#Just thinking of ideas for her because I'm braindead

[hopelesslygaysstuff]

Hi, my mind can't stop with the idea of mommy Wanda trying to get reader of the bed to start doing their daily tasks. Its a torturing cold morning, reader pretends they are still sleeping, Wanda in a rush to get things done, she tries like three times saying to Reader get up but she loses her patience with this silly brat attitude. She sits in the bed trying to pull blanket off R but ofc the freezing air hits R's skin. Reader make a brat noise and throw a pillow but not thinking Wanda was too close it hits her face. No escape from now, she just says "you are being very agressive with me, sweetheart." R know it didn't hurt her but it is the end of this playing.

At the end, reader won't leave the warm bed after all, but not because they wanted, but bc Wanda would make sure to ruin reader until not being able to do that.

🫠🫠🫠 please can you use your writing super power skills to write it better? 😭😭 plsss pretty plsss I need more of this thoughts 🙏

(Gif that is not mine but I can't stop thinking😭😭)

omg mean Mommy Wanda overstimulating you because you wanted to act all tough with her... she absolutely would do this!!!

"Sweetheart, its time to get up," Wanda says, her low voice washing over you.

You can hear her moving around the room, and bury your head further under the thick comforter you'd wrapped around yourself. The tip of your nose is cold, the chilly air moving against the exposed skin of your cheeks. The bed was so... fucking... warm...

"I know you heard me, I want you out of this bed by the time I'm done with my makeup."

"Mmmphhh," you manage, feeling drowsiness take over your mind. A tendril of excitement appeared, and you bit your lip to hide a small smile as a plan started to form.

It was perfect. Wanda had been edging you for a few days now, and you were sure that she'd lose her patience to edge you if you were a brat. If you played your cards right, you were sure that you could get her to make you orgasm by the end of the day, and put a stop to the endless torture that was edging.

"What did I say," Wanda mumbles, having emerged from the bathroom. You barely hear her, your heart thumping in excitement. Then, it starts beating entirely too fast as Wanda rips the blanket away from you, exposing your heated skin to the frigid air of the room.

"No, aaaah fucking- goddamn it," you say, a few more curse words emerging as you fling your pillow in the direction of Wanda. It hits her square in the head, and you feel your eyes widen when she pins you with a look.

"You are being very aggressive with me, sweetheart."

"I'm sorry I-"

"No," Wanda says, her tone hard. "You wanted to stay in bed? Fine, but you're not leaving until I think you've learned your lesson. Understand?"

You don't understand, but nod anyways. It can't be that bad, right?

---

Wanda smirks down at you, your eyes glazed and unfocused. You can hear her start the shower, a mix of lube and cum dripping down your inner thighs. Her scarlet dildo and favorite vibrator are placed next to you on the bed, smelling like you as you tremble from the aftershocks of your multiple orgasms.

You can't even remember how many it was, your brain fuzzy and limbs limp as Wanda begins murmuring into your ear while she helps you towards the shower.

"Is that what you wanted? You wanted Mommy to fuck you until you're all braindead for me? I hope you enjoyed the orgasms, sweetheart, because you won't be cumming for a long time. I hope it was worth it."

[fuck-customers]

This situation truly felt like the closest I've ever gotten to reenacting the L vs. Light from Death Note battle lmaoo I kept my cool and plausible deniability, but I was dying laughing internally.

(I think I've won the battle, btw. I'll have to wait and see. There's more to this war, though)

So, for background (and I've complained about this on this blog several times...sorry) my moron boss refuses to put price tags/signs on the products in the store, especially at the register. Considering I work in a retail store...this is obviously a problem. So I've made several attempts to get products priced, in varying degrees of extremity.

1. I made handmade signs/tags out of receipt paper/scratch paper and put them on the products around the register. (Candy, toys etc.) Braindead manager took them down.

2. All but 4 of the shopping carts at work are broken, but customers are stupid and still try to drag them halfway through the store and then abandon them or somehow blame me personally for them being broken. So I put signs on the broken ones and blocked them off. Dumbshit managers keep unblocking them and then customers try and fail to use them and abandon them throughout the store, rinse and repeat daily.

3. I then got the idea to go over my manager's head, but without having it fall back on me. Write to corporate. I originally started snatching receipts to leave negative reviews on the store survey, but that seemed to be a dead end, as the SM and DM are the ones who are supposed to read the surveys, but appear not to, as not a single thing was fixed in over 6 months of "customers" complaining weekly. (Usually at least 1 every 2-4 days)

4. I found a clearance price gun and tagged everything with it, even if it wasn't clearance. One way or another, it had a price on it, right? Of course the braindead moron took them off.

5. I then found actual price tags that were technically for different products, but had the same prices as our current candy, so I tagged the items with that. (For example, we'd have a tag for chocolate that we no longer carry that was $3.99 and we have some current chips on the shelf that are $3.99, so I'd just put the old tag for the current candy, since all customers need is the dollar amount and blacked out the old product description) These lasted longer than the previous attempts, but were ultimately taken down, but this is (hopefully) the turning point.

6. Just to really make sure something would change, a month or so after reusing old price tags, I (simultaneously, while also putting up old tags) made several fake emails posing as disgruntled customers and emailed corporate complaining about the lack of prices and the broken carts (among other things) at my specific location. (I did not name any specific employees or throw anyone under the bus. I just complained about the appearance of the store and any mention of employees was simply left at "the cashier" "the manager" etc. with no personally identifying info) I did this on the feedback section of the company website as well.

This all came to a head today when the braindead's mini-me (the ASM) pulled me aside before I clocked in today to basically call me out. She said that she knew that I was the one who put the handmade tags and also put "broken" signs on the broken carts and blocked them off. I, of course pretended not to know about it, because I'm not THAT stupid. But I'm not in trouble, because she has no real proof. (It was very much "I know that she knows and she knows that I know she knows lol) Anyway, she says (and we'll see about this) that new carts have been ordered and are on their way and also that she had to go around and undo all the tags (oh boohoo, she had to do her job, poor her) and will be putting real, correct tags on the products.

We'll see. In the meantime, "customers" are still going to leave bad reviews and contact corporate until changes are actually made for real. There are still other issues that need to be fixed, but are not as important as the lack of price tags and carts. (Such as the lack of price checkers, the shit radio music, the lack of employees, the dysfunctional inventory system, the bare shelves, the disorganized store, etc.)

Posted by admin Rodney

[doberbutts]

I mean this is a pretty hot take but I think until y'all can sit down and actually provide examples of what you mean by "privilege" instead of using the word as a means of referring to the nebulous idea that some people have it better and its Their Fault, there will continue to be absolutely braindead takes about who holds what privilege and how it conflicts with actual first-hand experience.

That's why, when I ask what male privilege I was apparently either born with or received immediately upon coming out, I get crickets.

When we talk about male privilege, we talk about getting paid more. We talk about getting hired more, and into higher-paying jobs more. We talk about being able to vote and drive and have credit cards and bank accounts. We talk about reproductive freedom and body autonomy. We talk about rape statistics, domestic violence, and other forms of violent crime. We talk about immigration and citizenship status and human trafficking. We talk about power dynamics in relationships. We talk about society's expectations for gender roles.

There's two big problems with this:

Unless a trans man is completely binary, fully stealth, and has burned every trace of his past, almost none of this is accessible to him. Trans men don't get paid more unless their gender marker is M, there's no mention of ever being anything but cisgender, and they're completely stealth. They don't get hired more, unless these things are true. Many lived lives being discouraged from chasing higher paying jobs such as STEM fields due to being seen as girls, so they're not going into these jobs more either. Similarly with voting- when I registered to vote I was non-passing, with my legal name and gender marker. To the voting office, I was a woman. To my credit card company, who has never seen my face, I'm *still* a woman, despite passing most of the time. To my bank account, which I've had since I was 8, I've never not been a woman. When I took my driver's test, I was treated as a woman.

When I asked for a hysterectomy at 20, I was told not until I was over 30, had a minimum of two children, or had a husband to sign off on it. Just like a woman. When I whacked my head as a kid and was rushed to the doctor, the doctor specifically said if I was a boy he wouldn't have bothered stitching but a girl can't have scars on her face *while he was stitching my forehead back together*. I had to fight to be allowed to cut my long hair. I had to fight to be allowed to take care of it by myself.

I have needed to leave relationships when I realized I was with a man that would hurt me for his gain. I've been assaulted by my peers for being a black woman or a black girl in a space that I was not wanted.

I was raised with the expectation that I would be a mother to a large family with a husband that kept me pregnant and likely staying at home like a typical tradwife. I was punished, physically, mentally, emotionally, socially for rejecting that life. I lost literally all my social group from before I came out. I lost a good chunk of family members too, and the ones I have left are... trying, but not perfect.

