#but his characterization really rubs me the wrong way

[navree]

people doing this whole "look at how rhaenys acted with corlys's bastard son vs how catelyn acted with jon snow" to demonize one or the other is weird because, like, maybe it's just me, but i think that catelyn and rhaenys had different reactions because they're different people in different situations.

[mla0]

i hate when people portray michael and/or patrick as some kind of master manipulator who was terrible to shaun and stormy. like, in the past, michael sometimes got portrayed with little autonomy, or as childish and overly innocent in a weird way. that in itself is an issue with the treatment of mentally ill characters (infantilization), but the solution isn't to argue that he's actually a monster who only wanted to hurt and mislead people. the same goes for patrick. i don't enjoy the "goofy flirty mass murderer" interpretation for very similar reasons, because in the canon patrick did indeed do some wild shit but i think it's a stretch to say it was out of malice, except maybe towards eric lol

obviously there will be different views of these characters and this isn't meant to be gatekeep-y or anything, i'm just concerned with how certain portrayals can quickly slide into negative biases towards mental illness. i think if you're going on this route you might want to ask yourself why, and consider how it could make the mentally ill people within the fandom feel when they see their own symptoms portrayed by their peers as synonymous with being dishonest or manipulative

[monstrsball]

i think people forget that suga is like... kind. he's a kind person. if your suga isn't kind it's not suga.

[showtoonzfan]

People are allowed to like Val if they want (as long as they don’t condone his actions) but man….I really don’t get the appeal of him when people call him a “fun villain to watch”, like the fucking joker or old Disney villains. He’s just not funny to me, nor is he entertaining. When he’s not making cringy sex jokes that a discord roleplayer would write, he’s characterized as a dumb piss baby who throws temper tantrums, and it’s not portrayed as a bad thing, more of a man child scenario where you’re supposed to laugh at him, and I just can’t help but tilt my head at this disgusting rapist character who the writers want you to find incompetent and stupid. Viv doesn’t even like the idea of people calling him a mastermind manipulator, and that rubs me off the wrong way SO hard because it makes you wonder why Angel Dust or anyone else who works for him hasn’t stood up to him or killed him yet if he’s supposed to be this dense.

Val isn’t even an intimidating person, it’s just the actions he commits that are. He rapes people and abuses/kills his workers. Fans like to treat him as if he’s “that sick villain character you love to hate”- but there’s nothing going on for him outside of that really, so it’s so funny when people compare him to villains the Joker like my god they’re incredibly delusional.

[n3rdyw0rdy]

My thoughts on Vefve

I’ve been a fan of Ghost and Pals since 2018, and only in recent years have I joined the fandom. If you’ve seen my past tumblr account, you can tell that I’m quite the fan of Christopher Pierre (Aka: The Distortionist)

I’ve noticed Vefve when I saw her reference sheet for her version of Christopher Pierre and went down the pipeline of her works, and I’ve got some thoughts.

Selfshipping

I have no problem with self shipping at all, since I myself, if you couldn’t tell, make countless ocs for fandoms or characters I like.

What I do feel odd about is Vefve’s self ship with Christopher Pierre. I have heard that Vefve is in her early or late 20’s (I’m not completely certain, but she claimed to be an adult), which the character, Christopher, is 17.

I know she has stated that the version if Chris that she ships herself with is “aged up”, but Christopher, quite literally, hasn’t aged a bit in her art. Even if he’s supposed to be “24”, Vefve has done nothing to his design to indicate that he’s older than he canonically is, appearance wise, which rubs me the wrong way.

“He’s fictional”, I don’t hear you guys saying that when Erin Clover shipped herself with Bakugo while she was in her 30’s.

The Vampire Au

I wasn’t familiar with this AU or the fanfic that went along with it until recently.

I know that Vefve has made a statement saying how she doesn’t like the fanfic anymore, but I beg to differ.

For context, the fanfic consisted of Christopher Pierre as a Vampire, and Kennith Simmons (keep him in mind) as a victim. Christopher attacks Kennith and offed him, but then kissed the severed head of Kennith.

This fanfic is both odd and just weird to me. The random n3crophilia and weird romanticization of the situation leaves a weird taste in my mouth, and if anything, unnecessary.

I understand that Vefve wanted it to be a “horror” fic and not glamorized, but the fanfic itself does that. She even made the excuse that “vampires can’t control themself” or are mindless monsters, but even with that logic, I don’t think a mindless monster would make out with a severed head.

Even with Vefve’s statement of not liking the fic or au, she still mentions it a lot and even made art of the kiss scene, which discourages me to believe that she was honest about it.

Mischaracterization and Chrisken (christopher x kennith)

Probably the most prevalent excuse Vefve gives for defending this ship is that she “changed the characters” so the relationship isn’t as toxic as it would, and with that, fully mischaracterizing the two characters.

Vefve has changed Christopher to a “dominant nonchalant charismatic charmer” while Kennith is a “Sweet innocent boy”. This may be nitpicky of me, or over exaggerating their recharactsrizations, but I just personally dislike it. She also characterizes Kennith to be “child like”, which is really odd to me since canonically, he’s an adult and Christopher is still a minor. I know it’s only a one year age gap, but I have more thoughts on the ship itself below.

