#but please can we appreciate this powerful but underrated moment?

[emmamason2020-blog]

One of my favourite scenes of the episode 😭

What the hell is up with you? I finally figured out who I am, that’s all.

[mylovesstuffs]

100 Reasons Why I Love SEVENTEEN !

A/N: Okay, let’s be real—this was both the easiest and hardest thing I’ve ever written. SEVENTEEN gives me too many reasons to love them, so narrowing it down to just 100 felt like I was betraying 1,000 others. But at least, I tried. This list is a mix of my emotional breakdowns, daily fangirl struggles, and moments where I stare at my bias list wondering how it got so wrecked (answer: SEVENTEEN). If you’ve ever felt personally attacked by their talent, visuals, or Hoshi’s tiger agenda, welcome to the club. And yes, I know I was dramatic at times, but listen, if SEVENTEEN can drop masterpieces out of nowhere, I’m allowed to be extra !

I didn’t keep it monotone or too serious as neither SEVENTEEN nor I are ever that serious so why should this list be? That being said, I genuinely love them with all my heart. If you think I’m trolling, I promise you, I’m absolutely not. Keep reading, and you’ll see that every reason listed here comes from a place of genuine love and appreciation.

1. The way they roast each other more than a barbecue on a summer’s day.

2. Hoshi’s tiger obsession – honestly, who wouldn't let him?

3. Seungkwan’s diva energy, which could power a small city.

4. Dino pretending he’s not the maknae when he absolutely is.

5. Woozi’s height jokes—yes, I'm (we're) going there.

6. Joshua being the gentleman but slipping on camera lol.

7. Dokyeom's laugh. That contagious sound deserves its own Grammy. Please nominate him.

8. How Jeonghan tricks them like it’s his life’s mission (or purpose).

9. The constant chaos of 13 people trying to talk at the same time.

10. Minghao’s perfectly timed “Please stop.”

11. When they do ‘rock-paper-scissors,’ it’s more intense than any K-drama and let's this game decide fates TT.

12. Joshua’s “I’m from L.A.”—okay, flex.

13. The Going Seventeen episodes that feel like survival shows (it fr is).

14. Dokyeom's ‘twoteen’.

15. Jun randomly living his philosophical life mid-interview.

16. Every time they forget Dino’s an adult now.

17. The fear in their eyes when Woozi holds a guitar. (Mingyu...)

18. Vernon being… Vernon. Is he confused, or are we?

19. Seungkwan screaming at literally everything—relatable king.

20. Mingyu thinking he’s subtle about being clumsy. He isn’t.

21. How they’re truly a family—you can feel the bond.

22. When they cried after winning their first Daesang.

23. How they protect each other without saying a word.

24. Seungcheol always being the dad figure they need.

25. The way they celebrate each other’s little wins.

26. Their constant gratitude toward Carats.

27. How Woozi composes music like a wizard.

28. How every member brings something unique and different to the group.

29. That time they promised to stay together forever (cue tears).

30. How they work so hard but still stay humble.

31. Daring to ruin my bias list every single comeback.

32. They choreograph like they’ve got 28 legs.

33. Do they have to look that good? Like, chill bro.

34. Why is their discography so perfect? No skips?!

35. How they make even random words sound deep (adore uuuu).

36. “13 members but one team” – poetic and unfairly cute.

37. How they can make me laugh and cry in the same hour.

38. Their concert VCRs—pure emotional damage.

39. How Mingyu casually models while being a cinnamon roll.

40. Every time Hoshi says, “I'm a tiger.”

41. Woozi’s producing. Absolute genius.

42. SEVENTEEN's choreography – they invented synchronization.

43. Kyeom’s voice. Heaven called; they’re jealous.

44. Seungkwan’s ad-libs that hit harder than my alarm clock.

45. Jun being an underrated vocal king.

46. Vernon’s raps – smooth like butter.

47. Minghao’s art – talented and soulful?

48. Dino proving maknaes aren’t babies anymore.

49. S.Coups’ leadership—he carries 12 chaotic kids on his back.

50. Jeonghan’s ability to make any concept work.

51. How they’ve sacrificed so much for their dreams.

52. The sleepless nights we know they’ve had.

53. When they talk about missing their families.

54. Seeing them tired but still giving their all.

55. Their honesty about their struggles.

56. Watching them grow from rookies to legends.

57. Knowing how much pressure they’ve faced as a 13-member group.

58. When they write letters to Carats and it feels so personal.

59. Their vulnerability in their music—‘Don’t Wanna Cry’ anyone?

60. Knowing they truly care about each other like brothers.

61. Hoshi’s hand gesture that looks like a paw.

62. How they never explain Vernon’s randomness.

63. Joshua being everyone's favorite Hyung-oppa-angel-gentleman.

64. Dino’s Michael Jackson dances—we see you, King.

65. Mingyu cooking like he’s on MasterChef.

66. Jeonghan cutting his hair and the world losing its mind.

67. When Woozi’s serious face becomes extra serious.

68. Their obsession with food—it’s basically another member.

69. Every time they express gratitude towards Carats, it feels like they truly mean it.

70. Seungcheol constantly babying his members, and we love it.

71. The way they manipulate my emotions like puppeteers.

72. They’ve made me spend money I don’t have.

73. I didn’t ask for this level of emotional attachment, yet here I am.

74. Their photobooks take up more space than my furniture.

75. Why do I know their blood types? This feels illegal.

76. They live rent-free in my head, and I’m charging them soon.

77. The way they casually drop bops while I’m still recovering from the last one.

78. Their lightsticks—why are they this pretty?

79. I tell myself I’ll bias one member, but they drag me into OT13.

80. They’re the reason I learned how to stream like a professional.

81. They make me feel like I’m part of something special.

82. Their love for Carats—it’s so genuine.

83. Every moment feels like they’re leaving a legacy.

84. They’re more than idols—they’re inspirations to me.

85. Their messages about youth and teamwork hit deep.

86. How they remind me that hard work pays off.

87. Knowing they’ve changed lives, including mine.

88. The way their laughter feels like sunshine.

89. They’ve taught me to appreciate every little moment.

90. They’ve turned 13 into my favorite number.

91. SEVENTEEN just being SEVENTEEN.

92. They don’t take themselves too seriously.

93. They’re down-to-earth despite their success.

94. The way they constantly grow but stay true to themselves.

95. Their genuine friendship—you can’t fake that.

96. They make being a Carat feel like being part of a huge family.

97. Their artistry—it’s unmatched.

98. Their passion, which is so contagious.

99. The fact that no other group could ever be them.

100. Because, honestly, they’ve made my life brighter in so many ways.

ⓘ There you go, a completely balanced (read: unhinged) list. What’s your favorite reason? Or did I just write all the reasons you already had?

[heyhellohihowareyou]

Why “Ball Game Tournament Time” is underrated as hell

BASEBALL EPISODE! BASEBALL EPISODE! Any anime that has a baseball episode in it is bound to get Hailey hooked!

And this one is about her Sugi boy! She’s all for him getting more screentime!

Out of context picture

I’m pretty sure that this was the episode that started the “Jiriki Hongan Revolution” intro (Correct me if I’m wrong) and since it’s tied as my fav AC intro, this episode gets points for starting it!

Baseball fanatic Koro is best Koro!

Anyways, did I mention I love baseball episodes because I love baseball episodes

Found a cute side character with freckles. Appreciate her NOW!

Two very good boys right here!

Kimura gets to do something! We must savor this moment while we still can!

Awww a cute Mimura!

I live for a badass Sugi boy (Even though this one is in Shindo’s head 😅)

Also, start the count for how many times Shindo looks like he’s about the piss himself

Ain’t this such a great episode! 3-E is succeeding and showing the main campus kids what’s what! Boy I sure hope no one ruins-

Bitch. Can you please stay out of my feel good sports episodes and not traumatize people at all? You’re bringing down the vibes man 😕

Well the girlies are back at least! Kind of wish we got to see them play though.

Kayano: “It’s just that the other team had huge jiggly boobs! It made me so made that I couldn’t concentrate!” Kaede sweetie you are not beating the allegations 🩷💜💙

Nothing to say except I like Maehara’s bewildered face

GAKUHOU STOP FUCKING MANIPULATING TEENAGERS FOR FUCK SAKE

I hate the man but those eyes though

Irina: “Aha! I think I get it! So you hit a ball with a stick!” Never change Irina. Never change.

Oh my god EVERYONE SHUT UP RIGHT NOW AND LOOK AT MY BOY!!!

Did I mention that I adore Sugino. Well, I ADORE SUGINO!!!

I swear to god Gakuhou doesn’t have life WHY ARE YOU HERE!?

Also, anyone else felt bad for Shindy this episode? Sure he was sort of a cocky bastard for the first part but man is he put through hell here.

Karmster using his bitch powers to good use (Yes, Karmster is his new name now)

Also this should be a meme template

I saw the glowing red eyes and my first thought was “Baki?”

Nothing to say except that I find Isogai’s little sigh cute

Bewildered Shindy

Gakuhou: “Crack a skull if need be.” Why aren’t you in jail yet?

We love Karmster’s little bitch face

Karmster: “Swing like you’re trying to kill us.” My guy is in distress

Nagisa: “That’s got him pretty shaken up.” Pretty Shaken- MY GUY IS TRAUMATIZED!

Again, poor Shindy. Like seriously get this boy some help.

I’ve caught two bright smiles in one screenshot!

Sugino: “Didn’t mean for things to get so crazy.” Shindy needs to go to therapy

Juuuust Karmster

Hadn’t mention before but I love listening to Sugi’s dubbed voice. For someone who shares a voice actor with the loud mouth that is Katsuki Bakugo his voice is nice to listen to

Sugino: “It was about being proud of my new friends. I wanted to show them off.” Sugino I fucking love you.

Welp that’s it. That was a good ass episode that we as a fandom should talk about more! It’s season 1’s version of leader time to me. In fact it’s part of my top ten favorite episodes of the series (I really need to make a list) I don’t say it that much but Sugino as a character brings me so much serotonin so watching this episode was a joy for me! Combined with the fact that I love baseball this episode was an absolute delight.

I keep forgetting how bad I feel for Shindy boy here. Like, he was just slightly cocky and he ended up getting manipulated left and right. Seriously, I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up having nightmares about the 3-E students sniping him in his sleep or something.

Anyways, like I said. This is a good episode and we should really discuss it more. We should discuss Sugino more. DISCUSS THE BOY! <—— Barely discusses the boy in question

[having-conniptions]

Love In The Air episode 11 live reaction under the cut (long post)

We're gonna get a kiss in this episode aaaaaaaa

Hahaha the way he gently rejected her

Namtan is so underrated lol she's an icon

"I'll tell you what I wanna eat if you can fly to Beijing to buy it today" listen Sky I appreciate you going full sugar baby princess mode but it's not good for the environment

Prapai is so whipped we love to see it

Hahaha what an entrance Rain

The good old paper roll bonk, Sky you mean to tell us you don't have siblings but do the most sibling thing ever?

Pai being questionable again... telling Joy that he and Sky are a couple and asking her for a key card to Sky's room...

Sleepy baby Sky too sleepy to be tsundere

"It's fading. What do I do?" PLEASE WHY IS HE SO CUTE that's like sooooo close to a confessio

THE WAY I GASPED WHEN THEY FINALLY KISSED yeah if I was Prapai I wouldn't have been able to hold back in that moment either omg the softness of it all

WHAAAAAT WTF THAT WAS JUST IN PAI'S HEAD?? boy I feel u

Also that kiss was exquisite lemme rewind

But yeah Sky is way too sleepy rn

The hand kiss aaaaaaa

The cheek kiss AAAAAA

...huh? Sky calling Prapai and telling him to come over?

