#any time someone tries to compare characters i wanna point them to this scene

[ghostorbz]

Let's talk about the flipside

Something I actually,,, really don't wanna do!! But I will anyway. This game turned out so fucking bad its actually ridiculous. First off,, what went wrong?

For me, it was:

-The stories

-The endings

-The characterizations

-All the feet?????

Spoilers for basically the whole game, by the way. Not that you should subject yourself to this. Trigger warning for like,, everything???

Let's start off with the stories and endings

OD ending:

Jecka has a major panic attack because of her,,, "job" and Nicole and ends up over dosing. Voluntarily.

Human trafficking ending

Jecka gets put into human trafficking by the police when all she wanted was her paycheck, her manager and somewhat friend Kelly dies.

Jeffery murder ending

Nicole murders Jeffery and she forces Jecka to not call the police by threatening her.

Ari dies ending

While drunk driving Jecka crashes into Ari while she's delivering food and she dies. Ari does, not Jecka.

Nicole's suicide ending

A tie in with the first game. Nicole gets stuck in hostage friendships while Jecka is forced to date her teacher for a good grade. She goes to in school therapy for it. Her heavily abusive dad finds out and Jecka runs to Nicole's house to find her dead.

First off, what does EVERY ending have? Jecka suffering. Suffering horribly. Rather from someone/herself dying, being abused, or just straight up depression.

Let's compare these endings with some of Nicole's endings

Nicole dies, Nicole sabotages a relationship, Nicole gets people to die, Nicole causes a girl's house to get burnt down, Nicole wins a court case, Nicole gets her house back, Nicole gets valedictorian. Of course this is only a small portion out of the two games. But notice how good things happen to Nicole in some endings? In some cases the bad endings feel justified because of how Nicole treats people, but not all of them are bad. Sure, some of them aren't deserved. My point is Nicole has good things happen to her along with the bad things.

Flipside has none of that. Jecka suffers nonstop despite doing nothing in every single ending. She isn't happy in any ending. Nothing turns out for her!!! We see time and time again how Nicole gets things to work for her whether she manipulates it or not. Nicole can have happiness. But Jecka can only suffer. A teenage punching bag. This girl has done nothing wrong to deserve anything she gets put through.

Why is this??? Literally, what was the reason for this

All of the endings fucking suck. I hate all of them. But enough about that, let's move on to the characters

Characterization

Jeckas dad

On the surface he's a kind guy who donates to charity. But he consistently verbally (possibly physically?) abuses Jecka for no reason. Literally nothing can set him off. A flip of the switch type of abuser. We haven't seen Jeckas dad prior to this game, but it's evident he sucks. I'd say he's way worse than Nicole's mom, at least she is sometimes nice and tries to help out. Jeckas dad blows all his money on Emily (a teenager who went to Jeckas school), forces Jecka to get a job and verbally belittles her if she ever says anything to him. Everytime he speaks to Jecka her first response is "don't hit me." Is this supposed to be fnnuy? We see Jecka have full blown sob sessions and panic attacks because of him. If it is supposed to be fnnuy it isn't. It's just sad and scary. There is nothing comedic about the abuse Jecka goes though in these scenes.

Nicole

They did Nicole's character horribly in this. We see Nicole share compassion for Jecka, she doesn't have that at all in this. Her betrayal was the worst for me. It just,,, seemed so out of character for her to do something like that. Nicole literally sacrificed her free school hours by getting in trouble with the predatory school councilor just for Jecka to be able to smoke in peace again. Nicole cares for her, calls her cool and pretty multiple times. She spends all her time with her, and even when she dies in the first game she says "I didn't know Jecka that well, but tell her she's cool for me." The betrayal ruined her character, hell it isn't even her character!! I don't like how she threatened Jecka when Nicole was the one who killed Jeffery. Speaking of, the way she acted with him seemed weird to. She can barely stand sitting near him in the first two games, and she did,, all,,,, THAT with him??? Bullshit. I see so many people say "but Nicole is a sociopath, she doesn't care about Jecka!" Um,,, yes she does? I mean it's pretty clear she does. Jecka is the only person Nicole really cares about. They wouldn't meet in every single route if Jecka wasn't important to Nicole in some way.

Jeffery

Jeffery is weirdly obsessed with Jecka in this game. Yes, we've seen him like and do weird things but not to this extent. He has never acted like this before?? Its like they reduced his good qualities and doubled up his weird ones. Which isn't a bad problem, but it makes his behavior visibly different in flipside.

Mr. Katz

Introduced in the Re up, this game turns him into the worse person ever. Last time all he did was drugs, now he's sexually harassing Jecka and verbally abusing her if she doesn't comply. Then threatening her with her grades. Since he was a minor character at best this could just be a different side of him we haven't seen but knowing how many pedos there already are in this game I don't get why they wouldn't introduce this or foreshadow it in the first two games.

Everyone else,,,

Everyone else seems to be fine, Emily, Ari, Kelly, Kylar, and Crispin to name a few. Thing is these are all side characters, sure they can be important in a few endings but for the most part they don't play a massive role in here besides Kelly and Emily.

This game was advertised as "same comedy, different girl." But there's no comedy in this game, only torture. Maybe Nicole was right when she said life was a sick hopeless game.

Okay, lets talk about the feet.

So,,, what the fuck? What was all that about? This literally took up half of the game, not a fucking exaggeration. Was it really necessary? The devs couldn't think of anything else? They were all really dragged out, it felt like it would never end no matter how badly I wanted them to. I guess you could say this line in the first game was some sort of foreshadowing

This feels like a very poorly disguised fetish. Like blanket ghost costume type poorly disguised. In fact, all of the endings feel unnecessary. Most of these have even more twisted endings than the first two games. What's up with that? It feels like they're trying to filter their audience to people who would actually enjoy doing that type of shit to people.

No, fuck I don't wanna talk about feet.

Here's some random things I want to critic but couldn't fit anywhere.

-The jeckari scene felt weirdly out of place. I could've been cut out and nothing would've changed. It wasn't necessary. Sorry jeckari fans

-What was up with the councilor? I don't mean his voice acting (it was definitely different though, right?) But he was kind of out of character. Like, he had a whole "I'm so important and mysterious (but not actually)" vibe going on. The fuck was up with the riddle? And having a whole fucking warehouse of illegal videos? Yes he's a predatory creep but I don't think he would go that far. Also pulling out a gun and shooting Kelly and almost Jecka felt so,,, what??? He wouldn't

I swear fandoms understand characters more than the creators

-Jeffery is just randomly rich? Out of nowhere? Okay. Whatevers convenient for the plot, I get it

-Why is EVERY single man attracted to kids in this game, it's overkill. Sure people like that exist but they aren't every single person you meet

-Super short, only 3 hours of gameplay. Not worth the $15. The first two games are way better, just get those. Not like this game is worth anyones time. The first game is only $10 for an hour or 2 of gameplay. The re up is $15 for 4 hours

-Nothing felt quotable. Maybe I just haven't seen it enough to memorize half the script but there weren't any lines where I was like "oh haha that's silly to say as a reference." The first two games were filled with quotable lines. Most of flipside is either something about feet or Jecka being abused

-The "thank you" note at the end of the game was kind of immature, I don't really want a thank you for this? Ummmm,, okaaayyyyy??

-You barely even get to play, it's mainly you just watching. The first two games have you actively choosing what to do. Flipside only makes you choose maybe twice

-The whole "They're 18 now!! Look at all the fucked up things we can do to them now!!" is really showing. Stop it. It's still weird

-This game is supposed to be post-graduation, but we still see Nicole and Jecka at school, multiple times. Jecka even says they aren't even in school anymore and yet you can still go back to high school? Yea, who gives a fuck about a timeline anyway,,,

Okay, but was there anything good?

Ehh,, I don't really know. I only laughed at one scene and that's saying a whole fucking lot for a comedy game. The first two games had me dying from laughter, but every single scene in the flipside just felt upsetting. Nothing was fnnuy.

I did enjoy very few things.

-The art has heavily improved. The visuals were nice when they weren't about feet or Jecka being abused

-The hatman scene was the only thing I laughed at, I liked it

-I got pretty excited when I saw that Jecka had an MSI poster in her room. I like MSI so it was a nice little surprise to see

-I liked the tie in with the first game ending. I wish we got to see more of Jeckas reaction after Nicoles death though

-I thought the whole "if god isn't watching, who is?" thing was kinda interesting. But having me listen to a whole monologue kinda killed it for me

-Class of 09 always had super good voice acting, and this doesn't change. All of Jeckas panic attacks sound super real

Overall, would I recommend this game? Absolutely not. I wouldn't even recommend this to an already fan of the series, much less tell someone to start out with flipside. Flipside isn't worth your time or money, it isn't even worth this whole post! That's why it's over

[thelasthippie]

My syd Barret's 18th dead anniversary present..

This what u will read is UNIQUE , weird, crazy and fascinating...

The Wall movie was totally inspired by Syd, did you know ? Wanna know this crazy theory ?

Take a few minutes and enjoy this.

Isn't a secret that the sad story of the end of "Syd" was a real trauma to Roger Waters and the others. Just ten years after the musical career of Syd ends, they film the movie. Basically, Pinky is half Syd and half Roger. Im pretty sure they made a tribute , or maybe a silence cry from the sad trauma they lived with him. Lets begin :

1)

At the begining of the movie when Pinky is with the mitical "cigarret without smoke full ash" Roger told that he found Barret in the same position with the same cigarrete in one of his " acid travels. "

2)

Barret and waters Lost their fathers on war. At the same point, Syd mother was always overprotective, keeping him in his own "Bohemian basement" and when someone of the past of Syd wanna go near him she and his sister always stoped them. Rosemary, his sister, regret about this in an interview. Syd always renounced his past and his alter ego.

"Who is Syd ? Some rapper maybe?" He said in one of the lasts interviews.

Syd Barret with his sister Rosemary and his mom

I can never blame her cause the "hippie wave" destroyed her son... So all she did was justifiable.

3)

Barret's problem was that he just "go out his mind" always inside his thoughts, as Rosemary said in an interview. When Pinky is "out of this world" on the piano when his wife is trying to talk with him obviously is another fact about Syd and his girlfriend Gala Pinion who not only suffered that, but Barret had a violent subtely behaviour (do u remember some scene of the movie???? :P One of my turns, right!! ) oooooooHHH and u know what ??? GALA WAS A GINGER !!!! (My skin crawls writing u this xDDD)

They were living in London inside a yunkies house where lot of famous as Pete Townshead, Hendrix or Bowie were going to visit him. These years finaly destroyed him, he was surrounded by parasites and thats why he returnt with his mother to say us goodbye forever (1972-1973)

4)

The creepy scene of the phone before "Empty spaces" was another truth about Syd and Gala break, and waters put that eskizofrenic imaginery dialogue beetween Pinky and the phone meaning about schyzo problems of barret. Gala broke with him and go with one of those hippies. In the movie she left Pinky and go with an "antiwar" man)

After all the true mental problem of Syd were that he was on an eternal Magic travel where he saw and hear things (maybe empty spaces images represent that ? There's a subliminal message on the song : {Hello Luka hunters, congratulations}

but Nick Mason said that was just a fake cuz ppl on these times were crazy to found subliminal messages ( Imagine of john lenon or Starway to Heaven of led Zeppelin for examples u might know...)

5)

One of the truth about Syd decay was the Musical Industry . At his firsts years he said that he would be a Pop King, but some few years later on an interview he said that he was exhaust for the pressure to make comercial songs.

When we listen Confortably Numb we can imagine is Roger against Industry, but nope... Is just a destroyed Syd going away from us. They were one of the main culprits of Syd's madness.

6)

One of the most trauma moments of the Floyd's and Syd was when they were recording Wish you Were Here album. The image of the mad Syd was printed in their souls. Just compare.

7)

At nobody home we can imagine the fall into madness of Syd. Things as favourite satin shirt or the goohill boots... The psychiatric scene where he was few days.

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

I saw this movie hundred of times... Im rly obssesed since i was young. I tried to find the sense of any song, any scene, any character and and they didn't make sense until I started seeing it from this perspective. A wall trap your mind by the fault of drugs, mother, wife, sistem and Industry and u start as a famous rock star and end sitting in a bathroom singing weird things...

Eeeeeehhhm.... I think i'm right about this.

" Crazy.. over the Rainbow... He is crazy " ...

Maybe all the injustices that Pinky suffers was injustice that Syd suffered.. a secret message of guilt from the Floyd's ? We never know..

Finishing this , probably they write It toguether and Barret said "yeah It's ok Roger, im out of the industry and u take care of me guys. Just Triumph with It ".

After all... They were always by his side till his death, specially Richard Wright and David Gilmore, producing his two solitaire albums and giving him money of PF rights.

So we never will know the truth, but im sure he was the shaman into shadows who helped them to produce ALL their masterpieces, apart from the album Wish You Were here...

Maybe is a coincidente that the last concert of PF was one year before Syd's dead ? Or the last album was just few years before his death???