Now for the ship itself, I’m not a fan at all. Sorry. But don’t take this being the only reason I don’t really like Vefve, as seen above theres more understandable reasons for my distaste other than me being nitpicky. The ship itself doesn’t really work for me, especially by how realistically, it would be really toxic. Toxic ships have a right to exist, but I feel like if it got into the hands of Vefve or people like her, it would be glamorized to hell and back. (pun intended)

Other thoughts

Generally, the very risky and otherwise odd things she post of Christopher and the fanart her fans make her is very jarring, especially knowing the context of Christopher as a character and his age.

The dynamic of Vefve’s version of Chrisken is just really generic and oddly fetishistic. I’m not accusing anything, but being honest, their relationship feels like it was written by a person who just discovered gay people existed. Sorry. That was mean. But I’m trying to give my honest opinion.

Vefve’s behavior towards people who dislike her is somewhat immature for an adult. Yes, I do understand that some people send death threats to her which can be a bit overboard, but Vefve going out of her way to make post about them seems unnecessary if she can just block them.

I don’t like using the word cringe, but Vefve is cringe. Sorry. I genuinely hate using the word cringe by how watered down the meaning became, but I have no other label to think of when it comes to Vefve. Her fans are no different either. Sorry, that was also mean. Please don’t publicly execute me.

These were my honest thoughts on Vefve. I know that I might be dogpiled for even criticizing her for anything, but I feel like someone had so say at least something. If I missed anything, I’ll edit this, but whoever read through this whole thing and agree with me, have a good day. And if you disagree, also have a good day, but if please don’t associate with me.

And if Vefve is reading this, hi, stay cringe, but don’t thirst over canonically minor characters. Thank you.

[carlyraejepsans]

i never really got the whole "sans has one hp" headcanon before but recently i think ive found a way to make it work and also be funny

see, sans does technically have just one hp, the thing is that its one *really big* hp, which is worth around 20 regular hp's. if he takes a hit instead of losing his one regular hp and dying instantly he just goes from one hp to like .75 of an hp. mechanically theres no difference between this and just a regular 20 hp but he does use the fact he has 1 hp to scare people sometimes

idk i think its funny

there's a concept in statistics called "normalization". it's where you take a certain set of values and force it between 0 and 1. essentially turning it into a percentage but wihout the fancy symbols. i like to think his HP is just one elaborate joke on that concept.

but yeah. my main issue is people making it a Big Deal of him being "fragile" and all that. kinda rubs me the wrong way. his tone as a comedic character is very roadrunner, "cat that always lands on its feet" brand of untouchable. acknowledging the 1HP thing characterization-wise really throws that tone out of wack.

[marzipanandminutiae]

Someone in the CPeak tag wrote a really interesting post about issues with antis that I mostly agree with

They used the movie as an example of a “don’t venture here if you can’t take fix that deals with canon topics” situation, but the way they characterized it was a bit…I have Reservations

“An underage boy is raped by his sister for years”

It’s not like…inherently WRONG, technically? The consensuality of Sharpecest is sort of open to interpretation, though more people do consider it consensual, and he was indeed underage when it started- 11, per the bios. You also wouldn’t necessarily know how long it had been going on if you hadn’t read the bios, so this person not knowing that it only lasted for a year when either of them were underage (and then they were separated for six years) is understandable

But like. The exclusion of the fact that Lucille was also underage seems like it’s not really giving the full picture here?

(that’s math you can even do without the bios because their age difference is mentioned in the movie- unless it started when they were 16 and 18, or beyond that point for another two years, there’s no way it could’ve happened when only one of them was underage by modern law. Age of consent law was different in the 19th century, but we won’t get into that)

(They were, as I said, 11 and 13 per the bios)

Obviously peer CSA is a thing, so that doesn’t make it inherently consensual. And it’s still sibling incest regardless. But like. This really feels like that trend of “making Lucille much older than she actually is canonically in order to make their relationship even more problematic

Which always raises questions for me, namely: why are these people ignoring something that is clearly spelled out in the dialogue of the movie? Why do they perceive a 37-year-old actress as being much older than a 34-year-old actor? It’s a bigger age gap than the characters, but there is absolutely no way you can tell me that someone three years older looks significantly different than someone two years older, especially given the fact that these are both famous actors with access to Hollywood-level skincare and anti-aging procedures.

It’s just. I don’t know. One of those things that rubs me the wrong way

[rynnthefangirl]

https://www.tumblr.com/very-straight-blog/760265762145452032/i-decided-to-summarize-all-the-statements-about?source=share

I didn't read the book, so all these things were really just rumors?

Yes, this post is accurate. Aegon is a rapist in the show, but in the book we don’t know. A strange thing about this fandom is the way that the book and show canon are blended together, with some things from the show being taken as defining aspects of a character despite them not being explicitly true in the book (or even being directly contradictory to the book). Other examples include Alicent being a child bride and Aemond being a bully victim. That being said, Aegon being a rapist is a pretty reasonable jump to make, given that he was known to sexually harass serving girls. So Team Black will frequently call Aegon a rapist because it is canon in the show and consistent with both his show and book characterizations. The other points are all accurate, there are some nasty rumors about Aegon, but nothing confirmed.

