#but i feel like it might also come from her characters being constantly put under a microscope

[meanbossart]

ASK COMPILATION: Boomer Drow, Scratch, Mouthwashing, Cats and musical opinions.

A more casual compilation this time as I desperately try to make some room in my inbox. I went back so far I found lore questions and art prompts that I really liked but had completely forgotten about... That's why it's a mess in there LOL I will hopefully get to those soon!

Hi! Thank you! I still dream about smoking almost every night and had a couple during the new year but I'm hanging in there :')

Very loose and mostly as a bit. It might be something that I explore more in the future, but as of right now their "canon" setting is far, far more interesting to me!

...That's brutal and highly accurate 😭

[MORE UNDER THE CUT]

I'm not gonna lie, when I started posting I got, uh, a lot of responses like this to my art. About how I drew people "ugly" and frightening and even though it MOSTLY was meant as a compliment, it got kinda... Overwhelming 😅 It definitely led me to do a 180 for a while and re-access how I wanted to draw people. I love drawing flaws but I think that comes from not really seeing them as flaws, so the amount of folks AGGRESSIVELY harping on it did eventually get to me a little bit.

I think I've since found a pretty good balance between simple, pretty and "flawed" that I enjoy, though. So, thank you! I do take your message as a compliment and I'm glad you enjoy him.

DU drow was my first run! I have since played with a different character called Izzantar who was my first non-urge campaign though.

...

...

... I didn't find scratch in the DU drow run. Sorry anon LOL

Now you see, this is the legacy I want to leave behind.

(thanks for making Astarion feel included)

I was the one who recommended it to him and I really liked it! I've always DREAMED of a game that actually and unapologetically put you in the shoes of a shitty person and took you through the complex reasons why they are the way that they are without justifying their actions. And I adore the way the secondary character undeniably had a hand in the tragedy that unfolded despite his good intentions. The game sincerely explored the types of flawed characters I rarely ever see explored and I can only give it my sincerest kudos to it.

I've been considering playing Origins on stream after MANY recommendations, actually!

I would suggest examining and referencing off athletes and gymnasts videos for practice while trying to garner a more in-depth understanding of musculature by crossreferencing that stuff with dry, medical anatomy diagrams. I have a few more in-depth examples and advice in my #tutorial and #advice tags!

DU drow would really like Frida. Jarboe would constantly disappoint him by being the very dumb animal that she is.

I think Astarion would like both of them but complain endlessly about how much attention they demand and how up in his business they'd want to be - I have a feeling he likes street cats, which none of my cats are (Frida has a little street-smarts remaining but has been thoroughly spoiled by now. Jarboe was a hoarder cat before I adopted her and is extremely sociable and un-cat-like because of it.)

I DM'd a single Call of Cthulhu session in my teens and only recently participated in my first ever DnD game in a discord event! That's about it.

This is for the over-attentive ANE readers but Brutus is a Dalyria song for me ☺️

He'd like Jazz A LOT.

But I think he'd be more of a root-punk/post-rock guy, not really into synth. And then a lot of the classics like Elvis, Nina Simone, Marley, etc.

Also Foetus and GG allin for whatever reason.

3 for Astarion, 5 for Shadowheart. Jaheira would never but she could get away with 8.

[crazylittlejester]

i don’t know if this is something Jojo is doing on purpose, or if it was an intentional detail but i grabbed and ran away with it, or if I’ve just completely read far to into things and entered the realm of just making shit up, but Warriors and his little crooked smile are so GODDAMN important to me and I am shaking him like a squeak toy (gently)

(big yap/analysis under the cut)

disclaimer, i just have a lot of thoughts, probably way too many thoughts, and 97% of them are about Wars so I might be insane, and what you’re about to read provided you’ve stuck around so far might be the equivalent of your high school english teacher yelling with tears in their eyes about how the curtains were blue to “symbolize her sadness”. also my apologies for weird spelling mistakes or oddly misspelled words, i am dyslexic 💔 but with that being said:

Warriors to me comes off as someone who’s constantly acting larger than life. He masks a LOT in front of the chain, he acts overdramatic and a bit ridiculous on purpose, and to an extent he just is a bit ridiculous, but his reactions to things are sometimes blow way out of proportion or are just larger than life in a comedic way where it just seems like he’s doing it intentionally. He comes across as a very extroverted, talkative person, and he seems like he’d honestly be a bit loud too (whether that’s who is REALLY is or what he’s REALLY like is a yap for another post). His (physical) image and the way his character/personality is perceived by others both seem like things that are not his CORE values or the things that mean the most to him, but they do seem to be at least a LITTLE bit important to him just based on how he presents himself and the way he acts. And to an extent, the whole thing with him caring so much about his looks is canon in LU, with that one sketch of him and Legend where he’s looking at his eye in a reflection of a shield and Legend says “alright break it up you two” being the first thing that comes to mind (which is in the post “Mirror Shield”, click the name for the link)

To me, from what I’ve seen and from my perspective, there are very few times we see an actual genuine smile from Warriors, and when we do it tends to be in moments where he’s not in the spotlight, he’s not trying to command the center of attention, and/or the focus is NOT on him. It tends to be moments where he just seems genuinely happy or at peace, and those seem pretty rare. He smiles a LOT, but the majority of his smiles seem big and flashy and performative, and not that that means he’s not happy AT ALL in any of those moments, but those smiles seem a lot more controlled and closely managed because he’s aware of the attention on him and therefore thinking about how he’s perceived. (I’ve made some posts in the past and I’ll probably make others in the future about how I think Warriors puts on this “Captain” or “Hero of Hyrule” persona because of how an entire war was started because a sorceress found him beautiful, and how he feels like him being just him isn’t really good enough for that and how he feels like he needs to fit in and look/act/seem like the legendary heroes he’s being compared to. He’s created this idea of what he COULD be and that’s what he presents to others, fake it till you make it and all that, but thats another yap for another day)

However there are these little moments where we see him smile, and the same one side of his mouth is pretty consistently always just a little bit higher no matter which way his head is facing (here’s a few examples):

@/linkeduniverse, from the 2023 monthly art, “January- Cold Sunrise”

@/linkeduniverse, both from “Dawn pt. 2”

And the thing that really started this whole headcanon of mine that his REAL smile is crooked was this specific part of Dawn pt. 2 where Warriors sees that Twilight is gonna be find for the first time after most likely worrying about him and being up all night:

That middle panel, to me at least, is probably the most genuine expression of a positive emotion we’ve seen from him this entire time. No one’s focus is on him, no one’s really looking at him, he doesn’t have the pressure of being the center of attention on him, and honestly even if that WERE the case, the genuine relief that hit him once he was Twilight was gonna be okay probably would’ve been enough to get a genuine smile out of him anyways. But the second he walks into the room officially, he kinda, for lack of a better way to put it, announces his presence and starts “acting” again (also from Dawn pt 2):

And while that same one side of his mouth does seem a bit higher and not very straight, it’s definitely more even than it was just five seconds previously

Now, acknowledging there is an art style, and that I also just might be insane, but Warriors’s smiles for the most part (when they seem controlled) appear to be a Lot straighter and more even to me than when it’s a more genuine moment and he doesn’t seem like he’s “acting” so much (and just a note: it certainly isn’t EVERY time, but in general, in moments like these his smile seems consistently straighter unless he’s just flat out smirking. and im not saying it’s PERFECTLY straight either, just noticeably more even). When he’s being more dramatic or intentionally obnoxious or the attention is on him, it really does feel like his smile is more controlled: here are just a few examples, obviously this isn’t every single time he’s smiled in all of LU

@/linkeduniverse, from “Swords”

@/linkeduniverse, from “Shady Escape pt 2”

@/linkeduniverse, from “Divine Dark Reflections pt. 8”

@/linkeduniverse, both from “Magic Sword”

am i looking too far into a little thing? probably. am i insane? yeah. but i just really love the idea that when Warriors is truly, genuinely happy, the part of himself that he tries to hide, the sweet and caring person he hides underneath all the dramatics, that true self he’s probably kept hidden away since the start of the war who’s been buried under insecurity and hidden because of the fear that who he is just isnt ENOUGH peaks through, and that person comes out through his happiness in the form of his smile. and yeah it does probably mean nothing and Jojo might not have done any of this on purpose, but i’m crazy, and Warriors’s crooked little smile is so so important to me *insert image of a guy crying face down on the floor because unfortunately i’ve hit the image limit*

[twin-wxngs]

Nightmare Critters counterpart discussion.

{So, before I begin, I would like to point something out. I don't normally do speculation like this to a larger scale. However, I would also point this out as well regarding the discussion of these 16 characters:}

{The nightmare critters are not really counterparts. They are just another group like smiling critters. So! With that in mind, this topic is just for fun. So with that out of the way, let's begin under the cut. We'll be going in release order.}

When looking for counterparts for the Nightmare Critters, you have to look at their negative traits and find what clashes with them. Now, I could be wrong about some of these, but this is my take on them.

1. Baba Chops

Baba doesn't exactly like being outside. And while her friends tend to convince her after loads of trying, she seems to dip back into the same recluse we seem to see her as. Because of the fact she prefers her alone time compared to spending time with her friends leads to me believe that her counterpart is none other than the leader of the Smiling Critters: Dogday.

Dogday essentially embodies everything that Baba doesn't like doing. Spending time with his friends, being outside and having fun with others. That's what he loves the most, being there for his friends. On top of that, Baba would be that kind of person who wouldn't like having a leader role and would push it on to someone else if it meant she'd have her space.

One other thing to note, is that Baba's scent is Anise. If you don't know, Anise is a plant that is actually very unhealthy for dogs when consumed too much. However, it is also seen as a dog's catnip, making them more happy and energetic to an alarming degree.

