#but For Me this show really was a letdown compared to the rest of the starkid catalogue

[markantonys]

Show to book wot fan here! Currently reading Dragon Reborn and as far as I’ve heard Shadow Rising is well considered the best of the lot, so I’m excited to get to it. Still, feels a bit weird to know the series peaks so early? Just wondered how you felt the rest of the series holds up? (Spoiler free if you could 😅)

hello my friend! i will definitely keep spoiler free here (and if any fellow readers reblog or reply to this post, please keep it spoiler free as well so that anon can check out the notes safely if they wish to!)

so, i think a lot of the reason why shadow rising is considered the best is that it's the first book to really blow the story wide open. it's our first time exploring some new locations and cultures and meeting new characters that become integral to the series (and the big new culture is a fan-favorite, so people love the books where we spend tons of time immersed in that culture), and we get some new worldbuilding, new lore, and new threats. TSR is the first book where it feels like RJ has worked out the early-series wonkiness and fully knows who each of the characters is and where he wants the story to go. TSR represents an exciting turning point for the series as we transition from these lighter, more generic early books into Hardcore Wheel-Of-Time-y Territory, so that's a part of why it's considered the best by so many readers! not because everything that comes after it is terrible or a letdown, simply because it's so exciting compared to what came before. (although books 2&3 have a special place in my heart, so no hate to them! there's also the flipside where TSR is VERY dense and a much more difficult, though rewarding, read than the first 3 books. i believe it's the longest book in the whole series.)

but, IS everything that comes after it a letdown in comparison? now, i wouldn't go that far, but i do think the quality of the storytelling goes downhill in the second half of the series for reasons i will explain in a moment. for me, books 4-6 are my favorite chunk (i enjoyed 5&6 at least as much as 4, so imo you've got several great books to look forward to, not just TSR!), and my peak enjoyment of the series happened here. but there are still some excellent and iconic moments and storylines in the second half of the series, just fewer of them than in the first half imo.

i'd say it comes down to structure. the first half of the series is pretty focused and tightly paced with most of the screentime given to our core main characters and most storylines introduced & resolved within the same book (bar the overarching series storylines like preparing for the last battle, of course). in the second half, we get a lot more time with minor characters at the expense of our mains and storylines start dragging out to last several books (probably BECAUSE there are getting to be so many different storylines and not enough space to address all of them thoroughly in each book). it kinda feels to me like RJ got bored of some of the main characters and/or felt stuck on what to do with them, so kept wandering off into sideplots to show off all his cool worldbuilding and his massive cast of supporting characters. which might be fun for the readers who like that kind of thing, so it's subjective! for me personally, i came to the books because i loved the specific main characters i'd met in the show, so i didn't enjoy feeling that their stories were treading water or not getting enough screentime.

there are also some things with the specific groups of characters who get to spend time together or not in the second half, but that's extremely subjective so i won't get into that haha i'll just note that relationship dynamics i personally hated got a lot of screentime while ones i personally loved got very little, so that contributed significantly to my personal preference for the first half of the series and thus you may end up feeling very differently than i do! on the flipside, there's stuff like elayne's main storyline in the second half of the series which is one of my absolute favorite storylines in the entire series, but a lot of other readers always hate on it and say it was boring (while adoring storylines *i* hated and/or found boring), so it really is SO subjective.

so, bottom line: a lot of it will come down to personal taste, but i do think that objectively, the quality of the writing & storytelling is better in the first half of the series and does indeed peak in books 4-6. but whether you'll feel a sharp decline or one so small you barely notice it is different for every reader. for me at the end of the day, i didn't like books 7-14 nearly as much as books 2-6 and have no desire to ever reread them, but i'm glad i read them once and there are some gold nuggets within them that i adore (as well as some things that actively infuriate me lmao)

[xmystophalesx]

Best New Heavy Metal Releases Week of March 3rd, 2023

I might be suffering from a bit of a hangover from last week and the plethora of incredible new releases, as this week was a LOT slower. List is half the size of last week and although there were some very good albums this week, I doubt many will have the staying power that some of the highlight albums from last week will have. Not that this week was bad per se but you rarely have a week as incredibly strong as last week was. Compared to that, there was bound to be a little bit of a letdown. That all being said, there are still definitely some highlights.

Carrion-Morbid Nailgun Necropsy (Death)**

This is 100% Death Metal, but it also has this added depth that you normally find in Melodic Death but not to the extreme as that genre can take it. There are some elements of Groove and Thrash at certain points through the length of the album that help break up the album a bit and that let the songs differentiate themselves from each other. I would label this as the thinking man’s Death Metal.

Galneryus-Between Dread and Valor (Power/Neoclassical)**

I’m not exactly sure about the practice of Japanese bands having their track listings in English but then singing in Japanese. I get it is probably just a translation but for some reason it always gets me. I sit there for the first couple of minutes, trying to make sense of the lyrics before I realize what is happening. I could honestly care less about lyrics as I have said before they represent the cherry on top. That being said, the real star of the show here is the musicianship. You want some incredible musicianship with a very epic power metal feel, this is the album for you. It really does not get better than this as far as Epic Symphonic Power Metal goes.

Necropanther- Betrayal (Melodic Death/Thrash)**

I liked Necropanther’s other releases, so I was pretty sure I would like this one as well. What I didn’t expect is just how much I would like it. If you aren’t familiar with the band, just think of a more out there, but also a more melodic version of Skeletonwitch. They have this very interesting mixture Thrash, Melodic Death and a bit Black Metal all rolled into one and on this album I feel they have balanced all these genres perfectly. There is something here for fans of all these different genres to really latch onto. It is also one of those albums that rewards multiple listens as every time I came back to this, I feel like I got more out of it.

Redlight King-In Our Blood (Hard Rock)**

For the hardcore Metal fan, this one may be difficult to get into as it is straight radio friendly hard rock, but damn, is it ever extremely well done. Great hooks and songs that have that anthemic arena rock feel to them. Tons of groove round out the sound of the album and all put together it has this addictive quality to it. I’m a fan of bands like The Parlor Mob, The Revivalists and The Pretty Reckless, and this fits right in when I am in that mood.

That will do it for the first week of March (Hard to believe we are already in the third month of the year). Just remember to listen to music and fill your soul with happiness. Until next week, and as always,

BANG THY HEAD!!!

All worthy of a listen if you like the genre

*= standout in that genre

**=best of the week regardless of genre

Best of the Week

Carrion-Morbid Nailgun Necropsy (Death)**

Thermality-Before I Get to Rest (Melodic Death)**

Necropanther- Betrayal (Melodic Death/Thrash)**

Sortilege-Apocalypso (Heavy)**

Redlight King-In Our Blood (Hard Rock)**

Galneryus-Between Dread and Valor (Power/Neoclassical)**

Standouts in their Genre

Carcariass-Afterworld (Melodic Death/Progressive)*

Blak29-The Waiting (Heavy/Hard Rock/Goth)*

Tuima Tuuli-I (Black)*

Korrupt-Secret Sorrows (Heavy/Hard Rock)*

Elysian Gates-Beyond the Gates (Symphonic/Heavy)*

Witch Ripper-The Flight After the Fall (Stoner/Sludge)*

Behind Bars-All in Due Time (Groove/Thrash/Hardcore)*

Transgressive-Extreme Transgression (Thrash)*

Ocean of Grief-Pale Existence (Death/Doom)*

Disminded-The Vision (Death/Thrash)*

Majesties-Vast Reaches Unclaimed (Melodic Death)*

Kardinal Sin-S.A.L.I.G.I.A (Heavy/Power)*

Ravenstine-Ravenstine (Heavy)*

Moyra-Omen (Melodic Death)*

Time Wolf-Observer Bias (Progressive)*

Stargazer-Life Will Never be the Same (Geavy/Hard Rock)*

Lunar-Illusionist (Progressive)*

Helgast-The Horrors that Lay Ahead (Death)*

Enslaved-Heimdal (Progressive Black/Folk)*

Cold Drop-Cold Drop (Heavy)*

Viscera-Carcinogenesis (Melodic Death/Deathcore)*

Gravekvlt-Gravekvlt (Black n’ Roll)*

Sandrider-Enveletration (Stoner/Desert/Sludge)*

Vanishment-No More Torture (Thrash/Heavy)*

Worth a Listen

Alkymenia-Meeting Before the Death (Thrash/Groove)

Peropero-Massive Tales of Doom (Progressive)

Malignea-Malignea (Symphonic/Goth)

Tragedy-I Am Woman (Heavy)

Eta Lux-High and Low (Stoner/Sludge)

Distortion-Metal Recall

Deathsbroom-Quietus (Black)

Morgenrothe-Hiver Social (Black)

Pick of the week was very close but Necropanther squeezes in to the top spot with 4.25 bulldogs that can’t be more annoyed out of 5.

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

Gabriel Agreste: Interesting Villain, Horrible Character (400 Follower Special)

I'm honestly surprised more people didn't want me to talk about Gabriel, especially with how often I rag on how horrible of a person he is. But, three character analysis posts later, and we're going to talk about why the main villain of Miraculous Ladybug is a real letdown.

Gabriel Needs to give the Whining a Rest

The interesting thing is one of the few things I actually liked in Season 3 was Hawkmoth. His plans actually made sense (for the most part), and by playing the long game, he managed to turn Chloe against Ladybug and deprived her of several key allies. Granted, Season 4 immediately undid the latter, but I was still impressed by his strategy.

Generally, one of the better aspects of Gabriel as a character was just how over the top he was as Hawkmoth. Keith Silverstein is clearly giving it his all with his performance, and he is just so enjoyable to watch as a cartoonish supervillain.

And therein lies the first major problem with Gabriel as a character. While he is fun to watch as a simple supervillain, the show tries to give him more depth and unintentionally makes him worse.

In Season 2, when it was revealed that Gabriel was Hawkmoth, many fans speculated on what he needed the Miraculous for, until the Queen Bee Trilogy showed it was to save his possibly dead wife, Emilie. The idea of that is so the show can give more depth to its main villain, and I think it's an interesting idea in concept. After all, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

The problem is just how radically different Gabriel is normally compared to how he is as Hawkmoth. He always goes on about how he's “doing this for Emilie”, but it's hard to really sympathize with him when you consider he constantly gives evil monologues and evil laughs, really getting into the supervillain role. And let's not forget all of the “I'm going to wear Ladybug's skin as a suit” faces he loves to make.

Clearly this man is the picture of mental stability.

Gabriel's motivation for being Hawkmoth when compared to what he actually does as Hawkmoth is shady enough, but the thing is that the writers clearly want the audience to at least feel a little bad for him. They want to make the audience sympathize with him despite the way he acts with or without the mask. Without Miraculous Ladybug, he is routinely putting innocent lives in danger and never once shows regret for his actions. All he talks about is how “he's doing this for Emilie”, or that “he'll get their Miraculous soon”. There's no real reason to feel bad for him other than “because the script says so”.

Let's compare Gabriel to Malcolm Merlyn from Arrow. His big plan in the first season of the show is to create a machine that will cause an earthquake to destroy a crime-infested portion of Starling City, claiming to be trying to help everyone, but it's clear he is only doing it out of revenge for his wife getting killed by a criminal from that part of the city. In addition, throughout that season and future seasons, he always makes sure his plans lead to him benefiting in some way, showing he isn't just some noble man trying to achieve his goals with a less than noble method.

If we got some moments that showed that what Gabriel was doing was selfish, it would make him a more complex villain. But we don't get anything like that. What do we get instead? Well...

I Could Really Care Less About Emilie Agreste

We have known Gabriel's motivation has been to save his wife for a little over two years at this point, but at the same time, it's hard to believe that motivation because of how underdeveloped Emilie is as a character.

There have been a total of two lines in the entirety of the show that explain what happened to Emilie, and they're both vague as hell. One of them was from “Feast” that implied Emilie used the broken Peacock Miraculous.

Adrien: My mom used to have dizzy spells… just like Nathalie.

And the other that outright tells the audience what's happening to her in a clip show that most people will skip.

Nathalie: As I've watched Emilie falling deeper into an endless sleep, my sadness for her has deepened, too

That is literally all we get for an explanation, and nothing else. We have no idea of what she's like as a person or what her relationship with her family was like other than Gabriel and Adrien saying they miss her. Other than the way the narrative says she's important to Gabriel and Adrien, we don't really have a reason to care about her as a character. There have also been some lines that imply she went along with Gabriel's questionable parenting techniques, like how he was apparently only homeschooled as a kid (Origins) and never had a birthday party growing up (The Bubbler), so how do we even know if she's a good person? In fact, why not set up this question as a mystery to make the audience wonder if Gabriel has another reason to bring Emilie back?

It ultimately turns Emilie into a plot device and not a character that Gabriel and Adrien only bring up to make the audience feel bad for them, and meant to justify Gabriel's actions by saying that he's “doing this for his family”.

But hey, if he's doing this all for his family, surely Gabriel's redeeming traits come from his relationship with Adrien, right? Right?

As a Parent, Gabriel is Far From the Best

I've talked about this briefly before, but parenting in Miraculous Ladybug is written in such a black and white way, even by the standards of this show. Parents are portrayed in one of two ways. They're either amazing people who love and support their children unconditionally, or they're awful people who treat their own children like trash. And much like a lot of things in this show, there are times where the latter is treated like the former.

There are so many times where the narrative insists on making you see Gabriel as a troubled, but wellmeaning person who tries his best to be a good parent to Adrien, but it is far from the truth.

I'm not going to beat around the bush. Gabriel is a terrible parent. Like, he is awful at being a parent in so many ways, even before you find out he's Hawkmoth. In his first appearance, “The Bubbler”, he delegates getting Adrien a birthday present to Nathalie, his assistant. He literally can't be bothered to take time out of his schedule to get his own son a present for his birthday. And as the show goes on, he becomes more controlling and forbids Adrien from going out with his friends in other episodes (Captain Hardrock, Silencer). While this could be used to show Gabriel getting worse, it's never acknowledged in-universe, with Adrien continually defending his father essentially keeping him on house arrest.

“But IOTA!” You might say. “Gabriel has made efforts to bond with his son in some episodes.” While that might be true, most of those come right after his Akumas have almost gotten Adrien killed. He only hugged Adrien and made an attempt to learn more about him after Simon Says invaded their home, he only decided to watch that movie Emilie was in with Adrien after Gorizilla nearly dropped him off a building, and he only hugged Adrien again in public after he was turned into a gold statue by Style Queen.

In fact, let's talk about how Gabriel acts in the Queen Bee Trilogy. He actually decides to quit being Hawkmoth, but it's not because he realizes all the damage he's caused. Instead, he gave up because his “magnum opus”, a stronger than usual Akuma that only got the advantage on Ladybug ironically because of dumb luck, failed. Sure, he says he can't keep putting his son in danger, but he rarely ever acknowledges that he does so in the first place. When Riposte wanted to fight Adrien, Hawkmoth did nothing to stop her other than giving her a stern warning earlier on and nothing else. Where was this attitude earlier?

Hell, even then, he immediately goes back to being Hawkmoth as soon as he sees an opportunity, not even a day after his “mAgNuM oPuS” blew up in his face (because I guess Scarletmoth was just Plan B). If he made such a big deal about caring for his son, why didn't he try harder to spend time with him? Has he ever had doubts about what he's doing before? If Chloe didn't show up as Queen Bee, was he going to follow through on his promise and try to be a better father to Adrien instead of trying to get Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous?

And yeah, the whole irony is that Gabriel is doing this for his family when he is unknowingly fighting his own son, which could lead to some interesting drama if done right. The idea of how Gabriel would react to his son being Cat Noir could really lead to some internal struggles for him to go through. But then we got “Cat Blanc”, which shows just how terrible of a character Gabriel is.

In an alternate timeline where he found out his son was Cat Noir, what does Gabriel do? Does he try to steal Adrien's Miraculous while he's sleeping? Does he reconsider his actions or realize he was endangering Adrien's life?

NOPE! He just decides to akumatize him all while emotionally tormenting him, before causing the end of the world.

This is honestly one of the most appalling things I've ever seen in any TV show, because it's basically an abusive father ordering his son to listen to him all while referencing his (kind of) dead mother to back up his point. And rather than use this to show how despicable Gabriel is, the episode decides to blame Marinette for this happening. Yes, according to the show, her present to Adrien caused several events to happen which caused Cat Blanc, but this logic makes no sense. It's like blaming the JFK assassination on the man who sold a gun to Lee Harvey Oswald, instead of, you know, Lee Harvey Oswald.

Not only was this episode yet another excuse to blame Marinette for something that wasn't her fault, it leads into the biggest problem I have with Gabriel as a character.

Sympathize with Gabriel? Surely, You Jest

After everything I've gone over regarding Gabriel as a character, after all the awful things I've talked about, are you really surprised that I don't feel bad for him at all?

Gabriel is just an awful character and a despicable human being, but the show just keeps wanting me to feel bad for him. It's just so hard to when you consider everything he's done has made him anything but sympathetic. I'm just saying, it's kind of hard to feel bad for someone who tries to start World War III with the only justification being “i'M dOiNg It FoR mY fAmIlY”, especially when he treats his family like crap.

The writers go out of their way to show how horrible Gabriel is as Hawkmoth/Shadowmoth, but they think because they throw in a few moments where he looks conflicted, we'll immediately feel bad for him. What makes so many people interested in seeing Chloe become a better person is that they can tell she's the victim of a troubled upbringing, and know that because she's only a teenager, she still has room to grow as a person, represented by having more honest moments of vulnerability. Gabriel is a grown man who once caused the apocalypse because of how terrible of a parent he is, and has even fewer sympathetic moments than Chloe does. Which one of these two is supposedly irredeemable? The answer may surprise you.

But the frustrating thing is that this kind of villain could have worked. Instead of making him this mustache-twirling psychopath, show how much Gabriel regrets what he has to do, but keeps pushing onward despite all the lives he's risking if it means that he can save his wife. Instead of making Gabriel like Lex Luthor, make him like Mr. Freeze, who is basic a better written version of him.

