#everyone gets a tragic backstory except for The Bugs

[spiderin-space]

Yeehaw‼️

[axelsagewrites]

Modern Aemond Headcannons

Masterlist Here

Aemond is a book nerd till he dies

he likes to play it off like he’s all cool and mysterious

‘ooo, I have scars ooo I wear a leather jacket ooo im always reading’

When in reality he is a ball of freakin sunshine who’s too afraid to show it

He’s silent and stoic around everyone

Except his friends

With them he is the loudest in the room

Always cracking jokes

Meaning when he does crack a joke around the family everyone is always on the floor laughing

It’s his favourite thing

But he refuses to admit it so just puts on a sly smile

He does have a scar but not with as tragic a backstory

Jace accidentally pushed him too hard on a climbing frame as kids

All it takes is Aemond rubbing his eye and Jace is apologising on his knees

Aemond doesn’t hold it against him and neither does Alicent

Aemond is defiantly in therapy

But he also defiantly lies and says he’s going to the mall instead of telling his mother the truth

However, when he does go to the mall he spends all his money on hair care

He’s the most mature sibling

However when they’re not looking he’s fucking things up behind the scenes

Moving Aegon’s game discs into the wrong case

Moving the couch, a couple inches back to fuck with his dad

Moving Helena bug collection slightly to throw her off

The small things

It gives him so much joy  to watch their confused faces

He defiantly gets the highest grades out of three

He offers to tutor both his siblings

He is being genuine but both of them think he’s making fun of them

Listens to Taylor swift, harry styles, and Lana del ray

But ask what he’s listening to and he’ll say Artic Monkeys

However as a song he is the living version of ‘are you satisfied?’ by MARINA

[dopeycryptid]

sooo, for those who were interested in my Welcome Home OC's backstory... here ya go!

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“Ty Raindrops is quite the charmer, isn’t he? With a heart you could swear is made with gold and sweetness, he’ll surely make you fall head over heels in love, even if he sometimes comes off a little bit coy or lost in the clouds. He’s a true friend to all and always up for helping those in need, no matter what.”

Like Eddie, Ty doesn’t originally come from Home. In fact, he found himself one rainy day just passed the tree line surrounding the neighborhood, with no memory of who he was before or where he came from. Regardless, he slowly grew accustom to his happy little life beside the others. As his name partially suggests, Ty adores stormy weather, sometimes even dancing through rain puddles and/or singing (to himself mostly). Afterwards, he likes cuddle up under a thick blanket in his favorite armchair with his favorite mug of hot chocolate, usually topped with whipped cream and colorful sprinkles. He is often seen as the most handsome in the neighborhood, and often teases that he could outcharm even Wally. Usually, though, they both just agree they’re both good-looking by the end of the day. How cute!

However, there are moments, albeit they’re brief, that Ty seems to… space out. Like he suddenly remembers this isn’t where he’s meant to be. He’ll begin to wander around, as if searching for a way out, even going so far as to lock himself in his house and avoid everyone. Tragically, these little spurts don’t last long before he reverts back to his “normal self”. Odder still, no one else seems to really notice when this happens. Except for Wally, of course. It’s said that one day Ty was unknowingly lured into Wally’s Home and saw something he wasn’t meant to. Even now, if you’re paying very close attention, you might see something spiraling in his eyes or even the sporadic cry for help.

Ty is also seen as the “jack of all trades” of the neighborhood. He thoroughly enjoys Barnaby’s quirky jokes (even if sometimes he doesn’t quite get them), playing games with Julie, doing arts and crafts with Wally, making baked goods with Poppy or even bug-catching with Frank. He’s such a wonderful friend that he even, at times, volunteers to help Howdy at their bodega. More than anything, however, he loves receiving letters from Eddie. He always proclaiming they’re from some secret adoring fan. Who is this fan you ask? Guess we’ll never know, because he won’t ever say. Golly, what a little josher, that Ty!

[fizzingwizard]

An unfiltered reaction to Jigen Daisuke the live action movie, which I call Jigen Daisuke, A Very Nice Man Who Kills People And Cries A Lot

I didn't read any other reviews/reactions yet because I want this to be PURE. lol. Also only watched once and I often change my mind on some points when I rewatch

Not sure whether I like this movie. I enjoyed it! But did I enjoy it as a movie, or as a Lupin fan?

It's not a movie that can stand alone outside the Lupin fandom. Like, if this was some random gunslinger movie, I would not have watched it in the first place. That would mean it loses points, except this is Lupin III, everyone knows it is, and it's openly relying on that clout. In this case, it's probably silly to consider it as a "movie" rather than a "Lupin movie." So that doesn't bother me.

On the flip side... the movie has nothing to do with Lupin III, so it could be about some rando and nothing would have to change. At all. That bugs me because if you're gonna give Jigen his own live action and not include the rest of the gang in any way (except for a three second appearance of the Fiat and Lupin's red jacket through the windshield), then you've got to go to lengths to make me believe it is in fact Jigen. I don't mean I want a "Meet Jigen Daisuke" montage - we're working under the assumption that most everyone watching already knows his character bio. In the script and acting, I need something that means he couldn't be switched out with any other Cool Guy (TM) character and read exactly the same way.

Nice things:

I like Tamayama's Jigen. He's cool but subdued, although you do get hints that he's not always so mellow, which I really appreciated. Like when he almost shouts at Oto and then purposefully lowers his voice. "Oh, I'm not yelling at Lupin, this is an actual child," lol. One of my favorite scenes was when he reads Oto's tragic backstory in the notebook, and wants to hide that he's tearing up, so he desperately fumbles for a cigarette, only to be thwarted haha. That, and him telling spectators "Don't look," seemed really Jigen to me.

A fun cast of original characters. I enjoyed Chiharu a lot. I think it's rather funny that Tamayama is playing the Cool Guy Main Character, who spends almost all of his on screen time talking to an elderly woman lol. But she was tough and kind and honestly I'm just glad she wasn't a sexy young lady lol. The people in her town, the florist, the guy who was kicked out of the Go club for gambling - all a lot of fun too.

Special mention: Ruri! I adored her the minute she appeared and I really expected she'd have more of a role than she did. I was back and forth whether she'd be a help or a hindrance, especially after it turned out she was Shadow Guy's (forgot his name sorry) lover. Usually I don't like the Love Interest Who Appears For One Movie Then Never Again, but in this case I was actually cheering fo Jigen/Ruri. Of course, the one time I like a ship, the rug is immediately pulled out from under me hahaha.

Found family dynamic I mean what can I say, you hit my weak point. Grandma Chiharu (the gun forger), her nephew Jigen (the hired gun), and his daughter Oto (the tortured child). Checks out. Also Jigen's desperation to make Oto happy was adorable.

Really cool disabled villain?! Adele's opening scene was awesome. Honestly, when I saw she was in a wheel chair and had a fancy prosthetic leg, all I was expecting was that she'd open her knee cap and surprise! there'd be a gun inside. But not only did she get to pop some wheelies, she also took advantage of her lower vantage point to maneuver the gunmen into shooting each other. It was a strong opener and, personally, my favorite action sequence in the movie.

The lighting and atmosphere were pretty great throughout. I especially enjoyed Shadow Guy's uhh shadowy-ess. (Not so much his questionable CG faces.) The use of colored lighting, the showdown between Jigen and Shadow Guy that was all in blue etc, gave the film an artistic tone which kinda helped cover up stuff that was otherwise rather bland.

The concept of "drugs made from children" - at first I was just laughing, like what the heck? I thought they meant smuggling drugs inside the children's bodies or something. But I changed my mind. However sci-fi it is, I think it's kind of neat that they basically taught the audience the effect of constant stress on a young child's psyche, and how it keeps them in a constant state of fight or flight. Yeah, all the details were super iffy (why would drinking their blood send any of that to the recipient, and why would it result in eternal young? lol), but hey, it's Lupin *shrug* At the time, I was hoping there would be further messages about ways adults, even those who are well-meaning, overlook the impact our actions have on children, or ignore their feelings. Because Oto's feelings were very much ignored before Jigen. The movie seemed to be going out of its way to show us how much Jigen was trying to get Oto to speak for herself, even through writing, and have an opinion of her own. So I was intrigued, but it didn't really go anywhere. It's nice that Jigen's goal was Oto learning to laugh, but since Oto is pretty much just a victim after getting kidnapped again, we lose touch with her character and it doesn't hit the same for me. Which leads me to...

Meh things:

The first half of the movie is kinda low energy. While I wasn't exactly expecting typical Lupin shenanigans, so much of the first half is just Jigen talking to people without learning much. I like Chiharu, sure, but she's not like a scintillating conversationalist. (Although she is better than Jigen lol)

And while as expected the energy picked up with the action scenes in the second half, they were almost without speech - which is a point for realism, but minus a point for Entertaining Fizz *shrug* If only Lupin were there to provide a partner for some witty banter. I'm kinda joking, with Jigen alone the silence is fitting and supports the clean and speedy way he shoots. But it just went on so long. And you know there's not much very Lupin-y about this movie, except the ridiculous stunts and sheer number of people Jigen defeats all by his lonesome self... so that's a thing.

The whole "your gun talks to you" thing gets a big What from me. If was Goemon I'd understand, at least in the sense that it would be Goemon and I don't understand him anyway. :P Jigen's relationship with his gun is weirdly intimate true. And I really enjoyed Chiharu pointing out that considering how many parts he's had to replace over the years, no part of his magnum is actually the same one he started out with. When Jigen got a present of magnum bullets from the florist, I knew he'd get his revolver back soon (I mean we all would have known it anyway, it's Jigen), and the moment he ran out of bullets for his replacement gun, I was like, shit Chiharu's coming NOW?? And not only does she come, she careens into the hyper security building in a big ol' bus. Which... is a good choice I guess, good protection. But the timing, THE TIMING. There are some coincidences I can forgive and some I can't lol. All I'll say saves this scene is that Chiharu doesn't die in it.

