#also I don’t hate miraculous in general just the way they handled the plot and the development

[chairsitters]

Someone is eventually going to get isekai’d into miraculous ladybug. Lord have mercy.

[thefcguy]

Thomas Astruc Newest Interview:

Thomas Astruc and Zag recently had an interview which they talked about things from season 6 specials and so on…

I am not 100% sure how official they are, so, don’t take this 100% seriously.

Spoilers below:

1- Vesperia isn’t forgotten by the writters.

They said that she hasn’t appeared in any posters yet because her model isn’t complete, and that she is important, and that the team does care about her…

(Wow, the team cares about Zoe/Vesperia? The girl that they added in season 4 and threw under the bus the moment they got rid of Queen Bee? The girl that didn’t even get a Kitty Noir transformation? The girl whose plot in Representation about getting a girlfriend that I forgot the name was deleted due to the runtime? Keep telling your lies, Astruc… keep telling your lies…).

(No, I don’t agree with the hate she gets. I like Zoe. But Astruc saying he cares about her, even after all he did is a bit… annoying to me).

2- The Japan Special is the next one:

They haven’t confirmed anything, but, since Zag said that Lady Tiger will be very important, cause she will be their first hero with cancer, and that we will meet her very soon, it’s very clear that this teasing indicates Japan special is next. And Rio Special is forgotten once again (wow, as a Brazillian, “thanks”, Thomas).

(I am also worried about how they will handle cancer, considering they didn’t even make what Rose’s sickness clear).

3- Samg won’t be returning:

Yeah, that’s it. Their lost work is the London Special. The artstyle will change, and they will try to keep the animating on France only due to the leaks.

4- Season 6 will be filled with hints that the audience will look with new eyes on Season 7:

They said that, once we start seeing season 7, out view on season 6 will change completely, and that these hints will be bombastic.

(right, they are “very good” with foreshadowing. And by “foreshadowing” I mean either blatant teasing for future events, or retcons).

5- They are considering a Live Action for Miraculous… again:

They said they still need to rethink and see if their budget can handle it… I hope not, it would be probably really bad with bad CGI.

6- Other Magical Creatures:

They said that there probably are other magical creatures besides kwamis and renlings out there.

(wow, we barely know 10% of the kwamis that exist, and they want to create more magical creature. I will just say I hate when people create more and more elements before flashing out their older ones. It’s lazy, it leaves many questions open and, summing up, just not nice).

7- The reason why Lila has become a villain and wants the miraculi was already revealed:

They said that they have already left enough hints to why Lila has become the new Hawk Moth, it’s just that we, the audience, didn’t pay enough attention to it.

(I wonder this time what will be the retcon. Lila is as old as Master Fu and is a rebel from the Order of Guardians? She is Manon from the future? Either way, I doubt it will be convincing. Except if it is that she is an orphan that wants her parents back).

8- Thomas Astruc already created many miraculous AUs:

Yeah, even the show’s own creator likes to make AUs about it. His favorite one is where Ladybug is similar to Sailor Moon and she leads her own super hero team. In this AU, there is also no romance.

(I wonder if any of his AUs are better than the canon he writes).

9- The Melody Movie I back on production I guess:

Zag explained about the movie synopsis, which is about a girl needing to learn how to trust herself with the power of music (yes, it’s pretty generic), and the main character will be voiced by Katy Perry.

10- Chloe will be back:

And no, she won’t be getting a redemption. Astruc said that they try to write their characters on a logical way, so that they are consistent. And, no matter how hard they try, they found no way of Chloe regretting her actions and be like “Oh, Marinette, I was so mean to you!”, so, it doesn’t matter what he wants, it’s Chloe’s fault she doesn’t want to get better…

(I am not even a Chloe stan and this angers me beyond relief. First, they try to write their characters with consistence. WHEN? ‘Kagami’s friendship with Lila, Felix’s redemption, the whole amok plot, anything related to Lila on season 5, the fact they changed why Marinette broke up with Luka, the concept of the bee’ are anything but consistent. And say that Chloe can’t get a redemption? There are many ways for a character to get a redemption. Amity and Hunter from Owl House, Peridot and Lapis from SU, Sasha from Amphibia, and Zuko from Avatar all got a redemption. If you guys don’t want to give her a redemption, fine, but don’t try this whole “she can’t”, she is a character! And you guys are writing her!)

(Also, bringing Chloe back? I though you guys were trying to break the formula with the season 5’s wish, not go back to it).

11- The Story will change:

Not because of a reboot or anything, they just want to make it more serious and gradual.

(No comments here).

12- The Team has ideas for how 12 series of miraculous would be like:

They know for sure the 6, 7, 8 and 9 arc, and are also still unsure of what to do with the opening.

(12 seasons… when shows like Steven Universe gets 5, the Owl House gets 3, and many others get only 1).

13- Andre will get a redemption arc:

Thomas said that, unlike Chloe, he clearly wants to change, and the scene in Collution was a big character point for him. They also want to, someway, somehow, tell about his and Gabriel’s backstory someday.

14- Fun Facts:

The Supreme (the bad guy from Shadybug’s universe), will make a comeback at the series; Zoe’s crush at Marinette was due to love at first sight at the bakery (I think this is cute); the writers love Rolland because he was inspired by Thomas grandfather (and Simplifier is their favorite episode due to this fact); Akumatized!Marinette is a possibility; the writing for season 6 is at is peak, and a better version of season 5 (wonder which criminal boy will be redeemed and which girl won’t get the same treatment and be sent to live with her abusive parent).

15- The whole story we saw until now is only 5% of all he showed Zag when he pitched the show:

You heard that right, miraculous has still 95% of stories to give to us.

(I know that Superheroes usually have many arcs and stories they face, but that’s mostly because they are usually on comic format. I am not sure if it’s worth telling so many stories in a cartoon series).

Now, I leave to my miraculous mutuals @natedogx15 @nerd-chocolate and @artzychic27

to share their opinions. They might even change my mind for season 6.

[sevensided]

how did you get into writing fic? i'd love to start but idk even where to begin! I loved adats so I was wondering do you have any advice?

Oh my goodness! I am so flattered you’ve asked me this. Yes, I can absolutely help. I’ll throw a bunch of rambling under the cut.

I started writing fic probably when I was... sixteen years old? A lot of my early works were oneshots. I couldn’t figure out how to do anything plot heavy for the life of me, so I just stuck to AUs or whatever I felt like. I wasn’t in any particular fandom -- I really wrote whatever I had ideas for. I remember I tried once to do a plot-heavy story and I received a review absolutely ripping it to shreds. Like, it was so cruel I cried lol. I ended up deleting the fic. Years later, I get what they were trying to say (basically, more substance, less style), but at the time it cut to the quick. Really, it was only when I was in my twenties that I started writing work that was longer and/or better.

The fandom that helped me actually write plot heavy work was a historical-based fandom. As I’m a historian, it was perfect. I got to use my research skills and knowledge to create works that, above all, aimed to feel authentic. I mainly read historical fiction, so I was familiar with how that genre worked. Miraculously, people loved my work. I think I wrote about ~200k in the period of a year? These were several short stories (20-40k) and a few oneshot filler fics. While I was part of this fandom I also helped organise a Big Bang which was a lot of hard work but was extremely rewarding. Along with that, I interacted mainly with other fic writers, so I spent a lot of time chatting to people about ideas and encouraging other writers, and it just created a lovely medley where no concept was impossible or any line of dialogue too difficult. We supported each other and it was truly like a little commune. I gradually stepped away from the fandom mainly because it was just a part of my life at a very specific time, and almost as soon as that time was over, my love for that story/ship faded, but I firmly believe I figured out a lot of how/what I do now purely through that experience.

Regarding ADATS

With ADATS, it stemmed entirely from wanting to “explain” three months in canon (at the end of season three). I was interested in the idea of season four setting up Will/Mike in canon, and I wanted to test the source material to see if I could draw from what already existed to create something authentic. I began with that simple idea: what happened from July to October in 1985? Then I thought about the major themes I wanted to hit -- family, friendship, coming of age, sexuality -- and I nested them around the bigger concept: how do I get Mike from being ostensibly straight to realising he is gay? That meant thinking of two steps: Mike discovering his attraction to guys; Mike discovering his attraction to Will. Those two concepts were separate “arcs” that needed addressing in different ways. Balance was key to weaving them together and making the reader feel like they knew what was coming (and that they felt smart for putting the pieces together) without just rushing through and going “now kiss!” That’s partly why ADATS needs a sequel, lol: because it’s not finished!

Writing process

The first thing I do when I start to get an idea is I write it down. Sounds obvious. But when you have a killer line of dialogue come to you in the shower and you think “I’ll remember that” -- reader, you will not remember it. You gotta get it down ASAP! I do that the whole way through, as generally I’ll be thinking of scenes I’m stuck on and then it’ll just come to me and I’ll quickly jot it down.

The next thing -- or what I do in the meantime -- is start structuring. I plan. I try to plan a lot. Sometimes it’s okay to write “and something happens here to get them here”, because you’ll figure it out later, but for the most part I’ve discovered that planning is like gold and you can’t get enough of it. I break my work up into generally 3-4 parts/sections, and I treat each section like a mini story. So each part needs a conflict and resolution, and it needs to flow into the next section. You need to have a feeling of things evolving and maturing. Once I’ve planned those little bits, I start thinking about the bigger plot arc and how I can drop in hints along the way. I’m probably not a subtle or skilled enough writer to yet pull off that sort of gasping twist you get in really excellent books, but I’m trying to get there. It’s hard, is what I’m trying to say, but that’s okay, because we’re all learning.

Then I generally do aesthetic stuff. Sounds stupid, probably. But nothing helps me get more into a mood than doing a Pinterest board or -- most of all -- making a Spotify mix. I start thinking about the vibe and the general atmosphere, and then I almost exclusively listen to that mix when I’m working. Sort of like muscle memory? Just to get the creative juices associated with that particular selection of songs.

Another thing I’ll do along with plot structure is character structure. This is a biggie. I mean, a story is nothing without characters. So I’ll just jot down a bunch of bullet points of characters and particular aspects that I want to highlight or remember. I hate continuity errors in fiction. Like, if someone says they work on Maple Street but later in the fic they’re working on Pine Street. I hate that. So I keep note of specific things that my main character might notice at repeated points in the story (colours, places, smells, names, sounds -- so they’re all consistent even as the narrative evolves). That’s another thing -- your characters’ motivations. Not everyone is going to be a huge player, but they all do serve a purpose. The most important character is obviously your main character. I personally think it’s important to let your M.C. be an arse at times. They’re going to be mean, they’re going to misinterpret things or fly off the handle... just let ‘em. Let them be wretched humans, and then bring them back and make them realise what they’ve done. Let them learn! I love consequences in fiction, lol.

At the same time, I’ll probably start writing. We’ve already written down some snippets of neat dialogue or descriptions, but now we should start the actual process. For me, I used to start at the beginning. Usually this was the most fleshed out anyway: I’ll have a clear idea of the beginning and the end, but nothing in the middle. These days, if I have a scene in mind that I can’t forget, I’ll just write it. It will possibly get scrapped or rewritten, but that’s okay, because at least you’ve got it down and now you can devote your brain power to something useful (like figuring out what the middle is supposed to be). I’ll have half a dozen of totally out of context scenes just littered in my Word document that I’ll add to as I go along. Eventually, though, you’re going to start writing properly, and that’s when you write your opening scene.

Opening scenes: super important. Every time I write a scene I think: what is the point of this? What do I want the reader to learn or takeaway? Sometimes you do have filler scenes, but they also serve a different purpose (perhaps to establish a group dynamic or to explore/describe a character’s surroundings). Mainly, though, every scene should push something forward in some way, whether it’s character development or a plot point. So, with an opening scene, I always think you have to establish: where you are; who you are; what they are doing; where they’ve come from (in a philosophical and practical sense); and where they’re going (ditto). That doesn’t have to happen in the first paragraph -- that would be silly. But if you sprinkle that information in over time it’ll gradually build up a picture of your character and that way the reader can get an idea of who they are. You basically need to give a snapshot of what your story is about. This also goes back to the character creator stuff: where they are at the start should be different to where they end up. How that happens is, of course, because of plot, and because you’ve structured everything to the nth degree, we’ve got a very clear progression of that character’s growth (/s easier said than done lol).

General advice

Write down everything: every idea, a bit of dialogue, a description, whatever. Write it down. Doesn’t have to be neat. Just has to be on paper. You can’t remember everything, so if you’re spending time trying to hold those things in your head, it’s taking up space for new ideas to come along.

Structure, plan, structure, plan. Sometimes it’s boring and I hate it. Other times, when I’ve not written in a few days and I open the Word doc and think wtf is this supposed to be, I am very grateful for Past Me for leaving such detailed notes. Seriously, it helps so much. Oneshots don’t really need planning, in my experience. You just get those out there. But multi-chaptered stories really do, even ones that “just” focus on a relationship.

Whatever you want to write, commit to it. Space goblins invade Hawkins? Do it. Eleven and Max find themselves in a cult akin to Midsommar (2019) and must escape? Yes. Just... whatever you want to do, remember that you’re writing it for you. Write what most interests you, what makes you when you reread it go AHHHHH I LOVE THIS!! Because that makes it a thousand times easier to actually get on with the writing when you enjoy what you’re doing.

Write a lot. Every day, if you can, or at least at designated times. Occasionally I have a very specific headspace/vibe I have to be in, but sometimes it just hits me and I’ll say to my partner “I need to write now” and just disappear, lol. The more you write the more you write. It’s so, so, so true. Cannot emphasise this enough. When I wrote that ~200k in twelve months? It was because I literally wrote every. day. Or near enough. Remember that some days you’ll write 200 words, and other days you’ll write 20k (this happened to me with ADATS -- part of the reason I finished it so quickly was because I had sprints of writing 10k+ at a time that only happened because I was in the rhythm of it). Write, write, write. Who cares if it’s crap! No one will see it until you are ready. In the meantime, just write!

Probably last of all (although I could go on and on) is connect with other writers. If you’re struggling to start, sometimes just talking about it can help a huge amount. I hope it goes without saying that you can message me whenever you want, anon or not, and I will talk to you. We can talk about ideas or I can beta stuff, whatever you want! Find like-minded people and talk to them about what you want to do. Another thing this helps is in advertising your work when you do publish. I see a lot of first time fic writers get super down because they publish their magnum opus on AO3 but no one comments. Honestly, it’s because no one knows you’ve published! You don’t have to be tooting your own horn every which way, but just actively talking about your work and even collaborating with other content creators with get you hyped and other people too (and the input and encouragement other fandom members give is just... out of this world. Anon messages helped me finish ADATS when I was really worried I wouldn’t [that’s the truth]. Seriously, support is everything). When you have people excited about your work, you get excited. It’s really as simple as that.

I could go on but this is already horrendously long. I hope even a bit of this helps! If you want to chat or have any more questions, just hit me up any time.

[bbwoulfc]

ML NY Special Review

Finally finished my review on the ML NY Special and it’s going to be a long review, I won’t lie.  I will be breaking this down in two sections.  First section will be focused through the perspective as a professional (animation industry) and the second section through the perspective as a viewer and ML fan.

I won’t deny, I will be criticizing a few things and really give large opinionated thoughts; I’m sure it will piss people off, but I’m gonna be honest and I don’t give a damn.  I’ve been here since the beginning and I’m gonna go all out.  It wouldn’t be the first time I pissed people off.

Again, keep in mind these are my views/opinions as a professional and as a viewer/fan.  If you can’t handle some of the strong opinions that will come from this review, then keep moving on.  Don’t waste your time if you can’t handle certain characters or subjects being discussed in a different light.

If you wish to continue, then click the “keep reading” option.

As an animator, this is one of my favorite things to do with animated shows or movies.  I absolutely love breaking things down and giving opinions on the whys, whats, and hows.  Never do I aim to prove my opinions right.  My goal is to simply make you think and consider.  And if you don’t agree then that’s completely fine.  That’s how it works.

Now, the NY Special has definitely exceeded the quality than what I expected.  I absolutely love SAMG as a company.  I think this is by far one of the best that SAMG has produced for Miraculous as a whole.  Even better than the origin episodes. The lighting is probably the best I’ve seen in a 3D animated tv series, by far. It was stunning and gorgeous and worked well with the given mood that was set throughout the hour of the special.  I would say there are two scenes in particular that I felt were the best lit scenes. 

