#hate on people named bruno and for what reason??

[69constellationsinatrenchcoat]

Re-watching Encanto only ends two ways: crying while wishing for your generational trauma to be mended, and singing along

[soobnny]

dating him | hwang hyunjin

❝ i’ve never seen anything quite like you, my love ❞

chan | lee know | changbin | HYUNJIN | han | felix | seungmin | jeongin

hopeless romantic hwang hyunjin

love is beautiful and brilliant hwang hyunjin

yall cannot convince me that he isn’t the BIGGEST lover

romance is in his blood

he is so fascinated by it

so, for that reason, i feel like dating him would be like the love you read about or watch in movies

bc hyunjin would b the type to consume so much of romantic media

it’s where he learned everything from

wow what a dream

he strikes me as the type to fall in love with every little thing too

his eyes is just a lens of romance

and it’s set on YOU

every single love language he has it .. but here are some specifics

love language #1 gift giving

hyunjin is a traveler okay

and in every trip, he always has something to give you

keychains, t-shirts, bags, jewelry, stickers, refrigerator magnets, pins, you name it

even u have to remind him not to go all out sometimes

bc when that boy splurges, he SPENDS

esp for u ? he would spoil u in a heartbeat

he always makes sure he leaves a day of his travels dedicated to u and thinking about u

on that note, he tends to buy u guys matching items

matching phone cases, matching rings, matching scrunchie

whatever u can get that’s matching

he WILL get it

it excites him too

he loves being able to tell the world how in love he is

wait side note

whenever he’s traveling, he’s always just instinctively thinking about you

he buys this bagel for breakfast, oh ???? like hey guys yn loves bagels too

and the boys r like WE KNOWWWW 😭

everything is about u quite literally

ok continuing on

and he gifts u his art too

his art is very important to him

and he has found lately, u are the one person littering his sketch books

oh he’s down bad

i think for ur anniversary, he’d paint the constellations of how the stars looked that night and aligned perfectly

or his favorite picture of you

down bad that he also buys u a shit ton of dresses

and lingerie ………….

look he knows his fashion

he knows what looks great

u can’t blame him for buying what he knows will look so pretty on you

(he’d probably give u his card one time and say “go crazy” like wow he’s packed)

#2 quality time

i think his favorite dates would also be expensive

he just can’t help himself

BUT u know he has a sweet spot for self care dates too

spa days are very important to him

loves being able to relax and unwind with u

he especially loves when u play with his hair and when u paint his nails

one time, u caught him stealing one of your nail polishes

would also be the type to bring some bit of you in his travels

like ur perfume or ur shampoo

anything that’ll remind him of u

tho ur scent is his favorite

hence why he goes for perfumes or soap or shampoos bc u feel closer to him this way

he just loves being with u even if both of u are doing nothing

just like that bruno major song

conversations where u lose track of time

conversations as in talking shit about the people you hate together

😭😭😭😭

i think he’d want to paint with u

he’d be so shy to ask you too

just simple things

that cute date idea where you swap paintings every 5 mins or something

when u showed him that tiktok, he jumped in excitement

he wanted to do it right away

he prepares everything

he has both ur paintings framed in his room

it’s his most prized posession

oh, and he always invites u to game nights with the boys

he is SO competitive at monopoly

he couldn’t give two shits about other games

u don’t know why he gets so worked up with monopoly

“SEUNGMIN DONT DO IT SEUNGMIN!!!!”

it’s actually rly funny

he would be the type to take revenge

“you’re gonna regret buying a house there”

would cheer if his friends go to jail in the game or if they go bankrupt

doesn’t even try to hide it

and if he’s playing as the banker, he’d slip in extra bills for you

#3 words of affirmation

tho usually said when he thinks u’re asleep

he’s thankful that u take care of him when he forgets to

esp when he’s so immersed in his art

he whispers words of love

like poets and authors in books

he is just so full of love i can’t say it enough

physical touch except instead of touch, he loves kissing you

LIPS AND NECK ESPECIALLY

those are his top 2

he uses tongue 😕 sorry to break it to u

and he also leaves hickeys

so don’t run out of concealer okay!!!!!!! bc he tends to leave like a lot

before i end

here r some more dates he loves

botanical gardens

he’d pick a flower and place it behind your ear

now it’s his lockscreen

sunday markets

he loves the domesticity of shopping together

he buys u lots of flowers

every single type

u think he’s given u all types already

there is never a day where ur apartment doesn’t have flowers in a vase

bc as soon as the first sign of death arrives, he’s off to buy u new ones

he strikes me as the type to also go all out for valentines

hyunjin would send u mounts of chocolates and flowers

take u out to the fanciest date

u get to try new food and cuisines bc of him!

might even buy plane tickets so u two could travel together

maaaaaaaan just treasure everything

a love like hyunjin’s is hard to come by

note. credits to user @.luvknow for the layout of this post! let me know what you think! please discuss these with me i’m crazy

[lullabyalikpoptarot]

Jeon Jungkook Perspective Reading

Disclaimer: No facts here, just a messenger of the cards and my interpretation of what I get.

Now, on to the next member of BTS for this reading. His energy can be a bit messy for me, so let's see if we go deeper into who he is. So, the song he gave me was Goriila by Bruno Mars, that is a pretty sexual song, so I was like, nah, give me something deeper and got Sexy Back by Justin Timberlake and Sexual Healing by Marvin Gaye and gave up. Dude likes sex, just saying it and the sexual appeal, but he may also enjoy the intimacy of it with a romantic partner. He may not just be into sex with anyone, maybe with his particular person, anyway, let's see if we get something more in the cards.

Ugh, I am not liking what I am getting here, crap. So, we start with Temple of My body, this is giving me sexualized energy. Now, we know how sexualized he is, but do we know how sexualized, if you catch my drift. I can't move past the first card, because I am creeped out by this energy. I hate that I am getting this energy. Ya'll I want to cry, anyway, I really don't want to beat around the bush with this one. I am so scared to say this, but I just keep hearing Justin Bieber in my head if you know his story, then you know. Now, he is a fan of him, but I don't think that is why his name keeps popping up. The Temple of my Body card has the number 2, which reminds me of the 2 of Wands and I am getting sexual favors from that. Now, with the next card triumph of lies, lies wins over, everything around him is a lie, or they sell a story about him, or they sell him lies. Now, with the Sacrifice card, I mean, hello, sacrifice, being a sacrifice. Or having to sacrifice himself. With Black Flower Fragrance, he is hardened, this may have led him to dark places or opened up a void and darkness in him. I am sorry, but this is pissing me off. I really hate what I am getting, and I hope to god, I am wrong here. This could explain his messy ass energy. His story reminds me of Justin Bieber legit, it is his story all over again. I hate that these readings goes how I expect it to go. I knew I was in trouble when that first card came out. Anyway, this could also be a reason for his sexual nature, victims tend to be hypersexual. Allegedly, no facts here. But I call it how I see; I am not sugarcoating anything. Okay, I need to pull out the Conscious healing deck, because he needs healing energy.

Okay, what I am getting is there is patterns, cycles, maybe coping strategies that he may need to release. I see the circle on this one card, and I see things spiraling or a continuous loop for him, a lack of conclusion for him. I mean, I totally get it, very hard to heal from things like that, and face it. If that is what he went through. But this is telling him he needs to move forward. There is a lack of confidence he does have, a sense he isn't good enough or worthy. He may just see himself as a pretty face, or sexy body, that is all people may want for him, so he may see himself as that. He may feel people may not care about what he thinks, and by people, I mean the higher powers. People in control. This makes me sad. It seems there is a bubble, a protective shield he has built, which makes sense, so he makes it hard for people to come close to him, which once again, makes sense. It is like he built a safety net for himself. He should work on clearing away anything in his life he doesn't need, be it people, things, habits or situations. I am looking at this card and what I feel he should do is go on some retreat, in nature, away from all the bullshit and business of his life, that is what he needs, now would he get that, probably not, he makes too much money for these clowns for them to let him do that, but I feel that can help him heal.

So, what I find interesting is that he got similar cards to Wonyoung with this deck, who may have experienced things similar to him, so that intrigues me. These cards are saying that he can rise above whatever has happened if he allows kindness in. If he can allow himself to connect with his spirituality and tap into his feminine energy. To allow his creativity and passion to drive him in a positive direction. There is an opportunity for him to find love and a happy ending if he allows someone in. There is growth and abundance for him. He should work on communicating from the heart and show love towards himself and others. There is abundance for him. It could be an abundance of love, happiness, or success, whatever that could mean for him.

I feel these cards here are telling him to connect with his spirituality. I feel connecting with a higher power would be significant/beneficial for him. He would need to do some introspection and reflection and also learn to allow his intuition to guide him more and learn to listen to it, but there is this guard he has, this hostile energy, vengeful, aggressive energy he holds on to. He feels he needs to be on defense. To protect himself. All understandable, but it does halt him from healing. There is still anger and frustration within him. He should work on healing his heart, being more emotionally open and to not be too in his head and too analytical. I feel this is regards to his relationships. There could be opportunities for love with him, but he tends to overanalyze things and things don't move forward.

There is this need for him to find himself, to love and accept himself. But there is a need for closure for him to be able to find that peace within him. When he is able to find that closure and to close that chapter. He will be able to find strength. To gain his power back. This is a time for him to transform himself. To become a better version of himself. To break out of the cocoon they created for him. There is a lot of stress and tension built within him. He may need to practice breath work to help him through this process. There is this need for him to control others, the narrative, this may be in relationships. As he may not have much control in other matters of his life, or even body. He may need the control in his relationships to balance that. But that creates problems in his relationships. I can see him being clingy as well, and that can be a problem as well.

Alright, let's finalize this with Tarot. Interest combo of cards, so these cards give me an indication of someone speaking out and wanting to make changes, so he may do that. He may speak out about the struggles of the industry. With the Queen of Swords, he tends to be good at detaching from his emotions, people can do that once traumatized, but some people are just this way. I am just getting from this card and the King of Wands, is sharing information, speaking up, not sure where this is coming from, or if he will, but his energy wants to share, to speak to the masses and share his story. Not sure, he would tell the full story though. I am just getting there could be something he says that may change things. He is the type that wants to confront things and create some sort of movement. But he is also bold and willing to face any challenges that come his way. Loving this ending energy. Now, he does have this energy, but these cards could indicate it is something he should do, but may not do, because there are insecurities that may hold him back.

Okay, why I love these reading is because it helps me understand the idol so much more, but the first part was difficult as it always tends to be. But he comes off as a bad ass in the end. It just gives me more of an understanding to why they behave the way they do in my shorter readings.

[skyburger]

forgot people really truly genuinely dont like the music on the radio in the early 2010s Wait. Ohmy god hang on i was looking up the top 100 so i could look at them across the years and the default is obviously the current top 100 and i need to stress out of the top ONE HUNDRED songs. about a THIRD are taylor swift songs (32/100). only two of these are below the top 50 (51 & 55, so. barely.) Thirty Fucking Taylor Swift Songs are in the billboard top 50. all of the top 10 are taylor fucking swift. doesnt even matter what i was gonna say because literally any other variety of stuff being in the top 100 is better than literally a third of it being taylor swift

^^^ do you understand why i put this in a reblog. diehard swifties are scary

holdon i have to put a ramble in the reblogs of this so peopledont find me in the tags (will make sense when i reblog)

[tell-me-a-tale-that-tells]

GREEN BRIGHT FUTURE

|×💚×|

Summary:

Request fulfilled for FlawlessMage!

I really hope you like this!

Notes:

"Hello!

I was wondering if you could write a Bruno x reader story?

Where his partner is a beautiful girl, younger than Bruno, everyone in the village loves her and everyone knows without any prediction that she will have a wonderful life. By the way, the girl is totally in love with the man and admires him every day. Unlike everyone else, she wouldn’t be afraid of Bruno’s strength, but would find it incredible to be able to do so. Sometimes Bruno would think it’s all just a joke, but everyone in his family is trying to make her realize that she’s in love with her.Please give that sweet, cinnamon roll-man a happy, fluff fiction! Thank you so much! I hope you have a pleasant day!"

|×💚×|

You strolled down the main street of the village, the warm sun kissed your lovely features.

