#So this recap was really hard to write for a lot of reasons which some of you know about

[kohabielnin]

Headcanons Truth & Inference Lovers

Today I wasn't going to write anything because I woke up sore and sick, but as I felt a little better, and I saw something that made my day, I decided to write a little. I removed Emma and Naib because unfortunately I didn't know much, but in their place I put Rosemary

D.M/Désire Mélodis

• If he already showed you off when you were just his employee, now that you're his groom/bride, he won't give you a moment's peace,

• He cares about you, of course, but that doesn't mean he doesn't tease you and irritate you sometimes,

• To recap what we already know, D.M is a demon among humans, so unless you like not walking for days, don't irritate him,

• His snake has great affection for you, so it's normal for it to wrap itself around you while you're sitting on D.M.'s lap on his orders,

• He loves seeing your face blush when he says it loudly at parties, "I'm sorry, ladies, but I don't want to keep my beautiful bride Y/n waiting for me", yes, he says it loud and clear for everyone to hear,

• Honestly, Mr. Inference and Gatto really feel sorry for you

Noir/Saphir Mélodis

• I'm sorry, but your right to go on missions with him has been revoked at his request,

• He cares enough about you to keep you away from all the dangers of the missions he and you were on,

• When he's not on missions or it's at night, he loves sharing calming moments like taking a shower together or sleeping cuddled together, which he says calms him down after a stressful day.

• There isn't a day that goes by that Tuberose doesn't tease you, of course you also tease him back, so Noir usually watches the mini wars that you and Tuberose have,

• Leon already liked you a lot and with you officially being family, the hawk allowed himself to get attached to you,

• He's not as present as possible, but he tries to make up for it by spoiling you whenever D.M allows him to rest

Tuberose/Jack

• Let's start with a fact, he will only stay with you if Lady Rosemary also likes you,

• His face was once a reason for you to fight with him, but after he showed it to you, after months of pestering him about it, you never wanted to see him with a mask again,

• Rosemary thinks the relationship you two have is cute and is happy to participate in it too,

• He tends to be quite protective of you and Rosemary, so it's not surprising that if he sees D.M teasing you he'll get jealous,

• He'll never admit it, but he loves it when you sit on his lap and Rosemary plays with his hair, he finds moments like that comforting,

• You and Rosemary are his treasure, so he will not rest until you are both satisfied in every way, he is a man devoted to both of his treasures

Rosemary/Grace

• What led her to accept you in a relationship with Tuberose was her knowledge of plants,

• As she is usually busy with important matters, she tends to leave you alone most of the time, but that never stopped you from going to her and massaging her shoulders,

• Tuberose likes how hard you are to be in a relationship with him and Rosemary,

• She may also end up suffering from jealousy if she sees you with DM a lot and when that happens she doesn't leave your side and doesn't let go of the hug,

• Her calming moments with you are when you are massaging her shoulders or lying on her lap, she always smiles stupidly when she sees your sleeping face,

• She likes to give you bracelets or flower crowns, because according to her it makes you more beautiful, as flowers make your beauty more evident.

Gatto/Aesop Carl

• It took him a while to accept being in a relationship with you,

• Don't force hugs or any other type of touch, he doesn't feel comfortable, so it's better to wait for him to ask for something like that,

• He's a bit shy so he'll always stutter when he asks you for some kind of affection, which is why he prefers not to speak, just open his arms or lay his head on your shoulder or lap, even if it makes him extremely red,

• Cat loves being on top of you, filling you with hair, it's her fault that Gatto ends up touching you even more,

• He loves it when you make him coffee or just pat him on the head, because it reminds him of things his mother used to do,

• Even with little courage, if D.M says something that doesn't please you, he will defend you because this is one of his ways of proving that you are important to him, but after D.M leaves, please, make a coffee and pat his head , he gave his all to defend you even though he was scared

White/Saphir Mélodis

• Let's be honest here, you being engaged to him hasn't changed the way he acts towards you,

• Surprise hugs, kisses on the forehead, nose and cheek, messy hair, are just some of the things he does,

• His owl likes to sleep on your head and that's extremely cute,

• Making him blush is something rare, but it is one of the cutest scenes that can exist,

• Let's face it, White is a cute romantic, so he goes out of his way to see your beautiful smile,

• He loves to affirm that he loves you, in public or in private, there is no one who can stop him from proving his love for you, even if he doesn't like kissing you in public, light caresses like kissing your forehead and stroking your hair are allowed for him in public

[gentlebeardsbarngrill]

05/31/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; Rhys Darby; Taika Waititi; Nathan Foad; Con O Neill; Vico Ortiz; Courtney Andersen/Rigging BTS; Adopt Our Crew - Shareholders Meeting Guide; Adopt Our Crew - Pride Month Prizes; Save OFMD Crew Pride Month Poll Results; Articles; Love Notes; Daily Darby/Today's Taika;

No Fan Spotlight tonight dearies, sorry I ran out of picture space as there's a lot going on, will pick back up tomorrow.

== Rhys Darby ==

Rhys out with Theo playing pickleball!

Source: Rosie's Instagram Stories

== Taika Waititi ==

Taika's out here being a supportive husband <3 The video is available on his Instagram Stories,

Source: Taika Waititi's Instagram Stories

== Nathan Foad ==

Oh no, Nathan 😭

Source: Nathan Foad's Instagram Stories

== Con O Neill ==

Just a short video from Con about Mad Max: Furiosa

Source: Con O'Neill's Instagram

== Vico Ortiz ==

Vico pics from Phoenix Fan Fusion with EnbyBruje <3

And a short Video: Vico dancing with EnbyBruje at Phoenix Fan Fusion

Source: Enby Bruje's Instagram

And finally--Vico Will be at the Dynasty Typewriter on June 25: 7:30! For tickets, visit www.dynastytypewriter.com

== Courtney Andersen ==

One of the lovely folks behind the scenes on OFMD was Courtney Andersen and his team that put together the fantastic rigging for The Revenge that made everything so authentic! Below are some BTS pictures of the rigging!

Source: @ Saphena69's Instagram

== Adopt Our Crew Fuckery Cont'd ==

Our dear friends at @adoptourcrew have put together a guide for the upcoming Shareholder Meeting! Check it out below.

Source: AdoptOurCrew's Instagram

== AOC: Our Flag Mans Pride ==

Starting off Pride Month strong our friends at @adoptourcrew have shared the price catalogue for #OurFlagMeansPride. More details will be added soon, but you can check out the prize list here.

Source: AdoptOurCrew Twitter

== Save OFMD Crew Pride Month Poll Results ==

The SaveOFMD Crew had a poll earlier this month asking for suggestions on how to celebrate pride month! Those poll results are available now on the REPO under the Save OFMD Crew Folder. There will be more information regarding plans coming soon!

Poll Results

Please note: Write-In Answers were not included in the public file due to data privacy reasons.

== Articles ==

== Big Bang Reminder ==

Reminder! The OFMD Big Bang Starts sign ups tomorrow!

For all of you who're seasoned OFMD tumblr folks, you probably have heard of OFMD Big Bang before! For our newer members of the fandom check out the description below by OFMD Big Bang Tumblr.

What is the Our Flag Means Death Big Bang? A big bang is a writing and art challenge pairing authors and artists to complete a long work of fiction. The OFMD Big Bang is centered around stories which take place in the Our Flag Means Death universe with a minimum word count requirement of 10,000. 

Interested in joining? Author and Artist sign-ups open on June 1! Here's the upcoming Schedule. Visit the @ofmdbigbang tumblr for more information!

== Love Notes ==

Hey lovelies. Tomorrow is the start of Pride Month! Happy Pride to everyone :)

I apologize, I know I have a lot of messages I need to catch up on, I've just been so swamped I haven't had the time. I promise I'll get to them and the rest of the things I've been behind on, this weekend sometime. In the mean time, I just want to say I hope you're being kind to yourself today. I know it's really hard to do some days. Outside influences, people's opinions, the state of the world, everyday stressors, brain chemistry, sometimes just about anything can make it hard for you to love yourself the way you deserve. Just remember that you are wonderful. Not everyone is going to see just how amazing you are. They aren't going to see the spark in you that makes such a huge impact on the world tiny minute waves at a time. But you know who can see that spark if you let them? You.

You light up the world with every movement, every gesture, every word. You truly are a marvel. Sure, we all make mistakes, we all struggle, but every day you keep going and even though you can't see it, you are blooming little by little in your own light-- and your light is helping others to bloom too. You are brilliant lovelies, remember to bask in that light a bit for your own sake. Rest well, drink some water, take your meds if you have them, and get some sleep if you can. Tomorrow is another day.

Take care <3

== Daily Darby / Today's Taika ==

Not sure about tonight's theme, mostly just the two of them chatting it up with each other. Gifs Courtesy of the wonderful @mulder-isms and @ofmd-ann

[retromimic]

re: Astarion's age (and others)

I made a random post last week about Astarion's age and I have been thinking about it since.

I also realized that we do have other characters we can use to have a better idea of timelines and stuff.

And by other characters I mean Jaheira and Halsin.

More under the cut, tl;dr at the end

Jaheira

Jaheira is from the first two Baldur's Gate games, which both take place over 100 years before BG3 (1368 and 1369, so 123 before BG3, which is in 1492).

She's a half-elf, who age pretty much the same as human, but live longer, so she probably was in her 20's or early 30's in the first games, which would make her about 150 years old in BG3. This makes sense with her appearance, as half-elves live for about 180 years.

Note: Based on appearance only, it's possible Jaheira was older in the first games, but considering they were released in 1998 and 2000, I highly doubt they made the hot half elf lady an actual middle-age woman lmao

Side note: Minsc

Minsc is a human and also from the first two games, but there is a canon reason why he's still alive and doesn't look like he got older like Jaheira did. iykyk

Halsin

He just straight up says he's 350 years old. He's an elf.

He also does look old, but not that old.

Shadowheart

We know she is at least 40 years old (but not much older), and she doesn't look too old. It's subjective but to me she looks like a human late 20's, early 30's (I do think she looks older than Jaheira did in the first two games, but graphic quality and time does affect that). She's a half-elf, so that also checks out.

Recap so far:

Half-elves:

Live for about 180 years

40's: young and soft

150's: Mommy™

Elves:

Live for a long time (in game: at least 350 years, in DnD lore: about 700 years)

350's: Daddy™

Now onto the baby

Astarion

The information can be conflicting, so I'll try to break it down.

The tombstone

This is where it gets complicated because not only is it hard to read, but also is kind of contradictory.

It's written in the Thorass alphabet.

The initial dates are the easiest to read:

229 - 268 DR

Which would mean he was 39 years old when he died. Which a lot of people find it a bit hard to believe considering he looks much older, especially if you compare him to Shadowheart, who's not only older, but also only a half-elf.

I'll come back to it later.

What makes the tombstone complicated is the date Astarion adds. They are hard to read, the first one is barely readable and the numbers 5, 6, 7 and 9 can be easily mistaken for one another when it's someone who just had the most emotional moment of his life carving it in stone with a dagger.

The general consensus from what I've seen has been that it's 498 and that the dates on the tombstone are omitting the 1 (so the dates would actually be 1229, 1268 and 1498 DR), or that Larian made a mistake and should have made the dates in NR, not DR (which would bring the dates to 1261 and 1300 for his birth/death)

Both options have flaws because of the date Astarion writes should either read 492 (omitting the 1) or 460 (NR instead of DR). Neither are really plausible because the last number really doesn't look neither like a 2 or a 0.

The first option would also mean that Astarion died 230 years ago, which we know is not true. A lot of things in-game (not just Astarion) confirms it.

The second option would place his death 192 years ago, which is the most plausible.

But then how to explain the error in the date he adds?

Either he fucked up and doesn't know what year it is.

Or the first number is actually a 2, and he wrote 268, which is the year he died. We'll go with this one.

So, conclusion? Astarion was 39 years old when he died, 192 years ago, making him now 231 years old.

Physical appearance

Now, onto his look.

As mentioned earlier, Astarion doesn't look like he's younger than 40-something half-elf, so some people think the tombstone might be reading 129, giving him an extra 100 years at death, which would make more sense, but there is clearly more than just one dot on that first number, and there is a more plausible reason for him looking so old:

Vampire spawn appeared as they did in life, though their features were hardened and appeared predatory.

Source: Forgotten Realms Wiki

Add to that nearly 200 years of torture? That would make a man look a couple decades older.

And it's not really hard to imagine he was 39 years old at death when you see him, mostly post-Cazador, with softer expressions. (There is posts about it on here, sorry I can't link)

There is one last argument against this, which is the fact that elves reach "adulthood" at around 100 yeas old, and that Astarion already had a job and everything when he died.

But that's really easy to explain;

Elves physically reach adulthood at the same rate as humans, but their concept of adulthood is different, which is why "socially" they are considered adults only much later.

But also, this is socially, and socially, Astarion grew up in Baldur's Gate, a multi-cultural city, so he didn't grow up with elven mentality. Him having a job at 39 years old is very much plausible.

SO.

TL;DR:

Astarion was still pretty much a child when he died at 39 years old, 192 years ago.

[pinkmoondoll9shihtzu]

6 month solstice/full moon check-in livejournalstyle

So i've been advised to recap the past 6 months. Especially since this current Capricorn full moon is exacting at 1 degree Capricorn which happens to be the same degree as My Ascendant. (Pinkmoondoll number 1 :@!!!!!)