Re: the talking gun: for this movie to impress me, it needed to tell me something about Jigen. It didn't need to earth-shattering news. I wasn't hoping for a bunch of flashbacks about his youth on the streets or anything. Just something about his heart, his values, his weaknesses... Anything. What we get is obvious: The first scene is Jigen shooting a man in a gun fight. A child is there, although they're taken away before it starts, so I guess the man is the kid's father. Then the movie itself is about protecting a child's happiness. I suppose there's a message there. Still I don't think, in the end, we learned anything about Jigen at all. He's cool. He's brusque. He likes to say he doesn't like things he does in fact like very much. He's sentimental. I guess we learned Jigen cries easily because he was like crying aaaaall the time. Okay okay, that's exaggerating. But still. The cigarette cry was a good cry. Loved the acting. But when he tears up around Chiharu later, it was too much for me. Like he's trying to convince her that she shouldn't rely on the police, she should rely on him instead, because he'll definitely be able to shoot straight through those tears. *shrug*

Another complaint about Jigen: is he a guy who's worked as a bodyguard, a merc, a hired gun? Because ya definitely don't see it in this movie! He's pretty much a superhero. Rescuing Oto, protecting Chiharu, fighting through his own injuries, defeating legions of enemies, and keeping the moral high ground. As much as I don't think a Jigen movie has any need to explain it's a Jigen movie, it's weird to me that he's so much a good guy in it - yeah, I know a lot of Lupin movies are like that, so this kind of a pointless complaint... But it still bugs me.

Back to the OCs. Adele, who was so awesome at first, is totally uninteresting the rest of the time. I expected some commentary on her using a mechanical voice while Oto tries to recover her real one. It's probably good they didn't do that, because it's pretty insensitive to real people with vocal problems. But because they still gave Adele that voice and made it part of her tragic backstory, your mind goes there anyway. The real bummer of Adele is that we never really know what she wants. She says it's power, and we're meant to understands that because she had so much of her power taken away as a child, this is how she gains it back as an adult. But she's soft and heartbroken at the end, pretty much telling us she wishes Jigen had been there for her the way he's there for Oto. That's not a new idea, but it sucks when the only build up to it is Adele saying it out loud and then, instead of using her amazing fighting prowess, she challenges him to a quick draw duel. You could argue that since they're both quick draws, this was an interesting fight... But what was memorable about Adele's fighting was how intricate and showy it was. Jigen did that took in his way, but what he's known for are those cowboy stand-offs. So this was Jigen's duel from the outset and from the audience's perspective Adele had already lost simply because of that. Yes she's happy Jigen's released her from her miserable life I guess. Who she is, what drives her, how she really feels about Oto and the other children, is all kinda just bits of information which come out piecemeal in the rather anticlimactic finale.

The movie is live action, and generally benefits from it. But with Adele, for some reason it went super anime IMO. I don't just mean her character design. It's definitely different, but not too far off from the rest of the characters. The way she cradles Oto, dressing her in the white gown, keeping her on her lap like a doll, made me think of gothic novels, and def shojo manga. The way Adele dramatically falls out the window with a smile in slow motion as well seemed right out of anime storyboard. Not a big deal in the scheme of things, but it stuck out to me like a sore thumb. Obvs Shadow Guy is a pretty anime-style henchman too, but not as extreme as Adele.

Shadow Guy and Ruri: Just didn't get enough development. I really wish Ruri and Jigen had met again in the end. I was half expecting her to show up and try to get revenge on Jigen, or kill herself... I mean I'm definitely glad she didn't, because we hardly needed more tragedy to balance out Oto's rescue. But I liked Ruri, I'm sorry her lover was killed even if it was his own doing, and they definitely seem to have been in tough strait themselves, so. And Ruri knows Chiharu. Everything seemed prime for her to have some role in the finale, but nope. Honestly, much as I like Chiharu, I might have enjoyed Ruri taking in Oto? Okay, Ruri's lifestyle isn't conducive to raising a kid at all :P But it would have tied her in, maybe, if she moved in with Chiharu so an old retired lady didn't have sole responsibility of a traumatized young girl. And Ruri could have learned watch-making, along with being a sex worker, hopefully encouraging her to be more choosy with her clients so she doesn't get hurt so much. Idk I just felt Ruri was left out to dry in the end, her romance existing just to make the movie sadder.

Last, Oto: Cute actress. Very good at behaving terrified. And adorable when she was finally allowed to smile. But like I mentioned earlier, I wish she had found more agency in the end. Of all the tropes they avoided, one I wish they'd kept was Oto finding her voice in the final battle scene. I know she says "I'm sorry." But I'm picturing like, Adele has Jigen at her mercy, and at the moment Adele begins to shoot Oto just shrieks with everything in her and it distracts Adele enough that Jigen finds an opening... Her getting miraculously cured in an instant would be overkill for sure, and I appreciate that she's doing some self-therapy through writing in the notebook as she recovers and heads towards speech one day. What I really just wanted was for Oto to have some say/something to do in her own rescue.

Speaking of which, it seems children have replaced women in the action movie "damsel in distress" role. In Lupin it's everywhere. I'm a bit tired of it. I miss scrappy, precocious kids.

Tl;dr: I enjoyed the movie as a Jigen fan. It's not bad! It's better than expected really. I have a couple :) issues, that's all. Lol

[bitethebulette]

re: Last Reblog (Small spoilers for Dragon Age: Inquisition)

I honestly end up liking all my followers by the end of the game - except Vivienne. But I’ll admit I didn’t give her much of a chance. I went from going - whoa, who is this sexy bitch to being utterly annoyed with her attitude, especially for her personal quests where she refused to be forthcoming with why she needed the dragon heart. And then I got a weird bug that wouldn’t let me turn in another quest just because I happened to have another dragon heart in my inventory (not the right one, which I had planned on giving her), so I ended up just telling her ‘fuck your quest.’ Even though that wasn’t the plan. So, I think that stalemated me as far as progressing my relationship with her. I will attempt to try again for my next playthrough.

Cassandra was a tough cookie to crack, but I ended up liking her more later. Especially after the book scene.

Varric was likeable from the beginning. He is on Team BFF.

Iron Bull was also likeable from the beginning. I did try romancing him in conjunction with Solas in the beginning, but it never went anywhere - I probably screwed something up, but he was fun to hang out with.

Dorian I had no expectations for, at all, and was completely surprised. Cute, sassy, tragic backstory? Yes, please. Not romanceable, but was happy we could flirt platonically and literally became BFFs in the game. I mean, come on, who could say no to that face?

Solas - I mean, I did romance him. Mysterious, pompous, but had a lighter side - I got the man to laugh and was like, whoa. Cleft chin. (I love a cleft chin) The bald head threw me off, but it grows on you. Also, tragic back story. How could I not like him in the end even if he’s an asshole and my heart is breaking.

Sera - Hard to understand, but you get used to it after a while. She ended up being pretty fun. I like that she didn’t take much seriously and would call me out on my bullshit.

Cole - Also hard to understand even at the end of the game, but you start to follow his threads of thought after a while. He’s sweet. I liked the interactions between him and Varric and him and Solas.

Blackwall is interesting. I always like gruff men in movies. I grew up watching westerns and the ‘heros’ are always gruff, grizzly men with tragic backstories. He had a wonderful redemption arch and holy cow could this man tank. He took hits the best out of everyone.

I liked all the ‘advisors,’ too, but you don’t get to go out on adventures with them.

[mlbpotter]

Sole Crusher and why I hated it.

Ahh, one of the most prodigious episode for Zoe-fans.

You see, we see Zoe in a car touring Paris as she came from New York. She entered a bakery to get something for her family (A.K.A Audrey) Marinette entered, and slipped on the floor, but Zoe being who she is, clever perfectionist, nimble, quick blah blah blah, whatever the directors want to show us, caught Marinette in a blink of an eye.

In irl, I think if somebody did slip, in front of me, I’d be too shocked to react in seconds. I’d be gaping, mouth open, too shocked to catch anyone.

Ahh, well, Marinette then talked to her a little, learnt how she only had one friend, made some of us feel pity for her (eh, Thomas). So, NOW THE NEXT PART REALLY GETS ME! Marinette didn’t know who this unknown Zoe girl was (could be a thief, murderer, kidnapper idk) yet she gave away her phone number, free pastries, and invited her to HER FRIEND’S CONCERT! OMG you dumass, you don’t just give away these things to unknown people!

Well, still, moving on, zoe went back to the car, and to the bourgeois hotel. She gave away the pastries to the driver saying her family preferred sour from sweet, meaning they were not exactly caring. Just showing what a bad mother Audrey is, Zoe, like Chloe tried to act all snobbish and mean to get her mother’s attention.

To keep it short, Zoe met Chloe and they had a very meaningful conversation. But the thing that bugged me the most was that what Chloe said. 'Your father exists only to do whatever you want, whenever you want.'

Huh? Forgot this, in origins pt.2? This shows that chloe actually loves her father.

Also, Chloe was shown locking Sabrina in a locker, and forcing her to do her homework.

......

So how do u explain this?☝️

Chloe cares about Sabrina. Thomas really ruined Chloe's character her smh, in sole crusher.

Anyways, Chloe took Zoe to the school in a limousine, with Sabrina running behind them!

BrUh, thomas? R u serious? This is a kids show, no? You are supposed to show how to be considerate, not treating ur friend as slaves!

After some more uneccessary chloe-being-cruel moment, Chloe introduces everyone to Zoe.

She says, that Zoe needs a guy to pamper, who is preferably rich....wow, Thomas you already destroyed Adrien's friendship with Chloe, what more do u want?

When Zoe pretended to hate Marinette's macaroons, Sabrina started idiolizing her immediately. SABRINA ALSO NEEDS CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!!!!!

Obviously, Chloe 'tried' to teach Zoe some mean habits, and Marinette was confused about the way she acted so differently at school.

Being Marinette, she texted Zoe about the the confusion, and obviously blamed Chloe. When Chloe found out that her sister was texting her arch-enemy Marinette, she became furious.

Zoe lied and said that she was planning to humiliate Marinette. One of the worst things about Zoe is that she tries to change her nature just to meet up the needs for others. Chloe only does that to impress her mother.

