#Making your arc about finding your voice and identity was very annoying to write because WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST WORD

[banannabethchase]

Set the World Alight: Chapter 18 - also on AO3

~

Matt decides to dye her hair. Nick is sick of his sister. And something goes horribly wrong.

~

Warnings and notes [contain spoilers]: There are so many sex jokes in this chapter. And also Matt works through some gender dysphoria in the way you'd expect an 18 year old to handle it. Finally, there is discussion of underage alcohol use. The character is supported through their struggle.

~

Tuesday, April 15th

Matt

She gets the text right before the lunch bell sounds, and it’s the first time her spirits have gone up since the fight with Nick. “Yes!”

“You seem excited,” Mox says, sliding up next to her. “What’s with the smile?”

She turns the text toward Mox.

“Not fair!” he exclaims. “We have a conditioning practice today since we don’t have a game, and cheerleaders get the day off?”

Matt grins at him. “Cheerleaders are just better, I guess.” She stands on her toes and kisses Mox. “I get the afternoon off. Maybe I’ll do something crazy.”

Mox raises an eyebrow. “Crazy?”

“Not like that,” she says, poking him in the ribs. “Jeez, be normal for once.”

“Can’t,” he says. “Not when it involves you.”

He slides his hand in hers as they walk into the cafeteria.

He squeezes her hand when they walk by Nick. “Say hi,” Mox whispers.

Matt doesn’t want to, but she waves. Nick looks up at her. She tries a smile toward him, and he smiles back. It’s small, but it’s something, at least.

~

“Are you sure about this?” Willow asks, walking with Matt to her car. “Don’t get me wrong, you’ll look so cute with pink hair, but I think it’s risky to use a box dye on virgin hair.”

Matt snickers. “That won’t be a problem.”

“Oh, god, shut up,” Willow laughs. “Yeah, we know, you and Mox go at it like rabbits. Focus, you menace. How about we start off with bleaching the underside of your hair and seeing what you think?”

Matt bites her lip. “Bleach?”

Willow nods and twirls the curls framing her face around her finger. “So, on, like, Nick’s hair, or maybe Mox’s, they have light enough hair that you could avoid bleach and the color would show up. But you and me and Jamie have dark enough hair that you gotta bleach it, then dye it.”

“Okay, definitely just the underside then,” Matt decides. “Just in case something goes wrong.”

“So it’s settled then,” Willow says, clapping. “You just have to promise you won’t get mad at me if something goes wrong.”

“I won’t!” Matt promises. “Nothing will go wrong, though. People dye their hair all the time.”

Willow hops into the passenger seat of Matt’s car. “Ooh, we should invite Jamie and Britt,” she says, pulling out her phone. “What do you think?”

“That sounds fun!” Matt says. She feels bubbly. “We’ll text them to come over after we stop for the dye.”

Matt and Willow chat nonstop as they make their way to CVS. Matt nearly cries with laughter in the hair dye aisle as Willow recounts a story of the kids she babysits.

“Shh!” Willow giggles. “If you throw up on their carpet, they’ll never let us back in here!”

“Sorry!” Matt squeaks. “Just – the idea. The kid doing weird rave hands with tampons. I’ve never…” She dissolves into giggles again, but she can keep herself under control enough to scan the shelf better. The angle ends up helping – she eyes a box of neon magenta color. “Ooh! What about this one?” She pulls out the box and shows it to Willow. “What do you know about this color?”

“Splat?” Willow says. She takes the box warily. “I don’t know, Matty. I’ve never used this stuff. I’ve heard it can really mess up your hair.”

“Well, I have virgin hair or whatever, right?” Matt asks, jiggling the box.

Willow nods slowly. “That’s true. Maybe it won’t affect your hair too badly. Plus, we can strand test.”

“Strand test?”

Willow nods. “You take one piece of hair and do all the stuff to it, just to check.”

Matt frowns. “But then my mom might see, and she’ll take the box. No strand test.” She walks out of the aisle, hoping Willow follows her. She hears a sigh so dramatic it reminds her of herself.

“Alright, but it’s risky!”

“I like risk!”

Willow snorts and catches up with Matt. “You do not, but okay. Ooh, they have the cool Reese’s cups!”

The two of them take a detour to the candy aisle and each grab a snack or two, and check out without problem. On the drive home, Matt introduces Willow to a few new artists, and Willow laughs at her attempts to rap along with Lil Mariko.

“It’s cute, but it’s bad,” Willow giggles, wiping a tear away from her eye as they pull into Matt’s driveway. “Like, I wouldn’t do that for a talent show.”

“I don’t need to rap well. My talent is cheering.”

“And those big stupid eyes to make that turn every guy in the area into mush,” Willow adds. She pushes open the door and steps out. “Don’t forget that.”

Jamie and Britt show up soon after, and Matt’s sitting in an old lawn chair while Jamie and Willow bicker about the best ways to apply bleach.

“You have to leave it an extra fifteen minutes,” Jamie insists. “Otherwise it turns orange and yellow.”

“Yellow is okay,” Willow insists. “We’re overlaying it with magenta – it’ll be fine.”

Jamie huffs. “Yeah, but too much orange in the base color will turn it red.”

Matt wrinkles her nose. “I hate red. An extra fifteen minutes can’t hurt, can it?”

“Your hair could fall out,” Britt says. She holds up her phone. “Like, if you over bleach and overdye hair, it gets all weird and springy and falls out.”

“I’m fine,” Matt says, waving her hand. “I have virgin hair.”

“The only virgin thing about anyone in this room,” Jamie deadpans.

They all giggle, and get to work.

~

Matt chatters on the entire time they’re seated, doing her hair. She decides to ignore the way Jamie and Willow gently bicker about the time.

“Longer is fine,” Matt says. “I don’t want it to look red.”

She hates the smell of the bleach, but, when Willow rinses it out to reveal yellow-blonde hair, she’s elated. “It’s still yellow, though, is it okay?”

“Straight up your hair will fall out if we put any more bleach on it,” Willow says. It’s more firm than anything she’s said to Matt before, so Matt decides to agree.

The color smells almost as bad as the bleach, but she insists to keep the color on longer. “I want it to be dark pink!”

“Okay,” Willow says. “If you’re sure. But if we leave it too long, it might wreck your hair.”

“Don’t be such a worry-wart,” Jamie says, and that British accent of hers is soothing.

That is, until Matt shoves her head under the shower and pulls her hand away to see far too much hair wrapped around her hand.

“Oh my god,” Matt says, horrified. “Willow. Willow, what happened?!” She looks down at her hand, at the pink strands in the absolute wrong place. She turns to Willow, who looks just as scared.

“I – Matty, I’m so sorry,” she says. “I don’t know – I thought I left the dye and bleach on right.”

“I shouldn’t have told you to leave it on the extra time,” Jamie says quietly. “That’s on me.”

The room is quiet for a moment as Matt stares at the handful of hair in her hand. She reaches back again and more pulls off. A horrified pat back on the back of her head pulls off even more hair. It’s pink, sure. But it’s not on her head anymore.

“My hair is gone,” Matt whimpers.

“Only a little bit of it!” Jamie says.

“Not helping,” Britt hisses into her ear.

Matt feels the tears bubble. “Oh, my god, I’m gonna be bald!” she whimpers.

“It’s just the back,” Willow says, hand on Matt’s shoulder. “Matty, it’s just a little bit in the back, okay?” She turns the mirror so Matt can see. “See? No need to worry.”

All Matt can see is the giant bald spot on the underside of her head, something that was supposed to be pink and bright like her is now full of short, stubby little hairs. Like a boy’s. Like a shaved head. A badly shaved head.

“No,” she pleads. She blinks back tears as fast as she can, but she’s not sure how long she can hold it together. She stands up and shoves her head under the shower so when she starts crying, nobody can tell.

“Matty –”

“Hey,” Jamie says gently. “Wills, let’s – I think she needs some space.”

Matt pulls her head out, hoping her eyes aren’t too red. “I do,” she hiccups. “Just – give me fifteen minutes, okay? So I can rinse out my hair.” She fights to keep her voice steady. “I’ll be right out.”

She sobs silently as she feels the stretch and break of her hair at the back of her head. She knows hair doesn’t make her a girl, but it doesn’t matter.

“I worked so hard,” she whimpers. “I did so much to grow my hair.”

She’s careful as possible as she shampoos, trying not to pull out any more hair, as the tears fall. She considers collecting the pink hair from the drain, but it feels too sad.

When she comes out of her bathroom, Willow, Britt, and Jamie look like someone died.

“I’m so sorry, Matt,” Jamie says. “I think I – I think I forgot your hair isn’t curly.”

“We forgot,” Willow says. “We should have checked.”

Matt shrugs. “Nothing we can do now,” she says. “I, um. I think I need to be on my own for a little bit?” She’s lying, but just a little. Just technically. “I’ll see you all tomorrow, okay?”

“Are you sure?” Britt asks. She studies Matt’s face. “I don’t want to leave you alone when you’re upset.”

She shakes her head. “I’m gonna call Mox. And Nick.”

Jamie nods. “Okay. We’ll see you tomorrow.” She offers the tiniest wave. Matt returns it.

She fumbles for her phone, and dials Nick’s number.

~

Nick

“She’s so annoying,” he grumbles. “I don’t know how you put up with her.”

“Can you not drag me into this?” Mox pleads. “You guys were both really mean to each other. Sit down and talk about it.”

“I shouldn’t need to,” Nick grumbles.

Practice is a good reprieve, as it means he won’t have to deal with Matt for two or so hours, but it’s half an hour from the end that a basketball pegs him in the back.

“What the hell?!”

“Nick!” Claudio yells. “Your phone has been ringing for ages.”

Nick jogs over to his bag and checks. It’s Matt. “Uh. Hi?” He tries not to add, “You bitch,” at the end.

“Nick.”

It’s just his name, but the way Matt sobs it makes his heart freeze. “Matt? What’s wrong?”

“My hair,” she weeps. “I – we tried to dye my hair. And it – it fell out.”

“All of it?” It’s probably a bad question, but he knows nothing about hair and needs at least some clarification.

“No,” Matt sniffles. “But – but I’m – enough.” She lets out a sob. “Can you come home?”

Nick starts shoving his things in his bags. “Yeah, course. I – you want Mox to come, too?”

“Mhm,” Matt snuffles. “Thanks, Nicky.”

“We’ll be there as soon as we can,” he assures her. “We’ll be right there.”

“Kenny and Adam, too?” she asks. “Like when we were little?”

“I’ll call Kenny, you call Adam,” Nick says. “We’ll do everything we can.” He pauses. He doesn’t think there’s anything he can do.

“Okay,” Matt says, and she sounds so miserable Nick wants to be there right now.

“What’s wrong?” Mox asks. “What happened?” He stares at Nick. “Fuck, did somebody die?”

“No,” Nick says, grabbing his bag. “But we gotta go. Matt’s – she tried to dye her hair, but then I think something went wrong and it fell out. She’s freaking out.”

Mox nods. “You know this is way more than just the hair, right?”

“What do you mean?”

“Short hair?” Mox says. Nick shrugs. “What’s short hair related to?”

Nick thinks as he shoves his things into his gym bag. “Pixie cuts?”

Mox groans. “Heard of dysphoria?”

It hits Nick like a brick. “Oh, god.”

Coach Gunn is mercifully understanding, even though he promises to make them do the two mile run the next practice.

“Okay,” Mox says. “Yeah, that’ll – we’ll do it tomorrow. Bye.”

“Jesus, this must be important if you’re willing to run, Moxley. Drive safe.”

~

Matt

Her hands are shaking as she calls Adam for what feels like the twelfth time and puts the phone up to her ear. “Pick up,” she pleads. “Addy, please, pick up.” She hasn’t called him Addy since they were twelve and thirteen, when Adam decided it was too girly and Matt got mad about it for reasons she didn’t understand yet. “Addy, please.” Being alone, with a ringing phone leading to no one, has created a sense of abandonment she’s never felt before. She’s suddenly gets Nick’s anxiety over the past few weeks – the fear of being left alone by everyone who matters.

“Hey, it’s Adam, leave a message.” Matt sobs at the message tag line – she remembers Adam recording it outside of the high school her sophomore year, when their mom was late to pick them up after a game. Nick kept poking Adam in the ribs to make him laugh.

“Adam, I need you to come over,” she says. “I – I’m having a bad day, and I want my favorite people, okay? Please pick up.” She wants to add more, wants to explain herself further, why it’s important, but she can’t find the words. So she hangs up and looks at her hair, and starts crying harder.

~

Nick

Nick and Mox half run to the car. When they get to Matt, she’s is curled around herself and sitting in a part pink, part bleach stained lawn chair.

“Oh, honey,” Mox says. Nick’s never seen this side of Mox outside of being with Matt – he slides across the still-wet floor and pulls her in. “Let me see.”

Matt’s hand is shaking, actually shaking, as she moves her hair up to let them see.

“Oh,” Nick sighs. “Oh, good. It’s not too bad.”

Matt stares at him. Mox does, too.

“It’s still a big deal!” he clarifies. “I get that it is. But, Matt, I promise you, no one else will notice it. I can do little braids or pigtails in the morning so keep it hidden.”

She breaks into the tiniest smile. The first real one of hers directed toward him in a while. “You’d do that?”

“Of course,” he says. “I’m your brother.”

She lets out a wail. “I’m sorry I’ve been so mean to you,” she hollers. “I – I love you so much and think you’re so cool, but you’re so mean about yourself and it makes me mad.”

Nick throws a bewildered look to Mox, who steps back. Nick slides in and almost falls over as Matt dives at him, throwing her arms around his waist. “I’m not mean to myself.”

“You are,” Matt says, pulling back with a ferocity in her teary, red eyes. “You’re so mean to my baby brother. You say he’s boring and lame and doesn’t have a personality, and you’re wrong.” She stares at him. “Do you get why that would make me so mad?”

Nick exhales. “Uh. Kind of. I didn’t see it like that. I thought you were just sick of me.”

“I was sick of the way you talked about yourself,” she clarifies. “I go off to college and you get to be whatever Nick you want. That’s a good thing. You were acting like you would dissolve or something.”

Nick huffs. “I didn’t act like that.”

“You did, and you know it,” Matt says back. “I didn’t do it right, though. I didn’t – I didn’t explain why I was so frustrated.” She tears her eyes away. “I guess I was being kind of a bitch.”

Nick’s first instinct is to protect her, to deny that that’s ever an option. But then he pauses. He doesn’t have to defend her. Not in this case. Not when she’s right. “Kind of,” he lands on. “But – but it’s okay. I mean, now. Next time let me talk and then talk to me. Don’t, like, yell at me mid-prom dress talk.”

