#for example this woman is a good cop bc she's the love interest so the murders she commits are justified!

[arcgayne]

my reasoning:

(these rankings are based on multiple criteria, such as relatability, hotness, relevance, how interesting they are as a character, and so on and so forth).

1) Jinx: she’s literally me. so silly and mentally unstable. needs therapy so bad and it shows. i fucking love her. please get help queen

2) Ekko: literally has never done anything wrong ever. moral compass strong as fuck. bonus points for looking cool. he’s also literally me but jinx wins over him bc she’s more unhinged.

3) Viktor: my fucking beloved. Do I want to be him? Do I want to be with him? Realistically I want neither of these things but unrealistically I need this man in ways even the hexcore couldn’t comprehend.

4) Mel: God I fucking love a powerful smart beautiful woman. AND she has mommy issues? she’s literally perfect. i’m rotating her in my head as we speak

5) Vi: hot tragic lesbian. almost lost points for becoming a cop but then she quit so it’s all good. for now. I have knowledge about what she ends up doing bc of the video game and I am currently choosing to ignore it in favor of the show timeline. Let me dream.

6) Sevika: hot. muscles. vodka aunt. hot. emotionally unavailable. hot. did i mention hot

7) grayson: i think it’s hilarious that she ranks higher than everyone else below her on this list. she literally only gets points for being attractive. especially her voice like ugghhh. what else can i say.

8) sky: perfect angel. so fucking smart and cool. deserves better. i need to know more about her or i will actually explode. hearing her voice made me so happy y’all have no idea

9) powder: baby. deserves the world. only ranks lower bc she doesn’t exactly “exist” anymore or whatever. justice for powder AND jinx 2025

10) caitlyn: hot. but ew cop moment. the fact that her sympathy for zaunites was crushed so easily really annoys me. like girl do you even have principles. ur revenge era would be cool if it wasn’t police brutality like noooo caitlyn pls don’t let a dictator use you to further destabilize your country for her own gain you’re so sexyyy ahaha… idk man it’s complicated. she should quit her job and get a new one. and then get therapy.

11) Jayce: he’s interesting in that he is a good example of a privileged person attempting to make things better by utilizing the system, only to get sucked into said system, becoming part of it and therefore part of the problem. the road to hell is paved with good intentions. his intentions are so good and yet. he is idiot. I hope Ekko and heimydingy are able to lessen his idiocy.

12) ambessa: hooottttttttttt. so fucking hot. goddamn. have y’all SEEN the music video for blood sweat and tears. i’m fucking FERAL. unfortunately for her, looks aren’t everything and she’s the fucking worst so here we are.

13) elora: beautiful powerful wonderful woman. need more of her. what is her life like. have she and mel ever kissed. much to think about here.

14) heimerdinger: he’s annoying and he doesn’t take the much needed time to explain why he makes the decisions he’s making... but he’s also right. which i hate because he’s annoying. but i also like that he’s annoying because it shows the very true fact that ppl who are annoying can in fact be right about things. also his heist with ekko was funny and endearing so he has that going for him. ekko carried tho ngl

15) vander: he’s cool cuz he’s a swag dad. a kind man and a protective guy. all around a great dude tbh. ranks lower because he doesn’t have any particularly interesting character traits to me.

16) finn: he looks cool as fuck but isn’t relevant and is also kind of an annoying brat. which is funny but like also bro. stop.

17) ximena: literally lost some of her fingers to frostbite to protect her baby child kid son. based. i love her.

18) cassandra: milf. the scene with the her and the gun? cool as fuck. ranks lower bc, again, not very relevant. and also dead lol

19) tobias: imma be honest idrc abt tobias at all i just didn’t want to separate him from his wife. he has enough of that in the show LOL

20) claggor: sweet boy. deserved better. i wonder what he would be like now if he’d been able to grow up.

21) silco: morally i hate this guy but he’s also a fascinating character. he’s cool as fuck and a bitch. plus he does eyeball drugs. there are so many fucked up things about this dude i can’t list them all. overall he’s a very well done character and an absolutely fantastic villain. what a piece of work.

22) benzo: just an all around good dude. ranks low bc he’s extremely irrelevant. sorry dude. if this was a morals contest he’d obv be ranked higher, but it’s not, so here we are.

23) jericho: had to look him up LOLLLL thanks for making food for vi i guess. people who make food for other people are the best. that being said he ranks low because, again, irrelevant.

24) mylo: cringe fail asshole. not ranked last bc he was a kid, so i can give him the benefit of the doubt, cuz maybe he would’ve been a better person as an adult… but also he never got to be one so oops lol get ranked low loser

25) singed: brother euughhh. i like drugs too but not THAT much. maybe give this man some backstory and i’ll care about him. as it stands rn idgaf about this guy. i rebuke thee, get AWAY

26) marcus: fucking piece of shit rat. fuck this guy. selfish coward and i hate him forever. die

Here's a fun little sorter I put together for Arcane characters! Reblog with your list!

Let the sorting commence!

[bi-rezi]

renfield is not very good so if somehow you hadnt heard this yet annd were planning to watch it this is your message to not bother

[brw]

Answer every 4th question

4) what was the last straw that made you finally block that annoying person?

to be honest as of recently i have just been blocking the moment i see something annoying rather than wait it out.... alas can't really name an example. it does happen but i can't name any examples.

8) common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

magneto in canon is a bad father and that's okay. he was not a good father to pietro or to wanda, and wasn't particularly spectacular to lorna either. he is a loving grandfather, that i do believe, but his relationship with pietro and wanda has always been strained because of the abuse and trauma they suffered as a result of his brotherhood and retconning him into a funny dad, while fun, isn't canon compliant and it becomes less funny the more widespread it becomes.

