#except maybe Ann! Ann is super likable.

[taldigi]

anyway I think it's an actual crime they cannot kiss in canon

[ravenwitch45]

Luz Noceda and Princess Peach for the character ask game!

Luz Noceda

Favorite thing: How kind and welcoming she is, even in Thanks to Them after going through a whole truckload of trauma while she is a little somber she never let that stop her from being kind. I admire that.

Least Favorite Thing: I honestly can't think of anything, maybe her guilting herself over stuff that's not her fault but I'd do the same so XP She's pretty perfectly likable in my eyes.

Favorite Canon Relationship: I'm going to say 'relationship' means platonic too so that's what I'm going off of. I really can't decide between Eda or Amity, despite filling different roles they both went from being insensitive (To varying degrees) with Luz to learning the ins and outs of her personality and what she needs and learning they want to be a person that can fill those needs for her and others. Both are just wholesome I can't choose.

Favorite Non Canon Relationship: Not sure since Luz has met practically every character in her own show. Her and Anne from Amphibia were cute in the animatic though, Luz meeting Marcy tho feels like it would be fun as well.

Sexuality headcanon: Um... well Luz in canonically Bi and as a Bi girl myself I totally see it, I could never see her as anything else so yeah Bi and it's canon.

What I'd do if I could spend the day with them: Just let her rant and ramble about the stuff she likes, I feel like it would be fun.

Random Fact about them I like: Less of a fact and more of quirk she has, Her Wonder. Like her first spell and how she reacted, the book fair, just how cute she is when she's excited, I love it so much.

Princess Peach

Favorite thing: She is feminine and caring and a sick badass at the same time, which is horribly rare. I mean in Mario and Rabids she literally has a shotgun which I love. Her and Amy Rose would be such good friends.

Least Favorite: How little games she is playable in. I mean the few games with an actual plot she is she's great, Super Paper Mario, the aforementioned rabbids games, but I would have loved if Odyssey allowed you to play as her after the main story is wrapped up, really would have drove her standing on her own and going out to find herself plot home.

Favorite Canon Relationship: Okay Her and Mario would be the easy answer, but frankly how much he get's friend zoned I'll go with something else. I like whatever her and Daisy have going on, gal pals (One Source also says there cousins so that's cool.)

Favorite Non Canon Relationship: Her and Bowser? Okay his treatment of her is a little inconsistent but Paper Mario Bowser is particularly sweet on her. Like Super Paper Mario he is just so nice to her, which is cute juxstaposed against his usual aggression like "Fuck all of yall, except Peach, she's great" and the idea of him just not understanding how to ask someone out is also cute to me.

Sexuality headcanon: Pan, I mean her element in Strikers and stuff is love so someone having magical love powers being Pan just feels right.

What I'd do If I could spend the day with them: Bake, I couldn't think of a better teacher.

Random Fact I like: She has Trans colors, White gloves, Pink Dress and blue broach and that's the colors, I generally like pride colors showing up with a character but also, the idea of one the first women of gaming being trans or supporting is just great, eat dirt Transphobes :)

[dadsbongos]

trashy dad

Movie/Game/Show: My Hero Academia Dynamic: Shota Aizawa/Reader (Platonic) Warnings: references (2) to un*s ann*s, one (1) use of (y/n), fem pronouns Summary: Shota trying to support his YouTuber daughter :) cuz social media aus own me Word Count: 2.1K ~~~

"Hey, gamers," you grin at the camera before tossing an arm over your father's shoulders, "My dad's in town and as you can see," you hesitated slightly before turning to face your father, "Dad's not super into taking care of himself. So, I figured what's better than doing a Q&A together while I do his makeup?"

"Hitoshi just did a 'what I eat in a day', didn't he?" Shota quirked a brow, already reaching back to tie up his messy, tangled hair.

"Spoilers!" you quietly whine as you open your phone, "He still has to edit it, silly man. We're gonna have to brush out your hair later, by the way."

Shota's eyes widened, "We? I thought this was your idea and video, (Y/n)."

"No," you huff, scrolling through a few of the questions from fans, "I mean it was but your hair is so… Okay, first question is from - oh my God the names - shrekslongtoe, what was my first word?"

"Are you gonna start putting makeup on me or just sit there?" Shota scratched at his nose before snickering, "That wasn't your first word. Your first word was 'Dada' and it drove Hizashi insane."

"Hizashi is my other dad, by the way," you lean over to grab your makeup bag, "'Toshi and I call him papa. Oooh, oh no," you looked up to Shota, "I don't have your shade, you're gonna look weird."

"I don't really care," the man shrugged, watching as you took out a pink beauty blender, "That looks like a buttplug."

"Don't say that!" your eyes were wide at his words while you got out your foundation, "Youtube doesn't like that."

"Whoops," he deadpanned, "Next question."

"Shit, right."

"Language."

"Japanese," you murmur, going to the next reply, "yoonbumskneecap asks, 'Did you believe in me-’ they said my name but you know, ‘and Hitoshi when they decided to become Youtubers?' And 'in 'Toshi's case - drop out of college to become a professional clout man.'"

"To be honest," Shota closed his eyes, only in slight fear, as you began pressing the foundation into his skin, "I was really worried about Hitoshi, I didn't know if he'd stay as big as he was because he's a lot like me, in the sense that people tend to not like us for our bluntness. So I was worried he'd be a meme for like a month and then people would drop him, but thankfully I was proved wrong," he opened his eyes when he felt you pull away and begin rooting through your bag once again, "With you, I was less worried because you're more like 'Zashi, i.e extremely likable, and you were kind of getting a boost from appearances on Hitoshi's channel. I still worry because the internet is a fickle mistress but I'm not staying up at night about it."

Pulling out a dark eyebrow pencil, you grin at your father, "Aww, that was kinda sweet. Not really but kind of."

"What I'm here for," Shota's eyes followed your hand as you uncapped the pencil and reached up, beginning to mark at his eyebrows, "I'm gonna read the next question while you kill my eyebrows."