But as it stands, there's a good reason why Gabriel gets little to no respect as a character in the Miraculous Ladybug fandom, as a villain, or as a father.

[lonelier-version-of-you]

What a fucking letdown of a finale.

Killing Jac is a decision that’s just stupid beyond words. By far Holby’s most iconic character and this is how they fucking treat her? Everything they’ve put Rosie through for the show and they can’t even give her character the happy ending she’s always been asking for? It’s infuriating.

I would go so far as to say Holby, under its last producers, appears to have an obsession with killing traumatised female characters, specifically abuse survivors, instead of letting them have happy endings. They started small, with Carole. Then they immediately moved on to Jac.

Compare Jac and Henrik. Two characters who have both led very sad, tragic lives. Both traumatised. Both chronically mentally ill. Both coded as bisexual. But Henrik gets to come out and gets a happy ending, if a very confusing one. Jac just ended up dead.

I spy with my little eye, something beginning with ‘m’ and ending with ‘isogyny’. Fuck this show.

And they didn’t even let her last past the first, like, 10 minutes of the episode. Yikes.

I can’t say anything more about Jac because I’ll get too upset for words if I do, but... she deserved better. That’s it. That’s all I can say.

As for Henrik. My darling, darling Henrik. He deserves a tribute post for everything he’s done over the years, but I don’t have the words to write him one just yet, so here’s what I can say about him in the finale: I’m glad the last thing I ever get to remember Henrik Hanssen for is him smiling at the man he loves. I’m glad we got that. I am grateful beyond words for it, I truly am.

But they just wasted so much time with Henruss. The Billie pregnancy plot, shipping Russ off to Leeds. I wish I could appreciate this ending for them more, but I’m just so disappointed in what their storyline became. Henrik’s internalised homophobia was glossed over. Russ’s grief was glossed over. We didn’t get a single mention of Gaskell, Henrik’s first ever male love interest, and how that trauma would surely have affected Henrik’s relationships - especially with men.

And we don’t even get to know what Henrik’s actually doing now? Has he quit Holby and is he gonna move to Leeds, will he stay at Holby and go long-distance with Russ, or what? I dearly hope Casualty will tell us. And I dearly hope he’s quit, or at least quit the CEO job, because there’s no happy ending for him if he’s still in that role.

Guy Henry was amazing throughout this episode, though. I have no words for his performance.

Everyone’s acting was amazing, really. Bob Barrett, Paul Bradley, Belinda Owusu... a lot of great performances in this episode.

And I did like that little moment with Henrik and Lexy complaining about the government. Gotta give Holby credit for that.

The little scene with Henrik and Mo was excellent, too. Even if it did make me cry.

The rest of the cameos, though... I wasn’t expecting much, but somehow Joseph only being there for 2 seconds in person was worse than if he was a vision Jac had. The Berena cameo was alright, nothing much.

I did actually love Ric’s cameo, though. It was short, but sweet. It’s nice to have the last thing we remember of him be him being busy at work, still saving lives.

And the montage of cast photos at the end was lovely. A better tribute to the show, I felt, than the episode itself was.

The stuff with Ken, and Dom and Josh and Ange, was alright, but didn’t feel like finale material.

I’m trying to find more to say. I wish I had more to say. But I just can’t, it seems. All I can say is I’ll miss Henrik Hanssen, and Jac Naylor, and all the other wonderful characters. I won’t miss the show.

[longitudinalwaveme]

More Nitpicking!

Article #3: 

1. I’m pretty sure Heat Wave is more powerful than Captain Boomerang. Though I do think comparing him to Green Arrow and Hawkeye is appropriate, as it conveys the sheer level of skill that Capt. Boomerang has. 

2. Killer Frost isn’t a Flash villain in the comics. 

3. In the comics, the Thinker does not use a thinking chair like he does in the CW show; he uses a thinking cap instead. That being said, he is quite powerful, so I can’t argue with his placement on this list. 

4. ABRA KADABRA SHOULD NOT BE #10 ON A LIST OF MOST POWERFUL VILLAINS! 

5. “Abra Kadabra is a minor villain in DC Comics that gained a little more popularity when The Flash on The CW made him a character on the show.” I wouldn’t really call Kadabra a minor villain. 

6. Cicada is not more powerful than Abra Kadabra (or the Thinker, but mainly Abra Kadabra). 

7. Walter West wasn’t really a villain per se, so he shouldn’t really be on the list. 

8. Captain Cold is not more powerful than Abra Kadabra, and he probably isn’t more powerful than the Thinker, either. 

9. Zoom should be much higher than #6 on the list. 

10. Grodd, Mirror Master, and Savitar being in spots #5, #4, and #3, respectively, is appropriate...but Zoom should be ranked higher than they are. And so should Abra Kadabra. 

11. I don’t think Godspeed is more powerful than Savitar, and I’m sure he’s less powerful than Zoom. And Abra Kadabra. 

12. Likewise, Eobard is also less powerful than Zoom. 

I don’t know what Kadabra’s doing wrong, but man, he gets no respect. And neither does Zoom, apparently. 

Article #4: 

1. This article knows its stuff about Savitar...though it is a bit weird that he’s ranked so low on a list of the most feared Flash villains; I’d think he’d be a bit higher. 

2. It’s a bit weird to have Killer Frost on the list of the most feared Flash villains (though the article does get points for acknowledging that she’s usually a Firestorm villain in the comics.) 

3. I’m actually not sure whether Heat Wave is more or less scary than Weather Wizard. On the one hand, a villain who can control the weather is pretty scary as a concept...but on the other hand, Mark has a lot more control over himself than Heat Wave does...and Heat Wave’s pyromania means that he might hurt you without even wanting to. That’s pretty scary in its own right, so I can’t begrudge him being higher on the list than Mardon. 

4. Everyone run from the terror that is...a guy who throws curvy sticks! (I know that some of them explode and such, but is Captain Boomerang really among the top ten most frightening Flash villains?) 

5. Yay, Zoom! (I’d actually think he’d be a bit higher than number 4, but hey, at least that’s somewhat more subjective than power level.) 

6. “Whereas most other Flash enemies cast aside the well-being of others, Captain Cold lives by a code of honor. In it lies the following codes: no senseless violence, no use of drugs, and no killing women or children.” And this makes him more frightening than Grodd or Zoom or Savitar because? How does him NOT wanting to hurt people for no good reason make him scarier? 

7. I can’t really argue with Eobard being #1 on the list. Dude is a creepy stalker. I’d be scared of him. 

8. This was actually a pretty good list overall; the person clearly knew the characters. 

Article #5: 

5 Flash Villains The CW Watered Down (& 5 They Powered Up)

1. “Both his (Captain Boomerang’s) personality and, ultimately, the size of the threat have all been watered down!” Agreed. CW Captain Boomerang was a letdown, in more ways than one. 

2. The degree to which CW Thinker is more powerful than comic book Thinker (specifically, comic book Thinker during Geoff Johns’ run) is debatable, but I think that it’s fair to say that the show powered him up in general. 

3. Is the Bug-Eyed Bandit really a proper Flash villain? 

4. “Yet, the version (of Sam Scudder) we find in the Arrowverse isn't nearly as impressive as the crook we've seen in the pages of the comics. His design is far less interesting to start with, but his abilities are certainly watered down. He is a metahuman, but he can really only travel through mirrors and use them for illusions. The rest of his abilities are nowhere to be seen!” Very much agreed! 

5. “Doctor Alchemy is a pretty forgettable villain in the comics.” Albert and Alvin are many things, but “forgettable” is not one of them. I’d also argue that the show actually depowered Dr. Alchemy if anything. CW Alchemy doesn’t show nearly the level of power over the elements that his comic book counterpart had. 

7. “Rainbow Raider is an absolute blast in the comics. The Flash issue 286 introduced us to a flamboyant, colorblind artist with a wacky costume and fantastical powers. He can ride a rainbow with great agility and can actually use these beams of light as weapons! He can also manipulate a person's emotions, using each color of the rainbow to dictate the type of feeling.This is the only aspect of the character that transferred over to the live-action debut of Rainbow Raider. He's drab and boring and doesn't quite have the same flare. While his powers are useful in order to manipulate the team at Star Labs, he's a pale imitation of what we see in the comics. Worst of all he's only included in two episodes, making him a short-lived enemy.” 

YAY!!! RESPECT FOR ROY!!!!

Article #6: 

The Flash’s Rogues: 10 Supervillains Ranked From Least To Most Powerful

1. “Essentially The Flash’s version of The Joker, James Jesse was the son of a pair of circus performers. He never truly received the love and attention of his parents, so Jesse pulls trick after trick in a pathetic attempt to make them proud.” :*(  I was not expecting this random article to make me have feels. 

2. I agree that, when he had the White Lantern boomerang construct power, Digger was probably more powerful than James. Otherwise, I’d have to argue with him being described as more powerful. 

3. “She (Golden Glider) was on her way to becoming an Olympic skater but eventually joined her brother in a more exciting life of crime.” Not exactly what happened. She primarily became a supervillain to avenge Roscoe’s death.

4. I don’t think Heat Wave’s more powerful than Hartley, in general. 

5. “Roscoe Dillon is seen as one of The Flash’s most ridiculous villains, but he can do much more than just spin fast. During the Identity Crisis tie-ins and Rogue War, we see the villain's true power levels. Top has the ability to return from the dead, inhabit people’s bodies, and even flip the psyche of anyone he feels like.Every Rogue that gave up crime during Rogue War was actually orchestrated by Top. In flashbacks, we also see Top easily speeding alongside Barry Allen after he was lobotomized into becoming a hero. Read up on him, you won’t be disappointed.” 

Roscoe is #2 on this list! I’m not sure if he’s actually more powerful than, say, the Mirror Masters or Weather Wizard, but hey, at least he’s getting the credit he deserves. 

6. Yay! Abra Kadabra is #1 and he’s actually the most powerful character on the list! 

[margridarnauds]

Toho RJ 2021 costumes? What do you think?

Thanks for the question! 

....so, I actually unfollowed the RetJ Toho page. Because as much as I ADORE Toho RetJ, I actually couldn’t sit by for this production, I was so discouraged, and the more I looked, the more I was discouraged, so I didn’t even stay long enough for the costume reveals. That being said.... I do have MIXED opinions .

Which is actually better than it sounds, because as much as I hate almost everything I’ve been hearing about this production, “mixed” is actually positive-leaning. 

Romeo’s costume looks considerably cleaner, but also....cheap?

Let’s compare:  

(Yes, I’m showing Ohno. Yes, we’re at THAT point.) 

The new one looks like Romeo just....grabbed it off the rack? As opposed to it being something that he actually wears every day? It looks BETTER, more streamlined, but it looks more like a costumme™ VS something that really fits the setting, much less something that fits ROMEO as a character. (Dye it red and it would be a suitable Tybalt costume.) Part of why I actually HATED RetJ Toho’s costuming the very first time I saw previews for it was that I thought that, well....they were hideous. They were hideous, they were cheap, they looked like anything you could see on the STREET, and I wanted my pretty flowing gowns BACK. 

BUT! Then, as time went on, as I saw the full musical, I realized the genius behind them: They perfectly suited the world that THIS particular production wanted to show. No, you couldn’t put them on the French cast, because they aren’t the French cast - They have an entirely new setting to work with, rougher, grittier, just several degrees removed from us. So, in that context, do I think that Romeo’s costume works for Romeo Montague, the character, in the setting that Toho’s created? Not really. It looks BETTER, I think, in the sense that it’s something I, personally, would be more willing to wear, I like the cut better, I like the darker colors, I like the design, I like the silver accents and the overall color scheme, but it isn’t something that FITS. (Also am I high or does the strap on the shoulder somewhat look like his new Zuka look?) 

I do like Mercutio and Benvolio more because, in their case, I was (1) Never particularly ATTACHED to the old designs - I never particularly cared for how busy they were and the color scheme always seemed rather bleh (though I understood the IDEA behind it, as far as showing that, even though the Montagues looked like a mess, they had more cohesion as a group than the Capulets) and (2) ....I do like the Renaissance styled cut sleeves. I can see, in those cases, a bit of method behind the madness, and I respect it. I respect combining 16th century and modern fashion to create a contemporary look that still references the original. (Look. I’m still in love with the choices made in Julie Taymor’s Tempest.)

Only problem is that Benvolio does look LESS “Gang Leader” and more “Fratboy Who Thinks That Cutting Down On Starbucks Will Fix Your Student Debt.” 

As opposed to this mess who has definitely lost his phone in one of his pockets at some point: 

Juliette runs into a similar problem as Romeo: 

On one hand, I do like ASPECTS of it. I like the color scheme, the red accents really hold the whole thing together, though I’d leave that belt (which also reminds me unfortunately of the Red Leather Belt of Horror from the recent Zuka production.) I like the sleeves because, once again, Italian Renaissance fashion being modernized, but I’m also still not really sold it fits the world of TOHO RetJ. It DOES fit Juliette more as a character than Romeo’s. A part of me like the collar and the layering - Even if it makes for a gown that looks either....I want to say 19th century or 1950s (I can almost see her going on a milkshake date with Romeo), which really works with that idea of Juliette kind of having a cute “vintage” aesthetic, which we can see even back in the 2019 production. 

VS this, which has less of a vintage appeal (though it DOES still have that styling, with both the jacket and the skirt, I would still place her style around the 1950s), is probably something that I would be less inclined to pick up if I had to choose between one or the other, but that kind of fits the idea of a princess growing up in this totally ruined town (and also looks more like regular street fashion). Verona’s still a bit of a wasteland, we get that distinct vibe from the projections, even if they’re now far enough out from the nuclear explosion to have trees again. It doesn’t really make sense for me that Juliette would have this fresh off the rack look, even if Daddy C spoils her, because (1) He’s broke and (2) ....logistically, it would be a nightmare. Clothing would have to be made to last, like 2019 Juliette, who’s wearing NICE clothes, but clothes that are more practical, more likely something that she’s worn a few times. (But also. The new shoes are CUTE. I can admit it.) It’s also what makes Paris stand out: He DOES have an impractical, shiny costume that he must have spent a FORTUNE on, because he has money to burn and no sense. 

No signs of intelligent life found here. 

The rest....I wasn’t too invested in the changes one way or another, only thing I really noted was that Lady C’s corset’s a bit of a letdown. We really went from: 

To

The result is flat and rather cheap, the buckle looking like a failed attempt at ornamentation that really ends up just coming out of nowhere. 

THAT being said: Oka Kojiro back in his gray Peyrol coat for Escalus really makes me feel like coming home, I’ve missed seeing that man on stage, I’ve missed seeing him in gray, barking at actors decades his junior, so you know what? Maybe, just maybe.........I will keep a slightly closer eye on this. I won’t pretend that I’m more encouraged than I am, but I like the Juliettes and I like Escalus and tbh, they’re my favorite characters anyway so......

Overall.........I can’t say that I hate everything they’ve done. Quite a few of them are pretty, I like the hints of historical fashion, but I also feel like they’re kind of losing that strong sense of setting that really makes the Toho distinct from basically any other production of RetJ out there (yes....even as opposed to ResJ). 

[fighterraven]

My Story with Fossil Fighters Frontier.

Ah March 20th 2015. I remember that day like it was yesterday. In case you forgot what was so special about that day, it was the release date of Fossil Fighters Frontier or at least the American release date. It had been in Japan for a year under the name Infinite Gear. Now in order to fully tell this story we need to rewind back to 2014 so Insert some timy wimmy transecsion here.

The year is 2014 and I'm starting to wonder "where the heck is Fossil Fighters 3?" Of course that's what I called it. I'm on a site called "Nintendo everything." And I see this "Fossil Fighters Infinite Gear." Naturally,  I freaked out "OMG THEY MADE A NEW FOSSIL FIGHTERS AND IT'S ONLY IN JAPAN!" I even had Facebook and Miiverse posts from back in the year freaked out about Infinite Gear. Now, I'm not a betting man, but if I was, I would bet 10,000 dollars that I knew about Infinite Gear before everyone outside of Japan did. I even knew about the final boss before the rest of the world too due to a Japanese video. Now once I saw this news, I immediately went to my friends and said "now you owe me because Fossil Fighters 3 exists now." I guess I was a dumb 15 year old who wanted Fossil Fighters by someone who wasn't me. I mean the original game was still one of my favorite games of all time after all, I just wanted a sequel after Champions disappointed me. (Champions was a letdown for me compared to the original.) 

Let's fast forward to e3 2014 and Let's skip everything that was announced on day 1 and go straight to a video I uploaded that very same day where I had a hissy fit over Ruby and Sapphire getting a remake but Fossil Fighters Infinite Gear isn't coming to the west. Now you have to understand that I was 15 at the time and I was very edgy, angsty and angry. (Who knew my 15 year old self would be how Nintendo fans would react to the Mini directs in 2020 and the direct in 2021?) I mean I had known about Infinite Gear for months at that point, I felt like my anger had been justified at that point (although I'm glad my YT channel never gained any fame because I would have been roasted by everyone. I probably would have deleted the video if I had in order to avoid complete embarrassment.) Anyways 2 days later and Infinite Gear was announced as Fossil Fighters Frontier. Before I get into the next section, can I just point out how much cooler a name Infinite Gear is over Frontier? They should have kept the Infinite Gear name outside of Japan.

Naturally I lost a bit of control over the announcement and posted my excitement over every social media I had at the time and Frontier was basically the only thing on my mind at the time. Heck, I even went crazy over the Fossil Fighters trophy that was in the 3DS version of Smash 4. Now did I go way crazier over then I ultimately should have? Absolutely and you're probably thinking: "is the trophy in 3DS Smash 4 really that important to this story?" And I'll say "Absolutely." To me, it felt like Nintendo was celebrating my hype with me, it felt like Nintendo read all of my Facebook and Miiverse posts and were hyping the game up with me. I even did only type runs and a no Sonar chip challenge runs in the original and Champions in the time Frontier was announced for E3 up until it's release, meaning I beat the original and Champions 5 times in one year.