12) the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

i mean, hank pym obviously. people love to exaggerate his character especially compared to other similar characters from the same era and same point in time of creation and it's annoying to me, because the only reason he is infamous is that he faces narrative consequences for his actions in a way a lot of other characters at the time didn't have to, and despite actually taking it seriously he's always remembered as the worst in the fanon collective mind rather than the complex and nuanced character he actually inarguably is in canon (aus nonwithstanding.

16) you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

vague list, i don't understand modern bobby characterisation for the most part bc i much preferred awkward 80s accountant bobby to millenial kissing strangers for saving them bobby. i don't understand wolverine laura that much bc a lot of the time her characterisation is boiled down to "woman wolverine" when as x23 she was incredibly interesting with a distinct voice to logan, whereas now they're often indistinguishable. don't care for no power aus. don't care for anything irondad or anything "older superhero loves to adopt younger heroes" that isn't reed bc reed is the only superhero who actually took on a lot of kids. don't understand tonyjan at ALL. don't understand the small group of wanda/simon shippers bc that boy is gay and she doesn't love him and he mistreats her.

20) part of canon you found tedious or boring

2000s to early 2010s is boring to me and i don't majorly care for it. post 9/11 really marked a change in how comics were written imo and the narratives surrounding it and i really don't care for it at all, plus the height of the MCU. just not my thing at all.

24) topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

gd i dunno. cop avengers vs the completely radical, not at all owned by a corporation and written by the same people x-men i guess.

choose violence asks

[globodamorte]

I don't even know where to begin (spoilers)

jeongdo... jeongdo jeongdo jeongdo... getting someone to crack and shit i understand. you're a cop. that's what you do. but the way he downplayed seongbin's (and jeonghui's!!!!) abuse he literally said "I feel bad for your father" he also blamed jeonghui for hiding her mental illness like???? like I really called it. I called it I knew they were gonna do this.

and I mean drool all you want over the pretty cop like "uhgghghh he didn't mean it he just wanted seongbin to confess" I don't fucking buy it. and I don't care if it was genuine or not. he's shown to care significantly less for the victims who are mentally ill (yujeong and seongbin, and if I may reach, jeonghui and Dr.ju) if him being a sympathetic cop depends on his ableism then he's not a sympathetic cop.

also I'm sure there are other ways to make someone crack than fucking retraumatizing them and potentially gaslighting them by downplaying their abuse and saying whatever happened to them was actually good and that they should be THANKFUL TO THEIR ABUSER FOR ABUSING THEM (one comment I found interesting was from someone who said jeongdo may have triggered dr.ju with his fucking bs, and yeah that's possible but also shows how little he actually cares)

also the fucking medical report. I'm not gonna treat jeonghui like a saint ok. I'm not. we don't know her enough. as far as we know she made her son take medication without medical supervision and was (reportedly) violent. but that part that says "has delusions of her husband abusing their son" is so vile. this could go two ways i think: 1) we dive more into "actually seongbin's father was fine and not a piece of shit" and plot twist! jeonghui was the one abusing seongbin, or even: seongbin was never abused and both jeonghui and seongbin shared these delusions???(this sucks) and 2) actual real example of real life abuse tactics where the abuser (usually a man, bc misogyny plays into this) when confronted by authorities (either police or most probably in jeonghui's case, doctors) will act like the abused is being dramatic and exaggerating and - in some cases - insane. and the authorities will rather believe the abuser/man than the abused/woman (bc misogyny). so this takes us to jeonghui being gaslit about her own son's abuse, which is more realistic and less ableist, but also sucks.

also people with brains started popping up in the comments we love to see it (more like ppl thinking "oh we're really going there? oh... oh." like we seongbin truthers weren't calling it over 20 chapters ago) but the ableist dumbasses are still there.

[tsunflowers]

anime featuring adult women

there are a lot of great female characters in anime, but sometimes it feels like they’re all supporting characters in shows about men or they haven’t graduated high school yet. I wanted to compile a list of some anime with adult women front and center

kidou keisatsu patlabor on tv:

in the sci-fi future as imagined in 1988, human-piloted robots called labors are used regularly by all kinds of people, including criminals. to combat labor crime, the police develop a special unit of patrol labors—patlabor. instead of following the prestigious division one, we follow a cast of quirky characters in second-string division two, as they solve cases ranging from mundane to dangerous to paranormal

izumi noa, and why I love her:

she’s incredibly strong-willed and stubborn. she’ll stand up to anyone. she’s obsessed with labors, not just piloting them herself but repairing them and learning about new developments in the field. even though division two is primarily men and there is the “men at work” vibe of so much military and police fiction, noa fits in easily with the guys and no one excludes her. the few times people do question her skills bc of her gender, they’re immediately shut down

other women in the cast:

nagumo shinobu, the captain of division one. we never actually see her or her unit at work, but they have a great reputation. I just love her bc she’s very funny always shutting down the captain of division two and I like that in-universe there are women in leadership roles like this

kanuka clancy, a visiting cop from new york. her relationship with noa is very strong, definitely shippable. she’s adept with a gun, a sword, and a giant robot. she’s the serious member of the team who yells at the others for being dumb but there are still times where she goes completely off the rails and ignores the law to do what she knows is right

wotakoi: love is hard for otaku:

momose narumi is an office worker and a fujoshi. she wants to keep the fujoshi part a secret this time around because things went south for her at her last job once people found out she was an otaku, but it turns out several of her new coworkers are fellow nerds. most importantly, her game-loving childhood friend hirotaka works at the same company, and the two of them reconnect as friends… and soon more than friends. it’s a romance drama involving only nerds

momose narumi, and why I love her:

she’s a lot like your standard high school girl protagonist who runs out of the house because she’s late for school, but this time she’s late for work. she’s really funny and straightforward, except she thinks she has to hide that side of her at her job. she and hirotaka have a great childhood friends to lovers relationship. she’s kind of rude to him but he adores her (though he’s kind of bad at showing it). I love a cheerful girl/serious guy romance that’s done well and I think this one really is

