#I love being in a show where I can theorise as episodes come out

[carbonatedcartoonist]

Shit you’re right. It really looks like Irving to me, so that’s who I thought it was at the time. But obviously that doesn’t make sense because Irving doesn’t come back to the severed floor until later.

But what if it IS Irving. His outie self is obviously trying to figure out what’s going on at Lumon. What if he found a way to get to the severed floor as himself and was snooping around 🧐

im making this face too. who the fuck is THAT . back there

[loki-is-my-kink-awakening]

Okay, I wanna talk about this scene and what it might mean for Loki and Mobius in S2.

Sure, they stood here so Loki could point at the panel showing all the Kangs fighting, and the full mural is meant to be the story of how the Time Keepers created order out of chaos, but what if it also means something else.

Let's look at Mobius first, then Loki.

Mobius POV

Mobius is standing with his back to a panel representing chaos and looking at one that represents order, showing the Time Keepers appearing as gods to shocked people below. Seems very religious and mythological, right?

Mobius had always believed in order and that what the TVA were doing, ripping people from their lives, was necessary.

He also has previously likened Loki's origins, which is literal mythology in mcu form, as similar to his own experiences in the TVA.

"If you think too hard about where any of us came from, who we truly are, it sounds kinda ridiculous."

Now, he knows the Time Keepers are fake, that he wasn't created by them. By this point in the episode, he's already acknowledged to B-15 that their gods are dead.

What he isn't aware of is who exactly was behind the curtain or that all-out war is coming. That's something Loki reveals to Mobius, showing him the truth in his blindspot (the panel behind him).

This revelation for Mobius feels pretty similar to how the truth was revealed to Loki in S1E1.

Mobius is also looking at a panicked Loki. He's seen him teary-eyed before, but not this distressed.

What Mobius sees before him is his fear, that Loki won't be able to escape the bonds of the sacred timeline, that he's doomed to die, and that pains him.

And one last thing. Loki is a god of mischief, and I can't help thinking about the comparison of a real god Mobius can see in front of him and the fake Time Keepers in the panel behind Loki.

Loki POV

Meanwhile, Loki is looking at chaos that scares him. The panel has several Kangs all fighting for supremacy in a pose that was similar to that shown by Kang in S1E6.

Loki is the god of mischief, who thrives on chaos, and yet the prospect of all these Kangs frightens him.

War is the only thing preoccuping his mind. It's the only thing he can see.

But behind him are the Time Keepers, and we know they are fake, but what if the truth Loki has to face is that while he no longer wants a throne, he might need to take it to save the people he cares for, his found family.

Loki is looking at Mobius, who's concerned about him and a little rattled, but ultimately keeping his calm. I think this calm is likely to fracture the more season 2 progresses.

What Loki sees before him is his fear, that Mobius will be caught up in the war and lost to him. It's a reminder of what's at stake if he doesn't restore order. And he's already experienced a Mobius who didn't know him, and that was heartbreaking.

What this scene also does is continue both Loki and Mobius being mirrors for each other, revealing truth and reflecting one another.

They are similar to each other in many ways. We saw glimpses of Mobius embracing chaos in S1, which I always love to see. And I can't wait to see more of these soulmates. They are important to one another.

And I haven't even spoken about all the touching, that Mobius doesn't want to lose Loki and Loki is just so desperate to get to Mobius, but I think other people have covered that.

Thanks to @lgwilt and @insert-witty-user-name-here for discussing this theory with me. I added in your glorious insights because what you said really resonated with me.

And just a wee note to everyone that this is just me theorising, and usually my theories do not happen, but I couldn't help pondering if this mural had an even deeper meaning. I just like theorising for fun.

Hopefully, the above made some sort of sense.

[peachjagiya]

https://www.tumblr.com/peachjagiya/758985707150884864/i-have-seen-a-few-accounts-say-even-jimin-knew-tae

“Whichever way, I feel like Tae has a bullshit detector. He's been doing this for a long time, right? He knows all the shenanigans. My controversial thought is that this one moment, the only one in the entire episode, is the moment serious Tae comes out to play. Where he doesn't actually seem that amused by it and his laugh doesn't quite reach his eyes. His "really? Why?" is in a serious tone that doesn't actually seem like his mood for the rest of the episode. It's the only time I think he's having to participate in a narrative and he's not here for it. I also wonder if it's annoying being told what it's like to sleep with your own boyfriend.”

So I have question: Why would this happen? Why would they do this to TK aaall these years?!?!?! Is this necessary to go THIS hard?!?!?! I genuinely do not understand!!!

Well I don't know if this is just me thinking negatively, you see.

I actually think BH really presented the whole thing in a natural kind of way and I've been so happy with AYS so far.

So broadly, in terms of why things like this seem to have happened before and why these narratives are in place:

It's good PR. I think all celebrities kind of have these simple stories to pull out in interviews. Maybe it makes good sense to have a curated public image that provides a smokescreen for the private life that exists somewhat seperately. Does that make sense?

It creates a distraction. If you adhere to the idea that there's a same sex couple in this group in a conservative country and their reputation is at stake, they might not want people to look at that. So a distraction from the truth makes sense. So Jungkook being in Jimin's room a couple of times maybe turns into "he's always in my room at 3am" and suddenly nobody is looking at the contrary evidence that he's been with Tae.

Tae isn't supported and his designated character is Weird Loner. This is kind of more troubling to think about but I do personally believe there's been efforts to isolate him in the story. Him being super close to Jungkook doesn't support that.

And you know, I don't think it's a tinfoil hat conspiracy theory that this happened. All of this worked. It did exactly what it was supposed to. There are people even now absolutely convinced that Tae and JK didn't spend any time together over certain periods when we know otherwise.

I don't know why they had to throw particularly Tae under the bus with it by going this hard. It's also put JK and Jimin in an awkward position. I also don't know how they don't see the Streisand Effect of it.

If this is what happened here, and I do completely think it was blessedly isolated in the episode, there's a reason for it. We needed to know they shared a cabin for some reason. Maybe they didn't actually share a cabin and that's not in keeping with the vibe of the show. Maybe it's something as simple as keeping up appearances. Even in a show that seems to be dismantling a lot of previous ideas, it doesn't make sense for your road trippin' besties to not share a cabin? (Even though late twenties and wanting your own space is pretty normal, I think) I don't know, just theorising.

I'd love your thoughts on it. I may have delulu'd too close to the sun.

Thanks anon 💜

Just a thought and unrelated to anon: I don't know why I've suddenly come over all insecure and nervous but I feel kind of bad for putting a negative idea out there when we're having such a lovely time with this episode and since Hawaii really! I try to treat this as my blog to say my genuine thoughts in but I do feel a lot of responsibility to say the right things sometimes. But with all the love in the world, I'm assuming everyone knows that if they don't love any of my energy, they can curate their space accordingly. Or possibly you've interacted with me enough on here to politely disagree in the comments and we'll know it's no big deal. I'm just yapping here, I guess. Maybe I just feel a little way about harshing the buzz with more "narrative" talk. 💜

[franchoucho]

The Apothecary Diares Season 2 Episodes 1 & 2 watch

Season 1 of Apothecary Diaries was one of my favourite shows in a while, and thats a huge bar considering frieren and dungeon meshi were airing alongside it. and while im not good at the typical fandom gushing or art-making for it, i Can give it the good ol' mystery analysis that it deserves. people who remember my umineko liveblog days, i promise im better at this now

this won't be a super-detailed recap, it'll be more me just noting down a detail that i picked up on then extrapolating what it could mean, and no doubt coming up with some very wrong theory. also gonna be making these notes with knowledge of the rest of the episode, or both episodes in this case. and with that being said

well I guess I gotta start off with an additional rule for myself: while the opening is really good, I won't be using anything that it's clearly foreshadowing as basis to theorise on, it's just flat out cheating. though we're already seeing details in it already showing up by episode 2

so. consort Loulan. bit of a tricky one to wrap my head around at the moment. we know next to nothing about this character outside of her body language, but we do see a lot what she's done. or rather, what her father has done. requesting a lot of maids, decorating her building in a lot of high quality goods. from the outside my first impression is that it that Loulan is just a figurehead for her father's own machinations. and adding a shit tonne of servants to the Crystal Pavilion that (i assume) were hand-picked just reeks of conspiracy, especially with one of the emperor's own children there. Though I have a different theory about Loulan that I'll come back to later, so put a pin in this

so, until a line later where one of the maids directly says that Gaoshun was the one to directly give them the books, I was sceptical if Jinshi really was the one who put the request in for these books. there could still be some convuluted way that someone else did in fact put the request in, but for now that doesn't seem likely. this just seemed like one of those details that would come around to bite Maomao in the butt for making a wrong assumption. the only other detail i noted here was that Gaoshun remarked that the books were well made, so maybe this is some ploy to smuggle something into the Crystal Pavilion that the book or cover or string is made out of, idk

and then there's this scene. like the opening, im hesitant to include it in my reasoning and theory crafting, since this is information Maomao isn't privy to. that break's one of knox's rules i'm sure.. but now I guess I'll make note that Shisui is sneaking out at night, and the framing seems to imply whatever she's doing is related to where Maomao the second came from. and there's a scene in the next episode i'm gonna talk about at length

love love love that this anime is constantly hammering in the political implications of everything, even a young child just going for a walk. this isn't really a mystery detail or anything, i just wanna gush a bit.

