#although I don't think as a whole this is like actually negative about the characters exactly

[firebirdsdaughter]

Okay I can’t not say something…

… I dunno what’s going on in Geats. I’m not watching it. Sounds like my man Michianga is getting some shit which sucks, when will Takahashi treat the purple guys right???

I say, not even sure I’m spelling his name right.

But I genuinely cannot believe people are still trying to come for Horobi on this.

So let’s clear some things up.

1) Horobi was absolutely set up. Probably wasn’t the Ark’s plan from the start exactly, but she knowingly made him dependent on her and psychologically abused and manipulated him for years. Disconnected from her, Horobi was unstable and trying to grapple w/ trying to think for himself. He was heavily traumatised and easily manipulated, making him the perfect patsy. All she had to do was poke Izu’s blind devotion to Aruto a bit and have her use her usual brand of insensitive, socially unaware ‘help.’ That situation was absolutely orchestrated.

2) Is two things. Izu could easily have dodged that shot and choose not to, and Horobi had no reason to think she had no backup (which was ridiculous to begin w/). He’d made it very clearly he considered backups to be a form of immortality for ai, and we have no clue how he would have reacted if she dodged bc she choose not to. Obviously Horobi ‘shouldn’t’ have resorted to violence to ‘end’ that interaction, but he was not in a mental place where he could make that distinction. It’s all he’s ever known, it’s predominately the only way anyone has ever treated him. He was panicked and she was harassing him. He was desperate to end the interaction in anyway possible, and he’d already tried walking away. But there is no way he ‘knew’ he was ‘killing’ her (and, well… He didn’t). He actually seems genuinely shaken that she just took the hit, being unable to respond to Jin’s question (which he always has before). He wasn’t planning on ‘killing’ her at all, he just needed her to stop. She also choose to go in there in the first place. That’s like… Not to compare any of these characters to dogs in that way, but that’s like a domesticated Pomeranian walking into a playpen w/ a recently ‘rescued’ wolf that’s been abused and used in fighting rings and trying to play and being shocked it got bitten.

3) There were so many people who could have done something. Jin, who’s been so ready to take hits for people he barely knows before, just stands there. There were plenty of humans around! Fuwa and Yua, who started this whole damn thing, were nowhere to be seen, and Fuwa had an opportunity to stop the fighting and fucked it up. Like I absolutely believe there’s a correlation between Fuwa shooting Horobi for asking him that question and Horobi shooting at Izu to get her to stop provoking him. Aruto himself is more busy trying to force the HumaGear outside to go back to how he thinks they should be then dealing w/ the actual root of the situation. If he actually cared as much as he claims, maybe he’d realise how much suffering Horobi is going through and actually try to address the situation, rather than leaving it to his secretary who is in no way capable of doing so?

Basically, the fact of the matter is that this was not Horobi killing Izu in cold blood, it was more equivalent to a wounded animal trying to defend itself. She choose to go in there, back him into a corner, and choose not to back off when she saw he was becoming agitated. She choose not to dodge. He fired back in an attempt to end the interaction, bc she was doing more harm than help. Ultimately, I’m not trying to pin this on her, either, although I have Issues w/ how she was portrayed. Izu was never going to be able to help Horobi there bc she just could not understand what he was going through. In her mind, devotion to Aruto makes everything right, Aruto is the absolute best thing ever. And that’t not her fault, that was how she was made, and he inadvertently groomed her into that. But let’s not get me started on Aruto. The fact of the matter is that this was literally everyone’s fault. Well, it’s Gai and the Ark’s fault (bc the Ark is Gai’s fault), but if Horobi and even Izu herself had done nothing different but someone else present actually used their common sense for five seconds, this would never have happened.

Literally, this is saying that a traumatised, abused child soldier lashing out bc they feel backed into a corner and scared out of their minds is deliberately aggressive. Horobi was protecting himself the only way he knew how, Izu was (unintentionally, like she meant well but meaning well does not equate to doing well) harassing and provoking him and randomly decided not to dodge for some inconceivable reason, and everyone else decided that clearly, the sheltered ai w/ limited world experience and knowledge was obviously the right person to deal w/ the traumatised, abused, unstable one.

Also Fuwa and Yua started it and Fuwa had a chance to stop the fighting and fucked it up. An in character fuck up, maybe, but a fuck up. Aruto was more bothered w/ getting his free labour back than helping the traumatised child soldier. Jin randomly decides to be useless.

Edit: bc I realise I forgot them, Naki and Ikazuchi aren’t even there, they just show up to talk shit later like what the fuck guys maybe actually make and effort before you start badmouthing your supposed family member who you know has been horribly abused and mind controlled all his life.

GAI AND THE ARK.

Aaaaand… I’m not talking about after bc I think I’ve ruffled enough feathers.

Basically, while the situation in Geats does sound much more straightforward, I will not stand for people depicting Horobi as some knowingly malicious killer when he was very clearly not in a space where he could or knew how to make those calls. The man had only just gotten disconnected from the Ark, he was just learning how to make decisions. He didn’t ‘choose’ to ‘kill’ Izu, he acted on an instinct to protect himself out of fear and then he himself did not understand his actions.

[princess-dirt]

Number 1 Miquella defender.

Seriously tho (TL:DR), I'm seeing a lot of people online dismissing his character as pure evil, and it's insane to see. Although most of this is my fault for thinking the average gamer thinks about anything deeper than brainrot memes. DLC spoilers btw.

In a universe where there are like a dozen characters guilty of dozens of war crimes and genocide, calling the queer coded femboy pure evil for letting 2 people die and sacrificing himself to End Racism, War, and Genocide is a wild take.

I don't think I'd mind as much, but Ranni's ending and the Frenzied Flame endings are the two most beloved endings by the community. Like, it's ok for Ranni to kill her brother, but Miquella stealing his half brother's body after we kill him is too far.

It's ok to kill everyone because it means Melina gets to live. But Miquella making himself a god to save his sister from a life of constant horrible pain means he is power-hungry and evil.

And this isn't mentioning the whole "trecherous twink" and "Miquelester" memes that are rooted in homophobia.

But that part has a lot to do with misinformation being spread about Miquella's powers. People believing biased people who already decided to hate Miquella making up his powers or taking every bit of dialog or text to the absolute extremes.

The most obvious example being Mogh and how Miquella charmed him. I've seen delusional people go as far as to say Miquella mind controlled Mogh into starting a genocide and a blood cult. This despite the fact that it's entirely possible that Mogh started this process before Miquella was even born yet. Mogh was ambitious and wanted to be Consort to the next God. By all lore, even with the DLC, Mogh wasn't forced into anything. The line of text about the bloody bed chamber is also taken to the furthest extreme despite sexual violence and sec in general being devoid from all fromsoft games.

Even in Dark Souls, where cross breeding is canon and maidens being experimented on is also canon, actual sexual violence can only be inferred, and even then it's fringe theories. In reality, Miquella dies quite early as Mogh puts him in the cacoon and the "bloody bedchamer" is literal as in Mogh lives inside Miquella's blood. Making Miquella's corpse quite literally a bloody bedchamber.

But even if the incest happens. Yes, Mogh beats the rapist and kidnapper allegations, but nothing says he was forced into this. Miquella's power operates by making others not think negatively about him. While it can be argued that the use of the power is coercion, that is not the debate being had, and everything in the dlc shows us that his power can not force anyone to do anything. He can just convince people more easily.

Mogh is a tragic character like Morgott yes, but he is still a horrible person. The Tarnished (the player) kills him as easily as every other boss in the game. Miquella tricking Mogh and using the Tarnished killing him to steal his body is a bad thing.

I won't argue that Miquella's plan has some victims. Even if Radahn made a vow to be his Consort, Miquella still needed him dead to join him in the Land of Shadows. Radahn suffered even if he accepts Miquella by his own free will at the end.

As Ansbach says, taking Mogh's body is a horrible thing to do. Even if Ansbach is a murder cultist and heavily biased, he is right that it was still wrong to do. Ansbach even finds himself taking neither side and instead asking the Tarnished to make a new order. (It's just ironic that Ansbach describes what Miquella wants for the world)

Miquella sacrificing so much of himself is sad. We hear St Trina who is Miquella and likely Miquella's sense of Love personified, beg us to kill Miquella. Not because Miquella is evil, not because St Trina felt betrayed, but because Miquella can't love himself anymore and can accept the prison that is godhood.

And we see Miquella abandon his doubts right before he abandons his love and Trina, hiding them away from danger. We know even after sacrificing every bit of himself, he was still scared facing the Gates of Divinity. He leaves behind even his fear.

He does this all to fix the countless sins of his Mother and extended family and heal himself and his sister's curses.

It's not a coincidence Miquella's first action as a God is removing his own curse and taking the form as an adult. Showing despite everything, his goals remain the same. But of course, as the current or soon to be Elden lord ourselves, we stop him before he ever gets a chance to try fixing the world.

Some Tarnished even go out of their way to the Haligtree, slaughtering refugees from war, and killing Malenia, his sister, in cold blood. And I think this level of moral complexity and lack of clear right and wrong in the world of Elden Ring is tripping up so many people.

They see Mogh be a victim as a child and be tricked by Miquella and cannot fathom how he could still be evil. The genocide he is committing and his blood cult of murderous knights and "medics" are ignored.

Ranni can be forgiven because she is hot. Maliketh is never held at fault for what Marika does or did despite him only ever defending her and helping her. He is just super cool. We are the Tarnished so even when we chose the evil endings, there is still justification for it.

But the femboy who is very strongly queer coded can't be forgiven or understood. And another part of it is Griffith. Griffith is another morally complex feminine prince type character. Miyazaki is famously a massive berserk fanboy so characters like Prince Gwyndolin and Prince Lothric were often compared. But Miquella got the comparison the worst. Berserk spoilers btw.

