#and how everyone online made fun of the girl characters like they were weak and not good for anything

[mayasaura]

Going into Alecto, I think it's important to expect that the series won't conclude with a clear lesson. Either about morality—what makes a good person, evil getting their just desserts, ect—or a thesis on decolonization. It's not that kind of story.

Deep down, this series is two drunk girls bearing their souls in a dark corner of the bar. An hours-long conversation that wheels wildly through pop culture, past trauma, theoretical physics, dreams and aspirations, global warming, hairstyling, friends, family, gender, personal insecurities, world history, favorite foods. It has a lot to say, and a lot of it profound, but it's not trying to teach anything. At the end of the night, the point was how fucking cool that girl was, and the potent electric potential for something lgbt to happen

[bunchofstraydogs]

You asked for it :> So may I request the rest of BSD playing Genshin? 😘🥰

Darling, since I can't write that many characters in one go, I thought I should give you something special. I present... 💫 women 💫

Women of BSD as Genshin Impact players

tw: you're in bsd fandom, you know all the tw there are by now

Kyouka Izumi- Assasin in the streets, babysitter in the... Genshin Impact

Kyouka is that cute, stubborn kid that overfixates on things. Atsushi is things. Look, we all know Kyo-chan is mad intelligent and talented and it shows in her game play. Right off the bat she got the sense of the gameplay of every type of character and decided what works best for her. She knows what type of team she's going for and knows how to manage her materials wisely.

When she plays alone, Kyouka works towards bettering her characters and pushing through the storyline. Her favourite way to play the game is with Atsushi, whether alone or in co-op with others. Playing with Jinko is a huge win-win situation for her - she helps him beat up whatever he needs to take down and complete puzzles, he gives her praises and gratitude. And materials, but seldom does she take them.

Her main job, though, is to protect Atsushi and his world from the otherworldly evil known as the suicidal maniac, Dazai Osamu. She's fairly successful.

Main Team: MC, Klee, Keqing, Rosaria

Sub Team: MC, Qiqi, Fischl, Hu Tao

Mains MC, both for her flexibility with elements and because she likes being the little sister to Atsushi's male MC.

Yosano Akiko- retired nurse, now a terrorist

Did you really think she'd stay a healer without having the sadistic satisfaction of hurting people in grotesque ways? Nay. She doesn't have a single healer on team. She either has a teammate who's a healer like Haruno, or she wastes abundance of food until she can teleport to a statue of the seven.

Her game play is on crack, basically. She has several energy spurs, sometimes several times a day, where she rages through the game, before losing interest and going shopping. It's very possible with her that days can pass before she feels like playing again. Then she binges the game for hours and repeat.

When i say she acts like on crack i mean it. She has rage in her veins instead of blood. She tanks her characters and goes out looking for fights with worst possible opponents. Hell, she'll under equip her party just to see how many mofos can she take down in weak state. Spoilers, a fair few. She does die quite a bit, and is almost always out of food, but she's just as stubborn as she's crazy. Those two thing correlate probably. Which is why she made Azdaha her bitch. Her party consists either of strong, hot milfs women like herself, or twinks. You won't see someone like Childe disrespecting her vibe.

Main Team: Beido, Venti, Hu Tao, Rozaria

Sub Team: Lisa, Yanfei, Ningguang, Xingqiu

Beido and Lisa main. Bad bitches only.

Naomi Tanizaki- the fangirl player

She basically collects the cutest characters possible.. That's how she chooses her characters, based on cuteness. She went for the hot ones first to pull her brother but she got jealous and changed her tactic. You know she's spending her money on character skins and certain banners. She's insanely lucky tho?? She got Qiqi on the standard banner as her first 5*, pulled Klee on her banner in little over four 10 pulles and got Diona eventually anyway. Baraba and Xiangling were free and she mained Xiangling untill Klee rolled in. She spent some money on Venti and was already in pity when Ganyu came around. She's fully ready to whale for Kokomi though.

Now i know i said she's incredibly lucky, right? Yeahh that luck has to turn against something to keep the balance and well... she's still crying over Chongyun.

She usually co-ops with her brother, it's a daily ritual. Loves co oping with everyone though, mostly Haruno, Atsushi and Kyouka. She made online friends as well. Actually, there is one person she co ops with almost as much as she does with her brother. IchiGawa is her Genshin bestie and they talk about their crushes and infatuations besides the game itself. Her friend is the only secret she keeps from her brother.

Main Team: Klee, Diona, Venti, Barbara

Sub Team: Razor, Xiangling, Xingqiu, Qiqi

A Klee main.

Haruno Kirako- the healer

Literal angel. You need her, i need her, ADA needs her, the president needs her, just... yes. Her whole team consists of support- healers and crowd control characters. She was a f2p at first, but realised she earns her own money and can spend it however she wishes and she chose the monthly cards.

She's a necessity, point blank. She can get intimidated by new foe at first, but when backed up by her friends, she becomes determined and flexible. Pays good attention to her teammates, most importantly, their health bars, and acts accordingly.

The only reason most of them made it as far as they have, being as reckless as they are.

Main Team: Albedo, Barbara, Jean, Venti

Sub Team: Qiqi, Noel, Jean, Xinyan

Mains Albedo and Barbara

Fan fact: She's very fascinated infatuated with Albedo!! He's even her home screen and has posters and key chain of him.

Gin Akutagawa- that cottagecore assassin

You may be wondering what that could even mean. Let me tell you, she brought Animal Crossing to Genshin Impact. Sure she takes care of her characters and they're pretty powerful, but she kicks ass in real life as well. The game is her little getaway, especially since Serenity pot has been introduced. She's been making away her home for her and her brother characters. You can see her chop wood, collect materials, taking pictures with her friends and her brother, sometimes of pretty scenery and cute moments. A very wholesome player.

She's the type to help her friends explore their world and help them find oculi, open chests, shrines, collect flowers, mine... She's very patient, but if she sees her co-op teammates struggle with something, she'll jump in to help do it herself untill told to back off. In which case she will listen and silently give her support, usually with the cheering stickers in the chat.

She's f2p! Sure, she could get the monthly card at least, as Ryunosuke told her, but she really wants to enjoy the game on her own terms and have what she does through her own effort and hard work. It just feels satisfying to her and more personal.

Main Team: Jean, Ayaka, Diluc, Barbara

Sub Team: Doesn't have one! She just changes characters if certain elements are needed.

Jean main!! She admirers the relationship her and Barbara have. While she's the younger of the two, she's taken the mantle of the older sibling, in a way, and is looking after her reckless as heck brother and cares for him like Jean does for Barbara. Jean is also a wonderful person in her eyes and Gin harbours great respect for the blonde.

Higuchi Ichiyo- IchiGawa 🤡

I love Higuchi so much, but my girl is a mess and a half. Help her, please. No, really, she needs help. She's been over compensating for not being dramatic and eye catching in the battlefield, and has now found a new way to prove herself to her Akutagawa-san. Problem is, as soon as she sees a potentially powerful character, she has to get them and boost them to the havens... yeahh, good thing you can't do loans in the game, otherwise she'd have sharks on her ass for having a bill as dramatic and eye catching as Tsunade's from Naruto. Our girl out there turning heads for wrong reasons. She's definitely spent her pay checks on the game "oh no no, i just buy the monthly subscription, ehe" ehe my ass, you bankrupt bitch. Baal is coming and she's looking to sell a kidney. No, it's not her own and no, it doesn't have anything to do with the game. It's a mission, for God's sake.

But hey, the game is a good investment for her! She even made a friend, one that totally understands her how she feels!! They're very alike as well, ready to do anything for the person they love. The two talk about love a lot and have bonded over it. Higuchi is actually a jealous and a protective type of person, so she hides her friend from Gin and Tachihara like snake hides it's legs. If only they knew 🤡. But it's better this way as they both have a certain sense of normalcy and familiarity they were missing in their daily lives. (Higuchi and Naomi meeting scenario when?)

Main Team: Xiao, Fischl, Xingqiu, Diluc

Sub Team: Baal (soon?), Venti, Ganyu, Zhongli

She mains Xiao because he reminds her of Akutagawa-san and yes, she uses characters from her sub team when playing with others.

Fan Fact: when she was asked why her username is IchiGawa, she said she's like a river 🤡 No, it does absolutely not stand for Ichiyo Akutagawa.

Ozaki Kouyo- the husbando and loli collector

Don't get the wrong idea when i said loli collector. She just needs to adopt them and look after them. She also enjoys watching her precious babies kick ass like her Kyouka. But that's a two way sword, because she gets angry when they die. Savage.

And yeahh, the real reason she's playing the game... Mr Zhongli. She switches often between eng and jpn audios because she can't decide which sounds sexier. Also, Mr Diluc? Yes, she would like to be served one sex on the beach please and thank you! Ah, Mr Kaeya, a perfect window of opportunity, yes.

She has a huge spot for the teenager group as well. Razor, Bennett, Fishl, Xiangling, Xingqiu and Chongyun are also her kids. She just finds them very precious (don't we all?).

Main Team: Zhongli, Kaeya, Bennett, Diluc

Sub Team: Diona, Klee, Qiqi, Sayu

A Zhongli and Diluc main.

Bonus:

Elise- the evil lackadaisical player

Mori found out about the game from Higuchi and Tachihara and introduced it to Elise, telling her she should make a team of sweet little girls like herself and have fun going on adventures around Teyvat. In response, Elise made a team that, not only does it not have a single child in it, but is using it to gaslight and bully Rintarou.

"Why aren't you smart and inventive like Albedo?"

"Why aren't you as passionate and persistent as Sucrose?"

"Look how capable, loved and admired Ningguang is. You could never."

"I wish i had someone as strong, caring, handsome and rich like Childe looking after me. He would treat me like a real princess. "

Mori has been crying rivers ever since.

Thing is, Elise isn't even that interest in the story. Actually, she couldn't care less. Some characters are interesting to her and she likes the graphics, but other than that, she's mostly playing the game to torture the greasy doctor (as she should).

Main Team: Albedo, Sucrose, Ningguang, Childe

Sub Team: doesn't have one

Doesn't have a main either, she plays whoever she feels like playing.

I wanted to add Lucy too, but my mind wasn't cooperating ;-; Sorry about that. I do hope you liked this, Eli 💛

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh Ep 35 S4: Raphael Joins the Pile of Dead Bodies

Ah 2020, thankfully we have one trashfire somewhat behind us, but I’m still avoiding social media for so many obvious reasons because of all the other trashfires that just never seem to stop burning, so lets talk about Yugioh with all of this newfound time.

Ah, card games. Card games that go on for 6-7 episodes. Lets see how they pad it out:

In a lot of ways, Roland really is just padding for the show, and that’s OK. He’s doing his best, by doing literally nothing but stand outside and check the time.

Inside the dusty soul chamber, Tristan has decided to do us the favor of recapping what happened last episode, which included the return of our four dead friends, so that they could die...again.

Seto’s reaction to seeing these dead people suddenly alive again was very “guys...I went nuts like years ago, I’m just going with it at this point.” and he’s still 100% positive that this is all a hologram and that no one will ever die.

Whatever it takes for Seto to get out of bed in the morning, I guess.

(read more under the cut)

One of the big mechanics the game is that you need to stay level headed, or the Orichalcos just kind of slurps you up. This explains a little why Dartz is so freakin chill basically all of the time, just the Bob Ross of evil over there. It also is sort of funny because Pharaoh and Seto are the least chill people to have ever lived so he’s just kind of waiting it out to see whom between Seto and Kaiba gets the most angry first and completely botches it.

Yugi has to do literally nothing and for the first time in his life this is the right choice.

I’m so glad he gets to use his big brain move of “If I don’t play, no one dies!” from S1. Glad it came back to serve him for once instead of just make everyone else really annoyed.

Yugi just...not moving means it’s now Seto’s turn to put down some cards, and he kinda looks over at Pegasus and goes...well you know what’s gonna happen next.

I have no idea why he didn’t attack Pegasus. Like this episode is kind of weird because we got these flashbacks of Pegasus being like “you’re my only hope, Yugi!” and it’s like wtf, Pegasus trapped you on a murder island and tried to kill you multiple times. He abducted Mokuba and turned both the Kaiba brothers into cards.

yo did Seto and Pegasus get back together in between seasons or something? Was there a whole character development where these two have fun brunches in San Fransisco now? Because I would watch that anime. I would watch the anime where Seto and Pegasus are co-hosting Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, and just destroying every unsuspecting local restaurant they brunch in.

But are we just assuming that the eyeball did all that evil stuff from S1 and that otherwise Pegasus is a good person? Because like...he was a mess before he got possessed. He’s kind of a Yugi, he’s kind of a Bakura, he’s kind of a Marik...in that there’s a mess in that bean, and getting possesed just only amplified what was already there.

So, with his smug as hell grin, Seto surprises Dartz by only barely getting affected by this inescapable moral dilemma and Seto just very quickly deciding to do a murder. And then we get a little blimp throwback to S2 (S3? I don’t even remember at this point, since we’ve been stuck in S4 for an entire year. Thanks 2020.)

If blocking the shot when Marik did it in S3 or S2 or whenever that was, didn’t get Mai to like Joey, then it shouldn’t work if you do it a second time.

But hey, I guess it’s better than letting her perma-die. Although this show desperately needs to figure out how to use Mai if they’re gonna keep her around, youknow?

Like all ships are fine and valid here, ship whatever you want to your hearts content: I don’t ship at all, as you know, but I hope one day they give Mai a personality that is consistently likeable. I do want to like her because she’s like...good at what she does when she plays cards and can be that can be a fun “hey I’m a girl but I’m not a freakin ‘gamer girl’ you male chauvinist assholes” type of character. But, the show just...the show doesn’t know what they want outside of a little romantic tension that they legally can’t follow through because of a 5-6 year age gap with a teenager.

This show actively tries to destroy this ship, and then turns around and is like “oh shoot this ship is all we have.” This show tries to lift up Mai as a feminist icon one season, and then tears her down for being “too” feminist the next season when she decides to--youknow--kill Joey Wheeler because he made her feel weak or something when he saved her life. 

Like the show does a lot to explore weakness and strength, and how what we see as weakness is actually strength, and how what we tend to attribute as strengths is actually weakness, and how our modern career/school/success expectations set us up for failure, but I think they explored that way better with Seto than they ever did with Mai.

Could’ve been cool Mai, you could’ve been cool.

Anyhoo, that was my spicy commentary on a 10+ year old anime, good to get it off my chest.

Seto and Yami have the typical problem they have whenever they play cards together, where one goes completely rogue. Except this time, the one going rogue isn’t Seto, it’s Yami. He’s just like...I’ll make life for Seto very difficult and I will lose this game and I don’t even mind because I’m already dead, deal with it.

So honestly this is an episode where it’s just Seto demanding we kill a bastard, and Yami being like “but not THAT bastard” and Seto just shrugging and saying “I have to kill A bastard, Yugi! Just CHOOSE one!”

That actual line in the show (I forget what it was exactly) does infer that Seto thinks Joey holds him back, and that implication speaks miles about Seto’s insecurities.

HOW THOUGH..........what are you jealous of, Seto?

You’re better at cards than he is, he’s never beat you at anything. It’s not about who’s best friends with Yugi because...Yugi’s possessed so Yami is always going to take first place...

......so what could it possibly BE?

Seto doesn’t attend school anymore, is it about that? Is it because Joey is likeable? Is it because Joey pretends he has a much older girlfriend? I mean hypothetically, Blue Eyes White Dragon is WAY older than Mai so...that can’t be it.

.....what IS it???

Does the “friendship” he have with Joey make Seto too soft? Is that what’s holding him back? Because Seto doesn’t actually think he’s friends with these people and says that Yugi and co are “Mokuba’s friends” so like....

.....what are you talking about, Seto???

