#he’s the love interest guys. he’s not here to contribute to the plot. he’s here to make heart eyes at mary.

[ittsybittsybunny]

ATLA Live Action Series Review:

The Good

Aesthetically this show felt right. Sure sometimes the outfits didn't quite feel lived in, but I always felt like I was watching a fantasy world with decent effects and interesting design. Also, I really enjoyed the sets!

Bending: Yes some of the fights feel very quick, but the bending looks cool. It is certainly better than 10 benders lifting one big rock. I can honestly say the opening bending fight scene gave me so much hope for this show.

Kyoshi Warriors: I loved seeing them in live action, and I thought Suki's performance was great!

Omashu: I think the mashup of the mechanist made sense since that is an important character overall and I would hate to see him cut. However, both Jet & the secret tunnels felt sloppily thrown in.

Northern Water Tribe: I really loved the way it looked, and appreciated the two episodes we spent here. I think Yue gained more agency in this interpretation, and why shouldn't the moon spirit be a waterbender. Also, episode seven felt the most in tune with the original show's spirit.

Zuko: I think he was one of the most fleshed-out and best parts of the show! Dallas Liu really captured Zuko's spirit, and the scene between him and Aang in episode 6 was wonderful!

Soundtrack: Hearing the original soundtrack bits is always great, and when I first heard the ending music I was so excited.

Is the show perfect, no - but I wouldn't mind a season 2.

The Bad

Pacing: Turning 20 episodes into 8 was bound to lead to some cuts...but oftentimes times things felt too quick or disjointed. I think there were editing problems contributing to this for sure, but sometimes things skipped around too much without a clear purpose as to why. Also, why bring in plots from later seasons when you barely have enough time already?

Writing: This show definitely suffered from exposition dumping, though it did get better as time went on. I think the biggest example of this is actually opening in the past rather than the present. We do not get to learn along with Aang that the world has changed, instead, we get to learn that 100 years have passed....which doesn't hold the same tension or worldbuilding.

Clunky Dialogue: Along with exposition, clunky dialogue is another example of bad writing. I think sometimes I felt like the acting was kind of meh in the beginning, but then over time I began to realize it had far more to do with the lines characters were trying to deliver. The actors themselves are not bad, just cursed with awkward writing and lines that feel out of touch with the setting they're in.

Main Trio: I don't entirely know that I believe Katara, Sokka, and Aang are friends as opposed to 3 people stuck together to save the world. Aang feels a little too somber for a young kid running away from his responsibilities, Sokka is protective, but not exactly the heart of the team, and Katara is sort of just there until the last two episodes. Where is her struggle, her desire to learn so strong she steals from pirates? Also, while Gordon Cormier did a great job, Aang does zero waterbending on his own, is overly serious, and tells Katara not to fight. Where is his desperation to protect his friends? It feels like they all lost emotional depth.

Tension: Bringing Ozai, Azula, and Zhao out in the beginning immediately causes us to lose the realization there is an even bigger bad. Part of why Ozai is so terrifying is he is a primarily silent villain until the third season when we finally see the face of the "big bad evil guy" behind it all. Yes, they add to Zuko's backstory, but again, they are revealing the villains too early. Azula is the antagonist of season 2 and one of my favorite characters, so I hope they do more with her in the future. Finally, Zhao is supposed to be an example of the uncontrollable nature of fire unrestrained, instead, he comes off as vaguely threatening with the supposed true power being Azula.

Characterization: While all characters are bound to lose something in a shorter show, it still felt like certain characters were more mutilated than others. I am sure there are 100 different opinions on who, but I think the biggest victim was Katara.

Katara: Katara manages to go from a complete novice to a bending master in what feels like a matter of days. The journey feels short, and that makes the results feel largely unearned. Katara is one of the strongest personalities in the show, determined, kind, and fiery. In many ways, she is the unpredictability of water - equally dangerous as it is necessary to live. She is the child of a war who lost her mother, forced to grow up too soon, and even raised her older brother. Yes, Katara often gets stereotyped as the mom friend, but overall she feels underutilized in this show. We really don't see enough of her journey until the very end.

Iroh: Iroh was always comedic but most importantly wise. Even when Zuko is trying to give himself advice, he mimics Iroh. Instead, he seems to be used more as comedic relief without the underlying experience. He just doesn't feel right. Also, he kills Zhao instead of Zhao getting himself killed - which is less about Iroh and more about the writing than anything.

Ozai is weirdly a little too nice. Yes, he burned Zuko and pits his kids against each other, but he feels toned down in a show claiming to be more mature than the original cartoon.

Azula is perhaps more realistically worried about losing her status as the golden child, but she is also missing the cruelty she and her father share. I understand worrying about making your character cartoonishly evil, but the Fire Nation is currently a deeply nationalistic empire trying to control the world. Where is the deep-seated belief that they are better than other people, not just trying to bring balance to the world? There is a line between creating complexity and toning down the very real evil inherent in this plan.

Roku: I can only say what the fuck was that. He was barely there, and not the serious master to Aang's youthful exuberance.

The Ugly

Show, Don't Tell: The show's single biggest issue seems to be speeding through story parts by simply stating things. Instead of allowing the audience to discover, trusting that we are smart enough to understand, let's just blatantly say things like Zuko is the only reason the 41st division is alive to their faces. Even though in the context of the story Ozai literally already said that.... it's the division, the division for Zuko, Zuko's division.

Thematic Misunderstandings: I think this show makes several minor changes with major implications, such as airbenders actively fighting the firebenders, when airbenders are known for their pacifist nature and the lie of an Airbender fighting force is actively propaganda. Similarly, Aang very quickly accepts his role as the avatar and doesn't even run away in the beginning. Without this conflict between his desire to be a carefree child and the fact that the world needs him - the show loses a key aspect of Aang's character. Also, the obsession with downplaying the avatar state as something dangerous feels like a disservice to the tradition, connection, and strength of the avatar, which can be permanently destroyed as the trade-off for that kind of power. It's dangerous for the balance of the entire world, not just because it's powerful!

The Agni Kai: Zuko's fight against his father is one of the defining moments of Ozai's cruelty, not just because he is willing to fight his child, but because Zuko tried to do everything right. Zuko shows deference to his father, apologizes, and most importantly refuses to fight! The determination not to upset his father and still be grievously injured and banished is a hugely important theme for the fire nation and Zuko's life as a whole. He tries to do everything he is supposed to and only regains his father's acceptance after he "kills" Aang. Zuko's struggle between moral vs. social right and wrong in contrast to his family is hugely important to his character.

-----

TLDR: ATLA was a fantastical animated television show that was never afraid to show character development and flaws. When you turn 20 episodes into 8, you are bound to lose something. You hollowed out the middle, leaving the shell of important moments and events without ever wondering if all the times in between formed the true spirit of the show.

Rating: 6.5/10 It's perfectly fine and worth a watch. Not a disaster, but certainly falls flat of the original.

[rassicas]

my general Side Order thoughts:

I don't have much of anything groundbreaking to say. I haven't publicly said much in relation to side order in the first place, i don't want to build up crazy expectations, and I've seen much of the fanbase making solid theories anyways. also there has been a lot less information compared to ROTM which is great, I don't want to be able to predict the whole story before the game comes out. I'd rather be surprised like i was with octo expansion! here I just want to put out my thoughts real quick so people know where I stand and that yes i am aware of the Hints and Foreshadowing

Marina's quote at the end of her interview in Splatune 3 is relevant of course, gives us a sense of what this whole world of order is. But did she build it this whole digital simulation, or was it something she found? (mix of both perhaps? found it, contributed to parts of it and it went out of her control?)

Mem cakes, agent 8, cerebral theming...very interested where this all goes. love all the references to OE keep em coming

People have been talking about this already, and the foreshadowing was acknowledged back in haikara walker in 2018. the hat logos on dedf1sh and paul gotta be connected to this thing.

It'd be a huge waste for a more grown-up paul to not show up in s3, either as someone mentioned by Acht or for him to make some sort of musical return post side order.

Glen fiddler has always been interesting to me (in that i anticipated he would become plot relevant somehow) with how he was fully 3d modeled in his sunken scroll. im not 100% on if hes gonna be in side order but the copy machine connections in side order (the fish skeletons in splatoween, also the recent poster?) are sus

^has to be agent 4. of course. seeing enemy inklings instead of enemy octolings sounds awesome btw

I'm expecting the inkopolis square hub to come back as a thing you can access post-game. pearl and marina splatfest concerts

iso padre please come back to me (maybe in said inkopolis square hub world)

who the fuck are you. not a mantis shrimp, looks too soft to be a crustacean to me. closest thing i can compare this to is a black dragonfish nymph but i kind of doubt it. maybe it is some guy who was created to manage things, like CQ to the deepsea metro?