And Griffith is objectionably a horrible person even before the Eclipse and when he stops being Griffith and becomes Femto. His moral complexity and the many nuances of his character often get forgotten because of the Eclipse, because of his horrible actions. Griffith being SA'd, self harming, having an unhealthy often one sided toxic love, and having so much self doubt that he nearly breaks down several times is forgotten about. They label him as pure evil and any deeper discussions about him as a character are lost.

And Miquella, as soon as he got the Griffith comparison because of his looks was destined for a similar fate when it is revealed he is an antagonist in the DLC. Griffith is pure evil, Miquella has a ton of similarities and thematic parallels to Griffith, so obviously, Miquella is pure evil. The classic no media literacy response.

I am yelling into he void I know, but I love writing and I love Miquella as a character so much. I think deep analysis and reflection is valuable even if it's just me talking to myself.

[absolutebl]

Pit Babe - it's time for a Trash Watch!

I had to. Well, no I didn't, but COME ON. It's like Thailand is negging me. Let's burn rubber, shall we? Burn rubbers...?

The things I had been told going in about this show:

it's about car racing (this bores me)

it stars Pavel (my BL ult bias, he is my icon for a reason)

it started as an omegaverse y-novel but the A/B/O aspects would be stripped from the BL series

it's high heat

(There some chatter about whether point 3 was a mistranslation of something the author said, but don't bother me with trifles.)

Here's a definition of omegaverse:

Omegaverse, also known as A/B/O (alpha/beta/omega), is a subgenre of speculative erotic fiction, and originally a subgenre of erotic slash fan fiction. Its premise is that a dominance hierarchy exists in humans, which are divided into dominant "alphas", neutral "betas", and submissive "omegas".[1] This hierarchy determines how people interact with one another in romantic, erotic and sexual contexts.[2] (Wikipedia)

In my experience and opinion, omegaverse archetypes and tropes are often used to strip out female characters (and The Feminine) and as a tool to excuse extreme hyper-masculine behaviors without a critical feminist lens (leading to lazy characterization). Just as heat is an excuse to get nkd quickly, A/O/B is often an excuse for taboo and dubious consent actions and behaviors. Do I get why writers/readers enjoy it? Yes I do. Do I personally like it? Not particularly. (Although there are always exceptions.)

Putting all that aside, the above represents my foundational knowledge before Pit Babe started.

Oh and that the familiar BL faces appearing in this show were follows:

Pavel Naret (aka Pavel Phoom) from 2 Moons 2 & Coffee Melody - Pavel is a fluent English speaker, a bit of a drama monger, and a motorcycle rider/car-dude, this role suits him

Nut Supanut from Oxygen & Something in My Room - has an amazing voice, his somewhat wooden acting has improved steadily since Oxygen

Pon Thanapon - one of Star Hunter's stable first seen in the Gen Y series (where he stole the appeal of an intended pair), also v good in Make a Wish, I wish he'd get a lead role as he has a likable screen presence

Pop Pataraphol from La Cuisine - he's playing the Alpha rival and I'm not convinced he's suited to this role

Michael Kiettisak from Love Sick, Oxygen, Call it What You Want, Till the World Ends - playing the comic relief this time rather than his usual tortured stoic... huh

All the rest are either fresh faces or older experienced actors. Interesting mix. They must have some money behind this.

And now, get out your marshmallows! The dumpster is on fire! Let's start the roast.

Episode 1 - Platypus, Pickles, Pavel, & other Smoking Hot Problems

This first segment told with a 4 day retrospect, because I decided to do a trash watch only after @aliceisathome said I should.

My initial reaction:

the sheer audacity of Thailand being like "PitBabe is not omegaverse" and then serving "Alpha" to us on a platter in the first sex scene is

how dare

but also

what the actual fuck is going on? what world are we living in where a/b/o is LIVE ACTION ON OUR SCREENS?

we getting heat, knotting & mpreg next?

apparently this is my reality now

I'm not sure what weird quantum time stream I've jumped into but someone was all,

yes the whole world is hella screwed, but also...

Thailand has decided live action mm fanfic is gonna win it the culture wars

and I'm beginning to think they may be right

BL is now the platypus of the film industry

4 days later:

Considering how much chatter this caused there's a part of me that wondered if it was all intentional and a marketing ploy (to say it wasn't omegaverse when obviously it is). In which case... brilliant Machiavellian tactics, production.

But Thai studios are rarely this calculated in their promo. So I think it's all accidental. But it certainly caused a raucous few days on Tumblr.

On a completely different note, Babe's house looks like it started life as a particularly inventive Olive Garden. Or is that just me?

More random thoughts:

Pavel has had work done, why honey? You were the definition of perfect.

The smell thing is great, I love stuff to do with scent and necks. If omegaverse brings this to the table, fine. But...

Being all Alpha perfect butch manly man = I do not like Babe at all, I kinda want him to be brought down a peg. (Woo... pegging!) I never like narratives that glorify the captain of the football team (side eyes Cdrama CEO romances and Love O2O), Babe better have depth and damage (forget the pegging) of some kind or his behavior will get old FAST, faster than he drives (also, forget the pegging idea)

Nut is ideal in the Beta role. I mean, that's Way's character right? We all can see that. If it's not intentional, it's a miscast. I love how soft he is as as screen presence. He's great in this part.

None of the other characters are sticking out to me yet, but I'm prepared to love the side dishes in this, please make them swoon worthy!

I'm glad they didn't hold the Charlie = trickster reveal off, I like knowing he is a double agent up front.

Finally, with respect to an adequate trash watch, I'm in a pickle.

How am I going to drink for this show when there is so much else airing on Frigay? I can't keep track, if I'm drunk.

I need a strategy for this trash fire if the puns and snark are to spout forth! (HA Fourth!)

Controlled burn?

Anygay, see you all next week.

Episode 2 - Side Dish Addiction + Second Lead Syndrome are both infecting me at once

[FYI I gotta have my backup computer to watch this so that's why Imma sometimes be delayed getting the trash out to the curb.]

3 minutes! 3 minutes in and I needed to pause and wax snarkful. (Ouch, bet that hurts. Is waxing snark similar to a Brazilian but for BL? Is that why they all so hairless in The Sign?... I digress, where was I?)

Okay so the subber said Daddy but I don't think that word means what they think it means. Because Way said simply nong paa.

Usually they'll use the English word Daddy (pronounced Dah-deee) for, ya know, Actual Daddies (tm).

Wait wait:

Calling Daddy Actual

(My dumb sci-fi loving arse will see myself out the back before I start drawing Battlestar Galactica = Pit Babe connections. TOO FAR ABL. Too far.)

Look, I like the tension in this show. It's good to set up an unlikeable Alpha dog and then immediately turn him into an underdog, makes him a bit more likable. I still don't like Babe, but now at least I'm on his side.

Charlie = cute but v sus. Fortunately for him, Babe = cute but v thick.

Everyone calls Charlie Babe's dek. Yes sounds a bit like what you think but also means kid/child and SHOULD be translated as boy in this show. Why doesn't the subber get that? They a sub...ber after all. (I'll see myself out.)

Honestly, the script writers might know what they are doing with abo but our eng sub translator sadly does NOT. I'm so glad this is coming now in my BL watching life. When my ear and knowledge of Thai is so much better than it once was. Others much be SO CONFUSED.

Snicker. They just fucking with us, but it's fun to watch the mpeg speculation abound.

File this one under: Thailand's trouble with ESL plurals and also "you should have Pavel helping with these subs" sweethearts.

Production knows entirely what it's doing with this show and its omegaverse shizz (even if the subber doesn't) and I am very much enjoying the online carnage that results.

This dumpster fire continues off screen into the blogosphere and I continue to roast things over it.

Meanwhile, hi Pon! You so adorable! When you gonna lead out a BL for us?

Is Idol Factory stealing all of Star Hunter's talent? Are they the Red Racers of the BL world? These are the questions I ask myself as I watch this.

Is that AGE GAP I smell before me?

Is the 20 yr old college kid meant for the pit boss? Cause you all know I am a slut for age gaps.

Moment of a/b/o: Jeff's fear of touch/heightened personal space would be a plot marker for "baby doesn't want Alphas close cause he smells like an omega" but of course this show it not omegaverse. Not omegaverse at all.

nuh-uh

Linguistic corner!

Lung (sounds a bit like loo) is uncle(ish) it means basically a male relation older than phi. So Alan is the oldest in the crew.

Alan calls Jeff nu (which the subber translated as boy I would have gone with cutie or little one). Nu is a diminutive affectionate term that's technically gender neutral but is most often used by/on cute girls/women. Jeff did NOT like it. Then Alan sort of dodges through pronouns/particles settling on phi for I, ger for you, and ja for a particle. This is interesting because ger & ja kinda lower his age and status into a casual sphere. Not more intimate more equal to jeff... fascinating.

I love the new "Korean" red racer, he drinks my brand of soy milk. He is now my baby snake in the grass.

Get it? Snake.

He and Babe should end up together.

The fight wasn't bad, do both actors have kickbox training in their backgrounds?

Who am I kidding, I care only about Uncle Alan and Nu Jeff now. All others are irrelevant to me.

Also...

WHERE IS A BOY FOR WAY?!!! Or a Daddy. I do not care. (Methinks nether does he.)

I am now captain of the Way Appreciation Society. Let's all find a way... to get him some dick.

Also the BTS stingers are tons of fun. Looks like the set was a blast.

Finally, and I mean this kindly. Why isn't Noh Phouluang in this? He should have been cast as Winner. Bah. I'm biased.

But one should be with Noh.

Episode 3 - Side Dishes Delux

Gayest bridge n Thailand has made its obligatory appearance.

How much do I love uncle & nu? They are SO damn cute. Also nu flustered is the best kind of nu.

I could not care less about Babe and Charlie. Except I do love the smell thing.

Way will break my heart by getting his broken. He is right tho.

Tra la la. I feel like this is a bit like KP 2.0.

Charlie is a such a princess (and ace manipulator). Good thing Babe clearly likes being buttered up.

