#blessed by the narrative .??hmm

[zhabk4]

a smile wouldn't hurt😊

[joyswonderland1108]

The Coping Mechanisms in This Fandom Deserve an Oscar, Actually.

So i just witnessed another post bashing Jimin solos (because that's the trending sport of the week apparently), and well.. funny thing is, the entire post aged like milk under 24 hours because plot twist: Jimin is receiving death threats right now. But nah, let's not talk about that. Let's circle back to the real crime: Jimin solos existing.

And you know what truly sent me? Some random reply under a quote repost screaming "Why are you defending Jimin solos?! JK won't fuck Jimin!!!"

... I'm sorry, what? What kind of Cirque du Soleil mental gymnastics did you perform to jump from "Jimin solos are annoying" to "JK won't be raw-dogging Jimin"? The person who quote reposted didn't even defend Jimin solos, bestie, calm down. But your brain really said: Jimin solos annoying => Someone says "Hmm you're not talking about the ACTUAL issue and this is only attracting antis to your page => OH NO, PAY GORN, SAY GEX INCOMING.

I mean the sheer velocity with which some of y'all spin into delusion is impressive. Like, Olympic level delusion.

But let's talk about this weird phenomenon where solos act like they own the member they solo stan. Like "I'm a JK solo, therefore i will bite, scratch, claw and bark at any living being he's close to." Y'all do realize the members have known each other for over a decade, right? They've lived together, cried together, succeeded together, and you think your Twitter fingers have more insight into their relationships than they do? Girl be serious.

You don't like OT7? Fine, go ahead, live your half-baked solo stan life. But the very LEAST you could do is not spew venom at the people your fave literally loves and trusts. You calling Jimin or Tae or JK names like "pigmin" or "nosekook" or "baldhyung" (yep, we've seen all of these) doesn't change the fact that they're close. That's not how friendship, or reality, works.

And the whole enlistment arc? Comedy gold.

When those people speculated about Tae and JK enlisting together, Tae solos and JK solos teamed up like it was "Infinity War: Solo Stan Edition". Fangs out, rabies foaming, barking like chihuahuas on Red Bull. All because someone said "Wouldn't it be cute if they enlisted together?"

They didn't. And yet.. the barking continued. The war raged on.

THEN Jimin and JK enlist together and suddenly the internet flips. JK solos immediately scream "GROOMING! MANIPULATION! JIMIN WHY!!"

But hold on, plot twist again, it comes out that JK initiated the buddy system. Now Jimin solos flip and go "Why can't he leave Jimin alone?!"

And Tae solos, bless their chaotic little hearts, still manage to insert themselves into the narrative like, "Good! Leave Tae out of this!!" and proceed to call both Jimin and JK names.

You're not even in this war! Why are you fighting?! This is not your anime arc! Pack it up.

The best part? After all that foaming at the mouth, keyboard smashing, and projecting, the boys are just.. happy. Thriving. Living their best lives. Unbothered. Meanwhile you're still in your solo stan echo chamber, clutching your fantasy life it pays rent.

Hate to break it to you, but you don't get to dictate who these men love, trust, spend time with, or go to the military with. You're not their CEO, psychic, or parent. You are a pixel in the void. No matter how many hasthags you spam or how many edits you make cutting a member out of the group photos, the reality is: you're just an incel with a K-pop obsession.

And the final gag? You say you love your fave so much, but can't even respect the people they love. What does that say about you?

I'll tell you what it says: You don't actually respect your fave. You just use them as an avatar for your own unresolved emotional damage and weird little power trip.

Anyway, save up your money for the BTS tour. For clarity.

[sirenita00]

When I was in elementary school they had us make paper versions of the United Farm Workers Flag and taught us protest songs in Spanish. I feel really blessed that I went to a school that promoted Latino culture and indigenous narratives in such a strong way. Things feel so strange in this country rn and I’m wondering if I should find a way to be more politically active/involved in community organizations that are important to me. Hmm

[vindieselsfacebook-blog]

I want to hear more about your opinion that Rory ending up with Logan would go against everything the show stands for. How so? Tell me more!

Bless your heart (complimentary) for asking for MORE of my rambling! :’)

I think there are a few themes that ultimately guide the entire Gilmore Girls narrative. No matter where the plot and characters end up, if ASP is writing, I think the outcome will always adhere to these themes and a specific pattern.

The most important is family - how complicated and imperfect it is, how patterns repeat and break and struggle to repeat and break. We try our best and love in our own ways, but inevitably fuck things up, too. We just keep working at it, which is beautiful and painful and frustrating and gratifying. I think found family and community is just as important, which leads me to the second theme, which is independence and/or individuality.

The show centers Lorelai's quest to build her own life from the ground up which is a pattern I feel repeats in most of the main characters. She rejects upper class life to work a blue collar job, make her own home, build a new family unit with her daughter and close friends, and aspires to small business owner life. Luke shares those values and has a similar journey - taking his father's store and making his own, new thing from the ashes. Jess, the character with the most positive character growth, repeats that pattern, too. He struggles until he, too, strikes out on his own to build his independent life from scratch.

The third theme is class struggle. Although I do think it's clear the show has more respect for the working class, it loooves playing with the back-and-forth of it all and never takes itself too seriously to poke fun at it. It's fun to sometimes see Emily's point even if it's often buried in shallow superficialities. It's thought-provoking to agree with Richard that Rory should use her grandparents' privileges, although we've been rooting for her to make it on her own. We respect Lorelai's independence, but want to yell "just take the money!" when she needs a loan. Or we judge her for it and think "you're not so independent after all."

I love scenes like this one at the end of S4E15, Scene In A Mall:

Lorelai: This is your window on a whole other world, Luke. The world of worthless rich people stuff. People of means see what they want and simply take it, regardless of others. Luke: ... d'you pour your own coffee? Lorelai: Oh, err, yeah. Luke: You're not supposed to do that. Lorelai: Oh yeah, sorry, I won't do it again. Luke: Mmm hmm.