[faelapis]

alright! we got one whole person interested, so here's my hot take:

the first "how to train your dragon" movie is WAY better than httyd 2.

i know everyone loves like, the cool warrior mom design, the romance and the "epic animation moments" in 2... but can we for a moment be honest and say the whole "hiccup becoming a leader / which dragon is the Good Alpha" plot was dumb as hell? also, the villain sucked?

the original httyd is pretty good about keeping the structural problem grounded in real societal fears. namely, fear of the unknown and of beasts. it makes sense for any ol' village dealing with such a problem. it was intelligently designed around a solid premise.

httyd 2 is like. actually, dragon taming is a big thing, even outside berk. and theres a Scary Foreign Man dragon tamer who is bad and just wants power. it's okay to other him. being a good guy is about being a protector instead of an evil, power-hungry guy... which hiccup never was anyway... so no real growth there. just be good instead of bad. wow. what a theme. very thought-provoking.

people act like httyd 3 being bad came out of nowhere, but httyd 2 was the original sin to me. it totally dropped the societal themes in favor of generic good vs evil fights and "worldbuilding" - despite having no more interesting stories to tell.

it also kind of ruined hiccup for the sake of developing him. like. his whole thing is that he can't fight, so he has to find other ways to contribute to society. he's the anti-macho hero. which ends up being important in convincing the village that dragons can be peaceful. he's empathetic to the other, because he's been othered.

meanwhile in httyd 2, hiccup's like. Cool Warrior Man, who needs to step up and be the hero king when his dad dies. he can fight just fine, because he has a cool dragon to fight with. so he's just like any warrior, but one who fights with weapons instead of brute strength. aka most fictional warriors who arent just "the heavy."

the first movie isn't beyond criticism, obviously. the animation was a little meh compared to httyd 2 - i get why visually its seen as an upgrade. plus, httyd 1 also did the thing of having like a last minute evil dragon to defeat... but that wasn't the point. the POINT was the village and its fears. the POINT was overcoming that.

whenever people list why they love httyd 2 and consider it superior, its like... lists of details. like, look at the upgraded character designs, the cool flying scenes, the affection between hiccup and astrid, or the clever way hiccup's prosthetic leg is designed.

but these are film *details*, not fundamentals.

if you told me the sequel to httyd was going to have a much more generic story, ignore the themes of the original and makes its deliberately lanky and weak protagonist into Handsome Hero Warrior Boy, i'd be like. that sounds kinda bad. but the Animation Details (tm) i guessssss

i know hiccup is still "himself" in 2 to some extent, btw. he's an inventor, he's intelligent, and he initially tries to talk to the villain. but none of that ends up mattering. its arguably looked down on by the movie, which really, really wants him to step up to be the warrior king like his dad. aka a generic Hero Strongman.

i'm not totally against evolving the themes of a work to fit new conflicts, btw. sequels should generally be different from the first movie. that's fine. that's expected.

but while the new conflict in httyd 2 IS born out of the results of the previous movie, that evolution feels very literal, not thematic.

namely, the evolution is "more people have dragons now." it builds the conflict from there. its based on worldbuilding, not on theme.

i don't think a very interesting evolution.

it kinda went from, in httyd 1: "the theme is fear of the unknown. how prejudice/ignorance manifests, educating oneself through compassion, the dangers of worshipping violent masculinity, and the importance of questioning what you're taught by society."

to, in httyd 2: "the theme is dragons. who has them? what they want with them? how can the Good Guy humans protect dragons from the Bad Guys? also, being a Good Leader means being a strong Hero Man who protects his friends," without asking any deeper questions related to the themes of the first movie.

and i'm like. guys. guys.

the theme shouldn't just be "dragons."

the theme of the first movie was NOT just "dragons." the first movie could've been about people being afraid of unicorns. or large birds. or unusually intelligent bears. it was not just about literal dragons, it was about societal fears and trying to overcome our base gut instincts.

i think this is what really plagues httyd 3: it builds on the themes of the second movie, not the first.

httyd 3 asks further questions that only really revolve around the literal relationship between humans and dragons. it does not understand any broader themes of what that relationship represents.

it clearly thinks its very intelligent for asking "what do the dragons themselves want?", but that question is not respected enough to be explored in any thematically coherent way.

the only real weight its given is the argument that there will always be "bad humans" out there, and so, dragons are safer in the wild. which sure is... an argument. but its a very "othering the problem" kind of argument.

it acts like its caring about the agency of dragons, but its not really. dragons were not actually portrayed as "oppressed" in berk society after the first movie, nor lacking agency. they were only at risk of "bad individuals", to which that solution is stupid. the racialized bad guy in httyd 2 didn't steal all his dragons from berk. he caught and subjugated them, mostly from the wild.

all while looking like... this, by the way. i feel like we don't talk about that enough. all the good guys are white nordics, while the only man of color is scary, domineering and cruel. in a series of movies that was once about having empathy for the other.

MAYBE if berk had been really oppressive towards dragons in httyd 2, we could've had a theme. maybe if they treated them like a dangerous commodity that must be tightly controlled despite their nominal acceptance and inclusion, we could've had a thematically tight 3-movie arc about like fear and oppression or whatever.

but that would require, yknow... making the movies be about broad societal problems, instead of just evil individuals. and only the first movie cares about making any real societal critique.

also, the solution in httyd 3 would've still sucked. these movies, in terms of writing, really decrease in maturity from 1, down to 2, to the plummeting depths of 3.

there is no relationship of oppression that is solved by completely segregating society and going our separate ways (httyd 3). just like there is no oppression that is solved just by defeating bad individuals (httyd 2). we have to learn to coexist as equals, to educate ourselves and be compassionate to the other. even if we're afraid.

that's the dream only the first movie kept in its heart.

[flamingpudding]

DPxDC Family Week June 18 (Day 1)

Prompt: Parents | Discovery

A/N: I hope i did not miss the prompts but here is my Day 1 contribution! Enjoy!

AO3 Link: DPxDC Family Week Contributions

Danny sighed as he watched his parents lay out the display for their research as well as set up a showcasing of all their weapons. Why couldn't he skip this business thing like Jazz had. Oh right, Jazz was going to college next year and skipt out of this with the excuse of taking a college tour for Gotham Acadamy and their student programs. While he had missed his chance and was now stuck accompanying his parents to their meeting with a new potential business partner. In other words he was on parents babysitting duty.

Apparently Wayne Enterprise had shown some interest in regards to their research as well as ecto-powered utensils and weaponry. Danny was pretty sure that they only showed an interest because he had an accidentally meeting as ghost king with that Constantine guy who's soul became a trading game in the ghost zone. Apparently there was a Justice League Dark which needed some help with a couple rebellious ghosts. Instead of a Demon they had accidentally summoned Danny in his Ghost King form and Danny had used that chance to ramble on about the GIW and how half his council was close to demanding a war with the humans. They were pretty quickly interested in avoiding an interdimensional war, even promising to get the Justice League involved too and not only the Dark variant.

The moment Sam and Tucker heard about Wayne Enterprises being interested in a deal, they once again started up their discussion about whether or not Bruce Wayne was Batman's sugar daddy. Since the bat was a member of the Justice League. In a way he probably should be happy that his parents forced him to come with them, it gave him an out from his friends bickering. Don't get him wrong, he loves his friends, but if he has to listen to them argue one more time where or not Batman fucks a rich billionaire, Superman or Wonder Woman, he would be throwing them into the portal for an hour or have them deal with Technus alone.

Either way he was now helping his parents while they were discussing if they should or should not demonstrate the Fanton-Bazooka. His mom had already the Wraith Wrangler tested earlier while his dad had untangled the Fenton Ghost Fisher. The Fenton Finder was already on the table deactivated for now. Ancients, he was not looking forward to being its target, again. His parents were also already wearing the Fenton Specter Deflector which meant Danny was especially careful not to get to close to them since that thing still sapped him and the only one he had had the time to adjust and make his own ecto signature a exception in, was at home because he just forget taking it with him when his parents dragged him into the GAV.

Aside from the weaponry his parents had also brought out a bunch of their modified home appliances, like the Fenton toaster. Hopefully they wouldn't end up bringing the bread back to life during the presentation. Danny didn't think Wayne enterprise would be too thrilled about that. And the Ancients, did he hope that Bruce Wayne was not a fruitloop like Vlad.

---------

Tim sighed as he readjusted the necktie. What was Bruce thinking? Just because Constantine had contacted the Justice League about some negotiations that were going to happen with someone from another dimension known as the Ghost King, he was now stuck with trying to strike a deal with one of the only inventors that was actively publishing as well as selling research and weaponry that would work against ghosts.

Seriously that man and his contingency plans.

Just because he liked to have safety measures should negotiation with the Ghost King, who apparently can destroy entire dimensions, go wrong, didn't mean that the man could skip out on that meeting with the scientist couple and put that all instead on him. Really Tim had better things to do, like plotting a revenge plan on Jason for ratting out his coffee hiding space to Alfred. So what if he only slept like six hours in four days? He was still functioning very well.

