#I specifically got dragged into around arc but didn’t watch arc first due to needing more context

[no1ryomafan]

Sometimes I wish I was into getter sooner because the curse of “being in a small fandom of a series that’s been around for decades” is there was always fans before you even if the difference is only by a couple years yet those people do eventually stop talking about it. Not leaving the fandom persay but they got different interests so they don’t feel inclined to stick to this one thing, they’d still talk about it if someone brought it up to them it’s just something that isn’t on their radar a lot until something new comes out. Which is why so many people came back when arc aired but either choose to stay or just left after it died down. I missed out on a lot even if it’s only because I’m younger and a lot of earlier fandom days would’ve been bound to have some doom posting about the mangas ending-there’s still people arguing arc anime didn’t technically “resolve it” bc some people are that salty how it turned out but I don’t wanna imagine how it was prior-and it sucks I’ll never get to know some of these people-

But I also not only realized I still have more than enough getter friends as is to make up for that, if I was exposed to this series in my early teens I think the results for how I would’ve turned out as a person would’ve been far more worse so it’s probably good it didn’t happen💀

[sanstropfremir]

kingdom episode 5 review!!! lets fucking go!!!!!

 look. was i insanely hyped for this episode? yes. was my hype justified? also yes. holy FUCKING SHIT. you’ll have to forgive me for going off the rails at some points because ateez and btob directly tapped into something primal in my brain and i am obsessed. i'm obsessed. there’s no other word for it I’m obsessed. 

 ok ok ok i'll focus. i'm focused. i'll do the stage breakdown first and then do my personal ranking at the end. i might do a quick runup comparison of the self and expert rankings for funsies but i'll see how i feel when i get there. instead of going in airing order i’m gonna reverse it, since that was the order i actually watched them in and also i will run out of brains if i talk about rhythm ta first.

skz

i feel for skz. i don't think this show is going to be as much of learning curve as it needs to be for them because the fan voting skews the rankings so much. I’ve said it so many times before, but letting something flop or getting a bad ranking is actually good, because it shows you that you need to improve. because skz keeps getting validated by the fan rankings and placing first in the last two stages, they aren't actually taking the time to evaluate what about their stages is or isn't working. and besides, we’ve now seen two very similar concepts in a row from them, just one is on a grander scale than the other. what they should be doing is what both ateez and btob did for this round, which was scale up production value, but scale down concept. i know this sounds weird but i'll explain. skz has done two very abstract and ‘grand’ concepts. first round we had ghosts/good self vs evil self, and this stage they just went straight for the throat with a deal with the devil type stage. now when you combine these very abstract concepts with an unclear narrative arc, you lose clarity of intent in the performance because there are no specifics that you’re playing off of. there’s a lot more places left up to personal interpretation and this is where people can get lost. btob and ateez both narrowed down their concepts to hyperspecific scenarios where they very clearly showing the audience the arc the stage is taking. audiences can be smart but also if you can lead them by the hand they like not thinking about highly conceptual ideas, and especially not so much in a pop song competition show.

 costume

this is so rare because generally stylists are pretty careful about this, but i genuinely think they got outshone by the backup dancers, especially in the ‘heaven’ sequence. those sash and skirt combos with the strapped white tops that look like straitjackets? the fucking angel wings?! these are some thematically fun costume designs and because they’re white they stand out so much more when skz are wearing black. i also think i've seen these tops on backup dancers before? i thought it was on the last stage but i might be going insane.

i am a sucker for beaded embroidery and the combined dyework on some of their sashes is beautiful. but again, thematically irrelevant? at least you can see the greco-roman inspiration in the backup dancers’ costumes. all this is telling me is that whoever the stitchers are at jype, they are fucking incredible, but they don’t actually have a good designer because the main costumes for all their stages have been both aesthetically similar and thematically irrelevant.

again, i applaud skz for trying more experimental makeup, but boys you have to go bigger, it has no impact right now.

set

well, i did ask for them to commit to the western art bit and they sort of delivered? the first space is not planned very well and combined with the wide wide camera shots instead of making the space seem grand and sweeping it just seems bare. the ‘heaven’ side was excellent though, there was much better control of the camera and the columns and altar scaled the space down so it was more believable. also the breakable columns were fun and corny and i love it when stuff gets destroyed onstage.

the child statue transformation into actual child was a neat trick that i think landed really well. i wish they had given that concept a little more grounding other than the flashback bit but it was still very readable.

i know using rodin's gates of hell is the easiest way to shortcut saying that like, “you are now entering hell,” but them being used SO literally feels a bit blunt when the last time we saw them used in kpop was by original blasphemous catholic lee taemin, who used them with such nuance and intelligence that i'm a bit put off by skz’s literalism.

on that note, i find it very interesting the conflation that happens between greco-roman/”classical” aesthetics and catholicism, because ideologically the two are opposed (see: the bible) and historically, they didn't exist at the same time. now i'm not going to go off on a tangent about neoclassicism because you are not here for an art history lecture but i thought i would make the observation about how catholics continued appropriation of greco-roman aesthetics without complete understanding or context of those aesthetics is as pervasive as it ever has been in the last several hundred years. 

lighting

generally the lighting is pretty good, but there’s an over-reliance on projections that cheapens the look of the stage but also devalues the intentions as well. at the core of it there’s a profound statement being made about trading away your innocence, but when you underscore that with like, clock graphics and a WoW looking demon, it loses that simplicity of message.

the thing about using this particular type of projection, which are actually screens and not typical projectors, is that screens always throw light. and due to where they are situated, this basically means that if you're using the screens at full capacity with a cool colour range, we are going to be able to see everything. this is another contributing factor to why the stage looks so empty; they’re lighting up everything and it exposes where the gaps are.

now i fully acknowledge that this possibly could have been a deliberate choice, since they do actually use some spot lighting at the beginning and end. however, if it was it did not land for me. 

i loved the intro of demon felix done in blue, that was a nice switchup from what we would usually see, but i wish there was more of a coherent colour arc. like the narrative it stutters around a bit.

sound

the arrangement was a miss for me. i found it a bit dissonant again, like their last stage, since the original i'll be your man has obvious lyrics about a good christian boy being sad about a girl. this gets a bit wonky conceptually as soon as you add a child self into it. i don’t know if they changed any of the lyrics in the singing to match this a little more because i don't speak korean, so i'll have to wait for episode subs for verification. 

i really applaud them for trying, and overall they didn't actually do that bad, but skz is not a vocal group. the most i'm going to say about it is that these boys don’t have the breath support. this is likely because they're trying to do choreographically complex movements, but also it's a training thing. you can hear the difference even just between eunkwang’s ‘vocal warmup’ at the beginning of back door, he’s not projecting full voice but he still has the breath support for his voice to sound full, whereas all skz boys sound thin in comparison, even when at full volume, because they’re trying to project from the throat and not the chest. that's all i'm gonna say about that. i don't think the cracked note was bad, i didn’t really clock it on first listen.

staging

thematically they could have had something really interesting here if they stuck to a more simple narrative arc. the genesis (i’m very funny) of the idea here is good, the whole mephistopheles deal with a devil + regret/loss of innocence is clear, but the arc isn't really an arc, and the colour story doesn't help. it kind of goes earth (green/blue) -> the gates of hell are opening (red) -> oh it's heaven now (blue) -> oh just kidding it's hell/lets destroy heaven (red) -> back to earth (blue). not necessarily a bad arc, just a bit complex for four minutes.

the choreo was a lot better this time, there was a lot more intention and relevance to theme and i didn’t feel like they were flailing for the sake of flailing as much as i have in their other stages. there was also a clarity in the overall blocking and movement patterns that was missing from their other stages. this stage has a really great handoff of each member playing the ‘main’ character, especially in the beginning. i especially liked the cut from falling off the stairs to laying centre stage. 

i think I’m right in assuming that it was a choice that the members were all playing the same character and demon felix was that character possessed rather than the actual devil, but personally i think it would have been a lot more fun if they had straight up just made him be the actual devil. there’s a bit of dissonance when you have a performer with such a specialized skillset that gets used in very specific instances, but then he shows up in the regular group choreo like any ol’ guy. they always put such emphasis on felix (as they should, he’s their most charismatic performer), but they never go the distance. i would have loved it if they had committed to the bit like TOO did in their magnolia stage from rtk, where they had a member just be blinded justice. that was literally the only thing he did and it worked so well. could have done the same here with felix and it would have been fun. that being said the felix parts were SO good. love love love him getting dragging in chains.

 btob

this hit every little one of the buttons in my tiny backstage crew brain. i'm in love with this stage. there’s so many true to life little details here that on repeat viewings you're still finding new things. i know i rag on and on about narrative every week but here is a good example of what i've been trying to get at this whole time: the stage needs a shape. an a to b. you don't need a whole pirates spiel or a game of thrones theme extended universe; all you need is a clear setting and a point a to point b. this stage has both those things perfectly. we have a hyperspecific setting, (american rockstars) and a basic arc (getting ready to perform -> performing). even though back door is outside of btob’s wheelhouse, they spun it in a way that played to their strengths and did a bit braggadocio, which is rightfully earned. i'm gonna be saying it every time but the experience shows!!!

 costume

good contemporary costume is SO difficult, i want to impress that here. because it's the the time period that we are currently living and seeing every day it's so easy for the audience to spot mistakes. although yes it's easier to source/shop for, to get it good enough that it doesn't pull people out of the immersion is surprisingly more difficult than you think. their stylists did an excellent job here. the backup dancers and btob are all in monochrome plus one and it adds a very clean unity to everything without visual clutter.

each of btob’s costumes have enough to give indication of character, along with the member’s acting, which i'll get more into in the staging section. regardless, never underestimate the power of a good fitting shirt and statement belt. oh and minhyuk in the stirrup motorcycle boots with the skinny jeans and the supreme boxers and the red satin robe? good bye.

i love love love a dyed buzz this was such a good aesthetic choice for peniel, 10/10 i have no complaints about the costumes.

set

oh my god i’m gonna french kiss this set designer. this is such a simple set but it’s executed so well. there’s the ‘backstage’ area, the corridor with four dressing rooms, and then the ‘stage’ that’s pretty much just velvet ropes. so simple, but all the detail is in the set decoration and props. the road cases, the monitor, the subtle flex of the posters of them on the walls, the clothing racks, all the booze. although this is not the actual layout of any theatre (they're normally much weirder than this), there’s so many little details here that really make the experience.

there’s a very straightforward path here and it works so well. i think this might be the best use of the gates so far? it appropriately suited the drama of the moment and they didn't have to do anything to them because they're already in a theatre. bada bing bada boom.

lighting

love the setup and continuation through the amber ‘BRRRMM.’ like with sf9 it gives a smooth transition into the stage. also loved no blackout. it's a general rule in current theatrical practice that you only use blackouts when they are absolutely necessary, because they can stop the pacing of a play dead in the water. so the lack of one here at the start of the stage was a really smart choice and makes the transition feel less jarring.

i will say that actual backstage areas are very rarely lit with amber because it travels far and it's bright. it's much more common to see running lights (the lights on during a performance) to be deep red or blue.

those blasting wash lights as the gates open? the DRAMA. such a seemingly innocuous choice that really cements the atmosphere of ‘we are about to perform.’

really smart use of the projections to accentuate the already existing stage facilities. it's pretty much unnoticable because it's very well done but i appreciate it.

sound

this ARRANGEMENT!!!! it's so good!!! back door has this premise essentially built into the song so it was so smart of them to put this gimmicky spin on it. loved the literal interpretation of the knocks into the structure of the stage, it makes the blend between the sound design and the staging that much more effective.

more rock versions of everything please and thank you. 

btob is just stunting at this point and i love it. i'll have to wait for subs but judging by the hands in front of the camera bit and the ‘your super high note’ i’m pretty confident the added rap lyrics are full of shots at the other groups and honestly? valid.

staging

there's some really sharp camera control here with the one take first half. It’s up very close and personal because there’s a lack of space but it really works for the ‘intimacy’ of seeing backstage at a venue. also this is such a simple movement track but it’s so effective. it backs over a couple spots but it doesn't feel repetitive because there’s a sense of urgency and drive.

there are so many good little details in here that are true to life and unnecessary to include but sell the performance as a whole. peniel flinging water onstage, minhyuk stripping down twice and flinging his clothes around, minhyuk closing the door on the standby’s face, the backup dancer as a dresser with the laundry basket, peniel stealing the hat off her but then not going on stage with it these are all things that I’ve either had directly happen to me or something very similar has happened. but the best one and the one that sets off the tone amazingly for the whole stage is eunkwang’s intro. that ‘vocal warmup’ with the quiet okay at the end? with the little jump? i see that moment of vulnerability before the transition between person and actor every time i watch someone go onstage for the first time and there’s no way to describe it other than magic. 

the luxury of only having four members, there was actually time in this stage to establish character. it also speaks to the performing strength of btob that they can establish clear character in this short amount of time. obviously it’s pretty one dimensional; there’s serious eunkwang, typical rocker minhyuk, fuckboy peniel (how many licks does it take to make your tootsie pop, anyone?), and comedian changsub. i’ve seen and met and worked with these exact dudes many, many times. ugh i love this stage

 ateez

the utter euphoria i felt at the proof that last round’s stage wasn't a fluke. this stage is so good. it's so good. i'm obsessed with how good this stage. as an unreformed pop punk teen who played a LOT of latin jazz i am LIVING. if you’ve only seen the episode cut and not the full version here i'll make it easy and link it for you because oh my GOD mnet destroyed the pacing by cutting in a full minute and a half of reaction shots. actually mnet fucked up the pacing for all of these stages but this one was the worst. and look. i know this is the closest these boys are going to get to being real punks and this is a carefully curated and artificial facade for narrative purposes only but oh the pandering tastes so sweet. regardless of that, i am IN AWE of the level of storytelling happening here. the narrative is so clear on just the first viewing even though there is so much going on and they use every possible element they can to further enhance that narrative. repeat viewings just add more and more little details. i’ll probably miss some things because there's so much but i'll try my best.

 costume

look, hanya and i were joking that my notes for this stage were just gonna be ‘san dog collar’ for a thousand words and i was so tempted to just leave it at that because.....woof. so here is a short list of things i am the most obsessed with:

san dog collar

san smeared lipstick

wooyoung cruella deville ponytail

hongjoong terrible blond crewcut

san crushed velvet cargo pants?!

seonghwa cropped fur jacket

yunho arm sleeve

hongjoong sockless in red derbys

but in all seriousness the costumes are so good. none of these are truly authentic punk looks but they capture the spirit right and that's what matters. all the right trappings are there; safety pins, patches, plaid, leather, and a lot of diy type looks. i love the painted masks, especially as a callback to the comedy/tragedy theatre masks. it was a thematic choice to have the backup dancers in black and the tac vests are a super simple contextual device.

also hongjoong’s quickchange hat/jacket combo is super fun and i hope that’s intentionally a preview of the next stage.

set

if you weren't convinced before that whoever is designing the ateez stages is a stage designer, i don't know what to tell you. it's hard to tell because there is so much environmental storytelling happening, but there is NO large scale set here. like with their last stage, kq smartly put money into two highlight pieces; the anarchist blimp and the van/wall, and the rest of the stage atmosphere is established solely through propwork and lighting. just think about that for a bit. every other group has some kind of large scale room or wall build. ateez has a bunch of tables, flyers, and a podium. i don’t know if i can accurately communicate just how difficult this kind of coordination is to pull off but holy fucking shit this is so hard to pull off. these are theatre people i see you and i see your work and i love you!!!

they fully used the gilt mnet stage as their pseudo government building and it works. everything about this (lack of) set is so smart i wish i could be more articulate about it but there’s so only so many ways i can say the same thing over and over again. 

lighting

the laser scopes. the LASER SCOPES!!! god this lighting designer is so good. whoever you are, i'm acknowledging your effort because you deserve it. there’s some really wonderful contrast and directional lighting: the van light, the pinlights/lasers/smoke as searchlights. a lot of atmospheric red lighting but it makes sense for the theme (alarm lights) and they offset it well (unlike in the other two predominantly red stages we’ve seen) by fill lighting the faces with blue or amber; this is what actually makes us able to see what’s happening on stage

the projections are used to augment the stage action in without being overpowering, they're at relatively low tonal value so they aren't lighting up the stage at full brightness like in the skz stage. 

the big brother eye on the tv screens (it's just a projection, not actual screens) combined with the government ban notice and the broadcast has to be the record for fastest visual explanation of fascist totalitarian state. 

sound

i love it. they really successfully made rhythm ta into an ateez song and it’s cool as fuck. i love that it isn't sonically very loud. a lot of the chorus is actually quite level tone and quiet, which is a bold choice and they pull it off. this is very comfortably in their range (excluding jongho) and they went more for style than range and that's exactly what every group should be doing. singing high does not equal singing good. yes i am looking at you jongho you should have stopped at that penultimate note, it was fine!!

using rhythm ta as a pseudo protest song against a fascist government that’s banned all music and art? galaxy brain. that intro of hongjoong whispering “hey hey hey hey, this is just a song so get on the rhythm” after gunning down military police/guards? king fucking shit.

staging

i will eat all five pairs of my fluevog boots if kq hasn't hired a bunch of theatre professionals to direct and design these stages because now it's been proven that last stage wasn't a fluke. the level of execution at work here is absolutely incredible. oh the gesamtkunstwerk of it all!!!  there is SO much happening so quickly in this four minute stage and it still manages to convey exactly the correct amount of information that it needs to on the first go round, and it only gets better on repeat viewings.

they use a really classic theatre perspective trick with san climbing the rope, and they absolutely didn’t have to do that. san probably could have actually climbed that himself, but here they made a choice for aesthetic artistry over tricking/other feats of skills we’ve seen the 4th gen groups do. instead of going with the more technically difficult and ‘impressive’ option, they chose the simple way that allows for more character to shine through. there’s actually very little tricking in this stage as whole, they're putting trust in the design of the stage and the raw performance abilities of the members to carry the stage and they stick the landing again. san has some breakdancing and so do the backup dancers, but it’s window dressing in the same way that the flyers are window dressing.

there’s a lot of really good little moments of acting that really sell the performance and dedication of the group as a whole to giving their all. hongjoong overall in his cocky aspirational leader role, seonghwa’s first verse and malfunctioning earpiece bit, san’s falsetto hostage interrogation bit. also i'm obsessed with how far yunho just hucks that mask. he gets like fifteen feet of air with that thing. also props to hongjoong barehanding that glass break.

the paper props are impeccable. the first notice sets up the situation right away, and then we get some further exposition with the newspaper wooyoung is holding (which says ‘the central government has defined the black pirates as a terrorist’ but honestly you don't really need to know what it says to get the point), and then we have raining anarchist flyers from the anarchist blimp. great atmospheric touches.

the blackout crash-to-mask transition is just so good. this is an example of a good use of a blackout. nothing else to add i just thought i would point it out because it's dope.

like with btob there's some really tight camera control here, that along with the lighting and the way they've laid out the space make it easy to follow the trajectory of where they're going and also make the space seem smaller than it is. this is a really big stage and if you don't control how you want it to be seen you end up like with what happened to the first part of skz’s stage. i wish they had tracked some of the one takes a bit better, but the end of that take where the camera followed the group movement laterally and then the formation swung around to face front? sexy. surprisingly the editing is pretty ok.

there’s probably still so much i could talk about but this is already so long so if i missed something just let me know.

ok finally lets do some rankings

personal ranking

this round wasn't as tough to rank because there were two clear top tier stages for me. i actually went back and looked at my ranking from last round and this is identical except the top two spots are switched, which i find extremely funny. however in contrast to last round, these stages were all leagues better than their predecessors. all the groups are improving, just some at greater speed than others.

ateez - i'm not even gonna explain this one.

btob - i won't explain this one either since i just did that.

sf9 - this would have been first if ateez and btob hadnt blow everyone out of the water.i still think they made all the right choices and played to their strengths.

ikon - this stage is so fun to watch but the others offer me more. that’s it.

skz - i like the idea behind it and i loved felix; i'm always down for some good catholic fuckery but like last round it just wasn't played out far enough.

tbz - double ding on the moulin rouge and the continued game of thrones references for me. there were a lot of strong elements here but when compared to every other stage it just doesn't have the same gravitas.

the self rankings i thought were fairly accurate, but again, what the fuck is up with these expert rankings? who are these experts? what stages are they watching?? i won't go more into it than that because then you'll be here even longer but i don't trust these experts who consistently rank btob at the bottom, do you have eyes??? ears????

 ok i'm done for real now im so sorry this 4.6k words......if you make it this far do something nice for yourself like eat a cookie or something. this is way too long you deserve a reward for making it through my nonsense. as always if you’ve got questions or want to share your opinions feel free to send me an ask!