"I'm not killing them!" you giggled, "But unlike Papa, you already have pretty thick, full eyebrows so I won't be here long."

"Good," he muttered before furrowing his brows in confusion, ignoring your frustrated groan, "who is daddysero and why is he asking if you pissed today?"

"What?!" you pull your dad's hand back to see what he was looking at, instantly calming down when you saw he was still on Twitter, "Oh, that's just Sero, he asks me that every time I tweet. I thought you went to my Instagram DMs," at Shota's questioning stare you grinned, "Mama's got simps in her DMs."

"Don't ever call yourself 'Mama' in my presence ever again," Shota shook his head, once again ignoring your annoyance, "papichulo46290 wants to know my favorite memory of you."

"If you mix me up with 'Toshi, I'll be so pissed," you return the eyebrow pencil to your bag as Shota speaks.

"I won't... probably," he shrugs while you root through your bag, "So, Hizashi had taken Hitoshi out for ice cream because of - has he mentioned his middle school trauma?" at your nod, he continues, "Hitoshi was having a bad day from middle school, shocking, so you and I were left home alone together. You were probably seven and you really wanted to paint my nails and I let you. You..." he shook his head, snickering, "you fucked them up. So bad. But you were so happy to just be spending time with me- "

"Keep talking, but I'm gonna do your eyeshadow," you lean back in, swishing your brush over a navy blue, almost black shade, "Just so you guys know, Dad wanted to look like shit, don't unsubscribe cuz this is gonna come out bad."

"It won't be too bad, you're talented," Shota did his best to remain still, "But overall, you were just so adorable and it didn't even matter that the smudged nails got me teased in the teacher's lounge the next day. It all came off after like a week because it was shitty polish but you get the idea."

"Aww, I didn't know you kept it on, that's so sweet," you fall back briefly to inspect your work, "It's not awful but I'm only posting this because you're my dad."

"Of course, I did," Shota continued scrolling through the questions, "A lot of people are asking if you mean Dad or Daddy, and a lot more people are asking for pictures of your feet, you should block them all."

"Yeah, I got sickos in my replies too, just gotta scroll past em'."

"Disgusting..." Shota grumbled as you moved to his other eye, "Is 'electrodick' Kaminari, perchance?"

"Unfortunately."

"Gross, he asks if you had an 'I'm not like other girls' phase," Shota hummed quietly in thought, "Maybe when you were eight for like a month, but that's probably because except for Nemuri you didn't have any women in your life. Thankfully you moved on from that pretty quickly."

"Oh yeah, that was a gross, weird time. You and Papa also weren’t shitty people so I didn’t have a lot of misogynist influence."

"I like to think we did a good job," Shota sighed, finally moving back into his slouching position when you pulled away completely, "Is 'explosionmurder' Bakugou?"

"You know it."

"Okay well, he's asking if you plan on fucking up your bronzing again?" he thinks for a moment, “Was that from when you looked kinda copper-ish in a video?

"Oh my God, that was one time, Bakugou!" you shout and shake your brush at the camera, "One time!"

"I don't even know what blending is so you're doing better than I am."

"God, how are we related?"

Without hesitation, Shota replied, "Surrogate. Which answers summerlongsock's question."

"Nice," you chuckle, setting the brush back in your bag, "You probably won't need too much bronze or countour since you're going for bad," you immediately turn to the camera, "And Bakugou isn't gonna say a fucking word about it!"

"Is eyeliner next? And if so, I would enjoy a nice wing," Shota muttered, looking through the remaining questions, "Hitoshi asks why I haven't done a video with him yet."

You nod along while uncapping the liner, "I'm curious about that too. I thought my first video with a parent would be with Papa. I was gonna say family but..." you shrug, "Hitoshi was my first video and then Eri came on."

"He never asked," Shota closed both of his eyes, allowing you to move his head around as you pleased, "You just texted me the video idea and we set it up while I was in town. If Hitoshi wants a video so bad he should come up with an idea."

"Jeez, don't bully the poor boy," you laughed quietly, carefully applying more eyeliner to your father's left lid, "We should all do a video together. I think it'd be fun."

"Come up with an idea," he replied flatly before opening his eyes, "davinky wants to know when you got into makeup. Probably after thirteen, sometime."

"Yeah, I got my first real eyeshadow at like fourteen and then you guys just enabled my love of makeup after that."

"Well, the thing with that was, Hizashi and I didn't want you growing up thinking you had to wear makeup for any reason," Shota opened his eyes once he felt you back away, blinking a few times, "So we waited till you were more mature because giving makeup to a six-year-old is weird."

Capping your eyeliner, you traded it out for mascara, "Yeah, even little play kits are a bit ehhh. Don't close your eyes, but look down."

Following instruction, Shota took the opportunity to read off another question, "I can't see the name but someone's asking what we did together for fun. While you were a kid."

Humming quietly in thought, you move from one eye to the other, "We used to go to diners a lot. Those late-night diner trips, remember?"

"Oh yeah, you were such a little demon about bedtime. I had to take you to this little place for scrambled eggs or some shit and you'd fall asleep on the way back home."

Putting away your mascara, you reach out for your hairbrush before beginning to pull out the hair tie in Shota's hair, "Mina wanted me to ask what videos you show people when they ask what your kids do for a living."

"For Hitoshi, the one where he and Kaminari made Bakugou breakfast with sex toys. For you, the one where you turn yourself into Mina's little character - with the pink skin," Shota winced slightly at the tug of your hairbrush, "And Eri's a teacher so that information comes first since it's the least strange."

As you fussed with his tangled nest of hair, you read another question over Shota's shoulder, "When did you know you loved me? Like after adopting me."

"Not too long after the adoption was finalized actually," Shota grumbled as the brush made its final courses through his hair, "You've always been a really great kid. I don't know when I 'realized' but it was definitely around the time you were born, maybe like the day after."

"That's pretty good considering I was a stranger," you giggled, brushing out the final knots in his dark hair, "A baby stranger."

"Hmm," Shota hummed in response, "You almost done?"