other women in the cast:

koyanagi hanako, narumi’s new coworker who’s a fellow fujoshi. she’s also a cosplayer, specifically a crossplayer who specializes in cosplaying as handsome guys. she and narumi only met each other under their fandom nicknames before, but they were big fans of each other and hit it off instantly when they meet at work. they’re cute friends even if they always argue about who tops in their ships

psycho-pass:

in a futuristic society, people’s mental health is constantly measured by “psycho-pass” readings which track their emotional state and judge the likelihood that they will commit a crime. naive rookie cop tsunemori akane leads a team of enforcers, people who are considered “latent criminals” too dangerous to live in normal society but who are still useful to the police. akane develops a close relationship with enforcer kougami shinya in particular, but kougami has his own intense relationship with the elusive criminal makishima shogo. as the team of detectives investigate him, they uncover secrets about the system they never wanted to learn and their fates become entwined with makishima’s

psycho-pass is written by urobuchi gen (madoka magica, fate/zero) and if you’re familiar with him you know what to expect. the show is pretty grim and gory. content warnings for rape, violence, gore, body horror, police violence, the predatory lesbian trope, forced institutionalization, and probably a lot of other things I can’t remember. not a light watch, is what I’m saying

tsunemori akane, and why I love her:

she’s incredibly principled. she sticks to what she believes is right despite immense pressure. it’s precisely because she’s naive and doesn’t understand the system that she is able to fight against it. she grows a huge amount over the course of the series but she never loses her compassion or her sense of right and wrong. she’s pretty badass too

other women in the cast:

karanomori shion, a lab analyst at the public safety bureau. she’s your typical sexy and flirtatious anime character but I think her position within the setting is interesting. although she’s categorized as a “latent criminal” unfit for society, she seems to be valued more than the enforcers. she’s also bisexual and dating a woman, though she plays into the “bisexuals can’t settle down” trope a little. she is not actually the best character or peak representation but I’m pretty attached to her and a certain type of woman will be too

kunizuka yayoi, a lesbian former musician and the only female enforcer. she’s shion’s girlfriend. there is a predatory lesbian character in this series, but it’s not kunizuka. I think her being a lesbian is handled pretty well. she has romantic and sexual relationships with women that are important to her, but she doesn’t hate men or flirt with every woman she meets (traits I hate to see in lesbian characters written by men). she’s really serious and calm but still cute and I love to see her growing respect for akane over the course of the show

death parade:

two people wake up in a strange bar with no memory of how they got there. a mysterious man with white hair named decim and his assistant, a woman known only as “the black haired woman,” ask them to play a game. the games are both absurd and dangerous, and as the contestants play them dark sides of themselves are revealed. decim’s job is to judge them based on their behavior while playing the games, but the black haired woman’s influence causes him to wonder if he’s doing the right thing

like it says in the title, the anime deals with the topic of death, and death by suicide comes up as well. I don’t remember everyone’s backstories but I think violence and abuse come up several times. there are also mannequins that move around on marionette strings which is kind of freaky

the black haired woman, and why I love her:

it might be wrong to say that she’s the main character when she isn’t introduced until the end of the first episode and her name isn’t revealed for half the show but listen. she’s the emotional core of the show and the person who sets the events in motion. she’s a very emotional person and that’s her strength. her relationship with decim is the classic “woman teaches cold-hearted man to feel” trope but I think it’s an outstanding example bc it centers her emotional experience and the two of them are not explicitly in a romantic relationship. I’ve been trying to avoid spoilers but for her it’s almost unavoidable. I love the way that her story is slowly revealed over the course of the show culminating in an incredible sequence in episode 11. I think her depression is handled so well too. it’s heartbreaking

other women in the cast:

nona, the boss of the arbiters. she’s a schemer who knows a whole lot of things she’s keeping from everyone else. I really like her outfit above all else. baggy pants with suspenders… a great look

mayu, a high school girl who is a contestant in one of the games. she tries to be cutesy but is prone to anger and makes incredible faces. I like that she’s an obsessive fangirl character who’s played for humor but is also shown as being noble and sympathetic

sakura quest:

koharu yoshino is a woman who moved to tokyo to find a job but has no luck. when she finally gets a job offer, it’s to become “queen for a day” of rural manoyama village. upon arriving in manoyama, she learns that she was only hired because they thought she was someone else but they still want her to work there for an entire year. now she lives in a small town and is tasked with both revitalizing the citizens and drawing tourists in, along with the help of four friends. it may not sound funny and heartwarming but it really is. it’s a good story about connecting and reconnecting and also the head of the tourism board wears a chupacabra mask sometimes

the main characters, and why I love them:

koharu yoshino, queen of manoyama. her struggle in the job market is unfortunately relatable to many people today and I love that she wishes she could have a job as a queen. she’s great and she really comes to love the town despite everything

shiori shinomiya, a very sweet manoyama native. she’s almost too nice but it makes it all the funnier when she gets intense

maki midorikawa, an aspiring actor who is famous among manoyama citizens for a small role she played in the past. she’s serious about acting but her family wishes she would get a more stable job. she can be kind of rude but she does love her friends and her town

sanae kouzuki, a web developer who moved to manoyama to escape the intensity of city life and the negative effects it had on her mental health. the problem is she hates rural life and is afraid of bugs but is too proud to admit it on her blog. the only true city girl among the five

ririko oribe, my favorite of the five. she’s shy but loves cryptids and the occult. it’s very easy to read her as autistic and the other characters affirm her interests and behavior. her love of cryptids even helps the town out when Spanish tourists come in search of a local legend. her relationship with her grandma is really good as well, with the two coming to understand and love each other over the course of the show