“Deal,” Matt says through a watery laugh. She reaches up and touches the bald spot again, her face crumpling. “I’m gonna need to look up a bunch of hairstyles to disguise this.”

Nick moves her hair. “There’s still some pink left,” he notices. Before he can think better of it, he reaches out to run his fingers through it. It stretches in a way that makes him want to recoil, but pulling his hand back only rips the hair off and it collects in his hand.

“Oh, fuck,” Mox says, eyes wide.

Matt whirls around to see Nick’s hand full of hair. She shrieks and dissolves into sobs again. Nick can barely discern her saying, “It’s gone,” over and over again, and thinks it’s his turn to step back.

Mox steps in. “It is,” Mox says gently. He settles his hands on her shoulders gently. “It’s – okay, it looks bad in the sink, but it’s not as much as you think.”

“I’m going to go make some peppermint tea,” Nick says, struck by a stroke of what he considers genius. “Like when you have a tummy ache.”

She looks up at him. “Thank you, Nicky.”

He nods down and smiles at her. “Of course.”

~

Nick

They’ve gotten Matt into the living room, explaining her misery briefly to their mother, but they still can’t get ahold of Adam.

“I’ll keep trying,” Nick promises, trying to pretend like he doesn’t have an image of Adam dead in a ditch somewhere flitting through his mind.

Every five minutes, Nick stands and makes another call to Adam. Nothing.

Halfway through the movie, when they’ve all started feeling the anxiety of Adam’s absence, Nick calls Adam again. “Dude, this is important,” he mutters. Matt’s calm on the couch in between Kenny and Mox, eating a bowl of popcorn. Between Nick and Mox they figured out a complex braid that completely covers the ruined area, but Matt’s still fragile enough that she needs all of her boys here. “Pick up.”

He tries three more times. Nothing.

“One more, and then I’m driving over there to get you,” Nick promises.

“’lo?”

“Adam!” Nick exclaims. “Oh, thank goodness. You weren’t picking up.”

Adam’s response is something messy and slurred. Nick doesn’t even know what he said. “Come again?” he says. Something settles, sour, in his stomach. “Are you okay?”

“Nick, messed up,” Adam mumbles.

The sourness curdles. “Are you okay? Can you come to my house?”

“I – don’t think.” There’s a hiccup. “Oh, this is a bad choice.”

“What did you do?” Nick asks. He’s not used to being scared for two of his people at once.

“You’re right, Nicky,” Adam slurs. “Alcohol’s bad.”

“I’m calling your mom,” Nick says, hands shaking. “Right now. I’m worried about you.”

“No, I’m –”

“You are not fine,” Nick says firmly. “Your mom will take care of you.”

Nick stands up and checks his people. Kenny, too anxious about what other people think to tell them he’s dating a guy on the rival debate and basketball teams. Matt, recovering from a dysphoric moment and dabbing at still drying tear tracks. And Mox, the guy who has stepped in and helped every time it’s been needed. The one who always knows what to say.

“Mox, I need to borrow you,” Nick says. Before anyone reacts, he reaches down and grabs Mox’s arm.

“What’s the –”

The look Nick throws at him much be pretty powerful, because Mox shuts up and listens intently as they wait out in the kitchen, far enough from the living room that Nick can be sure Matt won’t hear.

“Adam’s drunk at home and I need to call his mom,” Nick says quietly. “You need to talk to him on my phone while I steal yours to make the call.”

Mox frowns. “Your house doesn’t have a landline?”

“What?! No! What is this, 1995? Just give me your phone!”

Nick thinks he does a good job of shielding Kenny and Matt from the turmoil, but it’s probably more Mulan playing in the background. It’s always been Matt’s favorite Disney movie, and he thinks he knows why now.

“Thank you so much for calling me, Nicky,” Adam’s mom says half an hour later. “I’ve got him here. He’s okay.” She sighs. “He’s a bit of a lightweight, it seems. All this for only three beers.”

“I’m sorry, Mom,” Adam mumbles, but it’s loud enough Nick can hear him on the other end of the line. “Nick, I’m sorry.”

Adam’s mom shushes him. “Don’t apologize, Adam. You didn’t hurt anyone but yourself, and that’s an apology that can happen later. I can tell something bigger is going on here.” She sighs, and Nick thinks he can see Adam’s face in his mind: miserable, heartbroken, scared. “Again, Nicky. We’re so lucky to have you in our lives.”

“Take care of him, Mrs. Page,” he says, feeling like he’s pulled in two directions as he knows he has to hang up the phone.

“Of course. He’ll see you tomorrow.”

Nick hangs up and looks over at Mox. “Thanks, man.”

“Of course.” His smile is a little hollow, sad. “I kind of know what Adam’s going through. Anything he needs to get better.”

Nick doesn’t have the bandwidth to press further, so he and Mox walk back into the living room.

Matt looks up at them, like it’s the first time she’s noticed they’d left. “What was that guys? Where’s Adam?”

Nick and Mox exchange a look. “Well…”

Matt frowns. “What’s that look?” She sits up so fast Kenny falls behind her, flailing. “Is he okay? What’s wrong?”

“Matt,” Mox says slowly. “Adam – I think he’s going through some stuff.” He glances over at Nick.

“He was drunk, Matty,” Nick says slowly.

Her demeanor shifts drastically, turning confusion into an angry wildfire. “He’s what?!” she shrieks. “Give me my phone.”

“Matty, I don’t think -” She whirls around to Mox, who immediately pauses. “Alright, baby, you do what you gotta do.”

“Oh no,” Nick says. He steps up and wrestles Matt’s phone from her hands. Matt looks almost shocked. “Matt, Adam’s clearly going through some stuff. This – you don’t get to beat him up about it.”

“I wasn’t going to –”

“Then what were you going to do?” he asks. His hands are shaking, but he holds firm.

Matt almost immediately deflates. “Oh.”

“You’re allowed to get mad at things, but you really need to check yourself before taking it out on other people.” He sits down gently next to Matt. “You’re upset about your hair, and you’re allowed to be, but you can’t take that and launch it at Adam who’s having issues, too.”

Matt curls up on herself again. “Yeah,” she says, quieter than he’s heard her in ages. She buries her face into Mox’s chest. “I just needed him. And he’s not here.”

[dropoutconfessions]

It makes me incredibly angry when people say "Riz is canonically aro/ace" and act like you're a horrible person if you ship him with people. Like. Nowhere in the show is it ever stated that he's aro/ace. The conversation people reference as him being "canonically" aro/ace is just him expressing his lack of very specifically sexual attraction, and even then the response from his dad (and by extension Brennan and the show as a whole) is that it's okay, and that it's specifically unclear whether he's ace or whether it's just not something that's happened for him in specific yet. It is intentionally vague as to whether he is ace or not, and there's genuinely zero indication in the show that he's aro other than that he doesn't have a love interest which could be completely unrelated.

Right so I'd like to share my opinion on this for a brief moment. I am still fully here to give people a voice, but this is just, an issue that kinda hits close to home since I'm demiaro.

The most annoying thing in a lot of media is when representation is shoehorned in as a list of labels and buzzwords we're given. Queer people should not have to turn to the screen and say their full identity in order for them to be canonically queer. That's what subtext is for. That's what good writing does. Is not spell it out for you when it's not necessary to do so. They do not need it to be spelt out for it to be very clear that he's ace/aro.

I am going to assume ignorance here instead of assuming malicious intent. The idea that the reason he isn't ace, is because "it's not something that's happened for him in specific yet", is an extremely common thought process behind asexual erasure. I'm sure that's not what you intended, but that is something to reflect on in general.

Both Adaine and Riz have yet to have relationships or display crushes (not counting junior year since most of the evidence comes from sophomore year) . Adaine hasn't gotten an entire nightmare sequence / arc around dealing with here friends all finding partners and leaving them alone. Adaine hasn't expressed or had conversations about any lack of sexual or romantic feels to the extent Riz has. Adaine is headcanoned as ace/aro by some people. Riz is more than that. Riz is very much canonically ace/aro if you do the slightest bit of character analysis. There's accidental coding and then there's Riz Gukgak.

List of every single Riz trait that is hella ace/aro coded

A lack of sexual and romantic attraction to other people (I'm not counting the time where he said he was kinda into Sexy Rat, that whole scene was a bit, and absolutely insane)

Making up a partner/crush in order to fit in (I have 1000% done that and so have a lot of acespec and arospec people)

A fear of being left behind by his friends because of a belief that they will find partners and move on from him, largely caused by alloromantic culture's insane emphasis on how the most important relationship is a romantic one

The fact that almost every other fantasy high pc has been in a relationship or a crush (kristen had tracker and gertie, gorgug had zelda, unit, and mary ann, fabian had aelwyn, ivy, and mazey, adaine had oisin and possibly zayn depends on your interpretation, and fig has had ayda and a string of professionals in a variety of fields across seasons 1 and 2) with only riz as a single character

The fact his sophomore year arc was entirely about his lack of sexual/romantic attraction and fear of being left alone because of it

Like not even a joke, it was that and his dad, that was the whole arc

His junior year arc was also about his obsession to stay together as a friend group, which like I mentioned above, is very clearly based in his asexuality and aromanticism

I am not going to stop people from shipping characters ever. If you want to rewrite character sexualities, that's fine by me, I'm a big believer in "Don't Like, Don't Read". I am not gonna pretend like characters are not their sexuality in canon so that people feel justified in writing their stories. People who rewrite character sexuality can do so without making everyone else assuage their guilt for them. I know I'm on the "piss on the poor" reading comprehension website, but it's not hard to tell Riz is ace/aro in canon, and pretending otherwise doesn't help your case.

[littencloud9]

Thanks for answering my ask. If you don't mind me asking (again), who are your favorite romantic relationship's couples in books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series (can be canon or non-canon)? Feel free if you want to write the reasons or not of why you love them. Sorry if you've answered this before.....

HI!! no problem i LOVE talking about my favs. here’s like top 3 ships of some fandoms i’m in because there is simply too many LMAO

jujutsu kaisen

- itafushi: literally my number one ship ever. they make me so fucking emo. the tragedy of what couldn’t have been prevented. i pray for itafushi moments in the jjk manga but every time it happens it is somehow worse than the last. peace 🙏

- yutamaki: they mean so much to me. i love them both platonically and romantically! their moments in jjk0 are super sweet and i love that they’re always supporting each other 🥹

- satosugu: this is a ship i’ll put in a blender. i don’t usually think of them but when i do i want to throw up blood. they’re the cause of all my problems. i love them. they are so my tears ricochet core

other ships i like are nobamaki, inuokko, and mechamiwa! perks of being a multishipper lol

-

bungo stray dogs

- shin soukoku: MY YIN YANG DUO!! they are the dumbest. somehow they bulldozed past all the normal stages of dating and went straight to dying for each other. who does that.

- kunichuuzai: i’m cheating here because i love all individual pairings in this ship AND the poly ship. especially kunichuu which crept up on me and slapped me in the face. chuuya being downbad for kunikida is GREAT. they are so good when you dont have toxic shippers breathing in your ear about how one is better than the other ❤️

- tachigin: do u ever think about how they’re both liars. how they both have a hidden identity. how they both found family within the mafia not as the person they really are, but as the person they pretended to be. how the betrayal felt like when tachihara dropped his mask. OUGH

i also really like ranpoe and atsulucy! and beast!akutagawa x beast!tanizaki is cute too

-

link click

- i’m a liar. shiguang is the only ship i have in this show. my FAVS. their devotion to each other is insane. they make me genuinely feral. cxs being an annoying little shit x lg who stays hopelessly in love anyway. ARGH I LOVE THEM. THEY WANNA SAVE EACH OTHER!!!!

-

tian guan ci fu

- fengqing: the implications of this 800 year old situationship is very fun. knowing someone so well that you know exactly what to say to hurt them. loving someone so deeply and repressing it to the point that you mistake it as hatred. i’m obsessed with them

- hualian: how can i not include the most romantic (and canon) pair EVER. get you someone who loves you like hua cheng loves xie lian because holy SHIT. i have not read the books (only watched the donghua) and yet these two make me feral i need them to hurry it up and get married already 😭

i don’t really ship anything else as of yet. but i do like and acknowledged beefleaf. i’ve heard it’s horribly tragic. i cannot wait to find out

-

sk8 the infinity

- renga: RENGA!!!! MY PRECIOUS. they are fucking head over heels for each other i’m obsessed with it. their ‘breakup arc’ genuinely hurt my soul. but i love how confident they are about each other’s skills, how they’re each others biggest supporter, how they see the best in each other etc. insane. i need season 2 asap

- matchablossom: [danny motta voice] they wanna fuck so bad. the end

i don’t ship anything else. but do i think cherry and adam had a situationship back when they were teenagers? yes. anyway

-

avatar the last airbender

- mailee: MY GIRLS. THE BEST ATLA SHIP AND YOU HEARD IT FROM ME. mai who masks her emotions with blankness and ty lee who masks her emotions with a smile. but they both know each other better than that. they protect each other and they are also 🖤🩷 how could you not love them!!!!

- zukka: [affectionately] there is something so wrong with these two. the original red and blue gays. to ME. i think they bounce off each other well and they’re a really funny duo. also. the prince and the fool. what more is there

- yuekka: personally i love love LOVED yuekka. i like how yue really loosened up around sokka and how sokka was head over heels for her LMAO they were a really cute ship. moon coded gf x ocean coded bf do you see how great that is. the tides follow the whims of the moon. they can’t exist without the other. ARGH

-

voltron

- klance: sigh. since we’re digging this deep into my fandoms list let us talk about klance. do i agree with anything that was written past season 3? absolutely not. they are definitely a wasted potential ship that ruined my life forever but like. yah. the ship you obsessed over at 14 is SERIOUS business. the homoerotic rivalry they had was seriously unmatched. nobody talk to me

- adashi: haha. my first experience with being queerbaited. they buried the gays before the gays even had lines. i was so upset about adam that i consumed an insane amount of fan content and then wrote 10k words in one sitting. thats how upset they made me

- romellura: the gfs ever. the writers screwed allura over so every ship i have for her is… very fan-based. but i’ll protect them with my SOUL. the softness of meeting someone who knows EXACTLY the kind of loss you felt. finding comfort and home in each other.

- veracxa: sorry one more. VERACXA IS SO GOOD AND SO UNDERRATED. lance and veronica having the same taste is so funny. also love that veronica went out of her way to make acxa feel welcome. and their matching judgy stares. the older sister and sister in law. i KNOW lance was sweating

-

sorry for the long ass list. there’s lots of other platonic/familial relationships i enjoy in shows too i swear i’m not just insane 😭🙏. thank you so much for the ask!!