Encanto was always bustling with life, people busy building new houses or doing restorations, younglings running around playing their favourite games, someone was singing and playing the guitar along with his friends providing cheerful background music.

As you walked towards the main plaza you waved and greeted every person that you encountered, you were well-loved by everyone, being a kind and nice girl it was easy to like you.

"Buenos Dias, señora Rojas!" You said to the little old woman knitting on the porch of her house.

"Y/N! Buenos Dias to you! The ruana you asked me to sew is almost finished, my dear" she informed you.

"Thank you so much segñora, Encanto would crumble to pieces without you!" You resume your walk as you heard the lady asking "But for who it's for?" And you refused to answer, a smile crept to your face without permission and a warming sensation spread to your chest.

Finally reached your destination, you checked your reflection in the wavy water of the fountain, flattened the folds of your dress and taking a deep breath you headed for the market, not because you had to buy something but you wanted to see someone you were sure was there.

Bruno Madrigal.

Some people still feared him but not you, it felt incredible at first because no one in the village would speak about him, worried about bringing bad luck even only calling his name.

However, you fell for him because you first saw the kindness and the cute awkwardness that made you love him so much.

His face lit up when he spotted you in the crowd.

"Y/N, you're here! I-I brought you the vision you asked, I'm sorry it's not clear as you probably hoped but...it's all I managed to do, I swear." he handed you a shining slab of thick green glass and started to pick at his clothes.

Engraved inside the transparent crystal you saw yourself smiling in front of the village church, waving your hand.

You smiled brightly at him feeling your cheeks warming up, thinking his powers were incredible.

"I'm sure that everyone already knew that your future will be full of happiness, it's what you deserve," he said before realising the words that came out his mouth.

You saw him blush furiously and before you could say anything or thank him, he pulled up the hood of his ruana and disappeared in the mob.

Bruno was cursing to himself on the way home, he hated how much he was inconsiderate in his usual rumblings.

When he was nervous he ran his mouth with so much speed that his brain didn't even catch up, he always felt so nervous around you and even if you two knew each other for a while the feeling was only intensifying.

You tried to follow Bruno through the flood of people but since you didn't succeed, you decided to return home.

You placed his glass vision on the little stand above your bedroom window sill, the sun shining through it tinted the ambient in a jade green light.

You wished that Bruno could see himself the way you saw him, even if your feelings were scary at first, you soon realized that you loved him more than anything, he was the reason you woke up early in the morning and why you always went out wearing your best dress, always walking in front of his Casita just hoping to see him.

Bruno was sitting on the stairs of his home when Mirabel passed by.

"Tìo Bruno, what's wrong?" She took place beside him, lowering the hood still covering his head.

"I'm just an awkward old man that lived with rats for 10 years, what do you expect?" He answered, avoiding watching his niece.

"No I mean, you're upset! Somebody was rough with you?" She bumped him with her shoulder.

"No, mi sobrina. There's a beautiful young woman that lived down the street...she's like grace incarnated. She's always kind to me but every time I see her, I just want to flee." He admitted.

Mirabel considered his words in silence.

"Maybe she likes you, tìo. Maybe you like her too!" She smiled at her bulletproof deduction.

Bruno laughter was full of sadness.

"She's just too educated to reject me like the rest of Encanto did for all my life, this is just some cruel game. Not from her! From...the universe, I don't know..." He explained in exaggerated vague gestures.

"Why don't you talk to her? Invite her over to dinner!" His niece proposed.

Bruno stood up abruptly like he was electrocuted, full of confidence.

"Sure! I go to her and I ask her to come here tomorrow and..." All his excitement vanished "...What if she says no?"

At that exact moment, Dolores and Camilo entered and having accidentally overheard the conversation, they offered their entirely casual help.

"Y/N, sure I know her! She likes eating Buñuelos and drinking sweet wine! " Dolores informed while her brother gave her a look.

"You don't know her, you just like to overhear what people say!" He admonished her, earning an elbow to his arm by Dolores.

"She always walks in front of Casita, Hermano. I know of who we're talking about and-" but she was interrupted by Mirabel.

"Tìo, I got the best idea!" And Bruno mumbled a weak "oh, no." to himself.

"Camilo, shapeshift into Y/N!" She chirped.

Before Bruno could stop his nephew he changed into you and even knowing that was Camilo the person in front of him, his eyes widen and his breath caught.

"It's easy, look at Y/N and ask her out," Dolores said.

"I won't ask out my nephew disguised as a young girl, now if you excuse me..." He said heartbrokenly before heading out of the house.

In the late afternoon, you were putting away the dried laundry still thinking about Bruno, your appetite was not enough for eating so you decided to go for a walk down to the river, just stopping by to señora Rojas to fetch your order.

As you emerged from the lush vegetation that lined the path that led to the river, your ear picked up what sounded like the sound of something falling repeatedly into the water.

Peering from behind a bush, you saw Bruno throwing stones, making them bounce on the surface of the river, your heart skipped a beat.

You were about to leave when you stepped on a branch that made an audible crackling sound, Bruno heard it and turned quickly, catching a glimpse of you.

"Please, don't leave Y/N!" he called as you stopped on your track.

You walked towards him with butterflies in your stomach, as he approached you one of his feet slipped on a wet stone.

You grabbed him from his ruana, out of instinct and pulled him to you, making your purse fall to the ground.

You stayed like that for a bit, watching each other in the eyes until a redness coloured yours and Bruno's cheeks alike and you let go of his clothing murmuring an excuse.

He crouched down to pick up your purse and you noticed a tear on the fabric on his shoulder.

"If that's not a fortune," you thought while he gave your purse back.

"Actually... I was looking for you" Bruno started "I was wondering if you wanted...no this is just a bad idea" he casted his eyes on his sandals.

Feeling courage you never felt before you reached for his face, lovingly cupping a cheek with your hand, he went rigid but leaned unconsciously.

"Whatever you want, it's a yes." You whispered.

Bruno stared at you, incredulous, he wanted to speak but the words kept knotting in his throat, he tried to swallow a few times without success.

You leaned in to give him a quick peck on the other cheek and he melted like butter.

"Bruno, I know it might be strange but...I love you. I admire your incredible strength, how much you care for your family, the kindness you have towards me and even the people that have wronged you in the past. You're incredible, Bruno Madrigal. There is no day when I don't think about you." You confessed with a trembling but sincere voice.

The man's eyes started watering "Is this real?" he whispered.

You nodded, he swept you up from the ground, hugging you tightly and spinning, laughing and crying for happiness.

Putting you back down he gently bumped his forehead with yours and brushed your noses together.

"Y/N, I realized that I love you too, for a long time now. I was scared that was just all my imagination b-because...you're younger than me and beautiful and you shine like a gem. I'm just a... I'm just an old man who sees the future and-" you stopped his cute studdering with a gentle kiss to his lips, carding your hands into his soft curly hair.

His breath itched but after a second of realization, he returned the kiss, placing his hands on your cheeks.

Everything stopped, you could not hear the sound of the river or the birds singing.

You took his hands then and headed back to the village, you learned that Bruno liked talking a lot about his passions and his family, swaying your joined hands while walking.

You gave him the ruana you brought from the old lady, it was black with bright green hourglasses embroidery and swirling patterns that remembered of sand in the wind.

He kissed you again with joy.

At the crossroads leading to your house, you stopped "Bruno, what were you going to ask me before?"

"If tomorrow you wanted to come over to mi casita for dinner with my familia." He replied.

"I'll be there" you answered back, giving him a peck on his left cheek before he leaves.

"Bruno!" You called and as he turned you saw his eyes widen.

"Goodnight!" You said waiving.

He stood there, in disbelief, because you were standing right in front of the church, waiving with your hand and with a great smile on your face.

|×💚×|

[concook20]

Wild Kratts New Backstory And Headcanons! (Crew)

I'm gonna redo backstory and their headcanons, I did do one before, but with new ideas and potential, I decided to redo my previous headcanons!

Up first is Crew, since I came up with the creature power suit design too, and I wanted you guys to check it out!

Full Name: Martin William Kratt

Age: 25

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Pansexual

Birthday: December 23rd

Zodiac Sign: Capricorn

Job Application: Animal Rescuer/Artist (Side Job)

Relationship:

Chris: Best Friend Ever!/Brother

Aviva: Best Friend

Koki: Best Friend Ever!/Previous Crush

JZ: Best Friend Ever!

Zach: Enemy

Khris: Moral Enemy

Donita: Enemy/Secret Past Relationship

Dabio: Neutral

Gourmand: Moral Enemy

Paisley: Neutral

Rex: Neutral/Don't Mind

Vert: Extrovert

Phobia: Coulrophobia (Fear Of Clowns)

Favoritism

Color: Blue and black

Singers: Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Metallica, Bruno Mars, Micheal Jackson, and KISS

YouTube: Game/Film Theory, Nick Crowley, and Markiplier

Animal: Falcon

Hobbies: Artistry (Sculpting, drawing, paint, etc.), playing guitar and drums, parkour, and surfing

Past Relationships

Martin used to date 3 people back then. One was when he was 13, and even at that age, he dated a 14 year old girl, who was mean, bossy, and threw stuff at Martin, whenever he didn't want to do anything, he broke up with her when he moved. He then dated a 16 year old boy, while being 17 as well, as they broke up after the two were falling apart. When he was 21, he dated a non-binary person, who was 19, only for it to end when Martin turned 24. He had a crush on Koki during high school, but she rejected him gently and told him she likes girls, which he understood and the two still remained friends.

Headcanons

Martin started an artistry side business, where he helps kids with improving their art, selling his own art to people who like it, and drawing people like the people who draw the people in funny designs and such.

In the group of friends, Martin's, not only help keep the group together and happy, but is also the dumb one

Martin has the mouth of the sailor, which can surprise anyone.

Martin has ✨ ADHD ✨

Martin can go feral whenever something happens to the crew or family, ESPECIALLY, to Chris. So watch out! The reason why he's overprotective is that there was an incident with Chris, which made him turned against his father and vows to keep Chris safe, no matter what.

Each Valentine's day, he always watches Pedro Pascal edits.

Martin is in therapy to control his anger issues and his anxiety.

Martin gives me Narrator, from the Boys vibes, prove me wrong!

Martin makes stupid dad jokes, no matter how much people hate it.

Martin used to have long hair, but he cut it short after his hair got pulled a couple of times.

Martin gets to have his Christmas early, since his birthday was a couple of days earlier, and it sometimes makes him annoyed.

Martin and JZ always rambled a lot to each other, to the point they, even, make jokes about making a podcast.

Martin always goes to the zoo and imitates some animal noises.

Martin does funny pranks, they're tamed and funny, but still, the crew could be annoyed by it.

When he wakes up, he has a Sam Elliott's voice, like deep and almost sounded western.

Martin is a love expert, and even if he's dumb sometimes, he's also an amazing lover and partner, since he'll never forget how long you dated or your favorite flowers.

Martin has a fear of clowns, the reason why is because when he was 3, he and his mom went to the circus. He enjoyed the show, but he needed to use the bathroom and left, without informing his mother, but as he went to find the bathroom, a clown saw and followed him. Martin noticed, and got scared as the clown tried to take him and pull him into a room. He panicked, screamed, cried, and tried to pull away, before his mother saw and yelled at the guy, as he ran off, turned out that guy didn't work at the circus, as he tried to kidnap boys for his own sick dreams.

Full Name: Christopher Fredrick James Kratt

Age: 22

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Bisexual

Birthday: July 19

Zodiac Sign: Cancer

Job Application: Animal Rescuer/Low-class Singer (Side Job)

Relationship:

Martin: Best Friend Ever!/Brother

Aviva: Best Friend Ever!