And:

Other marginalized men are also often denied access to these things either. White men might be paid more, but white women make more than men of any other race. White men might be hired more, but "Rachel" is more likely to get a call back than "Rafael". White men are more likely to be in a STEM position, but tell me when the last time you saw a Native doctor. It may have been *legal* for racially marginalized men to vote, but those who did not speak English had no ability to do so until 45 years *after* white women had the right to vote (and technically it took another 10 years for translations to actually be provided). Banks and credit companies and driver's tests and mortgage brokers and more are *known* to discriminate, between barely-legal remnants of redlining to outright illegal discrimination because they know they can get away with it.

Black and Native children are taken from their birth families and placed into foster care and adoptive homes daily due to state-sponsered genocide. It's more than just the mother that's affected by this. Black men are largely targeted by stop-and-frisk policing policies that exist to do nothing except harass and assault them for just existing in a place, and are an extreme body violation.

New studies show that men experience rape and domestic violence at roughly the equivilant rate as women, but reporting is obscenely low due to social pressures and rigid gendering of victim vs abuser policies. The demographic with the highest rate of murder victims is black men.

Single, childless adult men are not allowed to immigrate to multiple countries, including the US, on refugee status. Men of marginalized races- largely latine and asian- are trafficked by largescale construction companies and then deported or abandoned when no longer needed.

Disabled men are killed or abandoned regularly by their able-bodied partners who got tired of dealing with them.

I know more than one man who feels trapped into a place where he cannot, ever, show any emotion besides horny, hungry, or angry as a direct result of strict gender roles being pushed on him. I know more than one man who has tried to take his own life because of it.

I know more than one man who has succeeded.

And I gotta be honest the further I get in transition and the more I pass the more I think that being a man... also kinda sucks. Like it sucked when I was a woman. Doesn't really feel like it sucks less as a man. Seems to me like society treats both of these pretty poorly and I was told the grass was way greener on this side and it's, uh, not. Not really. Not when you start making cis male friends and start realizing that a lot of these guys had a lot of the same experiences you grew up being told was part of a woman's life.

And I'm not saying that these guys don't have interactions where life is better for them because they're men. Of course they do. That's patriarchy for you. But I do think it's difficult to have a "male privilege" argument when people try to argue on a 1-to-1 basis and it just straight up doesn't work like that.

And I know a lot of what I'm saying ties back to the theory of intersectionality, that this can't flatten nuance like this is directly tied to the fact that a white woman, a native woman, an asian woman, a black man, a latino man, and an arabic man, are all going to have WILDLY different experiences that you can't just "well you're [gender] so you don't experience [harm]" about because it's blatantly untrue. Especially if you continue to add marginalizations, like immigration status, religion, sexuality, transition, language, and more.

[aihoshiino]

chapter 139 thoughts

Because of the content of this chapter I will unavoidably have to discuss CSA and topics related to it, including grooming, emotional abuse and sexual assault. I do not discuss them in great detail, but if you very understandably just aren't in the headspace for that, no hard feelings - look after yourself and I'll see you next time.

Gonna say up top that my review of this chapter is probably gonna read more negative than it necessarily is, because I do not think this was an Actively Bad chapter. It was, however, a deeply frustrating one and it's because of a lot of small things piling up that are starting to really grind my gears.

ai eating sweets with that head empty expression again makes this a tenouttaten chapter regardless of anything else i say here btw

As was foreshadowed by Kamiki's appearance last week, this time we're finally diving into some of the details around how Kamiki and Ai met. I'm a little surprise by how… I guess, unceremonious it is? This is the catalyst for the entire rest of the story, after all. It's the first meeting between the twins' parents and the first time Ai comes face to face with the man who will eventually kill her. Even given to us secondhand, this should be a pretty weighty, dramatic moment but…

there's no diplomatic way to say this so I will say this the undiplomatic way: I really kind of fucking hate that a moment this meaningful was undermined by flaccid incest bait jokes again lmao. I absolutely loathe that any kind of complexity the mutual past life reveal could have introduced to the twins' dynamic and any potential exploration of Ruby's feelings on the matter has been completely tossed by the wayside in favor of just having her splooge about her oniichan every time they're together. I've said before and I'll say again: I think the idea of Ruby developing confusedly romantic feelings for Aqua in the wake of realizing he was Gorou is a deeply compelling one and I would be on board with Oshi no Ko exploring that dynamic if it was actually going to explore it. The way Oshi no Ko leans into and explores the discomfort and dysphoria caused by the friction between the twins' past lives and their current selves is incredibly compelling when we actually get it and it's so baffling to me that one of the biggest, most braindead opportunities to continue doing this has not been snatched up.

We are approaching 20 chapters worth of time, in and out of universe, since this reveal happened and almost nothing has come of it. The most exploration we've gotten of how this changes things is in Mengo's interlude chapter for the twins which just feels all the more jarring in hindsight when the main story has been so stuck on using it for this incredibly tired and worn out incest bait comedy. Like, come on, man. It's 2024. What are we even doing here.

Bitching aside for the time being, I did really like the little scene between Taiki & Aqua, though. Both of them are dealing with some deeply heavy material and portraying real people they themselves both have a lot of baggage with so I appreciate they're given a moment to breathe and get those feelings out. Though again, we are given frustratingly little insight into whatever is going on with Aqua's head right now and given just how much weight and focus was given to Ruby coming to understand Ai and get into the right headspace to act as her, it feels really jarring and conspicuous that we have absolutely no idea how he's done the same for Kamiki.

H O W E V E R. I think this scene does contain a fascinating and potentially huge reveal that can easily be missed if you let yourself be distracted by Ruby; Kamiki, at least as portrayed by Aqua at this point in time, has white stars in his eyes. While I don't subscribe to the idea of In Depth Hoshigan Colour Decoding that's common elsewhere in the fandom, this does undeniably put middle school Kamiki in a closer emotional headspace to Ai than his present day self. Given what we see of the black hoshigan in other characters and knowing that this is Kamiki in the thick of his abuse at Airi's hands, this implies that despite all the horror he's been subjected to thus far this is still a Kamiki who has some light left in him. In fact, everything about Aqua's portrayal of him here suggests a certain sense of kindness and innocence that has yet to be ripped away from him which is very, very interesting. This is, after all, a hateful work written to kill Aqua's father. So this disarmingly likable and sympathetic portrayal of him as an undeniable victim throws a lot about the movie's intentions into question

what i'm saying is even aqua is furthering the kamiki hikaru babygirlification agenda. so true, king.

That said, this scene also comes with its own nits to pick, which is the reveal - or I guess. the confirmation - that Ruby does in fact know who her father is. While we don't know exactly what and how much she knows, I think it's reasonable to conclude that she's been brought on board with at least everything about him the movie confirms. And like… man… wouldn't it be really great to have seen Ruby learn any of that information on screen? Wouldn't it have been really interesting to see Ruby learn literally any fucking information about this revenge quest and the man who murdered her beloved mother and to have to work out how to process all that? Wouldn't it have made a kickass arc for Ruby to learn that even the man she despised for killing her mother was himself a victim of the entertainment industry, to see the damage that can be caused by a relationship between an adult and a child when she herself was innocently fantasizing about a similarly huge age gap between her and Gorou and to perhaps go through some conflict and internal growth based on all this?

but no. splooging over her brother is a much more important use of page time. i guess.

speaking of airi. the image of her carrying around the baby she conceived by raping eleven year old boy, right in front of him at the place she is continuing to abuse him is so incredibly foul and rancid i kind of want to throw up about it. on god i hope hell's hot enough.

It's pretty short, but the montage of Ai and Hikaru spending time together and him gradually softening and opening up to her a little more was really sweet. I've been super interested in the HikaAi relationship ever since we learned who Hikaru even was so even these little tidbits filtered through 15YL's portrayal are really exciting to get. It also lends some credence to something I've been theorizing about why Ai specifically wanted to be with Hikaru - she seems to understand and relate to his experiences with objectification at the hands of the adults and people around him and to feel some sense of solidarity with him as a result. In terms of theming, I always expected the HKAI relationship to contain echoes of AquKana and AquAka - Hikaru is a dark mirror to Aqua, so it makes sense that his relationships would be so as well - and in this sense, I think we can see an echo of the AquAka romance there. In Hikaru, Ai begins to believe she can find a person who can understand and accept her. … or that's my theory as of now, anyway.

And that final scene between Airi and Hikaru… whoof. Genuinely blood curdling. In general, the reveal of just how long Hikari was being actively abused by Airi made my stomach churn - for some reason, it had never occurred to me that it might have run parallel to his meeting with Ai but the idea that this wasn't just a one-off incident, but active grooming and abuse that Airi got away with thanks to her position of power and authority over this child in her care for years… genuinely revolting and I do mean that in the best possible way.

CSA is such a heavy topic and quite frankly, anime and manga are not historically delicate or tasteful in its portrayal - especially when it comes to male victims of assault. Ever since we were told what had happened to Hikaru, I was really on the fence about whether this was something OnK could tackle in the way it needed to be. So far, though, I think its portrayal and indictment of Airi's abuse is excellent. It is not allowed to be a spectacle, and we are shown just enough to understand the nauseating scope of the horror Hikaru has been subjected to. I'm hoping Aka and Mengo are able to keep this up.

