#but all hail the meme queen!!!

[croftersforlife]

Since the Traveler is not a deity, and can therefore intervene in the whole Night Swan situation, he better be planning on fixing the mess he created…

[mrsreinhart]

[antleredpunk]

Tag Drop

[aircommndr]

TAG DUMP

[jackhues]

the canadian grand prix - angel's world

NOTE: this takes place on JUN/18/23, the day of the canadian grand prix. a lot of hockey players were in attendance, and we will pretend like mat barzal was too for the sake of this au

this is a series/interactive au, so feel free to send in any ideas/requests/thoughts you have about this! angel's world au masterlist!!

PART ONE || PART TWO || PART THREE || PART FOUR || PART FIVE || PART SIX - SMAU (COMING SOON)

verstappen!twin reader x mat barzal ,, f1xhockey

barzal97 started following angel.verstappen

angel.verstappen started following barzal97

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angel.verstappen

liked by arthur_leclerc, redbullracing, barzal97 & others

tagged: maxverstappen1, landonorris, lewishamilton, fernandoalo_official, alex_albon, lilymhe, charles_leclerc & estebanocon

angel.verstappen: congratulations maxy on taking home win number 100 for redbull!! so so proud of you and everything that you've done! to my favourite twin 🥂🍾 and for the rest of you, enjoy the random pics i got of the guys (and my girl lily 😘) as we wait another 2 (or is it 3, i can't remember) weeks until the next gp!

maxverstappen1: ... i'm your only twin ??? -> angel.verstappen: and that's why you're my favourite twin 😁

landonorris: the last pic? srsly mom? -> angel.verstappen: yes. the world needs to know how nicely your new jacket fits you -> zhouguanyu24: @/landonorris you should be happy you were up there THREE times -> angel.verstappen: @/zhouguanyu24 he's my son, he will always be up there -> userone: i LOVE THIS

usertwo: what about all the hockey players who showed up to the gp? i refuse to believe NONE of them gave angel memeworthy content -> angel.verstappen: there's lots of memeworthy content of them, i'm just not allowed to post it

redbullracing: the superior verstappen -> maxverstappen: ah yes, my win doesn't matter -> angel.verstappen: @/redbullracing ignore him, he's jealous you love me more

mclaren: well... that's definitely a look @/landonorris

lilymhe: ooh, i love that picture. send it to me babes 😘 -> angel.verstappen: sent lovey 😘😘 -> alex_albon: @/angel.verstappen stop flirting with my girlfriend -> angel.verstappen: no

userthree: all hail our queen angel verstappen for posting new meme pics of the boys liked by angel.verstappen

charles_leclerc: when did you even take that picture?? -> angel.verstappen: while you were dissociating

userfour: i'm sorry but posting esteban after breaking up with pierre is so petty but GO QUEEN -> usertwo: they broke up over a year ago, get over it

barzal97: what happened to the selfie? -> userfive: hol' up, is there a mat and angel selfie being gatekept from us???

--

angel.verstappen

liked by maxverstappen1, barzal97, titobeauvi91 & others

angel.verstappen: montréal 🍁 the city of love

comments have been disabled

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THE KOOL KIDZ (+ ONE OLD MAN 👴) charles, angel, daniel, max, lando, alex

charlie ange you do know montreal's not the city of love right? that's paris

angel ikk 😭 i just wanted to be aesthetic i'm not that stupid

dannyricc ur related to max it's debatable

angel honestly dan fuck you

maxie hey no swearing fuck you dan

son does this mean i'm allowed to swear in the gc now?

angel no

maxie no

dannyric no

charlie no

alex no

[deadmomjokes]

King of Attolia brainrot memes part 2

(spoilers)

First, an ode to one of my favorite scenes.

Bonus:

Did I mention Costis doesn't get paid enough for this? Loved this man just being like, "Nope, I literally cannot deal with the stress right now and so have Decided That Didn't Happen."

And, of course, one of my other favorite scenes:

Not as big and flashy as "Diplomacy in my own name," but holy cow if I wasn't just as elated. Gen coming into his own! Accepting his fate with his head held high! Becoming KING! So subtle and yet so poignant!

And lastly, a shoutout to the quietly understated emotional arc in this one that threw me an unexpected gut punch.