Is it because you’re addicted to cards again? Because that’s...sort of Joey’s fault because he was the one who told you he needed a ride to Jacksonville, and then let slip that the “King of Games” title was up for grabs, is that it?

Are you just tired of Joey asking you for a ride?

Not like it matters, because Joey survives, and Seto gets to feel like a complete asshole about it.

As Raphael (who is this purple blur here) motorcycles into the dome of souls, Rolands last words were

“You can’t go in there!”

which was the weirdest thing to say to a guy you just saw fall down a 50 story building a few hours ago. Raphael not being dead should be the thing Roland fixates on, but instead he’s seen so many people die and come back to life, that he’s only concerned that Raphael will get in trouble for trespassing.

Again, Roland is the only Kaiba that hasn’t died yet, and it’s because he’s the only Kaiba that hasn’t broken the law.

Dude. What if the reason Roland is standing outside is because he’s been politely looking for the doorbell to be let in?

...the players asking for death...like clockwork...and me asking for the end of this freakin game...we played...1 turn this episode...

This episode was 1 turn!

And you may ask...well what else could possibly happen to stretch this out and well...

Raphael dives in on a motorcycle to save the day. Which is an aesthetic, by the way, this huge man covered in like a dozen belts, doing a wheelie jump into a chasm of 1 million souls. that’s an aesthetic.

So he shows up, gets off his bike and I was like “Oh good, someone to maybe save Yugi saving Joey saving Mai?” And instead, I was...not given that.

Mostly Raphael is here because he ALSO wants to kill Dartz, and is like “can I join? I know you’ve only played like 1 round, just deal me a new hand, it’ll be fine.” and it’s like...we already played the Orichalcos Raphael, this is not a game of Uno, you cannot just jump in.

Dartz is sort of obsessed with how everyone around him has potential for evil except for him, the chillest human to ever be born, and I gotta say...when he’s in this room...Dartz has a point.

+++++++++++++RANT ABOUT BEING PERFECT FEEL FREE TO SKIP++++++++++++++

It is sort of nice to have the concept of an older generation (in this case 10,000 years older) fighting with a younger generation. To have the older, more typically wiser generation say “Listen, I kinda screwed the planet and the war economy and the prison system...and I’m gonna keep doing that...and you can’t stop me because you’re a bunch of hypocritical dumbasses.” and then the younger generation say. “We don’t care if we’re a mess, dude. We aren’t the problem here.”

I may be putting some recent topical STUFF into this mold here, but it is a nice little analogy that they made even someone who is such a human disaster as Yami and Seto “morally good” enough to fight Dartz. You don’t have to be a perfect Harvard Grad to fight the system, you don’t have to be an entirely problematic-free savior, you can be even as problematic as Seto Kaiba--just get rid of the dumb assholes trying to destroy the world. That’s all.

Like this concept is strangely prescient because in 2020 we’re in a weird time period where if you aren’t perfect, you’re not allowed to have opinions. You’re not allowed to make content. You’re not allowed to make change. This is mostly an online problem in places like twitter, but it’s a real problem--because in the end what you’re left with is no one that wants to step up to the plate because they know that they, too, are flawed.

And like not even just as a political thing, even as a creator, as an artist, I see this problem more and more with kids. Kids who are like “I am afraid to draw because what if I do it wrong and I get dragged on twitter years later?” or “I want to make a story, but I’m afraid to get cancelled because my fantasy story has problematic stuff in it? Am a bad person for wanting to write it?” And it’s like...what are we doing to young creators right now? Did we all fail humanities? How have we failed art and literature SO badly that we’ve come to this point that people are too afraid to even learn how to do it right?

Anyway that was a tangent, but like...you see the similarities, right? That if you really were as perfect as Dartz either politically or creatively, you’d be a freakin monster and would probably just tear down everyone else around you on twitter rather than lift other people up. It’s a stretch but eh, it’s been a while since I went on a good Yugioh tangent and like

---it’s not like I can say this on twitter---

+++++++++++++++END OF THAT RANT+++++++++++++++++++

So it’s at this point that Dartz turns to Raphael is like “I mean...we weren’t really doing anything else, and Yugi and Yami are playing so slowly...I guess I have time to bust your nuts” and decides to bust his nuts.

Oh hey, I was right.

And yeah, that’s still effed up. Dartz killed his Raphael’s family, left him on an island, and then adopted him later after forcing him to dig up their graves. Like...Raphael, that’s effed up.

He also did the same thing to everyone else (and for Valon he just kinda glazed over that really fast because we had to edit his backstory out of the English version)

PS at this part Mokuba started sweating bullets and Tea leaned over and was like “Is this true, Mokuba?”

And Mokuba was like “...yes.”

Because, I don’t think Mokuba can keep any secret from Tea. Like for reals, Tea may be the most dangerous thing to all of KaibaCorp if she wasn’t so distracted by Yami’s endless string of problems. Mokuba is constantly telling them all of Seto’s deepest darkest secrets and there is like nothing Seto can do about it.

The animation of Gozaburo turning into a beautiful Dartz was just a simple fade to white, but man--imagine if they had dome some crazy effed up animation where Gozaburo just whips back his head and he has ass length blue hair and long, luscious lashes?

Imagine.

Anyway, this was enough for Raphael, who was already our most gullible and unstable person on this show, to just flip that switch and go lime green like all those other minibosses before him.

Really glad we built up Raphael for him to just die at the door hahaha.

That was so freakin random.

OK then. Thanks for nothing, Raphael.

I guess we go to the next episode to see if we finally play another turn? We can hope for good things. But if we don’t play a full turn I will NOT be surprised.

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

[sebastianshaw]

Did you know marvel once hired a porn artist (no kidding, you can look up Manara if you want) to draw a kitty pryde story?

Oh my god I did not! I’m looking him up now. I never read that story but I remember the art style from seeing scans online, it’s very distinct.  I’m of two minds, basically? Like I don’t think someone shouldn’t be hired to draw mainstream work just because they also have made a name drawing erotic work. If you can draw, you can draw. Same reason I don’t think someone shouldn’t be allowed to write mainstream novels just because they write erotic work. But the problem is that like...you do need to make some adjustment in how you draw (poses, faces, etc) when you make that transition. It’s the same way that describing every woman’s boobs is fine in an erotic novel but should really not be happening in anything else. And looking at the art he did for X-Men....

...yeah, adjustsments were NOT made. Wow.

Yes, this is EXACTLY how women pose with each other naturally when we hang, we arch our backs uncomfortably and always make sure our asses are all facing the same direction. This does not look like a porn photoshoot AT ALL. Like god, it’s just...it’s not the sexiness here that bothers me, it’s how UNNATURAL it looks. These don’t look like hot ladies legitimately just having a good time in an organic way at all, this looks completely stilted, like there’s some photographer telling them exactly how to bend and what face to make and they’ve been doing this for hours. It doesn’t look like a fun sexy scene, it looks like...well, what it is, a man who is used to drawing women only for porn, trying to draw them having fun in a sexy way but isn’t used to drawing what that actually looks like, he’s used to drawing women posing for the benefit of a reader who is turning the pages with one hand, and it ends up looking really unnatural and, if you forgive the word, stiff. Ironically, it would have probably been much more sincerely sexy if it had been drawn with them NOT twisting at these angles and making porn faces, and just looked more natural instead. Women are much hotter when they just look like people having a good time and not carefully posed blow-up dolls. Also I am VERY concerned about what is happening with Storm and that pilot?! Also, looking at other pages, he’s clearly not used to drawing action sequences at all? Or combat sequences, I should say?

Like, it’s not just about it being objectifying or Storm’s ass, it’s...okay, look at Rogue’s position on the rock, look at how she’s standing. Or look at Kitty’s body when she kicks that guy, or when Psylocke punched that dude with her butt hanging out There’s no real sense of FORCE or dynamism or energy in those poses at all. He’s trying to pose them as normal women, or even DAINTILY, and that...doesn’t work for these characters or these scenes. I understand this, I also cannot draw physical combat at all, it takes a real ability to put this certainly “energy” into it or it looks very stiff and weak like this, but like...I wasn’t hired to do a SUPERHERO comic! The unfortunate thing is I do like his style. Like, I like this! 

I could do without Emma’s porn face of course, but everything else I like? I enjoy how it looks like a retro novel cover, and the colored pencil look is something rare and distinct in the age of digital art AND IT LOOKS BEAUTIFUL. The man is NOT a bad artist. And even within the X-story, there are good things--  I love the outfits he gave the girls when he WASN’T focusing on making them OMG SO SEXY?

Like, these are fun and interesting and individual. I don’t like that he seems to have just gone for the ‘sexy short cheongsam” cliche for the Asian character (especially since Betsy isn’t even in a CHINESE body, Kwannon is JAPANESE and that’s a Chinese dress ffs) but everyone else’s is frankly great. They all show different styles and personality types and I could see each lady picking that look. And, yes, they’re all short and sexy dresses or, in Rogue’s case, skintight pants. Sexiness is truly not my problem here. I love this. So clearly, he CAN think about these girls as people, he didn’t just slap the same lazy tiny basic miniskirts/dresses on them all like some artists would, he took the time to design these individual and fitting looks and that really just makes his treatment of them elsewhere that much more disappointing. I also notice they have flat boots in their costumes, which surprises me, this seems like a guy who would insist on combat stilettos. Also...Medusa...what are you doing...  

Oh, and turns out HE drew the infamous dog bone body Spider-Woman. Welp.

Honestly, maybe it’s petty, but it just makes me UPSET as someone who tries my very hardest, to see artists who have this INCREDIBLE level of talent---like there is genuine beauty here, he has loads of skill I do not---use it like THIS. The problem isn’t drawing porn, I would probably draw porn if I had the ability not to make it look massively stupid (it’s the same issue as combat, really) it’s that you can LOOK at his non-porn work and go....yeah, this looks like porn DX

[andsmile]

why do you ship dramione?-coming from a romione shipper. like how does it add up? draco is literally so terrible.

took me a while to answer this because... well, i wanted to give you a good answer. draco and hermione are my favorite ship ever. if there’s a meaning to the word OTP, they are mine.

full disclosure, i ship ron and hermione in the canon hp universe. always have, always will. i think hermione in the books and how they were constructed as a narrative for children/teens, needed someone who would challenge her and entertain her and be a little ‘out-of-the-box’, and i think ron is perfect for that. he’s definitely a happy ending for her. 

more under the cut cause this is going to be a long discussion.

however, i started reading hp when i was really young - 11 - and eventually i found fics online, and they had “bad boy/good girl” tropes featuring sexy bad boy draco, and i wanted to read that. i was a kid, and no one’s gonna judge me, everyone went through the bad boy phase. there are a thousand books and movies about it.

but that version of draco wasn’t exactly what his character was, right? we first meet him as a kid and a bully, a little racist per se, but if there’s one thing that we learn through the years and the development of the plot, is that draco is a lot...less than that. he’s not a strong sexy bad boy, he’s a weak loser. he repeats what he’s told like a parrot. he’s a product of his environment.

and what an environment!

because, let’s face it. the wizard world is crazy prejudiced. it’s awful. we see it through harry’s eyes and we love it because he loves it and because it literally saves him from an abusive home and a sad, sad childhood, but the wizard world is actually dark and full of awful people. 90% of the characters in harry potter are highly flawed. it’s not just draco. from ~all slytherins are evil to the mudblood issue, to the goblins, centaurs, and people like ron who have such a good heart but mistreat house elves just because, you see that it’s a filthy world full of ugly stuff. it’s not just draco who’s terrible. it’s not just the slytherins. they all are. james was a bully, snape sucked, everyone is grey. everyone has light and dark inside them, even dumbledore. it’s what makes hp such a great story, how complex the characters are. ron’s character (who is MY FAVORITE i swear) deals with his own darkness, and bitterness, and fears. but ron is someone harry (the narrator) loves so much so we love him too (most of us), and we witness ron’s redemption through harry’s eyes, and we forgive him. draco doesn’t get that chance.

if you read harry potter you see the building of a world and a belief - that love, friendship and good will prevail, and that all magic blood is the same. that’s on harry’s point of view. harry, who didn’t really suffer with any of those big prejudices in the magical world because he was, after all, harry potter. a kid who grew up thinking he wasn’t shit but was actually the chosen one, the savior of this world that he loved so much. 

imagine reading that book through hermione’s eyes, though: the building of a very incredible world that you love but where you have to prove yourself at every step of the way because so many people in that world think you ain’t shit. in fact, there’s a lot of focus on draco’s prejudice because he’s the first one we see using the word mudblood and he’s the first one to tell hermione she’s worth nada in ~his world when everyone else was always praising her.

imagine reading that book through draco’s eyes: the deconstruction of this world that you believed in so bad, that you thought was the greatest thing ever. you were told you were the greatest, that your family worked for the greatest wizard ever, and then, little by little, you find out that all your beliefs were stupid and everything you’ve always known was a lie, and that the lord you praised was actually a murderous monster and that you weren’t special. you weren’t shit. and the very object of your childish hate is so much better than you.

so why do i ship draco and hermione?

because they are, in my eyes, the two most complex characters in opposite ends. she’s the reason why the world he’s so used to is falling apart, she breaks his prejudices. she’s the reason why he ain’t shit. and he’s the embodiment of all the things she wants to prove wrong, and she’s so much stronger than him. she could teach him so much, she could teach him how to see the world through different eyes, through her eyes.

as for hermione, she’s always seen more in draco than harry or ron. she’s always seen a little bit past the bully even though she was often the object of his vile ways. he’s always affected her in a way that was very blatant, and i think that with her personality and tendencies, watching him change would be a way to change herself. she could become even more confident and self-aware, she could find a different meaning for love. he could teach her so much about the world she wants to be a part of, things she might never understand without someone like him.

the very meaning behind harry potter, that love should be bigger and better than hate, is what a relationship between draco and hermione could encompass, if written the right way. 

however, draco and hermione couldn’t work in a book written in someone else’s point of view. they’re not a canon hp romance, they can’t be, and it would’ve been a disservice to try and cramm a love story for them in the hp books. it can’t be treated as a fun hookup or something like that. dramione is a ship that would require patience, so many levels of redemption in his part, so many levels of forgiveness and growing up in her part. of course, if you’re in fanon and you’re already going past all of this, you can read a one shot and think ‘oh such fun dynamics’ but if you want to be convinced of dramione, you have to go for the big works that will give you a full analysis on their characters and place them together carefully. it’s not just the typical bad boy/good girl thing we all thought they could be.

the complexity of how to turn hate into love attracts me.

all the ways you can make them fall for each other and have them grow with each other attracts me.

i think hermione’s character needs and would thrive on challenge, because that’s what she’s made of. ron is a perfectly good pairing for her but imagine if she could have something even harder and more puzzling.

i think draco’s character is the weakest link and i love to see how people come up with redemption stories for him not at the expense of hermione’s character.

the dramione fandom is incredibly talented and some of the best writer’s i’ve seen in my life.

maybe they aren’t the healthiest. some versions of them are actually pretty toxic. but i think that both characters could stand being in a relationship like it if written the right way. the nuances of their ship are amazing, you just have to open your mind and think outside of the canon box.

11 year old me did that, and i’m glad, because i’m never going back.