He watched through the cams how the Fantons set up their display in the room WE had provided them. They were going to show off to a selected board and him. He eyed some of their weaponry as well as home appliances, they all had a pretty in theme green and silver design. Though he took special notice of the green glow or liquid some of them visibly contained that suspiciously looked very much like Lazarus Water. He would need to make sure to collect some samples if they didn't leave some willingly behind.

He also wondered how their son, who looked very much like an unwilling assistance, kept a certain distance from his parents after they put on some clunky looking belts. He got his answer as to why when he watched them longer. The poor kid got zapped apparently every time he got too close. Worse was that his parents apparently didn't notice or entirely dismissed it a second later if they noticed it.

The co-ceo of Wayne Enterprise narrowed his eyes at that, the detective in him screaming that something was amiss here. Sometimes the parents even carelessly reached out to touch their son, in what was probably supposed to be an affectionate gesture. The boy would flinch back slightly but they would still keep going only drawing back when the kid ended up flinching in actual pain and letting that show on his face. His parents then seemed instantly apologetic but only minutes later ended up repeating the same mistake distracted apparently by something else.

Tim took notes of this and decided that he would either look into their home life himself or ask Barbara to do it. He had a gut feeling that the kid needed some help and even if it were just a false alarm and these were actually good parents, it would be better safe than sorry. Taking a sip from his death wish coffee he readjusted the tie once more before closing his laptop.

It was time for the business meeting and he would make sure to watch their interaction and treatment of their child closely.

----------

Tim swore he was paying attention. The suspicious looks his board as well as the Fantons son were giving him just because he was typing away on his laptop while parallel listening to them as well as taking regular sips from his coffee was not him being distracted. Didn't these people ever hear about multitasking? Just because he sat in the back so no one could look into his laptop didn't mean he wasn't paying attention. For all they knew he was actively taking notes.

At these the Drs. Fenton didn't seem to mind it, they were easily distracted with just one well placed question from him. They would then go on and on about Ecto-Energy and all its uses and potential. By now the young CEO was pretty sure that this Ectoplasm had something to do with Lazarus water. Which only validated the research he was doing on the side even more.

It wasn't like he was hacking into Amity Park's network system, okay he was but it was surprisingly hard for such an in-the-middle-of-nowhere place. He only found an in into their network when he found a rather passionate online post about their local Vigilante being the Fantons son but got countered by several other users stating that they had seen the two of them at the same time several times.

That users net security wasn't the best so it was easy for Tim to find an in that way. He sent it to Barbara too, just in case she also had troubles. Really that town had an interesting firewall system that appeared to make no sense. It was also strange to see how little information was known about this place if you weren't tuned into their networks.

Like was that place a literal Bermuda triangle when it came to Information?

He looked up from his laptop just in time to see the Fantons go on about the uses of Ecto-Energy and how it can replace electricity if used correctly. Apparently their entire home didn't have to pay electricity bills in years now since they became self sufficient. They then went on showing off how to find the source of Ecto-Energy holding up something they named the Fenton-Finder. That thing beeped and then proceeded to insult them and point in the direction of their son.

Flustered they explained how because of an accident their son had their inventions tend to malfunction when he was close by. Their son very clearly grimaced when his parents shared that piece of information and Tim made sure to note that down too another point on the possible bad parenting list for the Fentons.

His attention turned back to his information gathering. That town's news looked like they got run over by 'ghosts' every two days. Additionally the entire town was not the least bit thankful to their vigilante Phantom, considering he found the same amount off news praising as well as bad mouthing their local hero.

So what if there was some property damage? At least they were somewhat saved form whatever these 'ghosts' were doing. He saved all the news clips he found regarding all the attacks this town appeared to have suffered into a separated folder. There had to be a reason why the Justice League hadn't taken any form of action yet. It couldn't be that one summoning going wrong in the JL Dark and making contact with a Ghost King was what it needed for them to step in, let alone notice the shit that went on in Amity.

Hell if nothing changed he would attempt to get Phantom to join Young Justice or his group specifically. The vigilante looked like a kid maybe a little younger than him, wait hold on. Tim pulled up the least blurry picture of the vigilante he could find and looked up from his screen just in time to see the Fanton's son back away from his mom hiding his arm behind him.

Did he get zapped again? Dear God, aren't his parents paying attention to the kid at all? He added another point to the bad parents tally.

Okay wait, save that for later, focus on the task at hand, Tim scowled himself mentally. Taking a good look at the teenager before looking back at his laptop screen, the young Co-CEO nodded to himself. Yup, maybe that post that got him into their towns network wasn't that far off. If you change the colors then the Fanton kid looked very much like Phantom minus the pointy ears and sharp teeth. Additionally now that he put them next to each other in his mind. The name Phantom sounded awfully a lot like Fanton.

What did the Fantons say their son's name was? D- d- Danny, Daniel? Good the kid needed a teaching in how to better hide secret identity connections. Wearing a pretty but telling logo on your outfit was a dead giveaway. The kid was probably some sort of Meta and if he had to guess he was the accident that his parents had offhandedly mentioned. Even more reason to have Barbara look into them more.

For now he was somewhat satisfied with his findings as he closed his laptop and gave the Fentons his full attention. He did not miss Danny (was it?) looking down at his phone for a second and then narrowing his eyes at him. He did his best to suppress the forming grin. Really the kid was very intriguing, if his suspicions were right, they rarely weren't unless Barbara had found something else, and the kid was somewhat impulsive then he would probably get a little visit from Phantom later. After all he had made sure to leave some traces behind to arrange this.

------------

When Tucker contacted him that there were two people outside of Amity looking into Phantom, he was not amused especially when Tucker also stated that only one of them could be traced back to Wayne Enterprise.

Really what he was doing was probably dumb and he could hear his sisters scowling in his head. But when they were back at the hotel and he excused himself for the night and asking Jazz to cover for him should anything go wrong he changed forms and flew invisible all the way back to the Wayne tower.

It took some searching but soon enough he found the room of the young Co-CEO that had to be the one that looked into Amity and his family. Finding the office empty, Danny frowned before looking around. He couldn't find anything suspicious, it was just a normal office. Crossing his arms while floating to the middle of the room Danny tried to think about it more.

"Not finding what you are looking for Phantom?"

His head snapped to the side as he turned around ready for a fight. Instead Danny came face to face with Red Robin. Great he definitely did not want the attention of their local Bat-Clan. Wasn't it enough that his home town couldn't decide if he was a menace or not? He didn't need Gotham trying to decide too. Considering how Batman apparently disliking Metas it already wasn't looking good for him. It was already bad enough that the Justice League had finally gotten wind of Amity.

"Look I am not here to cause trouble, I just…"

"You're just looking into why someone in Wayne Enterprises would look into you or your identity and you suspected the young CEO Tim Drake-Wayne because he spent the majority of the business meeting with your parents on his laptop?"

"How do you…?"

"I have my sources."

Danny eyed the vigilante; this was not what he expected. Wait, did he say his parents? His eyes widened and he heard the other chuckle. "Yea you make it pretty easy on how to discover your identity, kid. Might wanna take that post down discussing your identity. That's dangerous even if seemingly no one believes it. If people pay close attention it's easy to figure out."

Danny narrowed his eyes. Okay fuck, so some outsider had figured out his identity and that one happened to be connected to Batman who hated Metas… Dear Acients he was fucked.

"If you are planning to arrest me and give me over to the GIW, I will not hesitate…"

"Arresting you? No, why would I do that? This is more interesting. Though I admit the Fentons research is pretty biased, you're a good guy no matter how torn your hometown is on that matter. Besides, the JL is already looking into these 'Guys in White' the Ghost King has informed us about." Red Robin shrugged but Danny did not let his guard down. "I was honestly thinking about black mailing you to join the Young Justice League and then work with you together or train you to find out more about this Ectoplasm. I have my suspicions that it has something to do with Lazarus Water and who better to get to help than the kid that lived with scientists researching and had a lap accident that gave him powers that he is also actively hiding from his parents. I saw the video footage of you getting zapped by their inventions."

Danny flinched at the last part, phantom pains running through his arm that had touched the button but he forced himself to stay calm. "You are blackmailing me?"

"I would call it forceful recruitment for help with a case." The vigilante shrugged. "But essentially yes."

"What if I refuse?"

"I will relate the information to batman including your home situation and depending on what we find I will have a new brother in about one to two."

"Months?"

"Weeks. It all depends on your parents though. Are you even safe with them? I heard them talking about tearing you apart molecule by molecule."

"I am fine! They are good parents, really!"

Acients his panic was slowly setting in. What was happening? First Red Robin revealed that he had discovered his identity, then he was getting blackmailed, then told to help in a case about something called Lazarus Water and now his parents are under suspicion, of what?

