#and everything is twisted to fit the version of themselves that they’re obsessed with and obsessed with beating down

[francisforever2014]

absolute worst combination is people with low self confidence that are also really self obsessed. constant self flagellation and then when you’re normal and try to dissuade the negativity they accuse you of lying making you do even more work to convince them. everything is about them and yet nothing ever gets through

[inbarfink]

Goddam, just seeing Simon in these last two episodes is really flooding me with so many conflicting emotions.

Because, on the one hand, after his lowest point in Episode 4 - resigning himself to death in the hands of the Scarab - he’s clearly finally doing better. Just look at him making plans

And showing off his smarts

And finally genuinely smiling and feeling happy

And being so glad to meet the alt versions of his friends

And getting excited about his nerdy shit for the first time in glob-knows-how-long

And cracking goofy geeky jokes

And offering others the same grace and kindness he was given when he was trapped under the curse of the Magic Crown

And trying to be comforting and fatherly and give Fionna advice and cheer her up

He’s so clearly doing a lot better now, he’s rediscovering aspects of himself that his depression has torn away from him, he found a meaning and purpose in his life again. And it should warm my heart, and on some level it does....

But it also sends a chill down my spine knowing that this purpose that brought back the light into Simon’s eyes, the purpose he finally found is sacrificing his mind and identity again for the sake of Fionna’s happiness and her world.

He’s throwing himself right back into the miserable existence and the trauma he tries so hard to move forward from. He’s dooming himself because he honestly believes now that he’s always going to be miserable and lonely and fucked up so he might as well have be the kind of miserable and fucked up that is not lucid enough to know how miserable he is all of the time. The kind of misery that at least fits into his world.

Because he started to romanticize being the Ice King in a twisted kinda way, and now he has found the excuse to turn it into a selfless, noble act. Because the only way he feels like he’s useful and like he has worth is by protecting and helping and sacrificing himself for the sake of others.

(And like, especially in light of how he was trying to resign himself to death just moments before coming up with his plan. Not to get extremely dark, but.... suicidal people often seem to ‘get better’ just before the try to kill themselves. Because they feel like they’re finally ‘doing something’ and their misery is almost over. That kinda feels what Simon is going through right now? Becoming the Ice King again is not literally death, but it is a sort of death for Simon Petrikov’s identity.)

And this new sense of purpose in saving Fionnaworld by dooming himself is clearly blinding Simon to so many obviously telegraphed signs that this is a horrible idea.

He saw hints of just how badly Farmworld Finn has been dealing with his own Magic Crown Related Trauma

and maybe if things would’ve been different this could’ve been something they could have commiserated over. Simon could’ve had someone who understood a bit of what he has gone through, and seeing a version of Finn, of all people, face similar struggles - maybe could’ve helped him feel a little less Uniquely and Irredeemably Fucked Up. (For bonus points, they're ALSO both dealing with the grief of losing their Significant Other)

But his newfound obsession that Everything Will Be Better Once He’s Cursed again was making him totally ignore all of this.

And then there’s their little adventure in the Winter Kingdom. Which had both the Candy Queen/Princess Bubblegum as a perfect reminder of the suffering and pain involved in being trapped in the Madness of the Magic Crown

And the Winter King as a reminder of the harmful and twisted things he was capable of doing as the Ice King.

But instead he basically refused to learn any lesson from that Universe that’s not just ‘Fuck That Version of Me Specifically’ and tried to advice Fionna to do the same.

But well, while I am still worried about Simon’s mental state, his improved disposition does give me a little bit of hope. Hope that maybe he himself will notice that he is doing better and won’t be quite so eager to sacrifice his own sanity. Or maybe more likely, hope that now that he’s not just a miserable sadman screaming at their faces

Fionna and Cake are growing to appreciate Simon Petrikov for who he is and will simply refuse to let him sacrifice himself for their sake. Because, yeah, Simon tried to tell Fionna to not worry about all of that Winter Kingdom stuff, that it was just that Simon was ‘messed up’ - but since when does Fionna Campbell do what she’s told?

[visionaxry]

TOP 10 TV SHOWS I watched in 2021

I’m like two months late with this wrap-up but here we go!

1.     Genera+ion (2021) on HBO MAX

it’s about a group of gen z kids exploring their identity and finding family amongst friends.

my favorite show ever! “genera+ion” is the kind of story i dreamed of for years but never expected to actually get. 

“genera+ion” went there and did that. multiple poc and queer characters! the different povs storytelling! the found family trope! teenagers talking and looking like teenagers! it’s not overdramatized, there’s no unnecessary trauma dumping, and no sexualizing teenagers. it is refreshing, relatable, and authentic. this is the best show recipe for me.

it was unfairly canceled by hbo max, but I believe it still works as a stand alone story and is worth checking out.  

2.     Daybreak (2019) on NETFLIX

it’s a post-apocalyptic reality where all adults had turned into zombies and the teenagers are left to fend for themselves. the main character sets on a quest to find his girlfriend with the help of his sidekicks, while trying to avoid getting eaten.

it’s a shame I overlooked this show when it first came out because it turned out to be a perfect fit for me. I’m usually not a fan of dystopian stories BUT this show has my favorite type of humor and way of storytelling. I’m talking breaking the fourth wall, insertion of animated scenes, absurdity and chaos all around.

I must admit, the main character wasn’t that compelling to me (perhaps that’s the reason why I didn’t pick up the show when it was premiering). same goes for his love interest. although I did like the unmasking of the manic pixie dream girl archetype. [slight spoilers] for most of the show the audience sees Sam and their relationship only from Josh’s perspective. but Josh turns out to be an unreliable narrator, when Sam becomes an actual person instead of the idiolized version created in josh’s head. I don’t think we get to see shows exposing their main male characters as “the nice guy�� very often, so that’s the part of their story arc that I liked. [spoilers over]

for the most part I was much more invested in the secondary characters (wesley, turbo, kj, eli & mona lisa are my favorite). and I think the cast really is an ensemble, even though there’s a designated main character. other characters also get to exist on their own and even take over the narration.  

i also much preferred the love story ivolving secondary characters. it came as a huge plot-twist surprise, and embodied some of my favorite tropes.

I watched this show twice and it goes on my all time favorites list for sure, along with genera+ion.

3.     I know what you did last summer (2021) on AMAZON PRIME

if you’ve seen the 1997 cult classic you already know the premise. a group of friends cover up a murder, and a year later start getting threats from an anonymous who claims to “know what they did last summer”. however, apart from the familiar concept, the show is quite different from the movie, with a new setting and new characters.

most reviews i’ve seen of this show were negative, but I LOVED IT. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll just say that the plot twists, and all the clues, and foreshadowings worked for me, and the finale gave me everything I wanted. it was so twisted and toxic and didn’t shy away from it, but it was also funny and entertaining. plus, I’m obsessed with the sapphic love storyline and the characters involved in it (almost as obsessed as they’re with each other but I’m not that unhealthy).

I feel like I can’t rationally explain why I love this show so much, maybe the writers and I are just on the same wavelength. I think if you’re gen z and you like messy characters (and thrillers, duh) you have a higher chance of enjoying this series.

4.     Young royals (2021) on NETFLIX

it’s a series about a swedish prince struggling to balance the matters of the heart with the responsibility of the crown, after his parents sent him off to a boarding school.

this show manages to stay relatable and grounded even though we’re following a literal royal in a prestigious school. it’s real, vulnerable, and cleverly written. and it’s a beautiful heartbreaking love story. it’s been compared to “skam” so if you’re a fan of it (and good television), this one’s for you.

5.     Betty (2020) on HBO MAX

a remake of the 2018 movie skate kitchen. it follows a diverse group of young women navigating the predominantly male oriented world of skateboarding.

it’s always great to see stories about strong female friendships, and this one also feels like a “found family” trope (which I love! and I mean, who doesn’t?). it feels very real as well, like we’re just watching people’s lives without them being overdramatized. it’s beautifully styled, and it makes you want to learn how to skate.

6.     Cruel summer (2021) on FREEFORM, HULU & AMAZON PRIME

the action simultaneously takes place over 3 summers during the 90s. after it-girl kate mysteriously goes missing, another girl takes her place as the popular one, along with her friends and boyfriend. the narrative switches between two girls, while we try to uncover who’s telling the truth about what happened.

i’ve seen people compare it to “pretty little liars”. it doesn’t give me the same feeling, but I guess it does have similar themes. like, a popular girl disappears, only this one isn’t the embodiment of evil, there’s a teacher-student relationship but here it’s not treated like something romantic or desirable, and the lying - which is a big part of both shows - but here the build-up actually pays off.

some of the acting and dialogue can be a bit awkward, but olivia holt’s performance makes up for all of it. she carried this show. this is by far her best acting performance (with “cloak&dagger” being second).

7.     The lying game (2011) on AMAZON PRIME 

Emma finds out she has an identical twin sister Sutton, from whom she was separated at birth. Sutton asks Emma to take her place for a couple days to go look for their birth mother. However, things get messy when Emma discovers that Sutton has more secrets than she led on.

this might seem like an outlier on this list, being made over a decade ago and all. however, this is the third show with an “identity theft” theme here, so it’s very on brand for me.

as gen z, the only nostalgia I get is for the 2010s and back then I used to watch a ton of teen dramas that nobody cared about: “the secret circle”, “twisted”, “switched at birth”, “make it or break it”, “10 things I hate about you”, etc. the only show that escaped my attention was “the lying game”. I decided to fix that.