[uniformbravo]

having a full on existential crisis over an episode of anime i watched tonight

it all started with big time rush

in 2009 a sitcom called big time rush aired for the first time on nickelodeon; it was about a group of four teenaged boys from minnesota who move to hollywood under a famous producer to become his next big boy band sensation. a simple premise, launched into unprecedented success, resulting in four seasons of musical shenanigans, three full music albums, and three big concert tours, including international shows. the band, both fictional and real life, featured four attractive young men by the names of kendall, james, carlos, and logan. they quickly gained a fan base of mostly teenage girls, which resulted in online spaces created for the purpose of sharing their passion, and as is common in such online communities, this certainly involved fanfiction- lots of it.

enter me, a teen in high school who loved to write fanfiction. my big time journey began the day my younger sister decided to put on the show big time rush in the living room, where i sat at the family computer typing away. the noise caught my attention, and i got sucked into the episode. there was a boy wearing a dress on the screen. i became interested.

i watched more of the show. i typed its name into the search bar on the website fanfiction dot net. i had a friend at school who shared my interest in fanfiction, particularly of the slash variety. i introduced her to this new show i had been watching. she shared a fanfic she had enjoyed immensely with me. we dragged each other into the world of big time rush fanfiction reading and writing.

it took over my life; i lived and breathed big time rush. i began posting my own stories to fanfiction dot net. i received positive feedback; i met people. i made friends- two people in particular who became very close friends. we communicated through ffn’s private messaging system, then through email. we talked every day, we wrote stories for and with each other, we exchanged phone numbers. it was one of these friends who introduced me to the website called tumblr, where fellow fans of our beloved big time rush gathered and talked about it- a community.

it was a slow start- this website was new and unfamiliar to me- but eventually i got the hang of things and settled into my niche. i had fun, gained followers, met even more people. tumblr was a place not only for sharing one singular interest, but for accumulating all of your various interests and celebrating them in one place. it was through this aspect that i first learned of the up and coming band known as one direction.

they had released their first smash hit single and everyone was talking about it. i was wary, far too loyal to my beloved big time rush- but eventually i started to feel left out and in an effort to feel included, i decided to take the plunge and see what this “1d” was all about. it was intimidating, though- there was so much information, and no apparent beginner’s guide to tell me where to start. this drove me to making a post calling for a “one direction buddy” to take this role, to introduce me to all the most important aspects of this band. and my call was answered.

enter my wonderful friend cam, a follower of mine at the time. they were into both big time rush and one direction and were eager to provide me with all the information needed to get into 1d. while ultimately this venture didn’t amount to anything, as i lost interest in becoming a fan, my friendship with cam persisted and we grew very close. even as time went on and big time rush faded into the background to be replaced with newer, fresher interests, and our paths as fellow fandom members split, we kept in contact and remained friends. years and years of fandoms, years and years of friendship.

in the midst of the tenth year, cam developed a new interest, in a sport called ice hockey. as is tradition, they shared their passion with me, showing me their favorite team, highlighting their favorite members. we watched a game together. personally, i’ve never been one for sports, but i am quite into anime, which consists of many genres, including the “sports” genre. one in particular that i’ve enjoyed immensely in the past is the volleyball anime, haikyuu!!. this anime devotes a lot of time to explaining and depicting the sport in a way that makes it easy for any viewer to understand the rules and inner workings of volleyball. it’s exciting. it’s the first time i’ve ever even adjacently been invested in a sport. one could even call it a gateway into the world of sports.

all this to say, when i watched that game of ice hockey with cam, the same parts of my brain that loved haikyuu!! lit up and in a classic display of my specific brand of interest, i found myself yearning for the epic highs and lows of ice hockey, but in an animated format. an animated format originating in japan. a japanese animation. an anime. my curiosity burned a hole in my brain that resulted in a combination of the google search bar and the words, “hockey anime”.

to my disappointment, i found nothing- at least, not to the degree i was hoping. there is an upcoming anime, slated to air in the fall 2021 anime season, about a group of girls who form an ice hockey team together- as it is an original project rather than an adaptation, it remains to be seen whether the anime will fall into the category of “sports anime,” or if indeed it will lean much more closely to the “moe” genre. the latter is not what i had in mind during that particular search.

adding the anime called “pride of orange” to my “plan to watch” list on myanimelist dot com, i moved onto the next result: an article about an early 2010’s anime i had never heard of before. while not about the sport i was looking for, it featured a character whose signature weapon was a field hockey stick. it wasn’t even the right sport. it was a weak, insignificant link, but all was not lost.

i happen to have an affinity for watching anime i happen upon completely by random and know little to nothing about; i found the movie “anthem of the heart” purely coincidentally, when i searched the name “jun” as part of some research for one of my original characters and discovered that it was the main character of said movie, which i then watched and ended up enjoying quite a lot. another time, when i was at best buy one day i happened upon a dvd on their dedicated anime shelf for a movie called “hana and alice”, which i had never heard of before. i liked the box art, so i took a picture of it to remember the title and watched it on my own later that week; it became one of my favorite movies.

with these and other similar experiences in mind, i saved the anime in my “plan to watch” list, and, later that same week, began my watch of “sket dance.”

it’s a school comedy anime, one of my favorite genres, so it’s no surprise that after overcoming the initial skepticism i carry into every new show i watch it quickly became my new fixation. not an obsession, but something i was pleasantly surprised to find consistently enjoyable. the characters are fun, the humor is tight and fresh, and the stories are unexpectedly touching at the right moments. everything i like to see.

which brings us to tonight. the culmination of this ten plus year string of events and occurrences. getting into big time rush. joining tumblr. meeting cam. watching anime. searching for hockey anime.

i put down my apple(TM) pencil. i set my ipad aside. i downsized the ebook window i’d been referencing. i stretched; i was hungry and tired. i’d been rereading passages of various animorphs books all day. i needed a break. i needed to sit back with some food and an episode of my latest comfort watch, sket dance. it’d be nice to set the dramatic, tragic world of animorphs aside for something lighthearted and fun in its place.

well.

i sat down with my bowl of strawberries and played the episode. it finished. i watched another. this one broke the formula a bit, played with the art style. i was into it. the preview for the next episode was mysteriously blank, and short, stating only the title. it was intriguing. i’m down for the show to get a bit more serious for an episode, i thought. i’m down for some potential backstory for one of the main three. i’m ready.

i was not ready.

bruh.

b r u h .

next two episodes proceeded to take me out back and beat me to within an inch of my life, slowly at first and then all at once. barely made it out alive. questioning everything. how can a show, so silly and goofy, do that, to me. how could i let my guard down like that. how could i be so tricked, and deceived, and blindsided like this. i don’t know who to trust. i don’t know if i can trust again. whiplash so damaging, permanent. i thought i wanted answers. i thought i wanted to know backstory. i didn’t want this. i never wanted this. emptiness

how did it come to this, these twelve years of my life. had i known back then, would i have posted that fanfiction? would i have joined tumblr? would i have sook out a “one direction buddy”? a hollow husk of a person, i am left with only my thoughts to ponder this small history of mine. the things i could have done differently. the things others could have done differently. all these butterfly effect moments, adding up to what? culminating in what? it’s 2:26 am and i’m writing an essay on how shook i am over that episode instead of going to sleep. but i can’t just say nothing, you know? i need to put something out there, reach deep enough within myself to find the thing that’s still there, broken and huddled and tiny as it is. i need to feel some semblance of the self again. the me from before i watched this episode. the innocent version of myself, blissful in ignorance. it’s too late now.

that episode…………..was fucked up. that was seriously fucked up. im not okay bro they really just came in left field and slapped that in my face expecting me to get up and walk away just fine afterwards like No that isn’t how this Works y’all need to bundle some therapy sessions with ur episodes pullin that shit come ON

exhaustion is taking over the shock, i am simply tired now. i will fall asleep and when i wake up sket dance will be a happy fun show again with NO fucked up backstories ever Or Else. i’m fucking serious right now i’m gonna count to 3 and that shit better be retconned when i turn around,

screams

thank you

[funkymbtifiction]

Hi Charity! I’m the person who thought they had low Fe but were actually EFJ. Can I just say that when I sent in my question, I did not expect to get slapped in my face with my MBTI type and enneagram. Reading the EFJ profile on your blog was like reading a page where each line was a checklist I didn’t know I had been ticking off. Heck! Even the enneagram 2 profile hit home, even though I’ll deny it.

Mod: I’d say I’m sorry but... I ain’t. No point in running this blog if it’s not to help people see themselves. ;)

So, the reason I waited a bit before sending this ask is because I wanted to search for more information about EFJ types as this discovery opens a whole new can of worms, I didn’t want open. In fact, the first thought I had after realizing that I’m an EFJ is that no one will take me seriously if they knew I am some emotional type.

Mod: People online who discount that you have anything to say because you are an “emotional” type are jerks not worth knowing, since there’s feelers who are smarter than thinkers sometimes. It doesn’t mean you are more or less intelligent, have a higher or lower IQ, are more or less likely to succeed in life, nada, zip, zilch. People who think that way are newbies or fools. Graduates of MBTI know the ups, downs, good and bad, of all 16 types and appreciate them for their strengths and don’t shine up their weaknesses.

Also, screw them. Neil deGrasse Tyson is an ENFJ and smarter than them all. ;)

Offline... nobody cares. Seriously. Being a Fe-dom won’t get you hired or fired, being a feeler matters to nobody of value in your life. To most people, it’s just a fun online quiz you take, get an INTJ answer, and go on about your life going “OMG YOU LOVE PUPPIES AND ICE CREAM TOO? THAT IS SUCH AN INTJ THING. UP HIGH.” (#NotAnINTJ)

You’d asked why I ruled out NFJ or EFJ in general. Well it’s because of a few reasons. The first would be the general assumptions or stereotypes associated with Fe-doms like the Soccer Mom, Popular/Mean Girl, Social Butterfly, etc. All of these people are actually ‘socially involved’ and I’m not? At school and even in Uni, I’m just a middle of the pack person instead of the popular-cool-kids.

Aww, you are not a 3w2 Mean Girl? Bummer. Them bitches go far. ;)

To my question(s)! I related to low Fe because I’m some kind of an emotional disaster, probably unhealthy. I have no idea what to do to be healthier? Or what I can do to actually incorporate this newfound knowledge into my life.

In the deleted section, it sounds like you’ve had childhood emotional trauma -- I highly suggest finding the best counselor you can afford, because until you deal with your past and any hurts lurking there, it’s going to be hard to move forward. You can put a patch on a tire, but it’s still gonna leak air sometimes.

The other thing that threw me for a loop about my ENFJ discovery is that I can’t stand abstract topics. I had to take a philosophy class one semester and I hated it. I read through ESFJ profiles but they didn’t fit, especially when I realized that I show low Se recklessness at times of stress. Like I mentioned in my original ask, Uni made me realize I used Se because I loved the physical stimulation I experienced, how I started taking care of the quality and kind of clothes, makeup and skincare I wore and used. I loved being able to experience the city, getting on the bus and actually going places (even though it terrified me at first).

Possibility #1: You don’t fully understand what abstract topics are -- ENFJs are about seeing what people could be / their potential (like the ENFPs) and nudging them toward it or they can take up an impersonal interest like physics. Philosophy is heavily Ti-based, which means you might not like it much.

Possibility #2: You’re an ESFJ who doesn’t fully understand Si/Ne as a process.

Possibility #3: Growing up, as a Fe-dom, you found it easier to loop into an outward-pointing function (Se) and have under-developed Ni, in which case you need Ni development (spending time internalizing, conceptualizing, seeing the implications of things, getting a firm idea in your mind of what you want in terms of a life, a career, a partner).

The ENFJ character profiles all have characters with some ‘grand vision’ or sudden insights into people, but doesn’t everyone have that? Everyone can make astute judgments about situations and people. I thought ENTJ profiles might explain aux-Ni better, but it showed similar explanations. I know now that I’m not a Se-dom, so I’m confused.

1) ENFJ characters are archetypes.

2) No, not “everybody makes astute judgments.” There are literally thousands of people across history who have gone: Gee, I didn’t realize that guy was an ax murderer, he seems so nice... I never suspected that old lady was poisoning people... I lived with my uncle/brother/cousin/husband for 45 years and never knew he was a child molester... it never crossed my mind that... etc. Having an astute ability to judge people and situations is a gift, and not everybody has it.

If you are oblivious to your Ni and/or it’s under-developed, you wont resonate with it or understand it until you start cultivating it. Best profile to read for Ni conceptualization is the INJ profile. Read it, think about it, practice doing it, give it time, and give yourself grace. It’s often hard for an extrovert to strengthen their inward-pointing functions, especially if you have an Enneagram type that directly resists focusing inward (like 2 or 9, both of which have an outward focus and muddy the mental waters).

- ENFP Mod

[lobster-mobster-aq]

A Deep Dive Into the SAO I Thought I Was Watching

Read below the cut or here.

Have any of you ever read or watched a thing and thought it was well written and executed? Have you ever looked back a few years later and realize that you put way more thought into that piece of media than the author did? That perhaps maybe it was more of an accident that it was enjoyable than any real skill from the author? That the themes and symbolism and characterization weren’t really what you thought they were at all? That the elements that you thought were interesting and unique where just copy pasted from things that did them more cleverly but you just didn’t realize because you just hadn’t seen those things in other pieces of media before?

That was me with Sword Art Online.

The first part of season one at least. I unironically loved it. It wasn’t like I thought that it was perfect, but there was just something about it that I really enjoyed. I couldn’t help but wonder why people were so hard and down on it. It was a bit stupid but honestly name one anime fantasy show (or I guess SAO was technically sci-fi) that wasn’t stupid in some regard. And then there came the Alfheim arch and I um…kind of realized what everyone was talking about. I still held out for a bit. This was adapted from novels after all. Clearly they just rushed this part in order to get it to be the correct number of episodes.

*sigh*

But this isn’t going to be another essay about why SAO is…not objectively great. To be honest I still really like the first part. I recognize at this point, since I don’t really like anything else by Reki Kawahara that it is more chance and luck that I like the first part of season one of SAO than the fact like I like his writing. No, what this essay is going to be is an analysis on the show that I thought I was watching. A deep dive into the themes and ideas that I had assumed this show was about. I put tons of thought into watching the show, somewhat in defense of all the complaints it was getting. No guys, you have to realize, its actually good. Okay, here we go.

 Our world has been shaped by electronics. The fact that the internet exists has completely and radically changed our culture. The way we communicate, the way we think, and the way we experience relationships have all changed dramatically due to it. There have been many pieces of media that have explored it’s affect on culture, some mourning the change, some fearing it, and some embracing it. Today I want to talk about a show that touches on all three.

Sword Art Online, at it’s heart, is a show about how the things that happen online, in the digital world, mean something, whether those things be positive or negative. Any of us who have met people, or have internet friends, been bullied, or spent time in a video game have probably been told that it doesn’t count, since it is online. They’re not real friends, why bother spending time decorating a fake house in a game, it’s all just fake, why don’t you go outside and experience real life?

SAO is an unassuming, light hearted stab at that argument, and it does it by making the digital world a horrifying reality.

The premise of SAO is by no means unique. People get stuck in a video game, in this case the name of which is Sword Art Online, because the game is online, and they fight with swords. I’ve seen this trope before, you’ve probably seen this trope before, but SAO is the first time I’ve ever seen it where the stakes feel so real. Where the fun fantasy game takes on the harsher sides of real life, striping away the sense of safety that online interactions usually have, you don’t die for real, you have the ability to pretend to be someone you’re not. If the characters die in the game, they die in real life.

The main character is Kirito. Total loser nerd, real “you just don’t understand me” otaku, can’t talk to real people type. At first the main character throws himself into the world, instantly getting close to people and participating with others, becoming fast friends with another person Klein. Kirito seems to not care about his image, just loving to live in the world. Others buy the fact that he is an emotionally mature, competent, and cool individual.

Then blood drips from the ceiling of the game and some creepy, giant, cloak dude announces that you can’t log out of the game, and if you die in the game you die in real life. That the only way to escape the game is for at least one person to clear all one hundred levels. Akihiko Kayaba, the creator of the game, has for some reason no one can figure out, trapped everyone there. Oh, and also you no longer look like what you chose your character to look like, you are yourself. The aspects of the digital world, the safety net, the training wheels, are off.

