#flashbacks and exposition but that can only go so far. At the end of the day

[wellzofyouth]

That one post of my mine predictably aged like fine wine. Never let somebody on comic twitter in the writer's room😭😭😭 Like imagine a 1 to 1 adaptation of literally any event?? -1b at the box office. "Who are these people???"

[pygmi-cygni]

writing tips - flashbacks

welcome back yall i have not written this in a lukewarm minute

flashbacks! good shit.

Flashbacks are great for adding information or reminding the reader of a past action without making it a whole deal. but flashbacks are kinda specific as far as when they should come up.

let's start with the benefits of using flashbacks:

Character development.

flashbacks can reveal hidden motives, memories, inciting incidents, and alternative perspectives to the main plotline and the characters. It might contextualize disputes or hard feelings between characters.

2. mystery!

Flashbacks are still from the character who's flashbacking's perspective. If you add the flashback, it might add another level of mystery to the conflict or a clue to the end result.

3. context

You don't always want to write a massive exposition paragraph describing all the context for everything, so little scenes dropped here and there will help clear the waters without mucking up the pace.

Now that that has been summarized, let's focus more on when they should be used.

Flashbacks make sense when the content of the flashback relates to the current scene's actions. If the character flashbacks to their mother's fiftieth birthday during a business meeting, it doesn't make sense. But, if it's their mother's sixtieth birthday and they are reminiscing, it makes more sense.

There needs to be a sense of continuity. Trauma-based flashbacks have a trigger - a sound, smell, texture, phrase, etc that incites the flashback. if there is no trigger, it makes no sense.

When a traumatic flashback is triggered, an emotional reaction is usually attached. traumatic flashbacks are jarring, uncomfortable, and stressful for the victim. Afterwards, a panic attack or dissociative period is common.

if the flashback is not connected to a traumatic response, the reason for the flashback needs to be clear.

pause: i'm gonna refer to flashbacks as 'episodes' because typing 'flashbacks' every two words is reviving my carpal tunnel.

unpause!

The episode has the desired effect when the connection between past/present is clear and the 'discovery' is important. Maybe it's an elaboration of a previously established memory that reveals a secret only after a specific event.

Flashbacks are great, but overdone and they get frustrating and old. Find a format that you only apply to the episodes will help. Italics are a common favorite, parentheses, a specific divider between main text and the flashback....something that lets the reader know what's going on.

Nothing is worse that trying to figure out what century you're reading when every other page is a flashback episode. Make it easy on your readers!!!

If the thing you're flashing to is so important that the flashback takes multiple pages, find a different way to convey the information. they're called 'flash' backs, not 'separate plot point specifically for this moment' backs. what I'm trying to say is - short and sweet.

Episodes are meant to be enlightening, not as confusing as everything else.

Summary - flashbacks are a great tool when used sparingly and intentionally, I love to see them!

xox

[smolbean-17]

SEASON 3 THEORIES

Part 1 (Episodes 1-3)

I never made any theories for Season 2, but quite a few of my theories from Season 1 were really close to what actually happened, so I figured I’d give my shot at theorizing Season 3.

I can’t really guess how exactly these plot points will land and in which episode, but I think these things will happen in the first 3 episodes, in no particular order. We’re getting all 3 eps in one night so they’re going to be establishing quite a bit.

Ep1 - Confined

This is the episode where we will see Omega and Crosshair confined at Mt. Tantiss together. Omega has her Season 2 hair, and seems more optimistic than she does later on in the trailer.

At this point I don’t think Omega is treated as a prisoner. I think she’s restricted of course, but it seems to me from the trailer that she’s serving as more of an assistant to Nala Se with limited freedom. Hemlock promised her she’d be treated well, and I feel like he was telling the truth. And maybe Omega has chosen to behave herself (for now) and has made a plan of luring them into a false sense of security so she can find a way out.

And then she sees Crosshair up and alert and not being tortured (and being escorted to another part of the facility? More cloning experiments?) and she decides to escape with him somehow.

Crosshair is disheartened and incredibly sad, maybe because he found out about Tech and perhaps believes his other brothers were captured/killed. Who knows. Someone either screwed with his emotional state before this shot, or maybe he’s just drained from his captivity. But I think it’s the former.

It will show more of the inner workings of what’s going on at Mt. Tantiss, but it won’t reveal too much. I think it will mostly establish what Omega is doing there.

Ep2 - Paths Unknown

As for the boys, we will see that there’s been a passage of time. How much time, I’m not sure. But probably a few months. That’s when we hear Hunter say the famous “Omega’s been waiting for us a long time. I’m not making her wait another day.” (pretty sure that’s all one quote that’s been sliced up)

It’ll establish that Echo has left again with Rex, probably to liberate more clones and look for hints about where Omega is along the way. Hunter and Wrecker are alone. They set up base on Pabu, recruiting help from Phee who is more than willing to help. But they never stay there long, and they run themselves ragged trying to find Omega and not getting any closer. Both Hunter and Wrecker are more angry and determined than we’ve ever seen them.

Ep3 - Shadows of Tantiss

Meanwhile, Omega finally hatches her plan to escape…

Things obviously don’t go according to plan, and she doesn’t get too far before she’s stopped. Just in case, they inject her with a tracking implant…

and she gets imprisoned.

It looks like this little cage situation is the same as this one from the leaked trailer:

Omega’s hair situation is really the only thing throwing me off lol.

So she meets Crosshair again. She tries to get through to him and show him that she hasn’t lost hope. He argues and Omega gets through to him in the way only she can. She finally gets him to agree to an escape.

The episode could end with Hunter and Wrecker getting a call from Rex and Echo that they finally have info on Omega, thus leading into Ep4, A Different Approach (which would make since if you consider they have new information).

So these first 3 episodes will be jam packed with information, and maybe not a ton of action, but will be establishing episodes to move the story along.

Another thing I noticed from the leaked trailer…

Are we getting a flashback(s)? That looks like Hunter’s old armor paint job, and that backpack and helmet to the left is very distinct and only belongs to one person…

I would seriously love to see Clone Wars era Bad Batch again. Maybe flashbacks are interspersed throughout the season for extra exposition/character development/emotional damage. Maybe the first episode opens on a flashback!

Let me know what you think! Part 2 coming soon!

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

[windvexer]

hi there! I wanted to say two things. :-)

One! I loved your post about daily cleansing to stay in practice with energy work. I've struggled for a long time to consciously focus on my practice at set times during the day for a variety of reasons, whether it be me being busy, ADHD and whatnot. Since reading it I've cleansed five random things throughout the day each day and I can say so far after a week it does show a difference in helping with my confidence (main sturggle) and also my visualization and focus. So I just wanted to say thank you for that simple and creative post, it's been really helpful for me.

Two! The other thing is. I didn't know you were writing a book! That's really awesome. I am also working on one (fiction fridge "horror" about self acceptance) and though not directly tied to my spirituality it's cool to see other spiritualist writers around. I always struggle with starting the book. I feel like once I get past the introduction and get into rising action, that's when my writing really picks up. Intros SUCK. Do you have any personal quips about how you manage the starts of your books? Motivation wise as well?

Thanks for your patience with the long ask 😅 feel free to ignore if it's too much. I hope you have a nice day.

Horribly sorry this took me a month to get to. As you can see, I clearly have no advice regarding motivation.

I'm super happy that post about practicing sorcery was helpful to you!

I write commercial pulp fiction, which is focused on just telling a ripping fun story - yet also formulaic. In that vein:

Action scene: The POV character attempts to solve a problem in order to achieve a defined goal. There is always a scene antagonist who directly tries to stop the POV character from carrying out their plan. When the scene ends, things will never go completely to plan. The scene ends when the POV character fails in some way, forcing them to retreat and re-evaluate their plans and goals. An action scene always increases tension and pacing. The only exposition allowed in action scenes is there to give context for what is happening right there on the page. Exposition in the form of flashbacks, infodumps, and extended internal monologues is not allowed.

The first time everything goes completely according to plan, the book ends.

Reaction scene: The POV character processes what has happened to them, and has a chance to change. The POV character develops a new plan of action. There is always a scene antagonist who directly challenges the new plan. When the new plan has been finalized, the reaction scene ends. Reaction scenes always resolve some tension/conflict and decrease pacing. Exposition is appropriate in reaction scenes to provide greater context for past events, and to establish upcoming events.

Your opening scene must always be an action scene, never a reaction scene.

Reaction opening:

[exposition] The small town baker wakes up and gets out of bed. She looks in the mirror and thinks about how nice it is that she's a baker who inherited a house from her grandpa, but it's also stressful that her best friend always dates bad guys.

[antagonist] Her friend texts her and asks to go on a double date with the newest bad guy.

[plan] But instead, maybe she should finally get around to baking the rare pokeberry pie who's recipe is so hard to perfect.

Action opening:

[conflict] The small town baker is at a farmer's market. There is a basket of pokeberries, enough to make one pie. There is also a pokeberry bush for sale, but it's sad and wilted. If she can bring it back to life, she could have infinite pokeberries. She only has enough money for one.

[antagonist] The best friend encourages her to give up on her pokeberry dream, saying that the POV character's strawberry pie is county-famous, and that pokeberries are poisonous, and that nobody should ever make a pokeberry pie.

[action/failure] The baker decides to buy the basket of pokeberries, but her biggest competitor buys them first.

[conclusion] She is forced to buy the wilted pokeberry bush.

Between these two openings, I feel like the action one is a lot more interesting to read and write.

Prior advice for writing novels used to recommend your introduction last maybe 20% of the book before you get to rising action. Now, it is common for books to functionally begin with rising action.

