#Which I wasn't expecting at all

[keartzen]

Unfortunately for her, I don't think that Frostpaw is going to catch a break after all this is done. I think she's either going to be forced into medicine cat duties OR she's going to be a deputy/leader. Maybe not right away for the second one, but you never know.

My understanding of her destiny according to StarClan is that she wasn't supposed to be a medicine cat, and it felt like they had specific other plans for her. Of course, I could be reading into it, but it makes sense to me that StarClan anticipated Mistystar -> Reedstar -> Froststar.

But then, all of the Plot happened and that destiny got destroyed. I still think she's gonna have some kind of big responsibility, though. Especially considering her growth in this most recent book, with qualities like decisiveness and bravery being pointed out by the other viewpoint characters, and her building trust and rapport with the other Clans' leaders.

[takumis86]

just reached the finale chapter of yakuza like a dragon ARRGGHHH THIS GAMES SO GOOD

[inkskinned]

before you know about women, you hear that you do not need to love the man, just that you need to love him through his manhood. which is to say you have seen the future painted in lamb's blood over your eyes - how your mother shoots you a look about your father's inability to cook right. how your aunt holds her wineglass and says i'm gonna kill em. men, right! how your best friend bickers with her boyfriend, how she says i can't help it. i come back to him.

you learn: men are gonna cheat. men aren't going to listen when you're talking, because you're nagging. men think emotions are stupid. they think your life is vapid and your hobbies are embarrassing. men will slam things, but that's because men are allowed to be angry. if you get loud, you're hysterical. if a man gets loud - well, men are animals, men are dogs, men can't control their hands or their eyes or their bodies. they're going to make a snide comment about you in the locker room, about your body, about how you're so fucking annoying. you're going to give him kids, and he will give you the money for the kids, and you're going to be running the house 24/7 - but he gets to relax after a long day, because his job is stressful. the man is on stage, and is a comedian, and says "women!"

and you are supposed to love that. you are supposed to love men through how horrible they are to you - because that's what women do. that's what good women do. wife material. your father even told you once - it'll make sense when you're older. it was like staring down a very lonely tunnel.

it feels like something's caught in your throat, but it's all you know, so. it's okay that you see sex as a necessary tool, a sort of okay-enough ritual to keep him happy, even though he doesn't seem to care about happiness as-applied-to you. it is relationship upkeep. it is kissing him and smiling even though he didn't brush his teeth. it is getting on your knees and looking up and holding back a sigh because he barely holds you as you panic through the night. it's not like the sex is bad and you do like feeling wanted. and besides! he's a man! like... they're another species. you'll never be able to actually communicate, right. he isn't listening.

you just don't get it. you don't feel that sense of i'm gonna climb him like a tree. mostly it just feels fucking exhausting. you play the part perfectly. you smile and nod and are "effortlessly" charming. and it's fine! it's alright! you even love him, if you're looking. you could have good life, and a good family, and perfectly happy.

in the late night you google: am i broken. you google i'm not attracted to my husband. you google i get turned on by books but not by him. you google how to get better in bed.

the first time he yells at you, it almost feels like blankness. like - of course this is happening. this is always how it was going to end up. men get angry, and they yell, and you sit there in silence.

you mention it to your friend - just the once - while you're drunk. she shrugs and says it's like that with me too, i just try to forget and move on. men are always gonna hear what they want to. pick your battles and say sorry even though he's in the wrong. you play solitaire online for a month. you go to your therapist appointment and preach about how you're both so in love.

after all, you have a future to want. nobody lied about it - how many instagram posts say marriage is hard. say real love takes work. say we fight like cats and dogs but the best part is that we always make up. how many of your friends say happy anniversary to the best and worst thing to ever happen to me. if you really loved him - loved yourself too - you'd accept that men are just different from you.

the first time she kisses you, it's on a dare at a party. something large and terrifying whips through your body. you wake up sweating from dreams where her mouth is encrusted with pearls and you pick them off one by one with your teeth. fuck. you sit at the computer and your almost-finished game of sim city. you think about your potential perfect life and your potential future family. you google am i gay quiz with your little hands shaking.

you delete each letter slowly. you don't need to love him. you just need to keep going.