Like, yeah, rich people suck and we dunk on them all the time, but hey, even queen main character can be selfish and hypocritical. No one's really above it!

Anyway, all that to say... Rory is clearly set up to have a similar trajectory where a wrench is thrown in her plans and she won't ever really get back on track until she, too, burns her life to the ground and independently starts all over. She just struggles with the push-and-pull of it all more than her mother ever did.

I get frustrated with fans who think her ending up pregnant like her mother is some pessimistic "history is doomed to repeat itself and no one can ever really change" message, when I see it as her being set up for her inevitable successful ending. She has to figure it out for herself on her own terms. This is why I feel she and Jess will be linked together forever, romantically or not.

If Rory had ended up with Logan, that crash and burn would've just come later. She would've been unsatisfied in that life. Rory and Logan always went to each other for escapism and fantasy - it just doesn't make thematic sense to me that he would ever be a legitimate happily-ever-after option. It's simply not how things are done on this show. Even Emily ultimately follows the pattern - she starts a new life as a more independent person rejecting the "bullshit!"

And conversely, look who is set up in contrast - Christopher is the coward who could never fully run away from his guided cage. The show repeatedly calls him "weak" and makes it clear he's not as brave and independent as Lorelai. He ends up isolated from his kids, accepting the status quo. And ohhh boy, look what his parallel is doing in AYITL - Logan is accepting the dynastic plan, working for daddy and marrying the heiress. That is not the story of a viable end game to me! It feels pretty clear.

Phew - you asked for it! lmao I hope I articulated this well enough??

[physics-of-one-piece]

Part 4 of Punk Hazard Dub Watch Party

587

“Honour is something that you earn, not beg for.”

Oh, here it is!

“Weaklings like you don’t get to choose where they die.” man, that is COLD. hmm, so they switched the original “how” to “where”. Eh, it could’ve been worse. It still gets the message across.

“You still wanna fight? I can chop you up some more.” 😳😳 Seriously, Dub Law has such a Bedroom Voice

“You shot at yourselves, you bunch of imbeciles.” Dub Law is so snarky 🤣🤣

Smoker calling Law “boy” was actually badass

The fact Law’s Room is pretty much its own Birdcage cus they’re yelling “out of the circle, get out of the circle!” much like the people want to get out of the Birdcage. Oh, it breaks my heart, but it’s nice to know at least Room can still be used for healing at its core.

“You’re just crying cus you got your ass beat. Don’t pin it on us, you’re the one who attacked. Man up, Manodile, Crocoman, whatever.” 🤣 Dub Zoro’s bluntness and stupidity is winning me over, damn.

“Well, not if we control the narrative in advance and I know someone who can help.” Either Doffy or Vergo is being referred to here, haha

“Call Joker.” AAAA DOFFY! DOFFY! So Doffy was being referred. Be still my heart 🥰

“I’ve never been a fan of the warlord system. Pirates can’t be trusted, no matter who they are.”

“Heh. You got that one right.” Law 100% thought about Doflamingo there, but probably himself, too

“If you want to get to the bottom of something, then you gotta broaden your horizons.” I genuinely think Law might me by fav of the Worst Generation. He’s so self-aware and just overall smart. God bless you, Cora. Law would not have been this great if he stayed stifled by Doflamingo.

“Or you’ll miss the truth.”

Oh, the way he says Scalpel is ruthless but I like it.

“You can beg, but I don’t have to tell you a damn thing.” And this is that freedom Law has. He doesn’t have to do shit, he can do whatever he wants.

Dub Law is making me want to write Law x Reader ugh I love Law.

588

Law just walking away from Smoker in silence 🤣🤣

I didn’t realise but the snow surroundings, the crunching of the snow, my 706-PTSD 😭😭 I just wonder how Law feels about snow as an adult

Luffy & Law meet again! My Lawlu heart 🎉🎉 Let’s see how Lawlu is in Dub, I’m looking forward to it. I know in the official english translation of the manga Luffy calls Law Traffy which is adorable and from what I heard from my moots he does call him that in dub. I never heard it so I can’t wait to hear it!

“Right! Traffy!” Omg, Luffy said it! OH MY GOD. YES. THAT’S ADORABLE. OH MY GOD THAT’S ADORABLE. THAT’S SO CUTE. OH MY GOSH THAT’S SO CUTE. Aaaa 🥺🥺🥺

“You saved me. I owe ya one. Really. Thanks! 😁” DUB LUFFY IS ADORABLE MY BABY BOY 🤧🤧

Oh, Dub Jimbei sounds nice, and Rayleigh, too

“It looks like you pulled through, Straw Hat.” Aww, Law 🥺🥺

“We’re not…” (pause) “buddies.” OH MY GOD I LOVE HOW DUB LAW DELIVERED THAT. YOU TOTALLY ARE BUDDIES, LAW. Not yet, but you will be. Imagine, Law goes from this to “If he loses, then I will die with him.” ugh I love it.

“But enemy or not, you still helped me. So thanks!” Luffy just overall whether sub or dub is so precious

I feel bad for Smoker & Tashigi, they’re just doing their jobs.

Law’s “Come on… really? Ugh. I hate this kinda thing. Too much drama.” Is so relatable 🤣🤣

Zoro actually being worried Smoker & Tashigi are dead is sorta nice

“Once wasn’t enough? Please. I won again, captain.”

Law helping them find their crew is nice

“We both have things we need to get back.” That’s probably Law referring to his own heart.

“Traffy didn’t go easy on him.” The Traffy nickname is so cute.

“Why is the jackass cook prancing around like that? Cold does strange things to people.” Haha, Dub Zoro

Luffy having a snowball fight with the kids is adorable

“The one with the cold eyes and the silly cap” EXCUSE YOU, LAW’S CAP IS ADORABLE, IT’S A SNOW LEOPARD PATTERN

Dub Brook & Dub Zoro are hilarious. “There was a torso, that’s funny.” “Yeah cus it was his torso, dumbass.” Idk who’s more snarky, Dub Law or Dub Zoro but I am here for it

I’m trying to figure out where I heard Dub Caesar's voice before (I like it, it fits him!) and I THINK it was in Dub Black Butler. It’s the only anime I can think of and the only one I watch in Dub (cus it’s set in England)

“If anyone’s got a complaint, it’s me. Caesar.” God, I love Dub Law, the voice fits him so well.

