#but she takes her frustration out on those below (or that she perceives as weaker in some way)

[silvr-skreen]

misty and diane being both incredibly competent but that leading them into the trap of condescension to others and/or the belief they know the other person's abilities better than they do.

nyx hates his boss because: I CANT WALK TODAY FUCK YOU MEAN GET UP?

[the-carlyle-review]

Cress Review

Cress is, by far, my favorite book in The Lunar Chronicles series. Following the events of Scarlet, Cinder and Thorne are back on the run in the Rampion but now they’ve got Scarlet and Wolf on board. With the end goal of taking down Queen Levana, the crew looks to Cress for help; the hacker that Cinder met over netscreen in the first book who warned her that Prince Kai was in danger.  Cress is all-for supporting Cinder over Levana, but in order to do so she needs to be rescued from her satellite-slash-Rapunzel-tower. The Rampion crew, however, is not the best at their job, and so their straightforward plan to grab Cress and skidaddle doesn’t play out as it should. Thus, the rest of the book follows the crew��s separation and attempts to get back on track. 

It’s when we see all the characters come together, and then promptly get split apart. My favorite part about the split is that, without delving too deeply into spoilers, we get to see new dynamics of character interactions, and there are a lot of relationships to work with now that the cast list has gotten so much larger. The characters also start out frazzled and stressed, which I think adds depth to their interactions and conversations because they don’t have the mental capacity to be poised or on top of their emotions. This leads to hilarious conversations that we wouldn’t have otherwise gotten.

Cress by Marissa Meyer (The Lunar Chronicles #3): ⭐ 10/10 ⭐

Review with spoilers below!

As mentioned earlier, we get different groups than we have had in the previous books. The main duos in Scarlet were Cinder-Thorne and Scarlet-Wolf. However, when Scarlet is kidnapped by Sybil and Thorne plummets to the earth with Cress, those strong relationships were broken up and instead newer, weaker relationships were given the chance to grow. Scarlet suffers in the Lunar palace but meets the enigmatic Princess Winter. Cinder is left lugging around an unconscious and injured Wolf, and has a new companion in the Lunar guard Jacin who Sybil left behind. Thorne is now blind, and his companion is a Lunar shell whose first encounter with the earth is being stranded in a desert and almost dying– not to mention the fact that she’d fallen in love with him before they’d even met. 

This all comes to a head when everyone meets back up in the Lunar-majority village in Africa, except they’ve once again been separated even further; Wolf has just regained consciousness and is desperately searching for Scarlet; Thorne, still blind, is trying to find Cress after she was kidnapped by human traffickers; Jacin was just wandering around, but he’s being perceived as a threat because no one in the scuffle except for Cinder knows that he’s (temporarily) on their side. 

This continues, of course. When they infiltrate Kai’s wedding, it is Cress and Wolf who are the couple, and it is funny to see meek Cress interacting with a grumpy Wolf. It’s hilarious to see Cinder and Jacin interact with one another because they both barely trust the other, and Jacin is not subtle about how little faith he has in his new buddies. Not to mention the communication error between Cinder and Jacin about his “I serve my princess” line. Which just makes their interactions so much more entertaining to read. Jacin also adds that next level of outside viewer that I love so much in this series, as it is clear that he does not hold the others in high esteem nor is he willing to get swept along in their belief that they can do anything they put their mind to. He is very much a pessimist, and it is funny and frustrating at the same time.  

All in all, Cress is definitely my favorite book in the series. I feel like we get to see a lot of action and comedy, and it comes at a good point in the series because the relationships and character personalities are pretty established, and we still have the entire next book for everything to go to shit and need to be serious. It’s sad that Scarlet and Wolf get given the short straw, but I feel as though the contents of the book would’ve gone much differently if the two were at full power, considering Scarlet has the blood-thirst and Wolf has the skills to carry out the murders. 