Babe's backstory was more interesting than I expected, I didn't think we would go so far into the paranormal side of a/b/o. I like it and I hope they lean into it quite a bit more. Make it part of the plot.

Unlike the kissing thing which seems to have been gotten over rather quickly.

I gotta say I'm enjoying the corporate sponsorship jockeying and tension more than I thought I would. I'm curious as to who Jef and Charlie are working for and what their motivation is. The plot itself is keeping me intrigued and that is rare for me with BL.

So no trash talk this ep, I was largely absorbed and entertained. I didn't event need booze. Shocking behavior on my part.

#giveWayaboy2023

Episode 4 - I (who never ship) am shipping the impossible

Here’s the thing. I just want this to be a better story than it is. Right now it’s kind of like a soap opera. I don’t hate lakorn, I really don't. To Sir With Love is a glorious chewing of the diamanté scenery (completed with death glitter). But...

If this is gonna be a soap opera it needs to lean into the messy side more than the tailored high concept side. Support characters and evil needs more screen time.

Instead, right now, I don’t know where I am with this show because it doesn't know where it wants to be. I’m kind of dangling in the middle of a dirty situation. It’s uncomfortable for me, and the show feels uncomfortable for the performers. 

Also... I have questions.

Yes, of course I want to know what Charlie & Jeff are up to. Why can Jeff see the future?

But more importantly I NEED to know why Babe has a flying saucer bed?

That kind of lighting makes nobody look good, especially not at that angle. It’s very traumatic and I’m not wild about the shag rug either. I have concerns about Babe's taste. I guess is what I am saying. 

On a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT note:

There’s absolutely no chemistry to justify this, but I have decided that I am going to personally advocate for, and ship, Way and the interloping not-really-Korean. They are both sort of own-moral-code types. I have tiny crush on Kim, and Nut is the prettiest, and Way is Best Boy so there it is, I would like them to hook up, please & thank you.

#giveWay2Kim2023

Arrow guy is cute, too. Will we get to see him bone?

Is he going to be another one of the adopted alpha super-kid pets?

What the hell, throw Arrow Boy a bone! All hot boys in BLs deserve bones.

Plot thickens.

Hah.

Thickens.

(I am an immature idiot.)

Episode 5 - wait wait way-t, can arrow boy have Way?

Look, BLabies, I didn’t get any screen caps this episode because frankly there wasn’t anything worth capturing.

I guess Charlie really does love Babe? Very dramatic if idiotic saving from the burning car. But Babe has gone to the broken Alpha place of extremely unlikeablability (frankly he was almost there at the start). If I were Charles B Spectacled I would be OUT by now. 

Is that?

NO.

Don't get the plastic bowl.

No white towel sponge bath. Please kill this trope.  

I mean, it's not as bad as singing, but that's because NOTHING is as bad as singing in a Thai BL.

AND the main boys are back together.

I don’t find their relationship or Babe’s lack of senses a particularly interesting aspect of the plot.

Unless, of course, Babe is pregnant and that's why he lost his Alpha sniffer.

BUT I do love the sides.

Jeff = the introvert precog who can’t/wont do people and Alan = the extrovert people person who WANTS but doesn’t understand him. 

Were Jeff and Charlie ALSO raised by Evil Daddy MacEvilPants? 

I liked the way Arrow CEO & Way looked at each other. Way, hon, give up on Babe (he sucks) and get thyself a billionaire bf with great aim and BDE.

On a completely different note, the best thing about this show is the blooper reel. That thing with the green smoothie going down his pants was hilarious!

In conclusion, this was a green smoothie down the pants episode. I was entertained, and it’s probably gonna be good for the plot in retrospect, but it was kind of squishy and unpleasant at the time.

Episode 6 - Are they actually listening to us now? Is Tumblr bugged?

This was a fun ep full of like actual racing and shizz.

Whatever.

Charlie is on the team now. All the teams, apparently.

Can we talk about Jeff and Alan?

The apology scene! Did you hear that Alan dropped to chan/ger? Eeeee!!! So cute. (He equalized their relationship in a soft way.)

Get it with that language play hottie. Next up: lengua play.

Please & thank you. 

Meanwhile, as all of the Internet knows, they went fully in for omegaverse - no bars.

I have to say, one of the greatest typos (or whatever) in existence is enigma instead of omega.

That's where I personally would rank in the omegaverse.

Hello, my gender is... enigma.

 Apparently it's a/b/o and sometimes e!  Also sometimes switch-ee 

Oh I'm very proud of myself with that one.

Funfunfun

Charlie. Babes. When a man asks to be thrown up against the wall. You throw him against that wall.

OMG is that arrow boy looking at Way in the bar?

3 seconds later.

Noooo.

Wait come back.

Noooooo.

That’s what I actually want to watch! 

OMG. Who said nu was the first step to teelak?

I flipping love Alan. 

Ah the boyfriend ep. Thank you, but I still don't trust Charlie.

Poor Way.

But nice crying jag, and I don’t say that often in Thai BL.

Now let him go, Way.

A boy with his arrows is waiting. 

(source)

Note for the future: tumblr has a bug that stops allowing edits after a certain time/number, thus my full trash often occur in 2 segments as a result. Click on the "abl trash watches bl" tag for the full thing if you're reading this and later episodes are missing.

[guiltycorp]

Damn i really want to know tf happened in the writing room of arcane s2. Some of the downgrades were inevitable due to the show's corporate limitations (not being able to progress the class war story in a meaningful way, having to tie things back to league of legends in terms of making playable characters more appealing to well, play... rip Mel and Viktor in particular), sure. But i still feel like it's even worse than that? There are so many bad decisions that i couldn't even start listing them all... the characters, plot, pacing, themes, it's just such a mess? Even the dialogue writing, it feels much more mm Marvel at its worst i suppose. What i am most bothered by is probably just the straight up harmful messaging so um... Cycles of violence and abuse can be broken by individual decisions to become a better person! Got nothing to do with systemic oppression, living conditions, mental health issues, you can just conveniently ignore aaall the social context, live laugh love and then things get better automatically yep, oppressors famously stop oppressing you when you show them that you're harmless and won't put up a fight anymore. Literally three out of three suicidal characters dying to redeem themselves? Not even in a tragic/cathartic way but in a bittersweet 'they finally atoned for their mistakes' way? Groundbreaking lmao. Romantic relationship between Vi and Caitlyn including no communication about their biggest fight, just conveniently skipping to sex and getting back together - would have loved that if it was framed as the unhealthy fucked up thing that it is, skipping over Vi's hurt and her background to once again become a cop, her girlfriend's direct underling at that (!) due to her not having any other support systems... But nope that was our cute lesbian romance wrapped up, a good thing all around, not concerning at all. Jayce telling Viktor that what he 'always admired about him' was his disability and his deadly disease (??? from a character who spent the whole s1 and first act of s2 desperately trying to help Viktor find a cure? sure) and that those imperfections don't need fixing, just wtf truly. Magic bullshit was also weird, some implications of 'natural magic is ok, but achieving that power through other means corrupts you into a crazy robot bitch or just wilts your trees i guess', but tbh it was written in such a weird and inconsistent way that we can skip this one... Yeah actually a lot of things were just such a mess that I feel silly pointing to specific moments or lines I didn't like, I mean duh, it barely makes sense as a story at all... I am happy we have s1 which comparatively was a masterpiece, and i also really enjoyed s2 act1, i truly believed it would lead somewhere good at the time, my mind still kind of cuts off the story at that point when i think about it, that WAS the open ending of the show to me (is it possible that there were rewrites? targeting act 2 and 3? idk, wishful thinking perhaps). Despite my extremely negative feelings about this season's conclusion i remain glad that so many people appreciate the show regardless, it is clear that there was STILL a lot of love in the process of its creation (although i'd argue that even some of the visual aspects of the show suffered in quality, once again i have to wonder about behind the scenes mood of it all) and i get very upset when i see creatives online despairing over reception of their projects even when i'm absolutely in the disgruntled crowd hahaha... ...however yeah, this wasn't great In a world that increasingly grows more and more right-wing politically... we really needed something different i think.

[flightyalrighty]

What do you think about Shadow? What is your personal perception of him? I'm curious about your answer (I hope is spoiler free)

On his character profile, wikipedia etc... for a while he is describled in a strong negative way, like he has no positive traits, an anti-MarySue. But I remember that Shadow from SA2 to 2006, including Shadow 2005 (surprisling, watching the cut scene, I found his positive traits are still there), and then Prime Shadow, tMoStH (those two versions are a bit shy) and Archie Shadow has a good balance of positive and negative traits. In particular the first Shadow (Adventure 2) was enternaining, he seemed playful and mischievous at times, like he was sill a kid even if he was heavily burdened by his past, and there was something likeable in Shadow in Heroes, like he is nice to have around as friend although sometimes he may get difficult to deal with his stubborness, melancholy and pessimism.

Often people complain about Shadow being too expressive in Archie comics. I admit I complained too before rewatching SA2/Sheroes cutscenes, reading some old Sega description of the character, how Maekawa envisioned him (far different than what we have today and that's clear from SA2), I could see Archies' choices.

Also, Archie Shadow is still cold and gruff toward those he doesn't know/he didn't connect with (I lovd the part where he was answering to Relic's questions). He shows his softer side only to his closest friends and still has that hints of distrust, typical of those that were and are still abused and rejected in every possible way.

I like how you showed this in the early page of Infested. The Shadow in first pages is caring toward Rouge, but he is quiet, very focused, and stubborn (when he wanted to complete his mission despite the double concussion and the pain). I see the tick (the bug makes me think to a tick. I see them quite often bvecause the little b...s often attack my cats) is now neutralizing his mental shield, leaving him with his insecurities exposed and vulnerable, in order to make him panic more easily. Shadow's personality is still there for now but his defense is gone.

I think that different continuities have different takes on Shadow (as you mentioned with Archie and Prime). While I thought pretty long and hard about how to answer this, ultimately I'm not sure how. I'll try?

