#anime protag rant over.

[avaloniaofficial]

i am slowly but surely getting better at skating!!! its also revealed some things to me about people in my life (literally how)

[anthropwashere]

Man, I'm replaying Stormblood on a casual alt and the Lyse-Wuk Lamat comparisons absolutely SHIT on Lyse???

Like Stormblood was absolutely Lyse's Story but even at it's most egregious it didn't come anywhere near as In Your Face as Wuk's Story in Dawntrail?? Which is frickin' wild???

Like for real my biggest Stormblood Main Character Complaint is Lyse's first outfit design. Legit all I think about when she's on-screen is how unsupportive her white-ass bra is, and how likely she's dealing with wedgies with her white-ass booty shorts. Fucking for realsies, the rest of her OG outfit is great! But her "I'm 12 and unsure how to deal with puberty" undies-vibes drive me fuckin' nuts.

At least the recent graphic update saved Hien and Gosetsu's outfits? To the point that I'm probably gonna buy Hien's samurai outfit for my Xaela dude who hasn't even unlocked samurai??

Anyway outfit aside, Stormblood MSQ Lyse isn't HALF as frustrating as Dawntrail MSQ Wuk Lamat is, good christ can we stop shitting on Lyse for 5 dang minutes

[bixels]

LWA was the first anime I watched and became really attached to back in high school. There's a lot I could say as an intro to it (I highly recommend the OVA film and The Enchanted Parade Film, both are some of the most perfect short anime films [spot the MLP reference in the OVA!]. The main anime series is pretty good but is mostly no-plot shenanigans), but I wanna highlight the designs of background characters as an appeal for you to check it out. Because by god, the crew really cared about developing a fun, diverse cast of students that actually captures teenage girlhood pretty well.

Here's a cool fact: every student in the background of the anime has a name, nationality, and personality (and possibly backstory and relationships). A lot of love went into designing each individual student, and 90% of them have no speaking roles or major screen-time.

This is only half of the student body too. More under the cut.

Some students of note:

Aisha, a Middle Eastern student who wears a hijab (and a niqab in some concept material).

There's actually also a female teacher who wears a niqab, but she's unnamed and only a background character.

(In fact, all the teachers in this line-up only appear in backgrounds, yet look how crazy and inventive their designs are!)

It'd take too long to list/show BIPOC students; there are African students (Wangari, a side character and school reporter, from Kenya), BIPOC students from the UK, Latina students from South America. There are these twins from India (Rajani and Rashmi) who're both very protective of their smaller, shier roommate and will often argue over how to better care for her.

There's a great amount of diversity in facial structures, nose sizes, heights, and body types that you just don't see in anime. Stocky builds, large foreheads, double chins. And traditionally "unattractive" character designs are not designed to reflect bad qualities. Alma (1) from Austria is insecure about her flaws and enjoys talking, sometimes a bit too much. Verochka (2) from Russia is constantly paranoid about everything going wrong, yet manages to be friendly to everyone. None of this is relevant to/used in the actual anime, but it's there and it's fun.

In regards to the main cast, there's a girl from Russia named Jasminka who's unapologetically fat and loves to eat and it's never questioned and everyone is friends with her. There's also Amanda, an American tomboy who's canonically butch and crossdresses as a man to sneak into a boy's school (the LWA game also reveals that one of Akko's bullies, Hannah, has a crush on crossdressing Amanda. The game also reveals Amanda's crossdressed on multiple occasions before). There's Constanze, a nonverbal girl from Germany who loves mechanical engineering and hacking game consoles.

Not to mention our main protagonist, Akko, who's very clearly neurodivergent and commentary on how schools treat ND students. Akko is a non-magical girl who desperately wants to become a witch. She enrolls in the elitist magic academy Luna Nova despite having no magical lineage and is afforded zero accommodations or sympathy. She is constantly belittled and bullied by faculty and peers for being lazy, stupid, incapable, and untalented when in reality, she is working twice as hard as everyone else to get a barely-passing grade. We see her fall into the oh-so-relatable loop of staying up late and sacrificing free time to study, only to fall asleep in class and wind up with even worse grades. Luckily, she finds a teacher who truly advocates for her, and it's so satisfying seeing her earn magical powers on her own terms. Even more satisfying seeing her snooty aristocrat rival, Diana, realize that she was wrong about Akko this whole time and being a bully. (No exaggeration when I say they were the original Lumity.)

Akko is also a Marxist who becomes her school custodial staff's labor union chief secretary in striking and negotiating for fair pay.

At the risk of sounding preachy or assuming too much about the crew, this is what happens when you truly care about a world and its presentation. You make good characters –– even unimportant ones –– who become good reflections of real people and identities. You can tell the designers hoped that each background character would be someone's favorite. And it's genuinely nice to see an anime create a cast of teenage girls who are actual teenage girls, with interests in sports or films or gardening and both positive and negative personality quirks. And again, 90% of them exist as only set dressing. Yet they took the time to make each one a real character.

If you're craving good modern-fantasy magic school media with original concepts, a great art direction, and fun characters, check out LWA.

Reminiscing about Little Witch Academia.

