#but it's still pretty good quality imo. yeah

[britneyshakespeare]

i am at the looking-at-dolls-as-self-soothing part of the night. i definitely wanna beef up my bratz collection since unboxing my alwayz bratz yasmin was just like... oh... oh man... and... and i didn't think it'd be like that for me man i didn't think i had as much nostalgia for bratz as i actually do not just buy owning some but by touching them and playing w their clothes and their hair.

and one of my issues of course is that i'm a redhead and as a redhead my Default Lookalike Doll is meygan (not that having a doll that looks like you is the most important part of bratz, but it is so much of the fun right? the fact that there's a character out there for just about everyone?). and i like meygan as a character well enough, that's not the issue. but of the meygan dolls that have been reproduced, there's none of them that are like, hardcore needs for me except for sweetheart meygan. and i did not buy sweetheart meygan in time. i was not really collecting at that point. that was like 2022. i had a few... na na na surprise dolls at that time. which is funny bc i have four of those that i got all either on clearance or w giftcards and i do really like them even though a lot of doll collectors thought they were kinda dumb, and they were. i just liked the gimmick of the fabric bodies and there were just enough dolls i thought were really cute that i kinda caved at one point. i also knew it was a brand i wouldn't go overboard with. anyway. we were talking about meygan...

sorry meygan back to you girl. i know original 2000s bratz that have not yet been reproduced at crazy expensive on the secondhand market and it's genuinely out of control. but sweet heart meygan, both the repro and the original, are selling for triple digits on mercari, ebay, what have you. that's just ridiculous. frankly. i'm not buying her at that. i don't even like her enough to hunt for her regularly, if that's how it's gonna be. there are plenty of more readily-available bratz dolls that are either regular retail price or clearancing online andin stores. did you guys know alwayz bratz jade is going for 15 bucks on amazon right now? that's crazy. the other always bratz dolls aren't going for that low if they're even marked down yet. that release wasn't even that long ago. anyway i'm thinking of getting jade from that line bc i know some ppl thought that alwayz jade was a let-down, but i thought she was cute. yasmin was my favorite from that line and that's why i got her but jade was my second fave there easily.

i also wanna get the kumi they reproduced sometime and maybe girls nite out cloe since i see she's still available. it's funny there aren't that many core girls i've wanted from the repros but if i go for any of the cloes, new or old, it's gotta be girls nite out. cloe isn't even usually my favorite character no offense blondes she's just kinda. she's just kinda cloe to me. idk i love her but i'm not gagged over her most of the time. these are still bratz standardz we're talking about here so obviously i love her.

there's nothing going on in the world right now other than my bratz dolls. and if someone we won't mention wins the election, i'm definitely going doll crazy. i'm gonna be buying dolls after this anyway, but i'm gonna justify spending an unusual, nearly-irresponsible amount of money. you know. bc i'm an adult and i can.

hey also and of all the lines they could've reproduced why is their most recent slumber party? why? why? when the poll posted by mga had tokyo a go go WINNING? bc tokyo a go go is the correct option? i mean the slumber party line is cute and i like the base dolls and the accessories especially the stuffed animals are cute. but. everyone knows the bratz audience these days is adult collectors. which adult collectors are losing their minds over dolls in pajamas and bathrobes? again they're CUTE. but why. also why did they reproduce bratz babyz when those things were nightmare fuel

[oodlyenough]

dw 2x08 the reality war

where do i start lmaoooo

so I have to say on the whole I really enjoyed this season, like more than its predecessor I think, I found the average quality of the eps a bit higher even though the previous season had a handful i LOVED (73 yards, dot and bubble... think there was another i'm now blanking on). i really liked belinda/varada as companion and i thought she started the season strong

i also this year decided fandom is intolerable both in its incessant negativity and its penchant for spoiling the hell out of everything based on set stalking and leaked scripts and stuff so i just blacklisted everything. going in blind-ish to most eps helped i think, as much as it was frustrating to not participate in fandom chatter

i also generally really enjoyed wish world! and then this episode. well. uh. hm

the good!

i was surprisingly delighted to see anita lol? i liked her in the xmas ep but didn't expect to see her again. i think her appearance here was nice and it was a viable deus ex machina to save the doctor. i also thought anita opening doors into various flashbacks was fun. ye olde clara in the time stream. i laughed at her seeing 15 was gay and being like oh :/ lmfaoooo sorry girl

LOOMS CANON REAL LMAOOOOOOOO??????? i put this under good not because i was invested either way in the time lords' virility but because the idea of looms being canonized in 2025 is so fucking funny. on a similar note, "half-human on my mother's side" lmfao

rose noble!! i didn't know she was gonna be here. in her UNIT uniform lol. in general i think this episode wanted a bit of the journey's end team-up vibes, but with far fewer episodes to establish the team, and with those things considered i still thought it did ok, bc i did enjoy seeing ruby and belinda and mel and anita and rose and shirley and kate all together y'know. even if it kinda meant ... most of them did not get a lot to do

i've never seen time and the rani but i do enjoy when a classic companion gets to face off against a classic villain. gay as hell interaction btw

i loved the moment when fifteen swaps his suit for the skirt/vest combo hell yeah man

project indigo! martha jones you will always be famous

i loved seeing jodie whittaker! what a surprise! was it necessary? not really imo but it was fun. everyone felt they missed out not getting to see her with ncuti so it was nice. and the line about "i wish we had more time" "may we always wish that" was a sweet nod imo.

i'm not a thasmin-er but good on them for a shoutout lmfao

some really good performances from ncuti gatwa and millie gibson especially. vadara sethu is always good but uh asterix

billie piper LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOO listen. i'm never going to be mad about seeing billie piper. i'm pretty sure she'll be around for a special or two before handing the reins to someone else who wants to lock in properly. she might not even be 'the doctor' maybe there's some shenanigans with bad wolf or rose or whatever. (hesitant to see rose tyler, specifically... but...) but i'm pleased to see billie and go on that ride anyway

i thought the scene of ruby watching poppy's coat disintegrate as the doctor and belinda forgot and ruby's growing horror was really good. i honestly wanted the poppy storyline to end there... which leads me to...

the not-so-good

it's not doctor who's fault specifically that i feel like i've been bombarded as of late with media emphasizing pregnancy and babies in a way that does not at all resonate with me, a childless woman with zero maternal instinct. but man. i just. do not understand how anyone could be that invested in poppy, who is not even a talking space baby anymore. she's very cute! but she is not a character. she's not real????? so like, suddenly pivoting everything to save poppy, the doctor and belinda both LOVE poppy, we GOTTA save POPPY what if POPPY doesn't exist...

reminds me of the 50th anniversary's asspull with the maypole babies. (btw -- what happened to THEM? lmao) i sort of hoped we'd left the motherhood baby foundling stuff behind in ruby's season. alas. well, more on that later.

omega was daft as hell. it's a doctor who finale so like, what can you do, right, and omega was kind of a footnote anyway. but that was daft as hell lol i spent the whole build-up like 'who did they cast oohh' just for it to be a skeleton monster. ok

kinda disappointed he just... ate the rani... i mean i do really enjoy the mrs flood rani. but it seems unfair to keep her lol

where the hell is susan LMAO i was sure in wish world that poppy being his daughter somehow would tie into the earlier line fifteen had about not having kids yet despite a granddaughter bc he's a time lord living out of order. wtf

i'm putting the regeneration under here, because i'm sad to see ncuti gatwa go :( i think fifteen did not get enough episodes and things just feel unresolved, like ruby and to a lesser degree rogue (i never personally expected to see him again, but the cameo in wish world makes it feel hanging). however with regeneration i'm always sympathetic to the reality that sometimes actors want out, and i can totally see how ncuti gatwa rising star would not want to wait around in a maybe-commitment to another year+ of filming when he's probably got lots of offers and disney/bbc are doing who-knows what on renewal. so that sucks but i get it. sad!

the what-the-hell-were-they-thinking

belinda.... what in the world happened here. ?????????.....

i really find myself convinced by the theories that ruby was meant to be a two-season companion, Something went awry, belinda was patched in, and then Something Else went awry (disney dragging its heels on renewals leading ncuti wanting to leave?) and we got this. because what in the fuck was this lasdfkahdflhdaglhk

the thing is, all season, i DID kind of wonder why belinda was *so* determined to get back EXACTLY when she left. it could easily have been explained, but it never was, so her insistence did seem a bit odd to me? and if this was going to be the resolution, they could have teased that more easily!