Maybe all is a conspiracy, but you know my dear PF fans...

"The division bell had begun"

"The lunatic is in my head"

"The echo of a distant time"

You Will be always in our hearts. Thanks for everything, i see u on the dark side of the moon, Roger Keith Barret.

[kassandrasdisciple]

I know it's bad form to compare shows, and each has its unique strengths but be prepared to get sucker punched in the throat with this take.

Scooby doo: mystery incorporated did the "these kids are a nuisance/misfits" trope better than Avatar: legend of korra (and also gays, oop)

In Korra, Raiko, Lin and even Tenzin treat the god of their world and their disciples as annoying kids when the worst they do is stop racketeering and police brutality in season 1. This continues throughout the seasons with most villians and side characters blowing them off, and what's worse is the Krew never actually do anything on purpose to mess up republic city, they actually wanna help the citizens. Furthermore each of them have careers and prospects in each season, trying to be role models of "upstanding" citizens.

Compared to my darling Gang of highschool delinquents, who ride around in their hippie van and habitually skip school to poke around crime scenes. Also unlike the Krew helping republic city dwellers, the people of crystal cove are a tourist town. A tourist town built of having legit supernatural events and haunting. D'ya know what our mystery incorporated do? They've made it their life mission to fuck with their hometowns livelihood by solving these haunting, to the point that they get handcuffed/arested in a futile attempt to stop them from fucking with the towns income. Also also, any time, without fail they get their hands on explosives/guns/knives they will try to kill someone. People say LOK is brutal compared to ATLA cos of P'li? Fred tries to off his own father, they blow up a poolboy, they level a desert town with an ancient Spaniard ship and scooby doo wields honest to gods dual gatling guns in the final act.

I'm sorry but mystery incorporated would salt the graves of the Krew without a shread of hesitation or remorse.

Also just comparing TV portrayals velma/marcie is was more explicit and developed than Asami/korra xoxo

[idothingsandstuffs]

I've talk about the Kirby right back at ya reboot I've made in my head, that was inconsistent af.

Here are some more things that I've created in my head that happened in it.

(And if a reboot or a new anime happens and some of this happens, that is not a coincidence I have future vision that is just pretty inconsistent\jk)

•It is called "Kirby right back at ya:deluxe"

•Everyone is a like 5-7 years older compare to the original.

•All the waddle dees were raised by dedede and escargoon therefore bandee start off as a jerk but gets character development.

•One of the waddle dees fakes their own death to join meta's crew as sailor dee.

•Meta knight is a wanted criminal.

•Kirby was raised by sir Arthur before he was send to popstar.

•Kirby is also fullent in Spanish but doesn't have an accent.

•Kirby can talk but still says poyo as a tick.

•Adeline is Ado's younger sister.

•Adeline and Ado live in the castle because Dedede declared both of them royal painters because he doesn't wanna admit he adopted two children.

•Giving children a job in the castle is Dedede's way of adoption.

•That one "how can I help you king Dedede" part from the intro would be change every episode to fit what is going to happen in the episode.

•Marx was also raised by sir Arthur with Kirby and Kirby saw him as a big brother, and milky way wishes messed Kirby up.

•Marx and meta knight are demon beasts.

•The reason sir Arthur raised Marx and Kirby was to keep a close eye on them.

•The reason why Arthur wanted to keep a close eye on them is because the last demon beast that they trusted became a war criminal and Kirby has has the potential to become full on void or zero if they felt a lot of negative feelings.

•Oh and also Kirby is the positive reancarnetion of void.

•If Ado tries draws a copy of someone the copy becomes how that person should be like, while when Adeline Tris to do it, it becomes how she sees this person.

•Adeline tries to turn a blind eye to dedede's bad action while Ado tries to justify them until a point where they can't keep doing it because he started to use them in his plans.

•It is a musical.

•King dedede would have a whole song about how great he is.

•Gooey feels weird around Kirby because he senses an energy that is so unfamiliar and familiar at the same time.

•Gooey is tramutized from zero.

•A song that dark matter sing that happens in dedede's head when he possessed him. In the song he shape shift into everyone who dedede cared about and hurt and sings about how much he sucks, and the worst part is king dedede can't deny any of them because he knows all of them is true.

•A scene where king dedede losses everyone who respected him (waddle dees, Ado and Adeline stopped flowing his orders and escargoon left) and he realizes there is no one to blame but himself.

•Romk arc takes place after the dm arc and is the first time Kirby meets meta knight

•Sailor dee drowns and dies. This event traumitizes meta knight.

•A scene where king Dedede has a mental breakdown because he can't understand why Kirby is so kind to him and doesn't hate his guts like everyone else in the kingdom because he should hate him the most and even begs Kirby to just hate him. Kirby refuses and gives him a hug.

•Meta knight, after trying to take king dedede's throne, goes to king dedede's castle (dedede doesn't know yet) the only people who know what meta tried to do is his crew, Kirby, knuckle Joe (he was helping Kirby) and that girl with a gun that I can't remember the name of.

•Meta and Dedede were friends before dedede became king and he didn't know he was dethrone an old friend.

•The kids were going to tell dedede but when Kirby realized how happy he was to found an old friend. That leaved Kirby in a deilema state where he could tell dedede the truth and ruin his happiness and confirm his belief that everyone hates him in kings eyes or let them play pretend until somebody losses their head.

•When dedede founds out about what meta tried to did he takes him to the forest and fights him. They still hang out after it but they are pretty cold to eachother.

•Susie sounds like a vocaloid.

•Susie talks in a different language but has an auto translator that most of the time doesn't work probably

•A detective arc about what happened to the former ruler of dreamland and if dedede killed them or not.

•Don't worry everyone gets along in the end.

(I can add more by rebloging)

[maoam]

sasusaku is not toxic

firstly, sakura tried to kill him first. sasuke acted out of self-defense. but most ppl completely misunderstood that scene and arc anyway.

in fact, ppl just don’t understand sasuke and sakura’s relationship or their individual characters. I just wanna point out the hypocrisy of the commonly used statement, “sasusaku is toxic”

naruto is a story about change and forgiveness.

need i remind you all that a great majority of characters in the naruto universe are mass murderers.

need i remind you that practically all these characters were redeemed after listening to naruto's words. these characters have killed more ppl than sasuke.

all these characters have bonds and relationships with other characters that none of you seem to have a problem with.

even for sasuke. if sasuke's romantic relationship with sakura is toxic, then his brotherly relationship with naruto and his student-teacher relationship with kakashi is also toxic.

examples:

note: i am not hating on these characters, in fact, i love them.

gaara. has killed way more ppl than sasuke. is a character that is loved by this fandom (as he should be). has a friendship with naruto that is loved. he has tried to kill him. all of these relationships would be considered toxic in rl terms.

itachi. is a mass murderer. has completely traumatized sasuke. is the reason why sasuke went on a dark path. is loved by fans. is constantly called the “best brother” his relationship with sasuke would also be considered toxic in rl terms. don’t dare deny that.

of course, there are many more examples.

see, ppl hate sasuke and sakura's romantic relationship by comparing them to real-life standards. however, i don’t see anyone compare any other relationship in naruto to our rl standards. it’s completely unfair and ridiculous.

it seems to me that the only problem y’all have is when someone who has redeemed themselves forms a romantic relationship. tell me, is there much difference in a friendly, familiar, student-teacher, relationship than a romantic one?

is your only problem the fact that sasuke and sakura are canon?

to you guys, anything is acceptable unless it concerns sakura or sasusaku.

stop using “sasusaku is toxic” as an excuse. just say you hate either sakura or sasuke and leave.

You seem to have misunderstood. We hate Sasuke and Sakura's "relationship" because they have nothing in common, they never have a meaninful conversation, Sakura is disgusting towards Sasuke, demeans what means the most to him, harasses him despite him rejecting her romantically multiple times, and because Sakura treats Sasuke like an object. And because Sakura is ready throw even the last bit of her dignity away just to get a crumb from Sasuke. Hope this helps!

Sasuke needs no forgiveness because it's Sakura who did wrong towards him by never caring about what he said and only talking about herself. And Sakura was never apologetical so she can't be forgiven.

You people lack reading comprehension, emotional intelligence and maturity, kinda like Sakura. You focus on proving how them attacking each other can be forgiven, and completely ignore the fact Sakura has never cared about Sasuke as a person other than him being hot and cool. You sound like 13 year old and I hope you are because if you're an adult, oh how I pity you.

[the-crow-binary]

I'd like to open with saying that I do not attack anyone who likes Lenore or Lenectore. Y'all do what you wanna do. However, what I am going to do, is explain my own opinon and it will unfortunately be in the form of a rant. (and in the process attack a very disgusting mentality than many Lenore/Lenectore fans seems to share) SO.

I'm going to address the tags:

I'll start with the first two ones. I can't really say if they are supposed to talk about the writer of the show or the anti-Lenectore fans. The first one does looks like it's against the writer, because Dracula is exactly that description, a "male character who did terrible shit for centuries and still got a redemption arc and a happy ending" (well, not even that, he did not get a redemption arc. Letting your son kill you and then hugging your wife in death isn't exactly an arc, lmao. But he did get a happy ending)

However, the second tag... it doesn't fit how Lenore was written at all. It fits the anti-Lenore/Lenectore fans. Why ? Because the show never demonized Lenore and it's exactly the problem. It has NOTHING to do with gender, and pretending otherwise is ignoring the real issues. Wich are:

Lenore did not get a proper redemption arc. Lenore never showed any regret for what she did. She apologized to Hector once, a minute before she dies, and it wasn't "i'm sorry for what i did to you". It was "I'm sorry for what happened to you". She did not even take accountability for what she did to him: manipulating him until he turned into her sex toy. When they mentioned their sex scene later on, Lenore went "oh shush, you were having fun". This is victim blaming at it's worst. You guys don't realise how DAMAGING what Hector went through is supposed to be. Imagine making love to your love one, only for them to take the opportunity of you being the most intimate you ever were with someone to turn you into their slave. It's betrayal, anyone would be heartbroken, and the only reason why Hector would still "love" her afterward would be the same reason why abused people stay with their abuser.

It's what their relationship should have been depicted as. An abusive relationship, with a man forced to serve a vampire that manipulated him. But that's not how it went down.

Instead, we have a timeskip. Last time we saw Hector, he was visibly disgusted/frightened by Lenore who had taken him to his sister, and talked about him like he was some pet, a sex doll that she thought was good at sex and that she wanted to train ("shhh, the real people are talking" she said after interrupting Hector. All the talk about her wanting Hector to "feel safe", to have "freedom of the castle", to "live like them" only looks like a manipulative tactic when compared to the way she refers to him as if he was lesser than a living being and the fact she had to set a trap for him to swear his loyalty to her). She tried touching him with her feet and he backed off. Lenore did not give a fuck about him at that point, it's pretty clear, and Hector was legitimately wary of her (just- just look at the whole "I MADE YOU INTO MY PET" scene here. THAT is the ONLY moment the show truly "demonize" her. This is clear as day: she is a villain.). And the last of Hector we see before the season ends, he is seemingly plotting something. Wich he was, we can see it in the very next season. But instead of having him manipulate Lenore in return... They show them making sex jokes together and totally ignoring what happened (both the sex scene and what happened in the scene i just linked).

Lenore did not get ANY redemption arc. The writers used the time skip to pretend they got closer and Hector forgave her but we, the viewers, did not get ANY transition to Hector being visibly upset, going "you TRICKED ME and TURNED ME INTO A SLAVE. MY LIFE IS OVER." (with Lenore minimizing his trauma :)), to him protecting Lenore. This is not real life, guys. This is a story, told to an audience. And stories need to show the progression for the audience to accept it. Otherwise, this is bullshit. (the only moments you don't need to show the progression is if it's 100% logic. Like two characters fell in love, and then time skip, and they have children ? We don't need to show them having sex or getting married or anything. It makes sense. But here, showing Hector being betrayed, getting wary of Lenore, visibly starting to scheme against her and the vampire sisters, seemingly ready to free himself for good... and then time skip and he GENUINELY flirts with Lenore ? That is NOT logic. I thought he was lying to her, and I wanted to think that up until the point he outright told Isaac to not harm her. That was the logic path to take.)

"Why's it anyone else's business if she's redeemed or if Hector forgives her????"

Well, it's our business, as viewers. Lenore and Hector are not real people who don't own their fans any right to their private lives. They're not real people who's relationship we should respect and not try to dig into. Those are fictional characters, who's job is to tell us a story, to make us invested in it. And just because the story wants us to lead us somewhere, it doesn't mean it does it right and it can't be criticised for it's execution.

Lenore could have gotten a redemption arc. If she had put in the work. If she had shown regrets and was ready to atone for her crimes. If Hector did not forgave her so quickly (we don't even know WHEN that happened, it's like he was never mad in the first place, when clearly he was!). But she did not. And the thing is... She was NOT demonized either. That's why I highly disagree with your second tag, because the only people demonizing her are people that don't like her. And they demonize her because the show wrote her horrifyingly badly. And the only moment she was shown as a villain is in the "i made you into my pet" scene.

