#THEY COULD LITERALLY MAKE EACH ITHER BETTER

[holymolyineedtherapy]

No wait fr tho

We know that Lucy can learn spells related to the stars in general. Imagine them actually having a chance to speak together and be the big brains of the group.

Lucy could teach him more about the constellations therefore he would be able to possibly create new spells alongside her and he could teach her how to make her magic stronger therefore allowing her to summon more spirits and wear more star dresses.

They could also bring out the best in each other. We know Lucy is someone to hold a grudge even though she acts like all is well. Jellal is someone who can easily pick up on how people act so he figures out fairly quickly that Lucy doesn't like him. She hasn't yet forgiven him for what happened in the Tower of Heaven. It's been 9 years for him since that happened, but for her, it's only been 2.

Lucy understands that he was being controlled, but he hurt her friends. She can't overlook that until he comes and outright apologizes to her. And Lucy is pretty quick to forgive once someone apologizes.

However, Jellal is someone who tends to make himself suffer. He shys away from people who want the best for him because he feels as though he doesn't deserve it. Not after all that he has done. Lucy grew up in a household where she was forced to make herself smaller. She knows what it's like to not give into your feelings and what you want.

Lucy takes the time to talk to him, hoping to get through to him so he knows it's okay to want things. She tells him of her experience with Phantom Lord and how she was able to get what she wanted, friendship.

What I want in Fairy Tail is some interaction between Lucy and Jellal. Like their magic is kinda related (stars) and he is like so OP. He could teach her some spells and shit.

[exy4life]

Hear me out.

Battle for the Sun by Placebo

= Tomarry.

listen to me. if you are an avid enjoyer, or a fanatic (like moi) you need to give this song a listen while reading the ship. it is quite literally the best suited song for the dynamic. The lyrics and the implications behind them are out of this world and so is the masterful scenery that gets visualized in you head while listening to it.

“Dream brother, my killer, my lover”

this is what caught me off guard when listening to this for the first time, since i think this is exactly their relationship.

dream brother = brother wands, souls intertwined, their existence depending on the ither to me is so biblical, but who am i to judge! anyways, there is so much familiarity between these two, they almost know the other if not as well as, than better than themselves. you can’t tell that familiarity so profound doesn’t hint at destiny to be with each other or not be at all.

my killer = now this is a prophecy. the intimate relationship between killer and victim is often so misguided and depicted in a horrifyingly disgusting way, that i genuinely feel sick. Whereas whenever i find myself perusing a fanfiction that involves one of them murdering the other, there is a perverse satisfaction that comes from your beloved taking the only thing that matter to them — your life. The Tomarry writers can make it out to be so romantic, and often times the actual act of killing doesn’t even occur — BUT horcruxes. ‘my killer’ reeks of simplicity, because how else could you interpret it? well in this fandom nothing is as simple as it seems. My Killer, because Harry destroys the horcruxes, because Voldemort kills Harry in the forest (while aslo killing a piece of himself, now isn’t this poetic justice?)

my lover = many people will contradict the relationship based on age appropriate reasons or even their own preference, but be that as it may, we all have to make the informed decision (even if we cannot come to terms with it) that Tomarry is superior to all the others regarding tropes, seldom writing as well.

If you’ve come so far, thank you for reading this!! I’m not posting out of my own volition, it is akin to Tom taking power over me and writing this himself. i feel like he would wholly agree with this.

[scummy-writes]

kittenlily replied to your photo “College try college try....gonna be doing ither stuff for a few hours...”

You should make a post about what other otome games you enjoy. I would love to hear your recommendations ��

Alright, so...I am...Not really a big Otome Consumer, which might surprise some people? I don’t know if you guys think I am or not, but I can say that before I played MM, I had only played a handful of Otomes/Vns, and all of those were from like...Back when I was in college, or late highschool (17-19? 20?)

I mean, if it helps give you an Idea of what games I usually play/buy:

(a lot of these haven’t been redownloaded onto my comp after my old one died)

I think...outside of MM, there’s only like two games that I can for sure recommend? I don’t think they can be considered otomes, but romance is a heavy theme in them.

 I did play a lot of games during those years I listed (which, not at all too long ago but it still feels like ages ago shfbshd) but a lot of them were terrible. Terrible. One had a damn dubc*n scene in it randomly and I just. Pass. Often the writing wasn’t great, and it didn’t compare to a lot of...not otome games? that I had played.

One game, that is a visual novel meant for like...dudes...but I really enjoyed it, was Kawata Shoujo. Here’s an excerpt from the site:

Katawa Shoujo is a bishoujo-style visual novel set in the fictional Yamaku High School for disabled children, located somewhere in modern Japan. Hisao Nakai, a normal boy living a normal life, has his life turned upside down when a congenital heart defect forces him to move to a new school after a long hospitalization. Despite his difficulties, Hisao is able to find friends—and perhaps love, if he plays his cards right. There are five main paths corresponding to the 5 main female characters, each path following the storyline pertaining to that character.

Now, to be very blunt, I played this in highschool. My memory is shit, and I don’t remember every detail right, but...I think this game portrayed a romance kinda game pretty well, and especially well since it’s free. The main endgame goal isn’t sex (which, yes, those scenes are in here, it does have adult content), and it doesn’t make the sex out to be like. Insanely god given wonderful yadda yadda yadaa, it’s a bit more realistic. 

Now, granted, I only did one route. I don’t know why I stopped, but probably because of stuff that was going down at the time, and I just kinda. Forgot about it. But it did a good job at making the characters, you know....not ditzy female sterotypes.

I’d recommend looking into it more than I’m saying, because it’s literally been years and I played it before I even went to college, so...

(Here’s the site link)

The only other game I could recommend would be, uh...Hatoful Boyfriend, to be honest.