The first scene is definitely near the beginning when the class landed in NY and where traveling in the bus.  They stopped either at the hotel or museum and the shot was the buses in front of the large building where you have the other city buildings around it.  That shot was gorgeous; the orange hues falling on top of the buildings and gaining that purple and blue shadows was great.  It’s honestly one of my favorite complementary color schemes to use when lighting most scenes in animation.  It helps achieve a nice balance when setting mood but also to get a nice glance at the shapes of the models in the scene.  Perfection.

As for the second scene, I would have to say it was the moment Adrien left and Marinette was biking to chase after him and she fell.  That moment the scene focused on Marinette on the ground and in the rain spoke many volumes.  The color tone of the scene was perfect and captured the common traits used in many shows and films to further drive the sense of sadness and overall emotional effect; using the traditional trait of rain made the scene work and stand out during the struggles that Marinette was dealing with. 

The rain in general was outstanding on it’s own.  Liquids in animation are tough, not an easy thing to do. The way the rain was animated was probably the best rain I’ve seen in most 3D animated tv series.  I will even say it beats the rain from the origin episodes which is amazing because it shows the growth alone that SAMG has come from since the first season of the series.  

They create stunning quality work and by far are the best of the best from all the companies that ZAG uses or had used for the show.  I won’t lie, I still can’t fathom how Jeremy/ZAG could let such a company go but Jeremy isn’t the greatest with the money, so it’s not a shocker.  It definitely shows that man doesn’t know how to properly run a company and treat a show.  I honestly blame him for pretty much the entire outcome of the series and that’s my god honest opinionated truth as a professional. 

The pacing of the special I felt was good, though I do think it would have been nice to have had an extra 30 minutes to help flow areas a bit better or more, but I can understand the time constraints, especially after hearing about how Thomas stated that the special was going to be two hours originally. And I will be honest, I wouldn’t have minded that.  I think it would have been fantastic to have had a longer span episode special, but I understand a lot of the struggles that no doubt the team had endured.

Overall, some issues, but 10 out of 10 on animation and quality output.

Now the second section; viewing through the eyes as a viewer and fan.

As a fan of ML, I will not beat around the bush, I truly believe this special was disappointing plot wise.  And I don’t blame Thomas and his team for the issue.  As stated previously, my anger and frustration is more on Jeremy/ZAG for everything that has come from ML as a show and especially the result of the NY special.

My biggest issue with the special was the focal point: Adrinette.

How many damn times must I hear, “they’re meant for each other” or “aren’t they perfect together” and so forth.  I get it. You can adore Adrientte but I don’t need it shoved down my throat every five minutes.  I don’t give an ounce of care that Adrien and Marinette are endgame and that they’re “soulmates”.  The romance between those two means absolutely nothing to me.  It was cute and fun in the beginning when the series first started, but I’m tired of it.  I don’t care about the love square.  I don’t care about the “soulmate” trope when in reality anyone can be someone’s soulmate with the right care.  That was no doubt the biggest issue for me in the entire special.  

In my opinion, it would have been perfect if it wasn’t Adrinette centric.  This was the best moment to show Marinette is improving herself but it had to become fan service because god forbid it felt like they needed to please the Adrinette shippers that their ship is still valid. If we’re judging this based off the season 3 finale, I won’t lie, this special fit better as a season 2 finale or mid season 3 than the end of season 3.

I’m seriously more disappointed that the special wasn’t more on Marinette and herself as a character.  They were in New York, another strong hub for fashion.  This was a perfect opportunity to explore more of her interests as a fashion designer and maybe meeting some new people.  Who knows, maybe even Jagged Stone as an international rock star. But overall it was a lost opportunity to expand more on her for the sake of shipping.  

I think it would have also been cool to see her and Chat Noir maybe learn some methods/training from the US heroes and get a glimpse into a world of heroism that is different in cultures and circumstances.  Which honestly made sense to me how US heroes didn’t care about identity because Ladybug and Chat Noir have magical based items that are no doubt more powerful and outside sources that I’m sure would be willing to destroy to obtain it.

Another problem I had was how I felt we were robbed without having Kagami and Luka go to New York. Or if anything, more with Luka than Kagami. I love Kagami with all my being, but I doubt her mother would let her go to New York.  But imagine Luka being there. We could have had a flipping jam session between Luka and Jess.  I felt we were cheated, it would have been amazing to see two incredible guitarists jam it out and two people who have a passion for music find a friend in each other. I would have given anything to have had that moment.

Though in general I would have enjoyed anything else if it just wasn’t Adrinette centric.  I’m positive everyone in the fandom is on the same page that they’re “soulmates” but there’s more that can be done than a damn ship that has followers that attack and annoy anyone who doesn’t ship them.  Because, god forbid, Adrien and Marinette apparently aren’t allowed to be happy with others. I swear, half the fandom (hardcore adrinette shippers) treat Adrien more as an object than the ML characters themselves. 

Nothing against the ship, but it’s just not for me and that’s okay.  I simply can’t relate to Adrien as a romantic choice of a character.  When Luka came into existence, I was in awe. I found a character I could relate too because I was as close to similarity than any other character in a show before.  And that’s something I’ve noticed with this fandom, hating characters because to them they’re nothing but boring.  

Fans need to understand that one will not understand everything in a show, especially characters.  Just because you hate a character and find them boring doesn’t mean they’re terribly written.  You as a viewer simply can’t relate to them and that’s completely fine.  There will always be some who can relate and understand while others don’t, but that shouldn’t be a reason to argue against people who love a certain character.

And I’m being serious, I enjoyed the 30 seconds of Kagami and Luka with their love interests more than the hour of Adrinette.  It’s just overall sad.  There is so much potential that could have been the special focus wise but felt it was there to show why Adrinette is “superior” when it’s really not.  They’re only one of many ships that are equally good.  It comes down to how it’s portrayed and done.

However, since I know we’re stuck with Adrinette no matter what, I’m going to end this review with this as a food for thought but again, this is a simple opinion.

There was one thing that stood out and caught myself and some of my friends in a ML server attention.  In the NY special there were strong moments that revolved around bikes.  So, out of curiosity, I searched for symbolism meanings about bikes during the server’s conversation and it might hint to what might happen or what might come in the future of the show.   

The bike symbolizes the moving circle of life. 

Seeing a bicycle is a hint that you will reach somewhere. This could either be your motivation or your future plan. Cycling refers to the different moods that a person feels. Bicycles are also related to the ups and downs of life. For instance, riding a bicycle gives you both smooth edges and rough pebbles on your journey. The smooth edges are related to the happy times of your life and the rough pebbles denote the challenges of life. 

So, if we want to use this to break down ML, this in a way, represents Lukanette and Adrinette.  Luka are the smooth edges in Marinette’s journey.  He’s the one that calms her, helps her think things through, focuses on what Marinette wants to do rather tell her what she should do.  Never once does he tell her to do this or do that, but simply asks her what it is she wants. Luka, is pretty much her guide. The happy times as Marinette where she appears happiest without the burdens and overwhelming stress of her other life.  Whereas Adrien is the rough pebbles in her journey, the challenges to properly talk with the one she views as a love interest or simply to build that perfect friendship/relationship.  Yes, they’re friends, but they’re not as strong as friends like Marinette and Alya or Adrien and Nino. Adrien is a challenge in her life and always will be until she learns to let go and mature.   

The other moment that stood out with the bike was the moment Marinette was pressured to chase after Adrien to get him to stay.  She chases after him on a bike but falls off in the end. 

Falling off the Bicycle: This indicates that you are losing your self-confidence. 

Spend time with your loved ones and take suggestions from the experienced people. Join a course on building your personality and motivation. Do things that interest you the most and this will surely help to bring back your confidence level. This indicates a frenzied lifestyle and the need to slow down. 

This here makes me believe that Luka is the “experienced people” in Marinette’s life.  Other than Kagami, Luka is the only mature one in Marinette’s life in her friend group.  He’s one of the biggest motivators in Marinette’s life as of recent.  Putting her interests at heart that have helped her build her confidence.  We know Marinette has a frenzied lifestyle with everything that she has on her shoulders as well as her passions.  And Luka is one of the very few, if not, only one in her friend group that can calm Marinette and help her slow down and simply relax.

I know Adrinette is endgame, but I won’t deny when I say if there was anything that ML could do, is that they make Adrigami and Lukanette endgame.  So many shows always pair the two main characters, always.  If there is any message that I would have loved to see come from a show like ML, it would simply be “Your first love/crush will not always be the one and that’s okay. That your first crush/love could be the greatest friendship you ever have. And the second chances in your life are just as valuable as the first and may be even better for you.”  

Fans might hate Kagami and Luka, but as far as I’m concerned from everything I’ve watched since the beginning, the only reason you’re getting your Adrinette in the end is all because of Luka.  If it weren’t for him majority of the time, y’all wouldn’t have half of your love square moments.  So, Luka is the true MVP in my book.  Because unlike many of the others, he doesn’t put pressure on Marinette and that’s what Marinette doesn’t need right now, more pressure.  

Adrien and Marinette might be endgame, but those two need people outside of their classmates because everyone is too tunnel vision.  Luka and Kagami are the only ones that will help Adrien and Marinette mature, cause those two will not be able to do it themselves.  So, if you want your Adrinette, you’re gonna have to suffer through Lukanette and Adrigami.

[edorazzi]

It’s the post everyone’s been waiting for! 

It’s taken a little while for me to get around to this, but it’s worth it for being able to make a full reaction post. This is really long so I’ll put it under a cut, but check it out for my complete scene-by-scene reaction of Miraculous’ “Felix” episode! (´∀｀)♡

Okay, I’ve been putting this off for days now so it’s time to finally get to it. I’m comfy and undisturbed and have my supplies ready to go.

I know next to nothing about what I’m going into. I’ve seen a little bit here and there because some people haven’t tagged their content properly, but I haven’t watched either of the trailers. I haven’t even looked directly at the images of Felix which have been going around. I’ve tried to stay as blind as possible, so as a result I’m pretty excited but also very anxious. I’ve taken two beta blockers today and I’m considering taking a third.

I usually liveblog episodes on our Ladybug PV Discord server (message me for an invite!) but this time I’m making a proper post out of it. I’ll be typing up my reactions as I go then cleaning everything up a little bit afterwards. I think it’s the first time I’ve done something like this on my blog so here goes!

- “Script: Thomas Astruc” NO. HE REALLY COULDN’T JUST STEP AWAY FROM THIS EPISODE GRACEFULLY, COULD HE. HE HAD TO GET HIS HANDS DIRTY. I’m not going to say “fuck this man” but, you know, identical sentiments. I’m opening my chocolate bar.

- God, Emilie looks more like ET every time I see her. Such an awkward model.

- Oh but wait, Sébastien Thibaudeau was on the script? That does actually give me some hope! Next to Zag himself he’s the only writer on this mess of a show I trust. HE FIXED WAYHEM, CAN HE DO FELIX A SOLID TOO? PLEASE. PLEASE SÉBASTIEN OL BUDDY OL PAL OL FRIENDA MINE

- Does Gabe have anything else to say to his wife other than monologuing his Miraculous plan over and over? They say people in comas can still hear things but Emilie’s probably double unconscious from how boring her husband is.

- DON’T LIKE THAT KNIFE SOUND EFFECT FROM THOSE RINGS. Am I supposed to find it sweet that Gabe’s taking such good care of their wedding bands or is he about to use them for evil? Also where’s Felix.

- ADRIEN SWEETHEART. I maintain that it’s weird to have a statue of your wife/mother/self in your own garden but it kills me that he’s just sitting there in front of it like a lost kitten.

- “Of course, someone will get you right away.” IS THAT FELIX. WAS SHE ON THE PHONE TO FELIX. WHERE’S MY SON, NATHALIE HAVE YOU SEEN MY SON

- That wide-eyed look Adrien turns up towards the window is killing me even more. I’M SO SAD. I see he also hasn’t noticed he’s sitting in the middle of a giant butterfly circle, unless he’s so used to it being Gabe’s logo that he’s just not paying it any mind. When was this all built? Has Gabe always used a butterfly motif even before he got his Miraculous and it was just a great coincidence, or did he commission this whole garden area after Emilie went missing? I guess you could pass it off as eccentricity but in the real world that would be a HUGE red flag that Gabe murdered her. I dunno man.

- DON’T WAVE AT HIM LIKE THAT, NATHALIE. YOU RATTED HIM OUT IN 5 SECONDS IN THAT THEORETICAL FUTURE WHERE YOU DISCOVERED HE WAS CHAT NOIR. YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT THIS BOY. >:V

- “It’s been one year.” HAS IT? Hasn’t Adrien been at school for at least a year now? Didn’t his mom vanish two years prior to that?! Maybe she’s talking about how long Gabe has been fighting Ladybug and Chat Noir but knowing this show’s messy timeline it could be anything. WHERE’S FELIX.

- That’s the song from Chat Blanc! Was that something his mom taught him? OH NO, I’M EVEN SADDER NOW. This is what I mean about Sébastien’s writing, we’d never get this kind of focus on Adrien from Garbage Man Astruc. This kind of character exploration does wonders for ML whenever it’s brought up so I hope this is consistent.

- SHIT, GABRIEL’S OUT OF THE HOUSE. SOMETHING’S WRONG. THOSE EXPENSIVE LEATHER SHOES HAVEN’T TOUCHED ACTUAL GROUND IN YEARS. ADRIEN GET OUT OF THERE.

- I do like that Adrien doesn’t get up when his dad comes to stand right next to him like that. It’s just informal enough. He’s waiting for Gabe to make the first move this time and that’s nice development considering how stiff and cold their relationship was in S1.

- OOOOH GABE THAT’S AN AWKWARD CROUCH. Any lower down and his back is going to go. He’ll be stuck there. I do LOVE that he’s trying though, I don’t even know what he’s going to say to Adrien but this is already SO good.

- “There’s something important I have to talk to you about.” Finally time for The Talk, huh.

- GABE PLEASE. ADRIEN’S WAY TOO CHIRPY TO HAVE ACTUALLY CAUGHT ON TO WHAT YOU WERE GOING TO SAY. HE THINKS YOU’RE TRYING TO SAY YOU LOVE HIM OR SOMETHING ELSE RIDICULOUS

- “I’ve noticed how close you and Nathalie have become!” CLOSE ENOUGH. Still in the ballpark of Adrien thinking his dad has real human feelings! 

- “HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY THINK SUCH A THING??” I GENUINELY LAUGHED OUT LOUD AT HOW ANGRY GABE WAS ABOUT THAT. I’m not sure what to think of the “Nathalie replacing Emilie when Emilie’s technically still alive” plot either but GABE’S DECIDED FOR ME. Also good job yelling in your son’s face when you were JUST having a moment, good luck getting back up off your knees in order to storm away, old man.

- Oh alright, he did get up, but it was with a strange angry bow-legged prance. I think he still had trouble.

- I love the way Adrien just kinda wide-eye-blinks at him, like Gabe’s emotional outburst is going totally over his head. He’s been dealing with akuma FAR too long to be bothered by this.

- Guests, plural? I’m guessing Felix is one of them but is he with someone else? That makes sense given he’s (as far as I’ve gathered) the same age as Adrien so he wouldn’t be running around far from home unchaperoned, but OHHH this is so interesting.

- So they ARE claiming it’s been one year since Emilie vanished! This just doesn’t work as a Season 3 episode, especially with Nathalie and Gabe’s romantic development being as far along as it is. Emilie’s been gone for at LEAST three years by this point! Read your show bible once in a while you horrible garbage man!!! Also ADRIEN SWEETHEART THAT’S A LITTLE PREMATURE. You can say “went away forever” when you’re three years into her disappearance, the anniversary of one year really isn’t long enough to claim she’s never coming back!

- OH NO, IT’S THE GIRLS. I’m already bored. Unless Luka is here I really just do not care what they’re all up to. I haven’t missed Marinette at ALL in the first two-and-a-half minutes and I don’t want to see her now. WHERE’S FELIX.

