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thegodthief · 1 year ago

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Let me think of a question yes it is the ask box....... Would you be okay sharing more about the spirits you work with? I don't need like a list of details but more like, how have they impacted your life, I guess? And what is your relationship to them

As is my habit, I'll begin at the end.

There is nothing new written under the jump. Rather, it is all observations and statements I have made over time about spirits that long-time readers will recognize immediately.

"Adiutor" is a familiar given to me by Malphas for reasons only known to him. I didn't ask for her, and when she first made her appearance, it took Malphas holding me still and formally introducing her for me to believe it. She had a different nom de plume in my public writings for a while, but wanted something formal after it became clear that Malphas may have given me a familiar, but what I received was a secretary.

She has helped me with the timing of some things, and the finding of some things, the working of some things, and the interaction of some things. To receive her meant creating a physical anchor for her, which I did in the form of a simple poppet. Something specific went into the body of that poppet such that when I'm calling upon her but I'm not in the immediate vicinity of the poppet, I feel that specific something inside the proper place within my body.

(So once upon a witching night, when something tried to lure me away claiming to be her, now you know why I knew at once that it wasn't her. You can't dupe the tell if you don't know what it is.)

She will assist with Cyprianic work, but anything "purely" angelic can fuck right on out. I've also noticed certain boundaries that she refuses to cross and boundaries that she will not cross, and I think it's best for all involved that I not try to force those issues.

"Hollow" is... a friend. He's not a familiar, not bound to direct service, not a servitor. What I know of his past is that he has been wandering for quite a while and found a nice cozy place to rest in the flame of an non-dedicated candle. When the candle extinguished I thought that would be the last of his presence, but all it took was another candle and here he is again.

I first thought he was a passing fire (aspected?) spirit that took opportunity of free room and board. But the other spirits in my krew kept telling me that he was one of the Wandering Dead and that I either needed to ground/house him, chase him off, or make him pass through, otherwise there would be trouble. What kind of trouble? The kind of trouble that come looking to make a lunch out of him and decide to make dinner out of me instead.

After some review of the matter, I offered Hollow a deal: Become part of my krew and be housed, but in return he has to work to my benefit, or move on because I found what would be coming for him shortly and I was not going to risk that hard a something for that much of a nothing. He chose to stay. A suitable ceramic device was obtained and he was installed in it via a ritual that went sideways at the worst possible time because of very terrifying reasons and confirmed that Hollow was once human and that it's always a good idea to research the peoples that were in the land that you are now because they may be gone but their ancestors and gods are still very much around.

He now keeps watch over my spaces and receives tea candles burned inside his container as payment and amusement. It's like watching an old man savoring a good cuppa tea.

"Patient Caller" is the reason I looked into St. Cyprian (of Antioch) and Cyprianic magic in the first place. During my time as a [Protestant] Christian, I had it firmly embedded in my head to avoid anything [Roman] Catholic, and of that anything regarding saints, and of them anything about Saint Cyprian in particular because he is an Evil Sorcerer™ in saintly robes. (Which was also justification for that church's literal demonization of anything Catholic because if the Catholics were too stupid to realize the demonic nature of St. Cyprian then nothing else about them could be trusted.)

I had always known he was "hanging around" me, but because reasons, he couldn't approach me unless I summoned him to me first. Which I did, over a literal life-changing series of thirty days.

Let's talk about learning the hard way that fire is hot, water is wet, and just because you can see spirits doesn't mean that you can do jacque shitte about it.

I had left Christianity for over a decade by the time I tried that series of summons. Oh, I was so sure of myself and my ability to magic. So sure that all I had to do was read these well-vetted words from the Book of Oberon, and use this half-fucked, school-glue stitched ritual to get exactly what I wanted from The Spirits™ without any repercussion whatsoever because I was a Magus™!

To the surprise of none of you readers, I got my ass kicked, coming and going. I became oath-bound to get a particular ring that would bind Patient Caller to me, bind me to the life of a magician, and bind me to a particular path of magic which in hindsight is hilarious as fuck, because it's the very path that the Christian churches I was in were willing to kill me to prevent. (That ring has been obtained.)

But, along the way, I took the steps necessary to get myself and my daughter out of a very dangerous situation and to start our lives over. I confronted several of my fears. I confronted portions of myself that I never wanted to consider, much less reconcile with.

Sometimes, because trauma, it is difficult for me to interact with anything Christian or Christianity-adjacent. The fact that I have TWO bibles in my book stacks is a minor miracle in itself. Patient Caller is there to help me pull myself through those Christianity-adjacent rituals. For all my pain, it is clear that this is one of my pathways, and that it is one I am very effective in working.

Because reasons, I have a deep belief that Patient Caller is a human spirit in service to St. Cyprian, that also happens to be in my physical lineage as well as my magical.

He regards Adiutor with deep amusement and considers her presence to be a mark of achievement and progress on my part as a magician.

"Horatio" The first one. A gift I did not ask for. An entity that I have written as "Rummer John" from the start (and will never acknowledge the name the rest of y'all know him by because reasons) once plucked a skull from his table and handed it to me with no instruction other than to take it.

Bloody fucking hell, I was so god damn naïve. Grade-A Dumbass. No knowledge or understanding of what RJ had done. No consideration of the responsibility that had just been forced on me. Just glitter and butterflies and isn't it unethical for me, a descendant of slaves, to be the master of a spirit tee hee? This is a modern time and these are modern ways and aren't people like me supposed to be working for the enlightenment of humanity as a whole and the raising of the global consciousness? Shouldn't I be working to free the spirit trapped in the skull than to, I dunno, put the spirit to work?

The White Magic (pun very fucking much intended) that I had been taught by those few practitioners I had found around my town had taught me that I had a duty to only work good works and that the lesser, primitive magics that involved binding the spirits of the dead was unethical and the mark of a wounded soul. The few that I felt safe telling my story to impressed upon me a necessity to release Horatio "into the Light™" as soon as possible.

I found out the hard way that RJ had bound Horatio to me in such a way that the only way to release him from my service is for me to die first. Like. Literal death.

I didn't know what to do with him, so I let him do anything. A couple of years of bullshit later, he allowed me to get hurt by an avoidable harm that left physical marks. I finally realized I was way over my head and sought council of someone I trusted. That someone dragged me through the school of hard knocks while also teaching me how to be a spirit's master, and of that all I can say is that there is nothing in mainstream culture that will ever prepare you for the world of the spirits. The only way to cross that river is to get in, learn to swim, and hope you survive the effort.

Horatio earned that moniker when he found out that I had been writing publicly of him but using a name other than what he had given me. He demanded to be called "Yorick" after that one reference in that one play, but by that time I was starting to get tired of his shit and said no, that I would write "Horatio" instead because he didn't earn the right to be called out with respect. (It is a common error to say the name of the skull in that play is Horatio instead of Yorick. And the skull in that play is regarded reverently for reasons far beyond what I can get into here. But trust me, the 'misname' was a deliberate slight.)

In time I learned that Horatio could intervene for me regarding a certain class of spirits. A class that I was excluded from direct interaction with because of my (lack of) upbringing and cultural descent. In exploring that possibility, I learned more about myself, my heritage(s) that my family lineages did not want to acknowledge, and that some connections can and will jump barriers deliberate and ignorant.

He is currently keeping watch over my space with Hollow, with whom he superficially bickers with even as they watch each other's metaphorical backs. But as my studies into what I can and can't do keep turning in upon itself, I have a strong feeling that I am going to bring him back to the fore.

There are others. Ancestors. Gods. Powers. Forces of the land. Angels of divinity. Angels that have nothing to do with divinity. Things I see awake. Things I see in dreams. Things I see when 'hypnogogia' is too sterile a word for the state I am in. There is a dragon I pass to and from work but our worlds are not aligned well anymore so we just nod in mutual muted awareness as I go.

There are entities that I will no longer speak of because the world has changed and what was a trivial thing to muse upon before would be disrespectful to whisper in code now.

There are entities I encountered in oath-bound rituals that I can't speak of, and entities that I had encountered prior to those rituals, but because of their involvement, I will never speak publicly of them again.

I really thought my world had become small and that I had lost sight of so much. But in working out what to write here and what to write about, I realize that I haven't lost sight of anything. I just forgot to look up. I had... am... permitting the mundanity of taxes and reports and meetings to take over space that had been set aside for the world that encompasses such things.

I thought I had lost my touch.

I forgot what it is to feel.

Okay. Let's go.

#Keri answers an ask.#vistorille

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ubike-official · 8 months ago

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my dear friend ive been thinking of you talking about having self hatred blinders on with your trip and it really resonated with me like yeah thats exactly what im dealing with rn and trying to pry them off myself but still struggling with it even as im aware of it, i was wondering if u had any tips for moving forward and out of that kind of self hate and trauma fueled horse blinders mindset (aside from yknow. general healing and unpacking it all). no rush or pressure for replying i was just wanting to pick ur brain a little about it ily i hope ur day is going well

Hi Rey, my friend Rey! Thanks so much for being patient with my reply. I wanted to really sit down and give you a good proper answer here so I reviewed the Ancient Texts (my old journal entries). One thing that really helps for me dealing with the trauma self hatred blinders is the feeling that I owe it to myself to be confident. I think of sad little child me and how I know she wanted to be confident and accepted. And when I think of how others made me feel this hatred and that it's not a natural state. That my natural state was happy even if it was short lived, that i deserve to return back to that state.

Now thats easy said but very much not easily done. I still have moments where I realize after the fact i was isolating and falling into bad habits. Like when I was abroad i remember once the guy sitting next to me said hi to me outside of the school gate and was inviting me in to come talk with everyone and i literally ran away and tripped down a flight of stairs where no one saw me, cried, and dragged my bloody knee to a pharmacy to buy a bandaid and no one batted an eye. At that moment i felt like what just happened was proof that I was awful and no one cared about me. But in hindsight that wasn't true. Those people were inviting me in and i ran away. And i wasnt a bad person for that! i just had a lot of trauma and needed some grace and time to process it!

And it took me around 3 months to muster up the courage to try again. And I mustered it a couple of ways. One of my very bad traits that I'm working on is judging others. I remember there was this guy that took the same bus as me, that had such an obnoxious Australian accent and was so Caucasian and had the audacity to just talk to anyone. And I haaaated him. But like, one day it clicked while i was being a hater, this dude legit did not know or care who i was. he had friends and did so many things i wish i could've done. I stopped seeing him but soon a similar guy appeared that was of the same type of person, and one day I talked to him. And it didnt amount to much. But it helped me get over that block. Because if i was gonna spend all that time disliking him, i wanted him to at least know who the hell i was. at least once. Not for external validation, for me. And I feel like sometimes having that awkward, scary conversation can really help.

In terms of processing and healing I really love physical journaling. It doesn't need to be fancy or coherent, but writing it down, especially before bed helps me really process whatever things are weighing me down. I like to get it out right before bed so i can go to bed with a clear mind and not have the 3am lying in bed spiral. And def try to gauge what things you can unpack and resolve with a session otherwise it can leave you worse off.

One thing that helps for me that may not work for you or others given your health situation. I think a casual low intensity amount of drinking with friends or at a bar in a safe space helps. For me being just a little tipsy makes me put my guard down and connect with others and gain confidence from small, low commitment, one off interactions with strangers. This can also be replicated Non alcoholic/substancy in like a cafe, library patio, or community setting. If you're able to find somewhere accessible to you and be a regular and say hi, get some low level interaction. When I came back home from Taiwan I made it a habit to try and say hi to people when i went for walks and just get comfortable doing that. Or I'd make small talk with checkout clerks at the grocery store and juat add a comment in. Like sometimes I'd just rehearse saying something about the weather or the week or idk, anything. And just whip it out of your back pocket. Sometimes it'll land, sometimes it wont.

Hope this is at least somewhat helpful! you've got this, we're in this together^^

#asks #ankhisms

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ecargmura · 4 months ago

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Kimi Ni Todoke Season 3 Episode 4 Review - Christmas Party

It’s Sawako’s second Christmas as a high-schooler! Things have changed since the previous Christmas. This time, she’s in a relationship with Kazehaya now, but they both went to the class Christmas party, which is Sawako’s first time going.

The Christmas party scene was super cute. Like Sawako, I even get to see what their Christmas party is like. It’s pretty cute by high school student standards. They sing karaoke and exchange gifts. Sawako singing was super hilarious as she was singing a horror-themed song that’s more suited for summer. I think it’s Enka? I also feel like Joe’s entire existence is to be the thorn on everyone’s side.

I sort of can guess what Kazehaya’s deal is. He does love Sawako, but he’s overcomplicating things and overthinking to the point that he’s holding back because of those. I know that he’s getting a lot of flak for this, but I sort of see it in a way that it makes Kazehaya a bit human in a sense. He was deemed as the perfect shoujo guy, but even in this story, not everyone is perfect. Kazehaya is the same. However, his flaws are just like Sawako’s in the sense that he overcomplicates and overthink things and keeps it to himself. Since his kiss with Sawako had been interrupted, he’s been holding back on wanting to be more intimate with her. However, he failed to realize that keeping quiet and holding back is only upsetting Sawako.

I can’t believe Kazehaya is actually having a chat with Kento. They’re a combination I thought wouldn’t get along given how jealous and possessive Kazehaya can be. They get along surprisingly well. Kento even gives solid advice to Kazehaya about what it is he wants to do and how to make Sawako happy and close the distance between them.

Speaking of Kento, he completely won over me here. I can’t believe he went from worst boy to best boy in this season. If you had told the me from 13 years ago that Kento would be a great character later on, my past self would have scoffed at the current me. Kento may seem a bit flighty and flirty, but he knows when to be serious. Seeing Ayane’s vulnerable side awakened something within him. While I do like Kento now, I can’t deny that his approach to his feelings towards Ayane isn’t perfect. It does still feel like he’s a little self-centered when it comes to wanting Ayane to like him, but he’s at least seeing her for who she is unlike the other guys who dated her before. Him socking Mogi did feel justified in my opinion because Mogi was thinking that since Ayane is super chill that she’d be okay with everything that had transpired, but she actually wasn’t. I’m glad that Ayane finally got a proper apology from him. I’m surprised that Kento bought a rose bouquet for Ayane. The flowers he bought are uniquely colored as they’re red and white bicolored roses. In some flower languages, bicolored roses means love and passion. Given that this is a shoujo manga, this definitely is what Kento is trying to convey to Ayane. He loves her for who she is and wants to be passionate about it. Hopefully, Ayane will come to love Kento too.