Refraining from rolling your eyes, you fluffed Shota's now smooth and detangled hair around his shoulders with a small smile, "I'm done. Your hair is so pretty when it's brushed out."

"I know," the man muttered, handing your phone back, "Wanna do one more question and then sign off?"

"Yeah," you scroll through some of the questions, "I want it to be the best question that's ever been asked."

"Ask your own, you're great at that."

You shook your head with furrowed brows at his comment, "Is that a compliment?"

"It was meant to be."

"Thanks, but no need, I've found one. Midoriya wants to know if raising two attention whores was hard. He didn't say ‘attention whores’ because he doesn't swear but that's the vibe."

"What's Midoriya's at?" Shota asked.

"SmallMight."

"Of course," the man grumbled, closing his eyes to think, "You two were honestly pretty easy to raise. Not a whole lot of fits compared to what I've heard other parents talk about. You both liked to talk a lot to each other, and, of course, to Hizashi and me. Not terribly difficult at all."

"Aww, I'm glad we didn't make you pull your hair out," you grin.

"Oh, you still did. Absolutely."

"Nice," you giggle before turning off your phone and facing the camera, "Okay guys, well, I hope you don't clown on me as much as usual because if you do, my dad will... I don't know… kick your ass."

"Exactly," Shota nodded, a horrific smile on his face, "I'll beam right into your living room."

"Hopefully you guys come back next week where I'll..." floundering for an answer, you turn to your dad as if he’d give you ideas, "Create wings to do it better than Icarus ever could."

Giving a singular stiff nod, Shota looked dead at the camera, "I'd watch it."

"You heard it from the main man himself, peeps," you waved to the camera, Shota copying the motion, “Bye!”

"If there's one comment about my eyebags, I'm never coming on your channel again," Shota lied as you leaned over to stop recording.

"They're gonna love you, I'm sure," you assure your father, "Wanna see how I edit?"

"God no, Hitoshi showed me how long it takes to edit his videos, it looks like hell."

[notcorrect-persona5]

Ryuji for that character thing! If you haven't had him already

Ryuji!! I already know this is gonna be a long one.

Favorite thing about them

He has one of the biggest, kindest hearts in the Persona universe. Once he found out why Makoto was blackmailing them, he forgave her almost immediately. Despite not having a lot himself, he spends money feeding Yusuke (which I will talk about in my headcanons). He tries to befriend and include Mishima because he knows he doesn’t have any friends. He is always hyping up and complimenting the other phantom thieves (have you heard his dancing lines?)

Least favorite thing about them

I don’t like the number of times he is written OOC in the game, particularly when it comes to pervertedness. Before I go on, this isn’t me ignoring his flaws. Character flaws are extremely important. Without them, a character is no longer interesting or even likable. One of my favorite persona characters is Yosuke who doesn’t exactly have the cleanest mind, so I’m not saying Ryuji isn’t perverted because I don’t like it. I’m saying it because I honestly don’t think he is.

Yes, Ryuji likes girls, but he isn’t gross about it. The only times I can recall this behavior is in two anime cutscenes towards Ann for comedic relief (side note: he didn’t realize what the maid service actually was. He genuinely thought they were just ordering a cute maid to do housework). Ryuji has so much respect for Ann, and he knows what she’s been through. He would never ever do anything like that- no matter how close they are.

I think what happened is the writers didn’t write a character who could make those kinds of jokes (except maybe Ren who is a silent protagonist), so when they wanted to make one of those jokes they chose Ryuji because he’s “the best option.” Morgana is lowkey a feminist, and, you know, a cat, so it would be a little weird coming from him. And then there’s Yusuke who lectured two girls for asking to hangout. ATLUS knows how to write a “likable pervert.” We’ve seen it with Yosuke. They could have given this trait to Ryuji, and I would have been fine with it. The problem is, they didn’t, making those scenes awkward and uncomfortable.

Favorite line

“I can’t think and flex at the same time.”

brOTP

Ren Ren!! Based on his dialogue options to characters like Ann and Sumire, I think Ren finds the super cheerful and energetic personality a little overwhelming, yet Ryuji, who is the loudest and brightest sunshine child out there, doesn’t bother him, and if that’s not the sweetest thing-

OTP

RyuAnn is so cute. Normally I don’t like shipping characters who are just best friends, but I love them together.

nOTP

I don’t really have one. He’s kind of shippable with everyone. Like any ship I see with him I’m like “I don’t think it, but I can see it.”

Random headcanon

He buys Yusuke food and tries to keep Jagariko on him. A lot of the time when Yusuke talks about being hungry or not having money for food Ryuji offers to take him out to eat or pay. In a manga, he said he didn’t have any Jagariko on him implying he usually does.

This is a popular one, but I think he dyed his hair blond back in middle school when ann was considering dying her hair black. It doesn’t make sense for him to dye it as a way to embrace his new reputation as a delinquent. He hates that reputation so much. Yes, he accepted it, but I don’t think he wants to add any unnecessary fuel to the fire.

He and Yusuke are roommates in college!

Shiho, Ann, and Ryuji were a trio in middle school.

He has insomnia. There are so many times throughout the game when he mentions not sleeping for literal days.

There’s very little that Ryuji does that annoys Ren; however, I know Ryuji has taken Ren’s glasses off his face and put them on himself. It’s such a Ryuji thing to do.

The girl at the convenience store who gave the chocolate to Ryuji on Valentine’s Day? It wasn’t pity chocolate, and they date sometime during third year or after high school.

This is also a popular one, but I think the reason why he isn’t a very good dancer in Dancing is because of his leg injury. He usually does very basic dance moves with his feet, and his dances focus more on his hands.

He sees Mishima sitting alone at lunch their third year of high school, and forces him to sit with them.