- I’m sorry, how are Lila, Chloé AND Kagami all on a video call together without any blood being drawn? Also for god’s sake PLEASE leave Adrien alone, you want to ask first if he’d LIKE some company or if he’d prefer a quiet personal day to think about his mom? OF COURSE NOT MARINETTE, YOU WOULDN’T WOULD YOU. 

- Okay, a video message is definitely a better idea than trying to break into his house AGAIN. At least then he can watch it whenever he feels up to it. The first good, safe, noninvasive idea Mari’s had for SEVERAL episodes when it comes to Adrien.

- I’M REALLY TORN WHEN IT COMES TO THE ENGLISH DUB. On one hand I hate how little screentime Nino has when he’s not just being Alya’s fashion accessory, but on the other hand I’m so glad they switched scenes the moment Nino started his video because I CANNOT handle his dub voice. Nino just deserves better in general really.

- HE WAS CRYING. MY BOY WAS CRYING AGAIN. I’M NOT COOL WITH THIS. IT’S NOT ABOVE YOUR PAYGRADE TO GIVE HIM A HUG, NATHALIE.

- ALRIGHT HI ELSA. IS THIS HIS AUNT? THAT’S SPOOKY. 

- Her name is Amelie? So their parents had twins and named them Amelie and Emilie, and they turned out the same right down to the over-the-shoulder Dead Anime Mom hairstyles? That’s lazy parenting down to a tee, can’t mix your twins up if you never have to learn the difference between them in the first place! But that’s INTERESTING that Felix is (I assume, still haven’t seen him yet) from Emilie’s side of the family, I’ve always had the impression he was a petit Gabriel.

- OHHH THAT’S MY BOY! I CAN SEE MY BOY IN THE DOORWAY!!! OH MY GOD GIVE HIM TO ME. GIVE ME FELIX. GIVE ME MY SON.

- ADRIEN IMMEDIATELY JUMPING ON HIM IN A HUG IS ABSOLUTELY PERFECT. WHILE FELIX’S HAND IS STILL OUTSTRETCHED FOR A HANDSHAKE. I know this episode is going to go downhill because there’s no way it won’t, but this one single moment is EVERYTHING I WANTED. I should just close the tab now and leave it at this, I really should.

- “Do you remember when they used to have so much fun pretending to be each other? Once they had you and Emilie fooled for a whole weekend!” WHERE HAS THIS BEEN FOR MY ENTIRE ORDEAL GETTING THROUGH THIS SERIES. I don’t even care if this Felix is a stone cold bitch, it’s enough to know he and Adrien were besties when they were kids and Adrien still wanted to hug him the second he walked through the door. AMAZING.

- “I WON’T BE FOOLED A SECOND TIME.” WHAT DOES THAT MEAN, GABE. THEY WERE PROBABLY TODDLERS. ARE YOU JUST SO USED TO GETTING YOUR ASS HANDED TO YOU BY CHILDREN THAT YOU’RE SUSPICIOUS OF EVERY SINGLE ONE NOW

- Aww, Felix is American (dubbed, anyway). I was really hoping he’d be British with all the references to London over the last season. He does have a nice voice though! I can tell he shares Adrien’s actor but he’s got the softness I’d have expected from his character. There’s kind of an interesting look about his face though, I wish they’d tweaked it a bit to give him a sharper look but I guess he IS like 14, he can afford to still have a bit of baby-cheeked roundness. I’m going to find the positives in every part of this because I will NOT give Garbage Man Astruc the satisfaction of being disappointed like I know he wants me to be. It’s been a fucking war from the moment I saw his name in the writing credits and my best weapon is being pleased about everything in this episode.

- Okay, he looks a little better in the following closeup where his eyes are slightly narrowed. I think it’s the slightly-below-the-chin angle which doesn’t really work for his character model with his soft cheeks and high collar. FELIX IS A BABY.

- WHY WILL NOBODY SHAKE HIS HAND. Adrien hugged him instead and Gabe is ignoring him completely, Felix is clearly so perplexed and I love it. He’s fourteen! He’s fourteen and doing his best with social graces but NOBODY WILL HELP HIM.

- “Felix, you know your uncle’s never been the physical sort!” HE KICKED HIS OWN SON RIGHT ACROSS PARIS IN THE LAST EPISODE BUT SURE, IF YOU SAY SO.

- “Oh, how sweet! You’re still wearing your wedding band!” YEAH? IT’S BEEN LIKE A YEAR?? Again this would make more sense if it had been around three years like we KNOW Emilie’s been gone for, but picking someone out for still wearing their ring after 12 months?! And why isn’t Amelie more emotional about this anyway, isn’t it her sister who’s missing? I wouldn’t be poking fun at MY sister’s husband for keeping his ring if SHE went missing. No wonder Felix seems like he turned out weird.

- I CAN’T MAKE OUT THE NAME OF HER BRANCH OF THE FAMILY AND IT’S KILLING ME. SOMEONE LET ME KNOW WHAT THAT WAS. Graham de Vanily? I can’t place the words. I mean I’m going to keep calling Felix “Agreste” no matter what but I’d like to know what canon is trying to get at.

- “It’s been a long journey from London” I KNEW IT, I FFFFFFFFFUCKING KNEW IT. SO THEY ARE BRITISH?! BUT THEY HAVE AMERICAN ACCENTS?! I mean I guess they’re French first and foremost, but what the fuck is with the American accents if you’re making a POINT about them being from London?! I can’t wait for the French audio to be released, I really want to know what Felix sounds like there. Regardless AAAH MY SON IS FROM MY CITY, I’M SO PLEASED.

- “TakeFelixtoyourbedroom.” EASY GABE THEY JUST MET, ALSO THEY’RE COUSINS

- Poor Felix looks so depressed being saddled with Adrien. Sweetie it’s okay, think positive! You could be stuck with Marinette and THAT would be a true nightmare.

- Now why does Felix keep glancing at Gabe? Is there something going on there? Is he suspicious about what happened to his aunt? I can’t imagine he knows anything about the Miraculous so what’s the deal here?

- UuuuuUUUUGH we’re back with the rest of the gang. I’M NOT INTERESTED, SHOW ME MORE FELIX.

- “Help me Tikki! What would you tell a Kwami friend who’s lost their mom?!” You’re talking to a 5000-year-old demigoddess, Mari, I don’t think she’s gonna relate.

- MARI YOU CAN’T CONFESS TO ADRIEN. NOT AFTER CHAT BLANC. GABE WILL LOSE ALL HIS CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT TO WRECK THE LOVE SQUARE AND ALSO THE MOON’S GOING TO EXPLODE. WHY ISN’T BUNNIX HERE TO SLAP THE TABLET OUT OF YOUR HANDS

- Should Tikki really be encouraging this?! I have no idea where in the timeline this is supposed to be. Maybe this is at a stage where she doesn’t know Adrien is Plagg’s chosen so there’s no reason to steer Marinette away from bonding with him. Or maybe every episode just plays by its own rules and there’s really no such thing as continuity in this series. I want to see Felix again.

- YANKING AT AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE ON THE OUTER EDGE OF A BOAT ISN’T GOING TO END WELL. DON’T. I do love how :D Alya is about it though, if nothing else I love what a supportive friend she is.

- Oh, the tablet didn’t go into the water! I’m genuinely surprised by that. Though I imagine Felix is going to fuck things up in some way so he’ll probably be the one to destroy the video somehow. We all know the relationship development isn’t allowed to move forward so SOMETHING’S going to happen to it.

- Thank god we’re back to the mansion. I’m surprised and pleased that (for now at least) we’re only getting the girls in small doses and the plot is mainly focused around the Agrestes. Gorizilla is my favourite episode to date and it did a similar thing with allowing Marinette to be a side character for once along an Adrien-centric plotline, so hopefully this episode will be similar. I’m liking its odds so far but who knows what Horrible Garbage Man Astruc has up his sleeve.

- “I’m really sorry I didn’t come to your dad’s funeral.” I’M SORRY WHAT? PARDON ME? THAT’S AN ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM I DIDN’T EXPECT. As a side note I love Felix being killer at basketball for some reason, he doesn’t look like the athletic type at ALL but he still made that net over his shoulder without even LOOKING. Goddamn. Can everyone please appreciate how cool my son is!!!

- “My father thought it would be too hard on me, considering everything that’s happened this year.” So Felix lost his dad VERY RECENTLY. OUCH. DON’T LIKE THAT. Or I DO like that because it’s already giving his character some extra depth when we’re still only just getting to know him, but on an emotional level I don’t like that. 

- “He’s very... protective of me.” CHAT BLANC REALLY WAS A HOT MESS OF AN EPISODE WASN’T IT. 

- Now Felix is giving Adrien a hug?! I didn’t see that one coming. My canon Felix would mean it but I don’t quite trust this new Felix yet, he’s probably up to something.

- WHAT A JARRING PIANO TRANSITION. Also why?! What does he have to gain from swiping Adrien’s phone? He’s probably got a terrible roaming plan on his own mobile, that’s always my problem when I go to France. If you truly loved your cousin you’d let him browse Reddit on your phone, Adrien. This is worse than not coming to his dad’s funeral.

- PLAGG KNOWS SOMETHING’S UP. He ought to, in another life he and Felix are STILL dealing with each other.

- Okay I take back what I said about Felix’s voice. Bryce Whatshisface isn’t doing a very good job separating the tones. I can buy that Adrien and Felix sound very similar but their delivery should be completely different! I really do want to watch this in French, I get the feeling it’ll sound much better.

- AH YES, HERE WE GO. I’m getting the feeling this is Garbage Man’s part of the episode. Squished cheese aside, I do like the implication Felix does (or did) card magic and karate. I’m thinking of that Mickey Mouse episode where he vanishes Donald’s car keys with a hand trick except it’s Felix vanishing Marinette’s phone when she’s about to text Adrien or something. I’ve got to draw that.

- “Mind if I take a shower?” WHY, FELIX. I mean I’d probably want to shower too after the London-Paris commute (and I’m sure he’s only going in there to wreak havoc, put food colouring in Adrien’s shampoo bottles or something) but what a weird time to ask!

- I mean Plagg has a point about difficult home situations not justifying bad behaviour (and I feel like that’s not what’s going on, with how he was glaring at Gabe I think he’s behaving like this for some other reason), but Felix’s dad LITERALLY DIED. Like they had a funeral and everything. Emilie is just “missing”. They’re SIMILAR but that’s still a false equivalence because Adrien’s got hope to hold on to and Felix doesn’t.

- So we’re not going to talk about how Felix got into Adrien’s passcode-protected phone? I guess he could have done the fogging-up-the-screen trick from Oblivio. Standing around in a steamy bathroom in three layers of clothing is a great way to sweat yourself out and ruin your hair though, way to get even more gross than a five-hour commute between countries.

- “Of course that idiot has a crush on a superhero!” EASY THERE, MR HOWLING-ON-A-ROOFTOP-BECAUSE-HE-SAW-THE-GIRL-HE-LIKED. WE’VE ALL SEEN THE PV.

- I’ve just noticed Felix has a ring too! I don’t know how I missed that before this scene! That’s NICE. He’s still not allowed to have it on his middle finger (LET HIM SWEAR) but that’s a nod back to Chat Noir which I really appreciate!

- ROSE HAS BEEN ON THE HELIUM. SOMETHING’S NOT RIGHT THERE.

- FELIX KNOWS CHLOÉ! THAT’S NICE, THAT’S GOOD. I LIKE THAT. That’s also a really nice little video from her, I love the few small moments we’ve had that affirm she and Adrien really ARE friends, whether she wants to date him or not. 

- OOOH HE DELETED THE VIDEOS. I’m curious about him borrowing Adrien’s clothes too, are they going to dress the same? You’d think Adrien wouldn’t give someone an exact copy of the outfit he’s currently wearing but I genuinely don’t know if he owns anything different. I hope they don’t just use two Adrien models for the rest of the episode, please let me see Felix properly :/

- WHY. HONESTLY, WHY. CAN I PLEASE GET AN EXPLANATION FOR WHY FELIX IS DOING THIS.

- OOOH MARI YOU’RE NOT GONNA LIKE THIS. I can imagine Felix is going to say something nasty and that’ll set the girls off and bring about the akuma of the week. I’m mildly entertained but I’m still not engaged with this idea without any proper explanation. We’d better get something by the end of the episode which justifies what’s made Felix do this, because “he’s just evil lol” would be a reeeeally low move from Garbage Man Astruc. 

- MARI SWEETIE. YOU’VE GOTTA LEARN TO CHECK A ROOM IS EMPTY BEFORE YOU RUN INSIDE AND START FREAKING OUT VERY LOUDLY. LUKA’S HEARD ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING. 

- Luka is such a nice character. Why does he get to be so high quality when Felix has been turned into a cheese-smashing phone-stealing gremlin? I mean I KNOW why, but I’d like to think the showwriters are better than this. They’re not, but I’d like to think they are.

- WHAT A VIDEO MESSAGE. I love how Luka’s just sitting there grimacing while Mari speeds off into battle, he doesn’t know what she’s about to do but he knows better than to try stopping her.

- Back with Gabe and Nathalie. Is this what was being foreshadowed when Gabe claimed he wouldn’t be fooled by the boys’ identity switch twice? Is he GOING to be fooled again or will he be the one person who can tell immediately that this isn’t his son? 

- “FELIX.” WOW, HE REALLY WASN’T FOOLED TWICE. RESPECT. He may have trouble getting up off the ground if he sits down too low but he can at least identify his child in a difficult situation like this, props to Gabe this week.

- “All this disappointment might just help us get rid of our unwanted guests!” SHUT YOUR MOUTH, FELIX IS A DELIGHT. The only unwanted guest here is Astruc on the writing team.

- “Felix... I told you that you couldn’t fool me twice.” Way to blow your identity in five seconds Gabe. I guess he hasn’t sent out the akuma yet so this might just be a personal monologue, but he starts addressing his victims directly so often at this stage that I’m really not sure what they can or can’t hear. SHIT’S RISKY.

- OH OKAY, SO HE’S SENDING THIS TRIPLE AKUMA AFTER FELIX? AND/OR ADRIEN, DEPENDING ON HOW HARD IT IS TO TELL THEM APART? I guess that’s what he means by getting rid of their guests, if the house is attacked by a monster (or monsters?) they aren’t going to want to stick around, but I REALLY HOPE YOU’RE TAKING ADRIEN’S WELLBEING INTO ACCOUNT HERE GABE OL BUDDY :/

- “TIKKI, SPOTS ON! MNUURGH” ME TOO MARINETTE. I’M REALLY ONLY 12 MINUTES INTO THIS.

- I’m gonna be honest, I’m not really interested in the girls. I was hoping for a real triple akuma (like Oblivio was apparently Alya and Nino together) but they’re all just villains we’ve seen before. There’s stuff I could comment on here but I just want to see more of Felix, that’s what I’m here for.

- “Nathalie, get Adrien to a safe place far from his cousin!” YOU’RE REALLY JUST GONNA SACRIFICE FELIX LIKE THIS. I guess that makes sense, I WAS complaining during Chat Blanc that Adrien is Gabriel’s weak point, so all things considered I’m not surprised that he’ll protect Adrien but just flat-out wants Felix dead. Fair enough.

- WOW. I THOUGHT ADRIEN WAS GOING TO BE HEROIC AND DEFEND FELIX BUT HE WANTS HIM DEAD TOO. Or was that a double bluff to make the akuma think he MUST be Felix so he can lead them away and keep his cousin safe? He’s just run off with a wild cackle so I’m thinking it’s the latter. HE’S A GOOD BOY AND A TRUE HERO.

- I also find it kind of funny how Nathalie will jump in harm’s way to defend him when there have been INNUMERABLE other episodes of Gabe just setting an akuma directly on Adrien for the hell of it. Maybe because there isn’t really any ‘harm’ here to start with; the three girls’ powers are probably the least violent of all the akuma we’ve seen so far.

- AM I REALLY ABOUT TO SEE FELIX DRESSED AS ADRIEN DOING KARATE. I HOPE HE’S GOOD AT IT.

- OH MY GOD HE IS GOOD AT IT. That’s cool! I was expecting him to totally flop considering how badly his imposter trick went down a few minutes ago, but it’s nice to see he’s as capable at fighting as he is at basketball. When do I get to see his magic card tricks?