So! our beloved Maomao the second. seems likely that someone smuggled her in, and given that other scene that we the audience see that Maomao doesn't, I have a decent idea why. but i'll get to that when we get to that scene

just noting down here that the caravan is indeed connected to our Two Mystery White Women, and very likely under their control. just something to point out considering that the caravan did indeed bring some anti-pregnancy spices and perfumes.

oops, another scene that Maomao doesn't see. seems very likely that Lihua is also pregnant, and her head maid is being painted in a sinister light. i don't remember if this is the same maid that Maomao slapped for giving Lihua the poisonous makeup, but regardless I think it's a red herring to be suspicious of her. but put another pin in this, since pregnancy is gonna be a topic brought up later

as unsanitary as it is, the show is setting up here that there's technically a way into the rear palace through the sewer. though i doubt that they're like american cartoon sewer that could house a whole living space in, but i dont know why else the show would bring it up, especially since it brings up the idea of smuggling things into the rear palace later on

and again, setting up another idea, that of disease being spread and how the rear palace deals with it. aaaand because of a later Scene With Maomao In It we know that this is gonna be one of the mysteries of focus

i have nothing to observe that Maomao hasn't pieced together yet, but i do appreciate the narrative parralel with Maomao trying to save Gyokuyou and Lihue's babies, and now she's gonna be working to save their new pregnancies

so hey! Shisui! she's almost definitely working for Loulan's group in some capacity, likely gathering intel from the other lower level servants. that seems like a pretty reasonable jump to make. however, i have an even wackier theory to put forward, with like maybe two and half pieces of evidence to back me up

i think that Shisui is Loulan. either the Loulan we keep seeing in her own quarters is a body double while the 'real' consort hides among her own staff, or Loulan is sneaking out/allowed to disguise as Shisui. i personally think the former situation is more likely, since Loulan's dad has been making moves in the pavilion. but the second case suddenly gives her a lot of personality as a 'princess who constantly runs away' and would also motivate her to do a lot of different things

here's the very iffy list of evidence I have to support this theory: 1) as mentioned above, Shisui is pretty likely to have some sort of connection to Loulan and her maids. 2) Shisui's name is very similar to Loulan's father's name Shishou. I don't want to look up the kanji of their names in case i get spoiled hard from some wiki, but I'd bet a good penny that both names are written with similar kanji. 3) this is pretty iffy, but both times that Shisui met Maomao she didn't do a proper introduction or ask her her name. And why would she? She already met Maomao as Loulan back in season 1. It could be that Shisui is just an incredibly casual person and didn't feel the need to do a proper introduction or anything, but idk it still feels iffy. 4) Shisui and Loulan have a similar hair and eye colour. Yes, I know i shouldn't use this since the light novel probably didnt have these details, I'm going with this as proof anyway, it worked with Jinshi and his mom after all.

anyway, back to the episode

OKAY, JUST one more rant/hunch about the Shisui=Loulan theory. I don't have a map of the rear palace (again, too scared to look it up for spoiler reasons) but I bet if there was one in the light novel that Loulan's residence would be in the northern area. regardless of ideas I don't have proof of, it's still suspicious that Shisui knows this and Xiaolan doesn't. she explained it with her wanting to go there and draw insects, but. I dunno. still feels fishy.

regardless of my pet theory, Shisui dropping this idea does feel like she's intentionally hinting at it for Maomao to follow up on later. she could be more of a manipulator than I thought.

back to more patent-pending Maomao-less Scenes, we have a very sick person being attended to by someone with a lot of what is likey perfumes and ointments. i'd need Maomao's expert opinion if these are being used as a treatment for the sick person through aromatherapy of some kind, or if this is some sort of torture for them... or if the person treating them even knows what they're doing.

Maomao says it as a retort, but there's value to this idea that all these anti-baby herbs and medicines being snuck into the palace being intended as medicine instead of an attack on the consorts

by the way, remember Maomao the second? if the sick person is being treated here, then perhaps this is where our little cat came from. whoever is treating this sick person is could have a cat or maybe multiple cats around to keep diseased rats away. One of them either escaped or gave birth unexpectantly and one of the children escaped, and boom we have Maomao the second. this is kind of a weak idea, but it's what I got for now. as Maomao the first laments later in the episode, we likely don't have enough clues to solve this right now.

one last thing to speculate is why this supposed sick person is staying in the rear palace instead of just being sent home to recover. one idea is that the medicine they need for their treatment can only be found here in the palace, or would be cheaper to take from the palace. though that would imply that they were already hiding before they got sick, and it was just convenient

but another idea is that they're someone who cannot risk leaving- either a high ranking consort or official, OR. someone who doesn't want to be found. like Suirei.

and so the episode ends on the fear of a strong poison being in the tea. possibly the entire rear palace's tea leaves. though this is framed as a cliffhanger, so I imagine we'll be getting more details about it next episode that I can get a solid read on.

so that's the first two episodes down. my main grasp on the situation is that we have two currently relevant conspiracies going on: The Impending White Women, and our mysterious sick person. despite my ideas about our sick person getting treatment from the ointments and perfumes, I still the the caravan and foreign emissaries are most suspicious, especially if we're going with a poisoned tea plot for a while instead of the anti-pregnancy substances. as for whoever is taking care of the sick person, it's hard to pin them as particularly malicious, unless it actually is Suirei. i'd think it'd be a bit more interesting if it wasn't Suirei actually, because it would set up a moral dilemma for Maomao once she discovers it: put the health of this sick person at risk by exposing them, or put Gyokuyou and Lihue's pregnancies at risk by keeping them safe? speculation aside, I'm out of ideas for now. there's probably more details i shouldve picked up on, probably something in the Maomao and Jinshi tea scene, but I'm tapped for now. Now we just wait for episode three. If you have any ideas yourself, feel free to discuss!

[eviltiddyproductions]

finished atypical family and I’m an emotional ass. like tears following down, choked up, hating every second of it rn ( I finished the episode 10 mins ago)

the way I’ve not even written about it here but #trust that I will. i just have exams soon and i needed more than what Twitter allows to talk.

⚠️❗️⚠️❗️spoilers ahead my loves so skip this post if you haven’t seen it yet

I kinda get everyone now. A lot of dramas have made me sad and cry but I guess after a long time one has given me this variety of sadness and frustration and that’s the atypical family. 😭 Gwiju dies.

I did not anticipate this because my brain is hard wired into ‘thinking everything is always going to be okay!’ and the more I thought about it I came up with lots of reasons and theories as to why he’d be safe.

Now I’m always ready for characters dying or us getting a sad ending but I guess certain shows just manage to illicit a response out of you. That all my preparation for a just in case fell apart and I found myself just going ‘this isn’t happening, surely this isn’t happening’ while realising it was inevitable.

power of story telling and connecting to characters always beating my ass omg

anyway reasons my dumbass kept fooling myself:

1) I thought there’s no way that 2 people come out of a fire from the 5th fucking floor and only one comes out alive.

Reality : I clearly have 0 idea as to how people prepare for fire accidents and also had just assumed they were stuck in the room where she was locked. They escaped that room and the fire was everywhere, he managed to push her out of a window where they had that trampoline thing that protects you from these falls and the building explodes (I’m so fragile rn 😭💔)

2) I did not think he could get hurt in the past because he could barely touch anything in the past.

Reality : already flopped as a theory in the 11th episode as he gets his scar and proves he is now vulnerable while time travelling.

3) and the most important one was that I did not think they’d do this to Ina. I know this should be number 1 but I wanted to do the thought and explanation thing and how do you explain this. 😭

gotta give writers their tens. had me confused and theorising the whole show. had me by telling us in the last episode that the precognitive dream Mrs. Bok has can be interpreted differently and as Dahae had said I believed maybe she didn’t see everything.

lmaoooo the way it was real. they stuck to facts. Mrs Bok sees the future and it cannot be changed.

not only did Gwiju have to deal with the fire he had to deal with it TWICE.

first, we take one of the most beautiful days of Ina and the Bok family and throw a terrifying fire in there. Gwiju gets just in time to save them from a wall with a clock about to fall on Dahae and Ina and realises it’s going to happen regardless. Saves them as Dahae becomes my sit in representation in the show.

as the wall kept falling Dahae holding Ina was sobbing and begging him to leave with them and I truly got her because I wanted that with every fibre of my being 😭😭😭

I wanted them to be together. All of them as a family. How do you take a family fully broken by an incident, heal them step by step and then do this.

Dahae got someone who loved her completely and gave her a family, in turn her consistently being around Gwiju made him slowly turn around and being repairing his relationship with Ina. Ina got to have a few warm memories with her father, got Dahae and got a little extended family with the sauna people. Gwiju truly had the turn around of the century and boom, he has to travel in the past to keep all of this a reality.

part of me truly didn’t want that to happen. Dahae had said to her uncle in the 10th episode that what if he doesn’t go to save her, is she going to disappear into thin air?

I was kinda hoping the same thing. Then Gwiju came in and said he had to do it but would do it when he turns 99 and I wanted that so baddd.

and the next thing we know as Dahae leaves sobbing with Ina on her back, Gwiju travels back in time running, thanking his first wife, seeing his beloved senior enter that school and running through a burning building to find Dahae. everything was so over for me mentally here I don’t even think I’ve processed it yet like I just realised I’m basically writing whatever happened in the episode here 💀

anyway everything from here ohhhh it got me bad, him helping her, the background music as he said what he had to and looked at her with tears in his eyes and helped her out of the building and then it exploded….