Unpopular opinion

His whole “fame thing” wasn’t that bad. While I don’t think it’s a good mindset to have, he never did or said anything harmful as a result of it. He was just annoying. Ryuji has extremely low self-esteem. He has been beaten down his entire life, physically and emotionally. The only thing he thought he was good at was track, and that didn’t turn out well for him. Finally, he’s doing something incredible, but nobody knows about it. He’s proud of his work as a phantom thief, and he wants to tell people. He also wants people to recognize how awesome he is and give him some sort of validation. He doesn’t feel loved, and he thinks it’s his fault. Now he has something that he knows would make others like him. I don’t understand why he gets so much crap for it when in-game he recognized his that behavior was wrong, why it was wrong, apologized, and said he would work to be a better person.

Song I associate with them

Travel Song from Shrek The Musical lol. It’s literally the Hawaii trip. Shrek is Ann, and Ryuji is Donkey.

Favorite picture of him

Also this portrait. His smile makes me want to smile

[allthefilmsiveseenforfree]

Annabelle Comes Home

I’ve never actually taken notes during a scary movie. Oh sure, I see a lot of horror movies. But not many scary movies, and I’m gonna be real with you, pretty much anything in the Conjuring universe scares the hell out of me. All of those movies are literally the most terrifying experiences I’ve ever had in theaters (except for The Nun, although the figure of the Nun herself.....yeah, that’s a HARD NO from me). I was unsure if I would be able to sustain the tension and atmosphere of a truly scary movie while trying to write in my little whale-printed spiral notebook in the dark, just praying that characters turn on a goddamn flashlight or something so there’d be enough light for me to write things like “this dumb asshole” or “trust no bitch.” So was the vibe totally ruined, or was I able to maintain maximum spookiness? Well...

I’m pleased to report the spookiness factor stayed at a solid 7.5 to 8 throughout in spite of my note-taking. There’s not a TON in here that we haven’t seen in other entries of the Conjuring-verse, but with likable characters and a strong “the walls are closing in” vibe, you could do far worse this Halloween season. The basic story is that Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) have taken custody of Head Bitch in Charge, Annabelle the murderous demon doll, to place her in their room of cursed, haunted, and otherwise don’t-fuck-with-us objects. When they have to leave for the weekend, their daughter Judy (McKenna Grace) is left with her babysitter Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman) and Mary Ellen’s friend, Daniela (Katie Sarife). Daniela is SUPER into the occult stuff that the Warrens have spent their careers dealing with and breaks into their don’t-fuck-with-us room, and you know what she does? She fucks with everything AND she lets Annabelle out of her case to party. And party she does, by inviting all her spirit and demon friends to come out to play and turn the Warrens’ house into a death trap. 

Some thoughts:

I love how much Ed and Lorraine love each other. They’re so normal and happy and ground everything in their real affection for each other, and with every movie, Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson sell that connection more and more. 

That low level sound when Annabelle is outside of the glass makes me want to weep and then die. That’s some fucking excellent sound design there, and it is effective.

Here’s my question - if this visiting friend is clearly kind of the worst and also SUPER OBVIOUS about wanting to snoop around, whose fault is it really if you leave her alone in the house? I don’t care if she promised to stay in the kitchen, TRUST NO BITCH.

Question: how did Ed and/or Lorraine construct that entire glass shelf so quickly? What was the turnaround here, like a day? It seems like Ed is a pretty handy fellow, but I would think that if I were attempting to contain a source of pure unadulterated evil, I would want to really do a thorough measure-twice-cut-once kinda job.

It’s so easy to become furious at Daniela (Katie Sarife) because she is being the dumbest asshole and touching ALL OF THE CURSED THINGS - which, sidebar, if she believed in this shit enough to try to reach out to the spirit of her dad, why does she not believe in it enough to think that everything in the cursed room is y’know, CURSED?? end sidebar - but I can’t stay mad at her. One, she’s just a kid, and two, she’s in so much pain and just misses her dad. I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same thing at 16. Ok, but I wouldn’t have just gone around touching all the objects willy-nilly. Maybe a little, but...she really went for broke, man. As the movie goes on and more and more demon creatures try to murder them, it just becomes so clear that no one has ever fucked up this badly.

McKenna Grace is probably my favorite working child actress, which may be why she’s in like, everything right now. She’s just so soulful, and conveys a real depth of emotion in everything she does. She does a FANTASTIC job as Judy Warren, who frankly, has done nothing wrong in her life, ever, and did nothing to deserve all this bullshit.

OK but would someone get some goddamn WD-40 in this creaky ass house. This is the most 1970s house I’ve ever seen, it can’t have been built more than 10 years ago, why are all your hinges so creaky that they can be heard from miles away? 

One problem with being the 7th entry in a horror movie universe is that we’re seeing a lot of the same tricks used in previous films. Obviously haunted house movies only have so many guns in their arsenal, but it is a disappointment to see the exact same slow walk around with a scary figure (The Bride here, The Nun in The Conjuring 2) that we’ve seen play out exactly this way in a previous franchise entry. In fact, I noticed a LOT of other nods and similar bits to a number of horror movies (The Grudge, The Conjuring, Paranormal Activity) which is an interesting parallel given the events of the movie and all the various evil entities we see coming alive in the house, but that was the one that felt particularly egregious.

The few moments of comic relief (the pizza guy, and Bob) are WELCOME distractions, and well executed.

Nice close-up shot of a Raggedy Ann doll (the real-life Annabelle is a Raggedy Ann doll).

As for the evil entities we see, there’s a mixture of truly unnerving and just ho-hum. There’s one demon in particular that I’m thinking of who is VERY scary at first, but then in shown somewhere else for way too long and becomes noticeably less scary. 

The whole situation with the Ferry Man was just A Lot. When the coins started hitting the ground, Sleepy Gay pointed out that there were no good options here - the absolute best case scenario is that there’s a dude in your house throwing coins, and that’s not a situation you want to find yourself in.

Did I Cry? No, there was no crying. However, Sleepy Gay and I both screamed out loud at a VERY high volume.

Overall, this is pretty solid and certainly in the top ranks of the non-Conjuring movies in the franchise. There’s a little something for everyone in terms of types of scares, and if you like the creeping dread and building atmosphere of these types of haunted house movies, you’ll like this one too. 

