#but still! i think stuff gets interesting there for the recurring cast

[riiye02]

WKBRL Transcript Part 4

As seen in this video This post will cover the 10th hour to the 12th, ending the first part!

10:03:39 (Music gets reversed) -[Smile Person, reversed. I think it says]: "Isn't happiness easy?"

10:06:24 -[Smile Person, reversed]: "What you are hearing is how it feels when you feel happy."

10:07:21 (Music stops) -[Introducer Person]: "Start tomorrow tomorrow. Start your day right now with me, a real live person who plays popular radio music, on the WKBRL." (Celebratory music plays, not reversed anymore)

10:20:08 (Music stops, news and weather intro plays:) -[News and Weather]: "News! Weather. News! Weather. News! Can you believe this weather? Weather. News! Weather. News. Have you heard the news? WKBRL news, and weather." (Jingle plays) "Live from Starr Park! This is the news and weather report from a news and weather person." -[News and Weather Person]: "Hello, and good day. I'm anchor name here. Or am I? The last thing I remember is news-" (News and weather outro plays while News and Weather Person is talking) "- outro cuts him o- Hmm? Oh. Yes, ha, I see what you did." (News and Weather outro stops) "Oh, thank you. I am a puppet." (Celebratory music plays)

10:32:10 (Music stops, KairosTim theme plays) -[KairosTim Person]: "Hello, fellow Brawlers! KairosTim would like to remind you that there is no better, safer way of wearing your Starr Hat than wearing it all the time. Even when you sleep. Even when you shower. Even when you try on another hat. This is Kairos!" (Celebratory music plays)

10:40:20 (Music stops) -[Introducer Person]: "You are tuned to WKBRL and because of that, you've won! And now, we must sing! We must sing! We must sing directly into the microphone or they won't know that we are singing because you won and therefore are happy." (Celebratory music plays)

10:43:09 (Music stops, jingle plays) -[Smile Person]: "This is your reminder to smile!" (Jingle plays, celebratory music starts)

10:53:39 (Music stops) -[Intermission Person]: "That was an hour of uninterrupted victory. I hope you feel it in whatever skin you're wearing. I hope your feet are marching in the correct direction. I hope you keep it tuned right here to WKBRL. And don't make the mistake of leaving!" -[People]: "WKBRL! The voice that hears you." (Echoes) -[Introducer Person]: "Up next, we will find happiness in the limitlessness of space. Our origin. Let's go back there, together." (Space music plays)

11:00:56 (Music stops and jingle plays) -[Smile Person]: "This is your smile reminder! Smile. Smile! Smile! Smile. Smile. Smile. Smile. Smile! SMILE. SMILE! SMILE! SMILE. There. That's better." (Jingle plays and space music resumes)

11:13:30 (Music stops) -[Intermission Person]: "Project yourself onto the outer reaches of the infinite galaxy. With laser focus, you can find yourself shining brighter than any star there never was. Because you're tuned in to WKBRL. And you, are drifting… through…" -[Distorted]: "space…" (Space music plays)

11:19:55 -[Smile Person]: "Technology has been domesticated to meet your insatiable appetite for fun."

11:40:07 (Music stops, news and weather intro plays:) -[News and Weather]: "News! Weather. News! Weather. News! Can you believe this weather? Weather. News! Weather. News. Have you heard the news? WKBRL news, and weather." (Jingle plays) "Live from Starr Park! This is the news and weather report from a news and weather person." -[News and Weather Person]: "Hello, and good day. I'm definitely anchor name here, and this is the news. This just in, everything is perfect! Ha haha, soo perfect. Too perfect, pfft- if you really think about it, hahah… Where the weather at?!" (News and Weather outro plays:) -[News and Weather]: "News! Weather. News! Weather. That was news, and weather." -[Introducer Person]: "This commercial free hour of space jams is made possible by the Ogawa Roofing company. Ogawa Roofing has not been fixing roofs for decades. Because there's been zero roof trouble to speak of whatsoever. No fiery objects have landed in the middle of any roofs that Ogawa knows of, but their roofers are always at the ready and happy to help if and when your roof collapses under the weight of a gigantic robotic foot, which it won't! But if it does, call Ogawa today." (Space music plays)

11:53:43 (Music stops and KairosTim theme plays) -[KairosTim Person]: "KairosTim here, and I have a riddle for you! What's fake, and not real, but says that he is real, but is fake? That's right, fake Kairos! Click, like and subscribe to the REAL Kairos. KairosTim." (Space music plays)

[egophiliac]

have u watched gavv's first episode yet? it is so good. it is so freaking good.

sorry to be getting to this so late, but I have finally seen the first couple of episodes! and! I am enjoying it immensely! :> I do think the second episode has a much better sense of what the tone and story is going to be; the first one had some interesting stuff going on, but felt more like a prologue than anything else. I'm feelin' it though! (and I hope Hajime is a recurring character, I liked his dynamic with Shoma and I was sad to realize he wasn't going to be part of the main cast. 😔)

it's still pretty early on (especially since I find riders tend to need about 10-12 episodes to settle into themselves) but I'm liking the intrigue they've set up, and the main characters seem promising! and I'm also very into the unexpectedly sweet reason for Shoma to be so obsessed with junk food. I wouldn't have thought you could do a tragic backstory for something like that, but...it kinda works?

[madlori]

i'm nervous but also excited for gerrard as captain simply because i hope it'll allow tommy to be fleshed out much more, give him more backstory and show his development since leaving the 118 and address his loneliness (defense mechanism?). we know people filed in complaints abour gerrard years ago. maybe this is the opportunity for tommy to finally face all his past demons and get much needed relief and closure, maybe allowing him to finally accept his past mistakes 100% instead of just 99%? at the same time, i am interested to see how the new 118 will handle gerrard. when he left, the 118 was still far far far away from being the found family that it is nowadays. what are your thoughts on that?

I think you're on to something. I do NOT think it's an accident that Tommy has been woven into the Gerrard "storyline" (I put it in quotes because it was really just foreshadowing) all season. He mentioned Gerrard on their first date in the context of how repressive it was and how he couldn't come out until he left. Then Gerrard showed up at the ceremony, and tossed an actual homophobic comment at him (and by extension Buck although who knows if Gerrard knows they're dating or not). Then he brings him up AGAIN at last night's date, AND tied it to how being there under that guy made him not the best version of himself. Most of what we know of Gerrard that's from this season is from Tommy, not Chim or Hen.

The writer in me thinks this is a way to weave him into the 118's storylines more solidly, which you'd want to do if you wanted him to stick around.

That being said, I think most of the Gerrard stuff will involve the 118 itself (those people are the main cast, after all - any involvement Tommy has will be secondary or via Buck).

I'm gonna say this, though...after this Gerrard stuff? My estimation for the odds of them trying to add Lou as a main cast member and not just recurring went from 5% to like...25%. I still don't think they will - recurring seems like a pretty solid guess - but the degree to which they're tying upcoming storylines back to the pre-Bobby 118 is interesting.

[moistvonlipwig]

Unpopular opinion for the ask game: admittedly I would not describe myself as the world's biggest AtS fan, but even accounting for that I really don't understand why Fred is such a popular character.

I mean, Fred seems perfectly tolerable on an individual level. I wouldn't object to hanging out with her if she were a real person. But as a character, she just feels like yet another self-indulgent iteration of Whedon's recurring Cute Nerd Girl character archetype (like Kaylee on Firefly and at least arguably Willow in the first season and a half of BtVS before the writers figured out ow to make her interesting). I think Amy Acker is a very good actor -- I really like her as Root in Person of Interest -- but as Fred she just never seems to get anything remotely interesting to do.

The three big Fred story arcs I remember her being involved in are (1) a fake-out where it seems that her parents might be horrible people but -- surprise! -- they're actually really nice; (2) the world's most interminable love triangle (in which Fred's role is mainly to be a prize for Gunn and Wesley to fight over) that forms part of what the show itself will later, via Gunn, describe as a "turgid supernatural soap opera"; (3) randomly getting sick and dying so that the surviving cast (or, well, mostly Wesley) can feel sad about it and Amy Acker can finally have something different to do on the show.

