#and it’s just so obvious that the writers let her win that it’s honestly insulting to fans’ intelligence

[musclesandhammering]

Late to this post, but I see nothing but facts.

It’s also annoying how obvious it was that the writers intentionally manipulated this scene in Wanda’s favour. Like the things you mentioned (Mr Fantastic giving away Black Bolt’s power, them all standing politely as their team mates got killed one by one instead of attacking wanda as a group, Maria being killed by a statue) were all clearly done that way specifically so it wouldn’t be as unrealistic for Wanda to win.

If they had all engaged her at once and Maria help her off while Black Bolt surprised her with his powers, she 100% would’ve lost. And probably died.

*Multiverse of Madness SPOILERS*

Time for me to talk about the Illuminati death scenes, cause this was some bullcrap.

First, Black Bolt: I genuinely feel sorry for fans of the character and the Inhumans. Honestly, I haven't seen the Inhumans show, so I don't know if it's bad or good (even though I've heard from some people who said it was a bad show). I did hear that Anson Mount played the character in the show, and he was fine in MoM. He even got the comic accurate costume, tuning fork and all. Although, I feel bad for the actor since he got to reprise his role only to get killed off in a brutal way for a PG-13 movie. I understand taking Black Bolt out first since he's a major threat to Wanda, but the reason she was able to do that was because Reed had to tell her what his power is, which is so stupid. You don't tell your enemy what they're capable of! Also, I thought he'd be the one that should've held his own against Wanda (the other two should've been Professor X and Captain Marvel) based on his abilities. Dude could level an entire town with a mere word!

Mr. Fantastic: I'm so sorry Fantastic Four fans. Now, because he was in the movie for a couple of minutes, I can't judge how well John Krasinski acted as Reed Richards, but he was fine in the movie. Speaking of Krasinski, this was a fancast made by so many fans for years. Well, we got the fancast we wanted....only for him to turn into string cheese and get his head popped off by Wanda. The effects for his stretching was okay, and the costume was okay, but god damn was Reed done dirty here. His death was the slowest out of the Illuminati, which I don't understand why the hell Peggy and Maria just stood there and not attack Wanda to save Reed! Also, Reed's supposed to be one of the smartest people in Marvel, but he tells Wanda Black Bolt's power, and stretches his arm to grab her when he saw what he did to his teammate. Yeah, Reed in the comics messes up, but come on! Now, if the Fantastic Four movie's still happening and Krasinski isn't casted, that's gonna be a huge insult to fans who wanted to see him play that role.

Captain Carter: Anyone noticed that Wanda easily get rid of the two male members, but struggles to fight against the two female members? I don't know how I feel about that. Anyway, I still don't get why Peggy is a member of the Illuminati, but okay. And she has a jetpack for some reason. Did it suck that she died? Yeah, it was a bummer. But, I'm surprised that Wanda had a longer fight with her than Black Bolt and Mr. Fantastic, and that she struggled against Peggy and Maria more than the others. Also, "I can do this all day"....seriously?! She had to have Steve's catchphrase?!

Captain Marvel: So, she's one of the three that should've held her own and she did. But, her death was a giant statue falling on top of her? I wanted to call bullcrap on that cause Carol has flown through space ships, and this Maria variant dies from a statue. Maybe it was because Wanda absorbed her powers, but it was hard to tell. If she did do that however, why the hell doesn't she do that to everyone else?! Also, Maria's attitude rubbed me the wrong way, but I think the writers made her and the others arrogant so that they'd easily get killed by Wanda. It's still annoying though.

Now, there's still Charles Xavier but that's gonna be a long post for later. And, I know some people are gonna say "they're variants, it's fine". No. No, it's not fine. This was the first introduction to Mr. Fantastic, and Black Bolt in an MCU movie. Them getting brutally murdered shouldn't be part of that. It's insulting to the Fantastic Four fans and the Inhumans fans. This is also Captain Carter's live action debut, and this would piss off some of the Peggy stans too. Too bad Wanda is "dead", otherwise, I'd hope Sue Storm, Medusa, or Franklin Richards would've hunted her down and kicked her butt for killing their loved ones. I pick them because of how close they are to them. Anyone else who's capable of beating up the witch is fine by me if they join in.

[grahambaham]

I just found out that there are people out there who believe Jason Todd beats Cassandra Cain in a fight... What??? I am aware that there was a comic where he got good hits in but it was very obvious and even outright said that Cass wasn't even trying to win, let alone hurt him, by Dick. Also, if they're thinking about that one time Jason fought Bruce, Dick and Cass all at once and won, you have got to be aware of how ridiculous that was. Like, Jason, as much as I love him, is the worst fighter out of them. Still a damn good one, but compared to them, just no.

Like, Dick, the weakest fighter out of that trio has more than fifteen years of experience of vigilantism. AT LEAST, the timeline's weird so I don't know exactly how much. He's trained with Batman for around a decade, was such a good fighter that he caught Deathstroke's eye and has trained with him for a bit and many more dangerous people.

Bruce, depending on how old he is and when exactly he started training idk but I assume it was late teens or early adulthood, has AT THE VERY LEAST twenty years of training and experience, most probably more. Has trained with people all over the world, INCLUDING the League and has beat Jason without THAT much difficulty before. Post mortem Jason I mean.

Cass, if we count her as around eighteen, has fucking eighteen years of training, with David Cain and many other people he brought in for her to fight against, grown trained killers. Her training was the most brutal out of all three of them. Cain has literally shot her out of nowhere and then forced her to fight him right after to, and I quote, "keep her on her toes". It's been said by Batman, Deathstroke and probably other people that she could beat Batman in a fight. And people like to say that Bruce only said that cause he's self deprecating and that's honestly so insulting to him. He's hard on himself and has shit self worth over things like his parenting, failing to save people etc, but he is an intelligent man who knows his strength and his weaknesses very well and over OR under estimating himself would've gotten him killed years ago. CASSANDRA CAIN'S ABILITY TO READ PEOPLE'S BODY LANGUAGE IS SO INSANE THAT SHE'S BEEN ASSUMED TO BE META HUMAN BECAUSE HER SPEED WAS SO FUCKING INSANE IT WAS DEEMED IMPOSSIBLE FOR HER TO BE HUMAN. This one guy said and I quote, "Her individual moves are borderline human. It is her aggregate speed that's metahuman. Humans can throw a 100 miles per-hour fastball, smash concrete with their heads, and run 4.2 forties. What they can't do is all of that at once. It's not so much physical as... as mentally impossible. Too much to coordinate." Her ability, trained into her not just gained, is so fucking op these people have no idea how it's humanly possible. The only advantage my boy Jason's got are his guns and the fact Cass can't physically stomach killing people. Cass without that hatred of killing dog walks Jason, even without it actually. In the Batgirl volume 1, after she loses her ability to read body language (she gets it back later ofc) she gets hit and is then in shock because no one has managed to land a single fucking hit on her since she was six. She proceeds to beat the shit out of people easily and thinks to herself "I'm fighting like a child. Pathetic", as she barely holds herself back from accidentally crushing skulls.

Cass has been very much nerfed in the newer comics for plot's sake or because the writer doesn't know her character well, or most probably because they want to put a certain character on a pedestal. They've done it all the time and you can't honestly call yourself a fan if you actually think Jason, even with the pit rage and the guns and hatred that makes him willing to kill, would be capable of even beating Nightwing unless he's having a really bad day, let alone all three of them.

Point of this all is: Cass rocks and DC sucks ass at being consistent and actually paying attention to the characters they write. They actually made Cass a villain in one. She found out she had a sister, murdered her and a bunch of other people for no reason, found out Deathstroke had brainwashed her or something and then killed him. Which btw, she killed Deathstroke. Bro's a hell of a challenge for the Bat and she killed him. Still think Jason, or Dick or Bruce could beat her? An argument could be made for Bruce but even then they're AT LEAST on equal footing, though I think Cass would still win. Would be a hell of a fight and Cass would get some nasty ass possibly fatal injuries but she'd still beat him in my humble and accurate opinion.

Okay I'm done now. Longest rant yet. Had a lot of feelings about this particular topic, sorry.

EDIT: I realized that I kinda underplayed Nightwing's skills here. For a while now, he's been considered Batman's equal. He has beaten Bruce in fights, honest all out fights, more than once and has been Batman himself as well. He's kicked Deathstroke's ass too. Him in his mid to late twenties? A literal fucking beast of a dude. Him Cassandra and Bruce are the best fighters in the batfamily, fight me on it.

ANOTHER EDIT: Pit madness is not a thing by the way, I mentioned it here in a sarcastic way because the fandom has brainwashed itself into thinking it is a thing because they need an excuse for why Jason did so much fucked up shit. Just want to put that out there,

[antiloreolympus]

10 Anti LO Asks

1. LO fans are like I can justify slavery, I love misogyny, Classism is cool, capitalism is tight, cheating and child abuse is a-ok, mass murder to "insignificant" people is okey-dokey, but I draw the LINE at incest! Like wait, back up a minute -

2. I haven't read LO past Ep 3 for obvious reasons but checked out the Ep 190 everyone was talking about and holy SHIT it's far worse than I could ever dream. The silly sweatdrop on Demeter when Eris brings up what she did looks like a COMEDIC scene. Eris gets stabbed at a lazy horizontal camera angle and then spends the entire time looking mildly weirded out. The stiff dialogue, stick figure poses, choppy transitions. Zeus's hilariously lopsided face when he speaks to Persephone. This is popular??

3. A really short and refreshing HxP WEBTOON I found some time ago that I'd like to recommend is called Awkward Hades. Not only is it pretty damn funny, but Persephone is snarky and cool-headed.

4. be nice to Disney's Hercules. at least it was fun and never said it was accurate, LO on the other hand is a pretentious slog that thinks it's better than all of the ancient poets combained and a feminist magnum opus :/

5. What I find so insulting about LO and "retellings" like it (and I love a happy HXP take! don't get me wrong!) is that they seem to think a woman's "happiness and empowerment" is via the ruin of a mother and daughter relationship and instead through marrying a man, which isn't exactly screaming "feminist' now is it. Why are so many of these "feminist" writers more concerned about the "redemption" of a literal king and do so via the ruin of the female relationship for his benefit?

6. What I find a bit funny is like ... what is Demeter supposed to do in these stories exactly? Because if she gives a damn about her daughter, she's considered "overbearing and abusive" (I'm begging HxP stans to never have kids) but let's say Demeter just doesn't care and never even checks up on her while Persephone is kidnapped, assaulted, etc, she'd then be deemed neglectful and abusive again! Like she can't win with these people no matter what she does.

7. Something that didn’t sit right with me was the reveal of Apollo being Zeus’ son. Beside being extremely obvious, I just didn’t understand why he did it at that moment. Like he doesn’t have persephone meaning he’s not powerful enough to defeat zeus. Now Zeus can connect the dots and see that Apollo wants to over throw him which he can take attention earlier ( which u can say he did by banishing persephone). Which makes me even wonder why he would do that? Am I like missing smth? It just feels kinda dumb which is honestly a problem I had with Apollo as an antagonist. To me The only thing making him a threat is because of what he did to persephone. I think RS wants for us to believe that hes some sort of master manipulator but he really isnt making him such a bad antagonist in my opinion and since I don’t personally care about the threat that PxH are facing Im honestly quite bored.

8. We deserve short kings, chubby kings, fat kings, lanky kings, androgynous kings, trans kings, bi kings, gay kings, kings of all shapes and sizes and creeds, and yet rachel only gives us the same bulky, cishet jokers :/

9. tbh big age gaps in fiction only really work when one is immortal/an immortal fantasy creature like a god and the other is mortal, but then the human is usually like 25+ and had a life well before them, so yeah the age gap is there but the maturity and experience gap really isnt, but in LO rachel purposely made sure they're not aligned in any way (age, power, experience, maturity, etc) that its like why would anyone not find it off putting?? he's always going to have power her no matter what??

10. the "wake up your sister" line can’t be eris though because she was kicked out of the house for trying to murder hera, so why would she still be living with them? it was probably going to be  if rachel even remembered to name them) eileithyia since he's in that group of canon zeus/hera kids along with hebe and ares (which eris usually isnt). if i had to guess if shes introduced itll be solely to help get persephone pregnant since she's a childbirth goddess and hades needs babies :/

[petekaos]

chanon & pom, now in character

hi. in the aftermath of episode ten of the gifted graduation, i have sobbed, drank tea, forced myself to rewatch some of the most painful scenes in existence, and provide you now with the inner workings of my cursed, cursed mind. this is me debunking every single thing that happened with chanon and pom in tgg episode 10.

so. here’s how chanonpom can still win.

1. the chanonpom reunion 

i feel like it was obvious to fairly everyone that this reunion was out of character. first of all, chanon keeps manifesting out of nowhere with absolutely no explanation other than the fact that he has a car. how did he know that pom ‘colluded’ with the director? how did he know he’s there? if we assume that he was working with the director in order to take his revenge on pom as we learn later in the episode (which is also out of character but we’ll get to that later), it’s still completely dumbfounding that the director has pulled so many strings in the background to orchestrate meetings such as this.

next we come to the problem of there being absolutely no expression on pom’s face when he sees chanon. does he already know that chanon is alive? how does he know that? last we saw, pom had no clue that chanon was alive and mourned him deeply. now, we see him see chanon and tell him to “go back,” to go away as this is none of his business. from what we know about chanon and pom, we know that they haven’t seen each other since they were in high school. chanon knew pom was a teacher, but pom almost certainly didn’t know chanon was alive - so this reaction is such an... understatement? here is the person who he wiped the memories of, literally coming back from the dead, and that’s his only reaction...? even chanon’s reaction as chanon (disregarding his apparent revenge he wants to take) is more realistic than pom’s reaction here. all in all, the reunion felt very flat and unrealistic considering that we, the audience, know that pom and chanon haven’t seen each other in so long. again, maybe this will be talked about later in the show, but so far - no sense made.

