#defects webtoon

[its-to-the-death]

Battle of the Gingers Wave 2 Preliminary Round #19

Only one will make it into the bracket

[firowisteria]

THERE IS ANOTHER REDHEAD ELLIE?! I WAS JUST TOLD THIS?!

she's from Defects I think

[webtoon-related-tournaments]

Ellie:

Orphan with fire powers

Ashlyn:

Badass with long hair embroiled in a government conspiracy.

[taikerou]

[jockw]

hear me out:

she cant fly, she fell off of the nevermore academy roof like a dumbass

[sshcomic]

this is the masterlist post for soryuu sensei hakuji, a kny au where akaza defects from muzan early, starts a dojo to honour his past, and canon happens in modern times! updates every two-ish weeks.

the main inspirations for this are smoke and mirrors by emilieee and demon's choice by lairMorbidon so do give those fics a read if you haven't already bc they! are! so! good!!!

comic strips:

1 & 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10

11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 / 18

read it on webtoon!

[wataksampingan]

This was supposed to be some form of Therdeo Dane Lapileon Defense Thesis but my brain cannot pull off all the necessary research to do it justice.

So I guess let’s just brain dump all my thoughts and feelings?? About this manhwa?? (Spoilers for the story up to episode 63 on Webtoons and 66 on Naver Webtoons)

...this also gets FAR too long so cut is here for sanity’s sake. Tl;dr Theo Lapileon is a wounded puppy and I want him to be happy gdi

I need to preface the Theo content by saying that I adore Pereshati. I think she’s one of the more realistic heroines that I’ve read, in the sense that she’s plucky and determined but she damn well knows how the game is played. Every move she makes is plagued with doubt and uncertainty coz she’s only a minor noble, and one with an unbelievable story at that. (Resurrecting after being fed poisonous blood and getting thrown back in time is a stretch for anyone). But whenever she does decide to do something, she handles herself with the kind of poise you’d expect from a grown woman who knows how polite society works. It’s the kind of elegance and maturity that the novel’s Perry doesn’t have.

I wonder very much how seungu would have thrown Perry into Theo’s way if they had had full control of the adaptation because the first... 10? episodes or so reads very much like a typical isekai manhwa: she’s murdered, she awakes, and then immediately besieges Theo with a proposal, simply because he needs to marry someone to get the emperor/princess off his back. The Perry we see currently in the latest chapters would likely have done something smarter/more socially acceptable/conventional simply because imperial pressure or no, why the fuck would the grand duke entertain a minor noble they’ve never met before?

Granted, this is quite in line with Theo’s character in the first few episodes as well (which is lampshaded in a later chapter AND I LOVED IT) whose excuse for entertaining her absurd request/proposal is just ���I got curious about the woman who kept bombarding us with messages”. The Theo we see later, who just burns letters from the Fourth Princess Dodolea without even thinking about it, would have hardly buckled under that kind of insistence.

This is all pure speculation of course because the artist, seungu, has no social media I could trace. The original novel’s writer, Han Yoonseol, has Twitter and various socmed that show an active writing career and interest in the MILAOWM webtoon. But the artist? Nothing, apart from their work. They’ve completed a previous series (Google translated to “New Year’s Taste”) but that also seems like an adaptation. I have no access to their thought process, rationale or any inkling of why certain decisions were made. 

Whatever the case though, those decisions so far have me hooked. They’re making changes that reflect something more... realistic, with higher stakes and actual consequences for the actions of the characters. E.g. you can’t humiliate, much less threaten, members of the nobility at a public function in front of a crowd without some sort of retaliation. Theo in the novel actually threatens to kill a nobleman in cold blood in front of a gathered audience whereas Theo in the manhwa does this in private.

Well, I say threaten. In the manhwa, he has just a fraction of the dialogue Novel!Theo says. Just one or two lines before he snaps and is about to decapitate a mofo before being restrained by his guards. The bullying incident that precipitates this is also dealt with realistic actions and importantly, contains a reflection on Perry’s part about the power and privilege the Lapileons have in this universe. I don’t know if this foreshadows anything but my mind has gone as far as the dissolution of the empire/defection to an enemy kingdom (and the loss of their noble titles) by the end of the whole manhwa. Far-fetched? Maybe, but I have so much faith in seungu by now and so little idea of what they’re planning that I won’t be surprised.