- YEAH I FEEL THE SAME PLAGG. WHAT’S EVEN HAPPENING. Not that I think Adrien shouldn’t save Felix, I just want to know WHY Felix felt like he had to do this in the first place! I feel like “can I PLEASE get a waffle” except instead of watching the employees fight I’m watching this episode careening away with no pauses to explain what’s going on.

- FELIX C’MON. STOP CAUSING PROBLEMS ON PURPOSE. I can tell Garbage Man Astruc still has the reins here because causing even MORE trouble even AFTER Adrien saved his ass is a completely illogical course of action. PUT SÉBASTIEN BACK IN THE WRITERS CHAIR.

- “WHICH PART OF THE WORD ‘NO’ DID YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?!” Oh perfect, great, can’t let this episode end without accusing Felix of not respecting consent! That’s a hot button issue and if Garbage Man Astruc can get him on that bandwagon then fans HAVE to hate this character! Great move! Fucking pillock!

- WOW CHAT THAT’S MEAN. I guess accusing Felix of having no friends is justified in the context of the episode but yikes :(

- Was that a flash of humiliation from Felix there? God will one of the writers PLEASE save this character, PLEASE don’t let this episode end without someone getting him out of the Garbage Man’s big meaty claws.

- Excuse me WHAT? Felix is talking directly to Papillon?! So he knows about all the Miraculous stuff?! Oh NO, is this about getting his dad back? I don’t know whether the One Wish is common knowledge (I don’t think it is?) but maybe Felix put the pieces together on his own back home, so all his behaviour here has been trying to incite an akuma that he can take advantage of to appeal to Papillon?! Or he could just be a bitch all on his own, which is probably what the Garbage Man would prefer, but this makes a lot of sense all of a sudden.

- BRO HE NEARLY DIED. BRO. BROOO.

- “I hope you’ve learned your lesson!” YOU’RE NOT EVEN GONNA ASK ABOUT THE PAPILLON THING? YOU CAN’T JUST TREAT THIS AS A REGULAR DISTURBANCE, FELIX KNOWS SHIT ABOUT THE MIRACULOUS YOU GUYS--

- FELIX’S MOM IS REALLY GOING TO BLAME HIS DEAD DAD FOR THIS? HARD YIKES. NO WONDER FELIX IS WEIRD.

- I’m expecting this isn’t over, because Felix still clearly wants something specific that he didn’t get, but I’ll take this cute hug for what it is. He didn’t have an evil expression behind Adrien’s back this time either and the music is all soft and nice, plus he FINALLY got a handshake from Gabe, but I absolutely do NOT imagine this episode will end without getting an extra shot in at the PV fans somehow. We’re not getting off this easy.

- Why doesn’t Gabriel want Adrien to go after Felix? Is he scared he’ll try to run off, or ask them to stay longer when he really wants to get rid of them?

- AHAHA FELIX STOLE GABE’S RING. WHAT A BRAT. Was that the “jewelry” he mentioned wanting in return for helping Papillon? I figured it was a Miraculous thing but maybe not.

- OHHH, look how much Felix loves his mom! This is such a sweet scene. I particularly like the idea that Amelie was trying to get the rings back to give one to Felix because the way she was speaking to Gabe made it sound like she wanted them Just Because. But you can’t mention some wild story connected to the rings and then not explain it! I want to know what that is, I want to know why Felix is so fascinated with it!!!

- ALSO, FELIX GETTING A BIG KISS RIGHT ON THE FOREHEAD. EXCELLENT. I’ll fucking BET this is another scene Sébastien sneaked in because it’s such an emotional quality shift from the whole clone mess. Like what the fuck even WAS that.

- Yep, Felix is still evil! WHY THOUGH. WHAT’S GOING ON. CAN I PLEASE GET A WAFFLE

- I was expecting a worse ending, but “Felix can’t ever come back to Paris because Gabriel will kill him with his bare hands if he does” is decent enough. If there’s no further confirmation (and NO, anything Garbage Man Astruc tweets later on does NOT fucking count so don’t try me) I’m going to take it that he WAS actually sorry for what he did to Adrien. That’s better than nothing.

.

.

WELL THAT WAS AN EPISODE. That actually wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be - it could have been a lot better but it could have been a lot worse too. The beginning and end were nice enough even if the middle part was Garbage Man Astruc’s usual atrocious mess of self-service, though I do particularly despise the hamfisted consent issue shoved in there just to generate extra reasons to hate the character. WE GET IT, YOU DON’T LIKE FELIX. OFF YOU FUCK. 

I’ve slept on this next paragraph to give myself time to formulate some concrete thoughts about the plot, so... Well, it was a mess, that’s for sure. They spent way too much time establishing how oH sO eViL Felix was and not nearly enough time actually explaining his character. 

Why is he acting out like this? What has he got against Adrien in particular? Is he really sore about Adrien not supporting him at his dad’s funeral or is that just what Adrien thinks is his problem? What was his relationship with his dad before he died? Was his troublemaking all about trying to provoke an akuma and ask Papillon to help him get his family rings back (which he was clearly trying to steal from the moment he walked through the door, only Gabe wouldn’t shake his hand the first time), or was that just a side effect of causing shit for no reason? Did he mean his apology to Adrien at the end? WHAT was the deal with the rings and the story attached to them? There’s a whole interesting story buried in here which just got completely overlooked by the emphasis on how terrible he was and that’s really disappointing. 

I did like his damaged-but-still-good relationship with Adrien though, there’s still hope there and maybe Felix (if he ever shows up again, which I only hope he does if it’s NOT another excuse for Garbage Man Astruc to shit on the PV fandom again, for the love of FUCK don’t give this guy multiple opportunities) will start coming around and making the effort to be a better cousin since Adrien’s given him a second chance. I don’t know. What I liked just as much was Marinette actually barely being in this episode at all, for the first time since Gorizilla she’s ALLOWED to be the supporting character again and that’s GREAT.

I don’t really know what else to say. I’m exhausted. Adrien’s a darling and I think I prefer my Twin AU, though canon Felix being a delightful little gremlin who causes problems-on-purpose is something I can work with in the future too. 

Thanks for coming on this... interesting journey with me! I posted a set of tweets last night which I’ll leave here to finish up:

[morning-star-57]

Miraculous Quirk AU

Idk if someone has already done this but here we go!

So, I recently got into Boku no Hero Academia and I got to thinking, what if the Miraculous universe was set in the same one as Bnha?

So, those of us who watch Bnha know the drill, 80% of the population has superpowers, called “quirks.” The other 20% are “quirkless.” So here’s how it would play out in my brain.

Super duper long, oops, so under the cut!

Miraculous:

works pretty much the same way as canon

only doesn’t give you a suit the holder picks that themselves

they work similar to One For All does in Bnha

the power of the previous owner fuels the power of the miraculous and the previous user can still use the power, but a weakened version of it

Ladybug miraculous gives the holder the power to create things and heal

Black Cat miraculous gives the power to destroy things with a touch (at will)

And so on, pretty much like canon but with some modifications

Marinette

was born quirkless

when she was younger, kids (cough Chloe cough) would make fun of her for it

was insecure about it for a long time and then saw all of the ways that quirks could backfire and decided it wasn’t worth it and it no longer bothers her (much)

(seeing Chloe blind herself was funny tho, even if it was temporary)

still wants to be a fashion designer

wary of superheros because of all of that property damage and also some of them are lowkey sus.

parents still own a bakery

Sabine’s quirk is levitation. She can make items and people float with her  mind but they have to be things she can physically lift (it’s okay tho cause she’s smol but strong). The drawback is that she gets really bad headaches and if she uses it too much or for too long, she can get a migraine.

Tom has a smaller, tamer version of pyrokinesis. He can’t make his entire body burst into flame but he can make certain parts, like his hands. He has a naturally high resistance to extreme weathers as his body heat is unusally high (hugs from him during the summer are bittersweet b/c he’s a great hugger but it’s too damn HOT DAD GET OFF-). The drawback is that he can’t control the temperature of the flame so if he’s not careful or if he uses his quirk for too long, it’ll burn him. His arms have many burn scars, rip.

back to Marinette

Decided the Hero Life wasn’t for her but still supports her friends who want to do it

Until she met the Lucky Hero, Tikki, her favorite

After plot happens, Tikki gives her the source of her “quirk”, the miraculous, and entrusts Marinette to carry on her legacy

Lots of angsty turmoil before she accepts the miraculous and decided to become a hero.

Chooses to be named the Ladybug, same as canon

Her hero costume would be the same as canon AT FIRST since her decision to go to a hero school was last minute af but then the suit will go through modifications to better suit her power needs and fashion needs

Got through the entrance exam after training with Tikki and because she’s badass shh

Doesn’t get a crush on Adrien until later once they’re already friends (or at all really idk yet)

Adrien

was the result of a quirk marriage

was the *failed result of a quirk marriage

Instead of inheriting both quirks of his parents, like intended, they combined and created a new one

His quirk is Charm. His body releases an invisible pheromone that makes him seem more attractive or trustworthy, sometimes both, depending on the person who smells it. This makes the “victim” more susceptible to his suggestions, but it’s not a total brainwash, unlike his father, so they can still easily fight it off if they wanted to. The drawbacks are that he can’t really stop it so he has to be constantly covered so that he doesn’t accidentally charm everyone. Also, after a while, people can build up tolerance to him and it won’t work as strongly on them.

Gabriel has Brainwash, which is often seen as a villain’s quirk. Everyone is thankful the he decided on fashion as a career and not villainy (oh those poor naive souls). If he looks into your eyes, you are put in his control and won’t be able to fight it unless he lets you go or if you receive a blunt impact to the head. The drawbacks are that he can’t control it so anyone who he makes eye contact with gets brainwashed unless there’s an obstacle in the way i.e.: glasses

Emilie’s quirk is sleep gas. Her skin cells naturally produce a gas that can put people in a coma-like state. The drawbacks are, again, can’t turn it off and the person has to be within range. She also has to be constantly covered.

Adrien wanted to be a hero at first to spite his father

Gabriel always hated heroes and saw them as a nuisance.

So Adrien basically said “fuck you, I’m going to be the best hero because I can”

And somehow convinced his dad to enroll him in College Francois Dupont, a local hero school

(he acutally just charmed him cause his dad isn’t around him enough to build up immunity to his quirk but shh)

He gets in through recommendations and is put in the hero course

This version of Adrien was still childhood friends with Chloe (who is immune to him) and a lot more distrustful of people, especially if they’re nice since he has no way of know if they’re genuinely a nice person or if they just fell prey to his quirk

rip the sunshine boy he has no friends except Chloe for the first few weeks of class

Becomes friends with Nino after they got paired up in a fight simulation

The slowly gets more comfortable around people and becomes more open to friendships

Doesn’t get the Black Cat Miraculous until much, much later when the Squad gets caught up in a fight with villains and the Unlucky Hero, Plagg (Tikki’s partner and husband) decides to entrust him with it

Impulsive chaotic gremlin that gets threatened to be put on a leash made by Marinette 

Chloe

also the result of a quirk marriage, this one being successful

Her quirk is called Diamond. Her skin has an extra layer that acts very similarly to an actual diamond so she can reflect, refract, and disperse light. This layer can also harden at her will so that she can become a semi-indestructible prism. Her body’s reaction to light intensifies while in this state. The drawbacks are that while her body is hardened, she cannot move easily and her speed will be greatly reduced. Also, her skin is just very sparkly almost all of the time which makes it hard to hide from villains and to see when it’s sunny out. Usually wear large sunhats and sunglasses to try and reduce the shine

Her and Adrien bond by being products of a quirk marriage

also got in through recommendation and everyone thinks she bought her way in but actually tried very hard to earn her spot

is VERY protective over Adrien and will blind someone if they say anything she deems offensive

She and Marinette practically hate each other on a good day before they were forced to hang out since Adrien kept bringing Chloe along with him whenever the Squad would get into shenanigans

They developed a mutual agreement to be civil at one point and that slowly turned into friendship

Y’know the type of friends that insult each other and fight over every small thing but the second someone else tries to come for the other they won’t h e s i t a t e BITCH

yeah that’s them

anyways, I digress

Is surprisingly the sensible one of the group

“no you cannot run headfirst into the fight Adrien, these are actual villains and you can’t even pass a simulation without dumb luck.”

“I don’t care if your quirk can heal you Marinette, stop jumping off of rooftops and go down the stairs like a normal person!”

“Put it down, Nino.”

“Luka. No.”

you get the idea

she is Mom

Says she wants to be a hero because hero’s are cool and she’s cool so it just makes sense for her to be a hero

(actually though because she wanted to make her mother proud of her but you didn’t hear it from me)

Is lowkey really powerful and if she tried to use the full extent of her powers, she’d be a beast

but don’t tell her that, she’s already got a big head

Luka

is working towards becoming an underground hero

His quirk is sound amplification. He amplifies preexisting sound waves to what ever frequency is needed. Depending on the frequency, he can break through almost any object. The drawback is that sound waves can damage his hearing and can become temporarily deaf if he uses it too long or if he creates a frequency that’s too high for his body to handle. Has a chance of becoming permanently deaf if he overuses his quirk too many times

His suit comes with modifications to help with that so he should be fine he hopes

His guitar doubles as a weapon since he usually amplifies whatever chord he plays

Already has his provisional hero licence

is still really chill

is one of the first to figure out Marinette’s secret but is a good boi so he doesn’t tell

you’d think that being the oldest of the group he’d be the sensible one but nope

is accidentally the one that encourages shenanigans 

Luka, innocently: Hey, did you know that the teachers don’t lock up the sim rooms?

Chloe: *Death glare*

Luka: *nervous confusion*

the one who encouraged Juleka to go for the hero course 

Nino

Adrien’s best friend, just like canon

started out as general studies since he wasn’t sure if he was good enough to be a hero but a teacher saw his potential and was transferred into the hero course

His quirk is time reduction. He can slow time or even stop it completely if he concentrates very hard, allowing him to get one place to the next in literally no time at all. He used to think it was super speed because this but found out what it really was when he tried to save a cat from being run over and stopped time. He can also stop  only certain objects in time but that takes up more energy. The drawback is that if he overuses his quirk he starts to speed up his own time in order to compensate for the time he’s losing so he becomes very tired and after “3 hours” of his own time passed he will pass out from exhaustion. Also, he can only manipulate the time within his quirk’s range which can go up to about the size of an american football field (160 feet/49) meters.

is super insecure of his quirk because he thinks it’s not as cool as everyone else’s

they make sure to let him know that that’s bs and he’s very cool

feeds off of Adiren’s chaotic energy during simulations

has been put in timeout by Chloe when this happens

will stop time to bask in the moment 

gets emotional during this

there have been many times where the Squad is chilling and suddenly everyone just sees Nino sobbing 

group hugs ensue

Adrien, probably: “Chloe get your shiny ass in the cuddle pile or so help me-!”

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 I’ll make a part two since this is already so long, but that’s it for now! What do y’all think?

Part 2 is now up!

[princess-of-the-corner]

Hero Chat: Lila

This is just something for me to write out my thoughts on how to handle the Lila plot in the Hero Chat fic. And in general, but mostly this. Because I discussed using the ‘Lila has some kind of Magic’ plot for why everyone believes her.

I want to discuss both the ‘Magic’ plot and the ‘everyone kinda fucked up a little’ plot. Because both are things I want to talk out.

This isn’t necessarily salt, but it does involve Lila and the class believing her lies and a little of Adrien’s ‘don’t do anything’ plan. So you know. 

Let’s start with the Magic plot.

I’m calling the Magic ‘Silver Tongue’, because of course. It was a kind of Magic created by someone who used the Fox Miraculous for selfish gain in the past. They used the Fox’s Illusions to trick their way into fame, money, and power.

Eventually, they created a more subtle version of the Magic. Illusion in just words. Silver Tongue is just words that are believed as much as the Fox’s Illusions. They are also just as real as the Fox’s Illusions, believable, but destroyed if you try to touch them.

What I mean is that as long as the Silver Tongue’s lie is not given proof that it’s a lie, they will believe it. But they won’t believe something they know is false. For example, Alya believes Lila when she says ‘oh, I’m bffs with Ladybug’. But if Lila said ‘I’m Rena Rouge’, Alya would be able to tell it’s a lie.

Which, yes, brings us to Lila. In an ironic twist, she was right about being descended from someone who used the Fox Miraculous, just not a Hero. She actually had no idea and was making it up but hey. Everyone gets lucky sometimes.