Another 11/10, "How does she do it, this woman is so smart and clever" wild ride from the Notorious MWT, ALL HAIL THE QUEEN

[universallydestinytaco]

NAME A BITCH BADDER THAN PIM PIMLING ✨💋👑❤️‍🔥💫👠 (AU Sneak Peek!)

I figured that I’d quit being so stingy and give you all a taste of one of the next fanfics I’ve been cooking up! ✨

Drag Queen!Pim aka Serenity Amalthea just-so happens to be one of the most popular and beloved creators online, alongside his fellow creators Let’s Player!Charlie (who has NO idea Pim is Serenity), Movie Critic!Alan, Indie Animator!Glep (plus his gorgeous wife, VA!Marge), his UFO buddies and his content house roommates Beauty Guru!Zoey and Let’s Player/Cosplayer!Jennifer.

Things take a turn for the messy one night when Pim (as Serenity) is hired to perform at his sister Amy’s wedding, taking place at a luxurious hotel. Amy eventually finds out her favorite influencer is her twerpy baby brother who SOMEHOW got way more popular than she has and angrily confronts him over it. Pim, during a nervous breakdown, has too many drinks and makes a newsworthy spectacle out of himself to the point where the cops (+ the paparazzi) find him swinging on a chandelier and causing a laugh riot amongst guests. Naturally the event becomes a meme (“The Drag Queen Who Went Rogue”) and Charlie ruthlessly mocks the event on his stream….this unfortunately fuels a flame war between their respective fanbases to the point where the two creators start getting harassed on a daily basis, Not helping matters is Zoey just started dating Charlie and she finds half of her fan base begging her to dump him already (plus Pim is super jealous because he harbors a crush on peep man).

Amy uses this as an opportunity to blackmail Pim into revealing his identity as Serenity unless she gets to join his content house, where she stirs up drama between everyone (and then some), by spreading enough vicious rumors to start a tabloid site! One of which torpedoes Charlie’s reputation and causes almost everyone, including Zoey, to be alienated from him to which Pim/Serenity’s fans have a field day.

Naturally Pim is feeling super vulnerable with all the never ending drama AND feeling a little guilty/selfish being closer to a Charlie than ever before during the latter’s downward spiral, so he gets advice from a beloved motivational lifestyle influencer who goes by Brittany (totally not a demon here!…?), who gives Pim the courage to take control and stand up for himself…as well as some freaky new powers like telekinesis, mind reading, flight and an insatiable taste for dishing out some ice-cold justice/revenge for the man he loves.

Buckle up, you basic bitches, there’s a new sheriff in town! 👑 All hail Serenity Amalthea. ✨

[lastweeksshirttonight]

@stalebagels is absolutely incredible and made me these amazing icons for this blog ❤️ I needed to share all of them bc they're all too good!!!! All hail our meme queen 👸

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Credit: pixiv.net/artworks/70581957

Motherfucker.

Hajime is Dr. Romani. This is going to connect with Izuru later. But still, of course Hajime is one of the dealy beloved human characters of Fgo.

Chiaki is Frankenstein's Monster (call her Fran). She looks great and all but besides the love of electricity and childlike mannerisms, not sure Chiaki fits Fran's animal like berserkness and tragic need for love.

Mahiru is Boudica. I can say for certainty this is solely due to Red hair and mother like qualities. Pretty sure we shouldn't compare Mahiru to someone whose entire purpose in Fgo is being that meme person who really hates the Roman Empire (ironically the founder of Rome is her best partner in battle), has big boobs, has a terrible skillset in battle, and is defined by her backstory of losing the war against the Roman Empire and had to watch her daughters be relentlessly raped by them before most likely being forced to join them which lead to her falling into despair and killing herself.

Ibuki is Nobunaga. This is solely cuz of the amount of fourth wall breaking chibi style comedic relief and crazy hijinks. (Nobu Nobu Nobu? Nobu Nobu Nobu Nobu Nobu! Nobu? Nobu Nobu! Nobu...)

Mikan is Skadi. I have no idea why. What does shy and clumsy as fuck Mikan have in common with a wise nordic giantess with insecurities about being single and unmarried?

Hiyoko is BB. BB and Hiyoko might both be detestable trollish pieces of shit who keep fucking people over and getting away with it, but comparing Hiyoko to essentially AI Junko Enoshima on crack is a bit too far.

Kazuichi is Nikola Tesla. Electricity. Master Inventor. Eccentric mofo. I approve.