[n-ugg]

I didn't expect to get tagged but here we are. As you all will be able to tell in a bit, I am a massive Quackity fan

Thank you for tagging me @skeetlehands!

who is your favourite member on the smp?

Look, I love them all but these have a special place in my heart.

Quackity, Slimecicle (I am fully aware he just joined but I still love him), Schlatt, Tubbo, Eret, AweSamdude, and Ponk.

They're just great in and out of character and just have comforting vibes.

when did you first start watching the smp and what made you get into it?

I gotten in during the Pogtopia era since it took me a while to get access to the streams.

I mainly gotten in with the Sad-ist War animatics along with me trying to catch up on Quackity's VODS. Just someone that I was already familiar with being an easier shift into story and learning others through him

what is your favourite part about watching the smp?

Just watching everyone interact with other and just seeing the plot progress in real time. Its literally just dnd but with extra steps but I enjoy it so much

The improv that they all do is amazing and how everyone have different approaches to their characters makes my writer's side so happy with dissecting everything.

What piece of cursed lore is your favourite

That Wilbur canonically fucked a fish and Philza canonically fucked a Samasung fridge and just seeing the fanbase try to change into something that will at least make a bit more sense.

Im included in this, I basically joined the side that has Sally being a mermaid shapeshifting pirate. Mainly because of pirate Fundy

Who is your favorite duo on the smp

Slimecicle and Ranboo: They're the same person but in different fonts, you can convince me otherwise

Schlatt and Quackity: They managed to be super funny together with all of the jokes and balanced with making a very realistic abusive relationship work. It was always fun seeing them flirt with each other for a joke then get hit with whiplash when canon comes in to remind me that this isnt healthy

Tubbo and Tommy: They're two dumbasses who share the same braincell but then they constantly lose it and Tubbo mainly has custody of it

Wilbur and Schlatt: I just enjoy seeing Schlatt messing with Wilbur and occasionally flirts with him to get Wilbur more pissed off

Who are your comfort streamers

Quackity and Slimecicle are comfort streamers

Eret, Fundy, and AweSamdude are my comfort people (meaning I dont watch them as much but I find comfort in their presence. And the other two are also under this category)

Who is your favorite character

Quackity due to how complex his character is and yet how it looks so simple

Schlatt because is just a villian who knows how to play the game without getting caught

Tubbo, watching him trying to be hopeful with everything destroy around him and he just slowly become used to everything going wrong

AweSamdude because he is just trying his best to be a father figure others and I just got family issues

Who do you think the best actor(s) on the smp

Imma skip over the ones that we all already said and get into the ones that dont get enough praise

Quackity: Just how he managed to make his character seem so basic but in reality its really complex. And just seeing the shift from him being a chaotic force of nature to being a serious character that is trying his best to reach something that has been hanging over his head is just *chefs kiss* and he always delivers amazing lines on the spot.

BadBoyHalo: He is doing great right now, even though he is a bit rusty with starting he still manages to get into character and stay in character the entire time. When slowly easing in, you can tell its a bit forced but once he finds his footing, he knows how to deliver his lines.

AweSamdude: His entire bit where he was getting rescued from the egg fucking hurt. How he sounded weak from the entire thing and tired to where he just wanted to rest was so well. And I know he can act more energetic when he was accidentally dragged into playing a cop during Quackity's and Bad's date

Fundy: You guys need to give him more praise for his acting because he is fucking amazing at it. The little touches to how he voice when speaks is so good along with his body language in game. He knows what he's fucking doing and I love him for that. And when he snapped, it made complete sense if you payed attention to his character

I didnt add Ranboo because he's automatically at the top section due to him being a dnd player. Same goes to Slimecicle even though he hasnt acted yet. I dont make the rules. You play dnd, you know how to act

What are your favorite quotes

I dont have favorite quotes, just dialog heavy scenes.

Before Doomsday, Quackity going to take his horse far away from L'Manberg, it being the one thing he cares about. It was just so good

The entire Schlatt and Quackity argument in front of the white house

The meeting between Schlatt and Quackity with Schlatt yelling out to him in a taunting way to where Tommy and Quackity are trying to figure out what happened to the tnt. I constantly rewatch it to feel the adrinaline pumping to feel something

Wilbur's slow descend into insanity and talking to Tommy. Just showing his paranoia and fears consuming him, him projecting his fears into Tommy as an attempt of manipulation, and his hero complex shift into villian one

Schlatt's winning speech of him projecting it as something that was bound to happen no matter what. The amount of charisma and confidence that was in his voice as I was watching Tommy hiding underground in fear was just a perfect scene

Tommy's argument with Dream when everyone is protecting Tommy. Its the small details of Tommy taunting Dream to kill him, knowing he wont no matter what. Him telling everyone to protect Tubbo and everyone listening without hesitation.

The debate that Quackity and Dream had for like 11 or 14 minutes. All of that was completely unprompted unscripted, it was just so satisfying seeing someone stand up against Dream for the first time and actually beating him. Sure it was in a verble conflict but it still counts as a defeat

Be honest, who do you simp for? (Ayo if anyone says Tommy or Tubbo I will🗡)

Schlatt, Quackity, and Slimecicle

Its pretty obvious, I dont really try to hide it

Whats your favorite stream

Uhhhh I dont exactly have one so none I guess

Whats your least favorite streams

Im sorry, but all of the Jackbox stream. You need a specific group of people to play together in order to actually make it funny and keeping the energy throughout the entire thing.

After a bit later, everyone has a tendency of pandering to the audience and repeat jokes. They managed to beat jokes to the ground faster than Tiktok AND Twitter.

Dont get me started with DreamTeam being in there. They're funny in thier own rights but the shipping jokes get so unfunny so quick and they dont know how bounce off of others well. The only exception to this is when Quackity, Velvet, and Ant were playing with Sapnap and Dream. And thats because they decided to mess with the straight white guys into accidently saying offensive shit and seeing those two suffer with trying tiptoe around was so amusing

Whats something about the smp fandom thay makes you sad

This doesnt get me sad, just frustrated and its mostly towards dsmptok and dsmptwt but sometimes this fandom doesnt fucking know how to analyze characters. Like when everyone jumped on Tubbo on being the bad guy when he was a kid trying to use old tatics that knows that worked before and stand up for himself

How when one person decides to do something that they believe is right, everyone just throws the term villian arc around

When one person does one good thing the suddenly everyone accepts into them being good and not ever looking into it.

For fucks sakes, I saw people keep saying that Quackity was turning into Dream or Wilbur and I just sat there being confused on how they conntected those dots that were in different books.

Its so frustrating to read through. But here on dsmpblr, you guys actually understand character analysis, are able to critique them and able to love whoever you enjoy.

Another thing is how this fanbase really puts everyone on a pedestal or objectify them. Just completely forgetting that they're human and treat the streamer as a character. Like, yeah they're playing up a persona whenever they're making content but theres a difference and you shouldn't hold them up like that.

You cant use the argument of "They're young, they dont know any better", when I first entered my first fandom (I was like 11/12), I fully understood that theres a boundary between me and the creator. What they are on screen is a persona but they're still human and I should treat them as such. Its just something that bugs me and its unnerving to see whenever people start getting wierd about it

Final bit is just how the twitch chat acts. They all force the streamer to follow the 'main' plot of it being Tommy or Techno or whoever the fandom chooses to have a favorite, completely ignoring the fact that they are their own character. No one wants to meta game because where is the fun in that but the fucking chat gets so annoying when the streamer goes against fanfavorite of the week. It drains the fun of it being multiple pov's and different characters.

When Slimecicle was barely starting stream I saw so many people spam "Go with Ranboo" and not let him even get into lore first. I hated that I knew it was coming but it was still so fucking frustrating seeing them try to boss him around. Please just let people live outside of the 'main' plot, not everything revolves around your favorites. Now shut the fuck up and let them play

What about the smp fandom that makes you happy?

The people that create art, animatics, theories, playlist, or write oneshots

All of you creators are great and deserve so much more respect then what the fandom gives you because jesus fucking christ they're all so fucking rude. You guys are the ones that are carrying this fandom on your backs and I fucking respect yall for that

________________

Time for da spead: @nixavia @dambette404 and @mocha-is-lost yall dont need to join.....unless😳😳😳

[cienie-isengardu]

The development of Law’s relationship with Zoro - Part 4: Dressrosa, The Breaking Point (Protecting Law)

<<Part I: Before Meeting>> <<Part II: Sabaody Archipelago, The First Meeting>> <<Part III: Punk Hazard, The Alliance (A)>> <<Part III: Punk Hazard, The Alliance (B)>>  <<Part IV: Dressrosa, The Breaking Point (The Plan Failed)__ (Saving Law)__(Protecting Law)__ (Birdcage, Pica and Doflamingo)__ (Aftermath)>>

While Doflamingo was addressing people of Dressrosa and explaining the rules of “game” to punish 12 enemies of his (chapter 746), Luffy was talking with Zoro, most likely explaining what happened in Throne Room. We can only wonder what exactly Luffy told him, did he mention anything related to Law. At the same time, Zoro held Law’s sword that he had to find somewhere around. Interestingly, according to SBS vol. 71, Trafalgar’s nodachi - Kikoku (Demon’s Cry) is in fact a cursed blade and Zoro is sensitive to such “evil” nature of swords what was seen with his own Sandai Kitetsu. As a swordsman himself, of course he took care of the sword while Law couldn’t do it personally. At the same time, we don’t see Zoro returning Kikoku to the owner, just that he had it while talking with Luffy. Another worth to mention detail is the cover of volume 75 (in which the discussed panel comes from) that adds to the impression that Zoro passed Kikoku to Luffy instead of Law. What supports the feeling of keeping distance between those two.

Using Den Den Mushi, Zoro contacted Robin to check in the situation:

For the upcoming chapters, the visual setting of three Supernovas shown together in the same panels will reflect this scene - Luffy as the central figure in this trio…. except a specific kind of situation but about that in a moment.

Like always, Luffy wasn’t bothered much by the whole enemy’s game, while Zoro did not show emotions at all. Law simply watched the whole situation (while his sword lied close to him). At least until Luffy declared to Rebecca he is going to kick Doflamingo’s ass because that went against the main goal of Law’s plan.

Zoro did not take part in the argument between two captains. Yet his reaction (holding and squeezing tighter his katana) seems to be quite ambiguous. For sure it was a sign of support for his captain’s decision - as in, ready to fight everyone and everything, no doubts about what should be done (read: kicking Doffy’s ass regardless of Law's objection). But at the same time it looks as, well, threatening Law is too big a word, because Zoro wouldn’t cut a defenseless man, but there is something (passive) aggressive about such a gesture. Law’s silent reaction (to Luffy’s words? To Zoro’s lack of reasoning with Luffy?) makes me think there was more going on in this scene than just Law’s angry(?) surprise/shock. This probably was another moment for Law to see who the fellow Supernovas were at the core.

Whatever Law’s impression was at that moment about Luffy and Zoro’s determination to save Dressrosa instead of thinking just of their own survival, the next few hours(?) gave him a better understanding of the dynamic between Zoro and his captain. In all fairness, the experience was gained by his own misery thanks to dealing with the insanity of Straw Hat with only Pirate Hunter for some sort of mental support. Starting with such treatment in chapter 746:

Without asking for permission or any warning, Luffy simply grabbed Zoro and  Law and straight up jumped from a high place… only to land into the middle of an enemy group.

Law wasn’t happy about that - even threatened (again) Luffy that once he is free from handcuffs, he’ll kill Luffy. Usually Zoro reacts strongly to threats against his nakama, yet here he totally ignored Law’s words. Maybe he knew there was no time to worry about that or maybe he simply understood Law’s fury because really, that was a natural response to Luffy’s impatience. Unlike Law, Zoro had a lot of experiences with Luffy’s crazy ideas of “fast transport” and even many Straw Hats well familiar with their captain’s antics still weren’t comfy with it. The whole situation was even worse for the Heart captain due to seastone shackles that were A) weakening him and B) blocking his devil fruit’s powers so it was a freestyle “falling” he couldn’t in any way control or prevent if something went wrong. And Law seems like the type of person who likes to have control over things. So the resentment toward Luffy was an understable reaction.

One more important note about the landing scene - like was previously mentioned, Luffy for the majority of upcoming interaction between the three Supernovas was presented as a central figure, a “connection” between Zoro and Law. Both on the contextual level on which the analysis is based and in the visibility; in the sense how the layout of the panel has been planned. The biggest, most oblivious exception to the usual dynamic of Zoro-Luffy-Law were moments in which Zoro switched his position to put Law in the (safest) middle. Whatever he did that solely for Law’s safety or just Luffy’s (who by carrying all the time Trafalgar on his right arm couldn’t fight at 100% of his abilities and thus the right side was less guarded), the change was beneficial to Heart captain.

Since Luffy carried powerless Trafalgar, Zoro was the only one mobile to actually adapt his position to the needs of the situation. Like right now, cornered by the enemy, Zoro stood a bit ahead of two captains, with a katana already in hand, ready to fight.

Let’s just think about Law’s situation for a moment. Defenseless and surrounded on all sides by enemies, absolutely dependent on protection of fellow Supernovas he barely knew - including one chaotic dumbass responsible for his misery in the first place. Zoro, on another hand, was the only one person from Straw Hats crew that did not irritate or confuse Trafalgar in the last days of stress. But then the build impression of stoic, straight-thinking Zoro slowly started crackling. Like in the landing scene: Luffy thought he landed in a bad place to which Zoro noted there wasn’t any good place for them on Dressrosa right now and it was time to run away… just to run in the wrong direction. Which Luffy corrected the swordsman only to run in the wrong way too.

Law seriously didn’t need more stress at this point of life, yet not only Luffy but Zoro too, were challenging his self-control and patience.

Not much time has passed and Luffy already was caught by enemy’s attack:

Straw Hat managed to dodge “Super weight man” but get stuck for good. Both captains were saved from the powerful/deadly kick of Dellinger thanks to Zoro. Roronoa didn’t even cut the enemy, just kicked Dellinger in the ass and used his attack to push heavy Visa off from Luffy, freeing him for good (and once again, the frame presents Law in the middle).

The same like on Punk Hazard, Roronoa reminded Luffy to be careful.

This moment has an ambiguous feeling about it. On one hand, Zoro once again seemed to ignore Law's presence and focused on Luffy. On another, I think there is something diplomatic about the way Zoro addressed the situation. Because Luffy would be more or less fine, even if stamped by Visa. He was, in the end, a rubber-man and it wouldn't be the first time when something heavy crashed into him with high speed. Going Merry did that on a few occasions, when Luffy was using gomu gomu no balloon to save the ship from crashing into mountains / rocks. Unlike Law, who would be crushed to death.

The biggest problem during the run of Three Supernovas was how defenseless - thus useless in fight - Law was at that moment. He was totally dependent on Straw Hats and Zoro couldn't be not aware of that. On Sabaody Archipelago, when Eustass Kid decided to deal with marines alone, both Luffy and Law got so pissed off at the mere suggestion they needed to be saved. But there, Law was in need of save because seastone cuffs took all his powers, all his control over the situation. It was so easy to make fun of Heart captain, point out how powerless he was, complain about that. And some people would abuse the situation to laugh at Law. Zoro could say something along the line “be careful because Law can't fight”, yet he reprimanded Luffy without dragging Law into discussion. Without a fuss or making Trafalgar feel like a burden. Warning Luffy to be careful is similar to Punk Hazard's scene in the regard of demanding from the captain to not fool around and get the grip of himself. But unlike the previous arc, Zoro's demand was kept short, to the point. No speech how one mistake can cost them life - what was true in Dressrosa too.

Law didn't betray any reaction to Roronoa's words but I think there was a part of him that could feel glad for not humiliating him any more. He already had a hard time being carried like a sack of potatoes and forced to trust Straw Hats to not kill him in the process. He didn't need to be reminded how powerless he currently was.

Soon after that the Three Supernovas run into a crowd of citizens trying to capture Doflamingo's enemies. Zoro showed concern about them, not feeling right to cut desperate common people which Luffy agreed. Once again, Straw Hats proved how different they were from the majority of pirates. Law alone was okay to set Kaido after Doffy's head which in the long run would put the people of Dressrosa in harm's way.

Finally, the admiral Issho showed up - Zoro, due to previous movement of dodging an attack, didn't have time to change his position thus came at Luffy's left side. In that formation, Law was the least protected one which put Luffy at disadvantage as well.

Though Zoro was the character of lower status (the only non-captain Supernova and two stars on Doffy’s list in contrast to Luffy & Law’s three), it was Roronoa who actually fought the marine officer. What makes sense; he already had a chance to test Issho’s strength and was capable of freeing himself with a flying slash from gravity trap / attack while Law and Luffy couldn’t fight at full capability. Of course, manga only gave a small insight into their fight and the skirmish with the admiral was ultimately stopped by Pica's giant presence.

Of course, once Luffy heard the high pitched voice of a colossal enemy, he laughed like a maniac, despite Zoro’s (and enemy foot soldiers) warning.

Straw Hat’s reaction hit Pica’s berserk button to the point the man didn’t care if he killed members of his own Family or subordinates with his destructive attack (“It’s not even a punch anymore!! The town is falling on us”). Everyone could only run away as far as possible. While on the run, Zoro once again reprimanded his own captain. Or, at least, tried. Until he started laughing himself (chapter 748).

(Once again, the translation varies from one site to another; in some versions, Law told Luffy and Zoro “knock it off, you two…!!” or outright called them “you dipshits…!!”. Still, all three translations made it clear how unhappy Law was about the whole situation)

That moment is another breaking point of Law's impression about Zoro as the stoic, reasonable counter-balance to Luffy's madness. Because Roronoa wasn't any better than Monkey D. Luffy and that was the biggest "betrayal" to Trafalgar’s idea of what Pirate Hunter should be so far. Law was so, so disappointed in the angry way and he did not try to hide it.

Frankly, Law’s stoicism was put to the test the whole time and it was cracking under pressure more and more. Zoro and Luffy’s lack of self-preservation instinct definitely didn’t help at all.

Pica’s attack sent Supernova Trio flying far away from the palace, what allowed them to (sort of) catch a break. Zoro’s main focus was of course at the gigantic enemy, wondering how they could defeat him. His words weren’t directed at anyone in particular, but gave an opening for Law to join the discussion.  In the past, Law shared his knowledge about powers of enemies and how they worked yet this time he had no advice to give. It may suggest that Trafalgar wasn’t that familiar with the true nature and weakness of Ishi Ishi no Mi (what makes sense, since Pica’s powers are strictly related to rock and his attacks too destructive to use them recklessly, so young Law may never truly see the true potential of Pica in fight. Also, Doflamingo did not mention Pica when he named those of Family Law learned fighting skills from nor Law’s flashback showed any closer interaction with the man).

Or maybe Law didn’t have enough time to recover to talk about strategy against Pica and once Candevish showed up, there were other matters to worry about right then. Especially since the man tried to kill Law on the spot who was saved only by Luffy’s quick reaction (though Zoro already had a sword in hand, once he noticed the non familiar face, so maybe all of them felt the ill intention coming off Cavendish?).

Through the whole discussion with the man, Zoro stayed silent, while Law was furious at both Luffy and Cavendish. Including Luffy’s declaration of them being friends.

Law denied it and frankly, after the whole “adventure” of almost dying time after time because of Monkey D. Luffy’s lack of common sense, no one can blame him for such rage and lost composure. Still, whatever Law said about his relationship with Straw Hat, Zoro was guarding him more than his own captain. What makes sense - right now Luffy didn’t have to carry Heart captain (thus in case of attack wasn’t burdened in any way) while Law was still powerless by seastone. Zoro didn’t sheathe the sword and stood behind Luffy, the same as Law. At least until Luffy’s former rival (enemy) didn’t declare to be sort of on the same side as them. Law once again was faced with Luffy’s insanity, when rubber-man admitted that food given to him by Rebecca was the main motivation for his actions. Through the whole meeting with Candevish, Zoro was the only one person in the group that did not piss off Law even a bit.