Like sjdfbsjdbf I know I sound so stupid but I had so much fun with that game in highschool. Like, I read about the Really Gritty Ending, I had fun joking around about the insanely creepy doctor- theres a damn girl route last I heard which- HELLA. But man, it was silly and fun and I remember I had loads of fun just messing around in it. I haven’t played it in ages but---

I do have Dream Daddy installed, but people seem to really be pissed off at that game so I’m wary to recommend it. I personally got a huge kick out of it, it was fun, it was funny, and I thought it was really sweet. 

And I do have Nameless, another Cheritz game, but honestly I’m still kicking myself for buying it. I bought it without realizing that all the characters are apparently in highschool, one of the characters is a teacher, but he relentlessly hits on other highschoolers from what I remember, and I just...like...bluntly I kinda fucking hate the game. Not trying to put down people who do like it, but I should have looked into it more before someone recommended it to me, because I really...fucking hate it. It makes me so uncomfortable to play.

And, well...that’s kind of all the ones I can recommend? I’ve given it a lot of thought the past couple of days, but I could probably better fill out a list of otomes/vns I don’t like more than a list that I do like...

Sorry if that’s disappointing orz

[many-gay-magpies]

i promise i did not wait three days on purpose to answer this 😭

little ruffians and their little crimes !!! i am a Big Fan of found family (if you couldn’t tell) but there’s something Extra special about a crime found family idk why but something about a group of people on the run together, struggling to survive and truly having a terrible time but finding pockets of joy in the moments spent together and the group bond is just so good. *is vibrating* i like this a Normal Amount

that scene with jaan and shion is so funny to me bc i’m just imagining jaan like “oh no it’s Such A Shame we have to kick this guy’s ass if only there was a way to stay safe without violence” and shion saying “you know i can literally wipe his memor-“ “SO SAD WE DONT HAVW ITHER WAYS TO DEAL WITH THIS OH WELL I GUESS ILL HAVE TO BEAT HIM UP” they probably strike a deal that their usual way out is to have shion work some mind magic but if the other person is Particularly rude jaan can take his anger out

the vampire boys being really good with livestock 🥲 they’re probably friends with all the stray cats that wander around riverfield bc cats also hang around barns. oh i just got the funniest idea- they got so good at nightball bc during the “hide in barns” era they entertained themselves by herding the sheep. that shit takes Coordination and Speed

JUST BECAUSE YOU DIED DOESNT MEAN YOU CANT LIVE !!!!!!!!!!!! CRIES. CRIES A LOT. 🥲 doing one thing every weekend to teach them how to live again. when they have that big sleepover, sooha gets introduced to the cuddle pile and really softly goes “see? you’re doing great. this is exactly how a sleepover should go” and gets a little teary eyed when they pull her in

-vrvr anon

i think we're in a cycle of delays in asking/answering hskfbfkfb-- you (accidentally) wait three days to send another ask, i (just as accidentally) wait five SEVEN days to answer it! KSGDJFBFN i am very sorry this was not intentional

but honestly tho life and also bad memory gets in the way of things so its no problem ^^

Little Ruffians committing their Little Crimes. i am inconsolable. i do believe ive said in these exact words before that found family is my shit-- anything i write is going to have SOME degree of found family in it, sorry not sorry, thats just the way it goes. AND YES CRIME FOUND FAMILY on the run and struggling to survive but finding little pockets of joy in each other TRULY. the guys may have been having a shit time overall and been running for their lives for the better part of the millenia but they still look back on the memories with fondness because hey ! they had each other ! and theyre ALWAYS gonna have each other ! *also vibrating* i am Completely and Totally Normal About This.

YES EXACTLY KSGJFHDJDH shion keeps telling him he doesnt have to do this, there is a more morally sound way actually, but jaan just very conveniently does not hear. they probably continue making jokes about it even into the present, like sooha will be saying something or make a reference to something she said a week ago, and jaan is like "what?" because he doesnt remember and shion goes (to sooha) "hes selectively deaf". i just think it would be funny

AND THEN ALSO i imagine sometimes shion just goes ahead and wipes the guy's memory even AFTER jaan is done with him, just for security's sake, and all the other brothers (not yet clued in on shion and jaan's silent arrangement) just FLIP THEIR SHIT like "well wHAT THE HELL WAS THAT (jaan beating the guy up) EVEN FOR THEN IF SHION WAS JUST GONNA ERASE HIS MEMORIES ANYWAY-" and jaan just shrugs and goes "stress relief"

crazy cat ladies vampires,,, i can get behind it. because honestly theyre already centuries old and probably possess a handful of old people mannerisms anyway, the only things theyd really need to make them ACTUAL crazy cat ladies vampires is for them to live in a cottage on the coast and spontaneously take up crocheting. heck some of them probably ALREADY crochet. i could see jaan or jino doing that for fun. but yeah the decelis campus cats absolutely flock to the vampires' dorms because none of them obey the "dont feed/take in the strays" rule and theyre always putting out milk or feeding them fish or letting them come inside during the winter when its all cold and snowy outside. so yeah! crazy cat vampires. also the idea of them picking up literal herding dog tendencies is immensely funny to me. just the mental image of heli or jakah literally herding their brothers someplace when they're in a time crunch and about to be late because none of them can get their shit together

FOUND FAMILY SLEEPOVERS. YES. ABSOLUTELY. sooha brings it up to them and the brothers are all confused at first, because "why do we need to have a party specifically for sleeping?" or "sleepover? we did that all the time when we were in hiding from the orphanage, thats not-" and sooha is just like. head in hands. oh my god you are all so sad. you are making me so sad right now. what. and shes even MORE bent on giving them the most perfect, fun dumb teenager sleepover ever.