What exactly am I missing? What makes Fred any more interesting than somebody like Oz (another inexplicably popular character with no obvious arc or complexity that I can see)?

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree

I agree to an extent. I would certainly say Fred is a lot more interesting than Oz, although to be fair I think almost every character ever put on television is more interesting than Oz (whose only role on the show is to be Willow's eerily perfect boyfriend and to Tell Funny Joke).

There are kernels of an interesting character and arc for Fred in S2 and S4 of AtS, particularly in relation to her ruthlessness, anger, and capacity for violence. Her tasering Connor and torturing him in 4.01 "Deep Down" is a great character beat. 4.05 "Supersymmetry," where she wants to sent Professor Seidel to Pylea as he did to her, is a great Fred episode...right up until the end, when the writers inexplicably choose to have Gunn kill Seidel to 'preserve Fred's innocence,' a choice with some profoundly misogynistic and racist implications, and which will lead to one of the most tedious, annoying, and drawn-out breakups in television history. And while Fred gets mired in the love triangle bullshit for most of the middle of Season 4 (as does poor Gunn), she does get an excellent chance to shine in the Jasmine arc, which is probably the highlight of her run on the show. Her threatening Lorne ("I'll kill him, Charles!"), surviving on her own and killing the demon who tries to eat her, telling Jasmine "I loved you so much" before shooting her more times than necessary to wake up Angel -- all fantastic stuff. Unfortunately 4.20 "Sacrifice," the weakest episode in the arc, kind of puts her on the back-burner, but she still gets a great showing in the first two episodes of the arc, and it's believable that she would sign up for Wolfram & Hart in the S4 finale.

Although I think the love triangle was a blight on all three characters and especially Fred and Gunn, IMO the real killer of Fred's arc was S5. In S5 any character traits beyond Cute Nerd Girl get stripped away. The characters (and writers) start treating her like Cordelia, the heart of the group who everyone trusted and confided in, because, um, she's a woman, and Cordelia was a woman, so, you know, they're the same, I guess. She doesn't even get to stay a particle physicist, for fuck's sake -- they have her doing all kinds of random forensics and biology and technology stuff completely unrelated to her actual degree (or almost-degree? I guess she never technically completed her PhD). 5.15 "A Hole in the World" is enraging for so many reasons -- it's a speedrun of what was done to Cordelia in S4 only this time even more egregiously about the manpain of the men around the dying woman, Fred delivers a frankly insulting line about not being the "damsel in distress" when she so blatantly is, Fred is weirdly infantilized in relation to Wesley -- but frankly the part that gets my goat the most is that Fred should never have been excavating that coffin because Fred is not an archaeologist. She is a particle physicist. It drives me nuts that the show does not care about this basic fact of her character in S5. Also, she ran the lab! She should know better than to handle an ancient artifact without protective gear! Wesley tries to blabber later about her being "curious" or whatever, like she's a fucking child, but she's not a child, she's a 30-year-old woman who runs a lab and should know to wear a goddamn Hazmat suit, and she also should've delegated the task anyway because, again, excavating coffins is not her job.

And this lack of care towards her character is, I think, emblematic of the fact that Joss Whedon (and I do blame Joss for a lot of this, though possibly not the love triangle -- no clue whose idea that was) was simply not interested in Fred beyond the archetype she represented. It is, IMO, deeply telling that when Joss saw Amy Acker in the role of Lady Macbeth and realized she was, like, actually good at acting (lol), his immediate response was not, "Gosh, we better give Fred something cool to do on AtS," but rather, "Gosh, we better kill Fred off and give Amy Acker a better character." Which, hey, Jonathan Nolan has said he cast Amy Acker as Root specifically because of her performance as Illyria, so, I guess things work out the way they're supposed to -- but it says a lot about how little Fred was valued as a character that she was so easily cast aside.

So overall, I would say that I think she had the potential to be very interesting and there are times when that potential shines through. But it is true that for a lot of the show she's simply a cute traumatized nerdy waif girl a la Kaylee/River/early-seasons Willow (speaking of Willow, have I mentioned how much I loathe the scene in "Orpheus" where Willow condescendingly tells Fred she has a girlfriend after they've bonded over nerdy stuff?) who is often reduced to the object of men's affections or guilt or grief. I suspect that the reason she's so well-loved in fandom is simply because people like that archetype. Relatedly, it's only recently, in my own fandom experience, that more and more people have started to engage with Willow's flaws and later-seasons behavior, whether it leads them to love her even more or to bemoan her botched character arc or to declare her a bad friend; for a very long time, she was popular simply for being the cute nerdy girl cinnamon roll too good for this world, too pure (the damage that meme has done to the internet is unspeakable). I personally tend to find the archetype a bit grating, although certainly there are moments I found charming from both Fred and early Willow. (The worst example of this archetype in recent memory, IMO, is Willow [no relation] [except she's clearly based off BtVS Willow] from the aggressively middling kids' cartoon The Owl House, who even gets a horrible cutesy voice to go along with the personality.) But that's why I suspect Fred is so popular, despite the fact that the character as she exists is admittedly far less interesting than the character she could've been.

[frenchkanna1808]

i'm so mad at the missed potential of the yabusame post chapter 3, they do nothing!! i sometimes forgot that reko was even there and that is a waste, actually like 80% of the cast became npc this chapter which makes me terribly mad but i think alice and reko are the worst case (yes worst than shin even though he became just a regular npc in logic route which is the worst waste ever, but he compared to the yabusames will have his story developed you know, since nankidai completely gave up on the yabusames, especially reko). The entire reason for that is because nankidai had planed to kill them in logic route so he pretty much forgot that they didn't die in emotion route and kinda forgot which is a recurring pattern in emotion route. Which i loathe because favoritism isn't good and all the emotion route haters will use this as a point. Nankidai clearly has is more interested in some characters than others and doesnt know the fuck to do with them. i am still baffled that alice had this little screen time considering that he is THE GUY THAT """""KILLED"""" midori, ESPECIALLY IN EMOTION ROUTE. he just say random line from time to time to remind you he exist which is a crime because alice is best boy and i love him. At least reko gets some good scenes with ranmaru and like talking about nao (once tho), and like the little singing where kanna did death metal head shakes. But alice gets nothing, NOTHING. and that is all caused because in logic route nankidai planned him to die either way so both reko and alice get nothing. Why i'm mader at this that the zero screen time shin or gin have is because i know they are gonna get stuff later on, shin because he is kinda in the center of the story and gin because he is close to sara, but i don't think we are gonna get that much with the yabusames honestly and that makes me mad. The lack of screen time for the main cast is mainly caused by the terrible pacing of chapter 3-1 but with the yabusames its just no real work because nankidai didn't consider it useful since he planned to kill them either way. And the worse is that so much could have been done really god dammit. Alice lost his little sister and kanna lost her older brother, they are shown to have hanged out together, make them build a connection build on their grief, which would lead to kanna having actual positive interaction with anybody in this cast and alice to be less of a loner. For reko focus on the grief of like in a single day pretty much lose her brother, losing nao unfairly, and finding the man who ruined her life and her brother's too. I know we already have some scenes that way but make them more impactful like in chapter 2. Make her be more protective after losing so much in like a day. MAKE HER HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH ANZU PLEASE. EVERY CHARACTER DUMMIES PAIR MAKE SENSE AND ARE LOGICAL EXCEPT THE YABUSAMES AND ANZU. Oh also i think of sara finding out alone that that nao wasn't supposed to die and was brought here for no reason except raising mishima survival rate should be something that the whole cast should know actually, in general can THE WHOLE CAST be involved, this is the closest they have ever been and yet they are so distant. its a waste and i don't think it will be better because considering new characters and everything i don't think the yabusames will be relevant until the ending which sucks.

[princess-of-the-corner]

Bee Villain Audrey would be fun, especially given her previous interest in the temple. I agree she'd not be second fiddle, anytime Audrey lets others make decisions its cos of one of two reasons:

1: Its so unimportant that a plebian is tending to it. IE, she told them to. 2: She's indifferent enough to the situation that she doesn't care to handle it herself, IE most stuff she tells Andre to do.

Basically, yeah she's not gonna be second stringer, co conspirator at minimum.