Luffy and Candevish had another argument (who is gonna beat Doflamingo), but this time Luffy decided to run away and leave the man to his delusional talk about popularity. The Supernovas Trio soon met another Luffy’s rivals from Colosseum: Happo Navy Gang, the giant Hajrudin, king Elizabello II & Dogma, Abdullah & Jet, admiral Olombus, Ideo, Slayman, Blue Gilly. All powerful in their own right, all feeling indebted to Usopp (Straw Hats) for breaking Sugar’s curse to the point every one of them decided to take Doffy’s head.

Luffy was not really happy to see his rivals showing up one after another, even less when none cared that he decided to personally kick Doflamingo’s ass. Zoro’s initial reaction was commenting “you know lots of weird people” but beyond that did not show any distress (unlike Luffy) while Law did not talk at all.

In the group of so many self-assured fighters arguing who will take down the enemy, only Roronoa seemed to not be affected by emotions and approached the matter with cold pragmatism. He proposed a compromise: all fighters backing them up but the proposition was shut down. Mainly because all had too big egos and were too stubborn. Including Luffy, to Law’s utter shock.

Here some interesting details:

↪ Zoro once again held a sword in a hand. What suggests he didn’t consider the meeting between pirate alliance and the colosseum fighters as the “safest”. At the same time, the sword stayed unsheathed so it wasn’t totally “hazardous” feeling either. Though the situation could quickly get out of control and turn into a fight no one really needed, Zoro gave the fighters a benefit of doubt.

↪ Despite the benefit of doubt, Zoro still changed the usual position from Luffy’s left side to his right. Once again, Law was put in the (safest) middle. The change happened quickly, with the (second rival) giant Hajrudin showing up. After meeting with the Happo Gang, Luffy already was ready to run away while Zoro did not betray any sign of worry. The framing makes it look like he went ahead to face the gigantic man just in case, thus putting himself between two captains and the possible enemy.

↪ Once again Zoro acted protective of other Supernovas without making a fuss about it.

↪ There is a visible difference between how Luffy and Zoro approached the subject of the argument. Through the few pages, from meeting Candevish to arguing with all colosseum fighters, Luffy kept saying he will kick Doflamingo’s ass - in contrast, Zoro said to other men “back up us” what sounds like he actually remembered about Trafalgar. Considering how personal taking down Doflamingo was to Law, being included despite the current state of powerlessness most likely alone made (again) a good impression. On other hand, Luffy from the start to the end was selfish in the sense he decided to kick Doffy’s ass on his own and outright dismissed the very thought that anyone else should do it. Surprisingly, somehow along the way, Straw Hat switched from “we will go to the palace to kick Doflamingo’s ass” (said to the crew at the beginning of battle) to “I’m gonna do that” without including even Zoro.

↪ There is something interesting in the fact that the bigger group around them, then Zoro and Law spoke less. Even more, when one spoke the other usually stayed silent through the conversation with the strangers. What could be seen with Cavendish (Law was screaming talking) and the bunch of colosseum fighters (Zoro’s solution to join the forces). In the case of Roronoa, it seems like a normal thing for him; the more unfamiliar people the bigger chance he will keep quiet and simply observe what is going on around. That of course does not mean he is shy or anything like that, just acts like an introvert. Law seems here to operate in a similar way. Though in contrast to Zoro (who occasionally was commenting on people's idiocy), to Trafalgar the whole situation was as much as ridiculous as overwhelming judging by his shocked face.

↪ Even if Law’s impression of Zoro cracked a bit due to his bad sense of direction and  laughing with Luffy at dangerous enemy, when it mattered Roronoa A) didn’t lost his composure and was not influenced by emotions or personal pride and B) was reliable. In contrast, Law’s tolerance for all the chaos and absurdity (and one chaotic dumbass) was barely maintained the whole time.Trafalgar screamed in powerless(?) furypowerless fury(?) a lot and in general showed emotions in unusual manners. On Sabaody Archipelago and Punk Hazard, Zoro rarely couldhad a chance see Law so stressed and out of his depth. Dressrosa for the first time allowed him to see a different side of Law. In a way, Zoro finally had a chance to see (judge) what kind of man Trafalgar was once the control and devil fruit powers were taken away from him. He saw Law when he was vulnerable and it seems this shared experience builtin the long run built a solid ground between those two characters.

The argument between Luffy and gladiators was temporarily stopped by enemy attack. After that all of them rushed after Doffy’s head. Luffy met a befriended in colosseum bull and on his back rode alongside Zoro and Law. Since the situation became more dangerous, Law permanently ended between the Straw Hats, with Luffy defending the front while Zoro secured the rear.

During the run to the palace, King Elizabello and Chinjao stopped Pica’s attack and destroyed his stone arm but no true damage was done to the enemy. Zoro then advised the men to not waste energy until they figure out how Pica’s powers work and for now, just run (chapter 749).

Surprisingly, the fighters that not so long ago were all about their pride and ego listened to Luffy’s subordinate while still arguing with Straw Hat himself who should defeat Doflamingo and calling him the “stupid savior”. Through their journey, Law didn’t say any useful information about Pica nor shared any observations that might help in the fight, despite being to some degree familiar with Pica and pretty smart to analyze other people’s fighting styles.

Frankly, Zoro was the only one sharing aloud his observations with his captain (and Law?) after Luffy hit the enemy with a powerful, yet fruitless attack. Because of that, it seems like Pirate Hunter so far had the best understanding of stone giant’s powers.

Soon after that Pica finally showed up his true body. Up to this moment, Roronoa was more or less neutral about the whole chaos around him and now had his killer smile (that Law most likely couldn't see but could pick up the predatory tone from Zoro’s voice) due to upcoming fight with a strong opponent.

Law’s reaction was not shown at all, but once again he experienced Zoro’s insanity; the thrill of deadly fight, instead of worry about danger. Dressrosa, like Sabaody Archipelago and Punk Hazard arcs, confirm Pirate Hunter’s lust for battle. Another thing is the complete trust between Straw Hat Supernovas - Luffy avoided Pica’s attack (saving everyone in the process) and was just like “I’ll keep going ahead” while Zoro took on himself stopping Pica for good.

Like fighting a tricky devil fruit user is no big deal. Even insulted Pica by calling him “a pebble” and “Soprano singer” while knowing full well how sensitive the man was to such words - what Law may or may not heard before he and Luffy get too far away.

The next part: Birdcage, Pica & Doflamingo

[dragonotaku-justineverything]

Alone Time

(This was an insanely old ask that didn’t get through because Tumblr kept eating it. So instead it was sent by message by the asker, who will still remain anonymous. I’ve had this for over a year and I’m so sorry this follow up took so long. I hope you all enjoy! This will also be posted on my Archive of Our Own page.)

Anonymous Asked: After a fantastic new year’s eve party with friends and family. Jaune and Blake decide to finally sit down and relax within the belladonna household. All was quiet until the 2 notice something......they were all alone. Mainly due to Kali and Ghira running out to do some errands for the duo. Realizing that they have the mansion to themselves the 2 decide to have a bit of “fun” with each other 😏.

{Alone Time}

Kinks: Anal, Blowjob with prostate massage, ball sucking, pile-driver or Amazon position you choose.

Jaune Arc let out an exasperated sigh when he plopped down on the Belladonna’s sofa in their living room. His butt sank comfortably into the cushion and his arms resting on the back of the couch. It had been a long day. Friends of the Belladonna family had dropped in and out all day during their party. As Blake’s fiancé, since last week, Mrs. Belladonna thought he needed to be introduced to all the people the Belladonna’s had known for years. Every introduction was awkward for Jaune, but he thinks he made mostly good impressions. It helped when Blake was with him, but most of the time it was Kali dragging him off to go meet people.

Now it was finally over. He could sit down and just relax. He threw his head back and let out another sigh, trying to get all the exhaustion out of his system. That’s when he felt two soft mounds followed by some weight land in his lap. He let out a dramatic “Oof” and looked to see what was in his lap. 

It was his fiancée, one Blake Belladonna. She had sat in his lap and leaned back into Jaune’s chest. She turned her head to look behind her at Jaune and gave him a small smile. Jaune returned her smile while he gently wrapped his arms around her waist. “Hey Blake.”

“Hello Jaune. Are you tired?”

Jaune shrugged weakly. “A bit yeah. Just did a lot of talking today.”

Blake nodded her head, accidentally making her soft hair brush Jaune’s face, and leaned back deeper into Jaune so her head was next to his. “Yeah, I bet. Sorry about my Mom.”

“Oh please, it’s fine. I didn’t mind really. She was excited her future son-in-law.”

Blake chuckled at that. She lifted her hand up to look her engagement ring yet again. It looked just as beautiful as the day Jaune proposed to her. “Yeah. I guess she did. Dad usually can hold her back, but he stood no chance today.”

Jaune barked out a laugh. “Hahaha he sure can have his hands full sometimes.” There was a pause, then he asked, “Speaking of them, where are your parents? I haven’t seen or heard them since the fireworks went off.”

“They said they were going out to town to run a few quick errands.”

“Really? But it’s past mid-” Jaune stopped his questioning when he realized something. “So we’re all alone right now?”

Blake let her smile turn sultry and looked sideways at Jaune. “Yup. For an hour most likely.”

“So you wanna...you know...bedroom?”

“Do I want to go upstairs and have sex with my amazing fiancé after almost two weeks of abstinence?” Blake shook her soft butt in Jaune’s lap, getting a bulge to slow rise. “I’d say,” Blake leaned in towards Jaune, and whispered in his ear, “I’m going to put something on that I’ve been saving, and you’d better be there ready to plow me into the bed~.” Blake finished her threat by softly licking Jaune’s earlobe. After that, she got up a sauntered off up the stairs. Jaune watched her leave, more specifically her ass as it swayed side to side. However, once her hypnotic cheeks were out of sight, Jaune snapped back to his senses and rushed up the stairs after Blake had already entered the bathroom to change.

Five minutes later and Blake entered her bedroom and smiled at seeing Jaune laying on the bed. His shirt was already off and on the floor, revealing his defined pecs and noticeable six-pack abs. Blake licked her lips as she leaned against the door frame and spoke. “Good boy Jaune. What do you think of my little surprise?”

Jaune looked over to the doorway at the sound of Blake’s voice, and immediately went slacked jawed. She was wearing a dark purple corset that pushed up and squeezed her breasts in a perfect way. They looked even bigger and firmer than they already were. Jaune’s unblinking stare trailed down Blake’s body. The corset hugged her waist and showed how slim it was. Further down, Blake had paired the corset with some sexy black underwear. Not a thong, but with the way it was enveloped between her big ass cheeks, it might as well have been. 

Jaune managed to close his mouth and speak. “It’s beautiful. Like you.”

Blake stopped leaning on the door frame and sashayed over to Jaune, swaying her hips with every step. “Flatterer. And I love that cheesy side of you.” Blake now stood in front of Jaune at the side of the bed. “Now since we might not have much time, and I’ve been beyond horny the last two weeks, we are NOT doing foreplay.” Blake dropped down to her knees in front of Jaune. “Let me get these pants off of you~.”

Blake nimbly raised her hands up to Jaune’s jeans. She wasted no time unbuttoning and unzipping them, all the while smiling up at Jaune with a hunger obvious in her amber eyes.

In seconds, Jaune’s pants were pulled down around his ankles and his boxers followed. Blake moved her gaze down to her favorite snack, now at full mast in anticipation and was now free from its confines. She licked her lips and leaned in, letting the hard dick rest against her face. Doing so showed just how well endowed Jaune was, a full nine inches. A full nine inches that Blake hadn’t gotten to enjoy since they boarded the ship to Menagerie.

Well that losing streak ends right now. Blake started by giving her fiancé’s balls a swift lick, then taking one into her mouth, getting Jaune to groan. Blake rolled her tongue around Jaune’s ball in slow circles. She felt the familiar texture and her missed it dearly, and obviously Jaune had too. Blake pulled off and repeated the process with Jaune’s other ball. 

She stopped her tongue right under his ball and bounced it up a few times, then started to suck on it, seemingly trying to pull it deeper into her mouth. Then in the blink of an eye, opened her mouth just enough to bring his other full testicle into her warm cavern. Now the cat Faunus was rolling both of Jaune’s balls around in her mouth with her tongue.

Between his moans, Jaune managed to find his voice. “You’re being quite a tease Blake, what happened to no foreplay?”

Blake chuckled in the back of her throat and released Jaune’s tasty balls. She gave his sack one last, quick lick and spoke, “I just wanted to see how much cum you’ve been storing up for me. When was the last time you got some relief? Your balls feel so full! They’re holding so much cum, and I want them emptied inside me. Every. Last. Drop.”

Without another word, Blake moved her lips to wrap around the tip of Jaune’s cock. Then with a wink up to her love, she slide five inches down his shaft on the first go. With practiced ease, Blake lips hugged Jaune’s dick tightly and squeezed it as she brought her head back up.  When only Jaune’s tip was left in her mouth, Blake flicked her tongue over it before swiftly shoving her head back down into Jaune’s crotch. She reached deeper this time without too much effort. She began to fall back into her preferred rhythm when sucking Jaune off. Judging by the noises Jaune was making, it was still just as effective too.

The moment Blake had took his dick into her warm mouth, Jaune felt himself melt into the pleasure. He actually had to brace himself up by placing his hands behind him on the bed. He threw his head back and moaned out, “Fuck Blake your mouth feels just as amazing as always! You suck my fucking dick like a pro!” 

Blake seemed to appreciate what Jaune said because she started to bob her head faster. She didn’t reach as deep, but her speed alone made Jaune gasp for breath. She rubbed her tongue along whatever length of delicious cock she took into her eager mouth, and Jaune felt everything bring him closer to the edge. The two weeks he had gone without any form of pleasure or release were really working against Jaune at the moment. Only two minutes after the blowjob had started and Jaune felt his cock pulse and himself nearing the tipping point.

But he didn’t want to cum just yet. Not like this.

“B-Blake, Blake! Stop...stop!”

Blake immediately slowed down and pulled off his cock. “What? Was I doing something wrong?”

“N-no no. It’s just that I was just about to cum.”

Blake quirked up an eyebrow at Jaune, giving him a weird look. She slowly traced her right hand up and down his shaft to keep it hard as she spoke. “That’s kinda the idea Jaune.” Her voice then turned sultry. “I want you to fill my mouth and throat with your thick cream~.” 

Jaune’s dick twitched from just hearing Blake’s tone. “I-I was just wondering if you could do that thing again? That you did last time, with your finger?”

Blake immediately knew what he was asking for, and she was getting even wetter from the idea of it. She stopped stroking his shaft and answered. “Sure, but then you need to stand up for me.”

Jaune immediately did so, standing up fully a foot from the bed. Blake shuffled back on her knees to get into a better position. She moved her right index finger up to her mouth and sucked on it erotically to give Jaune a show. When it was nice and slick, Blake reached between Jaune’s legs and pressed it against his tight asshole. With a little force, she pushed her finger in. 

She easily slid in up to her knuckle thanks to her spit, and it was even easier to find Jaune’s prostate. She could tell she’d found it by the way Jaune’s whole body seemed to twitch when she pressed down on the small lump she felt. Grinning at Jaune’s face of ecstasy, Blake repositioned her head and began sucking his cock all over again. 

Now that Jaune was standing, he only had his legs keeping him up. With the blowjob and Blake now pressing down on his little “joy” button, he soon felt himself reaching the edge again. A few more bobs and a particular hard pressing of Blake’s finger, and Jaune reached his limit. “Oh fuck Blake. I’m so close. I’m gonna fill your throat up with cum! Get ready!”

Jaune grabbed Blake’s head, tangling his fingers in her soft black locks, and pushed her head down on his meat all the way to the base so that her nose was pressed almost flat against his waste. His cock entered her throat, and with a slight gag from Blake, Jaune let out a loud, breathy “Fuck!” and came. His entire cock pulsed as long ropes of his cum went straight into Blake’s hungry throat. Soon it was too much and Blake had to pull back a bit to let her mouth hold some of it. That was being filled pretty quickly too.

Jaune finally felt his cock stop twitching. He pulled his hips back, letting his dick pull free from the warmth of Blake’s mouth. Blake looked up to Jaune and opened her mouth to show him just how much cum he had pumped into her mouth. There was a good sizable puddle in her open mouth. 

Blake loved having the taste of Jaune’s cream on her tongue again. After giving Jaune a good look, Blake closed her lips. Then after with one big gulp, she reopened them and showed Jaune her now empty mouth. That sight seemed to breathe a second wind into Jaune’s dick as it grew hard all over again. 

Jaune sat back down on the bed, catching his breath from the intense orgasm he just had. “God of Light, that was as amazing as I remembered.”

Blake stood up herself, licking her lips as she straddled Jaune’s lap, her panty clad crotch pressing his cock up against his stomach. Jaune’s arms were quick to wrap around her slim waist. The soft material of her purple corset felt nice against his bare arms.

Blake looked straight into Jaune’s eyes as she spoke. “While that was fun, it’s my turn now Jaune~.”

Jaune grinned back at her. “Don’t you worry Blake.” Without a word, he flipped the two of them around so that Blake was laying on her back and Jaune was on top of her. This earned a playful giggle out of his future wife. He pulled back to pull her black underwear down her flawless legs. Once they were off, Jaune tossed them off to the side on the floor. He lifted Blake’s Bellabooty up into his lap before speaking. “After all, you said I needed to be ready to ‘plow you into the bed’”. And I am beyond fucking ready.” Jaune adjusted himself to he was on one knee and the tip of his cock was pressed against Blake’s tight asshole, all the while her ass was being arched upward and her back stayed flat on the bed. 

Blake knew this position as she was the one who taught it to Jaune. It was called the piledriver position. She also knew she was definitely in one hell of a pounding as Jaune never held back while in this position. 

Jaune gently rubbed a hand up Blake’s right leg as he held it against his chest. He started to gently press his still saliva covered tip against Blake’s eagar hole, but not hard enough to enter. He did this over and over. “What do you want Blake?”

Blake gasped slightly at Jaune’s commanding tone. Hearing him get assertive was almost always a good turn on for her. “I-I want your cock in my ass.”

Jaune pushed a little harder. “Why?”

“Because I want it. I need it! It’s been so long, please Jaune, stop teasing me and just fill my ass!”

Jaune chuckled. “Good kitty.” Without another word Jaune lifted up on Blake’s leg and thrusted down with his hips. 

SLAP

The combined motions gave Blake exactly what she wanted. Jaune shoved his saliva slick shaft into Blake’s tight hole all the way to his base. Her ass accepted Jaune’s thrust with ease and even seemed to squeeze tighter around his shaft.

For her part, Blake cried out in absolute pleasure. Her eyes almost rolled into the back of her head at the feeling she missed so much. Her ass seemed to fit perfectly around Jaune’s meat, just like always. 

SMACK...SMACK...SMACK

When Jaune began to pull his hips back and pound back down into her, his waist slapped down roughly against Blake’s soft booty. Both pairs of Blake’s ears were filled with the sounds of flesh slapping flesh, the grunts of labor Jaune made while he repeatedly pound down into her ass, and her own screams of pleasure.

“Oh fucking god Jaune! Just like that! Please fuck your little kitty butt-slut Jaune! Pound my ass with that thick dick!” 

Jaune did just as Blake asked. He pistioned his hips down into Blake like a jackhammer. His rhythm was nearly perfect, only skipping a beat when he needed to re-adjust. Blake lost herself to the pleasure shooting through her body from Jaune’s motions. Her eyes rolled up and her teeth clamped shut instinctively. Her clenched teeth made her unable to let out the scream of pure, unbridled bliss that she felt form in her throat as she finally came. Her juices flowed out of her pussy and ran down her front. The front of her corset became soaked in her cum, a nice dark spot forming on the fabric over her stomach.

While Blake came on her stomach, Jaune didn’t stop pounding. Seeing his love cum under him pushed him closer to cumming himself. A few more pounds and Jaune groaned one last time as he hilted his cock fully into Blake’s ass. A second later, and Blake felt her ass being filled with Jaune’s warm, thick cum. It wasn’t as much as he had pumped into her mouth, but it was still enough to make her able to feel it. 

Jaune slowly slid his dick up and out of Blake’s now filled ass. When it was fully free, Jaune looked down to see Blake’s asshole closing, only a small trickle of his cum leaking out. He fell back onto the bed, letting Blake’s ass and leg drop, and rested his tired legs. As he panted to catch his breath, Blake groaned and sat up, her back slightly sore already, and lowered ha hand to rub her ass cheeks that were slightly red from all the pounding they just took. 