But for season 4 ? She was turned into a poor little meow meow making sex jokes and never once taking responsability for hurting Hector. Hell, the whole season forgot Hector was genuinely hurt and traumatised by what Lenore did to him. It's like nothing happened. That's not the show being super deep with Hector who was able to forgive Lenore tricking him and using him... That's the show not giving any shit and putting actual care into depicting the trauma of a man and how a monster like Lenore could still do good.

A man can be traumatised by a woman. A woman can be an abuser. Show it as it is.

Lenore totally avoided taking any responsability in anything. And that is why her death cannot be seen as her "atoning". She didn't even kill herself because she felt bad for Hector, or anyone else she might have hurt in the past ! She killed herself because she WANTED TO. Because she couldn't "stay in the cage" not even with Hector (the fact she dared say that to Hector's face after literally forcing him into one, both physically and mentally, fucking hell). Because she was disgusted by her vampiric nature. All of her reasons were SELFISH. Poetic, yes, but selfish. It can't even be seen as a punishement for her bad deeds because she was seen as a poor little poetic meow meow up to the very last second. Her death scene was abolutely beautiful, the animation, the music, the fact she prefered to look at Hector instead of the sun before she dies, everything. It was a very good death scene... but it was the scene of a tragic character who seemingly didn't do anything wrong, or already atoned for it. In short: she did not deserve such a beautiful end. Not because she was the most evil character of the serie... but because the way she was written was insulting, incoherent, and straight up disgusting at times.

And look. It's okay to love evil/villains characters. Said characters having a "redemption arc" shouldn't be a prerogative. It's just fun, it's interesting, it's everything you want, and it's okay. But the problem with Lenectore, or Lenore alone, comes when the fans totally ignore everything she did wrong to pretend she is not a villain, she is innocent, what she did was not "that bad"... wich leads me to the third tag, for wich I have three main words to say:

What the FUCK.

Actually, no, scratch that. Four words.

What the ACTUAL FUCK.

I'm sorry, you probably don't know any better, but then, too many people don't know any better, and I need to vent. This is what I talked about earlier. Minimizing Hector's trauma. Except this isn't the evil, villain character doing it here. It's actual, real life people.

Hector getting hard in the sex scene. Hector seemingly "wanting" Lenore. Hector fucking Lenore. Hector not rebelling against Lenore. Only a few, but all shitty examples of why, apparently, Hector must not have been that traumatised. It must not have hurt him that bad, clearly he wasn't that affected in the end.

Excuses that are shared by Lenore and most of it's fans. And it is DISGUSTING. It shows none of you know anything about trauma, including the writer of the show.

Hector isn't a real life person and shouldn't be treated as such. He is a fictional character. But writing a fictional character doesn't mean you can depict trauma like shit. And the things people are saying about Hector are the same people say to actual traumatised people.

Look me in the eyes and tell me that men getting raped by women is seen and treated the same as a women getting raped by men. That women manipulating men is taken as seriously as men manipulating women. I dare you. It's not. How many men, or males have kept their feelings inside after being forced to have sex ? Or after being used ? How many people have told abused men "i'm sure you liked it" ? How many people think men HAVE to love sex, are even obsessed with it ?

Reverse the roles, go on. Make Hector manipulate Lenore until she has sex with him. Make him the one in power while Lenore is completely powerless (because that was their power dynamic for the longest time), forced to listen to him while he treats her like a literal dog and talk about how she's good at sex and he wants to train her. Make Lenore the defenless girl who goes "you tricked me and made me your slave ! my life is over !" in the most upset and traumatised way, and Hector going "your life is saved, Lenore. I gave you what you always truly needed. I made you into my pet. :)". Then make Lenore fall in love with him out of NOWHERE, with NO TRANSITION WHATSOEVER, making sex jokes with him like she was feeling completely DEVASTATED the last time we saw her, and see if Lenore being a woman is truly the main reason why people don't like her. You would hate Hector too if he did all those things to Lenore, never felt sorry for it, and died happily in his own terms without even trying to fix his mess or atone for it. And you would hate how shittily it represents the real life trauma of real life women.

Castlevania decided to tackle a real life issue, and then shat on it. Treated Hector like male victims are usually treated. Giving the impression that yeah, no, men can't get traumatised, men are way over that, look, he's already better. :)

There could have been something poetic and beautiful in someone who's been abused, creating a healthy relationship with their abuser. If said abuser repented. If said abuser, outside of just being sad, actually put in the work to better themself. To show that even if they grew in a specific environnement that made them the way they are, they now realise that it is not the way they wanna live, the way they wanna be, and decide to change. To earn their victim's forgiveness. But that's a process that takes a long time... and not SIX WEEKS. THAT'S NOT EVEN TWO MONTHS. We are to believe that Hector became all lovey-dovey with the woman who manipulated and used him and ripped him of his freedom and very probably began using him for sex (since she wanted to "train him") in SIX WEEKS ?? But yeah, sure, people ! Keep pretending Lenore is such an ideal mommy and Hector nothing but his dog ! Nothing to see here !

"at least Lenore let him hit" I CAN'T EVEN- HECTOR IS BEING ABUSED. THIS IS WHAT IT IS. The writing might have forgot about it BUT IT IS. Lenectore's whole relationship is based on deception. Mostly on Lenore's part. She likes to pretend she protects Hector, but SHE is the one who put him in the situation he was in.

SHE is the one who chose her sisters over him, and made it very clear that they came before him. SHE is the one who put Hector in a real and metaphorical cage, to then act like she was the best dogkeeper in the whole world. "i've been protecting you from Carmilla the whole time" "i want you to be free... but only in the cage i built for you, you can't go outside :)" "lol i made you into my pet, that's what you wanted, right ? sure you've been lied to and manipulated by THREE vampires now and my sister Carmilla made sure to torture you and make your whole journey to come here a nightmare and i will never go against her for you but you still got hard when you saw my boobies so it's okay, right ? <3" the way their relationship is depicted is DISGUSTING and the way too much fans thirst over it and talk about is just as disgusting.

Then again, if you ship Lenectore, or just like Lenore, go on. Don't let me stop you. Having ships that are "toxic" or "abusive" or just not vanilla at all can be quite fun, I'm not sure why villains are so appealing, but I definitely get it. But don't pretend it's a good written relationship, that there is nothing wrong with that, that Lenore was not the monster she was and that her relationship with Hector was actually earned. It comes at the cost of minimizing a male character's trauma (and, by extension, those of IRL people), rape apologism, and straight up ignorance.

I have ships myself that are "horrible". Unhealthy, abusive, manipulative... sometimes I don't just want a cute ship or a hot dynamic. Sometimes I just wanna see the world burn. <3 Same goes with single evil/villain characters. But I KNOW that they're bad and it's actually WHY I like them. Meanwhile, neither the show nor the fans wants to acknowledge the fact Lenore is a villain and she deeply hurt Hector with no proper consequences. Lenector is not interesting as an abusive relationship, and with their bonding moments being 50% sex jokes and 50% Lenore being sad, it's not interesting as a cute couple either.

Tl;Dr: Lenore and Lenectore suck but idc if you like them as long as you are aware of how much and why they suck.

Things I'm still not over in 2023:

Why Lenore gotta die Castlevania TAS, huh??? Why's it anyone else's business if she's redeemed or if Hector forgives her???? Why couldn't they have just fucked off back to Rhodes and lived quietly and peacefully huh???

[itsallyscorner]

Could you do something where the reader is a marvel actor but crashes a panel that Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan are doing (kinda like Tom Holland did that one time) but the sofa is small so the reader is squished in between them and has to share their mics when asked questions something like that. It can be platonic but they are really close or the reader has a little thing going on with Seb but is really close with Mackie. I hope that made sense!

Oooo this request is so cute! Thank you for the request lovely, hope you like it!💜

a/n: This imagine is HEAVY on the dialogue because I wanted to include some fun questions from the fans and what not, anyway here’s the imagine:) 

💌.

Stackie Sandwich

You watched from backstage as Anthony showed off his thighs to the crowd, you know, the usual. You were currently at ACE Comic Con along with Anthony and Sebastian. You always enjoyed going to these kind of things. Meeting and getting to interact with the fans was always fun, it reminded you of why you did these movies and how thankful you were to have such lovely, supportive fans.

Currently you and the crew backstage were trying to find a way to sneak you onto the stage without interrupting a question.

Anthony sat back down on the small couch as Sebastian laughed at his friend’s antics.

“I’m telling y’all, you wanna have thighs like these, you gotta do leg day. Don’t skip leg day.” Anthony tells the crowd as he nudges Sebastian. You chuckle from backstage as Kevin Smith, the monitor of the panel continues.

“So I know we were supposed to be joined by (y/n) (y/l/n), where is she?” He asked the men.

“Probably on a coffee run.” Sebastian answered immediately shaking his head with an eye roll. The crowd reacts with quiet giggles.

“I swear that woman cannot function without her coffee.” Anthony remarked.

“I’ve known her for years and lemme tell you it’s like her body is going through some kind of error. We were on set for a movie we did together and I was talking to her.” Anthony started as he leaned forward.

“Now I didn’t know she didn’t have her coffee yet. I’ve been talking for like 10 minutes and the whole time she was sleeping. And when she began to like wake up and talk, it was like she was a sloth.” Anthony shared as he proceeded to act like a sloth saying “Error 404” really slow.

You turned to the stage hand and said “I’m going now, he just called me a sloth.”

The man laughed and handed you a mic from the side. Before walking out you say into the mic, “I know you ain’t talking about me, Mackie.” You walk out to the stage and the crowd cheers loudly. Mackie throws his head back as he laughs.

“Hey everyone!” You greet the crowd, waving at all of them. You approached the guys with your arms up in a “fight me” manner, it was mostly for Anthony. You greet Kevin and move to Sebastian, purposely skipping Anthony.

“Hey, dragostea.” Seb greeted you as he wraps his arms around your body. You giggled as you wrapped your arms around his neck and hide your face in between his neck and shoulder.

When you pull away you turn to Anthony who looked offended. You send him a playful smile and smack his arm before jumping on him and wrapping your arms around him. He lets out his boisterous laugh and hugs you back. In the process you drop your mic on the stage causing you to cringe.

You guys settle onto the small couch. You sat in between Anthony and Seb, fairly squished in the middle by the two buff men. Their legs took up too much space on the couch, leaving no room for your own legs. The crowd laughed at your face as you tried to make yourself comfortable in the tight space.

You went to speak into your mic but it didn’t register. Looks like you broke the mic.

“Look at you, haven’t been up here for a minute and you already broke something.” Anthony tisked playfully. Sebastian poked you with his mic and handed it to you. You thanked him with a smile. 

“I’ll pay for that! Just send me the bill.” You yell towards the back. You look at Anthony and raise your brow at him.

“You need to pipe down, son. You’ve been coming at me all morning long.” You acknowledged pointing a finger at him. The crowd laughs along with Seb. Anthony nods as he stifles his laughs to himself.

“(Y/n), thank you for joining us, how are you?” Kevin asks you.

“I’m doing great! I’m so excited to be here and meet all of you! I saw so many of you guys dressed up, and you all look absolutely amazing! I also saw a dog on my way here!” You answered bubbly.

“What kind of dog?” Sebastian asked pulling your hand with the mic towards him.

“A golden retriever and omg he was dressed as Cap!” You squealed.

“I hope that dog is here because I want to meet them and just smother them with hugs.” You add as you motion to the audience.

“Sebastian said you were running late because you were on a coffee run, is that true?” Kevin asks as Sebastian scrunches his nose. 

“I mean he’s not completely wrong. I got coffee before I got here. But the traffic on the way here was really bad.”

“She’s lying, she spent a good half hour at Starbucks sippin’ on her coffee while inhaling the smell of Starbucks like an addict.” Anthony jokingly jabs at her. You were used to the playful jabs from Mackie, it was how you guys were. Knowing each other for years, you guys formed a brother/sister relationship.

“Alright then! So, we’ve got a line forming for the questions! How about we start?” Kevin continued as he motioned to the crowd.

🕓 Time Skip

It’s half an hour into the panel and you guys have been asked so many questions already. Some about your characters, the relationships off screen, and some new projects. Thankfully the crowd was very nice and respectful to you all, no one asked anything rude or made offensive comments.

The laughs were just dying down after Mackie told another one of his jokes. A teenage girl dressed as your character came up to the mic.

“Hi, my name is Maddie and my question is for (y/n)!” She waved at you with a grin.

“Hi, hun! You look beautiful by the way, I love your costume!” You complimented her, taking Anthony’s mic. She thanks you and continues.

“I—, I’m sorry you’re just so small compared to Anthony and Seb on that couch. You’re so cute!” The audience laughs along with the two men next to you.

You huff and squish your way out between Anthony and Sebastian’s bodies, “In my defense it’s a really small couch! And these guys are so beefy they take up all the space on here!”