Also, having a super powerful magical artifact, right after Gabriel and Ladybug humiliated her and Hawk Moth Akumatized her and- Wait a second! Gabriel was using Miraculous BS before, oh it is on! XD

Low key I have actually toyed with AUs built on similar premises and I think she'd be a very self motivated villain. Like maybe she wants a wish (If she knows about it) but she may just want other Miraculous, or to fuck over her rivals, or go on rampages. The line between Audrey & Style Queen is rather thin after all.

Also given the "Order & Subjugation" angle and how many write Miraculous powers as evolving or shifting based on the user. I could see Audrey's power being less Venom and more like, the power to command and control others perhaps?

Ultimately I'd say it comes down to how much one wants to do with her character. How much does she know, how much can she figure out, what does she even want out of life, ETC.

I know Audrey tends to get written off as just cruel and otherwise brainless. But I confess I always find that disappointing; there's nothing making Gabriel more inherently suited for supervillainy or competence than Audrey if you get my meaning?

As an amusing aside, her going out with a Miraculous power could lead to a very similar situation to Queen Wasp. Not identical, but in the sense that some Gabriel related event is disrupted by a Bee User. The heroes show up, Gabriel slinks away to try and Akumatize her, ETC.

Though in this case, maybe cos Audrey can re-use her powers, its instead him trying to AKumatize Ladybug or Chat as the fight turns against them?

(Oooh it could be Nathalie actually, like Gabriel is literally Veom-ed?)

But this gives a sense of how powerful a Akumatized Miraculous Holder would be (Even if it fails to take over Audrey or one of the heroes, the effort gives a sense of power), along with Ladybug losing the Bee, a signal to Gabriel not to quit. Or allow Nathalie to step up and take the role maybe?

Also, if/when Audrey is beaten (If she's a one episode wonder over a recurring problem) One could have Chloe snag Pollen up in the chaos (She was helping perhaps even jumped on her mothers back and grabbed the comb during the fight?) So now she's Queen Been, but no one knows she has it?

Sorry, rambling.

Honestly the only reason I haven't written Audrey as a villain is because she often has no genuine power over the rest of the cast.

Like.

The worst she could do herself is tank Marinette's career, but even then in a universe where Gabriel favors Marinette and her talents he could counteract Audrey's influence

Her influence over Chloé is limited and dependent on other factors. Is Chloé still vying for her attention? Is Chloé still a child or a legal adult? Does Chloé have a support network or not?

A lot of Audrey's other power would be dependent on Andre and what he's doing. Is he still willing to do things for her or has he kicked her to the curb yet? Even if he /is/ still under her spell, is this an AU where he'd break any rules for her? Or, though he is a man who wishes to grant his wife's every whim, does he put his foot down on things that would cause major problems?

But yeah in most of my AUs, Audrey has no genuine power over any of the rest of the cast. So she often is more of an annoyance or a short-term problem rather than a major player.

If I give her some kind of power though.....

[mylordshesacactus]

As I've picked it back up again after a long hiatus, I've realized that I probably have a lot of people around now who have no earthly idea what the hell my current longfic project even is anymore!

Anyway, this is a GREAT time to start reading

Reunification

Darnassus falls. In some timeline, in some version of the story, Nathanos Marris makes a mistake. In some timeline a word of kindness somewhere, a show of support somewhere else, a moment of humanity for lack of a better term, heads off a preemptive strike at the pass. In some timeline, Alliance intelligence is just a tiny bit more paranoid, a tiny bit more thorough, and the Horde stalls in Ashenvale. But today, Darnassus falls. Darnassus does not burn.

It's a single-point divergence AU of the War of Thorns--I was genuinely shocked that "AU where Sylvanas' original plan, to kill Malfurion and occupy Darnassus intact, succeeded" wasn't more prominent in the fandom. I was ALSO shocked to find so little Tyrande/Thalyssra anywhere, so I folded the two into a single project.

Some highlights:

Thalrande arranged marriage as a political-hostage bargaining chip

Sylvanas displaying both political and military competence while, crucially, still being a deeply obnoxious asshole (affectionate) the whole time

Valtrois TM

Anduin Wrynn, Living Embodiment Of Sunshine

Jaina, traumatized and angry and heartsick, dragged into overseeing the joint administration of Lordaeron and finding herself again in a city she's terrified to let herself love

All of my favorite minor NPCs/Hearthstone protagonists getting their day in the limelight (Rokara and Cariel Roame and Elise Starseeker my beloveds--)

The stark divide between high-level faction politics, and the lived reality of (what I hope you find to be) a rich cast of ordinary, sub-Champion citizens of Azeroth whose lives are a lot more complicated than killing people over a simple blue or red banner

(Seriously, if you like my OCs in general, the little folk of Azeroth are a major recurring thing here.)

Cannot emphasize how emphatically Valtrois is both Present and Extremely Herself.

We're currently right in the middle of a really interesting arc that's REALLY intertwining the parallel plotlines; I'm referring to them in my planning notes as the Ruby Dragonflight and Lordaeron Crisis arcs.

I'm having fun and I think there's some stuff here for a lot of people if y'all want to check it out! I have a much more sustainable approach to writing these days (and a partner who's ALSO writing warcraft longfic, and that's helping to keep the muse alive).

Anyway! Hope to see you over there.

[the-rat-of-all-time]

Side characters: disk one (if i made a mistake, no i didn't)

Part one 

Fiore

Arcana: the lovers

Role:minor villain -> major ally and love interest 

he/him

Cishet

age:19

Height: 5’11”

Born: chicago

Powers: Can control and grow roses to pass what is usually possible. He can also transform his body or parts of it into a more roselike state, so he can extend his limbs as vines or even regrow parts of his body if he has enough water, nutrients and energy.

Appearance: a lean man with dark skin and gray eyes. He has mid length dreads and black hair. As a citizen he wears streetwear like clothes, but when in costume he wears a red and gold leather jacket (with rolled up sleeves) and pants. The color is dull but still there, he also wears a red domino mask and yellow utility belt. He wants to stay hidden, but stand out if seen

Backstory: when his father died when he was young his mother was forced to take a cleaning job with the mob. When his powers developed he was seen as a valuable asset, and while he was unwilling to kill he was a natural at thievery. From a young age he worked for the mob so his mom could have a good life, but he hated it and the people he worked under, so when his mom died he made a break for it with another member who he worked well with (talent wise he still fucking hated him). They became thieves for hire who were always one step ahead of the mob. During one job they were stopped by Avia (everyone else was “busy”). Fiore (always a charmer) was able to defeat her by “fake” flirting with her to get her off guard, and the combined strength of him and the other dude, but when the other dude suggested more heinous actions he was tied up by vines and left to the mercy of whoever got there first. This was the start of his recurring run-ins with our heroes, a path to redemption and the gradual realization that flirting with the cute girl you're fighting leads to confusing feelings later down the line. It comes to a boiling point when he agrees to work with another villain for a fresh start in exchange for him stealing some things, testing out a superhuman enhancement drug and getting the DNA samples of the main cast. He does the first two things, but when he uses the drug to turn into a giant plant monster he is only able to get avia’s sample (they also bond because of temporary plant-based mind melding). He is not fully paid due to not getting all of the samples so he fucks with the evil plans and saves the heroes. He is MIA for a bit before sending a letter to Avia about a big valentine's day masquerade he’s going to rob. She goes because she had no other plans than to dick around with Jack and Knox. They meet up undercover and spend the party together, leading to him admitting that there was no plan and he just wanted to ask her out. This moment is then interrupted by an actual robbery of the ball which they work together to stop. The night ends with them dating and Avia sleeping in his bed for the night (he took the couch). More shit happens, knox fucking dies and in the final fight, Fiore is able to beat the right-hand-woman of the villain. More couple shit happens, they have two kids, one dies and he is kidnapped and assumed dead, but he is not dead instead he leads a group of freedom fighters in a country under magnus’s rule. After part two he becomes a teacher at the academy’s rose program.

Personality: as Rosa Rossa (his alter ego) he is a charming gentleman thief with a flair for the dramatic, but as his regular self he is very mild mannered and likes to keep a low profile. He has a strict moral code (think the rogues from the flash comics). He will avoid violence and will never kill as he knows that even the police that get in his way are just doing their jobs, all he wants to do is steal stuff to survive and make a show of it.