So now let's fast-forward to the 2015 February direct. Where they announced Fossil Fighters Frontier's release date. March 20th 2015. MARCH 20th 2015 BABY LET'S GO FOSSIL FIGHTERS FRONTIER! FOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLL FIIIIIIIIGHHHHHHHHTERRRRRRRRRRS! FRONTIER. I then make a bunch of posts on every social media I had at the time reminding myself and everything else about the date. Now keep in mind that they didn't show anything in the release date. Heck we didn't even know about Paleo Pals in the direct so before you say "didn't Paleo Pals ruin it for you?" We didn't even know that stuff back in the day.

March 20th 2015. I went to my local gamestop to pick up my Pre order and I absolutely loved Frontier and it was my favorite game of all time. Now you're probably wondering, how can I love this game when the Paleo Pals make the combat 3/4s automated? The simple answer was that I was sort of in a high when I first played this game. The gorgeous graphics, the animations and the environment all looked pretty damn good and heck I still think Frontier is the best looking 3ds title even to this day. That's entirely subjective, I realize but you can't ignore this game's presentation is top notch. Heck if you gave the game a few touch ups, it could look like a Switch game. Of course I also enjoyed the game's Miiverse community and seeing everyone's reactions to various things and getting to interact with people playing the game was a major factor for me. Although it never really occurred to me that people playing Frontier were playing it because they played other games in the series not because it was their first Fossil Fighters game. The best part of the story is easily when Nate gets his but bit. I actually saw this part in Japanese too but getting to see it in America was also very good. Seeing the twist that Nibbles was the Dreadasarus was also pretty damn good too. Of course I beat the game in 2 days and I did all the post game stuff in one sitting and I felt empty. Now I thought, "this can't be it. There has to be a reward for Ranking up every Vivisaur, Paleo Pal Vivisaur and every Super Paleo Pal Vivisaur. Maybe I'll get to use the Earth Dragon and Dreadraven." Now you're probably thinking to yourself "You're an idiot for assuming maxing out everything would unlock anything." And my answer is that the game wasn't even a week old when I set out to do this herculean task. I had basically an infinite amount of justification as to why I did this. I wasn't going to be all of the time I spent hyping this game up for nothing. I didn't just want to do to this, I HAD TO DO IT. 

So I began my long, tedious grind and I posted my struggles on Miiverse and Facebook (Really wished I knew about reddit back then.) And even some person on Miiverse even called me insane and they had every right to. Nonetheless, I soldiered on with the grind and kept Miiverse informed and after 2 months of grinding, I had done it. I had grinded every Vivisaur, Paleo Pal and Super Paleo Pal Vivisaur. So you're probably wondering what the reward is. Nothing, absolutely nothing, not even Stryker becoming your Paleo Pal (although Stryker does go unused as a Paleo Pal in the game's files.) So you're probably wondering did I regret it? Absolutely not. I enjoyed every second of that grind. It led to a lot of Miiverse posts and probably a lot of memes from said posts. Sometimes it's about the journey, not the destination or goal. Sometimes it's about the friends we make along the way. 

And for this reason alone, I can't legally hate Frontier and heck I still like Frontier over Champions simply because of this story. I mean I love Frontier even after my high wore off. What can I say? I just can't hate this game, I would be absolutely heartless if I did, even if Frontier did completely butcher Spinax, I still don't hate this game. This story is by far my favorite story in a video game. 

And that was my story with Fossil Fighters Frontier. 

[connan-l]

All right, so now that I finally digested the final a little I have some random messy thoughts about Fruits Basket 2019. It got really long lol, but this has been stuck in my head for a while so I needed to get it out!

Honestly, it was a very good adaptation and I’m still in awe I was able able to see the whole manga animated. Fruits Basket is pretty important to me, as I read it for the first time when I was around twelve and it was definitely one of the series that impacted me the most — the way it tackles themes of cycle of abuse, loneliness, grief and moving forward still feel very special to me even now (I briefly wrote a post about it months ago after rereading the manga), so of course I was delighted upon hearing the reboot announced and for the most part, it didn’t disappoint. I’d never truly thought I’d be able to see characters like Rin or Machi actually move on screen in my lifetime so in a way it still feel surreal lmao (RIP to Komaki though). It was really refreshing to revisit the story in that way, especially given amusingly enough I am myself in the middle of some big changes in my life where I have to leave things behind so it felt sort of... well, I won’t say empowering per se, but quite encouraging and satisfying to watch Furuba, and especially its final, at this timing, in a way. It wasn’t perfect, there are certainly a lot of flawed directive choices that I question and unfortunately quite some important cut contents — but even at its lowest it stayed all in all good. I’m genuinely a bit stunned there are people who thinks the entire thing is worthless or a failure, because man, I have seen what a bad anime adaptation looks like, and Fruits Basket 2019 definitely isn’t one. Natsuki Takaya herself was clearly very invested and satisfied in that adaptation — I mean, just the fact she drew arts for every single episodes or for the season 3 ending really shows that I think. And while there’s a part of me who will always have a soft spot for the 2001 anime, there’s no contest that the 2019 one is the superior one and more representative of the original manga as a whole.

I believe some people really don’t realize how... uncommon it is to get such a consistently good-looking and complete anime adaptation for a shojo manga? Shojo really aren’t lucky in that prospect usually; they rarely get animated, and when they do they’re usually very bland or outright bad, or they get one short season of like 13 episodes that never receive any follow-ups — even shojo considered like classics tend to get poor treatment, unless they’re Sailor Moon of course or a long-running magical girls franchise like Precure (and even then we could have a discussion about the way Sailor Moon’s treated compared to say Dragon Ball for example, but that’s another topic entirely). So yeah it is quite awesome we were able to get this kind of anime adaptation that covers the full manga with good quality from start to finish, and I am so, so glad it exists and that it managed to revive and makes the series so popular again. (Hopefully its success means we’ll be able to get more good anime adaptation of shojo manga from now on!)

But yeah, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t problems with it and I also understand why some of the manga fans had issues. We were kind of hyped with the fact this would be a complete adaptation and in the end we only got a... sort-of-complete one lol. The art and animation stayed fine during the run (there certainly were some episodes that were uhhh, lacking in that sense, but that’s just how it is sometimes with productions and budget), but I admit I was a bit letdown regarding the direction, where it often seemed… a bit uncreative or heavy-handed. There was some very beautiful and smart shots here and there, but on the whole I really had an issue with the adaptation failing to actually take more ambitious decisions on its visual aspect, especially compared to the pretty pannelling of the manga — and when it did take these decisions it just was… kind of obnoxious and in-your-face, like the show is trying to hold the watcher’s hand (with unnecessary things like Kyo’s father record player derailing or the whole big ropes symbolizing the curse that often slapped you all over the screen, which usually just made me want to roll my eyes because of how annoying it felt.) Multiple people also pointed out the overdramatization of some scenes like the Kyo and Tohru’s confrontation at the end of season 1 or Akito and Ren’s fight which was, indeed, not very good and a weird choice. Fruits Basket is already a pretty dramatic show and these scenes are already intense, there was no need for such over-the-top theatrical display of emotions that only made them comes off as comedic. I’m probably nitpicking here but it also bothered me some characters’ expressions didn’t feel properly retranscribed (Shigure especially, whose characterization depends a lot on that, really suffered from this), or that odd habit of making some big panorama plans instead of focusing on the faces and bodies, which particularly sucks during emotional scenes (like the backgrounds were pretty I guess, but that’s not what was important here lmao).

Also that might be just a personal thing, but can I point out that the openings were pretty disappointing to me... They're not bad, but they all looked so... bland. The songs are fine but the rest feel so uninspired and it's kind of sad... I dunno, I wasn't asking for much but I just think they could've done more than just scrolling each character looking vaguely melancholic or making them walk randomly one after another :/ The endings have at least pretty illustrations and I'm okay with them (I liked what they did with Kyoko’s photo in season 3 too), but the OPs kind of feel as if they ran out of budget and ideas for them or something. I kind of feel the same with the OST as well, where they’re generally fine but were a bit lackluster, and sometimes… they were kind of played at bad times? I remember the Rin episode in season 2 were the music felt a bit out of place and took me out of the immersion, which is a shame cause it was otherwise a pretty good episode. But that might just be a me-thing here lol. The voice actors were awesome though! (The Japanese ones, at least, I didn’t watch any other dubs). I’ve said it before but special kudos to Maaya Sakamoto cause damn she’s so perfect as Akito, and Shimazaki as Yuki and Toyosaki as Rin truly delivered too. I didn’t know Manaka Iwami at all but I was really impressed by her Tohru, especially in season 3 — she really was good at capturing her character’s subtle emotional turmoils (I think she makes a better Tohru than Yui Horie too, although I admit I missed Horie a little lol.)

Anyway, on the topic of lack of ambition, that might be an unpopular opinion but there’s also the fact that I’m sad they didn’t actually... try to change or add more original scenes. By which I mean, obviously we had some changes, but not ones that were really interesting (when they’re not actively detrimental to the story). For example, I was really hoping that we’d be able to get at least one original episode focused on Ritsu (and Mitsuru too why not) in season 2 or 3, or on Kagura or Kisa; I dunno, it would’ve been a good occasion to give something more to the characters that got sidelined in the original manga, or add some moments that would’ve been nice to develop like about Akito post-cliff confrontation, but we never got that. And well, that makes sense now that we know they seemingly had an episode restriction (at least on season 3), but, yeah, that’s still a shame. Honestly in the end Ritsu’s character made even less sense in the anime, because like, it was nice they tried to adapt his introduction episode so that it feels less “you have to adapt to gender norms to feel better about yourself,” (the gender non-confirmity is definitely one of the bits that aged the less well in FB) but then they still made him cut off his hair and give his feminine clothes to Kagura at the end so why lol. (And speaking of his episode introduction, I dislike that they cut off his conversation with Tohru after the suicide attempt, not only for Ritsu but also for Tohru cause it is one of the small instances bringing up her issues that is set up early on and that is crucial to her, but I’ll come back to this later.)

And now about the biggest problem to me being, the cut content and episodes rearangement. So, just so we’re clear, I definitely don’t think an anime adaptation needs to be a page-by-page adaptation of the manga to be good. Every decent adaptation needs to have changes, and the ones that tries to just follow the source material without any heart often tend to get pretty bad. So changes are good! Cut content are needed sometimes. But in Furuba 19, it really... wasn’t the case.

And the most unfortunate thing being that the one suffering the most from this is the show’s main character herself, Tohru.

So, obviously other characters also got done dirty by this; Yuki and Machi’s relationship was so incredibly shifted in the background and rushed it’s almost funny. I’m one of the people who thinks that, while I do think they’re cute, I definitely agree on the fact their relationship was a bit underdeveloped in the manga — and that Machi’s character especially suffered as a result by being a bit reduced to just "Yuki’s love interest" when she was a character with so much more to offer (and as a whole I also tend to agree with the fact that Yuki probably didn’t need a romance at all and that his arc is more meaningful while focusing on his platonic relationships, but that’s another topic entirely) — but man, if the manga already underdevelopped them, then ohhh boy, the anime just completely dropped the ball. It feels very odd because to me it seemed like season 2 was taking their time with setting them up, so if they knew they had only 13 episodes for season 3 then they should’ve started the changes there; instead we got 1 nice Yuki/Machi/Kakeru episode, and then it’s like "Yep, they’re in love, just trust me." (It does makes me wonder if season 3 wasn’t originally supposed to be longer but then got restrained because of budget or covid or something…) Kakeru also very much suffered because of them cutting off his girlfriend and his complicated relationship with Tohru… Now, to be honest, I’ve always found the Kakeru/Komaki/Tohru subplot pretty... contrived and useless, and Komaki’s not so much a character more than a device for Kakeru’s development, but it does have some good moments relevant to the story’s themes (I like the ‘‘you can’t play suffering olympics with people’s pain’’morale) and it is important to his character (and Komaki is cute, I admit), so it was still sad they shafted it entirely. (Also I kind of like the tense relationship between Tohru and Kakeru. The fact they both seem to not appreciate each other even afterwards feel sort of refreshing even if it’s never explored unfortunately orz.) I was still surprised they didn’t actually try to make a Komaki cameo at the end? Cause I think it would’ve fitted and Kakeru’s girlfriend had already been mentioned in season 2 but... for some reason they... didn’t. (Mayyybe we’ll get an OAV like with Kyoko and Katsuya? Who knows.)

One scene that was skipped/rearranged that I’m very bitter over is the whole Tohru/Kagura confrontation and Kagura/Rin scene — it might not seem like much, but the moment of Tohru refusing to forgive Kagura is very important, and I was pretty annoyed they turned Rin’s trauma response to Kagura’s violence and her subsequent apology/hug to a gag, it legit felt tasteless. The Tohrin scene they removed at the very end too was frustating; it was great they managed to fit in the "Rin doesn’t want to forgive Akito" bit at least (I was afraid they’d cut it off entirely), but it was so essential for her to say to Tohru, not to Haru and Momiji (plus the way they put it in felt very random and awkwardly placed there, when they were initially talking about Tohru before orz). OH AND the Akito/Hana friendship too! Yeah I know it’s not a Big deal but I absolutely love the little glimpses of their friendship and it’s very important to me so I’m disappointed over them not including the ‘Ah-chan’ scene… (It was kind of weird that the show sort-of implied Hana and Kazuma got together too cause that’s… not the vibe at all from the manga… oh well.)

Most people I’ve seen generally only bring up season 3 regarding the cuts/rearangement because it’s the most obvious and the biggest offender, but I personally think there were already problems with season 2 and 1. At first glance I didn’t have much issue with some of the rearrangement, because early Furuba can indeed be pretty episodic, but thinking back on it as a whole I think it might’ve been better to leave some stuff, like Hana and Uo’s episodes for example, to season 2 (I do wonder if they did this specifically so the reboot would offer original content and differ from 2001 early on...) and cut off other not-so-important things from S1 & S2 — because as a result season 2 kind of suffer a bit by being The Yuki Season, which, for as much as I love Yuki, did end up being a bit annoying and made his development feel less natural and gradual, as well as the fact it sidelined the other characters a little and left them with not much conclusion in its final. So this added to how much they ended up cutting in season 3, it makes the show as a whole feels really unequal. I think they did overall a good job in season 3 with what they had, and they really nailed some of the dramatic and Kyoru moments (the sheets scene, cliff confrontation and post-hospital confession were practically perfect), but it is a shame that it ended up as an extremely marathoned emotional roller-caster rather than a more well-paced watch that we would’ve had if it had been 20 or so episodes. (I know others argued that season 3 was what it was because there wasn’t enough content left to cover for 22 or 24 episodes, but I disagree and even if there weren’t, it would’ve been the perfect occasion to add original episodes then. But I think it was more of a budget and Covid issue personally.)

But anyway, all of this isn’t actually what I’m the most annoyed with (and YES that’s a already a lot lmao), those are stuff I can live with, but like I said earlier the most problematic is what they cut off from Tohru’s character. And that indeed includes her parents’ backstory.

So, just so I get this out of the way; yes, I do understand why people were relieved to not see Kyoko and Katsuya’s relationship play out on screen, and yes the age gap and teacher-student thing is creepy and I do kind of wish it hadn’t been written that way. (Though I was a bit amused by people who thought we didn’t get the backstory because of the questionable age gap when, uh... you know I very much doubt the anime industry has an issue with that. Like, to start with, we wouldn’t have had Uo and Kureno’s romance if that was the case (even if Uo and Kureno is less problematic, it’s still the same basis of a underage high school girl/20+ adult man relationship), and second there was a literal romcom anime about a high school girl and an adult man that was broadcasted at the same time as Furuba season 3 lmao. So nah, it wasn’t there the problem to them, it was just time and episode restriction, which was pretty much confirmed with the announcement of the OAV focused on them.)

So, Kyoko and Katsuya is definitely Problematic and I agree on their relationship being uncomfortable; however, I’m a bit baffled that people were literally cheering on not having that part in the show, because it is... it is not just like a small bit of family trivia, it is Extremely important and actively essential to Tohru’s character and Fruits Basket’s themes and narrative as a whole. It’s very important to understand Kyoko’s character, of course; to humanize her and finally present her as a very flawed person and not just the idealized mother that Tohru project upon her, and it is extremely important simply to understand Tohru herself as well; to understand where her way of thinking, her trauma and attitude stems from, and this in a way that just isn’t possible to see with the little fragments of that flashback we got or the bits of Kyo and Kyoko’s interactions.

See, Tohru’s character is principally constructed around two things; her grief over her mother and her almost-pathological selflesness and people-pleaser needs that comes from her abandonment issues and loneliness, and her arc is very much about letting go of both of these things and finally moving forward and letting her life change. There’s this perception of Tohru I see sometimes that she’s not a very interesting character especially compared to others like Yuki or Kyo, or that she ‘‘stays the same kindhearted, naive girl from start to finish,’’ and while I deeply disagree with this I know where it comes from. The thing with Tohru is that she is firstly an extremely emotionally repressed character, and so a lot of her depth and development is made through small, gradual details scattered throughout the manga. It’s done in such a way that except for some obvious scenes those small, apparently insignificant moments are easy to miss or disregarded, and unfortunately it is a lot of these details that the 2019 anime cut, or rearanged in a way that feel less impactful or makes less sense; such as, like I pointed out earlier, her conversation with Ritsu after his suicide attempt. As I’ve seen others point out, this result in altering Tohru’s portrayal and rendering her character mostly about her romance, undercutting and downplaying all of her small, subtle character moments and developments, and miss a bit the second part of the story where the narrative actively challenge the ‘savior/therapist/mom’ that other characters and Tohru herself projected upon her.

