#at least the ugly design we ended up with isn't this I GUESS.

[adamwarlock]

This is so hideous I don't know why Gunn apparently really wanted Adam to have armor... like out of ALL characters... If they had given him a helmet I would've killed myself for real

[tourturestarradio]

𝐒𝐄𝐀 𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘

☆ ★ ✮ ★ ☆

Pairing: Luffy, Zoro, Sanji (more added later) x Mermaid reader!

Prompt: After your family jewels were stolen you were determined to get them back joining you closest friend Monkey D. Luffy on his adventure to become the king of the pirates.

Warnings: none, this follows the live action!!

Part 1

☆ ★ ✮ ★ ☆☆ ★ ✮ ★ ☆☆ ★ ✮ ★ ☆☆ ★ ✮

⋆｡°✩ ┊         ┊       ┊   ┊    ┊        ┊               ┊         ┊       ┊   ┊   ˚★⋆｡˚  ⋆ ┊         ┊       ┊   ⋆                                                                                                         ┊         ┊       ★⋆ ┊ ◦ ★⋆      ┊ .  ˚            ˚★

𝐒𝐍𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐓 my brothers I swam around to find the secret room, my father was as usual out doing important man stuff whatever that was...I got to the door placing my hand on it, I wondered how my dad even got that purple glow. I focused hard onto the door, squeezing my eyes shut "work dang it!"

I focused as hard as I could a light blue glow formed around my hands causing the heavy door to seemingly unlocked, smiling widely I stared at hands "it worked!" I pushed open the door and saw a line of necklaces.

Mines being all the way at the end, I swam up to it looking at all our different necklace designs.

They all had the same gem stone they were just different colors. I ran my fingers across my necklace picking it up carefully.

I swam out of the room closing the door behind me, I quickly swam out of the house and up to the surface to where me and Luffy would hang out on the docks.

I slid the necklace on, I didn't feel any different whatsoever. I looked down at my tail and saw well, my tail. Not a single leg in sight, I rubbed the necklace "hm maybe it isn't magi-" I saw a light green spark "huh?" the water started to swirl around me light green sparks zapping around my tail.

I started to grow dizzy as the water spun me around, but oddly enough I felt my tail start to separate into two my flipper shrinking in size and my scales disappearing. I squeezed my eyes shut as the bubbles flared up into my face, I looked down as the bubbles stopped.

And I saw...legs! actual human legs!! I climbed onto the docks, I tried to stand up but my legs wobbled and I fell down "aha! I have legs!" I still had my fins but they were smaller and the webbing in between my fingers was gone and my normal (f/c) skin looked blotchy some patches of skin were a (s/c) while others were (f/c). My father had told me about it but I had time remembering what it was called.

It was similar to what humans experienced called vitiligo. 

I looked back down to my legs wiggling my toes, I tried standing up again, I stood up straight my legs wobbling "o-ok making progress..." I took a step forward and fell flat on my face "ow..."

"Oi, you need help...uh walking?" I looked up and saw one of shanks crew mates, had brown skin and a blonde afro, I nodded "aren't you Luffy's little pirate queen?" he asked, could feel my fins warm up "u-um yes" he tilts his head, he pulled me up to my feet holding the back of my dress.

Wait I had clothes? I had a swimsuit that looked like a dress, I held the back of the males pants stumbling trying to walk "right foot....then left foot...right foot then...left foot..." I mumbled, I wobbled with every step but hey! At least I was walking!

As we walked I saw so many different people! Big, small, short, tall, pretty, ugly, it was very exciting!

"Oi Luffy guess what fish grew legs!" I heard the taller male exclaim, I peeked from behind his leg I saw Luffy sitting down looking sad a few stitches under his eye. He tilted his head but his eyes lit up as he saw me standing I waved to him. He jumped down from his seat and ran over to me tackling me down into a hug.

"You have legs!" he smiles widely, I smiled back nodding "they're hard to use though..." Luffy held my hands "here i'll help you!" we both began walking I followed his walking pattern.

He had a cheeky grin on his face "see it's not so hard is it?" we walked around the small bar a green haired woman looking down at the two of us with a smile.

Letting go of me he exclaimed "hey wait look what I can do!" Lifting his arm the woman cut in "Luffy no." he frowned and dropped his arm. I rubbed his back "well m-maybe you could show me around?"

Luffy brightened up tremendously "yeah! come on let's go!" he tried to run off but I wasn't used to moving too quickly and toppled over on top of him "s-sorry!" my fins glowed as I stumbled off of him. He sat up his cheeks dusted light pink, but he still got up and held my hand helping me walk.

Eventually he let go of my hand "you should try it on your own!" I gulped "b-but what if I fall!"  "come on Y/n just try it!" I shakily let go of his hand steadying myself I muttered "right foot first...then left foot...right foot...left foot"

Luffy smiled "see you're doing it!" I continued to walk around "I think I got it!" Luffy hugged me tightly "yay! I knew you could do it!" I hugged back tightly.

They two's friendship grew as strong as a rip current, nothing could truly pull the two apart. Over time the mermaid would sneak back to the surface to hang out with her only friend.

Then she suddenly just disappeared for a few months, Luffy waited for her everyday, for hours but she just didn't show up which wasn't like her at all.

He thought she just decided not to return.

Suddenly she was back, saying she had to take care of a few things for a while. Oddly enough she wouldn't return home, she'd swim around for a while but then she'd just come back up on shore.

Whenever Luffy asked about it she'd get upset and change the topic so Luffy just didn't talk about it anymore.

Growing up Luffy's brown skin got lighter but he still had a tan, his hair stayed curly, but he grew taller.

But not taller than Y/n, she grew to about 5'10 pretty tall but all that height was from her tail, the longer your tail the taller you'd be if you had legs, so it's safe to say she wasn't done growing.

Y/n looked mostly the same apart from her hair growing longer, but she grew to be a real beauty. Most people were either looking at her face or her thighs.

Another fun fact about being a mermaid, it made your thighs thicker for some weird reason. Y/n was a tad bit embarrassed about it but Luffy had utterly zero problems with it.

He quote "love how squishy they are, and they are great to lay on" but she must keep a watchful eye out. On more than one occasion he bit her thighs because they reminded him of marshmallows.

The only thing Y/n hated about being on land was the fact that she had to wear clothes! In all the time she spent as a mermaid she only ever had to wear a bathing suit top, that's it!

Apart from that she didn't need to worry about pants or skirts or shorts! But she hated the feeling of any fabric rubbing up against her legs specifically her fins that were located on the sides of her calves.

Y/n would wear short skirts, or shorts, shirts weren't really a problem for a while until, her gills stretched out a bit on her neck so anything rubbing up on that made her uncomfortable.

So she wore tank tops or tube tops, no long sleeves because once again her fins got in the way.

.

Speaking of the two somewhere far off in the east blue a boy with pink hair and round glasses cleaned the lower deck of a ship mildly annoyed when he heard a thumping noise and muffled voices.

"W-Wait don't move I think I can kick out the lid.."

He followed the voices to a barrel that was shaking around.

"Your legs are in the way"

"u-um Luffy can y-you move your hand"

"why? i'm only touching your thighs?"

"N-No you're n-not"

"hey look your fins are glowing!"

The pink haired boy cocked his head to the side slowly stepping closer to the now glowing barrel.

"o-ok watch your head I'm gonna kick the lid"

Just as the voice said, a hard thumping noise and suddenly the lid slammed off the top, he heard more shuffling and a head popped out, it was a boy with a straw hat.

The pink haired boy shouted and stumbled away, Luffy got out of the barrel, while Y/n pulled herself out, but not without knocking over the barrel causing her to fall over.

Crawling out Y/n dusted herself off fixing her necklace. She tried to stand at her full height but she smacked her head on the roof of the lower deck. "O-ow..." following the sound of Luffy's voice she saw him talking to a pink haired boy, he stared at her.

She smiled and waved at him, he loosely waved back. They both stopped when they heard low snoring "wait is that a sea beast?" he snickered, the boy shook his head "no it's just Alvida snoring. if you both want to get out of here it's now or never" the two followed the boy.

Peeking their head out from the lower deck Y/n, Luffy, and the boy made their way up top Y/n staying close to Luffy.

She glanced around them seeing the sleeping crew mates, the pink haired boy handed Luffy an oar as he was about to send both them off but Luffy turned "Y/n do you need-" he stopped when he accidentally smack the oar into the side of a pole causing it to ring out loudly.

Y/n panicked as the crew started to wake up, while Luffy didn't look fazed at all.

"What's going on?"

Walking up a woman most likely the captain looked at the three, her gaze stopping on the pink haired boy. "Koby what's this? you're betraying me now?" Koby stammered "n-no captain Alvida...let me explain-"

She looked over at Luffy "you're too short and scrawny to be Roronao Zoro." he smirked at her "I'm Monkey D. Luffy," she placed her white hat on "never heard of you." "well, remember that name because i'm gonna be king of the pirates."

Both her and her crew laughed, Y/n glared lightly at the woman. "You must be new around here boy. because who's the most powerful pirate on the seas?" she looked around hearing her crew mates yell out "Captain Alvida!" she looked at Koby who stood silently.

She raised a brow "I'm sorry I didn't hear you Koby? who's the most powerful pirate on the seas?" Koby gulped nervously Y/n gently pulled Koby behind her "h-he doesn't have to answer you." Y/n wanted to punch herself in the face for stuttering. Alvida looked her up and down.

Clicking her tongue she asked "who're you?" Luffy smiled over to his close friend, "I'm Y/n Angelfish and I'm gonna be Queen of the sea!" Alvida looked somewhat interested "Angelfish huh?...so there is still one of you left." Luffy looked mildly confused, but he spoke "Koby is his own man, right?" he looked at Koby "shut up,"

Alvida spoke again "no, no, no he's not. He's mine and he'll always be mine." Luffy chuckled and raised the oar up "that's not what he told me. he said you were mean, and cruel, and you're as dumb as a sea cow" poor boy was shaking like a leaf.

Alvida was fuming now she swung the spiked club at the three, they ducked down causing her to hit the side of a wooden banister.

She swung the club back around making the people around her back up seeing as she almost hit them. One of her crew mates pulled out a gun and shot Luffy but he only puffed his chest out and the bullet popped right on out.

Shocking everyone but Y/n.

"Woah that was fun."

Alvida looked confused "what kind of monster are you?" she asked swinging at him once again only for him to stretch his torso and evade her attack.

He smirked at her "the stretchy kind."

