces of evil is essentially two different shows taped together and unfortunately, the second show it tries to be is not nearly as compelling as the first one.

The first half of the show (Seasons 1 and 2) are mostly centered around quirky, yet good hitting slice of life comedic stories that revolve around growing and maturing as a person, mostly Star learning how to handle her impulses and Marco learning how to go with the flow a little more.

They had good chemistry, but it felt a lot more organic and even if they didn't end together as a couple, their relationship was nice and enjoyable to see it through.

It was very nice well balanced with action segments either for light fun or some higher stakes as they built up Ludo and Toffee to be these forces to be dealt with.

The second half of the show devolves into political drama, history revisionism and full ship indulgence/relationship drama. Almost every tool used in season 3 and 4 has been underutilized at best and squandered at worst. Starting off simple, Mewni is just not as interesting to visit as it was to especulate based on the little information we had.

Moving to mewni lifted the veil and the authors couldn't fill it with anything interesting. Another thing is that the political drama followed all of its beats, but honestly never quite landed when it came to actually making the historical parts interesting. It was either very formulaic or very cut and dry to the point it felt like they really were just going off hitting the "history revivsionism" tangent by accident and seeing where they landed.

And of course, while relationship conflicts are still part of a teenager's life, at this point I feel it was just being stretched to its limit to make for the most drama. Who the characters dated/broke up with felt more in line with "what's going to generate more hype/drama" than "what makes for good character growth/compeling storytellling".

Marco breaking up with Kelly offscreen after having a whole dedicated episode to trying to branch off from Star really feels like "Okay, what the fuck was that supposed to be the point, then?"

And then we have things like Star obsessing over Marco's stinky hoodie as if that wasn't creepy as fuck, the show failing to acknowledge the massive problem they caused with Marco aging to 30 and dating Star and how they just felt not like evolutions or continuations of their previous arcs, but rather revised versions of themselves in the hands of different authors, it really makes them not feel like the characters I loved, but a Ruin version of them.

The final episodes were just the nail in the coffin because any organic chemistry between star and marco was pretty much dead at that point and I was almost rooting against them and then they go to the magic dimension and destroy it on a whim despite all they did to save it, because apparently Toffee was right all along. The death of all magical creatures and the joining of dimensions is completely shrugged off and, if anything, that ending undermines Star's road to learning about responsibility of not indulging your whims just because you want to as Star and Marco forcibly unleash chaos on the now united dimension just so they can be together.

I don't know what makes an ending "objectively good or bad", but I know that watching the final episode of Star vs the forces of evil made me feel absolutely robbed from everything I ever loved about the show. Not for the episode on its own, but what it has built up over the last two seasons slowly tearing down the things I loved about the first two seasons culminated in the greatest disappointment I ever felt in media ever since I watched that episode and that frustration is worse than any frustration I ever felt for every bad sonic game, every bad RWBY decision, every bad Homestuck page, every bad fanfiction I ever wrote COMBINED if you didn't feel like everything you cared about was stripped from you from those two final seasons, then I can only be happy for you, but I also realize (the rather obvious observation) that you never had the same engagement that I had with the show, so it makes sense that the ending wouldn't cast "testicular torsion" on you like it did to me"

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Magic: Return of the Asspull

So the word on Twitter is that there have been leaked reports of a new anime called "Dragon Ball Magic". I'm pretty sure it's all made-up bullshit, but I remember thinking Dragon Ball Super was a pipe dream too, and here we are. So I may as well discuss the topic here.

The whole thing comes across like a modern day Dragon Ball AF, where there seems to be a lot more emphasis on hype and speculation than tangible evidence. For example, there's a twitter account dedicated to gathering all the information available about the new series, but all it really does is amplify rumors and fanworks. When I search for the title on Twitter I mostly get skeptics making fun of the idea, or true believers talking about the show as if it were objective fact. Like AF, there's a lot of excitement but no clear picture of what the the thing actually is. The only real consensus I can find is the following:

Dragon Ball Magic will feature the Supreme Kai

Goku will be turned into a child, just like in Dragon Ball GT

Geekdom101 talked about this once, so that means it must be real.

And that's why I led off with the screenshot of the tail-yanking scene from GT, because I was trying to find an appropriate image of GT Goku and the Supreme Kai, and... yeah, that's it.