am i supposed to think the poppy timeline was the real one and that flatmate belinda had just forgotten in the way the glitch-y timeline had people forgetting things? i would swallow that as a plotline more easily, even if it's a little akin to amy pond and the crack storyline. varada said something in the behind-the-scenes about "we finally learn why belinda wanted to get home" so maybe that was the intent but it really was not clear if so. but belinda just ... having a whole alt life manifested for her... because of the doctor's sudden brief interest in a baby ... like.... Huh????

belinda's insulted insistence poppy was hers in wish world etc could've even paid off if there had been any hints in episodes prior that she HAD a daughter and had forgotten/lost her in rani timeline madness/whatever. but there wasn't. lol in the interstellar ep there was this whole thing about the evil corporation being named poppy-something, which i expected to be relevant and never was, and even there if you'd had belinda kind of react to the word poppy ... or ANYTHING ...

so it really does feel undeniable that the entire belinda-poppy ending was pasted on in reshoots for reasons we probably won't know until someone writes a tell-all in 15 years. please someone write the tell-all. i need to know. writer's tale 3.0 when

belinda chandra you had such a strong introductory couple episodes and then you just kind of faded. people comparing it to martha insults me a little because martha had a very clear arc whether you liked that arc or not. belinda just... didn't. after her first couple i thought she was sure to be one of my faves but in the end she really got back-seated.

who knows what the future of the show is at this point. would love to see her story resolved... some other way. but i'm doubtful that it will.

[shmisky]

What if Stan that didn't break Ford's perpetual motion machine—the machine isn't working because their high school doesn't have materials of a high enough quality to make it, and they overstress and burn out and break—but was accused anyway of doing it because Ford found a bag of toffee peanuts in the gym and assumed was him: Do you think Ford would belive that Stan is innocent if he says he is to him? Or Ford would being adamant about him being the guilt party, because offee peanuts are Stan's favorite and he came home late in the day before? Or he would belive Stan is innocent, but like in canon, when Stan start to dismiss Ford’s valid sadness after losing his shot at West Coast Tech, and instead making the situation about their treasure hunting plans, and this would make Ford believe that not only Stan sabotaged him but he also tried to lie to him about that? In the end, Stan ended up being kicked out by Filbrick because of Ford's assumption, much like in canon, since the confrontation still attracted Filbrick and he heard the hole thing. In think Ford would still turned his back on Stan but this time, when he close the curtains, it would be with an angry face and looking directly to Stan's eyes.

Well, anon... I think it would end up just as badly as in canon, yeah, but it would be even more tragic 😔

Lost Legends’ last story, The Jersey Devil’s in the Details, did a really good job of establishing that Ford wasn’t unfounded in doubting Stan, as Stan had already lied to his face before.

That’s not the only time Stan lied to his loved ones in canon, of course. He lied to Mabel in Land Before Swine about not being responsible for Waddles’ fate, he lied to the kids as he pretended to think Ford’s journal was a “kooky book” full of “fantasy nonsense,” he lied to the kids in Not What He Seems about being innocent. Hell, he lied to the kids, Soos, and Wendy about everything, even his own name and identity, for the whole time they had known him!

In most of these occasions (all of them except the Land Before Swine one, in which he invented a ridiculous story to paint himself as the hero) he lied pretty convincingly, too. In Not What He Seems, for example:

[x]

I’ve seen people saying before that Stan is actually a bad liar, but I disagree. The thing about Stan is that he’s just a bad liar sometimes, usually when he’s serving as comic relief, for the purpose of a joke. Some other times, he’s terrifyingly good at it.

But anyway, back to Lost Legends—the interesting thing here is that it shows us Stan had already lied to Ford, before. Perhaps—probably, even—more than once. It would be kind of a “the boy who cried wolf” situation for him, unfortunately.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that Ford was right and perfectly justified in not believing him. I think Ford failed to understand a fundamental truth about his own twin brother: that Stan wouldn’t be capable of knowingly hurting him like that. Stan loved him too much.

After all,

[x]

In a twisted way, though, that might have been exactly why Ford didn’t believe him.

Let’s see of what, exactly, Ford accuses Stan of:

[x] [x] [x]

Ford doesn’t accuse Stan of ruining his project because he was jealous of Ford’s success. He must have known this would be too out-of-character for Stan. No, he accuses Stan of ruining his project because he was desperate for Ford to stay with him! Which proves how much he knew his brother and how much “better communication” wouldn’t have solved anything in this case 😭

So yeah, anon, there’s no way Ford would believe him in the first place, imo. If he didn’t believe Stan about it being an accident in canon, he wouldn’t have believed Stan about this, either, which is an even further reach. And then the scene would play out exactly as it did in canon, too. I think Ford could get even angrier because come on, Stan, do you think I’m so stupid and gullible that I would believe you had nothing to do with it? But, ultimately, he’d still look at his brother with sad eyes because this is Stan and he loves him too much.

So what this scenario would change? Nothing at all?

Well, it would make their story even more tragic, obviously. It would make many people in fandom hate Ford (even more than they already do), too 😭

But oh boy, it would absolutely wreck old Ford post-Weirdmaggedon. In Journal 3, he seems to have come to believe Stan’s version of the story.

“I shunned my brother for one dumb mistake,” he says.

Now imagine if he discovers there was simply no mistake at all and his brother was completely innocent. That the fight that separated them for forty years, that resulted in Stan being kicked out of Ford’s life (where he would be severely needed to protect Ford against Bill’s conning skills in the future), was initiated by Ford and completely Ford’s fault. That his brother had to survive as a homeless man because of something he had nothing to do with.

YEAH.

[dawnbreakersgaze]

Dr.Greyson got a face reveal in Zayne’s new card !!

OH MY GOD HE DID!!!!!

Please nonnie TELL ME WHY I CRIED trying to get the courage to freaking watch the video lmaooooo I'm such a god damned baby 🤣😩😭

But it's okay he's an adorable little DORK

Everything else I say will be posted below the cut for spoilers

First off, SAY HELLO TO CANON GREYSON

I'll update this with better quality photos when I actually get the card on my iPad and get some BEEFY good quality.

I got the brown hair and (maybe??) blue eyes right, though they look more on the gray-blue side rather than the piercing blue I gave him.

And those glasses?! You guys have no idea how BADLY I wanted to give Grey glasses but I thought it was "too much" like Zayne SO FUCK YEAH I GET TO DRAW HIM IN GLASSES MUAHAHAHA

He's definitely got the straight af nose I gave him, but the jawline is very much more typical of the style LnDS likes (which makes sense, it's still an art style, even in 3d models). I love that they gave him the longer, less arched brows (another thing I drew, though they definitely went thinner, to compliment the much more delicate, boyish facial structure they've gone with).

My only big complaint is the haircut tbh, and that's just because I desperately wanted SOMEONE, ANYONE on LnDS to have some longer, wavy hair 😩😩😩 I'm going to miss drawing those luscious locks and imagining running my fingers through them and thinking about pulling his hair a lil, you know, as a treat 😌

Overall, while he doesn't resemble my Greyson very much, I give him a 7.5/10

Would still smash. He looks like he'd fall to pieces if you showed him your boobs and imo that's just as wonderful as a man who's confident with them. He's a man you can teach and he'd study pretty damn hard iykwim 👀

His glasses are cute and so is he. He's giving "the entire cast of The Mummy" smashed into one person, and my bisexual ass is here for all of it.

As for what this means for Greyson's blog and my art and my Greyson? Well, that'll be an answer for not very very tired Kay 😅

[divorcedwife]

Im especially interested in your opinion of the companions! Did you like any, how would you rank them, how did they compare to other games.

I did enjoy veilguard myself cause admittedly im a combat enjoyer (boo me now) and the combat was great to me. But what is usually good in dragon age/bioware even if everything else sucks are characters and their stories and interactions and that was so bad in veilguard imo.