589

“Quit your bitching!” I love hearing them swear in Dub, thanks Smoker.

Oh, Caesar called Doflamingo (the call wasn’t shown and there was no Doffy) and Doffy went “Yeah, kill ‘em all, I’ll make sure it’s reported as an accident at sea” 😭😭 genuinely, like how did they not grow suspicious before? Accident after accident at sea? Come on, that’s some bs

The flamingos are here at 13:20

Not the flamingos 😭😭😭😭

I love Brownbeard’s dub voice.

591

Ep 590 was filler, this is the next canon ep. I am thoroughly liking Dub Sanji’s voice more and more.

“Kay! I’ll try!” Says Dub Luffy while bouncing on Chopper Franky’s fluffy fur. Dub Luffy is so cute I wanna squish him and hug him.

Zoro & Sanji arguing is still good in dub 🤣

“I hope I didn’t break a bone. Nope, the only thing broken is the panty-loving heart.” Omg Brook is hilarious 🤣🤣

Mocha & Nami are precious 🥹🤧

I love how Luffy doesn’t even hesitate “Okay. Let’s put ‘em all on the ship and take ‘em home, no problem.” Man I love Luffy so much

Taglist: @fanaticsnail @moonbaby26 @ohnomyhooves @daydreamer-in-training @tuquidflamingo @doffyslittledove

[thegayloragenda]

“I’ll tell you something right now / I’d rather burn my whole life down / than listen to one more second of all this bitching and moaning,”

“I’ll tell you something about my good name / It’s mine alone to disgrace / I don’t cater to all these vipers dressed in empath’s clothing.”

Hey Swifties — what do you think she’s referring to when she singing these lines? What is she burning down? What is disgracing her good name? According to the media narrative, she is straight billionaire in a heteronormative relationship with a star football player that the entire world is obsessed with. She is literally the American Dream.

What would be a disgrace to her name?

If you think it’s about her on-and-off again 10 year love affair with Matty then why would she choose Ice Spice over him to cover her ass in the press and then rebound with Travis immediately after? That’s not very full throttle through the fences of her.

Ohhhh I know!!!! Is it because she might have cheated on Joe with Matty? Oh wait. No y’all didn’t see that as bad either. She’s still god status.

Hmm…

Is it because she’s a 34 year old woman dropping the f-bomb in her songs? Is it because she’s wearing a sexy little bodysuit or giving a chair a lap dance? No because her “good girl” persona has pretty much stayed intact. I think we can all confidently say that she’s definitely still America’s sweetheart. After all, she’s never had much “edge”.

Maybe it’s because she pissed off some republicans. OH WAIT! They actually forgave her because she’s dating an NFL hero! There’s really only a few Christian conservatives who have dropped her but that’s barely made a ripple in her pond.

The only thing that *might* ruin her would be her political silence (after promising to speak up) and the possible queerbaiting / the use of historical queer flagging. Oh but guess what? She became a billionaire despite both of those possibilities. And what a fucking slap in the face to the queer community and the injustice that the world is currently facing to essentially say “I’m a bad girl because I lie to the public about the things I care about and the type of person that I am so go fuck yourself!” If that’s who you want to worship, be my guest.

I need y’all to put on your critical thinking caps for this one…

Could it possibly be that she’s preparing you for something?

That she’s much more intelligent and deeper than you are giving her credit for.

That she is Machiavellian.

That she resents putting on an act and (cue the tour visuals) is using her final era to put a nail in her own performance art coffin and burning her media reputation to the ground on her way out?

Perhaps, these songs — much like the songs on Midnights — will make sense to you as the clock ticks and more is revealed. After all, wasn’t it the Gaylors who said Midnights was a breakup album? Oh but we got crucified for it until the tour started and she dropped You’re Losing Me to make it all suddenly make sense. God bless the patience of Taylor Swift because having to spell it out for you dipshits when you don’t even fucking have enough brain cells to comprehend what she’s writing about is INSANE.

If it’s not about Joe and it’s not about Matty and it’s not about Travis then I wonder what it could possibly be about…

Well maybe, just maybe, you’ll discover that all along…you weren’t even listening.

[butterflydm]

cr103

Nice to have a pin put in Delilah for the foreseeable future! Big relief for everyone, especially Launda and Imogen.

Yeah, I can see how Ludinus has the good of Exandria in mind. The war zone in the Hellcatch Valley is definitely saying "all of my plans are to make the world better", yep.

I have to admit I laughed a bit when Essek called Bells Hells "bastions of goodness" but it's all relative, I guess!

It is very interesting (though it makes sense from a narrative PoV) that after Bells Hells' general ambivalence towards the gods, they are now in what is basically godstown.

They've dealt with a lot of anti-god NPCs (and guest players) in this campaign so far, so I am interested to see what they will get out of visiting Vasselheim overall.

It sounds like Orym gave the group the gist of what happened back with Vecna but I wonder if Keyleth et al will mention the whole thing about how they defeated Vecna specifically using the vestiges of the prime deities and their blessings. Vox Machina had how many characters be actual champions of the gods? Was it all of them? I guess not Percy and... I don't know if Keyleth ever was. But pretty much everyone else in VM was directly the champion of one of the prime gods at one point, I think.

If you kick out the primes like Ashton wants, then you have to deal with all the Vecnas by yourself, with no extra divine power. In a world where magic evil exists, I kinda want the magic good around. Ashton seems to believe that if you get rid of the gods, then everyone is on an equal playing field but that's... that's not what would happen.

Orym's silent prayer to the Wildmother!

("I want an apple." Hmm. Stealth downfall reference?)

Everyone is here for the big meeting!

