#genuinely solid introduction to him tbh

[yeleltaan]

I say it checks out. Made with love– Helena-mun <3

//...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!! The love is felt, immensely so.

I gotta agree, this seems like it checks out. Do you?

[ineffable-gallimaufry]

characters in les mis (musical) ranked on how good their introductions were:

jean valjean: 9/10 he actually says his name and like . conveniently gives us his backstory while talking to javert which was nice

javert: 10/10 literally says his name and then says "do not forget my name" so forcefully i managed to not forget his name immediately so that was good

the bishop: 5/10 solid but not enough context. could've used a whole five minute song about only him beforehand tbh (kidding i swear)

fantine: 9/10 she does have people say her name which is good, she doesn't say it directly but like she does fill in her situation well. also i would feel bad for giving her a low score since her intro is literally her having a horrible time

bamatabois: 3/10 he never says his name and he's a huge asshole . only gets a three because it conveyed his character well + javert was there. but he also gets a three because i hate him

fauchelevent: 10/10 because. it's the runaway cart man . best song in les mis. also they do say his name so it works

cosette: 10/10 her name is said over and over again before she's even onstage + her introduction really shows the bleakness of the situation she lives in with the thénardiers

mme thénardier: 8/10 she doesn't say her name but it is a good introduction nonetheless . 8/10 instead of 9/10 because it isn't like. my favorite favorite but it is good

eponine: 6/10 controversial but sorry. i feel like they introduce us to eponine as kind of a brat (with her name which is nice) and even maybe as helping her mother directly to hurt cosette whereas we don't get a good enough reintroduction to her character in act two that gives us a better idea of her character as someone who's arguably just as hurt by the thénardiers as cosette. it's still okay though

m thénardier: 10/10 they say his name and then immediately he gets master of the house? it's a good introduction to the fact he's a big old thief and it's also kind of a bop. no notes

gavroche: 10/10 his name is in his first line. and it gives you a very good impression of him. i don't have any notes alright . i mean they kinda give the impression he's not related to thénardier but i can't fault them for not including that since it's not a HUGE plot point

enjolras: 2/10 i genuinely do not think anyone ever adresses this guy by name. i only remembered he was supposed to be there after i watched the play and then had to hunt down the actor's name in my playbill so i could see if i remembered him. like he just felt like another member of les amis tbh. two points because at least he's still characterized well

marius: 5/10 we hear his name from enjolras and because we get no context for his life before this point he feels so damn uninteresting... like all we get is the "ooh marius is in looove" without ANY context of his life outside of that. literally just there to fall in love with cosette and it shows

les amis de l'abc: 4/10 i am grouping them together because they literally get NO distinguishing qualities from each other in their introductions. grantaire making fun of someone is alright for things grantaire would do but like. can we not give that to courfeyrac?? why are all of them such non characters in this introduction?? like at least we get a few name drops from enjolras but i am just not really a fan. courfeyrac should be in here more since marius lives with him but i guess that doesn't matter because marius had his whole backstory surgically removed to make room for the brick to not be a million year long play. whatever. probably why lesgle gets nothing either despite the fact he introduced marius to les amis. didn't know this got on my nerves so much

patron-minette: 5/10 i mean. it's AN introduction but also to be fair i can't get mad too much since they're not major characters+ they are kinda interchangeable in the end. only montparnasse got a name drop but they did also keep my favorite eponine moment largely intact so. eh. whatever they get a five for being mediocre

[rayssion]

TSATS, Finally!!

This's a very long post guys...

Idk if I have a natural ability to ignore responsibilities or I'm just genuinely not good at keeping promises. But yes, finally the long awaited review of tsats is here.

So, the general rating for me is 3.5, which is... Really good, considering the book,,

Now you know, points to talk about:

Firstly guys I want to tell you that, unfortunately the sun and the star had me run into a deep reading slumber, which is something I never expected it to happen. Idk if you noticed this but my favourite character in whole Riordanverse is Nico! And Will comes closely after him, so I thought tsats would only be a fast run to me, it's basically a solangelo fanfic just written by the original author. But as I ran the first 100 pages I found myself drained, I was bored, I was tired and we really weren't going anywhere. It was a displayer of Nico and Will's love for each other, and I'm sorry to be that person but!! I dislike it when the ship is just out there living and laughing like I'm sorry but I need them to suffer first then some smiles and laughs at the end would do (insert some offended face).

Yeah, let's talk real. I know we had to go through that introduction to know where exactly the two of them stand in their relationship to be able to observe the change and development later on, but it was very repetitive.

Nico is made from darkness, Nico had so much darkness, Nico lives in the shadows, Nico doesn't think he deserves love, Nico doubts Will's love, Nico feels he's not enough for Will. It all goes in circles and I didn't like it. Nico I know you're emo and such but I just think the narration focused too much in it on expense of getting good Will expressing.

And this coming from a big Nico di Angelo lover, I feel like we don't quite exactly know Will even after this whole book, there's yet so much to unfold about him, his mother, his life at camp, his feelings after all toa happened like his father was a teenager just like him and was the biggest loser ever (lol, I just love Lester), how come we didn't discuss that? Nico is a character we all know, we lived with him, we experienced every feeling he went through, he wasn't new to us which is not the case with Will. What's the difference between us and the troglodytes? All we know that he's a son of Apollo, a healer and Nico's glow-in-the-dark boyfriend.

I just felt the need to summarise because I felt that what I wrote could be compromised in better wording: the narration was too repetitive and too focused on Nico and his dark past™ which is not necessarily a bad thing but I just feel it'd be better if cut it a bit shorter and clear the stage for Will, because -surprise surprise- Will also has some dark parts (although not much like Nico, and yes I know the book touches the topic later on but it'd have been way better if we were introduced to it from the start thus it'd grow on us and would be very convenient later on. Tbh the book just goes "oh, Will also got a dark side, he must share it with Nico..." But what I'm saying is, we never were exposed to it, what's the darkness within Will? Those pigeons? His mother performing and him staying backstage? I feel like we could explore it much better) anyways, it'd also be really great if we got to experience Nico's dark past yet from Will's point of view more often, that way the whole communication arc would be better, because we will know that Will already had a solid image of Nico in his head (yes his lovely little emo boy with miserable history but we'll get to know what he knows about the Nico and also the flaws he had picked up in him) and as the time goes we'll get to experience that image altering.

I know someone will think "but it's a Nico di Angelo adventure!" Yes I know, but don't you think getting to know Nico, our adored character, from his boyfriend perspective would be much interesting? Come on guys, see the potential.

Let's rewind a little bit, so 100 pages, I'm bored I stopped reading for three days then picked the book yet again and..... Stopped after 50 pages ;-;

I'M SORRY BUT I REALLY WASN'T FEELING THE VIBES OKAY I KNOW IT'S TOTALLY MY FAULT AND I'M SORRY GUYS.

And picked the book for the last time today and finished it.

Oh yes, another thing that felt off for me is how Chiron and Dionysus are portrayed here, idk they felt so out of character and the whole "dO wE hUg nOw?" I'm sorry, that was cringe, dw it's on me guys.

And there were points where the writing was so inconsistent, I never read anything of Oshiro's work before, but it's so painfully obvious when his and Rick's writing styles clashes (ugly clashes) that it makes the book really obviously written by more than one author, and other points where idk if Rick is trying water down his style or Oshiro is trying to level the work up to the satire and sarcasm Riordan's books are known for. Anyways, it could use some editing (and it's definitely edited but not enough to mask every hole, because if a dumb person like me speed reading the book was able to pick all that then it's obviously not enough).

Also Nyx was stupid. Yes, that's my statement. Iget it you refuse to change but I hate how dumb her plan was. First of all, why leave Bob without guard? I mean you obviously have better chances in luring Nico and maybe killing Will if they don't have a Titan with them?? But yeah this's not about her.

I also hated we lost originality here, I already told you guys it read like a fanfic, but it really was a fanfic, every fanservice they could include they did include. For example the Hades allowing Bianca and Maria to talk to Nico once again, look I'm not complaining (as you'll read later) but really WHAT THE FUCK??! Weren't they reincarnated or whatever? How the fuck is that possible?

Also isn't Tartarus like, beyond the powers of the gods?? Then how is Hades going to retrieve whoever-was-his-name-centaure-satyr out of it? And just because Nico asked nicely?

Another thing, I know that you can issue a quest (just like what Percy and Annabeth did to rescue Grover in SOM, and like what Ares did in SON) but how the fuck do you send a prophecy?? Isn't this also too much of a godly power? Like Apollo (the god of prophecy himself) stated that they're way above him then how can Hades send one???

So we mentioned the narration, we've done the character portrial that I didn't like, now we're off to good stuff!

A big point! A huge point! For solangelo's relationship, I loved how they often had fights, disagreed with each other, hid things from one another, had miscommunication yet still managed to figure it out as mature humans whom are much better than half of adults nation. I loved how quickly one apologise once they realise they were wrong, I loved how they stayed by each other's side and how they supported each other, like bro it seems like they can't stay angry at each other more than five seconds and I love for it!

This's actually Rick's trademark (along with having Percy in everything he writes) that he always sets a good example for kids, younger audience who read his books have a good exposure to an excellent functional relationship not like some other booktok authors whom I'm not naming (totally not about you Colleen Hoover, you do you honey🙂).

Hiss-magisty and oh boy how much I love them! They were so cute I really liked how they looked up to Will, especially that the boy needed such encouragement because of the whole child of Apollo, underworld, tartarus things going on. And yet another point to tsats for representation (never forgetting Epiales).

Nico, Hades, Maria, Bianca!! You just have to love them!! They're literally my favourite family in the whole Riordanverse, yes I'm so madly in love with Sally and yes I love Percy but the Hades/di Angelo family?? That's where my discussion ends.

And speaking about family, can we have a moment of appreciation for Persephone like I truly loved her back from mythology (which I know nothing about, like she's Hades wife, that's it, yet I still loved her because she seemed nice, and she's nice!) This whole journey won't be if not for her, girl single handedly opened Will's eyes and her love for Nico??? Told you that's my family right there.