“It’s a Stackie sandwich with a side of (y/n)!!” Mackie enthusiastically announced making the crowd go crazy.

Sebastian moved further into the corner of the couch making more space for you. He even moved his arm to rest on top of the couch’s backrest. You could hear some fans point it out and squeal. You thank him by patting his leg as his arm lingered behind you.

“So my question is, how is it like to be around such tall people? Because I’m short as well and I have to always look up at everyone.” Maddie says into the mic.

“That’s exactly how it is! Sometimes I get concerned if I’ll mess up my back because I have to look up at everyone!” You say into Sebastian’s mic, which he voluntarily held up for you.

“We carry her around a lot on set.” Seb chimes from beside you.

“Yeah like a sack of potatoes.” Anthony adds.

You pull on Seb’s arm to talk into the mic, “They also tease me a lot, but it’s all in good fun.”

—•

“Hey guys! I’m Jess and my question is for Anthony! So you and (y/n) have worked on multiple projects together. How was it like to be in Marvel with each other and act along side each other?”

You giggled at the question, turning to Anthony, “How’s it like to work with me, huh?”

“I mean, honestly, it’s always an honor to work with (y/n). I’m glad that I know someone like her in this business, she’s one of the most genuinely nice people you’ll ever meet. And I respect her for that because sometimes it’s hard to not get blinded by the fame and just become a dick, or a diva in your case.” Anthony answered as he threw an arm around you.

“Aww thanks, Mac.” You smile and lean on his shoulder.

“And to add onto that. Our characters in the movie are pretty close as well, so when Anthony and I have scenes together, it doesn’t even feel like acting. It’s always a great time on set when he’s around.” You finished off.

—•

“Hi, I’m Elena and my question is for Sebastian!”

“This is our last question for the panel, so make it good!” Kevin interjects.

“Go ahead, sweetheart.” Sebastian says to the fan.

“Bucky and (y/c/n) have really good chemistry with each other in the movies and the relationship doesn’t feel forced onto the fans. I wanted to know if any of the chemistry on screen is real offscreen?” Elena asked with a cheeky grin. You remained quiet as you felt Anthony nudge you with his knee.

Sebastian longingly stared at you for a moment before answering, “Well it’s not hard to act like you’re in love with (y/n), because everyone on set loves her. She unapologetically herself and I think that’s what makes it so easy to have chemistry with her, it just felt natural with her, you know?”

“To answer your question, Elena. They’ve been on a few dates already.” Anthony blurted out causing the audience to erupt. You looked at him with your mouth agape from your position on Sebastian. You were currently leaning into his side while your arm rested on his thigh.

“You weren’t supposed to say that.” Sebastian uttered as he moved his arm to wrap around your shoulders. You’d be lying if you said you didn’t have feelings for Seb. You guys definitely had chemistry offscreen and everyone knew about it.

“Hey! All I’m implying is that y’all need to both stop beating around the bush and make it official Anthony defended himself.

“Fine!”

“(Y/n), how do you feel about dinner tonight?” Sebastian asked you.

“Sounds good.” You smile at him.

“Great, we have some things to discuss.” He playfully teased the crowd.

“FEELINGS!” Anthony yelled over Sebastian.

Kevin laughed as he ended the panel, “On that note! Our panel has come to an end, thank you everyone for showing up and for your questions! Thank you Anthony, (y/n), and Sebastian for coming here we really appreciate it!”

You guys thank the crowd again and take a group picture with the audience. Anthony leaves the stage first followed by you and Seb. Sebastian helps you down the stairs and keeps a hand on your back.

“Wait, are we actually going to dinner?” You asked looking up at him.

“Yeah, I told you, we’ve got some stuff to talk about.” He winks as he leads you guys to the green room.

dragostea - love

[mikeellee]

I never did a rant about a ship before bc I always thought someone else could do a better job defending it but, considering how this fandom is...maybe I should give my 2 cents for shigadeku

Note: please. I’m note here to cause any ship war. You ship what you want. If you dont like shigadeku then that’s fine.

That’s out of the way, lets talk about this ship. Now, Hori is a bad writer but even in his bad canon...shigadeku does have interesting and “strong” foundations.

I put “” here bc any ship headed by Hori will be bad written. I know this.

Both are different sides of the same coin. Both are outcasts, both have quirks that caused them pain.

And both are alone.

Now, what we know about shiggy is that he is being manipulated by AFO since a young age.

* I want to mention here how...in the hands of a better writer, the name deku could mean smth omen and AFO could call shiggy deku either in front of him or to his back to add more paralels and development for the 2 like, Izu stood up and says/make bk stop calling him deku is great but imagine him defending shiggy?*

oK think with me. In any sci fi/fantasy movie when a character is being mind controlled or groomed...what would stop him to finished the task is seeing the hero/loved one bc would be the begin for the character to.set free.

“I was supposed to kill this person but I dont want ....for now” and develop from there.

Now, when we meet Shiggy is into the hate AFO spill. He has 0 reasons for wanting AM dead.

“Ahhh but AM represent how this society is bad”

Great answer and idea for a fic. But in canon he never gives a real answer. “I hate AM” is his get go....no further explanation.

But how funny he saw Zuzu and staet wanting to talk to him. No one put this idea in his head.

No AFO.

No Kotaro.

Its all Shiggy.

He, still under AFO’s bullshite, went to see Zuzu. And yes we get the mall scene but what many fans oddly refuse to admit is how...he went to Zuzu on his own free will.

THAT IS HUGE. Especially considering SHIGGY IS GROOMED (that is not fanfic that is canon and I do hate hori’a canon)

He has a photo of Izu...who by the time was just a student.

Like this has a HUGE potential. And I dont get why people refuse to reconize that?

If this stoey was headed by a competent writer shigadeku would be a more prevalent relationship.

They arent mortal enemies...they are two hurt boys stuck in this stupid war and decide to stop the feud.

God this line above is more romantic.

For those wondering...I did watch boku already liking IzuOcha but...Hori sideline Ochako and her feelings so much.

“Ah and the cute moments? Izuocha will be canon, not shigadeku”

I Know. And I have no problems with this ship- if we compare with naruto’s canon ship- but it doesnt change how underveloped it is. Also, Izu could have cute moments with Mina too and no one will say they are endgame.

Not sure if my point is clear. All I’m saying is that Shigadeku has such romantic potential and you dont need to turn Izu into “soft cinnamon roll” or change Shiggy into “playboy” to make it work.

“Ah gross. Shiggy is older than Zuzu”

3 or 4 years isnt a big deal. I mean, Shiggy was a 17 years old when the story begins and that didnt stop anyone to ship shiggy witb dabi or eraserhead who are older than him.

Plus why equate a romantic relationship with sex right away? Zuzu and Shiggy are traumatized and while yes, some people can cope differently...I doubt Shiggy will go “welp time to fuck some bitches”

Shigadeku can be a slow burn. Two souls who meet each other, who are healing and learning to trust again and...then comes sex.

Or they can fuck too. This is fiction. I promise you the shipping police is not real.

“Ah but shigadeku is abusive. He tried to kill zuzu”

In the bs of war arc? Yes. But note how a dude who is seeting to kill Heroes and was groomed for this...never decayed Zuzu in that mall.

BUT HEY WANNA KNOW WHO TRIED TO KILL HIM 2 TIMES AND THE FANDOM SHIPS ZUZU WITH? 🙃🙃

“Izu is not gay”

They are fictional, plus, you know what? After the bs of Mineta...Zuzu is the Bi king we deserve.

“Shiggy would abuse Zuzu”

Actually ....nope. Take how Shiggy treats LoV for example, i know therw are fics who make Shiggy be EVIL and awful to his found family but in Hori’a canon...he is pretty nice to them.

HEY WANNA KNOW WHO IS ABUSIVE TOWARDS ZUZU AND THE FANDOM STILL SHIP ZUZU WITH THIS PERSON?🙃🙃

“Why you hate hori’a canon so much?”

Bc this relationship was dropped and wasted. Like when the mall scene happened on my first watch I thought “oh they will interact again after that” NOPE AND HE TRIES TO RECRUIT BK AND EVEN THROUGH HE IS CRAZY ABOUT ZUZU AND HAS A PHOTO OF HIM...NEVER TRIES TO LEARN ANYTHING ABOUT HIM.

Some call that bk’s redemption arc ...excuse me

🤢🤮

Lets call bs arc to not ruin the redemption arcs’s name.

Not only it make Shiggy seem a bit dumb (and still a better option tham bk) bk DIDNT CHANGE AT ALL.

A reason for me to like this ship, aside the paralels and enemies to lovers, is the idea of someone truly caring and protecting Zuzu...someone who can understand his pain and help him.

“And yoi think shiggy could be that person?”

I do. We saw how he cares for LoV and while yeah Shiggy and Izu wouldnt be cassanovas here...it would have a great deal of caring and trust.

(I know shigadeku writers like to dumb down zuzu so he can be Shiggy’s sexy toy and...I say....write what you want but what a way to waste great characters and what a way to be boring)

Overral, wish this ship get more consideration in this fandom but...if we are in a fandom where some say “trash boy is the best boy” 🙁😔

[anime-grimmy-art]

Told you guys I’d ramble in due time.

I absolutely adore Bravely Default 2. It came at a really bad time cos I can’t waste 70 hours on a jrpg, but well, it’s too late to be concerned about that now. And as is tradition with me obsessing over a new game / show / whatever, you’ll basically find a fullblown review disguised as ramblings right under the cut. Be aware that I’m gonna talk about EVERYTHING, so spoilers are a given. Some maybe even for the previous Bravely Default games.

Also, if you wanna talk about this game in any capacity, hit me up, I’m DESPERATE to talk more about it.

Just for reference on how long this is gonna be, I made a voice recording while driving to remember all the points I wanna make, and that recording is almost 2 hours long. I did cut it down but still, this is gonna be a lot.

I’ll start off with the things that actually bugged me about the game, since there are only 3 things that really bothered me. First of, I really don’t like that you can name Seth. He has too much personality to be a self insert and player integration is not that big of a part in the game that this decision can be justified. It wouldn’t bother me that much if it didn’t leave a bad mark on the ending. First of all, we were robbed of Gloria desperately shouting for Seth, which makes the impact work less, and it’s just so prevalent that the name can’t be said because you have all the normal sound design going. If they’d just let the credits still play I wouldn’t have batted an eye, but because every other sound comes in it’s so obvious they’re just silently shouting in this scene, which makes it look silly. Like I said, this decision is more a detriment than an addition, and it’s a shame it casts a shadow on an otherwise heartfelt ending.

Speaking about lost potential, the other thing that really bothers me is the lost potential in certain plot points and character conclusions. I mainly mean Adam and Edna here. Both of them have been built up to be these formidable foes but they just, die. If it was just Adam I’d be fine with it, since you expect Edna to backstab him and be the actual big bad of the story, but I cannot fathom why they dropped Edna this HARD. If not Edna herself, I don’t understand why we don’t get more of a reaction from the Fairies and especially Adelle. I mean, Edna was her sole reason she left for her journey in the first place, then Edna dies and that’s it? No part where she grieves for a second? No concern from the others about Adelle? Mind you, I haven’t finished all the Sidequests, so maybe there actually is one in which this is addressed, but I think even just a Party Chat after Bad End 1 would have been sufficient to show how Adelle suddenly feels about the loss of Edna. It would have made Bad End 2 / The Secret Ending even more impactful, because, yeah, of course, you kinda know Adelle isn’t going to turn her back on fairy kind, but one of the reasons she doesn’t leave is because if Enda didn’t get a happy ending, then she shouldn’t either. It would have been amazing foreshadowing if she showed this sentiment before this scene happened. Other than that, it’s a shame that we know so little about Edna, or rather, how she became “bad”. I get she’s supposed to be corrupted by the Night’s Nexus, but how did it even come to this? It can’t have been a gradual thing, after all, Adelle says Edna was always good natured and then just disappeared one day. Really would have loved seeing more of that plot point.

Ok, last gripe I have, some choices in the soundtrack and sound design. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the OST, and I will get to that, but damn, whatever Revo used for the lead instrument in Wiswald hurts my ears. It’s a really good track, but I always have to turn down my volume because these high pitched sounds physically hurt. And for sound design. Dude, the Night’s Nexus is the least threatening, nightmare fueled abomination that ever existed. I get that its growl is kinda supposed to be layered with Edna’s or sth, but it, it just sounds silly. If they went the route of just swinging between different voices or began distorting it from phase to phase, it would have been fine. But the choice they made really made an otherwise creepy design just absolutely silly.

Ok, enough jammering, on to the good stuff. Like I said, there’s going to be a lot, so I’ll try to be brief in each aspect.

Gameplay

I honestly like the new battle mechanics more than the old ones. This individual, turn based system feels way more dynamic and it’s easier to strategies in battles. Because nothing made me more angry than setting up for a heal and the enemy suddenly being faster than me and killing my healer. Now it’s easier to plan ahead a bit.

