#Not perfect but good for a throwaway episode I think? idk

[cartoonsbyandie]

So let's put you in charge of a throwaway case. How would you make the perp an ideal foil to Kogoro?

My immediate thought was cop/former cop culprit, or culprit that murders their ex for the sake of being able to move on, until I remembered that both of those were already done within the same case. (Albeit with weird timing considering that case came before Eri was introduced.)

I think one interesting way to go would be a guy who commits a murder on accident while drunk. Conan episodes tend to have the culprits be mega-geniuses that planned everything super far in advance, or are supernaturally able to come up with complex ways to cover it on the spot. There's the odd case Conan is bothered by the culprit's sloppy work and literally suggests ways they could've done it better, but I like the thought of really running with that.

Let's go really on-the-nose: Two guys pool their money together on a bunch of horse-racing tickets, and one of them comes up a big winner. The agreement was to split the profits, but since it was all only under one guy's name, he reneges on that and says he's going to take all the money. They're both wasted and have a drunken fight outside the bar, resulting in one guy pushing the other, him tripping on a bottle, and bludgeoning himself on a dumpster. Culprit takes the ticket from his pocket and goes home.

Culprit only realizes what happened the morning after when the murder is reported on the news, probably a bit in denial about it. Blah-blah-blah investigation stuff, Conan and Kogoro teaming up, there were multiple people that hated the victim, a bunch of them also have winning horse racing tickets maybe. Conan is fixated on which ticket was the one stolen from the victim, Kogoro is fixated on the emotional element of what people do when they're drunk and what he would do.

Kogoro ends up confronting the culprit alone as he's burning the horse-racing ticket (there's no hope of cashing it and planting it on one of the other suspects would just ruin their lives) and is debating on jumping off a building. Kogoro stops him and convinces him to turn himself in. He gets to have empathy for the victim, that he acted how Kogoro would have if he found himself in this situation, and convince him that he still has something to live for. He needs to atone for his crime, but not like this-- there's enough death in this town, and people would miss him. Maybe Conan even shows up with the guy's friends from the bar to show up and help convince him. Kogoro gets to be the person he wishes he had after he drove Eri away and ruined his life. (Not a perfect comparison since murder is far worse than that, but y'know, if that guy has a path to redemption then maybe Kogoro does too.)

End-credits scene where Kogoro is drunk and cheering on a horse race of course because this is DetCo and no one can learn anything. Except then Conan notices he's drinking non-alcoholic beer, but still acting like he's wasted, and just has so many questions.

Disclaimer: Decent odds this set-up has been one before, I haven't seen every Conan filler episode.

[twig-tea]

The La Pluie finale had everything:

The Perfect Confession

Ok listen I am not one for nonconsensual public confession but know your audience, Tien is a perpetually invisible middle child who is not afraid of public attention and he is a film major, Lomfon making him a film to illustrate his feelings got me emotional, and him then also saying them out loud!! Because my boy learns from his own and others' mistakes, yesssss.

The Perfect Apology

I was so ready for Tai to suffer from the bed of his own making this episode, and I was not sure four days of searching was going to be enough. But that apology was PERFECT. He apologized first, he explained exactly what he did wrong, and he fixed it by saying his feelings aloud, finally! I was braced for the show to let him get away with not saying it, but he did. AND the show did us one better by giving us the explanation that he was parroting his parents' bullshit, which is such a real thing and it is difficult to catch yourself doing it, so the fact that he recognized it displayed his growth before the apology too. Just, all around this was so perfectly constructed and I was so pleased. Hell yes.

Surprise Sapphics

Listen, I am always here for more women loving women. Always. And LBR it's only a surprise that we actually got Dream and Nara confirmed because I know many of us were already shipping them.

Confirmation of Other Side Pairs

IDK if anyone else was rooting for the other vet techs than me, but they shared coffee so they're married in my head now I don't make the rules.

Best Brothers Being Best

Honestly Tien could have just said "unfuck it" to Tai again in that phone call and it would have rolled up to the same thing lol I really do love how their relationship was rock solid through this entire show, even when romance was potentially a threat. They have such a good sibling dynamic, one of the best I've seen in any show, and it makes me happy whenever Tien and Tai interact.

It also had a few things that I didn't love:

Awkward Logistics

This is maybe not a big deal because Tai is a writer but he works in a job that requires him to be in the office at least occasionally and Patts just started setting up a new vet clinic in Chiang Mai. Is Tai going to leave his friends and family to work remotely and live in Chiang Mai with Patts? Are they going to have to work out their relationship anew long distance? This is going to suck a little bit, and the adult in me could not help but notice and have it damper my joy. That being said, it was something Patts said he was thinking about for awhile so maybe it's something that would have come up anyway in future.

Patts Now Believes in Soulmates

Honestly, this was the biggest damper for me and I wish they hadn't included it (but maybe they had to for the sequel, IDK). Patts originally was willing to try with Nara because he didn't think the soulmate thing could dictate his emotions and he loved her, but she would not believe him. He also was willing to try with Tai before realizing that they were soulmates. And he told Tai that he would have wanted to try a relationship with him whether or not they were soulmates. So why now are we told that he suddenly thinks he can only love his soulmate for the rest of his life? This is not just anti-narrative, but anti-Patts' previous statements. I get that he was hurting and predisposed to be melodramatic in that moment, but it was a weird statement to include.

Bow's Throwaway Het Happy Ending

Not to be heterophobic but where is her cute Northern girlie who Tumblr convinced me she was dating? Bow deserves better imho

Tien's Turn for Drama

I KNEW this was going to happen! They spent too much time making it a big deal that Tai was the only sibling with hearing loss during rain. I just want my best boy to be happy for five minutes! Considering these characters, and what Tien's already said about what he would do if given this choice, I could see this plot being interesting. Especially because Tien had to suffer, now it's Lomfon's turn, maybe. But still, just let me have this cuteness for a little longer, show!

But all of that is relatively minor and honestly what we got was so good I can forgive and forget all of it.

TL; DR La Pluie stuck the landing and I could not be more pleased!

[real-total-drama-takes]

alriiiiight season 2 is over and im high off my ass so its time for me to give my updated extremely unnecessary opinions on the reboot cast woo (they did these guys so bad omg 💀)

scary girl - yea she's an acquired taste but idgaf i love this stupid bitch so much and the fact that she had a storyline with potential that ended up being a throwaway was so tragic

chase - he's there ig. i don't hate him as much as i did before but like he's so useless 😭 he was only there for comedic relief but it never landed. he had a few friendships and things that couldve been developed but otherwise he's literally nothing without emma. rip ig

millie - i cant stand this hoe omg. first ur lazy and useless asf in the challenge then you try to push your own teammate to basically his death like girl. cartoon or not ur foul for that. she got so lucky that damien forgave her bc me personally i would've pushed her ass off a bridge. she should be thanking bowie for making her time on screen in season one interesting enough that i could resist scratching out my eyes every time she showed up

emma - she was amazing in the first half of season 1 and made a comically steep decline in the second half of episode 7. season 2 obliterated this girl (we seeing a pattern here?) instead of, idk, rekindling her friendship with bowie or developing some sort of actual storyline for her since she was a fairly strong competitor, the writers drew straws and gave her the most horseshit episode arc they could think of 😭 and i mISS HER STUPID LITTLE WHITE GIRL DANCE WHY DID THEY GET RID OF IT

nichelle - lemme just say yall's expectation for her was way too high 🤭 her storyline peaked in episode 2 of the second season. like yeaa she came back and is suddenly really good at challenges as if we all wouldn't see it coming 😃 just like everyone else, she had potential but she somehow ended up being the most underwhelming character to come out of the reboot. watching her go down as soon as she did along with the hopes of virtually the entire fandom was quite comedic. and side note i wish her friendship with damien had more substance to it bc those two were great together

bowie - my everything. he was destined to be an early boot so he came and served cunt for 6 episodes instead and i love that for him. was i expecting him to get far? no. was i expecting him to leave so soon? no and i was thoroughly upset about it. but i love that he did the little gay wrist limp thing when he left. whats it called again. limp wrist?? fag hand?? idk i'll remember in the morning. him acting as a coach for wayne and raj in the finale was so perfect. i love that he knows that his bf and his bf's best friend are hilariously stupid and just rolls with it. and might i add that his comment to raj before he left about him telling everyone that his boyfriend was gonna be a millionaire was the PERFECT SETUP for raj to win the season but NAH the gays can never win sadly

axel - undeniably a disappointment. dont get me wrong i love her crazy ass and i love that they gave her a soft side to her with her liking art and poetry and stuff like that but the fact that her entire character past that is her sucking face with ripper for uncomfortable periods of time kinda sucked. like ripaxel wasn't terrible and i really like how they got together but from there it was just hard to watch. and somehow, out of the three canon het ships in the reboot, these two are the most functional, so that's something

ripper - he's tolerable to watch now, still quite disgusting, but tolerable. watching him desperately go after this girl was amusing and i won't even lie i was happy for him when he and axel finally got together, but it when downhill from there real quick 💀 and his elimination was such a lame ass cop-out by the writers. the double elim couldve been like a twist or smth but ig not 😭 by ep 7 i wanted them split apart just as much as everyone else but ripper's elim was so lazy

zee - not much to say here. funny soda man. he stayed longer than i expected but im not mad about it. he stayed long enough to make a storyline but not too long that he made me mad. and the fact that pretty much everyone on the island trusted him with a secret of some sort is kinda funny to me. funny soda man

mk - booooo tomato tomato tomato. ik yall will not admit it but she was nothing without her alliance/situationship with julia. i don't dislike her at all but all the potential she had after her elim in season 1 fizzled out halfway through season 2. her dynamic w julia was pretty cool but what else did she have besides that and theodore? nothing.

damien - my. fucking. god. THEY DID MY MAN SO OUTRAGEOUSLY BAD. like it pisses me off so bad 😭 damien should've been a finalist. no questions asked, but instead they decided to boot him in favor for two heteros whose storyline lasted THE ENTIRE SEASON. highway fucking robbery. he had a storyline. he had character relationships. he had a rivalry. he had it all. but the writers thought it would be fun to keep PRIYA over him. again, highway fucking robbery.

raj - my amazing baby son who can do no wrong. i was so upset that he just barely missed out on being a finalist but omg he was so great his entire run. he and wayne are just the right amount of stupid to be tolerable, even when the jokes dont land. and oh my god his little speech before he left had me so SAD. "we won't reach the end together, but we'll always be together in the end." IM SO UPSET i love he so much

priya - the fact that this paragraph wasn't 8 paragraphs ago pretty much sums up how i feel about her. she's fine. i like her a lot. bowie still should've won season 1, but if anyone im glad it was her. still, this was the perfect opportunity to priya to realize how her parents have been policing her life since birth but instead, they turn her into an indecisive lovestruck moron that basically took up the entire season. i was bored of the priyaleb storyline after maybe 3 or 4 episodes. but lucky me, i got to see 13 episodes of it instead 😃😃😃

julia - honestly not much to say here either. she is arguably the best player the show's ever had, but idk, my only gripe about her is that her entire thing is that she's a bitch to everyone except mk. maybe it's just me but i got bored after a while. maybe its bc the only storyline we had left by the end was priyaleb but the whole time i was like "congrats, you're a terrible person, can you do something else now?" 😭 idk maybe my expectations were too high. im just not feeling her as much as i did during season 1. the mullet will eat tho. she will make it work.

caleb - booooooooorrrrrrriiiiiiiiinnnngggg. if a vanilla ice cream cone was a td character it would be caleb. he's super nice and hot asf but also annoyingly indecisive and way too easily manipulated. how are you gonna say that you know not to team up with julia then immediately do just that 😭 can we make it make sense plz. caleb is so extremely unremarkable that my thoughts for him have barely changed compared to season 1. glad he has a girl tho ig

wayne - i am so glad he won bc going into the final 4 things were looking grim 💀 but omg his little "overcoming his fears and growing as a person thing" in episode 12 was so good. and his whole team actually being there for him and not just to oppose someone else was incredible. watching them cheer for him while he had the stupid little smile on his face made my heart happy. love him so much

take this w a grain of salt bc i probably won't remember any of what i wrote in the next like two hours ok bye

[xomby]

I am going to be predictable and ask you 003 for Yates, but also, just to spice things up - 003 for Jo as well <3

