#conceptually? fucking amazing

[vyragosa]

actually amazed by idv's new philosophy of giving decoders, whose jobs is to not get spotted

stuff like an axiom of maria-themed costume with one of the shiniest effects to date

[edwardallenpoe]

Butches and studs and transsexuals and butches and studs who are transsexual and transsexuals who are butches and studs please never fucking change

[magnetic-dogz]

I have such mixed feelings about the Switch as a console honestly

[lesbiansanemi]

How to explain to normal people how deeply I relate to Maki Zenin and Sanemi Shinazugawa without sounding like I’m so fucking unstable and need therapy five times a week. How to explain that it’s not just the inherent anger with the world they feel, because I do fully fully relate to that as well but that’s surface level. Yes I am angry, but their reasons for the anger?? Their relationships to their younger siblings???? How the fuck am I supposed to say that I get it. I get that fucked up relationship to your younger siblings, and how so much of you hinges on that identity as the Eldest Sibling but specifically the failed eldest sibling. I so deeply understand Maki and her want to live for herself, damn the consequences her sister received for it, because it’s her life, if she wants to live it spiteful and angry and for herself and against her family in every way she damn well should be able to, who cares if her sister is dragged in and suffers for it. Who cares if she has to learn to grow up and suffer the same ways. Until suddenly you do care and by then it’s too late, you can’t go back, you can’t make it easier for her, you can’t make her happier, and by the time you maybe want to try it’s far too late. I understand Sanemi and the pain and anger you feel when you’ve watched your younger siblings suffer far too long before ultimately losing them and never getting the chance to help them live better. I get pushing them away from you and treating them far less than they deserve in an attempt to drive them away because you’re just going to make it worse, you’re living the hard life, you’re the target, you’re the bad influence, so if they’re not close to you, they’re less likely to get dragged in. But they do anyway and then you cut off that relationship for nothing but because they’re younger siblings they forgive you and still want it but you don’t deserve it so you don’t let them and it just keeps going and keeps going and keeps going and until you lose them forever. Until you’re the Eldest Sibling who no longer has younger siblings to be the Eldest Sibling for, you fucked it up and sure life didn’t help all that much but a good chunk of it is your own damn fault. And I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m so so so fine

[arolesbianism]

I've been passively watching an isat playthrough while twiddling my thumbs in my current oni save as I wait for my new power systems to be done and hey guys. I think one of these bitches is aromantic. Why did no one tell me one of these bitches is aromantic I would have played the game myself if I knew that

[nexus-nebulae]

sometimes looking at the calendar is just ughgb the passage of time what fuckign year is it again

and then sometimes its just a quiet wow. i actually made it this far?

[teamseaslug]

I just remembered that Cannibals by Neil Cicierega is kinda one of the coolest songs ever

[otamotone-dnp]

thoughts on the atlanta tit show/the show in general!!!

okay to start off, they’re so beautiful. oh my god. when they came out on stage for the pre show I was looking down at my phone not expecting it and their presence scared the shit out of me akskssk I jumped. phil’s eyes are so beautiful and piercing (in a good way lmao) and there was a part where he says a line by himself into a mic that was on my side of the stage and I was five rows back and I could just see his eyes so clearly. dan looked so happy and smiley and beautiful too. they look so good together!!!!

I thought the show was so well done, you could tell they thought it all through thoroughly, I can’t imagine how much planning it took. my friend who came with me has a degree in theatre and specializes in set and lighting design and she was saying how cool and well done the set was (she was giving me some info on how the screens work but I didn’t understand but it sounded kind of complicated lol)

okay now spoilers ahead:

the dolls part, oh my god. first of all, the little cardboard sets are so cute and accurate. they must have taken pj and Sophie so long to make. the ���humping/fucking” part where phil makes the dolls fuck and 69 almost made me look away in like idk I felt bad almost watching that? lmao not fr but I was like Jesus dan and phil y’all are crazy and also we’re going there

I thought they did the conspiracy theories part in a classy way. we got tour bus, Vegas, and toilets. I liked the ice berg concept, it made me wonder if they’ve seen that “phandom iceberg” video somebody made on YouTube even though I don’t agree with that person’s approach to the fandom.