The more I think about it, the more this feels like something an internet troll would come up with. Like, someone started with the stupidest moment in the worst Dragon Ball series ever, and built a rumor around it. Oh, and also the rumor namedrops Geekdom101, just to make it extra absurd. It's the sort of thing gullible people would flock to while everyone in on the joke would have a laugh over it.

I don't know enough about Geekdom101 to insult him properly, but I'm like 90% sure he's an asshole. Back when Twitter actually worked properly, I'd see his name trending and there'd be a bunch of people in the fandom going "Dammit, what's he done this time?" Does he have inside sources in the anime industry? I dunno, maybe he does, but I think he's got a credibility problem. I mean, he calls himself "Geekdom101", and his avatar is Golden Frieza with a pair of glasses and holding a lightsaber. His YouTube videos look like a clickbait parody, with things like "Kai-o-ken EXPLAINED" and "WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR". Also plenty of what-if and who-would-win videos.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and suggest that maybe this is a guy who makes a decent living off his fandom channel, and when there's not much going on, he'll cobble together a story just to keep the conversation going and draw more attention to his videos. Which... I mean, if that's profitable, so be it, but if Geekdom told me water was wet I'd want to double-check for myself.

As to the rest, even if Toei was really planning something like DB Magic, there's no guarantee they'd actually follow through with it. Plans change, and even if this were 100% legit, it means nothing without an official confirmation and a release date. That "Superman Lives!" movie with Nic Cage was a real thing... right until it wasn't.

But I find the concept too vague and too specific all at once. Like, okay, it's Supreme Kai and a de-aged Goku. Why them in particular? What are they going to do? It just feels like something someone made up to get a reaction from the fans. GT likers are supposed to get all excited or defensive about a potential GT reboot, and other fans are supposed to get upset that the Supreme Kai got the lead instead of their favorite C-lister.

Compare this to the early reveals for DBS: Superhero. Toei teased a few details, and gradually it became clear that the Red Ribbon Army was back somehow, and maybe there were some new androids, and there was a lot about Piccolo and Gohan, so it seemed like they'd be a big part of the story. It wasn't a complete picture, but it made sense from a promotional standpoint. People were more concerned with the CG animation than any of the characters or plot.

I mean, anyone can come up with this stuff. I mean, my uncle works for Nintendo, and he told me that the next anime is going to be called Dragon Ball Snazzy, and it'll be about Vegeta and 18 starting up a private detective agency. Or... I don't know, Dragon Ball Jazz, which is a prequel series featuring a young Dr. Brief and Gine as secret agents. Wait, how about Dragon Ball Spatula, starring Elder Guru and Launch as they explore the multiverse!

And you know, I'd probably watch any of these shows. Hell, I sat through GT, and it was awful! The bar's pretty low when it comes to making a Dragon Ball project that I'm willing to try out. But people have been clamoring for Dragon Ball Super II ever since the first series went off the air in 2018, and that was years ago. This Dragon Ball Magic business just sounds like the same old empty hype with a fresh coat of paint.

Or maybe the whole thing is real, but my advice is: Don't get your hopes up. Life's too short to get worked up over things that might never happen. If it actually comes to pass, then it'll still be just as much fun whether you believed it ahead of time or not.

[not-goldy]

I knew the day I saw a video of Tk edited by tkk with Tae sitting behind Jk and it was a whole montage of Tk supposedly eye fucking each other in the monitor and it had 1000's of likes vs an edit of Jk sucking Jimin's off ear off at Rosebowl and him bragging about his Hickey Jm gave him and it had half the likes, showed me exactly what this fandom is. A bunch of scared homophobes, who'd rather pretend to be queer supporters and hype two men they know who aren't together deep down, then actually support the two obvious queers who are so into each other times, it was hard for them to contain themselves. And that sums it up. Cause why is it the two obvious queers who are clearly into each other, are the ones harassed by everyone and cause everyone sees it, they are also harassed for pointing out the obvious? And seeing how Jimin has never hid his queerness and at times, his behavior with Jk even had me worried he was gonna out himself for real, more then he already was cause he was so in love, is called the queer baiter and straightest member of bts by these people, while the same people claim Tae is the obvious Gay icon of the fandom who is dating Jk or Jimin, even though he was prancing around with his girlfriend for over 2 years in their faces. Army are scared of gay people PERIOD. Especially Jikook.