I missed the vibe of those shows that I used to watch as a kid. if you’re like me, you will enjoy this. just don’t come in expecting great writing, thought-out storylines, or high-level production. it’s full of missed opportunities, unanswered questions, cartoonish villains, and characters that come, disappear, and are never brought up again. (if anything, this show is like “pretty little liars”!) but it also has entertaining love storyline(s), and a likeable cast of characters. not counting Sutton of course, she’s a disaster. I know this is based on a book, but I feel like the success of “the vampire diaries” inspired the show’s twin sisters. the actress looks like Nina Dobrev, and they went with the nice sister vs evil sister. only here the mean one is underdeveloped to the point of her being completely unsympathetic. she just becomes an annoying villain with no real motive.

beware! the show leaves off on a cliffhanger so don’t look forward to getting the mystery solved, just enjoy the ride of a 2011 teen messy drama.

8.     Shadow & bone (2021) on NETFLIX

based on the worldwide bestselling Grishaverse novels, “shadow and bone” follows an orphan Alina Starkov in a fantasy world full of magic, darkness and danger.

not being a fantasy fan, I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this. I don’t have anything negative to say. it seems like a great book adaptation. the level of production that went into this is incredible, the world-building and the characters are captivating. i’m looking forward to season 2.

9.     Chucky (2021) on SYFY

the continuation of the “child’s play” movie franchise. a Chucky doll turns up at a suburban yard sale, and thus begins a series of horrifying murders in the town of Hackensack.

this show turned a bit too cheesy and far-fetched for my taste by the end. but i’ve been told that it kept the same tone from the movies (i’ve never seen one, this was my first introduction to chucky), so that must be good for the original fans. overall, I still enjoyed it. it’s gay, campy, and very disturbing. it’s also always great to see teenagers playing teenagers. safe to say, i’m never buying a vintage doll.

10.     The girl in the woods (2021) on PEACOCK

Tasha and Nolan meet a mysterious girl who escaped from a colony that guards a secret door in the woods.

so, i’m not into watching scary stuff, which you probably wouldn’t think looking at this list. but somehow, despite being very creepy, this show manages to feel warm and safe. most of it comes from the relationships between the three main characters. this series also has the best portrayal of a non-binary character that i’ve ever seen. they get to explore their identity and face the issues that come with it, without it coming off as a trauma story. also, they’re the best effing character. 

it’s a cute short thriller. bonus point, it has Sofia Bryant from “I am not okay with it”.

 phew! this was fun! and here’s top 4 worst shows I watched last year: 1. bridgerton 2. ginny and georgia 3. one of us is lying 4. gossip girl (2021)

[fulokis]

Thoughts on Wandavision

Spoilers duh.

I started this out as a boredom watch as in eh why not. I was not really invested until Evan Peters showed up. Evan Peters aka the guy who played quicksilver in the X-men fox universe. With DoFP being my favorite partially because of quicksilver. So naturally I became way more invested in the show, not only that but I became hyper-fixated on X-men as a result.

So marvel brings in this actor and all the fans of the X-men are like yeah duh that makes sense, especially considering Wanda is heavily involved with MoM, the movie about the freakin multiverse. So fans of X-men and doctor strange (of which I am both) become exited for the possibilities that this opens up. Excitement builds and as a result people end up watching more content on Disney+ whether it be the movies shows ect.

And then they go and say nope it’s not. And even if they do retcon it it’s still a really crappy thing to have done. And what do I mean, this is part of marvel trying to surprise fans through subverting expectations. And yes sometimes it’s nice, but other times you end up with a mess that leaves more questions than answers.

Take Endgame and Infinity war. Now I knew that Thanos was going to win in infinity war. It was a matter of how he would win. But part of my issue with infinity war is that it felt like it barely spent time exploring how the different characters would interact with each other because there were too many and it would have blocked the narrative from moving forward. Endgame had a similar issue but on top of that they were so focused on keeping everything locked up that it didn’t exactly feel like a cohesive movie. And as a result the character interactions and relationships fell quite short. Not only that but some of them made no sense, but taking a look at endgames flaws has happened enough.

So taking a look at wandavision I’m not upset that my therory is incorrect. I’m upset that one they literally did this to subvert expectations because they hate when their shows are predictable, and two people are rubbing it in our faces that we were wrong and we shouldn’t be upset because it was a theory. And what’s more is that they had an example of fans being correct and it was still surprising.

My mouth still dropped at the reveal that it was Agatha. I still was surprised even though I knew it was coming. I know a lot of people were. And I can say it was because of the fact that we got it right that we knew where it was going and it was executed in a way that still made it feel like a big reveal. So why then are they trying to surprise the fans with well it was Ralph duh haha got you.

Because for some reason marvel hates when people can predict something. Which makes me wonder why they went with the infinity war storyline and are seemingly going with the Skrull storyline if they don’t want fans to predict what’s happening? Why are they going with well known storylines from the comics if they don’t want anyone to guess what is happening? Especially if the fans know the storylines and end up becoming disappointed if you don’t include this one specific moment.

And this is an issue because it sets up fans to know how something will play out, then turning around to subvert expectations ending up with something that doesn’t quite make sense with the narrative they had set up and teased and the characters. It doesn’t work to take pre established stories and adapt them to the screen while trying to subvert expectations. You need to pick one or the other, you simply can not do both.

There’s a reason that people are so finicky when adaptations of books are brought to the screen. It’s because they enjoy those stories and they want to see it as close up on the screen as possible. They want to see how they imagine it. And yes it’s tricky because people imagine it many different ways, but with comics honestly you have a story board right there. And yes you will need to change certain things especially to fit in the budget and physics of real life. Not to mention erase some of the problematic social injustices found in the earlier comics.

And yes wandavision isn’t based on one comic story line. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have to be predictable. Take a look at some other examples that I can think of that either were predictable and good or subverted expectations in a positive way that didn’t confuse people.

Mandalorian: Luke Skywalker being brought in was a surprise. We knew that a Jedi might come, in fact it seemed quite likely that a Jedi would come to train Grogu. But the thing was we didn’t know who, we didn’t know if it would be Luke or another Jedi. Potentially it could have been one we hadn’t met, but we knew that one was coming and that still didn’t stop us from being surprised. And if it wasn’t Luke people wouldn’t have been mad because they left it ambiguous who the Jedi was until he was onscreen (unlike deliberately casting an actor that is known for a role then saying nope not him).

Mandalorian: This one is short but it’s a way to do both predictability and subverting expectations. The first episode of the second season was legitimately the plot from the 2003 game Knights of the Old Republic or Kotor for short. Fans of the game knew exactly how it would turn out, or at least how they would attempt to kill the dragon. They did do that, but unlike expected it didn’t work. So they tried a different tactic that paid off. As a kotor fan I expected this, I also expected the pearl at the end of the episode, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying it, and honestly I rather enjoyed it and it was fun. And I think most kotor fans would agree.

A series of Unfortunate Events: The Netflix show not the movie. In the books Olaf’s bench people get killed off, in the show they made it so that these people survive. I didn’t expect that, and it was good. The writers were still able to make something that fans of the book knew exactly what was going to happen and the general way that things were going to happen. But they adjusted things so that there were some surprises to viewers who read the books. And none of the changes were done specifically to subvert expectations they were done to enhance the story in certain ways. And they do even if they weren’t completely expected. And it still allows me to enjoy the show.

Kotor: yes I’m talking about the game and yes I’m still obsessed with it despite it being so old but also spoilers for it follow so skip if you don’t wish to know.

Kotor follows the story of a human being, they discover slowly that they were once feared across the galaxy known as the Sith Lord Darth Revan. Now can you figure out the twist through context clues absolutely. But it was not only revolutionary for the time but also knowing it still doesn’t take away the surprise feeling for a lot of players (I’m still surprised pikachu face no matter how many times I play or rewatch the cut scene).

There are many more examples but these are the ones off the top of my head.

I’m not angry at the fact that they were trying to make it surprising. I’m angry at the fact that marvel knowingly did this, and there’s no resolution at all. It’s a throwaway scene for a throwaway character played by a known actor who is known for his role as quicksilver. If it was someone else and they did this it would not be as upsetting. But the fact that marvel did this and knew exactly who they were casting to just mislead the fans is inexcusable. And maybe this isn’t the end of the storyline, but right now it is. 12 hours after the finale it absolutely seems like the end of the storyline. And that’s why people are upset because it was such a clear this is what is happening, then they develop it into just this dude. They led on it was quicksilver and we don’t even get to see the rest of the conversation that Monica has with him. We get no resolution whatsoever. And that’s what hurts the most, if they had explained hey Agatha did this and managed to somehow do X Y or Z to have this random person have powers and these memories. Now it would be cheep and people would still be upset but not as much with the incomplete explanation and the throwing it in there because they had to.

If they really wanted to subvert expectations they one shouldn’t have brought Evan Peters in to play a quicksilver (I hate saying this because I was so exited). Two shouldn’t have gone with anything to do with Agatha or even Mephisto. And a lot of people would probably wonder who they could have gone with and Tbh I don’t remember who I saw said it but Mojo would make sense. Or hell they could have brought in Evan Peters and an alternate version of Wanda who is causing this to happen and stir the pot. Either way the way they executed it was extremely poorly done and that’s why people are upset.