OK EHEHEHEE be prepared this might be super long.

yates-

how i feel about this character- yates is my everything. he’s so funny and so sad and so relatable i genuinely can’t put into words how much i care about him. i project onto him really hard he’s legitimately just ogh. oughg

romantic ships- really just benton tbh, i think they really have a great dynamic that’s a perfect mix of genuinely healthy and hilarious banter, earnest care for one another, and gut wrenching angst. one of my fav things about them is how much they say without actually saying anything. right from the get go (honestly forget which episode it’s in but one of yates’ first) he’s missing and unit doesn’t know where he is, and benton asks the brig and there’s such deep worry in his voice and eyes idk. i was sold from that point on. there’s many other moments i could talk about but yeah they’re so fucking good and a really interesting show of two characters who clearly care about each other but are not able to adequately express it in their work setting imo. also i have a theory that the tom yates is dating in PROSE happy endings is tommy from planet of the spiders just cause it seems like the truth to me and they’re ok but not like benton/yates.

fav nonromantic relationship- YATES AND JO. you know this. i’m so insane about them they have such a close loving friendship it’s so cute. they’re almost dating but he’s gay so they’re not dating it’s really real. they care about each other so much i’m obsessed with them. also such a small moment but when jo checks the time on yates’ wristwatch in the dæmons. it’s so cute they function as 1 entity sometimes

unpopular opinion- i don’t know if enough people care about yates for there to be popular/unpopular opinions about him tbh. that being said maybe that i absolutely see where he’s coming from with the operation golden age thing. like being not-fully-recovered from violently painful and traumatic brainwashing and being approached by a group claiming to be trying to save the environment, anyone would do what he did imo. also the fact that he was fully prepared to die, maybe even expecting it, maybe even wanting it, makes it really hard for me to understand how people see him as a heartless villain in that scenario. like nah bruh

something i wish had happened in canon- i guess maybe just more content. even when he played a major role in stories, he didn’t get much screentime, and his struggles were very infrequently focused on. i would have liked to see a bit more care put into the depth of his character (in an overt sense, cause it’s definitely there in subtext/implications/throwaway lines)

crossover ship- tbh i don’t do crossover ships, i just don’t get it

jo-

how i feel about this character- MY FUCKING GIRL. jo. jo. god. she’s genuinely my everything, and my second fav doctor who character closely after yates. it takes another kind of likability for an entire episode to basically come down to jo being such a loving and selfless person that her pure kindness destroys the sci-fi equivalent of the devil. she’s just so fucking good. also it’s hilarious how dumb she is but it still doesn’t dictate her character. yes she’s stupid, but that’s a trait that’s sometimes good, sometimes bad. she has other traits and skills that balance it out. she’s pretty much the world to me.

romantic ships- ok they never met but i’ve always loved the idea of jo and liz. i think their personalities really balance out perfectly, and they’d have a hilarious and adorable dynamic- jo being very forward and openly sweet and liz sort of being out of touch and closed off, trying not to let her feelings show. i also kind of like cliff and jo. i hated it initially cause her exit is so… 😕 like it is in character for her to marry a guy she just met but idk how i feel about her dropping everything and leaving all her friends for his scientific endeavors, it seems out of character. however, i think they’re funny together and i love the idea that everyone at unit hates cliff.

fav nonromantic relationships- YATES AND JO AGAIN!!!! but since i already talked about it it’s also worth mentioning jo and benton, who are just fucking adorable friends (especially in the three doctors, hugging and holding hands when they’re nervous, it’s so cute and silly). also jo and the doctor are the father daughter dynamic of a lifetime and the scene in time monster when they’re in jail and he tells her the story of how he started seeing the world in color has made me cry before.

unpopular opinion- again idk how many opinions i know. i think a popular hc is that she’s a lesbian which is so unreal to me she’s the most bisexual character of all time. BUT that’s a very little one that i don’t really have that strong feelings about. i guess people often think she’s sort of a typical damsel-type companion which is so far from true, she’s such a whole character with such a fleshed out personality with strengths, weaknesses, interests, and feelings. i will never understand the argument that jo is a weak character.

something i wish had happened in canon- honestly i thought she was a really well done character with great relationships with everyone she interacted with. i genuinely think the only thing that could really improve the viewing experience when it comes to jo is a couple more seasons tbh, although i completely get and respect manning not wanting to do the show anymore after delgado passed away

crossover ship- again. maybe i’m missing something but i don’t really get it

[fallindomino]

how i would have changed s2 of hsmtmts

obvious disclaimer but im not a screenwriter or anyth so im not claiming what i want is best, this is just for fun lololol

okay so first of all nini would still have dropped out of yac but she wouldn’t have gone back to east, she would have transferred to north bc she was too ashamed to tell anyone she left at first and maybe she still wants to explore who she is away from ricky and the others

nini could join north’s batb and this way maybe we could have some playful rivalry with lily and nini and more scenes with antoine shdhdjdj also it could have been a great opportunity to flesh out lily’s character so those scenes where she reaches out to ricky and her confession at the end of the season actually make sense lol

speaking of ricky ,,, i think he should have left the play at some point hear me out. he only joined in the first place because of nini and barely wanted to do it at all once he realized he wasn’t gonna be able to perform with her. he could have joined crew and been a manager with natalie or smth considering he rlly does see the theater gang as a second family. also this would leave so much room for ej and ricky development and bants since ej joined the av club and began to pursue film. they could have some convos where idk ricky asks ej how he figured out what he wanted to do after duke didn’t work out and ricky could actually develop some interests that arent the play or nini ,,, maybe fucking art club i mean he did p good on that centerpiece for carlos’ quinceañera.

with ricky not being the beast anymore i think seb should take his place that would be soooo good. and since seb isn’t chip anymore carlos won’t make those snide comments about chip being a small unimportant role and we can just cut that whole fight bc it was dumb and bad. we could still have seb being insecure that carlos is only dating him bc there aren’t really any other gay guys at school. in a heartbeat is great and i did like ricky being supportive in the background it was kinda funny too idk dhdjdjfj

ooh i almost forgot abt rini ahshdj okay so i still think they should break up. but in my version there���s no ricky pulling an ej 1.0 and deleting comments off of nini’s insta, cause with ricky in art club and nini at north trying to figure out what she wants i think one of them would realize that they’re going in different directions and only got back tgt because they made each other feel safe cause what they had was familiar. this could be triggered by ricky mentioning smth abt nini at yac and then nini breaks down and tells him that she dropped out and is at north and doesn’t know where she’s going. and then they can both realize they aren’t good for each other rn and have a less tragic mutual break up.

honestly i really liked the scene of nini taking charge after miss jenn freaked out cause with the character detail of nini giving every person in the cast of productions she’s in a thank you note she just seems really like someone who is suited to lifting others up. this could still be explored at north, maybe she could help lily through her issues that were briefly implied in ep 11 and nini realizes she wants to be a drama teacher and encourage kids to go off book and put themselves into their acting, something she couldn’t have at yac.

okay now ej ,,, so like i said in ricky’s section, more bants between them cause i feel like friendships kinda fell by the wayside due to all the relationships so more friendship !!!! also the scene where ej tells his dad he’s not going to duke shouldn’t have been an ending scene, it should have been fleshed out with his dad pushing back saying how he pulled all these strings to get him in and ej saying he doesn’t wanna go if his own hard work couldn’t get him there. and also more scenes of ej doing av club things !!! and realizing he rlly likes film and wants to do it OMG IT WOULD BE SO COOL IF HE BROKE THE FOURTH WALL AND ASKED THE DOCUMENTARY CREW ABT THE FILM INDUSTRY god i would love that. the only scene we rlly got of ej doing film things was at the quinceañera which made me kinda sad. uhhh also i just wanted to specifically mention how ej got mr mazzara that job at cal tech bc it really showed how he wanted to be there for people not just for gina, who he had a crush on, but for mr mazzara who supported him outside of romance, so i wanna keep that for sure.

gina !!! okay so i mostly liked her arc in this season, the only changes i would make would be to flesh it out a teeny bit (god this hypothetical s2 would have to be like 22 eps at least shdjdjdjfj) anyways besides ashlyn singing home to get gina to stay i think there should be a scene where they actually talk in her room abt how gina feels safer when shes on the run (second chance reference ilysm) hhhh and also a scene of her and carlos actually working out compromises for their choreo cause i liked that bit of development too and fleshing that out would make gina an even better foil for lily, who felt a need to hog the spotlight like gina used to. with gina’s own arc fleshed out her character would feel more whole independently from romance and portwell would be even more rewarding than it is in the current s2. the only thing i would really change abt portwell is that they would kiss !!! in the finale but thats bc im biased.

ashlyn should have gotten a more fleshed out storyline about being insecure about not being a good enough belle or the typical belle. there were some throwaway lines when north did their typical dramatics but the only two real scenes that showed it were when ash talked to big red about it and when she was telling nini she wanted to do a run in “home” bc lily did it. ashlyn should get more screen time where she has to grapple with the reasons she doesn’t feel good enough and big red can still support her but also gina too bc i would like more roommate besties interaction.

kourtney could still date howie, that harry potter shit was cute but there needs to be smth else for kourtney’s arc. idk she’s still into fashion so maybe she could be out here trying to create her own line or smth? this doesn’t have to be resolved in s2 like making a wholeass line takes time and she could work on it into a potential s3. kourtney just didnt get much outside of howie and the stuff at the beginning of the season where she said nini inspired her to be independent and that's why she got a job was just dropped?? so i think that fashion could fill that for her if she’s still dating howie cause like having her whole arc just be the pizza place kinda overlaps w big red’s mini arc abt how he wasn’t settling for hospitality, its what he wants to do with his life.

ik what ur thinking. anna, even if you added more episodes, where would u find the room to add all these plotlines?? well first we cut (most of) the seblos fight, so thats some time saved. honestly most of the time that we r going to gain is going to be from cutting ms jenn’s time. things like ms jenn’s and nini’s car ride would get cut, but mostly all of ms jenn’s romances would get cut down. considering she’s the teacher and isn’t actually a character with an arc how does she have THREE love interests this season?? like all of the weird tension between her and zack can be cut, like just some short scenes of them being competitive can stay. all of the stuff with ricky’s dad can go bye bye we don’t need it. i did like her w mr mazzara so most of that can stay i just didn’t like how he said he would give up cal tech for her, ew no that would be gone.

the MENKIES !!!! this is the last thing im gonna address cause in a perfect world every character would get a long fleshed out arc but then the season would be waaay too long and also im mostly trying to work within material the show gave so this is mostly made up of “realistic” deviations from what actually happened. lol idk what that even means it just makes sense to me. but anyways!! uhhh bro idk i thought them dropping the menkies was funny but it also made the finale really BAD lmao. in this finale, seb is the beast, east still had to deal w the fact that they’re underfunded compared to north but no one is injured, lily is less of a poorly written character and maybe ppl are even rooting for her, and wow i just realized i never actually said what role i think nini should have in north’s show. OOH she could be student director instead of lily cause lily both being in the play while also directing was weird considering omg i just checked and according to her wiki page shes a FRESHMAN?? and they let her be student director? lol hell nah. okay so with all that in mind ,,, the menkies should have been the season cliffhanger instead of portwell. east and north should both be nominated, both schools perform at the menkies, and then the award winner is about to be announced and THATS when it cuts to natalie and the end of the season.

one, this actually gives more tension for a summer s3 as we would be waiting to see the consequences of whichever school won. also i bet people would be wondering if nini’s gonna be transferring back to east or staying at north. people would also prob wonder if ej would be getting the scholarship if east won and what that would mean for his interest in film.

lmao that got longggg and idk if anyone’s even gonna read this but it was fun to do :D

[thedeviljudges]

the devil judge + the seven deadly sins

so, i made a gifset about who i thought falls under the seven deadly sins. and also shameless plug - please go reblog the gifset i made for this. took me ages to do.

but i figured i might as well make a meta post to correlate. so this is that post. it’s not everything i could discuss. i could be here for hours more, truth be told. but i hope it’s enough to chew on.

while i feel like a lot of these are going to be a no-brainer, i still want to talk it through because idk. i can, and i want to, and i feel like it, lmao.

gluttony

the elite are privileged and have an opportunity to indulge so much more than the general public, but in many different ways. this is shown throughout the show in the fact that they can indulge on luxury food, have political power, they can make a phone call or snap their fingers and everyone must follow their orders.