Sonia is Marie Antoinette. Princess/Queen like character. I can see that. (Tho we should also try to look out for Marie Alter cuz that bitch is crazy as fuck and wants everyone to experience how it felt when the guillotine beheaded her). Tho Sonia wishes she was as much a cinnamon roll as Marie.

Gundham is Ozymandias/Rameses II. Boisterous mofos collide. I approve. (Sidenote: Ozy is voiced by Dio. KONO OZY DA!!!)

Izuru is of course Dr. Roman's true identity as King Solomon, King and Progenitor of All Magic. All magic apparently stems from him, motherfuckers. All hail the character we will never get and wish he would come back.

Nagito is Edmund Dantes. Only cuz of Memes based on similar looks. Nagito has nothing on Dantes's year long pursuit for revenge. Tho I guess they both were "saved" by the woman they loved most in the world.

Twogami is Julius Caesar. Only cuz they are chubby charismatic likeable people.

Peko is Tomoe. FUCK YEAH I APPROVE. Peko would totally be Tomoe. Why do you think I made Tomoe her Persona in my headcanon. It fits her SO MUCH TO A T.

Fuyuhiko is Rama. Why? What does Fuyu have in common with a guy who kills demon kings with an army of monkeys cuz they stole his wife yet was also cursed to die whenever him and his wife would ever meet? (Poor Rama in fgo, all he wants is to be with his wife again but destiny keeps screwing him over by killing him seconds before his wife reaches where he is).

Nekomaru is Iskandar/Alexander the Great. Solely due to being super muscular likeable badass motivators of living a great life. Nekomaru clearly doesn't want to conquer lands and rule the world.

Akane is Francis Drake. Only cuz of giant cleavage window alone. Akane ain't no pirate queen with literal flying sea ships with giant laser cannons.

And Teruteru is Fergus. Only because both of them are a super perverts with mindsets primarily filled only about banging women and having sex. Teru is no ripped Chad with a drill sword that shoots rainbow lasers from the ground. (Sidenote: Fergus's drill sword, Caladbolg, translates to "Hard Blade". Yes it's a dick joke.")

//I mean they look good?

-Mod

[mysticlanternlight]

Spider-Man meme but make it with Zisu!

Akari (Dawn) got a bit cut up by Lord Kleavor and then marched her ass to the dojo. (Yes this will be written in a fanfic eventually)

All hail Zisu, the Queen of Brawn.

[jtheplante]

Hi! I’m reasonably new to Tumblr and I am in love with your page! I was wondering if you could recommend some other other AHKJ/Madagascar blogs to feed my nerdness? Thank you <3

Thank you!! I'll give you all the best places I can think of for AHKJ stuff. Keep in mind people have come & gone in this fandom for almost a decade now, so many of these accounts retired but their stuff is always interesting to look through

TUMBLR 🧾

@microcebusarnholdi (in their Clover phase)

@lemurblog

@lemurslovethelemurladies

@lemurlovinglemur

@there-will-be-juice

@operation-penguin

@foreverjover

@theworldrevolvingg (they were the biggest Dr. S fan)

@the-emperror-of-madagascar

@candyfordinner

@littlekingjulienthings

@pandylovepost (Pandy 😍)

INSTAGRAM 📸

Me! (Qweenteddy) I RP as Ted mostly

this account

this other account

Gwen

this excellent Karl RP account (now retired)

Tis I Multifiend (AHKJ memes)

Julsxaep Queen of AHKJ edits

YOUTUBE ▶

Me again 😎

Animationologist seems retired now but made some great vid essays

Purple Walskurco (mostly AMVs)

Plus a million AHKJ edits on TikTok just look up All Hail King Julien and go through the different hashtags. Special shoutout to Gwen ((at) boogiesboys / (at) pandyist) they make the funniest ish ever

[voidsentprinces]

The things they could do with LB4.

PLD: Spiritual Ishgardian Knights appear making a Phalanx with Haurchefaunt at the center.

WAR: Ardbert flipping up and slamming down an axe of light producing a barrier.

DRK: Fray and Myste rising up and creating a dark portal to suck the attack into before returning back into you.

GNB: Fuck it just let the tank jump forward and blow the attack away.

MNK: Either let them metal chair or aerial pile drive the enemy.