So please consider that for people this would have made a huge statement for. X-men fans are drawn to the X-men for many reasons. And I would say that some of those reasons are that they belong to a minority group and feel represented in the X-men. Me I’m LGBT+ and despite having grown up in a very progressive area, there are people I interact with where I don’t feel like I can be myself or even feel comfortable coming out to. And that’s why I personally am attached to the X-men. And I’ve seen other people say similar things.

For people the X-men and mutants aren’t just characters. They’re characters that marginalized groups can relate to. They’re characters that they can see themselves in. This goes much more deep than my fan theory wasn’t correct. It’s a combination of crappy writing and Marvel attempting to be surprising and the fact that they had the perfect opportunity to introduce a cast of characters that represent struggles of marginalized communities and recognize that yes the world isn’t just filled with hero’s that are cis straight abled men and women. And even if it was people from another universe it still was a step in the right direction.

So please if you’re fine with this and took the time to read this don’t make fun of the people who are quite upset with the developments of the episode. A lot of us are upset for a deeper reason and seeing people go “haha you’re wrong you idiots.” Makes this feel that much more upsetting.

[wellthatwasaletdown]

One of the mindgames rabid stans will certainly play if you dare become more critical of their fave is to try and tell you with fake concern that you should 'step back' (I.e. shut up) because being dissappointed means *you* got too involved. If you have good points about being let down they will twist it around on you, then go back to obsessively over hyping everything said fave does, incl whats found out by stalking behaviours etc.

Its a very popular technique big larries use on questioning larries. The intent is to say 'sure you can not like them / agree with the latest ludicrous reach but then you should just stop talking about them ever. What stans can't cope with isn't people who never notice their fave but those who notice and know them, in a dispassionate way. If you unstan prepare for a rollercoaster ride of emotional manipulation, esp from the stans that like to pretend they have eclectic interests. Plus obv lots of outright hate. It can be amusing in a way.

There will be an arsenal of emotionally manipulative techniques used to make you feel *you're* the problem not the fave (it can't be the fave). The pull of this site for certain dempgraphics means those emotionally manipultive behaviours, mind games are waay overrepresented here. Just remember the reactions on here are not a representative sample of irl attitudes, reactions etc. Standing outside the latest craze and examining it is what writers and philosophers have been doing for eons.

You would think with a fandom crammed with people who call themselves writers who pride themselves on 'critical thinking' that would be accepted, but sadly... You are 100% entitled to examine, rexamine, snort at or ignore the cultural output of any 1D member. They are NOT entitled to your undying praise and attention just because you once enjoyed them. They have the money they made from that, its still in their balance sheet.

Don't let anyone guilt you or manipulate you for reassessing them, at whatever pace you like, openly on your own blog. Any 'friend' who can't cope with that was never a friend in the first place, just a co-addict. Think of it as a great opportunity to learn to spot the difference.

Mind you that gross emotional manipulativeness isn't much more attractive when its directed @ the fave. Its beyond obvious at this point that the main industry draw these men have is the size and dedication (obsessiveness?) of the fandom. There is no terribly startling musical talent (or even at this point, charisma) there to justify the backing and exposure they get.

They are all banking on your support, but big bloggers (in part the 'shippers') who'd try and use that to openly bully them into presenting a fanfic compliant version of themselves (as if these men's lives were just an episode of GOT!), by for eg: directly harassing all new and old members of their team if the fave dared mention something in an intv that doesn't fit the fantasy. That's hella gross, but being open and upfront about what you dislike now is not.

Its perfectly normal to have passion to your new dislike that almost mirrors the passion of your old love. And its fine to use this platform to talk it out.

The more open you let yourself be about it the sooner you'll be able to detach, take a lighter view of the whole thing. And if possible I'd follow Mods example of no ragging on his looks, or his fam etc.

This whole black n white obsessiveness seriousness to fandom ruins it. Its meant to be fun. You should be able to enjoy Beyonce music and also laugh at how deeply seriously she takes her own myth. Or enjoy Harrys sloppy love songs but still snort at the attempts to play guitar.

They're not Gods and not even legends yet. Only in about two generations will we have an idea who's really timeless. Neither of them are Frank Sinatra level where the cult of personality and stage presence is matched by the timeless hit songs. Altho Bey has surely reached Fred Astaire levels of showmanship so there's that. But nobody not Sinatra, not Bey, nobody is worth more than you and nobody should be worshipped. Don't let the hysterical toddlers take over fandom OR politics.

***

[fantroll-purgatory]

Cirina Kairos

(I just wanted to let you know that for some, unknown reason, this submission has a green checkmark on the side? And if you hover over it it just says “Octopus”. And only happens for me. I’ve laughed every time I’ve seen it.) -SA FIRST: Alternia or Beforus or some type of AU? Alternia.

Name: Cirina Kairos. Cirina is a shortened version of the octopus genus Cirrina, and Kairos is the Greek concept of quantitative time. (Solid. Brings out her basic thematic components right off the bat. Steampunk troll? Steampunk troll. (Or I guess one would be Clockpunk, but You Know.))

Age: 6.9 sweeps

Strife Specibus: Windupkind- Cirina uses her skill in clockwork engineering to a deadly extent with things like windup ballistic missiles and clockwork anti-aircraft lasers. You name it, she’s got a gear-operated version of it that you turn on with a key. Her main weapon is a clockwork-operated whip with eight lashes that can extend, retract and be manipulated separately like octopus tentacles.

Fetch Modus: Timer. Every time she captchalogues an item, she has to set a specific time, and the card will eject the item at that time. This requires careful planning, which Cirina is good at. (I like also that this punishes her situation changing unexpectedly, which I’m sure must drive her bananas.)

Blood color: Violet.

Symbol and meaning: The alchemical symbol for brass, a metal famously used in many steampunk and clockwork contraptions. I haven’t picked an Extended Zodiac symbol yet, though. (If you already have one in mind, you don’t need an EZ one! I’m gonna link a picture of this Brass symbol for reference:)

(I’m almost 100% certain what you were aiming for with her is:)

(AQUARIES, SIGN OF THE HEROIC) (What I’m going to suggest as an alternate is:)

(AQUO, SIGN OF THE OBSESSIVE)

Trolltag: eightfoldHorology, alluding to both her obsession with building and destroying clocks and windup gizmos (see personality) and her connection with octopuses. Quirk: Breaks syl-la-bles with da-shes to simulate a stuttering, mechanical sounding voice. This was inspired by a character from The Wizard of Oz.

Special Abilities (if any): Breathing underwater like all seadwellers.

Lusus: A Hydrapus, which is a massive octopus with hundreds of tentacles that grow back whenever they’re cut off, much like the heads of a hydra. Hence the name. It’s had some injuries and missing (non-tentacle) body parts over the years that Cirina had to make clockwork replacements for- for example, it has a mechanical bottom jaw. (I’m loving this vaguely cyborg-leaning she has. Gotta upgrade everything herself. Just a quick point here: Octopi don’t have jaws to begin with. They have beaks- which are a very different kind of biological construct.)

Personality: Cirina is blunt, cold, sarcastic, and exceedingly closed-off. She seems to absolutely hate company and kills any troll coming near her hive, regardless of whether they want to befriend her, attack her, or just exist near her. She secretly is achingly lonely and desperately wants company but has repressed those feelings her entire life; her only friends are online, and she probably only has one or two. Those close to her might see a softer, kinder side that she almost never shows to anyone. Cirina is also a chronic shut-in who never leaves her hive and makes her own machine parts instead of buying them. She likes planning her day out to the tiniest particulars, and doesn’t get anywhere near enough sleep. (There’s a fun twofold theme here that runs contrary to your Classing of her- and I think creates the core of your finding her “confusing”. Because you have a really solid and sensible character here- but her basic storyline conflicts with the vision you have for her. We’ll touch more on it when we get to the Classpect portions.) (I think a way you could help flesh this character out is maybe giving her something else to her personality besides, like, being rude to everyone. Based on my later comments re: her interests, I think maybe she should be a really caring person, but has issues letting people close! Maybe that’s why she’s so close to her lusus, which she’s helped augment and repair over the sweeps! It’s just not a side you ever see unless you’ve wormed your way into her physical presence.)

Interests: Building windup and clockwork mechanisms, then either using them as weapons or destroying them to vent her stress. Think Vriska with 8-balls, except Cirina builds them before smashing them. She also uses them around the hive for various tasks- imagine hilarious Rube Goldberg-esque machines for, like, feeding her lusus or making her breakfast. (You’re committing too heavily to gimmick here. I definitely agree that the creation of things has to be one of her interests, but she has to have other things. Given her repairing her lusus, I definitely think at least a passing interest in biology is in order, perhaps transhumanism as well? Trying surpass the limits of flesh with clockwork? I think, personality wise- this might extend into an interest in medicine and caring for others, even if she just wants to use them as experiments for her clockwork technologies.)