Zoe went up the blacony, and was met by Andre, Chloe's father, who tried to console her, by telling her his own dream. Ok, listen up, how come Andre is only nice to his step-daughter, in a fatherly way??? And treats Chloe like a spoilt queen?? What kind of a father u r, even though u know that's wrong? Ugh

Anyways, the part where Andre wanted to be a film director was pretty cool. Again, we get some background history about the character. And yes, he listened to Audrey, about being rich, not a film director, blah blah blah, showing again how bad of a wife Audrey is.

Then, we discovered that Zoe wanted to be an actress for no good reason, and yest, admittedly she is pretty good a hiding her emotions and 'acting'.

This is how Andre tried to cheer up Zoe, but obviously made the situation worse, as she only thought about the way Chloe, treated her, and not her mother. So yeah, She only has a grudge against Chloe, again showing how horrible and cruel Chloe could be, right?

Just because Chloe said, 'You either step on other people, or I step on you!' This is so out-of-character for, Chloe. She would never say that, I reckon this much.

And there we go, Zoe reluctantly wears the diamond shoes, and becomes akumatized by shadow moth.

So, her power was touching other people with her shoes, and she became bigger.

Sole crusher, found Chloe in her room taking selfies of herself, to shoe how vain she was and how much she admired herself. Ummm..when did Chloe have an obsession with taking her photos? Except maybe in the episode where Marc was akumatized.

Chloe caught a glimpse of Sole Crusher, on her mobile's photo.

She said, 'How come you are using my image without my authorization?' Old Chloe loved to be idolized, so out-of-character.

So, when Chole discovered that it was Zoe, she began running like she was in a marathon, which was again out of character, as she wouldn't run, it'd be too much of work for her.

I think the running was just to show how bad of a character Chloe was, as she pushed Marinette's parents and Marinette herself towards Zoe, to show how cruel, evil and selfish she really is.

Another thing, I think that the kwamis shouldn't be allowed outside the box very long, as someone might catch them, like Chloe almost did.

So, the reason Sole crusher didn't step on Marinette, was because Marinette is the main character of the show, and she just can't be in a dangerous situation (Thomas logic). It'd made a great plot if Marinette was crushed by sole crusher. It would keep the viewers on their toes.

Eh, well, To make look Chloe worse, they made her run further, and order Zoe to literally step on the 'losers'. AKA rest of Marinette's classmates. (Do students really meet each other like this irl?)

So Marinette discovered that Zoe was Sole crusher, and gave some advice.

Marinette: That's not true, you don't need to crush on anyone. The 'winner' and 'loser' thing doesn't exist. It's just people, each one with your differences and unique features. (after Chat Noir interrupted) Zoe, no one will judge you here. You can be yourself! You can trip, you can fall, there's always going to be someone to help you stand up. I will always support you!

Shadow moth manipulated Zoe again, So Chat Noir tripped sole crusher giving Marinette the chance to run away and transform in a place that no one can see (totally). Since Tikki followed Marinette, and Kaalki alerted Adrien about the akuma, they both were able to transform.

Since I am no good at writing battle scenes, I'll tell the main points. Ladybug used her lucky charm, and got a shoe horn. So basically, Chat Noir and ladybug both destroyed the heels of Zoe's shoes, but the akuma didn't come out. Chloe insulted sole crusher, and got crushed.

Chloe : Look at how you're treating ur very expensive shoes! Go back to wearing you hideous and plain sneakers.

So ladybug figured out that the Akuma must be in those sneakers Chloe mentioned.

So the team tried to find out those sneakers in Chloe's house. Ladybug saw Sabrina in the closet, yet asked her about the sneakers, and ignored her. Wow, shoe some empathy ladybug, or even Chat Noir!

They saw Andre, and he told them where the Akuma went. So basically Andre showed them the box, and was so scared of Audrey, that her had hid those directories a secret from her. Since that box was not opening, ladybug used her shoehorn to open that box thingy. Long story short, ladybug repaired everything, and gave Zoe the lucky charm, and left.

Skip to the noon, where Zoe went to the concert she was invited in, and Chloe still believed Zoe's lame story about humiliating Marinette, and was super pissed off when Zoe ate the macaroons.

So yeah, Zoe apologized about her akumatizatidon, and told her 'tragic' backstory. She didn't want to disappoint her family's expectation, so she pretended to be mean.

In her boarding school, she was being bullied, and pretended to be someone she was not.

And since er...the miraculous fandom characters are so 'different' and tried to be nice to her, which was pretty cool of them....

Chloe demanded that Zoe leave for New York, but Andre was pretty cool about it, and made a lame yet nice excuse for her, to be enrolled in anther boarding school. So she had a different room. Obviously, the creators showed how err..awesome Zoe is as she said to Andre, 'Promise me that you are not going to give up on your dreams for too long.' But Andre's dream was very irrelevant, as nothing of that sort was mentioned after that.

Zoe's new found friends helped her become a better person, and there were some ending pics of her.

Zoe's message to Marinette was pretty cheesy ngl. But if only Zoe was introduced as a character who didn't out smart her sister, I would honestly love her so much!

(If my dumb shit post doesn't get famous, I will quit. I literally worked so hard for this post, and also had to rewrite it multiple times)

[brawltogethernow]

Have you read Phil Jimenez’ Tempest miniseries from the mid 90s? If so, what are your thoughts?

No, but it’s four issues long. Gimme a minute.

Okay, I’m back. That was VERY stupid (compliment). Absolute camp nonsense. Unfortunately it's also kind of bad?

Obviously these aren’t finely aged takes. Plus I have picked up exactly one (1) back issue of Aquafam content prior to this in my life, usually absorbing them exclusively through team titles, and lack of preexisting attachment to the lore here definitely doesn’t do it any favors.

Okay, so. In this title, AQUALAD (Garth), who is already not going by that at this point, has decided it’s time to STAB HIMSELF IN THE CHEST WITH A MAGIC KNIFE to absorb some kind of ANCESTRAL ELEMENTAL POWERS so he can finally update his name and outfit like every single other og Titan did in the eighties. You grow up slow when you’re not very popular! Complicating the planned KNIFE RITUAL, AQUAGIRL (Tula) has SPONTANEOUSLY COME BACK FROM THE DEAD and REFUSES TO ANSWER LITERALLY ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS. This coincides exactly with Garth’s MENTOR GUY who looks like HE-MAN WISHES HE DID being kidnapped, also Tula immediately begins picking fights with Garth’s only other ally present, an EDGY SHARK MERMAID who is trying to enemies-to-lovers route their relationship and doesn’t appreciate being cuntblocked by a rude corpse. Garth decides to COMPLETELY IGNORE this BULK ORDER OF RED FLAGS because of love, which done well could be touching and tragic but in practice makes him look like a moron. He tells his SHARK GIRLFRIEND to gtfo for saying his DEAD GIRLFRIEND is going to fuck up the KNIFE MAGIC, allowing her to FUCK UP THE KNIFE MAGIC IMMEDIATELY. She’s revealed to be a pawn of Garth’s UNCLE, who is a NECROMANCER TRAPPED IN ANOTHER DIMENSION. So NECRUNCLE escapes and uses their (*communist Bugs Bunny meme*) ancestral mojo to summon a SOGGY UNDEAD ARMY. Garth is rescued by his community he thought were all dead but were actually just avoiding him. They reveal that they knew if he tried to claim his family magic his uncle would escape, so they tried to leave him for dead as a baby, and when they found out that hadn’t worked they decided to lie to him instead of telling him not to stab himself with a magic knife, also the knife was just an unnecessary bit of danger they added to the ritual at the last minute for fun. Did they mention they’re pacifists? Except for when they executed Garth’s dad for trying to fight off his necromancer brother, because they felt that was kind of over the line. They’ve been hiding out in a bunker full of COMICALLY NORMAL-LOOKING ANTI-ZOMBIE GUNS, which Garth takes to go fight his UNCLE and his DEAD GIRLFRIEND and his DEAD PET WALRUS, but he still needs to be rescued by SHARK GIRLFRIEND and her family, who she went to get instead of leaving Garth to die of his own dumbassery which he tbh deserved. So Garth yeets his uncle back into the PHANTOM ZONE BUT WET and levels up his magical abilities an unclear amount, the end.

Every single character is as dumb as a plank and deeply unsympathetic, except Letifos (edgy shark) and Atlan (He-mentor), who can get away with acting mostly normal because they are forcibly removed from the bulk of the plot. Every single thing that happens including all of the backstory could be avoided if the cast weren’t completely stocked with dumb jerks.

Great color palette choices, slightly tortured digital coloring on the version online. Nice underwater art that never forgot everything was underwater or succumbed to the urge to just put everyone in a blue void. My inner four-year-old, who is on some level still sitting at the bottom of a pool trying to manifest an uncanny lung capacity and a magical fish companion, was really vibing with it. This is approximately the age I was the last time I interacted with underwater civilization content, but it turns out I still appreciate it as an aesthetic, and this mini nails it.

It was actually slightly too good at remembering literally everything was underwater, in the sense that I had trouble turning my brain off about the logistics and kept pausing to go, “Underwater...blanket...? Why...? How does that...” I am very ready to allow the ocean zombies, however, for cool factor reasons. Although skeletons are also cool and don’t raise questions about underwater mummification.

This was my introduction to the fact that in post-Crisis DC Neptune and Poseidon are two separate dudes, one of whom is blue and has a bubble beard and one of whom is a bald white merman. And they hate each other? Alright! Okay, okay. Like did DC accidentally establish both and they just decided to roll with it?

Now, you know I love me some undead women.👍 Unfortunately Tula’s agency and interiority are lower than zero, just steeply in the negatives.👎👎👎 Tula is Charlie Brown and agency in this plot is the football. Jimenez’s entire approach to women in this gives him an extremely punchable vibe. I would not go to a bar with this man. He remembers the girls have super strength (and doesn’t keep the violence completly divvied up by gender), at least, but doesn’t seem aware that they’re people, which is unsettling. You could have turned around a LOT with like, a single scene from Tula’s POV after it’s established that she’s been bespelled to experience a completely different set of events from reality so that by the end she’s experiencing her ally losing it and attacking her, or just by working harder to convey that experience through her reactions. But lol no it’s fine that she’s basically a hand puppet, because what matters is the lead’s reaction to her! Jail. Go to jail. Also as it stands I’m confused about how her deal shook out to be that she was both not actually Tula and being mind controlled, and also her real experience of love for Garth was critical to the villain’s plan? Explainy-looking words happened but the zombie logistics absolutely went unexplained in spite of them. While we’re at it, why did Letifos come back for a big damn heroes scene at the end. Devoting a thought bubble to addressing this turn around wouldn’t have even had to break the binding contract that seems to be in place forbidding any lines from her not directly about Garth.