Ayane has her own internal dilemma about her feelings of love. She has never fallen in love before and it troubles her because she envies Sawako and Chizuru for being happy when it comes to being in love. Most of all, she doesn’t like herself. I sort of want to see a full introspective of her past to see why she’s so insecure and self-loathing. She wants to be in love too, but she doesn’t know how to obtain it. I do like that she’s hesitant to go out with Kento because she’s scared. She just doesn’t jump onto his offer and advances like before. I do like her scenes with Sawako because of this because despite them being friends, their approach to love is completely different. Hopefully, Kento will be that answer to what she’s been searching for.

There are also nice moments from other characters too. Pin gives solid advice to Sawako about Kazehaya’s hesitance: just talk it out. Pin may be silly, but he’s very wise. Ryu and Chizuru get a nice moment too as he gives her a pretty preserved rose. I wonder if it’s a broach or not. However, pink roses can mean several things. It can be love, gratitude, thoughtfulness, and admiration. I think all those words really does specify Ryu’s love for Chizuru and their relationship.

Since the next episode is the last one, I do hope that Kazehaya and Sawako do talk out their worries. If there’s one thing that Kimi Ni Todoke does to a frustrating level is drag on these types of issues and have the characters fret over it without talking it out. That was what almost killed Season 2 for me. What are your thoughts on this episode?

#kimi ni todoke #Sawako kuronuma #shota kazehaya #Ayane yano #Kento miura #Chizuru yoshida #ryu sanada #pin #joe #mogi #review #anime #anime review #ecargmura #arum journal

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unnursvanablog · 1 year ago

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Doctor Who, 60th anniversary specials / review.

There might be some spoilers below.

The show may have had its highs and lows over the years, but it has always been near and dear to my heart even if I've been very open about how much of a low Doctor Who has been in the last few seasons for me (I never finished Jodie's last season), and I don't enjoy the way the episodes have been written in the last few years, especially under the direction of Chibnall, who can't seem to create a proper storyline or take the time to build the character enough well to save his own live.

As someone who started their journey with the show during the first RTD era watching these 60th anniversary episodes were like coming back home in a way – which was pretty much everything I wished for. This delightful campness is how I met this strange soup of science fiction that almost feels like a fantasy at times mixed with vibrant adventures, mysteries, and a whole lot of whimsy.

A lot of humor, fun action, and an awful lot of heart at the core of the story with great character quests for the human companion of the Doctor, but also for our protagonist, with a fun mystery that threads its way through all the episodes without it acting too confusing or too stupid is how I enjoy my Doctor Who adventures. And Russell took care of it for me. He makes you feel with his stories, without ever feeling the need to outsmart you or do too much.

And I guess that was supposed to be the big theme of it all; coming home. And I can understand that as a sort of final touch to these special, and I understand that Russell couldn't make a big, overarching narrative with multiple complex twists with only three specials, but I wanted more structure and buildup to the closing moment and to the story itself, as well as for all three stories to be more connected to each other as a whole.

I liked the quirks and the more character, and in a way the emotionally focused elements of these specials - I certainly expected that from Russell. The way he plays with the absurd and manages to make the seriousness of the horror and message of each episode is what made his first era of Doctor Who work so well in my opinion. As well as the emotions that come with that. I've missed that from the show. His stories often have this commitment to allowing themselves to be silly but at the same time fun but sincere and earnest.

But all the shenanigans have something more and bigger to say, some theme or message - although it's often a little clumsy and sometimes not so subtle. Russell sometimes forgets his own world-building and just somehow wobbles himself out of all-out storylines and things just sort of happen. Very often, though, it works for him because he makes it fun or heartfelt. It’s because he usually has given the characters time to earn those moments.

The way he builds the story is usually fun. Russell never seems to try to cheat you or think he's wiser than everyone else, but more distracts you with entertainment so you don't realize all the clues he gives in the plot until he wants you to see them. I was missing some of that here though, but as I have mentioned before, there wasn’t much time for that in these three specials, I think.

I've seen better weaving of plots from Russell. I expected a little more character moments from Donna, but I understand the focus on the Doctor and consequently Donna's need to be an anchor for the 14th journey through the story and give them the friendly face and comfort of an old friend while they find out why they got that old face back. The joy of getting Donna back and saving her from the tragedy she was stuck with at the end of the fourth season was enough to give Donna's journey and viewers closure.

But all this time I was always waiting for things to connect more than they did – I thought each new episode would reveal a bigger picture of the puzzle that would build into a slightly larger conclusion, almost like something of a 'Vote' for Saxon' storyline, so the ending we got left me somewhat underwhelmed at first. But I also feel that there might be a little more to this storyline that Russell hasn't revealed to us now, and maybe we won’t get the whole thing until maybe the end of his second era as showrunner or the first season of season 15. And that would be very Russell T. Davies of him.

Overall, I really enjoyed this episode. It was fun to return to Doctor Who, but the first episode certainly was the one that gave me the most feels. Maybe because for the next two episodes I was always waiting for a few more clues to a larger puzzle. The rather simple resolution that the Doctor needed rest and comfort and to just exist wasn’t really what I thought it was all coming down to. But I do feel like both characters absolutely deserve to feel like they belong somewhere and to have a home, because that's why both the Doctor and Donna flew away in that big blue box all these years ago. We have come full circle, in a way.

#doctor who #tv show review #tv show reviews

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starryocean · 1 year ago

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realized there's still books i havent got to talking about yet that ive finished forever ago. whoops. here they are now.

1 - Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

as I expected, it was incredibly edgy. I kept thinking of Jorg as some 13-year-old dA boy's first ever fantasy OC. And he talked as if he felt the same way, too--really believing that he was the coolest shit ever, can do whatever he wants, fuck his dad and fuck the kingdom. nothing personnel, kid.

To Mark's credit, Jorg is also literally 14. I think. 14-15. Either way he's a teenager and has trauma and very much acts like it. I think that's a pretty important thing to state with regards to Jorg's narration. However, it also makes some things he pulled off in his backstory statistically impossible for a...I think 10? 11? year old to do. But there's also some weird magic shit going on, and the weird magic shit is explicitly confirmed to have played a role in at least one of those statistically impossible incidents, so I guess I can believe that maybe there was meddling there as well. idk.

Anyway. Let's talk about what I liked.

The "twist" with regards to the background of the setting as a whole was fairly interesting and properly foreshadowed from the start--even the map was pointing to it. However, it was also the only thing that really kept me reading. I did not like Jorg, even if I thought his narration was hilariously edgy, but somehow I did end up rooting for him to win the last battle at least a little? So I guess some of the reviews didn't lie to me in that that would happen.

So that's another thing I liked. Mark Lawrence is a competent storyteller if he was able to get me invested enough in Jorg--even with Jorg being unlikable as he is--to root for him at all at the very end. Let me be clear that I can't see him ever being truly a "hero" by any definition of the word. But he grew on me. That's the important thing. He grew on me, and it's honestly a sign of good writing that he was able to grow on me at all.

Thirdly: I think it's very, VERY funny that the only reason everyone didn't die half-way through the book is because one guy spoke up about not using every bomb available in order to destroy this one place. This guy saved the fucking world from being annihilated by nukes (yet again, cuz oops spoilers that's the twist it's set in post-nuclear apocalypse Europe) and then nobody even knows it but Jorg and his little group of bandit shitheads. And it's all because he didn't think it was necessary to go all out for one stupid fortress and told Jorg he had to tone it down a bit.

Comedy gold.

Now, what I didn't like:

Jorg. I've already mentioned he's a shithead. Massively so. Literally the book starts with him slaughtering a whole village for no reason, among other things. Literally the only reason I could find myself rooting for him is because the other guys were worse. So since I've already talked a lot about how much I don't like Jorg, I'm moving on.

The treatment of women is also very annoying. it's not as bad as having literally every female character get raped, but the only one who's given any development is the step-daughter of the king (jorg's dad) from his marriage to another woman after the first queen got murdered horribly. The only other woman of note I can think of is the dead queen and a sex worker that is treated like an idiot the whole time she's on screen. She and Jorg end up having sex anyway. It's gross.

Also. Racism. The only Black character is never given a real name and is consistently referred to by his race alone. He dies part way through the book (although he's still relevant a good while after) and is never given a proper name. And of course he was a slave and bandit and he's notable because apparently there aren't many other Black people in post-apoc Europe that aren't slaves??? Utterly bizarre. Do you have any idea how many Muslims live in France, as an example? Especially Black Muslims? Are you seriously telling me there wouldn't be ANY descendants of those people living as commoners in post-apoc Europe, even if not in what was once France specifically? Like, let's be generous and pretend that there aren't any Black nobility either because people are just THAT racist after the end of the world. Are you seriously saying there'd still be little to no free Black people around, at all? Are you stupid?

The fucking Asian character is treated better than this, and he's also a fucking slave whose been forced to be the wise old elder trying to teach Jorg about stuff and "put him on the right path" or w/e bs. But he at least has a name.

So overall I did not like this one, tbh. Even if there were a few things I did like a lot, there wasn't enough to keep me going other than the interesting setting twist and wanting to see how it ended. 3edgy5me, or whatever the meme was back in the late 2000s-early 2010s.

Would not rec.

2 - The Cat Who Saved Books by Sousuke Natsukawa

I liked this one a lot. 200+ pages, very short, but lots of warm feel-good with fantasy aspects to it as well. The different "worlds" where books were being treated badly were very interesting, and the different ways they were being treated badly was some good commentary on how people consume media. There were a lot of Western literary references which I didn't expect, but also since this was a translation and the author is Japanese I can see way, as part of the atmosphere of the book and playing into the protag's tastes and circumstances.

I was really interested in trying to learn what that last story the protag needed to confront was, because I wasn't sure who she was meant to represent, but it was probably more obvious in the original text and just couldn't be carried over to English well. I did like the whole "friends from past adventures coming to help the protag in his time of need" even if its a cliche, and there was just a lot of coziness to this one that I needed at the time I read it.

Loved this book. Would recommend.

3 - All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O'Donoghue

I admit, I picked this one up because it was from a publisher/imprint I'd never seen in store before and wanted to know what kind of stuff they published. The pretty art was also a selling point, as the setting in contemporary Ireand with Tarot stuff going on.

I wasn't sure if I'd like the protag at first, but I really did. Even with the rift between her and her childhood friend at the beginning and how it happened, I could really see why she did what she did, because I know that sort of thought process she had as she got older and wanted to "fit in" in her upper-class school. The fact she also ended up having to confront her privilege with how her family has far more means than most people was also a good part of her arc. I was also quite happy that she and her friend didn't make up right away at the end once the friend was saved, and that it was clear there was a long way to go between them.

The lore with the weird creepy card that started this whole mess was interesting, too. The fact that the spell the protag did was actually mutual on both her and her friend's part was an interesting touch I didn't expect--but it also makes sense? Especially with the foreshadowing that came after the incident with her having been seen willingly going with that manifestation of said card. The backstory about that other girl who stumbled upon that power but died without any help, and the fact that the nun(?) lady had all those news clippings in her car in the first place...those were good. The latter was touching, too, especially given the whole conflict against the religious cult.

Speaking of. Said religious cult. When the blurb says that this book touches on queer revolution, it's not joking around--this book goes fucking hard on the harm of anti-queer politics and what that religious cult is doing. The fact that the cult leader has magic also makes it even worse, considering he's manipulating people both with mundane tactics and literal fucking magic.

So uh. I wasn't in a great place to be reading that sort of thing when I got this, and with current politics I don't think I'll be able to read the next book any time soon either. But I did like this one a lot. Bonus points for the nonbinary character being amab, because--while I'm sure there's stuff out there--there's such a prevailing attitude of nonbinary being "femme lite" that it's so hard for me to find actual amab nonbinary rep. It's such a breath of fresh air. Like it shouldn't even be a thing that matters but...god, I need more amab nonbinary characters. Please.

Anyway. Great book. Goes hard. Would love to read the next one when I'm in a better headspace for it. Would recommend if you're in a good headspace for it.

4 - Never Coming Home by Kate Williams

It's And Then There Were None but if Fyre Festival. I was sold as soon as I read the blurb. I fucking love that idea and the And Then There Were None kind of mystery is like catnip to me. I loved that book when I first read it and I've been really into Agatha Christie-style mysteries in general. The recent Death on the Nile movie was loads of fun. I need to read more of her books and this helped scratch that murder-mystery itch I've been getting more into lately.

It's also good that the one actual big influencer was sus on everything from the start, precisely because most of these people were nobodies even in their own niche, by varying degrees from their helpfully-listed follower count in the beginning. Frankie Rus(s)h (the actual big influencer) only knows like, one person from an event they were both at and is very protective of her. Even so, she's still quite clearly flawed, and even a little selfish, and I like that.

The POVs all vary from chapter to chapter, as fitting the story its paying homage to. The way everyone's being taunted while they're trapped there at the same time they're getting picked off one-by-one is also nice psychological horror for those characters. Especially with the fact that the account for the event is updating with pictures of people that couldn't have been taken by any of them with riddle-like messages about who'll die next and how.

I also like that there was a character who was upfront about the thing they're guilty of right away. He knew he was the reason it happened, he did his time over it iirc, he made peace with his guilt and is fine with letting people know if it'll help figure out this mess. That's really good emotional maturity even if not everyone was as honest about their crimes as he was. Good stuff.

Now. Some problems.

That same character I don't feel was handled as great as he could've been. His whole thing is that he's a DJ, or at least was trying to make it as one, but ended up as more or less a drug dealer instead. I feel this would be fine if he were like, any other race but latino. Just...the drug dealer stereotype is too prevalent, especially with current politics, but I do applaud that the author tried to handle it as maturely as possible and made him far more nuanced than just a "druggie." He also didn't die first, and in fact lasted for a good while.

The alternating POVs between him and one other person right before his death was also good. Unreliable narrator clearly on display, with both of them being sure the other is the culprit in all of this. Tragic as all hell and really helps with the gut punch. Especially with how that other person died right after.

The only thing I was super confused about was the "explanation" part of the ending. It was framed as people theorizing online about it all (on reddit actually, I think) but I still didn't feel quite clear about the culprit's motivation for all of it. I might have to reread later to see if I can understand it better, but I do also know that scene was of the culprit literally trolling in order to try and dissuade people from thinking it was them.