Still I liked Davrin and Emmrich and Bellara myself, rest were very mixed, and these three also suffered from bad dialogue and Bellara also from some overt cutesiness.

hehe noooooo i wouldn't boo you! this game really made me realize that i prefer video games as a form of interactive storytelling rather than purely for gameplay, but i mean, i feel like im the weirdo here if anything. video games are games first... as much as i like the combat (especially when it's in big open fields, with opportunities for cover ; god is it satisfying to slowly take down a mob of enemies through clever dodging and hiding, i wayyyy prefer that to spamming the flashy special moves), it feels empty to me if i dont feel connected to the world. ideally, i'd love to play games where i enjoy both, but if i have to pick, i'll prefer a game that i find unfun to play but where i like the writing

i think it's a pretty weak cast, yeah. individually, but also as a group, they lack chemistry to me. most of them get along just fine, but not in a way that's particularly fun or exciting. their relationships aren't interesting to me because they're very samey, both in that most people are friendly and also that they start out friendly and end up friendly. dai isn't a game i love, but for all its flaws, it definitely had fascinating character interactions to me. blackwall's friendship with sera is so different to his friendship with cassandra or with solas, and he's initially wary of cole but grows to like him after a while. and these people all have their opinion of blackwall changed forever by revelations. that's what's lacking to me in companion relationships! growth... change... i did enjoy davrin and lucanis's bickering at least. i also did like how emmrich talked to companions, his therapy talk was actually charming every time i liked emmrich and davrin the most! my only problem with davrin is how often he felt shackled to assan, like the writers felt the need to remind us that he has a cute griffon every three seconds in case we were losing interest. but as a character, i found him really cool. i like how level headed he is, i love how he can't tell when lucanis is messing with him on purpose, those feel like great warden traits. emmrich, i really liked that he had the flaws to match his qualities - i love it when he complains about needing to teach TEN students (gasp!), or when davrin asks him if he knows how to wash dishes and he responds like someone who hasn't washed a dish in ten years, and so on. that's definitely what i found lacking in most companions - actual flaws! it's mind boggling to me how much of the lucanis banter i heard was spent clarifying how unproblematic he is. like he doesn't kill children, doesn't kill people who acted in self defense, doesn't kill innocents. what??? he doesn't even have flaws from growing up rich in a mansion... or being the ultimate nepo baby.................... that made most of the companions feel pretty shallow to me, like they were born right before the game began and had lived nothing

lucanis has enough little things about him i like that i would still say i liked him, but he's not getting honours from me. i like his design (it's very satisfyin to draw somehow), i liked spite, i liked the idea that he's trapped in the ossuary in his mind, i loved going to the mansion and seeing how barren and sad it is there. but i think his romance is my least favorite of any i've done in any dragon age games, and i would say that he was a worse boyfriend to have than the one who tried to kill me and also than the one who turned out to be an axe murderer in disguise, cause at least these two liked talking to my characters! lol

i'd put neve next but if im being honest with myself, i disliked more about her than i liked. i liked her bitter cynic pessimist traits, but i found her somewhat inconsistent on that and generally too friendly. the remaining characters, i didn't find anything compelling about them, i dont remember any moment that i liked with them :-( i really wish i did! i gave everyone as fair a shot as i could, i didn't start out this game looking for things to hate, but they really didn't do anything for me. i think bellara suffered from the fact that i dont really like all the technology in this game, i prefer low magic sad unwashed fantasy. at least she was very beautiful so she does get point for that

[fumifooms]

do you think the succubus chilchuck sees is his wife, but blonde? he seems so upset when its dead

I think it’s a very strained theory. There are two layers to this: Chilchuck’s expression, and the succubi’s appearances. And notice the plural of appearances.

Chilchuck’s expression here is meant as comedic, we can assume because of the lashes and sparkle in his eyes, it gives shojo energy (which is intentional and heavily present at the very least with Marcille in the same chapter). It’s a type of dramatic sorrowful expression that I think Marcille with Hareus and Laios with scylla Marcille would have had the same, the type that Laios had when Marcille crushed the cool dragon familiar he made the type of face you make when a unicorn is killed in front of you. Chilchuck would have this face regardless of this being his wife, because regardless of it being his wife or not the succubi are still Chilchuck’s ideal form. It’s like having the blorbo you fantasize about brutally mauled inches away from your face, or a painting you love stained. Chilchuck wants the sirens to come for his life and is sad he lost the opportunity for it lol. But most importantly imo, if that was his wife, he would have had a face much more like genuine terror or horror (which would have been still both funny and understandable so it was a deliberate choice to pick this expression instead), like in his nightmare with his dead daughters.

Ok now onto appearances: Here are all of Chilchuck’s succubi we see.

The biggest thing against this theory for me is that yes, these are different women who are visibly different. There’s no denying he has a type, long wavy blonde hair, deepset light-colored eyes and sultry mouths, faces with a mature quality to them, but different women no less. It would be interesting to analyze what it would mean for Chilchuck to have only one of his succubi in a sea of succubi be his wife, but it would defeat the purpose of it I think. We see waves of women succubi throw themselves at him, and I think the intent is just that; for them to just be women, his ideal type materialized but sort of identity-less, a mass of them that isn’t really meant to be differentiated or individualized. If you believe that the nameless black-haired half-foot woman portrait is his wife, that shortens the conversation, but there are also arguments beyond it for why yes his wife would have black hair, and why she’d have deepset eyes and a face like this (because it’s a solid argument that his type would be at least influenced by her yes. I go into this topic in this post). If we go with the portrait chilwife theory, then it’s pretty straightforward that none of them truly closely look like her. If we go with another theory then we’re truly walking in the dark for how she looks like. How close is close enough to "be" ‘her except blonde’, anyways? It’s the sort of thing you can believe if you want to, but it creates more questions than answers, which albeit isn’t always bad. My interpretation of Chilchuck’s succubi makes me biased though of course, because it’s closely intertwined with my overall interpretation of Chilchuck and whatnot. I’ve talked about succubi in dungeon meshi and them in relation to Chilchuck a lot over time. I think them being faceless and varied rather than one single model of perfection is because he craves pleasure with no ties, something to feel good for a while and forget all his troubles, including his separation. I think that when Chilchuck reacts like that below, it’s because he feels some amount of guilt at it not being her, and again not wanting to think about painful things, but it could be interpreted to be "can you not, when you just blew her up" I suppose. I go into it here and here as well.

I don’t know Kui’s brain so like, this is just my thoughts, like you asked for, but yeah I don’t think that first succubus literally had his wife’s appearance.

[ranfordgallus]

What's it like working on comics on your own? Have any tips that could help artist that aspire to do the same?

Working on a comic i would say...obviously, its pretty difficult since i do all the sketching, lineworking, colouring, and all the details like the backgrounds..though its fun either way since i get to do work on something on my own and im passionate abt, yes its...time consuming and can get pretty tiring but its worth it at the end of the day imo..

It would be easier to have a couple of people work for my comic but, one: i dont have money to pay the people working, like i dont have money, none, not even a cent or a nickel.. two: im not a very good art director, i cannot like...explain it very well, yeah i can do the sketch n stuff but the thing is that uhm...my sketch looks like shit LMAO, three: i prefer this being a one person project, because its my passion, it wont be as fun if someone works for me and i do this for fun, i dont wanna be fast at creating comic panels or else..again ill get burnt out, i prefer taking it easy

Though to make it work, i do each step for the comic in a day, its hard to understand or explain it but basically

Day one: i create my panels first

Day two: i sketch and line art

Day three: i colour and do the backgrounds

Day four: i shade and do the details like...the speech n stuff

Basically like that so i have enough energy to finish the comic without being burnt out and rest and do my stuff after

Thoughh...im not very good at giving art tips or even comics, im still considered an immature artist, and im not experienced in doing webcomics or...like "high quality" comics in general because krattastrophe is my FIRST webcomic at the moment, you can see in the first episode of my comic that my art is..very different from now..

[doubleddenden]

Reviewing Unova starters now

Unova got a lot of unjustified hate during its time, and now it gets a lot of love- and rightfully so imo. Not all Unova pokemon are good, but there are still a lot of absolute bangers.

Unfortunately, the starters start what I'd say is a steady decline in design quality that the franchise never quite recovered from. Their base forms are cute, but really only 1 is fantastic by the end, whereas the other two are mostly meh. The color palettes are at least pleasing to the eyes, and the starters have a very interesting and tangible theme of being representative of other cultures- perfect for a cultural melting pot like America, which Unova is based on the NYC area.

I'd say an overall 7/10 fits, despite one of these being one of my absolute favorite starters ever.