2. pom at the beginning of this episode

this is actually fairly true to pom. as someone who is almost thirty and has been manipulated by the director since he was in high school, he must be feeling absolutely hopeless and defeated, trying to fool himself into believing that he is free when he’s being controlled by the director. but pom, as has been established in the gifted, has never been one to teach his students this. here, he’s trying to protect pom, but he would have never told him to throw in the towel and stop fighting for what is right. much like chanon, he is tired, but the fact that he’s saying this to pang seems... very out of character. 

consider this. this is from episode 12 (part 4) of the gifted, and this is when he’s just been told about pang and wave’s plan to stop the director. here, it becomes clear that he would never collude with the director voluntarily, nor would he ever tell his students to stop fighting. before this, he wishes them good luck and gives them advice. his number one priority are his students, and he wants to teach them and make sure they don’t get expelled or hurt in any way or form, but he had perfect opportunity to stop them here - and didn’t. 

exactly why this is also completely out of character. he would never agree to willingly erase his student’s memories. it has been established time and time again that his priority are his students, and he would never collude with the director in order to harm them in any way. this becomes apparent later in the episode too, when pang gets put into direct life-threatening danger, that he would not stand for it and is prepared to sacrifice himself for them.

3. chanon’s side of the chanonpom argument 

and this is the part of the episode where i call BULLSHIT. while it is... natural for chanon to be bitter that pom did that to him, let’s remember who this man really is. he’s not a casual acquaintance, neither is he someone who got caught in the crossfire. chanon was ready to sacrifice everything for pom, he was ready to let his own name be dragged through the mud to protect pom and to expose the director’s abusive and dangerous actions. 

look at him. he says that this is the director’s fault. teenage chanon says that what happened is not something pom has to take responsibility for alone. and then teenage pom was manipulated by the director into doing this to his best friend - and you think adult chanon wouldn’t realise it was the same thing? that it was the director’s manipulation that caused pom to wipe his memories? yes, pom needs to atone for his actions, but it is not his fault alone. and the fact that adult chanon doesn’t recognise that is very out of character to me, especially considering the following.

he was ready. he was ready to sacrifice everything for pom. shipping lenses aside, he was ready to sacrifice his own name so that his best friend wouldn’t have to atone for what he did. teenage chanon made this choice - a child who still had so many years left, so much to look forward to, was so devoted that he pledged his entire life to darkness just so his best friend didn’t have to deal with it. and you’re telling me that adult chanon would be so bitter about losing ten years of his life that he would stage an entire revenge plot that included the director, the very person he was working to overthrow, and stab his best friend in the neck with a deadly virus? when his teenage self was already about to throw it all away for said best friend already? it doesn’t make any canonical sense at all.

and... he did. teenage chanon was ready. and adult chanon would have been too.

4. pom’s side of the chanonpom argument 

this was the bit that was incredibly out of character for pom. first of all, how does he know so much about chanon’s life now? also... while i understand that he could be feeling this, seeing as he was under supot’s control for so long, he would have never said this to chanon. especially after he remembered what he did to him and he felt so bad about what he was manipulated into doing to him that he made himself forget. 

remember this? remember when he recalled everything that chanon had done for him and how terrible he felt that he broke down in tears in front of two of his students, on his knees, and apologised to him? you’re telling me that this same pom would hurl such insults and accusations into chanon’s face? this man has been through so much trauma, so much pain, and the fact that he was manipulated into doing this to his own best friend has eaten away at him for so long. in the following scenes he is extremely resigned and hurt. he has never forgiven himself for any of it - which is why it’s natural to expect that he would never stop apologising to chanon... instead of talking about whose life is worse.

this is what tipped me off that either the tgg writers really went wrong with this episode or this is all a ruse. because although pom must be feeling absolutely terrible and trapped because of supot manipulating him for all these years - he would never say this. why would he never say this? as has been established before, pom loves his students. they are his first priority. he cares about them to death and even if he had the choice, i doubt he would switch schools to teach because he genuinely loves teaching the gifted and helping them work on their potentials. remember - this is the same pom who offered pang and wave advice on how they should avoid the director. remember - this is the same pom who stood up for korn to darin and asked her if she really cared about the students. remember - this is the same pom who literally sacrifices himself for pang later in this episode. 

in the end... what is pom’s core desire?

and what is chanon’s?

and so pom would never throw chanon or his students to the wayside. and chanon would never throw betray pom and take revenge on him by colluding with the director. neither of them would commit half the actions or say half the things they said in this episode. we have to remember that these two went through thick and thin together, were the first two to try and overthrow the gifted program. one of them was ready to sacrifice everything for the other. honestly i refuse to accept that things will stay like this for them.

so how can chanonpom still win? well... the virus that chanon stabbed into pom’s neck has different equations on it to see which one is fake and which one is real. reminder: chanon’s potential is being able to solve equations and do complicated maths questions at a fairly fast rate... and that’s all i’m going to say.

their story is inherently one of tragedy. but that doesn’t mean it has to be forever.

[smallersocksx]

Pokémon Character Analysis: Iris

With Iris set to return to the anime in next week’s episode of Journeys. I decided to take the time to analyse her character as I’ll be honest, Iris isn’t one of my favourite travelling companions. However, now that I’m older and I’ve taken the time to analyse her character. I realise, that a lot of the hate Iris receives is slightly over the top.

As with all my reviews/analyses, I’ll keep them under the cut. So, if you want to keep reading, that’s great!

Introduction:

As many people that have read my previous reviews and know me, may know I am a huge fan of the Diamond and Pearl games and anime series. I will be the first to say, I know Diamond and Pearl wasn’t a perfect series, honestly, there is no such thing as a perfect series. But as a follow-up to DP, Black and White was definitely a let-down for a lot of fans, either because of completely resetting Ash’s knowledge which was honestly an insult to his DP incarnation, his travelling companions or the fact that he lost to Cameron of all people in the Vertress Conference. BW in some aspects left a lot to be desired.

Nevertheless, this post is focusing on Iris, a companion similar to Goh, a lot of fans love to hate particularly because of her infamous catchphrase “You’re such a kid.” Looking back, this was one of the things that did make me drop the series, keep in mind I was 11 when BW started airing. So, hearing a character that is meant to be the same age or younger than you say "You’re such a kid!” Over and over again, got annoying quite quickly.

However, looking back the usage of that infamous catchphrase was probably exaggerated. Whilst, working past that I still didn’t come to love Iris. Considering, Iris is meant to be one of the main character and similar to Goh, they are meant to be written in a way that makes us want to see them grow, cheer them on and be happy when they succeed. Nonetheless, when you look at the way they are written and their development it just makes it abundantly clear that Iris and Goh are the victims of poor writing.

Iris’ Initial Characterisation:

The aspect that made me drop the series was Iris’ initial characterisation particularly the infamous phrase “You’re such a kid” which as I mentioned in the introduction, which with the benefit of hindsight I can see the usage of it has been exaggerated. Nevertheless, it doesn’t change the fact that it was annoying. Especially, given when Ash meets Iris, he had defeated legendaries by this point, acquired 36 badges (that’s including the Orange Archipelago badges) and defeated the Battle Frontier. Whereas Iris may have had good battling prowess and at one point had a 99-battle winning streak, but, her Axew was a newborn with hardly any battling experience and her Excadrill was refusing to listen to her.

Many people use the defence that Misty called Ash a kid yet she doesn’t nearly receive as much hate. To be fair, when Misty met Ash, he was a rookie trainer and Misty was a gym leader, so Misty at least had the position and knowledge to back her up. However, this was only an issue at the beginning of the series and the insults tend to die down, but, that initial characterisation is what stopped me from watching the series since my 11-year-old self did not have the patience for that.

Iris’ Goal:

Iris’ goal is to become a Dragon Master, however, by the end of Black and White, Iris opts to travel to Johto to battle Clair and following the conclusion of that battle she opts to follow the direction she saw Rayquaza flying. When I look at this conclusion, I’m honestly confused, I have no sense of whether or not Iris is any closer to achieving her goal. Or even throughout the series, we get no sense of how anyone who wants to master any Pokémon typing reaches their goal, a majority of type specialists typically end up in the position of Gym Leader or Elite Four. But Iris never once expressed a desire to be a Gym Leader or any higher-ranking position. Which, makes Drayden decision to choose Iris as his successor, all the more unusual to me. I suppose in one way it gives Iris a position/goal to work towards but given Iris’ free-spirited personality, having someone choose her path rather than choosing it herself feels unnatural.

Additionally, an obvious method to becoming a type specialist is catching Pokémon of the same type you want to specialize in and little more than half of Iris’ team actually consist of Dragon-types. I understand Gym Leaders having at least one alternative type to give their team diversity and cover their weaknesses. As shown by Candice owning a Medicham and Piers having a Toxtricity in his party later in the SW/SH games. But, Excadrill fits the bill more than Emolga as Excadrill is part of Steel-type which covers Iris’ team’s weaknesses to Ice and the newly introduced Fairy-types. That is not to say that I dislike Emolga or anything but it felt like she was an unusual catch.

I am aware Clemont only had one Electric-type on hand when travelling with Ash, to be fair, the remainder of his Electric-types were at the Lumiose Gym and before catching his Bunnelby he displayed apprehension at handling other types of Pokémon.

Axew:

I like to think of the characters’ first Pokémon or their partner Pokémon as a mirror reflecting their growth. Take May and Blaziken, they mirror one another’s development perfectly as when Blaziken was a Torchic much like May, he was inexperienced and unsure of himself. When Torchic evolved to Combusken, at this point May had won two Contest Ribbons and began to feel confident in her Coordinating skills. Once, Torchic evolved into Combusken he developed that same level of confidence, he didn’t feel the need to compete for May’s attention and wasn’t bullied or intimidated by other Pokémon like Ash’s Corphish. Then Combusken evolves to Blaziken in the penultimate episode, once May has decided to leave the group, travel through Johto on her own and find her own battling style. At this point, May has chosen to become independent and this reflects in Combusken, her first Pokémon evolving into his final stage. My point being I like to think every travelling companions’ ace reflects their character growth and I don’t get that same feeling with Iris and Axew.

Now it is clear that Iris and Axew care for one another and there is also the twist that Axew wasn’t Iris’ first Pokémon. However, for a majority of the series, Axew was Iris’ only Dragon-type and in the sixth episode, he has a dream of evolving into his final stage. After that, the idea of Axew evolving is hardly addressed. As I’ve mentioned, evolving or choosing not to evolve are one method of allowing Pokémon to develop, considering, Axew has expressed a desire to evolve, I think he should have at least evolved into Fraxure before the BW series concluded. As aside from him learning Dragon-type moves and developing as a battler, once, Dragonite’s introduced he’s kind of pushed to the sidelines and doesn’t develop any further.

Many fans are hoping by Iris’ appearance in Journeys, Axew has evolved into Haxorus. However, if Axew had evolved into Fraxure by the end of the series, then his evolution into Haxorus would feel more natural to me.

Dragonite:

I will be honest; I am not a huge fan of Iris’ Dragonite. It felt as though, the writers forgot to give her an additional Dragon-type and just rewarded her with this random Dragonite. Also, there is the fact, that Dragonite was disobedient towards Iris despite the fact he joined her team willingly. This display of disobedience reflects poorly on Iris as a trainer, especially after Excadrill’s arc. Moreover, Iris has had some of her best moments throughout the series with the other Unovan Dragon-types such as Druddigon and Deino both of which would have been great captures for her particularly Deino as she has a Hydreigon in the games.

Also, HE. SHOULD. HAVE. LOST. TO. DAWN’S. MAMOSWINE!!!! (and I’m not just saying that because I love Dawn and her Mamoswine)

If the writers absolutely felt that they had to give Iris a Dragonite, they could have at least done it whilst she was in Johto since Dragonite’s pre-evolutions can be found in Dragon’s Den and Route 45. It honestly would have made more sense than giving her a Gible which isn’t even native to Johto and we haven’t even been given a hint on whether or not Gible is appearing in the next episode.

Conclusion:

I think posting my thoughts, always, manages to clear my head. Now whilst, Iris wasn’t my favourite travelling companion of Ash’s. I feel as though some of the hate towards her is exaggerated as she has had some great moments and development throughout BW. One of my favourite arcs in BW, was Iris restoring her relationship with Excadrill which was one of the most poignant moments of the series.

I think if the writers did a better job as well at establishing Iris’ goals – we understand she wants to be a Dragon Master, but does she want to become a gym leader? A caretaker of Dragon-types (similar to Liza of Charicific Valley)? If they had established this from the beginning, we would have had a better understanding of the direction they wanted to take with Iris’ development.

As well, in the games, Iris has a better relationship with Drayden as she affectionately refers to him as “Grandpa”, I think if they transferred that relationship into the anime, it would have made Drayden’s choice of selecting Iris as his successor feel a lot more natural.

All in all, I feel as though Iris was the victim of some arguably poor and weird writing choices and she isn’t the only character to experience this throughout the series. After writing this, I am looking forward to Ash vs Iris next week, but you have to hope they don’t pull the same stunt as they did with Korrina and diminish all of Iris’ efforts and training during her absence. At least we’ll finally get to see Dracovish in action as well!

[megashadowdragon]

ironwoods tragic fall from grace

comments on youtube

When a hero becomes the villain, all hell breaks loose. Especially when the fallen hero is general of the Atlesian army.

The only thing that I noticed was that Ironwood has constantly grown a Beard as time passes. He's slowly decending towards from Hero to Villain as a "Fallen Hero" Catagory. James Ironwood WAS a good man, utterly dedicated to protecting his people. It was with the best of intentions that he charged down the path he’s taken... but you know what they say about good intentions.