Because they're still a public presence at the end and their family has been monetizing the shit out of the tragedy.

Yeah. Oof.

Still. Very good book. Loved it and it did the concept and homage justice. Would rec.

5 - The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

Very interesting mystery, tbh. Contemporary/historical, with some people apparently having very YMMV feeling on how it was done. Personally I liked it a lot, the style and narration felt fitting. I really liked the emotional arcs of the characters, as well as the whole concept of an old herbalist going against her teachings in order to provide poison to women so that they can kill their husbands in an era where women didn't really have the ability to either divorce or else stop such people at all.

The relationship between the herbalist and the young girl was fun, and I really liked how the lady the girl was working for loved her like family. Enough to kill her husband so that he couldn't hurt the girl at all. The story with the modern-day historian was...less interesting tbh, mostly because for much of it I was worried it'd be more focused on the relationship drama with her cheating husband and their collapsing marriage more than it actually was. I wasn't super into the pregnancy scare plot either. But I did end up liking her side of the story more as the novel got further in.

It wasn't a super long novel either. Also in the 200+ page range. But the mystery/historical aspect was good, the modern characters not being able to get a full, conclusive idea of what happened in the past was good, and it was really fun watching the modern day historian do some breaking and entering in her search. fuck yeah, lady. trespass on private property to cope! fuck the police! lmao

Would recommend.

6 - So I'm a Spider, So What? #16 by Okina Baba

I liked most of it, up until the very end. The end ended up retroactively souring the rest of the book for me, if not the whole series. It was too abrupt, and the "epilogue" of 1-2 sentence paragraphs describing what happened to every character only made it worse. Especially given the fact that Sue is implied to be the one who "won" with Shun in the end, even though both volumes 15 and 16 make it explicitly clear she's not supposed to be seen in a good light with regards to her actions--starting from her rape attempt against Shun to how she selfishly inserts herself into the party of people meeting with the Demon Lord, and how that could very well have ended the world right then and there.

Like, Sue is not meant to be seen in anywhere near a positive light in volumes 15 and 16. She even keeps taking advantage of Shun's kindness even though he very firmly set boundaries with her, which is also presented as something negative, and yet she...somehow wins? Like, yeah, sure I am biased towards Katia. But Katia has also been pretty explicitly built-up as the "main" romantic interest for Shun since volume 1. Given the way Sue is treated/presented in the last few volumes, how she's been barely relevant for a majority of the series since volume 5, and with Katia being the obvious choice? It feels like a deliberate "fuck you." And it hurts. And it's honestly made me not want to go back and reread any of the series anymore for the parts I at least liked.

I've been wanting to write out a snippet/one-shot that sums up my feeling as to what should have been done with Sue since I had a chance to sit and process volume 16, but I can't even get myself to do that because of how sour it feels to even think about the ending. Even though I feel like it'd be cathartic to write such a fic. But I can't fucking get myself to do it. I knew people were saying the ending was bad, but I was really hoping it was people complaining for similar reasons as to why people didn't like vol 11-12 (aka, their reasoning was stupid).

But...no. They were right. The ending sucked. And I don't even know how to feel about the stupid series anymore. I don't even know if I want to have anything to do with it anymore.

And it hurts.

That's all I can say about this one.

7 - Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

Loved this one. The way it was written, most people being genuinely nice and good, the possessed/haunted kid not being demonized? It was so good. It was something I needed when I picked it up. It took me a while to actually finish it, but the ending made me so happy I did. This book is horror, I should also mention, and the drawings periodically inserted into the story was a great touch.

As a side note: I was thinking to myself a few days ago how most of my experience with horror media has been indie games,* how a majority modern video games have an inherently visual element to them, and how House of Leaves--the only adult horror novel I'd read before picking up Hidden Pictures--also had a kind of visual element to it that most books lack. Obviously, most novels make up for the lack of visuals by invoking images in your head as you read the prose, such that you can still "see" things happening. House of Leaves, however, ends up taking it a step further by making the text itself a visual component, not just leaving it as "text" and relying on the reader's imagination.

I think, considering my tastes in horror media, it's not a surprise that the two adult horror books I've picked up--and loved--have had a visual component to them. I mean, the narratives themselves are compelling, don't get me wrong. The prose and story of both are phenomenal. I loved reading them as much as I enjoyed the "visual" aspects. But I noted that it was an interesting trend, considering.

But anyway. Loved Hidden Pictures. 100% would rec--especially to those who want something accessible to try and get into the horror genre with.

(*I also read a lot of horror manga/webtoons, but the sentence was long enough so I elected to include that down here. Either way, my point still stands re:my tastes in horror having a bent towards including some sort of visual aspect to the storytelling)

8 - My Next Life as a Villainess #6 by Satoru Yamaguchi

I tried getting back into Bakarina as a way of helping me out of a reading slump, wanting to read something easier to help ease me into reading in general (which worked, and was what helped me finish Hidden Pictures). I also bought another LN that I'll go on about down below to help with this. I liked...some of this one. But I was also feeling kind of sour by the end of it due to the way a certain character was handled.

To put it simply: there's a side character who is described in a way that more or less makes them a trans caricature. Super muscular, wears pretty dresses/frilly clothes, wants to be called by a feminine name, acts super feminine despite being repeatedly referred to as looking hypermasculine, etc. To top it off, her coworker insists in referring to her by her deadname. Everyone else treats her as a woman (including Katarina's narration), but this one guy doesn't. Consistently. To top it off, everyone's kind of creeped out and wary around this transwoman character, at least at first.

I will say, at the very least, in comparison to that male coworker who deadnames her the trans character is at least portrayed as competent at her job. She takes things seriously and is good at what she does. She also doesn't act creepy to the other characters, it's the other characters being creeped out by default and eventually warming up (which, isn't much better, but the bar is so low that it's still a step up). She's also very caring towards the other characters and wants to keep everyone safe. At the end, a different viewpoint character who the transwoman is giving a report to also takes her seriously and treats her as a woman, trusting her and knowing she's one of the better people in their organization (iirc. It's been a while since I've read all of these).

But none of this fully washed away the bitter taste I got from the way this character's appearance is so obviously meant as a joke/caricature. Especially in a time where I was already feeling down, and combined with how Kumoko's ending went it sucks even worse. Bakarina was/is another series I really enjoy--I've been keeping up with the fan translations of the manga releases and it's been nice to read something so comfy and light when I see there's been a new update. But now that I've read this volume, and now that the fan translation is getting into the content of this volume, it's been made sour for me too.

The plot was okay, I guess. I wasn't super fond of how mean one of the characters was to Katarina, although I understand why given his backstory. I liked Pochi getting a power-up and the others freaking out about it. But I felt thoroughly "meh" on basically everything and was disappointed with the stuff regarding that transwoman character.

I don't have anything super nice to say about this one, sorry. Moving on.

9 - I'm the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire #1 by Yomu Mishima

Opposite to Bakarina, this one started out in a way that had me REALLY not want to read it, expecting the worst, and then turned my opinion around to a complete 180 as it went on.

I want to let you know, I've rarely ever had that happen to me. So I want to stress that this was actually good and funny, despite starting off on such an awful note. Like, I cannot understate how catastrophically the novel started out with regards to my expectations. I spotted a trope I don't like right away in the Table of Contents as one of the chapter titles, the full-color pages at the start being super super fanservicey, and the first chapter going into detail about how the reincarnated protagonist commissioned a big-tittied robot that had sexual capabilities programmed when he was a small child. And from there proceeding to grope said robot when she arrived, while still a small child.

And yet, it managed to redeem itself so well that I now consider it a favorite. I'm probably not going to buy any other volumes in the series, but I was actually laughing at some of the jokes at points. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a isekai manga that's actually funny? This LN started off so badly, but it managed to make me laugh. THIS KIND OF 108 NEVER. HAPPENS.

If you're wondering how it did that, then let me explain: first, it acknowledged several tropes common in isekai works (i.e., slave harems) as being a bad thing that will get people hating you and wanting you dead. The bar is so low but with the amount of works that don't manage to cross it, this was notable and improved my opinion just on its own. Then, the whole thing with the protag learning how to fight from a fraud because his brain is on anime and how what the guy was teaching him shouldn't actually be possible was incredibly funny. Failing upwards, and all that.

Then, this one older character being portrayed as incredibly pathetic and embarrassing for trying to do the honeypot thing. Too often, male teenage protags end up leaning into the gross pervert trope and let themselves go along with creepy fanservice no matter who it comes from. But this lady trying to seduce someone younger than her is shown as being embarrassing on her part, even humiliating that someone would even go that far. Again, this shouldn't be notable, but the fact that this LN was able to make such a point helped improve my opinion, because there's so many novels out there that can't even say that.

Then, when rescuing a bunch of people who've been held prisoner and traumatized (with heavy sexual connotations, even though nothing on-screen or outright is shown), the protag instead chooses to help them recover and even help them find places/jobs/etc. in his society instead of "mercy killing" them (which is something that happens far too often to victims of rape (or in this case, implied rape) in webnovels and such).

The fact that the bar is soooo fucking low but this novel manages to get all these things right? While managing to be actually funny at points alongside that? I genuinely can't believe the story pulled it off. It's insane.

Of course, the LN is not without its problems--there's still the way it started out, for instance. And there's other moments of unnecessary fanservice that doesn't happen to make a point like how that one scene with the honeypot does about it being dumb/pathetic/creepy/etc. There's also a bonus chapter in the back I felt was iffy, among other things.

But the fact it managed to turn my opinion around by this much? I think that counts for something. This one very much depends on whether or not you'll see the story the way I do by the end of it, so I can't give it a blanket rec, but if you're interested in trying it out? I'd say go for it. Just be aware that there's still stuff that's very much not great. I don't think people who aren't used to Weeb Ass Shit appearing in their anime/manga will like this one at all. So YMMV.

10 & 11 - Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree & Elantris by Brandon Sanderson

Putting these two together because it's been long enough I only have a few thoughts for each.

Legends and Lattes was nice and cozy. The stakes where actually higher than I expected re: the mafia thing or whatever, but that did get resolved without too much struggle, so that was nice. People being nice to each other and working together to make coffee and pastries. It's something I needed, and I'm glad I read it. Would rec.

Elantris was very obviously a debut novel. It didn't read as well as Mistborn did, the plot moved way too slowly for my tastes, and it hit kind of hard in places that I didn't want to be hit hard in. I get that it was setting up a sequel hook at the end, but for a standalone there were too many questions left unsolved. I get why, but even so, I wasn't super fond of this one. I remember wanting to see the noble ladies actually get to use the sword skills they were being taught but I feel like I remember that not happening. Would have to reread to double check.

I did at least like the political maneuvering, and I liked that the prince was able to reunite with his wife. I liked the organizing and faction conflict within the walled-off Elantris, too. But everything else was kind of...aggressively meh. I will say it treated its characters of color better than Prince of Thorns, though. They at least all get names and are treated as equals.

I think that's all the reviews. This took forever to sit down and write up but I got it done at least?

Currently reading Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri, am planning to read The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie after. Beyond that? We'll see.

#phoenix says boring stuff #reading tag #long post #kumo desu ga nani ka #kumo desu ga #so im a spider #so im a spider so what

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lomappreciationblog · 2 years ago

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Final episode review for the LOM Anime!

Well, here we are at the end of our journey! I will be making another (hopefully shorter) post about my overall thoughts on the anime.

As usual, link to the episode here:

youtube

And for the final time: spoiler warning for the finale of the anime, and general spoilers and discussion of the show!

I really wish I wasn't saying this but...

The final episode...isn't very good. It's definitely not the ending the show deserved.

I feel like it could have been much better, but as it is some things about it really fell flat for me and lessened the impact so much that I'm left more disappointed than anything.

Hm, well, to discuss it - it's the final showdown before Shiloh and Elazul versus Sandra, Serafina and the Lord of Jewels. I was hoping to see the Lord of Jewels take his boss form and we get a good boss fight, but given the anime's shying away from prolonged fights I didn't expect to see it - I was proven right.

What we got instead is a whole lot more clumsier.

Like in the game, Alex initially appears in his jewel shop merchant guise, only revealing themselves to be Sandra, at which point Shiloh realizes there was no way about it, Serafina really did kill Esmeralda. Sandra also reveals the Lord of Jewels and states their plan to heal Florina using the Teardrop Crystal that the Lord of Jewels will make from the stolen cores.

Sandra then sends out two Jewel Beasts for Elazul and Shiloh to fight, where Elazul gives the Sword of Fate to Shiloh in an admittedly cool scene where the sword cleaves the Jewel Beast in one stroke. However, soon after, Serafina arrives with Blackpearl's core, and Shiloh realized that from the start, ever since he met Serafina at Geo, she had been hunting down the Jumi herself and most likely tracked him down to find Elazul and Pearl. The episode shows clips of their previous meetings for good measure, though as a viewer, ever since episode 6 and 9 you're probably already reviewed those previous encounters in a different light. Which is a still a shocking revelation and all, but er, rather awkwardly, the scene transitions to Sandra trying to kill Shiloh. Was he...just standing there spaced out and thinking to himself? I don't blame him but...

Meanwhile, Serafina puts Elazul down, and so our heroes are incapacitated. However, the Lord of Jewels still needs a core, and Elazul offers himself, saying it would be better to die for Florina, but Alexandra steps in and offers theirs.

Serafina tries to stop Sandra but is too late, and now it's revealed why Serafina is so loyal to Sandra - Sandra found her as an abandoned baby, adopted her and raised her.

Which is a pretty intriguing plot development - at that point, Sandra was already, well, Sandra, and probably well on their way to murdering Jumi and all that. But she still took in Serafina and raised her as her own, which means they're practically parent and child. That's really significant, since it does mean that Sandra cared for someone other than Florina at that point in their life. What was their thought process like? If I had to guess, Sandra didn't want to see another life thrown away, but rather unfortunately, this is revealed way too late for any proper developments.

Gah, this is why I think another episode to space it out would have worked!

Anyway, Serafina sort of shuts down after seeing Sandra sacrifice themselves like that, and even though Shiloh pleads with her to find another way to save the Jumi, she beats him down. She tells him that she plans to at least make Elazul Florina's new knight and Shiloh should protect him, but Shiloh refuses, saying Blackpearl already is, and besides, he cannot accept the death of so many Jumi. So Serafina stabs him through the middle, ending the fight.

And then...the Lord of Jewels kind of...disappears...

