#I really do have to thank mulan specifically <3 because (and I apologise because I HAVE said this before but)

[lizardthelizard]

That playlist though. Oh no. OH NO! Feelings for and about Mulan. Right through the heart. I love "Another Love" so very much, but I'm often said when you watch some fanedit and it's kinda missing this beat how, well, the previous/other/first love was so all consuming, that finding something new is hard. Now you make me think about Sleeping Warrior vs Red Warrior here, OBVIOUSLY!

Mulan hitting rock bottom, wandering around aimless after leaving Aurora, because obviously she didn't join Robin. And we see her in that tavern, given up on honor (her truest of loves, clearly). Hitting the other direction of her whole character so hard. Meeting Ruby is nice, but falling for her doesn't come easy at all. She had her hopes set up on Aurora and it destroyed her completely, now where is the energy to muster up the courage to go for a second round?

~And if somebody hurts you, I wanna fight But my hand's been broken one too many times~ HELP! I'M DYING OVER HERE WITH THE IMAGES!! Thinking back to the intensity of the first time and while wanting love not being able to go for it... yeah, very canon, very tragic.

I'm listening through the whole thing, but I saw it ends with Marina. Great. The only thing more devastating would have been a Florence song. Marina's voice alone can carry this specific kind of melancholia/sadness... ~I'm a nomad [...] no sweet home~ Yeah, a Mulan song. What a choice. Never meeting anybody from her past, not getting her own happy ending.

Also, yes to the thing you said - she is so terribly stubborn. They gave us a fullfledged 3dimensional character with flaws, who would also bring a very useful skillset to the table and with more time all those walls she clearly build could have been torn down by the right person. Damn.

(Maybe I should finally cave and get spotify, make things easier. lol)

Another Love THEE reason for this playlist! At least, when I listened to it some years ago, it was the first (and for a while the only song) I had on her playlist. Because it was so perfect for her!! and I HAD to have it on some kind of Mulan playlist.

But YEAH!! Mulan's heartbreak over Aurora is so evident in season 5 and it really changes her as a person. And she becomes so bitter and so jaded (and then canon doesn't even give her a happy ending and she has to third wheel AGAIN 😭)

But when you throw Ruby into the mix? Oh boy, I'm VERY here for this. It won't be easy for either of them (Mulan struggling to open up and put herself out there again and with Ruby viewing herself as a monster still and worrying about hurting Mulan if they're too close) but...if they were both able to work up the courage and power through any of those issues... 👀

Also, see, I think it's such a shame because I feel like Mulan IS three dimensional, yes! But sometimes fandom (very broadly speaking) treats her like she's not. And she gets watered down into this kind of 'girlboss' character. And yeah, she IS a girlboss! Sure! But she's kind of a dork-ass-loser as well sometimes and she takes things way too seriously and she's so closed off.

Anyway, the point is that, like many ouat side characters, Mulan deserved so much more from canon.

[notafeeling]

‘Growing Up’ Video Analysis

(( Video analysis/take aways from @thatsthat24‘ new video, “Growing Up”, co-written with @jonerstrokes! Happy very belated birthday btw. ))

-          0:25 Morality popping up all excited. “Amazing!”

-          0:27 This is immediately followed by the three others making noises of disagreements and you can tell that Anxiety isn’t alone for once on a topic. Thomas picks up on this and figures that this must mean something bad.

-          0:33 It looks like Anxiety barely hid a smile as he said nice, but it might have been my imagination. He glances around as if he’s unsure that they are actually agreeing. “I’m not alone on this one? Nice.”

-          0:45-0:58 When Anxiety is being all menacing, Logan cuts in and takes what he’s saying literally and so quickly reassures him that that’s not the problem here (in the literal sense), making Anxiety explain himself. It breaks his harsh negativity for a second. Once it clears up, he agrees.

-          0:59 Roman takes the time to show that he still does not like Anxiety, the darker side seems exasperated with the nicknames. He’s also resigned to them, but doesn’t appear to be too offended by it. “How many of those have you got?”