Manhwa!Therdeo Lapileon is also extremely taciturn and poker-faced, to all the natural disadvantages this sort of personality entails. Everything we know about him is told in silent images, or expressions we explicitly don’t see. This is a man who believes in actions over words, who has no idea that open communication is a Thing and that doing stuff behind a person’s back without telling them can backfire at times (”I’m gonna have someone follow my wife’s ex-fiance around without telling her, and that got her kidnapped. SHIT.”) And all the backstory that’s been hinted at so far gives us very sad explanations how he turned out this way.

One could very justifiably argue that actually, the entire Lapileon family is a collection of sad iron woobies. Saoirse lost her husband and only son because of her own blood, Phineas is doing his level best to save his family but keeps seeing them die despite his medical expertise, Gloria probably had a HELL of a marriage to survive this long, and the poor children have had their own bouts of suffering and daddy issues. And of course there’s also Pereshati who’s been murdered about 3-4 times at this point, and lost a most beloved father to a stepmother she loved to the moon and back.

BUT. Theo.

If the housekeeper’s flashback in Episode 47 is anything to go by, and if I’m guessing right, Theo and Saoirse’s father (maybe grandfather? Unclear at this point but let’s go with father for now) was a nightmare of a man. Slaughtering servants for infractions was probably a regular threat in the Lapileon home, and judging from that flashback during the episodes when they first find Islette, so was torturing and testing his younger son’s limits. His survival in the family was due to his “usefulness”.

One can suspect that of the three siblings, Theo was the one with the softest heart. We have no idea what his older brother (Celphi’s dad) was like yet and Saoirse is a Lapileon to the core: toughened enough to do what is needed, hardened even further by tragedy. She’s also a mom, which is why harming Islette earned Gen a rightful and vicious stiletto-heels-to-the-face-ass kicking. It also gets Theo a reprimand: get his shit together or step down from the headship of the family.

(And I’m just. Saoirse, honey, I love and respect you immensely and to be stepped on by your footwear of choice would be my honour. But that’s your younger brother we’re talking about. And he’s been emotionally sucker punched in just about every aspect. He’s trying, okay?)

I’m just saying that when you’re a child, and abused to that degree, sympathy from the devil is still sympathy. Of course it echoes to the present day even as a full-grown, supposedly rational adult. Of course it’s going to fuck you up.

You were also probably raised to put family above all (witness Theo not trusting Perry with the full truth of Celphi’s condition until circumstances force his hand, Saoirse only fully warming up to her once it’s clear she loves Celphi without any ulterior motive, Gloria immediately expecting her to be wrong about the family blood being sold, only to be confounded by the awful truth that this stranger to the family was right). You’ve been operating on the full expectation that any Lapileon would follow that creed. How could they not? Their curse is too great a responsibility.

Then you’re forced to confront the devil who once gave you rare comfort as a child, and that devil bears your family name and blood. Not only does he spout the most heinous things you’ve never imagined, he also manages to hit you where it hurts: you have used your blood. You have used it for your own benefit. Are you truly no better than he is? Who are you to judge him?

(Never mind that the devil is a liar and is trying to save his own ass which is why Saoirse, who has a better understanding of her own identity and self-worth, doesn’t give him enough time to say anything - she just kicks the shit out of him)

Is it any wonder Theo hesitates to do anything harsher?

Everything he does implies a reluctance to inflict lethal force if it can be helped. Perry remarks on it when he first removes Schiff without killing him the day they got married. He doesn’t even draw his sword on the assassin at the parade, merely KICKING HIM INTO ORBIT subduing him long enough to be taken in by the guards. The only times he has killed someone in the story is Perry’s ex-fiance who had kidnapped and blackmailed her, and... well, Perry herself.