[papers4me]

Fruits Basket Manga Review , ch 111

sigh~~~ I feel that my recent posts are a bit negative towards the anime, but thats cuz the chapters I’ve read so far are either unbelievably important character depth content cut for no valid reason or content in the anime but packed with million other things that it lost its purpose or importance. Basically tohu’s ep 6 which consists of 4 chapters & now ep 5 which is a momiji ep & yup, packed with 4 chapters as well... so, I apologize for any negativity, my intention is just analyzing artistic & story-telling aspects, I love se03, but yeah it screwed up lots of important characters due to its not so thorough plot decisions & harmful character insight choices.

today.. we explore Momiji... but only before his curse breaks.

Furuba anime struggling to know how to design an episode based on various plot-heavy chapters?

so, they decided 13 eps, & decided one ep for momiji cuz motoko’s graduation & the fanclub is the core of the furuba & have already cut tons of tohru, cuz who cares? she’s kind. be like her. end of lesson. No. really, jokes aside, how to do this?

How to combine several chapters in one ep? collect small snippets from chosen chapters/content like a bee does flowers? you gotta skip some content, you gotta highlight others. The ep is only 20 min after all & you got an op & Ed that you cant always skip.... so.. furuba team decide that momoji’s ep should be true to his zodiac animal, this is the rabbits last appearance in spirit. so, they went with quick hopping from one chapter to the other like a rabbit?

No really, ep 5 is really like a rabbit in its flow, you can’t savior a moment enough before jumping to the other: we learned momiji grew up!! loves toheu romantically, challenged kyo, really meant it, wanted a fair love game, got freed, lost tohru romantically & faced momiji! but that’s not all? we still have space!! quick add akito’s moodiness & love triangle with her dog & her submissive bed partner, add a happy comedy for no reason whatever & make shigue kiss tohru & wish shes 'was his lover instead!!!!!!!!! Mind you all this happened in the anime before shigure hurt tohru with his “the truth of the zodiacs talk & them accepting & feeling consolance that kyo is doomed”talk. 

-Gets whats my biggest surprise after reading this chapter ?????????

Shigure is consistent!! He isnt a rabbit hopping here & there. The dog is loyal & is tired for good reason! Him being depressed & his weird talk with thoru makes so much sense given the manga’s order.

Kyo is consistent!! In the anime, momiji surprise him with confession he loves tohru & challenge him, then kyo la~la~la~joins them downstairs for curry. Not a single expression on his face, where is the expression? it will appear when the plot is forced to address it: by the end of the ep when momiji face hin again. Then we get kyo’s reaction.

I need someone to tell the anime that actions require a reaction. You can refrain from showing a certain reaction if you can’t address it now, but you can’t erase it, negate it, then make it appear when have to!!!! couldn’t they make kyo refuse to join them & eat together? the     other characters wont be surprised they think he’s needlessly moody. The audience will know that kyo is troubled with momiji’s challenged & it will excite them!!! having kyo just go eat & watch the momiji/hiro/haru/yuki comedy skit is weird.

The manga’s author wanted kyo to join the dinner, like the anime did. but huge difference. the author actually cares for logic reaction & understands that the audience aren’t dumb little kids that will sit & wait for kyo’s turn to...react! nope! she did this: (a) & (b) below.

-Lost Small Bits/ Panels from the chapter.. But Sadly Big Huge Chunks for Characters buildup & Growth:

(a) addressed the fact the hiro noticed kyoru is in love & dressed that shigure was right!! the cat being in love is a weird concept to the zodiacs! hiro reacted naturally & the author used hiro to flesh yuki’s (the rat), momiji’s (the rabbit) & haru’s (the cow) decision to silently watch the kyo (the cat) makes his own decisions to live!!! They won’t interfere or tell akito or remind him of his state as the doomed caged cat. So sad this moment is cut from yuki. Why must yuki only interact with kyo to beat him (all seasons)? why must yuki only think of kyo to envy him (all seasons) ? Here, yuki’s growth towards kyo as a person & his relationship with tohru is 1000 times better than all tohru is my mom’s sh!t & I envy kyo’s Sh!t we saw in the anime over & over till we memorized it.