DGN: Let us do the Estinien Stardive but we flash either Hraesvelgr or Vrtra before leaping into the air and blowing the enemy up, finishing with the classic Kaine pose.

NIN: Create clones to make a giant jitsu of blades before kicking it both you and it up in the air and assassinating down ward as a hail of blades hits with Raiton and Futon exploding from the after math.

SAM: Literally just cut the screen in half and then slowly sheathe our blade. Anime classic.

RPR: Flip up and slam the scythe into the ground opening a dark portal full of reaper avatars that slash and gouge the enemy, before red reaper energy blades rise up to make a sort of reaper blossom that explodes outward. Cause if Imma be edge might as well be maximum edge (Wake Me Up optional)

WHM: You thought it was a healer LB4? Bitch its a Blood Lily Garden that explodes into a massive sun sized red holy.

AST: You thought it was a healer LB4? Ha, Bitch its just Sephiroth’s Supernova. And yes the entire raid and the boss pauses and have to watch the entire cutscene.

SCH: Grow Fae Wings and fly around the arena like Titania healing allies. Seriously remake SCH and make it a Fae based summoner. Stop holding back. DO ET.

SGE: Throw Fourchenault at the--I mean...no fuck it. Throw Fourchenault at the enemy and that makes a healing barrier as you all bask in schadenfreude.

BRD: Creating a giant guitar and slam it down in a line aoe.

MCH: Actually use QUEEN as an Iron Man suit and blast the fuck out of the enemy with 80% more floating gonnes.

DNC: You and your dance partner flip across the arena and strike the enemy from all sides while creating a dome of chakram. If you don’t have a Dance Partner you force the boss to go a jig before creating a dome of chakrams (Xemnas style) and sending them flying into the enemy.

BLM: Zettaflare. If Donald can do it. We can do it.

SMN: Let us turn into a Primal-Hybrid and smash the shit out of the target.

RDM: Enough with the blinding memes. Let us zoom across the AoE and slash the shit out of the enemy leaving red spectral clones of us to repeat the process over and over until they converge and THEN we can blind everyone with an explosion.

BLU: Blow up into a hail of sardines.

[natsumi-no-hotaru]

Chihayafuru #55: Karuta is so unpredictable... and fun!

AKA. I was completely blown away by how AWESOME this episode is. 

[Previously: The four-on-four team match and all hail the Shiranami Offensive!]

Gosh, what an episode. Absolutely wild, chockful of surprises and oh so meme-able! The pacing is faster and so much happened in 20 minutes. Seriously, a lot and wow, I haven’t felt that energized after watching Chihayafuru in a long while. Not that the last couple of episodes were dull or anything, but they kind of lack a certain spark that makes them truly memorable and leaves viewers at the edge of their seats. This is definitely not the case with Chihayafuru #55. As soon as I finished watching, I felt compelled to start writing, and had it not been for the intense workload and pressure at the office, this post would have come out much sooner. 

Picking up from where we left off, the match between Chi-chan and Haruka entered its most critical juncture, as Chi-chan snatched back the Chihayafuru, the one card that Sakurazawa never managed to take from the former Queen. 

Why she plays karuta

The loss of Chihayafuru was a considerable blow to Haruka, whose inner tumult gave Chi-chan the chance to reduce the card difference and turn the tides in her favor. Facing a fearless young opponent who played with such tranquility and enjoyment, Haruka became trapped by strenuous thoughts of having to “throw off [her opponent’s] pace and not let her have fun”. 

Her elder kid is so cute!!!

Instead of making the overly enthused Aki a burden to Haruka and her pursuit of karuta, the narrative took a step far from the beaten track, in turning his curiosity and budding interest into a source of strength and encouragement for the young mom. 

The game was momentarily interrupted but it gave Haruka just the needed headspace to recall her karuta origin story. Turns out that her parents were also karuta players and she, along with her sibling, joined their karuta practice ever since they were little. Haruka grew into a successful player, as proven by her holding the Queen title for 4 consecutive years, and became a young mom with two adorable kids. Convention would dictate that she should be satisfied with what she had, with the implication of giving up karuta, akin to a part of herself, to focus on her kids. But that was not the choice that her parents made, and this is the one case where “history repeats itself” does not mean a negative thing.

“But the realization that parents can have something they treasure as much as their kids set me free.”