I thought the boxing was so well done, omg. it was so fun to watch. the clips of them before the boxing like the “hype” clips or whatever you call it were so good

seeing sister daniel on stage was iconic!! my friend leaned over to me when she came out and said “do you think he’s wearing underwear or something under there” aksksks I was like yeah, they’re just short. she doesn’t use tumblr much but I explained stuff from on here like how we got a glimpse of a little too much one time and he made them longer after that 😂 I also loved phil’s monologue while dan was changing

the song was great!! the audio cut out a few times but they’re so professional and played it off well. the dancing omfg iconic. dan was cracking me up, he gets so into it and they both did so great

there was one part where phil was forgetting a line, he kept saying “dan” where like he was meant to say it once and then say a line and he said it like three times and dan was like “yes phil” and walked closer to him, i could tell he was going to feed him the line but then phil remembered <3

during the part where they shoot the money guns at us, dan was over by my side of the stage, and the gun had like 5 bills in it and that was it ajsjsjs but he thought it was just jammed so he was like slapping it trying to get it to work and it sprung open and there was nothing in it lolol

also Dan’s pants kept like sagging down but I could tell it wasn’t intentional and he kept like trying to inconspicuously pull them up but I saw the top of his underwear at some point lol somebody help him out and get him a pair that fit better 😭

they’re so talented!!! so funny, so sweet, so beautiful. it was amazing and I’m so happy I got to go. I wish I got meet and greet but honestly it felt like a privilege to just be in the same room and be able to see them from the audience!

I have more thoughts on the parasocial/fan conceptualization of the show but it might take me a while to fully form those. I thought it struck a good delicate balance between acknowledging the damage the intense effort to out them did to them (especially dan) while also acknowledging what their fandom has done for them and how they appreciate us. also it definitely strikes a fucking delicate balance between “hard launching” and not lmao. I do think they will do that after tour, it just feels like this is what it’s leading to.

oh and I didn’t buy any merch bc I’m trying to save for Christmas and I might go on a trip in January but I loved the photocards we got in the silver VIP bag, they’re such a cute idea and I will treasure them

[saint-vagrant]

i've been alive a long time and into men (conceptually, literally) a long time, and never did learn what objective masculinity "is." but i'm not very interested in it frankly. masculinity or femininity, for me, seems so airy and amorphous and too totally culturally, personally dependent for my autist brain to bother grasping. but i do know what being a man is. because i am one all the time. i have been one forever. whether anyone is around to see or not. and it fucking rules and i'd suggest it for anyone.

i/my body isn't "gender non-conforming" because i'm fat or gay or have tits or like pink, for being crazy or for other disability, for my needs. only i can know and decide this, which is frustrating in its own way, to be unknown, sure. i experience things you do. i experience things you don't. i am a man when i'm treated horribly, explicitly for being the kind of man i am— when i'm talked down to and mocked or abused it isn't happening to the woman that i'm not. i'm here in my body and it happens to me. i'm not less of a man if i take a break from T, i'm not less of a man if i don't strictly modulate my voice, nor am i more of a man when i make a mistake, or for exhibiting the behaviour you expect, and i'm not more of a man for going above and beyond expectation— that's your shit, not mine. i love grime and denim and leather and chains and sweat and hair— who doesn't!, but interests don't Make me a man. interests change (allegedly.) i'm just a guy. and it's amazing and life-giving to be one. there is so much hardship and so much death, and to endure it as anything less than myself was/would be unbearable.

what would happen if you allowed yourself to be? how scary! how sublime!

[ai-the-broccoli]

I DIDN'T NOTICE YOU RB'D THE DEATH NOTE ASK MEME uhhh. 23 and 24 maybe?

ooooh thanks!!!

23. what was your favorite moment and why?

"oooh that's a very hard question" ...is what I might've said, if this wasn't the light yagami animanga series and light yagami makes me insane. uhhh. I do have several though, if that's allowed.