He reached his arm back stretching an abnormally long "Gum gum!" her swung his arm forward "Pistol!" punching Alvida right off the boat.

Y/n looked over the edge of the boat, "uh is she gonna be ok?" Luffy only shrugged and walked away muttering something about needing food for a few days. Y/n was going to follow him but suddenly got light headed, she gripped the side of the boat "u-uh Luffy..." he turned around.

Seeing how she wobbled he came to her side quickly "you forgot how to walk again?" he joked, Y/n let out a small dry chuckle "water..." she mumbled, Luffy nodded and helped her sit on the side of the boat while Koby watched in confusion.

That confusion changed to shock as he watched Luffy push the girl overboard. He ran over leaning over the edge "w-what did you do?!" Luffy kept his smile "don't worry she'll be okay. Trust me, now come on let go get some food."

Koby looked over the edge, he could have sworn he saw a faint green glow but it quickly disappeared. Luffy dragged him away "come on"

☆ ★ ✮ ★ ☆☆ ★ ✮ ★ ☆☆ ★ ✮ ★ ☆☆ ★ ✮

A/n: hope you enjoyed!

[doubleedgemode]

Some character thoughts

I wanted to write down some ramblings about Dizzy's Strive arcade route plus other character things aside and ended up with like, eight paragraphs so here you go I guess!

Under the cut because it's long and so you don't get spoiled if you haven't watched yet. As always feel free to comment and add stuff like agreeing or disagreeing. :)

Omg so that video I watched before wasn't even the extreme route.. So after watching, yeah, tdlr: Dizzy is a queen in all senses and a.b.a is a miserable ugly thing I want to comfort.

Sorry for focusing on my main even if she's not as relevant as Dizzy but you know how it tends to be in my blog.

Longer text: I still stand I'm not a Dizzy expert by any chance of the imagination (as I have said before, outside of my homunculus pond, I feel like my knowledge about this series characters' is not that big. Plus the queen especially, I feel she has a lot of lore to tackle haha) but Strive sold me enough on her. I'm proud of her! and her philosophy, is refreshingly well-written:

it both comes out as like she's this mature, wise, self-realized person who speaks from a higher plane so to speak but also like a normal person (echoing Goldlewis' statement of forgetting he was talking to a queen for a bit) who has recieved a lot of bad hands but somehow managed to heal and maybe their philosophy is too optimistic, maybe it's correct, but she sure will try to make it because of her drive. At least, I want her to make it.

She also strives (hah) for peace and embodies being a sovereign ruler, yet won't let that change her character and will to fight.

This must sound like an oxymoron after all I said about her and change but, just like how she sounding regal yet casual works, this somehow works too! She isn't rejecting changes in life. She knows they'll happen. She embraces them whatever they might be. But that doesn't mean that she has to be a pushover (for lack of a better term). Her character, that is the ONE thing she can change and she chooses to do better and make it so if changes have to occur to people and herself that they're good ones. I gotta bow down to her.

It makes sense to me from a design (?) storytelling (??) perspective that now Necro and Undine are more minimalistic. They're still important to Dizzy's character but she keeps them more in control so to speak, since she's now more in control of her situations. But they're still important, and their relationship towards her seem warmer, too... Like making peace with oneself, in a way. Also, them having a way more unified colour-scheme might not only be so the design is streamlined, but as both being equally important to Dizzy perhaps? (but keeping their attitudes of course)

Now for a less healthy attitude towards changes we have...

A.B.A... That rejection of change cuts deep when you think about, how it can be interpreted that most or at least some of the most impactful of her life experiences feature this encompassing opposition to change, be it whether because outside factors didn't permit it (she couldn't go outside and just stood a decade inside the metaphorical Frasco flask ffs, she wanted a body for Paracelsus but they couldn't get it..) or because she didn't want it (she knew what she was doing to Paracelsus was wrong, and yet kept on knowingly doing that).

Now, I say most or some, but not all, because she has equally important moments of change, (meeting Paracelsus, going outside, even her appearance change after finally deciding to involve herself on human stuff), but I believe her upbringing, solitude and mulling attitude influence this looming presence of stagnancy in the back of her mind, whether she wants it or not. But hope also coexists in her heart so, she might want to believe in Dizzy's words. Just a little bit.

Also I like the headcanon I've seen floating around of Dizzy's route happening before A.B.A's own route (explaining why Paracelsus is yellow), so maybe these encounters and other offscreen things were important pieces to help A.B.A's character do a click. Really fitting that both Dizzy and Testament can have this positive influence about changes to people. Of course, it is the person themselves, in this case A.B.A, the one that has to realize, but it doesn't hurt that the overtly optimistic winged girl you kind of captured ends up beating you up and giving you life lessons lmao. I wonder if they hang out together now, at least sometimes that is... Edit: somehow I missed one of the scenes where they do see eye to eye in husband-liking and A.B.A begrudgingly decides to accept having some tea time together so... Win at least?

Plus, while Paracelsus looking like if he were being curious at Dizzy's proposal is probably because, well, the existing model has both him and A.B.A going :0 at people... Maybe you could see him as him getting moved by Dizzy's statements, too...

[lastoneout]

Okay I'm finally sitting down to properly watch the PJO series so here's an episode-by-episode live blog I guess. (Fair warning, I haven't read the books since I was a teenager, I am a smidge of an apologist for the films, and my favorite adaptation so far has been the musical.)

Episode One:

All of the actors are doing a really good job, I especially like Sally.

The costume design for both the monsters and the humans is pretty killer. I want Percy's sweater.

I also love the little seaside cabin and want to live there!!!

This is such a mild gripe BUT as someone with dyslexia I wish there was a better way to visually depict it without like, doing the swapping letters thing cuz that's just not what it's actually like at all.

Gabe maybe feels a little too funny. Like I'm supposed to hate him and think it's justified that he deserves to be turned into stone at the end, this version of him is really.....toned down, and his banter with Percy and Sally was fun to watch. I should hate him, but really he just came across as unpleasant. Less abusive asshole and more "old married couple who share interests but can't communicate without shouting" you know?

Loved Grover's little "I'm 24 actually" lmao that was great.

Not a fan of Percy immediately recognizing the Minotaur within a millisecond of it appearing before the audience even got a good look at it. Like, I just sat there thinking "how can he even see it?" rather than feeling scared of a big monster barreling at them.

The action is uh....fine? Feels a little lackluster. Or kinda....divorced from the rest of the show weirdly?? Idk it makes me feel like I'm watching a movie of a movie if that makes sense?? But we'll see where they go with it. (I know banter during a fight isn't realistic and people make fun of Marvel for it, but like...it helps to have at least a little talking. We don't wanna be Man of Steel.)

I feel like there's been a few "slightly out of sync ADR" moments but they weren't too distracting.

Pacing into Sally saying goodbye felt a little long, kinda took the shock of her dying out of the scene, but the actress REALLY sold all the emotional beats so I'll forgive it.

I LOVE the credits sequence!!! Reminds me of the designs on that one box set of the books in a really cool way.

Episode Two:

Oh yes the ugly ass neon orange shirts are here bless!

FUCK YES THAT'S DIONYSUS BAYBEEE!! My ONLY note is that he def could have turned up the energy a little, but that's probably just bcs I love how loud and unpleasant he is in the musical and I also know how unhinged this actor can be.

Chiron is such a delight <3

I like the cabins too, way better than how I imagined them as a kid reading the books lol

Oh, I can see why the new fans fell for Luke so hard.

Grover assuming a human being squished would be like an old banana is very funny. Felt very book-humor in a good way.

Clarisse!!

Oh damn actual disabled half-bloods, very cool!

Minor but I can't actually tell what Percy did wrong with the bow? Weird editing I guess.

Aside from that I actually love a good "fuck up" montage, I honestly wish it were a little longer.

Probably doesn't matter but I don't get having them burn the food after they've started eating? I thought that was a before you sit down type thing.

Percy burning the blue candy to try to talk to his mom was sweet tho T_T

"real friends" hahahaha.....yeah.......about Luke.......

yay! hazing!

Oh I love Annabeth already >:D

Thalia.....is pronounced differently than I thought....?

(I'm sorry I'm too much of a fan of 'Tree on the Hill' for this exposition dump. That shit hits harder when coming from Grover.)

Percy giving Annabeth the "actually I suck and my self esteem is riding on this so like pls don't ask me to do anything hard T_T" talk is just, so good lmao

ofc he doesn't know what's going on Annabeth you didn't tell him anything

Okay the action is a lot better when it's between the actual characters and doesn't involve a 3D monster, though I still had trouble following all the hits Percy was taking.

Oooh I can see why people did so much art of Percy being claimed that was a good shot.

FUCK YEAH TELL HIM YOU'RE SALLY JACKSON'S SON

(I hope they kept the Oracle in the attic...)

Okay I have to go do some things and then I'll be back for more!

[xinnamonbun]

Got Nostalgic

So I decided to look at some old Inanimate Insanity humanizations I did a couple years back. I'm pretty sure I did these RIGHT when season 3 released. Good times-

(Looks)

...

AAAAAAAAÆ-

Below will be humanizations of: Soap, Bow, Paintbrush, Blueberry, Goo, Cabby, Test Tube, Cherries, Taco, Apple, Fan, Lightbulb, Suitcase, Balloon, Lifering, Microphone, Marshmallow, Nickel, and Yin-Yang

⚠️ WARNING OLD ART ⚠️

Off to a great start...the soap hair tie is almost cute...almost. (also I'd like to mention that I only knew like three types of shoes so you're going to be seeing these once or twice)

It's... Okay. This is one of the better ones we're going to see. Why does she have ballerina shoes???

I was really really bad at drawing guys and was much better at drawing girls (not that that was very good either). Paintbrush being an entirely different thing made me nervous that I was going to make them too masculine or too feminine. I remember being SO proud of myself... And like this one isn't terrible... But why are they wearing ice skates- (they're not supposed to be ice skates but that is NOT lined up)

Not terrible. I think that this still gives Blueberry vibes it's mainly the shoes that are bugging me. But other than that it's not BAD.