and the thing about gluttony is that there is always more to be had. you take a little and then realize it’s not enough and so you ask for more. case in point: in episode 11 when sunah suggests that yohan could be the new president, the current one gives her an alternative: dictatorship. because it wasn’t just enough for him to be an actor and the presiding president.

you’ll also know they turn in on themselves - the two other guys in the elite group. one who owns the company and the other dude - i really cannot remember their names and what they do, but y’all know who i’m talking about. it was so easy for them, when threatened, to fabricate documents to give to yohan about each other in order to get ahead. gluttony is only shared in the relationships we have until one realizes they can take a little extra of the pie. it’s the selfishness of having all the leftovers. gluttony cannot necessarily exist without someone else’s sacrifice.

lust

i kind of had an ah-ah moment when i was talking this over with @technitango​. i was trying to decide who was going to be lust because lust is portrayed very, very differently in this show than what most of us are used to. we, of course, know sunah who lusts after a life of indulgence and riches because she equates that with respect more than actually wanting it because it’s monetarily worth something.

but then i realized the public is lust because of their need for justice. i won’t say revenge necessarily because they’re doing as they’re told when given the judge show. but we can quickly see how that evaporates into something akin to bloodlust, for criminals and people who normally get away with shit, to have their fair taste at conviction for their misdeeds. we even see it with yohan’s fanboy club - the lust that comes from adoration and dedication.

and even more so, the public is easily swayed and so is the nature of lust. it follows in the vein of needs and wants, and as soon as new information is presented, however may false, so does the wants and desires of what people want sway. how easy was it for them to turn on yohan for a split second on two occasions - on two accounts of bribery.

envy

envy, above all, is about wanting what others have because you do not have it yourself. it may not be exactly what they have, but a form of it. some people don’t necessarily want money - they want what it can by, which is time, health and material goods.

sunah is the perfect example of this. she envies respect and recognition. she talks about bright and shiny objects, and that’s true to her kleptomania tendences, but more than anything, she wants to be seen as an equal because being poor with a vastly different upbringing means she’s looked down upon by those she thinks matters.

which also begs the question why she feels the need to seek validation from people in higher statuses to begin with when she can be the exception and not the rule - form her own understanding and environment to show others that the typical way of the elite is not actually all it’s cracked up to be - to which we see when she has no one to celebrate her victory with. it’s lonely being at the top. you get to your goal you thought you wanted but then what?

more importantly, sunah also envies family, relationships and simply put, human interaction. she wants to be cared for and treasured, and she looks for that in her position of power. because then all eyes are on you. because then that’s what people care about. what she fails to see is that those eyes are just as fruitless and just as wavering. to be a leader means people loving the idea of you but not you as a person.

“people of envious nature are sometimes stimulated to seek to emulate those who have completed some great achievements and in doing so achieve something great for themselves,” according to Understanding Philosophy.

wrath

while i realize that gaon not might entirely fit the wrath trope, he certainly has his moments, and i think he’s lived with a tampered flame since his parent’s death. he just learned to briefly put it out in the form of distractions and a false sense of righteousness and justice. it isn’t until he meets yohan that someone finally gives him the okay to feel the entirety of his emotions, that lets him breath and tells him it’s okay to feel anger and hurt. and while gaon ultimately chooses not to exact revenge, his wrath is what led him to becoming a judge and walking away from his teenage crimality.

gaon transposed his wrath into seeking justice, transformed it into livelihood, and reformed his narrative so that he was no longer angry and a teen with rash emotions. it was simply redirected and never really forgotten. yohan turned that redirection back around onto gaon’s ultimate heartache. fueled with that, it became easier to justify himself and his actions.

the most pivotal moment of turning his back on this mindset is, of course, the minister’s suicide, where he takes a good look at himself and doesn’t like what he sees. at this point, gaon’s upset isn’t necessarily at yohan but at the situation in which they got themselves into. because the thing is, gaon doesn’t absolve himself from what they did. he doesn’t turn a blind eye to that and try to dismiss it. he owns up to what happened and confesses how he feels to yohan and how he has to leave for his own good, and in some indirect way, for yohan’s, too.

with yohan, his ultimately weakness, despite never admitting to it, is family. his wrath comes in the form of anger when the ones he loves are threatened. yohan lives by a moral code of loyalty because that means you won’t be abandoned, and as a child who lived with that verdict since the day he was born, it’s an ever-pressing theme of his.

thing is, wrath comes in two particular forms for yohan. again, one is family and the second is the rose-colored glasses he’s given himself in his revenge story. he’s always had a goal to presumably make right the wrong for taking away isaac, but within that, 10 years is a long time to plot revenge, to the point where it becomes so much easier to lose yourself to that, to become enraged with it and forget the initial goal all along. we see this in his inability to form the bonding moments needed with his niece and his casual throwaway comments over people’s lives - the comment he made to gaon about moving on to the next plan, and the ultimately nail in the coffin of pushing gaon to leaving him.

his fury has also led him to convince himself his own humanity is nothing short of a lie. therefore, it’s easier to justify the means to an end because of his own self-worth and self-deprecation. it’s almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy: he even admitted to gaon’s mentor that he is an abyss. he’s referred to himself as nothing but an animal or a monster - all characteristics of despondency to survive and to justify what he’s doing. sort of like a catch 22, yohan claims he’s an animal/monster and behaves as such, but because he behaves as such, it means he’s an animal/monster.

wrath for gaon and yohan are very different yet the same. they are slow-burning, and that’s a dangerous type. it’s actually interesting when you think about the fire imagery surrounding the two of them because flames are quick to lap at anything in its wake, to destroy within a matter of minutes. and yet for the two of these men, their internal fire eats them from the inside out, painfully, until they’re almost unrecognizable to others and to themselves.

sloth

sloth was a little more difficult to pinpoint because of its characteristics. it was either the minister versus the mentor, both of which i think could work in this role. however, i chose the minister simply because she’s featured more and intertwines heavily with the plot line.

soth is a medieval translation of the Latin term acedia, meaning “without care.”

the ultimate characteristic of sloth is often identified as laziness, and while it’s easy to argue that the minister hasn’t been lazy in her ability to get where she is, she became as much when she started lying to get to her position. isn’t lying known as the easier way out? it absolves you of responsibility, of putting in the hard work, of apologizing and making things right. in the end, she had a goal and found the easiest solution to get there through her lack of responsibility for the roles she more than likely swore an oath to.

but that also translates into the other attributes of sloth: a failure to do the right thing, lack of emotions for people or of the self, and the fact that it “hinders man in his righteous undertakings and thus becomes a terrible source of man’s undoing” according to The Seven Deadly Sins: Society and Evil.

while i think there are a lot of components of sloth that may not necessarily fit the minister, the apathy and carelessness are enough to showcase her aggression, despondency and restlessness when what little efforts she does put in do not go her way. another interesting thing to note is that many of sloth’s traits correspond with symptoms of mental illness, such as depression and anxiety. it’s an interesting thing to note given the way the minister chooses to end her life.

greed

i don’t know that jinjoo would’ve had any provocation to the limelight if it wasn’t for sunah’s direction, but she’s eager to please and wants to be useful. it’s only natural for her to want more because it’s clear she’s a career woman, loves her job and has a heart for serving the people.

but like gluttony, greed is also that little thing that plants itself and can take on a life of its own. you start looking for justifications as to why you can’t have more than what you do, and in jinjoo’s situation, she’s already overlooked through no fault of her own. and it’s not that gaon and yohan are doing it purposefully, which is what makes their neglect heartbreaking, because truthfully, they’re after the same thing jinoo is. sure, it looks different and the foundation of it is different, same with their motives. but they’re all three judges on a residing bench working to exact justice - even if all three of them have their own personal agenda. 

i don’t think jinoo fully aligns with greed, but she does want more for herself, and i think that’s only natural. you can tell she has a heart, and she’s keen not to be overlooked. this isn’t her pain point so much as it is she knows her worth and is more than ready to do what it takes to get where she wants. this, in and of itself, isn’t necessarily a bad trait, but we can see how it leads to being deceived, especially for someone who’s been left in the dark for so long.

she is enticed by the glitz and the glamour of being a head judge, but you can tell she feels some remorse and guilt for those thoughts at times. i think her sense of greed is a battle within herself more than it is extremely outwardly.

pride

soohyun’s pride comes in the form of her imbalance with right and wrong. her sense of righteousness and justice is so far leaning, even more than gaon’s. it can be chalked up to her being a cop, but we’ve seen instances of this outside of her role within that agency. her pride doesn’t let her see beyond saving gaon and getting to the bottom of every mystery that comes her way.

it also comes in the form of impulsiveness and her savior complex, putting elijah in danger, for example, instead of waiting for backup. it’s not necessarily from a belief that she can fix things all on her own, but she sees injustice and immediately jumps in. another case in point is her and gaon watching yohan wreck the minister’s son’s car. she’s ready to go stop him, but gaon pulls her back, most likely because at that point, they hadn’t been observing the situation for very long to get a read on it. also the fact that at that point, neither of them truly knew yohan and his capabilities.

but as to where her characteristics come from, we simply don’t know beyond that of gaon. it’s unfortunate because we don’t have much of her backstory, so there is no real understanding why she so firmly believes in entities of regulation beyond keeping her friend out of jail. she prides herself on her work and what she’s able to accomplish, which is why it’s devastating to her to have to protect gaon by cleaning up his bloody handprint.

aristotle is of the belief that, “pride, then, seems to be a sort of crown of the virtues; for it makes them greater, and it is not found without them. Therefore it is hard to be truly proud; for it is impossible without nobility and goodness of character,” from Nicomachean Ethics.

but pride for soohyun isn’t about honors or rewards. it’s for herself and her capabilities, her ability to protect gaon, and the virtues she’s set as the precedent for herself. because sometimes it’s not even about establishing morals and ethics upon yourself. it’s about feelings/intuition, logic and observation. and no, i don’t mean the feelings she has for gaon. there are things that humans do, both actions and words, that we inherently know are bad without someone telling us as much and without the rules of the world seared into our brains. there are some things we know, for a fact, are wrong to us as individuals.

for soohyun, she knows that gaon’s actions, and even her own, have consequences. from what we’ve seen, i think it can be argued that it’s really about not doing those actions to prevent an outcome - not necessarily from a place of being just and right. that doesn’t mean she doesn’t understand good morals/ethics, but again, we have no background of what her internal guidance actually is.

to put this in layman’s terms, we’ll use gaon wanting to stab the conman in his youth. soohyun knows it’s wrong because it will incriminate gaon and therefore she stops it. gaon’s gone to her because he sees her as a moral compass. but is her own internal navigation rooted in justice the way gaon had to find it in the judicial system, or is hers rooted in her pride of keeping gaon safe? she stops him from doing things that will get him in trouble, but is she stopping him because the action itself is wrong or because the outcome will result in undesirable consequences for the two of them?

and of course, there is a flipped argument to be had there - i’m not arguing that gaon stabbing the conman would be right or justified. but what i am saying is that for her, her worldview is the only right one, and when anyone steps out of that, even gaon, it becomes a bit of an issue: the pride she has for that is palpable.

every character indulges

truthfully, every character has at least one form of these sins rooted in their characterization. some are larger than others, but the breadth of it can be explored even further for each. and that’s what makes them more realistic and not just characters written on a page or following a linear progression of their writing deity.

the seven deadly sins are also notoriously rooted in religion. they’re also a defining feature of aristotle’s works that represent the golden mean, in which each vice is parallel to a virtue.

the devil judge is so layered, but i think at the heart of it, it’s about humanity at its core. sprinked in are the philosophies and contradictions and what it means to look in the mirror, what happens when we’re blind to seeing our true selves and most importantly, how much changes when we’re swayed by our own misgivings. it really asks us to understand nature versus nurture, that people must find a belief in something to keep them going, and how futile our hopes and desires can actually be if we’re not carefully regulating ourselves, nevermind the entities established by society to regulate us, too.

the entirety of the show genuinely begs the question as to who is truly right, who is truly wrong, and if it’s even possible to find the correct answer.