I am once again blown by the bold and mold-breaking direction taken by Suetsugu-san (the mangaka), and subsequently honored by the animation, with regards to Haruka’s storyline and character. At first glance, Haruka had all the family trappings that, in your run-of-the-mill competition narrative, would have weighed her down and turned her into a past-her-prime mom player. But this is definitely NOT the case here. Previously, we have seen how supportive her husband was of her karuta to the point of sharing in the child-rearing and caretaking responsibilities and how Haruka herself was not content to rest on her laurels. All of that culminates in this episode, where she demonstrates a solid conviction to be a model for her children, to show them that a rewarding lifelong pursuit does not need to come at the cost of family. She plays karuta because she wants to stay true to herself and believes that by not giving up on her passion, she is passing on her parents’ gift to her children - a chance to embark on the journey of self-validation and self-affirmation from a young age. 

To this end, there was no other way for Haruka to proceed but to play the karuta that she excels and enjoys. Instead of dwelling on how to break Chi-chan’s momentum, she recovered herself in time to showcase the top-tier hearing that carried her through past games and astonished all. 

In a battle over a multiple-syllable card, Haruka emerged victorious when she swiped at Chi-chan’s card after hearing only the first syllable, which, technically, should not be enough to let her know which card the reader was reading: hers or her opponent’s. Yet it was not a grab made in desperation or blind luck. Haruka knew which card was read with dead certainty because she could pick up on the tonal variations of the card reader (who is from the west like her). There was simply no contest possible for Chi-chan in this regard.

Just as the match was about to take a more serious turn, a curveball came out of nowhere in the form of a card being slightly moved upon the reading of a dead card. 

A moment of confusion gripped the room as everyone tried to figure out who moved the card. 

But for the two persons in question, it was no more than an amusing incident, a much-appreciated reliever of tensions that brought them closer. It is also another instance that highlights Chi-chan’s growing maturity as a karuta player; she would have been so flustered had this been a year earlier. The fact that she could laugh about it and enjoy a bonding moment with her opponent, a former Queen for 4 consecutive times no less, speaks volumes about her mindset and approach to the game. Her little routine of wiping her face, fixing her sleeve ties and hair, and exhaling deeply before returning to the game without a hint of stress viscerally reflected Chi-chan’s inner composure and enjoyment of the game itself.

“I’d thought she’d tense up against a former Queen, but right from the start, and even this close to the end, she’s not getting worked up. Maybe in Ayase’s mind, the only Queen is Wakamiya Shinobu.”

Damn, this moment gave me the shivers. It is precisely why I ship Shinochi - this fleeting yet tenacious connection between two very talented and quirky players, both in search of personal fulfilment through competitive karuta. Previously, Shi-chan found in Chi-chan a promising rival who wants nothing more than going head to head against a Queen that went all out. In Shi-chan, Chi-chan found an indomitable will to aspire to, a constant source of inspiration that buoys her up at challenging moments. If Chi-chan can face Shi-chan after a merciless match and came out all the more gratified for it, then how can she lose heart in front of an opponent lesser than the latter?  

What puts the cherry on the top for me is how these insightful observations do not come from the usual sources, like Kana-chan, Tsutomu, Taichi or more recently, Sakurazawa-sensei, but from Nishida. The fact that he could grasp this facet of Chi-chan’s psyche so well speaks to the bonds between Mizusawa karuta club members. It’s a very beautiful and understated way of showing how much they care for one another’s progress.

“This is it, Taichi”

“Even Wakamiya Shinobu isn’t invincible.”

Mentions of Shi-chan and her defeat at the hand of Arata made for a smooth transition into Arata’s unanticipated loss against the unfavorably compared Tsuboguchi. The latter’s victory was such a major upset that left everyone dumbfounded in the most hilarious of ways. 

LOL, look at their faces. I absolutely DID NOT foresee this turn of event at all, too. Kinda bet on Chi-chan facing Arata in their first official match in this tournament. Turned out that would have to wait. 

Me very glad that it was not an actual bet me made. Would be a major loss here lmao. Who would have thought that Arata would lose here, to high school karuta coach Tsuboguchi-san of all people, cursed or not by the latter’s student? 

Nothing seemed to go according to plan for opponents of the Shiranami Society. Murao-kun, Arata’s senpai, managed a win against Harada-sensei, but at great expense to his stamina. Imagine the kind of unyielding battle Harada-sensei must have waged against this much younger player, to have brought the card gap from 10 down to 4 at the end. 