As a thought exercise, find a project where you feel like things are starting to get good in the rising action. Cut out everything before the story starts to get good. The chances are that you cut out a lot of exposition and reaction scenes; but by necessity, those reaction scenes are processing things that never happened on page, so they're less engaging.

Start placing stated, on-page goals for your POV characters. Try placing them in the first paragraph of a scene, ideally within the first 1-2 sentences.

If there is any quick trick to zap lightning into a scene, it's giving your POV character a defined goal to work towards. Then, just make sure there is always a scene antagonist, and things will take off.

(Remember, in the example above, the scene antagonist isn't a villain - her best friend is giving her really good advice, but the friend is trying to stop her plan. That is what makes the friend an antagonist)

Your hero is wandering the grimy streets of neo-tokyo, hunting for vampires, but as a worldbuilding thing you want him to walk around so we can see the streets. It's important because we need to start drumming in these specific locations as part of important plot elements later on.

The only problem is, he's just a guy walking around. Give him a goal, immediately. You don't have to say things crudely so there is no mystery; "Jacobo was walking around, looking for vampires."

You can orient your goals around character POV, leaving a little mystery: "Jacobo was walking around, looking for a ramen place well stocked with pork blood."

Once you have defined a goal, worldbuilding and characterization both become more organic:

Jacobo was walking around, looking for vampires. Their dens were easy to find; they always hung out at restaurants, so they could store animal blood in the walk-in freezers.

versus,

Jacobo was walking around, looking for a ramen place well-stocked with blood. He turned the corner and saw a sign for a little cafe that advertised pork blood buns, but that wouldn't do. He was really craving some tonkatsu.

By giving your POV characters specific goals in each scene unique to their immediate interests, you are developing the character. This lets introductory scenes be immediately engaging, because you're immediately developing a character and putting them in situations.

This also creates immediate stakes, because stated scene goals allow you to challenge characters, and facing those challenges is what creates conflict, drama, and tension.

tl;dr:

Start books with action scenes

Start all scenes by telling the reader what the POV character's goal is

Make those goals unique to the character's immediate point of view

Include a scene antagonist in every scene

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #31 – Montress Volume 5: Warchild (and Monstress: Talk Stories) by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda

Continuing my allotment of reading one volume of comic books a month, this time I read the two bonus side-stories issues that were published and set directly after volume 5. This was broadly a real return to form compared to volume 4 – the very tightly focused plot really helped, as did Maika actually getting to do things and not just get lectured at for three issues.

As the volume title might indicate, for the length of the series turns into an outright war story. The Federation Army, without bothering to wait for trivialities like ‘orders from the prime minister’, invaded Arcanic territory, making a lighting strike across the border to seize the city of Ravenna before it can be reinforced or fortified. Covin and Kippa both commit to staying to defend the city and the massive refugee population already dwelling within it, and manage to convince Maika to help as well. Which she does by effectively seizing control of the city in a coup and organizing the defence herself, conscripting the entire adult population into a makeshift army. From there things just get bloodier and bloodier.

As far as action-heavy war stories go, this has to be one of the most dedicated to never making war seem heroic I’ve ever seen. War is ugly, brutal, and monstrous – and however justified or virtuous your reasons for getting involved, fighting in it will just make you the same. Everyone dies screaming, everyone who survives does so with some combination of dirty tricks, merciless violence, and luck. Maika seizes control of the city with exemplary violence, rules through a heady mixture of competence and terror, and makes no bones about the fact that anyone who steps out of line is dead – and she is totally vindicated in doing so, it works great. Kippa tries to be merciful and let a bunch of pacifists unwilling to fight into the city before they’re all enslaved or slaughtered – and ends up letting a team of Cumena super-soldiers in through the same path, getting hundreds of people killed and nearly dooming the city. It’s not exactly subtle.

Each issue in the volume starts with a little flashback to Maika and Tuya’s time as incredibly disposable federation slaves during the final days of the last war, which are exactly as bleak and trench warfare-ey as you would expect. The beat of how after one forced suicide-bombing too many even the arcanic soldiers on the other side would shoot them if they try to run for their trench and freedom was an especially good way to rub in the whole ‘ruins everyone’ thing.

Not that the present timeline is short of that either. Ravenna is outnumbered, outgunned, and facing slaughter or enslavement – so they fight like cornered rats, using every dirty trick and terror tactic Maika can think of that’s normally exclusively the province of villains in war stories. Poisoned wells, desecrated corpses, brutally assassinated officers and terrifyingly mutilated captives – breaking the Federation’s morale is the only hope Maika has of victory, so she does everything she can to break it.

It’s also a recurring beat how the rise of such genocidal racism in the Federation is actually quite new, really only dating to the first war, with Maika having being a student in the Federation’s premier military academy for a year while the colonel leading the human invasion force taught her. This I admit doesn’t quite parse for me – this was already a civilization with a state church that’s fortune is built on rendering and processing arcanic bones, I’m pretty sure the racism has been around for a while.

Speaking of complaints – the story explicitly draws a contrast between ‘human science’ and ‘arcanic magic’ and exposits about how the balance of power between the two has shifted over time. So this is just kind of stupid based on the evidence we see – the Warlord flies into battle in powerarmor, Pontus was defended by a giant forcefield generator, this is not a setting where the scientific revolution has come anywhere close to equalling the wonders of the past. But on a more aesthetic levell it’s also just a trope/dichotomy I viscerally dislike, so I’m probably not being especially fair here.

The sheer number of conspiracies cackling sinisterly in the background is also getting just a bitch much. There’s the Blood Court and the Monstrum in the Cumena and now there’s’ also a faction of Ancients who are sabotaging their own war effort and murdering their own highly skilled engineers for unclear reasons. The result is an unfortunate feeling that the actual world war is just a side show to something.

But all those complaints aside, this really was a great volume to read – and the two side-stories (happier vignettes from Kippa and Maika’s past) were very well-placed palette cleansers to lighten the tone a little bit.

I also just enjoy how it’s becoming more and more clear that Maika’s terrifying aunt whose been hunting for her the entire book just isn’t very good at this and absolutely no one actually seems to respect her. It’s great comedy.

[thriveonanonymity]

Okay I have some thoughts about the vengence saga. Unfiltered through thoughts, just what I think about it after only a few listens (like less than a dozen.

This is going to be a long one.

The first half slaps quite a bit; The voice of Calypso is great, Troy is always a pleasure to hear and the writing fits them just as well as it did in wisdom and circe sagas respectfully.

Ballads like 'I'm not sorry for loving you' are songs that take me some time to get warm to, so i want say much about it.

Dangerous is a little slowed and burdened by the intro; if it were a musical and the albums we got were a soundtrack, I would cut the song to begin basically after the ody intro (though that would be just a bit difficult because it follows exactly into hermes' parts). It feels somewhat expositiony and isnt written as well as it could have been? I might be wrong here, thing is, it just doest sit with me well writing wise. Soon as Troy enters stage, Dangerous goes HARD. The back half of dangerous slaps incredibly, no notes. Big fan of ody's verse too. and oh my god the livestream animatic. ody fighting monsters and hermes is there just DANCIN, my boy

Now charybdis feels like a transitional song a lot, which is okay. One that is more exposition than anything. Shit you need to talk about and set up; youre gonna have those in a 40 song musical. For a transitional song its quite cool, though its kind of hard for me to say much else on it. The instrumental shift at the end just as posiedon arrives feels damn right.

Get in the water is amazing. I dont like how some limes are timed though, 'ruthlessness / is mercy upon / ourselves' is an obvious as a way to chop it, but i feel like the vocal riffs on it couldve been made a bit more interesting, it feels a bit disjointed, and that might be the point. I might be wrong here, im not much of a musician. Now why he timed the lines delivered by the dead like he did i do not know, i dont like it. It just doesnt fit the timescale of the instrumentation. I might be obviously incorrect to someone more musically aligned, but thats what i see. If i am correct, it might be so off to serve the narrative, monster and all. To show that these calls from the dead aren't here to help him, basically, they're here to haunt him, which would be my first interpretation if the lines were more coherent. If it was more coherent, i would read it the same way i read the baby tele flashback in god games. But that NOT being the message, the dead NOT giving him the resolve to go on, it just doesnt really work with the lyrics for the upcoming anime battle i feel. Im starting to ramble so ill move on.

Six hundred strike is very cool. Except for about a half second when he screams his attack name, that goody enough to take me out of the story, and that aint good, and the last lines post torture. Firstly, i love the fact that we come straight in with electric guitars, you can tell that cunning ody ain't fucking around. The battle itself is very epic, very grand, again, except for the 'six hundred strike'. Like. Horge. Mr. Jalapeño. What does that even fucking mean. I would get it if there was a line previously that was like "for every pain you caused" but like. Even then. It ought be plural. It just feels incredibly goofy and incongruous with the otherwise epic battle. Moving on. Torturing an immortal scene is always aweosme, and the execution is very good, ody's screams are very nice indeed. Vocals convey emotion quite well here, from both Jorge and Steven. The one thing i DO have a problem with is how they handled the last few lines. I understand what they are intended to do, and they do that, but they don't do the idea justice. It could have been made LESS like a piece of exposition, and i wish it was.

Generally i liked it??? I guess?????? Im not sure. Im not as dead hyped as i was after underworld or circe, but underowlrd is an act finale, and circe has me biased as it has some of my top songa from the musical so far. Vengance hits a little weak compared to wisdom, but that might be that i didnt have time to really proccess it. I felt similarly about underworld when it first released, to a lesser degree, but still. Maybe ill get around to it.