The Cancer full moon happened at around 5 degrees on december 26th 2023. That is my ex's birthday. On winter solstice 2023, exactly 6 months ago, i cut her out of my life. We were already broken up for a long time before that but i continued to let her stay in my life for a few reason, namely guilt & fear. Guilt because of the emotional turmoil she projected onto me & fear because, well, we are married and i didn't know what would happen to my immigration status if i cut her off. I still don't! This has not changed yet.

Pretty much everything else about me & my life has changed though. internally at least. Having her out of my life has allowed me so much freedom to get back to who i am & live with integrity. The only people left in my life now are ones who are respectful, kind, have their own shit going on, appreciate that i am my own person too, allow me to breathe, don't expect anything specific from me, don't toy with my mind & emotions. They are just glad to let me be who i am. No one tries to control me anymore. i feel so wonderful because no one can control me.

So the past 6 months has been a series of stages of getting back to Me. unraveling all the lies i was fed for years, healing from the pain of being manipulated, feeling that so much of my energy was wasted. Truly truly wasted. i'm not one of those people who can live without regrets lol. i wish i broke free so much sooner, the stress destroyed my health for years. But ultimately, this is how it went down, so i strive towards acceptance.

For the first few months of this year i was really on a huge substance abuse kick! im not gonna specify what, but iykyk. Like i really just could not bear the weight of what i was feeling. Every day i was finding out more and more info about lies i'd been told, stuff happening behind my back. All i could rly do was take pills & tunnel vision into ableton or drawing or whatever. it helped repress my emotions & i got a lot done during this time but it was unhealthy & the more it progressed i saw how unsustainable it was.

around spring equinox shit HIT THE FAN e_e So this would be the quarter year mark. Well it was march 15 when denji ate the ziploc bag and had to get emergency obstruction removal surgery. That immediately halted all projects i was working on. I was still taking a lot of pills to cope with the stress of that situation & at that point i needed them just to function at a base level. Then i think april 4th or 5th was when i found out Sammy died, which...i mean yeah i've spoken a lot on how horrific that was & still remains to be.

I mean , like, that shit, rearranged my whole brain, that shit reset me. this also marked the time period where like... my psychic senses really began evolving. idt it was necessarily linked to sammy's death, it just weirdly shifted around that time. i think the lunar eclipse in late march caused some type of quantum leap idk man idek. Then the solar eclipse in april sealed the deal. Ever since then the craziest stuff that i cant even rly talk about has been happening to me & i immediately felt compelled to like, quit all drugs and just fucking ascend lol.

Sooo first i started w pill numero uno, the really diabolical one, middle of april i just said fuck it, i am done. at this point i had abused it so hard it wasnt even doing shit for me anymore, even when i took tolerance breaks, it was genuinely pointless to continue. i did wonder how the fuck i was ever gonna function without it and i was scared. The final few weeks of april were just a total write off, didnt do shit, totally depressed & grieving & miserable but weirdly hopeful too. Like i knew i just had to suffer and get it over with.

pill 2 was actually pretty easy to cut back on because ive quit it a bunch of times before & know what to expect, and since i was already suffering so bad from pill 1 after about a week i thought yeah i might as well stop the other one too lol. there was no noticable increase in suffering from stopping it. So by the 2nd week of May it had been around 3 weeks of feeling like pure ass but i was starting to feel WAYYYY better and my normal goofy self again.

That is the worst thing about adhd meds for me lol they robbed me of my whimsy and goofiness T_T Like i was so serious all the time T_T it was even kinda affecting my relationship w slimbo. Like i couldnt be affectionate i was just a robot. All i cared about was working and i was so impatient. As i came off the meds i started to remember how nice it is to just be slow, be in the moment, enjoy simple things with my love, not constantly bound to this gnawing neurosis pushing me to squeeze maximum productivity out of every single second.

like i said , i'm 1 degree cap rising sooo this neurosis is something that exists firmly within my personality, for sure. i mean, if u cant tell, I Be Doing Things lol. And i get very competitive with myself. the dark side of me is that i want to be the best at everything. A big part of my adult life has been learning how to relax. learning how to have fun, learning how to be a little pointless. Without the meds this is a struggle for me so with the meds it was genuinely impossible not to be completely controlled by the rabid impulse to work.

So getting off the meds was a big exercise in confronting my fear of Not being the best. my fear of chilling, my fear of being still & unoccupied. But i did it! And i feel so much better. Like holy shit, i feel SO much better.

By the mid-May i was picking up steam in just being able to live again. a lot of the brainfog & physical heaviness lifted. I was still not very productive at art or music, but i was getting really good at not letting that bug me. spending a lot of time working in the garden, got back into yoga, reading, just doing leisurely stuff that felt expansive to my inner world rather than trying to externalize anything. psychic experiences continued to amplify. became interested in tarot again as i no longer felt i was living in fear of my higher self.

after getting off the pills i began feeling really fixated on the notion of quitting weed. Previously this had been genuinely unthinkable to me. Like, me and weed, we were One, every person i'd ever been as an adult had smoked weed, it was weirdly part of my identity, for 15 years i genuinely believed i could not exist without weed, like i would just lose my fucking mind if i stopped. i did not believe in myself.

But as the psychic experiences progressed i felt strongly that i want to go deeper. Previously i had been afraid to go deeper. In that regard i think i was truly afraid of my own potential. I wasn't ready for it, and that's actually fine. A lot of people aren't.. But as May was coming to a close i knew that i was ready, and actually, it was crucial of me to put an end to this. I was enjoying finally having some sense of peace & joy after how crummy it felt quitting the pills , i didn't really want to disturb that state of being, but i also was having that feeling again that i just need to "get it over with".

So when it struck June 1st i was like yeah fuck it. Let this mark a new beginning. as soon as i realize something is no longer in my best interest its almost impossible for me to keep going with it! like i can't live with myself. I guess that's where my fixation on being "the best" can serve me sometimes. if that makes sense.. Like i willllll always end up putting my foot down and saying NO :T

So yeah. it's recent enough that i don't really feel the need to detail how the first 2 weeks of june were sooooo sucky and emotional and generally dysfunctional. couldn't even read or draw or do any minor tasks i was sooo out of my mind. Not much needs to be said about it. i just had to simply allow time to pass. a lot of days spent in bed crying & dissolving.

right around the 2 week mark we went to missouri & this is when i started noticing myself feeling way way better. the whole time i didn;t even think about weed or my symptoms at all. i was so present in each moment and it was so easy to just feel....alive. also had some intense psychic experiences, one of which i haven;t even talked about on here, and i probably wont because its too sacred. The overarching theme between all the experiences i've been having since late march is that they feel too sacred to tell anyone. The high priestess emphasizes secrecy in some matters..

Which brings us to now, june 21, 21 days w/o weed, 3 weeks. I know that sounds like nothing but this has been 15 YEARS coming. that's half my lifespan so far. and now i just feel fine. i got thru the blues of quitting, all the repressed emotions, im sure they'll still pop up from time to time too. but ultimately i am just so fucking relieved to be free of that shit and like, functioning, able to sleep, not riddled with anxiety and self hatred like i was when i started as a grieving baby teenager.

i guess i wanted to write this to remind myself what a monumental shift i have made in my life in the first half of 2024, and how insanely far i've come in the grand scheme of my life, in a relatively short timespan. because i keep getting this feeling of self doubt where i'm like wait... it's almost july and i've barely completed any tasks, i still havent finished my music, wtf am i doing :( But i dont think i was supposed to finish it until i shed all these habits that were causing major roadblocks in my path!

shed my ex, shed pills, shed weed. shed grief! shed self doubt. emptied my vessel & it has allowed room for so much new life to come through. new forces being channeled. my mediumship abilities now are in focus and taking off at an accelerated rate. for the first time in my life i'm not in survival mode. i feel this is my reward for living through it all when i wanted nothing more than to give up for so many years. i prayed for death, every day, i really did. now i am dead! the old me died. and i carry her memory with honor, i carry on the parts of her that wished to remain and be loved, but she is effectively dead.

for the first time in my life i am really proud of myself. i don't feel so competitive with myself anymore. i don't need to prove myself externally. i do not require any validation of my existence. i can sit with myself without feeling extreme self induced dread & despair. i feel worthy even though i am still (from the outside looking in) at the exact same place i was at 6 months ago.

i'm finally feeling ready to work a little harder again, but not because i'm desperate to gain anything from it. just because it's fun, and fundamentally, as stated above, that drive is a part of my personality, a part of me that i love & cherish. number 1 is the magician. the mage patchouli ~~~ the alchemist. create for the sake of creating.

if anyone read this far, thats wild xD but thats dope too.. I guess one thing i'd like for the future is just to inspire people that you can alchemize the tragedies of your life and all the suffering into something much greater than yourself. You can get through it and be happy with your meager little life one day, even if it takes 30 or 40 years, it's worth it to try & worth it to get here. You do not have to wallow in sadness and self doubt forever, even if u see no way out rn.

i'm happy just being me ^_^ i have so much fun when i'm in my mind. bladee voice ~~be in your mind, be in your mind, be in your mind~~. i love how simple everything feels right now. i love how people & entities can come to me because they trust me to receive their messages & understand them. My own projections do not get in the way anymore. I shed so much. I am free. Happy Strawberry Moon everyone.

SIncerely, PMD9

[nagisasstunningpersonality]

Comprehensive Guide For Assassination Classroom Content

Because it's pretty hard to find a straight up list of it all. Please note that whilst I believe this is accurate, I was not involved in the fandom whilst the series was active and so could reasonably miss something.

Core Content

Assassination Classroom manga as serialised in Shounen Jump. If you buy the physical volumes, there's a bit of additional content between chapters, most notably introductory character profiles.

Assassination Classroom anime (some count seasons 1 and 2 as separate entities)

Assassination Classroom Meeting Time - an animated short featuring Korosensei and Karasuma's first meeting.

Assassination Classroom Extra Curricular Lessons - adaptations of a couple of manga chapters that weren't in the show itself. I'll just link a playlist here. Fun fact this is where Nagisa gets hit by a chair (lowkey he deserved it)

Additional Content

365 Days Movie. This isn't 'canon' as it's an anime original thing. There's no official English release that I know of. Honestly the movie is mostly a series recap, and only features Karma and Nagisa in new scenes. It's only really worth watching if you especially ship them as there's only maybe 10 minutes of actual content (and most of that is just montage, you can get the gist with this)

Roll Call Book - this was published mid manga run. It's mostly just a bunch of bonus content particularly character based. No official English translation exists, but snippets are easy enough to find online.

Graduation Album - as the name implies, it accompanies the end of the manga. About half of it is an art book, but there's extra character information especially about their post graduation lives. Crucially it includes a few manga shorts which extend past the actual canon ending.

Korotan A, B, C, and D plus Korosuu. They're mostly just Assassination Classroom themed text books (Seriously. My actual university book store sold them.) Korotans are for English vocabulary, Korosuu is for maths. Notably each book also contains a light novel (sometimes these are just referred to as 'the light novels'). It is debatable how canon these are as Matsui didn't write them, but he was involved through illustrating and overseeing the writing. Korotan D is especially debated because it's post canon content set when 3E are 18, but there's a small 'it was all a dream' implication right at the end of the book. Personally speaking I take them as full canon.

Official Spin Offs

The live action movies (part one and two). They change a lot of plot so I place them more in the spin off area. Easily skippable.

Korosensei Quest Manga (otherwise known as Koro Q) - a spin off gag manga set in a fantasy/video game inspired universe. This is not canon (unfortunately) and as far as I understand Matsui isn't involved in it. There's an implication of the idea it's Fuwa's own manga creation. Overall there are four volumes but there's no official English version (though fan scans aren't hard to find).

Korosensei Quest Anime - lightly based on the Koro Q manga. This is only a short 10 episode series though, and was complete long before the original, as such only the first few episodes are actual adaptations and it starts doing its own thing. All voice cast return so that's neat.

The OVA - basically an early adaptation of the Kyoto arc. Link here. It was released in 2013 so predates the actual anime, and a lot of the voice cast are different.

White day shorts featuring Karma, Maehara, and Nagisa - posted on official website as an otome game parody for promotion. Included because they're voice acted.

The 3DS games. They're region locked as far as I understand, and there's no translation of them. You can find it dumped if you know what you're doing with emulators, I've only played a few minutes of it myself.

The app game - no longer available. It was a gatcha tie in game featuring a variety of character illustrations.

Various merch lines and related illustrations. There are far too many to list and new ones still come out sometimes.

As I said, I hope I covered everything but there's a good possibility something slipped my mind.

[boysplanetrecaps]

Build Up Episode 0: Getting to Know the Boys Part 1: Team AllRound

Hey, friends! I’m struggling with writing the recap for episode one of Build Up on MNET because I want to stop and give you the background on everyone, which makes the recap really hard to follow. So I figure I’ll spend some time giving you their backgrounds in four separate posts, to help you get to know the guys. I mention things like where else you may have seen them, if they're in an idol group, who knows who, etc, as well as my opinion of their voice based on their teaser performance. I think it’ll make the recaps easier, both to read and to write. In this first post of four, I’ll be talking about the twelve contestants who chose to join the “Allround” category, as opposed to “Soul”, “Power”, or “Unique.” Let’s go!

Before we go on, I just want to let you know that I’ll sharing my informed opinion on their singing voices. I am going to be a little bit harder on them than I am on singers on Boys Planet, with the understanding that these are all great vocalists. We’re looking for the S+ tier guys amongst a group that is A tier at worst. So if I say anything a bit negative about a fave of yours, understand that I’m not saying that he’s a bad singer! Every guy here is an excellent singer. Cool? Cool! 