[hylianane]

I desperately need to rant about how I find Mitsumi from Skip and Loafer to be absolutely peak character design for a female romance protag. Like for anime’s standards she’s quite tame in that she doesn’t have crazy hair colors or an over the top outfit but it’s just- IT’S LITERALLY JUST HER PIN PRICK PUPILS IN HER GIANT EYES. It’s the most effective way to make a character look manic and frazzled from the very first glance, and it’s also just so fucking funny, and it fits her manic and frazzled personality PERFECTLY. the way she always looks like this. I love her. I have such an easy time connecting with her, even projecting a little. Skip and Loafer is peak romance anime for not being afraid of having an MC that looks a little bit like bulbasaur. For every shoujou princess there should be one of HER

[1perplexed1]

More ranting but its the protags now

Danganronpa, despite its out of pocket comments and shitty development sometimes, is actually still great with presenting how characters deal with trauma. This is mostly gonna be about the 3 main protags but yk (p.s. I haven’t watched the gameplays in over a year or two, so correct me if I’m wrong😓)

Makoto, being a cheery guy, still came to forgive everyone for their misdeeds. He didn’t yell at Kyoko for getting mad at him, he kept Sakura’s secret, he still got along with everyone, and he didn’t hold a grudge despite being sent off to the execution. He never held a grudge (apart from Junko but that’s cause she’s a bitch!!). He obviously went through a lot, watching people he actually knew for 3 years die right in front of him while he thought he didn’t know anyone, as well as nearly dying from the execution. But even so, he still kept his optimistic self and continued encouraging everyone despite knowing what the cycle would be, never giving up. In the Dr3 anime, in the scene where he’s driven insane, you can actually see that a lot of his trauma is internalized. Meaning he still holds regret in his heart, but chose the healthy way out and continued to work on it, despite having to go through 2 different killing games. His trauma had a heavy impact on him, which was the reason why he could be driven to despair, but even so, he’s a strong character, which allowed him to keep his mindset and still fight for the best

Now onto Hajime. Hajime is a whole different story. We don’t know much about his backstory or family, apart from a few glimpses into his Reserve Course life. We can easily tell that he truly dreams of becoming talented because Ultimates were a big deal in the world, but the Reserve Course was deemed as being desperate for that (they were lmao). So dealing with obvious self-esteem issues and somewhat implied self-loathing, he sold his damn body to scientists to experiment on.

What you believe is entirely on you. You can believe that Hajime and Izuru are two seperate identities, sharing the same body and brain, as a split personality, or you can believe that Hajime and Izuru are one in the same, with his brain just getting a few modifications. And there is no humane way for him to be able to accommodate all of those talents without obvious body modification, so imagine that, some parts of him aren’t even his at that point. Anyways, Hajime deals with trauma a bit differently. He gets agitated and deals with it like any average person: panicked and desperate. Constantly seeing his friends die, it gave an impact on his brain where he had slowly, but unknowingly grown used to it, with still being obviously impacted, but each time less and less, though it’s really faint. By chapter 6, Hajime let those bottled up feelings out, since he never lets his guard down and is always tense, and is obviously upset and angry because he had no reason to be there, again his self-loathing. In the anime, we can see him getting better, accepting his past (via the symbolism of Chiaki fading out, though he still keeps her dear in his heart), and moving on by going back t his friends. So he most likely also ends up dealing with it healthily!

Shuichi? Oh fuck he’s a mess…

Shuichi obviously also struggles with a self-esteem problem, but it’s not severe. He generally doesn’t believe he’s worth his Ultimate, because he only solved one case the police couldn’t, and is quite shy or introverted on his own. Throughout the gameplay, he obviously builds up confidence, which could also play as tiredness and anger, because of continuously doing these class trials and losing people he tried to make a genuine connection with. Even so, he tries to stay strong, but again, he never truly built true confidence, which is why he’s so easily knocked down in chapter 5, where his feelings are exposed, revealing that he did in fact become/was already depressed. He gave up with everything, because knowing there was no point in killing, everyone’s deaths were a waste, and everything that happened was pointless, gives a pretty big impact. He even comes to a point of giving up on his own life. But with a bit of support from Maki and his friends, he gets back up on his feet again and continues on, making everyone’s deaths important because they never lost their value. Though in chapter 6, you can see his confidence waver again, but he still stands his ground, proving that he actually grew to accept everything, and built actual confidence, which I think is a nice touch to his character.

So truth be told, Danganronpa, despite still being shitty, is still good at character development when they actually put work into them. But of course, sometimes you just can’t get that

[thenixkat]

Hi sorry for asking im just genuinely curious, what are all the changes you'd make to the sun/ moon anime? Stuff like lusamine, guzma, etc. I love seeing you pop up in the guzma tag to rant abt how they butchered my guy, and im curious of all the stuff you'd personally change abt the anime bc it. It has problems. Sorry again for asking i just love disecting my fav media and discussing its flaws and how to better them!!!!

The biggest change would be letting Lusamine be a villain which in turn would let just about every character that got shafted actually get to have their stories.

Not shying away from her abuse which caused both Gladion and Lillie to runaway from home taking pokemon that were tortured by Lusamine with them. (Hell, you could even hint at some of the issues in Alolan society with overlooking/not talking about or helping with abuse)

Getting rid of the pokemon school angle since, the trial captains literally have only approximately an 8 year that they can be trial captains if the age cut-off is twenty and folks are expected to start their island challenge at 11. Those kids don't have the time to be dicking around at school, especially not the older ones like Kiawe and Mallow. Like, being a trial captain is a huge fucking honor in their society and they'd likely prioritize it over other stuff. Also, I don't care for nerfing characters for no good reason.

Storywise, I think using a combination of the story from the Sun/Moon game with some of the stuff from the Manga version of the story that managed to use stuff from Ultra without downplaying Lusamine's shit could make for the best adaption of the story with a few tweaks. -> Instead of the pokemon school plot, why not have Ash try his hand at being a research assistant? It'd be something new to do with him, give him a reason to be around and work with the professors, give him extra reason to explore Alola, and interact with Aether Foundation, and come in conflict with Team Skull. -> I can also see him trying his hand at the Island Challenge b/c of course, he's the protag. Hell, he can even make friends with the trial captains along the way.