That whole ship is built on nothing but fiction hallucinations content creation and psychological manipulations of impressionable minds. Take the fake edits away and they have absolutely nothing to show for it

More grease to their elbow

[fudgetunblr]

Guide to Studenten

Idk if anyone has done this because I haven't checked the tag, but anyways, here we go:

Swedish High School is three years of education, where you have a specific area of studies. I feel like perhaps someone has talked about this before, so let's not dwell on it.

There's usually countdowns, 250 days, 200 days, 100 days, 50 days, blah blah before where there are theme parties. You don't have to go to these, not everyone does, but the closer you get, there's more parties. The legal drinking age in Sweden is 18. However, you can't go out and buy your own at Systembolaget (the only alcohol company in Sweden) until you're 20. This doesn't really stop people, unsurprisingly.

The hats are the white ones they wore on the show, and back in the day it was very simple, something like this:

however, nowadays there's a lot more design options. You can pic your own tinsel in the middle, many go for stones. There are specific colours for different programs, but most people don't care. You usually put your name on it, other things that are common: your class name, the year you graduated, some put their school, and at the back of the hat many put a little quote on the back. You can also customise the inside. Often you pick a few of these things and not all, because the hat costs a lot of money :3 I made my own really cheap tbh.

Mösspåtagning is a typical event where the students get to wear their hats. Because of covid, ours was combined with like a prom, but usually this happens before that, according to google, often outside or whatever.

There's a prom. But that's pretty normal.

Champagnefrukost or champagne-breakfast happens the day of studenten, where you go to one of your classmates houses, usually one who lives closest to the school, and have breakfast with your class. There you hand out the plates around the neck, aka the "class... [insert whatever, take clown as an example]. You drink, you eat, sometimes teachers will stop by. You get hyped with your class for the day.

Then you head to the school.

There's a photographer that takes a picture of the whole class and then individual portraits that you can later chose to purchase.

You meet with your mentors and say goodbye. They usually hand out a little scholarship thingy for the person with the best grade in the class. You write your name inside your classmates hats. My mentors held speeches based on Carola songs, it was pretty great.

Utspring - you're running out of the school. You've chosen the song/songs that you're running to, you dance around, sometimes there's choreography, to be greeted by family and friends. Because of covid this activity was limited, but traditionally it is fucking packed with people from all different programs, because the times are more stacked on top of each other.

Your parents greet you with a plaque of a baby picture of yourself, with your name and class-name. You take pictures, you get a bunch of stuff hanging around your neck like tiny champagne bottles, teddybears with their own graduation caps, whistles, other loud shit you can use at:

Flak - or flatbed according to translate is when you ride at the back of one with your class and blast loud music and dance around while it drives you around town. They're all in tow. There's a huge linen sheet on both sides that has been decorated with your class, consisting of the class name, the names of the people in the class and usually some funny quote or something. (I never got to do this because of covid)

After this you go home to greet family and stuff and celebrate however you want at home.

Then it's time to go out and partyyy. Usually you've booked a table at a specific event.

How do you fund this??? Well, over the three years of school you've built up a lot of money with your class through different fundraising methods. There's a service where you can sell cookies and another where you can sell clothes and shit.

There you go, it's not everything ofc, there are other traditions, and it's also important to note that not everyone does this. Not everyone goes out to drink, not everyone gets a flak, etc etc. But if we're talking very stereotypically here, that's the gist.

It's really fun (even if I had mine with a lot of covid-restrictions), and I hope this has given a bit of context to the new season of Young Royals (and probs the last episode where the graduation will be), and why they were so pissed to be missing out. (even if there are clearly specific school traditions that aren't custom for everyone).

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PRELIMINARY ROUND - THE LEGEND OF ZELDA - ZELDA

PROPAGANDA

Tetra (The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker)