Breaking it down under the cut

Ah Smugleaf- sorry, Snivy, the French snake so far not seen in the French revisit. Anyway, Snivy is another pokemon best viewed in 2d mediums, but 3d treated it okay imo. The colors are a pretty nice blend of green, yellow, and tan- certainly reminiscent of shades of grass. The red eyes are a nice touch as well, making them easily noticeable. The body is mostly a series of curves and curved shapes- one could say banana shapes, save for the tail, which could probably fool most into thinking it is just more blades of tall grass. The collar is a nice touch as well. I do feel the arms and legs are a tad strange and imo would be better without them, but at least it is an interesting biology lesson- snakes used to have legs, even their skeletal structure shows that. I guess it's fitting that they sort of fade as it evolves. Anyway, I think Snivy is neat. 7/10- there are better grass starters, but this isn't the worst, certainly a friend.

Sorry, had to. Anyway, besides being voiced by Jason Griffith- one of my favorite Sonic VAs ever, there isn't really a lot to say about Servine. It's basically just a bigger Snivy with more frills, which I think is fine enough. The hands and legs are more and more... pointless, I guess? To indicate a steady loss of them, which I do think is neat on a design perspective. Yeah, 8/10.

Serperior is a rather interesting pokemon- another kinda victim of the transition to 3d, but I also wouldn't be able to tell you of ANY Serperior mains like I could for Emboar or Samurott. The move pool is one of the most shallow out of any starter I've ever played with, although Contrary is a pretty awesome ability for it... to only have 1 move it can really make a lot of use for. Yikes.

Design wise, I think it is pretty decent, but is another "right angle" kind of deal. Serperior now loses its legs and only has those dangly hands now, fully transitioning to a snake snake. The swirling patterns certainly invoke French design, with it entirely being a kind of living fleur-de-lis. The collar and head leaves definitely invoke a regal European vibe, with the ear?pieces certainly helping to break the design up. I do think that it would have been a little better had it kept the yellow colors rather than adding the white, but I understand they're going for a kind of white snake or molting vibe. All in all, a harmless design, kinda cool too, I just wish it was more fun to battle with. 8/10 for design, 7/10 with the loss of moves.

Overall, the Snivy line isn't quite the best you can get from a grass starter, but it's a fine addition to its ranks. The limited move pool only gives you a few options for how you fight, which isn't really ideal for me personally. Still, not horrendous. 7/10.

Tepig... oh Tepig. I had hope for you when I was a fire type only kid. And why not? Tepig is a very cute design that has a lot of great colors going for it, and is very friend shaped. I think I dislike the ear placement, but that is minor. I remember looking at this and thinking that my ideal quadruped fire/ground pig starter I made as a kid would finally be a thing, and certainly they'd complete the water and grass part ground trio with Torterra and Swampert- and CERTAINLY wouldn't be fire/fighting again. But... alas. Tepig loses points for wasted potential imo, despite having a great design. 7/10 for what could've been.

And Pignite ruins it. Okay, excellent color choices, and I do adore the golden swirls, but nobody asked for this. Nobody asked for a THIRD fire/fighting starter in a row, least of all one that isn't nearly as good as Blaziken or Infernape- who both got way better "Dream World" abilities at this point in time. I don't like how round and cartoony it looks, as it's more invocative of an egg than a pig. The mouth placement and style, plus the nose just kind of buttoned on? I think it would look better if both were part of an actual snout that it breathes fire from. As far as the anime is concerned, it's also wasted on Ash by trying to do Infernape again but changing their minds halfway through. I don't like it. 4/10, the colors are nice but that is it. Wasted potential. At least the ears are cute.

And now to finish out the wasted potential line, Emboar. Honestly, 80% of the design is pretty good, the color choice is fantastic, the swirls are fun- it's just the head where you lose me. They lost the ears for... whatever that is, and once more they just slap a mouth and nose onto a round orb instead of giving it a proper mouth- I also think it's wasted to not give it actual pig tusks instead of those tiny fangs. It's less of a pig pokemon and more like pokemon Ganon from the early Zelda games. Again though, 80% of the design is neat, the flames are bad ass especially and if you squint, you almost forget the muppetdorf face.

The design is definitely Chinese inspired, although I just really feel like it'd be better suited as a quadruped with a snout, a less round body, and not another fighting type. Play wise it's fine, I've used a couple and they get the job done. Still, just... God, wasted potential. 6/10.

The Tepig line, once more, is just wasted potential. Sure they make a little nod to Journey to the West with the Torchic and Chimchar lines, but nobody really wanted or asked for a trio- I think the concept is better reserved for a legendary trio or something. Yeah, this is the line that really brings down the Unova starters for me. Certainly not the worst, but they are towards the bottom and start a downward decline of at least one or two starters per gen. 6/10, fine for battle and almost decent, but a few details just kinda ruin it for me.

And there he is. There's my boy. THERE IS MY BABY BOY! That's not just a friend, that's my son! Some art depicts him better than others, and I do understand why some wouldn't like him at first glance- but Oshawott is a Pokemon that taught me the positive end of "don't judge a book by its cover." I still maintain to this day that Oshawott had no BUSINESS being done so fucking dirty in the anime. I think it's a victim of what would become a recurring problem of "too cute to evolve." And by god, was he a cutie.

From a design perspective, it's basically just an improved Piplup in my eyes. If I were to fix something, I'd take away the heckin schnozz and make it a smaller black, and maybe just tack some whiskers on those freckles. He is a little goofy looking, but he is a loveable little guy all the same. 9/10

Dewott is a cool design and basically an improved Oshawott, with better colors, better proportions, and now TWO Scalchops. That's just how you do it right, imo. 9/10

Now some people have strong opinions on Samurott. A lot of people think it diverges too much from the other Wotts into sea lion territory. I think those opinions are valid, believe it or not, but regardless I still believe Samurott is a severely underrated pokemon, and both versions are top tier water pokemon design. This variant is probably the more versatile of the Unova starters, with a nice and balanced/varied move pool and great stats to balance it. The ideal Unova starter in any playthrough by objectively just trying.

Design wise, it's fantastic in 2d and only suffers a little in 3d. It still has otter influence to me personally, and the sea lion influence kinda blends into a sort of dog like look to it, which I do love dogs. The shell helmet and armor are really cool, and sandy color goes really well with the darker blues. The facial hair certainly helps sell the Samurai motif as well. I will say, if I had to fix it, I'd probably add more flexibility to it's legs for maneuvering and sword play, or I'd at least have a proper bipedal mode it can engage in to weild it's swords properly. Speaking of, I do love that it has twin swords, that's just cool, it's just too bad it doesn't really get to use them much. Still though, an absolute banger water starter, and I just wish they'd make them like this again. 9/10

The Oshawott line has its haters and lovers, and its lovers more so divided. But I will say, if nothing else. It has a fan in me and has had a fan in me since I was 15. I literally can't play Unova without picking it, and when they brought it back for Legends Arceus? Bruh. It saved gen 8 for me. That's just how peak this line is. 9/10.

Gen 6 next

[szollibisz]

I'm a big mush and I forgot to send you something for the ask game, so for Curt and Owen:

-33- redeeming qualities

I see my elusive lover spirit is being called upon after all my haterism towards these two <3

I wanna preface by saying that a lot of their generally positive/neutral qualities unfortunately become twisted into bad qualities due to the times they were living in and the lifestyle they led, but I'm still going to mention said traits as good. And also that most of this pertains to pre fall, since it really brought out the worst in them, and minimised many of these otherwise good qualities.

Curt:

- His optimism. It's mentioned multiple times by other characters in the show, but he truly is a very hopeful person, who wants to do good in the world. I feel like his aggressive optimism might've saved him and Owen a few times. Since Owen is very logical, he may get lost in trying to figure out how to get out of a tricky situation, and may even become overcome with a sense of dread after not finding a good solution, but Curt has this almost naive hope, a sense of being untouchable when together with Owen, so he may make impulsive choices that may not seem logical at first, but end up saving them in the end, or generally help Owen relax until he can properly figure out his plans.