Lol I just remembered when Demeter was lecturing Persephone for not marrying a doctor and now I just know she loves solangelo, so yeah even grandma is an icon, I stan by it, that's my family.

Okay I also wanted to talk about the concept of grief and ptsd and how it was represented. This actually deserves a major applause because that's really how you write a good deep psychological analysis of losing someone and having to cop with it, especially that part when Nico tells how he just shunned all his memories away, how in his mind Jason just went to a quest and someday he'll return to camp half-blood as if nothing happened, because surprisingly it's the same method my brain took when my mother died, it's like all these years had been deleted and I was just brought to world after her passing, a lot of times I try to remember some particular incident from the time but I just can't wrap my mind about it, sometimes I became alert because for a minute there I couldn't recall her name, it was like all the pain associated with her just disappeared, it is locked far away in my brain and I still can't get access to it. So yeah, away from this pity party, I love how it was represented here, with Nico really suffering the trauma and how he eventually learned to let it go. (I cried at that mention and also when he was reunited with his family for that little amount of time).

Can we name the cocoa puffs?? Because I just adore them so much and I feel like Nico and Will will name them such cute adorable names and I can't stop thinking about that. Lol, percabeth are yet to get engaged then married and solangelo already has kids.

Ps actually but the pet names??? OMG NOTHING SWAYS MY HEART LIKE PET NAMES. I was pretty much hooked when I read "Noble McSacrifice" SSKFHIDJ

Another ps. I liked the whole Gorgyra thing as a way to show us their memories like a breeze amidst the flames every couple of chapters. At first I was like "wtf is this, did it happen or is it gonna happen or is this an alternate universe??" Don't blame me I was sleepy.

Yet another ps. I hated the "DREAM SEQUENCE" that just comes in the middle, like bro the boy just went to sleep of course I'd know this's a dream no need to point it out every time it was so annoying.

I think I covered all of the points I wanted to talk about, I was going to say "yay, first review with me having actual time to write it and think it through!" Yet auntie barged in in the middle and everything seems all over the place now.

It's like a characteristic in me now, heh. But yeah, sorry for the long wait, sorry for this shitty review, but bear with me please.

I totally adored this book once I figured out how to keep up with it ").

I'm yet to read a bunch of books all by Rick, hopefully I'll start with the chalice of the gods and come for a quick chat later.

Until then, eat, sleep and take care of yourselves♡!!

[linklethehistorian]

Linkle, I must know, what are your thoughts on Mori as a character? His actions and motivations?? Id love to hear your opinion, btw that last chapter of cherish was great!! I loved it so much!!!

Ahhh hello there, anon, thank you so much! 🥺😭💕💖🥰 It’s such an honor to get a message like this from someone who is reading the fic. 💕🥺💖🥰💕🥺💖🥰 I’m so glad you liked Chapter 12; it definitely has one of my own personal favorite scenes, tbh (but I won’t take up your time talking about that right now lol). Having a fan base for Cherish is truly lovely; I’m so blessed by each and every one of you. 🥺💖

As for your question, I’m always happy to share!

Before I say anything at all on my opinion, though, I’m first going to make it clear that I am completely setting aside that one…particular matter that has been discussed to death by the fandom for the moment, because I fear far too many people tend to forget that it is entirely possible to make any remotely positive commentary on a fictional character without that actually somehow meaning you condone his alleged…preferences. For the people in the back that need to hear this out loud to be set at ease: I in absolutely no way do.

Now with that out of the way for a bit, let’s talk about the rest of Mori. I’ll throw it under the cut, though, both for length and for potential spoilers of multiple light novels (Dark Era, Fifteen, Storm Bringer, etc.) and obviously the manga up to his last appearance in current arc. Oh and obviously the typical Mori-related trigger subjects. Yeah.

Honestly, on a general note, these days I think Mori as a character is super cool; I’m not sure where precisely I’d rate him on the list of characters because I honestly like nearly every character in BSD and think they’re pretty awesomely written, but on a general scale of 1 to 10, he’s a very solid 8 or 9 for me.

My first introduction to him was…admittedly not at all the best possible representation of him.

When I first joined the fandom, I began my journey through the series by watching the anime adaption of Dark Era, at the behest of a dear friend who said I would be best off doing so before I watched the rest of the show (of which there were only two seasons at the time) and then reading the manga, in order to get the best and most meaningful experience; it is not something I remotely regret, and in honesty, I would probably wholeheartedly recommend any new people to do the same, if they intended to start with the anime. Regardless, though, this decision did have the impact of making me immediately strongly dislike Mori as a person from the very start, given what he did to the orphans, Oda, and Dazai by extension.

Really, I wouldn’t say that I came to see him in any particular shades of grey motivation-wise until I watched the episode titled Double Black, in which there was the first reference of what would have become of the Port Mafia and Yokohama as a whole had he not usurped the throne to the organization so many years ago.

After that, I began to look at him with a bit more understanding and curiosity, horrible and ruthless though his nature may still mostly have been. Fifteen (specifically the light novel, NOT the anime) — which it should be said, I think is the best existing canon representation of Mori in terms of giving us a good look at his thoughts and motivations — only amplified that outlook and interest for me, and I think it alone is largely to thank for why I enjoy him as a character as much as I do in current time.

Although he’s definitely not someone I’d feel particularly comfortable writing an entire story solely around — as I don’t believe I’m expert nor absurdly passionate enough to do so compared to some genuine Mori fans that I know are out there out there — I nevertheless really, really do enjoy writing him, especially in Cherish (which is only the second time I’ve written him, if I’m honest — at least, in anything I’d consider publishing, anyway).

There’s just so much potential in him plot and personality-wise; he is incredibly flexible of a person in terms of his thoughts, mannerisms, motivations, and actions, which makes it super fun to explore and play around with when telling a story. I’d say he easily has one of the most fun personalities among the BSD ensemble, purely because of utterly unpredictable it can be; on one hand, he has moments where (at least outwardly) is capable of being extremely friendly, outgoing, generous and unassuming, and yet on the other, he is very much always inwardly observant of all that is going on around him and capable of quickly switching to being cold, calculating, and openly cruel at the drop of a hat. But even then, usually, his cruelty doesn’t come in the form of physical violence; it’s often emotional manipulation, intimidation, taking your fears and weaknesses and using them against you to get him whatever he feels he needs in the present moment. Sometimes, it isn’t even outwardly visible that the switch of gears happened; he knows how to poison you in the sweetest and most unassuming yet effective way possible — whether that poison is literal or metaphorical. He’s definitely the kind of person who could sing you to sing to sleep every night and kiss your cheek every morning even as he’s secretly plotting your demise. lol

That being said, I think a lot of the fandom, in their hatred for him as a person, tends to mischaracterize him a lot, rather than looking at it objectively. I’ve seen a lot of fics and general fandom takes that portray him as a sadistic person who is cruel simply for the sake of being cruel and does terrible things to others purely for the enjoyment factor, but that is 100% not who Mori is; canonically, Mori does what he does mostly, if not entirely, out of what he feels is necessity as the leader of the organization. Now, I’m not saying there may not be parts of him that enjoy certain things he does — it’s certainly more than possible, and even highly probable — but his actions as godfather are driven by achieving what he feels is the optimal solution, not by personal pleasure and amusement; as a matter of fact, in Fifteen, he even made it clear when speaking to Chuuya that he fully acknowledges a lot of what he does is morally reprehensible — he just feels that it is his duty to commit these atrocities for the ‘greater good’ of the organization, and that the end therefore justifies the means.

The thing is, there is a character in BSD who is exactly the way this portion of the fandom characterizes Mori, and he was even a member of the Port Mafia, so if people really wanted to canonically explore this dynamic of a character who wholly gets off on tormenting people, causing suffering and probing others’ heads rather than doing it as just a business practice, they absolutely could still do it and be true to canon by writing about said other character; it’s just that it’s not a convenient truth that a lot of the fandom wants or likes to face — because that would mean acknowledging that it was everyone’s beloved Dazai and not the oh-so-despised Mori who used to think in such a sick and twisted way during his days in the criminal underworld.

Granted, some people do write both characters very well and very accurately, and I applaud them, but I do find it frustrating when the fandom reduces either Mori to this purely evil, sadistic villain who is bad just for the sake of being bad, because he is so much more interesting as he truly is in canon.

It’s this dichotomy where his dedication to the overall well-being of his people and company is admirable and even understandable, yet at the same time his individual actions when you look at them from a moral perspective are pretty much all morally reprehensible in some way, shape, or form — if not in every way. The same is true of his time in the army; as a general concept, his desire to protect Japan during the Great War was on the whole admirable and understandable, we know that he was well-meaning about it, but at the same time, no matter how desperate the situation was, what he did to Yosano and his entire army was absolutely disgusting and unacceptable — especially because it came so easily to him to do it and he made no apologies for it nor expressed any guilt over the suffering he caused later on.

Do I think Mori is, on the whole, a good person? Absolutely not. Do I think that he sometimes has the best of intentions in mind with his schemes? In the grander scheme of things, yes; it’s just that he mostly doesn’t care who or how many he has to hurt to achieve that so long as it’s slightly less than his net gain from doing it, which in turn cancels out things enough to prevent him from ever being labeled as being or acting as a “good person” at any moment.

I think the best, most objective description of him is to say that he’s pragmatic and ruthless.

…And then obviously there’s the part that everyone in the fandom discusses to death — about the main universe version of him being into little girls. Not a whole lot to say about that; it’s gross, it’s wrong, it’s unforgivable, it’s morally reprehensible, and it’s chilling and disturbing and it definitely completely disqualifies him from being labeled a good person even if he had been able to earn that title from something he did somewhere along the way.

That being said — and I know this is probably going to be controversial to a lot of the fandom, so let me say upfront that I’m not saying that that isn’t 100% a valid and understandable reading of who he is and the way he feels based on all the evidence throughout the series, nor am I trying to convince anyone otherwise — purely because it is fiction and therefore all made up to begin with, at least for my own personal comfort, I typically choose in my own personal readings to just look at him as someone with a particular weakness for little girls because he’s fatherly — although I make no effort to claim that to be the objective truth, nor does such interpretation affect or influence any of my writings in any way; it’s simply the way I prefer to engage with BSD on my own personal time — outside of my writings.