HAHAHAHA HE CALLED HIM TO ASK HIM FOR HELP WITH HIS HOMEWORK boyyyy we both know you just wanted an excuse to see him

SKY'S SHIRT SAYS "MORE THAN FRIENDS LESS THAN LOVERS" boiiii u ain't subtle

THE WAY HE JUST KISSED HIM AND PAI MANAGED TO STAY MAD??? bruh u should have melted like a normal person

Whaaaaat why is Sky being so cute he's not even trying to be a tsundere anymore

He has literally given in this was him basically going "actually I do want to kiss you" this is everything Pai wanted... yet Pai can't accept it bc he's gotta sulk a little more xD

Now that Prapai is being cold Sky is absolutely falling over himself

Very smooth of Pai to just go to sleep in Sky's bed and fall asleep before Sky can kick him out... but he still looks mad even while sleeping

Homoerotic bike sharing ftw

I absolutely LOVE Pai's surprised face when Sky kisses him it's too good

Awwwwww Rain's gushing about Phayu and Sky is thinking about Prapai... <3

HAHAHAHA "P'Phayu is not the only one who's cool and handsome and the best" OH YEAH SKY WHO ELSE? CARE TO SHARE WITH THE CLASS?

"This is bad." Oh no babyyy he's still scared to get hurt (because obviously falling in love doesn't miraculously undo trauma)

Pai in that gray tanktop? Yes please.

Lmao he's deleting numbers of old hookups

Omg it's a wind pin that's so cute

"Go clean the bathroom" HAHAHA HE IS AWARE OF THE POWER HE HOLDS OVER PAI AND HE HAS NONPROBLEM USING IT

Wait is he doing this so he has an excuse to kiss him again as "payment" because while it does sound kinda cute I think he needs to stop viewing intimacy as a currency

Ok maybe he's doing it as a test or to drive him away

The way I GASPED bc Sky has gone back to his old "he's only doing all this because he wants to fuck me" way of thinking nooo babyyy

"I sound like a dick" congrats Pai you finally realized hahahaha

HUH???? Welcome to another round of "does Sky actually want this or is he doing what he thinks is expected of him?"

Idk all of this strikes me as so utterly unromantic and I'm so confused that I can't even enjoy it... "please get bored of me soon" HUH???

The kiss that Prapai imagined gave me 100x more butterflies than this...

And now he's thinking "please don't get bored of me" ? I'm so confused

"I slept with you so you'd stop pestering me" uh... for real or is he just being a tsundere again? Bc I feel like he hasn't fully admitted to himself that he actually likes Prapai (even though he secretly knows he does) which makes all of this rather uncomfortable to watch

Ok he's teasing but still idk what to make of all of this

Oh no not Pai asking about the piercing

Oh no his ex actually did the piercing wtf

I still feel like Sky is trying to keep his distance emotionally

But he's also smelling and cuddling Pai's shirt awwwwww

Hahaha Rain's braincell is working so hard it's got smoke coming out of it

Bonus scene: bro don't tear out the whole page that's wasteful af

[jess-the-vampire]

Lilith or Belos for the ask game

Send me a Character

(I'm picking belos because i actually have another request for lilith, so i can do her later)

First impression

As someone who wasn't really into s1, i say with high praise that belos was the first character i actually felt intrigued by in the entire show.

He's got a good design, a great voice, and outside of like his weird dumbness with lilith he's pretty solid.

Honestly i was worried s2 would find a way to make him worse, or more boring, since it would've been easy to make him fall into the usual tropes.

Impression now

underrated, 2nd favorite character, the fandom sleeps on him constantly and i hope it stops moving forward.

so no belos improved in s2 and i'm so thankful for that, i appreciate a lot of the directions with him, his writing, he's so well written and not enough people appreciate it.

even if the twist being implied with him seems obvious, it's so interesting that i could not care any less about it being obvious or not.

i could talk about him all day, he's so entertaining to watch and i want him in more episodes so badly. He gives me so many mixed feelings all the time and it's great.

why is there no belos merch, i demand merch of the stupid evil overlord.

Favorite moment

Belos has yet to have a ton of moments but out of what we have i like his scenes with hunter a lot, his relationship with hunter is interesting because while it is toxic.....it also does come off like belos does care for hunter to a degree, like it doesn't feel like their relationship lacks ANY care.

Those scenes are just...well written tbh, because there's many ways to look at them.

Idea for a story

I still like projects that explore belos in different ways, like as a good leader, or a better parent to hunter, or even just as a regular guy with no power at all. Projects like this acknowledge fans recognize he's not an entirely black and white character and he has complexity to him worth exploring and i appreciate it.

Even if we didn't get belos not being a dick to hunter, exploring their dynamic in a more healthy way is still great to see in fanwork.

Unpopular opinion

I think most of the fandom, especially when it comes to writing belos, don't really understand him well.

I think people focus far too much on him lashing out and all the physical stuff, and while belos can show anger and lash out, that's like.....not his character?

i see so many comics and stories rely on injuring hunter for plot purposes or to get an emotional reaction from the reader and sure, your project, do whatever....i just want it to be acknowledged this isn't actually belos's character in canon.

Here, listen.

Belos, is the disappointed dad of disney villians.

He only uses violence either when he is protecting himself, or feel words alone is not making his point across, but violence is never really usually his FIRST option when it comes to getting ppl to do what he wants.

Belos plays on people's insecurities, when hunter or lilith screw up his response is to scold them like children who misbehaved and make them feel bad for screwing up, and threaten them with the burden of failure and losing stuff that matters to them....because they screwed up.

Hunter does appear to be scared of injury, but it’s clear his fears especially involve his own self worth and not being loved far MORE then that, and that’s the spot belos prefers to hit because that’s far more effective.

Not to mention hunter’s love for him and want to make him happy.

Belos wants you to want to help him, he relies on people LIKIING him and wanting to please and make him happy. This man does not need violence, because he's great at convincing others to do things for him out of love, pride, ect, ect

Sure, he's killed ppl, but he didn't exactly become a leader from taking over via war or a fight, he won through his WORDS. Belos is more bark then bite, he only bites when he deems necessary or is actually unable to help it seemingly.

I just think more people pay attention to the small moments of physical abuse, and never pay nearly enough attention to everything else that makes his character so good.

And there’s more then this but this alone bothers me sometimes because it takes away from why i like belos in the first place as an antagonist, and as a character.

he’s got so many complex layers to him, but he always gets reduced to being a angry violent dude and that’s just not his character and removes what i like most about him.

Favorite relationship

i mean, his and hunter’s because that’s basically his best one atm

it’s good in many ways

especially because it’s very arguable that belos does love and care about hunter, even if it’s in a very unhealthy and toxic way.

i think it’s easy to say belos doesn’t care about hunter at all, but i genuinely think if hunter had died belos would’ve actually been pissed, i just don’t get the impression hunter means completely nothing to him despite the manipulation.

their relationship isn’t healthy, but i don’t think it’s devoid of any attachment either.

the implication of belos maybe cloning his own brother, who he most likely lost, def implies some kinda weird attachment or else i’d wonder why he’d pick his brother for this process in the first place.

Favorite headcanon

That he’s constantly sweating in his full garb

i mean, he’s wearing 3? layers of clothing, and a mask and hood, with all that hair, in a throne room of fire.

he should be sweating to death wearing that.

[galedekarios]

For the ask game: Baldur's Gate 3

thank you for the ask, i really appreciate rambling about my favourite game at the moment! 🖤 @ayrennaranaaldmeri and @vayne also asked me about baldur's gate 3  🖤. here we go:

blorbo (favorite character, character I think about the most): this will totally come as a surprise to everyone, but mr waterdeep. funny fact is that i didn't even notice gale in the companion line up larian released way back when, but the more i played, the more i came to love him. it was probably the cat, wine and library line and then spiralled from there and now he's my favourite character. 🖤

scrunkly (my “baby”, character that gives me cuteness aggression): mirkon. my drow oc altonaufein would like to file adoption papers, please.

scrimblo bimblo (underrated/underappreciated fave): lae'zel. she's probably my second favourite character in the game. it's sad to see that there is so little content for her, like for most characters who aren't ast*rion, and what i do manage to find is usually quite negative. she deserves better and i can't wait for my characters to earn her friendship in the game and, hopefully, forge a bond with her.

glup shitto (obscure fave, character that can appear in the background for 0.2 seconds and I won’t shut up about it for a week): raphael, for sure. i love the way he's introduced in the game and his voice actor is fantastic. 13/10, would sell my soul.

poor little meow meow (“problematic”/unpopular/controversial/otherwise pathetic fave): kagha. she grew on me a lot and i wish she was a companion. twisted by her need to protect her family, her grove, set on a path of redemption, learning and betterment? yes, please.

horse plinko (character I would torment for fun, for whatever reason): aradin. i love him, but he seems like the type of character i'd love to annoy on purpose. i don't know why, but he reminds me of carver for some reason.

eeby deeby (character I would send to superhell): ast*rion. my least favourite character in the game, which is weird to say now because i think it was him that i looked forward to most, but he turned out to be a character who approves of tormenting children and animals, abused his position of power, was a slaver, very much is into racism, etc., and, on top of it all, the way fandom treats him just turned me off of him entirely.

[loosesodamarble]

For that Fandom ask thingy... well, Black Clover^^'

Oh wow. Lowkey forgot I reblogged that (even linked in my pinned post). Thanks for reminding me and asking about it, Anon!

Alright! Time for Soda's Blorbo and Co. Black Clover Edition!

..........

Blorbo (favorite character, character I think about the most)

Nacht Faust. Big surprise there! (This is sarcasm.)

This man. This character. This compilation of lines and shading!

Upon first introduction, I was pretty neutral towards him. And then chapter 285 happened and it was like being hit by a truck. Certain mutuals of mine will attest to how fast I turned around. And from there, I just got more and more invested. I love Nacht so dearly. He is a complex and tragic character. He was a troublemaker and but still had a heart to care for people like Morgen and Yami. But it took him losing what mattered most to see that he was on the wrong path. He burdens himself with so much guilt that he can't see himself as good even when he's trying hard to help people. It's good to see him figure out that there's someone who still cares about him and that he deserves to live (even if the revelation is terribly rushed). I really want him to live through the current arc and find closure, maybe even happiness. Also, his devil quartet is adorable and he has so many looks that just hit.

Related sidestory. Not too long ago, me, my sister, and two of our mutual friends were in a voice call. We do it every so often to watch some show or just chat. We were just chatting that evening and the conversation came to the recent slang of blorbo and such. I'm not that savvy when it comes to internet (or rather just Tumblr) slang but my sister is less fluent than I am. I decided to take the reins and try to explain to my sister what a blorbo is.

And I just couldn't. Maybe it was the late hour or maybe it was the funny words I was trying to say but I was in hysterics. My stomach hurt and I had trouble breathing. I just couldn't speak. Meanwhile, sister and friends were going "are you okay?" and "please don't die," as loved ones usually do. Eventually, I gave up on speaking and just typed into the text chat, quote:

"Blorbo from my show" is essentially the equivalent of when I say "Nacht from Black Clover."

And it clicked basically immediately for my sister. It was painful, embarrassing, and hilarious for me. But it's the truth.

Nacht, my blorbo.

Scrunkly (my “baby”, character that gives me cuteness aggression, character that is So Shaped)

Noelle. Without a shadow of a doubt. She was my favorite character before Nacht was introduced. I call her my water daughter for a reason. She's got a soft heart for caring for her family and a strong will for facing enemies. What I love about her is that she's caring without being "soft." She's a frontline fighter, fighting on behalf of others. She's also the absolute cutest when she's flustered and out of her depth. Just... So much baby behavior outside of battle. I really appreciate Noelle, my little water daughter.