Part two

Alys

Arcana: the devil

Role: rival, rival love interest (in her mind only), token straight (in her mind only),mostly a joke character, minor antagonist -> ally (part three)

she/her

Cis and totally likes men she swears

Lesbian

Age:18

Height: 4’11” (human form). 80 feet (full draconic form on hind legs)

Born: wales

Powers: Can change her body to have draconic features/ powers such as wings or fire breath, she can also transform into a completely draconic form

Appearance: a girl with red hair, extremely dark eyes and pale freckled skin. She wears very girly pink clothing. When fighting her suit is a specialized catsuit with self repairing technology that has shorter legs and arms as well as a hole on the back. It is equipped with a device on her hip that stores and applies the suit when transforming, she also has another smaller one that she can wear under regular clothing just in case. Her draconic form is a basic red western dragon. In part three her attire is upgraded, half of her body from the waist up has intense burn scars 

Backstory: she grew up very privileged and was sent to the academy to train her powers. She would end up befriending three others who she would make a team with known as “the fantasies” (name pending). She would be top of her class if it wasn't for that cute quiet boy… girl…they? (she can't really tell, she’s not transphobic she’s just stupid). Now she has a mission to prove herself and win the heart of Astor bc (to her knowledge) there’s like a 49% that they’re a dude (they’re not) and a cool hot boyfriend is what all girls like her are supposed to have… right? After winning the tournament arc she learns that astor is indeed not a dude, and now she has to abandon her crush because she likes dude and only dudes and nothing else shut the fuck up. She continues her stint as a very minor and hopefully well loved character. After the attack of brutus and the death of half of astor’s team, she and her team (assisted by Tainming in a supporting role) take center stage to figure out a possible conspiracy by a powerful hero that could lead to many being harmed, but it’s too little too late. As the man once known as Nevaeh took to the streets of New York unexpectedly, the team tried their best, but he was too strong. The fight ended in her taking a full blast of powerful flames to protect her team who was unable to fight. She knew she would die, but just before the light left her eyes she was swept away in an instant to be helped. As she watched the burning city from her ambulance it started to rain. In part three she works under Tianming to hunt down the main group, but after a big fight she quits due to Tainming going a little off the rails. She spends the rest of the part chilling in her mountain cabin with her scientist gf

Personality: she is very energetic and self centered. She cares a lot about what people think of her. She rarely will insult someone to their face, but will constantly be passive aggressive to anyone she doesn't like. Despite her flaws she is an amazing team leader who will try her best to make sure her team is happy and healthy (even if it doesn't seem like it). In part three she has somewhat toned down a bit. She has learned more about herself and values privacy (no one knew about the scientist gf or he cabin until she told them). I think her in part three is a diva but i'm not 100% sure what that means for i am neither the girls or the gays (yet who knows what happens) i am a rat

Part three

Astor

Arcana: death

Role: mentor (kinda), honorary mc (travels separate but still will sometimes tag along), former mc, sad, hot, Yuta Okkotsu

they/them 

Pansexual

Demisexual

Age:20

Height: 5’0”

Born :chicago 

Powers: 

weather control (born): can control weather and its elements. Has almost mastered

Nosferatu stone (artifact embedded in eye socket): can steal the powers of others as long as they have consumed a certain amount of that person’s flesh and/or blood. Rarely used

ferrokinetic powers (taken by them from brutus in her last moments): metal manipulation. Has almost mastered, but rarely uses it for anything else but flinging knifes, using everyday metal objects and making metal arms

Telepathy (stolen from a former villain by brutus, she took more than what was needed): used mainly to communicate due to their selective mutism (that’s a retcon btw bc i did not know that existed and it makes shit much easier) 

Extreme physical capabilities (not a power they are just built different): master of stealth and agility, has mastered the ability to fight without using arms or powers

+ more!

Appearance: a short and athletically built person with light brown skin and black kinky hair. Their hair covers their eyes much less now and one eye has been replaced by a red gem, crudely lodged in the socket. Their body has more scaring; most noticeable of all the changes is the fact that both of their arms are gone from slightly below the shoulder 

Backstory: After the events of part two; astor was sent to recover both physically and mentally in the hospital. When they’re stay was done they went off to be alone for a while ;however, when the NYC attack happened, they arrived at the last minute to save the day before fucking off back to europe. They would become somewhat of a boogieman (boogieperson?) as they lurked at night fighting street crime watched their cousin from the shadows, and this reputation was not helped by the news blowing stuff out of proportion and saying they’re a loose vampire. The main gang ended up fighting this “vampire” with the fight only ending when Alex and Astor got a clear look at eachother. They would end up as a mentor/honorary group member for a bit, and then Japan happened. In Japan Lucifer would surprise the heroes with an attack, so while the main three ran Astor held him off. It went well for a bit, but then he started to target civilians which gave him an opening to attack. Astor was presumed dead, but ended up alive and very unwell. After Tainming’s fight with the main three in Memphis, Lucifer came to finish them all off, but then it started to rain. They both fought desperately, and to the point that if it went on everyone close by would most likely die. Astor was able to be talked down allowing the main three to fight Lucifer.

Personality: a little less stoic especially after they were able to communicate with telepathy. Their face is still mostly blank unless shit’s really bad, but they try to come off as not robotic (key word try). Despite their growth they are most definitely not doing ok, and suffer from mental effects of their trauma from Brutus as well as schizophrenia. The true reason they left was because they felt like they were a ticking time bomb who would, at any second, lose it.

[veebs-hates-video-games]

And now for something completely different: I actually finished an entire game and even liked it! Wild, I know.

I think 8 is still my favorite, but I had a lot of fun with Ys X and overall probably liked it about as much as 9, with some things a little better in one or the other.

Adol continues to be the most upbeat and wholesome and aroace shounen protagonist. He's just here to go on adventures and make friends and go on adventures with friends. I tend to be less likely to get invested in games or series that center around male protagonists, but Adol is just a decent guy who happens to get caught up in shenanigans constantly, and there's always an interesting cast of other characters surrounding him.

That's actually something I've really been appreciating about the modern games in the series. They've done a really good job for the most part of having a good amount of variety in terms of ages and genders of both important characters and minor ones you spend a decent amount of time with. The main party members tend to be in their teens and twenties, but it's nice that you end up hanging around with extremely mixed groups ranging from eight-year-old kids to middle aged parents to 70-year-olds, who all also tend to have interactions with each other too and are developed enough to get their own side quest storylines.

And it's also been fun jumping backwards and forwards through the timeline and seeing how recurring characters like Dogi develop too. In this one he's just barely joined up with Adol (I think it takes place immediately after 2 if I remember right?), and he's still not quite sure what to do with his life, while in 9, the previous game that takes place several years later, they've each grown to be the most important person in each other's life and someone they can count on no matter what happens. It's fun seeing little slices of that from different points in time, and it's always nice in general to see guys being genuinely good people with healthy relationships who just want to take care of the people around them.

I won't say too much about the story, but it's enjoyable too and has some good moments in it. I don't think it has anything super deep to say, but sometimes you just need to go on an adventure through absolutely bonkers European history fanfic.

And as far as the gameplay side of things goes, I think overall it might be my least favorite of the three recent-ish games in the series while also doing some things the best of the three.

The ship sections aren't bad, but they're definitely my least favorite thing in any of the three games. It gets better as you get more upgrades to make movement and stuff suck less than it does early on, but it still kinda kills the pacing at times compared to when you're on foot, and even on foot the movement options don't feel as good as their counterparts in 9 did.

I think the combat might actually also be my least favorite when fighting regular trash enemies, but at the same time it probably has the best boss fights. Switching to a block-heavy system and really de-emphasizing dodging didn't really click with me at first for a while, but a lot of the later boss fights get to be pretty satisfying as you learn their patterns and start pulling off perfect blocks and getting a huge damage multiplier as a reward. It's also fun how a lot of late-game enemies reward you for charging directly at them like an idiot and dodging directly into an attack so you get a free random finisher as a counter. It really works well with my tendency to be reckless, be stupid, have no plan, and improvise something when you get there.

The new engine works great on the Switch too compared to the previous one. Shadows and stuff still aren't great, but overall most things look much cleaner than they did in 8 or 9, and it feels a lot better to play without it constantly dropping frames like 9 did.