[egophiliac]

I have never been more concerned for a JP update from your art than I am seeing a Cheka knowing the context of Leona’s dream.

My bois ok right?????? My sweet nephews ok right??????

well

uhhhh

I'm sure the real one is fine :)

[love4hobi]

i saw jhope 🫶

[vitrall]

I don't think Jayce and Viktor literally died. They were kind of pulled into another dimension/astral plane/whatever you call it. We see older Viktor, and while it could be another Viktor, I think it would be more meaningful if it was our Viktor, finally free from the arcane, going through the universe with Jayce, fixing timelines together. Kind of like a cosmic mission.

[i-dreamed-i-had-a-son]

Broke (2016): BBC Sherlock is a phenomenal piece of media and anything that seems like a flaw just hasn't been fully explored yet

Woke (2020): BBC Sherlock is an incredibly flawed series run by an egotistical writer, it never deserved the hype and is actively bad on so many fronts (especially representation)

Bespoke (2024): BBC Sherlock is flawed and bogged down by increasingly poor writing, which many fans refused to see while it was airing, leading to hugely misplaced expectations (particularly for the final series), AND it has the seeds of some compelling characterizations and portrayals, some genuinely solid performances, and touches--albeit imperfectly--on complexities that are still being discussed today (particularly as it relates to the relationship between Sherlock and John). The huge cultural impact of the show has created a massive pendulum effect in its public perception, leading to most people today remembering a caricature of the show (whether positive or negative) rather than appreciating its nuanced merits and failings...that being said Season 4 sucked

[notmoreflippingelves]

[kaythefloppa]

I feel as though Wild Kratts is going to redeem one/more/all of its villains before Season 7 ends; I don't know, I feel it in my bones and I don't know how to feel about it.

[chaoticlandworlder]

Ngl the liam lawson hate is getting real tiring

[benevolenterrancy]

*glances at svsss' vol 4 worth of extras, aka 'the whump and smut pile'* you haven't seen anything yet

You guys are seriously taking an axe to my self-control;;; I'm trying to make this series last longer than a single month!! I'm trying to savour things!!! I'm trying to read something else and give the series a bit of breathing room before I pick up the last book but I want the "whump and smut pile" I want that so much I feel like a dog that's getting a treat waved in front of its face .·´¯`(；´д｀)´¯`·.

[the-mononoke-facade]

Alright, so there's been some talk about whether Shusu is actually a different medicine vendor from Ri Kusu (show Kusu), and at first that was my assumption (or my preference since I found the characterization in the book went all in on the detached, stoic side of things than any of the other things that make Kusu an interesting character). But the more I think about it, the more I'm like "is he though?"

And my wondering about it comes from two places, first being that the theme of disentangling harmful attachments is what the book is named after, and the other is the descriptions of the taima sword both sheathed and released, as well as the descriptions of Hyper/Shingi thoughout the book

(spoilers for Shu, since I've seen more people asking about it lately, as well as including suppositions based on recent lore drops and some minor spoilers for Karakasa based on trailers and the like)

Starting with the descriptions of the sword and Hyper, despite the sword being depicted on the cover being a now seemingly defunct design from older promotional material for Karakasa, the sword is described in the first story, Kama Itachi, as having the kinds of colored stones that are characteristic of the Ri taima sword when sheathed.