except,, maybe SHE doesnt exactly know how to do that EITHER—because think about it, as far as we know the only friend she ever HAD (that she remembers) was chris, and he died when she was around ten im guessing. her last sleepover, if they even had any at ALL what with sooha's mother's wariness and chris being a boy, would have been five or six years ago; the only stuff she knows about Fun Teenage Sleepovers probably comes from movies, books, and tv shows. so here sooha is, faced with seven boys who have never had a single normal experience in their lives, determined to give them as many of those missed experiences as she can, while she... has ALSO never had a single normal experience in her life. so, in a way, its all new for her, too—this whole having a group of friends and going out to do fun things with them thing. the boys ask her what exactly you DO at a sleepover, and she stumbles, gathering together all of the little things she's picked up from various pieces of media over the years: you wear pajamas, and you sleep in sleeping bags, and do each other's makeup and gossip, and watch movies, and eat junk food until the sun comes up. sooha says something about the REAL meaning of sleepovers being to not sleep at ALL and spend time with your friends, and shion furrows his brows and asks, "why is it called a SLEEPOVER in the first place, then?" and she does too because she doesnt have an answer. so they have their sleepover, and maybe its a little weird, maybe not like a normal sleepover, or how a sleepover SHOULD be—sooha wonders constantly if theyre having fun, if shes doing it right—but its good. its nice. and then at the end of it, when they ditch both the sleeping bags and the counterintuitive "dont sleep at the sleepover" rule, all forming one giant cuddle pile on heli's bed and pulling her into the middle, none of them say anything if she cries a little bit.

now i COULD stop here, because ive definitely been blabbering about the dark moon for long enough, but wheres the fun in that? SO instead of shutting up im gonna share you a little thing i talked about with one of my friends that i think you might find neat :D

only related to the rest of this ask by proxy of it also being about the dark moon, the other day my beloved mutual artzyy (@heeyunies) and i were discussing the logistics of solon being a hybrid—namely, if he bit someone, would they turn into a werewolf, a vampire, or a hybrid of both? the general consensus we reached was that it would depend on just what sort of hybrid he WAS. i even made a little chart!

if he's an artificial/lab-created hybrid like he is in OUR au (born a werewolf, fed vampire blood to become a vampire later on), i feel like he's... not really a hybrid in the way a lot of living creatures are hybrids; mules, zorses, that sort of thing. because the fundamental truth (or at least the fundamental truth in my theoretical werewolf/vampire canon) is that werewolves and vampires are opposites: werewolves are the pinnacle of life, in a way, and vampires are. literally dead. they are THE undead. the two supernatural races are completely incompatible—which we've already mentioned before as the reason solon's body sort of shuts down, locking his powers away when he receives the vampire "gene". if we look at vampirism and lycanthropy as viruses or infections, it's more like they're both existing in solon's body at the same time but seperately, fighting to take control of the space rather than mixing. solon's werewolf genes are repressed by the vampire genes when he's in his "human" form, so if he were to bite someone then and inject his "venom" they'd turn into a vampire. BUT if he bites someone while transformed, his werewolf genes have fought their way to the forefront again, and the victim turns into a werewolf. theres always the hypothetical case where he bites someone once as a vampire and then bites the SAME person again as a wolf, which could turn THEM into a hybrid, too, but im guessing that would happen to ANYONE that got bit by both a werewolf and vampire.

and then theres the other case my friend and i thought of, not canon to you and i's au but still hypothetically kind of cool—where solon is an organic/natural/biological hybrid, one parent being a werewolf and one a vampire. here, like i drew in the chart, the genes have time to actually mix and come together naturally, so rather than being either a werewolf OR a vampire depending on which side of him is most dominant at the time, solon is always a hybrid, and hypothetically then his bite would turn OTHERS into hybrids, as well. this is entirely hypothetical because, well, the way i see it vampires are literally dead and incapable of sexual reproduction, so that could never happen—or if they ARE capable of it their kid is just a regular human, because vampirism isnt genetic. still fun to think about tho :P

okay now im gonna shut up for REAL and just hit post because this took me entirely too long to answer KDHFJFBFN

[maneaterwithtail]

Warning depressed overindulgent rant about kids cartoon incoming

I’m cross-posting that’s from spacebattles. You know I really need to start posting some positive s*** about Steven Universe. There’s a reason why it keeps getting my attention. I really love the setup, there are wonderful events, I love that its Aim so well. It’s managed to assemble a number of things as well as had a way of interacting with fans that encourages creativity and a community that produces so much that can be loved and expresses Joy. 

I guess I’m just a natural Grump and I can only talk about things when I’m pissed off or think I’m being smart by dissecting it. Which in my mind means needlessly ranting about every silly little thing that I observe about a work or feel about a work or I feel about the people that I’m watching the work alongside. I understand if this is not the kind of thing that you like. I can also understand if you want to be defensive of the show. Just respect the fact that I’m a person who has watched the show for a bit or just a person at all. But I do want to have some sort of discussion. It is why I am posting this out loud. It’s just with the ramp up for more speculation and another interview I just feel like we’ve been at this dance so many damn times and we’re just being jerked around here. Which of course is the purpose of any work of art. At least serial media. You constantly give just enough so that people feel inclined to come back for more. But I guess well read the rant

Whiteeyes, post: 36894166, member: 314250

No mo, it felt much much worse. See Lost had no answers when it was written. It was created to pile up mysteries for a season or so and then get cancled like Twin Peams and every ither wekrd mystery show so they never had to answer any. It became too popular to cancel and they had to scramble to invent answers. SU has had dorwshadowing and setup as warly as season 1. It knows what it is doing.

 .... I personally think that Steven Universe's character development and pacing is hampered by the fact that it wants to make everything a f****** mystery. This was a characteristic of Lost in a way that it got ridiculous. To the point where things like what's on Jack's tattoo or who is married or who was not or who had a terminal illness that they had known publicly forever and so on and so forth.  