2. Icky Licky

Icky from the looks of his description, is a very gifted individual with actual good merits. However, the problem is his attitude when making competition with others. He seems to be the type to make multiple excuses, pin them on any excuse, and maybe even pin it on other people just to say he didn't lose. As competitive as he is, he's a spoilsport with a knack for making multiple pleading cases because he doesn't want to lose. The person I can see him clashing with on this scale is Hoppy.

You see, Hoppy is energetic and sporty as well. Although the difference between her and Icky is the fact that she wouldn't really take losses that seriously. She loves sports, but she loves sharing those sports with her friends. While they're both competitive, Hoppy would actually take the loss like a champ and swear she'd win next time. And trust me, she means that.

Minor note, but both of them are animals that do a lot of hopping and jumping, if it helps you see what I'm saying.

3. Rabie Baby

Now, Rabie's counterpart doesn't really seem all that obvious. But let's take a look at what she says. She loves secrets, and she loves to blab about them to their friends. Unfortunately it seems that Rabie's big mouth of hers might seem to get her into trouble. She doesn't know boundaries, and seems to constantly push into blabbing about others because she loves to do so. I can think of one person for this, and it's Bobby.

Bobby is like the tight knit, responsible older sister of the group. She knows her friends boundaries and makes sure they're okay mentally when they're feeling down. Everyone goes to and trusts her to keep things quiet, essentially the therapist of the group. Meaning, she does know her fair share of secrets about her friends, but she keeps that kind of thing to herself, because she doesn't want to start anything. And come on, that's rude.

4. Allister Gator

Allister is definitely what you would call a lazybones by heart. He doesn't risk wanting to try anything if it means it won't bring him anything good about it. Essentially, if it doesn't benefit him, he won't do it, because he's waiting for the right thing to come by and be good for him. He's essentially a slouch that doesn't really want to put any effort, because he thinks he's good as he is. Which is a stark contrast to Kickin.

Kickin, believe it or not, is a coward who is afraid to try new things. However, this also makes him a little bit lazy too as a result. Because of this persona he has when wanting to be seen as the cool one, he's going to push through it and do anything to be seen as cool among his peers. He may not be the most courageous, but he puts in an effort to try to be, because good things will happen if you put in enough effort. And he makes an effort to try and stand out, unlike Allister here.

5. Simon Smokes

Simon is definitely one of those people that wants to be seen, but the thing is, there's something deeper going on here. You see, the way he carries himself and the fact he seems to want attention, to pay close eyes to his accomplishments makes him a bit.. desperate. Keep in mind, dragons aside from breathing fire, are known for hoarding treasure. Because of this, you could say his pendant embodies his greed for attention and gratification, which is quite opposite of Crafty.

You're all gonna kill me for this, but I'm saying it anyway. And no, it has nothing to do with them being the two mythical creatures of the group. It's moreso how they carry themselves about their talents. Compared to Simon, Crafty is more closed off about the things she likes to do. Although she wants friends, she doesn't know how to make them either, but doesn't want to bother people either, making her a bit of recluse. But the thing is, she's good at what she does, but doesn't outright gloat about it either. She'd only talk about it if you asked, being more humble and modest, probably saying it's not that good. Unlike Simon, who thinks he's on top of it all.

6. Poe

Poe definitely isn't having a phase. Jokes aside, they seem to be quite unlikable towards daylight, and seem to prefer being at night. In a sense, you could see Poe as a bit of a night owl, with the irony that they're not an owl. By the sounds of it, Poe would be the one out of the Nightmare Critters with a nocturnal schedule, wanting to be awake at night, and asleep during the day, but let's be real. If Baba's persistent friends are anything to be taken out of context, they don't let Poe do this. Which is funny, because I don't think Catnap would either. .

If you haven't forgotten, Catnap's whole deal is sleeping at appropriate times. He makes sure everyone is well rested before they have a good day of playing and having fun, which is the balance he shares with Dogday. He wouldn't like it if they were suddenly awake at night like this, especially if they have no reason to. Catnap's love for sleeping at night is both a duty and a passion, even if he's still a cat. Which you know, he takes naps during the day. Poe would probably hate this guy due to his insistence on sleeping at appropriate times.

7. Touille

Touille, despite appearing to be a glutton, is honestly more of an oddball with disgusting tastes. It's been said that seems to talk everyone's ears off when it comes to talking about his favorite thing: trash. He likes eating it, but I imagine he also likes to collect it as much as he loves talking about it. Although he's not smart in a traditional book smart sense, he seems to make up for that fact in street smarts. The difference in that scope of knowledge would contrast beautifully with Bubba.

Now you see, Bubba is what you'd call a textbook smart individual. Research? History? Document, he's your elephants and seems to know quite a lot on that side. The problem is, like Touille, he seems to talk a bit too much whether you like it or not. But unlike Touille, he doesn't really know how to apply that knowledge in a street setting. He'd prefer being in a library compared to the dump. But unlike Bubba, Touille would probably eat a book instead of read it, if it looked unsalvageable enough.

Another minor note, but Elephants don't really like rodents. If you remember they're too small for them to see, which kinda helped me make a connection.

8. Maggie Mako

Maggie usually has one thing on her mind: food. And not the good kind of food, if we're talking from a health perspective. She seems to be insanely selective about what she eats, and prefers a LOT of junk food, and is unapologetically rude about it. It's safe to say that I don't think she plans on shaping up anytime soon. Although, this would definitely irk the likes of Picky.

Picky is the other side of the caring duo that makes her and Bobby. She's been known to make sure her friends aren't selective of their food, and is actually quite healthy herself. She and Bobby care about that immensely, with Bobby caring about your mental health, and Picky caring about your physical health from a food standpoint. And who could blame her? Watching the things you eat determines how fit you'll be. I don't think she'd appreciate Maggie tossing away the veggies, or other healthy foods she gives her.

{And I believe that is it. What do you think? Do you agree with me or not? It's fine if you don't, but I don't think I want to debate this. I've been doing this on discord for too long waiting for them all to come out. So, feel free to discuss your own thoughts with peers. Personally, Kickin and Hoppy's positions could go either way, but the others I'm sure of. Still! Have fun speculating!}

[radiohahas]

(aged-up) hxh characters at a party

(a mix of canon and au)

this is very long so i put the rest under the cut ✂️ add any characters that i missed or your own scenarios!

--

gon: keg stand or about to jump from the roof to the pool. no one dared him, he just thought it’d be cool to try. if there is no pool, he’s doing something equally if not more stupid

killua: beer pong table or going through the stuff of whoever’s place it is, about to be told his boyfriend (gon) is about to do something stupid and always gets there to stop him just before he does zushi: losing at beer pong but trying really hard or getting hit on and doesn’t realize it

leorio: about to call it a night … but maybe one last drink? he’s done this like 6 times

alluka and nanika: they are treated like everyone’s little sisters and are unstoppable, having the time of their lives

kurapika: … has anyone seen kurapika?

morel: #1 party boy. constantly ordering more bottles from his special fancy alcohol delivery service. multiple people try to make him their sugar daddy but he is an eternal bachelor, except when it comes to—

knov: morel’s work wife/husband/life partner, who’s been in the car waiting for 45 minutes, and keeps getting texts like “come in” and “be out in 10” but again it’s been 45 minutes

pre-caa palm: a wallflower, nurses two drinks but stays until the party is almost winding down

post-caa palm: still a wallflower, but does shots

ikalgo: just happy to be there, enjoying every part of the party, undeniably tipsy, might try to dj

meruem: didn’t want to come but komugi did so

komugi: doesn’t go out often but wanted to experience a party, ready to leave at any moment to play gungi

royal guard: has a concerning drinking game going on - pitou’s winning, youpi’s losing, and pouf doesn’t care bc he’s still hung up on meruem (he also thinks all the remixes being played are terrible and tasteless)

knuckle: on the dancefloor and if there isn’t one he makes one, a happy drunk, shirt off and doesn’t know where it went

shoot: has knuckle’s shirt, sitting on the corner seat of the couch either really quietly bonding with someone or miserable, reading the spines of the books on the shelf next to the couch. might even read one. anyway, it’s knuckle who dragged him out in the first place

kite and crew: gathered around, drinking and reminiscing, playing board games (they brought their own if there are none) in the living room, trying to gently coax shoot (who is like … right there on the couch) into joining

phantom troupe: comes by only to steal a bunch of alcohol and leave; if they do stay, they join playing board games but are cheating. egregiously

hisoka: actually a wallflower, is nursing his own concoction he made in the kitchen, the most outrageous combination of alcohol known to humankind, that illumi says smells like something he once killed and forgot about when he was a kid

illumi: is literally ready to leave whenever hisoka is, or probably will before then. is also making comments about everyone’s outfits to hisoka in such an unimpressed tone which keeps making hisoka choke on his drink in amusement

meleoron: enjoys hearing the bass of the music outside the party while smoking on the balcony, will ask existential questions to anyone who’s outside long enough with him

melody: too loud inside, on the balcony with meleoron and casually talking philosophy. will take a hit of whatever he is offers … might have even seen kurapika at some point

bisky: she is either “too old for this nonsense” or making another pitcher of sangria and trying to convince whoever has control over the music to play some oldies and classic party hits from her youth

(if kurapika is there: he’s in the middle of a debate in the kitchen, and at this point he’s just roasting whoever he’s talking to while a crowd forms around them feeling sorry for his victim. someone has to eventually grab leorio so he can administer first aid for all the sick burns lol but to also pull kurapika away bc it was getting too brutal. common phrase used when that happens is “he brought the shovel” meaning RIP to whoever even tries argue with kurapika bc he will bury you—he once roasted a member of the phantom troupe so hard no one's seen him at a party since—so it's, like, fact)

[mirror-imaged]

okay i finished nirvana initiative + the extra route and i kind of have a lot to say. umm. lots and lots of spoiler discussion under the readmore! i'm also gonna do some zero escape spoiler talk as well in case that's something you want to avoid because i really think it helps me illustrate my feelings, but yeah. you have been warned!

so i liked it overall but i feel like i (like many other people i've seen online while searching for other people's opinions) am constantly kind of frustrated with it. i'm left with a focus on What Could Have Been over what actually happened in the story. i'm gonna just. make a list to get my main gripes off my mind before i get to the deeper stuff.