[uni-colyon]

v-force episode 4!

are there other things i could be doing with my time? of course. totally. 100%. but i’m here anyway and i want to finish this season so i’m back at it again. 

also im not going to be including as many pictures as i did for the last three episodes, it makes the posts too long. 

starting off, kenny has actually apparently been kidnapped? that’s pretty dark for only the fourth episode. 

tyson has a weird reaction to a pay phone?? maybe it’ll be explained but that’s certainly new. it is interesting, i will say.

now THIS is a neat shot. with the dramatic shadow and the thick lines? truly excellent. really captures the drama! kinda wish they’d continued that onto the hands and the phone, but overall i really like this effect. perfect for a screencap redraw.

this whole running around the town thing is oddly reminiscent of the few episodes kai had in the abbey back in season 1? especially with the guy + scientists watching tyson, it definitely has those vibes. the va also sounds pretty similar, but i know they reuse a lot of the english vas for the dub

so apparently tyson can run this fast bc he’s “harnessing the power of the bitbeast?” that’s....new. not unwelcome, though. maybe that means more bitbeast lore, which i could never say no too. i just hope the story actually expands on this instead of leaving it to that one throwaway line from the (probable) evil guy. 

ozuma’s at the harbor, which is pretty odd. i thought he wasn’t in kahoots with the kidnappers, but maybe not? the show’s been pretty vauge about that. ALSO WHO’S DRIVING THE BOAT?? 

okay kenny’s got his glasses again for some reason? although i wouldn’t put it past him to carry around a backup pair.

WHAT?????????????

eat your heart out boris????? what the fuck is this?????? 

THEY’RE ACTUALLY TRYING TO KILL KENNY AND HILLARY WHAT THE FUCK. WHAT THE FUCK what even is this episode

YOOOOOOOO DRAGOON’S BACK

okay never mind i think i spoke to soon

NVM IT’S ALL GOOD he’s back hello dragoon it’s nice to see you again

i keep speaking too soon!!! things are not good they are bad apparently there’s only three more minutes in the episode idk what else they’re going to throw around 

okay so they’re paddling back to the harbor and ozuma is still there. has he just been hanging out the whole time? get a hobby. 

final thoughts: honestly? this one wasn’t that bad! definitely a bit of a turn in terms of tone and plot from the first three, so maybe that means things are finally going to start picking up. the evil guy is definitely being evil, so it’ll be nice to find out what his whole deal is. and if he’s connected to ozuma in any way, but at this point, i don’t think so. it’s still a little early to tell for sure. 

and i’ll continue to say it until he shows up, but where’s kai???? it’s so weird not seeing him. granted it’s only been 4 episodes but still. i miss him. 

[kinnsporsche]

no words for this episode!! i’m absolutely speechless!! it killed me and i went to heaven. typing this from the afterlife. this was the cutest, softest most perfect episode ever. god I love the honeymoon phase. they were so giddy and in love and horny <3. it was a much needed episode for my heart. their date was adorable and I loved how p was asking for advise because he wanted it to be perfect <3 but kinn was just happy to spend time with him and indulge him with his photos bc he loves him 1/4

I also love the running joke of the other bodyguards thinking he always gets punished. yeah I’m sure his legs were shaking but not why you think :) also, who’s doing product placement like kinnporsche? I never wanted to buy bread so bad in my life. I literally can’t say anything else except that it was a perfectly cute episode. one thing that was a little weird is kim saying p could be korn’s son or something? wtf is up with that? I really hope that was just a throwaway comment but idk why they would even suggest that. anyway, I don’t even want to think about the possibility so I will choose to ignore it. and kim!! boy you’re on thin fucking ice. I just know he’s gonna break porchay’s heart real soon and I’m not ready for it. however, I’m more than ready for a little tawan drama. I’m actually feeling better about this storyline since we found out that k didn’t shoot him out of jealousy. he deserved to get shot for betraying him like that lol I’m curious how he survived or what went down exactly and why he’s back. also, I was dying to see some vegaspete but that didn’t happen so I’m a little disappointed but oh well. it was a perfect episode for kp’s relationship so I’m not complaining. looking forward to the pool scene next week 👀

kp anon unfortunately its illegal for u to die how do u expect me to live without your asks hm? illegal come back to me right now

porsche asking for dating advice because it's his first real relationship and he wants it to be good for kinn is something that can actually be really personal. god and his little self-deprication creeping in at the end of it when his plans kinda got ruined and kinn's just there with the fattest fucking grin on his face because this is the best date he's ever had. and i thought about this during the week but, porsche being the one to take kinn out is probably something he's also never had before, you know? he has money, he's fucking loaded, so he's always the one buying people things, probably was the one who took tawan out, etc. but porsche is like nope, fuck that, it never ben occured to him that kinn would be the one to do all this, HE'S the one who wants to take KINN out and i bet kinn's never had that before i bet it made his heart do dangerous things!! and yes!! the photos god, the way his mafia boss persona just drops around porsche when they're alone, he's just this guy who'll do anything to make his boyfriend happy, he's so whipped for him im 🥺🥺

NOVEL SPOILERS NOVEL SPOILERS NOVEL SPOILERS

from what i've seen/can remember from what i've been told in the novel (🤮) there's an actual angsty sub-plot about them potentially being related (they're not in the end) so im guessing the show was just lowkey throwing shade at that? bcs i really doubt boc would go there after all the changes they've made to the series so far. and also, re: vegaspete, in the novel that starts around the same time as the tawan sl so it will probably pick up this episode or next episode!!

i know a lot of people were calling this episode a filler which is such a disservice because it's such a necessary episode? how are we expected to root for a couple that are only thrown together in life-or-death situations without getting to see their progress, without getting to see their softness when they're with each other, without getting to see their feelings, without getting to see how the two of them could just be if their lives weren't entangled in such a mess, you know? just because it didn't necessarily drive the plot forward a huge amount doesn't automatically make it a filler episode!

and i know a lot of people are also worried about tawan coming between them but i genuinley dont have a single worry about that. kinn is so GONE in porsche, and he's aware of the fact that tawan never loved him, idk why people think he would possibly even think about going back to him? is tawan going to get into porsche's head? yeah, absolutely. but i have no doubt that kinn's gonna prove his devotion and probably bang all of porsche's insecurities out of him so he cant use his legs for approximately 48 hours 🥰🥰 whether that pisses tawan off more and makes him do something more drastic to get to them both idk im not sure yet but everybody even tawan's actor keep saying how much of a bastard he is so 👀 lets go villain arc

[spaceorphan18]

I read with interest your view and that of @hopefulobjectmiracle about tumblr Klaine fandom. Is there more shipping these days than 2010-15? I ask because there seems to be a smaller group that only ship Kurt with Blaine but there seems to be a huge rise in Kurtbastian and Hevans shippers. Likewise, there’s many more pezberry or faberry shippers. And a lot more of those shippers trying to discredit Blaine or Brittany as OTP for Kurt and Santana. There seems to be new younger people joining Tumblr declaring a love for all things Klaine, and then a week later shipping Kurt with everybody else!! Has there been a change since the show aired?

Hi Nonny! :)

Hmmm.... There's not really a clear answer to this because the way shipping evolved is different than people just finding things now.

There are kind of two different things going on here -- Kurt related shipping and non-Kurt (blaine/klaine) shipping. I can't tell you much about non related Kurt things -- however, I will say that Faberry was HUGE when the show was on. It's a subsection of the fandom I never interacted with but it was around in season 1, and loud enough that the show makes nod to it from season 2 forward. Brittana was always around, too, and the reason Brittana became a thing on the show was, partly, due to fans crying out that they should be a couple -- and more than the throwaway joke the writers made in the first season.

I don't know what happened to those ships over time, or how the evolved since the show ended -- I'm sorry :/

But now, I will tell you the epic history of Kurt shipping. (Again. i should really dig out my old notes on this, lol)

Here we go long post...

I found it! I'm going to quote myself so I don't have to write it out again, lol. This was originally from an ask about the BBO (Better Boyfriend Olympics), but it'll work here, too.

Okay, so let’s go back to 2010 when there wasn’t a Klaine fandom, there was a Kurt fandom.  A lot of the BBO stemmed out of the Kurt’s Boyfriend Shipping wars of 2010.

Back then, there was just a Kurt fandom, and a lot of opinions about who he should date.  Believe it or not, Kurt was shipped a lot with the other guys on the show, there was a healthy dose of Kurt/Finn, but Kurt/Puck was huge, and there was a smattering of Kurt/Mike (I never really did see much Kurt/Artie now that I think of it, which is kind of funny in retrospect, but I’m sure it’s out there.)  Anyway - when the show announced Kurt was getting a boyfriend – well, things began to get heated up.

Three big ships emerged

Kurt/Sam - because the rumor was that Sam was originally supposed to be Kurt’s bf (probably not, but that rumor was big at the time).  Btw, they were the canoe ship (I have no idea why) and was also known as Kum (rolls-eyes).  This ship’s fanbase was so huge and lasted so long, that the show felt the need to address it head on in Season Two’s Rumours (not a joke).

Kurt/Karofsky - Also known as Kurtofsky, they were also called themselves the Pirate ship (god, Idk why, shipping wars are weird, yo).  These people were also really passionate, mostly about Dave, but liked the whole idea that Kurt would save Dave and they would have this weird - enemies to loves love affair or something.  I don’t know, I could never get past the squicky assault aspect, but whatever.

Kurt/Blaine - which. at the time, was… the biggest possibility? It’s funny cause the other two ships were just as big as the Klaine ship, and really the fighting became over who was going to be the best option for Kurt.

And that’s the thing.  Fans of Kurt were so passionate about who was best for Kurt, because everyone had seen him go through hell and back on the show, so his boyfriend needed to be perfect for him.  And you know who was perfect (at first) – Blaine.  More on that in a second…

However, Blaine brought his own bit of baggage – namely fans of Darren Criss (and/or Starkid fans).  Unlike Chord Overstreet or Max Adler, people knew who Darren was before he was on Glee.  So his own fandom joined in on the Klaine of it all.  At first it was all fine – as the shipping wars continued, it was less about Kurt vs Blaine and more about Klaine vs the other shippers.  Well, that was going to change….

Original Song happened and Kurt and Blaine got together ending the question of who would ultimately be Kurt’s boyfriend.  And things were nice and cozy headed into season 3.  You’d think the Kurt/Sam and Kurt/Karofsky ships would die out, but not really, they stuck around for a long time, and kinda morphed into something else.

See, The First Time happened.  And for the first time Blaine wasn’t the perfect prince that he was in season 2 – he had more of a developed personality, and more flaws.  And… some people didn’t like it.  (Also added to the mix was Sebastian – and the Seblaine and Kurtbastian ships were born, but those kinda go off on their own thing and I’m not really going to bring them up much here.)  Anyway, what really got fandom split was Dance With Somebody.

You had two sides of an argument, people who saw Kurt’s POV and people who saw Blaine’s POV – and guess what happened.  The two sides began to fight with each other over who was “right” in the argument.  (My god…) And thus started what fandom started referring to as The Better Boyfriend Olympics.

See - for reasons I don’t fully understand - instead of seeing that each of the boys have a fault and each were wrong in the episode, each side wanted to say that their side, and their POV was the correct way – that one boyfriend was more oppressed and the other was not as good a partner.

On the Kurt side, though, you had a lot of the old Kurt fans and ships who didn’t like Blaine (and/or didn’t want Blaine as his partner) so they vehemently decided that unless Blaine was the perfect boyfriend again, he didn’t deserve to be with Kurt.  Meanwhile, you had the Blaine fans, many of them Darren fans who wanted Blaine to have more depth to him than just being Kurt’s boyfriend, and not being Kurt fans first (or originally) they were going to push back at the Kurt fans who were lashing out at Blaine.

Compounding this was the fact that during season 3, there were so many cast members and characters that unless you were Finchel, you were begging for scraps and your featured episode to come along.  Meanwhile - Kurt got a ton of screen time, but didn’t sing much, while Blaine sang a lot more, but didn’t get much story.  The Kurt fans resented that Blaine was always singing.  The Blaine fans were annoyed that the Kurt fans resented it, and tried to remind the Kurt fans that Blaine barely got any development.

Either way, a war had begun.  And then The Break Up happened.

Now Kurt fans had a specific reason to point at – Blaine being a terrible boyfriend.  He cheated.  He’s terrible.  The end.

