#Mostly in terms of stories and characters

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

If there is a Nightmare before Christmas, then does Christmas exist in Twisted Wonderland?

Was there a Jesus???

[Referencing this post!]

Well, we don’t know if “Christmas” will be an actual term used in-universe yet. We in the real world know this event will be Nightmare Before Christmas themed, but there is no guarantee this is how it will be depicted in the game itself. In fact, the actual names of the properties the event stories are based on are never mentioned, with the sole exception of Lost in the Book with Stitch (since Stitch is technically a character we meet).

I think they can name “Christmas” something different to avoid the religious implication. This would be similar to how irl languages exist in TWST but are never referred to as such. For example, French words are used (most notably by Rook) but French is never called “French”. Edit: Either that, or maybe the religious elements are kept there but are made questionably vague, like how Rollo is never outright stated to be Catholic yet everything at Noble Bell College is very Catholic in design.

The devs could given a new history or in-universe explanation for the holiday that doesn’t involve religion at all. (Edit: For example, as some commenters have suggested, “Christmas” could become a more generalized winter holiday.) This would be similar to the explanation for Halloween provided in the first Halloween event; irl, Halloween has its roots in a pagan celebration of the harvest season. In TWST, Lilia explains Halloween as being a celebration of the dead/ghosts temporarily returning to the world of the living.

It’s also possible that they don’t mention “Christmas” at all and/or just focus on or mostly focus on the Halloween aspect. Basically a shift of the focus.

[lurkingshan]

Japanese QL Corner

We are heading into a bit of a quieter period for QL corner, with two shows ending now and another next week. At least we still have a true banger airing to sustain us through the drought. Smells Like Green Spirit is also now airing in Japan but has not yet been picked up for international distribution (pray for it to get to us soon). These shows are available for weekly streaming on Gaga unless otherwise noted.

Happy of the End

CWs: Blood and gore, child abandonment, child molestation, childhood sexual slavery, death, family rejection, heavy scarring, human trafficking, rape, sexual coercion and exploitation, suicidal ideation, suicide mention

This week was relatively lighter compared to last week's very rough episodes, but still so laced with sadness even in its happy moments. Haoren mourned his mother, and finally admitted to himself, and to Chihiro, that she was never protecting him. The show dug deeper into how this bond between them is giving them both a reason to shake off their apathy about survival, though that is definitely touch and go for both of them. The way Haoren experienced a few moments of happiness and immediately jumped to the conclusion that he would like to die now because he'll never top this feeling was telling, as was Chihiro casually laying down in the street and not moving until Haoren dragged him away. They don't have any real hope for a better life, but they each seem more invested in the other's survival than their own, and that is giving them something to cling to. It was nice to see them have some moments of trust and connection between them, and for Haoren to finally feel safe enough to strip himself bare, physically and emotionally. I'm bracing for a rough final week, with Haoren's former enslaver coming after Chihiro in a bid to destroy the source of Haoren's new happiness. I don't really know what to hope for in terms of an ending for these characters; I just hope the show can leave us with the sense that their relationship mattered and gave them something they can each hold onto.

Love is Like a Poison

This episode had me screaming with laughter and delight. Haruto can read his Ryo-kun like a book, and Shiba can't seem to figure out which way is up. I don't even want to describe all the hilarious gags and sexy tension and extremely unsubtle metaphors in this episode; I don't want to ruin it for anyone. Go watch!

Chaser Game W 2

Of all the great JQL we've gotten in the last year, why this one got picked up for a second season I could not tell you. I was less than impressed with season 1, and I don't have high hopes this next go round will be any better. Especially after watching the first ep of this new season, in which they unceremoniously undid the ending of the last in a laughably silly way only to introduce a new, more annoying conflict. They could have made something of a story about Fuyu trying to work out a way to manage her family life to be with Itsuki, but they'd rather hand wave that away via gay penguins in favor of a new love triangle. Whatever, show. Here we go again, I guess! I’ll be watching this one mostly to support the ratings.

Tagging @bengiyo to do our last anime update for the next little while, as Twilight Out of Focus has officially ended its run and there is no new animated ql on the horizon.