  I think Steven Universe suffers from the same problem. Basic character development, interaction, or what-have-you tends to be put in a mystery box just so that that way we can create drama and then have it emerge later to create a resolution without progress. 

The problem is that while mystery is their main tool in this endeavor to set up interest it's not the only way in which they do this and then be annoying. Now some of this is the fans frothing themselves up.

 relevant example, when we see a title and then flip out about major speculation for a major plot point and then get disappointed when it's basically not so. 

 However I think this is in a part with all of their setup plot developments. As an example the return of Marty.  

  I actually want to be very fair-minded here. The Sour Cream situation identity and everything about him was very carefully set up over the course of a year and it actually made sense for once that he was a relatively new char in Stevens life. He's apparently older, runs with a different crowd, all that stuff. 

Marty comes back for one episode 

Not only do they run the most cliched plot imaginable about a deadbeat father and artsy dreamer son and the man who doesn’t get their passion but they do this basically to setup a virtue signal and reconcile sour cream and yellowtail in perhaps the worst way imaginable. In the first episode they actually share a scene.

But they don't share a scene in anyway proceeding to their actual reconciliation. All of that is cut aside just so that we can get to our cute little happy ending. This kind of ran things into the ground for me in some ways. Everybody defends moves of aborted long-term plot like this by saying that Steven Universe is more about people and characters and it is not about big plot twists and Sci-Fi Action. 

That might be true but they're doing that character and living the life stuff in a bad way as well. By not having the family reconcile but by having Yellowtail basically come around and agree because Sour Cream suddenly has a villain for Yellowtail to prove immediately better than.

  For a show that's often praised for its diversity and lack of stock archetypes this was too cliche    You see this time and again with long setup plot points whether it's the eventual return and revelation of the backstory of lapis Lazuli, the face off with the cluster, and others- That isn't to say all long-term plot points have fallen on their face but a lot of them have and it seems as if what succeeds or what gets the necessary follow-up is arbitrary and random

This isn't the usual complaint of "this is filler! where is the plot?" This happens whether it's character Focus-interaction that often feels as if it's taking forever to happen or gets bogged down in Mindless drama such as the entire relationship between Sadie and Lars to the point that Lars doesn't feel as if he has a real character until these last 7 or so episodes. 

He was basically the Grump. A cartoon stock archetype, a television stock archetype, a place talk archetype. 

You didn't have to think about why he was grumpy because there was no reason other than to make him and grumpy.  And remember this is the longest term character that's been on the show (was in the pilot) and he had a ridiculously thin characterization.

 All of this would still be bad even if he didn't have a plot line that made me cringe 

mackon, post: 36912103, member: 9256

Sure there are a lot of scenarios where the Zoo could be where it is and Pinks holdings only cover the solar system but just looking at what we have seen so far it looks like Pink administrated space covers more -shrug- How the Gempire is governed is sure to be more complex than X diamond runs this area and Y diamond runs that area anyway.

 And this just all ties it together. We get all of this stuff that's supposed to matter then push it all to the side and then come up with confrontation that's in many ways not satisfying because there's no build-up or it's just confusing or inevitably leads to more stupid questions that aren't even asked in the show.    I guess what makes this so frustrating is that the show has great set up. it does set up very well. But every time, or at least many times, when it's time for the payoff for those Domino's to go it always goes off like a bad fart. 

All of these are pointing to the same issue. . .

For some people this is the climax of The Cluster. For others It's the Return of Marty. For others it's The Search For Answers.  Some others feel disappointed because they think that there hasn't been enough queer text in the show. Others feel like characters are often push the Wayside and not given enough time to interact with the world shaking plot.  All of these are pointing to the same issue, broadly speaking. Crewniverse throws something in the air but they don't follow through. Or they passport or just suddenly resolve something with another IOU. 

The weird part is when they do this with a plot point they say that it's about the people. But Fusion Cuisine (wryyyyy) I think keeps hurting me because it's the episode that proves they don't respect people and character interaction.   

 Character interaction has to have consequences. Those consequences can be negative.  It can be positive but it has to arise and seem to follow from each other. Subtle or flagrant but the consequences of character interaction, if having dramatic focus, have to be observable and meaningful. Instead, all too often, we see artificial ways in order to create drama and then arbitrarily end or ignore it. For some people this is Stevens disturbing naivete childish behavior when he supposed to be a mid teenager. The lack of follow-up questions or the way that plot points will conveniently go off screen for months at a time only to then pop up in order to keep up interest and tease us and then come off with a lack of resolution despite lots of build up to no change or wasted opportunity.  

I think one thing that's bothering me is the reintroduction of there being some mystery to the death of Pink Diamond and Rose Quartz's crime against her. We've been here. already.  we know what the answer is supposed to be. And yet apparently there's a new mystery. 

Only I bet this new mystery is going to end up just as dissatisfying as “What is Lapis’s backstory?” or “How are we going to find Malachite?” or “How are we going to resolve The Cluster?” or “How will Beach City recover and her people deal with overwhelming change and trauma of an unnatural disaster?”

This shows up in other ways such as the not taking care of the Rubies when they have a ship. Or the fact that Homeworld keeps taking its sweet damn time in order to take care of the Crystal Gems and Earth even when it keeps on being a hostile instigator in the lives of the gems.    

And I think Fusion Cuisine is emblematic of this fault with regards to character stories and showing that statement about character over grand plots as a poor excuse. They will create a situation that literally doesn't require any crisis which won’t be treated or result as one. The family just needed basic common sense or respect, even between strangers, and then they won't follow through on the natural consequences of the family’s disrespectful lies or dangerous actions. 