Scrimblo bimblo (underrated/underappreciated fave)

Grey. She's a shy sweetheart to the fullest. She doesn't have much confidence in herself but has found a friend group with the wild Black Bulls and is happy with them. I vibe with that. Her little moments with Gauche and Gordon during the elf reincarnation arc and her recent power-up as a healer are great. She deserves them. And more attention.

Glup shitto (obscure fave, character that can appear in the background for 0.2 seconds and I won’t shut up about it for a week)

Morgen. He counts! He appears in - five? maybe six? - chapters of the manga and barely a couple seconds of screen time in the anime. Morgen has gotten less attention than Licht and probably won't be getting a temporary revival like him either. And yet I can't shut up about Morgen. Morgen is simply so pure and wholesome. But he wasn't perfect, as Nacht believed. His scenes with Yami show that he too had troubles.

It's wonderful. It's awful. I love him and miss him so much despite there not being much to miss since the canon content of him is so sparse. Fan content it is. (I need to revisit my Captain Faust AU, it seems.) I just want my sunshine man...

Poor little meow meow (“problematic”/unpopular/controversial/otherwise pathetic fave)

Nozel. Another one of my early faves and the character I crushed on the most before, well you know. He's an awful older brother. Noble goals but the worst possible execution. Not actually the worst but pretty bad. He's a jerk or at least stand-offish to a majority of the characters in the series. But he's so sad and pathetic when you peel back the layers. He needs to vent his traumatic childhood while drinking hot cocoa and crying on someone's shoulder. I can be the shoulder he cries on.

Horse plinko (character I would torment for fun, for whatever reason)

Patry. I like him. I do. But he deserves it. He's evil but also really pathetic. Yeah, he died as a child and was basically brainwashed into evil which sucks. But he was also a-okay with killing innocents, even children. He's a mess of a character and his "redemption" is lame. At least he's carrying his boyfriend around and accepting the fact that he's pretty much useless now. He deserves to be tormented for amusement is all I'm saying.

Also Nacht, to a lesser degree. Have you seen how much angst I've written for him? Albeit it's mostly in the context of an oc verse but still. I want Nacht to have a happy ending and yet I like making him suffer a bit. It's weird. Sorry Nacht. And Nacht fans.

Eeby deeby (character I would send to superhell)

I have to put Dante and Vanica here. I can't decide between them so it's both. I don't think my feelings are strong enough for "hate" but a firm dislike is a good way to put it. There's Dante's belief that anger and evil are humanity's default. Then Vanica toys with human life and sees people as disposable. And both of them are gleeful at the thought of the world being overrun with devils because they think it'd be fun or something. They just have such awful and toxic ideologies. I can't stand them.

Zenon is spared from superhell because his greatest crime is stupidity. But that is a topic for another day.

[supercalime]

TMI Graphic Novels Volumes 1-4 commentary

Volume 1:

- gosh Cassandra jean’s artwork is breathtaking isn’t it

- The little text from Cassandra Clare is so cute

- Geez, Izzy’s dress is a CHOICE

- I love how alec and Jace aren’t even trying to blend in with the crowd, I mean, sure they can’t be seen, but still

- Not having clary’s inner monologue makes her so much more likable, huge upgrade

- Hodge looks so much like a backstabber lol

- Alec in that oversized sweater is so cute

- Oh landline phones…

- Madam Dorothea is serving looks and I’m here for it

- I forgot how scary looking the silent brothers are, it’s like they are out of a wrong turn movie or something

- Why are they calling the city of bones “bone city”? It sound like a bad pun about sex lol

- Jace, honey, the falcon story is not a bed time story… it’s just sad and you need therapy

- Clary, what do you mean ‘tell jace’? You can’t just out people because you don’t think being gay is a big deal. Gosh… protagonists…

- Magnus!!!

- I forgot Simon turns into a rat! This book is crazy yall

Volume 2:

- Jace getting stabbed by Magnus’ words is so visually pleasing (can you tell I don’t care about him that much?)

- Raphael!!! My aroace king!!!

- I know we all appreciate Cassandra jean’s character designs (as we should) but I don’t see enough praise for her environment designs for the graphic novel. It’s breathtaking and so detailed

- Okay, I know conflict is inevitable (and I read COB so long ago I forgot how things went) but jace? What the hell? “It might be wise to mention you already have a man in your bed” she doesn’t own you shit, bucko

- And surely enough, Simon is also a little bitch about it. Gosh, triangles suck

- Hodge sucks, valentine sucks, everyone sucks

- Not you Magnus, you’re perfect, please carry on

- And so the pseudo incest storyline begins…

- Jace is so brainwashed by valentine, I honestly feel bad for him

Volume 3:

- malec cover? Malec cover.

- “Mostly extinct is not extinct enough!” I agree alec

- Maia! The, without a shadow of a doubt, most underrated main character in tsc

- Jace, you can’t say that all downworlders look the same, I’m pretty sure that’s racist

- Yeah… he fell…on his neck

- The passageway to the seelie realm is so cool

- The seelie queen loves some drama. I bet she’s into some weird fanfiction as well

- There’s no way to reverse Simon becoming a vampire…unless Cassandra Clare pulls up some random Mcguffin out of her ass so this character gets even further unrecognizable

- Jace has no chill. Everyone should stop outing their friends

- Yeah jace, join valentine, what could go wrong?

Volume 4:

- Here we have another of thousands of moments where clary is mean to another girl just cause.

- Dude, robert’s biceps tho!

- I love that one of jace’s special powers is jumping really high

- Every time I see max my heart sinks. I know what’s gonna happen and I’m not looking forward to it

- Again, Robert…miss Jean had no business drawing him that attractive, what the hell

- Clary and Jace, can you keep it on pants please? You still think you’re siblings, this is repulsive

- The boat scene is very cinematic, I really like it

- Simon sucking jace’s blood looked a little sexual…just sayin

- I love plot convenience! No I don’t

[talatomaz]

fear | paige dineen x fem!teen!reader

a/n: i’ve been rewatching Scorpion lately and couldn’t get this idea out of my head. this is based around 3x17. it’s a criminally underrated show and so original. also this is the first fic i’ve written in months so, sorry if it’s shit /lh

warnings: mentions of death/coma

word count: 3.1k

masterlist | navigation | request rules

reader is paige’s 18 year old daughter and sometimes helps out team scorpion but when she inadvertently inhales poisonous fumes, she soon finds herself on the brink of death, hallucinating her deepest darkest fear

i do not give you permission to repost or translate my fics on any platform - likes/reblogs are okay and are much appreciated

“Here.”

You said, placing a George Washington style hat on your younger brother’s head.

“Did you know that these are called tricorns and were referred to as-“

“Cocked hats? Yes, and they were worn not only by the aristocracy, but also as common civilian dress, and as part of military uniforms.”

You explained, interrupting Ralph as he stopped adjusting the hat and looked up at you with surprise.

“I was a history major, remember? You’re not the only one who knows things.” You joked, smiling when he did.

“So why am I wearing this tricorn?” Your genius brother asked.

“Well, you’ve got a history project due about Washington and what better way to understand his actions than by getting into his persona and pretending to be him?”

“You’ve been spending too much time around Toby.” Ralph smirked.

“Hey!”

You and your brother turned to face Happy and Toby who had just entered the garage.

“I’ll have you know that I’m a world-class behaviourist.”

“Shut it, doc.” Happy said, but there was no malice in her words.

“Where’s everyone?”

“Mum and Walter went out somewhere and Cabe’s with Allie at Sly’s desk because Sly’s asleep and drooling over himself.”

“Ew.” You said, replying to your brother.

As Happy and Toby left to find Cabe, you and Ralph continued discussing George Washington. You were both interrupted when you heard your mother’s voice.

“Morning!”

Yours and Ralph’s faces lit up when you saw she was holding a bag from Fro-Yo-Ma. Ever since Walter had got himself banned after a petty argument with the manager about a loyalty card which resulted in him having a black eye, you had all been unable to attend the establishment.

You smiled when an idea formed in your head and faced your brother once more,

“Hey, how about we sneak up to Mum whilst she’s distracted and grab our fro-yos?”

Ralph nodded in agreement and you both cautiously approached your mum who was busy telling the team that the frozen treats were for after lunch. As you both flanked your mother, you glanced over at Ralph and gave him a slight nod. Then you grabbed a tub each and began to sneak away as quietly as you came but your Mum looked at you both in confusion.

“Quick. Run, Ralph.”

Ignoring your mother’s laugh, you took a hold of Ralph’s free hand and ran back to the corner of garage you were studying in.

“I got to stop leaving them with you people.” Paige said.

Halfway through eating the frozen yogurt, you heard Cabe announce that Scorpion had a case.

Like your Mum, you weren’t a genius but you did help Scorpion anytime they were down a member, especially now since Toby had said he’d stay back to help Ralph with his project.

You were a little hurt that Ralph welcomed his help more-so than yours, despite you being the History expert, but nonetheless, you brushed it off and gathered your things to join the team’s trip to Greenland.

                ✧── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.✦ .* :★. ───✧

Arriving at the Granse World Seed Vault, you tugged at the lapels of your winter coat, trying to keep some of the warmth in you which was a large feat considering you were stuck in a blizzard in the middle of nowhere.

The winds, that could only be described as gusting, blew through your hair, further obstructing your view as you entered the building.

Moving the hair from your face, you shivered and looked up to see that the vault was desolate.

“Well, now we know why nobody ever comes out here.” Sly stated.

You all watched as Walter failed to use the key card resulting in Happy jump starting the generator using the battery from the snowcat you travelled in.

Then you all split up to go and complete your tasks.

Your Mum and Walter remained at the entrance whilst Happy started to repair the generator, Cabe went to the breakroom, Sly went to the server room and you went to find the operations centre to locate the power conduit which you needed to switch off and on again.

The dark hallway you were in suddenly brightened meaning Happy had managed to fix one of the power sources. You let out a breath of relief; you didn’t exactly welcome the idea of wandering around a pitch black vault alone where no one had been for almost a year.

You then began to cough as the vents let out some sort of yellow dust. The smell was putrid, almost making you heave.

“God, that smell is awful. So much for this being an antiseptic facility.” You groaned.

“Well, this facility self-purifies its air, but the system's been down for days, so the seeds have decayed a bit, the vents are just stirring up seed dust.” Walter said through your comms.

“Speaking of stirring up, I can only imagine what kind of trouble is being stirred up in the garage. I worry about his maturity level.”

“Mum, don’t worry. Ralph’s the most mature person I know.”

“Oh honey, I know. I was talking about Toby.”

You snickered to yourself and then stopped when you realised you’d found the Ops Centre.

“Guys, I figured out what caused the surge.”

You listened as Sly’s voice crackled through your comms.

After he had finished explaining, you spoke, “So the whole place went dark because the programmers forgot to synchronize their watches?”

“Right! But if I can get the operating system's clock lined up with Finland's, then I'll have this fixed.”

Sylvester paused for a brief moment and when he spoke again, his voice came out in a panicked whisper.

“Is anyone else getting a weird vibe? Like...like we're not alone?”

“Hey, Sly. It’s okay. Just breathe.” You said calmly before telling him to follow your breathing pattern to regulate his own.

“Good job, y/n. Sly, everything’s going to be fine. Fix the server’s clock and we’ll be out of here soon.”

You smiled at your mother’s praise and went to find the panel switch.

You enjoyed working with your Mum, loving the fact that you got to spend more time with her since starting University. But sometimes, you found yourself feeling...lonely because most of your Mum’s attention was focused on Ralph and the rest of the team.

You understood Ralph, in the broadest of terms, that was. You loved him as much as your mum and you knew her looking after Scorpion was her job but it still hurt you because you didn’t have anything in common with the rest of them.