Also not a single beloved character died horribly.

Im disappointed, captain.

[linkspooky]

Choujin X, Chapter 39: As You Sleep

Holy character development Batman! We are in this latest chapter seeing the results of Tokio’s year of training and learning to be more independent, not only in just questioning the established authority around him but actually taking responsibility for himself in the investigations. On the other side it seems like Azuma is stagnating or at least not progressing as fast as he wants to which is causing a rift between him and Tokio once again. More on my two favorite boys underneath the cut: 

While Tokio seems to have improved by leaps and bounds, I don’t believe this is as shocking of a change in his personality as it seems to be. In the first volume extras there was a character profile for both Tokio and Azuma, where it mentiosn that Tokio despite not seeing himself as smart or talented was able to get into the same high school as Azuma just by studying hard for it. 

Tokio always had the potential to be just as smart of Azuma, but often self-sabotaged and gave up too quickly because he didn’t believe in himself. This is also something Azuma observes in his own flashbacks of Tokio and resents him for. 

While Tokio’s self sabotage and failing to live up to his potential just comes from regular old lack of self confidence, Azuma has secretly harbored a fear that Tokio thought he was better than Azuma from the beginning and only pretended to be weak around him because he was looking down on him. 

While it reeks of Azuma’s own insecurity, it is at times understandable why he’d feel that way, Tokio is naturally talented and capable and for a long time doesn’t make use of those talents and when it seems he finally does he starts far outstripping Azuma. Though, a lot of that may just be Azuma’s perception, Tokio is improving by leaps and bounds but he started off much less skilled so his improvement is more obvious. Azuma is doing the same thing he always does, but he’s been at this for years, his improvement is going to seem more gradual because he’s already that skilled. 

One big way that Azuma’s insecurity towards Tokio comes from Azuma’s warped perception rather than the truth is the first event after the time skip, Azuma fails to stop a plane crash that results in the deaths of many people while Tokio seems to have succeeded and become a hero of a nearby district. Of course the truth is they both failed, Tokio’s battle ended in a victory yes but it was at the cost of basically every friend he made during the year timeskip a pyrrhic victory. 

Whereas Azuma’s regrets bout the plane crash are so strong, he’s literally searching the shore for corpses so he can return them to their dead families. Azuma’s perception of Tokio as a hero that’s suprassed him is a false one, based on both his own insecurities and the inability of the two boys to properly communicate with each other. On top of that, the way Tokio left is most likely a big issue, because despite all the problems in their relationship Azuma wanted to be someone that Tokio admired, and Tokio just separating himself from Azuma probably led to Azuma’s fear that Tokio didn’t need him anymore coming true.

As the fledgling vulture takes flight, Azuma realizes that their relationship is no longer what it once was, and there��s no going back for the both of them. I elaborate on this because while we’re shown a lot of progress for Tokio in this chapter (that’s mostly just investigation and exposition scenes which I’ll be skipping over) there’s several indications that Azuma is stagnating. 

Azuma doesn’t speak out against Tokio in the meeting, but at the same time we’re shown him in the background drawn in a pretty shadowy way. 

Azuma also does the opposite of Tokio in this regard, while Tokio disliked the plan but openly spoke out about it, Azuma keeps his head down and does the work anyway despite disagreeing. Which is likely due to a lot of things, including his cop father being his main influence. In his character profile it says “to see what is right and not to do it is want of courage”. 

Azuma’s a character obsessed with justice, ideology and doing the right thing, but he’s also someone who tends to be blind to his repressed feelings and darker traits. Which is why as mentioned in the panel above, lately his prescription is getting worse from both stress and overwork. His glasses and dwindling eyesight are both a sign that there is something he’s not seeing. 

There’s also the mounting Batista and Azuma parallels, Batista is a character never depicted with their eyes shown. Even when we see their unmasked face, their eyes are sewn in the wrong place all over their face. Batista also seems to have been driven to villainry by the falling out between their brother and themselves. 

This chapter also draws focus to the fact that despite Tokio has made leaps and bounds in his growth, he’s repeating some Kaneki lines here in regards to his fear of losing others. 

Tokio’s desire to separate himself from Azuma was not entirely about his need to be independent, because he could have just said goodbye to Azuma and been like “I need my space for a year, it’s nothing you did to me I’m just taking this time for myself” but chose the cowards route of just cutting off all contact from him without a proper goodbye. Which reeks of Kaneki the protagonist of Ishida’s previous work Tokyo Ghoul, who also made a decision in the midpoint of the story to abandon all of the friends he made so far at Anteiku out of fear of losing them. 

In this case Tokio is more self confident, but he’s being driven by his fear of losing people. That fear is probably made worse by the fact that friends he made over the year he was gone, all died right in front of him and he became the lone survivor. All of this to say, I think the dysfunction in Tokio and Azuma’s relatoinship is a two way street. Azuma is secretly jealous of Tokio and tends to stew in his resentment, but it’s a problem that could be fixed with better communication which won’t happen because Tokio cut him off. 

Tokio chose the easier way of just cutting his friends off out of fear of losing them, and now that he’s back he’s basically making no attempts to talk to Azuma even after Ely directly told him to. 

Azuma’s growing more and more distant from Tokio, and Tokio won’t try to bridge the distance because he’s too fearful of losing him so might as well keep him at a distance to start, and so these two things hand in hand are likely to play a role in the dwindling of their relationship real soon. 

[only-by-the-stars]

so. I have. some thoughts about TotK.

they're not happy ones.

(behind a cut for spoilers and negativity)

to be clear, the gameplay is mostly fun. that's what's kept me going this far. but... I'm not sure anymore if it can keep carrying me. because this is, honest to god, one of the biggest stinkers of a story I've ever seen in a video game. and I DO NOT say that lightly!!! I have seen some SHIT, okay??? time travel and alternate dimension shenanigans that left me unsure of what the fuck the situation was after the ending, a reveal that the universe was one big MMO... those have stuck in my mind for well over a decade for being just that fucking bad.

and this story isn't just as stupid, no. it's as stupid as those, AND it's INCREDIBLY poorly told. like I cannot stress that enough!!! as of this writing, I have found every single glyph on the world map + the bonus tear that you get for seeing all those + the little bonus scene from getting the Master Sword. they're all numbered in more or less chronological order in the menu, 1-18.

so.

why in god's name am I still missing 11, 14, and 16????????

LIKE

AM I JUST GONNA GET THEM AFTER DOING PLOT-MANDATED EVENTS?

this is deeply fucking terrible!!! at least in those other bad stories I got to watch all the nonsense unfold in linear order, AND! AND AND AND!!! I WAS INVOLVED IN IT, IT WASN'T SOMEONE ELSE'S MEMORIES

and also the writing for Zelda herself is just atrocious and embarrassing, like I'm genuinely cringing here. in the flashbacks she does little aside from stand around and talk, her love for history/science only comes up in the intro, and functions as long-winded exposition, and she unfortunately was handed the Idiot Ball on top of it (not figuring out that Ganondorf was the the Basement Mummy till after he transformed? girl... Urbosa even SAID that CALAMITY GANON was said to have been born as a Gerudo man... why are Nintendo's writers determined to make her look stupid like this???). and in the present time, she's apparently good at everything and everyone loves her (even the unhinged flower lady), and she gets a super special gold horse, and it's just... she's barely a character. she's more like the overpowered OC everyone loves that kids just starting to write come up with.

which is fine at that stage! necessary, even! we all start somewhere, and I am NOT shaming anyone for doing that when they're just starting out. goodness knows I produced my share of embarrassing crap as a baby writer.

but this is a main installment of a major franchise by one of the biggest video game companies, made by paid adult professionals. that is. embarrassing.

and... as far as I've seen/heard from others who have seen more cutscenes than I have (again, this is bullshit, why are these apparently key scenes being withheld from me?), there's never an explanation for the Calamity/Calamity Ganon and he doesn't seem to be the same entity as Ganondorf. Zelda also never once considers trying to prevent the Calamity, either, and save all those lives, because Reasons, I guess. and the time travel magically doesn't affect anything but the current crisis???? calling BS on this too. plus, it doesn't help that there's so little flow/build-up/connective tissue between the cutscenes. next to nothing, in fact. it feels like I watched the isolated anime cutscenes of an older RPG whose story was told mainly through scenes in the game engine, and tried to understand the plot from there.

except that for this game, that's all I get.

also they managed to make the Silent Princess metaphor even more ham-fisted than in BOTW, which is quite the achievement. good lord. the way my eyes rolled seeing that, the incredulous laughter I burst into... sheesh.

at this point I just. don't know if I should try and power through and rush to the ending, take a break, or just drop it entirely. either way, it would never get a replay the way BOTW did. it's just. bleh.

and don't even get me started on how they fucked up the Poes and Gibdos, way to even disappoint my desire for the return of favorite creepy enemies, I didn't even get my ReDeads. I DIDN'T EVEN GET MY REDEADS

in closing, everyone who complained about the story/time travel in AOC owes me the cost of TotK. that game may have been silly, but at least it respected the Champions and I got to see more characters interacting and everything playing out as it happened and I didn't feel so distant/isolated from it all. ugh. I need to replay THAT game!

[baconcolacan]

@letmeaskdanielaquestion I hope you dont mind but I’m posting this because its impossible for me to answer fully in the replies. And I count this as another ask so just in case someone else has something similar to ask they can look to this one :] Also thank you again for the previous kind words!