I also found myself experimenting more with the jobs. Not sure what it really is, but none of the party members leaning more towards certain types of jobs and the job leveling being way faster probably helped.

And I know some people get up in arms because the boss sometimes can be a real pain in the ass (looking at you pope dude), I still found it very interesting getting around counters or even using these counters as a benefit. As an example, I made Adelle my main physical fighter and gave her lots of counter abilities to help her profit from being countered by enemies themselves. Now, she can attack enemies, get countered, automatically evade that counter and earn a BP at the same time. Made a lot of boss fights way easier and fun to exploit.

Music

Ok, I will try my best to be really, really brief, because in my recording this part takes up almost 40 minutes. Anyways, Revo might have just become one of my absolute favorite composers ever. I don’t know what kind of magic he used, but I initially wasn’t that impressed with the OST, but every time I listened to it, I just fell in love harder and harder. Before getting into specifics, I wanna highlight the two things that made me love this OST overall. First of all, this soundtrack almost seems like a refinement of BD’s. While losing some of that fairytale vibe, it sounds even more fantasy now. And in contrast to the original, this almost sounds more balanced? Like, BD’s OST felt high energy throughout, BD2’s on the other hand manages to find a good balance between high and low energy pieces. Like, the character themes or battle themes are absolute hype, but the overworld themes are a lot calmer and easier to listen to while exploring. Second big point that makes this soundtrack amazing is that Revo is an absolute god at using emotional progression/storytelling and leitmotifs in his songs. And heck, do I love myself my leitmotifs. You’ve got some obvious ones, like the final battle theme in which all the character themes and other leitmotifs are integrated. Then you got some maybe more subtle once, just like how the overworld themes are just the main theme, just a lot calmer and using the lead instruments of the towns of the areas.

But my absolute favourites gotta be the character themes and the main theme. I love how fitting the themes for the characters are and in general, each of them is such a bop. At first I prefered Elvis’, because I sure am a sucker for jazzy vibes, but over time Adelle’s became my fav. It’s just something about the trumpets, and how the theme almost sounds a bit melancholic and bittersweet, that drew me in. And considering her story, mostly her bad end, that the bittersweet tone really fits.

Then there’s the main theme. Just like BD’s it shouts “triumphant anthem” and it definitely gives you a very familiar vibe, but I’d argue it has even better emotional progression. Heck, the first time I heard the music start up in the reveal trailer, I didn’t have to look at the screen to know this is gonna be a BD game. Also, the credit song version had me weeping at the true end. I’m someone who’s very easily affected by music (if me shouting about soundtracks on this blog wasn’t proof enough) and just hearing that ending song, getting the after credits scene, just for the second credits to start as a freaking duet. Dude, at that point I just started sobbing, I’m not gonna lie. Just this little part showed how much Revo knows how to put emotion in a song and also write it in such a way that he can elicit strong, emotional reactions from you too. 

Story

People have been complaining how the story is too boring and kinda disappointing in comparison to the last one, but I just think the games tried to accomplish different things here. Since the BD series is a celebration of old, classic jrpgs, “cliche” storytelling is a given. Though, BD did throw a lot of meta stuff in there too. BD2 in contrast just feels like a direct execution of that initial idea. It feels familiar, it feels comfy and it feels safe. Except for the little things with the endings and then overwriting the Nexus’ “save file”, BD2 doesn’t really get that meta, which is totally fine. It doesn’t try to reinvent or innovate anything, it just wants to be a fantasy story, that might be cliche, but still fun and enjoyable in its own right.

I’d also argue that the pacing is a lot better than the old game, because with BD I sometimes found myself skipping through scenes to get on with the story. Not that this game didn’t have me rushing through stuff as well, but I found it kept my intrigue way better than the original.

Characters

Next to the music, this is the part that I absolutely love the most. While, yes, they did lose a lot of potential with some characters, mostly with the villains, the main cast is just so much fun. I love these 4 dorks so, so much.

I honestly can’t stand how much people compare them to the original cast. Yes, ofc, I’ve been doing my fair share of comparisons too, but calling these four a more boring version of BD’s party physically hurts me. Because except for some initial impressions, the Heroes of Light are completely different from our beloved Warriors of Light.

While yes, Seth and Gloria give off strong Tiz and Agnes vibes at first, they both grow into such different characters that they’re not really comparable. I think this shows with Adelle and Elvis even more. I do understand how people could compare Adelle and Edea, since they’re both the feisty girl type, but I can’t understand how people can see Ringabel and Elvis as the same character type. While those two are the “suave” party members, they act so differently from another. And that’s honestly apparent the first time you meet them. 

Anyways, I love these 4 so much.

We technically don’t know a lot about Seth at all, but they manage to pull so much out of just the fact that he’s a sailor, that it makes him really endearing, really fast.

I was kinda disinterested with Gloria at first, because again, the initial impression was Agn��s2.0, but she grew on me a lot. Gloria is way more hard headed and honestly sassy in comparison to Agnés and I absolutely adore it.

Elvis. Elvis, my man. I love this fantasy scottosh wizard so, so much. He’s such a ridiculous character but so endearing at the same time. You got all this dorkiness, with him setting himself on fire as a student, him doing god knows what for a good drink or just laughing danger and prejudice in the face. But then you got his super empathetic and caring side. Mind you, most of his wise moments come from quoting Lady Emma, but still, as much as he’s hopeless with certain social situations, he’s actually still really good at reading the room and playing things smart. He’s a smart and powerful idiot, which makes him a danger to everyone and himself, and I love him for it. (I also can’t believe they called him Lesley I MEAN COME ON)

And then there’s Adelle. I liked her from the start, but I didn’t think she would stick out to me. I think now she’s my favourite character. Not even talking about all the stuff that happens in chapter 3 and onward, because these story threads are awesome in their own right, but there’s just something about her personality that’s interesting and appealing to me. Like I said, I’m not surprised people compare her to Edea, I did too at first, but while Edea walks very close to the line of a Tsundere, I was really surprised that Adelle is, well, not a Tsundere at all. Yeah, of course she’s putting Elvis down a lot, but that stems more from her preventing his ego from going to his head than her being all embarrassed. No, Adelle is actually really well adjusted when it comes to communication. While it’s hilarious that she and Elvis met with her chucking her shoes at him, the two just got along well right from the start. Adelle in general has this really open and helpful personality, but also doesn’t shy away from putting her foot down, even if that sometimes comes out as an embarrassed sputter. She’s also the mother hen of the group. She looks out for the other three and gets concerned about them real fast. 

I dunno, Adelle just really grew on me over the course of this game, and then her kinda being paired with Elvis too, as partners and as partners, makes me like her even more. Because as much as I like their personalities individually, I like their character dynamic even more. I honestly love the relationships between all four of them a lot. You really feel them grow closer as friends and all the little character sidequests just always made me really happy.

Conclusion

You might not believe me, but I really held back there. This could probably have been 3 times its length. As much as I love this game, it’s of course not perfect. It struggles and flails in some parts a lot and it certainly has some aspects that might turn people off. But for me, it was just a very familiar and comfy game that didn’t necessarily deliver anything new, but that told its story in such a way that it still got me excited to keep going. The soundtrack is absolutely amazing and the conclusion of the story actually got me to cry. While not groundbreaking, this game is highly enjoyable and leaves you absolutely satisfied at the end.

Also, I would like to iterate that I am desperate to get more content about this game, so if you wanna chat about it, hit me up.

Anyways, anyone else felt like having a fever dream when everybody in chapter 2 started talking fantasy scottish? Cos I sure did.

[idvlover]

Mike and Norton w/ an s/o who really digs horror? esp movies ! :0c

I hope these are good. I don't watch/play much horror 😅

Mike and Norton with an s/o who loves horror:

Mike:

Not exactly a fan of horror, but he'll watch them as long as someone watches it with him

He acts all brave at first. Ends up holding onto his s/o as soon as something creepy starts

It's funny and cute, he'll be hugging his s/o close like a teddy bear. S/o just rubs his arm with their hand to make the movie seem less scary

Would be the type to point out the idiot in the movie

"Why would they go somewhere alONE??? Like do you wanna die???"

"Didn't you come to a creepy manor, only to be trapped in a never ending death game?"

"LISTEN-"

But he does enjoy watching them with his s/o. If they don't respond much to the scary scenes he'll be a little shocked

Let him watch IT and he'll compare the clown to smiley. He said: "Oh my God I didn't know Smiley is the star of the cast."

He now compares Smiley to IT just to piss the hunter off

He gets chaired a lot doing so, but it gives the team a three-man win

Mike does not want to sleep alone after watching a horror movie. He will drag s/o to bed with him

S/o can't even get out of bed to go get a drink once he's asleep

They find it cute until they're thirsty for a drink

As for games

He likes watching his s/o play them, for some reason he likes the games more. But his reactions to the person he's playing as is hilarious

"I run this house now"

*door shuts*

"Never mind the ghost does"

Would do something that would piss off any creatures you're supposed to fight in the game. Such as trying to boop undead animals

He will cry if anything happens to an animal companion in the horror game (I do too)

Would touch something and freak out when it does something

S/o is just watching this whole thing trying not to laugh. Trying to direct him on where needs to go.

They end up snorting each time he compares something to someone he doesn't like

They will also have to pull him from the game as well if the story is interesting

If his s/o is playing a game in bed. He'll lay his head on their chest and watch

He won't fall asleep until s/o puts the game down. Which sometimes ends with him pouting when they're done playing

Norton:

He doesn't get scared as easily as Mike. But he uses this as an excuse to hold his s/o close to him

But he doesn't want to watch anything that involves abandoned mines or anything, those would make him really uncomfortable and make the movie not enjoyable for him

He's the type to fall asleep during a horror movie by accident

Would laugh at certain characters idiot ideas

Somehow always predicts which character will die

"I bet they gonna die next"

"How did you know???"

"Wait, I'm right??"

Now if s/o is the one to get scared during a horror movie. He's being all smug, and taking this opportunity to be cheesy and say things like: "don't worry s/o, I'll protect ya :)"

"Stfu you smug bastard"

As for games

He gets really into a playing the games

He's also funny as well. Especially if you let him play RE8

"If you see a dead horse being dragged away. Maybe that's a sign to leave because what the fuck is big enough to drag a horse?"

Somehow does great solving puzzles. Even s/o is amazed

Will cuss out anything that chases him and insult it. Tells something to kiss his ass only to end up shouting shit repeatedly because the thing actually came for him

He also gets attached to the animal companion. He will fight God if anything happens to it

When he does get scared movie or game. He'll wrap his arms around his s/o and stare intensely at the screen, he'll even jump a little bit

S/o will take this chance to tease on him a little bit

He'll deny it, but s/o knows

"You got scared!"

"Did not."

"Sure, Nort-Nort."

"Hush"

If his s/o plays the game in bed, he'll watch until he falls asleep. S/o tries to keep their voice down for him. But that doesn't bother him, he likes it when the silence is being filled

[salemwritesxx]

a starry night | tanjiro

kamado tanjiro x male reader 

  ↣ all characters are depicted as [18]+

request: Y/N (under 5'0") is a merman hashira (pretend it exists) and is in love with Tanjiro (5'3"). Y/N is able to be on land and water but constantly needs to be hydrated. Y/N invites Tanjiro to the beach and the two waltz under the stars with the sound of the waves behind them. Then they admit their feelings for each other and have a kiss. Then things escalate into spicy time (I'm giving you creative freedom since this is one of my first asks) 👀🔥

w.count: 1550

content warning: smaller reader – taller character, confession, fluff

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

“You trust me, right?”

“Of course, Y/n-san.”, Tanjiro said with his usually heart-warming smile on his lips once he turned towards you.

“Okay, then, is it okay if you wear this?”, you pulled out a silky scarf, “I want to surprise you.”, and as the gentle smile flitted across your lips, Tanjiro’s ruby eyes also softened as he nodded.

Whatever it might have been, he could probably smell it anyways, but, he didn’t want to tell you. Not when you looked so happy once you walked towards him; thus, he complied when you turned him around to blindfold him.

Taking Tanjiro’s calloused, scarred hand into your own, you then guided him the last few miles. Honestly, holding his hand alone made your heart flutter – it’s as if you were… more than just friends.

Kamado didn’t ask a question where you were going or what you had planned, instead, he waited patiently as to not ruining his surprise. Though, he also couldn’t really hide the slight warmth on his cheeks.

He was a little embarrassed. Tanjiro didn’t like his hands, knowing that they were very unpretty to look at and touch due to training so much, yet, you touched him – and you didn’t care. His heart was almost leaping out of his chest and it was such a small gesture, but who could really blame him? Kamado had been crushing on you for so long, so even the tiniest things made his heart flip.

“We’re almost there.”

“Ah? Okay. I wonder what you want to show me, Y/n-san.”, he said and tilted his head lightly, emphasizing his curiosity.

“It’s nothing fancy or anything, but I hope you will still like it.”, you didn’t directly answer him on purpose.