Title: Prince of Time. Cirina destroys her own time by overplanning her days and wasting her life hiding away in her hive, and the time of others by killing them, literally cutting their time alive short. She also uses time as an actual weapon to destroy others via time bombs, clockwork weapons, and homing missiles that constantly follow their target, never giving them time to escape. Clever, no? (Clever, perhaps. Fitting? Debatable. I’m going to take the obvious out of the way first: If you’re going to make her a time player, a lot needs to change on the motivation spectrum.) (Time players are aggressive, even when it seems like they aren’t. They are always struggling against something, usually fate. The symbol of Time is a Gear for a reason, and not a clock. Endless churning, turning over and over again. Characters are chosen by Time not because they like clocks or timing, but because they are suited to endless struggle and suffering the red mantle brings with it. Remember that characters like Dave and Aradia were not obsessed with clocks and sundials in their pre-Sburb storylines. Dave’s big things were music, fighting, video making, and a very slight interest in archaeology. You don’t need to base your character’s entire life on her Classpect.) (This character is most likely a Knight of Time, in that she literally weaponizes time- both to her enemies and to herself. In doing so, she acts a Rogue of Space and passively creates distance between herself and her friends, using her intense timetables as a weapon to cut them out of her life inadvertently.) (Besides the name of the sign fitting very well, I think Cirina is an inverted Heart player. Something clicked as I was reading down her profile- the damaged lusus, the splitting hydra metaphor, and then to cinch it together, the core of willful loneliness.) (The inverse of Heart is Mind, the Aspect of Choice, of Decision. Her obsession with time is destroying her. She pushes people away, and struggles to show off her softer side (which I would posit is the “real” Cirina). This is a Heart player’s dilemma, who can put on masks and costumes as easily as they breathe. Sometimes, the problem is figuring out how to take it off- and if you wanna face whoever it is beneath the mask.) (An obsession with schedules dovetails very nicely into an inversion into Mind as a character weakness. Much like Terezi was paralyzed about whether to kill Vriska by understanding the ramifications of her actions, this character seeks to remove all aspects of deviation from her life by planning ahead. An interest in modding living beings with clockwork robotics once again reinforces this removal of thought, removal of decision, removal of ramifications. She’s acting as a Prince of Mind) (The core narrative of this character you’ve created is letting people in, letting go of control and allowing life to simply happen around her, letting that true self of hers shine. This would make her into a Sylph of Heart at character actualization, who passively brings out people’s emotions and true selves out.)

Land: Land of Ticks and Tension. The ridiculously complex clockwork mechanisms covering the planet have a flaw somewhere, that causes them to endlessly pull and twist on each other, destroying their efficiency- Cirina’s quest is to find this break in the clockwork and eradicate it.

Ancestor: Calender Bergilde, an ancient sea native of eons past and the troll who invented the Alternian time system. However, she was also ruthless and bloody in defending her ocean citadel from anyone who came her way, earning her a reputation as a merciless killer, hence the name CalENDER.

Dream Planet: Unsure. I was hoping you guys could help me figure this one out. Cirina is confusing. (This is a Derse player if I’ve ever seen one. Constantly fiddling with things? Pushing people away to hide themselves? Notably, all of our canon time players (Aradia, Damara, and Dave) are Dersites.)

[faelapis]

I love reading your thoughts about SU! If you have time, can you please, talk about the relationship problems Steven and Connie had after the episode ''Lars’ Head''? I didn't understand those problems, also, i see many people saying that conflict didn't fit well in the plot... I would love to see your opinion about this, if you didn't mind...

thank you! personally, i think that’s kind of an odd stance… the conflict between them was portrayed very much as a consequence of what happened in the plot, and how steven responded to it. 

steven has been on a self-hatred bender ever since he started failing people. basically, ever since he didn’t know how to help bismuth, jasper, and the rubies, he’s blamed himself and looked for any way he, personally, can stop the conflict without hurting any more people. there is an interesting parallel with rose to be drawn - who so loved humanity, and felt so guilty for who she was, she opted to exist only in the unconscious confines of steven’s shadow. i’ve always felt there must have been a little bit of self-sacrifice in that decision, as much as it was out of love. 

when steven opts to do the rose-like thing, and make no mistake, this is that - hence such a big emphasis on steven being rose when sending himself off to execution - that’s when he ends up excluding and hurting those around him. 

as for connie, i think there’s a good case to be made that she suffers from anxiety. much like steven, she has a great fear of losing control. she obsesses over the thought of being useful and helpful, and she’s terrified of something happening to steven. at any - even minor - wrongdoing on her own part, she obsesses over how much she feels like a bad person.

she seeks many distractions and escapes from her life. right from the start of her training, was susceptible to the mindset that even though she “doesn’t matter” in the grand scheme of things, she can at least make a difference by keeping steven safe. 

that’s a mindset she’s worked hard to overcome… but one thing that hasn’t changed, is her desire to be there for those who she loves. her fear of exclusion, isolation and guilt of not doing enough is pervasive. she’s repeatedly had to fight and beg to be included as a crystal gem (of sorts), so of course it hurts like hell to see steven sacrifice himself without a fight. without letting connie prove herself. 

but it still 100% makes sense for steven to act like this. i’ve seen people unfavorably compare dewey wins to full disclosure, because the latter seemed like such an apt parody of when a main character excludes his love interest and completely ignores the psychological stress he’s putting her through. 

but. but, but, but. what steven was doing back then was essentially excluding connie after the danger was over. this was a decision of hopelessness in the face of danger. steven felt like not only was this the only way to save his friends right now, but the only way to make up for his perceived sins.

if full disclosure was a parody, it was not a parody of self-sacrifice in the face of unending danger and conflict. it was more a parody of like… spiderman. specifically, when he cuts off contact with his girlfriend without telling her anything. of course she’s still going to care, that’s just about the worst way to try to get her to leave. the lack of communication is what really hurts. (and like... in spiderman, this is portrayed as a necessary thing. steven is never portrayed as ‘right’ to leave connie behind.)

and what does steven do after the danger is over this time? immediately seek connie out and reassure her that he’s fine. to say that he “didn’t learn”, or that this is a repeat of that issue, is a pretty big dismissal of steven’s intentions and characterization. he knows connie was worried, and his version is rather rose-colored (hah), but it was still a genuine attempt to help. connie’s the one who won’t respond this time. she has good reason, but steven was not actively trying to exclude her. 

and like… yknow, the discourse has died down a bit, but it’s worth noting that steven thinks he was being an idiot? he comes at that conclusion all on his own. he’s reflective. he doesn’t have to be told to change, he knows it wasn’t supposed to happen like that. steven and connie were both anxious about how they were behaving - connie felt she was out of her mind, not making any sense… which is pretty common, when you’re accusing someone and end up doubting whether you’re right to do that. 

the responses made sense with their characters. there was no version of reality where steven wouldn’t have sacrificed himself to save everyone else. that’s central to who he is, and who he’s become as a result of “failing” those around him. how that impacted connie needed to be addressed, because she’s the one who has the most insecurities about being helpless and left out. and it couldn’t really be a one-episode thing, because connie was the one who needed time. steven was begging to talk, but an immediate resolution would have been a pretty shoddy dismissal of connie’s trauma in all of this. 

on a selfish note, i’m also a huge fan of those moments where we get to see steven’s flaws. no matter how you twist it, this was that. if not his self-sacrifice, then his insistence that everything was fine afterwards. i don’t think that being a re-occurring flaw of his is a problem with the writing. it’s a part of his character - he really struggles to face things he doesn’t know how to fix.

the conclusion let them help lars, too. it was deeply relevant to what he was going through with sadie (and symbolically, societal expectations vs thriving on his own) - when people cope by distancing themselves, they’re not doing it out of spite. they just gotta keep living. they might need distance to think, or focus on the positive to silence the worries in their heads. that doesn’t mean you can’t still be friends. 

so in that regard, they basically saved lars from obsessing over his self-doubt, and saved his entire crew by making him focus on the present. 

even if you can draw some comparison to full disclosure, i propose this - character growth isn’t always linear. not when there’s a good reason for a character to continue struggling with this. and personal struggles don’t end because you made an effort once. if you’re lucky, it’s an upwards spiral. you may retread your mistakes, but you’ll recover, and the climb towards a fully realized and healthy human is slowly becoming closer to reality.

[sleemo]

Rian Johnson on the evolution of the Force in 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' and more spoilers

Who is Snoke, anyway? Has Kylo Ren ever kissed a girl? Rian Johnson answers the burning ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ questions. — LA Times | Dec 18, 2017

As Obi-Wan Kenobi once told young Luke Skywalker, “The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things — it surrounds us, and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together.”

Ever since Tatooine’s favorite farm boy learned about the Force, “Star Wars” fans have devoured every bit of the universe that’s come alive in the galaxy far, far away over the course of eight movies and counting.

But in Disney’s weekend box-office smash “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” writer-director Rian Johnson (“Brick,” “Looper”) takes bold leaps and shakes up the “Star Wars” universe, sending “Force Awakens” heroes Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega), and Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) further into the fight between light and dark with one surprise after another.

How much does “The Last Jedi” redefine the rules of Force physics as we know it — and what do these tantalizing new possibilities mean for the future of “Star Wars?” Who is Snoke, anyway? What exactly can Force ghosts do from beyond the astral plane? Has Kylo Ren ever kissed a girl?

Back in Los Angeles between globe-trotting appearances, a week after his star-studded premiere, Johnson answered all these burning “Star Wars” questions and more. Heavy spoiler warning: Best to read after watching “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.”