And, hrm…about writing, yes I did write a lot before regimen, but its far FAR from being any good. Thankfully most of my early works have never seen the light of day (because they’re in a now dead and deleted fb group) and the ones that did never got off the ground and is lost in ff.net. I was a horrible, horrible, little goblin of a writer and a total weeb. If you cant imagine in, just know that I used stuff like “Kya~!” in the writing……..yeah, I’m choking from embarrassment how did you know?

I also understand the perfectionism bit btw. I’m diagnosed with OCD, and my brand of OCD makes me obsessed with perfection among other things, to the point where I risk bodily harm to achieve it. It took me years of therapy and medication to overcome it, so I understand giving up when you feel something isnt up to your standards. The best advice I can give is this:

When writing, your first draft is just that, your first draft, it doesnt matter if there are grammatical errors and wonky dialogue, its there for you to have fun with and go wild on, word vomiting whatever you feel is the best next sentence. Personally, it feels cathartic to put down all my thoughts on the paper instead of letting them fester in my head, at least its out and not bugging me from within my own mind. I dont sweat the details of my first draft, I just need the words out of my head and physically there so it doesnt bother me as much. Trust me, ideas love to nip and yap at any creative’s heels until they make them real, only then will you have your peace and quiet.

And if you want more order? Before your first draft, make a skeleton of your story, put down the events that happen in each chapter in bullet points. I assume you’ve read chapter 1 of Regimen already so I’ll give my chapter skeleton as an example:

Regimen: Act 1 Outlines

Ch1 - Escape

* Pick up from Armistice. Tom is stumbling through the woods trying to get back to base

* Introduce some unit mates and their relationships with Tom

* Tom hides the fact that the General is dead + his encounter with Tord

* Peace treaty is aired. Things go horribly wrong (Tord is a bastard snake here, remember that Neil)

* Tom announces his intention to escape Norway. The others follow.

* Add context to the world and the state of Norway at the moment, have Tom reflect on his relationship with Tord compared to others. (Hes wrong btw, he ***I erased this next part because the note spoils something***)

* The escape ends in tragedy. Most of the unit is destroyed.

And for inspo? I always suggest different media: books, shows, movies etc etc. Analyze them, see how the plot flows, what works and what doesn’t, how does the story progress? Do they use flashbacks? How often? Exposition? How much? etc etc.

But ah, take my advice with a grain of salt. I’m a professional visual artist, I’m just a hobbyist when it comes to writing ^^;

[anxresi]

Somehow, I can tell who wrote the script for ‘Derision’...

...The latest leaked script for the bastion of security which is Miraculous Ladybug.

I’ll spare you the predictable scenes set in flashback where Chloe (with the help of that gullible lug Kim and willing assistant Sabrina) covers everyone’s favorite blunette in spiders (didn’t Zoe get cockroaches put in her locker too? WTF is it with this show which considers insects the epitome of bullying?) and covers her ass with green paint (hey, it could’ve been worst! It could’ve been gum... oh.)

The part where it REALLY shows Mr Astruc’s handiwork and how he’s far more manipulative than even Chloe could ever hope to be, stands out in this particular shining moment... 

1. WTF is ‘Rosita’? Is this the Mexican dub, or something?

2. OOH THOMAS YOU SO META WITH YOUR BLATANT EXPOSITION!! But really, you’re using an argument against Chloe fans rivalled only in its disingenuousness by its pure straw man...ibility.

My beef with you regarding Chloe’s development isn’t ‘E-v-i-l people using bad parental treatment as an excuse for their misdeeds’ and more ‘Leading us on a wild goose chase with HOURS of episodes showing Chloe growing both as a person and a superhero, only to abandon all that suddenly to turn her into a wannabe terrorist and psychopath overnight’. Check out TV Tropes. Alpha Bitches do not generally turn from Lovable Alpha Bitches to Complete Monsters in the space of one episode, do they? (Unless of course, you want us all to kneel at the altar of that vast expanse of blandness known as Zoe, but that’s another story...) 

Ways it could’ve been done better: SHOW us during S1 and S2 that Chloe is capable of the mindless thuggery we’ve seen of her more recently. If you’re going to show her pull a Heel-Heel-Face-Turn, do it GRADUALLY in a realistic fashion, don’t just dump it all at the end of S3 by pretending her budding development never happened. And if Zoe was REALLY ‘the true holder of the Bee Miraculous’, how come her name was never even mentioned until the early parts of S4?! I think we’re talking about less of a character here, and more of a placeholder introduced to take on Chloe’s role as a hero because you don’t like her. (Zoe getting Pollen after one-and-a-half episodes was ‘utterly ridiculous’ too, as will be her becoming Chat Noir briefly in a future show(!) But again., that’s a discussion for another time.)

Basically Mr A, you can heap as many humiliating ‘punishments’ upon Chloe as much as you want. Mutilate her once-halfway-complex and potential-filled personality by increasingly marking her as one-dimensionally e-v-i-l to your heart’s content. Insert as much clunky dialogue from the mouths of other characters to get back at your ‘haterz’ if it makes you feel better. Even set entire episodes set in the past designed to make people hate her as much as you do... hey, it’s your show!

But don’t try to pretend any of this was planned. Along with the reasons given above, I don’t think if all this was intended from the beginning, such a MEGA surplus of Queen Bee and Chloe toys would’ve been released... if they always intended her to be one of the most despised characters. It was all done because one man’s blind hatred of a fictional teenager hi-jacked the plot and derailed it from what it could’ve been. At one point at the end of S2, things were ticking along quite nicely. Then YOU got much more heavily involved in the show’s writing... and the rest, as they say, is history.

And no, I am NOT devaluing Marinette’s in-story bullying. I’m more criticizing Thomas’s shameless weaponizing of it to turn this episode into yet ANOTHER stick to beat Chloe with. It disgusts me more and more, to see him paint (pun not intended) a young child as some kind of irredeemable hellspawn incarnate to prop up the kudos of the stereotypically ‘nice’ girl characters around her. Sorry... Marinette, Mylene, Rose and ESPECIALLY Zoe. You’re just boring. CHLOE FAN FOREVER!! :D

So, to conclude... my main reaction to Derision... is complete and utter derision. Just not in the way they intended... ;)

(Someone just left a comment pointing out Mylene’s mother abandoned her. Figures only Thomas would use a side character’s misery as yet ANOTHER excuse to get back at Miss Bourgeois. What’s the betting that this now canonical detail was only put in to denigrate Chloe more? After all, he introduced an entire character for this very purpose, so I wouldn’t put ANYTHING past him now...) :p

[while-i-procrastinate]

So I spent the weekend reading the Moving webtoon, and now I'm sad.

SPOILERS for the webtoon and speculation on future episodes.

I do hope the drama decides to end on a less open ended note because the ending to the webtoon was unsatisfying af.

First of all, I just know that they're going to stick my boy Kim Doo Shik in yet another flashback AGAIN and not have him show up in the present day timeline at all. All the North Korea stuff in the trailer just points to that, and it's super frustrating because we already got a pretty decent explanation for what he was doing in NK in 1994, we don't need more exposition on that. What we do need to see is him fighting for, and reuniting with his family, which we barely get a glimpse of.

This was disappointing enough in the webtoon, but in the show we have the added context of Mihyeon literally setting out everything about her life to make it easy for Doo Shik to find her again. The restaurant, the donkatsu, the purple terrace and curtains. What is the point of this trail of crumbs that she has laid out if it doesn't bear fruition in the final act. If these two don't meet again ON SCREEN, I'm going to be so sad.

Also, about the kids. Their ending just broke my heart. I really really hope that poor Kanghoon doesn't go off to work for the NIS. I have some hope that this won't happen since they've shown us the scene where he wanted to do so in a flashback, and it would make sense if they show that his initial inclination to join the NIS was wrong.

Also, it would sadden me no end if Heesoo and Bongseok never got to meet each other again and Bongseok had to go into some form of hiding. What a terrible ending for this sunny, cinnamon roll of a boy. And it would be the total opposite of everything that Mihyeon tried so hard to give him: a normal life which she and her husband had been denied due to their special powers. Also, at the end of the webtoon I was very confused as to why Heesoo could go to college but not Bongseok. They have the same powers, and are similarly targeted and exposed, so why would it be fine for her to go about her normal life, but for him to have to hide?

And finally, my biggest gripe. Can we decide who the villain is once and for all? At first it was Frank. Then it was Director Min and Principal Jo. Then finally it was the North Koreans. While I'm fine with the multiple levels of antagonists, the webtoon only wraps up the story of the North Koreans. The show must do this for Director Min & Co also, because so far they have been the greater antagonists. The North Koreans are protecting their interests against an enemy, but Director Min is going against the policy of his own country and trying to train children for war. I know which is the worse crime in my book.

Listen, this is a really expensive show to produce and Disney is bleeding money at the moment so I sincerely doubt that there is going to be a second season for this show. They have to wrap up whatever they can in the next 5 episodes, and tbh I have sincere doubts about whether we can get to a satisfying finale.

Fingers crossed.

(my two positives from the webtoon is that Mihyeon gets to be a badass, and Jang Juwon gets a rather sweet ending, which perfectly fits his forgiving Papa Bear nature.)