I also have to apologize, but most of my screenshots are going to be pretty awkward. The video I'm watching makes it really hard to use because every time you pause it, it opens all sorts of porny popups. When it's paused, it has a huge pause symbol in the middle of the picture. So I have to try to take screen shots while it's in motion. It's not easy! Hope you understand.

Also, I have even less time than usual to proofread these posts, so please forgive me for my inevitable typos. <3 Thank you!

Choi Suhwan

Suhwan is currently a soloist. He’s released a few digital singles, none of which have really taken off, unfortunately. You might remember him from ProduceX 101, where he made it to episode 11, so the final cut before the finale, finishing in 28th place. Pretty good!

He was V17, doing a cover of Energetic by Wanna One. I wasn’t blown away by that performance -- it sounded a little processed, and I wasn’t completely sure it was live --  so I sought out another one. Here’s a live performance of his song Losing Sleep. Unfortunately, in this performance, I found his voice a little too nasal and affected to be to my taste, and he had serious issues with his upper mix. He’s not a terrible singer, but there are a lot of stronger singers on this show. Or maybe I’m wrong and he’ll do better next time. Fighting! 

Bitsaeon

Bitsaeon is 28, and is the main vocalist from M.O.N.T. He seems to have a predilection for soft fuzzy sweaters. He was V36, singing Rose Blossom by H1-Key, and all I wrote down in my notes was “this is just a really nice voice.” I just really liked it. Clean, smooth, easy to listen to.

I think this performance of Creep by Radiohead shows both what I like and what I don’t like as much about his performances. He does a lot of this soft whisper singing in his covers, which seems like a waste of what he can do. I love his full belts -- they’re so good. I want to hear him sing full-on more often in songs, like he did with Rose Blossom.  

M.O.N.T. has a whole complicated dealie that I just don’t have the energy to figure out -- the wikipedia page explains some of it. They’re mainly a three member group, with a leader, a rapper, and a main vocal. They haven’t put out any singles in a while, so I’m not sure what’s going on with them. 

Incidentally, Bitsaeon almost certain knows Jay reasonably well. Jay was involved in this thing called MONT Arena that was supposed to collect more members for MONT, so along the way I’m sure they met. In fact, Jay is still signed to the same agency as them (along with a few other agencies).

Seunghun

Seunghun is 24 and a member of CIX. His teaser song was V01, Rain by Paul Kim, and his performance was kind of… not my favorite. He sounded at times almost like he had a cold, and at other times I’m pretty sure he went off key -- I don’t know the song so I can’t be sure but it sounded off. He showed a lack of agility on one of his vocal runs, which means that as he tried to sing a lot of different notes all in a row, he had trouble transitioning from note to note quickly and hitting them all neatly. He had to switch awkwardly to falsetto to hit a single high note in the middle of a line, which is kind of not the goal. I think he may just have been nervous or having an off day. 

Seunghun also competed on YG Treasure Box, which I didn’t watch, but maybe you did. 

Let’s talk about CIX, baby! (Ok, that joke relies on you pronouncing it “six” but it’s really pronounced “see-eye-ex,” if you read the hangul). 

CIX is a five-member group under C9 entertainment, which is also the home to Cignature and Epex. CIX features Wanna One’s Bae Jinyoung, who is the center and face of the group. As sometimes happens in cases like this, the member who was in the big Produce group is famous and attracts stans, while sometimes the rest of the group just doesn’t get as much love, and the group as a whole suffers. See also: Gugudan, Weki Meki. However, CIX does ok. Per genius.com, “The group has released several Top 10 albums in South Korea, including Hello Chapter Ø: Hello, Strange Dream which gave them their first chart-topper in the country. The group’s singles have also consistently landed in the Circle Music chart.” So CIX is a little bit closer to say, IVE than it is to, say, Weki Meki. 

Personally, I like CIX -- I think the members are talented --  but I don’t love all their songs. However, their song Cinema is so smooth and lovely, it’s like a glass of orange-peach juice for your soul, and that’s in great measure because of their smooth vocals. (Seunghun is the one with the blue hair in that clip, if you want to watch it.) In fact, this is the song I wanted to listen to in the car on the way to the hospital to have surgery a year or two ago when I was feeling pretty scared. My fella said, “This is nice. I like this.” So if you never heard it, give it a chance. I’m looking forward to getting to know Seunghun a bit better and seeing him on a better day.  

Yeo One

Yeo One is 28, and is a lead vocalist for Pentagon. I don’t have to tell you about Pentagon, right? Another excellent group who lost a member and whose popularity has ebbed and flowed. If you watched Boys Planet, you know about Hui, and you know that I like Pentagon a lot! 

Yeo One left Cube Entertainment just a few months ago, in October of 2023, along with several other members of Pentagon, so though Pentagon hasn’t disbanded, their further activities will be a bit tricky. He had a sold-out solo concert recently, and was profiled in Rolling Stone Korea, so he’s doing ok for a recently solo artist. Yeo One is a lead vocalist of Pentagon, not one of their two main vocalist, and on kprofiles, he actually ranks in last place in the popularity poll. He often would be given pretty brief lines in most Pentagon songs. But we will get to know him and get to love him on this show, right, team? 

He performed a ballad for his teaser (V40) and all I wrote in my note to myself is “I hate songs like this so much I almost can’t think straight.” So, instead, I found this little song that apparently he wrote and performed himself -- it’s light and charming. It sounds like a guy sitting by the fire making up a song on guitar and singing it to himself. He’s not a super skilled vocalist from what I’ve heard thus far, not a powerhouse like Hui, but he has a charming vocal color and is just sort of a generally a lovable dude.  

Hwang Inhyuk

Inhyeock / Inhyuk (I’ve seen it transliterated both ways -- both would be 인혁 in Hangul) is 26 and is apparently both a soloist and a member of a vocal group called Unison. Unfortunately, I can’t find anything about them since there’s also a Japanese group called “Unison Square Garden” and when you search “Korean vocal group unison” all you get is information about K-pop songs sung in unison, so…. Yeah. Inhyuk is also a composer and lyricist, and has competed on I Can See Your Voice (I’m not sure which season) and Sing for Gold. 

He was V29 and performed a song called The First Day. Again, my perspective is skewed because it’s another feckin’ ballad and no thank you. The opening section when he’s singing in a soft, almost gruff voice is really charming, though. It’s so different from what you’d expect from his appearance and general demeanor. He has a really distinct vocal color, and I think he should have chosen “unique” rather than “allround.” Once he heads into the chorus, which requires belting some higher notes, his voice falters a bit. I just get that feeling that maybe he can do better than what he showed in this teaser. Maybe he wasn’t warmed up properly, or maybe he had a bit of a cold, something like that. The potential is there and I sense training was involved. I’m going to keep an open mind about him. 

Geonu

Geonu is from Just B and is 22. In addition to going on I-land, he also went on a show called Dancing High, which also featured Seo Won who you may remember from Boys Planet. God, there are so many of these shows. I kind of remember Geonu from I-land, where he did pretty well, making it close to the end. It’s kind of a shame that he didn’t make it into Enhypen since Enhypen is definitely short on vocalists. 

If you want to check out one of Geonu’s previous performances, here he is doing a duet performance of BTS’s Butterfly on I-land with Heesung (who did go on to debut in Enhypen). 

Geonu has gotten a bit better since then; here is his audition for this show, where he was V10. 

His upper mixed register has gotten stronger and a lot less breathy compared to when he was on I-land, but he seems to have developed an unpleasant nasality. Maybe being on this show will spur him to adjust his methodology. He has a really pleasant vocal color and a lot of potential. 

(I discuss Just B in Bain’s write up.) 

Jang Intae

Per my online sleuthing, Intae, age 27, is a singer-songwriter and is one half of the duo 415. (Their group is named for the fact that both members were born on April 15th, 1997.) 415 has put out seven digital singles and performed a few OSTs, but their MVs generally get fewer than 10,000 views. I think his general style and vibe isn’t what I personally look for in a musician -- it’s a bit too “acoustic lite” -- but I bet a lot of people would like what he and his duo partner do, if people gave them a chance. 

His teaser performance, V37, was Missing You by BTOB (a song performed on Girls Planet 999, if it sounds familiar to you -- a member of BTOB is on this show's judging panel). It started off really nasal, but got a bit better as it went along. He strained a bit on the high notes, unfortunately. It wasn’t the best performance, but I’m not going to condemn him for 90 seconds of imperfect singing. I hope that as I see more from him, he gets to show more of what he can do.

Jeong Yoonseo

Jeong Yoonseo is a trainee, and little info is available about him. He’s V32, performing Starlight by Taeil. There are a lot of background vocals -- I think there’s a guide track behind him the whole time! -- so it’s hard to pick out his pure voice. It sounds nice from what I can hear.  That’s kind of all I got! (Side note -- I’ve seen his name listed as Jang, not Jeong, but if you read the hangul, it’s Jeong, so IDK.) 

Hong Seongjun

Seongjun is 24 and is (was?) a member of a group called BDC, a three member group under Brandnew Music that debuted in the latter end of the pandemic, in September 2020. All three members had been on ProduceX 101. Seongun himself was eliminated in 51st place. They put out several comebacks but never really caught on.

On their kprofiles page, it says “On August 18, 2023, BRANDNEW MUSIC officially announced that BDC will end all official promotions as artists under the company on August 26, 2023, after they mutually decided to end their contracts. Thereafter, the group have been active in Japan and have a fan meeting planned in Korea on December 3, 2023.” I’m not sure what to make of that, but it doesn’t sound great obviously. 

I went to check out their M/Vs and remembered that I had actually listened to Moon Rider for a few months there at some point. Pretty decent song, but it got only 3.6 million views. I think it’s just kind of tough for three member groups. 

He was V27 and sang a chipper acoustic little song by 10cm. For me, him having such heavy backup vocals for so much of the song kind of makes me wonder, why would you do that?  It’s the same thing as the situation with Yoonseo. Isn’t the point to show their vocals? That said, this was a pleasant enough performance -- clean and sweet, with decent agility in some of the runs -- but not something I’m dying to listen to over and over. I think he didn’t really understand the assignment and chose something that would be nice to perform with people watching you, instead of something to sing in the dark.

Jeong Inseong

Inseong is 29 and is main vocal of a group called KNK. 

He was V06, performing a song called Letting Go by Day6. I looked it up and this song came out on March 28, 2016 -- just a few weeks after Lim Junhyeok had to leave that group. It being called “Letting Go” is a bit… pointed. Kind of like when f(x) did a song called Four Walls as their first comeback (and last) as a four-member group. Anyway… I really liked this. I just wrote in my notes, “ooh, likey.” This is just so good, I don’t even know how to pick it apart. It’s just a combination of stellar technique and smooth natural vocal color. He does have to go into falsetto to hit a super high note, but he transitions almost instantly. This is good stuff. 

KNK debuted in 2016 as a 5 member group. They left their first agency in 2018 but continued as a group at a new agency, losing one member and gaining a new one. Over the last few years, two more members have quit and one more joined, leaving four in the group as of now. 

Their most recent single, Ride, came out in September 2020 and currently has about 1.7 million views on Youtube. It’s so easy to tell when Inseong is singing -- it’s like when Kihyun sings in MonstaX and you’re just like YES, come THROUGH. I threw Ride on my playlist just so I can hear more Inseong. 

Inseong has been in a bunch of music shows, and also participated in Mixnine, so he may know the other Mixnine contestants, Ma Jaekhyung from Romeo and Donghun from A.C.E. However, he had to withdraw early from the show, so maybe not. 

If you want more Inseong, here’s a fun duet he does with the “Korean Madonna,” Kim Wanseon. 

Taehwan

Taehwan, 30, is the leader and main vocalist of Vanner, and was V13, singing Goodbye by Park Hyo Shin. You probably know by now that I’m not much of a ballad girl, but at least this is sung simply, with a really warm, textured voice. He does sound really pinched on the higher notes, like his throat is closing, and he gets a bit nasal at times, as well. In my opinion, he lacks technique, but has a lot of natural talent. He also has a great smile. 

Vanner is a five member group that debuted in 2019. They had a lot of support as they debuted, and even got significant crowdfunding. They went on Peaktime, as did many other lesser known groups -- and they won! Good for Vanner. Their most recent EP charted very well overseas. Their song Performer, released five months ago, has 8.7 million views on Youtube, and their song Jackpot, released on Jan 30, 2024, already had almost 4 million views at the time of writing, an incredible performance for less than a week. So it looks like Vanner is really starting to take off.

Taehwan may have met Ma Jaekyung, Bitsaeon, and Hong Seongjun when they competed on Peak Time.

Ji Yeonwoo

Yeonwoo is another trainee I just don’t know much about. Apparently he went on a show called Wild Idol, which I haven’t seen. But I do know that his teaser song, V24, Suffer by Charlie Puth, was great. A great combination of a song I actually liked and a voice I really liked. He has great agility, leaping up into falsetto and back down again. He does get a bit pinched sometimes on higher notes, but for whatever reason, it doesn’t bother me. Maybe it’s just I’m so glad it’s not a ballad!

Ok, that’s enough for now. I’ll see you in the next one, when I tackle Team Soul, featuring everyone’s favorite. You know who I mean.

[yurisorcerer]

If anime were appraised solely on their last episodes, Metallic Rouge would be pretty decent, but they aren't, so it isn't.

I'm not going to recap all the various little revelations and plot twists here because honestly who could possibly care? The gist is that the events of the preceding twelve episodes don't truly matter because everything was really just building up to this, a showdown between Rouge and her father figure Dr. Jung, a character who is barely in the show before this point (even in his hooded guise as The Puppetmaster), and who feels ancilliary to much of what the series was trying to do before now.