And as a result it also means undermining things like her parallel and relationship to Akito, which idealistically should’ve been slowly built up throughout the last season but because of how rushed season 3 was in the end felt a little flat. (Akito’s character in general had some issues also because of the unequal pacing and rearranged scenes, though admittedly I think this was also an issue present in the original manga.) Kyo’s character and his romance with Tohru is the one element that managed to get out of this mostly unscathed (although Kyo also does suffer a bit from it), but because of what was removed from Tohru’s character it still inevitably impacted them by making their characters as individuals lacking. It’s not like it is a complete failure, mind you; I think the anime at least did a decent job at showing Tohru is Not Okay even at the beginning in season 1 (they certainly did a better job at it than the 2001 one lol) and managed to roughly portray her issues well enough overall, but it is just… lacking in the subtlety and nuances that, to me, makes her character and writing really special and unique.

(This post explains what I’ve tried to say here in a much more eloquent and better way that I ever could, and this all put into perspective what I basically love so much about Tohru and Fruits Basket in general.)

And, you know, it would’ve been sad but comprehensible with any other character, but here we’re talking about the story’s literal protagonist, which is why it is the part of the adaptation that makes me feel the most bitter. Tohru and her story is truly amazing and well-written, the thing I was looking forward to the most with this reboot — and while I do understand the episode restriction and I do believe they still did their best with what they had — her arc still deserved to receive a full proper adaptation, not a kind-of-half one.

So, yes, I am at least glad they’ll adapt Kyoko and Katsuya’s story in OAV, but the fact that it will never be included in the actual main narrative is still actively detrimental to it, and it will never have the same effect that if it had been played out before the Kyoru sheets scene where it should’ve been. (I hope they also won’t cut the fact that their story is narrated by Kyo, because that is also a very important detail for both Kyo and the story, but I have the feeling they will…)

Welp, that was quite a long, messy rambling. Not sure if anyone will actually read all of it but if you did then congrats lol. I feel in the end I’ve been really harsh and negative with the reboot… I do love it a lot! If someone asked me I would wholeheartedly recommend it (though I guess I would still argue to read the manga first if you really want to experience the story in all its nuances). I think they truly did an impressive job — even with season 3, which a lot of its episodes were beautifully done and did make me tear up a few times lol. I’m just sad it couldn’t actually offer a better, more nuanced delivery of the story’s depths and of one of my favorite manga protagonists that means a lot to me. But that’s an adaptation that so many fans wanted for years and I’m happy and grateful it’s here cause Fruits Basket deserved at least that much!

[kiebs]

Under the Stars

Fandom: Powerpuff Girls

Pairing: Reds (Blossom/Brick)

Summary:  There were some things worth skipping out on the scared tradition of Scary Movie Night. Blossom found a meteor shower and alone time with your crush to be the worthiest.

Also over on AO3

Part of a challenge for the prompt “things you said under the stars” which @carriedreamerx, @renaerys, and I started over on AO3 for the month of July! If you would like to participate, please check out the page for the PPG Collection Hub over on AO3! :) 

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Blossom spread the blanket with gusto, making sure it fell perfectly, before turning to her partner in crime with a grin. If ditching their siblings and friends were a crime, which Bubbles would probably yell at her for since in her mind, it was. Scary Movie Night was a sacred tradition after all, but there was a meteor shower tonight and you couldn't see quite as well from their house as you could from the wilderness.

Which was why she had snuck both snacks and Brick out the back door when everyone was engrossed in the most recent movie. Said boy was shaking his head, but dutifully dropped down on the blanket. She followed suit as he placed the snacks between them.

"So why are we in the middle of nowhere?" Brick asked.

The quarter moon gave just enough light to see his confused expression, but she would have been able to find him by the faint glow of his eyes. The faintest glow of red situated in a face half in shadow was rather startling if one didn't know about their night vision. Thankfully, she had long since grown used to it from countless Bubbles-inspired movie nights to bridge the gap between the Powerpuff Girls and the Rowdyruff Boys. They hadn't tended to fight at night before the truce in middle school so she had nothing from before then to compare.

Smiling, Blossom buried herself in the long since pilfered sweatshirt, his sweatshirt, and settled herself. The fabric had lost the scent of whatever soap and cologne he used, but it was big, warm, and perfect for sitting outside in a meadow in the Rockies. Maybe she should return it so it would get that scent back. Maybe.

"There's a meteor shower tonight," she answered, looking towards the cloudless sky. A sea of stars twinkled back at her, clusters and clouds of sparkling celestial bodies that the city lights tended to diminish. "I wanted to see it."

"And we couldn't see them from your house?" he grumbled, but he had lied down and she knew he was all talk. He scoffed at himself. "...right, light pollution."

"And could you imagine Butch and Buttercup's complaining?" She giggled and leaned her cheek against her bicep. Her eyebrows rose. "This is much nicer."

"Oh, I know how to make it nicer."

She had barely a moment before warm fingers wrapped around her wrist and tugged. With a yelp, she ended up halfway on top of him with her knee in the pretzel bag.

"Oof!"

"Brick!" Blossom scolded. She wiggled off him and tossed the pretzels over herself before she settled with their arms touching. "Honestly."

"Aww, you don't want to cuddle?"

"We are here to watch a meteor shower! Not be randy teenagers!"

He snickered. "Randy? Seriously?"

"Oh, hush!" When his snickers didn't cease and instead grew, she scowled. "I will take this blanket and go farther up the mountain, so help me!"

"Oh and how will you when I'm on it?" he teased.

Their shoulders bumped.

She wrinkled her nose at him before scoffing. "I think we both know I am more than capable of throwing you."

"And I say you're too nice for that."

His eyes gleamed under the starlight. A teasing grin sat on his lips.

She felt herself grinning back.

"Wanna bet, Rowdyruff?"

The next moment they were tumbling, rolling through the long grass as they wrestled in a way more akin to their green-eyed siblings. Blossom wasn't really sure how it had started, but she had grabbed his sweatshirt and then he grabbed her wrist and the next moment they had abandoned the blanket. Small creatures scampered out of their way, the sound of tiny claws and squeaks just barely heard over their laughter.

The laughter that stuttered to a stop as the ground pitched and suddenly the gentle slope was much sharper. Their rolling picked up speed. Brick cursed and the next moment they were airborne and floating over the trail of crushed grass and foliage.

Blossom found herself surprisingly fine with being held, even if it was only his arms around her waist. Her cheeks warmed.

The drop definitely wouldn't have killed them, let alone hurt, but they had somehow rolled quite a distance from their blanket and snacks. Nevertheless, the evidence of their tussling, not even close to roughhousing, brought a grin and giggles to her lips.

Poorly hiding a snort, she looked over her shoulder at him. She blinked. "Oh! Your hat!"

Brick frowned before he looked up and patted his head. Another curse hissed between his teeth.

They flew over the path of crushed foliage. It couldn't have gotten very far. They hadn't really been fighting and even if they had been, she and Brick had mastered keeping their respective birth items on them at all times so a little tussle wouldn't have sent it flying.

Before long, a flash of red caught her attention. It hadn't fallen very far from the blanket and she scooped it up with a triumphant crow.

Turning with a grin, she ceremoniously dropped it on her head while maintaining eye contact with Brick. His eyebrows lifted, but she couldn't read the rest of his expression. He had become particularly good at controlling his emotions over the years and masking whatever he was feeling. Usually, a smirk sat on his face when he didn't look like he wanted to gut someone, which wasn't really his fault that his face naturally fell into such a distasteful expression! Buttercup had a similar sour resting face, after all.

This face, though, she couldn't read whatever he was feeling. His cheeks were still flushed from them rolling in the grass and, if the moonlight was true, his ears did look a little darker than usual. She had discovered he blushed with his ears sometime in middle school and she found it to be the cutest thing. However, she would never tell him that because heaven forbid the leader of the Rowdyruff Boys be cute.

He hadn't moved. Just stood there and stared.

She floated closer to him.

"Brick?" she called and he jumped, eyes widening. "Sorry! Are you okay?"

Abruptly, he rubbed his mouth with his arm and glanced away from her. "I-I'm fine. You just, uh, surprised me. D-Didn't you say you'd never touch my, uh, 'stinky, smelly hat'?"

Her arm shot out before she could think and she shoved him. He stumbled back a step, but a grin blazed across his face and overtook whatever had been there before. Her cheeks, however, burned.

"I was nine!" she cried. "And you and your brothers had dived into a sewage monster!"

"Were we nine? I'm pretty sure you said that in middle school."

"Oh! Oh, hush!" she huffed and stomped back over to the blanket. "I've probably said that at least once a year since you were born!"

Lifting her nose in the air, she settled herself in her original position, but now with both her arms and legs crossed. She tilted her head away from him with a huff.

Brick chuckled and then he was right in front of her. She more felt than saw him, the pressure of his power, even at rest, hard to ignore. As was his heat, which filled the air around them pleasantly and staved off the chill of night. A shiver crossed her shoulders unbidden and then she was scowling at his smug face.

Or, trying to scowl, because he was very close, almost improperly close. The kind of close that usually led to Robin and Mike rubbing noses or Bubbles and Boomer resting their foreheads together.

Blossom swallowed. Her tongue suddenly felt too big for her mouth. The heat in her cheeks increased. Her fingers twitched.

His eyes were pools of fire, boring into hers even with his eyelids at half-mast. His head tilted towards her and her breath caught.

"I gotta say, Pinky," and he grinned at her grumble, "you do wear the hat well."

She wet her lips. "Of course, I do. Would you…Would you say I wear it better than you?"

"Don't get ahead of yourself." Their noses bumped. Her heartbeat pounded around them, a rapid rhythm echoed by his. "…hey, remember when my brothers and I first showed up and—"

"You were unstable," she cut him off, but their voices were hushed. "A-And that was…on the cheek…"

"Yeah, kind of a letdown," he mumbled. "Let's…correct that, huh?"

"Then…I should…" she let her voice trail and pressed her lips to his.

Her heart leapt. Her fingers tingled and she dropped them to her sides as she leaned more into him.

He snorted, his lips curling up, but she wasn't going to let him drift away after that, not when her everything buzzed in excitement. Not when she finally got to kiss the boy that she had been crushing on for the last year or three.

Her fingers curled into his sweatshirt, pulling him closer with maybe a little too much force. They crashed together, teeth knocking together, and Blossom found herself on her back, staring wide-eyed at an equally surprised Brick. Her cheeks burned, but that didn't stop her own snort from bubbling out.

His own laugh soon followed.

"Get excited there, starlight?" he teased as he flopped next to her.

"What—? What did you call me?" she asked between her giggles. She turned so she was on her side and plucked at his sleeve. "Tiger?"

His ears darkened. She grinned.

"Don't worry about it," he grumbled and she laughed more.

"No, no! You can't do that!" she chastised, leaning against his arm. "Brick!"

He turned abruptly so that they were facing each other again. Their faces were close, so close that only a finger or two breadth separated their noses.

"You don't like it?" he asked in a sharp tone that anyone else would construe as annoyed. Blossom, however, had spent too much time with him now to be fooled.

She smiled at him and tilted her chin up. He was already leaning towards her again.

"I love it."

Their lips pressed together a second time. Her hands cupped his face and his molded to her waist through his own hoodie. The buzzing exploded through her, filling her with a frothy mess of serotonin and endorphins. Their knees knocked together.

They drifted only an inch to breathe, but it was too hard to resist the other. His lips seared hers, but she couldn't really tell if that was his power or just her hormone-addled brain. She didn't care, honestly, too engrossed in the sensations sparking up and down her spine and bouncing around in her stomach and chest. If he burned her a little, what of it? She might have frosted him on accident in her haste to taste him.

A flash of light streaked behind her closed eyelids.

Dread jolted into her throat and she pulled away from the kiss to look up.

"Oh!" she gasped and then— "Oh!"

Blossom may have stopped, but Brick seemed more than content to shower kisses onto her cheek and lower. She shivered, biting her lip at the kisses trailing her throat. Her fingers knotted in his sweatshirt before, finally, she grabbed his chin and turned his face.

"Oh," he mumbled. Her grip stayed firm when he tried to turn his head. "Pinky. Starlight. Blossom."

She relaxed her hold and then curled her fists against her fluttering heart. "Sorry. I…"

"Nah. I'm sorry," he muttered and leaned their foreheads together. "I, uh, got ahead of myself…"

"I liked it," she mumbled. Her lips curled up at him stroking his nose against hers. "…but I really wanted to see this."

They rested there for a long moment, soaking in each other's presence. Even though she said she had wanted to see this meteor shower, she couldn't tear her eyes away from Brick.

His stayed glued on her, too.

"…which shower is this?" he said at long last.

"The…Perseids," she answered. She swallowed. "I like you."

A grin cut across his face, boyish and charming and too infectious to ignore. She grinned back.

"I didn't take you as the type to kiss random boys, anyway," he teased and bumped their noses together again. "I like you too."

The frothy feeling exploded, her whole body tingling like a shaken can of soda. Giggles spilled from her lips and she covered her burning face. Her body felt light and buoyant from the sheer giddiness flooding it.

"Whoa, hey there." Hands gripped her waist and brought her down to Earth. Her ears burned, but it was hard to stifle the euphoria bursting from her everything. Brick raised an eyebrow down at her. "You float like your sister?"

"Like this?" she asked, peeking through her fingers at him. "Only for you."

Heat burst from him, warming the chilly air like a small sun. His cheeks more resembled his eyes, a very rare feat that she would saver until they were old and gray.

She giggled and then laughed aloud when he tugged her hood over her head.

"Didn't you want to watch your dumb stars?" he growled, though really it was more of a whine.

Still giggling, Blossom rolled until she was on her back. She was in too good of a mood to care about his gruff comment because she knew he didn’t actually mean it like that. His hat sat askew on her head, but she really didn't mind, not when he let her use his arm as a headrest.

Meteors streaked across the sky, glittering trails crossing over constellations and the great sea that was the Milky Way. They definitely wouldn't have gotten this view from her house. She probably wouldn't have gotten that kiss either, considering their siblings and Bubbles' overenthusiasm with her sisters' love lives.

Thinking of her bubbly sister and her reaction when she realized that both Blossom and Brick were missing sent a chill down her spine. Blossom refused, of course, to let that ruin her mood and moment, instead snuggling closer to Brick and grinning at him stiffening. She would worry about Bubbles later.

After all, she was warm and cozy and wanted to enjoy her stolen time to the fullest. What better way than a kiss under the stars and snuggles under meteors? She hummed softly with a content smile.

"What's it like?"

Blossom blinked rapidly and looked up at Brick. He continued to stare at the sky, the meteors reflecting in his eyes, skin lit up by the moon and the thousands of stars above them.

"What's what like?" she asked.

"Space."

She let her eyes return to the sky, but she wasn't seeing the dazzling dance or sea of stars beyond it anymore. Her mind was beyond the moon, miles away on an asteroid between Mars and Jupiter. Mind years in the past, before there was their truce, before Rowdyruff, before even Powerpuff.

"Cold," she mumbled. Certainly, she had gone other times over the years, but that first time would forever be carved into her. She swallowed and looked back at him. "You never went?"

"Never tried." He shrugged one shoulder. "Never had a reason."

His gaze didn't waver from the sky.

Her heart thudded in her chest.

"Let's go."

Brick blinked rapidly and turned to her. "What?"

"To space. Let's go," Blossom said, already on her feet and holding her hand out to him. "Do you trust me?"

"I feel like that's a loaded question," he muttered, but took her hand all the same. They lifted into the air. "Didn't you say it was cold?"

Butterflies flitted in her ribcage, all flustered and excited and wobbly. She grinned at him.

"Not if you're there."

[revisionaryhistory]

Three Days ~ 42

~*~Sebastian~*~

 Today has not been ideal.

Sure, my day started well enough. Emma laid out on the bar while I went down her was a very good way to begin. The sexy texts during her planning period was fun. Ed didn't threaten to kill me while we were texting. I got a text from Chace letting me know he'd be in town the week Emma was in Georgia. And I’m pretty confident talking to Emma tonight will be good. However, since the rest of my day has been shit, I'm a little worried.

 My train back into the city got stopped for who knows what reason. I was late getting to the gym. I wasn't the last to arrive and was in a good mood compared to others. The grocery didn't have the yogurt I wanted. Someone had either shit or vomited in the garbage can outside my building. I got stopped by a couple of fans, which isn't bad, but it was too close to my home. I don't care for that. Kirk didn't answer his phone and I remembered Will was out of town until tomorrow. I texted him asking if he could help me find something.

 All of this was trivial, but it was making me whiny.

 I think I miss her.

 Maybe not miss her, but like the letdown, after you've done something fun. Like the day you get back from vacation or post-concert depression. That's probably more accurate.

 No, I miss her.

 I said yes when the blonde drunk asked if she was my girlfriend. Probably should have checked with her first. I Googled "When is she your girlfriend" mostly because I was bored and whiny. This turned out to be like when you check your symptoms and hours later you still have cancer. There were lists. Thirty-two signs she's your girlfriend and seven she isn’t. You've met her friends. She cooks for you. You do activities together. She's met your family. You look forward to seeing her. All your time isn’t spent in bed. You enjoy talking to her. You can ask anything.

 Emma doesn’t know my friends, but I’m working on it. Also, found an incredible article that said you should have an idea by the seventh or eighth date. I started doing math. If every day is a date then were had eight dates. The next paragraph said, "But really it’s up to the couple."

 I realize this is me overthinking.

 I like the whole logical Google curated list of how to tell, but I think the best idea would be to have the relationship talk. Honestly, I don't have a problem having the relationship conversation. It’s just negotiating parts and deciding on a plot. Stalkers and people with relationship disorders have ruined "the talk" by inserting all sorts of shit into it. Bottom line: don't date other people and I get to call you my girlfriend. I know why I haven't brought up "the relationship." Because I've been too busy enjoying having one. Emma doesn't come across as someone who needs to define and label. It's not as if either of us hasn't been clear. I said it's not a long weekend thing. She said she was falling in love with me. Ok, not exactly those words. I may have added one. Doesn't change the facts or that it’s not just her.