1) the timeline plot twist feels extremely pointless because the characters are not impacted by it at all, save ryuki (i'll come back to this later)

2) there are too many elements of the story that are either not explained well or are explained with in-game text in the appendix etc. (why did they wait until the epilogue to explain uru somezuki being another of so sejima's bastard children? why did they keep the prototype psync machine just there and untouched but modified in order to not require the removal of the left eye, like wouldn't they not want that thing lying around in the abandoned chemical plant? did they ever explain why gen was in tokiko's somnium besides a vague reference to him having been from horadori's lab? so on and so forth.)

3) the final act feels way too contrived and there are too many things that would have to conveniently line up in order for it to make any sense at all. (why does mizuki kuranushi conveniently dress the exact same as mizuki date will six years in the future? how does nobody in mizuki date's life at all ever mention that there's another girl who looks and sounds exactly like her that they know? how did renju and shoko conveniently never mention that mizuki is adopted to date, you know, one of their closest friends reportedly?)

4) continuing off of that, all of the returning characters that had serious character development in the first game feel extremely flanderized or like their development was ignored. (mizuki having THE MOST parent-related trauma and being formally adopted by date right before he just fucks off for six years and not having anything to say about that? date is extremely flat and barely a character in this game beyond being a pervert, and like, i don't want to say he's not a pervert. he's definitely a pervert. but he also really stuck out to me as a character with real emotional depth and a lot of intelligence where it counts and i don't like that they made him kinda nothing in this. etc.)

5) the way they handled ryuki in this was almost good but honestly, i think a reddit user i saw discussing this put it best when they said that 99% of ryuki's screentime is showing him at his lowest and the story doesn't really let him have a moment to get himself back together. the protagonist screentime split does not work at all and mizuki kuranushi and mizuki date might as well just be exchangeable, and that same user pointed out that it leaves mizuki date as an extremely underdeveloped character in this story.

okay, well, what else do i have to say? returning to the ryuki thing so i can discuss it in more detail, it feels like they really fumbled the unreliable narrator thing with him. he had so much potential to be explored in a deeper way with his constant self-sabotaging behaviors and showing that his mental illness was the whole reason the story is experienced out of order, and i love the idea of the story being out of order if it's executed well. but it wasn't! the fact that mizuki's perspective is also added in that way makes it so that it's really difficult to use ryuki's own status as an unreliable narrator to make that twist work, because, like... the mizukis are both reliable narrators. they're not lying to the audience. it's just that the audience doesn't see what happens leading up to things and your impression gives you an idea that isn't the truth.

overall, i feel really frustrated about the way the final act was handled. ryuki's entire half of the story was pretty good and i liked that, i like a lot of things about this story in THEORY. in fact, i do want to be positive about things i did like before i bring ZE into the equation, so i want to mention something i noted and appreciated: the disability representation!

i am a disabled person myself in multiple ways and - i want to stress i do not say this as any sort of personal attack on his character or as a #problematic kind of thing, it's just something i have noticed over time - i have consistently had an issue with kotaro uchikoshi's writing of disabled characters; not for the fact that i think they're written in malicious or particularly ableist ways, but moreso for the fact that their disabilities do not impact them at all until it's relevant to the plot. i've gotten about 11-12 hours into remember11 and their portrayal of DID is a mess. snake from 999 is not affected by his blindness and infact is portrayed as nearly superhuman until it's relevant to the plot (not that i wanted him to be written as incapable or anything, it's just that it doesn't feel like it has any particular impact on him until it comes to things like braille or his hearing). sigma from vlr doesn't notice he has prosthetic limbs until extremely late into the story, but i guess i can let that one slide because they're on the moon. saito sejima is.... ugh. the thing that sort of saves saito for me is that date is proof that he could have turned out 100% fine if it weren't for his father's neglect, but it's still a pretty thoughtless portrayal of a character with a brain disorder.

anyway! point is, usually it feels like the disabilities characters have in his writing are thought about as wrinkles to the mystery before being things that really truly impact the characters lives, and i didn't feel that issue here as much. kizuna is allowed to have complicated feelings about her own body and is supported by those she cares about, mizuki kuranushi is stopped multiple times when it's inconvenient for her because her chronic illness is flaring up, ryuki is shown to be a danger to himself and others due to his struggle to hold onto reality in a way i think is a lot more realistic for mental disorders than what happened with saito, etc. it's something i think i've witnessed over the years of his work become more thoughtful and it's also obvious based on the things mizuki date says at the end of the story + the things he says on twitter that uchikoshi himself does seem to genuinely care about being kind in those sorts of ways.

aside from that: back to nirvana initiative.

for previous context, let me bring up zero escape. i think it has a lot of parallels to the way aitsf+aini are written. 999 is a very (ultimately) small-scale and human story with an extremely compelling emotional center. vlr, naturally, must raise the stakes in some ways- so they bring in world-ending threats and elevate the drama. however, it also retcons some things about 999 that i think were kind of unnecessary, like hongou being a member of free the soul. but there are also things i like about vlr, which is that it can't be anything but a sequel to 999. it brings in characters from the previous game, it incorporates the established canon and world in a way that naturally builds on the twist of the first game, it cuts the bullshit and gets into exploring the implications of the morphogenetic field far earlier and incorporates new twists and storytelling into that such as phi experiencing the timelines at a different pace than you (which is a better version of aini's twist, imo.)

aitsf has that same hook as 999. it's ultimately a small-scale story about a few characters with well-written characterization and focus on their stories and emotions. aini, however, takes the lows of vlr and drops all of the highs. there are more moving pieces and none of them feel organized, the final twist doesn't really impact anything except for solving the murder to the player (it doesn't solve the murder to the characters, because they're experiencing something entirely different!) and it feels like it only exists to say there was a big Gotcha! moment at the end of the game. and, what i think is just absolutely a huge disappointment, they completely left aitsf in the dust and didn't allow aini to be a true sequel because they were too worried about spoilers or whatever. they wanted to have their cake and eat it too, i think.

it's a real shame. vlr is, for all its faults, a conversation with 999. aini doesn't even want to answer the phone.

[smytherines]

Fuck it, here's an Owen Carvour dissertation

We don't have canon ages for Curt & Owen, but personally I headcanon Owen as being born in 1928, making him 29 when the banana incident happens. This leads to a lot of thoughts that are fascinating to me, because growing up in London during WWII could inform so much of his character.

Personally, I believe DMA's accent is much closer to Owen's natural accent. I think the Owen Carvour accent is something he puts on to make himself sound neutrally British while working abroad, because he grew up working class. RP is how most people (at least in the US) assume British people speak. This also works with the Texan agent mega headcanon, like they both have to put on an act to be spies, just like they have to put on an act with their relationship.

And class is really really important to how you conceptualize this character, because your experience of the war could be radically different depending on how much money you had. Food rationing began in 1940, which in this case would make Owen 12. Rationing isn't fully lifted until 1954.

At Elizabeth II's wedding in 1947, the palace made a big deal about how she was saving ration coupons for the material for her wedding- a full two years after WWII ended.

Here's WWII London:

This is the city Owen would've grown up in. This is a war zone. A city where food is tightly rationed, where sirens were constantly going off and you had to draw down the blackout curtains and go sleep in the tube station with bombs dropping constantly overhead:

If Owen were upper middle class, he might have had a shelter at home, some people did. But I imagine him sleeping in dark, cramped, noisy stations. And he learns to keep his cool. He starts to enjoy the danger because he has to to survive it.

Maybe he has lost loved ones to the bombings. Maybe one morning he comes home from the tube station and half of his house is in rubble on the ground. Maybe he's used to hand me down clothes and simple homemade toys and not having enough to eat. He's used to having nothing, having nobody. That's a headcanon a lot of folks have, and I think it makes a lot of sense for his character.

Even if Owen were one of the kids evacuated to the countryside, maybe that happens when he's 15 or so, it wasn't a Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe situation. For a lot of those kids they were leaving their parents behind in a war zone, sleeping in barns or basements, and most importantly working almost non-stop on British farms because all the regular farmhands were fighting.

I think, if this happened, Owen would be itching to go off and fight in the war. My personal headcanon is that he's an intelligent guy, and he figures out how to forge some basic paperwork to claim he is older than he actually is, so he can go fight in WWII.

But by some fluke he couldn't account for, he gets discovered. And because of his skill and his ability to keep his cool under interrogation, he gets recruited to MI6. A lot of MI6 operatives are upper class men, recruited young from the top schools. He mimicks them.

I think many years later, when he and Curt are escaping a Russian weapons facility, Owen loves Curt and trusts in his capabilities (maybe a bit too much- especially when he's been drinking), but he also feels frustrated that Curt is impulsive and cocky and thinks he is untouchable.

Because Curt didn't grow up the way Owen did. He didn't grow up waiting for the bottom to fall out over and over again. He's certainly got his own shit from adolescence, but he doesn't have that survival impulse hardwired into him the way Owen does. So Owen is careful and cautious for the both of them, trying to keep them both safe and alive.

I think about Owen being trapped in the rubble a lot. He would almost certainly be critically injured. Maybe he has PTSD from the WWII bombings, and he's just trapped in an exploded building, trapped with his own memories of childhood until he's almost feral from it.

This also, btw, is why the AU of Owen as Eurydice from Hadestown is so so poignant to me. Someone who grew up cold and hungry and turned their collar to the world, and then suddenly they fall in love and everything is sunlight all around them. All I've Ever Known is such an important owen!Eurydice song to me

I could keep going from here, but I'll stop for now. This isn't as neat and concise as I wanted to present these thoughts, but I can't stop thinking them

[picturejasper20]

I recently watched the original Darkwing Duck 90's series + reading the comics from it, so i decided to rewatch the DWD episodes from Ducktakes 2017 reboot and it ended up being just so weird??