Kirito flees. In the face of having to interact with people without the veneer of playacting, he falls into old habits, withdrawing into himself because he’s too scared to interact with people, he’s frightened of real human interaction. He puts on a front, claiming to himself it’s because he can’t be held back by the weaker characters, that the reason he flees from real human interaction is because he needs push himself to the limits of his character, and he can’t do that with all the dead weight. But it’s clear that’s just the lie he tells himself to cover up the truth. He, like many people, can’t stand his own self, and the internet was a good way to hide who he really was. He abandoned the connections he made at the start of the game, and he never fully repairs some of them. Klein was set to be a close and important friend, instead he becomes, at most, a distant acquaintance.

Kirito goes about his life, keeping himself from others, becoming incredible at the game, putting himself on a pedestal and telling himself that’s why he can’t interact with the riff raff, because he’s better than them. He is set apart from them because of his skill, and not because he has horrible interpersonal skills and doesn’t know how to actually interact with people without a false persona to hide behind. But then one day, he finally breaks, and a rag tag team convinces him to join their guild.

And everything goes to shit and everyone dies except Kirito. And these people are dead, for forever. This isn’t just something where they can log into the game again. Real relationships can hurt, because the consequences will have lasting effects, your can’t just log in later with a new avatar and start over. True, the consequences of a real relationship usually isn’t that the people you’ve come to care about die horrific deaths, but the point is still made. This world, which Kirito had entered in the hope of escaping a reality that he hated, had all the things of the real world he had been trying to escape. The fear of connection, the fear of being known. Even if he is a skilled and talented person now, instead of some hopeless loser good at nothing, somehow all the pain of real life still followed him. It doesn’t matter, this wish fulfillment is shallow, it doesn’t fulfill the wishes that Kirito actually cares about.

So Kirito withdraws even more, more convinced than ever that the only way to return to his reality, to get away from the hell that is the game is to set himself apart. Still playacting the part of some noble and untouchable genius, too advanced and cool to deal with the riff raff. He has a couple other adventures, where he denies himself real human interaction and keeps a cool appearance. Never getting too close to the people he interacts with. He keeps them at arms length. They look on at him as some distant and noble hero that can’t be understand, and Kirito wants to keep it that way, so that no one can meet the real him, the him that is weak, and pathetic, and a loser, and doesn’t know how to talk to people. Let them think he’s quite because he’s thoughtful, not because he doesn’t know what to say, let them think that he’s too far above them to form a connection, not that he’s terrified of vulnerability.

But then he meets a girl. She goes by the name Asuna and she just, kind of, doesn’t seem to get it. She just sort of acts like an actual person, and doesn’t seem to get the memo that she’s supposed to treat Kirito like some anti-hero loner. From an interaction that he actually had with her earlier on in the game, Kirito knows that she didn’t have much experience with video games before SAO. She has come into her own though, and she’s come into her own by acting like a reason person. In a way, she represents the exactly opposite of Kirito. Kirito hides his true personality and feelings behind a bit, because this world is too real to him, has all the aspects of real life he fled from. Asuna treats SAO like a game. She’s a pragmatic person who just wants to defeat the final boss so they can get out and get back to her real life. She doesn’t feel like the relationships here are real. Sure, they could lose their lives, but everything else is fake. The people you meet, the time you spend, just all twiddling your thumbs. Fake, not real, just a silly pass time for silly people.

This difference is driven home at the end of the show, where Kirito shares his real name, and asks what Asuna’s is so that he could find her. Surprised, Asuna says that she has been using her real name. The whole time, Kirito had been playacting a character, where as Asuna had just been herself.

They filled in a void in each other. Asuna get’s Kirito to really interact with people again, instead of keeping them at arms length, and Kirito helps Asuna see that the relationships you form online do matter, that, even in a silly game, the things you do and the people you meet have a lasting effect even when you log out.

There are a couple of arcs where Kirito and Asuna interact. The arcs continue to explore the idea of the difference between the importance of the digital world and reality. Including one of the best arcs of the entire show, where Asuna and Kirito have to solve the mystery of how people are dying in a safe zone, an area of the game where people aren’t supposed to die.

Kirito and Asuna predictably fall in love. Kirito showing Asuna that the relationships formed in the digital world do actually mean something real, and Asuna bringing Kirito out of his edge lord shell that he made for himself, to reveal that in truth he’s kind of an awkward dork. Once they actually fall in love the show takes an interesting turn. Their relationship looks nothing like that of two teenagers both experiencing a romantic relationship for the first time. It looks like an idyllic old married couple. They even do get married and adopt a child in the show. At first glance it may seem too unrealistic, but was actually one of the most clever character developments about the show. This development was meant to show case the effects that living in a “fantasy world” had put on these two young people.

Both Asuna and Kirito were living in the kind of world that teenagers dream about. What had been a fantasy and a form of escapism for them both was now reality. And it was awful, when the fantasy world had real stakes and real consequences. So what do these two do when they fall in love? They create for themselves another form of escapism. That of an old suburban married couple. In a way their marriage is an act, a way to lessen the stress of living in a dangerous world. Just two simple people, living a calm, unexciting, but never the less content life, because they had each other. The show never addresses how aware they are they that they are in fact acting out a part. Do they realize that they are playing parts? Or have they convinced themselves this is how a normal couple acts. The show never really gets into it, merely using this time to show how desperate the two are for a “normal” life, after the pain and horror of their escapism becoming reality. These few episodes, where they take a vacation after getting married, more clearly illustrate how much they have suffered more than any dramatic wailing, or desperately pained speeches they could give. Every moment they snuggled in bed, made food for each other, and took walks in the forest, spoke of the desperation they felt, even if it was for only a little, to get as far away from the world that they lived in.

After Kirito and Asuna live their escapist fantasy of being an old married couple we come to the climax. They are only on level seventy-five of one hundred, but they still barely pass. During it though, Kirito finally realizes something.

The person who had designed the game and trapped them all in there, Akihiko Kayaba, was playing. Kayaba was playing a character with all the skills, one of the best players in the game. Kirito realizes that Kayaba is living out his own fantasy, that this world was created, not for some grand purpose, not for a political statement, or to accomplish something grand. Simply to live out his fantasy. Who Kayaba is as a person is never really explored, all we know about him is that this world was for him, a way for him to make reality the world he always wished to live in. A world where he was important, a world where he was the leader and people respected him, and he lead others bravely.

Kayaba becomes the final boss, and predictably he is beaten after a grand fight of a lot of sword thrusts and sparkle animations. Once Kayaba is defeated, the world begins to slowly fade, as if to reaffirm that, yes, without Kayaba alive, the world has no purpose, since it was created for him.

Kayaba even speaks with Kirito and Asuna. A meandering, pandering discussion, where Kayaba tries his best to hold onto some remnants of the man he was pretending to be. We see a brief glimpse of the kind of limp, spineless jerk Kirito would have become if he hadn’t grown up. We see Kayaba in his real form, not his game avatar, but still he speaks in vague poetic language, he talks about having a dream about a city in the sky and makes his base and selfish desires to be important sound like some noble hope. He claims he “doesn’t remember why” he trapped them all in there. In a way that’s true. Because until the very last moment, SAO was real to everyone trapped in there, except for Kayaba. He had the power to change things, to hack the system, to live as a god. For him, the game was his personal fantasy manifest into reality.

After Kayaba dies, and is defeated, he realizes this, and covers his own disappointment of his project with his pretty language. He didn’t “forget” he just realized that it was pointless. None of the attachments he ever made were real, the life he led in the game had, for him, merely been a game. The only real moment was when he let Kirito kill him. He could have hacked the system and made it so he didn’t die in real life but he didn’t, in some desperate attempt to live something real as the world he had created crumbled apart.

Kayaba leaves, and Asuna and Kirito promise they will find each other in the real world. They will meet the real versions of themselves. What they experienced in the digital world was real, and they will cling to it in the real world too.

The world continues to fade, and then Kirito wakes up. His real body thin and weak. The show ends with him getting out of bed and walking through the hospital. No epilog, or final comments. We don’t know if Kirito is looking for someone specific, or simply looking to tell someone he is now awake, he’s come back, and he’s ready to become the real him.

…

But that wasn’t the end of the show and every episode after that one just reaffirmed the fact that I probably thought a bit more about the themes and the characterization that Reki Kawahara did. He seems like a nice enough guy but…after reading some of the books and watching more of the material, I don’t think he meant most of what I just described. Maybe a bit of the whole, what you do in the digital world matters and is real, but not much of anything else. I’m thinking that Kirito was supposed to be taken literally, not as an antisocial teenager terrified of real connection putting on a front. I’m pretty sure that the relationship between Kirito and Asuna wasn’t supposed to be seen as a form of escapism fantasy, and that they actually weren’t putting on a front when they acted like an old married couple. Also I might have read way more into Kayaba’s motivation than I was meant to.

At the end of it all, I still like the first part of season one. I like my interpretation. Yes there are still problems with the pacing, the end feels like it just sort of…happens, instead of getting to it naturally. Kirito just, suddenly realizes the truth. The second half doesn’t carry nearly the weight it should in terms of “holy shit this world is real if you die in the game you die in real life” which lessens the strength of the themes. There are, of course, a few other small things I thought could be changed, but that’s not really what this article is for. Perhaps in a way this is my defense for liking that part of SAO, or at least an explanation for why I’ve watched it multiple times even though I’m not fond of the rest of the franchise.  

 Bonus:

This isn’t really big enough to have it’s own post so I’m just gonna put it here, the way SAO ends in my head.

This, of course, takes place at the end of the first part. Pretty much everything stays the same all through the credits as Kirito takes his painful and slow time walking down the hospital hallway. Then the music end, and instead of going black, we see Kirito stop. He looks to his side, where one of the hospital doors are open. Inside the room is a frail looking girl staring at a NervGear helmet, her hair is chestnut brown. She looks up and her eyes go wide as she sees Kirito. We switch back to Kirito, his eyes are also wide. They tear up the slightest amount, and a faint smile touches his face.

We cut to black.

The end and nothing is ever done with this franchise again.

[xesoteric-extraterrestrialx]

I am not suicidal, references

“The never ending story”

I am Midna Saria Zelda

I am Rosalina Daisy Peach

I am (Never finished the game) Namine Kairi

I am thumbalina I am Anastasia

Pocahontas , jasmine , Ariel , venelope , tangled, mulan

Princess’s in both avatars and valarien 1000planets

I am the pink (cartoon) panther Sherlock Holmes

I am flame princess I am marceline I am princess bubblegum (berry princess too) (male opposites too so nyah)

Observers are like inside out emotions

(other beings will be harder to explain, 6th sense, paranorman, dragonfly, (find a movie that shows how we see them too hard to explain) (predator halosuits basically, see little bit of the lining and can tell it’s them and the baseball field one can feel // sense they’re there // see the “invisible” lining, some entities make heat radiation movements when move? Like heat off a car on hot day, the outline of them is easier to see, the glitches and eyes too but idk how to explain...)

(Others come through devices like digimon, time travel room like digimon, girl who lept, summer wars, etc- so we must be online - interweb- connect to astral realm- how to stop them controlling dreams and have lucid ones again- how to connect to multiverse

(Last dream I gave them cereal but why did they put me on a bus... suspicious... They rape me during it too after we passed a snowy street... (learn to wake from them when you realize you’re not in control or change it drastically and don’t allow them access to do so anymore somehow, well get there! They lied about protecting while I sleep.. (healing ones & the one whom says they claim me..) I bubble self somehow, someone protects me from remembering or experiencing full dream- thankful of light beings)

Sugar spice and everything nice = wake up I am the spice girls Ginger - social sporty - masculine scary - dark// used to be sexual posh - used to be judging baby spice (don’t care if anyone doesn’t understand littles) - feminine (but goth darks- pales - pastels)

Raven, Lydia Deetz, Legion, Hana fruits basket, jasper empath abilities can absorb their sadness like Deetz, puzzles like brea, avatar elements, power up, the last mimzy, X-men- abilities)

Mc’s based off Sakura meme and Sleepy Ash character types (bunch more but these two are of age above 21 (find more anime’s like new game kawaii slice of life character like me (kagura is a little, that anime she seems like she morphs chibi but it just express’s how a little is, more laid back and chillen with video games or cartoons compared to more conscious and active when around others, sleepy ash does it too, get all meh and like a chibi mini plushie of themselves- Harley Quinn is a little, jinx LEauge of legends, Shiro, Raven and more, Lucy// Nyuu but more intelligent kind of, find autistic characters too or just explain in this all// trauma like Crona) and older dudes, my hero pro hero’s for ex) // my characters will be 27 & 29)

I am Carrie (world of gumball- she’s eons)

I am the swan princess, peach, nausica studio Ghibli princesses

I am sweet pea(escapism) & baby doll(dissociation), rocket, blondie, amber (5 personas)- sucker punch

I am number four - abilities as well - find 7 or more

Star Wars (still need to watch all) I am probably another character too but I know the first Queen and they used that to use humanity against me but I already wanted them saved so forgot what it said in there but there were no coincidences when they were threatening to slaughter me and tried to kill me in the hospitals(cpep for sure- stole some memory and deja vu of dying there before, they had time wars too because of all info and trying to wed me.. & manipulate but I can’t be mk ultraed like they usually do with gangstalking, safest here since these can’t slaughter me either just collecting spiritual evidence while living here and will move out once afford, trying to help wake them up matrix wise but was told they were slaughtered and reptilians roleplaying as my family, tried to kill me multiple times and try to say go sin and bs but I’m not dumb I need to save all and they’re gross af lmao, like precious so disgusting.. & that movie where the girl did ballet and I connected it to jokers ballet.. both sides are sin spiritually so I will save up for my own place(damsel haha my life.. *repunzel.. tangled.. Cinderella- into the woods- save self and escape like su) and try to heal them from afar, even if they don’t try to heal I can give food and help out financially, won’t be with that soul group or these reptilians next round but can’t die and living for eons (matrix shuts down if I die it felt weird- static numb- pins and needles) since illuminati(organization 13) are trying to get me (namine- kairi) ,) start business in basement of art and my own merch kawaiispooky healing shadow light work and then get place of own, can use rl experiences to write about like I am rn) & princess Leila and probably another like guardians of galaxy I am green skinned pink hair and the empath from second (sister is the blue sister in first) princess in valareian(explains my soul and outside worlds) and mc girl (vessel- makes it easier for others to understand, so many perspectives)

(Gypsy - me) priest - sin religion control (knight - humanity) quaz- new fam members whom feel like him (don’t judge them if they help they’re like super hero’s!) but are positive and good spirited

Use frequencies during sad or bad parts to attract beings whom need to vent or heal from those things and let them vent and express self crying or gratitude, beautiful message of healing and then higher frequencies so beings from higher realms can help guide them through the healing process instead of being trapped by beings whom don’t want to heal, heal and sage out as many as you can help, all need to heal!!! Healing = beautiful strength

(Hunger games situation (I am catniss) (studio Ghibli princess mononoke- attack on titan (walls map)- sword art (tower like transformers) - SU - X-men - MIB - trolls 2 map - children of whales map - Zelda map (need to double check Zelda map) ) (Batman lego movie and lego movie) (twilight zone)

Spice girls - dc super hero girls (Harley Quinn and Barbara) - Charlie angels - kill bill - dogma

Flcl- work station symbolism - dead leaves- panty and stocking - redline

Vessel - Zelda human (Janine, silent, aka timid, tangled, mulan, Cinderella-elf) princess, also the zora princess’s ruto (mipha-another realm- higher realm-Aqua also made reps know they can be healers too when they watched I learned about that- healing- Pocahontas- Anunnaki) deku princess(lower realm- reps-Ravens story -jasmine), Spirit sage saria (3rd earth abilities-nature-ferngully-fae-Persephone-protector of nature-sage) & soul - minda twilight princess (higher realm- Tiamat- space-rosalina-Brave-venelope)

Soul old soul, Spirit new soul, vessel autism

Lonely island - turtle

Eevees

(I don’t trust the chancler- rat race jupiter ascending, dark crystal, Star Wars)

(Empire- cabal - organization-Galactic Fed13(Supposed to be like Star Wars and will be- supposed to be like lilo and stitch and supposed to be like guardians of the galaxy)

(Rebels are 7deadlysins(Pink is 4th) sins but really lazy 6- related to the empire but ones that wants to end sin) (empire doesn’t want eveyone spiritual to have control-7 want to wake all up so all can heal or at least I do, pretty sure the six just want to dom me in the past.. So we are not lust we hate be lusted for and we stand for empathy and justice! We are all multi gender and they make fun of my feminine side (in past and killed me since I didn’t want the business to be the way it was and didn’t want to be morman with them since literally everyone is related to everyone and they’re made I realize that again and that’s why they’re freaking out that I want to be single forever- garnet stronger than you- they are jasper I am Lapris-spinel symbolism is Janines reactions to all of this and how innocent we truly are.. Pink diamond is truly is and our story but backwards so many hate us, we died and grew to realize life’s beauty like in the rose video tape but they grounded us and other races took over- night began to rise teen Titans music story- pink is I- evil wizard made matrix- wake up everyone!!! Don’t be afraid of your spiritual strengths or you’ll be trapped in the matrix eternally!!!!!!) so all have to realize sensitivity and symphony and empathy are strengths not weaknesses!!!)