-> Let Lillie be the deuteraganist proper! Let her be an actual trainer to Nebby! I hate some much that the games want us to have her pokemon just cause its the fucking box legendary, that's her pokemon and by all rights it would make more sense for her to catch it b/c that would be safer for Nebby in the long run. -> Not putting Hau on a damn bus for 97 episodes! He's the game *rival*, he's a major fucking character. Let this boy be present from jump and be both Lillie and Ash's rival. Explore his feelings about being stuck in Hala's shadow, the MC's shadow, and his sympathies with Team Skull.

-> ( A complaint I have with the games is I don't think Team Skull should be as rude or distant to Gladion as they are. Like, why would they make fun of him for being homeless if they're squatting in a rundown building? If Team Skull are supposed to be a group of homies and found family against the world, why wouldn't they adopt Gladion's prickly ass and tease him for being an edgelord? Also, just while Guzma acknowledges and respects Gladion for also escaping from and abusive household and wanting to get as strong as he can, I want more to be done with that than just paying lip service. Let them bond. ) -> Ah, yes, where was I? Gladion as a member of Team Skull. Not just hired help/an enforcer like in the games but an actual member. Let him bond with them damnit. And also keep him in a rival role to Ash while being a bad guy. Hell, its been a long time since I've watched the older pokemon seasons but it'd be fun to have a bad guy who keeps a long-running win streak over Ash. Let him keep his anime win streak and be a 'bad' guy.

-> Let Guzma have his role as the decoy big bad! Don't nerf him, don't slander him. Have folks mention him and have him show up at several points and have those eps be fucking heavy for one reason or another. He is a problem of a trainer and knows strategy and covers his team's weaknesses. -> While I hate everything the anime did slandering my guy making him the 'Undefeated' b/c he's a chicken that only targets weaklings, I wanna see Guzma being called the 'Undefeated' for serious, like folks thinking he's a chicken b/c of his ace and not taking every challenge sent his way but no he's actually good like that. I wanna see him beat Ash multiple times, yes Ash needs to beat him at some point to kickstart Guzma's character development but I wanna see him struggle to get that victory. -> You have no idea how much I want to see Guzma interrupt anyone who tries to use a Z move in a battle with him out of pure spite instead of just standing around doing fuck all while folks chant and do the poses. It would make so much more sense if he had his golisopod just sucker punch a pokemon in the middle of the z move stuff. It would be a good way to show that he's ruthless and very intent on bucking tradition. -> After I realized that like Guzma got possessed by a nihiligo in the of games and the manga and we were denied a perfectly good opportunity for a monster!Guzma rampage and opportunity to show how much Team Skull cares about each other that a 'I know yer in there come back to us Boss' and a 'help us save our Boss' could have added, I feel a bit miffed. Like I even commissioned fic to have just that and its good and everyone should read it and share with their friends. -> I do like that Team Skull didn't disband at the end of the anime. Them breaking up is one of the things I don't like about the games. Like, the can reform and stay together. (I also commissioned fic for Team Skull reforming while staying together and its good and everyone should read it and share with their friends)

-> Plumeria would have more things to do if Team Skull in general had more things to do and were taken a lil more seriously than they are in the anime. I do like the idea of her scouting and scoping and infiltrating in disguise. Also, I think she should make it farther in the pokemon league conference than she did b/c she's also a good trainer, and smart, and ruthless too. -> I think if she did make it further in the pokemon league conference and had to fight Guzma then that would be a great opportunity to show that the two characters are actually really good friends and know each other well. Certainly, I'd have Guzma win that fight, I'd also have that fight be the only one where he actually shows good sportsmanship towards his opponent. B/c he likes and respects Plumeria.

When it was on Netflix a few years ago I do remember watching some of the Pokemon Sun/Moon eps. And I remember how strange it felt that the ultra beast stuff had like a goofy Power Rangers type bend with folks suiting up as like a task force to deal with the things and just... idk maybe we should play the aggressive and fearful pokemon from another dimension more seriously. Darker at least. Cause like... ultra beasts kill people, they're a lot more dangerous than pokemon, they can do a good number on the environment more so than the invasives that are native to the dimension that the series takes place in.

[lai-mar]

Can't wait till this blog is old enough so posts start showing in main tags, but for now, a salty lil rant

Shipping aside, I'm surprised by how Laios + Marcille even as friends doesn't get as much fan attention as I expected considering how heavily the series focuses on their development? I consider Laios to be the protag and Marcille to be the secondary protag but I can see the argument for the two of them being dual protags especially starting from around Thistle's house arc / Marcille becoming the dungeon lord. The protagonists are party members who bond over losing and finding a loved one. They save each other multiple times and live with each other in the end. They get copious amounts of screentime together and separate. They clearly care for each other and love each other (in whatever way). And there's no forced romance.

Before I read the manga, I saw all the yuri on my TL and was like YESSSSSS I'M READING THIS FOR THE YURI WOOOOOO and finished the Red Dragon anime episodes like "wow that was soooo good and gay. Let me go on Tumblr to see what people are talking about— people are shipping Marcille and LAIOS??? Probably annoying straight people who cannot conceptualize a friendship between a man and woman 🙄". So I started out with a squick for the ship. I think the fan perception made me believe F/M is canon and anything else would be like queer erasure? Except I later learned no ship is canon and was genuinely confused when the manga started giving us L/M crumbs (like the succubus chapter) because I thought the shippers were pulling this ship from thin air lmao.