It's not really clear what happened - the scene whites out while he screams and then Serafina and Shiloh are in space with the other Jumi cores.

I guess they were somehow transported into the Sparkling Vortex, the room for the boss fight in the game?

But it's just weird because the Lord of Jewels is gone, he doesn't appear any more on screen after that. In the manga, they also skipped over the boss fight with him, instead, what happened is that he explodes from the concentration of so much Jumi cores, leaving only Pearl and Toto, who then sheds a Teardrop Crystal.

In the anime...I don't know. The only safe thing I can assume is he failed to bring together the cores and also sort of exploded or something.

...I think the boss fight would have made more sense.

Anyway, Shiloh and Serafina are now left with all these cores and they once again see the memories of the Jumi - Esmeralda and the other guardians wanting to share Florina's burden but unable to, Sappho regretting not being able to heal Marina, and a special reveal - Blackpearl actually asked Alexandra to help turn her into a guardian in the event she couldn't find the Mana Sword. Which, again, is very interesting - so Blackpearl did plan into turning into Pearl if things continued going wrong, but from the looks of it, when Alexandra injured her core in the desert it was more out of frustration and anger, and not exactly to turn her into a guardian to replace Florina.

Buuuuut again this revelation is played a bit too late imo.

Still, experiencing all these Jumi's emotions, Serafina's reserve is finally broken and she breaks down in tears, coming back to Shiloh. Serafina realizes that the Jumi did care for each other and comes to regret what she's done...

Which, writing this, the episode's flow makes more sense, but watching it felt a bit awkward. Serafina points out Shiloh is crying, and he tells her she is, too. They both start to turn into stone, and Shiloh starts to ask Serafina something but stops, but she confesses anyway - not a love confession, she tells Shiloh she regrets betraying him and Esmeralda. To which Shiloh says he knows that's how she felt.

Serafina then says that she hopes she meets him again with the other Jumi, and then they turn into stone. Their tears, however, become teardrop crystals that revive all the other Jumi. They show Elazul and Pearl meeting up again, and Esmeralda, and Sandra leaves quietly. However, Florina, Rubens, Diana, Sappho and Marina and the other Lucky Clover sisters aren't shown on screen, which is a bummer and I feel would have closed off the episode nicely.

But they become pretty faithful to the game again after this, showing it storming over Fa'Diel with Bud and Lisa watching and talking about how the sky cries when a Jumi cries. We get a nice montage of the different locales and then the ending shot of Serafina and Shiloh saying "We're home."

They do know how to pull at my heartstrings though, playing the original Song of Mana with the Swedish lyrics. As a nice touch, the credits is changed so that all the Jumi are shown smiling and with their eyes open.

Writing this down makes it sound more sensible, but watching it feels a bit awkward, mainly because of the visuals...I wish I don't sound so nitpicky, but here we go.

Look, I have nothing against reusing frames, especially if it's characters just talking. You don't need to animate whole different shots for that. But- it's the final episode. If they had to use their budget it had to be here - but it definitely sticks out that to indicate Sandra was walking, they shook the frame of her talking up and down to indicate she was moving. That is just...bizarre. And they did it twice. What happened?? That was incredibly low-quality for an otherwise good show.

There were also a lot of close up headshots of characters in this episode, especially when Serafina and Shiloh were having their final talk. And I get that the scene has to make their eyes the focus of the shot since they were crying, and that's very important to the plot but the fact that that Shiloh's eyes were so big and in focus...and they wanted to animate his talking, so his face is a bit squished up in the frame to allow his mouth talking also be in the scene and the end result looks much more goofy than dramatic. I dearly wish it didn't, but that's how it is and it takes a lot of impact out from what should have been an emotional scene.

I'm also not sure how I feel about Serafina and Shiloh reconciling. It happened much too fast and the scene is careful enough to not say Serafina is forgiven or anything, but Shiloh must have the soul of an angel to not hold any grudge against Serafina when she basically killed him. I mean, Shiloh is cinnamon roll extreme who sees the good in everyone, but he didn't see Serafina's flashback, that was purely for the viewers' benefit. So it is still strange how sympathetic he is to her.

I wished there was an extra scene where they were allowed to talk after being revived because that's uh, that's a lot of stuff to unpack. It feels very weird she goes home with him after, given everything I think it would have been more in character if Serafina went to look for Sandra. I don't know, I just don't feel I like how it resolved Serafina's side of the story, which is real shame because the choice of making her an antagonist is otherwise played so well.

So that's how it is. I just wish the final episode was much better, it just leaves a sour note that of all the episodes that had to fall flat it was the final one. But I did see that the official LOM anime account indicated there is a director's cut, so maybe there's something there that can fix the final episode.

Oh and man, they really did drop Inspector Boyd into the void, they didn't bother to show him after episode 4. Poor guy.

Overall thoughts on the whole show will be in another post seeing as this is so long already. Thank you to everyone who's read any of my ramblings!

#legend of mana anime

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sarahisslytherin · 3 years ago

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enchanted // r.b.

Summary: Forced to attend a Slytherin gala, you stumble into someone who makes the night a bit more bearable. Contains: Fluff, a little bit of social anxiety. A/N: This is literally staight out of Little Women, Louisa May Alcott please don’t come for me. Loosely based on lyrics by Ms. Swift. Also thank you @velvetcloxds for reviewing this before it was kind of decent.

The music was uncomfortably loud. The dance floor, once navigable, was now crowded far beyond your liking. You hadn’t really planned on spending the night at a Slytherin gala, but your parents had.

“Where’s your house pride?” they’d asked when you’d objected. You took plenty of pride in your house, however misunderstood it might’ve been. What you didn’t take pride in was often being lumped into the same category as the Death Eaters who now littered the ballroom.

You’d danced with a couple of the boys there, those who you knew to be decent young men. But as the night progressed, the more people arrived at the party, and the more uneasy you felt. Which is how you found yourself expertly inching towards the corner of the room, making for the exit.

“Where are you going?” your mother’s shrill voice was enough to pierce the air, far from the dancing couples and string quartet. “You have to dance if you want to be invited to any more of these.”

“I don’t want that.” you groaned.

She tutted and straightened you out, ignoring your comment. “Find yourself a mirror and fix your hair up. You look like you’ve just gotten off a broom. And for the love of Merlin, straighten up.”

“Alright, alright.” you sighed in defeat.

“The Malfoy boy was looking to dance with you. If I were you I’d try my best not to ruin your chances. And you ought to work on your dancing skills, you need to move more gracefully if you want a boy like Lucius to spare you a second glance.” she said stiffly before she ambled over to her friends, heels clacking against the marble.

There was no chance in hell you were dancing with Lucius Malfoy. You knew your parents only wanted the best for you, but climbing the social ladder was the last way to achieve that. That’s how you reasoned it as you slipped through the french doors and onto the porch that surrounded the mansion.

It was dark out, save for the lamps that adorned the exterior walls, but the ballroom inside provided more than enough light to see properly. Enough light to make out the silhouette of a boy.

“Godric! You scared the shit out of me!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” he panicked, shooting up and coming over to you. “I didn’t mean to.”

It was then, when the gold light was cast upon him entirely that you realized it was Regulus Black who’d nearly given you a heart attack.

“I’m so sorry, I, uh, I didn’t realize there was anyone out here. And I’m not supposed to curse.” you stuttered.

“Says who?” Regulus smiled. It was the infectious sort of smile, the kind that would have any girl weak at the knees. “I don’t really know many people here, that’s why I’m out here. But you can stay if you like.”

“No, I wouldn’t want to be a bother.” you shook your head, simultaneously anxious to abandon this uncomfortable situation yet curious as to what would happen if you stayed.

“Nonsense.” Regulus tutted. He, unlike yourself, stood perfectly straight. The posture of a prince. “Please, stay.”

“Well, if you insist, Mister Black.” you chuckled bashfully.

“Please, I’m actually begging you to never call me that again.” he laughed, the corners of his eyes crinkling above a childish grin.

“Oh, and what should I call you then?” You asked as you felt yourself beginning to feel more comfortable.

“Regulus.” he replied, “Maybe Reggie on a good day.”

“Is today a good day?”

“I dare say it is.” he smirked boyishly. “Though I have an idea of how it could be better.”

“And how’s that?”

He extended his hand to you, the way a proper gentleman would. “Do you dance, Miss?”

“Not Miss.” you corrected him, blushing as you took his hand. “Just Y/N.”

“Well, then, Y/N. Shall we?”

He spun you around. Before you knew it you were both gliding down the porch, the people inside oblivious to the fun you were having. The more you danced the more the overwhelming feeling of joy and comfort washed over you, and your anxiousness to leave this place was the furthest thing from your mind. The classical music from the ballroom poured out the windows while you danced. All the couples inside were dancing much slower than the pair of you. Much more gracefully too. You were dancing like children. Like children who didn’t care for titles or social status. Like children who only wanted to enjoy the night and the other’s presence.

Sooner than you’d anticipated, the music died out, and you and Regulus were spent. Your chests heaved, excitement still buzzing in the air.

“Will you talk to me?” he asked suddenly. “When we’re back at school?”

“Of course, Reggie.” you smiled, not missing the way Regulus blushed as the name left your lips. “But only if you’ll dance with me one more time.”

“If I may be so bold, I’ll dance with you whenever you like.”

It was then when you heard your mother call your name from inside, breaking the little spell you both seemed to be under.

“I’ve got to go.” you groaned, realizing you’d have to go back to playing pretend the second you’d set foot back in that room. “I had the best time, really.”

“So did I.” Regulus said, practically beaming. “I was enchanted to meet you, Y/N.”

“Well, I am a witch.” you snorted, quite unbecomingly as you made your way towards the door. Regulus made no effort to mask his amusement.

‘I’ll see you at school’s were exchanged and before you knew it you were back in the icy cold ballroom, weaving your way through the dancers till you reached your parents.

“The Malfoy boy has left! Where in Merlin’s name were you?”

“Oh, nowhere.” you said, biting down a smirk that would’ve told them you knew something they didn’t. “Just working on my dancing skills.”

taglist: @velvetcloxds @pinkcloxds @sereinegemini @coldlilheart @padf00ts-l0ver @saintlike78 @d22malfoys @blue-4-55-readinglist @mendesxruel @scandalous-chaos

click here to join my taglist

#where is my hot young french speaking heir ffs #regulus black #regulus black fluff #regulus black x reader #regulus black x you #regulus black x y/n #regulus black oneshot

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featherquillpen · 2 years ago

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FE3H Meta: Hubert and Dedue parallels

I have written before to compare and contrast Hubert and Dedue's relationships with their respective lieges, but over time I realized that there are even more parallels between these two retainers that I didn't cover in that post.

Disrupting the Dynamic

An interesting point is how both the Edelgard/Hubert and Dimitri/Dedue pairs feel about the power dynamic in their relationships. Both Edelgard and Dimitri wish for a more equal relationship with their vassals. Dimitri hates that Dedue calls him "Your Highness"/"Your Majesty" and dreams of the day Dedue can call him Dimitri and stand beside him as a friend. In their A support, Edelgard tells Hubert, "If I'm the center of your world, you should be the same for me, too." And in their A support in Three Hopes, Edelgard says, "Just once, I wish our roles could be reversed."

Dedue also wants his relationship with Dimitri to become more equal. He knows that his role as vassal is a necessity; Faerghus will never tolerate him being anything else. But it's not what he wants.

Hubert, by contrast, has a more ambivalent relationship with being a vassal to Edelgard. Hubert expresses repeatedly that he chose to be her vassal, he likes that position, he doesn't want anything else, and says in their A support in Hopes "I prefer when you are in charge." And yet, Hubert says this line at tea time:

So somewhere buried deep down, there is some part of Hubert that wants things to be different.

Performing Masculinity

Another parallel between Hubert and Dedue is that they both must play a role to survive. That role is an intimidating masculine performance, and neither of them are comfortable with it. We can see this at tea time, where Hubert and Dedue's animations are the same: they have intimidating, standoffish body language.

I talked about this extensively in my trans femme Hubert manifesto, but to review, Hubert acknowledges playing a role as a "cold, crafty, unreadable servant" out of fear that behaving in any other way would invite violence against him or Edelgard from those who slither in the dark. But Hubert is not comfortable with this role. Hubert wants to be a person who wears a flower to make Bernadetta smile, not frighten her as a looming shadow. Hubert secretly wants to be a pegasus knight, not a scary vampire man. Performative masculinity seems to chafe at Hubert like an ill-fitting suit.

Dedue is also uncomfortable with his role as the intimidating Faerghan vassal knight. There are a lot of hints that in Duscur, masculinity is very different from Faerghan masculinity. Dedue learned cooking from his mother, which is not the case for any Faerghan man we meet. In Hopes, he wears an earring, which is not something we see Fódlaner men wearing. One of his likes is needlework, which I find hard to believe he picked up in Faerghus, given Dimitri's relationship to needlework in his Mercedes support.

Dedue likes gardening and making flower crowns. He hates that he is frightening to people. Overall, he's had to hack away at his own identity as a Duscurian man to make himself fit the proper Faerghan model of masculinity: a vassal knight to the king. Just like Hubert feels obliged to play this masculine role for fear of violence from Thales and his goons, Dedue is forced into this model of masculinity for fear of violence from.... well pretty much every Faerghan except Dimitri, at least until he starts making Blue Lions friends. To be anything but the perfect model of a vassal knight to Dimitri, stoic and intimidating, is to risk his very life.

Becoming the Monster

Now, here's a contrast between Hubert and Dedue that I find very, very interesting.

On Crimson Flower, unless you go to a great effort to prevent it, Dedue turns himself into a monster to protect Dimitri. Meanwhile, on Azure Moon, Hubert dies a human. It is Edelgard who turns herself into a monster to defend her dream to the last.

Hubert sacrifices everything for Edelgard, but not his humanity. Dimitri watches his retainer die as a monster, but he gets to die as a human.

#hubert von vestra #dedue molinaro #fe3h #fe3h meta

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chaotic-jjk-fiction · 4 years ago

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Perfect Puppy

Gojo Satoru x Fem Puppy reader x Nanami Kento

Happy Valentine’s Day! This fic isn’t specifically theme for Valentine’s day, but it is cute and fluffy.