I remember one of my cousins called him Caillou, I sobbed... I hate that they were right- I MADE HIM BALD

Did not know how to draw a wheelchairs (still don't but I hope I could do better than THIS) THIS DOESN'T LOOK LIKE CABBY. END OF STORY. I also don't want to talk about the dress- it's bad

I guess I don't hate this one. I don't love it either. This one is pretty much just "I could believe that's test tube" BUT THERE'S NO SPICE

I had this headcannon that one of the cherries was trans which is why they never spoke because they were self-conscious of their voice. Not the worst head Cannon but I just can't see it anymore. These outfits also just suck. And the return of the ice skates-

This is season 1 Taco specifically and the idea was upon show to hide the hands while having her fancy spy outfit underneath. With the little that you can see of the spy outfit it sucks. The top doesn't look super bad I guess. I also gave her little fangs that I decided to make gray for some reason so they blended into her skin.

I remember this one was my absolute FAVORITE like I thought this was peak character design. It's not that good but at the very least it's definitely the most okay one here... Except for the fact that APPLE'S KNEES ARE LIKE 5/8 DOWN HER LEG- WHO BROKE YOUR LEG?!? Also are those green jeans? Also return of the ice skates.

RONALD MCDONALD!!! IVE FOUND YOUR COUSIN- in case it wasn't clear (it isn't) this is Fan... Excuse me while I bash my head into the wall- WHAT IS THIS ABOMINATION?!? AND ON TOP OF THAT WE HAVE ANOTHER CASE OF ICE SKATES- I swear if I see one more ice skate I'm going to lose it-

This is...kinda adorable??? The hair doesn't fit though. I still like the socks.

This one isn't THAT bad, it's just...the nose. The idea of her having a backpack to carry stuff is still cute. And-... Are those. Ice. Skates. (Inhale) AAAAAAAAÆ---

Burn it with fire. I didn't even like this one when I first drew it! I always had plans of redrawing it but I never did. In case you need clarification this is Balloon... In my slight justification for why he's wearing... that. I was originally going to give all of the returning season 3 contestants vacation clothes because they thought they were going on a vacation but I didn't really do this with any of the others so it just looks out of place and ugly.

I saw an ad around the time I drew this that showed a child missing their upper lip. I thought that that would be an interesting design choice for Lifering to to represent the hole in his face. I was correct that it's interesting. It being a good design choice before this art style is a different topic- still like the earring I gave him though.

I hate those fingers. They're so small. I hate it. I remember this was my favorite outfit, and now I don't like it that much. But I guess it's not THAT bad. It's still kinda bad.

This is Marshmallow. I needed to lead with that otherwise you wouldn't know who this is. This is straight up isn't marshmallow. That is some random girl that should not be trusted with hair dye.

This one is just...okay. at least compared to the other ones on this list. It's not the worst. It's DEFINITELY not the best. His hair is... Something. Also the return of the ice skates

This one is honestly just funny to me now. Yin just looks done (I feel you buddy) I really played around with a vitiligo (the reason why they have both pale and dark skin; look it up) and I do like the concept I had of this I just don't think I have the skills at the time to properly pull it off.

Wait...is that it? IM FREEEEEEE-

Bonus: (this was made before season 3 and I only found this because it was one of the reference images for my Bow humanization shown above)

You know what I said about Balloon? I take it back. Burn THIS with fire.

Ok NOW I'm free.

(for the record I give you full permission to bash me in the replies, in fact I encourage it. I'm planning on making redo's of these humanizations with my (hopefully better) art skills. So pointing out things that you didn't like in the previous designs or things that you think would be nice to add are greatly appreciated feedback)

[ace-ace-in-yo-face]

A small rant about Natlan (genshin).

First of all why are these character designs so boring and ugly I stg the human enemies look better and more interesting. These characters all look like Pokemon trainers (also why is everybody white). I already talked about the archon who looks like shit so I won't even get into that but in general none of these characters seem interesting to me, their gameplay included.

Why does that one Minecraft guy have a pixel video game character sidekick, what is this? Did they confuse genshin and hsr? He doesn't fit into this game but tbh almost nothing in Natlan does.

The land is so empty and boring it's just green with tall mountains, very repetitive and there's almost nothing to do, there's very little chests and the puzzles.... I can't even think of any which tells u enough. I personally dislike the weird pokemon mechanic, they are v slow and horrible to control there's no use for them other than the few specific things they're made for which isn't great either.

The archon quest was v boring imo, the entire act 1 felt like filler but it was better than whatever the hell happened in the second one. Kachina at least got some kind of arc but it was thrown out of the window by the end anyway. Why are you giving characters trauma just to ignore it after 2 minutes. Also why is no one in game mentioning how weird it is to send literal children to war? That was so confusing to me. This and Mulani using power of friendship to defeat a bad guy, when he showed up I thought we might finally get something exciting going on but nah gone after 30 seconds. There is some promise for the story I guess but tbh I don't rly like a single character, Kachina is fine and the rest of them are bland at most, the archon is even more lame and disappointing than I expected like there's no conflict around her or with her, she's just nice and cooperative and her people love her - that's so fucking boring why should I care for someone who's personality is "nice" and there's nothing to it.

The only fun thing was capitano kicking Mauvika cuz it make me laugh. NGL I wish he ended up killing her just so we could get some original storyline that's actually interesting and would't make me wish there was a skip button. (Obviously that'd never happen but it's an interesting idea)

Ngl I'm not invested at all, I did a few quests for the tribes and these weren't much better. This is the worst region yet in my opinion. I highly doubt they'll change my mind but who knows, I ended up liking Furina by the end of Fontaine so maybe we'll get a miracle. Highly doubt it tho

[minijenn]

Jen Tortures Herself With Every Dreamworks Animated Movie Ever: Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken

So uuuuuhhhhh yeah. I don't know what I was expecting with this movie. Wasn't expecting it to be good, and it wasn't. Nobody is fucking surprised.

Ruby Gillman is, well, a teenage kraken, who lives with her family on land and tries to blend in as a human while being Omg Quirky Relatable Shy Nerd (seriously this movie doesn't have an original bone in its body, we'll get into that more in a bit). She eventually discovers she can turn into a giant kraken and that she comes from kraken royalty. Throw in the breakdown of trust between her and her mother, a new "friendship" she strikes up with a mermaid named Chelsea, and OMG THE PROM IS TOMORROW and you have a whole mess of cliches that didn't come to an end nearly quick enough for me.

So yeah this plot is... extremely derrivitive, on two very specific Pixar movies in particular. It's like... a weird crossover between Luca (fish people trying to blend in on land) and Turning Red (puberty metaphor, mommy issues, etc) and it does none of what those movies did well anywhere near as close to good as they did. Like this movie tries so hard to be surprising and have twists and turns and like... literally none of those surprises landed. None of the emotions landed. None of the jokes landed. Nothing in this boring ass movie landed.

The characters are all pretty one-note. Ruby is your traditional nerdy, awkward girl with a crush on a guy who is also just as bland as stale bread. Her family is pretty uninteresting, her mom is... somewhat better, I guess, and I did like her grandma, but she was about the only character I found some level of enjoyment out of. We also have Chelsea, who big surprise, is our twist villain, as if I didn't see that coming from the second I saw her show up on screen. The way she so easily manipulates and plays Ruby is just... god it makes you wannt scream "DON'T TRUST HER YOU DIPSHIT" the entire time, like girl, I get you're an anxious 15 year old but you should know better jfc.

This movie tries to have lore and be epic, but like... idk it just isn't. The climactic fight scene at the end was so slow-paced and dull, there wasn't really anything about it at all, which for what's essentially a giant kaiju fight, is a damn shame. The jokes were honestly non-existant, and the script itself is already hella dated with so much social media references and modern teen lingo (bestie, bae, etc) despite only coming out last year.

It also doesn't help that, at least in my opinion, this movie is ugly. Like the animation itself is fine, but these goddamn character designs, christ I think they are some of the WORST to ever come out of a Dreamworks movie. The humans all have weird proportions that don't make sense, the krakens don't look like krakens at all and instead look like... humans with long tentacles, which is weird, and the set design... was admittedly ok to look at, but that's about it. Pair that with an utterly forgettable, but servicable score and plenty of equally forgettable pop songs and there's just not much going on here.

I think, at the end of the day, Ruby Gillman is just... lame. Like the concept itself... isn't awful, but the execution, man, they just floundered (get it, fish) on all fronts here. No wonder this thing tanked at the box office. I wouldn't have gone to see it either.

Overall Rating: 4/10

Verdict: Harpoon these lame-ass krakens

Previous Review (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish)

Next Review (Trolls Band Together)

[prowerprojects]

I do hope with Sage being around, it offers Tails some interactions that's more his wavelength and offers different perspectives that gets him to think about double-edge situations. (Sometimes the straightforward solution isn't always the correct one or the most beneficial.)

But I'm definitely vouching for antagonists that Tails encounters on his own. (And I prefer it not being another tech-head. I'm open to like, other aspects of science and creating. {Speaking of magic, I'm curious of how'd react to a necromancer, considering his fear of ghosts} Or even ones that tests his other attributes, like flying, intellect or discovering a different fighting style from Sonic and Knuckles.)

Archie was all over the place, but I was intrigued by the concept of Speedy essentially being jealous of Tails being free and not locked to a bloodline. Expressing a few times he wants out. (But it is funny how outside of Eggman, Tails' biggest beefs is with birds who feel threatened by his abilities{Wave}.)

Yeah, I'm really interested in how their relationship could be developed, and how their characters could push and challenge each other. It would be a waste if there wasn't something done with them. Though it's hard to tell now how it'll go since we don't know what'd happen to Sage after Frontiers.

A necromancer? It'd probably be a bit too much for Sonic, haha. (Well... we do already jave ghosts and spirits...) Though honestly, I'm open to almost anything. There's also the matter of how the game would be played and how it would affect the design and abilities of the villain. Personally I would be interested in a character that also had a rough childhood like Tails but decides to take revenge on others for it (even if it's a bit cliche). I think it could be interesting because I feel like Tails could provide a lot of empathy for them (instead of being like "I got over it so you have no excuse"), while also protecting other people from them. (Though it'll probably be a one off antagonist since there's no way they aren't getting reformed at the end. Still)

Eeehh. I'll be honest I don't consider Tails Adventure canon and the Battle Birds don't interest me. Jokes about toddler Tails fighting off an army are funny, but it's incompatible with Tails's characterization of being a meek and timid kid before he met Sonic. Ignoring Tails Adventure makes Tails's character arc stronger. (Also those birds are ugly as sin. (Sorry). Tails deserves enemies with a cooler design/j)

The concept of someone being jealous of Tails's freedom doesn't intrigue me either, because it's got nothing to do with Tails himself. If it was someone being jealous of Amy's freedom, for example, literally nothing would change. Tails is not a character that has freedom as one of his core character themes, at least not in the same way as Sonic, or Rouge. (Maybe I wouldn't even mind that it's not one of Tails's major character themes if it wasn't already Sonic's. Sonic and Tails have a lot of similarities but I'm sure we could get something that's more unique to Tails if we're making an antagonist for him).