Red Robin only hummed. "Hey Oracle, you heard the kid right? Only Static? No matter, please look into Daniel Fentons home life and potential therapy. Yeah I will be mailing B the rest of the entire report."

"Wait, what are you doing?"

"Getting a new brother." After a short moment of Danny staring at the other vigilante they added "...and sister."

What in the name of Ancients was happening?!

[scramblecat]

Something I really love about Nerdy Prudes Must Die is how it completely subverts the ‘uncool kid joins the popular kids’ trope.

Typically with a story that has a similar premise (a friend or a love interest in a higher place on the school hierarchy from the ‘uncool’ character) I feel like a lot of the time we see the same thing happen over and over: the uncool kid finds a place in the popular kids, and starts behaving like them, treating everybody they used to hang out with as below them. If it’s ‘resolved,’ it’s by the main character realizing the popular kids are actually shitty people that they don’t want to hang out with. Even if at the end they go back to the uncool kids, that pipeline and change still happens, and it’s central to the plot.

And that’s certainly what I thought we were going to see in Nerdy Prudes. After Pete’s phone call with Steph (‘just these two fuckin’ nerds who won’t leave me alone!’), I was genuinely, actually starting to dread seeing Pete go through that change and start to treat Richie and Ruth like shit. I can even go so far to say I was expecting him to, given his newfound boost of confidence and thinking he’s impervious to even Max Jägerman!

But Nerdy Prudes doesn’t do that at ALL.

Pete never rises to the status of ‘popular kid’. Instead, Steph is the one to join the other group.

It’s clear that she’s certainly reluctant to do so— she’s been conditioned by the school environment and her popular kid status to think these kids are losers and Weird and uncomfortable to be around. But she’s also reluctant to actually be a shitty person to them, especially after she starts falling for Pete.

Speaking of Pete, he really is her link into the group, just like the role of ‘popular kid’ usually is played in this genre of storyline. But it’s handled a lot differently, and the way it is fits so well into the plot.

The only reason that Steph is willing to join the group of nerds in the first place is, of course, to get revenge on Max. But at the start of the musical, it’s clear that she doesn’t even know the magnitude of what Max does to the nerds— she straight up asks Pete who he’s running from right before Literal Monster, for Pete’s sake (ha do you see what I did there—). I don’t think she’d have to ask if she knew how much of a monster Max really was. Seeing what he did to Pete was what snapped her into that realization of how fucked up Max’s behavior is (and that nobody is going to punish him for it), which is why she joins the group.

‘But Scramble where’s your Evidence that just sounds like a theory?’

Bear with me here while I talk about Bully the Bully.

Bully the Bully (and the scene prior) is actually the single greatest indicator of how Steph’s opinion of the nerds shifts. At first, she looks and sounds like she absolutely does not want to be there. She takes a place standing FAR away from the group—

— and retorts back at things they’re saying multiple times, insulting them a little, and just generally looking down on them. (‘God, you guys are nerds.’).

She comments on how she thinks the things the nerds are doing are weird (such as the way Grace spins around) and seems very resistant to participating. She still looks down on most of them, and she doesn’t even try to hide it.

But as the song goes on, she starts getting a little more into it. Grace swings her into the group, and she starts participating just a little, joining in on the lineup, laughing a little. And while she doesn’t contribute her own solo line on the rest of the ‘fealty, a duty’ bit like everybody else does, she joins in on Pete’s part once she sees that he’s participating, too. And she’s starting to smile a little!

She starts joining in on the antics a little more after that, and this time on her own! She’s genuinely having fun!! All of a sudden she’s alert and a little more enthusiastic about this, starting to match the energy of the nerds, because she’s realizing that it isn’t so bad after all, and actually that they’re fun to be around!

I really like this sequence here— she’s fully involved at this point, but is thrown off when she sees the other nerds all of a sudden improvising with the moves —

—And tries to come up with one of her own the next time around.

Even if she doesn’t get one in, it’s still clear that she wants to be a part of it, too.

My favorite part however is when she joins in on the ‘bean school’ bit, where she seems a little not sure of what they’re doing & hesitant to do it, but tries to go along with it nonetheless, just like the improv poses— no matter how odd and random it seems to her at first.

It’s a sharp contrast to how she’d been at the start of the song, separated from the group and looking down on them for doing these weird little things. But by the end, she’s realizing how enjoyable this group really is! She’s dancing around with them, fully and eagerly joining in on what they’re doing, having fun just being goofy and weird! And she doesn’t see it as a bad thing anymore!

(Okay Scramble note: while making this gif I noticed that Steph is actually the first to initiate the snapping at the end WAAAA… I love the little details in this show. reminder to me to make a post compiling some of my favorites because there are so many I’ve noticed on my rewatches...)

The transition of Steph’s attitude toward the nerds is absolutely delightful. There’s none of that ‘returning to your own position in the heirarchy’ stuff, either. She’s made herself comfortable as a part of the gang, and she enjoys it!

While Steph is the biggest and most relevant, there is actually another (short-lived) example of this— with Max Jägerman, right before his death.

Max is the antagonist of the show. Hell, there’s an entire song at the beginning of the musical dedicated to establishing how much of a terrifying monster he is, and how all the nerds fear him. He even says these things with his own mouth, and he says them with glee. He’s proud to be a bully that people fear, he’s proud that people cower down around him, and he’s absolutely not afraid to be horrible toward those he deems below him.

But after Max is told that the nerds put this together purely to scare him— and that he deserves it— his demeanor towards the nerds changes ENTIRELY. All of a sudden, he’s not the literal monster that he’s explicitly been shown to be up until this point. I’m not saying that ‘he was like this all along’ or whatever— he very much does not regret anything he’s done, and does not regret the person he is, and still is that person. But for a single moment, he sheds the god complex, and for the first time, treats the nerds like equals— and not even in the way Kyle and Jason are ‘equals’.

He’s genuinely excited and happy about all this! He expresses how he really liked how they went about this, and compliments Ruth!

And he’s not bringing them up to his level, either— he is meeting them where they’re at. Similarly to Steph, he’s starting to be okay with some of the aspects of how the nerds behave, and even finding it fun in his own way. Even if the intent was to scare him, he likes the way they executed it, and takes it as something they did to make him happy. Obviously he never gets to have a chance at adjusting to it like Steph did, but hey, I’m counting it as a small example regardless!

(And this all is not to discount the fact that he’d very proudly done— and continued to do— fucked up things. he’s.. not a decent person regardless of this scene AJDHAHRHA im not exactly a max redemption arc truther. but that just kind of showed that he had the Potential to adjust. and then he got killed and turned evil again </3)

Anyway. Really delightful how they executed this trope subversion, and I’m so happy that they did. Not only does it help to emphasize that these characters care about each other/are genuine to each other (especially in the case of Steph and Pete, and Pete and the other nerds) but it really feels a lot neater and nicer to watch than it would’ve been if they’d gone the route with the trope as it’s usually played!

I am notoriously terrible at figuring out how to word a conclusion, so have another little gif and compare it to the first image in the post :]

[rebelliouslyeverafter]

If I were to rewrite Ever After High I have two ideas for what I might do for some Huntlynn drama

The first would be to make it a Hunter/Ash/Dex/Raven thing instead of Cupid/Dex/Raven thing. Sorry Cupid, I love you but you did not contribute to the plot aside from the 'triangle'. But here, Ash and Dex think they're destined and while they are ok with each other they're not thrilled. And then they fall for Hunter and Raven and it gets even tougher. I like this because it folds the two forbidden romances together instead of that random not love triangle and also resolves who Ash and Dexter were 'supposed' to be with.

Or another option is Ashlynn's prince being a new character who's Gaston type? Daring was vain but ultimately a good person, this guy could be a real jerk despite supposedly being a prince. Ashlynn could find the strength to stand up for herself against him and destiny to be happy with Hunter. I could also use it for Daring's growth if he's a Charming cousin who he comes to realize is bad and does some soul-searching. think it could bein interesting, but I have hangups about original characters when we already have a lot.

Thoughts on the ideas?

[bougiebutchbinch]

It baffles me that some people think the only reason people talk about the awful things Ed did in canon is because they hate him

not because he's... y'know..... a SUPER INTERESTING CHARACTER

Redemption arcs are freaking delicious, man. But in order to have one, you need to actually have done... bad shit.... to begin with??

Like how Izzy was a bossy bastard to Stede's crew in S1? Then stepped up to protect that crew from Ed, when Ed turned on them all and Izzy started to see 'the kids' as his crew?

The redemption arc of Ed - a man who's done genuinely bad abusive shit that was certainly influenced by his atrocious mental health - would have been even more fascinating. If it had been handled well.

As anyone who suffers with severe mental health issues knows: this shit is fucking ugly. It's not about pretty sadboy aesthetics or quirky 'teehee so chaotic' bouts of hyperactivity. Sometimes you fuck up. Sometimes you fuck up, badly. Sometimes you hurt people. You lose friends and push away family and may even end up isolating yourself through cruelty to others as a form of self-harm.