[silverducks]

Jaime Lannister - Honour vs Loyalty

And why I didn’t like his ending.

Ok, so I was going to write a post about my thoughts on how they ended the show for Jaime Lannister, but it was getting very, very long, so it will have to wait for another day. Because yes, nearly a month after I finished watching the series, I’m still not over that.

Anyway, as that post was getting very long, I thought I’d just focus on this one thing here, and that’s the idea of honour vs loyalty and how it effects Jaime as a character.

Spoilers below (cause I’m sure there’s still a few people in the world who don’t know yet how it ends.)

Ok, so to say it bugs me that Jaime went back to Cersei at the end of the series and died in her arms is putting it mildly. No matter how much I try to reconcile it, or watch/read people’s opinions on it, I just can’t get it to make sense. It’s more than a bit frustrating.

For me, it makes no sense that, after all that character development, after everything he went through and everything he watched his sister do, after finding another woman who not only believed in the good in him, but helped bring it out, he decides to run back to Cersei.

Now, I’ll leave most of my thoughts on that in the other post (I have a lot, lol!) and just wanted to focus on here the idea that Jaime’s ending is somehow tied up with his concept of honour vs loyalty. Or at least in how I’ve read people try to justify it.

Ok, so I’ve not read the books yet, but I’ve read enough quotes/analysis and opinions online to know that after about series 4, Jaime’s character takes a very different path to what we have in the show. So I’m only really talking about the show here. Also, I have only watched it all once, recently in a marathon watch, so there’ll be loads of stuff I’ve missed or forgotten.

And I’ve read/watched enough online to know a lot of people are also very annoyed that Jaime went back to Cersei. In fact, most of what’s been bugging me is based on comments I’ve read on YouTube or series 8 reviews. The main video, or review, mentions that they don’t like how they assassinated Jaime’s character arc, but then there are discussions in the comments saying that for some they do think it makes sense.

Now, I’m not saying they’re wrong, but I do disagree with some of the main justifications they have said. One of these is that people say it was honourable for Jaime to return to Cersei at the end. That it made sense for his character to return to his sister and it did complete his character arc.

My thoughts on that are basically NOPE! You’ve misunderstood the point of his character arc. I’ll save most of my thoughts for the other post, but to summarise, for me, Jaime’s character arc has been both about redemption and identity. It’s been about becoming a better person and trying to make amends for your past mistakes, but also about finding your own voice, your own thoughts and your own inner self. And, as both these arcs are tied together for Jaime, overall his whole character arc was about him breaking away from Cersei and, through doing that, becoming a better person.

Yeah, I know that sounds kinda corny and simplified, but, for me, that’s overall been Jaime’s character arc. He’s had plenty of slip ups (cough mainly the writers refusing to let Twincest go cough), but overall he’s grown as a person, so what we see in series 8 up to that scene in episode 4, is a better, changed person. As he says to Bran, “I’m not that man anymore.”

This means the fact that he just goes back to her at the end, does indeed ruin his whole character arc. And I honestly can’t get it to make any sense in way that isn’t JUST because the writers decided he should.

So, if we then consider the idea that it’s somehow honourable for him to go back to Cersei… Ok, I can see why people may think that, but for me, it’s not honour, it’s loyalty. Honourable would be to continue on the better path, acknowledging that your sister has done wrong, continues to do wrong and has gone down the opposite path. Jaime’s path has been about redemption, Cersei’s has been one of villainy.

Cersei needs to pay for her crimes as it were and that is, imho, the honourable thing to do. Now pay for your crimes doesn’t mean anything as awful as torture or that walk of shame (no, even though Cersei tortured others, I’d never say the same should be done to her). But as she’s never shown any remorse for what she’s done (unlike Jaime, who then had 7 series of redemptive arc making up for it), it’s not honourable for Jaime to go back to try and save her, to think they can just run off together. Of course, I know and understand both Jaime’s and also Tyrion’s inability to just let her die – they instinctively want to try to help her because she’s their sister. That’s why Tyrion still keeps on trying to plead with her. If Jaime was already in Kings Landing he could do the same.

No, the issue is he leaves Brienne in the dead of night, breaking her heart and saying how hateful he is, rides all the way to Kings Landing just to be with Cersei. Especially when he knows it’s pretty much a suicide mission and won’t make any difference. That is not honourable - to want to die with your evil twin sister so she’s not alone. That is loyalty.

And, this brings me back to the whole honour vs loyalty issue with Jaime, and why series 8 messed it up imho. In the earlier series, we see that Jaime is very loyal to his House, as is everyone in Westeros really. And usually loyalty is seen as a good trait – in our world as well as the world of GoT. And the Lannisters are even more focused on their loyalty as we see from Tywin. Your house/family is it and you pledge loyalty and are willing to die for them. So him being willing to do all he can to save his sister, that is loyalty.

And Jaime is very loyal to his house. But he’s also a Knight and Brienne is right, there is also honour in him. Something she first found out when he told her about why he killed the Mad King, and something that she has been slowly encouraging and bringing out in Jaime ever since.

Yet what do you do if your House/family are not honourable? The Lannisters as a House have done all sorts of bad things, including things like organising the Red Wedding and Cersei’s attack on the Sept. What do you do then, when your honour conflicts with your loyalty? This, for me, is one of the biggest struggles for Jaime’s character and so imperative in his overall character arc.

This is something that is brought up in the tent scene between Brienne and Jaime – they both know there is no honour (ie, it’s not the right, moral thing to do) to attack and kill the Tully rebels when they are defending the home the Lannister’s took from them. But he is a Lannister. And this is a big struggle for Jaime – as he’s trying to be more honourable and become a better person, his loyalty to his House and family are more and more at odds with that. Even more so when you consider his complicated relationship with his sister.

In that situation, he found an alternative; a way to still be loyal to his house, by taking back RiverRun, but also be honourable, by making sure no blood was spilt.

And for me, as Jaime grows in his character arc, he starts to choose honour over loyalty more and more (eg giving Brienne the Quest to find Sansa rather than killing Sansa at Cersei’s request and then freeing Tyrion against his sister and father’s wishes.) This culminates in the scene where Brienne challenges him outright in the Dragon Pit. There is no alternative here; he can do the right, honourable thing and join the fight for mankind, or he can choose to remain loyal to his sister and Queen and not help.

Now, we know this isn’t an easy decision for Jaime, but eventually, he does just that. He chooses the honourable thing by going to the North to help them. And that is, imho, where he finally and fully breaks away from Cersei and becomes his own person.

So, for me, the idea that it is honourable for him to return to Cersei goes against his whole character arc. It ruins his identity arc, because he once more stops being his own person, stops making his own decisions and is all focused on Cersei again. And it goes against his redemption arc, by choosing loyalty above honour, by returning to her and trying to save her after everything she has done.

That is not honour, it is loyalty, which is basically taking Jaime back to the start – where he always did choose loyalty over honour and it made him do some pretty darn bad things.

So, for me, for a Jaime that had been through so much, come so far in his character arc, his identity and redemption, to return to Cersei like that is a complete 180 and a waste of those 7 years of character development we saw.

And it makes no sense.

[blackbatpurplecat]

What do you think of Catwoman in the video games (Arkham City & Knight, Tell Tale, Injustice)? Which are you favorites and do you think TPTB would ever come out with a solo game of her's?

Yay, finally I get to say something NICE! XD Short answer: They’re (almost) all great! My absolute favorite is Catwoman in the Telltale games!

Very long answer incoming:

Lemme rank them from the one I like the least to the one I love the most. That’s probably the easiest way to answer this. There are many more games Catwoman is appearing in but they’re not really worth mentioning here.

3) Catwoman in Injustice 1+2

Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of Catwoman in those two but that’s no big surprise when the cast is bigger than the one in Avengers: Endgame. She’s fantastic in the tie-in comics but I can’t count those here.

So in part 1, she’s Bruce’s ex who ratted him out to protect him and after everything, she still wants to redeem herself and get back together with him. I liked her purple-gray costume (the weird steampunk one with the tail... not so much), I liked her voice-actress who also voiced her in the Arkham games, Grey DeLisle. I liked her cunningness, how she quickly figured out that Cyclops was a different Cyclops and made him blow his cover.

I understand that Selina would do something more selfish to protect the man she loves. She wanted Supes to spare Bruce and for that, accepted that many other people would die - BUT I will never understand WHY they wrote her arc like that. Why not write her as Bruce’s loyal partner and girlfriend? Why couldn’t she be on his side in the fight against Superman and the Regime? Even Harley and Luthor were! At least, they didn’t make her entirely evil, she did have good intensions but was misguided. And her ending had a feeling of hope in it.

Years later, she’s apparently reached her goal of redemption, found her way back to Bruce, and is now working as a double agent for the Insurgency. This time, she has more than only two scenes but we don’t learn much more about her, her relationship with Bruce, or her arc. You gotta read the comics for that... And again, not a huge fan of her costumes in this one but it’s cool that you can modify them to your liking. 

Her ending is the worst in this however. After what she’s been through with Bruce, after fighting with him, against him, redeeming herself, earning his trust again, and getting back to his side, she... just leaves him because she got bored. Wow. What fucking idiot wrote that?!

All in all, she’s a minor character in both games, her arc happens mostly off-screen, they don’t do anything new or outstanding with her but I enjoyed seeing her. Too bad, you can’t play as her.

2) Catwoman in the Arkham games

Now THAT’s more like it! ❤️Back then, I only bought Arkham City because you could play as Catwoman in it. I didn’t know much more about the game, I had never played its predecessor, I only wanted to play as Catwoman - and boy oh boy what a glorious purchase that turned out to be!

To this day, I still adore Arkham City, so much so that I bought it three times (CD + Steam + PS4). I can play it in my sleep! And it made me buy Asylum, Origins, Blackgate, and Knight, half of them were good and some also had Catwoman!

City - Her part in the game is a short side quest that’s not really connected to the main story: Catwoman wants to steal from Hugo Strange’s vault, convinces Ivy to help her break into it, then she leaves her loot behind to save Batman’s life, then tracks down Two-Face to get her stolen loot back, and after finishing him, retrieves her loot. She then decides to stay in Arkham City because it’s still dangerous there a.k.a. fun!

While it’s a shame that Catwoman and Batman only meet twice, they do save each other’s lives. The banter and flirting could certainly be better in this though. Her story isn’t anything new BUT it’s perfectly executed and it’s exactly what Catwoman’s like. She’s playful and seductive (they could have turned down her horniness about a few points - but you gotta please the fanboys *sigh*), she’s looking after herself, she only does what she wants (so she won’t return the plant to Ivy who had treated her so badly), but in the end, she does the right thing by saving Batman because she has a good heart.

While her side story felt tagged on, I really enjoyed it! I just love playing as her, beating up thugs, using the whip, and crawling on the ceilings. Also you get to wear the BTAS suit AND the purple Long Halloween suit! YAY!

Blackgate - It starts with Batman chasing Catwoman across the rooftops for the very first time, that’s just a fantastic intro! And I really liked their fight towards the ending for its very interesting execution. This time, Catwoman is not playable but both a suspicious ally who helps Batman with information and an enemy Batman has to defeat. Which I get because they’ve basically just met and don’t know each other yet.

The lack of trust is also the reason why Catwoman’s playing him like she is in the game. She figures him out rather quickly and cleverly uses his urge to save and protect others against him to get access to what she had been told to get from Blackgate. Manipulating Batman into helping her completing her mission is a real Catwoman-y move so the Arkham games continue the trend of “getting” her character. Well, except for having Catwoman lick herself like a cat.

Knight - Selina’s third and last appearance in the Arkham games. She’s kinda playable and she’s no enemy BUT she’s a damsel in distress... ... ... Okay, Knight, what do have for us?

Riddler, of all people, has captured Catwoman and uses her to play with Batman. Well, at least it proves that everyone knows about the relationship between the Bat and the Cat (yet Catwoman keeps saying they’re not close - oh honey, no one believes you). Selina’s wearing an explosive collar and Batsy has to find Riddler trophies and complete riddles (and for some fucking reason drive races!) to unlock the keys to set her free.

Catwoman’s kinda playable since you can’t explore the city with her but you can switch to her while you’re solving Riddler’s contraptions or fight his robots. The dual team feature in the game was magnificent in general. I would have loved to play more as her but at least, she’s not just sitting around waiting for Bruce to save her but is partaking in her own rescue.

The chemistry between Bruce and Selina is the best part of this Riddler mission. Neither fears nor takes Eddie seriously and especially Selina drops so many awesomely annoyed comments and jabs against him, but gets increasingly more worried. While we saw BatCat meet in Blackgate, in Knight they’ve known each other for years and it shows. There’s no other character in the game Batman talks to in the way he talks to Catwoman. It’s... casual, funny, flirty. Additionally, you can clearly hear his worry for her in his voice. In the end, Selina even comes back to help Batman with Riddler even though she didn’t have to - she wanted to! And offers more of her help, it’s so obvious how much he means to her.

I love Batman and Catwoman working together and flirting and bantering while fighting other Rogues but the only thing that’s holding this back from being perfect is the series’ idiotic insistence that Bruce is still mourning the al Ghul chick which we all know is bullshit. And Selina doesn’t know Batman’s identity?! Come on.

To sum it up, I really liked Catwoman’s attitude and portrayal in Knight but would have loved to have more of her in the game. What we got was passable enough to have fun with. Bonus points for the 90s Balent suit you can put her in!!! If only there was an Arkham game in which both characters were playable and constantly working together, now THAT would be my dream!

1) Catwoman in the Telltale games

Where do I start? The voice? The charm? The complexity? 

She’s not playable but that doesn’t make this game and her in it less perfect. We again meet a clever, confident, I-mostly-care-about-myself Selina who’s great at fighting and stealing and manipulating. She’s caught Harvey in her trap to get close to his buddy, rich boy Bruce Wayne. She instantly finds out that he’s Batman (same way he finds out that she’s Catwoman) and they form a rocky alliance which either blooms into something deeper or not, depending on your decisions.

The makers of the game understand her the way Rocksteady did but add a softer layer to her. She’s playful, seductive, and doesn’t take no shit from anyone and in episode 3 of the first season, we see a vulnerable Selina for the first time. A woman who doubts she could ever be more than a cat burglar. She does take pride in her skills and doesn’t apologise for what she does (she even says “you shouldn’t trust me”) but you notice that she’s longing for a connection, for someone who trusts and relies on her without weighing her down. 

I personally had the impression that she felt a bit honored that Batman would support her and have faith in her the way he did in my playthrough. It gave her a chance to prove to herself that she could do more, be more. And that it felt good to have someone she in turn could rely on and trust which proved to her that the world maybe wasn’t as bad as she’d thought, that she could let her guard down once in a while. There was also another side we don’t see often on her: She didn’t want to face Harvey at the hospital. Maybe due to cowardice, shame, you decide.