As a matter of fact, in my one fic, Bittersweet Belief, he was intentionally written with the intention of being portrayed as a groomer, and in Cherish, his ‘tastes’ will be portrayed no less nor more suspicious than how they are in canon, and therefore it will never be fully, directly addressed, but may be interpreted however you wish.

I do not need people coming to me providing evidence of why they believe there is no way to look at it differently, as again, I am not arguing that it is objectively untrue in any way that Mori is written to be a pedo in BSD, and when in public spaces among other people talking about it I don’t even try to say otherwise, much less convince anyone of it. I understand fandom etiquette and I am not trying to erase anything about him from others’ perceptions in order to make him more “likable”. I am just engaging with BSD, whenever I am personally reading it and watching it, in the way that is more comfortable for me. Nothing more, nothing less.

Anyway, yeah, Mori’s a super fun character to write and observe in the BSD world! I think there’s a lot of depth to him and he’s very well-written — probably among my top past antagonists purely for the super interesting personality and the purely pragmatic outlook to life and business.

[arunneronthird]

i agree about talia tbh like the introduction of damian was the beginning of the death of her character. damian couldn't have been raised as he was and talia was a good mother. its simply impossible. like...morrison for as much as he introduced my favorite blorbo (damian) and did him so well, he didn't do ANY reading up on my girl before he wrote her and its jarring because like...talia broke away for the league for bruce. for a man. much less her own son. her whole thing is supposed to be her not being like ra's, her genuinely caring about animals and the environment and not using it as an excuse for terrorism unlike him, her caring about humanity in a way he doesnt (or, at least not thinking humanity should be killed) and the conflict between her and her father (or her vs the way she was raised) is a central part of her story, until she finally broke away and hasn't been fully with the league since then. maybe it's cause i've read her old comics w/ bruce and morrison isn't my first introduction to her, but i feel nobody's gotten her right in a while and there's sort of no way to redeem her as a parent without changing a lot of damian's backstory and thus character, which i don't think dc's gonna do any time soon, which is a shame. so i just ignore what i don't like and form my own canon <3 but yeah, disliking talia is totally valid, loml hasn't been the same in decades and current-her is pretty shitty

u know what nonny, this is such a solid opinion and ur take is valid

i do have to admit morrison for me was kind of an excuse, i never really liked her much to begin with cause "i did things for romantic love" is something i never like cause i am a gremlin, so when she was set up as a bad mother i had 0 problems just disliking her

that being said like, i dislike villains in general, i dislike bad people cause they are bad, but i dislike them as people, not characters, im glad she exists as a character in the same way ras or the joker exist, i cannot in good faith like them as people but i love the stories they create

when i truly dislike a character i just act like they do not exist, when a character is pointless or shoehorned thats when i have a problem

[the-gc-record-club-blog]

SOME NIGHTS I DREAM OF DOORS (OBONGJAYAR)

Selected by Calvvy

OBELLA’S TAKE

Favorite Song: Sugar

Spit Yo' Game / Talk Yo' Shit: To me this album is a love letter to the next-gen African diaspora (be that ex-pat first-gen, 1.5, second-gen, or beyond). There were these beautiful flairs of driving in the car with the Old Man listening to Hugh Masekala, and Ladysmith... Miriam Makeba, and Awilo Logomba... This is also how I know that music genres are obsolete; It's labeled as R&B/Soul which isn't wrong but there were also these amazing alternative, and folk, and house(?) vibes mixed in. The blend and the energy of the sounds were so sonically stimulating I couldn't put it down from the first song on the first listen. I've since dug through a bit of his discography and that Neo-diasporic sound-blend is this man's MO and tbh it's giving - he shouldn't let up!

Lit-mus Test: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

VANESSA’S TAKE

Favorite Song: Try

Spit Yo' Game / Talk Yo' Shit: It's a treat, maybe even a rare one, when your introduction to an artist is a project so thorough that you can't pick out a favourite song. In this case I think that's because in addition being to being an incredible singer and lyricist, Obongjayar comes across as many different artists rolled into one on Some Nights I Dream of Doors - but all of them are effective and they don't crowd each other out. I love how he seamlessly shifts between genres, intensity and even accents across the record. There are chords on the album that remind me of the Congolese lingala/rhumba albums that my dad used to play when I was a kid, while other songs make me think of Lagbaja and other contemporary Nigerian artists. So many songs tug at a familiarity for me that I really, really enjoy. It's pop, it's electro, it's Afrobeat to name just a few shades and he has the right to do all of it; I want to sing along, to dance, then I'm in my feelings, then it's over! In a tight 35 minutes? Love to see it and I love this album.

Lit-mus Test: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

OCHIENG’S TAKE

Favorite Song: Tinko Tinko (Don’t Play Me for a Fool)

Spit Yo' Game / Talk Yo' Shit:  I don’t think its a particularly novel thing to say that I love different, more creative artistic endeavors. But this felt like an honest blend of all Obongjayar’s different influences that melded together into a genuinely unique body of work. An artist is only as good as his reference, and I feel like the well Obongjayar is drawing from has puzzle pieces that fit together in a strange but natural way. The uniqueness combined with his experience (this being his second full length project on streaming not counting EPs) led to the creation very solid project with a lot of replay value.

Lit-mus Test:  🔥🔥🔥

CALVIN’S TAKE

Favorite Song: Tinko Tinko (Don’t Play Me for a Fool)

Spit Yo' Game / Talk Yo' Shit: I'd heard so many Obongjayar features that it was a treat to finally dig into a dolo project. On Some Nights, Obong (can I call him that?) has so many musical references that he successfully gets on record -- while many times it also feels like a very confessional and cathartic album. Heartbreak, triumph, mantras, nostalgia, and flossing are all there, making for a very unique and replayable mix. As deep as his bag is, the moments where it truly reaches the astral plane for me are when all these influences combine rather than sit next to one another. There's the hook to "Sugar", but then the whole of "Tinko Tinko" which is my favourite. The duality of threatening "don't play me for a fool" but ultimately breaking down to a "please don't play with my head, don't keep fucking with my head" refrain a few seconds later -- real songwriting!!! With doom doom doom drums and Michael Jackson gasps for the razzle dazzle. If those same lines were sung into Burna Boy's mic, I could see it breaking a festival ground in half; I have high apple pie in the sky hopes and well wishes that that same reality lies in Obonjayar's future.

Lit-mus Test: 🔥🔥🔥

[famderfries]

Thinking about how Snotlout has this grand facade that no one really believes that hes cutthroat and suave and cool and manly because thats what his father says he should be, but he will see one (1) dragon that he likes and immediately melt and cry and show hes literally anything BUT his father

[kyogre-blue]

This list has accumulated for like a solid year lmao, but now I think I’m finally out of shows I could add to it, aside from the ongoing ones from this season. 

Drug Store in Another World, ep1 - Dropped. It isn’t bad or anything, but there’s not really a point in me watching another “slow life” isekai. They just don’t interest me. 

I'm Standing on a Million Lives, S1 ep12 - Complete (for S1 anyway). A very gimmick premise, and I honestly wouldn’t recommend it. It can get clever in places, but it’s just not a style of storytelling I enjoy, since it’s one of those shows where the entire setting reads like a giant allegory for something. I didn’t watch S2 since I just didn’t care. 

I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 years, ep12 - Complete. Cute. But since it is a “slow life” kind of story, it starts to drag after a while. It’s very obvious that not only is there no plot, no one has any particular character arc after their introduction either. 

How Not to Summon a Demon Lord, S2 ep10 - Complete, but only with great difficulty. tbh I only watched the first season because Diablo was hot and the OT3 wasn’t bad. The second season is unfortunately lacking either of those factors. The new characters are especially bad too. Lumachina’s lack of ability to do anything except cry is really something, and since the entire season hinges on her.... yeah. 

The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter, ep3 - Dropped. This show is... unexpectedly horny but in like, a boring way. It’s also bland in every other aspect as well. There isn’t really any point in watching. I would especially complain about the weirdly specific OP power the MC gets, which slows an already slow first episode by explaining it. Also, it’s part of an interesting pattern of making the MCs of these low-ranking nobility. Like, we have to make him a noble because peasants are too boring, but we want him to be an underdog that all those real stuck up nobles treat like shit (so he can show them up later). I’ve seen it a few times. 

Peter Grill and the Philosopher's Time, ep2 - Dropped. Speaking of horny. This is even hornier and even stupider. I don’t even have anything to say, except that I’m not even sure what the plot of this is. 

In Another World With My Smartphone, ep4 - Dropped. I don’t really have anything to say about this show, either good or bad. It’s very bland. Overall, it’s quite lighthearted and the MC is genuinely nice (tho terribly bland), and it doesn’t really have much stupid perviness. But it’s also not exactly interesting, so there wasn’t any reason to keep watching. 

The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat, ep12 - Complete. It’s a very standard “gritty” take on the isekai stuff, with human trafficking, starving peasants, sexual assault, lots of death... but it was also kind of consistent in what it was doing, so I was more or less fine watching it. I’m actually somewhat curious about the broader setup about the Hero and why the Goddess is looking for people to kill him. Also, the opening was cool. 

Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles, ep5 - Dropped. Dropped for edgy crimes. More seriously, the majority of the cast are just annoying, especially all the girls aside from the white-haired love interest (and the pet). They seem to be introduced just to cause trouble, and I am not interested enough to keep going.  

Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies moved to a starter town, ep 12 - Complete. It’s a light comedy series with a lot of exaggerated harem hijinks and a couple of surprisingly dynamic action scenes. There isn’t much else to say, though I guess I can add that I did not entire vibe with the way they drop some rather heavy worldbuilding toward the end but still keep the zany comedy tone. I’m just not too fond of that type of thing. 

BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense, ep 12 - Complete. This one is actually an MMO show, very fluffy and cute. But even for someone like me who has never played an MMO, all of this is just a bit too far from plausibility. The MC doesn’t get OP because she thinks in a creative way. She just got lucky. It’s just too contrived. The fight animation budget is surprisingly high though. 

Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest, ep1 - Dropped for edginess and betrayal crimes. 

Life With an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated Into a Total Fantasy Knockout, ep 1 - Dropped. The whole “my male best friend turned into a girl and I find him super hot now” is definitely someone’s fetish, but it’s not mine. 

The Dungeon of Black Company, ep1 - Dropped for worker exploitation crimes. The MC’s personality seemed amusing at first, but he quickly got on my nerves. 

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, ep12 - Complete. I let this play in the background, but it really is just such a pointless show. Things do happen, but all of them feel completely random. It’s just the MC wandering around and helping completely random strangers for no reason except he’s just that nice I guess? Extremely bland. Also, the way he arrives in this world has to be the most contrived I’ve seen. 

The Faraway Paladin, ep4 - Dropped. This show takes itself super seriously, but I just didn’t find it interesting enough. I have no idea where it’s going but it’s also boring. It doesn’t help that the MC is the sensitive, overthinking and monologuing type. I am simply not involved in his personal tragedies lol��

In the Land of Leadale, ep6 - Dropped. Overall rather run of the mill combination of fantasy, isekai and MMO, I guess. I dropped once she met apparently another player and started lecturing him about how this is actually reality now. She’s not wrong or anything, but it was just so boring.  

Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World, ep2 - Dropped. I dunno what is going on, but I sure do not care. I think I actually started this manga at one point... and then dropped it within two chapters, but I can’t be quite sure because this story is so nebulous and average. 

[yamayuandadu]

For the character breakdown, I’d love to see hadad, anat, shapash, yam, mot, athtar, kothkar and khasis... really any of the ugaritic pantheon, of course you don’t have to do all of them >.<, I’d just love to see your hot takes

I shall rise up to the challenge! I’m the only person on this site obsessed with Ugarit as far as I can tell... I covered everyone you asked for plus Ashtart and Yarikh. As much as I like burrowing through jstor and academia edu and persee and so on, I kind of wish there were more people approaching Ugaritic, Mesopotamian, Hittite etc. myths the way many do with Greek ones tbh - sometimes i’d just like to see which figures people think would be into gossiping and so on or which tacky modern fashion they think suits them equally as much as I want to find out if Yarikh’s portrayal in Ugaritic poetry owes more to Nanna/Sin or to the Hittite moon god. ALSO as far as this sort of light hearted takes go, there are two japanese artists on twitter who draw Baal cycle fanart: here and here.

Hadad: How I feel about this character: one of my fave mythical protagonist. I think I genuinely only like Inanna more. Going from a very relatable desire to get his own house to triumph over death is quite the journey. The relative powerlessness many interpreters point out is interesting, too - the fact he mostly gets somewhere because of allies and because even if El was the king of gods, Hadad’s attributes made him the king of people’s hearts arguably, so he has to win against overwheming odds. All the people I ship romantically with this character: Anat, Ashtart/Astarte/however we transcribe her name this week... Kothar? My non-romantic OTP for this character: given the Seth-Baal equation in Egypt and the uncertaininty over whether Astarte papyrus is about Seth or Baal under Seth’s name it’s funny to imagine them as friends. Also I’ll talk about it more underneath but since Dagan was a god with similar purposes further inland (and is attested earlier iirc) and Ugaritic texts - even though they rarely feature him - call him Hadad’s father - it would be cute to assume he also taught Hadad everything. My unpopular opinion about this character: I’m a Dagan parentage truther against all odds. It was the norm outside Ugarit! I think “Dagan isn’t in Ugaritic myths because they take place in Ugarit but people thought Dagan lives further inland in Tuttul based on prayers etc.” is enough to explain his absence from myths, and also note that in the epic Baal is “Dagan’s son” even when he’s at a low point (ex. when Yam demands he gives up his freedom or when he’s dead) and only El’s and Asherah’s son when he’s victorious for the most part (ex. during palace construction) - imo this makes it plausible that Dagan is his real dad and El and Athirat are only his parents in the way vassal rulers called emperors fathers. Likewise I think any references to siblings can be interpreted in the light of ex. kings of Ugarit calling kings of Carchemish or Alashiya brothers. One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I really like how corny the Hittite/Hurrian storm god cycle is with Kumarbi constaly raising new challengers to attack Kummiya and dethrone Teshub/Tarhunna, I actually wish the Ugaritic one was longer too via a similar plot device. Also I wish Dagan actually appeared in myths alongside his son - Noga Ayali-Darshan had a theory he was in some oral tradition predating Baal cycle as the god announcing Yam demands a tribute since in Hurrian “Song of the sea” and in Egyptian “Astarte papyrus” a grain deity does this but a possible reconstruction isn’t much... Anat How I feel about this character: well, she’s not Inanna, but she’s still pretty good. I mostly like the parts of the Baal narrative which show her unpredictable character, like her probable parents being afraid of her, listing various never shown enemies she vanquished, or Mot’s death. Aqhat myth doesn’t interest me much. That myth fragment where she and Ashtart pity Yarikh because other gods treat him poorly is interesting, too. All the people I ship romantically with this character: Baal, Ashtart, that’s it I think. My non-romantic OTP for this character: she seems to get along really well with Shapash during the segment of the Baal cycle where Baal is dead. My unpopular opinion about this character: I really hate the speculation popular among bible scholars which amounts to making her, Ashtart and Athirat interchangeable to justify her irrelevance in the iron age. One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: honestly? I wish an “Anat cycle” existed. She pretty clearly had a fair share of own adventures considering Baal enlists her help on the account of past accomplishments. Yam How I feel about this character: out of all antagonists in the basic middle eastern “storm god vs sea” narratives I think he has the most fun personality - Hedammu is barely a “character” and Tiamat lacks the more human dimension Yam has. All the people I ship romantically with this character: nobody, he has to move past the Astarte papyrus characterization and learn some respect for that smh My non-romantic OTP for this character: his nameless rude messenger who refused to bow down when speaking to the assembly of the gods My unpopular opinion about this character: contary to what this (very good) paper says, the Yam battle is more thrilling than the Mot one - the strength of the Mot part of the narrative comes from the visceral descriptions of Anat’s emotions but Mot is a flat villain compared to Yam. One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: he had a seemingly positive role in cult and there are 13 known people with Yam theophoric names (out of 6000 or so people from Ugarit known by name) so I sort of wonder if there’s some lost myth where he’s the hero or something. Mot How I feel about this character: if nothing else, feeling offended by being offered bread and wine instead of corpses is pretty funny and a great introduction. And the pathetic attempt at a comeback shut down by Shapash is All the people I ship romantically with this character: unshippable by design tbh. My non-romantic OTP for this character: if the theory about Horon - the god from the “anti-snakebite text” and the “may horon crack your skull” curse - being a cthtonic god too - just a generally benign one - is true I think they could have a lot of comedic potential. My unpopular opinion about this character: I don’t understand where the idea of a nonexistent myth about Mot kidnapping Shapash and Yarikh comes from and I wish it wasn’t all over the place online. One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: some more detailed description of the afterlife - Mot, rephaim, Horon if he really lives there - would be useful... Shapash How I feel about this character: she seems severly... underrated? There are maybe two papers about her (and one underlines the fact there isn’t much research on her) and yet she’s the second most prominent goddess in the Baal cycle AND has her own narrative in the anti-snakebite texts! She might actually be more remarkable than her Mesopotamian counterpart - with all due respect for Utu/Shamash, in myths he’s the boring sibling between himself and Inanna/Ishtar... All the people I ship romantically with this character: I don’t have any real ideas, some papers assume she and Horon were a thing but this is disputable and Horon is pretty nebulous himself... My non-romantic OTP for this character: “Kothar - your close friend!” from that one hymn has that covered. Since she’s basically a divine herald perhaps they travel together? My unpopular opinion about this character: I suspect the reason why she isn’t studied more is because many researchers are stuck with some sort of false “good mother goddess - evil sex goddess” dichotomy of ancient middle eastern religion and while you can force Athirat, Anat and Ashtart into these roles, Shapash with her aura of a divine equivalent of a mundane earthly official doesn’t fit into it and as such is ignored. One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I said I hate the false Mot myth spreading online but I actually do wish there was a myth or at least a cult text of some sort showing what sort of relation existed between her and Yarikh - safe to say it didn’t mirror Shamash and Sin... Kothar-wa-Khasis How I feel about this character: huge fan of artisan gods and he seems genuinely nice. One of my Ugaritic b-list favorites. I like that he’s a reneissance man - armorer, architect, even a musician... The theory that he was developed based on Ptah since Memphis had a large foreign population is great. All the people I ship romantically with this character: Baal sort of? I imagine Baal is actually relatively knowledgeable about architecture given the length of the window debate in the Baal cycle... My non-romantic OTP for this character: Shapash, as I said earlier. My unpopular opinion about this character: based on the tale of King Keret some researchers argue he’s meant to be ugly like Greek Haephestus, but since I like the Ptah theory and his appearance isn’t described elsewhere AND King Keret might be satire where everyone is their worst self possible, I prefer to imagine him as handsome One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: supposedly from Caphtor and yet we never see Caphtor (Crete) in Ugaritic myths... come on, ancient scribes, surely someone went there? Maybe even recorded some proper Minoan myths? Ashtart How I feel about this character: she’s my favorite Ugaritic figure of limited relevance. An Ishtar/Inanna equivalent who seemingly curses other gods and presides over political pacts is a pretty solid premise! And it’s funny she rebukes Baal seemingly for insufficient dedication in battle. I wonder if the Egyptian fragment which implies Yam acted lecherous towards her is a factor in this tbh. Perhaps an earlier oral tradition had both these elements...? All the people I ship romantically with this character: Baal (her title is “face of baal”/”of the name of baal”, c’mon...), Anat (almost always listed together!) My non-romantic OTP for this character: Keret curses his son with a formula invoking both Horon and her so perhaps that’s who she’s learning curses from. My unpopular opinion about this character: I hate that “Astarte is Asherah” is widespread just because people want to defend the historicity of the biblical Jezebel narrative which probably even the biblical compilersdidn’t view as historical. One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I wish she didn’t vanish from the Baal cycle after Yam’s defeat :C Attar How I feel about this character: this sure is... a guy. He’s so pathetic in the Baal cycle it’s hard to even see him as an antagonist - sorry, Handbook of Ugaritic Studies... All the people I ship romantically with this character: nobody, Shapash points out he’s single as the reason why he can’t rule and i don’t think that changes in any subsequent texts? But then Marriage of Nikkal and Yarikh iirc mentions he has a daughter... My non-romantic OTP for this character: again, nobody. My unpopular opinion about this character: he’s actually a pretty vital part of the Baal cycle and the fact he gives up on own accord makes him more interesting than the other “failed god” in a similar narrative, Ashtabi. One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: a god with the same name was prominent in present day Yemen so I guess finding some direct connection would be nice - it fits with him leaving to “rule elsewhere” in the myth! Yarikh How I feel about this character: he’s so pitiful in the fragment which compares him to a dog begging for scraps... His main myth is pretty good too, tbh it’s the best middle eastern marriage myth imo - I actually don’t care for Dumuzi much, but Yarikh is cool. All the people I ship romantically with this character: only Nikkal-wa-Ib My non-romantic OTP for this character: given his mistreatment and Nikkal’s father(?) saying he could be a son in law of Baal I assume that in some unknown texts they must have been allies. Note that the Hittite storm god has the sun and moon gods acting as his metaphorical eyes warning him against Kumarbi’s new plots in song of Ullikummi. Also I assume Anat and Ashtart must consider him a friend given how they help him when nobody else does? All around he feels like a god in Baal’s orbit even though we have 0 direct proof for it. My unpopular opinion about this character: I think trying to correct him to Nanna is a doomed endeavor tbh. Their wives have similar names but Yarikh doesn’t give the impression of a “Father of gods” type deity in what little we know about him. One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: more myths. None we know show him as the moon even though it’s literally his name! I am afraid I don’t have anything interesting to say about El and Athirat. Handbook of Ugaritic Studies has an amazing El summary that I generally stick to, I can post a cap if you are interested.