When released, it's described in multiple stories with some variation of being "an enormous, glimmering blade," which is also what we've seen throughout the show for the Ri sword. The Shingi of Shu is described with gold, serpentine patterns snaking all along his exposed skin (also tanned but given Shingi also has darker skin, that specific detail might just go with being a spirit of the sword), Kama Itachi mentions gold brocade (it's unclear from what I was ever able to translate of it if it was referring to the robe or the markings, so take that with a grain of salt), Toutetsu mentions the kumadori markings on Kusu's face becoming more elaborate from how they started (compared, again, to Kon Shingi and Kusu where their respective face markings don't seem to have a whole lot in common except maybe the eyebrow area), and then Tamamo no Mae outlines the crimson eyes and silver hair. All of that sounds an awful lot like Hyper and the Ri taima sword (and you know, I kinda figured Fuguruma Youbi would have a better description to pull on as well given how like half a page was Tamenaga just contemplating Kusu's beauty and like, me too man, me too, but ah well)

Could it be a matter of these characteristics being in line with how swords associated with any of the hexagrams with fire as a component seem to show up? It's definitely not impossible, and I certainly don't know enough about how I Ching works to make any certain statements on that, but if I were to speculate on a little bit I noticed poking around a hexagram lookup table, with the hexagrams that are composed of two different elements, it seems to be less about one element being dominant over the other so much as two elements meeting in a certain arrangement to create a new result (and even with two hexagrams composed of the same elements, which of the two elements is on top of the hexagram can drastically change the meaning). So then if each permutation creates a unique end result, wouldn't it also follow that the respective swords would all be pretty unique from each other? How would you even determine that "yes, this is the trigram element this sword is associated with"? By the top of the hexagram? The bottom? The yin/yang alignment of the sword? To my mind, it makes more sense for all the swords (and therefore the spirits attached to them) to be unique to their own hexagram (again, not an expert by any means, I'm open to other takes on how that could work, this is just my working idea of how it works)

So if the swords ARE all meant to be unique, then it's a safe assumption that the sword in Shu is the Ri sword. Does that necessarily mean it's the same medicine vendor wielding the sword? Not necessarily, we don't have any information on what happens to a sword should a medicine vendor fall trying to slay a mononoke; does it disappear? Does the sword spirit die alongside that medicine vendor (especially if it happens after the sword's been released)? And what happens to a medicine vendor if a particular sword doesn't need to be in play at that particular moment, given that it seems from the lore drop that the number of swords in play can go up or down? Does he disappear? Does he get stripped of the qualities that made him a medicine vendor and continue living on as a human? Some kind of unaffiliated ayakashi waiting in reserve for when the sword needs to come back into play? Enter the collective unconscious? Is it possible for this sword to show up the same as it is for a different wielder? All of that is the realm of theories and headcanons for now, but it's not impossible that it's a different hand wielding the same sword (and if it's a different entity, is it a reincarnation of the same soul or is a new one selected?)

With my second sticking point being the theming of letting go of harmful attachments that is the book's namesake, which is a common theme that also runs throughout the arcs of the show (Tamaki and the cat being stuck to haunt the Sakai manor without having gotten any justice for the atrocities commited by the family, the zashiki warashi letting go of being ripped away from the women they chose to be their mothers in this life as well as Shino's letting go of the exercise in futility that would have been using her body and sacrificing the baby she already has to try to right that wrong, Genkei's fixation on his guilt over Oyou's sacrifice, Ochou's futile attempts to meet her mother's selfish expectations, the todaiji feeding the greed and obsession of the suitors and its own obsession with being desired, Ishikawa's drive and tenacity to find the truth persisting even after her death)

From that angle, the various stories in Shu are pretty much in line with that theme as well: Tokuemon's deep-seated grudge against his abusive father, especially when that abuse was suffered in service to an ancient obsession of his family for riches and honors; Hori Mondo's obsession with his late master and the honor that should be able to be assumed with the ruling samurai class which is disproven by his master's successor, who himself is obsessed with proving himself capable of filling his father's massive shoes, Ishiuemon's obsession with increasing his own power at the expense of Zen, who becomes obsessed with becoming Ishiuemon's wife even as she was nothing more to him than a pawn; Kei's attachment to the notion that she's owed something going right for her after a life that's been filled with hardships, Hagino's obsession with her husband's all-but-confirmed infidelity even at the cost of her daughter, Takaharu's not being able to keep it in his pants for the sake of the family he already has, Koharu's obsession with gaining her mother's affection; Shunsui's obsession with being a popular author and narrator and tainting Ofumi with that obsession when he betrays her trust to help get her love letters over to a more accomplished author that Shunsui both reveres and is jealous of; Jinjirou's obsession with getting his family's sacrifice properly honored when everyone around him seems keen to shrug it off; Tadayoshi's obsession with getting his daughter Kaede safe behind the walls of the Ooku and Kaede's drive to meet his expectations even as they bear down on her