Will texted back and I was going over to his place after the gym tomorrow. He sent something to the group chat with the guys and I laid on the couch going back and forth with them for a long time. Most of us were online, which happened more often than you might think. Anyone who wasn't would catch up later. This worked for us to keep up with each other's lives and tonight it was a fun distraction from my whiny assed mood.

 Group chat got a hasty "gotta run" when FaceTime lit up my screen. I hit connect and smiled. She looked fresh from a shower with wet hair and a clean face. She had on a purple tank top. "Your eyes look very green with that purple tank. Beautiful."

 "Thank you. You look tired."

I huffed out a breath, "Just a blah day. I’m kinda whiny. Seeing your pretty face is helping."

"Happy to help. What happened?" She shifted around and I could tell she was stretching out on her couch.

 I told her the multitude of little things that had gone on today, leaving out my frustration with no one being in town. "Nothing major. As I said, I’m being whiny. Plus, I think I miss you."

"I've noticed a distinct lack of you today as well."

 I laughed, "I like that. How was your day?"

Except for rambunctious children, she’d had a good day. I was glad. She had a good work out, her talk with Ed had been less inquisition and more fun, and volleyball practice had been short and turned into dinner with friends. They had a game Wednesday night and that was it.

 We laid on the couch talking about everything and nothing until I saw her yawn.

 ~*~*~

 I was in a much better mood in the morning. I got to the gym early and had run close to an hour before the others arrived. It was a heavy weight day and I felt strong throughout. When we were done, I was tired but felt good. I called Will on my way over and picked up some food. It was a little early for lunch, but we had some shit to do first. When Will answered the door I started laughing, "I'm so happy to see you."

"You too."

We hugged and I walked inside. Seeing him made me excited to talk about Emma. I'd talked to the guys at the gym, but a different level of friend. Very different. I wanted to tell someone important to me about how important I think she is. Being here is making me feel like I might explode. Why didn't I do this last week? I grabbed him for another hug, "So happy."

He laughed, "What the hell is going on?"

 "Do you have pictures from Kirk’s wedding?"

He scratched his head, "Some." We headed toward his desk where his computer was set up. I grabbed a chair from the dining table, pulling it over. "What are you looking for?"

"Not a what. A who." Will’s laugh confirmed I had a big smile on my face.

Will moved the mouse to wake the screen. "Kirk put everything on a web site. That might be better. I saved the link. My girl looked hot."

I was thinking I bet mine did too. I reached over Will for control of the mouse and clicked through the gallery. I was looking for Emma, but also Eli's long hair. First time I thought I saw her was standing next to Eli. The shot was from behind. If it was her, she had her hair pulled up with the loose ends hanging in ringlets. Her dress was dark green. Another dozen clicks and I found her. The front of her. She held a glass of champagne talking with Kirk and Boone. I took my hand from the mouse and pointed, "Her."

 Will pointed at her and looked at me, "Emma."

I mumbled, "Son of a bitch." I looked at my phone and saw she had about ten minutes left of her planning. I hit FaceTime and put the phone in front of both of us. Will looked confused. "Wait."

 Emma's face popped up and she said, "Hey, Sebastian." She saw it wasn't only me. She looked a little surprised then said, "Will?"

I fell onto the floor and yelled, "Mother fucker."

They were both laughing and I heard Emma's voice, "I haven't heard that from him before."

Will said, "It's a favorite. How did this..."

He was cut off by Alissa coming into the room and standing over me, "What's going on?" I watched her look at the screen, "Oh hey, Emma. Sorry I missed girl’s night last time. Will, are you introducing them?"

"No, I think they took care of it themselves."

They both knew her. I yelled, "Shit", and flopped onto my stomach.

 I heard Emma's voice again, "Is he having a temper tantrum?"

Will said, "No."

Alissa said, "Yes. Look." I was face down, but I assume she was showing Emma me. "Complete temper tantrum." Alissa’s phone rang, "I'll leave you to them. Next girl's night I'm there."

"Absolutely. Bye, Alissa."

 I was never going to get off this floor.

"My kids are due back. Sebastian, I'll talk to you later. Will, good luck with him."

I yelled, "Bye, Em."

Will kicked me, "Get up, dumbass."

 I crawled over to the couch, "How do you know her?"

"Oh no, no." Will joined me on the couch, "How do you know her?"

 I wasn’t arguing. It would be faster this way. "She lives up where mom moved. I got lost looking for chocolate chips at the grocery. She helped me find shit. I asked her out to dinner."

"Of course, you did. The lost in the grocery part." He was chuckling. "I'm surprised you asked out a complete stranger. Did she know you were you?"

 I shook my head, "Not until I introduced myself. Then she laughed."  Will did too. "She'd just come from the gym. Maybe some mascara, hair in a ponytail, and gym clothes. She was beautiful and so kind to this lost crazy guy. Then went spent like nine hours sitting in a restaurant talking."

 "Nine hours?" He shook his head, "Long time."

I glared at him, "Now, how do you know her?"

"I don't remember when I met her. It's been a long time. I'm sure it was a party or maybe one of Boone's gigs. She had a boyfriend. Then she didn't. She moved and hasn't been around as much. She always with Eli and his wife. I can't say I know her. She's always been nice and fun. Never heard anybody bitch about her. I think her boyfriend cheated."

I nodded as Alissa came back into the room. She spoke, "He cheated for months before she found out. Emma lived with Eli and Angie until she moved." She looked at me. "I've been out with her a bunch of times. She's a lot of fun. She’s kind, like you. I can see you two getting along."

"Why didn't either of you introduce us?"

 Alissa looked at Will then me, "She had a boyfriend and then she moved."

 Will added, "Several of us thought she was in a throuple with Eli and Angie."

I rolled my eyes and Alissa smacked the back of his head. "You did not."

"Yes, we did."

"You were wishing is more like it." She turned her attention back to me. "She wasn't."

"I know she wasn't."

 Alissa came to me and kissed my cheek, "I'm excited for both of you."

 Will stood and gave his wife a proper kiss, "I'II see you later, love you."

She smiled at him, "Love you too." She headed for the door, calling back, "Love you too, Seb."

"I love you." I watched the door close before looking back at Will. "I was going to be pissed if I'd done something stupid like saying no to being set up."

"I didn't. Maybe Kirk." I glared at him and he laughed. "Too bad you weren't at the wedding. She looked beautiful."

"Always does."

 "Oh, you've got it bad." I nodded. "Tell me all about her." He held his hand up waved in.

 I felt my smile forming, "I fucking adore her. She... ah..." I couldn't figure out where to start. "She has these green eyes and when she smiles she gets a dimple in her left cheek, just the one. Her hair is halfway down her back and feels like silk. The way she touches is delicate but strong. Sunday for over an hour she stroked my beard, just touching me. I would have let her do that forever, her fingers on my face." I tried to imitate on Will’s arm how she touches: the slow approach that becomes firm then eases away. "Something like that. We went to dinner, a walk by the river, she cooked dinner and we ate on her deck. We made Barbeque chicken sandwiches and this weekend she made biscuits and gravy for breakfast. We went to an art fair and got mom stained glass. I won a fish for her room. Did a haunted house and line dancing. Went to the gym, she helped mom moving stuff, and we had a Romanian dinner. This weekend was a volleyball tournament where her team kicked ass. The best part was she ignored me the whole game. I had to give her a good luck kiss between sets, but that’s it. She was all in the game. I loved that she ignored me."

 Will added, "So maybe she won't take it personally when you ignore her."

"Yes.” Exactly why I loved her ignoring me. “And we've stretched out on the couch reading or watching TV showing each other our favorites. Even danced to some ABBA."

 I’d just done some kind of core dump and I could see Will's head was swimming, "You're been busy. That’s a lot of shit. Why are you just telling me, this has been going on for weeks?"

"No, it hasn’t. I met her last Friday."

 “You’ve spent all your time the last two weekends getting to know her.” He was looking at me funny. “Wow.”

 “Wow?”

 "Yeah, wow.” He made faces moving his lips back and forth "I mean... I want to tell you you've known her eleven days, you need to be careful." He laughed and grabbed my arm. “But I don’t know what you need to be careful of. I don’t think Emma gives a shit who you are. I think she's connected to music somehow. I don't know who, but I remember Kirk talking about some concert and Emma being the one to hook you up if you needed tickets.”

 I knew exactly who the hookup was. I liked he was telling me to be careful. I let out a little laugh, "She doesn't care. She's curious about my job, but not in a weird voyeuristic way. I'm not even sure what movies she's seen."

 Will smiled, "What a weird conversation. How do you start it, even? Hey baby, I was wondering which of my movies you've seen? Maybe rank them in order."

 I cringed, "Might say more about her than me. I needed experience and money. What's her excuse for watching?" We shared a smile and I went on, "I get what you're saying. I appreciate it. I have only known her for eleven days. I’m ok. Hell, I'm a lot better than ok. It's really good. The talking, the sex, the feelings. It's all really good."

 Recognition flared on his face. "I want to tell you to be careful because you're jumping in headfirst and I don't want you, my friend, to get hurt."

 I don't get over relationships easy. Takes me awhile and with the help of friends. I hate seeing my friends hurting too. I put a hand on his shoulder, “Thank you." I shrugged, "At least I’m jumping in the deep end."

 "Right in the deep end."

 We moved to the table to eat and continue talking. I checked his schedule because he and Alissa joining in this weekend sounded fun. I'd told Emma I wanted her to meet my friends and since she, Alissa, and Angie knew each other this seemed natural.

 Emma didn't have practice tonight so we were on FaceTime earlier. She was walking away from the kitchen when she answered, "Done with your tantrum?"

 I held my thumb and forefinger an inch apart, "Just a little one."

 "I can't believe the Will in your stories is Alissa's husband Will. I replayed the memories while I was on the treadmill. Did he give me a good character reference?"

 Her giving me back my words made me warm, "Yeah, said you were kind, fun, and didn't give a shit who I was. Oh, and thinks you're connected to a musician because you got Kirk tickets to something. I didn't tell him who." I didn’t want her to think I would tell her secrets.

 "Thank you, but you can. Not worried about privacy issues around your friends. Pretty sure your address on eBay would make more money than Ed's. Everyone knows where his house is."

 I was startled, "How?"

 "Some guy put the GPS coordinates on Reddit complete with Google satellite pics. Google has since blurred out the images and the realtor scrubbed the listing.”

 "Nope," I was shaking my head, "no, no, no, no, no. What's somebody going to do, ring the bell and say, dude, wanna have a beer? How would anybody think that level of invasion of privacy is acceptable. Right up there with fans commenting hateful shit to my friends. Drives me fucking crazy. Used to. I called them out and now we keep a list and rank them. Still gets to me sometimes."

 Her eyes got big, "I'm going to start a list of the wildly inappropriate sexual comments when you post a picture on Instagram."

 I held up my hands and laughed, "You'll never be able to keep up. We both know I'm down for some dirty talk, but wow, they can make me blush. I barely skim comments anymore. I used to respond to some. I miss that, but the other got out of hand."

 "What do you mean?"

 "Whoever I responded to became a target like my friends."

 "That's crazy."

 "Exactly."

 "We used to celebrate when someone got a follow or response. I'm sure there was jealousy, just not so public. I think the more time with social media the more people have taken advantage of the anonymity to say things they'd never say to someone's face."

 I smirked, "Some say it in person." I’d fielded some pretty filthy propositions over the years.

 "You gotta shoot your shot. I’ve seen it work at festivals. Hell, even a sign in the first rows. I don't think some of them understood what they were getting themselves into. The hotel bar isn't where you get a date."

 "That's a grocery store!” I held my hands up like I’d scored a touchdown. Because I had. “Everyone knows the best place to pick up women is the grocery store baking aisle." At least it was for me.

 "I'd heard, but didn't believe until a couple of weekends ago." We took a few seconds to just took at each other before Emma spoke again, "I talked to Angie today. They're free Saturday. What do you think about inviting Alissa and Will?"

 "I was going to ask you about that. I know they're free."

 "I do too!"

 "Exactly how well do you two know each other?" I gave her a worried look and Emma responded as I wanted, with a smile that grew into a little laugh.

 "Not well at all. We've been out together several times, but we've never talked outside of them. Angie and I thought we could order in, hang out at their place."

 "Sounds good." I didn’t care what we did or where we did it. "Tell me about your day."

[manticxre]

noble blood

In which I explore Eunsoo’s death and why she’d taken that pact in the first place

For those familiar with Secret Forest this takes place between episodes 15-16. 

She’d regained consciousness in her house, sitting up abruptly before noting her inert form below her, still bleeding as her own fluids pooled around her. “Ah!” she yelled, startled by this and then trying to lie down again when the door jiggled furiously by the knob. 

It had been the result of her own hubris that she’d been tailed and then stabbed so many times. The prosecutor hesitated on admitting she was dead, but as she kept herself quiet hearing the footsteps approach, she noted the bespectacled prosecutor she’d worked with stagger back with a horrified expression and his hand over his mouth. Eunsoo sat up again, watching him shakily dial on his phone and waving her hand across him: before noticing he couldn’t see her and retracting her hand, the recognition of her mortality suddenly sinking in. 

“Oh, what an oopsie,” came a voice behind her, and a dark-haired woman with her hair in a bob squatted down beside her body, “That’s going to stain the floorboards. We’d need a lot of bleach for that.” 

“Who--?” Eunsoo yelled, stumbling back into an awkward kneel-sit at the figure beside her, “Where’d you come from?” 

The woman scoffed, adjusting her spectacles. “Don’t be so surprised. I show up whenever I’m needed,” she replied with a chuckle, examining Eunsoo’s body before pressing 2 fingers against her corpse’s neck, “Ooh. Gone. Very gone, that’s the end of the line for you, looks like. How old are you?” 

“Twenty-six,” Eunsoo’s voice was uncertain, stiff even as she crossed her legs, “Who are you? Are you God?” 

“No, not really,” the woman wrinkled her nose, “My mortal name was Chohee, once. Now I’m just ‘the imp’, whichever you want to call me.” 

Eunsoo gave a slight nod. “Miss Chohee, then,” she managed, somewhat awkwardly, “What...what happens now? Am I going to Hell? Are you...are you...I can’t. I have so much to do...I can’t go now...” 

Her eyes watered up immediately thinking of her parents, who were still waiting at home and had nary a clue on what had just befell her. “Dad...mum...I’m sorry...” she began to cry now, the implications of her death finally sinking in, “Oh no...I messed up so terribly, didn’t I? I should’ve listened to Prosecutor Hwang...” She wiped her tears with the balls of her palms, watching them fade into nothing as they hit the ground. “I’m such a bad prosecutor...” 

Chohee offered Eunsoo her hand. “Let’s leave this place first. It’ll only be a moment until somebody finds your body, so let me tell you what I’m actually here for,” she replied, completely apathetic to the sobbing woman’s plight, “I can give you an opportunity to return. To do what you have to do...if you listen to me carefully and what comes next.” 

---

They’d spent a few hours walking around Eunsoo’s house block, picking up offerings from the roadside along the way. In her mind, Chohee’s offer made sense. It was her one shot at coming back to life and doing something right for once, but to “give up something that made her human”...it seemed so vague that it meant she couldn’t quite agree just yet. 

As they paused at the funeral home, Chohee pointed it out. “Let’s visit,” she proposed, striding over without Eunsoo following, “We could probably eat something else. They’ve got more diverse choices available.” 

Eunsoo followed miserably at this. “We shouldn’t steal from the dead,” she grumbled, before belatedly realising that she too was a dead woman walking, “Well...other dead people anyway.” 

Chohee tilted her head over, pulling Eunsoo towards her now. At this, Eunsoo stared, first in annoyance and then in guilt as she noticed the familiar man hunched over his cane and standing next to the flower-dotted coffin with her face displayed in the middle. 

“Wait. Hasn’t it been only a few hours?” Eunsoo was startled, unable to tear her eyes away from the scene before her, “What...how...” 

“A few hours is a few days for the living. Time moves much faster when you’re dead,” Chohee stretched, watching the grieving old woman in the background, “You’d get used to it after a while, since you’re going to be a lingering spirit at this rate.” 

The old woman shook her head, then lowered it as she continued to sit on the straw mat. “Our poor Eunsoo-sshi,” she managed a hoarse mutter, silent tears rolling down her sallow cheeks, “We should have never agreed to let her leave if we knew this would happen to her.” 

“It’s all my fault,” the old man’s voice rang out now, deep and commandeering (just as Eunsoo remembered it), “Eunsoo-sshi...she should’ve never taken on my burden like this. It’s all my fault...appa is sorry.” Eunsoo stared in shock now as the old man averted his eyes, shaking like a leaf in the breeze: she’d never seen her father show weakness like this. 

Eunsoo could only watch numbly as people streamed in and out, familiar and unfamiliar faces alike that came to pay their respects. There were people whom she’d never met, her father’s friends most likely, and friends she’d fallen out of contact with who no doubt wanted to see her one last time. It then struck her how lonely her existence had been: friendless to the end, isolated and misunderstood even in her final moments. 

She watched now as the familiar prosecutor paid his respects, his face remaining the same pensive look from how she remembered him. Prosecutor Hwang Shimok bowed to his teacher, and his teacher’s wife, and Eunsoo swore she saw a flicker of torment in his gaze compared to his usual flashes of anger. 

A bustle soon arrived, and Chohee physically held Eunsoo’s arm as she strained against it seeing Lee Changjoon of all people arrive, no doubt forgetting herself as he bowed towards the picture and then to her father. 

“How dare you show your face,” snarled Young Iljae, his frail body unable to convey his rage about the matter, “Leave. Leave!” Eunsoo watched him lift his cane, no doubt to hit Changjoon furiously and make him leave, but watched Prosecutor Seo Dongjae bodily shield the older man as his cane struck the other on the back heavily. 

“Appa, your blood pressure...” Eunsoo blubbered at the chaos that surrounded her own death, her voice frantic as she stumbled to a seat once more, “Please...I didn’t want this either...” Chohee remained silent throughout, watching the younger man abruptly whip his head around. 

Hwang Shimok raised his voice. 