I’ve truly been stunned into silence.

now as a little treat in the ending, we find out that Dahae has given birth to their son and he can bring back things from the past.

the clock wall being the realisation for Gwiju in Ina’s school fire that he has to go back, the focus on the clock and everything turning into colour as Gwiju runs to help Dahae in the fire 13 years back and their son, in the future (is he 5, she says she lost something precious 18 years ago?) playing with a ball toy that has numbers all over it ??? much to think about but theorising has hurt me with this show so low-key don’t want to do it 😭

(also Ina being missing from the final 5-10 minutes :( )

anyway, her son brought a ball toy from the past and then brings Gwiju from the past and the way they looked at each other broke me again 😭👎👎👎

a part of me wants to think they can be together but this moment was too fleeting. maybe it’s engineered to feel like a balm on your hurt through the episode but it makes me feel like she can see him here and there but not be with him. maybe a rewatch will make me feel better later.

i just wanted them to be together so badddd 😭🙏 feeling empty and tired and broken

they did such a good job though.

[orionsangel86]

Subtext Glorious Subtext! A Dreamling on Netflix analysis in The Sandman - Part 7

1989

You've given me shattered dreams, but I know you'll come back to me...

Here's where we step into unchartered territory - what is a show to do when its source material ends 33 years too soon? Apparantly lean fully into the angst, pining, and misunderstandings tropes that all good fandom ships thrive on!

After the disastrous break up of 1889, Hob is clearly nervous about whether or not Dream will show up to the next meeting. In both comic and show, he calls out that he will still be there in a hundred years, and if Dream is too then its because they are friends. Dream doesn't answer leaving Hob to wonder whether he pushed Dream too far.

In the comic though, Dream escapes from his imprisonment in time, and is able to reunite with Hob, having spent 70 odd years contemplating his past behaviours and actions in his solitude, and evidentally makes the decision to meet Hob and accept his offer of friendship:

In the comic, they reunite with Dream reassuring Hob that they are in fact friends, and it ends there. The next time they meet in Season of Mists Hob states how surprised he is to see Dream before their next meeting. There is no hint in the comics that they had changed their once-a-century date to be more frequent.

But the show changes all of this. Dream doesn't escape until 2022 so he misses his date with Hob. Instead we get to see Hob grow more and more concerned as he waits all day for Dream.

Whilst Hob waits, they show the passage of time by playing a mix of popular 80s songs, and although I know the fandom talked about this a lot when the show first aired, I can't not bring it up here because it such a hugely important part of the 1989 scene. Song choices in media are always carefully picked out. Nothing is unintentional. Producers have to apply for the rights to use songs in their shows and get those songs signed off and it isn't always an easy process, so song choices are always significant. ALWAYS. They are one of the principle ways we can analyse media and theorise about what the creators are trying to tell us. Every song choice has meaning.

For example, in Stranger Things both Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill and Journey's Worlds Apart are important song choices which reflect the emotional conflicts and journeys of the characters in season 4.

Our Flag Means Death also uses modern songs in an exceptional way to support the story and the emotional journeys of the characters. Using Fleetwood Mac's The Chain at the emotional climax for the characters in episode 8 was a work of genius.

Whilst songs specifically about love, romance, and break ups aren't always used for romantic character arcs, using three break up songs in a row for what should be interpreted as a falling out/misunderstanding between platonic friends is... unusual. Outside of comedy where the song choice could specifically be used in a humorous way (for example an overly emotional lovers break up song used for friendships in comedy could be a commentary on how ridiculous and overdramatic the two friends are being, with them acting like dramatic lovers being part of the joke.) But the scene in 1989 isn't a comedic one. Hob is genuinely hurting and Dream at this point is imprisoned. The song choices are therefore sincere. The message in the song choices should be taken at face value.

So please dear reader. Tell me what you think the following is supposed to be telling us?

Song 1: She Drives Me Crazy by Fine Young Cannibals

I can't stop the way I feel Things you do don't seem real Tell me what you've got in mind 'Cause we're running out of time Won't you ever set me free? This waiting 'round's killing me

She drives me crazy Like no one else She drives me crazy And I can't help myself

I can't get any rest People say I'm obsessed Everything you say is lies But to me there's no surprise What I had for you was true Things go wrong, they always do

She drives me crazy Like no one else She drives me crazy And I can't help myself

I won't make it on my own No one likes to be alone

Song 2:Shattered Dreams by Johnny Hates Jazz

So much for your promises They died the day you let me go Caught up in a web of lies But it was just too late to know

I thought it was you Who would stand by my side

And now you've given me, given me Nothing but shattered dreams, shattered dreams Feel like I could run away, run away From this empty heart You said you'd die for me

Woke up to reality And found the future not so bright I dreamt the impossible That maybe things could work out right

I thought it was you Who would do me no wrong

But now you've given me, given me Nothing but shattered dreams, shattered dreams Feel like I could run away, run away From this empty heart

You've given me, given me Nothing but shattered dreams, shattered dreams Feel like I could run away, run away From this empty heart

From this empty heart

I thought it was you Who said they'd die for love

And now you've given me, given me Nothing but shattered dreams, shattered dreams Feel like I could run away, run away From this empty heart

You've given me, given me Nothing but shattered dreams, shattered dreams Feel like I could run away, run away From this empty heart

Oh, no, no, no You said you'd die for me Oh, for Die for me So much for your promises So much for your promises

Song 3: Keep on Movin' by Soul II Soul

Keep on moving Don't stop, like the hands of time Click-clock, find your own way to stay The time will come one day

Why do people choose to live their lives (lives)

This way?

No-oh-oh (Keep on moving) (Keep on moving) Keep on moving yeah, yeah (Keep on moving, don't stop, no) (Keep on moving)

It's our time, time today The right time is here to stay Stay in my life, my life always Yellow is the color of sun rays

I hide myself, from no-one I know the time will surely come when You'll be in my life, my life always Yellow is the color of sun rays

Keep on moving (Keep on moving) Don't stop! (Keep on moving don't stop, no) Like the hands of time (Keep on moving) Click-clock, find your own way (Keep on moving) To stay (The time will come one day)

No-o-oh (Keep on moving) Hey-ey-ey (Keep on moving) (Keep on moving, don't stop, no) (Keep on moving) Oh!

I know the time, time today Walking alone in my own way Extremely cold and rainy day Friends and I have fun along the way Yes we do!

I hide myself from no one I know the time will really come when You'll be in my life, my life always Yellow is the color of sun rays

Keep on moving (Keep on moving) Don't stop (Keep on moving, don't stop, no) Like the hands of time (Keep on moving) Click-clock (Keep on moving) Find your own way to stay, yeah (The time will come one day) Yes!

Oh! (Keep on moving, don't stop, no) (Keep on moving) Ah-hey! (Keep on moving) Keep moving along, moving along (The time will come one day) Hey-yeah!

Keep movin', don't stop, no (Don't stop, like the hands of time) Hey-yeah! (Click-clock, find your own way to stay) Find your own way to stay (The time will come one day) (Why do people choose to live their lives this way?) Oh-woh-oh Oh, why do they choose to live this way?

Yeah! Ah-hey! (Keep on moving) Keep on moving (Keep on moving, don't stop, no) No-woh-oh (Keep on moving) No! (Keep on moving) Keep on moving in my own way I know the time will come today (The time will come one day) Ah-hey! Yeah! (Keep on moving) Yeah-hey Keep on moving, don't stop, no) Don't stop Keep on moving) Ah-hey-ey (Keep on moving) Hey-yeah! (The time will come one day) The time will surely come one day!

Hey-yeah! (Keep on moving, don't stop, no) No-oh-oh! (Keep on moving) Oh-woh-oh (Keep on moving) Hey-yeah!

I mean... *gestures at all of this*

The way I interpret these songs is a very linear emotional journey. It's a narrative in itself of Hob's state of mind as day turns to night and he waits and realises that his date isn't going to show.

First he contemplates how he can't help the way he feels. The waiting around is killing him, he's being driven crazy by his feelings, he's obsessed. But his feelings are true, and he won't make it on his own without [Dream].

Next comes the heartbreak. He dreamt that things might work out, but his dreams have been shattered. He feels like he wants to run away from his empty heart.

Finally, he realises that life goes on, he's gotta keep on moving, because he has hope that the time will come when [Dream] will be in his life again and this time [Dream] will stay.

I don't think I even need to attempt to make this any clearer! All these songs are about love, either obsessive love, heartbreak, or hope for future love. This is the kind of shit Johnlock and Destiel fans would have eaten up back in the day. At this point in Dream and Hob's relationship, at this point in this half hour sequence of television, I am not sure how else to interpret this, which is why the conversation Hob has with the bartender comes across so bizarre.

Bartender: You waiting for someone?

Hob: I think I've been stood up. We had a fight, last time we were here, but it was my fault. wish I could say I was drunk at the time, but I was just an idiot.

Bartender: I've seen plenty of friends get into fights in pubs, even more of them laugh about later.

Hob: *chuckling* maybe in another hundred years.

We all agree how bloody bizarre this is right? I have to praise this bartender for not jumping to conclusions but it would have been far more natural for him to assume Hob was stood up by a date, a woman (this is 1989 after all) and instead given his apologies and said something like "Don't worry mate, just send her some flowers and be honest with her. She'll come around."

Why does he assume they are just friends? Being "stood up" is commonly used to indicate a failed romantic date. It just isn't a natural assumption for someone to make based on the information Hob gave him. Hob cleverly keeps his explanation gender neutral, so the bartender does too, but even with gender neutral language the immediate conclusion should be that Hob was abandoned by a romantic date.

But the natural conclusion would have prompted a clarification. A definitive from Hob on the nature of his and Dream's relationship, and for whatever reason, the writers decided they didn't want there to be a definitive clarification here. Just like how they removed all the references to canon queer characters in 1589 to avoid distinguishing them from Hob and Dream, here they made sure that Hob was unable to refute or deny any implication that he and Dream may be more than platonic friends. Instead they chose to go with clunky language that doesn't really make sense, all to avoid having to make clarifications. Sorry y'all, but thats some SPN writer levels of ambiguity layering and I ain't buying it *side eyes Neil Gaiman suspiciously*. What are those writers up too eh?