(Which again goes back to that weird early episode installment - how do you reconcile him feeding her his blood in such a cavalier manner with the gravity of his responsibility as head of the family to ensure their blood isn’t used exactly like that?

You give him a HUGEASS dose of remorse and guilt later on when Gen accuses him of also using the blood to his own advantage, and then have him offer a sincere apology to the woman he experimented on.)

He also very nearly murdered the father of the child who bullied his ward. But even that was prevented by Raymon, the guard. This is more speculation on my part but his personal guards - who are all loyal to him beyond a doubt - may have been instructed (by him?) to restrain Theo, maybe to make sure he doesn’t repeat the sins of his father who just murdered people as and when it suited him. I don’t know if seungu would even bring this up at some point but I’ll be thrilled if that is the case.

This abusive childhood is compounded by the trauma of war. Theo specifically is credited with just swooping in out of the blue and ending the conflict between the Castor Empire and the kingdom of Schwartz. His reaction to being hailed a hero is to show up covered in blood to report to the emperor, and then disappear back to the country without attending any ceremonies. It earns him the notorious reputation of being “the bloodthirsty war fiend”.

Judging from Episode 13, what he really earned was a lifelong diagnosis of PTSD and various other neuroses. “Fuck this noise, I’m going home” was a reasonable reaction from a man who has no care or time for polite society. I'd go a bit further to suggest he also didn’t want to hear his actions being lauded as heroic when all he experienced was violence and death (re: that line about him being glad his statue was destroyed, that it’d been a stain on his honour). Whatever he did was to satisfy the emperor who has some form of hold over him, and absolutely no respect for the Lapileons (every single reaction from any imperial family member, even creepy Dodolea, has been sneering condescension or reluctant compliments). So from that perspective, why the hell would he have stayed to schmooze at the castle?

There are no therapists in Castor clearly coz Theo does what most soft-hearted introverts do and represses the shit out of his trauma. Just... stuff it WAY down into the depths of his subconscious and never address it because what the fuck else would you expect him to do? Talk about his ~*~feelings~*~ in the Lapileon house where weakness is a death sentence? No, he bundles it all behind his iron mask and resigns himself to literal nightmares for the rest of his existence.

The timeline has yet to be properly established, but I'm guessing that he comes back from war only to find that his brother has died and sister-in-law has just upped and left. Which means baby Celphi is left in his care. I’m not sure why Saoirse wasn’t the one to adopt him, but I’m guessing since he’s the next in line to the grand dukedom, it ‘makes sense’ that Grand Duke Therdeo has to be in charge of him. (Saoirse not being able to become head of the family just because she’s a woman is another sticking point that I suspect will be key to resolving this entire mess) (how/when exactly he becomes Theo’s ward is subject to many theories since the timeline of the story hasn’t been actually clearly explained; a guess that a friend and I have settled on is perhaps at the time, securing Celphi’s place as a ‘spare heir’ after Saoirse, Saoirse’s son and Theo in the line of succession would have been a practical decision. Either that or, more plausibly, Theo saw Celphi in himself and just decided to adopt the boy. Which makes this next part even more tragic)

The image of Theo in a soldier’s uniform looking helplessly into the cradle, with baby Celphi reaching up to him, broke me when I first saw it. It explains every mistake Theo made in trying to raise him.

He was a soldier. What the hell would he know about raising children (even if the theory that he chose to adopt this boy is correct)? He loves this tiny child with every breath, and he’d do anything for Celphi - but most of what he knows is how to fight and die. How the fuck does that help?? Not only that, his only experience of fatherhood is the shadow of a man who abused him so severely. What is that supposed to teach a man about parenting?

Clearly not much, considering his very shocked reaction when Celphi ends up demanding what he was supposed to think when his guardian/uncle kept ignoring him all the time while he was growing up.

And the boy is correct. Theo has no answer. He fucked up (again), and he didn’t know he was fucking up so hard.