Tears had sprung up Eunsoo’s eyes again as the dam of hurt broke once again at his accusation: his claim of everyone “just watching”. It twisted in her gut, rage and guilt all coming up at once with his every word. If she still had a physical body, she knew that she would’ve been paralysed by her own emotions, once again hapless in a world that sought to forget her existence. 

The rest of the proceedings went on without fanfare, and when her body was finally cremated, Eunsoo couldn’t cry anymore. Her tears had ran dry at everything she’d lost, the crushing realisation of how much of an utter letdown she was gnawing at every fiber of her being. 

All she wanted was not to feel anything anymore. She desperately craved for the anxiety and guilt to leave her, and for a chance...a chance to fix things. All she needed to do was to indict Lee Changjoon and set her father free. 

Chohee had been around her the entire time, finally offering her a hand. “So? Have you decided?” she asked, “You have one shot at this. Accept my trial, and put something that makes you fundamentally human at stake. Pass it, and return completely as human...while ascending to godhood. I think this is perfectly reasonable, if you ask me. A give-and-take, really.” 

“A...a trial?” Eunsoo stared, the exhaustion clouding her mind at the whirlwind of recent events, “I...” The need to indict Lee Changjoon and find her murderer seemed to be at the forefront of her mind, and she found herself unconsciously reaching for Chohee’s hand. 

“I accept,” she found herself saying before her rational mind caught up to her, and Chohee smiled- first genuinely, and then with large, sharp shark-like teeth. 

“Of course you accept,” Chohee chuckled, her grip tightening over Eunsoo as she pulled the other spirit close to her violently: Eunsoo let out a whimper as she noticed her hands begin to turn inky black at her touch, “They always accept.” 

The next moment, Eunsoo had woken up in her vacated mansion, her wounds closed up and tangible once more. She felt nothing, not even a sense of euphoria, though. Eunsoo’s blank gaze turned to the window, and she shuffled towards them to open it. 

Nothing mattered. On the forefront of her mind had been the clause of her trial: murder those who’d landed her in this state. 

[littlepurinsesu]

V Watches MagiReco - Episode 8 Review

*Spoilers for Magia Record Anime Episode 8*

Okay, I was not expecting to enjoy this week’s episode as much as I did! :O From the anime’s pattern so far, I was fully expecting a slower episode with less action as they introduced the next main character (in this case Sana), but this episode had a lot of deviations from the game that did a lot of good, in my opinion!

Lots of positive things to say again for this review ^0^ And no, it’s not just because of that Kanagi “cameo” (even though there WILL be at least one paragraph of me screaming about that LOL you have been warned) xD

I think the slower pace of this episode gave us a really good chance to see how the main characters have adjusted and truly integrated themselves into their new lives. We see Iroha starting at her new school, Felicia starting her part-time job at Banbanzai, Tsuruno visiting to deliver bento boxes for Iroha and the two going to school together... so many small details that seem unimportant to the plot but really give us a good picture of the characters’ new lives and relationships. And that’s really important stuff. They seem to have taken a longer time and really drew out the introduction of this new Rumour rather than immediately rushing into the next one, and this gives the main cast some room to breathe and just be themselves, and also gives the audience a sense of some time having passed as well.

It was also really nice to see Rena back! Seems strange to me that Momoko wasn’t with her, but I was starting to worry that Momoko’s team would be forgotten and pushed to the background, so I was quite pleased to see them still popping up every now and then. The episode also gave us some quality Iroha and Rena bonding, which is kind of bittersweet when you consider that both of them either don’t have friends or always find themselves somehow isolated from the crowd. Rena is still a prickly little tsundere, but seeing her waiting for Iroha and giving her more information and talking with her really put a smile on my face :) I really want Rena and Iroha to be able to make more friends, and it’s super cute when the new friends are none other than each other ^^

Also, the thing about Kaede is really interesting. I’m sure this is an anime-original plot point, but I’m wondering how this is going to tie in with Sana’s arc, or any other part of the Main Story. Rena confirms that Kaede hasn’t actually disappeared; she still comes to school, but rushes home immediately after and doesn’t talk or reply to anyone. We also see her at home with all her plants at the beginning (cute!). I’m guessing she’s still traumatised from that Doppel experience and hasn’t figured out what’s going on, so is too afraid of getting close to her friends in fear of hurting them? Whatever they’re planning, I hope it has some relevance to that post-credits scene in episode 5 so we get some closure to what actually happened and the scene won’t seem so “cool but random” lmao.

Alright imma get this out of the way. (Feel free to skip this paragraph if you’re not interested in hearing me gush about my queen.) K A N A G I I Z U M I. If anyone reading this has been following my past MagiReco posts or knows anything about me at all, you’ll know that I’m absolute trash for Kanagi Izumi xD My best girl may be Iroha, but Kanagi is a character I really admire, respect, and adore. Anyway, I saw the official MagiReco Twitter account post about a Kanagi rate-up banner and was hella confused but excited because my queen was not supposed to appear until... at least until Tsuruno is captured by the Magius and Felicia and Sana have returned. So I guess it makes sense that it was in the form of a “mysterious person on the phone” rather than an actual debut, but gosh as soon as I heard her voice I almost lost it AHHHHHHHHHH （♥>ｏ<♥） This eases any fears I had of her being cut from the anime (I would have hunted down the studio if they made that decision LOL); not only is she not gonna be cut, but they gave her a surprise, mysterious, early introduction, too?!?!? YASSSSS (ᗒᗨᗕ)

Yachiyo’s phonecall with Kanagi is a surprising change to make because Kanagi’s presence is really “not very relevant” at this point, but I guess they really wanted to show how big the Wings of Magius' influence is. As Kanagi says, they’ve taken most of the girls from the East by now. I’m wondering what anime-onlys would feel about this scene, since they probably have no idea who Yachiyo is talking to. If anything, it would probably add to the mystery surrounding Yachiyo (which I hope the anime goes into soon). I was a little conflicted at first because I really wanted Yachiyo’s first contact with Kanagi to seem like a “we haven’t spoken in ages but desperate times call for desperate measures” kind of thing, because with this scene, the next time they "openly” contact her won’t have that same impact. But then the more I think about it, the more I think this might actually be for the better. Kanagi’s introduction into the cast won’t feel like such a “random” thing (like, “oh wait, who are you and since when were you so important?”); Yachiyo has been in some degree of contact with her and she was “there" all along. So yeah, a good change in retrospect, and I’m never gonna say no to seeing (or hearing) more of Kanagi so I’m all for this change either way LOL

Okay enough rambling about Kanagi (OTL I’m so sorry). Felicia working at Banbanzai is just SO CUTE!!! She’s like a cute little gangster omg those glares and “HUHHH?!?!?” (I’d be scared too, Iroha) xD I think the character that’s gotten the best portrayal in the anime so far really is Felicia. And also the reveal that the reason for her getting into a fight and being sent to the police station was because she was defending Yachiyo and Iroha? CUTEEE OMG I LOVE THIS CHILD!!! She also has a really good sense of fashion hehe :D

The little snippet in there with Ui, Touka, and Nemu may seem a little out of place, but I was actually quite relieved to see them. Every week the anime is throwing new characters at its viewers, so I was worried that anime-only viewers wouldn’t even remember who Touka and Nemu are when they’re eventually revealed to be the Magius. I think it’s good to keep drilling them into viewers’ minds so as not to lose that “OMGGG” factor when they make their proper debut. Also it’s adorable how Ui throws teddy bears in their faces to stop them from arguing LOLLL

The radio show was a really good way to not only sneak in tiny “cameos” of other girls (I think it was Rika and Kanoko this week), but also give a nice picture of life in Kamihama. There’s a sense that Iroha really is a part of this city now, and it’s such a nice feeling to see everything “falling into place;” we’re no longer in those inconsistent and uncertain “introductory” episodes anymore, even though we still have one more major character to bring in. And the laughter coming from the phone is super creepy--cute, but in a really creepy way. All the illustrations for when they were talking about the Rumours this week were also really, really well-done. I have nothing much to say about them except “sasuga Inucurry” haha xD

I really was expecting Madoka and Homura to appear this week, but I guess we may have to wait a little bit more for that >_< BUT Tsukuyo did appear again in her “civilian” form! Iroha chasing her into that building was also a really nice change the anime made; some things really need to be animated for full impact, and I’m loving these minor changes and how much more they add to the characters and atmosphere! Anyway, Tsukuyo seems a lot more menacing here compared to her dine-and-dash incident in the game lmaooo, and I wasn’t expecting a Witch battle!

Speaking of Witch battle, I think this might be one of my main letdowns with this episode: I just really want to see Iroha fight more. I appreciate that she’s proactive in seeking answers and brave enough to jump into these situations despite knowing that she’s weak, but she hasn’t really contributed much in battles so far except a few Connects and using her Doppel. I want to see my girl Iroha go all-out and kick ass with her arrows!!! But it was nice to see the rest of Team Mikazuki showing up so quickly; there’s a real sense of them being an actual team now, and they’ve always got each other’s backs! It would have been nice if the rest of the team got to fight as well rather than Yachiyo taking all the spotlight, but at least Yachiyo was super cool haha (as usual). But the battle clearly isn’t the point of this episode, so I won’t pick on it too much :)

By the way, that Mami appearance was super random. When I saw the ribbons and flowers, I almost thought she was going to appear as Holy Mami for a second. At least we know she hasn’t lost her head just yet ;) The appearance was random, but from what they offered, at least we know that Mami is still either in Kamihama or coming to Kamihama regularly to investigate, and while she was suspicious of Iroha in the past, she went out of her way to help her this time, which was a nice touch.

Anyway, now that Iroha has finally replied to the mysterious messages, we might really get to meet Sana (and Ai-chan) next time! Maybe Madoka and Homura, too! But yeah, this episode is a prime example of one where not much seems to happen, but a lot actually does happen and there’s plenty to pull apart and discuss when you really think back on it. Clearly Kanagi took half my attention and feels this week, but I’m definitely having lots of warm and fuzzies seeing Team Mikazuki doing normal, everyday things together. Seeing Felicia added to the OP was expected but still a treat (the way she bobs around on the spot is SO CUTE!), and I can’t wait for the family to finally be fully formed!

(Also, Yachiyo looks gorgeous in anything she wears, seriously.)

[wearevillaneve]

Killing Eve S3, E1: “Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey” is a big, flashing yellow light.

The wait is over!  Last night we got our first taste of sinful Eve and sinful Villanelle in over a year and after the shitstorm that was their final encounter in Rome, we were were all left wondering what comes next for our malevolent Murder Wives. The answer is “Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey” which some KE stans are taking as a caution to chill, sit back and let the show continue being the slowest of slow burns it has been in its 16 previous episodes.    Sorry.  I just can’t.  This episode was choppy erratic and some parts weren't put together well. The wedding itself was a huge letdown.  There was like NO chemistry between Villanelle and her bride. Like zero.   No kissing, no hand-holding, no excitement.   Were you thirsting for V to lip lock her lady love?  Me too, but the Killing Eve writers seemingly said, “HA!  YOU GET NOTHING!” Villanelle just seemed like she was sleepwalking through her so-called “special day.”    

Then Dasha shows up, Villanelle immediately attacks her and the wedding ends up in an all-out brawl with the two Russian killers, nursing shared bloody noses as their car with a “Just Married” sign on the back and tin cans tied to streamers rattle and clatter.  

It didn’t work.  Any of it.  What the fuck happened to those promises that Villanelle was very much “loved up” with her Spanish senorita?   I didn’t see anything remotely resembling affection between V and her boo.   Maybe in another episode we’ll learn more, but conceivably that could be the last we see of The Bride of Villanelle. 

The high points of this muddled premier was Villanelle’s sloppy kill of a shop owner and Kenny taking a tumble.   Off a building.  Insert your preferred South Park joke here.  I’m sure Sean Delaney’s heard them all by now. 

It would really make Carolyn a monster if she were to off her own son, but would I be totally surprised if she did? Nope.

Meanwhile, Eve be Evein’.  Working a shit job, visiting her PTVD (Post-Traumatic Villanelle Disorder) suffering hubby in the convalescent home and protesting way too much how much she’s totally done with her old life...right up until she’s not. Drunk texting Kenny was cute, and they had a sweet moment just sitting there and talking. I’m going to miss Kenny. He was the only character (Niko’s not a character. He’s a foil) whose moral compass wasn’t hopelessly damaged or totally broken. Sandra did so much with so little to work with while Jodie’s Villanelle seemed slightly bored by the whole proceedings. I know the feeling.

It's not an unfair observation to note that while Phoebe Waller Bridge thought it was a good move to empower other women by changing out the showrunner/head writer each season it does cost KE the continuity that other shows have.  Vulture writer Jen Cheney explained how these substitutions may explain Killing Eve’s maddening inconsistency. And those qualities sprang from series creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who also acted as lead wrier in season one. Though she’s still an executive producer, Waller-Bridge has passed that baton to a different woman each season. Last season it was her friend, actress (Call the Midwife, The Crown), writer, and now director (Promising Young Woman) Emerald Fennell. In season three, it’s Suzanne Heathcote, a British playwright who previously worked on Fear the Walking Dead. It’s wonderful that different women are getting this opportunity and being encouraged to pursue their own visions. But inevitably, it leads to a show that, season to season, lacks consistency and has lost the idiosyncrasy that originally defined it.

Killing Eve is empowering women in front and behind the camera and that’s good.  But none of them have topped Waller Bridge’s opening act and that’s bad.  Case in point: Better Call Saul which just had maybe their best episode last week and was directed by creator Vince Gilligan and his number two, Peter Gould. I think it helps to have an overarching vision and creative continuity for a show to truly grow and flourish. I'm all for putting women in positions formerly occupied by men, but I can see why some critics and fans feel Killing Eve may have reached the end of its shelf life with the whole "cat-and-mouse/will-they-or-won't-they" dynamic. There's still space to explore, but not a whole lot. At some point they have to move the story along. We still don't know much more about The Twelve in S3 than we did in S1, as we learned nothing about them in S2. KE is a compressed show due to its limited number of episodes. Sometimes in erratic episodes like the S3 opener where the wedding turns into a brawl it doesn't entirely work. Nor would I place too much faith in the suggestion by some fans that PWB is overseeing the entire workings of the show behind the scenes. Phoebe doesn't seem the type to be looking over the shoulder of her successors and telling them, "Do this. Don't do that." Being a showrunner means just that: You Run the Show. The six-month time jump was an error.   It robbed us of Eve’s recovery and how Villanelle moved on and into another relationship.  If you drop the entire opening sequence of Dasha’s origin story and instead focus on how Eve survived her last encounter with Villanelle or show where she went after she shot her obsession down in cold blood.

The bloom is off the KE rose.  You’re only news for a short time and then you’re old news with a past track record that is ripe for to be reviewed and compared.  That may not be fair to the show, but it is fair for critics and audiences to compare what Killing Eve is to what it was and conclude while it’s better than 99 percent of the competition,  it’s just not as good as it once was.

 If we had been given that scene perhaps we might have a better perspective why Eve is so pathetic and why Villanelle is trying to put on a happy face when she’s anything but. I mean she treated her supposed bride like one of her dead exe’s.  

That would have been enough to up the premier to a “B.”   But we didn’t get that scene so I’m dropping the grade down.  

Oh, and fuck you Niko. Mr. Nice Guy and a permanently weak, wimpy, wuss of a character.  Every time you show up with your droopy mustache I have to resist the urge to projectile vomit.  It should have been your pitiful ass one to take The Big Drop instead of Eve’s last link to normalcy and possibly, sanity. 

Rest In Power, Kenny Stowton.   You met someone all right, but it turned out to be the Grim Reaper.   Plus, you probably died a virgin. You deserved better, but then so did we.  

FINAL GRADE:  B-

[kaitoujokerscans]

Showdown in the Dark Night! Joker vs Shadow CH2

<2>The Girl with Mysterious Powers

Let's wind time back a little...

Sometime before Shadow fought against the police, another disturbance occurred outside the manor.

"Ice Shot!" shouted a boy, and a bluish-white beam shot from his gun. The beam instantly froze the surrounding grass and stopped the pursuing police in their tracks. The boy watched the scene with satisfaction, letting a carefree smile form on his face. His long and straight blue hair fluttered in the night wind. A long white coat and violet scarf caught the breeze in a similar fashion. The bristled yellow crest of hair above his handsome face completed the look. It was Phantom Thief Spade...!

"Well, how's it going on your end?" Turning around, there was a white shadow fighting the police at a short distance away.

The sharp sound of clanging metal rang out, followed by thuds of men clubbed with the hilt of a sword falling to the ground. In the thick of it was a white, feminine silhouette swinging a sword as if she were dancing. Eventually, once there were no officers left standing around her, the girl lowered her weapon and turned to Spade. "No problem. They were a letdown."

Her long blonde hair was tied into high twintails, and she was cloaked in a white and pink coat. Her gleaming eyes held a diamond-shaped light. Despite her winsome appearance, she effortlessly wielded a large sword in her right hand, soon sheathing it at her hip. It was Phantom Thief Queen...!

"Anyway, you took more time than me. Is it just me, or is your Shot not as accurate as usual?"

"You think so? I didn't think I had any problem... Let's check the map." Spade changed the subject and took out his phone. "Let's see..." A map of the manor showed on the handheld screen.

Fields of all sizes, large and small, were arranged around the Gardens, and each was connected by an intricately schemed path. It was difficult to grasp the entire layout without a map. There was a red blinking dot on it. Spade and Queen were currently in the furthest region of the garden. They were still far from the manor.

"That's pretty distant. This looks like it'll be a harder job than anticipated..."

"Geez, requests from Grandpa are really demanding." As Queen complained, Spade took a breath and looked up into the dark sky. Yes, it was three days ago that Spade had been called by Queen.