Before the inevitable bad faith actors wilfully misinterpret what I'm saying: Mental health problems don't cause abuse.

But they can be one of many contributing factors. If you have a disorder like my own (which I certainly headcanon Ed as sharing!) where you are incredibly sensitive and reactive to any hint of negativty or rejection, you have to expend genuine time and energy on learning techniques to control yourself, for the sake of others. When that doesn't happen... well, I was excited to see the consequences depicted graphically on screen.

But no matter the cause, you still have to take responsibility for the harm you perpetuate?? And I want to see that on screen, too!

If you were physically mutilating a guy repeatedly over whom you held power as his captain (and no, Izzy did not 'deserve it'; get your victim-blaming bullshit out of here), and you kept everyone else in a perpetual state of fear in the hopes that one of them would snap and kill you..... you still did that? Even if you were motivated by suicidality?

If you forced two people who deeply cared for each other to fight to the death, because your mental health was so awful that you couldn't believe that love was real......... you still chose to hurt them in such a deeply personal way?

If you chased a guy around with a knife For Funsies and made him constantly break down in tears because you were so engrossed in your own issues that you genuinely didn't realise you were traumatising him... You still traumatised him!

Exploring what comes next is incredibly interesting. It could have made a great plot about accepting accountability for one's actions - but also understanding that even people who've done terrible things can change and heal (although obviously, their victims owe them nothing).

Like. Excuse me for wanting to explore such a complex, fascinating, multi-faceted storyline centred on mental health issues near and dear to my heart for one of my favourite characters? And for being disappointed that the show and half the fandom took the simple & boring way out by pushing all of The Atrocities under a rug, because they struggle to love a character who has done abhorrent things?

[all-souls-matinee]

BONUS Halloween in August/September Review: Alien: Romulus (2024)

[Eschewing my usual format of 1-2 sentence summary + 1-2 paragraphs of thoughts, this one will be a combination to include several spoilers. It also assumes some prior knowledge of the Alien franchise]

Going into Romulus I was leery of how video game-y the trailer felt and the choice of a director best known for 'subverted expectations' home invasion horror, but those were the two aspects of it I ended up really liking. The premise is that a group of 20-somethings are stuck in an intergalactic mining town where the amount of missions they must fly hours they must work to gain an emigration permit is raised by a few years each time they reach their goal. Our protagonist, Rain, is told by a friend that he and his crew have discovered the wreck of the Nostromo floating above them and plan to break in and steal its cryochambers; the last thing they need for their own ship to make an escape into deep space. The crew welcomes her, but admit that what they really need is her adoptive brother Andy, an ill-liked synthetic who can access the Nostromo's controls. So far so good, I love this premise! It's a little YA dystopia, we've got a ragtag group of mining orphans that look like TikTok influencers and don't have personalities, but that's okay- acceptable and even expected for an Alien movie. I'm also not here to clutch pearls over the sanctity of the original; everything that follows plot-wise is good stuff! Reminiscent of video games, yes, but that means lots of clever little item pickups and interactions, and the tension-building is excellent. An early example: while collecting cryofuel half the team is trapped in a room full of slowly thawing, unseen facehuggers. The other half must retrieve a master-key computer chip from Ash's body (left over from the original mission) to pass to Andy, who is then stuck in reboot mode and unable to help until a critical moment, and this all filmed brilliantly with great effects. There are several standout scenes like it; the movie feels connected to the rest of franchise while contributing new ideas- playing with gravity and temperature and electricity as both weapons and stumbling blocks. It looks good, I like individual plot beats (including the contentious climax), I love the multiple dead rat puppets that are here for some reason, but this is also the only movie I've considered walking out of.

No one barring David Jonsson (Andy) can act, and chemistry is nonexistent. We're told that the crew is composed of friends, siblings, cousins, and love interests, but never actually see it, and no matter how good the plot and pacing are on paper that really makes things drag in places. I like the aliens and love the androids in these movies, but at the end of the day I've always ended up rooting for the humans because of the empathy on display. Many of the Aliens are objectively worse than Romulus from a filmmaking perspective, but this is the first one where I wanted the bad guys to win.

The main villain of this movie isn't the aliens, it's Ash. I was spoiled on CGI Deepfaked* Ian Holm going in, so when they boarded the Nostromo and saw his body I rolled my eyes and braced myself for a scene where he comes to life like a haunted house prop and then they kill him or whatever, but no, he sticks around and drives the entire plot. It's awful; I don't even hate this one from a writing perspective it just feels insanely disrespectful (and is distractingly bad to look at.)

3. The Green Mile is one of my most hated movies of all time. I revisited it early this year when the podcast Just King Things discussed the book within the context of Stephen King's larger body of work, which stresses the character of John Coffey not as an aberration but a trope King keeps coming back to: a black or disabled person who is a holy innocent. Physical prowess and/or magic powers are coupled with the disposition of a character like Of Mice and Men's Lennie or Flowers for Algernon's Charlie to create someone who looks scary but is actually worthy of love because, hey guys, he's nice and sympathetic in a way that appeals to an imagined white American audience. Months after listening to that episode I accidentally walked into an even broader literary context, discovering the character of Jean in E.E. Cummings's The Enormous Room (a nearly 1:1 blueprint for Coffey), and Pip in Moby-Dick, a child traumatized to a point of babbling incoherence that allows him to act as a holy conduit, a prophet, and a comfort to his captain. These characters aren't meant to be racist but rather to teach about antiblack racism, which makes for interesting reading, but a terrible Alien movie.

Andy is the only black character in this film. Andy is referred to as Rain's brother at most twice, then revealed to be her servant (literally programmed by her father to do two things- protect her and make dad jokes.) Andy is cognitively and physically disabled from being rebooted so many times over the years, and faces extra abuse and discrimination because of this. I cannot begin to describe how it felt to have spent the year bumping into saintly black characters in media who are dehumanized in order to teach some vague platitude about humanity, only to run into it again here. It gets worse and more muddled when Andy is rebooted using Ash's chip, which makes him "normal," which makes him evil. Ash uses him to further the interests of Weyland rather than his sister/master Rain and it makes him start saying scary inhuman stuff like 'the solution to the trolley problem is to kill as few people as possible.' (Again, go bad guys.)

I know the movie doesn't see itself as racist. Andy is by far the most interesting character and has a lot of complexity to him; Rain's whole arc is learning that no one should have seen him as expendable or treated him as an inferior, and tells him his new prime directive is to live for himself (as well as her. Can't leave that on the table.) Alverez clearly had the best of intentions, but the movie can't get away from the fact that Andy being cognitively impaired and using his strength and powers to the benefit of some random white girl, choosing family over work but also the individual over the collective, was actually what made him human.

Okay rant over. I liked the part where they threw a flair and the facehuggers scurried after it like a pack of dogs because they hunt by body heat and movement instead of by smell and vision. Yay :-)

*Holm was deepfaked 'respectfully' with the consent of his family using a combination of animatronic and a new actor... and the company literally responsible for deepfakes (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/alien-romulus-ian-holm-rook-ash-ai-1235982350.) I cannot stress enough how bad this is to look at for almost 2 hours like i needed to talk about Andy but jesus christ.

[billk4ulitzsecretlvr]

Fic request botTOM! w DomBill! plz idc the situation or scenario I just love me some bottom Tom

A/N ☆ : sorry I have not ! Been very active at all recently / writing really short .. I got on here with a big burst of motivation and just do not have so much any more :[ . I wrote also this all in one sitting as a hopes that I will get back to writing more , hehe ..

Please make sure that when you guys are sending requests , there is at least some sort of plot I can grab on to . I know the main focus in this is that Tom is bottom and Bill is a Dom but including setting or even just backgrounds information helps me write better sometimes and makes me able to write longer too <3 .

☆ This fic contains : MLM , smut , oral play , bit of spit . ?? ( Always hehe .. ) , edging , sub ! Tom x Dom ! Bill ( 2009 / 10 ) ( which I am really excited to try . )

It had been a decently long day between the twins, they both agreed that it was a bit off the entire time. Not because they had argued or really just anything happened, but it felt that Tom was just extra clingy tonight which piqued Bill's interest just a bit.

They had just gotten in, Bill set his bag down on the dining room table whereas Tom let his own bag down on the couch. He moved a bit over to Bill in means of wrapping his arms around the boys slim waist and pecking eagerly at the exposed skin on his neck.

Bill was slightly thrown off, his arms raising in surprise for a couple seconds as he felt the older man coddle his waist.

He felt as Tom pushed in-between his lock extensions to leave small kisses, even on the tattoo on the back of Bills neck.

Bill sighed, pulling Tom off a bit as he side eyed the man, admiring his cornrows and the small black lip ring that snuggly fit against Tom's lower lip.