“Be careful, we are going down some stairs.”

The moment you warned him though, it was almost too late, his little “Huh?” cut off when he suddenly stepped into emptiness. Thankfully, due to your own training, you reacted so quickly that he didn’t even have time to really process what had happened, was he already pressed against your body protectively.

“Sorry! That was stupid of me, I should have warned you sooner. Are you okay?”, asking him with such a worried voice made his heart skip a beat again.

Tanjiro needed a moment to realize things; just for his cheeks to get all warm and red once he did realize that you were basically snuggled into his chest due to your arms being slung around him so he wouldn’t fall.

“Y/n-san… It’s okay. Nothing happened.”, he tried to gulp down the big lump in his throat, before you both separated again, this time walking more carefully.

Your own heart was however fluttering like a hummingbird, to think your knee-jerk reaction was to grab him was a little embarrassing. You were supposed to be a Hashira – a fearsome demon slayer, yet you were acting like a young boy in love.

“Okay, we’re almost there.”, you then said in a hushed voice to not disturb the quietness of the night too much, Tanjiro besides you just nodding.

Then, after a few moments, you stopped and Kamado could vividly smell the ocean and something burning, so he kind of knew what was coming, spoiling your surprise a little. Though, he still waited for you to open the knot of the scarf around his eyes.

As the silky material slipped from his face, he opened his ruby eyes, the scene in front of him making his heart quench instantly.

“What do you think?”

“I like it.”, was his immediate answer.

With the usual heart-warming smile on his lips, he looked around to really take in the scenery. The ocean was so big and endless, at least it seemed that way; the little nook you had guided him to was quite spacious and isolated from the rest of the beach, big rocks forming some sort of wall.

“Tanjiro?”, you reached out your hand when he turned to face.

“Hm?... Oh… Y/n-san…”, he barely whispered your name. His heart was jumping so vigorously in his chest when he took your hand once more and you pulled him closer.

“Tanjiro, don’t you think it’s time to drop the “san”?”, with a giggle, you tilted your head a little and looked up into his pretty, red face.

“Just call me Y/n.”

His tongue was tied and his throat dry – why though? Tanjiro didn’t really know… But your presence alone made him so weak that he could barely hold it together it seemed.

“O-Okay… Y/n-s- Y/n…”, he stammered a little, the color on his already rosy cheeks only intensifying. Saying your name without honorifics made him excited.  

As he took your hand and you pulled him closer again, your small, yet strong body was pressed against his once more.

“Hey, look up.”, you whispered and without thinking twice about it, Tanjiro raised his head. His ruby eyes instantly sparkling – when was the last time he really focused on the beautiful night sky? Stars glistening in the dark, endless firmament.

Then, you started moving and Kamado followed you very instinctively at first as his eyes were still fixated on the twinkling above your heads.

“Y/n, it’s beautiful… Thank you for showing me.”, he grabbed your hands a little tighter, letting you lead him as you waltzed around the fireplaced, laughing and giggling.

Tanjiro’s laugh was truly beautiful and precious. It warmed your heart.

Though it wasn’t much different for Kamado himself, thinking his heart might jump out of his chest with how hard it was beating. Then, you surprised him however. A sudden gasp escaped his lips when you slipped (on purpose, but he didn’t know), and you both fell onto the sand besides the fireplace.

Tanjiro on top of you.

“Y/n! Ah, I’m sorry-“, he said shyly and tried to quickly scurry away, but you just flipped around, this time you on top.

“Tanjiro… Wanna know why I brought you here?”, hearing you speak so quietly, he couldn’t help but also barely breath an approved “Hm.” back, not wanting to disturb the crackling of the fireplace or the sound of the ocean waves.

Using your pointed and middle finger, you traveled up his chest, then the side of his neck until you stopped at his lips, Tanjiro shivering underneath you.

“For so long, I’ve been wanting to tell you something, but… I was always too scared. You know, we Hashira need to fight and train, there is not much time for things like… love.”

His ruby eyes widened, his lips trembled – cute.

“Y/n-“, but you interrupted him.

“And I understand if you don’t feel the same, but I can't hide it much longer, if I do, I feel like it will consume me… That’s why…”, you then leaned down, Kamado vividly twitching when you were so close to his ear, only for you to whisper, “I like you, Tanjiro. A lot.”

By the time those words spilled from your lips, his heart was thumping so wildly in his chest he thought he might die. You liked him. And when you raised your head to look at him, your e/c eyes were telling nothing but the truth – the deep love and appreciation you felt for him was real.

Tanjiro was overwhelmed, little tears welled up in his eyes. You thought you had done something irresponsible and stupid, thus wanting to jump up and apologize. But Kamado didn’t let you run away so easily.

With a strong grip, he slung his arms around you and pressed you into his chest, your ear placed right above his crazily beating heart and that’s when you knew as well.

“I like you too, Y/n.”

Hearing him whisper it also, however, was almost too much for you. Wrapping your arms around his torso, you buried your face into his chest so you wouldn’t let out any weird sounds of excitement.

Staring into the starry sky, Kamado still couldn’t believe what had just happened. Wiping away his tears, he suddenly was confronted with your eyes looking down on him yet again as you had risen. A rough, yet gentle hand on his cheek as you caressed him with your thumb.

“Tanjiro… May I… kiss you?”, you said quietly and at the end, barely breathed it, not wanting to make him uncomfortable. However, Tanjiro wanted it, he had dreamt about kissing you, about touching you and being touched.

So, he nodded.

“Yes…”

With a fluttering heart, you leaned down, watching as Tanjiro closed his shimmering ruby eyes, before you closed your own. Meeting his lips was like someone set of a firework within your chest.

Though was it nothing different for Kamado. All his dreams felt real, but nothing compared to the actual real feeling of tasting your lips. They moved so softly against his, he truly melted, his calloused hands gripping your clothes tightly or he thought he might get swept away.

Tanjiro never thought he could feel such happiness ever again, not after his whole family was annihilated and he had to train for so long for Nezuko. To be honest, he never believed in ever being truly happy again, that this emptiness in his heart could never be filled again. But he was wrong.

And he had never been any happier to be wrong about something.

------

@salemwritesxx || do not repost, edit, modify or translate my works

writer’s note: thanks for the request! also, no more banners, after the shitshow I am done with that, I fucking hate them now. once again as a reminder: spicy stuff will be added as a part two!

[loobs-ki]

“sasusaku is toxic”

if you believe this statement, please read this.

most ppl claim to dislike sasuke and sakura's romantic relationship because “sasuke tried to kill her twice”

firstly, sakura tried to kill him first. sasuke acted out of self-defense. but most ppl completely misunderstood that scene and arc anyway.

in fact, ppl just don’t understand sasuke and sakura’s relationship or their individual characters. but this isn’t what i want to discuss in this post. for now, i just wanna point out the hypocrisy of the commonly used statement, “sasusaku is toxic”

naruto is a story about change and forgiveness.

need i remind you all that a great majority of characters in the naruto universe are mass murderers.

need i remind you that practically all these characters were redeemed after listening to naruto's words. these characters have killed more ppl than sasuke.

all these characters have bonds and relationships with other characters that none of you seem to have a problem with.

even for sasuke. if sasuke's romantic relationship with sakura is toxic, then his brotherly relationship with naruto and his student-teacher relationship with kakashi is also toxic.

remember, sasuke has tried to kill naruto like 7 times and the first was when he was 12 cuz he was fucking jealous.

examples:

note: i am not hating on these characters, in fact, i love them and i fully understand their reasoning and characters. i am just pointing out the hypocrisy.

gaara. has killed way more ppl than sasuke. is a character that is loved by this fandom (as he should be). has a friendship with naruto that is loved. he has tried to kill him. has two siblings. he has threatened to kill them numerous times. all of these relationships would be considered toxic in rl terms.

itachi. is a mass murderer. has completely traumatized sasuke. is the reason why sasuke went on a dark path. is loved by fans. is constantly called the “best brother” his relationship with sasuke would also be considered toxic in rl terms. don’t dare deny that.

of course, there are many more examples.

see, ppl hate sasuke and sakura's romantic relationship by comparing them to real-life standards. however, i don’t see anyone compare any other relationship in naruto to our rl standards. it’s completely unfair and ridiculous.

it seems to me that the only problem y’all have is when someone who has redeemed themselves forms a romantic relationship. tell me, is there much difference in a friendly, familiar, student-teacher, relationship than a romantic one?

is your only problem the fact that sasuke and sakura fuck? is that what you can’t comprehend??

to you guys, anything is acceptable unless it concerns sakura or sasusaku.

stop using “sasusaku is toxic” as an excuse. just say you hate either sakura or sasuke and leave.

[poisonousquinzel]

https://lady-ha-ha.tumblr.com/post/160715688748/is-that-comic-before-the-reboot-and-which-one-is

(I have not read this comic) Is this true? (if so, ivy deserves someone better).

Post

Kay, first off both of those people are Jarley shippers so take everything they say with a grain of salt and then some, cause no. that part isn't about how much Harley loves Joker and will always choose him over Ivy. Literally you can tell ops don't know what they're talking about cause her whole thing in those issues is going to kill him for years of graphic abuse but ultimately falls back with him once she’s face to face with him.

Like wow, congrats on missing the fucking point again but not surprised from people who ship her with The Fucking Joker.

also, ffs, can anyone please have basic comprehension skills and realize that Harley and Ivy are both fucked up sometimes because they’ve got issues and that’s not comparable to Joker’s long ass history of graphic and disgusting abuse.

Harley and Ivy are villains, they're not a wholesome cookie cutter, White Picket Fence, super vanilla ship with no bad moments. They're both bad guys with a fuck ton of trauma that they both have to work through, and have done so at this point. 

Gotham City Sirens was published between 2009 - 2011, Harley and Ivy weren't blatantly romantic at this point nor had they had anywhere near the development that they’ve had at this point.

Like don’t go into Harlivy content expecting them to be the perfect wlw rep with no flaws during their arcs from BTAS to current time cause that’s just not realistic. They’re both deeply flawed people who’ve got a fuck ton of trauma that they need to (and have) worked through. 

I have talked about the BTAS issues here and this post is good at explaining them too. 

X

X

Harlivy is not and has never been a purely wholesome, goody-goody ship. They’re messy, they have issues, and they have bad moments sometimes, but they both worked through their seperate trauma and came out stronger and better because at the end of the day, they care about each other. 

Harlivy has messy, toxic moments sometimes, but they’re not, and have never been, abusive. There’s a difference between unhealthy moments and a ship being abusive. 

That’s completely different to how Joker acts Constantly, because he does not care that his actions towards Harley are abusive, because he doesn’t give a shit about her. 

He enjoys hurting her. He enjoys ruining her. 

Jarley has always been intended to be written and shown as a domestically abusive relationship.

This is also the first instance where it's directly referenced that there's something more than platonic between her and Ivy, other than the reference in Batgirl Adventures. 

Gotham City Sirens is also not connected to any verses.

This didn’t happen in the timeline we’re in rn with Harley Quinn (2014)/(2016)/(2021).

Comic timelines and shit are stupid and make everything more confusing and awful and I hate it sdfjdksksdkjsd

-

this is gonna be a long post since ops wanna just cut and paste random bits of the issues like jarley stans always do (cause jarley never has good moments that aren’t entirely surrounded by him abusing her) I’m going to show them in full context. *added a keep reading cause it is a lot

(All panels shown are from #15, #18, #19, #20, #21, #23, #24, #25)

So, Harley's entire thing at this point in the GCS comic in that she's been triggered by flashbacks of Joker's abuse and she breaks into Arkham with the intent to kill him.

The entire thing in these issues is showing her smarts and how she knows people's trump cards to get under their skin so she can break into Arkham. 

She’s trained to identify these things in people and she's fucking good at pushing people's buttons. 

this is also just one of my fav Harley covers so I wanted to show it jsdjksdks

“Trump cards. Everyone has one. Places where the armor we build around ourselves is weakest.” 

She’s right. And it’s now shown that Harley’s willing to use those below the belt trump cards if she has to.  

And frankly, I’d say this is worse than what she says to Ivy. And I’m not surprised she did it. She didn’t want to, she tried to get him to just open the door - 

“Don’t make me do this, Aaron. There are some secrets that should stay hidden. Things you should never learn about your own life.” 

but she’s also entirely fueled by rage and the desire to kill Joker. She came here for a reason and she’s not leaving until she’s done it.

“I’m going to kill you. For everything you’ve done to me. All the times you’ve made me feel useless and small. For all the times I will never forget. For all the things I can never forgive. All the memories -”

“Hello, Harley. I’ve missed you.” 

“Memories. That’s all I have left. The past is gone and all I have is... memories. 

Memories.

Memory. 

Gone.

I guess I too have a trump card.”

“Oh, Ivy. You know exactly what my answer is going to be. But you’re hoping you’re wrong, aren’t you?”

She’s also right about this, they already mentioned this in #18.

“How did I become the bad guy?”