[in-tua-deep]

I have seen some fics of Five going to high school (and often falling in love with a 13 y/o oc girl which icks me tf out bc that’s an old man, guys) to socialize which gave me the idea of Five befriending old people who are also physically old. For example, Hannah, the German lady in her 80s who poisoned nazis when she was a child. Then there’s Joan who spent his life fighting to achieve his goals despite having to deal with near-constant racism. Just. Five getting along with all these old ppl

you’re RIGHT and consider: Klaus decides it’s a good idea to take Five along to his weekly ladies over fifty stitch ‘n bitch and is surprised and delighted to find that Five actually genuinely gets along with all of them

there is, of course, Hannah who poisoned Nazis and her and five trade poisoning methods the way other people might trade coveted family recipes. Hannah declares Five to be a “nice young man” and the fact that she is in her 80s or 90s means that she is absolutely allowed to get away with it

Fiona is a 60something butch lesbian who proudly displays her mugshots along the walls of her house for everyone to gaze upon in awe when it’s her turn to host. Her wife, Mandy, always makes snickerdoodle cookies and fondly talks about the time her and “Fee” got arrested because Fee kicked a cop in the balls or something. 

Doris was an army nurse during her youth and can curse well enough to make a sailor blush and has the bawdiest sense of humor to match. She spends most of her time knitting baby socks and hats to donate and volunteers at a community center where she sneaks food to any hungry teens who have all adopted her as their odd aunt.

Nada immigrated in her teens with her parents and has had to deal with Islamophobia her entire life. She wears a khimār that she knitted herself and laughs when Five genuinely offers to kill any assholes who harass her. Instead, she starts teaching him Arabic since her own grandchildren unfortunately do not speak it

Edith was trans before anybody even knew what that meant and she teaches Five patterns for interesting dresses and fancy sweaters since Five expresses some interest in diversifying his wardrobe (Five personally stands by the fact that skirts and dresses are the best because!! if you lift up front you have INSTANT POCKET/BAG which was very useful in the apocalypse!! of course now his family protest about him flashing underwear or whatever. Edith just introduces him to wearing leggings under and calls it a day)

Kathy killed her first husband and everyone knows it even if she was never convicted. She spends her days volunteering at centers for domestic violence and working with abused women and children. She tells Klaus and Five quite plainly that if Reginald were still alive she would kill him, and they laugh but they absolutely believe her. Five sincerely tells her he would kill her husband if he were still alive as well, and Kathy grins and winks and says she beat him to that one

and all the others. Sally who worked customer service her whole life and lived to tell the tale. Ruby who was widowed young and raised four kids by herself. Alice who is deaf and signs slowly because her parents thought she needed speech therapy to appear normal more than she needed an actual way to communicate. Becca was a teen during the civil rights movement and witnessed schools being desegregated, and is quick to remind everyone that it wasn’t as long ago as they think - she remembers the white kids jeering and the protests like it was yesterday. Susan’s husband died in the Vietnam war and she is very quiet when she finds out that he was in Klaus’s unit. 

A rotating cast of women with vibrant and brilliant and unique lives who parade through. Some are fixtures, some come when they’re able which isn’t often, some only pop in on the rare occasion when the planets align.

“Go get the salsa dip, Five.” Kathy orders.

“Why do I always have to fetch everything.” Five complains, even as he stands up.

“Because you can teleport.” Kathy says with a shrug, “If I could teleport then it would be me going to get the salsa, wouldn’t it?”

Five goes and gets the damn salsa.

One time a new woman is very confused and asks about Klaus and Five’s presence at the Women’s 50 and over knitting club (“It’s the stitch ‘n bitch,” Klaus mutters under his breath and is ignored) and everyone just kind of shrugs. 

“Women and nonbinary old person support and knitting group?” Edith suggests but everyone agrees that that’s a bit of a mouthful.

“But they’re too young?” The new woman asks again, helplessly.

“Actually Klaus fought with my husband in the Vietnam war.” Susan interjects cheerfully before Klaus can start his theatrics, passing the oatmeal raisin cookies to Hannah who is cackling delightedly, “And Five assassinated President Kennedy, I think.”

“Allegedly assassinated President Kennedy.” Five corrects with a flourish of his knitting needles as Kathy nods in approval. 

“Oh.” The new woman says, faintly. “Oh, I think I need to sit down.”

“Don’t worry, dear.” Sally comforts, “It’s only that family which doesn’t make sense. You can probably count on the rest of the world to be at least a little bit sensible.”

“I find it offensive that no one here thinks I’m not too young to be here.” Becca interjects and that sets everyone off laughing and falling over themselves to assure her that she’s as pretty as a picture and fresh as a daisy

i’m having a lot of fun with this as you might be able to tell. Just. Five and Klaus joining in old people things because Five IS old and Klaus fought in the vietnam war so you bet your ass he is demanding the senior citizen discount at restaurants

i feel like Agnes should join the group after her romantic tour of bird sanctuaries with Hazel. Hazel himself is not sure how to feel about Klaus and Five being in the same knitting club as his girlfriend but Agnes is clearly having fun and she makes homemade doughnuts for meetings which means the club isn’t letting go of her voluntarily anyway

AND THEN YEAH i always loved the concept of Klaus meeting up with some of the guys from his old unit and all of them just being kind of like “ah klaus you fucker i never actually took you seriously about the time travel shit i just thought you were on some serious drugs” and immediately just adopt klaus back into the fold

and i mean five is also a soldier in a low of ways so i feel like he would also really fit in with their gallows humor and serious knowledge of weapons. Of course, both Klaus and Five also look young enough to be their grandchildren so they also highkey just straight up adopt them and are fully willing to loom ominously at anyone who bothers them

the hargreeves go to pride and Klaus is like “oh I’m meeting up with some friends as well :)” and the others assume they’re like. party friends he made or ex boyfriends or something and then this big gang of old war vets materialize from the crowd decked out in rainbows bc they do this every year - originally in honor of Klaus and Dave but now klaus is again so Time To Party B)

Five “volunteers” in a nursing home and all the staff think he’s adorable and precocious but actually he complains about technology and reminisces about the great depression and beats the occupants at checkers as he and his opponent trade stories about which joint and bones they can feel storms coming in

just AGE APPROPRIATE FRIENDS

[seventeendeer]

Top five SU episodes?