I did read an interesting meta on this that the bartender could have assumed that Hob was talking about a man, clocked him as queer, and spoken in safe language to avoid an accidental outing (1989 was a difficult time for the LGBTQ+ community) but I couldn't find it or remember who wrote it to link it here. I found that interpretation to be really interesting and certainly worth considering, even if it's not my initial reading of the scene.

The other explanation is that maybe it was an attempt to "no homo" what otherwise comes across as a failed romantic date. But if that was what they were going for, it was very sloppily done and in fact only called further attention to the very romantic implications of the whole scene at least from Hob's side of things. If they really wanted to "no homo" the scene, why not just have Hob tell the bartender that he was supposed to be meeting his friend?

Then in a totally new decision made for the show, Hob finds out that the White Horse Tavern is closing its doors for good. This adds a further layer of angst and drama to Dream and Hob's relationship that the comics do not have. The worry that should Dream ever decide to return, how would he find Hob if the tavern is closed? It's once again pretty tropey in that its yet another external force keeping our boys apart. Anymore of this and we start falling dangerously close to star crossed territory.

The 1989 scene ends with a distressed and sad looking Hob, with a hint of determination, leaving the audience expecting him to do something about this.

Then we get that final glorious transition, from the whiskey glass to the glass sphere holding Dream, reminding us all that no, Dream did not stand Hob up, he was in fact stuck in his prison. Dream looks stoic as always, but the glance upwards indicates that he too remembers the date, and is regretting his inability to be there to make things right.

That look then transitions seemlessly into the modern day, as Dream stares sadly at the ruins of the White Horse tavern. Which is where we leave this chapter.

Check out Part 8 for my analysis of the glorious reunion!

[cosmic-chelonian]

Thoughts on the new Who episodes

The Good

Ncuti. So charismatic and watchable, captures that zany Doctor energy. His episodes so far have been very light-hearted but in the moments where it's been required so far it seems he can do serious and lonely well too. I love how the character seems to be trying to be upbeat but when he goes quiet and serious you get a glimpse of the burdens he is carrying inside. Amazing

Millie. Ruby's character is very likeable and her dynamic with the doctor is a joy to watch.

The mystery!!! Ruby, the Toymaker family, Susan Twist... I love theorising and speculating and am excited to see how the puzzle fits together.

Jinkx Monsoon. Was initially afraid she was going to be annoying (the Toymaker started to grate on my nerves a bit) but i soon found myself loving her deliciously over the top evil. And she actually felt scary, unlike most of the classic who overacting villains.

The Bad

Plot? What plot? These episodes just sadly felt like a lot of whiz-bang spectacle plus exposition supported by just enough story bones to keep then standing. I am here for the interesting stories. Thankfully the next episode looks like it has a bit more room for a story.

No meaningful side characters. I liked Nan-E so much because much of the joy of Doctor Who is him interacting with side characters. We meet this week's relevant people, get to know their motivations and see them decide whether to trust the doctor. These people are flawed and self-interested but the doctor has to win them over and make them do the right thing. Unfortunately these stories have so far been Doctor- and Ruby-centred. It feels like the settings they travel to are just backdrops for their shenanigans because they don't interact with the setting's characters in a meaningful way. They don't encounter any difficulty in blending in to the new environments they enter. The conflict between the Doctor's interests and the problems posed by the physical or social environment of the time/place they are in is what makes the setting relevant and interesting. The Devil's Chord could just as easily been set in the present day without much change.

Changing rules. I know Doctor Who is hardly hard sci-fi, but now we're bringing gods and laws beyond the universe into it, it feels like it changes the way we see the threats. If suddenly we rely too much on solutions like 'the power of song' or fairytale logic to defeat our big bads, the villain actually seems less scary because we have no rules within which to quantify the threat posed. If a big space monster is coming to eat your ship, you know exactly what is required to defeat it: enough fuel, piloting tactics etc. And thus by making those things fail, the writers can effectively give a sense of the desperation of the situation. With the kind of threats presented in these new episodes, however, the key to defeating them is just working out the narrative meaning of the threats. The doctor has to work out what the point of the story he is in actually is. (Children need stories? The love of sharing music is the greatest power?) And because the viewer is aware that this is a story, having the resolution of the conflict hinge on the fact that stories have a point and an ending makes the defeat of the big bad feel like an inevitability. It makes it hard for us to have the same suspension of disbelief that we entertain when the resolution of conflict is rooted firmly within the reality of that episode's setting.

That dance number. Ohhh no. I can appreciate goofiness in my silly show, as long as the writers at least give some kind of in-universe explanation for why loads of randos suddenly joined in for an impromptu Strictly session. I need at least some sense of logic to the show's universe. My only explanation is that this season is so deliberately meta and 4th-wall-trampling because the fabric of the show's universe is being torn apart by the Toymaker's lot? I just want some recognition by the characters that this is all a bit weird, to confirm that this is a choice rather than a very unfortunate new direction for the show. If you make your characters somewhat self-aware you have to acknowledge that this will affect the way they act. I want the Doctor to notice and be worried by these developments.

I love that RTD is trying to explore social issues like abortion and the refugee crisis, I think sci-fi is perfect for that kind of thing, but it feels like he is slipping them in haphazardly without really making a point. "People still care more about the idea of life than the people born" "people don't care about refugees until they're their problem" we know these things are bad! But why not be brave enough to have a story that more directly deals with people's reasons for acting this way, that shows the trauma this treatment can cause, that shows what leads people to treat others this way. This is all still possible to do delicately and kid-appropriately. Sci-fi doesn't need to be intelligent all the time but it shouldn't pretend to be just because a character says 'abandoning babies bad'.

[hypexion]

Are you having the laugh? Are you having The Giggle? Am I having opinions on this last episode? Apparently, the answer is yes.

The starting concept was interesting but it basically fell off when the episode got to the UNIT tower, which was straight away.

Toymaker sure loves messing around with accents for some reason.

Donna solved the giggle and basically saved everything.

Why was there a robot?

Hey it's Mel.

Where's Martha?

Anyway things start for real in 1925 where the Doctor confronts the Toymaker, who is treated with all the gravitas of The Legendary Guy. Except this time he's technically pre-existablished.

I can't believe RTD called out me personally for typing all my opinions just because I don't like The Waters of Mars.

Donna continues her streak of being highly effective while the Doctor almost Gets Got.

Literal Rory erasure happening in this episode.

Literal Graham, Ryan, Dan and Yaz erasure as well.

Well that's alright, then!

The Master should have won his game.

Spice up your life at UNIT, which apparently stands for UNited Idiot Taskforce given how many Ls they keep taking. Keep shooting the guy who just turned two people into balls. That'll really work out.

Anyway the conclusion is that the Doctor undergoes mitosis which is the opposite of what you want. Remember when people were theorising that the Toymaker would represent people who couldn't let go of Ten?

Fifteen puts in a strong showing pretty much immediately.

World's most high-stakes game of catch won basically by accident.

Playing the first game is much better than playing the final game, which I assume is Time War.

So why did Thirteen's clothes regenerate? Why is Tenagain? Did the Doctor really just get so sad she reverse-regenerated?

Well that's alright, then!

The UNIT stuff could not be angling any harder for a spinoff.

Oh no "The One Who Waits" and the Toymaker's Legions. The mysterious arc stuff continues.

But we've finally escaped with the old, and can get on with the new. Fifteen here were come.

Really in the end it was very much a generic RTD episode.

Like there is some aspect missing. I will have to mull it over.

Well that's alright, then!

[demigod-of-the-agni]

Ninjago S16 Finale Thoughts [SPOILERS]

There is so much [SPOILERS] going and if I don't [SPOILERS] I'm gonna [SPOILERS] lose my [SPOILERS] mind.

Turn away now, ye who have yet to witness this epic conclusion. (this is going to be very long)

I was those little runts in Australia who had to stay awake til 2am trying to watch the whole thing with bad wifi, so I had the benefit of coming back later with more coherent thoughts.

And I thought... as cheesy as the ending was, despite being underwhelmed by it, I thought the ending was great. I've always told myself that even if we don't get a tear-jerking ending where someone dies, the bare minimum creators can do is wrap up a show with a nice little bow and say "Yes, they went through hardships but they made it out! Hooray!!!"

Ninjago fell into the latter category.

It's also noteworthy to keep in mind that this show is, and always was, aimed at children, and yeah most of us probably don't fit that definition anymore, rip.

For the most part, I thought they handled the show pretty well. Part 1 was significantly funnier than Part 2, as should be expected. There were great callbacks that both tied the season back to the earlier established lore (I mean, the Great Devourer being influenced by the Overlord to bite Garmadon all to find the perfect body that can successfully rip the very power of Creation into shreds? I won't say I haven't theorised that for YEARS but 👀 it's nice to have it confirmed) and just gave us content that we were dying for. As a Kailor fan, episodes 25-26 blessed me. Pixane was delicious. Lloyd and Garmadon fighting together was fan-fucking-tastic. Even minor details like "Wait, I thought combining the Golden Weapons together would be bad because they would explode" was enough for me.

New concepts were great as well! I loved the Dragon Forms, my heart was literally bursting trying to gobble up all that is brightly-coloured and dragon-themed. And *sighs happily* definitely reminiscent of the final battle in Avengers: Endgame. They weren't fucking lying when they made that poster, huh

All in all, if I went back to tell my 11yo self what I had just seen, she would laugh then scream then cry with disbelief. Because the show has gone above and beyond anything I had expected, and deep down, 11yo me was satisfied what she'd gotten.