[fractualized]

Could you give me any Batman comic(/series) recommendations? Or Joker ones?

(You can pretend I’ve never read any Batman comics)

Man, this got me thinking about (1) the number of extended storylines I still haven't fully read myself and (2) of the ones I have, would I recommend that people read them?? Tough question! Thinking about it in terms of a Batman newbie changes things too... 🤔

Ultimately, my list is mostly one-offs apart from the mainline series, but there's a few multi-issue mainline stories in there. From oldest to newest:

Batman (1940) #1, "The Joker" and "The Joker Returns" — Early comics can feel inaccessible because of their age, but I would still recommend checking out the start of Batman and Joker's relationship for a sense of the longevity and evolution of these characters (You could also read Batman's first appearance in Detective Comics [1937] #27.)

Batman (1940) #251, "The Joker's Five-Way Revenge" — Jumping ahead thirty years! After a 4-year absence from comics, Joker returns, and I just love how his dynamic with Batman picks up where they left off like it was yesterday.

Detective Comics (1937) #475, "The Laughing Fish" — The infamous story in which Joker's mad scheme is to… copyright fish.

The Dark Knight Returns #1-4 — TBH, I'm not a fan of TDKR for various reasons. However, it had a huge influence on Batman and you should read it at least once.

Batman (1940) #404-407, "Batman: Year One" — More required reading (but I do enjoy it more than TDKR). Frank Miller's problematique is more acknowledged today, but as I said, modern Batman stems from his work.

The Killing Joke — Controversial-ish recommendation nowadays, considering the much-maligned choice to fridge Barbara Gordon, but I still enjoy the nuance it gives Joker and the meta element of the ending, with Bruce and Joker trapped in their cycle by choices that are informed by the needs of the franchise. Alan Moore may no longer care for it, but I do! (Also, I'd say read it with the original coloring.)

Batman (1940) #426-429, "A Death in the Family" — Another big event in Batman lore: the death of Jason Todd. It's one of those moments that gets flattened in various ways today, so I think it's important to see how everything actually played out. In particular, it's striking to see that Joker is initially nervous about Batman finding out what he did, and just how Bruce struggles with his no-kill principle.

Batman #450-451, "Wildcard!" and "Judgements!" — Joker's big return after Jason's murder, in which we see he's still not all that giddy about it.

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #65-68, "Going Sane" — This story takes place earlier in Batman's career, before Robin. When Joker seemingly kills Batman, he tries to start a new life without his instability breaking through. Meanwhile, Bruce recovers from his near-death in a little town in the middle of nowhere and thinks he might actually stay there… but he's plagued by restlessness too.

Joker: Devil's Advocate — Joker winds up on death row, but for a crime he didn't commit! Bruce is set on proving Joker's innocence despite the clown's other sins, and Joker is too captivated by all the media attention to help save his own hide.

Deathstroke (1991) #58, "Bad Blood" — A story in which Joker causes plenty of chaos, but in service of doing something… nice?

Batman: Ego — As Bruce contemplates giving up his crusade, he falls into an argument with… Batman.

Batman (1940) #648-650, "All They Do Is Watch Us Kill" — Part of Under the Red Hood. Jason Todd's reappearance in Gotham City comes to a head when he kidnaps Joker and draws Batman in for a dire confrontation.

Detective Comics (1937) #826, "Slayride" — Paul Dini is one of the writers who consistently remembers Joker has a personality and makes him funny, and this Christmas-time story featuring Tim Drake is a great example.

Batman Confidential #7-12, "Lovers and Madmen" — An alternative origin for Joker. Bruce has been fighting crime for about a year when he encounters a bloody crime scene that he can't make sense of. Meanwhile, the culprit, Jack, is growing bored with his criminal life, until he comes face to face with a vigilante bat.

Batman 80-Page Giant 2010 (Volume 2), "Reality Check" — Is Joker really crazy? Does Joker himself even know?

Batman (2011) #13-17, "Death of the Family" — Not to be confused with "A Death in the Family." Joker tries to convince Batman that all his sidekicks make him weak.

Batman (2011) #23.1, "Time to Monkey Shine" — Joker infamously adopts a gorilla. (It ends badly.)