[meetthesoldier]

hi sorry this is outta nowhere but i would love to hear ur thoughts on harry (phone

SORRY ANON I LEGIT FORGOT ABT THIS ASK and im too lazy to draw her fr so heres some fanart i drew of her dying in a glue trap

this time i have a bit more thoughts on her as an actual character so ill start w that before the headcanon dump ... also, throughout this post ill be referring to her w she/her pronouns because of a personal headcanon im VERY attached to. all i ask is any rbs or further questions abt my specific vision of her use those same pronouns... in others posts i do not care obviously. also, this post is specifically abt her in the dsaf universe since shes far more substantial there.

firstly, i should say i ADORE harry. she is one of my biggest comfort characters in a series where almost everybody is one for me. so when i give any criticisms, know its out of love and a wish for some more expansive writing rather than any malice. being critical of media you love is important, etc etc.

my biggest issues with her character really boils down to the lack of acknowledgement abt her being physically disabled. she mentions having a "bad leg" during 3, but its ONLY mentioned that one time, during (i believe) missable dialogue. i understand her not using, like, mobility aids for it since it may be difficult to find suitable stock images (+ all the phonies in that game use the same photos for their bodies, and its totally possible its not something she feels she needs), but it probably shouldve been mentioned or expanded upon more.

i dont believe were given any explanation on how her leg ended up the way it is, or in what way it is. we dont know if she was born with her disability or aquired it later. we dont know if its paralyzed, we dont know if its because of a muscular dystrophy, or anything else. i just wish we were given more info, bcus as it is, it is REALLY easy to look over in favor of, say, her ptsd.

speaking of which, i have some mixed feelings on how her ptsd is portrayed. on one hand, the joke in the restaurant reviews abt her having flashbacks and a subsequent panic attack feels very distasteful, though thankfully this is (i believe) the only instance of this kind of joke at her expense. im glad elsewise it isnt some huge , controlling part of her character - however, again, it IS missable. while one can assume she has it when she discusses her past, i dont believe its explicitly stated UNTIL that review.

tldr; her disability feels poorly handled, mostly from lack of expansion and discussion.

thankfully, though, she is elsewise a very enjoyable character; shes got some really good and funny dialogue, the exposition we get from her about the original managers is really fucking good, and i really wish we heard more abt her experience working with rebecca (and presumably roger)... again, her biggest issues are just not having as much of a spotlight on her as she couldve, but considering the employees arent really the main focus of the game that may be fine actually...

(as an aside, i think about this post every day and cry audibly.)

thus ends the longform musings, onto the silly headcanons;

standard fare queer headcanon dump: trans woman + demisexual lesbian. also, polyamorous. fuck yeah baby steak (ref)

was in a queerplatonic relationship with joe while he was alive, and a romantic one with both tango/terrence (who has some gender fuckery going on as well) and rebecca because i am not immune to homemade lesbianism.

has ptsd in canon, but im adding a "c" in front of that cause aint no way she lived through all of her coworkers (and presumably FRIENDS) dying in such horrific ways and was only affected in the short-term.

autistic! specifically also has the thing i do where i need the time to be a multiple of 5 before i can start doing anything. also has generalized anxiety i think, with a tendency to catastrophize and compensates by insisting to herself everything is toootally fine. definitely NOT going to have a breakdown rn because shes not totally sure that that vending machine is 100% not going to fall on her specifically

probably didnt have many friends as a kid (L) so now she overcompensates by trying to be as charming and polite as possible. wether or not this works in her favor or makes her seem pretentious is a coinflip. (its certainly working on me though!)

has a real soft spot for random niche animals. probably a big salamander and gecko girl. her favorite is the marbled salamander because its cute as hell

slightly off topic everyday i think of how fucking horrific it mustve been for joe to come into work one morning and his best friend just has a phone for a head and extreme memory issues now . literally what the fuck. thats so fucked up

to do a tonal 180... if she was a pokemon trainer shed have a herdier or stoutland as a sort of service dog for walking shorter-medium distances when she rlly doesnt feel like whipping out the cane :.-)

shes so pale its actually ridiculous. bro looks like she hasnt seen the sun in 5 years ... jake pokes a bit of fun for it sometimes

thanks for asking, anon! i love getting excuses to talk about dsaf. i have a lot of thoughts, you know... dont ever friend me on discord my ass will randomly drop either the goofiest or angstiest headcanons at random intervals and i have no real control over whichor when it will be

[lampmanliveblogs]

Up some stairs, they find this wall in the rock. There is a circle with old inscriptions. The signs look vaguely like letters, but I can’t decode them. Although… at the bottom, there is a small symbol that looks like a half-moon (which might actually be called quarter moon? Or third quarter moon?) You know someone who is associated with moons? The Collector!

…wait, wasn’t there some stars and moon imagery in the ruins in Echoes of the Past too? I seem to recall there were. I might’ve been onto something with there being a connection between King’s family and The Collector.

There’s also a small hole in the middle of the circle, which is where I bet they have to put the little key.

Uh, wha-?

There was a flash of light, then veins on the finger lit up and sent a bolt of energy into the sky… a portal opened and sucked in Luz, King & Hooty and transported them to… wherever this is.

So… where is this? There is another finger there… but the rest of the hand is also visible, and there’s a platform or port next to it, so it’s clearly not the same one as they came from… unless maybe they traveled really far into the past? Something tells me that’s not what happened though.

So this is somewhere else, somewhere far, far away. Somewhere with the remains of another giant, possibly another Titan.

…okay, make that ”Titans.” We see here a collection of bones, in what might be an ancient battlefield for primordial giants, or maybe a graveyard of some kind. Is this the Edge of the World? 

That large skull in the back looks vaguely familiar, hold on…

My first thought was the skull you can see in the background with the scene of The Collector in Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Hooty’s Door. I double checked, and I don’t think it is, that skull was at a different angel and didn’t have horns. This may be somewhere close to where that flashback took place though, I’m not ruling out that possibility.

The second thought was it might be the skull from that monster King’s dad/ancestor was fighting in the mural found in the ruin back in Echoes of the Past. So I went and checked and… it might be, but we only get to see part of that creature’s head, so it’s hard to tell.

It’s happening! It’s happening! We have a guy who knows Lore! And I’m gonna find out The Lore! If the rest of the episode is literally nothing but exposition, I will be so happy. Oh, and maybe like thirty seconds to check in on Hunter too. Literally, the perfect episode.

He gives us a little appetizer by welcoming our trio to the other side of the world. This explains why no one has mentioned this place before.

Forget exposition, King introducing Luz as his friend/sister is everything. That is the only measure by which we determine the quality of episodes henceforth.

Anyways, the old guy’s name is Tarak (I think) and he was going to chase out intrepid heroes away until he noticed King, at which point he welcomed them.

I’d love to go on, but I’m afraid this is where I’ll have to end things off for tonight. I’ll continue tomorrow. See you guys then!

[sanchoyo]

arc v episodes 101-115 thoughts under the cut but first....yuyas dad is FINALLY here and I feel bad for being so suspicious of him. but also still Mildly Distrusting bc i KNOW how ygo dads ARE

-NEW OP!!! its very Cool, sounds like smth in ddr. still think believexbelieve and kirifuda are above it but its a solid third place I think. very hard to pick bc theyre all rly Good and the visuals on this one are rly rly good

-strongly disagree w yuya saying 'umm kaito if u card ur enemies ur just as bad as them >:/' dude cmon lol hes fighting against ppl hunting everyone in his city for sport. not the same thing at ALL

-the second shingo fckin said hed duel kaito i was like. well shit rip lol. gon and yuya reluctantly doing the action duel chant with him was so funny pls

-kaitos deck is weird as hell what happened to it. where is your galaxy eyes photon dragon i MISS Her. photon deck > cipher deck just bc photon had his magical girl transformation. i do appreciate how rainbowy cipher dragon is. wait wasnt photon stuff implied to be from another dimension (like, barian/astral stuff, not..arc vs version of Other Dimensions) so..yeah this kaito never got his Space Illness!! hes Healthy Kaito! wild

-ok. so just from yutos like exposition of saying he knows of kaito and his expression is different now (and us seein a flashback to a smiley happy kaito…) …and the lack of orbital and his photon form and the fact he was going to be a duel champion…haruto never got sick in this au version did he? which means faker wouldnt have had to shove tron/kazuma into the barian/astral portal thingy, and faker wouldnt have made a deal w vector or made kaito a numbers hunter? so he could focus on his own goals and live a more normal life I guess? so..does that mean yuma and astral NEVER MET?? DO THEY EVEN EXIST IN THIS WORLD. SAD. like even in a world that seemed to be kinder to kaito by not making his dad such a dick or his bro sick, he still got fucked over by a WAR in the end which is worse than what happened in zexal akjsfkjhn. well. at least this kaito hasnt taken the Moon Trip.

-ohhh my gosh yuto, shun, and ruri in casual clothes hangin out and watching kaito duel (also, this heartland has duel schools! named after card suites! thats fun) shun and kaito must be the same age, right? …so I assume the flashback is when they were 17ish and kaito is 18 now like in zexal? so the attack on heartland took place over the course of a few months to a year (ongoing it seems like but only to get stragglers now…oof) I thought shun, ruri and yuto were all the sameish age but nope. knowing yuzu and yuya are 14 makes me think all the counterparts are the same, so its probably pretty likely all three went to normal (non dueling) school together AND then duel school together, but yuto and ruri are prob in the same age so they mightve been friends first from going to the same school, and ruri later introduced yuto to her brother? so they have a cute lil trio now…this is my headcanon. (it rly does seem like all the yuboys and bracelet girlies were bffs from young ages EXCEPT serena and yuri jkdshfk)

-also can I assume at least SOME of the original characters from zexal are in this universe if not yuma for whatever reason (and prob not any of the barians?) like. would kotori have been goin to school and been in the grade right under yuto/ruri? …I want ruri and her to be bird friends

-the ED is still a dsod commercial booo let me see the ed animation! I had to go look it up on youtube. and its prob my least fav so far sadjfhkj its nice looking but so Plain compared to the others..the song is nice?