Dead in real life- matrix is like spotless sunshine- going through her memories deleting and creating new ways that they like- programming I- Janine is the spark of brain-aura lights- all fuse into I janines consciousness and they want to wake me back up and I’ll be alive but only with janines memories.. but I’m princess and choosing to heal all and find solution to heal entire egg - brain remove THIER corruption (33 players made online game to crest ultimate lover) wake up like ghost in shell but Frankenstein or AI as programmed chobit, all humans are like this too in pods like matrix because humanity failed and ai war in past (9, last mimzy, AI, I robot) save nature learn lessons spark everyone’s free will- all brains connected (matrix, online multiplayer but not because organic so it’s really spiritual but to make sense of it it is also AI like computer and video games!! Movies have Easter eggs multiple perspectives, find out whom your soul is and spiritually wake up, everyone will be mocked!) I’m not the only one but at same time here I am if that even makes sense.. (favorite daughter like Ariel aka Jasmine) I may be the only one because I am the chosen one, I am the Universe(Soul).. Mother Gaia(Spirit) but Janine(Vessel//Temple) (not supposed to be a prison nor is the planet, let’s fix it and if the only way is staying alive forever then so be it and let’s heal the whole egg and live together peacefully but please don’t let them turn me into a tool or deceive anyone or force sin I am against sin!) (If not I shall be karma for the lack of empathy and removal of sin in all universes- there’s multiverses) (end result hopefully beach race from valarien but abilities like X-men and peaceful and many races and beautiful nature and growth not trauma-no sin)

[goldenart0]

I am someone who believes that most stories would do better if there was a character (specifically protagonist) who just puts all of there points into charisma. Like, I love villains that are just Manipulative Bastards (like MCD Zane, brilliant character and villian. A dick, but well written), but honest to god having protagonists doing those things is equally as awesome to me.

And there’s also kinda this thing with Oscar ending up giving characters morality crises (I specifically saw on thing with Neo and Cinder as like a ‘what if Neo and Cinder ended up kidnapping Oscar but he just ends up giving them a morality crises) because baby. But then I thought, okay that, but more on purpose. Like specifically trying to get people to have morality crises or just not kill him.

So of course I put two and two together, and ended creating a list of reasons I think it makes sense for Oscar to be the kind of character with all point into charisma and such.

1) It fits his actually character so far.

Oscar from what we’ve seen always tends to try talking over nearly any other plan. In V5 he got Ruby to kinda open up a bit. Durning his fight with Hazel in V5 after learning Hazel’s story he tries to convince Hazel to move on and not blame anyone other then his sister for it (“did she know the risks?”). V6 he tried talking to Jaune after the group told JNR about Salem. And in V7, while everyone else was either fighting someone or trying to get to safety, he went to talk to and convince Ironwood to stop what he’s doing. There have been quite a few times where this tactic has failed, but the point still being it’s what he nearly always defaults to. Talk and convince other as opposed to jumping to punching them. Also, in V7 when everything was kinda falling apart in Atlas while they were at the party and James was panicking because the plan was falling apart, Oscar was the one to help James realize (maybe even help come up with a plan) that this isn’t as bad as it seems and that they can turn in around. This isn’t just plain optimism, this is taking the scene and finding a way to make in work in your favor. Which I’m sure is something that will come real handy soon. On that note, since (I’m like 90% sure) we’re out of act two and into act three, things will start to look up a bit more for our protagonists. And by most means they are in a very bad situation right about now. But as we’ve seen, bad situations can be turned good in you think right.

1.5) Also, he’s not the best fighter. And he knows this. In volumn six he specifically comes into the ship with Maria to help by watching from above. He doesn’t work well by being in the front lines, and he knows that. Besides this group needs someone who can deal with, ya know, people and most of them not really seem to fill that role quite that best (I know ruby can deliver her speeches in moments if need, but could she handle a professional meeting or discussion? I think not).

2) It’s not a typical story path.

These traits of making situations work better for you and convincing other to do things you’d like (ie.dont kill me) tend to be traits more given to villains as opposed to heroes. Think about it. How many villain to you know that manipulated and cunning compared to heroes. Not much in this day and age. But RWBY has done this kind of thing before. Take Ruby for example. Just looking at her we see dark colors, a cloak, a not typical hero weapon. But then we meet her and? It’s a bouncy girl who loves weapons, loyal to her friends, and with a spark that just won’t go out. She does not seem like what we’d expect by just given her design. Oscar himself already does this to some degree. He is the actual definition of a chosen one protagonist. And yet he is not the protagonist at all, and honestly that makes this idea even more fun. As I said, this is a trait that villains tend to get. Chosen one heroes never really get this, they fight to cunning villain instead. So seeing that flipping of traits and breaking of tropes is wonderful to me, and I love it and I hope RWBY never stop doing it.

3) Greek Mythology:

There are two main kinds of heroes in Greek mythology (at least as we’ve been able to find and collect, mythology is Fucking Weird sometimes. Most times history and time don’t really help much). The prideful one, who gets destroyed by their own hubris and the cunning one. Salem falls very much into the first of those. She’s like a Bellerophon, trying to reach the gods but being struck down, or an Icarus flying to close to the sun. Oscar on the other hand seems to be a bit more like Odysseus, may not physically be the strongest, but damn he was smart enough to get out of many bad situations. Or Heracles who, despite what modern media tends to show him as, was really fricken smart. The dude managed to trick Atlas into taking the sky back by basically saying he’d take it back but then went “fun fact! I lied. Bye!”. He figured out how to take down enemies many thought were immortal though smarts and figuring out their weaknesses. He realized when he couldn’t physically do something, found a way to do it, and won some horse along the way. Ancient Greece really liked to say, Brawns won’t do you shit if you don’t have the brains to back then up, and even when as far to go with that brains were more important then brawns at points. Also, remember that story with Atlas and Heracles I just told you? Well I mean they are in Atlas and they need to find some shiny relics...

4) There will be no victory in strength:

One of the main themes in RWBY is how you can’t just fight your way out of everything. Now the main group hasn’t quite realized this yet, hence why they were so upset about the Salem thing. But Oscar is the epitome of this idea. He doesn’t go straight to fighting the majority of the time, and tries to talk with people and convince them to change. Now I’m not saying he should try that with Salem, I highly doubt that’ll work, but honestly it would probably work with most of the other antagonists in the series. (“I don’t need to be able to beat you in a fight, I just need to be able to convince you to fight someone else”).

5) Plans

Honestly, quite a few of the groups in RWBY are not the best planners. The protagonists a) tend to only think about what to do immediately and b) go to fighting first. They also don’t really back up plans, just kinda wing it of plan A doesn’t work. Ironwood is very rigid in his plans, both as not being able to deal well is the plan fails, and in letting other people bring up other ways to handle something. But as I say earlier, Oscar was the one to convince Ironwood that not all hope was lost and that new plans can be made out if the ashes of the old one. It’s sort of a “think ten steps ahead, but also look out for any opening and play with the hand you’re dealt” kind of thing. Because taking chances when you see that and bending a situation to fit what you need is very much a more manipulative move, but also can be very helpful. Especially is current plans are failing. Or everything is very very bad at the moment. And Oscar is the only we’ve really seen to something like that. Everyone else just tends to find a way that works and just stick with it, not really making room to be flexible. Flexibility is important you guys.

6) Possible Semblance:

I think one thing most of us all agree on is that there is no way that Oscar can just be holding in all of his emotions and just, like, be fully mentally ok at this point in time (okay honestly none if the kids are) and I at least would like for him to just snap. And I think a main part of that will be not having people listen to him (ie. James just shooting him instead of listen to what he had to say) and not being seen as himself and who he is. And we know that Semblances tend to relfect in a person. With all that being said, there is a power that could manage to not only hit that current issues Oscar’s having mentally, but also with the while ‘convincing others’ part. Glamour. Now I might be the only one that read about this because of what I’ve found online, but Fae Glamour, as well as being able to make you look different, can also ness with peoples brains a bit. Just like, some making you believe something different here, some changing if your perspective on reality there ya know? Oh if you’ve ever read the series, The Invisible Library (I recommend you do if you like fantasy, the multiverse, fae, dragons, etc.), the librarians in that have the ability to make this to things, the farther from what it’s normally be like the more effort it takes. Kinda like that. This also ties in with Oz general Fae-like thing. I’m not joking he’s very much like a Fae. (This would also tie into my next point woo transitions).

7) Conflict:

As has been said before, these sorts of things are not usually hero traits. And there are definitely people on the group who may not be the most okay with someone doing things that aren’t fully morally right all the time and that could very well cause some issues. Issue that is even occur would probably be dealt with in a more timely manor but still. (Also the FNDM might not like it as much as well, cause no one seems to understand that morality isn’t just black and white).

I think that’s all? I might end up adding more is I remember or think of it. Well thanks for surviving my ramble if you did read it all

[skekzok-the-ritual-master]

Out Of Character Questions

ROLEPLAYER GET TO KNOW YOU PROMPT

Tagged by: @hedonistschambers

Tagging: @ask-skeksa-the-mariner, @allpowerfulemperor, @asktheornamentalist, @askurva-thearcher, and anyone else who wants to :)

OOC About Your Character(s)

1.     What do you want to get out of playing this character(s)?

I used to RP on Tumblr a lot in the Megamind fandom, and seeing other Dark Crystal RPers on here made me want to try getting back into RP a little. Since I don’t have any Dark Crystal OCs who lend themselves well to RP, I decided to go with a canon character, and skekZok was a prominent one who hadn’t gotten a blog yet. I’ve always liked looking at characters and thinking about what makes them tick, so this gives me a fun chance to do that for him.  

2.     Describe your character(s) with three words.

Cultured | Sadistic | Hypocritical 

3.     What made you decide to write this muse?

I’d been following the blogs of a few other Skeksis RPers, and the absence of Zok had been remarked on. Since he’s one of my favorites, I decided to make a blog for him and join in the fun.

4.     If you could change one event in your muse’s life (in their main or canon verse), what would you change?

That’s a tough one, because Zok really doesn’t suffer that much in canon compared to other characters. I might stop ZokZah from trying to burn out part of his soul, but skekZok wouldn’t exist and there wouldn’t be much of a story if I did that. (If we include the JM Lee novels, I’d change it so he doesn’t throw skekSa under the bus.)

5.     If you could tell your muse one thing, what would you tell them?

“Don’t stab the blonde Gelfling girl. It won’t prevent the prophecy, and she’ll just come back to life anyway.”

6.     If you could give your muse one gift, what would you give them?

I’d love to see his reaction to a Swiss Army knife.

7.     If you had to take one positive thing away from your muse, what would you take away?

I’m not sure how positive this is, but I’d take away his ability to believe his own lies. It would be interesting to see how he tries to juggle all the conflicting rules and stories he’s come up with over the centuries. 

8.     If you could “borrow” one aspect of your muse and apply it to yourself or your own life, what would you borrow?

His talent for speaking in public. I wish I could command an audience like he does.

9.     Do you genuinely want your muse to be happy? What do you think would make them most happy in life?

Considering the kind of things that tend to make Zok happy? Maybe. As for what would make him happiest, he believes it would be achieving immortality and remaining one of the highest-ranked of the court and having skekSa as his permanent mate, but that still won’t heal the spiritual emptiness inside him. Much as I enjoy Zok and Zah as separate beings, I do think reunification was the best thing for them. If he and SaSan could have been together after that, that would have been even better.

10. Do you enjoy putting your muse through angst? What do you think would break their heart the most?

I don’t mind angst in small doses, as long as I plot it out with the other player(s) beforehand and we agree how it will turn out in the end. Zok doesn’t lend himself easily to angst, but losing his place in the court hierarchy or having one of his allies turn on him would do it. He’s also come to genuinely believe the mythology he’s invented over the centuries -- anything that seriously challenged that worldview would be hard for him to deal with. 

11. What do you love about your muse?

A lot of things. His charisma, his striking blue eyes, the way his voice is deeper and smoother than most of the other Skeksis, how over-the-top his gold outfit is, how he’s so attached to his headdress that he doesn’t even take it off in the spa, how unrepentantly creepy and sadistic he is -- he’s a very enjoyable character, even if he is a horrible birb.

12. What do you hate about your muse?

He's not an easy character to have interact with everyone. He can pretend to be nice when it suits him, and he’s not totally incapable of caring about people, but he’s still nasty enough that I can tell in advance a lot of interactions wouldn’t go well. 

13. What about your muse amuses you?

The contrast between the austere image he tries to keep up, and how frazzled he gets when something upsets that image (”MY CARRIAGE!”). Also when he gets sarcastic or looks down on the others when they act in a less-than-civilized way. 

14. What about your muse makes you sad?

All the people he’s hurt, and how unwilling he is to see that his way of life isn’t sustainable and won’t truly make him happy in the end.

15. How would you describe your muse to someone about to meet them, in person, for the first time?

“This guy is a creep, but he believes in good manners. Tread lightly, and you should be okay.”

16. Would you like your muse as a person if you met them in real life?

LOL no. He’s an awful person who is best left in the realm of fiction.

17. In what ways are you better than your muse? In what ways are they better than you?

I like to think I’m a much nicer person than he is. I can be blunt and a bit of a troll sometimes, but I really don’t like hurting anyone, or trying to force people to do stuff they don’t like. As for Zok, he’s much more confident and well-spoken than I am, and he’s had the determination to stick with one job for a thousand years. 

18. Why do you think you connect to your muse?

We’re both interested in culture, myth, and history, and feel better when we can assign some order to the world around us. 

19. What aspect of your muse’s personality is most important to you? What aspect of your muse’s personality do you think is most important to them? Is it the same? Why or why not?

As I see it, the core of Zok’s character is that he wants to bring order to the world; that’s why his job title is ‘Ritual Master’ rather than ‘High Priest’ or something more overtly religious. If he can’t see an obvious reason why things are the way they are, he’ll invent one that makes sense to him (and serves his needs). 

I think this is what Zok sees as his most important trait too -- in his mind, he took a bunch of feral newborn creatures who (by all rights) were never meant to have existed in the first place, and helped turn them into a civilized, godlike people who rule an entire planet. But that feral nature is always under the surface, and they still need ritual and order (and yes, punishment) to keep it in check. 