“The Last Jedi” takes much of what we all thought we knew about this 40-year-old franchise and how the rules of the Force work, and expands them in some wild new ways. Knowing the doors you were going to open, what were your consultations like with Lucasfilm’s in-house protectors of the canon while writing the script?

There is a man named Pablo Hidalgo who is the sweetest dude in the universe, and he’s one of several keepers of the flame at Lucasfilm. It would always be a conversation, and if the story required it and if it felt like it stretches into new territory but doesn’t break the idea of what the Force can do, Pablo was down — I got the blessing.

The evolution of Rey’s relationship with Kylo Ren takes an intense and pivotal turn in “The Last Jedi.” We learn that Supreme Leader Snoke has linked them through the Force, as if he were connecting a call at a switchboard — an idea thematically mirrored in Poe’s “bad connection” scene with Hux earlier in the film. Where did that idea originate?

It was always through the demands of the story. With the Force connections between Rey and Kylo I thought, “OK, I need to get these two talking. But if I put them face to face they’re going to either fight, or one of them has to be tied up” —

Well, they could also make out …

They could also make out! I’m going to give you a spinoff movie …

Even if they make out, then they can’t be talking. So I knew I wanted them to talk, and to talk enough to where we could go from “I hate you,” to her being forced to actually engage with him. That’s where the idea of these “Force connections” came from, which is kind of a new thing. It’s a little bit of a riff on what happens with Vader and Luke at the end of “The Empire Strikes Back,” but it’s entirely new in some regards.

I’ve got a catchy name for Rey and Kylo’s sexy “Force connection” sessions for you: “ForceTime.”

[Laughs] I’ve heard “Force Skyping,” but that’s good! I’ve got to talk to Apple. There’s a real big co-branding opportunity here.

Some of these revelatory new Force possibilities might be challenging for fans to accept. Are they such a stretch within “Star Wars” science and the greater franchise?

The truth is, because “Star Wars” until “The Force Awakens” has been set in amber and we hadn’t had a new “Star Wars” movie in 10 years, you forget that they were introducing new Force stuff with each movie, based on the requirements of the story. Force-grabbing didn’t come around until “Empire,” it wasn’t in “A New Hope.” Same with Force ghosts. They’d introduce new ideas of what could happen with the Force each time.

After the climactic battle on the salt planet Crait we learn Luke was projecting himself from his island the whole time. How does that scene rewrite the rules of the Force? Could a Force user projecting themselves physically influence the world around them, not just the minds of others?

That’s a question. When Luke shows up he’s projecting, it’s like a hardcore variation of what Kylo and Rey have been doing the whole time and that’s why it takes so much out of him. In the version that we play, no. We tried to play really, really fair. In terms of his footsteps – we removed all of his foley — there are no footstep sounds. They never touch. And if you look, the salt flakes that are falling are sparking off of Kylo’s saber and not off of Luke’s.

What about Force ghosts and the suggestion that Jedi masters wield even more previously unknown powers from beyond the grave? Can powerful Force users create physical, tangible manifestations?

The one point where we do introduce a bit of a twist in terms of Force ghosts is where Yoda calls down the lightning onto the tree. That, I think, is a tantalizing hint of the potential of someone who is a Force ghost interacting with the real world.

Hypothetically speaking, can dark Force users become Force ghosts?

I think that would be interesting. We haven’t seen them in the movies as far as I can remember. But that would be really interesting considering the dark side is about self-preservation, trying to find immortality, and the notion that the light side actually got to it through selflessness — what would the dark side version of that look like? There’s so much cool [stuff] to think about if you’re willing to open your head a little bit!

Another surprise in this film is seeing Leia use her latent Force powers after decades of being the Skywalker twin who doesn’t wield the Force. Why was that an important parting gift to give both Leia and Carrie Fisher?

That was something Kathy [Kennedy] was always asking: Why has this never manifested in Leia? She obviously made a choice, because in “Return of the Jedi” Luke tells her, “You have that power too.” I liked the idea that it’s not Luke concentrating, reaching for the lightsaber; it’s an instinctual survival thing, like when you hear stories of a parent whose toddler is caught under a car and they get superhuman strength, or a drowning person clawing their way to the surface. It’s basically just her not being done with the fight yet.

I wanted it to happen [for Carrie] and I knew it was going to be a stretch. It’s a big moment, and I’m sure it will land different ways for different people, but for me it felt like a really emotionally satisfying thing to see.

Han’s dice are a nice touch that resonates with Luke, Leia and Kylo, not to mention the fans, and a callback to how he got the Millennium Falcon in the first place.

When I wrote it, it was something that was in “The Force Awakens.” I think they shot it and didn’t end up using it: When Han comes onto the Falcon, he takes his dice out of his pocket and hangs them back up, like, “This is mine again.” When it got pulled out [of “The Force Awakens”] I thought, even if it’s not directly set up I think you’ll get it that these are Han’s dice. The notion that they get used different ways ending with Kylo, I liked.

Fans have been obsessed with Snoke’s origins since “The Force Awakens,” and while we get to know him much more in “The Last Jedi,” you don’t necessarily give that answer. Does it matter who he was?

Not in this story it doesn’t, which is not to say it wouldn’t be interesting — they might explore it in the next movie or elsewhere. I wrote this script before “The Force Awakens” came out, so when I wrote it, the “Who is Snoke?” mania hadn’t arisen with the fans yet. Even if it had, my perspective is it’s similar to how the Emperor was handled. The first three movies you know nothing about the Emperor because you don’t have to, because that’s not the story. You know exactly what you need to know. Whereas in the prequels, you know everything about him because that is the story.

In this movie, Rey doesn’t really care where he comes from, so if in any of their scenes he had stopped and done a 30-second monologue about how he is [Darth] Plagueis or whoever, Rey would have blinked and looked confused and the scene would have gone on … and we would have ended up cutting it in the editing room because it doesn’t matter to the story right now.

Why does it matter, then, who Rey’s parents are — the idea that she doesn’t come from a lineage of “special” Jedi kin?

It felt like the way to go because it’s the hardest thing that she could possibly hear. It would be the easy thing for her to be defined by, “yes, this is how you fit into this story — it’s because your parent is so and so!” In that moment, for Kylo to be able to use that [information] as a knife and twist it to try and get what he wants, felt like the most dramatically potent option.

Please explain the dramatic necessity of giving Kylo Ren a shirtless scene.

At the premiere I heard somebody in the balcony say, “Yesssss!” You can see Adam was training hardcore throughout the whole process. It’s fun but it also has a specific purpose, which is the increasing feeling of uncomfortable intimacy. That was sticking with the theme of trying to give Rey the hardest thing you could possibly give her, which would be unavoidable intimate conversation with this person that she wants to just hate. This was just one more way of upping that ante.

So … is this the first time Kylo has ever held hands with a girl?

I actually talked about that with Adam [Driver]. Adam was like, “So … have I actually kissed a girl before?” I would think maybe he has. Maybe after hours in the Jedi camp, there was a game of spin the bottle — “spin the lightsaber…”

— LA Times

[thezolblade]

Ship Meme! Tagged by @the-cryptographer​ ~

1) Ultimate Otps:

Which of them have ‘ultimate’ qualities...? GS Isaac/Alex would be kind of an ‘ultimate power’ ship, if they got a plot with twists and turns and character development and reasons to cooperate. I’d expect that more from fic than canon - so many other canons have lots of epic slow burn adventure fics for hero/villain-or-antivillain ships. But so far in GS, for those two, I’ve mostly found (good) crackfic, or non-shippy ‘they fight to the death and Isaac wins and marries Mia’  stuff that doesn’t treat them with even as much nuance as the canon.

Not that I mind mudshipping - my ultimate GS polyship would be something like Isaac/Mia/Felix/Alex(/Veriti/The Ice Queen), with interesting dynamics between every two characters in that set of four (and Mia/Veriti), even with some of the bonds possibly being platonic. Though when I’ve written long plotfic it’s very easily gotten platonic/ambivalent/angsty bc it tends so much towards drama, and conflict may drive plots (hence its abundance in plotbunnies), but I find it hard to headcanon characters getting past hurts and grudges very easily; I want to see them make the effort, but it feels like they’d need a lot of time and personal growth to get there, and I might not even figure how well they do until I’m almost 100K words in. And in some very angsty verses there’s no chance. I want to read other people’s adventure fic too, with fun ideas that manage heel-face turns or antihero plots in a slightly lighter way...

PMMM Madoka/Homura is another ‘ultimate power’ ship, if they can get to a point where Godoka and Homucifer can deal with each other as equals again, both with full knowledge of everything that’s happened and the resolve to truly save themselves, each other, and the rest of the universe. :o

Utena/Anthy is quite an ‘ultimate reality’ ship, when they find their revolution.

2) A ship you’ll always 💜??

The Harvest Moon fan in me is going ‘purple heart? that’s not a very high level of affection??’ ...but taking it as an emoji for ‘love’... without repeating anything above, pokemon Green/Red is always nostalgic (gameverse Ash/Gary, the names get a little confusing as there are localisation differences and I like the old manga and anime too but haven’t watched/read anything recent in those canons).

GS Imilshipping, too, in fic verses where they had a close bond. FE Lucia/Ilyana, I wish they had epilogue content after their support, still mean to write out a plotbunny for them sometime. Soren/Ike, of course, and Tibarn/Reyson.