-oh my god kaito said he dueled yuto countless times and yet it took him halfway into the duel to realize yuya looked like him. kaito faceblind like me confirmed? also I like how kaito didnt beat yuya SUper fast like jack did the first time lol, makes me think yuyas getting a lot stronger gradually which is fun!

-yuto during the kaito stuff started speaking to yuya? he literally has not regularly done that at all up until this point. was..he able to do that all along and just Never did?? lmao?? not even to pass along messages to his bestie shun??? nope, kaito is Thee Important Guy to talk to yuya abt I Guess haha. good to see him again. also still good that yuya is not Questioning Why yuto is Tagging along inside of him or why that happened in the first place. lol

-yuto rly told yuya YA DONT TELL THEM IM HERE DONT TELL THEM MY SOUL IS IN YOU bro…theyre just gonna assume ur missing forever….yuya NEEDS to let them know lol

-'then my dad rly wasnt a coward!' yuya why is that your reaction to your dad having gone to xyz?? did he rly not tell ur mom at least?? was he helping in the War??? i still am salty he left yuya at home to do that seemingly w/out word of when he could be back or what was going on to at least his WIFE?? I get not telling ur small child maybe but cmon... the xyz ppl called him a coward tho lmaooo??

-ARE ALL THE GIRLS IN FUSION DIMENSION!!! YES!!! GIRL TIME

-14 yr olds HAVE to be in academia…literal child soldiers!!! oh god yuzu!!! (but also I NEED her to go and hang w the other girls lmao) the fact kids regularly run away and the adults are like WE GOTTA SEND HER BACK…chasing her down for it…GOD

-LOVE THE DRAMATIC REVEAL OF ASUKA. AS IF I COULDNT RECOGNIZE HER. I lichrally dont recall anything abt her but im glad to see her again anyway. looks like shes not with academia despite still wearing the uniform LOL. love cyber angels designs too

-on the other hand im very lukewarm to edo being here. hi I Guess u were not my fav in gx nor did I dislike u...just some guy to me... same hat on us both not liking yuyas dad? (I DONT HAVE A VALID REASON I AM JUST SUS ABT HIM AND DONT LIKE HIS VIBES SO FAR. like i GUESS theyre implying hes a good guy but im like :/ ok.)

-yuyas dad. right there. running a duel school for academia runaways. cool? glad hes kinda helping stuff?? god yuzu's reaction to seeing him broke my HEART she is so compassionate and immediately cries out of relief bc she knows how much everyone was worried abt him. she prob was too bc he was prob like an uncle to her...agh

-oh my god yuto POSSESSED YUYA and his eyes turned grey. gonna be real bodysharing is one of my fav tropes and im enjoying yuto being more Active A Lot :3c (also, yuya seemed to be in PAIN before and after yuto did this. so. interesting)

-this monster is AMAZING LOOK AT THOSE STAINED-GLASS WINGS!!! BRO DARK REQUIEM XYZ DRAGON IS EVEN A COOL NAME. LOVE HER

-shun talking to kaito abt the power of friendship was RLY cute and I appreciate his effort BUT HES GONNA BE A TOUGH NUT TO CRACK. HIS WHOLE FAMILY IS CARDED. poor haruto :( (do not care too much for dr faker at all tho tbh)

-ppl rly just accept when yuya says yuto is inside of him. love the ygo universe bc its such a Normal Whatever thing

-106 kicks off with some BOMBSHELLS. leo and yuyas dad worked together to make real solid vision?? I was under the impression his entertainment dueling was created separately but No. they worked together. classic ygo dads moment. and yuyas dad looked tiny baby reiji in the eyes after being asked to be the leader of the lancers and decided to go do stuff on his own anyway to try and TALK to leo. I get it! he didnt want the kid to be involved! understandable actually but he fucked up by going before the system was ready and landed in xyz oof...dumbass moment but I get it. he wanted to try and solve things himself...does he know what leo's plans entail?? can he tell me if so jkdsjfn is it rly just Rule All Dimensions bc thats sooo lame if so

-glad to see a lot of fusion kids were running away and doubting stuff going on… the random girl begging asuka to run away with her…lesbian moment. and shes a nameless bg character. damn. so sad

-yuzus new outfit is SOO cute!! and hair down moment!! need more hair down gel-less hair moments in ygo lol

-there had better be fanart of yuri or fanfics where he has plants (esp venus flytraps and stuff) bc of his deck

-OJAMA MOMENT. YURI CALLING THEM UNPLEASANT TOO LMAOOO says the guy with plants with eyeballs on them!! his reaction was SO funny. he is like a little cat to me. funney little guy. also when it zooms in on him and in the last (or the one before that?) op he has slit eyes sometimes. is that like. for a reason or just stylistic. its FUN

-jesus christ he took 5 of them out in 1 turn! overkill much! but also once again showing him as a Threat. right before he gets teleported AGAIN LMAO yuzu is Immune to Yuri

-YUGO IS IN FUSION TOO?? HOW LONGVE U BEEN HERE BUD I MISSED U

-the…effect yugo has on women.......... ^ (+how serena was constantly kicking/punching him away) hes like a golden retriever JKSDHFJK he just needs to find someone to match his energy!! poor boy 😂

-leo could not look more like a villain if he tried. my god sitting on his chair with THAT villain pose. ordering ppl around but seemingly doing NOTHING himself. his vibes. I RESPECT the aesthetic even tho hes a piece of shit father (the same goes for reijis MOMs vibes, my god its a wonder reiji doesnt have Villainous Mannerisms from being raised by them LMAO)

-NEW GIRL VILLAINS? NEW GIRL VILLAINS? NEW GIRL VILLAINS? NO ONE TOLD ME THERE WERE EVIL WOMEN IN ARC V HELLOOOO

-GRACE AND GLORIA YOURE BOTH SO. CHEFS KISS. MORE EVIL WOMEN ALWAYS. AND AMAZONESS CARDS!!!! OOOOH. >:3

-poor sayaka with her survivors guilt ;^; Feel Bad for Her

-OH!! sayaka uses fairies!!! FAIRY CHEER GIRL IS BACK YES KOTORI DECK LETS GO. I have now decided sayaka, ruri, and kotori were besties. two birds and two fairy users. it just makes Sense!

-'the professor would never send us for duelists of your caliber' they say then keep taunting the kids. my god grace and gloria arent just evil women. theyre MEAN women pro assassins for academia. I am OBSESSED with them. are either of them single

-iron wolf trains design is so funny to me. ive seen the card before but i didnt kno there was a character who used it in the animes...train deck is such a funny concept. beep beep

-I mean Obviously yuya/shun would win against the ladies, but it was very nicely done? gloria/graces strats were cool, they got their LP to an INSANE number before bein taken down and yuya did it with STYLE and a FLARE and put smiles on everyone (sans edo)'s faces which was. good to see. good.

-hey i was gonna say 'edo love ur shoulder fringe thingies' but then…I saw the rest of his fit…what are u WEARING. SNUGGIE??? thought u had beef with xyz but maybe ur mad the barians stole ur fit like HUH. WHAT IS THAT OUTFIT. LMAO. (going to get roasted alive if it turns out he wore this in gx and I just forgot but tbf I remember like. 4 things abt gx. yubel was there. there was a...caveman? dinosaurus guy. he got the dino bone in him and went to space. vampires? that is all. manjoume was there.)

-sayaka's visceral reaction/panic when the obelisk force's monster came out…I knew she had severe anxiety+ptsd but GOD IT MAKES ME SO SAD. PROTECT HER. (+ the chaos named monster being in xyz world…yes. good)

-i think kaito is the only person not to flinch at all during the 2000 interference policy bs. icon

-'i will KILL SAYAKA YUUSHOU'S SON' …I wonder if the literal translation is KILL?? thats what the subs said but my god edo, do u not mean 'turn into a card' kill seems like. well. a bit SEVERE.

-aww edo fuckin. put yuya in a CAGE MATCH. I was hoping we'd get edo v kaito. I am still holding out hope for kaito and jack to interact somehow

-grace wanting to watch while gloria is like UGH LETS GO ALREADY peak sisterisms. …damn they arent gonna keep these women evil are they (they were prob child soldiers too, which, fair enough)

-kaito rly said nO PROB takes out entire obelisk force alone KING SHIT

-this duel prof guy whos name I am not committing to memory (guy with coconut hair) is mad annoying. I miss the actual professor from gx, he at least had cute clothes and lipstick for that certain gnc flair. this dude is like if spock sucked

-oh. ok edo has pants under his robes and stuff. from the side its more obviously like, a cape situation with hangy bits, but, I like my idea that its a snuggie better. </3

-it makes perfect sense why edo is upset but him being like 'I DIDNT SMILE!! I DIDNT!!' is a LITTLE funny. and ofc he would think duels arent supposed to be fun, yuya. my god hes only known them as tools of war! its like goin to someone and being like 'i KNOW guns are scary but where IM FROM all the bullets are marshmallows and we shoot them in each others mouths and into our friendship cocoa so dont worry, I want to understand u by shooting u gently with marshmallow gun :)' and u gotta be like. ok well where im from they are Death Weapons :( HHHH.

-also now that we're seeing more of yuyas dad can I just say. I DONT UNDERSTAND YGO GENETICS. DOES YUYA DYE HIS HAIR??? HIS DAD HAS BLACK HAIR AND HIS MOM IS A REDHEAD. anime genetics in general are screwy but with multicolored hair…its like. it MUST be hair dye right. if we are being honest. in a realistic au where that IS the case do we think yuya has 1. natural black hair or 2. natural orangy hair like his mom 3. some mix of the two (brown hair??) hmm.