But my god, he keeps trying to make up for it. It’s awkward and uncomfortable, but Theo shows up every day to pick him up from school with Perry; he’s even glad Celphi yells at him about killing Perry because that means he’s not turning out to be Therdeo 2.0. Celphi is expressing feelings and opinions and even if they turn the boy against him, so be it - at least it’s coming out. It may be too late for Theo to learn how to express emotions but at least his ward won’t make the same mistakes.

Which is why IT HURTS SO MUCH IN EPISODE 63 TO SEE HIM SO CRESTFALLEN. After suggesting to Perry she stay away from the Lapileon house for a while, she says she will and the dialogue translates to:

“Thank you for your kind consideration.”

THERE ARE THREE - T H R E E - PANELS where his face/expression isn’t shown at all but you can ABSOLUTELY TELL HE’S 360 DEGREES OF ANGUISHED.

This woman - this beacon of hope that he’s come to have feelings for (all the subtle blushing and unseen pining looks have been sprinkled very well throughout the chapters so far) - has just had to go through the ordeal of a trial (along with months of preparation before that) where she had to send her stepmother to 35 years of hard labour, among other things, for the murder of her father. She's just had to reconcile the mother she knew with the killer sitting in the dock, and the cries of a stepsister she once loved. And all this with the knowledge that it's the Lapileons’ blood that ultimately killed her father. There’s a stray thought that poisonous blood or no, her stepmother would have found some way to kill her dad.

But it doesn’t change how it was their blood - his blood - that killed Count Zahardt. It is Lapileon blood that has tortured Perry, the woman responsible for bringing out the best in his adopted son, discovering little Islette and bringing warmth back to this frozen wasteland of a household (to paraphrase Daniel Molton who is a treat of a character, I love him so much).

Yes, he's essentially thrown his immense resources into legal recourse, released her from their obligatory contract, and offered her help in being independent and free from them. He's done many, many things to try and make her current situation comfortable.

Yet the fact remains that she basically rescued so many parts of his life, and he inadvertently destroyed hers. Nothing he does will bring her father back.

Yet she won’t curse him or his family, won’t demand any form of recompense, won’t even give him the cold shoulder, despite everything in her that says she should. Her line “leave me be so I can resent you” is so good and so sad and my HEART disintegrated.

The most ironic thing is that Theo would’ve probably understood that reaction better. The justified reaction would have been to storm and rage at him. He knows what to do with anger.

Instead, she said thank you for your kind consideration.

And he can’t say anything to that as she walks away.

HIS LIFE HAS BEEN AND IS FUCKING SAD. AND IT’S GOING TO GET WORSE.

Episode 64 is already up on Naver and Dodolea is about to do a NUMBER on his ALREADY VERY FRAGILE PSYCHE. What she calls love - and what some of us may have suspected as straightforward obsession for his attentions - is seeming more and more like a love of torturing him, and watching him squirm.

He has to sit for a portrait in the palace (emperor’s orders probably because he just wants to jerk Theo’s chain around), and cannot escape when she comes into the room to sit and watch. There’s no good reason for him to leave, so he just has to grit his teeth and bear it.

And she laughs at his discomfort. She laughs and calls it “cute”.

The rage and fear in his face when she does so is alarming from someone whose poker face is usually immaculate. It sucks so much strength/spirit from him that it alarms Daniel who greets him at the house. I have a feeling that he’s about to just shatter into pieces since Episode 66′s thumbnail has him turned away, lying on a pillow. And then I will shatter, coz this dude CANNOT catch a break.

At some point, I came to the conclusion that Theo was soft-hearted and I cannot tell you when exactly that was. It's testament to how seungu weaves in his quiet charm throughout the chapters so we can see why Perry might possibly fall for him apart from his handsome face (even if at this point, that is the FURTHEST thing from her mind). There are huge things of course like rescuing her from her kidnapping and financing her legal battles.