I guess Tails has a similar theme which is about choosing to do things his own way and carving his own path, etc., which could work with "feeling of being locked into the bloodline" thing; but this also works really well with Sage, it's even more on point, I think, because with Sage, she's also choosing, but to do the opposite, to go along with Eggman and his scemes. (At least I'm assuming that's how it'll end up going). I like that it's two characters having agency (I mean Sage doesn't really because Eggman wouldn't be keeping her around if she made the "wrong" choice but she doesn't know that) and having contrasting views on their growth and "destiny". Plus we've already got Sage and we gotta do something with her. (I do want Tails to have his own antagonists but she's already here and we can't waste her)

[dragynkeep]

Have you guys seen the outfits for the new RWBY anime movie? What you two think of them?

I love that after five minutes of new content being released, ten separate people ran to my inbox to ask me to critique the outfits.

I will say this, these outfits are honestly better than their V7 outfits, but that's not the major achievement given what we have here. Some parts are good, others are just really bad.

Ruby's is easily the best out of the four. It keeps her colour palette, it looks good, and it does fit Ruby's character; it's cute and young, like something a teenager would reasonably wear in the snow. I'm guessing these are outfits for the cold anyway, since we already saw that they keep their Beacon outfits in this show anyway.

The hat, goggles and fanny pack are cute additions, while the oversized red hoodie looks comfortable while adding to the cute factor. This looks like something Ruby would wear, and while it takes away from her big skirt and long boots, what replaced them kept to the overall vibe that Ruby has.

The only thing I don't like is the weird white skirt/shirt thing underneath her hoodie. It's the only white on her design and it just drags the attention to her legs. Also, why is the metal on her pack coloured teal and not silver? It just clashes when it easily could've fitted in with Ruby's eye colour.

Weiss' just reminds me of Dishwasher's design with the giant pope hat being swapped for the flatter cap. It's a nice look, very militristic which I guess is where they're taking Weiss' character for this new RWBY thing, and the coat with the dress underneath doesn't look bad.

The blue on the underside of the coat stops Weiss' white dress from blending in with her white coat, is a nice blue to use rather than the royal blue they keep trying to stick her in, and the black decals contrast a lot with the overall white colouring she has going on. It's not really on this picture of her, but her other one shows white snowflake designs on the end of her tights were her shoes are. I just think that's pretty.

Obviously, for Weiss, the shoes are impractical and don't fit her. She wears wedged boots, but those types of shoes would look out of place with the aesthetic they have her in. The shoes fit the outfit, but the outfit isn't really Weiss as we know her. Very likely because this will be a different Weiss to who we knew.

The problem is that there's way too much going on with the coat and the dress. I like the slits in them showing more blue, but the decal on her chest is way too much with the straps and then all the lines and designs on her coat. It makes it very hard to focus on one thing. Definitely tone it back a bit there.

They really did go full cat girl with Blake. Just said "fuck it" and made her a catgirl with their whole ass cheeks out. Not a care in the world.

For the most part, I don't hate the outfit. I just don't really like it either. The lacing on the shorts look too cluttered, the catsuit is something I've always hated, the gloves made her look like discount Prowler, and I hate the half bow thing. It looks like she got a tiny beanie to go over one ear. Just the one.

Like, she's wearing black, but now all the purple and the gradients are overpowering the black, and the purple tone on the back of her hair does not help. This is an instance of Blake wearing too much purple, but at least it's not the ugly shade that she wears in her later outfits.

There's not even much I can say is good. I guess that it keeps in tone with her Beacon outfit but updated, but it really doesn't look that great. She's just Cat now.

Now, Yang's look isn't bad. She might look like an extra from Attack on Titan, but it's not a bad look for her. I think the jacket is cute and her hair being up in a ponytail is a great hairstyle for her. It helps set her apart from Blake while both keep their long hair. I always wished she kept her ponytail from V4 onwards but alas.

The jacket looks warm and is a nice style. It isn't made of 50 different fabric types and is actually zipped up to keep Yang warm. I'm not entirely sure on the bottom half though. The purple sash on the belt is fine, wish it was a nicer purple, but I don't like the one leg up, one leg down pants she got going on.

Not only that but, while I like the boots, I think they can go without the sudden grey metal plate on them. I don't know why Yang is wearing grey metal rather than her usual gold, but the colouring on this outfit is just not good. She's back in her brown, but this time without any orange and the yellow is an ugly desaturated shade.

Really, just fix the colouring, give her proper pants and take the metal off her boots.

They also released the outfits for Team JNPR as well, so I'm gonna give some rapidfire thoughts on them here:

It's just his Beacon outfit with mittens, a scarf and hat, and his sneakers were changed to boots. Jaune's Beacon outfit is an alright outfit, nothing too out there but works for him at that point. The only issue I had was that he had way too many colours on him, and the orange and white accessories don't help with that.

This is cute. It's like a V7 style that actually works, the coat isn't too long but looks like it would actually keep her warm, as well as having the one heart on her chest and some cute bow accessories. The pink being mostly on her jacket is a nice touch, but the cyan and pink right next to each other is a bit much.

It might've helped to have the navy blue a bit more here. The cyan bows and cuffs can stay, but maybe change the legs to navy blue so the pink pops more on her boots.

Ignore my hack job, I'm not Ais-levels good yet.

But yeah, just darkening the legs already makes the colouring more balanced. The pink is throughout it, the cyan is accenting it, and the black/navy blue is used as contrasts.

Good outfit either way, just a bit too bright on the eyes and needs to be pulled back a bit.

This is literally Weiss' Gala dress but red. Why is Pyrrha dressed like this? Where's her Greek style gone? Her armour? Has she retired? Is she Weiss' mistress now? Someone please tell me, I'm lost in this Denny's.

Ren in silver supremacy 2022-

So, this is by no means a bad outfit. I actually like it, he keeps his Beacon outfit but just changed slightly to fit the colder weather. I miss the lotus designs on his boots, and the random splotches on pink on his robes don't really add to the design. It actually makes the front design look like an angry frog.

Not only that, but the random white fur on his shoulders are so distracting. Get rid of them and the design will look better for it.

Really, nothing can beat Ren's Mistral outfit, but this one isn't his V7 one at least.

[spongebob-connoisseur]

since we are kind of topic of anthro female character designs

while spongebob sometimes of course isn’t the most innocent on this topic since sometimes they are also guilty of just throwing boobs on a fish and putting hair and giving them really feminine features but i wanna appreciate the times they do get it right!!

like karen she isn’t some weird sexy robot she literally looks like a computer, some of the background characters are good! like while some obvs have visible boobs (i guess some you could argue just wear bikini tops/bras for fashion though) some just literally look like a fish for example that yellow fish who only wears a flower skirt and then is topless, but it isn’t weird to look at since she doesn’t have boobs or curves to invoke some sort of humanoid design heck sometimes they give the commonly used for male designs sometimes with female voices!

in general with anthro/furry cartoons i wouldn’t have a problem if one series all the genders were supposed to have more humany bodies, and/or that they would give female characters more variety and diversity than just only feminine features, but it’s tiring when it’s obvious the male characters just look like real life animals but the girls are given more humany features and only girly appearances because “oh no how are they supposed to know she’s a girl??? also we are horny”

You're rifht. But honestly I still consider SB not as bad as other shows. Depending on the season lol

At least we do know the hair fishes have are usually wigs. So its a deliberate fashion choice to have them. But even then there isn't much of a reason to make them so feminine. You know I actually have a headcanon about this. Its already known that bikini bottomites collect human garbage and repurpose them to use. They do watch human movies (replaying on spongebob's tv for an example) I always headcanoned that they end up finding a lot of old movie tapes/recordings that end up as garbage. And they watch them and it influences the culture and fashions underwater. Random to mention but I just wanted to tell.

Also Karen is peak design. I've said it before in another ask but I really appreciate they didn't try to make her into a sexy robot. I usually hate female robot characters because they usually feel so fetishy. Karen is actually pretty cool and I'm really happy she evades the curse of female robots in media.

And I get how you feel. Its always so weird when cartoons have their male characters so cartoony and the girls are just over the top feminine in order to signify that they're a girl. Like there's many ways to design a female character but they always push to make it ad conventionally attractive as possible even when it doesn't make sense. Even in regular old human characters. Unless they deliberately making the character a mother or child or explicitly ugly.

Like dude I get your horny but control yourself lollll

[goksiiiiii]

Fake Blondie changed my life - Zabdiel De Jesús

Note: This is my first imagine ever, and first time I am actually trying to write something like this. I hope it is not too bad. I am sorry for all my mistakes but I hope you understand because ENGLISH IS NOT MY FIRST LANGUAGE.

The life has never been easy. I mean, how can it been easy for a girl who doubts her worth and hates herself every day more and more? It hasn't always been like that, you were a happy child, full of energy and love for life. Unfortunately, you just didn't have luck, you bumped into wrong people, the ones that broke you. "You are actually so ugly, I mean look at your body, not only that you don't have boobs but neither do you have ass, you are so fucking flat, nobody would even fuck you and let's not talk about possibilty that someone would fall in love with you." were the words you would often hear, just in different ways. Sometimes you would hear it from your "friends", family and exes who left you after they didn't get what they wanted. It is not that you haven't been a strong girl, it has just become too much to handle. You would always wonder how they couldn't understand that you didn't have an opportunity to choose the way you would look like. It doesn't even matter because we all can be loved the way God made us.

You have moved to Miami, you were hoping for a better life. When you thought about better life you didn't mean having hookups and fucking every night different boy, no, the better life for you meant FREEDOM. You were hoping that you will be FREE, that you will be YOURSELF, you were hoping that nobody would judge you and make you feel even more shitty, if that was possible.

You got a job to work as a fashion designer for a latin boy band CNCO. It was your dream to work as a fashion designer because you have been so creative since you were very little. You were from Europe so you didn't have an opportunity to hear about them earlier. You started exploring things about them, not because you were interested in them, but because you wanted to see how they like to dress so that you can do your job well and make everyone happy. Sometimes, it seems like all you ever cared for was to make people around you happy. You have always put yourself last. It never crossed your mind that handsome boys like them would even notice you. Everyone wanted them and nobody ever wanted you, because at the end of the day you were just a flat girl. At least that's what you thought.