And underlying this is a sense of- I don't know-  condescension or virtue signaling? On one level the Crewmiverse really do follow through on the implication that yes Steven has a queer family. On the other it feels as if they've set up the Maheshwarens as strawman that they've spent the rest of their appearance just being someone in order to goof with. I still claim this due to the fact that Dr. Maheshwaren is treated as if she's overprotective or crazy because controls her daughter media consumption; when connie lied to her (twice) regarding her experiences and activities with STeven and his family.  She lies about taking dangerous lessons from a person who partook in an assault of her daughter and has expressed bigoted opinions of her race -as in the human race- for months. This disobedience, to make Connie a fighter, is Justified because the story made Dr. Maheshwaren too damn stupid to notice not only does her daughter not wear her glasses anymore but that the three limbed candy colored being with no heartbeat is a gem Fusion and Connie saves her from it.   So the resolution is Connie NEEDS to be a sword fighter for the growing dangers of the Cluster.

 only we remove that as a valid point 

 For a show that keeps purporting being about togetherness, the cast herding and other things kind of put that as a lie. And Fusion Cuisine is an exemplary of this. It exists for a lot of reasons, but the number one thing it ends up doing is helping justify this sense of distance between humanity and the gems and completely ignoring ways in which they can come together and be understood.  Or conflict and come to resolution and understanding. So the character conflicts and development feel artificial or low stakes or superfluous and the plot and combat and Magic feels as if its always being sandbagged for these meaningless character beats.

 I think the show is going to lose me.    And I don't think there's any big thing that it can do now to convince me. It's spent so much of the goodwill and belief from its initial run and set up.  It has undermined all of it set up when it's actually gotten anywhere. I no longer trust the show to turn out to be well. At least in a way that I think will be satisfying for when they pull another “wait until you see the payoff for this” move AGAIN. And I suspect it's going to keep misfiring in ways while implying that it's so damn clever. 

There's just something incredibly artificial about Lars being captured with Steven and effectively telling all of his emotional issues that I feel like they have not been appropriately Illustrated despite multiple character Focus episodes.    And given the track record on how long it takes to actually engage with plot points or how they can be unsatisfying-ly resolved and then put out the way until they are unsatisfying-ly resolved is also bothersome. 

I was kind of okay with the end of The Cluster but I also understand how that could frustrate some. But one way that I can agree it was bad is we effectively spend all this time setting up the end of the world and the resolution of The Cluster basically put it out of mind and hasn't been Revisited or had any further effect.  The only lasting consequence has been the Turning of Peridot.[and according to some that’s been flattened to irrelevance too] 

So that meant that The Cluster basically existed so that that way we would have something in order for Peridot to oppose to justify her becoming a good person. Which reminds me of how they handled Marty and Sour Cream and Yellowtail and so I'm really really uncomfortable about them trying to go “oh, we're going to be all about character don't be all about the magical Destiny b*******.” only characters remain thin and ignorant and nothing but potential fodder

  Maybe I'm just in a really nasty mood[edit- looking back I was]. But I will say this; I think after this much time the show has set up its relationship with the audience and I think it's made me distrustful and doubtful of its reliability. I don't want any more promotional material. I don't want any more interviews covering for stuff not in the show. I don't want any more teases. I want an actual story executed on the screen in a satisfying manner.    And honestly I think what with the relative Circle walking season 4 and the reintroduction of more complications about mysteries about Rose and more drama about Steven feeling sad and more “Steven is going to have to introduce Humanity to this alien-person” as his own life seems as divorced from Human Experience as possible. 

The artifice of the show is coming out. It's much like how some can't take Game of Thrones seriously anymore. It makes sense to kill off the characters that they have killed off but there's no more emotional investment and we’re getting more and more sense that all of this is a bunch of Sensational nonsense.

[thegeminisage]

zelda blogging which is so deeply super spoilery, possible the most spoilery it’s ever been, so if you haven’t THOROUGHLY explored the central-north part of the map DON’T read it

aww some of these gerudo wear glasses! love it

i like the music here too but i kinda wish it had been the same melody from oot ; ;

omg riju is tiny!!! is she still young?!

aww her relationship with buliara is sweet they obviously care about each other a lot

AAAAAH THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT MY SWORD lmao maybe i should have gone to get it after all

oh my god a sand seal that gives you words of wisdom for food

ooh i get a free accessory for giving this lady some flint...hmMmMMmMMmmm

topaz i guess bc i'll probs need lightning protection soon? but no, i'm getting a helm...

haha sapphire to go with link's eyes?

ruby bc the flame armor is the ugliest and i wanna wear something else? LOL

went with sapphire iin the end MAY I NOT REGRET IT...

ooooh i shoulda been saving my gems....Dang

i mean, at least i have the 10k i need for the great fairy, but there's so much cool stuff here and i can't bUY ANY...

ah no i did get some opal and amber earrings :3

swim speed up and the ithers are just extra defense

"apparently the accessory maker and the teacher of the relationship class were both in a tragic love triangle, and now they are both single" nintendo this is an all women society please give me lesbians i BEG of you

ok, i need 1 ruby and 5 topaz to finish buying one of everything here. i'll remember

hahahahaha "you've gotta take your time when selecting gems and voe" wise words, lady

omg i found a bar but im too young to drink. nice, nintendo

lmao you can tell one of the ladies you're over 100 and she doesn't believe you dxkfjhg

ok so the hideout of the yiga clan is apparently to the northwest of here so i get to RIDE A SAND SEAL or surf behind one i guess. tbh im a little worried i'll break all my shields :/

i got a gerudo one that i really like!! goes with my scimitar and golden bow!