If you liked this review, please consider reblogging or subscribing to my Patreon! For as low as $1, you can access bonus content and movie reviews, or even request that I review any movie of your choice.

[bamboozy]

I think we are just interpreting the terms "hero" and "villain" in different ways. To me, they aren't moral judgements at all. Like I said, I am talking about narrative framing. You can call them protagonist and antagonists, if you want, but every story has them. Every story has a narrative with characters that we are meant to like and dislike. We may come away disagreeing with the narrative, but it needs to be there.

While everyone is morally gray in the series, we are definitely supposed to sympathize with some characters more than others. When I think of the term hero, I'm thinking about who the author wants us to like the most. Who are we supposed to root for?

Lestat was Anne Rice's Mary Sue, we are supposed to love him, flaws and all, the way she loved him. She thought he was super cool and awesome and she wanted her audience to feel that way too. Many people did and still do, obviously. He has a tendency to actively call himself out ("I don't know if i'm the hero or villian of this tale, but either way, shouldn't i dominate it"), which makes it easier to accept him as the hero because the narrative is saying, "yes he's a mess, but love him anyway."

So while I agree that Marius's bad behavior is obvious, to a degree, I don't feel like the narrative frames it particularly well. He doesn't get called out in ways that feel satisfying.

I admit there's a reason I feel this way.

When I first read these books as a teen, Marius was one of my favorite characters. Second favorite after Louis, actually. I admit, I was not inclined to think critically about things at that age. I was just accepting what I saw on the page, and Lestat (the character we are supposed to like the most) thought Marius was cool and so did I. The long suffering father figure, who sacrificed everything to take care of the OG vampires. Yadda, yadda, etc.

I've talked to others who read the books as teens and liked him a lot too and then when they re-read them as adults they were like "WHOA WHAT THE FUCK" and went from loving to hating him.

He's a character that seems to, somehow, appeal to teens, while repulsing adults. Teens and preteens also happen to be the demographic he victimizes. Like his relatationship with Armand started when Armand was really young.

I know there's an argument to be made for them all being bad, and Marius isn't any better or worse than the rest of them. In a way that's true, all the vampires commit atrocities. And if fans of Marius feel that way (because i do think he probably has some), that's fine. I'm an Armand apologist so like, I get it. We all have our problematic faves. And yeah, me loving Armand means I am biased about Marius and his crap. I know. I'm not judging anyone for liking him, though. That's not what this is about.

I just feel like there's a disconnect between what Anne Rice thought she was doing with Marius vs. what people actually see. Because a lot of people seem to hate him (except teenagers, maybe. It was certainly true 20+ years ago, but idk how todays teens feel about him) He seems almost universally loathed in a fandom full of characters that are raging dumpster fires. Why is that? Why do people have no problem loving Lestat and Armand and even Akasha, but Marius is where they draw the line.

I think it's because the narrative around him is so weird and murky. Are we supposed to love him? Hate him? Love to hate him? He makes people uncomfortable in a way that seems unpleasant rather than compelling.

And I know that you could argue, well, doesn't that make him a villain? And, I guess. But a villain isn't necessarily unlikable. In fact, the best villains are actually kind of likable. Even in the first book, when Lestat is being clearly framed as a villain, he was compelling and even likable in spite of everything. Marius just isn't, for most people.

So I want the narrative reframed in a way that feels like it is aware that he is loathsome. Because i just don't often get that feeling much from the books. And I mean, considering Daniel exists to call out everyone's crap, I assume that yeah, we will see it with Marius too one way or the other.

It's either that or make him less loathsome. But I don't really want to sympathize with him now, which is why I said my big wish for the show is for him to be fully embraced as a villain. I want to love to hate him.

But like, either way, I'll keep watching the show. I'm sure they'll do something interesting with him. I'm not going to get mad if it doesn't cater to me, personally. It's just a wish! That's all!

People out here arguing that Lestat is worse than Armand or Armand is worse than Lestat.

No, shut up, listen.

They're both trash. Let them be messy.

You know who's ACTUALLY the worst?

Marius.

I really hope the show frames him as a villain. The kind of villain who doesn't realize he's a villain because he's so full of himself he honestly thinks he's wise and noble and tragic.

But actually, who started this cycle of abuse? By grooming, turning, and then abandoning Armand to a cult for centuries? By telling Lestat to withhold information from his fledglings?

Marius, the Roman colonizer. The slave owner. The pederast.

There is so much to be mined there. Especially with the themes of race the show is exploring and with Armand being Muslim. It adds layers to Marius' playing favorites with Lestat, like choosing to seek him out and save him after ignoring Armand's plight for literal centuries.

I've seen some people speculate that since Armand is older in the show, that his trauma with Marius will be softened or abandoned somehow. But I think there's still plenty of room for Armand to have been groomed and used as a sex slave in his youth. And judging by Armand's reaction to the rent boy comment, i assume they are going to run with it somehow.

Assad looks young enough to pass for early to mid-20s, which means Armand still could have spent his teen years with Marius before being turned. There's still room for all that abandonment trauma.

But anyway that's really all I want. For the show to call Marius and his bullshit the fuck out. Repeatedly. And for it to be framed as the villainy it is.

[lucymont]

aahhhhh I wish Lucy had a bigger fanbase, I need more content lmao. I don't get why she's not as popular. She has a super cool character design and complex personality, Whats not to love. Also crying bout the lack of atsulucy shippers. atsulucy have lots of genuine interactions and similar pasts. why dont people love themmmmm

Lucy is my all-time-favorite female character and in my opinion one ofthe best developed female characters in BSD along with Kyouka. I can see whyshe isn’t as popular as other characters, especially cause the fandom’s maininterest are the 2 Double Black partnerships and honestly most characters whoaren’t them suffer from this, but she is someone, who can come off asself-centered, petty and rude, which can also gain her hatred from readers and make her maybe less popular.What makes her such a likable character to me though is how those traits of hersare explained through the story and how she is working on them and developing consistentlyas a person from the moment she appeared till now.