Keep in mind that i watched the Ducktales 2017 series first and later on the Darkwing Duck 90's series**

The episode "The Duck Knight Returns!" is just a whole mess that i don't understand its purpose at all and what is trying to say... the closest i get is that it feels it is trying to say ¨old stuff bad, new stuff good¨... which doesn't translate well when the episode on itself isn't exactly funny and the new character that is supposed to represent the new Darkwing isn't exactly an that interesting nor compelling...

That's another point i want to cover: The new Darkwing, or well, Drake 2017 feels very watered down in contrast to Darkwing from the 90's. Here we have a character who grew up being a bit of a nerd watching a show and he seems to be nice and a bit insecure i guess... and that's it. The original Darkwing Duck (90's series) actually had a lot of flaws and acted more as an anti hero than a hero a lot of times. His main flaws being his huge ego and overall impulsiveness than more often than not put him in trouble... Drake from the Ducktales 2017 series is well, good? I suppose but there isn't much to his character outside of that in the episodes i rewatched. I read that in the Darkwing reboot pitch bible Darkwing/Drake was being written in a way that came off more flawed and in some ways being more like the 90's Darkwing, which that's cool i suppose... but it also makes me question why they didn't write more like that in the Ducktales 2017 series in first place

I feel i could say some similar things about Gosalyn 2017... the thing is that here she is supposed to be different and more ¨teenager like¨, which is a fine take for me to be honest. If they want to explore more her missing her previous family i think it is a fair route for them to take if they want a more serious tone for this version of the show.

Going back to the meta commentary, it feels super weird that in this series they did this idea that Darkwing Duck is a series that already existed within universe, i guess something about how superheroes aren't ¨realistic¨ (something that the Lets Get Dangerous drills you constantly)... in a series where sorceress, magic, alternative dimensions, old legends, greek gods and someone like Gizmoduck already exists... yeah you see where i'm getting at.

¨Lets Get Dangerous¨ also tries making this commentary about how ¨this isn't a cartoon, it is real life¨ when it comes to facing crime and doing superhero stuff... under the same episode that Drake, a character who has never fought supervillains before and doesn't have experience in this kind of stuff, along with help of Launchpad and Gosalyn is able to defeat four main villains from the original show without much effort nor struggle.

Keep in mind that in the 90's series Darkwing was someone who had experience fighting crime and villains and yet he struggled facing just one supervillain even with help from his team. Hell, in the episode pilot from DWD 90's he had a lot of issues just facing Taurus and probably would have died if it wasn't for Launchpad coming to rescue him.

Also another thing that is superweird is how supervillains don't exactly exist on St Canard in Ducktakes 2017 universe for some reason... something that later gets contradicted in the Darkwing Duck reboot pitch bible that in reality there are a lot of supervillains that they might as well be around half of the population in there. Instead of Taurus Bulba having some strong bodyguards for DWD and company to face, they bring the villains from 90's series...which yeah, it turns out that 90's series isn't just a cartoon in here, it is actually another real dimension!

Can you see how unnecessary convoluted a lot of this stuff is?

A lot of this could have been solved if Darkwing was a character that already existed within the 2017 universe as a superhero. Launchpad and Dewey get to met him in one episode (you could even make this Drake being inspired by old comic books to become Darkwing) and then they meet him again in what would be the ¨Lets Get Dangerous¨ episode to help Gosalyn.

I don't know, for me all this stuff feels a lot of weird decisions that don't make sense from a writing point. It feels out of place to talk about how cartoon superhero tropes are unrealistic or whatever in a series that already has a lot of fantasy and science fiction elements. It could work in other series or franchises but it doesn't work on this show.

[fightinggamegirlfriend]

okay so I’ve played through a good chunk of Tekken 6’s campaign mode, and I think I have a better idea as to how Ridley Amora participates in the narrative + general character stuff about her. It’s a long post so buckle up!

The game has a world map with unique areas with their own bosses, each one being a respective tekken character on the roster. Sometimes it’s just a 2 v 1 boss fight but sometimes it can be a 2 v 2 boss fight.

Ridley Amora would be one of the early bosses, specifically in the West District, 13th Avenue as a mini boss before Paul Phoenix. The reason why she’s located here is because she just so happens to be on the run from the Mishima Zaibatsu and is thus hopping from place to place consistently. She doesn’t want to risk the safety of any Resistance bases or civillians, and honestly she only really stays in one area for under a week, before moving on to the next place. It’s just that she just so happens to feel this overwhelming creeping dread that she’s being followed and so makes the decision to leave the West District - leading to her coming across face-to-face with Lars and Alisa.

She would probably tag along with Lars and Alisa simply because she’s a notable individual who has stood up against the Zaibatsu that any of the Resistance Cells will be able to recognise her as a non-threat and essentially just be a precaution to ensure the Resistance cells don’t attack a temporarily amnesiac Lars and Alisa, who is just as equally confused-and-curious-about-the-outside-world.

I know this might all seem to be a contradictory statement but they’re actually not in these Resistance areas for too long, so the risk for discovery is much smaller. Still risky, but it does not put as much of a target on their backs as they’re just passing through. Also this would make some of the game make a little more sense because I get it’s a misunderstanding to beat up the resistance cells, but like. It would have been way more interesting if the Zaibatsu put a bounty on Lars’s head and the enemies you fight in the game are people who are desperate for something good to happen in their lives, as there is a promise of a large cash prize.

um. Very important that Lars’ and Ridley’s first interaction is extremely antagonistic (or at least she’s antagonistic to him), and thankfully he’s got amnesia so it doesn’t hurt that he’s getting insulted by the very person who inspired him to breakaway from the Zaibatsu in the first place. Although when he does get his memories back…. Uh. That moment really hurts him a lot. Like he genuinely feels like he’s been gutted like a fish, and it forces him to see Ridley Amora as a person and not the so called icon he’s put on a pedestal- especially since she’s the reason why Yggdrasil exists at all.

Ridley has been a very vocal critic of the Zaibatsu and unfortunately the thought of crossing the path of the Zaibatsu’s former military commanders who defected to form a rebellion out of no where, leaves a VERY bad taste in her mouth. Internally, she wants to be like Lars, she envies him because he was able to build a pretty sizeable community/resistance group together overnight, yet Ridley constantly struggles to keep even a basic friendship group together. She wants what he has.

As the game progresses, more and more banter would occur between Lars and Ridley during the moments between chapters. It starts vitriolic, but slowly that edge shaves itself off and becomes more playful and sarcastic. They start working as a proper team, and even if Lars and Alisa aren’t going to see eye-to-eye with Ridley all the time, they at least appreciate Ridley’s bluntness and brutal honesty. Even if it’s something they don’t want to hear, she is able to keep them grounded in reality and look at things as realistically as possible.

Too bad it takes so long on Ridley’s end to realise that the community she wants is right in front of her. Her guard is still up, but she doesn’t realise her castle walls are starting to show signs of their age for the very first time. They don’t crack yet, at least not until the very tail end of Tekken 6’s campaign mode. It would take all the events of Tekken 7 to tear down those castle walls fully, to then allow her the opportunity to let go of this mental curse she’s placed upon herself, that will finally allow all of those wishes of hers to have a stable unbreakable community around her be met with open arms for her.

Her more brash, cold attitude wont disappear overnight, but at least the edges have been filed down to something much smoother, and at least is a lot nicer than before. She’s not meek, but she’s a much softer person by the end of Tekken 7.

[your-local-hoemie]

Hi! Can i request childe and zhongli (seperate) coming home to his beloved overworked and slumped over her desk?

Omg I get to write geo papi :D watch me work my brain juices for ya!

Warnings: fluffffff, a tiny bit of angst in childes if you squint again because I can’t help myself, Concerned boys, not proof-read, established relationships, gn! Reader (I know you said “her” in the request but I wanna keep it gn for everyone’s enjoyment if that’s ok aaaaaa.)

Characters: Childe, Zhongli

No I didn’t get carried away hahaha….hah

···

Childe~

He doesn’t understand at first lmfao

Mans constantly working so like? Isn’t this normal??

Honestly you might be helping him stop for a bit too

Gets very concerned :(

Might think you’ve died for a split second

Once he realised you’re fine he’ll make sure you’re moved to a comfier place like the bed or couch

Try to protest. I dare you.

He’ll probably arrange for one of his subordinates to complete any work you had left just to make sure you can rest

I also dare anyone to protest against a harbinger for finishing your work :)

You had been assigned a bunch of documents from Yanfei to go over after being transferred to her for extra work experience in Liyue before officially graduating.

At first your couldn’t be more optimistic about the workload telling yourself that it’s all worth it in the long run after years of studying law!

That lasted maybe a good four days before the lack of sleep and neglect to eat and drink properly started kicking in.

Raising your head you looked up from the paperwork checking the time. 4:30am. Groaning you raked your fingers through your hair, dragging them down your face trying to keep yourself grounded.

But much to your dismay no matter how hard you tried to keep your eyes open and your head free of fatigue, your body decided to finally take charge and before you can even protest, your head lowered to the table as your heavy eyes finally closed and took the rest they needed.

Meanwhile your beloved boyfriend, childe. Eleventh of the fatui harbingers, had finally got home after endless hours of his own work as a “toy maker”. He never told you about his true occupation, always worried it would put you in harms way or make you scared of him.

Opening the door to your house, making his way up to your bedroom he didn’t actually expect to see you awake being so early in the morning so when he saw the bed untouched and you nowhere in sight he’d be lying if he didn’t feel a twinge of dread run down his spine.

“Babe? Where are you?”