It was a vicious tug of war for Chi-chan and Taichi, both locked in a tie against their opponents. At a juncture where many would play cautiously, our beloved President and Vice President persisted with the Shiranami-famous offensive style, living on the edge as their sensei and senpai would have it. 

The imagery is a little silly in how it made Harada-sensei and Tsuboguchi-san the dearly departed, instead of the still kicking members of the Shiranami Society; but the emphasis on the bond between all members and the influence they had on each other’s mentality, playstyle and decisions rendered depth to the story, neatly harking back to the team-tournament spirit espoused by Harada-sensei before the quarter-finals, as well as to the desire to stay true to oneself in karuta, as embraced by Haruka at the episode’s beginning. 

Chi-chan ended the game victoriously on the poignant note of “Since I could not hide my love” (remember when Taichi himself pulled through the class A ascension game with this same card?) and promptly fell into sleep on the spot, to the joy and dismay of Kana-chan and Nishida. The only match undecided left was Taichi’s, and as per his usual luck, it came down to a luck of the draw, again. Good thing this was not a cliffhanger cos I was literally holding on to my tea mug for support. 

Feels like Taichi is becoming a Master on his own at luck of the draw...

The instant the reader started reciting, Taichi reached for the card on Sudo-san’s side, before the latter even reacted. It was not that he could hear a decisive sound as the basis for his judgement. It was simply a move borne out of much arduous experience.

Lmao, it was too outrageous even for Sudo-san.

Regardless, GO, Taichiiiiii!!!! *exhaled in relief* Semi-finals, here we come!

Well, before the semi-finals was a somewhat out-of-the-blue segue about Chi-chan’s mother, who sought to juggle between doing her own work and supporting her daughters in their career/pursuit. 

It did find its way back to an unconscious Chi-chan cradled in the arms of friends but still, bit disjointed, albeit an interesting glimpse at the dynamics among the Ayase women.

“I’ll take the loss by default.”

In another surprising turn of event - well not the post-march dead-to-the-world Chi-chan, Hiroshi chose to lose by default to Chi-chan, instead of making her lose by not being able to show up for the match. Certainly one may chalk this up to team spirit but that would not be ... sufficient. Hiroshi’s concern for Chi-chan - “just let Chihaya-chan sleep” felt very brotherly, which is nice because it didn’t seem like she was showered with enough familial care and affection at home.

Taichi is a different story though. It’s not that Hiroshi did not care for Taichi but like a big brother, he knows exactly which button to push to get his sibling fire up, the way he did back at the Omi Jingu team tournament as a karuta high school coach. Hiroshi knew that Taichi needed someone to acknowledge his efforts and progress without sugarcoating the thornier parts.

“Most people here think you’re just a kid who rode a wave of momentum to get here.”

As Hiroshi rightly said, Taichi could never rely on momentum or luck, but pure skill. This helped to bolster his spirit but also placed the weight of expectations on him, as someone with the skill. Thankfully, he was motivated by the fact that Arata would be watching him - a chance to show Arata what he could do now. 

An easy win is not gonna help Taichi mentally and I think that’s partly why he said that he would not have yielded to Taichi, the way he did to Chi-chan, in response to Harada-sensei’s question. Certainly, rivalry also fueled this answer but at the core of it is Hiroshi’s desire to show that he takes Taichi seriously as well as his deep awareness of Taichi’s inferiority complex. 

“This is my first time watching Taichi play.”

Gosh, that cute chuckle of Arata. This is, if memory serves me well, the first time that we got to see Arata showing an interest purely in Taichi, without being occupied by other considerations such as forming his own karuta club or joining group tournaments. His flashback was of the few interactions with Taichi that did not directly involve Chi-chan too - the incident with Arata’s glasses in their early days and Taichi’s tsundere attitude towards playing karuta with his childhood friends. I personally enjoy very much these brief moments of camaraderie between Taichi and Arata and look forward to more of them, be it in the rest of season 3 anime or in the post-s3 chapters of the manga. There is a lot of potential to flesh out meaningful character developments from these interactions, not just from Aratachi or Taichihaya moments. 

Before getting back to Serious Land™, and I do mean it, cos oh boy the ending, here are Chi-chan’s lovely selves.

I do want to see Chi-chan and Shi-chan decked out in all their goofy glory for a karuta game lol.