My personal perception of Shadow is simply how he was written before the series had its big tonal shift starting with Sonic Colors. This no-nonsense guy who strives to do the right thing in the most straightforward and efficient way possible. His character arc concluded with Sonic 06, and then he was slid backwards by a company that wanted so badly to twist the franchise to suit the whims of people who never had a real interest in Sonic to begin with. Shadow is so much more than the flat character he'd been hydraulic pressed into. He's more than

This.

I don't envy Ian Flynn's job. He started his career a lot more free to write Shadow how he wanted to, and then found himself struggling against more and more and more restraints -- To the point that he's said on record that he doesn't like writing Shadow anymore. That's sad, especially when my favorite take on all of Team Dark came from his pen. Ian Flynn, famously, was Archie Sonic's writer until its death.

Archie's Team Dark is how I love to see them written.

Archie Shadow, in particular, had a lot more going on than game!Shadow. He was far less likely to cause friction within the Team Dark dynamic -- Not to say friction is a bad thing in fiction, quite the opposite, but when that friction happens all the time it's exhausting. If Shadow was actually allowed more moments to be an actual teammate or collaborate with someone outside of Team Dark without making the whole situation way more needlessly difficult all on his own, that could solve a lot of the issues folks have been complaining about. Like, he doesn't even need to be written nicer, just more willing to work with allies when necessary. He used to do this. Now he barrels into every situation solo.

Anyway, kvetching about Shadow's current writing concluded (on top of the actual answer for this ask).

[mytearsbuckochet]

What's your most hated Bummy scene?? I'll tell you mine. It has to be the kiss in the hospital lobby and buck getting outed because of his soot covered mouth. Never hated a 911 episode more than that. I love Buck. They just made a mockery out of him by that scene.

Where do I even start.. Couldn't agree more about the soot scene, although I'm more angry at the writers about that one than I am at Tommy, given how important it was to Buck that he came out to Eddie and Maddie on his own terms and how much weight he gave those interactions I feel like even though that one was supposed to be a cute little "hehe look this is very Buck coded", it fell short in that I would've liked everyone else at the 118 to find out in a more heartfelt way ya know??

In terms of my least favourite(s), the whole arc with billy boils was a very interesting play by the writers in that it highlighted the differences between Eddie and Tommy in a meaningful way. On one hand, Eddie, who has presumably been with Buck in the hospital the whole time he was being treated for his boils, is used to Buck's hyperfixations and Wiki deep dives, and finds them wholesome and cute. I reblogged a post a little bit ago where Buck told Maddie about how her and Chim always finish each others sentences and that theyre basically already dating, and then contrasted with how Eddie was finishing Buck's sentences in that scene. Buddie fanatic aside (I will admit im obsessed with these two idiots), THIS is the kind of domesticity I've always wanted for Buck's partners, where they acknowledge and love those little moments that he has.

Now lets go ahead and look at Tommy's side of this whole thing: Tommy's reaction to seeing the boils + how he treated and viewed Buck's obsession as exactly that, an obsession + the graveyard scene??? You can break it down into "oh well Buddie have known eachother since s2, Bummy have been together 6 months", but from my perspective the fact that Buck didn't even realise Tommy didn't like women until their 6 month anniversary (???) just goes to show that they don't really know that much about one another. Tommy was completely right in the breakup scene; he was definitely not Buck's last, and the poor guy is definitely in need of some self exploration (#letbuckfuck) before I'd be happy to see Buddie honestly (and thats not even considering the work that needs to be done on Eddie, my guy is going through it rn with Chris). Anyway; I just read this amazing fic by playinginthundestorms (on ao3) and I think the way they described Tommy (slightly Tommy bashing), was overall how I imagine he sees Buck. It never really felt like Tommy was fond of these little things Buck does in the way that Eddie (and the rest of the 118) are, more seeing him as childish or juvenile as the fic described. And it makes sense, tommy is older than Buck. A whole other can of worms and probably the icing on the cake for me was the Abby debacle, the misogyny really showed??? like man you have not changed since Hen my lord. Calling Abby out for running off with some "himbo half her age" was wild considering thats what he is currently doing with Buck? Especially with all the shit she had to go through with her mum at the time? Like what on earth is your excuse Temu? Anyway, to cut a long rant short, I actually have given you like 50 reasons, but i definitely think that Tommy was a well placed plot device and it was obvious from the start. Also, ABC could've chosen ANYONE to be Buck's first experience with a man and they were like yep lets use the racist homophobe from Chim and Hen begins cos why not?! I probably would've had a far less negative opinion of him if he was a fresh character, and I think that's on purpose, I think it would be really interesting if they go down the road of hen and chim sharing their experiences with Tommy now that they've broken up, and that they didn't say anything cos they just wanted Buck to be happy. Definitely after that heartfelt scene with Hen especially, that I didn't get cos of that bloody soot scene.

[halloween4life]

The Orange Side is going to represent Impulsiveness and the rest of y'all are wrong: a thread

For obvious reasons the title of this post is a joke. But anyway, hi hello. I wanted to talk about my theory of what I think the Orange Side is gonna be! Now this post is going to be looong so for the sake of everyone it's going to be put under the cut.

Disclaimers that I want to get out of the way now: I have just recently re-entered the fandom and I haven't been into Sanders Sides in years. I'm not a Patreon supporter nor do I have Twitter so I lack any information that may have been revealed there. Also I am still in the process of rewatching the series. So as of now, I don't really have a complete understanding of the series. I apologize if I get anything wrong, and if any of this puts you off, totally valid.

Oh also, general spoilers for like, anything Sanders Sides related but specifically Working Through Intrusive Thoughts (if you still somehow have not watched it). Honestly I recommend watching it before reading this as a refresher, because most of this theory is based around/supported by that video. It's like, really the only foundation for this theory as I don't really delve much into the other episodes.

First things first, I am going to lay down some rules on what the Orange Side could represent:

1) The concept needs to in some way be the "opposite" of logic. Realistically this doesn't have to be the case in the series, but based on how the other Dark Sides function, it makes the most sense for now.

2) The concept needs to be generally considered negative for them to be considered a Dark Side.

3) Whatever they represent needs to REALISTICALLY make sense as an aspect of C! Thomas' identity. I think a lot of people forget that the Sides are that, Sides of a whole person. So I tried my best to make that work.

Now, with that out of the way,,,I'm going to "debunk" some theories first. Yes sorry there is a lot of set up to this theory, but I feel like it's important. Also, reminder, if you believe in either of the theories I am going to debunk, that is TOTALLY 100% VALID! I'm just going to discuss why I don't think they work, so this is all just my opinion!

Theory 1: The Orange Side represents Rage

I'm pretty sure this is the most popular theory right now, and I know a lot of people also disagree with it. I think this one mostly came about because our only real evidence of the Orange Side is through Logan's anger fueled outbursts in WTIT and Learning New Things About Ourselves. While I definitely understand this line of thinking, I don't think it's right.

First and foremost, it breaks the third rule set up earlier. Again, all these characters are facets of Thomas' personality. And from what we've seen of him, it just doesn't make sense with his personality. Now, again, this could obviously be different in the series, we could learn that this is actually his rage and he's just been repressing it, but I doubt that'll be the case. (Also I feel like this could break the first rule but I don't know how to explain why).

Secondly, and I just think that rage in and of itself is just, way too specific of a concept to be represented by a side. This kinda works in tandem with the first point, since again, it just doesn't seem that large of an aspect of Thomas that it would be represented by its own side. As well, all the other sides represent either much larger concepts or multiple at a time. For instance, Logan, Patton, and Roman represent logic, morality, and (good) creativity respectively. While Virgil and Janus do represent anxiety and deceit, those titles are rather reductive, as they also represent vigilance and self-preservation respectively. (Really I think we need to talk more about the fact that Janus is canonically Thomas' self-preservation but is really only viewed as "deceit"). Remus is a fun case as although he is viewed as "intrusive thoughts", he as a whole represents the bad side of creativity. TLDR: Rage is too specific a concept to be its own side.

Theory 2: The Orange Side Represents Emotion

Okay I'm going to be honest, I've only seen one person on here with this theory (and for the life of me I can't remember their name). But I just want to say that if you are reading this, this isn't me calling you out or anything (honestly I really agreed with your theory until I came up with this one). If I remember correctly, this theory is more built on the Orange Side being an opposite to logic, and how emotions tend to cloud logic, similar to the reasoning for rage.

I think this theory most obviously breaks rule 2. Now emotions as a whole do have the capacity to be bad, I think the concept of just emotion is not generally considered bad. Definitely not enough for it to be considered along with the Dark Sides. It's simply too big of a concept to be either "good" or "bad".

On that subject, I think this theory has a similar issue to the rage theory, but in the opposite direction. While rage was too specific, emotions are waaay too broad to just be one singular side. Especially given that all of the current sides have some sway over Thomas' emotions. And it's also possible that this side would be considered too close to Patton. While yes, it is not explicitly stated that he is in charge of Thomas' emotions, he definitely has the most sway over them. Ultimately, I think this theory is just too vague to work.

Okay, now with that all out of the way, let's get into my actual theory. So,

Why do I think the Orange Side will represent Impulsiveness?

I'm going to start this off by comparing my claims to the rules I made up. Because tbh, that's how I came to the conclusion in the first place before I started finding evidence to support it (but isn't that how all good hypotheses work?)

1) Does impulsiveness act as a counter to logic?

According to Merriam-Webster's dictionary, Impulsive is defined as "prone to sudden illogical changes of mind, ideas, or actions". Now I was gonna go on a big explanation of how they are opposites but it literally says illogical in the definition. So uh, yayy 🎉🎉🎉

2) Is impulsiveness seen as a negative thing?

Now, truthfully there is no way for me to prove that impulsiveness is either "good" or "bad". That being said, I feel like a lot of people generally view impulsiveness as a bad thing. While in small amounts it can be seen as good and fun, the more frequently you engage in impulsive behaviors, the more destructive it can become. Often leading to bad decision making, i.e. avoiding work, making big financial decisions without much thought, and generally just doing what you want over what may be important.