Right, the villain. Great design, very gross. I do kind of want to boil him and then try to crack him open and eat him like a crab. Love that Garth lampshades that Slizzath is a ridiculous evil name by saying he can’t pronounce it, right next to the reveal that Slizzath is his uncle. It doesn’t seem like he took that on as his necromancer title or anything. Garth’s grandparents just named their kids Thar and Slizzath. Really, the way that his face is a skull now is their fault.

I was surprised to see that the contentious dick towers from the Little Mermaid VHS cover have taken refuge in this version of Atlantis.

I feel like I should segue from there into something about Garth’s shrinkwrapped costume’s gratuitously pronounced crotch bulge, but like, I don’t know. Whatever. We’re just uncomfortably up close and personal with absolutely everybody’s anatomy consistently, it’s whatever.

So yeah, that was not good. I enjoyed it. I would punch Phil Jimenez in the mouth without hesitation.

[wizzardhat]

Okay im just going to make my own post about this because this bugs the hell out of me

Look i get that botw kind of brought a lot of new people to loz and i think thats great, if botw is the only zelda game you’ve ever played and you loved it thats valid, its an amazing game. But im getting tired of people acting like botw zelda is the only zelda with a compelling personality or backstory because you’re either forgetting entire games?? Or throwing games you never played under the bus to make botw seem like the most indisputably superior zelda game possible? (It isn’t. Its very good but it still has flaws.)

People are like “every other Zelda is lame and boring and is just a pretty wizard with a crown 🙄 but THIS Zelda! She has ANXIETY!”

I get that botw Zelda is arguably one of the more vulnerable and relatable Zeldas, or even the most tragic, but it’s not like this is the first game to humanize Zelda or give her a unique backstory and personality? She’s not even the first Zelda to technically “fail” and then have to work overtime to damage control a situation she “failed” to prevent. OOT Zelda KNEW Ganon was going to kill everyone and fuck up Hyrule and NO ONE BELIEVED HER, so her idiot father just let him take over and reduce Hyrule to a miserable hellscape full of ZOMBIES. She had to go in to hiding for ten years, in which she of course patiently waited for Link to save her like the boring pre-botw princess she was :/ PSYCHE SHE STUDIED THE BLADE AND BECAME A SHEIKAH WARRIOR (and there was no reason she had to pose as a boy to do that because there are loads of female sheikah warriors so arguably a transmasc/nb icon.) Then she sent Da Linky back in time and just resigned herself to rebuild Hyrule by herself in the fucked up hell timeline he left behind?? That’s fucking sad bro she did that. She rebuilt Hyrule and didn’t even have Link to help her. And it’s not like he ditched her she did that to give him back his childhood because she’s a good friend.

Okay, I hear you say, well she was still wasn’t humanized because she is presented as an all powerful mysterious high-priestess type figure. Okay fair enough, you want a relatable Zelda? How about Tetra?? The daughter of a pirate queen, orphaned at a young age, who is an outlaw with a heart of gold, vaguely aware that she has some spooky bloodline shit going on but has no idea she’s a princess OR has magic powers, and has to live up to her mother’s reputation and lead a crew even though she’s way too young? And she struggles to make decisions that befit both a pirate captain and her own innate sense of altruism? I cannot believe the way people sleep on Tetra bro she was so fucking cool. Honestly there are more examples I can think of but I need to go to bed. I didn’t even get to Twilight Princess. OR Skyward Sword Zelda, notable because it was the game where they established “Zelda doesn’t need Link any more than he needs her, they are two sides of a coin that work together rather than a hero and a human mcguffin” as a real lore point and made it the rule rather than the exception. (Although most recent games by this point where working from that angle)

So let me close with this:

Reasons BOTW Zelda is unique among other Zeldas and very cool and awesome:

Has an interesting backstory & humanized personality without it in some way revolving around her pretending not to be/not knowing she is a princess (this isn’t really a plus but it isn’t a drawback, its just Different and therefore unique.)

Technically never gets kidnapped, and is trapped because of a decision SHE made when she was ready, to fight back (even though she really didn’t have any other options it still gives her more agency and agency is good)

Her story actually deals with the pressure of being both a political and religious figure, and the stress and trauma that comes with the “chosen one” narrative, especially when you don’t feel like you fit the mold/struggle to conform.

She is a nature nerd and i love her

Reasons BOTW Zelda is NOT objectively better than other Zeldas:

She is the only one with a personality (this is a lie)

She is the only one with agency (also a lie)

She is the only one who is relatable or likeable (biggest lie of 2021)

BOTW is the only Zelda game to switch up the formula or format of the series or make any progressive changes to the story i know we all know this is horseshit but sometimes ppl really make me wonder if they know other games occurred between Breath Of The Wild and Link To The Past.

[cynthiaandsamus]

Custom Toonami Block Week 70 Rundown

Code Geass: So Lelouch is gonna go join Nunally’s ‘let’s all hold hands and get along’ area but literally no one wants to go after Euphy murdered everyone last time. You’d think there’d be at least one dumbass like “Maybe it won’t be a massacre.” But yeah Zero’s like “Oh well I just happen to have a million people I can give to the zone if you exile me and let me go scott free” and everyone’s like “that’s a super shitty thing to do but okay” so then Zero tells Suzaku that culture is stored in the titty and all the one million people do their I am Spartacus thing and wear Zero’s costume which had to be a logistical nightmare, like Zero’s outfit already is pretty expensive with the fancy clothes and the helmet and shit and some of them are randomly customized even though that defeats the purpose like how do you do this on a terrorist budget in a few days without anyone in the government finding out. Like “we received an order for a million pounds of the thing used in Zero’s helmet on the black market” seems like it’d stand out. But yeah, the million Zeros get away, partially because of the “dogs playing basketball” rule that they’re all Zero because their culture of being Zero is stored in their titty which wouldn’t hold up in court but also because if they just kill a million people who’re just trying to leave that’d be bad for the government, not that they’re not used to genocide and being hated as Imperialists but Suzaku specifically doesn’t want that on his and Nunally’s hands while they’re trying to actually do shit for Japan for once. Feel like there’s probably a good cause for peaceful detainment and not letting them just walk out but it’s not like they’d find Lelouch or whoever the supposed second Zero was anyway even if they strip-searched everyone since he was never there and if it isn’t Lelouch the only thing that makes him Zero sight-wise is the mask.

Inuyasha: So yeah we get the conclusion of Shiori’s story for Inuyasha and I just can’t help thinking about how nice it is that she went on to help a lot of other half-demons in Yashahime because of an act of kindness that Inuyasha showed her right here, really good ripple effect shit. But yeah Shiori gets pissed that her grandpa killed her dad and Kekkaishi YEETs him and his followers out of the barrier so Inuyasha can backlash wave the lot of them. We still got fifteen minutes left though so even after Inuyasha says he’s not going to murder a little girl for a powerup that’ll get power crept in a few seasons, Shiori offers him the blood coral crystal to break to give him the powerup instead as thanks for not fucking murdering her. We can’t have the climax of the episode just be Inuyasha smacking a crystal ball though so Taigokumaru’s spirit yeets itself out of the crystal and fights with Inuyasha and attacks Shiori but her dad makes a barrier to bounce him off of so Inuyasha can kill him a second time and get the Red Tessaiga. There’s some navelgazing about how life as a half demon is rough but how Inuyasha thinks that hardship will be good for Shiori and he’s rooting for her in his own way and in Yashahime we see he’s right and all in all that’s pretty nice. Anyway next time we have the Panther Demon filler arc which is honestly probably one of my favorite filler arcs in Inuyasha so that’ll be fun.

Yu Yu Hakusho: Yusuke continues his fight with Suzaku and Suzaku splits himself into seven, which this doesn’t seem to be the Multi-Form or Shadow Clones deal where it divides his energy, each one seems as strong as the original so that’s just kind of broken. Keiko pulls a bait and switch on the zombies which neither Suzaku nor Yusuke see coming despite watching the whole thing on Spirit TV, guess Suzaku had the camera point at the door instead of on Keiko for some reason even though the point is to make Yusuke watch her die. Anyway Yusuke flashes back to Genkai telling him he’s a little bitch that always doubts himself and splits his energy across multiple plans instead of having the confidence to go for something with everything he has and make it work instead of holding back in case it doesn’t. This and remembering his mom crying over his death and all the relationships he’s formed makes him go Super Saiyan in what I can only describe as a Fully Body Shotgun which I don’t think ever comes up again. He knocks down all the Suzakus but it’s just time to start the real fight since Yusuke’s lifted his limiter again like he does in every fight.

Fate Zero: So the clusterfuck in the middle of Saber and Lancer’s battle continues to grow as Iskandar just fucking dares everyone to come at him and five of the seven servants actually do. Gilgamesh is all like “Ugh, why do I have to do this shit, breathing sucks, I’m a king, someone breathe for me.” And tries to murder everyone with spears and shit but turns out Berserker is Darth Vader this time around and uses the force to steal his stolen weapons until Rin’s dad is all like “Dude you’re showing the whole world our fucking moveset, get the fuck out of there. Which given that Gilgamesh is an archer which are supposed to be independent and he’s a fucking snobby asshole, even with a Command Seal I’m surprised that worked. Also Waver’s racist teacher is all “hah wow, I was supposed to have Rider and the token teenager character stole it from me” and Iskandar’s like “I like this kid that’s ride or die with me even though he cries all the time way more than someone who doesn’t even step onto the battlefield you stuck up prick” and then Lancer and Berserker double-team Saber (giggity) and Lancer’s not happy about it because he was fighting Saber first and doesn’t wanna just jump her with Darth Vader but more Command Seals are thrown around until Iskander runs over Darth Vader with his fucking Lightning Chariot and that’s kind of shitty because Racist Teacher man wasted a Command Seal to have Lancer attack Saber for like five seconds before making him retreat. Bug Dude is also kinda freaked out that Berserker just kinda went for Saber meaning she must be pretty pissed at Saber about something anyway so basically everyone runs away and nothing is really accomplished, we didn’t even really need Kiritsugu’s sniper shit or Assassins’s Ninja Bullshit for this everyone’s just had enough and goes home. Also Caster is a creepy yandere simp for Saber but really who isn’t in this series.