GROG! <3 <3 <3

PIKE! <3 <3 <3

Is Lieve'tel one of the Matron's representatives? You know what, I'm just going to decide that she is.

"This is a gathering of Exandria."

[nightshadehoney]

I never watched James Somerton's shitty Killing Stalking video because I was trying to be good to myself and avoid something that I knew would make me very angry. In fact, I never watched any of his stuff because the fact that he made a video like that was enough to discount any thing he ever had to say (also I heard about the Celluloid Closet plagiarism).

But man, is the James Somerton discourse bringing a lot of Killing Stalking-related feelings back up for me. Because I'm mad; I'm still so mad. There are a suprising amount of people on social media who are saying they never watched any of his stuff except for the Killing Stalking video. I'm annoyed not just to find out that the vid had that sort of reach and influence, but also because Somerton's unmasking hasn't seemed to make people reasses the validity of the kind of thing he was saying. People are just now being like "hmm I think this guy might have Issues With Women" but that doesn't warrant any reflection on what exactly the motivation is of people who complain about women enjoying a niche webcomic? Because I don't actually believe you're concerned about the influence of some obscure piece of media when you advertise its existence to your large audience many of whom had not heard of it and would never have heard of it but for your transparent outrage porn video. It's rage bait and the target was women that are perceived as straight. A big channel has publicized the fact that they excised a section that endorsed the opinions in this video from their own because they became aware of Somerton's plagiarism and dishonesty (presumably; if it was actually because they recognized his views were coming from a sexist place I would welcome a clarification). And you know, I don't think that's a good look actually. That you needed to be told he was a bad person and couldn't idependently put together that the misogynist man was saying misogynist things.

The comic ended years ago and the fandom has gone mostly quiet, but to this day people are still the peddling the"fujoshi/stupid teenage girls who don't know what's good for them are shipping these characters because they are too braindead to realize it's not a romance; it's a horror, two things I believe are mutually exclusive. I am smarter than all of these cringe degenerates" bullshit. It's in the comments of the hbomberguy video even; one comment was such a gross misrepresentation of the series that my friend needed to talk me down from getting into a pointless youtube comments argument (bless him) because these people are officially making me lose my marbles.

This narrative is full of shit, it's demonstrably not fucking true. You can go on the artist's twitter right now and its full of her retweeting shippy fanart of that pairing readers were apparently never intended to ship.

(I don't think Koogi knows or cares about James Somerton; she just reblogs the works of fans who tag her. This made me laugh though).

Now this is all speculation because he died decades before social media existed, but I think if Nabokov was alive today his twitter would not be full of Humbert Humbert x Dolores Haze fanart. And yet, I have unironically seen people compare shipping Sangwoo and Bum in Killing Stalking with the misreading of Lolita as a precocious sexual temptress more than once.

And this isn't me saying that Killing Stalking is the disgusting"pro-sexualized abuse" comic that tumblr purity police used to characterize it as either. One of these days I'm going to go truly bonkers and end up banging pots and pans on the street corner, yelling at random innocent passerbys about how stories about romantic and sexual relationships are not required to be Hallmark movies. You can make art about the negative, dark, and troubling parts of these feelings and relationships without creating a pat morality tale. You don't need to approach media analysis like your 7th grade teacher has assigned you an essay on explaining what a novel's "message" is.

Nobody, not the author and not the fans, genuinely thinks that Sangwoo and Bum have a healthy or aspirational relationship. This hypothetical person that does not understand the relationship is toxic doesn't exist. Because girls and women, even the ones having cringey fandom fun on tiktok or whatever, are not so stupid and naive that they are unware that breaking someone's legs and locking them in a muder basement is bad. The type of concern troll rhetoric Somerton employed in his video is directed near exclusively at women interested in men and there's a reason for this. Women are not responsible for abuse that men do to them; nobody is responsible for their partner abusing them. If I never saw people spit this bullshit again it would be too soon.

[pico-farad]

Vrains season 2 thoughts - part 2!

Go, Blood Shepherd, Ghost Girl, and the Ignis

All Vrains season analysis posts

⇀ Go

I'm devastated LMAO. In shambles. They massacred my boy (shh don't tell me the Go in my head isn't canon).

It's okay Go, Secret Identities AU will save you...

So, I don't think it was a bad idea for Go to "defect" to SOL. Go was already playing third fiddle very hard in the first season, and there was no way he could compare to Soulburner in terms of popularity as a main character, so turning him into an antagonist could be refreshing.

But it says something about Yusaku and Go's lack of relationship that when Go joins the bounty hunters Yusaku isn't even interested, much less betrayed. He doesn't ask, "Hey Go, why are you doing this?" he just glances at him and goes "Hmm, SOL Technologies sent bounty hunters."

You can tell too, during their duel later, that Yusaku just isn't close enough to Go to even attempt to break him out of the brain hacking. The best he can do is, "Didn't we fight against Hanoi together?" Uh I dunno Yusaku, did you? Isn't the reason why Go is in this downward spiral because you solo'd Hanoi by yourself?

The Soulburner vs. Go duel could have been a good place to explore that reasoning. Go's annoyance here is justified. It's completely understandable to feel like you're being talked down to, when fanboy Soulburner -- god bless him -- tells you that you're a hero who saved Vrains, even though you know that you couldn't do anything, you were useless. There's almost a narrative self-awareness there, that your duel was only used to make Playmaker look better. Playmaker is the real hero of Vrains, and you were just a stepping stone. Of course Soulburner's gushing would rub you the wrong way.

This relationship could have been sooo good if they built on it. Soulburner believes in Go, even when Go himself doesn't believe he's a hero. He understands that it isn't strength that makes you a hero, it isn't winning duels. It's having the courage to stand up to evil. That's why he admires Go and the others. Because that's what gave him the courage to stand up to his own demons. Imagine a rematch where Soulburner returns the favor, where he's the one to save Go from the darkness and convince him to be the hero that he believed in.