*Getting into spoilers now if you don’t know the later events of the book*

No worries though, Aegon is still very much a piece of shit in the book! In truth, him being a rapist is pretty far down on my list of reasons why I hate him. There are plenty of other things in the book to despise Aegon for! Usurping the throne, celebrating Luke’s murder by throwing a feast, murdering all the rat catchers in the red keep, traumatizing his 10 year old nephew and then ordering him to be mutilated, etc). I think the death of Maester Gerardys is a good demonstration of book!Aegons cruelty:

Mind you, this was not an enemy combatant or Lord, this was a maester who was only doing his job (and seemed to have been a pretty good dude, he defended Addam and Nettles from Rhaenyra’s suspicions and offered Aegon II milk of the poppy to ease his pain after Moondancer burned him). Aegon could have simply had him imprisoned or beheaded. Instead he gave him a sadistic and torturous death for really no other reason than just to be cruel. Idk to me that is as bad an act as raping Dyanna was in the show.

Despite being accurate, the original post just rubs me the wrong way. Pointing out that Dyanna was the only known instance of show Aegon raping someone? 1. As if him being a rapist isn’t so bad if he only did it once. 2. Aegon doesn’t even seem to see his actions as wrong in the show, to him it was just harmless fun. Am I really expected to believe that is the one and only time a spoiled and lustful Prince like Aegon decided to have “fun” with one of the serving girls?

Also framing this as a “Team Black” issue, as if Team Green isn’t constantly misrepresenting stuff from the book to fit their narrative. There are many of examples of this, but my two favorites:

1. “Rhaenyra saw herself as the exception to women ruling and robbed other women of their inheritance to give to their brothers”

- In reference to the Rosby and Stokeworth situation. This is blatantly false, Rosby and Stokeworth’s daughters were never their fathers’ heirs. It was Corlys who called Rhaenyra’s situation an exception, not because she is special and different than other women, but because her father named her heir. Rhaenyra’s whole succession ideology is based on the right of lords to choose their successors, and she upheld exactly that, refusing to usurp others’ inheritance against their lord fathers’ will as the Greens had done to her.

2. “Aegon II showed Rhaenyra’s son mercy and named him heir because he cared more about preserving House Targaryen’s future than he did the Greens vs Blacks conflict”

-Egregiously false and disingenuous. Aegon’s “mercy” to his nephew was wanting to give him a choice between castration and spending his life at the Wall. It was Corlys who insisted Aegon the Younger be named heir and engaged to Jaehaera. Aegon II did not want this, he specifically said “my sisters line must end”, but he couldn’t afford to lose Corlys’ support. It was Larys who convinced him to agree to Corlys’ demands. How did he convince him? Why by telling him that Aegon the Younger would never actually marry Jaehaera or become king, they’d just lie to Corlys and when their position was strong enough they could betray and kill him, and then castrate or exile Rhaenyra’s 10 year old son as Aegon II originally wanted to. Aegon’s “mercy” for his nephew was of the same flavor as Cersei and Joffrey’s “mercy” for Sansa.

Sorry lol, this was a long response for what was a simple ask, I just love trash talking that POS usurper.😅

TLDR; yes these are only rumors in the book and Aegon being a rapist is only strictly canon in the show. But it is not inconsistent with his book characterization, and book!Aegon is in fact still an incredibly despicable person even if you assume none of these rumors are true.

[coff33notforme]

HECK YEAH ANOTHA WELCOME HOME WRITER!! Also! The fact you also like tf2 makes you literally the best. Anyways I was wondering if you could write a Wally x GNreader (scenario,hcs, really whatever you feel like writing, I’m not picky!!) but where the reader has BPD, so they’re really awkward, gets embarrassed, anger issues…etc!!

thanks so much neighbor!! I hope you have a good day bud! Make sure to drink water and keep yourself healthy! Toodles!!

A/n: AAA, Thank you so much for the compliment and for the request! I had a lot of fun writing this! This is my first time writing for Wally and since there is not a lot of characterization for him yet I kinda just loosely based this off what I thought he might be like, so yeah. But I hope you enjoy none the less! ^^

Disclaimer: there might be some inaccurate depictions of BPD since I do not have this disorder, I did some research before I wrote this, but it still might not be true to the experience of everyone with BPD

Pairing: Wally darling and gn Reader (This can be read as Romantic or Platonic!)

At first Wally had noticed small things about you, things that you made you stick out from the rest of his colorful friends

Wally had observed you from afar, interacting with the other neighbors, but you seemed to be acting different then everyone else in the group

You were stiff, your speech awkward and your movements seemed to be stifled in a way that made you seem very robotic 

And for the majority of the time you were in the group you seemed to be quiet, but by the way you stood it seemed like you always had something to say but you bite your tongue, letting the words die on your lips

Until you and your neighbors had parted ways, Wally watched as you walked away your shoulders seemed tense and a frustrated scowl rested on your face, this confused Wally, you seemed to be fine a couple minutes ago?