- Being caring and affectionate. It's clear throughout the show that the people he loves, he loves very much and that when he's not in his post-fall depression spiral he's quite personable. He initiates the hug after him and Tatiana agree to be friends, and while she's hesitant he doesn't seem awkward about it at all, which to me comes across as both a. He's used to being like this with people, close, friendly etc and b. He really needed a hug which you know. He does. But yeah, overall when he's not trying to hide behind his macho spy persona too much, his kindness shows through. (Chronic case of kind but not nice most of the time)

- Spontaneity/thinking on the spot. I explained most of this in the optimism paragraph, but yeah, to elaborate that's not just about missions, but the way he generally lives his life. While it does mean he's kinda unreliable, it also means he's always ready to do things and enthusiastic about everything. He's the kind of guy that plans a week long vacation from scratch in like an hour, and even if there are many faults in the plan he will still find a way to make it enjoyable. Also ties in to being sociable and constantly set on having a good time.

- Helpful. I think much of his youth was about helping people, and making up for the things he did wrong/lacked in. He genuinely wants people to be happy, he's just at odds with himself which constantly ends up causing trouble. He gets bad grades, he gets in fights etc etc. He tries to fix it all by being a helpful member of his community. Imo it's not just his hero complex and McCarthyism that fuels his need to be a spy and make a difference, it's a genuine hope for a better world and wanting better things for people.

Owen:

- Logical. Pretty self explanatory, we see it a lot in a1p1, but it's also part of his entire world view. He overanalyzes every feeling and every thought he has and he has a very specific idea of how things work now and how things should work ideally. His logic gives him the capacity to change these ideals, albeit not easily. He's still less susceptible to propaganda than Curt, purely on account of the constant self checking. I think he's the kind of guy that wants to hear multiple perspectives before making a decision, especially since he himself is in a marginalized community, and knows how the most popular opinion on something is not necessarily the "right one"

- Devoted. Whether to ideals or a person this man is all in. Since he is so logical, he often justifies his (very intense) feelings with facts and is more firm in his beliefs than a lot of people are, shaken out of them very rarely. This is especially true with Curt, who he can't stop loving even after the fall. He'd do basically anything for him, or the other ideals he has. So all I'm saying is, if there is only one loyal man in the world it is Owen.

- Detail oriented/persistent. He's very good at focusing on the little things, which is why he's such a good spy and actor. He knows how to pick very specific character quirks to get people talking or pay attention to the small mannerisms of his targets to catch them in lies and whatnot. He's also very organized because of this, having specific methods for everything, from packing his clothes to torturing information out of someone. It's also useful in his relationships, it makes him seem sort of insane and obsessive (he is) but he remembers every innocuous detail about Curt, and he cares for him according to those. Often Curt won't even say things, Owen will just pick up on the and remember for later, like watching how much sugar Curt puts in his coffee and making it the exact same way for him next time.

- Adaptability. He could survive anywhere anytime, because honestly, even though he's a mess post fall I still think he managed better than 99% of people would. Just cause he doesn't win the idgaf war doesn't mean it isn't crazy he survived and managed to carve some semblance of a life out for himself. Even before the fall he had to survive ww2 era London, spying, A Situationship and so on. He can stay mostly composed and rational in most situations, until he figures out what to do, and if not he has Curt to rely on for moral support.

There are more for both of them but I want to keep this. Well not short and sweet it's already not short but yeah.

[crookedkryptonitebeliever]

This is just me rambling and stuff, and this is the only way i could get out my monty brainrot and a little bit of yves brainworm out of my head, but just ignore it if it's cringe or too insane

I think with the way Yves would take care of me thoroughly and know me so well would unsettle me at times, but ultimately it would probably cement his place as a comforting and caring platonic partner in my head 😭😭 cause i know i would be thinking like "oh! He's so inspiring! I think he's the perfect role model for how i should take care of myself and love the people close to me ^^" <- absolutely missing the point and every romantic gesture i would misunderstand (what lacking romantic experience does to a mf) as something he does with other ppl, even though i would imagine that he's barely seen with anyone else than his darling :'); or maybe he would account for the fact that i misunderstand things? But i have a feeling that he would catch on to the fact that I'm a bit of a blockhead

Imo i think that i would choose Monty over Yves, despite everything that he did for me; maybe because he's done so much for me, i would probably feel immeasurably guilty even if he does say he likes doing it and personally, the power imbalance in both his material and physical qualities as well as the lack of vulnerability would intimidate me 🫠🫠 errr in a way, Monty I love so much because of how loving, protective and accepting he is, he's got characteristics that are close to my type!! (might also be the fact that to some extent, he can be controlled :3); he's endearingly trying his best and flopping a lot, but at least he listens to valid criticism 🥰🥰 he's... Cute... And maybe because of the food too, since receiving and giving food is a big sign of love for me <3 His messiness is a bit of a charm to me, because personally it takes a lot of guts and vulnerability to show someone how messy you are physically and mentally, or well, maybe its pity over the depression mess 😔 One thing i want to know is if he'll ever get immune to his darling's romantic and sexual advances and throw it right back similarly? Or is still gonna be giggling and kicking his feet on the bed over it? And i wonder how his reaction would be towards a darling that starts off meek and quiet, but gets more dominant and pursues him as well? Man, i want this guy pegged <3 And to get him pregnant <3 I want to give him backshots that make him better or worse :3

Anyway, this is also a way of grieving over not choosing Monty over Cyprus 😔 because i read Cyprus first before Monty and i regret picking him for the poll 🤧 but, I'm looking forward to any potential Monty content and how this silly guy locks in or flop <3

Boy oh boy do I have the ask for you

Thanks for the ramble anon it was a good read 👍

Well Yves does act accordingly to your personality. If you are pretty clueless BUT would accept him as your ONLY romantic partner for life, he would be extremely straightforward, cutting to the chase and be clear in what he wants the relationship to be (it was exhibited in Best and Worst of Both worlds)

But if he predicts that you will reject him or eventually cheat on him later in the relationship despite all the measures to stop you from doing so, he will remain platonic. And his prediction model is horrifyingly accurate. Mans will even reject YOU if he knows you can't keep it in your pants 💔

Oh yeah if it's vulnerability you're looking for Yves is ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOT the man you're looking for homie 😭 he is THE fort knox of mental illness, you can (almost) never catch him lacking and is always locking in while Monty is human

Literally Yves isn't actually human anymore

Here are other pieces of writing that has monty in it, idk if you seen them yet but it was all clumped together with Yves's MASSIVE sections

What makes Monty wanna fuck you (the lower half of this post is just Yves waffles)

Montgomery as a dad (scroll to like half of it to skip Yves's part)

Yves isn't necessarily okay with being only a platonic yandere

[suffarustuffaru]

The fanbase is scaring me, the redesigns brought up some weird people that are REALLY passionate about Liliana being half naked

Like theres a whole war going on on twitter rn and the poor character designer got harassed

My problem is with the amount of people upset with this, like i knew we had a bunch of pedos around because of the way tappei writes the girls, but damn i didnt think there were this many of them 💀

yes ive heard about that....... im answering your ask late oops haah but i hope the situations a Bit better..... the toxic parts of this fandom give me a headache but my usual motto is to stay off twitter, touch grass, ignore people, and then hold onto my own viewpoints unless proven wrong alsjdflsdj but like. yeah this fandom is a bit tough to stay in when it comes to certain circles (for example the amount of people low quality shitposting / ranting about the fandom or whatever on rezero ao3 atm in the past days/weeks is. mm. interesting). not my first time being in larger fandoms that make you sometimes feel like youre fighting in the trenches (you could name off a few big fandoms notorious for being toxic that date back to like 2016 and odds are ive been in a couple lajdlf) but yeah seeing people complain about liliana and capella's designs and then overly fixate on emilia's boobs when these three characters have more to bring to the table than just that and theres lots and lots of good things to say about the s3 trailer and their designs..... mm. yeah. im squinting hard at a few of the things ive heard on that. but anyway!!

like the new designs are an Improvement. In General. like ok, as a boob haver myself ("boob haver" is the funniest phrase to me alsdjfls but it is true nonetheless, i am one) i do not give a shit about emilias larger boobs like ok?? her boobs are bigger?? she is still my fav ever and sometimes it just happens when youre still a growing teen/young adult and emilias back to her more revealing main outfit when she wore a different outfit in s2 so the difference in chest size is really not that much. but liliana and capella? those are Improved designs. i think ive talked abt the treatment of underage characters / characters who appear underage on my blog before (and i definitely couldve worded myself better then but i stand behind the fact that some of the stuff otsuka and tappei do regarding this in rezero is just Unnecessary).