But the little warm things speak volumes: learning how to dance so he could accompany her to a ball, saying yes immediately when she suggests maybe he could just reply to people, telling the servants to make her special tea when he found out she also had trouble sleeping, bringing a hot water pack(?) to ease her cramps, rushing back for her auction, squeezing her hand as he helps her into the carriage because that’s all he can do after the trial. (seungu did you also watch Pride and Prejudice (2005)? Did you see the hand flex scene and immediately decide to use this? Inquiring minds must know. Also inquiring minds screamed when they first saw that scene becausE HAND TOUCHES ARE GOLD BULLION IN SLOW BURNS) And just his face (?? back of his head?? seungu never gives us any idea what he looks like when he’s in ‘oops fell in love AGAIN’ mode)

BUT SOMEHOW YOU CAN JUST TELL:

They all tell the story of a broken man who has made so many mistakes, but he can be kind and attentive, and tries hard to do what’s right (even if it takes him awhile to figure out what’s right, coz again: he’s Fucked Up). He’s also a socially awkward dork who ignores people at parties coz he doesn't know how to behave as expected. And resembles a really sad puppy when he disappoints Perry.

I could speculate a lot more on what/who the fuck Dodolea actually is and how she’s related to the Lapileon’s curse, but I also know this manhwa has steered some distance away from the webnovel. So I cannot really tell if the plot lines will be similar.  

I’ll probably be back after the plot progresses further so I can scream some more. I’ve been shrieking on Twitter but that site is subject to a hungry ghost’s whims and I can’t hide spoilers/rambling behind cuts there. So here it will have to be.

Hang in there, your grace.

[reineydraws]

i uploaded what i've got so far for soryuu sensei hakuji onto webtoon just so that it's all in one place!

check it out if you're so inclined, and subscribe if you'd like. :') i'll still be uploading here and updating the masterlist too though, in case you're worried. cheers!

[deltastra]

My Thoughts on Tower of God Season 2 Episode 6

Finally, FUG is here!! And I believe this is the episode where we meet a certain somebody? :3

WEBTOON SPOILERS WAS TEASED BUT NOT OUTRIGHT STATED

Rating: 7/10

Summary: Music and tension was on point! However, Jinsung's face looked a bit wonky?? Maybe that's just me. I think the stiff movements while they talk is actually making the scenes feel more awkward. Either way, I really liked the pacing for this episode and I hope they COOK for the next!

You know as crazy as Yihwa was for flat out insulting Viole in front of FUG (and insulting FUG to their faces), I feel like people often miss the fact that she was angry for the whole team. She genuinely thought Viole betrayed them. While of course, her assumptions come from the fact that she was always suspicious of him to begin with, I still feel like she was just looking out for the team.

And now we are hearing Viole speak more (with emotion at least)!!! I love this older Bam voice!

Haha I love how Miseng always breaks the ice by being herself! Despite her "crybaby" personality, she genuinely helps the team ease up. The way Jinseng gave her more apples makes me ;-;.

Yea...maybe I'm just looking too deep into it? I don't know, but Jinsung's face looks a bit off??? He looks a bit too young here.

THIS is why I love Team Sweet and Sour. Like Arkraptor said, they're all defective in their own way. They cover eachother's weaknesses and provide comfort when needed. They aren't from rich or well-off families and even if one of them is, she still struggles a lot. It's just the way they're all so casual with eachother that makes me love this team so much! Found family <3.

This reveal is so well done to me. It's just told in a casual conversation. "Hey, you're very lucky. That guy who was overly friendly with you wanted to kill you all at first!". It shows how, yes, not all FUG members are insane killers. However, they cannot be trusted so easily either.

I genuinely did not like the change season 1 did at the end where Bam stands up on his own. Because it gave the impression to anime-onlies that Bam WILLINGLY joined FUG. Now this scene feels awkward. Because all of a sudden he cannot decide? This is just a nitpick and I'm sure not many people will care. But I feel like it shows how you have to be careful what you choose to change in an adaptation because it may break the immersion later down the road.

Hmm they didn't mention the memorial rings that were used to track down Bam's friends? Well it wasn't mentioned in the first season so it makes sense. I appreciate that they're still following the webtoon this time even if they have to correct some parts in order to make it flow better with season 1's changes.

Hehe Hwaryun munching while Wangnan furious. I do wish they at least showed his face properly or make him stand up in order to show his anger over Viole's situation. Sitting stiff while yelling all that feels awkward at most.