But no, instead, they kind of make him as unsympathetic as possible. Maybe that was the point, considering how they end up gutting his character, but this duel really, really makes him look bad. A grown adult playing victim olympics with children and losing. "You were traumatized as a kid? Oh yeah, well I grew up in an orphanage!" nooooo go you can't say that to an anime boy.

Go: For everyone to appreciate me, I must win! Playmaker is in my way. Lost Incident victim, he says? I know he suffered, but I also bet my life on dueling! I'm the one who'll be number one! I'm not Playmaker's stepping stone! Soulburner: ...I don't think you're Playmaker's stepping stone. But right now, you're just SOL Technologies' pet dog. Actually, a pitiful loser dog who complains to strangers. Go: How dare you say that-- Soulburner: The Go Onizuka in my heart is a great duelist! Number one? Everyone appreciate you? The Go Onizuka I know would never say pathetic things like that! Go: Be quiet! What do you know? Soulburner: I do know! Because Go Onizuka is a hero who gave me courage when I couldn't move forward. No matter how cornered he was, Go Onizuka was an independent duelist who believed in his own strength to the end. Where is that person who gave me courage? Go: *turns away* ...I end my turn. Soulburner: Go Onizuka... I want to duel the real you.

Do you see my vision?

But none of these ideas really come back, and it's all downhill from there for Go, with the AI implant and Earth and all. He just becomes another evil, unhinged, "pathetic" villain to be put down by Yusaku, who doesn't give a shit about him. We were so robbed of the Soulburner vs. Go rematch.

⇀ Ghost Girl and Blood Shepherd

I don't have much to say about Blood Shepherd, I'm sure I would have found him cool when I was 13. No, I really only need to talk about Ghost Girl vs. Blood Shepherd.

This duel needed to be a two-episoder. They've built up this mysterious shared past, raised the stakes by putting their accounts on the line, and then the duel is over in three turns. The majority of Vrains is two-episode duels, but Ema gets the short stick by having both of her duels be singles?

(Aoi also has 2 single episode duels, out of 3 total. Let's do some math, this season Aoi and Ema combined have 6 episodes of duels. That's the same amount that Go, Revolver, and Lightning each have alone. Blood Shepherd has 8. Soulburner gets 11 episodes of duels. And Bohman gets 12. All six of Bohman's duels are two-parters, four of them are against Yusaku, and none of them are that memorable. Couldn't he have donated one episode to Ema?)

It's revealed that Ghost Girl and Blood Shepherd are half siblings, but it's not particularly clear whether they've even spoken outside of Vrains. If they had the extra episode, they could have given them a flashback together, arguments about their respective upbringings, anything to flesh out their relationship and make the ending of this duel make sense.

Ghost Girl loses. Fine, we can't have nice things. She isn't going to get anything important for the rest of the season, so let her go out honorably. But no, Blood Shepherd doesn't even give her the dignity of following through on the stakes of the match.

It's not like I want the female character to get deleted, but without showing any kind of shared history or interpersonal relationship, this "brotherly mercy" reads as patronizing bullcrap. They're both adults who have committed to an unforgiving line of work, but Blood Shepherd does a 180 because his absent father -- who we were just told about 8 minutes ago -- actually did sort of care about him.

Never mind that his father and Ema didn't try to help him, this one sentence is apparently enough to make Blood Shepherd not only take back the stakes he proposed, but also risk and lose his life to Lightning, because, "It's a brother's responsibility to protect his sister." No, you're both adults, you don't have a history together, you don't have "a responsibility to protect her" just because you share the same father. And when that's all that they show, it feels uncomfortably essentialist, out of character, and cheaply written.

Part of this is cultural difference, but it's just a trope that I personally hate for various reasons.

⇀ The Other Ignis

I don't really have thoughts on Earth or Aqua, other than that they sure did girlcode the Water Ignis and then damsel her. Windy and Lightning are fine as mid-series antagonists, though I think they lack impact with just two of them. If either Earth or Aqua was also on the side of the bad guy Ignis, having a nice round antagonist trio would be more imposing and balanced (3 Ignis being pro-human and 3 against)

They even acknowledge themselves how underwhelming their group is, by trying to recruit Blood Shepherd, and by the fact that they had to really clumsily split up the hero team in the final fight so that they aren't clearly outmatched. This contrivance is lame. Compare that to, say, Ark Cradle in 5Ds where each character has a specific opponent, a high note to end on, and all the other characters are counting on them to prevail.

This is the same problem Vrains had in season 1, where they insist on Yusaku being the Last Man Standing, and less important characters have to be picked off so that Yusaku's big boss fight has higher stakes. We'll see if that actually pays off in season 3.

-----

Gonna cut it off here, I need to watch the rest to properly cover Bohman, Revolver, Yusaku, and Ai. I know I really went in on the writers in this section, but I am actually looking forward to these next 30 episodes. I don't think I'm gonna come away loving Vrains, but I'm very curious about this ending, and why I see so much fanart of hot anime boy AI. I think it's gonna be a good time!

...Sorry, did I forget someone again?

Sigh...

Next time on Yu-Gi-Oh Vrains Analysis: How the Fuck Did Aoi's Writing Get Worse

[lakesbian]

Since you are already finishing Megamorphs 1 and I've finished it, read this once you finish so I can comment on it...