No break next week! Maybe one after next chapter, though? 140 will be the final chapter of volume 14 and I'm curious to see what note it's going to end on.

[pessimisticpigeonsworld]

A very common argument Dany antis love to use is that Dany is a hypocrite and a villain because she "raped Irri". This just a blatantly false assertion, Dany never raped anyone, let alone Irri. @rainhadaenerys has a fantastic post dissecting the sex scenes here. Instead of doing that in this post, I'm going to talk about what this perception seems to stem from.

First, the obvious, hatred of Daenerys in general. I saw an anti say at the end of their long list of contrived and false reasons for hating her was that they found her annoying. I think this is probably the most honest answer a non-stansa/jonsa could give. While stansas/jonsas hate Dany because of the perceived threat she poses to their fav, anyone not in that boat has a different reason: they found her character annoying for some reason (most likely sexism).

And being faced with the fact that she not only is one of the favorites of the fandom but also of George himself, these antis decided to come up with these completely braindead takes to support their unfounded dislike of her. It's ok to simply dislike a character because they annoy you, that happens a lot with writing, but it's a completely different matter when you start coming up with ideas and interpretations to try to make your personal preference (and/or internalized misogyny) seem less outlandish.

Now, the reason why people can take sections like the Dany/Irri section out of context is simply because of George's writing decisions. I think it's common knowledge in the fandom that George gave ridiculously little thought to the Dothraki characters. Irri and Jhiqui are never given povs or even much personality. This is a serious flaw in George's writing and world building. Unfortunately, this flaw allows people (ie antis) to just imprint whatever they want onto these characters.

However, the antis do also tend to ignore any passive character development given to Irri (little that it is). Irri has been by Dany's side since they were both slaves (Irri a bed slave and Dany a bridal) in Drogo's Khalasar. She was present throughout all of Dany's anti-slavery campaign, if anyone knows and understands that they have their freedom, it'd be Irri. Even before the events in Astapor, Dany makes it clear she has her freedom. Irri knows she isn't slave anymore, let alone Dany's, the antis refuse to acknowledge this or Irri's personal agency even less than George does.

Basically, the idea of Dany as a "rapist" is driven purely by spite and a refusal to try to understand a character, underdeveloped as she is. George has majorly contributed to the misconceptions surrounding the Dothraki characters by not fleshing them out the way he did with other side characters.

[darkerthanblack-666]

Ok, so the summary of today's day (it's fun, you know I'm a writer, so I can make it fun):

Before the concert+the concert

I went out. It didn't rain. I got to the city centre and it was raining like hell, but of course I didn't have an umbrella... I had my leather jacket though. Leather jackets are useful, because you can take them off and cover your hair and they don't get wet. But when I got there, it stopped raining, yay! Lucky me 😆

I got there maybe an hour before the doors? I would get an usual spot at the barrier on the side, but a girl was keeping it for her friend, so I let them have it and went to the middle. It was scary at first, because I never know what my happen and it's hard for me to stand for too long (which everyone knows, because I talk about it here a lot), but as usual the BC fandom here is very chill and most people were super nice and friendly and polite to each other, it's one of the main reasons why I love their concerts so much 💖

Most of the time I didn't see much, but Joel and Joonas got many interactions, if I find videos of those, I'll let you know! I had Joel right in front of me almost all the time, I could see his red snoot and wet upper lip, and he hit his face with the chain all the damn time... this guy 😆. Honestly, I had more fun there, in the 3rd row, than at the barrier on the side. Maybe it's because I was close to Joel, dunno 🤣. But it was probably my best BC concert so far, because I finally managed to relax and my anxiety was on a very low level. It really makes a huge difference!

Oh, and of course I lost my hairband with a big red bow. All because of Ghostkid's vocalist! I was filming Dark Side and he got near the crowd, I had no idea he was going to jump into it, because I'm small, I barely can see what's going on with everyone around being so tall. So he knocked off my hairband and I managed to catch my classes on time 😭. But I did catch him somehow, I made sure he didn't fall. Also damn, this guy is so light! Even with my health issues I feel like I could carry him myself easily. Also I'm not super sad about the hairband, if someone found it they can keep it, it's just a funny story 😂. If I lost my glasses, THEN I'd be upset. Because glasses are expensive. Btw I literally have it on video, I have proof! It's the funniest part of it 🤣

We also got another "kurwa bob" moment and Niko got a flower crown in the colors of the Polish flag! I even managed to take a quick photo (as I said, my camera is shite):

(he took it off soon after, so I was lucky to catch this moment on my camera, also hi Joel you look awful here, but so do I in most of the photos and you're still my fave edgelord 💖)

Meeting the band after the concert

I wasn't sure if it was worth to wait for them. It was still a bit rainy and the last day bus was leaving in 30min (night buses arrive only every 30min, so it's a pain in the ass). Most people have left, there weren't many of us left, maybe ~20 people waited? But I thought I don't get to see them live that often, so what the hell, I'll wait.

There were staff members and guys from the supporting bands walking around freely (everyone is always polite and we let them work in peace, it's why I love the fans here, they don't chase anyone away 💖), even Olli just walked around unbothered (I think only I noticed him at that time tbh, but I ain't a snitch hehe).

Tommi and Aleksi just went to the bus and it's understandable. Tommi is just Tommi and Aleksi was sick. All of the other guys actually stayed with us to talk and I've never had such a long interaction with them before! I feel even luckier and I'm so happy that I stayed 😍

I think everyone knows Joel is sick, so we didn't want to bug him too much. He was nice enough to let us take some photos and let us give him hugs, and he was pretty much braindead 😂. But it's understandable, he's usually braindead and he's also sick, so it's worse. I'm happy I could give him a proper hug this time, because the first time I met him I was too scared for one. The 2nd time I asked for one and patted his shoulder nervously. But this time? I just hugged him with no fear! I'm making progress here 💖

Niko is always the most friendly one, so we had a chat with him and he asked what does kurwa mean (really dude? you have no google in your phone?) and I told him it's like vittu, other people added more information, and I said he should google it, he'll find funny things. Niko, please. Just google it, dude 😂.

I also hugged him and he has a really soft coat, which other girls pointed out and he joked he's wearing nothing underneath, because he's Finnish and isn't cold (a deja vu moment, because there was exactly the same situation in Poznań before: "Niko, aren't you cold?" "No, I'm Finnish"), so I also told him it used to be much colder here in general, because we did have very cold winters before. It's always fun talking to Niko 💖

The next one was Olli, but I'm leaving Olli for the last part of the story, because it's the best. Now, I did hug Joonas and got a photo with him, but my brain is totally blank if we actually did talk to him. I think not really? Uh, dunno 😂. But it was a positive interaction as well 💖

Now, Olli. Everyone knows I just couldn't like the guy because of his crazy stans, so I was "meh" about him, but actually meeting him properly just changed my mind. He's really easy to talk to! But I really didn't think I'd manage to come up with an interesting topic, I usually have nothing to say and I'm horrible at asking questions.

My brain decided to ask him about Silent Library. It basically went like:

Me: "So I watched this show, Silent Library Suomi, and you were getting all these red cards. Was it done like that on purpose, or was it just a coincidence?

Olli (grinning): "it's called back luck"

Now, if you watched their vlogs and he had those funny moments with puns everyone loved, IT WAS LIKE ONE OF THOSE MOMENTS. But I don't have it on the camera (which is ok, I did that just for myself).

He explained it really was accidental and no one was plotting against him (I did joke that Joel maybe did 😂). I think he enjoyed talking about it, because I doubt anyone would get an idea to ask him about this show (though I might be wrong).