aww can i not wear accessories along with normal armor...? that sucks

LOL SEAL PUNS the options when talking to the sand seal lady are full of em im dying

wow i can't get this shrine unless i wind sand seal races which i can't do with the divine beast out LOL

jesus those sandstorms look so huge and terrifying...especially since i know they'll disable my map

i wanna explore but tbh i better just stick to the plot and away from those bad boys

oh JESUS i went to an outpost where they're monitoring the beast and it's. so big. and so loud and big and. so scary. oh my god, it's huge

oh FUCK i got too close and it started targeting me so i ran away and thankfully it stopped...definitely gonna take it easy on the exploration if i can help it

oooh no no no why is the air turning green out here...dnw dnw leave me and my map alone!!

uh, and where is my fucking seal...? i left it right HERE

ugh i had trouble mounting the one from before when i stayed in the monitoring outpost do they like leave if you stay gone a long time...? fml

awww this old gerudo never found the lovers pond ):

ugh i see so much stuff i wanna check out but im too scared to get off the seal for long :/ ESPECIALLY if i get stuck in a storm i'll want a way out

oh wow the air is so hot here even my gerudo outfit is useless

tbh, maybe that's a good thing, if i'm eating food i can wear armor with actual defense...much as i love these clothes they're great for getting your ass kicked

ok no seriously WHY does everyone from the yiga clan drop bananas..............

i know that everyone talks about how cool it is that this game just plops you down in the world and lets you figure it out for yourself without hitting you over the head with the instructions

but i just found a bow and some torches in a circle of lit torches with some obviously flammable banners nearby, so

i found the missing gerudo soldier!

"all i've ever seen them do is patrol and eat[in red text] bananas" LMAO WHATS THE DEAL MY DUDES

theres some bananas here on a table wtf do i do throw them at them?? lmao

OMFG LOL IT WORKED

dude pranced right over to it and pocketed it lmao

nooo i missed a chest...maybe i can get it on the way back out ;_;

LOL I FOUND AN ENTIRE ROOM FULL OF BANANAS

this is so funny dkjfgh fck

urgh i wish i could just...snipe them from here. it'd be so EASY

im actually not even totally sure which direction to go, im all turned around

ok, one stationary guy at the door maybe i have to move him?

NOOO I FUCKING FELL THEY SAW ME

i couldn't even fight they one-shotted me and mipha's grace didn't kick in! that isn't fair at all

at least i can get the chest i missed

lol and i cant save in here. perfect.

ok yeah im gonna have to look it up bc as far as i can tell this room has no exit all the hallways just circle back around into it

apparently i CAN fight them...? they're just really hard?

this walkthru is so unclear lol there's a hidden door i can find with magnesis on the right-hand wall WHICH RIGHT...

WAIT fuck i finally see the exit

ah ok. wrong room for the hidden door.

master kohga!! he just...knocked himself out with his own attack. lmao ok

fuck this is SO FUNNY he is so funny

i love it even his bones cracked

isn't what he used to be, apparently

wow this is a boring fight he has a lot of hp and he's so far away the only way i can attack is arrows

and now arrows aren't working anymore...? obviously i'm doing something wrong

maybe i can reflect the rocks back at him

ok google says to drop his things on his head

HAHAHA HIS SPECIAL ATTACK FAILED

this undertale naruto motherfucker im crying i love him

"pretty soon you'll be gone! and not just from my line of sight!" i'm CRYING

fuck the ball rolled on top of him and made him fall

"COWARD! I SHALL BE REMEMBERED!!!"

what a fucking legend i'll never forget you master kohga i promise

aaaand thunder helm retrieved

but i gotta rescue that missing gerudo!

ah good her cell is empty!

lol im skipping sooo many shrines rn...i'll come back to them later i swear

oh NOOOO i got a memory!!!

urbosa the prankster!!! witht he power of lightning at her disposal!! protective of princess zelda!! i'm dying!!!

also im sad so zelda's sealing power mjst be what she used to seal ganon away but apparently in the past she couldn't make it show up for her whole life...?

aw no poor riju the helmet is too big on her

(give it to meeeee)

ok it's time for the divine beast bit but before i do jack or shit im going to upgrade my armor as much as possible rn

ugh you can't enhance the gerudo clothes...geez

FUCK YES HERE WE GO!

aaah riju is talking!!! i always get so surprised!!!

i did it!! tbh i had a really hard time keeping up with her...a dash was too fast but regular speed was too slow

AAH URBOSA IS TALKING TO ME ;_;

ohhh wow it's really walking around while on it

oh man. it's so big. it's so big

oooh you rotate the insides of this one!!

i get the feeling now i should've done more shrines in this area afterall, they have the same sort of electricity theme and they would've been good practice 

okay that was...easily the hardest beast so far

i had to use a guide TWICE and i could barely understand the instructions, PLUS i got two terminals by sheer dumb luck

oooh boy okay a lightning boss im assuming here we gooooo

LMFAO i suck so much at this urbosa was like "there is valor in dodging"

thanks zelda i missed your captain obvious statements

geeeeez i just barely got it

oh EW that never gets any less gross

ohhh my god

"I COULDN'T BE MORE PROUD OF HER" B Y E

oh my gOD?

she mentioned nabooru from oot BY NAME holy SHIT this continutity between games!!!

and "calamity ganon once took on the form of a gerudo that makes this all the more personal" jesus fUCKING christ

i feel so bad for ganondorf the man like

he didn't ask for this shit anymore than link or zelda

and at least they get to win most of the time he always loses and even when he does win he's hated, his win brings ruin

where's the fic where the only way to end the cycle is to become friends with him huh

or like, frankly: the true enemy isn't ganondorf but the evil that takes hold of him

when does he get to be the hero and fight it and smash it to little bitty bits!

oh lord and the blood moon as soon as i get back

do people like, see these towers popping up and beasts moving around? does it scare the shit out of them or make them hopeful?