TW: Poly Fic, Puppy reader, Reader is adopted from shelter, she/her pronouns used, Reader wears a collar, Reader is essentially just a pet, cute fluff

Gojo sat on the counter as Nanami cooked, swimming his legs and watching his lover work. Despite the fact that the two of them worked together, it felt like they barely spent any time together. Domestic moments were a rare occurrence for the two, and Gojo was enjoying it fully. He also figured it was to the perfect time to bring up something that had been on his mind for a bit. He sighed loudly hoping to get his lovers attention.

“What is it?” Nanami asked rolling his eyes at his husband’s antics. Gojo chose to ignore that and express his thoughts anyways,

“I want a pet.” He then paused to see how Nanami would react.

“Like a goldfish?

“Noooo,” Gojo whined, “Like a dog or maybe a cat.” Nanami stopped for a moment to take in what he had just heard.

“We can’t get a pet like that with our job, you know that.” He paused, “And what makes you bring this up now anyway?” Gojo pushed himself off his perch and wrapped his arms around Nanami’s waist as he stood at the stove.

“I’ve always wanted a pet but I was never allowed to have one as a kid. I brang it up now because we’ve finally got a house where we have the space.” Nanami pondered Gojo’s explanation before moving to grab some plates out of the cabinet, breaking free from his lover’s embrace.

“You do know you’d have to feed it, walk it, and take care of it in every other way?” He continued to serve the food as he waited for Gojo’s answer.

“I know that. And of course I would take care of it.” Nanami sighed as he placed the plates of food on the table at their respective places.

“Alright Satoru, I suppose we can look into getting a pet if you really want one.” Gojo was ecstatic. He spent the rest of the night talking about what he wanted in the pet.

“I want them to love me, they have to be good with cuddles, I want them to like walks, but not need them, ooh and maybe just a touch of separation anxiety so that they are always happy to see me!” Nanami was happy to see his husband so excited and he just hoped it wasn’t just another one of Gojo's whims, a pet was starting to sound nice.

The next day Gojo didn’t bring it up as they got ready for work and he didn’t seem a bit more excited than normal. Nanami couldn’t help but wonder if his partner had forgotten their conversation. They didn’t see each other until it was late into the afternoon. Gojo was bounding up to Nanami with a folder in his hands.

“I printed out a list of the adoptable pets at this shelter so we can look over them on the way there!” Apparently, Gojo had not forgotten their conversation at dinner, and Nanami soon found himself being dragged into a waiting car. On the way to the adoption center that Gojo had chosen the two of them poured over the file.

“Look at how cute that one is. Oh, but look at that one’s ears. AHHH they’re all so cute!” Nanami couldn’t help but feel his heart warm at the sight of his overexcited husband. They had to quickly stop back at their place first to take some pictures of their living situation as proof that they had a suitable home to own a pet. As soon as they had done that they were right back on course to the shelter.

“I really can’t decide which of them I like more. Do you have a favorite so far?” Gojo turned to Nanami hoping to get some input on the pets they were looking at.

“Actually,” Nanami paused “There is one that caught my eye.”

“Which one?” Gojo was eager to know which pet he found of interest. Nanami ruffled through the papers looking for their page. Upon finding it he held it in the middle of the two of them so that Gojo could see it too.

“She’s so cute, I see why you like her.” Nanami nodded to affirm Gojo’s words. The pet that had caught his eye was a puppy girl.

“We��ll request to me meet her when we get there!” Gojo was pleased by his husband’s choice and was hoping that you would be everything he wanted in a pet so that it would all work out.

As soon as they arrived, Gojo was bounding up to the front desk asking the receptionist to help them meet you so they could assess compatibility. The receptionist handed them the proper paperwork so that they could do just that and Nanami filled it out while Gojo handed him the photos of their house to keep on file. Once Nanami handed the paperwork back they looked over it before directing the couple to follow him. They walked into a back area with a long hallway of rooms where prospective adopters could meet the pets they were thinking of adopting.

“Please wait in here while I bring her to you.” The receptionist bowed before closing the door to the room they had been given behind him. Nanami and Gojo sat down on the sofa-like-bench in the room. Gojo was getting antsy, “I can’t wait to meet her!” His excitement was a little contagious and Nanami found himself also with a swelling feeling of anticipation. They didn’t have to wait for very long though, and soon the receptionist was opening the door to reveal himself and you standing right next to him. You looked just like your picture, almost cuter if they were being honest. The receptionist guided you into the room before making his exit once again.

“If you need anything please don’t hesitate to push the button on the wall.” and with that, he was gone. Gojo and Nanami now focused their attention on you. You stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, tail down unsure of whether or not to trust the gentlemen in front of you. Gojo motioned for you to join them, you hesitantly took a few steps forward before freezing again. Gojo was loving how shy you were, while on the other hand he just wanted you to love him immediately. Gojo once again patted the space in between him and Nanami eagerly inviting you to sit there. You took a few more steps, finally reaching the end of the bench, before turning around and sitting down. Although you felt awkward being in-between the two complete strangers, you couldn’t deny that your heart was pounding with excitement at the idea of being adopted. Gojo couldn’t stop himself and he brought his hand up to your head, lightly petting your ears. His action made you shiver and lean into his touch. This only served to fuel his eagerness in touching you, and his light strokes turned into a much more vigorous scratching of behind your ears. Nanami watched the way your tail started wagging and how content you now looked under Gojo’s touch. He realized that you were the one, at least in his mind, and he hoped that Gojo would agree.

“Aww, does puppy like that?” Gojo cooed as he continued to scratch behind your ears, the little rumble coming from your chest was enough of a confirmation for both of them. Nanami did not personally feel the need to join Gojo in petting you, seeing how happy his lover is was enough. He continued to watch over the course of 30 minutes as the two of you bonded. He knew that Gojo and him would be adding a third member to their family.

“Have you made your decision?” Nanami asked looking down at the pair who had ended up on the floor of the room. Gojo and you paused your petting/cuddling and looked up at him. Nanami elaborated,

“Would you like to look at other pets, or have are you made up you mind Satoru?” You looked up at Gojo with your biggest puppy eyes. You longed for adoption, and the attention Gojo was giving you was all you ever wanted. One look at your cute expression was all too much for Gojo,

“I’ve made up my mind! I want her.” Nanami nodded in agreement and pushed the call button on the wall. Nanami stood when the receptionist popped in a minute later,

“Did you need something?”

“We would like to adopt her today,” Nanami stated looking from you and Gojo to the receptionist in the doorway.

“We need to review the images of your home you provided and there is more paperwork to fill out-”

“That is ok, can we start on the paperwork while the photos are being reviewed?”

“Of course, I’ll go get it right away.” He bowed and quickly exited the room. Nanami was immediately encased in his lover’s arms as Gojo threw himself at Nanami.

“Thank you!” Gojo sang burying his head in the crook of his lover’s neck. Gojo soon broke away from him though and returned his attention back to you.

“Did ya hear the puppy? You’re going to be coming home with us!” You couldn’t control how fast your tail started wagging at his words. It didn’t take long for the receptionist to come back with the required paperwork. Nanami filled it out as Gojo resumed playing with you, all the while telling you how perfect your life was going to be and all the nice things you would have. It didn’t take too long to fill out the forms and soon Nanami was once again pressing the call button. He handed the man the completed forms,

“Your house has been approved. You may come out and get your care instructions packet, please look over them and make sure you don’t have any questions before leaving.” The receptionist opened the door wide for the three of you. Gojo took your hand and lead you out of the room, Nanami followed behind the two of you. Once back in the main entrance area of the shelter where they had first entered, they were handed a small stack of papers. The care packet turned out to be very straight forward. It had a section on feeding, training, your immunization record, medical things to look out for, and so on.

“Are you ready to go to your new home?” Gojo cooed to you, watching your ears perk up.

“Not so fast,” Nanami interjected, “We still need to get you a collar.”

“Oh right,” Gojo remembered. That didn’t take very long though as the shelter had an attached store. Soon you were fitted with a cute collar that Gojo had chosen with your input, and had a name tag with your name and their numbers.

“Alright puppy, let’s get you home,” Gojo chirped. He had insisted that you sit on his lap for the entire car ride back to their place. Gojo continued to play with your hair and ears, while Nanami finally made a move to touch you, silently allowing his hand to rest on your thigh. It didn’t take long to reach their apartment. Once inside Gojo was eager to give you the full tour of your new living space,

“This is the living room, we watch movies and relax there. This is the kitchen where we eat. This is the guest bathroom. Oh! And this is the bedroom. You’ll be sleeping here with us.” You were at Gojo’s heels the entire time, joyfully following him and experiencing your new home.

“Hmm… according to the schedule the shelter had you on, it’s about time for you to eat dinner. Are you hungry?” Nanami asked looking up from the papers in his hand. Your tail halted its back and forth motion, taking in his words before it resumed its wagging. You nodded your head, bringing your hand to your tummy to emphasize your hunger.

“Alright then, let’s fix that.” Nanami made his way back to the kitchen and pulled out the leftovers from last night. As he heated them up for the three of you, Gojo lead you to the table and promptly pulled you onto his lap. It didn’t take Nanami very long to prepare the food, and soon he was setting down two full plates for them, and just one bowl of plain rice for you.

“The instructions said to stick to plain food for the first few days to make sure that the stress of adjusting to a new environment, your doesn’t upset your stomach,” Nanami explained noticing your pouty expression at the dull meal.

“Cheer up puppy,” Gojo chimed in, “close your eyes and I’ll feed it to you so you can pretend it’s something yummy.” You obliged, closing your eyes and opening your mouth allowing Gojo to feed you. Nanami watched as his husband praised you for eating all your food like the good girl you were. Not too long after finishing the rice, you felt yourself growing a bit tired. You were still on Gojo’s lap as he ate his food, and you took advantage of your position. Nuzzling your nose into his neck before resting your head on his shoulder and falling asleep. Gojo had to contain his excitement as not to wake you once he realized what had happened.

“Look at her,” Gojo whispered with glee to Nanami.

“She’s definitely adorable.” Nanami agreed, standing up after taking one last look last you as began clearing the plates. After he finished cleaning up, he made his way back to his lover who had remained in the exact same position as not to disturb you.

“Here, let me take her.” Nanami moved to lift you off Gojo, cradling you to him in bridal position. He carefully started walking to the bedroom, Gojo following behind him. The way your hand took hold of Nanami’s suit jacket as he carried you was enough to make him melt. Gojo pulled back the covers on the bed and Nanami gently laid you down on the mattress. He had to remove the hand of yours that was gripping him and guided it down with the rest of you. The two of them changed quickly so they could join you in the bed. As soon as Gojo was changed he made his way to your side, wrapping his arms around you, pulling your back to his chest. Nanami followed his lead and laid on the other side of you on his back. What he was not expecting was you to wiggle away from Gojo in your sleep and cling to his chest. Gojo frowned,

“That’s not fair, she’s supposed to love me more.”

#nanami kento #nanami kento x reader #nanami kento x gojo satoru #nanami kento x reader x gojo satoru #gojo satoru #gojo saturo x reader #gojo satoru x reader x nanami kento #nanami x reader #gojo x reader #tw pet play #tw pet reader #x puppy reader #tw puppy reader #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jujutsu kaisen fluff

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captainstarkky · 3 years ago

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Happy Endings and Everything in Between: Bad Buddy Episode 12 Appreciation and Wrap-up Post

The last time I’ve written a proper kdrama/series wrap-up was last June 30, 2021 and I probably got a lot of sepanx to write another one.

But since I started writing Bad Buddy’s recap diligently, I won’t end it with another sepanx moment in my part. So, what I really would like to say is that I won’t let the opportunity of writing on for Bad Buddy go. So I’m here again at the end of the line.

We have been through a lot, I must say. A few theories, few ships. Some (just like me) bought the Thai version and/or the English-translated version of the book right away just after Episode 1, pre-ordered some merchandises. Some even went his way and decided to write 13 long-ass recaps and reviews in Wattpad and Tumblr just to show support for the series.

It seemed like yesterday that I watched the promotional trailer and the proper introduction of the casts in GMM. When I heard that Nanon will play a boys love role together with his best bud in real life Ohm, I got too hyped that I went on living for another year (quite literally, given the worlwide situation right now) to support my boys.

In short some of us did quite a lot! And finally we’re here.

But just as I always say: When a book closes, a new one opens - after all. And this book? Surely, a hundred percent... it has a happy ending.

That was a spoiler, for one; but I think that’s not something important at this point. Since we’ve all asked for it anyway. We all hoped for it. And although it’s kind of bittersweet to let this series go, I think it’s all worth. Right?

What I like about this episode is it seemed to be cleaning the mess that it caused to the audience by itself by creating a pseudo-situation to ‘pick the pieces up together’ and slowly build it one by one, minute by minute, only to slap us again seemingly telling us that what we thought were wrong and we’re played. Do you understand?

I mean, who does that?! I mean, why didn’t I get the hint?! The title is Bad Buddy, you know. Doesn’t that mean deviant in a way? But anyways, you’ll realize what I’m talking about soon.

So as I was saying, in the first few minutes of the episode, they actually intended to set the mood for the audience to feel: (1) nostalgia and (2) melancholia. Seeing Pat walking around the campus alone made us feel like the relationship really didn’t work out but then BOOM. That happened.

Turns out, these two dumbasses planned everything. And I know it was Pran’s idea. The whole secret thing - that Pat can’t even think about that knowing how hard he wants to tell everyone that he’s with Pran. At that point, I look at the title: Bad Buddy. And asked: Why did P’Oaf changed the title from Behind the Scene to Bad Buddy anyway and I was slapped by the reality that he probably did it as a foreshadowing for what will happen in the end.

I mean, up front, Pat and Pran were good sons to their parents. But all in all, they are not. Because from the very beginning they’ve been deviant over their parents’ number one rule: not to befriend the kid next door. That ultimately makes them bad children - because children who doesn’t follow their parents are bad kids, right? Then since they’re buddies. So if we take them both together, they could be called Bad Buddies, right? Not quite literally (although they were trying to do it literally by fighting). That’s why Pat said this particular line: ‘But some things never changes.’ to not just give us a hint about their relationship but also to give us a hint about what they’ve been doing since they were kids. It never changed.

And I even tried to reiterate that in every episode recap that I did, and I ... did not see it in the end.

I even put out a hidden meaning of their conversation on their so-called break up scene? I was a fool to believe that these two could stop seeing each other when in the novel, they almost died not talking for five months.

So to not depress myself over my idiocy, let’s just try to see check my theories.