After a few seconds of silence, Blake crawled over to Jaune and cuddled up next to him. “That was absolutely wonderful Jaune. Thank you, I really needed that.”

“You and me both Blake. God I didn’t realize how long it had been since our last romp.”

“Well we’re only here for a few more days. After that, we won’t need to hold ourselves off~.”

“Yeah, that’ll be nice.” Jaune yawned widely before he could continue his next sentence. His exhaustion from an hour ago finally catching back up to him. Also the fact that it was past 3:00 A.M. factored into his tiredness. “Blake, you ready for bed?”

Blake lazily looked over at the clock, then back to Jaune and rubbed her head gently against his as she nodded. “That took a lot out of me. We also still need to be up tomorrow for breakfast with my parents.”

Without another word, Jaune shifted his body and lifted the comforter and sheets out from under him. After he slid under them, he held them up for Blake and she slide in next to him. After she was laying next to him, Jaune dropped the sheets back to the bed. He then wrapped his arm around Blake’s waist hugged her as close to him as he could. He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, smelling the lovely lavender scent of Blake’s hair. “Happy New Year Blake.”

Blake smiled, closed her eyes, and nuzzled into his comfy chest. “Happy New Year Jaune.”

Together, they fell asleep together in Blake’s old bed. Both of them couldn’t be happier.

...............................

While Jaune and Blake had their fun, Kali and Ghira hadn’t left to run some errands, but had instead gone to an inn within Menagerie. Mainly due to Kali’s constant insistence. They’d been there for only five minutes and Ghira had already started pacing the floor of the room they rented. He had only been following Kali’s lead, but now they were just sitting around for no reason. While he paced, his lovely wife had taken to sitting down on the edge of the queen size bed the room had. 

Ghira stopped moving and turned to look down at Kali. “Kali, why must we be out so late? Blake is probably worried about us!”

Kali waved a hand at her husband to dismiss his statement. “Oh hush Ghira. We’re giving them some much needed alone time.”

Ghira’s eyes widened after hearing what his wife said. “What exactly do they need ‘alone time‘ for!?”

“To have sex obviously. I want them to get started on getting me some grandkids.” Kali said in a tone that made it sound like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Ghira definitely didn’t see it that way. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Kali, you can’t keep trying to interfere with them.”

“I can and will.”

Ghira sighed deeper. “But you shouldn’t! They’ll get there on their own time.”

Kali finally looked a little sheepish. “Oh alright dear. No more meddling from me…. for now.” Kali then grinned mischievously at her loving husband. “You knoooow… there was another reason why I had us get a room for the night.”

Ghira quirked an eyebrow at her. “And what would that be?”

Kali continued to smirk. She moved her hands and started to undo her black and yellow robes. “Blake and Jaune aren’t the only ones who have needed some alone time recently~.” Her robes fell loose, revealing some very flattering black lingerie. “I’ve been pretty needy myself recently, and I know you’ve felt the same dear~.”

Ghira almost drooled at the sexy sight of his wife, a massive tent forming in his baggy pants. This didn’t go unnoticed by Kali. 

“Oh looks like you agree. Now, come over here love~.

Ghira grinned and started to strip as he closed in on his wife. “Of course dear.”

Kali giggled wildly as Ghira pounced. The inn’s room was filled with moans, grunts, and sighs of absolute content for hours.

It was a pretty great start to the new year for everyone.

END

Total Story Word Count: 3500 Posted on Tumblr: January 7, 2020 Posted on Archive of Our Own: January 7, 2020

[countdown-to-destruction]

Inuyasha Sequel: a rant

Put this up this earlier on a post I re-blogged, tried to edit a part or two where I didn’t like the way I had phrased it, and ended up messing up the whole format I wrote this in. Luckily I wrote this as a draft earlier anyways! So I did a some fixing and now I’m just copy-pasting it again and making it a text post instead. This will be very long and a little nit-picky but I wanted to make a post ever since I heard about the upcoming sequel to Inuyasha, Hanyō no Yashahime. I did put a TLDR at the end for those who don’t want to read everything. Not sure how many people in the fandom still follow me and will see this, as it's been a long time since I was actually active in the fandom, but it's hands-down both my favorite manga and anime of all time and I’ve been feeling nostalgic lately so I had to post something. Before reading this be sure to read all of the translated character bios for Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha so that this makes sense.

When I first heard that Inuyasha would be getting a sequel I was excited! But after reading up on it, to be completely honest I'm not feeling this sequel anymore. I know it’s an unpopular opinion but hear me out. Firstly, it seems like Rumiko is mostly involved in the character design aspect and the writing is up to Katsuyuki Sumisawa. The music will be produced by Kaoru Wada which is great! And from what I’ve seen and read online a number of others who worked on the original series will reunite so hopefully the story will go well. However, knowing Rumiko isn't personally writing and not knowing how much input she has or will give makes me unsure about watching. The original Inuyasha anime followed and was based off of the events in the manga, and there was no manga prior to this for it to be based on. Depending on what happens this could be an alright sequel or a total miss. Unfortunately sequels in general are known to be disappointing in some way. 

Secondly, if I hear anything about Rin being the mother of Sesshomaru's twin daughters I'm out. This part will be a SUPER long and in depth explanation on why I think this way, feel free to skip if you're not interested. Please don't come for me on this, I'm here to explain my thoughts and feelings on the sequel and the theories around it so far, not start an argument. I'm more than aware that there's plenty of controversy out there on this pairing and personally I do not support it. I never saw their relationship as more than a friendship, or something akin to child and guardian as Sesshomaru and Jaken are basically Rin's caretakers up until she goes to live in the village with Kaede. He definitely cares for her deeply but I can't see it in a romantic way, being that Sesshomaru isn't even a character focused on romance to begin with. He learns compassion through Rin's second death but that doesn't mean he loves her romantically. As a reminder his main goal is to seek power and be powerful, and it's stated that he needed to learn compassion and grief in order to mature. It's what helped him learn to wield the Tenseiga at its full potential. In addition, she was really young when they first met and still was when she went to live with Kaede. The idea of Sesshomaru (an adult) having romantic feelings for a kid under ten years old (around eleven at the end of the series, and still a literal child in all ways) and waiting for her to age with the intention of marrying her sits totally wrong with me. Age wise I realize that Inuyasha is decades older than Kagome and that his father was much older than his mother, Izayoi, as well. The difference here is that Kagome was a teen when she met Inuyasha (who not just physically, but more importantly mentally was also a teen) and clearly Izayoi was old enough to conceive Inuyasha and give birth. As far as the audio dramas (more specifically "Asatte") go they're generally considered as an outtake reel and are essentially parodies, or a form of satire. Some will debate on this but realistically there’s plenty of reasons this is true, and those who take the time to properly check them out understand that. For me I've always had a headcanon that at some point in her teen years Rin would inevitably develop a one-sided crush on Sesshomaru and that he would ultimately set boundaries and reject her, seeing her as more of a close companion than a love interest and wanting her to live with someone she can grow old with. He gave her the choice to follow him and it's most likely that she would, but I think that once she began aging he would want her to have somewhere to settle, given that he enjoys roaming and seeking out other powerful beings to battle. It's strange to me that they decided to give Sesshomaru hanyō/half-demon children in general but based on the artwork we've seen it's fair to guess that they might have made Sesshomaru and Rin a pairing in this sequel.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I want to clarify that if you ship them together I'm not writing this here because I want to hate on your ship for no reason, or in order to create an argument on if the pairing makes sense, these are my thoughts and opinions on the matter and I’m voicing them because it’s what I believe. I already know that somebody won’t like this and will take it personally. People usually say that once Rin is an adult the pairing is acceptable but I disagree. I find it quite creepy that someone would think it would be alright for an adult to wait around for a kid to grow up with the intention to marry and/or sleep with them. Watching from a distance is the same exact thing, after making an impression on the child... let’s not normalize this. In this situation it would be grooming. We all have our own opinions when it comes to our ships and fandoms and I try to respect that but I can’t get behind this one.

Next we have the apparent lack of parental figures for the heroines. Where are the original Inuyasha characters at? Moroha's character bio says she barely knows her parents (Inuyasha and Kagome, our former main protagonists) and has been alone since she was young! It makes me think either something has happened to them or some kind of bizarre event separated them. And sorry, not related, but why does she transform by PUTTING LIPSTICK ON?? That part threw me for a loop.

When it comes to Setsuna and Towa their parents are absent too. I find it difficult to believe that Sesshomaru wouldn't keep track of his children given how he treats Rin and reacts to her going missing in any capacity. Especially if he happened to be fond of whoever their mother is. One daughter works as a taijiya/demon slayer for Kohaku and the other mysteriously transports to Kagome's era and is raised by Sota (I thought we had finished with the time jumps when the well closed but apparently not. When the Bone Eater's Well closed after Kagome's return it gave a sense of finality and closure to the story, and showed that Kagome had chosen where she was most happy and felt she belonged. I think that bringing the theme of time travel back into the sequel makes it feel repetitive, like something right out of a predictable fanfic. Props to Sota for taking in and raising a child who showed up out of nowhere though).

Another thing that came to mind when I read these character bios was why Inuyasha and Kagome's daughter and Sesshomaru's daughters are the exact same age. Of course there's nothing wrong with that. It only struck me as odd because suddenly everyone is having kids at the same time. And so far there's no mention of other characters like Sango, Miroku, Shippo, Jaken, Kaede, or Miroku or Sango's three children or where they are. One might expect that a story focused on the children of some of the original Inuyasha's main characters would feature appearances from those who had important roles in the previous series and their children. Which brings me around to wondering what made twin daughters a trend? Two sets of twin girls is a unique choice (Sango and Miroku's twin daughters. For such a small group of parental characters, what are the odds of two sets of twin girls? Where is the creativity and again why the repetition?).

Lastly, Sesshomaru's daughters lack some of the common yōkai/demon characteristics we see on Inuyasha and other characters. Their ears are human, and they have no markings or otherwise (that I noticed) with the exception of Setsuna's mokomoko/fur which is similar to Sesshomaru's. So perhaps they take more after their human mother? Given that Inuyasha seemed to inherit strong genes from his father it's interesting that they did not. Their ages also interest me as they appear to age the same way as humans do. Yōkai/demons are known to have a longer lifespan than humans and appear to slow down or almost stop aging at some point. Perhaps this confirms that the slowdown in aging occurs once they reach the equivalent of a human teen? 

Overall Inuyasha was a fantastic manga and great anime on its own, and I never got the feeling that it needed a sequel. As a stand-alone it was everything it needed to be. I thoroughly enjoyed both formats of the original, though I do have a tendency to disregard certain parts of the anime. I always preferred the manga more when the anime dragged out certain scenes (Shichinintai/Band of Seven arc for example) or straight-up excluded, changed, and added others. Taking that into consideration the sequel might end up being the same for me in that way, but rather than one scene that plays out for too long or an excluded, altered, or unnecessary added scene, if it’s not any good I’ll simply disregard it altogether. When the anime comes out I certainly plan to try watching it out of loyalty to the fandom, and due to the fact that it's "technically" canon (without Rumiko being the writer I don't necessarily consider it canon, much like how some folks do or do not consider the movies canon) but I get the feeling that I'll wind up giving up on it in disappointment.

TLDR; Overall I'm left questioning if the sequel is worth watching (for me) given what I've read and heard so far, but nonetheless I will give it an optimistic try! I'm currently wondering how much we'll see of the original Inuyasha characters, if we get to find out what happened to them, if the number one pairing I'm not fond of will make an appearance (and cause me to drop the whole thing), and questioning parts of the character backstories and designs (why is there a repetitive and recurring theme of time travel and does it end up hindering or ruining the story, why do the protagonists all lack parents, and why do the hanyō/half-demon characters lack common yōkai/demon traits and does it make them more human than demon?).

[popculturebuffet]

Animation Reviews: OK KO: Red Action to the Future

On to part 3 of Red Action 2 days because my schedule got nuts, and this one.. I was dragging my feet on beause I didn’t remember liking it nearly as much as the rest of the red action trilogy. Now while the same held for “Your Everyone’s Sidekick” I ended up liking that one.. this one... not so much. This one is however earlier in the season than it’s sisters in red action spotlighting: “Back in Red Action” was towards the end of season 1, while “Red Action 3: Grudgement Day” is literally the last episode before the finale arc, something i’d forgotten till today. This one is pretty early into season 2 and the why.. is really easy to figure out. For Season 2 Enid actually got a pretty intensive and long spotlight arc about her time at point prep, with rad and ko only showing up in a portion of it, so late in the season wouldn’t be fair as enid not only had the halloween episode then, but also just had a 7 episode arc basically to herself with Elodie as her co-star and rad and KO out of focus or even absent at times, so they likely did it early to prevent overloading the season with her. Granted they could’ve just had Red show up at school and done one episode there that wasn’t part of it’s overarching story, and still HINTED at the glorb doping arc while she was there, but they may also have not decided which one of the two they wanted Enid to end up with, and thus didn’t want to put her and elodie in the same space. I dunno. We’ll also be covering the POINT arc here eventually, but obviously there’s a lot of episodes to get to first, including the whole gar and carol backstory arc, before we get to that one.  And with that out of the way, let’s take a look at Red Action to the Future, under the cut. 

We open with Red playfully helping KO stock the shelves with new Double Dipped Lazer chips since, as Enid points out, it’s rad’s day off. She can also fire things in her canons , which is neat. It’s also highly noticable that she and KO are now on good terms and the two seem to be friends. Which despite their last interaction really isn’t THAT weird surprisingly: K.O.’s a forgiving kid as long as your not an out and out supervillian, and even earlier this season he was worried about Lord Boxman disappearing despite hating the guy most of the time for good reason. And with her past behind her in the future, Red is likely inclined to be more the fun kind of cool instead of an edgelord asshole, and likely apologized off screen and as we’ll see next time, she genuinely regrets her actions. That being said I do feel we could’ve had an episode with red trying to be better, but I do get the show has a lot of ground to cover, so this was an easier thing to have happen off screen.  Anyways the three are palling around, with red and enid being couply while KO panics when ENid points out his newly beloved double dip lazer chips are probably a limited time thing... ko’s wimpering “no I love them” is so relatable it hurts. But before Red can figure out KO’s snack dillema Yellow Technique yells at red to come home and help, Enid is too worried abotu pressuring her to ask her to stay, and Yellow refuses to let KO and Enid come along for reasons.. and frankly I don’t get that even with possible damage to the timeline. Besides you know, the end of this episode, we also have the fact that you guys HAVE TIME TRAVEL. If they gain a year or two, they’ll still come back and fufill their places in the timeline and you can CONTROL THAT, so if they had to stay longer than a year or needed to be back for something specific, you could bring them back and have two incredibly powerful allies for your war. The x-men have had a good handful of members from the future and look how well that turned out. Some of the time I mean Bishop did turn evil for a while and the younger cable whose around stabbed the older one and rachel went into a coma and then the future but she’s back now.... okay maybe she has a point. 

Anyways Enid regrets her decision, Red comes back for a quick break, with years having now passed, Blue shows up to yell at her to come back which seems.. harsh. Like I know she’s like Killowog, a good person whose probably murder on recurits but seems nice off duty from waht we’ve seen and her happily saying hello to enid, which makes me want an episode where they actuallyv isted the hue troop instead of this SIGH. Anyways, Enid finds a stray time capsule and goes to be honest with red

So now in the post apocalypse, Enid finds Yellow, who got seperated from red as they fight a giant version of the robots they’ve been fighting, with Red showing up just in time. But as with all giant killer robot based future’s they’ve evolved so these things have shields and Enid suggests laaunching her. So red shoots her girlfriend out of her.

And they win.. but Red refuses to let enid stay and gets huffy with her before Enid can tell her the truth and Enid leaves in a huff. Now this scene.. I really liked, from the action sequences to the fact that we see how their similarities, what attracts them to each other, is also a roadblock to them having a proper relationship. Both are stubborn, put walls up , and are reluctant to be honest with their feelings, we’ve seen that with red in the last episode and Enid in the episodes mentioned last time. They both prefer to run from their feelings and while their both growing, as you’ll see when I cover more tom lucitor stuff, it’s not that easy to just “become” a better person and sometimes old habits flair up. 

Enid regrets how things went, KO regrets not learning about chips, and we get one final red visit.. from a much older Red. i’m Dubbing her Cable!Red because A) her timeline probably still exists, it’s just not the one our red is linked to anymore nor the one the plaza future we see would create. She and enid hug and Red explains that it turns out the robots were weak to organic maatter and given they were only shooting at them, they didn’t realize it and it STILL , as shown by the fact Red is grandma age now, took years to fix and she has things to get back to with space congress, war hero stuff and all that. Also just a small note but something I only noticed this time that the episode DOES deserve credit for in my book is Kali Hawk’s voice acting as Red. Noticably with each time we see her red’s voice gets deeper and by future red she sounds entirely grown up. It’s a subtle change most probably wouldn’t of cared about aside from on old red, but it’s a nice touch that really does help theemotional part of the episode. Enid is finally honest about how she felt, and sad about it but understands.. but is also understandably still broken up when Old Woman Red Action leaves.. only for present-day.. ish time travel tenses are weird to pop up behind them has a hug with enid and flirtly says “I never left. “  Turns out Future Red decided to say Screw Destiny and told her past self to stay, what enid felt likely, or got enid to admit it or whatever, and told her to stay and enjoy her youth. She can go back and be a war hero later if she wants. And my honest guest given the Hue Troop turn up fine later is rather than callously abandon her teammates, Red’s future self simply went there for them and , to prevent a decades long war from ravaging her future, pulled a Cable and told them how to defeat the robots YEARS before they got so powerful it’d take years to beat them, as well as probably having knowledge of where they came from, how to kill them all or make peace with them or whatever, and future weapons to help even things. IT’s not an unfair assumption given that besides missing out on a future with Enid, Future Red would also not want her friends to go through untold decades of pain and death and since she changed the timeline already, there was no sense in not going all in. Also the chip thing is resolved with KO finding out they WILL be discontinued.. but replaced with triple dip instead. KO”s delighted and enid and red happily share a moment, the future is now what htey make of it. THE END.  Final Thoughts: As I made plain i’m not a fan of this one.. but in re-watch I did find things to like about it. The time travel story device was used really well,though I would’ve liked them to have old red say she was going to back instead of me having to infer it and feel, given theyd on’t show up at all next time and only show up for a cameo in the finale that the Hue Troop was vastly underulitized and coudl’ve used their own ep, and for once the cancelation dosen’t excuse this as they had the second half of season 2 to do this AND never dealt with Red, who gave up a future war for her, dealing with enid going way for what’s clearly months and was expected to be years. It’s also not very funny , which is fine if the episodes more dramatic like TKO, but for a standard ep it really didn’t quite work. It was just more dull than it should’ve been: it had an intresting hook: red slowly loosing her youth due to a future war, and Enid loosing her because of it, and Red’s cable self deciding to fix that, but it was instead a standard poor commuincation kills plot but with future robot wars. IT’s the first OK KO episode here i’ve reviewed that’s not good and honestly one of the few they had that genuinely wasn’t, and even then it had some good ideas just a flawed execution. Thankfully next time, there’sd none of that as we instead look at one of teh series very BEST episodes. IT’s grudgment day, and until then later.. today hopefully. If not tommorow. 

[lightsandlostbells]

so, overall, what did you think of season 3 of stranger things?

It took me a while to answer this question because I had to sort out how I felt about this season! I guess if I had to narrow it down to an overall opinion: enjoyable, but very messy. Had some of the series’ best moments but also, while I was watching, I had far more grumbles and gripes than the previous two seasons.

I’ve never really been hung up on whether this show is derivative or plays too into nostalgia or w/e. Plenty of media does that. And despite all the time I’ve spent dissecting micro-expressions and weighty silences in European teen dramas that are filmed for the cost of a candy bar … I am way into genre films and TV shows. I love monsters and superheroes and spectacle! I watched Stranger Things the weekend it premiered because I love ‘80s movies about kids on bikes having adventures, I eat that shit up. So I don’t expect this show to be a hardcore deconstruction and re-imagining of those tropes (though that sounds like a pretty great show), I’m fine with it being what it is: a solid, spooky sci-fi/horror throwback series. What matters most is whether the story and characters work. Personally, I would say whatever criticisms you can make of S1 and S2, they had heart, and unfortunately I think some of that heart was missing from S3. Much of that, IMO, comes from sidelining some of the familial relationships that were at the center of the narrative in S1 and S2, like the Byers family and Hopper & Eleven, and to some degree the important friendships like the party, although there were other friendships introduced in this season so that wasn’t as glaring. It’s not a surprise that one of the best-received parts about this season, Steve and Robin’s friendship, is also responsible for one of the most heartfelt scenes Stranger Things has ever done. 