The more I read, the more I was like.... "okay.... why are they kinda... okay I get it now... why am I.... oh shit... I'm really in it now" and I apologise because I really get it now 😭 and it baffles me to see people who have seemingly finished the manga going "Laios and Marcille have NO CHEMISTRY their only line of connection is through Falin". Like, okay, maybe that was how they were at the beginning (but I would argue they have chemistry even from the first few chapters), but that's the POINT and we get to see them evolve and get closer because they both love and miss Falin. Laios moves on from being "Falin's brother" and Marcille moves on from being "Falin's friend". L+M know about each other's deepest, subconscious desires. Marcille lives with the siblings at the end. No matter the bond, they are the two most precious people to her.

I was still squicky about romantic L/M even at the succubus chapter (which I know is probably the starting point for a lot of shippers) but THEN THE RABBIT CHAPTER. And after that when the Canaries found Marcille and she immediately jumped onto Laios I was like "Oh fuck. I'm really in this now fuck fuck FUCK". (Nothing makes me get into a dynamic more than having an initially squicky reaction because I'll need to have a strong enough conviction to overcome the squick LOL)

Anyways. Seeing people being annoying and pissy about L/M only made me like L/M more 🤡 because at least the shippers appreciate their bond. I'm a little desperate here. Even their platonic bond is kind of a rarepair in the English fandom ��

I'm so glad the anime is going at the pace it is now because this is only the beginning of the L+M development!!!! The anime onlies will understand later!!! I made the same mistake and judged too early and I'm sorry!!!! So many anime L+M moments and panels and crumbs yet to be seen 🥺

Anyways. Laios and Marcille's bond is absolutely central to the plot and character development. But I wouldn't have guessed that if I didn't read the manga and just based it off fan attention.

[rat-woman876]

I ADORE the Tester AC fight in armored core VI, because its just so goddamn mean. Minor spoilers ahead for the VERY early parts of Armored core VI: Fires of Rubicon.

Spoil time :)

To set the stage theres a younger AC pilot whos got his spirits high and in a new top of the line AC! Hes on his way to get it to the redguns so they can keep up the good fight. Thats a very stereotypical anime protag kinda deal.

Then theres the silent psycho Merc whos on their way to fight this AC and destroy it.

In a lot of media the story plays out with the young chipper pilot winning the day over a long hard battle.

In AC6 you're the silent psycho and the fight lasts less then a minute. You kill that young AC pilot for your own reasons and for cash and at the whim of a company.

Whats worse is the next job you take is from the Redguns, the people who the Tester AC was fighting for, they got a spot open for you to do some work alongside their real AC pilots. They never even mention the killing of the AC pilot, your Handler does but not like a "Jesus raven that was like a kid." More of a "Anywho I got a job from the Redguns, yknow same faction as that AC trainee you killed. Stay safe." Kinda thing

Hell you become G13 Raven. That pilot died and they just filled their spot in with their killer. It paints a great picture of how unforgiving this war is, that loosing a AC pilot doesn't mean much of anything when the guy who killed them without remorse is just a few thousand bucks away from being your hound for a day.

It also kinda sorta tells you you're a goddamn monster, but you shouldn't feel too bad, just another body on the pile left wherever you go, thats all that Pilot was he was either going to die in that war, to another merc, maybe just a system failure, you just got there first and you made it violently swift.

This is all made worse because hes a GREART source of early game cash meaning this poor guy gets basically gutted on a regular basis and it just makes the guy a object to be grinded up so you can get more parts, which you kind of already did.

Mini-rant-writing-essay-thingamajig over, stay safe!

[vampirelover890]

Ok, over the next couple of days, I will be disecting my favorite vampires because I dont talk about them enough.

Today, I shall discuss bisexual icon, Dio Brando.

Dio gets 9/10 and 7/10 on the Vampire Value scale for parts 1 and 3, respectively.

Dio is perhaps the most important single character in JoJo until the timeline reset. He sets off the series of events that lead to the bond between Speedwagon and Jonathan, which then sets off the Pillar Men story, then he comes back for part 3, Jotaro is kinda in part 4, and then his son is the main protag of part 5 a f then his gay boyfriend ends the fucking universe in part 6. So... you know... kind of a big deal.

The reason I gave Dio two ratings is because i feel the vampiric qualities of Dio play an inherently lesser role in part 3 than they do in 1.

Dio, in Part 1, is adopted by the Joestars through a deal struck by Johnathan's father and Dio's father. Dio then actively goes out of his way to make Jonathan's as miserable as possible while trying to find a way to covertly poison Mr. Joestar and inherit the family fortune.

Dio's character is fueled by the feeling that he'd been cheated out of life by being born poor and, as such, deserves everything he could ever dream of. Unfortunately, the universe seems to agree and provides him with the power required to do whatever he pleases. His vampirism is not an infliction, a price for his power, it IS his enabler, letting him seize anything he wishes, command any who follow him, and consume those who he see fit, and also eye lasers which he never uses again for some fucking reason. 9/10. Almost perfect vampire.

Part 3 Dio has all of these qualities, but he's the villain, rarely the antagonist. Part 3 is about mind ghosts that only people with other mind ghosts can see except when that rule is broken multiple times. Dio's real character aspect through the series before the finale is fear. Dio has scared the strongest stand users in the world into his submission due to his own stand, The World.

Dio's vampirism plays less of a role in Part 3 due to the fact that it's not his main enabler anymore. Dio is, of course, still undeniably a vampire, and is ultimately melted in the sunlight after being split in half and transfused into a 70 year old man.

