#bro entire character development is becoming a dad

[rakkikuroba]

[midnight-in-town]

Ao no Exorcist is a Shonen series written by a woman and it shows

Since the latest chapter, I've been thinking about how several usual Shonen tropes are written rather differently under Kato-sensei's pen. No judgement or anything, it's just cool to observe. Some examples :

1) Rin's mentor is a woman

2) Rin's secret, despite being the MC, was revealed in ch13 to the entire cast, meanwhile Shiemi, The Main Girl, who was introduced to be so helpless is only starting to be explained.

3) Also, the Mysterious plot-relevant Shonen Parent is actually the twins' mother. (Of course Shiro is super plot-relevant too, but Satan is still angsting over Yuri and she's a huge part of the reason why he's the big bad)

4) Rin also changed his view about his future throughout the story: from dropping out of school, passing by hoping to become the Order's Paladin (probably to cope with Shiro's death and also to antagonize Arthur), to finally showing way more interest and potential in the (less epic and heroic in appearance) field of talismanic cooking.

5) When it comes to arcs, mental illness is a valid reason to build a character arc around...

6) And so is making an arc about girls being "cursed" to basically "get married and have children before they hit 30, the age where their beauty fade thus they become useless" :

7) ANE is a story about women becoming traitors to protect their loved ones, like Mamushi

or becoming overwhelmed because men toyed with their feelings like Tamamo

8) Older women can be absolute badasses like Shiemi's grandma

or Lucy.

9) Complicated mother-daughter relationship and girl friendships are given as much focus as complicated father-son relationships and sweet bro friendships (like Bon and his dad during the Kyoto arc, as well as the complicated but deep bond between the Kyoto Trio)

10) And one of my favorites: full time single dad, asking for help to do the job as well as he can and finding his true purpose in life by doing so :D

Hmm and now that I think about it, the only other Shonen series written by a woman I've been as invested in is Kuroshitsuji, by Yana Toboso, and similar examples can be found in it too, namely:

1) If Ciel ever finally admits needing a mentor, his aunt Frances will probably play that role

2) Girls can be super strong & skilled (Elizabeth, Mey Rin) and clever (Sieglinde)

3) (one part of) the Big Bad is a woman (Queen Victoria)

4) maybe Ciel's entire revenge stems from a conflict between Queen Victoria and Ciel's maternal grandmother, Claudia.

5) the Undertaker has been a continuously freaking pain in the ass because he probably fell in love with that same maternal grandmother and couldn't mourn properly

TL;DR we love our boys and their spectacular growth and development under women's pens a.k.a shonen series written by ladies are hella fun to read. :D

[mihai-florescu]

Kaname's mom and Subaru's dad (Kaname's idol fanatic mom jumping on stage and then falling to her death at Subaru's dad's concert, top solo idol at the peak of the industry, leading to uncovering of past misdeeds, his arrest, deteriorating health and death. Kaname isnt told what happened but knows he needs to be an idol because it's the thing his mom loved best, and Subaru spends his whole life under the threat of his dad's legacy, thinking he will meet the same fate as his dad. And yet he still chooses to pursue being an idol to make people smile, starting from his mom. In a funny twist of fate, decades later Kaname is attacked by the non special student body of Reimei when they're shown a video of his mom's sins being a catalyst of That Akehoshi's decline. But when a video accusing Subaru of being his dad's son is projected at the biggest idol event of the year, he is protected by the friends he's made, escaping the same fate.)

Madara's parents and Kanata's mom (Madara's parents with their numerous connections helping Kanata's mom fake her death to set her free, to escape the cult worshipping her. Madara spending his entire youth trying to destroy the cult and give Kanata back his humanity, feeling like he's failed because he couldn't do it on his own when it was never a task that could be done alone in the first place)

Izumi's parents (They're controlling Izumi throughout his childhood to follow their wishes and expectations of him, but Izumi chooses one thing for himself that they don't agree with - Makoto. Eventually he grows up to follow in his parents' footsteps by trying to control Makoto himself to protect him from potentially getting hurt)

Jun's dad and Nagisa's "dad" (Jun's dad raising him to be a solo super idol that can defeat Jin, but Jun only flourishes when he joins a unit with Hiyori and stops seeing being an idol as a duty. Similarly Nagisa being raised to be the next supreme idol, finding warmth and a family in his unit instead of being alone at the top)

Wataru and his adoptive parents (who didn't pay much attention to him, leading to Wataru constantly learning new tricks to outdo himself until eventually he couldn't be understood by those around him anymore...)

Arashi's parents (individualistic and uncaring, leading to her developing the big sis persona to not let others feel unsupported as she was growing up)

Tsumugi and his mom (who has failed, got scammed by religious organizations and brought trouble to the point of divorce, and despite it all, Tsumugi can't give up on her, his mom who was for a long time the only stable connection in his life. Tsumugi who learns the signs of a scam and to avoid them. Tsumugi who is in charge of the SNS at school where the students start railing against Kanata's religion and recognize him as a fake god. Tsumugi who develops a big bro helpful persona to make himself useful. Tsumugi who considers becoming a teacher because of it, who gets confronted by Natsume "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, or have you forgotten that's the same vocation your mom failed at?" Tsumugi who is very much aware and had decided to make a separate path for himself, one continuing as an idol in Switch, even before Natsume's words.)

Man. Enstars characters and the relation to their parents, the expectations, subversions, accidental following in their footsteps etc. I couldve worded this entire post so much better and added more characters, but you get the gist. This is all just my understanding, if you think anything is off please let me know. And I did not mention every character so if you think I missed something important also share.

[thefoolishone666]

Kickin Chicken once said

@hiwelcometothemonstersancturary gave me the go to do this, which is mistake one for them, so here is my go at giving them what they encouraged while I pray it works well. And if not...well I at least tried.

* (Refering to Bobby) She is called Captain Heartbeat cause she will squeeze love out of your heart...and blood, but mostly love.

* (After speaking pr-bt for a 2 minutes) You ever forget your first language?

* Mods, take their swimming privileges away and put them in the pool.

* I would go evil, but I am going to follow dad's steps of being good...plus I saw they went shoe shopping so...

* What do you mean I can't seduce myself!?

* (Loud thud off Camera) PERCEPÇÃO DE PROFUNDIDADE!

* Our ship has a pool, an omelet bar, tons of rooms for you to sleep in, one would say that is a cruise, to which I say, fair, but have you seen the plank, cause I am about to get you real familiar with it.

* I heard some demons were touched starved. I got more than enough buckshot to help with that.

* Bubba, reading chat: "Kickin isn't the sharpest knife in the group," Well that is rude...

Kickin: I did eat packing peanuts when I was younger to be fair.

Everyone in room:

Kickin:...Wait is this new information for you?

Everyone: YES!?

* Wonder how many people come on to see me stream thinking "Oh hey, the voice actor for Kickin does streaming," or "Hey is this the official channel for the Smiling Critters show?" And they just come in on me saying something like, "I HAVE BUILT A TO SCALE JOLLY ROGER WITH POPSICLE STICKS!"

* Hey Theo, it's you! (Gets empty bottle thrown at head) Ow.

* White is the color of evil, cause nothing exists in it! Delight taught me that!

* I would cry, but I am too dehydrated to do such a thing. (Goes to drink some water, pauses, puts water bottle back down)

* It is always funny to see people react to my complete indifference to horrible stuff.

* I needed to find a way to get a gambling addiction, so I thought space could have the answer.

* (Seeing Bubba being affected by the blue screen) Bubba, I know you always wanted to become the one thing I love, but this is ridiculous!

* I am just saying revenge is amazing, ok? Yeah, you gain a tremendous amount of regret sometimes, but it is amazing.

* Cool motive bro, still murder!

* (In response to Angel giving them food) It hasn't been that long since I started streaming, it has only been...5 hours...

* This is my favorite bird. (Holds up middle finger before pointing to self) It is the chicken.

* (Wearing VR) The future is today!...I might need it adjusted though.

* Does dying take away time away from my vacation days?

* IT IS ALL A CONSPIRACY TO END ME! IF NO ONE EVER HEARS FROM ME AGAIN, IT IS CAUSE THEY KILLED ME, CHOPPED ME UP, AND FED ME TO THE WOLVES DANG IT!

* Fursuits are getting so good you can now subject yourself to your own form of trauma to fuse into it. Brought to you by Playtime.

* I have seen the internet and honestly, have seen worse. Which is saying alot.

* (Looks at Candy Cat in his lap before looking at camera)...Help. me.

* Theo: You finally did it! Did it help when you imagined it was me you were fighting?

Kickin: Not at all...worked when it was Dogday though.

Dogday: WHAT DID I DO?

Kickin: Hell if I know. As long as it works though.

* (Playing I Expect You to Die, dies trying to do an action pose)...(Starts singing the James Bond theme notes)

* (Reacting to "Unnecessary Feelings") Bubba, I was promised a crime drama, not a reminder that no one in this house knows how to feeling well, including us!

* I would boop you, but I don't want a pirate hook this early in my character development.

* William then preceded to commit several hours of joy, on at least an entire classroom of kids to learn why death does.

* You can have one hit Hoppy...Ah não, ela tem uma cadeira!

* Don't worry, I won't hurt you, I am just going to turn into a nuke to fall on you.

* (Stares at camera while winding music box)

* Chica, you wouldn't hurt your brother, would you? Or would you want me to be you and Foxy's kid, whichever makes you more merciful on me.

* I am here to break the stereotype that parrots can only be pirates and no other reasons at all.

* (Refering to how much money he has in game) $60!? I can finally afford 1 AAA video game! (Pulls up Balan Wonderworld steam page) I am going to buy this one guys!

* Kickin, coming into Crafty's stream: You mind if I borrow a picture.

Crafty: Uh sure...Why?

Kickin, taking one of the monsters: A reminder.

Crafty: A reminder of what?

Kickin: Of who in this family is an actual threat. (Leaves without elaboration)

* Don't make fun of me, I will cry will I beat you up.

* We don't even own a game cube, I just want to find a copy of Skies of Arcadia to display.

* When you get into a certain mindset for so long, it is so jarring to have to go into a different line of think, like you just suddenly ask, "Wait I don't have to ration this sandwich for the entire year?"

* WHY DID I LET THEO TALK ME INTO PLAYING THIS!?

* I am still surprised I recovered so well from all of that.

* What would the others do without me? Minus not having a heart attack everyday.

* I SURVIVED THAT FACTORY FOR OVER 10 YEARS, I WILL NOT LET A SLIDING PUZZLE DEFEAT ME!