Koki: Best Friend

JZ: Best Friend Ever!

Zach: Secret Friend/Crush

Khris: Neutral/Don't Mind

Donita: Enemy

Dabio: Neutral

Gourmand: Enemy

Paisley: Neutral

Rex: Neutral

Vert: Ambivert, Mostly Extrovert

Phobia: Nyctophobia (Fear Of Darkness)

Favoritism:

Color: Green and black

Singers: NF, Melanie Martinez, Bruno Mars, Rihanna and Nico Collins

YouTube: Game/Film/Food Theory, Nick Crowley, Sam and Colby, and Coryxkenshin

Animal: Cheetah

Hobbies: Reading, trees and rock climbing, archery, and singing.

Past Relationships

Chris hasn't been in the dating game, though, he did date someone back then. The girl was a popular cheerleader at high school, when Chris was 16 and a nerd back then, but she embarrassed Chris during high school for being a nerd and embarrassingly clumsy or shy. Chris was humiliated, but he turned it to determination as he worked out, changed his outfits, and felt confident... While being insecure.

Headcanons

Before Chris wanted to do animal rescuing, he used like singing. He has an amazing voice, but he never sings in front of anyone, even Martin, but when he's alone, he sings to music he listens to.

In the friend group, Chris is the same thing as Martin, but he's smart enough to behave... Sometimes.

Chris loves his brother Martin, but the one thing he doesn't like is him being over protective, it makes him smothered, annoyed, and jealous how Martin can do anything, while Chris has to 'be careful', but Martin doesn't know, cause Chris doesn't wanna hurt his feelings, so he keeps it pent up.

Chris has ✨ Autism ✨

Even if Chris dated a beautiful girl, he has a huge crush for goths.

On his birthday, he collects rocks that are left on his window, making him confused, but keeps anyways cause they're pretty.

Chris knows 2 languages, German and Spanish.

Chris is a picky eater, he has certain tastes he hates like olives, pickles, burgers, mustard, etc. And mostly a health nut.

Chris is a romantic person but they hide it very well, after getting humiliated, and if he shows it, he's very clumsy, when doing so.

Chris is the #1 hater of Martin's jokes.

Chris is an insomniac, which he hates to be.

The brothers will eat a pepper, but Chris wouldn't feel it, even when his brother is dying.

Chris was kidnapped for ransom when he was 16, while his father forced him to go to the store to get some food for the family. His father wasn't even going to pay the kidnappers the ransom money, since he is very greedy and he thinks its punishment for being bisexual... He was found a couple of weeks later, traumatized and scared of the dark.

Backstory

Martin and Chris were both brothers in the Kratt Family, with their parents names being Linda and William Kratt and they have twin young sisters, named Christine and Susan, who were 18. Their parents got into a divorce, when Linda found out William cheated on her, and the siblings got to choose where to stay, where Susan and the brothers chose to stay with their mother in Canada.

Chris's relationship with his parents is half good and bad, good is his mother, who loves him, cares for him, and even supported him when he came out as bisexual, however, his father is distant, cruel to both brothers, tries to force sexism and his business job into them, and homophobic, where he outright hates Chris for being bisexual, making Chris heartbroken, as he was a daddy's boy.

Martin's relationship was like Chris's, only with him being a mama's boy and he despised his father, when he was 19 years old and Chris went missing. After he found out his dad literally sent Chris to he captured and wasn't going to pay his brothers freedom, he let out all of his anger and went feral, to the point he left his father bruised, bloody, and scared. He hated him ever since, and never even went into contact with him after he took Wild Kratt's idea and made it real.

The brothers love for the sisters is like the parents, where the two love Susan, who adores them, and sees Martin as a father figure, and supports Chris, even buying him a pride flag. However, they don't like Christine that much, since she's a total daddy's girl, where Martin felt bad for Christine for liking the man, and Chris is jealous of Christine for her getting the love while he can't.

Martin wanted to save animals when he was young, after watching an animal show, where there are bad people who take good and wonderful creatures and hurt them for their own selfish needs, so he vows to save any animals, be it pets, birds, rodents, even some insects. His father thinks it's dumb, while most people don't like Martin saving any animals, but his mother, sister, and Chris supports this idea, even with Chris joining in, and that actually helps Martin out to save many animals.

Martin got the idea to save animals around the world, but was hesitant to hire Chris, who begged and was excited to join, because he heard he'll have to face people who tries to hurt these sweet animals, and he's worried his brother would be hurt, but after thinking about it, and some reassurance and excitement from Chris, he, reluctantly, agreed, and thus! The Kratt Brothers created the Wild Kratts Show!

Full Name: Aviva Carmen Maria Corcovado

Age: 22

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Bisexual

Birthday: February 7th

Zodiac Sign: Aquarius

Job Application: Wild Kratts Inventor

Relationship:

Martin: Best Friend

Chris Best Friend Ever!

Koki: Best Friend Ever!/Crush

JZ: Best Friend

Zach: Moral Enemy

Khris: Neutral

Donita: Enemy

Dabio: Neutral

Gourmand: Enemy

Paisley: Neutral

Rex: Don't Mind

Vert: Ambivert

Phobia: Claustrophobia (Fear Of Closed Spaces)

Favoritism:

Colors: Purple, golden brown, and white

Singers: Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Shawn Mendes, Camilla Cabello, and Elvis Presley

YouTube: Steve Reviews, Valkyrie, and ASMR

Animal: Chinchilla

Hobbies: Yoga, jogging, gymnastics, and dancing

Past Relationships

Aviva was forced into in only one, which ended badly. Aviva dated a guy when she was 18 and heading to college, only to find out her boyfriend was a controlling, abusive cheater, who tries to keep Aviva where she lives, so he can control her, but once she left, he began to stalk and follow her, to the point she put a restraining order on him, but... He breaks it, though, she doesn't know... Yet.

Headcanons

In the group of friends, Aviva is definitely the mom friend, taking care of the group, including the brothers.

Aviva wears glasses, but she has ok visions without them, too, but mostly, she wears glasses.

Aviva is very flexible, since she used to do gymnastics when she was 7.

Aviva couldn't handle criticism, so be careful with what you say.

Aviva chews her nails when she is nervous.

Aviva cries while watching disney movies.

Without MatPats theories, Aviva knows the FNAF Lore.

Aviva hates being alone.

Like Chris, Aviva knows some languages too, like French, German, Russian, and Italian.

Aviva got a secret admirer from poems, which makes her gushy and giddy, or nervous and scared, due to her ex.

Aviva has a fear of closed spaces, because during her relationship with her abusive boyfriend, he got angry and shoved her into a crate, locked her in, and buried her alive. She was panicking, scared as this didn't happen to her before, until a few hours after her panicking, Aviva's sister came to visit and let her out, worried. That's when they broke up and she hates closed spaces.

Backstory

Aviva has a mother, named Imelda, sister, named Tia, step father, named Eduardo, and step brother, named Roman. She has a father, named Carlos, who was an inventor and shown Aviva his greatest invention, even making suits for people whenever he needs. But he died, when she was 3 and her sister was 2, from a car crash, she missed him deeply, to the point she wanted to follow his footsteps of being an inventor.

She loves her mom and sister dearly, while they love and care for her, even supporting her dreams of being an inventor. She doesn't like her step dad and brother, however, as they're sexist jerks, trying to make Aviva give up on her dream, even setting her up with her ex. She hates them, but used their rudeness and sexist remarks as fuel for her determination, as she began to go to college and get a job at the Wild Kratts.

Full Name: Brianna 'Koki' Lawrence Thompson

Age: 23

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Lesbian

Birthday: November 13th

Zodiac Sign: Scorpio

Job Application: Wild Kratts Technician

Relationship:

Martin: Best Friend Ever!

Chris: Best Friend

Aviva: Best Friend Ever!/Crush!

JZ: Best Friend

Zach: Enemy

Khris: Enemy

Donita: Moral Enemy

Dabio: Neutral

Gourmand: Enemy

Paisley: Neutral

Rex: Neutral

Vert: Ambivert, Mostly Introvert

Phobia: Hemophobia (Fear Of Blood)

Favoritism:

Color: Red, yellow, and pink

Singers: Rihanna, Taylor Swift, P!NK, and Nicki Minaj

YouTube: ASMR

Animal: Snowy owl

Hobbies: Meditation or relaxing, cosplaying, acting (musical and plays), and working out

Past Relationships

Koki used to date a couple of girls in college, it didn't end well, as the first girl was straight and pretended to date Koki for a place to stay, while cheating on Koki with a guy she was with before. The second relationship was a bet-like relationship, like the person bet they can date that person for a while. Well Koki began to close off on love in general, until she met Aviva and began to fall for her.

Martin did confess his feelings for Koki, but she rejected him for two reasons, her sexuality and her struggle with love. Martin can relate and offer to help her find love, so when he finds out she likes Aviva, he mostly helps her out by either getting them to hang out together or even leaving gifts for Aviva, as Koki gave him an ok to do so.

Headcanons

In the group of friends, Koki's the one gay emo best friend. She is closed off from everyone, but her group of friends, which is the crew.

Koki has a creature power suit like the trio, but she rarely uses the suit, unless it's absolutely necessary.

Koki enjoys wearing grunge or gothic like outfits, it makes her feel comfortable and relaxed.

Koki forgets to eat most of the time.

Koki suffers from depression, which she's getting better from with therapy.

Koki is an insomniac.

Koki instinctively cleans messes in their own house as well as other peoples.

Koki writes poems for people she likes, even Aviva, which Martin gives to Aviva in secret.

Koki eats spicy food like Chris, and sometimes, the two battle it out to see who can eat more spice... Never ends well.

When she was around 2 to 3, she got abused by her mom as she cut and hurt Koki, to the point she bleeds, making her panic more which gets her hurt more than before. She began to be nervous around blood, making her even scared of before, making her freeze up, when she sees blood.

Backstory

Like I said, she was abused by her alcoholic mother, named Brianna, who was in a divorce with her father, named Axel, who has another family with a mom, Michonne, with 2 sons and a daughter, 21 year old named Marion, 18 year old named Julian, and a 17 year old named Becca, she has a twin brother, but they got separated, due to him being sold away to another family, since her mother don't want to deal with two kids, sadly, Koki never got the chance to find him. Koki hated staying with her mom, even changing her name to Koki, since she was named after her mother, so she goes by the name her father wanted to name her instead of her mother, which was his mother's name, Koki.

After she moved out of her mom's when she was 4, she bonded with her new family. Michonne treats her like a daughter and Koki adores her like a mother, while her siblings bond with her like siblings. She was intrigued by her father's tech skills, and he taught her how to do it, since the others don't seem interested in it. After she went to college and went to join the Kratts, the family supported her, meanwhile she cut off her mother for good.

Full Name: Jimmy Zander 'JZ' Sanders

Age: 21

Gender: Transgender Male

Sexuality: Aroace

Birthday: April 23rd

Zodiac Sign: Taurus

Job Application: Pilot of the Wild Kratts

Relationship:

Martin: Best Friend Ever!

Chris: Best Friend Ever!

Aviva: Best Friend

Koki: Best Friend

Zach: Enemy

Khris: Enemy

Donita: Neutral

Dabio: Neutral

Gourmand: Moral Enemy

Paisley: Neutral

Rex: Neutral/Don't Mind

Vert: Introvert

Phobia: Astraphobia (Fear Of Thunder And Lightning)

Favoritism

Colors: Orange and teal

Singers: Billie Eilish, NF, Eminem, The Weeknd, and Melanie Martinez

YouTube: Game/Film/Food Theories, Jacksepticeye, Markiplier, H2O Delirious, Vanoss, Coryxkeshin, and Cartoonz

Animal: Raven

Hobbies: Playing video games, napping or chilling, cooking or baking, and watching YouTube.

Past Relationships

JZ didn't get into a relationship, in fact, he doesn't really think much of it, he doesn't really mind, since he has friends with the crew, who supports him, no matter what. He's just happy to be there, you know?