1. the movie

this is cheating a bit bc of course a full length movie with a higher budget than the series is going to be good, BUT WITH THAT SAID, the movie just really knocked it out of the park, in my opinion! the songs were fantastic, it was really well structured, the visuals were even prettier than normal, and of course ,, Spinel was there ,,, I just really connected with her and I absolutely adore how strong her presence is in the story. I got big big love for villains that are both funny and genuinely scary, she’s got so much flair! I feel like the movie also pulled off emotional moments that were more raw and painful than the rest of show has up until this point. I 100% respect that the series generally keeps the characters’ emotions relatively grounded, because there’s more space to address all the nuances in a problem when the characters get to talk things out properly most of the time, but the sheer drama of the movie was fantastic to watch and hurt in a completely different way. the climax especially felt like a punch in the gut. Steven finally snapping at Spinel, Spinel’s rage and violence, an uplifting song sung during a fierce one-on-one battle, and Spinel finally breaking down crying as she realizes that killing Steven isn’t going to make her feel better all came together to make such a painfully real image of conflict that totally killed my feelings. again, I appreciate that the original series wasn’t often like this, it’s good for different reasons, but the movie resonated with me in a completely different way because of it. I’m glad Future is leaning into this kind of drama more and I’m very excited to see where it goes!

2. Last One Out of Beach City

totally opposite my feelings about the movie, I love that Last One Out is so super low-stakes. it’s a really pleasant episode to watch. seeing the characters just hanging out and having fun is a great time, and I think this is one of the funniest episodes in the show. it also has a really great escapism-y feeling to it, like, who wouldn’t wanna hop in a car, put on a leather jacket and some cool music, run from the cops, have a meet-cute with a large pink-haired punk lady and then go to a party? I think part of my love for it is also that it contains so many little details that mirror my own experience as a lesbian. of course I love Ruby and Sapphire, but they’re Experienced Gays who have had each other for thousands of years and know exactly who they are in relation to their identity. Pearl is a mess who’s trying to put herself back together and take her first unsteady steps towards being a functioning gay, and that’s exactly where I’ve been in my life too for the last several years. trying to catch up on all the fun irresponsible stuff you missed out on previously because you had a full-time job just keeping yourself alive is hard. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a story that put that feeling into such accessible packaging before and it feels so validating.

3. Reunited

this episode is so good in so many ways! of course the big thing was Ruby and Sapphire’s wedding, and them getting to kiss. it was such a huge moment. I remember as a kid, I never thought I’d see something like this for at least another thirty years. what Rebecca Sugar and the rest of the crew have done for queer kids (and queer adults like me, who didn’t get to have this when we were little) can’t be praised enough, I am truly personally grateful to them for fighting this battle for us and sparking a wave of other media that is now allowed to follow her example. also the wedding was just beautifully and heartwarmingly executed, I love that it was allowed to be completed before the Diamonds came. the fight against the Diamonds is also super stellar, it was so cool to see all the characters fight in their formal wear! in general, this episode was just fantastic and I loved it.

4. Jailbreak

the original ‘make Sketcher cry because gays get to be on children’s television now’ episode! I remember I could barely believe it when this episode first came out and Ruby and Sapphire were as confirmed to be in love as they were allowed to be at the time. aside from that, I think it’s also Jasper’s best episode, and she was my favorite character for a while. I love how beautifully she’s drawn in this episode, and how genuinely threatening she gets to be. later episodes portraying her more as Lapis’ stalker ex and a pathetic brute was ... a little bit of a letdown when she started off as such an imposing villain (which seems to be intentional, but I reserve the right to be a lil sad about it) (also why is she drawn so unsettlingly detailed in later episodes? Jailbreak portrays her as super beautiful in a scary tiger woman kind of way, but in later episodes she’s rarely if ever drawn as pretty?). anyway, Jailbreak was awesome and really marked a turning point for the show where it went from great to fantastic storytelling, and I’ll always remember it fondly!

5. Jungle Moon

this one is just cool tbh. loved seeing a whole episode with Stevonnie, loved seeing another planet up close with alien life that weren’t gems, super loved seeing Pink Diamond for real for the first time. ‘stranded on an alien planet’ is such a fun story idea. also Rose/Pink has been one of my favorite characters since the beginning of the show and it was so interesting to learn more about her, even if I didn’t know they were the same person yet! just an overall excellent episode that I like to rewatch sometimes.

[retrauxpunk]

sv 6.03

i have just finished this episode. under the cut you will find my intensely spoiler-filled thoughts.