“You’re the one choosing a man over her girls.”

“Are you kidding me? You would never say that to Harley, and we both know she’d dumb us in a flat second if Joker called her.”

“Hey! That’s not fair-- Actually, that’s probably true.”

“The difference is, she can’t help it. You can. And she’s working on it. You’re not working on it.” 

“Too easy, Ivy. Too easy. I know your weak spots. Now I just need to push.”

This is exactly what she’s been doing since the starting point of this post. She’s still in that mindset and she knows she can’t beat her on a regular battle field. Neither of them can. 

“Like I said-- You beat me in any level playing field. But I don’t fight on those fields.” 

Harley’s biggest strength as a villain is her ability to completely mentally stall her opponents and learn their weak spots. She wouldn’t win against the majority of the Big Bads if she didn’t fight on a different field than they are. 

so, like yeah, out of context what she says to Ivy seems awful and completely screwed up, and it is, but it’s also built up really well and it’s completely in character for her at this point in her fall during these issues. 

Is what she did fucked? absolutely. It’s not painted that it’s not. 

Ivy Literally Goes To Kill Her For It.

In the end of this all three of them are recaptured by Catwoman and Batman and that’s where we’re starting off at again. 

“Oh, Harley.

The only human I’ve ever called a friend.

To what lengths will I go? Where are my own limits? She is the Strangler fig. And I am the tree, choking underneath. 

Without me, she could never grow. 

But without her, I would fall if I grew too tall.” 

“Will she ever stand by herself? 

Will she ever be ready? 

She is in throes of madness. She sees him, her brain flooding with adrenaline, it makes her excited, nervous, then the feelings start to fade, and she needs more. And more. 

She sees it as passion. She sees it as love. 

But it’s not. It’s addiction. And she’s relapsing.” 

Ivy is well aware of the nature of their relationship. She’s not stupid and she’s been shown already to know that it’s something that takes time. It’s not a one off break up and it’s over. That’s not how abusve relationships work. 

What do I do?

I could use my pheromones to alter her brain chemistry.

I could leave her behind abandoning her to the wilds of her own mind.

I could kill her right now.

Show her how red Nature can be.

There's one other option.

It would require patience.

Even love.

Maybe I'm more human than I want to admit.

"You have one chance to answer this."

I know, if she agrees, she'll be doing it for revenge. For him.

"She put us behind bars."

But maybe if I get away from this place, if I give her something else to think about. Maybe she can break the cycle. But it has to be her choice.

"I'm going to kill her. Come with me."

So yeah, it’s definitely not a just “Harley hurts her and runs off with Joker and it’s just a plain ol’ her choosing him over everyone and that’s that.” 

Jarley shippers love to just reduce all her scenes and arcs down to their “epic love” and shit, but that’s taking away literally everything about her and reducing it down to the 3 panels that they’re “cute” in. Her arc in this part is fucking heartbreaking to read.

And Ivy damn well knows what’s going on with her. She’s smart and she’s the one that’s been there throughout all of this. She found her in the park after he shot her out of a rocket. 

And she knows it’ll take time for Harley to get over and through his manipulation, that’s just how it works with abusive relationships. 

But she’s also not forgiving at first, she’s mad and rightfully so, until she sees the sate of Harley’s cell and realizes how bad her addiction is at that time.

A lot of the unhealthy moments on Harley’s side when it comes to them are directly caused from the effects of being in an abusive relationship with Joker. Because she’s always in this area of her journey in those moments. She’s never fully over him or emancipated. 

And that’s realistic. It’s hard sometimes to be friends with someone who’s in abusive relationships like theirs, having to watch them return to that person time and time again and it’s frustrating after a while. 

I know from personal experience, it’s really hard to watch someone you care about go back or forgive someone that continues to hurt them. 

But abuse victims desperately need a support system outside of their abuser. It’s a crucial part of being able to escape, because when they do try to get out they need someone there or they’ll literally have no where to go but back into their abuser’s arms.

It’s heartbreaking and it’s really rough for everyone effected, but that’s just how it is most of the time. Especially in their case, as they’re not just regular folk dealing with this. 

If she doesn’t have Ivy, Harley has no one else to go to but Joker, on more than just an emotional level. 

She’s lost her job. Her income. Her home. Her livelihood. Her everything.

Most of the time she has no other choice but to return to a life of crime after she’s released from Arkham because she can’t get a job, she’s a notorious criminal and she’s got a lot of issues that don’t just disappear with a bit of therapy. 

She has no other choice but to return to Joker because the other alternative is the streets. At least she knows what to expect with him. 

And that’s not even getting into the manipulation, gaslighting and degrading abuse that he drills into her constantly. 

He’s made her believe she’s not anything without him. That she’s not smart or useful or anything. 

And that’s why it’s so damn important for her to have a support system and why he’s so damn against Ivy. 

Because Ivy is the good voice on her shoulder telling her he’s wrong and that she doesn’t deserve that. 

-

And on Ivy’s side, she’s aware she gets very near cutting off all parts of her humanity. 

She’s a plant goddess, she’s insanely powerful and she feels everything through the green. Frankly, she’s not even on the same playing field as these villains. She’s significanty more powerful than Harley and Joker. 

Her connection to Harley is what keeps her humanity in tack, because despite everything, she does care about her. She was the first person she let in, the first person Ivy called a friend. 

The person that was able to get through to her in #14/#15 when she was losing herself. The one that was able to get through to her that the dude was manipulating her. 

“Ivy, I know you think you love this guy... but you’re just gonna end up strapped to his rocket!”

She had to knock her out for the dude to trust her / not attack them anymore. But Harley got through to her by mentioning how they first met in the park when she saved her after Joker shot her off in a rocket.

And Ivy is understandable turned off towards humans considering her origin and trauma around that. 

She’s got a lot of trust issues.

But both of them work through their seperate traumas over the years because their affection for each other is stronger than the issues their trauma has given them.

-

and also, sometimes, they just have shit writers. that’s an issue overall in comic fandoms. Some writers just fucking suck at getting any of the characters right, let alone LGBT characters, who’re notoriously treated like garbage by DC. 

[colourful-void]

Supporting Satoshi - an examination and comparison of JN36 and XY121

Part One: Snowballs do not cure depression but it was worth a shot

You know that episode of Pokemon where a gym leader beats Satoshi in a battle so hard that one of his pokemon gets mildly hurt (though there's no long term effects) and because of it he becomes depressed, closing himself off from his friends before someone comes along to pull him out of that mental state, and also severe weather phenomena is involved and a reflection of a persons mental state? Or rather, the two episodes?

So when I was watching Journeys, I noticed an episode that had a similar-- but distinctly different-- plot to an xy episode I had seen before. And what was particularly interesting was that while I couldn't stand the xy episode, the journeys episode was one of my favourites. I won't drag this out for you guys, I love the journeys episode and re watch it a LOT and the xy episode sort of just leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth. and don't go claiming its solely ship bias, because i saw the xy episode first and disliked it then.

This will analyze both of these episodes, comparing them against each other. Specifically within the context of how Goh and Serena both help Satoshi through a similar situation There will be some discussion of AmourShipping and Satogou in this analysis. I'm going to be a bit negative regarding Serena's actions and the potential "romantic" weight of them here, but I want to be clear that I Do Not dislike Serena as a character. Personally, I wish the writers had given her more room to grow outside of her romantic interests, but I do not hate Serena as a character. I do, however, disagree with her actions in this episode. Please don't take this out of context and dont be ship fighting in the comments, it's boring. This is a comparison of These Two Episodes, not of Goh and Serena and their respective ships as a whole.

This part mainly focuses on the xy episode and the second will focus mainly on the journeys. It's only divided into parts because of the tumblr post limit.

(If you like the xy episode or hate the journeys episode, awesome! having your own opinions is great. these are mine though, so i hope you'll listen to them)

With that out of the way, let's start. And I'm going to use mostly japanese names here because I'm taking screencaps from the subbed japanese copies.

The set up for each of these episodes is eerily similar as pointed out in the gag at the start.

Xy has a bit more set up before the episode in question though, with the initial loss and retreat into the forest by Satoshi taking place the episode before. The episode opens up proper with Satoshi taking time to breathe to himself, alone in the forest.

Emphasis is placed on him taking a deep breath, aided by the visuals showing them (thanks cold air) and the silence of the rest of the soundscape, with the only other sounds being the wind and some bird pokemon, plus some falling snow.

Journeys Satoshi starts off in a better mental state than Xy, with the episode starting off with him jogging along with his pokemon.

However, we can still see that he's been affected by the last battle he lost, against Saitou, as he's putting a lot of effort into training and doing better.

Which, doesn't go well for him, as he loses his next two battles as well, and drops in the World Championship ranking as a result

And he's pretty upset about it too. Same thing as over in xy. In both cases, a respective friend/love interest notes that Satoshi is upset and expresses concern.

He's got support from his friends in both situations! But that support comes across in very different ways.

But, to understand how that support manages to affect Satoshi, we need to understand the problem at play.

Now, I wanna make something clear here. Satoshi's problem is not that he is a sore loser. I'm not arguing that's not a contributing factor, or that he's not upset about the loss (particularly in the world championships), He's still bitter about the lost part, but the root of the problem is not losing, he's been shown to be fine with losing (if not a bit more motivated to win now) in prior episodes.

Satoshi's problem is that his pokemon are getting hurt. Satoshi's problem is that his pokemon are getting hurt, because they're losing battles. Satoshi's problem is that his pokemon are losing battles because he's not training them well enough. And to clarify, that's not my viewpoint, it's his. Satoshi's problem is that he's not good enough for himself, and he feels that that's something he has to fix on his own.

So how do we help him?

Our weather event in question is introduced in separate points in the episodes, but I'll cover them both now.

In xy, it's this snowstorm, which conveniently becomes a problem directly after Serena returns to the Pokemon Centre.

In journeys, it's a sandstorm! That's in near direct contrast to a snowstorm! Incredible.

Heading back to xy Satoshi, things aren't going great in the forest. Luckily, Serena's run off to find him.

I think it's of note here that Serena runs off with the best intentions, she wants to help Satoshi, plain and simple. It just sort of goes wrong along the way.

It's worth noting that Xy Satoshi tries to bring himself out of being sad by the tried and true method of "stop being sad"

Despite telling himself this, he doesn't get anywhere. Which makes sense, because it's not getting the the root of the problem. It's not even addressing it at all. He's just trying to 'be better', which isn't even a battle strategy. However, it is something I can see him saying, so this isn't a critique of Satoshi's thought process, but me pointing out that this isn't really effective. Which is supported by the narrative, because again, he doesn't get anywhere, he doesn't even move.

I can't show it in screencaps but the lights in Satoshi's eyes are shaking here, something that they consistently do throughout the series when he's feeling a particularly strong emotion. Keep that in mind. It couples well with another trait of his, and that's his hat!

And by that I mean how he hides his eyes with the brim of it when upset, something he does exactly as Serena shows up and calls out to him. Now, he's not upset that Serena is here. He's upset about the pokemon stuff still. He's trying to hide the fact that he's upset from Serena.

Serena starts off with her speech well, trying to appeal to Satoshi to let her in and talk things out. And maybe it's because he wasn't ready for it yet, or because of the way she phrases it (a lot of 'i' and 'me' language which can be helpful but can also come across as though she's making it about her. not her intent i don't think, but a possible interpretation.), it's not her fault for how Satoshi reacts regardless.

But how Satoshi reacts is not good.

Now it's really interesting to note that before this, Serena was standing while Satoshi was sitting, putting her above him in terms of active power, when it comes to how the shot is presented, but when Satoshi stands up, the camera tilts with the movement so that they're on equal level. Neat!

And Serena yells in return, scolding Satoshi for not talking about it. Not the best move, since pushing someone to talk about something that's upsetting them isn't really productive, but she's trying here and she's frustrated.

Satoshi continues to withdraw and self isolate, claiming it is his problem and that he wants to be left be. Now, this is the mindset of a clearly upset person and isolation may not be the best option, but he did make the explicit request to be left alone here.

He's clearly upset as he turns away from Serena's eye and slumps over a little.

And then Serena throws a snowball at him.

Angry as he is, you can see Satoshi's expression change when he sees Serena's reaction.

Serena tells Satoshi that she's not like the Satoshi she knows, who is always full of energy and positive and a leader, and a bunch of other positive traits. The problem here, is that Serena's looking at an idealized version of Satoshi. And while the intent here was probably meant to be something more like "you have so many wonderful traits about you I know you can do this", coupled with the snowballs and the phrasing, it seems as though Serena is scolding Satoshi for being sad.

Or rather, being angry with him for not living up to her idealized version of him, and not wanting him to express any negitave emotions.

Which is sort of a really bad mindset.