Headcanons

JZ was a big fan of anime, not those weird ones, like MHA, Death Note, Attack On Titans, Demon Slayer, and Spy x Family, though, no one knows, cause he doesn't wanna look weird.

In the group of friends, JZ is the quiet guy who keeps it to himself, unless someone wants to talk to him.

JZ is the baby of the group, since he's the youngest, which they care for and protect him. He doesn't mind it, but it makes him feel smothered and weak, so he sometimes thinks about sneaking off to fight bad guys like Martin and Chris.

JZ suffers from anxiety and PTSD.

JZ is in therapy most of the time, in order to control his fears.

JZ has a snack stashed hidden somewhere, where no one, not even his closest friends, even know where it is.

JZ enjoys Martin's dumb jokes, or anything dumb to laugh at.

JZ will remind others in the midst of chaos how good he's being.

JZ was banned from drinking energy drinks.

JZ plays games like Doki Doki, FNAF, and Detroit Become Humans.

JZ is a sleepwalker, and Chris and Koki know about it.

JZ has a creature power suit, but it is very, very, very, very, VERY rare to see him with one.

JZ has noise canceling headphones when he's stressed or scared when a storm comes. He uses them at night to sleep, and if he doesn't have them, he has bad dreams about his parents death and the car accident he was in as a 2 year old.

Backstory

Out of the group, JZ has the calmest backstory here, though it did start with tragedy. He had two loving parents back then, until they died in a car accident on a stormy night, as a thunder struck onto a tree and it fell, crushing the car the family was in. People got JZ out, but his parents died, when the car, immediately, exploded with the two. JZ was horrified by storms since then, as he lost his parents from it.

JZ has to move in with his grandparents, who adore and care for him. His grandmother, Wanda, began to teach him how to cook, knit, and crochet, it helps him feel relaxed and happy to spend time with her. His grandpa, Connor, told him the story of how he used to fly a plane, where JZ was inspired and began to try to save the money to go to flying school.

His grandparents did die tragically, but JZ has nowhere else to go, so he had to stay at the shelter, until he met up with Chris again, who offered him a place to stay, which was the Tortuga, and the group is finally made!

Finally! Made The Crew's New Bio! Hope You Guys Like It! Villains Are Up Next!

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

WIBTA for ghosting someone in RP?

This is a very chronically online problem, I'm aware, but I could use Tumblr's input. This is kinda long, so tl;Dr at the end.

So I (ftm), Z (nb), and O (f) (ages unimportant, but we're all adults) have a server for a shared fandom of ours. There are other people on the server too, but they're relatively unimportant to the problem.

One of the major channels to note was an rp channel. Things started off peachy keen! Everyone was having a grand old time! However, little problems started to pop up. O began introducing some ocs to the rp group chat, which, while outlandish for the setting (her ocs were ghosts from 1500's Minecraft Germany or whatever? I'm still not entirely clear since she's bad at continuity). And while I'm not against more out there ocs, the issue was how she used them, constantly trying to solve problems instantly. They felt more like MacGuffin's than characters. But whatever, she's our friend so we didn't really care.

Then, the racism incident happened.

It's a cool name, but sorta makes it sound more important than it was. Basically O had "monster form" at the end of each of her characters names, since apparently they had human forms too. Well, in an argument, a character referred to the group of ocs as monsters (since, how else would you refer to all of em at once?), and in one of her ocs replies they said smth like "oh btw thanks for the racist remark".

IMMEDIATELY in the ooc chat, Z and I both go "hey man, we're not playing the racism game", which... caused O to leave the server temporarily. Fun.

The relevance of the racism incident is to show why we can't just talk to her ooc about the upcoming issues.

((Very offhandedly she also keeps trying to pressure Z specifically into rping? Even though Z has made it clear many times this month that they are busy with the holidays??))

Anyways, time passes and O keeps wanting to tack on useless shit to her characters (both canon and ocs) for literally no reason. From "Bruno esk powers" to "shapeshifting genitals", it just felt like feature creep.

Eventually this comes to a head when she asks if her 32 year old character could be a WWII veteran.

You know. In the text chat based rp where characters use hashtags and emotes and talk about Twitter.

After a small back and forth between Z and O in the ooc chat, Z just kinda, gave up. Part of the reason they made the server was to transfer their previous rp writings to a server they own, so they don't have to worry about it getting deleted. (Before anyone assumes Z is just being strict, trust me. Z had been very accommodating with letting me and O make inputs and have our characters make an impact. This wasn't an issue of O's lack of control, but rather lack of care about the setting.)

Z admitted in a group chat with just me and their partner that they basically are just going to give up on their previous rp, and just let O do whatever she wants.

This really, and I mean REALLY, ticked me off.

Now, I will not start a ruckus about it on the server itself since I know Z hates confrontation, but now I've just settled on to give O the cold shoulder in rp, not replying to her ocs, barely interacting with her canon characters, etc.

I feel like in character I have a valid reason to ignore her (her ocs made one of my ocs upset, and my other characters are upset for him), but I can't tell if this would be too mean?

ALSO quick little note I forgot to mention above, but it's basically just the three of us in the rp chat, so with Z busy for the holidays, I'm the only other person who O would be able to rp with, if that impacts the vote.

TL;DR - Someone in a rp server is being a right ass and we cannot talk to her about it without potentially starting a huge fight, now I want to ignore her in rp. WIBTA

What are these acronyms?

[brucewaynehater101]

*sasukepose.jpg* I'm starting to realize that Trash!Tim is more like if OG!Cale regressed rather than Kim Rok Soo transmigrating, and rather than Trash!OGCale turning into a decent human, it's the other way around for Tim of turning from decent into trash and---

*lies on floor* I've been going about this all wrong!

Because in my mind, I was thinking Tim in the same way as Kim Rok Soo, because I hc Tim to have hyperthymesia and they both lost so many people but the only reason they're able to survive is because they learned to rely on other people!

And for regressed Tim to throw all that away in his new life, to make sure that the family he loves gets a happy life while he suffers? While he sees a family portrait with him missing from it? While he sits at the table and has Bruno from Encanto's levels of wanting to eat with his family but can only eat with them from afar? I just---

My heart is breaking. Unlike Kim Rok Soo who transmigrated and slowly built a family for himself, it's OG!Cale in the original timeline destroying his relationships with his family to keep them happy and safe. I am in tears.

I was thinking of Dick being Tim's Lee Soo Hyuk, telling Tim that living is best! I was thinking of Jason being his Choi Jung Soo, and Bruce being his Choi Han. Bruce who just lost his son having this sort of darkness in him, and Tim taking a page out of Jason's book and just feeding Bruce till he feels better rather than doing his whole Batman needs a Robin thing from the OG!timeline.

But now, NOW. THINGS ARE ANGSTIER. If in the OG!Timeline Jason and Damian were manipulated to get rid of Tim by Talia, Tim now goes on ahead and puts that target on his back himself. He's doing so well at being trash, he wonders if this is all he's good for in the long run of his life. How long can he keep this up, how long can he keep the gazes of disdain on himself by the people he loves? They don't even know him in this timeline, and that hurts even further.

My thoughts gets to a point where Tim got too deep in being trash that he ends up on a rooftop, looking at the sky and basking in the Gotham sunset. He's beside Jason's favorite gargoyle and he's just standing there.

Jason has plenty of reason to hate Tim, but Red Bat (stupid name, I know, but just to get to the scenario) has no reason to turn someone who may be a rich spoiled brat away.

So, he calls out to Tim. Asks him what's wrong.

Tim doesn't reply. But when he turns his head, Jason could only see how anguished this boy looks. How could a spoiled brat who knows nothing but being trash look so tortured and defeated when nothing even happened to him to look that way?

Or something is. Something might be happening behind the scenes.

That anguished look is instantly replaced with that cocky smirk, but his red eyes full of tears were still on display.

Tim says something, Jason doesn't listen.

It was probably to get a rise out of him, but so much is happening in Jason's head.

"Wanna get some chili dogs?" he asks on impulse.

It shuts Tim up, makes Tim have a complicated look on his face, before settling for what Jason could tell is forced disgust. Because the kids' eyes were widened, his shoulders relaxed. He's hopeful and excited.

Jason grabs Tim and jumps off the roof, grappling to his favorite chili dog stand. The kid didn't even force a scream or demands for a lawyer.

But he did hug Jason tight.

Huh.

Shizz... This kind of makes me want to actually write a bit of an angst fic about the Tim "Trash" AU. You are correct that the entire thing would be angsty, but I imagine Tim's narration of it would be full of jokes. He's be laughing, rolling his eyes, making slightly fucked up jokes about his situation, but he wouldn't go into it. Maybe he'd even convince himself that it's fun to pretend so much. He's a bit of a troll like that and makes internal debates with himself on how fast he can get someone to explode in rage.

But, yeah. I wrote a fic about Tim going back in time and purposefully cutting himself off from the family (and not rejoining them despite helping them). This, though? Him making himself into a public figure he knows his family would despise? Yikes.

It hurts but in a very delicious way.

How much time does he spend hesitating before doing an action that would lower the Waynes opinion of him? How often does he try to ignore his family so he can do what he must (being "trash")?

Hopefully, Tim isn't alone in that AU. I like to imagine he has another persona (maybe his vigilante one, maybe an online one) so that he has at least someone who doesn't hate him

[eri-pl]

Silm reread 0: the letter to Milton Waldman

(which includes some Tolkien's thoughts +a recap of the whole Silm)

After the FA, a quick break (yet another) for the foreword of the book (at least in my edition this letter is there as the foreword)

So we get into authorial intent. Which is (for me) somewhat less important than what's in the book proper and how I read it. Don't treat all that is said here as "I claim it to be canon", it's just what Tolkien wrote in one letter in 1951. Please remember that as we go along.

A lot of talk about myths and fairy tales and that we don't talk about Bruno religion in them, not directly. For reasons that I still can't fully grasp, but also instinctively it seems to make sense, but also I am insecure with talking about relogion, so…

Anyway, Tolkien does not like machines. Yes, I know, but still, I don't really get him. I don't see what's wrong with tools, even automated tools. Also: oh how the Professor would hate generative AIs.

Fefe gets a lot of criticism: He was greedy, his sons were greedy, this is why the Elves had fallen. also, terrible, bad Oath.

Also, Oath explained: it is against anyone who claims a Silmarill or rights to it. So, no, touching it is etc fine as long as you intend to give it to Feanorians ASAP. Nice to know. Also, the oath is about hatered and revenge against abovementioned people, no mention of reclaiming the Silmarils in the explanation of it.

Yes, the idea of Dadgor Dagoradh is Ragnarok-inspired, of course it is but it's nice to see it in writing.

"Beren wins, Lúthien helps." OK I get it why you need this optics, sir (because Beren is less powerful), and I think I can see at least two reasons why you can't genderswap them, but still, I am a little unhappy with this.

Elwing owns the Silmaril, not Earendil (as we were wondering). Also, Elwing jumps into the sea to save the Silmaril, but I'm not sure whether to read it as "because she wants to save the jewel" or "because the story / "Fate" / Ulmo needs the gem saved so she gets a weird impulse and she follows it". And yes, they reach Valinor thanks to the power of the Silmaril.

M&M steal the Silmarils "enslaved" by the Oath. Huh. May be the translation. And they die. If Tolkien kept this version, a whole fanfic genre would not arise. ;D Seriously, "Maglor gets some kind of resolution" is a big genre, maybe the biggest genre of gen Silm fics.

Speaking of "facts we don't like"; the returning Elves live on Tol Eressea. Only.

Sauron in SA starts with beautiful motivation and slowly falls.

The Ruling Ring could be mastered by someone powerful and heroic, but of course it would still not be a good idea. But Sauron wuld be defeated (and replaced by a new Dark Lord).