* Have good night everyone! I don't remember how I end these...I will make you walk the plank! No, that is not it...

[tokuvivor]

Due to circumstances beyond the control of any others, @violetganache42 and I are splitting duty on this week’s highlights post (Competition Night edition). She did it for the shorts and episodes, I’m doing it for An Extremely Goofy Movie.

So without further ado, here we go.

“Polar Trappers”:

We bring ‘em back alive

@puffyducks: bro where is pabo

Donald hunting a penguin, which is now illegal to do so

Not the kid!

The baby penguin’s tear becoming a massive snowball

“Need 4 Speed”:

QUACK PACK (Again!)

Disney Ducks meet The Fast and the Furious

@spamtoon: huey you guys aren't in phineas and ferb

Daisy appearance!

The idea of Comet Guy Night

@ducklooney and puffy going off about humans being in the Duckverse

Us calling Donald and the authorities to kill Rocky the Rocket Throttle

From Negaduck ass car to Ratcatcher

@writebackatya: "This is like the Family Guy of the Duckverse"

Ludwig appearance!

puffy: "where's dick dastardly"

Puffy, Missy, and I using 90s slang

Daisy seeing the triplets in the race:

RIP ethnically stereotyped racers

WriteBackAtYa: "DuckTales 2017 needed a car race episode"

Violet: "Would Huey and Launchpad be commentators?"

WriteBackAtYa: "Yes Always"

Violet: "SOLD!"

Ludwig's toy kangaroo winning the race

@tealottie: erection joke

“The Missing Links of Moorshire!”:

Webby giving Scrooge semi-permanent hearing loss

Launchpad: "This lake will be used for the swimming portion of the competition."

Huey: T_T

Violet: "Cue theme song!"

Missy betraying Della with Daisy

Tony the Tiger?!

The entire coin toss scene 🤣

Us praising Glomgold

Missy commenting how Scrooge and Glomgold can't tuck their tails for golfing

The audio glitching like CRAZY

Fluttershy and Bubbles the Kelpies

Webby: "Talking animals wearing clothes?! :D"

@fantasticenthusiasttale: "Webby…"

Violet, internally:

"Bologna. Trampoline."

THE MUSIC USED FOR THE MONTAGE!

Louie yoinking money out of Glomgold's sweater pocket

Emo Dewey

"You people are no fun."

Webby: "Not everything has to be a life lesson."

Violet:

Violet pretending to be turned to stone by the Medusa Mist (as I like to call it)

Launchpad ending the episode with a life lesson… before trying to devour golf balls

“Dog Show”:

puffy: "you know who else is an orphan"

Dreamy: "Everyone in this shit is an orphan"

The dog show people being dogs

Goofy literally begging

Pixar ball

Mickey unleashing his inner dog

An Extremely Goofy Movie

Calling out all the characters from the previous movie as they show up

The fact that Pete is celebrating his own son leaving💀

How is Goofy single?

Goofy having major rizz (this point comes up quite a bit during the movie, and for good reason)

Max’s character development from A Goofy Movie being undone

Sad Goofy☹️

HDL mention!

Bradley Uppercrust III

@kaitosduckmania: “god this shit is so pretentious LMAO”

Will: “I want this review on the back of the DVD”

Max/Roxanne vs. Max/Bradley on Tumblr

Beret Girl!

Puffy: “you know who ELSE is called tank”

Violet: “MY MOM”

Puffy: “they’re snapping at us…MENACINGLY”

Bradley having the same VA as Johnny Bravo (also, The Man with the Yellow Hat)

Max’s horrified face when he sees that he and his dad are in the same class

Bobby wearing pink panties/briefs

Hidden Mickey

Goofy’s mispronunciation of the word “trigonometry”

Puffy: “the WHAT decimal system”

Sylvia being adorable

Goofy does a Donald-esque voice

Kai: “WHAT THE FUCK GOOFY YOU CAN MAKE THAT VOICE?”

Will: “Max’s whole character is that he doesn’t want to be like Goofy but like he is so much like his father that he doesn’t even know it”

More cheese pull (pizza in the last movie, nachos in this one)

BONGO MUSIC

PJ has rizz, too

Goofy and Sylvia dancing to Shake Your Groove Thing

Papa Dog

Us dumping on the inherent cult-like nature of fraternities, sororities, and the National Honor Society

The German judge low-balling everyone

Dreamy: “Is this the olympics all again”

Puffy: “this is MY olympics”

Max shooting down Goofy in the worst way possible

Goofy’s weed/acid trip dream (plus the Goofy holler!)

More Goofy sadness

Meta humor about almost everyone wearing gloves

Missy betraying Daisy with Sylvia

CHEATING!!!!!

PJ flying off

Dreamy: “He went to visit Della”

“Mud! My only weakness!”

Will mentioning that the scene with the X crashing down was removed from the broadcast version of the movie after 9/11 (which we completely understand, because holy shit)

Also, sort of a Hindenburg reference

Goofy graduating! (And then telling Max he was getting a job at the school)

Sylvia having the same VA as Emma Glamour

Spam floating the idea of Max vs. Gosalyn for the X Games

Disco end credits!

Also, that was a goofy movie. Extremely, even.

[insufferableprotagonistpoll]

Round 1

Propaganda why Oscar is insufferable:

"“I want to be famous!” Ok, what for? “Whatever means I don’t have to work.”"

"Selfish, shallow, vain, materialistic, reckless, irresponsible, etc. Doesn't even have an aesthetically pleasing design, he's horrible to look at (like every other character in the movie tbf) so bro has literally 0 redeeming qualities. That one shrimp with the ridiculous sob story should have been the protag instead"

"His entire personality revolves around being shallow and selfish, to the point he sees no issue with lying for his own material gain, in the process shamelessly screwing over his best friend/future girlfriend -- she gave him her grandmother's valuable precious pearl to pay off his debts and get out of trouble, because she cares about him, and instead he fucking gambled it all on a horse race on impulse because he overheard some rando saying the race was rigged and guaranteed to win (surprise, it wasn't). Never really faces appropriate consequences for any of his actions. Gets an undeserved happy ending to top it all off, when really he deserves to suffer a little and learn a lesson.

Also has one of the ugliest anthro-animal designs I've ever seen so he's insufferable to even LOOK at, jesus christ."

Propaganda why Brambleclaw is insufferable:

"(Limiting my critiques to the books he is a point-of-view in, but you should know there's so much more besides this lmao.) He and his brother Hawkfrost train in Cat Hell with the ghost of their dead supervillain father every night, and he knows it's wrong, but he lies to his love interest Squirrelflight and everyone else about it, even directly acknowledging multiple times that he can't let Squirrelflight find out because she wouldn't want to be close with him if she knew. Despite that, the narrative never calls out how wrong that is, and he never comes clean about it. In fact, he gaslights Squirrelflight in the most literal sense of the term: she correctly suspects Hawkfrost is evil based on his actions, and Brambleclaw, despite knowing Hawkfrost is indeed evil, accuses her of hating him just based on his parentage (you know, the same evil parent he spends every night secretly chumming it up with) making her out to be unreasonable even though he KNOWS she's right. Hawkfrost eventually semi-kills Squirrelflight's father, and Brambleclaw kills Hawkfrost in retaliation, but he STILL does not apologize for his own actions or admit his own involvement, let alone face consequences, EVER. The narrative actually REWARDS him with the exact same position of power he had been wanting for several books and colluding with Hawkfrost and Evil Dad to get. This is only made worse later on when Brambleclaw spends a whole book stewing over how Squirrelflight lied to him (about something objectively less bad, that their children were secretly adopted rather than biologically theirs, which she was still punished for severely) and flirting with another female character who was introduced exclusively for that book to make Squirrelflight jealous. Said character leaves forever at the end of the book and Brambleclaw gets back together with Squirrelflight and says he forgives her... still no mention of how he screwed her over far worse and never admitted to it, let alone apologized for it. Fuck this guy, if he were a human he'd probably make Facebook boomer memes about marriage being a ball-and-chain and women being crazy nags."

"Brambleclaw is $h!tty towards his girlfriend Squirrelflight because she believes that his half-brother, Hawkfrost, isn’t a good cat even though she’s right about that and Brambleclaw went against his character development of wanting to be nothing like his murderous father, Tigerstar, by training with him along with his half-brother in kitty cat hell."

"He's rude and whiny, his first book as a protagonist has him trying to train the she-cat that would become his wife in fighting and he just doesn't have a single nice thing to say about her. He's the narratives specialest little boy and from what ive seen almost everyone in the WC fandom hates that guy."

"basically the authors forgot everything that was previously established about him except for "his father was the previous bad guy", so he goes from "i will never be like my father" to "maybe the racist fascist dictator who abandoned half his kids wasn't so bad after all". and then there's his relationship with Squirrelflight, which i'm sure other submitters have gone in detail about..."

[lavendori]

mob psycho + ‘changed for good’

in this final arc of mob psycho, we are about to see the culmination of each character’s development upon meeting mob and getting to know him over the series. and actually, for all of season 3, everyone is getting their moment + closure, starting with dimple, then tome, then teru, and now suzuki fam + ritsu this week. each character gets a fitting conclusion that all ties back to how emotional connections in community, specifically with shigeo, change you for the better.

ONE said mp100 began with the idea of “what would happen if a powerful esper was going through the woes of adolescence?” and BOY i have never seen anyone explore that theme as uniquely and hilariously as ONE has done. let’s take a look at the characters and where they were at in the beginning of the series.

like most good stories, we get to know mob out of order, with his past trauma with ritsu introduced slightly later in the early stages of the manga. instead we meet mob when he’s already working for reigen, at an age where puberty and psychosocial development starts to challenge shigeo and really shake his steely determination to keep a tight lid on ???%. here, we are immediately introduced to reigen, who’s obviously a fraud, dimple, who wants to be a god, & tsubomi, who seems to be the symbol of mob’s unattainable distant dream. this is the beginning of mob starting to lose control after a few years of trying to contain the storm inside him (yes, he and ritsu are TOTALLY like elsa and anna, but way more interesting).

for the first half of the series, as we mob continues to meet new people in this phase of his life, it becomes clear that everyone he encounters has an Opinion on how he should use his powers (except body improvement club lol, and tsubomi). some, like reigen and dimple (and to some milder extent, mezato and tome). reigen’s is obvious from the start: he’s been using mob to help him get more customers. dimple wants to use shigeo’s powers to become a god. tome wants to find aliens. mezato wants to make mob the god. teru, mogami, shou, & suzuki the older & co all had strong Opinions on how powers as strong as mob’s should be used, too.

ritsu, as his lil bro, is a bit of a special case. he’s certainly always had Opinions on how those powers should be used, and he envied mob for it, developing an inferiority complex along the way. this is multiplied tenfold by the tension that stemmed from the traumatic event they shared. mob started withdrawing and trying to contain himself so he’ll never hurt ritsu again (elsa without locking herself up & speaking with no one lol) and ritsu Felt that. ritsu is an intuitive boy, he knows mob holds everything inside out of care and it’s hard to deal with because he can never be there for mob or interact with him like normal brothers who might occasionally have little fights. he definitely has a bit of a growth arc in s1, and today’s episode shows more of how that development has been actualized (more on that later.)

in this entire final season, we see the culmination of where their development has led them now that they’ve all been impacted by mob. we see everyone recognize mob’s power for what it really is.