I didn’t think his semblance was much of a factor into his decisions before Vol 7 but now as he’s become more unhinged every chapter, it’s becoming even more strikingly obvious that he’s become a slave to it. The fact that his semblance increases his resolve to go through with bargaining with Watts, willing to blow up Mantle just to save Atlas.

He's like the antithesis of Leonardo Lionheart

You know, this is a really good counter for all those people saying Ironwood is suffering character assassination. He's not. He's giving in to fear and letting his worst aspects take command.

I’m personally asking again why would the writers talk about something like Ironwood’s semblance outside the show when for the most part the majority of people only watches the show, that’s like how the Russo brothers (the writers and directors of Avengers Infinity War and Endgame) choose to answer the hows and why on Twitter when the majority of people are only watching the movies I personally love those movies but it also would’ve been nice to see those things get explained or talked about in the movies just like how it would be nice to at least mention Ironwood’s semblance in the show

Honestly, I love what they're doing with Ironwood. His slow, inexorable descent into extremism is a wonderful exploration of how an idealistic person who believes themself to be the hero can tumble into villainy without trusting others to keep them grounded. It's the very real problem of the philosophy of "The ends justify these particular means;" if you can justify one morally gray decision to achieve a good goal, it gets easier to justify the next, darker gray decision. Without someone outside to call you on your bullshit, you're eventually justifying genocide because it will be for the "greater good."

Ironwood is literally the Darth Vader of RWBY. He starts of as a respectable character, commanding his own army for the good of all. But he gives in to all of his fears, looses a limb or 2, and slowly turns misguidedly evil, willing to kill ANYONE who stands in his way.

I've said before that Team Rwby is a foil to the Headmasters. Ruby keeping secrets like Oz, Leo/Blake, the faunus who ran away when things got hard, and Ironwood's parallel is Yang.

Not just obvious stuff, like both having metal arms. But both of their semblances are double edged sword. Yang get stronger taking damage, but if she leans on it too much, an enemy that takes one hit just destroys her since she can't fight back. Volume 4 has her training with Taiyang to correct this flaw in her thinking, leading to her overcoming Adam in her rematch in V6.

Ironwood's semblance can be incredibly powerful. Just off the top of my head, he basically no sells the Apathy, which is an incredibly dangerous Grimm in a group with other, stronger Grimm. But it has downsides, and we're seeing it. The correct way to use it is after you've made a choice, to focus on the task at hand. But making large choices while under the semblance is not smart. He's too focused on one action to see others that have opened. Atlas has to be raised, because that's what he's already decided to do. The idea that they've made contact with the world and reinforcements might be coming never entered his mind. Similarly, he's so focused on forcing Penny to heel that he's not seeing he has a chance to have her come willingly by aiding in Mantle's rescue.

He's so focused on winning this one battle (Having Penny raise the city to escape Salem immediately) that's he's making choices to doom the larger war (defending the kingdom's people, defeating Salem, reuniting the world).

He clearly knows that it isn't smart to rely on it this way, since he's shown the ability to take criticism and adjust his thinking in Volume 7 (Nora would've been Slate'd if he couldn't). But the combination of Yang/Blake going behind his back to tell Robyn, Ruby/Oscar not telling him the truth, Qrow seemingly killing Clover, and, right when he thought that he'd saved everyone, the idea that every single thing he's done might've been exactly what Salem wanted has fairly understandably shaken his faith in the others around him. He can't rely on them to rein him in, he has to do that... which is exactly the problem with his semblance. If the only person who can stop you is yourself, and you're convinced you're always right, you've doomed yourself.

I'm assuming that he could probably be talked down by Glynda or potentially Oz or Qrow (fat chance of that one) if they can break his aura, but as it stands, unless someone beats him down, he's not going to be able to stop himself.

With Ironwood I am reminded of a very profound quote from CS Lewis, that I feel summarizes him very well: "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals."Show less

Dude Ironwood didn't have a problem with trusting people and didn't have a mentality of not being able to trust people. He trusted to much and trusted people who both betrayed his trust (Yang/Blake) and didn't reciprocate the trust he gave them (Ruby and the rest of the main cast). Honestly, he would have been perfectly right to have immediately put the relic of knowledge into the vault at the start of v7 and then send the students on their way and have nothing more to do with them.

Ironwood saw Atlas and his fleet as a way to inspire hope. It's ironic that his plan was one of lifting them up so high that nobody would ever be able to see them anymore.

My only criticism with Ironwood is that I really really wish his semblance was brought up in the show. Are they ever going to bring it up? I absolutely LOVE how he has been written and watching his tragic descent into becoming a villain but having his semblance mentioned in show would be great. Is someone going to have to break his aura or something before he or someone else mentions it?

In a way he is. His semblance is a double edge sword, as someone in Ironwood's position is all about making calls. Ironwood was able to climb through the ranks because his semblance allowed him to follow through with his actions to save people (I also still wonder what happend to halve of his body as he already had a metal leg and arm in volume 2, we can asume the paladin project, but some confirmation would be wonderfull). Now he's following through on his words agains Salem, that Ironwood isn't going to let Salem take the relic of creation. Ironwood essentially only has this thought he is focused on and is disregarding everything else. Right now Salem is piecing herself together again and Penny is going to the vault, if Ironwood semblance of Mettle wasn't interfering he would be able to see the bigger picture of let Penny open the vault, take out the staff of cration and chuck whatever goop Salem is right now with the bit of land she is piecing herself on right now and throw that into the vault and close it for good by blocking off the entrance with concrete. Voila. Ironwood doesn't notice at this point his actions as he even thought councilman Slate, who was asking Ironwood to explain his action got put down by Ironwood himself. Same for Marrow later on, but Winter was able to step in. Ironwood needs to be saved from this mindset and I think the team up of Qrow and Robyn (also who ever was on the elevator, I think it was Winter and Marrow as Winter was taking him away to be put in jail) could save Ironwood to the point of breaking his aura that way the influence of Mettle will loosen.

Gonna be honest, I dislike the whole concept of his semblance and it being what's driving him to this is just dumb to me. I loved him as a character and this entire volume feels like every bit that made him an interesting character has been ripped away. It's likely just me, but prior to Oscar using the built-up magic to beat Salem it felt like they had painted themselves into a corner. Either Ironwood was proven right that some sacrifices had to be made for the good of the people, or Salem was going to be beaten and even if she can come back, she no longer feels like a huge threat to me. I loved Ironwood in volume seven and many of team RWBY's choices have infuriated me for how contrived and stupid they manage to be while also contradicting themselves so easily. To be frank, I feel like his semblance was just an excuse for this utterly stupid character assassination they're trying to justify.Show less

I kind of feel like the writers 'forced' Ironwood to become a villain. Some of his decisions just don't make sense.

[carmen-berzattos]

I'm really curious to see what you think of the episode once you watch it because I thought it wasn't that bad tbh

Hey nonnie, so I just finished watching the episode and I’m ... conflicted. I’m conflicted by my reactions towards this show since the Michael’s return SL ended tbh. In the first 7 episodes, I so obviously disliked the storylines and where it was headed but afterwards my reactions were not so resentful. I became a lot more ... conflicted because the writing is not obviously bad or bad bad, it just became confused, unfocused, rushed and somewhat inconsistent. Somewhat, being a generous qualification on my part tbh. So, I’m gonna try to break it down here. Keep in mind, though, that I haven’t given a ton of thought to what the show has had to offer in a while now. It seemed futile to me, primarily, but also, because I’ve been far too busy to actually spare too much energy here. Nonetheless, here it goes:

 First and foremost, the romance in this season fell on its face in a lot of way. Starting with the main romances of Petramos and Jafael.

1. Petramos: In a lot of ways, the trouble of Petramos is a lot easier to spot for me, a little more obvious, and a little less complicated than jafael’s, more contained than Jafael’s. Probably due to the shorter history of the relationship. I think the controversial revelation that Petra’s been lying to JR about Anezka this whole time was detrimental to the relationship in a nearly unfixable way. To fix it would need care and finesse and patience and build-up. JtV has always had some trouble with all of that, what’s with it being so dramatic and over-the-top, but I think it’s struggled to achieve nuanced writing especially this season. In that way, Petramos’s writing has been doomed since the very start of the season. Like fine, okay, you went ahead with the Petra lying, something that I won’t even get into how unlikely it seems to me, but the relationship needed a LOT more care than what they gave it. Having JR choose to get back with Petra so prematurely only to have them break-up later on did NOT do the writers any favor. Their reunion was rushed, their build-up was quick and a lot of it off-screen. And then their break-up was a disaster writing-wise. It wasn’t heartbreaking, it was angering and insulting to me as a viewer who has functioning braincells thank you very much. It was done for drama and did not really follow coherently, especially with the add-on of Petra wanting to propose and all that. It just fell on its face. For me, a much better way to deal with the situation would have been to let their season 4 break up land throughout the first half of the season, then come up with a reason for a rekindling, a tentative alliance, a careful build up that leaves me squealing like a schoolgirl when they reunite. Have Petra go through the journey of getting over JR in the first half, have her go through that character growth, and THEN reunite them. And here’s the thing, I’m still about 99% sure that Petramos is endgame, but we’re literally supposed to get the reunion and the endgame in ONE episode, an episode that’ll largely be about Jafael so like... IDEK man. This’ll be really hard to sell beyond the aesthetics of two gorgeous people getting together on your screen. 

2. Jafael: I have SO many conflicting emotions about Jafael this season. Don’t get me wrong, I love them, I ship them. I always will. And we did get some really good material over the course of the season, but boy oh boy, do I have problems with how this is all panning out. First and foremost, the treatment of this relationship with Michael’s return has been disastrous, and i think we can all agree on that. Like okay, fine, you want to reach this point of breaking up. Okay fine. You want to reintroduce the love triangle. Okay fine, but pray tell, what the actual fuck was that treatment of the storyline? I was genuinely excited about the potential for angst that this’ll give Jafael. I wanted the pain and the heartbreak, I wanted Rafael to be the one to break up with Jane because he just does not want to do this anymore, but the way they went about it was confusing to me. For example, I loved the idea of “Rafael got his memories back, too”. I thought that was clever, but to me the trigger of it was not as clever. Remember back in season 1 when Raf proposed and then he saw her laughing with Michael and that kind of contributed to sending him spiraling? Yeah, I needed something like that. Something to remind Rafael and the audience of this journey, a physical evidence of that trouble in front of him. We got none of that of course. And then we had to deal with the whole Mateo thing and Mateo’s feelings and involvement and it was so not the right focus. It lacked feeling, it lacked heart, it lacked things that were genuinely a part of the core of Jane as a show. The whole point of Michael returning was supposed to be the emotional baggage of it all, but it turns out JtV was truly not at all equipped to handle something with that complexity. So the break up was a bit of a mess in that regards and I’m just... yeah. Let’s just leave it there for now. 

Because what was even more aggravating than the break-up, is their reunion. I’m not gonna get into the whole thing about Raf’s depression here (see below the section about characters), but what I will get into here is, how in fuck’s name did we get a whole reunion SL without even a glimpse of what, exactly, was going through Raf’s mind as he went through therapy? Like just how? How did he come to not trust her? How did he come to realize that he’ll always love her? What the f was going on in his mind this whole time? Was he pining in his own way, too? Okay, fine, you don’t want to give us this storyline about his depression (why thank you, fuck you too), but can you uhhh, IDK give us a SL about them getting through their issues. Remember Jafael in season 1 and 2 going to therapy to hash out their trouble? I miss those days. I’m honestly beyond flabbergasted that they did not immediately march into a therapist’s office and try to fix their trouble. That would’ve made their whole journey come full circle. It would have helped dissect their problems. His and hers. How they’l move on. How they’ve grown together. You know, the kind of stuff you do when you tell a person that you don’t trust them anymore but you also really love them? Remember the proposal episode? Yeah, how the F did we not get a we’re going to therapy SL afterwards? And now, in 5x17, Raf is like I’m not worried about MIchael trying to win you back again, anymore. And I’m like, k, cool, but why? We have seen very little development in that regards, can you please explain it better? Can you please show me more? PLEASE? But I guess not, and it is what it is now. 

In a lot of ways, Jafael’s trouble is that the show is trying to cram 2 or more seasons worth of buildup and SL into half a season, half a season whose focus has been disastrous to say the least. So yeah, the reunion has been tainted for me with a lot of trouble. And now, thinking about it, I actually can’t find very clear ways in which Jafael’s journey this season could have been fixed wih easy and simple shuffling of certain events. To truly make it pop, they NEEDED to delve deep into Rafael’s mental health, which is not a simple fix in itself. Otherwise, this only partially satisfactory stuff is all we are left with. In my mind right now, I think I would have gone much farther back, though, and tweaked their story to maintain the Michael returns SL without it making the story so bland and aggravating. I think I wouldn’t have let Jafael get together at all in season 4. Rafael, following that breakdown he had with Jane in 4x05 goes to therapy. Jane has a romance with Adam that runs its course. Jafael rebuild their friendship and start to catch feelings again. They’re really falling in love and about to get back together when BAM Michael returns. I think that would have worked for the purposes of the triangle more. Jane is not really committed to anyone, except now she’s in love with Raf. And it would have made even her choice more powerful. But alas, it is what it is. But even more ideally, IDK, come up with a more creative obstacle than Michael’s return. 

3. Villadero: Honestly, I’m only gonna talk about them to vent, cause I’m MAD, you guys, so MAD and I don’t even ship it. But I’m MAAAAAD. Like just... okay, okay, you take all of season 5 and it’s literally just Jennie shitting on M/J and I’m like what the actual fuck? The blows never stopped coming? Michael returning only to have his heart broken all over again not enough for ya? Having to see Mateo say that he hates him not enough? Oh, no, it’s not. We gotta not only make the book about their relationship a flop (which like, fine, as an aspiring writer it’s cool to see this being a more complicated journey for Jane than an immediate hit) but to also have its publication be a literal bribery? Why?? JUST WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY? And then to imply that M/J where just a step for Jafael and M/C now?????????????????? WHY WHY WHY???????????????????? Remember the show that had Jane worry that her moving on with Raf would make it seem as if Michael is just a step? I want that show back. I just... UGH. 