THUD

You jumped when the door behind you slammed shut.

“Mum? I’m locked in.” You shouted out worryingly.

“It’s okay, sweetie. Our blast doors are locked too.” Your Mum said, her voice calming you with every word.

“The vault prioritizes keeping seeds safe so it must go into lockdown when it's most vulnerable, i.e. a reboot. So the doors will open in 40 minutes when the reboot is done. Everything is fine.”

Walter explained before you winced at the shriek that came through on your comms.

“Sly, what the hell?” You yelled, rubbing your ear, as if trying to sooth the pain.

“They’re in here. They’re in here.” The genius repeated as your brows furrowed in confusion.

“Sly, what’s going on?”

“Sylvester, do you copy?”

“Sly!”

You all started to shout in concern, scared for Sly’s safety, before stilling when the latter’s screams fell quiet.

“I was right. I’m not alone. It’s chickens!”

How the hell had chickens got into the seed vault? You thought to yourself.

“Hey guys. I didn’t want Sly to hear us.” Toby said.

You figured your Mum must have called him and patched him through to your comms.

You all listened as Toby explained how Sly was suffering from a psychotic break but when he commented on some yellow dust, he realised that you had all breathed in seed fungus that affected the fear centre in your brain.

You started to get even more concerned when it became apparent that Happy and Cabe were hallucinating but you were shamefully relieved that the ergot spores hadn’t affected you. You weren’t sure you wanted to experience your darkest fear, especially when you were surrounded by your Mum and the team.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes, Mum. I’m not seeing or hearing anything.” You reassured her, hearing her sigh of relief.

“Okay, thank god. We’ll get you out soon enough, okay, sweetie?”

You blinked, turning around when you heard your mother’s voice behind you.

“Y/N?” Paige said through your comms.

But you just blinked again, because you could see your Mum in front of you and you couldn’t distinguish the look on her face.

“Mum, what’s wrong?” You said.

“What? Nothing’s wrong. Toby. Walt. What’s happening?” Paige said frantically.

“Y/N must have inhaled the ergot too and she’s now trapped in her false reality.” Toby explained.

“We got to get her out of there, Walter.”

Paige said, near tears, before falling silent as she watched you on the security camera. She saw you sit on a chair and converse with an imaginary Paige.

“Mum, what did I do? I’m sorry.” You said, tears forming in your eyes at your mother’s words.

“I told you, I don’t love you. Scorpion is my family. They’re geniuses and you’re not.”

“Mum, please.” Your voice broke, as you started to plead with her.

“I-I can’t watch this. I need to get her out of there. Y/N, listen to me. I am here!”

Paige ran up to the blast doors and started to bang on the reinforced steel. Her attempts, however, were futile, because she knew that the doors wouldn’t open until you, Cabe, Happy and Sly had completed your tasks.

“Paige, you have to keep it together.” Toby said.

“No, my daughter is living her worst fear and I can’t do anything to stop it.”

“I know. I want to help Happy too. But we can’t until we figure out what psychological baggage the fungus is unpacking.”

“And we might need to hurry because Sly is getting unsure of foot.”

Walter said as Paige returned to his side to see Sly having trouble keeping his balance.

“God, we need to get them out of there. The exposure seems extensive which means their blood vessels are being constricted, especially in the brain meaning-“

“Less blood flow. And less blood flow means less oxygen. And less oxygen means...coma.” Walter finished solemnly.

“We have to talk them lucid so they can finish their tasks. I’ll take Happy. Walt, you take Cabe. Ralph, you have your work cut out for you with Sly. And Paige-“

“I’ll help y/n. Y/N? Y/N, honey, if you can hear me, I need you to flip the switch on the panel next to you. Y/N?”

“Y/N!”

“I’m sorry, Mum. Please don’t yell. What did I do wrong?”

“I told you, you’re just not special so why should I waste my time with you?”

“Please, Mum. I’m sorry I’m not special enough. I’m sorry I’m not smart like everyone else. Please don’t send me away.”

Paige’s heart broke as she watched you cry on her screen.

“Y/N, I love you so much. You are special. I love you.” Paige cried, tears dropping down her face.

“Toby, it’s not working. I can’t get through to y/n!”

“Ralph and I may have come up with another idea. You need to go back to the point when these fears started and attack that seminal moment.”

“Okay, so she’s talking about not being smart enough. I can only guess that this started when I joined the team. Y/N? Baby, can you hear me?”

Paige’s voice softened as she spoke to you once more.

“Yes, Mum?” You replied, sniffling as your tears continued to fall down your face.

“Oh, honey. Just because you’re not a genius like the rest of these guys, doesn’t mean you’re not special.”

“But I’m not.”

“Y/N, yes, you are. You’ve been special since the moment you were born. Since the moment I first held you in my arms. You’re my baby, y/n. You are special in your own way.”

Your Mum grabbed your hand and held them to her heart.

“You feel that?”

“Y-Your heartbeat?” You asked, feeling the light repetitive beating under your palm.

“Yes. My heartbeat. More importantly, my heart. You are my heart, y/n. You have been for 18 years. I grew up with you. You made me into the person I am today. The person I am now. I love you so much.”

“Yes, you’re not as smart as Ralph or Walter or the rest of the team but neither am I. Y/N, you are bright, intelligent. You are twice the person I am. You care so much about everyone. Your heart is beautiful.”

Your mother gently dropped your hand in her lap and lifted her own to cradle your face.

“That’s what makes you special.” She moved to place a soft kiss on your forehead.

“Now, y/n. I’m already so proud of you but I need you to do one thing for me. I need you to turn the switch in front of you off and on again.”

Paige held her breath as she and Walter watched you slowly stand up on your shaky legs and walk over to the panel that had the power conduit switch attached to it.

“Done.” Your voice echoed on the security monitor.

“Good girl.”

“I’m kinda sleepy, Mum. I’m just going to take a quick nap.” Your voice quietened as you lay down on the floor.

“Uh, Toby. Y/N flipped the switch but she’s really sleepy and I can’t get her to wake up.”

“Oh god, Happy, Sly and Cabe are out too. They’re in comas. They need medical assistance stat or they will die.”

“Walter.” Paige whispered, unable to speak any louder due to fear of losing you.

“We can synthesize a treatment!”

Toby then explained the different seeds they needed to mix together to make the medicine whilst Ralph hacked the vault’s database to locate them.

Once Paige and Walter had manufactured oxygen tubes out of PVC pipes, they hastily made their way to the vault before stopping when they saw you unconscious on the ground.

Paige ran to your side, still holding her breath, and quickly checked for a pulse, relaxing slightly when she felt it, albeit it was weak, but it was still there. She ran her thumb against your cheek in a gentle caress and then followed Walter to the vault, passing the others, also unconscious, on their way.

Easily finding the required seeds, the duo made the medicine oil but when a chemical fire broke out, Walter stayed to put it out whilst Paige ran to give the oil to the rest of you.

She found Cabe first, then Happy and Sly. Once she had rendered them conscious, she ran off in pursuit of the Operations Centre where you were.

Carefully but quickly, she lifted your head to rest against her leg as she poured the oil beneath your tongue.

“Come on, sweetie. Wake up. Open your eyes. Please, God.” She murmured to herself.

You opened your eyes with some difficulty, wincing at the light above you.

“Mum? What happened?” You groaned, sitting up.

“Thank God, you’re okay. I thought I’d lost you.”

Ignoring your question, your Mum gathered you in her arms and hugged you tight against her.

“I love you so much, y/n.”

Hugging her back, you rested your head against the crook of her neck, “I love you too.”

“Guys, come on, we gotta go.”

You both looked up to see Happy standing at the door. With the help of your Mum, you stood up and she then grabbed your hand and you all ran back to the entrance.

                ✧── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.✦ .* :★. ───✧

You had all safely arrived back home and managed to make it in time for Sly’s debate.

You sat in the chair next to Happy, slowly falling asleep, exhausted from the ordeals of the day.

Soon after you’d left the Vault and were on your way home, the grogginess of the poisonous fungus had fully left your system, allowing you to remember your hallucination. You’d barely said more than two words on the plane ride home, unsure of the right words to say to your Mum who had undoubtedly heard your fear.

“Hey, sweetie. Stay awake for a little while longer. We’re going home. Sly’s going to look after Ralph tonight.”

Your mother said, resting her hand on your shoulder to rouse you. You nodded in response and got up, following her to her car.

Similar to the plane, the car ride was silent. Not necessarily an awkward silence, but it was far from comfortable. You felt the constant glances your Mum gave you as she drove on the quiet roads. You noticed her lips part a few times too, as if she was about to say something but then stopped herself at the last moment.

Arriving home, your Mum unlocked the door and you made a beeline to your bedroom to get changed into your nightie. As you laid in your bed, you heard a soft knock on your door.

Inviting your Mum in, you saw she had changed too. She sat on your bed, the lamp providing some light in the room.

“Honey, can we talk?”

Not waiting for an answer, she got into the bed beside you and rested against the headboard.

“I want to talk about what happened earlier.”

There was no need for her to clarify what she meant.

“Do we have to?”

“Yes, y/n, we do. It broke my heart to see you cry today. And it hurt even more to hear that I was the reason why. I’ve never ever wanted to cause you any pain and the fact that I was a part of your deepest fear just-“

When her voice faltered, you looked up to see quiet tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Mum, I’m sorry.”

“Baby, you have nothing to apologise for. I’m sorry that you felt like you weren’t special. But I meant what I said back there. You are special in your own way. Yes, I love you and Ralph in different ways but you mean so much to me. I’m surrounded by geniuses all the time, and frankly, it gets tiring. So I’m glad I have you. You bring me back down to Earth. You’re my heart and soul, y/n.”

Not knowing the right words to say, you simply lay your head against your mother’s chest and hugged her close.

“I love you, Mum.”

“I love you too, baby. I always have and I always will.”

Soon enough, both of your tears stopped and you fell asleep in her arms, her hands gently stroking your hair as she cradled you against her.

You may not have been a genius but you were smart enough to realise that no matter what, your Mum would always love you.

[crazycookiemaniac]

you are an absolutely INSANE godly being. all this lugna is making my heart so gODDAMN FLIPPING FULL I am thisclose to crying cause of how much I love you, all this BEAUTIFUL art of yours and the ship itself. I got into black clover a month ago and OH my GOD did I fall head over HEELS in suFFOCATING LOVE with lugna. there's no going back now cause im completely addicted now lmao (not complaining, this feels like heaven).

it's such an underrated ship and I wholly live and breathe thriving on (them and) your art of them. the way you draw luck literally makes my heart SO FULL. plus that magna oh god am simping so hard what the heck is this sorcery HE'S SO CUTE. scrolling through everything rn and I'm literally brimming with so much serotonin ATM it's making me SO happily drunk. and your reasons, ways you brush off hate is the embodiment of girlboss, it's just so amazingly cool & brave!!

sorry for ranting but I just gotta tell you PLEASE, PLEASE never stop what you're doing. it's god's work and I AM ABSOLUTELY LIVING FOR IT. you have successfully made the world a better place because 1. anon aka. I said so and 2. all this lugna art. GOSH. you make me (and probably tons others) so happy and I'm begging you to never ever give up on whatever you do because honestly you've changed a bit of my life with all this beautiful art and i'm sure everyone can say the same, I'm certain. we got your back in everything that you do and don't forget that!! YOU'RE THE BEST!! 😤😤

p.s i'm asking for too much, considering that you're the boss here, bUt I just wanna suggest: have you ever considered drawing- spicier lugna- yknow ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) IM SORRY!! but maybe just consider, yknow, you darn queen ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

p.p.s while we're on that, maybe consider some angst too? shatter the hearts of mine and the fellow luck x magna soldiers with your goddess drawing powers, maybe?