The reason I give Dio a lower Vampire Value, despite the fact that he dies like a vampires, dines like a vampire, and has [word that starts with d] like a vampire, it feels less important to the plot. Dio in part 1 was warping and twisting the valiant soldiers he came across into zombies fuelled by hatred, whereas Dio in part 3 is but assembling a group of powerful people in his name. Still good vampire, but not as good as he's been. 7/10.

Anyways this has been me ranting about the hottest anime character for approximately a foot of your feed (.305m)

I will take suggestions for other fiction vampires! Send em in! I'll do my reasearch! I do have a couple more in mind though, and will probably do those first. Maybe this becomes a normal thing? Who knows. Not me. (I never lost control)

Okie thank you :))))

[just-a-carrot]

hiii! ive lowk been *obsessed* with Our Wonderland since like, the begining of summer and OH MY GOD?! i unfortunately couldnt llisten to it with the music since i only had time to play it at like 2:00 am BUT the storytelling is fucking awesome, the fact that each character is some shade of morally gray instead of having a "super good ive never done anything bad ever" protag and a "haha im evil im never redeemable" antag we got to see like, a lot of complexity in the characters, and you really dont see that often. Especially with Iggy because even he did some pretty bad stuff (mostly in arc 3) and like it adds a sort of nuance to the game and i literally love it so much. uhm uh yeahhh thats basically it like i just really really like your storytelling it lowk had me questioning my morals and rethink some relationships ive had and like its such a good game like more people need to play it bcuz its so like complex and the narritave is so good and i just love it so muchhhjhhj!!!!

and thats not even talking about the art like holy shit? not only is ur artstyle like, AMAZING, but you were able to have a bunch of animated scenes and a shit ton of different character sprites and im like "wow" cause like thats honestly like really impressive. the thing that made me wanna play OW was the art cause i really like visual novels that have art in them.

sorry for going on that rant i just really like ur game its so good 😭

anywayssss my question is what inspired you to make OW or the OW characters?

wahhhh... this is really sweet... thank you so much... 😭💕 i'm really happy that you like the game and chars so much. lkdjafd i'm glad you say that tbh. it was definitely something i wanted to get across in the game... like... that there's no "wrong" and "right" or "bad" and "good" and that we all make mistakes and hurt people we care about. but it's less about the mistakes themselves and more in how you learn and get better and grow (and ofc talk and apologize, etc.), which is something the cast in general is not great at LOL i wanted all the chars to have deep flaws...

hmmm as for inspo, i've said before that the initial kernel of an idea came back when i was still in school and got really into horror vns, creepy vocaloid songs, games like american mcgee's alice, etc., and it just grew from there over many years of living with the idea and having it evolve. as for the chars themselves, that is something that i honestly could not tell you exactly where they each individually came from. like i had a general idea of the types of chars i wanted but as for their designs and such i mostly just sat down one day and drew them. and much of their characters grew and evolved both before and even during production. so there's no real single source for any of it lakjdfasd it was just a lot of various thinking, dreaming, and getting inspired by a variety of random little things over many years...

[actuallyidontgiveadamn]

Really out of nowhere but I rewatched some of fma03 eps and im gonna rant

I'm just so done with smiling politely saying that fma03 and fmab are both great sorry i cant anymore. Just no

So if you in love with fmab im warning you it probably won't be a good read for you, so feel free to ignore this, block me or idk read this and give it a thought

0. I really dont understand the glorification of manga over anime adaptations. Like people who are making the adaptation are not artists and creators themselves? What makes mangaka better than others and absolutely indisputable, seriously?

1. 'Oh no long introduction and fillers' that actually allowed for Hughes' character development before his death. Seriously if i mention his death among my homies I'll get lots of faces clearly going through some ptsd level flashbacks, it was that impactful. I still need to take a breather when im rewatching before diving into that ep.

2. Nina. Yet again got more time to grow on us and thus aquired higher trauma inducing levels.

3. Ishval massacre and aftermath are WAY MORE VISIBLE in fma03. First of all Ishvalans are depicted as human beings, and not some background, and we get lots more on their sufferings, raids on camps, racism towards them, etc etc etc

4. Scar. Oh boi how do i even go about this. So without raging much about that beefy obviously wrong dude who got 'sense' bitten into him and started working with the oppressing gov in fmab, we have a wronged and tormented survivor of a genocide, who was justified in his vengeance and rage, was depicted as an attractive person of color despite his antagonistic role and was seriously almost cheered on in his actions by the narrartive. His interactions with his people and his moral dilemmas made his character possibly the deepest and most thought out one in the series.

5. The Rockbell doctors being killed by their own government. That's a waaaaay more interesting and damning detail on our government affiliated protagonists than just dumping their murder on a delirious patient.

6. Homunculi had their own will and desires and a way more developed story arc that had a huge impact on protagonists' morals. Being created by the humans who were desperate to bring back their loved ones and both parties are getting tormented by it?? Characters strongly driven by their own goals and staggered by their relations to their creators vs some indifferent goons in fmab. Just compare Sloths and their impact on the stories and protags.

7. Final conflict being a fight with god and his intricate plans in fmab, versus final battle vs a selfish pretty much usual person who had thrown everyone under the bus in pursuit of immortality. Adds so much more desperation flavor. Suddenly your hero journey doesn't end in epic battle for the sake of the mankind, as you would like it to be. It's just to oppose one awful person with too much power and zero care about anyone else. That's raw and that's way more plausible and relatable in our mundane lives.