"I heard we will have new fashion designer" Zabdiel stated. "Oh dios mio, really?" Erick asked curiously "I really hope that we will finally be dressed up like our bodies deserve." "Carla said she will be here soon, so I will go outside to wait for her so she doesn't get lost" Richard tells the boys while heading towards exit. "It is a girl?" Christopher immediately stops playing Fortnite. "I guess, but you know, you don't need to flirt with every girl in the wolrd" Joel rolls his eyes at Chris. "Ay papa, you need to wake up man, la vida es solo una" Chris tells Joel while having a big smile on his face.

You enter the building but you don't see anyone. You try to stay as calm as you can, not allowing your anxiety to come in and ruin your dreams. As you start walking up the stairs, you bump into someone and fall down. "Oh my God are you okay?" Richard asks you worriedly "I- I- am so sorry, I was looking for our new dresser and I was in a hurry, I didn't want her to get lost." he says while helping you to get up. "In that case, I won't give you the worst clothes, I will save them for other memebers who misbehave" you tell him smiling a little. "Oh- are you-" you cut him saying "Yes. That's me" "God, I am such an idiot nena, sorry." Richard says facepalming "I almost made you break your leg on your first day." You both laugh "No need to worry, I know to be clumsy." "I am Richard and thank you for taking it easy on me and not ruining my fashion model career because of this." "I am Y/N, and don't worry, you still need to earn my trust." you said jokingly while Richard shakes head "Trust me other boys are more problematic than me, let me introduce you to them."

Richard was really nice and kind to you and you were yourself joking a bit with him, but then you remembered that you don't want to get attached to anyone. Who the hell knows what's behind that charimng smile Richard has. You don't want new friends who will hurt you at the end or even worse you don't want a boyfriend. You don't trust anyone anymore so you decided to stay as distant as you could with all the memebers from CNCO. But then you slightly shook your head and thought to yourself "Like anyone would want you anyways." A really loud and excited voice stopped you from overthinking "Oh, mamita welcome, soy Christopher, ma mas sexy of them all" he smiles at you and at that moment you wish you had his confidence.

"I am Y/N, nice to meet you." you simply say with a small smile on your face. Erick and his ugly shirt caught your attention next. "Okay you seriously need help with that." you say looking at Erick from top to the bottom. "Omg that hurts." Erick tells you while pretending to wipe a tear. He had extremly beautiful eyes and you knew it will be hard to stop staring at them. "It will be alright, no llores." you say patting Erick's back. "What's up with others? You ain't going to introduce yourselfs?" a beautiful blondie spoke up while walking towards you. "She knows me already because I almost killed her." Richard defends himself. Zabdiel gives him a confused look but decides to focus on you "Okay so, the boy who tried to kill you is Richard, the least sexy guy in here is Christopher-" "Ay papa, why so mean to me?" Chris squeals while pretending to be crying with Erick. "Oh God with who I am working." you chuckle and shake your head. Zabdiel smiles so softly at you which almost causes you to blush but you don't because you know the smile isn't for you, he is just being kind and polite, your mind tells you. "The boy who needs your help with style is Erick, the quiet one eating french fries is Joel and I am Zabdiel." he finishes introducing. "I am not quiet, I just thought she knew us." this time Joel defends himself. "I am from Europe and unfortunately Latin music is not on the big level there" you state. "Anyways I am really glad I have an opportunity to work with you guys, I know you have a concert in 3 days so we can start looking for stuff that you will wear." "Ay nena, relajate, you have time." Chris says while putting his arm around your shoulder. "You didn't tell us anything about yourself." You try your best to be kind to the boys but you were scared you will end up being hurt again. "Look, I am here to work, not to hang out with you, so please just call me when you are ready to work with me and to make an idiot of me." You exclaimed while walking out of the room. The boys look at each other in shock. "What's up with her?" Christopher asks. "No clue, but that was weird." Erick adds. "Don't be rude. We don't know her story." Zabdiel tells them. It seems like Zabdiel was the only one to notice, you are still healing your wounds.

You came to your apartment and just locked the door and threw yourself on the bed overthinking how you reacted to the boys. You knew you were so rude and that they didn't deserve it at all but you couldn't help it. You wanted to protect yourself and you thought it was a good way. But was it really? Even thought it was pretty early to sleep, it was 8pm, you just wanted to fall asleep and forget about everything. Suddenly, as your eyes start to close, you hear a bell ringing. You aren't getting up, hoping that whoever the hell it is will be gone. "Come on Y/N, we know you are in." you hear Chris' voice. "Open up please" Joel begs. You get up to open the door surprised with the fact that they found out where you live. "What the hell are you guys doing? I am trying to sleep." you say. "Sleep? At 8pm on Saturday night? Erick asks seriously. "Yea?" you state simply. "Can we come in and talk? Please." Zabdiel looks into your eyes. You quickly look away and walk away leaving the door open. The boys take that as a yes and slowly walk in.

"I have brought lots of snacks and drinks!" Richard says pointing at paper bags "We are going to make you a welcome party." You just got back into your bed and covered yourself with a blanket. "Yea, you guys have fun, just please don't break anything I literally moved in this morning." you tell them closing your eyes. "I knew that this was bad idea, we should give her time." Joel whispers to Zabdiel. "Yes, we shouldn't force her to open up, if she is not comfortable with us Zab." Erick agrees with Joel. "What, is it blame Zabdiel day or what? We haven't even tried to make her feel comfortable with us! How can she feel comfortable when there is Christopher who just comes in front of her and says "Yo I am the sexiest." I mean stop complaining and try your best to help her feel okay. She is going to be with us now every day." Zabdiel exclaimed. "Did you fall for her in like 2 hours or what?" Chris asks him with a smirk on his face. "Can you be serious at least for 1 minute? It is not always about flirting and fucking. You sometimes need to help people." Zabdiel tells him while shaking his head. "She was really happy when I bumped into her, she was so chill and I loved her humor, idk what happened later." Rich says while taking a sip of his favourite drink. Chris comes closer to you grabbing whipped cream while whispering to you slowly. "If you don't want to come to our party.... party will come to you." Chris says while spraying whipped cream all over your face and running away from you. "Christopher Damn Velez!" you shouted at him while jumping out of the bed to get your revenge but then Erick grabs you by your waist and stops you. "Run bro, run bro! I got you" Erick yells. "Erick, let me go rn or you will have an ugly style forever!" you tell him. "Y/N don't do that to me..." Erick says making a puppy face. "I am warning you!!!" you say acting seriously. Erick looks carefully at Zab coming slowly behind him and let you in his arms. "You have nothing to blackmail me with." Zab wishpers in your ear while wrapping his arms around your waist. Your body shivers at his touch and you get gooseboomps from his breath on your neck. You don't know why, but it just happens. Seems like your body was giving you signs and trying to tell you "He is the one." "Zabdiel..." you managed to say something. "You either let us introduce ourselves in real light and have good time with us or..." "Or what?" you ask "This." not even finishing the sentence he started tickling you. "N-no, n-no Zabdiel!" you exclaimed while laughing. "Stop, stop please!" you begged while tears were rolling down your face from laughing. But he didn't plan to stop, he was just tickling you even more intensively. "Then promise..." Zabdiel orders. "O-okay, te lo prometo!" you say breathing heavily. "Omg, you are such an idiot!" you tell him while throwing a pillow at him. Zabdiel didn't care about you wanting to kill him at the moment, he just knew his heart was happy because he made you smile. And if his heart and emotions could talk at that moment. They would say it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life.

"So it is sleepover then?" Joel asks. "It is." you roll your eyes playfully. "I even got stuffed animals!" Richard tells you and burst into laughter. "Omg you guys are so sweet." "OH DIOS, chicos this is our first compliment!" Chris claps his hands in excitement and everyone else make sarcastic shocked faces which causes you to laugh even more. They all light up candles and ties up balloons trying to make this interesting as much as they could. But also, they were making sure that you are comfortable and fine with everything they were doing. Zabdiel makes comfy place for you to sit next to him. "Come here." he tells you while patting the seat next to him. "No, I am still mad at you." you say trying not to laugh. "Ik how to make this even." Erick says while spraying whipped cream all ove Zabdiel's hair. "NOT THE HAIR!" Zabdiel screams. Christopher started laughing so much which made you burst into tears of laughter because his laugh was the most contagious laugh in the world. They all kept making mess throwing food at each other. "You all are going to clean this I swear." you say looking at the mess they made. "We are going to sing to you now. We will make you forget about all bad things we have done!" Joel says while smiling softly. "Oh hell no, I bet you all suck..." you say teasing them. Zabdiel raises his eyebrows at you, and you felt like your heart was just going to melt. And you were right. Erick starts slowly playing "Tu Luz" on guitar he brought here.

"Dime tú, cómo hago para captar tu atención

Sé muy bien, que en el pasado

Te han roto el corazón"

Zabdiel sings to you while tucking a piece of your hair behind your ear. He sang with so much passion, and that, together with the meaning of the lyrcis, made you get so emotional.

"Abrázame fuerte y no tengas miedo amor

Déjame explicarte..." Chris starts singing to you and his harmonies were already bringing the death to you.

"Quiero ser el que llena de felicidad

Cada espacio de soledad

Déjame ser tu luz"

they all sing together and you couldn't help it with all the emotions and their beautiful voices. "I- I- am sorry, I will be right back." you say with a low voice while crying your eyes out you run to the bathroom.

Everyone look at each other worriedly. "Zab go with her." Joel tells him. "Go see if she is okay." Richard adds. You sit down on the cold bathroom tiles leaning in the wall. You remember all the things people did to hurt you and the way Zabdiel sang to you "I know very well that in the past they have broken your heart." made you think avout all the times people came into your life to waste a couple of months and then leave you when they didn't get what they wanted. "Y/N.. please open the door." Zabdiel says while knocking on your bathroom door. You couldn't even hear him because you were overwhelmed with so many emotions at that moment and you felt like panick attack would get you soon. You try to calm down yourself but you just keep shaking and sobbing even more not realizing how loud you were getting. Once Zabdiel hears you his heart starts beating so fast "Y/N I don't care I am coming in." he tells you while opening the door. He sees you sitting down trying to calm your breathing down. Zabdiel doesn't say anything he just knees down to you and pulls you into his chest hugging you tightly. "Y/N, I am here, you are okay." Once he wrapps his arms around you body your heart starts slowly to get back in normal rhythm. He genlty grabs your face in his hand making you look at him. "Nena, it is okay, I am here, you are safe, no one is going to hurt you." he tells you looking deep into your eyes. You just nod slowly at him and hugs him tightly. You didn't know why you did that, but the only thing you knew at that moment was that you felt so safe in his arms.