could designs like emilia's still be improved on in other ways? yeah 100%, just in the sense that there could probably be changed a bit to fit her slightly more timid and soft spoken personality. or you could take different directions on it in general if you wanted. ive seen some great redesigns of her main outfit!! though her main outfit in of itself is pretty nice to look at imo and its iconic and well-known for a reason. im of the personal opinion that i wish it was a little less revealing in the same vein that her s2 main outfit was (i like that outfit a lot!!) but its still a really solid design overall.

i had some faith after seeing the anime designers fix up typhoon's original design to be More Appropriate, and i love how the essence of liliana and capella's designs were kept the same. like its not just that theyre a little less revealing (and even then, theyre both still showing a lot of skin!!! which is good!!! i like the improvement while keeping the main stuff the same), but stuff like liliana's pants aren't transparent (probably to make it easier to animate?) and the yellow/orange gradient in capella's hair looks great!! they also both look more like grown women which is a bonus. unless youre Weird about this shit which is unfortunately a small percentage of the rezero community. like you cant win with those sort of people ig, bc capella's boobs are bigger too ljasdlfj youd think that win more people over.

also i appreciate capella's sports bra bc unlike elsa's outfit it Actually looks like it's supporting her chest. if youre someone with boobs and you dont have a flat chest, youre gonna need support when being active or itll Hurt. and elsa Does Not have proper chest support okay. ill forever wince remembering elsa's design in that sense HAH....

anyway but i digress. i got no clue what to do with toxic people in fandoms despite spending a lot of time lurking in large fandoms with loud toxic people haah.... its hard to do much about it especially with increasingly declining media literacy rates everywhere.... the notorious misogyny/homophobia/etc that can happen sometimes in anime communities.... that sort of thing. i kinda just avoid it when it comes to rezero in specific, or briefly talk about it on here, or rant about it to myself in my head or chat with pals about it in private if it really frustrates me that much!! and id say im a pretty patient person hah... im not frustrated often. and the fandom is not all weird people of course and i can attest to that as ive chatted with a lot of people here... ive also seen a lot of people leave due to the fandom's Issues which is. totally fair tbh.

and i think rezero is often a "baby's first fandom" so to speak... i dont mean that in a bad way of course but its more like its the first exposure to fandom and fandom etiquette and fic etiquette and that sort of thing when it comes to english circles. or at least its a pattern ive noticed, so my theory is that that occasionally that combines with toxic fans and then you get a few people complaining about the community and how bad our fics are on rezero ao3 ig lajdlfjsdlf. which is false by the way :<< and an annoying misuse of ao3 as a free creative archive :<<

but ultimately i hope the rezero character designer's alright (and honestly theyve done super super great work - like the anime Did Not need to give emilia a bajillion outfits and go above and beyond with improving liliana, capella, giving the suwens and their hometown a whole unique aesthetic, etc). and also while i have stuff to criticize with otsuka and tappei... and the toxic parts of the fandom hah... i still enjoy rezero apart from that and the uproar with the designs has not chipped away at me too much!! ive been in this fandom long enough i guess lmao i just roll with punches at this point T^T but i also just try to look on the bright side a lot in general so ;-;;;

these are the sorts of things i like to be aware about but i dont like to get myself super involved with it (since itll probably make it worse and/or make me stressed for no good reason lmfaoo) and i wont let it enjoy the parts of rezero that i do enjoy a lot (which is to say like. the other 98% of rezero hah). so. getting off twitter is the biggest godsend i promise lajdlsfj.

but anyway!! yeah i dont have much organized thoughts on all of this, this is just me rambling my feelings on it. hope this all makes sense anon <3

[mylittlesecrethaven]

Obey Me Vs TWST Vs Genshin Pulling Methods

Because these are 3 of the games I play the most and they all have a pulling/wishing system. And I wanna rank em.

1st Place - Genshin Impact

Look, I love TWST showcase system, but just in terms of luck, ability to get cool shit, and ease of use, Genshin wins.

It's simple to look through what you can get. You can get cool weapons alongside characters that are actually useful that are also ranked 5 star, and the luck system is pretty cool.

Maybe it's just me, but getting good pulls happens a lot, and there's rarely any wishes that I outright hate or that I get so annoyed with because I can't get something. And if I do get a 5 star character? Even better!

2nd Place - TWST

Yeah, Obey Me couldn't hold a candle to this. TWST was pretty close in beating Genshin, but the luck for TWST isn't as good as with Genshin, imo.

However, the showcases are super easy to look through, I can tell what I'm most likely to get from the showcases, and there aren't a shit ton of different cards that I can get, meaning that I can get doubles and therefore level up that card more.

Also, like Genshin, you can see how many pulls you have done. (Although, with TWST, instead of simply being told how many pulls you need for what, it has a progress bar, which is super nice.) (Also, this is from much later, but while TWST has less cards than Obey Me, they are better quality and have more stuff for the cards, so even if you get a regular card, it's still fun to have because of all the stuff you can do with it besides side stories and fights)

3rd Place - Obey Me

This is for both OG and NM because they basically have the same banner system.

But.... yeah.... Obey Me's banner system kinda sorta sucks. You can see the card you want front and center, yes, but trying to see what else you're likely to get is extremely difficult. Also, the luck on Obey Me fucking sucks, and it's a total cash grab.

Also, there's way too many different cards. I can't even tell you how many times I get new N cards every time I pull, and I've been playing for a long ass time. I rarely ever get a double card, and it's usually only for an N card I already have. (Cause, yet again, the luck system is shit.) (Although, getting gems from the pulls is ok. It's not great, but it's something)

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

So, yeah. This is just my ranking off of personal experience. I can't even tell you how badly I wanted to put TWST 1st, but I had to do what was right and do Genshin just of the luck and pity system.

Edit from later: Also, because I forgot to put this, while you do get a lot of free pulls for the regular banners in Obey Me, you don't actually get the currency to pull from the event banners very often. (I actually haven't gotten the little devil pull thingies in a long while) But in Twst, I can pull maybe once ever week and a half and for Genshin I can pull maybe every three weeks because I can easily get the currency.

(Edit from waaayyy later: There was a reblog talking about how twst pulling was better, and while it didn't really have much else regarding that besides how they personally felt, it did make me think for a minute. So, now that I'm thinking about it, maybe twst does have a better pulling system. Cause every card I've ever gotten off the showcases, I've used. Not just in battle, but in the Guest Room and on the home screen. Plus, if I get a double that I've already got full Uncapped on, I get something I can spend in the store for more backgrounds. So, while I'm in a sensible state of mind, I'm gonna say twst is probably better than Genshin simply because you use all the cards in twst at some point, and I could bet $20 y'all don't even glance at weapons if they aren't 4 star.)

[sadquickchristmassnowman]

hi! what do you think are the best/most tolerable episodes in season 4 of community? it’s widely regarded as the worst season and I never know which episodes to watch each time I go through a community rewatch binge lol. so, I figured I would consult the encyclopedia! (this is my first time using the ask feature so I apologize if I am not using it correctly)

heyo! this is a great question. I actually have an abbreviated season 4 watchlist that cuts out the worst episodes (in my opinion), while staying comprehensible and making sure you're still able to follow the season's overarching plots:

4x01: history 101

4x03: conventions of space and time*

4x05: cooperative escapism in familial relations*

4x06: advanced documentary filmmaking

4x08: herstory of dance

4x11: basic human anatomy*

4x12: heroic origins*

4x13: advanced introduction to finality

the episodes with asterisks* are the ones I actually really enjoy watching. the others on the list are pretty mid, but are, in my opinion, important enough to the overarching plot and character development to be worth watching. when I'm showing other people season 4 for the first time, I adhere to this watchlist lol.

I’m going to do some (hopefully quick) explanations of how I came up with this list, but you don't have to read it if you don't want to lol:

✅ history 101: it's the first episode of the season, so it really does set the tone and establish some important details (jeff wants to graduate early, troy and britta are dating, this is their last year at greendale, etc.) as with most of season 4, the weirdness seems really contrived and unnatural, but it does have its moments of being genuinely funny. it's also a pretty abed-centric episode, which is always a bonus lol

❌ paranormal parentage: I don’t hate this episode, but it's just kind of boring and doesn't really add anything to the season. I love megan ganz but... yeah. a lot of the jokes seem forced, and there's way too much pierce for my liking. there are a couple good one liners ("you should probably tell your boyfriend's boyfriend" "I remember when this show was about community college") and it does help set up jeff finally contacting his dad, but imo it doesn't quite make the episode worth watching

✅ conventions of space and time: I’ve heard that some people hate this episode? couldn't be me. way too much trobed for me to hate it lmao. there is a lot of jeffannie in it too, but that resolves with the conclusion that annie is just a romantic who loves to fantasize, and doesn't actually have real feelings for jeff. it actually fuels my lesbiannie agenda tbh, because she is evidently just in love with the idea of a man but doesn't actually put that into practice. but that's another post lmao. we have some great one-liners, we have britta helping troy through his jealousy, we have "troy will find me :)" we have some more inspector spacetime lore, etc etc. I love this episode and rewatch it frequently.