(b) kyo didnt just go la~la~eat with momiji after knowing he loves tohru. Nope, there’s small bits missing: called logical emotional reaction. He was surprised he’s caught pining over tohru! cuz yuki, the audience representative, has told us in the previous chapter that ppl in love dont notice anything around them. Kyo thinks him being cold hid his feelings. the dummy’s feelings are as bright as the sun in the Sahara, tohru too. a child read her! such small thing that wont take much space from the ep but was cut cuz kyo only needs to be responsive at the ep’s end. & this scene of kyo & tohru looking awkwardly at each other is minor in space but so important cuz kyo is determined to let go but his decision is challenged by not only momiji, but his natural attraction to tohru. Here he knows he’s caught & exposed... here he knows momiji is a better choice for tohru cuz he wont didn’t hurt her mom... here he knows that even yuki is better cuz never had to pretend to be cold to her... here he knows the world is better than him... & here he just cant help by smile & walks towards her... T_T ... another lesson in writing slow burns by Takaya-san.

-Why would the anime team pass on this?? drawing kyoru closer after the epic tear in Cinderella ep, cuz they want empty suspense~! The anime team thinks that if kyo & tohru stand next to each other, then it means all their issues are solved & the audience are so stupid as to forget tohru’s mom, kyo’s imprisonment, kyo not confessing his sins to tohru & tohru’s need to make a choice wether to fogive hom or not.. nope! you see, they think, ppl who read mangas are smart, so the author can give this epic symbolism & pp would still be not sure kyoru is end game & tohru will forgive him or kyo even fogive himself, but ppl who watch, oh no, gotta cut all the plot worthy content, produce a graduation song for a minor character, cut all kyo/tohru interaction cuz it only means romance & not at all character depth & oh if we show yuki actually formulating deep thoughts that aren’t centered around him, the audience might forget his se02 struggles! or that might ruin yuki’s upcoming growth moment in the finale where he .. you guessed it hits kyo.. as he always do & sulk &  think abt himself cuz yuki can only do monologues when he’s directly involved.... man~it is so sad how the anime is dumped down.. Who is the target audience again? not kids as young as hiro cuz even hiro is smart!

-just look:

 Momiji talks abt kyo shouldn't give up loving tohru & the authr shows this this ghost!!! his mom! The author reminds us that kyo isnt da~~~~ forgetting anything. He’s a deeply troubled soul & hos mom wants him locked cuz she too was locked in a cage & thinks that’s safer...why oh why you dump ur own story! sh!t~

Side Notes:

I like the closeups on Kisa’s face as she interacted with kyo. It’s very rare for kisa to have a world beside the endearing parental/big protective bro/big doting sister love she has with tohru & haru & off course the romantic love with hiro which was perhaps since their birth or sth. lol.  Kisa & kyo arent much on the brotherly side as they rarely interact, but its one of those  refreshing  interactions she has that helps cast a new light on her as tiny as it is,  but its sth out of the norm around her. She sees him  around tohru & gets to perceive his true unprovoked character. “He is  nice guy”.

I really wanted to punch kureno this chapter.. like Shigure is a jerk shitty dog for sleeping with akito’s mom but kureno... dude.. you submissively sleep with the guy’s eternal love interest & still walks in on him talking to her!!! lol. you’re mentally, emotionally & physically weaker than him & yet, she puts you on her bed, not him & you, tho not wanting her at all, dont walk away. No wonder shigure is defeated & wishing for someone like tohru, lol! Even if shigure met an older tohru-like person, it wont work. shigure deserve someone like him mean, schemer & loves playing power games. Tohru is someone who values honesty & commutation, not saying she’s an angel on earth, but tohru knows who suits her.. except fate is saying: NO. .... currently. lol.

I know kureno’s weakness is part of his character & I love that such characters exits. There are ppl ike that in real life. It’s just this chapter, I felt shigure’s frustration. XD

Yuki in this ep is the best yuki. no exaggeration here, I love when yuki is calmly thoughtful of others & here its kyo of all ppl !!!! cutting this scene is sad.. without it, kyo & yuki remain a cat & rat in the anime. Only ever thinking abt each other thro envious binoculars or hateful words or yuki giving kyo comedic hitting or life’s problem-solving hitting. Why can’t anime yuki be interactive outside his self-centered issues is beyond me.

Momiji & kyo’s interactions are always the best! whether comedy or drama.