(update: when I said "several" I meant uh. a lot apparently. whoops)

favourite line / favourite moment in a "holy wow this is amazing thematically": the. y'know. "Tell me, Light, from the moment you were born, have you ever told the truth?" line in the anime rain scene. yeah. holy fuck that is amazing because I LOVE that sort of thing. as far as character traits go, there's like nothing I love more than characters that are liars who lie lyingly (multiple types of this apply). it's truly, truly the best.

favourite moments based on what I repeatedly rewatched immediately following my first watch of the anime: there are, uh. three (in no particular order)

light goes home from the entrance ceremony, incredibly stone-faced (like 😐) the entire way -> gets home, gets up the stairs, opens the door, shuts the door, sits down on his chair, suddenly starts shaking -> blows up "Dammit! He got me! Damn L! I have never been so humiliated in my life!" (even Ryuk comments internally that he's never seen him lose his composure so much) -> suddenly laughs and calms down talking about how it's a battle of wits now and he'll make L trust him and kill him, with his own hands if necessary. i rewatched this several times in a row which was definitely very normal of me.

look at him. grumpy but in like an extremely restrained way (his face is even hidden). until it breaks completely in the next page lol

the last episode. light trying so hard not to laugh/smirk in the warehouse, then he reveals himself as kira (a lot of laughing), and he loses and falls pathetically, shouting for kiyomi and mikami and misa after matsuda shoots him, and then runs in the beautiful sunset, passing his younger high school self by, and seeing a vision of L before he dies on the stairs. all this is great and i did an immediate rewatch of this episode after finishing it

the Relight scene where Light laughs on top of L's grave soil. it's conceptually fucked up in an amazing way that really really appeals to me. murder and grave desecration are really romantic/beautiful/erotic on principle.

as you can see I am very normal. as you can see I am a very normal Light Yagami fan. one of those two statements may be unironically true, but the two statements inherently cannot go together. anyway this particular selection of scenes totally doesn't actually say anything about me right but anyway I'm right those are totally the best please torture light some more everyone

favourite moments I didn't immediately repeatedly rewatch/reread like that but are still my absolute top favourites:

The entire first episode because DAMN did it hook me completely very, very fast. I did NOT know there was going to be Faustian contract + god complex&general big ego + everything else in one in this little and very infamous character known as "Light Yagami". my expectations were blown instantly and I got obsessed with DN right away

L and Light declaring war on each other over the live broadcast and L asking and taunting Light/Kira to kill him. amazing. it was really... gay. sorry I can't think of a better word lmfao

L's death scene oh my god. GOD I loved (and was really really amazed/impressed by by) Light rushing to him at once and basically lying on top of him for a second, so that he will die in his arms. GOD. it is SO. like yeah this is literally my favourite sort of thing holy shit it is amazing (it's to gloat to him and to declare victory before his death, and it's to pretend to the Task Force too, and yet it seemed like such an instinctual reaction really that I think his first instinct really IS to hold him in his arms before he dies. this is really good). and the dramatic performance afterwards. I love it

on a COMPLETELY different note. JESUS CHRIST I love Soichiro's death scene actually. because holy fuck the multi-layered irony. I really love it. actually I think I wrote about that scene long before I even really wrote anything else about DN. alright here:

idk if I still 100% agree with my initial impression but it should still overall hold and MAN. I definitely loved it (<- fan of irony) (<- extremely, extremely normal Light Yagami fan) (<- fan of Soichiro also, to a lesser extent)

favourite moment that gave me a lot of thoughts when I'm reading the manga: (even though I already first watched the anime and this stuff is also in the anime)

the moment where Rem is like "okay I will kill L" and Light, person who has been plotting this exact murder for ages, is like. Oh shit. he'll die...? which is. man. Light sure is Light

like look at his face here!

favourite manga-exclusive moments:

Light not considering killing Sayu. Light asking Soichiro to promise him to come back alive with Sayu. that scene afterwards where Soichiro is at home thinking he should die. (at least I think those weren't in the anime?)

the manga ending is also good

I like that the manga tells us he lost weight and has nightmares due to using the death note. (it possibly has happened to anime light too but we don't get to see it)

not a "favorite moment" exactly, but while the scene is beautiful I don't like Misa dying in the end despite how much I adore everything else in that episode, so I like that Misa doesn't canonically die like that in the manga

favourite anime-exclusive moments:

rain scene and footwashing scene yes obviously

everything about Light being "haunted" after L's death. aside from the aforementioned Light dying scene, I really like the anime