There was also a way larger emphasis on comedy in S3. Comedy is probably my favorite genre, and I did laugh at a lot of humorous moments in this season. But I also felt like there was more comedy for comedy’s sake, like long sequences created intentionally to make the audience laugh. Whereas in S1 and S2, I can’t remember any scenes like that? The comedy was more understated and came from character personalities and relationship moments rather than joke set pieces. That’s perhaps another reason why S3 felt like it had less heart.

My hope for season 4 - and I am assuming there is a season 4, because apparently this show did mega ratings for S3 - is that they don’t add more major new characters (except love interests for the gay characters, go ahead with those, lol) and instead focus on the existing cast,  which is already a very strong ensemble, yet many of the characters have gotten pushed to the sides. I would love if they added to the episode count: a lot of Netflix series drag out their seasons, like they have enough story for 10 episodes but have to stretch it out to 13, but Stranger Things has the opposite problem. I feel like if they had 10 (or 11, ha) episodes they could have more time for breather moments and more space for character arcs. This season was really fast-paced in my opinion, and although that’s a positive in many respects, I missed a lot of the down time.

Also, I think every season has taken place over like a week maximum, not including the epilogues, and like … you can make the story last longer than a week! Not everything has to go to hell in like a day or two.

Some more specific opinions underneath, obviously lots of spoilers.

First of all, I gotta say, I feel like a weirdo, because so many of the reviews for this season are like A RETURN TO FORM AFTER A DISAPPOINTING SECOND SEASON and UP THERE WITH SEASON 1 NOT THAT CRAPPY SEASON 2 THAT NO ONE LIKED and uhhhh … I liked season 2 just fine? It’s probably my favorite. There are things I don’t like about it, but the stuff I love is stuff I really, really love. Hopper and Eleven’s relationship, for instance. Steve and Dustin teaming up and Steve Harrington becoming a guardian to four children. Those are not just great elements to the series, but directions that I think only a second season could have taken - Hopper and Eleven’s bond wouldn’t have had half the weight if they weren’t established as traumatized, broken people in S1. Steve Harrington becoming a babysitter would not be nearly so delightful if we had not known him as the popular douchebag stereotype from S1 - if he were just a cool dude hanging out with kids from the get-go, the impact wouldn’t be as great. After S1 used Will Byers as a MacGuffin in S1, S2 gave Will a much larger role and that little actor acted his ass off. His performance generated a lot of genuine suspense and chills. There was Sean Astin being lovable! Paul Reiser’s character being a surprisingly good guy! Yeah, there are big flaws in the season, and you can argue it’s too much of a repeat of S1, but to me it was a version of S1 that made the characters more specific and interesting. I’m just … genuinely baffled by how it’s supposed to be demonstrably worse than the others. Because of the Kali episode? I didn’t think that one was terrible, either. I think it broke up the momentum of the chaos at Hawkins Lab, and Kali’s friends were obnoxious, it’s certainly not the greatest writing of the series, but as a whole the episode is like. Fine. It’s fine. It’s mediocre, not atrocious. It’s not the worst thing ever. It doesn’t ruin anything about the story or direction or the series. Most importantly it’s easy to ignore or skip on a rewatch if you don’t like it. The backlash was way overblown.

My biggest disappointment with season 3 was Hopper. Whaaaaaaat. Whaaaat did they dooooo. 

Hopper in previous seasons is a flawed, messed-up human being, but I always knew where he was coming from. When he yelled at Eleven in S2, I still got why he did it. In this season he felt cartoonish. The overprotective paternalistic dad trope is annoying BUT I might have been less bothered had they connected it more to Eleven’s lack of experience with the world, less RAWRRRR KEEP BOYS AWAY FROM MY GIRL. Or if Hopper had not demonstrated like, actual rage toward Mike and we just saw him fuming about it to himself or venting to Joyce, if he was trying to keep that shit under control. (I did laugh at him singing “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” in the car, I gotta admit.)

But his attitude toward Joyce was what really bummed me out. I’m not into this show for shipping reasons, but I low-key enjoyed the possibility of Joyce and Hopper hooking up based on previous seasons. This season felt like they were writing a completely different dynamic for them, one that was much more aggressively obnoxious. I think their intentions were clear - they were going for a Sam-and-Diane relationship, something that was referenced early on in the Bob flashback - but the problem is that their relationship was not like that at all in S1 and S2. When I think of Joyce and Hopper from those seasons, I think about him supporting her after Bob died, or listening to her concerns about her son, or working together to find Will. They didn’t have this combative dynamic! Frankly watching giant-ass Hopper yell at tiny Joyce was viscerally unpleasant. (Side note but in the first trailer there was a shot of Hopper running at the Fun Fair with someone else who I assumed was Eleven, but no, turned out to be Joyce, Winona Ryder is just that tiny next to David Harbour.)

Also, considering this season ended with his death (and we all know he’s not really dead but OK) it’s such a waste that there were few Hopper&Eleven moments! Only the finale brought some quality content on that front. But otherwise their relationship was out of sight, out of mind for almost the whole season, which wasn’t a great choice, both to maximize the emotional impact of the ending, and to expand upon their situation post-S2. I mean, it’s been months since then, how has their relationship changed now? Hopper’s letter talked about the stuff he enjoyed doing with his daughter - why didn’t we see any of that on screen this season? It could’ve helped with the Mike angle, too, like show Hopper and Eleven watching TV together and laughing and having a good time, and then the phone rings and it’s Mike and suddenly Hopper’s watching TV alone as Eleven’s now focused on her boyfriend, we see his disappointment, etc. 

Scoops Troop - Now they were a delight. They had such a ludicrous story but for the most part it worked due to the characters playing off each other and because the writing/acting/directing embraced the silliness. 

Steve Harrington is easily one of the best characters on this show. I fucking love that guy. He’s consistently entertaining, he’s had possibly the best character growth out of anyone in the series, he’s evolved from a stock ‘80s asshole stereotype into someone who’s funny and sympathetic and likable. He’s this amazing blend of the ridiculous with the heroic. Steve and Dustin were great together, as they were last season, and I’m cackling that Steve acquired YET ANOTHER CHILD under his supervision without even trying. But the MVP of the season was the Steve & Robin friendship. Holy shit do I love that relationship. Holy SHIT.

Robin herself is a terrific new character, smart and funny and once you know she’s half-Uma, you can’t unsee it. I was loving her already and then the bathroom scene happened and I YELLED. I was so utterly overjoyed. If they had made Steve and Robin hook up, honestly … I would’ve been fine with it, like this show doesn’t need more heterosexual romance but at least they had a fun dynamic, but man, the friendship angle was so so superior. It’s a type of relationship that media is lacking, and the specific circumstances of this friendship made it genuinely moving to me. I keep wanting to write like a meta post devoted to just this relationship because I just have so many emotions about it! But they play well off each other as a comedic duo and as an odd couple friendship, and they’re really what each other needs, IMO. Steve needed this close friendship more than he needed a girlfriend; in this season he’s clearly adrift and we’ve seen the kind of shitty friends he had in like season one, is Dustin the best pal he had at this point? And I love Steve & Dustin but Steve needed a good friend his own age. Robin is a lesbian in small-town Indiana in the ‘80s, and she was clearly full of fear that Steve would hate her if he knew, and for him to accept her so easily, not even making a big deal about it? That’s kind of life-saving, really. I can’t wait to see more of them, if Netflix wants to make the half-hour Clerks-esque spinoff about them working in a video store and shooting the shit, I would be 100% down for that.

I have some mixed feelings about Erica because I think she could have benefited from getting the same humanization as the other kids (and I’m going to leave the discussion of racial tropes gently by the side at the moment but … yeah). The other child characters are played more like actual people with vulnerabilities, which has been part of the show’s appeal since the first season, and Erica was more like the sitcom kid who always has a snarky quip ready; however, she did make me laugh and I like that they tapped into her being a nerd, I wish they’d explore that in future seasons with the character. “I’m ten, you bald bastard” was one of my favorite lines of the season, I lost my goddamn mind. 

Billy - Lmao, so Billy in S2 was the woooorst. This dude had ZERO redeeming qualities. His abusive dad creates a smidgen of sympathy, I guess, but Billy goes so far beyond normal teenage assholery that it didn’t make a dent in my opinion of him. You can redeem someone like Steve Harrington, first of all because Steve actually feels regret and works to correct his mistakes, but Steve also didn’t go to a point of no return in the first place. Billy did, for me. Physically and verbally abusing his younger sister? Attacking a black middle-schooler for the crime of being in the same room as his white sister? What a piece of shit.

With that in mind - I have no problem focusing on him as a villain this season, I really don’t. It justifies his inclusion in S2 other than as a human antagonist who’s ultimately not really connected to the main plot, as it retrospectively establishes him as an even greater threat in this season. I also think the actor did a good job with the material he was given. However, ultimately this dude’s arc was underwhelming. The thing is … I can tell they were trying to show Billy struggling with the Mind Flayer, but Billy is so lacking in any positive qualities that it’s kind of like, where does that struggle even come from? Yeah, even the worst people aren’t going to be wild about having a monster from another dimension hijack your body and use it to collect people for spare parts, but this is the same dude who was about to run over Mike, Lucas, and Dustin on their bikes last season for absolutely no reason. He beat Steve to point of unconsciousness and could’ve put him in the hospital. He assaulted Lucas. So I really need some evidence of Billy’s moral compass because it is not inherent and there’s in fact plenty of evidence that it doesn’t exist. I’m not very enthusiastic about redeeming a racist, abusive creep, but I also think if you’re going to go for him helping Eleven at the end … you have to show some current potential for goodness, not just “used to be a nice kid.”

A really glaring omission: the lack of any family/home scenes with him, Max, and their parents this season. We left off last season with Max telling him to leave her and her friends alone. How is their relationship since then? Is there still a lot of friction? Is there a tense peace? Has their relationship improved in any way? We really needed to see that follow-up. I get that Max crying over Billy this season makes sense in that he’s still her family and we can still have love for those who hurt us … but I also feel that we needed something between them to justify her pain, like even just the potential of their relationship being a fraction better, or the suggestion that Billy used to be OK to Max before he went full asshole. And I think we really needed to see Billy’s dad being currently abusive in this season - tbh, missed opportunity that the dad didn’t get flayed like, out of revenge (which would have been both satisfying and horrifying), missed opportunities for suspense when we think Billy might serve up Max and her mom to the Mind Flayer, etc.

Another missed opportunity: drawing parallels between Billy and Will. Both are possessed by the Mind Flayer. Both had shitty dads calling them homophobic slurs. Both could be read as gay (I’m not hungry to claim Billy as LGBT representation or invested in this interpretation but his scenes with Steve in S2 admittedly have that sweaty homoerotic dick-measuring vibe, if you want to take it there). Their names are both William, FFS. The difference is that Will is a sweet and gentle kid surrounded by loving family and friends who fought to save him, and Billy is a violent, cruel dude who probably doesn’t have any real friends, just shallow connections. You could show how the Mind Flayer could more easily possess and manipulate someone like Billy, but that wasn’t really explored.

Also, is anyone going to dwell on the fact that like … Max is living with an abusive man as her stepfather? He’s shown hurting Billy’s mom. Does that not concern anyone that he is very likely to attack either Max or her mom? 

Oh, and thank God they didn’t take the Billy/Karen thing all the way. In retrospect, even weirder considering Billy’s mommy issues. 

Joyce - I get that it’s a big leap downward in emotional investment to go from “must save my son” to “fucking magnets, how do they work” but I liked that she had her own investigation that wasn’t full of emotional turmoil. Winona forever. 

Mike - Everyone is ragging on him but I think he was less terrible than people are making him out to be. He was bratty in a teenage way, but he wasn’t the worst kid ever. I didn’t take his now notorious line to Will (“It’s not my fault you don’t like girls”) as something intentionally cruel or homophobic, just something that came out wrong and that he instantly regretted, and he and Lucas did seem genuinely apologetic over the D&D game and went over to Will’s in the rain out of concern. And the reason he lied to Eleven was because SCARY ASS HOPPER threatened him??? Also, his concern over Eleven overexerting herself was not misplaced, lmao! It really took that long for anyone to go, “Hey, should we be worried about the amount of blood coming out of her nose? Should we be concerned about the effects on her brain?” Sure, Eleven has the final say in whether or not she uses her powers, but tbh… she didn’t have a normal upbringing and her view of her powers is probably skewed. Like, would Eleven have enough basic medical knowledge to be worried about brain damage or nosebleeds, or would that just be the norm to her? Is she making these decisions with a full grasp of the potential consequences? Anyway, I don’t have a more negative opinion of Mike after this season. 

Eleven - I loved Eleven a lot in this season. I don’t know if it did a ton for her character arc, but it’s nice to see her slowly develop into more of a normal girl. And the season was rough for her in terms of getting her ass kicked, she goes through so much mental and physical pain! In the end she loses her dad and her powers!

Of course one of the bright spots was her and Max becoming friends! Not gonna lie, there was something a little … simplistic about some of that depiction of friendship for me - just that so much of it was SHOPPING and GIGGLING and BOY TALK, girls being GIRLS, when Max has been portrayed as a tomboy and Eleven is a telekinetic kid raised in a lab, that maybe their interactions shouldn’t have fit the mold quite so much - but it doesn’t truly bother me because they were so sweet and fun. I loved them tracking down Billy together and I appreciate that their friendship carried throughout the season, that Max was the person shown carrying an injured Eleven along with Mike, Eleven comforted Max after Billy died, etc. That was a definite sore spot of S2, the girl-on-girl jealousy and Eleven flat-out rejecting Max’s friendly introduction, and I do think they took that feedback into account for the better here. I also like that Eleven was clearly taking cues from Max, the more “worldly” of the two about boys and clothes and teenage attitudes in general - it gave their friendship a more specific shape.

I cannot WAIT to see her living with the Byers family next season. Like if they don’t spend significant time on that dynamic, it will be the biggest disappointment. There could be 8 episodes of just boring mundane Byers domestic scenes and I would love it, please inject it into my eyeballs, Duffer bros. I want to see her bonding with all of them, trying to fit in at school, attempting the most normal life she’s ever had. Also lmao, she and Will can finally have a goddamn conversation??? I hope they’ve been withholding that relationship because they were planning to go all out with those new sibling vibes in S4. They are the two characters who have been most traumatized by the Upside Down, we deserve to see them connect.

On that note, I have a lot of thoughts about Will in this season! Mainly - underused as FUCK. After all that trauma of being possessed by the Mind Flayer last season, they barely utilize this connection in the second half of S3. Even his Spidey sense hardly came in handy??? Now that was really weird, IMO, because the least they could do was have that feeling alert the others or be useful, but lmao it was practically pointless. 

It’s weird because I’m not sure if they just don’t know what to do with Will if he’s not being a victim (which is stupid because there’s plenty you could do with him), but at the same time, he has one of the most poignant subplots of the season. From the reactions I’ve seen, Will feeling rejected and left out as his friends move on really resonated with a lot of viewers. But then this thread is abandoned after episode 3, for the most part. Will cries and destroys the place that represents his childhood, a place that was created specifically in response to trauma (mentioned in S2 that he and Jonathan built it after their dad left), this is very rich emotional territory … and then the show’s just like ehhhhhh moving on. He’s just hanging out in the background and touching his neck for the rest of the season. 

And now I gotta talk about that other thing with Will.

I am so confused by what the Duffer brothers are trying to accomplish with Will’s sexuality, because on the one hand it seems like they have a really clear idea about it and on the other hand they’re just like¯\_(ツ)_/¯  The thing is … it seems very obvious they have always thought of Will as gay. This is blatant from the original pitch from the show as well as one of the S2 scripts (the only one that’s available publicly, so who knows what else they’ve written). I accept that people have different interpretations, but The Line this season is far from the only textual support for Will being gay, and I think it makes for a much, much stronger narrative if you read Will as gay in addition to not wanting to grow up as fast as his friends and being stunted from trauma - that is an entire meta post in itself, though. 

What gets me about the ~ambiguity is that the Duffer brothers planted the gay hints in the first place! They are absolutely not there by accident! Like I’m not speaking for the teenage actors but lmao, the adults involved in the writing and directing of this series absolutely fucking knew how that “not my fault you don’t like girls” scene would be interpreted, especially considering fans were debating Will’s sexuality from the beginning, based off the many homophobic comments leveled at him in S1. There have been TV shows where fans latched onto gay “subtext” that was likely unintentional, but this isn’t one of them. 

IDK, man, it’d just be nice to have some confidence in where this is going. I loved Robin and the bathroom scene made me think that yeah, they might do a decent job with Will’s sexuality, something I might have doubted before. Under no circumstances do I expect a Skam S3-style coming out arc for Will, but I’m also uncertain if I should expect anything from the show on this front at all or if they’ll play it coy to the bitter end. Though I guess I’d still take the ambiguity over giving him a female love interest after everything. Lol, that would be a giant oh-fuck-no.

Real talk, though, let’s discuss what an utter waste it would be to not write a scene where Joyce tenderly accepts her son when he comes out to her. You really aren’t going to bring that instantly iconic moment to life, assholes? You’re not going to provide that for Winona Ryder’s and Noah Schnapp’s Emmy reels? MAKE IT HAPPEN, BASTARDS.

Nancy and Jonathan have a reputation for the most boring plots but they’re fine, w/e. I’m not deeply invested in their romance but I don’t want to fast forward their scenes or anything. Nancy is an underrated character; she’s extremely proactive and always has been, and I enjoy watching her shoot things. I think the best thing they could do for both characters, though, is to separate them next season, not just physically but storyline-wise. Jonathan would be best in a subplot involving his family, because he’s at his most likable as a son and brother, and Nancy should either go off with Mike (a sibling relationship that is VASTLY undeveloped), or she should team up with Robin. I mean it, Nancy and Robin would be a power pairing, let me show you my manifesto. Both are smart young women who are good at solving mysteries. Would Robin think Nancy is a priss after Nancy unloads several rounds into the latest demogorgon chasing them? Would Nancy find Robin a refreshing alternative to the crushing suburban conformity that she claims to want to avoid? Oh, the possibilities. Meanwhile, Steve tags along in the background, all like OH SHIT, my lesbian BFF and my ex-girlfriend are in cahoots! 

Lucas and Max were playing relationship counselors to Mike and Eleven through much of the season. Max still had a fair amount to do, but Lucas needs a meatier subplot next time. I feel like they’re not sure what to do with him? I would like to see him and Erica interact more since their dynamic so far is one-note. 

There is one hell of a conversation to be had about the Evil Russians of this season, but I’m really not the person to do it. 

Also about the depiction of capitalism this season. That’s more thinkpiece-y than I am equipped to do right now. 

The product placement is something that should bother me more but I’m just like … shrug. Except that New Coke bit because that was an actual mood-breaker. 

Could have done without Russian Terminator guy. That was a blatant ‘80s homage so I get why he was there, he just wasn’t all that interesting. And was that guy supposed to be superpowered or something? Was he getting jacked on Upside Down steroids???  What was his deal???

Alexei/Murray was the true OTP of the season, let’s be real.

The trend of lovable, doomed minor characters continued with Alexei. Props to that actor for making you root for the guy. He even made me kind of love Murray? I was very WTF over that guy encouraging two teenagers to fuck in S2, and I’m still not into his habit of telling people to bang even when they’re adults, but I guess he just needed a sympathetic Russian buddy to win me over. 

There were a ton of moments where I felt like the characters made stupid choices as opposed to earlier seasons. Will getting dragged into the Upside Down in the first 10 minutes of the series is an impressive example of a horror movie character doing everything right and making good decisions - a 12-year-old, no less. And he was still overpowered by the demogorgon so it’s not like making good decisions will always save you! Whereas this season I was like LORD some of these characters are drinking dumbass juice. 