Konosuba: So Aqua’s ready to sit in a lake for a few hours to make some money but for the first time in her live her divine booty is not enough to solve this problem. She gets traumatized by getting attacked by demon alligators and Kazuma and co. are honestly uncharacteristically worried about her and ready to try and help her. Meanwhile generic isekai protagonist has a crush on Aqua despite already having his own harem of bland girls and wants to steal Aqua back but basically the whole group is so totally anti-White Knight they can see right through his shit and turn him down. Kazuma beats him up in the most Kazuma way possible and steals his magic sword, proving that not only is he not doing anything to defeat the devil king but he’s actively sabotaging those that are. Aqua fucking decks the guy and blackmails him so she’s rich now and Kazuma’s rich from selling his OP Isekai Cheat Sword. Also the Dullahan dude is back for revenge about bombing his castle and Kazuma’s like “Wait were we still doing that? Thought we stopped, oh well everyone in this world’s problems are our fault somehow so it sounds about right.”

Sailor Moon Crystal: So this time we get Makoto’s story who’s probably my favorite thus far because her job is punching shit and making sure Usagi doesn’t die from the hundreds of things ready to hit her on a daily basis. I have sort of found a redeeming trait for Usaig in that she’s willing to reach out to anyone and everyone, like she’s not what I would call traditionally ‘nice’ but she is friendly and that ability to pull disparate people together does kind of make more sense for why she’d be the leader rather than the other girls who have useful but more specific talents. But yeah continuing with the trend of things teen girls like trying to destroy the world, haunted bridal shop that also reveals Makoto’s tragic backstory of being a more believable version of Tall Girl. Makoto transforms and beats up the Bride lady with a combination of Zenbonzakura Kageyoshi and Azula’s lightning bending, no fair that she gets two powers but I guess she is the tough one so it make sense. Now we’ve basically got the whole crew except for the one that we already know is active but hasn’t joined the group yet so we’ll see how this goes.

Durarara!!: So Mikado’s in deep shit after stealing the girl away that half the town is looking for, all because he has it hammered into his head that whenever a girl asks for his help he has to give it. There’s a bit of discussion about the nature of the Dollars that I’m sure won’t be important later but both Izaya and Celty show up outside Mikado’s school and he’s kind of in an awkward position since there’s nowhere he can really go but home and lead them to the girl. So he decides to find out about them, or at least Celty, Izaya’s just kinda along for the ride. He gets Celty’s backstory and agrees to take her to the other girl only to get jumped by Yagiri thugs and pull out some Death Note animation internet shit that has even Izaya stunned, Mikado about to actually become the main character of this anime for a bit.

[choicesenthusiast]

Queen B, Ch. 14 AKA Verbal Evisceration

What happened this week:

Recruit Chloe to your posse, completing the whole set, because she just wants to be acknowledged for once in her life, which is actually really sad. Her tragic backstory is unfortunately middle-child syndrome. Y’know, you’re all probably tired of the Mean Girls references, but she’s an interesting blend of both Gretchen Wieners and Karen Smith.

A day of planning for the gala with Poppy, during which you do no actual planning. I smell a diamond option coming along. We’ll see.

After Poppy literally looks over your shoulder and notices you sending suspiciously incriminating texts to the professor, she leaves you alone in the office, allowing you time to send especially incriminating sexts to the professor. Because, again, professionalism.

You and Zoey have full reign to absolutely verbally eviscerate Poppy in a roast battle reminiscent of the one you had on your first day, except it’s a little better because the two of you get to flame her together, and come out on top while you're at it.

Ah, I was right. Pay to deck out the venue in prom-esque decor, and have your posse make an appearance all together since you first paid to recruit them then.

The night before the gala, at the talent show rehearsal, discover that Carter can sing (as if he weren’t incredible already), and either heckle Poppy’s awful dancing or cheer on Chloe in her recreation of the Miss Congeniality wine glasses talent scene. Sorry, Chloe, but nobody can compare to Sandra Bullock.

I WAS SO READY TO VERBALLY EVISCERATE POPPY WHEN THIS COCKSUCKING BITCH SHOWS UP GO AWAY I DON’T CARE ABOUT YOU. Ahem, if you haven’t picked it up already Kingsley barges into the hall and interrupts our rehearsal set to “talk”, because they’re impatient and cannot take a hint. They obviously know we’re busy planning this gala. So why can’t they just wait a few hours longer? Well, we’ll have to wait another week to find out what’s bugging them so much. Someone better be dying.

Thoughts:

If PB doesn’t give us a full comedy roast set better than the preview of MC and Zoey then what was it all for? Judging by the amount of evidence on Poppy they’ve presented us in the book, her takedown is going to be absolutely brutal. I can’t wait. I’m so ready to drag her ass down.

What’s Kingsley playing at here? If you’re not romancing them, spamming your TA with texts even after MC replied that she was busy, then barging into rehearsal and announcing “we need to talk” is rather creepy. If you are romancing them, doing so just seems suspicious to everyone else. How much thought was put into this plan? I assume none. On that note, what the fuck is this behaviour??? Aren’t they the adult in this “relationship”? One would think that they would behave with more maturity (especially if they stripped down in their office to sext a student, where anyone could’ve knocked on the door any second). There are no words to express the loathing I have for this relationship.

I thought the hate crimes were enough but let’s add threatening to slap Chloe for offering help in a dance routine to the list of reasons I can’t stand Poppy’s ass anymore. And poor Chloe’s still looking for some sort of rekindling. There are no words to express the loathing I have for this relationship either. Oh, pre-Ch. 8 me was so naive to think I could ever get something out of this.

[all-pacas]

🔥 caleb?

CRACKS MY MOTHERFUCKING KNUCKLES

boy does the way fandom treats caleb wear me out sometimes. he’s treated constantly as this tragic romantic hero, whom all the other characters revolve around, who can do no wrong and whose issues and feelings are the most important of anyone’s. last episode? caduceus fucking died and nott fucking committed murder and everyone else went through shit, but nah, let’s all have discourse about caleb’s pain and caleb’s tragedy. 

and to an extent this is also what bugs me about caleb’s character, because boy is he self-centered. it’s intentional characterization in that liam has made fun of it (and so is aware of it) in various talks machinas — caleb’s a hypocrite, caleb is self-centered, caleb will 100% be that guy who dumps all his emotional problems on everyone out of the blue, whether you ask him why he’s weird around fire or whether you’re in a basement watching another friend have a mental breakdown. 

i don’t begrudge caleb for being a Sad Boy except that a tiny part of me does. god, the whole scene in the basement still riles me up a little. i don’t blame him for having a minor breakdown, but i kind of hate that his persona has been so established that the immediate reaction of everyone, in and out of the game, was to ignore nott’s breakdown and the plot to reassure caleb and literally pick him up and cradle him like a fucking baby. that is so messed up, i’m sorry. not even caleb should be okay with that level of coddling. 

i can deal with it in universe because caleb has other problems and flaws and also other strengths that don’t always get talked about — he’s pretty funny when he wants to be, he likes to fuck around a bit, he’s consistently amused by jester and nott, the team’s chaotic members, even if he doesn’t usually partake. he’s not actually a cold and distant awkward person in the way he and fandom suggests he is: just look at how he interacts with nott. he’s nice. he’s kind. he relies on her probably more than she relies on him, but he also takes care of her  and is the only one so far to notice nott’s current stress breakdown and try to reassure her about it — i’m not trying to make this about nott, but point out that caleb is in fact perfectly capable of being kind and affectionate and ridiculous and friendly, but boy does fandom not act like it a lot of  the time. boy does fandom just want to wallow in Sad Boy Caleb, Who Needs Love To Fix Him. 

there’s also the fact that caleb is currently planning some probably dark and fucking shady shit. like. i actually argued with a friend about this a while ago, she was going on “oh he’s the archetypical romantic hero” (Romantic, not romantic) and i was like okay but look: he’s fine with torturing and killing people. he’s fucking ruthless. after the pirate ship theft when everyone was feeling bad, fjord was like “how are you?” and caleb was like “what?” his darkness  isn’t just self loathing, there is a cold brutal pragmatism in there, and he’s also totally planning on like, destroying the world or some shit, for his goals. he is willing to do this. he’s self centered. everything is ultimately about him and his goals and his desires: his magic, his hoarding of the party’s magical items, his backstory, everything. this makes for a fascinating character and it’s great watching his hypocrisies come to light and him open up and grow as a person — but he’s so much more than this tragic quiet Sad Boy and it drives me insane when his character is, on the show or in fandom, reduced entirely to that.

also: he is not the main characterrrrrrr despite what caleb thinks it is not all about hiiiiiiiiiimmmmm his relationship with nott is fun because despite his intentions he cares about her a lot more than anyone else and it’s fucking with his selfishnessssssssssssss

[incorrect-kotor-quotes]

Did you finish Final Fantsy VII yet?

Yes, I finally beat FFVII. Here’s my experience:

FFVII starts out pretty good. You’re in a dystopian city where you fight capitalism, exchange all your money for better items, get that money back by breaking into people’s homes and stealing their health potions, infiltrate a mafia-run sex dungeon, typical stuff. The soundtrack is great. The art style still looks nice despite the dated graphics and the awkward transition to 3D. I never found the combat to be too aggravating except against a few bosses and those goddamn frogs that transform me into a frog.