I'm just glad there are still people out there making mid-budget games like this that have almost disappeared in the sea of $100+ million AAA games and indie stuff made in someone's bedroom with a budget of like a buck fifty. They can still have the scope and polish most tiny indie games can't afford to, but without having to make too many concessions to reach the wildest possible audience because they need to sell 20 million copies to turn a profit. They can just keep doing their own thing for the niche that happens to be into that.

[fanfictiongreenirises]

Hello there! Big fan of your dc fics so I trust your judgement: I watched supernatural years ago over one summer break (s1 to s7 but I honestly remember nothing from the last 3 seasons and only some of the first 4) but never got into the fandom or wanted to keep watching despite liking it. Recently found your tumblr through your ao3 and got curious when I saw your rewatch spn tag, went through it and got weirdly nostalgic about it despite not having thought about it since I finished watching (i fear it might be the 2000s nostalgia). so the question is: should I stick with rewatching the first few seasons or should I expand beyond? I've heard the latter seasons were not great and also a thing I do remember loving was dean and sam's brotherly relationship but I feel like that really fades in the background after a while given the echoes I've had/the cast seems to keep expanding?

hiya!! i need to start with a disclaimer that i'm very not normal about spn so i'm not sure how reliable my judgement with this is 😂

to get right to the point before i start rambling: as someone whose favourite spn seasons are 1, 2, and 9, i'm definitely for rewatching the earlier seasons and then deciding if you want to continue on. i feel like there's something about the combo of their 'us against the world' mentality, the two of them being younger and less experienced with world ending events, and also that 2000s vibe that you mentioned, that just gives it a flavour that newer seasons can't really have

but i also feel like the show never stops being centred around the bond between sam and dean, even in the last few seasons (and i have a lot to say about this being detrimental in the show's finale but that's a whole different convo). by the time you hit the last like 5 seasons, they are both very aware that their bond is unhealthy and codependent, but at that point they've fought against it and have been angry at each other for decisions they themselves are also making so they're kinda like... accepting of it in a way? it becomes almost like an expectation, that the other will do some reckless thing for them, and it's just fun to watch how their toxic codependency morphs over the years but still stays toxic and codependent 😂 (and i say this with all the love, because as someone who loves and always searches for stories centred around messy sibling dynamics, this was such a feast). i think it's interesting by later seasons just how their relationships with other people end up? there's a recurring theme of how they'll always choose each other and others end up getting screwed over because of that

as a warning if you do continue beyond the first 5 seasons: season 7 has some good stuff but overall is. not great. but push through it and season 8 is going to give you so much amazing sam whump. and you're likely also going to hit season 10 and fall into a bit of a slump because that season is questionable after the first handful of episodes, but it does have some gems in it. and if you make it past season 10, then you might as well finish the entire show, y'know 😂

[annakie]

From Broken Bow to Calypso - Check-in #2

Did another 18 or 19 episodes, of my Star Trek by Stardate rewatch, so let's recap.

I was really hoping that SNW S3 would be out by the time I got to SNW at all, but that doesn't look like it's anywhere near happening. Ah well, at least I can slot the S31 movie in there where it belongs probably.

1/9/25 - Episode 19 - Oasis Rene Auberjonios! An interesting SciFi story with a cool twist, though the episode is a little slow. Auberjonios is, of course, fantastic.

1/9/25 - Episode 20 - Detained The Quantum Leap Reunion Episode!! I only wish they'd have gotten Dean Stockwell to do a recurring character. Good to finally get some information on the Suliban.

1/9/25 - Episode 21 - Vox Sola Oh hey it's the Angelicaaaaaa Skyler episode. Long before Hamilton was a thing. She's not in it much, though. This episode is genuinely creepy and squishy-gross, feel bad for the actors rigged up in that stuff. I liked T'Pol encouraging Hoshi. Otherwise, honestly this one is a bit slow.

1/10/25 - Episode 22 - Fallen Hero Fionnula Flanagan is fantastic as the Vulcan ambassador. Feel like she could have told Archer and T'Pol what was going on soon but whatevs. A somewhat by the numbers episode but a decent story.

1/10/25 - Episode 23 - Desert Crossing Clancy Brown! Who kidnaps Archer and Tucker, so it's one of those "Main character(s) being held hostage" episodes. The desert lacrosse game is such beefcake pandering. IDK if I buy Trip being the one who almost dies from heat exhaustion rather than the older Archer but w/e. Those two have had it rough between Vox Sola and this lately. Brown's character ends up being a bit of a moral quandry as to whether his actions are justified, I wouldn't have minded finding out what eventually happened to him.

1/11/25 - Episode 24 - Two Days and Two Nights Risa ep, finally! I forget if Archer's "girlfriend" ever came back, but its an uncomfortable subplot that feels unresolved. Can't believe Trip and Malcolm fell for that scam, nor that Hoshi's language guy DIDN'T turn evil on her. Even Travis gets a little subplot, but Phlox steals the show on this one. Sad note, per Memory Alpha this is Ensign Cutler's last episode because the actress died in 2003. I really liked her and would have liked to have seen where things went with her and Phlox.

1/11/25 - Episode 25 - Shockwave, Part I Honestly, good season finale. A real Problem with the colony getting blown up, high stakes on the team being recalled, and the stuff with Daniels works real well. Truly suspenseful ending. ENTERPRISE SEASON 2

1/11/25 - Episode 26 - Shockwave, Part II The way Archer gets back to the present is a bit too convenient, but the rest of the crew taking Enterprise back over was genuinely great, except that they didn't give Travis anything to do. Also could do without Hoshi losing her shirt. But generally, a decent season opener and yay for T'Pol standing up for the Crew and doing a great job while in command.

1/12/25 - Episode 27 - Carbon Creek Still one of the best ENT episodes. Another Don't Think Too Hard About How The Universal Translator Works episode, (Note, I'm going to abbreviate that from here on out) though. I wish the rest of the cast had SOMETHING to do in this ep but it's still a great one.

1/12/25 - Episode 28 - Minefield First actual Romulan contact! A good showcase for Malcolm. Not sure I buy that nobody died in that initial explosion and wow they sure had a lot of control over their space suits in 10 (or 20) seconds, but whatevs. Travis got a small spotlight, looking real serious while steering with a joystick. Middle of the road ep.

1/12/25 - Episode 29 - Dead Stop Despite some gaping plot holes, I like this episode. Though it makes me laugh that there's a Travis subplot that Travis is BARELY IN. I don't think we ever find out who built that station, though. Roxann Dawson not only directed, but voiced the station, as well!

1/12/25 - Episode 30 - A Night in Sickbay A real love/hate relationship with this one. Hate the Archer/T'Pol stuff, in general but especially here. Skipped this episode on my last rewatch as the day I was supposed to watch it, my cat Patchy got a terminal diagnosis at the vet and I knew I couldn't handle the Porthos plotline. Fry jumped up and watched along with me cuddled up in my lap this time, and Fry is almost 15 years old so it was a real bag of mixed emotions watching the episode between remembering Patchy and soaking in some Fry cuddles while Archer was worried sick about Porthos. Maybe I just actually mostly hate the episode at this point.

1/13/25 - Episode 31 - Marauders A straight up Magnificent Seven episode. It was a fine episode, but very by-the-numbers. At least nobody had an episodemance. Trip befriending the kid was a nice subplot, but I question the wisdom of leaving Enterprise blueprints on a random colony. Hopefully he sanitized them a bunch. :p I did like the training sequences and T'Pol getting to do martial combat a lot.

1/13/25 - Episode 32 - The Seventh NGL, I liked the parts on Enterprise and Trip having to deal with being Captain a lot better than the T'Pol main plot on this one. But I guess it is even more explanatory about T'Pol's emotional state. Also, they sure are finding ways to bring Travis along but not giving him much stuff to do! I did like them showing how Trip wasn't really quite ready for full Command yet, and he's just really good at what he IS doing.

1/13/25 - Episode 33 - The Communicator Another foreshadowing the Prime Directive episode, for good reason. Also "hey they really need the transporter" episode… oh and yet another DTTHAHT Universal Translator Works" episode for sure, lol. It was fine. The feeling Malcolm has when he can't find the communicator is ALL TOO RELATABLE though.

