#but also comedy my beloathed

[taxi-trolls]

Attempted grayscale coloring with @ase-trollplays boy Comedy :3c

[doberbutts]

It does always throw me for a loop when people look for a moral reason not to like something. You can always just. Not like something. And even be normal about your dislike of the thing!

I've said it here before (not recently, see above point and also the one I'm about to make) that I don't really like the McElroy brothers. Not for any particular reasoning, I haven't heard of any particularly heinous wrongdoing as of this moment. I just think they're largely unfunny and outside of a single podcast of theirs I listened to [The Adventure Zone: Balance] I don't knowingly consume any of their media. I liked Balance, but I've also heard that's their best one, and there were pieces of it that were *too much* of the unfunny humor I dislike about the rest of their stuff [Crystal Kingdom my beloathed], so if that's the best one I'm not really willing to try again with anything... "lesser".

(and I only listened to Balance because I saw Cool Art of Taako and Lup and wanted to know more about these trans-and-gnc elf twins, much like I'm only [slowly] listening to Mighty Nein bc I saw Cool Art of Essek and Caleb and wanted to know more about purple elf and ginger wizard)

However knowing that I'm really not their biggest fan, I also... don't go looking for dirt on them? Don't blog incessantly about how much I dislike them? Try to find a moral justification for my lack of interest? I think their brand of comedy is Incredibly Annoying. That's it.

Now for all I know there might be Something they've done that I've just missed by actively refusing to pay attention to them. Or there might not. I don't really care either way- finding out that there is a valid moral reason to not engage with their stuff changes nothing because I already don't like their stuff and so am already not tuning in. Finding out that there's nothing nets the same result, I'm not interested for a completely mundane reason and so they could be the most morally pure content creators out there for all I know and I still wouldn't pursue anything of theirs.

It's not even to say there's not stuff I dislike due to moral reasons- there's a reason I'm not into HP or MCU anymore- just that it's weird to me that people try to look for one. You can always just not like something. You don't even have to justify it. "I didn't like it" is a totally normal reaction that doesn't need further explination.

[utilitycaster]

who out here sieging they weisshaupt

anyway. I understand wardens by definition go to horrible blighted places BUT every warden location SUCKS ASS. Let's do the rundown. A lot has happened.

Siege of Weisshaupt! I took Emmrich with me (Davrin is required and also makes sense) and while, again, I'm on Dumbass mode for combat, I must admit it kinda sucks that two of my healers AND rook are all most lethal with necrotic damage and darkspawn are resistant. this was perhaps a bad idea. I lived though, and I punched the warden and everyone except the academics approved, which is hilarious. Sorry Emmrich and Bellara I am NOT using my words. Also Bellara you'd feel better if you punched someone. Also bringing Emmrich IS pretty funny both because he is a very good healer/buffer and as Davrin and I are both tanks and damage dealers and my physical damage is nothing to sneeze at it's fine; and because Davrin is like IT IS MY DESTINY TO DIE IN GLORY AND DUTY and Emmrich is like the thought of dying makes me sick to my stomach and I am a necromancer.

I'll admit the sad failure family dinner and the solas convo after AND Varric all were like BY THE WAY YOU SHOULD DO COMPANION QUESTS and it was a little clunky BUT some people are stupid and I appreciate the game makes it obvious to them. also, talking to Lucanis, Davrin, and Neve was very fun for me (tragedy enjoyer). I now see why you talk with Davrin so much; he changes drastically after Weisshaupt and becomes much more interesting and you need to have that baseline.

I am slowly regaining Neve's trust! Also Neve being terrible at making coffee and Lucanis flirting with her in the form of "oh my god your coffee is the worst thing ever let me make you some" is a fucking. main quest interaction. Then I took Lucanis to Dock Town for the mission while Davrin dealt with his justified depressive episode.

The scene where Spite possesses Lucanis is missable if you don't check, and that's an oversight on Bioware's part, I must admit. Also I NEVER take the comedy mask option but I had to for the "you can't caffeinate your way out of this line" even though I as a real life person drink a quart of jet-fuel level coffee a day. Once a vending machine gave me three Celsius Essentials for the price of one and I briefly considered finding out what would happen if I drank all of them, and I'd already had coffee that day. Point being Lucanis's inclinations are relatable.

I'm back on that sweet sidequest life before The Cauldron quest, particularly the companion quests. There's like 3in Arlathan I haven't even picked up and of course I must go back to the wetlands my beloathed to see Evka (one of two good things in the wetlands, the other being Antoine). I DID do Bellara's companion quest. I love how the part 2 companion quests are like your friends are GOING THROUGH IT. Again. not subtle. but I do love justified angst. Neve literally the only person who isn't in a deep depression or anxiety spiral right now. I'm even playing Rook as feeling bad enough to admit weakness to Solas. Oh anyway Bellara's quest is great. Matt Mercer is there again, in a performance that made me go "wait is that Matt Mercer?" His delivery is incredible. Obsessed with how everyone was like MATT MERCER IS IN THIS GAME. HE'S A HISSING SKELETON. and actually he's playing two major characters.