1.) Wind Waker actually has a point with its misogyny and kinda condemns the misogyny. We first see Tetra as a helpless girl in the clutches of a giant bird monster. A pirate ship catapults a boulder at the bird, which drops Tetra on the hero's home island. We find out that young Tetra is the rough-and-tumble captain of an entire pirate crew, and the brains of the outfit. We later learn that bird monster has been kidnapping a bunch of girls to find the reincarnation of the legendary Princess Zelda. It is revealed that Tetra is the next Princess Zelda. Because she is Zelda, she transforms from a tanned pirate captain into a pale princess in a dress, and her role requires her to wait in a castle for the hero to finish his quest. Which is what she does. And the point of the story is that this is wrong! The villain is wrong, and the hero's mentor is wrong—they're both hurting children and forcing them to reenact old roles in an old story, in their selfish quest to resurrect their long-dead kingdoms. Then breaking tradition, (I believe) Wind Waker Zelda is the first Zelda to wield the sacred Light Arrows and to take up an active combat role in the final battle. The happy ending is that Zelda turns back into Tetra, and she and Link set out to forge their own future. BUT THEN. The cheap sequel Phantom Hourglass (the equivalent of a direct-to-DVD Disney movie sequel tbh) pretty much opens with Tetra being turned into a stone statue. And she's a stone statue for the ENTIRE GAME until the hero rescures her. Clear-cut sidelining of a compelling female character, smells like misogyny to me. At least Tetra's identical granddaughter was a playable co-protagonist in the next sequel, but arguably Tetra founding a new monarchal country named the same as the ancient one and then actively continuing the tradition of making Princesses Zelda undermines the conclusion of Wind Waker. Tetra possibly has the most personality and most meaningful role out of all the Zeldas, and she's far from the biggest victim of misogyny here—but still, let's remember that even Tetra deserved better than she got.

2.) Was built up as a super-cool pirate leader antihero who helped out Link. Then, as soon as it's revealed that she's that era's incarnation of Zelda, she gets magically put in the standard Princess Zelda dress (which also makes her skin lighter for Some Reason), and she ends up being sequestered in a basement for her safety until the finale, where she actually gets to do something again.

3.) Idk if anyones talked about windwakers sequel game, phantom hourglass yet so i will. Dont go into ph expecting a lot of cool pirate zelda action because shes a statue for like most of it. Shes a statue and you have to go save her.

Zelda (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of

1.) Oh my god. Oh my goooooooood. She was like. Ok in botw (I don't know). But then in totk, they COULD have had her take a more active role, especially with her whole sage of time thing and the era she was in not having a "hero", but NO. She barely did anything, and then in the end she ended up sacrificing herself (at least turning into a dragon is new. Like I don't really have a problem with the dragon thing but man they dropped the fucking ball with everything else). Like one of the creators literally stated that Zelda HAD to be the damsel in distress (rescue her from a crystal, a castle, whatever) and yeah, they definitely continued that in totk. Please just give a mainline Zelda a sword or an active (fighting) role in the game I am BEGGING YOU. Damsels in distress aren't cool, especially when you hype them up to be super powerful!!! She fucking deleted the Calamity from existence in botw you could have done SOMETHING

2.) WHY CANT I EVER HAVE A MAINLINE ZELDA GAME AAAA

I hope someone else gives good propogands but this is specifically about Tears of the Kingdom. So before it came out, I tried to avoid anything and everything about the game so I could go in 100% blind but I did see a few images of course because internet people don’t tag or algorithms lol but the point it looked like Zelda was the protagonist or at least a swap where they’re both playable choices and you can swap between them because she and link looked so alike and I was so happy to play her and was like as much as I like link free my girl from never ending Princess saving needing and it was happening!!

It did not happen and she was again lost and felt like a repeat of the last game where I need to save her (not exactly the same but COMEON)

3.) forced to be a magic sealing princess when she wants to do science and build robots

[mindlesslittlecreature]

Here is a list of things i personally enjoy

Genshin Impact

Genshin was my first gacha game ever i played, and to this day, i still love this game even if i dont play often cause of other games. I can play other games, but i can still like genshin impact a lot, even if there are better games to play

Hetalia

Ah, yes, my teenage days, how could i forget. I remember the days of going on to websites to Roleplay as characters from hetalia. I remember watching clips of hetalia while online school was required. As i got older, i tried to leave the hetalia fandom, but look where i am now back at it again

Honkai Star Rail

After a while, of hearing about Hsr and their rewards i got curious about the hype of penacony, so i downloaded the game, and i started playing, and i liked it. Hsr is now in my favorite gacha games next to Zzz Wuwa and Genshin. I also am saving for Boothills weapon.

Junjou Romantica

I remember looking up a yaoi compilation after being curious about what is yaoi. It all went from there, binging 3 whole seasons of Junjou Romantica and trying to look for fan content for junjou romantica. After a while, i saw a bunch of articles of people discussing why Junjou romantica was problematic cause of the things Usami did in the first chapter as well as the "power dynamic" that Usami and Misaki had so i left junjou romantica to be go watch other content. Now im back into this anime, and now i can say without shame that this is one of my favorite Bl despite its problematic content.