[alterofnaught]

What do you think of Kokichi's lies? Do you think he's a compulsive liar or that he just lies for fun/to get what he wants?

Apologies for being extremely long winded about this answer but I have a BS in psych so I love psychoanalyzing characters and my thoughts are kind of complicated on it. Mostly just because I think just calling it compulsive lying often causes people to ignore the purpose and intent behind Kokichi’s actions (which a lot of people do and act like you can’t discern any of his motivations because he’s a “liar” which I disagree with). And I think it also insinuates he only lies because of that and ignore the many reasons he does tell lies. But I do think there's an element of both to it if that makes sense. 

While it's pretty much impossible to tell completely in just the main game canon if his lying is an actual psychological issue solely because there is a genuine reason for lying (like abuse victims and cheaters are not compulsive liars they just end up telling lots of lies because of the situation and you could say that is the case in a killing game as well). But bonus modes pretty much confirm that lying is absolutely part of his personality even without the pressure of the killing game. But the fact he both lies for fun and lies for a reason are what make it hard to pin down. Nor is it something that is readily agreed on as a term at all since it's not in the DSM-V and there are varying definitions for what qualifies as compulsive lying at all. Compulsive lying is also a trait of lots of other disorders but those you literally could not diagnose him with based on how little we get in my opinion (for example ADHD which is a popular headcanon and I think it makes the most sense out of any major diagnosis associated with lying but still not canon in anyway just a pretty good headcanon) . 

Lots of the lies he tells are for a reason which some psychologists say compulsive liars don’t usually have. Compulsive liars lie out of habit. Which he probably does to an extent but there is purpose to most of them. Especially since a majority of his lies are about his talent and organization or the game itself. Which have definite purpose to them. Like the conversation he has during introductions with Shuichi always makes me laugh actually because like… it’s a secret organization of course no one else should know about it and why on earth would a leader of it just tell you about it. Lying about a secret organization just makes sense, that’s kind of the whole point of it being a secret. And while he does tell more outright lies, he isn’t the only one who plays up their talent or lies during his introduction. Being grandiose in a situation where you are with 15 other Ultimates that are also larger than life and have a talent that is supposed to be so incredible the country searched you out for it… really doesn’t necessarily mean he’s trying to play himself up for no reason. It’s a pretty impressive sounding Ultimate Talent for what he really is so it makes sense to lie about honestly. And his exaggerations about his organization seem to reflect more on his childish personality more than some need to sound self-important (since he never seems to be seriously insulted at all when he gets questioned on the matter) as well as him just keeping DICE a secret since it's supposed to be one. Even in UTDP him lying about his organization makes complete sense to me (and some of his Salmon Mode preferred answers actually make it seem like he thinks his lies about DICE are ridiculous/stupid which is why I think he makes it sounds over the top and evil so people just write it off and ignore it which is a solid strategy tbh). 

His lies in trials are usually setups to get others to slip up or drag the discussion to where he wants it to be. It’s excessive but just seems to be more of a comfort zone where he knows how to navigate things like that and at the same time can hide himself as someone who knows too much. Which again there is definite purpose and intent in those lies. 

Purely compulsive liars are not necessarily known for being manipulative or cunning and Kokichi can be both of those things. He does lie for gain and to fulfill his plans which makes it seem to be a bit more than just a compulsive habit. Manipulative behavior is more associated with what some categorize as pathological liars (or no difference but again this isn’t a set standard across psychiatry at all). Pathological liars lie for gain but often have very little empathy. That doesn’t fit Kokichi to me because despite his flaws he is incredibly empathetic. Which is something I’ve definitely seen people not understand about him because people confuse kindness for empathy. Kokichi can be a massive asshole which people equate to not caring about others feelings. Which is sometimes true. But empathy is more about being able to understand other people's feelings which Kokichi actually has a very strong talent for. He recognizes the feelings in his classmates quite well even if he doesn’t approach them kindly. He can tell how Kaede feels, he recognizes Kirumi’s desperation, calls out Himiko, and in that conversation with Miu he fully understands her feelings of wanting to escape. It’s part of what allows him to have Gonta and Kaito go along with his plans, he understands their emotions and can easily tell the way they will act based on them. He isn’t mean because he doesn’t care about others emotions as much as he is mean to get certain emotional reactions (that typically benefit him but also sometimes others or the group as a whole). 

Pathological liars also tend to hate the truth and hate being called out on their lies or just straight up believe their own lies. He also does not seem to hate the truth more just recognizes the truth is not always a good thing. There is no denying he respects the truth since in every trial he absolutely cares they get the right answer (minus the 5th of course). He also uses the truth as a weapon just as much as his lies at times. Like when he pointed out Kaede pushing the group too far or Himiko’s attitude to Tenko. Saying the harsh truths that other people are afraid of saying are just as much part of his arsenal as lies. The comic anthology isn’t canon necessarily but like I did find it interesting that when they were all trying to trick the Monokubs that they had to try and physically stop Kokichi from telling Monotaro (I think) that he was lying. So that definitely makes his lying a bit unique in that he seems to have no problem in calling himself out on lies. Which he does almost constantly in canon and Salmon Mode as well. He is incredibly nonchalant about being called out on lying from others as well. I also don’t think he fully believes his own lies even the one about enjoying himself in the killing game. 

In the bonus modes he lies for fun and because it gets him reactions he wants (it’s not really for personal gain or manipulation in Salmon Mode or UTDP). It still seems very purposeful to me and something he enjoys doing (the line about how he likes lying more when hanging with Shuichi for example or how his conversation with Celestia in UTDP makes it pretty clear he sees lying as a fun game). He hates being bored and loves outwitting people and just playing around to see peoples reactions in general and lies are the perfect tool for that. 

But there are some things I think point to it being a psychological issue still. His line to Kaito before he died about how he had to lie to make it through the game really makes me feel like there is more to it than just him messing around. It's definitely not just a tool for him to use others but one he uses as a coping mechanism for himself. And Keebo’s conversation with him in UTDP about how his lies keep people at a distance adds credence to the idea that he does use his lies to shield himself from other people in any kind of situation. So I also think it isn’t just for fun or to get what he wants but for his own benefit as well. But it’s not something he feels he needs to change as we can see in his Harmonious Heart answers or even his spiel about lying in the Ch4 trial- he sees it as a part of him. 

While he doesn’t ever get much of a detailed backstory in canon. He does have that line to Kaito about how they have very different backgrounds which I feel heavily implies that whatever his background was was lying made it easier. I don’t necessarily think he had a “sad traumatic backstory that explains away his shitty behavior” I do think it's at least implied he grew up in an environment where lying was beneficial. And Danganronpa making such a deliberate reference to a TV show about orphans with a clown motif with DICE makes it seem like him being an orphan is hardly a large leap. He also jokes that he wouldn’t be missed a few times which again is nothing definitive but hints that he doesn’t necessarily have a background of super normal/healthy relationships (DICE is also insinuated to be essentially a found family for him which isn’t a typical situation for most people). 

So I guess part of the reason I’m reluctant to just call it compulsive is because that insinuates it's uncontrollable and I don’t know if there is evidence that he simply cannot handle things any other way. His harmonious heart says he could but doesn’t want to. But there is definitely enough there I think to say that it absolutely is a defense/coping mechanism that he uses to his advantage in addition to just enjoying lying because it's a fun game to him. But also he says he hates liars and lies so often it makes me feel like he recognizes lying can absolutely be a bad thing and that he is self-aware. 