Characters and characterization is another thing that the show really struggled with this season. Like a LOT. 

1. Petra: I’ll start with Petra because I honestly think she got the better deal out of everyone. This season has really managed to highlight and showcase how much she’s grown and how far she’s come. I think aside from the supposed plan to propose to JR, Petra has been the least inconsistent this season. Though she did have lines that showed real amnesia on the writers part, like telling Jane that JR is the reason she doesn’t lie and manipulate anymore. But oh well, she did well. 

2. Jane: I feel like Jane has lost a lot of her vibrance this season. I can’t really pin point why, but I think it’s a combination of reducing her to her bouts of guilt, the weird way that they’ve dealt with her career this season, fluctuating between utter disregard and then literal cramming of episodes worth of her writing development into half an episode (I mean Ro has FAAAAAAAR more build up towards This is Mars than Jane has with her book) it’s been really hard to see the life that Jane exuded in the past. 

3. Rafael: I’m tired. I don’t wanna talk about it. I’m just tired. 

4. Michael: Also tired. I just wanted him to feel like a person with emotions and trauma but like... *rubs forehead*

5. Xiomara: This makes me the MOST tired. She faded into the background so much I want to ram my head through a wall. Like what the fuck man just what the fuck? The build up of her going to nursing school came from no where. Now she’s willing to go to NY so quickly? No struggle? All the struggle is on Ro’s part? Why just why I don’t understand how the writers who gave us Xo from season 1-4 can just suddenly forget. Even the wrap up of her cancer SL was anticlimactic. It’s just. 

Also, Luisa deserves better. 

Another thing that season severely struggles with is focus. So much screentime for Jorge and Alba and it’s just not that interesting of a SL. So much time for River Fields and literally no one I know gives a flying fuck. So much wasted time, time that should have gone to Raf’s depression, more Luisa, and definitely more Xo. But NOOOO we had to deal with River’s relationship with her daughter and I’m like... who even gives a damn? 

One last thing I’ll say cause I’m too tired to say anymore about this, though I could: where are the magical realism elements in the show? Where has that magical feeling about them gone???????????????

Anyways, let’s see how they wrap it up I guess. 

[adrienaline-rushed-art]

Can you do Marinette for next character ask/ml sugar pls?

Why I like them: Despite being immature in many ways— I guess by that, I mean her obsessive behavior, but really guys… she *just* turned 14. You know who else is 14? 1D fanfic writers (but more on that later)— in other ways, she’s more mature than adults. First, she’s self-aware, and she’s willing to take responsibility/humble herself when the time comes. Even though a lot of this is because Tikki guides her, it means a lot that she actually listens. I know so many adults that would rather be petty. 

And when I say self-aware I mean a lot of things. For one, she understands when she’s doing something… mm… not so great. Many of these things are for comic relief/exaggeration/situational comedy/slapstick (which is pretty much the extent small children get from it), but it’s still evident that she feels guilty or hesitant. 

does that look like the face of someone who’s comfortable with her own actions? 

Kids who watch heroes look for (and need) confidence and justice. Neither of which are happening in this scene or in some others, and from the kids that I know… they’re totally aware of it. Some might blatantly shout at Marinette as they watch her do something wrong, others might not say anything but… trust me they aren’t taking notes. 

The thing is, I’m glad she’s a main female character… who screws up…. a loT. The hero isn’t supposed to be perfect, and I mean that in a general way. Flat villains are perfect in their own realm, so I don’t think imperfect characters are only better for writing, they’re better people or can become better people. A perfect individual is a comfortable and consistent one, a person needs ups and downs to improve. 

It’s a bit like kim possible, except Marinette commits more errors because she’s younger and less adventurous… so in a way she’s a bit naive to the world (Kim Possible may as well be an ambassador, so she’s cultured and still makes really cringey mistakes eyes the wheelchair episode). We grew up watching her make these mistakes so we could see them get fixed, if they never happened we wouldn’t know for better or for worse. What’s more, it’s most important coming from the main character. So… I’m proud of her. 

Another thing is that she watches her own behavior in the future. She’s learning to trust that Adrien won’t fall for Lila’s gags, she’s learning to talk to him and move away from being a fan (bluntly pointed out in Troublemaker, she actually sees herself as more of a fan than as a friend. Yes, she was lying to cover herself, but she had pictures of all of her friends up… she didn’t use friendship as an excuse? And why did the excuse come to her so naturally? It might be obvious, but she gets flustered and doesn’t come up with good lies… honestly ‘because im a fan’ is pretty fair), and she’s learning how to treat Chat Noir. 

I would almost say in Season 1 that Ladybug was pretty flippant to Chat Noir, and I know it was cute at times but people usually behave this way with someone they feel close to already… so why didn’t she ever take the time to take him seriously? Ever since Glaciator, Ladybug has learned how sensitive he is. She didn’t judge him so quickly as to assume that he felt entitled to her, or that he was throwing a simple/unimportant tantrum that could be shrugged off. She took the time to read into the situation and see what exactly was going through his head. Emotions are never a joke, especially in a city where someone like Hawkmoth is a concern. She was cool and collected like a therapist, especially because she sympathized where his feelings were coming from (not too long before she had gotten upset with some ice cream man that was just doing his everyday thing and ditched her friends because she felt hopeless and betrayed by Adrien). Granted she never said anything against him, but she didn’t get forced into a situation where she had to confront him either. 

She also knew that reacting harshly would only make things worse, and then neither of them would get off from their high-horse. Compassion is what gets a person to reflect and feel respected. She looked him sincerely in the eyes and apologized, and she expected the same from him. She set the stage, and he responded. They ended up fine, and he even reacted well to the infamous ‘friendzone’, because well… he treasures friends too, and he didn’t know Ladybug considered him to be one. Ladybug was surprised, but now that she knew he had felt abandoned not only that night but since the beginning, she took note that he has trouble reading when a person cares about him deeply (and we all know he does, his love receptors are broken both in his household and as seen in the most recent ep). 

She is much softer with him now but very explicit. She doesn’t beat around the bush, she tells him exactly what he needs to hear. 

“Chat Noir! You know you’re irreplaceable.” 

Look at that face, he knows now that you said it. 

It’s actually quite motherly… I mean this is a perfect response. She adjusts to the needs of her friends accordingly rather than treating them equally, because friends don’t always need the same thing. Equity over equality. She’s an excellent example and so much more than the “Huff… I’m a strong independent woman and I don’t care about men and if anyone ever sasses me I’ll choke them. Also I don’t paint my nails, that’s for babies” You can be strong and independent without sacrificing any of these things. It’s not about making enemies, it’s about standing up for yourself— and those you care about. 

I could look for so many examples of how she looks out for her friends and makes sure to mind their feelings and experiences before getting all defensive, but that would be… the entire show. 

She’s imperfectly perfect and perfectly imperfect. 

Favorite episode (scene if movie): Zombisou... and maybe Chameleon and Oniichan. She was angry about so many different things and had so much pressure on herself— including the fact that in each of these she had to protect/comfort/defend someone anyone else in their right mind would rather spit on. But Marinette is noble, she knows how to keep herself together when she needs to. When it comes down to it, the people she’s so angry with are human too. They have hearts with burdens of their own that she doesn’t even know about, if something were to happen to them she would care. She has the responsibility to keep them safe, but also she wants to. There’s a difference between a pain in the ass and a monster, and besides she isn’t the judge of the universe, it’s not her place to decide what someone gets and doesn’t get. Maybe they aren’t getting everything they deserve, but if every human being got what they deserved we’d all be struck dead by lightning. 

And she certainly doesn’t wish death upon them. And as we’ve all noted, whether it’s seen publically or not... what goes around comes around. 

Favorite season/movie: Season 2 wins again... for now, it aint over yet

Favorite line: Uhh... dang it this again... how about the one above? “You know you’re irreplaceable?” and every other uwu line she has. She is so soft hhuhhggn 

Favorite outfit: The cute lil maid outfit from Animaestro

OTP: Well it’s the same as what I put for Adrien, Marichat. For noncanon... mmm.. I think Kagaminette but Ninette is p damn close 

Brotp: I mean??? ALyanette duh. But you know since right now Ladynoir is technically platonic.... they’re pretty lit as bros too (marichat is too but so far fanon is the only place they’ve truly become bro bros) 

Headcanon: She wouldn’t have all of those pictures of Adrien if she felt even remotely close to him. I think those fics where she has photos up of Chat Noir should be canon, just like how she has ones of her friends, but she has soo many of Adrien which sets him apart from friendship like I said before. She’s insecure and taking advantage of the fact that he’s famous af, none of us can truly relate to having access to so many amazing photos of our crushes... and to sort of continue with the next question..

Unpopular opinion: These days a phone’s photobook may as well be a private wall to hang pictures on so really... Marinette is an exaggeration of exactly what people do— mostly young girls, which she happens to be— and hey get off of your crushes Instagram while you’re at it. It’s actually pretty normal, it’s not the best behavior but again, you need to have that cringey low to climb higher. And anyhow it’s all for the joke of it, no one is supposed to take these things seriously. But I’ll let you all know when my younger cousins start hanging up stalker photos of their noncelebrity crushes “because marinette did it so it must be ok” 

Honestly, not even the borderline ooc things are that bad. Like... they’re bad... but it’s a good thing to show, as in it’s not too horrendous to use as an example. It works because it’s so unrealistic, but with very real behaviors that kids need to address in themselves by watching Marinette. I would say some of her actions straddle between IC and OOC, not either-or. 

(WARNING: Do not read on if you have intensely strong feelings toward L/u/k/a to the point of sensitivity over any mild criticism as a character or as he is written. If you’re pretty chill reading anything then you’re fine, I didn’t say anything cruel I only gave an opinion as mildly as I could. The point of the honest opinion section is not to be salty but to express my point of view without insults)

Her crush on Adrien at this point in time is no more or less unhealthy than her crush with L/u/k/a— which is still unclear because for some reason In Silencer she still looked like she was on the brink of deciding she had a crush. She’s kind to L/u/k/a and he’s kind back, but she isn’t very nice. The difference is that it’s not very nice to ask someone on a date to spy on your main crush, it’s not very nice to indulge in the affection someone gives you as a chew toy while you wait for your crush and try avoiding the guy who is deeply in love with you and you sorta like him too. (He fell for her incredibly quickly and she did too despite feeling insulted by him moments before, unfortunately he’s a fallback she feels almost nothing for and she’s directing her ‘oh-no-feelings-for-someone-who-isnt-adrien’ chat noir attack to l/u/k/a because with him, she knows its easily uprooted).This goes back to the importance of not always being at your best behavior for a child audience to learn from you, but my unpopular opinion is that she and Adrien are not toxic and she and l/u/k/a are not a godsend. He’s also the equivalent of a High school sophomore dating an 8th grader? So... it’s kinda weird that he’s advancing? (I censored his name for the sake of avoiding conflict, I’m stating this for the unpopular opinion and I said it in as straight as I could because I don’t want salt to touch this. I respect L/u/k/a as a character, he’s a good boy. I’m disagreeing and agreeing to disagree by trying not to engage.) 

Wish: Please, let her find out Chat Noir’s identity first... I beg you. 

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: Except don’t let the reveal happen right after one of them is rejected... that... that would be really bad. 

5 words to best describe them: Noble, responsible, creative, strong, kind

 My nickname for them: I like Marigold and Shortcake, I’ve used them in fics and I cry

anyway she’s one of the best protags don’t @ me when I have kids they’ll be watching her and adrien and they will be who they’re raised on

[the-citrus-scale]

The Art of The End

written by @robinwritesallthethings

It’s hard to see the things we love come to an end. This is true of fans, but it’s also true of creators. For creators, endings are honestly kind of terrifying. And once you’ve created something popular, people have expectations, and there’s a lot of pressure to get the ending just right.

The problem is that how a story should end and how we want a story to end aren’t necessarily the same thing. Creators might have multiple endings in mind, and fan desires also pull more endings into play, since fans tend to hang their endings on the fates of their favorites. Really, there’s no way that everyone is going to be happy, so as a creator, how do you decide what’s best for the story you’ve put so much time and effort into? This is especially nerve-wracking when fan reactions to an ending they don’t like can be so extreme these days.

The important question is how do you know what ending is right for your story? As a creator, you really only need to ask yourself three basic questions to decide. First, what genre is your story? This reminds you of what endings are traditionally expected in that genre, and therefore, helps you decide if yours will deviate from that tradition or not. Second, does your ending tie up all loose ends that are left in your story? If your story is ending, you don’t want to leave your fans with any questions. Third, does your ending make sense based on what came before it? Everything should come to a natural conclusion that isn’t contradictory, and you certainly shouldn’t introduce any new elements that magically fix everything against all odds. The deus ex machina is all washed up, and no one’s a fan anymore.

Let’s use an example to break down how you can eliminate potential endings from play. I’m going to use Twilight, since it is a fairly simple story with only a few possible endings. The ending of Twilight relies on Bella choosing her own fate. She can choose to be with Edward or Jacob, who are the only logical choices by the end of the narrative. She can also choose to be a vampire or not, a decision which largely depends on which man she chooses. And, after she has become a vampire, the Volturi’s offensive presents two options. One is that the Volturi win and either split up the Cullens or kill them all. The other is that the Cullens win and live happily ever after.