After a few minutes of silence but comfortable one, you spoke up. "I am so sorry for causing such a scene in front of you and the boys." you say playing with your fingers. "I have never wanted to be rude just-" "Just you are scared to let us in your life for some reason?" Zabdiel cuts you off "You don't have to apologize for anything nena. I know how ew people can be, and how they can turn your mind against you." he tells you. "Just.. you have no idea how much I hate myself and everything about me.. I- I- don't even know why you guys want to hang out with a girl like me." you tell him while wipping your tears away." Zabdiel puts his hand on yours making sure you are okay with it. "There is absoultely nothing in you or on you that you should hate." Zab says simply. "If me and guys hadn't felt and seen that you were such a nice girl and such a great person we wouldn't even bother coming here." "I know you have every right to think I can be just some another lie, but this is me looking you right in the eyes now and promising you that we are here to protect you. I am here for anything you need. If you want to rant, go on I will listen, If you want advice I will try my best to give you great one. I am here for anything you need. Just give us a chance and we will prove to you that you can count on us." Zabdiel tells you not taking his eyes off of you. You smile at him and deep inside your heart feels that he is honest but your mind tells you to be careful. "Muchas gracias Zab, I will try my best but I hope you understand I will need time." you tell him not noticing your thumb was slighty stroking his hand. "Vale niña, we will be waiting for you. You will work with us every day, you need to get close to us sooner or later." he smiles and purposely bumps his shoulder with yours. "Now go shower, relajate and go to sleep. You need rest." You nod at him while he leaves the bathroom. Zabdiel tells his bandmates what happened and they all gave a promise that will do their best to make you feel good with them. "Can't sleep Zab?" Chris slowly whispers. "Nah." Zab replies. "You thinking about Y/N?" Chris asks. "All I know Chris is that I want to make her be able to smile without being afraid to." Zab tells Chris. "And I am sure, you will bro." Chris tells him being so confident about his words. In the morning, boys got up early to clean the mess they had made. You woke up hearing Chris' laughing about God knows what. "Ohhh, buenos dias sleeping beauty." Richard tells you. "What are guys doing?" you ask. "Nada we took a day off to help you clean." Joel answers you. "Omg, why would you that? I could do it, I was just joking last night." you tell them. "Shhh!" Erick tells you "Less talk, more work!" Erick says grabbing a brush and paint in his hands. "Are you guys like going to paint my apartment?" you ask worriedly. "Yup this place is really ugly and you need to start fresh here soo..." Erick tells you while throwing a brush at you. "Vamos a trabajo!" You just look at them in disbelief and shake your head.

"Let's start from the top." Zab says. "You know not everyone has your height." you tell him playfully rolling your eyes. Zab bends down and picks you up so you can sit on your shoulder. "What about now?" he asks. "Omg you are such an idiot." you smile. Zabdiel was happy because he was making you smile. He really liked having you close to him. "Zabdiel, bro, you have been painting the same sport for 2 minutes now, are you okay?" Chris asks while moving hand in front of his eyes. "Um- yea yea, I am fine, I was just thinking about something." Zab defends himself. You decided to distract him from his thoughts so you put a bit of blue paint on his nose. "Ohhh.... my bad, lo siento." you tell Zabdiel. "Excuse me? What was that for?" he asks while having a big smile on his face. "Nothing, it was an accident." you say trying to stop yourself from laughing. "Oh?" Zab says while putting a paint on your thigh. "This was also an accident." he casually tells you. "Zabdiel! Don't do that" you scream at the feeling of cold paint. "Do what?" he acts innocently. You use your brush and this time paint his hair. "Here, it is better, I didn't like blonde anyways." you say. "Oh my God, oh my God, you are so bad." he says while bringing you down and pushing you to the wall. Zabdiel starts moving his hair on your face. "Zabdiel! Detener!" you yell at him while laughing so much. "Oh, I love this new look of you." he says while smirking at you. "I swear you will stay bald." you try to seriously tell him. "Nah, my stylist won't let it happen to me." he says looking deep into your eyes. "Oh really? We will see." you tell him. Zabdiel's heart was beating fast and his breathing was getting heavier. He wished nothing more than to press his lips against your. He was trying to refrain especially because of the deep talk you two had last night. "I swear I dropped my ring in here-" Richard enters the room looking for the ring he lost. Chris notices you two being close to each other pressed against the wall. "We are sorry!" Chris tells you two while grabbing Richard's hand and dragging him out of the room. "Um, let's get cleaned." Zab says trying to ease the tension. "Vale." you tell him kinda thankful for Richard and Chris entering the room because you felt like if Zabdiel wasn't going to kiss you, you would do it instead. After you and boys finished painting they decided to go out with you to show you Miami a bit. "I swear Erick just kept eating the whole day, he hadn't painted anything." Joel complained. "OMG bro stop lying." Erick tells him. "This man is a liaaaar, this man is a liaa a a a r" Richard starts singing. "Madre mia, are you guys this childish every day?" you ask curiously. "What is it supposed to mean?" Chris asks while crossing arms like a kid. "Nada." you say giving up. "Nah, I swear we are normal." Zabdiel says. "Pff, yes especially you." you tell him while looking at the sunset on the beach. Other boys went to grab something to eat while Zabdiel told them he is not hungry and that he will stay with you. As you were enjoying the feeling of walking barefoot on the wet sand you see your ex friend. Well, more like ex friend with benefits. "Y/N?" Marco says. "Is that you?" he says coming close to you. "Um- yeah hi." you tell him smiling awkwardly. Marco was your friend in highschool. You guys would always have such a great time together. He was so sweet to you and whenever someone bothered you he would try to make you forget about it giving you the best pleasure ever. He was simply good in the bed. That lasted until everyone discovered you two were fucking. After they found out, people started teasing him how he couldn't find a better bitch to fuck and then he threw you away like a garbage. "Omg I haven't seen you for ages!" he says. "Who is this?" he asks pointing at Zabdiel. "He is a friend." you tell him. "With benefits? New one? Is he better than me?" Marco kept asking dumb questions which embarassed you so much. You didn't want Zabdiel to think you were just another girl wanting to fuck every second boy.

You were a teenager and at that time, that was the only way for you to escape the reality. "No Marco!" you yell. "That's in the past, I am not a kid anymore and I am not wasting my time on it. I am actually trying to find someone who is worth to love and not just to fuck. I am trying to have a normal life. Maybe you should do it too." you tell him while grabbing Zabdiel's hand and walking away from him. "Yeah good luck with that, hole is hole for every boy no matter how ugly you are." Marco shouts. Zabdiel was going to run after your ex friend but you stopped him. "I am so sorry about that." you tell Zab completely embarassed. "It is fine." he says. "But what's not fine is the way he was talking to you. It is so disgusting. I am literally disgusted with all males." Zabdiel tells you. "Dw about it, I am really used to it." you sigh. "No, damn it, you are the most chill and beautiful girl I have ever seen. And I don't even care what you say but I don't know what is better about you, how hot and beautiful you look or your incredible personality." he tells you speaking so quickly. Zabdiel couldn't handle this all and before you got a chance to answer him he asks "Is he your type?" You look at him confused but answering anyways. "No, honestly I don't know even who is my type. They all end up hurting and breaking me at the end." you say looking at the sea. "I don't want you to think I am girl like that, you know, just looking for someone to have sex with for one night-" "No, Y/N I know you are not." Zabdiel simply says. "I know you are much more than that." "Thank you Zab." you tell him smiling a little. "So let's say, a Puerto rican, 22 years old, fake blondie wanted to be your type, what would you say?" he asks you looking at your hands on your lap. This time, both your mind and heart were telling you that he was the one. The right one. "I love fake blondies." you tell him biting your lip trying not to smile so much. Zabdiel quickly moves his head up to look at you smiling so much. "So this fake blondie wants to ask you if you could give us a try?" he says. You nod at him putting a hand on his cheek slowly stroking it with your thumb. Zabdiel puts his forehead on yours and slowly moves his lips to yours, kissing you softly and passionately. "I will make you happy nena, I promise you." he tells you pulling away and bringing your hand next to his heart. "You have already done it, you have changed my life for such a little time." you tell him smiling for the first time without being afraid that you will end up being hurt. "LENGUA KISS! WE WANT LENGUA KISS!" boys shout while running to hug you both. The moment Zabdiel hears their voices, he knows whats is comping up, so he quickly grabs your hand and make you two run into the water of calm ocean.

He changed your life. He made you feel like a queen. His queen.

Sometimes you need to go through a lot of pain and experience awful things to be happy. "You will be happy" said life "but first I will make you strong."

Thank you for reading!:)

Please message me and tell me what do you think about my first work ever. Ly xx

[coinofstone]

3x12 The Coming of Arthur pt 1

The title is such low hanging fruit I feel bad cracking a joke about it.

It's a quest episode! I love a quest episode. Srsly feel free to send me any and all Merthur quest fics. I can't get enough 😂

This is the episode responsible for the lovely Leon fanon headcanon that he's immortal. Always handy in an Arthur Returns fic.

Uther: you must go on this mission alone

Arthur: *brings Merlin*

I do love Merlin being being a smart alec and nagging Arthur while packing. Excellent banter.

Arthur said

Arthur threatening a young boy like this is such an ugly and uncharacteristic action it makes me angry.

Merlin tending to Arthur while he's sick and injured 🥺

Also I'm sorry but Merlin shows fuckin Gilli his magic but he's hiding it from fuckin Gwaine while Arthur is suffering? Silly.

Cenred's massive army makes me wonder if it's a result of his tolerance of magic or lower standards than the knights of Camelot, or some combination of both.

Poor Leon, though. He's just got back from near death in that forest and Uther sends him right fuckin back in 😂

Looks like they snuck in to Camelot via the dragon's cave. I doubt that was the intention but I still approve 😂

Knowing he's on a suicide mission, Arthur gives Merlin an out, knowing he'll never take it, knowing he doesn't even want him to: he still presents him with the choice.

How come literally everyone else gets a crown that fits them but Arthur walks around looking like he's wearing hand-me-downs?

Morgana might be evil but she looks damn good on a throne.