Lucy is introduced as the creepy one-chapter-antagonist, who loathesAtsushi for having in her point of view so much luck for staying in such aloving and caring place unlike her. Lucy constantly fears being thrown out ofthe Guild if she doesn’t succeed, because the thing she is most afraid of isbeing left alone. On one hand she loathes other people so much aftergetting abused, getting treated like a freak for her ability and having nobodyelse except for Anne, she could rely on. But on the other hand it’s theaffection of others and the feeling of being needed what she craves the most.

She even throws her own dignity away just for the sake of staying in theGuild by offering to work as a maid without even really wanting to do so and even after being called worthless by Fitzgerald. What makes her step forward is what Atsushi told her when she was willing to sacrifice the whole city, so that Atsushi would feel the pain she has went trough.

He makes her realize, that her loathing others because she herself got hurt by others is no better than what these people did to her as a child. He inspired her so much, especially because he went trough the same as her and is still acting totally different than her, that she even sacrificed herself, knowing that she might get killed, in order to help Atsushi. In a way she stopped imprisoning herself by loneliness and started working and doing things for herself, as well. 

Lucy is such a relatable character,if not the most relatable female character in this series. She is a girl, who never had had anyone at her side and just wanted someone to be close to. She became a victim of loneliness, hating other humans for making her an outcast, but still craving the attention and caring from them. She is a girl with many flaws, but flaws, that a lot of people can relate to. She is wonderful and all I want for her is to get a place she belongs to and people she can call family.

Other reasons why I love her

OP powers - Anne is just a lovable creep and Lucy’s ability mirrors her flaws and her hardships perfectly

Character design - not only does she look like Anne, I love how she is unconventionally pretty, she is not your standard beauty, She is unique and gorgeous

Interactions -  she bickers with Kyouka, but in the end it was her, who understood Kyouka’s sadness and I just want them to be close friends, please. And let her interact with others more

Atsulucy - this deserve its own spot. Her crush on him is very adorable, Atsushi doesn’t judge her for what she did, but instead understands her and treats her with kindness and she acknowledges it, which is why she will always help him out

At that note, this post  became longer than I expected, but I will always try to spread more love for my beautiful princess

[fuzzylikesmedia]

Summer anime 2017

 All the summer anime has premiered now, except for Hell Girl season 4 (7/14) and The Reflection (7/22), and I'm going to be away this weekend, so I might not watch Hell Girl until next week anyways. So it seems like a good time to write up some brief thoughts on the shows I watched, which is nearly all of them. The exceptions are:

HiDive exclusives, I didn't want to get another subscription

Netflix shows which won't be available legally for months (fuck you Netflix for that, at least I have the Kakegurui manga)

Sequels I hadn't watched the original of

Symphogear, which hasn't been announced by anyone yet (as of 7/13)

I didn’t actually finish the first episode of all of them, but I tried. 

This ended up super long, because there are a lot of shows.

I’m going to go through these in order of premiere date, anything else is too hard to keep track of. I’ll include a note for the full length shows I didn’t watch as well.

Hina Logi: From Luck & Logic (on Crunchyroll, Saturdays at 12:00 am EDT)

This is a spinoff of Luck & Logic, which I didn’t watch, and I didn’t watch this version either. I really don’t know anything about this, you can check out the reviews on ANN.

Fox Spirit Matchmaker (on Crunchyroll, Saturdays at 9:30 am EDT)

I bailed out of this one less than 10 minutes in. It’s a bad romcom with bad animation, and I didn’t like any of the characters. I can’t recommend it at all, even if you like straight romcoms.

Kakegurui (Netflix, so probably all the episodes will be availabe early October)

First watch the OP (Sayo Yamamoto worked on it) right now: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5sahqn 

I couldn’t actually watch the show, since it’s a Netflix license, but I’ve read the manga up to the latest chapter and I love it! (It’s the source of my icon). It’s very trashy, and often gay. There is a male MC, but he doesn’t really do much, and mostly exists to be the person who gets everything explained to him. Also because we never get Yumeko’s (the female MC) point of view. I highly recommend the manga and the anime.

Fate/Apocrypha (Netflix, it was announced at AX that the first batch of episodes would be available November 7th)

This is yet another Fate show, but I’ve been hearing good things. Apparently the source for this one isn’t written by Nasu, which is a point in it’s favor. I don’t really have much more to say, if you want to get into Fate stuff, I recommend Fate/Zero. I never really got into other Fate stuff.

Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu (on Crunchyroll, Saturdays at 1:00 pm EDT. Also on Anime Strike but why would you choose that over crunchyroll???)

I watched some of Touken Ranbu - Hanamaru last fall, but it didn’t really grab me. I definitely prefer the bloody action of Katsugeki to the slice-of-life comedy of Hanamaru. I also can’t keep track of the huge number of characters the game has, so Katsugeki’s focus on a small number really helps. If you like bloody action, I recommend it. It’s one of my favorites this season.

Symphogear AXZ (no announcement yet, hopefully Crunchyroll)

This is the fourth season of Symphogear, the first 3 are on Crunchyroll. I’m currently part way through the second season. It’s magical girl action with a music focus, and I enjoy it a lot more than I thought I would. The premise for this fourth season seems like it could go some bad places (read: could get very transphobic), so be warned. I’d recommend checking out the first season at least, though.

Knight’s & Magic (on Crunchyroll, Sundays at 11:00 am EDT)

This definitely wins a prize for the worst punctuation in an anime title I have seen. That being said, I enjoyed the first episode, but gave up partway through the second. It’s an isekai story based on a light novel, which is not a setup that inspires much hope in me, but I liked that the MC was reborn(?) as a child, rather than simply transported. If you like mecha shows check it out I guess?

Clean Freak! Aoyama-kun (on Crunchyroll, Sundays at 12:30 pm EDT)

This is a comedy sports anime that actually really surprised me. I’m probably not the best person to talk about it, so I highly recommend reading this review at Anime Feminist. I liked it, and I’m currently partway through the 2nd episode, and I think I might stick with it.