What had happened to upset you in such a short amount of time

Wally was intrigued by you, it's in his nature to be curious after all

Intrigued by this sudden ripple of change in your behavior Wally set out to ask you exactly what had bothered you

Wally walked the steps to your small home, giving a quiet knock to your wooden door,not wanting to disturb you incase you were still upset

Silence stretched out through your seemingly empty house, before the door creaked open, your face peeking out from behind the door

“Hello?” 

“Hello neighbor, do you mind if I come in?” Wally's cheerful voice rang out through your weary home, your tired eyes shifted behind you to your messy house, before you glanced back to the to the eager puppet in front of you

“Uh, I don’t know my house is kind of a mess right now.” Wally simply let out a light chuckle

“Mess doesn’t bother me at all.” You hesitated, sighing as you reluctantly opened the door as the colorful man stepped inside, glancing around your dreary home

“You have a lovely home friend.” 

You gave an exhausted smile

“Thank you Wally, that's sweet. And I don’t mean to be rude, what brings you over here?” you ask, rubbing your arms anxiously 

Wally took note of your sudden change in emotion

“Well, I don’t mean to stick my nose where it doesn't belong, but I couldn't help but notice you seem so…for the lack of a better word ‘strange’, whenever you speak to others.” 

You winced at the mention of your behavior

Wally took notice of this and immediately corrected himself

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for that to sound insensitive, what I meant is that I was simply concerned for your sudden change in your behavior, and was wondering if there was anything that upset you?” he offered a quiet explanation 

You shook your head, your eyes shifting to the floor

“It’s not important, don’t worry about it.” 

Unimpressed by this answer, Wally pushed a bit further

“If there's anything wrong, I want you to feel like you can talk to me, I’m not just a neighbor, I’m a friend.” 

He paused for a moment 

“Of course, there's no pressure, you can talk whenever you're ready to, dear.”

You smiled, this time it felt genuine, like his words had stirred the emptiness inside of you 

“Thanks Wally, I will.” 

From then on you and Wally's relationship grew much stronger than before

Wally was always there to help you when you felt lonely, or angry, or whatever you were dealing with he would be there to help you calm down, or for you to just rant to

Anything that you needed Wally was happy to provide

First Welcome home request lets go gamers

[kaizokuou-ni-naru]

Hi! Sorry if this has already been asked! I read your post on Blackbeard and remembered I wanted to ask you about this. What are your views on the upcoming One Piece remake and their aim to cut the series down enough to be a seasonal anime like Demon Slayer or Jujutsu? Also, if you've seen the live action for One Piece, what are your thoughts on it?

i will say that for me, adaptations of one piece generally don't hold much interest or emotional weight, because the manga will always be the truest version of the story to me. i think it's cool if more good work based on it is made! but i tend to feel pretty ambivalent about this sort of thing. i don't even watch the anime most of the time.

i've only seen the first half of the live action, i still need to find time with friends to watch the remaining four episodes, but i did enjoy it! it's certainly a distinct work from the manga and needs to be watched without expecting it to be an especially loyal adaptation, but i had fun regardless. there were choices i really liked (i was a HUGE fan of the reworking of syrup village) and choices i didn't (garp's characterization and the rushing of coby's storyline, from what i saw of it, rubbed me the wrong way). it does kinda feel like it will fall apart if they try to continue too far past this point, given the changes that have been made.

i don't feel that we know enough about the anime remake at this point to make any assumptions about whether it'll be good or not. it is the sort of thing i've idly wanted for awhile- i think anime adaptations fare far better when they're allowed to be constructed in seasons rather than as a constant weekly output, as one piece as been- but i'm not getting my hopes up, i feel quite skeptical at the moment until we know more.

[duriens]

did the show just.... butcher devil's minion completely??

I didn't mind Armand's characterization in the show so far (well, kind of, except the fact that they turned him into a supervillain vs. saint Lestat) but the sudden reveal that Daniel Molloy was turned by Armand "out of spite", leaving him all alone to fend for himself apparently, really put me off. so not only there is little to no chance that devil's minion ever happened in the 70s or 80s, but also it's not gonna happen in 2022? because Daniel has already been turned, and the turning of Daniel is the culmination of Armand's and Daniel's relationship arc together, one that is for sure unhealthy and codependent and obsessive, but that was also tender and sweet in a very special way - no wonder that chapter has been a fan favorite for so many for so long. and they just.... discarded it like that?

Daniel's a vampire, he's been turned out of spite, it's heavily hinted that it happened either immediately after Dubai or very little time later. I really doubt there has been time/interest to do any sort of chase, or one that culminates into the sort of feelings Armand and Daniel develop for each other, at least. Daniel destroyed Armand in the eyes of his lover and I really don't think there's any sort of love story brewing there. Doesn't seem it happened in the past either, cause there's not a single hint at the Alice theory in this episode and I thought that if it was true, we'd have another little crumb before the season was over.