I hated the curry cooking scene in the anime... so weirdly out of the ep’s flow.. very forced comedy... in the manga it had a purpose! not just quick add comedy cuz next shot momiji curse breaks & drama & we’ll close the ep with tears & sadness & glimpses of hope...

I love haru’s answer to hiro... so him.. “a guy can’t fall in love?”so chill.. so..simple.

[nadziejastar]

I think a reason why so many fans don't understand Saix is because his characterization is too subtle. Saix being disloyal to Organization XIII is a cornerstone of his development when you look at his character as a whole, but a ton of fans somehow missed that. And not even fans that didn't pay attention to his story in the first place, I've seen people who consider him one of their favorite characters seemingly miss it.

Oh yeah, I definitely agree with you. I think fans didn’t really understand Axel, either. His characterization was also very subtle. It’s a shame too, because I vastly prefer that type of subtle characterization. The kind where the story doesn’t come right out and tell you how you’re supposed to think or feel about someone. The character just IS. You have closely examine their words and behavior in order to judge them, like you would with a real person.

It’s why Axel and Saïx’s relationship was the most interesting to me. It wasn’t black and white at all. It was very much an outlier in a series like KH, so most fans didn’t really pick up on it. Of course, I think that Saïx and Axel were examples of the type of characterization Nomura actually prefers. Days was more in line with how he preferred to write a story. I thought it had a great script. It didn’t spell everything out for you. It never told you outright how Axel felt about Saïx. You had to infer it through his words and actions.

For instance, Axel was always very, very reluctant to directly criticize Saïx for his behavior, even when he was just alone with Roxas. When Roxas was complaining that Saïx called Xion broken, Axel was silent for a bit and simply mentioned how HE was the broken one. I could tell that Axel’s frustrations with Saïx were always tempered by a lot of empathy.

I also think a big factor in why they were so misunderstood was that a lot of this subtlety wasn’t able to be conveyed as well on the DS. The Days movie was great, but it didn’t animate ALL of the scenes from the game. A lot were left out, especially many with Saïx. It’s why I really enjoyed the novels and manga. The novel went into much more detail and the manga allowed me to see Saïx’s facial expressions during certain scenes that you couldn’t really see in the DS game.

In this scene, he seems like he’s just being Xemnas’s perfect loyal little lackey.

But in the manga you could actually see his facial expression. In the novel, Axel said Saïx was “keeping his gaze fixed on an imaginary point below the floor” when he asked him if he was sure that what they were doing with Xion was for the best.

Saïx would often just have this detached stare where he’d look at the floor. He’d almost look sad. And I could just tell that he was remembering his past in those scenes.

After reading the novel I thought the “flawed specimen” Saïx was referring to was probably himself in the past.

And in the manga, he had the same distant expression. It convinced me even more that he was referring to himself in the past.

With the same distant expression, he told Roxas they weren’t “comrades”. Anyone who got in the way of their goals would be eliminated. Even organization members. I think he was referring to himself in the past here, too. 

This scene never happened in the game either, but he has the same distant expression while thinking about Roxas as Axel’s best friend.

In the game, you couldn’t tell what Saïx was thinking when Roxas was leaving.

He was looking away from Roxas with that same detached look on his face. In the novel he was thinking about how absurd it was that Roxas thought he could escape. You see a lot more clearly how furious Saïx was that Roxas wanted to leave. Saïx was just as much of a prisoner as Roxas was. He couldn’t run away no matter how much he wanted to. So why should Roxas get to leave?

Again, we couldn’t tell what Saïx was thinking in this scene.

But in the manga, he had the same distant look on his face.

In the game, he just told Kairi she was the fire that fueled Sora’s anger and left. But in the manga he went out of his way to torture her right after Axel disappeared.

Interestingly, Saïx also had the same distant downward glance when he was talking about Subject X being Xehanort’s lab rat. Once again, I think he was made to look like he was remembering himself in the past.

On the DS, it really was a lot is harder to tell what was really going on a lot of the time. Even I couldn’t pick up all of what was going with Saïx until I read the novels and the manga. Then during certain scenes, I was like “Ohhhhh, so that’s how it is”. Saïx does seem like much more of a one-dimensional contrarian asshole in the DS game and even the movie.  