ToS Lloyd/Colette/Sheena/Zelos, again with strong bonds between all of the pairs in that foursome. They did so much to help each other find hope by striving to save and trust each other, creating a new kind of salvation together.

Skies of Arcadia Fina/Aika/Vyse, Vyse/Ramirez, and Ramirez/Galcian. Never found much fanstuff for it, but it caught the imagination.

3) Current obsessions??

Lots of MadoHomu vibes after getting a oneshot written for them. Confident!Madoka makes both of them happy when they’re not dying; it’s a shame she doesn’t get much screentime as her confident and cheerful self, since so much of her time as a magical girl passes offscreen. Even while she was more unsure during the series, she demonstrated her desire to protect her friends, and Homura commented time and time again on her kindness - she loves her for it, and when she discourages it anyway, it’s because she’s come to believe that it’ll be the death of her. If they were truly safe, they could support each other so well - it could be a world away from the desperation that marked the end of Rebellion, when neither of them are at all okay. :s

Also getting quite into darkfic plotbunnies, and I know ‘darkship’ is a term in some cases for character dynamics fulfilling their worst potential, descending into violence and destruction that at least one character Does Not Want, but in the verses of those plotbunnies I guess they still fit the label of antiships better than ships.

4) A ship you never thought you’d like??

Uh, a lot of the stuff on the gs kink meme caught me by surprise, when rarepairs got suggested and the fills or plotbunnies got interesting - Alex/Ivan, Eoleo/Rief, Alex/Amiti (in a BAD IDEA way). And on lj/tumblr, Mia/Sheba was pleasant surprise too. Not that I ever had any preconceptions about disliking ships, they just hadn’t occurred to me.

In FF7, I don’t think I expected to see compelling Cloud/Seph or Zack/Seph at first, all those years ago, but I quickly found that there are a lot of good AUs and darkfic. Especially when they’re alongside other good ships like Cloud/Zack, Aerith/Zack, Aerith/Cloud, Aerith/Tifa, Tifa/Cloud etc.

5) A ship you used to like but don’t anymore:

Uh idk exactly. I used to read a lot of Buffy fic by ship to find characters whose dynamics were interesting in the show, but iirc I ended up skimming any content that was really ‘shippy’ to get to the plot and jokes and emotional bonding over real stuff, not random physical attraction, and nowadays I don’t think I’d bother skimming so much stuff just bc I hoped it’d be interesting and wanted to keep giving it a chance.

6) A ship that should be canon??

Well some that are very strongly implied but not explicitly stated feel like ‘yep that’s canon’ but could maybe use some more in-universe and author confirmation when not everyone seems to agree - Ike/Soren, Utena/Anthy in some versions of canon, etc.

7) A canon ship you hate???

I like to hate the way darkships go sometimes, but that’s what makes them an interesting story, going ‘noo’ about characters’ bad decisions, though that usually only works if they had better potential that they’re falling short of, not necessarily in a romantic sense... Can’t think of many cases where that happens in canon. Uh I think most explicitly canon relationships are either one option among many routes (and I get tired of support grinding), or I’m a bit indifferent, or if I dislike how it’s done I’d still start playing devil’s advocate and wondering how it could have been done differently if I spend any time considering it.

Oh in FE Awakening I kinda hated how Virion’s flirting in the main plot cutscenes was creepy and painted him as a bad joke, but his supports are much better and some of them are great - how do you explain liking his ships when he has such a bad start (and such bad English voice acting)? I also hated the way the player character’s support options didn’t all show up until endgame, so I missed them the first time and had to replay and wait until then to support grind, and then it all got repetitive grinding the same dlc maps so many times over just for such short supports, and the endgame marriage candidates that were most interesting (bc how the hell could the game make that work, with a head of state or a former enemy??) ended up with really rushed and unconvincing relationship development, and the child recruitment maps were hellishly difficult at that point in the endgame, and all in all it got a bit un-fun and not worth the effort. :/

8) A ship you shipped for years??

Most of the above. Also stuff like Saiyuki Sanzo/Goku, GS Alex/Felix or /Saturos, Jenna/Sheba, Karis/Sveta, Pokemon Misty/Erika, FE Florina/Lyndis, and, uh, probably stuff that I’m forgetting right now.

9) A ship everyone 😍 but you don’t care for?

...Was there anything? Some of the cliche stuff bugs me, but I’d usually think ‘what about writing the dynamic this way and maybe adding poly?’

10) Favorite rare pair???

Mm what's rare? Any gs Alex!ships at this point...

Edit: I forgot to tag anyone, so. If meme time sounds like fun, @sazandorable, @meganekkomeguca, @droory, or anyone who feels like it?

[iimaginedragons]

blog entry #4 -- astoria & m a n i a

i don’t know if every music lover remembers the first band or artist they really loved - and i don’t mean “loved” like genuinely appreciated their music or related to their lyrics or anything; i mean cringey, young fangirl/fanboy, major-crush-on-at-least-one-member-of-the-band “loved”. i feel like for those who remember that time, they either still love the band to pieces or look back on those days with horror and wonder how the hell they chose that band to obsess over. thankfully for me, it’s the former - my first major fangirl band was marianas trench, a relatively well-known pop punk and symphonic rock band (and now with some cool 80s pop-funk influences) from vancouver, canada.

when i was about eleven or twelve, i discovered their song “cross my heart”, and immediately fell in love. i was never into taylor swift, katy perry, or any of the major pop artists of that time, and as a young guitar player myself, marianas trench’s guitar-driven, punk rock sound twisted into pop tracks through catchy drumbeats and radio music harmonies instantly appealed to me. bit by bit, i discovered more of their tracks, notably from their album “masterpiece theatre”, as that was the one out at the time. “ever after”, their third studio album, came out right as my fangirl obsession really began. 

spotify and similar apps not really existing at the time, i had to be careful with my money, and my parents really monitored the music i purchased, and so i played it safe and only bought my three favourite tracks on itunes, not wanting to accidentally waste any money; “cross my heart”, “all to myself”, and “celebrity status”, all from “masterpiece theatre”. to discover more of their music, i remember typing their name into the youtube search bar, and then trying every single letter of the alphabet afterwards to find a song title that i hadn’t seen before - i actually discovered a lot of music like that, not just from marianas trench.

anyways, as i became more obsessed, i started watching interviews, acoustic or live versions of songs, and funny clips and music video bloopers all over youtube, and i have to say; for my age and maturity level at the time, i could not have found a better “introductory” band into the vast world of bands and fangirling. marianas trench were funny but never obscenely rude, they were largely unproblematic and drama-free within the music world, their music evolved towards a more pop-funk and symphonic sound but they never forgot their pop punk and rock roots, and their lyrics were always intriguing but not too dark (with the exception of their first album “fix me” and the occasional tracks on the other three albums). all of these things are still 100% true about them. bottom line, they were an awesome band for me to discover at the time, and are still what i’d describe as a model band to this day. they’ve always been so good.

what i really wanted to say (after this unnecessarily long intro) is that musically, they are still an excellent band nowadays. as a huge fan of their first three albums (especially “masterpiece theatre”, when their symphonic rock drift began - i loved the big productions and mash-ups), i didn’t pay much mind to their fourth album “astoria”. i heard of its release and listened to the first single that was put out beforehand, which was “here’s to all the zeroes” (which they actually didn’t even end up putting on the album since it didn’t fit with the vibe of it), and i really didn’t like it - i felt like it was a bit too pop and losing the originality for which i loved them. i had always loved that they stuck true to who they were and didn’t try to change themselves to get more listeners outside of canada. 

so, when they released that song, i felt like they might lose themselves in the world of common radio pop, so i didn’t look into “astoria” at all when it came out. but yesterday, as i was feeling low and looking to listen to some of their older, darker tracks, i saw the “astoria” album cover go by on my phone, and i guess i just thought “yeah why not?”. the first track immediately caught my interest, as it reminded me of the “masterpiece theatre i, ii & iii” tracks from their second album, as well as “ever after” and “no place like home” from their third album (these were often longer than the other songs, and incorporated lyrics for all of the songs from the album within a huge, dramatic, overproduced track - if you’ve taken a peak at my favourite albums, many of them are alternative, unique, and deliberately overproduced records, which i love and almost always have).

all this to say - the rest of the album was awesome. i was very impressed with the filler tracks as well as the final song “end of an era”, among all the other great songs. original lyrics, great emotion, good guitar, and unique, typical trench vocal and string arrangements - essentially, everything that a long-time, dedicated marianas trench fan could ask for.

apart from the fact that i needed to rant somewhere about and emphasize how good “astoria” and marianas trench are, i also wanted to say this: trust the bands you love. you started loving them for a reason; because they made good music time after time. even if their style changed, if they lost a member, disbanded for a while, or switched genres completely, you will be able to find that thing that drew you to them initially in all of their music, i promise. you just need to come in with an open mind.

good fans don’t have to like everything that their favourite artists or bands make, but in my opinion, good fans can not only root for the band’s changes and support their road to self-discovery as artists by not hating on them and asking for the “old them” back, but can also come to identify the reasons for which they loved the band initially and find these aspects in all of their music. for example, at the core, i was drawn to marianas trench because of josh ramsay’s unique voice, the band’s song arrangements and harmonies, poppy guitar riffs and drum beats, originality, and the fact that they are a canadian band - ultimately, all of this can be found in anything that marianas trench has ever released, even the songs that aren’t as popular among the fans. i guess this is supposed to be some kind of optimistic view on band evolution… i don’t know to be honest.