There was also so much silly stuff happening, like things that are even more far-fetched than previous seasons, but I just kind of went with it. Yeah, of course there’s a secret Russian base under a shopping mall. Sure.

This season is objectively disgusting in terms of gore and yet I was fine with it? And I’m someone who was repulsed by Barb’s corpse in S1. The Mind Flayer being made of people was some nasty shit but effective horror. I felt bad for the poor little rats :( Oh, and the flayed humans, too. Some of them. Was sad to see Mrs. Driscoll bite it but FUCK those cartoon misogynists from the newspaper. 

Visually beautiful! Starcourt Mall is an amazing set and I’m rather sad that the mall was destroyed, although that was basically a foregone conclusion. Some great cinematography, too. On a purely aesthetic level I had a great time just blasting this season into my retinas.

I have had the motherfucking NeverEnding Story theme song in my head for almost two weeks and I’m suffering.

[meggannn]

(based on your previous ask) do you mind if I ask how you feel about lok? is there a general consensus if it's good or bad? youre really insightful and just wanted to know if there were any major issues you had with it

yeah sure, i’ll do my best. if you want a quick answer to your question, here is a link to some of my other korra posts where i say pretty much the same thing as i do here, just in fewer words. cause this post will be mostly an unhappy summary of my experience watching the show. this post will contain spoilers, and disclaimer, i am a really biased, disappointed asshole, so i’ll just admit that now. 

short answer: i liked the concept of lok more than the product we got. a lot of that is because you had a physically buff brown wlw protagonist written mostly by cishet white men and, as you can imagine, it wasn’t handled great. when i think of lok now i tend to fluctuate between bittersweet nostalgia and quiet, simmering rage.

if you don’t care about the show summary, skip at the middle paragraph break down to my tldr.

so for those who don’t know, LOK was really my first “big” fandom on tumblr. when it was announced, a bunch of ATLA purists were already hating on it because 1) brown woman, 2) it was unrealistic to go from ATLA’s technology to streampunk in 70 years, and 3) it wasn’t ATLA, basically. it was my first big interest that i got to participate in as it was airing, and i was really excited about it. i defended it, i wrote meta, i liveblogged, i wrote tons of fic and spammed theories/wants before the damn show even had a release date. all that is to say, i was Invested, and i believed in it before i even saw it. people called me a bnf, i’m not sure if that’s true, but i did gain a lot my followers in my first few years on tumblr by posting korra stuff. a lot of them – hello – i think are still around today (i’m not certain how all the video games hasn’t scared them off yet)

i should say at this point that my opinion of LOK the show has been really wrapped up in the ugly stain left by the fanbase. korra the character has been the subject of tons of racist, misogynistic criticism since the moment we saw her back; when she showed up on screen as a proud young woman who fought with authority and stood up for herself, that was the nail in the coffin for her reputation. i agreed that she had a bit of growing up to do, because ATLA/LOK have always been stories about coming of age and maturing, but i disagreed strongly with this notion that she deserved to be “humbled,” which is what a lot of fans were looking for.

the overall consensus on if it’s “good” depends on who you ask. most people agree that ATLA is better overall: it was better plotted because it benefited from more writers in the room and more episodes to flesh out the world. opinions on LOK specifically range based a lot on their opinions of the K/orra/sami pairing, if they were involved in or what side they were on in any of the fandom wank, and also just complete random chance.

i’ll go more in depth into my ‘history’ with the show below, but i just wanted to mention that all the while the show was airing, korra was being hit with waves of criticism by so-called fans for basically being a confident brown woman who were calling for her to learn her place, respect her elders, etc. another common theme was fandom’s brilliant fucking idea that asami, a light-skinned feminine non-bending woman who was more polite and reserved than korra, would’ve made a better avatar. because you know why. (korra was often described as brutal, rough, unsophisticated, next to pretty, perfect asami. and asami is a fine character, to be clear, but that’s what she was – fine. nothing really stands out about her, which is a fault of the writing, because she had a lot of potential too.) so anyway all of this did sour my mood toward engaging with other fans outside my friend circle.

–

it was around maybe the middle of book 1 that i realized the writing for the show was simpler than what i was expecting – not that it was childish, which it was (because it was written for children, i understood that), but i felt like the plot meandered and the twists came out of nowhere. it felt like they were making it up as they were going, and it opened threads it didn’t answer. one of the biggest threads was the equalist revolution, which was a very sensitive topic that got jettisoned when the leader was revealed to be a fraud, and that devalued the entire movement in an instant. really disappointing, because i was looking forward to seeing that addressed. for a lot of people, this was a dealbreaker, and they started walking. i stuck with it, but loosely.

book 2 aired, focusing on the spiritual world and some really cool history. it still suffered a lot from awkward b-plots and loose threads it didn’t know how to tackle. korra lost her memory and then regained it 2 episodes later with no consequences, mako flip-flopped between korra and asami because bryke don’t know how to write teenage romances without making it a love triangle, and at some point bolin kissed a girl against her will and they didnt acknowledge that at all? i honestly don’t remember. anyway at the end of book 2, even though korra saves the day and prevents the world from descending into darkness for ten thousand years, due to events beyond her control, korra loses the spiritual connection that ties her to all of the previous avatars – aang, roku, kyoshi, wan, everyone. and people hit the fucking ceiling. “korra’s not a real avatar if she lost her connection to the old ones! that’s the entire point of the cycle! this show is bullshit, it’s not canon anymore!” (the entire point that finale demonstrated that korra’s power alone was enough to save the world and she didn’t need anyone else. but people found that ~unrealistic~ i guess). as you can imagine, being a fan of LOK is starting to get a little tiring by now.

books 3-4 is where the korra haters got to love the show again, because they were both straight-up torture porn. after everything she did saving the world, this is the arc where korra got beat down, tortured, dragged into the dirt, swallowed and spat back out. book 3 is a lot of people’s favorites because it was the first book that felt fully plotted out before it was put on air, which is why i enjoyed it too. but for me it was difficult to see a girl, whose identity revolved around being the avatar after being raised and sheltered to think it was all she was good for, effectively abandon her life and even her name by the beginning of book 4 because the events of book 3 were that traumatizing for her. somehow this was character development. we were encouraged to stick with it because we hoped korra would find herself again. and she did, sorta.

but it makes me furious that people who had quit in books 1-2 came back during 3 because they heard these books were better – aka book 3, the book that featured korra the least, and books 3-4 in which korra got her ass handed to her in some of the hardest fights vs some of the cruelest villains of the series. (nevermind that the book 3 villains suffer from the anime villain curse: they quickly went from “cool character design” to “wait, how does this rando group of villains show up with powers literally no one in the universe has ever heard before?” – questions no one ever answers)

anyway book 4 is a mish-mash of… i’m not sure. i’ve rewatched all the books but i don’t know if i’ll ever touch this one again. the culturally appropriating airbender wannabe, zaheer (a complete rando who somehow masters airbending enough to fly, which was a huge middle finger to airbending masters aang and tenzin for no reason) a guy who literally tortured korra one season before and put her in a wheelchair, is the one who the writers send korra to for her spiritual awakening that lets her save the day. not tenzin or jinora, her spiritual teachers with whom she has positive, healthy relationships – they send her back to her abuser who terrifies and degrades her a bit more before deciding to help. this was a pattern: the writers made both korra and asami face their abusers (in asami’s case, her father) for catharsis instead of gaining peace over their trauma another, healthier way because…. i’m not sure why. there is no reason why. and then there’s the guilt tripping nonsense of asami feeling as if she had to forgive her father, who tried to kill her, because he said he was sorry and sacrificed himself for her in the finale. it’s angst galore, if you like that kind of thing, which i normally do, except this is less angst and more just the writers trying to hammer in torture porn, grimdark, and poor attempts at morally gray nonsense into their finale season.

anyway at the end of her journey, korra, our buff brown woc, learns that she had to suffer to learn how to be compassionate and relate to her enemy. i’m not exaggerating, she literally says that. which is lovely.

–

tldr: i wasted a lot of emotional time and energy into this show and was extremely disappointed when some of the ending’s notes were “you had to suffer to become a better person” and “forgive your abusers/villains because aren’t we all the same in the end?”

but also on a strictly narrative level, LOK also bit off way more than it could chew both emotionally and thematically. it had an amazing premise, but it was not committed to

utilizing the steampunk genre to its best potential in the bending world (after the creativity in the rest of the worldbuilding, the LOK series finale was literally fighting a giant robot – seriously?)

giving its hero the respect and character arc she deserved. and i don’t say that because i think korra had no growing up to do in b1, she did, but she didn’t deserve for it to happen like that.

so basically i realized that a lot of the writers that made ATLA great weren’t brought back for LOK, and it showed. i realized that the LOK writers, when they listened to fans, were listening to the fans that whined the loudest, or (more likely, since they plan seasons years before we see them) they thought from the beginning that it was a good idea for korra to go through years’ worth of pain just to be spat out a humbler, “better” person

the reason i told you all that about me defending LOK in the beginning is because i need you to understand that i believed in LOK longer than i probably should’ve. i wanted it to be everything i was expecting in a diverse children’s show with an unorthodox female protaganist. but just because they had a brown wlw heroine doesn’t mean that they deserved to be praised for it when they treated her like garbage.

and korra and asami walk into a beam of light together in the last second of the show and i’m supposed to applaud the writers for their bravery or something

[lilover131]

CCS Clear Card Crack Theory

So I know there have been a lot of theories being thrown out there as to what is happening in the Clear Card arc, and knowing CLAMP…we’ll all be wrong. But I’m gonna try and take a crack at this with my wild guess. I’m very likely wrong, but I like to think there might be some things that line up here. I’m going to be using information that we know up to Chapter 22 of the manga and Episode 12 of the anime, which as recent as we have at this point in time on both ends. 

Under the cut due to length and spoilers! 

So first off, let’s list off what we know so far, and I’m only going to list things that I feel are relevant to the plot. 

Sakura, the Clear Cards, the Dream Key, and the Dreams

Cards cannot be sensed by anyone other than Sakura

Sakura senses something weird about them, but hasn’t quite stated why. 

Some of the cards seem to be the equivalent to Sakura cards she used to have. (Gale/Windy, Aqua/Watery, etc.)

Sakura received the key through a dream and woke up to find her Sakura cards completely transparent and unusable. 

Sakura is frequently having dreams of a mysterious cloaked figure (aka MCF), who appears either on clock gears or on top of the dragon’s horn. 

MCF seems to want the key. 

Akiho Shinomoto

Does not have any magic that can be sensed

Has some sort of connection to Sakura. Her name, appearance, and personality are very similar to hers. 

Has a book called called “Alice in Clockland”, which have clock designs similar to the ones Sakura sees in her dream and it is written in a strange language that Akiho was taught to read. 

Seems to be unaware of Momo being alive and frequently carries her with her.

Was taken care of since she was young by Kaito and likely has romantic feelings towards him. 

Has dreams of watching someone (likely Sakura) and wanting something from them, and recently had the same dream as Sakura. 

Confirmed that the robes that MCF was wearing in the dream she shared with Sakura are hers, passed down from her family, thus leading us to come to a thought that she is very likely MCF. 

Is well traveled, having been to England, Germany, Italy, France, and Hong Kong. 

Her family supposedly travels to different parts of the world and collects books, and she is in Japan to look for one in specific. 

Living with Yuna D. Kaito in Eriol’s old house 

Yuna D. Kaito

Has been serving Akiho since she was young

Carries a pocket watch with a similar design to the ones Sakura sees in her dreams, and Akiho has mentioned it is very important to him. 

Was part of a magic association in England, and the ‘D’ in his name is a status symbol for the strongest magician. He likely draws his magic from the moon. 

Likely chose their location of residence due to it’s usefulness in hiding magic (it’s also where Clow used to live)

Knows about Momo and seems aware of whatever is happening to Akiho and Sakura.

Recently discovered, it turns out the magic association in England excommunicated him a year ago because he lost a powerful magical item, though most believe he stole it. 

Left England before he could be punished, though it’s said he was so powerful, that no one would have been able to anyways.

Syaoran 

Is back from Hong Kong so that he can be here “when the time comes.” The reason he went back in the first place is shrouded in mystery. 

Is performing some sort of spells in his apartment, insinuating that he ‘needs to hurry’. 

Often is too busy doing something to spend time with Sakura

Cannot tell Sakura what he is up to, likely for very important reasons. 

Communicating back and forth with Eriol as he learns new information and seems very concerned about Kaito and not so much about Akiho. 

Performing strange and powerful spells that seem to take out the Clear Cards in one hit, but seems guilty afterwards. 

Touya

Seems to know that strange things are happening again, despite having given his magic up to Yue/Yukito

Says there is something new that he can do now, but has yet to tell Yukito what it is. 

All right! Now that we have those out of the way, let’s try and connect it all, or at least some of it! 

First off, let’s talk about this dragon:

 I first started drawing connections to Syaoran and the dragon the moment it popped up in Sakura’s dream in chapter 2 of the manga and episode 1 of the anime. I did this because the long, snake-like body is very Chinese in style, and seeing as we still don’t know the reason Syaoran got suddenly dragged back to Hong Kong, my assumption was that perhaps the dragon had something to do with it. Perhaps Syaoran or his family are connected to it in some way.

 It goes without saying that dragons are huge in China, but they don’t have the negative connotation behind them as they do in parts outside of Asia. Although they can be destructive (balance of yin and yang), in Chinese culture, they are generally wise and benevolent and most strive to ‘be like the dragon’. We see that the MCF (mysterious cloaked figure) is always standing on the horn of the dragon in these dreams Sakura has, which leads me to believe that the MCF has some control over it. Perhaps it has corrupted a dragon and is using it for their own gain, or the dragon may be ‘protecting’ MCF.

 We know now (even though it’s not been specifically stated) that MCF is Akiho, though she may not know it or have control of this other persona. All she seems to be aware of is that she is having dreams of watching someone from up high and that she wants something from this person. Akiho seems particularly interested in finding a book of some sort (maybe the Sakura card book, but that’s debatable), but as MCF in the dreams, she also seems to desperately want the key. She has the book that only she can read, and I imagine it’s probably some sort of spell book. It’s all very peculiar, but another strange fact about Akiho is her list of places she has visited. She is well travelled for someone so young, having been to Italy, England, Germany, France, and Hong Kong. It was specifically mentioned that she came to Hong Kong before coming to Japan, which means she was in Hong Kong at roughly the same time as Syaoran, and I doubt CLAMP would have mentioned such a thing if it didn’t have some sort of importance. 

 Now, let’s talk about her companion, Yuna D. Kaito. This man kind of worried me from the very beginning, since he seems very mysterious. I wondered what exactly his involvement in all this was, but as more information about him develops, I find him more and more worrying. Red flags were certainly raised upon his and Syaoran’s first meeting, since Syaoran sensed powerful moon magic from him and his affiliation to the magic association in England was not exactly working in his favor either. Eriol stated that this clan Kaito was from did not have all good rumors, and that the ‘D’ was a title for the most powerful magician. It was also stated in this conversation that the location of residence (Eriol’s old home) had likely been chosen for specific magical reasons and that he was likely so powerful magically, he didn’t feel the need to hide his name or even his magic for that matter. Someone of magic that powerful undoubtedly would be able to conceal it, much like Eriol did in the Sakura card arc, but he didn’t feel it necessary in a time where strange things are happening in Tomoeda and there are few answers as to why. To me, this seems like taunting, as he wants Syaoran to know that he is powerful, who he is affiliated with, and to probably send a simple message to Syaoran: You cannot do anything to stop this. This also implies that he knows that Syaoran is working in the shadows without Sakura’s knowledge.

 In the recent chapter that came out, chapter 22, we learned quite a bit more, and I find myself more concerned than ever before. We learned that Eriol and the Li clan investigated further as to who Kaito is, and they discovered some shocking news. Kaito, as it turns out, was excommunicated from the magic association in England a year ago due to the belief that he lost, or more likely stole, a very powerful magic item. Kaito left before he was able to be punished, though Eriol also mentioned that it’s thinkable no one would have been able to take him with how powerful he was anyways and that this magic association feared that item being in his hands.

 It would make sense for Kaito and Akiho to be running away to multiple different countries if he indeed stole this item, but wouldn’t someone who is in hiding, well…hide? He’s made his presence known to Syaoran, so that doesn’t seem to be the reason he and Akiho are travelling to multiple countries. It’s been pointed out by some of the fans that Kaito’s name also means ‘thief’, so what if the reason they are going to all these different countries is to steal things?

 I don’t find it a coincidence at all that Akiho and Kaito were in Hong Kong at the same time as Syaoran, and I also find it interesting that Kaito was supposedly excommunicated about a year ago, which is around the same time that Syaoran received the mysterious call from his mother and rushed back to Hong Kong.

 Now we come back to the dragon. Where does the dragon come into all of this? Well, when Syaoran first used his strange spell in chapter 13, I was fascinated by the little ball of light he pulled forward. What is it? What does it do? And what was he saying that CLAMP purposely blocked out his dialogue bubble? Seeing as I had a feeling there was some sort of tie to him and the dragon, I did a random google search to see if I could pull up any sort of mythology, since CLAMP seems to be fond of folklore and mythology in their stories. And I found a little story called “The Dragon’s Pearl.”

 The story tells about a boy who tries to provide for himself and his mother, and he discovers in the ground beneath a lush patch of green grass by the river a brilliant pearl. With this pearl, he and his mother discover that whatever it touches seems to multiply. For instance, they put it in jar of rice, and the next morning, the jar was full, and the same thing happened when it was placed inside a money box.  The story I read also mentioned that one of the neighbors discovered the pearl and tried to steal it. To stop them, the boy who found it swallowed it and became a dragon. This intrigued me, and I wondered…well, couldn’t the same be done for magic? If one had such a thing, theoretically, it could strengthen one’s magic, right? Syaoran doesn’t seem to be doing much that seems particularly different from his usual spells. In the manga, he seemed to just summon wind that was stronger than his usual spells, and the same thing seemed to occur in the most recent episode of the anime (episode 12) with fire. Same spell it seems, but with a little more kick. But there are some differences. His magic circle does not appear beneath him and in the anime, he instead has a golden circle beneath him. Also, from his hand comes a small ball of light, which seems to activate the magic when his sword touched it.

 He seems particularly guilty after doing these mysterious spells, which tells us that whatever tool he’s using he has some sort of negative consequence. If he was using a new tool or had simply learned new spells while in Hong Kong, he probably wouldn’t feel the need to hide such things from Sakura, but he specifically keeps her in the dark with these, and in the anime and manga, he had a look of dread on his face that even alerted Sakura, who is normally not so observant.

 At first, I thought maybe the story I read about the Dragon’s Pearl was a stretch to bring into CCS. But when I research Chinese dragons in particular, there is a lot of imagery with what is called ‘the flaming pearl’, where the story stemmed from. The dragons are usually depicted chasing after it, and it is said to be able to grant wishes but is also a symbol of spiritual energy, wisdom, prosperity, power, immortality, thunder, or the moon. I can very much imagine Syaoran using such a tool to try and increase his strength if he felt as though his own magic was not adequate for the situation. But what kind of repercussions might one have with such a thing? I looked very closely at the screenshots of the magic Syaoran used before with his usual spell and then again when he used his new spell, and what I found was rather surprising.

 A dragon…

 Never before has such a thing appeared with Syaoran’s magic, and the animators certainly didn’t point this out. This was not something you would have seen unless you paused the screen at just the right moment. So here is my guess. I think that Syaoran might have had some sort of magical tool, perhaps the pearl, which is multiplying his powers and strengthening them. Or maybe he is summoning dragons by luring them with the pearl. I imagine using such a thing could be dangerous or have serious consequences, and I can’t help but wonder if the dragon we’ve been seeing could be a result of this or if maybe Syaoran intends to fight a dragon with other dragons? What if he becomes the dragon? Or what if Kaito is the dragon?

 If not a pearl, I imagine the Li clan probably has multiple magic items stored in their vault, and Syaoran mentioned in the original series (during the Erase card capture) that they have several books written by Clow himself. I imagine a magical family that travels and collects books would love to get their hands on something like that. Perhaps Kaito already took something and discovered texts about the Clow Cards. Surely if someone stole a text about the cards, Syaoran would be alerted right away, seeing as it has to do with his precious Sakura.