I had mused a while ago that the feminist theming, in contrast, seems to be missing, putting more focus on the woes of the men in the story often at the expense of the women around them, but in hindsight I almost wonder if that's actually the point (and I think I'll find a more solid answer to this in Oni, from what I've gleaned so far, so this might be another "put a pin in it" thought as well...but that pin's going to be in for a very long time at the pace I'm going through this book lol). Another common thread with Shu is the letting go of how things used to be with a lot of the expectations chaining these characters coming from the Sengoku era, which just don't work going into the "peaceful" Edo era. While women's rights prior to Edo weren't exactly robust, they were stripped down over the course of the Edo era.

It could be taken, then, that this comparatively larger focus on men at the expense of the women around them is another reflection of moving into and accepting Edo-era paradigms, and also giving a peek into the unintended (or maybe "unintended") consequences of putting safety and control over freedom. From that angle, a medicine vendor meant to embody not just a woman's desire but also what a woman wants to be would also then become gradually less considered over time (and while he never had the kind of involvement in Shu that he does in the show, there is a general trend over the course of the stories of his engagement falling off a little more with each story). Ending the book with Nuppera-hofu, with Kaede losing her face as her father lost sight of why he was fighting so hard to get her into the Ooku ("she'll be safe there and won't disappear like my wife and eldest daughter did"), where it's not even clear which sister is the one being sent to the Ooku by the end of the story but what does that matter when the goal of getting to the Ooku was achieved, then leads in very nicely to Karakasa, where so many women have lost their individuality in service to "the greater good" until it hits a tipping point, the karakasa becomes active and starts upending everything that the Ooku was built on, and possibly even projecting that outward to reflect what's happening in the rest of the country as well

So then to bring it back to whether Shu Kusu is Ri Kusu or not, if being more passive, or more "feminine" starts to fall in line with the increase of systemic oppression women face in this new era, then in order to reclaim some of his own power and agency, Kusu would need to start to be more active, not a spectator but an actor, and then that leads into Ayakashi Bakeneko, where he's at his most emotive, his most active, and pushing the hardest to be in control of the situation, before gradually over the course of the show relinquishing more control to start to shift back into more of a passive spectator role as women start to chafe under the abuses they're suffering in this restrictive period and fighting to get some of their power back, having the second Bakeneko arc happening somewhere in the 1920s (still obviously a lot of problems, both the old deep-rooted ones and the new ones coming from the reactionaries that don't care much for these seeds of more equality between men and women starting to grow, Moriya being the poster boy for that group and their trying to act like they're the victims in all this while they start running out of justifications for "putting women in their place"), but with more power being reclaimed, he then wouldn't need to be quite as active or "masculine" to be able to have the power or influence needed to get the truths from the humans he needs to perform his duty, so then the differences in characterization could be reflective of what is needed for the era in question. It could also be a matter of the Ri sword and the need to cut away attachments becoming less and less necessary over this general period of human emotion, to where the sword is taken out of play by the end of Shu and the wielder of Ri we see in the show is either a new medicine vendor, or the same one but with a mandatory vacation thrown in there to discombobulate him on how human emotion sphere looks by the time he gets back

Anyway, that's a lot of rambling to say there's a case for it being at least the same sword if not also the same medicine vendor as the show, and it's a matter of the framing and themes of Shu not doing any favors to him for highlighting the things that make him a cool character

[knifegremliin]

Y'ALLLLLLLLLLLLLL

I DON'T KNOW HOW MANY OF YOU'LL REMEMBER THIS BUT!!! THAT GREEN CAT PLUSHIE THAT I WANTED SO DESPERATELY BUT WAS UNABLE TO FIND??? I'M GETTING ONE

[biomic]

im saying this every damn day

[aangarchy]

How I would have re-written episode 1 of the netflix live action series

I've been thinking about this a lot, especially after watching several analysis videos and breakdowns of bad writing.