I love the anime ending too

also hmm this might be a less popular opinion, but personally I also love some of anime Light's characterization tidbits that differs from the manga (e.g. first episode). I would say it's because it's maybe very slightly more relatable for me but that probably sounds wack lmao so

favourite moments based on how comedic I find them: (not including ones I already included in other sections) DN is such an amazing comedy I'm not even kidding

the whole handcuffs thing oh my god. homophobic misa moment. I didn't think she'd actually call him gay, but there it was. also just fken. buddy. L??????? why and how and in what world was there an absolute need for this totally normal, totally appropriate, absolutely most safe and most ideal method of interrogating criminals. I was laughing because god. that's not even. yeah okay I'm happy with it but LMFAO YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS. and Light just easily went along with it

the... the... first date scene. I was like oh my god c'MON you two. I didn't think something like this would be so like this in the actual canon manga. first date where Misa is being thirdwheeled while Light and L sit together chained together and then they focus all energy on talking to each other and then they get into a fist fight (date activity) all over the room. combined with the later dunking on matsuda. this is LITERALLY how a fucking sitcom goes at this point.

the anime's footwashing also. not the scene itself necessarily but just the fact that it fucking exists between lawlight and is. Like THAT????? lmfao like what the hell

ALSO the. fken. Matsuda fake death scene lmfao it was so wack in retrospect

live Ryuk reactions + "hey Light can we play Mario Golf? can we play Mario Golf Light? come on let's play a match of Mario Golf"

man I can't even include all of it here because Light Yagami is so entertaining to me in 85%+ of all the scenes she appears in in one way or another like his existence itself is peak entertainment to me. it's entertaining when Light is humiliated and it's entertaining when he's succeeding. and like I mean, he's the protagonist of the whole manga / show, and I mean I can't list every moment in the series can I. lmao

favourite moments that don't have light yagami in it: I'm sorry everyone else but I am especially obsessed with light. as you can see. however I love many other characters too

Kiyomisa dinner kiyomisa fighting !!!

(technically this includes light but) matsuda shooting light

misa being unexpectedly smart (compared to her wider reputation) (the higuchi car scene! and others) is also nice

idk if it makes sense but. the scene where Rem and Misa mention the way a Shinigami can die, and Misa admits to thinking about killing Rem like it's. just very Neat. I like the vibes here and Misa is very beautiful (related to the dialogue about love and killing. yeah)

also!! I love the meronia moments

and then I recently got myself into soichello so actually yeah. the soichiro mello scenes too. very good

24. any headcanons you want to share?

uhhhhhhhhhhh hmmm. man what's a headcanon I haven't properly shared on tumblr before, and also isn't like a take that is shared and often discussed by tons of people around here already?

... fine okay let's do this finally.

neurodivergence + mental illnesses headcanons

[disclaimer: please read this post first. if you disagree, you can skip over this and skip to the next section!]

aside from OCD and autism, imo Light has NPD with some ASPD traits, and also bipolar. this is because the way his mental illnesses are is like. I feel represented lol. (not as in I have every one of those things I listed, but I probably have some/most of them, and the combinations are interesting). even though this is unfortunately Light Yagami. but I really like him for that too tbh because man. I don't get to see that stuff often. (like idk how to explain it. even though I'd never even remotely pull that kinda stuff because of differences in personalities, values, background, abilities, and manifestation and degree of symptoms, etc. however some of his mannerisms sometimes feel right on point e.g. I feel like the way he is like sometimes gives me depression + hypomanic/manic vibes, in a way where I can see myself in him if it makes sense lmao)

on that note Misa 100% very BPD I agree. I wanna say on top of autism, L also seems to have some ASPD traits imo. Near is autistic but I think that goes without saying lol. Mello has like... C-PTSD and/or NPD. and then this probably not a very unexpected take, but Matsuda has ADHD or audhd vibes. OH and! Soichiro also very much has OCD and autism, imo.

other headcanons:

not a hot take, but Mello and Near are both nonbinary and/or genderqueer (and/or otherwise trans, if not applicable) to me (could be transmasc or transfem, not necessarily transneutral; I could see either or any direction among those, although I would say I lean toward seeing Near as transfem and/or nonbinary, and Mello as transmasc and/or genderqueer).