If you’ve read my recap about Episode 11 from top to bottom, then you’d know. By the end of that ‘short’ written script, I actually introduced a few theories for Episode 12/ Finale. If you haven’t checked it out, read it here:

So let’s try to confirm them one by one:

Timeskip Theory

I’m pretty sure you know the answer. Yes, it happened. But what happened was, instead of minimum of five years, the timeskip P’Oaf did was only four years which was understandable. Watching the series and getting some of my readers opinions, I realized that it’s very plausible to be successful in a matter of four years.

There’s no evidence how many years did the finish their university programs - Architecture and Engineering - but they both graduated together so I guess it’s goods to say that the length is quite the same. however, following through with the novel: as I said in the previous post, Pran’s main reason in choosing that university is because of their shortened Architecture program for four years so taking that into account, if they finished it for four years and then they graduated together - and that was two years before the timeskip (given that they’re both second years at the beginning of the timeskip). Pran went to Singapore and Pat went to continue their family business. So all in all, they’ve been together for 5 years.

Here’s the relationship round down: Pran had been crushing on Pran since they were high schools. Pat realized his feelings for Pran when they were in the second semester during first year college Why did you say it’s on the second semester author-nim? Easy. I have two theories: (1) If we take into consideration the college life of students in BL dramas and series, the only time a faculty could do excursions during their first years is during the second semester, given how busy they are for the Stars and Moons Contest on the first semester. Because they’re too busy for this pageant/contest, they physically cannot delegate people to organize the excursion. that is if they’re not having three semesters in one year. (2) Aside from the stars and moon contest, the first years are also still being subjected to their faculty’s initiation rights. And given that Pat and Pran had already been chosen as Class Reps, it’s assumed that they’ve already done the initiation rights thus finishing the first semester.

Loopholes of this theory: how did Pat not found Pran during the whole first semester then? Especially when their faculties engage at ‘faculty wars’ most of the time?

Probable answer: The campus is big and they’re not basically looking for each other. They only began seeing each other often when both of them are cognizant about each other’s existence after all. And about the fighting, I’ve always mentioned before that Pran isn’t the type to fight people. As much as he can, he always stays away from trouble. But in times he could’ve participated, it’s probable that Pat is away fighting another group or having an errand with Pa. Every single time? Yeah, every single time. And another proof: on the first episode when Pat was walking to his dorm room, we could already see Pran’s door hanger over his knob.

So moving on, they’ve been flirting for hmmmm, five to eight months. And if the Architecture play happened in the mid-first semester of their second year, then my timeline is quite accurate. They’ve been dating for five years - secretly for four years and eleven months, openly for a month.

So going back, as I was saying, timeskips are a good way to fast forward a series. P’Oaf utilized the timeskip to do just that, while filling the gaps with short, nostalgic flashbacks in the middle.

What I like about this series’ timeskip is the fact that they focused the timeskips and flashbacks in the university. Meaning, all of us who have watched the series and finished uni, can relate to what was happening.

And it’s the relate factor that brings us... you know, nostalgia. And you know you’re captured when you have that feeling. When you’re seeing yourself in Pat’s shoes, reminiscing your own uni life while he did on his own, that’s it. I can say because even I did it last night. A couple of times even.

Parents’ relationship

This isn’t actually a theory. Instead, I was putting my hopes in for them to fix their relationship or at least be civil about their sons getting chummy with one another. And one-way or another, I think we’re given just that.

After their sons ‘ahem, broke up’, their relationship weren’t as bad as it was. They started to be awkward to each other - just like normal adults do. And it’s understandable. They are, after all, old. And it’s really hard to change the adult’s attitudes already so we should just be thankful that they’re letting their sons get the best of their lives after restricting them for so long.

And I think their sons had their revenge already.

Since they completely cut the hate of their families quite literally - by deciding not to give them grandsons and granddaughters.

Wai and Korn would play a very important role in Episode 12

Okay, this theory is mostly wrong. It’s partly because I didn’t get the hint sooner but Pat and Pran didn’t really break up.

Since I forethought too far, I thought they would be messengers for their friends. But since the break up didn’t happen in the first place, then there’s no point of that. I mean, Pran and Pat soon even had their very own penthouse together so they literally doesn’t need anyone to update them or so whatever, they could just confirm it with their bodies every night.

But I was correct that they played a very important part of it. I could even call them MVPs - together with Ink and Pa. They actually helped the couple hide their relationship, something Pat and Pran failed to do when they were doing it alone. This is just a guess but I think Korn and Pa had it worse.

You see, the problem is actually with Pat’s addiction with IG Stories - I mean, what’s there to be addicted to in the first place? As I’ve mentioned again and again, Pat is quite obsessed with posting things in social media and isn’t that the main reason they’re busted in the first place? So I think Korn and Pa had to constantly remind him out of it - probably everyday. I can’t imagine how Pat endured that earful everyday just to be with Pran.

And lastly, the ‘break-up’ fiasco

I’ve been meaning to write something about this.

Somehow, I’ve been angry at myself since last night. So here’s a bit of a story time:

So I’ve watched the episode for let’s see, five times? Yeah, five times. Then after doing so, when I was going to bed, I decided to open my Wattpad to check my newly posted chapter of You, Forever - my brightwin fanfic - and stopped by to re-read my Episode 11 recap.

If you’ve read the whole recap, you can actually see me doing my very best to explain the ‘break-up scene’ even trying to explain between the lines and stuff. It was fine if you haven’t watched Episode 12, it made sense and somehow you might think: ‘ah so that’s what happened’ - I mean, according to my two readers that is. But re-reading that after Episode 12 gave me a whle new level of second hand embarrassment. I literally covered my face with a pillow and rolled over a couple of times like a kid.

Anyway, that was so embarrasing.

So as I was saying, they really didn’t break up.

But here’s my take about it:

I think that we were right. Pat was really trying to break up with Pran at that ‘break up scene’ in Episode 11. Because just like what I wrote in my recap, Pat probably doesn’t want Pran to burn bridges with his parents because of him. He knew that in the long run, it would only make him unhappy.

But the scene was cut there, with Pran giving a vague reply of what seemed to be: ‘let’s enjoy our last day’ or in my own enterpretation: ‘let’s celebrate that this relationship happened in the first place’

Then the bar scene where Pran sung to Pat his then-completed song, and finally the time when they said goodbye to Uncle Tong to go back to Bangkok.

We were not shown what happened or what their conversation was in the bus, right? Then how about I try to show you what happened in my own point-of-view. If you’re interested, then here we go.

Actually, this plan was a well thought plan.

I think Pran was also about to give the relationship up when he felt like Pat has to. But what changed his mind? I think it was the song.

Pran knew how Pat loves it when he sings him a song that he writes specifically for him. He wrote ‘Just a Friend’ and ‘Our Love’ for Pat and he knew how happy Pat was after hearing both. But he wasn’t just writing it for the sake of writing it; Pran finished the song for Pat after affirming his feelings with Pat. The song is literally his whole feelings for Pat - and singing it in front of him when they were about to give up probably renewed his resolve to be with Pat.

‘So basically you’re saying that if Pran wasn’t asked to sing at that time, he would really have broken up with Pat?’ No. He would’ve thought of another way not to. It’s just, that was a great opportunity for him to realize that he wasn’t supposed to let go of what he thinks is the best for him. And that is Pat.

That’s also the reason why, I think the plan came from Pran and not Pat. Between the Pat and Pran, it is Pran who is more calculative and cunning afterall. The whole secret thing - that Pat can’t even think about that knowing how hard he wants to tell everyone that he’s with Pran. So when did it happen?

The bus ride? No. I think the night before that.

The difference with Pran and Pat from other couples is that, they have a long history with the night, figuratively and literally. If you haven’t noticed it already, but even before, it’s easier for Pran to talk with Pat at night. I have a few evidences here:

When they were children, when Pat came in to thank - if that was thanking - Pran, It was nighttime.

When they first met again after three years, and realized that they live adjacent to each other - it was night time in the rooftop.

When Pat confided to Pran about his feelings to Ink and Pran cried himself to sleep, that was also nighttime.

When Pat helped Pran plan for the bus stop and they played around like normal friends. It was night time.

When Pat got jealous at Wai and picked a fight with him. It was night time. And when Pat told Pran his real feelings at the rooftop, and their first real kiss. It was also night time.

When Pat followed Pran around during his faculty’s excursion, Pran decided to save Pat from his friends. He walked to the beach and Pat found him there and Pran finally decided to talk to Pat after so long. Even coming up with a competition of who would fall first loses. That was also night time.

When Pran decided to approach Pat after not talking with him again because of Wai’s issue (the guitar and the job delegation issue) in the rooftop, asking him to play the main lead for the Architecture play. That was also night time.

When Pat shows up to save Pran’s face as he was being scolded by the play’s director telling everyone that he accepts the role. That was probably 6 PM. And later, when they officially started dating as boyfriends - with. That was also nighttime.

When they fought because of a shirt and got found out by everyone, that was also probably 5:30 - 6:00 PM.

When Pat decided to save Wai from the gun guy and got shot for it. It was night time.

When Pat’s parents saw Pran coming out of Pat’s room - almost finding out about their relationship. It was night time.

After being found out, Pat met up with Pran in the rooftop. Pran told him that he can’t take things anymore and Pat tells him that they would run away. That was night time.

First part time job together in exchange of a glass of beer.

When Pat tells Pran about what he feels about him - and them while casually drinking by the shore. That was night time. They also kissed that time.

Their first sex happened that same night.

Pran calls out Pat as his friend in a sincere tone for the first time as they were going back to their own homes. That was night time.

Should I say more?

If yes, then can we add this?

Before going to bed, Pran told Pat about his feelings and thought. That he’s thinking that Pat is trying to break up with him and he doesn’t want it to happen.

Then he tells Pat that they doesn’t need to really break up. That instead of breaking up, they could just fool everyone again. Basically, breaking up in the eyes of other people but still dating in closed doors.

Pat and Pran had always been good at tricking people - not more than tricking themselves though. And since they’ve been very good at it from the start, Pran thought: why don’t we do it again.

But this time, Pran learned from their past mistakes and decided to correct them by asking for help. That’s when Ink, Pa, Korn, and Wai comes in. I think that same night, both of them got their simcards back and called their friends to ask for help. Korn and Wai - knowing these two, I think they agreed without asking. I even think they’re together drinking when the two of them were contacted; the same thing probably happened with Ink and Pa.

So when everything was all in order, all they did was do better at acting like they really broke up. That was after all what their parents needed. For them to break up.

That would also explain the last scene in Episode 11. Because they were getting into it, of course, they need to look somber.

And isn’t Pran’s plans perfect if Pat just cooperate diligently?

But the question is: Did their parents found out in the end?

Lol, I think they found out a week after? I don’t know the exact instance they did but surely they did found out.

But if they did, why did they let the kids be?

As atonement. Pat and Pran ran away once already, and seeing them again while acting too hard to please their parents once more, anyone would just let the kids be.

When they found out, I think Pat’s mom and Pran’s dad immediately gave their OKs; they even probably found out first and decided to help their sons out in hiding their secret. After all, Pat’s mom and Pran’s dad really doesn’t have problems with one another, they just acted that way because their spouses did. Just like how anyone from the Faculty of Architecture and Faculty of Engineering became archenemies without even knowing the real reason.

So that’s why in the end, they were naturally accepting with their sons relationship with each other. Even helping convince their spouses to feel the same. Pat’s mom even said: ‘...to leave it for the next generations’

All in all, I can really commend the Team PatPran. They did a good job helping our clumsy boys hide their relationship from everyone. And lucky them, they could have their own love nest together.

And that holding pinky gesture in public is so cute. I’m going to copy that idea.

Pat and Pran as lovers

Before starting this section: A reader warning.

As an ally of the LGBTQ community, I’ve always believed that love is never been meassured about sex alone. Regardless, love is love and even if it has different faces, love, at the end of the day will always be love.

So first things first, let me tell everyone that this section is completely unnecessary. However, I wanted to write this up to clear out those questions in Tiktok about how their relationship plays out.

Pat and Pran are technically bisexuals. At one point of time, both of them had a crush on a girl (Ink) and both of them dated girls. Pat’s dating history was already revealed to us by Pa. And although Pran’s history hasn’t, it’s kind of clear that he did given the pictures that hanged over his reminder board inside his room. So the possibility of them breaking up and falling for girls is not impossible at all. It’s just a good thing they didn’t break up.

I don’t know about you but most of the male bisexuals that I know are versa.

And that’s it for this section. Lol.

THOUGHTS ABOUT SEASON 2

I’ve had this conversation with one user in Wattpad and he said he wanted to have season 2 for Bad Buddy The Series. Honestly, I wanted too. Obviously because I wanted Ohm and Nanon to work in the same project again and I want it to be something we are familiar of, but if we talk about a whole new season, I don’t think so.

Remember when I wrote about the series’ essence and the problems they aim to solve?

Unfortunately, they already did solve each and every one of them. There’s nothing in the book that hints Season 2 as well (except if the author creates a new season just for Season 2). They already sent Pran out overseas and he already came back, their parents is fine, and they are too. So, Season 2 is not that plausible.

How about shorts? Like Still2gether or Our Skyy?

When I talked about Season 2, I was talking about a full season. Like what they did with Sotus, Love By Chance, Lovesick The Series, TharnType, What The Duck, Make It Right The Series, 2 Moons, and Gen Y. But if we talk about shorts, it’s possible.

It’s kind of easy to make scenarios when they end up fighting and making up in the end.

And since GMM is quite fond of shorts, I think an Our Skyy episode would probably be possible. The only question is will Ohm and Nanon take the project if that happens. Let us all remember that through and through, Nanon is a mainstream actor. He isn’t originally from the BL scene and he probably just took the project because of his friend Ohm. There’s no guarantee that he’d act in a BL scene again - but if he did, then why the hell not?

How about a movie?

This is the most do-able for now. They could make a story-line where they get married. Actually they already hinted it in the last episode. It was when Pran was asked if he’s going back abroad, Pran replies that he needed to as it was only his two-week off. Pat tells Pran not to and maybe if he does, Korn would be the first one to get married.

So a wedding as a topic for a movie is do-able. And I could even write a fanfic about it - together with possible twists and turns. But yeah, they need budget and time, and again, the availability of the actors.

So all in all, even in a shortened episode of 12 episodes, they never failed to give us the quality that we deserve. Bad Buddy The Series is probably one of the top BL series of 2021 and 2022, with it’s light-heartedness and enough dose of angst on the side, the viewers were kept in their seats while always getting excited for the new episode every week.