So here you go, it's called bad luck. That's it. I got the info from the man himself 😂

But, there's more. The girl who was taking photos of us had a malfunctioning phone and accidentally took a photo of his feet and he was wearing flip flops (she did show it to him too lmao). I'll share it as soon as I get it. Also she came up with a joke that I already told her I'm going to steal:

OlliFans

(feet pic coming soon 👌)

We all laughed really loud at it (Olli wasn't there anymore, so we=us girls), so I'm releasing it into the world, because it can't be kept in containment 😂

That's it for now, more video content coming tomorrow (cause I'm tired)

[osaemu]

mini-announcement, i probably won't be posting/interacting over the weekend because i have a big tournament and i'll be spending time with my team !! just a heads up in case you're wondering why i haven't replied to you or your ask yet :,) sorry about that 🤍

cw: discourse under the cut.

i didn't want to have to make this post, but lately i've been receiving a lot of anonymous asks about a certain blog and unfortunately, it's gotten to a point where i feel like i have to address it. don't take this post as being hateful in any way—this is just something i just wanted to get off my chest. this isn't a big deal, so no reblogs either, thanks.

the bottom four asks all came within a span of five minutes, so i think it's a reasonable assumption to make that they were all sent by the same person. as for who that is, i'll get into that at the end of the post.

but first of all, i can say without a doubt that i have a personality of my own. case closed. nobody's actually said how we're similar in any way, so i'll assume these are all from no-lifes who couldn't find anything better to hate on.

second of all, my netflix banner was actually inspired by another blog, who i won't namedrop for the sake of their peace. and either way, our banners don't even look similar, nor do either of us own netflix. x x

and finally, those are actually the two most braindead asks i've ever received. are we copyrighting letters now? does anyone own the letter e?

don't compare blogs/writers—it's never ended well, and it never will.

even after getting these asks, i still didn't say anything about it because.. i don't really care. everyone's entitled to their own opinion, and what you think of me is up to you.

moving on, i think tee left tumblr sometime in between that time and now, and i was told by a mutual that i was mentioned within the post. if i'm being completely honest, i didn't read all of it because we have each other blocked anyways and it was a lot to read through.. so i skimmed over the bit about me, but didn't really see anything of interest, which is why i didn't address it.

i also had anons on at the time, and i did think it was interesting how i didn't receive a single ask about tee from then up until today, about a month later. up until a couple hours ago, i hadn't even thought about her because, again, i don't care. this is tumblr dot com, not my love life. most of the drama here is over pixels anyways, so i don't waste my day thinking about it.

neither of these are particularly interesting, but the fact that you weirdos are still associating me with someone who i'm not even mutuals with is.. not to my liking.

idk what false accounts the second anon's talking about, because i don't go looking for drama. if you need proof, here's how many sideblogs i have... (click the image)

zero!

as for the idea that i'm jealous of tee, i'm perfectly fine with the amount of followers i have now. i've always been open about my satisfaction with my interaction rates, and that hasn't changed.

and obviously, tee's a good writer—when have i ever said otherwise? if it was based solely off of writing, i would say that she deserves every single one of her followers, maybe even more. i don't think anybody on this app would disagree with me when i say that she's genuinely one of the best fanfic writers i've come across.

however, i won't support someone just because i like their content. i've stopped listening to many artists because i didn't like who they were as a person, and similarly, once i read the reblogs on a certain callout post, i stopped consuming tee's content as well.

there's a reason i avoided making this post in the past—because i don't really have anything to say. tee and i have never had a directly negative interaction, as i'm sure you all can see in her archival post. the reason i don't support her anymore is because i didn't particularly like how she never spoke up about her followers sending death threats to other followers. that's it.

while i have my guesses as to who sent those anons, i don't care enough to find out. and i think it's better that way. this conflict's been dragged on for long enough, and this is my way of saying that i'd like to be excluded from this narrative from now on.

tee, if someone sends you this post at some point, feel free to contact me if you'd like to clear anything up. we're both adults, and i think we can agree that nothing monumental has happened between us to cause any of this. honestly, the only people dragging this on are the weirdo anons in my inbox.

to whoever's reading this post, thank you for listening to my side of the story—it was nice to be able to get this off my chest. wish me luck at my tournament, and i'll be back after the weekend !! 🤍

[adipostsstuff]

So, we know that Es usually takes the audience's reasons for having any given verdict, but there have been times where they don't do that.

Shidou: there were many differing reasons ad to why people voted him innocent, but the main one was that he is hot. Obviously Es 'takes their job very seriously and is also a minor' would not accept this reasoning. This means their own justification for this verdict was entirely their own. I didn't see anyone theorise that Shidou's victims were braindead patients whose organs he transferred to healthier patients like they did so that was probably their own theory. (understandable the popular one was dumb as shit (can you tell I have a strong hatred for organ harvesting theory?)) (it's interesting that the writers went out of their way to have Es state an alternate interpretation of the events in his video to the popular one when no one else gets this treatment. It may be because forgiving someone when you think they did something as awful as what most people think he did is very hard to justify). They say that they assumed he saved as many lives as he killed as therefore decided his crime was forgivable, so they probably subscribe to utilitarianism, or perhaps the idea that one life can be worth the same as another. While most people subscribe to this kind of belief, it's still worth noting this is something Es themselves believe, not something we implanted into them. (As an aside it's really funny this was the first time they call themselves we. No, Es, we did not forgive him for that reason, you came up with that yourself. We forgave him because he's hot.) They also state that they would say this even if it was their own family, but coming from someone who doesn't remember their family this doesn't mean much, and it was a stupid question for Shidou to ask anyway. I'll bet if he used any of the prisoners as a subject instead, Es' answer would change up real quick.

Kazui: the accepted theory at the time was that he cheated on his wife, and I'm assuming (because I wasn't actually there during the first trial) he was voted innocent because most people thought that crime wasn't that bad, at least compared to actual murder. Es, however, makes it very clear the only reason they forgave him was because of lack of information. For whatever reason, they have a strong dislike for 'people who act based on their sexual urges', which is a really specific thing to dislike for someone who's meant to be an audience surrogate. They also appear to have strong views on marriage, which is also really weird since they stated earlier they 'have no interest in [romantic relationships]'. I have no idea what this means but it seems important.

Amane: she was voted guilty in the first trial so "teach her what she did was wrong" (which by the way I still think was very stupid and am forever salty about). In her first voice drama, Es explicitly tates they have no interest in doing that. It's for "firm honest judgements", not to "turn them into functional members of society" (paraphrasing), so it makes sense that they wouldn't agree with this reasoning as it contradicts with their previous statements. They just say that they don't believe murder for the sake of religious doctrine is acceptable. Interestingly enough while they do say the fact that she is a child is an unavoidable fact it seems they didn't take that into account with her verdict. Is it because she asked them not to or because it would be harder to justify a guilty verdict with that in mind? This does make it more interesting that it was a thing they considered with Yuno (especially since, you know, she's older than them). Not sure what to make of this.

[locking-the-tomb]

Third Read Notes & Soundtrack

I wallowed for about 14 hours after finishing my Nona reread and decided to start over again and write myself some summaries during The Wait.

Gideon the Ninth Chapter 1

In which we learn Gideon is a goob but we love her.

Gideon is escaping. She stole a security cuff key but left the cuff on until the morning of. She's taking her sword, her "shoes" - later called steel toed boots- , and her smut mags. Her clothes are all synthetics. She has enough hair to brush. She knows about chocolates and fancy hotels, somehow ... from mags? From Wake/mom's niche is 22 flights of stairs up to the landing field, which is still at the bottom of a deep tunnel. There are lamps on but they're low. She's kicking apart lumps of "rubble" but that's not further described. She eats porridge from a plastic bag then throws the bag over a rail somewhere. There's a balcony area. Skeletons with red eyes go to pick snow leeks.

There are white castle doors at the bottom, "three bodies wide and six bodies tall". She talks about the figures carved into the area above the doors and remembers screaming as a kid about them creeping her out. I wonder what they are, maybe related to the killed generation? How much trauma from a two year old survivor of all the kids dying?

Muster call (20 Bells) calls back the skeletons.

That's when the Marshall/Crux stomps in to accuse her. Gideon says, "say my shuttle exploded, I died and it was such a shame". 😳 (Crux thinks great idea, will do) Introduces Frontline Titties of the Fifth. He calls her chattel. He wears a big knife over a shoulder.

He gives an impressive number of threats. Gideon wasn't bothered by Crux's threats. But then he invoked Harrow and her "palms prickled". He leaves and Aiglamene enters. Gideon says she's tried to enlist 33 times. Aiglamene has a badly repaired missing leg and a scarred face.

Gideon lists what's happened when she's tried to leave before: jammed in lift, turned off heat frostbite in three toes, poisoned. She clarifies that she's indentured not a slave and claims she's not of fiscal use there. She says she will "you can quote me 'do my duty to the ninth' ". Gideon goes on a rant about "your lady" with a host of great insults, then gets slapped.

"Nobody had ever loved her in the ninth". Aiglamene was the reason she got to have a sword and training. "I'm naturally demeaning". Aiglamene walks away and Gideon falters a bit but sticks.

"Nav was a Niner name". Mentions the prison as a bubble halfway up in the atmosphere. At the end of the chapter we get the limited story of day-old Gideon being in a bio container plugged into the suit of a braindead woman who had fallen in a suit down the shaft 18 years ago. None of the Ninth necromancers could get her ghost to do more than scream Gideon three times then she fled.

"They chipped her, surnamed her, and put her in the nursery". I don't think they mention the chips again, interesting. She was kid #201. Where did the kids come from? Had they been harvesting gametes and growing them? Because the "old" people going into the doors were heavily outnumbered by skeletons. Then two years later it was just her, Harrow (who still hasn't been directly introduced as other then Lady), and Ortus. By 10 she "knew too much and that she could never be allowed to go". Of course. Because that's when Harrow had opened the tomb and her parents had died. She had started trying to escape when she was 4.

Thoughts. What's up with all the plastic? Isn't plastic from petroleum? How would Pluto have petroleum?