❌ alternative history of the german invasion: for me, this episode has almost zero redeeming qualities. the jokes are lame, I hate professor cornwallis, there is so much discontinuity, it has zero importance in the bigger picture of the season and the show, it's out of character, etc. the one thing I like is the end tag.

✅ cooperative escapism in familial relations: this is a big one for me. I never see people talking about it, but to me this episode is one of season 4's saviors. we have HUGE jeff development, jeffbritta moments, some much needed shirley screentime and development, some great jokes ("-to eat garbage dip WHY DID I HAVE TO GO THIRD), classic trobedison shenanigans, and the shawshank redemption homage is very funny to me. plus! adam devine cameo! I like this episode more every time I watch it. unsung hero fr.

✅ advanced documentary filmmaking: okay so I won’t lie, I fucking HATE the changnesia arc. I think it is so incredibly stupid and uncreative. there are a million different and better ways they could have brought him back. but, this episode is just too important in the season's development to skip. and, honestly, if I ignore the whole premise, there are a lot of funny bits and jokes in this one. troy constantly smiling at the camera (read: smiling at abed), troy and annie being the silliest ever, jeff's trust issues, and ken jeong is truly very funny, I just hate this arc so much. but ultimately it's too important to cut. imo.

❌ economics of marine biology: I basically feel the same about this one as I do about alternative history of the german invasion. it's boring, the premise is stupid, it's out of character, it's unfunny, the guest character is lame, and it's pointless to the overall plot. abed and the delta cubes is a little bit funny? and I guess you could argue that the jeff and pierce development is important? but I’d refute that very quickly. it's pierce, who cares. not. worth. it.

✅ herstory of dance: this episode is honestly the upper end of mid, but it has enough good jokes and development to make it worth it. it is also Very abed-centric, which we've established is always a plus imo, and his whole bit with going on two dates at once is very in character. he also meets rachel, who comes back in season 5, so that's important. it also has some great jeff & britta development!!! which is sort of few and far between in the later seasons!!! yippee!!!

❌ intro to felt surrogacy: tied for my least favorite community episode of all time. it's clear they tried to do something similar to what they did with abed's uncontrollable christmas, but it is so incredibly contrived that it is physically painful to watch. I hate the puppets. the hot air balloon story is so stupid and out of character. the songs are bad. how dare they sully the legacy of my third favorite episode (lmao). the only redeeming qualities are troy as a whole (all of his lines are good, and that moment when he pretends his puppet is falling asleep is very funny), and the fact that pierce is not physically in it. but those do not make up for how horrific the rest of it is. in my opinion. haha.

❌ intro to knots: once again! Tied For My Least Favorite Community Episode! they're right next to each other, how convenient. and again: bad jokes, bad premise, I fucking hate professor cornwallis, the changnesia shit is back, the plot is ALL over the place, there is little to no actual character development, the dialogue just goes in circles, and it ends with a random litter of kittens that are never mentioned again??? I guess the only mildly important thing is the end tag with the evil study group, which comes back during the season finale. but yeah. not worth it. disgusting.

✅ basic human anatomy: and here we have a HUGE jump from the last one. this is my favorite season 4 episode, and is probably in my top 15 from the entire show. I could talk about this episode for hours. the troy development alone is so so so good and important. add abed into the mix and Oh Boy!!! britta is great in this one, jeff and the dean's whole thing is so fucking funny, shirley and annie competing against leonard for valedictorian on a technicality is very in character and silly, danny and donald's acting in this one is commendable, etc etc etc. there really isn't much, if anything, I dislike about this episode. jim rash being the credited writer makes me love him even more. legendary. outstanding.

✅ heroic origins: I actually really like this episode. it does still have that sort of unnatural and off-putting vibe that the majority of season 4 has, but I think it holds up. it's in character, it has some great jokes and one-liners, and although it does have its moments of discontinuity, it does a surprisingly good job of staying compliant with what has already been established. certainly much better than alternative history of the german invasion. abed's whole bit with the star wars prequels makes me laugh, the annie's boobs lore, footage of annie and troy in high school (surprisingly well done if you ignore the discontinuity of troy's injury), etc. it's also massively important for the overarching season plot, and we finally get to the conclusion of the stupid changnesia arc. I could go on and on, there's just a ton of really cool callbacks (including one to the pilot, which I only noticed a few months ago and am obsessed with), and I just. wasn't expecting this one to work out as well as it did. pleasantly surprised, all in all.

✅ advanced introduction to finality: this one is not great tbh, but it's too important plot-wise to skip. and, I mean, it does have some good moments. abed immediately recognizing evil jeff, the whole thing being in jeff's head a la remedial chaos all being in abed's head (insert something about how this being yet another demonstration of how fundamentally jeff and abed understand each other, which I could expand way more on but won't in this particular post), season 2 of the cape, "one of us is out of bullets" "is it you" "...yeah" "why would you tell me that," and more. overall, yeah, worth watching imo.

I do also want to say that I think season 4 is a bit overhated. I do agree that it is the worst season, I think most of us can agree that that is an objective truth, but it does have its moments and I do get slightly frustrated when people write the entire season off.

I’m also happy to hear anyone else's opinions on what you think is/isn't worth watching in season 4, especially if you really strongly disagree with me. I’m curious to what your reasoning is lmao.

okay! this is definitely way more elaboration than you needed, but I hope this was helpful 💯💯💯

[cowedeakamatsu]

Oh hey look tumblr, it’s another episode of your favorite show : Cowede talks about series

Yipee.

Today’s was… well it wasn’t "adviced" by @plaindangan , more like, I found a bunch of ecchi shows and send the plot and op to plain and ask them to choose one for me to watch and they choose that one.

Like big tiddy succubuses ? Likeable not actually dumbass characters that know how to communicate, and don’t really search for a firework of a show but one who’s still pretty with great ost ?

Vermeil in gold!

Could I have choose a better gif ? Probably! But vermeil’s titties are gonna be 100% of what will made people following that blog maybe check out.

Original source : manga.

Anime : 1 season (for now?) 12 episodes.

The plot is pretty simple at face value : alto is a young capable mage at a great mage school, who has the dream of becoming a platinum rank mage, there’s one issue though, while he is far from bad, he cannot for the love of god summon any familliar, and he needs one to pass to 2nd year or else he’ll have to redo his 1st year, as familiars is a core of mage’s abilities.

He ends up founding a book that could help with a summon, and by drawing a circle he inadvertently liberate a powerfull ancient (naked) demon lady inside, Vermeil! As a reward for liberating her she allows him to give her 1 directive (and of course she’s veeeery lewd about it) and alto decide… to ask her to be his familliar! And vermeil (even if she could theorically break the contract cos spoiler she’s hecka strong) decides… hey why not~? Alto’s cute plus his mana tastes YUMMY~

And that’s basically it without spoiler (because surprisingly for such a story the plot thickens, and is not half bad)

The main strength of the series is definitely the relation between alto and vermeil, not only do both character grow quite a bit literaly every episode, but their relation and love blooms very naturally and at a satisfying pace. Obviously this leads to a lot of ecchi boobi and smooches scenes, which are cool and while sometime they break a bit the rythm, they’re not super long and aren’t too cringy, plus while the base plot scream "alto is going to be a self insert" he ends up not being, having his own personality and relations to others, He’s a bit bland, but I’ve seen WAY worse.

The other main point thats quality is the secondary cast, while some of them (goat Marx) are a bit pushed to the side a vast majority of them are quite likeable and while tropy still give some energy, the dub is overall quite good too.

As for the plot ? Well I don’t really want to spoil stuff but it’s good. Actually ? Pretty effin good, several times the story surprised me by going ways that aren’t stall and not necessirally expected. Like vermeil’s evolution as a character, or the episode 6 huge plot moments.