anyway i hope now i can explore with less sandstorms

oh boy time to ride into a sandstorm gee i sure hope i dont get lost

LOL and first thing i run right into a camp of enemies just bc i was trying to stay in a straight line!!!! jesus

lovely! i am now hopelessly turned around in a sandstorm. i literally don't even know which way i came from

my sand seal is also STUCK lol

ah i passed through it! i'm right where i need to go!

omg I FOUND THE LAST GREAT FAIRY

i'm. i'm 500 short. oh my god

nothing i can't earn with 10 minutes of cooking, tho

huh...? she only asked for 1k...?

i could've SWORN i read someone asks for 10k at one point!

god what if i've been MISINFORMED all this TIME

ooh this one is orange and green

FUCK "i know what you're thinking...can't we just skip to the part where she enhances my clothes?" FUCKING PLAYED

holy FUCK just found my first molduga...i have to KILL one of these for a quest? jesus christ!

ohhh that actually wasn't too bad at all once i figured out the strategy...i've had more trouble with lynels and hinoxes

i'll be honest, the interactive map take a bit of both fun and "work" out of exploring...i look at empty areas and don't wonder "ooh whats over there" but think "ah i can just glance at that bit"

which should make me feel like my Pure Enjoyment of the game is being compromised, and i guess it does a little, but

i wasn't kidding when i said the need to explore was a bit compulsive so it's mostly a relief

ah from up here i see the sandstorm...i think it rotates around the desert? so, it's very possible to avoid and survive even if you do get stuck

anyway i missed several shrines but the quests for them are so complex and i am so Sick

of the desert. even worse than rain tbh

now the question is what to do next: master sword or rito beast

lowkey wanna wait until i get all four beasts before the sword, but

i know you do all four beasts and then ganon and that's it, so if i got the sword then it wouldn't help me for long

plus i'm a little tired of fighting the temperature and changing gear/eating food all the time, so......i guess i'll go check out the forest

maybe i'll see dinaal! i've only seen him once from veeeery very far away

im getting aaaaawfully close to hyrule castle i Dont Like This

lmao every time i catch sight of the divine beasts in the distance, the fact that i can SEE them from THIS far away, blows my fucking mine

they are SO BIG

im getting a much closer look at that flying thing and i'm almost CERTAIN it's a divine beast

just. jesus christ. so BIG

ohhh my gosh i can see the giant pink tree from here *_*

or maybe it's brown, maybe the deku tree is dead lmao

lol straight up skipped the bottomless bog and the enemies at the bottom bc i glided in from death mountain

whoa this tower has rock all over the top??

ah maybe it's so i can't glide to the big tree in the middle lol

not the lost woods if i don't get lost!

lol jk i got on top of it and there was a super cool sword here

aww rauru hillside...im sad

BRO im in the lost woods but its just playing the maze shrine music, i was so hopeful for saria's song

zora's domain having the same music set me up with false expectations t b h

omg if i go too high i die!! i can't follow my higher-ground instict here!!!!!

which is pretty cool but if all i have to do is wander around these woods with my map ON to find the master sword i am gonna be disappointed

even gerudo desert turned it off sometimes

ohhh okay if i wander off the path i also die i can't just go wherever i gotta follow torches i guess

mkay i googled it bc i got stuck and couldn't see anymore torches and it's wind direction! neat

see i feel a little bad about not figuring that out for myself but like...it's not Fun to die over and over bc you can't solve a puzzle. so #realgamers can shut the hell up lol games are for fun

the ember thing is SUPER clever tho and like i know this game is so like, praised bc it stops holding your hand, but i would have appreciated a TINY obscure hint

i did get as far as carrying a torch but i thought maybe i was burning off the fog or smth

omg i found korok forest!!!

oh

there's my sword

said "oh" out loud

kinda wish the quest had been more, idk

but.

mmm not yet. not yet. i'll talk to some koroks first

haha and the very first one tells me to go get the sword all right all right

man. i always remember now that fi's been in there since the ages of skyward sword, sleeping

tbh i kinda miss her 

even though she's way more annoying than navi could ever DREAM of being

for all we complain about compaions, they're a zelda staple and it feels lonely without them

i know not having one makes for a stronger game, i do, but...

really though. the master sword quest was SHOCKINGLY easy. i know i looked up the ember thing but geez it's the first truly disappointing this about this game

and my brother told me they made you work for it lmao but that was. not even close to Work. i've had more trouble at bokoblin camps

like. fucking weak. tbh. i'm so sad like i can't believe this game let me down

OH MY GOD

I TRIED TO TOUCH IT AND THE MEMORIES OVERWHELMED ME

and like at first i was like "ok if link gets his memories back with the sword i'll give them that, that's pretty sick"

AND THEN THE GREAT DEKU TREE STARTED SPEAKING

AND IT WASN'T LOST WOODS MUSIC BUT IT WAS FOREST HAVEN MUSIC

and i straight up burst into tears

"i have watched over hyrule since time immemorial" i know i know i was there i know i missed him so much one of the very first major zelda characters i ever knew i know technically he hasn't been there since the very beginning but he was my beginning

and i didn't even think i cared about him that much emotionally but i also welled up the first time he spoke old hylian in wind waker

oh god link's not WORTHY of the sword yet yes okay i'm here for this i knew this game wouldn't let me down

idk why i never considered the big pink tree might be the deku tree like i joked about it just a few minutes ago but i didn't seriously consider it so i was so surprised

and all the koroks running around and i know i KNOW they used to be kokiri it's almost like i came home, Really Home, the forest was where link began for me, not hyrule proper, he was always a child of these woods

ohhh my god i gotta mop up my face stream is soon!! jesus fuck

oh god now he wants me to pull it again

what if i'm not worthy? what if i am?

i don't have long left to play but i CANNOT leave it here, jesus christ

okay. i'm gonna try. i gotta try. courage!

oh my god it takes your LIFE?

and he said enough when i was down to my last quarter of a heart!! i'm gonna cry i was so close link tried so hard but he wasn't ready yet

i could eat food to max out my hearts but where's the fun in that........

ok. ok. i need to. step back a moment. fuck.

there's hestu! oh my god buddy you finally made it home!! me too pal me too

im gonna save and quit here before i talk to him tho bc like. i gotta stream. but Wow. god Damn

I KNEW THIS GAME WOULDN'T LET ME DOWN!!!!