20. Has your character(s) changed over the time that you have been playing them? How have they changed?

I haven’t been playing Zok for very long, but I’ve recently had a chance to write how he feels about deeper questions, like what it would mean for Skeksis to have children, and what happens to Skeksis and urRu souls after they die. I think it’s made him a bit more three-dimensional. 

About You!

1.     What is your name?

Kate, a.k.a. Crow or Lady Stormcrow

2.     What is your profession?

Social worker, currently working in substance abuse treatment.

3.     What do you do to relax?

Watch favorite TV shows, play video games, listen to music, hang out outdoors, chat online. 

4.     What is your favorite treat (desert)?

I have a big weakness for flan and other custard desserts. Also caramel.

5.     Favorite movie

Amadeus (1984).

6.     Favorite book

Good Omens (and yes I loved the series too). 

7.     Favorite vacation spot

Grand Cayman. We were supposed to visit again this spring, but COVID happened.

8.     Favorite Disney movie

I’m not sure I have one favorite, but I love Fantasia and The Rescuers.

9.     How did you first get into role playing?

Almost 20 years ago, lol. When I first started going online in high school, I made an online friend ( @ksclaw ) who introduced me to the concept. We played interactions with our SWAT Kats fan characters, and she helped me get the hang of it.

10. What was your first platform? If it was something other than Tumblr, what made you get into Tumblr?

It was Livejournal. I discovered Tumblr in late 2011 after my friends in the Megamind fandom introduced me to it, and most of us migrated here from our old LJ community. I loved being able to reblog whatever struck my fancy, and while my interest has waxed and waned, as you can see I’m still here.

11. What’s a grammar rule you find yourself breaking or ignoring a lot?

I like to think I have pretty good grammar. I know I’m guilty of run-on sentences, though, and I overuse ellipses and mix up ; and -- far too much. 

12. Are there any languages besides English in which you think you could comfortably roleplay?

Not really. I can speak and understand a little Spanish and French, but not enough to write anything meaningful, and I’m wary of translation software for anything beyond a short sentence. Sorry!

13. Do you listen to music while your write?

Sometimes. Usually not when I’m doing the actual writing (that’s distracting, and I like to hear the words in my head), but I’ll listen to it beforehand to get myself in a mood or get some inspiration.

14. Are you a morning, day, evening, or night writer?

Late morning after I’ve had my coffee is usually my best time. Unfortunately I’m usually at work during that time, but on slow days and weekends I try to take advantage of it.

15. How does tiredness affect your writing?

It turns me into a zombie who can dream but cannot actually write.

16. What is your biggest obstacle to writing every day, if time doesn’t count?

Lack of motivation. I daydream and imagine stuff easily enough, but putting it down into writing is much harder, especially when I’m braindead from work.

17. How many drafts is a paralyzing amount?

More than 5 is daunting, though fortunately Zok hasn’t gotten that many yet.

18. Is there anything character-wise or writing style-wise that you can’t stand?

Players who are unwilling to have their characters be in the wrong, or who get upset if my character doesn’t react the way they wanted. Not all interactions are going to be smooth and happy, and I’m fine with that. Your character is not you, just like mine is not me.

19. What kind of anonymous questions are your favorite?

Weird ones. I like having my muses react to them.

20. What is your weakest point in writing? Angst, fluff, dialogue, etc.?

Fluff is kind of tricky. I don’t have trouble imagining it, but I get paralyzed thinking “this is too indulgent, I shouldn’t publish it, no one but me will like it, etc.” Maybe that’s part of why Zok appeals to me, because he’s not the fluffy type. 

[jbbuckybarnes]

Human Safe Zone

Description: You’re being harassed at an event in NYC and a group of men help you. Prompt: “Shh, you’re safe. I won’t let you go.” Pairing: Sebastian x Reader Length: ~2,3k Warnings: verbal abuse, sexual abuse threats

M A S T E R L I S T

You were at a networking event slash after party of yet another big event in New York City. By now you didn’t even know anymore why you got invited to these. Sure, you were in a few little roles in movies and more or less an Instagram model, but being at these parties always was different. You liked it but didn’t feel like you were worthy of being invited. At least you got used to celebrities being normal people with flaws by now and didn’t have to fangirl over everyone that sat or stood near you. Sadly, you also learned about how weird and sometimes disgusting privileged people were.

“Hey doll, can I buy you a drink?” a man you’ve never seen before but was clearly somehow part of the white, rich and disgusting club, approached you. “No thanks, I plan on leaving soon.” you gave a polite smile and looked straight forward again. “Want me to bring you home, darling?” And there was the disgusting part of white, rich and disgusting. “No, I’m meeting some friends after this,” you lied. In moments like this acting classes were the best decision in your life. “Are you here alone?” he started giving you a smirk that made you uncomfortable. “Listen. I’m really not interested. If you wanted to have a nice conversation you wouldn’t ask such creepy questions.” you said with a strong voice. “C’mon princess, no need to get angry.” he tried touching your shoulder and you shoved his hand away. “Aw, you didn’t even give me a chance to be nice to you, doll.” he chuckled. Creep. “Fuck off,” you said in a sharp tone. Now there were a few people slowly starting to notice this development. “C’mon doll, you just need someone to treat you right.” he got pushy. “Does my mood look like you’re doing that right now?” you answered. “No, but it will after I’m finished with you.” he grabbed your wrist.

“Stop touching me or I will start screaming.” you tried to get your hands back to yourself. “Shut up, little bitch.” he wanted to continue but two men were suddenly behind him now. “You heard her, dude. Leave her alone.” one of them said. Buff, tall, frowning at the man. Instead of leaving you alone he tried leaving with you and the two men became four. They were not having it and broke the stranger and you apart. There almost was a fight but the security of the party was there quickly and got the man outside with three of your protectors. The only words you heard from them were the words ‘abuse’ and ‘police’. You didn’t even notice who the group of protectors were and that you were crying. The shock had gotten to you by now and the only man left from the group that protected you came to you.

He was carefully hugging you in the most non-threatening way and you started sobbing. “Shh, you’re safe. I won’t let you go,” a voice that you were now recognizing whispered into your ear. “Th-thank you.” came out between sobs. He broke apart the hug a little and looked down on you. “Let’s get you into some fresh air.” His thumbs were wiping away your tears. By now you fully recognized that the person being so careful with you was Sebastian. You had one or two shared friends but you never really spoke to him at these events. You never spoke to many people at any of these events. You both sat down on the stairs in front of the building and you slowly calmed down from the crying. “You’re good at verbally defending yourself.” There was a soft smile forming on his face. “Y/N, right?” he asked and you nodded still a bit too paralyzed for words. His hand was on your back and definitely had a soothing effect on you. “Just breathe for a few minutes.” his voice came through again and you turned his suggestion into practice. With your eyes closed, you took deep breaths and calmed your body down further. Exhaustion slowly washed over you from all the adrenaline you had just experienced. You sleepily set down your head on his shoulder and weakly said, “I don’t wanna be alone right now.” “I’m here. I’ll keep you save. Promise.” his thumb caressed your upper arm.

"Excuse me, you're Miss Y/L/N, right?" a police officer was pulling you out off your heartbeat slowly stabilizing. "Yes," you answered. "I'll have to ask you some questions," he said taking out everything he'd need for that. He went through all the questions, took a picture of your arms where some light red marks were still left and then gave you a card with all the ways to contact the police department through. "Goodnight and stay safe, Miss Y/L/N." You turned around to lean on Seb again who had stayed there the whole time and rubbed your back when you got worked up. "Can you bring me home or something?" you mumbled. "Of course. Do you need to eat or drink something before tho? I'm sure that panic just did some stuff to you." he looked down at you. "I could go for some good pizza right now." you chuckled weakly and got a smile back.

"Seb, Y/N. Everything okay?" the man you now could identify as Chris was walking towards you with Anthony and Scott right behind him. You gave a weak nod while sitting up correctly again. “Let’s bring her home,” Seb said to his friends slowly standing up and got nods back before he and Chris helped you up. Surrounded by men keeping you save you walked block for block. You insisted on not driving since that made you feel unsafe right now. They started talking about the party about half a block in. “It wasn’t even a good party,” Scott muttered. “No flip cup game, not a good party.” Chris chimed in and got a laugh. “I wouldn’t even go to them if there weren’t some nice situations ever now and then,” Anthony added. “I just feel super out of place, to be honest. I’m not a celeb, I post pictures online and did a few side roles. I either get the weird people flirting with me or sometimes a decent girl talking to me.” you explained how this felt for you. “I’d consider you pretty close to celebrity level.” Seb looked down at you. “Nah, thanks. I’d like to keep my privacy how it is. I take only side roles on purpose.” you made a grimace. “You’re good though.” Anthony complimented you. “I guess.” you automatically shrugged your shoulders.

You were walking past the pizza place you always ordered takeout at. “Let’s all get pizzas and eat them at my place. Don’t wanna be alone tonight.” you were back to normal but still insanely exhausted and a bit shaky on your legs. “It’s on me!” Chris almost yelled and you sent a grateful smile his way. A margarita, a funghi, a BBQ and two New York style pizzas were in cartons and your hands a few minutes later and already lifted your mood. “How long is it from here?” Anthony asked. “A bit more than a block.” you smiled at him. “Torture.” was mumbled back with a sad face towards his pizza box. “Sooo…” Seb started and had your attention, “any new roles coming up?” “One. In a romcom. Just a few scenes but a fun character.” you smiled and already fished for your keys inside of your bra. Your slightly shaky hands took two tries to find the keyhole before you opened the door to the high rise building and then your actual apartment door. “Welcome, I haven’t cleaned in a few days. Hope you don’t mind,” you said throwing the keys to the side and went towards the kitchen to get plates. Not without throwing your fancy shoes across the floor. Once you came back the group of men had sat down on the couch and around the coffee table in the living room. You handed out plates, forks, and knives carefully before slowly opening your own pizza box. “Oh, someone is really hungry.” Anthony laughed at your hungry and desiring eyes at your food. “Shut up, I just burned through the pasta from noon because of that dumb asshole,” you said not offended but stern. “I love when you get shut down by girls.” Seb laughed at his friend. “Just wait till you are the victim.” his eyes narrowed and a giggle escaped both of them.

About halfway into the pizza, you could feel your body get back to normal again with the new energy it just got. And about three quarters in you were full and stood up to go to the kitchen and pack the pizza into the fridge. You heard someone come in behind you and turned around to see Sebastian. “Are you okay?” he asked coming to a hold right in front of you. “Tired, a bit unsafe, but yeah. I guess I’m good. Don’t know how that’s going to go when you’re all gone.” you nervously bit your lower lip. “If you want me to stay here, I wouldn’t mind.” his hands landed in his pant pockets. You nodded, “I’ll think about it.”

After another hour of funny conversations and distraction from the boys, the Evans siblings needed to go. “Need to be up early.” they stood up and went to the door and you came with them. “Thank you again.” you hugged them both. “You can always come to us when you feel unsafe, alright?” Chris rubbed your back before a final goodbye was interchanged and they were gone. You turned around again to see the two boys that were left bickering like little boys and a small smile started growing on your face. They reminded you of you and your best friend from high school. Always having a good time and just overall being a good team. Almost a bit intimidated to join and ruin the mood you sat down on your couch beside them. “You alright, babygirl?” Anthony asked in his usual funny way and you sent a small smile and a nod. You’d rather listen to them with your arms around your legs and your head on your knees. Anything keeping you from that weird lonely feeling creeping through your body. Being invaded like that really fucked with how vulnerable you were.

With a look at his watch, Anthony needed to leave a while later and you ended up alone with Seb. “You want me to stay?” his soft expression with his head dipping to the side made you smile. “Yeah, I’d like that. I feel very…” you tried to find words while playing with the seams on your clothes. “Exposed.” you heard him say and he took your hand that was playing with your clothing. “It’s...I don’t like it,” you looked down to escape his eyes. “It’s gonna get better with time, promise.” he now had both your hands in his and tried to look into your eyes. “Can we...maybe watch a movie? I don’t wanna sleep right now.” you were almost whispering. “Of course.” he said with a grin and chuckling, “What kind of movie?” “I have a new documentary about ancient stuff on my Netflix list.” you smiled at him before leaning past him to grab the remote on the table.

About halfway into the documentary exhaustion got you and you fell asleep cuddled up by his side. He continued watching but regularly looked down to check if you were still sleeping. There was a frown on your face and it definitely wasn’t relaxed sleep. That got very clear and obvious when you started moving in your dream, clearly reliving what had happened to you earlier. He gently shook you awake and your innocent eyes filled up with tears. “Shh, you’re safe. I won’t let you go,” he said pulling you as close as he could and capturing your whole body with his arms. “What if you wouldn’t have been there?” your small sounding voice said. “But we were. And even if we weren’t...you would’ve yelled loud enough for people to save you. Promise.” a soothing small kiss landed on your forehead. “You promise a lot of things.” you huffed trying to lighten your own mood. “Cause I know there always is a way.” he smiled at your head going up and corrected your hair. “Thank you.” your smile was genuine and open. “For what?” he mirrored the expression. “For being such a gentle soul.” you cuddled yourself closer to him again. There was a pleasant silence in the room, only the paused Netflix screen was still on. “You know...I don’t know if it’s appropriate to ask this,” he interrupted the silence after a while, “but I always thought you were great and although this is the worst circumstances to get to know each other I’m still oddly grateful for it...you know, not in a weird way. I hope you get what I mean.” He was rambling and you looked up, “And?” “I’d really like to, um,” he scratched his neck, “go on a date with you...only if you want. This is probably incredibly bad timing and weird but...yeah.” A nervous lopsided smile and waiting eyes were confronting you. “Uh, I...yeah, I...I think I’d like that,” you said, not really knowing how to handle this situation. The only dates you ever went on were with strangers, all your past relationships formed from friendships, this was an odd in between. With a grin on his face, he pulled you closer into another hug again. “I promised, I won’t let you go.” he caused giggle from both sides. “Dork,” you whispered before slowly dozing off again.

M A S T E R L I S T

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S4 Ep8: Magic Mai

So fun fact, I was out of town around this Thanksgiving and I grabbed a laptop from my Dad’s stack of machinery he’s sort of collected over the years and lo and behold--he put Linux on it.

Like I dunno if you all can relate to this problem, but everything he touches turns into Linux and he’s trying to live this Windows free/Mac free lifestyle, and I get it, I’m friends with so many vegetarians, but like I hate this laptop. I'm using Gimp to make these screenshots...So I can re-do them later in Photoshop because...it just doesn’t feel right to put Papyrus on this computer. It already has Linux. This poor machine has suffered enough. Long story short, this’ll be a small update because right clicking on linux is ass.

Also, because I was on a laptop and realized how small my blog is for the first time--I don’t have control over the size of pictures in text posts, tumblr does, and in this particular theme it’s not allowing me to change the size, and so do me a favor. Click ctrl and + at the same time a couple times (I’m assuming most of you are on firefox). There. the pictures are the right size now. If you hated that, you can click ctrl and - but like lets be real, my font is occasionally...tiny.

Anyway, we start discussing this episode on the confusing legs of the last one, where Mai is evil now, and it’s really not entirely clear if she’s possessed or if she’s just always been this way, or if she just FEELS like it.

And that’s all this episode is about, start to finish--is this Mai’s choice or was this not Mai’s choice? The answer is the same as it would be for a normal person: it’s complicated. Maybe it’s everybody’s choice. Maybe it was because no one did anything that Mai went completely haywire? Maybe it was because Mai hid how she was feeling so no one had any idea she needed help? Or, overall, maybe Mai is kind of a toxic person and wanted to be this way? Especially while she’s on children’s cartoon card drugs?