So how do you know which ending is the most appropriate? First of all, consider the genre. Twilight is a romance first. Romance always has a happy ending. If it doesn’t, readers are unsatisfied, so we can automatically take the ending where all of the good guys die off of the table. Of course, that still leaves us with the questions of who Bella should choose and whether or not she should become a vampire. So what other loose ends need to be tied up in order for the story to work? Bella needs to pick someone to be with, obviously, but the person she doesn’t choose also needs to find an appropriate resolution. Edward is in love with Bella, and will be forever. If she does not choose him, he will never love someone else, and will therefore be left drifting. And if Bella chooses Jacob, he could potentially imprint on someone else and leave her behind, despite how much he loves her. In addition, Jacob will never imprint if Bella and Edward aren’t together, because then Renesmee will never be born, giving him no resolution either. The obvious choice is for Bella to choose Edward, and to choose to be a vampire so that she can be with Edward forever.

The only thing left to ascertain is whether or not this ending makes sense with the rest of the story, and it obviously does. Twilight is about Bella and Edward meeting and falling in love. Though Jacob becomes inextricably intertwined with the story eventually, his role is always secondary to Edward’s. It makes complete sense that Jacob still becomes a necessary part of Bella’s life so that they both get to preserve their friendship and he gets closure. And, since we have seen the Cullens stand up to obstacle after obstacle, it’s not hard to believe that they could conquer one more. All in all, whether you enjoy the story of Twilight or not, you have to admit that it’s all tied up in a neat little bow. And it was chosen with fans breathing down Stephenie Meyer’s neck threatening that they would never read anything she wrote again if Bella ended up with Edward, so good for her for sticking to her guns and choosing the ending that was best for her work.

The trick is to not set yourself up for failure before your ending, though. Twilight was so obviously romantic and happy that everyone would have been horribly thrown for a loop if it hadn’t ended well. Avengers: Endgame was recently guilty of this. While the Snap in Infinity War was an awful fandom moment, everyone was hanging onto the hope that all of the deaths could be reversed. After all, this is a universe with time travel, magic, and alternate realities, not to mention Loki, who had supposedly died on previous occasions only to come back just fine later. The Snap may have been reversed, but the results weren’t what fans expected. Not all of the character deaths were undone, and to add insult to injury, Tony died and Cap decided to stay in the past, which many fans were not pleased about. Marvel failed to manage the expectations of what could happen, and while fans will most likely get over it eventually, it was a hard pill to swallow.

You can also be so concerned with surprising your fans that you make the huge mistake of changing the ending to your story to its detriment. This happened recently in the last season of Game of Thrones. Popular rumor hints that a fan guessed how the final season would play out, so the writers changed it so everyone would be surprised. The fan reaction was so bad that there was even a petition to redo the entire season. The writers forgot to ask themselves those three basic questions. They forgot that a high fantasy genre is one of the most predictable there is, especially when there are only a few outcomes left to work with. They introduced far more loose ends than they wrapped up, and the chain of events didn’t match what had come before in previous seasons. Perhaps they could have gotten to a point where their new ending made sense, but they needed a lot more time and character development to pull it off. They shot themselves in the foot, basically, and now their reputations are suffering for it. Hopefully it’s a lesson they learned from, but we’ll have to see.

Everything has to end, as much as we don’t want it to. As a creator, the most important thing to remember is to give your story the best ending that you can. As fans, we have to learn to accept the good endings to the stories we love. For the bad ones, never fear. There’s still fanfiction. And remember that the best part of one story ending is that it leaves room for another to begin. You’ll be lost in another new world in no time.

[everydreamtilldawn]

Endgame Thoughts *Spoilers obviously and a whole lot of venting*

OK Endgame, here we go! The absolute disrespect to the audience, the actors, the characters, and all the other creators who put so much work and care into building characters and stories for the other movies and shows which led up Infinity War and Endgame. The Russos are so far up their own asses with how good they think they are. I'm so done with their pure spoiler free excuses. Not letting actors know what scenes they're in, who they're with - wasting oscar winning actors on their own bloated egos insisting adults can't be trusted not to cause a PR scandal over their fanfic. Those assholes put themselves into the canon as "the first canon gay character". Oh, Mr. Unnamed Guy 32 is the first gay character out of all these hundreds of people on screen? Oh Mr. Russo well we all better get on our knees and kiss your gay dick in thanks then you ass faced worthless shit for brain. What a fucking insult. Who has the actual nerve? Who actually has an ego so big they don't actually see the lgbt community and their issues as something to take seriously within their narrative - its like their heads have been under a rock the past few years thinking of only their wonderful, unbeatable movie that they have no idea gay people are main characters now and have their own movies elsewhere in the world. We're not nameless, background characters you dicks. The fact that 10 years led up to this is like spitting in the face of your audience and telling them exactly how little you actually care about them except for their money. Every bit of Endgame highlighted and emphasized the flaws that was the monstrosity that was Infinity War. Starting there - I will never get over the fact that the end battle of Endgame so clearly shows how awful the previous movie was. I think I've told you all the problems I have with IW before but to emphasize again - the "we don't trade lives" concept is still something I'm furious over. The fact that grand old captain america wasn't willing to kill Vision for the UNIVERSE but was ok with a few hundred Wakandan's dying for Vision to maybe live? Bullshit. AND that final battle? WTF so we're supposed to believe that in the... five?... ten minutes? after being snapped back to life all those people got off their asses? I can't even. They expect us to believe that when you put all those geniuses, warriors, battle proven tacticions, strategists and spies in a room that they still make all those obvious mistakes when they know the UNIVERSE is at stake? Where was that army of sorcerers in battle one? Why did Wong or whatever his name is really HAVE to protect that one sanctum even knowing the fate of the UNIVERSE was at stake? They had hours to plan. HOURS. If not days?!?!?!?!?! They went to different countries, they had time to sit and plan. They had time to call in the world's resources to prepare, to gather armies. Instead they fought with Wakanda and a handful of superheroes - why??? They literally knew the stakes, the only reason they didn't have the huge army battle scene in Infinity War is because Marvel wanted another movie. They wanted to make billions on Endgame cause they knew audiences would come back if they shock value killed half the universe and then brought them back for battle two but uhhhhhhh.... On your left was a great badass scene and all. But they had max like ten minutes to gather forces who legit just came back to life. Who sent out that distress call btw? Why did all these people NOW have a plan of attack and were gathered in preparation to fight?

Was it badass? Was the shot of Captain America alone against an entire army not iconic? OF COURSE. I loved that scene. I loved the women gathering around Peter and racing to fight against the army as one. It was legendary. There were some really funny, badass, and wonderful moments. But it was a bad story. It was bad writing. Working my way down from character murders that least upset me to most. Black Widow. She finally came to life in this movie. She was a leader, she had emotions, she was more than a catsuit, a sexy smile and a witty comment. I adored her. I despise her death. I hated that in the end she was still another pretty face lying sexily at the bottom of a pit for the life and will of a man. I’m half okay with her death, because it was almost justified. In this story where she was finally a fully-fledged and fleshed out person – she had wants and goals and those centered around protecting her family. The character she was in this movie didn’t even begin to exist until Endgame and it’s a tragedy that she was murdered before she even reached her full potential. But she did want to sacrifice herself so the universe could live again. She wanted Clint to go back to his family. She wanted to give her life for the only thing she loved. BUT Clint was the true perfect mirror for this narrative. Thanos sacrificing Gamora will never be okay. Gamora said it herself – that wasn’t love. That was glorifying abuse. Thanos never should have been given the soul stone under the ridiculous and unclear rules of the soul stone. Honestly, I’d believe Red Skull is just fucking with everybody at this point with how ridiculous those rules are. No way is what Thanos did love. I will come back to the Russos glorifying and being okay with child abusers when I get to Tony and his father. Clint would have been the mirror to Thanos in that moment. Instead of a father killing his daughter, it would have been a father dying for his daughter. His relationship to his daughter is even highlighted at the start of the movie and in his time travel moment. Clint hated who he’d become, he was ready and willing to sacrifice himself for his family and at that point he deserved it. As shown later with Tony – the theme of fathers sacrificing themselves is a relevant theme. So why Natasha in that moment. Why not the father? Why not the narrative mirror? Why the only woman on the team, the one who has grown to be a real person in the narrative and one who is now LITERALLY IMPORTANT TO THE STRUCTURE OF THE WHOLE WORLD AND THE UNIVERSE? She became the leader of the Avengers and expanded their reach across galaxies by communicating and coordinating with Rocket, Nebula, and Carol. She had a world to rebuild by coming home. It’s not like they’re going to give Clint his own redemption movie where he makes up for his half assed arc to becoming his Ronin character arc. I’m half okay with it, but I also think it was the completely wrong choice of which character to sacrifice.

THOR. The insult to Taika Waititi. The insult to Thor, Thor: the Dark World, and Thor: Ragnarok. The insult to Thor the character. Hell, the reversal on Thor -2.0 from Infinity War. Years of movies, years of work building this character. Them saying that not only does Thor, who finally learned to be the God of Thunder without his hammer, who took up Odin’s role and finally accepted his place as King, needed to be.... fixed?!?!?! They gave him back his eye for starters which reverses the whole meaning of him losing it in the first place. Of assuming the role of Odin, of King, of being Thor. Then they give him the axe and then the HAMMER. Thor moved on. Thor accepted himself. Thor in Ragnarok is proven to be stronger without the hammer than he was with it. Giving him the axe, making him obsessed with getting his hammer back, reverses three movie of character development. AND THEN. Making him FAT. Making him STUPID. Making him threaten children, abandon his people, abandon his duty, fall into a depression completely unlike his character who is a hardened warrior with deep emotional depth and understanding – a fucking soft hearted genius in his own right who was able to easily give forgiveness to Gamora and understanding that being the daughter of an abusive monster isn’t her fault. They have the audacity to spend a whole movie making fat jokes about him and decide to reverse him back ten year’s worth of character development. Oh hardy har, we’re such good writers. We understand posttraumatic stress and the mindset of heroes – look he’s drinking beer, and an alcoholic, and eat a salad you fat fucks. WTF. It wasn’t funny. It was mean. It was unnecessary. It was out of character like the Russos came up with it high on crack and refused to let it go. Thank god Chris H is a good enough actor not to show how insulting it must have been to have his character be paraded around in bad cgi and treated like he’s an idiot. Did the Russos not watch the other movies in the canon? Did they not care that Thor had become this deeply complex character who loved his people, would do anything for them, was ready to be King and lead – NO I guess they just don’t care. Like everyone who sat on their asses during the battle in Wakanda. It would have been amazing for Thor to have gone back in time to see his mother as the true and worthy King at last, if his final arc had been around idk his apprehension at how to lead his people after failing them, after them dying down to a few hundred. Having everything he could have been overshadowed by the Russos need for a running joke the entire movie is so very insulting. It shows just how little they think of the audience’s intelligence.

CAPTAIN AMERICA. The insult to women’s agency. I truly at this point think the Russos are lying fucks who have no respect for women. They’re sexists assholes. The insult to the entire team of Agent Carter. The insult to Peggy fucking Carter, the most badass woman who built herself up, who built Shield, who moved on, who had a life, a husband, children, who died in peace and was put to rest. Nope. Forget about everything she did. The Russos plot line is more important. Steve Rogers started out the movie saying how important it was to move on, and what does he do? Not move on. Lets highlight the insult that throwing in “the first gay character” is when facing the cowardice of switching Steve Rogers from being so obsessed with protecting Bucky Barnes that he threw away the shield, became a fugitive, and left the family and team he’d built in the future to chase after Peggy Carter who he HAD MOVED ON FROM. He kissed that one random blonde girl he had no chemistry with. He said goodbye and buried Peggy. Peggy had a life, she was happy. Did she miss Steve? Was she sad he “died”? Yeah. But now she doesn’t get a choice between the future she could have had and the one where Steve buts in and I guess Bruce didn’t have a discussion with Steve about splitting the path of time into multiple realities cause the Russos decided to fuck their own established logic and leave Steve in a new version of the past – where almost all the infinity stones are returned in their non-original forms, loki is fucking off with the tesseract and Thanos/his entire army/and Gamora are all in the wrong time never to forge the original war in the first place? They didn’t put a single scene between Steve and Bucky reconciling the past few years, Bucky’s dusting or the fact Steve was gonna go and never come back after ALL THAT. After Winter Soldier and Civil War, Steve said fuck Bucky, fuck the avengers, fuck this future that doesn’t have Iron Man, I want to go dance with a woman who HAD A LIFE WITHOUT YOU YOU ASSHOLE. I was touched by the old man Steve returning to give Sam the shield. I thought it was wonderful, I cried a little. But what about Peggy? What about the timeline? What about the rules????? Fuck it, there’s a gay character now and Thor is fat, the rules don’t matter anymore I guess.

Tony Stark.... deserved better. He is the true, real hero. The only hero. I don’t care about anyone else. Excluding his own 3 movies and Homecoming, Tony’s character was done so wrong in the Avengers movies by the writers, the audience and the other characters. So many people wrote him off as the person he pretended to be instead of the person he was. They saw selfishness and ego instead of the amount of sacrifice, the effort he gave into making the world a better place. He was such a good person. He grew so much. He gave his life for a world that never loved him, but that he never stopped loving. Natasha and Tony were the only people with something left to lose, but they were the ones who sacrificed themselves for a cold, uncaring universe and they deserved better. Tony finally had everything he never thought he would deserve – a wife, a daughter, a peaceful life at rest. All his wars were finished. He had everything to lose and he went into the endgame with the one condition that he would not give up what he had gained. And still they killed him. It was the only acceptable death for a hero like Tony Stark, but that doesn’t mean he deserved it. That doesn’t mean his daughter grows up without her father. That doesn’t mean its okay for that abusive, negligent asshole that was Howard Stark to get a last hoorah and be “redeemed” by a final conversation with his son. No. Tony had multiple arc, multiple points in his life where he had to rise above Howard and all that Howard stood for, all the ways Howard had hurt him and held him back. He was better than his father – going to be a better father than his father. Thanos and Howard will never, ever be men who should be looked upon as having loved their children enough for them to die in exchange for the greater good. It was so very satisfying for Tony to finally have it out at Steve for everything and I wish that scene had been longer. Tony deserved to live.