The perfect defense

In previous episodes, Taichi has shown a certain affinity towards incorporating others’ techniques into his own mentally rigorous playstyle. Against a Murao-kun whose "simple-minded aggressiveness” has been whittled away by the attrition battle waged by Harada-sensei, Taichi held his own and maintained a large card difference against his opponent, even finding opportunities to test out a new pull-back move (which is Sudo-san’s move right?).  

While this battle’s outcome is more or less decided, especially with the large card difference and Chi-chan already being slated for the final, it would be nice to be able to delve deeper into Taichi’s state of mind here. Seemingly in response to the unvoiced question from Tsutomu-kun and Nishida, Taichi mentally pointed to the presence of Arata in the audience, Harada-sensei’s previous whittling effort, and Chi-chan’s absence. I am not quite sure how all these pieces fit together to bring about this version of Taichi; hopefully we will get some insight in the next episode. The most ominous piece is Chi-chan’s absence... considering what several people already said regarding Taichi’s performance in her absence. 

In the meantime, Harada-sensei clearly sensed that in spite of the offensive karuta he was taught, it is defensive karuta that increasingly defined his playstyle and brought him victory this time. I vaguely recalled someone already making an observation to similar effect, was it Sakurazawa-sensei, during the team tournament in season 2? 

And here we go, the match that has been hinted at for quite sometime now - an official match between Taichi and Chi-chan!! 

Chi-chan certainly is the better player and she has proved herself against very strong players, from Queen candidates to actual Queens, so I think there should be no surprise as to the final outcome of this match. Nonetheless, I am certain that Suetsugu-san would not have this important turning point to be without its share of twists and drama. 

Can Taichi hold his own against Chi-chan? Will he lose to himself? And more importantly, what will he do to improve his karuta, especially the defensive playstyle, in the aftermath? I eagerly await the next episode (or episodes, since the match may take longer) and what it has in store for Taichi.

Before ending this post, I just wanna drop a quick note for all readers, new or regular (gosh, do I have any left after more than a year of hiatus). Thank you so much for your support and I am sorry for disappearing for so long. Life has been putting me through the wringer ever since and drained me of any interest in putting out my own written word. This is not the first time this happened, unfortunately. But regardless of my pre-occupations, be it professional, gaming or anime-wise, I remain invested in seeing my series of posts on Chihayafuru to its completion. So buckle up, cos this train is resuming service, to the next episode of Chihayafuru and beyond!

[thatnerdyqueer]

okay *deep breath* I think it's time we made a new intro post because I lost the old one lol

some trigger warnings:

i swear

discussions mental health stuff (suicide, sh, ed and body image)

global issues eg war, poverty, climate change, discrimination of all kinds

occaisional mentions of rape, substance abuse, domestic abuse (but this is fairly rare)

I do reblog stuff with mentions of sex in it, but nothing graphic

Things I post about (its so chaotic lol):

mostly multifandom

political stuff (see the tws for specifics)

The arts (linguistics - learning francais and gaeilge, philosophy, music! - I teach and play violin, and sing - film/theatre, writing)

random memes

queer stuff, lots of queer stuff

neurodivergence as well because my brain weird as hell

Things I'm a fan of (buckle up guys):

books:

Good omens

Project Hail Mary

Arc of a Scythe

LOTR, hobbit, and silm

osemanverse (ESPECIALLY LOVELESS)

Agatha christie

grishaverse

Percy Jackson

classics (oscar wilde, jane austen, nietzche, victor hugo)

Musicals and stage plays:

les mis (AND THE BOOK)

moulin rouge

natasha pierre and the great comet of 1812

hadestown

Rent

you know what I could go on and on about musicals lmao so we'll leave it there

Edward ii (christopher marlowe, essentially shakespeare but gayer)

Shakespeare, especially HAMLET

Oscar wiiiiiiilde (slay king)

Film/tv:

DOCTOR WHOOOOOO

GOOD OMENS

Merlin BBC

LOTR

Star wars (especially the tv shows)

Hugo Cabret (also read the book ofc)

Loki

Dead poets society (guys I swear im mentally stable)

Star trekkkkkkk

Music:

Hozier

Classicallllll (tchaikovsky, beethoven, barber, saint-saens, schubert, rachmaninoff, shosty)

AURORA

Queen

Broadway stuff as well ofc

Fave conductor of course bernstein (ik I'm a basic bitch)

[darwbycrew]

Rwby Spoilers: And the Saga continues....