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

OH DEAR OH MY OH MY GOODNESS AJKDJAJSDJ AHHHHHHH You have no idea how much this means to me!! Thank you so much for these words ahhh I don't even know what to say!!! ;w; I really appreciate it, thank you thank you thank you!!!

I have been going through a TERRIBLE art block at the moment but I'll keep your ideas in mind whenever I feel like I can draw some more lugna!!

Plus, I have drawn spicy Lugna before! There's some in my inactive instagram account, inactive_crazycookiemaniac if you scroll down a bit! ♥

But yeah!!! I'll keep doing my best! Thank you so much for your kindness and support!!!! ♥♥♥

[scraregenrecs]

Rec Roundup - May 2021

Hello friends! It’s June! (i know, i know, wtf, right?) Which means that we have a nice long list of fics from May that we know you all will love. There’s a little bit of everything. Everyone can find something they enjoy on this smorgasbord of rare ships and gen!

So, look through the list and buckle in for some AMAZING fic!

--

Aeration by @middyblue, Alexis & David, rated T, 4495 words

Summary: Isn’t her whole life proof that she can handle it? However shitty life gets, she puts one heel in front of the other and keeps walking, keeps going to the next adventure, the next thrill, because it’s when you stop that it catches up to you; it’s when you stop and there’s no one there that you start disappearing.

The night before she leaves Schitt's Creek, Alexis gets a text from Sebastien.

Rec [written by doingthemost]: This is a stunning fic that takes an unflinching look at the people that Alexis and David used to be, and the people they've become. I haven't read an Alexis character study that touched me quite so deeply. Check the tags!

and i’ve known you for a long time by @hullomoon, Stevie/Twyla, rated Gen, 574 words

Summary: While moving in together, Twyla discovers something from their childhood

Rec [written by samwhambam]: I love this little fic for multiple reasons! Stevie! Twyla! MOVING IN TOGETHER! REDISCOVERING SHARED MEMORIES. I love it all. Give it to me. It’s a sweet little slice of life and hullomoon killed it. Again. Per usual.

Every Night Has Its Dawn by @lilythesilly, Stevie/Ruth, rated G, 633 words

Summary: Everytime Ruth takes her to a new place, whether it’s a karaoke bar or a concert in the park or a cheesy tourist trap, or to try her favorite foods (sushi is so far a yes, the bistec Ruth made in her kitchen this afternoon is so far a yes, kimchi is so far a no) she watches Stevie with a bright smile, like she’s anticipating whatever her reaction is, good or bad.

Stevie never wants to stop chasing that smile. She’ll follow Ruth to a million different places in a million different cities if it means she gets to see that smile over and over again.

--

Ruth + Stevie + Karaoke

Rec [written by doingthemost]: This is so pitch perfect, I could see it easily unfolding on my screen. I love the way you instantly get to understand the dynamics of their relationship through Stevie's amusing POV. This is a must-read for anyone curious about the ship!

The Future Is This Moment by floosilver8, Jake/David, rated E, 1774 words

Summary: Mostly canon compliant, David's POV for just before the cold open of S03E01 Opening Night

Rec [written by yourbuttervoicedbeau]: I’m such a sucker for David/Jake and this is super hot! I also love the tense shift at the end there.

High and Warm by lonelygrocerystore, Stevie/Twyla, rated T, 567 words

Summary: A (very stoned) Stevie and Twyla share a moment at Mutt's barn party and Stevie has feelings.

Rec [written by samwhambam]: Give me ALL the Stevie and Twyla making out while stoned at Mutt’s barm party. It is SUCH an underrated moment in the show. They both looked fantastic and it’s time we all really appreciated it. This fic is a combination of stoned making out and queer feelings and I really enjoyed it. So much. Highly recommend it.

In her brown eyes (the ones she gave to me) by @sarahlevys, Stevie/Ruth, rated G, 600 words

Summary: "I'm dating someone. Her name is Stevie."

Her mother tsks under her breath. "Stevie, ha? Sounds like a boy's name."

A laugh escapes Ruth despite her nerves. "Well – yes. I guess so."

Ruth tells her mother about her new relationship.

Rec [written by samwhambam]: This fic gave me mom feels. 😂 I read this and was really rooting for Ruth and I was so happy that her mom was receptive to meeting Stevie. It really breathes life into a character that we got limited screen time from. It’s a nice little treat!

Let’s all be with us by [orphaned account], Stevie/Albany/Jake, rated M, 1556 words

Summary: Jake and Stevie are at Café Tropical for their weekly milkshake the night of Jocelyn's baby sprinkle. After Albany overhears Klair saying breaking news: we still fucking hate her in regards to her at The Wobbly Elm, she flees back to where they'd indulged in lunch earlier that day, meeting the two of them in the process.

Rec [written by yourbuttervoicedbeau]: The thing I love most about fanfic is when I read something that makes me consider a character in a new way — or, honestly, makes me consider them full stop, which is something I’ve never really done with Albany. But this fic fleshes her out and gives her a damn good day.

my dress on the floor by @5ambreakdown, Stevie/Twyla, rated T, 4332 words

Summary: David smiles and squeezes his hand. “You’re cute.”

Before Patrick can respond any sort of way to that, he hears the door open behind them and turns to see Stevie enter, her eyes widening and mouth opening slightly. He hears her whisper, “Oh shit,” as she takes in Twyla behind the counter.

Huh.

----

are stevie and twyla together? will patrick ever understand fashion? did i just vomit a bunch of words onto the page and didn't double check to make sure it was coherent? all these and more just might be answered!

Rec [written by samwhambam]: This is such a fun fic!! It’s told from Patrick’s POV as he slowly starts to notice some uhhhhh things between Stevie and Twyla. I love the Stevie and Twyla of it and I love David and Patrick being the classic best friends and getting super into it. I was smiling the entire time. It’s such a good fic and I kept getting distracted while writing this review because I keep reading the fic instead lmao.

rise and spin / over and over again by @anniemurphys, Alexis/Twyla, rated T, 2384 words

Summary: The apartment is dark when Alexis gets home, curtains drawn, air heavy. She wants to give in to the darkness, to curl up in it – but she also wants to pull her wife out.

Seven moments of grief, and one moment of hope.

Rec [written by doingthemost]: Please mind the tags! That said, if this is something you're comfortable reading, you'll find a devastating, breathtaking, captivating story in so few words. This is a fic that reminds me of how powerful fandom can be, and how we can often find solace and empathy in telling stories through these characters we love.

save it from the funny tricks of time by @hullomoon, David & Moira, rated G, 1114 words

Summary: While David helps her pack up her wigs, Moira reflects on their relationship.

Rec [written by yourbuttervoicedbeau]: David and Moira’s relationship is one that always fascinates me, and the parallel between the opening of the first episode of the show and this fic is so brilliantly done.

Sweaters In the Dead of Summer by @kindofspecificstore, Heather/Rachel, rated T, 2195 words

Summary: Rachel desperately wants to bury herself in the covers and never come out again. The lights were off last night- Heather didn’t have to see the patchwork that makes up her back and shoulders, the speckling of white and pink dots in varying stages of healing scars. She doesn’t like it. She’s not proud of it. But Rachel doesn’t really know how to fix it either. It’s not embarrassing, per se, just awkward to explain.

You know that feeling when you want to pop a zit?

Like that, but all the time. Except it’s all you think about. And you can’t control it.

Rec [written by doingthemost]: Yay, more Heather/Rachel! Please mind the tags with this one, but with that out of the way, this is a touching look at their relationship (every relationship in this fic, in addition to the Heather/Rachel, is treated so well!) and the importance of being seen and cared for.

To the end of reckoning by @dinnfameron, Patrick & Ronnie, rated T, 1308 words

Summary: He should get David a coffee. He could deliver it to the motel, see how he’s doing. His arm is raised halfway to flag Twyla down when he catches himself. David doesn’t want to see him right now. He may never want to see Patrick ever again. The thought makes him sick.

“Brewer.” Patrick turns at the sound of his name. There aren’t many people in this town who call him that, and sure enough, there’s Ronnie Lee at a table near the front. He’d missed her, somehow.

“You look like shit,” she says.

Rec [written by yourbuttervoicedbeau]: I love Patrick, I love Ronnie, I love anything and everything that explores the contentious relationship between the two of them. I love post-barbecue angst. Basically I love every single thing about this.

you make everything good by @rosedavid, Alexis/Twyla, rated G, 835 words

Summary: “Stop being grumpy, it’s lame."

Twyla has to go and visit her gaggle of cousins for two weeks, and Alexis is pouty about her girlfriend leaving for so long.

Rec [written by doingthemost]: This is an adorable little slice-of-life type of fic with some fun banter and some true-to-the-show Twyla moments! It's cute and funny and exactly what I love about the ship.

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Happy reading, friends!

[revchainsaw]

The Crow (1994)

Alright Cult of Cult. Do I really need to introduce this one? Let's get all 90s and gothy and maybe brace ourselves for a bit of cringe, but like in a fun way. It's the Holy Grail of Hot Topic, 1994's the Crow Starring Brandon Lee.

Sermon

Apparently before the auto industry totally crashed Detroit was already a total fucked to death pile of burning shit, or at least that's what the crow would have you believe. Sorry Bruce Campbell, and other people from Detroit, but mostly Bruce Campbell. According to the Crow the city of Detroit is the kind of place where gangs of warlock anarchist arsonists will bomb buildings, and murder and rape whoever they feel like and then walk around bragging about it the next day with absolutely zero consequences. Funny then that if Detroit was so bad they had to go to film this movie in Wilmington North Carolina which is definitely a fucked to death pile of burning shit. I can say that, I'm from there and I got the fuck out. My brother is going to kill me if he ever reads this. (It's okay, these are all jokes people). Did you know they also filmed the Super Mario Bros movie there ... also cuz they needed a really shitty looking distopia. Moving on ...

The ludicrous criminality of the Crow's Detroit is particularly on display on Halloween. In Detroit (apparently) Halloween is known as Devils Night and it's legitimately just a night of pure lawlessness and chaos and kids aren't even safe to get candy, except later when we do see trick or treaters. Eric Draven, hunky goth rocker who sort of looks like he could be Bruce Lee's Kid and his fiance are murdered by a gang of vicious criminals. One year hence, Eric is resurrected by a mystical crow (that is actually a Raven), to exact his revenge on the gang that murdered him.

He paints his face like sad Alice Cooper and refuses to listen to Joy Division, just covers. He murders Tin Tin (a knife guy) just for his long gothy duster, he murders Fun Boy and forcibly ejects heroine from her arms and tells her "Go be a good mom now" which actually works. (have I told you about our Lord and Savior Sting? He gave me the strength to get off drugs), he blows T Bird up dick first, and then comes for Skab? Scraap? Scooby? in a meeting of all of Detroits villains and just about kills them all.

He is supported by the most 90s little girl to have ever graced the screen, and I am here for it, and Officer Albrecht, who's played by Ernie Hudson but I like to call him Zeddemore: The Most Underrated Ghostbuster. The leader of the bad guys, who I cannot beleive wasn't played by Brad Dourif or Tom Waits, is pretty interested in the occult. He keeps his witchy girlfriend around and she makes him fun dishes like smoked eyeballs, and her main use is that she knows that the Crow is the Crows weakness. They set Tony Fucking Todd on the bird, and I guess you just have to hurt the bird and not kill it, and Eric loses his healing factor and other macabre undead powers.