8. Overall darker tone and themes of the fma03.

9. MUSIC. I dont remember a single track from fmab, but i went really out of my way in my teenage years to find internet access and pirate fma soundtrack and cry listening to it

10. ART. Sorry but don't tell me fmabs flat colors are anything to 03's soft tones and lighting

So yeah sorry, but I'll take the dark and gritty tragedy over just another shounen with doubtful messages each and every time

[pugsbone]

Thoughts on Volume 9? I really could've done without Jaune during that whole arc, and just let the Rusted Knight be someone from the Evr After. I want to see more of the title characters, and not a secondary protag get his metaphorical dick sucked.

I want to see more of Ruby than I do Jaune.

(Also, it was a dick move of Winter to look right at Jaune, and not help him get to safety.)

Personally, I don’t think Jaune should’ve fallen in with RWBY, and this is for a few reasons.

1. The dude gets a lot of exposure during most of the volumes, definitely feels like he’s THE main side character at this point, and this isn’t getting into the common debate on if he’s Miles’ self insert or not. It would be nice to get a break from Jaune, mostly so that both sides of the fandom can calm down about him. Also, side point to the Jaune thing, it would've been nice if he actually brought up the fact that he "had" to kill Penny (had is in quotation marks because it feels like to strong a word for what happened during that volume.) Hell, have it be part of his dialogue when he's shouting at Ruby, let that be the final straw that breaks our hero, to learn how her BFF died.

2. I really think it should have been somebody else from the main group who was forced to grow up in the Ever After. In my personal opinion it should have been either Ren, Nora, Oscar, or Emerald. Ren/Nora for arguably the same reason, Nora wanted to figure out who she is without him, and this situation is a freaking monkey law of that, either she thinks he’s dead or has been given plenty of time to find the answer to her question. If she fell in, suddenly she has all this time to find herself, let her grow as a person while also figuring out just how much she does love Ren and misses him. If Ren falls in, he now has to deal with being all alone along with his brand new semblance, seeing all the different emotions of the strange creatures around him, making this whole experience even more confusing as he has to deal with this alien culture.

Emerald because this could all be her way of trying to show that she has become a better person, her guilt over the fall of Beacon, making her guarding the paper people even more poignant since she wants to make up for who she was, not wanting to be like Cinder ever again. Like just imagine her trying to keep the paper people alive, acting a little crazy as she calls them Penny, Hazel, or Pyrrha, all people that she has either helped get killed or watched die for her, she's just trying so dang hard.

And for Oscar, this would be the first time where he’d be someplace where Oz is just as clueless as he is, the two of them being on even footing as they explore this new land. With them being in the Ever After, we can finally get a conclusion to the convoluted mess that is the whole reincarnation thing, which is a rant for another day. Also, it would be cute to see Ruby's reaction to a grown up Oscar, I'm sure it would be adorable.

With Jaune, it just feels like we're getting kind of a rehash of his arc during the fourth and fifth volume, where he's trying to process his grief and trauma, only to channel it in some pretty self destructive ways instead, until he gets better through the power of friendship. We've done this song and dance before with him.

Now for my real thoughts on the season, it had some decent ideas, just poor build up to them. Like I love the whole thing with talking to a part of themselves that they don't want to face when they go into the smoke, love that trope, but all the problems that the girls face don't feel like they were actual problems. (Mostly Blake's dumb ass thing, "Am I a person or an animal?" When has that ever been a thing for this fictional race?!) Could've done a sweet callback to Volume 2 by having them face their old dreams, Weiss becoming the head of the SDC, Yang doing this for the thrill and adventure, Blake trying to help the Faunus, Ruby becoming this fairytale hero, let these be what they have to face. Weiss, Yang, and Blake can all see how far they have grown, seeing how they have become better than those old dreams, that sort of thing. All while Ruby just gets asked "What happened to you?" or something, just another part of that is cracking under the pressure.

But yeah, most of the ideas just didn't feel they were implemented all that well. I think it's just another example of something that CRWBY could have foreshadowed better overall, heck, even just having someone reading The Rusted Knight would have been a pretty easy way of doing it, like during the montage of good deeds they do in Atlas, maybe Yang is reading to a bunch of kids or something. Would've been sweet.

[tulipsnflowers]

Okay, guys, you want me to go on about the most pointless things?

Let's go on about Byeol (and a bit about Fane, I suppose), because I am going insane

Alright everyone, for those unaware, this is Byeol:

This is a tyrant in Nexomon: Extinction, his name is Byeol. The problem about this, however.

He isn't a story tyrant, and this... Makes me very interested in him.

Amelie calls Tyrants super powerful Nexomon, but here's the thing. According to Coco, Jin blocked off the entrance to Fenrir's tomb so that no more Tyrants may be hatched

Lydia also says to go bother Nadine because of the egg, and keep in mind, the grass Tyrant is Tikala. A warden. Probably because Deena didn't necessarily want to add fuel to the fire

So then we are already established that Tyrants are probably always hatched.

... So then what of Fane and especially Byeol?

(And there's no Psychic Tyrants because... Solus would be too lil to bonk an egg, and nobody would ask a random kid to do so.)

Well, let's go with the easier one, in which I ask yet again, what's up with the Ghost type? I've wanted to throw hands about it for a long time.

(Ulzar says that the reason Nexomon are, well, a thing is because of the Children of Omnicron. So it makes sense, right? 7 children, 7 elements)

Psychic is a bit trickier because of the fact Mystogen exists. And if we're going of the fact Solus made the psychic type...

Putting a pin in that, rant for another day.

So... What of Ghost?

Well. That's not the point of the post and that's my motivation for writing Doubts.

But! Moving on, Fane. Well, with the assumption they come from eggs, well frick. There's no ghost primordial.

... Which is why I can't speak much of it. We can surely just blame Hilda

... Do you know who we have more of?