The fandom was not firmly split into sides - you were either a Kurt fan - a lot of them who HATED Blaine - partly because he was getting more attention at the time, partly cause he did sing more, partly because they were made up of Kurt ships that didn’t work out, and partly cause they saw so much of themselves in Kurt that they projected onto him their own feelings, and loving Blaine was not a part of that projection.  Or you were a Blaine fan - who spent a lot of time defending Blaine to the point of exhaustion, and became so resentful of Kurt that they wished Blaine could be with anyone else because Kurt (fans) didn’t understand Blaine and should just stop trying.

Weren’t there any Klainers you ask? Ha, well…. Klainers, people actually liked Kurt AND Blaine were stereotyped into two categories.  Category A) the really really loud fanbase (usually on Twitter) that harassed the creators, RM, Chris, Darren, various crew about Klaine every second that they got – to the point that it started to feel embarrassing (that’s probably my own projection).   Category B) People who thought (think) that Chris and Darren were (are) in a secret relationship.  (Spoiler alert they aren’t, never have been, and never will be.)  The two of these categories overlapped A LOT, and many of the fans of one boy or the other just disassociated completely.

You could still be a fan of the Klaine relationship, but you had a preference to which boy you were actually a fan of – you couldn’t like both, or else you were a Klainer, and that was not cool.  (I spent a long time NOT identifying as anything, and trying to make sure everything I did and said was equal – a) cause I was new to fandom and b) cause I hated that either one or the other of these characters were villainized so frequently.)

Anyway - Season 4 continued.  Adam showed up, and Kurt fans got all excited, but the problem was that a lot of them saw him as the perfect boyfriend again – not a real character but a prop that could make Kurt look good and be everything for Kurt.  Look, I liked Adam, I did, but he was underdeveloped, and this weird idea that your boyfriend needs to be perfect in order to be a functioning relationship is just unrealistic.  I digress.  Meanwhile, we didn’t get a lot of Kurt POV, which didn’t help things, and meant even more projection over his character.

Meanwhile, the Blaine fans had formed their own community, which became viciously defensive of him.  I think the whole fandom was toxic during this time for a lot of reasons, and I really wanted to quit it.  Many people did – the show wasn’t being fun anymore.

Season 5 came along, the boys got back together, tempers simmered, but the whole idea of the Better Boyfriend Olympics came back every time a conflict happened.  Arguments about who was the better boyfriend ensued, gatekeeping as to why their pick was best and why your opinion sucked still ran through the fandom.  Not helping was the fact that Cory had died, and the creators, actors, and crew – as well as media – was tired of Glee.

The one nice thing, though was that a lot of the old crowd had moved on by then, and there was an influx of newer people coming in during season 5 (and season 6) – they weren’t here for the season 3 droughts and season 4 wars, and brought in a newer and fresher perspective.

But still - we had the end of season 5 and the summer of spoilers and season 6 to get through.  At this point, the Kurt and Blaine camps had moved to their parts of the internet and really not speaking much to each other if they could help it.  When an argument happened on the show, the same kind of Better Boyfriend Olympics came up again – one boyfriend was worse than the other, and unless they changed xyz they were not good enough for the other.  But at this point, it was incredibly tiring.  I know that I was just ready for the show to be done with.

I should say, as an aside, not helping things were the rise of some rather vocal BNF-ish fans, who dug their heels in about their own opinions.  The refusal to even acknowledge that one side or the other might be right, or have valid points was not helping anything.  A lot of people on both sides refused to even listen to the points on the other side – and instead of being frustrated at the show, the creators, or whatever, they took it against each other, which wasn’t fun to watch either.

Season 6 happened - Blainofsky happened, and that killed enthusiasm for the season on both sides, most people just kind of wanted it to be over.  And then the ending came quickly, and I think a lot of people who were just plain unhappy about everything left for good.

The Better Boyfriend Olympics, or this weird competition that always pitted the boys and their fandoms against each other in the name of one being better than the other, leveled off after this.  I won’t give myself /that/ much credit - but one reason I created @todaydreambelievers was to give fans of both Kurt and Blaine a safe place where we could enjoy and discuss both boys without the BBO rearing its head.  And you know what – it did mend a few hearts.

For the most part, it’s been pretty quiet since.  Fandom is quieter, but I think the people who have come into it after the show has ended are a lot less judgmental and argumentative.  (I suppose it helps if you know how the story is going to end.)  And the cool thing, for me, is finding a group of people who enjoy Kurt and Blaine equally (or respectfully) – and reclaiming the name Klainer as a good thing.

I’ll end by saying this – it’s been relatively peaceful, even with the influx of new people throughout the years, but I have been seeing shades of BBO pop up again.  Look, you don’t have to like Klaine to be a fan of one or the other of them.  But there are a lot of terrible things going on in the world, a lot of things to be angry and get indignant about.  How a fictional couple was written ten years ago is not one of them.  Be respectful of people, and know that maybe the side you understand better isn’t the only side worth listening to.  ;)

////////////////////

So, I suppose that's part 1 of this full picture. Onto Part 2.

Here's the thing -- I've stayed, mostly, in my little tumblr buble over the past five years -- blissfully unaware that I suppose things were going on around me. Except... they really weren't. Until the pandemic happened, and Glee went to Netflix internationally, and a whole bunch of young kids grew up and started watching the show.

By the time I ended TDB in 2019, there weren't many of us left. I knew there was our small, dedicated group of fans. The tinhatters (the group who thought Chris and Darren were in some kind of relationship. spoiler alert -- they're not). And I know the Kurtbastian fans have been kicking around for a while. But no one was around in huge numbers.

And then boom - pandemic, and I'm shocked (not in a bad way) that this show has already seen a resurgence. The weirdest part, for me, is the fact that not only is history repeating itself -- seriously, people are bringing up old conflicts that have been dead for ages, and old shipping wars I never thought I'd see again -- but I think this new group's relationship with the show is much different.

I think that Kurt is a character whom a lot of people can still identify with. And because he's on his own in the first season, it's still easy to project yourself onto him. And then shipping goes from there. Blaine went from being the exciting option, omg are they really gonna do Klaine?? to -- hey Klaine is the boring canon choice, we can choose who we want for Kurt.

Layer over that years of Blaine hate still circling the interwebs. The echo chamber that Twitter and Tiktok create. And the fact that neither Chris or Darren seem to have the army of fans they once did (well -- Darren does, but they don't really watch Glee anymore). And you get this varied landscape of shipping.

No, some days it doesn't feel that different from the BBO days. The fact that I still get asks about Blaine and TFT car scene or Tested makes me feel like I'm back in 2013. Other times I'm perplexed by resurgences -- such as Kurtbasitan and Kurt/Sam. (Please don't bring back Kurtofsky guys)

But there's a saying -- Same Shit, Different Day.

I think there is an entirely different group of people than the original people watching, and their reasoning for shipping whatever is much different. But they've certainly come to a lot of the same conclusions that brought about the shipping wars in the early days.

At the end of the day - I think Kurt will always been a fandom mattress. But ship what you like and be nice to everyone else. There's enough hate in the world -- no need to dump on people's escapism.

[a-dumb-sarcastic-bisexual]

So I rewatched Raya.

And I was really trying to watch it without a skeptical lens. I wanted to be able to act like the oblivious kids in that theater and just enjoy the movie. But I just couldn't. I've mentioned it before it's a gorgeous movie but there are so many things wrong with it that just bug me. And I’ve mentioned before the changes that could be made to fix it and the main one being just completely scrapping the movie and starting from scratch with a tv show. And because I’m on spring break and I have nothing to do (also I’m a perfectionist and I tend to hyper-fixate on things that I know have easy solutions) I broke down how I would make it better in two different categories. The first one being kind of baseline stuff like animation and character designs and other stuff I had small problems with and the second being plot.

Section One:

Okay so I know we all hate Sisu’s design. As someone who grew up with Naga carvings and paintings all around my house seeing this Elsa fursona was like a slap to the face. Like I know I really shouldn’t expect more from Disney but I did. I mentioned in this post that I would have loved to see a longer series even if it meant the animation quality went down. And I feel like Neeith_ on TikTok did a great job of drawing what Sisu could have looked like which only disappointed me more. Caldatelier on Twitter also pointed out the many flaws with Raya’s outfit design which fully proved to me that Disney did little to no research and chose style points over historical accuracy. I also felt like the designs of the main characters were very unremarkable and before you’re like “that the whole point it’s supposed to be normal people saving the world” I don't mean that I mean it feels like they took previous designs and just made them Asian. Like my sister and I were talking about it and she said the baby just reminded her of the boss baby and Tong reminded her of one of the twins from rapunzel with a little more depth. This is also kind of a small thing but it kind of bugged me that they were all the same skin tone if not lighter. SEA is incredibly diverse and if they weren’t going to represent all of the cultures in full then they could at least shown their features. I feel like the food should have been more important. I know I mentioned it in my last post but food is an incredibly important part of our culture. It’s not a placeholder or a set-piece to make a scene look more aesthetically pleasing. It’s a way for us to bond and show each other we care it’s a way we show genuine love and appreciation. And when you have a main character who is emotionally stunted it felt like food was a perfect way for her to show her love and they blew it. Like can you imagine Raya and her dad getting into huge fights and then bringing each other food as an apology sitting in front of that window not needing to say a word because they simply get each other? Can you imagine Raya visiting Namaari and stocking up on foods that she knows Namaari loves but also hasn’t been able to eat for a while? We could have had genuinely heartwarming scenes centered around food but instead, we got set pieces and props. And one more thing that stuck with me was the voice acting this movie should have been a change for SEA voice actors to really put their names out there and be a part of a really big Disney project but as always out voiced were overshadowed by someone lighter.

Section Two:

(I’m going to warn you this is gonna be really long because I’m essentially rewriting the entire plot because as I said before I’m a perfectionist)

I feel like the first ep should be dedicated to the backstory and the lore

How were the Druuns made how where they defeated

I feel like it would have been interesting to see them fighting over the gem

But I think it would have been really interesting to see from the get-go how Sisu wasn’t the one who made the gem

So instead of having this big reveal alongside Raya, we would know that her hope of finding this all powerful Naga is hopeless because the story was a lie

Another thing I think another person who should have had more screentime was Raya’s dad

I think it would have been interesting to know his backstory and get some questions answered like “why does he have so much faith in the other rulers to help him on his journey to make Kumandra a thing?” “When did he become the protector of the gem?” “And how many attempts of stealing the gem has he thwarted”

Also as much as I love him I feel like his personality incredibly unrealistic because all SEA men I’ve met have been really emotionally stunted

Idk it’s just a small thing that made me go “eh he talks to his daughter. What kind of magic world is this?”