HOLY FUCKING SHIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTT

oh my GODDDD

i saw this episode was titled Hooli Smokes! which is hilarious and adorable but i was kind of like ‘ehh i don’t ... like i really don’t care about the fate of gavin/hooli’ so i didn’t really think about it but now i’ve just watched it and OH MY GOD IT’S A FANTASTIC TITLE

I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS HOLY FUCKING CHRIST ON A CREAM-CHEESE CRACKER

I SWEAR TO GOD IT TOOK ME LIKE 45 MINUTES TO WATCH THIS EPISODE BECAUSE THERE WERE SO MANY MOMENTS I WANTED TO PAUSE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT EXACTLY WAS GOING ON (because i’m a stickler / occasionally slow hahaha) IT WAS SO INTENSE

oh my lord

i’m gonna

try to do this in chronological order. okay. okay. so.

i’m super glad that richard didn’t sell to maximo because, you know, he’s a vile human being on a massive scale and is responsible for massive human rights abuses and so on, i don’t need to justify this!!

speaking of which i’m a liiittle bit disappointed that (in descending order) dinesh, gilfoyle, and monica (mostly dinesh) weren’t that on board with richard’s decision not to sell..... ............but whatevs it makes sense, it’s a billion dollars lmao fair enough money corrupts etc etc

so at this point richard’s fucked and this is such an intense episode it felt like the intensity of the first couple seasons, like, s2 for example, when there was so much going on all the time and i LOVE IT

jared trying to turn himself into the cops for assaulting richard? wow i. um. yeah look i found that a little touching. ngl. i find it interesting that he ... idk, is he doing it to punish himself or because he thinks he’s a danger to richard? i’m not sure. either way it’s a bit weird. but totally in keeping with jared’s character at this point, i feel.

JIAN-YANG’S MYSTERIOUS ILLEGAL OPERATION LMAO

it always makes me pleased when they don’t bother translating the foreign languages and it also makes me pleased when i can perfectly understand the bit they didn’t translate ;) 

i mean you can probably guess what he said to all the other chinese people but in case you’re curious it’s this: “come out, come out. the police have left, get back to work. come out. everyone come out, quickly quickly quickly! motherfucker...”

I LOVED the scene of richard and gavin chatting on the bench! it was just fun! also i did recognise the part where you think gavin’s gonna accept richard’s offer but actually he just says ‘fuck no’ from the season trailer and that’s why i don’t fully enjoy trailers because THEY GIVE STUFF AWAY! thankfully the only thing left from the trailer that i can remember is, IIRC, not something that gives away anything particularly suspenseful. hurray.

love the kombucha comment lmao

that scene with dinesh and gilfoyle chatting about karma just seemed a bit unncessary and not that funny, like, not funny enough to keep in?? but then it became clear at least why they had the interaction with wajeed, bc he came back later...

the phone call with jared! ... JARED’S EMOJI LMAO they were so hilariously fucking awkward of course i love them

THE PHONE CALL where he tells richard that gavin swooped in and bought gwart’s company when he heard she had good tech... YOU GO JARED. i mean. yeah he’s being a dick in this. but considering the buddy fucker thing and richard still not actually fucking apologising lmao (i know he has a lot on his plate! but come the fuck on, he had the chance!!) i .. don’t feel that bad for richard. and it’s like, this is the umpteenth time that richard has accidentally (via carelessness) screwed something over and all the other times jared’s not said a single bad thing about him (even with hoolicon, he objected to what they were doing, there was no attack on richard personally) ... so it makes sense and is totally understandable that it all came out now.

honestly i felt a bit vindicated by jared telling richard off, i mean, he deserved it. he did know that gavin’s a monster. and him getting called buddy fucker after relentlessly calling jared that after he was told/asked not to ... yeah.

LOOK i’m still not condoning jared breaking down a door and shooting him with a bb gun! because holy shit that’s fucking nuts.

but the buddy fucker thing? yeah look i don’t feel too bad for richard here.

FINDING OUT THEY CAN BUY HOOLI HOLY FUCKING SHIT I FUCKING LOVED THIS STORYLINE SO FUCKING MUCH OH MY GOD

MONICA GESTURING WORDLESSLY OUT THE WINDOW AND THEN WE SEE JARED IN SUNGLASSES PURPOSELY MARCHING INTO PIED PIPER LIKE A MOTHERFUCKING B.A.M.F. HOLY SMOKES

hooli smokes teehee

ALKSDJFLKSDFJLKGD i LOVE that he came up with this ingenious way to save pied piper and speaking of which i know jared says it’s not for pied piper, it’s for gwart so she can be free again -- i wonder how much of that is true? i ........... look i don’t buy that he truly didn’t do it AT ALL for pied piper. i think jared tells himself and maybe truly believes he did it solely for gwart but i think really he did it at least PARTLY for pied piper and richard. right??? that’s what i think.

oh my god jared keeping the sunglasses on presumably bc he can’t bear to make eye contact with richard in case he breaks down?? emotionally breaking down into sads, or flying into a mad rage? both are sad as fuck. or is it just because he’s so mad he doesn’t want to look him directly in the eye? also ouch.

THE DECISION TO BUY HOOLI WHILE GAVIN’S DOING HIS TRIATHLON HAHAH MOTHERFUCKER I LOVE IT it’s dirty as hell but you know what? i don’t care because gavin’s a fucking asshole like, even just looking at how he tried to sue piped piper, just from that i would ... like... i wouldn’t judge richard for fucking him over. and that’s just ONE thing he’s done! there’s also when he tried to steal pied piper at the end of season 5, and the fact that he’s a verbally abusive asshole, etc. etc.

FUCK THE FUCKER

but yeah oh my it was so evil but because it was pied piper doing it to gavin ........ it was very enjoyable. deliciously so.

oh man i feel bad for wajeed getting fucked over by dinesh. i........... sure hope dinesh makes it up to him somehow. i don’t think canonically that’s gonna happen (definitely not on screen!) but my headcanon is that at some point down the line maybe, when pied piper is successful and healthy again, dinesh pays wajeed back all the money he fucked him out of and wajeed forgives him eventually ................ yeah

didn’t expect to care this much about wajeed!

of course gavin would fake the triathlon. of course.