I really started enjoying the game once I was out exploring the world bit by bit hunting down Sephiroth. Traveled town to town. Got killed a bunch by the Midgar Zolom. Befriended a ninja and a vampire. Experienced several tragic backstories. Watched Aerith die. Meteor was approaching to destroy the planet. Fought Godzilla. Descended into the Northern Crater to save the world. The game kept crashing in there for some reason, the only save point is one you can deploy wherever you want but I always held off because I didn’t know where the boss room was, I persevered, and then Sephiroth killed me pretty easily.

Then the narrative and my immersion came to a grinding halt. Because I had to start grinding in order to take on the final boss. So while a giant purple death ball hung in the sky and was supposedly due to come down by the end of the week and kill us all as ominous music played, I was running around the planet looking for special items and trying to level up. Mostly by decreasing the tankceratops population to gather hundreds of sweet, sweet guard sources so Tifa could beat Sephiroth to death.

The adventurous spirit of traveling around and the fear of impending armageddon conflicted, because while I was participating in chocobo races to make my chocobos into prime breeding specimens, mostly by cheating with that infinite-stamina bug, everyone was living in fear of the meteor and trying to find some means of coping with the situation. But, because the game knows you need time to level up, nothing will change, so I’m running around slaughtering wildlife while in every town people prepare for their imminent deaths and wonder what the point of selling me ethers is. It was uncomfortable. They were all so hopeless and I’m the only one who can do anything, but nothing bad will happen no matter how long I take and I wanted to be at least level 60 before I fought Sephiroth again.

For a while I was busy feeding aphrodisiacs to chocobos because I wanted to get the super-special hidden powerups. By some miracle, I was able to obtain a gold chocobo without needing to inbreed them and used it to run across the ocean and generally screw around. Well, I say it was a miracle, but really I accidentally let the wrong one go when I needed to make more space and had to capture another. There really should be an achievement for not inbreeding chocobos. Provide some small incentive to make people stop. Please, stop.

There was one good moment, though, after I returned to Midgar to look around. I went inside Aerith’s church, and was shocked to see her standing among the flowers. I immediately ran to her, then she flickered and vanished. Went outside, then back in, but she was gone. She’s gone. You got me, game. You made me feel some emotions. You bastard.

Finally I became strong enough to slaughter my way through the Northern Crater, constantly waiting to deploy my portable save point and hoping I’d run into a regular one, but it never happened so I kept praying the game wouldn’t crash on me. I killed Sephiroth, he took his shirt off, I killed him again, and the world was saved.

So that’s FFVII. It’s heartfelt, bizarre, engaging, fun, has a big problem with the requirements of leveling up killing the third-act tension, but ended strong. I’m looking forward to the remake.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Hopper

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

Of all of Kevin Spacey’s roles, I think the one harmed the least by his current reputation is that of Hopper, the tyrannical slave-driving grashopper villain of Pixar’s underrated and oft forgotten A Bug’s Life. I think part of the reason is that Hopper is a constant presence I the film, established from the get-go to be a thoroughly scary and unpleasant individual, one who is opposed at every opportunity by the heroes.

Despite how seemingly simple of an antagonist Hopper comes across as, he has a certain scummy appeal to him that helps make him one of the most underrated villains in the entire Pixar canon.

Actor: It’s Kevin Spacey. He does a good job, it’s undeniable… perhaps he’s a bit too good at playing a manipulative, controlling megalomaniac who abuses others for his own benefit. Should we have seen it coming all along? Obviously I jest; let’s not get too tinfoil hatty here. The fact is that everything else aside, Spacey does give a very good performance as Hopper, a performance I’d honestly argue is one of his best.

Motivation/Goals: Hopper is a simple bug with simple goals; he wants complete and total control over the ant colony, having them stay in line and slave away to produce food or him and his men. It’s sort of a twist on the fable “The Grasshopper and the Ants,” in which a lazy grasshopper spends all summer goofing off instead of gathering food, and so in the winter he goes to the ants who warned him to prepare so hat he does not starve. The story has a few notable endings, but the end result is either his fellow bugs help him out out of kindness, or leave him to die in the cold so that he can reap what he sows.

Hopper kind of turns this on his head, for while he is quite literally a lazy grasshopper who does not work for his food, he exerts extreme pressure over the ants to harvest the food for him under penalty of death. Of course, by the film’s end, Hopper clearly states that it is no longer about the food, but the fact one ant stood up to him, which is unacceptable as it could potentially lead to more people standing up to him and his men and overthrowing his cruel regime. So of course his ultimate goal becomes crushing uprising and ensuring the ants bend to his will via execution of their queen.

Personality: Hopper is cruel, violent, and sadistic, with not a single care in the world for his men, as demonstrated when he casually murders a few of his own soldiers to prove a point about an ant uprising. There’s also his frequent attempted abuse of his brother, and it’s stated the only reason he doesn’t outright murder his brother is the memory of their mother. Then there was his utter willingness to feed a small child to Thumper, the insane monster grasshopper attack dog. Hopper is just an utterly brutal, ruthless, and downright sociopathic individual… and that’s honestly what makes him so appealing as a villain. He’s just so cruel, so vindictive, so utterly ruthless, it’s hard not to be impressed by the sheer gall of this bug.

Final Fate: He gets caught by a bird, and then is fed to her chicks while screaming like a little girl in one of the most beautiful moments of karmic black comedy ever seen in animation. Not many deaths come even close in terms of deliciously painful misfortune, except maybe Syndrome’s death.

Best Scene: The scene in which he demonstrates to a couple of his men just what would happen if the ants stood up to them. It isn’t pretty.

Best Quote: From the aforementioned scene: “You let one ant stand up to us, then they ALL might stand up. Those ‘puny little ants’ outnumber us a hundred to one. And if they ever figure that out, there goes our way of life! It's not about food. It's about keeping those ants in line. That's why we're going back! Does anybody else wanna stay?”

Final Thoughts & Score: Hopper truly is an underappreciated villain. Frankly, villains like him seem to be a bit of a rarity nowadays; there are so few villains in the modern era who manage to combine simple goals with a psychotic personality and manage to be entertaining and compelling despite not having super-compelling backstories or some sort of tragic excuse for their behavior. Most villains these days sort of live or die by how complex and deep they are, but I think there is something to be said for a great simple villain, a villain who is totally unrepentantly cruel and vicious without some sort of tragic excuse and yet still manages to be enjoyable to watch and even compelling. Hopper is most definitely one of those villains.

I give Hopper a 9/10. I definitely think he’s one of Pixar’s stronger villains, and it helps there’s no big twist about him. I also think he’s one of Kevin Spacey’s best roles, and is one that I think holds up a lot better over time than someone like John Doe, because even if he does cause a lot of harm over the course of the film, he’s not only ultimately defeated but everyone is better off after he’s gone. It’s sort of like what should happen to Spacey in real life, really.

[patchdotexe]

So, I have a character who is a system, and I wanted to know before I develop them further, how does DID work, from a personal account? I really really really don't want to accidentally create yet another TOXIC misinterpretation of a real condition (because I know how horrible that can feel), and I hope I'm not saying anything wrong even now. (P.S. I love your blog, but I'm too shy to come off anon.)

hey anon!! it means a LOT to me that you sent this message :D theres a lot of really messy-bad potrayals of DID in the media so seeing people actually going to the effort of asking systems abt their experiences is really heartwarming for us. (plus the fact that ppl keep asking us in specific abt system stuff omg,,)

im gonna preface this by saying that, in the end, i can only really talk about my own experiences with full confidence. systems can work pretty differently from each other, but this is how we function and also some details ive noticed from system friends + general discussion over the years

so, to start off: Dissociative Identity Disorder is, at its core, your brain trying to respond to trauma in a pretty severe way. that being said there ARE systems that didnt experience severe trauma and still developed, and im not really sure about the mechanics behind that but i find it really cool and it totally exists. im gonna focus on trauma-based systems bc that’s our ~tragic backstory~ and also tends to be what most people opt for when creating system characters anyway, but the only real difference from what i can tell is, uh, a lack of trauma.

I HOPE YOU’RE READY FOR ME TO SAY THE WORD “TRAUMA” A WHOLE LOT JFC

(system friends are welcome to reblog with corrections or added info!!)

anyway. the way your brain responds to things is really weird. if something happens where you’re just, like, completely unable to handle it, like you dissociate yourself so hard because there’s no way you can manage this, your brain has a chance of going “uh… well, fuck, uh” and generating somebody who can manage it. or it might decide to be a dick and take all of the fucky internalized garbage and turn it into a person whose sole existence is to be an asshole. (they have the potential to get better, i think… ours didnt.) honestly theres a bunch of reasons and a bunch of “roles” that could lead to an alter/headmate* forming.

* we use the terms interchangeably depending on mood and whos fronting. i think its supposed to be “alter” is DID, “headmate” is implication that theyre non-traumatic? we like using “headmate” because it brings this fun mental image of us being a bunch of roommates constantly starting shit with each other and goofing off which is pretty accurate about 75% of the time

i keep getting distracted bc my cat is here. this is gonna be fun to go back and edit.

whatever the original situation is, you’re suddenly not alone in your own brain. and it’s REALLY WEIRD. communication was VERY hard. Icarus, our system original, used to do a very “cliche” thing of sharing a journal with their early headmates, where theyd write a sentence and then theyd write a reply (although back then they didnt realize that was a system-related thing and just thought they were having a fun conversation with their ocs. which… they were, just. Actually Talking.) they didnt have any inward perception of themself or their headmates either, so that kinda built up over time (with some help) along with the appearance of our headspace so that there was… actually a location for people to interact in. once they had a better awareness of things, mental communication got a bit easier– its sort of like background chatter really, when everybody’s awake. sometimes i get weird out of context things from Mae yelling at somebody, or sometimes ill be talking to a friend and someone’ll butt in.

when talking out loud, this usually leads to us suddenly stopping and then laughing or going “no!!!”. when on discord and around people who know who we are… well.

speaking of Mae, she’s pretty much my sister. not like… biologically? because i don’t think thats possible for me, but shes kinda literally my “other half” which ill get into later. headmates can have strong attachments to other alters! friends, best friends, family, dating, whatever. they can also do that with people outside the system, and itll be different for each headmate. there’s like 4 people dating Jorb but i just see him as one of my best friends. we’re people and we have complex social interactions that can get to be kind of a nightmare when you’re around a bunch of people who don’t know that you’re Not Leo and that youre suddenly not super up to existing around people in general.