I would have liked to see Raya’s various attempts at becoming a protector of the gem

I think it would have been a really good way to show how resilient she is from a very young age

And when she finally succeeds the audience could have celebrated with her like a small “yes she finally got it and all her hard work finally paid off” moment

I feel like we should have gotten more Raya and Namaari moments right from the start

Like how they meet is basically the same but Raya doesn’t trust her with the gem’s location an hour after meeting her

It's a trust that both of them fought for in their own way

Like you get to see them bond over their mutual understanding of “well the worlds fucked”

So when Namaari finally stabs Raya in the back when she betrays her for the first time it hurts when she says the throwaway line about them being friends in another world in burns Raya

Because she thought they were friends and she genuinely trusted Namaari

Which would have really justified her distrust in the world

And again I feel like we should have seen that 6 year period of Raya trying to find Sisu

We would get to experience the frustration of building up the hope of finally finding her just to have it knocked down when she’s not there

It could also do two more things

Raya making genuine connections with people

And Raya and Namaari’s strange alliance forming

Now for the first one, I feel like it would have been really cool for Raya to be introduced to the different lands

And yeah sure I feel like it would make her feel like kind of a tourist but I feel like it would be really interesting to see her go through culture shock

Because she really thought she knew these places but boom they’re completely different from what she was told

And while she’s making her way around she learns about the different lands and the people inhabiting them and also their culture

We could have seen Raya make genuine connections outside of the main cast

And if you’re feeling a little masochistic we could see her lose those people because of the druune or simply because they died

But the main point is we would be able to see her become less and less selfish

Now back to Raya and Namaari’s alliance/romance later on

I mentioned in my other post that when Raya trusted Namaari to put the gem back together it felt very flat very fake

So I feel like it would be cool for the series to be split into two parts the first part being from Raya’s perspective and the second part being Namaari’s

I also feel like Namaari would have to be a constant in Raya’s journey

And what I mean by that is like she’s there every other episode either trying to stop Raya or she’s trying to save her from life or death situations

And later on down the line, we find out the main reason why she kept helping Raya (in her own way) was that she didn’t want to see her get seriously hurt

But anyway that’s mostly backstory and now we’re in the present tense

And like I said before we know that Sisu wasn’t the one who made the gem so we know that Raya’s quest is pointless

But because we’ve seen her various attempts at becoming the protector of the gem and the six years of looking for Sisu we know she’s too stubborn to give up just yet

So she and Sisu head out to find the other gem pieces

Now with context, her and Namaari’s standoff has more tension because for the first time in years Namaari doesn’t know the motives behind Raya’s actions

I don’t really have many ideas for Sisu other than she starts to trust people less and less

Like she’s still really innocent for the most part but there’s a small part of her a really small part that’s kind of lost faith in humanity

And after this, we meet Boun

I feel like we should have known more about Boun considering the fact he’s the first side characters we met

But it’s very clear they gave no thought to his character I’m sure they just wrote down “funny kid who lost his family”

This is such a shame because he could have been so much more than just “Raya’s funny younger brother”

Like he could have been this selfless kid who hands out food to the orphans around and offering his ship to homeless people during the night

Next with the baby and the monkeys, there’s really not much you can do with them unless you seriously age them up

Like at the very least have Noi be a grade-schooler who can express more emotions than mad and hungry

Like she can still be the baby of the group while taking care of herself and expressing her emotions a great example of this is Polly from amphibia (which is a great show with a SEA main character you should check it out)

With Tong, I have two words: Survivors Guilt which is something Raya would be able to relate to in fact they all would

I feel like Tong’s entire character arc would be him realizing that he can’t save everyone

Which yeah sure would seem pretty contradictory with the ending being them literally saving everybody but I have a fix for that too

And finally, we get to Namaari who is selfless to a fault

Giving me very much typical Disney princess she gives up food to kids who seem particularly hungry

She’s usually the one who tells the stories to the kids but her mom was taking over that day

She helps her people in any way she can and honestly, she’s wearing herself a little thin

Because while she’s doing all that she’s also saving Raya & co from their own mistakes

Giving me very much burning the candle at both ends

So you see all these characters bonding over the course of at least a year

Making and losing more allies along the way

And because Namaari has been helping them they trust her… for the most part

But there have been times when she trips them up and makes their end goal all the more difficult

And because they haven’t known her as long as Raya has each character has at least one moment when they look up at the sky and scream in frustration “What is this binturi’s deal!”

But anyway they finally get to fang and Raya is more open to the idea of just talking to Namaari because she trusts her not because Sisu told her to but because she’s seen Namaari do good

And Namaari is even more reluctant to take the gem pieces by force because she has a decent relationship with Raya like yeah sure they’re not best friends but they’re in a good place

And shocker shocker she’s maybe just maybe head over heels in love with the princess of heart

But her mother gives her an ultimatum and that is “either you take it from her or I will”

Because here’s the thing, Queen Virana isn't a moron the exact opposite in fact and she knows her daughter has been going easy on Raya these past six years

She also knows that she could squash Raya under her shoe if she damn well pleased and Namaari knows this too

So when Namaari gets her necklace back she doesn’t even hesitate to take her crossbow when she leaves

The meet up goes basically the same except its more Raya talking Namaari down than Sisu

And while they’re having their little heart to heart Sisu notices Namaari’s finger twitch and she goes to jump in front of Raya

And Namaari was shaken by the sudden movement and fires and kills Sisu

I feel like this would make Raya furious for two reasons one she killed her best friend and two she deep down trusted Namaari to do the right thing

So when the fight goes down instead of the whole “I don't care if you trust me because Sisu did” it would be “I trusted you and you murdered her”

And when the dust settles Raya realizes that this battle doesn’t matter because fighting Namaari isn’t going to bring Sisu and she’s also sick and tired of hurting the people she loves

And she decides to help people instead not because Sisu would want her to but because its the right thing to do

Which is cliche sure but its better than the scene they gave us which really wasn’t faithful to her character arc of not caring for people who aren't close to her

And I feel like Namaari joining her makes more sense with my context if anything else

And here’s how I would fix this scene even with them fighting the Druune off to the best of their abilities there are still falling buildings and the gem can’t really save people from that

So they lose some people not because of the Druune but because death happens even when the heroes are fighting their hardest

And because I feel like this would just affirm Tong’s character arc because there are people dying under these buildings he knows it’ll take too long to save them and its not time they have

So he leaves them behind prioritizing the people he knows he can save

Anyway, after a long battle scene, they finally end up underground

And it goes basically the same except it doesn’t take Raya as long to convince them

And instead of Raya’s reasoning of “Sisu told us to” it's more “all this fighting isn't going to bring Sisu back” and “I know she’s done something terrible and you can be mad at her after this but for now trust her”

So when they all make their sacrifices it’s less “I’m doing this for Raya” and more “I’m doing this because deep down I know you’ll do the right thing”

And Namaari does do the right thing obviously

Sisu comes back and it's all “yay we saved the world!” but it doesn’t really end there

Because I hate the “lifetime” ending of “even though we all went through incredibly traumatic events we’re all fine months later” no they’re running around for months and years fixing their mess

And while this is happening Raya and Namaari is mending their relationship they’ve apologized for all the terrible things they’ve done to each other

And when they’re fixing their world they’re helping each other become the best versions of themselves

That’s when they really fall in love

Like don't get me wrong they loved each other when all the bad shit was going down but there was too much bad blood them to really process it and talk it out

But that’s exactly what they do when it’s all over they talk it out for hours

In fact, they both said its the most they’ve heard the other speak

They both agree they’re in the best place to start a relationship and so they do

[effigyofowls]

It’s that time again!

Echoes of the Past spoilers down below!!

-YOUNG EDA AAAAAAA ╰(*°▽°*)╯

-Luz you’re doing so well sweetie and King seems like a bored child who wants attention

-Lilith?? you good girl?? ಠ_ಠ

-INVISIBILITY OH YEAH (it reminds me of a book I love called Castle Hangnail and one of the protagonist’s main spells is turning invisible while she holds her breath)

-Hooty and Lilith bestie time ccc: (also Hooty being dramatic while Lilith is like :I I live for it)

-Eda in a bathrobe...that color looks good on her, more different colors for her!

-ohhh so that’s what she must’ve drove in in Separate Tides...damn her legs must like iron pillars

-the night sky is so pretty in this episode, I wish there was a way I could make it a background image -.-

-MYSTERY ISLAND...

-mystery time, and I love Lilith being dorky when it comes to history, I can relate quite a bit

-LUZ WE DON’T SPLIT OFF FROM THE MAIN GROUP AND IF WE SEE SCRATCHES WE WALK AWAY, THAT’S HOW “NOT TO BE IN A HORROR MOVIE 101″

-the OST freaking slaps in this episode by the way, a perfect blend of eerie and mystical

-WEIRD BONE/FLESH THING AAAAA

-Lilith is learning so well, I’m proud

-EDAAA WITH HER GRENADE POTIONS ON THE SCENE

-(┬┬﹏┬┬) poor King and everything else abt the next several scenes

-Eda: I was one hot tamale

all of us who’re attracted to her: hell yeah you were (and still are)

-BABY KINGGGG OMGGGGGGGGG 🥺🥺🥺😭😭😭

-Eda really just spontaneously adopts people and things doesn’t she?? we all know how you protest it but you’re essentially a mom with wine aunt energies

-also idk if anyone else has brought this up yet but either

this is around the time she started to live in the Owl House 

or...

she just didn’t have lots of furniture before since only her (and Hooty) lived there, there’s only a couch and candles (and the multiple piles of stuff) in the living room, no wall of stuff or anything else yet which makes you wonder how she lived before...

-poor King...ಥ_ಥ

-MAGIC BATTLE TIME

-btw all the expressions in this episode were SO good they were killing me sjhfhfh

-HOOTY BAZOOKA

-mystery room...

-INFANT KING 😭😭😭 i CAN’T STAND IT HE’S SO TINY

-i KNEW THAT LINE FROM “The Intruder” WASN’T JUST A THROWAWAY LINE, also it’s a little weird that he’s not the reincarnation like we thought, but instead is literally babey but I think it’s interesting anyway

-I wonder if that symbol will become a glyph or something...

-King seems to have a penchant for French names, doesn’t he?? 🤔

-Jean-Luc is gonna stay in the room now?? lol good luck Luz getting used to that

I feel like that episode gave us a lot of questions more than answers but I’m glad we know SOME stuff now and we got King lore finally!!

sidenote but I am very worried for everyone 😱 lol help

also sorry if I didn’t recount everything, there was some parts I didn’t want to linger on and everyone else is already talking about stuff so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

can’t wait for next week for “Keeping Up A-fear-ances” (or whatever), see y’all then!

[ceruleanwhore]

MLB rant

     At this point, I am genuinely pissed at Miraculous. Among other things, Thomas has wrecked the quality of the show over shipping bullshit with episodes like weredad and, in the process, fucked everything over so that now, no matter what happens or who ends up with who, it’s going to be shit. In a lot of ways, he’s done to Miraculous what Bryke did to Avatar in the comics- ruined established characters and the overall story by trying and failing to take care of the relationships/shipping. At this point, Marinette’s character is so awful in relation to this that I truly can’t fathom how Adrien and Luka can still tolerate her, never mind actually like her. Where she should have been steadily improving this whole time, she is instead getting much worse. This, of course, is because the show is constructed such that there is only the few main plot aspects everything revolves around (Hawkmoth and the love square) but, even though Astruc is clearly trying to drag the show out, he isn’t adding any other layers to the show to make up for how flat it is, so in the process of keeping those main plot points static, he has ended up fucking over his own show and dragging Marinette’s character down. At the start of the series, Marinette was clumsy and socially awkward but in a somewhat endearing way. Now, a school year or so later, she hasn’t improved at all and, in spite of now being Ladybug which would be the perfect catalyst for her character development, she’s genuinely getting worse to the point where, as we see in Desperada, she now acts like she has brain damage or something. 

 The degradation of Marinette’s character is a direct result of Atruc trying to shut down side ships, including some within the love square, in spite of how completely unnecessary it was. He shouldn’t have been doing stuff like that at all, honestly, but things like that should have only been done if and when he was going into the endgame and setting up to finally put them into canon relationships. There are a few ways he could have done this more successfully:     

1. In season 2, after Ladybug flat out rejects him, have that be enough to initiate the process of Adrien moving on and have him be completely over her by the end of the season but leave him single. Meanwhile, from the beginning of the show, it should be shown how the way Adrien constantly says that Marinette is “just a friend” wears on her over time, plus Luka showing up adds another element that would shake things up and leave her feelings for Adrien unsteady. Eventually, maybe later season 2, Adrien would make another comment like that again and that would be the last straw at which point she’d be done. Shortly after that, she’d get together with Luka.

     2.Kinda like what I just described but after Adrien gets over Ladybug and Marinette gets over him, they could get together as Marichat in some rich dramatic irony. 

     So then there is the matter of character development. I’ve already lamented Marinette, but I’d argue that basically none of the characters have any significant character development. Chloe had the opportunity that got royally fucked over, which was probably also for the sake of maintaining stasis, but other than a couple people here and there, there isn’t much to be found. I think this is because there isn’t actually much content, when it comes to this show. About half of each episode is taken up by the akuma and what’s left tends to be more concerned with cute things like Marinette facetiming Alya about Adrien or bringing some macrons somewhere or whatever and, like I said earlier, there are no subplots that would provide more depth to the show and help promote character growth. I think it would work better if a) there were subplots and b) there wasn’t an akuma every episode, maybe just every couple. It gets really boring and repetitive to have half of every episode be basically the same and take up so much space so that there isn’t room to put in real shit and character growth around it. 