E-SIGNATURES! PAPER CONTRACTS! that’s why the e-signature thing was mentioned in 6.02!! at least i hope that’s why, i hope they’re not gonna do a thing later on when someone disastrously accidentally signs something ... or at least i hope it doesn’t cause irresolvable-by-series-end consequences lmao

HAHAH OMG THE RACE!! I LOVED IT!!!!!

how technologically plausible is it that gilfoyle hacked into the watches? from my hilariously unqualified opinion ... i think it seems okay. more plausible than some of the other stuff this show’s had at least. so it’s nice seeing something that doesn’t require as much suspension of disbelief.

GOD IT WAS SO TENSE WHEN THE DUDE WAS READING THE CONTRACTS

god I LOVED monica’s line ‘you’re really gonna let a woman tell you what to do?’ GENIUS ABSOLUTELY FUCKING GENIUS SHE IS AMAZING YAAAAS and it was such a short scene with such an efficient laugh, no BS, etc. LOVED IT

WHEN HE WAS READING THE CONTRACTS. MOTHER FUCKER. I was sitting here literally with my hands clasped over my mouth because it was SO. TENSE.

gavin bursting in! oh nooo! 

but the time already elapsing!! YES!!

JARED ANNOUNCING IT AND SMILING FOR THE FIRST TIME ALL EPISODE HOLY SHIT

AND RICHARD SEEING HIM SMILING AND SMILING BACK!! given his speech at the end, i’m pretty confident in saying he was partly smiling for pied piper and PARTLY BECAUSE HE SAW JARED SMILING AND WAS PLEASED TO SHARE JUST A SCRAP OF CAMARADERIE WITH HIM AGAIN!!!!!!! FUCK!!!

AND THE WAY JARED QUICKLY UNSMILES!! FUCK FUCK FUCK!

i thought maybe what would happen is that gavin’s speech about being terrible would make the guy even more sure he’d sell to pied piper

then dinesh’s speech made me be like ...........uhhhhhh........

(omg fuck dinesh amirite!! what a clown!)

(A TRULY TERRIBLE MAN)

(AMAZING)

(tERRIBLE)

and when the guy said ‘i don’t want to be in business with any of you’ for a moment i just panicked and thought he wouldn’t sign?

BUT HE DID HURRAYYYYY

THEY BOUGHT HOOLI!

I’M SO FUCKING HAPPY !!!!!

i swear to god there was one moment in that after gavin and the guy had left, when everyone was happy, richard turned to jared and I SWEAR for a SINGLE SPLIT SECOND i LEGITIMATELY thought they would kiss!! because fuck these two have been played SO HARD as potential romantic counterparts!! fuCK THIS!!!!

and then the speech!

FINALLY!

RICHARD TRIES TO MAKE UP FOR BEING A DICK

APOLOGISES

YES

GOOD

and he didn’t say anything fucked up either! was nice about gwart, offered jared and gwart office space in pied piper (didn’t even try to get jared back! has accepted jared going to gwart!)

(btw i feel iffy about jared’s seemingly ironclad devotion to gwart. seems a bit BS to throw away years with richard to be with this person he doesn’t know. and to talk about loyalty. i don’t like it. seems to me like gwart is his REBOUND. SUCH. A. REBOUND. he’s using her as a substitute richard, using her as an excuse to keep stonewalling richard, as a distraction from his PAIN involving richard........... yeah that’s what it look slike to me)

IT WAS GOOD

HE SAID HE MISSED HIM

FUCK YEAH

FUCK FUCK FUCK

YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS FOR IDIOTS LIKE RICHARD (and a lot of men probably due to society) TO SAY THAT HE MISSES SOMEONE? not that he deserves congrats for this, but GOD IT WAS SATISFYING. AND MADE ME MELT A BIT.

AND JARED’S SINGLE FUCKING TEAR AS HE LIES THROUGH HIS FUCKING TEETH AND SAYS HE DOESN’T CARE OH MY GOD SLAY ME

JUST RUN A FLUTE-SHAPED SWORD THROUGH MY FUCKING HEART OH MY GOD

THERE BETTER BE A GOOD PAYOFF FOR THEM I SWEAR OH MY GOD

I’M SO FUCKING HYPE THIS WAS SUCH A FANTASTIC EPISODE I LOVED IT

[dillydedalus]

august reading

minus my women in translation month reads, because i’m still working on the last one but want to include it... that wrap-up will come in a few days once i’m done with the last book. 

not all dead white men: classics and misogyny in the digital age, donna zuckerberg classicist donna zuckerberg (facebook dude’s sister!) talks about how the alt-right, pick-up artists, incels etc. use the classics to assert & justify their misogyny and racism & portray themselves as the inheritors/saviours of western civilisation etc. the main examples she looks at are stoicism, ovid’s ars amatoria, and ancient narratives about sexual violence, which were all really interesting, but i feel like this could have been expanded a lot. 3.5/5

magic for liars, sarah gailey fun & cool crime story about a murder at a secret magical school (school nurse cut in half in magical library!), answering the burning question of what would happen if petunia dursley became a somewhat dysfunctional PI & had to solve a magical murder at hogwarts, where lily is a teacher. 3/5

the lie tree, frances hardinge frances hardinge writes the kind of middle grade/YA books i wish i could have read between like 10-14, where the world is spooky and the girls are angry spiteful stubborn resourceful sneaky things. i loved a skinful of shadows and i loved the lie tree, where curious snake girl (not literally it’s not that kind of a book) has to investigate her scandal-hounded natural scientist father’s death by spreading lies on the miserable island he died on and literally feeding them to spooky science-defying tree - and faith is very good at lying, and very angry, and very much willing to drag the whole island down with her. read for spooky trees, fake ghosts, and victorian male natural scientists being dumb and sexist & victorian female (& thus secret) natural scientist being smart & awesome. 4.5/5