plus even if like… so Jorb’s dating 4 of us like i said, but his relationship w/ each of them is different? Ica is very clingy and likes rambling to him, Summer’s pretty much just always happy to hang out, Mae makes fun of him a lot but in a loving way, and Leo is… kinda “all of the above” because that’s his gimmick. plus even tho a few other alters have a sibling-ish relationship with Mae like i do, usually its just me and Mae that do the “chaos siblings” bit.

the basic system.. thing… is that there’s “front”, which is being in control of the body– so, like, i’m currently fronting/in front, because im the one currently active and using our computer and staring at our cat.– and then theres the headspace, where everybody hangs out when theyre not in front. the headspace itself can differ in style & functionality for each system, and i think theres some systems that dont really have a location at all? but for us its like a full on location where we have individual rooms, places to visit if we get bored while away from front, etc.

theres also like, being at/near/away from front? so currently im in front, but Leo is pretty much always lurking nearby if he’s awake (we have individual sleep schedules that dont always sync up to the “irl” one, Trust is almost always sleeping), Ica’s somewhat in the back talking to Rookie so i cant really make out what theyre saying (its probably about either a youtube thing they both like or about a comic they want to do), and everyone else is either asleep (in which case they could be nearby but i cant currently “ping” them, so id have to actually take a sec to ground myself in headspace more) or in a different room. communication is easier if im in front and somebody is nearby, or it can be like with Ica rn where im like “well, theyre talking, but i have no idea what theyre saying and am making a guess based off their usual interactions”, or i could pass off front to go talk to Ica and come back (in which case my memory would be kind of vague and weird because information doesnt always properly translate), oooor i could actually go bug them while still in front. which.. im not gonna do rn bc then id get super distracted.

switching front differs between systems a lot! and even varies from day to day. like there are days where we wake up and we have absolutely no idea who we are bc we went to bed as one person and woke up as another. or we could be talking to somebody and then realize “wait, i stopped being Leo a bit ago, who am i”. or we could pass off front to somebody, like if Summer really wanted to front sie’d run up to me and let me know and we’d swap. or if something critical happens (usually a breakdown), Leo or one of the other headmates that’re more built to handle stressful situations will literally drag somebody out of front to make sure they dont hurt themself. or sometimes we throw front at people unexpectedly, like either mid-breakdown where we go “okay i dont wanna be here anymore, tag youre it” or sometimes because we think its funny because its the metaphysical equivalent of getting clonked in the head with a dodgeball, except the dodgeball is “being in control of our shared physical form”. usually mae’s the one that does that lmao

there’s a couple major categories of how alters come about. there’s “walk-ins”, where they kinda just… appear externally? like they just show up. sometimes we get a feeling of “huh. i think somebody might be here? or somebody might be showing up soon.” and have to rummage around for a while until they approach us or we find them. our walk-ins aren’t like, inherently aware of system stuff at first, so they usually get a crash course before they first front (if they choose to front at all) and it can be kinda entertaining. Rookie’s a walk-in! also Hiro, from a couple years ago. most of our walk-ins are fictives (fictional characters, usually appearing in response to us getting extremely attached to something or somebody) but a couple of our trauma splits are also fictives so that’s not like, a Rule or anything. i think these are mostly associated with non-traumatic systems but we get em fairly often so man idk

theres also… uh, i dunno what theyre actually called? we used to call them “constructs” but that sounds kind of mean. these alters exist to fill a specific role! and we usually dont talk about them on here with the exception of one major one, they just kinda hang out. Dhe exists to keep the system stable and manages the “backend” so to speak. Imp is kind of a mix of our intrusive & impulsive thoughts that came about from us trying to separate ourself from them so that we had an imaginary entity to go “nope!” at, which… stopped being imaginary, and is now a gremlin that lives in my brain. they can show up in response to trauma but arent split off of somebody, they kinda just pop into existence to help manage things.

the more… well-known, i guess? alter origin is “trauma splits”. rather than “just showing up one day with no real connection to the system origins”, trauma splits are formed when somebody in-system, uh, splits. it could be in response to a single situation or something built up over a long time, but somebody just kinda breaks and somebody new that has a bit of the original alter’s identity (if kinda influenced by the situation) shows up.

this can vary. All is a trauma split off of Leo himself, who got saddled with all of our brain hell about our ex and their insystem appearance is influenced more by eir than by leo which is… something they struggle with. Mae has a trauma split from a similar situation that is “Mae but from 2 years ago”, so basically her old identity before she reworked herself after getting put through total hell. and then uh… then there’s me and Mae! Icarus quite literally exploded into several people, with Pat (me) and Mae being the most distinct ones. we’re STILL finding out alters used to originally be a part of them that later evolved into their own people, like Summer and Toby. my identity is shaped pretty heavily not just by who Ica was at time of splitting, but also what they wanted to be jumbled together with trying to rationalize what was happening to them (they’re a pretty big fan of megaman star force, which has a media-typical system in it, so they leaned into hard “its like pat and rey from mmsf! i like pat, i wouldnt mind being like pat, its scary but im like one of my current favourite characters” and so i ended up being like, half-weird shapeshifter, half-green-haired prettyboy. and yeah thats where my name comes from!)

(Ica got put back together w/o anybody needing to integrate, which we were all very scared about, and it’s still kind of surreal to me because… me and Mae used to be able to stick ourself back together and thats how we found out about what happened to Ica in the first place? and we havent tried that since bc we have no idea what would happen. Ica 2: Ica Harder?)

despite their origins, trauma splits can be way more than… being a split. :V;; Toby’s not just a tiny splinter of Ica, he’s a quiet guy that gets stressed out and isn’t totally sure how to interact with people. i’ve existed for like 7 years at minimum and im a totally different person than i was when i thought i was still Ica, ‘cause ive had time to grow and change (and a problem Ica keeps running into now that theyre back is… they kinda Didn’t change because they were MIA for 6 years.) like everything else though this is variable– there can be “temporary” splits that dont develop properly and might get integrated back in, which has only happened to us when we were at the lowest point in our life where we were stuck constantly splitting to try and cope with whatever the hell was going on.

so Ica was gone for 6 years, which meant our system was without an original or main– there wasn’t anybody to be head of the system, basically. for a while i was operating under the assumption that i was Ica, so i filled in that role for a few years before i made the realization. eventually i kinda… stopped being able to, though, bc of stability issues, and then we were back to not really having a proper main anymore. to make up for it, we started going by Leo collectively and kinda… trying to pretend to be a single person? and so that ended up creating a construct to fill the role of “system main and the person we pretend to be when passing as singlet/not a system”: Leo himself! he’s kinda the most prominent traits we all have in common rolled into a single guy, which means that not only is he a pretty good system representative but we can also pretend to be him pretty easily (unless it’s someone like Toby who acts totally different). i dont know how common this situation is, i think normally it’s just “if system original is gone, another alter steps up” like originally happened to us before i had a severe case of problems disorder.

uhhh this is very rambley bc there’s a Lot to cover and now im trying to figure out how much of it i HAVE covered. systems are complicated and weird! OH WAIT okay i have one last bit.

so like, for us, first realizing we were a system was total hell. we fought a lot. as more alters showed up through various means, there were times where Ica felt like they were completely out of control of their own life bc of having to manage everything. there were a lot of panic attacks of people fronting and not being sure they were even REAL, despite… being in front. but we still felt like we were deluding ourself. this was in, like, late 2011, so systems weren’t a THING. they were a very fringe community that everyone hated. we got constantly harassed, which only fed into Ica’s panic hell and our identity issues. interpersonal relationships became a nightmare, especially because we have BPD as well which varies in severity for each of us but… for me it’s pretty bad! there were times early on where every day was another fun new breakdown from us arguing with each other or our friends or not being understood or… etc.

so… how are we holding up ~7 and a half years later? pretty well, actually! we talk to each other. we do things for each other, like buy food or games we know specific headmates like. Ica is back and way happier than they were in 2011, and is thrilled to get to hang out with everybody that’s showed up since. we help each other through problems, because at the end of the day our system ended up being a support network. Ica couldnt function on their own, so we’re like… 10+ people working together to try and be a single functional person. and we feel pretty okay with that! we still fight, and we still start shit, but we’re not in constant crisis anymore. we’re still working through all of our trauma, especially the more “recent” stuff that kinda broke our system for a while until we were able to start rebuilding, but we’re doing it together. :D

so… yeah, it can start out as a stereotypical “nightmare system”, with constant infighting and toxicity and self-sabotage and etc. but we worked through it! it took a while, but we’re overall more stable than we were before. we got out of the bad environment that was fucking us up, we got mental help for our other brain hell (we havent been able to bring up the system to our therapists bc its literally a non-issue now and we focus more on other things like our depression, anxiety, PTSD, etc), we found people that support us for being us, and we were able to like… figure things out. and it was a mess! i still have issues about my own identity because of literally thinking i was someone else for two years. Ica’s still trying to figure out how to adjust to things, especially bc they missed our entire “cringe culture” phase so they came back to find that i’d dismantled a lot of their middle-school settings. and, uh, some of their friendships as well.

systems are fuckin weird

[noddytheornithopod]

So it’s chapter 4, and things are heating up.

Very eerie Rantaro message. He says there’s something important about the rule to the two people left rule, and that this isn’t their first something (their first killing game?). Whoever finds out who they are will come for them, and that they apparently wanted this. I assume Rantaro is talking to the students... what does it all mean? I mean, the wanting the game definitely ties into that memory of Shuichi wanting to die. All in all, this is all pretty weird.

So what’s up with that writing on the rock? Who’s writing it?

Gonta also apparently keeps seeing bugs, weird.

Okay so Kokichi is REALLY getting into the killing game now. He’s no longer just an annoying brat, but he’s actually starting to show his Ultimate Supreme Leader side. I still can’t help but wonder if he knows something the others don’t. And of course, the Mastermind could STILL be one of the students. I feel like Kokichi would be too obvious to be the mastermind (as said, it feels like he’s a Byakuya/Fuyuhiko type, though him getting more serious and manipulative is very Nagito too, plus like Nagito he has a major link to the story’s central themes), but I’m still keeping an eye on him.