Batman (2011) #35-40, "Endgame" — After Joker's failure in DOTF, he decides to bring his conflict with Batman to a close.

The Joker Presents: A Puzzlebox #1-7 — The Riddler is dead, but what really happened? A heist story in which the point of view is passed around multiple rogues, but Joker is the ringleader.

Catwoman: Lonely City #1-4 — Alright, this one does revolve around Selina, but the story is deeply tied to her relationship with Bruce and what she comes to understand about him in the end. (And Joker plays a brief but key part!)

Batman & The Joker: The Deadly Duo #1-7 — A recent team-up that calls back to everything I've personally enjoyed about Batman and Joker's dynamic.

Batman: City of Madness #1-3 — Beneath Gotham lies Gotham Below, from which a monstrous mirror of Batman escapes in search of a Robin. In his pursuit, Bruce confronts not only alternative versions of his rogues but his personal demons.

[dreamlanddoll]

shout out to Aardman for making a movie that has a lead female character that's well written and feels like a real person (even though she's a chicken), a predominantly female cast with only one or two supporting male characters (pulling a reverse Smurfette trope) whom all have diverse personalities and quirks, and a main romance between said female lead and the play boy male character that's an enemies to lovers that doesn't at all feel misogynistic or like they actually hate each other. And shout out to him for making the main mastermind villain a woman as well. It's an action-adventure movie with a female lead narrative that feels entirely gender neutral and it's one of the few I can think of that does this. Also shout our to him for making the chickens all look anthropomorphized in a way that isn't overly sexualized (or sexual at all really). If there were an award for "man who actually knows how to write female characters and present them as people" it would go to Aardman. Well done.

[carlyraejepsans]

what is this intrafandom horrible taste you speak of. please, i must know the gossip

a certain videoludic transformative work of chromatic inclinations really gets on my nerves.

[kareenvorbarra]

Meme: favorite books read so far in 2024 (tagged by @child-of-hurin)

Ju's post doesn't say how many books to pick but she listed four, so that's what I'm doing.

Honorable mention goes to the six other Sayers novels I've read so far this year, because I've been absolutely devouring them and it was hard to pick a favorite (and no I'm not done with the series yet)

tagging @wizardysseus, @anghraine, @yavieriel, @thecrenellations, @roseofbattles, and anybody else who would like to do it!

[causticsunshine]

fully back in another ‘consuming animated media and intaking irl people content not pertaining to one direction’ era and gawd it feels so good

[zeb-z]

People complaining about Star Wars shows being too slow, too much filler, like ok why don’t you just not watch? Log off Twitter?

If you can’t see any of the importance of the episodes that don’t have firefights and explosions every five fucking seconds, and complain there’s no story when the plot flies right over your head, that’s not everyone else’s problem. Yes the beginning of Andor takes a while to swing into things, and there’s many reasons for it. I frankly don’t even understand the complaints around the Bad Batch because each episode is far more obvious in its intents and still very exciting. How did any of you watch The Clone Wars?????

No one cares that you think the episodes not involving direct conflict with the Empire are boring. You’re boring. Gain some sort of common sense and think critically about the storytelling before you complain that there is none :)

[buttercupshands]

I guess the moral of this story is... idk roll whatever the character will be there... eventually

it's not the "season 6 recruit" it's literally the anniversary one

I think getting fun stuff under the cut is better, I'm still figuring it out and with only 30 tags there's only so much that I can tell without running out of them

and getting another Tomura is like a celebration, after a very struggling day of painnnnn

Presents are one of the best way of farming crystals so I didn't really touch them for characters I already levelled trust with

but it's a special occasion.

"the kindergarden"

I need to level Kurogiri up one day, but Tomura now takes full priority (ignore the event one I was burnout of the game when it came out and I didn't get the new UR Izuku back then if I remember correctly so he's weak)

I'm a bit pissed off that AFO is a bit more levelled up for now but that's because levels from 4 to 6 are pain and it's not the main/hard quest bonus time yet

but! at least I already have full LoV trio levelled up as much as I could so it'll be easier than before

decided to revive this team set up just for fun, I don't use them usually this one is basically "PLF war + season 6 stuff" because I don't have anyone else like any s5-s6 Izuku, for example. Also I don't have some cool memories which is sad because they look so cool

it's so funny to be a f2p in this game because it's literally pointless but I have so much fun

Also I think we never got the white hair Dabi memory??? the memory that has somewhat good stuff for him is him with black hair

anyway this was really weird

[thedevotionaltour]

karen is MY special white woman. my problematic fave. because i understand why she sucks. i think in order to be allowed to be a karen fan you have to actually understand why she sucks. if you don't understand why she sucks then you're a bad karen fan i think.