But in the novel and manga you could easily tell that there was more going on with him. He was personally annoyed at Axel whenever the issue of Roxas and Xion working together was brought up.

It was more than just a business-related inconvenience. The situation brought up memories of his past.

Most of these scenes weren’t even included in the Days movie. And on the DS, it did seem like Axel was just a nice guy who stood up to Saïx who was simply a difficult and unreasonable guy. 

But the novels and manga made it so much more clear that Saïx knew that Axel was covering for them. And Axel knew that Saïx knew.

He was trying to remind him of their past so he’d more lenient. I’m sure it was supposed to be made entirely clear in hindsight once Axel and Saïx’s full detailed backstory was shown. But without that, it’s extremely subtle and difficult to perceive in just the game. I didn’t even realize it until I read the novel.

Axel was never trying to fool Saïx. When Roxas and Xion were wondering whether they’d be able to fool the other members, Axel knew that Saïx already knew. When they started making fun of Demyx never figuring it out and being useless, Axel defended him. I think it was because Demyx was similar to Isa.

In the game, it seemed like Axel just happily suggested they all go together, like he usually did. It was hard to tell that anything more was going on.

But the novel said Axel and Saïx were engaged in an unfriendly staring contest. And you can see that in the manga. There was a lot of tension between them on this day. Axel was very annoyed with Saïx at this point.

He was basically telling him, you were no different when we were young. Why is it so wrong for me to take care of them just like I always used to take care of you? Quit acting like an ungrateful jerk. But he didn’t want to come right out and say it, because he knew that Isa went through hell in the past and Saïx is very touchy.

In the novel, on Day 117, there was even similar dialogue where Saïx was very aggravated when Axel and Xion engaged in friendly banter. It happened because they were having their first mission together. Axel joked that she’d only get in his way and Saïx glared at them which caused an oppressive atmosphere. And this day was their first three man mission.

If you only play the game, this line from Day 353 seems like it could just be a simple instance of Saïx being a douchebag for no reason, as usual. Just a throwaway comment.

But in the manga, this scene took place the day after Xion woke up and fainted again. That comment was definitely related to Saïx’s past. Saïx thought Isa couldn’t do anything by himself. He always tagged along with Lea and was a useless burden.

In the game, we saw Xigbar spying on Axel and Xion when Roxas was getting weaker. In the manga, we got an extra scene between him and Saïx afterwards. Saïx simply had the same distant expression on his face. And Xigbar used the same line Saïx did earlier about “playing house”. I think it was a subtle hint that Saïx was remembering the same thing being done to him and Lea in the past. 

This was also right after Saïx gave Roxas his mission to go to Beast’s Castle to retrieve Xaldin. And in the game, Xaldin was trying to destroy the trust between Belle and the Beast. I think Xigbar probably said something to Saïx that made him act extremely harsh to Xion starting around Day 150. Maybe Saïx felt like Axel was trying to replace him, so he started seeing Isa in Xion.

In the game he was unusually harsh when Xion collapsed, but we never really learned why. The colder Saïx was, the more it was supposed to show that he was projecting his own issues onto Roxas and Xion. But I got a much better sense of why Saïx was so harsh after the novels and manga.

It definitely seemed like his biggest issue was projection. Isa felt like being by Lea’s side made no difference since he was so useless.

He couldn’t understand how anyone had the will to keep fighting when they had no one by their side. It infuriated him.

He acted the same way with Sora.

He had nobody to protect.

I think Isa felt like he couldn’t go on if he was all alone. 

There was definitely something seriously wrong with Saïx, but we never got a good idea of what it was in just the game.

In the manga, Axel flat out stated that Saïx is that way because of his memories of the past. This is something that probably should have have been directly stated in the game. It certainly wouldn’t have been so easy to retcon him and Lea into apprentices if that happened.

It was Axel’s idea for Roxas to work double duty for Xion.

After reading the novels and manga, I thought it was probably something he thought of due to personal experience with Isa.

Axel knew full well why Saïx constantly used the insult “failure”. But he always saw his timid friend in Saïx, so he could never truly be harsh with him or reject him, even though his personality was so awful.