[ikiracake]

Little KiriBakuDeku ficlet

(I have no idea what happened this ficlet just jumped out of my hands enjoy I guess???)

"I can't believe you gave me your quirk again. Dumbass."

"How was I supposed to know her quirk was a paralytic and not poison?! I thought I was dying, Kacchan!"

"Yeah, and look at how great that worked out for us." Katsuki pointedly glances upward where his arms are chained above his head, immobilized. "Now we're stuck because you don't have your quirk, and if I use it, my broken arm will explode."

"I said I was sorry!" Izuku wails.

"Guys," Eijiro suddenly cuts in. "Could you keep it down a bit? My head is killing me. I think I have a concussion."

"Oops, sorry Kirishima-kun!" Izuku whispers.

"Shit. Yeah, sorry."

The three fall silent for a moment while they contemplate their situation. Bound side by side in an abandoned warehouse, still feeling the after-effects of the villain's quirk, it isn't looking all that great, especially since Izuku is effectively quirkless at the moment and Katsuki is too banged up from the fight to use OFA without causing some serious damage to his own body. If only there was some way for him to transfer it back to Izuku… but they’re too far apart, with Eijiro hanging in between them as a further barrier

But then, as Izuku eyes the distance between them, his gaze catches momentarily on Eijiro's bare chest and the well-defined muscles on display. Absently he muses that it’s too bad that he hadn't passed on his quirk to Eijiro instead; though Kacchan will always be his first choice, if he'd given OFA to Eijiro then he would have easily been able to handle the raw power, and would have broken them out by now.

As the thought passes through his mind, an idea follows. It's absolutely crazy, but as far as Izuku's concerned, crazy might be just what they need right now.

"Hey, Kacchan. I have an idea to get us out of here," he murmurs lowly to both keep their kidnappers from overhearing and to avoid making Eijiro's headache worse

Katsuki had been dozing off a bit, clearly more out of it than he'd care to admit, but he perks up at the sound of Izuku's voice. "Oh? What the hell is it, then?"

Eijiro is paying attention too, watching Izuku quietly. He has an odd expression on his face, like he somehow knows that whatever Izuku's plan is, he's not going to like it.

Giving him an apologetic look, Izuku lays out his plan. "You need to give me back OFA."

"Gee, no shit," Katsuki scoffs. "How the fuck am I supposed to do that from over here, dipshit?"

"You're going to give it to Kirishima-kun first," Izuku continues, his breathing shaky. "And then he's going to give it to me."

The others still for a moment, considering Izuku's crazy plan.

"A-are you sure about that, Midoriya?" Eijiro asks. He glances between the two of them. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I want to get out of here too, but to...to hold your quirk seems...kinda...intimate?"

"I don't think we have much of a choice," Izuku admits with a grimace. "Besides. I trust you, Kirishima-kun."

"I feel like if we're going to do this, you should probably call me Eijiro."

Izuku can't help but give him a tight smile. "Only if you call me Izuku, then."

Eijiro grins. "Deal."

"I'm going to call you both braindead," Katsuki interrupts. "Because how the fuck am I supposed to even pass him OFA in the first place? I can't exactly rip a chunk of my hair out and shove it in his mouth like you did, weirdo."

Don't blush, don't blush, Izuku tells himself, but it's no use. He can feel his face burning hotter than one of Kacchan's explosions. "Well," he starts off haltingly. "We just need to exchange DNA. And, um. There's lots of DNA in...saliva."

Katsuki gives him a blank look. "You want me to spit in Shitty Hair's mouth?"

“N-no! That's not what I meant!" Izuku quickly denies, shaking his head wildly. "I just mean, we're close enough together, you could probably...kiss?"

The stunned disbelief is practically palpable in the air.

"You want us...to…kiss," Katsuki says slowly.

"I mean, it would work," Izuku defends weakly, wishing he could bury his face in his hands. "You just have to do it with intent."

"With intent, he says," Katsuki repeats, sounding dazed. "Oh my fucking god."

"It's okay, bro. I don't mind," Eijiro suddenly speaks up, his cheeks as red as his hair. "If it's just to, uh, just to escape, it's fine, right?"

Katsuki's expression shifts from dazed to alarmed to his default - angry - within the span of seconds, before settling on resigned. "Fuck. Okay, yeah, fuck, if it gets us out of here before that crazy bitch comes back. Fuck it."

"Okay, cool," Eijiro grins through his nerves.

"Fuck," Katsuki repeats. "Okay, fuck, let's do this." And then he leans over as far as he can in his restraints, Eijiro meeting him halfway, their eyes instinctively sliding shut as their lips meet. 

Izuku thought it might be awkward, watching his two friends essentially make out while he's helpless to do anything but hang there, but as he stares at the pair, catching the tiniest glimpse of Kacchan's tongue slipping into Eijiro's mouth, he can't help but feel kind of warm and a little bit...hungry.

Katsuki and Eijiro's kiss starts off kind of awkward, but the moment Katsuki licks his way tentatively into Eijiro's mouth, it heats up, Eijiro's lips parting with a moan and his own tongue pushing up to stroke the intruder. It startles a gasp out of Katsuki, and Eijiro can't help but take advantage, taking control of the kiss. He nips lightly at Katsuki's lips, clearly enjoying the way it makes Katsuki's breathing shudder, and he can't help the tiny groan that escapes him when he feels Katsuki shyly bite him back.

The pair have become all but lost in each other when suddenly Izuku shifts, making his chains rattle, and all at once Katsuki and Eijiro are brought back to reality. They break apart with a gasp, and just take a moment to try to get their breathing under control.

Izuku is almost afraid to speak and break the spell of...whatever just happened, but he figures this is important. So he steels himself, and asks, "So did it work?"

Eijiro startles as if he'd forgotten Izuku was there, his entire torso flushed and heaving. "I - hah - I don't know. How can I tell?"

Izuku isn't really sure, to be honest, but he's saved from answering by Katsuki, who replies instead.

"It’s gone," he pants. "I don't have it anymore, I just checked."

Izuku can't help but brighten. "My idea worked, then?"

"Not yet," Katsuki shakes his head. "Shitty Hair still has to pass it back to you."

"Oh. Oh yeah." Izuku feels that warmth that had been burning in his chest while he watched Eijiro and Katsuki kissing turn into a bonfire as he realizes that means it's his turn. He tries to look at Eijiro out of the corner of his eye without making it obvious, but he catches Eijiro looking at him anyway.

"Right. Uh, let's just. Do it then?" Eijiro says slowly. "I-if you're ready, that is."

"I am!" Izuku lies. "Totally ready!"

"Just remember, Shitty Hair," Katsuki pipes up, watching the two of them with an odd expression. "It's all about fucking intent. You have to fucking mean it." He pauses, and then flushes when he realizes how that sounded, and quickly adds, "When you give the quirk back!"

"R-right!" Eijiro stutters. "Got it!" He then turns back to face Izuku. "You ready Mi-Izuku?"

"Yep!" Izuku squeaks out.

"Okay," Eijiro breathes, and then he's leaning in again, this time towards Izuku. For a second Izuku is too scared to move, just watching Eijiro's face come closer and closer, his eyes half-lidded, and then he catches sight of Katsuki watching him over Eijiro's shoulder and the jolt of pure want in his stomach spurs him into action. He doesn't so much kiss Eijiro as crash into him, eyes screwed shut.

Eijiro, to his credit, only lets out a little grunt of surprise, before he's moving back to soften the kiss. After his initial panic, Izuku's nerves make him pause, giving Eijiro a chance to take over, parting his lips slowly to give Izuku a chance to get used to the feeling of kissing another person. Still, Izuku can't help but squeak again when he feels Eijiro's warm, wet tongue sliding against his lips, trying to lick his way inside. After only a small moment of hesitation, Izuku allows his lips to part, and Eijiro's tongue slips in.

It feels weird. It feels amazing. Izuku is pretty sure he's about to spontaneously combust if he gets any hotter, but at the same time he'd rather die than let this moment end.

Izuku almost doesn't even register the moment OFA returns to him, too distracted by the way his heart feels like it's going to explode out of his chest every time Eijiro's tongue snakes its way into his mouth or his sharp teeth drag teasingly over Izuku's lips. But then the heat that's been flooding his body, making him burn from the inside out, starts to take on a more familiar electric feeling. Before he even knows what's happening, Izuku has unconsciously activated Full Cowl, snapping his restraints like they're cheap elastic bands so that he can reach up and wrap his arms fully around Eijiro's shoulders, hanging on for dear life. 

"Oi!" Katsuki's shout cuts through Izuku's lust-filled haze. "Cut it out, fucker, you're free! Get us out too!"

Izuku pulls away from Eijiro with a gasp, eyes wide, chest heaving for breath. "Right! Shit, right, yes, right away, Kacchan!" He reaches up and pulls Eijiro's chains apart with minimal effort, completely unable to meet his eyes the whole time.