But like any good piece of media, and because I'm just Old, there were things that obviously turned me off, or found a little unbelievable.

The death fake-outs -- there were. so many. You can never have enough angst but too many fake deaths just make you desensitised, and the deaths themselves don't feel that emotionally impactful anymore. I mean, sure, we had the purest Pixane moments in the show from when Zane was out of commission again (the fact that I have to say 'again' says it all) but like... Zane's just used as a cheap bargaining tool for sadness, so uh. Yeah.

Oni Lloyd -- I have never been so sad in all my life until that happened. Everything leading up to Oni Lloyd I thought was Great -- it ties back to S11 where Lloyd looks into that reverse-Mirror of Erised and fears he'll become Lord Garmadon. Having to embrace that darkness is Never an easy thing and seeing what had happened to others around him will effectively build that fear. Which would make it all the more worthwhile if Oni Lloyd could have held his own for a little longer in the episode. It felt... disappointing, honestly. They hyped up Oni Lloyd but it didn't even last for a minute. I would have accepted Lloyd looking at his reflection, getting terrified but also being so overcome with rage because the Overlord was a bastard for ever touching his family, roar angri oni sound effects. (Also damn, when Lloyd screams after he transforms?? Chilling, and I mean that positively). I just think it was so underutilised; where the Dragon Forms succeeded, Oni Lloyd falls flat

Why is Lloyd being a dick? -- It is a genuine question. I get it -- Lloyd doesn't trust Garmadon because Garmadon is so intent on conquering the world and switches allegiances super quickly and barely spares a moment to check in on Lloyd, but...hadn't Lloyd made peace with him years ago? All the way back in S5, even. They separated on good, if not heartbreaking terms. Lloyd wasn't like this in S8, but it's almost like. the show was trying to give him the arc that Movie-Lloyd had -- he acts like Garmadon is a deadbeat dad (okay he was chilling with Vinny because he wanted to Find Himself but-), doesn't give a shit about him (he was Learning Empathy-) and cares for nothing except Destruction™ (he was bit by an evil snake.) My point is, Lloyd made with peace Garmadon; there's literally no reason for him to hate him that much

The Utter Lack Of Consequences -- now this is really where the whole "Ninjago is made for kids" point really kicks in. I will say this, in bold and italics and capital letters: NINJAGO IS MADE FOR KIDS, BUT IT DOESN'T MEAN AUDIENCES NEED TO BE KIDS TO ENJOY THE SHOW. Hope you got that -- in other words, I, an old person, found the ending to be cheesy as fuck, and kind of abrupt. I thought someone was going to die. I thought that the Ninja were going to lose their memories (Cole's "What did I do?" to Vangelis, Kai's "Now what was I doing?" re. Aspheera, etc; would've been an interesting twist). I thought the Oni and Dragon Forms were a permanent, lasting change. I thought the Ninja were literally going to become the Golden Ultra Dragon. I thought that actions having consequences would be something this season would be heavily focusing on. Part 1 made that clear, but I guess the power of friendship and love can really overpower death itself. Literally no one gets hurt. I find that Highly Unbelievable, especially since the finale is on par with Endgame! But it's a kid's show, the target audience are kids, and Ninjago has always been playing the safe game; while kids grow up to be like me, there's always an influx of new watchers who are just small, impressionable children. I'm not mad at them for it, but it still feels pretty abrupt. Like, everything is Cool Now, Everyone Is Getting Along. Mkay. But we get Garmadon monologuing about generational trauma and growth, so there's that

Ayo where is the Elemental Alliance? -- I swear they were here, where did they go? I miss my boys Griffin and Shade :'(

Oh, and just because I'm spiteful-

Get Lloyrumi away from me -- I'm sorry, but Harumi has proved herself time and again that she is a manipulative, cunning little backstabber. I was getting real uncomfortable when it seemed like the show was pushing us towards a Lloyrumi ending -- and yet, even after everything, Lloyd was giving her the time of day when he was flat-out ignoring his own father who had Clearly gone through Villain Rehab?? I can allow a siblinghood to form, just barely, but an actual relationship is too much. That being said, the plot-twist redemption was... kind of expected, but not in the way I thought it would unfold. I was expecting it to be some cheesy 'love conquers all' kind of thing, but- yeah, I don't know. It was an Oh shit moment, so..

Alright, now that's All of my grievances towards the ending. It's not much, they're just things that bug me on a weirdly technical level, but if I were to ignore them, the finale is still a 10/10. Maybe a 9.85/10 for the abrupt ending, but other than that I loved it to BITS. I adore it. I love what they have given us, and in my book? It did the bare minimum -- it gave a satisfactory ending to a storyline eleven years in the making.

I can't believe it myself.

I know most of you might find my nitpicking a little too much, but this is just what I felt. I was never a Day One fan, but I've been in this fandom for nearly half my life, so it's a huge part of me. Despite its hiccups and strange moments, I am thankful for all that Ninjago has done. I probably wouldn't be a third of the person I am today if it weren't for this silly little show about silly little ninja men. I have no idea where the new series will go, but it won't have to struggle to find its footing, I hope. We might get something by the end of the year, but no high hopes yet; I just wish it'll carry on the legacy of this show and burst with its own light, colour and fun.

So, thank you for reading. And remember...

#thankyouninjago

[aromantic-misguide-to-romance]

Yet another Lovestruck shutdown opinion absolutely no one asked for

So. The thing is, Lovestruck basically died and is just only decomposing now.

I don't really want to cover the whole load of crap that came to light with the strike and disillusioned the fandom about the company's practices. It's quite obvious (albeit maybe an unpopular opinion), that if you run a company with your profit depending on quality of your employees' work, it'd be reasonable to consider covering labour costs in your budget and keeping the most essential staff on board. In case of writing stories, that definitely means the creative teams. They need to be given proper conditions to create entertaining and engaging stories.

Now, to the app itself. I was already theorising about the route lenth getting shorter a while ago, which I think was actually a good move. It would allow easier route management and less cut plots in case a route doesn't perform, the LIs also don't compete with each other. And you get better PR for reviving a route for more seasons than cancelling one. Used well, it could be a relatively effective way to manipulate people into thinking that the company listens to their audience. Wasted potential, instead they made players feel ignored/milked.

Unfortunately Voltage failed to understand that a) churning out episodes every day and b) putting more paywalled scenes won't automatically make people pay.

There was a shitload of content to read with the limited resources most players had and we never knew if the paywall was hiding a mediocre scene not worth buying or a crucial bit of information about the LI's backstory, and paywalls were sometimes twice in a one episode. Keeping up with them was impossible and if you couldn't even know if the bought scene will be worth it, what's the point of paying or grinding for it?

If the grind is futile and buying how much you can afford is not enough, and the purchase might turn out underwhelming, then you just stop caring. This couldn't work. (Especially not when they then went after people who reviewed the releases because they were helping others decide if a scene is worth buying. An excellent move, Voltage. That's sarcasm, obviously.)

Another thing is what routes were getting released because it really looks like Voltage USA tried very hard to bankrupt as quickly as possible by providing exactly what people never wanted. The recent series weren't particularly exciting in comparison to quite good releases like QoT or RP.

Let's start with trying to attract a completely new audience with MLM routes. MLM routes were an investment and one that couldn't being immediate profit. No matter if we talk about fujoshi or actual MLM players, no one was going to magically detect a new gay title in a random unadvertised app. It takes time and you need to actually develop enough content for new audiences to frequent your app. As much as I quickly switched to coming back almost only to these routes, investing in a new audience is not a smart move if you don't have any safety net to cover for the initial costs. It seems that Voltage didn't and just dived head first into a huge investment without having any money to cover it.

It definitely could be covered by producing stuff for your usual players. But Voltage had zero interest in that save for milking the few popular routes, mostly WLW. Which shows another problem with maintaining players' interest. The app has neglected het routes that could bring a lot revenue. Instead many were cut short, quietly discontinued and that's not an environment where you'd invest your feelings (and money) into a love interest that might never get more seasons. It was a vicious circle of half-assing the het releases, discouraging the players and then cutting the routes short to start a new one that isn't as profitable as expected, rinse and repeat. Not to mention that recently the app didn't really have much to offer to this audience either - last LI releases weren't particularly extraordinary characters and in my opinion this part of the app was recently very lackluster and boring as if no one really had an idea what to do with and for these characters.

The decline of het routes was obviously a reason for some to celebrate because ewww het routes. Seriously, no matter what you think about it and whether you like it or not, this is a big audience that Lovestruck should have entertained with an interesting choice of characters and routes but likely pushed it away and cut their own revenue instead. Het routes were definitely not among those most successful recently.

Well, and shitty choice of projects. Who wanted remakes of old routes? I bet that no one actually demanded old series getting remakes. It was just a sign that LS simply cannot afford new content. But it could manage the existing series better. Where are routes of the characters that I saw here on Tumblr being popular?

There's also that thing that... you might actually want to keep the same ensemble of characters for most routes instead of introducing an army of randos and then shrug if you don't have any promising character to release next. Advertising the side characters by featuring them in routes could have helped and would save some money because all the basic graphic assets are already there. If you're just making new characters to place them in one route only, no bloody wonder that the the character isn't sought for.

And obviously, Lovestruck never tried to communicate with fans. Not even survey results.