     Regarding Chloe, if they were going to give her a fucking miraculous, they should’ve been planning on using that to kickstart her redemption arc. It makes absolutely no sense to trust her with it and then have her proceed to not change at all. All it does is create a shitty situation where this bitch is now a superhero but she’s still a mega bitch so then when she no longer gets to be a superhero, that adds to her being a miserable bitch. Honestly, it doesn’t even remotely make sense why Marinette gave it to her in the first place and when I look back on it I think it’s literally nothing more than pure pandering in response to what people were posting on Tumblr. It would’ve made a lot more sense for her to have had some level of preliminary character development first before Marinette presented her with the miraculous. Also, maybe it could be after she’d made a bitchy comment about Chloe that then got a response that showed Marinette how she was wrong and made her feel bad and this is her way of making it up to her but, more importantly, showing how she’s getting over her prejudice and now choosing to put faith in Chloe and support the progress she and those around her have witnessed. Then, the miraculous and the responsibilities that go with it (plus Marinette’s inevitable end of episode apology) would catalyze Chloe’s continued growth and development but like the amount of growth she’d have already would be enough for her to act more maturely and keep her identity a secret, which would be A Thingᵗᵐ. 

     However, along that same vein, I think it’s absurdly stupid how they really went with the “everyone gets a miraculous (ﾉ´ヮ`)ﾉ *:･ﾟ ” thing. It makes sense to bring in one more but not this bullshit where everybody gets one but only sometimes. Bring on one more, permanently, maybe even add another later on (MUCH later on) if necessary but don’t just have this bullshit where Marinette just picks the flavor of the day. Also, her now being the guardian is the genuine worst decision, period. If it’s really that important to boot Wu and bring in a new guardian, have it be someone else like Alya, idk or, even better, a new character entirely. Wu said he had to be trained so I’d like to propose to have it so that he’s been training one for a while but we just don’t see them because since their training is incomplete, Wu can’t trust them with Ladybug and Chat Noir’s secret identities yet. But jesus fuck, Marinette should not be that person. She’s already quite Mary Sue already, she really doesn’t need that and the episode where she’s able to weild all the miraculouses to just throw in more shit about how she’s so good and so powerful and all that stuff. 

     So, then, there are inconsistencies in the writing, mainly in regards to their secret identities and shipping. In one of the episodes in season three, Master Wu told them they would have to give up their miraculouses if they ever learned each other’s identities, which is incredibly fucking stupid since he then just hands her all the miraculouses and makes her the new guardian. So she’s just supposed to hold that boundary because he told her to when she’s now the one who’d be enforcing it and taking the miraculouses if that ever came to be? So if (when) they learn their identities, she’s supposed to, as the guardian, take Adrien’s and give up her own miraculous but then keep on being the guardian? I think the line from Master Wu was supposed to add drama and suspence but that only works if you don’t go and negate it three seconds later. The other inconsistency that, to me, was glaringly obvious and just as annoying was when Marinette, Adrien, and Kagami went to Andre’s. Back when this guy was first introduced, the way it all worked was that when someone came up, he’d make them an individualized ice cream cone based on the person they love. In season three, all of a sudden, for no reason whatsoever, the fact that it’s three people coming up to get ice cream changes the entire system to some other bullshit all so we can get some over done, in-your-face adrienette vs adrigami tension in which Marinette is a Good Girlᵗᵐ. 

     Then, lastly, I find it extremely odd how there are practically no background characters and that the few there are tend to be recurring. If there are going to be 77+ episodes of “oh no that dude got akumatized”, it would be prudent to have more throwaway background characters to use for the akumas and then only use the main/recurring ones for that intermittently and only when it adds something to the episode and/or the plot as a whole. The classroom kids shouldn’t be the default, they should be used sparingly and with care. Not to mention how it also would be good to have more background characters just so stuff like scenes where they’re in the hallways in between classes don’t look so awkward because there’s just this one class of kids in this entire school (plus Marco) and literally nobody else. It’s a thing in every film or show that has ever been made but in this one, for no reason, there just are no extras and it feels so awkward at times. 

     The way that every single episode is set up the same and how there is that lack of background characters to akumatize so there ends up being a bunch of reakumatizations, plus the way that nothing much actually happens, in terms of plot progression, after season one all make it so that the show as a whole after the end of season one feels really stagnant. It’s like Astruc is trying to hold out and wait to drop actual resolution to any of the main plot points until later on but he hasn’t sufficiently constructed other layers to the story, like subplots, to have it still be engaging. In my opinion, MLB could’ve actually been completely tied up with the whole Hawkmoth business back in the season one finale, based on the content of the show, because there’s just not that much there. It makes me mad because the show has a great concept and I love the characters, but it’s just been shit and it’s not getting better.

[she-ra-cat-ra]

I’m honestly just kinda bored and decided to make this for no real reason. I like doing fic recs because I think I have taste but some of these.... kinda aren't good lol it’s more of what stuck with me through the years.   

So yeah List of fics that were important to me and that were on my fanfantion.net fave list and may or may not be good: 

What The Eyes Can't See : The only fic on this list that made it over from my very first fanfic.net account that has now been lost to time. This was the fic that got me into long fics It’s a Bleach fic and made me super disappointed that Tatsuki never got to do anything as cool as she does in this fic, at least when I actually watched/read it.  Also, my mom found my bookmark of it and had to have a talk with me because she ended up reading the smut bits. You can’t even read the whole thing on fanfic.net, parts had to be cut when they did that purge of smut years and years ago

Timely Errors: I love time travel more than like any other trope. Harry Potter goes back in time is pretty common but this fic is pretty rare in that it still pretty good. Plus it’s cute and made me cry. And whats funny is that it’s a small bit at the end that I remember the most, where Ron has no idea that something is wrong until Hermione gives Harry an extra piece of cake then he just Knows has stuck with me for years because it’s so cute and sad and just so.... idk the perfect way I’ve seen their friendship expressed?  

Hourglass For some reason the general outline of this fic has been in my head since 2009 when I first read this 142k beast of a fic. I had just started to really get into fandom and Kingdom Hearts was poping. The idea of an older vision of the nice main character coming backward in time but is really mean and jaded because the future sucks really stuck with me. Also, there is a throwaway line about how Mulan lost her husband in the war but continues to fight anyway and Mickey Mouse has a moment to be sad about it has also stuck with me because what the fuck 

Wait This fic is here more because I kept thinking over the idea more than the actual fic, I mean it’s a little bit of a mess because it’s a songfic and the way it’s written through a couple of lifetimes BUT the idea of someone who is the Avatar's companion and gets reincarnation randomly instead of in order is one that I’ve thought about a LOT because of this fic. You again? is same thing but I like the actual fic more as the idea that the companion isn’t always a lover and they kill each other about half the time is a good one.  

Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend ok look this is not a list of fics that are 100k and have great plots etc etc this is a list of fics that have stuck with me and for some reason, this Icarly fic is one of them. I have no idea why but it is funny and cute and I love the idea that Sam is wanted in France for stealing the Eiffel tower

Lily Potter and the Worst Holiday  I love the idea of two universes clashing together and seeing two that aren't great, as both had a lot of people die including a young Ron and Hermoine because Harry wasn’t there, stuck with me. 

Many Thanks this fic made me cry AT LEAST three times, just thinking of it makes me tear up man. And it keeps going way longer than you think but in a good way? Not only does it have time travel but instead of being in the traveler's point of view, it’s from a bystander. It’s just... ugh the idea of it is great and it just works really well. I just love me some badass Hermione.  

Old Bones just a little fic that made me go, ‘oh shit maybe seeing everything underground after a 100-year war could end up fucking up a 12 ear old’ 

Awkward Once again this is a list of fics that stuck with me and for some reason this one did. No idea why since I didn’t even ship Raven/Starfire but it’s pretty cute 

City of Ghosts such a weird little Xena Fic but it’s weird in a canon kind of way? Like yeah, that could be in a Xena episode. This fix it fic works pretty well at what it’s going for I guess. I so love Gabrielle, or her reincarnation kicking ass and saving Xena

ab igne ignem capere  AU where Azula was born first so she isn’t the favorite. Great idea and I loved the style but it’s unfinished and it’s such a shame too. 

Alone, Together Oh my god this is where my love of weird plots came from. I LOVE this fic and I think about it all the time. The idea of two people having to be alone together for YEARS and they actually fall in love and have to work at it for it to work but they do it!!! Only to have all of that taken away, memories and all??? And now they have to deal with where they were before that all happened and just UGH what a fic man. 

And The Whole World Tilted this fic made me cry and still kinda does and since it’s a iCarly fic that's impressive 

A Secret Relationship Unlike Any Other back at it again with the weird plot. The idea that Rachel Berry loves planning and bossing people so much that she ends up dating Quinn with Finn as a puppet is very funny and is super in character. 

A Million Miles Of Fun this fic is so dumb but every once in a while I think ‘lol remember that fic where Faberry and Brittana kill a ton of people and it was like 100k and kinda good?’  

The Line Between Jealousy and Hate this fic really really got me when I was younger. It’s a KND fic and the idea that 86 hates boys because she’s a lesbian is kinda overplayed in fandom a lot but idk man this fic hit me hard when I wasn’t out yet. 

Just off the Key of Reason is Quinn out of character in this fic? Yes. Is there any plot? No . Have I read this fic and all its sequels like 100 times?  Yes because it’s pure wonderful fluff 

Animals and Prizes .....OK I need you to listen to me. Do I want to remember this fic so much? No not really but can one really forget their first alpha/omega fic? I read this fic way back in 2013, I was in high school!  Honestly, everything considered it’s better than you would think, I mean it has an actual plot 

Those Gilded Chains We Wear this fic got me in two ways. One: I love me some dark ladies with a Past that fall in love with some good-hearted person and grow from it. Two: a kinda weird plot where Hermione and Bellatrix have a magic bond thing because Bella, of her own free will, leaves Voldemort and the magic bond thing is the only way to make sure she isn’t lying. Re-reading it now I don’t enjoy it as much, as Hermione just takes way way too much crap but it’s still enjoyable. The idea that Bellatrix is actually legally insane and should be treated for it is nice and the idea that magic could affect how mental illness shows up in a person is cool. 

Dark Energy Yo not one other fanfic series has made me cry as much as Dark Energy. I usually hate re writes fics but Dark Energy makes it work really really well. The first is pretty plain compared to the others but by the second it just nails it. By far this is my favorite Mass Effect fic and it’s differently effected how I see characters in the game. 

Sight the King once again I got taken in by weird plot. I mean you know how rare season 0 fics are in Yu-Gi-Oh? Super rare and this one is what happens when you realize season 0 is super fucked up, I mean people get set on fire and that's like three times! So yeah seeing Yugi deal with waking up at the scene of four-ish murders with blood on his hands and realizing that no one is going to belive him is just great. A+ for the great tone too, the writing is great and it’s by far the most in-character fic out there for this time period 

[inspector-montoya-fox]

although the Stolen Turnabout was one bitch of an episode, it doesn’t stop the game from being the best in the series. i do have my issues with that episode (and i’ll get back to that) but the other episodes are just that good. firstly, the game manages to tie every loose end together even when you thought it wouldn’t. but it does and it does it so masterfully too. that Morgan Fey revenge threat at the end of Justice for All wasn’t just a throwaway - she really did come for her revenge, even beyond the grave. and they use the lore so well - lore which was set up two games prior - to establish the murder and the motive. you think the Fey clan’s mystic powers are a sidestory but it’s actually the entire premise for the trilogy, like wow. and you don’t realise it up until the very end, because the case itself starts off with ‘oh there’s this mystic temple we want ot visit haha’ and then the Elise Deauxnim thing isn’t really revealed until the trial later on. i mean, even if you saw it coming, the way they fit in Godot and even Dahlia Hawthorne into all of it, it’s amazing. it’s by far and away my favorite case.

as for the other cases, they’re all great too. but i want to get the Stolen Turnabout out of the way first. here’s why i don’t like it: it’s lowkey boring and the characters are annoying. straight-up. i literally did not want to defend Ron DeLite, that little deluded gay dweeb. he has this hot AF wife back home and like, he’d willingly go to jail? why doesn’t he give a fuck about Desiree? if that was my wife i’d be home all day with her, riding on her bike and idk fucking or whatever. and if that wasn’t enough, Luke Atmey is another annoying character, which makes for an ok rival but is gone with just the first trial. so we’re not there to compete against  him or anything, he’s just there, in court, to annoy us. to top it all off, we don’t actually investigate the murder. we start by investigating the theft and then get to the murder, with no cutscene, no body, no substance or anything. the only thing there is a nice takeaway with Larry as the security guard and a nice reference to Wendy Oldbag. welp. i had a hard time finishing that level because the backgrounds weren’t nice as well. the computer room was reminiscent of Jake Marshall’s office from Rise from the Ashes (another horrible case), and the victim’s office was reminiscent of Redd White’s office from Turnabout Sisters (an amazing episode). i honestly hate Stolen Turnabout maybe even more than Turnabout Big Top but as i said, it doesn’t ruin the game experience. instead, it makes the other cases feel like absolute gold.