What about Armand's line that making fledglings repulsed/repulses him? That was a really important piece of characterization and they didn't even let us see him work through that when turning Daniel. Book Armand sees the process as something worse than killing, and that is why he never did it. He finally concedes because of love for Daniel, however obsessive it is, because Daniel is begging him on his death bed, because he needs him forever and Daniel needs him, too. From repulsion to acceptance because of a pure, absolute sentiment. Show Armand turns Daniel Molloy because he's full of spite. Why would they take the 'Armand is a super villain and theres nothing else to him' route and give him a petty vedetta for that one act that is so important for him in the book, as a character? Why??

and why did they have the talamasca guy tell Daniel 'you should be scared of the other one' when literally they made Armand the dude who kills and turns Daniel, whereas Louis is his best friend?? It just doesn't make sense. There's quite a bit that doesn't make sense to me in this last episode. But I gotta admit, the treatment of Armand's and Daniel's characters has baffled me. even if I weren't a devil minion's fan or a fan of these two characters specifically, it would've rubbed me the wrong way.

I don't know. I guess we'll see what they do next; hoping that there is more to that event than a simple 'oh he turned u cause u ruined his life' and Armand fucking off into the sunset forever (not quite, lol). maybe we'll find out it was all an elaborate plot from Daniel who knew he was paying with fire and counted on Armand to be so mad he would do the one act he found repulsive: finally making a vampire. maybe that's it, and Daniel had decided at some point during the sessions that he didn't want to die, that he wanted the gift. maybe he never changed his mind about it since the 70s. maybe he played Armand. manipulating the manipulator? makes sense in a way, I guess, but boy is it a waste to not serve on a silver platter all those sad and tender and raw and odd feelings that the devil's minion chapter already had prepared for us.

[babacontainsmultitudes]

Ngl getting worried that "Sparrow doesn't like Normal" thing has been said so much on the show that the actual cast forgot that isn't true ......

Hi anon! Okay first of all, this was a very cathartic ask to receive, to the point that it kind of cracked me up when I first read it, so thank you, you were so real for this. I can empathize with this sentiment (though I had no plans on voicing it) and I've felt similarly for… A while honestly.

You sent this back in December (heh. classic baba.), and while I didn't forget, honestly I intended to answer this in a manner that's a bit more. Organized but… I sort of lost sight of where I wanted to go with things, to be honest with you, and I didn't wanna leave you hanging forever! Still, a couple notes and tangentially-related thoughts…

(Oh, maybe before we get into it- I assume based on the nature of this ask that you probably read this post of mine, but perhaps I'll leave it here as additional context for anyone who happens to find themselves reading this).

Okay, in Will's case to be totally real I've never confidently felt that he realizes that it's not true? If my memory serves, the first time the idea comes up at all is in episode 17:

Which irked me a bit at the time, in part because to me it feels pretty blatantly discordant with Sparrow's characterization- in general but also since he literally says this during the dance scene:

but even more so because it feels very inconsistent with Normal's degree of shock during this same scene. All the same, for a while I could still look past it, on the basis that y'know it's a very teenage thing to make mountains out of molehills and leap to increasingly cynical conclusions the way Normal tends to do, and so perhaps it was all intentional, and as both Sparrow and Normal went through a bit of growth and development, things would slowly turn out alright. :0 A bit willfully naïve, I suppose! But what can you do.

In Anthony's case… I've actually been pretty happy with what he's given us of Sparrow for the past little while, honestly. Sigh but still now and then Anthony will say things offhandedly like this (transcribing myself from episode 47 since the transcript isn't out yet):

Anthony: (…) The only thing keeping you together is the absolute ignorance you have of the fact that maybe the only person who ever showed you any real affection in the last couple years of your life is dead, and the fact that you don't know is all that keeps you going. But the only thing that keeps me going is [ADVERTIZEMENT].

And while that joke lead-in was very funny, it's also just. Objectively not true? Like even aside from all the instances of Sparrow being very affectionate with Norm (including in the dance scene), the other teens? Lark? Rebecca???? All of them have shown Normal affection in one way or another throughout the course of the show. Like, I get that he probably mostly did it for the joke but. Eh, still rubs me the wrong way I suppose.

As for the rest of the cast… It's hard to say, and I guess less important at the end of the day. The other teens' responses to Norm in the last episode make sense for the most part given their POVs imo, so while frustrating to a degree, I can't really fault them for it. Still… Hm, in Scary's case I briefly discussed what I would sort have wanted/liked to come from her own interactions with Sparrow after episode 37 here, and tbh I suppose everything outlined there is still more or less what my ideal scenario would have looked like!

So honestly I suppose that's it anon! I could talk more but I would most definitely begin to stray off topic if I did lol. Thank you kindly for the ask! 💜

[smoothjazzdigit]

PLEASE expand on your thoughts for muppets abc i would love to hear them /nf /gen /pos

Okay for some reason I didn’t get notified for this ask so sorry it’s a bit late!

But YES thx for the opportunity to rant ab this show

Pros

I actually am a big fan of muppets abc. I’ll get into the cons later but I like the style of humor the show has (for the most part), I like when the muppets have more of an adult spin where it’s not like family guy humor but it’s a little more mature than most muppet projects. The modern muppets have been so heavily targeted toward children in many projects that it’s nice to see them recognize that a lot of modern muppets fans are adults (not that adults can’t like children’s humor, I for sure do, but y’know).