Her last scene in season 1 wasn’t the best, it was just her going back to her old ways, seemingly leaving behind her character development from previous episodes but she probably wasn’t at the point of staying and saving people yet. It was the usual move to save herself and telling herself that she’s a bad person who doesn’t have feelings for Bruce. Changing yourself isn’t hard, it’s not changing back to your old self that is, and I think that’s what happened there, she simply fell back into her old self. 

In season 2, she returns as the thief we all know and love. They didn’t change her, her actions and dialogue lines fit the character we met in season 1. This time, we also see her vengeful side as she’s trying to get revenge for her dead friend, Riddler, and she won’t let anyone get in her way, not even Bruce.

Later, she wants Bruce to tell her that he needs her and he can’t take down Harley and the rest without her, proving she wants to be needed and trusted as I’d mentioned before. Same goes for admitting that it means a lot to her that he lets her into his secret life. Season 2 shows us that everything from season 1 did leave an impact on her and her development is slowly moving forward. One lovely example is her being surprised by a hug in S1 and in S2, she hugs Bruce first.

To put lots of rambling briefly I LOOOVE Telltale’s Catwoman! She’s not just a cunning thief but a woman with feelings, hopes, fears, layers. I really hope we will get a third season someday, especially since we didn’t get any closure scenes with Selina, no matter which Joker we fought in the last S2 episode.

---

Now regarding her own game... She had one already with a 1999 Game Boy Color game. Nothing huge but I count it. Especially since she’s wearing her 90s suit in it. 😉

I would very much welcome a Catwoman game with her as the lead! An Arkham like game: open world Gotham, you get to meet many Rogues, you have to flee from Batman and/or fight his kiddies. Maybe you need to team up with Harley and Ivy, or with Batgirl! OR make it like a Lara Croft game with lots of breaking and entering, and stealing valuable artefacts.

Alas, I think the chances of getting a Catwoman game are very slim! DC are so focused on Batman and Superman, they won’t spend millions of dollars on the production of a game that’s... not starring at least one of those two. I mean there’s not even a Wonder Woman game so why would they make one starring Catwoman? A shame really.

[rubyleaf]

JELLIE: A BAND STORY – Spinoff: Katie joins a band

Yay, another spinoff about a character that’s not gonna appear in ages! But I figured out a lot of things about Jen’s troubled little sister Katie (a major player in later arcs) and how she ended up in a band despite all her resolve. Features heavy allusions to Katie’s aroace-ness and basically-stalking-someone-into-your-band behavior I would not condone in real life, even though it’s inspired by real-life events. (If anything, rather milder than said real-life events.)

Can be read as a standalone, but will probably make more sense if you’ve read this Katie spinoff first!

Tag list: @writer-in-monochrome, @alicewestwater, @mouwwie, @writingbyjillian (notify me to be added or removed!)

When Katie moves out for college, it feels like jumping out of a prison window straight into cold, deep water.

On one hand, she’s free now. Free from her parents’ expectations, free from the pressure to be perfect all the time, well-behaved, bringing home perfect grades. On the other, fulfilling those expectations has been her whole identity for so many years. If she can’t be the perfect daughter, the presentable child—who is she?

Katie doesn’t know. She doesn’t want to find out. So she keeps her head down; she works hard, studies hard, rarely socializes. It’s fine. She’s not lonely. She doesn’t need anything or anyone. It’s better to be alone of her own volition than to let people into her life and risk being abandoned.

That is, until her roommate teams up with her class project partner to blackmail her into joining them for a party.

“But I’m just here so you two do your parts of the work,” she insists as she peers into the dark, crowded room, already exhausted from the loud music and louder people. “Don’t make me do anything. I’m leaving again soon anyway.”

The two exchange a disappointed glance. “Come on,” says Rachel, her roommate. “It’s the weekend! It’s not like you have to get up early tomorrow or anything.”

“Yeah, and you should have some fun,” Lyra adds, her project partner who’s as competent as she is a social butterfly. “Maybe talk to some people? I could introduce you to some nice guys if—”

Panic flares through Katie’s whole body. “No, thank you.”

Lyra frowns. “Are you sure? You’ve never had a boyfriend, have you?”

“No,” Katie says firmly, “and I’m not looking for one.”

Which is true. For some reason she has never been interested in boys. Or girls, for that matter. It’s been years and she still doesn’t understand what the fuss is about.

“Okay,” Rachel says as she begins to withdraw into the crowd, “do whatever you want. But if you’re looking for people, feel free to find us!”

Katie makes a mental note to most definitely not do that.

Slipping away from the only people she knows here, she makes for the snack table, careful to put on her most aloof aura. Just like back in high school, it actually works. Katie knows how to avoid being spoken to by strangers, let alone hit on.

Just a few snacks, and then she’s going home. That’s it. That’s the plan.

At least until the sound of off-key singing carries over from next door.

Intrigued, Katie creeps closer. It sounds like a bunch of girls singing karaoke, messing around and having fun. Not really caring if they sound stupid or don’t hit the notes. Just enjoying themselves.

Much like…

Katie should get away, she knows. The last thing she needs right now are the memories, the old feelings. And most of all, in college she’s finally in a place where no one knows she’s the sister of Jennie Lin. She can’t afford to ruin that now.

But no one knows her here. These girls certainly won’t know her. She’s just here for tonight.

And deep down, no matter how much she tries to repress it, she misses singing more than ever.

Just one night. No names, no recognizing, no strings attached.

Pushing open the door, Katie slips into the room.

---

It’s a lot later than planned when Katie leaves the party, escaping the questions about her identity to stumble, breathless but satisfied, into the hallway outside.

This was fun, she has to admit. She has missed singing. More than that, she has missed singing with others, scary as it is to admit it. Even if she’s still not used to those others being strangers…or not nearly as musically gifted as her sister.

But maybe, just maybe, she could go for doing this more often.

“You’re not following your passion, are you?”

Katie gives a start. Wasn’t she alone in the hallway a second ago?

Spinning around, she finds herself face to face with a girl around her age. She feels like she might seen her before somewhere, but she can’t be sure; the most remarkable thing about this stranger is her height, making her stand taller than many boys. Brown eyes meet with hers, their droopy, heavy-lidded shape giving her a deceptively sleepy look, but Katie doesn’t miss the piercing intensity in her otherwise blank gaze.

“Do I know you?” Katie asks coolly.

The stranger ignores her question. “I’ve seen you sing,” she says, her voice deep for a girl and just as bluntly flat as her words. “You’re no amateur. You sing like a person with years of practice.”

Katie takes a step backwards. The strange girl’s words hit way too close to home, far too close for comfort. “It’s just a hobby,” she says. “What are you trying to tell me?”

“I’ve seen you in class.” The girl’s large dark eyes remain fixed on Katie, unblinking. “Engineering doesn’t suit you. You’re just doing this to make your parents happy, am I right?”

Katie wants to protest, wants to argue. But what is she supposed to say when she knows, deep down, that this stranger is telling the truth?

“I don’t see how that’s your business,” she says, narrowing her eyes. “Why do you care what a random stranger is doing with her life?”

“I have a band.”

Katie freezes.

“I play the guitar,” the girl says. “We still need a singer.”

Jen’s face flashes before her eyes, bright and happy without her.

“No,” she says firmly. “No!”

“You’d be perfect,” the girl insists. “Your talent’s wasted on engineering. You need to sing.”

The walls seem to close in.

“No!” Katie bursts out, her voice coming out louder than she intended. Backing away, she hits the wall, her eyes darting through the hallway in search of a way out. “I am not joining a band! Not now! Not ever!”

“But—”

“No,” she says again, turning to run away. “Good luck finding someone else. But I’m not the person you’re looking for!”

“Vicky Vega.”

Katie pauses mid-stride. “What?”

“My name,” says the girl, still sounding as unfazed as ever. “Victoria Vega. If you’re looking for me, in case you change your mind.”

Without mustering another response, Katie runs out of the building and writes off that encounter as a bizarre anecdote to shake her head at in the future.

---

What she doesn’t facture in is just how stubborn Vicky can be.

She has never noticed her in any of her classes before, but it seems the same isn’t true for Vicky. On Monday she is fully prepared for things to go back to normal when, in her very first class, a figure sits down beside her.

“This place is free, right?” Vicky asks when she’s already sitting. “I know you don’t have any friends here.”

Katie wonders if she has realized how rude she’s being. Judging by her tone, she apparently hasn’t.

“What are you doing here?” she asks in an undertone, glaring.

Vicky doesn’t bat an eye. “Joining you,” she says. “We’re in the same class. Might as well sit with you.”

Katie sighs. “I’m still not joining your band,” she replies. “So don’t get your hopes up.”

“Why not?”

What is this person, a child? Annoyance flares, but Katie expertly keeps it down. “I don’t have the time,” she replies, “and I don’t like bands anyway.”

“You sang a lot of band songs on Friday.”

Katie has no good response to that.

The same story repeats itself every time she has a class with Vicky. The girl follows her around like a lost duckling, sitting next to her in class, walking her from classroom to classroom. Katie can’t decide if she should be annoyed or creeped out or a mixture of both.

“How much longer are you planning to do this?” she asks on day four of the whole nonsense. “I already said no!”

Vicky looks unfazed. “I’ll leave you alone,” she says, “when you come to band practice with me.”

Katie takes a deep breath and lets it out again. Can’t show her anger. Can’t have any more outbursts like that night in the hallway. Conceal, don’t feel.

“This is blackmail,” she says. “I could report you for harassment if I wanted to.”

“Okay.”

Just that. Okay. Katie has no idea what to make of it.

She doesn’t report Vicky yet. Partly because she doesn’t want to stir up trouble or draw attention to herself…and partly because, for all her ignorance of boundaries, Victoria Vega doesn’t seem to have a malicious bone in her body.

---

It doesn’t stay limited to just classes. After another week or so, after an early afternoon class, Vicky suddenly produces a lunch box from her bag, opening it to reveal stir-fried noodles and vegetables.

“You haven’t eaten lunch yet,” she guesses—correctly, to Katie’s chagrin.

“Uh, thanks,” Katie says. “What gives you the idea?”

“You always skip lunch to study,” Vicky calls her out. “You need to eat. Here, no need to thank me.”

Katie blinks owlishly at the food, then up at Vicky. Then she narrows her eyes. “Are you trying to bribe me?”

Vicky doesn’t blink. “Maybe.”

“Then I can’t accept this.” Katie pushes the box away. “I’m not joining your band.”

Vicky ponders her words, then shrugs. “Eat it anyway,” she says. “You need it, you’re all bones.”

Feels a bit like a slightly overbearing grandmother, Katie muses.

In the end, she accepts the food.

---

After another week of ever-increasing pestering and favors, Katie has had enough.

“Seriously, stop it,” she snaps as Vicky sits down beside her on the grass in between classes. “I’m not an idiot. I know you only want me for my sister!”

Vicky looks so taken aback that Katie almost feels like an idiot for blurting it out. “Wait,” she asks, “who’s your sister?”

All color leaves Katie’s face. Oh great, now she’s talked herself into a pickle. She has always assumed Vicky would know already—why else should she be so hell-bent? But if she hasn’t—

“Never mind,” she mutters. “It’s not important—”

“Seriously, who?”

Katie looks up. Vicky’s calm, deep eyes are hard to read; but there’s a good-natured curiosity in them, as well as genuine confusion.

Katie sighs.

“Jennie Lin,” she mutters hastily, half swallowing the words. “From Voice in the Crowd.”

“Really?”

Looking up, Katie blinks in amazement. The confusion on Vicky’s face has multiplied exponentially, and it doesn’t look fake. “I didn’t realize you guys were related,” she says. “I thought you just had the same last name.”

Katie almost chokes on her coffee. It’s been some time since she has genuinely laughed; and now here she is, desperately muffling her laughter behind her hands.

“What?” Vicky asks. “My last name is Vega. I had three other Vegas in my high school class and people always asked me if we were related.” She pauses for a second, then adds, “They weren’t even Filipino.”

Katie can’t hide it anymore; she bursts out laughing.

“I feel you,” she says. “In my school we had two other girls named Lin. People always thought we were siblings or cousins.” She rolls her eyes. “Is it my fault I’m Taiwanese and Lin is the second-most popular last name in all of Taiwan?”

Vicky blinks. “Is it really?”

“It is. I checked once.”

Now it’s Vicky’s turn to crack a smile. She never seems to do that, Katie abruptly realizes; at least, she doesn’t seem to do it around her. She decides it suits her.

And suddenly it dawns on her how bizarre this situation is. Here she is, sitting with the very person who’s essentially stalking and blackmailing her into joining her band, laughing and joking around, almost like they’re…

Friends?

No, Katie decides. No attachments. She’s through with that.

Although, she has to admit, Vicky is kind of nice.

---

“I checked out Voice in the Crowd, by the way.”

It’s the next morning, and Katie’s heart clenches in her chest at Vicky’s greeting. A cold hand closes around her ribcage. This is it, her mind whispers. She is officially in her sister’s shadow again.

“What do you think?” she asks coolly. “Jen’s amazing, isn’t she?”

Vicky eyes her closely for a moment, then she replies, “I like your voice better.”

Katie’s eyes grow round. Different emotions war within her: a glimmer of joy, anger on Jen’s behalf, and plain disbelief.

“Now,” she says, “you’re lying.”

Blinking owlishly, Vicky frowns back at her in obvious confusion. “I’m not.”

“I know I’m not better,” Katie snaps, at the same time feeling a little bad for doubting Vicky’s honesty like this. “So stop flattering me. It’s not going to make me change my mind.”

She tilts her head, and a few strands of hair—dyed black for college to look less like Jen—fall into her eyes, obscuring Vicky from view. She doesn’t bother brushing them away.

“You have a higher voice.”

She pauses.

“And raspier,” Vicky continues, her voice as matter-of-fact as ever. “It’s made for a darker sound. So I think your voice works better with the music we’re trying to make.”

Vicky isn’t saying her voice is objectively better than Jen’s; that really would be a lie. She isn’t saying it’s worse either. She is saying it’s different, simple as that, and better suited to one particular situation.

Suddenly she wants to know the sound of this band she’s supposed to work so well with.

But…no. She can’t do that. She’s walking her own path now, not trying to follow in Jen’s footsteps.

Besides, she’s the only daughter her parents have any hopes for now.

And that means she can’t disappoint them.

---

Of course the one time Katie’s late for class is the time a creep shows up.

It’s obvious from the moment he sits down next to her—in Vicky’s seat, she thinks with indignance—way too close for comfort. His eyes are glued to her form, unblinking, staring much too intensely as he says, “Hi!”