I'll make a separate post later about this specifically, but I love the crossroads and could spend all my time there, which is why I've already fought Mythal I guess. I HAVE learned some of my lesson re: sidequesting aggressively though, and I am saving the necropolis dragon for when I'm "not only level thirty...four?" and "am better at this".

Again, my tolerance for clunky-ass dialogue in fantasy is high BUT. This game uses the word "fucking" so why do they keep saying "butt" instead of "ass." It tracks for Davrin, who is a dork, but I'm sorry and not to self insert excessively but Rook would say the word "ass" in front of Mila. there is a fucking archdemon. let the child learn the cuss words.

GOT A BLACK EMPORIUM INVITE BABEYYYYYYYYYYYYY time to FINISH MY GIFT GIVING

[vanillahub]

GET TO KNOW THE MUN.

respond to the prompts out of character!

what made you pick up the current muse(s) you have? Obviously, I'm heavily influenced by a set list of characters I personally love, which means I come up with a take/portrayal as I delve deeper into the lore. I tend to have a preference for side characters, rather than protags or lore heavy ones, bc of the freedom I get... BUT at the same time I've had numerous muses that carry a lot of weight in their respective franchises (see: Seto Kaiba, Captain Rex, rival Barry, Richter Belmont and Sea Dragon Kanon just to name a few).

I mainly write as canon characters, I genuinely have little to no interest in making or RPing as an OC. At most, I have 1 OC in two out of the RPCs I'm currently part of. Which explains this huge disparity.

is there anything you don’t like to write? My hard nos are Incest, Adult/minor types of relationships. Bodily fluids/toilet stuff and fetish focused RPs. One-liners and really short replies aren't fun for me, sure, they can be fun for crack/joke interactions. But they won't last long. I really love working and expanding on the source material, so RPs for me really need to have that good plotting to back it up. While I'm totally open for exploring darker/taboo subjects (e.g.: adultery, toxic relationships, etc.), they MUST carry weight on the characters and be handled accordingly.

is there anything you really enjoy writing? GIMME ALL THE WEIRD COMBOS TO INTERACT WITH!!! Characters that never met or barely interacted with one another in canon but, they can interact in our RPs!!! My jam is doing worldbuilding and expanding on the source material!!! I also enjoy writing comedy, fluff, romance, slice-of-life, over-arching stories that connect/get refferenced in other threads.

how do you come up with headcanons? I look for plotholes or anything that was barely touched upon, in the source material, and I go off from it. I try establishing connections or make them clearer, to serve as future reference for me and my RP partners. I also love taking influence from other medias I'm into.

do you write in silence or do you play music? I used to be able to multitask a lot easier in the past. Now, I mainly prefer writing in silence. Only in very rare cases, I may play some kind of lo-fi beat or lounge music.

do you plan your replies or wing them? It depends on the thread in specific! Most of them have been plotted out, so I go off what we have laid out. Only in a few cases I try to wing it.

do you enjoy shipping? YES YES. GIMME. However, due to some bad experiences in the past, I'm really picky with platonic and familial stuff (popular fanons my beloathed).

what’s your alias/name? Vani

age?  27

birthday? 19th of July

favorite color?  Purple, blue, white, red-

favorite song?  Tô de pé - Maneva

last movie you watched?  I genuinely can't remember it LOL. It must have been Saint Seiya: Legend of Sanctuary.

last show you watched?  Saint Seiya Omega

last song you listened to? Discoholic - Disco Soul (Mr. Hoosteen's "Disco's Revenge

favorite food?  Pesto Pasta

favorite season?  Summer

do you have a tumblr best friend? Check these fellas out <3

These ppl know me for the longest time Gen ( @gems-of-lirema ), Simone (@unchcsen ) , Shiba ( @celestiialnotes ), Retto ( @245s ), Bobo ( @roleplayersoul ) and Smeargle ( @ofpokemon ) !! Really special mentions to @radi0activesmile, Val and @mxlik you guys will forever hold a v special place in my heart!!

Then I'm always chatting with Ama ( @gwiazdowe ), who genuinely is one of the best ppl I've met!! Honestly, I couldn't feel anymore happier to have met you! Can't forget urs truly Mica, who lives rent-free in my walls LOL. Lea ( @todefendlife ) and Mars own my house smfh.

And also special shout out to folks I've met more recently, but still deserve a place here: @shouxryuuxha / @wayfaringstrangxr / @eternalstarlights / @triko-the-fluffy-artist <3 Love u guys!

TAGGED BY: @mayxthexforce TYSM <3333

TAGGING: Anyone wanting to do this!! Just say I tagged you <3 !

[asleepinawell]

Fallen London: Ambitions

I've finished 3/4 ambitions now and am almost done with the fourth so I wanted to jot down my thoughts on each. I split it into opinions on story and mechanics for each. The tl;dr version is I enjoyed all the stories but had a range of opinions on the mechanics

some spoilers below

Note that I tried not to use the wiki guides too much while doing these (i wouldn't check what I'd need for upcoming steps, but i would look up how to find resources for the current step if i don't know). If I had I might have had less issues with some, but I don't think they should be judged on the assumption that someone is reading ahead on a guide

Listed in the order I completed them.