"You're so clingy lately." Bill noted, tilting his head slightly while crossing his arms.

Tom had a soft look in his eyes, a look that told Bill nearly everything he needed to know.. but still left him at a bit of a confusion.

Bill didn't really have an edge to his tone but it was obvious he understood what Tom was asking for and he was definitely going to play with it.

He walked himself over to the couch, heavy boots clacking against the floor with every movement. The sound of his necklaces and pocket chains contributed to the noise, not very loudly but it was definitely audible.

He heard simply as Tom followed, like some sort of lost puppy.

Bill sat on the couch, his leather jacket making slight friction with the matching black leather couch. It was quiet, the room was lit dimly by lazy lamps in the corners of the room.. something Tom and Bill made an effort to keep soft and subtle in their living area.

"I just miss you." Tom lied, looking down at Bill on the couch. It made the boy raise and eyebrow when the soft tone left Toms lips.

Bill didn't say anything, almost at a lost. Not that it was generally surprising that Tom was 'soft' at the moment, it was sheerly just.. throwing Bill off a bit from his normal 'tough guy' demeanor. Especially since he had his cornrows. ( Which Bill couldn't deny he was utterly in love with.)

"Yeah?" Bill asked after a couple seconds of awkward silence.

"Prove it to me, Tom." Bill said, uncrossing his legs and spreading his knees slightly as he slumped a bit on the couch. He nudged Tom's leg with his boot, rubbing it up and down until Tom had gotten the memo to get on his knees.

Once the man had complied and sat himself between Bills legs, the younger of the two chuckled, shaking his head.

"Like a damn dog.." Bill remarked.

He waited a couple seconds to see that Tom wasn't moving forward to anything, just looking a bit nervously up at Bill.

"Come on, we've done this before, yeah?" Bill asked, cupping Tom's cheek and rubbing it a bit before unzipping his own somewhat flared, black jeans.

He watched as Tom hesitantly pulled him through his boxers, taking Bill into his mouth with experience. The boys back arched only slightly, feeling the foreign turf of Toms warm..wet mouth against his length. Something he always enjoyed.

He put his slender fingers on the back of Toms head, rubbing the tight hairstyle as a bit of encouragement while Tom worked his mouth.

God, it always felt amazing. Tom seemed to known how to do everything. Bill bit his lower lip, looking down to watch as Tom's head lifted and lowered.

"Good boy," Bill whispered. Tom nearly melted under Bill at that point.

Praise as always Toms weakness.. and that meant from everybody, especially in the belittling voice Bill always used on him. He felt his knees dig into the ground with Bills knees pressed against his upper arms.

After some time, Bill lifted Toms chin to make eye contact, noticing the small bit of precum that gathered in the one corner of Toms mouth. He giggled, wiping it with his thumb as he held Toms face. He pressed his thumb up against Tom's lips, feeling as the man opened and closed it around Bills finger.

"Good boooyy ..." Bill dragged out again, sitting up as he looked down at Tom on the carpet.

He watched as Tom put his own hand over Bills wrist, rubbing slightly. The man looked at the boy with such a look of awe and desperation. Bill leaned forward just enough to pinpoint the outline of Tom's erection through the baggy fabric of his jeans.

"Already?" Bill asked, cocking an eyebrow. Tom hesitantly answered.

"I-I just- .." he started after he pulled off of Bills finger.

Bill smirked, looking down and nudging the bulge with his boot. He heard as Tom made a quiet noise, it had instantly clicked to Bill that he had most of the control at the moment.

Bill kept his boot over Toms groin, pressing down a bit just to see how Tom could react. Hearing small moans he'd earned from it just coined Bill all manipulation over the situation now. Tom wrapped his hand around Bills shin/calve.. which made Bill smirk.

He felt as Tom pushed himself slightly up against Bills boot, desperate for any sort of relief as soon as possible.

"Sit where I am sitting." Bill ordered, fixing himself in his jeans before buttoning them and standing up.

He watched as Tom took his place. He immediately joined, sitting right next to the man on the couch on his knees.

Bill leaned over and kissed Toms cheek, feeling his hand creep across Bills back to pull him a bit closer. Of course, Bill was not settling for Tom to authorize any of the interaction.

The younger boy pushed his feathery hair back over his locks, massaging Tom gently through his jeans. He felt as the older twins body moved against his hand, pushing up slightly.

"You're so.. interesting." Bill commented, quietly. He heard Tom's deeper voice retort back.

"Please, just get over this rubby stuff.. just touch me?" He offered in a way that was like he was telling Bill.. which he sort of was.

Bill ignored him before an idea struck.

He looked up at Tom, gauging a reaction as he continued to palm the man, seeing him move a bit under the touch in a means of desperately just wanting to get off by Bill. Of course, eventually it would happen.. but Bill wanted to have a bit of fun first.

"Mm.. tell me when you're close." Bill whispered, pushing his hand into Toms jeans and massaging through the thin material of his boxers.

By now, he has felt Tom slightly twitching in his grasp, feeling him throb a bit before Tom squeezed Bill's lower back. Which made Bill remove his hand all together. He watched the pleasure drain from Toms face, contorting more to a look of confusion. He arched his back only slightly as he felt his tip dribble a bit of cum.. but not a lot, easily mistaken as precum.

He raised his eyebrows at Bill, looking quite sad. Bill just bit his lower lip, smirking.

"Huh.." Bill commented, pushing his hand back into Tom's jeans.

He nipped the man's neck a bit as Tom's hands roamed his thin frame, tickling under his shirt.

Bill teased his tip through the fabric, feeling the sticky residue seeping through it slowly as Tom's head laid against the fabric.

"So hard." Bill purred, earning a groan from Tom.

Bill pumped his hand a little faster, feeling as Tom's body gave the cues he was close again.. which just lead him to stop touching as soon as he was about to cum. He watched as Tom's face showed an ounce of frustration..

He put his hands on Bills ribs, toying with the cloth that covered his lanky body.

"Stop doing that." He mumbled out, pushing his hips up a bit to rub against Bills hand.

Bill lifted his hand, raising an eyebrow at Tom.

"Talk to me like that again and I'll stop all together." Bill hissed, an attempt at asserting dominance.. which seemed to work a bit since Tom recoiled at his sharp tone, sulking back a bit and waiting for Bill to touch him.

He was so hard now, all the teasing and edging was really getting to him at this point and there was probably nothing more he wanted than to simply just get off. He wanted to do it himself.. But Bills long nails, his thin fingers.. his pace, god, it was all perfect. It all felt amazing.

Everytime Bill had jerked him off it felt like the first time all over again, something Tom remembered thoroughly enjoying for a long time. He was a fan of the familiarity and the new feeling of their.. bond. Tom kinda missed it a bit, everything between them being fresh and working to explore all their interests.

Of course, now was amazing too. They were definitely as comfortable as ever with each other and that was pretty freeing, but new things were always fun.

"Sorry." Was all Tom mumbled, feeling Bills hand actually touch him now, his hand dug into Toms boxers as he moved to kissing Tom's neck.

His lips touched confidently, the man's skin.. sucking and leaving marks like always, just not such long lasting ones this time.

His wrist moved a bit as he toyed with Toms length, rubbing his thumb over the sticky head as he pleasured Tom.

It didn't help a bit that Bill was sitting on his knee, something Tom was always fond of for a couple reasons. He squeezed Bill's waist softly as he felt himself come close, biting his lower lip. Tom attempted to stay permanently quiet, not wanting to give Bill an idea of how good this felt.. but it was impossible.

He was whimpering softly under Bills touch, thinking the other boy didn't catch on.. when really, it was all Bill could focus on.

He never heard such noises from Tom before.. especially at such a simple thing as a handjob? .. whatever, it was a bit cute to him.

Bill felt Tom twitch again, bringing his opposite hand up to cover Tom's mouth as he felt him release.. the younger boy felt as Tom breathed hotly against his hand, pushing his hips up a bit to ride out the orgasm.

Feeling the warm sensation run along his hand, he kept pumping just a bit longer to make sure Tom had cum to his full potential, causing Bill to smirk at his older brothers immediate look of exhaustion.

He watched Toms eyes relax, narrow a bit as Bill dropped his hand to Toms neck, leaving a hungry kiss on his lips.

"You're so not done." Bill hissed quietly in his ear...

[smokestarrules]

May I ask about the Star Vs downspiral? I remember seeing commercials about that show but that's the extent of what I know. But I'm curious now.

Well, honestly there was a Lot that contributed to its fall from grace, but here are some of the lowlights.

(It's been a very long time since I watched this show so I may be forgetting some details; this is how I remember it).

A) Four prominent characters are drawn into a horrible, horrible love square. Star herself, Marco, who is the other main character whose family she stays with while on Earth, her ex-boyfriend Tom, and another character who we meet later, Kelly. I'm sure some people always shipped Star and Marco, whatever, but a significant amount of the fandom including myself were beyond content with their relationship staying platonic---romance was not a factor that needed to be brought in to make us care about their dynamic. In fact, romance just about killed any enjoyment for them at all because it was so poorly written.