The actual events of this episode feel very random and I'd almost say fanficky? In isolation it's not a terrible finale but finales of course do not occur in isolation, when taken against the backdrop of everything Metallic Rouge could've been, and indeed *actively tried to be.* The Neans' plight doesn't matter because the entire thing was orchestrated by Doc Jung, which he demonstrates in a long monologue that comes off as trying way, way, wayyyy too hard to make this boring cutout of a Super Intelligent Chessmaster type character seem interesting. If the show had just focused on this from the start instead of interpolating like four unrelated plots along the way, it might've worked a lot better, but it's inherently hard to know.

It would certainly feel less distasteful. I cannot get over the fact that this series treated "serious examination of discrimination and a moral question over the ethics of armed struggle," regardless of its (deeply shitty and unbelievably milquetoast) conclusions, as just another hat it could put on and take off at will. None of it ends up mattering! At the last minute Rouge just decides to free the Neans, because *now* she thinks it's the right thing to do. If we were going to build Rouge up as some kind of liberator and savior it would've had to start many episodes ago, and despite occasional toothless gestures in that direction it, really didn't. I hope fellow tumblr user @naomiortman doesn't mind me digging up the comments they left in the tags of their reblog of my last writeup on this show, because honestly, they're completely correct and get to the heart of the problem of why *this specifically* was a pose that the show should never have attempted to strike if it wasn't going to commit.

The whole thing is just very offputting!

And as for everything *else* the show tries to do, the genre-hopping was occasionally fun when it remembered to not be stupid about it, but that was really only a handful of episodes in hindsight and if someone doesn't feel that that's enough to make up for the show's *many* writing mistakes, I find it very hard to disagree with them.

And then there's the last couple minutes of this episode which....reveal at the end that Clown Robot Girl was secretly a Usurper all along and installed a virus turning all Neans into murderbots, which just completely threatens to saw the legs off what happened mere seconds before, and then it turns out to completely not matter because Gene installed an antivirus beforehand because he knew this would happen somehow? (Gene is a nothing of a character and is another reason this show's writing sucks eggs.) And thus Neans have freedom now, because of a completely unforeshadowed, last-minute minor plot twist that occurred offscreen.

This show is hilarious, and deeply unserious. My friend Sredni (@ihfsttinuf) also pointed out that apparently a bunch of this a wholesale bite of the end of RahXephon? I haven't seen that show so I can't comment, but like, lol. (EDIT: That's apparently by the same guy, by the way! So if anything it's self-plagiarism.)

Just so this entire post doesn't come off like an angry rant, there are a few things that work. Mainly the buildup of real, mutual trust between Rouge and Naomi. (Or maybe I just want it to work because otherwise this show truly does have nothing going for it on the writing side.) At the very least, it's delightfully gay, I like the visual of the two of them together inside Rouge's mindspace. Although even this comes with an icky side effect in that Naomi is now like, functionally dead as her own physical person. IDK man, any time I try to give this show credit for something I find another way in which it could have so easily done better.

Hey, at least they brought the dedicated combat theme back, that's good. And Cyan is right, Rouge's new form does look really cool. (Why did they feel the need to kill Cyan, by the way? You can't both have a shitty central narrative AND kill all your best characters.)

I don't want to come off as though I just completely hate the thing top to bottom. It was entertaining on a week to week basis, but in trying to do so many different things it just kind of does nothing, and I find it really frustrating for that reason. The visual aspect of the show remains compelling (I love the Gladiator designs, seriously), but I could never in good conscience recommend this to someone even if I don't "regret watching it" per se.

What a mess! Glad it's over.

[asheskies-writing]

Oh boy, is it time for another 'why updates are taking so long on my Gwen fic' post?

It sure is!

There's a few things I'm not happy about with the fic, which have been really hindering my ability to write it.

So... I'm working on a revision to every published chapter of the fic, to get it more in-line with what I actually want it to be.

Think like the midpoint between just an edit, and a full-on rewrite. Most of the story will be the same as everyone already knows, but for previously stated reasons, I'm distancing myself from Spider-Verse's take on Gwen.

Which also frees me up to have the story be a lot more ACAB than it had been. Because, honestly, that was my biggest issue with the fic in its current state. The copaganda baked into Spider-Man stories is obnoxious, and one of my biggest gripes with the franchise as a whole.

So there'll be a few changes to the story, namely how the story portrays the police (and Gwen's views on them), the ways Gwen does the whole Spider-Woman thing, and the Spider-Verse references will be toned down drastically.

I don't wanna make promises on how long this revision will take, and... I understand if this is difficult for a lot of readers to adjust to. Changing the context of a lot of the previous story beats is, understandably, a rough choice to make halfway into the story, and I get that this will be disengaging for some readers.

But, to be honest, it's either this, or I can't really write more. If the story isn't something I'm passionate about, it's not something I can really do much with. And I'm mainly writing this because I want to, because it's a story I personally want to read.

For those of you who are willing to give the new version a try, I look forward to hearing your thoughts once the revisions are done. And if this is a deal-breaker for anyone, no hard feelings.

To make it easier to tell what's changed, I'm planning on recapping the main edits in the endnotes of each chapter.

So, that's the plan at the moment. I won't be uploading any of the revisions until I've finished them all in a word doc, so they'll all go up around the same time.

Thanks for your patience, everyone.

[spaceorphan18]

I have to be honest. I don't like the podcast but it's also very easy to say "you don't like what they say, don't listen to it" Truth is, it's the only podcast for Glee that is done by someone who was in the cast and as I'm only human, I do hope every time that I can hear something akin to what I expect from an official podcast. Also, the frustration comes from one thing you said and that I see happening. They might be not aware of it but by glossing over (this message is going to be split)

some things they are in fact giving certain pairings/characters haters a reason to hate. And they polarize the opinion of the audience, ex, the winner for the contest of the best episode in S2 was, what a coincidence, the episode that Kevin said it was his favourite. Why? Because he said it was his favourite. This is not how it's supposed to be. And since I'm never going there to write them about it the only thing I can do is getting upset on my own hoping to see something change. P.S. Personal opinion take it by what it is, although I never bashed her, I do think Santana was a lot of times a terrible person. In no way someone should be allowed to be so mean to other people (hello?S6 speech to Kurt). She has been terrible from S1 with every possible character, including Brittany when she went to school with her new girlfriend and kissed her after her performance. Naya was amazing in portraying her but Santana bullied a lot of people and was def not an example of goodness.

Hi Nonny! Phew, a lot of things going on here. First of all, though, thank you for being polite in my in box. In general, don't bring wank into my in box because I will go off on you (or delete it). Also, I've had sleep now, so I'm in a much better mind set. You guys get me before bed and I will not be as eloquent.

***

I do hear your guys' frustrations. I do. And it's not like I'm not disappointed, too. I keep going back to The Office Ladies and Pod Meets World podcasts -- where the hosts do a thorough recap and break all the things down. It leads to a very satisfying listening experience. And PMW specifically - the cast breaks down what it was like to be a child actor and the ups and downs of that -- which is honest but really, really open. The thing is, too, they're aware of their audience and how it effects them.

One key difference though -- is while no set is perfect, the experience on The Office and Boy Meets World was, on a whole, much more positive than the set of Glee. The Glee set was a hot mess -- not only were working conditions incredibly rough, but it was run by an egomaniac who didn't know how to handle a bunch of early 20-somethings and things got out of hand. Not to mention - there are three young deaths that tie into the show that does make it more complicated to talk about.

So, while I do think it's a disappointment that Kevin and Jenna are not more (maybe for a lack of better word) professional in how they're coming at this podcast -- I also don't fault them for having a hard time with things because I'm pretty sure there are a lot of hard memories that go along with it. (I'm still unsure, more so Jenna than Kevin, wanted to do the podcast -- but it is what it is I suppose.)

I think it is completely valid to have those frustrations -- especially when there isn't anywhere to direct it. Believe me - when they did Born This Way and did not even mention that Kurt sang As If We Never Said Goodbye -- his best solo and one of his climaxes of his Seasons 1 and 2 stories, it was incredibly frustrating.

But I think downward spiraling (as others have done) into conspiracies and accusations isn't the right way to go. Kevin and Jenna have heard us - and their response is to be mostly indifference about it. Unfortunately, I don't see them planning to change, so I feel like expectations should be adjusted accordingly.

Though - I do think there are polite ways to reach out. Sending an email to their podcast that is kind and explanatory is fine. Screaming that they hate Darren in their mentions is not.

***

I want to highlight one thing you said -- about their influence on things...

As I said before, it is unfortunate that anyone is using Kevin and Jenna's opinions to trash on other fans. That is not cool, and while I really hasn't seen much of it (that is directed from what they say on the podcast and not what people were doing in the first place) I think there's a difference between people being asshats and people being influenced to vote for a fav episode based on what Kevin thinks.

If being in fandom this long -- and if being in sales and selling things to people for so long -- one thing I've learned is that the power of suggestion is a real thing that happens. People are going to go, a lot of times, with group mentality. This person thinks its cool? Okay, I gotta think its cool, too.

I don't expect an audience -- especially the majority of people who are not like me and don't do media analysis on the show -- to really look at what is actually "good" or "bad" artistically (which is somewhat subjective anyway) and come to a "proper" conclusion. They're going to vote on -- oooh Santana sang a song I really like in this episode or -- oohh Klaine makes out whoo! -- or hey, Kevin really likes this episode it must be good. That's just kinda how people are.

These polls really shouldn't invalidate your own feelings on things.

Nor should they give anyone reason to feel they're superior.

They're opinions, and we're all only human. So, in general, let's all not be asshats on the internet. ;)

***

As for Santana -- you know, I was thinking about it as I got up this morning -- I think I want to do a character study on her. Just to kind of explore what I think about the character.

But yes - maybe something that is forgotten a little bit, especially in the tragedy of Naya's passing - is that Santana was originally coded as a villain. And villains don't do very nice things. I mean, she herself said the only straight she is is straight up bitch.

But also -- there is a difference between saying - hey, this character is not doing nice things and -- hey you suck for liking this character. I wish the nature of fandom wasn't this way. You don't have to trash one thing to like another. And you can even say you don't like the thing - that's fine. But attacking people personally is never okay. And as long as I've been in fandoms, it's always been a problem.

Be better guys. And keep on keeping on.

<3 <3 <3

[twinkle-art]

now that you're done endwalker, could you talk a little bit more about andromeda? im curious about what she got up to/how she grew in all that time

YES I’D LOVE TO endwalker was BRUTAL to her. and yet she still pulled through with the indomitable human spirit

Previously On Final Fantasy XIV (Andromeda Elo Version) style recap:

as you can imagine, her obsessive belief that killing zenos would instantly reinstate her as a perfect hero circa. stormblood went… poorly. the brief period when people thought she killed him and not that he killed himself in front of her did make her feel a little crazy

and then she went to the first and that kind of put things in perspective. or more accurately, gave her a fresh new slate for her hero image and an excuse to ignore her previous flop era

there was her whole thing with emet-selch. anyways

on that note, the only real canon deviation i made to shb was that when she’s dying of light poisoning she does, in fact, run off to the tempest by herself with the intention of killing them both. this doesn’t pan out and instead she spends about a week hallucinating in emet-selch’s torment nexus until some very upset scions come get her. i’ve drawn a lot about this. i will likely continue to draw a lot about this

due to a cocktail of deep rooted mental issues and also the fact that he was truly just so miserable, andromeda doesn’t feel… great about putting emet-selch down. but instead of articulating this, because she’s convinced it’s not the “right” reaction, she bottles it up for about 3 patches

…until elidibus plays on her guilt and she receives azem’s crystal as a 1-2 punch. when y’shtola asks the wol after the fact if they’re okay i decided that she immediately bursts into tears

so now we arrive at the end times

there’s really no delicate way to say it but the garlemald arc was probably the worst thing she ever experienced. which is impressive, given her spring break amaurot excursion just happened. 

(i loved it though it might genuinely have my favorite writing in this whole game)

as i’m sure i don’t have to spell out, being treated as a foreign invader in the place she grew up was kind of a lot. she’s incredibly sentimental about her homeland- for as much as she hates it for how it rejected her (and the atrocities) and as much as she never for a second regretted her defection, her feelings towards garlemald are not dissimilar from the way someone might crave the recognition of a family that has only treated them poorly. 

in fact, her traitor’s title of viator was never actually official- zenos referred to her as such, but never made his knowledge of her garlean citizenship public because he dgaf. and yet, despite continuing to exclusively go by elo and hide her origins, she privately referred to herself as viator caecus without much thought, in an act of blinding self-unawareness. (but as her god i know the reason, and it’s that on some level she likes that being branded a Significant Traitor still means being recognized by her former home as Significant)

anyways, speaking of her family: they sure did live in the capital! andromeda is trying really, really hard to be brave and pragmatically carry out her duty as Eorzea’s Champion but like…her mommy lives here :(

in the first of many acts that mean the jig of her supposed eorzean origins is pretty much up, she starts asking everyone they encounter if they’re aware of the whereabouts of a woman named lucretia eir caecus (for ilsabard contingent business, obviously. not because she’s terrified her mom is dead.) without much luck. the twins simply do not have the heart to tell her that this is a hell of a long shot. 

(ONE person doesn’t know where she could be, but they do know of her and muse that the rumors must be true then- that this minor city bureaucrat really did have populares sympathies, if she’s a contact for the eorzeans. this comes as total news to andromeda.)