Which is another problem. Running fanart showcase does not change the fact that they ran their internet business in a way that was outdated already 10 years ago. A mobile app and social media aren't just a new one-way TV broadcast. It doesn't even have to be very active and I see that Voltage USA made some clumsy attempts to liven it up, but players need to feel that the company is at least trying to listen. Just having a new episode announcement board isn't exactly enough to create an impression that you care about your fanbase. It's obvious that no company really cares, but being so obvious about not giving a single damn isn't going to sell your app. And harassing people in social media and copyright trolling isn't either. Not to mention that if employees were actually assigned to that task, Voltage literally poured money into something that couldn't bring profit. At cost of actual problems constantly brushed off, like transphobic reviews in the game itself.

TL;DR the way the app was managed sucked so much that it's impressive.

[kellinrk800]

my thoughts on episode 11 of wonder egg priority

tw// neglect, possible abuse, murder, human experimentation

holy SHIT is there a lot to unpack.

first of all, everyone except ai and neiru have now experienced the truth of what happens when you complete the total amount of people to save. at the end of episode ten we saw momoe’s breakdown and panic’s death and at the beginning today’s episode we saw rika find out and mannen’s death. (i previously wrote that neiru and pinky had experienced it but after someone kindly let me know after a rewatch that it was in fact momoe, not neiru. sorry for the error)

however, ai is now the only one who knows about frill and what happened to her. speaking of, there are a RIDICULOUS amount of parallels between the two. i’ll be reblogging some posts that explain it a lot better than i ever could right after i post this.

what i really want to focus on is frill. despite her fairly questionable and downright evil actions, i can’t help but feel a shred of pity for her.

born out of quite literal boredom and under strict surveillance, she was almost destined to be unloved. she was not made to be a human, but simply something for acca and ura acca to love. in the way you might buy a doll for a small child. their mistake was adding such severe jealousy and stubbornness to something they had created to be perfection.

stuck at the age of 14 permanently, it’s no surprise her mental state was damaged. imagine the jealousy, the intense emotions, everything you go through at that age.

she is at least somewhat aware that she is artificial intelligence considering how open those who are around her seem to be about it. however, she does not seem to be keen on accepting it or believing it. after all, she is not programmed to. she is programmed to sense things in the way a human would. and that opens a whole world of other doors about how anyone could be an ai and not know it but i doubt wonder egg priority would get that meta this close to the end.

time to tie up all these loose ends. around midway through the episode we are introduced to a love interest (who i have forgotten the name of, apologies) who causes a split in acca and ura acca’s relationship (marriage), and she soon becomes pregnant with a child. a human child.

frill was programmed to be able to understand her parents in the way a daughter would. she begins to taunt ura acca about his husband cheating on him with the woman he loves and once she finally finds out that the baby is a girl, she decides to kill the mother.

the motivation behind frill’s mental deterioration is slowly becoming clearer and clearer. i strongly suspect that she felt she was being replaced with a human child and realised the inherent inferiority she was going to have once the child was born, and became overcome with jealousy. not only would she now have to take on the role to be a big sister (which she was not programmed to accept or do. she was programmed to be stubborn and jealous in the way a 14 year old girl would be) but she would lose the ability she had to be perceived as a human daughter by the parents who raised her.

imagine being created for the sole purpose of being the perfect daughter for somebody to love, and then being replaced. i am by no means excusing murder, but it’s hard not to see her motivation.

as punishment and as relief of acca’s grief, frill was then locked away with nothing but her ai machinery for anywhere between 12 and 15 years*.

enter himari, the child that survived despite frill’s attempt at murder of both mother and child. she is described as having “saved” ura acca and acca from their state after the mother’s murder and the abandonment of their artificial daughter. when we see her able to talk, she is shown asking ura acca to marry her once she is older to make up for the pain of the loss of her mother. she is stated as being in junior high at the time (*my timespan reasoning for the time frill was locked away). while this scene made me greatly uncomfortable, it might be to show frill’s impact and influence on himari. if they had come into contact, frill would arguably do anything in her power to gain back control of her parents.

perhaps himari asked this purposefully to anger frill, which is supported further by the fact himari was found dead (cause of death suicide) the night later.

suicide. what’s the entire theme OF the eggs? i don’t know about you but i can hear lightbulbs beginning to flicker.

ura acca and acca began research into girls suicides at that age, and found a steady surge around the same time as himari’s death.

acca and ura acca are trying to bring back himari, possibly their wife, and maybe, maybe just maybe frill as well. i think that is the real purpose of the wonder egg project.

we also finally have our answer as to why girls and boys suicides are different with wonder eggs! acca and ura acca are indeed sexists, just not about suicide.

i’ll let you do the rest of the theorising.

now for the loose ends that i don’t think can be tied up.

why are hyphen and dot named after punctuation? is their goal to bring frill back to life?

what was neiru’s family’s involvement in the wonder eggs? in fact, where is neiru?

is frill alive or dead? is there even a way to distinguish with someone in her state?

what happened to acca and ura acca to make them.. well, to make them like that? last i checked, turning into mannequins isn’t a symptom of grief. are they even alive?

MOMOE. WHERE THE FUCK IS MOMOE. GIVE ME MOMOE OR GIVE ME DEATH.

there are a shit ton of new, unspecified entities we’re learning about. what actually are hyphen and dot? are they AIs like frill? perhaps not fully formed? and thanatos and eros?

where do the girls go once they’ve been freed? is “freed” even the right term?

what did mr sawaki say to ai about koito? why did koito die? is mr sawaki going to have a bigger role than a consistently fucking annoying red herring after all?

rika’s father? why have that as a big factor in an episode conflict if it’s never going to be addressed again?

the sketchy lesbian representation compared to the consistent positive trans ftm and gay representation? why have the only canonically wlw character be a product of a harmful stereotype after treating everything else so respectfully?

and most importantly, how the FUCK is this going to get cleared up in one episode?

i don’t even think that’s possible. if it is, i’m really disappointed. after consistent excellent pacing, writing, storytelling, and everything else, cramming everything into the last couple of episodes is just cheap and annoying. if i wanted to drone on for an entire series before an explosion of poor plot points for shock factor, i’d just go watch the second season of the promised neverland (/hj).

the only somewhat reasonable explanation would be a second season, but it is a terrible media decision and i can’t imagine much, if any, good coming from it.

in conclusion, what the fuck. how the hell is this going to salvage itself in one episode?

also i wrote this entire thing while on my sleep meds. if there’s logical, grammatical, spelling or just general errors i apologise and i’ll fix them when i’m not half conscious.

[tobeornottotc]

Thanks for the info! I had tried to find more information about them before the show started, I wasn’t even sure what their character names were!

Clearly I’m just bad at finding it!

I did want them to also be in an arranged married situation and that was the impression I got from the trailer, but when Yi responded with “Your engagement isn’t even legal.” I thought that meant he couldn’t be in the same situation, rewatching the scene I remain confused about Yi’s position on his own relationship based on how he describes the situation with Lian.

What were your thoughts on Lian and Yi’s conversation?

Hi hi!! :)

Yeh it's hard to find information on Naughty Babe which is the book their relationship is based on. I'll give you my analysis both in the non spoiled way from what I've gathered to the spoilers for where they may be going with Yi's character

Non Spoiled

They're engaged to be married. Yi is very cold to Diaow similar to how Lian is cold to Kuer. But we know that for Lian he's cold to Kuer because he switched into a perfectionist due to his fear that Kuer could be taken away from him since people didn't rate his family and him as worthy of even being seen as family to them (shown in hints in episode 1) he's cold to Kuers new personality switch (his fake self) but also comes off cold just because he's focused on trying to keep him near. This is probably the same for Yi. it's going to be connected to him being protective and being afraid of coming of vulnerable because he thinks it'll make him lose Diaow. To understand more read the spoiler session for why he might be overly protective for him.

I don't know if they changed the book and they've made them not engaged to be married? But I think they haven't because they live together and there's a whole dynamic to their relationship that makes Diaow believe Yi is mean to him but that he's tied to him and can't break it. So they may have changed it to them dating but I don't think so. I would also be confused by his statement to Lian. But now I have spoilers I'm goanna theorise a bit more because the spoilers all over the place and I'm not sure which path the show has chosen. So its going to be confusing to explain my thoughts sorry about that

He's a mafia's son so he's afraid of losing his loved ones. His father is Metakorn he has his own book series in the universe as well and he's part of the Mafia/Mob and is seen as powerful. Makes sense Yi, comes of as cold, tough and mean because he can't be vulnerable or weak in front of people otherwise he'll lose control and power. Yep can see that, I can also see then why he would be strict and protective over where Diaow goes if Diaow has shown proof of being prone to being in danger, or just in general his connection to Yi makes him prone to danger. His over protectiveness and his coldness is weakened when we see him call him everyday, keep tabs on him and also ask to give him a ride in case he's drunk. So he's only tough because he thinks he has to be in dire situations. How he percieve his father's job (if in the series) and the connection to Diaow (who I still think there's more to him to since he's connected to lonliness or something according to the novel) will explain why he's so protective and overbearing.

This is a massive spoiler but he has amnesia about his engagement with Diaow. Not sure where we are in the timeline with these two, but basically Diaow and Yi have been engaged since he was 18 and Yi has been cold to him and they've seen or hung out with each other a lot. Diaow thinks Yi is cheating on him or doesn't love him and threatens to leave but Yi gets in an accident and loses his memory, for some reason it wipes away all the engagement memories but it also exposes his truth. He views Diaow as a child still (apperently he knew him when he was 7 and thats all he remembers of him) and he is confused by why he and Diaow aren't married because he's wanted to be with him and marry him once he was 18. So this shows he has loved him since then and is pretending or being harsh for a reason to him despite knowing he wanted him by his side the whole time before he lost his memory. This already shows me that his character is hiding a lot of secrets about why he's hiding his feelings and acting cold.