The Numenoreans learned Quenya during the War of Wrath, from their allies. So, they speak Vanyarin Quenya, ith the "ty" read as "ch" XD Because, let me remind you prom previous reread part, the Noldor did not participate in the war. (But don't worry, iirc this means that they do have the Lisp)

Tolkien never mentions Morgoth's name (neither of them), which is … I get him, but it does stand out. Also, this is the man who didn't want to use a cup with the Ring Verse on it, because it was too evil, he used it only as an ashtray. Sauron is, however, mentioned by name a lot.

Also, I do have some other quirks, so probably shouldn't laugh at the Professor. Like: I would need a good reason to read the Oath of Feanor [prose version] out loud. Everyone has things they attach weight to, I guess.

Ar-Pharazon was a real danger to Valinor, (because the Ainur would not fight him, I think? but why? they fought against Men during the War of Wrath? Or did the Maiar fight only against uMaiar and mosters?) he could wreck it. Huh.

But also, the Valar did get power and permission to deal with it, So they made the world round themselves, thanks to the extra permissions? Or did they only put the Numenoreans under the mountains? Unclear.

Aman moves to the Unseen World, I don't like this version, I don't think it works, I think that in some places with the Valar, with Valinor, tolkien wants to have things both ways (just like the Elves making the Rings of Power did). He wants to make it both vaguely religious and mythological and it's jarring at moments… IDK, maybe it's just me.

Wait, it's spelled Gil-galad? With a small g in the second word? TIL.

[beesmygod]

JJBA PART 5, VENTO AUREO IS THE UNDERBAKED MESS I CAN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT FIXING...PART 2

FIX 2: WHAT DO YOU DO WITH A PROBLEM LIKE GIORNO?

thats the homo photo of my dad

answer: i dont know.

the unfortunate and honest to god truth of the matter is that the protagonist of JJBA part 5, giorno giovanna, fucking sucks.

what if that little shithead from the twilight zone episode "it's a good life" was gay and watched "goodfellas". you might think "wow that sounds great" but, well, somehow it's not.

it is months later and i have been struggling with writing this for a bazillion reasons: i got sick, real life events occurred, i had to work on comic, i died, etc. but the most strenuous reason of all in the end was facing the impenetrable, tangled, and deeply complicated gordian knot that is the little ladybug loving bitch named giorno and not knowing where the fuck to even begin.

i had to think long and hard about how to approach the problem of "giorno giovanna". he is like a diamond of sucking ass: multi-faceted and beautiful in his perfection but is, ultimately, just a stupid fucking rock from the dirt. he completely lacks the innate charisma and personality inherent in previous jojo protagonists AND antagonists; despite having both the joestar AND brando gene pools to pull from, he manages to snag a net total of 0 personality traits. this problem is multiplied 100 fold once he starts actually doing things to move the plot along and the universe repeatedly bends itself like a pretzel in order to gift him undeserved and unrewarding (to us, the audience) win after win after win.

his theme goes hard as hell tho

if you were to ask me what is wrong with giorno, i would have no problem making a long and detailed list of why i want to slap the little cinnamon rolls of his head. i have no idea how to organize that list into a more coherent form of criticism that points at the overarching structural weakness of part 5. part 5 really, really wants you to like and root for giorno. it hinges on it. his victories are explicitly supposed to be emotionally and morally gratifying. they are instead trite and annoying.

for years, YEARS, my only experience with the entirety of part 5 outside of infamous panels and the most basic information about the story, was this incredible, evergreen and laser targeted tweet:

i thought this was a funny shit post. all i knew giorno had some kind of "life creation" power. what i didnt know was:

giorno says this exact line and then turns cars into frogs so that they (the bad guys) cant catch them (they do catch them)

giorno's power IS fucking stupid

i fucking hate him

he should stop using it

abbacchio was right. he was right about everything

how DO you talk about giorno? giorno's blandness permeates any situation he has the misfortune of attending and the parts of the narrative where he's missing for one reason or another are significantly improved by his absence. in comparison with the deuteragonists (bruno bucciarati) and tritagonists (the members of bruno's squad in the mafia family passione), he has all the flavor of a communion wafer. his character arc is non-existent. emotionally, he might as well have just gone to the store and back by the end of the story.

and, look, araki likes to play fast and loose with how powerful a stand is or what its abilities are. im not here to measure power levels or fucking whatever stupid shit people get up to. the more wild and insane he gets with his incredibly "unique" ""understanding"" of science and geometry, i'm 99% on board for. but giorno's stand, gold experience, is whatever the narrative needs it to be at any given time with no consistency. it's OP as hell long before he gets the 11th hour power boost; his stand has the extra trans-dimensional ability to remove any tension from a fight scene. through this, gold requiem can destroy the psyche of the audience, truly making it the most powerful stand of all time.

people used to love to bitch about not understanding how the villain's stand works in this part, but if anyone tells you they understand what the fuck THIS means they're lying to you.

anyway, there is only one solution i can think of when it comes to how to approach this: assess the major story beats in order. i think jumping around in the progression of events to highlight individual flaws in the character will not adequately impart the suffering one feels as an audience member while the narrative yo-yos between being rollicking good fun and being at the mercy of the little 15 year old twink with god mode on.

and so, having made it past koichi's tiny ass role (and his tiny ass) in the story and addressing how we can proceed, we can cover bruno (a genuinely wonderful character), polpo, and the wasted character building opportunity of the piss drinking scene, which vexes and infuriates me to this day. [thinking about the piss scene and getting mad again] ooooh!!!!

[dumb-teambucciarati-headcanons]

Got any headcanons about team Bucciarati and their relationships/thoughts on the members of La Squadra? :eyes:

Yes!!! I love this ask! This is gonna take place in my everyone lives au, that most of my headcanons take place in. SPOILER WARNING btw

this one is kind of long.

-firstly, Trish hates them all and for good reason.

-secondly, Bruno has an issue with their morals when it comes to selling drugs. Because drugs are like, his least favorite thing. They call him no drugs Bruno.

-Thirdly, they all adore Sorbet and Gelato!

FORMAGGIO:

- Giorno gets along with formaggio alright, he thinks he is a piece of shit though. But he finds his shrinking stand to be very interesting and they have combined their powers together before to make a tiny jungle.

-Narancia and Mista are best buddies with Formaggio, and they cause chaos all the time. Narancia and Formaggio have a little rivalry going on though because of their fight, but they’re pals because they are all dumbasses.

-Fugo hates him because when Fugo gets upset about something, Formaggio will activate his stand to make him small so his yelling is higher pitched.

-Abbacchio doesn’t like when Formaggio is around because he makes the loud ones even louder. He has a special pair of noose cancelling headphones for when he visits.

-Bruno doesn’t really talk to or like Formaggio.

ILLUSO:

-Giorno respects him for the fight they had and the determination he showed. Hates his guts though.

-Illuso can’t forgive Giorno, Fugo, or Abbacchio for causing him to go through so much pain. He doesn’t know if he blames Giorno or Fugo more for getting infected so bad with Purple haze. Those three don’t really like Illuso that much, Giorno is the only one that at least respects him out of the trio.

-Bruno thinks his stand is neat because he likes other dimension stands.

-Trish thinks his hair is ugly.

PESCI and PROSCIUTTO:

-Prosciutto likes Narancia because he reminds him a little bit of a braver Pesci. Pesci doesn’t like Narancia because he is jealous of him/thinks his big bro likes him more (which isn’t true). Narancia won’t forget how prosciutto made him look like a rotten grape.

-Mista likes Prosciutto because he shot him three times in the head, if it had been four times his ghost would hate him. He thinks Pesci looks like a pineapple.

-Abbacchio thinks Prosciutto is wonderful because he was the cause of “the best nap of his life” when he was in the turtle on the train. Like sure it almost cost him his life, but to be able to sleep like that again.

-Bruno doesn’t think Pesci is anything like Narancia, but can see where prosciutto is coming from. Bruno didn’t like Pesci at first, and is often irritated with him. But he does have a soft spot for him now.

MELONE:

-I think they all hate Melone to be honest.

GHIACCO: (or however you spell his name)

-Fugo and him talk about their anger issues and pet peeves, and Fugo gives him advice about how to control your anger better. They surprisingly get along alright, but if they are both upset at each other it is bad.

-Mista likes to irritate him. Narancia irritates him, but not on purpose.

-He and Giorno and Fugo went ice skating one time, he made the ice rink. It was summer. People were confused.

RISOTTO:

-Abbacchio doesn’t like him, there can be only one best dressed goth in town.

-Bruno respects him and likes how he cares about his team. Risotto likes Bruno, but what is up with that haircut? When his team complains to him about something he will say “well at least you aren’t working for a guy with an ugly haircut like bucciarati” and someone from his team responds with “yeah, but we get the ugly hat …”.

-Risotto likes Narancia because of how he “let him” use his stand that one time. Narancia thinks Risotto has a better outfit than Abbacchio, but he won’t say it.

[hello-nichya-here]

There is such a strange obession with always having to humble Michael Jackson.

He fits like the extrem case of a Tall Poppy Sydrome.

1# His brothers (Jermaine) how they say he wouldn't be Michael Jackson without the Jackson 5. Kind of dismissing his talent and wanting them to be a part of his success.

2# People who claim Joe beat talent into Michael. And is success is thanks to his abuse. If that was the case. What went wrong with the others then?

3# The constant comparsions with todays artists. Who not only benefit from the streaming era but are also way below him talent wise or impact wise. Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, Bruno Mars, Drake, Chris Brown... Them naming new King of Pops like Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber, Ed Sheeran, Harry Styles. The comparsions can be looked as a compliment that he is looked as the standard or as an insult because they try to dismiss him and put him om the same level as these artists not respecting he is a league on his own..

#4 These stupid lists billboard or rollingstone put out ranking him ridiculously low. Like tf you mean Michael number #86 on the best singers list. Or the 20 best Halloween songs doesn't involve Thriller eventhough it's the most recognizable one.

#5 Claiming Eagles Greatest Hits was the best selling album of all time back in 2018. Eventhough it was only in the US. ( allegedly) But of course these trash tabloids had to make it look like it was the world.

#6 The stupid allegations. If they put any effort into reading would know are bs. When their smear campaign failed they just made it look like "separating art from the artist" bs.

#7 Them reporting other artist broke his record. Eventhough it isn't comparable. You can't compare Drakes shitty number ones who are mostly features in it or he features in them to Michaels number ones where he is mostly on his own and also wrote most of it. The songwriting is also something they can't believe and try to dismiss aswell. Also Drake has the benefit of the streaming era. Michael didn't. Aint nobody buying a bus tickets to drive 15 minutes downtown and purchase an album of Drake.

Their pathetic attemps really knows to bound. They would literally choke if they just admit he is the greatest.

The one about his father's abuse being the thing that "made him what he was", as well as the unfair slander against MJ for accusations that were so ridiculously they were laughed out of court are, by far, the ones that piss me off the most.

Joseph abusing his son was not the reason why Michael was the greatests, it was one of the many reasons why we lost him so soon. I'm always EXTREMELY suspicious when people try to push that kind of narrative of "abuse is not that bad and has positive consequences if you're not a crybaby", especially when it's someone in a position of power, because it just screams "I want to get away with exploiting people AND I want to be praised for it."

The lies of "Michael was a pedophile" are just the kind of stuff that breaks my heart and makes me furious. And I gotta laugh when the same people that tried to destroy MJ because of stuff they KNEW was bullshit now pretend it never happened or, like you said, use the "separate art from the artist" argument. It just proves that Michael had earned so much respect from both the public and the few decent people in the industry, AND was so fucking talented, that those idiots were eventually forced to realize that they would have made much more money celebrating him than they ever made by tearing him down

And we all know THAT is why they did it, the good old business model of "Give the public a great icon, then tear said icon to pieces in front of them." The people that are still on the hate/devalue MJ train are split between people that are too proud to admit they fucked up, and the people that built their entire lives around telling the public which popular thing is actually not that good (be it in a "I'm too good for stuff that the masses like" way or in a cancel culture type of way).