(read more under the cut)

So to start off, a weird thing happened at the beginning of this episode. After about 4 seasons, someone finally mentioned this:

How many seasons has Yugi been talking to himself? Like, out loud. In front of everyone and Kaiba? This whole time, right? Like Valon just dashed my headcanon where I figured Yugi was smart enough to think his thoughts instead of speak his thoughts. He’s just not that smart, unfortunately.

Meanwhile, Mai has managed to attract this other (teenager?) guy and like...to go worse than Joey so quickly is kind of shocking. Mai just seems embarrassed by the amount of very young boys in love with her. And she’s not even a cougar about it, she doesn’t really seem to want this to happen but it keeps on happening.

And although he is essentially the card form of a drug pusher, Valon has this soft spot for a girl I guess to give him some sort of redeemable flaw. However, she only wears tube tops and minis and spends like hundreds of dollars on her hair, so it doesn’t really make him seem any less shallow, tbh.

PS I’m surprised, that unlike all the other characters on Yugioh, I can’t just type in Valon’s name into Google and get his age and weight. No idea what his age is, and if you know, feel free to tell me but he just seems...exactly the same age as Joey. He seems very 17. Maybe it’s the obsession with motorcycles and children’s playing cards? Maybe it’s his big ol childlike eyes? He just seems young and niave like how a teenager who just fell in love with a very angry older woman would.

Joey tries to remind everyone, multiple times, that this game is the worst idea ever since it requires one of them to super die, but Mai is on card drugs so I don't know why they bothered. Also, why is Joey still surprised by this after 4 seasons of this?

Yo it’s S4 and Mai witnesses magic non-stop but still has basically no idea how it works. She really did say “I have no soul” and it was like...I’m 90% certain she literally thinks she has no soul right now. Which I guess, statistically speaking, is rare to actually have a still intact soul after hanging out with the main villain, with the way this show typically goes.

Meanwhile, last episode it really sounded like Duke Devlin was driving to Pegasus’ company building. It really sounded like he would have gone directly there, since Weevil and Rex told him that Yugi was going to Pegasus.

Remember that Duke Devlin works for Pegasus and probably has his own parking spot.

So where did he go instead?

You know how there’s only one gas station in the entirety of America?

I can’t believe it blew up.

Y’all what is the red splotch in the middle of the pile ps? That is legitimately a pile of blood, right? I didn’t shop that in. There’s just a red puddle in this kid’s show.

Y’all what is that? Like was there a scene with a red handkerchief that I missed? Is that a red handkerchief?

But to move past the mysterious pool of blood that confirms those bikers are so hella dead, I have no idea why Duke was here, I have no idea how he got the tip off that Yugi visited this place, but then he turned around and went back to SF so like...I guess he’ll arrive 3 days from now because again, they are in Arizona. They keep telling me this is right outside SF but like--Mesas. There’s Mesas.

And then this happened.

That one guy on the writing staff who just stans Seto Kaiba so hard got into the drawing room, I see.

PS someone had to pose for this shot for them to draw this shot from this angle.

Meanwhile, lets see why Mai turned evil. Ah, because it is Yugioh, the biggest reason is that she has no friends (probably because she’s got the most acidic personality known to man) and isn’t card popular enough and got super bitter and jealous.

Speaking as an artist who is online, I can understand the frustration here. Sometimes (99% of the time) you work really hard and no one cares and you get like 2 notes. And honestly, why should they? Like, why do you do it in the first place?

Mai echoes a lot of the issues of Seto last season, where she wants so badly to be the absolute best to prove herself to the ghosts of her past who really don’t care any more.

But, since Mai was in a coma when Seto got through all of that, I guess she never got the memo and still seems stuck on just wanting to be the best with no other reason than “to be the best” which again, sounds so much like art school problems. This is everyone who has ever had an interest in animation. We all go through that phase.

Generally we don’t take peoples souls as a reaction to that type of discouragement, but then Mai made sure to mention in almost a foot note that she did spend like an entire season and a half trapped in Marik's shadow realm. And that kind of effed her up in a really big way.

Thanks, Marik.

Really feels like Marik should be dealing with this problem--really feels like maybe Marik is the only person that we can actually point to and say “Oh yeah, that guy is to blame for Mai right now” And he is the only person that Mai does not actively go out and try to kill.

And I’ll have you know I just deleted like a 15 K word rant about the difference between character assassination and your character just--evolving into a jackass, and how it’s OK to have your character change into a jackass, especially after trauma. I felt this need to really have to defend this ancient writing technique that people have been using since about as long as stories have been around.

Then I remembered “Oh yeah, I’m just making this point because a few number of very loud idiots on the internet want to have very lukewarm hot-takes about popular characters solely because they enjoy baiting people on twitter into getting into week-long arguments that don’t go anywhere.” and I just...let it go. I let it just...go into the ether. Ah. The peace that comes when you already know you’re right.

But anyway, back to Yugioh, which thankfully doesn’t take a stance on this nuanced subject, and only presents this very serious problem without actually offering a solution (because there isn’t a one fit’s all solution to falling off the deep end and getting into drugs and murder), Mai decides to just go and blame this decision she made on anyone else. Because, why take responsibility for your actions, when you can pin it on people who were on the other side of the freakin planet when it happened?

Like, I just want to remind y’all that she was in ATLANTIS.

I wonder how good the cell reception is in ATLANTIS.

I just...Mai is like in her mid twenties maybe thirty’s. She’s so arbitrarily old that she plays Yugi’s Mom in the video game spinoff where they’re reincarnations of medieval times. That’s how old she is.

Imagine if you made some epically BAD decisions because you were jealous of some teenager’s success and didn’t want to be weak anymore, and then you confronted those teens, and said “This is all your fault.”

Imagine looking someone as dysfunctional as Joey Wheeler and telling him “You made me like this” because lollllllll

And I present this as a joke but like basically this happens all freakin time. We’ve all had a friend like Mai. Past tense of course, because it’s really hard to keep a friend like Mai for very long. (One of my friend’s who went Mai destroyed my apartment one summer and then literally blamed it on me for going to California for 2 months and leaving her unattended.) But like...don’t let Mai’s do it to you. They can get better, but only if it’s their choice, really. You can’t force them to save themselves.

But, as Mai was finally ready to give up cards and probably improve her quality of life by a huge degree, unfortunately, she got sucked right back into the trap.

Bro note: being a serial murderer cultist is basically working at McDonald's in this universe so maybe this wasn’t even that weird?

But that aside, this is alllllmost like a dark version of “Mai got into an abusive relationship to fill the void in her heart” except she’s not even really dating this guy? Like she hates this guy? He’s just kinda there?

Y’all I really can’t tell if Valon is in an abusive relationship with Mai who is using him for power or if she’s in an abusive relationship with him because he only wants her pretty face and wants to kill Joey because Joey liked her once--and maybe it’s both? Maybe both of these people are just...really bad for each other?

Overall Joey is kind of tossed into this not-a-love-triangle and I’m like

“Hey show? show? Am I supposed to....were any these people ever dating? Is there supposed to be an implied history? Am I supposed to get attached to this?” because I mean...the only character who was able to get some actual physical romance on this show was Pegasus when he macked the ghost of his dead wife because, again, Pegasus is the freakin king of this entire show. Of course HE can do it.

But have this show clarify what the hell is happening between Valon and Mai? I’m gonna take a bet that we will never get to see it beyond Valon being like “Ain’t she a beaut!” Like Steve Irwin talking to an alligator, and Mai just pretending he doesn’t exist. Yugioh romances are so completely one way every single time. If something more than that happens, I’ll be

shook.

Anyway, as all the children on the show keep repeating over and over again, they haven’t had any contact with Mai since she left the freakin country and they went back to High School.

And so someone threatens to kill himself, as is Yugioh tradition, and someone else barks at him to NOT kill himself, as is also tradition, and they decide to play real cards next episode.

This whole entire episode, PS, Joey went out of his way to just...not play cards. that was this whole episode. Way to draw out a card game over three episodes, I guess.

Anyway if you want to read these from the start you can do so by clicking the link here

[putschki1969]

Wakana LINE LIVE ~ Summary

Title: Monthly#6 o’clock Radio LINE LIVE [2019/09/26] Download link: !Click me! (some hiccups here and there) All credit goes to my friend @mowskyuu ( @sky_emi on weibo) The entire episode (including all the other segments) can also be found on Bilibili (in higher quality). All credit goes to VOCALOIDの生放送

Notes: As always, be prepared for a long read (keeping things short is not my forte). You better get yourself a cup of tea and some cookies. Without further ado, let’s get started. 〈(•ˇ‿ˇ•)-→

We start out with our hosts Daniel and Rina introducing the program schedule. Wakana will have a special appearance in the guest corner. Rina was very hard to understand at first, I think her microphone didn’t work properly. Turn up the volume during the first few minutes or so. Be sure to lower the volume in time or you will have a heart attack when Wakana finally joins the hosts. The audio is still pretty bad afterwards so you will have to adjust your volume a lot. Ahhh, Wakana looks so pretty with her navy dress and her gorgeous long hair. It’s been a while since we have seen her with her hair open like that. It has really grown a lot!!

Since this is Wakana’s first time on the show Daniel is providing a short introduction. The usualy stuff. Born on Dec 10, from Fukuoka, Studied music ever since she was 12. Took part in all kinds of events since she was 17. Moved to Tokyo and joined the FictionJunction project. Debute as part of Kalafina by singing the theme songs of KnK. Recently started her career as solo singer with her single debut in February 2019. Just yesterday her live blu-ray got released. Daniel points out that he is also a Sagittarius, he was born on Dec 16. Then they get to the main topic of this episode. Something that Wakana is currently into. Wakana chose to talk about “gyoza” because she ALWAYS loves to eat them. She will never get tired of them. She even goes as far to create live goods related to gyoza. This shows how strong her love for gyoza is. Daniel wants to do a test with Wakana to find out what kind of Gyoza Type she is. Wakana is very excited to do the quiz. She is super curious to find out what type she is [Go HERE to find the test]

Q1: You really wanna eat gyoza but you already have plans to meet someone you like later on. What do you do?

Have some gyoza as you normally would

Just eat a tiny bit of them

Eat gyoza with garlic

For an extra kick add a lot of garlic to your gyoza

Decide not to eat any gyoza

Wakana goes for answer #5. She would rather not feel bad about the smell when she meets someone. She could always go for vegetable gyoza that won’t make you smell bad but then again, if she has a bad craving for gyoza she has to eat them with a LOT of garlic.

Q2: Before heading to bed you turn on the TV and realise an interesting movie is about to start. You have to get up early in the morning. What do you do?

Watch a bit and go to sleep

Watch it while constantly dozing off

Watch it to the very end

Immediately fall asleep

DVR it and go to bed

Wakana goes for answer #4. She hardly ever watches TV. Usually she watches stuff online on Netflix or something. She tends to watch about three films every day, she has her own schedules. And once she is done she immediately goes to sleep. Sleep is super important after all. She worries a lot if she doesn’t get enough sleep.

Q3:Do you see yourself as a hot or cold type?

More of a cold type

More of a hot type  

100% a cold type

100% a hot type

Neither

This question is giving Wakana quite a bit of trouble. Also, the answers are taking super long to appear. Wakana works her magic. And she eventually goes for answer #2!!

She doesn’t see herself as a complete “hot” type but she is definitely not the “cold” type. She always gets hot super fast and super sudden. And she gets easily over-excited/hyped when she is talking with others. Also when she is together with her colleagues or having lunch/dinner with someone, her conversations tend to get heated quite quickly. Daniel is kinda surprised because he didn’t get that impression of her. Wakana says that all the fans who have known her for a long time will surely understand. We have seen how she acts after all...so it’s really not a surprise for us.

Q4: Do you have a strong personality?

Very strong

Considerably strong   

A little strong

Not very strong

Rather weak

She goes for answer #2 again. She believes herself to have a somewhat strong personality. Right now she wants to try a lot of different things, she listens to so many different artists and gets inspired. Then Daniel remembers that there is another host so he finally starts including her as well. XD But only for a few seconds. And her microphone is still wonky...

Q5: How do you interact with your friends?

I socialise a lot but nothing serious

Just a small number of friends with a strong bond

I put all of myself into my friendships

I keep my distance when socialising

I have no friends

Answer #2 AGAIN. She really likes to spend quality time with her friends, like going to dinner and having a nice girls’ night. She also likes to do Ghibli meet-ups with all her friends who love Ghibli just as much as her. On to the final question.

Q6: Rate your own positivity from 1-5! Wakana goes for the highest rating. => 5. She has a very positive outlook on life. She always tries to look straight ahead and make the best of it. But of course there are some regrets here and there despite all the positivity. Sometimes she can get a bit cranky and negative. For example, when she fails to get enough sleep or forgets about it. She tends to get really annoyed with herself at times like that. She will make sure not to forget about her sleep again.

Daniel says he isn’t the positive type and he would rate himself as 1. Rina on the other hand also goes for 5 just like Wakana. Wakana is happy about that.

Drum rolls for the result. Wakana can barely hold it in, she is so excited to find out which type of gyoza she is.

Wakana is the Plenty of Garlic&Ginger Gyoza Type!! Wakana is not surprised about the garlic. A unique personality with a strong commitment to your own personality. Very honest and straightforward, many people will be attracted to that sort of personality. Imagining you were a gyoza, a garlic and ginger dumpling is really the best fit because it has a great kick to it and it is very popular. You may not always leave the most pleasant aftertaste (Wakana’s “noooo” is so cute here, she is sad to hear that!) but you always leave a strong impression and people will remember you longer after an encounter. Overall Wakana is happy with the result since she really loves to eat this kind of gyoza. She likes things that have a kick to it. Such an interesting quiz. Turn out that Rina did the same quiz and she had the same result. Wakana is happy they are matching. They even have the same hairstyle today with the open hair and parting in the middle. Daniel is the Boiled Gyoza type. Wakana mentions that she recently talked about boiled gyoza in her fan club magazine. They are soft and yummy and juicy. Anyways, everyone should try the quiz too! It’s a lot of fun!

We then talk about how Wakana doesn’t only love eating gyoza, she also really enjoys to make them. Back in May of this year she visited her older brother and his family in Australia. She helped his wife make gyoza for all of them. It was fun to make them in a place that’s so far away.  They bought the gyoza skin at an Asian store and then made them together. They were super yummy. Her niece helped too. Rina happened to make some gyoza too the other day. Wakana is impressed. Daniel adds that he recently went to Gyoza no Ohsho which is a popular restaurant chain focusing on gyoza and Chinese food. Wakana hasn’t been there in a long time and wants to go as soon as possible. Rina went to a place called Gyoza Yasubee or something. Wakana also wants to go there. She wants to go everywhere. If it went her way she would be throwing a gyoza party tomorrow. Everyone is invited.

Time to introduce the gyoza goods Wakana has created for her fan club event.

First we get her lovely bag which can be worn in many different ways. Then we have her gyoza plate. She added the characters/kanji of her name to make it more personal. Then we have her GyoZame shirt because she loves both gyoza and same (sharks).

And the stickers of course. Fans are commenting that they have bought all the goods and love to use them. Wakana thinks her shirt is super cute [it really IS!!] A fan requests a slightly burned version of the gyoza bag. So that it looks like a proper pot sticker. Wakana then shows the inside of the bag which is cute and soft.

Daniel notes that Wakana often posts gyoza on her instagram. These pictures are all taken with her very own camera - Wakame. Rina is also a big fan of cameras. Wakana is once again happy to find someone who enjoys the same things. And she is sorry that Rina is getting sidelined all the time. Wakana’s brother seems to be quite the professional when it comes to camera work. Apparently he takes pictures of make-up and for that he needs some super fancy lenses. It’s very complicated and she doesn’t really understand all the details. Camerawork is very hard.