3) Does this fit within Thomas' personality?

Yes. It has been shown time and time again that Thomas has an issue with his impulsive behaviors. Oftentimes manifesting in him avoiding chores and general self-care in favor of doing something easy or entertaining. The most clear example of this being the video "Growing Up." While yes, most of these decisions are made due to Patton, it's not entirely uncommon for the sides to be affected or swayed by the others. (Also if I'm being honest, I don't think it entirely fair to analyze the earlier episodes with the same critical lens as the later ones, it's definitely not fair to Thomas (the real Thomas) to criticize the early episodes for not perfectly aligning with later lore).

Now, finally, we can get into some evidence to support all these claims I'm making. First things first, as of right now Logan and the Orange Side are one in the same. We haven't been given any proof that they are at least physically different beings (unless you want to count the orange eyes in the Sanders Sides anime intro parody). So all of our evidence is just Logan acting really out of character. So, where does Logan act impulsively?

Our first major incident of this (I'm pretty sure) is in the episode "Learning New Things About Ourselves", specifically the scene where Roman essentially pisses him off so much that he throw's a crumpled up note card at him. Most important is his reaction afterwards, being shocked at himself.

He was basically pushed so far that he reacted without thinking (impulsively some may say? ok I'll stop, I'm sorry). Which, obviously, is EXTREMELY out of character for him. He is logic, he is supposed to think first before he acts, go through possible scenarios and decide the most favorable outcome. Yet, here he loses all control.

Our next example is less of Logan acting impulsive and more so how I believe his actions are affecting Thomas. In the episode "Working Through Intrusive Thoughts", Thomas basically spends the whole time being tormented by Remus because he can't keep his mind off of the risky text he sent Nico (I'm aroace but I'm gonna assume valid? So real?). While Logan is simultaneously trying to keep Thomas on schedule, accommodate his struggles, and accommodate Remus' actions as part of Thomas' identity. Basically, it's a lot, and when he's finally at his limit, well

Yeahhhh, a certain something makes itself known. And while Logan doesn't act particularly irrationally or impulsively in this moment (literally all he does is yell at Remus), it is what Thomas does after this outbreak that I find interesting. As immediately afterward he gets a call from Nico, inviting him out. And given the choice between what he has planned to do and needs to get done for the day, vs spending the day with Nico?

He decides suddenly to just drop everything he is doing for Nico. A rather impulsive decision if you ask me. And while yes, technically none of what Thomas was doing needed to get done that day (it was mostly chores), it was part of a plan and he promised himself to stick to it. Logan doesn't react well to any of this, both his own outburst and Thomas deciding to just leave him behind like it's nothing. And I don't think it's gonna spell anything good in the future for Logan and the rest of the gang.

So, where does that leave us now?

Well, moving a bit on to what I think is going to happen next. Obviously things are going to get worse before they get better. Logan will fall more and more into impulsive behaviors, which will only become more destructive for Thomas. As well, I think (hope, pray) that there will be some sort of team up between Logan and Remus. They're the only sides who I think could "properly" get along (I know that Janus and Remus have some sort of friendship, but it can only work so well as Janus being self-preservation can only really run counter to Remus' intrusive thoughts). Most likely they will feed into each other in a horrible cycle of "I can make him worse." I don't think that would be either of their genuine intentions, as I don't like labeling the Dark Sides and "bad", but I definitely don't think they would be good for each other. I do also think this will come about because Remus either knows or understands something about Logan that the others don't, not even Janus. As well I do hope that Logan and the Orange Side are one in the same somehow, and not just Logan being influenced.

Anyway, sorry for the insanely long post and sorry if it started to devolve towards the end. I am quite literally writing this on no hours of sleep, so give me a bit of grace. Also, another sorry if I have gotten anything wrong or if I have missed something. It has been very long since I've engaged with Sanders Sides, but I'm trying my best. Anyway, thank you for coming to my ted-talk, I hope Logan gets to commit murder in the next episode.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for not telling my friend I don't want to play DND with her?

I (17M) am a player in a Dungeons and Dragons campaign (NOTE: it is not actually DND, I am just saying it for simplicity's sake. If anything sounds off, that's why. Either way, it's TTRPG, and both games have the same system, although they aren't anywhere near similar to DND gameplay-wise. It's very roleplay focused.) with a few of my friends (all 17-20F: Viola, Korrina, Valerie, and Olympia). Viola is our DM, and I have so much fun every time we play, with no intents on quitting because of this.

Olympia just like... fucking sucks though, to be honest? Like, I just hate playing with this chick. She's always asking for extra bonuses on rolls because she's just such a good player (no one else does it, Viola allows it though), she actively started PVP with me, she physically disabled my character in said PVP and I had to do chaos control (I did not want to have my character be disabled, if I did I would have a disabled character, but I failed a roll against her in this fight so I had to have my character go on a side-quest to fix it: I would be more fine with it if it was Viola, but another player? Really?), and she's just not really funny when she talks about the campaign outside of the sessions (I know, it's a little personal). She gets really upset when we mention this one thing we all like to the point of taking inspiration from it for characters and NPCs because she doesn't get it but she refuses to try the thing so we just have to not talk about it with her, and overall she just... isn't enjoyable to be around.

I know I'm gonna have people in the comments say "just tell her that you don't like her now! You sound awful, you should quit," etc etc, but hear me out. I am a player. Since the DM is Viola, and Olympia and Viola are having fun, I don't feel like I should say anything. It's the DM's story, and as a mere character in the story I can't have any say in the format, especially since I was the one that invited Olympia to the group (I made a casual offer to my whole friend group over a school group chat and both Olympia and Korrina responded, so I had to include both of them), and we've been playing this campaign since August.

One of our players had to cancel on us a week ago as of writing this, and so I decided to run a oneshot based off of a campaign I've been wanting to do (first time DMer, I wanted to try it out). The players were Viola, Korrina, and Olympia, and it was actually really fun! I wanted to wait for Viola's campaign to end before I actually started playing my campaign, but that wasn't going to happen in a while, so I had decided to run it then.

I don't want Olympia anywhere near my actual campaign, though. I'm planning on letting my friend (Drasna, 18F) join, as well as anyone else who shows interest, along with Viola, Korrina, and Valerie. But as you may know, Olympia is insufferable to me, and as DM I feel like I have the right to deny her from playing with me.

She still played in the oneshot though, and was... very excited for it. I am aware I am the only one with beef here. Olympia keeps on PMing me about her character, asking about the world, and she's really interested in the world and the format of it. Her character's nice even if a little similar to one of the main plot NPCs I have, but as I've mentioned, I really want to cut her out when the campaign gets rolling. The only reason I couldn't for the oneshot is because we are actively in the middle of a campaign and everyone would think I'm being weird and things would be tense for the rest of the campaign. I can't just tell Olympia to her face "hey, I hate playing with you actually. Go home, fuck off."

I feel like I treated Olympia fairly when we played (she didn't do anything drastic, at least), but I don't know how my negative feelings on her are going to impact the campaign. I don't want to have an inbalance in the characters and how they're treated.

AITA for leading her on to make sure things don't get awkward during Viola's campaign, even though I have no intent of changing my mind on not having her as a player?

What are these acronyms?

[dorkynerd23]

My Problem With Vanitymoth/My Thoughts.

Hello guys!! Hope you're all doing good and well and you've been having a good and wonderful day/night. Now, this will sorta be a mixture of a critical/rant post, as this is someone I've been wanting to talk about as they're someone who's been criticized and talked about (mostly negatively) In regardless to the Murder Drones Community and I wanted to give my thoughts and opinions on this dude, as I don't think he's a very good cartoon reviewer but before I start PLEASE DON'T SEND ANY HATE!! This isn't meant for me to bash and send hate towards this dude, please don't do that shit as it's not worth it and doesn't make you any better, I just wanted to give my thoughts and criticisms about Vanity and his content, your allowed to critique him but don't send any hate. Anyways, the one I'm gonna be talking about is Vanitymoth and if you're not familiar and haven't heard of him, Vanity is basically a cartoon reviewer with about 12.8K subscribers and his first video which was uploaded back in 2022 (around the same year his channel was created) and was about Panty And Stocking and his channel wasn't as popular when he first started out and I discovered him around this time and thought his videos were decent and fine enough at the time, especially as he had a small following around the time but I honestly think it wasn't until he made his first MD video is when he really started to get more popular and I subscribed to him once he started making MD reviews as I was a huge fan around the time.

In the beginning I thought Vanity was a fine and decent enough reviewer and he seemed valid and gave some interesting points in his videos, but I started to notice some changes once he started putting out some more negative videos with one of the ones being his trashfire of a review on Lackadaisy and most of the time for his review he's just complaining and nitpicking as some stuff, (even though I do think in some aspects he can be valid) being negative most of the time, the only thing he really praises in Lackadaisy is the animation but doesn't bother really giving any more positive thoughts even though there is so much to adore and love about Lackadaisy, even if you aren't 100% familiar with the source material I think you'd still be able to follow along fine and enjoy the Pilot. But with Vanitymoth, it seems just didn't seem to understand and get the Pilot or what even the concept of a Pilot Is..the whole point of a Pilot Is to introduced you to the world, the setting where the story is taking place in and introduce the characters we'll be following along, and although Lackadaisy isn't perfect at all, no piece of media is, but I think they did a good job. Another thing Vanitymoth is that in his reviews for most of the time he thinks his opinions are the definitive answers to the direction the show is going and bashes people who actually know to have fun with the show and sees his opinions as definite facts.