-          1:04 Princey looks as if though he’s disappointed in himself when he tells Thomas that they haven’t accomplished their dreams. Kind of like he blames himself… *coughs*

-          1:08 Logan participating in the animal noise association game instinctively. Patton even points to him because he knows Logic will do it. The seriousness is replaced with a brief few seconds of banter and it’s just heart-warming okay? “Baa.”

-          1:18 Logic having a list on things Thomas needs to improve on. It fills up multiple pages and he even goes far as to mention that he has included detail on it. Makes me wonder if he keeps lists on everything. How many does he have? “Oh those are just the categories, we haven’t even gotten into specifics yet.”

-          1:33-1:50 Anxiety getting to go off on his negative spiel without being interrupted by Logic or Prince until Morality stops him. (Unlike the others, he doesn’t tell Anxiety to shut up or insult him, but I digress.) Patton makes the slightest of jabs at him, but it doesn’t seem to be intentional or aimed to harm Anxiety, more so to reassure Thomas. “I know we tend to overthink a couple of things.”

-          2:10-2:18 Morality doesn’t sound as if though he’s taking Thomas seriously, but I feel like that’s also unintentional. He’s probably trying to lighten the mood the way he normally does it because it usually works. He also confuses the word adultery again. “Look who needs another lesson in adultery!” “For the last time, that is not right.” “I’m sorry, look whom needs another lesson in adultery.”

-          2:27 Prince admits to thinking about Thomas’ friends and their accomplishments and comparing that to their own. He’s worried because like the others, he wants what he thinks is best for Thomas. In his mind, that would be making sure Thomas doesn’t fall behind achievement-wise. “When comparing yourself to your friends and what they’ve accomplished, how do you stack up?”

-          2:34 Anxiety makes a joke (albeit a negative one) without thinking in response to Morality’s. This messes with my Anx and Mo friendship theory a little, but Morality isn’t shown having a negative reaction so… “Like pancakes, you fall flat.”

-          2:48-3:03 Patton steps in when Thomas is getting picked apart by the others. He’s quick to support him whilst, once again, not insulting a particular side (harshly/personally). *coughs aggressively*

-          3:06 When Logic is in… wherever Morality put him, you can see ‘LOGAN IS THE BEST TEACHER’ scrawled on the whiteboard. Seeing as this is Morality’s imagination, I assume that he wrote that there. The rest of the doodles on the board is cute also.

-          3:44 Thomas has done all of those scenarios Patton shows. I’m kind of curious about that shirt one. Especially since it looked like Thomas was just about to collapse before it moved on to the next scene. “They were all real events in my life.”

-          3:54-4:04 Anxiety seems approving of Thomas staying up until 5am as long as it has a cool name. When Logic tells him that neither the “witching” nor the “devil’s” hour is at 5am, he doesn’t see the point in staying up that late (early?). What else would he do as long as it had a cool name? “Well then it’s just 5am and you need to go to bed.”

-          4:58 Roman expresses extreme disgust at Thomas not watching his shirt. Perhaps he’s the one who hates dirt/germs the most out of the sides? That does make sense considering he’s a prince, although I would’ve thought it’d be Logic. “Did you ever wash that shirt? You’re wearing it right now.” “I did not.” “Ewww!”

-          5:07-5:17 Logan shuts down Patton when he suggests that what they do is a playful banter thing. Prince outright says that he’s the problem. Anxiety makes another negative joke/observation but also joins in. “I love this playful teasing, back-and-forth that we do!” “No, I am serious.” “You are holding Thomas back!” “His heart’s just not in the right place.”

-          5:18 Logan takes Anxiety literally again. There was a theory that it was so Anxiety is forced to explain himself and how he thinks, making it easier to understand the problems, which I like. “Again, that is not the issue. Anatomically, Thomas is fine.”

-          5:41 Thomas snaps at Patton, who is surprised. Morality apologises softly, and it sounds like his voice cracks slightly. He also looks like he’s about to cry, or at least nearing that point. “That’s just it, I’m not a ‘kiddo’ anymore!”