The thing that makes a Silver Tongue lose their power, is the realization that they’re lying. Once you know that their words are lies, you won’t be enchanted by further lies. This is why Marinette and Adrien aren’t effected by Lila.

Marinette knew Lila was lying due to her saying ‘I’m bffs with Ladybug’. She knows for a fact that it’s false. Between this and the fact that she knows other lies are false, such as Jagged Stone having a cat or Lila being traveling for months, she isn’t enchanted by Silver Tongue.

Adrien was suckered in at first. But Ladybug showing up and calling Lila out on her shit broke the spell. It would’ve been broken anyway if Lila kept talking about having the Fox Miraculous, as she would’ve made up stuff about it that Adrien would know is false. For example, he could ask her to transform and she’d make up a reason why that doesn’t fit with what he knows. And she’d say nothing about a Kwami. So he would’ve figured it out without Ladybug’s help.

However, while there is Magic making the class believe Lila’s stories, she doesn’t control their reactions to it. Sending Marinette to the back without asking, dismissing her as jealous, and ignoring how uncomfortable Adrien is around Lila? That’s all on them.

There is also nothing stopping them from doing their own investigation, other than the fact that they feel like they don’t need to because ‘Lila is obviously telling the truth’.

When the classmates realize they’d been tricked, they will still feel guilty and apologize, recognizing that they fucked up even if Magic was involved.

-

Now for the non-magical version!

There’s a lot of factors of why Lila’s lies work. Some of it is because she’s good at manipulating the situation, and making up other lies when she’s called out.

Next, there’s the fact that Lila knowing celebrities isn’t that far of a stretch given the classmates.

Chloé and Adrien are actually rich and famous, but are in this one random public school class.

Marinette has gotten the attention of several celebrities and big names in the fashion industry.

Rose knows Prince Ali. And while we don’t really know how often they talk, a lot of people assume they talk a lot.

Then there’s Kitty Section. The band has gotten a lot of attention in the short time they’ve been playing.

Alya runs the Ladyblog, Number 1 source of Ladybug news.

Not to mention the Heroes. Everyone knows about Chloé being Queen Bee. From Alya and Nino’s perspectives, there’s three heroes in class. Other classmates who have been Heroes think there’s themselves and Chloé, making two.

So yeah, Lila, daughter of someone from the Italian Embassy who travels a lot, says she knows some celebrities. That’s kinda believable when compared to the rest of the classmates’ fame.

But there’s also the fact that multiple people expect other people to fact check or say something. For example:

When Alya makes a post on the Ladyblog about Lila being ‘Ladybug’s bff’, Ladybug doesn’t challenge that. Ladybug knows about the Ladyblog and knows how to find Alya. From Alya’s perspective, if it wasn’t true, Ladybug herself would have said something.

Not to victim blame, but Marinette really should’ve done that. If only to keep Lila and her family from being targeted by Hawkmoth.

Rose talks to Prince Ali. She could’ve asked him about Lila. Everyone probably assumes she did. Since she didn’t call Lila out either, he probably told her she’s on the up and up.

I do headcanon that Rose mentioned Lila to Prince Ali, but she didn’t do major digging. It was probably like: Rose: “Hey! I made a new friend! Lila Rossi!”, Ali: “I’m glad you’re making new friends! Would you like to hear about this cool thing that happened earlier?”. It’s the kind of situation where she didn’t ask directly, and since Ali didn’t go ‘who?’, she assumed that it was fine.

Lila’s ‘disabilities’.

From the Class’s perspective, it’s not on them to ask for documentation. It’s on the staff. If the staff members believe Lila has tinnitus and whatever else, then they have the documentation necessary to confirm it.

As for the staff believing it, that’s probably Lila forging doctor’s notes and hijacking her mom’s email. Or giving a fake email on the paperwork.

Lila being out of Paris for months

Like the disabilities, the class doesn’t need to confirm it as the school staff have done that. After all, Lila couldn’t just be skipping class for several months without consequences! The school would’ve contacted her mother, and her mother would’ve done something about it!

Obviously Lila also used the email thing from the disabilities section to fake an email from her mom saying ‘we’ve been traveling lately. Can you email Lila any classwork she needs?’.

As for her mom, we know she’s lying to her about the whole Akuma situation. Saying the school is closed because of all that fuckery.

So yeah, between decent lies, people assuming things are cool because they’re naive kids who like to see the best in people, and a few screwups, it’s easy to believe Lila’s claims.

And once she has a hold on the class, getting them to believe her, she can turn things around on those who try to call her out. Marinette tries to say something? Lila pulls out the ‘I’m being so nice! Why do you hate me!’. And since, from the class’s perspective, there’s no reason for Marinette to be mean other than jealousy over Adrien, they assume that’s the problem.

If Adrien had spoken up, Lila would’ve found a way to turn it around. Maybe she spins it as ‘Marinette’s obviously been telling you horrible things about me!’ or ‘Now he’s making stuff up to protect Marinette!’ . It depends on how dedicated she is to thinking she can win Adrien over.

So yeah it’s not that they’re entirely falling for a bunch of lies without proof. There’s enough plausible to Lila’s lies that they don’t feel the need to search further. Of course if they looked into it they’d find the truth, but for now they’re sitting back.

And of course when they do realize what happened, they apologize to Marinette and Adrien.

-

Side note: Adrien’s view of ‘why does it matter, she’s not hurting anyone?’.

First of all, Adrien wasn’t there for all of Lila’s bullshit. He does know she was lying to impress him and the classmates. He might be skeptical about the tinnitus claim, but can’t really prove that she doesn’t have tinnitus(obviously he knows the ‘how’ is fake, but she could hypothetically have it from something else). And it wasn’t Lila who made Marinette sit in the back, just the classmates assuming she’d be chill.

Adrien didn’t see the scene in the cafeteria where Marinette tried to call Lila out and everyone turned against her. He didn’t see the bathroom scene of Lila threatening her. And no one told him about it.

So, again, from Adrien’s perspective, Lila is just telling grand stories to try and impress everyone. Which doesn’t really hurt anyone. Maybe it will in the long run, if people keep believing her and base all their decisions on what she says instead of thinking for themselves. But that’s a bit unlikely. Also he’s still a teenager and they’re not the best at thinking long-term.

Adrien’s experience with liars is also more limited. He would mostly deal with paparazzi and tabloid reporters that make up gossip for clickbait views. People who saw him hanging with Marinette in ‘Gorizilla’ and tweeted out that she was his secret girlfriend. There’s a line I keep wanting to put into a fic somewhere of Adrien saying ‘If my father stopped what he was doing to disprove every rumor about him having an affair with a model or intern half his age, he wouldn’t be able to get any work done at all.’.

From Adrien’s perspective, it’s not worth it to call Lila out like Marinette was doing. All it’ll do is enrage the class and push them further into Lila’s side. They would be alone. They’d have each other, but no one else.

As shown in later episodes, like ‘Oni-Chan’ and especially ‘Ladybug’, Adrien does come to realize Lila is less of a ‘hey pay attention to me’ liar and more of a ‘I’ll manipulate the fuck out of everyone and destroy anyone who tries to stop me’ liar. And he decides to do something about it. Even if he can’t prove Lila lied, he can ‘make a deal with the devil’ and get her to fix things.

Okay, that’s it now. Goodnight everybody.

[homespork-review]

Homespork Act 2: The Racism of the Conductor’s Baton (Part 5)

TIER: Meanwhile, minutes in the future, a new character wanders about the desert wasteland. A PEREGRINE MENDICANT.

CHEL: This character resembles WV, except plain white in colour and noticeably taller, also wrapped in rags and pushing what appears to be a shopping trolley full of mailboxes.

WV heads for the passageway outside, the door to the bunker slamming shut behind him and glowing with a touchscreen; interacting with that causes the antechamber to spin around and a door to open into a new room, containing more computers. One of the two screens depicts Earth, while the other shows four spirographs orbiting around a fifth spirograph, with one set of two dots (one large, one small) next to the centre and another set of dots outside the orbit range. Looks familiar? A smaller screen below shows coordinates and times.

The room also contains a meter stick, which WV considers combining with his knife (really a strip of rusty metal) and a strip of rag to form a spear, but he hasn’t got his knife with him, and a bizarre contraption which looks like a ray gun pointing at a circular platform. When WV presses the big blue button on the console, the machine is proved to be an APPEARIFYER, which produces a pumpkin apparently out of thin air. Closer examination proves it to have taken the pumpkin from the coordinates entered on the console; there is a symbol carved on the pumpkin in the shape of what appears to be a pointy-eared animal’s face.

WV experiments a bit more with the machine, successfully summoning his knife back and using it to cut open the pumpkin (we are spared the apparently gruesome sight of him devouring the innards messily). The spirograph switch is immovable without a key. WV is also able to rescue the firefly from within the amber chunk, and this being a cartoon the firefly is miraculously alive and very happy about this! Awww.

TIER: The APPEARIFYER seems to be capable of grabbing thing from anywhere and anywhen, as long as doing so doesn't create a time paradox of all things. Attempting to do so causes the machine to activate a failsafe that turns whatever someone tried to get into a pile of paradox slime.

CHEL: With seconds to spare and dramatic music playing, WV appearifies the grate over the entrance to provide himself with an exit route, then scrambles around cramming all his cans and equipment into the hollow pumpkin, much to the consternation of the firefly, now named Serenity (of course). Frantically, he rushes up the ladder towards outside and safety… only to slip and fall back down at the last second, cans landing all over him, cutting to a scene reading “PSYCHE?” The next page states simply “UNPSYCHE”, the text beneath declaring a failure of the rare and highly dangerous 5X CLIFFHANGER COMBO, and we lead into another animation.

WV makes it to the top of the ladder just as the countdown finishes. Fortunately, the explosion doesn’t kill him; instead, it turns out to be the starting of rocket engines which propel the entire bunker into the air, setting it flying westward. Cut to John’s suburb, noted to be A CONTINENT WESTWARD AND YEARS IN THE PAST (BUT NOT MANY), where a meteor plummets to Earth, destroying all life and construction around it. Wind fills up the crater with soil again and a large white tree sprouts in its centre over a time period then revealed to be the years between its destruction and WV’s arrival.

Meanwhile, Peregrine Mendicant pushes their cart full of mailboxes along in the desert, oblivious to the bunker which is heading right overhead. WV observes, and the camera pans out to show PM’s outside another bunker with the same green house symbol on it. AN OCEAN WESTWARD AND YEARS IN THE PAST, but not “not many” this time, a spirograph opens up in space, shooting out a meteor, which crashes beside an active volcano. Millennia pass; the volcano dies, the crater fills up with greenery, and a tall building of green stone with a frog statue on the top is erected by unseen beings. As water levels rise, the building is covered almost completely and the volcano becomes an ocean island. Pterosaurs fly past, so we can presume the building was not made by humans.

Cut to Rose, cornered by the fire, frantically hitting and screaming at the generator until a flaming tree falls, shattering the generator and forcing Rose to leap to safety - or not safety, as the fire is still surrounding her. Mom Lalonde observes from the window of the house and presses a button on a keypad, opening up a secret passage in the mausoleum, leading downwards.

In a mysterious purple tower, Dad Egbert is handcuffed and hurried along by two imps, until he breaks free of the cuffs and attacks with cake and shaving cream. (If you pay close attention, you'll discover the cuffs were the trick ones from John's chest, according to another reader - I never did notice.) Atop another tower, this one Dave’s apartment building, Dave faces down Bro and Cal under a bright orange sky, and we finally see Bro Strider in non-silhouette. He bears a striking resemblance to the photo of the GameBro writer, right down to the popped collar. I don’t know if he’s actually supposed to be said writer, though.

Finally, WV’s flying bunker comes to a gentle stop in the middle of another desert, and he finds himself at the foot of a third tower, this one the remains of the frog-topped building, the ocean now long dry. The animation ends, and the curtains close on Act 2.

Now this is how to get across a lot of information fast! Much better. Very little text needed (in fact, what is there might not be strictly necessary, though it’s useful for immediately parsing what’s shown), no messing about. It’s a sharp improvement over sylladex shenanigans.

Okay, what do you guys think of Act 2? What does it do better than Act 1, or worse? Do you think it’s doing a good job of storytelling?

TIER: The pacing has improved.

CHEL: Technically speaking there are more instances of GET ON WITH IT (five to Act 1’s three), but this act is also longer and some of those instances were unnecessary single pages and not endless faffing about like in Act 1, so yes, that’s getting better. I think Hussie now knows better where his plot is going, and I don’t know if he originally did in the early stages of Act 1, so he’s better able to stick to a route to the goal.

FAILURE ARTIST: It is interesting seeing Rose’s and Dave’s home situation in light of later developments. I don’t think Hussie intended any deep commentary on child abuse when he wrote those scenes. I think it was edgy humor.

I hadn’t paid much attention to Rose’s FAQ or Sassacre’s book and I am disappointed by the racism in the excerpts. Worse, I know Hussie reuses the ethnic wedding metaphor later.

But on a positive note, the walkabout game is a cool new use of the medium.

BRIGHT: There’s a lot more meat to this act. More things happen, we get introduced to some of the background characters and find out more about how the game is set up. We also have more characterisation, which is a definite plus.

CHEL: So, for our hypothetical rewrite, removing the racism is obvious. “Edgy” humour was in at the time of writing, but even with that excuse, this is icky. It doesn’t really have the self-awareness of the awfulness of, say, Something Positive, it’s just a guy saying offensive things and it’s not quite clear how aware he is that they’re offensive.

Also obvious is removing the redundancy. I’d also add in a better reaction for John learning that Earth is doomed. I considered possibly moving that part of the reveal to a later point when it could be explored a bit more, but it does work nicely as a wham line with little info given yet. Also, figure out what the fuck we should be going for with Rose’s and Dave’s parental figures and stick to it. I could certainly see it being possible to lull the reader into falsely thinking of awful situations as funny in context and slowly revealing ways it fucked the kids up as we go, but in HS it’s handled clumsily, and there’s far too much going on already for an idea like that to have space to do it justice, I think. Oh, also, if John’s dream sequence was necessary, I’d have had it with him being knocked out, not just randomly deciding to nap while still surrounded by monsters. That was just kind of weird, especially since his friend is still in danger at that point.

Anything else you all can think of, readers? I don’t think we have any huge holes in the plot yet or anything. It’s certainly still much better than most of the works sporked here, but we'd appreciate it if you point out anything we missed.

COUNTS ALL THE LUCK: 0 ARE YOU TRYING TO BE FUNNY?: 6 CALL CPA PLEASE: 2 CLOCKWORK PROBLEMATYKKS: 6 GET ON WITH IT!: 8 GORE GALORE: 0 HOW NOT TO WRITE A WEBCOMIC: 13 HURRY UP AND DO NOTHING: 3 IN HATE WITH MY CREATION: 0 RELATIONSHIP GOALS?: 0 SEND THEM TO THE SLAMMER: 0 SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS: 0 WHAT IS HAPPENING??: 1 WHITE SBURB POSTMODERNISM: 6 TOTAL: 45

[al-winchester]

Commission Guide

 Commission Rules and Guidelines + How to Request

-Fandoms-

My list of fandoms I write for is constantly growing as I read and watch and play more things. I also may have forgotten to list a few, so don't be afraid to ask about a fandom! An up to date list of fandoms I write for can be found at the end of this post for easy reference, or via the link in my description. 

-Genres, Prompts, and Content Rating-

I can write for any genre you would like. Specify which you are interested in, or let me surprise you. 

I can write from prompts you see on my page, prompts you find other places, or a plot you came up with. Just be sure to word it carefully so the right idea is portrayed! A fun idea is using a song as a prompt. It allows for lots of ways to interpret it!

Content I write is most often PG-13, but I can do R-Rated. This being said, please notify me of anything that may offend you so I can create something you will enjoy reading. Alternatively, let me know what is okay to incorporate into the story. 

-Default Writing Style-

There are things I do in my writing if there is no specifications made in that area:

- If it is a x Reader story, I write in first person (Example: I adjusted my bag.)