Light Fingers

Story: this ambition was Weird. really Weird. I mean that in a good way. I knew from glancing at the spoiler-free picking an ambition guide on the wiki that it was not actually about a heist and had an early twist that got really dark really fast. It contained two of the biggest NOPES for me (getting buried alive and pregnancy body horror) and despite that I had a great time with it. Loved the ending. Loved the Frank and Jasper comedy duo bit. Doing psychological damage to mr fires is my favorite hobby. Also loved the story tie-in at station viii which made me yell

Mechanics: This was my first ambition and I was kind of all over the place in fallen london doing all the things at once, so my memory of this is kinda vague. I don't remember having an awful grind or running into a wall outside of needing to level my stats a little more. It might be rose tinted nostalgia glasses but this felt like the easiest ambition to me and in a good way where it was paced out well.

Bag A Legend

Story: The story was really straight-forward, a complete 180 from LF. I know people consider Heart's Desire to be the more light hearted one, but to me this was the pure fun one. Kind of in a bloodborne way. Big fan of Sinning Jenny and April. Enjoyed the masters lore. Loved feral Veils and getting to make it a mlp. Just a good time all around.

Mechanics: This one went really fast. I'm not sure if it's actually shorter than the others or if I just sped along, but I didn't run into any major roadblocks that annoyed me. There's a big grind x3 near the end, but because it was split into three parts with an important story event between each I didn't mind so much. Also I could tell it was the conclusion so I was ready to work for my ending.

Nemesis

Story: I just finished this one so I may still be riding the high of that, but I think this was my favorite story of the bunch. Especially the whole ending sequence with Beggar's Wake. 10/10, loved it. I appreciated that it tied into the lore of the bazaar and the masters and gave some juicy tidbits on that.

Mechanics: oh, knifegate my beloathed. so I actually started nemesis on my seeking alt, got to knifegate and was like what the actual fuck this is worse than seeking and gave up. I made a new alt who I was committed to basically not playing at all for months to do the echo grind on and then halfway through that they nerfed knifegate. since I then suddenly had enough echoes it's hard for me to say if the nerf really made it more palatable. I know it's a grindy game but I don't think locking people into hitting one button over and over for actual real months for what isn't even the last hurdle in the ambition is a good choice. if it had been my first ambition I might have quit the game. if the grind had been split up the way it was in bag a legend and hadn't been just for echoes (which is so boring) it might not have been as infuriating.

the other thing that got me early on was the iron republic safe pass. if you don't look it up, there's no great way to know how to do it, and even if you find out you need counting the days unless you know to choose the bohemians as your closest to and look up all the places to get counting the days it'll take forever. if you choose the bohemians it goes extremely fast. i don't think that tying in that much of a huge time difference to what faction you choose for an ambition makes a lot of sense, especially when the whole counting the days thing is pretty confusing for a new player

so overall yeah, could use a few tweaks still in my opinion

Heart's Desire

Story: I haven't quite finished this yet, but I'm very close. As such I won't pass final judgment on it, but I'll say I enjoyed getting to meet a wide cast of notable npcs and learning more about them and how wacky it was at the start with the monkey. the boat trip through parabola also stands out as a great part. Could use more Virginia

Mechanics: At the start of this one I thought it was going pretty well, but then. There are a lot of pain points and they hit one after another. Several steps rely on drawing specific cards and like yes, I get it, it's about card games, but that didn't translate well to churning through the deck for weeks for one stupid card. multiple times. next was the 5 card lodgings requirement that dropped out of nowhere. since i got there in February i couldn't do it at sackmas unless i wanted to wait an actual year and the grind to get it starting from nothing was just painful. this is also not near the end of the ambition so it's not a final hurdle or something

shortly after the lodgings grind you find out you need 15 levels of a dream. on my main I didn't get 15 levels of a dream until I'd finished the railway. this alt had some-ish but not nearly enough. so that was another horrible lengthy opportunity deck rng grind. while you can theoretically do some other things while waiting for a card, it does limit you to london (unless you want to let your deck cap and miss chances to get it) and ducking in and out of stories or the lab constantly gets old really fast. so i mostly stopped playing other than for clicking through the deck. at this point I'd lost a lot of interest in the story because it kept being interrupted by huge delays

I am now up to the train with other players part and there's one item i need that there's no good way to work for other than hoping i can get rare successes on some rolls 5x (have not gotten one after two days straight) or wait for the rat market to have what i need if it even still has it after the overhaul. (i did find out there is one other way which requires a ton of prep work but at least there's no rng element). mostly I'm just ready for it to be over at this point which is sad because the story, when i can get to it, is fun

so yeah, 0/10 on mechanics for this one, especially when compared to the others

to put it another way: i started bag a legend and hearts desire at the same time, both on brand new characters. i finished bag a legend months ago. nemesis i started months after those two and it's now done and hearts desire is still grinding on. i started seeking shortly before this and finished that already as well

So yeah, final assessment is great stories all around, nemesis mechanics could have been better, and not a fan at all of hearts desire mechanics

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PROPAGANDA

AMY ROSE (SONIC THE HEDGEHOG)

1.) Amy’s characterisation has experienced several generations of misogyny, right from her genesis: She was designed as a girlfriend, but it eas then decided they didn’t want Sonic to have a girlfriend. First instance she’s a damsel in distress that he resents for being there and crushing on him, and this is echoed in the comics. She is then presented as pathetic, chasing and stalkerish, as well as sidelined in the games in favour of other characters despite being very strong. Her stories are often those with the most emotional weight, but the reading is coloured by other characters underestimating her importance there. She then enters a pushy and blind era where she becomes a mockery of her past self. A universe reset rebranded her as a feminist, but that often comes off as a bit pickme, and they frequently failed to hold her femininity and also combat capabilities in hand at once. She is finally getting a bit more stable characterisation and treated a bit better, but I still don’t trust the writers with her. Ultimately, it often felt like the creators didn’t like her, and only had her there because they were made to; and that sucked as a little girl sonic fan.