Also I really like a lot of the people they chose as guests for the show, and I honestly like the sitcom style following the muppets backstage of a show. I think it’s a good modernization of the original muppet show premise that allows it to focus less on skits and more on characters. Also normally I despise social media plot lines but I actually like the way this show handles pulling the muppets into the digital age, which is crucial for such a timeless property.

Also, as many problems as there are for muppets fans, it’s a really good show to watch with people who casually enjoy the muppets. This show’s style is more to the taste of some of my family members so I like watching it with them. And separate from the muppet’s characterizations the comedy is really good (but that’s subjective so I can see how it rubs some people the wrong way).

Cons

For one the cliffhanger ending kills me. Even if this show was weirdly received it had a really short run, they could’ve used a few more episodes or another season so we didn’t get left on such an annoying cliffhanger (that left Kermit and piggy still officially broken up since the show didn’t continue long enough for them to get back together).

Ok let me get into characters now, because that’s a criticism that I think is 100% valid (though I also think few people other than jerry juhl have properly understood the muppets and not flanderized their characters in some way)(but yeah it’s really bad here).

Scooter!!

How they’ve massacred my boy!

We’ll get to piggy but scooter is the one I’m most upset about. Why? Why change him from nepo baby humor to haha nerd comedy?? It was 2015 man we love making fun of nepo babies and rich people nowadays why would they change the character whose gimmick gets funnier with age?

His characterization feels pulled from the Big Bang theory. All his comedy is just “virgin nerd” comedy. I love that the show tried giving him more screen time than other projects but they fumbled the bag. He was a spoiled teenager who was wild and fun and could get away with anything because his uncle was rich. I get he’s older now but I refuse to think aging did this to him.

Because I’m a nerd I’m gonna pull some quotes about scooter from the new Richard hunt biography bc that man understood his characters.

“Like Hunt, Scooter is a born performer. Scooter also resembles Hunt in his amiable disposition and his almost nonchalant acceptance of the other characters and their quirks.”

“This acceptance stems from his own quiet confidence in himself… happily amusing himself and the people around him.”

“‘Scooter is a perpetual kid and very comfortable with who he is,’ said Hunt.”

HMMMM? CONFIDENCE? A PERFORMER? COMFORTABLE WITH WHO HE IS?

abc scooter just gives off such anxious vibes it really makes him feel like he’s lost the part of himself that made him so much like Richard Hunt.

Piggy

Ughhh she’s just not fun to watch for the most part in this show. I like the idea of her being the star of the show this time around, reminds me of her unexpected rise to fan-favorite muppet soon after Oz took over her character.

I also really like her friendship with deadly. I think miss piggy so often is boiled down to her love for Kermit that I really love the idea of having her explore platonic bonds. Her looking so hard for happiness in romantic relationships but eventually realizing that deadly is the one who’s been by her side, that he’s her friend and that she really loves him for sticking by her is a really sweet arc (for both of them. Love platonic piggy relationships and I like the modern fashion designer vibe they’ve been doing with deadly, I think it’s a fun reimagining of his original character).

But her diva meter really is pushed up to eleven.

Not to pull more from the Richard hunt bio, but Oz describes piggy as “The tough woman underneath the coyness. And the fact that she had to be coy to get things the way she wanted them, like most women at that time.”

Piggy is from humble beginnings and understands how she needs to act to get people to feel a certain way about her. She also won’t take shit from anybody, though. She knows her worth and knows she’s worked hard to get here, but it also was such an uphill battle to stardom for her I just refuse to believe she would become so selfish and act so privileged the way she does in the show.

ABC piggy doesn’t feel like a girl who tries to be coy but knows to be tough when she needs to be. ABC piggy is mean. She has a thin temper and everyone is scared of her and she’s so removed from the non-famous life that she has trouble bonding with people. She only does community service for publicity and can barely manage to do any manual labor. She’s not tough. She’s angry. She’s short-tempered and violent. And she has no trace of her humble roots, that gratefulness for the position of fame she’s in that she holds in so many other roles.

Others

Sam is pretty creepy. I love his gag of being the censorship for the show, him popping up saying “can’t say that” is a nice little nod to him trying to control the chaos of the original show and his little conservative speech sketches. His crush on Janice is kinda odd tho. I like him getting more modern spotlight, I really like his character in most wanted (though a rewatch of that is needed haven’t seen it in a while). But yeah he’s kinda weird here.

Also why were gonzo and Camilla broken up. Disagree. Idc about your relationship drama they’re the muppets otp.

Uhh trying to think off the top of my head, it’s been a few months since my rewatch of the show. I don’t like the mayhem fight. I think teeth and Floyd fighting over Janice is weird and off for them in modern day. Respect Janice rejecting labels, go off Queen.

Conclusion/TLDR

I had more to say than I realized but I don’t want to make too long of a post. Tldr, I really like the show and it’s humor but it does feel divorced from “the muppets” as a pre-established franchise and characters. The characterization is bad, even though I appreciate them trying to give more screen time to some lesser used characters, it didn’t really work. I just think it had a lot of potential, and I like the idea of a more adult but still family oriented muppet show, but the execution was really hit or miss.