Battle Girl High School (on HiDive, Sundays at 12:30 pm EDT)

Not willing to get a HiDive subscription yet, and it doesn’t sound like this show is worth it. If you’re curious, check out the reviews at ANN and Anime Feminist.

Elegant Yokai Apartment Life (on Crunchyroll, Mondays at 11:30 am EDT)

This is a supernatural slice of life comedy, and while it’s not amazing in anyway, it’s not really bad either. If you really like this sort of comedy I’d recommend checking it out, but I’d probably recommend Inu x Boku Secret Service first.

LOVE and LIES (on Anime Strike in the US, and HiDive in some other territories, Mondays at 12:00 pm EDT)

I did not like this show. It wasn’t actually painful to watch, so I finished the first episode, but I will not be watching more. The premise is based on the idea that Japan starts assigning marriage partners when kids turn 16 based on some sort of compatibility in order to fight dropping birthrates. Actually, the show specifically mentions genetic compatibility, and the whole premise has a very eugenics feel to it. On top of that, this setting is being used for a romcom. There are probably some interesting stories that could be told with this setup, but a straight romcom is not one of them. All this being said, I’m definitely watching people’s twitter reactions to the show going forward, because I’m sort of curious what kind of trainwreck this might become.

Restaurant to Another World (on Crunchyroll, Mondays at 2:05 pm EDT)

This show was definitely very nice to look at, but I just couldn’t get invested in it. If you want a peaceful show about a restaurant that opens to a fantasy world once a week, then check it out. My favorite part was the dragon lapping stew from a pot, tiny in comparison to her.

Aho Girl (on Crunchyroll, Tuesdays at 11:30 am EDT)

(short-form, 13 minutes) Even though this is a short, I still couldn’t make it all the way to the end of the first episode. It’s very 2000′s style super fast comedy, and feels super mean spirited.

Tsuredure Children (on Crunchyroll, Tuesdays at 11:45 am EDT)

(short-form, 13 minutes) I finished this one, which was mostly cute vignettes about straight highschoolers in love, but the 3rd one made me feel really uncomfortable. Not planning on watching more.

Fastest Finger First (on Crunchyroll, Tuesdays at 3:30 pm EDT)

This is a show about kids doing quiz bowl, which wasn’t a thing at my school, but this is probably the closest I’ll ever get to a math competition anime. The main character was likable enough, though the girl was more interesting. This feels like it might become a girl who is experienced at x teaches boy how to x, and he is the best ever at x, sort of thing. I do want to check out the second episode though. An interesting thing to me was the voice of the girl. She’s apparently a rookie voice actress, and sounds very different from the typical anime high school girl voice.

Netsuzou Trap -NTR- (on Crunchyroll, Wednesdays at 8:30 am EDT)

(short-form, 9 minutes) This show is super super SUPER trashy yuri, and I loved it. I can’t really recommend it, but I’m definitely sticking with it. 

Saiyuki Reload Blast (on Crunchyroll, Wednesdays at 11:00 am EDT)

This is an adaptation of the latest Saiyuki manga. I have never read or watched any Saiyuki before, but I watched this episode. It had a very 00′s feel to it, from the character designs to the dialogue. I imagine that this is the sort of thing that you watch if you already like Saiyuki, or maybe if you miss the feel of anime from the early 00′s. I’m not sticking with it.

Dive!! (on Anime Strike, Thursdays at sometime, anime strike is bad at sharing details)

I wanted to like this show, but it just wasn’t good. It’s very clearly trying to get the Free! crowd, but is hindered by bad animation and boring story. It’s this season’s Noitamina show, by the way. The most notable thing about it for me, was that it actually managed to trigger my fear of heights, which I don’t think has ever happened to me with an anime before. I think it must be because diving (off a 10 ft board) was a real thing I was too scared to do (and probably still am too scared to do).

Convenience Store Boy Friends (on Crunchyroll, Thursdays at 3:05 pm EDT)

This feels like the most boring possible show you could make from it’s title. You could have personified stores, personified products, but instead it’s just a quite boring highschool romance. They don’t even work at a convenience store! They just occasional stop by there! Also the guys working there looked way more interesting than any of the main characters. Possibly the most boring premiere I watched all the way through.

Action Heroine Cheer Fruits (on HiDive, Mondays at 9:00 am EDT)

I didn’t watch this one because it was a HiDive exclusive, but I’ve actually read a lot of good things about it, which is not what I would have expected with that name. Still not worth the HiDive subscription though. You can check out the review at ANN and Anime Feminist.

Made in Abyss (on Anime Strike in the US, and HiDive in some other territories, Fridays at 10:00 am EDT)

This was a super beautiful premiere. It’s a really gorgeous looking fantasy series. It didn’t completely grab me, but I think that’s because it requires me to be in a mode where I can actually give it full focus, which makes it harder to watch. I can’t recommend this show yet, however, because I have heard that the manga goes really bad places. I’ve heard that the first episode already removed some of the skeevy stuff, but I can’t recommend this until I can see where it goes.

18if (on Crunchyroll, Fridays at 10:00 am EDT)

I gave up about 10 minutes into this one. It’s a very dream sequency show, but it doesn’t have the animation quality or pacing to make it work for me. If you like surreal stuff in general, I’d say check it out to see whether it grabs you, but know that it might just feel really boring.

Vatican Miracle Examiner (on Anime Strike in the US, and HiDive in some other territories, Fridays at 11:00 am EDT)

I fucking loved this!!!!! It’s my favorite premiere so far, and I can’t wait for more. It’s not a good show, but it’s super fun. This review at Anime Feminist explains what I like about the show. It has the feel of some of my favorite stuff from the early 00′s, and it’s super campy, and I love it.

Chronos Ruler (on Crunchyroll, Sundays at 3:00 pm EDT)

This is not a good show. It has super bad animation, convoluted plot, overly expository and over dramatic dialogue (ok, half these things were also true of Vatican Miracle Examiner, I admit). I finished the whole episode, but I really have zero interest in watching more. It just isn’t offering anything that other shows aren’t doing better this season.