Is it just me, or was Marco annoyingly out of character in this one? Like I know some of the later books had ghostwriters, and this just felt it was written by someone who hated him. Yes, he had decided that he would be willing to take more risks for the cause because of his mother, but nothing in his character indicates he would take the pointless risk of acting like an obvious morphed animal in front of a party of like 50 potential yeerks, the Marco from earlier books would be the one snarkily pointing out why that's a horrible idea! Not to mention how everyone is still calling him the "smart one" yet here he is too dumb to remember to bird morph while falling for a very long time in midair and all of the other smarter animorphs have to constantly be bailing him out, while in earlier books, although he was still a silly kid like everyone else his intelligence was actually demonstrated rather than being an informed attribute belying him actually acting dumb 24/7. I really hope he isn't written this way forever and it's just this book...

god bless for putting the read after the book warning at the top of the ask. hmm i don't think i have a strong enough sense of marcos character to have firm opinions on this...i did think it was odd he didn't think of the bird thing while i was reading. as far as im aware this was not ghostwritten (+ i heard ka Applegate had enough say over the ghostwritten ones they're good and consistent). do not agree that it comes off as being written by someone who hates marco at all. i think it's largely just basic plot contrivances that some specific things have to happen to set up the other things. he's kind of taking a backseat to some other characters like cassie getting their turn on the character development which is fine. within acceptable variance for a children's book character for me to not mind. they can have some silly shenanigans without regard to genuinely 100 percent consistent opsec as a treat it's typical for the type of narrative i think. ok im very tired so i don't know what any of this says but basically i thought some parts were a bit odd for him but nothing too bad or unenjoyable and i like how much of it he spends in mortal terror also

[facewithoutheart]

Thanks for the tag @blackberrysummerblog ❤️

Y’all I am genuinely so annoyed with myself bc I started a new fic and it’s my new hyperfixation and not only is it not snowbaz, it’s something I never thought I’d write: a deep dive into a character’s backstory that takes place a decade before canon. I’m not even sure I’ll get to canon in this fic (especially since this is written for a television show that’s still ongoing), let alone reach a point where I can make the characters I ship end up together. And I’m not even fully convinced the characters will end up together? Like, don’t get me wrong they are going to want to fuck but if canon keeps dropping these insane arcs then I don’t know if I’m ever going to make it happen. I really want to stay as true as possible to canon while also throwing my own HCs in there, including angst. Oh god so much angst. This fic should be titled “Doomed by the Narrative” lol.

I’m really turning 2024 into a write-fics-no-one-wants-to-read-and-cry-about-not-getting-validation challenge. (Okay okay it’s actually been kind of therapeutic and I’m glad I’m following my bliss.) Bless @thewholelemon for reading this and commenting anyway; you have no idea how hard I’m holding your comment to my chest and hugging it.

Anyway here are a lot of lines from the fic under the break bc I’m still trying to tempt a few of you over to the dark side:

“Eddie! Don’t—” but then she was too preoccupied to argue.

He couldn’t help laughing as he pushed the door open. “Ah, pobrecita.”

“It’s not funny.” She sat on her knees before the toilet, hair pulled back with one hand while the other cradled her forehead, elbow propped up on the seat. She was bare from the waist down, her tank top falling off one shoulder. Half of her bangs stuck up straight in the air while the other half was plastered to her skin from sweat.

Eddie clicked his tongue as he wet a washcloth and grabbed a hair tie from where Shannon kept them in a bowl by her sink. “It’s a little funny,” he said, dabbing at her forehead then resting the wet cloth on the back of her neck.

“That feels nice.”

He pulled her hand holding back her hair gently away and then inexpertly tied what strands he could capture with her elastic. “There.”

“Thanks.” She groaned as she pushed off the toilet, resting her back against the tub. Her eyes darted down to his boxers. “Oh. You didn’t—”

“It’s fine,” he said.

“It’s not. Nothing’s ever going to be fine again. I have thirty more weeks of this.”

“Thirty-two,” he corrected her. “And that’s probably a conservative estimate. Most first pregnancies take longer.”

She flicked her eyes up to his. “You’re good at this.”

“Hmm?”

“This,” she pointed a finger back and forth between them, “taking care of people.”

“Ah? I mean, I do have two younger sisters. You know how Adriana was born in an emergency C-section?”

“No.” Shannon had a strange look on her face. “You never told me that.”

“I didn’t?”

“You don’t tell me a lot of things, Eddie.”

Not sure who to inflict this on with tags so I’m picking people who write/art in multiple fandoms and can maybe relate: @larkral, @roomwithanopenfire, @forabeatofadrum, @excalisbury, @stardustasincocaine, @ic3-que3n, @theearlgreymage & of course my boos @thewholelemon, @raenestee, & @bookish-bogwitch who are always so sweet to indulge my whims y’all keep writing fun. Also open tag to anyone who wants to share what they’re working on!

[mischas]

i was always so put off by stephanie savage calling taylor townsend (a character i do actually like) “sex positive” in the oral history and i think i’m finally figuring out why. the first sexual relationship of taylor’s that we’re introduced to is with the dean, a relationship that never gets the criticism it deserves within the narrative. no one properly addresses it as predatory - the dean is of course called “the dirty dean” but no one actually sees taylor as a victim. sandy, for all his morality, doesn’t even think of reporting him but instead only leverages this information to get ryan back in school (which is so awful i don’t even know where to start.) i think it’s the definition of cop out to pat themselves on the back for making a “sex-positive character” (please be serious) with the way they treated mischa, a teenage girl who was also in a predatory relationship that no one on set addressed as such, who was punished for leaving that relationship, who failed to be protected by the adults around her. that’s not very sex positive of you stephanie savage! marissa’s depression in s3 being referred to as a “slut spiral” by her BEST FRIEND is not very sex positive either! the oc was not sex positive, behind or in front of the camera, in any way!

Whenever Ms. Savage opens her mouth I just know some bullshit is about to come out so I plan accordingly. You bringing this up reminds me of the podcast early on saying all the female characters on the show are strong except Marissa. And it's like... we're still saying shit like this in the 2020s?

But to your point, yes exactly that's a nasty way of framing a teenage girl such as Taylor as sex positive. What a disgusting arc and resolution that was. As if s1 Sandy, or even s2 Sandy, would only give a shit about a relationship between an adult and a student in their high school so long as his son is readmitted to said school. Horrendous.

And for a character they label as sex positive to be having race-based threesomes later on in the same season is just... yikes. That 100% does not erase the dean arc (!!) but like... how is this also forgotten. Like I'm gonna forget the shit about a "Korean barbecue"?

What does sex positive even mean to these people? That a character has sex without being slut shamed? They have always acted like these characters are corporeal beings and that these same mfs weren't writing them down. Christ. Marissa has meaningless sex with Luke/DJ/Volchok and that's still not what they want in order to categorize her or... whatever else they still do to denigrate her.