Refer to my previous post about it for more condensed thoughts, weird show all around lol

Also stan abc Big Mean Carl. Stole the show, 10/10

[8bitsupervillain]

Higurashi When They Cry Hou Ch. 6 Tsumihoroboshi pt. 22

I am very undecided if I should call what’s about to unfold here a retcon. Apologies for another massive screenshot dump.

See, the reason I’m hesitant about calling this a retcon is because it’s portraying these events from the view of this timeline’s Keiichi being able to think about things rationally. This Keiichi is able to remember these events from Onikakushi and think about them from the rational angle of Mion and Rena were probably on the up and up, but that doesn’t really hold water with the way it was portrayed in Onikakushi. After all Keiichi did find a needle in the ohagi, Mion did have a syringe (probably H173) that she was going to inject Keiichi with. Hell even with the part where Mion is crying because of Keiichi accusing her of murder she did very swiftly start to rant about how she should have killed Ooishi long before he started Keiichi on his path of paranoia.

Clearly this span of screenshots and exposition is meant to try to mesh Onikakushi more cleanly with the larger plot that has come about as of Tsumihoroboshi. So it has to try to explain away Keiichi’s paranoia with his onset of Hinamizawa Syndrome, but really I think you could just as easily explain it as Keiichi remembering events from other timelines that did happen the way they did. I don’t doubt that Keiichi had Hinamizawa Syndrome back when everything went to hell in Onikakushi, but this sudden turn of trying to explain that Keiichi doubting his friends and becoming excessively paranoid just rubs me the wrong way.

Except he didn’t! Up until this very moment he had no recollection of any of this happening! Even at the time when he did homerun derby his way through Rena and Mion’s skulls he very definitely didn’t act like they deserved it! He never outright expressed regret at the deed of murdering them, but he never explicitly blamed them for their deaths either. Keiichi acted like they were used by the grander conspiracy to get at him.

Keiichi’s freakout worsens as he is overcome with guilt over having killed Rena and Mion five chapters ago. This makes Satoko and Mion thoroughly confused because as far as they’re aware Keiichi might as well be having this meltdown over a bad dream. Rika however approaches Keiichi to confirm that Keiichi is aware of his sin of having killed Mion and Rena five chapters and four years ago. Keiichi confirms that he is acutely aware, and that he didn’t even realize it when he clawed out his own throat at the end of Onikakushi and only just realized it now during the later half of Tsumihoroboshi. It never really goes into detail about her rebirth process, only that Rika prefers to have some time to come to grips with what happened “recently” but I can’t help but wonder if this is similar to how it works for her. But really I suppose that’s more a question for Minagoroshi than anything.

This… is a very ironic screenshot given what happens later on in Minagoroshi.

Rika then goes on to make Keiichi remember what it was like when he gave in to paranoia and eventually killing Rena and Mion. She rationalizes that because he went through this he could save Rena. Probably.

Now, I don’t know about Ryukish07’s writing process, and I don’t know if Wikipedia should be believed about the release dates between chapters. But given the short amount of time between Tsumihoroboshi and Minagoroshi I can’t help but assume that the pair of these were probably written together for the most part. Four months doesn’t seem like nearly enough time to have completely forgotten the characterization for who is probably your most important character in the franchise. But it is just wild to me how Rika seems to do a complete 180 in terms of characterization from Tsumihoroboshi to Minagoroshi. I guess maybe you could handwave it away as she doesn’t remember this particular conversation due to dying shortly after this chapter ends? Even though that doesn’t make a bit of sense considering she mentions things that happened right at the end of the chapter in the next one.

Anyway, thus now burdened with the memory of killing Mion and Rena in a past life Keiichi apologizes to Mion for it, and vows to be there to protect her in the future if she needs protection. A flustered Mion accepts this.

[esther-dot]

Lately I've been toying with the idea that Jon will indeed become king of the FF. It's the only reasonable ending for him, the only one that matches both Jon's show ending and Sansa's book foreshadowing (to marry a king, not a prince, not a king who had been). I think the show ending on such ambiguous (and bitter!) terms for Jon was decided because of the sequel. In other words, I'm considering the possibility that M. will transfer his 5year gap at the end, and we'll see them again at the end after some time will have lapsed and they'll be older and firmly in their positions. But, with this ending I'm afraid we'll only get hints of Jon and Sansa's romance on page, and nothing too explicit (although I guess that it might have a role in Daeny's death).

I think that, throughout the book, the famous "the FF don't kneel" is only meant to be subverted: they will kneel to Jon, after everything he has done for them, and he will probably settle them in the Gift(s). In my opinion, this ending is truly poetic. If ASoIaF is a fairytale, then the hidden prince does not become king because of his inheritance (which he has already foresaken just as he will reject the Targaryen inheritance: so vividly given as "I don't want it!" in the show, lol), but has forged a kingdom for himself, because he is truly worth it. I am not sure that he will go to the Wall because he will be punished, but regardless, he will become king of the FF. If it will be like this, then Jon's ending is the apotheosis of subversions.

And only as an equal will he be able to marry Sansa: when Sansa becomes queen, everybody will want her for her claim twice over, unless her husband is already king. I think this ending is foreshadowed in her ASOS, Sansa IV chapter: two castles in the sky, one black, one grey, become one in all the colors of spring. Note that this is something Sansa sees in the morning sky, meaning after dawn.