So my TLDR answer is kind of both? Like he definitely lies a lot of the time for his own gain and childish enjoyment of it but also uses them to hide his true self and intentions as well as shelter his own emotions. And it’s not necessarily the healthiest thing for him or people around him so I don’t think it should be written off as a non-issue at all. But the term compulsive liar and how it's typically defined doesn’t really cover his super complicated relationship with lies for me. Because in the end he was written to be “the embodiment of a lie” so it makes sense his lies have multiple and complicated reasonings behind them. I mostly shy away from calling it compulsive because of the insinuations that it is “out-of control” and I don’t necessarily think that's the case. Compulsive lying is just too loaded of a term without a clear agreed upon definition for me to like using (even though I don’t necessarily think its wrong to say it could be classified as such). I personally feel like calling it a coping strategy that can be maladaptive fits better. I don’t think his lying is always inherently a bad thing but there is no denying its not the best thing either. He does it because he both wants to and needs to and feels justified in it as well which is why I wouldn’t categorize it as something he has no control over. (End of excessive rambling because I could go on about how blurry the line is between a behavoir like lying being “normal” and harmful because that is a whole other thing I could go on about)

[kayvsworld]

lmao i hear u on watching the first 3 seasons and ive been a fan for like ... 5 yrs and have Never Seen em .. like i Should do that but castiel isnt there so. are there some Essential Episodes or something can i skim it lmao

i dont know what media to reference here that you might have as a solid frame of reference but like...if you skip the whole first section of lord of the rings before things escalate, you won’t appreciate the escalation. if you start harry potter right after the triwizard tournament you are not going to understand the stakes or the context, even if you read the wiki, even if you’ve seen gifsets.

lazarus rising is not a pilot! it’s not the start of the show! lazarus rising is a turning point!!! it’s a big change. it’s a direct contradiction to everything the boys have believed, from the beginning, about the world and how it works.

 seasons 1-3 are Building Up To Something and Establishing The World as being a certain way, establishing the CHARACTERS as being a certain way, and if you’re popping in right at what they were building up to you’re not going to experience it in context. 

cas’ intro is 10x as impactful and meaningful and exciting if its an Incredible Revelation and not literally the first ep you’re watching lmao

cas is great! ive done like 2-3 rewatches of this show at this point in the past...like....Decade, and i’m always looking forward to lazarus rising. it’s not a secret that he’s my favourite. but whenever i hear people saying that they don’t want to watch s1-3 because they’re only interested in cas, its like.....

no judgement (some judgement) but have u considered that maybe you’re more interested in cas than dean and sam because......you’ve actually watched cas’ story arc and character development from introduction to end? in a way that you’ve decided not to do with the main characters of the show? you’ve actually seen who he is and where he started from and where he is now? 

i literally would not care about sam or dean in any way shape or form if i hadnt watched s1-3 first. it’s their introduction. it’s where their foundations are established, and where the foundations of the show are established

sam in season 4 is supposed to be a departure from his normal self! his character arcs for like at least 3 seasons rely on you knowing him from The Beginning Of The Show and empathizing with him because of it!! ur reward for this is that u get to cry real genuine tears when u watch sam with the army man in swan song

tbh i honestly don’t know how you made it through seasons 4-etc caring about Anyone aside from cas without watching 1-3, and if you didn’t care, then it MAY JUST BE in part because you latched onto a concept that was, in theory, interesting and skipped the show laying down its groundwork

like i don’t know how to say this in any more ways 

you’re not obligated to watch 3 more bad seasons of a show whose next 12 seasons were also bad! but no there’s no Best Of Supernatural that im going to hand out? friend its not school there’s not a cheat sheet just watch the show lmao 

[fawnydoe]

You’ve talked about season two of TUA and how you would change it but is there anything you would change about season one?

season 1 of tua rlly hooked me so I can’t say I’d change that much about it other than tweaks and shit.

I love the way the story shows how each of the sibling’s mistakes contributed to the finale, I love the depictions of trauma and the ugly side of them, I love that the siblings are written as having very angry and/or bitter sides that lash out at the worst moments, and I love some of the gothic shots and use of shadows and light.

aaannnndd most of all i love the character of Vanya! I love her introduction (i could literally write an episode by episode analysis of her character) and her fall from grace as forces outside of her control keep pushing her down until she grabs control by the reigns and decides “im going to drag everyone down with me by my own volition” and i looooovveeee it!

that being said....here’s some criticism and stuff i’d add under the cut

i’m gonna start with some Genuine Criticism here 

Patch is just....bad. She replaced Detective Lupo but not in a good way tbh she’s made solely to be a love interest and then gets killed off to fuel Diego’s man pain. She’s not a character, she’s a plot device in the worst way possible. Seriously, don’t write female characters to solely be love interests to be killed, it’s done a lot and it’s always shitty.

There’s a secret society with a motto in Yiddish. I’m not Jewish so I won’t go too far into this one, I just know from a surface level understanding that this isn’t good.

Klaus and Dave are a bury-your-gays trope guys

Pills suppress your superpower trope that isn’t good at all. I’d argue the line is murky here since Vanya is being lied to about what she’s taking but still

There’s a few continuity issues with shots and the entirety of the mansion at times, which you know....come on

those are just ones off the top of my head

things that i would add + change

Negative side effects to Vanya going cold turkey. She’s been on the medication since she was four, that shit fucks with your body. You could have it be part of a reason she gets closer to Leonard, he’s the one who takes care of her as her body goes through withdrawals - not her family.

Allison struggling a bit more with the temptation of her powers! I love her arc in season 1 as someone who wants to be better but the people around her assume the worst. Play around with her struggles, not just the audio montage in episode 8.

Luther struggling with life off the moon. Have him struggle with paranoia, gravity, and more. It can be subtle or obvious, depends on what you want.

Diego’s arc is just weak in general, have him confront that as much as he rejects his father’s teachings, he’s ultimately become exactly what he was trained to be.

Klaus & Five are pretty solid in the show, not much i would really change/add

MORE!! CHILDHOOD!!! SCENES!!!!! The aftermath of Five leaving? what was Allison and Vanya’s relationship like? How did it contribute to their present relationship? What about the number system, how did that contribute to the pecking order?? There’s so many possibilities with the layers having a few more flashback scenes would have

Patch....entirely. I don’t know just don’t make characters solely to be love interests then kill them.

these are like...the basic things i can come up with without rewatching the show entirely

thank you for the question, y’all know i love coming up with lot stuff + analysis so feel free to ask me more

[ladyzayinwonderland]

Hiya Zay! So I noticed you posted about a Hadestown crossover and I wanted to ask you what you love about the musical! Favorite song? Favorite quality? What about the story/songs/costumes/characters/choreography/atmosphere/etc evokes Feelings? What is/are the primary mood(s) it inspires in you? Favorite headcanon or tender moment? Favorite line/lyric? (FYI I know you're not on here regularly and I RESPECT that, so if you want to answer, feel utterly free to take your time)... ❤️ Poly

Okay this has been a long time coming (I just didn’t realize how long it would take) but I finally have an answer! Thank you for your patience, dear Poly, and thank you for the super ask! I’m always willing to gush about Hadestown and it was so fun to have the opportunity ^_^

It is, however, a very long answer... it kinda got away from me in the process, hehe.

Favorite song: I feel like it might be cliché to say Wait for Me, but… all the versions of the song are gorgeous in different ways. If I had to be more original, then I would have to say We Raise Our Cups. I tear up every time I listen to it.

Favorite Quality: In the words of Hermes, “it’s a love song.” Orpheus loves Eurydice enough to go to hell to get her. Eurydice loves Orpheus enough to follow him out, though the way is hard. Hades loves Persephone, though he doesn’t know how to show it and is afraid to lose her. Persephone loves Hades enough to keep coming back to him to “try again”. I know that some of those loves are flawed, but they’re human. The beacon of that love and what it represents is important.

Story: I adore the inevitability of Hadestown. We know from the very beginning how this is going to end and yet we still hope that maybe it might just be different this time. We can’t help but hope. I think it speaks to the quality of the musical that it can still pull you in every time. Very cathartic.

Songs: My favorite thing about the songs is having been able to witness their growth and maturity from album to album! Themes, lyrics, and melodies have so many subtle changes that only seem to ring more true with time. It’s also so cool to see how it needed 10+ years to ruminate into the musical we have now. (But this might also be subjective to me because I found out about Hadestown when there was only a concept album, then kept up with each new development until my husband and I were able to see it on Broadway just after its premier.) And I’m very excited to see how the national tour turns out!!

Costumes: I love the tattered/steampunk/industrial look of the OBC show. But I also love what I’ve seen of the off-broadway show, the whimsical costumes of Nabiyah’s Eurydice and early Persephone’s dresses and boldness of Damon’s red jacket (bring! it! back!). The costumes definitely change the vibes of the show though, which is just fascinating to me. Mostly in Eurydice’s character, so…….

Characters: Eurydice. Has. Character. She is three-dimensional, rounded out, and can stand on her own. (this was always something I wished had been different with the myth) It’s interesting to note how her character is portrayed slightly differently depending on the show though? I can’t speak so much to Nabiyah’s portrayal because I didn’t see it, but the music makes me think that she’s harsher and angrier than Eva’s softer and more hopeful version. Orpheus too experiences subtle shifts between Damon and Reeve, specifically bolder to more naïve, which… I don’t hate, but I miss Damon’s Oprheus. I also love that all the main players experience change/growth! They all have agency!

Choreography: I love the transition between carefree in the world above to stark and sharp down below. Tbh Livin’ It Up On Top is not my ~fav~ choreography-wise, however, I recognize it’s a chance for the cast to let loose and have a good time, and it’s important to show just how different things are between the two settings. But the moment we are down below? Stellar. Sharp, synchronized movements that immediately remind you of the cogs of a machine. And I do love how the movements become more human by the time we get to If It’s True and Wait for Me II.

Bonus—the lamp choreo in Wait for Me. I sobbed when I saw them swinging and being used to light an otherwise dark space, leading Orpheus deeper underground.

Atmosphere: slight steampunk vibes my beloved. The off-broadway and Canadian productions’ Tree is something I wish had stayed for the OBC production. In addition to being gorgeous, it adds an element of nature to juxtapose to Hades’ cold, harshly lit, industrial underground. The OBC loses that little bit of earth by taking place in a train station bar. That said, I do enjoy the bar setting in parallel to Persephone’s dismal speakeasy down below. The presence of the band on stage, motley but involved in the story beyond just the music.