[vamptastic]

truly dgaf about traumadumping i do sometimes experience empathy (like, in the crying over a sad story form) but it probably won't go off unless you have an incredibly tragic story are visibly emoting and i already really like you. so it doesn't really stress me out. people talk about fucked up things in cavalier and humorous ways it's how we deal with things. i am not really emotionally phased by discussing most fucked up or personal things in my own life expect for one or two topics that will make me immediately break down, so like who am i to judge. also learning things about people is fun.

[pearlcaddy]

As someone with a very long queue, it's always awkward when a show takes a turn that makes me go completely off a character/plot/ship/the show as a whole. My innocent and dutiful queue will spend the next six-ish weeks posting about it like some sort of Weekend at Bernie's where the corpse is my love for the show.

[catcatb0y]

If anyone heard me talk about some of my 'takes' on inclusivity/diversity headcanons, they would think of me as an asshole- but it's not because I don't want/enjoy/indulge in diversity/inclusivity headcanons, it's because you FOOLS the PERFECT candidate is right THERE!!

[femmeterypolka]

i don't think proseka is a very good game. It's definitely not a very good vocaloid game. but i'm addicted to the little pink diamond that says i did a good job playing and i'm normal about mizuki akiyama

[catominor]

someday i should post about my historical inspirations for c. martinus and l. furius...

[heartbreakercupcake]

Bayonetta 3, I still got questions

 like I can buy that Bayonetta from Bayo 3 is not the one from 1&2 I get that, that’s fine but there’s some other things that bug me with this timeline like why would Bayonetta from the 3rd game even call herself  “Bayonetta?” if we’re going from the bayo 1 timeline where she got sent back and is strong enough to fight along side with Jeanne when that place got attacked, did she still got put in the box? did the events from bayo 1 still happen? Personally I would like if Bayonetta from the 3rd game DIDN’T have amnesia and she called herself Cereza, she knows who she is now, like the main reason why Bayonetta calls herself that in the first game is cause she didn’t knew who she was and gave herself that name, Bayonetta from the 3rd game doesn’t strike me like that at all, she knows who she is and she even still wears her hair like she had it when she was younger so if anything she would call herself Cereza and maybe be like

“Oh well you can also call me Bayonetta cause that's what my mummy called herself”

Cereza would probably grow up thinking that bayo 1 was her mom and not like an older version of herself, ALSO WHILE WE’RE ON THE TOPIC! Wouldn’t like Bayonetta/Cereza ask why the FUCK does Viola does have a demon/HER OWN FUCKING STUFFED TOY named Cheshire?!? Like I know some shit gets ignored or not talked about for plot but that is just to big to ignore I feel like she would at lest point it out or kept giving it a glance at the very least, this is like her childhood toy that her mother made herself and gave to her she be like “How the HELL did you get this” At the very lest.

If Bayonetta in this timeline was gonna end up with Luka of all people (And I will never not hate but if we gotta do this) it would have been nice if we got more seen of them being fleshed out to see what kind of relationship they have in this timeline, like I can’t go off of there relationship from like the last to games cause THERE IS JUST NOTHING THERE, yes she playfully fucks with him in first game but its mostly banter, she just messes with him cause she has tits and knows how to use them to make him flustered to shut him up and the 2nd game? they are just friends she doesn’t even fuck with him as much as she did in the first time, the 3rd game this is a whole new timeline with a “new” Bayo and Luka ATLEST GIVE ME SOMETHING instead of this whole “we where always meant to be together” bullshit, srsly fuck off with that. .... Also wouldn’t Bayonetta 3 bayo still have the left of darkness? or like did 2 get rid of them in all timelines?