Byeol.

Well. Let's see then.

Byeol is a normal type in Palmaya, first and foremost.... We are back to James everyone, anyone who's talked to me isn't surprised

Hi new people, James is how we call the Nexolord on this side of the fandom, moving on.

Assuming that James isn't dead and we take into account this from Nadine:

Well, who am I to argue with Nadine? (Granted, she could mean Grunda or Deena , but.)

.. So, in today's rant. Byeol and Metta, woooo.

First of all, he is in Palmaya(and later around the Orphanage as of the Abyssals but we can put a pin in that because, Abyssals) , which, is definitely not the frozen tundra

But, Merida is in the frozen Tundra, and Atlanta's Tyrant is frosty enough to argue Merida bonked the egg there.

.. So then, Palmaya's free, ey?

Well. That's interesting, further on, I am going to need to grab Metta for a moment

Hello bowling ball, I still think you should be an Armodillo.

Moving on, see this man? Until his siblings he is, unfortunately, not an animal

My only logic conclusion, looking at this man(if we don't take my other James theory into account), is that he's supposed to be a kind of biblically accurate angel, just, ribbons not wings (Thanks for the association Azzie, your hands are red too)

... HMMMM who ELSE has wings and is a normal type...

... WELL THEN.

Additionally, I must point out, Metta has 7 ribbons. If we count the bottom pointy Byeol has he has 8.

... Well, it just happens an additional type is added this time, to bump it from 7 to 8(we already went over why I think Ghost might not count)

.. So then.

And. Well, let's look at it this way. Nivalis and Arqua, they don't look the same. Fona and Mulcimer, er. The closest we have is Ventra and Eurus.

... And, well, Solus and Nara, but surely not

... Byeol could've been a kangaroo or something, but instead-

They're both inanimate object things I can't make sense of. I know Ross said that he was just inspired to make a star thing, but-

... Hm.

What am I trying to say? Nothing really. At the end of the day these are coincidences, likely

Like, n3 protag and James both have a blue hair strand, but that doesn't mean they're like, immediately necessary related kind of thing

... Just makes you think.

(Also, this stated when I made a joking like toddler Byeol human version, and I saw the white hair and went like "...wait")

[metrova]

Rant about this battle (pokemon anime SM ep76) aka me ranting about an anime protag's plot armor

(uhh i swear so be warned ig, also flashy gifs)

It just pisses me off man. Mimikyu was supposed to win, and I'm not only saying that because it's my favorite pokemon. I'm saying Ash and Pikachu's plot armor here was outrageous to me. (because mimikyu is my favorite pokemon and im pissed it lost :( )

Basically, I think Nanu lead TR over to the abandoned megamart and then Ash so that he could have his trial with them if I remember correctly idk. So, the battle starts, and Pikachu immediately has the shit beaten out of him for minutes on end.

The battle goes on, and Pikachu obviously gets more and more tired out (I'm pretty sure he was weakened or something in this episode too because he couldn't use electro ball for some reason), so eventually team rocket decides to use let's snuggle forever to finish Pikachu off.

This honestly got me so hyped because I was (pretty obviously) rooting for Mimikyu through the whole thing. But, when Mimikyu reveals what it "did"...

ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT. Not only was he too weak and tired to even use a move, but he was too weak and tired to even TRY to defend against a Z-MOVE. Not only that, but the fucking rat also somehow got basically all his energy back just enough for Ash to use his Z-move, which insta-KOs Mimikyu.

I probably wouldn't as salty as I am if it was done in a different way and not just plot armor, but this is just... Awful. I know it's an anime and the writers always favor the protag and all, but come on!! Just because TR are the bad guys doesn't mean they have to lose!! Ash and Pikachu absolutely deserved to lose that battle imo, or at least should've been handled in an actual logical way.

Not only that, but the idiot also later proceeds to challenge Hapu, the ground-type kahuna, with only pikachu... Her giant ground-type pokemon should've stomped that rat dead! That battle was some Brock's Onix type of bs

Thank u for listening to me being salty over my favorite pokemon losing a battle

[crystalelemental]

Full tier list is here, breakdown of the C-tier. Again, I generally like these ones, they give a bit more than the D-tier, but they're again not really hitting that sweet spot.

Shauna: dating Serena. the only XY friend with personality, really.

Rowan: I dunno man, I just like Rowan.

Kukui: Fun quirky dude, fails to hit any particular love point with me somehow.

Sycamore: The dork man himself. I dunno, he's fun sometimes.

Blue: Kanto anti-bias, but Blue is at least a decent character half the time.

Nanu: can be really fun with Grimsley or Looker/Anabel, kinda whatever on his own.

Kieran: Okay listen I liked what Teal Mask set up but do not respect where Indigo Disk went. Kieran falls short for me. They gave him some neat beats but he doesn't stand out.

Fantina: she's silly <3

Amarys: Kinda love that she's Carmine's bestie. She's alright.

Lisia: Wish they did more with her.

Calem: Masters skews this, but I love his rival focus as being frustrated he can't beat Serena and trying really hard to keep pace. That's good protag characterization.

Rei: he gets stuff.

Barry: Fun rival, has some quirks going on.

Hop: When I'm being fair I like him, when I'm not being fair he feels repetitive to previous rivals.

Agatha: cool old spooky lady, loved a Masters even with her but she doesn't get enough play. Let's Go redesign actually top tier.

Koga/Janine: I like the ninja family, they're cool.

Sabi: she's silly <3

Yancy: I really liked Yancy, okay. "Don't you play as the girl? What about-" I have nothing to say about him.