Keep the opening sequence. I liked the opening with the two Earthkingdom soldiers well enough. Just get some better actors, and maybe a better reason for the Earthkingdom to believe the Fire Nation will start a war, bc just tossing a scroll to your companion telling him to get it to the Earthking bc "they're going to start a war" is a bit too vague for my liking.

Skip the Kyoshi narration. Completely get rid of it. The only thing it does is repeat things we already know, or tell us how we're supposed to feel about the main character before we even meet him. The one thing that we'll miss here is the explanation of what an Avatar is, but that's something that can be remedied later, in a way that isn't just spoken exposition.

Now, because they wanted a "mature & gritty" live action they kan keep the airnomad genocide sequence. Controversial, I know, because personally I didn't feel like it needed to be there, but for the purpose of keeping the live action's specific story, we'll keep it.

We start off with Aang, he's playing with his fellow students (not just by himself), this shows us he's playful, whimsical, goofy. This way he doesn't have to tell us this later while talking to Appa. While Aang is playing in the background we go to Gyatso, who is being told by the abbot that he has to tell Aang his identity because they got some really bad intel from the Earthkingdom, the Avatar needs to be ready sooner than planned. Gyatso is sad about it but goes outside to call Aang away. This gives us the first indication that Aang feels ostracized and isolated because of his identity. Gyatso and Aang walk through the temple and pass a statue of Yangchen. This is where we explain what an Avatar is, as Gyatso reveals to Aang that he is the Avatar. I like the idea of still implementing the airnomad identification method, the four toys that are actually Avatar relics. Aang is scared and confused, and he's also told he can't complete his training in the Southern temple, so he'll have to be separated from Gyatso. We get the same emotional payoff. I also want to introduce a bit of a time skip, we have time for this because we got rid of the Kyoshi intro monologue. We see Aang get rejected by his friends, we see him get taken away from Gyatso for extra training, we see him bored out of his mind during important meetings concerning the Fire Nation's movements. Then we skip to the night of the comet festival. Comet is in the sky, and Aang tosses and turns in his bed. He was told he has to leave right after the comet festival, so Aang runs to Appa and runs away. Actually RUNS away, not just getting a breath of fresh air.

Then we go to the attack. Same turn of events, the airnomads realize they're under attack, and while they're not outnumbered they are still clearly overpowered. The one change I would put here is make it a cliffhanger. Don't show Aang make his iceberg, we basically don't know what happened to him from this point, at least not yet. We don't show the outcome of the battle with the airbenders, but we can already tell it's not going well. End with Gyatso in a room being surrounded by firebenders, the firebenders ask Gyatso where the Avatar is and he says he doesn't know, which isn't a lie. The firebenders aim to shoot, but as the camera pans away we see Gyatso do a last airbender move. It only gets revealed later that he basically sucked the oxygen out of the room to kill everyone including himself, but we don't see it happening.

Boom: we switch to Katara. She's not in the haunted ship, she's with Sokka on the boat for a hunting trip. Same thing happens, they get dragged by the current, they stumble upon the massive iceberg. I would keep Sokka's sexist remarks, and Katara breaks the iceberg because of how angry she gets at him. Aang is free, the massive beam appears and we cut to Zuko, who stares at the beam like it solved all of his problems. Aang asks Katara to go penguin sledding.