1) dimple gets his deepest ambition fulfilled and seizes his god moment but once he starts to grow more powerful, he realizes how important shigeo has become to him & that all along, he just wanted friends. he also recognizes mob’s powers more fully than before and acknowledges that it’s SO much to hold, and that being a god with that much is actually pretty costly!

(spoiler alert but this is also what shou and his dad realize too!)

2) tome was serious about starting telepathy club to find supernatural beings but she also feared disappointment & felt bad for dragging others along. she convinced mob to stick around the telepathy club (sorta), dragged him out a couple times to find other espers, but given how her friends sometimes still don’t take her seriously, she had some underlying fears about wasting everyone’s time. in the end, for her, she got to have her exploration day and learned through that adventure that it was about the friends she made along the way— right before her wish to meet aliens actually came true.

3) teru started out as an arrogant prick whose confidence was built on his powers & he never really saw harm in using them to subdue others because he also enjoyed the social power/control it came with. mob exposed the insecurities beneath all that and pinpointed teru’s overcompensation due to his fear of being weaker than others. through that first battle, mob taught him that he’s no more special than anyone else, and to accept himself without powers. that was a huge growth arc of course, but during the middle of the series, he still saw himself as inferior and wanted to reach mob’s level and be worthy of calling him a rival. teru recognized his weakness in comparison to mob, but therefore it seemed like he kinda idolized mob for that sheer power (that “you’re amazing” line even when brainwashed :’) lol.) the reason he said “i win this time” after facing ???% & getting his ass kicked is bc he won philosophically. last time, mob’s moral ground of not hurting others & not relying on psychic powers for self-worth won by a landslide. for teru, acknowledging his commoner-ness was humiliating defeat. this time though, with the same hilarious conditions of fighting mob until he’s naked & bald, teru’s determination to not harm others stayed strong, even making sure to put barriers around the citizens. (funnily enough, he also adds the line that “it’s okay if people laugh at you” LMAO. rip teru always getting humiliated.) he thus truly recognizes mob’s commoner-ness too, in parallel with mob’s sheer power, & ends the series content that he can call mob his rival.

4) RITSU and his inferiority complex. as mentioned before, ritsu always struggled with living under the shadow of his extremely powerful brother. he never felt like he could compete or even BE THERE to understand mob and his burdens. secretly, despite everything he said in his lil rebellious arc, he’s always wanted to be strong enough to shoulder the weight of that overwhelming power with mob. now that he’s gotten powers and has been using/practicing them, his big culmination of his arc gets realized when he is able to face, without fear, the ???% side of mob that has been repressed this whole time: “I was seeking psychic powers for the sake of this moment.” this moment being that he is now unafraid to compete with mob and listen to him, which means he finally has the capacity to use his power to help shoulder his brother’s emotions.

5) REIGEN. now this one deserves its own post. even if mob has a lot of important people in his life as a character, as far as mob psycho 100 AS A SERIES goes, reigen is definitely the deuteragonist and the second most important development of this entire manga, so there is A LOT to say about his arc, as the whole story basically is about reigen’s and mob’s influence on each other. but. for now i will keep it brief.

why is reigen always the last line of defense for mob? after everyone got brainwashed, mob didn’t fully go Dark until reigen also got affected. at the end of fighting ritsu, ???% says that NOTHING can stop him, followed by a shot of reigen pulling up. when we think back to the beginning of mp100, the whole story of mob’s growth into adolescence starts with him being used by reigen. as much as reigen cares about his success + money, he finds himself deeply impacted by mob and his pure earnestness to be a good person. all along, reigen’s hated his real self, knowing he’s got a terrible character (and ironically, as reflected in his own fears, is kind of cockroach-like).

when he finally sees everything mob’s been holding inside, how all that destruction is basically caused by HIS OWN LIES, it’s a huge wake up call that his treatment of mob has real consequences, and he needs to take responsibility for it. over the course of the series, we’ve seen him grow into caring for mob and putting his own selfish desires aside to spare mob from any further harm. but this lie, the first one he started their mentorship with, is the most dangerous one he needs to make right.

so he goes after mob, despite not having any powers. he lets himself get buffeted and pushed around by ???% (and ironically, since he doesn’t have psychic powers, ???% can’t absorb them from him lol).

and finally, FINALLY. HE TELLS MOB THE FULL TRUTH.

and the most beautiful thing after seeing how much reigen despises himself, is that he finally comes clean to mob and becomes utterly vulnerable at his wake.

THIS IS THE REAL ME.

and at long last he tells mob that regardless of all of that, he has the freedom to accept himself. he doesn’t need reigen at all anymore.

and although ???% came out due to his overwhelming desire to confess to tsubomi in the wake of shigeo going unconscious, the ultimate thing that he wanted was to be accepted - not by tsubomi, but by mob himself. reigen assumes responsibility and forcibly removes it from mob’s shoulders, allowing mob and ???% to be able to merge peacefully together.

[x-neurotoxin-x]

i remember the comparison i was going to make!

i was going to say hawks/shigaraki but I think dabi/shigaraki would have made sense!

so with shigaraki, he was trained by a villain to be “the signal of destruction, etc, etc” and the hero society is like “oh no!!!! afo is bad an abuser for this!!!” whereas dabi was trained to be an extension of endeavor to surpass all might and the hero society is like “okay but you need to keep quiet because your dad’s career :(((((”

both are wrong and both people were affected long-term but only one of them is seen as “valid trauma” whereas the other is being called a brat/selfsh/entitled and people sympathize more with shigaraki than dabi even tho they both were traumatized

Oh my gosh, don't even get me started on this topic because I have so many thoughts on the differences in how Shigaraki is treated vs Dabi.

Shigaraki is sympathized with and recognized as a victim by the narrative, multiple characters, and the fandom. Dabi is not. It's crazy to me because they both experienced similar trauma in the way of grooming and psychological & emotional abuse. The only differences being that Touya has more positive feelings towards his abuser and Shigaraki developed negative ones and Afo is a villain while Endeavor's a hero.

The drastic differences in how they're treated makes me kinda sick. I do not understand how Deku can look at one abused grooming victim (Shigaraki), say "you're someone who needs to be saved" and become determined to help him no matter what while in the same breath looking at another abused grooming victim (Dabi) and go "Well, Endeavors a good guy! You're the problem!" (Same comparison with telling Shouto he should forgive Endeavor.) Society too, the way Touya's boardcast was met with "Wow, he's annoying" "stop airing out your family's dirty laundry" etc and essentially brushed off while in recent chapters Tomura is literally just going on about destruction and shit and there's panels of society agreeing with him and cheering him on like "Yeah, do it!" Other heroes are a little less drastic of a difference but they're still recognizing Shigaraki as a victim to at least some extent while completely disregarding Touya as a selfish brat who's just trying to defame Endeavor, some going as far to imply they think he's lying (Hawks) or say "well endeavors a good hero so idc" (Burnin). Even just how Shigaraki's arc/final fight has been going compared to Touya's is... Holy shit. Like, it's great Shigaraki is recognized as a victim and shown sympathy for the abuse and grooming hes suffered, and it's great Izuku is trying so hard to reach out to him and save him. But Touya? He's treated like the cause of the Todoroki family's problems, and the entire fight he was yelled at, victim blamed, and treated like a bratty child while actively trying to kill himself.

(the fandom, too, treat Tomura and Touya's trauma different. The amount of people I've seen devalidating Touya's trauma to a sickeningly degree- literally to the point there's people that say he WASNT abused or going on about him being a brat and calling him ableist terms saying he should have been abused to "get him to knock it off" or the victim blaming bc he was groomed into seeing the abuse as love so they say he wanted it. Like bro. Yall are sick. Ive never seen anybody talk about Tomura like that and he's generally recognized by the masses as a victim. But that difference is a whole OTHER issue i can't even get into here.)

It's just bizarre to me because even all for one points out the similarities, and him and Garaki recognized that Endeavor messed up Touya's head so bad that Afo's grooming wouldn't had worked on him. Yeah, Endeavor has been trying to change/own up to what he's done or whatever and there's definitely a difference in afo and endeavor when it comes to, like, Afo is a terrorist and shit but when it comes to the grooming and shit, they're basically on the same level. It's just fine if it's a hero doing it tho? That's brushed under the rug and resolved with a press conference? And again, the total contrast in how their victims are treated is really what's sad to me because Touya deserves the same sympathy Tomura got.

[pierrotsloop]

dissertation number one uhm it is very sad that the other kid who isn't shapey never went home cuz his parents didn't even love him when they realized their mistake but it's so sweet that him and shapey get to hang out cuz its probably the first and only time they've had someone in their lives who genuinely loved and understood and paid attention to them :( . Also alone is SOOOO fucking sad I am glad they dedicated time to specifically talk about how patriarchal repressive society causes such grotesque things to happen to women . Cuz we see how bad it is for married mothers (it is veerrryy bad) but even they have slightly more stability over single women when women are commodities cuz these women's only options are to be used and disrespected and lose all sense of self worth and stability or be so despairingly lonely that theyre driven to what is basically self harm and either way it is constantly shoved in their faces that they have no agency over themselves or their bodies even when they're alone. ☹️ Also poor fucking Orel what a sad sad fellow. It just gets so increasingly unbearable to see him treated the way he's treated he is so young and so well intentioned and he just wants to do things right and be loved like most children do but he is so stuck :( watching him be stuck in the woods bleeding with his stupid fucking dad was miserable enough but on top of that being feared and dismissed by the entire town that's always at least been kind to him and betrayed/manipulated by his best friend who is also doing what he's doing bcuz of repression and neglect when he needs love and approval is so. GRAAHHHH .☹️☹️☹️. + the alcoholic dad grind is noooo joke whewboy ☹️also more about it being veeeery bad for married women ohh my god numb is such a ☹️episode too . poor fucking bloberta (I could still fix her) hoooboy. I even feel bad for clay who is very much a villain but driven to his ways by circumstances of repression . Bro just becomes increasingly aware that he is a bad person and it makes him be worse and hate everyone and himself even more and also he cannot do gay activities and it is so . Yikes!! ☹️ Still utterly haunted by his end of nature part one drunk monologue and also nurse bendy freaking out in alone :( shwewwwwww:( it is so upsetting to know there was supposed to be five seasons with slow character development but they had to cut all of it cuz the moment an already incredibly fucked up show talks about actual people's emotional circumstances the company just can't deal with it >:( a waste of an incredibly important and unique narrative methinks . ALSO the episode where he kills himself a bunch of times is so upsetting but also fucking gorgeous like visually and sound wise in the dreams.