2.) She started out as the token Girl One in a 90’s property, and her first appearance was as a damsel in distress, which isn’t great to begin with, and she wasn’t playable for a long-ass time outside of spinoffs. The Sonic Adventure games redesigned her, made her playable, let her fight back against her would-be kidnappers, and gave her a major role in saving the world by letting Shadow talk to someone not game with destroying it. Then from Sonic Heroes to Sonic and the Black Knight, and the anime Sonic X, her character was reduced to ‘hehe funny obsessed fangirl is obsessed’ a lot of the time, losing her compassion and a good deal of her social awareness. In Sonic 06, she literally said that she’d sacrifice the rest of the world for Sonic, which, my girl would NEVER in SA2. The Archie comics weren’t kind to her either, as their explanation for the redesign was that Amy wished to become older, so they aged up her body, BUT NOT HER MIND EW EW EW. I’m sure there are other crimes the Archie comics did to her, but that’s not my knowledge base. THEN the writers tried to backpedal in the early 2010’s, but by attempting to undo all the 'crazy’, they took out Amy’s drive and convictions (Sonic Lost World just letting Amy sit and watch Sonic do all the work my beloathed). The Sonic Boom spinoff series tried to pivot and make their version of her a girlboss, but Rise of Lyric was SO BAD. Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice made an alternate version of her a damsel in distress, again, which while technically true to Amy’s roots, does not fit her Boom characterization AT ALL. The Sonic Boom cartoon was a screwball comedy, and they at least lampshaded a lot of Amy’s previous writing problems, but they didn’t give her much to do either, mainly making her 'the sensible one’ whenever Sonic wasn’t available for deadpan responses. They’ve been doing a bit better lately, with Amy usually involved in world-saving matters, and she was prominently featured in Sonic Frontiers, even if she was trapped in Cyberspace. The IDW comics are also treating her wonderfully, from what I’ve seen.

3.) when she was created as a character, she was made solely to be sonic’s love interest. in sonic adventure, they tried to rewrite her and flesh out her character more by making her realize she’s more than her crush on sonic and she finally realizes she’s strong enough to do things without him. sonic team IMMEDIATELY undid that in sonic heroes which came out soon after. they made her entire character in that game obsessed with sonic and based her entire story around him. she was obsessed with him unhealthily in that game because god forbid team sonic let’s a strong female character exist. many of the sonic games took away her quality of being strong without sonic by writing her to only be obsessed with him and not do anything without him. in many modern games, she’s improved more, but misogyny has really screwed her over as a character.

ABBIE MILLS (SLEEPY HOLLOW) (CW: Racism)

1.) Abbie starts out as one of the two protagonists of the show, only to get almost entirely sidelined as early as season 2, getting less and less screen time and allowed no relationships, either platonic or romantic, while the other lead Ichabod Crane has a seemingly infinite amount of them. It got bad enough that her actor wanted to leave the show, which they did by having her sacrifice her soul in the season 3 finale for the male lead to live, and then they ended the show after season 4 anyway, because guess what, it’s a bad idea to entirely sideline and eventually kill off one of your leads!

2.) She was killed by the narrative to advance her white male co-protagonist’s plotline and I’m still mad about it, Abbie deserved so much better. This is an example of racism in the narrative too and it extended to the production of the show, see news coverage:

3.) Look, I only watched the first season but they killed her off the show SHE was a co lead of!! Misogyny AND racism, all rolled into one. I remember seeing the fan reactions and I was so mad on their behalfs. They wrote her off her own show and from what I recall, gave her less and less screentime leading up to that. Truly, she deserved so much better and I will always be upset by this.

[pinkprimrose05]

character asks bc other anon was a coward: blade

HAJFTOVNWHYFAGDYSDNTJ

General opinion/How much I care about them: Ren Blade Yingxing my beloved beloathed depressed miserable angsty bastard aaaaaaa-

This man, oh my god. This edgy mess is somehow the second fastest blorbo to be coined as such in my blorbo-having history, and I think that alone says a lot. But even if not, he has his special little spot for being: 1) my first HSR fave, 2) my current main (the gameplay is ridiculously fun holy shit), and 3) the reason I downloaded the game at all (shoutout to Bronya, of course, but it was mainly Ren).

Also I really like the fact that he's genuinely batshit insane. An unapologetic menace to the galaxies. He can be so unhinged and evil sometimes, and that's a new flavor of fave in my collection. Did I mention the story doesn't try to redeem him at all? Because it's true! Extremely uncommon win on the hyv writers' part there; doubly so because they manage to balance this aspect with the subtle gap moe they love to give to all their stoic characters.