All Hail the Meme Queen

Long may she reign

[mariacallous]

Maybe it’s the sourpuss attitude. Maybe it’s the sincerity with which he campaigns for the countryside, rather than just shouting “cows” joyfully when confronted by them. Maybe it’s a general diminishment of interest in British royalty. Maybe it’s the gold state coach and cloak at a time when millions of UK adults are unable to afford essential hygiene products.

But today, as King Charles III is crowned in a ceremony at Westminster Abbey in London, the response of the internet’s meme-makers will feel muted in comparison to the one enjoyed by his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, who was a meme queen we all stanned.

On the face of it, King Charles should be an ideal candidate for memedom. He has unnervingly red, rotund, sausage fingers. He has a cartoonish visage, lampooned for years by cartoonists and eBay sellers, with jug-handle ears and a hangdog, sullen expression. He has an unnerving, innocent, naive approach to life that leads him to say outlandish things, which often come back to bite him. He once, reportedly, shrieked when he first saw plastic wrap.

Charles’ 1989 declaration that he was so infatuated with Camilla, who will become queen this Saturday, that he wanted to be reincarnated as a tampon so he could forever live inside her, has big dril energy.

Yet none of that has cut through to make Charles a perennial internet fave. Even attempts at internet traffic-catching roundups of the best King Charles memes are … underwhelming, and often not really about the man himself.

“He's not publicly weird enough to be endearing, but he’s also not like a patriarch because he's too weird to give off being normal,” says Hussein Kesvani, a journalist and podcaster specializing in digital culture. “When it comes to being popular online, especially cross-audiences, you need to have a malleable weirdness that makes you endearing as a subject or a feature.”

Perhaps the tally of “good-weird” when it comes to evaluating Charles’s suitability for memedom is outweighed by the tally of “bad-weird.” He has always been portrayed as problematic compared to his ex-wife, Princess Diana, who died in a 1997 car crash. He has been willing to intervene in politics in a way that unelected members of the royal family have tried to avoid. He has an unfortunate habit of accepting cash donations in suitcases and grocery bags from Middle Eastern sheikhs.

And perhaps he’s suffering from the problem likely to blight his reign: He spent much of his life playing second fiddle to Queen Elizabeth, living in her shadow and being unable to develop much of a kingly standing of his own in the public’s eyes. “The queen was around for a very long time,” says Jeremy Blackburn, an assistant professor in computer science at Binghamton University and cofounder of the iDRAMA Lab, which looks at memes on the web. “So there was a long history that people had to draw from there.”

While Queen Elizabeth II was seen as a grandmother figure to the world, an innocent, sweet old lady, like Angela Lansbury but with palaces, Charles has long been seen—likely incorrectly—as waiting for his mother to give him his time to shine.

To be memeable, royals have to be likable, which is where the previous queen excelled—mostly. “Usually, they have to do something [to become a meme],” says Blackburn. “What is Charles known for? He’s known for the Diana thing. That’s not a positive meme. Then he was in the background for a lot of time. His kids are around now and seem to be more likable and interesting than him. The guy is not an interesting fellow. And the country’s not in good shape.”

The public knew the queen—at least the concept of her. She was canny enough not to give much away about her views in public, allowing the world to project onto her whatever they wanted, sometimes literally, which made her ripe for internet ribbing. Part of her success was that she was an older woman who sometimes was quirky.

The problem is that the public knows Charles—or at least think they do—based on his years of waiting in the wings. While the queen came fully formed as monarch at age 25, Charles is trying to adopt the role of king after decades spent as a comparatively outspoken campaigner. We know what he likes and definitely know what he doesn’t, which makes it harder for people to accept him as a blank canvas. “I don’t think the new guy is very endearing,” says Blackburn. “What are you going to say about him? His mom was queen for basically as long as everybody was alive, and now he’s prancing around like he [has been king for just as long].”

Gender also likely plays a role. That he’s a man hinders people’s ability to think of him positively in the same way they did the queen, says Alex Turvy, a meme researcher at Tulane University in New Orleans. “He's a reminder of the literal patriarchy,” he says. “Seeing that face, for some reason, sort of reminds you of the ugliness of colonialism, and the state hoarding all of this wealth.”