[goosefeathercore]

saw a post about sisters in wc who should have gotten their brothers’ arcs and i wanna add to that by saying:

MOTHWING SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE ONE TO KILL HAWKFROST

it would have been 100x more impactful if it had been her. she was so much closer to him than bramble was, they have so much more sibling lore than ‘ooh we both hang out with our evil dad in cat hell’. it would have been a way more well-rounded and satisfying arc because the buildup was already in place. mothwing is hawkfrost’s first victim, NOT brambleclaw. it would have affected her emotionally way deeper than it affected bramble because she’s already lost tadpole and sasha, hawkfrost was all she had left. at one point hawkfrost and mothwing deeply depended on each other, bramble never had that kind of connection with him. we’re supposed to feel terrible for bramble because of the betrayal he faced, but it pales in comparison to the betrayal mothwing had already faced from hawkfrost. hawkfrost being evil doesn’t even come as much of a surprise from bramble’s perspective because hawkfrost has been that way for basically as long as brambleclaw knew him. meanwhile, mothwing’s novella is basically the only place we get to see the good hawkfrost once had in him.

plus, if the whole thing happened in riverclan, it would be a way better conclusion to hawkfrost’s arc of dangerous ambition in riverclan, rather than dying for a completely unrelated setup and ending the arc so anticlimactically incomplete. hawkfrost spent his life doing all this big brained mastermind shit to make himself leader of riverclan, only to throw that away in favor of giving a handout to his bro in thunderclan. if the writers truly want us to believe that hawkfrost is a calculated man with a mission, then they should show us how he intended to finally seize that power! he is literally the definition of wasted potential and it makes no sense for his character, who is portrayed as rather selfish, to ultimately put his efforts towards a cat other than himself. hawkfrost was so god damn close to being deputy with all of the work he put in, why not make him deputy and mirror the prophecies begin? think of it as hawkfrost being tigerclawstar in the position of the deputy at last, and mothwing being a figure like ravenpaw, who is the only one who knows of the deputy’s evils and has to try and expose or stop them. it should have been leopardstar that hawkfrost targeted, not firestar. the writers went through all the trouble of building up hawkfrost’s attempts to become leader of riverclan, so his assassination attempt should’ve been against leopardstar and should’ve taken place actually in riverclan.

in terms of a compelling protagonist set up to stop hawkfrost, mothwing has 10x the motive that brambleclaw did. bramble was indecisive af about it and had no conviction, him killing hawkfrost was more of a last minute decision that came out of nowhere. narratively it sucked, there was no turning point or gradual realization, it was just ‘oh shit apparently hawkfrost is evil now’. except it wasn’t even a twist at all, brambleclaw was literally present during all the times hawkfrost and their evil dad trained together, hawkfrost regularly discussed his ambitions with bramble. seeing things from bramble’s pov gives us literally no insight on hawkfrost’s change in character because brambleclaw never witnessed hawkfrost’s character development. meanwhile, mothwing’s entire novella details the slow, agonizing process of watching her brother grow colder and more unrecognizable every day. mothwing’s perspective would’ve given us a truly tragic hero with a complex connection to hawkfrost, and it would’ve given us a character who genuinely has a reason to hate hawkfrost but mourn him all the same. and both of those emotions are equally powerful, but bramble has neither of them. the only qualm brambleclaw has with hawkfrost is that he tried to kill firestar. on the other hand, hawkfrost ruined mothwing’s entire life and forced her into a life of shame, forever staining her paws with guilt for a crime he committed. she has an established, powerful narrative reason to kill hawkfrost and be his enemy. mothwing is truly the firestar to hawkfrost’s tigerclawstar, not brambleclaw.

on the topic of mourning, brambleclaw hardly did it at all because he barely freaking knew hawkfrost, hawkfrost’s death had literally no long term effect on bramble. hawkfrost was just a background character in brambleclaw’s life, so reading from his pov makes it seem like hawkfrost hardly mattered at all. but hawkfrost did matter a lot and served as a major character in riverclan, we just don’t get to see that because his death is told from brambleclaw’s thunderclan pov. it’s such a disservice to hawkfrost’s character to tell his death from the perspective of anyone other than mothwing. because, while mothwing may have been the character with the most reason to hate hawkfrost, she was also the character with the most reason to mourn him. hawk and moth watched their sibling drown as kits, then they were left behind in riverclan by their mother. hawkfrost is the only loved one mothwing has left, and she even SAYS “we only have each other now”. even when he destroys her life, mothwing still can’t bring herself to fully turn her back on him, because a part of her will always love the cat her brother used to be. she can’t just forget about him like bramble does. there is literally not a single character who has a more meaningful connection to hawkfrost than mothwing does, which is why she’s the only cat whose pov can fully do justice to his death. if the writers want hawkfrost to actually mean something, then mothwing is the cat who needs to tell his story.

i will admit, the whole ‘stake to the throat’ death is cool. it’s a brutal death that gives you shivers and it ties together the image pretty well, but it’s also completely random and spontaneous. sometimes, wildcard deaths are cool and keep the story interesting, and this death would be a cool one to give to another cat, but i personally find it to be somewhat of a bad fit for hawkfrost specifically. i say this because hawkfrost was very much a character centered around meticulous plotting, and pretty much everything he does tends to tie in to an overarching plan. from a writing perspective, he’s a character about the payoff of the effort put into setting up plot points. he’s meant to make you go ‘remember when he did this? well now it’s finally relevant!’ and so i simply think that giving him an out-of-nowhere death doesn’t do him justice. there’s no buildup, relevance or imagery to the stake except for the exact moment when it happens, and it feels just as unsatisfying as the fact that it was brambleclaw doing it. however, if mothwing had been the one to kill him in self defense and had she done so in riverclan, we could’ve had a truly awesome full-circle death. tadpole drowning is the big, dramatic backstory piece of hawk and moth, it even indirectly leads to mothwing wanting to be a medicine cat in order to save cats who may die that way. so, what better way to kill hawkfrost than to have him drown, specifically at the hands of mothwing? imagine mothwing struggling with him in the water, trying to grapple him away from leopardstar, only to realize hawkfrost has stopped moving and she has just doomed him to the same fate that once scarred them all those moons ago. imagine mothwing, a cat who dedicated her life to saving cats from this very fate, realizing that she has just killed her only remaining family, the one who technically gave her this job to begin with? genuinely, what could possibly be a better end to hawkfrost’s life than that?

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 328: Pandora’s Box of Discourse

Previously on BnHA: DEKU TOOK A BATH.

Today on BnHA: 

Also Naomasa grew a beard. Goddamn. 

please let this be a cool chapter that plays nice with my ADHD lol

(ETA: lol I feel guilty because a lot of people hated this chapter, but I’m just happy there was a lot of stuff to make fun of, and also that I have another week to work on my backlog of meta posts since the kids were MIA.)

around one month ago?? ah, okay, so we’re gonna find out what was in that Tartarus security file huh

I love that they just randomly set the place on fire

was it necessary to do this in order to escape? no. was it a good idea to set the island they were occupying on fire while they were in the midst of still occupying it? uh. was it cinematic as fuck? fuck yeah

wow it’s a pervert!!

that’s so great that the villains set loose this fine fellow who I’m sure is definitely not a serial rapist. truly the LoV is so noble and misunderstood. they’re just trying to free society from its chains people

oh my god??!

SHANKED!!! oh my god I cheered for Stain before I realized what I was doing. time to have an identity crisis I guess

so he’s all “hey what’s going on.” which, while a respectable question, is something I personally would have waited to ask until I had put a bit of distance between myself and the fiery murder island. but that’s just my personal preference

Stain you really are tenacious I’ll give you that

“what’s the point of escaping prison if you’re not gonna be smart about it” well shit. anyways yeah you’re dead right, society is in the process of collapsing and the outside world is in total chaos, good call there

oh shit

I mean it’s not like we really expecting anything otherwise, but still. fucking brutal. I feel like these guys’ fates were decided the minute that one guy called AFO “scum” back in chapter 94. AFO is unmatched at getting long-term revenge

??

ahh, was it the security footage??

fdsdfk he’s still alive??

and he’s immediately launching into an inappropriately theatrical monologue even as the darkness closes in on him fdlfksjdlk. you know, was it ever confirmed that the other guy back in chapter 297 was Seiji’s dad? I’m just saying

very impressed that he’s still coherent enough to weigh the pros and cons before making the decision to gamble on giving this info to Stain, who at the very least has his own moral code and isn’t allied with AFO. it was definitely still a risk, but as we now know it was also the right call

what a weird alliance. so Stain tells him that he’ll give it to a just person, and the guy is all,

okay for real though I’m gonna need someone to run a DNA test on this guy. maybe it was some kind of cuckold situation?? the other guy had the family resemblance, but this guy absolutely 100% raised Shishikura Seiji and you are not going to convince me otherwise

anyway, so Stain is all,

PRISON GUARD: “???? ??????? what the hell. what the fuck does that fucking mean. I’m dying here, jesus christ, whatever man fuck you”

(ETA: I kind of feel like this might have been Stain’s last appearance in the manga, given all the fanfare. there’s not really much else he can do for the story at this point, and he seems to have gotten all the character development Horikoshi was planning on giving him. so if this really is it, hasta la vista and good riddance I guess.)