Wikstrom: Silly knight man with lore implications due to the whole knight thing.

Diantha: Sadly does not get the play she deserves. Could be higher if they gave her more.

Leon: I think the series is confused about what makes Leon interesting and keeps failing to lean into what's broken about him. That one Generations episode got it.

Birch: fun professor, the only one doing legitimate field work.

Burnet: She's fun too, not much to add.

Viola: I kinda like her fight, so I kinda like her.

Lenora: she's just a cool lady.

Hala: just a kahuna on a stroll to the laguna. He gets it.

Wallace: Fabulous, but that is not enough for affection.

Grant: I dunno, I kinda just vibe with his design.

Bertha: I have a soft spot for her. Tough granny.

Mustard: Same deal, but more active.

Lance: He has some stuff but I feel like he's a lot blander than people give credit for.

Will: Kind of a weirdo, and I respect it.

Drake/Glacia: they're just neat.

Sonia: I like Sonia alright, but I feel like her "research" is kinda just her showing up and talking about stuff you incidentally find, and she removes Magnolia from view which I consider a cardinal sin.

Giacomo: he's neat.

Morgan/Evelyn: I kinda like these two, they have fun, if one-note, personalities.

Ingo/Emmet: I know I reversed it, but I'm used to this order. They're alright. My wife likes them a lot more than I do, but I don't really know them because I refuse to do Battle facilities anymore.

Piers: got all the neat stuff Marnie should've gotten and it still wasn't enough for me to think he's that interesting.

Lucian: the man has style.

Zinzolin: Legitimately and unironically the best part of the Team Plasma. He is literally just some old fart with no significance running around ranting and raving about how feeling the cold biting at your skin and suffering is proof that you're alive. Actually unhinged, best subordinate.

Beni/Sanqua: I like these two a lot.

Tierno: he can be fun, XY just kinda overdid it with friends.

Sawyer: I do kinda like the loyal friends.

Raihan: he's fine. At least he has personality.

Ryuki: Look, I know I'm discounting the anime in most cases, but they made him such an over the top rocker with a headbanging Zweilous, I am making an exception to put him in C.

Protagonists: they're all cute enough.

Gordie: Swag.

Melony: Finally, a mom that looks like a mom.

Falkner: Johto bias.

Olivia: can have a fun personality but not as much play time.

Korrina: sure.

Eri: Has stuff going on I just don't strongly connect with her. I think it's the wrestling. I am not into wrestling.

Wake: See above.

Mira: I just think she's funny. Lost in a cave and you rescue her only for her Kadabra to put in more work than you do.

Ghetsis: conceptually interesting, but still a bitch.

Guzma: see above, though I think the implications of him being an abused child are fascinating. He has some fun structural ideas on the nature of abusive cycles, and how someone who is abused is easily abused by others who show even the slightest trust in them. But he's also really abusive toward his underlings and I'm just not a huge fan of Team Skull in general so C is the best I can do.

[chumby4life]

Some cute and funny screengrabs from Maison Ikkoku that i liked

GAAHH this was such a good show, so just heartwarming idk. I watched it over a period of a few months, one ep a day during my work breaks. It's the perfect show for that, a lighthearted sitcom with some really heartfelt moments. Just a nice and relaxing reprieve from stressful work. And it's a wonderful example of the found family trope (i'm always weak for that stuff) and I feel like the show presents grief in a really nice way even when it can be silly at times.

I love how the two main characters, Godai and Kyoko, are around my age (although they do get older thru the series) because I feel like it's hard to find anime that focuses on twenty-somethings. Godai's struggles as a college student and later finding a good job were pretty relatable for me tbh.

As for Kyoko, her whole character conflict was, so...poignant? Spoilers, but she is introduced as someone who was widowed at 22, a pretty young age for that. You get the sense from her that her life has ended before it really began - she married just a few years earlier, she had a taste of feeling fulfilled and complete, only for it to be taken from her. Now the manager of the boarding house belonging to her late husband's family, it really seems like she's living in the shadow of the past, and is reluctant to move on. Hell, she named her dog after her husband, maybe just so she has an excuse to keep saying his name. She just seems so trapped within herself for a good portion of the series.

Not to mention that her husband was actually her high school geology teacher...haha. Which I really feel conveys her tendency to refrain from stepping out of her comfort zone. I mean, she had it all set up nicely - she gets to spend her days with someone who was already a constant in her life, someone who taught her and guided her through unfamiliar territory. Maybe this extended into a desire to be guided through life, to ease the burden of making one's own choices. Don't get me wrong, Kyoko is more than capable of handling things on her own, but doesn't everyone kind of want to be led and taken care of through life's difficulties, at least a little bit? And with her spouse gone, she feels lost and scared, as anyone might.

With all this in mind, it's funny that we see Kyoko frequently frustrated with Godai's lack of maturity at first, as he was likely a far cry from the mature person that her husband was. And, of course, Kyoko's late husband kind of reminds me of the whole "dead wife" trope you see in action movies, you know? Those scenes where we see the protag's memories of their dead wife, so angelic and perfect and running on a beach or something. Because only in death can someone become perfect, I guess. How is Godai supposed to measure up to that? Obviously, he can't. And he can't expect that of himself, nor can Kyoko.

Eventually, though, Kyoko does get to experience an entirely new kind of love and romance through Godai. Instead of being led through life as she may have once wanted, these two help each other through their struggles equally, and it's really satisfying to witness.

Good show good show, also it has one of my favorite anime op's... The op for one episode has Gilbert O'Sullivan's "Alone Again" as its music. That is so strange and yet kind of fitting for the series lol. Anyways rant over I recommend this one