Final points. The timeline stuff, again, was bs. They insisted on not messing it up and still they messed up everything. The greater implications of all that is... astoundingly idiotic. Along with, why not just have Tony’s life ending snap send Thanos right back to the past along with the infinity stones to their rightful places and memories erased? If the infinity stones can do anything, such as kill half the universe, why not correct the flaws of the plot? I thought it was stupid that the only reason the time heist failed was because Nebula didn’t think about mind melding with her past self. The fact that’s even a thing... that happened. Really. The whole movie shouldn’t have existed let alone be three hours. They set such a great tone with the opening scene. It was tragic and heart wrenching and then seeing Natasha finally realized and the world broken. I can forgive dues-rat-machina bring Scott back cause I love Scott, but the time heist threw out all the tension. I didn’t feel the stakes, I felt like they stepped sideways into a whole different genre. That middle plot didn’t feel like a movie worth ending an era on. It felt cheesy and underdeveloped. Again – they had forever to plan. There was no time limit pushing them to go to the past immediately. They could have taken the time to think this out, cover every possible option – and they did. They’re shown doing that. So how, for the second time in these two movies, do these brilliant geniuses, tacticians and strategists believably fail to predict the outcome. And uhhhhhh did snapping all those people back account for the post snap casualties? Cause we saw helicopters flying into buildings, cars crashing, we were told that wars broke out and people went kinda crazy as they had a right to. The snap resulted in post snap causalities by the billions across the universe – had to have. So did all those people come back? What happens to the people who moved on and now have a 5 years younger mother/father/sister/brother/friend/loved one/wife/husband/etc to deal with who just blinked and suddenly half the people they care about are now five years older and the whole world is different? The sheer amount of housing and food crises that are about to begin post “snap 2: the snappening” are insane. And I get that its no fun to think about that in the fun of a big super hero battle and all that. But next movie will probably have zero mention of all that as shown by Peter’s entire class just moseying along on a European vacation in the next Spiderman. So Peter’s entire class got snapped, came back, and went on with their lives? The rest of the world’s infrastructure repaired itself in the time frame of Peter still being in High School? Yeah, right. But still – the fact that there’s an hour and a half of the movie that pauses all the tension and drama to be a comedy is just... whatever fine. It was funny. It was kinda cool, but it didn’t belong and it wasn’t necessary. Ok, I think I’m done.

[elizabethrobertajones]

Dean & Cas Are In Love

A hopefully one day conclusive study of these assholes, hopefully told as briefly as I can.

Written for the people in the fandom who care but sometimes need a pick me up on this, and not written to prove a point to anyone who doesn't already care. <3

Dean needs Cas to get Dick

... They boned him together. 

Slightly less visually erotic and more punnery innuendo-y parallel of Sam and Dean killing Ruby together in 4x22 >.> 

Anyways. 

Season 7 ends, and this episode is dependant on the journey Dean and Cas go through to make amends. There is no formal goodbye or even good luck between Sam and Dean - their last conversation is about Bobby, and the funeral scene is their last real shared scene; after that it’s Dean n Cas paired together until the end.

But let’s start at the top :D

While Carver era isn’t utterly devoid of barbs like this, I’m honestly struggling to think of one that is so overt aside from the deleted 10x14 scene than Meg’s “he was your boyfriend first” line. I feel like this is the end of the really on the nose teasing and jabbing at them as if being in love is an insult, and the beginning of a more nuanced handling - and don’t worry, deleted scenes are on my to-do list as we get deeper into Wonderland >.> 

Through Cas’s return, Meg has acted as a block and a romantic rival, in both overt and not so overt ways. She shows up to get between Dean n Cas having more private reconciliation and then seems to “win” who gets Cas, while admitting freely it’s a power grab and for her own protection against Crowley. By 7x23 she shows up fed up with Cas and unable to deal with him, handing him off to Dean to talk to and try and reason with him. Considering the ownership battle she conjured on her end, it has the feeling of conceding ground, and in this case she frames it in the romantic terms of Cas having been Dean’s boyfriend first. She treats it as if it were a fling and she is resigning from the competition to bag Cas as a boyfriend, and returning him to Dean. While she hangs around and helps some more, for the rest of the episode, she no longer hits on Cas or does more than look at him a few times, while Dean is left to deal with him.

The moment where Dean goes to talk to Cas in the car, I like that moment where Dean takes a breath... Those top two gifs have been thrown around fandom a lot out of context or for fun, but there’s serious stuff going on in them - as often with this show and/or fandom, the funny things have a real story to them. I like that Dean is still struggling to face Cas, but he will make the effort in a way that Meg clearly won’t, and talks him to come inside with gentle, friendly persuasion. But like with 7x21 before he goes to talk to him in the day room, he needs a moment to face Cas in this state, as he finds it saddening and troublesome to talk to him, though, unlike Meg, he makes an effort. 

Then, we have their ongoing argument which builds up over the course of the episode, but by this point bubbles over about WHY they need Cas to get Dick. And why Cas has been resisting the entire time. His self-worth from the whole betrayal and Godstiel thing is obviously his most prominent, painful trauma. He has to spell out for Dean why he won't help, but this is the most clarity he shows in a while, and in this episode Gamble writes his non-sequiturs as very clearly labelled avoidance of questions or thinking about his problems. In 8x08 we'll get another look into his head when he talks about avoiding going back to Heaven with Dean, and I suspect that's based on the intention with how he was feeling during this time as well.

Dean responds by bubbling over with his own shit; this is for both sides of the argument, their stuff in 7x21 finally reaching its conclusion, and of course both are mis-handling it in some ways, through avoidance or anger, and are not at their optimal harmony... To be delicate about it >.> It's harsh to watch, but Dean's anger about Cas is not (just) selfish or motivated to save them - we see multiple times his own pain at seeing Cas in this state, and lines which betray how much it hurts and how he wants Cas back to how he was because, you know, Cas is his friend and he cares a lot about him. Translated into anger, he lashes out with his pain in the situation, the unfairness that Cas can avoid and refuse to help when he caused all that harm, and even to this day is something where Cas still feels bound to make amends for things that he broke - season 13 finally returning to the theme of how much damage he did to Heaven. Dean telling Cas this so harshly is the painful shock that pokes at Cas's guilt, but also betrays Dean's own pain and investment in Cas's situation.

As with moments when they physically attack each other, obviously emotional lashing out betrays care but shouldn't be like... romanticised and stuff. Just, taking this in a fictional story setting etc.

Anyways, after this, Cas goes into a defensive full denial mode for a bit, and they turn to doing Bobby's passing on; at the end of this scene, the camera dramatically pans to Cas with rising dramatic music, and it turns out he watched the whole scene. Of course though he was not a part of his, his presence is necessary and important, because he cared for Bobby too, and Bobby died fighting the leviathans, which Cas unleashed. This is part of his "mess" as Dean put it, and something he confronts, silently, on his terms. There's no camera work to suggest Dean sees Cas watching but I like to think that he does, as he was facing the right way, and between Dean yelling at Cas, and him going to him in peace, this is the only thing that happens. I think Cas's remorse is very important even though it may be silent, as is bridges these moments, giving Cas honest reflection which he can't divert from - seeing Bobby, someone he cared about a great deal, as a ghost that they're forcing to move on. And Dean knowing that Cas came and watched this and was a part of the family scene despite his current withdrawal from helping them.

Dean approaching Cas is wonderful because finally he doesn't demand Cas help them, but finds a peaceful middle ground of something Cas can do to help but that doesn't involve violence, meaning that despite all of Dean's anger, he wants to help Cas find a way to help them, to clean up his mess, but to do it on terms which Cas can handle. This peace also allows Cas to think about it in non-confrontational terms, and to face up to what sending Dean in to fight Dick alone will mean if he doesn't help.

The "I'd rather have you, cursed or not" line has been picked over a lot, both positively on gifsets and general squeeing, and negatively about its connotations that it can still carry a suggestion that Dean only wants Cas to help them because he's the only one who WILL help them, at this stage, and they know that they need him. I like the line after it better, as it's the much more personal appeal, the sense of them being in it together, and that it's not just anything - this is something that Dean feels as a connection between them. The less emotional pep talk and more personal nonsense the line, the more it really means, as he's not saying this in the same tone of voice as rallying Cas, just pointing out that they're all in shit creek together.

Cas understands what Dean's getting :D

I should have giffed as well, but no room and I have to make cuts somewhere, Cas asking about what the plan was - because the plan involves Cas being brought along PEACEFULLY, only for Dick identification, while Dean was supposed to be the one to fight Dick alone, Cas at his side, but the expectation was that Cas had one role and Dean had the other.

In the end, they tag-team him. :')

Also: Dean's absolute trust that Cas knows Dick when he sees him, and Cas defending Dean from Dick advancing on him, after all that stuff about not fighting, once again as with deflecting Hester away from Dean, he steps in to protect Dean, and even grabs Dick from behind so Dean gets his clean second shot at him that does the job.

Of all season finales, 7x23 really floors me for how embedded the Destiel narrative is in it, when this isn't even a majorly Destiel season for obvious reasons, and I never felt like Gamble wanted much to do with them in that sense. Whether it's just because of leading into Carver era or what, or the need to make amends both in the writing for Cas and in the meta level for the writers, once Cas was back this story was oh so very much about and for him, as he was the one responsible, and he had both emotional damage with Sam and Dean, and plot damage to handle. If he was to return as a main character next season and have even halfway a reboot back to a regular Cas, he needed a full redemption in the narrative, and to be brought back into play alongside Dean and back in his rightful place at his side. And this is the set up to get them there, from the awful mess left at the beginning of the season. :D

[itsyaboykay]

Review for The Savior’s Champion (spoiler alert: I gave it a 2/5)

Let me preface this with a disclaimer: I do not hate the author, Jenna Moreci, by any means. I watched a lot of her channel and felt she gave some very valid writing tips and so I was excited to read her book. So everything here I have to say is my own opinion not just as an aspiring writer but as someone who's loved books for much of my life. Also, this is a very spoiler heavy review so if you wish to remain unspoiled, please turn away now. (And a warning for the use of the “C” word.) With that, I have some thoughts to convey....

When I heard the hype surrounding this book and heard the premise of the story itself, I was very excited and ready to save up the cash to buy the book. Since I had a chance to rent it from a library, however, I decided to do that first so that I could at least get to know the story before shelling out the money and honestly... I'm very glad I rented the book before buying it.

This book is honestly such a disappointment compared to the rave reviews I kept seeing people give out on YouTube. First, I'll categorize my thoughts out into the Characters, the Writing, the Plot/World and other miscelaneous issues that I found while reading.

The Characters:

In my opinion, all of the characters felt very two-dimensional 90% of the time. There were just one or two traits given to each character and every single thing they did revolved around that trait. For example: there was a character called the Jester because he was always joking and funny and that's all there was to him. He was constantly cracking jokes. Though, to be fair he did die off pretty early on in the story. Another good example, however, would be Niel who was very fratboy-ish and perverted. That's all there was to him was constantly saying something lewd until it got him shoved down a hole when he grabbed Leila's ass one too many times. There's also just so little given about them or their story or what little personality a lot of the characters have before they're killed off. So a lot of the time their death just had absolutely no impact to me since I only just learned that this dude's wife died giving birth to their son ten pages ago.

Another thing about the characters is that when it came to the competetors in the Sovereign's Tournament, most of them were very difficult to keep track of and I found myself having to watch the videos on the author's channel covering the characters at least three times over the three days it took me to read this book. Without it, I'd have been a lot more lost than I was and I feel that had the competetors have been referred to as either solely their Laurel (a title given to them at the start of the Tournament) or their given name, it would have made things a lot easier.

On to individual characters themselves. Concerning Tobias, I felt him to be very high and mighty a lot of times. He looked down on his own best friend for wanting to enter the Tournament and looked down on people for being open about their sexual exploits not to mention looking down on Flynn for feeling he was in love with Cosima despite having just met her. All there was to him was that he was the Good Guy and he was in love with Leila. A lot of times he was extremely dickish towards Flynn just for the guy being grateful about Tobias saving his life. There were two particular times in the novel that it was very obvious that everyone was just being a dick towards Tobias just so that we, the reader, would feel sorry for him and hate the bad guys. When he lost the gift challenge due to only being able to draw Leila, everyone laughed and berrated and hated him despite just a few moments ago being chummy with him seeing as he's quite literally pulled some of them out of challenges and saved their asses. Then much later on during the Viewing where the foreign rulers bet on who would win the fight to the death, everyone just gangs up on Tobias again and starts smacking him around and laughing at him because we're supposed to hate these characters and wanna save and protect poor widdle Toby. Despite the fact that in that Viewing scene, Tobias very much brought all of that on himself seeing as he blatantly insulted the foreign rulers right to their faces and called them disgusting. Yes, they're vile for betting on human lives, but at the same time, these are very influential and powerful rulers of foreign kingdoms and Tobias is the least-liked comtetetor left out of the Tournament. All in all, Tobias (like all of the male characters in this story) doesn't feel like a real, believable man but as the fantasy perfect man that a teenager would dream up and swoon over.

The Sovereign confused me. A lot. Why was it that he didn't have Leila (the Savior) killed while she was still in infancy? She was premature when she was cut from her mother's womb and this is set in a time where there wasn't the technology necessary in order to ensure Leila survives infancy so it would have been a simple matter of strangling her then lying to the public to say that the circumstances to her birth complicated matters and thus she died. He easily lied about who killed Leila's mother by cutting out the man's tongue and having him publicly executed so why could he not have killed Leila and spun a lie? The same goes for his strange need to have Tobias killed in the arena. He's the Sovereign, after all, it would have been very easy for him to order Tobias executed (especially when there were two assassins still alive by the time they get to the palace) and hide the true nature of his death. The public wasn't around for a lot of the challenges (from what I could tell, at least) so it was very unnecessary for the Sovereign to insist that Tobias be killed in the arena when Tobias proved himself very capable of defending himself out there. Especially when time and time again Tobias was being Blessed by the Savior and thus given an extra edge in each fight. Another thing was his anger about Leila being down in the Labyrinth despite that having been the perfect opportunity for his three assassins to kill her seeing as Tobias wasn't available 24/7 to look over her and protect her.  