The Crow, Jimmy the Raven, pecks out Dr. Girlfriends eyeballs, I honestly forget how Tony Todd gets offed, and Top Dollar gets Gargoyled (that is impaled on a gargoyle). Funnily enough that is more Gargoyle related impaling on screen then in the actual movie Gargoyle: Wings of Darkness where a Gargoyle is supposed to have impaled a guy.

The Benediction

Best Feature: Injustice League

In the Crow we have not only a set of super memorable villains but they are played by the bad guy all stars. John Polito as the most lowly of the bad guys as a kind of sleazy pawn shop owner who buys ill gotten gains. Tony Todd, who's size is really on display here, the freaking Candy Man is in this movie. T Bird is the head of Top Dollars goons and is played by David Patrick Kelly, you might know as the "Warriors Come Out and Play!!" bottle guy from the Warriors, or as Jimmy Horne from Twin Peaks, and of course Top Dollar himself is played by Michael Wincott. Wincott is not a particularly celebrated actor but has played villains effectively in Robin Hood, the Three Musketeers, and Dead Man.

Best Set Piece: Detroit Style Hot Dogs

The Set design of the Crow is perhaps one of it's most fantastic features. It's very moody and ethereal. It's just real enough to not take you out of the film, but fantastic enough to set mood and theme above realism. From Eric Draven's apartment, to the church where the final battle occurs they are all fantastic. I think that's why I really wanted to shine the spot light on a very minor set piece that would get nary a mention but just as effectively represents the qualities I was just talking about and that is the Maxi Doggs Hot Dog Stand, where a lot of the films exposition for audience surrogates takes place.

Worst Effect: Freeze Frame

At a few points in the movie the film makers made a strange decision to do these freeze frame transitions. I only noticed it twice in the movie where it was particularly stupid. I'm sure the film makers at the time thought it was a moody and atmospheric choice that highlighted the suffering that Eric Draven was going through, but it didn't age well. If you don't have the sensibilities of a goth girl from 1994 then it's very very hard not to laugh at just how self involved the movie is about it's super sadness.

Worst Feature: Tragic Accident

Solely based on the film itself, it is that very gothic and dated sensibility that hurts the Crow. The little sarcastic dance he does when he flees the police, quoting Edgar Allen Poe, and bowing to Albrecht. These affected behaviors that I'm sure seemed snarky and right on to the target audience only serve to make Eric Draven seem like an unbearable neck beard edgelord and not the troubled dark soul he's supposed to be. I'm sure at the time it seemed unique and gothy but that shit went out of style for good reason, people could see through it. It's a shame that the Crow himself was some of the cringiest parts of this movie now that I'm seeing it as an adult and not a 13 year old middle class boy with no real problems.

This however is not the low point of the movie. It's not news now and if you're reading some dudes review of The Crow on Tumblr then you probably already know the story. The worst thing about The Crow is that Brandon Lee was horrifically killed on set while filming this movie due to some negligible prop malfunctions. A series of unfortunate events that lead to the actor spending 6 hours in surgery fighting for his life before eventually passing. It was not a quick or painless death and it's really impossible to watch the movie without an appreciation for the fact that this kind of fun dark adventure was going to be a vehicle for Brandon Lee's career wound up taking his life. He was 28. I really wish I could have just bitched about the goofy goth stuff and moved on, but that's not the world we live in.

Best Effect: The Gargoyling

Maybe I should have called this best kill. But I'm not sure which it is. The slaying of Top Dollar at the Climax of the film was just super effective. The pointed wings impaling his chest and that horn coming out of his mouth, it was morbid and excellent and just fit the tone of the movie perfectly. I mean how many other movies can you say Cause of Death: Impaled on a Gargoyle.

Best Bird: The Raven

I tried very hard to look up the name of the bird that primarily performed in this movie and could not find anything. There was a Raven once upon a time called Jimmy the Raven, but that was in the 50s and I don't think birds live that long. There was a team of Ravens performing as the crow, they were chosen over crows for their larger size, and more imposing silhouettes. I just think it's so wonderful to see these often maligned birds get a chance to show off their talents. Corvids of all kinds are incredibly intelligent creatures. Im a sucker for animals, if you haven't already figured that out. I really liked seeing the ravens hit their marks, particularly the one whos job it was to drop the wedding ring into Sarah's hand at the end of the film. You can see that greedy little bastard do his trick and then look of camera at his trainer like "treat please!". It's very cute.

Best Actor: Top Dollar Performance

I'd love to take this opportunity to just put praise upon Brandon Lee, he truly gave everything for this role, but unfortunately with what was put to film we actually have very few character moments with Eric Draven. Stuff happens to him, and he does killings and fights. There's definitely some personality, but I felt like I walked away knowing almost nothing about who Eric Draven was. He was clearly a good dude but that and a few hobbies and a relationship and you don't really have a character yet. He's unfortunately not given a lot of acting to do, instead just relegated to stunts and action sequences. That were notably cool.

The bad guys in the Crow have a lot more character and among this who's who of character actors, Michael Wincott takes the cake. Hell he was standing next to Candyman himself, Tony Todd and still stealing the scenes.

Best Character: A Few Good Apples

Is the best character in The Crow really going to be the cop? The commissioner Gordon stand in? yeah, it is. Not to be political, but I don't like cops, but I guess in a world with magical birds and eyeball smoking I can suspend my disbelief and let Ernie Hudson be #1 cop dad. His character is really the heart of the film, since all Eric can do is brood and fight, we have to care about someone in this movie.

Best Sequence: Halloween Party

The best sequence of the movie is of course the scene where Eric Draven busts in on the Devil's Night party planning commission. I think Top Dollar brought Scrappy Doo there just so he could lure out the crow, knowing the baddest assholes in all of Detroit would be gathered it was likely that somebody was going to kill the beast, or if they couldn't at least Top Dollar could get a feel for his enemy. It's a bullet flying action sequence with a ton of weight. I can't put my finger on this all to common weightless third act problem that big budget super hero and action flicks have nowadays, but whatever that issue is, the Crow does not have that issue. From this point on the Climax feels earned and I am invested. For that reason, The Crow is honestly better in spite of its awkwardness, than many of the super hero movies out today.

Worst Sequence: My Guitar Gently Weeps

Speaking of brooding or fighting. The best sequence was fighting, the worst is brooding. I get that Eric was in a band or something, but didn't he have shit to do. It seemed like it was a cool idea for a shot, but for like a whole seen, watching somebody play an 80s guitar solo, that stood out so brazenly from the choices of music in the rest of the movie was extra corny. It felt like someone's( dad trying to relate to their kid. Oh you like Music. The Dresden Dolls eh? Oh man, then you're going to love Slash's Snake Pit!

Summary

The Crow is dated. It is iconic but I wonder how many of the people that hang that poster on the wall have watched that movie since they were kids. It's interesting how what i've liked and disliked about this film have changed so much sense I was a kid. It's a cheeseball fiesta. If you have matured at all beyond thinking that being sad is the same as being deep then you're going to like it a little less than you did when you were younger, but it is still solid. There's not much to hate on. I'd watch it over and over again. I was really afraid it would not hold up at all, but returning to The Crow was a completely positive experience.

Overall Grade: B

[therebelcaptainnetwork]

It’s time to announce fourth annual RebelCaptain Appreciation Week, dedicated to celebrating our favorite tragic power duo: Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor. The event will run from August 3-9!

SCHEDULE:

Day One: Moment They Became Your OTP || Touch

Day Two: Parallels || Reunion

Day Three: Colors || Dream

Day Four: Media Adaptation (AU/Crossover) || Soulmates

Day Five: Favorite Traits || Secret

Day Six: Underrated Moments || Persevere

Day Seven: Free Day || Love

Please use this week to celebrate Jyn and Cassian in any way you would like, whether it’s making gifs, graphics, mixes or fanvids, writing fic or meta, creating fanart, etc. 

We included two prompts for each day to ensure that the posts didn’t only skew towards visual work. But please feel free to do either one or both! The point is to create as much positive Jyn x Cassian related material as possible.

How it will work:

Please tag your posts with #rebelcaptainweek in one of the first five tags so we can see it

@therebelcaptainnetwork will reblog ALL work with this tag

To find works created for this event, we will be tagging all reblogged works #rebelcaptain week, and specific days will be tagged #rc week: day [one]

Feel free to message us with any comments, questions or concerns. We hope you guys have a lot of fun and we look forward to seeing what wonderful things you will create! We’ll also post reminders as we get closer to the event.

[kittyprincessofcats]

RWBY Volume 8, Episodes 8-12

All caught up with RWBY now! (Except for the premium only episode.)

So, two things first: 1. From now on, my blog will no longer be spoiler free for RWBY! I don’t have premium access, so no spoilers for that, but beyond that, I might now reblog spoilers for everything that’s been released to the public. Blacklist “#RWBY spoilers” if you don’t want to see them.

2. I was going to ask what the spoiler policy in this fandom in general is when it comes to premium access. From what I’ve seen, Youtubers usually wait a week before uploading their reaction videos, which I appreciate – but here on tumblr almost no one seems to hold back. I saw a spoiler for “Creation” before it was released publicly. The day episode 13 was released for premium access, I had to unfollow people for posting untagged spoilers for it. And when I went into a RWBY-related tag for one second, I saw a really big spoiler that put me in a very sour mood because it also happened to be very aggressively worded against fans of a certain character (basically, along the lines of “I’m glad X bad thing happened to Y character because I hate them and their fans”). So, that scared the shit out of me and I ended up looking up more specific spoilers about what exactly happened because I wouldn’t have been able to sleep otherwise. So, from what I’ve seen, this fandom’s spoiler policy is just “fuck anyone who doesn’t have premium access” 😒. Always nice to see people being so considerate.

With that said, let’s get into my thoughts on episodes 8-12. Under the cut, because unlike some people, I try to be considerate of others who might want to avoid spoilers.

- So, the Hound really was a person. Specifically, a person with silver eyes and that’s probably what happened to Summer. THANKS, I HATE IT. This is exactly what I feared it would be and what I didn’t want it to be. (I don’t want Ruby and Yang to have to fight and kill their grimm-ified mom, that’s too sad, okay?)

- I love that Whitley really came through and came up with a plan for evacuating everyone! He’s a good bean after all! And that he managed to press that button on the computer before running from the Hound? Amazing.

- Willow Schnee being one hell of a mama bear and summoning a thing to protect Whitley was epic. She was so close to breaking down before that, but then her child was in danger and she just jumped into action right away. Protective mom instincts ftw!

- Blake’s talk about how she looks up to Ruby and how she herself lost the youthful optimism Ruby still has was SO sweet! (Also, Ladybug is an underrated ship/friendship and I really don’t get why people say they never interact? Have you all just forgotten volume 1 and how Bumbleby’s first meeting happened because Yang was trying to wingman Ruby who was trying to befriend Blake??)

- Penny fighting the virus from the inside was amazing, she did so well! I also loved seeing Nora encourage her (and echo Blake’s earlier words back to her).

- Unrelated to these episodes specifically, but I tried to think about who my favourite RWBY charactes even are right now, and I find it super hard to narrow down because I love so many of them, but if I tried to somewhat narrow it down, then (in no specific order because don’t ask me to also come up with an order): all of Team RWBY (though Blake is a personal favourite), Ilia, Penny, Salem, Cinder. (But then again, I also love Winter and Qrow and Robyn and... you get it, it’s hard to narrow down. Oh, and of course Pyrrha, but... you know.)

- “Witch” was honestly my favourite episode of the bunch. That one was just so full of epic stuff. (And now I’m wondering if Salem being one of my favourite characters has anything to do with my love for witches. I used to be obsessed with witches as a kid. In every story I read that had a witch, the witch was always my favourite character.)

- Yang and her team sure found a way inside that whale fast! Also, really handy that Ren’s semblance evolved just in time for when they needed it. But hey, I don’t want to complain about convenient plot stuff too much. Sometimes the heroes are allowed to have a little bit of good luck.