Marco and Star go back and forth between taking that romantic step and subsequently rejecting each other for various reasons. At some point Star gets back with her ex, Tom, who seems to have turned over a new leaf. Marco and Tom even have episodes where they hang out together too. Then Marco starts dating Kelly at the same time Star and Tom start to fall out again.

Now that I'm writing this I've realized I actually forgot another entire character who was wrapped up in this; Jackie Lynn, who Marco has a crush on in the early season(s?). She and Marco are together at some point until she leaves him because he's clearly not into her anymore. There are five characters who get stuck in this terrible plotline.

It's just... so needlessly dramatic and completely unnecessary. Star and Marco end up together, of course, but in doing so they completely screw over those two other characters, and by that time, their relationship just leaves a bad taste in fans' mouths.

B) Star VS as a show initially started out as pretty episodic and pivoted to a more narrative-driven storyline later on, which isn't at all necessarily bad, but a lot of what I personally liked about the show ended up being pushed to the wayside because of the bigger emphasis on the plot, and it was disappointing. Not everything needs to have a massive earth-shattering narrative to be good.

The early episodes were character-driven, full of incredibly interesting worldbuilding, and just fun to watch. All of those things were shoved away to make room for something more dramatic and serious.

C) The main bad guys are also pretty much an entire species which is never a good idea because it breeds so many uncomfortable writing decisions. They're "monsters" and they are The Bad Guys, who the Regular People need to stay away from. The narrative kinda tries to challenge this concept, but in the end it's really just not important whatsoever.

Honorable mention) When the show was still good, Marco had a couple episodes in which really interesting things were happening with his gender; he crossdressed as part of Plot and then seemed as as if he was confused about how it made him feel? But later on that plotline turned into more of a joke than it already was and went nowhere. Just weird.

D) How the show ended was one of the absolute worst I've ever seen. I truly cannot explain to you just how--bizarre it is; anticlimactic, rushed, unexpected in the worst way. To stop people from fighting, Star makes the incredibly quick decision to just. destroy magic.

So she does.

The aftermath shows that the two dimensions (Earth and Star's original home, Mewni) are now merged together in some sort of 'happy' fusion, magic is completely not a thing anymore, and entire species that have before been shown to canonically need magic to survive are dead because of it, though the show doesn't think to provide a better explanation for that at all.

And it ends.

[getvalentined]

More Pokémon Holy/Meteor stuff. Nero's little profile isn't here because I have a whole picture of him on the same vein as Vincent's that I'd like to finish eventually. I am missing a handful of characters that would be in the "game," most notably the title's Professor (for which I am still torn between two options and may never settle) as well as Grimoire and Veld, who are both in the story but not technically integral to the main storyline(s).

There's a lot more than this bouncing around in my head but it's a lot so I'll stop with these and the notes below unless people are interested in something specific not covered here. (If so, drop me an ask and I'll happily answer! I love talking about my needlessly complicated crossover AUs, but they are so needlessly complicated that I don't generally just infodump about them.)

Other notes under the cut!

Cloud is the player character; the starting age for a Pokémon Journey in the Midgar region is 14, and he was 16 at the time of the accident, making him 21 during the main story. The storyline reflects this, as Cloud is much older than a standard protag for this series, but he's been out of the world recovering for long enough that he's still got a unique sort of naïveté. (Tifa would probably be the female protag but Cloud is the default here sorry.)

Sephiroth is the main "rival" in Pokémon Meteor, Genesis is the "rival" in Pokémon Holy, although they both appear in both titles and serve the same overall function for the narrative. They are not antagonists.

The Legendary for Meteor is "Jenosynthe," a reference to Jenova Synthesis; Holy has "Omegaia," which is a reference to Omega and to Gaia/Minerva. They have particular connections to Sephiroth and Genesis respectively, and Grimoire's contribution to the plot allows the player to obtain the other title's Legendary post-game.

The Midgar region is the only one to have "Variant" gyms, which focus on regional variants rather than a specific type. This is a new, secondary path with badges that can be mixed and matched with standard type-based gyms to reach the required number of badges to take on the League.

Other gym leaders: Kunsel (Psychic, he battles blindfolded), Reno and Rude (Electric), Yuffie (Hisuian variant), Rosso (Fighting*), Sonon (undecided on his gym but he's here), Weiss (Ground, because I love a stupid reference), and Chadley (secret unlockable Shiny variant gym, only accessible if you beat all the other gyms on both paths, bestows the Shiny charm), as well as others. *Veld's gym used to be Fighting-type but Tseng converted it when he took over following Veld's retirement, allowing Rosso to move out of her previous position with the League and set up a new one.

Other members of Team Helletic: Azul, Rayleigh, Gillian and Angeal (the "multi-generational multi-battle"), Sebastian and Essai (who are under the control of Something), and Shears, as well as others. Hollander was a member until the incident five years ago, which is implied to have led to his death.

Other important NPCs: Cid (the fast travel guy, may work with the Professor), Barret (runs the Pokémon breeding center), Cait Sith (a navi system that shows up through a specific set of sidequests and is revealed to be Reeve's at the end), Shelke (appears in the same sidequests as Cait Sith), Dio (runs a facility for fast EV training), and Johnny (nobody knows why he's here but he sure is), as well as others.

[dartheclipse0816]

Trolls Band Together

Hello once again, everyone.

At this point, I’m sure you all already know why I’m not as active as I used to be.

But if some of you need a refresher, in Layman's terms, being an adult, with the responsibilities that all comes with being an adult, has left me very busy, and it just caused me to lose interest in Tumblr and only come back for short periods of time, from time to time.

But now, now that the newest Trolls movie, Trolls Band Together, has released, I figured I’d write my thoughts about it.

But before I begin, I must give you all a heads up: There’s going to be major spoilers with what I’m about to talk about, so if you are reading this and haven’t seen the movie yet but still want to see it, if you don’t want the movie to be spoiled, then don’t read this any further. It’s going to have major spoilers.

But, for those who have seen the movie, well, here’s what I have to say:

I loved it.

I loved the music, the animation, the voice acting, as well as the all the new characters and the chemistry between the new and returning characters.

I appreciated that the movie started acknowledging the Bergens again and gave them a more prominent role in the movie after they mostly went ignored for a long time after the first movie, Trolls Holiday, and the first few seasons of TTBGO (even though it and Trollstopia aren’t canon to the movies). Seeing Gristle and Bridget finally getting married and contributing significantly to the plot was nice to see, and cute, I'd say.

I also thought it was cool seeing that Branch also once was part of a band with his four older brothers, and him going through the movie trying to reconnect with them, while difficult for him after they left him in his childhood, was still nice to see, especially with Floyd. It was nice seeing Floyd comfort Branch when he was a baby, and be the most supportive of him throughout the movie next to Poppy, after seeing Branch being the one who always got the short end of the stick for a long time throughout TTBGO and Trollstopia. It really made me smile.

I also liked Camila Cabello as Viva. Seeing the singer who sung Havana voicing Poppy's secret long lost sister, it was cute.

And, of course, seeing *NSYNC appear in the movie and collaborating with Justin Timberlake again after over 20 years, was awesome! Their new song, 'Better Place', gives me the same feeling of joy when I listened to 'Green Light Ride' from Crush 40 when they reunited with the Sonic series after a long break for Team Sonic Racing. It was awesome to hear them back together again in both instances.

I also especially loved seeing the combined band of Branch, his brothers, and Poppy and Viva all singing together for both a remix of 'Better Place' and 'Family', and it made me realize why the film was even titled Band Together, because they were literally banding together!

Now, with all that being said, I did have some issues with the film as well.

The movie's villains, Velvet and Veneer, they felt kinda one-dimensional and shallow. I thought they could’ve spent more time with them to develop their backstories a bit more and make them a bit more fleshed out.

And also, what’s the name of the species of Velvet and Veneer? They never appeared in any of the previous movies, holidays specials, or non-canon shows, and were never implied to or hinted at before, but that we do know about their existence, why don’t the Trolls or Bergens know about them? And also, they have advanced technology that can suck out a Troll's musical talent? And apparently Wi-Fi and social media exists in the Trolls world? What the heck?

Okay, okay, I know most of that doesn’t bother a lot of you guys, but to me, it highlights an ongoing issue I’ve always seen within the Trolls series: Inconsistencies with regards to its world building. I know a lot of you guys have seen it in the non-canon shows, but I also saw it in Trolls World Tour, since that movie introduced Trolls tribes that all have their own unique musical genre. As cool as I thought that was, it also made me think: Do those other musical Troll tribes know about the Bergens? Do the Bergens know about those other Troll tribes?