ETA: Also like sorry Marissa was SA'ed so she couldn't be perky and light re: sex?? except for the unicorn of an episode that was 303

The more they open their mouths the more people realize that place was a shitshow and at least I have that. For years and years that set was a mystery and we were all like "guess we'll never really know what went down, oh well" 🤷‍♀️

I love Mischa on CHD alluding to being the island they said she was by s2 and she's basically like "Hmm, I wonder why that was...." queen shit. She alludes to so many book things without mentioning it once, god bless.

[stormoflina]

Hello again! It's the same overly talkative anon from the last ask lol

I wanted to talk more about the social media thing, which it sounds like you have a lot to talk about too! I didn't follow Dom when he was at Leipzig but I'm going to go out on a limb and assume the spotlight and reaction to him on social media was not as big as it now but I know he's like the king of Hungary (in a good way) anyway I say that because when it comes to the prem the fans and media are a lot less forgiving and love to put players in a box.

For instance Dom is very handsome (as are a lot players in Liverpool) but he's gotten labeled as the pretty boy who cares more about his hair than he does about his performances which is silly because every player cares about their outward appearance that's why they get haircuts and tattoos and etc. It's kind of similar with people screaming from the rooftops that Trent can't defend if he makes one missed tackle.

Anyway I think if Dom was less attractive or less confident people would stop raging about him loving the camera, if anything it's just a reaction to how good he looks on camera. Personally I already know he has a nice face and I still get caught off guard when he pops up on the TV, bless the dinosaurs that made the fuel to bring his parents together 🤣

Hii! 🫶🏼

Apologies for the late answer! I started writing a whole ass novell to you, then lost internet connection and I lost everything. But maybe it's for the better, because I was borderline psychoanalysing people lol. 😭

I admit, I couldn't really stomach following RB Leipzig just for him lol, I only started paying more attention to them (well Domi, and they came with him) after Marco Rose became their manager - I really like that man - so, I don't know tbh how he was perceived by their fans or even in the media really. What's evident is that he was a favourite of the social media team, judging by their insta haha. In Hungary, it's very hit or miss. He is either perceived as basically the Chosen One from the Footy Gods, or very harshly, unfairly criticised hated on for everything. There are a surprising amount of miserable people who are hoping that he will flop hard as a rock in Liverpool, but then again, he is still much more beloved, especially ever since he became the captain. Our sports media, hmm, let's just say, very amateur, and because Dominik is our most successful player he gets his ass kissed ever since he signed for Liverpool. The thing is with that however, is that they try to frame it more like a Hungarian success story, rather than the success story of Dominik, if that makes sense. So it's not really about the persona of Dominik, but rather the Hungarian who did something that not many could in the last few decades. Or at least that's how I see it overall.

However, all this vain, egoistical gimmick is not something that has been present in his usual criticism until recently. I mean it makes sense, the media needs characters, easily noticeable one or two traits they can give to players to sell the stories and the narrative better, and let's be honest, Dominik is a very easy target for that. For one, yes, that he is objectively a handsome man, but what I think is even more important is the way he carries himself. I think he is not someone, who will 'bow down' if that makes sense, he has a strong personality, a strong trust and sense of himself and his abilities, and he is very honest about that. The media loves underdog stories, especially for people like Dominik, but it's very evident that he doesn't lean into that. Even in Hungary, he asked the journalists multiple times, to stop listening to all his achievements, calling him the nt's best player, trying to sell the story of the 'poor hungarian lad who somehow did the unthinkable'. He seemed pretty rejective towards these underdog PR questions they tried to do with him in the start, which honestly from a straight PR point turned out to be a mistake for him, for sure hahah. But I can respect the dedication to be true to his morals and character, rather than playing the well-crafted PR character.

This turned out into me, rumbling I'm so sorry. I truly can talk a lot. 😭😭 Please, don't be shy to do the same, I absolutely love reading all your options!! 💗

[eek-a-tron]

Catwoman, the godly-powers-of-Bast, and the arranged marriage plot, continued!

(From PART ONE here)

We finally get an explanation for all the yikes-it's-exoticism guys wandering around Gotham in "Out of this World," a.k.a. Catwoman Vol 3 #31 by Ed Brubaker and Paul Gulacy. It starts off with Catwoman being kidnapped from a near-death fighting experience only to find herself healed up in a FANTASY PALACE, of course!

Rules for fantasy palaces everywhere: (1) gold, (2) columns.

But never mind that! Cue the hot guy!

oh no he's hot and he's stuck in this yikes story forever

More under the cut, obviously!

ARRANGED MARRIAGE TROPE FANS, ENJOY

Q: Why do magic-y guys all hold their hands like this? A: Hand flexibility … for spells, obviously, ahem, oBviousLY

Hot Guy™ turns out to be Omari, the chosen one of Maahes (the Egyptian god of war, although this goes unexplained) — wikipedia sidenote: "Maahes was a deity associated with war, protection, and weather, as well as that of knives," so hey, that tracks — while Selina is the chosen one of Beti (a.k.a. Bast, I guess). This means that, an entire year ago, in that temple, seemingly by accident, Selina was "blessed" with power-enhancing abilities by Bast, which now beef up her stats-roster of expert thief-powers and martial artistry. (That's right: this issue states that Selina was given super-ish powers, sort of. She could probably intern with the Justice League, if she wouldn't roll her eyes at the idea.)

Luckily Omari turns out to be fine on the inside, too, because he's not actually into an arranged marriage without enthusiastic interest! And of course there's a power-hungry brother behind the scenes, so Omari's not really at fault! Hmm!

These are official wedding clothes? Sure Jan etc.

For all you sports-stats comics people who think Catwoman is "weak," I would like to point out that Catwoman, in this extremely silly canon story, is shown beating up a crowd of armed men whilst wearing a beaded swimsuit. Oh, 2004.

Exploitation doesn’t negate fighting skills, I guess.