Picking up his pace he’d hurry around the house opening each door, his bow appearing in his hand from anxiety.

Reaching the finally room of your home he swung the door open only to find you slumped over your desk surrounded by paperwork.

Almost running over to your side he dropped to his knee’s placing his hand on your back almost like you’d break under his touch he softly shook you taking comfort in feeling your soft, deep breaths under his touch.

“Hmm? Childe?”

Raising your head groggily you look at your boyfriend for a moment trying to piece together the situation while rubbing your still heavy, sleepy eyes.

“Archons Y/N, you almost gave me a heart attack! Why aren’t you asleep In bed!?”

Giggling sleepily you tried your best to explain the situation all while still feeling the heavy pull of sleep in your body not noticing the soft, if not concerned smile appearing across his face.

Letting out a sigh he gathered you in his arms lifting you up with ease, he carried you to the bedroom placing you down on the bed before pulling you tightly into his arms kissing your forehead.

“No more work for you love”

You were pretty confused to later find out you somehow still managed to finish all the paperwork before passing out even though you swore there was still a pile to go through~

Zhongli~

Oh he already knew.

You thought you were slick? You fool.

From the moment he laid eyes on the workload given to you all the way to your first yawn

He knew

He’d try to make it easier on you, knowing your stubbornness

Brings you fruit and tea every so often

Don’t be surprised if you get a nice back massage too~

Once he thinks it’s gone on for far too long he will take action and there won’t be a damn thing you can do

He’s a ex god. Come on.

If he thinks you should rest then you’re gonna rest

To bed with you

Lots of cuddles and head pats! Maybe even humming if he thinks it’ll help you relax

He won’t do your work for you, he doesn’t have the heart to risk ruining your hard work but he will help you if you seem like you’re struggling!

Much to no one’s surprise, Hu Tao had ever so kindly managed to gather a ever increasing collection of complaints from the citizens of Liyue from her persistent shenanigans that you’d be hard pushed not to find at least a little disturbing, leaving you to deal with the mountain on papers to sort through.

The moment zhongli caught wind of what had been keeping you so occupied from your routine walk through the harbour he was irritated to say the least.

After having a word with Hu Tao that was borderline passive aggressive he immediately stopped by the market picking up the best fruit he could find (much to Childe’s dismay) along with your favourite snacks.

Meanwhile you had enclosed yourself in your office, pondering your life choices while using all the strength you had to stay focused.

How long has it been since you started? When was the last time you ate? Questions hardly noticeable floated around the back of your mind as you intently ignored the pangs in your stomach and the worsening migraine growing across your head.

Letting out a frustrated sigh you finish reading a particularly rude letter sent in only to turn the page over by chance just to see that the paragraphs contained on the other side.

Finally snapping under the stress you lay your head down in defeat on the desk, tears threatening to run from your eyes and soak the papers under your head as you feel your body take over and force you to close them at last.

It wasn’t too long before you woke up in a mild state of panic before noticing a plate of beautifully arranged fruit, a warm cup of tea sitting beside you and a blanket draped over your aching back.

“Ah, you have finally awoken. Forgive me dear but I couldn’t bring myself to wake you from your much needed slumber so I took the liberty to prepare you some food”

God I love writing his funky little words

“Zhongli? H-how long have you been there?? What time is it!?”

“Hush now. No need to get worked up over such trivial things, you still have plenty of time to continue your work but I must remind you that rest and recuperation is an essential part to such dealings”

With that you find him dragging a chair next to you. letting out a deep chuckle he turned you towards him gentle pushing your head down to his lap as his fingers stroked through strands of hair. (If you’re bald then just ignore this part💀)

“Rest for now my dear, I shall assist you in this mess when you have recovered”

Not daring to protest against his authoritative tone, you close your eyes feeling your body melt at his touch.

Maybe a little rest wouldn’t hurt after all~

Bruh writing in zhongli’s fancy words is so fun I feel so sophisticated *sticks pinkie out and sips tea*

[murmel-malt]

I had this thought: about Gael and Aeron, especially about Gael, that always lived under the shadow of her mother, a child that wasn't allowed to exist outside her mother.

Maybe in FB, her only true happiness was her baby boy :(

And now, in your AU, she's alive and healthy; I believe if Baelon the Bystander or when Jaehaerys the bitch told her to choose between sending Aeron away or to be married off( you bet my short hair the bitch did or that poor woman of Alysanne)

She chose the latter because she'd rather be with her son in a house full of strangers instead of her family.(She pulled a Viserra, Saera altogether. XD Those girls chose an alternative path instead of their family)

She wanted to be more than Alysanne's pet, and she won the lottery, marrying a man who loved her and accepted her son as his.

About Aeron and Nyra:

Nyra: I want to fuck

Aeron:

Okay

🤣🤣🤣🤣

It is kinda tragic that Aeron and Nyra's friendship feels more honest and truthful than Rhaenicent(because of the circumstances and how maybe... just maybe, Nyra felt slightly superior than Alicent while she believes Aeron is her equal because he's a Targaryen)

Nyra: Bestie look *shows Jacaerys*

Aeron: *shows his daughters* Look, together, they are triplets!

Ok first off: ‘Baelon the Bystander’ is just *chef’s kiss* 10/10

And you are right on the money about Gael always living in the shadow of her mother. I mean she essentially was her emotional support daughter. She was 19 at the time she got pregnant and not even betrothed. Just constantly with her mother, no life of her own. Dare I say not even a person of her own, always just an extension of Alysanne. At least that’s what it feels like reading about her.

And I get Alysanne to an extent. She lost all of her daughters except Saera (but she might as well be dead the way she refuses all contact. she probably is dead to Jaehaerys) and Gael is the only one she still has so it makes sense that she wants to keep her close and keep the thing that took most of her daughters (marriage/childbirth) far away from her. But ma'am that is your daughter - a human being - and not a purse dog. Let that girl live for god’s sake. 

I always wonder what Alysanne’s plan was for Gael after her death. Did she expect her son and grandson to just continue to take care of her?

Personally for Come Hell Or High Water I see her "getting seduced" as an extremely controlled and sheltered girl breaking/acting out for the first time and yes she might not have thought about the potential consequences at that moment but she does not regret it because this little boy is hers and hers alone. She will not give him up! And if that means leaving her home and living in a house full of strangers, so be it. She will do it for her baby. And it works out for her, which I think is only right. She deserves some happiness! 

Nyra: I want to fuck Aeron: Okay 

I mean, that’s basically how it went xD Aeron is a very sex positive guy and usually dtf if you ask nicely and also if you don’t.

And yeah I would also say that the Aeron-Rhaenyra friendship has a level of equality that Rhaenyra-Alicent is lacking due to her considering him Targaryen enough that the Targ Exceptionalism kicks in and has her ignore his past bastardry and their vastly different stations (she is still the crown princess and he is a minor lord and former bastard).

I think they can relate to each other and each other’s struggles and that also helps to meet on more equal footing. Plus Aeron is not as obsessed with propriety as Alicent is so this artificial distance is missing.

Rhaenicent yapping incoming!

Alicent is so concerned with propriety that she herself puts Rhaenyra above her and that adds to the disconnect that’s already between them from the Targ-superiority complex.

Which totally makes sense for Alicent’s character and the way she was raised - I am NOT blaming her for that! - and Rhaenyra being a princess and having that Targ-superiority internalised does not notice or question it and is also oblivious to Alicent’s struggles due to her own privilege - which I am also not blaming her for because that’s the way she was raised and has literally no incentive/reason to start question it.

Thanks for coming to my Rhaenicent TED talk.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Princess Azula

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

This is one of those characters I should’ve done a long time ago, but just never got around to because I felt it was just way too obvious. I mean, come on, Avatar: The Last Airbender is considered one of the greatest works of western animation. Everyone and their mother has talked about this show at some point, so what could I even add?

Well, as it turns out, the way people talk about Azula is exactly what inspired me to write this! I have never seen a character so completely and critically misunderstood! Hell, this is a character that people like to disregard the core themes of the story to talk about! Discussion of her online made me so genuinely angry that I decided fuck it, it’s Azulain’ time! So here we go, my 200% anger-fueled analysis and review of the mentally-unstable Fire Nation princess who terrorized the Gaang!

Motivation/Goals: Azula has basically made it her life’s mission to be the ultimate tool of the Fire Nation, and specifically her father Fire Lord Ozai. To that end, she does basically whatveer he tells her to do? Kill the Avatar, conquer Ba Sing Se, take out her brother and uncle… So long as what she does has a net benefit for the imperialistic goals of her country, she’s down for it, and doubly so if she thinks it will get her even a little crumb of daddy’s attention.

Performance: Superstar voice actress Grey DeLisle of Literally Every Fucking Cartoon Ever Made fame lends her voice to the crown princess of the Fire Nation, and her smug, condescending delivery really sells Azula as a manipulative schemer who is constantly playing 4D chess to outmaneuver her opponents. I think I might even go so far as to call this one of DeLisle’s finest performances ever, for reasons pertaining to her delivery of lines in certain parts of the story that will be described below.

Final Fate: Azula’s fate is a perfect example of the show’s excellent writing because it robs us of catharsis in an extremely narratively satisfying way.

Throughout the finale, we watch as Azula’s mental health rapidly declines as literally everything in her life spirals out of her control for the first time. This is a girl who has defined herself as always being two steps ahead, always having everything firmly in her grasp, and yet her brother has run off with the heroes, her two best friends “betrayed” her, her father gives her the throne but only because he is crowning himself the Ultra Super Cool King Deluxe, and she is constantly grappling with feeling as if her mother viewed her as a monster while also subconsciously knowing that Ursa did truly love her. Keep in mind, all of this is happening to a teenage girl, so is it any wonder she completely and totally snaps?