Leila being the Savior is a very hollow revelation and makes much of the book seem very pointless. The whole premise was that Tobias falls in love with a woman that he's not supposed to seeing as he's entered into the Sovereign's Tournament, but it's all taken away and the impact of him having a forbidden romance with someone who isn't the Savior is taken away when it turns out that the woman he loves is in fact the Savior. It was very annoying to see Leila constantly assuming things of Tobias, first with seeing the blood on his hands and assuming he's the one that murdered the first three competetors in the Labyrinth (despite him being covered in injuries from said Labyrinth) and then going on to the Poem Challenge where he poured his heart out in a love poem ABOUT her and FOR her. Instead of taking this into account, she just assumes that he had sex with Cosima during his reward even though by this time they had confessed to loving each other already. It's very trope-y and something I've seen many a times in other stories and media. Her killing of the Senators is just seen as a "Oh, *shrug* no biggie" type of thing by Tobias which I felt was very strange seeing as he looked down on and actually beat up the other competetors in the Tournament for murdering people. Leila also constantly got upset with Tobias for saying that he hates the Savior when they both know that he thinks Cosima is the Savior. When he was saying he hates the Savior, he was referring to hating Cosima and they were both well aware of this. She was supposed to be this super badass woman who doesn't afraid of everything and yet to me she just felt like a special snowflake Mary Sue most of the time. Finally about Leila I kept wondering is why she smelled so strongly of peaches that Tobias was seemingly able to smell it the moment she walked through a door. Did she constantly eat them? Was she bathing in a scented wash? Did she wear peach perfume? It was never explained to my knowledge.

Sadly in the story, Kaleo was the only character I found myself enjoying at times since he angered Tobias so much and I was already annoyed with Tobias before the end of the first chapter. Despite him at the end of the story turning into a perverted sexual deviant who wanted to literally rape Tobias in order to torture him for the Sovereign and being very two-dimensional like the rest of the characters in his sadistic tendencies during the whole Tournament, he was still the most entertaining of all the characters.

The Writing:

Despite me prefacing this review with that I feel Jenna Moreci gives out sound advice on writing, I found her writing style to really not live up to that advice she preaches one her YouTube channel. For one thing, the dialogue in this story was such a strange hybrid switching back and forth from overly formal and robotic to fratboy/fuckboy speak. And every single character save Enzo and the Queen from Enzo's country spoke in the same exact way. Even the Sovereign, the literal king of Thessen, walked around calling people "little bitches" and "cunts" all the time. Leila was called blunt and her words were made to seem like a joke but instead, her dialogue was just very vulgar when it felt that the author wanted to be funny. Another thing was that overuse of the words "cock", "cunt" and "bitch" throughout the story. They were the ONLY insults thrown at people which made it really seem that the author knew no other insults she could give for the characters to toss at each other. Even Raphael, the Intellect, literally the smartest and most refined man in the Tournament would say "cock" and I believe even called people "cunts". As far as I was able to tell, there was only one instance that Jenna Moreci wrote "dick" instead of "cock" and it was twenty-six chapters deep in the story while Cosima was trying to coerce Tobias into having sex with her.

This whole story just feels like it was a YA book placed under the Adult genre in order to allow the author to have gore and sex and vulgar dialogue. As I mentioned with Tobias, the men in the story just felt so unbelievable as if they were thought up by a teenager who thinks this is what grown men are all like despite this having been written by a 30+ year old woman. A lot of the elements were just so juvenile and immature such as the fuckboy nature to a lot of the dialogue and certain things like Tobias focusing so much on Leila's chest and thinking to himself "tits tits tits tits" at one point. Then there was a whole scene where Tobias describes urinating in someone's washbin for cheating on his sister which, while yes he was sixteen at the time, felt so juvenile for him to be talking about. Another EXTREMELY juvenile and cringey thing was that Ceasar was just randomly jerking off right next to Tobias in his tent every morning. As if in spite of being in the Tournament surrounded by a bunch of death and violence and gore he's just too horny and can't help but masturbate right next to Tobias. Finally a lot of the descriptors given to people in dialogue and even in the narrative itself felt very strange. The servants constantly scuttled and scampered about. People were skidding to a halt despite walking at a regular pace. And a lot of times people "spat" out words when it didn't seem like that's how they were trying to say the sentence? I don't know how to put it other than it was just very strange.

The Plot/World:

I've seen a lot of other one-two star reviews going over the lack of Worldbuilding in this story, so I'll try not to reiterate too much here. I do agree that there's just so little we're given about Thessen other than the general vibe that it's based off of Ancient Greece and it used to be a desert before the first Savior changed it all. I also agree that the lack of an in depth explanation on the magic was just very confusing and left a lot of head scratching and it's sad to realize that Jenna Moreci is more than likely saving any kind of explanation on the magic and how it works for her second and third book in the series. It would have been nice in the final chapter when Leila saved Tobias and was explaining everything about her being the Savior that she give us SOME kind of explanation. Such as why the Blessings ONLY showed up on Tobias when it was most convenient for them within the story. Why didn't it show up when Tobias was in the hedge maze? Why did it take until he made it to the arena and started fighting Flynn and Kaleo? Why is it that despite Leila being a literal god wasn't powerful enough to keep the Sovereign from having too much control or even just from overthrowing him and taking control of the realm back? There was also the whole matter in the final chapter with her suddenly needing to say a chant in order to heal Tobias when before when healing him she just slathered the fake potions on him and touched him.

It was very confusing that the Sovereign, the current ruler of the realm of Thessen, wasn't able to name how many Tournaments there have been but he was able to tell everyone  that there were three men who tried to quit the Tournament and know exactly how they were executed for their dessertion. Another thing about the worldbuilding was that it was very sad that characters kept using the phrase "oh my God" or using "God" at all. Despite Thessen being based on Ancient Greece (which was polytheistic) and them worshiping a living god in the Savior, it would have been a lot nicer and fit in better for characters to say something like "oh my Savior" or at least use the plural form of "gods" or give us an explanation that the Savior is supposed to be the child of a singular God and that's why they're constantly praising Him.

There were a lot of just very random things thrown in that despite them serving a purpose to the plot felt out of place in the plot. Such as there just randomly being an apothecary lesson for seemingly no reason only for it to be revealed that the wine was poisoned. Like, why did no one question why they were learning how to brew an antidote to a poison in the first place? How did none of the "smart" characters like Tobias or Raphael piece together that they were being poisoned? As I mentioned before, the deaths for much of the story just felt very random and served no real purpose other than to eliminate that character from the roster and have someone for Tobias to cry about for a few pages until Leila came along and he could stare at her chest to forget all his troubles.

Miscellaneous Issues:

There were also a lot of just very random things that I kept cringing at or questioning in the story. Such as the dialogue at the start with the woman asking Tobias if he prefers "the cock to the cunt" as a roundabout way to ask if Tobias is gay. Cosima's lovely little line about how a man isn't a man until he proves he can have sex with a woman. Like, yes, we're supposed to not like Cosima because she's betraying Leila and going power hungry (and a lot of the time it felt like we were supposed to hate her for being "slutty") but that whole thing just had me cringing.

Tobias seemed to have this instant weapon mastery after having one overnight lesson on how to fight with a sword against the bardiche with Flynn and Leila. He was never taught how to shoot a bow, he was never taught how to fight sword against sword and he CERTAINLY wasn't taught how to dual wield swords and yet he was instantly able to master all of these fighting techniques despite having just One (1) lesson in the whole book.

Garrick did an absolute 180 going from this super badass calling everyone else a coward and jumping into the ravine (which should have killed him given that him jumping from that height and hitting the water's surface tension would have been like jumping onto concrete) turns into a coward throwing a hissy fit and saying "fuck the Savior" just because Drake pointed him out next as the target he wanted to kill.

The fight against the Giant confused me since Tobias was teleporting around the arena and at the start I had assumed the arena was a large area and yet when he would teleport from one side to the other he was able to hear the Giant questioning what was going on with perfect clarity. He was also confusing in killing the Farmer for being "blasphemous" despite he himself wanting only coin and glory and calling the Savior a "pair of glowing tits". (At least I thought it was the Giant that killed the Farmer. I could be wrong because of confusion, again.)

The final two points that were just very random were why Delphi kept telling Tobias all this information about the other contestants. Other than it being because Leila liked Tobias, she was giving him information before Tobias even realized he was in love with Leila so I just kept asking myself "why is she doing this? What's in it for her?" And lastly was that the riddles in their little card game were stupidly simple and felt only there for the need of toting Tobias' intelligence to the reader.

In Conclusion:

I was very disappointed in this story. I had high hopes going in and was excited to read it because I like Jenna Moreci's channel on YouTube but I ended up having to force myself to finish this book when I wanted to just close it and return it to the library after the first three chapters. It's made me very hesitant to find and read her other book Eve: The Awakening or any other book in the Savior's Series despite my morbid curiosity. All in all, I would not recommend this book to anyone and give this a 2/5 simply because I liked Kaleo and his trashy self.

[serahne]

Top 10 worst Danganronpa charaters

Such mean thing to ask for Christmas ! But alright, under cut. Obvious character hate all over the place !

10. Izuru Kamukura’s character has most of his characterisation in dr3, and good god did it do it dirty. Honestly before dr3, Kamukura was this cool, despair black hole that orchestrated everything and could be interesting but in dr3… he has less personality than a carpet ? ‘It’s boring’, he says. He is fucking boring and pointless, indeed.

9. Am I the only one who thinks the Imposter is a disappointement, especially in sdr2 ( I mean, in dr3 too, obviously but ). He is supposed to be Byakuya and raises a thousand questions, and then it’s conveniently not him ? I dunno, that seems really weak to me. His character just doesn’t amount to anything, beside a joke for the dr1 crew.

8. Hifumi Yamada. I always find unfortunate when a game insults its audience. As a whole, he isn’t that bad, but I definitely can’t understand why he is unpopular with him being more or less the equivalent to spit in the face of the player.

7. Chisa Yukizome. Pretty awful character, too. Not only is she another Unfortunate Sexist Caricature who bores me to death, but her arc doesn’t make any sense. She could have been a good character. There were a lot of opportunities to make it so. The anime didn’t follow any of these.

6. Tengan. I don’t even know his first name. I don’t care. He is a terrible, terrible mastermind, I don’t understand his motivations, I don’t understand how his plan was supposed to work, he has less charisma than a dead fish and how was his plan supposed to work, ffs.

5. Chiaki Nanami. Is it a little unfair ? I mean, if she was only her character in dr3 it would be more objective, but she still wins this spot because the trope her character is based on should be left where it belons, a.k.a harem animes in the 90′s, and shitty, sexist sitcoms. Sdr2 came out in 2012.

4. Yasuhiro Hagakare : What… even is his role ? He could be replaced with a plant and that would be ten times more present ? At this point I just think the dr1 writer needed someone dumb to slow down the trials ? That’s honestly the only reason I could think of.

3. Tsumugi Shirogane. I just really, really hate this trope. ‘Oh, in the middle of the last trial, I reveal that my entire personality is fake and that I’m in fact batshit crazy and responsible of everything’. She apparently never let anything slip ever, and managed to fool everyone, including Kokichi. That’s bullshit and I hate it. This is not how you do a huis-clos. If you do a huis-clos, you are supposed to subtely hint at the culprit. That’s not the case.

2. Teruteru Hanamura. Fuck sdr2 for creating a ‘bi rapist’ character - as if the LGBT representation wasn’t terrible enough in this franchise, fuck sdr2 for having his FTE ending with him slipping a roofie to Hinata. And fuck sdr2 for, after all that, trying to pretend he is actually a good person and to try and make me sympathize with him.

1. Ryoma. Fucking. Mitarai. I absolutely hate this poor excuse of self-insert, who starts by somehow creating a brainwashing video ( why ? how ), being targetted by Junko to join her as unwilling ally without who nothing could have been possible, and ends by being the sole reason for a killing game and joining the sdr2 cast as would a fucking Gary Stu. He is the worst character of this serie and he can eat shit.

[lesmotsincompris]

Thoughts on GoT S07E05

Here we go again.

This was the worst episode I’ve seen in a while. There was nothing offensive about it, except for the quality of the writing. The characters were all cardboards, the geography was tossed in a blender, and it gave me this odd feeling that a lot happened and very little happened at the same time.

More under the cut.

Field of fire

As it happens with so many other characters, the show writers clearly have no idea what to do with Bronn anymore. He insists on being paid, but what is this payment he demands? Didn’t we see him with Lollys Stokeworth a few seasons ago? And, more importantly, why we should care about this when so many other characters and subplots don’t get the attention they deserve?

Tyrion seeing the destruction and a burned Lannister army would have been a lot more effective if the writers hadn’t dropped Tyrion’s inner conflicts for two seasons. If this moment works at all, it’s only because Peter Dinklage can act.

Show!Daenerys has become one of the most despicable characters to ever grace our screens. I honestly don’t know what we’re supposed to think about her at this point. Wasn’t she supposed to be a hero or something? She claims to be different than Cersei and Aerys, but she does the most Cersei and Aerys thing to do. She says she doesn’t want to kill anyone, but does it without remorse as soon as they refuse to meet her friend Ben D Nee.

(is “bend the knee” the new “where are my dragons”? Only time can tell, but yes)

In today’s episode of “D&D are onanists who love their own creations no matter how bad they are”, we see the return of the “break the wheel” speech (and later “wars to come” too, oh well). What is "breaking the wheel” supposed to mean? Unless Dany wants to turn Westeros into a democracy (aww, her friend Ben would be so sad) then she isn’t bringing anything new, just maybe a lighter version of the thing they already have.