The amnesia could explain why he says what he says to Lian, if they have added it in the show, because he doesn't believe in the book he and D were engaged (since at this moment D breaks their engagement before he lost his memory) and D and him have to start over getting to know each other and stuff (like Lian and Kuer) so might explain why he's tied to him in that way. Again we could be at the start of their relationship where they were engaged and Diaow thinks Yi doesn't love him and is cold to him and secretive or we could have passed that and Yi is already with amnesia about his relationship with D and parts of the truth about what he is to him has been skewed? Or they've changed the books origins and made Diaow think they made a promise to be engaged but he doesn't take it seriously?

I'm not really sure where the show is going with them. I think the mafia and seeing him as a kid prone to danger makes sense why Yi is protective now and I can see Diaow putting up with it because of his fear of loneliness but also feeling like he has to take care of him with his amnesia until he gets better? But wouldn't Lian know he has amnesia? Wouldn't he tell him? Wouldn't he know by now he's in the same situation as Lian or is Diaow concealing that? Not sure.

One thing I am sure of Yi thinks there's a chance he may lose Diaow and he wants to keep control over where he is at all times, doesn't like being lied to and hates showing weakness because he's afraid he'll lose him to something. So I think he's definitely still Mafia son in the show. It's Diaow we need to understand, how he percieves what they have, if he hides a part of himself away too etc.

What do you think with this new info. it's seriously confusing even more with the spoilers haha.

[orionsangel86]

Watching The Sandman again for the hundreth time and I know everyone always loves to focus on Dreamling, but can we talk about Rose Walker for a moment?

The Sandman is often applauded (and complained about) for being an extremely gay show, but I particularly love how even the characters who aren’t canonically gay come across as extremely gay.

Take Rose Walker. The main character of The Doll’s House story. Neither the show nor the comics ever give Rose a sexuality, but there are some very glaring factors that heavily support her being queer.

The first time we see Rose is in episode 5 24/7. Judy, the lesbian at the diner who has had a fight with her girlfriend Donna, calls Rose and asks if Rose knows where Donna is. We know that Rose considers both Judy and Donna close friends and has a picture of Judy in her apartment.

Rose’s only other friend that we know of besides Lyta Hall (who she got to know via proximity since they were neighbours) is her friend Carl who she clearly is close enough with to let him house sit for her (even though he has sex with The Corinthian on her bed!).

So her closest friends are a lesbian couple and a gay man. I know I know straight people can be friends with queer people but statistically speaking queers flock together. Its more likely that Lyta is the token straight in the friend group than Rose AND Lyta both being straight.

I also question her choice of seeking out accomodation in Cape Kennedy. Isn’t it interesting how she ends up in a very strange B&B also managed by a gay drag artist and filled with colourful characters including Chantal and Zelda (I know their relationship is supposed to remain ambiguous but imo the show also leans more into them being lesbians due to Chantal’s dream where she calls them “soul sisters” and “gothic brides” and I dunno I just think the fact she refers to them as brides is pretty telling!)

Of all your accomodation choices in Florida, this in particular seems like the kind of place one would go to if they were specifically looking for somewhere advertised as “LGBT friendly”. All the characters staying at the B&B are either canonically queer or heavily queer coded.

Gilbert/Fiddlers Green isn’t technically human, but his whole aura is distinguished older gay man - he’s played by Stephen Fry after all!

Also I could go on about Barbie (who I theorise found the accomodation for her and Ken) but without revealing any comic spoilers, she also later surrounds herself with basically all queer people. I know in the comics she is strictly heterosexual, but nah she dreams like a queer theatre kid on speed or something lmao. That girl is a bisexual disaster all the way and yeah I may be projecting on her as a fellow blonde overly dramatic dreamer and disaster bisexual but I claim her for my own okay just let me have this.

So yeah, the queer friendship groups, the specific seeking out of an LGBTQ friendly b&b in Florida, and the fact that she literally wears rainbows in her hair and I think its clear enough that that girl is a baby queer if ever I saw one.

Due to the merging of Rose and Lyta’s stories in the Netflix show, we should actually get to see more of Rose in future seasons. In the comics, after the Dolls House book, she doesn’t appear again (unless she turns up in the Wake since I haven’t read that far ahead), but by making her Lyta’s companion in the show, we know she will appear again since Lyta and the baby (Daniel not that he has been named yet in the show) are reoccuring characters throughout the entire Sandman comic run.

Maybe I just crave more lesbian and bisexual women rep in my fave shows, but sitting here watching this show again it just tickles me that in the entirety of season 1, it is so easy to view practically every major female or female presenting character as queer. Joanna Constantine and Rachel, Judy and Bette, Lucifer and Mazikeen (bring on the make out scene in season 2!), Chantal and Zelda, and in my opinion, Rose Walker, Barbie, Lucienne, and Gault are all queer coded WLW.

(Lucienne and Gault is just a ship I love okay but you can’t deny there was some flirting in episode 10!)

It’s been such a crappy year for lesbian rep with lesbian shows getting cancelled left right and centre. I just think lesbians should therefore claim the Sandman as theirs. if nothing else, claim it out of spite. It’s a fantasy show with a pathetic wet cat emo boy as a main character who literally surrounds himself with lesbians, is probably in love with his best friend, and considers a slutty gay serial killer with teeth for eyes his greatest ever creation. It just seems to me like the kind of show that should appeal heavily to WLW okay! Plus there are more lesbians coming in season 2! Encourage your lesbian and bisexual friends to go watch The Sandman now!

[raymondebidochonlifechoices]

Are you confident Bughead will be endgame on this show? That’s literally the last strand I’ve been holding onto, but the thread is weakening. I really can’t believe that they would take this ship, their absolute most popular and loved one, and just end it like this forever. I am so angry with the writing!!

Hey there, anon! It is unbelievable, isn’t it?

What a tricky question you ask! confidence + prediction + the Riverdale writers ... As Jughead would say: yikes!

The thing with these writers is that they use a lot of words without knowing their meaning. “Endgame” is one of them. “New” is another. “Exciting”. “Darkness”™. “Adult stories”. “The message”…

Dangling the bughead “endgame” carrot at the end of one or two seasons of no bughead or -worse- of b*rchie and j*bitha f.e. is not an endgame. The general definition of endgame -outside of chess- is: the last stage of a process. If the process (i.e. the season’s content) isn’t about bughead, then bughead coming together at the very end is not an endgame, it's a peripeteia i.e. a sudden or unexpected reversal of circumstances.

In shipping, endgame is a couple that will inevitably end together (for ever and ever and ever). In order for something to be inevitable, you have to create that sentiment, you have to build the couple up.

There’s an article about the misappropriation of the word “endagame” that I find particularly funny, as it starts by mentioning Riverdale!

Anyway, this is a long-winded way to say that, yes, I do believe that the show will end with bughead and varchie as their main canon couples. It’s just that, like you, I’m so very tired with these story lines. There is satisfaction to be had at the notion of endgame but a seasonful of investigative bughead would be infinitely preferable. For me (and I can only speak of myself) the journey is more important than the destination -even if for the simple reason that -in TV show time- it lasts longer!

Why do I think bughead is still … that word? Everything’s under the cut, so as not to clutter your dash!

1. A lot of people have been theorising that what happened in 5x18 was not the original plot. I agree.

Let’s start with 5x18 varchie.

Their break up came completely out of left field. Its unexpectedness is reminiscent of 4x17. I make fun of how s5 is a reboot of s1+s2’s leftover ideas, so another copy-paste shouldn’t feel out of place, and yet … really? Another repetition? To what end? If the season’s goal was not varchie, b*rchie was already there waiting at the beginning of the time jump! Why abandon that plot? In terms of romantic varchie time, that was extremely limited, since after their kiss in 5x7, Veronica’s divorce kept them apart until 5x17 … Why have Archie being extremely jealous of Chad, Veronica getting involved in all of Archie’s schemes (firefighters, bulldogs), Archie getting involved in Ronnie’s (rescuing daddykins) or Veronica telling her father she chooses Archie over him in 5x17? Also, for those who remember, there was this by the-writer-who-shall-not-be-named.

The reason of the break up is as ludicrous as Veronica moving into Archie’s childhood bedroom (with its effing slanted roof!) on the premise that long term the Andrews’ residence has more room! (By the way, I don’t know what surprised me more: that Veronica thought that Archie and uncle Frank would know who Ina Garten is or that Jughead didn’t.) Why is Veronica astounded by Archie’s involvement in the same activities he has been involved in all through the season?! For f***’s sake, she’s the one that gifted him the fire truck!

Ok. Now let’s give 5x18 j*bitha a try.

For me, 5x18 could either have gone bugheadwards or j*bithawards. J*bitha had some heartfelt talks, a hand touch, a hallucination and a kiss. Bughead had one unfinished heartfelt talk (the only one in the whole season for Betty), two shoulder touches, two hallucinations and Jughead attempting to reconnect with Betty (without specifying what his intent was, it's true).