Her final Agni Kai with Zuko during the height of Sozin’s Comet is epic, but it’s the conclusion where she is defeated by Katara and left as a sobbing, flailing mess that really knocks Azula’s character arc out of the park and cements her as the ultimate antithesis of Zuko. He had the guidance of a good, kind father figure, while she was stuck with Fire Hitler; he had a group of friends to love and support him, while she only had companions who put up with her out of fear and turned on her when they finally had enough; he was able to come to terms with his past traumas and grow to be better because of his numerous support systems, while all she had were toxic influences that led to her essentially collapsing under the weight of her internal conflict. She is what Zuko could have been if no one lent him a helping hand… and it is soul-crushingly tragic. The last we see her, she is a broken mess of a person, someone who has literally lost everything in their life, had the sole purpose of their existence stripped from them, and has just been reminded that she lost because she is a lonely, miserable, pathetic individual without any friends.

After her being on top for almost the entire show, this should feel like a triumph! But it’s not. It’s sad. It’s tragic. There’s no joy to be found. And boy oh boy, is it fucking powerful.

I’m just going to ignore what happens to her in the comics. It’s better that way.

Evilness: So here’s where things get really interesting, because while Azula does some truly evil things throughout the show, there is a tendency to exaggerate just how awful she is because most of her evil actions are just things she says she wants to do/has done. Combined with her smug, arrogant demeanor and it’s easy to believe she would do these things, but we don’t actually witness them. To wit, while she taunts Sokka about torturing Suki to the breaking point, when he finally reunites with her she sure doesn’t seem as cripplingly broken as Azula implied. I think it’s important to note that, as Azula is a massive liar, if we don��t actually see her do something (even something she’s threatening to do), it’s not really a mark against her. She’s a cunning manipulator, after all, conquering an entire city without lifting a finger.

On that note, though, she does have plenty of wicked moments under her belt. She conquered Ba Sing Se for the Fire Nation, she constantly tried to kill Aang and her brother while they were on the run in the Earth Kingdom, she had her friends locked up for defying her… Like she’s one messed up daddy’s girl. Even taking into account the inherent tragedy of her character and the fact she’s a teenage girl, she still kind of steps up to crossing the moral event horizon. She’s very much the product of grooming in an environment meant to espouse the joys of fascism and imperialism, and since she never had a strong guide like Iroh her moral compass is busted.

With all that being said, I think she’s a solid 5/10. She does some really nasty things, but at the same time a lot of what colors the perception of her is stuff she only implies. Also I’m not considering any of her pre-breakdown fights with Zuko as truly evil; this is just how siblings are. You bet your ass sibling squabbles would look just like that if they could shoot fireballs from their hands.

Best Episode: For all her badass moments, awesome schemes, incredible fights, and powerful moments… “The Beach” might be her best episode. This might sound crazy, but I stand by it; I think showing us an awkward, human side of her really helps to sell that Azula isn’t actually some unstoppable force. She’s just a teenager who has no social skills and can’t exist outside of the confines of being a royal or a warrior without looking like an absolute weirdo.

Best Quote: After outmaneuvering season 2’s arc villain Long Feng, who concedes to he rand says she’s beaten him at his own game, she flippantly replies, “Don't flatter yourself. You were never even a player.” I don’t think even Jet got so brutally murdered. It’s the sickest burn in the series aside from Zuko’s scar.

Final Thoughts & Score: The whole reason I even wrote this Psycho Analysis is because the constant and critical misunderstandings of Azula I see online constantly piss me the fuck off.

There is a subset of Avatar fans who completely and steadfastly believe that Azula is in fact an irredeemable monster, a complete sociopath with no redeeming qualities who needs to suffer and die. They reject any attempts at assessing the character in a more nuanced light, because “why can’t villains just be evil?” They treat her as if she’s some sort of pure evil being instead of an emotionally stunted child.“She’s crazy and she needs to go down” might as well be the mantra of these media illeterate Avatar fans, parroting opinions that mirror the words of Iroh after Azula almost killed him but ignoring that crucial context as well as Iroh’s entire character. Like, do these people actually pay attention to the core themes of the entire show? You know, mercy, redemption, humanity, the importance of all life? Did they miss the part of the finale where these core themes were cemented by Aang removing Ozai’s firebending with energybending, or were they too busy bitching about it being a deus ex machina to realize it’s thematically appropriate?

Like they want Azula to just be this evil, unredeemable cartoonish villain in a show that explicitly says no one is like this. There’s even a point in the final episodes where it’s pointed out that genocidal colonizer tyrant Ozai was once a sweet, cute little baby, and didn’t just spring forth as a fully formed Red-Hot Hitler. Azula is a person groomed by an unrepentantly evil father to be the Fire Nation ubermensch, the ideal tool for the conquest of the rest of the world. She was never allowed to have a normal childhood, as evident by her awkward behavior and social ineptitude when she’s actually allowed to cut loose and be around people her own age in a relaxed setting. Everything that she is—a liar, a manipulator, an attempted murderer, an egomaniac—are all the result of Ozai’s upbringing, being entrenched in the propaganda of her nation, and a lack of authority figures with a moral compass in her life. She didn’t have an Iroh to guide her, all she had was Ozai. In this sense, Azula is as much a victim as she is a victimizer.

But she is a victimizer. She is still consciously making bad decisions, she is still doing evil and sometimes appearing to enjoy it. There’s no reason to believe she couldn’t turn things around if given a helping hand like her brother was (though there would need to be a lot more effort due to her being in Ozai’s company unimpeded for way longer than Zuko), but she’s not some innocent little bean who’s being persecuted by others. Azula is still a villain, and viewing her as just a mere victim is a disservice to the character just as much as painting her as an inhuman monster. She is a very nuanced character, but she never gets the sort of POV work Zuko does to fully flesh out what’s on her mind and let us see the world through her eyes so the work done for her is more subtle, at least until her final breakdown. At that point, the show is literally beating you over the head with the fact she is an incredibly tragic character whose entire existence is pitiful and broken, and who lives as a mirror to Zuko, showing him a dark path he could have walked down if he didn’t receive love, support, and compassion.

Ultimately, Iroh wasn’t wrong when he said “She’s crazy and she needs to go down,” but I take it with emphasis on and. Azula is, in fact, crazy. She is incredibly mentally disturbed, her mind warped and molded by her father to the point she breaks if she starts to lose control even a tiny bit. And, as an antagonistic force working against the heroes, she does indeed need to go down. I’m sure he wasn’t too happy with his near-death experience, but you will not convince me that the sweet old Iroh, who himself changed and redeemed himself after being a fucking war criminal who nearly conquered Ba Sing Se, could not see the nuance in the Azula situation and genuinely saw his niece as some beast to be slaughtered.

But that’s enough with the ranting, let’s get to the actual final thoughts and score for Azula. She is one of the most engaging and magnificent villains in animation, a real firebrand (heh) whose numerous schemes are gripping to watch, building her up as someone you want to see finally get defeated only for the writers to pull the rug out from under you and remind you just what Azula really is. Avatar had no shortage of brilliant and subversive writing, but I think Azula’s ultimate arc is an unsung masterpiece among it. The character is so mired in discourse these days it’s easy to forget it, but she genuinely is a grand character.

For her score, I’m gonna say she gets a 9/10. She’s easily the best villain on the show, far outshining her rather generic father, the deliciously hammy but ultimately rather shallow Zhao, and the scheming but relatively minor Long Feng (to say nothing of the numerous minor villains that range in quality from wastes of time like Combustion Man to genuinely amazing and horrifying like Hama). I think the only thing holding her back from a perfect score is that sometimes it feels like things fall into place a little too perfectly for her, and she doesn’t face setbacks too much until the very end, but considering the immensely powerful culmination it’s nothing that ruins her. Azula is a character just as rich and deep as anyone else from the show, and I really wish more people looked at her with nuance.

I also wish the fucking comics didn’t exist. Maybe I’m asking for too much.

[demonio-fleurs]

the headcanon ask game!

for both sabo and koala:

🏳️‍🌈🧸🎶💝❤️‍🔥😶

Send in a character or characters and an icon and I’ll give you...

i am so sorry this took so long btw, a mixture of me being busy and also having to come up with these on the spot made it take longer than i wanted it to!

these also range from "simple and straight forward" to "mini fics/drabbles" haha, sorry for the inconsistency

🏳️‍🌈 A sexuality headcanon

they're both bisexual, although koala is (in my opinion) far more likely to be vocal about it than sabo, who is too busy with work to think about relationships.

koala realized she was bisexual when she met betty for the first time, and no i will not elaborate further. meanwhile sabo has just always kinda known that gender doesn't matter for him.

(more under the cut!)

🧸 A headcanon about their childhood

one day, while traveling the seas with the sun pirates, their ship was attacked by slavers looking for a profit. they were arrogant, and believed they could easily take out the group of fishmen on the ship.

koala doesn't remember much about that night, except for how frightened she was, as the ship had been caught up in a cyclone right before being attacked.

but she does remember huddling in a corner of the ship, wide eyes staring as a man came rushing towards her. she remembers jinbei, stepping out of nowhere and using Samehada Shotei against the slaver, and how the sheer force of it was enough to cause the man to be tossed across the room, knocking him out. jinbei then turned to her, and had her crawl onto his back for safety until they could ensure there was no one left on the ship.

that memory stayed burned into her for the rest of her life, and the day that hack told her that she'd finally perfected the Samehada Shotei technique was one of the happiest moments of her life.

for the longest time, sabo's childhood was not defined by memories, but rather feelings and vague nightmares. he remembered there being a great, terrible fire, and the fear he felt when he saw it. he remembered the feeling of a bird, trapped in it's cage and wanting so desperately to fly free. so many dark emotions, so many nights waking up in a cold sweat, gripping onto his sheets.

but sometimes, there were positive thoughts and dreams from his childhood. a song played in a bar on a mission might bring back the memory of tall, towering trees amidst a humid jungle. koala clinging to him in the middle of a hot night brought back the feeling of creaky wooden boards beneath him, and the starry night sky above him.

it wouldn't be until after ace's death that he gained the context necessary to understand those lingering childhood memories, but context didn't make his heart feel any less heavy in his chest.