(also eventually, inevitably this get back around to their intelligence and thancred pulls her aside and grills her until he realizes what’s going on and pivots to Oh My God it’s fine that you miss your mom?! you should have come to us helping you look for her is the least we can do after everything. this is the second time a scion makes her burst into tears.)

putting a pin in that for now. in from the cold was . a lot. i don’t have much to say other than that it felt especially cruel to make her drag herself through the ruins of the city she was raised in while wearing the body of the kind of person who made her life hell. also in general that zenos knew what he was doing when he razed her hometown to the ground to get her attention. fucked up duty btw. her desire to kill him with a rock is back.

after tower of babil/the moon/zodiark i deviate from canon a little bit again- she lets the scions do their mare lamentorum side thing while she goes back to garlemald to see what’s going on. not feeling great about maybe causing the final days.

and then she reunites with her mom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (<- part of her narrative that i had planned out as early as heavensward)

i want to draw this scene out in glorious detail but the long and short of it is that lucretia- who lest we forget, knows her way around a gunblade despite living as some military man’s obedient little wife for 25 years- had actually started trailing the ilsabard contingent from a distance once rumors spread that the wol was with them.

see, despite this not being officially public knowledge, she figured out that this “andromeda elo” was her daughter a long, long time ago, and it kind of snapped her out of the two-decade defeatist trance she put herself in for survival. (which is when she got involved in all manner of clandestine anti-state activities- she was rather dangerously close to getting in extremely serious trouble when civil war broke out and everyone kind of stopped caring) 

so she followed them from a distance, falsely assuming that the daughter who ran away wouldn’t want to see her until finally getting caught and dragged in there

also she killed her husband in self-defense. allegedly. he was totally tempered i promise. he had it coming tho.

ANYWAYSSS that’s the chunk of edw i have the most detailed thoughts on. elpis was also incredibly harrowing due to um. her Whole Thing with emet-selch but tbh i haven’t fully digested the back half of the expansion yet because it is DENSE

(i do love it when two characters get one single transcendent moment when they're finally able to both understand each other though it makes me crazy)

two final beats that i think illustrate her mental state going into the finale:

when the final days descended, the number one thing that kept her from falling into despair was her reunion with her mother- while their relationship is far from magically fixed, the simple fact that she regained something she lost after realizing how precious it really was to her made her all the more ferocious about ensuring that she will never, ever give that up again

when zenos makes his final assertion that the two of them are the same, she rejects him- but this is because while it was once true, she has since outgrown that. she has outgrown him. and that’s why he loses.

...also she fucked drusilla at some point while learning reaper

[theluckywizard]

2023 Writing Recap

Thanks for the tag @nirikeehan

(apparently I'm just going to do tumblr tag games for NYE! but this is a good one sooooo). It is hard to believe I just started writing Fanfic in January because weeeeee it has been a year!

Tagging @warpedlegacy, @crackinglamb, @leggywillow, @delicatefade, @melisusthewee, @spicywarl0ck, @skyeventide, @ammoniteflesh, @wildercrow, @rowanisawriter

words posted: probably about 370,000

additional words written: 140,000

grand total of words: 510,000

fandoms:

Dragon Age!

highest kudos:

My Cullen x Trevelyan and m!Hawke x Trevelyan longfic WIP In the Shattering of Things with 121

highest hit oneshot:

My Alistair x Cousland first time smut The Boy Who Talked too Much with 752 hits and 63 kudos

new things I tried:

Writing fanfiction 😂 Yeeting canon, being horrible to my blorbos

fic I spent the most time on:

In the Shattering of Things, if it isn't obvious!

fic I spent the least time on:

Probably my WIP Nightmare!AU A Splinter of Light which I really want to dig into, but I felt it pulling me from Longfic so I stopped (the premise is Rose and Dorian never return from the corrupted future and get scooped up by Hawke and his DA2 crew (Bethany, Fenris, Merrell, Anders, Elegant).

favorite thing I wrote:

Ohhh so this is probably my WIP Kiss Me Moonstruck, my matchmakingmoms!AU in which old friends Leandra Hawke and Alsatia Trevelyan try to fix up their two incorrigible children Garrett and Rose over Satinalia at the start of DA:2, Act 2. One of the reasons I am so into it is because it's new and I get to fold in alllll the lessons learned so far this year, but also because it's a self-contained romantic comedy/adventure romp with a lot of class commentary. If I'd thought of it first it would have served as a heck of a backstory for an Inquisition long fic. 👀

favorite thing(s) I read:

Weather the Dawn by @skyeventide - Breathtakingly beautiful portrayal of the friendship between Sebastian Vael and Nathaniel Howe. Archery descriptions that will give you chills. Deftly handled politics. Sky has such an incredible way of describing things that is just achingly original and beautiful. 🏹

The Rise by @warpedlegacywrites - This Cullevelyan fic is the reason I started writing fan fic! It was the first long fic I read that really grabbed me by the throat and held me! The delicious crunch and angst, the ROMANCE. It is so beautifully written. And BECandCall/WarpedLegacy and this fic is the reason I even found the fan fic writing community. 🥰

A Little Grace; And Some Elegance by @nirikeehan is a GUT PUNCHING work exploring Cullen's addiction and his history with Raleigh Samson. Her character work is amazing and her respectful but *brutal* grappling with lyrium addiction feels so authentic. And honestly, any of Niri's Cullen and Samson in Kirkwall stuff! Check out the stuff in her Kirkwall Kops (LOL). I use them as background research!

writing goals for 2024:

KEEP GROWING AS A WRITER. Keep plugging at long fic (maybe finish!?), finish and release Kiss Me Moonstruck, do the DAFF OC / OC exchange

new works:

LOLOL the last new work that isn't a companion fic to the longfic or the longfic itself is my Kinktober spanking (yes, really) one shot Proper Provocation. I spent a long time trying to figure out how to reasonably get Cullen to spank my OC Rose and I think getting them bickering and turning it into a playful spank fight was the way to go. THIS IS NOT HIGHLY POLISHED but it is silly and fun and smuttish and I yeeted it onto AO3. Please enjoy my new work 😂

Template under the cut!

words posted:

additional words written:

grand total of words:

fandoms:

highest kudos:

highest hit oneshot:

new things I tried:

fic I spent the most time on:

fic I spent the least time on:

favorite thing I wrote:

favorite thing(s) I read:

writing goals for 2024:

new works:

[gatoraid]

Year in Fandom 2023

Seeing people posting their recaps made me look back a little on my own year too. 

2023 marked the year I came back to tumblr with full force after leaving my account mostly unused for abt five years. Twitter was my fandom home for a long time (and for jp language stuff it still is to some extent), but it has become such an awful place I really wanted to have an alternative.

This year I also resumed a lot of fandom activities like writing and reading fanfic, from which I had unintentionally taken an almost three year break from. Finding the joy in writing and sharing it with others after a long time has been really nice, especially since a big part of this year has otherwise felt like a struggle. There were a lot of times when I needed escape or comfort and found that in fiction, fandom or writing.

I also made a conscious effort to lurk less and let artists and creators know how much joy they have brought me. Messaging the translators and authors of my fave stories, reaching out to artists via asks or making the conscious effort to comment on fanfics a lot more than I used to have all made me happier in the process too, so I really want to keep doing that in the new year too.

My biggest fandom obsession in 2023 was definitely The Radiant Emperor book series by Shelley Parker-Chan. Out of the five fics I published this year, three were for this fandom so I think that alone says a lot. I read She Who Became the Sun in March, and when He Who Drowned the World came out in August, I was ready to be blown away and haven’t recovered since. It’s still hard to articulate all the reasons why these books spoke to me so deeply, but I’ll just accept that this is my life now. 

I think I’ve been almost equally blown away by how much fun I’ve had in the Radiant Emperor fandom. It’s been so inspiring to see all the beautiful fanworks and reactions to them from the small but dedicated crowd, and to be able to discuss and build upon each others’ meta and headcanons. Whether we’re mutuals or have exchanged thoughts via comments, tags or dm’s, I really look forward to obsessing over these books and characters together in 2024 too!

Shoutout to the other fandom-related things that also kept me sane in 2023: Loumand Paris romance, all the fics I read about Lee Yut-Lung, and playing and analyzing Love Shore.

[measureyourlifeincake]

Malevolent E9 (not specifically about that ep but yknow. i havent listened past it so if anything i say is contradicted by anything in later eps, that's why): Been thinking about how Malevolent's story is so defined by the constraints of its creation and the problem-solving used to get around that (I mean, I suppose the same can be said to some degree for nearly any piece of art, but it really jumps out for me here).

The first and most obvious example is Arthur's blindness, with John "acting as his eyes" by describing their surroundings for him (and the audience)—it's (to me at least) clearly contrived as a way to get around the "This Gun In My Right Hand Is Loaded" problem, but it also is kind of the main conceit of the plot, and immediately defines John and Arthur's relationship—Arthur has to rely upon John from the jump, even though he has no real proof of his intentions or trustworthiness. "I have your eyes," John says, a threat as much as it is a fact. All John has to do to harm Arthur is stop talking and watch him blunder around without his help (which he does do eventually, but the threat hanging over his head is, at least initially, enough to convince Arthur to cooperate with him). It's an interesting tool for the audience to understand what is going on at any given point of the story, but also, it has real actual consequences in the story that reverberate through the narrative.

(putting the rest under the cut bc this got Long)

There's also the fact that John and Arthur are constantly recapping what has happened and laying out what all their options and potential consequences of said options are going forward. To me, this (as well as the above) feels like the author's main goal is to make sure the audience is clear on Exactly what is going on At All Times. The episodes only come out once a month, after all, and it could be hard to remember what happened in the last episode if you haven't revisited it since then (also I am just now realizing that this is sort of paralleled with Arthur's month-long coma). There's also the thing about how apparently Patreon supporters can influence where the story goes, and I'm not entirely sure how that works, but it gives Guthrie another incentive to make sure the audience has all the possible options laid out for them.

But, while I do think this is done mainly for the audience's benefit, it does also tell us a lot about Arthur and John's characters/relationship. It says that, despite any differences of opinion or questions of trust they may have—they do view whatever they have together (which I have been told... changes over time, but for right now I'm just talking about their relationship up until where I've listened) as an actual partnership—they want to make sure they are on the same page, or at least understand what the other is thinking. They may disagree on the correct course of action, but Arthur pretty much always tells John what he's doing instead of trying to get one over on him. Also, since they do try to reason out everything they do, and Arthur keeps charging into risky situations ass-first anyway, it tells us that Arthur sees himself as a very intelligent and rational man, when really he just seems to be very good at justifying whatever stupid decisions he might make in the pursuit of Knowledge.

And then there's uh. Women. (I sorta mentioned this in a different post but I can't stop turning it around in my brain)

So it seems that Harlan Guthrie a) has decided to not hire any voice actors and just voice every character himself, and b) doesn't seem to believe himself capable of convincingly voicing a female character (or just doesn't want to. idk).

This doesn't mean that there aren't any women or girls in Malevolent—on the contrary, the podcast is full of them. They are all either old crones or daughters—crazy old women and wraiths and babies and missing girls and missing girls and dead missing girls. They cry, they wheeze, they laugh, they write letters to close friends (but of course, their friends are not there to read the letters), but they can never speak for themselves, in their own voices. They must be dead, or wordless, or both.

They haunt the narrative, and haunt the narrative, and haunt the narrative. They are metaphysically incapable of doing anything else. They can save Arthur's life, help guide his way, but they can never have a simple conversation with him. Obviously Arthur had to be in a coma for just long enough that Amanda/Sarah died before he could talk to her. It couldn't ever have gone any other way—the world doesn't work like that.

And then there's Arthur's daughter. She's dead. It hasn't been explicitly stated yet at the point I'm at (she's mentioned for the first time at the end of E9), but it's pretty obvious. Not only did he mention her name first when he was literally dying, but just. Of course she is. There's no chance she isn't, that maybe Arthur thinks she's dead but really something else has happened to her—all daughters are dead. That's just how it works. (except for that one baby, I suppose. The baby is interesting—I notice they explicitly refer to her as female when I don't think they had a way to know that*. She just Is a girl, she has to be. She needs protecting, therefore she is a Daughter, plain and simple).

And learning that Arthur has (had) a daughter has caused me to look at the rest of the girls in this podcast differently (and is honestly a big reason why I wanted to write this post in the first place.) Those missing-turned-dead girls, the baby, all those young girls haunting the narrative—they're all his daughter, naturally. (not literally but y'know, meta-narratively or whatever) They're not just haunting the narrative, but haunting him specifically.

Anyway, girls haunting horror stories and fridged women and whatever other tropes that keep women from fully participating in stories are nothing new, obviously (and I imagine that Guthrie is very intentional when he invokes those tropes—this whole thing is a big ol' nod to Lovecraft, there's no way this guy is doing horror tropes by accident), but the fact that it seems to be like that mostly because Guthrie just Didn't Want to Hire An Actor makes it way more interesting to me.

I'm sure most (if not all) of this has been discussed in the fandom already, but I haven't read any meta or anything yet and I just wanted to get my thoughts down. Honestly, part of why I made this post is that I feel like I can clearly see what Guthrie was going for in how he built this story (/is building this story) and how it works within the world of the characters, but I'm still trying to puzzle out how I personally feel about the choices he made. (ex: do I appreciate how clear he makes things for the listener or do i feel like my hand is being held to much and i'm not being trusted to understand what's going on? if the latter, is it integrated into the story well enough for me to forgive it?) Writing this has... not actually helped much. I'll let you know if I figure it out.