3x13 The Coming of Arthur pt 2

There's a post going around Twitter about ppl who nitpick at TV shows... this comment falls into exactly that category 100% but I'm sorry, I cannot just ignore the fact that Morgana's got these massive banners and an entire army's worth of uniforms, I mean look:

Every guard with the sigil on his uniform and half a dozen banners in the council chambers alone. That's to say nothing of the ones outside. I mean look at the sheer fuckin size of these things:

Look how tiny the ppl are next to em! They've gotta be at least 15 feet long, at least. Where did they come from? Were they all magicked into existence? Who designed that sigil? What does it represent? Is it Gorlois' banner? I HAVE QUESTIONS.

Leon isn't someone I've ever been particularly attracted to, personally, but his defiant shout of "Long Live the King" in the face of Morgana's threats, is sexy as hell.

Depressed Arthur is such a mood.

So. Gwen. Originally in 3x12 when Morgana essentially invited Gwen into the fold (insofar as a Queen's servant can be), it seems to be a set up, because Morgana has been treating Gwen like shit for ages, why would she suddenly want her friend back? Especially since Morgana knows something is going on between Gwen and Arthur - there's no way she believes that they were actually under the spell of some random sorcerer, that just doesn't make any sense. So you kind of assume - or at least I did - that Morgana is keeping Gwen close knowing that she'll be useful as bait or a hostage, just essentially as a person of value to Arthur. She's known Gwen for too long to actually believe she'd cross Arthur, there's just no way someone as machiavellian as Morgana doesn't see Gwen's 'loyalty' as a simple survival tactic. All of this is to say, when Morgana and Morgause eavesdrop on Gwen's conversation with Sir Leon, Morgana is just like, 'welp, she's betrayed me. Guess I'll kill her in the morning.' as though she was actually expecting Gwen to do anything else?!?! Like, why? It would've made so much more sense to just cut that line entirely and go straight to something like

Morgana: it's as we suspected, she's betrayed me

Morgause: yes, now she can lead us straight to Arthur

And it would've made so much more sense than the weird sort of purgatory they've implied where Morgana changed her mind about Gwen very suddenly the night before she took the throne. It's not a super important detail in the overarching story but it's another example of how carelessly their story has been handled.

Me rn:

I do love that they made Freya the Lady of the Lake, and that she kept her promise by telling Merlin how to defeat the army of the dead.

How Merlin really sees Kilgharrah:

Gwen really is the smartest of all of them.

I do love that Merlin's first undead kill with excalibur is entirely an accident lol

The subtext between Morgana and Morgause is really gross. I haven't said anything before because I generally don't approve of ship shaming but the not so subtle subtext gives me the heebies.

This is such a great shot

Everything about it, his woman at his left and his man at his right, his romantic rival opposite him on his wife's side, as directly opposite her as possible at a round table with an uneven number of placements. It's a really beautiful shot, fitting for an equally beautiful scene. It's a very moving scene, the music really adds the exact emotion you'd expect for this moment we all recognize... and I feel like the knights' oaths are very well matched. The snarky part of me wanted to make a 'call me maybe' joke about Percival, but he's so sincere I just can't do it. The moment of levity added by Merlin's banter with Arthur is really, really well paced. Honestly I think it's probably the next perfect, iconic scene since Gwen and Arthur's first kiss. Hats off to this crew.

(Don't worry dear reader, I'm sure I'll get back to complaining shortly)

Santiago is so dreamy. I'd share his bedroll any day.

I like that despite all the talk of equality and doing the thing Uther wouldn't approve of, Gwen still worries about the company seeing her and Arthur kiss. Like, he's planning an insurrection with a bunch of commoners and two dudes who've been officially banished from Camelot, but she's internalized the classism and the rules of royalty so deeply that even amongst friends she instinctively keeps their relationship hidden. I'm not sure how intentional that was but it's brilliant.

The fight big fight scene with Merlin just barely missing the cup while the knights are cornered, and Gaius showing up like the brilliant deus ex machina that he is, honestly makes the previous budget-slashed episodes more bearable. Because this really is great, even knowing it's great at the expense of those others.

Morgana's screeching is eerily similar to Aithusa's.

I wonder if they knew they were getting renewed for a fourth season when they wrote this. Because you know, it really could've worked as a series finale as well. An open-ended series finale, but a series finale all the same.

As a Queens kid, I cannot explain to you the joy it gives me to watch Arthur and Merlin just chillin on the steps to the castle as tho it were a stoop, which I suppose, in a sense... it kind of is. Ahhh youthful days.

Commentary is Jeremy Webb and Julian Murphy.

And this kids, is why we're watching with commentary! They've just explained that Morgana's sigil is supposed to symbolize the Rowan tree that's supposed to be at the heart of the Isle of the Blessed. That suggests she designed it herself, so there's at least one of my earlier questions answered.

They talk a lot about how Emila Fox was very pregnant when they were filming her in this season, and they shot entirely around it - and I can't help but feel anger toward Joss Whedon and his 'handling' of Charisma Carpenter's pregnancy during S4 of Angel.

One of them called the round table scene 'curiously moving' and I think that is really fitting. They'd had this in mind for about two years, which is probably why it's so extraordinary. That's a great gestation period for a scene as iconic as this.

One final tidbit: the sword in the stone was filmed in France, and made it back to Wales intact. I guess nobody wanted to take it out. That's kind of an interesting thought, like a little set superstition or something. It's kind of cute.

The DVD extras/special features will get a separate post if I feel I have comments worth sharing.

[migleefulmoments]

The CC fandom is basically just one giant neverending fan tantrum about not getting their own way. Collectively, they have written hundreds of thousands of pathetic words pointing out all the ways Darren isn't fulfilling their predictions and Mia being the cause of that, but too ensconced in their lies to stop and realize the very fact they have to keep churning out these word vomit posts revising reality means they are chronically wrong about EVERYTHING. That's the only 'sham mockery' here.

YES YES YES YES YES! 

Darren continues to disappoint Abby and everyone else has no idea who to think so they just word vomit whatever it is Abby is pissed about. Today is a perfect example -Abby is seething in a rage because Darren dared to look HOT AF in a disheveled look but Abs loves Blarren and she COULD. NOT. SEE. Blarren last night...anywhere.  She’s consoling herself by pointing out he isn’t happy in any photo (of course she’s wrong, he’s just giving a neutral face).

It’s a shit show over there as they are also being full misogynists. They are blaming Ashley for Darren’s look which Abby hates (hence they all do) and even criticizing Mia because she looks great (“best ever” according to Abby) but since Darren looks frumpy, Mia missed the memo and so it’s her fault. For anyone not aware of how stylists work- they pull together outfits for the celebrity to try on but in the end, it is the celebrity who chooses the final look. If you hate Darren’s outfit, you have to blame Darren. 

They are soothing their anger by reassuring themselves that Darren’s “contract” with Balmain is about to end (according to them he first wore Balmain a year ago???)  Newsflash- there is no contract- Darren was never announced as a brand ambassador or part of an advertising campaign. He just likes Balmain and Olivier likes him. The Balmain jackets will be around for a long time and I love them so fuck off Abby. 

Nothing is funnier to me than reading a fashion takedown by Abby seeing as how she’s sooooo fashion-forward. Darren should fire Ashley and hire Abby.  

BTW-notice her use the wrong initials- she’s been doing that lately.

**********************

“She has had 10 years to get to know what D looks good in, there is no excuse for that outfit last night. Even if I put aside that i think it is ugly, outdated, and the t-shirt is lazy, it is all wrong for a guy of average height who has a tiny frame”

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Anonymous asked: I like that we are criticizing D's outfit ,( like it deserves) and someone is even doing it in an harsh way this should show to all those ready to call us mysoginists or antifeminists that they say bs, bc we criticize the outfits EVEN FOR D, when he does it wrong, like this time

Fact, D is an actor. Fact, M is a beard. Fact, both get paid to be on the RC (Neither one is paid to be on the red carpet are fucking kidding me?!?! Who do you imagine is paying them and more importantly, how do you manage they recoup those expenses and make money on a red carept? Red Carpets are for fans to feel connected to the show and therefore to watch the show. Imagine an Oscars night that was only the dry show. Fewer people would be interested hence fewer ad dollars. It’s the spectacle of the event that gets people watching. Mia is photographed mostly for Darren and Mia. The gaggle of photos takes a pic and we end up seeing 2 or 3.  They do get picked up by celeb gossip mags occasionally, but most of the time they pic the photos of Darren alone) . Fact, celebrities and others that willingly chose to be on the RC, as part of their job, open themselves up to criticism and that is true of men, women, and those who are gender fluid. Part of the job description. If you don’t want us to talk, well then, there are other jobs out there.(It doesn’t give you the right to be a looney bitch) 

D looked awful and I have called them out before (and they haven’t listened to you? I’m dumbfounded), but to me last night was the low point. There may have been worse outfits, but it is ill fighting and he looks un-kept (awww, you couldn’t find Blarren anywhere).  And it makes no sense with the projects he is promoting.(He literally is not promoting any projects yet. It’s too early.  You don’t understand promotion at all for all the shit you claim to know. When you see him making the talk show rounds that is when he is promoting. Until then he is just living his life. Just becuase you, a super fan knows what is coming up doesn’t mean he is “promoting” anything.  He went to the party becuase he goes every year.  )

******************

 Once again, they don’t match, sure they both had on black, but no one told her that for this occasion, looking like a hot mess on the RC was the way to match D. Poor Swiller, she just can’t get it right.  99% of the time, she is the hot mess but this time, she kind of got it right and his was so wrong in so many ways.

*************************

Not sure i agree with your logic and it is not that he is not smiling, he looks down right miserable.  But I don’t blame him btwn the beard on his arm and that horrific excuse of an outfit, I would guess it was not his best night out.

*************************

The good news nonnie, I hope, D first wore B/ailman at the VF party on Feb 24, 2019. Soon after he was whisked off to Qatar for the fashion show, wore it to the Met, went to Paris for the fashion concert, wore them at iHeart, and now last night.  Like a bookend to a year contract. At least i hope, because that was absolutely hideous.  It was so ill fitting, it was awful on his body, it was not flattering, the jacket is just ugly.  And while I know he did shower, he looks like he threw on clothes after a raging party and the sunglasses are to hide his bloodshot eyes. This is not the look of a man with serious projects to sell.