The snowballs continue, never once does Satoshi fight back. In fact, he stops arguing entirely after the first one. Serena knocks him off his feet and tells him he's not being himself, before running off. (In the english dub, Serena claims that Satoshi isn't being "the real satoshi" and then demands that the real Satoshi be "given back", so it could be worse)

Satoshi decides to literally run his problems away, because it will help him reach some kind of conclusion, and immediately trips and falls down a large hill. No, I'm not making that up. Something like this just isn't like him. He's just gotta stop being sad!

Now personally, I really disagree with the idea that "being upset" isn't "like a person". That's because based off of my own experiences, I know it can be really damaging to hold the mindset that any negative emotions you feel aren't a part of you and that you shouldn't be upset because you're usually a positive and happy person. Not the case with every person, but I personally really have a problem with shows telling children that they just shouldn't be upset instead of processing their emotions in a meaningful way. (The journeys episode doesn't do an outstanding job of it either, but this is a bit of a tangent anyway. A show that does do this right is "OK KO! Let's be Heroes" which actually deals with this problem in greater depth and does a fantastic job of it.)

But the snowball scene ends here. Now I'll get back to Journeys in a moment, but since Serena has finished her part of the comparison for the most part, I'm going to summarize a bit more of the xy episode.

Satoshi decides to literally run his problems away, because it will help him reach some kind of conclusion, and immediately trips and falls down a large hill. No, I'm not making that up.

The snowstorm kicks in, Serena get back annoyed, then similarly groans and yells, and the whole xy gang + pokemon go running off in search of Satoshi. Pikachu appears the most concerned.

Now Serena tells the others she lost her cool and said something horrible to Satoshi, but explains its because Satoshi is someone she admires. Cool motive, I get it, still kinda bad.

and in the end, it's not Serena's words that get he message across to Satoshi. The solution to this problem was Satoshi finding a way to reaffirm his abilities and instinct.

In the xy episode, he helps some pokemon out of the tree, and when his very cool frog friend shows up, they're able to work together with their bond to save this one from falling off a cliff.

Here's the point. Satoshi learns by doing, by actions. He needs to see first hand that there are ways of getting past his problems, and that it's worth having the courage to keep going. The lesson is about valuing pokemon as equals and partners, and specifically that trying to be better as the trainer alone isn't going to help.

This is essentially where this plot line ends, team rocket is there for a bit as well but as much as i love them they're not relevant here, and some fun stuff with the league, love it not important right now its like 3am and I'm not sleeping until this is finished so we gotta keep things moving.

This was no doubt Serena's intent to get a similar point, but she goes about it the wrong way. She tries to convey this with words, as conversation and motivational words have helped her in the past (Elle's words of praise stick with her, Satoshi's words from when they were kids, etc). It's a good idea, but their different ways of learning and growing from a similar situation are incompatible, and that's why things don't work out in Serena's favour. There's also still the problem of "pulling yourself together" not being helpful in this case.

There's also a very similar line in this scene to the one at the end of the journeys episode, as Satoshi says to his frog that they should start over from scratch. It's essentially the same phrase with different wording. It's great. The Storm ends as he realizes this as well! Wonderful in terms of pathetic fallacy.

The gang all reunites, its nice. Satoshi thanks Serena for what she said after apologizing to everyone, which contradicts what he said earlier but I've already established that I dislike this message here so I won't go over it too much. I guess he's right in a literal sense in that in response to her words he went and ran until he tripped off a cliff but the emotional growth here was because of his own actions (and the frogs), not Serena's. Sorry Serena, you'll get em next time.

This is essentially where this plot line ends, team rocket is there for a bit as well but as much as i love them they're not relevant here, and some fun stuff with the league, love it not important right now its like 3am as I write this so we gotta keep things moving.

So. What about Goh?

Well...

(Part Two here on account of image limit!!)

[marcspectrr]

A word or two on Kiara's mental health...

Before I attempt to summarize the 39 page slideshow living rent free in my brain, a preface! This will include spoilers for s2, as well as a few mentions of suicidal thoughts! Also. I love Kiara Carrera with all of my heart so if you're not a fan of her, you might wanna keep scrolling. If you don't vibe with her that's perfectly fine, but this post is heavy with Kiara appreciation, be warned, my respect for her runs deep. The choice is yours, of course, just understand that I'm writing this bc @yellowlaboratory among others have encouraged me to get it out there because it's all I've been thinking about since I watched s2. This is not to start anything.

(This is also not me hating on Pope because I genuinely like his character, he's just made some very questionable choices throughout the show, some I can forgive and some that still don't sit right with me.)

Deep breath, here we go.

It's no secret Kiara has been poorly handled by the writers and therefore the characters at times. We got little development in s1 compared to other main male characters, leaving us to fill in the gaps as far as her ambitions, motivations, family, overall interest in the boys, etc. While I do keep this in mind, I could rant about it for days so for this I'm going off of what we have as well as what's been implied.

Kiara didn't have the same upbringing as the boys but it's clear the Carrera's had/have their struggles. She's got her foot in both worlds, not quite 'rich' but not entirely 'poor', inevitably giving her a fragile sense of belonging and identity. 16 is a hard age even without societal pressures and growing up in a classist environment, but here is where we're assuming the boys come in. They give her a place to feel comfortable in her own skin, with shared interests and accepting her for who she is, which we know the kooks don't provide. Just being around them helps ease those deep insecurities, helps her form meaningful bonds. We weren't given an explicit scene where this was shown but over the course of the two seasons it's clear how she feels about them and what they do for her mentally.

Her relationship with the pogues, however, puts a rift between her and her parents. Mike and Anna clearly want what's best for Kie but it's also obvious they've struggled with her even before the pogues. Anna wants Kiara to have the things she never got growing up, breeding a disconnect since Kiara doesn't share in her mother's interests. This leads into my biggest problem with Kiara's arc in s2, which was how Anna and Mike were written. 

Yes, Kiara didn't/doesn't treat them the best but it went both ways -- they all failed at communicating. Instead of finding a common ground and compensating for the things Kiara cares about, Anna shuts her down and ignores her, leaving her to feel like a problem rather than a person, further perpetuating even less healthy communication. Kiara even says in s2 that's why she doesn't like going home, because it always means walking into an argument and not feeling accepted.

I sorta expected a little more understanding from Anna considering her own background with pogues but instead it backfired. And Mike...he didn't contribute much at all. They could've all done better and need some work. Kiara could be more grateful and Anna and Mike are the parents, the adults, they need to make the space feel safe to talk. Kie didn't just wake up one day and decide to act out and keep her parents in the dark all the time, that stems from not feeling listened to when she does try and open up.

Expanding on this with...the whole Blue Ridge plot. Moment of silence for the show neglecting to acknowledge the academy,  even though it clearly had a big impact on Kiara's life. In s1 we got a brief look into how her 'kook year' affected her and it was not good. More isolation, blurred identity, insecurity and this time suicidal thoughts, with no one to turn to for support, assuming she was not on good terms with her parents then either. I'm assuming this because for them to send her to the academy, hoping to give her better opportunities only for it to end with her wanting to cut her wrists, to then thinking the best option is to send her away again? At this point I hope they didn’t know how badly the academy affected her because sending her away a second time with that knowledge is such a hurtful and oblivious move.

Kiara already thinks her parents see her as a burden, hurting her sense of worth as is. I really wanted to like the Carrera's and I still feel like they genuinely love and care for Kie, I just need to see more communication maybe. And if they choose to include the Blue Ridge plot, which I'm leaning towards yes on that one, I hope it's handled somewhat well, preferably not a tool to create drama even though I know a lot of people want to see it be used that way. I'm very particular, I'm sorry I'm this way.

Things I've seen her being criticized for in s2 is her behavior. The thing that people have to remember is that she's 16 and teenagers are just not the best with navigating their emotions. She made questionable choices (the 'murderer' thing and 'abusing' Pope) but these are both things that fit the plot and her character. She was by no means the only one grieving so I don't know why she's being targeted for it (although I'm not surprised, the fandom treats her horribly). Some of her core characteristics are her high moral integrity as well as her headstrong belief in people and causes. She's never been one to make herself palatable for people and s2 shows a lot of this (calling out the Cameron's, going off in front of the court, etc). Even if it caused them problems and even if they are flaws, that doesn't make her an inherently intolerable character, it makes her realistic. She was not in a good place emotionally and it would've been wrong to shy away from depicting it any other way, especially in a show where the teenage experience is decently represented.

Now with the Pope thing. I think it was handled as well as it could've been considering the circumstances. It really should've never happened but to justify it, emotions are messy, relationships even messier and they were both spiraling at the end of s1. I don't agree with the way it started (why give Kie the line of literally telling him she wanted something different only to show them together next episode, I'm forever confused) but I'm not mad about how it ended. They were both in the wrong at times so only bringing up Kie's faults is just unfair.

I believe they both tried their best and even wanted to feel the right things but learned quickly that's not exactly how it works, which was how it was supposed to be shown. Not as this romanticized, idealistic healthy relationship but as one that has its bumps and was bred out of all the wrong things. All of their body language pointed towards this. Pope didn't deserve to be hurt but Kie clearly didn't intend for things to turn out how they did. She wasn't mentally comfortable enough for a relationship and I can appreciate them showing this in the ways the writers framed it. Even the conversation with Kie describing their night on the beach, I think it was perfect. It was awkward but it was honest, which is so important.

Overall, I think Kiara's gone through a lot mentally that the show could be better at exploring. It doesn't have to be big, obvious lingering shots, they can be subtle and still mean so much to people who relate to her. Seeing someone on screen grapple with real life struggles (even if the show walks a painfully fine line as far as realism), it means a lot. Especially when mental health (more prominent than ever) is so rarely portrayed to translate in any significant way in media now. It's definitely something I would love to see get more time and effort so until then, just know I'll be manifesting the screen time Kiara Carrera deserves.

[weakforarwen]

The Changeling

Watching this episode at the same time as I’m finishing season 5 is like a breath of fresh air. The difference between the seasons! It’s like day and night.

Arthur is warm and cute and a real character in this episode! Gwen is her shy yet confident, nonconforming yet realistic, awkward yet graceful, self, I love her. And Arwen is so good this episode! Their chemistry is great, and their scenes are varied - it’s not just Gwen telling Arthur she believes in him, or, worse, standing by his side like decoration. Bradley actually has more than a few facial expressions here! When he realizes he’ll have to marry Elena, his eyes shine with tears and he looks so sad... it’s so good. But I also love his awkwardness in a previous scene, when Arthur’s like “Dw, I won’t get married” and Gwen’s like “Who says I was worried?”. The scene where Arthur skips up the stairs as Gwen is coming down is super cute too - the banter, their smiles! Compared to season 5, it’s like someone painted them in bright colors. Ah, this is the Arwen I love.

The episode is great. Grunhilda is hilarious. The actress, Miriam Margolyes, is so adorable and good, honestly. What a treasure. They were lucky to have her for one episode. Poor Gaius had to take one for the team though. I loved seeing him so flustered.

I loved Elena too. But I didn’t like that human Elena wasn’t as clumsy and unlady-like. The moment the fairy spirit was expelled out of her, she became a “proper” princess and that was disappointing. She was lovely when she tripped and snorted. Still, her parting words to Arthur were amazing “Let me know when you want me to beat you at horse riding again”, or something like that. Arthur’s face was priceless. Arthur’s reactions to the princess were on point the entire episode. 

I loved everything about the episode tbh. Even Uther was funny. He was so excited for his friend’s visit and got so awkward trying to tell Arthur he was to marry Elena lmao. But he went back to being his asshole self soon enough.

Elena should be glad her father clearly loves her and puts her first. She and Arthur could’ve been great friends! She’d get along so well with Merlin and Gwen too!

There’s something incredibly satisfying about watching this episode knowing Arthur will marry Gwen despite everything and be so happy with her. Uther told Arthur a King can’t marry for love, and I was like “Just you wait and see. You’ll be rolling in your grave”. And Morgana looked so gleeful and smug when she pretended to be on Gwen’s side, but her and Arthur simply couldn’t be... Laugh all you want, you’ll never be Queen, bitch. Seeing Arthur call off a wedding for the first time was so funny. Dude is a pro at calling off weddings, even the first one with Gwen :/ 

Arthur can’t marry for love, you say? Just you watch. He’ll marry no one but Guinevere. He’s not Uther. Arthur might find it difficult to shake off his father’s hold on him, but when it comes to Gwen, he will not take no for an answer. As close as he came to marrying other women or calling it quits with Gwen, he just couldn’t. It’s her or nothing, and I find that so relatable. 

I really relate to this side of Arthur. I’m not good at rebelling either, at expressing my thoughts and standing up for myself - I don’t like displeasing people or having them mad at me - but I can’t get talked into something I really don’t wanna do. I’ll drag my feet the whole time til I get my way. But Arthur’s not quite like me. He gives in quite easily to the demands of others, but once he thinks it through and gains confidence in himself, he stands up for his beliefs. Especially if it concerns Gwen. 

In your face, Uther. I know how miserable Arthur’s marriage made you. You even tried to kill Gwen from beyond the grave. I guess if you actually knew your son, you’d have seen he wasn’t under any spell in season 3.