DWLFDKSLDK MEANWHILE, OUTSIDE

(ETA: I feel like this is meant to be evocative of that Sermon on the Mount painting, but in a really fucked up way lol.)

if it were me stumbling upon this scene I would just shake my head and walk right back into the flaming building. not getting involved in that mess. sorry not sorry. I’ll take my chances with the fire, especially given that it’s half-assed neutered BnHA fire lol

blah blah blah and so he decided to pass the info on to All Might -- HOT DAMN, HOLY SHIT

NAOMASA HOLY SHIT. THE APOCALYPSE LOOKS GOOD ON YOU, BOY

“I really like that facial scruff thing Aizawa’s got going on, I think I’m gonna get in on that” yes sir. “also thinking of ditching the tie in favor of the bulletproof vest look. also thinking of getting totally fucking jacked.” good lord. except I’m pretty sure that’s just body armor, but also I don’t care. anyway I should probably stop staring and actually read the fucking speech bubbles here lol

“All Might first handed this information over to Nao, and then went to see Deku, and then came back to Nao” thanks for that tidy little summary Horikoshi. we are capable of piecing events together in sequential order, I just want you to know that. but thank you

“so has Deku finally gotten a bath? also, sucks that Stain saved the day, but what are you gonna do” Nao I missed you so fucking much and didn’t even realize. how am I just now realizing that you are the perfect man

for a second I was gonna ask why Tartarus’s security systems would be cut off from the outside world, and then I remembered that’s a basic security control, and then I actually got impressed by how sensible that is. like, it’s been a while since I could genuinely say that the good guys (excluding class 1-A) did something smart. not that it helped them much in the end, but still

anyway so they’re talking about how AFO was able to coordinate the attack by communicating between his horcrux self on the outside and his ugly peanut-faced self on the inside

huh

okay you have my attention. I am taking notes here lol please continue

ah okay so he says that prior to Jakku, the transfer of information between him and his Vestige self was only one-way. but post-Jakku when Deku was in the hospital, he was able to tell what was happening inside the OFA Radical Lisa Frank Dead People Book Club Realm when he touched him. I feel like we established that before, actually. but he didn’t talk about how it actually felt, though

boy we already know this lol. yes AFO can talk with his horcrux self. and he can also communicate with his little bro in OFA too, let’s talk about that sometime why don’t we. what exactly does that imply, based on the rules we’ve established here

my god I cannot get over Naomasa and his fucking facial hair

no wonder All Might was in such a hurry to leave Deku and get back here

like I have no idea what this radio waves nonsense is but my god, people

that jawline. also so it’s a quirk, I see. except last I checked Deku didn’t have a radio waves quirk, so that doesn’t really explain his connection to AFO. but whatever, hopefully we’re at least getting closer to some kind of reveal here

(ETA: since I sometimes forget that other people’s lives don’t revolve around my theory posts, here are the two relevant links if you by chance want to know my thoughts about this.

Hagakure is still The U.A. Traitor™ regardless of whether Deku is passing information on to AFO through his psychic link, which he almost certainly is.

speaking of said psychic link, Deku is a horcrux.

just posting these now, because whenever trippy OFA stuff happens I tend to get an influx of theory asks. so hopefully this will be a bit of a time saver lol.)

-- wait, what

THAT’S what the recording was??!? holy SHIT. I genuinely was not expecting that. y’all wiretapped his fucking telepathy. fucking quirks, man. wild

AND THEY USED THAT POWER TO DETERMINE WHAT WE ALREADY KNEW, HUZZAH. GOOD SHOW

-- oh shit wait lol, except I forgot we’re not talking about 38 days from the present, we’re talking about 38 days from the date the conversation was recorded. heh. um

yeah that’s the face I would make too if All Fucking Might just casually told me we had eight days left until the end times

oh, pardon me. three fucking days

r.i.p. anyone who thought we were going to have another band arc sob. I sure hope Deku is enjoying that nap

(ETA: I realize people were hoping for a longer rest period here, but given that the man warned us all the way back in chapter 306 that we were entering the final act, you can’t really blame him too much when that turns out to be true. anyway but I do recognize that we’ve reached the point in the story where this kind of discourse is going to become a weekly occurrence, simply because there’s no possible way for Horikoshi’s actual endgame to line up perfectly with the variable headcanons of millions of fans, all of whom have wildly differing and in many cases contradictory expectations which can’t possibly all be fulfilled. anyway, so I’m already bracing myself for that lol. this coming year is going to be a wild ride.)

damn, U.A. out here looking like the motherfucking United Nations

-- is this U.A.?? I actually just realized, U.A. is four interconnected buildings, not two. wait holy shit is this Shiketsu?

wait holy SHIT

based on the overwhelmingly powerful vibes of bureaucratic incompetence, I’m thinking this really is the (future) U.N., or whatever organization it is that deals with international hero stuff

“just let them handle it themselves I’m sure they’ll be fine” yeah okay, thanks guys. appreciate it

wait oh shit did he say that it’s not just Japan?

soooo, what you’re telling me is that AFO is this close to bringing about the end of not just Japan, but the entire world, and you guys don’t think it’s a good idea to help the Japanese heroes stop him? so, genuine follow-up question: are you guys already planning your rich people exodus into space a la Wall-E, and that’s why you don’t give a fuck?? like, what??

omg international heroes

these guys are from World Hoodie Mission, right? is this Horikoshi’s way of reminding me to buy tickets

(ETA: and it worked too lol.)

WHO??? WHAT???

don’t tell me you’re introducing yet another badass new female character for me to fall in love with only to watch as you dismember them and/or blow them up, Horikoshi. I’m getting tired of playing this game my dude. don’t lie and tell me this time will be different. we’re not doing this again goddammit

noooooooooooooooooooo

god fucking dammit lmao. [sighs and rips the previous paragraph into shreds]

on behalf of Americans I apologize for our superheroes always being Like This

I also apologize because I love her already and I’m gonna be shameless about it. so fucking shameless you guys

is her fucking hair red white and blue. it is, isn’t it

this is the volume cliffhanger, 100% lol. it will take every ounce of Horikoshi’s willpower not to put her on the volume cover. he’ll have to settle for the spine or the inner cover this time because Deku VS his class 1-a superpals takes precedence. but it will be a close thing let me tell you

tbh it’s that smile that does it for me. she’s definitely All Might’s protege. get out there and show them how it’s done girl. and maybe call Salaam and BRD and see if you can’t convince them to play hooky from their governments as well. why not. world’s ending in three days you guys. “sorry, I’m busy this weekend” ain’t gonna cut it lol

so while I am not fully caught up with Vigilantes, I have read far enough to know that there’s an American hero named Captain Celebrity whose superpower from what I recall is being a humongous douchebag. and while I haven’t read far enough to know what happens to this guy, I can’t say I’m very disappointed to learn that he’s no longer the number one hero in the U.S. (actually, didn’t they kick him out and that’s why he moved to Japan to begin with?). anyway, so my thanks to Horikoshi for having a marginally higher opinion of Americans than Furuhashi, even though we have definitely not done anything to warrant said opinion lately, and you may have inadvertently opened the door to a pandora’s box of discourse lmao

(ETA: lol I went into the tags and they don’t disappoint. “why is she dressed like a flag” because she’s an homage to Captain America and Major Victory and literally every other character on this list. again, I apologize for fictional American superheroes being Like This. “oh boy another thicc waifu to make the fanboys happy” look, tumblr fandom never seems to have a problem thirsting over Dabi or Tomura or Aizawa or Nao, lol, I’m just saying. “where is Captain Celebrity” idk, probably murdered by the exploding bee cartel, let’s just be grateful for our good fortune and try not to Beetlejuice the man.)

anyway, so let’s see if Horikoshi’s recent character development with regards to making Mineta not terrible anymore will apply to other aspects of his writing as well. I know I was making light of discourse just now, but I do think the complaints about him introducing yet another new character at the 11th hour to be cannon fodder in the final battle are absolutely valid. and again, it wouldn’t be a problem if he didn’t keep maiming/killing off his female characters one by one instead of developing them and letting them kick ass long-term. but that said, I will never complain about Horikoshi adding another female character to the series, regardless of how clumsy the attempt may be. go ahead and pander away, just give us more girl power lol

anyway so we’ll see how it goes, but I think I’m gonna be optimistic and let myself hope once again, even though I’m probably gonna regret it lol. it is what it is. she is standing on an airplane just chilling for fuck’s sake. I’m only human. anyway fingers crossed

[ashdreams2023]

Mini review of the umbrella academy season 3 for each character

Ben

The way this version of him had a stick up his ass the whole entire time! Like bro chill and maybe stop being a jerk!?

Everyone was right old Ben was better, even at the end, he needs so much character development and honestly I miss old Ben so much it hurts 🥲💔

Luther

You know what? I’m actually glad he moved on from Allison even though he still kinda kept it in the family 😀 but neither the less moved on

Episode 8 was my favorite I think, I loved the wedding and how everyone was wasted, it was nice to see them breath for a second.

Victor

He’s amazing, literally so kind and sweet, him trying to keep everyone happy and safe my heart is melting.

It’s just I’m so proud of him, seeing him speak up for himself and being himself more is wonderful.

Klaus

One of my top favorite characters in the series and I felt devastated when he first died

Literally his powers are so fascinating and strange, how he can’t die at all and just wow.

Heart eyes for him! Whenever he’s on screen I feel relief

Allison

They literally made her character so unlikeable and after what she did from episode 5 and above I just flipped her off whenever she came on screen.

Watching her being more and more irritating made my blood boil, like everyone lost something! Like damn get your shit together 😐 like how did she become my most disliked character in the darn show???

Five

He was literally my favorite character in the entire show and still is. The only logical person in the group that used their brain.

I feel so bad for him, like come here let me give you a hug old man you need it! Also I’m loving the new black suit he got going on this season

Diego

Love him. Literally like I adore him he’s so…endearing, also I’m so happy he found actual love in this whole and I hope he sees his family grow.

When he was being a dad he did so well I’m proud of him. He genuinely loved Lila and I really love seeing that, they were my favorite couple this season.

[itsclydebitches]

Rewatching RWBY there's this chilling lack of empathy through the volumes that I used to just wave off. Yang has no empathy for Tai, Blake is just entirely about what Blake needs, Weiss almost kills a woman at a party and her takeaway is 'my dad is mean so I'm going to run away'. Qrow sinks hard into depression in vol. 6 and Ruby's reaction is to yell she's never needed him. No one has EVER helped a civilian. It's so prevelant. Knowing how 7&8 go really changes the earlier writing.

I think there was a great deal of well-written empathy in the early volumes — after all, this cast was designed as the kind, well-meaning heroes — but that care was expressed almost solely within the group itself. Ruby sits by Jaune in the hallway and says "Nope!" to his self doubt. Weiss offers Ruby a hand up after she fails to kill the death stalker. Yang seeks out Blake and gets her to open up about what's bothering her. Now, I want to emphasize that there's nothing inherently wrong with this. It actually makes perfect sense. These are our main characters and they're written as peers co-habiting the same space. Of course whatever emotional growth we get, which automatically includes moments of compassion, would be directed towards each other. Similarly, the dynamics originally introduced — that of teachers and parents — likewise (rightly) puts the burden on the adults to provide the comfort, not the other way around. Port snaps Weiss out of her arrogant mindset. Ozpin reassures Ruby about her leadership worries. Tai is there to support his daughter when she's recovering from a lost limb. That's the natural order of things, so to speak.