i think i also kind of wrote this in connection to fall out boy’s “m a n i a” album coming out in less than two weeks. a lot of longtime fans are worried that this one is going to be very different (too different) from other things that the band has made, and i guess they’re worried that they won’t like it or something.

i understand. in all honesty, i’m always worried that i won’t like an album when one of my favourite bands releases it - fuck, i was equally excited as i was terrified when imagine dragons released “evolve”. but i trusted them to make good music no matter what, and though the album was different from “night visions” and “smoke + mirrors”, how could i expect it not to be? and yet, it was absolutely incredible nonetheless.

hence, i’m really going to try and adopt an optimistic attitude for “m a n i a”, because i trust fall out boy. they have proven time and time again (and despite a five year break) that they can produce incredible music. yes, it will be different. maybe it’ll drift away from “american beauty/american psycho” and back towards some of their older things - maybe it won’t. maybe it will be something totally different, which is kind of what i’m hoping for. the songs released so far seem to be drifting towards a bit of an alternative pop and even edm inspired direction in the case of “young & menace” (which would be a dream come true for an alternative music lover like me), but hey, we’ll see. i trust fall out boy.

either way, i sure as hell won’t keep myself from listening to “m a n i a” for two years like i did marianas trench’s “astoria”, because as i’ve seen, i’d likely miss out big time. so sorry about this long ass post on your dash by the way (i get a little carried away sometimes yikes i’m sorry, i love talking about music way too much).

[pipedream-truths]

i know we all ignore nora’s extra content anyway (*cough* andreil wedding *cough*) but i have headcanons about this fashion designer allison thing

okay so

allison goes pro. after fighting tooth and nail for the right to play exy there’s no way she’s giving it up after college. also no one expects her to actually do it or succeed so it’s a giant fuck you to all the haters

she’s the first fox to ever play professionally and when she gets signed she asks wymack if she’s made him proud. he tells her he was always proud.

once she’s on her new team (one whose colors are not that god awful orange this time) she notices some things about the uniforms that could use…improvement

initially her critique just gets written off as her being a bitch but now that she’s pointed it out everyone starts to see it, see what could be better. and especially her fellow women teammates pool ideas and research and resources until they’ve got crazily in depth designs that are just so much more functional and clean and appealing. they pitch the designs at a meeting their coach set up just so they’d spend more time practicing in the uniforms than ripping apart the outside of them.

the suits try to say no but theodora muldani happens to be on allison’s team and between allison and thea they don’t stand a chance.

i need a whole separate post for thea and allison’s friendship

so it’s agreed but when the new uniforms arrive the next season and the team is trying them on they still aren’t right? wtf? so allison decides to take matters into her own hands.

well, renee’s hands, at least in the beginning. renee’s really good at making clothes and allison bought her a high power commercial sewing machine for christmas last year so plug that baby in and let’s kick corporate ass

allison does learn how to do it all on her own. she just likes watching renee work, and it’s a way to spend extra time with her when she’s home and not halfway across the world

she starts small because the concern is brought up that if she just starts producing her own team merch it’ll be a contract violation or some other legal shit. so she just does the undergarments for her and her friends. then pretty much everyone on the team is placing an order in. then dan asks if she can do some stuff for a few of the people on the team she’s coaching. word spreads and the media gets ahold of it and starts praising allison’s ingenuity

there are few pos articles about how “women’s place has always been at the loom” and another that cries about her “struggle to stay in touch with her femininity in a predominantly male sport” detailing how she turned to clothing as a last refuge and sanctuary, which ??no?? but most of the media coverage is good for once in allison’s life

at that point her team higher-ups have to finally recognize what she’s doing and fall over themselves to sign agreements that she’s affiliated with them and whatever

she goes to a new team instead

the transition keeps her busy and the buzz dies down, so she has time to really consider and think about what she wants to do

a lot of time actually, because she gets injured in a game and is out for the rest of the season. it’s as she’s ranting to renee about what the point of wearing armor even is if her collarbone still snapped like a twig that she realizes yeah, their armor is really shitty, and she could do better?

once she gets a few prototypes made she enlists neil and matt to try it out. andrew doesn’t say anything the whole time until they’re packing up to leave

“add a mouth guard so josten can’t run his fucking mouth during games”

kevin finds out he wasn’t invited and throws a hissy fit which is exactly why she didn’t want him there in the first place. but kevin knows exy better than anyone and will know any weaknesses in the armor better than anyone so she gives him the new version and leaves him at the court for a few hours. when she picks him up they outline every good and bad thing

the new gloves may or may not be called day gloves.

if they are it’s just because there’s a black version called night gloves

so eventually, after it’s been tested a million times and she has a few sets of it, allison’s gotta patent this shit. she’s gotta patent it and gotta unveil it in the most dramatic way possible.

the question: how?

she doesn’t want to just sell all her hard work to some bigger company or have it be attached to whatever team she’s playing for now. or any team for that matter. she wants this new gear to be accessible to all. and affordable. unlike the two hundred fifty “02” kevin day sweatshirt currently on sale at exites that she’s so buying him for his birthday just to embarrass him

she did not expect neil to have the same sweatshirt? apparently it’s part of some inside joke between him and andrew about neil being obsessed with kevin? who the fuck knows what goes on there. definitely not allison.

anyway

by this time it’s getting close enough to the olympics that Court training is getting super intense

like, if not for the whole nest thing, kevin and jean and neil probably wouldn’t leave the stadium

if we’re ignoring the extra content then we’re ignoring that jean doesn’t make Court

thea tells allison kevin had to get his own bed because with both his racquet and the dog in the bed there’s no room for her and she sure as hell isn’t giving up her memory foam mattress

for whatever reason this pathetic story about kevin sparks an idea in allison (probably has to do with her preying on everyone else’s current patheticness)

using all her reynolds bargaining skills and fox brutality along with renee’s charm, she bullies the people in charge into replacing their former super expensive top grade gear with allison’s new stuff. she goes home after days and days of debate and arm-twisting and lying through her teeth and collapses onto the couch. renee has to hold her pretty much until the next morning before she’s recovered enough to even move.

“i feel like a politician babe. wash my face for me, i can feel the political pimples coming out of my pores.”

and of course allison’s new gear is better than any other team’s. she didn’t spend a month schmoozing up to that swedish developer just to be usurped on an international level. and she didn’t learn japanese just to talk to kayleigh and tetsuji’s original developers for nothing either.

what better way to establish yourself than the fucking olympics

“I’m like a fucking superhero babe” she says, feet in renee’s lap, wine in hand, gold medal around her neck

compared to dealing with everyone involved with the Court deal, the rest of it is a piece of cake

she retires not long after the olympics

once she does that, she can focus on her brand

renee suggests she connect with her younger customers

bond with the kids. youth outreach stuff. allison tries to get away with just donating a bunch of armor but renee gives her a Look so allison actually goes and talks to some of them.

she pretty much hates it. the only kids she likes are her foxes’. but she does meet a few little ones who her success has impacted and encouraged and that’s. that’s something.

once it gets so big she can’t manage everything, it’s with great reluctance that she dials an international call to germany.

nicky’s only reservation is the amount of time he’ll spend stateside versus at home with erik, but they work it out and allison leaves him in charge of marketing with a promise to rip off his balls and feed them to erik junior the goldfish if nicky screws up her company

she expands into generalized athletic/active wear, normal stuff that isn’t exy exclusive.

“what other sport is there other than exy”

“stickball” andrew whispers

“AGAIN WITH THE STICKBALL WHAT IS STICKBALL”

poor kevin

bc why do anything if you can’t look and feel good doing it

her parents try to invest in the company.

that’s a giant fuck no. she built this baby from the ground up. it is hers. they didn’t want her and exy before and they’re not getting her and exy now. in no way does she ever want to be tied to them or their money ever again.

she goes into exites sometimes to scope out what the people actually buying her product say about it and there it is. that kevin day sweatshirt. she nearly buys out the exites chain just to make them stop selling it.

allison reynolds gets inducted into the exy hall of fame for her contribution to the sport as a Court gold medalist and for revolutonizing exy armor forever.

[deltaengineering]

Fall Anime 2017 Part 4: Screenshots don’t lie

Saturday’s a very busy day this season, and all the sequels are hitting too. Time to get to work!

Previously:

• Part 1: Maximum Something

• Part 2: The snooze cruise

• Part 3: Fooled again

Burendo Esu (Cat Balls the Animation)

Blend S is the story of schoolgirl Maika that has “mean eyes” (basically, she has tsurime in a tareme world), which prevents her from getting a job other than the one in a moe gimmick-themed café, where her duty is to make “mean eyes” at the customers. The other waitresses play a tsundere, an imouto, an idol and an onee-san. So yeah, that’s one way to get your standard moe show cast together. But wait! The twist here is that Maika is not actually mean! Quite the opposite actually! And that goes for all the other waitresses too! While girls getting forced into moe archetypes is a pretty amusing/scary concept, this is of course a Kirara manga, so they’re just different moe archetypes underneath. In short, the concept doesn’t amount to much. As far as Kiraralikes go, this isn’t a bad one though. It’s colorful, cute and a little funny, and splits the difference between a pure moefest like Knohana Kitan and the more structured comedy of a Working (obviously). Only the pervy Italian manager and his obsession with his blob underlings gets old pretty fast. If you’re down for a show like this, this is probably the one to watch, because unlike Konohana Kitan I didn’t wish for it to end.