Inspired moods: I like angst, for better or for worse. I’ve always been drawn to Orpheus and Eurydice because of how tragic it is. I think it’s very Romantic™. Therefore, any incarnation or representation of the story is automatically my jam. I like that, regardless of how many times I have listened to the album, I still hold on to the hope that it might turn out differently. Just once. That hope is something so precious, something that still deserves to be passed on even if it’s been dashed to pieces. It’s never in vain, you can always try again.

(And, this probably isn’t as relevant, but I think there’s something to be said from a Christian perspective on the show as well. Orpheus is just a man and prone to doubt, as the show illustrates. He fails. We all fail. But there is hope found in One who literally can’t fail in bringing the lost back to Him, and that is an encouraging thought.)

Headcanon: I hold to this one interpretation of the tale that Orpheus looking back was a sign of love (though I don’t discount it being an act of doubt or weakness). I like to think that he was just wanted to see her again, wanted to make sure she made it too, but he was just a fraction of a moment too soon. It almost makes her “death” more tragic.

Tender Moment: my favorite tender moments from the show are 1) when Orpheus runs to the stage through the audience to reach Eurydice again in the second act. Mostly because I didn’t expect it. I was focused on her when a white and red blur with a guitar ran down the aisle to peek his head above the edge of the stage with a joyful “come home with me?” My Heart. 2) when Orpheus finishes Epic III and Hermes says “and you know what they did? They danced.” There is a twenty second bit of acoustic guitar and violin while Hades and Persephone dance for the first time together in ages. It wasn’t a grand or sweeping moment—it was just an old man stumbling through a rusty dance with his wife, and it felt genuine.

Favorite Line/Lyric: starting off strong with the first words of the show. There’s no introduction to Hadestown, no warning it’s about to start. Just Hermes sauntering onstage, looking you straight in the eye, and saying “Alright?” Then the band starts playing and the show begins. Incredible. Unprecedented. But also I weep for all of the Epics. Such solid poetry. So soft.

So anyway, those are my thoughts! They may be a little repetitive, but hopefully I conveyed myself decently enough. Thank you again, lovely!! <3

[chimtaera]

imagine model namjoon.

ok let’s not kid ourselves

boy’s already a model

he’s got the body.

got the looks.

what can i say, he’s no super model (too clumsy), but he get’s around with the more diverse castings yanno

probably got started on instagram,

with his #kimdaily outfits

which are sometimes just chill, pretty, sporty, casual, cool

and other times completely wacky and just ??? how did you even think to wear those ??? at the same time?? together ???

he always looks good tho

but some looks will give you whiplash. ur warned.

but that’s part of his appeal tbh

hhhh probably gains a lot of popularity when one of those more ‘out there’ outfits circulates on twitter or reddit and people are like “hOW does he make that work??? why does it look good??? is he just that hot??”

the answer is yes.

from there he builds a solid following.

for his great looks, great fashion sense, and his 4am instagram stories that are just a black pic with like a three paragraph text about how rain might feel if it had feelings.

also, solid music recommendations omg 

you probably make ur own spotify playlist with just his recommendations.

ok ok so you best bELIEVE when this boy finally gets cast for a show he’s gonna fall on his ass and go viral

claim to fame baby

probably becomes a meme and rolls with it tbh

like he’ll share the memes in his story, so as not to ruin the ・ﾟ:*aesthetic*:・ﾟand react to them and shit

but then also get on live and talk at length about how faceplanting on the catwalk impacts your self-esteem, how he’s habit he could benefit positively from such an embarrassing moment, and how there’s a lesson for everyone here, and that he hopes all our embarrassing moments may in some way benefit us one day.

he’s such a sweetheart im-

so you might be a stylist?

a hair stylist?

makeup artist?

fellow model?

whatever you’re comfortable with.

you definitely see him on instagram first tho

you came for the memes but are super impressed with his profile and end up staying for the music.

...... and him.

he’s hot, come on.

also 90% of networking is done on instagram these days let us be real.

okay so oNE DAY, or like late evening, who cares

he post a music recommendation and you’re like !!!!!!!!

it’s that low key indie band with like only one EP out that you found on some obscure spotify playlist and you’ve been jamming to since october

and apparently namjoon has too because they’ve released a new single and you didn’t even know ????

and you’re so excited your fingers slip and oopsie you’ve sent a short but rambling message explaining exactly that into his DM’s

instant regret.

then the anxiety bubbles up in you.

and then you calm yourself and convince yourself that he gets a LOT of messages he probably won’t even see yours, so it’s fine it’s fine it’s-

next morning you have a reply

a new follow

and a mcfUCKING LIKE ON A PICTURE OF YOU FROM TWO WEEKS AGO

yikes, you didn’t even have time to give your feed a spring cleaning

you just like his short “ikr!!!!”, too mortified to reply.

alas, the regrets!

but also

the butterflies.

then you see him at an event one time.

it’s fashion week, you’re hecking busy and about to leave because it’s like midnight and you’ve got places to be tomorrow

but it’s always so strange to see people from insta irl like ??? all those dimensions??? you really be lookign like that ??? damn.

once you’ve stared long enough to be certain that’s actually what he looks like (so handome!!! so tall!!!! wtf!!!! who allowed this??) you turn to leave just as he glances up and cetches your eye for like the tiniest fraction of a second

and you hightail it outta there and hope to heaven he doesn’t know you were staring.

but he likes your pic from the party the next morning and you almost choke on your coffee and the lump in your throat stays there all day

and you’re like, am i?? catching feelings ??? for the catwalk faceplant guy??? you’ve never even talked to the man smh

he’s fucking hot tho.

so, fashion week ends and with it comes another party

you can finally relax, celebrate, wind down from the long week.

yA THOUGHT lmao

you’re talking to some designer about their next project and they’re going on about this instagram dude who’s already on board when they start waving someone over like “hey hey, there he is, y/n have you met kim namjoon yet?”

you turn around you’re like !!!!! fuck. he’s so much taller up close.

“hey, no, yeah, no, but i’ve seen you on, uh, on instagram. i think.” smooth, y/n.

after introductions, the designer gets pulled along into some other conversation and you and namjoon are kinda awkward for a minute.

you just sip your drink like ‘fuck fuck fuckfuck fuck aaaaaaa’

but then he asks you easy questions about what you do and what you’ve been working on this week and it’s the same thing you’ve been talking about with everyone you’ve met this week so it goes pretty smoothly

he makes it easy for you, like he’s very attentive, nods along enthusiastically asking follow-up questions and seems genuinely interested in your work it’s so nice! he’s so nice!

and you ask him the same things you’ve asked everyone else this week like you haven’t seen everything on his instagram already.

actually you’ve missed a few things since you’ve been so busy and your interest is genuine, before you know it the two of you are at a table and getting along like a house on fire, showing each other pics from the week.

he asks you send him a pic from one of the shows he didn’t get to see and when he do he’s sees your old messages and is like ?? oh !!

i mean, he totally knew it was you, but he had forgotten the part about that obscure indie band and the new single, so he shows you!

you’ve been following them even closer since then so you know they’re playing a gig in like two weeks and you tell him.

turns out he’s missed this info because of fashion week and he’s super excited!! you guys have to go together!!!¨

“i mean, we don’t have to- it’s just, i don’t know anyone else who listens to them, i could probably go alone, but, you know, it would be cool-”

and of course you’ll go with him, so you two exchange numbers and end up texting the next two weeks.

at first you’re just making tentative plans to meet and go to to the gig, but then there’s a gallery opening the same day, and you know this realy good thrift shop nearby that he should check out, and you guys should get dinner before because namjoon knows this really cool place and-

and it’s a date.

namjoon has every intention to kiss you that night after the gig, but he wants to ask you first and he’s not sure exactly how so he’s just like “um ??? can i ??? uhhh ?? do you ??? uh”

and ur like, “hey, namjoon, i really want u to kiss me, please?”

the rest is history.

you two are too cute, with your instagram aesthetic and lowkey couple outfits, and highkey couple pics, i’d follow.

you two would be gOALS, and it does wonders for both your careers tbh

omg imagine all the cool collaborations you two could do.

and eventually namjoon would go viral again when the paparazzi captures him spilling his coffee and your cute reaction.

but the best thing about dating model namjoon is he makes you your very own playlist.

and you get your very own story highlight with all the aesthetic pics he snaps of you just like buying milk and stealing his fries, and exploring the city on sundays afternoons, going vintage shopping and reading in the park, titled: “bae.” with every colour heart.

hyping each other in the comments always.

and the thirst omg

anyway, nsfw under the cut.

so you take it kinda slow at first because turns out namjoon has a huge crush on you and he lowkey can’t keep his hands off you but also wants to “date you properly”, whatever that means.

props to you if you get impatient with him and tease him a little, a thirst trap here, a netflix and chill there, sending a sexy song his way, or even better post it on your story for him to see.

if it doesn’t provoke him to action it’ll at least get him hard flustered, which is cute.

in the end joon is a soft boy and you can sit up all night talking, so you end up talking about sex long before having it.

and that just makes it all the more special tbh

and when it does happen, it’s like everything else the two of you do, a little awkward at first, a little clumsy, fumbly, but a lot of fun, and it’s namjoon, and you love namjoon. so, so much.

like it doesn’t matter if he accidentally bumps your nose, because he’ll apologise and the two of you will just giggle and continue. 

and he might pull your hair on accident, but that way you can admit to him that it’s.. kinda hot.

and when your teeth collide when you kiss it’s only because any amount of distance between you quickly becomes unbearable, and you both need each other so, so much.

imagine slow, lazy sunday morning snuggle fuck with namjoon.

and then later when you’re on a blanket in the park reading both your books he’ll get distracted, thinking about it, lean in close and tell you something ridiculous like he wishes you would wake him up by sitting on his face.

and imagine backstage heavy petting after a show, leaving the afterparty early, because you’re both buzzing with unrelieved tension and namjoon is very hard in his pants, pressing himself against you as you try to have a polite conversation with some influencer.

love, love, loooooves, watching you ride.

and he’ll go down on you for hours if you let him, honestly.

anytime, anywhere tbh

how did you get so lucky?