Light is demi, and has had a covert superiority complex about not feeling attraction unlike his peers (like. you can view him deciding to use porn mag reading to prove himself as a normal teenage boy as indicative of his subconscious? mental association of his more "normal" peers as, like.... unfortunate horny perverts. in a way. if that makes sense) I know how it feels because I was kinda like this in grade 6-8

man I definitely have other ideas too but I'm drawing a blank at the moment partly because it's late and I still haven't eaten lunch lmao. I will continue to post my thoughts and headcanons in the future, so tune in by clicking on the subscribe butto- *gets shot*

ask game

[tellmeallaboutit]

I have a bit of a weird meta question.

So, in knock knock, Raphael is very "literally Satan from the Bible" in vibes, which I guess comes from the way the story frames him + the narrative choices (he's here without being "here" for the most part).

But do you (the author) picture him as a completely divorced character from the way you portrayed him in HWLL? Like, in your head, is he the same brand of fucking weirdo off-screen?

Sorry if it's a bit of a weird question, I'm just intrigued by the thought process x)

It's an amazing question. So I am posting a chapter today, and the next one would be from Raul's POV and how he met Raphael and the whole thought process of Raphael behind this.

SLIGHT SPOILERS BELOW

So, this is the same Raphael as he is in HWLL (maybe the HWLL one is a bit more hardcore and a bit more into non-con, but conceptually the same). He does like to fit in knock knock universe in these very big shoes of Satan / Lucifer or God, because for all he know, they are not there.

The God has set some rules in place, True Faith still works, some Catholic Accessoires does have safeguard effects, the souls are pledged to God, but otherwise he cannot detect their presence; for all he knows, they've gone MIA and Earth is abandoned by the God(s).

His plan is to penetrate the fortress and the safeguard system they left in place, convert the God's flock into his own by portraying the Archangel Raphael, claim c. 3 billion Christian souls this way and achieve godhood aka true divinity - without it, he does not stand a chance against Asmodeus.

Mephistopheles warned him it's not so very simple with the Original World / Earth, but Mephistopheles is dead (killed by Raphael), and Raphael is out of his depth a bit there (same error when he though he can defeat Asmodeus in HWLL before Mephistopheles has shown the Sacrament. He DOES NOT know about the Sacrament in knock knock).

He comes across as LITERALLY SATAN mostly because of Anya's Catholic conditioning / narrative choices, and because he really, really, wants to be the Big Cool Boy Satan (the Big Cool Boy God actually, but with Satan vibes).

[kooldewd123]

poppy is conceptually such a funny pokemon character because every time they've tried to do the "child prodigy" angle before it's fallen flat since ages kinda get glossed over in this franchise in general. (i mean, the player character is a ten-year-old defeating grown adults, and this basically never comes up.) so this time to really get the point across they just went "fuck it, this preschooler is one of the strongest guys ever." amazing character.

[rocketkid300]

so at first I thought the JJK finale was buns. And then I was mad. Then I thought about it a bit.

I think a lot of the stuff that Gege included within the final chapter (final few chapters ngl) is CONCEPTUALLY pretty good. Trio and all students surviving? Conclusion for the CG characters? Everyone moving on from Gojo because sorcerers should work together as a community and not rely on the strongest in a flawed system? Yuuji passing on encouragement to a new CG sorcerer to represent the next gen passing on their strength? All great points.

The problem was that it felt too fast paced. We didn't have time to really let the characters breathe and settle into the new world. No emotional conversations between the main trio, not even between Yuuji and Megumi. Just. Right back to it! And my biggest gripe was probably that there didn't really feel like there was a change to the status quo. Megumi's character didn't really feel like it had a proper conclusion, and we definitely should've gotten more from both Nobara and Yuuji about the new world they're in. Just killing the higher ups and putting gakugangi up there doesn't really make that much of a difference imo. And also everything with the foreign militaries? Ofc there was a lot of stuff implied w/ Mei Mei and the NSS clan stuff, and all the new CG sorcerers and etc, but honestly we just needed more.

That's when I realized the real enemy was Shonen Jump all along. Shonen Jump has extremely strict deadlines on the final chapter; meaning that once the final arc starts, the author would have to pick a date to end the manga and stick with it. But remember what happened a few months ago? Gege got sick around the time when the yuutago chapters dropped. He was out for a month. Thats anywhere from 3-5 extra chapters we could've had.