While I do think that j*bitha is a ship that has been adequately teased, the way they were explored in 5x18 was … not underwhelming exactly (after all, they’re not my ship, so I didn’t have any expectations about them) but … maybe lukewarm is the word? They had but minimal dialogue, only enough to establish that Tabitha’s parents were in town. Then a song where Tabitha initially rejects Jughead, although she had been supportive before. Then another song, where the lyrics were heavily altered and didn’t make much sense anyway (we hadn’t been properly introduced to the Tates) but where the original lyrics were very compatible with Bughead’s history and state of being as of 5x17. The kisses were ok, I have no problem with the actors’ chemistry. But -and this is strictly a personal opinion- Jughead’s flirting scenes (not the make-out ones, you perverts!) with Cora were better and so was the j*bitha kiss in 5x10. For the 5x18 j*bitha to flow, more dialogue and more flirting was necessary (always a persona opinion). So, no, I don’t think j*bitha were supposed to sing what they sang in 5x18.

Production for s5 wrapped up one week after the official announcement of the 5 special episodes for Riverdale and The Flash: “we expect it will take us until Fall 2022 to get back to a regular schedule” was the official quote. Re-organising the cw’s overall schedule didn’t happen overnight. Yes, more likely than not, the writers knew about the specifics of s6a before shooting 5x18-5x19 and had time to re-write them.

2. The couples spoilers for s6 do not make sense plot-wise.

If the end-goal for 5x19-6x1 had been b*rchie, j*bitha and v*ggie all along, these were pairs already happening (except from v*ggie) at the beginning of the time-jump. As for v*ggie, last time we saw them, Veronica pulled a face when she heard that he had had (still has?) an affair with Hermosa. And what about Nana Rose?! (ok, that was a joke! ... or was it? 👀)

The majority of both the fans and the general audience are bugvarchie shippers. Teasing b*rchie and j*bitha as a means of maintaining the viewers’ interest in a will they/won’t they way, only works if the audience finally gets what they want. In this season. Not the next one! There is so much trolling one can take after all. In the space of 1.5 year (4x17-5x19) b*rchie will have been teased ... THREE times (and still lacking build-up)!

I cannot myself see b*rchie, j*bitha and v*ggie as endgame couples. For the audience to invest in them after 4 years of bugvarchie, the writers have to a) give j*bitha an absolutely incredible development that will surpass bughead and the cinematography to go with it (good luck with that) and b) undo Archie’s character (highly unlikely) and/or give Betty a lobotomy (at which point a lot of people will quit en masse, because Archie as The One All The Girls Want just doesn't resonate with the majority).

I have no idea if s6a is an AU or not. But if it’s not, no one will be left to watch 6b.

Can I guarantee a bughead endgame? Of course not. I have no idea how the minds of the Riverdale writers work. But I do think that Jughead and Betty getting back together is more than wishful thinking.

Fervently shipping Jughead/Betty, Jughead/his book and Betty/therapy, sincerely yours, @raymondebidochonlifechoices

I hope you have fun with the Riverdale universe regardless, dear anon. Riverdale has given us one of the most beautiful getting-together stories in s1 and lots and lots of beautiful canon bughead afterwards. Here's to many more! Much love to you!

[arlakos]

Miraculous Rant

Actually, you know what, while im still mad from the previous post I made, lets go off on a rant. No punches pulled. Lets do this.

The lovesquare is the most terrible ship in this fandom. One girl is a hyper obsessed stalker who tracks her crush with her planner for 3 whole seasons, while the boy couldn’t learn to take a hint and stop flirting for 3 whole seasons until he decided to move on with another girl. Ironically that makes them perfect for eachother, but its in a creepy kind of way, not a loving kind of way.

Adrigami and Lukanette in the S3 Finale were wasted events and never should have occured because they were immediately axed in the first few episodes of the next season. I feel sorry for those that were hoping their ships could be real for at least a short actual while, and it makes me want to curse the writers for their story-boner for the status quo of teases

Despite what I said earlier, none of the girls are good for Adrien. Marinette’s stalkery and a borderline yandere, Kagami’s somewhat controlling and too similar to Adrien help him grow as a person, Chloe is a queen bee beyotch and honestly too much like a sibling to Adrien, and Lila is garbage. Fuck it, have Luka date Adrien and they can play some sweet music together (not like that you pervs, I meant they both play instruments).

Nino needs more love. Not only that, but there needs to be more Adrien/Nino bro moments. If Marinette and Alya can have moments together, why not the bros?

Chloe’s character is a mess, and is neither redeemable, nor notably evil. Her role as a villain in season 1 is very hamfisted, such as in the episodes Mr Pigeon and Kung Food. Not only that, Chloe also lacks any of the qualities that makes a good “bully villain” or rival to Marinette, and her sympathetic moments (which are Written by Sebastien) are mostly overshadowed by the fact that Astruc wants her to be a bully, so it just makes her bipolar and confusing when her character is tugged between two writers.

Chloe should not have joined Hawkmoth in Miracle Queen, see my other post as to why I think so. TLDR, its kinda ooc  for her to go full on 2d villain like Hawkmoth especially after Miraculer, plus Lila was being build up to be the main antagonist of S3

Chloe got kicked from the Team in Miraculer because people know her identity? Fine. Kagami gets to be Ryuko again despite being known to Hawkmoth in Ikari Gozen? Not cool. Ladybug shouldn’t be a hypocrite and be willing to break her own rules just because “Kagami is my friend and Chloe’s not”. Same goes for her breaking the rule with secrect identities with Alya, only for her to go on and on about the rules to Chat when he pries.

Zoe is a bland character who’s only notable trait that she likes Marinette, which automatically makes her worthy of a miraculous after two episodes and no actual development.

Astruc is a petty frick who makes episodes that give the finger to fans of the show that have a different opinion than him. Queen Banana, Miracle Queen, and Reverser are good examples of this (Reverser did Nathaniel dirty).

Master Fu is a shit guardian. Read my post for more.

FRICK THE FEAST EPISODE. Not only did is ruin Fu as character, it ruined all the good theories as to why the order fell, and wasted the idea of a new villain being introduced or even taking over as the main antagonist! Speaking of Feast, despite the sentimonster destroying an order when he wasn’t even big, he still go beat by 2 kids even when he was supersized!

Marinette is not a good Guardian. Her ability to choose heroes does not make her capable, and just because “tradition is stupid” doesnt mean that Marinette shouldn’t be tested like others before her!

Despite the Kwami’s being ancient magical buildings, they seem to act like kids a lot, and that annoys me when in S1 they are supposed to apparently be mentors to their wielders, like how Tikki was before she was mentally de-aged.

Lila is trash and should be removed from the show. The only reasons her lies work is because the writers dumb down every other character in the show and ignore the fact the people have smartphones with google.

The “Miraculous” Ladybug spell should require both Ladybug and Chat Noir to cast, because not only does the power have nothing to do with creation, but it also “destroys” anything created by the akuma, which thematically makes no sense. Also it would place more emphasis on the two heroes being equals and “two halfs of the same coin”

On that note, Ladybug has too many powers. Not only is she the only one who can purify akumas, and can cast a spell that can fix Paris time and time again like its no one’s buisness, but she also now gets a new suit and the ability to nullify Hawkmoth’s akumas. Like COME ON! Give Chat some powers too.

Mayura’s feather’s shouldnt be able to be purified by Ladybug since they have no dark energy, and (thematically speaking) Chat should be given an ability that allows him to “vanquish” the energy in Mayura[’s feathers similar to how Ladybug can purify Hawkmoth’s akumas. At least it would develop a rivalry between Chat and Mayura, and would make Chat necassary against Shadowmoth rather than being replacable with any other hero.

The are too many temporary heroes. They should have just stuck with the 3 heroes from s2 and leave it at that. Sure, new heroes were cool, but the overuse has made the whole hero thing feel less special. It made sense for the first 3 to have them, but now it’s just like Oprah where everyone gets a miraculous. Except Gabe.

Chat Blanc was a stupid reason as to why secret identities cant be revealed, also Chat could have told LB who Hawkmoth once he returned back to normal was and the show would be over.

Hawkmoth should not be Gabriel. Frick the lore about Gabriel’s wife dying and him going evil to get her back, it makes the story feel too much like a star wars/Darth vader reference and leaves Gabriel acting bipolar, flipping from wanting to save his wife and doing this out of necessity to being a power hungry madman wanting to take over the world ( which is said in his canon music video). Having Hawkmoth be his own character means he can be an actual maniac who wants world domination and not just have villanous plot that rely on obtaining magical jewellery (perhaps doing other evil things/taking a more active role), while Gabriel being his own character means he can be a father that has become estranged from his son due to the lose of his S,O, and thus can have a plot about him reuniting with his son (I liked the end seen in Simon says, ok?)

On that same note, I think Mayura shouldn’t have been Nathalie. Considering Hawkmoth’s plans were repetitive as heck for most of the show, when I heard about the Mayura leaks back in Season 2 (when she was called “le Paon”) I was theorising that Mayura would actually being Hawkmoth’s boss, the villain the was responsible for giving him his Miraculous and the one who destroyed the Order of the Miraculous, and would take over as the main villain in season 3 due to Hawkmoth’s failures. However, that turned out not to be the case.

Not only that, but Mayuras power is a copy paste power with some modifications to make it complement Hawkmoth’s power, by basically giving his akuma’s magic pokemon.

Speaking of Hawkmoth’s power, for a miraculous that is supposed to be used for good, how can his power mind control people and make them become evil? More importantly, for a miraculous that is supposedly weaker than the main heroes of the show, having it be able to multiply and posses people to create an army is kinda strong.

Fuck the Maribat ship that the salt fandom came up with. Its trash, it was made to bash most of the Miraculous cast sans Marinette, and anyone thinks it is good are either those same salters or are the same people who think that Rey-lo and the Twilight Saga are masterpieces of romance.

Whew! I needed that vent. Hope you enjoyed it as as much as I did, and Tune in next time on the next episode of:  Arlakos loses his Mind and Rants for 2 pages of writing!