I am utterly disappointed in AF (what did Ashley Fink do to you?), to the point that I think she should be fired (this is fucking HILARIOUS as Darren is on the best-dressed list most of the time-so are her other clients Chadwick and Finn. Firing her because one frumpy, bitchy fan doesn’t like an outfit seems a tad shortsighted). This is utterly inexcusable at a crucial time in his career at an incredibly important event (It was a party- it’s a fun event that everyone goes to but it’s literally a party where people drink and have fun) I understand he maybe has to wear the designer (he doesn’t)  but she needs to work with the designer to create a flattering look for her client whose star is rising and who has important, big projects to promote (Big HUGE A-list celebs were fashion fails all of the time. It doesn’t ruin their careers, calm the fuck down)    He is not a rock star that hangs out with groupies all night before snorting coke to go to the next event (He is Darren and part of Darren is the rockstar look. Stop trying to make him someone he isn’t).  He is on the verge of the A list (no he isn’t) with a classic, serious dramatic play in 6 weeks (Nobody cares except the 2000 people who will see the show) with 2 well renowned, A list, award winning, serous stars (She’s an idiot)  and a series where he is selling classic HW, defined by gorgeous, well groomed, stunning male stars (Oh, honey, your wank bank is full over this isn’t?  I get why you are so sure Raymond is gay. You need them all to be gorgeous, well-groomed queer men). And is how they choose to represent him? As a man that could not be bothered to shave who looks like a wanna be rock star (Since he wore that look to his wedding I have to believe that both Darren and Mia love that look on him)?  Nope.(YEP)

[otakween]

I'm Standing on a Million Lives - Volume 5

Keita low key looks like a Tales of character on this cover. I'm just happy there's another man in the party so it's not such a blatant harem situation. Not really sure what to make of his character though. I think he's supposed to be tough and dumb, but the fact that he's literally always smiling makes him feel a little weird.

Ch. 20

-We get some more info about how orcs work in this chapter. Sounds pretty similar to bees, with them mostly being male except for the queen.

-That dick joke either didn't translate well or just wasn't funny to begin with.

-Yusuke has another internal monologue about how much he "hates humanity." I feel like his personal philosophy doesn't add up to the other stuff he's said and it's very confusing. He previously talked about how valuable Kusue and Iu's lives were and how they're great people (or at least useful). How does that add up? This dude needs a therapist.

-Honestly can't tell if Yusuke's misanthropy is supposed to be cool and edgy or if the author is trying to legitimately show someone who's mentally ill. He just comes off as pathetic to me...

Ch. 21

-Damn, this is the 2nd time they've made a villain sympathetic as we watch them die. I guess they're going for a very gray morality here. It's an interesting angle, but it also gives every battle a depressing tone. I was rooting for the Orc Queen more than the gang towards the end :'( probably cuz I knew she couldn't win.

-I think I like character designs like the orc queen's because women aren't allowed to look masculine in manga, so it feels refreshing. (Even though she isn't human).

-That new villain's design is pretty ugly. I feel like a lot of mangaka can't draw bald people lol

-Finally the girls get a bit of the spotlight! Iu was so badass showing up in her swimsuit (or maybe underwear?) Also, Yuka's "I'll be back" reference gave me a chuckle.

Ch. 22

-More of Yusuke's "I hate humans" monologuing, cuz obviously we didn't have enough of that! This is only volume 5 so maybe he grows out of this?

-Damn, the orc child's death was even more tragic than the queen's! D: whyyy

-Okay, that ending where the bald bad guy prematurely blows his cover was pretty funny. It's not often we see Yusuke caught off guard like that.

Ch. 23

-Finally we reach the end of the battle! No one really got defeated though, the baddies just kind of ran away so I guess we'll be seeing them again.

-The sudden romantic spark Aoiu felt for Yusuke was super annoying:

A. Who the heck gets all blushy and wants a kiss when they're seconds away from almost dying!?

B. He's a literal child (14) and she's a grown ass woman in her 20s. Stahp it Japan >:/

-I did find the explanation of the magical catalyst bugs interesting. I feel like that's something I haven't seen before. It does make me wonder though. If wizards are only magical because of their items, how come non-wizards can't just use those items?

-Kosue and Iu celebrating was wholesome :') I guess Yuka's still dead lol

Ch. 25

-They said their goodbyes and Yusuke's harem grew a lil bit. I honestly don't really get what the "he meets people on their level" was referring to. Both Aoiu and Kahvel basically fell for him because he saved them, right?

-They're attempt to help the Jiffonians with future natural disasters was pretty dumb lol (writing tips on a stone tablet and making villagers read it...what a half assed plan).

-Hell yeah Fatina's back and even more badass this time! She's low key the best character so far even though we've only seen her in like 4 panels lmao

-Yusuke reminds us YET AGAIN that he "despises humanity." Cool story, bro.

-New girl is named "Glenda the good witch"? Honestly, the naming sense in this series is kinda wack. Also, why could Yusuke understand her English?

-Kinda sad there's no author/artist's note this time :'( I feel kinda ripped off

[otakween]

I'm Standing on a Million Lives - Volume 1

Hurray! Moving on from 100% Pascal Sensei, this is the next series on MAL alphabetically due to its Japanese title (100-man no Inochi no Ue ni Ore wa Tatteiru). I'm excited to be catching up on something so recent as season 2 for the anime is actually coming out this month! I'm going in 100% blind so, I guess we'll just see where this goes. Chapter breakdown after the "read more."

Ch. 1

-Well, this was really awkwardly paced and written, not a promising start if I'm honest. I hate it when people are isekai'd and barely react, it's so jarring.

-Protag-kun is an edgelord who "hates Tokyo and all the people in it," has no friends, and just wants to play video games. Of course his video game skills are rewarded in isekai-land. Typical cliché BS so far. At least he had a self-aware "oh wait, I'm being a self-centered prick" moment.

-The art isn't hideous, but I don't sense any creativity here. Everyone looks very generic, including the monsters. At least the two-page spreads look nice on my new e-reader

-I feel like this would read as batshit to people who aren't familiar with the isekai genre. They just assume that people are so used to these tropes that they don't need to explain anything. I would have liked it if they showed us more of the "normal" world so that the isekai moment would be more of a shock and we could get a better feel for the characters/setting.

-Game master dude is really annoying. I hope they explain why he speaks in partial sentences. None of the characters even acknowledged it which was really weird.

-Kinda dumb how Kusue saying "I want to be useful to people!" just completely blew Protag-kun's mind and changed his whole world view. First of all: can we save epiphanies like that for at least the end of volume 1?? Second: how easily swayed is this man!? He felt like he went through the entire A Silent Voice MC's character arc in 2 seconds.

-I feel like the level of gore doesn't fit the tone they're going for. It just feels out of place and gratuitous. Like, this isn't Attack on Titan, this is more of an adventure series (I think)

Ch. 2

-The characterization in this is really annoying. So far the characters don't feel like real people, they're just assigned archetypes. Yuka is an otaku, Kusue is the "frail girl," etc. I think one thing that's lacking is the girls barely get a chance to speak and we're stuck with Yotsuya's incel monologues. Hopefully this improves.

-Real convenient that all the chosen party members are girls so far. The setting/make up of the party reminds me of Konosuba a lot.

-Why are bullying scenes in manga always so over the top? I'm pretty sure bullies don't typically go the sexual assault route. Similar to the gore feeling out of place, that felt unnecessarily dark. The character's also reacted to it as if it wasn't a big deal (???)

-Today in "fancy words used in manga": polyandric. Apparently it means an animal that mates with multiple males.

-I was honestly triggered by the centipede monsters. I have house centipedes in my apartment and they're horrifying. The thought of one wrapping around my head...-shudder-

-The bullying rescue scene was interesting. I feel like normally it would be a big, heroic moment, but instead they chose to show how all the girls (bullies and victim) were afraid of Yotsuya for suddenly showing up and acting like a maniac. It was kinda nice to see his "you love me now, right?" rejected lol.

-The self-aware anime stuff is obnoxious. MC being like "woah this is a harem situation" and the girls being like "gap moe!?" at the end of the chapter. It's jarring when characters that aren't supposed to be otaku bring up otaku things.

-Game Master showing up on Yotsuya's phone was pretty funny lol. I liked his selfie.

Ch. 3

-Shindo's backstory was so weirdly written and awkward: she was a bad kid, made friends with an older girl who taught her to be good, and then that older girl killed herself. She then overheard her family members being like "lol that dead girl was ugly" so...she vowed to protect the weak...or something? I dunno it was confusing. Also, more needlessly grimdark content with Shindo's parents basically saying that girl deserved to die because she was ugly.

-I don't think this mangaka understands anatomy, the abs on the male characters look...off

-Interesting rule where they lose EXP for fighting humans. Although, that does make me wonder about the cover art for this volume. Are the "million lives" supposed to represent all the times the characters die and are revived or...?

-Yuka being like "I don't think Shindo's a good person because she's got pretty privilege." Rubbed me the wrong way. She reeks of the "not like other girls" trope

-When Yotsuya said he's "not like other boys" because he'll listen to your tragic backstory and Shindo reacts "are you gay or something?" That felt like a mix of casual homophobia and toxic masculinity, not cute.

Ch. 4

-We get a new harem addition and her stupid quirk is that she likes cutting people up. I dunno, something about the way she robotically announced that while fighting felt so unnatural and forced. This manga is anything but subtle.

-Only now realizing that the artist and the author are two separate people. Honestly, I was surprised to find out that this is just a manga and it doesn't have a corresponding light novel. It really feels like it's being adapted from something, but maybe that has to do with the writer and artist being separate?

-Every time they mention a new fantasy name it kinda seems like the author just threw scrabble letters at the wall.

-The design of the bipedal steeds wheel attachment looked like it wouldn't work. Like, how do those things walk with a big giant wheel right in front of their feet? I guess I'll find out in the anime lol

-Very, very confused about Yotsuya's "career." When he became a chef he dressed as a chef, but now that he's a wizard he's back to dressing like a farmer and using a hoe? That seems like a continuity error. Either that or they didn't explain how things work very well. Can you switch between your past careers?

-They reveal that they only feel 1/36 of normal pain in this world, which would have been nice to know in chapter 1 when people were being torn apart, but okay.

-One of Yotsuya's new skills is "the ability to raise or lower the persuasiveness of your words." Immediately I was like, "wtf? In what situation would you want to lower your persuasiveness?" Maybe if you're using reverse psychology? -shrug-

-I enjoyed the author's mini essay at the end about stories standing the test of time. I guess this is their first serialization so now I kinda feel bad for trashing it so much lol. Oh well, gotta be honest in my reactions...