And that... really hurts. I genuinely think even 3 extra chapters could've fixed all the glaring issues with the last few chaps. More room to have emotional conversations, more to talk about the future of Jujutsu society/cursed energy, more change to the status quo, more actually cohesive character conclusions/interactions, even maybe a Gojo acknowledgement (yes ik the point is that the future gen will move on without him but I think it's unrealistic that the students don't look back on him fondly at least). Those extra chapters wouldn't fix everything, ofc, but it would definitely make things feel more complete. It sucks from a readers perspective, because we KNOW Gege can write really well. But I imagine it sucks even more from a writers perspective.

There's a lot of debate on whether or not Gege actually cares about JJK and its characters (especially when it comes to that six eyes freak ykwim), but even if his original ideas were scrapped, I think ANYONE who works on something for upwards of six years will feel some sort of love or care towards that project. I can't imagine what it must feel like to not be able to fully execute your creative vision because of health problems and the shitty cog-wheels of Shonen Jump serialization.

Ofc, I might be reading too much into it. Perhaps his leave of absence had nothing to do with how Gege ended JJK. Maybe this was his plan all along. The more I sit with it, the more okay I feel. We've known for a long time that the JJK ending wasn't going to be perfect. And yeah, we can (respectfully) mourn what we could've had but honestly? I had so much fun. I have never ever been involved in a fandom like this and yeah it sucked like 99% of the time but despite it all I had so much fucking fun. Say all you want about Gege's skills but you can't deny that he is amazing at creating compelling characters, cool power systems and emotionally packed plots. Yuuji, Megumi, Nobara and Maki will all be oh so dear to me forever. Yeah the ending could definitely have been better, but I'm willing to give him grace. If anything, I'm even more excited for his next work.

Anyways, I think that having all these plot holes and "wasted potential" might actually be a good thing in the long run. It can be frustrating, obviously, when you look at the story all on its own, but ngl fandom works best when we can fill in the gaps on our own. I'm looking forwards to seeing what everyone's gonna make from here on out! I definitely have a LOT of things I'd want to write about, maybe even draw ooh.

Incredibly longwinded way of saying: Gege, you aint so bad after all. And yeah, I think I'm pretty happy overall with JJK. Maybe a lil miffed about certain things, but I doubt I would be the person I am today without this godforsaken manga. How amazing is that? :)

[raayllum]

i'm literally sitting here trying to figure out what EVEN i can SAY about aspec rayllum here? i think about them and i want to combust into heart emojis. i watched the first season when it first came out and then only happened to catch up last year with my qpp, and in between i was like. so infuriated when i found out they'd made rayla and callum a thing bc i - naturally - latched onto the green and purple character as an aroace icon at 18 years old, and my partner was like "no no no no TRUST me you've got to watch it, you'll love it"

they weren't wrong and after bingeing the whole show i'm stuck thinking about rayllum a LOT. they're written so much like my own ideal relationship that i kind of want to explode from it sometimes. anyway, my absolute favorite thing about them is how much emphasis there is about their friendship - to the point that when i watched season four, I can't remember which episode specifically it was number wise but when rayla suggested splitting up and offered to go with callum and he turns her down, my first immediate heartbroken thought was "she misses her best friend..." i just love how they're in love but they're in love cos they're best friends....11/10 no notes i need more relationships like that in media

ANYWAY long rambley ask about my loves aside, my question is what are some of your favorite moments where rayllum are so clearly best friends/goofballs in love?

No like honest to god though — me and the Rayla to my Callum are also in a QPR + dash of romance relationship and like... arc 1 and arc 2 Rayllum are just so goddamn sweet??

I don't agree generally that arc 2 Rayllum is more Mature™ than arc 1 rayllum — Callum is more patient and Rayla is more open, so they've matured as individuals — but merely just that they're different flavours of aspec-ness. Like arc 1 is the craziness and rollercoaster of meeting a stranger and realizing they're Your Person, and arc 2 is the deepness after the fact of "I know you, and I know that we can get through everyone so long as we have each other" mostly cause I think the main reason people label arc 1 Rayllum as more immature is because s3 Rayllum gushes over each other, but that's bc people have a hard time conceptualizing having deep admiration for your partner(s) that isn't infatuation... even though like? It's totally normal and welcome, like any long term relationship is "my partner is the most amazing person ever and i'm also very aware of all their flaws simultaneously" and like, arc 1 Rayllum hits that balance perfectly imo