The problem, to my mind, begins to occur when the group exits those dynamics. They're no longer students, they're licensed huntsmen. They're no longer kids, but equals who never needed adults in the first place. They're no longer doing things for themselves and their friends on personal downtime, they're doing them for the community at large as a profession (to say nothing of the world-altering war they've insisted on shouldering responsibility for). That's what a huntsmen is meant to be, a defender of the people, not someone who uses that power for personal interests alone. All of this is a huge change from where we started out: cutesy kids going off on comparatively low-stakes adventures because one or more of their teammates are invested, only just beginning to realize that they're signing up for a job where their desires come second (that fireside conversation at Mountain Glenn).

This change invites — demands, really — that the audience read them differently too. Qrow's spiral in Volume 6 is a good example of this. If Ruby is demanding to be treated not just as an equal in terms of maturity and experience, but also as the primary leader of this group, then the viewer expects her to treat her uncle as an equal too, not dismiss his hardship. I've seen numerous fans defend that arc with some version of, "He's her uncle. He's supposed to take care of her. He's failing" but that, according to the show, is no longer the dynamic. Qrow is now just a member of Ruby's team, someone she's responsible for as their leader. It's easiest to see the problem if we switch out Qrow for any of the other members. If Blake developed a drinking problem, do we think Ruby would just shout at her until she magically got over it? If Jaune endangered the group, do we think they'd all be angry about it, rather than trying to figure out the source of what caused the mistake? We don't even need to think hypothetically for that one because we saw it on screen. Jaune attacked Oscar and drove him off, not just threatening him, but arguably endangering the whole team by requiring a search party. Fans have long insisted they had to steal that airship right then because being in Argus was too much of a risk, but if we buy that reading (which I personally don't, but), then that means Jaune made things exponentially worse by forcing them out into that super dangerous city, rather than allowing everyone to stay hidden inside. He made a massive mistake which, according to the logic of Qrow's arc, should be met with frustration, disdain, and eventual demands to get over his anger at Ozpin or ship out. But, of course, he received nothing but concern. Yang was worried about him, not Oscar. The search becomes about his grief for Pyrrha and his team's willingness (as well as Pyrrha's family member) to provide more comfort. Suddenly, the tendency to express care solely towards those within the group becomes a flaw the story won't acknowledge.

And then it spirals. The thing to remember is that no single act here is bad on its own, especially when we consider that yes, we want flawed characters. Rather, it's about the pattern. Ruby is allowed to get mad at Qrow for his behavior and chuck her scroll in frustration. She's human. I'd be crazy frustrated too. However, if Ruby is meant to be written as a caring, sympathetic character, she should not only respond to the situation with frustration, yelling, a refusal to listen, and demands that he follow her lead, no questions asked. We can, and should, acknowledge that Weiss was the victim during that party. Her father was hurting her, the woman was beyond insensitive, Weiss was triggered in regards to a horrific event, and her power acted on its own. However, if we want to write Weiss as a compassionate, mature huntress to-be, she should acknowledge that she nearly killed someone — even an asshole someone — and vow to work on her control because she's not willing to put someone in danger like that ever again. Both of these moments have a "They could have been handled better" response attached to them — the former more-so than the latter imo — but these moments are made far, far worse due to later events in the show, events where the characters are cruel without any justification attached. Weiss didn't mean to attack that woman, but she did mean to ignore Whitely and threaten him with her weapon. So once we see that, it informs our understanding of what came before it. "Oh. The fact that Weiss never reacted to nearly killing someone isn't just a bit of missed potential, it's an early indicator that she... doesn't seem to care. If she endangers people, threatens people... that's fine with her." The group has a right to be frustrated with Qrow. The group did not have the right to magically steal Ozpin's entire life story, assault him, and blame him for the world's problems until he felt his only course of action was to run from them. So when we see that it becomes, "Oh. The fact that the group treated Qrow so poorly isn't just a one-time mistake born of a stressful situation and young adults being out of their depth in regards to alcoholism. They really will just abandon anyone the moment they start making mistakes." Anyone outside of their group, that is.

To say nothing of how all of these moments interconnect. Yang's recovery isn't just about getting used to not having an arm, it's about getting used to having a new one. Weiss' party isn't just about nearly killing someone, it's about not committing manslaughter because someone else stepped in. The Volume 6 arc isn't just about trying to escape with the Relic, it's about trying to get it somewhere safe. Fans frustrated with Ironwood's treatment don't harp on these details out of some desperate attempt to make him look good post-murder spree, rather, they recognize that he's a character that's been around since nearly the beginning, originally written as a good guy, and thus has accumulated a number of key connections with the cast. So when none of those connections are acknowledged during an arc about trust... that makes the group look very uncaring. Yang doesn't care that he gave her the arm, Weiss doesn't care that he saved her from hurting/potentially killing someone, Qrow doesn't care that he's trusted Ironwood for years (in a rival-bros way) and that they've been heading towards him this whole time. And when Ironwood begins to spiral, they don't do anything to try and help him, let alone acknowledge that their own choices, that lack of trust and empathy, had a hand in getting them here. "But it's not their responsibility to fix him!" Isn't it? Even a little? Just as human beings seeing an ally struggling under horrific decisions and circumstances? Sure, they don't have to try... but that doesn't make them look very heroic to my mind. And we can't even shrug that off by simplifying things with, "Well, Ironwood is evil now so who cares about him." They simultaneously don't care about finding Qrow who is missing, then captured. They don't do anything to try and find their missing teammates, with the exception of sending May to do it instead. They don't help the army fight off the grimm. Don't try to make sure Pietro and Maria had portals to escape through. Barely hesitate when the newly resurrected characters goes, "Kill me. That's the easiest thing for everyone." And these are just a few of the big ticket moments. It doesn't even begin to cover all the details we get that paint a picture of, "Wow okay. They just really don't care about people outside the group, huh? I mean, they say they do, in a life-or-death way, but they're not putting forth effort to show it on a daily basis."

And if you pick up on all that, if you acknowledge how much the group has changed based on where they started out, you might wonder when in the world that started. Surely we didn't just flip a switch around Volume 6. So you re-watch early stuff and, sure enough, there are moments that feel like setup for what's to come later. Not intentional setup (quite obviously), but a lack of care towards details across the series that, once the dynamic changed, became far, far more pronounced. Characters should be at least somewhat recognizable from start to finish, especially characters who have only experienced about two years of in-world time, so if we now get to see Ruby blandly commenting on all the people who are dying, or Weiss using her weapon as a means of coercing her little brother into doing what she wants, or Yang and Jaune dismissing Ren until he gives in to their point of view... we're going to look for the beginnings of that behavior early on. As you say, we were able to wave all those little details off due to a number of important factors. Now though? Now they feel like they hold a lot more weight, simply by virtue of that early material proceeding what we have now.

[antchurch]

Hey can you please rec me your fave avatar fanfics?

i would be Honoured to

this is going to be a heavily zukka themed list as they recently became my top tagged ship on ao3 (im there @ jiminie if u want to see any more of my bookmarks) but i will endeavour to be more inclusive don't u worry !! these are all mostly pg - if there is sex it isn't the focus, mainly cause id feel weird rec’ing smut to a potential minor and also cause i don't need the judgement of my taste in porn but if u do want an 18+ rec lmk  the art of burning - zukka (eventually), canon divergence, ongoing - this might be one of my favourite fics ever, its a hadoka+ the watertribe come across zuko fic and i cannot recommend it enough have done some quality crying 2 this one xo what is living is burning - zukka, canon divergence, complete - BRO the canon divergence on this bad boy? so good - it had such a Mood, the tone is exquisite - - i cant say much without spoilers but trust me it goes Hard blue - zukka, canon divergence, complete - i may as well be recommending the bible here but i mean it when i say this has some of the best zuko character exploration that i’ve ever experienced it deserves all the love it gets!! the spirit stone - zukka, canon divergence, ongoing - zuko imprisoned by the fire nation? very cool ideas going on here, can’t wait to see where it goes!!! what you’re meant for - zukka, post-canon, complete - ambassador sokka saved the world! jk but like this is a really interestingly written fic, i love the epistolary style and its really satisfying to see a political system become unfucked. i wish i could be more articulate cause this fic rlly deserves that but im clow n

more below the cut cause it got long ;)

boy problems - zukka, post-canon, complete - this boy can fit so much angst in him!! this also has some excellent mailee content s/o to my lesbians xoxo swords of fate, pride of heart - zukka, alternate universe complete - zukka zoom uni au! did this fic hit entirely too hard for me as a uni student on zoom? why yes. do i also want to fall in love with a boy over zoom because of swords? also yes say you like your shirt soggy - zukka, alternate universe, complete - this is just good vibes aman falling in love n doing dishes its all we want - excellent hakoda content here !! very good if u desire better parental figures!! Flow Like Fire - canon divergence, ongoing - zuko is an airbender au that slaPs - also our first none zukka one look at me having range! but very very good its so clever in how zuko figures shit out i really enjoy the world building on this one blue's clues - zukka, alternate universe, complete - modern au where the blue spirit is a vigilante - its so fun to read and has sexy spiderman vibes big love 2 this one tell me a story - zukka, post-canon, complete - this will rip ur heart out!! izumi likes being read stories! tw major character death xox goodbye to fathers - canon compliant, complete - hakoda and zuko have a talk and ozai just sucks - good hakoda dad vibes and adults being responsible love it lighthouse beam - zukka, alternate universe, complete - uni au again!! very cute and disabled zuko rep!! love 2 see it  - so much pining my dude when the sun sets, and the moon follows - zukka, post canon, complete - this is an elderly gaang fic, so if ur constantly thinking abt grief like i am this is Right up ur street - tw major character death but so worth it.  Baby Hotline, please hold (me close to you) - zukka, alternate universe, complete - this shit is hilarious boys, fbi agent zuko and engineer sokka its a great time  Mass Times Acceleration - zukka, alternate universe, complete - this is a masterpiece, zukka roast trip au just very good painful feelings big fucking fan here man i would die 4 this fic survival will not be the hardest part - azula-centric, canon compliant, complete - beautiful azula character piece really rich and painful also lowkey sapphic Look How Far We've Come - zukka, alternate universe, complete - this whole series is insane!! daemons au!!! such good worldbuilding amazing character work fucking phenomenal man rain dance - aang-centric, canon compliant, complete - beautiful, beautiful aang piece about airbender culture and loss if u read any of these pls make it this one Intimate Counselors - zukka, post canon, complete - fucking hilarious zuko buys shit for sokka plot very good very fun honestly a joy 2 read might read it right now when im done with this list studying the blade - zukka, alternate universe, complete - social media au!! great gang dynamics n super fun!!!! kintsugi - toph+zuko bros 4 eva, canon divergence, complete? but only sorta cause the whole series isn't complete but its So good such a good reworking of the plot aaa it just goes hard man its the toph n zuko content u deserve spring comes to caldera - zukka, post canon, complete - ambassador sokka is back baybe and its so fucking good - great azula stuff here, really well developed pining, the full works figures 1-5: killing gods - zukka, canon divergence but only a lil, complete - a really lyrical and althetic exploration of zuko. feels like catharsis (do you take this jerk to be) your one and only - zukka, canon divergence, complete - hehehe proposal related hijinks love 2 see it yue is here n its great the art of charting the stars - zukka, post canon, complete - beautiful star gazing theme and gorgeous pining this is iconic i love it  speak ill - zukka, alternate universe, complete - sometimes u just need to call ozai a bastard. immaculate wow long list - sorry abt that!! but it really could have been easily twice as long aha

i hope i’ve managed to rec u something new and that u enjoy any of these and thank u so much for the ask~~~