Plus, we all know Michael was not afraid to openly trash the media and even his own record label when they pissed him off enough, and you just know some rich assholes that are not used to people talking shit about them and getting away with it and still hold a grudge for it.

As for the comparisons with modern idols - it's not just things like streaming that make said comparisons not just unfair, but downright nonsensical.

The very fact that people will go "Oh, this person is the new Michael Jackson/King Of Pop" is already a contradiction. The reason Michael has the status he has is because there WASN'T a "king of pop" before him. He had people who influenced him and there were artists that were HUGE, sure, but there was no one that fit the role of "The MJ before MJ" so to speak. The closest "match" I can think of is Beatle Mania, and even then, that was a group. Even when people talk about the "most important/famous" Beatles, it's always Lennon AND McCartney.

Michael Jackson's fame as a solo artist was on the level of "People legitimately did not fucking know someone could be this famous" and to this day nobody has done it again - which is a big deal since, like you pointed out, it is a lot easier to have acess to an artist's work now.

And yet everytime one of today's artists is called "The new king/queen of pop" in some internet article it just never catches on... yet the title of said articles DON'T have to add a "(Michal Jackson)" after saying the words "King of Pop" because if you know these three little words, you know the ONE person they refer to.

Another important factor here is that all of these "new coronations" so to speak happen literally every year - to more than one artist. We are TOLD "this random music critic saying this about this artist is a big deal" but it doesn't match what we're SHOWN because, again, to reach Michael's level of fame, one would need to be literally "The only artist that matters, everyone elsa can just fight for the title of second best." If everyone is "the new MJ" then no one is, not really. At most they're just "Super popular artist" and there's nothing wrong with that.

Things like the internet and streaming have also made the term "fifteen minutes of fame" much more literal than it ever was. So sure, you easily find people that went viral - but how many of them had any real, lasting sucess? How many times did an artist do something cool that pushed to everyone all over the globe, and then just a month later they were a has-been?

And even the well-stablish artists of today, even though who started really young, don't have the same kind of long career Michael had because most artist don't start singing at the age of five, spend their entire childhood and adolescence gaining more and more fans, and then spend their adulthood as the biggest thing ever because they put out the first AND second best selling albums of all time. Michael had already been performing, and been absurdly famous, for nearly two decades when he finally released Thriller - which just got a 40th anniversary edition because even after four decades since it's debut, and 14 years since Michael letf us, he is STILL such a powerhouse that the world just had to celebrate his music once again.

Comparing that to artists that have only had one or two decades in the industry is ridiculous because of course they're gonna lose, just like their modern songs are obviously going to be front and center instead of the ones made decades ago, from an artist that is deceased and whose sales did not benefit from streaming, or even CDs, for a long time. And once again, the fact that Michael STILL has a presence on Spotify, Youtube, TikTok and literally very platform ever speaks volumes of just how solid his legacy is. Meanwhile all these singers he's being compared to are still making stuff that will one day become their legacy. It's comparing apples to oranges.

And since I mentioned the (ungodly evil thing) that is TikTok, that brings me to yet another major difference between MJ fame and modern fame: how artificial it all has become. Don't get me wrong, musical trends and popular "formulas" to make a hit have always existed, but things today are often SO calculated to have "viral qualities" (a part the is guaranteed to become popular on TikTok, never going over a specific length, everything needing either a sped up version or a slow reverb version, etc) that they might as well have been made by algorythm.

Meanwhile, Michael became the biggest singer ever because the priority when making anything was to make sure it was GOOD, no matter the style, length or topic of the song. Michael often said his approach when making records was to have no songs you can skip - compare that to artists and labels trying to make 20 seconds of a song catchy to blow up on TikTok, rest of the thing be damned, and you have yet another reason why MJ's legacy is solid, while plenty of promising new artists disappear overnight.

And, finally, we that brings us to the final difference between Michael and plenty of artists today: how he COMPLETELY altered the industry, in every way.

Michael Jackson is the reason why Superbowl performances are a thing, why music videos have all kinds of cool aesthetics and even enough plot to be considered short films instead just being an artist dancing to their own tunes on camera. He was the first black artist to ever have his music videos air on MTV. Fans passing out during his concerts was a regular thing. Plenty of artists all over the globe have him as a reference to how they should sing, dance, dress, or even just stand on stage because Michael had such presence he could stand on stage without moving for an entire minute then slowly, dramatically remove his sunglasses, and people would still be screaming their heads off.

Once again, let's look at Beatle Mania: it was a level of fame nobody had seen before, for artists that were breaking all the rules. But nowadays a group of young men playing love songs and having seemingly every teenage girl in the country following them around is nothing out of the ordinary, and while their songs are still fantastic, plenty of bands over the decades have done awesome things with rock music that are just as revolutionary, if not more.

Meanwhile, Michael is still THE reference, and his music is still the definition of "quality." If you hear his biggest hits, you can totally tell which bits modern singers were inspired by - yet if you didn't know who he was, you could wrongfully assume some of these songs are modern because they were SO ahead of their time they still sound groundbreaking today.

Seriously, there's a reason NONE of these artists that was ever compared to Michael tried to actually claim his title: saying you're as good as him is one hell of a bold claim that gives people a ton of impossibly hugh standards that you better meet, without flaw and making it look effortless, otherwise you look like the most arrogant person who has ever lived - and nobody wants to deal with that kind of pressure.

[thisaintascenereviews]

Various Artists – Barbie: The Album

Mentioning the phrase “pop music” seems to illicit a lot of reactions, usually within the realms of “I love it” and “I hate it.” Most people either seem to love pop music, or at the very least, certain artists within it, or they loathe it. I wanted to preface this review with my own rather complicated history with pop, because pop music is a genre that I have a rather strange “relationship” with. I got into music during the early to mid-00s, when pop music was in an interesting place, thanks to house / dubstep music being huge, and a lot of well-established artists now were just getting started, such as Lady Gaga, Kesha, The Jonas Brothers, Justin Timberlake, Bruno Mars, and many more, but pop music was starting to become boring and bland. I was also much more into emo, pop-punk, and metalcore, although I would come to realize years later, a lot of the pop-punk that I listened to was merely pop-rock with an emo lens through it. Thirteen-year-old me thought I was the bee’s knees for listening to that edgier and darker kind of music (I did like some “classic rock” at the time, too), and I thought that was “real music,” as every preteen and teenager tends to think during adolescence. I just didn’t find anything to like when it came to “mainstream” music, but that all changed in the winter of 2012.

I remember it like yesterday, because it was one of those things you won’t forget. I was in FYE, and I had just discovered the magic of that store, but I was looking around for whatever I could find. I was always looking for anything at all, and I could spend hours in music stores, but I ended up finding a copy of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Say what you will about Jackson as a person, as well as his legacy, but Thriller is one of the best albums ever made. Without going detail into it, it’s a record that I knew about without even knowing anything about pop music. It’s one of those albums that I knew I needed to hear, so I picked it up for a good price (they always had stuff on sale, too, and that really helped my decision picking it up), and I ended up falling head over heels for it. What was interesting, however, is that, despite being released in the 1980s, it changed my perception of what pop music is, let alone what it can be. Ever since then, I became a fan of pop music, and for years after, I enjoyed plenty of pop records, such as albums from Justin Timberlake, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Harry Styles’ solo material, just to name a few artists, but listening to that record opened up a whole new world for me.

Pop music, at its core, is escapism. Whether it’s from their own lives, or wanting to live through their favorite pop singers, they want to escape. The same can be said for all kinds of music, but pop music has always been “popular” for a reason. When people think of pop music, they think of catchy, accessible, and “safe” music that doesn’t push boundaries or offend anyone. When I listened to Thriller, that misconception was completely shattered. That was when I took pop music seriously, and every now and again, you can find a great pop record, but a lot of pop music is still relatively safe, tame, and bland. Not that it’s bad, but it doesn’t push any boundaries, although that’s not the point, since it’s to sell records and make money.

I’ve found myself not as interested in pop music over the years, thanks to own tastes shifting, and pop music as a whole changing. It just hasn’t appealed to me, minus a few artists, but every once in awhile, I’ll find something I like and that “something” right now is the Barbie movie soundtrack. This film, released just a few weeks ago, is the latest topic in the pop culture zeitgeist, alongside Oppenheimer, and alongside the film, a soundtrack was released that caught my curiosity by featuring some of the most popular names in pop, such as Lizzo, Khalid, the Kid Laroi, Dua Lipa, Karol G, and Billie Eilish, although one of the big songs from this record is the remix / interpolation of “Barbie Girl” by Aqua that features Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice. That’s a very stacked list of artists, let alone the whole record being produced by Mark Ronson of “Uptown Funk” fame.

Despite not listening to a lot of pop music anymore, I was curious to see how this soundtrack would pan out, especially not having seen the film yet. You can talk about this album in two ways, the first being how it holds up on its own as a soundtrack, and the second as a soundtrack after seeing the film, but because I haven’t seen the movie yet, I thought I’d first talk about it on its own, and then talk about it again once I see the movie, or write a small companion piece to along with this. Soundtracks typically are companion pieces to the movie or show they accompany, and there is often an expectation that they need to be as good, if not better, than the work they’re apart of. I won’t comment on the film, as I haven’t seen it yet, but I will say that the soundtrack works quite well on its own. The soundtrack doesn’t say anything or do anything that pushes any kind of boundary, and it does what you’d expect a Barbie soundtrack to do, which is give you an album’s worth of catchy, fun, and summery jams, and that’s okay! I’ve talked about many times how not everything needs to be deep, and this is a perfect example of that.

The Barbie soundtrack is fun, lighthearted, catchy, and enjoyable from beginning to end. A lot of the songs are quite good, if not great, and it feels like a cohesive soundtrack, instead feeling like a random soundtrack, instead feeling like a random assortment of artists. I’m curious as to how these songs work in the film, but a lot of solid tracks are here, such as “Pink” by Lizzo, “Speed Drive” by Charlie XCX, “Silver Platter” by Khalid, or the “Barbie Girl” remix I mentioned earlier. It won’t blow your mind, or ultimately change the way you think about pop music, but it’s a fun ride through the world of Barbie. There are a few standouts, such as Billie Eilish’s “What Were We Made For,” which I guarantee is going to do some numbers in the coming weeks, but there are also a few songs that don’t add anything or do anything, such as the Tame Impala song “Journey To The Real World,” which seems to have a better purpose in the movie, but it’s only a minute long, so it doesn’t really do anything or go anywhere. Haim has a song, too, entitled “Home,” and it’s a good song, but it’s nothing really that special. I enjoy listening to it, but I wouldn’t pretend it’s one of my favorites. If anything at all, listen to the soundtrack and pick out your favorites, but I don’t think anything on here is worth outright skipping, although Gayle (who’s famous for “abcdefu” from a couple of years ago) does have a weird song that interpolates “Butterfly” by Crazy Town. It’s kind of fun, but also very weird and makes no sense, especially for the Barbie movie, so I don’t know how that song fits into the overall narrative, but it’s a decent song, nonetheless.

I’m interested to see how the songs from the soundtrack fit into the film, so when I go back and listen to the soundtrack after seeing it, I can picture the songs in my head. I’m very excited to see how “I’m Just Ken” by Ryan Gosling, who plays Ken in the movie, fits into the film, because that’s one of the funniest songs here. Nonetheless, this is a soundtrack that works for what it is – a catchy and fun good time. You don’t need anything more sometimes, since not everything needs to be deep, challenging, or have an underlying message to it. Sometimes a song or album can be fun, and you can enjoy it merely on a surface level. Sometimes enjoying things at face value is all you need. Pop music is at an interesting place right now because there’s nothing happening within the genre. I mean, the top three songs in the country as of this moment are country songs, so there’s no trend or overall idea that’s getting traction, unless you look at the trends of artists interpolating songs (the “Barbie Girl” remix is a perfect example of that), or the influence of nostalgia, but pop music is at a crossroads right now, so it’ll be interesting to see how this soundtrack charts and the impact that is has, especially since the film itself is doing very well at the moment. If you’re a fan of pop music, it’s worth hearing, because it has some catchy and fun summer jams on it, even if it won’t necessarily change your life.