The art is also pretty good, while a bit stiff and don’t expect tons of sakuga or eye candy, it still gives a vibe unique enough to not feel too generic, cool character designs too.

The ending and opening are VERY good Imo not necessarily the visuals but the songs are dope.

Sadly not everything can be good. And in this series there’s 2 negative points that must be brought.

The 1st is more of a personal issue, but yeah it’s a power fantasy. Meaning that alto is quite strong from the get go and vermeil is OP. Honestly the only reason they struggle most of the time is because they don’t make out (which yes makes them stronger) and use big magic frame one. It wouldn’t be an issue if the fights were good but alas.

2) the fights and power system is very bad. And sadly there’s lots of them, cos it’s still a shonen (even if mainly romance). To put it simply magic is ultra basic, every character get 1 spell that they spam and that’s it, there’s not even named attack. The other half of the power system is the whole summoning thing, basically every mage as a familliar and that’s the core of their magic. Except the familiar have cool designs BUT are even more monotonic than the usual magic. They just do 1 thing again and again and that’s it. It feels like a total waste.

Also vermeil one shots almost everyone without really sweating when she’s trying. During a fight early on against dragon lovin lady vermeil and alto do a nice combo for the finish, but outside from that ? The fights are a drag.

But while the fights are drags, the antagonist are ranged and enjoyable too.

While the tone and plot is different it did remind me a lot of "iruma kun demon school" mainly about how the show should by how definition be a slob made with no creativity and ultra generic for isekai/fantasy power fantasy lovers, but both end up very good because the author cared about the characters and made them good.

So yeah. For that one it’s very important you go watch it wanting romance, character relations, basic but efficient plot, or "plot" if it’s what you search for ? You’ll have a great time, I started solely for the vermeil tiddies but kept going for the surprisngly good everything else (and vermeil tiddies)

But if you actively search for a good power fantasy action ? Pass.

But personally I advice it!

[noblechaton]

gonna ramble a bit about the ml art style change bc ig I have more thoughts about it than I knew. tagging this as leaks but no like story stuff is gonna be mentioned bc I don't really know any lol

so going off what little we've seen of it (and in arguably the lowest possible quality at that) I think it's gonna make the show very visually pretty which isn't to say it couldn't be or wasn't in the older style(s) but that was def more inconsistent between studios and such so if this new style is the standard then like. yeah it's gonna look great

buuuuuuuut I also think it looks kinda. generic? like what's happened to a lotta brand logos that used to have personality but now all look super flat and simplified. like the Pepsi logo or whatever. it's a similar situation to the movie (I'll get into this in a bit) where like yes it looks pretty but it doesn't really look like Miraculous to me? like ik the style kinda varied somewhat between the studios but it was largely consistent enough and felt much more unique. like I could see a screencap from any timestamp of any episode and place it as Miraculous just bc of the visual style

now tho it looks less unique to me and more....like a mobile game ad? some kinda un-marketed direct to streaming movie? not trying to sound mean or anything but it just doesn't strike that same feeling the old style did for me as of yet. it feels more like an attempt to ape off a generic Pixar/Disney sorta style which the movie's style did too - and that ig is a good excuse for me to kinda dive into my thoughts there bc like. it looks way more like that movie now right? the y'know completely non-canon movie that to my knowledge wasn't received too terribly well lmao. I feel like this is on some level purposeful tho

I made a post the other day about how someone (especially the youngins) might go into season 6 thinking it's actually more of a season 1 only to presumably find that very much isn't the case pretty quick lmao - but that's still a new viewer, which makes number go up, which is a Good Thing. that s6 looks to be something of a fresh start given the whole Gabe in da Ground situation makes me believe this more since I'm pretty sure he got got in the movie too (<- does not remember the movie she saw twice) albeit in a different way. very real chance they view s6 as something of a soft launch pad with the hope of ppl who only saw the movie just jumping in without looking first. I also have an even more insane conspiracy theory that they're using movie assets at lower res for the sake of cost management but again. nutso hunch

regardless I'm kinda surprised they're changing it so drastically this deep into the series and I have no idea how the quality of animation is gonna hold up from episode to episode, season to season. presumably this is part'a why we haven't had s6 drop yet, that they've been working on it thoroughly, but it's been a good minute since s5 ended and I feel like the drought in content isn't really worth it?

like it's been so long that to me sometimes it's felt like the show straight up ended and while I don't mind a wait like this, the show then coming back looking entirely different to how it used to is gonna be jarring. I'm giving it a chance bc we haven't really seen it yet and that footage is very likely a wip of some sort but all the same I'm not terribly impressed? the emotions seem more stilted and flat, there's a few sorta redesigns that look....off (namely Adrichat, imo), and it feels too much like an attempt at cashing in on whatever success the movie might have had by bringing the look of the show more in line with it

think what gets me the most is that the style and animation of the show was one of the biggest things that drew me in beyond the bugcat of it all. it was the first CG animated show I'd seen where I felt as if the animation really worked; the world felt alive and vibrant, the city lived in and populated, but it didn't feel uncanny or like realistic in any sense, and there were plenty of gaffs and flaws throughout but I feel that only endeared the look of the show to me more - it had its own style that stood out for better or worse and I think that played more a role in the show's success than most have given credit for, and now that it's being entirely dropped in favor of a style that feels much more like some generic CG animation style I can't help but feel a bit disheartened and even nervous about the future of the series tbh

want to say that I'm not looking to hate it - I'm gonna give it a chance, and again I think it does visually look pretty, but I feel like it loses a lot of what made the show stand out to me and changes things I don't think really needed changed. time will tell but as of now I'm really not sold on it

also think having a special (or two? maybe?) in the old style just to drop us into the newer one presumably shortly after is kinda weird. wonder what happened there. bad timing? tbh using a special to introduce it mighta helped a bit but idk for sure

[three--rings]

In music, sophomore albums (i.e. second albums) are generally seen as very tricky and often disappointing.

Because a band/artist has their entire lives up until their first album to write those songs, to perfect them, to play them live, and then they get an opportunity and make an album and put the very best of themselves into their first album.

And then, if that is a success, they get to make a second album, and they have a very limited time under pretty significant pressure to produce album #2, and it almost invariably feels disappointing. Less polished, the songs are more bland, not every one is a banger, etc. Because they were basically the first draft of the first songs that the artist came up with to fill an album.

And a lot of the time, artists learn from that mistake, and decide they need to take more time for their next one, be more selective, have a better plan, or figure out a new way of working to produce quality in this new environment of Being a Successful Professional Musician.

So I think a lot of seasoned music fans, when presented with a lackluster sophomore album are like, well, let's give them time and see what they produce next time and only then will we decide if their first album was a fluke or not.

Why am I thinking about this? Come on, if you follow me, you probably have guessed I'm thinking about OFMD.

Because that's exactly what OFMD s2 feels like to me. A lackluster sophomore record.

The first outing was spectacular, really blew me away with a new sound, unexpected mashups of genres, satisfying themes...

But the second one felt rushed and pressured and like it hadn't finished cooking. It hadn't had enough time with the songs being played and having the rough edges rounded off, the empty spaces filled in. It felt a little like a jumble of vaguely good ideas thrown together without a cohesive through-line or thematic elements tying it together. A collection of demos, not a well thought-out album of strong songs.

And look, don't ask me to fully flesh out this metaphor. I don't know how it applies to making television exactly, because I don't really know that much about how to make tv. Did the writers really have more time to plan out S1 than S2 or was it purely the reduction in episodes and budget that hurt things. Was it the pressure of following up something quite successful that nevertheless got cut budget from the network? IDK.

But this is how it feels.

I don't hate OFMD now. But I am perhaps less inclined to call the people behind it geniuses. Because they've proven themselves very fallible and capable of producing kinda a hot mess. But they can still pull it back with a third album that reminds you why you fell in love with the first one.

Or they can prove they were hacks and that was a fluke. It's up in the air. IMO.

And it kinda depends on how they handle making something that isn't universally popular. How they can handle criticism. Can they be honest with themselves and say "yeah that was rushed and sloppy and I see why people didn't love it" or are they gonna pretend it was fucking genius actually because it sounded better in their head.

And hopefully we'll get a chance to find out. But unfortunately TV is harder to get made than records, so you get fewer chances.