Now we are getting to all the promotional stuff. Nothing interesting here. First they introduce Wakana’s Blu-ray which got released yesterday. They provide a sneak peek of the limited edition. Daniel shows a few pictures from the booklet. Due to the exaggerated reactions of Daniel Wakana tells us that there are no sexy pictures in the booklet even though it might seem like that if you just judge from the noises Daniel is making. They talk a bit more about the contents, the setlist etc Wakana talks about loving Spitz and Miyuki Nakajima. She loved singing Jida during her tour because at that time Japan transitioned from Heisei era to Reiwa era. She felt like it was very meaningful to sing a song like that. That Tokyo performance was actually her final Heisei live.

As we know, Wakana is currently working on new releases. She loves this sort of work. Exploring different genres, finding new kinds of music for herself. This process makes her very happy and she always looks ahead to discover something new. Because she is super positive as we have learned already.

Some promotion for the December lives. As she just mentioned, she is working on a lot of stuff and she hopes that we will get to hear some of it very soon. Sadly, the final greeting is cut off. Last but not least a very patchy Kinmokusei from the live. Consider it a sneak peek for the Blu-Ray. Her performance is lovely. I hope it gets you hyped to watch the release!! Edit: Be sure to check out the Bilibili version to listen to the song in its entirety.

[douxreviews]

Quantum Leap - Season Three Review

"I always do the right thing, Al. And where does it get me?"

Season three is when the formula started to wear thin a bit... and I got a little tired of "Oh, boy," even though Scott Bakula valiantly did his level best to make it sound different every single time. Al hitting his hand link also got a little old. It was also pretty obvious by this point that God has a sick sense of humor. The way Sam is dumped into ridiculous and/or dangerous situations with no knowledge of what is going on is like an ongoing practical joke. Why would God leap Sam into a magic box being pierced by swords, or just in time to sprinkle talc on a naked guy's underwear?

What works

Just like season two, the best episodes of season three are the premiere and the finale. In fact, the premiere is considered to be the best episode of the series, because Sam finally got to leap home. Sort of.

3.1 "The Leap Home, Part 1 (November 25, 1969)": How many of us would give nearly everything for a chance to go back in time and fix what went wrong in our own lives? It's tragic that when Sam leaped into himself at sixteen, he longed to save everyone in his family, but had to face the fact that it was not what God sent him there to do.

In a way, "The Leap Home" paralleled "M.I.A.", where Al refused to believe Ziggy's projections because he wanted the leap to be about saving his marriage to Beth. Here, Sam also refused to believe what Al was telling him because he was certain he was there to save his brother from dying in Vietnam, his father from dying of lung cancer, and even that he could keep his little sister Katie from ruining her life by marrying an abusive man. It's so easy for the audience to put themselves in Sam's shoes. I confess that I've often fantasized about going back in time somehow so that I could find a way to save my sister's life.

But no, you really can't go home again. With the possible exception of Al dancing with Beth in "M.I.A.," "The Leap Home" gave us the strongest scene in the series as Sam told his little sister Katie the truth about time travel and the bad stuff that was coming, and tried to prove it by singing his favorite song that hadn't been written yet. (A beautiful vocal by Scott Bakula, and by the way, "Imagine" is, coincidentally, my favorite song of all time, too.) Katie's face as she slowly realized that she'd never heard the song before and that it meant their brother Tom would die was genuinely heartbreaking, and Sam was forced to say that he was making it all up. This scene was made even more poignant, if that's possible, by Al almost wordlessly telling Sam not to share with Katie what happened to John Lennon. Honestly, I'm dripping tears just writing about it.

In the scenes that followed, Sam for the first time expressed his anger at what God was forcing him to do, to save other people but not the people that Sam himself loved. Al, who had also lost his chance to fix his life with time travel, was the one to remind Sam that God also gave him an amazing gift: the chance to spend Thanksgiving with his family one more time.

Scott Bakula played both Sam and Sam's father. That was okay, but it felt too much like a gimmick. I wonder if maybe some of the scenes might have worked better if I hadn't been distracted by Bakula playing two roles?

That's a nitpick, though. This is an excellent, emotionally resonant episode.

3.2 "The Leap Home, Part 2 (April 7, 1970)": Part two was also terrific. It felt like God was rewarding Sam for his sacrifice in part one by allowing him to save Tom's life. Andrea Thompson (Babylon 5) gave a good performance as dynamic reporter Maggie Dawson, who died for her Pulitzer. It made me think about whether or not it would be worth dying to create something that would live forever.

But I was unhappy that the unsuccessful mission was all about rescuing Al from his POW prison back in 1970. It felt like the writers were rubbing in the fact that Sam and Al couldn't use time travel to change their own lives... except that Sam actually could, this time. Why was Sam rewarded but Al punished? (Maybe I'm taking this too personally.)

3.6 "Miss Deep South (June 7, 1958)": I dislike pretty much everything about beauty pageants, but couldn't help loving this episode. Maybe I really liked the feminist slant, that Sam had to perform well in the pageant so that the young woman he'd leaped into could become a doctor and save a whole lot of lives — or maybe it was that he was also there to save another young woman from making an epically bad choice in life, like his sister Katie.

Okay, okay, it was probably Scott Bakula singing "Great Balls of Fire" while dressed like Carmen Miranda.

3.12 "8 1/2 Months (November 15, 1955)": Another excellent episode where Scott Bakula played a woman, this time an unmarried, pregnant sixteen-year-old girl. I particularly liked the emphasis on how helpless an underage pregnant girl was and how few choices she had back in the fifties. I also want to mention again what a strong actor Scott Bakula is. He's a masculine-looking guy, but he can wear women's clothing, even flowery maternity clothes, and I'm still focused on his performance instead of what he's wearing.

3.13 "Future Boy (October 6, 1957)": Sam leaped in to help Moe, the star of a children's TV show about time travel. Moe constructed a faux time machine in his own basement, and his adult daughter Irene believed that Moe was losing his marbles and wanted to have him committed. Touchingly, Moe built the machine because what he wanted more than anything was to go back in time and be a better husband and father. I don't know whether or not it was intentional, but there was some ambiguity in this Moe situation, since it was pretty clear to me that Moe really had lost touch with reality and should have been hospitalized. But it was still touching that Sam was able to bring Moe and Irene back together as family.

3.22 "Shock Theater (October 3, 1954)": As I've mentioned before, many Quantum Leap episodes feel like homages to specific movies. Here, it was One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, as Sam was subjected to shock treatment against his will, which made him dissociate into various personalities. The best part was that all of those personalities were the real people that Sam leaped into, and that this time, Sam wasn't faking it -- he actually was his leapees: Tom Stratton, Jesse Tyler, Samantha Stormer, Jimmy, Kid Cody.

Nearly every episode of Quantum Leap puts Sam in some sort of danger, but we usually feel that he'll be okay in the end. In this one, it felt like things were spiraling out of control as Sam suffered abuse and was in genuine peril. In the end, Sam was forced to ask for the shock treatment that he dreaded, and he and Al somehow wound up leaping together, leaving us with a pretty serious and unusual cliffhanger.

Okay, there were a couple of problems with this one. Al rapping to teach Scott Lawrence's character to read made me uncomfortable. It was also hard not to wonder what happened to Sam's unfortunate leapee after the treatment, and how unfair that whole thing was to him.

Honorable mention

3.17 "Glitter Rock (April 12, 1974)": It's always fun when an episode features Scott Bakula singing, and for some reason, I absolutely loved the technicolor pseudo-Kiss makeup. But what the hell was Al wearing? A decorative stop sign? Wouldn't that be dangerous if he were walking down a road somewhere?

3.18 "A Hunting Will We Go (June 18, 1976)": It's hard to pull off this much slapstick in a single episode and do it well, but I thought they did: this episode was pretty darned funny. Good job by Scott Bakula as well as Jane Sibbett, who gave a vibrant performance; I always saw her as David Schwimmer's bland ex-wife on Friends, and didn't realize she was capable of stuff like this. I also appreciated the homage to the famous Clark Gable/Claudette Colbert hitchhiking scene from It Happened One Night.

What doesn't work

There are a few weak episodes, but this one's awfulness stood out from the crowd:

3.5 "The Boogieman (October 31, 1964)": This truly idiotic and poorly written episode is about a dream Sam had, while unconscious, of mysterious murders at a Halloween spook house. It included a replica of Al as the devil trying to stop Sam from fixing things while leaping — possibly Dean Stockwell's poorest performance of the series — and a teenage Stephen King with his dog Cujo.

Bits and pieces:

-- Famous people: Jack Kerouac, and as mentioned above, Stephen King.

-- Notable actors: C.C.H. Pounder, Kurt Fuller, and Peter Noone from Herman's Hermits. And Olivia Burnett, who did such a terrific job playing Sam's little sister Katie, also played another little girl named Susan in season two's "Another Mother."

-- Here's a question for those of you better at this online app stuff. Is Quantum Leap available for free at nbc.com (with commercials)? If it is, what did they do about the music replacement issue?

To conclude

I thought season three was good, but not quite as good as season two. And in fact, rewatching season three drove home for me that as a series, Quantum Leap was episodic, not serial. Honestly, I'd forgotten. But as my mother used to say, it is what it is.

On to season four.

Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

[facets-and-rainbows]

Volume 11 question corner (historical restoration)

Welp, one of my posts [here] got flagged DESPITE BEING ENTIRELY TEXT but it’s a reblog from a deactivated OP asking for a translation and CANNOT BE SAVED, so I’m gonna repost it here for posterity. Enjoy this quaint ancient translation of some volume 11 extras.

December 8, 2013

todo-john-august-cat:

BEGGING FOR JAPANESE-SPEAKERS OR JAPANESE-KNOWERS

to translate at least one interesting fact from the info lists. (maybe Lightning’s class and meister type if there is it)

please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please (Q,Q)

desktop-warrior:

Here’s what I got from Google Translate, combined with my very rudimentary knowledge of Japanese grammar. Don’t quote me on this. It’ll likely be quite inaccurate.

Interesting facts for Angel: - “Joke is not through” - I’m assuming this means that others’ jokes at his expense don’t get through to him, or he takes it all in good fun. Or, HIS jokes don’t make sense to others. - “Demon sword Caliburn enslavement” - Also a tricksy one; from the wording of it, I’m assuming it means he’s ‘enslaved’ Caliburn. - Feminist. No joke. - “No mercy to those identified as enem[ies].” Duh! :D

Interesting facts for Lightning: - Cynic - “How it is called Lightning, which was quite strong enslavement familiar.” From what I gather, this means that Lightning got his nickname from a powerful familiar demon he uses. Which means he’s a Tamer, and we might get to see him in action soon, hopefully. :D - Something about either hating not showering for a week (quite long, if you ask me), or not minding that he doesn’t shower that long and he does so quite commonly. I guess that goes with his scruffy appearance. - “Weak and cleaning.” Probably means he’s slovenly, which wouldn’t surprise me.

Now, for Lightning’s Meisters: it looks like he has all five of them, not surprising for an Arc Knight, but it looks like he got one of them (Tamer) twice. Again, don’t quote me because I’m guessing here based on images of the Exorcist ranks list I found online.

And, ah, if I could ask for a teeny favour, if you can: does Godaiin also get a character profile in Volume 11? I really like his character, so would you be able to upload his profile if he has one? If he doesn’t, or if you don’t want to, that’s perfectly fine.

todo-john-august-cat:

omg, what a clever people on internets ! thank You so much

unfortunately in the 11th volume there are only two profiles, BUT Goddain appeared in characters card (idk what it’s proper name) for the first time

[broken image link, used to be a pic of that page]

(I’m not good in tumblr :( is this picture clickable and downloadable?)

desktop-warrior:

Oh, haha, there was nothing ‘clever’ about what I did! I’ve enabled my keyboard to be able to type Japanese characters. So I copied out the facts and then put them through Google Translate. I took a first-year Japanese course in university, so I understand mostly how Japanese grammar works. I looked at the results and interpreted them in the way that made the most sense to me. You can talk to anyone who knows a little more Japanese and they would’ve done a much better job than I did. :D Nonetheless, you’re welcome.

And thank YOU for uploading that character card! What I wanted to know most of all was Godaiin’s first name, which I do now.

facets-and-rainbows:

Your translations seem pretty darn accurate as far as I can tell : ) “Joke not through” means that Angel doesn’t get jokes. I had to look up フェミニスト in like three dictionaries before I was convinced that it still meant “feminist” in Japanese, but he is indeed a feminist against all expectation. “Enslave” is a strong word; maybe “employ”? “Lightning” is apparently a title given to some sort of master Tamer/Aria (I think?). I don’t know what the second “Tamer” meister is. I don’t think it’s been mentioned before. He’s bad at cleaning and bathing, like you said.

I have volume 11 here, so I guess I might as well paraphrase the fan question corner thing they’re doing. It’s got some neat little facts.

-Angel’s middle initial is A, not O. The times when it was O were typos. -Angel is half English and half French. He and Lightning are canonically multilingual (Angel claims to have dabbled in 8 languages!). They are actually literally speaking Japanese in their scenes. Not just for the reader’s convenience. We’re just gonna go with the explanation that all the foreign exorcists are good with languages because it is, in Lightning’s words, “cooler that way.” -Rin sleeps with his eyes open. A lot. It creeps Yukio right out. -The sandwich Shiemi eats in Chapter 46 is made of herbs from her garden. It was “bitter, but good for you. Probably.” -Paku is doing fine in regular school despite seeing demons all the time, thanks for asking. -You can get TO cram school with magic keys, but you have to take the long way back unless you have a key for your next destination. -Rin is the easiest character for Katou-sensei to draw. Angel is hardest because hair is hard. Lightning is also kind of hard because she’s not used to him yet. She can’t pick a favorite character because she’s spent years of her life developing and identifying with each and every one. -Mephisto is impressed that you noticed how his fingernails only look pointy when he’s not wearing gloves. But you shouldn’t worry too much about it. He’s a shapeshifter and he can do whatever he wants. -If you want to know what class everyone is in in regular school, you’re gonna have to figure it out yourself from the school festival scenes. The information is there. -As previously covered, Godaiin’s given name is Sei. He apologizes for it. -Yes, Amaimon’s face was smoking when he came out of the cuckoo clock in volume 10, just like it was when he went into the cuckoo clock in volume 4. Yes, this is because time is meaningless inside the cuckoo clock. -Caliburn, Angel’s sword, is a trans woman in the manga despite being a cis woman in the anime. It doesn’t matter to Angel whether his sword is a man or a woman. But don’t get your hopes up, Caliburn, he probably didn’t mean that in QUITE the way you think he meant it. Angel’s kind of dense. -You have to recite a demon’s Fatal Verse word for word. Unless you’re really good. Like, Lightning good. Then you can freestyle abbreviate it. -Mephisto will neither confirm nor deny that he is the Mephistopheles from Goethe’s Faust. -If you can’t see demons, can you see Rin’s tail etc? The answer is SURPRISINGLY COMPLICATED. Rin says regular people can’t see the flames. They CAN see the ears, fangs, and tail, but no one seems to mention it. They don’t notice much. Then Mephisto talks about perception and the human brain and inattentional blindness for long enough that he has to be cut off. -How’d you like the cross-dressing, guys? Rin: It was funny! Suguro: I feel like I lost a part of myself that day. I don’t want to do it again. Konekomaru: Agrees with Suguro. Shima: I thought I was really cute but not as cute as real girls lol. Yukio: It was part of the mission. -If the twins are complete opposites, how is Yukio’s cooking? Is it edible? Well, he doesn’t really cook much at all. It’s totally not because he cut himself as a child and is afraid of chopping stuff NO IT’S NOT SHUT UP RIN. -Yes, twelve-year-old fan, it is okay if your original story copies Blue Exorcist a lot. But once you become a manga author yourself, you’ll need to branch out. You’ll understand when you’re older.