1/14/25 - Episode 34 - Singularity The Reed Alert & Captain's Chair episode! I really enjoyed this one. Everyone goes a bit nuts, and everyone has a part in the story, one of the few episodes where it feels a bit more ensamble, up until the end. Not an important episode, but an enjoyable one.

1/14/25 - Episode 35 - Vanishing Point Hoshi disappears, just like her and Travis' characters throughout the show. :p Honestly though, a lot of nicely building mystery and tension throughout the episode. Don't think too hard about the typical ghost problem -- you can put your body through stuff but don't fall through the floor. But all that tension and mystery ends up basically being a hallucination, which makes the ending anticlimactic and kind of disappointing. I guess it sets itself apart from the TNG episode where Geordi and Ro vanish, at least.

1/15/25 - Episode 36 - Precious Cargo Trip gets a new episodemance and it's Padma Lakshmi. Too bad we never see her again. A fairly by-the-numbers episode but T'Pol pretending to be a very strict punishment judge was a fun scene.

1/15/25 - Episode 37 - The Catwalk I love this episode! A genuinely cool threat, the close quarters scenes are well done, and a neat twist with the ship being boarded while all this is going on. Travis gets a little screentime, drops a harrowing boomer story and kudos.

I'm now 7 episodes ahead of my 2/day goal, so I'm pretty happy with that progress and I've got good padding for skipping a couple of days if need be.

...okay, back again in a week or so.

[doomerpatrol]

Comic Log: Agent Venom by Rick Remender

A mixed bag. I like a lot of the artists that worked on this book, particularly Lan Medina and Declan Shalvey, who do good jobs of capturing the emotional extremes that the Venom symbiote represents. However, I've yet to be impressed by Remender as a writer - neither of the runs I've read from him (this and his Punisher, which essentially gives up on its own concept halfway through) are particularly cohesive. Venom in particular is tonally inconsistent, riddled with scripting problems, and I think most frustratingly, lacks faith in its own premise. I don't know why that's a recurring trait in Remender's writing, but I'm two for two now!

While I think the dual concept of "Venom as secret agent / Flash Thompson trying to process the 'venom' in his bloodstream from a history of violent abuse and alcoholism" is very good, the book doesn't succeed at exploring either. We get approximately four issues and a "Spider-Island" crossover before all of the characters and concepts of "Agent Venom" are thrown out. What actually unifies Remender's run is not Flash wrestling with his status as a dog on a spiked leash for the military, or his struggle between living up to his hero and the temptation to slide back into a regressive stereotype. Instead, it is a supremely petty conflict between him and the "Crime-Master" (and a new, incredibly annoying and unfunny Jack O'Lantern). This central antagonist hires a "Savage Six" to torment Flash, menaces his family and his girlfriend Betty Brant, and is eventually revealed to be Betty's seemingly long-dead brother who appeared once in a Spider-Man story from the Stan Lee era. Ugh.

Somewhat ironically, Remender's Venom run repeatedly tethers itself to Spider-Man right when it's getting interesting, rather than take risks to carve out its own identity. It makes sense, since Flash Thompson and Venom are such fixtures of Spider-Man's mythos, and Spider-Man is Flash's hero. But 1) this era of Spider-books is revolting and I would rather not be reminded of its existence, and more importantly, 2) part of what is intriguing about the choice to put Flash in the Venom suit is that it's bold, it's different, it offers the opportunity for new supporting players and concepts. You can still have the "Flash trying to be less like his dad and more like Spidey" stuff, you can still do symbiote stories, but they should be stories that you would or could not get in the main Spider-Man titles. That's what makes the first issue work quite well, as well as the start of the "road trip" arc.

That sort of unique possibility is undermined by doing the same kind of Peter Parker-esque plots over and over again. "Our protagonist is always late or never around, and his girlfriend gets kidnapped because of his lies about his secret identity, and also he has to decide if he wants to kill someone (even though this moral quandary is insanely meaningless here because he is a long-standing member of a professional military and his reluctance to take life is not presented as an alternative to that militaristic outlook)." It's played out, it's karaoke.

But Remender's run also doesn't do the work of getting us invested as readers in the plots it does present. There is basically no real supporting cast minus Betty, and she's playing a generic love interest. Flash's family gets dangled as an "oh no!" moment, but we barely get any interaction with them, so the threat to them has no real weight. His military handlers are cardboard cutouts. And of course, we have the incredibly obnoxious new Jack O'Lantern, who sets himself up as arch-nemesis to Flash and basically acts as like a more politically incorrect, watered-down Deadpool. And my god, there are so many dangling threads of plot and characterization that just go nowhere in this run. (Thought Flash might have to face literally any consequences for going AWOL? Nope. Thought Flash might be a little more mind-blown by being an Avenger now? Nope.)

Flash is a character that had a lot of history before they decided to make him a superhero, so there's a lot to potentially explore: his former status as a bully, his alcoholism, his disability, his relationship with his abusive parents, his hero-worship of Spider-Man. But although these things are often alluded to, it's only in the final issue that any of them get meaningfully elaborated on, and even there it's not enough. It is very possible to tie these different concepts together - I think the most obvious move would be to very explicitly present Flash as wrestling with an alternative between emulating his hero and regressing to the things he hates about himself that he identifies with his father (deception, alcoholism, violent temper), which his involvement with the military relies on or exacerbates. But Remender treats them as disconnected, piecemeal elements: a little alcohol relapse here (with no consequences), a little abuse plotline here (handled very inconsistently in a way that suggests haphazard characterization rather than an authentic struggle with processing a parent's violence). It all just kind of adds up to nothing because the character doesn't really learn or develop or adapt - he ends in pretty much the same place he began, emotionally speaking.

I'm not sure if I'll continue with Cullen Bunn's follow-up run - it seems, at very least, like it might have a slightly more unified vision that seeks to set the book apart from just a second-tier Spider-story. But I was thoroughly unimpressed with Remender's run, so I'm not exactly eager to continue.

Favorite issue: the final one, "Father's Day" - it's imperfect, but the Shalvey art is gorgeous and I like the way that it ties up the themes of Flash's attempt to become a better person than his father. Wish the story had meaningfully addressed those things instead of just mentioning them a lot. And I liked the start of the road-trip arc because it promised brighter things, though those were quickly snuffed out when Jack O'Lantern came back.

[theneighborhoodwatch]

i see a lot of speculation on this blog but its kinda hard to see where you're coming from when there's so little out, is there somewhere specific you look for secrets? a lot of the spooky images on the artist's main website are beta designs that will be changed (perfect example is the baphomet image of wally where he has 5 fingers instead of 4 and poppy's neck is still bent down-ward, also we know images with wally's cross cuff is beta and not up to date).

i'm liking your theories btw, this is not me critizing you, i think what you're saying is genuinely interesting but it feels,,, too easy? we know that the story itself will have something to do with the idea of "home", what it means, etc, etc. if you wanna talk more in dms i'd love to chat, im just very confused and feel like something is missing from the source. if you want we can work together to compile evidence about the story and stuff. it might help a ton in laying out the story as it progresses.

[2nd ask] omg i totally didnt see the resource doc, that's so embarrassing. dms are still open tho

no worries! although i will admit i was VERY confused for a second there lol (and quite frankly, a bit wounded that you'd think i'd forget the importance of The Home in the grand scheme of things!)

you do bring up a good point about it being a risky move to cite concept art as evidence, since there's always a chance of Something getting shuffled around or outright scrapped in development. even now, i don't really like looking at WH's concept art from a literal/Plot-Heavy perspective just yet; i tend to look more for recurring visual motifs, possible symbolism, that kinda thing. to help myself out, i have a very basic sorting system when it comes to combing through concept art, which looks something like this:

concept art from around 2018-2019: pertains to a now scrapped version of welcome home. harder to find since it was all on clown's old blog before partycoffin. you likely won't find much here that applies to welcome home as we know it today but it's fun to track those little Evolutionary Changes through it.

concept art from around 2020-2022: home is introduced! the cast lineup is finalized! the Themes begin to take shape! i keep an eye out for Motifs here, but it's important to keep in mind that if there's any era of concept art where shit gets shuffled around the most, it's Probably this one.

concept art from site launch (feb. 14th 2022-onward): the most dependable era. concrete plot details that can be gleaned from concept art alone are still scarce, and to be honest, i don't mind that at all - but the visual design, and any recurring motifs by proxy, seem to be set firmly in place. it's like a chew toy for my brain.

as for your offer - i have plenty of folks in the discord and friends from elsewhere trawling through the site with me, but if you have any findings that haven't been recorded in the observation document or any theories that you'd like to discuss, then yeah i'd be happy to dm!