[bookandcover]

This is not normally the kind of reading I would bother to include here. Normally, I only write about “serious” reading, excluding big chunks of other reading that I do—fan fiction, light novels, and anything I skim read.

It just feels like I include here the things that have depths for me to analyze, that require me to keep thinking about a book long after I’ve finished it. I love to analyze word choice, syntax, style, and themes. I like writing that lends itself to that kind of analysis. But I also consume just as much (read: more) light reading. Although, what is to say that this thing is deep and that thing light? I’ve certainly read fan fiction that stands head and shoulders above most published fiction in terms of plot, world building, and character development.

I listened to the Sidney Crosby: The Rookie Year audiobook recently and, for some reason, I’ve felt compelled to write about it. I keep thinking about it. I listened carefully (a rarity for me, as normally podcasts fit into a chaotic space in my day, and—in general—everything works better for me, a visual learner, when it’s on the page).

Partly, I think, this compulsion to write about this audiobook is that hockey fandom has become a very significant part of my life over the past two years, but, as a still relatively new fandom space for me, I don’t think I’ve had the time to give hockey the same level of analysis that I’ve given some of my fandoms over years and decades of my life (BTS, Harry Potter).

Yet, I’ve jumped into the world of hockey with both feet. I love the personalities within hockey—the deep emphasis on teamwork and hard work—and tracing the narratives of how duos met and made magic together is the origin of my love for hockey (and nothing will ever top the SidGeno narrative that first sucked me in). I love the play—the grittiness, the cold, the freedom (all things that ring true in some deep space within me, as a Mainer, as a Scandinavian). I love the statistics; I like listening to passionate people analyze plays and underlying numbers for certain line combinations.

There are plenty of things I don’t like about hockey culture and a broad cross section of hockey fans. But getting to go to Pittsburgh and see the Penguins play in their home arena was a great and very positive experience. There is a certain breed of middle-aged wholesome dad bros who yell ridiculous and quotable things at sporting events that I really vibe with (reminding me, in essence, of my own father). I love families that go to sporting events and I love seeing the excitement of cute kids, and there were a lot of families at PPG Paints Arena that night.

This audiobook reflected and showcased a lot of things I love about hockey and Sid Crosby. Or hockey through the lens of Sidney Crosby, the way hockey appears to him, the way he makes hockey exist around him: worthy of a lifelong dream. My favorite parts of the audiobook were the quotes from Sid’s parents Trina and Troy. They seem like extraordinary people, partly because of their ordinariness. It’s clear that they were a working class family as Sid was growing up. They worked hard. They loved fiercely. It seems Trina and Troy maintain all their good values, like Sid himself does. No airs and graces. No entitlement. I think it’s powerful how comfortable they are with publicly showing the details of their working class lives. In doing so, it’s clear how much the NHL felt like a different world to Sid, as he himself said, and to arrive there took the joint effort and sacrifice of their entire family. Sid would never have taken a new stick, new skates for granted. It makes his work with his Little Penguins Learn to Play Hockey Program all the more powerful and poignant as an initiative for hockey accessibility.

Beyond Sidney and his family’s admirable personalities and direct quotations, I loved understanding some of the inner workings of Sid’s rookie year. Although I’ve always been aware of the intense pressure under which Sid entered the league—from the Sidney Crosby Sweepstakes in the draft to the “savior of hockey” narrative—this book exposed those pressures in new and startling ways. From the explanation of the previous year’s lockout to descriptions of the fans that showed up to Sid’s games when he was in Juniors, these details and the words of people around Sid during these teenage years showed fully how insanely bright the spotlight was trained on Sid. I loved Colby Armstrong’s stories of his and Sid’s travels, how people flocked to Sid, how even ducking in a convenience store in Canada they found a Sidney Crosby life-sized cutout and the one other person in the store knew who Sid was. Even his staff was easily identified in Canada, as people flocked for sight of or news of their hero…even before he’d really become one. Sid’s continued humility, his work ethic and values, his ability to stay true to himself—all this shines all the more brilliantly in light of how intense the pressure on him was.

I also appreciated hearing more about the tumultuousness of Sid’s rookie year, of the things that were far from perfect. A few passing mentions from teammates and the coach at the time, Ed Olczyk, seemed to indicate that young Sid was the target of some jealousy during his first months in the locker room. Older players were not inclined to let him off easy. At the same time, it’s clear that by the end of the first season and Sid’s battle for 100 points as a rookie (the record Mario had set and that Sid was fighting to best, as he focused on becoming the youngest player ever to score 100 NHL points), every person on the team was behind Sid, helping out and fighting for his success, believing in him. Sid and Colby both talk about their “hot stoves” from that year, times spent hanging out as a team, talking about anything and everything, bonding deeply. Even though they were far from the playoffs, their energy and bond was that of a team who fought all the way through the playoffs. This energy extended outward from Sid’s teammates to the entire city of Pittsburgh and PPG Paints Arena was packed to the brim to see Sid score points 99 and 100 on April 17, 2006.

Some of the troubles Sid faced during his rookie year centered around the extent to which he was targeted by players on other teams, particularly players from vicious rival the Philadelphia Flyers. The account of Sid’s very first game against the Flyers made my blood boil at the injustice of it all. As Sid received multiple high sticks, no penalty was called. After Sid complained to the refs, with mouth bleeding and teeth chipped from a high stick, Sid was given a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. (I gasped aloud at this part!) Flyers fans showed up to that game already chanting their “Crosby sucks!” Sure, Sid was young and, sure, there is the logic of “the young guy needs to put in his time before he can complain,” but Sid. Was. Young. Imagine excusing a situation where a teenager has to “just take” abuse and tough it out when that abuse would be given a penalty if it were directed at someone else, or if that teenager lashed back. Then, that teenager is penalized not for lashing back, but for using his words. It makes my skin crawl.

Happily Sid, in classic Sid fashion, came back in the third period to score the gaming-winning goal. But this first game against the Flyers reinforced for me all the more powerfully how young NHL players are when they are drafted, signed to gigantic contracts, and placed under the pressure of hefty expectations, all within a culture that can reinforce some toxic ideology. Many newly-drafted prospects get the opportunity to build up their skills in an AHL team and under the watchful eyes of their team’s development program. Sid, already nearly as young as someone could possibly be within his draft year, was thrust directly into the NHL (although not into the spotlight, because he’d long since been in that).

Sidney Crosby’s story is an incredible, at times troubling, at all turns inspiring, narrative. Another lasting impact of his story is how much the people around him clearly care for him. Beyond the team that he won over that first season, beyond the city whose franchise he did indeed save, the staff that surround Sid all seem to adore him. His down-to-earth mindset makes him the kind of leader who leads by example. Jen Bullano, Penguins’ Vice President of Communications, has spent years alongside Sid and the Penguins core, starting as a graduate intern Sid’s first year. The way she talks about Sid—about his supportiveness of her, about his awareness of the micro-aggressions she repeatedly faces in a male-dominated work space, about how he feels angry on her behalf—show the depth of respect she has for Sid. I always think that the words and thoughts of those who are marginalized speak volumes about any leader. Jen’s words about Sid will stay with me.

Of course, Sid is not perfect. He’s human. He has grown and matured over time. This audiobook also made that clear, as it showed moments of anger and impulse, frustration and self-righteousness, from the 18-year-old Sidney Crosby. Sid’s awareness of his own growth shines through in his interview portions. It’s clear that he takes time to think about himself, just like he takes time to think about his every move on the ice. And, even though an audiobook can never tell the full story of a person—and Sid has moments of unkindness, of exhaustion, of pettiness, just like we all do, I’m sure—everything included here about Sid’s narrative of determination and growth were things I admire and things I’m glad to throw my fan enthusiasm behind.

[glorious-destruction]

SHATTER ME SERIES REVIEW (major spoilers)

I just finished the final book in this series, Believe Me, and I have some thoughts about the characters, the plot, and where they are now. So without further ado, let’s jump right into it.

SHATTER ME:

Firstly, I really enjoyed the first three books. I loved Juliette and Warner’s dynamic in the beginning and the whole idea of X-Men type resistance groups was really captivating to me. But right off the bat in the first book, Juliette explains that the Reeestablishment is divided into 3,333 sectors internationally. At first I was like, “okay they’re going to really need to channel the YA dystopian magic to take down a government this big.” I, personally, really like to see the politics in books and how the government became corrupted, but that is just my personal preference, and I found a government that had managed to take over the entire world in less than a decade without a war or anything just really off-putting. But, I was going to give the book a shot because a friend of mine loves them.

I absolutely ATE UP the first book and to be honest, I was a huge simp for Warner and every scene he had with Juliette I was just like “come on smash your faces together and kiss” but J chose Adam, much to my disappointment.

UNRAVEL ME:

The relationship drama was enough to make me pick up Unravel Me, which I thought was probably the best book of phase 1. It gave backstory to Omega Point, their futuristic technology and explained why Juliette and others have crazy powers. It also gave of plenty of Adam and Juliette PDA, which, being a Warner simp, I gagged at.

And then we met Anderson, who was actually Warner’s dad and just so happened to be Adam’s dad too. I was hoping that after Warner and Adam worked past their differences they’d become the ultimate duo of bros and really be a family.