Katie inches subtly away from him. “Hello.”

“I finally get to talk to you,” he says. “You’re always with that other girl, the ugly one.” Katie’s eye twitches, but he doesn’t seem to notice. “Don’t see what you see in her, you’re way prettier.”

Setting her jaw, Katie tries her best to remain coolly polite. “Vicky’s my friend,” she says firmly and instantly feels strange to admit it out loud. “And I don’t think she’s ugly.”

“Really? C’mon, be honest, she looks like a dude.” The guy laughs. Katie doesn’t. “And she always sticks to you like superglue.”

“I let her,” Katie replies.

“Yeah, duh. I’m just saying you should raise your standards.” The guy gestures loosely. “Hang out with some hot people. Do you have a boyfriend?”

“No,” Katie says truthfully. She knows it would be better to lie, but she simply can’t bring herself to even pretend to be in a relationship. The very idea creeps her out to the core.

“Whew, lucky!” he replies. “Lemme guess: Your parents didn’t let you have one in high school? Sounds like the only reason a hottie like you would be single.”

Katie stares blankly at the window, wondering how much more obvious she has to be about not being interested.

The guy leans closer, his stare further intensifying. “Would you like to get some experience?” he says. “Make up for what you missed? I could teach you, if you know what I mean.”

A shiver runs down Katie’s spine. “Um…no, thank you,” she says.

He doesn’t back off. He doesn’t even get the hint. “Why not?” he replies. “Don’t worry, your parents will never find out!”

Katie’s eye twitches. “I’m not worried about them,” she says. “I’m not interested in dating.”

“What? Hey, that’s just what they tried to make you think.” He scoffs. “You just need to try it and then you’re gonna love it—”

“Excuse me.”

Katie’s entire body relaxes on the spot. Vicky. Finally.

“That’s my seat you’re sitting in,” she says, staring darkly at the guy next to Katie. “Move.”

Turning around, their classmate snorts. “Hey, I was just talking to your little friend here,” he says. “Why’re you so scared? It’s not like I’m gonna eat her.”

Katie makes no comment. Vicky crosses her arms, unfazed, unimpressed.

“She’s not into you,” she says flatly. “Leave her alone.”

“Or what, you’ll kick my ass?” He laughs. “She likes me better than your ugly mug anyway. Right, Katie?”

Katie smiles mirthlessly. “No.”

“Hey, what’s that about? We were having a great conversation—”

Vicky doesn’t let him finish. Grabbing him by the collar, she yanks him to his feet. Even when he’s standing, she’s still several inches taller.

“She doesn’t want to talk to you,” Vicky says quietly, an unsubtle threat in her voice. “Back off.”

Glaring, the guy assesses his chances against her before acknowledging his defeat and grabbing his belongings, muttering something about an overprotective bitch.

Sighing with relief, Katie smiles as Vicky sits down beside her, calmly staying close to protect her from any further attempts. “Thank you,” she says. “You came in at the right time.”

Vicky cracks a slight smile. “You’re welcome.”

“But…I’m not supposed to join your band now, right?” Katie looks down. “As a thank you…or something.”

“I didn’t do this to win you over.”

There they are again, those dark, ever-stoic eyes resting heavily on hers. “It’s just basic decency,” Vicky says. “You don’t owe me anything.”

Deep inside Katie’s heart, something changes, or maybe she understands it at last.

What has she been doing? She has effectively been stringing Vicky along for all this time, being distrustful and wary and straight-up rude for no reason except her own unresolved issues. And Vicky Vega is still here. She still has her back, without ever calling her out on her nonsense, without comparing her to her sister or asking for any favors.

I’ve been a terrible friend.

Vicky deserves better than this attitude. Vicky has done so much for her; she deserves something nice in return.

And besides, a voice within her whispers, if it’s with someone like Vicky…maybe even in a band might not be so bad.

---

Katie’s hands are shaking slightly as she steps up to the door of the old storage room the band uses to practice. Part of her brain is still screaming to abort mission before she gets sucked into something beyond her control, the very something she has tried to avoid for so many years.

Then Vicky glances at her, her expression silently questioning. Katie swallows. Smiles.

And nods her okay.

Vicky opens the door and steps inside. “Hey, everyone,” she says. “Sorry I’m late. I brought us a singer.”

And before the bandmates can express their surprise or confusion, Katie follows her into the room.

“Hello, everybody,” she says, still trying to smile. “I’m Katie Lin, and I’m auditioning to be the vocalist.”

[lia-nikiforov]

Fall Anime 2018 Watchlist

We’re about halfway into the season so this is probably kinda pointless by now, but here’s a quick rundown of the stuff I’m watching this season.

Dropped

Jingaisan no Yome: This is a 3 minute show and I won’t spend longer than that writing about it (I’m timing myself). I didn’t know it was a short going in. I’m not really into shorts, Saiki kun being the only exception and the story was less MahoYome and more... i don’t even have an apt comparison, it just was maybe more serious about the “marriage” thing than something with a giant floofball character should be.

Tokyo Ghoul: Re 2: It’s simple. I watched episode 1 and realized I had no fucking clue of how any of this related to the ending of the first season, no idea of who half the characters were and where did they allegiances lie and what is Kaneki even trying to do. Although not loyal to the manga, the first two seasons of Tokyo Ghoul had a story that could be followed and made sense, this, however, is just jumping over plot points with no rhyme or reason and there’s nothing but confusion.

Bloom Into You: There’s nothing actually wrong with this show and I was kind of looking forward to a yuri romance that wasn’t rapey or incesty bullshit, but something about this one just didn’t click with me. Like Touko fell in love with Yuu too quickly, and given Yuu’s ace/aro identity, it would feel weird for her to do a 180 and suddenly fall in love with Touko. I kind of want more fun and emotions in my romance stories and this one didn’t have much of either.

Chopping Block

Given a few things the past two weeks that didn’t go according to plan, I fell behind on my anime watching after keeping it in control for the first third of the season and i’m quite annoyed. And because of this, and my upcoming research trip to Japan at the end of the month, I might end up having to drop a couple of series.

Bakumatsu: Objectively speaking, this show is really bad. The production values are poop, the story is a wacky mess that takes itself a bit too seriously and the characters are flat and uninteresting, the villain is egregiously boring. This show also has Matsuo Basho as a secret tive traveling ninja, and that puts me at quite the predicament. I want to see more of this utterly bonkers historical reinterpretation, but boy do I wish they could make it more exciting.

SAO Alicization:  The only reason I, a notorious SAO hater, is watching SAO is because I hate myself. With that out of the way, boy is this SAO boring. We’re four episodes in and the only thing that’s happened is they cut an old tree because nothing can stop Kirito and his new friend, Yellow Kirito. This show needs to start getting offensive and/or stupid soon or i’ll die of boredom.

Karakuri Circus: I hear this one’s from the same mangaka as UshiTora? I love UshiTora and I can see the resemblance between giant guy whose name I can’t remember and Tora. His character and his schtick are so far the most interesting thing to me, with the kuudere puppet girl whose main purpose seems to be to get paired with him  having yet to make an impression on me. I’m also still not really certain what the overall plot is. I do love stories about found families, so hopefully I can stick with this one

Hinomaru Sumou: If my watching schedule were normal, this wouldn’t be in this section. Whilst not the best sports show of the season, and chock full of some of the most eyeroll worthy aspects of sports shonen *cough cough* toxic *cough cough* masculinity *cough cough*, Hinomaru Sumou has the fire and passion for an underrepresented sport that’s usually enough to hook me. I just don’t have time, and if push comes to shove, I’ll prioritize other shows over this one.

Banana Fish: Yo, okay, before you lynch me for being a hater or whatever, let me tell you I have zero issues with Banana Fish. I don’t hate it, I don’t think it’s Bad Representation(TM) whatever the fuck that means, I definitely don’t think it’s fujobait or just another BL. It just doesn’t make me happy. This probably doesn’t make a lot of sense, but I’ve never been a fan of tragedy. It’s also part of the reason I’m dropping Tokyo Ghoul. I don’t like hopeless stories and tragic romances. I’m somewhat spoiled on how the manga ends and each time I find myself less and less inclined to watch the newer episodes because the descent into misery is just not enjoyable for me. It’s not the show’s wrongdoing, it’s just not the kind of story I like. I’m probably too far along to drop it at this point, but also I kinda wish I could drop it because I get so little joy out of it. Also, my main hook is of course Ash and Eiji’s relationship, but 15 episodes in (I’m behind, as is evident) the time they’ve spent together is so minimal, I can’t even appreciate that a whole lot.

I guess I’m watching this? 

Dakaichi: Me: Man I really want a yuri anime without rapey bullshit. Also me: watches BL anime with rapey bullshit. I have literally no excuse. I think the basic setup lends itself really well for a romcom and Takato is a very likable character, it’s a shame it’s the same old rapey bullshit. In my defense, episode two was really sweet and I’ve been hoping for more stories along that line, even though the show has failed to deliver them since. Episode 5 may have pushed the line even beyond what I’m willing to tolerate, but it’s unclear. I might end up unexpectedly dropping it after episode 6. HEY JAPAN WOULD IT KILL YOU TO MAKE A BL ANIME THAT WASN’T RAPEY BULLSHIT? JUST ONE?

(honestly, Takato deserves better)

wao episode 6 was maji disgusting i might drop it after all

Fairy Tail Final: I just want closure man. This adaptation retains all the worst attributes of the previous season, terribly slow pacing (what for?! the manga is over!!) minimal animation, recapalooza. The color palette is slightly brighter than before, which I appreciate. Fairy Tail’s last arc wasn’t as bad as Bleach’s, but it was still pretty bad in the manga; still I hope seeing it animated will make it feel less messy and slightly more coherent. The FT anime has also in the past filled in some blanks that existed in the manga, so hopefully they can make the best out of it here.

(Erza is still my wife)

Tsurune: No, this isn’t the best sports anime of this season either. Although that’s hard to judge given how it’s barely on its second (third, i’m behind) episode. Technically, I feel more compelled to drop this than Hinomaru, but also I want to give it a fair chance. That said, the first episode was.... profoundly underwhelming and borderline upsetting, with how everyone put Minato on the spot in spite of his having an actual psychologic condition that drove him away from kyudo. I’m all in for stories about growing and surpassing your own obstacles, but I hope they go about it in a less mean-spirited way. Also, the characters feel pretty shallow so far. I’m not even gonna pretend the main reason I want to keep watching isn’t gorgeous guy with the ponytail-san, because I’m now old enough that I immediately gravitate towards the senseis rather than the teenage protags.

i am so weak to long hair  _(:3」∠)_

welp he cut his hair right next episode, thanks for nothing kyoani

In spite of everything, Anime is, in fact, Good

Golden Kamuy: Like with many split-cours, there’s nothing much to say beyond “if you liked the first one, you’ll like this one”. The production values are still tragic, but I think the pace has improved, and the dynamics between the different factions are so fluid and constantly changing they make the story very enthralling. It also continues to have the Best Reaction Faces.

Gakuen Basara: Listen, listen. You all knew I was gonna watch this. And I love Basara so much I still think this show is a masterpiece even when it’s objectively atrocious. I do not reccommend it to anyone who isn’t already a fan (and I mean a blind fan willing to consume anything from this franchise, even in its cheapest, dumbest, worst looking incarnation). That said there are a couple of interesting things, namely the power rivalry between Hideyoshi and Nobunaga, this never happened in the original series because Nobunaga died before Hideyoshi was introduced. Anyway, just shoot that Masamune x Kojuuro fanservice straight into my veins please and thank you

Zombieland Saga: One of the two biggest surprises of the season and one that was nowhere near my radar. An original production by studio MAPPA with perhaps the wildest premiere episode of the season that’s somehow making me like idols?! It’s also giving us the most Miyano Mamoru has ever Miyano’d and it’s amazing and histerical. The characters are also very charming, specially bikegang leader Saki and the always legendary Yamada Tae and the show isn’t scared of letting its cute idols get gross and silly and dirty. There’s also a feeling of mystery that I find very appealing. Definitely didn’t expect this one to be one of the highlights of my week, yet here we are.

SSSS Gridman: Just when I’d vowed a giant fuck you to Studio Trigger, in they come with one of their most quiet productions yet, with characters that speak their lines in soft, leveled voices, tragedies that feel palpable, emotionally climactic battle scenes and a sense of tension and mystery that makes it impossible to take your eyes away. It does have the caveat of oversexualizing the female characters, specially the villain, and not giving Rikka virtually anything to do, but past that, it’s been a very pleasant and intriguing surprise. Also of note, I have no background knowledge of the Gridman tokusatsu series but that hasn’t really been an impediment to enjoy this series.

Double Decker: Doug & Kirill: A spinoff to the 2010 superhero hit Tiger & Bunny, we have a less superpowery buddycop comedy with a cool and diverse cast, whose main character wants to BRING DOWN CAPITALISM, okay, put an end to economic inequality and classes, but that’s basically the same thing. The show is pretty far along because it premiered early for some reason, and so far it’s been mostly one-shot stories very thinly connected to the distribution of the illegal drug Anthem, with our main plot having only come up two episodes ago with the fantastic Zabel and Bamboo Man twist. The dynamics between the main duo are great and Kirill is a riot as a protagonist. 

Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru: Or Run with the Wind. Now THIS is the best sports anime of the season. Brought to you by the studio behind Haikyu, based on a novel by the author of Fune wo Amu. Firstly I love that it’s set in university, because it gives the cast a lot more variety in their interests, ages and personalities, their goals, their baggage, and it makes the process of bringing this team of misfits together even more interesting to watch. The characters feel very human in the way they speak, their worries, their relationships, their actions. The show’s done a great job so far in building the characters and making them worth cheering for. Also Ouji is my spirit animal. If you ever wanted a show to motivate you into running, this is what you’ve been waiting for! Another great surprise of this season for sure.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo: Finally part Five is here! And in it we get perhaps the most interesting Jojo protagonist right off the bat, with troubled Giorno and his difficult past and his wonderful Stand ability. His new set of allies is also quite eccentric and interesting and every scene and dialogue has that special Jojo flavor of crazy and ridiculous and always a load of fun. This one will have 39 episodes, so we’re barely getting started and I’m already loving all of it.