Altair: A Record of Battles (on Anime Strike, Fridays at sometime)

This is a very good show, but on that I really need brainpower to watch, which means that I will probably drop it at some point. It’s very nice looking, and I love political intrigue, but it doesn’t feel like easy watching. Check it out if you enjoy political intrigue stuff.

Hitorijime My Hero (on Anime Strike in the US, HiDive in some other territories, Saturdays at 11:00 am EDT)

This was decent BL. Not good, but not terrible either. The main couple is a student-teacher relationship, so be warned of that, I guess. It just felt super plain  to me. Also super confusing. The first episode felt like it jumped around a lot chronologically, and it was really hard to understand what order things happened in. I’m not continuing with it.

Welcome to the Ballroom (on Anime Strike, Sundays(?) at sometime)

I watched the early premier of this on Twitch, which had desynced subtitles, which was super annoying. I don’t know if that’s still true of the version up on anime strike, but it’s frustrating that this is still a problem for them. And with a hyped up premiere as well!!! The show itself is a shonen sports anime about ballroom dancing. The character designs are very lanky and weird looking, but I sort of like the style. It just didn’t really grab me. I think I didn’t like the main character enough to care about him. And that I don’t care about ballroom dancing at all.

A Centaur’s Life (on Crunchyroll, Sundays at 10:30 am EDT)

This was a sort of weird show. It starts off with a lesbian kiss, and does a school comedy sort of things for the first half. The second half is that plus world building, which brings in a bunch of weirdly dystopian elements. Like talking about past injustices being illegal. So I’m going to keep on watching this for the little gay bits and to see where the hell it’s going.

Princess Principal (on Anime Strike in the US, HiDive in some other territories, Sundays at 10:30 am EDT)

I really loved this. It’s a spy show about girls, so I’m not at all surprised, but it’s still a nice feeling. The OP has hints of gayness, which is good. And the show in general is a fun spy show. It’s like what I wish Joker Game had been. I really recommend checking this one out. It’s another one of my favorites.

Angel’s 3Piece! (on Crunchyroll, Mondays at 8:30 am EDT)

This most frustrating thing about this is how good is was for a lot of it. Like I wasn’t expecting anything from the summary, but then the first half of the show was pretty neat, and the music was good, but it’s by the author of Ro-Kyu-Bu, which should have told me everything I needed to know. As should the episode title: “Heart Throbbing for Elementary School Kids!” That title probably says everything you need to know.

In Another World with my Smartphone (on Crunchyroll, Tuesdays at 9:00 am EDT)

I gave up on this one super quickly. I just don’t care about another dude dying and going to a fantasy world and suddenly getting a harem. I just don’t.

New Game!! (on Crunchyroll, Tuesdays at 10:00 am EDT)

Sequel to New Game!, which I never finished. It was a cute show about women making games though. Maybe I should try to watch more of it sometime. ANN has a review of the first episode of this.

The Irresponsible Galaxy Tylor (on Crunchyroll, Wednesdays at 12:30 pm EDT)

(short-form, 3 minutes) I guess this is related to The Irresponsible Captain Tylor? I never watched that either. I watched this, but didn’t really pay much attention. I guess if you watched the original thing check this out???

Magical Circle Guru Guru (on Crunchyroll, Tuesdays at 2:05 pm EDT)

So apparently there was an older version of this that aired in 1994, but this is a complete reboot, not a sequel, so you don’t need any familiarity with the original. The sense of humor reminded me a lot of Senyu, with a heavy focus on classic rpg video game elements as well. It’s a very fast paced shouty sort of humor, but it was a fun first episode. It didn’t really do anything I haven’t seen before, so I’m probably dropping it.

Light of the Clione (on Anime Strike, Tuesdays(?) at sometime)

(short-form, 9 minutes) I was interested in this one based on what I read of the premise, but so far it’s been two students feeling sorry for, but not helping, a girl getting bullied. Since it’s a short, it has a much lower bar to clear for me to stick with it, so I probably will. The character designs feel sort of off, though, and the animation isn’t very good.

Ikemen Sengoku: Bromances Across Time (on Crunchyroll, Wednesdays at 10:45 am EDT)

(short-form, 5 minutes) CG short about a dude who gets transported back in time. Based on an otome game, apparently. Otome games need more full length adaptations, they keep on getting these short form series instead. Anyways, this show doesn’t really have anything to recommend it.

Nora, Princess, and Stray Cat (on Crunchyroll, Wednesdays at 11:15 am EDT)

(short-form, 4 minutes) Cute short that has a harem set up, accept someone transformed the boy into a cat, and no one knows how to turn him back. Funny, cute, and short enough for me to keep watching.

My First Girlfriend is a Gal (on Crunchyroll, Wednesdays at 11:30 am EDT)

This show is not good. You should watch Please Tell Me! Galko-chan instead. Seriously, the most interesting part of this show is the bedazzled censorship objects. I bailed out about five minutes in, because I couldn’t stand the main character and his friends. There is nothing to recommend this show. Even if you want weird censorship items, you can watch Seven Mortal Sins instead.

Classroom of the Elite (on Crunchyroll, Wednesdays at 12:00 pm EDT)

I was expecting to quit out of this show partway through, since it really didn’t look at all interesting to me. I also hated the first five minutes or so. But I actually really liked the rapport between the two main characters, probably because it reminds me of My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU. I curious to see where the main plot heads as well. I think it’s worth getting through the opening to see what the show has to offer, because it definitely got better after that.

GAMERS! (on Crunchyroll, Thursdays at 11:30 am EDT)

This is another show I was expected to not make it all he way through, but instead I really liked it. It’s about a high school gaming club, and the super popular girl trying to recruit the main character to join. I think what really worked for me was how relatable the main character felt at times. He’s a “casual” gamer, and feels really intimidated by how intense the club members are. I really understand that feeling. I’m looking forward to more of this show.

And that’s it! I’ll probably wait to write about Hell Girl and The Reflection until after both of them air, at which point I’ll also have a better idea of what shows I’m actually going to keep.