Yes. Ren is simultaneously edginess incarnate and a tired grandpa that sucks with words and doesn't know shit about technology. Oh and he keeps getting roped into Situations by his colleagues- and goes along with them all the time! The dude was literally asked to pose for a movie cover and he just. did that. No questions asked. Nothing.

I care about him a very normal amount. He's so neat and- oh my god I forgot to mention the aesthetic. Black/blue/red/gold is such a banger color scheme. He also has a spider lily motif and that looks very cool! And the pretty ribbon on the back of his coat is a 10/10 design choice. His only problem is that the game keeps forgetting to edit his silly beta design sneakers out of splash art, and that the washed out jeans clash hard with the coat. But otherwise? Perfection. I could (and did) stare at him for hours on end.

A ship I love: Kafblade is one of those pairs that you can read as romantic or platonic with equal efficacy and I love that for it. They're partners in crime! There's a great sense of trust and faith between them! They're each other's guardian and tether and the one who understands them best and they're such an awesome dynamic, good lord.

Honorable mention goes to jingren for the old man yaoi potential to take the relationship in a very (bitter)sweet or very sad way. There's something to be explored here and I wish canon could give it consideration someday.

A non-romantic relationship that I love: Stellaron Hunter agenda!!! They're so awesome individually and as a group, and the comedy is just lovely. You have Ren wrangling two terribly reckless women because in some way, by some miracle, he happens to be the braincell holder among the three. You have him trailing after Kafka on one of her shopping sprees with a whole bunch of bags and coats, you have him going to an arcade with Silver Wolf because she wanted to show him this brand new game she's been talking about nonstop for four days, and you have him in an impromptu shooting session with them both because they wanted to make silly movie covers and needed an extra actor.

They're one small hilarious family and I adore them so so much, you have no idea. Can't wait until Sam and Elio make an appearance in the story so I get more fuel for shenanigans.

The NOTP: None here sir, as long as the ship is normal it's fine by me.

My biggest headcanon about them: Ren is autistic and you will pry this hc from my cold, dead hands. He's stuck in his own head 80% of the time. He doesn't do conversation at all. Back when he was still Yingxing, he used to spend so much time at the forge when inspiration struck him, to the point of tuning out everything until his friends physically dragged him out to touch grass. He's an autistic nerd through and through, and even several thousand deaths can't take that from him.

An idea for a fanfiction I would like to write/read about them: One idea I've been curious about lately is what would happen in a roleswap scenario, where the Astral Express crew find Ren before the Stellaron Hunters do. He may not make for a great archivist, his state of mind may be less-than-stellar, but it's interesting to imagine the dynamics between him and the crew- and hey, who doesn't love taking sad guys out of situations for a change?

I'm filing this concept for later, just in case. Who knows? The writing ghost visits when I least expect it.

Something that makes me think of them: Everything these days The flute, the sound of wind blowing, red spider lilies, and -to the immense detriment of my composure in public- mentions of the word blade in any context ever. Why gee, thanks for permanently altering my brain chemistry.

[oflgtfol]

hello, kung fu panda mutual

did you hear about kung fu panda 4?

so glad i'm the kung fu panda mutual <3 hello hello

i've heard about kung fu panda 4, yes, however i have not heard of any recent developments. however however, this has prompted me to google just to make sure in case i happened to miss anything, and it seems i have

not gonna lie i'm not very optimistic. like just my initial thoughts are: where the fuck are the furious five? the new canine girlie looks promising but like she'd be a fun addition TO the furious five, as opposed to whatever this is, where the furious five is just like, not gonna be here in any major role whatsoever, and this new girlie is the new companion to po? like, okay, but what about my most beloved po&tigress best friendship. where is tigress

basically: the replacement of the furious five with a random new character feels more in line with the janky spinoff TV shows, rather than an actual full movie that is supposed to be directly in conversation with the first three

and my previous concerns from the very first murmurings of kfp4 are still holding strong, namely this post from 2022:

LIKE. the trilogy was a perfect structure. the first movie focused on a physical adversary, the second one a mental/emotional adversary, and the third one a spiritual adversary. each movie was another step in completing po’s journey to becoming the most well rounded warrior AND person, which culminates in the third movie ending with him literally making contact with oogway again and finally achieving his status as oogway’s successor. it was the perfect ending. what else, pray tell, is there for us to see with po’s story. it’s done. it’s complete. he has no more major character development to undergo. he’s grown and changed and gone through three separate arcs. there’s nothing else to see

and i've affectionately ribbed on kfp3 for this before, but now i hate to say it with a straight face but i must. kung fu panda 3 was a noticeable decline in quality from the first two movies. it was still a good movie on its own, but in comparison to 1 and 2, it was a step down. and one of the decisions that contributed to this was the treatment of kai as a comedy act, rather than a proper fucking villain in the same threshold as tai lung and shen.

so now i'm also worried that this new villain will not be able to stand on her own. super exciting to see tai lung's face again, like hello my bestie my beloathed, but like -- this new villain is literally wearing tai lung's face? will she be able to establish her own strong presence without relying on the prior villains ?!?!?!

if kfp3 being noticeably worse was because kai wasn't as strong of a villain as the first two, then what does that say for 4, if the villain will be even weaker of a villain than kai was, AND all my other concerns are present?