Thunderbolt Fantasy 2: Urobutcher’s favorite puppets are back with a vengeance! Every bit as fun, insane, cool and over-the-top as the first season, with the added value of the rapport between the characters, evidenced by how brilliant the few scenes in which Shang and Lin share the screen are. With a brand new story that expands the world of our favorite puppets, and even more new gorgeous puppets added to the mix to make Shang’s life a mess, this show is definitely my favorite this season and potentially of the year. Let Urobuchi keep doing puppets for as long as he wants!

ooof i’m finally done. It’s midseason so probably nobody cares but do hmu with your favorite shows of the season and if there’s anything worth hatewatching that I may be missing ;)

[ayalanaylo]

i’m really confused about the writing in supergirl?

and i’ve tried to google my confusion away, but it led me to places i didn’t intend to reach and tumblr searching is leading me to spoilers (which i don’t actually mind that much, but i’m here for meta answers that i don’t find).

mainly i’m just baffled by james olsen and all the romantic arcs.

i’m turning to tumblr’s fandom expertise for answers but i need you to understand my zero point ground before i ask any substantial q’s - i did not read any supergirl comics before (have read some dc in general and am a huge young justice fan, yes) so comparison to the source material means close to nothing for me. i generally don’t watch superhero related stuff. so why did i even start watching supergirl?

i’m just a Simple Gay™. yeah, i’ve been bombarded for the past year or so with supercop gifs and whatnot - and don’t get me wrong, i absolutely know i’m not going to get any gay content out of this show - but i have a bit of free time and thought i’d give this series a shot because it had wandered the realms of my mind for so long, thanks to tumblr supercop fanbase.

also regarding expectations - i did not expect this show to be a stellar example of top tier writing. i knew this is a light hearted, carefree show i’ll watch for simple fun, and that meets my expectations quite well. i’m not, per se, disappointed of the writing - not every damn piece of consumable media needs to be shakespearean poetry (and people who dismiss those things on the merit of that alone are missing so much, imo) - but it bothers me to the core when i recognize a poor written character being paraded on the plot lines. what i mean by that - a character that seems so meaningless still stands on a pedestal the creators of said character created for it. it’s like a curator putting up his son’s kindergarten crayon doodle on the fine arts exhibition - like, i get that you love your son, but my dude this is so out of place.

i’m 13 episodes in (more than half a season?) and i think this is really early to be frustrated with james olsen, given there are 3 seasons out, but i find myself not indifferent but annoyed with his character and how it affects this perplexed romantic hexagon arc. now, this is the time i worry the thought of ‘you’re only here for the gay’ to come up, so let me put up a disclaimer - the fact that i considered watching this show in the first place because of a non-existent gay ship doesn’t mean i don’t get to criticize an existent (and prominent, mind you) romantic arc. yes, i crave for lgbt content that is not complete crap in mainstream media, but there are so many written and showcased fictional couples i appreciate regardless the gender and\or sexual orientation of the characters involved. but it’s not ‘despite’, it’s because i’m a gay person who lives in a time of decent and even good lgbt romantic arcs representation that i find it very hard to be forgiving for poor written cis-het ones. it’s because lgbt people endured the years upon years of piss writing of lgbt characters in romantic arcs that were generally concluded with ‘this personality-less gay character 1′ and ‘this personality-less gay character 2′ should end up together on the merit of their dictated sexual orientation alone, that i find myself angry of lazy writing of cis-het ones that try to condition the viewer to ship two characters together because the script said they will touch hands and camera direction said to zoom on their face. this is not writing and properly developing a relationship between two characters this is directed instructions from the production down, as opposed to from the writing up.

after my supposed establishment of why i’m an Angry Lesbian™ about hetero ships writing i want to get to the nitty gritty - james olsen and the oh so many other problems with other characters.

i get characters crushing on each other, it’s got real cute potential, but can someone explain to me, enlighten me please - why do i get to live through cringe worthy anguished characters with a crush that doesn’t let me on anything other than ‘okay, i get that they’re attracted to each other’. what is their human connection based on and why the story didn’t bother showing me? because literally every scene he has with kara (that isn’t his given alone screen time or the professional ‘friends helping supergirl with mission’) is either him telling her about superman in the first episodes or him giving her this eyebrow-frown look while she talks. we know nothing about this character and his dialog doesn’t make him voluntarily informative about himself - how am i supposed to connect with him and understand that kara finds his personality endearing if i know zero facts about him as a human being? i know he’s a photographer and he knows superman. when lucy lane is introduced it’s because 1. she was there and he didn’t voluntarily let the viewers know who she is, and 2. she was there to serve the romantic weird entanglement and nothing more. what it did give us? some info about their brake up and life together - it is still nothing about james’ personality traits. i don’t want a sad back-story as much as i want a well rounded character in the present-story.

i was just brushing it off or groaning in frustration most of the time, but somewhere in the middle of season 1 (don’t remember exact episode) alex referred to james as kara’s family. that ticks so many tickey things in me - alex is her sister since she was 13, winn is her good friend for presumably all years she’s working at catco, and james arrived a week ago and suddenly he’s family because kara is crushing on him? no. no. no, story, you need to show me and explain to me in so much detail why a week-long crush is someone’s family along side an actual sister and a very good friend, you don’t tell me about it retrospectively.

and for the ever loving fuck why does he keep advancing on kara when he’s in a relationship with lucy? winn even acknowledges this verbally to his face (episode 12 i think) saying he can go get kara if he wanted to, that he just need to end things with lucy - yet he sees that as a sign to gather up the courage for romantic advancement right after the kara-adam brake up before talking with lucy? that’s a big nope.

and adam. oh, adam, sweet summer child. he really is just a harmless side character who crushes on kara, and she reciprocates, for about an episode and a half - and then comes the time in a superhero’s journey for ‘my identity is known and that puts people in my immediate surrounding in jeopardy’ - ... while she’s on a date with adam? don’t get me wrong, it’s all fine, but it’s just fine. why did this moment have to come when our main hero is in a barely second date relationship? the brake up literally meant nothing to me because we had no time to get to know adam. who is he? he was there to advance cat’s character, we didn’t learn anything about him in his screen time that wasn’t already told to us by cat. we know 1. what cat told kara (that was confirmed in his screen time), and 2. that he thinks kara is amazing. all he talks about is her, never himself. i know gurnisht about this character - why should i care about him when kara brakes things up?

and then we have *spooky voice* the friendzoned guy. first, can someone please make this phrase disappear from existence, yet second, while winn is written with some mistakes (using ‘friendzone’, kissing without confirming mutual feelings) - he is the most developed character of this disastrous romantic blah and he is written is such way that makes me care about him. kara doesn’t reciprocates his feelings? fine and valid, i just wish i could care about who she likes because they would be rounded developed characters as the ones she doesn’t.

in conclusion - please explain to me why should i ship a guy-character and a girl-character if their only connection is shared screen time and not the blessed character and relationship development a lot of lgbt ships get on mainstream media recently?

*banging pots and pans* I’M A GAY WHO’S PRO WELL DEVELOPED HETERO-SHIPS.

[greyias]

Sorry for the delay on these, Nonnies. I’ve been so far down this rabbit hole I fell into, I’m pretty sure I need a change of address form.

(Somewhat spoilery anon asks and answers under the cut)

Hey Nonny! (Or is it Nonnies?) I understand your fear. I kind of had a bit of a panic moment going “What the fuck, Lana?”, as at least on my playthroughs, the level of anger and aggression here was out of left field. But after a few minutes, I started to get suspicious, as I always seem to do. Something about this letter just seems off to me. 

I had a much long post about this written up (as indicated by the timestamps), but honestly, it seems to be a landmine at the moment (so if a tiny bit of salt peeks through in some of my commentary, please know that it’s definitely not directed at you Nonny, just some things that kept popping up on my dash last week that irked me), and I’m finding the Uprising stuff, as well as Indo and Zildrog’s codex entries and lore to be far, far more interesting (and probably having a much a greater impact on the next story drop than this.)

So, a quick summary of what went through my head:

Scenario 1:

Lana’s with us on Team Oblivious. She was inexplicably given two different reactions in Umbara (”sorry bro, but we ought to catch Theron” or “RAWR TR8R LANA SMASH”), and then suddenly they realized that didn’t play well into their final act so they forgot a double carriage return and added the last paragraph to make things SUPER CLEAR to the audience, sweating the entire time going “Ahahaha, nothing suspicious here”.

This doesn’t sit well with me. If this is true, then it means that Lana has suddenly lost one of her defining character traits, a quest for the truth and to question things that don’t fit as part of a ham-fisted attempt by the writers to give her an unneeded emotional arc rather than one that progresses naturally with the storyline. It certainly seems to be the straightforward and obvious answer. But then I asked myself, the rest of this storyline is not straightforward and laid out plainly, why would this be here? Why didn’t Lana just go into full-on Sith mode regardless of our choices in Umbara? What’s the purpose of this suddenly being put int here now? I’m suspecting this is a red herring, and it’s been placed here to intentionally distract you from something else. But why would they need to distract us, both in-character, as well as out-of-character?

Well, you see, they finally dropped the big clue we accidentally deciphered all the way back in August. That the mysterious “Order” is the “Order of Zildrog”. And, as much as I love Lana, that is far, far more interesting (not to mention much better writing) than a needless Virmire-style choice between her and Theron, and the Alliance suddenly shattering to pieces because the mean, mean old spyboy violated all of our trust because he forgot how to use his big boy words.

Thank you, Tyth. Have a rage!cookie. And turn off caps lock.

That’s before even bringing in logistical things like the heavy handed hints that we’re getting a major storyline next year (possibly an expansion), the fact that breaking up the Alliance and going back to a two-party scenario would split their resources between two storylines rather than one with minor divergences, and the fact that Lana and Theron are both extremely popular characters, and removing them from future story content would very likely negatively impact their subscriber base.

So no, I don’t think we’re going to have to choose between Theron and Lana and lose one of them (and in that fashion, lose them both as major characters from here on out). It doesn’t make much sense.

That said, if this is the route they were going, the only way that it would, for me personally, ring true and make me not annoyed as hell is if it led to Lana and Theron finally having a Big Kid™ discussion where they both state plainly “Hey remember that time you got me brutally tortured? I didn’t like that and would like an apology?” and the other goes “Remember that time you tazed me before blowing up a fucking train? That really sucked!” and they’re both forced to awkwardly hug it out because the Outlander secretly loves group hugs. And then they go off to fight the big bad because the BroTP aren’t stupid.

And trust me, this big bad isn’t going to be neatly wrapped up in the next story drop. There’s no time for Lana to indulge in out-of-character and over-the-top Sith torture/murder shenanigans.

Scenario 2:

Lana’s on Team Undercover. This makes far more sense with her character. Because, all of the other weird bits aside (her and Theron’s strangely voiced, almost coded conversation at the beginning of Umbara, her weird delivery after we leap off the train, that weird ass nod at the beginning of Copero), Lana should be able to put the clues together to figure out that he is undercover. How would she not question the fact that the shot she intercepted for you was a stun blast and not a killing blow? How could she not question that there were just enough crystals left for the Alliance to grab and drive off the opposing faction from Iokath? How does she not realize that this is a complete 180 on Theron’s established characterization, considering the fact that she’s known him just about as long as the Outlander, and was roomies with him for nearly a year when they were on the lam back during Shadow of Revan? Like, seriously, questioning things is what Lana does. We meet her in Forged Alliances and she’s questioning the timing of the ops, she questions her boss who she had trust in. Lana puts aside her personal feelings to find the truth. After the Empire ceded to Arcann, I don’t have the reference in front of me where I found it, but I had in my notes for something I was working on that she was suspicious of the tributes to Zakuul, because they were excessively excessive, and that investigation led down a bunny trail that eventually led to the Outlander in carbonite. 

And then, well...

And let’s not forget the fact that both Lana and Theron are intercepting and spying on each other’s messages all throughout KotFE.

I mean, come on you two, I know there’s some hard feelings after Rishi and Ziost (and Theron especially can hold a grudge for a ridiculously long amount of time), but this is excessive.

So, no, at least for me, Lana suddenly trusting Theron completely to the point where she’s as blindsided as us just doesn’t strike me as consistent writing for her character. You can headcanon this anyway you see fit, but there’s very little on-screen evidence for her to genuinely be as all over the place as she’s been, without there being an ulterior reason, or the writers just saying “fuck it” and doing whatever they want because “lol wut’s characterizaton”.

So then the question becomes, if Lana is on this plan, why would she insert that weird ass paragraph in an unrelated note about the progress on reassembling that map. Gosh, that’s weird. 

Either Lana wrote it intentionally to try and keep you focused on Theron the Red Herring if you’re suddenly questioning the validity of his cover identity in front of, say, a Chiss Ascendency liaison agent who hasn’t been fully vetted for 7/8 of the Class Characters. And also cecause there’s still someone (or someones) on Odessen who has infiltrated and reporting back to their higher-ups. Listening in to your conversations when you don’t realize.

Or maybe she’s just afraid my Outlander’s dumb butt will blow his cover in the middle of a Snake Cult meeting by making another HoloNet address to the galaxy telling Theron how much she loves and appreciates him going undercover to save everyone from the Apocalyptic Death Cult, but if he comes home right now she’ll give him two fleets of warships for the price of one? And Bioware realized this and all of the rest of you have to suffer on my behalf.

#damnitgrey #OfficialHighwindApologyPackage

Scenario 3:

Or, you know... perhaps the mail on Odessen isn’t very secure. Thank you Minister of Paranoia and Secret Agent Suspicious for intentionally building in a backdoor to spy on people for “the good of the Alliance”.

This isn’t even counting all of the pieces of mail you get from these guys on them intercepting communications to Kaliyo, and other members of the Alliance. Like, I love my advisors to death, but if you design an e-mail system with security holes to spy on everyone, it’s not unheard of for a nefarious third party that’s really, really good at slicing to use that against you. And it’s not like Theron has ever been overconfident in his skillset to the detriment of something overall (please note the sarcasm), and when the Alliance’s best slicer and one of the architect’s of this insecure system has gone off to play spy, that could be open for further manipulation. Specifically from a third party whose entire modus operandi has been to get everyone in the entire galaxy fighting each other. Keep you fighting either Lana, or focused on fighting Theron and ignoring them. Either way, focused on everything but their larger goal.

So, in the game’s context, it’s not completely unheard of for a communication on the Alliance’s HoloNet to be intercepted and altered before being delivered to its final recipient. 

If we remove ourselves from the story perspective however, this probably won’t be the case, as it’s very, very rare for mail items to directly impact future cutscenes. (Conversely, that also works for Lana being on Team Oblivious). So, all in all, Lana’s letter? Interesting food for thought, but one that, once again, distracts from a much larger question. In my opinion, this letter is another red herring.

So I ask: Why are they so insistent on getting us hyperfocused on Lana and Theron to the detriment of everything else? What’s really going on here? And who’s behind all of this?

For that answer, we need to look at the Uprisings, and back at the Heralds of Zildrog, as well as Iokath. Because you guys will be surprised what answers you’ll find there, as well as tucked away in the codex entries.