[silverloreley]

Do you any more takes on Carlos being a Madrigal?

I sure do, I'm writing a whole fic!

Carlos had no idea who his father was for a very long time. That's because marriages are not registered on the Isle but also because Cruella forbade everyone to tell Carlos anything about his father, name included (no one talks about Bruno, no matter the universe he's in, poor man). The only thing he knew was that his father had been chased out of Hell Hall at some point and never came back. He doesn't know Bruno actually never left but hid in Hell Hall's secret passageways and stuff, just to take care of him in secret.

Carlos, as the Disney prince(ss) he is, is beloved by pets, in particular, his cat Beelzebub and Bruno's rats have an agreement only for his sake. It's more a truce than else, but they work together to make sure Bruno knows things and can help when Carlos is in a pinch. Dude will be included in the loop, at some point, once Beebs will stop being jealous, and Dude won't bark at all of them anymore.

Carlos is touch-starved, Bruno is even more so, meaning that once they are officially reunited they end up being rather affectionate with each other. Ruffled hair, pats on the back, side hugs, full hugs, anything goes. Evie thinks it's cute, the VKs, in general, are a bit envious, until Bruno figures out and starts doting on them too (except for Mal, Hades is a jealous dad and Bruno likes to be alive, so Mal is the one who has to start any contact).

When it comes the time to meet the Madrigals, Carlos is worried he won't fit in, and this never quite goes away, even years later. He goes along with them as well as he does with Diego and his other de Vil relatives, if not more, but it's not enough to make him move to Encanto for good.

Among his aunts and uncles, his favorite is Julieta: she's everything he imagined a good mom would be and she dotes on him a lot, even more so after she finds out about the kind of childhood he had. He likes Pepa too, but her temper reminds him a bit too much of Cruella's at times, with the added malus of the thundering, which scares him. His second favorite is Felix, for the sole reason he's sunshine incarnate and he can calm down or make smile everyone, two things Carlos desperately needed.

Among the cousins, Mirabel is the one he's closest to (they bond a lot in the fic), the second is Antonio (they bond a lot over animals and being the youngest in the family).

His relationship with Abuela is complicated at best, they both are aware that the lost time can never come back and they have a hard time understanding each other at times, although they try. Abuela hates that Cruella manipulated Bruno and Carlos to the point of making them so nervous with people (more than they'd naturally be) and sees some of her own faults mirrored in it, Carlos sees she tries to fix her mistakes and is a lot more forgiving than he is with his mother. Also, knowing Abuela's sometimes hard personality comes from trauma, he starts to try to figure out what went wrong with his own mother (that could be a fic on its own, now that I think about it).

He won't stay to live in Encanto, although after the rebuilding he'll have his own room there. He'll come back often enough, though, every summer at least (I refuse to acknowledge Carlos' canon death or anything after D3. Actually, D3 is on thin ice too). Since he becomes a veterinarian, with a side specialization/hobby in inventing machinery for pet care, he has his own studio in Encanto. Antonio will follow in his footsteps and will become a vet too, taking over the studio when Carlos isn't there.

Abuela wanted to meet Jane as soon as she heard of her. It was very awkward at first, Jane was a nervous wreck and couldn't talk much, which didn't leave a good first impression, the one who helped the most was Camilo, who started making jokes and impressions until Jane laughed and calmed down enough for the things to flow. Carlos will be eternally grateful to Camilo for it.

Cruella will never ever set foot in Encanto and it's better this way. Pepa would kill her if she did, all the Madrigals were so horrified by how she treated Bruno and Carlos that they hate her without even needing to meet her.

The de Vil cousins and the Madrigal kids get along like a house on fire. Literally, Ivy and Isabela almost set Casita on fire. They claim it was an accident, Hunter and Dolores know better, Carlos pretends he has no idea, Camilo actually has it all on camera and would have used it as blackmail if Luisa had not deleted it all.

And whoops, I think it's long enough, for now ;)

[m00dysunflower]

Testimone di Gangster vs Purple Haze Feedback

Just came fresh off of reading the new Squatizi light novel (which I LOVED) and decided to ruminate on why I loved one and hated the other so much.

I want to preface that if anyone is nasty in replies or tags about my views and opinions of PHF, I'll block you, I don't have time to fight over a non canon Fugo centric light novel. And I think it's valid to compare the 2 stories because they're both based around part 5 and in light novel format that supposedly expands upon the part. If you find my thoughts valid and insightful, cool, if you don't, move along, you're not going to convince me to change my mind sadly.

Also this isn't going to have too bad of spoilers. I'm kinda more vague when it comes to talking about the Squatizi story.

............................................................................

Purple Haze Feedback:

I respect that people needed more Fugo content and it was a genuinely good premise. An aftermath story of Fugo returning to Passione under Giorno and Mista? Yeah I would have loved a story about that. But if you need to warp characters' personalities and throw in a bunch of forgettable stands and their users to do it... I honestly can't bother to care.

If it was much shorter then I could tolerate it, but it wasn't, so here I am. I'll be going point by point with PHF just to organize my thoughts better for such a chaotic story.

1. It warped the pre-established characters.

Mista I think was done the most dirty with that opening scene, but to insinuate that Abbacchio and Fugo killed kids behind Bruno's back felt like absolute whiplash. Also Abbacchio is bisexual obviously, he would have slept with men too, not just women lol.

I don't like that they made Trish become a pop star. Maybe she would have been better as a model, but regardless, not so soon after part 5 when she needed her time to be normal and heal, or at least be under Giorno and Mista's protection.

The whole "Fugio" moment also felt off-putting to me and is part of the reason I don't like the ship. Look, it was absolutely no rain scene or "The only time I feel at ease", let's not try to compare it.

Fugo was okay, but he was just boring and I feel that's not good... you know, considering he's the protagonist of this story. He got better near the end, sure, but by the time I got to the end I was so tired and done with the story. A better writer would have done him and the story more justice.

2. Uninteresting supporting cast and villains

Cannolo was a fine addition, but I never understood what his stand actually did, same with all of the villains' stands. I think that's just poor writing if people walk away not understanding what just happened. I had to reread scenes and I still didn't get most of what happened. Voodoo Child was a cool stand, reminded me a bit of Moody Blues, but I didn't like Sheila as a character. And I'm sorry, who let's a 14 girl in a skimpy ass outfit be the Don of Mafia's bodyguard? Sheila's whole design was so hyper-sexualized and gave me the ick, especially if she was allegedly supposed to be indigenous coded. I've only seen speculation though so I won't go into it further.

Volpe and Manic Depression are the only villain names I remember. I couldn't even tell you the names and stands of the others or what Manic Depression even did as a stand. None of them felt like an actual threat.

3. Felt like a poorly written fanfic

The random mention of Tonio from DIU as Volpe's brother was also a whiplash "where the fuck did that come from" moment, because it was so unnecessary and felt like a cheap tie in for something that was formally published in a book. It really helped give it an average fanfic feel (and I write cheesy, overly dramatic fanfiction!). I think that was also when I was nearing my breaking point.

I once had someone try to mansplain to me that PHF was a "more realistic look of the mafia"... it is not, I promise you that lol. Mafia had rules about women and children and all other kinds of shit that Passione definitely does not abide by. Real life Mafia has so much more to it. This is camp fictional media, no one should ever take it so seriously.

In short, I just think PHF had a lot of wasted potential and would have done better with an altered story. I just can't convince myself to blindly love it, no matter how much I tried to like it.

............................................................................

Testimone di Gangster

I read it last night so it's still so fresh in my mind, but this is how you expand upon a story in my humble opinion. This is also probably going to be shorter just because it was a shorter and more focused story with less characters. I also don't want to spoil it for those who haven't read it yet since it just came out in English.

First off, I think it was a such great idea to take two characters we knew so little about and expand upon them in a way that felt so much more natural. There's less room for warping characters when they didn't have such distinct personalities to begin with and also helps build the world up.

There was no overly complicated plot about drugs and stands and it gave more insight on how the crime world works in Jojo's version of Italy. It even had nods to other real life gangs and how Passione fit into this world with them. It even gave nods to the Cosa Nostra and a real life prosecutor (Falco) who dealt with a lot of gang business in Italy and I think that's just so cool. I love shit like that so much, I adore me some good worldbuilding in general that we didn't necessarily need, but it's just cool to see.

I'll admit, the story was bit hard to follow in the first chapter, but once I picked up that it was from Squalo's perspective, it was such an easy and fun read that didn't make me question what was going on every two paragraphs.

It really showed us how Tiziano is clever and calculating and can be such a useful stand user and teammate. It solidified why he and Squalo are partners (and most definitely in more than just crime for sure now ahaha). I also just love the idea of him being an attorney, especially with Talking Head as a stand, it was a fantastic concept.

The entire time I was just so entertained and caught up in the story, it was so much more engaging than I thought it was going to be. I was genuinely invested in the trial and how Tiziano was going to win the case for Passione. I'm almost sad that this story was so much shorter and would have loved more in between moments with Squalo and Tiziano, but maybe it was for the best not to drag things out.

The ending was a great nod back to their involvement in part 5 and this was in general a great insight into who they were before joining Diavolo's special guard. Plus it makes so much more sense and is amusing to know that he had a lawyer (Tiziano) apart of his elite team.

............................................................................

Now look, I don't think I necessarily have a bias because I do like Fugo just as much as I like Squalo and Tiziano. I also normally don't care for light novels when comes to anime/manga so I don't think it could be that either.

Maybe it was simply the Fugo/Fugio lovers had over-hyped and demanded that everyone read PHF that it just soured the novel before I even read it? I couldn't say for sure. All I know is I went into PHF was no expectations and was so dissatisfied where as I went into Testimone di Gangster with some expectations and was thoroughly entertained.

This is by no means a dig at Fugio shippers, like I said, PHF's ending and the hype around it made me personally more uncomfortable with the ship than I already was before reading it. Simple as that.

If I were to recommend additional Jojo content, especially for the part 5 lovers, Testimone di Gangster is the one I would urge people to read if they have an hour or two to spare. It's a short and sweet look at some great side characters and has more of part 5 spirit without getting caught up in a bunch of bland ocs.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

Putting aside the murder mystery, do you think Chekhov’s Sicilians might be likely? Marigold acts like there’s a big problem, and besides Drago, they’re the only third party that’ve been mentioned at this point, and it feels like we’re a good way into the story.

this might be a bit of a stretch, but I got curious and looked it up. Drago is an Italian surname, but is apparently most frequent found in the country of Malta, an island close to Sicily… he seems pretty lawful good, but that doesn’t necessarily rule out some kind of connection.