[needs-to-stop-looking-at-valves]

Transformers RID2015 final review!!;

Oh boy. This was a long time coming. Let's go over what I gotta say about this show!

*pls note all these are my opinions, and may contain swearing/spoilers.

Pros!!;

Some bad guy designs. Take for example bots like Thunderhoof or Stockade, who genuinely look SO good? (I particularly like the rusty nail cigar detail on Stockade, THAT was some good shit).

The voice acting, on the whole, was VERY good. Yes there were a few bots who shook me (like Ped, that shit made me spit out tea), but honestly? I was impressed for the most part. 

Sideswipe.

Minicons. No seriously, 97% of minicons in this show were ADORABLE! My only complaint is that they didn’t get more screen time, if anything.

 The whole ‘camouflage’ thing they did? SO good, SO creative. They did other such creative stuff like this, (recalibrating optics, Springload’s acid skin, alloy hives, Uv lights, etc. cool shit).

How they made so many decepticons look like animals. Call me a furry, but I honestly like transformers designed to be animals. Thunderhoof, Steeljaw, Saberhorn, Stockade, and Zizza are particularly ones I enjoy.

 Denny. I demand he be in the next dream daddy update immediately.

Bumblebee’s night off. Literally all of it.

The fact that NO bot is spared from stupidity/awkward moments. Decepticons, autobots, don’t matter, everyone’s fucking gay and stupid. Fucking great.

Bumblebee’s failed rallying cries. So cringy, and I feel like they REALLY signified his growth as a leader.

Battlemasks. Seriously, I LOVE how there’s more of them in this series. I just wished they had more, especially for the baddies. Bad guys deserve to look cool dammit. 

Sideswipe’s OBVIOUS crush on Jazz. Fuck outta here with that Sideblade shit.

'Guilty as charged'.Literally everything about it. The twists, the background, the fact that they MADE AN AUTOBOT A BAD GUY. So fucking good of an episode.

Cons!!;

The constant references to tfp. The nods to tfp are few and far in between, but they do exist. One would think this is a plus, and the idea itself is, but RID focuses on all the wrong things. Like in the episode, ‘History lessons’, they bring up the base, but never really delve into the history of it, choosing to focus on the bad guys.

The character design. This isn't for ALL of them, but this show has an awful habit of making some characters too big. Take for example, Optimus. His thickness works against him, as it removes the lack of details that made him so GORGEOUS in tfp.

The re colors/clones. I get it, reusing some assets saves money. But the colors tend to be just awful, and most designs are VERY hit and miss. Aka Airachnid.

Bringing up tfp again. Now I'm not going to be like ‘oh tfp was first= better’, because the first isn't always better. What I hate is the fact that RID sort of ignores tfp for the most part, despite being only FIVE years apart. I feel like if they made this a separate continuity or MUCH later time wise, this wouldnt annoy me so much.

Episodes are honestly 90% filler. Like armada, it's very gimmicky, using a LOT of episodes to sell toys. The plot of the show is really just ‘catch decepticons’, vs tfp, where the challenge changed in pretty much every episode.

Speaking of decepticons, I hated how they made so many. Don't get me wrong, I love variety, but I feel like the designs of these random baddies took up WAY too much time, especially to just have them thrown out after one appearance.

Thunderhoof. I know, queen of hoof thirst, saying this. Let me explain. I LOVE him, but like many decepticons in this series, he was more or less ignored. Don’t get me wrong, he was given more time compared to most, and that I appreciate, but they gave him SUCH a background of a mafia boss, only to just demote him for the sake of Steeljaw. I was just honestly offended that they didn't do more with him when they could've (though DAMN he was hot in Decepticon Island Part 2, and his introduction episode).

Characters do not progress very much. Strongarm and Sideswipe somewhat did, Bumblebee as well, but I wasn't truly believing a character grew up for the most part.

 Decepticon hunters. I just don’t understand them. At the beginning, they were neat tools, but combining them just suddenly made everyone way too OP. I don’t understand it, and I don’t really like it.

This brings me to the topic of weapons. In G1 they did the handheld weapons, and that worked, given it was G1, but this is canonically AFTER tfp, so removing those weapons doesn't make sense, and it’s honestly kinda fucking lame. This is a HUGE gripe for me tbh. It wasn’t even that they couldn't, bots like Fracture had built in blades and the like, so ultimately, what's the excuse?

 Octopunch and Clampdown. Kill them with fire. 

‘Even robots have nightmares’. Not the entire episode, just the fact that Chop shop’s moment of kindness in that episode wasn't really explored, and the missed opportunity there ACTUALLY upset me. Even bad guys deserve redemption.

Speaking of, I hate the fact that only Grimlock got redemption. Yes tfp also didn't have much luck in converting the baddies, but there were at least ATTEMPTS, and I feel like having those attempts turned the black white and sides onto a more gray area, and sort of showed the audience that no one was inherently BAD. If they had that in this series, I’d be MUCH more into this.

Minasaur. Was just such a waste of time. Decent design, but the character was shit. He apparently destroyed an actual solar system or some shit, and yet, he can't properly control his combined form for two seconds.

Stunticons. They were decent looking in design, I'll give them that, but they were wasted, and rushed. RID has enough bad guys that desperately needed attention, adding these new ones was a choice that really made this show a struggle to watch.

'Prisoners Principles'. The way they covered the legal rules of Prisoners wasn't too bad. What WAS bad was the normalized brutality of Clampdown. Now I hate the fuck, but he's a willing prisoner. Bots like Strongarm and Sideswipe willingly putting him in danger just REALLY seemed like boot kissing. Don't appreciate it.

The episode with Dropforge kinda made me realize something. That the whole situation with the government could've been covered a LOT sooner. If they were going to touch on it, at ALL, they should've done it properly. You could've literally scrapped the stunticons and replaced it with issues of Cybertron's justice system. It would have saved them money on voice actors, and the thought of collaboration between Cybertron and earth would've been GOOD shit. It would've been a good opportunity to bring in Dropforge, who was genuinely a cool character.

Ratchet meeting Optimus. Was so disappointing, so lackluster, and really, really undermined their relationship in tfp.

There was SO many musical talents for some fucking reason. Sideswipe, Jazz, Steeljaw, Thunderhoof- all VA's were singers, and they did NOTHING with that.

The way the council was handled. I couldn't remember a time where I've ever given less of a shit about their characters. You fucked up CYCLONUS. How the fuck you gonna ruin CYCLONUS.

There's a specific post talking about this shows villian problem (written by my buddy bae, give em a follow), and there's lots of points i agree with; https://baebeyza.tumblr.com/post/190875674229/robots-in-disguise-2015-and-the-villain-problem.

They also made this post that I think has some solid points; https://baebeyza.tumblr.com/post/621992774922797056/rid15-and-what-it-could-have-been-waited-foruys of the episode. 

So all in, this show is....okay. I've seen it twice now, and both times, they have something in common; they're exhausting to go through. Don't get me wrong, it has some good moments, really does. But on the whole, this show wastes a LOT of your time. I don't think it's too much to say that you could cut at least 30% of content, and STILL get to the plot. For a show, that's a LOT. This is a show you should definitely NOT start this franchise with. Treat yourself, watch TFP or TFA. Maybe even beast wars. Just...not this.

Final verdict: 6/10.

[faemen]

i'd love to hear abt ur characters!

THANK YOU!!!! okay for youuu i shall ramble about.. my very first oc ever, kodi arrington :]

real pretentious name, i know. wait until you hear about how he STARTED. long story short, i was in a regular chatting discord server with my friends, saw some weird demon server in the promo channel, and that ended up being my introduction to roleplay as a whole!! it sounds cringe, but the owners genuinely put a lot of thought into the lore and it was COOL!!! super cool!! sad it ended tbh.

kodi's monster form isnt exactly a demon, he's just a mix of many species, like ghosts/demons/etc etc. with this set of origins, nobody's quite sure what abilities he has, least of all himself. and the ones he DOES have arent very strong, due to him having so many at once. he can go through walls, but is solid for anything else, he has night vision, but not 20/20. there are a lot of drawbacks to having every single skill.

anyways. backstory. the main reason why kodi has so many species, isnt actually just because im indecisive. he's actually something known as an 'observer', aka a reincarnated soul that has no other purpose in the human world other than getting assigned to another being to watch over them. kind of like a messed up form of guardian angel, except he doesnt guard anything, just gives the info to his boss. he gets a new 'life' each time, with a new name, family, and identity, and although he TECHNICALLY keeps the memories, everything's been getting fuzzier.

when he first got chosen as an observer, he had a vastly different personality. a genuinely outgoing, kindhearted individual who just wanted to help those around him. a bit clumsy, but he was still trying his best to complete his job to the best of his abilities.

unfortunately tho, reincarnation isnt all fun and games. due to the nature of their assignment, the souls must be killed off in the human world quickly, so kodi has technically never lived over 18. in addition to that, even if he does get a task in the same area (which is rare in itself) he's not allowed to interact anyone who he gets close to in any of his lives.

getting close to people wore him down, although he did get excellent in a number of other skills, like the observing his career is named after. and eventually he morphed into the current kodi, a generally quiet and sly guy who doesnt trust easily at all.

anyway. his most recent assignment before heading to the manor which the roleplay was based around, was some rich music producing dude named kodi arrington. or at least thats what he was supposed to portray. anyway, he was generally gaining popularity, and theres a WHOLE other backstory for this specific human life that i can talk about later if anyones interested, maybe.

long story short, he dies. rip. but something weird happens this time. instead of being sent up to get another assignment, he ends up somewhere like.. really different. this manor, in the distance. it turns out that he's been taken from his job as an observer and sent to this sort of.. purgatory area? like a space in between heaven and hell? it could be pity, or perhaps he's been cursed. either way, he's stuck here forever now.

THIS GOT SO LONG BUT THERES STILL A LOT MORE i am sorry JGHSKJDHFJ thank you so much for asking tho ily/p