- I usually follow the plot of the canon universe, save for a few changes necessary to make the story work

- I use some swearing, if it is in character (This can be censored or omitted)

-Things I Will NOT Write-

- Incest, pedophilia, beastiality

- Anything that glorifies suicide or self-harm (different from depicting it)

- Anything that glorifies abusive behavior (different from depicting it)

- Anything that promotes racism, homophobia, or sexism (that includes the kind of fake feminism that states that women are better than men)

- Fanfiction of real people is not my thing. I don't want to write it.

- Anything that gives out personal information about you or others

- Any sort of hate promotion

- Real life politics (Not my area of expertise at all)

If you have questions about if your request breaks my rules, please ask! The worst I can do is tell you I won't accept your request.  I am happy to clarify anything you may have questions on.

-Examples of information to give for a commission-

The more of the following you include in your request, the easier it will be for me to have a handle on what to create for you. Here are the things I recommend listing in your request:

- the main character(s), and how to refer to reader character (If doing a reader based story)

- a prompt or plotline (a song can work as a prompt too)

- Point of view

- Any alterations to the fictional universe being used as a base (Alternate Universes and Universe Alterations)

- Word count limit (This determines how much you pay. If more is written, it is not charged for.)

- When you would like to have it done by

All this being said, there are lots of ways to go about this. If you only have a general idea of what you want, that is fine too! I am happy to work with you to get what you want out of the story. Alternatively, the more details you give, the more of them I can integrate into the story. Last, you could go as simple as asking for a character and giving a word limit and let me work my magic! It is completely in your hands on how to make a request.

-Pricing-

Price is a penny per word up to 2000 words.

After for pieces longer than a limit of 2000 words, the price is 1 and 1/2 pennies per word.

For easy reference, a 500 word commission would cost $5. A 2500 word piece would cost $37.50.  A table of word counts and prices is at the end of this post for easy budgeting.

You set the word limit. If I go over the limit, you only pay up to the limit. Consider the rest a bonus for getting me inspired. Standard limits are between 200 words and 2000 words. Anything longer will require more planning.

-Logistics-

Keep in touch - We can communicate via email or messaging. It’s your choice.

Payment - When the commission request is accepted, I will send you an invoice via PayPal or Square based on your preference. The invoice can be done one of 2 ways, either pay in full up front, or pay half before and half after completion.

Publishing - I will not publish the commission unless I have your express permission to do so. If it is published, you can choose to be tagged in it or not.

Receiving the document - I will send you a PDF file with your completed commission.

Altering a finished commission - If there is something you want changed about the commission for any reason, I will do so and send you the new version. If the alterations require 100 or more words to be added, the base rate of a penny per word will be charged. If the alterations remove 100 or more words, the amount removed will be refunded.

When you send in your request, please use the phrase 'Cybernetix is the future' as a pass code so I know you have read through this and understand my process.

  -Pricing Table-

Word Count - Price

200 - $2

300 - $3

400 - $4

500 - $5

600 - $6

700 - $7

800 - $8

900 - $9

1000 - $10

1100 - $11

1200 - $12

1300 - $13

1400 - $14

1500 - $15

1600 - $16

1700 - $17

1800 - $18

1900 - $19

2000 - $20

2100 - $31.50

2200 - $33

2300 - $34.50

2400 - $36

2500 - $37.50

2600 - $39

2700 - $40.50

2800 - $42

2900 - $43.50

3000 - $45

-Fandom List-

Remember, if you don't see your fandom on here, it might not have been added yet, so ask me about it.

Arrow

Better Than Us

Bioshock

Brooklyn 99

Carnivale

DC

Detroit: Become Human

Disney

Doctor Who

Ex Machina

Fallout 4

Flash

Grease

Halo

Harry Potter

Haunting of Hill House

Hereditary

Indiana Jones

James Bond

Jumanji

Jurassic Park

Kingsman: The Secret Service

Legend of Zelda

Lord of the Rings

Love Death + Robots

Marvel

Miraculous Ladybug

Mistborn

Moulin Rouge!

Night at the Museum

Outer Worlds

Overwatch

Phantom of the Opera

Pokemon

Ready Player One

Sherlock

Skyrim

Star Trek

Star Wars

Stranger Things

Supergirl

Supernatural

The Adventures of Tintin

The Arcana

The Expanse

The Princess Bride

Tron

True Blood

Welcome to Night Vale

iZombie

[jakey-beefed-it]

finally got around to watching stranger things season 3.

no spoiler-impressions: yeesh. 4.5/10

spoilers under the cut

Things that were terrible:

The russians. Everything to do with them. The whole plot of the season tbh. Cartoonish and bad. 

A better reference to Red Dawn would have been having the kids or someone comparably imaginative and gullible think there were Evil Russians behind things, but then no, because that’s not how real life (or plausible facsimilies therof) works. 

I know I said it was all bad but special ‘holy shit bad’ award goes to the Terminator Russian. There’s homage and then there’s pastiche. ffs. 

Hopper’s... entire characterization. Somebody take the 40 oz can of toxic masculinity juice the writers were chugging away from them please. And don’t let them near Hopper again until... just don’t let them near scripts again at all actually.

There was a way to handle Hopper/Joyce well and it was... literally the exact opposite of this (absent the last like... thirty seconds they shared)

Also just... Hop as a guy with a mean right hook and the ability to take a punch pretty well is plausible and highly enjoyable. They really did turn him into Rambo this season and it was... neither plausible nor enjoyable.

The entire tone-deaf jingo yay capitalism bullshit. This is a show where two whole seasons set up the US government as, at the very least, complicit in this world-shattering bullshit. 

Erica you had two cool minutes in season 2 and they turned you into a corporate shill. Oh, well, guess those two cool minutes are all ya gonna get.

Having Alexei declare of the carnival games capitalist system “It’s not rigged!” was particularly onerous. If Russkinator hadn’t shot him he should’ve shot himself for allowing that kind of Eagleland propaganda past his lips.

Alexei was likeable but not part of the main main cast so he was doomed. See: Barb, Bob. At least his name didn’t start with a B. Guess it would’ve been too on the nose even for these hacks to call him Boris.

The newspaper was also cartoonishly sexist. Like, I’m sure such things absolutely do occur in real life which has license to be as ridiculous as it wants but in a fictional narrative such things take us out of the moment. Like, you could’ve told the same story in a much more palateable AND relevant way by loading up on microaggressions rather than paint the newsboyz as cardboard Sexist Villains. 

Am... I supposed to care about Billy “I’m going to run over literal children because I am a racist shitbag” Hargrove (and I confess I had to google his last name there oops)? Because I don’t. He was more than just a ‘mean guy’ he tried to murder. Children. last season. because he is racist.

I do not like Murray Bauman and his creepy meddling in other people’s sex lives, but at least this time it was two adults instead of fucking teenagers. God! Ugh!

Apparently this is also going to include some beefs i had with season two, oops.

Things that were meh

The gory horror this season meant the whole tone of it was much more Cronenberg than Spielberg. Could work but kinda felt like it shook up the established tone in the wrong way. 

There was a whole... icky slasher misogyny feel to the way Billy abducted Heather. I think it was intentional, so I’m not calling it ‘terrible’, as it was effective at conveying that, but I personally hated it, just as I personally hate slasher movies.

Russian demogorgon looks entirely more... man-like than the Hawkins one. Splicing thing? Maybe just clearer lighting? Less convincing than the s1 demogorgon, less disturbing for the most, but not without potential so it goes here.

I’m all for Hopper having miraculously survived and wound up in Siberia somehow if they fix his goddamn characterization next season otherwise just let him have evaporated along with all the Russkies. 

Oh hey, maybe the ‘Russian demogorgon’ is actually mutant Hopper somehow. That’d be kinda horrible. Hope they don’t do that. But logging that here for posterity in case the brothers Duffer are even bigger hacks than I thought.

Things that weren’t terrible:

We stan two teenagers now instead of just one: still don’t care about Nancy or Jonathan but Steve’s still rad and now Robin is too.

Their entire friendship was just... *chef’s kiss*

Max and Eleven’s friendship was also pretty great. El needs more friends, or at least more time to just hang out and be friends with people who just want to hang out with her. Which, yeah, the whole gang, but having the two only girls their age be FRIENDS is a huge improvement over last season when Max was introduced as the Rival. Just, ugh. 

I do enjoy watching the kids be kids. Mostly that meant Dustin this year because the others were too caught up with Teen Angst(TM) (ps- don’t we HAVE teenage characters for that very purpose? older teens i mean? let the kids be kids!)

Murray’s interactions with Alexei were generally fun and witty. Please more of this and less being a goddamn creep if he hangs around.

the last 30 seconds with Hopper and Joyce together on screen, when he turns to her, they say nothing at all to one another but both convey lots with facial expressions. They’re both grown ass adults, saving the world and the kids they love, even at the cost of (one of) their own lives. Both of them know what this means, and they go through with it, because both understand what’s really important isn’t either of them, but the kids, and that the kids have someone to look after them. Kinda wish you could just throw out... like the entire rest of the season of their interaction, and have their relationship be built on that level of understanding and common cause. Let them be adults. 

[freedom-shamrock]

Eyes That Know Me, Blinking Slowly - Chapter Two

Also on AO3  <<< Go back to Chapter One

This is #24 in my ML WIP-Completion Challenge.

Chat Noir arrived at the akuma site after Ladybug had already engaged the enraged woman going by the name Botanatrix. She could obviously zap inanimate objects turning them into trees or causing them to sprout vines that zipped up their sides enclosing whole buildings and buses in a kudzu jungle.

"Wow," he said, dropping beside Ladybug behind a billboard. "She works fast."

"She really does," Ladybug agreed. "And while I've figured out her ability, I'm still stumped on the akumatized object."

"Hmm. Not good to get too close to an akuma with wild ranged attacks unless we have a plan," he muttered. "Want me to go play distracto-cat so you can study her further?"

Ladybug watched a few more moments before nodding. "Yeah. I think we have to go for that option. Carapace messaged that he'd be here soon, too, so hopefully we'll have some back-up by the time we need it."

Chat bounded off. "Excuse me!" he called. "While I like the jungle as much as any cat, I'm just not digging this remodel of Paris."

"Chat Noir!" the woman roared, which felt out of place and absurd given that she was plant-based. "Give me your miraculous!"

"How about… no?" Chat suggested, dodging the spray that shot out of her watering can. He hadn't seen what happened when she hit people with her power, and he didn't want to find out up-close and in person. Again. That pretty much always sucked.

"I have a special little something just for you, Kitty," she taunted.

Chat rolled his eyes. "That nickname is for Ladybug only. Not random Parisians, akumas, or Hawk Moth." He scrambled up the side of a building, pushing off in a huge arc with a back-flip. "Anyone else gets my immediate hissaproval."

He was vaguely aware that Carapace had arrived, and now all three heroes were engaged in the fight. In a moment of poor timing and phenomenally bad luck, Chat and Carapace's shield collided in mid-air. They really needed to train together more to prevent these mishaps. He landed in a heap, and before he could get back up, he felt the cold splash from the akuma's watering can.

"Chat! No!" He heard Ladybug cry out. She hated him getting hit by evil powers almost as much as he did.

"Good luck getting his help now." The akuma cackled before dashing away to cause more mayhem.

He'd made it to his knees by the time Ladybug and Carapace reached him. "I'm fine, my Laby," he insisted, watching little green plants fall out of his hair and onto his lap. They were in clumps and the leaves were small with gentle serrations. To his cat enhanced nose, they smelled slightly minty, and he wondered if they were from the same family. He should probably get up, but just couldn't bring himself to do so. He felt comfortable and oddly sluggish.

"Chat, speak to me," Ladybug said, catching his chin and directing his gaze at her.

He beamed at her. She was so pretty, and the sun was shining behind her. She was practically an angel with a golden halo. He felt his damnable purr kick in, and didn't bother masking it; it wasn't like she'd never heard it before.

"Dude, you okay?" Carapace asked.

"What even is this stuff?" Ladybug asked, brushing it off his shoulders and ruffling his hair to send the plants flying.

"Hmmmm," Chat murmured, leaning into her hand. "Smells good."

"Oh crap," Carapace muttered. "Does he react to catnip?"

"No?" Ladybug said uncertainly. "Well… he hasn't. But… I don't think he's actually been hit by it before."

Chat's face was turned toward the newer hero, but he resisted with a small whine. He wanted to look at his Lady. She was glorious. She smelled heavenly. He tilted toward her, resting his head on her shoulder.

"Yeah," Carapace said, resigned. "He's been Chat Noir long enough that he's got a pretty strong cat side, and this… it's definitely catnip."

"Oh god," Ladybug groaned. "Kitty how do you feel?"

"Floaty." He sighed and let himself tip fully onto her, delighted when he felt her arms around him. "Happy." He nuzzled her neck, grinning when that made her squeal, because he could tell it wasn't a bad squeal. He'd heard that noise in the past. "You smell nice Milaby," he murmured. "Sssoooo nice."

"Uh… you may want to discourage that," Carapace said quietly. "There's reporters here and he's blitzed. It's not fair to him."

"Kitty, we need to move you someplace safer while Carapace and I handle this akuma, okay?" she suggested, one hand rubbing his back.

He lost track of time for a bit, and the next thing he was fully aware of was that he was lying sprawled out in the grass under a tree in a park.

"You okay there, Kitty?" Ladybug called, dropping down beside him. She looked worried and that was never a good sign.

"Shit," he muttered. "What did I do? Was it awful?"

She quickly shook her head, but there was a hint of pink in her cheeks and he suspected she was just humoring him. "No. Not awful."

"It wasn't something you'd mind doing, I think," Carapace said in a careful voice. "But you'd probably prefer not to do it in public."

That didn't reassure him at all, and his face must have shown that.

"I promise, it's okay," Ladybug insisted.

"I'll go try to catch the Ladyblogger before she posts that video," Carapace offered. "Assuming she wasn't live-streaming, anyway."

"Oh fuck," Ladybug whispered.

Chat flinched. "What. Did. I. Do?" he demanded, completely freaked out now.

"Can you meet me on Notre Dame in fifteen minutes?" Ladybug asked. "I need to go recharge."

Chat Noir had curled in on himself as he watched the replay of Alya's livestream. Given that it had been live, there wasn't much point in having her pull the video. The Chat in the video had lost all understanding of decorum and personal boundaries. With the new camera she'd gotten for her last birthday, Alya had been able to zoom in and capture his wide blown pupils, giving him an oddly stupid yet constant kitten-eyed look. The distance and general chaos prevented her from picking up his purring and the conversation between the heroes.

"Oh my god," he moaned as he watched himself rub his cheek against hers, then against her neck.

"You didn't hurt me, Kitty," Ladybug insisted, rubbing his back. "Carapace said this was all normal cat stuff."

"I fucking scent marked you." His gloves dragged down his face as he forced himself to watch the rest of his shame unfold.

"It was kind of cute," she offered tentatively.

He shot her a glare. "I put a claim on you. Physically. Without your consent." This was so messed up.

"You're a cuddly kitty," she said. "And you weren't in your right mind. It's forgiven."

That should have warned him about what came next, but he was too horrified to properly process. He was treated to footage of himself attempting a full body rub against her, but he clearly lacked the balance necessary to wind around her. So his catnip-addled brain clearly felt that rolling all over her would be a good plan. He let out an involuntary hiss, flinching, but forcing himself to watch until Ladybug was able to scoop him up and zip away, trailed by Carapace.

"You seemed pretty out of it by that point, and we left you in a shielded area in an empty park," she explained, tucking away her yo-yo. "I'm just glad you're okay."

"I'm not okay," he insisted. "I'm not sure I'll ever be okay after watching that." Before he could dissolve in a rant about how messed up his behavior had been, he felt her arms wrap around him.

"Oh, Kitty," she whispered sadly. "This wasn't your doing, your fault. It's more like when a girl gets roofied at a bar. You're a victim here, and it's okay to feel gross and awful." Her hand slipped into his hair, scratching at his scalp in a way they'd discovered calmed him. "If you need some time to deal with this, that's okay. But please know I'm here for you, and if there's anything I can do to help you through it, please tell me. I'm not you, and I can't just know what will help, and I don't want to make things worse by assuming."

"Could…" he broke off feeling awful about asking, though he was sure she'd meant it. "Could you just hold me a little longer?" He hated how fragile his voice sounded.

"I'd be happy to." She squeezed him gently. "Anytime."