- Hazel listening to Oscar and deciding to get both him AND Emerald out of there was amazing! He really does have a soft spot for kids and wasn’t kidding about not wanting more kids to die – we love to see it! I also think it makes for an interesting parallel that Hazel decided to do this right as Ironwood was sending students to fight on the front lines and Marrow was calling it out.

- I really liked Ren telling Yang she doesn’t have to hide her fear behind jokes. Ren being able to see emotions is going to bring about so many more good moments, I just know it!

- Emerald and “Hazel’s” talk with Salem gets so much better when you know “Hazel” is actually Oscar – Emerald has gotten so much better at illusions and fooled Salem herself! That’s impressive!

- It’s really practical that Ren could sense Emerald’s fear. But also, the group really didn’t have the time to discuss if Emerald was trustworthy – they needed to get out of there asap.

- The way Salem spits out the word “semblance” when she talks to Emerald shows again that she not only underestimates these “new humans” and their powers, but also considers them inferior. It’s a nice little detail how just her tone when she says that word says so much about her worldview.

- Yang straight-up running up to Salem and blowing her up was epic. It didn’t last of course, but it was still a super bold and epic move. I’ve talked before about how cool Yang is and she just keeps getting cooler.

- Yang calling Salem out was amazing and epic, too! And when she referred to Summer Rose as “my mom” that made me tear up just a bit 😢. (I really don’t like Salem’s smile when she says “her again”, though. I don’t want grimm-ified Summer, I really don’t want it, okay? keep it far away from me where I won’t have to see it.)

- I’m a bit sad about Hazel’s death, but it was a really fitting end for his character and a really cool way to go out. The way he looked at all of those kids in danger (proving again that that’s what it’s about for him), whispered “No more Gretchens” to Oscar, punched Salem in the face as she was about to hurt Emerald, injected all of those crystals into his skin (which looked epic, by the way), told Emerald to go, fought an epic fight against Salem and then grabbed her and set himself and her on fire, burning her like a witch – it was epic stuff! RIP Hazel, you died as a hero and went out in an incredibly epic way!

- Hazel’s sacrifice must have been super tough on Emerald. He died protecting her (and JOYR) and it worked. She got away from Salem, but only because someone else, a friend, died for her. Not only must it be awful for her to lose Hazel, she probably also blames herself. (And, as I’ve seen others point out, it was probably the first time in her life an adult did something to protect her. Wow. Someone get this girl therapy, please.)

- The whale getting blown up was an absolutely epic moment. From the music to the cinematography, I loved everything about it. (That said, I will miss the whale. RIP coolest villain lair ever.)

- I loved Watts’ speech to Cinder – and I’m saying this as someone who became a huge fan of Cinder this volume. I love her, but I also love roasting her, and a lot of what Watts said was stuff she desperately needed to hear. I honestly didn’t even like Watts before that moment, but that speech might have made me like him just a tiny bit. The way he just laughed when she dangled him from a building, the way he spelled it out for her that her methods haven’t been working and threw her failures in her face, the ending with calling her “a bloody migraine” – Like I said, I’m a fan of Cinder, but that was glorious and cathartic and beautiful to witness. But what makes it really perfect is Cinder’s reaction: The fact that you’d expect her to kill him or at least scream at him, but instead she spares him and just sits down and cries. I really love what they’ve been doing with Cinder this volume and that they’re finally showing her as someone way deeper than just a power-hungry villain.

- In general, let me quickly talk about Cinder, because even without having seen the last two episodes I can already tell you that she’s my standout character / favourite character of the season. (It was Ilia for Volume 5, Salem for Volume 6, Penny for Volume 7 – and now it’s Cinder.) I said back in my post about Volume 5 that I wish they’d do more with her because after becoming rather interesting in Volume 4 they just went back to making her a pretty flat villain – and I officially have to eat my words and apologize to RoosterTeeth right now! This volume proved to me that they know what they’re doing with Cinder and explained so much about her. I’m sorry for ever doubting the writing. I now want to go back and rewatch the whole show while paying more attention to Cinder and I can’t wait to see where her arc goes from here (yes, I want an eventual redemption, and what about it?). This volume is obviously setting up something big for her – I just have no idea what it is. And at the end of the day, she’s still the Maiden of Choice. She’s the key to the Beacon relic, and that’s going to become important eventually.

- Oh, and can I mention, just by the way, that I think Cinder looks amazing? I don’t understand all the people who say they miss her red outfits when this is clearly her best look yet. The black eyepatch, the cape, the earrings, the short hair, the high boots, the shorts instead of a dress, all the black – this is her absolute best look, period.

- I’ve also noticed that the scene between her and Watts is the first time Cinder has referred to Penny by name. She’s always referred to her with phrases like “some toy” or “Polendina’s creation” before, but this time she just called her “Penny Polendina”, then “Penny” again, and asked Watts how she’s supposed to take Penny’s power “if she’s dead” (not “destroyed”, which is what Watts said, but “dead” – something you say about a person, not a machine). I think somewhere down the line, Cinder has started to see Penny as a person and respect her as the Winter Maiden. Maybe it’s because of how Penny won the fight at Amity, or maybe (though this might be wishful thinking on my part) it’s because Penny questioned why Cinder serves Salem and showed her and Emerald mercy.

- Also, side-note: While I loved Watts’ speech, it sure is bold of him to call Cinder entitled when his own villain origin story is getting overlooked for a science project.

- Neo is an amazing little troll and I love her. From stealing the lamp and skipping along the ruins of the whale happily to those texts to Cinder, all of her moments were brilliant and hilarious.

- Some characters not just forgiving Emerald is totally fair and realistic. But, as I said before (and as Oscar also points out), they don’t have to. People think a “redemption” – or let’s just call it switching sides instead of using such a loaded term – has to include everyone’s forgiveness, but it doesn’t. If Yang and Jaune never want to personally forgive Emerald, that’s okay. They don’t need to forgive her to recognize that she’s changed and work with her. And, as Oscar and Ren point out, Emerald’s abilities would be very useful to have on their side. So, personal feelings are fine and all, but right now they don’t have the luxury to dismiss a potentially very useful ally. (And same for Oz, by the way. It’s fine if they’re still mad at him, but they also need his help.)

- Also, have I already said that I’m very happy for Emerald? Because I’m very happy for Emerald for getting out of there! (Mercury’s and then Cinder’s redemption next, please!)

- F*ck Harriet for trying to get Winter in trouble for letting JYR go. I’m hating her more every second. And then she seriously said “Who cares?” about Ironwood’s plan to nuke Mantle? She’s the most unlikable of them all.

- Everyone’s reunions were so sweet! I loved Ruby and Yang hugging 😭. And Yang cupping Blake’s cheek and their forehead touch had me all 🥰 🥰 🥰.

- After he threatened to nuke Mantle, I hope we can all agree that Ironwood is a straight-up villain now. The most infuriating part is that he didn’t even have to do anything! Whitley and Weiss had figured out a way to save everyone in Mantle and the SDC ships to evacuate people were already there. All Ironwood had to do was let them evacuate everyone to Atlas, and then Penny would have opened the vault willingly and Ironwood could have used the staff to raise Atlas as planned. Problem solved! He should have just sat there and ate his food – but he was so pissed about things not going his way (or maybe he just genuinely hates Mantle that much) that he thought sabotaging the rescue plan and threatening genocide was a better option.

- I loved Marrow’s arc in these episodes and how you could tell more and more that his conscience was making him turn against Ironwood. First he questioned Winter when she was going to nuke the whale before JOYR were back, then he seemed shocked when he thought they were dead, then he tried to talk sense into the other Ace Ops after Ironwood’s ultimatum, and then he straight-up called out Ironwood himself. That last one was dangerous though, and he was lucky Winter was quick enough to jump in and pretend to arrest him, because Ironwood was going to just shoot him in the back.

- Speaking of, I wonder how long Winter has been planning to double-cross Ironwood. How long was she already disagreeing with him, but waiting for the right moment to make a move? Either way, I’m glad she was there to save Marrow.

- The Renora confession scene was so sweet and got me a little choked up 😢. I’m glad they sorted out their issues and told each other how they feel. But like I said before, I think Nora’s arc of trying to find out who she is without Ren is really good and important and Ren respecting that was really good and important as well. It was just a very wholesome scene. Also, I like that we got a little bit more backstory for Nora (her mom abandoned her? that’s awful), and Jaune awkwardly leaving the room was hilarious.

- Robyn telling Qrow he’s a better Huntsman than Clover because he chose to do the right thing was a really important moment for Qrow, imo. (And just a side-note: I’m sure most Fair Game shippers are pretty chill – and I’m a strong believer in ‘ship and let ship’ – but a certain subset of them is starting to get on my nerves with how they ignore Clover’s canon character and story (acting like he would have rebelled against Ironwood if he were alive as if the whole reason he’s dead wasn’t precisely because he cared more about Ironwood’s orders than doing the right thing) and how they make every new plot point about their ship somehow (Oscar’s semblance? Better be a time-travel thing so Clover can come back. Staff of Creation? Better be able to bring people back from the dead so Clover can come back.) It’s so annoying.)

- Yang and Ruby’s talk about their mom was really intense. Ruby’s been holding all of these feelings in for so long, so seeing her say out loud what we’re all fearing (that Summer was turned into a Grimm) and seeing both her and Yang break down over it – that was a lot. I loved seeing Yang comfort Ruby and tell her that her plan for Amity wasn’t useless. Their sisterly bond is so sweet.

- Penny asking Ruby to kill her was another really intense moment. The look on Ruby’s face in that moment really said it all. Ruby has been through so much, has lost Penny before, so hearing that request – even though they fortunately didn’t have to go through with it – must have still been a lot for her.

- I really loved Emerald’s cute “newly reformed villain” moments. (“You guys have been getting your asses kicked… some of that my fault” & “I’m just going to be super pissed if you all finally decide to give up the moment I switch sides.”) I’ve said before (in my She-Ra posts) that my favourite part of any redemption arc is the “former enemies, now awkward around each other” stuff, so this was right up my alley!

- “The girl who fell through the world” was referenced twice now. Between that, the image of everyone falling in the opening, and the lyrics “sometimes it’s worth it all to risk the fall”, I’m going to predict that someone – most likely all of Team RWBY – will fall into that void and potentially end up in a different world.

- The group’s plan to defeat Ironwood, stop the bomb, and get to the vault was amazing all-around. I love the parts Emerald and Winter got to play in it, I love how we saw the plan’s execution before seeing how they came up with it and I love how everyone got to help, even the Schnees and Klein. I also love that the hole Oscar blasted through the ground of Atlas became relevant again.

- The design of the vault and the door are really nice and now I wonder what the other two are going to look like.

- Saving Penny like that was super risky, but they really were out of options. Just the fact that Ruby had to be quick enough to use her semblance and get to the staff before the virus kills Penny… jeesh, that was close.

- Ambrosius is a super fun character! I love that he looked at Penny and said “I’d love to meet whoever did this.” Also, the staff seems more useful than the lamp. The lamp only lets you ask three questions per century, while the staff can be used as often as you want – as long as you’re okay with whatever it previously created disappearing.

- I honestly still don’t completely understand what Penny is now. Is she meant to be human now? Or is she just a being made up of pure aura? How does this work? Ambrosius only created the copy that destroyed herself, so what’s left is Penny’s aura – but she somehow also has a body now? I guess we’ll find out more about what exactly this means later.

- Also, while I wasn’t sure how I feel about this decision re:Penny at first, now that I’ve thought about it for a bit, I think it works. It fits with the Pinocchio story, and I like that they didn’t phrase it as “she’s a real girl now”, but as “this is the girl who’s been in there all along”. Also, Penny saying “wow” after hugging Ruby and then going on a hugging spree was adorable.