Code: Realize - Sousei no Himegimi

While we’re on the topic of “best of the breed”, Code: Realize is an upmarket otome harem. I know, right. The setting is a basic steampunk universe, the bishounens are Arsène Lupin, Victor Frankenstein &c, and our bland heroine’s super special trait turns out to be killing everything she touches due to some jewels in “her heart”. I mean, who hasn’t been there. So everyone wants to “steal her heart” and Code: Realize is very keen to point out the double meaning of this constantly. Hey, we kinda did it in Katawa Shoujo so I can’t really complain. The thing is that Code: Realize is very obvious, but it’s also not all that bad – the fact that is has more going on than nothing at all already makes it the best otome harem since Akatsuki no Yona: It looks fairly pleasant, none of the main characters are tremendous assholes, and there seems to be some sort of story to go with the pretty boys. But it’s also not as hammy and ostentatious as, for example, Dance with Devils, so it’s caught in a middle ground where I can appreciate it not sucking tremendously, but I also don’t feel like watching it – because it’s too respectable.

Dynamic Chord

Dynamic Chord is another otome VN, this time about rock bands. Since this is 2017, apparently the production committee thought they could cut out the middleman, leave out the bland girl and just make a boyband anime instead, because those are all the rage right now. So it’s Tsukipro, apart from the bit where Tsukipro looks like a Ghibli movie next to this. Dynamic Chord is a production catastrophe that looks closer to a no-budget gag short of the Pikotarou Lullaby type (note: I mean “catastrophe” in the absolute sense, for all I know this could all be calculated perfectly and the producers are laughing all the way to the bank). The show consists almost entirely of two things: Long, quiet zooms and pans over stills, and montages, mostly of “performances”. Those performance themselves are really something else too. What if I told you that this is a show in 2017 that does not seem to feature ANY 3DCG? Turns out 3DCG actually costs money too, so when the band plays, they do paperdoll tweens of 2D artwork. Oh, and outside the performances lack of CG means you get the worst animated car since the QUALITYVAN. There’s also just baffling stuff like walk loops that don’t loop. Given that these montages are all endlessly long, you might think there’s not much space for a story. And you’d be right. Basically nothing happens, the singer of a band gets a bad case of the broods so some guy from another band has to substitute  for him. That’s it. Would have easily fit into 3 minutes, but I have to say that by the end of this show’s 24 minutes, I was straight up laughing my ass off when the next montage of bad stills started right after the last one ended. That’s something, right?

Garo - Vanishing Line

I’ve seen Garo before, but last time I didn’t know it was a tokusatsu meta-franchise, the anime versions of which really only share that there’s a gothick looking motherfucker fighting horrors called Horrors. So this has little to do with the last ones: different crew, different studio, different setting. Because this version of Garo is most definitely set IN AMERICA: The main character is a gothick looking motherfucker called "Sword” that charitably resembles Hellboy, and less charitably resembles a Leifeld original. He rides a big hawg around a Big Apple, eats big bloody steaks and looks at big boobies a lot because you know, setting. It’s charming in its idiocy, and this is MAPPA so you get a lot of fights with very nice animation too. I could watch this simply for the action, but I won’t because there’s a Murrica-sized caveat here: The fights take place at night, are edited very rapidly and most importantly their idea of an impact frame is to do an extreme camera shake effect with intense motion blur. And there is a lot of impact frames – believe me, that might have been the easiest screenshot to find for an article yet, and I highly suspect I could have found worse ones if this wouldn’t bring the point across already. I simply can’t tell what the fuck is going on because everything is an incomprehensible mess, no matter how nice the frames beneath the effects are. It’s pretty infuriating because this show is one mouse click away from being a good time, simply disable your After Effects layer with the shake on it. But I can’t do that for them, so Vanishing Line ends up being a bad time instead. And even if you are interested in some big, zany action in the ol’ Gotham, there’s a little something that makes Vanishing Line instantly obsolete:

Kekkai Sensen (Blood Blockade Battlefront) & Beyond

Yeah boiiiiiiii, Kekkai Sensen is back. I had forgotten how fun this show can be, and we’ll discuss the reasons shortly. A lot has happened since 2015, and I have a good reference point for it now: Kekkai Sensen is basically One-Punch Man without The Joke. It’s an universe full of all sorts of crazy nonsense and a bunch of cool dudes that try to keep thing under control, usually in an explosive manner. The one really important thing that Beyond changes is that it’s not directed by Rie Matsumoto. Shigehito Takayanagi is taking over, and while that guy is a noted jobber of little distinction (previous credits: TWGOK, Dagashi Kashi and uh... Toyko ESP...), he’s at least enough of a craftsman to imitate Matsumoto’s style very well. I only found out about this after the fact, and wouldn’t have noticed the difference otherwise. It is noticeable if you look for it though: this episode has all of the stylish action antics, but none of the more moody content that Matsumoto’s original character (do not steal) White brought to the show. I liked most of White’s scenes with Leo and they gave season 1 some welcome emotional grounding, but to be quite honest, it’s not what I watched Kekkai Sensen for. I can definitely accept losing it if this time the show isn’t consumed by White’s subplot and doesn’t culminate in an ending that not only is all about her, but also comes out a season after everyone stopped caring because auteurs can’t manage a production. With Kyousougiga and Kekkai Sensen S1, Matsumoto has shown a 100% track record of donking her endings, so I’m not complaining she got replaced with someone who just gets the job done. Especially if it’s still Bones relying on Yutapon for action cuts; when shit hits the fan, it looks straight up incredible and makes me question why I slummed it with My Hero Academia for three seasons when I can get the same amount of awesome fights in a single episode of this. And hey, White is still in the ending, so maybe we will get the less crazy end of it covered as well. Just keep the priorities straight this time around, please.

Houseki no Kuni (Land of the Lustrous)

Houseki no Kuni is a manga about gijinka gems of indeterminate gender that takes the amusing step of Mohs hardness directly translating into Shounen Powerlevel™. Apart from that, there’s not much content in this episode 1: We get to know the characters and a glimpse and how a society of a bunch of brittle gems in makeup works. What makes this interesting is that the setting is intriguingly vague and very pretty (think: Haibane Renmei), and the characters seem to be fairly strong and likeable. Not exciting, but I could see myself watching this just for the atmosphere. The big downside of it is that it’s a 3DCG show, and not one of those fancy mocapped ones either. The animation is, in a word, bad: robotic and clumsy, as usual. I’ll readily admit that in screencaps it looks great, especially the crystal shaders that would be difficult to pull off in 2D animation. Houseki no Kuni seems very okay, but it has a hard time on this crowded Saturday so I don’t think I’ll bother with it right now. If it delivers in the long run, I’ll readily admit it to my backlog though.

Love Live! Sunshine!! S2!!!

Sunshine’s back as well, and finds itself in an awkward spot right away. This first episode has a lot of things to get out of the way: Tying up the last season properly because the final episode of S1 fumbled that, reminding the audience of the characters, and setting up a new drama arc. In practice, that means it ends up feeling a lot more like the lost E1S13 than the S2E1 it is, because the other two aspects are pretty pointless: Reintroducing the characters just means they all shoot off their catchphrase in turn, and the brand new conflict is (hold on to your seats for this one) that the school is getting closed and there’s a new Love Live. With all these things going on and none of them being all that interesting, the episode feels very rushed and just accomplishes establishing that yes, it’s a Love Live show. I guess that is exactly what it was meant to do and I can say that at least they have it out of the way now. Well, the last time I said Sunshine had gotten something out of the way, it was the obsession with µ’s in episode 1, the getting out of the way of which ended up lasting 10 episodes. It’s gone now (thankfully), but maybe I shouldn’t assume too much here. So yeah, fairly weak first episode, but it’s not like I wasn’t going to watch this to the end and even at its most rushed and pointless it’s still Love Live: a polished Five Guys hamburger of a show that doesn’t exactly need to be great to be a joy to watch.

Two Car

I expected Two Car to be That Show: the one where a schoolgirl discovers her sudden love for Thing and goes on to experience Thing with the help of her friends. Two Car isn’t in the K-ON/Bakuon/etc mould however, it’s much more similar to the sports show style of Girls und Panzer, wacky sport with themed teams of contenders in a world where everyone seems to care about it a little too much. It helps that real sidecar racing is already weird as hell (looking forward to the breathless Anime Now article about how it’s a thing that actually exists) and is less motorcycle racing and more Twister on a fast-moving platform. Quite coincidentally, Two Car is also tremendously gay, as you’d expect from a show about two-girl teams in very tight leather crawling over each other competitively. The main girls aren’t even so blatant (and shown to have a crush on their male instructor, who has taken off to the aptly named Isle of Man), but the opponents are all some sort of standard yuri pairing. So yeah, the setting is a goofy blast, but I’m sad to report that episode 1 has tremendous structural problems. All the team introductions are very clumsy and intercut with an equally clumsy introduction of the setting, the sport and the main girl’s extensive backstory. I will give this more chances because the setup has a lot of potential, but I really hope this shapes up on the storytelling front or I won’t make it very far in.