🎶 A headcanon about music

one day while laying low in a bar and trying to plan out their next steps on an important mission assigned to them by dragon, koala began singing along to an old song that was being played on a dingy old piano in the corner. to her surprise, sabo began humming along with it, despite it being a song that was usually only known by pirates.

after their mission, she sat down with him and sang the lyrics in the hopes of triggering some memories from his past, but the only thing that came to mind for sabo was a warm summer night in a jungle.

later on, he'd put together that he must have heard the song from luffy, who taught both him and ace the lyrics to "prepare them" for their life as a pirate.

💝 A headcanon about their love language

sabo is a very "physical touch" person, when they are alone he is constantly either in their lap, or clinging onto them, almost as if when he lets go of them, they'll disappear forever.

koala, on the other hand, is more of a "quality time" type of person. to her, so long as she is near the person she loves, that is quality time, even if they aren't doing the same thing. this doesn't mean that she isn't physically affectionate, in fact she can be quite clingy when she's worried or upset, but that isn't her primary love language.

❤️‍🔥 A romantic headcanon

oh gosh, haha, i'm honestly one of the worst people for romance but here we go

one of sabo's favorite things to do when coming home from a mission is to put his head in koala's lap and fall asleep. almost every outside observer wonders when koala will get fed up with him and kick him out of her lap, especially since she'll complain about it to anyone who will listen, but hack knows that koala secretly loves it. when she thinks no one is looking she'll often run her fingers through his golden locks, and simply enjoy the downtime with him.

😶 A random headcanon!

sabo has fangs like a dragon 3:

koala has an incredibly high spice tolerance, but primarily bc she enjoys food that has strong flavors.

[oyasuminto]

wait you played mouthwashing?? what did you think of it

I'm gonna just copy/paste some of my rambles below. Warning: I love to yap. Also massive spoilers.

Also this is very disorganized.

Because of Jimmy, everyone is under the impression that Curly is an insane asshole who purposely collided with an asteroid in an unexpected murder-suicide attempt. Curly is still conscious and aware of what's going on. He can hear whatever the crew are saying about him, he has to spend several months paralyzed, being forcefed pills by people who despise him.

The crew still know that Jimmy is an asshole. Daisuke is the only one who hasn't realized it yet because he's so new. Curly could've been seen as a tragic hero, but Jimmy was so desperate to play the hero that he thought he could force people to look past everything he's already done.

Jimmy is a violent egomaniac, impulsive, cruel, demeaning, irresponsible, and, most importantly, delusional as all hell.

The closest he comes to admitting his wrongs is in the scene with Polle where he admits he fucked up and apologizes to Curly for what he's done, but doesn't even think about the months of torment he put everyone else through

He is dangerously obsessed with Curly. He needs Curly to survive because he has imagined some kind of redemption arc for himself with Curly in the middle.

Much like Anya, he is incapable of treating Curly like an autonomous person, but unlike Anya he pretends to see him as an equal.

The men all appear at least once in Jimmy's hallucinations; Curly constantly appears, Jimmy is entirely fixated on him. Daisuke makes appearances after his death. Swansea acts as a constantly pursuing enemy in them.

Anya… really the most we get is group delusions like the party, aside from that it's just body/pregnancy horror, because that's all Jimmy cares about. All Anya is to him is another cheering subordinate, if she's not that then her pregnancy is a terrifying reality looming over his head.

But she is not allowed to be her own independent person.

ALSO!!! while Anya is clearly the main target of Jimmy's abuse and control, he doesn't seem to care about the boundaries of any of the crewmates. Curly is just a puppet he can project his rage, fear, and guilt onto. Daisuke is put into horrifically dangerous situations. Swansea is drugged, and it leads to Daisuke's death because Jimmy used up the last of the isopropyl alcohol.

even during the drugging, Daisuke is terrified that Swansea is dead. Jimmy just shrugs and says that Swansea has a high alcohol tolerance.

Meanwhile Jimmy has already shown he'll just take what he wants. He might tell himself that he cares about Curly, that he's giving Curly a chance, that he's somehow redeeming himself. But he isn't. He's just continuing that same pattern of selfishness that left Curly so grievously injured in the first place.

Jimmy has deluded himself into thinking he's somehow breaking the cycle he started, when he's only making things worse and worse because he can't fucking own up to anything he's done. It's never his fault, not fully. He always finds a way to redirect blame from himself.

it's actually a pretty realistic depiction of an entitled abusive man. He doesn't actually feel bad about anything he's done. He just fears facing the consequences of his actions. If Anya hadn't gotten pregnant and never told anyone what happened, Jimmy would've continued on without a care. Maybe he could've controlled the narrative and told people that she's lying, or that it was consensual. He could've walked out of her life and left her to pick up the pieces.

But a baby is tangible proof of what he did to her. It ties the two of them together, forever. Pony Express doesn't have the budget nor the foresight to stock abortion pills on their ships, and this trip has 8 months left. He would have to take responsibility, one way or another.

Everything hits so much harder when you're hit with the realization that the character you've spent most of the game playing as is a monster

You spend a good amount of time certain that Curly is at fault for all of this. He crashed the ship on purpose, he got himself burned up. He's the reason you're all slowly dying, so when Jimmy is angry at him you feel inclined to agree and sympathize with him. It must be so difficult being shoved into a leadership position while also being stuck in an awful unwinnable position.

He's rude to Curly and Anya, but he's stressed, he's scared, their deaths are basically inevitable. Curly crashed the ship, right? He deserves it. Jimmy basically tells you that Anya is kind of incompetent, she can't even give a patient painkillers! Of course he's growing impatient.

You become like Curly, excusing and brushing off Jimmy's behavior until it's too late.

Jimmy is a deeply pathetic and cowardly person. He thinks that he can save himself by "saving" Curly. He promises that he'll fix things right before murdering Swansea. Even his "selfless" acts are entirely selfish. In the end, all he cares about is soothing his own ego. He tells Curly that they'll both be heroes. He still things he could be a good person. Killing himself was just one more way he escaped responsibility.

He is someone with an awful victim complex. Nothing is ever his fault, and he is always capable of redemption. Any push-back he gets just gives him more ammo to claim victimhood.

Through Jimmy's eyes, it's everyone else who's at fault. Anya is whiny and annoying and useless at her job (she's a deeply traumatized woman who is terrified of Jimmy), Daisuke is a spoiled nepobaby who can't do shit (he's a young adult who wants to please his parents and doesn't always think before he speaks or acts), Swansea is just some drunken asshole (he's a grouch but he's probably sick of Jimmy's shit and just wants to go home to his wife and dog), and Curly is an arrogant ladder-climbing bastard who doesn't care about his crew (he's a closed-off man who takes on more than he can handle and gives Jimmy too much credit).

He needs to maintain that illusion to continue justifying his actions. It's okay that he berates Anya, she's incompetent. It's okay that he gets aggressive with Swansea, he's awful. It's okay that he looks down on and manipulates Daisuke, he's spoiled. It's okay that he beats an incapacitated and barely alive Curly, it's his fault they're in this situation.

[astrum-aetherium]

Henry's been living rent free in my head since I read TSH like four months ago- I cannot stop thinking about him and your blog is single handedly fueling my obsession with him so thank you so much really.

Anyways- I know Henry is definitely not the soft type of guy, but I do believe he could get just a tiny little bit softer than he usually is (sparingly) were he to find a person he really liked?? This is probably just my guilty and mostly out of character pleasure, but imagining him being all cold and harsh as he is for the most part and then suddenly doing or saying that one unexpectedly tender thing out of nowhere (even in a nsfw context, that's even better) and then going back to his usual self in a heartbeat makes me go uughhh

i wholeheartedly agree with you. on so many levels. it's very easy to cross the utterly restrictive OOC boundaries when speaking/writing about him, since all we seem to know is how stoic and cool and constantly displeased he is (although i could impugn this very well — take the glass shard scene or his staying at the hospital with richard as an example).

us as readers, we cannot help but crave a little softness from him sometimes, and i understand that completely. i'm always willing to indulge us all in a scenario like that. in a better world, on slightly OOC premises, he would make an evidently detached, but caring partner. coincidentally, i have been thinking about just that for the past couple of days, despite formerly being convinced it would be entirely impossible to conduct a healthy relationship with that man (which, yeah, if we strictly stick to canon, it still would be, but that's the beauty about fiction — we get to brush past and alter some things to our enjoyment).

therefore, yes — with the opportunity to alter his character just a tiny bit, i believe he would let his soft side flash every now and again. i don't think it would be in any form of physical touch, however, as he certainly isn't one to put his feelings on display, especially in public (in private, however, that'd be a completely different story). it would mostly be symbolic with him. for instance, imagine it being your birthday. as your partner, he would know you inside and out — he is highly attentive and perceptive, especially when it comes to those closest to him, and he would absolutely be well-versed in anything that you might like, or mention liking. he would know. loving is knowing. therefore, for your birthday, he would not only think of and buy you the best and most thoughtful present imaginable, but he would also buy five more to give to the rest of the group under the pretense of "i know her/him/them better than all of you combined, which is why all of your gifts have already been taken care of".

that is how his affection would shine through — acts of service. being spoiled by him is another tremendous part of that. i have already approached this topic in two previous posts, but to summarize: he absolutely would be willing to spoil you in any way imaginable, as it would be the only plausible way for him to prove the depth of his feelings for you (along with kisses and other physical endeavors, which would exclusively be saved for private settings).

in addition, i feel like he would let himself be swayed more and more despite his dogmatic position, meaning he would be willing to comply or enter compromises, especially for you. orrr... to approach the aspect of him portraying the merest smidge of sweetness and immediately reverting to his stoic self — imagine a strand of hair having fallen loose from your hairstyle, or it simply veiling your hair too much, to the point where he would press the book he might be holding under his arm mid-conversation and brush it aside for you with a light smile, only to immediately proceed with whatever it is he had been occupied by previously.

from a nsfw standpoint, his care would mostly show in his being very forthcoming and reassuring to you (asking for consent, asking if you're in any discomfort during a position, checking up on you during rougher activity), and aftercare (bringing you towels/water/a cigarette (lol), proposing to go pee, holding you on occasion if matters had been overly rough and you might still be trembling).

he would also totally be the type to run his fingers through your hair and even play with it. i don't care how OOC some people believe this to be — i need it. sometimes a girl just needs something of the sort.