Aang gets taken to the village, everyone is confused to see his tattoos. Gran gran makes the same comment as in the original: "we thought the airbenders were extinct". Both Aang and the audience get confused now, bc we were with the airbenders just now. How many of them died during the fight? How much time has passed? Aang and Katara do some bonding. They go penguin sledding, Katara reveals she's the only waterbender in the south pole. Sokka gets mad at them goofing off, because there's a war going on. Aang doesn't understand, what war are we talking about?

Then instead of letting Gran gran do the iconic intro as pure boring exposition, I'd say make the scene more atmospheric. Aang gets invited to join a watertribe feast, and they tell a story around a campfire. Katara is the one telling the story, she's looking at the kids, Aang sits amongst them, sticking out like a sore thumb in his airnomad tunic amongst the watertribe kids. Katara then gives her iconic intro, and tells it like a story, talking about their brave warriors off to fight in the earthkingdom, lots of the kids listen in awe because their fathers are amongst the warriors, and Aang slowly starts to realize that what happened to him was 100 years ago. He still doesn't know the airbenders got attacked, and the audience doesn't know if any airbenders survived.

Zuko attacks the village. He doesn't do any exposition to Iroh (because Iroh as a character already knows Zuko is banished). He just shows up and tries to capture the Avatar. We don't tell the audience yet, we just know he's from the same nation that attacked Aang's people. Zuko wreaks havoc and Sokka nearly ends up getting killed, so Aang intervenes, shows off some airbending and we have the same revelation: "you're the airbender? You're the Avatar?" And Sokka and Katara look at Aang in shock. Aang goes with Zuko, and Katara convinces Sokka to go help him. Gran gran agrees, and gives her blessing to the both of them. They take Appa, we keep the gag of Sokka protesting and then cutting to him screaming on Appa.

Aang frees himself, goes into Zuko's room, steals Zuko's stupid diary, they have a fight, Aang escapes but falls in the water, cue Avatar state (i'm still mad they took the first avatar state moment away in the LA) but because Katara and Sokka looked from a distance they didn't really see what happened. They take Aang away, Katara manages to freeze some soldiers, they fly off. Katara asks Aang why he didn't tell them he was the Avatar. Aang says he doesn't want to be. Then they ask where to go to now.

We try to give the illusion of a time skip. Boom: southern airtemple. Only it looks different from what we saw earlier in the episode. It's completely overgrown and deserted. Every hope that Aang had of anyone being alive is slipping away. They walk around, and Sokka accidentally steps on some bones. Aang asked what happened, and Katara explains that they don't really know because it was so long ago, all they know is the Fire Nation started the war by first attacking the airtemple. Aang is confused why the Fire Nation would do this, Sokka goes off on a tangent calling them monsters and heartless, Katara stops him when she realizes Aang isn't really listening, bc Aang is walking off to the room Gyatso died in.

We see Gyatso's skeleton, finally it's confirmed to the audience that he didn't survive. He's surrounded by skeletons of Fire Nation soldiers. Cue Avatar state again. Katara and Sokka nearly get blown off the mountain, but Katara talks Aang down (because yes, it's important that she's the one getting him out of the avatar state, not that he manages to calm himself down). We end the episode the same way, Aang breaks down sobbing in Katara's arms.

Rewriting the episode this way gets rid of several writing flaws that are very noticeable in the live action. It also sets up plot points that are important for later, and leaves some satisfaction for the audience so they can piece the plot together while watching instead of having their hand held and being told what's going on by the characters as it's happening. It also leaves some important reveals for later (zuko having been banished and why, the reason he's trying to capture aang), so the audience still has some surprises coming its way. I personally feel this version of the rewritten episode is also good for people who never even watched the original, it's easy to follow without being so easy it gets boring, and still leaves an air of mystery.

I could rewrite every episode this way honestly, but if i were to do it for episode 3 and 4 specifically we'd be here for ages because there's so. much. wrong. in there. Also episode 5 while we're at it. 6 can remain roughly the same.

Let me know what you guys think.

[knightofspades]

Happy Birthday, Kyou

he is such a character