Proceed to Chapter Three >>>

Given the modifications to the plot of one story, I'm down to three more to wrap this project up, including one more chapter in this story.

[littlemisssquiggles]

I’m honestly, very disappointed with this volume. There are so many things that could’ve been better. Some major plot holes as well like how did Adam not cleave through Yangs arm when he did it before? Why didn’t Maria go with the other passengers? Why did Ruby miss the cliff? Why does Yang’s arm have three scratches if Adam uses one blade? I waiting to see how they plan on finishing the mech fight, the Adam fight, AND introduce/finish a kaiju-ish grimm fight all in two 25 minute episodes.

…Well,that is your opinion Carrot and asalways, I respect it.

If I have to debatewith my own opinion of this season, I’d actually have to disagree with you. Forme, V6 has been one of the most enjoyable volumes I’ve appreciated since the start ofthe new, I guess era of RWBY ever since the CRWBY switched from Poseranimation to the new Maya engine in V4. It’s practically my favourite season of the wholeMistral Arc but this is just me personally. While I have my own fair share of disappointments from the season, like the lack of furtherdevelopment with Oscar’s character in terms of the audience learning more abouthim and his past, overall I’ve enjoyed this season a lot. Definitely a lot morethan V4 and V5.

WhatI like about V6 is that there hasn’t been a single episode where I felt thestory got dull. Even when the pacing slowed down, it always picked things backup and kept the story going. It kept me hooked and I liked that a lot.

Asfor your listed plot holes? Well let me see if I can answer some of them.

How did Adamnot cleave through Yang’s arm when he did it before? Hmm well my best answerto that is because last time Yang charged in blindly at Adam leaving herselfwide open for him to take out his arm with one slash. I noticed this timeduring her rematch fight, Yang learned her lesson and she was more on guard. Italso seems like she learnt from her training sessions with Tai Yang. There was oneparticular moment where she charged in at Adam before going around him at thelast minute, just like her daddy taught her. A nice call back to V4.

Why didn’tMaria go with the other passengers? Well you got me there fam. I actually don’t know how toanswer this. When I first saw Maria look back in C1, I figured it was because she already knewthat Ruby was a Silver Eyed Warrior like herself. Like maybe all Silver Eyes, young and old have thisweird sixthsense we’re they’re able to sensewhen another of their kind is nearby. I figured Maria’s reasoning for not goingwith the other passengers was because she sensed another like herself; even ifit was weak due to her blindness. But…as we saw, Maria didn’t realize Ruby wasa Silver Eyes til C6.  Who knows? Maybeshe did realize something interesting about Ruby but didn’t focus on it untilthe time was right?

Sometimespeople just end up exactly where they need to be. Sometimeslife tosses you into a scenario where you’re able to meet people who willultimately change your life for the better and make you into the person you’redestined to become. I know this is hard to believe since RWBY is a story writtenby people but the real life principle still applies. Maria was put on that sameArgus Limited and avoided evacuation because she was destined tomeet Ruby Rose. If destiny calls it, it’ll put you we’re you’re supposed to be.No further explanation needed than just that.

Why did Rubymiss the cliff? Thisanswer I actually got from @tomecko. Ruby missed the cliff because her aura hadbeen depleted after taking damage from Cordo’s canon so by the time she usedher semblance she didn’t have enough juice to make the full zip and ended upmissing her mark and falling. To me that makes enough sense. Plus story wise,they needed Ruby to end up cliff hanged on the side of the cliffto a) give Cordo a target to shoot at and b) give Oscar and incentive to getMaria to break cover and drive the airship in order to try and help Ruby.

Why does Yang’sarm have three scratches if Adam uses one blade? Well since Blakementioned Adam’s semblance being similar to Yang’s, I’d like to think that oneslash from Adam’s blade possible equals the force of more than one blowdepending on a) Adam’s own aura levels and b) how much energy he charges up. Soeven though we saw him slash once, the force of his slash was probably threetimes that or more. And the reason we got three slashes is because that’s asmuch damage Aang’s mech arm absorbed before any real damage could startappearing.

Forall we know Adam could have attacked Yang with force the strength of 100 butYang only wound up with three slashes based on the durabilityof her mechanical arm and the strength of Atlesian tech. Remember backin V4,I believe Tai Yang told Yang that General Ironwood sent her that mechanical armpersonally so I’d like to think that what they made Yang is no cheap piece ofmetal. The fact that Adam slashed at Yang and the only thing she got out of itwas three scratches just proves how strong the arm is.

Notsure if these responses actually help justify anything for you Carrot but I did my best. If I’m being honest myself, I don’treally consider these lingering questions plot holes becausefor me (and again this is only my opinion. Take it with a grain of salt fam) theseare questions that I don’t necessarily need answered in the show because theydon’t really affect the plot or my overall enjoyment of the season.

Asfor your last point, well I’m curious to see how the CRWBY handle that as wellbut I actually have confidence that they’ll pull it off. Up until this point Ihave had no real issue with any of the pacing in the episodes for this season.Everything has been moving pretty smoothly like a well-oiled machine, at leastfor me.

IfI had to guess, both the mecha fight and Adam fight will probably concludeofficially in C12 leaving the Kaiju battleas the only thing to focus on in C13. From the V6 C12 teasertoday, we can already see that Ruby is going to finish off Cordo by destroyingthe canon on her mechazord.

Theissue with this is that as soon as Cordo’s mecha goes offline, Argus will be leftmore or less defenceless from the Kaiju Grimm. According to what Jaune saidin C11, the mechazord was built to combat titan Grimm in deeper waters and itwouldn’t surprise me if General Ironwood only permitted one mechazord to the Atlesian Military branch stationed in Argussince its one small city with no real major threats that would require morethan one mecha fighter. Right now, Cordo just probably wasted the city’s one defenceon taking out her anger on an old huntress she has a grudge against along withsome huntsmen who were only trying to get to Atlas after she blanked them twice.

Notto mention that the Kaiju Grimm probably wouldn’t have been disturbed from itsdepths if it weren’t for all the commotion Cordo caused to the citizens in her barrage.Hate to say this but Cordo caused this attack on Argus and now, as of C12, Rubyis going to destroy the one weaponized part on the one weapon Argus has todefend itself from any major threats.

Good showCordo.

Butyeah, going back to what I saying before, I have faith the CRWBY Writers canpull off what they’ve set up for the V6 finale. The only thing I’m unsure aboutanymore is Oscar’sconfrontation with Ozpin.

Iknow the Ozpinheads have been anticipating their favourite Wizard of Light returning but at this point…I’m starting to wonderif we’re actually going to see Oz for the finale. If anything, I wouldn’t besurprised if we got mostly Oscar fighting on his own for the finale while Ozpinmight not show up at all. I know they made a Maya engine model for him as usedin the opening but unless Oz shows up randomly to Oscar in some after creditscene teaser for V7 then I’m not sure where the CRWBY will bring him in withoutit seeming too shoehorned in.

How are theygoing to fit in Ozpin’s return? At this point, I’m starting to think Ozpin mightnot be back for the finale. I could be completely wrong but this is myassumption. Having Oscar suddenly deep dive into his mind to get Ozpin during aKaiju battle might seem a little out of place at this point.

IfI’m being completely honest, I actually don’t want Ozpin to come back. Don’tget me wrong, I likeOzpin and I do want him to return atsome point however at this point in V6, I don’t think he’ll be back. At least not for thisvolume. They had many opportunities throughout the season where theycould have had Oz return but instead that wasn’t the priority and I reallydoubt they’d just have it randomly happenfor the finale episode. Again I could be very much wrong about this.

Evenif Oz miraculously showed up or Oscar gets to see him, I still feel like Ozpin’s isolation is way more serious than fans might think. This isthe first time in the history of RWBY where Oz basically quit.

It’snot just about Ozpin choosing to separate himself from his team. It’s alsoabout him literally giving up. Ozpin. Professor Ozpin. Headmaster ofBeacon. The man who has always maintained some sense of optimism andbelief in humanity, gave up. Oz technically shut himself away. Ozpin pulled aRaven Branwen. To me that’s too much a serious issue to just be resolved in the last episode of theseason without much real build up.

Onething I’ve found interesting is that every key fight we’ve gotten this seasonwith the whole team contributing has had Oscar in control. Even the Manticore and Sphinxfirst battle of the season had Oscar fighting on his own.

SoI’d hope this is continued for the finale. I actually want the V6 finale tojust have Oscarfighting without Ozpin. Have Oscar unlocking the might of theOz-cane and using it to his advantage without Ozpin’s intervention. Even if Ozmiraculously shows up, I hope it’s Oscar still in control when it’s time for him to fight.Not Ozpin.

Ifigured part of the main moral of V6 was to expose Ozpin of his true coloursand past while also creating an avenue for Oscar to regain his sense ofidentity and build him up as his own person, finding his own footing in theteam while learning to stand on his own in spite of what is expected to come ofhim in the long run. Oscar has been doing swimmingly on his own without Ozpin.

“…The willowdoesn’t need to learn to stand…”

Despitewhat the V6 opening alluded to, Oscar has been learning to stand on his ownfeet and I’ve been enjoying his integration into the group outside of Ozpin. Icould’ve used moreinsight into his backstory with his family. Still waiting on thatbut I’m assuming we’ll get to see Oscar’s full past once we delve deep into hismind because that’s where we’re going to find Ozpin eventually.

WhenOscar met the group back in Mistral, my one complaint is that it felt likeOscar was being isolated from the others---not really being allowed to form hisown bonds with the group outside of Ozpin and really make his own place amongstthe heroes. This volume changed that. 

We’re actually seeing Oscar shine in thisseason and I hope it continues that way for the finale. So I hope the Ozpinheads don’tget mad at me for saying this but…I don’t expect Oz to be back. Not now. Not yet. 

Besides Iwouldn’t want his return to be just tossed back in at the last minute likethat. I actually would love for the whole Oz isolation to be pushed into the Atlas Arc where it can be focused on more in depth and be properlyresolved. Not to mention that it will give us more seasons to get to know Oscarbetter. As a Pinehead,I’ll be happy with that but then again, this is only my opinion and what I’dlike to see. As I said twice before, I could be totally wrong in my assumptions. Only the CRWBY knows what’s in store going forward and I’m eagerto see what they got.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Spliced by Jon McGoran: A Review

Hey I don’t post book reviews here, but dammit I have a Lot Of Thoughts so here’s one. It’s long, and spoilerific, so it’s hiding below the cut.

This book is . . . Not Great. For a lot of reasons, actually. Spoilers ahoy.

Let me start by saying that pieces of the worldbuilding were interesting and thought out well—it’s obvious that the author’s spent a lot of time thinking about a climate changing future and what that entails for us, so there were intriguing bits of that sprinkled throughout. That’s the nicest thing I have to say. Buckle up.

At the top of my list of grievances, because I’m qualified to speak to this: The science is just Bad. I get it, it’s science fiction—theoretically it’s allowed to bend the rules. However, as a biologist, the fake science bugged me A Lot. The general premise is people (usually teenagers, for whatever reason) can get animal DNA/features spliced into theirs for a price. The rich kids can do this with good fancy doctors. Most people, however, do it with back alley “genies,” who apparently can alter someone’s biology within twenty-four hours in a garage or abandoned house by sticking them with a viral vector and infecting them with animal DNA to give them new physical traits. The soon-to-be chimera (that’s what spliced people are called) then undergoes a lengthy process that they call “sweating out the change,” where their biology and organs and bones and literally everything physical rearranges, again over the span of hours, and you emerge on the other side a chimera. If, however, you decide that you don’t like being a chimera, within 24-48 hours you can go to a “fixer,” a doctor who can somehow reverse this process, but if you wait longer than that, you’re stuck forever.

That’s just not how any of that works. Like, at all.

Human bodies fight off foreign invaders (like, for instance, animal DNA injected via viral vector), unless someone is immunocompromised. That’s, like, the whole point of the immune system. There was no mention of immunosuppressants or anything like that to deal with the body’s immune response, and somehow this whole chimera vector thing is in a couple of syringes, max? Plus, bodies don’t just rearrange and grow new organs and bone structures and glands and what have you over the course of hours while someone lies in an abandoned house under a blanket, which is how we witness a couple chimeras “sweating out” their changes. I’m willing to buy some fudged science if it’s at least believable fudged science, and this was definitely not. Oh, and later on a character gets an emergency splice “stacked” onto him, when his first one almost kills him? So theoretically this bigger better one saves him from the first one, which is also just . . . wrong. Like. Why.

In addition to the science being atrocious, it’s also not super well established why people want to be chimeras in the first place? The tagline on the back of the book says “Getting spliced used to be a fashion statement. Now, it’s a death sentence,” but even the “fashion statement” bit isn’t explained super well in text. Most of the chimeras who the MC, Jimi, asks why they wanted to be spliced say something about “getting back to nature” (which humanity has wiped out, basically) and “honoring/remembering the animals we’ve killed,” or something to that extent. Or they just think It’s Neat(TM). The rich kids clearly do it because it’s cool and trendy, but that no longer makes sense given the book’s political climate. There’s an extremist group (a large extremist group) called Humans for Humanity (H4H) trying to get the Genetic Heritage Act (GHA) passed, which means that anyone who’s not 100% human is no longer a person. But there are huge demonstrations and rallies for this thing, and it’s a popular enough idea that chimeras are ostracized. And yet. People. Still. Choose. To get. Spliced. Just cuz it looks cool, basically, is what I got from my read.

So not only did I not buy the fact that people would want to do this to themselves (because it’s always voluntary—no one forces anyone to be a chimera, ever), I also don’t buy the H4H logic and the fact that the GHA ACTUALLY PASSES IN THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA IN THIS BOOK. It seems weird to me that what’s essentially an elective body modification surgery can mean that people are no longer people? I feel like it’s one thing if you’ve always been part animal, part human, but these people were literally fully human before the opted for this procedure.

It’s impossible not to understand the Real World Parallels, because this book is incredibly heavy handed: Chimera hate is a stand-in for racism and other types of discrimination (although shout out to the giant YIKES I felt when I actually read the word “homosexuals” with my own two eyeballs in the MC’s narration about other groups a certain mega church has discriminated against), but my issue with that is that it’s a false equivalent. You choose to be a chimera (for whatever awful unexplained Reasons). You don’t choose to be a person of color or queer or neurodivergent or marginalized. Trying to parallel the backlash chimeras face in their quest to be recognized as fully people with the struggles that people of color face Doesn’t Work, period. (This isn’t my lane, by the way, I’m super white, but I’m surprised I didn’t see anything along these lines mentioned in the other reviews I read? So I wanted to at least throw it out there, but I’m by no means an expert. Please listen to people of color.)

In addition to the paralleling not working, it also sets up a nasty “white savior” situation with our MC, Jimi, becoming the Chimera Savior. Jimi is not a chimera. Jimi is the one who miraculously saves the endangered chimeras at the end, and makes a rousing speech on TV about how we all gotta love each other and get along. Jimi saves the day. Which, I get that she’s the MC, but with the paralleling to our own contemporary real world issues . . . yikes. 0/10 do not do, especially when you’re a white man writing a (probably—of course it’s not specified, but her name is actually Dymphna Corcoran, named after an Irish saint, so I’m Guessing) white protagonist.

Other miscellany that’s worth mentioning:

There were at least five (5) references to skeeviness (of the sexual harassment/edging toward narrlowly-avoided assault variety), and one attempted skeevyness on page. Against our 16-year-old girl protag (and one of the referenced ones was when she was a KID ON A PLAYGROUND). I get it, that’s life. As a female-presenting person, trust me I get it. However. Just because it’s life, doesn’t mean I want to read about it in a YA sci-fi thriller that’s not about that sort of thing. It was very jarring, and made my pulse skyrocket every time in panic, and it was borderline creepy to me, because the author is a middle aged man.

Also, holy abuse, Batman. Jimi has one (1) friend, Del, and Del’s cop father is horrifically abusive. Physically violent (and, spoiler, murderously physically violent). Does Jimi or Jimi’s mom (Del’s NEIGHBOR) do anything to get Del out of this house and situation? Nope. Not a thing. Ever. Del just comes running to Jimi’s place when he’s SERIOUSLY INJURED for Jimi to help fix him up so they can share a kiss (their first! They’re best childhood friends but the kiss early on Changes Everything! Ew! Why!), and then start the plot, which is Jimi trying to track down Del before he gets spliced. The abuse is . . . not handled well, or thoughtfully. That’s frustrating and disheartening.