 As for Sakura, there seems to be many ties to her and Akiho. It’s been pointed out on multiple occasions their similarities, and this is no coincidence. Recently, Sakura’s mother Nadeshiko appeared before her and told her that “anything more than this, and there is no turning back.” She also seemed concerned that Sakura was able to see her, which to me shows an increase in her strength. The more Sakura uses this magic, the more worried the people around her seem to become, and I’ve noticed it’s a common theme in CLAMP series that people with extraordinary magical abilities (like Watanuki in XXXHolic or even Clow Reed) tend to reach a point where they are so strong, they are no longer considered human or they lose control of their powers. One thing that Eriol praised Sakura for at the end of the original series was that she would not have the problems Clow did with seeing the future. He told her she’d be able to see it, only when she wanted to, but everything lately is out of her control, and I believe Syaoran and Eriol want to keep her from reaching that point.

 In regards to Akiho, I believe she is what CLAMP commonly refers to as a “Dream Seer.” In the CLAMP universe, all dreams are connected, and Dream Seers are able to not only see the future, but can also travel into other’s dreams and the dream world at will. It’s possible she has been tapping into Sakura’s dreams, or perhaps Sakura is tapping into hers. Either way, they are connected this way, but I think there is a stronger reason for this. Sakura, in the newest chapter, was given a beautiful necklace with a clock on it by her great grandfather Masaki, who claims it was a object brought back from England by him and her great grandmother.

 It belonged to Nadeshiko and was treasured by her. It’s interesting where it came from, because this develops some sort of tie to Sakura’s family and England. Nadeshiko undeniably had some magic when she alive which allowed her to see spirits and more, and Touya inherited that from her. As it stands, we know very little about where Nadeshiko’s magic came from in the first place, and that leads me to consider that the Amamiya family maybe had some ties specifically to the magical association in England that Akiho and Kaito are from. Maybe Akiho is related to her in some way (though probably distantly), which would make sense in a lot of ways with their likeness 

 Now, where do the cards lie in all this? MCF, or Akiho, seems to want the key, but what about the cards? I think the strange feeling Sakura is having with these cards may be that they are indeed the same cards, but they are be shaped and reincarnated to someone else. What if Sakura is being used to capture these cards, her cards, only so that they can be given to someone else? Maybe it is believed that it is Akiho’s birthright to own them, much like Syaoran once believed, and Kaito is helping to move things along?

There are many things to think about, but one thing I’m sure about is that when the news does eventually all come out, it’s going to be a DOOZY. 

[nostalgic-blood]

so yeah tri finale thoughts

i went into this movie with rock bottom expectations. mostly because i went into symbiosis riding high due to the ridiculously juicy poster that turned out to be the baitest bait that has ever bait.

and i suppose perception helps because I mostly enjoyed it! my biggest fear was that they’d try to answer the millions of questions and mysteries they brought up in one single movie, and seeing their track record it’d be done rather sloppily. instead, they went for a sequel hook so it made sense to leave out the answers to some mysteries. It’s not as if homeostasis and yggdrasil were the reason I was watching tri. If the lore was why I was watching it I’d be bored and left long ago

like thank god they didn’t explain much about huckmon or alphamon because i do not care. I do understand on an objective standpoint that leaving so many of these things in the air is bad writing, but for most of the movies they already reserve like 60% of the screentime for meiko and her murderous cat so really what spotlight is left is prime real estate for characters and digimon i actually care about. slice of life moment at an inappropriate point of the movie is better than static exposition for five minutes. 

still what they did use the screentime for was a little odd, though not to the egregious degree of meiko in the previous movies. I find it interesting for instance that yamato and gabumon had a pretty long scene together but they are the only ones of the cast that never had a full-screen metalgarurumon evolution. they also spent a lot of time that wasn’t the occasional flashback or the recap at the beginning of every episode even though it’s released as movies and we literally just watched that scene showing the faceless military being inept at destroying the supernatural giant monster. 

it feels like tri’s structure is far more rigid than average. As in they seem to follow some strict formula, which causes pacing issues and screentime priority issues. They also don’t really put thought into what goes into the structure. For instance we did get some Hikari spotlight because it was necessary due to the situation, what with tailmon having become part of the big evil bad. But instead of focusing on really anything specific on hikari’s character, it was mostly reactionary and worrying over meiko. There was a quick moment just before tailmon mega evolved which, when I put more thought into it was sort of poignant, but because that conflict of hikari’s character was so much more subtle than meiko’s plot it almost seems like it comes out of nowhere as a conclusion to hikari’s arc.

plus, they rip away more of tailmon’s agency when they simply refer to the big ordinemon boob butt monster as simply meicoomon that has absorbed tailmon. You can’t backtrack like that! We VERY CLEARLY SAW in symbiosis that tailmon TOO was corrupted as ophanimon falldown mode, and that the two digimon fused together in a rather blatant manner. It felt far more like they were equals when they became one than one digimon absorbing the other. There is no point to tailmon’s dark evolution if that never comes up in the plot! If no one ever brings it up! It feels like, just as the poster was, included just as fanservice and bait so more people would watch, but with zero substance. 

Again, a rigid formula or structure, like the writers were all sitting in the room and throwing ideas on the wall, but the ideas are like “we should have a dramatic moment where tailmon disappears!” and they do. But it doesn’t do anything. It’s not really relevant because it’s not as if tailmon changes drastically or even dies. It feels like it was put there just for the drama itself, just to throw in a trailer so people will be like OMG DID TAILMON JUST DIE!?!?! HOW SAD!!! I NEED TO TUNE IN!1!!

or like “WE SHOULD BRING BACK WIZARDMON!” because fans of hikari and tailmon love wizardmon! so they do! for 3 seconds! He has no lines! We never see his face! What the fuck. It’s a tease that goes no where. They even have the audacity to include his hat in the poster for five seconds of screentime. I should have expected that after the ophanimon falldown mode debacle.

meanwhile the new characters are involved in drama that is actually affected by the plot, like meiko having to say goodbye to her partner forever because meicoomon is too far gone, and needs to be put down to end her suffering. Pretty dang relevant to the story right? it wasn’t simply put there for feels. Or Daigo dying. While the situation they got into seems kind of convoluted, like how they just happened to fall into the underground bunker where the 02 kids just happen to be, and Daigo just happens to be mortally wounded and Taichi just happens to be unscathed. People explain it away that Daigo “probably shielded Taichi as they fell” which he probably did! But when I have to say “probably” or if the audience has to explain it themselves because they SHOWED ABSOLUTELY NONE OF IT, then it’s especially jarring. Like the writers were like “Let’s kill Daigo off!” and put no thought into how they should smoothly transition to a moment where that could be possible. 

like you spend six movies foreshadowing and leading up to the twist that meicoomon was the source of the infected, and then slowly revealed how much yggdrasil’s influence was exactly on her and then give us the shock of the century when she fuses with tailmon into the big bad near the end, and then we finally conclude the conflict of sacrifice by yes, we must put the cat down. Because of all the damage that she had inflicted, by the death that taichi had just witnessed and could do nothing to prevent. That the theme of the movies was growing up, no longer the fun friendly idealism of digimon back in adventure. That she was just too far gone, almost dragged another digimon down with her, lead to the death of humans !! and risked the death or at least the reboot of the real world. It was not time to debate what we should or should not do because if action is not done now it’d be too late.

but for daigo dying it’s like, oh he ends up in a room, somehow far more injured than taichi. Like at least give Taichi cuts and bruises so the whole “OMG TAICHI IS DEAD!!!” thing had a little more merit, and then not!gennai sets up a sadistic trap where only one of them will live and the one that lives will conveniently return back to the real world safe and sound with the 02 kids that have been missing this entire time. I mean, real convenient hm? kill off a guy for drama and put the main char where he needs to be while fixing up one of the biggest issues in the entire series with the lingering whereabouts of the 02 cast and no one seemingly caring. They tried to kill many birds with one stone, but they were too greedy, trying to kill so many birds that all the birds they killed weren’t intact bodies on the ground for feasting but mere scraps, as the stone was used in such force their remains were absolutely pulverized. I swear that analogy was going somewhere.

I was still sad about it tho, because I warmed up to daigo and maki as characters, and if maki doesn’t come back then these original chosen have left Tri in rather brutal and bloody fashion, tragic with no real positive spin aside from maki’s cautionary tale over sacrifice and what it can do to a person and daigo leaving lasting words to taichi. They were the first to get Digimon and save the world! The rest of the adventure kids and in the 02 epilogue everyone else gets their own digimon and lives out happily side-by-side. Why do the first get such a bad hand? It’s sad.

i’m a bit disappointed some of the coolest theories over tailmon and meicoomon as foils didn’t come true, which I mean I can’t really expect what with the track record of tri, but it would have been nice. tailmon would be light and then meicoomon is darkness, and the demon that results is even more powerful because they light that combined has been tainted by darkness, or w/e. there was little explanation for the fusion and again, they often referred to tailmon as simply having been absorbed. When she escaped ordinemon I doubt there was memory of being ophanimon falldown mode. I guess the koushiro-ex-machina mass return of their selves before the reboot has some amazing ability to purify on the fly. Could have been done better!

still, on an emotional level I enjoyed it. Even if they planned every emotional moment in the most soulless, structured way possible without any ounce of passion I think I still would have teared up at some scenes. Seeing all the megas in grand animation was great, and the fighting was good this time too unlike the body slamming fun times from symbiosis. 

so my initial rating of this movie is 2.5 stars out of 5, but I will minus .5 stars for the ridiculous and unnecessary amount of fucking butt shots ordinemon has. I don’t know what person in this wide wide world would actually enjoy seeing cthulhu’s bare fat ass every twenty seconds but if they were the primary demographic somehow then I guess I have no justification to complain!

I also minus .5 stars for the stupid pointless recaps. And minus another .5 for doing nothing specific for hikari’s character. That least us at 1.5 stars.

BUT ONE WHOLE EXTRA STRAW FOR HOLYDRAMON!!! AWWWWW YEAH

Even if Holydramon only was around for 15 seconds itself, it still got a gorgeously animated evolution sequence and as I do not stare at trailers (and it never being on a poster) that surprise was not only well worth the wait but the time it took to process. I was cheering at 3am in the morning.

but . 5 deducted for the stupid wizardmon bait SHAME ON THE BAIT THE BAITEST BAIT I HATE THE BAIT

2 stars out of 5. Eh good enough. I personally put the movies as 3 > 6 > 2 > 4 > 1 > 5. That is all and Spotto out.

[rtf393q-latina]

Journal 4

Commenting on Tumblr’s release of top discussed mobile games in 2018 on their platform, Polygon pointed out that 3 of the top 5 were from small studios, marketed to women, and were in the genre of choose-your-own-adventure visual novels. Tumblr’s own user base might skew toward female users, so it is important to be skeptical about what these findings say about culture at large. However, I am interested in this supposed recent rise in popularity of visual novels as a research topic for this class, so I thought trying out these top 3 games might be a good place to start. As an aside, I need to sort out how the different terms I’ve seen floating around these games (visual novel, chose your own adventure, dating sim or game, otome) relate to and differ from each other.

Top 3 visual novels on Tumblr in 2018. (source)

This week I played The Arcana (middle image above; story inspired by Tarot cards), which launched on Kickstarter in October 2016, and released in chapter increments beginning a few months later. Since April 2019, the game is currently releasing chapters for 3 new romance routes (now that the stories of the original 3 have ended). I played the prologue and began the romance route of the mysterious, emotionally unavailable character who I felt the prologue was most pushing you to be interested in. Once I moved past the prologue, I quickly found out that you can essentially only read 3 chapters every 3 hours. Perhaps this wasn’t an issue if you were following along as the game released. You could get excited and turn on the app once you saw an update notification. As a player arriving at this game several years later, hoping to get a general survey of the game over a condensed period of time, I felt viciously stymied and I never got very far romancing my brooding depressive nightmare boy. The overall problem was that I hadn’t found anything that hooked me into the story yet, making the waiting time turn into a total stopping point.

Arcana’s home screen, showing 6 different narrative paths. Minigames, features, and other monetizable parataxets available from the tabs at the bottom. (source)

Furthermore, the amount of paid options was egregious. Anytime someone dragged me somewhere, or I stumbled into a new room, yet again I would be forced to select (because I did not have enough coins, nor would I pay for more) some variant of, “oh never mind, I’m too tired,” as if I would ever willingly choose that option in a game…what I’m trying to say is, I believe they very purposefully made the free option seem as uninspiring as possible. It’s not really an option, it’s just a way to end the scene suddenly and rub in your face that you’re missing out on something. I am also not convinced that the paid options are just bonus material that’s not central to the story. It seemed like the most interesting potential plot developments had a paywall. What do you mean that after transporting unexpectedly through a magical fountain to see my romancee, all of a sudden I have to pay if I want to explore the mystical dream world he’s in with him instead of just going right back through the fountain to sleep? As a whole, playing this game was a very frustrating experience and the intrusion of monetization everywhere I turned made it unpleasant and deflating. How can you get excited when the game keeps trying to pry money from you?

Examples of in-game monetization. (source)

A question I should perhaps have led with is whether Arcana and other games of the visual novel variety would be considered games at all in the conceptions of the readings this week. I did wonder what Frasca would make of this game. Simulation is a part of the name (dating sim) and this genre encourages players to keep trying out different choices so that they can collect all of the different possible endings. (In addition to having different character romance paths, Arcana also has two different endings for each character. Also, each character has a gallery section with black squares to be filled in once you discover them in the story. Other similar features encourage you to play over and over.) This exploratory format, where the player is an author of what happens, seems as though it would appeal to Frasca’s ideas about the possibilities and specificity of games compared to representational media. On the other hand, visual novel is an alternate name for these games and they have the qualities Frasca associates with ludus: a 3-part story structure, an Aristotelian ending with closure, a world that has simple definitions of good/bad, winner/loser. Though I cannot comment on a full story arc in the Arcana, the game has a very clear goal of seeing the story play out to its end. Frasca does however admit that games might have a ludus structure.

In Grodal’s work, I found a very apt description of why Arcana did not interest me as a game. Grodal writes that third-person stories in video games often fail because “In films and novels (third) persons are infused with the life and agency by authors and characters, and most readers and viewers will attribute that life to the characters, not to the ‘storyteller.’ In the video game, it is the job of the player to create ‘life’ in the third person, and failure to do so will create feelings of a mechanical lifelessness, eventually perceived as due to the designer and his or her system” (152). Beyond not feeling like my choices had an impact on the story, I could not really insert myself or a character I gave life to much in the story, which did give me a feeling of mechanical lifelessness as I jumped through the hoops of the narrative. I think for this genre of games to work for you, you need to be imagining the character; I didn’t and the narrative felt blank and unfulfilling. Meanwhile, fan reddit and tumblr accounts often make fan art of their insert character. The Polygon review also claims that being able to control the personal pronouns in use and add a character name added a lot of enjoyment to the experience. But it’s just not something I invested in. I wanted to experience the story in a third-person way.

I’m not sure I agree completely that games best describe a first-person perspective and first-person emotions, as Grodal lays it out. Grodal links exploring, fighting, sex, eating, and laughing to first-person, active experiences, and other emotions stemming from empathy, like pity and admiration to third-person, passive experiences. This seems problematic to me because I enjoy reading novels and experiencing the emotions of the characters second-hand, an (active!) experience Grodal also recognizes in watching movies. While I do not have proof, it seems wrong to say that video games cannot also function in this mode.

Finally, Grodal suggests that emotions related to sex are ideally suited to video games whereas Juul argues that games resist complex themes like love, because you cannot really implement them in the rules of the game. He disparages the connection between simple mechanical tasks and the love story in Myst. Meanwhile, Grodal leans in to the aesthetic of repetition in video games, how they mirror the gritty, repeated, procedural actions of everyday life. Whereas I agree with Juul on the one hand, that dating simulations might be a rigid representation of romantic relationships, I do definitely agree on the other hand with Grodal that a relationship functions like a task that requires a repeated set of interactions, moving from unfamiliarity and challenge, to mastery, to automation. There’s something about how games represent relationships that really rings true to real life. Or rather, dating sims make sense in their representation of fiction through rules.

[agl03]

1/2 Hi. So I'm sending this an ask as i think what I'm saying might help the fandom. I think the biggest thing that's got people worrying is that the writers aren't going to actually payoff the FitzSimmons relationship after the arc (dub con stuff aside). They dragged out FitzSimmons for so long and made such a thing about putting as many obstacles in their way as possible that as fandom we now naturally fear any storyline that doesn't have FitzSimmons together during it. And i think that is the

route cause of so much of the panic and sadness in the fandom. That after all we went through to get them together, we got a season of them struggling to be a couple followed by a brainwashing/separation storyline. And i think the concern for many is we will get a 2 min scene at the end of episode 22 of FitzSimmons decorating their house or wearing rings and that will be it. We’ll go through all that suffering with them for the writers to leave us with just scraps again.

I really don’t know how much comfort I can offer on this.  Right now I just have blind faith that they will pay off all this set up that we have got going on here.   That they set up an engagement talk for a reason.  We might not see the wedding itself (those take time to plan and that could happen next season) but I do think we get to see the engagement in the closing episodes.  And we will get some AMAZING Fitzsimmons scenes as they reunite and as they find their way back to each other both in and out of the Framework.  

The big reason we had Fitzsimmons apart in A was to show the toll the job was taking and how hard it is to be a busy couple.  Their relationship as a couple was still relatively new coupled with moving in, loss of friends, and massive job changes.  The other component is they needed Jemma “out of the way” so that Radcliffe could manipulate Fitz as he did.  Had Jemma gone to watch the Match in 4.01 Radcliffe would have waited for another time for AIDA to ‘slip’ out. Keeping them apart was part of the story.  The did find their way back to each other for the B Arc.  We got that wonderful look at Domestic Couple Sciencing together FItzsimmons.   Showed us what they had to lose, so they could of course have it taken away for a bit.  

The writers are very well aware of how much Fitzsimmons mean to a good chunk of the Fandom.  Fitzsimmons is very near and dear to their hearts too.  I don’t see them NOT paying off all this set up.  Especially when they said that once they started planning the Framework Arc it was going to be one trying to get the other back.  Nor was it not accident that they threw in “so we can get married” in 15.  Its like the bread crumbs on Hope, if I never joined, I wish I had powers, and Papa FItz…those are getting paid off now with the Framework.  And the “So we can get married” is very specific.  They didn’t have to use that line.  Robo Fitz could have talked about just being together or moving into the Love Nest, rather they put the grand daddy of carrots out there.  

For me 4.07 is one of the strongest Fitzsimmons episodes we have.  Despite the fact that they has a mere seconds of screen time together.  As Fitz fought to get back to her.  That others vocalized how much they meant to each other.

Maveth is the same way.  They weren’t together aside for the very end but it was a strong episode for Fitzsimmons.  The thousand year old evil death god knew it.  Jemma was laser focused on keeping that portal available and open for Fitz.

I’ve said it a ton of times.  If FItzsimmons were happy and together in the Framework I would be scared out of my mind right now that we would be hit with a truck after.  But since they are fighting to get back to each other now combined with what I’ve seen in the Wondercon interviews I’m feeling really good.

Would I prefer them physically together in scenes?  Yes!  I would watch a 48 minute episode of them going to Ikea and shopping for the Love Nest.  I would also watch the 3 Hour Wedding Special complete with planning…Jemma goes to Klienfelds with the girls to pick out her dress.  Fitz going around to listen to bands with the boys with BTS day of commentary before the actual ceremony.  But at the same time, I will take an arc with Woman on Fire Jemma tearing the Framework World apart to get to Fitz.  And Fitz trying to get back to her…even if he doesn’t know it yet.  But that’s me.  

Finally if we look back at SDCC and the hype they built for Fitzsimmons there.  I remember vividly that that was part of all of our (Including my own) frustration with the Ghost Rider Arc when we saw none of what they had teased.  They teased Domestic Sciencing Fitzsimmons, Fitz’s Backstory, and for their relationship to be the “reward we hoped for”.  That all got delayed due to the Ghost Rider Arc and we are getting that all now.   We’ve gotten the first two so now its just getting to the reward part.  