- Watching “herself” self-terminate must have been really traumatic, though. Even if that copy was just a robot, it was still a disturbing scene.

- Who shut down communications in the middle of Jaune’s broadcast? I’m assuming it was Cinder, Watts and Neo.

- The whole dimension with the doorways that Ambrosius created looks amazing. (A while before watching this episode, I wondered if Raven could theoretically save Atlas by getting everyone to safety with her portals. It might not have been Raven, but I’m glad I was at least onto something.)

- “Do not fall.” So, about that… they’re all falling in the opening, (and we referenced “the girl who fell through the world” twice now), so I don’t have a good feeling about that. Also, Watts has been dangled from somewhere high twice now, so the third time has to be when he actually falls down.

- And Cinder is there to ruin the plan because of course she is.

[blurringedges]

Ranking My Favourite Taylor Swift Songs (91-120)

Let’s carry on, lads! These are the songs that hit when you’re in the mood!

91. Mean

My girl. I love her for doing GRAMMY winning Mean about someone critiquing her GRAMMY performance. Icon. 

92. Should’ve Said No

That performance of her going for it in the rain is honestly stuck in my head and honestly, it’s earned its rent. 

93. Tell Me Why

Those violins. Enough said.

94. The Lucky One

This song is just the one for me. It gets my attention from the first two lines and the catchy chorus keeps me there and you know what? I’M the lucky one. Boom.

95. That’s When (featuring Keith Urban)

I just really love this duet. That’s it - that’s the tweet. It’s a great country song and honestly, I should listen to it more and appreciate its beauty. 

96. ‘tis the damn season

This is STORYTELLING. Damn. 

97. False God

Saxophone? More like sexophone, am I right? Such a great, sexy and emotive song. I LOVE it.

98. Delicate

I couldn’t listen to this song because for a long time, my life was delicate like this and only now, do I listen to this with my heart in my hands.

99. invisible string

How beautiful is her voice on this song all about falling beautifully in love? Again, it connects with me on another timely level and I’m so grateful.

100. Starlight

This just makes me want to do all of the dancing. And crash a boat party.

101. Crazier

I love how she casually dropped a perfect love song in the Hannah Montana movie. Power move.

102. Enchanted

This song meant so much to me growing up and I’m so glad that it was basically my big sister and my diary all at once. Thank you for this song, Taylor Swift. You will never know the importance and hope this song held for me.

103. Fearless

The country twang of FEARless does it all. This is an iconic song.

104. my tears ricochet

The beginning. The SCREAMING AT THE SKY. The content. The ‘If I’m dead to you, why are you at the wake?’ Bloody hell. It cuts different, man.

105. peace

A grower on me and every time I listen, it always has different meanings. It’s so beautiful, man. 

106. Begin Again

Like to me this is just the definition of sweet. There’s so much hope and heartbreak in one song and it’s such a compelling balance.

107. I Don’t Wanna Live Forever (featuring ZAYN)

The breathiness, the sexiness, the belt. It’s a post 1989 and pre reputation banger that is such an underrated song.

108. Stay Beautiful

This is stuck in my head because this is an EARWORM, Miss Taylor.

109. The Best Day

Take this away from me so I can cry, please. I can only listen to this if I need a cry. And it does the trick - every time.

110. Better Than Revenge

I know that I’m a feminist and that this is a problematic song but when you’re in the mood - this needs to be scream-shouted.

111. You All Over Me (featuring Maren Morris)

Damn, she brought yeehaw Taylor to 2021 and I dig.

112. I Forgot That You Existed

Damn girl, when I get to this level I’ll be happy. Giggles and all. Great opening transitioning from reputation to Lover.

113. Christmas Tree Farm

The run at the beginning. The sleigh bells. The vocals. Give me twinkly lights, now!

114. Cold As You

The OG Track Five. Without you, we wouldn’t have the most heartbreaking Taylor songs and honestly, she was the template.

115. Fifteen

WHEN YOU’RE FIFTEEN, AND SOMEBODY TELLS YOU THEY LOVE YOU, YOU’RE GOING TO BELIEVE THEM. Wow. Punch me in the face, thanks.

116. Welcome To New York

Those synths, man. I know this isn’t the most popular but when you’re in the mood for this song - you’re in the mood for the song! Makes me want to walk down 5th Avenue like I’m in the opening montage of The Devil Wears Prada

117. 22

If you didn’t sing this at your 22nd birthday, you don’t have a soul. However, it should be reserved for 22nd birthdays to preserve its reverence.

118. betty

A fan favorite with that sweet, sweet country harmonica but for me, it’s all about the bridge. And YOUR CARDIGAAANNNNNNN.

119. Jump Then Fall

This just bops, man. It hits.

120. Come Back…Be Here

To me, CBBH walked so The Moment I Knew could run. A sad, sad song that hits me in the feels whenever I listen to RED in its entirety

[mitsuhidethesnek]

Time to liveblog Ikepri!

There will be complaining so I won’t tag the characters when I’m complaining lol. Also, this will reflect my blatant bias for scary boys plus Leon. I’m not into softies or tsuns. This is just me airing out MY opinions, so please feel free to disagree and have your own thoughts. I knew I should have started this liveblog earlier. I’m already 4 chapters into Chev’s route. Character first impressions under the cut. Just prologue content.

Prologue thoughts - I like that she owns a bookstore. IkeVamp also had an MC after my own heart, travel journalist. - Yves and Chevalier both lay it on so thick with the insults. Everyone is unworthy to Yves, but it’s his overcompensation from the start. For Chevalier, everyone is just literally inferior because apparently he’s worked so hard to be so ruthlessly superior.

- Eight princes have gathered, one of them will be chosen to be king. Except only our three starter pokemon want to be king, and more than half of them have asked you to be less formal with them lol.

- pfft. Everyone calling Sariel out for kidnapping me. Sariel is like “how dare you accuse me? MC is here of her own free will, right, MC?” and only LEON actually asks my opinion. But he also tries to persuade me by pointing out the icing on top of the ordeal lol.

- I like that Sariel was impressed with me the moment I slapped a drunk. A man who appreciates violence “for a good cause.” I mean, a solid reason to choose me.

- Okay, it is furthermore not about eight different princes vying for power. It’s really just two factions. Team Chevalier and Team Leon. plus Yves kind of

- Prologue Chapter 8 is where Leon starts being nice to you wants to know your thoughts. uwu

- This MC asks questions multiple times. She asked “why her?” for Belle multiple times. It’s extra self-deprecating, which I’m not into, but I guess it’s humble. She doesn’t understand that just being a commoner is enough. It could be anyone. And it just one unlucky standout moment she was chosen for. Leon gives a good reason though. We need someone common who understands what it’s like to be human, because all the royals are a bunch of beasts.

- I love that Belle is a title. Such a good trope. Like how Alice is a title in Ikerev

- I wonder if our translation enthusiasts are complaining. Probably. >> The English localization seems really on the nose with some lines. ><

Individual character thoughts

Rio

- I was expecting puppy immaculate sub. I wasn’t expecting literally obsessed with you. But the fact that he makes Sariel nervous and is too much for Sariel is HILARIOUS. Terrifying levels of enthusiasm. I approve.

- Unfortunately Rio is exactly the type of man I have often had to discourage. It is never just harmless flirting! >< Girl, he gonna keep trying even once you’re married.

Sariel

- Sariel has some sexy lines, but it is 100% creepy since we don’t know each other. - I figured he was my type. Sadistic. Devil-type. The way they do it is he says some pretty unnatural things that imply violence and madness. Disciplinarian. He’s extra and kind of unbelievable and way too handsy in a way that makes him come off shady, but I’m here for the sadistic disciplinarian ride.

-I was looking forward to the contrast between Sariel and Rio, someone who makes you serve and someone else who loves to serve, so I’m here for that contrast. Yves

- No, I don’t appreciate you insulting me every second. He seems like a dainty tsun, so not really my type off the bat.

- However, something tells me his story might be surprisingly moving and relatable? Kind of like Ikevamp Mozart or Ikerev Jonah. Very prim condescending characters who reveal relatable insecurities and standards. Characters that reveal more in their routes than as NPCs.

Luke

- I’m not into big kind guys, but he’s honestly a breath of fresh air. I like that he’s not an active flirt, but what he says is just extra friendly so it comes off flirty. He’s the tallest and is compared to a bear. He doesn’t want to be king. So he seems like someone who will just be nice. I like that he’s super not into the drama and tries to get away from it and discourages it.

Jin

- He’s not my type either. He’s the eldest brother, so he has this knowing air about him all the time like nothing surprises him. But he’s just an observer and commenter so far, doesn’t really interfere. He’s more cool like IkeRev Ray, not an uptight brother-mom figure.

Licht

- Not my type either. Reminds me of IkeRev Harr and Luke. Just really quiet at first so it’s hard to say. He might be the most normal though of all the brothers. Similar to Luke, where he wants to stay out of the drama, but much more taciturn and grumpy about it.

Nokto

- He’s my type. Constantly trying to get in your pants. But he’s coming off kind of cheesy and just nonstop horny to me. Idk, I like seductive enticing dialogue, and I lose interest when it goes past coaxing to full on pushing.

Clavis

- I was REALLY hype for Clavis. Constantly amused character. Turns out, he’s not just this puppeteer in the background. He’s a full on meddler, which I’m still into. He likes starting chaos for its own sake.

- I wonder if he’s different in other routes, but so far having started Chev’s route, I don’t like that he’s mostly here to cause chaos in all matters relating to Chev, instead of being about causing mischief in general. And I don’t like that he’s more of a prankster. I was hoping for sophisticated knowing trickster.

Chevalier

- He lays his superiority complex on SUPER thick. The payoff is supposed to be good when he goes from being utterly unimpressed with you to being obsessed with you. But it’s super disheartening to have characters that make me feel like an idiot. And it’s just how he treats everyone, not just me, but he lays it on thickest at me.

- I literally only like this dude because he’s got that regal IkeSen Kenshin gaze and black fur-lined cape. My brain goes stupid for the regal fur boa, and I like that it’s black against his white color scheme because it suggests that he is the sinister brutal white of winter. So I’m here for all those metaphors.

- But he’s really extreme in how his character revolves around basically two thoughts: Love is worthless. Everyone has a use, and I don’t care about anything but the use of things.

Leon

- saved Leon for last because he’s too easily my favorite!! I’m glad I started Chev’s route because there’s no way I would have touched anyone else if I had started with Leon.

- He’s the best parts of Ikesen Masamune and Nobunaga and Ikevamp Napoleon and Leo! 

- I’m a sucker for the one character who actually cares about what I think and values it even when I underrate my own opinion. ;~;

- He’s the domestic faction in contrast to Chev the foreign faction. so already Chev is about conquest, and Leon is about doing a good job as King taking care of the people. Leon radiates power and can apply it at will, but mostly he asks first, and it’s so nice. Best of both worlds! Power and compassion!

- In a lot of his dialogue, the way he appeals to you is: “You don’t have to if you don’t want to. You don’t have to do anything that you’re not ready for. But if you do, it will be fun and life-changing. What do you say? Will you put your trust in me?” He never makes me feel bad for choosing what makes me feel safe or better. And he makes the danger option sound good because he acknowledges the danger and shifts your focus to the benefits, and you know you’ll be protected if you stay by him.

In summary...

I’m here for Leon.

I’m hopeful that Chevalier, Nokto, Sariel and Rio will scratch my itch for their tropes.

Luke and Yves surprised me. I’m open.

Lost interest in Clavis.

No interest in Jin and Licht so far.