And with this explanation I've made peace with the disastrously ambiguous ending of GoT.

I wish you'll make your peace too, Esther!

(old anon btw, anxiously waiting for your posts for years, and now this darn thing made take a name. So be it).

It's so nice to finally "meet" you @justleaves!

I like that reading of book foreshadowing and the mess GoT gave us. You know I can't agree with most of the fandom that we can entirely or even mostly dismiss the show's ending. Too much of it gave me that, "it was always meant to be this way" feeling and since the ending of the show, Jonsas have turned up a lot of foreshadowing for Arya sailing away, King Bran, Dark Dany, Jaime and Cersei dying together...so many things were kinda-sorta right, just presented so horribly they felt wrong!

I've always felt very weird about Jon becoming King of the FF, most of us Jonsas reject that out of hand because it really rubs us the wrong way, but I had a series of anons critical of Martin's handling of aspects of Dany's POV some time ago, particularly how he characterized the Dothraki, and I did go back to read/re-watch some interviews, and I've accepted he doesn't share our sensibilities there, or on a handful of other issues. I hadn't even realized I was projecting when I dismissed the possibility of a kid from a different culture becoming the leader of an indigenous group. To me that is inherently negative. But of course, at the time when Martin began all this, it wasn't generally perceived that way, and we have Mance so...

Right after GoT ended some of us speculated that not including the Gift was why they had Jon ride off past the Wall with the FF, while in the books, he might be responsible for the Gift, so I really like how you've blended the two. I've written before about how it would make sense to me that Jon rejects the Stark/Northern claim and then rejects the Targaryen/Southern claim, and is rewarded in he end for those decisions, and I think it would be a more satisfying resolution to the bastard struggle if he is chosen as a leader because of who he is rather than who his "father" is (whether we mean Ned's son -> KitN or Rhaegar's son -> Targ heir). The way Jon is of the North, has such connections to the Starks (whether as Ned's bastard or Lyanna's boy post parentage reveal) as well as his time with the FF, the understanding he has and care he has for them which others do not, well, it certainly sets him up as a great bridge between the cultures. A person uniquely capable of creating a lasting peace.

I also really like your idea of the time-lapse because a) Sansa's age b) allowing all these revelations time to settle. I can't rationalize how the cast of characters would accept Jon as the legitimized son of Ned, only to turn around and accept that actually he's Lyanna's son, and how they'd be ok with a Jonsa marriage immediately thereafter. And that's not even dealing with how he'll be perceived/the rumors that will be swirling around him post rez and whatever his actions are immediately after. Love it in fics, but when I think about it in Martin's words, hard for me to imagine, so the idea that in a few years after Jon has established himself they'd be able to marry, that makes sense to me.

I think this ending is foreshadowed in her ASOS, Sansa IV chapter: two castles in the sky, one black, one grey, become one in all the colors of spring. Note that this is something Sansa sees in the morning sky, meaning after dawn.

That is a beautiful reading of the scene! I can easily see that being the idea! The other reading I've seen on this is that it's the Jon and Sansa competing claims being joined as the solution to the Northern succession crisis (that may be @agentrouka-blog's spec? I'm not successfully turning anything up atm). I had actually written into the margins in my copy "sounds like Winterfell" by the line about a castle in ruins, and later in ASOS, we have back to back Jon and Sansa chapters that talk about Winterfell and have a weird number of similarities (link). But, specifically, the ruins/rebuilding idea seems like it points to Jon and Sansa's stories converging and allowing them to restore Winterfell together:

The warmth took some of the ache from his muscles and made him think of Winterfell's muddy pools, steaming and bubbling in the godswood. Winterfell, he thought. Theon left it burned and broken, but I could restore it. Surely his father would have wanted that, and Robb as well. They would never have wanted the castle left in ruins. (Jon XII, ASOS) The snow fell and the castle rose. Two walls ankle-high, the inner taller than the outer. Towers and turrets, keeps and stairs, a round kitchen, a square armory, the stables along the inside of the west wall. It was only a castle when she began, but before very long Sansa knew it was Winterfell. She found twigs and fallen branches beneath the snow and broke off the ends to make the trees for the godswood. For the gravestones in the lichyard she used bits of bark. Soon her gloves and her boots were crusty white, her hands were tingling, and her feet were soaked and cold, but she did not care. The castle was all that mattered. Some things were hard to remember, but most came back to her easily, as if she had been there only yesterday. The Library Tower, with the steep stonework stair twisting about its exterior. The gatehouse, two huge bulwarks, the arched gate between them, crenellations all along the top . . . (Sansa VII, ASOS)

So as always, I see the pros, I see the cons, I can't make up my mind, but I'm ok with that. I have no problem talking about GoT/my frustrations when I get an ask, but after I wrote my post canon fic Free, I just...wasn't angry anymore. D&D's choices will always baffle me, I'm disappointed we don't have TWOW yet, but I enjoy the different spec, fics, gifs, and art we have in the Jonsa fandom, so as long as we're all having fun, I'm happy.

I'd love to read any other observations you have about ASOIAF and fairytales, I think posts about parallels with other lit are fascinating!