Needy Streamer Overload

I stumbled onto the music video called Internet Yamero, and i loved the song and the video. I saw that the song was for the game Needy Streamer Overload and wanted to check it out, but i couldn't afford it, and my computer isn't built for gaming. I watched youtubers play the game and got hooked to the premise of the game. The idea of mangaging a girl who can have a crazy desire for approval by live streaming got me intrigued.

Vocaloid

Hatsune Miku, the blue twin tailed anime girl who changed me and my taste in music forever. I know theres other vocaloids, but i dont wanna go pver the rest. These little anime singing programs made me happy and helped me coped with hard days. I have a lot of examples, but maybe some other time

[koskela-knights]

Random Koskela HCs

Headcanons partially based on what I've seen in the game so far, which includes some of the manuscript pages & the commercials (*Some spoilers ahead thus*)

Ilmo is the younger twin with an age difference of 3 solid minutes

Ilmo's entrepreneur & creative spirit is balanced out by Jaakko's no-nonsense attitude.

However, I like to think that Jaakko has had his share of wacky, wild ideas but happily gives Ilmo the credit for them since most residents already view Jaakko as the less quirky brother.

It was actually Jaakko who came up with the floats they can't show on television.

The Koskelas are inseparable from each other and also from their baseball cap and beanie.

They probably lived in Watery their whole life.

Ilmo looks up to his brother, even though he doesn't always say this out loud.

The brothers have a bunch of tapes with bloopers from their commercials that they watch when drinking beers together after a long day of work.

Every now and then, when the weather's good, they like to race each other on their motorcycles. It got them in trouble more than once with the deputies, but fuck the government and police!

They also like to make long tours on their bikes, taking in the views of the landscape.

Extended Family

Jaakko met his wife who was a tourist visiting Bright Falls. They had kids but in the end it didn't work out with them because his wife was a city woman, plus Jaakko's involvement with so many Koskela businesses left him with little to no time for her.

Still, he has an okay bond with his ex and a good relationship with his kids. They mainly keep contact through e-mail and occasional phone calls. During some holidays, the kids visit Jaakko in Watery.

When the kids were young, Jaakko's built them some toys and mini attractions (like a mini moose spring rider)

Ilmo tried his best to be The Cool Uncle but didn't always succeed where he wanted to. Being a smalltown resident, he was often out of touch with the big city customs and cultures.

Other random stuff

Although the local government isn't always too happy about so many things being owned by the Koskelas, it gives the town their fair share of income and it helps locals get jobs and keep a community feel.

Ilmo took evening classes to become an entrepreneur

He had to grow into his more extroverted persona.

Ilmo hates it when tourists pronounce or write his name wrong. No his name is not Elmo and he doesn't know who that furry red thing is. (There have been instances where Jaakko told naive tourists that 'Elmo' is the correct English version they could use instead)

Ilmo once considered doing tour guides on his motorcycle but Jaakko talked him out of it.

Angsty

Ilmo sometimes feels he has to overcompensate in his achievements. Since he looks up to Jaakko, who is his business partner and has a family, Ilmo fears he will fall behind.

Jaakko wishes his kids would stay in Watery, but knowing how shady the place is, he is glad they live far away from their hometown.

Jaakko was initially afraid to become a dad, but Ilmo hyped him up and supported him through the process.

No matter how many Taken they've killed, it hurts each time. Especially if they've known the person who got transformed.

Jaakko was the first one to kill a Taken, which he did after Ilmo initially hesitated which almost got him heavily injured.

Ilmo isn't superstitious, but there always remained a lingering fear that one day he would turn out like the historical figure Illmari. After the events of AW2, he blames himself heavily for Jaakko's death.

Ilmo has survivor's guilt.

After Jaakko's death, Ilmo can't immediately grieve, because there is still an evil to defeat, plus he still has all his responsibilities for the multiple businesses he runs. But keeping up a facade isn't easy.

Ilmo doesn't know what to tell Jaako's kids. How is he supposed to explain what happened to their father? The only "consolation" is that Jaakko's death was quick, he didn't have to bleed out or anything. Still, it was super messed up and Ilmo has nightmares.