[keegames]

Sonic Forces Review: Chains of Future Past

Ah, Sonic Forces. To many, it’s the OTHER Sonic game to come out this year. A few previous articles have mentioned my history with the series, and I promised a review of this game, so without further ado, here goes.

Sonic Forces is an odd little game, in that it seems it was made to please all types of Sonic fans. The core of the gameplay of both Modern Sonic and your custom character (more on that later) is the tried-and-true racing-platfomer-hybrid first used in 3D Sonic by Sonic Unleashed and then adapted into Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations. However, it also features levels starring Classic Sonic similarly to Generations, and it has a few levels based on Genesis Sonic zones (though with more changes to their aesthetics than Generations; more on that later). It also features an attempt at a more serious (some would say “edgy”) story, similar to that of the Sonic Adventure games, and a create-a-character feature sure to appeal to the series’s more imaginative fans. The premise of the main plot is even similar to the SatAM show and the early Archie comics. Unfortunately, it would be a lie to say that all these discrete elements come together strongly. Still, despite its flaws, there’s a lot of fun to be had in Sonic Forces. Hopefully this lengthy write-up gives you a better idea of the game’s pros and cons.

Gameplay

Sonic Forces features four gameplay styles that the player is shuffled between across its various stages (30 main stages/boss fights, plus 13 or 14 short secret levels that are entirely 2D platform challenges based on singular level gimmicks). Unlike other Sonic games that feature multiple gameplay styles, however, three of the four styles control relatively similarly with a single core mechanic differentiating them (or, in the case of “tag team,” not differentiating them).

Let’s start with Modern Sonic. Modern Sonic, in terms of abilities, is most similar to his Colors incarnation, featuring a double jump and a boost that is only filled by either collecting Wisp Capsules or destroying enemies. His levels swap between 3D and 2D smoothly. Unlike Colors, he can perform the Quick Step (a short shift to the left or the right) at any point with the shoulder buttons, though like Colors, a few context-sensitive sections have him do this with a push of the joystick to the left or right as well. He also has the stomp and slide moves. Strangely, his drift ability is completely absent, which you may miss in a few parts of Metropolitan Highway, but generally won’t worry about otherwise. Like the previous games of this style, Sonic takes turns kind of wider than you’d expect from most 3D platformer characters, but it’s managing his momentum and movement in that way that makes this style unique and interesting. Set aside the assumptions put in place by Super Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot, and you’ll be well on your way to mastering the game and blazing across the land.

Now, the custom character. You can choose your character’s gender, animal species, a few different head styles, eyes (shape and color), colors, voice, and victory pose. These options are relatively basic, which fits because Sonic characters don’t have much body variety anyway. Each species also has a special ability, but these are generally minor (wolf attracts nearby rings, rabbit has longer invincibility when hit, bird has a small double jump, etc.) You can still make some goofy looking faces with the right eyes, but the real meat of the customization is in clothing. Doing just about anything in the game will unlock more and more clothing pieces, from shirts to pants to jackets to capes to hats to glasses to shoes to kneepads to monocles to masks and more. There’s tons of this stuff and you can make some ridiculous creations. It’s actually one of the most fun things in the game.

The custom character’s basic controls are basically identical to Modern Sonic, though they lack a double jump unless you make a bird. Notably, however, they lack the boost, meaning that, though you still get moving at good speeds, you won’t quite be running over everything in your path. The custom character’s main form of attack outside of homing attacks is your equipped Wispon (Wisp weapon). Each of these serves two purposes: a regular attack that you can do at any time, and a special ability that you can perform when you pick up the corresponding Wisp. There are a variety of attacks and abilities, but they’re not all created equal by a long shot. For example, the Burst Wispon gives you a flamethrower that you can hold to torch enemies in front of you. This is one of the best ones due to not affecting your movement; you can run and jump freely while spraying fire, so you don’t lose momentum. Comparatively, the Lightning Wispon is an electric whip that forces you to either stop or move forward awkwardly while swinging (though its arc is pretty wide), and the Cube Wispon forces you to stop completely and attack twice to actually destroy enemies since its first swing traps them in cubes. (Destroying cubed enemies gives you extra rings, though, so at least it can get you more points than other Wispons.) Generally, you’ll find yourself annoyed by Wispons that stop your movement. One notable Wispon is the Drill, which gives you a powerful, super-fast charging attack that you keep your momentum from afterwards. It’s perfect for speedrunning.

The Wispon abilities that are activated from the item also vary. Burst lets you do a series of jumps until its meter runs out, Lightning allows you to dash along trails of rings and enemies, Drill grinds you across the ground and up walls, Asteroid makes you invincible for a period of time, etc. Some of these are good for finding alternate paths and hidden Red Rings throughout levels, while others are mostly utilities for making your life easier. Custom character levels are usually similar in layout and feel to Modern Sonic ones, apart from the changes made to make Wispons relevant.

Classic Sonic is the third character, and easily the worst. His levels are fully 2D, and on a basic level, he works like he would in Mania, right down to him having his Drop Dash. However, he just feels WRONG. Jump momentum is screwy, momentum when not rolling doesn’t work right, and he just generally feels like a brick with Sonic’s moves. Even without Sonic Mania’s release this year, he’d seem kind of off; with it, he’s just embarrassing. That said, his levels are designed competently apart from his final level, Iron Fortress, which is a giant pain in the ass, thanks to a forced autoscrolling section full of death pits. Classic Sonic is absolutely the worst part of Forces, and hopefully SEGA decides to re-hire the Mania team to appeal to Sonic nostalgia rather than trying and failing to make this sloppy gameplay style work. (Forces was in development before Mania, so it was likely too late to cut him out by time Mania started, so I give a slight pass in that sense.)

The fourth type of stage isn’t technically a new character; rather, it is Tag Team stages, where you control both Modern Sonic and your custom character at the same time. Controlling two characters at once is done very simply, as you are essentially controlling one character with both sets of abilities. There are the least of these stages compared to other characters. One notable thing about them is that there are very few 2D sections, with only one that lasts more than a few seconds. They also feature a “Double Boost” mechanic, where at certain pre-determined points you’re asked to mash a button, and after a few seconds, Sonic and your custom character rocket forward for a certain amount of time, running over enemies and gathering rings. It’s basically just a scripted sequence where you can rack up points, but it’s amusing to see your own creation as Sonic’s new best friend as the game’s cheesy vocal theme plays and you run over tons of enemies.

Notably, the game no longer has lives; you are instead awarded a bigger score bonus at the end of levels for dying less. Since previous 3D Sonic games already hurt your ranks for dying mid-level, having to spend lives to restart at checkpoints or retry levels would be a waste anyway. I’m not one to say that lives should be completely eliminated from games (and in fact I think Sonic Mania was better for having them, despite some complaints I’ve heard), but in this case they wouldn’t add to the experience in any meaningful way.

Level Design

Though level design is technically part of gameplay, it’s important enough in Sonic especially to need its own section. Since Modern Sonic, custom character, and Tag Team levels mostly hit the same design beats, I can talk about their design relatively interchangeably.

With pre-release footage, people were worried that levels were too short and too linear, with little to no shortcuts or things to do beyond blasting forward for a little bit. I can confirm, however, that the levels showcased pre-release are generally some of the least interesting, for whatever reason. Many of the levels have cool shortcuts and paths taken through either well timed jumps, sidesteps, homing attacks, or Wispon ability usage. Like previous Sonic games in this style, there’s more platforming in 2D than 3D, but generally rocketing your way through these levels, optimizing your performance, and finding the paths to take to collect all the Red Rings (there are five hidden in each level) is a lot of fun, with a single consistent caveat.

Many of the levels in Sonic Forces feel too short. This is less of a criticism of the actual time spent in each level, and more of a criticism of their pacing. Each level, consistently, feels sort of like two thirds of a level; each one seems like it should have a third section that brings together all the mechanics and layout techniques the level introduced and fully bring them to their conclusion. Instead, each time you get to where you think you’re about to reach that, the level ends instead. The thing that makes this especially sad is that what’s there tends to be a LOT of fun. You’ll be ripping through cool, interesting landscapes and you’ll wish you could do it more than you end up doing. As much fun as I ended up having with this game, I couldn’t help but feel a little short-changed from time to time.

Classic Sonic’s level design generally feels like a simplification of design you’d find in Sonic the Hedgehog 2; there’s nothing super special about it but it’s not bad either, apart from the aforementioned Iron Fortress. You’ll be more bothered by his actual control than with the levels.

The game also has its share of boss fights for each character, which range from “inoffensive” to “moderately fun,” though they’re never the best part of the game. The custom character probably has the best time with them, because using the Wispons to attack is more fun than homing attacking repeatedly, and some of them you can really speed up the fights with the right abilities. Unlike some other 3D Sonic games, they never really get frustrating, so I guess that’s a plus.

Graphics

Sonic Forces looks pretty nice. It varies by level, however. Forces’s take on Green Hill wasn’t quite as nice as Generations’s; it used more simple geometric shapes and less interesting foliage. Some of the other levels are much nicer looking, such as the Mystic Forest, Death Egg, Metropolis, and Empire Fortress stages. Many of the levels also have tons of action in the backgrounds, including giant robots, bombing runs, and in the case of the Empire Fortress stages, an all-out war. The lighting looks pretty nice, and the game runs at a rock-solid 60 frames per second on the PS4 version that I played. It won’t necessarily wow you, but it’s a game that looks pretty good.

Sound and Music

The game’s voice acting is cartoony and goofy, like you’d expect from a game about talking animals. Most of the levels have dialogue during them that advances the plot and describes action. There is an option to turn off all the in-level dialogue, which is useful when you’re replaying stages.

The music is pretty good, though not quite the series’s best. Each character has their own musical style in their levels. Modern Sonic generally has a mixture of guitars and synths in his levels. The compositions are cool, fast-paced, and sometimes kind of dramatic, but the lead synth in a lot of them isn’t quite idea. I still like a lot of the music, but I can understand it bothering you. The custom character has music characterized mostly by synths, other electronic instruments, and vocals. The lyrics are kinda cheesy, with the songs being about destiny, winning the fight, and other goofy things. You might find yourself singing along if you don’t take yourself seriously. Classic Sonic music actually uses Sega Genesis-styled instruments, though strangely enough it doesn’t sound like the kind you’d hear in a Genesis Sonic game. I can’t quite place the game I would hear these sounds in, though. A few are catchy and fun, but the others are pretty forgettable. Tag team stages have music similar to the custom character’s stages, but without lyrics (with the exception of one stage that reprises the game’s main hard rock vocal theme). They’re generally pretty forgettable.

Story

I can’t tell if Sonic Forces is taking itself seriously or if it’s being tongue-in-cheek about the series’s previous brushes with serious storytelling, but either way it’s pretty hilarious. Hearing goofy cartoon animals talk about the seriousness of war never stops being funny, whether intentionally or not. The story is always cheesy, going from an overly edgy cheesiness at the beginning to a more wholesome cheesiness near the end, where speeches about the power of friendship walk right out of your favorite anime into the dialogue. One notable bit of contrast is that, even in the serious parts of the story early on, Sonic himself is never particularly serious. He’s always chattering away and making wisecracks, which actually ends up being very entertaining due to everything else around him. If you only let yourself enjoy things that are legitimately good, you’ll probably be irritated, but anyone who can let themselves go and laugh at a B-movie atmosphere will have a lot of fun watching the cutscenes.

Replay Value

The game’s main story clocks in at only 4-ish hours over its 30 main stages/boss fights, but it doesn’t seem like it should really be any longer. It’s not particularly difficult to beat, either. There’s a good amount of replay value: like previous 3D Sonic games, you’re ranked on your score at the end of levels, so getting S ranks on every stage is one way to get a good amount of time from the game. Each stage also has five Red Rings to find, giving you a reason to revisit levels and find all the different paths. Once you’ve collected all the Red Rings in a stage, a set of Number Rings will appear, which have to be collected in order from 5 to 1 descending. And once you’ve collected all of those, a set of Silver Moon Rings will appear in a level, which must all be collected in a short period of time. Red Rings are the only of these collectibles that unlock extra levels; the others are purely for satisfaction, avatar items, and Trophies/Achievements. The extra levels aren’t particularly meaty; they’re purely 2D platforming challenges with either Modern Sonic or the custom character that are focused around singular gimmicks that don’t appear in the rest of the game. They’re fun enough, I guess, but they don’t really take advantage of what makes this kind of Sonic game special. Finally, the game has leaderboards for level times, though unsurprisingly they seem to be hacked to hell and back on the PC version. Since getting the best times in levels takes a lot of clever optimization, it can be a lot of fun to do your absolute best. If you’re not driven to better yourself, though, then Sonic Forces loses a lot of appeal, as a single playthrough will be over pretty quickly.

Conclusion

At its best, Sonic Forces is a fast-paced, fun action platformer where you’ll be blazing through cool environments and feeling the flow as you nail all your homing attacks, boosts, Wispon moves, quick steps, and slides. At its worst, you’ll be wondering why Sonic Team bothered to bring back Classic Sonic at all. Sonic Forces also doesn’t have much to offer in the way of exploration, nor is its main story all that long, so if you don’t like optimizing your performance then you’ll find yourself uninterested pretty quickly. Still, if you like the feeling of nailing every movement, Sonic Forces is a lot of fun, even if the levels feel like they should be a bit more fleshed out. If you already dislike the boost gameplay from Unleashed, Colors, and Generations, Forces won’t change your mind. If you enjoyed those games, or if you just have an open mind, most of this game can be a solid piece of entertainment. Plus, there’s a special joy that comes from dressing your cartoon animal up in completely ridiculous outfits. As a budget title (launching at $40), there’s a good amount of fun to be had in Sonic Forces, despite its issues. Hopefully Sonic Team takes the right lessons from this game and sticks to the fast-paced boost gameplay they’ve been building on and look to the future while leaving the imitations and celebrations of the series’s early days to the fine folks who made Sonic Mania.

Buy if:

you already like “Boost Sonic”

you enjoy optimizing your performance in short, action-packed challenges

you can stomach a couple of irritating bits

you enjoy chuckling at goofy, cheesy writing

Avoid if:

you’re looking for a solid Classic Sonic experience

you prefer longer games or exploration in your platformers

you’re not used to adjusting to controls that feel different from the genre standard

cheesy things irritate you

[insectoid5]

Putting these SU-related replies under a read more because SPOILERS. 😉

@iamdeltas replied to your post “Steven Universe 5x01-04...”:

Thanks for tagging me! Dang, this bomb was nuts! I still think Rose was involved in Pink’s demise in some way, but it’s clearly a more complicated situation than we realized. How did Rose get past Pink’s entourage? I feel like White Diamond might have been involved. I actually saw a post theorizing that Rose only poofed Pink and then gave her gem to White for shattering, and maybe Eyeball just saw Rose attack Pink with a sword and assumed Rose shattered her? Hmm. So many questions.