Aww I wish they showed that panel with the two of them and that glowing tower (I forgot its name whoopsie) between them! It was one of my favourite scenes :(

BAHAHAHAH IM SO SORRY BUT THAT ZOOM IN ON KARAKA WAS GENUINELY SO FUNNY AND GOOFY LOOKING. I hope season 2 part 2 has improved camera movements/zoom-ins because these look too strange. It's like the animation cannot keep up with the music.

AWWWWW VIOLE SMILING <3

Awww I wish they showed Miseng on Viole's shoulders like in the webtoon </3.

I love everything about this. Hisoka's VA voicing Urek is so good!! I love the tone of his voice which gives off a threatening vibe.

I always liked this introduction of Urek. He looks and sounds threatening, but the moment he found out that they are Regulars and not Rankers, he was willing to let them go. He isn't a "good guy" in this, but he can definitely be reasoned with. I always loved Tower of God antagonists because of how multi-layered they can be.

And this is the best reason to why Viole is stubborn/ruthless in these tests. It's not cause he's "edgy" now. He literally cannot afford to fail a single test. It's a great motive that can keep the story constantly progressing in my opinion.

YES LETS GO MY SECOND FAVOURITE VIOLE QUOTE!!! AND MAN THE MUSIC IS SO GOOD I FELT SO HYPED UP.

AND WHEN THE BEAT OF THE OST "Guardian" BY KEVIN PENKIN DROPS...GOD THIS IS SO GOOD. THE ELECTRIFYING MUSIC IS PERFECT FOR THE UREK REVEAL! I will admit, I always pictured "Bubble in the Wine Glass" for Urek's reveal but this is better!

Yea I really wished they showed us this shot, at least its in the ED!

Okay so this episode was slightly better but man, the stiffness during talking scenes was pretty obvious here... I really hope they try a bit harder for next cour. But that Urek reveal was so hype!!! I cannot wait! I hope it's episode 1 animation again!!! They have a lot of expectations given the Great Journey OP which had the fight animated for the first time. Hope for the best! P.S. I know my opinions have been very...wishy-washy. So I want to make my stance clear. I am enjoying the anime. But I also acknowledge that it's not a great adaptation. There are very obvious flaws.

[its-to-the-death]

Battle of the Gingers Wave 1 Preliminary Round #46

Whoever gets the most votes moves onto the next round

[alakeeffectgirl]

Tag game: get to know me

thanks for the tag @mollynoble

Name: Lake

Pronouns: she/her

Star sign: gemini

Number of siblings (+ any fun facts): 1 younger sister

Number of pets & their names: two cats - one fluffy-haired cat inherited from my former roommate (we didn't want to separate her and her brother, who had decided I was his human so he was staying with me, but he passed away in 2020) named Iris, and one orange cat named Orry (who joined us a few weeks after Goopy died since Iris needed a friend and I needed a kitty who wanted to cuddle more than she does)

Fandoms: only a million over the years but Generation Kill is probably my forever fandom, and Top Gun is my most recent

Favorite song: I have to pick just one? Maybe Wilco's "A Shot in the Arm"

Favorite author (books, fanfics, zines, webtoons, etc): I have to pick just one of these, too? I don't think I have one favorite author where I have to read everything they've ever published/will publish

Favorite fic type: hmm maybe domestic fluff

Favorite holiday: don't have one, I'm not big on holidays

Do you have a partner (romantic, qpr, etc)?: no and that's fine by me

Hobbies: fanfic, mostly!

Fun facts about you: I have almost none, really, other than I have a relatively uncommon birth defect that necessitated brain surgery when I was 32

tagging (only if you want to) @aflawedfashion @brendaonao3 @drawsaurus @flawsinthevoodoo @k9effect @occhi-verdi-come-il-mare

[webtoon-related-tournaments]

Ellie:

Orphan with fire powers

Joanna:

Journalist going through too much i swear

[taikerou]

[genrerolereversal]

#so might as well play with the trope. have a woman surrounded by hot and attractive dudes vying for her attention #she could be average looking, or older, or charismatic

I've seen some examples of this in media aimed at straight women, although the woman is always young & attractive too since that's the default for women in media lol.