He also constantly whined and complains about TADC getting more attention than MD, like he's complained about it a lot, he mentions it at some points in his "The Slow Death Of Murder Drones Fandom" and it seems he had an issue of another Glitch having another show going on that was more popular, like...you don't have to enjoy and like TADC but you don't need to put one show down to praise the other, why not enjoy both shows?? Also, the thing about the MD fanbase dying after the show ends, which I don't think will happen as the fandom has gotten bigger and popular since the Pilot's release and the show will still be rewatched and beloved by fans and others even now the show's over and just because a fandom doesn't interact 24/7 doesn't mean it's dead, that's like saying the Gravity Falls fandom died after the show ended..like the show is still popular and the fandom is still huge even years after the show's finale, besides Glitch has expressed that they wanna do more with MD in the future so we'll probably be seeing more of these characters in the near future, so that doesn't make sense and it seems Vanity only wants Glitch to favor MD only and it's just frustrating.

Now, let's discuss his MD reviews..alright so first let me started off my saying that I'm fine with being critical and being criticism and there's many things you can critique about MD as it's NOT a perfect show but as I said the thing with Vanity is that he seems so damn negative in almost all his MD reviews even though some points can be valid, but most of the time to me..his criticisms just seems in bad faith, not valid and just him pulling stuff and random theories out of nowhere to fit his own narrative. Let's point out and start on how he just doesn't understand and gets the characters in the slightest, he doesn't shy away or even try to hide in the slightest that he's got hatred for both N and Uzi, Nuzi especially as a couple..but is totally fine and ships Cyn and N together and then got pissed at the fanbase and acted like a baby because nobody liked the ship, like jesus dude..

And he's also mischaracterized the characters like most in the fandom do unfortunately but he's done it the most to both N and Uzi especially, like I said he doesn't shy away that he hates them with a burning passion. He's shown his hatered for Uzi (not even surprised in the slightest as he commissioned some hate art of Uzi getting beat up by J) and mischaracterized her and saying how her whole character is only involved around N and is blaming her just like some haters of Uzi and it's just frustrating..like UZI DIDN'T do anything wrong at all and characters can be characters on their own and have a love interest, I'm really sick and tired of all the Uzi hate is annoying as hell and frustrating, even after the finale Uzi is still getting hated and it's just so unjustified, Vanity and others need to realize that Uzi has gone through something called..."CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!!" ✨💜 Y'all seem to NOT understand and get it and just wanna say certain things to make characters look worse and awful and overall don't get these characters, oh and don't get me started on his video about N's character analysis..and similar to Uzi, he doesn't understand and get N and called him "obsessive" over Uzi and and killed "Tessa" without a second thought and seems to see N as some yandere or something. And he's doing this all because he hates Nuzi, like you don't have to like this ship but acting this way and getting this mad and acting the way you do over a FUCKING ship is childish as shit, and another thing is that he literally pulled something from non-canon and called it a "pattern" because of Liam Vickers or some stuff like that and reading Vanity's so-called theories and analysis just reminds me of "Analysis so bad you don't even know what it's talking about anymore" thread over on Twitter, his video and the way he analysis N's character by ignoring his feelings and trying to paint him as this savior lunatic that's so obsessed with Uzi that he'd sacrifice the universe and loved ones just to have her is just...mischaracterization is an understatement, a straight-up bastardization of his entire personality and arc, Vanity doesn't understand or get any of these characters and gives these bad takes to make them look worse.

He's currently working on his review on the finale and I'm not looking forward to it in the slightest like as I said, I'm all for giving criticisms and you're allowed to love and be a fan of show I'm the same way, and I'm sure others are the same and don't blindly praise whatever they like 24/7 and see them as perfect, you're allowed to feel how you feel and you're valid and allowed to not like the finale. But most of the time in Vanity's videos is that it's mostly negative and he complains about almost anything, even nitpicking the smallest things and he barely discusses the positives about he reviews and uses his opinions as definite facts. It sucks because I really did enjoy and liked Vanity as a reviewer in the beginning as he did bring up some valid points and was decent as a YouTuber but as he kept on putting out more videos, getting more popular he just seemed to get more and more negative and I saw a quality drop in his videos, he's barely positive in his videos and it just makes him unpleasant and boring to watch and hard to fully enjoy his stuff.

Really hope this little rant sounded fair and was okay, I don't really do these type of posts anymore and don't wanna be mean as the intension of this post was to give some opinions on this person. Once again, this isn't me trying to send any hate to Vanity and I'll say once more, please DON'T send any hate and bother him, I just wanted to give my thoughts and opinions about him and his content as I've had some issues with his content since 2023'ish and wish he could improve as an reviewer and just be more fairer when it comes to what he reviews, along with seeing that people are allowed to enjoy and love more than one show and just because one show is getting more popular doesn't make another show any lesser, both TADC and MD are great and incredible shows made by talented and amazing people, Meta Runner is also another good (very underrated, btw) show and I know Gaslight District will probably be a great too, nobody shouldn't be holding and putting these shows against each other, bashing and praising different shows, please support all shows and indie animation as a whole. ❤️

[profounddefendorcrusade-blog]

Starlo's personality (in-depth)

Okay, this one took a LOT of thinking to decide on. Mainly because we see Starlo 100% in his persona for the majority of the time we spend with him. But now, I think I've had my boy figured out.

For a while now, I thought that he's either an ENTP or an ESTP with well-developed Fe, but eventually realized I had been looking at the image he put on, not the real him.

But before dwelling deeper into what his way of thinking actually is, I'd like to discuss why I don't think he's either ENTP or ESTP.

For ESTP, it's more obvious. Starlo… doesn't use Se at all, let alone as his dominant function. He lives in fantasy. He can come up with goofy ideas, and doesn't pay much attention to the "real world" (tries to escape from the real world instead)

fantasy, not reality (Ceroba is a true realist though)

Starlo only pretends to be this 'tough guy,' his recklessness (I always call it carelessness) is part of the persona. And while I do think some part of him enjoys the fake adventures, it's mostly for show, to lift himself and others around him up, particularly Ceroba, and to feel like someone else.

Now... the conclusion I came to was that Star had both Ne and Fe somewhere. The only question I had to ask myself was the order of these functions. In other words, is he dominant Ne/tertiary Fe or dominant Fe/tertiary Ne

The most important question here is: "What is his main motivation?"

Starlo cares a whole bunch about everyone around him. I feel like I've spoken about this so many times already, but he really is the 'papa bear' of the whole group. He makes sure to remind Mooch how they're not bandits, he gave the Four their own nap time, he organizes events, and overall tries to make the Wild East a comfortable place for everyone. Starlo really, REALLY wants to see everyone get along well with each other, and when that doesn't happen... he's deeply bothered by it.

he hates it when there's no harmony and good vibes

Put bluntly, Starlo wants to contribute to his community. He most definitely thought something like this: "If I'm just a farmer, then I can't do anything to help myself feel less worthless, and I can't help other monsters have more hope, either. So, the only thing left for me to do is change most of my personality and be more 'flashy' and 'cool."

Sure, he comes up with creative ideas, but it isn't his main motivation or how he normally acts when he's not 'North Star'. Being all 'extravagent' is the dominant trait of the character Starlo plays (and personally, I think it is a part of Starlo himself, the part he's too afraid to let out if he's his true nerdy self, without the costume and badge and all)

--------------------

ESFJ: thinks in terms of group dynamics, motivates others to get things done, makes decisions that benefit the largest number of people, natural ability to process and deal with their feelings. On the negative side, they can place so much emphasis on social dynamics / emotions that they find it hard to step back and analyze their motives and feelings; thus they can lack self-understanding and/or pressure others into social norms. They use their Ne to brainstorm and for humor purposes; often to entertain others, to think up solutions, and to hypothesize, but their natural ability is not competently and accurately reading between the lines.

--------------------

I'd like to break this down carefully because, holy hell, this is Starlo from A to Z

thinks in terms of group dynamics/makes decisions that benefit the largest number of people - clear as day, that's why he has his posse (although I think this trait of his was underdeveloped during the events of UTY as Star probably made most of the decisions himself without asking the others)

motivates others to get things done

pressure others into social norms - technically his own social norms, also the dress conditions he never used to overlook (I also heard ESFJs have style and care about how they appear to others, ENTPs don't; but maybe this is generalization)

find it hard to step back and analyze their motives and feelings - Star turns to the outside world instead, not inwards at all. That's what makes him an extrovert, NOT because he's friendly and social (although he is)

They use their Ne to brainstorm and for humor purposes; often to entertain others - when I read ENTERTAIN OTHERS it all became clear to me

their natural ability is not competently and accurately reading between the lines - he can't even do it and has to directly ask ⬇️

Extra thoughts

What I've also heard about the ESFJ type is that they really REALLY care about their social status/standing when unhealthy, which Star 120% did

It might seem weird that he's a sensor while also being super creative and into ideas, but that's his high tertiary Ne speaking (no wonder it's so high when he's been using it for years)

ESFJs are super charming too, but in a less 'agressive' way like ESTPs (I thought about Dina and Mo, I think they both share this type), or 'witty' way like ENTPs (Sans comes to mind). In others words, Starlo is the 'sweet nerd' kind of charming

ESFJs are bad at dealing with criticism

Can become workaholics (ESTPs and ENTPs are more procastinators; again, I don't mean to generalize)

They're clumsy, too (because of the tertiary Ne; unlike ESTPs, who are grounded in reality and most often aren't clumsy thanks to the dominant Se)

Popular people in leadership positions

Excellent planners (I know Star seems like a percieving type, but as I mentioned above, he actually organizes EVERYTHING)

this makes me think Star has a certain routine (judging over percieving)

He remembers little details about things that happened last month (in the past), making me think of his auxiliary Si (and he also remembers what Ed had said about Clover "being the problem")

So, what makes Starlo inferior Ti? The guy refuses to go inwards to solve his problems. He doesn't think that the most logical solution to the 'whole gang splitting up' situation is a simple apology, and is extremely self critical. Ti has the potential to disrupt or shatter one’s ego-image. Therefore, unhealthy or immature Fe-doms do their utmost to reject Ti in order to protect their ego-image. What this means for Starlo is that he wants to protect his persona in favor of what makes sense for him to do.