§§§

Spade, Queen, and Joker all had the same master in phantom thievery. Once called "The Silver Magician", he trekked from one city to another and stole treasures from around the world: the legendary great thief, Silver Heart. Each of them had their own circumstances for being taken in by Silver Heart, and they trained under him to learn the fundamentals of phantom thievery. He was like a parent to the three of them, and not only had he taught them techniques for thievery, he also taught them life skills. Even after they had learned enough of the trade from him, Queen still lived with Silver Heart, and Joker and Spade visited on occasion to check up on their master. None of them could very well refuse a request from the master.

When Spade arrived at the hideout at the top of the hill, the first thing out of Queen's mouth was "It's actually quite a problem..."

"It really is," continued Queen's partner, the phantom thief dog Roko. Roko was a super dog bred through genetic research and could both speak and understand human language. He also lived in Silver Heart's hideout along with Queen.

"You know how Joker and Shadow sent out notices?"

"Yeah, for the Komachi's Gilded Chrysanthemum housed at the Cape Gardens, correct? I didn't think Joker would be interested in it, but if Shadow's going after the same thing, that would explain it. The two are probably fighting like kids over it." Spade smiled wearily.

Spade usually had his own juvenile conflicts with Joker too, but Queen avoided mentioning it. "Well, about that... apparently Grandpa has his eye on Komachi's Gilded Chrysanthemum too."

"What?" Spade asked.

A door banged open from further inside. "Spaaaaade...... pleaaaaaaase..." came a miserable moan from their master, Silver Heart, who had just entered the room.

He wore a snowy white double-breasted suit, completed with a white silk hat and white cape. Well-polished gold buttons and pink cuffs poking out from under the sleeves accented the look. He sported an impressive silvery beard, and an antique monocle shone over his left eye. It was the fabulous, elegant figure of phantom thief Silver Heart!

...That was the intent, at least, but the reality was a little different.

While his attire was flawless, the Silver Magician was lying down with his stomach pressed against a swiveling stool, using his hands and knees to slowly propel the wobbly wheels.

Spade sighed at the sight. "Master, your back...?"

Silver Heart had a chronic trick back. "Ughh... that's it. I picked up something while cleaning and it was lighter than I thought. That's when I cracked it terribly."

"Argh, this is because you tried cleaning on your own. If you had just asked, I'd have had Roko help."

"What, just me again?" whined Roko. Queen was no good at any household chores.

"Master, why do you want Komachi's Gilded Chrysanthemum?"

"Well, you see..." Silver Heart hesitated and glanced at Queen.

Queen sighed and spoke for him. "He promised the queen he'd give her Komachi's Gilded Chrysanthemum."

"You mean the queen of that country on the cliffs? Master's girlfriend, that one?"

"That's right. He wanted to show off and told her 'I'll bring you a flower hairpin beautiful enough for you.'"

"That makes sense."

"So he wants me to go steal it in his place. Grandpa's in this state, after all."

"Sorry..." Silver Heart let out a pitiful groan, nodding his head.

"Hm, a treasure that both Joker and Shadow are after, huh..." Spade folded his arms and thought. "Sounds fun, let's go."

"Kyo kyo." Spade's assistant Dark Eye, who had been listening off to the side, cackled in surprise. Tall and slim, Dark Eye leaned their bandage-wrapped face into Spade's ear. "But Spade-sama, you just finished a major job. If you don't rest your body for the next three days, your temperature will..."

"It's all right, Dark Eye. I'll be working with Queen this time. Besides, it's a chance to show up Joker and Shadow." Spade grinned. It was a smile just as childish as Joker and Shadow were.

§§§

However...

Spade rubbed his eyes as he ran through the garden. To tell the truth, his condition had gotten worse since last night. He had lied about it up to this point, but the exhaustion was building up. Queen had seen through him just earlier. I hope I can hold out to the end...

The pair was now past the gardens and approaching the manor. Just then, a call came through on his phone. "You've managed to avoid security so far, but that'll be difficult further along." It was Roko's voice. Roko and Dark Eye were on standby in Spade's airship and handling logistical support.

"Looks like it. How about the security cameras, Dark Eye?"

"Kyo kyo, I've successfully hacked into them."

"Thank you. Keep directing us, please."

"Kyokyo, please wait. Your body..." Dark Eye's worried voice came from the phone.

"It's fine."

"Kyokyo, but Spade-sama, your breath was erratic before you went out. Please do not stress..."

"Enough already, keep watching the cameras."

"Kyokyo... very well."

"I'm counting on you." Spade said brusquely and took a breath. Really, what a worrywart. Of course, he knew Dark Eye was looking out for him. Even so, Spade didn't want to be handled with kid gloves. I'm all right... "Okay Queen, let's go." But when he looked up, Queen was concealing herself against a hedge and peering into the garden. "What's up?" He approached and asked, only to be shushed and told to crouch down by Queen with her finger against her mouth. "Take a look at that."

Spade stooped down besides Queen and looked to where she was watching. There was an agitated silhouette at the edge of a large pond with fountain. "Isn't that..."

A pretty young girl's face bobbed out of a thicket. Her pink hair was tied into two buns, and she wore a red-violet jumper skirt over a purple blouse, a white petticoat sticking out from underneath. A yellow ribbon hung at the neck of her blouse, and the expression on her face as she glanced around the area suggested she was still unworldly. The girl's name was Rose. She was Shadow's younger twin sister. She always worked with Shadow, but she seemed to be alone today. Rose bit her lip slightly and focused her sights on the manor.

"What's up with Rose...?" mused Queen. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, the deafening sound of an explosion followed by the sound of something crumbling apart came from the manor.

"...!" Rose jumped out of the thicket in surprise. She apparently tripped a security sensor when she did. The wee-oo of sirens filled the area, and searchlights zeroed in on Rose at once. The nearby officers on patrol ran to the scene. Leading them were Ginko and Momo.

"Hold it right there, Shadow! Wait, Joker... it's not him either!?"

"A girl...!?"

The pair was perplexed by Rose's appearance. While Shadow had made a name for himself as a phantom thief, Rose was apparently still a no-name.

Then Oniyama's voice came over the radio. "Ginko-chan, Momo-chan, so arrest all suspicious persons around the manor!"

"Roger, Inspector!" Ginko responded and looked towards Rose again.

Meanwhile, still hidden against the hedge, Spade asked. "What shall we do? Do we help?" But Queen wordlessly shook her head. It was as if she was saying "no need". The reason was quickly gleaned.

"You're under arrest!"

"Get her!"

At their order, the police immediately charged toward Rose. Beside Ginko, Momo leapt high into the air. Momo was a former SAT (special assault team) member and an expert in combat martial arts. The average police officer was nothing compared to her. Powerful Momo brandished a tonfa-like weapon and closed in on Rose! But just as Rose seemed to be shaking her head to and fro with an expression of futility, she calmly raised her right hand towards the officers and abruptly opened her eyes. Grrrrip...! The air trembled with a heavy shockwave, reaching all the way to Spade and Queen some distance away. The next moment, Momo and the other officers around Rose were stopped in their tracks.

This was Rose's ability. By concentrating and channeling the power from her body into her hand, she could stop a target from moving. Spade and Queen had both experienced it before. It was like being trapped in a hunk of iron, unable to move a finger. Though the mind was clear, the body was paralyzed stiff. Momo and Ginko had no idea of what happened, and despite being frozen, their confusion was obvious. Rose kept focusing her power and was about to leave the scene, but then-- "Who's that out there!"

Glancing up at the veranda of the third floor, there was Hayami gazing down towards them. "Is that... Hayami Kyoutarou?" Spade asked.

He heard Rose, who had looked up at the same time, whisper his name as well. "Hayami-san..." Right after, the energy active on Momo and the rest wore off. Rose had lost concentration.

"Hrm? Aren't ya...?" Hayami seemed to have noticed her as well, but the area was too dark to see any faces.

The police took the opportunity and charged at Rose. "Catch her!" Momo bounded into the air and plunged toward Rose, who was standing absentmindedly. Her tonfa swung down. But before the tonfa could connect, it was halted with a clang. "Wha!?"

"Ghh...!" Queen had cut in between the two of them. She grit her teeth with effort and pushed back Momo's tonfa.

Though Momo pressed forward, the tonfa wouldn't go any further. "Kghhgh... you're here, Phantom Thief Queen!"

"You're not bad if my sword can't cut through." Queen and Momo put their weight into their weapons and were locked sword-to-tonfa. Their strength was equal, and Queen was unable to step away. "Spade!"

"Yes, I know!" Spade made a fabulous jump and landed on the fountain spout. The water sprinkled out around the area. "Ice Shot!" Spade shot his cooling beam at the shower, freezing the spray and making icy precipitation rain down on Ginko, Momo, and the other officers.

"Eeyah!"

"Owowow!"

While the officers flailed, Spade blew up a large bubble of gum above him and grabbed hold of Rose. The gum is called "Balloon Gum", and is one of the phantom thief tools employed by Joker, Spade, and Queen. By chewing the gum and blowing into it, the gum’s ingredients chemically react to form a gas lighter than air. If held above one's head, it can lift up a certain amount of weight off the ground, much like an ad balloon.

"Eek!" Rose let out a low squeak as Spade continued to rise. Queen followed suit and took into the air.

"Hold it! Spade, Queen!"

"Another time, my fellows! Adios!" Once he finished speaking, he disappeared from sight.

"W- he's gone...!?" The officers searched around in confusion, but the only thing left was the darkness of night.

[arcaneranger]

Final Thoughts - Summer 2019

Hey, look who finished the season perfectly on time, even if he did so by dropping a bunch of stuff last minute! (Technically, as of writing, I haven’t finished Re:Stage Dream Days, but you can rest assured that it’s bad.)

I thought I was going to do a first impressions rundown video for the entire season at once, since my impression posts don’t tend to get a lot of engagement anyway, but since I didn’t end up going through with it, I’ll summarize my point - summer started strong, and even here at the end, I can easily say it’s the best season thus far in what’s largely been a letdown year for seasonal anime (and a god damn renaissance for long shows, thanks to My Hero Academia, so if I seem down on a season that had Dororo, or Vinland Saga, or Fruits Basket, remember that I exclude those shows from my considerations until the end of the year).

This season saw several high-profile continuations like A Certain Scientific Accelerator, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls In a Dungeon II, and Symphogear XV, but also new works by creators like Mari Okada, and anticipated adaptations of Astra: Lost in Space and Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest, and in the end, well...a lot of those were mixed bags at best, but the biggest drawback I will remember Summer 2019 for is that it was drowning in bad isekai shows. The aforementioned Arifureta, the basically-counts Danmachi, and also Isekai Cheat Magician, Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks, The Lost Ones, Demon Lord Retry!...it just never ended, and that’s not even counting If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord. 

Speaking of all that stuff, let’s get right into it, yeah?

28 shows were simulcast this season, and of those, I…

Skipped 4:

Yami Shibai 7, Starmyu Season 3, A Certain Scientific Accelerator, and Lord El-Melloi II Case Files: Rail Zeppelin Grace Note were all skipped because I have not watched the previous series.

Dropped 15:

Worst of the Season: If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord!

I dropped this after one episode because I found the aesthetic and tone to be aggressively boring and I found even the cute daugheroo character to be utterly generic in execution...and then later found out oh boy was I right to drop it, based on how many people compared it to the Bunny Drop manga that we don’t talk about. *shudders*

Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest

Wins the “biggest tryhard” award for being just the most straightforward an SAO award gets, right up to being grimdark for dumb reasons. The first episode alone had inconsistent animation, and that just did not bode well for the future...and the plot instantly reminded me of Slime, which soured on me over time. I let this one go sour after one shot.

Demon Lord, Retry!

The blandest of beige this season, Demon Lord had neither the story nor the production values to reel me in or convince me it was anything but the Overlord wannabe it so clearly was.

Isekai Cheat Magician

This show was a pretty transparent attempt to have an isekai story with a childhood friend romance plot, and while I’m fine with one and a half of those things, it couldn’t execute them in any decent way by the end of the first episode, and just wound up being largely boring.

Wasteful Days of High School Girls

Speaking of boring, what if Nichijou wasn’t funny? You’d get something like this.

Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?

So the tone this one ultimately ended up having was pretty much exactly what I expected after the premiere - it leaned too hard on jokes that weren’t as funny as it thought they were, and too hard on the dumb hentai mom trope, and neither of those things interested me in the slightest. Pretty okay with having left this off the watchlist.

The Ones Within

I have stated multiple times in the last few weeks that Symphogear is great because it can convince you that it’s a work of genius. The Ones Within has, unfortunately, convinced itself that it’s deep social commentary of some kind, rather than a bargain-bin Danganronpa with no real thought put into it.

Are You Lost?

I’m amazed that we got another Eromanga Sensei this season and it flew entirely under the radar. For God’s sake, the first episode featured a young teenage girl eating a bug and drinking her own urine. I just didn’t see myself being particularly entertained by the shock value longer than the premiere.

Ensemble Stars (4/10)

I can’t tell if this one is actually over, but Funimation’s site doesn’t list any new episode premieres coming up, so I’m gonna assume it is? I gave this one a shot and hung onto it because it took UtaPri’s premise and gave it the slightly more serious tone I was looking for, but dropped it after the second episode started to drown us in side characters with no hint that the floodgates were closing, rather than giving ample screentime to a select cast so they could actually become at least two-dimensional before throwing in more people we’re supposed to care about.

BEM

BEM suffered from an unfortunate lack of distinct personality, which sucks when it seems to have had a decent story to tell. Nothing else about the show wound up sticking out to me, though, which has me fully convinced that Production I.G.’s name is only on this to boost recognition, and the second-billed LandQ studios did the majority of the work. And their best-known other show is Swordgai. So...

To The Abandoned Sacred Beasts (5/10)

I have gotten absolutely no pushback so far for my decision to tear into this show because it should have been a different show, so I’m gonna take that as a general agreement of my earlier statement. What a waste of a concept.

Cop Craft (5/10)

This one I still think I was not crazy to pick up after the first episode, because it wasn’t until the third that the animation tanked hard and the pacing went absolutely nuts, and apparently stayed that way. Did they write a thirty-nine-episode story that had to be condensed into twelve or something?

Magical Sempai

This one I probably would have kept watching if the majority of its humor wasn’t just the title character embarrassing herself in lewd ways. It was funny, but I didn’t see myself enjoying anything more than one episode of it.

GRANBELM (6/10)

This one I got halfway through before realizing that, during my end-of-season catchup, I had absolutely no desire to return to. The plot didn’t really start moving until the fifth episode, and in that time I had not gotten particularly invested in the characters, especially since the show makes fun of the viewer for thinking that the big mecha dream battles actually had stakes beyond ���you don’t get to be The Thing”. At least it looked nice and the mecha designs were very original.

Are you willing to fall in love with a pervert, as long as she’s a cutie?

There were four shows this season with questions for titles. Just saying! This one actually had me hooked right up until the end, revealing that not only is it a fanservice show, but a fetish pandering one. That being said, if I were attracted to women, I could have seen myself getting something out of it, what with the decently moody tone and good production values.

I put 2 On Hold:

Is It Wrong to Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? II

I’ll probably come back to this when the third series comes around, just to give it one more chance to pull me back in, but ditching my favorite character for harem antics and character shilling just did not endear me to this long-awaited sequel.

Re:Stage Dream Days!!

This one’s not actually on hold, but I don’t have any other good place to mention it. This one I’m gonna make it through just on willpower, not because it’s good, but because it starts out as the most shameless rip-off I’ve ever seen in anime, specifically of Love Live!.

And I Finished 7:

Kochoki (5/10)

I thought I was gonna give this one a 7 at least, for nearly the whole season, for being a decently-told and somewhat new telling of Nobunaga’s early life with great production values for Studio Deen...right up until the structure fell completely apart at the end, almost completely out of nowhere. I’m still in awe of the gall this show had to literally skip over the final battle.

How Heavy Are The Dumbbells You Lift? (8/10)

This one came right the fuck out of nowhere and totally blew my expectations out of the way from the very first episode. Looking at the summary, I was convinced I was gonna drop this after the premiere...and found myself totally hooked by its cheery visual presentation and excellent sense of meta-comedy, not to mention its genuine educational value.

Astra: Lost In Space (8/10)

One of two adaptations I was really looking forward to this season (along with Fire Force), Astra was pretty much what I expected - a very good translation of a very good manga that ran for the perfect amount of time to be divided into twelve-ish episodes. A fantastic and memorable cast of characters enhanced a surprisingly twisty story, and Lerche made it all look just as good as I’d hoped.

The Demon Girl Next Door (8/10)

Speaking of defying my expectations, another show I was expecting pretty much nothing from, maybe one I could compare to Gabriel Dropout or something, that was instead an incredibly charming story of a girl trying to save her family by defeating a magical girl...with a very, very loose definition of the word “defeat” in play. I couldn’t have asked for much more from this one, aside from maybe a sequel?

Given (9/10)

Speaking of “Lerche” and “gorgeous”, this profoundly gripping story of a spacecase and a loner hesitantly making music together blossomed further and further as it went on, and became my new go-to reference point for explicit gay relationships in anime. It went where even Yuri On Ice!!! couldn’t, and left me desperate for a Part Two.

O Maidens In Your Savage Season (9/10)

My write up for this show was one of my longest in recent memory, and I stand by it - even if Okada had to write a few plot contrivances in to get where she’s going, at least she presented her cast in an incredibly thoughtful way and gave them a satisfying payoff, with the knowledge that they’re teenagers and all of their problems can’t be solved in one semester. The high water mark for discussions of sexuality in this medium.

BEST OF THE SEASON: Symphogear XV (9/10)

Anime is wonderful, and so am I.

So that wraps up summer! We’ve got a lot to look forward to in fall, even if My Hero Academia and Food Wars’ fourth series will both ultimately end up on a list in the distant future next year. Will Psycho-Pass 3 redeem the series? Will Azur Lane be better than Kantai Collection? Will Beastars beat Aggretsuko as the biggest furry panderer of the year? Only time will tell. And then I’ll tell you all what I think it said.