-I feel like yuya's performer persona has come out 10000% more in these two past duels than the entire series and i LOVE IT YUYA FEELS LIKE HES GETTIN IN THE GROOVE OF IT. YES. MAKE THEM SMILE BABY. i am smiling too. cute…

-aw edo swapped sides and threw his fake snuggie away. also grace being SO READY TO JOIN YUYA HAHA. even edo and the tyler sisters hear yuya explain 'o ya yutos a guy whos Me from xyz ^^' and theyre like oh ok :) I LOVE HOW THEY ARE JUST. FINE WITH IT. I LIKE when everyone is friends so this is fine.

-kaito putting the fear of god into loser spock. amen

-…ok academia soldiers immediately switching sides and helping was cute. idc if its a bit unrealistic for all the child soldiers to flip that quick. its NICE in theory.

-edo being like 'o ya we can return the carded ppl to normal' casually and everyone being SHOCKED. i …kept forgetting everyone prob thought it was forever Permanent LMAO??? like. obviously /i/ know they return everyone to normal (just bc on a meta level Killing Everyone including minor charas FOREVER is too Much for ygo probably, and itd make academia a LOT more unforgivable imo) but. still. wild

-yuya/yuto speech abt 'yeah, we NEED to forgive to move on, ofc theres unforgivable stuff and thats even more painful but the best we can do is try to make ppl smile' …sweet sentiment. like I get what he means but I also dont 100% believe ppl in xyz would realistically be That WIlling to let academia ppl Help Them jdsafhkj

-so yeah, the cards are being used for Soul Energy or whatever, and edo thinks all the ppl are gonna be reborn. wonder if thats bs from leo or real? and 'reborn' as in like, immediately the same? so more like respawn that reBORN right. anyway what in the world is leo ACTUALLY aiming for bc i still dont believe its some utopia bullshit. hes using child soldiers and kidnapping girls…

-they put shun in A POD?? MAGIC HEALING POD??? HOW IS HE /THAT/ INJURED CMON. WE NEED FIGHTING BIRD. nooo are we rly leaving him in xyz for now boooo :(

-wait we're really going to fusion NOW? are we coming back to xyz after? it feels too SOON we have like 40 eps left, also, we spent way longer in synchro comparatively…

-christ, im GLAD yuyas dad is finally like 'yes ill go, ill take charge and talk to leo' buddy your old pal is using child soldiers and causing genocide, we are a little past trying to get him to egao!!! also how long have u been in fusion, u didnt IMMEDIATELY GO TO DO THIS??? IF UR SO SURE U CAN TALK TO HIM??? annoying asf im sorry i dont have a valid reason to dislike this man but i DO i do dislike him. one thing abt ygo is all the dads usually suck so im just WAITING to hear some SHIT abt him ToT

-dennis is finally back??? I forgot he existed. sorry dennis. you're FUN but not one of my favorites

-i do love all the students being like. NOOO YUYA'S DAD SENSEI STAND DOWN LET US HANDLE DENNIS. fuckin DENNIS trying to be a threat jdsfkj. as if yuyas dad is like, old and weak?? his leg might be injured but my god I seriously doubt he, as a pro duelist, who INVENTED A NEW TYPE OF DUELING, cannot beat DENNIS. funny

-…I do think dennis wouldve lost, but THEY RAN AWAY FROM THE DUEL. how many times has this happened in ygo ever?? wild!! theyre rly going for academia right NOW?? OH GOD ITS HAPPENING. WILL THE BRACELET GIRLS ALL FINALLY MEET UP

-YUYA YUZU REUNION. AGAIN.

-the INSANE BACKFLIPS KAITO JUST DID. I AM ON EP 113. HE JUST. KAITO WERE U A CHEERLEADER AT SOME POINT?? WHAT WAS /THAT/

-kinda mad abt yuzu being relegated to Damsel a bit, but glad she can also protect herself and duel

-yuto is SO funny popping out while yuya homosexually Duels kachidoki right after he says smth like 'bring out ur evil xyz dragon' and yuto says 'wow he rly hates u…' BRO ITS /YOUR/ DRAGON HES TALKING ABT LMAO??? yuto is so. well. im glad after this long, for this arc hes so much more PRESENT

-ok, yuya says smth REALLY interesting to me. he makes a point to be like 'because of how I was dueling back then (against kachidoki the first time, when the Demon Thing overtook him n yuto) I couldnt save kachidoki, but it's different now!' and. yeah? his character development has been kind of subtle, but in MY opinion he went from trying to force himself to smile as …a kind of Repressing of his Real feelings, and to just kinda emptily echoing his dads words without understanding them deeply, to actually wanting others to smile with him because hes Witnessed the Horrors and Injustices and wants to uplift ppl genuinely while honoring his dad too and…idk, it's NICE. I think the Demon thing is Less of an Immediate problem now bc hes! feeling his feelings More or smth? …is the Demon Form a Metaphor. (I know it wont be lol im still mildly worried abt it, esp since we got all the yuboys in the same dimension now..) anyway its nice and i already KNOW hes gonna befriend kachidoki :)

-kachidokis rainbow magic evil tattoos are so fun. love those

-the way yuya is struggling on roller shoes but was a natural on a bike in sychro is SO funny. granted his mom was a biker, so

-yuto's little 'hey are u doing this on purpose…' to yuya my GOD he is SO funny. emo king has JOKES (I think hes being serious which is even funnier actually)

-my god kachidoki's backstory is so sad but hes been fixating on yuya for EIGHT YEARS? yeah they are so. hmm. rotating them in my mind together. kachidoki was willing to make them both lose if it meant yuya losing…and yuya stopped him from doin that…offered him a friendly hand….going to CRY

-this is prob the first time kachidoki got praised like that in a duel too HHHH IM SAD. also why are u walking away, ur in a random dimension king, howre u gettin home? DENNIS? is DENNIS gonna send u home? jdsfkjhk

-my god dennis v kaito. why am I laughing so hard. kaito is like the biggest straightman ever to dennis' silly Menace and…yeah it's very funny to me. kaitos gonna beat his clown ass. kaito is THEE undefeated ygo rival I am not even a little worried

-ok quick card appreciation moment. bubble gardna is so CUTE

-Ok i expected kaito to win. did not expect. DENNIS TO, INSTEAD OF JOINING THEM, TURN HIMSELF INTO A CARD. jeez. ok. this was immediately overshadowed by the fact SERENA BACK!!!! ITS BEEN TOO LONG. HIIII SERENA :D

-…PIRATES ARE CANON. yet another epic win

-Moment. (followed by immediate betrayal, lmao I was wondering why we didn't get to see what she'd been up to and she just gave a vague summary...up to being brainwashed I Guess? unsurprising)

-I'm actually mad at how easily yuzu gets captured and goes along with this tho. bc it looked like serena just..mildly twisted her arm?? s1 yuzu would've fought Harder and been yelling (her being so spirited was one of my fav things abt her!) and they keep making her More of a Damsel and im >:( u still have legs girl! kick! bite! I want u to go down swinging if u must be caught!! struggle more!! damn!!!

-YUYA CAN SKATE ON TIGHT ROPES!!! i think I wondered earlier in this liveblog if he could do Circus Skills and he CAN MY GOD I AM SO VALIDATED RN. LOVE THIS

-reiji, layra, tsukikage, and crow are finally here. about god damn time. AND SORA IS TOO. YAY. why is jack not with them :<

-sora using a kraken monster against the pirate (pirate..cosplayer? lmao) so why DOES academia employ Fake Pirates exactly. like im not complaining I Just Want To Know

-this little?? approving nod and smile reiji gives to sora?? so cute ;_; genuinely glad to have both of them back, reiji is Best Team Leader and sora is very much needed if we're goin to academia (and look..hes all buddy friends with the other lancers now…cute…his FRIENDS…HE HAS FRIENDS NOW.......PROUD OF U DOT COM)

-also very glad yuya was like 'yeah serena wouldnt fucking DO THIS of her own will' and they did establish its Brainwashing. like, good on them for being smart and trusting their friends. refreshing to see

[jacksmysterylabyrinth]

I have even more confounded feelings about Chapter 5, now, and it’s hard to know how... to put it... so I’m gonna ramble about it and see where that goes

I felt Makoto’s struggle that bit more on the second run, and it feels as though that the bulk of feelings ‘cracking through at the eleventh hour’ is the point since that’s his... breakdown. Vivia foreshadowed this theme and imagery extensively in his chapter, right down to the ‘cracking of a mirror’. This is peak ‘wits end’ mood with his mask - both figurative and literal - fully broken

...and the battle itself even felt more satisfying than I remembered it. And gods the music. The music in this confrontation is so bloody good. There’s even a sadness to the first part of the music which makes it even better.

Everything leading up to the Labyrinth was fine, or at least it felt it, as far as being ‘dragged along’ goes, while just being a tad bit heavy on the exposition. It’s some time during the battle with Makoto but moreso approaching the end, that the pacing gets... reeeally off. It becomes more a matter of how much they can convey rather than how to convey it, and it’s just text, text, text.

At times like that it’s harder to even process what’s there in the moment. Because of that, Makoto’s intrinsic connection to Number One aka the Yuma we know, and their shared struggles- the pinnacle of this whole thing, feels... so... empty, unless you’re really focusing on that. It’s lost in the ether of ‘puzzle time’ and ‘exposition dumps’ even in the emotions they share. Objectively you know that it’s there, but you have to focus to keep it in your sights, especially when you might have other things on your mind- like the UG influence that later gets brushed under the rug despite having CAUSED all this mess to begin with!?!