No problem!  I'll add you to the list. 😉

It really seems odd that White Diamond hasn’t even been so much as mentioned on the show; all we have proving her existence is the Diamond Authority symbol, and the murals in the Moon Base.  That she is absent from a trial concerning the murder of one of her sisters seems awfully suspicious.  Then again, it’s speculated that she is the ruler of Homeworld, so she may be too busy.  But even that seems like a thin excuse.

As I discuss below, I believe it’s entirely possible that Rose DID poof Pink, just as the “official story” suggests, and then did something with her Gem.  Exactly WHAT she did, we can only guess.  I wonder whether White would even entertain a meeting with a rebellious Quartz soldier...?

@frozenartscapes reblogged your post and added:

I’m gonna talk about more spoilers, so read on at your own risk.

I expect nothing less. :P

I, too, am annoyed that there still is no change to the opener. I’m not asking for having Peridot and Lapis right there with the CGs at the end, but can they at least be in the opener? Also, where the hell were they throughout this whole arc? We know Lapis would have likely flown to Homeworld herself to rescue Steven, despite everyone else insisting its a bad idea, and Peridot likely has a strong enough attachment to Steven that she’d be riding on Lapis’ back the whole flight, likely swinging a garden rake or something…now that I say that I want to actually see that…

You’d think they’d be able to work the Barn Gems (and Pumpkin!) into the opening somehow. 😅

I’d love to know why they didn’t shown up.  It’s possible, I suppose, that they are at the ship that the CGs were trying to fix (presumably, either the one from “Friend Ship” or from “Monster Reunion”).  And Lapis would be there, if only so Peridot and the others can keep an eye on her and prevent her from doing exactly that.  (And that does make an amusing image...)

Anyway! I was also a little disappointed that Aquamarine and Topaz just kind of…disappeared. They were both really great characters, and while I’m happy we got to see all these new gems it kinda felt like: “Here’s a gem! Poof! Here’s a gem! Poof! Here’s some more gems! Poof!” Like, I’m sure we’ll see maybe Topaz again, but the question of when is the problem. As much as I love this show, it does kind of have a bit of a pacing issue.

I think that we’ll see them again, even Aquamarine.  After all, this show has a habit of characters coming back when we least expect it (Jasper, Eyeball, etc.).  But yeah, it does seem like they were gone in an eye blink.

And Zircon was also great! (Although I’m not too hopeful that we’ll see Blue Zircon again.) And you’re right about Amy Sedaris! I had to look her up on IMDb because her voice sounded really familiar. She’s a well known comedian and actress. I best know her as Princess Caroline in Bojack Horseman, but she’s done a lot of voice work and acting in other shows, too.

Yeah, the Blue Zircon may... disappear. 😞  I must have seen Amy Sedaris on Comedy Central at some point and forgotten about it.  *shrugs*

I also feel like I can write an essay on “the Trial”. I might do a long post, or something, just not here. All I can say is I really want to see more of the Diamonds, if anything because their relationship is so fascinating. And I will say Blue Zircon had a point: it is highly suspicious that Rose was able to get that close to Pink Diamond. I know a lot of people are speculating based off Yellow’s reactions that she knows something about this, but… I’m not too sure. I do, however, think Blue Diamond doesn’t know anything, and there might even be the possibility of her turning against whichever Diamond who did do it if she finds out. I don’t know, but Blue really does seem torn up about Pink’s death - there were a lot of actions and facial expressions from her that make me believe she wasn’t faking it. But Yellow: she really seemed to want to speed things along once Blue Zircon started talking. Also, and even more suspiciously, there was the (possibly convenient) absence of White Diamond. So, there’s that too.

I’d like to see more of the Diamonds, too, in maybe a less threatening situation.

I was chatting with @raksha-the-demon about the whole Pink Diamond thing.  Logically, there can be only a few possibilities:

Pink was shattered, and Rose was personally responsible.  Based on what’s come to light (the sword detail making no sense, and Blue Zircon’s testimony), I think this possibility can be ruled out.

Pink was shattered.  Rose is either partly responsible, or the Diamonds framed her, and she felt guilty anyway.  Since Blue, as you point out, doesn’t seem to know the truth (and seems to be sticking with the “official” story), it seems more likely that either Yellow, or the unseen AND unmentioned White, are responsible, and made Rose the scapegoat since she was the leader of the rebellion.

Pink was NOT shattered, and Rose has something to do with her disappearance.  This is entirely speculative, but it’s worth mentioning anyway.  Lion may not be Pink Diamond in disguise, but there’s at least one thing about Lion that we STILL don’t know: the contents of the treasure chest in the pocket dimension.  Think about it: Rose could indeed have attacked Pink Diamond, as the story says, poofed her, but taken her Gem and sealed it away.  And if that’s not the most plausible loony theory regarding this mystery, I don’t know what is.

And then there were “Off Colours” and “Lars’ Head”. After seeing what happened to Lars it was like that scene in A New Hope when Alderaan was destroyed: “I felt a great disturbance in the Fandom, as if millions of headcanons suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.” Welp, it turns out Lion isn’t Pink Diamond in disguise, eh, guys? Guys? Ah, they’ll be ok. This has given them a whole bunch more theories to start flinging around. I will say, though, I am very happy with Lars’ character development. The only thing that concerns me now though is what will happen with him and Sadie once (not if, come on guys) he gets back. It’s sort of been confirmed that he’s now a near immortal pink zombie, and Sadie is…not. This is going to hurt.

Oh... yeah.  That’s for bringing that up.  I am happy that Lars got some character development, but...  Poor Sadie. 😢

I might have also complained about the introduction to all these new gems only to immediately cut them out again (not permanently, I really do believe they’ll be back), but I gotta say, I love them all. I’m also really interested in how they will be received back on Earth, if anything because we have at least one pair now with Padparadscha and Sapphire being both, well, sapphires. It also looked like Rhodonite might be a fusion of a pearl and a ruby, which would make two more pairs. And we don’t really know who forms Fluorite, so there might be more there, too.

It sure seems like the fandom has accepted that Rhodonite = Pearl + Ruby (from the shape of their Gems, if nothing else).  And I really like Fluorite; she’s like a wise old grandmother.  (Think about it: she’s a permafusion of six Gems.  Compare with Alexandrite, who besides having only four Gems total, is rather unstable because of Garnet, Pearl, and Amethyst’s personalities.)

(I’m also a little curious, too, if different gems fusing together would make different forms of the same fusion gem, like if another jasper and another lapis would create the same form as the Malachite we know, or if the same combo of gems that make Fluorite would form another fluorite that looks identical. We’ve only ever seen fusions formed by the same gems, but since fusion is a metaphor for a relationship would two different gems who have a different relationship make the same fusion?)

That is... a fascinating thought.  Since we’ve seen so few other Gem fusions containing one of the same type as one of “our” Gems, it’s hard to say.  Rhodonite definitely has a bit of resemblance to Garnet, probably from the Ruby.  But if another Ruby fused with another Sapphire, would they be just like Garnet?  Probably not, but there is definitely room for much speculation.

Wow, this got long. I think I’ll call it here and maybe make my own post about the rest. This show is great, I will say. But my god can they please just give us one episode that answers shit without killing off a bunch of good theories while simultaneously bringing in a bunch of totally new questions?

I don’t think that will happen until the show ends. 😂  May that day be far off!

#I'm also looking forward to the inevitable beach cities episodes that are to follow #sarcasm btw #but hopefully these will have a little more substance as steven has to tell everyone why lars isn't with him #i just want answers dammit

I agree with your sarcastic opinion (when is THIS hiatus going to end, show?  I WANT ANSWERS).  But yeah, Steven probably has to reveal the whole “I can bring the dead back to life, but like Lion” thing, and probably convince at least one of them not to race off to Homeworld to wreak havoc.  (Good thing Bismuth is in a bubble, huh?)

[lexpistachio]

y'all are the ones acting like parse is a main character instead of an occasional antagonist, jesus. let the woman draw her characters.

OMG my first anon hate (?). I thought for sure the day won’t come but NO. I am stoked. STOKED

Thus, I’m nothing if not bound to make this post extra long for you, my dear anon hater, because u my numero uno!

First off, no one claimed Parse was the main character, and the author has made it explicitly clear.

But what you’re implying in this statement is that fans are not allowed to care about development of side characters? Which is extremely problematic to me for several reasons:

1. Fans are actually allowed to make value judgments about a particular body of work. Interpretations of the comic isn’t left to the author alone.

Say, if the author says, oh this is my main character, you should be focused only on this, does this negate the fact that some other characters were written and are available for the readers to read and interpret? Surely Ngozi isn’t the first author to experience backlash from fans clamoring for more about a particular character they hadn’t intended to be big/discussed in the first place? To the uninitiated, it has in fact happened, and it’s what they call a breakout character, my dear anon.

What’s that you say, fandom had actually, repeatedly voiced their opinion in choosing which character they like, even though such character hadn’t intended to be the main character? Why yes, yes it had. I believe this leads back to the principle of modern/postmodern literary criticism, in that the work is believed larger than the author. To simplify Roland Barthes, the death of the author is the birth of the reader, and the work is open to interpretation regardless of the author’s express intent to guide such interpretation. I’m allowed to critique this work because it simply is available for me to read and critique. My interpretation isn’t less valid than that of the author, and of course, I’m allowed to care about whichever character I like, inasmuch as in this case, it is my critique of how Kent was underutilized in this body of work. I am allowed to do that.

2. So now, regarding Parse being the occasional villain, gather round y'all new Check Please fans and let me tell ya: there was a period of time in between the Check Please updates where the introduction of Parse brought outrage. Outrage of the angry tears variety. But it was also the time Parse could have been so much more than your “occasional villain.” After all, at that point, Bitty’s story didn’t have to be intertwined with Jack’s– he could have a story much much larger coming-of-age story than that; but Jack’s story will always be intertwined with Kent and vice versa.

Around the time Kent was introduced, he was immediately a threat to the burgeoning love story of the “protagonists,” but more importantly than that , his introduction brought question to where the series was heading. Obviously from the very beginning, we had the boy-meets-boy, boy-annoys-boy-and-then-they-fall for each other cliche rolled out for Bitty’s future. But then Kent came along, and see, at this point in time, Bitty, the “protagonist” (and let me get back to the dubious quotation marks later) still hasn’t had his story set as a future pie-baking WAG sidekick of a coming out story of a professional athlete. Jack could have been just a pitstop to his larger bildungsroman arc, and Jack could have had fixing it up with Kent and his still unresolved issues about his insecurity and anxiety, as his own arc. Or so I hoped. Those were some exciting new times, my friends, because the possibilities! Jack and Bitty could have ended up together after Bitty resolves what he wants in life and Jack could have resolved his personal vendetta first! Or Kent could have been someone Jack needs a heart-to-heart talk to, and maybe Jack could be Bitty’s first love but not his last! Not that these things could have ever happened, because after the “talk” happened in the previous update wherein Jack dismissed Kent as unimportant, it’s all pretty much the same boring coming-out cliche with Kent eventually being treated as the Horrible Successful But Obsessed Ex who should forever pine while cuddling his many accolades and plotting Jack’s career’s demise, and Jack’s issues were pretty much handwaved and cured so.

But why should I care about Kent then, and how he’s treated by this comic? Because it’s supposedly an LGBT story and a story which supposedly cares about coming out in professional sports, but it only has two (2)  queer professional athletes as characters, and it treats one (1) out of two (2) horribly, horribly wrong. Lest you forget, there has been no professional hockey player to come out as they were active in the NHL; the last openly gay pro player to come out had been stabbed to death jesus fuck. Here are some of articles about sexism and  homophobia in hockey, and even though You Can Play has done good work and many a player had said they would support an LGBT teammate, not one has come out. Nada. Not even in retirement. This sexist, homophobic locker room culture stems as far back as juniors, and maybe even further than that. This is the culture that would have been engendered in Jack and this is the culture that Kent Parson would have been playing in at, nonstop. In all likelihood, if there was an LGBT hockey player in the league, and statistics would point to YES, then someone has done all their hockey education perfectly until they got drafted, maybe through Juniors, as Kent did, and someone would have been choosing to hide like Kent does, which they don’t make lightly. Kent Parson’s story is closest to an LGBT pro hockey athlete that you can get, and this comic punished him by falling in love with someone who buddyfucked him and refused to talk to him after he got drafted above him. He was made an “occasional (love story) villain” in the last update, and so the closeted athlete was vilified, whose story was marked as irrelevant.

My dear anon, as a member of the LGBT community, and a closeted one at that, allow me to be salty over this.

And why do I care about how cliched this love story is? It’s because it’s condescending to me and to closeted people who should not be made as bad examples because they have little to no wiggle room to express their sexuality. This isn’t an LGBT story, but as a friend of mine said, (lol yeah), a story that a straight person thinks what it’s like to be gay. It’s straight-up patronizing and does not make a positive difference to people who really are in our situation. Instead it endorses more stereotypes to the  narrative that choosing not to broadcast one’s sexuality is a lesser way to live.

And sure, Ngozi or any author is allowed to write what they want to write, there’s no contesting that. But allow us to criticize what we don’t appreciate, allow us to be offended where we are actually offended. We’re allowed this too.

3. As it is, the main character’s stories to me are uninteresting.

I can go on and write more on this, tbh, but basically, I find that spitting on a closeted character’s story arc is frankly insulting so that he can stand as a foil to the ~feel good~ coming-out romance that the author has concocted. Because that’s the only ideal way to live right, straight people?

In any case, rally on your pitchforks and torches, but I don’t find Bitty compelling. Yeah I went there.

One of the first things people learn for, like, writing 101, was to give your protagonist a concrete, specific goal at the beginning of your story, as this is the thing that develops the plot and the standard upon which the character is evaluated at the end of their arc: do they achieve their goal? if yes or no, how are they changed because of it? Story structure varies whether the story is genre-specific or under literary fiction, but it’s universally acknowledged that protagonists have to be compelling, even though they’re not likeable. And Bitty as a POV character and a protagonist? Has baking pies for sure, but to quote Community Season 3, you are not allowed to have ‘baking things’ as your identity. He had one, for sure, when he was just trying to stay at the team, but I don’t see much there now, except to achieve their #GayGoals of coming out as the Jack’s beau in his gay success story (and maybe declaring a major). But then again I don’t really find that fascinating. 

But again, that’s just my opinion.We’re allowed to, yeah?