i think we can have it all, i.e. i think marigold's big problem could be related to the murder mystery, since mordecai went from "well i wish i knew what marigold's big problem was" to "i am going to interrogate this guy marigold wants dead instead of killing him and hide this from my coworkers and get all stressed and say i probably shouldn't be doing this, in order to try to find out what marigold's big problem is, and bring up that i'm This Driven about it b/c of some perceived possible connection to the murder mystery"....plus how bobby arbogast said that "whatever's giving [marigold] the nervous twitch lately" is what's causing marigold to station agents to hang around / monitor / patrol the premises, which has caused the shootout on the lackadaisy triumvirate's end....which will presumably cause some direct conflict between marigold and lackadaisy, which is. a factor

anyways, that's to say it sure seems pretty centrally encompassing, and the Murder Mystery does too, and it's at least linked in that mordecai supposing it Might Be connected is making him act up and increase stakes, conflicts, possibilities, etc

to finally get around to an answer: yeah, i was kinda getting at a chekov's sicilians theory lmao, since like you say, they and drago are the only specified third or fourth parties out here, And that with any Mystery thread it doesn't hurt to be on the alert for anything that's touched on that you might go "huh, weird" or "huh, that sounds like something that Could be important" but then is kind of glossed over, or some other specific element of it is focused on instead, which in this case, is the focus on exploring a specific flashback / talking about the history between the arbogasts' funeral home and atlas / lackadaisy / viktor (& mordecai)....and it's a speculative leap to go "like, mafia?" but it's not as though that'd be so irrelevant when the general topic here is prohibition. but, whoever they are, they could still be Out There, active and relevant to the story. could've been after atlas, marigold, or both

drago's truly a mystery as well, still....his lawful goodness could sure be either "i love cops, let's keep it honorable lads ha ha" or else "i hate cops, i'm just infiltrating the treasury department, i'll help you keep cash from them / get phonecalls to potentially get out of here"....sure can't nail down naming conventions as hard evidence lol like catch us going "pretty Romantic name you've got there, horatio bruno, if you catch our drift" anti-italianly microaggressing the lackadaisy doorman, or "and they say [politicians] with [maltese-american] can't become [u.s. secretary of transportation]"....but there's the added reason to question drago of how like, gracie's saying that he never had any real info to provide, but that didn't seem to bother them, Like They Just Like Hearing Me Talk....what's the good of having informants in the periphery of marigold? setting up a really long con infiltration, having them keep checking in just so you know they're still there, and hoping it's now easier to plant people a little deeper and get Any Real Info? i'm not rhetorically asking lol, maybe there Is some high-profile treasury department raid Straightforward Explanation in it, but it's hardly guaranteed....

at this time in writing things out i went off and had an exasperating experience lmao, let's see if i can get back into the swing of things. okay, so. walking through a theory that [drago is in turn a plant at the treasury dept] it's like....for whom? so far, like you say, we don't exactly know of any non marigold / lackadaisy (or non feds) parties besides Some Sicilians. could be an as yet undisclosed fourth party. or some personal agenda of his lol. and he seems interested in marigold, and uninterested in lackadaisy....with the feds going through all this trouble with informants for no obvious benefit yet, and marigold going through all this trouble with those same informants for no obvious benefit yet, in that mordecai notes it Should Be ultimately more lucrative to keep them on & pay off some parties than kill these dues-paying people....and gracie saying he's never been able to give any useful info as that informant. if it's not about the info (or isn't it???) or not about the money (or isn't it???) then. then it would be about different things lmfao.

really have to take baby steps and go over & over some presumptions and scrutinize them....like my confusion about mordecai in the same breath seeming to be worried about "were marigold and lackadaisy at odds after all" And "does marigold know how atlas died. b/c i thought that i did" which, yknow. Might simply be interpreted, as gracie seems to interpret it, as mordecai thinking marigold killed atlas. but we know there's some other layer in whatever shared secret he has with mitzi....have to like draw out some axes here to chart like, [mordecai killed atlas: if yes, if no] and [marigold knows what happened: if yes, if no] and whether there's any fitting Explanation for each combo and what we've seen so far. going back to a thought the other day that maybe what was so [??] to mordecai is that asa warning mitzi and saying he warned atlas too implies that asa Doesn't Believe that mitzi killed atlas, even though that's the scuttlebutt, as they say. also, sidebar, shoutout to gracie's humor in duress out here lol, in times like these i guess all you can do is laugh....anyways. it's like, if mordecai's concern is "i hope nobody knows i killed atlas"....if he's worried that Marigold knows that, i'm not sure it makes sense: so prior he'd have thought marigold believed mitzi killed atlas, but he's not acting as though he also ever thought they might kill mitzi over that. and it's not like marigold's evidently suffered after atlas's death, rather than benefitted. and, what, are they just planning to kill mordecai Eventually? idk. feels quite shaky

i'm going down the murder mystery route here to be sure lol, but hey, can't really disentangle them, and It Is My Passion....the possibility mordecai is questioning The Leadup to atlas's death / whether asa Really Did Have Something To Warn Atlas About. what does that change....mordecai Could just really really care to know. or he could be like "someone might wanna kill me, and i'm only just finding out now, and i need to ascertain this"....probably not marigold? suppose it's like, maybe anyone who wants revenge for the lodge incident. but this is evidently a lot of effort for that, And when it's like....so these people start agitating marigold overall, while mordecai's kept in the dark about things, instead of marigold just tossing him overboard to deal with it? unless, of course, this is just a reignited conflict with lackadaisy And marigold from these restored third parties....in which case, not like mordecai has much to be worried about from them directly. much like: would mordecai be very worried about a federal agent going after marigold, or after him Through marigold (though a prohibition agent would surely be more focused on the bootlegging and its central agents than even a hitman, who also only has so much info to offer (does mordecai even get to know who's higher up than asa? hardly established that he totally does))

and there's the like, timeline confusion of: say that, for whatever reason, mordecai's concern is All [marigold knows what happened re: atlas's death? they shouldn't]....asa talking about Warnings is something happening After the fact, about something that would have happened Before the fact....head in hands baja blast Musing Hard, like, god how does it figure in....if mordecai killed atlas: he wouldn't question that, only question Why [these circumstances Really came about] or Who Knows About It. if he didn't: he could question who really did, and who knows about it; apparently either way he thought marigold was uninvolved and had No Info.

wait fuck there's also the fact that mitzi thought mordecai Could have told asa something. which doesn't exactly lend itself to the idea that mordecai would live in mortal fear if he thought marigold knew anything about anything; and he sure doesn't have so dramatic an immediate reaction, even if he's willing to pull a stunt like [interrogate gracie, Who's Supposed To Be Dead]

i'm really not exaggerating that i ought to like, make charts lol. visuals would only help organize some thoughts....

speaking of visuals, i'll break up some text with this next relevant point:

there's A Pause before mordecai dismisses "let gracie pin atlas's death on marigold to his contact," such as that maybe he considered it at all for real, and the cited reason that he'd be without a real answer....even though he sure might be withholding things from gracie here / Maybe outright lying about some things, but i also doubt there's much of that, if any....Is he lookin to join the loose ends club himself over a dead man? Maybe, i.e. this is all about Emotional Motivations re: atlas (besides that potential "i'm afraid someone wants me dead" re: atlas's Death)

there's also the thought i was having that like, i think having a diable thrust upon him that provides illumination, and this scene having literal And figurative illumination, does suggest that now having this drago thread is indeed Relevant to whatever mordecai wants to ascertain out here. mysterious how, as per the last panel in which mordecai asks if they meet regularly, and where, it's suggested that mordecai plans to meet him, or at least see him from afar / undetected....but probably the former, since what tf does he learn from what he looks like? he's not doing this For marigold, and even if he was, a name's surely sufficient. but what does he think he can say to, or ask of, a prohibition agent....becoming a higher up informant? asking for information about marigold? not like drago, whether he's himself a plant or not, would just provide said info for mordecai's peace of mind....of course, it being mordecai, he could try for the [interrogation like with gracie here] route. but that'd be all the riskier, surely. try to follow him home, and go through his shit later?? is it about wanting drago's information, drago Being the information....what could any of it tell mordecai about whether marigold knows things about atlas's death....

i've been keeping [and what of the sicilians, maybe] in mind while i've been going through these other thoughts, lol, just haven't found any places where it seems Obvious they'd fill in some potential missing detail. let's say they've been bearing down on marigold: mordecai talks of paltry competition, and is hypothetically bringing up [could marigold warning of competitors mean they know how atlas died??] like....how's it figure in. supposing they're bearing down by going the "we can do a federal raid, with plants," couldn't they do it just as, or more easily with just the nonplanted federal agents? how would that factor in to anyone knowing more about atlas's death than they should....the feds take him out to simplify some shit; marigold's ceo is worried about the same fate?? while the one informant mordecai's talked to is saying he never had good info for his contact, mordecai might not even know who he works for, mordecai might be on the right track by now knowing Of drago....waugh. or trying on: the sicilians are working With marigold, marigold's insulating b/c why?? lord.

mordecai shoots atlas, asa having warned atlas of anything beforehand makes him question if asa knows how atlas died....how? just b/c he doesn't assume mitzi killed atlas? mordecai didn't shoot atlas, knows mitzi was't even there when atlas died, it was a private affair, asa warned atlas of something and mordecai's questioning if that means asa knows what happened to atlas, which mordecai Thought was a private affair....

now trying to follow that latter [okay, suppose mordecai didn't shoot him either] idea further: suppose that mordecai Knows mitzi didn't kill atlas because mordecai was with mitzi at the time. and was told something by atlas such that he thought he knew what was going to happen to atlas, and didn't himself question this after atlas died....i'm embracing this idea that mordecai is all riled up on his Professionalism b/c his involvement in atlas's death is such that he did whatever he did b/c atlas asked it of him (generous phrasing on my part) as a Professional request. or order. so now mordecai's alllll about citing his Professional Approach; he does it at the end of his proper introduction, even. maybe atlas's "do it for the professionalism" directive was about mordecai protecting mitzi for him instead of atlas, as he usually did as that apparent semi bodyguard. maybe it was about That, but also about protecting mordecai, in a "i'm absolutely going to be killed; as my right hand bodyguard man you'll be caught up in that; so go protect mitzi instead. that's an order XD but really, it is :I"....whether That's what mordecai Blames mitzi for, damnit if he wasn't married to you he wouldn't have sent me to protect You from [whatever threat] instead and i would of stopped it, rip to atlas's self-defense abilities but i'm different

why would mitzi hand mordecai, gunman, a gun in that case....he probably has his own?? or maybe he doesn't, it was too short notice (unlikely....). or maybe it was mordecai handing mitzi a gun, instead, for good measure.

to be sure, atlas being like "the [threat] are after me, imminently. mordecai, go bodyguard my wife instead, as my loyal and Professionally Committed employee who's really good at that and i wouldn't trust anyone else haha get outta here" and mordecai doing so, grabbing onto that Professionalism with both hands such as to have a death grip even now, resenting mitzi for atlas's death (b/c mordecai couldn't be present, though he thinks he knows how it happened) has given me a pang....Possible, though still has weaknesses like "what would the [threat] be such that mordecai considers it to have been a private affair if he didn't shoot atlas himself (which, if he did, i'm also embracing the theory of: it was also at atlas's Professional Request / Order)" / "what would be bearing down on atlas with enough short notice / Certainty that he couldn't manage to avoid his own death despite seeing it coming at all, even if he sent his best bodyguard elsewhere"

whether atlas was slowmo diving in front of a bullet for mitzi here (figuratively), which, who would be going directly after her? doesn't seem like the kind of thing that would be phrased as Mitzi's culpability/fault....and, i dunno, if it was obvious that atlas died To Save Mitzi / Lackadaisy overall, mordecai might be devoted to either party. certainly atlas didn't request it of mordecai outright; while mitzi doesn't act like "oh i have to keep lackadaisy up & running For Atlas," rather than that she knows maybe it'd be better to close, but she's kinda doing it for Possibility still / old times' sake....makes most sense that of course atlas died Because of lackadaisy, but he didn't like refuse to take some approach in which he Could've Lived to instead die to better ensure its continuation. if that makes sense.

mentally rotating everything furiously, i'm reluctant to wrap up any of these posts as if i'm bound to just suddenly Solve That Mystery, what's new scooby doo....musing on the possible chekov's sicilians again for good measure....how much changes if mordecai thinks that marigold knows who killed atlas, and he doesn't? that he wants to Know if marigold Knows? that he wants to find out and get revenge on whomsoever it was, supposing in this case, of course, it wasn't himself? that maybe atlas lied to him about who/what was threatening him, whether or not he was then like "professionally shoot me" or "professionally leave me and make sure nobody shoots my wife, who isn't even living with me at this time, things have visibly deteriorated"....

augh it's quarter to one a.m. all of a sudden and i've mostly just talked about the murder mystery some more lol. but it's a "yeah maybe" from me re: your original question lmfao. and a standing invite to any and everyone to muse on this mystery with me / send insights/ideas