Starlo putting himself down™

Fe will use Ti to construct “rational” explanations to confirm poor judgments about people or relationships. In other words, Fe will develop a maladaptive tendency to misinterpret people’s intentions, see ulterior motives that do not exist, or project their own personal issues onto others. Starlo "logically" thinks that everything was Clover's fault, he's projecting his own insecurities into this situation (playing the victim) and twisting Ed's words (who meant to say that Starlo's favorism OF Clover is the problem, not Clover themself)

Not objective, but Starlo and Clover LOOK to me like the types I gave them (based on the offical trailers AND how Martlet describes them, that kid has this kind of a cute/warm/naive expression, I don't even know how to explain this but I'm throwing it in anyway 😅)

Then there's Starlo

I know the 'North Star' part of him probably wouldn't wanna hear this, but without the persona, Starlo looks and is... pretty normal. No flashiness, no overwhelming charm (it's still there, just more 'humble' & as Ed said, he can make his own fun in the little things). As much as Star might think otherwise thanks to those insecurities, this doesn't mean he ain't special, we all know he is

P.S. I can totally picture him treating everyone with Feisty Sliders & root beer after a long day, just like this guy (who somehow gives me the same cozy, kind vibe as Starlo???)

but in all seriousness though, these traits fit Star 💯

[cult-of-the-eye]

Something horrifying occurred to me today. If my father was a fictional character, people would think of him in a similar way people see Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute. Here's why:

He has had So Much Shit happen to him. Like Jesus Christ. Like string of unfortunate deaths kind of shit. Like how is this man still functional kind of shit.

He's also had such an interesting childhood and life he's such a wildcard like my dad randomly telling us how he smuggled some guys over the border when he was like 19 is giving the same vibes as Jonathan Sims saying he knows what a meme is

That's not to say he's a huge badass or anything (he is but for the sake of this comparison) he was terrified out of his mind the whole time and did it cause he was feeling homesick and was like I know how these guys feel so I'm gonna help. Giving trademark Jonathan "gonna do it but gonna do it shaking like a wet dog" Sims

He's a skinny brown guy who's kinda quiet, supremely awkward and makes dorky jokes

I asked him if he would still love me if I were a worm and he deadass said only if you went to worm Cambridge. Tell me that's not a Jonathan Sims thing to say.

He's probably autistic (he won't talk to you unless you mention something specific and then you can't stop him talking about the geopolitical situation of Bangladesh)

He's so emotionally constipated. My dude has never heard of emotions ever. He once gave me the advice that the way to deal with negative emotions about our shitty situation is to just compare it to poor peoples' lives in Bangladesh and thank god we don't have it that bad. I think he's allergic to therapy.

He's always in some sort of pain. God hates him personally.

He's the most anxious man I've ever met in my life. I think he lies awake at night just planning how he's gonna get through the next day. Like all he does is overthink and eat his own curated mixed nuts snack

He indulges in a funny cat video once or twice

He hates dogs (growing up in Bangladesh will do that to you but also he's not good with the barking)

Saying that, has bonded with one crusty white dog, who he immediately picked up although i don't think he meant to do that, so we get a situation of quite a tall man holding a small dog but both of them looking Absolutely Terrified.

He's such a baby fiend. I've never seen someone so hell bent on being a grandfather. We went to a family party with him once and not even 5 minutes in, we found him holding a baby. I'm taking @lonelyslutavatar 's baby fever Jon as canon btw.

He's constantly in business casual. He'll be in bed wearing slacks. It's not cause he's fashionable but in fact only because those are pretty much the same clothes he's owned since 2005 and the only clothes he owns.

Nobody is quite sure what he does for a living. Like sure we know his job title (I had to look it up on LinkedIn) but his day to day activities? A mystery. Who actually knows what being a Head Archivist entails? Not me.

I rest my case. For now.

[yuseirra]

Oh, this is a thought that just occurred to me after having skimmed my copy of volume 14 right,

So there's this continuous idea of Ruby going she's going to surpass Ai and that she's "going to be different from Ai", the latter being achieved through expressing her feelings as she truly feels,

Of course they are different people, so it's good that she wishes to be herself and it's desirable to push to be the better person compared to one's parents too than being just a replica. I've always taken this in that pretty positive direction, but-

This makes me think...are they trying to make Ai's life a bad example that should be "improved" by the better version that is Ruby? That can't be it, right? I do not think the author would be intending for this but I'll just jot my thoughts on this: Ai's lived so vigorously, and I don't think it was her fault that she had to lie. That was due to the environment she lived in, and she did the best she could as an indiviudual thrown in that field as a child. Ruby has a different personality, but would it really be that she could have done better than Ai in that situation her mother had to go through? I don't think so. Although being a "liar"is a huge part of her identity, the love she had beneath it was genuine after all- that's what I got from her whole catchphrase "lies are love". It was indeed a form of love. What many celebrities put out there, I think that was pretty insightful. It's sad that people can't entirely be themselves, but actually, we ALL put on personas not just for ourselves, but for the sake of others, out of consideration. In a way, it's like dressing up properly for an occasion. It could be proper manners to fit in a situation and get along. Ai's case was a bit extreme, but she really did it out if concern and love towards others.

Ai lived really hard. I feel like.. She was so selfless. Of course she lived to her fullest but she kept saving other people of the pain they could feel about her by keeping every negativity she faced within herself. She went out and saved her boyfriend. She sent out love. She cared and loved everyone around her. If anything, she's not a bad example although I do feel she had it so hard...being a "person" she is. I feel Aqua still does not have a clue about her, he was like that throughout the movie arc, he said he'd help fulfill her wish but he gives up on that, the one thing she's wanted as a human being that she strongly kept in her mind enough to ask her own children about. I am a bit annoyed with him being all about Ruby with Ai's wish being out of his focus now although their bond IS special and seeing how he was, I actually saw that coming... It does make a contrast of how her boyfriend is all about her(whether it be twisted it not)while Aqua cares about the living. Again, though. Ai... The main focus of this story was always... Sort of about her, whether it'd be about finding the truth about her death and revenging it, or about what she wants, the narrative seems to have shifted off from it for now but I hope that is brief for the sake of consistency.

I have my hopes about this character because if I'm the writer, Ai is the one character I use as the backbone of the whole plot. I'd give her what she wants. I' m really sure that's what's going to happen, and so...I want her to be relevant and acknowledged. She isn't perfect, but I also don't think she ahould be a figure that's supposed to be overcome into a better version because I don't see Ruby's version of an idol being so perfect either. It has its good sides, but is she the really better, new and improved ways of what an idol should be? Aqua seems to think so from how he is in the recent chapters,

But should Ai have never lied? Is the idea of "lies are love" something that simple enough to be dismissed? I don't quite see it being the case either. I feel like there should be a middle ground if there just HAS to be one take on this. The world isn't so simple that everything would magically turn out better if you reveal everything about yourself although it's healthy to do it to a degree. There's a reason why there are superegos as well as ids.

So yes :) I root for Ai and her wants. She might not be ENTIRELY right, no one is really, and it's natural because she's a person like any other. However, I feel she'd be right in the most important parts. I want her wants to see light. It will. That's how I see this being a good story. I'm not entitled enough to say it should be this way or else but I just see it happening. So I'm not so worried about the story as a whole. Just very tense in between from the little things really.

I don't talk a lot about Ai or the other characters as much, but I do think about them.. It's more like I don't feel a need to try to make sense out of them as much so I don't write about them in an attempt to do so, Ai IS my fav. So here I dedicate a post to her this time! She's certainly a character that's made me gain insight about something I didn't think of as much compared to when I didn't encounter the character, and I really appreciate it!♥

If everything turns out the way she wants, I will be happy. She's greedy, isn't she~ and she has all the right to be. I support that. It's one of the major reasons why I'm so passionate and intrigued about that ship involving her and kamiki too! It's what she wanted to happen, and I see he wasn't half bad. He really loved her and SHE wanted to be with him(the latter bit had me sold especially). She'd want him to be happy and well, so I do too!

I want to see it happen~ and, it will. Like what her song implies. She always gets what she wants in the very end and I love to see it.

[beloved-child-of-the-house]

i stand with you in the face of a defensive misunderstanding of what critique is.

i think understanding what a critique actually is is a skill that increasingly is not taught. i remember going through freshman art courses feeling the frustration that all negative, nasty, unhelpful, and missed-the-point-entirely feedback is so commonly conflated with critique, and then critique gets a bad name because everyone remembers the time someone said their painting looked like an asshole (true story, altho now i think i would take it as a compliment) instead of the time a teacher or friend or classmate helped them uncover a hurtful bias or think of new ways to explore the same idea or how to connect it to related ideas or how to look up and understand other people's ideas on the same topic.

anyway i think you're great.

ahhh you're so kind to me!! i appreciate your support, and i think you are great also.

i have experience with giving and receiving critique as a student myself, and i think it was the best part of my degree! i majored in creative writing in college, and critique was just a generally accepted part of learning to become a writer. i don't even remember people being especially worried about receiving critique on their work. we had guidance on what kind of feedback was useful, but we were still at liberty to give it as we saw fit as like messy 19 year olds. the standard was that we gave it both written on printed copies of the work AND aloud in front of the whole class, and the writer receiving it was not permitted to speak during the critique. understanding how people are perceiving your work is important!

i don't have any particularly negative recollections of the critique process, although once in a high school writing class, the boys in the class told me that my male characters touched each other too gently and real boys are more rough with each other. in particular, they took issue with me writing that one boy nudged another. nudging is too soft. nudging is for girls. that was more than 20 years ago, and i still think about it sometimes because it was such an interesting perspective! i did not take their advice, though.

i should dig up that piece and see if it reads queer in any other ways. i think that's what they were getting at. (actually i once had a non-fiction class tell me i was in love with my roommate after reading an essay i wrote about her)(i did not listen to that advice either, but having 12 acquaintances tell you that you're gay in 2006 before you realize it yourself is Truly Something!)

i think people have conflated criticism and critique and think that being more openly analytical is the same thing as being negative. but analysis is so fun to me! analysis is why i joined fandom in the first place, and it's why i write fic! can we trust each other to be respectful and to speak in good faith even when we're not singing each other's praises? for me fandom would be better if we could.

oh i also want to clarify that i don't think it's impossible to demonstrate that you've thought deeply about a piece of fanwork while remaining completely positive. people do it all the time and do it very well!

i know i sometimes have tunnel vision wrt my own perspective. in a lot of situations, i wish it were more acceptable to be more direct, and i know people sometimes find the way i express myself to be kind of shocking. i know a lot of people like to be spoken to more indirectly than comes natural to me, and i don't mean to imply that my perspective is the only correct one or that there's no good reason to err on the side of gentleness/politeness in our responses to amateur art and writing. i just think that at a certain level of circumspection, it feels like we're all holding each other at arm's length.

i think for people who can't bear to feel exposed, making and sharing art is always going to be painful and difficult, and maybe too painful and difficult to enjoy the process unless they're sure of a soft landing. but like. the rewards of being loved only come after the mortifying ordeal of being known, right?