*Okay I went back to the transcript, and it seems they start using she/her pronouns for the baby as soon as the old woman gives her to them. I assumed that the baby was wearing clothes or swaddled in a blanket the whole time, but I don't think this is ever explicitly stated, so it's possible it could've been clear once John was able to get a close enough look at her. Still, this is very much glossed over. Which, granted, it would be weird if they took a moment in the text to like, look at the baby's genitals, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[megafreak400]

Watching all of One Piece - The East Blue Saga

Well i've been trapped. You watch one introduction story about a cute reindeer doctor and suddenly you're locked in anime jail, unable to leave until you've traversed the entire grand line. I'm committed at this point though, so join me on my journey as I watch all of One Piece for the first time. Some background to start with. As alluded to the entire reason why I started this was I watched the Drum Island Arc on a whim before deciding to say fuck it and just watch the entire show. I haven't watched an anime series in like at least 5 years so why not start with this behemoth (this was decided before I watched Zombie Land Saga, but I blame a friend for that one.) Also note that i'm watching the Funimation dub of the original anime (not the live action also.) The plan is to write a blog post for every story saga. Is this the smartest way to break thing up? Eh maybe not but I'm going with it if it comes back to bite me oh well. So yes while I did watch Drum Island first, I won't give my thoughts on it until I finish the next saga. My plan is to break this down in four sections, though this may change in future blogs. The sections will be: 1. A talk about music I liked and OPs I liked 2. My general thoughts on the arcs (I will not recap what happens this blog assumes you know) 3. My thoughts on Major Characters or Characters I really really like. This saga will be a heavily focused on our main cast, but i'll make mention of guys that stood out or guys I hated as well for the supporting cast/villians during the arcs section 4. Overall thoughts on the saga.

Music

A great first opening for this show, catchy as heck and I think it fits the feel of the show perfectly. I do think maybe a rap may have been a better fit but this is still really good.

Sadly the second OP is just ok. It's not bad but I think the english version isn't nearly as good as what i've heard of the Japanese version, and even that just doesn't hit as well as We Are. I also think the weird 4 image thing the op does is kind of lame compared to unique animation and as far as I can tell that's how it was in japanese as well. As far as ED's go, none of them really stood out to me except one.

This song is just so catchy, even more so in the English version which just has more energy to it. I mostly like the starting section with the kid versions of the main cast running, it's so good and i love kid zoro just running super extra hard it's adorable. For background music, all of it is very good but by far the best background song is this one:

Specifically the first part. When these trumpets start blaring you know that someone is doing something cool or about ready to make a bad ass stand. It's also very catchy and powerful. On a similar note I also really enjoy Rubber Bazooka. You know Luffy (or sometimes buggy for no reason...Like seriously why did they use this theme for him in that one episode) is kicking some major ass and it's always a fun time.

And my last pick for my top 3 favorite songs is Mother Sea, a remix of We are that usually plays when the saddest backstory ever is happening. Always fits the scenes perfectly, doubly so since a lot of these scene have like a white fuzzy boarder of sorts to denote a flash back that for some reason when mixed with this song just gives a very sad nostalgic vibe that I appreciate.

One last honorable mention goes to the snippets of character themes that play midway during an episode when it goes to commercial. I know that there is a full song to these and these are just parts of that full orchestration but the parts they pick really fit the characters perfectly and it's always a delight to hear the song and be like "oh zoro's poster is gonna flutter on up." All of the music in this show is delightful and I can't wait to hear more.

Arcs

Ok It's time for the Meat and potatoes section. This is mostly what stuck out to me, so if I missed something you found cool i'm sorry. Romance Dawn Arc

A good start to the story, introducing us to the insanity that is Luffy. This is mostly just an introductory arc so I don't have a ton of specific reactions here that wouldn't be mentioned in Luffy and Zoro's overall character thoughts. For other characters Koby is a weenie but I do end up liking him and I love how Luffy inspires him. It is really wild that he ends up friends with a pirate despite wanting to join the marines (though honestly kid, 90 percent of the marines I've seen in this show suck, maybe don't.....or go find captain smoker), but I guess Luffy is just built different. Villains wise, most are kind of forgettable. Alivda is a whatever character here and Helmeppo is silly but kind of obnoxious. Morgan is horrible and starts the trend of the main villian of the arc being the biggest piece of shit, and usually even a bigger piece of shit compared to the guy from the last arc. One piece is in an arm race to find the worst characters for Luffy to beat up and I'm kind of all here for this. I guess the other thing to note is Shanks, who is shown in a flash back (though in the manga I know it's just the first chapter. I really like Shanks and I know we'll see more of him in the future. Just know I think he's really cool and I hope he doesn't end up being an asshole. But beyond that there isn't much else to say about this arc. I like the Nami shows up here doing her own thing but beyond that it's just a solid introduction arc without anything too crazy that stands out.

Orange Town Arc

Chouchou is best boy! The fake out of you thinking he got slaughters when actually he struck a blow was great I really hope we see him again in the future, though I doubt it since he's such a small character. Also the Mayor was really fun, respect to him marching off to fight Buggy. Stupid of him, but he had guts. Beyond that uh yea sorry I don't really care for Buggy. This arc is great because we get more Zoro and Luffy character building but Buggy and his crew are a bit of a snooze fest. Maybe it's the dub actor who sounds like he's going for Joker if he wasn't funny and also was barely evil but I guess most of the villains in this show are giant asshats who you want to see beat up. Buggy is just kind of an annoyance so far. He's a lot more annoying in later episodes, here he was fine but IDK the anime seems to love this man and he hasn't done anything to make me enjoy watching him. Chop Chop powers are fun, but he doesn't really do anything creative with them here. His lackeys also overstay their welcome. The fact that I remember Chouchou more than the guy he was fighting should be evidence of that. And acrobat guy shouting random attack names was funny but again just got old after a while. The more important part of this arc is Nami finally meeting Luffy an Zoro. I want it noted that it takes a while for me to like Nami, here she slightly got on my nerves mostly because she was being a bit silly about thinking she could trick Buggy, at least at the time. Also shout outs to Zoro just sleeping after a bad stab womb. Won't be the last time either, I love this dumb swordsman.

Syrup Village Arc

Ok this is the first Arc I really gelled with. Not that I wasn't enjoying the show before this, I was because I really like Zoro and Luffy. But this was the first arc where I thought the overall story and pacing kept me enthralled. Ussop really shines in this arc and while it's kind of his fault no one believes him he steps up and the battle that follows is incredible. Kaya is a sweetheart, though some of her actions in this arc are a little short sighted. Her going to Kuro just seemed like the wrong move, but i respect her guts. She is also part of the reason Ussop works in this arc because his tall tales are for her benefit and it's shown she really enjoys Ussop's company. Next up....how did Merry survive? I know this won't be the last time i ask this but seriously this dude should have died. I legit thought he was going to become their boat through some strange reincarnation, and I wasn't entirely wrong? Obligatory Zoro is so dumb and I love him for it. Nami pushing him down into the oil, ok sure dick move but the guy took like a half hour to realize he could just use his sword to climb up. I also find it absolutely hilarious that if he doesn't have a sword in his mouth he's like at half strength. The Black cat pirates are by far the best villains so far. Kuro is an absolute dick and even before the reveal I hated this man. This man was a wanted pirate who decided to hatch this insane scheme to take over this rich families fortune by 2 years of pretending to be their faithful butler and faking his death to get the marines off his tail. Just an absolutely over the top insane plan but it doesn't matter because he sells it just due to how cold and cunning he is. Unfortunately he stupidly decided to reveal his plan to merry for no reason before failing to kill him, so maybe dumber than you think (like most cats.) His crew is also a lot of fun, the back and forth of them wanting to cheer him with his old name and him getting mad at them is great, and them just switching to cheering for Luffy when he reveals he was going to kill them all is hilarious. Jango is also a lot of fun, his hypnotism add a lot of twists to this arc that I enjoyed. I've learned quickly that for a lot of these arcs they need something to prevent Luffy and Zoro from just winning right out the gate, so having Luffy be hypnotized here was not only hilarious it also gave Ussop a time to shine. Oh yea and shout outs to the ussop pirate gang, those kids were pretty cool in the end and respect to them for staying to fight against Jango. Overall best arc so far, it was a joy from start to end. Baratie Arc

This might be my favorite arc of this saga. I fucking love this insane restaurant everyone who works here is nuts and It's the best. There are so many good characters in this arc. Patty and Carne stand out from the chefs, but even the nameless background chefs are great. Zoro's bounty hunter friends are introduced here and I loves these weirdos and the fact that they stick around for so long. Zeff is the best dad, his backstory with Sanji is the saddest backstory ever and I really love his goodbye with Sanji. Also The idea of a kicking pirate is great and I love that he taught Sanji everything he knows. Also his interactions with Luffy are hilarious. Full not metal not alchemist is a giant weenie and a great way to introduce how nuts the fighting Chefs of the Baratie are. I assume we'll see him more in the future but glad he got what was coming to him. Gin is a great character and I love that we get a complex villain here. One piece needs a giant asshole for the crew to defeat but having a character who is technically on the other side but has good morals helps give a bit more complexity beyond just bad guy is bad. Mihawk comes way the fuck out of now where and I assume he'll be way more important later but he's a good way to show how insane what they'll find in the Grand Line will be. It's interesting because a lot of this arc feels like setting up for later arcs, with the stuff with Nami leaving leading directly to the next one or Zoro's fight here most likely leading to big things later down the line but it never feels like it's out of place. Don Krieg is a giant weenie and seeing him and his stupid armor taken down was very satisfying. This man also sucks because he's supposed to be one of the strongest pirates ever and he went to the grand line and instantly got his ass handed to him. He also has a punch able face. The setting to this arc is also very fun. The idea of a floating restaurant is just such a cool concept. It also makes for an interesting battle ground since neither party wants to destroy the terrain. Also Sanji. This is the last time Sanji gets to be not cringe for an entire arc (so far at least) I like sanji here a lot he's fantastic. I feel like fighting wise he doesn't really get to do much here (he honestly feels more normal here and less super strong compared to later fights) but his morals when it came to feeding people and his defending of his family and home and how he finally agrees to join Luffy's crew are all handled fantastically. Sadly though he has one glaringly bad character flaw, but i'll get to that later. Overall I just love the pacing of this arc. It flows perfectly. From them meeting the bounty hunters (which is hilarious by the way, don't pour lemon juice down a man's throat to cure scurvy at home kids) to them deciding they need a chef as the reason to go the restaurant in the first place. The from there the marine jerk causing Luffy to become a chore boy, and them being there leading to Gin escaping and bring back Krieg, it just feels all natural. And as mentioned with Nami leaving it also feels like it just flows well into the next arc. 10/10 best arc. Arlong Park Arc

Fuck

Ok......Let's try this again. FUUUUUUUUUUUUCKKKK This arc is apparently the arc to watch if you want to know if you'll like one piece and I get why. Also the arc that made me go "what the fuck how did 4 Kids dub this" before realizing the answer was "badly." There is some brutal stuff in this arc, and if you thought Kuro was an asshole, clearly you haven't met Arlong. Ok some minor things. Momoo is adorable and I love them. I feel so bad for them and I want to give them a hug. Granted the running joke of Luffy and Sanji not knowing what the heck animals are is really funny but leave my poor cow baby alone. Ok other small things uh............fuck everything in this arc isn't really small. Ok uh....Ussop he gets to be heroic for once, that was cool. Oh and the pinwheel guy and Nami's sister are fantastic I love them and them trying to save Luffy is hilarious and also Luffy is an idiot. alright uh where to start. Arlong is a fucking asshole. Fuck this guy the biggest piece of shit until the next piece of shit. IDK what the worst part about this guy is. The racism, what he did to nami's mom, what he did to the village, what he did to nami both in making her join his crew and giving her false hope before snatching it away. Take your pick, they're all good choices. Arlong is our first introduction to the fish man species and I really hope there are some good fish men later on (there are I know this) because pretty much everyone here (except one) are just awful. Arlong's defeat by Luffy is extremely cathartic. The entire scene in the map room and luffy's reaction...it's perfect. uh other fish man....honestly most of the other guys are whatever except Hatchan. Dude is hilarious and also very dumb. While I said Gin was great for being a good guy on the bad team, Hatchan is good for being a dumb guy on the bad team. From his first meeting to zoro to his entire fight with zoro seeing dumb vs dumb is a sight to behold. Ok i'll get to this more during nami's character section but Nami is a character who slowly gets better arc from arc with slow character building and moving her to this moment. This is her arc, and it's also when I was fully on liking her as a character. That scene, that fucking scene man. You know the one. It's just so good everything about her in this arc is done masterfully. How she fakes killing Ussop, the Tattoo she ends up getting after everything, her friendship with Luffy here. Nami is this arc and while I did enjoy the Baratie more, this arc hits on an emotional level with the saddest backstory ever told. Also obligatory Zoro is dumb. Did I mention I love him? Louge Town Arc

This arc is a fun time. It's a good breather arc, setting up the the transition to the grand line, introducing some new characters and reintroducing some old characters. I was not expecting to see alvida again, and though she basically acts like a different character, it's cool to see her return i guess. Buggy is here....yay? IDK maybe Buggy becomes amazing later on but he's more just used here to establish characters coming back and act as a way to make Luffy seem cool. The side stories in this arc are what i mostly enjoy though. Everything with Zoro in the sword shop was a fun time, and I can't wait to see more of this not the dead girl zoro knew in the future. Ussop's story with Daddy the Father (yes that's his name) is also fun. Any time Ussop isn't being annoying i'll always applaud. Some insane stuff happens near the end of this arc, like this weird man and the weird lighting but I'm assuming we'll learn more about that much later. And lastly, Smoker. We love Smoker. The first marine I like and IDK what his role in the story will be but i can't wait to see more of this man. Warship Island Arc

An anime only arc that....exists. This arc is fine, but honestly thinking back I really don't have much to say about this one. Eric is a stupid weenie and the entire arc is them going to the wrong place and having to back track. I do like Apis, she's a fun character, but the overall pace of the story just is kind of whatever. I do like that they work this arc into manga events like getting trapped in the calm belt or entering reverse mountain, and the main cast continues to be pretty fun in their interactions with each other but I kind of just want to get to the grand line already!