Ohm and Nanon were very good actors, and not only them, but everyone involved in the series were. The synergy was uncanny and although there were confusing parts, they compensated it with acting and not just any physical scenes. P’Oaf’s directing prowess surely never fails, and how he chooses his actors, how he revises each scenes were just perfect for the taste of each and every BL fan.

But of course, the story wouldn’t be possible without the original story-line which is by the way, equally properly written. So kudos to the author: ‘AFTERDAY’ for bringing forth Pat and Pran from your beautiful mind. I aim to be just like you someday lol.

I’ve browsed ‘afterday’s’ works in Meb and I must say there are a lot of good stuff. They needed to translate it fast so I can buy it. I’m eyeing out on 12%, Icing on Cake, I Said You in My Dream, Forever or Never, and four more Thai titled books.

So as an ending, I would like to ask everyone if you’ve fallen in love with a friend before?

Personally, I haven’t. But I have a lot of friends that do.

And most often than not, we often discourage them right? Telling them: don’t hit on your friend, it always doesn’t end well. or are you really willing to sacrifice friendship for love where future is uncertain? or when you break up, you might never be friends again. But does it really?

The answer is that we will never know until we try.

People would say that there’s a thin line between love and friendship, intimacy in platonic relationships and just relationships in general, but really where should find that silver lining? Or should we even look for it in the first place?

Aren’t they all connected?

Feelings, regardless of what, will always be connected. There’s no disgust if there’s no appreciation, the same thing as there’s no hate when there’s no love and appreciation. Feelings, all in all, cause a cosmic explosion that causes a chain reaction to everything. Feelings is already complicated complex to begin with.

I’ve always believed that feelings are called feelings for a reason; because you need to feel them, and express them. Feelings are not meant to be kept.

Just like our two leads, as much as Pran wanted to keep his feelings for Pat a secret, didn’t it make become more obvious in the end? So wouldn’t it be better to be Pat who acts on the moment?

After all, one’s outcomes cannot be summed up with other people’s outcome. What happened to them doesn’t automatically mean it will happen to you, right?

We never know, you might be as lucky as Pran and Pat in the end, wouldn’t it be more exciting rather than looking for the silver lining?

THE END

It’s a bittersweet moment for me to let this series go, but then again, everything comes to an end. Unlike my other kdrama posts, I haven’t really made friends with this - which was my goal from the start, but I guess that’s fine. Along the way, I started not to care about responses anyway. I just want to share my thoughts to everyone.

Just a bit of plugging, to those who doesn’t know Ohm and Nanon have dramas on-going while this is airing. So you can go and catch up to those dramas. (I think Nanon’s lakorn is ending too)

Anyways, Ohm is acting as a support role in ’An Eye for an Eye’ together with Krist (Sotus The Series) and Aom (BangrakSoi), he’s also in the upcoming angsty drama “10 Years Ticket” (2022) with Tu (F4 Thailand) and Off (Not Me The Series). I’ve watched the trailer and yeah, I will look out for this one. And we will also see him in ‘Vice Versa’ as a support role together with Nanon (Bad Buddy).

Nanon is quite busy this 2022. He’s got a lot to look out for. Currently, he’s in “55:15 Never Too Late” (2022) where he is playing the fifteen year old self of San. Aside from that, he’s in the upcoming sci-fi series ‘UMG’ (2022) where he plays a character of Mew who’s unable to move on from his first love who disappeared ten years prior. He is also in ‘Dirty Laundry’ (2022) a show connected with the Midnight Series that talks about different kind of relationships in different aspect of life that probably talks about midnight affairs. Lastly, he’s with Ohm (Bad Buddy) in ‘Vice Versa’

Another thing: Let us all support Jimmy’s new series: Vice Versa (2022) he plays the main role (AS HE SHOULD) as Tun, a person who transmigrated to another alternate universe. He’s joined with Sea (55:15) as his partner, and familiar names such as Neo (Fish Upon the Sky; My Tee), Ohm (Bad Buddy, Dew the Movie) and Nanon (55:15; Bad Buddy).

Let’s not forget our bushbrow guy, Drake! We all love Drake. He’s in the ongoing series “The Player�� which is still on air right now. He will also be in “Mama Gogo” and will be playing as Jack in the upcoming sci-fi series “UMG” with Nanon.

And don’t forget my girl-crush, Love. Watch out for her new series ‘You Fight, and I love’ (2022) where she brings to life the character of Noo, the beautiful sister of Chang’s (Joss) close friend. She’s together with Joss Way-ar. And something to look forward to: the acting debut of our Baby Win’s brother Mick.

And I would also like to take this opportunity to plug my Wattpad: It’s @CaptainStarkky I write fanfics. Lol.

Lastly, to those people behind the scenes of this series, I would sincerely thank you for your dedication and hardwork - to the directors, cameramen, PRs, PAs, costume, sound, and editing crews, drivers and helpers. Thank you~! To our actors, more power to everyone and more projects to come. I may not have plugged everyone but they have more series to come so watch out for them later everyone!

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lilac-melody · 2 years ago

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Heroine Tarumono episode 12 spoilers + rant

don’t read if you don’t want to be spoiled- will also be reviewing the anime as a whole

To be honest, I actually liked this episode. It felt like it really gave Chizuru a realization that yeah, she seriously fucked up, and it’s her learning from her mistakes.

And to be honest, I know some people are going to be confused why Hiyori told Chizuru she was their manager, but I think that it just...solidifies that Hiyori will not have romantic feelings for LIPxLIP.

Telling her she’s their manager and nothing was going on between them, only for her to date them would be a huge slap in the face to not only Chizuru in-universe, but the show as well. And it would also be a slap to the face for Nagisa, who Hiyori told she only supported them like he supported Ft4.

The director of Herotaru said herself that Heroine Tarumono isn’t a romance anime, that it’s a slice of life, a coming of age, way back when we were waiting for episode 1 to come out. And I think they stuck to that really well. After all, the only thing canon was the background relationships that were already confirmed by Honeyworks. (Gen 1, Gen 2)

The live show was nice.

Now, for the show as a whole...to be honest, eps 9 - 11 were very messy. This is anime-only content, and it just felt...very disorganized. I really didn’t enjoy the eps all that much for they felt like they were both rushing it and dragging it out at the same time. I don’t know how you can manage to pull that off, but they did.

The rest of the show was fine to me. Cute.

Though speaking of cute, I am disappointed that the show nerfed Aizou’s infamous line to Yujiro “You’re not cute!” as he says it to him in every novel, the short stories, the LIPxLIP movie, radio dramas and everywhere else. He had the perfect opportunity to say it in ep 12.

I think Juri and Chizuru should have had more of an impact in the earlier episodes though to have a more proper buildup to the scandal episodes.

But, all in all, it was cute. It really shows that Hiyori + Aizou and Yujiro are really good friends, and so is Hiyori + Juri and Chizuru, despite the lack of interactions they had compared to everyone else.

Some of the characterization felt off, especially given the info we know about the characters pre-Herotaru. It wasn’t terribly distracting, but still.

Setting design score: 8/10. Should have had more familiar spots that the fandom is acquainted with, but overall all of the settings were beautiful.

Characterization score: 8.5/10. The characters who don’t appear as much felt more like OCs.

Plot score: 6/10. I understand that this anime was mostly a “plot by episode” sort of thing, which makes the scandal feels all the more dragged out. I mean, lasting 3 full episodes is just too much. It should have been resolved in 2 at max, imo. It’s very possible to be able to do this.

Fanservice score: 6.7/10. I don’t mean ship service, I mean the appearance of our other characters. The anime-onlys won’t care much about this, but those who watched herotaru with the expectation of seeing our beloved seniors more...were kind of disappointed. They did good with the cameos of others, but my biggest complaint is the fact we don’t see Ft4 or Mona perform at all in the final ep. They should have at least gotten 30 seconds of their song.

Overall score: 7.3/10

Do I recommend this anime?

Sure. But I recommend people get more into the Honeyworks lore outside of the anime, or see the LIPxLIP movie, first.

Especially if you’re a heavy shipper and that’s what you look for. You won’t find any romance as the main plot in Herotaru. Only background characters have relationships here.

If you simply want healthy m/f friendships, then this will be an anime for you.

#heroine tarumono #heroines run the show #ep12 #anime review #in my opinion lmao #longpost

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wisehq · 4 years ago

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Mission Debrief: Chapter Forty-two

...It's all coming together.

I'm just going to come outright and say it; I had no idea what to write for this review- not because there wasn't anything to discuss, but rather this chapter gave us so much that I didn't know what to focus on first. Chapter forty-two has single-handedly thrown open the doors to a hundred different theories, and believe me when I say that after a whole night of redbull and theorizing I couldn't come up with any clear answers (the folks over at the Strix discord group can attest to that).

So here's what we're gonna do; I'm not going to focus on the chapter itself.

It was cute. Cardshark Anya is hilariously awesome. Damian is a little shit (whom I adore), and the chapters where the kids can just be kids are- in my opinion- the best.

That's all I'm going to say on the matter. For the rest of this review, I want to go over all the facts we know so far about the story and setting. All of the things Endo has been slowly building up in the background and the pieces that we can stitch together from them, starting with this chapter. Two key things stuck out to me.

In the entirety of the story up till this point, this is the first time we have heard mention of a royal anything- and not only that, but this chef is a former royal chef. This of course implies that a) said chef was fired (not likely given that Eden wouldn't likely associate with someone who was disgraced like that) or retired, or b) that there is no royalty anymore. Ostania is a totalitarian state and the main power of the government- from what we've seen- lies with the ruling political party, i.e the National Unity Party, a.k.a Desmond's party. Such a political structure would have no room for royalty in a governing capacity, and therein begs the question; is there still a royal/noble class- albeit in a non-governing sense- or was it abolished sometime in the recent past?

Classical language is not proper speaking and diction like I had originally thought. Classical language is a specific term typically used to describe a dead language or dialect (think Latin, or Hebrew before it was revived). I find this particularly interesting because under no circumstance would a child as young as Anya know anything about a dead language unless- as Loid points out- she was exposed to it as a toddler. It would have had to have been when she was very young, as she herself doesn't realize she knows this information. This would mean she likely learned it from her birth family; Anya was old enough to remember the lab and scientists, meaning she became Subject 007 later on in life- otherwise she would have remembered knowing classical language.

These two concepts are incredibly important to keep in mind, both now and later on as the story progresses. We now know that a royal class plays a factor in the political game that Twilight and everyone else is playing, and we know that Anya knows information that she shouldn't know otherwise (even with her mind-reading powers). So where does that leave us?

Honestly, for the first time...I'm kind of stumped?

Let's look back at the story and see what else we can piece together- maybe there's something in there we can extrapolate for our purposes. Another clue to point us in the direction that Endo is seemingly funneling us towards.

From chapter forty-one

Franklin Perkins was a man who believed in making his country a better place to live. In his eyes and from what he saw, Ostania wasn't going in the right direction- but why? He blames his lack of money for his mother's death, and we see him hold resentment towards the government over socialistic policies. Wealth is something to be shared with others, not hoarded for ones self. That seems to be where Ostania's moral compass is pointing towards, but is that really the case?

From chapter 39

Mr. Green mentions that people have been fleeing to Westalis; from the way he says this it sounds like this is happening currently- not in the past- and people are going so far as to travel through a third country just to get to Westalis. Such a journey isn't without its perils, so anyone attempting to crossover from Ostania would likely be taking a huge risk in doing so. Not only that, but most of what we've seen in the story is Ostanians loathing Westalins...so what would compel people to do this in the first place?

From chapter three As Anya reads the minds of people gathered at a politcal rally near the start of the manga, we see their disgruntled thoughts behind her. There's multiple mentions of losing jobs and not having enough money- some people are even hungry. Most of these people blame Westalis for their troubles, though not the leader of the rally, ironically.

Also from chapter 3

We find out (and often forget) early on that there are multiple political parties in Ostania. Donovan leads the National Unity Party, whereas the political rally we see here is hosted by the Nationalist Party. The latter preaches peace with the west, but many of the people gathered reject this outright. This is important; the N.U.P is the most successful political party in Ostania, which means a majority of the country's citizens approve of their platform. If we're to assume the Nationalist Party's platform is to advocate for peace with Westalis, then we must also assume that the N.U.P stands for the opposite; direct aggression with the west.

From chapter 31 The Zacharis Dossier, though ultimately a bust, hinted at rumors that have permeated East and West since the start of the cold war. We know for a fact that human experiments did indeed take place in Ostania, so it also stands to reason that there is at least a kernel of truth to the claims of P.O.W (prisoner of war) massacres conducted by the west. It's a heinous crime, and also one that leads to another question; why would any country go through with it in the first place? In addition, piggy-backing off the former point;

From chapter 19 While Loid details Project Apple, he uses the word 'regime' to describe the former Ostanian government. The literal definition of a regime is a government, especially an authoritarian one (Oxfrod Dictionary). I won't highlight all the specifics of what is and isn't authoritarianism, but essentially the point I'm trying to make here is that the current Ostanian administration is still very much a regime. Donovan acts as the authoritarian ruler (or would-be ruler; we don't know if he's actively in charge or is looking to usurp power for himself) and continues on the legacy of the former government. We know for a fact that this is the case because Anya is only at most 6 years old, likely even younger. That would mean the experiments being run on her had to have been recent, which fits with the time frame that we established at the beginning of this rabbit hole- it also aligns with what we know about what Donovan has been doing on the back end of things. Those who have kept up with my reviews know what I'm talking about; gloom pharmaceuticals, the truth serum, OSO-R, etc. All of that, which then leads us to...

...right back where we started. So...what then? What can we conclude from all this? At least a few things;

Anya is tied to Desmond- either directly or indirectly.

Anya's past is also Ostania's past; she's familiar with a dead language that's no longer spoken, and there's definitely a reason why no one speaks it anymore.

Ostania is in a period of political and economic turmoil. This also comes on the heels of a (possible) former monarchy, and the struggle of a country willing to embrace authoritarianism so long as it means staying alive.

WISE and Westalis are not innocent in this game of chess with Ostania and the SSS, and more than likely have committed atrocities that may or may not be directly tied to Ostania and- possibly- Anya's past.