[sepublic]

Hunter: The Main Character who’s a Side Character

I’ve said it before with Any Sport in a Storm, but it really is so fascinating how a lot of previous development in Seasons 1 and 2 culminate in our protagonists imparting similar lessons to Hunter, and/or being in the same state of mind to receive that mutual growth with him.

It’s just... How they actually build off of past development and arcs so they matter as does their sequence and it adds up; With the payoff for all this careful setup being that it acts as a launching pad for characters to not just take their growth to the next level, but to pass that wisdom to Hunter as well. And that allows Hunter to grow faster than he might normally have; It reminds me a lot of how Eda learned a lot of lessons as a kid firsthand and passed them onto Luz, even as she learned and reiterated a couple things of her own...

And now we get to see Luz and her friends to the same, as the payoff and reward to their own journeys established in Season 1, that we actually worked on and reap the benefits of, while continuing to still build on that for the sake of said protagonists and not just Hunter. Because as Luz helps Eda too, Hunter does the same. And it really does feel like fate (it kinda is from a meta writing perspective) that Hunter meets these people one by one, and they all contribute their own past growth via a contained lesson, and all of their collaborative development combines to uplift Hunter and help him.

Because helping people with what you went through, so it’s easier for them, is SUCH a recurring theme in this show that you could make a drinking game out of it. It all comes into place and they’re not just building stuff for themselves but for Hunter, and it feels so sweet how everyone has lowkey adopted this kid into their found family mutually. Everyone is playing their part because it takes a village to raise a child.

It’s just so compelling and clever and efficient of the writers to take advantage of episodes they established, the work of those who came before makes things easier for those who come next, as it should be; And Hunter feels like... A sort of marker of our protagonists’ progress, part of his purpose is to reflect their own growth back at them, and now he’s narratively checking up on each of them, one by one, to celebrate and summarize what each protagonist has gone through. He’s like a vessel for the audience to do a character arc roll call with and I love it.

And what goes around comes around, because they not only pave the way for Hunter’s redemption, as the most indoctrinated protagonist who has the most to unlearn and thus learn; But we see how Hunter pays them back and makes them realize thing about themselves, in their recognition of the self in him, like a mirror. Hunter is a mirror not just to but for the protagonists, so Luz gains some contemplation about her future; Amity understands what unconditional love is; Willow has someone who gets to know her for who she is; And Gus learns to trust and believe in himself again.

Hunter is just... An almost chameleon character, multi-purpose with so many parallels, like a changeling. And he’s a wonderful narrative tool for our protagonists and a compelling character that we and the characters see themselves in, so there’s just that fun dynamic for them to bounce off of. I really do think Hunter helps enrich our protagonists and give appreciation to their past growth; He’s like a culmination of our beloved cast in a sense, a representative/champion on their behalf. I can see why Dana loves this dude...

In any other story Hunter would be the main character, which I think is meta and sonder; Having our POV be Luz, who wanted to be a main character but recognizes that so does everyone else, everyone is just as real with just as meaningful lives and backgrounds and perspectives as her. And it’s then interesting to explore the type of accumulative character that the main protagonist usually is, since usually it’s them finding others who are a reflection of them, rather than this subversion of the other way around; Our protagonists finding Hunter one at a time.

Hunter is almost like that kind of protagonist who serves as a consistent commentator, a fellow observer with the audience to the REAL protagonists’ stories per episode as we travel around, an episodic, anthological type of story almost. But again, he’s from a different perspective, which adds to the unique subversion and twist; As does Hunter’s deconstruction as a chosen one, his supposed destiny just a scam to keep him in line, just like Adegast’s scam for Luz. I did compare him to ‘Nevareth Bladestrife’, who complains about not being chosen as the hero despite being main character-bait...

Hunter really does feel like that type of central main character where everyone else reflects a different facet of him and exists to get his development and lesson of the day going, but... In the role of a side-character and seen as such from the POV of our ‘side characters’ who would in another story exist just for Hunter’s sake. He didn’t even properly debut until Season 2! And I feel Hunter ultimately uplifted these characters for me, and gave them an additional compelling dynamic to work with and explore themselves with. It’s all so weird and meta and subversive and strange and I just... IT’S SO FASCINATING Y’ALL!!!

[natsspammityspamspamham]

I'm actually writing this post specifically for @deepwoodenheart because they followed my main and were not a porn blog. Thanks! They've recently expressed an interest in Yuichiro Umehara (a voice actor), and @msyuksanh is his number one fan who is the one who actually introduced me to this specific voice actor. Since I watch a ton of anime (an unhealthy amount), I will be running through some of the stuff I have watched (and some stuff I haven't). Some of these are just to make fun of these anime, but I don't fault any seiyuu for taking a bad role because you do what you need to to make that bread 🍞

His list of roles is big but not as big as some other voice actors, so I was able to go through which ones I had watched or heard of quite quickly. He has made some random appearances in other anime that I've watched where I went "Huh, definitely know this guy from somewhere" like Fire Force, Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun, and Kaguya-sama.

Note: I haven't watched Jojo Part 6 yet or that parody magic anime with the wombat. The anime will go in no specific order, but it generally goes from "good" to "mediocre" to "these anime can go suck cheese" with anything below the "keep reading" being literal trash-tier anime. There's also some missing stuff, especially in terms of idol anime because I haven't watched those and don't plan on it for now. From looking at the cast list, I think his major idol roles are in Magic Kyun, Tsukipro, Ensemble Stars, and Idolmaster SideM (regular Idolmaster is for female idols).

Akagami no Shirayuki-hime

I was talking to a friend of mine recently when we went Christmas shopping, and when he saw this manga he went, "I didn't like that one." I personally did like this one. His complaint was that too much time was given to the secondary love interest. Umehara plays a supporting (but recurring) character.

((This scene still makes me laugh to this day. Kaori Nazuka was really funny here.))

Fruits Basket (remake)

Okay, Umehara admittedly barely shows up in this one, but people should watch Fruits Basket no matter who they are. It's good for the soul. That is all.

((It took me so long to find a fricking gif of this bir-- guy.))

Romantic Killer

Anyone who reads this or anyone who has Netflix should go watch this.

((Kabe-down))

Tenchi Souzou Design-bu

This anime is surprisingly not directly creationism, but it sure comes close! As a biology major, this anime was pretty neat, but some of it made me go, "What am I watching anyway?" I'm not an ecology specialist though, so maybe this makes more sense to others. His character is a supporting character, but he has some funny bits.

((He also gets to rap in this role, so that was kind of funny. My other favourite lines are "Wow, Mercury is dead!" and "WOO! SAIKOU NI COOL!!!"))

SSSS.Dynazenon

This one was not nearly as good as Gridman which was already divisive in the mecha community (that I'm not a part of). I heard from others that it was enjoyable, but I personally thought it was a bit of a bore. Props to the casting director for getting Chika Anzai and her cousin Junya Enoki. There are some subbed radio segments that are funny too.

((Also, this is the first anime I watched where he was cast as an ugly adult. Ain't nobody falling for kinoko hair over here. He has also played a piece of sperm, but I digress.))

Dame x Prince

This anime was built for cringe, and it succeeds at cringe. But because it embraces the cringe, it unironically becomes one of the better anime adaptations of an otome game which is like saying you're the tallest dwarf of the seven dwarfs. It also gave a long-running radio with Kaito Ishikawa and Soma Saito.

Shingeki no Bahamut: Virgin Soul

I genuinely remember so little about this anime that I went to go watch clips to refresh my memory, and this anime wasn't even bad. It was mediocre, but for something based off a card game, they did really well. I actually watched this for Sumire Morohoshi and her bubbly character Nina. This is technically a sequel, so you'd need to watch the previous one to fully understand it. Oddly enough, I didn't know the first season was a romance until some characters kissed.