When he goes to free Katsuki, he can't help but duck his head in shame at the absolutely murderous expression on Katsuki's face. "S-sorry Kacchan. But hey, at least my plan worked?"

Katsuki doesn't say anything as Izuku makes quick work of his bonds, which only makes Izuku feel worse.

But then, the moment Katsuki is completely free, he grabs Izuku's collar with his good arm, spins them around to pin Izuku up against the wall, and then suddenly Izuku finds himself getting his brains kissed out for the second time in as many minutes.

And god, it's just as good as the first time. Katsuki is aggressive and firm, but not cruel, and his kiss leaves Izuku weak in the knees.

When Katsuki pulls away, Izuku almost whines in frustration. God, he wants to kiss Katsuki all day.

"When this is over, " Katsuki says lowly, glaring both of them down. "We are going to all have a fucking talk."

Izuku and Eijiro share a look, but rather than being intimidated, Izuku can tell they're both intrigued. He carefully shifts, trying to relieve some of the pressure in his pants, while Eijiro and Katsuki do the same.

"...my room?" Izuku suggests.

"No fucking way are we having this conversation in your goddamned All Might shrine," Katsuki immediately responds. "We'll do it in my room."

"...'it'?" Eijiro asks.

Izuku will never say it out loud for fear of death, but he thinks Katsuki's flustered expression is the cutest damn thing. "T-talk! The talk!" he clarifies. "Jesus."

"Okay," Izuku agrees, finally feeling his breathing get under control. "I'd like that."

"Same, bro."

"Alright." Katsuki's eyes slide shut as he tries to calm his racing heart. "Alright. Then let's get out of here so we can fucking...talk."

"Right!"

"Let's do this, Kacchan!"

And the three of them take off together to face their challenges together

[ironunderstands]

Can I thank you for creating that post regarding Jade? Because that's exactly how I felt whenever I see people acting like I'm some type of misogynistic hypocrite for feeling sus about her.

"Jade didn't do anything wrong", "You're a misogynist if you don't like women with personality or hobbies", or something similar.

Listen, I like Jade's design and I'm interested to see more of her. But GOOD GOD, people! She ain't a saint or an angel.

I can go on forever about how many times I've seen people get called misogynistic for not liking or straight-up hating female characters but I'd rather not waste any more of your time.

You’re welcome, honestly I was fed up of all the absolutely braindead posts like that about her 😭

I feel the exact same way about her as you do, she fascinates me, and I like her design and kit, but in no way shape or form am I gonna pretend like she’s a good person.

Also you’re not wasting my time, I have my asks open for a reason, and if I’m being honest yeah, it is a problem in fandom culture to ascribe every single negative or even neutral opinion about a female character as misogyny. It’s especially annoying when people complain about people “not focusing on female characters” and then proceeding to never make posts about them themselves.

Like oh my god if you want to see actual in depth content of female characters, MAKE IT. Complaining isn’t going to manifest it into existence, and there are plenty of people who do actually make analysis and think posts about the women you like, it’s just you don’t look for it hard enough. Honestly I genuinely don’t know what’s stopping these people from making their own posts, as they clearly have ideas and good reasons for why they like these characters, so ??? Is it laziness, do they expect the people who make posts about men to make government mandated posts about women every now and then, do they expect people to tweet for them?

There are so many interesting women I can go on and on about in Genshin and HSR, but it seems like a majority their fans are people who don’t really appreciate them, and just expect other people to talk about why they are amazing for them.

I know it sounds egotistical, but god I wish more people in fandom were like me. I don’t see enough Acheron posts talking about her character? I’m going to make them. I don’t see enough Topaz posts talking about how compelling she is or her potential? I’m going to make them (I’m gonna start the one on Topaz today actually!)

If you want people in fandom to actually start appreciating women, then that starts with you, and if everyone expects it to magically manifest, it’s never gonna happen. So make your analysis and appreciation posts, because a lot of people want to read them :) (and even if they don’t, make it for yourself!)

[itsbenedict]

okay fine i played Fire Emblem Engage

That's where I've been for the past, like, week. It wasn't a great decision. I would call it a purchase made in a moment of weakness.

The conventional wisdom I've heard is "yeah the story and characters are Bad and Nothing, but the gameplay is really good", and that was kind of accurate to my experience. But it was... weirdly not as bad as I was expecting? It had some redeeming qualities, narratively! I enjoyed it more than, say, Fates by a mile.

It was still extremely stupid, though. Wow. It's not as actively infuriating as some recent FE has been, but it's certainly a completely braindead narrative.

You can open this readmore if you want to hear all about that.

So the plot of the game: there's an evil dragon man who wants to take over the world. He got sealed away a thousand years ago but now he's back and wants to take over the world. You Have To Stop Him. (There are epicycles to this, but all of them are dumb and very few of them matter.)

Toothpaste Lord, Alear, is the [son/daughter, in my game daughter] of the Divine Dragon, a very nice queen lady who the people of [setting] worship as a goddess. A thousand years ago she got mortally wounded sealing away the evil dragon man, and went to sleep for a thousand years to recover. Fast forward to now, and she wakes up, except she has amnesia and doesn't remember jack shit including her mother. This is concealing one (1) twist, which doesn't really affect anything, and mainly the amnesia is so that there's a reason for people to be constantly introducing concepts to her. Standard fare.

So she wakes up, and almost immediately, evil dragon man's zombie army is inexplicably invading the palace. He kills Divine Dragon queen mom in a very tragic scene where Healing Doesn't Work (at least they bother having the healer try, so points there) and she dies in your arms and there's like five solid minutes of poorly-paced anguish and angst over this character you've known for all of five minutes.

I want to stop and note- this is a beat this game fucking loves. The scene where a loved one dies tragically in someone's arms while delivering some inspiring last words happens- if my count is right- eight times in this god damn game, sometimes for the same character twice. They do it constantly, for characters that do not matter and you do not have any investment in. I'm halfway to thinking this is someone's fetish somehow- but more realistically it's just hack writing.

After that, the Prince of Somewhere shows up to save you, and you escape the palace and go on a journey to recruit allies and stop the evil dragon man. The journey involves traveling across four continents, each of which has a kingdom in it, which have two princes/princesses apiece, each of which have two loyal retainers apiece. Add the player and their own three loyal retainers for a total of 28 playable characters who are just there because they're On Your Side and otherwise have no investment in the conflict besides not wanting to get killed by zombie armies. There's eight other playable characters that have any other motivation at all, and most of them are bad.

(Actually that's not true. Two of the princesses have other motivations- they're princesses of Evil Cultistopia, which starts the game on evil dragon man's side, and they have a sort of journey to a face turn that would be kind of interesting if either of them were good characters. Evil Cultistopia's state religion is the worship of evil dragon man, except it's been a thousand years since he was sealed away so they're sort of just a normal country with a normal religion now. The idea of a country suddenly face-to-face with their god, who's asking them to wage war on the entire world with zombie armies, and it being politically impossible to not do that despite no one really wanting to do that? Cool idea! If only they fucking used or explored it in the slightest.)

Anyway, the big bad's evil plan is to gather the 12 Emblem Rings, macguffins that if collected together will grant INFINITE POWER. Again, standard stuff. But the rings in question are the central mechanical gimmick of the game, and the focus of the plot in and of themselves, and I have to talk about them because they're so dumb.

Each ring has the spirit of a protagonist of a previous Fire Emblem game in it!

Why? What are they doing here? How did they end up in magic rings? Do Not Ask Questions. They're here for fanservice reasons and we will be exploring precisely zero of the implications of their existence.

None of them are characters even slightly. They're there, they follow people around as stando powerghosts, they can talk and stuff- but like... Fire Emblem protagonists struggle with having personalities even at the best of times, and this is not the best of times. Every single one of them is reduced to vapid friendship speeches, even the ones that weren't already just a human collection of friendship speeches.

Most of the plot, such as it is, concerns the collection of these rings, and occasional dramatic turnabouts when the bad guys take the rings from you. Oh, shit!

Oh no! They took Marth! Y'know, Marth! That character, who had traits and stuff! Aren't you horrified that the bad guys have Marth now? Isn't it so sad that his hair is red? Please buy it when Alear is so, so crying about Marth getting kidnapped! They had such a close friendship, which you can tell from how the only thing they ever talked about was how close their friendship was!

(Also, every single one of these twelve non-characters has their own Paralogue chapter, where they encounter a random ancient ruin or fort or something on the map, and they're like "whoa! this random location looks weirdly like a fan-favorite plot-important map from my game! Let me spend eight seconds recapping its plot, and then challenge you to a duel here to Strengthen Our Bonds somehow!". They're all exactly the same and drag out the game way longer than it needs to be.)

It's all very stupid! I hate it terribly.

Which is why it's a shame that the Emblem Rings are the coolest fucking mechanic that's ever been in Fire Emblem.