[langwrites]

Lang Plays Fire Emblem: Three Houses

So a while ago I said I was planning on playing the story routes in this order: Blue Lions, Black Eagles, Church of Seiros, and then Golden Deer.

The Golden Deer made a liar out of me.

So, here’s an approximation of What Happened During Verdant Wind.

So many spoilers below the cut, you guys. I do a lot of route comparisons.

Okay, I’ve been staring at the “which house do you want” selection screen for an embarrassing amount of time.

This shouldn’t be hard. I had a plan.

But no.

I clicked the Golden Deer, just like that. What the fuck, Claude. I blame you.

Immediately upon talking to this rop of students again, I can feel the difference in the social group from what the Lions were like. The latter were really a bunch of noble kids around their prince, and they felt really tight-knit. Classic Fire Emblem starter crew.

The Golden Deer is the fucking Scooby Gang.

First impressions of individuals:

Raphael, thank goodness, is the one character who absolutely has his shit in order. Sure, he’s bad at book work and thinks everything comes down to MUSCLES, but all of his emotional issues are handled by the time he arrives at Garreg Mach. He’s the brightest of sunshines.

Ignatz needs some more confidence in his art, and also I want to see his painting of Seiros. Now, if only both of his offensive stats and growths weren’t incredibly bad.

I was so close to making him my dancer. Just because he sure as hell wasn’t gonna be useful anywhere else.

Lorenz! I don’t like him. His haircut is a monstrosity.

Leonie! We are going. To be. Besties. Even though the timing of your support conversations are incredibly bad.

Marianne no please don’t be sad everyone loves you

Hilda is the greatest enabler I have ever seen. By which I mean she enables other people to do all her work for her.

Lysithea is going to have the last word with God. And especially he Death Knight.

And finally Claude! Teamwork makes the dream work, so obviously meme work does the same.

I’m sorry.

PRE-TIMESKIP

Mock battle! Marianne’s great and I love her and also the only healer oh god.

OKAY. I have access to New Game+ bonuses. What do I do first?

Immediately crank the Professor Level stat to max to avoid ever having to run short of activity points again.

Next, raise all skills I can’t easily get to at least Rank D+. HEAVY ARMOR IN PARTICULAR.

Third: Boost supports with people whose support ranks are an absolute pain in the ass to earn. Lookin’ at you, Rhea.

Also, put glasses on Byleth (named “Yuri” for this playthrough). Glasses are the bomb. I am the evil genius.

LEVEL GRINDING TIME.

It’s a lot harder with Blacksmith access being story-locked, but I can do this!

As a direct result, every single battle after this point is a complete curbstomp in my favor. Because the grind don’t stop.

I broke a lot more weapons than last time, though.

I will befriend Leonie and Ferdinand if it’s the last fucking thing I do. I will befriend everyone, and I will not get timeskip-locked out of supports! >:(

Ferdinand was my first recruit. Oh dear.

Okay, there are like five born cavaliers in this game. Leonie, Ferdinand, Lorenz, Sylvain, and I guess Dimitri if you’re on the right route.

Last time, Sylvain was a great paladin and a decent Dark Knight before he started getting one- or two-stat level ups for like thirty levels. Similarly, Dimitri was great until all his ultra-secret-awesome promotions didn’t use a fucking horse.

Contrast Leonie who, despite sitting out 99% of the game out of spite from me getting locked out of her support chain, went to endgame with a ten-level deficit and still rocked.

Ferdinand didn’t count since I failed to recruit him last time and he died. These two facts are directly related.

I didn’t use Lorenz at all; I recruited him to keep from having to kill him later.

This time, Lorenz straight-up sucks, Sylvain did the terrible level dance for like the entire game, and Dimitri’s not recruitable.

Contrast, again, Leonie. Her support chain with the player character is hot garbage, but she plowed through most of the game as a mainstay of my team and made it to Bow Knight first out of anyone.

Bernadetta and Ashe as Bow Knights don’t even come close to being as durable as she is, except for Ashe’s absolutely bananas Resistance. 29?! WHY?!

And Ferdinand is also awesome. His only real weak point is Resistance, but he doesn’t need it. He dodge-tanks everything, is faster than Leonie, and has two Saints’ relics he unknowingly stole from Seteth.

He still talks in MLA format, though.

I started putting off recruiting people so I wouldn’t have to level-grind them up to par with the rest of my team.

But if these people wanna join, of course I’m saying yes.

Lord Lonato’s rebellion and Miklan yoinking the Lance of Ruin feel way less relevant on a Golden Deer playthrough than on a Blue Lions one. None of the Herd really know who the hell these people are.

I say that despite having already recruited Sylvain for this playthrough and deploying him in the relevant level. He wasn’t treated as there by the game’s preamble cutscenes.

At least the Holy Mausoleum stuff feels more...handled? Claude actually asks questions about rebellion and about the “assassination plot,” where Dimitri didn’t really.

OKAY SO there’s this whole plot thing where Flayn goes missing for a month. With the Blue Lions, this is handled like a manhunt. Dimitri’s seriousness about the issue rubs off on everyone except Sylvain, and Felix actually correctly identifies the culprit almost instantly. He doesn’t know he’s done it, though, because basically everyone is just throwing out accusations. Manuela is the real MVP.

CONTRAST THE DEER. The very first meeting reads like a Scooby Doo episode, when they’re piling up clues and throwing out suggestions like the gang of goofball teenagers they are. Claude’s got this group running like Persona 4′s Investigation Team. None of them are jaded or frantic, they’re just doing this.

Why did Rhea entrust the investigation to a herd of teenagers.

Anyway, the rest proceeds as usual.

I don’t know why the game tries to drop the same set of hints for each route. “OoooowoooooOOOOoooo, your house leader might be the FLAME EMPEROR.”

The Flame Emperor wears heels. And is still too short to be either Claude or Dimitri. Especially Dimitri. Who the fuck let this kid get so tall.

The only real result of all this bullshit is that my wyvern-riding sniper of doom is not available during the first map where Yuri personally beat the Death Knight into the ground.

Which, by the by, was hilariously cathartic.

It doesn’t exactly matter, since the only unit who can make real use of the Dark Mage and Dark Bishop classes is unrecruitable, but bragging rights.

Remire Village’s drama is about as bad while playing as the Golden Deer. One of the foreshadowing cutscenes, though is excellent:

Claude actually finds a book that depicts The Immaculate One before its debut, only to have it confiscated by Seteth and learn that it wasn’t a library book at all; it belonged to “Tomas.” Like, all of his suspicions--which he shares with the player--start lining up. Censorship! Monsters! Sword of the Creator! What the hell is going on here??

Dimitri’s version of the cutscene involves him being caught investigating Lord Arundel by the player and Sothis. Which--since his route doesn’t meaningfully deal with the Morlocks faction aside from steamrolling them as incidental opponents--seems kinda useless.

Kicked the Death Knight into submission again out of spite.

Sylvain was useful! Mostly because I had him sit there and distract the incidentals while Claude and Lysithea cleaned house, but still!

Claude is the only lord character who seems to understand that the transforming Morlock faction probably needs to be taken more seriously. For the remainder of Part One, no one does so.

Rhea you’ve got some ‘splainin to do.

Marianne’s my team’s dancer this time. She’s a sweetheart. She seemed happy to be asked and to pursue the lessons, and being able to use Physic is a good trait in someone who’s nearly always going to be waaaaay behind the rest of the group.

Dad-stabbing happened.

Again.

Boop boop Solon’s dead.

Again.

Dear diary: I learned the definition of irony and set the Flame Emperor on fire.

I kid.

But Claude took her out in one completely overpowered shot, because crits are a thing, Flame Emperor class skills don’t reduce damage enough to survive it, and his Dex stat is through the fucking roof. And he was on a wyvern at the time because fuck it, why not.

Claude’s reaction to all of this is a minor letdown compared to the fully-rendered cutscene in the last route.

This would become something of a trend--taking out OP bosses with unexpected critical hits.

I didn’t expect to like Lorenz and now I do. How.

This is hilarious simply because he seems to be the only character that Mercedes hates. What the fuck, man.

Once again, Edelgard invades! Once again, I drop someone unexpected on her head!

Not really. It was Yuri.

Yuri does the timeskip shuffle and we’ll see everyone again after a nap.

FIVE YEARS LATER.

Aw, Claude was waiting for Yuri to show up. Adorable.

The post-meetup fight is actually harder than it was in the BL route, despite excessive level-grinding. This is due to three factors:

Claude is automatically on a wyvern, meaning that he has inherent class vulnerability to archers on a map with at least five of them. And less range than they did, for some fucking reason.

Lorenz and Ignatz started out on the same corner of the map and both of them are shitty offensive units who could barely kill a mage between them. (Neither of Ignatz’s offensive stats cracked 20 for another thirteen levels.)

I don’t have Ashe and his personal skill Locktouch, and nobody started with a Chest Key or Door Key, which meant I had to keep various enemies alive long enough to steal all of their stuff. And the enemy item drops came up one short of the number of chests on the map. I want my stuff, dammit.

LET’S MAKE A SCENE.

Randolph, as a boss in Verdant Wind, did not get any better at figuring out when he’s outmatched. Therefore, I killed him with Raphael again.

At least he straight-up died this time.

Claude didn’t even get to set the damn place on fire.

Ingrid is turning out to be way better of a unit this time than she was last time. She’s a little slower, but a lot stronger.

FELIX, WHERE THE FUCK WAS ALL THIS STRENGTH HIDING LAST TIME. YOU’RE TEN POINTS AHEAD OF THE GUY WHO HAS STORY-BASED SUPER STRENGTH.

AND SPEED.

Iiiiiiiiit’s JUDITH!

She only shows up on one map in the entire Azure Moon route, and that’s a damn shame. She’s so cool in Verdant Wind.

A lord-class character who isn’t also a Lord! WOO!

Also her spies are better than anybody’s apparently.

I am choosing to believe that because Ingrid’s family is related to Judith’s, her badassery in this route is the direct result of meeting her distant cousin and absorbing badass radiation.

There’s something funny about having to pull one over on Lorenz’s dad to get anything done. The Great Bridge falls not to power, but Claude baiting Count Gloucester’s entire army to be somewhere else. (FEAR THE DEER.)

As a result, Ladislava dies alone. (As opposed to taking Ferdinand with her due to plot shenanigans.)

Lysithea and Ferdinand’s paralogue was really quite sad, for all that the only named guy who died was deeply unsympathetic. Ferdinand’s dad was an asshole, but he wasn’t the asshole for this particular scenario, and now both of his parents are gone. :(

Felix...hasn’t heard from his dad in a while. Worrying.

Oh, and Caspar’s uncle is still dead, in case we were keeping track of that.

Dorothea’s happier with Ferdinand alive. She did an impression of the Gatekeeper. :3

Gronder Field! FUCK.

I delayed playing this chapter for two solid days because I already knew what was gonna happen. Specifically: Edelgard gets injured and evacuated, and Dimitri drops of exhaustion just in time to get run through like ten times by the Emperor’s rearguard.

I eventually got my shit together enough to do the thing.

Marianne, Raphael, and Ferdinand went after the Kingdom army first. Leonie and Felix hung back and then reinforced them after taking out the archer on the central hill.

Claude killed everyone in the center of the map, which meant Edelgard set the entire hill on fire and if Bernadetta had not been recruited she would’ve burned to death there on the spot.

Ahem.

I sent Yuri to clear the entire left side of the map by herself.

She succeeded.

Raphael KO’d Dimitri with a luck Gauntlet crit, got blasted down to half health by a Warlock, then plunked ineffectually at Dedue until Marianne used her Levin Sword to sort him out.

Ferdinand killed everyone else on that side of the map.

Claude once again got the kill on Edelgard with a lucky crit, after Yuri had killed everyone else (up to and including the Demonic Beasts) single-handedly.

And then the plot moved on. Hilda’s account of Dimitri’s death was awful, Dedue’s reaction was worse, and off we go to punch Edelgard’s teeth in.

Again.

Annette’s dad is probably dead now.

Felix’s, too.

(I THOUGHT WE WERE DONE WITH THE DAD-STABBING.)

FOOOOOORT MERCEUS.

No matter how many times I think about it, Claude’s Almyran army reinforcements only make so much sense. How the hell and fuck did he manage to sneak an entire foreign army across a whole country to help with one battle?

But hey, they’re here, and Claude almost admitted the reason why he could do that. And the arrow greeting between him and Nader was cool.

(Spoiler: On top of being the Alliance’s leader, he’s also the crown prince of Almyra!)

The Death Knight had the gall to run from my army.

Yuri punched his ticket for the third time, which was not the charm.

And then Fort Merceus took an intercontinental ballistic missile and suddenly defeating the fort’s garrison feels a lot less triumphant.

Spot the miscolored eyes in this cutscene!

Welp. Fuck it, we’re off to Enbarr. Time to also punch Hubert this time! What a change of pace.

Eyyy, it’s the Enbarr map. I totally forgot to bring Seteth and Flayn along to check out the opera house, despite a whole bunch of characters talking about how they totally wanted to check that place out at some point. No room for deadweights in a map that has SO MANY ARCHERS.

Managed to get the special dialogue between Ferdinand and Hubert, and now I’m sad again.

Killed Hubert with Claude.

And because this is a two-part map, we immediately run off to chase down Edelgard. Due to the player army not doing a really weird 180 in the middle of the plot to kick Cornelia out of Fhirdiad, she didn’t have time to turn into a giant demonic thing! She just has WAY TOO MANY MAGES.

Strategy: Forget what Door Keys are, split the team by Avoid rating, and go to town.

Claude nearly died thanks to a critical mass of Gremories and Mortal Savants (and still, what the fuck is that name), but Dedue-as-guest-character didn’t, so I count that as a win! His defense was so high that the Giant Demonic Beast couldn’t even scratch him.

Claude, Petra, and Ingrid all having Alert Stance as a skill means dodge-tanking is hilariously easy.

Also, Ingrid was supposed to just take a chunk out of Edelgard’s HP bar for the final assault and ended up crit-killing her on the first attack. With a bog-standard silver lance.

Weird as the situation turned out, I guess that means one of Dimitri’s friends really did avenge him after saying they would. Even if Dedue was the only one who had a special cutscene about it.

We rescued Rhea! And the characters being happy about it doesn’t mean I’m happy about it. I want answers, same as Claude, and being forced to RP Yuri being oh so worried about Rhea’s safety felt incredibly disingenuous.

Claude actually yells at her over the “...” she seems to think is an explanation. THE TIME FOR SECRETS IS PAST.

WHY DID ALL THIS SHIT HAPPEN.

WE’VE BEEN AT WAR FOR FIVE YEARS.

A WHOLE BUNCH OF PEOPLE DIED HORRIBLY FOR BASICALLY NOTHING.

Incidentally, this is why I didn’t end up playing Edelgard’s route as planned. Her logic for kicking two other sovereign countries in the balls felt incredibly self-centered.

At least Catherine’s happy. Same with Alois and the rest of the Church crew.

They are soon going to be not as happy.

I’m filling out the ENTIRE support log before endgame. I have absolutely no idea what characters are going to end up together as a direct result.

The last conversation? Seteth and Manuela’s A+ support!

Because so many of the support conversations are romantic at A/A+ level, I guess we’ve managed to turn this ragtag army into a polyarmory.

Oh boy, Thales sure is a sore loser.

I say, as though I didn’t kill EVERYONE he knew over the course of an hour and also split his skull open under Seteth’s axe. His racism would have keeled his ass over before death set in.

That sure is a ICBM.

GOD DAMMIT RHEA, THERE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A Q&A SESSION AFTER THIS.

WHY DOES EVERYONE WHOSE JOB IS EXPOSITION UP AND DIE.

Meanwhile: THE UBER-DEAD PEOPLE.

Claude, your route is batshit. What is this genre anymore?!

I wanna point out that, despite seeing Rhea/Seiros do the dragon thing, the player character never told Claude what the fuck that was about. I feel like one of the first things I would have done after the class reunion would be going, “By the by, did anyone else notice the fucking dragon?!”  WHO IS ALSO THE POPE???

Bah.

ANYWAY. Looooong-overdue exposition time!

I notice that Rhea didn’t out Seteth or Flayn, which was nice of her.

Claude, she can turn into a fucking dragon. I don’t think immortality is that far from being plausible.

GOD DAMMIT NEMESIS, CAN YOU FUCK OFF FOR TEN MORE MINUTES.

Uuuuuuugh fine, fuck everything, I’m putting your head on a pike.

CLAUDE, THE SWORD OF THE CREATOR LOOKS LIKE A SPINE.

OF COURSE IT’S MADE OF BONES. A BUNCH OF THE HEROES’ RELICS MOVE ON THEIR OWN!

The frantic music is not helping.

Time to kill a bandit king.

“My flabber is completely gasted by now.” Okay, that made me laugh.

Nemesis’s boss mechanic is pretty neat. To kill him at all, you need to kill all of the minibosses in the level and take down his friendship-based-plot-armor.

Or it would be, if I didn’t already make a habit of steamrolling everyone else on the field before tackling the boss at the end.

CUTSCENE.

Cutscene lesson: “Fuck honor duels.” It’s time for CHAIN SWORD LIMBO.

Claude, your bow shoots LASERS. SINCE WHEN.

Also getting kicked across the field by a dude twice his size didn’t seem to actually affect his mood much.

Awww, Yuri smiles now. Adorable. :D

AND THAT’S A WRAP.

Pairings: Yuri/Sothis (mostly to get them out of the way and see what everyone else would do), Claude/Petra, Raphael/Marianne, Catherine/Shamir, Lorenz/Mercedes, Ashe/Annette, Felix/Sylvain (bad end; the former straight up disappears), Seteth & Flayn wander off, Manuela/Dorothea, Lysithea/Linhardt (again), Leonie/Ignatz, Ferdinand/Bernadetta, Caspar/Hilda, and a couple of people are alone. Cyril gets to actually be a student after the story’s done, though!

Whew, that was fun. Gonna mix up the pairs a bit next time I play through the endgame and see what happens.