This book is also super info dumpy, especially at the beginning—we’ll be chugging along through (kind of stilted at times) dialogue, and then we’ll get a couple big paragraphs of Jimi explaining the world history, or current political climate (she’s a Very Informed Teenager, okay), or family drama, or whatever, and then we’ll proceed with the chapter. And the timeline is rushed—the whole book happens in like a week? I get that it’s a thriller and it’s supposed to be fast paced, but the plot follows Del 1. Not being a chimera, 2. Becoming a chimera, 3. Running away to a chimera Haven, and 4. Dying when chimera Haven turns out to be a secret hunting ground where people can pay money to track down and shoot chimeras for sport (y i k e s), so naturally he tries to blow up the town nearby and then his dad shoots him and Del’s the only one who gets blown up (double yikes). Oh, but this is all from Jimi’s POV, don’t worry: she’s trying to track down Del and make sure he’s okay this whole time. That’s the plot. I just . . . why. To any of it. To all of it. If you see this cover, like I did, and get excited, please do yourself a favor and put it back on the shelf. You’re not missing anything worth reading.

[quietmonologues]

Okay okay now that the high from the season finale has died down a bit, I just really wanted to get my thoughts out on season 5. In particular, I wanted to talk about how the characters were handled this season. This season has been described as “action packed” and because of that, I feel like a lot of emotional and character driven scenes were sacrificed and pretty much left out completely, and I think that’s what was really really detrimental to season 5′s overall quality.  Please don’t mistake this for hate, it’s basic criticism and my opinions. I won’t pretend to be sunshine and rainbows when somethings in this season frustrate me so please keep that in mind! So anyways, I thought there were two really big points in terms of character treatment that plagued this season:

1) Barely any compelling or emotional reactions.

Bellamy was 100% certain that Clarke died in Praimfaya. Her last words to him motivated him for six years. Six years is a really long time, and although the Bellarke reunion was great, I don’t think it fully encapsulated the emotions that come about when you find out that your dead best friend, isn’t actually dead at all. This revelation should be earth shattering, and so should an emotional reaction to that revelation. I just didn’t feel that. In addition, the way Clarke handled the whole “leaving Bellamy to die” situation, was uncomfortable to watch. Almost zero emotional reaction from her. The times where we got something, was when it was being coaxed out of her by Madi, Echo, and the chip. And yes we can argue that Clarke doesn’t wear her emotions on her sleeve, but Bellamy is such an important person in Clarke’s life and it was really unsettling to see her hide her emotions like that. It made Clarke seem heartless which isn’t fair because....she’s not a heartless person. Furthermore, no one (except Bellamy) had a moment to react to the fact that Clarke survived Praimfaya and lived top side with one other person for six years. We missed out on a Marper + Clarke reunion, and Octavia refused to let Clarke in on her plan to trek the dessert even though Clarke knew the terrain better than anyone else. It’s like no one bothered to care about Clarke’s miraculous survival story and this further isolated her from everyone! It’s like there wasn’t a six year time jump at all. It’s like spacekru (other than Bellamy) didn’t leave Clarke behind.....

2) Failure to help the audience understand the actions of some of the characters.

The writers failed to get the audience (and the characters!!) into Clarke’s headspace. Instead, on a surface level, Clarke’s actions painted her as a “crazy helicopter parent” because “she’s a mother now” and motherhood makes you crazy apparently. That is a terrible message to send by the way. And we can “headcanon” that Clarke’s actions are a result of 1) being isolated and left behind, 2) having an unhealthy emotional attachment to Madi due to her isolation, and therefore 3) a threat to Madi, is a threat to Clarke’s sanity and needs to be “taken out” no matter who it is. However, these are literally my thoughts, and I don’t know if this reading is valid or not because that hasn’t been explicitly stated. We aren’t told how much Clarke’s isolation has affected her. Headcanon =/= canon. More dialogue could have easily helped us understand Clarke’s reasons for her behaviour, but as mentioned above, it’s like the writers sacrificed any emotional scenes to understand the characters, for “action packed scenes”. I feel like this is why the fandom was so divisive on Clarke’s actions during the second half of the season. It was hard to watch Clarke be like this, but it was also hard to interact with the fandom. It was a mess. Clarke is a main character, the main character. It’s sad that we got more into Octavia’s headspace than we did for the main female lead. That’s not a good look.

Obviously I think there were MORE things that worsened the quality of this season IN GENERAL (like loose plot threads, drawn out plot, the stupid worms), but this was more about the characters. Thoughts? Feel free to add your own opinions! (don’t argue in the form of replies!!!! I can’t keep up)

[ladyloveandjustice]

Fall 2018 Anime Overview: Continuing Series- Golden Kamuy Season 2 and Banana Fish

Golden Kamuy Season 2

If you enjoyed the first season, this is pretty much more of the same, so check out my review of season one to know what to expect.

Though I guess you could say this portion of the season DOES lean even harder into weirdness than the first one did. There’s not many anime where you’ll see two dudes having the time of their lives modeling fashionable outfits made out of human skin, which include...crotch appendages...only in Golden Kamuy y’all.

Interestingly bizarreness tends to overlap with queerness a lot in this season and its hard to know how to feel about it. For instance, it’s definitely an unexpected revelation that dudes are attracted to Lieutenant Tsurumi like whoa. 

IDK apparently he’s a catch. Half of his subordinates are in love with him. It’s handled as comical and of course the dudes are mentally unbalanced weirdos (as is everyone in Golden Kamuy except Asirpa and Sugimoto only sometimes) and one of them dies, but the show is never overtly mean to them either. Nobody acts disgusted about it and when one character observes the attraction, he basically shrugs about it.

 Satoru Noda apparently also REALLY loose with his fixation with dudes muscles with this part of the story, to the point we got the beef-cakiest hotsprings episode I’ve ever seen, which includes an extended fight scene where the male characters were naked throughout. There’s also an entire scene where apparently otter meat is an aphrodisiac that causes the dudes to be really into each other, so they engage in nearly naked sumo wrestling.

This is all clearly supposed to be wacky and funny, but at the same time it’s pretty clear the mangaka must REALLY LIKE drawing these scenes of muscular, naked men, and I support him following his dreams. Also I won’t deny it’s refreshing to see a hot springs episode where not a single woman got objectified, but there was dude oglin’ a plenty. It healed me a little.

I guess while we’re talking about this show and its weird relationship with queerness I should reporting that my prediction was right and the trans woman I mentioned in the previous review did become an ally. Her transness hasn’t been bought up again (though for some reason the subs decided to switch to “he” despite sticking with “she” before) and her role is pretty minor, she does reveal she’s skilled in both cooking and surgery (because she likes dismembering people) and talks about how great it would be to see people murdered every so often, so pretty much more of the same.

And that’s really all there is to say. Golden Kamuy has only gotten weirder and the plot only more convoluted (I’m starting to have a hard time keeping track of the characters tbh), but it’s an entertaining story and there’s still characters with resonance and heart underneath it all (the scene where Sugimoto discusses his trauma from being in the war with Asirpa genuinely tugged a heartstring. These two are still great and have really settled into a kinda of adorable dad-daughter dynamic at this point) and the historical and cultural research that went into this story is still amazing. 

I can tell the anime’s still skipping a lot of the manga (most of volume 7 was completely skipped), but since the English release of the manga is so slow, I’m happy to watch it in the meantime. It helps that the show has a bangin’ soundtrack and and it managed to pull its ginormous cast together for some truly exciting and action packed final episodes that left me eager for more. 

Banana Fish (13-24)

Again, if you read my review for the first half of the show, you can basically expect more of the same, both with the good and especially the bad parts. We do get more downtime with Ash and Eiji’s relationship, and they continued to make me think this show would be so much better if it focused more on these quiet scenes rather than on piling as much trauma on Ash as it possibly can. 

I think this second half did allow me to see what was compelling about Ash and Eiji’s relationship and why it’s stayed with so many people. When Ash explained that he’s finally found someone who will love him without expecting anything in return, so of course he’s willing to do anything for that person, that got me in the heart. Ash is someone who has either been viewed as a threat or someone to exploit- he’s especially used to being treated like he’s nothing more than a body, a receptacle for desires. Eiji isn’t afraid of Ash, or in awe of him, and never asks anything of him other than for him to be okay and by his side. Ash genuinely can just be a dumb teenager with him while he can’t with anyone else. Eiji is an outsider, to Ash’s gang-bangin’ world, to his culture in general, and that allows him to see Ash as he truly is, just a kid who needs to get out of this mess.

The romantic in me really loves that concept, and as an ace person, I especially connect to the underlying implication that Eiji is a romantic partner who isn’t going to demand sex from Ash or try to force him into it. Though Ash’s implied desire to avoid sex almost certainly stems from trauma, I know how he feels in a broad sense. And I think it’s a thing a lot of women can relate to even if they aren’t ace, wanting to find a relationship where they aren’t used or objectified, so it goes back around to how Ash acts as kind of a representation for the anxieties and desires of (likely) the mangaka and many women despite being a male character, and I still find that very interesting. The scene where Ash has a complete breakdown and screams at his rapist while laughing hysterically was really affecting.

So there’s moments of real resonance here, but is it worth the bullshit surrounding it, which includes every single gay man being represented as a rapist, to the point a gay bar is connected to a child porn ring? The nasty implication that gay sex is inherently evil and non-consensual, and Ash and Eiji’s relationship is only okay because they’re not doing it is very strong, and as much as this ace appreciates a romance that doesn’t require sex, I don’t want it THIS way.

There’s also some SERIOUS anti-Semitic bullshit that I can’t believe MAPPA didn’t edit out in a couple episodes. Like it would have been so easy to cut. Also some more pretty rough scenes of black men being murdered (they’re extras this time at least, and the main black dude for this part of the anime miraculously manages to both survive and not be an offensive caricature. Also his name is Cain Blood which is the best name in this story, and possibly ever). 

The second half of the anime also involved some of the more absurd elements worsening. I got REALLY tired of every character commenting on how hot and amazing Ash is like. I GET IT.  Also Ash’s life of being sexually exploited somehow gives him the ability to seduce any man holding him captive, and every bad guy is down for raping a teenage boy, I guess. It’s actually again, a little surreal to see these tropes with a male character. I’m used to seeing hot female characters who’ve been through sexual trauma and have magic seduction powers and are endlessly drooled over...I almost want guys to watch these segments so they can see how uncomfortable it feels when the tables are turned. 

There’s also some really good examples of ACTUAL jarring tone shifts, where the anime really fails to land some of its attempts at a funny, light moment in the midst of really tense and tragic situations. I think it’s possible the manga managed this better, but I can’t imagine the “joke” where Ash has to crossdress and a male doctor gropes him and Ash punches him out cold and his friends chortle and tell him he’s not a gentle woman could ever be done in a non jarring way. Like, I don’t like sexual harassment humor in anime at the best of times, but it’s especially bad when the person who is harassed has been raped more times than he can count.  We’re expected to take that seriously, but not this, because Ash is in a dress? It’s also like, appalling that his friends who are fully aware of his history would laugh about him getting assaulted again. It’s a moment that feels like it comes from a completely different anime. 

So um, yeah. My conclusion is those resonant moments are not worth the bullshit. The ending really cemented this for me. I had an (admittedly overly flippant) reaction that kind of sums my feelings up. Let’s just say I HATE meaningless cruel tragedy for the sake of tragedy, and I especially hate the implication abuse victims can never find happiness. 

I can’t say Banana Fish is an anime I’ll think fondly of or recommend. I do still find the discussion about it interesting, much more interesting than the actual story (as presented in the anime, again, haven’t read the manga), tbh. And I can see the seeds of a good story there, and I can understand why fans would want to see a reboot that truly modernized the story, cutting out the worst stuff and giving it a better ending, while keeping the resonance of the main relationship and the good characters (I really did like Sing, and Yut Lung was interesting. Shorter and Skip both deserved way better. Also Jessica, who at least got to do something besides be victimized at the last minute. One whole female character got a few moments of agency. Hallelujah.) Maybe someday it will happen. 

In the meantime, there’s a bunch of cool articles on Banana Fish that are worth a read. All of the pieces published on animefeminist as well as this post on Otaku, She Wrote are really informative, illuminating, and break down a lot of the issues I found here.

[stardustizuku]

What is it that you hate about ladybug? I also don't like it very much

(This is a bit long and written on my phone. Sorry for the weird format!) but

1.- The Romance

I have time and time again praised ML for having an interesting twist on the Magical Girl Romance. In cases where a girl would be crushing on a guy who is crushing on her alter ego…they added the love triangle of the bad boy/good boy. Which is interesting when handled correctly

But I don’t think they’re handling it the best way possible.

The thing is…there’s a fine line between Slow Burn and plain reluctance to actually get to your end goal.

They make it clear they’re gonna end up together but they don’t really give us that much interaction…Especially considering the amount of time we’ve been in the series. I personally prefer the fanon versions because they seem more nuanced and with a quicker pace.

Because to make a slow burn work, you have to make them really likable on their own, or give a subplot that that drives the viewer away from the fact you’re still teasing the couple.

Sakura Card Captor does a magnificent job in my opinion, by making the B plot the cards and making friends. So, Despite everything, the plot is always moving forward.

Miraculous Lacks a concrete end goal aside from defeating Hawkmoth. Which causes the slow burn to be a bit tedious.

Compare it to Sailor Moon or Tokyo Mew Mew, where they had also very vague missions and chapters that didn’t move the plot forward. To make up for that, they had a relatively fast paced romance.

ML is stuck in the middle not really advancing the plot not the romance and you’re just left unpleasantly unsatisfied by both.

But it’s really the least of my problems with the show that’s why it’s on the top of the list.

2.-Aesthetics

I cannot emphasize how much I loathe ML’s designs. They’re ugly, 3D models feel cheap, everything is grey and colorless, or just way too saturated with primary colors. It’s plain ugly. It has very little artistic direction, I wouldn’t DARE put a single pic of the background as wallpaper, the aesthetics in general feel like New York not PARIS

As Magical Girl Enthusiast, aesthetics play a BIG part of the genre. Transformation sequences are polished to a T for this very reason.

The sparkles matter, the colors matter, the feeling matters.

It simply does not feel magical enough. And it frustrates me to no end. I would be passing so much shit if it weren’t for the art.

Because it seriously feels so low quality..,especially for the time it takes for a single episode to air…

WHICH LEADS ME TO

3.- the pacing

I’m actually trying to remember a single series with as much of a horrible problem of pacing as ML has.

45 EPISODES IN and nothing is substance has actually happened. Well yeah we got Ayla transforming into Rena Rouge

But by this point every single magical girl EVER was nearing its season 1 finale with most of the gang long since together.

ML Is waisting a lot of time with shit we don’t need.

We really didn’t need a whole season of the entire school being akumatized. And we didn’t need to wait a season to get our first partner (AKA Rena)

The series is all over the place. It takes FOREVER to update and they update one episode at a time, that gives little to no context on whatever the fuck is happening.

And then when they finally started showing us the Chat and Lady’s team members….it’s super rushed, they’re barely given time to breathe, or shine. They’re being given the miraculous with no real thought, or justification (just because Marinette wants) and they don’t even get to keep it! I know it’s something about keeping the secret but it’s seriously feels so fake that they have to turn their miraculous in every time she needs help.

It seems like a waste of time in universe and outside.

It overall feels…rushed. Not really well thought and even cheap to a degree.

It frustrates me to no end because I know it could be great.

And this is coming from someone who loves JEWEL PET. This is not a matter of “oh oh you’re just an adult asking for too much from a kids cartoon!”

I adore dumb mindless magical girls. I was a fan of the first season of SVTFOE and ML. If it sparkles I’m gonna watch it and I’m gonna like it.But ML doesn’t sparkle. Doesn’t have that great of a romance…and the pacing is worst that sailor moon.

Is this down in the bottom with KamichamaKarin? God no!

It does a better job that SVTFOE in regards of romance and has adhered to the themes more. It’s more along the lines of Jewel Pet, Fushigi Boshigi no Futago Hime and probably Princess Yucie.

Good but not that good. Passable but not memorable.