I can’t help but siding with Randyll and everyone else who didn’t bend the knee to this pyromaniac queen. I hate the show for making me side with Randyll, he’s a disgusting trash and doesn’t deserve that. Nor a touching moment with his son after everything he did with Sam. Fuck the show.

(Though I guess stealing that sword healed Sam’s trauma last season?)

Dragonstone

In the books, Barristan doesn’t reveal himself to Dany until he’s sure she doesn’t have the Targ madness that her father was famous for. Varys and Tyrion forgot to do that, so now they’re surprised that she’s not the reasonable queen they assumed she would be. Varys is given bits of Barristan’s conflict on staying silent while a horrible king does horrible acts. The scene could work in isolation, Varys’ erratic characterization this season doesn’t help.

It’s great that Varys and Tyrion are concerned about Dany, because they should be. Yet what is the solution the show finds for our favorite tyrant queen? Double down on mansplaining! As much as I hate show!Dany I also hate how the show frames Tyrion as this reasonable man that must infantilize her for her own good.

What should I do? I just hate everybody! Is it too late to start rooting for the White Walkers?

Maybe Tyrion and Varys can ask Jon and Jorah to help mansplain Dany? She’s such a feminist icon that it takes four men to convince her to stop being murderous and stupid!

Why is show!Jorah still a thing? Why the stupid greyscale plot if nothing relevant came out of it? Why are Jorah’s creepy feelings for Dany still framed as romantic? What can he possibly accomplish in this story? Why isn’t anybody bringing the fact that he’s a slaver and that’s why he left Westeros?

That episode of How to Train your Dragon feat. Jon was a nice moment in isolation, but too fan-service-y and too heavy-handed for me to truly appreciate it. At least the CGI dragon can act.

It’s just so stupid that Jon would wait all this time in Dragonstone, didn’t he had better things to do?

Wait, didn’t Jon know Bran was alive? Then why Dany said he had lost “two brothers” a few episodes ago? Also Jon saw Bran post-sack of Winterfell, going beyond the Wall. If this was such a dangerous idea that he assumed Bran would die, why didn’t Jon try to stop him or something?

Also what was Jon’s non-reaction upon learning Arya is still alive? So much for “his heart’s gonna stop”. Yeah, Sansa, it stopped so now he’s dead and can’t emote.

Bringing a White Walker on tour around Westeros wins the Turn Around Moat Cailin Award for "Your setting doesn’t work like that".

King’s Landing

Apparently one simply walks into King’s Landing. Davos and Tyrion arriving like they did is stupid, but even more stupid is Gendry being there this whole time when the show itself established a very good reason why he left.

Hey, remember that time Tyrion burned Davos’ sons with wildfire? Davos remembers it too, glad he doesn’t feel a thing about it.

HEY SHOW, THE ROWING JOKE IS OUR JOKE, YOU DON’T GET TO MAKE IT.

How did Davos know where to find Gendry? How did Tyrion know where to find Bronn? Daily Westeros twitter account, is that you?

Tyrion and Jaime meeting again loses a lot of impact when so much of each character and their dynamic together was cut from the show. Peter Dinklage and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau make it work, but it’s still a lesser version of what it could be because the characters are lesser versions than what they could be.

Lena Headey can also act, though the baby Lannister makes no sense at all. Why are they doing this? Will this accomplish anything for the story? Maybe the shock value of seeing another pregnant woman/baby dying on screen?

Old Town

With this episode the Old Town plot is over. It was a complete waste of resources, time, and good actors.

It’s a cheap trick to cut Gilly when she’s revealing an obvious Rhaegar info, but I’m glad they did it because now I can properly prepare to see this absurdity when it comes full force.

Annulment is not divorce. You need a good reason for it and it’s usually retroactive—in this case, it means Rhaegar’s previous marriage doesn’t count and his previous children are bastards. It’s also not something that can be done in secret, much less if you’re the crown prince and every aspect of your life matters to the people you’ll rule one day, especially when they directly affect succession. 

Rhaegar didn’t seem to care a lot about Elia, but he also didn’t seem to care a lot about Lyanna as well. He was a prophecy-obsessed dude and the prophecy made him believe he needed a third child (that Elia couldn’t provide). The prophecy doesn’t require this child to be a trueborn, especially if it means that the other two will become bastards. I can’t see why Rhaegar would bother with this, so I’m pretty sure it’s not happening like that in the books.

(and isn’t it much more poignant if Jon is still a bastard, but not even Ned’s bastard?)

Why is this happening in the show? Because D&D create the exact kind of fantasy that GRRM criticizes, and everything in the story, from a dragon having a Twilight-esque imprint on him to being the true heir to the crown, conspires to reward the white male lead purely for being the white male lead. I guess we should call him Jon Snowflake by now, because he’s so special and unique.

Fuck the show.

Winterfell

Again my least favorite part, though Dany and Prince Ragger certainly tried.

The Bran bit was cool, and actually makes sense with the kind of powers I expect him to have. I’m only writing this because I feel it’s the last time I’ll compliment anything about show!Bran.

The conflict between Arya and Sansa makes no sense, except within the pattern of women always being catty to each other. The Northern Lords had a very good point when they questioned Jon’s absence and Sansa did defend him. But show!Arya is every bit the heartless psychopath that dudebros on Reddit say she’ll become in the books (spoilers: nah she won’t), so she isn’t happy unless someone is drowning in their own blood. Sansa is evil for not wanting to behead anybody that insults Jon with a good reason.

It almost seems like the show will let Sansa be right this time, but Arya says all that bullshit about Sansa wanting the post for herself, despite no evidence on this, and Sansa is just silent. So it’s framed as if Arya was right. Once more I hate everybody, though to be fair I hate show!Arya most of all.

To make this even worse, Littlefinger is tossed in this stupid conflict. Ever since the stupidity of the Sansa Marriage Strike I can no longer believe in Littlefinger as this evil mastermind and clever manipulator. He’s just a dumb douche that follows Sansa around and tells people he wants to bang her. Please, writers, put this character out of its misery.

Better yet, put me out of my misery and end this damn show. 

Eastwatch

After wasting a lot of time with Gendry and Davos bonding and Gendry and Jon bonding, we’re ready for our Ultimate Bro Trip - All the Extras Edition.

Jon, Davos, Jorah, Gendry, Tormund, Sandor, Thoros, and Beric join in this super fun brotrip beyond the Wall. It’s great that none of these people is a King in the North that has more important duties and could be easily replaced by anyone else that can swing a sword.

It’s also great that all the women are busy with violent murder, because otherwise one of them might be there to spoil this dickfest.

Oh, well, fuck the show.

Extra notes

There’s a difference between acknowledging a plot hole and actually fixing it. Somebody should tell D&D that difference.

The Westerosi Teleportation Company had a 20% discount voucher for followers of the Daily Westeros twitter account, so the teleporting networks were especially busy during this episode. No, writers don’t need to show every little second of characters traveling from point A to point B, nor they have to be perfectly accurate with time passing in different plotlines. But such blatant disregard for basic logic shows me they care very little about the quality of their story. It’s par for the course, actually.

Two more weeks to go, and may R’hllor have mercy on our souls.

[mistralrunner]

Trespasser Liveblog, Part Two: Explosions of more than one variety

In which Menel is tired of everyone attacking instead of talking, and heads off to the library to get his questions answered.

I get the feeling this is not the first time Cassandra or Menel have said something sappy during this whole trek through the Deep Roads cause they haven’t seen each other in a while and between that and the Deep Roads Varric is so done

Kind of feel bad for this Templar dude. Had a conscience, left Meredith, and ended up under another lousy murderous boss

But hey, we get to explode things! I’m far more excited about that than Menel.

It's a shame we can't reference any Descent things, such as deja vu with the shaking earth, the whole lyrium is Titan's blood thing

I have to admire the Qunari for defying the world rule of “only dwarves can mine lyrium” and engineering a new way. The rampant casualties from such an attempt not so much.

"I see you. Do you see me?" I see you've been practicing catchphrases, assassin

Assassin stabs me in the back, I knock her off a cliff

Okay that is a creepy elven song in that journal what did the Creators do to the dwarves

SAAREBAS ABORT ABORT

Actually that wasn't that bad. Yet.

"I wish whoever fights in the name of the old wolf was around to fight when the darkspawn took my clan."

No he's too busy napping and then insulting the people who actually do fight the Blight cause apparently they could have fought it better. Stupid Egg

Can Rhovan adopt the Dalish journal writer please. Pretty sure they're dead like most people we read the journal entries of but still.

I’m just really amused by the dramatic assassin one-liners

"There's so much you don't see"

"You are blind, Inquisitor"

So melodramatic. Admittedly the Qunari can be rather eloquent with imagery despite their stoic reputation.

Bit of an adrenaline rush heee explosions and then running away as everything floods

Aww why do all the good Templars die

Yeah, at this point Teagan really does have a right to be angry especially under my headcanon of an arrangement between the Inquisition and Ferelden cause right now it looks like the Inquisition might be betraying Ferelden

From his pov the Inquisition likely led them on with false promises so they’d be less prepared to fight, and then constructed a new crisis that justifies the continued existence of the Inquisition,

Even if it’s kind of hilarious that he’s reacting so aggressively to the Inquisition troops occupying an Orlesian palace 

Duke Cyril possibly isn’t a bad person, although he’s probably using the good cop appearance to win favor cause this is Orlais and Games and maskes, but even if has good intentions we’re not letting the Orlesian empire get augmented with the armies and spies of the Inquisition

Ah right, this is the part with the guard and the servant who are both spies not that Menel knows either of these things

Menel’s internally crying there’s no proper way to do this.

Either action is a poor move politically, unfortunately why can’t we just talk rather than arresting people...ended up detaining the servant cause intuition and the barrels looking familiar after the Deep Roads even though that is probably the worse one politically

Aaah Sera your journal keeps giving me feels

"Not all right! Wait and help. Somehow."

Awww her feelings for Dagna are so sweet

Of course the library level would be past a bookshelf

Time to bring the book club of Cassandra, Varric, and Dorian

Another vanishing guy right in front of me Leliana you're nearby did you see that no she's looking away

Oh hey there's that scar on the sky where the breach was

Once more through the eluvian!

Time to get distracted by books

Oooh Xebenkeck reference.  

So they were banished? I guess it makes sense given they’re ancient so they would have been around during the time of Artlathan.

I wonder if Forbidden Ones are the same as the Forgotten Ones? I still prefer my Forgotten Ones are the Old Gods theory.

All these memories are so vivid there’s a chance Menel was close to crying. He might have received knowledge from the Well but even the memories of countless priests probably only captures a slim fragment of a vast civilization.

Rkejrkrkttkrkejrjtjrn

Enchantment!!!!!

Sandal’s journal is the best.

*goes to enchant things*

I’m worried about Sandal now. Yes, every time I’ve found him he’s been surrounded by a room of dead bodies but the camp is presumably abandoned and there are Qunari around please be okay.

Menel you failed in your duties as protagonist by not finding Sandal in a room filled with corpses

I’m so glad the archivist spirit calls Menel “Honored elvhen” so much better than Abelas but then again that makes sense given the spirit is one of learning and exchange

All the knowledge????

Eeeeeee

Menel is just nerding out with all this knowledgeeeee we still have a mission you know

"I have not thought with myself for some time" is such an amusing line. Well, amusing out of the tragic context.

Hey look at that fresco in the distance isn't the artistic style familiar *cough*

Dorian notes the anchor is flaring up near elven magic and Menel notes it doesn’t happen when he casts cause that is also technically elven magic. Just not ancient elven magic.

Ugh it’s so obvious in retrospect this maze of eluvians is a trap with these energy channelers there to make things worse. Plus if you were to try to slow down/trap Menel an ancient elven library is the perfect place. 

Menel's just like wait what the Beyond was part of the waking world and Fen’Harel created the Veil itself what this aligns with the stories of Fen'Harel sealing away our gods but how does this work with tales of the Beyond

Come on I'm pretty sure Menel at least suspects Solas given these frescos and how he talked about the Fade

Love people being worried about Menel

Haha Dorian wanting to reverse engineer eluvians and Varric is just like, not again

Seriously though, Merrill needs to know about all this.

Excuse me the Dalish canonically read ancient elven, especially a Keeper in training like Menel was. Ugh, Bioware.

Librarians are terrifying. I really wish we didn’t have to fight them though.

The librarians throw spiders on you? Poor Menel

ACTUAL FEARLINGS BAD DAY

Again I can barely translate the elvish and that makes me sad

Menel is falling unconscious so much this is a scary fight

I did the whole end of the library section going into the climax but then realized I hadn’t found the Taken Shape and thus reloaded and ran about finding all the other eluvians cause I didn’t want to do all the side things once things got really serious cause that would disrupt the narrative flow

There's another halla statuette but in the Crossroads and with a map whyyyy I thought we were done with these statuettes

The Deep Roads caverns being flooded is kind of cool. Not surprised Varric says he can’t swim, swimming in any waters around Kirkwall sounds like a terrible idea.

Well, that giant mural of a shattered Titan sure isn’t disturbing.

I really hope Valta and Menel can still remain friends cause Valta is awesome but honestly her “I would never hurt you” line was just jinxing it and now I have further evidence cause if the Titans want vengeance we’re in trouble.

Love how Hawke a while back mentioned she’s not sure she can help unless we’re facing a horde of rampaging Qunari and of course we face one after Hawke leaves

And it’s fitting that the game begins with Menel surviving an explosion and ends with him stopping one. Good bookends.

I can’t believe that veilfire rune on the floor released a fear demon and actual giant spiders Menel is having a very bad day

Anyway, climax next time cause that was exhausting