Gakuen Babysitters

This one was essentially built to be a comfort watch. It works at what it wants to do, but I don't like kids. The ending theme is cute, but Nishiyama looked way more into it (Umehara was there to get paid).

Shinchou Yuusha

I personally thought this anime was gonna be a Konosuba, and it kind of was, but it was far more palatable for me (I was not able to make it through Konosuba and will try again at a later date). Aki Toyosaki carries 99% of the comedy in this anime.

((That slime never did anything to youuuuuuu)

Orenchi no Furo Jijou

Fun fact: I watched this before knowing what a shounen ai was! I saw the shounen part and went "Oh, so my demographic" watched it, came out, and went "What. Was. That?!" I don't remember a whole ton about it, but I don't remember it being horrendous. It's just some mermaid in a bathtub. I think this was his debut role, and he does play a main character.

Juuni Taisen

This is probably in a similar boat as Tenkuu Shinpan (later in the list). It's just a bloodbath of an anime, but I will give it credit that it has fanservice for both sides (they sexualize men and women). Anyways, it has a stacked seiyuu cast for something that is so incredibly mediocre.

Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai

He had to be replaced partway through due to his acute immune disease. However, I think he recorded it in post-production. Either way, it's a supporting character in an anime that I think wasn't worth the watch besides the banger of an opening. Masayoshi Ohishi has a knack for writing openings for romcoms (he likes romcoms himself).

((He's the glasses guy))

Tenkuu Shinpan

I kinda want to watch this one just to turn off my brain and watch some Battle Royale-style gore.

((That character looks sick.))

Darling in the Franxx

Apparently, you're supposed to watch the first 12 episodes then dip, but come on, when the mechas are built like that, I'm not touching that thing. Even though it has Haruka Tomatsu and one of her most famous characters, I'm not watching it.

((It took me over 100 gifs to find one with Gorou in them despite typing in "Gorou Darling in the Franxx", and he is part of the main cast.))

Goblin Slayer

You know, for such an edgy first episode, this series is so mid at the genre it tries to take on after. Umehara said himself, "He doesn't really say much of importance." This anime has sexual violence (and it's explicit), and it's not even good.

Plunderer

I haven't watched this one, but he does star alongside his bandmate Yoshiki Nakajima. Both of them have been in better anime that is certainly not this one. I even read a chapter or two of the manga when it first started airing and went, "They're really making that, huh?"

((He forgot one streak of hair when dyeing it haha))

Kabuki-bu!

I couldn't make it through three episodes, but maybe I'll try again-- actually, no I won't.

Uchitama

Hmm... I haven't watched this one. It's not hard to see why, but basically, I have not reached that level of degeneracy, and if I do, someone should put me out of my misery.

Senjuushi

Fun fact: This anime is so bad that it has a rating similar to Boku no P-- I'm not finishing that title. I obviously didn't watch this one.

Makura no Danshi

I didn't watch this one, but I saw a video on it and was near tears from laughter and despair because there's no fricking way someone made an anime about this concept AND got Masayoshi Ohishi to write an OP for it. This is the stupidest thing I've seen in a while, and just being close to it made me even more embarrassed that I watch anime. I also listened to Masayoshi's version of the OP before I knew what it was connected to or how to understand some words in Japanese. After learning its association, I was legally obligated to take that song off my playlist.

[marley-manson]

Finished it and really enjoyed it. Normally I'd roll my eyes at a show with a majority female cast very pointedly in roles/archetypes that usually go to men also being all about misogyny and patriarchy, BUT the show was a) funny and irreverent enough that it wasn't a downer for me the way it usually is, and b) I really enjoyed the gender politics overall.

Like I feel like they did a good job keeping it non-essentialist and focused on social power dynamics (give or take like one detail that mildly annoyed me but is also a minor spoiler so I'll mention it below). Plus it was nuanced enough for me - it wasn't just about misogyny, racism/colonialism and homophobia were major issues as well, and women were also antagonists on those points.

Adored the dynamic between Eddie and Dulcie, it was almost HarryKim-esque lol, and god what a good dynamic for two women. They had great chemistry, sex jokes continued throughout, I adore Eddie's like, entire presence to pieces and even Dulcie was extremely likeable to me, much more than most straitlaced foils to epic energetic weirdos (Kim also being a notable exception lol.)

Also basically every single character on the show was great, from the protags to the antags to everyone in between. Just excellent fun character writing, not a single person on this show who detracted from my enjoyment.

And now a few spoilers, not for the central mystery but for one fairly early plot reveal, a few little details and scenes, and all the lesbian relationship stuff.

Tragically, the wives didn't divorce after all 😭 I absolutely did not buy their reconciliation. Even more tragic, Eddie like, fucking reveals that she's fucked women before and is potentially down to fuck more right after they get back together???? Like wow way to dig in the knife, show.

To be fair since it seems Dulcie and Cath have essentially just swapped which one's gonna be miserable with their lifestyle in season 2, I still have hope that their marriage is gonna end. What I really want is for Dulcie to cheat again - and speaking of holy shit did I love the reveal that she cheated with her last partner and quit her last job to appease Cath. And she clearly still has a crush on that woman as well, as seen when speaking to her on the phone?

Like I cannot emphasize enough how doomed this marriage is, I just hope the show knows it. Especially since I checked ao3 and there's only 3 pages of fic, and most of it is poly which I am not about. On the plus side the majority is actually explicit, which is wild for an f/f fandom, fucking nice.

Anyway despite hating their relationship I do like Cath as a character lol, she's shitty which is a good thing for endearing her to me, and also really funny, and I think she should have a gf who like, has similar interests and also wants to live on a farm and raise animals for a living, while Dulcie plows Eddie into next week in the big city.

The one detail that jumped out to me as irritatingly gender essentialist, btw, and this is the minor early spoiler, is the recurring discussion of male vs female serial killers and how they used that to help solve the case. Like to be fair even that seemed largely grounded in social dynamics, but like the poison thing??? Can a man not drug murder victims just to make things easier for him? Does it have to be a girl thing? Come on. I will say though that they at least made a joke about those male vs female profiles being outdated, even if they're still annoyingly relevant. So yk, some self awareness is shown. (this is not a spoiler, they go back and forth several times wrt the killer's gender but the drugging is always framed as a girl killer thing regardless of their current theory)

Also since I've spoiled that it's about a serial killer, I want to add that I loooooved the narrative's attitude towards a spree of murders with cis white male victims. It felt like an ideal balance of like, rote condemnation (yeah murder is bad, the protags are dedicated to finding the murderer even if it turns out to be a man-hating lesbian, it makes things worse for everyone in the town, the whole final episode, etc) while also indulging in the visceral satisfaction of men being the victims instead of women. The irreverence towards the victims, the scene where the mayor loses her filter in a panic and is like, 'hey maybe this town is actually the safest place for everyone who isn't a white cis dude, ever think of that?' lmao, or even just the scene in the first episode where Dulcie mentions finding a naked body over the phone to her superior and he automatically assumes the victim is a woman and has to be corrected.

The reactionary, perfectly pathetic response from the conservative men of the town was also pitch perfect. The fucking reclaim the night march lmao? There's such an air of awareness that their demographic being specifically targeted by a serial killer is a major anomaly and their reaction is disproportionate and silly, and basically just an excuse to try to reclaim power in the town. Felt very of the moment.

There are definitely a few nitpicks to be made about the politics, especially wrt some of the cop show elements but like, it is a cop show, you set your expectations accordingly. Point is I had a good time with what it had to say and how entertainingly it said it.

So yeah, basically loved the show, hope season 2 is good too and if Dulcie and Cath don't break up, they at least keep teasing Dulcie/Eddie and making graphic gay sex jokes about them.

decided to watch Deadloch on a whim after seeing like 2 gifsets of Eddie looking like a fun character, knowing absolutely nothing about the show, and was instantly rewarded with surprise lesbian sex 👍

(Between the main character and her wife, not the buddy cops, buuuut they're having marriage issues and there's fun chemistry and many sex jokes between her and Eddie so the vibes are excellent and i'm having a great time so far)