Kokichi steals one of the items you need to unlock new areas... and it just so happens to be a card. I have a feeling it might be the library card for the hidden door. What’s really in there?

Tsumugi gets her lab, nice. Also turns out she was a bartender as a job to get money before sponsors, cool. You’re back to being adorkable instead of a creepy cult follower, Miss Shirogane.

Shuichi gets his lab, huh. I thought it would be the checkered one downstairs, but I guess we get this one. Whose lab is it down there then? Rantaro? Or maybe Kokichi... maybe his checkered scarf is a clue.

Keebo gets a lab... and doesn’t like it. Monokuma tailored to everyone except him, of course. :v

So they get another memory flashlight and we see the meteors. We also hear about something called the Gofer project to save humanity which supposedly failed... and we also got some weird culty group saying mankind deserves damnation. Sounds kind of Ultimate Despair-like if you ask me.

Wait... this is the crisis Kirumi was overseeing wasn’t she?

More training. I’m enjoying the Shuichi, Maki and Kaito trio. Also Maki weirdly asks a question about whether Shuichi had feelings for Kaede, and if it’s rational. TBH it’s like she’s asking if she has feelings for someone. :v My guess is Kaito, lol.

That bonus I got with Himiko and Gonta training was fun. Seeing Himiko try to live her best life possible and move forward is pretty cool... even if she’s trying too hard sometimes, lol.

Okay this Monotaro and Monophanie subplot is REALLY weird. Monotaro malfunctioning is one thing... but the weird incest thing too? And domestic violence? What even is this? And there’s an ending??? Wow.

So we get Maki’s tragic backstory with training... ouch. So the Ultimate Child Caregiver cover has some truth to it, being something that happened at her orphanage. But then she was forced to be an assassin so she could get the money to keep the orphanage running. It sounds like that life really took a toll on her, huh. Amazing how she went from the most invisible character to TBH one of my faves. I like this main trio we currently have, as said.

Also got another bonus event with Shuichi bringing a practice katana to train with Kaito and Maki during the day... but unfortunately it makes Maki remember her failed mission. Turns out she failed the assassination because they thought she was cosplaying as a character and everyone loved it... and the attention meant she was almost discovered and couldn’t do her job. It’s kinda cute, but Maki is pretty upset by it because of the aforementioned backstory. I have to admit even if it’s a bit cliche with her kind of character, seeing Maki warm up to the others like this is nice.

Okay so free times... I finished Tsumugi’s since she’s now un-cancelled, and it actually got really sweet in the last one where it turned out Shuichi really liked a show she not only adored, but also inspired her to cosplay. Also wow, they get a bit awkward at the end, in a bit of a romantic tension kind of way. First character I completed too.

Also did some more Kaito free times. He’s really talking himself up, huh? I don’t even know if I believe these stories about having a pirate rival out at sea and running into an anaconda that guarded some ancient empire? IDK what to make of it, but it seems like he really has a taste for adventure and that’s why he wants to explore the Universe (gosh I hope he’s not blackened and that’s his Monokuma execution). Best part though was when Shuichi was really fondly of Kaito but then was like “WAIT I SHOULDN’T BE THINKING ABOUT A GUY LIKE THIS!” Shuichi Saihara is not straight confirmed, honestly this makes me ship him and Kaito even more.

Speaking of Kaito, he seems pretty unwell. It’s interesting that even though he’s trying to push and inspire Shuichi and Maki, he’s afraid to admit his own weakness (even as he encourages the others to talk about what’s bothering them). That end of chapter 3 thing implied he was dying, but from what?

Kokichi, what are you up to? I don’t trust you. It’s implied he’s somehow using the card for the second Neo World Miu was working on, but IDK how that works, especially if it’s the library card. Unless there’s something IN there he’s using, or the card is something else completely (like it has code or something)? And again, I feel like he might know something the others don’t. Also wow, his sprites get progressively creepier.

I guess Chapter 4 is the “callback to last game’s setting” chapter now, lol.

They do make a good point about wondering why Gonta feels such a need to be useful and protective to everyone.

So it also becomes apparent that even though Miu was working on the Neo World, she’s up to something with Kokichi. Miu decided she wanted to use it so they can all escape, but it seems like Kokichi has conspired something with her, or at the very least is manipulating her into doing things that he’d want. Is there really a secret in the Neo World, or is that all just an assumption that Kokichi wanted the others to make?

Miu, with vegetable and the R word, enough with the fucking ableist slurs.

Wow, so this Neo World has them all looking like weird funko pop things. Miu is as crass as ever (and there’s some odd exchanges about Tsumugi being sensitive on her neck and Kaito being a perv WTF), but also using her authority as the one who developed this version of the Neo World to steer things in her (or Kokichi’s?) direction.

Wow, Kaito is pretty excited about snow, lol. Maki says he’s acting like a puppy. Also when they split into groups to search Maki sounds disappointed she wasn’t with Shuichi and/or Kaito, and later comments that Shuichi really is cold for not checking the roof of the mansion to see if Kaito was there when he goes missing.

Miu gets rid of the bridge for the mansion group, which is pretty suspect even as she (really badly) pretends it’s an accident.

So they hear the chapel side even though it’s far away from them... is there some circular aspect to the loading of the world? Like you can travel between the supposed ends to reach the other world and not just the middle loading point?

Keebo makes a peculiar comment wondering if the world’s borders here with nothing beyond them reflects the academy they’re in right now. Huh.

Alright Kokichi, just spill the beans already. You asking Shuichi to basically join you is pretty suspicious. I have no idea what you’re planning, but it’s clearly not good.

So they exit the Neo World and... Miu’s dead. This is intriguing, since it seemed like she was planning something (or Kokichi was and using her). Kaito being missing makes him an obvious suspect, but even if it is obvious, I do think they’re setting something up with him dying and all that. Maybe he discovered the plan and at the last minute killed her to stop it, whatever it may be (I mean, chapter 4 IS the “super tragic sacrifice” chapter... gosh Maki if you have any feelings for Kaito say them before it’s too late)? Kokichi is also suspicious of course for seemingly orchestrating everything, but I feel like he’s too smart to be the killer directly right now.

[imhereformysciencefriends]

Class 1-A as ranked by me

8/10 - I like him, he’s hilarious, he’s a petty gay flamboyant narcissist but he doesn’t have a lot of meat to him yet. Good design, creative power, good weakness and hilarious reactions to upsetting his stomach despite knowing that he can’t keep it going for that long

10/10 - A perfect girl. A beautiful, powerful dumbass. Just, she’s so dumb and so strong and she’s so good and perky and cheerful and good and she’s just stupid and I ADORE HER. Look at her face. Tell me there is anyone further in the corner of VALID DUMBASS than her (except maybe Kirishima). So good.

10/10 - Another perfect girl!!!!! My beautiful autistic frog daughter who has never done anything wrong in her entire life and has no known weaknesses and is quite literally anime’s best girl. I adore her. I would die for her, if she would let me. No one even comes close to her, she’s literally just so incredibly wonderful.

10000/10 - MY PERFECT BOY! THAT’S MY BOY! IIDA TENYA!! I AM HIS #1 FAN FIGHT ME ON THAT TITLE!!!! He’s so earnest! He’s my perfect beautiful autistic glorious lawful good brilliant socially awkward sweet excellent boy!!!! He’s so complex! I’ve never seen an autistic character portrayed with as much respect as Iida has been portrayed before, he’s got goals and emotional depth and he fucks up and overcomes his faults and is always, always, ALWAYS trying his best! What a wonderful character!

10/10 - Such a sweet and smiling girl! So cheerful! So determined! She’s got a goal and she’s going for it with everything she has, but she’s making friends along the way! A cheery, helpful gal!

8/10 - Again, a cool design, an excellent character, but I just haven’t seen enough of him! I admire his nature and when he sits on his tail like a chair it is CRITICALLY adorable.

5/10 - I want to like him but he needs to quit hanging around Mineta

11/10 - WHAT A GOOD BOY! He wants to be manly! But like, in a healthy way! He wants to be friends with everyone, and wants to be the best version of himself that he can be! He idolizes a chivalrous hero, and is the only person both stupid AND compassionate enough to not only genuinely enjoy Bakugou’s company, but also fall in love with the guy. Such a valid dumbass. I’m so proud of him.

9/10 - I love you, my special boy! My quiet boy! He’s got selective mutism and only really talks to animals (and bugs)! He is soft. @ studio bones blz give my boy the screentime he deserves

8/10 - his power is HILARIOUS and his face is cute! He reminds me of Donkey Kong.

10/10 - Gonna be frank, I imprinted on him the moment I saw this six armed wonder on screen. Turns out he’s actually INCREDIBLY protective of basically anyone he lays eye on and just wants to look out for his friends! A good team player with six arms meant for HUGGING

9/10 - DEEP DOPE

7/10 - Ngl I keep forgetting this guy exists. I love his little smile though! His power is also really rad

10/10 - a good and emo bird. All of his dialogue during the tournament arc was directly tailored to hit me in the heart and I love him. He’s so dramatic, but I also feel like I don’t know everything there is to know about this guy yet.

10/10 - my son, the fandom fave. Seriously what is it w/ everyone and autistic twinks with daddy issues; yall have a type. Love that tragic backstory and overcoming it. Late to the dekusquad but that’s fine bc they love him, and so do I

10/10 - I haven’t seen nearly enough of this girl (yes that was a pun) but do know, from the bottom of my heart, I love her

2/10 - He gets 1 point for the potential of redemption and 1 point for his interactions with Kirishima. Garbage shit boy.

10/10 - MY SON!!!! MY FRECKLY BOY!!! HE CRIES SO MUCH!!! I BELIEVE IN HIM SO MUCH!!! Stop breaking your bones, my precious boy....

0/10 - Bad

10/10 - She’s so smart and her issues with confidence really ring true to my experience as a 15 year old. She’s capable and powerful, but doubts herself, and also she has... some of the more genuine moments? Like, she’s still just a 15 year old, they ALL are, but I feel like she’s the one where we really see that the most.