You equip a ring to a unit- any unit- and they confer fucking busted abilities, like teleporting halfway across the map and nuking something, or making seven consecutive attacks, or getting tons of extra movement and movement actions so you can be anywhere when you need to be there.

One lets you do the "give four adjacent allies an extra turn" thing that Reyson let you do in FE9/10, except you can put it on anyone and not just a frail bird-man you have to keep out of danger. And since there's another actual Dancer in the game, you can bust the action economy wide open.

Here's this overpowered tanky flier who can't just divebomb enemy back ranks because she dies in one hit to arrows or wind magic! Oh, but she has the ring equipped that makes sure she survives attacks that would kill her unless her health is already low! Bye, giant wall of enemy mages!

Here's my armor knight who's an unstoppable brick wall! He's balanced by being so slow that you can't get him in position to use him reliably, but- oh, hey, here's the ring that just puts him on a fucking horse!

One just lets the unit equip healing staves even if they weren't magic at all before. You can staple utility roles that are normally balanced by making the unit itself shitty and fragile... to units that already kick ass normally. My assassin can heal people now! I am become the master of both life and death!

It's so goofy and lets you have so much fun with it. You can also inherit skills from Emblems to keep them after you swap the ring from someone else- so if you want someone to get the mounted unit post-combat reposition thing, just have 'em hang out with Sigurd a bit!

It's also, like... an effective bit of fanservice, because they put an inordinate amount of work into fleshing out the system. Every character gets a unique insane magic superhero outfit and color scheme and combat voice lines for when they merge with each of the twelve emblems. You can make anyone say "I fight for my friends" and "You'll get no sympathy from me!" by equipping Ike. It's bizarrely high-effort.

That's the good part, mechanically. The bad part, mechanically, is this thing called the Somniel- a magical floating island in the sky you can fast-travel to, which is just Garreg Mach again.

Run around the same too-big 3D environment doing pointless bullshit between every map! Don't you want to go to every glowing spot on the minimap to collect the free items that spawned there? You might miss out on some Rare Fruit, which you can add as an extra ingredient in the fucking cooking system to increase the odds the dish will be higher-rarity! Surely you want to collect random wildlife from maps after you beat them so they can hang out in a pasture and generate random drops for you to collect between maps! Do the fishing minigame, which has two more steps than last time for no reason, in order to get Minced Fish and Bond Fragments! Spend the Bond Fragments to pull from the Bond Rings gachapon, to get jpegs of old-ass art assets of Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Game that you can equip for incredibly marginal stat bonuses! Watch your horribly-designed anime soldiers in their swimsuits going back and forth in the pool for extra support progress! Cram your inventory with literal horseshit because it looks exactly the same sparkling on the ground as the stuff you want! Play a rail shooter! Do some push-ups! Feed this stupid-looking dog thing to max out its affection meter for no benefit whatsoever! I hate you! I HATE you! I HATE YOU! 𝐈 𝐇𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔! DON'T DESIGN YOUR VIDEOGAME THIS WAY!! IT'S BORING AND SUCKS SHIT!!! I'LL PUNCH OFF YOUR LEGS!!!!!!!!!

...haaaaah. I need to calm down. It's just- it's so bad. It's so much extra development effort to create all these extraneous systems that you could've just not had and it would've been better. So many wasted manhours of effort put into building and polishing unfun time-wasting garbage because some suit thought "more features = more sales". I feel sorry for the devs that were forced to work on that!

...

Okay. Okay I think that's the end of the review. What else is there to say that I didn't say?

No, wait, right. I said the plot had redeeming qualities. I said it didn't piss me off as much as Fates. Okay. What are those redeeming qualities?

Well... first off, while the plot is braindead and tropey and nothing, it at the very least passes the bare minimum bar of the characters' actions making sense. It's not hard for their actions to make sense, since it's a dead simple goodguys-versus-badguys situation where the main villain is an evil dragon man with a zombie army, but so many things fail to clear this bar. The characters are almost never interesting, but rarely do they make me go "what the fuck are you talking about? why would you make that decision?", and after Fates and Three Houses that is a breath of fresh air.

Secondly: they're kind of smart about their antagonists. Evil dragon man is so obviously not a compelling character, just a force in the plot, that they don't bother putting him onscreen more than necessary. We mostly follow his Four Elite Generals that Fire Emblem big bads always have, except instead of elite generals they're just a bunch of fuckin' weirdos who've been tasked with babysitting his split-personality daughter. They get up to some infighting and have approximately believable motives and you get to kind of care about what's going on with them! The writer gave at least half a shit about what motivates the villains as people, despite the overarching villain being a stock evil demon king guy.

(In particular, there's this one really good death scene after you beat a couple of them- one of them has a heel face turn when they're dying, complete with yet another tragic dying-in-your-arms inspiring speech... and then after the heroes leave and pledge to always remember them, you get a scene where another one, who also got fatally wounded in the same battle, goes "so what was that all about. that sappy stuff was obviously bullshit. what gives, why betray the boss right at the end?" And they're like "yeah, no, i mainly did that to say fuck you to the boss for sending me on this suicide mission instead of rewarding me for my loyal service. but i figured if i was doing that i'd make up something more noble-sounding so they remember me fondly instead of as a petty asshole." Then they have a truly fucked-up conversation about their mommy issues before dying. It's a good scene!)

Thirdly, they do this really fun thing in the big climax before the final gauntlet, where... I mean, a lot of it is nonsense, but they're doing a fairly standard fakeout bit where the protagonist gets killed by the big bad but some kind of deus ex machina brings them back to life, right? But the way they do that, specifically, is... there's this character who did the zombie-army raising who eventually turns good and joins you, and while the protagonist is dying, she's like "hey, I have an idea- how about use your dark magics to bind my soul to my corpse as a zombie, and then just don't suborn my will?" And then they do that, and it works and it's kind of fucked up and makes everyone uncomfortable! A very cool moment. (Then a different deus ex machina brings you back as a ghost instead of a zombie and your hair turns completely blue, which I was hyped about purely for color scheme reasons since it's otherwise pretty stupid.)

I should probably also say something about the characters? They're usually a pretty big draw for Fire Emblem, and this game does go whole hog on having a large cast with lots and lots of support conversations. But, uh... they're mostly bad. The character designs are over-the-top and anime in a way that doesn't convey anything useful about them, and they tend to just be "character trait A meets incongruous character trait B and we will do the bare minimum to reconcile this". Pretty bad voice direction and dialogue pacing sucks a lot of the charm out of it, too. The fact that most characters are just there to Be A Character You Get and don't organically get involved in your quest doesn't help.

(There are a few that are functional- Yunaka's a good one, as one of the few that isn't just some prince's retainer and has a motive to be with the party. I like her "dark superassassin past but embarrassed about it" shtick, and her VA manages to make her cutesy catchphrases not annoying somehow. I don't know that anyone in the cast is above like a B-tier character, though.)

So... that's Engage. It wasn't ambitious, but it basically worked. It's not a game that has anything to say beyond "it is virtuous to be a really big fan of Fire Emblem, please go whale in the gacha", and it didn't have two brain cells to rub together- but it was pretty and fun and mostly didn't piss me off.

[1moremilgram-enjoyer]

Hey, I’ll send in a Milgram related ask too! To drum up some Shidou intrigue, what do you think about the theory that Shidou decided to steal organs from his kid to give to his wife?

If you aren’t aware, it mostly stems from the scene at 1:48 of Triage when he hands his son one of the fruit tags. The idea would be that if both the kid and the wife were in a vegetative state, Shidou decided it was worth it to kill his kid for sure in order to have a higher chance of saving his wife (matching genetic structures and all that).

Given that I’m not even certain it’s scientifically possible, I’m on the fence, but I’d love to hear if you had any input on it!

(Damn, this blog really is 90% asks huh. Well I do enjoy answering them so)

Hey! It's an interesting idea, especially considering the guy is paired with Mahiru, but I'm not sure it works all that well. I'l give my reasoning for that conclusion and then I accidentally made a theory about what the scientific purposes of Shidou's work were oops.

CW: Murder, organ harvesting, human experimentation.

For one, it really seems like Shidou loved all his family, not just his lover.

(T1) Q3: Is there anything you treasure?

S: Family.

Family, not romantic love.

(T2) Q10: Do you like children?

S: Of course.

This one's a bit vaguer, but still.

But the main thing which makes this theory extremely unlikely in my eyes is this:

(T1) Q14: If you could bring someone back to life, who would you choose?

S: I can't choose anyone.

Since we know there are people he'd like to bring back, the idea that Shidou can't choose who to bring back to life implies he has multiple people he would want to save from death. The issue there is that taking organs from his child/children would very directly mean he chose his wife over him/them, which is inconsistent with this answer, and his general attitude towards everyone in his family.

If you want my interpretation of that scene, well, let's look at the line said as Shidou hands his kid the tag.