[pookiethebloodsucker]

I'm watching this western and being bored most of the way through I looked up the reviews and it turns out, nope this movie was well received I just do not like westerns kdbdkdbdkdbd

[lastlymatt]

Alex Rider Rewatch S1 Ep 1

I already mentioned this, but the fact that Yassen rolls up with the name Gregor plastered all over him is peak comedy.

The whole scene between Michael and Parker Roscoe is just the right amount of off. They are clearly not close, but you can tell it's because Michael Roscoe is creeped out by his son (for a good reason). I really like the setup to his death and the rest of the plot, but his death is so out there?? With hologram technology, that's only going to be mentioned once more and be instantly forgotten, which is a major shame.

And we have our first Yassen murder! 6.5/10 not that visually exciting, but the method was cool, and so was his outfit.

The opening song IS SO GOOD. I've been listening to it on repeat.

I love how Alex's first line is "not doing it", my precious reluctant spy boy. Also, this Tom? Chef's kiss, amazing, great energy, great outfit, but I have the constant urge to pull his beanie down over his eyes.

"But the laaadiesss", and then Alex proceeds to get absolutely zero concrete romance plots. No kisses for him, and I find it rather refreshing.

We get a showcase of Alex's skills, and it's a fun teaser for what's to come. Also, he has definitely broken into school before.

Oh Ian, why do you have to be such an ass? I'm glad that we do get to see him interact with Alex and Jack before he dies, and I like just how mundane his last interactions with them are. It's more than what we got in the books. Also, this Jack is amazing and a major mood. Ian is some spy, though, if he doesn't notice he's being served takeout.

The back-and-forth between the party and the warehouse is an interesting contrast. Martin is immediately shady as hell. I don't have much to say about the party outside of the fact that it captures the feeling of normalcy very well, which is kind of the point.

But the warehouse scene, oh my god. It's Yassen's 2nd murder! 10/10 Ian, we barely knew ye, but that Yas hit like a gut punch. Also, absolute bastard behaviour towards Wilby. I support that 100%. I enjoy how ominous Yassen is if you haven't read the books.

Alex hearing the news is such a good scene oh my god the acting is amazing. Someone wrap him in a blanket.

Is anyone else reminded of vultures when Jones, Blunt, and Crawley are standing over Ian's body?

"First his parents, now his uncle" I like this line to bring all viewers up to speed on the Rider's history in espionage, but if I didn't know any better, I'd think his mom was a spy too.

While I did watch the series first and read the books second, I am very happy with how they modernised it because some things feel very dated, especially in the first few books, and the seatbelt thing was always weird to me. Going over the speed limit makes a lot more sense, and the way Alex discovers what happened is incredibly smart and well-adapted.

Not sure where the decision came from to make mi6, not really mi6?? Why is it The Department now, and why do their headquarters look like they belong in a horror game? Alan Blunt, my beloathed.

THIS FUCKING SCENE

JUST BRILLIANT

The confusion, the chaos, the way Alex doesn't even need to call for them to all instantly disappear. Now that's a scary scene. I am stealing it for RPG purposes.

8/10 amazing first episode if I didn't know whump was coming, I would've been hooked anyway.

[phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing]

@cloud-ya mentioning dislike of rita and elysia’s flirtiness actually got me thinking. because i do enjoy this trait of theirs a lot

of course most of this is personal taste but part of the reason I enjoy it is because in media most of the confident flirts are guys (who I am not into) or, occasionally, women who exist exclusively to be a villain seducing some protagonist dude

Rita technically falls under an adjacent category due to being an assassin herself, but she’s not a villain anymore, and she has quite a bit of development that makes her more interesting than an evil pretty face anyway. while it was funny (Tesla’s ongoing bondage hatred should get more jokes!!) I didn’t like Rita all that much until she showed vulnerability in Arc City. Like that’s when I got really sold on her— she’d been so confident up until then, but she got depowered and wounded and her friends started dying

Really a bad day for Rita and my whump loving ass was thriving. she recovered quickly, and she certainly didn’t break down, but she was really in a tight spot and that was a really fun moment. That CG where she’s on the floor? Hell yeah baby.

Anyway so Elysia it was completely different!! And I find that interesting.

I adore Elysia. Not because she’s easy on the eyes (though I understand the plethora of seeeeeeegs jokes, she IS very pretty) but mostly because of her absolutely shameless attitude. The flirting is hilarious, not just because she doesn’t hold back at all, but also because it’s put in contrast with Mei’s very firm “no” attitude. The writers really got a good dynamic going, with Elysia being completely out of control and paired off with more calm/stoic straight man characters to contrast her bullshit.

(for those who don’t know the straight man in comedy is the role of the normal guy in a duo, who’s going to give opportunities to make jokes, react to stuff normally to provide contrast etc etc. often the voice of reason used in a comedic manner, usually the butt of the joke but sometimes funny BECAUSE they have a good point. has nothing to do with lesbians)

Even better, Elysia in all her ridiculous attitude sometimes surprises you by being down to earth herself. Like the recollection where she tells Kevin mid angst monologue that if he dramatically hits a street sign he’ll have to pay it off. She always makes herself sound very reasonable but actual role reversal is hysterical.