NOPE! they hate each other’s guts. And they both happen to be in love with the same girl. But then we learn that Warner’s actually not completely terrible, and I don’t know about you, but any guy that has Shakespeare tattoos is bound to be hot. Too bad his dad is a major dick.

Speaking of dicks (I’m kidding) the deception that Juliette faced from the rebels and the Reestablishment really made me root for her because she chose to be strong and to stop being the whiny little girl that we first met in Book 1. Warner became a 3D character. It was very clear that he was still the villain though and was anything but a nice guy. Adam didn’t have much development at all, his only character trait being a simp and James’s big brother. For a person so important to Juliette, I felt like he should have played a more important role and that his powers should have contributed to the plot in some way. His powers only really stimulated the romance, which at this point, was a sinking ship anyway. My dislike for him grew whenever he was being an asshole to Kenji. KENJI MY BELOVED I WOULD DIE FOR YOU. Kenji was the class clown but also shown to be very resourceful and was second in command at Omega Point. King. Seeing his and Juliette’s relationship develop was so fun, and I genuinely cared about Kenji as a character.

Romance aside, Book 2 was very quick paced and kept me on the edge of my seat. The destruction of Omega Point set the stage for an epic third book, and I found myself really caring about all of these characters.

IGNITE ME:

ladies and gentlemen, we have done it. We have reached the last book in the series (*cue confetti cannons). Except it’s not really the last book lol

Ignite Me was, as a whole, a powerful story about self-acceptance and learning to stand up for what you believe in. Juliette is struggling a lot after the loss of Omega Point, but she wants to continue the work of the rebellion and become stronger. Warner believes in her more than anyone else, and not to mention he is totally hot and my ideal kind of guy. As their attraction for each other grows, Warner tells J that he is willing to do anything for her, and next thing he knows, he’s housing a bunch of rebels in his house.

Of course we get to see a bunch of characters we already know, like Bredan; Winston; Lily; and Alia; and even Adam and James too. Adam, for some reason, must have shit his pants in his sleep because he takes an unpleasant turn for the worse. He says several horrible things to Juliette, which for me, someone who didn’t even like Adam at the time, felt really out of place. Where was the caring guy Tahereh Mafi first showed the us? The guy who tried to comfort Juliette after she was forced to torture a kid for the Reestablishment? The guy who literally RAISED his 10 year old brother with love? That guy. Where was he and why is he being replaced by this bitch?

Well, turns out Adam isn’t a good guy anymore, apparently. I felt like his whole character was just thrown out the window to make Warner seem like a better guy. Pretty much everything that we knew about Warner has been a lie: he didn’t make Juliette torture a kid, he didn’t want to use her as a weapon, and he’s just a poor tortured boy. I understand that he was abused as a child and that his dad was indescribably awful to him, but a bad home life doesn’t excuse the terrible things that Warner did. He stood by and let the world burn and didn’t do anything about it. He tortured Adam and left him dangling on a conveyor belt. He tortured Kenji and basically left him to fend for himself with bullet wounds. It was becoming horribly evident to me at this point that Warner was a toxic person, even if he didn’t know it.

As a villain, this is pretty excusable. I mean, hello? Villains are supposed to be serial killers that water their plants with the blood of their enemies. Warner, though, is described as morally grey—not quite good and not quite bad. He makes it very clear that he doesn’t give a shit about anyone except Juliette, which should be a major red flag. But because she’s a YA protagonist, Juliette obviously doesn’t notice this and instead starts thinking that Adam was the toxic one. Reading all of this drama felt like being and middle school and not much was actually done plot-wise. The rebels basically just worked out in Warners basement for a few weeks before they decided they were strong enough to topple a world-wide regime. Yep. Sounds good.

It’s about this time when Juliette miraculously is able to control her death touch and decides she loves Warner. Thus began the saga of Gross PDA and Eternal Sex. The only healthy relationship in this book is Kenji and Juliette’s friendship, and their dynamic was the only reason why I stayed on for Phase 2.

RESTORE ME:

I think that Tahereh Mafi realized when writing Ignite Me that she was a little too ambitious trying to get a 17 year old girl that was fresh out of solitary confinement to take over the world. Even North America seemed like a lot. Juliette wasn’t cut out to be the Supreme, and Mafi stated this a lot in Restore Me. Warner was the obvious choice for next Supreme, but hey, he didn’t want the job.

Juliette just does a lot of complaining in this book about how much work she has to do, but we never really see her actually sit down and do it. She takes a lot of walks and has a lot of sex.

What I find most hilarious about this book isn’t Kenji’s jokes (although those were pretty great too) but the fact that Warner has sex with Juliette and THEN decides to tell her that he tortured her sister. Fuck first, business second. Juliette doesn’t know anything about Warner (not even about any of his past relationships) and has just had an atomic bomb dropped on her brain. I felt really bad for how many times Juliette was gaslighted in this book and fully supported her breaking up with Warner.

Plot was good in this book and laid the groundwork for Phase 2. Nazeera MY QUEEN and the other supreme kids were key parts of Phase 2 and I wish we could have seen more of them.

DEFY ME:

Juliette spends most of this book either drugged or knocked out by her birth parents, who are actually the Supremes of Oceania.

Not many thoughts on this book as I was beginning to lose interest in the series, but it was very important story-wise. Emmaline, Juliette (whose name is Ella now I guess) sister is obscenely powerful and has basically made the apocalypse just a big illusion. The Reestablishment always wanted to use Juliette/Ella as a weapon, which made me wonder back to Book 1. Anderson had let Warner take Juliette to Sector 45 because he wanted to use her as a weapon. The Supremes always wanted Juliette to be a fail-safe and had intended for her to stay locked up until they needed her. This contradicts the first book so much, and I feel like Tahereh Mafi forgot some of the key details about Juliette when she wrote Defy Me.

Not many other characters get a lot of development, but I guess Nazeera is suddenly interested in Kenji. Don’t get me wrong, I love both of them, but I just really didn’t feel like there was a lot of chemistry between them and that they should have had more scenes together to make their love story seem more realistic.

IMAGINE ME:

Three words: What. The. Fuck.

Juliette and Warner’s lives are lies, and everytime something goes awry in their plan, the Reestablishment just wipes their memories. Because apparently fucking with magical people’s minds doesn’t cause any psychological damage.

At least, to Warner it doesn’t. He’s completely normal—that is, just being a dick to everyone he’s around. He doesnt even try to make friends and seek some healthy relationships in his life and his first solution to everything is just murder. If your first response to something minorly inconvenient happening is to go stabby stabby, you know you’re fucked up. Warner needed so much therapy, not to be in a relationship. He needed several chapters of him just focusing on himself. His whole thing from the beginning was how much he trusted and believed in Juliette, but I guess he doesn’t believe in her enough to be able to defend herself for a week or two. I mean, the Reestablishment can’t kill her and can’t utilize her powers without her willingness.

The thing I found most funny about this book is that Juliette repeatedly calls Anderson—her fiancés DAD—attractive. Anderson is a dilf confirmed. Genetics, am I right?

So the rebels are launching a rescue party for Juliette before she basically destroys the world. Nazeera does some smart girl shit on the computer while Warner just kinda bangs Juliette back to her old self. Sex = best treatment for brain damage? Hmm, I’ll have to ask my doctor about that one.

The rebels, in short, kill all the Supremes and just kinda leave the world without a leader??? Okay. Yep. Juliette murders her sister, goes home, and the book ends.

Great ending. Hallelujah.

BELIEVE ME:

Once I start something I feel obligated to finish it, and I already bought Believe Me. I could handle a little more torture.

This book was pure smut. I’m all for a little spice, but the plot of this novella was Warner’s dick. Juliette and Warner can’t keep their hands off each other as they plan their wedding.

Only vague details are given about the Reestablishment being destroyed, which is probably going to take 9 more books to do. It’s told from Warner’s POV, and let me just say, he is the most pick-me boy I’ve ever seen.

“I’m so sad. No one gets me. I’m such a bad dude how could anyone ever like me?”

Even Warner admits Juliette is a little fucked in the head for liking him. He makes small efforts to try to befriend her friend group, but always comes off as an ass because “no one understands what he’s feeling.” He fights with Kenji so much, and I really don’t know why the fandom calls their friendship cute. What friendship??? Am I missing something? Everything between them felt forced and Warner said it himself: he doesn’t care about anyone but Juliette.

He describes her moaning with more fervor than he has in his conversations with Kenji.

Not to mention, he gets into so many fights with Nouria and Sam and doesn’t even appreciate that they are letting him stay in their home and run their resistance they way they want. It’s because Warner apparently knows all the ins and outs of the Reestablishment, even when he didn’t have a clue who Emmaline was or who Juliette was and I’m surprised that after all of the tampering done to his memories that he is able to function properly.

Anyway, back to the wedding. It’s drawn out for 200 pages and I literally wanted to kill myself reading it. Everyone does everything for Warner and thinks he’s a hero but he’s done like nothing to deserve it?? He hasn’t changed as a character at all since Book 2–we only see more of him.

Juliette transforming from a scared little girl to a young woman that accepts herself for who she is, powers and all, is character development. Warner going from an asshole to an even bigger asshole is not. And any sort of individuality that Juliette has been taken away and her only characteristics in this book is a horny simp. She literally can’t stop talking about how attractive Warner is and defends him even when he’s in the wrong. It’s pathetic and unhealthy.

I cringed every time that they touched each other, and the whole novella just felt like porn that was only written for the money, not for the sake of continuing the characters lives or expanding the story.

The last thing I’d like to touch on would be Adam’s wasted character. He was so important in phase 1, but appeared in maybe 4 scenes of Phase 2. After he turned into a major dick, I was hoping that he was going to have a redemption arc and maybe fall in love again, but he didn’t. He apparently has a relationship with Alia, which kind of came out of nowhere, and he gave his powers away to the Reestablishment. That’s a different tangent, but I’m short, so much could have been done with that plot point and the Reestablishment could have used his powers to finally put down any rebellion once and for all. (I’m all for an underdog story, but the Reestablishment losing this fight just seemed extremely unlikely after how powerful Mafi made them.)

Alright, that’s the end of my long tangent. My fingers have gone numb from typing this, and if I wanted to explain the list of grievances I had with this series, my fingers would fall off. That being said, if more Shatter Me books do come out, I would probably skim through them to see if any of these problems are fixed. But you can bet that I won’t enjoy them. What began as a great story quickly turned into nothing but a bundle of toxicity, rushed writing, and missed potential.