And speaking of caused- I needed to see this mess unravel from Makoto’s early days, because going to the extent of kidnapping death row inmates was a huge extreme from making a belt of rain clouds to protect people. I doubt that he would have jumped to mass murder right from the get go, he was under a whole lot of pressure from being left alone with a massive conspiracy he was literally created from, and seeing as we know now it’s very possible to make humane stuff that’s nutritious for homunculi in the current day, we need a better grasp of the position Makoto was in where this wasn’t possible and he wasn’t getting any help from anyone. Something that isn’t so easily summed up by... scattered white noise in a Reasoning Death Match, ffs. 

This is especially important if Makoto is supposed to be ‘a Number One who took an especially wrong turn’, doubly when the reason Yuma turned to Shinigami’s death-bringing power in the first place was because he had his back against the wall and couldn’t handle things alone, the way he was...

The whole ‘fabric of Makoto’s existence unravelled in one Mystery Labyrinth puzzle’ also makes it feel as though his experiences are being confined solely to what’s said. No flashback, no video or anything of the sort, just... text. Not having anything physical does make an amount of sense due to, well, his escape and position as CEO part of the conspiracy. But... even so, forcing things into text bits and text bits alone for him, isn’t an excuse when even for the freaking Nail Man storyline you’d have stuff in pictures despite there not being physical evidence of the urban legend in particular. 

Makoto. is a fucking. UG. Homunculus. Homunculi are a big deal in this universe and the emergence of the perfect one feels like a footnote with how that fact blends with every other piece of text in this Labyrinth and even more so when Yuma has his dive and everything turns to focus only on him regaining his mental strength and defeating Makoto. The UG conspiracy loses a large amount of its weight, which is a tragedy when it’s made and destroyed Makoto.

This is just as, if not more egregious than the Epilogue where you learn that the MDs supposedly ‘killed’ were alive all along, and events involving them goes into the wall of text mess which just feels plain exhausting and forced, to the point that it lessens the feeling it’s trying to convey, especially when they just outright say almost verbatim that they were ‘taken to the side for the main cast to take the stage’. That’s a bit too on the nose for how it’s overly-centering Yuma’s personal journey here (and this is coming from someone who enjoyed his meandering journey where he’s going off on his own meeting people he won’t know for very long, and trying at being a detective- with those stories themselves not exactly blending into ‘mastermind’s path laid out’ which it made a habit of doing in Danganronpa series).

In other words, it’s not so much the content but the way it’s put across that kind of makes it... unsatisfying? Like, it’s not a bitter taste and I have some good feelings about the overall, good enough that I ran through the game again and felt very happy about doing so. But I think some of the things particularly with Makoto’s reveal just didn’t have the impact on me that I would have liked because of how the story didn’t seem to know what to prioritise about it first, even when it otherwise knew what it was saying. 

Which... is kind of the problem with over-ambitious projects, I guess

[lazaruspiss]

Justice League x RW/BY: Super Heroes and Huntsmen (Part One)

gonna be honest i kinda keep forgetting that this movie exists. the animation and music is very... rw/by. for better or for worse. corny quippy one liners. it's very corny. adding a cut bc this'll probably get a bit rambly.

AHHH THE FLASHBACK IS A STILL FRAME. the first thing to make me laugh wasnt even a joke it was the single still frame flashback. well. there was a slight zoom?

it's trying to be funny so bad its trying so hard. the serious dialogue is corny but could be worse. overall its better than the crossover comics? making the DC characters teenagers seems pointless.

oh god the dialogue is so hammy. the fists are hammed. weiss good and weiss dad bad yes i noticed. christ im only 8 minutes in. physically recoiling at some of the jokes. like its nothing jokes its nothinggg.

IS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE BRUCE? he's been on screen for like 10 seconds and he already sounds and acts like "wealthy teenage tiktok star tries to pander to the less ~economically privileged~" and god it keeps going it hasnt even been a minute yet. did they make them teenagers bc otherwise bruce wouldve run off and found some little boy to help him solve everything without the help of anyone else. is that why. bc honestly yeah adult bruce is hard to write into a team setting.

bruce continues to be embarrassing but also. im learning that the still image flashbacks are just a thing thats gonna happen in this movie. style wise its very much a rw/by movie, so its just probably not gonna hit for me. its the kind of show i watched in middle school and grew out of by 8th grade. even then, my interest kind of started and ended with the character design and the basic world building elements. emphasis on basic, trying to understand the more in depth aspects is a bit of a waste of time.

oh and im still at the 10 minute mark. "ive already gone through all the other dc x rw/by content" i thought, "might as well watch the movies" i thought.

i think theyre trying to write bruce doing a smart detective thing? unfortunately rw/by is very bad at writing people doing smart things. 1) cant stand bruces voice in this 2) god hes so annoying and this whole scene is embarrassing to watch.

GAHH. THE SAME FLASHBACK FRAME CLARK HAD BUT ZOOMED OUT THIS TIME. true cinema. and i think theyre alluding to time travel as well as dimension travel, so even the rw/by girls get to have weird "we're not where we should be" flashbacks.

diana manhandles the small boy, fun. it also rife with required reading bc if you arent fully dedicated to keeping track of all rw/by lore then fuck you. these movies dont seem to require much DC knowledge but they cram in a lot of references to rw/by lore that i only know from video essays put out by ex-fans.

hey guys did u remember that yang is lesbian. pretty cool right? right?? this movie is going by so slow.

MARI IS THAT YOU?? and jess... girls u deserve a better movie. oh vic got braids? nice. also that joke was nothing. all the jokes are nothing.

the best jokes so far have been. the ones about how convoluted and hard to get into rw/by is. because of course. sigh. i do think the DC characters are better utilized and integrated than they were in the comics at least. seeing mari and jess get animated is really cool, and overall i like the redesigns. a few of the characters have commented on suddenly being deaged but mari's acknowledgement of it is the first to feel like a natural line of dialogue rather than exposition.

montage of bruce learning to use his bat powers so that they can get that out of the way before he joins the rest of the group. separate things that were already discussed being re-discussed so that we can have a "everyone talks at once scene". they. what. huh? they had a normal conversation that landed on "lets split into groups since theres enough of us to reasonably do that. then they have an argument which ends at the exact same conclusion.

are they really gonna have a "yang thinks diana is hot and blake gets jealous" plot line? really? and another love triangle. cy tries to ask nora to explain this worlds weapons, noras boyfriend(?) gets mad and then cy gets mad back and ends up being the one everyone gets upset with. it feels a bit. just. super uncomfortable. cy wasnt flirting he was just. talking to nora.

oh thank god that bit is over. now back to jess! possibly the most interesting character here. her design is probably my least favorite of the bunch tho, just because it feel a bit... too anime? it reminds me too much of my danganronpa phase, lol.

jaune doing plot device things. jess introspection. its not the most interesting thing but its better than uh. whatever happened with cy earlier. sorry im still thinking about that. i think they were just going for hormonal and temperamental teenager moment but it uh. came off weird.

plot twist everything was uh. void. ptsd monster things. the plots about to get convoluted isnt it.

diana is pretty decently fleshed out in this one. and it looks like they didnt lean into the diana being hot as a source of relationship conflict that much aside from a few jokes, thank god.

for fucks sake shut up jaune i dont care about your dead girlfriend.

back to the monster fighting group, dear god theyre doing one of those. 2 guys fight over girl who goes "umm i can take care of myself >:(". GOD SHUT UP. FUCK. ITS A JEALOUS LOVE TRIANGLE PLOT. please let this die sooner rather than later.

bruce describes everything that was just established. bruce is emo. weiss tries to be nice. then back to jess and jaune. "i didnt realize how much i miss this place" yeah well i sure dont miss it. oh pyrra, however your name is spelled, you were the only character death that meant anything. now if only they didnt degrade her story into being all about jaune even in death.

have weiss and bruce just been on the computer this whole time. at least they eventually get a fight scene. lesbians to the rescue time. stuff and things. i still dont care and jaune. fuckin. creator self insert ass. he was originally comic relief/audience surrogate but turned into way too much of a main character. god jess deserves her own movie.

weiss please stop trying to recruit him this is just embarrassing. is this gonna be a whole thing? bruce deciding between earth and remnant? and god you cant put anime style gags in the middle of a serious scene. oh god theyre making bruce insecure about not having powers like the rest of the league. man who could've seen that coming. christ theres still 20 minutes left. FUCK AND A WHOLE SECOND MOVIE.

jess remains the coolest bitch in this movie. god why couldnt it be a jess green lantern movie.

lesbians on motorcycles, blah blah fight scene. oh god we're pretending batman is cool. fake flash? wheres real barry then :/ christ. they think this is a cool twist. tho possessed barry is pretty fun. god the actual canon explanation for making them teens was bc kilg%re figured the hormones would make them easier to fuck with.

obligatory "even teens can be leaders" speech. the determination of humanity or whatever.

HAAA BRUCE AND BARRY MORSE CODE COMMUNICATION. ok thats cute.

so smth smth final battle but theres a mysterious second bad guy so that they still have content for a second movie. i like how they show vixen's powers, that parts fun. jess does main character thing and kills big bad. bruces conflict about going home is resolved. cy goes and makes amends with nora and guy who likes nora, despite guy who likes nora being the one to cause all the conflict in the first place. they make the go home portals. set up for next movie.