the dead ladies project: exiles, expats & ex-countries, jessa crispin i have been at turns in love & really annoyed with crispin’s 2012 essay on william james, berlin & her own mental breakdown (x) since uh..... 2012 - it says some really interesting things about berlin’s capital-i Image as the city for self-destructive broke & weird messes, it’s very quotable, while also being some of the most irritating Anglophone Expat in Berlin Bullshit ever concocted (’we have surprisingly affordable rents’ sure didn’t age well.....) and saying almost nothing about the actual city outside of the Expat Bubble (apparently every single person in berlin is here because they feel like a failure.... YALL SOME PEOPLE JUST LIVE HERE). this book, structured around crispin’s soul-searching trip around europe, with each city being discussed in connection with an artist/writer/artist’s wife/etc who lived there, opens with that essay and i’m still torn. the thing is, crispin is smart & well-read & occasionally capable of some interesting insight & good writing..... she is also at times utterly insufferable, ranting at length about how she despises women who perform learned helplessness & prioritise men over everything else only to turn around & do the same fucking thing over & over, incl. going on endlessly about her torturous affair with a married writer, performing her ‘broke but independent woman traveller’ while uh.... staying at a friend’s luxurious farmhouse in switzerland for free... at one point she says she never felt at home in kansas bc based on her looks people don’t believe she’s really from kansas & constantly ask her where she’s REALLY from because.... y’all.... while she’s a good-looking white woman she has an ANGULAR FACE. sure jan. there is so much cool stuff in here, and i wish crispin had kept some most of the personal stuff out of it. 2/5 

mansfield park, jane austen hmmmm... austen is always good but this feels like it’s maybe the one novel of hers that is most negatively affected by values dissonance in that its morality feels like it’s from an alien culture which considers a private theatre performance to be the very height of impropriety (aka regency england apparently); as a result, fanny, a passive, timid, neglected girl of strong convictions often comes across as a moralistic prig (i will make no excuses for edmund, who’s just a patronising sanctimonious prig outright). there’s a quiet sort of triumph in fanny’s integrity & conviction in the face of a literal campaign of harrassment from everyone in her life including the dude she’s in love with to marry a reforming (maybe) rake & i love her for that, but her triumph in returning to mansfield park elevated in the esteem of everyone there (except aunt norris who is delightfully vile) feels empty considering that these are the same people who previously neglected her. also edmund sucks. 3/5 #justice4marycrawford #mary/fannyOTP #alsoarewegonnatalkabouttheslavery #guessnot

fool’s quest (fitz & the fool #2), robin hobb the first one in this trilogy was pretty much slow-paced set-up and character development... this one is much better: there’s a lot going on & the character development feels much more organic & complex - fitz seems to have come down from Peak Dumbass a bit & i really liked how it developed shun (shine!!!) and lant, who felt really one-dimensionally awful last book. also there are so many moments when the farseer family really comes thru for fitz & i cried literally every single time. so yeah. this one’s great, can’t wait for the next one but i also really don’t want it to be over :/ 4/5

what matters in jane austen, john mullan fun little collection of essays looking at specific details and minutae and their meaning/importance in austen’s work - like, how old are the characters (incl. age differences), how do characters address each other, what do games do they play, what about the servants, etc. don’t expect deep litcrit but it’s fun. 2.5/5

dead mountain: the untold true story of the dyatlov pass incident, donnie eichar hello i’m fred & i am obsessed with mountaineering disasters. the dyatlov pass incident refers to a night in 1959 where 9 russian hikers died in the ural mountains after they left their tent half-dressed without shoes for ~mysterious reasons. it’s pretty creepy & theories about it run from ‘avalanche’ to ‘animal [yeti] attack’ to ‘aliens and/or soviet conspiracy theory’. eichar too is super obsessed w/ this mystery and even went to the ural mountains & the dyatlov pass to investigate, which sadly makes for the least interesting (and possibly the longest) part of this book (the other timelines are the dyatlov group hike & the investigations after their deaths). the ‘59 timelines are both interesting tho & provide a good look into how weird the whole thing is. i enjoyed this, but i wish he had cut the endless chapters of him investigating, which is mostly russians being like ‘idk man aliens/radioactivity/secret govt agents?’ and him hiking around in a lot of snow, neither of which really added to his theory or my enjoyment. 2/5

if beale street could talk, james baldwin baldwin’s prose is staggeringly brilliant as always. this is a story about a young black couple (tish, who is the narrator, and fonny) in the 70s who are planning to move together and marry when fonny is wrongly arrested for rape by a racist cop with a grudge; tish and her family try to get him out, especially once tish realises that she’s pregnant. tish is a great narrator, at the same time kind of naive and soft, and full of world-weary cynicism about white institutions and racism, and her narrative voice at times drifts in and out of other characters’ minds, which i found an interesting effect. as many baldwin’s novels this is full of rage & violence & tenderness & tiny sparks of hope. 4/5

lady susan, jane austen epistolary novella about a 35-year-old lady susan, a scheming, ruthless, not-so-grieving widow, who is trying to get her timid daughter frederica married to a buffoon. while staying with her sweetly clueless brother-in-law vernon and trying to win over his much more suspicious wife, she makes the wife’s brother reginald (lol) fall in love with her. a very different protag and story for austen & while the end can’t quite commit to either punishing susan very much or letting her triumph, it is a lot of fun. 3/5

on a sunbeam, tillie walden this is an absolutely beautiful (the colours!) graphic novel about a spaceship crew (the spaceship is a fish) who fly around & restore old space buildings. it’s also a story about a romance between two young girls at a boarding school (in space) and about found families and deep space and there’s not a single man in this, just women and elliot, who’s nonbinary. lovely, dreamy and completely gorgeous. want me a fish spaceship. 4/5

between birthday books and birthday giftcards i also acquired uh.... 12 new books??? which is INSANE. i’m not committing to a book buying ban but i should probably chill a lil in the next few months.