Episodes not in Arcs

Ok there are really only two things to mention here. 1. Gaimon is the best and I love his island with the weird animals. I assume he's not important but his episode is fun and the idea of this weird box man is hilarious. 2. Buggy's episodes suck. like the only episodes of the show i really didn't like. I don't like buggy as it is but he absolutely can't function as the protagonist. Small buggy dicking around is painful to watch but then they have a second episode with his crew and I just don't care. The lion is funny but other then that these episodes just felt like a waste of time.

Characters

OK I'm only going to cover the main guys here, in later sagas I main include more, we'll have to see. Monkey D Luffy

Luffy is an idiot. He's like so dumb but I kind of love him for it. Probably my second or third favorite character at this point, this man is Goku brained. That's not a bad thing mind you, but if you've watched original dragon ball, all the traits are here. A love for food (and a huge appetite,) loves to fight, gets insanely pissed if you hurt his friends, stupid strong, very very dumb and a has a good heart. Luffy is a simple character but honestly that's fine. Everyone else can get sad backstories and deep lore Luffy is fine just being this rubber wrecking ball. The fact that he actively doesn't want to know the backstories of his crew is both hilarious but also touching in a way, since it doesn't matter to him where they came from. He decided they were on his crew and his friends and that's just the way it is. East blue Luffy overall is a fun time and while him being nerfed at times due to stupidity is a bit, well stupid, it also makes it so he doesn't overstay his welcome. Him being dumb could be annoying but it's mostly paced well enough that it ends up just being funny and not overbearing.

Roronoa Zoro

I love Zoro. Man is stupid strong, stupid stupid and a good guy. Granted he's smarter than Luffy and I love it when he notices stuff and gets to show off a bit of his tactical no how. But the man also is very dumb in a lot of other ways and I love him for it. The fact that the only reason he's known as a pirate hunter is because he just beat up pirates trying to find his way back home because he got lost and he doesn't even realize he's known as this big bad bounty hunter is pretty incredible. It does suck that he gets wounded so much in east blue but if he didn't he would probably win all the fights with no struggle. And because of that we get to see how determined he is to be the best swords man. His fight with Mihawk after learning his back story is such a great moment and i really hope he becomes just that, the greatest swordsman. Nami

I like Nami a lot and I only keep liking her the more I watch. I do think it's a slow burn to liking her, she's not exactly the nicest character to the guys for the longest time, but a lot of that is her wearing a mask due to her past experiences. Once we get to Arlong park and realizing everything she's been through and how strong willed she is, it's understandable and from that point she also becomes a lot more approachable to the rest of the crew while still maintaining a bit of her trademark "you idiots" bite to her. I do wish she was a bit less money hungry at times but compared to other characters it's a minor flaw so far.

Ussop

Ussop is in a race for my least favorite main character in the East Blue and it sucks because I do like him. It's just while the lying in his arc was fine, when he starts to brag and lie during other arcs as a way to seem tougher or to take credit for others deeds, he just comes across as obnoxious. Because Usssop doesn't need to lie, he's pretty cool on his own. Him doing his marksman thing and generally being one of the smarter members of the crew is enough on it's own, you don't need to be freakishly strong dude. He took out a fishman on his own and it was legit hype but then he decides to lie to the town and tell them he did everything despite them clearly watching the whole fight against Arlong. I think Ussop will always be a character who is always really good or really annoying, but I hope he leans more to the good side the further on we get.

Sanji

Oh Sanji. Sanji, Sanji, Sanji. Sanji could be such a good character but he has one really annoying awful trait. He's horrible when it comes to women. Not only that but he's kind of an asshole to the rest of the crew during the every day travel, and only good when in battle. He was great during his arc mind you, but he always acts weird around Nami or any girl and just please dude. Men being weird about beautiful women is always a weird joke and while a lot of times it can kind of work, it just doesn't here. It's unfortunate because it kind of becomes Sanji's whole character or at the very least eclipses anything else good about him.

Final Thoughts

East blue overall is a fun saga to start our adventure. I think it establishes the world of One Piece well while leaving room for more insane characters and story elements the further in we get. It gives us our main cast (besides best boy Chopper) for a while and introduces all their back stories. A good mix of comedy and heartbreak i'm excited to watch more of this show and see how deep the rabbit hole goes.

[ladyhindsight]

Okay. So.

I started this book going chapter by chapter, but the flame was lost for a long time and I couldn’t pick it up anymore. As a result I just powered through and read it all the way to the end to be rid of it. Otherwise, as my shitty personality and brain dictate, it would’ve just nagged on me forever as an unfinished project.

I have so many thoughts about this book and none at the same time. It brings no joy, no laughter—it’s as atrocious as a book can be. Chain of Gold is such a disaster of a book, such a Mess, such unholy, godawful piece of writing that I have lost most of the words to even describe it.

I will now, consequently, complain discuss my grievances.

It’s hard to even begin from the beginning. The whole character ensemble is brought to you almost all at once, but the plot takes forever to properly start. No wonder, it is almost nonexistent. The story then progresses in extremely lazy waves, and whenever there is any momentum, it falls flat because the ball is only tomorrow so we have to wait to make room for relationship troubles or a thing is finally happening but let’s cut to this other, not so action-heavy scene right in the middle of it. Even at the end, it never really rises to a proper crescendo. The climactic battle is fought 100 or so pages before the book honestly even ends. After Belial’s momentarily defeat, the story structure really loses every little bit of coherency that remained up to that point. It’s a mess, and the book just refuses to finish itself before the set up for Chain of Iron.

The further the story progresses, the more evident it becomes how the writing alludes to all the companion stories that exist elsewhere. And at the same time they exist in this book as these huge secrets though all of it is already been revealed in previous writing—reason for Matthew’s agony, Tessa’s parentage, Alastair’s bullying days in the Academy, etc.

There are so many secrets that even the writing says there are so many secrets. That is fine. What is not fine is the flimsy reasoning for keeping things secret. Don’t tell anyone because otherwise they will die. Instead of writing compelling and complex reasons, everyone is hushed to silence by the fear of death of their loved ones because that is the greatest and unarguable reason. Many misunderstandings and a lot of the pain could be spared if the characters just talked to each other. Many of them could be solved if the characters were at all prone to actual intelligence instead of just praising each other and telling each other how clever they are.

The writing has a lot of exposition and info-dumping, a fact that repeats itself in every first installment of Clare’s trilogies. I’ve said and I will say it again, The Wicked Powers is going to be magnificent considering how much clumsy recapping of previous series like in this book has to be shoved into it. In addition to all that, the writing constantly explains itself—not only the concepts, but also characters themselves, their actions, personalities, any and every single thing. Clare throws around titles of classic works, of writers, of poets—uses poems as intros to the chapters but they add no substance to any of the writing. Again, just atrocious. A ton of words saying absolutely nothing. This book was a chore to read.

THOUGHTS ON SOME CHARACTERS:

CORDELIA. Cordelia was a nice main character. She is kind and brave and compassionate, which is nice. Cordelia is nice. It’s just that she is used, like any female lead in Clare’s writing, to narrate the other characters, especially the main male characters like James and Matthew. She’s also incredibly and unbelievably sheltered. Unbelievably. She recognized Matthew’s problem with alcohol, but does not connect that to her father being “ill”. She’s constantly surprised that Alastair is considerate of her when most things Alastair does is her in his mind. Alastair lost his childhood and his father because he (and Sona) tried for years to protect their family from society that does not understand addiction. And to give Cordelia a happy childhood and a father to love, all while Cordelia did not know any better. It just doesn’t fly by me when she is written so “perceptive” of everyone else around her. And by perceptive I mean leaps in her intuition to narrate other characters for the readers. At times she only becomes a cog in the machine that does its damnest to convince you how great the Herondales are. Just telling this and telling that to hammer it in. And if it wasn’t enough, Clare throws yet another voyeurism scene at the readers AGAIN, in the same vein as with Magnus and Alec or Mark and Kieran, this time Cordelia bearing witness to her brother and Charles.

JAMES. He has a lovely melancholy face. Crow-black hair. Amber eyes. Big golden eyes. Pale gold tea eyes. Pale gold eyes. Golden syrup eyes. Eyes color of fire and gold. Again pale gold. The burning gold of lion’s eyes. Dark gold eyes. Eyes the color of sunlight through pale yellow leaves. Eyes of the tigers in Rajasthan, golden and watchful. Tiger eyes that glitter in the dark. Tiger’s eyes that darkened into something richer and deeper, like gold of Cortana when it flashed in the air. Lacquered gold eyes. Eyes deeper gold than usual. Wild and hot and golden eyes. Deep gold eyes.

And for Alastair or Cordelia Clare could only conjure up black and dark.

Absolutely no feelings about James. He was there. He did things. Somehow he is more important progeny to Belial than Lucie. He explained Belial’s Master Plan in excruciating detail while being paraded as clever like it wasn’t obvious from the get-go. He’s amazing. He’s the leader. Leave it to Cordelia to narrate James and his awesome qualities.

“It’s about me. It’s always been about me.”

Says James before he hops off to see Grandpa. Pretty much sums up every Herondale character ever.

LUCIE. Lucie is fun. Somewhat naïve but fun. The writing also wants you to think that there ever was some kind of tension between her and Matthew once Cordelia detects it has lifted. But alas, there was none. Ever.

GRACE.  This girl, so boring. I get it, she is only looking out for herself with some wicked-ass ways to go about it and at the cost of other peoples’ relationships, but still. Her mother has left her completely defenseless against harm and danger, there is absolutely no one (alive) in her corner, so girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do to get that sense of safety.

I just really, really despise that bracelet and wish the story was already done with it. Cordelia notices it multiple times as a wink, wink, nudge, nudge to the readers but is totally incapable of drawing the line between it and James’ behavior.

ANNA. She is glamorous. She smiles like the sphinx. She can seduce multiple people in one evening. She is elegant, composed. Her bedchamber is infamous. She had the Herondale blue eyes. Her hair was the same black as James’s. Herondale black, the color of the wings of a crow. Her blue eyes were the exact color of Will’s (despite that Cecily is her mother and has the same eye color as her brother, violet-blue or not quite blue, not quite violet). She and James share the same crow-black hair, like Will’s and Cecily’s, and the same chiseled, angular faces. Her blue eyes sparkle. Her blue eyes narrow. Her blue eyes darken. She rolls her blue eyes. She has a considering look in her blue eyes.

Did you know Anna has dark hair and blue eyes? Of the Herondales?

She also doesn’t seem to remember her cousin Eugenia.

“Anna flipped through the book. There were many pages, and many names written in a bold, sprawling hand.

“Hmm, let me see. Katherine, Alicia, Virginia—a very promising writer, you should look out for her work, James —Mariane, Virna, Eugenia—”

“Not my sister Eugenia?” Thomas nearly upended his cake.

���Oh, probably not,” Anna said.”

What. The. Heck. Man.

TATIANA. She has just become a laughable villain. Though the writing offers her some empathy for her grief, the epilogue makes her even more cartoonish than the Enclave meeting after the mansion in Idris burnt down. Also, as the laws of wanking for Herondales dictate:

Herondales, Tatiana thought as she made her way to the Italian gardens. Tainted blood ran in their veins. In her opinion, their name dominated the history books more than it should. There should be far more instances of the name “Lightwood” and less of the name “Herondale.”

C’mon. Seriously. You thought you were sly, didn’t you?

ALASTAIR. The only emotionally charged scenes were between Alastair and Cordelia. I enjoyed Alastair and Cordelia’s scenes together, though I don’t think Clare understands a thing about siblings. Similarly how Isabelle never stands up for Alec, Cordelia never stands up for Alastair.

Grace has no one in her corner, Alastair only has Cordelia. And I so hate that Matthew, James, and Thomas are protecting her affection by not telling Cordelia what Alastair has done and said. There were beautiful moments between Cordelia and her brother that actually showed the depth and strength of their siblinghood, so imagining that Cordelia would completely turn against her brother if she knew is bewildering to me. Especially since, like Thomas knows little, Cordelia knows Alastair’s true nature, and it is not all angry and bitter. So this scene:

“There are some people who do not deserve one.” Matthew’s voice was fierce. “If I ever catch you considering befriending Alastair, James—”

“Then what?” James said, arching an eyebrow.

“Then I will have to tell you what Alastair said to me the day we left the Academy,” said Matthew. “And I would rather not. Cordelia should never know it, if nothing else. She loves him and she should be allowed that.”

Cordelia. There was something about the way Matthew said her name. James turned to him, puzzled. He wanted to say that if Alastair had truly said something so awful it would threaten Cordelia’s affection for him, Matthew should not suffer it in silence, but there was no chance. Christopher had burst out the front door, pulling on gloves.”