OMG AND OMARI GIVES UP HIS FANTASY THRONE FOR HER SORT OF (note that his brother seems pretty mean and Omari's more of a figurehead, so it's not thaaaaaaat much of a loss)

But it likely seems shocking to someone whose long-term (Bat)man often refuses to give up or compromise on his job. I love Batcat and all, but I'm just saying. Like, I'm just saying. Just saying.

But you didn’t tell me anything *Tuxedo Mask memes away*

It doesn’t matter anyway because Selina wakes up a month later (fully-clothed thankyouverymuch) on a train heading for Gotham Central, whilst Omari is shown floating away on a cruise ship of some kind. Alas, theirs was not a story to be told beyond one very wtf issue, and he's literally never appeared again! Booooo(?)!

Farewell, Wealthy Hot Guy with a Butler-Like Companion™!

Despite this bizarre story dropping off the face of the comics earth, Bast concepts still loom in Catwoman comics. They've done the "Catwoman has nine actual lives" thing thanks to Bast as recently as the 2020s, but I don't know if they've kept her "stronger and faster" blessing-powers too. Anyone who can fill me in on the "Selina is vaguely Bast-magical" stuff would be much appreciated, but given the length of this post I doubt I'll ever know! MYSTERY!

Its many glaring issues aside, this was def a departure from the usual dark-and-gloomy Gotham stuff. And I think of it, sometimes, re: fluff or OOC content in comics-based narratives. Like, this was a canon print run. Written by a well-known author. So go ahead and trope however you want, people: everyone does! But maybe steer clear of early-2000s exoticism, though. :s

[crk-kr-to-en]

I need to add the images now because I look crazy saying this.

There you are. Here~!! Back to your original owner's arms... hmm?

The state of the Soul Jam is strange.

It's different tyan when it was mine, and it's different than when it was the truth seeker's.

Another vers: I think the color is going to break soon because it's blurry and shaky.

If this represents half a penny's heart...

I explained here that Kr Smilk doesn't do nick names to anyone but Pure Vanilla.

Can this half-baked soul gem be as corrupted as this guy? I guess I can try it. How far can I push it? Hehe.

One translator translated it into "half-assed." 🙃

>> River of Resurrection skip.

Hmm... Did it just sink like this?

Tch, so Soul Jam's shaky start was only temporary?

Why would you fucking say that.

It's not fun... What's the use if only the appearance changes?

I guess the brilliant truth still lives inside the great hero cookie?

>> Skip to PV floating in the River of Resurrection.

Could it be... that half-penny is really tainted with lies...?

I can't fucking stand this faggot. Can we just stone him to death already.

More time skip.

Even though you were desperate, did you think I didn't notice that your eyes wavered every time you looked at those cookies?

What could it be? Your petty pride? Or your foolishness? Or your guilt?

Even your tattered soul jam would shake every time you saw your friends.

Just like your will, which was so light and delicate, the trembling sound was so loud that it shook the entire tower~

Correct sounding version: At first, I thought about taking away your soul jam, but I changed my mind.

I keep pushing you and pushing you...

If you completely destroy your soul...

I'm telling you something much more fun is going to happen!!!!

Now THIS is where you would read "submissive soul" in the En translations. Sure Smilk. It's going to be "fun." (I think we should kill him.)

Kr literally has a more stronger and connected narrative than what ever En fucking did and just butchered Smilk's homoeroticness. God fucking bless.

i’m sorry could you expand on the shadow milk using pv’s soul jam as a vibrator what do you mean by that 😭

In the En, Smilk described it as "the Soul Jam's instability" and "your Soul Jam ringing a thousand bells." While in Kr, they're all described as the Soul Jam *shaking.* Not only that, it shakes the TOWER. In the Korean Shadow Milk trailer, Smilk narrates that the tower is his torso and they're in his stomach. So that means, the Soul Jam making the Tower shake, is making Shadow Milk's "body" shake, and the fact Smilk "keeps pushing and pushing" PV into the limit means he likes the shaking as well as PV suffering. ("I keep pushing and pushing you." is literally a thing he says in Kr... Freak.)

Whatever THIS IS replaces "submissive soul."

[thescouts]

Of all the possible episodes to direct, you chose what might be the most narratively challenging episode of the entire series, “Chikhai Bardo.” Why did you decide to dive into the deep end of the pool on your first go-round?  It wasn’t clear that it was going to be what it ended up being. All I had was a paragraph to go off of, but it was a new world, so that really inspired me. It was not only a new floor [of Lumon], but it was also the past. As the cinematographer of the show, I really wanted to be the one creating that language. Selfishly, I didn’t really want to let anyone else do that. Also, as a woman, I just felt that it needed to be a woman directing. It was an instinctive gut feeling, and I wanted to defend this episode. Because I’m the cinematographer on the show, I’m there on day one in prep. There’s a difference when you’re there the whole time. You’re able to safeguard an episode, and seven needed that kind of care. It’s not that it needed more work necessarily, but it just needed someone looking out for it. This one was really fragile, so I felt like I could carry it with me the whole time. Whereas, if I would’ve just come in [like a guest director] for a month or two of prep, I wouldn’t have been able to do what we ended up doing. The advantage of creating one of the few water-cooler shows out there is that Team Severance was basically given carte blanche come season two. You got to shoot on film and spend months on ambitious shots. Would you have been able to achieve this same episode in season one?  Hmm. Film, specifically, probably not. It would’ve been harder. But I feel like season one was also very blessed by Apple. In a weird way, COVID even protected it. We were about to go into production, and then all of that halted. So there was this moment of, “Hey, this is an opportunity to look at the material and question what we’re doing.” No one really got the show or understood what we were doing. Sometimes, Ben and I would be like, “What is this thing that’s happening?” It was creating its own self. What allowed season two’s seventh episode to be what it is was the fact that I was on the show full-time. I was able to chip away at it because I was already shooting six episodes. There was no proper dedicated prep time for it. I was constantly moving around, but we found ways to make time for it, whether that was me working on a weekend or setting meetings throughout other days. That is really what made it happen.