[unma]

Thoughts of The Coffin of Andy and Leyley?

idk why it took me so long to answer this, but I remembered that this was sitting in my inbox just now so I might as well. I'm going to assume you came here because you wanted to hear my actual thoughts on the game in good faith and not so you could find someone new to harass.

I like the game and really want to see what happens next. I love how dysfunctional both characters are, and it's fun to see awful people be put in awful situations and do awful things to survive. Especially when they're surrounded by equally awful people (and demons too I guess).

The hate over the game was stupid and was basically just people going "I can accept cannibalism, murder and demon summoning, but I draw the line at incest," which is frankly hilarious and one more reason I simply don't touch twitter anymore. Incidentally, you could probably dig through my posts and find an old one of mine where I opined that the game wasn't going down the incest route after chapter 1... That aged like milk, lol.

All in all, I wish the dev well. Nemlei didn't deserve being harassed off the internet, and I wish I could play the rest of their games. I actually had their itch.io page open at the time, so it was a shame to suddenly see it go blank. Oh well, that's on me for procrastinating so much.

I'd ramble on more about how I love the game's deep exploration of themes, and- actually, scrap that. I'm coming back in 5 minutes and I'll write my thoughts over both of the characters under the cut.

Ashley is pure evil. Is what I would say if I was someone who believed any person could be distilled down to those two words. No, she is very clearly a product of her downright terrible upbringing, and her downright obsessive love for Andrew is shown time and time again to be a product of her emotionally isolated childhood in which Andrew was the only one who ever gave her love. He was the only person who actually treated her like a person. Anyone with that kind of childhood is bound to end up at least a little maladjusted, so Ashley as a person is not unrealistic in the slightest. Her sabotage of Andrew is also rather clearly a method to ensure he will never leave her, even if he reassures her time and time again that he would never do so. Ironically, as her visions show, it may be her own obsessive actions that cause him to finally abandon her, which is just the most delicious flavour of ironic tragedy indeed.

Andrew is a coward. Through and through. I feel for him constantly, but he truly, truly, needs to learn to say no to Ashley. Or, well, he should've learnt to do that before she forced him into their current position. And yet, he's not malicious or actively evil. He's passively evil, in fact, though using the word 'evil' feels like hyperbole. He's consistently trying to never make a choice, and hoping he can simply pass on all responsibility to Ashley. And while I get where he's coming from, given everything they do and go through, he doesn't realize that not making a choice is still a choice, and he still did commit many of those deeds even if at Ashley's behest. At first, I wanted to pretend like he was completely innocent in the games, but it really doesn't take a genius to realize he's completely wrong about how responsibility works.

I'd say more, but it's been a while since I've watched Manly's playthrough of the games. My memory is rather fuzzy now. But feel free to ask more questions if you'd like.

[callieponders]

Okay. So. The Candy Jams episode, Girl Fest. I have so many thoughts on it, good and bad. This is gonna be another long thoughts post, so let's get into it. (Under the read more because this is Really Long)

On principle there isn't a bad message here, in fact, to this day it still has relevancy. Plenty of female singers playing faux feminist when they are more than willing to put other women that work alongside them down in order to raise themselves up, rather than trying to cultivate a good community, especially in regards to younger fans. This is definitely not new, same in regards to male singers that promote toxic masculinity to their own audiences.

My issues stem from, of course, the usual "errrrm, isn't it funny how we act uncertain if Laney is a GIRLLLLL, lawl!" ass humor. Like god that shit is garbage I'm glad we mostly phased that type of shit out. Yuck.

Not just that, of course, that's more of a Grojband, "this is from the real early 2010's" issue in general. I also take issue with the approach it takes touching upon the whole "this idol can't actually be trusted" thing. I understand it's watered down to be a little easier to understand, babies first feminism and all, as well as it being a little more niche in the addition that it's someone proclaiming to be all punk rock while in reality being a poser. That isn't a problem in theory, but in practice, I definitely think it came out clunky...

Which message wise, is a little rough. However, it actually comes off as a much more interesting character read of one of the most important characters, Laney, and even TRINA to an extent.

To understand what I mean, we gotta go down the list of things we find out about Candy Jams first. Keep in mind she is promoted to be this 16 year old (assuming she's the same age as the other older teenagers in the show bc it'd be weird if not since she dated nick) punk chick who doesn't take crap from anyone, acting condescending towards the male members of Grojband, and even going as far as to tell Trina she needs to be in charge of her own feelings— "You should be the voice of your own soul, girl!"

Candy Jams appears calm and collected about Nick. She even says she broke things off with him for making her too soft. This is shown not to be the case almost immediately, as while they're not dating, she clearly still has an infatuation for him.

Secondly, it's revealed she's very enthusiastic about clothes. I know, what a revelation, but keep in mind being fashion crazy is often a stereotype used negatively against women as a means of calling them shallow.

Her lyrics are written by her manager, who is an adult male (the adult part really isn't important unfortunately, because I feel like it should've been).

Finally, she says that lyrics with harder words in them make her head hurt (she calls it brain ouchie btw), which is... I guess it's calling her stupid? Not as smart and a thinker that she says she is? I mean, common thing to say to indicate a character is dense, but it just feels weird to tack on. I guess it enhances the fact she doesn't write her own lyrics since she says the last song he wrote had too many hard words for her to sing.

Alright, so, we went down the list... now, there is like... so much to unpack. First off, I don't dislike the ideas here, I definitely don't, because all these things show hypocrisy in Candy Jams branding (except maybe 4 that might just be like, her being a teenager still learning things lmao). It's a pretty classic "don't meet your heroes" situation for Laney, who looked up to her, now feeling shattered because she did not live up to expectation. However, what kills it for me is the already present misogyny shown in Grojband consistently.

Laney is misgendered for comedy constantly because she doesn't present herself as traditionally feminine, nor acts traditionally feminine. Like. It kind of bitters the damn message if you go "respect women in rock, unless it's funny, then don't" in the episode about... recognizing female talent in the rock scene and criticizing the posers sending bad faith messages to their younger audience.

However, despite all this, this episode is REALLY good to dig into Laney's character, and additionally, Trina's, as they both are fans of Candy Jams.

Laney herself is shown to be infatuated with Corey, not to the extent Trina is with Nick, but regardless of that she holds a massive spark for him. We can often see it in her face how she feels about Corey, finding herself at a loss of words when he gets as much as near her at times. She's also into extremely hyper-feminine things, decorating her room with frills and being into things that she would otherwise roll her eyes at— in secret.

So, in other words... she's a poser. She does the exact same things that Candy Jams does, if not being worse for doing it, as she calls Candy Jams out for her behaviors while doing the exact same thing to an even YOUNGER audience. Let's not forget that Grojband's two groupies are young, elementary school aged girls. Laney is just as much an influence to them as Candy Jams is.

Now, am I saying exactly that she's a poser? Not really, no, but you get what I'm saying in pointing out the fact she has far more in common with Candy Jams than she would be comfortable with. It's most certainly due to internalized misogyny at that, especially in a scene that doesn't recognize or respect female voices to begin with unless they denounce anything feminine, either about themselves or other women— Corey himself had to be shown that "lady rock" is in fact, legit.

Keep in mind this is during the early 2010's, so it isn't the same situation now as then exactly, and I'm definitely not saying critique towards traditionally feminine culture isn't valid. It ABSOLUTELY is, but this isn't about criticizing it, Candy Jams AND Laney both outright hide the parts of themselves that enjoy it. Candy Jams because she's an industry plant, and Laney because of her shame in indulging in it at all. Maybe Laney saw herself in Candy Jams a little too much, and was deeply ashamed of what she saw, due to previously having projected herself onto Candy Jams's exterior persona.

Now, where does Trina come into play? Well, similar to Laney, she hides parts of herself that are more vulnerable to others, parts she is ashamed of. She's an intellectual, both with math, literature, and writing. Her being adept with writing is, admittedly, if you count her diary being so well written it can be used as lyrics for songs that in universe, are GREATLY well received. Unfortunately, due to nerd culture being shown as undesirable, ESPECIALLY for/towards women, she only indulges in academic pursuits covertly as an entirely different persona. Additionally, she changed her name just to fit her new mean girl, cute and popular chick lifestyle, and with it her kindness.

Like Laney, she too saw herself in Candy Jams, specifically in her songs. She found herself spoken to in regards to her love for Nick Mallory in one of her songs (and Laney likely did as well), and was equally upset when Candy Jams revealed it WAS about Nick. It made her feel like she didn't own her own feelings, which is something that is far more devastating for Trina than you'd think on a base level alone. She HAS to be in control of her own feelings, she has literally hand carved herself into the person she is today by regulating exactly what she feels, how she conducts herself, and who she hangs out with.

Makes you wonder how she'd feel if she knew that Corey was using her feelings to make his songs.

All in all, though, this episode is pretty surface level and not even the worst I've seen, it's definitely one of the more interesting Grojband episodes. For a feminist message? It somewhat does it's job, especially for 2013. I, for one, think it does an even better job at looking into the thoughts and feelings of the two most important female characters of the show.