[soleminisanction]

I think it’s so fundamentally telling of what sort of person Stephanie is when her reaction to Greta potentially being killed via 10,000 megawatts of electricity isn’t to be sad or devastated or beat herself up about it/ be disappointed in herself (like I think maybe Tim or Batman would be) it’s purely fear of punishment via Robin being angry at her. She did not care whether greta lived or died. She’s never been overly concerned with whether someone died or not and this has been a consistent characteristic of hers, but that’s usually only in reference to criminal characters who you could justify ‘had it coming’ and whatnot. This was just like. Greta read her diary? And Steph then tried to kill her for it? And did not feel any regret upon trying to do so? Tf??

You're not wrong, anon (aside from comedically exaggerating the voltage of a suburban powerline). I considered calling that out in the post and decided it was a tangent that would've distracted from the actual point, which wasn't so much "Yikes, Steph is an asshole" so much as it was, "And this is why you shouldn't always take characters at their word; with good writers, there's often a lot more going on when you pay attention."

Although looking back over the post now, I really have to wonder if the whole issue wasn't Peter David's way of, in part, criticizing how Chuck Dixon was handling the whole Steph-hunts-Tim's-secret-identity storyline.

Peter David is not shy or subtle about working his opinions into his comics, YJ especially, and he definitely knew where the story was going -- the last page of the issue, the one I didn't include on the post, includes a direct reference to the way the arc would soon end, with an editorial note pointing readers to Robin to find out more.

Throughout the fight Secret specifically calls Steph out on invading Robin's privacy multiple times; it lines up with the way David had, for example, negatively portrayed pair of sports hunters in issue #7, or how he wrote Cissie's "It was the guns you idiot" rant from issue #15. Whereas Steph's responses are mostly comments on the immediate situation and personal barbs that deepen Greta's arc, ie, the bit questioning whether she's even human.

And even though YJ was working with the exact same themes and narrative elements, there's never a comparative incident where a member of the team tries to learn Robin's identity behind his back. Again, despite the fact that Secret could do so easily, and despite all the tension the identity issue ultimately ends up causing on the team. Because even if they don't like that he's keeping secrets, they respect that they're his secrets to keep, and Stephanie doesn't. Or rather, Chuck Dixon doesn't, at least not when it comes to his precious pet character.

Heck, there's also the fact that the "lecture" Tim gives at the end, the one hinting towards the storyline's conclusion, hinges on how Batman and Robin is a relationship built on a bond of implicit trust... and how the relationship doesn't work if that trust is broken... and it's hinting at the end of a storyline in which that implicit trust is broken in a way that arguably took Bruce out of character and turns him into the bad guy while not only excusing Stephanie's behavior but rewarding her for it with her first round of actual Bat-training...

Of course, I have zero way of knowing what Peter David was thinking so this is 100% just my analysis but... I could see it. It's a way to professionally express his displeasure without publicly criticizing a colleague or sabotaging their plans. David's a good writer, I wouldn't put it past him.

[elrondapologist]

RoP season 2 episode 5

Thoughts and opinions, because I have nowhere else to ramble about it Heavy spoilers below the cut ofc

Oh so, so we came back to Annatar and Celebrimbor, didn't we? And we begin to see the cracks! The end of the episode was heartbreaking; it is already easy to see the results of Annatar's manipulations and how it takes its toll on Celebrimbor. The poor elf just wanted to make a cute arts and crafts project (~~better than any made before~~) and now his "best friend" NOT ONLY outwards lies to him about dwarven rings, but also tells his protege that it was her master who she saw in the shadow realm? WHAT? Masterful.

I love it already looks like Celebrimbor is leaning a little bit back, looking into Annatar's eyes a little unsure. I was surprised by Annatar's boldness in this episode... I expected more cute smiles and sweet words. But I suppose the main reason behind it lies in time constraints. Time constraints that are also heavily noticeable in different parts of the narration; mainly, the Numenor situation. I was kind of displeased with episode 3 for the whole plot about Numenor being so shallow; it lacked the emotional stakes for me, it felt too rushed, too sudden; we as an audience seemed to lack the appreciation of golden times of Numenor to feel moved by its potential fall. But the shrine scene, if I catch you shrine scene

That was a moment when suddenly I became invested in the Numenorian plot; mostly because of the beautiful portrayal of Elendil by Lloyd Owen, but also because suddenly with the Valandil situation the whole thing became personal. It was actually surprisingly great. I am still of the opinion that this whole coup piece of plot would oh so benefit from being written a little more subtly (the motivations behind it were really hardly developed), but as for what we have in this adaptation, I loved this scene. Although I screamed with Elendil at my screen for Valandil to choose differently. AND NOW ELENDIL WILL THINK IT WAS BECAUSE OF HIS ORDER HIS SON'S BFF HE HIMSELF CALLED SON IS DEAD DEAD Captain, oh my captain The captain scene was also beautiful, because it was an exception to one thing - is it only me or this show has some serious problem with taking lordship quite… seriously? What I kinda got tired of in the plot is everyone disobeying their lords all the time; when I saw this tired face of Gil-Galad I thought he really deserves to have his scowl, it seems to be the worst position to be in Middle Earth right now: a king.

When you think everyone keeps telling you what to do and don't listen to your orders do not worry... There are like five other lords, kings and queens that have the same treatment, one queen is even I believe trapped in her tower after a coup, so it really could have been worse. The last thing about this episode: the dwarves I was kinda unnerved of how quickly the rings negatively impacted king Durin? I did not like the idea of rushing this process that much BUT I really enjoyed the explanation behind it, the idea that it is because of a direct will of Annatar and that he would gaslight Celebrimbor into thinking it was his fault. And it works! The greed and pride and deception as making the ring faulty. And the pride that keeps Celebrimbor from admitting it; the FEAR that he accidently did something not perfect, but even bad; that he may not accomplish the dream, but live the horror. (Well, Tyelpe-) The dwarves. I was to write about the dwarves! It was as always solid visually and in terms of characters, Disa is still a queen and Durin IV really needs to have his emotional Elrond back. I was trying to be upset upon the choices of king Durin, but somehow I was too happy upon him welcoming his son back to be angry. I will still regret it, I fear. 

Watcher of the deep? Also: Elrond run was epicTM

Run Elrond Run Final notes:

although as ever i have my issues with it, I loved the episode ofc

the only minus? One running Elrond scene was not enough, please, more Elrond next!!!

Annatar/Celebrimbor and dwarves plots are solid still

Numenorian plot tries his best

and as once kind of delivers

feel free to share your opinions or correct me in any way, but please let's be civil

in ao3 fashion sorry for any mistakes, I am not a native English speaker and it shows lmao

till next week, maybe? Possibly? If I have as much to say as for this episode XD

Thanks for your attention

[unnamedmedicalprofessional]

I feel like in the past several years it's been trendy to claim that marvel movies are, and always have been, the absolute height of complete and utter soullessness, and I don't think that's really fair.

I'm not saying they're high art. They aren't. I will also admit their aesthetic blandness is a huge and immensely frustrating flaw. Their impact on the film industry as a whole is largely negative and the average quality of the movies themselves have been declining for a while. But there are some decent character, emotional and thematic beats in them.

Like for example, Iron Man 1 is a story about an arms dealer realizing he's wrong and trying to change. Iron Man 3 is character wise a metaphor for building emotional "armour" around yourself as an unhealthy coping mechanism for trauma, and thematically about propaganda and a metaphor for how the military industrial complexes bad decision "create terrorists" and they are financially incentivized to do this. Captain America The Winter Soldier is about a patriot losing faith in America and how the surveillance state is a gateway to fascism. Spider-man Homecoming is about a teenager overestimating his own maturity and taking on more responsibility than he's ready for, and him realizing there needs to be someone looking out for the little guy. Black Panther is about T'Challa realizing isolationism is wrong. Guardians Of The Galaxy 2 is probably the most emotional and character driven action movie I've ever seen (and the other two guardians movies have great character and emotional beats as well).

I also think the whole "military propaganda" thing is exaggerated although not entirely false. Iron Man, Iron Man 3, Captain America Winter Soldier, Black Panther Wakanda Forever, and Ms.Marvel all critique the military industrial complex to some extent. I should however note that there is always a clear sense of holding back, especially in Iron Man 1. It is true that the military funds action movies including marvel movies as propaganda and I think that's evil. I read a good analysis that pointed out that in Marvel movies, good things about the military are literal and bad things are metaphorical or externalized to a fictional villain. The MCU's politics, in all things not just the military, are markedly liberal rather than leftist, but I've heard people try to paint them as fascist and I don't think that's fair. However, I also think there's a very high chance that Captain America:Brave New World specifically could turn out to be actually ideologically evil with the whole Israel thing.