I just love all of their stages and sides to them so so much

But yeah! Some of my fave moments Rayllum wise for the Best Friends quality has to be when they help each other up in 3x05 (Callum after the soulfang chase and Rayla on the ambler) because things are Weird but they're still always going to help each other? The "I missed my best friend" quality in s4 with no one laughing at Callum's jokes / talking about magic with him (vs their first scene in 5x01 being him telling her all about the magic stuff he's reading) and Rayla keeping her disappointment at bay always hits hard and I loove 4x06 when she's beating herself up and he takes care of her because a Good Relationship isn't about how you treat each other when everything's fine, it's 100% about how treat each other when life is hard/stressful and/or you're upset with each other

But I love all the gentle teasing in early S5 and the fist bump lives in my head eternally rent free. The 2x03 hug also means a lot to me cause that was the turning point she went from being a friend to being family and I think in a lot of ways, that's their relationship's most important turning point alongside maybe 1x06 (trusting her anyway!) 4x09 (forgiveness) and 5x04 (her opening up).

5x02 post-inn and stargazing scene are also faves just because of how happy they are talking about Nothing and everything, and like — that's just so fucking real, y'know? When someone makes everything automatically better just by being there

As Callum says, "We've been through a lot, and a lot has changed. Well, some things have changed, but not everything," and this never will

[shift-shaping]

the only compliment i'll pay to veilguard is that it validates my feelings about solas and mythal. which is really just a compliment to me but still. i always liked the idea of them having this weird, kind of toxic, kind of empowering, very complex situationship that blurs the lines of mentorship, family, and romance. i like the idea that solas is still trapped in this relationship to some extent, that he can't let go because he never really had full autonomy to begin with. he's a god in service to another god, denying his godhood while being forced to embrace it, an all-powerful being unable to free themselves from the prison they half-willingly stepped into.

did they handle it well? no, of course not, the game is a humiliating trash heap of disney-level dialogue and watered-down conflict, but conceptually the ideas are very cool. in the hands of more competent writers it would have been amazing.

anyway slay the princess fucking kicks ass.

[linka-from-captain-planet]

1 month to Veilguard, here are my current Hypes and Gripes

HYPES:

general gorgeousness, style, architecture, lighting - all of it looks amazing and has so much character

CC legitimately looks fun to play with (as someone who was planning to just take a default to avoid having to slog through it)

truly cannot believe I'm actually very excited for combat and having a hard time deciding what class to play because they all look really fun

I liked the open world of DAI but am definitely glad for a more streamlined experience along the lines of DAO/DA2

not sure if I hallucinated this, but they improved looting? I don't have to click on every body to pick up 2 bucks and a piece of cloth?? I certainly have not seen an annoying looting animation which was a major beef with DAI

the missions we've seen before look absolutely thrilling and the story beats are wild

companions reportedly act like they exist outside of the player character - major key for someone who doesn't really care about my player character

Neve fucking Gallus

Lace fucking Harding

Taash

Bellara Lutare

GRIPES:

truly could not give less of a f about Solas or ancient elven lore so these major story beats are simply not for me (monster goddess can still step on me ofc)

still bummed about the lack of world state customization, mostly because I'd just like updates on previous quests and companions, but also because I expect nothing non-Solas-related to be relevant (e.g I assume my Josephine romance and the Inquisition will just be mentioned in passing) so what customization there is seems to be trivial/misleading

hoping that the facial animations are more polished (fix lip sync, get rid of cross eyes) before launch because those first 10 hours before I stop seeing it will be rough

need every character to be stretched vertically like 10% - shook to learn that Neve is supposed to be like 5'8" bc her model serves 5'4". Stylized character art needs stylized proportions

hoping (but not optimistic) that I can fix the player character's hunched/leaned forward posture in CC - tuck them shoulder blades please

TBDs:

conceptually I love the idea of companion romances as someone who is nosy and loves playing barbies, but I think pairing the spares is lame - would rather the alternative romances be with NPCs (but I AM a background character fan so I'm prob biased)

also I suspect I will not like the pre-determined ships lol

currently I find Assan and Manfred annoying (goofy mascots, dog-ification of all animals, come off like goofy disney sidekicks) but I will probably get won over pretty easily on this