Examples I know of:

Bloodbound 2 from Choices: Stories You Play app has a cover with the LIs (including 1 of the female LIs) surrounding her whilst she's sat down.

Finding Twilight webtoon from the Lezhin website/app has a cover where the guys literally have half open shirts whilst the f!MC sits on a throne lol.

Lady & Maid from Tapas website has a cover where the female character is sat in a suit whilst the male characters are sat around her in maid costumes.

Love & Thirst, an upcoming otome game has a cover with the f!MC sat on a chair surrounded by guys.

"Reverse harem" books seem popular on TikTok so maybe there's more there?

Thank you for the tip, Anon! And sorry for the late reply, I kept wanting to add more to the post haha. I don't want to derail the original thread so I will compile the examples here.

(^ Finding Twilight)

I'm always down for women in suits :P And I like that the guys are casually wearing maid outfits, not looking humiliated or embarrassed.

Baka-Updates also has a number of reverse harem stories, though it might take some effort to find the ones you like.

As for the ones I know... There's Ōoku: The Inner Chambers, a josei manga by Fumi Yoshinaga. It's an alternate history of Tokugawa Japan, depicting the shoguns from this era as female. It starts with polyandry as the premise, explained as the result of a plague reducing the number of men in society. Because the shoguns are now women, the inner chambers employ hundreds of men as concubines.

(The live-action adaptation)

I would argue that Ōoku is more diverse than average when it comes to women who aren't conventionally attractive. One of the shoguns, Ieshige, has a speech defect and other health problems like her historical counterpart. The rest of the court underestimates her because of it, but she isn't dehumanised or vilified by the story (imho).

Baka-Updates was actually how I found out about Queen's Palace/Empress's Harem :D It's set in a matriarchal society, has a dominant female lead, and a whole bevy of other GRR stuff/flipping gendered tropes. It's one of my personal favourites.

Like you said, many of the examples are still young, light-skinned, conventionally attractive women, so I'd love to see more variation. And for the men too--they don't have to be skinny anime boys or muscle-bound hunks all the time :P

[magicalblerdpenn]

I posted 1,595 times in 2022

131 posts created (8%)

1,464 posts reblogged (92%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

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@galaxychorus

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I tagged 136 of my posts in 2022

#tp babbles - 56 posts

#youtube - 48 posts

#tp plays - 37 posts

#3ds games - 33 posts

#tp watches anime - 23 posts

#tokusatsu - 11 posts

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#jrpgs - 8 posts

#tales of the abyss - 7 posts

#penn's music musings - 7 posts

Longest Tag: 35 characters

#i ate lasagna & watched sailor moon

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Started watching Revue Starlight for the first time today and this transformation scene + the fight afterwards got me hooked on the series. Who knew that surreal car transformation scene from the Utena movie would be so influential?

19 notes - Posted June 17, 2022

#4

Cool video breaking down Ace Attorney game music

24 notes - Posted January 4, 2022

#3

I've started reading Webtoons again and I wanted to recommend this gay magical boy Webtoon called Magical Boy Troubles. Why?

The premise is creative: Juan's boyfriend Kikyou is a magical boy named Fragrant Rose. Juan is worried that Kikyou is taking on too much by himself, esp. since Kikyou has protected him since elementary school. Juan is unsure how to give back, but can he find the strength to do so anyway?

Juan and Kikyou are main characters worth rooting for because they love and care for each other very much. Also, Juan gets braver as the story progresses and Kikyou is brave when Juan can't be.

Both Juan and Kiyou are unabashedly magical girl genre fans, soft, and emotional when they need and want to be, even if other people make fun of them.