Elysia, for all intents and purpose, is a Mary Sue. She’s good at everything, she’s well liked by everyone but villainous-seeming characters (Mobius), she’s basically perfect in both body and actions, she never fails anything and seems to find all of it easy. Even when she loses against Mei, she does so gracefully— and she’s quickly noted not to have given it her all anyway.

But she’s a Mary Sue the writers are very, very aware of; and she’s put in contrast with characters who don’t buy her charm because of that. It’s good writing, man.

Her archive entry is a good example of this:

If you really like tropes, you might have seen meta jokes of Mary Sues actually being terrifying eldritch entities seducing everyone. That’s basically what Elysia is. We don’t know her true nature, but her charm and talents don’t seem fully natural, and she’s DEFINITELY hiding something.

In summary, she’s a largely beloathed character archetype but actually written competently, and frequently subverted by her own environment to offset how insufferable the type of character she is would otherwise be.

To go back to Rita— Rita was mostly just underdeveloped early on. She was outwardly seductive, the maid thing was kinda weird, we had zero insight into any deeper motivations… she basically existed to be a hot, perhaps even fetishy obstacle. Most people do not like Rita upon meeting her, because she’s very shallow at that point. Early Rita even shares some of those insufferable Mary Sue traits— effortlessly tricking the heroes or murdering Gray Serpent— but there’s nothing to contrast it, so she remains a hot obstacle instead of a deeper character.

And of course, a significant bit of her character development is locked in the Dudu VN, so if you haven’t read that you don’t know much about her from playing the game, especially before she starts investigating Heliopolis.

So yeah! There’s just nothing solid to like!

Elysia can be interesting and likable from the start in part because she’s incredibly funny if that’s your sense of humor, and because you quickly realize she’s suspicious (mysteries are fun! mysteries get you to pay attention!). Obviously you CAN also dislike her, but most people seem to enjoy her. It’s less a matter of writing and more personal tastes or bad personal experiences clashing with how she was designed to be. I have a friend who really dislikes her because they’re wary of her and protective of their favorite characters, so they see her as sort of an enemy. The flirtiness and suspicious behavior can also be points against her, if that’s not your thing, etc etc. But for MOST people, Elysia is funny, mysterious and likable, as a bit of a parody Mary Sue who the writers are exploiting the archetype’s uncanniness of.

Rita on the other hand suffers from her fetishy design (both appearance and personality) and shallow early characterization, if you’re first impressions kind of pal you’re probably not going to like her easily. Her early writing isn’t great, so there just isn’t much to like. Even the development she gets later, the vulnerability, while I find it delicious, may not be your thing either… and she was even retconned to appear earlier in the story, like Hua, so she originally had even LESS build up. There just aren’t too many reasons to get attached to her, especially around her first appearances.

So yeah. In conclusion, I think comparing these characters mostly just shows how far the writing of Honkai has come! They’ve gotten really good at introducing characters in a way that makes most people WANT to know more about them, and then disseminating clues in the rest of the story. The visual-novel-as-a-reward format of ER is really suitable for it, too, so they played really smart on that.

[ivjysk]

Ivjysk Analysis time!

Here’s my analysis on why Ivjysk is so important for the audience to see. The Character of Ivjysk serves many roles in the story. As we know them, they regularly manipulate, mangle, and even murder other characters. And despite this being a very common pattern amongst several characters, They seem to be the most hated and beloathed for it out of all.

One example I’m going to use is Hecate. Despite regularly killing trolls, Manipulating others for her own advantage. We don’t really see remotely the kind of hate Ivjysk gets. Hecate (as far as I’ve seen from those who mention her) is a well liked character by the audience. No matter how many times she may mention her own crimes I don’t see many coming to rant or disapprove of her. But this in of it self isn’t enough to compare. So let’s dig a little deeper. 

Although Remora and Fasist are both characters with plenty of discourse surrounding them, they don’t truly compare to the amount that Ivjysk regularly receives from the fandom as a whole. Keep in mind. Remora has been known to commit massacres, eat people alive, and kill in a very discriminatory manner. Fasist, while also murdering many, being queerphobic, and has psychologically tormented countless by putting them in the void of his sylladex. Subjecting them too war crime levels of isolation. I still don’t see nearly the level of hatred for them as I do Ivjysk. 

So why? Why despite committing actions that pale in the comparison of others does Ivjysk get the most judgement for it? Ivjysk’s victims have almost always been characters we’ve known and grown attached too. Compared to Remora, Fasist, and Hecate, their victims are unknowns. Nameless ceruleans, Nameless cities, random maids, random grubs. These are honestly horrible actions that are committed by them. But as an audience. We don’t care. We don’t see a reason to care for unknown characters that have no real weight on the plot. The death and torture of these characters are almost always played to laughs or just to show how careless they are.

So why Ivjysk? Every victim of Ivjysk is known. From Krokaa, to Brasil, to lloron, to so many others. We all know these characters by heart. We have seen them and we are invested in them and their journey. We aren’t really upset at the actions, we’re upset at the obstacle and interruption. The fact that it’s happening to them. 