LMAO I LIED JK im playing a bit more after stream

i talked to the trial korok and "do all the shrines here, it's based on the trials the legendary hero himself did" im crying!!! thats some History!!!

oh my god the koroks are so CUTE??

oh no this is so precious they've been waiting for him

sdfgsfdg "nooo vegetarians everywhere nooo that's my face" i wish i had thought to taka e a snap of that but i cant get him to say it again

aw omg they set up little stores and they only have one of many items please please i'm so proud of them

they set up a little bed for me!! they don't even want my money to sleep there!! i'm sleeping in a tree again, just like i was in oot ;____;

tbh it's so fitting that i did the scary mysterious thing of trying to pull the sword at night and i'm meeting the koroks in the brightness of day

i saw a shield resting on this rock and i had a tiny heart attack like OMG THE HYLIAN SHIELD?!?

ok. ok. i did the trials. i'm gonna see if i can get the sword now??

lol i have the same amt of hearts im not leaving to find a goddess statue and i was trying to boost my stamina anyway but maybe the food boost will help? unless they dont let me use it, we'll see

aaah no it DOESN'T omg

well, maybe one more heart container will do it...?

ugh i don't wanna go back and do the desert ones

me: already fast-traveling

Great, A Sand Storm, Just What I Wanted

fuck i stopped by town and there's a secret club that sells gerudo clothes for men

LOL why.........do they think dudes will feel weird looking pretty? come on

they said there's a high demand so i choose to believe there are lots of gerudo transmen. anyway back to the forest i got two more heart containers i pray it's enough i was SO CLOSE before

I DID IT FUCK I ALMOST DIED BUT I DID IT

IM GONNA CRY JESUS CHRIST

ZELDA SEALED THE SWORD

she's been fighting 100 years and she has so much faith in link

more importantly she heard the sword speak to her im crying fi is in there fi and zelda/hylia meet again

her smile is like the sun, i would do much to feel its warmth upon me again ME TOO PAL im weeping my poor brave daughter i promise i'll save her i promise i promise

it's almost 7am but that was worth it. that was W O R T H I T

[recentanimenews]

The Saga of Tanya the Evil: Deus lo Vult

By Carlo Zen and Shinobu Shinotsuki. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Emily Balistrieri and Kevin Steinbach.

The first thing I noticed when I saw the first volume of Tanya the Evil on my phone is that it is long. Really very long indeed. You could fit four volumes of Kagerou Daze into one volume of Tanya the Evil. I noticed that this volume has two translators, and I wonder if the main reason for it is that each volume is so long. (I double checked – the second volume is actually longer.) The second thing that I noticed about Tanya the Evil is that it is, at heart, a military novel with a dash of magic and “reincarnated into another world” as its gimmick. If you’re reading it for the reincarnation or the magic, you may be disappointed – if you’re reading it for the military maneuvers, you’re in luck, this is absolutely the book for you. This is the story of not-Germany, its new war hero who has the appearance of a small girl but the mind of a cynical, calculating HR director, and the evil God who sets things in motion.

OK, “evil God” may be stretching the point, as it’s more petulant hissy fit God, but once again we have a book I’d ask the hardcore religious to stay away from. Our hero is a ruthless HR director who is pushed in front of a train after laying off someone with a grudge. He meets God, who is upset at the lack of faith in him these days, which our hero can’t help but snark back at him for. In response, God reincarnates him in a world that is on the brink of war, as a young orphan girl. He keeps all his memories, though, and apparently in addition to being an HR director he was a bit of a military nut. As now we have Tanya von Degurechaff, a 9-year-old child prodigy sent to the front line to battle as a mage because, well, the Empire is mostly OK with this. The problem is that Tanya is just a bit too brilliant, and also somewhat disturbing…

One of the more interesting aspects of this book is also one of its most aggravating: the narration, which is mostly first person from Tanya’s perspective with a few exceptions, alternates between “I” and “Tanya” constantly, as the HR director still tends to think of himself as being slightly separate from the little girl’s body he now inhabits. This really shows off the disconnect that should normally be there for most people who go through the standard reincarnation schtick, but it’s also very disorienting, and by the end of the volume I was wishing the author had chosen a different way to achieve this. The gimmick that works much better in the book is Tanya constantly doing things as a way to ither a) stay alive or b) get herself assigned away from combat, and having her actions misinterpreted as insane gung-ho soldiering by the generals and powers that be. It doesn’t help that her main weapon that makes her even more powerful literally runs on the power of prayer, much to her bitter chagrin.

The author says at the end of the book that those who like happy endings should stay away from this series, and indeed I’m not sure I can read this on a regular basis. For this one volume, though, it was fascinating, even with all the military jargon. Yes, we have yet another Japanese author fascinated with World War I/II Europe, and our heroes are yet again essentially Germany with the fascism toned down (you’ll likely think of Legend of Galactic Heroes as you read it). But I just liked the back and forth between Tanya and the rest of the cast, and also liked the occasional glimpses we saw of her judging humans as something other than meat shields. Well, OK, one human. Pretty much just Visha. But you have to start somewhere. The Saga of Tanya the Evil is a rich and rewarding read, provided you spend the time to plough through it, and don’t mind Tanya’s constant first/third person perspective switches.

By: Sean Gaffney