Those cards of promise I discarded They were retribution for my incessant taking

Note that "cards of promise" might refer to the death tags. The "promise" would be that Shidou keeps the braindead people alive, and he discarded the cards because he killed a bunch of people without worrying too much about it. But now he's getting the "cards of promise" as retribution, because his own family has met a similar fate to the one of the people he killed. The first line makes it a bit more clear.

Those cards of promise I discarded Were they retribution for my incessant taking In that case, I should have been the one That’s the correct answer, but then why

So he feels he should have been the one to die.

That does sorta make it sound like, by giving his kid the "card of promise", he's killing the child, but I actually think it's the other way around. Note that the card first falls from the air, then Shidou hands it to the kid, sorta implying it's someone elses. If you look at Throw Down, the death tag of his wife seems to come directly from her, it doesn't just fall from the air.

(And yes, that is his wife. Even beyond what the flower figure looks like, the death tag has XY crossed out while XX is left alone. Since all death tags have both sets, it can be assumed the corpse at the end of Throw Down is meant to be a woman by sex because chromosomes)

Thus, I think what this scene might be trying to show is that Shidou wasn't taking organs just for his wife, but for his children too.

Or maybe child.

This is the obligatory part of my posts where I go insane. The kid is still alive and standing in the scene, so what this could imply is that Shidou began killing for this child before the pressumed accident.

This is where I bring in the fact that Shidou claimed in his 2nd VD that he also took organs for scientific purposes, and from his Voice Reveal jumbled quote, it seems to have happened before shit went down.

Shidou: [Cackling] Not dead... Yeah, she's definitely not dead... I finally understand the value of what I've been robbing people of...

So he's been robbing people of their braindead family members before his wife became braindead herself.

So, here's what I think. Shidou's child, the one from this scene, had some sort of illness of some kind, and Shidou began experimenting with organ harvesting to see if he could cure it. Don't ask me what the hell he was actually planning to do, but that's the idea. The whole science side of this storyline feels to me like it isn't meant to be 100% accurate to reality, but that's just my opinion.

This could also explain why his Voice Reveal thingy only mentions a she (or a name of three letters I guess, seeing as it's all blacked out, but you know), and why we only see her in Throw Down, without having him kill the child to explain the Triage scene in question. It's possible both his children died instantly in whatever accident they got into, but his wife survived in a vegetative state. And in that moment, Shidou began trying to use what he learnt from his experimentation to save her by harvesting more organs.

I think this works decently enough, even if like you said, the actual science is questionable at best. I mean, it clearly didn't work, so.

Is this something? I feel I'd be more confident if I could scan the damn QR code in the death tag of that scene, but I assume it just takes you to the Judge page like the ones from Backdraft.

Anyways, hope that answered your question! Take care!

[snellyfish]

Angie is so interesting from a morality perspective because while her ideas (that the need to escape is fueling the murders and that having some sort of order will help prevent murders) were largely good, she went about them in the most fucked up way. and I love that about her! it's such a cool character type where you're like "yeah I see what you're going for there's definitely logic in— aaand your morals are fucked"

plus she makes such an excellent foil to so many characters that exploring her through a relationship (platonic or romantic or anything else) lens is super fun

*holds Angie* I just think she's neat

100%!!!! ABSOLUTELY!!!!! I WANT YOU SO BAD!!!!!!!!

I just braindead watched 2 movies in the most overstimulated autistic way so I'm really bad at wording right now forgive me if I'm incomprehensible--

Her motives and reasonings (or as I perceive them) are soooo interesting to me and it sucks that people ignore her and brush her off because she's just Annoying, like yeah she wasn't meant to be outwardly likable and was absolutely batshit, but I understand her thought process and it's just not the kind of character I see very often. Like, yeah, she is annoying, this however does absolutely zero to distract from how unique but believable her characterization is!!!!

People just want cookie cutters of their favorite popular tropes of relatably flawed characters who are wholly good and easy to read, which is fine, obviously! They're popular characters for a reason! But I find that they're the easiest to enjoy and because of this characters with genuine out of the box creative ideas and concepts get SO stomped over. Angie is fucking weird! That's the point!

No interaction with her will ever be normal and that's what's FUN!!!!

And STILL, at the end of the day, she's still a relatable human being underneath it all if you dig deep enough with your little puzzle pieces; she's soooooo mmgngngngn SHAKING HER VIOLENTLY

[aihoshiino]

How do you think Aqua will react to Ruby's inner turmoil & to how Ruby is performing Ai's role?

Honestly lol I have no idea. The writing around Aqua lately has been really weird, especially vis-a-vis Ruby and her role in the movie. There's been a good handful of moments that felt like braindead obvious setups for big reactions or emotions from Aqua and we've had basically nothing. I'm not against other characters taking the POV role and being spotlighted especially given how much page time is weighted towards Aqua focus, it just feels exceptionally weird to be this locked out of his head and with so few insights into what's up with him. The movie arc in general has been really hard to predict with the way threads get picked up and dropped seemingly at random and I don't think I'll be able to make a proper call on it until it's done.

That said, what I would hope is that Ruby and Aqua continue to conflict on their respective interpretations of Ai as a person and the ways that the 15 Year Lie movie is using and exploiting her name and image. This conflict reopens the holes in their relationship that the past life reveal had papered over and the two of them have to finally, properly have it out with each other about all the tension and unresolved issues that have gone unaddressed.

The resolution I'd want would be twofold: that they properly reconcile and resolve the lingering Gorou & Sarina elephants in the room so to speak and that once they've done that, they can reconcile their opposing images of Ai into something more nuanced. Not the pure and flawless idol Aqua still wants to believe in or the tortured tragic heroine that Ruby sees - but just a normal person doing her best to find normal happiness and fulfilment in an abnormal life.Again, this isn't strictly a prediction because the inner machinations of Aka Akasaka's mind are a mystery but this is more or less the emotional arc I'd hope to see.

[pessimisticpigeonsworld]

that you bake of this

I find it interesting how the first poster is accusing groups of TB stans of not handling criticism, when TG stans (particularly Alicent stans) are the ones most often "melting and crying" over criticism.

Pointing out Alicent's hypocrisy and cruelty, the fact that Aegon is a rapist, and Aemond was a coward and cruel are all met with screaming. They flat out deny any facts of canon that show how awful their favs are. I've been told to kill myself multiple times just for pointing out actual canon things Alicent has done. Like, the call is coming from inside the house TG lmao.

I don't deny that there are certain people who claim to be TB but have absolutely braindead takes (namely certain Daemon stans, which is very sad). But the fact of the matter is, those people are a very small percentage. The percentage of insane people who can't stand criticism is wayyyyyyy larger in the TG fandom.

Most of TG stans' so-called criticism of Rhaenyra is just calling her a whore, saying she roll over and take any injustice, and that she's not nice enough. Of course we get annoyed and angry with that, it's not even actual criticism; it's just noise. The few times they actually have valid critiques of Rhaenyra, they still tie it in with calling her a fat whore. Anything of worth they could possibly offer is always completely bound to their intense hatred of Rhaenyra.

No, Rhaenyra isn't perfect, we don't expect people to just blindly worship her. She's not a good person, she's classist, and she wrongfully ordered the executions of innocent people twice. However, she's the rightful heir, that's literally a fact. We expect Rhaenyra to be supported because she's a victim of the patriarchy and misogynists. She doesn't have to be your favorite character, but the fact remains that she's the rightful queen and the Greens are usurpers and warmongers.

As for the whole "team smallfolk" idea: it's basically always used as an excuse to be blatantly hateful towards Rhaenyra. The "team smallfolk" and "team neutral" people never attack the Greens with the same vigor as they do Rhaenyra and her family. In fact, most of them even say that they're "green leaning".

The contradiction in this idea of supporting the smallfolk and the Greens simultaneously is that if the Greens hadn't interfered, the Dance and the deaths of the thousands of smallfolk wouldn't have happened. Rhaenyra and the Blacks didn't start the war, the Greens did. The Greens committed the most atrocities and refused every single offer of peace Rhaenyra offered.

I think the second poster is hilarious though. I don't know if they're TG, I assume so based on the subreddit. I don't know if they meant to, but they pointed out just how hypocritical the first poster's mini rant was. The first poster tacked on "Also they hate "Team Smallfolk," and the second poster pointed out how most of TG also just don't give a shit. Even if the second poster isn't TG and was just going to that subreddit to start something, there are still so many TG stans who admit that the smallfolk don't matter to them. I even had an anon once tell me that the maids Aegon raped don't matter to them as an answer to why they like and support him. I'm not going to say that they're right on not caring, but at least they're not hiding behind that false moral superiority.

Like I said earlier, the Greens were the ones who caused the deaths of thousands of smallfolk, both indirectly by starting the war and directly through Aemond and Daeron. The Greens didn't care about the smallfolk in any way, they only cared about power. Any TG stans who act like they're "better for the smallfolk" are delusional.

To sum up my thoughts: the first poster is projecting. Every single one of their criticisms apply better to their own group. The delusion and false superiority that poster displays are hilarious and frustrating.