Really gives me no hope that Cordelia would remain loving her brother and knowing the truth despite everything because this is Clare. There is no gray, no in-between when someone in the Clique is slighted—you choose your side. Alastair is already singled out, just so a groups of rich boys can be the victims (though I recognize Matthew, for instance, has a big personal demon to tackle too). But it’s the singling out that always provokes my ire. Alastair who is already been subjected to racism, discrimination, and bullying. But guys, James has incredibly beautiful demon eyes and was bullied for them. And someone talked shit about Matthew and his family.

Once again, herein lies the problem I have with this setting with these kind of characters. As always, there are the characters that are central to the story, and they can do no wrong in ways that are actually wrong and recognized as that. James gets expelled from the Academy because of false accusations and, by extension, discrimination against the demon blood in him. It was really Alastair’s fault. All of it really is. None of them can do (though don’t I think Thomas or Christopher would because they are pretty much sweethearts) reprehensible things that would make them actually flawed (like characters like Alastair and Jessamine). Actually making mistakes and doing bad things, having misjudgments and misbehavior, and above all, overcoming all that and growing and trying to do better and be better.

MATTHEW. Matthew has green eyes. They also sparkle and glitter and shine a lot. Or something.

I don’t think there were many scenes where Matthew wasn’t drinking. Obviously his alcoholism is the central battle he faces in his journey through the book. But only handful of the scenes ever really had characters addressing it—or really at all. Lucie was the only one to speak frankly, but she brought it up from the perspective of James’ safety.

When Elias Carstairs was reveal to have been drunk (at least at this time, I don’t know if Chain of Iron somehow again will change the story as I know it) and that had cost many lives because of an error he made while drunk, it did mirror how Matthew hadn’t done the same yet but could very well be walking towards the same future where his drunkenness could cost other people their safety or lives in battle.

It is such a serious matter, but it was treated as an open secret the whole book, rather on the nose too which made it irritating seeing all the characters gloss over it most of the time. Teenagers can’t help teenagers, it’s understandable, but Will, for one, seemed acutely aware of Matthew before they got interrupted in that one scene. No one brings up their worries to the adults either—well, they tell the adults absolutely nothing and then try to trap a major demon in a Pyxis.

The problem of having all previous characters from TID be present in the story is also making them seem rather absent parents at times, unaware how their children fare in the world.

RANDOM THOUGHTS IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

i. Tessa is luminous. Tessa is wonderful. Can someone go take the keyboard away from Clare.

ii. “Your mother had brutal teachers. They held her against her will and forced her to Change. It must have been terrifying, and painful. James was silent. You know that your mother has not used her power since the end of the Clockwork War. Since then the act of shape-shifting has been… difficult for her. Painful. She has chosen not to do it.” Must have been? Wouldn’t Jem know that it was? The point: Tessa has suffered paaaaain, you see.

iii. “James had gone to Shadowhunter Academy for only a few months; he’d met Thomas, Matthew, and Christopher there, and they’d promptly blown up a wing of the school.” This is so strange to me that they only met when they were a lot older even though they are relatives and children of people that are incredibly close? Because when James is thinking about Barbara: “He had not been extremely close with his cousin—the difference in age between them meant she regarded him indulgently as a child, as she did Thomas— but she had been there all his life, kind and cheerful, without her sister’s sharp tongue, always expecting the ready best of everyone. He had never lived in a world without Barbara in it.” Which would suggest otherwise???

iv. Can the plot not always feature the Big Dumb Clave with their heads up in their own assess? Also, it is important for the book to remind that even though the Clave is being Big Dumb, Tessa and Will are doing all they can to make things better at least!

v. “The four of you are tightly knit,” said Cordelia. “Anyone could see that. And none of you is so simple. Thomas is more than just kind, and Christopher more than beakers and test tubes, Matthew more than wit and waistcoats. Each of you follows his own star—but you are the thread that binds all four together. You are the one who sees what everyone needs, if anyone requires extra care from their friends, or even to be left alone. Some groups of friends drift apart, but you would never let that happen.” Are you trying to tell me how to read these characters? No, they really are that simple.

vi. Charles, I don’t even know. Seems to really want to be a Consul, I guess.

vii. Note to self: Lucie cannot be trusted to keep watch.

viii. Merry Thieves is a dumb name.

ix. With James, Cordelia, and Matthew, it’s the same love triangle all over again.

x. Same immortal characters circle the series. This time also featuring Lily. Once they were all in England. Nowadays in America.

xi. I’m honestly not rooting for any romance. Just rooting for Cordelia and Alastair getting their shit together as siblings and family.

xii. Belial outright refuses to be an interesting villain.

xiii. Elias’ trial was wayyy easily solved. Pretty fucked up for their justice system that continues being fucked up anyway.

xiv. The Clave never evolves because the Clave needs to be the scapegoat for every minute thing that could go wrong and hinder the protagonists’ love lives/zero-to-hero journey.

xv. Only quote I really liked: “Sona smiled at her—a weary, worried smile, the smile of so many Shadowhunter parents down through the ages who had watched their children march into the night, carrying blades blessed by angels, knowing they might never return.” Highlights the Shadowhunter aspect of being a parent in their odd, odd world.

xvi. A lot of the characters in the different series are really interchangeable. Slap Jace somewhere here and I probably wouldn’t question him talking. These kids are once again another renditions of their parents.

xvii. Belial says he wanted James to be a bit older as his vessel, so why the hell he started implementing his plan before James got to grow up and mature more?? The whole plan was only to make them soft against the demons he sent. Surely even more time could do that.

xviii. This book was flat as hell. My brain is fried. This was a mess.

[ribbonverse]

Chapter 1

Notes on chapter 1, as well as some ranting about Bleach.

I thought it would be pretty natural to start with Ichigo, though I'm not sure I actually wrote any of the stuff in this chapter first.

In hindsight, I feel like it might be a bit long-winded or info-dumpy, but I really can't be asked to change it now. I've always disliked the "recap" chapters at the beginning of books that are part of a series, but here I am writing one myself.

It's basically a bunch of thoughts of Ichigo's I wrote down and later expanded upon. I thought it was pretty interesting to see the events in Soul Society from Ichigo's perspective. It's not really something a reader/viewer gets a chance to do during the actual process of reading/watching Bleach, and there's especially no time for any of that in canon, which just launches into throwing more bad guys at him instantly without giving him or the viewer time to think.

In a very real way, Ichigo failed to save Rukia in the end. He did help with stopping the official execution, but when Aizen had extracted the One Ring from Rukia after Urahara used her as a magical Tupperware container and Gin was going to finish her off, it was Byakuya who saved Rukia in the end. A very impactful moment for the audience, but where was Ichigo while all this was going down? That's right, helplessly lying on the ground after Aizen almost cut him in half. feelsbadman.jpg

After all that, he wouldn't be feeling all that powerful, I think.

Looking at the whole Soul Society arc in hindsight, it was basically a suicide mission as far as Ichigo is concerned. He never really had much of a chance to save Rukia by himself or with the help of the small group of people who accompanied him. It took a combination of people from Soul Society independently working towards saving Rukia to actually make it a realistic possibility, and none of that was collectively planned or known about by Ichigo beforehand. He just had to go with it.

So in the end, Ichigo almost got killed multiple times, went through training hell, and corrupted his soul in order to save Rukia, and he didn't make as much of a difference as he'd probably hoped. Even in his fight with Byakuya, had Ichigo only relied on his own (and Zangetsu's) power, he would've died.

Not a great place to leave off for Ichigo. Even though Rukia still lives, he still lost her in a way. And for Plot Reasons, he's basically not a Shinigami anymore, giving him time to think. Probably too much time.

I basically began by writing down things Ichigo would be thinking after not seeing Rukia for a long time. They spent two months together, but neither of them were in a particularly good place for most of that time, and it's hard taking an interest when you're stressed and overworked. Not to mention the awkward living arrangements.

I thought the part about the Hollow was genius, but as per usual, right after writing it I realized I just stole the idea from Order of the Phoenix.

I did want Ichigo's Hollow problem to be solved though, or at least out of the way, and I thought this was a nice method of doing it that also encapsulated a lot of Ichigo's character as I would have wanted him to develop post-Soul Society.

The Hollow could've been an interesting part of canon in Bleach, but instead it was completely wasted. Remember how Ichigo defeats it in canonically? Instead of the power of love, it's literally about finding his instinct to fight people and to murder the fuck out of them using his power. A power he originally acquired in order to save someone very dear to him.

Ichigo's family runs a clinic btw. How very in-character of him to do a complete 180 from a deeply humane person who only fights to protect the people he cares about into someone who actively seeks out battle.

Thanks, inner hallucination of Kenpachi. Now we have a budget version of you running around as the main character.

This actually encapsulates the dramatic shift in tone post-Soul Society. You can almost see the author wagging his finger at the characters. "No thinky-thinky, no lovey-lovey. Only fighty-fighty."

I think that was ultimately the downfall of Bleach. It became a series purely about fighting. In such a universe, love can't be allowed to exist, it must be stamped out so that fighting can happen.

It's a sad inversion of what the series was prior to the end of the Soul Society arc, in which Ichigo sacrificing so much to save Rukia communicated his feelings much more effectively than words ever could.

I never liked the canon continuity where fear basically became Ichigo's permanent emotional state and everyone's running around with Halloween masks on and pulling powers out of their asses, thinking they're hot shit. It had this air of "the author thinks this is cool, so instead of convincing you by developing the world and the characters and actually building towards impactful moments, you must accept without question that this is cool."

You know what I see in my mind whenever I look at one of those supposedly cool Hollow masks on a Bleach character? A fat otaku/Redditor guy with a fedora and a katana. That's what post-Soul Society Bleach feels like for me.

teleports behind you "Nothing personnel, kid"

It became kinda like bad fanfiction, except that it's the actual canon. A very sad state of affairs, and a waste of so many interesting and beloved characters.

I mean for God's sake, Ichigo went to the literal afterlife and basically fought deities one-on-one in order to save someone very dear to him. Even the ancient Greeks knew you only something like that when it's about love. Ichigo is basically Orpheus saving Eurydice, even the part about the girl staying in the afterlife after the mission was over is the same. The parallells are significant.

Even though the mission wasn't strictly speaking a success (since Ichigo and the others were just inconveniences in someone's suspiciously well-laid plans), you'd think that would give a guy some self-confidence or allow him to grow as a person. But we can't have that happen in canon, because fighting must continue immediately no matter the cost. Get in the arena, you have people to entertain!

A lot of things were left by the wayside in canon, such as the fact that in the very first chapter/episode, Ichigo is trying to help spirits move on, even though he doesn't have the power or know-how to do it successfully. There's something very sad about bringing flowers to a dead girl being the only thing he can really do, when what's actually needed is a Shinigami.

That and his family running a clinic speaks of a deep humanism within Ichigo that was never really in focus after the first story arc. From this perspective, how Rukia changed his life would've been even more fundamental and meaningful to him than what was explicitly communicated in canon.

In terms of the timeline, of course the canon characters don't get to develop in any meaningful way. They never get a moment to think or live a somewhat normal life. This "war" with Aizen begins just two weeks after he got his hands on the One Ring the MacGuffin that's supposed to make him a literal god. That was convenient, wasn't it? Just in time to stop our characters from growing as people.

If the series had kept with the Ye Olde Japan theme of Soul Society, a proper mobilization of forces and fighting an entire war would've taken a long time, with a lot of planning required. This part was very consciously inspired by The Belgariad.

I don't really have an interest in trying to make that a central point or something that even needs to be resolved, but I think a slow preparation for a conflict makes for a much more interesting environment to set things in than trying to shoehorn stuff within the actual canon. And while Aizen's reveal as the villain was a bit much too mustache-twirling-villain-esque to me, his Shikai is extremely intimidating, both on a personal and societal level.

I originally intended to use Soul Society having to deal with the consequences of Aizen's power as a backdrop, but it never came to be. Soul Society systematically going through its history looking for anything suspicious, like drastically conflicting reports of the same event, and digging into it to see if Aizen had hypnotized someone would've been interesting.

Come to think of it, Aizen not even dying after all the shit he pulled was the ultimate cockblock. Just goes to show how things can never be resolved in Bleach, because The Fighting Must Continue and Aizen will get out prison eventually. Imagine if Harry Potter had ended with Voldermort being escorted to Wizard Jail after being sentenced to five million years of imprisonment. Just thinking about that makes me laugh out loud. But in Bleach it actually happened.

A word on the Spirit suppressors, or "Reiatsuppressors" as I dubbed them in my own notes. For a plot point that I decided not to go with in the end, I needed an excuse for the sensing of Spiritual power not be a thing in Karakura Town. The Suppressors ended up serving a somewhat similar purpose, and their in-universe justification ended up remaining the same.

For anyone curious, the plot point that never came to be was Rukia coming to visit Karakura Town but being too afraid to visit Ichigo. Having mastered the technique of visualizing Spiritual energy as Spirit Ribbons, she decides to make sure that at least his Spiritual power is there. The idea was that an advanced technique like Spirit Ribbons was able to bypass the interference from Reiatsuppressors.

The thing that was going to urge Rukia to go to Ichigo was her noticing that his Spirit Ribbon was a different color than a Shinigami's should be and not knowing why. The color of Spirit Ribbons was going to be significant in that the color of the Ribbon of someone who is Very Special to you was going to be the color you think is most beautiful. Your favorite color, basically. Probably subconsciously inspired by the scent of a love potion in Harry Potter, as I once again only realized after writing down the idea.

That ended up not being a thing, but maybe I can use that somewhere else. Or someone else can take the idea.

Something was also planted at the very beginning of the chapter. I've always wanted to "plant" something that comes up later, so here was my chance.