And...this is as far as I can go. I've hit a wall, as have other people I've talked to. We're still missing pieces to the puzzle. Endo will of course provide us with more clues and theory fodder as the weeks and months progress, but for now this is as far as I can go on my own. On the one hand I feel defeated because I can't come up with a meaningful explanation for everything and present it in a neat little bundle for you all to read, but on the other hand I'm thoroughly enjoying this. I'm more engaged with this manga and story than any other I've read before; I'm at the edge of my seat every week, and I'm sure most of you are, too. For now, I'll leave the review here. I find it fitting to leave it open ended, just as Endo did with Loid's self-imposed question. Hopefully, like him, we can find answers in the near future.

Also, BONUS...

...No fun panel with a snappy comment this time. Instead, I’m going to humbly ask for your help.

If you have any ideas about where you think the story is going, theories as to how everything fits together, or just really want to discuss the manga with other fans- please check out our forum and share with us. We’d love to hear what you all think; not only that, but a lot more heads makes theorizing both more productive and a whole lot more fun. Check it out if you have the time, or- if you don’t feel like clicking on any links- you can always leave a comment either on this post or send us an ask or message. Anytime, any reason, we’d love to talk SxF.

Again, thanks for reading, and we’ll see you all next chapter!

#spy x family #chapter forty-two

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incorrectlumityquotes · 4 years ago

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Why Amity fell for Luz: A Theory

Watching all the episodes of The Owl House and reviewing them brought back a lot of thoughts and feelings that I maybe forgot about. We all ship things and sometimes we do it for fun; sometimes for deeper reasons. I just started lumity because it reminded me of Diana & Akko from Little Witch Academia. I loved that show so much that I wanted more, and I thought it would be cool if Luz & Amity did something similar. I had no idea that it was going to go beyond that, so DAMN. To quote a talking science wolf, “For years we ask how, but we should ask why.” I mean, we saw how. But why? Well I can take a guess.

If we’re are going to start anywhere it’s going to be with the girl in question, Amity Blight.

As far as I know as of this typing, Amity Blight is a witchling from The Boiling Isles. She lives in Bonesboro at The Blight Manor estate with her parents and her siblings. She attends Hexside School of Magic and Demonics. Good for her.

Amity has an ambitious and competitive personality. She’s always striving to be better and be at the top of whatever she is doing. When she’s introduced in I Was a Teenage Abomination, she’s showing having great pride in being the top student in her abomination class. In Adventures in the Elements, she goes to The Knee in hopes of training to beat her siblings’ high score on the placement exam.

Amity also has a bit of a temper and gets annoyed easily. In I Was a Teenage Abomination, she sics her abominations on Willow and Luz just because she wasn’t named top student that day. In Enchanting Grom Fright, Amity snapped at the person she bumped into before realizing it was Luz. And later in the same episode, Amity beat up Hooty when he decided to get too close.

But she does have a soft sensitive side. She keeps a diary in her secret room in the library and even reads to kids in her free time. Amity also has a strong sense of integrity. She despises cheating (and cheaters) and feels guilt when she’s forced to break ties with Willow.

So why did someone like this fall for Luz of all people? (see above image)

Enter what I call my Shipping Theory of Compliments

The Shipping Theory of Compliments is that two characters would be shipped and sometimes canonically enter a romantic relationship based on their personalities complimenting each other and fulfilling elements they don’t have alone necessary to developing the character.

People like to use the image of a missing puzzle piece, but I don’t like that comparison because I think it’s a little inaccurate and I don’t like puzzles. Think of it more like the two pieces of the yin and yang coming together and then growing the circles of the opposite colors in them.

Something like that.

And it’s compliments, not opposites. When you think compliments, think more Star and Marco from Star vs the Forces of Evil. Star wants to go on a magical adventure. Marco also wants to go on a magic adventure. The difference is that Star goes in recklessly while Marco wants to plan it out a bit. They still have their adventure as oppose to Star’s opposite who wouldn’t want to go on a magical adventure. That sort of thing.

So how do Luz and Amity compliment each other?

Let’s start with that they have in common. Obvious stuff aside, they’re both training to become the best witches they can be. The difference comes that Luz is a human who has to learn magic via glyphs that she finds and Amity learns magic the “proper” way on The Boiling Isles.

Luz and Amity are also both fans of The Good Witch Azura book series. Difference is that Luz is more open about her fandom while Amity tries to keep it a secret. Also petty thing but they’re both fan artists too, but I think Luz might be a better than Amity. But hey, her crosshatching is improving.

Luz and Amity are also (at the start of the series) both lonely people. Luz’s mom says that she doesn’t have any friends, and Amity doesn’t like her “friends.” The difference is that Luz reaches outward to ease her loneliness (being social and friendly, trying new things, etc.) while Amity reaches inward (keeping a diary, staying busy, having a secret spot, etc.). They both also use escapist fiction to ease their loneliness.

That’s all well and good, but now we get into the real speculative parts.

...complimenting each other and fulfilling elements they don’t have alone necessary to developing the character.

When I was taking acting classes I was taught that the way you see people act is a persona based on their experiences on what it takes to survive and avoid physical, emotional and social death. So now we have to speculate based on what we were given on what emotional/social needs and wants has Amity not been getting before that she has with Luz.

First let me point you to another show called F is for Family. F is for Family is an adult animated sitcom on Netflix that follows a very dysfunctional family in the 1970s. These are legitimately bad characters, not in terms of being poorly written. What I’m saying is that these guys are assholes. But here’s where it gets interesting.

One of the characters is Kevin Murphy, the teenage son of the family. He’s a dim-witted wannabe rockstar who is always yelled at and put down by his parents throughout the entire series. However in season four Kevin meets Alice. Alice teaches Kevin that his favorite band is a big reference to Tolkien and gives him a copy of The Hobbit. They bond over their love of Lord of the Rings and get along really well. Alice calls him smart for being able to read all of Lord of the Rings over a few days and never puts him down. Even in the one time they did fight she never yelled at him or raised her voice which he found weird because he’s so used to being yelled at. Alice gave Kevin the emotional support he always wanted but never got from his family.

Using that as a backdrop, let’s go back to Amity.

Amity grew up with her parents making her do things she didn’t want to do, making choices for her. Amity wanted to be one way. Her parents wanted something else. Amity’s mother even dyes Amity’s hair green so it matches her siblings. Amity wanted to be friends with Willow. Amity’s parents wanted her to be friends with the mean kids. While Amity does work hard to be the best at what she’s doing, her parents also put pressure on her to make sure that she is at that level.

Her siblings are another bag of awful. They constantly refer to her by an annoying nickname that I’m guessing has an embarrassing moment attached to it. They seem to live by a double standard that Amity despises. She has to work hard and follow the rules just to be accepted while they are naturally talented and break the rules with everyone still thinking that they’re perfect.

Family is supposed to provide unconditional love except it looks like the love of the Blights is based on conditions. Nobody just likes Amity for who she is. She doesn’t have a friend.

Enter: the friendliest person she’s ever met

Amity has to struggle and work for the simplest things, even affection. Except when it comes to Luz. Luz is naturally friendly and positive. Amity doesn’t have to earn her kindness. Even when she’s bullied Luz before, Luz is always coming back with a smile. I suppose when you live life surrounded by jerks, you’ll want to hang out with the one person who’s always nice to you. Sort of.

Yes, Amity did think Luz was a bully for constantly getting her into trouble. But even at Covention and Lost in Language, Luz kept reaching out to her. This combined with Amity’s awareness of her own behavior is what convinced her to try to reach out in kind to Luz by the end of Lost in Language. “She’s trying to be nice to me, so I should try too,” I’m guessing is the mindset especially in Adventures in the Elements. And then...Luz continued to be nice to her which is kind of a big deal for Amity.

Let’s tally up what we have so far:

Luz and Amity have similar interests (The Good Witch Azura series, art, fiction, learning magic)

Luz and Amity have similar values (work ethic, disdain for cheating, protecting those closest to you, etc.)

Luz gives Amity the positivity and affection that Amity doesn’t normally get anywhere else

They still have differing personalities with Amity being more competitive and Luz having more of a live-and-let-live attitude.

Even with all these things in mind, why was Amity so scared to ask Luz to Grom?

Speculating again but my theory is that Amity wasn’t sure if Luz actually liked her or if Luz is just friendly because that’s how Luz is. Amity was scared of being rejected because she felt that maybe she was just reading the situation wrong. Luz is this ray of sunshine in her gray skies (if you’ll forgive the cliché). People like Amity always think of all the worst possibilities (I know because I do this too). Amity was probably thinking a bunch of what ifs. “What if Luz doesn’t actually like me? What if she’s just being friendly because she feels sorry for me? What if she has feelings for someone else? What if she never actually liked me? What if she’s straight?”

Luz is Amity’s first crush and it is scary as all hell to put yourself out there like that for the first time. She wasn’t expecting to get married at Grom night. She just wanted to dance with the girl she liked.

The dance at Grom was like confirmation for her that it could happen. Amity didn’t have to ask out Luz because Luz asked her. Being with Luz isn’t a pipedream. It’s a definite possibility. And we all know how she reacted to that idea.

Uh...she’ll be in her bunk.

While Luz and Amity aren’t together as of this typing, I believe it’s bound to happen. Until then, after The Lumity Trilogy, Amity knows that Luz is the girl she likes.

tl;dr version

Amity fell for Luz because they have similar interests and values, their personalities differ in a compatible way and Luz provides Amity emotional needs and wants that she doesn’t get anywhere else.

Also, round eared girl pretty.

Thanks everyone for reading.

#my thoughts #lumity #meta #analysis

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tuney-and-looney · 3 years ago

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My sort-of comprehensive yet very opinionated and too deep of a dive into the voice actors of Elmer.

hey ya'll. i have a long weekend, so I have more time to absorb my cringe and rate each voice actor for my man. it's an idea i had for the past few days and really pondered as to who i prefer and why. so here we gooooooo. btw, i'm going in chronological order to help with organization purposes and stuff. also, i will definitely change these numbers in the future but the notes will probably stay the same.

Danny Webb - 7.5/10

He feels fun, fresh, funky; which is funny given that he's technically the first proper voice actor from the 30's. It's not elmer's actual voice, and it's also an impression of another actor, Joe Penner. BUT. he's fun. you can definitely tell that he has a lot of fun, and that also bleeds into elmer/egghead. he definitely feels like a proper fit for the zany and wacky vibes that the early LT/MM shorts. I really recommend watching at least one short to get those zanies into you!

Arthur Q. Bryan - 8.5/10

the OG. the main man. the one that really started it all.

he's a really big pushover at first, but over time became more assertive and gave more of a reason for bugs to be around him and bother and torment (and love). i like how his voice is mainly very quiet (haha get it), but it almost feels too quiet. he never really gets a moment to get angry and bombastic. in fact, mel sometimes had to fill in for the louder moments because Arthur just couldn't do it (SMOG!)

i feel like there's both a lot of material and not that much in terms of how much material arthur was given. then again, he did die of a heart attack so suddenly, so maybe that context for me personally made me feel like we would have a lot more opportunities.

that being said, solid and wonderful and amazing and beautiful and deep and lovely and talented and pure performances all around from him.

Mel Blanc - 5/10

he is, uh. he is.

so uh, if i remember correctly, he said at first that he never wanted to take arthur's role, but then he said sike and took the role anyway. in fact, he went on the reduce arthur's influence more and more as mel was becoming a household name. i just, mel after arthur's untimely death always urks me the wrong way. like, he would try to claim elmer amongst all the other roles he's done.

Ferris Wheelhouse had a really wonderful video that talked about this issue during his "Bugs Bunny in King Arthur's Court" review. unfortunately, it seems to be gone, and if i find it again, i will definitely link it here!

other than that, the voice itself: very, very iffy. makes me feel like that old guy with the cigar at the comedy club who says that he can do great cartoon impressions but, just can't. and it sucks. cause that's mel blanc here. and i like him. makes me real sad.

Hal Smith - 6/10

so his voice is almost the same quality as mel, but at least he feels like he's not actively trying to take control and try to shove arthur aside. he's trying his best, but again, just doesn't cut to the sheer quality of arthur's voice. not really much to say but, he's there, and he tried.

Jeff Bergman - 9/10

he wasn't too bad at first. he definitely tried to capture arthur's personality and voice mannerisms. i like box office bunny and just the vibes that he gives off in that short. blooper bunny was also really nice. he just seems like a guy that would be really pleasant to be around.

then New Looney Tunes/Wabbit came out. and then the HBO Max shorts.

holy shitttttttt. i never realized how much i would love his performance. because, here's the thing: he's manic as hell. he's chaotic. he's a scumbag. he's a diva. he's a bitchy, bitchy man. and i L O V E it.

i love how these new shorts make him both sympathetic, yet when he can be a bitch, HE'S ALLOWED TO. i never realized how much i wanted it until a couple years after Wabbit aired.

the voice: it's pretty okay. not my favorite voice, but he gives something fresh enough to feel fun and fancy free.

Billy West - 9/10

oh buddy of boys and buckets of fuck, here we go.

so, i grew up with his version, ever since the start of my hyperfixation. he's always felt my favorite. he gives something that sounds the closest to what bryan did during the good ole days. he gave elmer more of a cleaner edge. west often calls him the "0 to 60" type of guy, and yeah, i definitely see that.

here's the thing, though: west is my favorite voice, not my favorite character variation.

i feel like WB constantly underutilizes west's talent to go really zany with his fudd. whenever he does, once in a blue moon, he's REALLY good. like, too good. my sanity and my appreciation: snatched and kissed with a thousand roses. we love to see a chaotic yet loving man.

the more i reflect on this notion of his version, the more i appreciate the performances that he gave. although, sometimes, he feels like he doesn't know the context of the situation, but goddammit he is trying his best. god i miss him. father please come back, i need my meals. we need meals.

Greg Burson - 7/10

....we don't talk about him. moving on.

Eric Bauza - 8.5/10

not a lot of material yet from him, but i adore anything he has done so far. his performance in space jam 2 was really solid; feels like a mix of greg and jeff's performances. i hope to see so much more from him. can't really give too much yet because i need more material from him. overall, really wholesome that one be.

so yeah, those are my 11 pm thoughts on the matter. expect somewhat new thoughts to be added in the distant future. otherwise, please send me your thoughts; i love reading them and answering them on here!

#elmer fudd #billy west #jeff bergman #eric bauza #arthur q bryan #looney tunes #space jam 2 #mel blanc #greg burson #danny webb #hal smith #i'm so tired #if it feels like i rambled in some parts please let me know please and thanks i wanna give ya'll quality content

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