The artwork is vibrant and cute

34 notes - Posted February 18, 2022

#2

Watching this clip & then watching the Kamen Rider Jeanne x Aguilera Girls Remix web series has brought me so much joy & reminded me why I love Kamen Rider despite its flaws

35 notes - Posted September 21, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

So last night, I finished reading this great Kingdom Hearts fanfic called an "An Unlikely Alliance" by Cait_Sidhe and it's not only a great sequel to another fanfic by them I like, but also ends up being a good alternate take on Kingdom Hearts III. Here's why:

Vanitas learns there is more to him than darkness by defecting from Xehanort and joining up with Sora, Riku, Kairi and the others

Young Xehanort and Replica Riku also defect and get into shenanigans with Sora and the gang

Kairi becomes an even more well written character by learning more her orientation (yay for asexuality rep) while being in a polyamorous relationship with both Riku and Sora. She also fights and does it well.

Sora's mental health journey continues and we see how his darkness impacts his magic and fighting abilities.

More world exploring shenanigans

People learn to ask whether a bunch of traumatized teenagers actually want to participate in the battle against Xehanort instead of assuming they'll just go along with it.

58 notes - Posted January 7, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[lady-azarashe]

Story time! It's funny but also kinda sad at the end. Last night I got a surge of energy for once in months and I decided to finish setting up my old desktop computer at my current desk. Im still not sure if I will actually do anything with it, but it's been rotting in a box for almost a decade and I thought I might double-check what's inside. Thought I could always chuck it into the recyclable trash bin, after all. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

After pulling it out of the cardboard box I noticed it was dusty as fuck and something rattled real bad inside, so I grabbed a couple of screwdrivers and a vacuum cleaner and went to town on it's innards. I had to recruit some help from my partner because, even though I single-handedly set up this thing in 2010 I am notoriously dumber nowadays and couldn't tell where some of the wires went. When it was peachy we plugged it in, and after a couple tries (defective ON/OFF button, it was like that before too) it beeped back to life.

This little guy used to be quite powerful. I saved up birthday and Xmas money for a couple years and asked my supposedly " 1337 h4ck3r" friend for help on picking parts for a computer I could use to run games on. When they arrived from a shady-as-fuck website I set them up Geronimo-style, and to my surprise it worked!...Sort of. My script kiddy friend was on a Microsoft-hating binge and installed some random Linux distro on it, so I couldn't play most games I wanted and I couldn't type the @ symbol for some unknown reason. Couple months afterwards it got wiped TF out, got some Windows 7 thrown in, and I finally could get to my purpose of playing WoW, Minecraft and specially TF2. The dispenser is a Spy. Hooray.

But that wasn't meant to be it's only purpose. I was pretty isolated IRL due to circumstances outside of my control, and being a friendless child living in the middle of bumfuck nowhere while dealing with the dumpster fire of my parents' divorce, I had little chances of socializing. So I turned to the Internet for comfort, friendships, and to live vicariously through cool YouTube videos and GaiaOnline. Oh, and sick as hell desktop wallpapers too. And that's the story my old bookmarks are telling me today. And it feels so fucking heartbreaking, because I'm getting a glimpse of what were the golden days of old now laid in ruins. Dozens upon dozens of websites are gone. The fortunate ones display a 404 page, the unfortunate ones have been absorbed by bigger corporations or turned into some sort of clickbaity entrepreneurship bullshit. Most (if not all) the webcomics and webtoons I used to follow have been abandoned, tons of YT videos I watched religiously are unavailable, and not a single forum survived. The closest thing I have left is a GaiaOnline guild where I used to post very cringy teen stuff, and its last post is from 2011. Hell, even a lot of useful Reddit posts I had saved have been deleted over the years. And it's sad, and somewhat beautiful at the same time, but for the most part it makes me question something. Is it just me... or does the Internet feel incredibly dystopian and empty nowadays? Mainstream social media sites which became the Internet itself are rapidly on the decline due to their own hubris or falling prey to enshittification, I don't feel comfortable returning to Reddit, and Discord confuses me just as much (if not more) as Tumblr does. I really don't know where to go from here.

If you're reading this, my apologies for the massive wall of text. Do me a solid and give me ideas of what can I do with an old computer? I barely use my laptop nowadays, not sure what I can do with this old ark beyond formatting it and upgrading a couple of it's internal components. :/