[horrible-monstrosity]

p5 finally ends its first arc after like five million episodes and it's as weird, disappointing and disturbing as I could ever dream it to be. so they mindbroke the le evil bad guy, and after spending a few days presumably locked up in his house freaking the fuck out because he'd just been mindbroken he shows up at the school and blurts out a confession. Then he tries to "run" because he's completely just freaking the fuck out, and our main girl reeeees at him to not run from his crimes how dare he!! ... except that's exactly what he was just doing, not running, and instead dragging himself in terror to the school to call himself a horrible person in front of everybody because some unknown mind event scrambled his brain and made him like this against his will. And after all that you still feel the need to scream at him for acting like an actual human and being terrified by the actions and thoughts forced on him by an outside entity, even though he came this far on his own. I mean what's it even gonna matter if he runs anyway, everyone heard him confess, the police can easily still catch him- nope, beat him down even more for not acting like a perfect little punish-ee, make him call himself even more terrible, because we said so. I- I don't know.

Probably doesn't help that he was such a cartoony villain I can hardly bring myself to believe he's a human being who actually deserves a punishment for his actions. It's like someone created a strawman as an excuse to have some mental torture fantasy and feel righteous about it. It's the kind of villain you have around to get instantaneously brutally murdered, a death/punishment as equally ridiculous and shallow as the events that made him deserving of it. You can't just have some cardboard-y villain suddenly deserving a three-dimensional, thought out into every little corner of his mind meat-space punishment. Or rather, it's like I can barely believe this sort of ridiculous charicature of a person could exist and take these actions in the way this character did, so his punishment by mental torture and forced guilt ends up feeling paradoxically undeserved due to how "real" it is by comparison. It's just somehow unsettling. Also he's entirely repentant while he's freaking out. It's not like he's like "a ha, I can get away with the crimes I was just forced to acknowledge and confess to if I run now!", was he? I don't now, maybe my brain was melting too much after watching this shit and I missed him return to being a cardboard evil villain for a femtosecond there that totally justified this shit. fuck idk

Oh, and it doesn't get any better after that. For one we have the slurge of "look guys, game mechanics!" moments. First main guy meets the world's least interesting fairy, who looks exactly like any of the other generic fairy monters they've fought in the dungeon already but this one randomly decides it'z a perzona and it lives in main guy's head now. Okay, you expect this to be useful later, right? Nope, before the fairy ever sees a second of use it gets thrown into the succpot along with the super-cool, imposing and iconic-looking Arsene and turned into this useless, pointless little Pot of Greed-looking motherfucker. Which we're then visually informed is totally more powerful than any cool-looking monters we might have actually wanted to see on screen. Okay. It's a completely pointless and underwhelming piece of script but there's totally gonna be people defending it because le "it's in thu game!!!!". Blah.

Then they get the crown, and it... turns into a medal. Because the game had a very thoughtful table of items in it that had no connection to reality- probbly something like, there's a generic but impressive item used to portray treasure, but once you pick it up it has a specific but arbitrary name or description depending on whose it is, without any real connection between the two- and the anime just had to show off all that generic haaaaard work without actually putting in the work to make it actually make any sense. This brings up its own little logical conundrum until the anime uses another logical conundrum to shit itself and cover up the first one. The medal, the cat says, is something as important to evilteach as a crown to a king, or some shit, as though it's an important item to him- given what it is, it's something like a first-place prize he's very proud of winning. Something that was a wonderful memory, maybe something that inspired him on the path to becoming a teacher, before it all became corrupted by greed and ambition. Yeah, that'll really help him, to physically steal the one thing most precious to him that might be his last decent memory and sell it for cash like it's trash- oh wait, never mind, the cat said it's just a mindclone or something. W- what? Yeah, now they just... sold a counterfeit medal to a pawn shop for dough, that's all. Much better. The pacing of this is astoundingly fucked, too. First we're told the crown turned into the medal after the palace collapsed, then we're shown a flashback of that happening that adds absolutely nothing to what we were just told. Then, we're told the medal is some important thing as valuable as a crown so that's why the crown, which represented the thing at the center of the teacher's mind, represented the medal. Except then, after they sold the medal for god damn money, we're told the medal... also just represented the thing that the thing represented... ???? What a confused fucking metaphor. They keep saying one thing and giving it just enough time to sink in before saying it's something else. All that because the game allows you to sell the treasure as arbitrary vendor trash.

Oh yeah, and the kids went to a pawnshop and bought a fucking gun before this, because fuck you. Or rather, because the game has to have these sorts of useless extra attacks- weak early-game moves and support moves that probably use less mana or whatever, because using the impressive persona powermoves all the time while dungeon-grinding would devalue them and make them less impressive. But that's not the case in an anime. The time spent battling is cut down significantly and looks much better if you use it to focus on the reason the franchise exists, the Personas, rather than wasting any of it on ridiculous battle toys. There's a reason that the only part of this part of the battle system that survived in the P4 anime was Yusuke or whoever showing up with katanas and being made a joke of, because these things can go unscrutinized in game mechanics where it's an arbitrary sprite and name attached to whatever but is ridiculous and pointless outside of it. It's like in megucas where Sayaka brought a baseball bat to a witch barrier and Mami basically humored her by putting a shield magic thing on it, so Sayaka swung it around pointlessly while the shield that came out of it was the only thing really doing anything.

And then it adds another layer of stupid- the kids decide to look up a bit-time villain in the collectiveness consciousness palace, fine enough. There's already a fansite full of people begging the phantom thieves to fix problems for them, because uuuuuhhhhhhhhSo they start looking at crimes, read one that sounds not particularly like one they have reason to not respond to, decide to skip it, move on to the next one and OH WHOA WOW IT'S A SOMEONE BEING STALKERED BY THEIR EX! It's a MAN committing MAN-CRIME against WOMAN-VICTIM! Wow we'd better get on this one right now guys. So they go to the collective sewer-subway of the mind, encounter him; he strawmans himself out as le evil man who literally views his ex as property because any human being ever actually thinks like that; they take him out in one shot and he doesn't fight back at all but they try to make it look like it's totally impressive anyway, and he ends it by seeing the light and calling himself an evil man-crimer who should will respekt whammen from now on like it's a fucking Natty comic. What And then the group and the cat decide they'll only ever go after real big-time evil people, which is what they came all the way down here exactly not to do. Why

And thennn they look up Akechi's kawaii instagram feed on the internet because reasons, insult his detective ability for no reason, decide his interest in the Phantoms is totally not because he's detective and that's what he does and call him a stalker instead. Remember, like that stalker just before this that we decided was the worst possible most evil scum of the earth and we need to go take him out now? Except now nobody really cares, because... I don't know, because the target is vague and unspecified, and vaguely implied to be primarily the main guy because he's the leader and he's the one looking at Akechi's snapchats at that moment I guess, and that's not nearly as somethingorotherly as when the victim is definitely and exclusively le femlae. Except theennnnn the girl character says she feeeeels like she's been being stalked, and now we're supposed to care. Because feels. And it's clearly not even because we're supposed to have suspected before this point that someone was actually stalking her, because the "stalker" shows up like one minute later and it's some guy we've never seen before. ok. Why is every little thing just... like this?

And now this next episode starts off by turbo-frontloading exposition about how awfully terrible the next main villain is, and my brain can't take any more of this right now I'm done. bye

... Wait, if the next super-evil-palace guy is the guy who "stole" the stalker's girlfriend, doesn't that potentially... exonerate him? Like, he's keeping people in a dungeon somewhere making art for him, if your girlfriend got caught in that you'd probably be pretty frustrated and go try to figure out what happened to her, right? The request did say "Madarame", didn't it? Wait, if the girl is chained up in the art basement who posted the request? If it was her why the heck was she just whining about her ex and not about Madarame? What the FUCK is happening???

[tigerlover16-uk]

Anime I need to watch (June 2017 update)

Well, another month gone, another update. I’m sure anyone who’s noticed that I do these things knows the drill by now. Sorry I’m a day, almost two late again, I’ve been a bit distracted the last two days.

Okay, so I’m going to be honest with you guys... I pretty much spent most of this month just watching Fairy Tail and a couple of movies on the side.

I don’t know what happened. I was just going to watch one more arc of the show and then go back to either Yu Yu Hakusho or Soul Eater, but I ended up just binging over 150 episodes of this show in a month. I don’t think I’ve ever binged that many episodes of a single series in a month. Compared to Yu Yu Hakusho, which i actually enjoyed even more and yet it took me considerably longer to sit through the Dark Tournament arc, that just amazes me i got to this point.

I dunno. When i get really into a series and it strikes a good chord with me, I tend to get a little obsessive, so that’s probably what it was. Considering next up is a filler arc and I have less than a hundred episodes left to go, since the anime is on an indefinite hiatus, I think I’m just going to catch up on some other shows for July. And since giving my detailed thoughts on a hundred and fifty something episodes would take all day, I’m just going to summarize what I thought of each arc really quick and give some consensus at the end. Ask me for any more specific thoughts if you’re curious.

The Oracion Seis arc was pretty great. The titular antagonists were all pretty fun and interesting in their own right, though Zero was an underwhelming final boss. It was nice to see Fairy Tail teaming up with other guilds, I liked Wendy’s character, it was great that Jellal was brought back and overall it was a pretty exciting arc. I do have my nitpicks, like some weak writing choices here or there, and the members of Blue Pegasus fawning over Wendy and commenting on how attractive she’ll be when she grows up was... more than a little creepy, to say the least. but nothing big enough to spoil the fun. It was a pretty good arc.

The Daphne arc was just okay. Really, there’s not a lot to comment on other than it s kind of fun, but it’s very obvious that it’s just a filler arc.

The Edolas arc though, now that was a letdown. Which is a shame because it starts out really well, but somewhere around the second half of the arc (I think it was just after the episode with Happy’s parents) It just started to drag and feel boring for me. I didn’t end up caring that much about Edolas or the Exceeds, the whole “teaming up with Alternate versions of our heroes” idea is always neat, but not enough was really done with it. And Mystogan turned out to be a big disappointment. After his character was built up so well in previous stories, the reveal of him just being an alternate Jellal who’s a prince of another world, while that had plenty of potential admittedly, was underwhelming due to just how little we actually see of the character until near the very end of the story. And yet i still don’t feel like i knew that much about his character, despite how much importance seemed to be placed on his send off. It all just felt like a waste. And the weak villains didn’t make up for it at all.

The arc had a lot of good moments, both funny and awesome, and a lot of good ideas, but overall i just felt kind of glad it was over so we could move on. Ah well, at least Gajeel finally got his own talking partner, and Panther Lily’s pretty cool, so it was hardly a waste. Wish i could say the same for Lisanna, I actually really like her character, but from what else I’ve seen I have to ask, why would the author go out of his way to bring her back from the apparent dead like this if he wasn’t actually going to do anything with her afterwards? sigh.

Thankfully, the arc right after it with Grimoire Heart was pretty great. It was disappointing that the S-class exam was cut short in favour of Fairy Tail’s conflict with the villains of the arc, but honestly what we got was pretty great anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal for me. This arc had the most tension out of any arc in the series so far, and barring Kain who was kind of annoying, pretty much every member of Grimoire Heart was a fun villain in their own right. The stuff with Ultear was especially fantastic. The set up with Zeref was also pretty enticing, and I’m interested in seeing where everything with that leads. The arc was paced fairly well and it had an exciting climax.

It wasn’t a perfect arc though. While I’d been noticing them in the last two arcs, this for me was where I really started to see where the complaints with Fairy Tail having a lot of contrivances and obnoxious fanservice come from. Some of the ways the main characters beat their opponents were headscratching, and I honestly considered taking a break from the show when i got to the episode where Cana basically decided her battle strategy was going to be to summon swarms of bikini girls to befuddle Freed so he couldn’t fight her and Lucy. And while she made up for it later and I liked her backstory and development, Cana knocking Lucy out and leaving her to fend for herself was... kind of a jerk move.

Not to mention how weirdly executed that time skip was at the end, but that would take all day to cover.

But all of that didn’t stop it from being an exciting, fun arc, easily one of the best in the series.

Wish i could say the same for the Key of the Starry Sky arc, which just felt like a chore to sit through at first and only got better towards it’s final third. And even then while it had a lot of good moments it was a really underwhelming arc that felt awkwardly placed in between the start of the time skip and the Grand Magic Games arc. So, basically your standard filler arc. Ugh, it’s like the Garlic Jr saga all over again.

So i don’t think I’ll cover that in any more detail and just cut straight to the Grand Magic Games arc, which was thankfully a big improvement. Even though it had plenty of issues. Despite their reputation among some parts of the anime fandom, i actually tend to really like tournament arcs. I think they can be really fun when written well, and this arc was fun. The rival guilds had a lot of fun characters (and a few not so good ones), there were a lot of good fights and most of the main characters, as well as Jellal and Ultear, got plenty of good moments (although oh boy, did Lucy just keep getting the short end of the stick thanks to really bad luck). If nothing else, this arc was pretty entertaining and just enjoyable to watch, including having a lot of the funniest moments in the show. So it was a good pick me up after the last arc.

But it did have it’s problems, probably more glaring ones than most of the previous arcs. While a lot of the characters from the rival guilds were interesting and fun to watch, a lot of them got noticeably shafted when it came time for the Fairy Tail members to beat them. Laxus winning over Jura as easily as he did was especially eye rolling. Sting and Rogue felt like they could have been good characters, but they repetedly fell short and didn’t do much that was actually impressive, especially Sting. I actually didn’t mind Raven Tail and it’s members too much, mostly because it was really satisfying to see a bunch of creeps like them be pulverized in the end. But from what i understand neither them or Ivan, their leader, ever appear again after this story. Which... seems like a real waste, considering how Ivan and the guild were built up. They could have served as useful secondary antagonists in a future story with Ivan getting further development, and some closure between him, Makarov and Laxus,  buuut i guess not. Really kind of headscratching there.

And then the stuff with Future Lucy in the final act felt pretty underdeveloped and while tragic, also felt kind of anticlimactic. And while everybody fighting dragons was awesome, Future Rogue was such a lame villain with such poorly defined motivations that it was impossible to care about him by the time he was killed off. Though he did have some cool powers. Ah well, at least the backstory we got on the dragons was pretty cool.

There were several more moments of lazy writing too, but this is all going on a bit long, so I’ll just say that for whatever it’s faults, the Grand Magic Games arc was still a pretty fun story that was at least more interesting to watch than what came before it, and I’ll be interested to see where things go from here. Also, Frosch is now one of my favourite characters for just how adorable he (She?) is!

So, yeah, that was a lot of episodes. Overall, while I see some of the problems people would have with this series by now, I still really really enjoy Fairy Tail. It’s not always perfect when it comes to writing and there’s a number of missed opportunities, but it does have a real sense of fun and more charm than a lot of animes out there. And while i do think i need a break from it to catch up on some other shows next month, I look forward to getting back to it to see what’s next.

Okay, let’s talk about some of the movies i watched this month. Starting with another Pokémon movie, Kyurem vs the sword of justice. And thankfully, this was another good pokemon movie. It’s a pretty simple story, and much of the middle act is basically a big chase scene, but it works pretty well because Kaldeo is a pretty likeable character worth rooting for. The action was good, the legendaries featured were all fun to watch, the animation was nice. It wasn’t anything groundbreaking as far as pokemon movies go, but it was a biiiiiig step up from the movies that came before it, so for that I’m grateful.

And next up is... more Fairy Tail.

Yeah, this month I also watched the first Fairy Tail movie, Phoenix Princess. It was pretty great. The story was good, most of the characters got some time to shine, the animation was lovely, it was pretty funny and had a surprisingly tragic conclusion for a movie based on this series. I don’t want to go into too much detail because this update post is late enough as it is an, but I kinda loved this film.

And next up I watched the second Naruto movie, Legend of the Stone of Gelel... and dear GOD was it boring. Seriously, the Pokémon Black and White movies were more memorable than this thing. The plot was dull and uninspired, the villains and new characters were weak and bland, outside of a few funny moments i didn’t find much amusement in it and  the action was largely unimpressive. I can’t even comment much on the actual story because barely anything stuck after i finished watching the film apart from how much i didn’t care. Honestly i hope this is the worst of the Naruto movies and the next one i watch is an improvement.

And rounding it up, we have the movie Yu-Gi-Oh! Bonds Beyond Time. A three way crossover featuring the protagonists of the first three Yu-Gi-Oh series... and boy, is it a dumb movie. The story is the definition of an excuse plot and full of questionable decisions and poor logic. The villain, Paradox, was ridiculously underdeveloped, with his terribly ill defined backstory about how duel monsters as a card game apparently destroyed the world in the future and him coming back to stop that by murdering Pegasus opens up a lot of REALLY awkward questions that the movie never bothers to address, just expecting us to believe that everything will be alright in the end because... our heroes beat the guy that was trying to save the future?

Honestly the whole thing was just dumb and confusing. Oh, it was entertainingly dumb and it did have a bunch of cool moments, so i didn’t have a bad time watching it at all. I probably would have straight up enjoyed the moments with Yusei if i had ever watched 5Ds, but that’ll come in the near future. But oh boy, is it a bad film either way that seems dedicated to fanservice and little else. And i pity anyone who’s not a Yu-Gi-Oh fan who ends up watching this film and tries to make sense of this, even with that dragging exposition dump at the beginning.

So, yeah, bad movie... but it wasn’t the kind of bad movie that annoys me, i had some fun watching it and laughing at the silliness and few genuinely good moments.

So, yeah, that about covers my anime viewing for June. I could have gone into more detail on some things, but honestly I’m behind on this update again and there’s way too much to talk about anyway if i did. And these posts are just meant to be updates and brief thoughts, not reviews. If anyone is curious for further thoughts on anything, feel free to ask.

I don’t know what I’m going to focus on for July. Right now i just got my hands on the Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy, so i imagine that’s going to be taking up most of my free time not spent browsing the internet for a while (I’m having so much fun already! I’m so happy to have Crash back like this, you guys!), but i guess when i can I’ll start catching up on either Yu Yu Hakusho and Soul Eater and then just watch whatever movies I get the DVD’s for. June was a pretty decent month for me, all things considered

Either way, hopefully I’ll have fun whatever i watch. As always I’m open to any and all recommendations. Seriously, as long as the following list looks, I’m happy to add as many more as possible to make my way through for the foreseeable future. And I hope anyone reading this has a happy July.

Series:

One Punch Man (Seen four episodes a while back, looks good)

Mobile Suit Gundam

Outlaw Star

Cowboy Bebop

Digimon Frontier

Digimon Data Squad

Digimon Fusion

Yu-Gi-Oh 5D’s

Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal

Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V

Sailor Moon (Watched the entire first season and was about halfway through season 2. Should really get back to watching the full series) Sailor Moon Crystal

Yu Yu Hakusho (Up to episode 70)

Ranma 1 ½

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (2012-onwards series)

Hunter x Hunter (2011)

Fullmetal Alchemist

One Piece

Astro Boy (Any series. I just want to be able to say I’ve watched something from this franchise).

Kill La Kill

Gurren Lagann

Fairy Tail (Up to episode 203)

Little Witch Academia

Tenchi Muyo!

Death Note

Yuri On Ice

Fist of the North Star

Soul Eater (Up to episode 28)

Code Geass

Food Wars: Shokugeki No Soma (I watched about 9 episode, need to catch up)

Your Lie in April

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Mob Psycho 100

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

Phoenix Wright anime

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

Natsume’s Book of Friends

Revolutionary Girl Utena

Eureka 7

Black Cat

Black Shooter Rock

Gunbuster

Afro Samurai

Space Dandy

Vision of Escaflowne

magical girl lyrical nanoha

Shin Sekai Yori

Baccano

Cyborg 009

Gaogaigar

Danganronpa

Yo-Kai Watch

Pretty Cure

Future Boy Conan

Yona of the Dawn

WataMote

Space Patrol Luluco

Rurouni Kenshin

Movies:

Your Name

Garden of Words

Paprika

Tokyo Godfathers

The Boy and the Beast

5 Centimeters per second

Millenium Actress

Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro

The Digimon Adventure Tri Movies

Yu-Gi-Oh: The Dark Side of Dimensions

Pokémon: Genesect and the Legend awakened

Pokémon: Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction

Pokémon: Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel

Pokémon: I Choose You

Ghost In The Shell

Memories

Perfect Blue

Naruto: Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom

Naruto Shuppuden: Bonds

Naruto Shippuden: The Will of Fire

Naruto Shippuden: The Lost Tower

Naruto Shippuden: Blood Prison

Naruto: Road to Ninja

Boruto Movie

Fairy Tail the movie: Dragon Cry

Godzilla: Monster Planet

Mary and the Witch’s Flower

Princess Arete

Tekkonkinkreet