yes, i know Recipe for Turnabout is problematic because of Jean Armstrong’s presentation and the jokes on his character, i even talked about it with some of my mutuals on here, but it doesn’t ruin the episode for me. i think Recipe for Turnabout is my favorite non-main storyline episode (it’s up there with Turnabout Samurai tbh). El Tigre and Viola are both great characters with awesome designs. the story is intricate, the murder is interesting, the mob is involved, we get to defend Maggie Byrd, we get waitress Maya, and a copycat Phoenix is on the loose. Victor Kudo and Lisa Basil as the minor characters are also superb. the music is great too. and it’s honestly such a sweet little interlude before the main story resumes.

the cherry on top is honestly playing as Mia (twice!). i remember being so upset when she died because we didn’t get enough of her and to have her return as a playable character no less, i was gagged and gooped. add to that Godot and his entire story arc. i lowkey cried when his end came and he started admitting everything. and the MELODRAMA of it all. how he can’t see red, when he cried blood and quotes like ‘the only time a lawyer can cry is when it’s all over’. someone on the Ace Attorney wiki wrote how it’s funny how Mia’s killer is Redd White and Godot can’t see the colour red, and how that ties into how he blamed Phoenix for the murder instead of the actual culprit. that’s... i don’t even know what. on a higher fucking plane of intellect. AND AND AND to have him interact with both Edgeworth and Franziska, the way they brought those characters back in general, playing as Edgeworth too. everything unravels so beautifully, and the story is supported by the cute backgrounds and the absolutely perfect music (Fragrance of Dark Coffee). the game truly completes the series, like i wouldn’t have it any other way. that’s why it’s my favourite in the series.

[auckie]

just curious, why/what do you love about goblins so much?

this is such a long answer i didnt mean to type out but anyways its under the cut bc its an essay! sorry!

yknow, ive always liked them a bit but over the past year ive just been nutso about them and im not sure why. i used to hate fantasy! i definitely cycle through SPINs but its hard for me to remember when this one started or like, when i last had it. anyways, i think theyre neat for a lotta reasons! 

so there’s definitely a lot to be said about the fact that they have been used in incredibly antisemetic ways! as a jew, i have always had a fascination with the stereotypes used to make characters like shylock and svengali, two infamous, classic portrayals of greedy and devious jews. it’s this weird drive i have to take the bones of these characters (or just the tropes themselves) and craft them into a full, three dimensional person. I like to do this in the abstract with a lot of things and i refer to it as ‘applying physics to the absurd’. it’s the reason im so invested in side characters and humor in narratives, and probably why i am so into who framed roger rabbit! that movie literally takes absurdity, the very concept of it, and asks ‘what if we were to apply real world logic to this?’ Mixing cartoons and murder and then playing it out to the logical end makes for a very interesting and unique mood; it’s a funny but sort of dark movie that a lot of people remember seeing only as a kid, and being vaguely afraid of it. i LOVE that.

wow goblins are a great example of the fucked up jew trope. they try and sorta divert it to a jersey thing, but its pretty blatant what with their greed, obsession with banking and being referred to in canon as ‘grease balls’ and often having the whole jewface thing going on what with the foreheads and balding and noses. thankfully they dont have straight up yiddish accents but yknow, ny/jersey accents are heavily associated with jews so. im not making a stretch here believe me.

theyre not given a lotta attention in the narrative either, used mostly as little plot devices (need a trash mob? need a reason the horde has out of place tech? a quick way to get the player character into some stupid giant robot that will make this quest of killing 100 enemies go a lot quicker?) and for humor. but! they are SO funny and even if not major characters, theres a handful of good ones present in the lore. 

so, theyre throwaway jokes, bad stereotypes, and side characters? the PERFECT storm of traits to apply gravity to, in my opinion!

outside of wow, its still pretty much the same. in fantasy, goblins are generally just trash mobs or occasionally big bad guys, which is all fine and fun, but i like when characters, who by no means should be the focus of a story, happens to be the protagonist. its so refreshing and relatable and more interesting to me! its very rare to find media that uses them as an integral part of the story for any reason, let alone a positive one.

ive never been too good at projecting onto main characters. im jewish, latino, probably trans and gay, and like, also just a weird person in general i think, so growing up there wasn’t a ton of media i saw myself in. i was never able to relate to female leads, and male leads were always just standard white dudes so there wasn’t too much luck there. it was easier with cartoons featuring less realistic characters but even then! seeing a sort of…’minority’ group, especially one usually negatively depicted with either racist characteristics or just run of the mill fantasy logic (”these non human, somewhat poc coded creatures are inherently evil! theyre born that way and theyre too stupid to know better and throw spears and live like nomadic indigenous peoples and are bad to the civilized, white eurocentric human and elf populations! go kill them for gold before the pillage and plunder!) is just. its like HEY YEAH OK! its good! i love seeing it! love seeing the little guy represented! its like when the sidekick finally gets his own arch or episode, its always so much more interesting than the hero’s story! even if it’s short and lighthearted. not everything always has to be grave and intense!

but i also hate cheesy over the top soft shit yknow? theres this anime called ‘that time i was reincarnated as a slime’ or some shit, and ive seen pics of how they do goblins and i HATE it so much. i LIKE when goblins are little nasty green men with big noses and ears and no eyebrows who cant read and are twitchy and paranoid and eat rats raw. take THAT and give it weight! what if this gross little man were to get a whiff of the good life, huh? to see human society, and compare it to how he’s lived for all of 8 years in a dank cave where his da got his head smashed in with a rock yesterday– what would that do to this little goblin? 

but yknow, i could also just sum this up with the fact that i think theyre really cool and funny and neat. i also GENUINELY think they are so adorable. like, night goblins and skaven from warhammer, goblins from wow, any goblin or little gross dude really– i just honestly think they are so so cute and idk why. the sharp teeth! the green skin and slit pupils! the ears and noses and claws! i think the way people feel about baby monkeys and puppies is how i react to stupid little green dudes. i especially love when theyre like, mischievous and mean and like ready to jump at you and bite you bc that’s how i always feel. like that comic of the guy driving and then he thinks ‘penis’ and hunches his shoulders and smiles REAL nasty.

also, ever since i was little, whenever a character on a cartoon or in a movie was: short, green/blue, had a jersey/NY accent, i just. fucking IMMEDIATELY loved them. i have nooo idea why but i can think of like ten characters who fit at least two of these criteria off the top of my head who i was obsessed with as a kid. snap from chalkzone, bloo from fosters home for imaginary friends, zim, stitch! 

[heather-holloway]

how i, kiara heather-holloway, would plan and write the upcoming live action dylan dog tv show (thats being produced by james wan rn):

OKOK first off. my god. this has to be as comic accurate as it can be. this has to be better than the fucking movie or ill literally d*e oh my god. the movie was so bad and was only dylan dog in name and outfit. 

he needs the clarinet. and not for one scene. gotta have that shitty car, hes gotta be broke, hes gotta live on that craven st, hes gotta have the fucked up doorbell nd hes gotta have that p*lice officer backstory (though i dont want them to go too full into the backstories of the main characters cuz that takes away from the main story of the episode, and is really just unneeded)

this shit will be set in london. but as for the time im kinda on a fence? its always had a timeless sorta feeling, esp as of late with the comics only now starting to establish itself in the 21st century, but i would really like for it to be set in the 80s cuz a lot of the classic comic stories r from the 80s and it would fit in with how old timey he is with his car and movie references

i hope they have the budget to actually get the rights to use groucho marx’ likeness cuz like... the biggest thing the movie was missing was groucho nd even though there was a little easter egg in the beginning of the movie with them dressed like him... it wasnt enough bro, it’s not the same without him :(

if they cant get the rights then i hope they go the felix route, by making him act like groucho and shit but hes not like.. actually groucho i guess

i dont know where this show’ll get distributed, but im hoping netflix, since a 10 episode format (which is what it was confirmed to be) would be perfect on there with all their other shows with short seasons. 

im biased bc i love monster-of-the-week type shows but i think it would be perfect, since the comics are exactly that, where the story is self contained within its episode. i guess they could have some small overarcing story (maybe abt morgana and her tie to dylan?) over the season but idk how something like that could also fit in with the amount of story needed for the monsters and shit

id think itd be perfect if they adapted the first comic “dawn of the living dead” for the first episode of the series, since that comic is the introductory comic for dylan and groucho and how his shit works yknow? the audience could be like following sybil for that first episode as shes asking for their services and is just seeing their BullShit at close hand

idk about the rest of the series, but id love if they adapted the anna never story for an episode tbh

the tone id like for the show would be gothic, with european style of horror, but still crackheaded and bullshittery with grouchos and dylans antics and jokes. i hated what they did in the movie, making it a generic american action horror movie with the club scene of vampires vs werewolves. im so tired of vampires vs werewolves. let this represent european horror and bring that style into american culture Blease

idk who id cast for dylan. someone lanky, british accent definitely, early 20′s/25 maybe. i like brandon routh but hes too old for the part now u_u and honestly, though he kinda looked like dylan in face, he didn’t fit into dylans lanky profile at all. i hope maybe he’ll get a small cameo in the show tho😭 he got did so dirty by that shitty movie

the cast would be revolving, with only dylan and groucho and maybe bloch (if hes in the episode) being the main characters. the romantic interests and side characters for the specific story would last for the episode like in the comics.

this is just for me but id love for there to be a throwaway line about dylan and groucho being married at one point, to reference their marriage in the recent comics

also make the show rated r. i think the titties are the most important part of the comics

while id like for it to be set in london, id also like for it to travel to other places in europe, and take it to interesting scenery nd shit like they always do in the comics. idk how id feel about that one werewolf school story thats set in germany being adapted, but id like to see that german forest scenery lol

there needs to be a few groucho, la pistola! moments where groucho tosses him the pistol ok............also there needs to be the classic pistol

oh and dylan has to say dancing judas at least like 4 times ok .. god

umm for the effects of the monsters, i think itd be best if it was practical, rather than cgi. ive seen netflix’s cgi monsters nd while they work...... the practical effects i think would fit really well in the timeless/80s tone by being like various 80 horror flicks with their practical fx. since the comics were inspired by those classic horror films, like night of the living dead and shit

instead of making dylans personality be the cocky action hero that the movie made him out to be, i... would like for him to still be that jokey loner romantic that he is in the comics, getting himself into trouble cuz he accidentally slept with the monster or the killer or whateva. 

like he’s smart with paranormal shit but he only has 1 braincell and neither him or groucho have it most of the time

oh my god i just realized i hadnt even thought of xabaras ok fuck uhhh OK maybe he is part of the overarcing story. maybe yes he gets introduced in the first episode like hes first introduced the in the first comic. but maybe in the end, with the finale he comes back again, after you thought he was dead but noo ho ho hes alliivee and hes always gonna fuck with you dylan you cant get rid of him. whatever fight happens in the finale, it ends in a sort of draw where maybe dylan thinks he defeated him for good, only for the final scene to be xabaras just chilling, clearly not dead, maybe watching over dylan

(if there was to be a season 2, id like for them to do the “i am your father” reveal then, instead of doing all of that in the first season)

(id actually really like for dylans backstory with the time traveling shit and morgana in the second season to be honest now that i think about it)

the first season can be about the monsters of the week and the second possible season could actually focus more on his character story and how he even got into this shit lol

this show really has the potential to be a really great show that breaks out of the usual horror genre and im going to be SO disappointed when it inevitably becomes like riverdale or sabrina the teenage witch’s unnecessary edgy teen adaptions OR just becomes the generic horror franchise shit that james wan usually fucking does with saw and insidious. 

im really fucking praying that he actually pays attention to the source material and accurately brings the more gothic and european style of horror forward with it, introducing it to a larger american audience... blease for my sake .. i cant do dylan dog: dead of night (2010) again...