-          5:54 Logic and Prince start teaming up against Morality more noticeably now. Anxiety keeps quiet, looking between the two. He doesn’t seem to approve of their actions at all.

-          6:38-6:46 Anxiety doesn’t find it appropriate when Roman goes off on a Disney spiel at that time. Of course, this could have just been his hatred of Disney showing, but it seemed like he was just being mindful of Patton and kind of resented Prince slightly for being so joyful whilst picking on another. “No Mulan lyrics right now, man, come on.” / “Into the Woods is not better!”

-          7:21 Anxiety completely avoids insulting Morality at all at this point, instead he chooses to keep Logic and Prince at bay. “Okay, pocket protector.”

-          8:28-8:36 & 10:49 Logic is protective over his ‘look’. Despite having told Thomas to wear it, he doesn’t like it on him. “This… This is just my look, you stole my look.” / “Plus I wear it so much better than you. Objectively.” / (much later) “Careful with it. Careful!”

-          8:39-8:46 Logan then dabs and you can see Anxiety just go ‘wHAT’. “Is no one going to acknowledge that he just dabbed?”

-          8:47 Morality, the heart, is (forgive my wording) broken-hearted over the fact that Thomas decides to give up the things he love. I don’t mean to fuel the angst writers here, but like, what if Patton fades the longer Thomas goes without enjoyment? “But you’re giving up all the things that you love!”

-          9:14-9:33 Logan takes into consideration that Thomas isn’t happy with the changes. He goes so far as to admit that he was wrong, and proceeds to figure out that Morality’s opinion is needed to find out how to solve this. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. “Morality? What are we doing… wrong?”

-          9:49-10:05 Thomas quickly realises that he can’t give up everything that he and Morality love and says such, making Patton smile again. “I can’t sacrifice everything you bring to the table.”

-          10:58 Roman, too, apologises in his own way. “That is – wow, I am ashamed of myself.”

-          11:03 Anxiety jumps in. He says that he thought of exactly what Thomas was saying when defending Morality, but brushes it off, using his ‘I’m lazy’ excuse. He might not have wanted the others to bombard him with insults if he were to defend Morality back then? Either way, he doesn’t fool me, that softie. “I was gonna bring that up… but it would have been too much work.”

-          11:39-11:54 Roman teleports them into the first “mind palace” which is just an empty white oasis. Anxiety isn’t used to the sudden light change and is physically bothered by it. Roman fixes his mistake and then the background changes to a new setup. Each little spot corresponds to a side’s own interests/personality.

-          12:02 Anxiety makes a Winnie the Pooh reference when Morality points out that there’s something specifically for Anxiety, which is just really sweet. “Thanks for noticing me.”

-          12:14-12:23 Everyone compliments Morality apart from Anxiety who seems to really love his corner. Anx monologues for a bit, which is both funny and cute, that edgy emo whom I love. “Small, dark and empty… like the cavity where my heart would be… if I had one…”

-          12:24-12:36 No one wants to talk about their issues. Instead, Prince, Logic and Anxiety choose to sink out. Anx wishes Thomas a “happy birthday” with no malicious intent. Notably, he’s the only one who does this throughout the whole video.

-          12:57-3:18 ‘Patton-cake’ is mentioned, and Morality reveals his name as Patton! Finally. Also on the subject of patton-cake, what is it? Why does it need tuna? I’m so confused someone help me.

-          13:50-4:15 Thomas shows his Shorty Award for being the best YouTube comedian! AHHHH, CONGRATULATIONS!

-          14:16-14:23 Patton somehow convinces the others to play and gather the materials, which only adds to the confusion. Why do you need two tennis rackets? Why are Roman’s hands covered in candle wax? W H Y?

-          14:24-14:31 Anxiety tells Patton that he didn’t do whatever he was asked to do, but Patton congratulates him on a job well done nonetheless. What a supportive dad. “And Anxiety, you-“ “No, I didn’t. Whatever you asked me to do, I didn’t do it.” “-are standing there sulking in the corner, yes! Look at what a good job he’s doing, everyone!”

In conclusion, I spent over three hours on this because I have no life and really like TS videos.