But that’s not all there is to say. Ivjysk also serves an incredibly important role of grounding the audience. Once again comparing to the earlier aforementioned offenses by other characters. We don’t register the reality of the situation. A whole city of people dying is merely a string of words strung together for comedy purposes. It doesn’t register as a reality. That on alternia this is a norm. 

This is where Ivjysk steps in. The actions that they take and do are normalized on alternia. They are expected. And we don’t normally understand what that means. This is what makes Ivjysk’s role so important for the audience. By harming character we know, we get to actually understand on an emotional level the reality of alternia. It’s a bucket of cold ice water being thrown at us after the hot coal comedy of Fuchsia massacres. 

I don’t really often see this with other Fanstuck characters on the same level that I do with Ivjysk. Hell, even Brasil’s father whom is assumed to be regularly overtaken by an unknown force and is then forced to commit murder is played as a joke. It’s honestly refreshing for Fanstuck to be taken seriously this way. So yeah.

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PROPAGANDA

AMY ROSE (SONIC THE HEDGEHOG)

1.) Amy's characterisation has experienced several generations of misogyny, right from her genesis: She was designed as a girlfriend, but it eas then decided they didn't want Sonic to have a girlfriend. First instance she's a damsel in distress that he resents for being there and crushing on him, and this is echoed in the comics. She is then presented as pathetic, chasing and stalkerish, as well as sidelined in the games in favour of other characters despite being very strong. Her stories are often those with the most emotional weight, but the reading is coloured by other characters underestimating her importance there. She then enters a pushy and blind era where she becomes a mockery of her past self. A universe reset rebranded her as a feminist, but that often comes off as a bit pickme, and they frequently failed to hold her femininity and also combat capabilities in hand at once. She is finally getting a bit more stable characterisation and treated a bit better, but I still don't trust the writers with her. Ultimately, it often felt like the creators didn't like her, and only had her there because they were made to; and that sucked as a little girl sonic fan.

2.) She started out as the token Girl One in a 90's property, and her first appearance was as a damsel in distress, which isn't great to begin with, and she wasn't playable for a long-ass time outside of spinoffs. The Sonic Adventure games redesigned her, made her playable, let her fight back against her would-be kidnappers, and gave her a major role in saving the world by letting Shadow talk to someone not game with destroying it. Then from Sonic Heroes to Sonic and the Black Knight, and the anime Sonic X, her character was reduced to 'hehe funny obsessed fangirl is obsessed' a lot of the time, losing her compassion and a good deal of her social awareness. In Sonic 06, she literally said that she'd sacrifice the rest of the world for Sonic, which, my girl would NEVER in SA2. The Archie comics weren't kind to her either, as their explanation for the redesign was that Amy wished to become older, so they aged up her body, BUT NOT HER MIND EW EW EW. I'm sure there are other crimes the Archie comics did to her, but that's not my knowledge base. THEN the writers tried to backpedal in the early 2010's, but by attempting to undo all the 'crazy', they took out Amy's drive and convictions (Sonic Lost World just letting Amy sit and watch Sonic do all the work my beloathed). The Sonic Boom spinoff series tried to pivot and make their version of her a girlboss, but Rise of Lyric was SO BAD. Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice made an alternate version of her a damsel in distress, again, which while technically true to Amy's roots, does not fit her Boom characterization AT ALL. The Sonic Boom cartoon was a screwball comedy, and they at least lampshaded a lot of Amy's previous writing problems, but they didn't give her much to do either, mainly making her 'the sensible one' whenever Sonic wasn't available for deadpan responses. They've been doing a bit better lately, with Amy usually involved in world-saving matters, and she was prominently featured in Sonic Frontiers, even if she was trapped in Cyberspace. The IDW comics are also treating her wonderfully, from what I've seen.

3.) when she was created as a character, she was made solely to be sonic’s love interest. in sonic adventure, they tried to rewrite her and flesh out her character more by making her realize she’s more than her crush on sonic and she finally realizes she’s strong enough to do things without him. sonic team IMMEDIATELY undid that in sonic heroes which came out soon after. they made her entire character in that game obsessed with sonic and based her entire story around him. she was obsessed with him unhealthily in that game because god forbid team sonic let’s a strong female character exist. many of the sonic games took away her quality of being strong without sonic by writing her to only be obsessed with him and not do anything without him. in many modern games, she’s improved more, but misogyny has really screwed her over as a character.

ALYS BRANGWIN (PHANTASY STAR IV)

1.) For the short time she's in the game she's the butt of creepy jokes. At one point in order to progress you have to say yes to an old man asking if you want her "measurements" after which she's expected to forgive him because he apparently doesn't have "bad intentions". In the end she's a textbook example of getting fridged, she's the older sister figure to the teenage boy protagonist but shortly before the game even gets to its main gimmick (traveling to other planets) she sacrifices herself to save the cardboard cutout of a protagonist (at the hands of a throwaway villain no less) and her death is purely for shock value (this was a pre-ffvii JRPG killing party members was rare) and to give the protagonist something to be sad about as he goes into space before promptly forgetting about her for 95 percent of the story