And speaking of those other Troll tribes, I was also disappointed that they aren’t even seen or mentioned in this movie. It left me very disappointed, since there’s a lot of potential you could do with those other Troll tribes, like make some kind of new evil threat that could threaten the entire Trolls' and Bergens' species, and have all the Troll tribes and Bergens band together (pun intended) to stop that evil threat. That could’ve been awesome!

Oh, and the Snack Pack got reduced to extras, which, like my disappointment with the absence of the other Troll tribes, left me feeling a bit disappointed, since they could’ve done something more with them in this movie.

Other than those things, I really loved the film!

And for all you Trolls fans out there, I think it’s time that I mention the elephant in the room with regards to Broppy.

Finally…

After waiting over seven long years since the first movie…

And seeing a far away version at the end of World Tour…

Branch.

And.

Poppy.

Finally.

At.

Long.

Last…

…

…

…

KISSED.

THEY FINALLY DID IT!!!

BRANCH AND POPPY FINALLY KISSED EACH OTHER ON THE LIPS!!!

IT HAS FINALLY HAPPENED!!!

Now, unfortunately, unlike with Trolls World Tour, Trolls Band Together is still in theaters, and I didn’t find any leaked screencaps in time for the writing of this review, but trust me, I’m not kidding, this actually happened in the movie!

And I couldn’t have been more overjoyed to finally see it happen officially, front and center, on screen, and made me cheer in the theater!

And I thought I’d let you all know after being silent for a long time!

Because after waiting for over seven years, after all that waiting, I couldn’t be happier to see that the kiss was well worth the wait.

As a big Trolls fan.

Thank you all for reading this.

And I’ll talk again next time.

Maybe when there’s a new Trolls show or movie?

I guess we’ll just have to wait and find out!

Thank you all once again, and have a wonderful day.

[kaleen-art]

Lupin Zero Sucks (Clickbait)

Spoilers. Duh.

Lupin Zero is a 2022-23 6 episode miniseries following the adventures of Lupin III and Daisuke Jigen as teenagers. I watched the full series recently. It’s very rare I watch a show and am both in awe and also disappointed. Here are my thoughts:

Chapter 1: Aesthetic

Lupin III Part 1 is my favorite Part. It’s where I think the characterizations are at their best and the A-Production episodes with the involvement of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata are some of the best Lupin adventures to this day (not a big fan of Osumi’s “deep and emotional” episodes, will make another essay about this probably). Zero takes a lot of influence from Part 1 and I love it. The music is on point and matches with the very late 60s-early 70s stylings of the first series. The animation and expressiveness is also on point. The artstyle is always distinctive and it’s amazing how they were able to translate the artstyle of the original series into a digital era when I felt like previous attempts (see: digital Part 1 art, Return of Pycal (sorry Shmeepy)) failed. I hate the filter applied over the series though. Besides it just muddying up very nicely done backgrounds and artwork, it also makes the whole series feel like a TikTok “edit”. It’s gross. But at least everything else about the series’s aesthetic is strong enough that this is only a minor nitpick.

Chapter 2: Lupin and Jigen

The best part of Lupin Zero is definitely the relationship between Lupin and Jigen. Jigen is a stone-cold criminal with experience to his name at the start of the series and Lupin is (though he wouldn’t admit it) a rookie crook. Both have exactly what the other one needs. Lupin gives Jigen the love Jigen seemingly gets from nobody else, and Jigen provides Lupin with a partner in crime. Their dynamic as the show goes on, especially prominent in Episode 4 (The Best One) and Episode 5 (Had the great scene between them) is great and the highlight of Zero. The gay vibes are strong on this one and I’m pretty sure this is the part of the show the writers wanted to do the most. Like I said earlier, the show ties in with Part 1 very nicely and the Lupin-Jigen dynamic is no exception. I love Part 1 Jigen so it’s no wonder why Zero Jigen is also great. I like when he Has Fun and Smiles I wish they let him do that in Part 2 and the new stuff.

Chapter 3: Lupin and his legacy

I really like how they executed Lupin’s relationship with his family. Lupin (the Third) and Arsene Lupin both want him to become a thief, but Lupin the Third wants to forge his own path instead of adhering to his grandpa’s expectations. Meanwhile, Lupin II wants Lupin to follow the “straight and narrow”. I think this show not only speaks to the feelings of teenagers of every generation, but especially the generation growing up in the 50s and 60s who would become adults in the 70s. Speaking as a teenager who is in the Gen Z generation I understand how it is to feel the weight of the previous generations and their expectations for you, but I also know this was an especially prevalent issue amongst the youth of the mid 20th century, and I think Lupin in Zero really represents that. At the end of the show, he is able to forge his own path and later becomes the Lupin we know and love, resolving this generational conflict. This is another aspect done great in Zero.

Chapter 4: Lupin and Yoko

Fuck Yoko. She ruins the show. This isn’t a joke.

Yoko is… I think? Lupin’s love interest? “But isn’t that Jigen-” THAT’S WHAT I’M SAYING! The show felt the incessant need to add a female lead so they could have boobies on screen. The problem is it’s really gross in Zero. Yoko is an adult ass woman flirting with Lupin the 13 year old and it’s very groomy. In the first episode she even sings about forbidden love (with someone younger than her) to Lupin and Jigen. She contributes close to nothing to the show up until Episodes 5 and 6 (a two-parter). In those episodes, she has a plot with this guy named Gaucho who is like, the villain, and like… She loves him but she also loves Lupin, and it gets really convoluted and dumb. If it seems like I don’t care, it’s because I don’t. 

At the end of the show Gaucho dies and Yoko is in a life-or-death situation, so she decides to kill herself to die with Gaucho. She does this in front of two children, one of whom she is fully aware that he's in love with her. This is a character we are meant to feel sad about when she dies.

She's a total creep and throws me out of the show whenever she's on-screen. I feel like if she didn’t show any interest in Lupin besides an innocent friendship, and Lupin just fell in love with her anyway, that would be significantly better. As is, she gets way too flirtatious with someone literally less than half her age for me to give a fuck when she dies.

I think if they really needed her to be in the show (she does not need to be there) they should’ve removed her and Lupin’s “romance” entirely and instead tried to parallel Lupin and Jigen’s romance plot with her and Gaucho, showing how she and Gaucho are like a bad version of the two. That, in my opinion, would’ve worked a lot better.

Chapter 4: Too Much, Too Little

My biggest problem with Lupin Zero is it tries to cram too much into 6 episodes. If it had just stuck with Lupin and Jigen’s relationship blossoming + Lupin vs. his family, it would’ve been killer, but the stuff with Yoko as well as the final two episodes’ weird war-government plot just muddies up a great idea. It leaves me disappointed because I think Lupin Zero had so much potential but it was ruined by the writers forcing in ideas that detract from the themes already present instead of adding to them. 

Conclusion

Overall, is Lupin Zero worth a watch?

I mean it’s only 6 episodes, you might as well if you like Part 1 or Lupin x Jigen or anything of that sort.

But do I think it’s as great as people have said it is?

God, no. It’s messy and I think overall it’s a 6 or 7 out of 10. 7.5 on a good day.

Good but nothing remarkable. But if this kind of show is what Lupin III series…es went forward with? I wouldn’t be mad, not one bit.

Anyway don't forget to like and subscribe for more bad takes, ok bye see you when I remember I have a tumblr again

[t4twnyclaw]

i think i have many thoughts about a starless clan arc, and only ONE of them good. spoilers for the ENTIRE ARC below.

CONTEXT: ASC is the only arc that I actually followed from start to end, when I got into TBC and AVOS those arcs were already complete and I spoiled myself and had a general idea of the plot and characters of that arc. ASC is the first arc ever in the WC series that I followed from start to finish; and I finally understand when other WC fans mention forgotten character arcs/unfinished plot-lines and rushed endings because oh my god ASC had all of these issues.

first of all. the villain. Splashtail.

I'm not going to lie I really enjoyed him in STAR. He is no Hawkfrost or Brokenstar but his kit-stealing motivations in Star were actually really nice to see. If this side of him was explored earlier on , oe eluded to I wouldn't be as disappointed but the problem here is: that his character shift slipping into madness isn't as smooth as it could be, and I feel like this in the previous book as well, where he seemingly drops his 'nice guy' facade completely.

Tigerstar the First's spiral into evil and madness is done way better. He's depicted as a loyal abiet a bit ruthless warrior, and a respectful family man (He does genuinely care for his kids.) and then he spirals and ends up killing and threatening his clanmates in gruesome ways. (Leading dogs to Brindleface, just blindly killing Runningwind and Redtail, Gorsepaw. etc.)

But at the same time you can see why people follow him, and why SC was eager to elect him as leader. He actually shows leadership skills. He feeds SC, he's a *warrior*.

The way Splashtail's descent leaves ALOT to be desired. It sucks because I loved the Macbeth-like lens they try to spin with Curlfeather and Splashtail but it just ends up falling flat, to me. Splashtail is just some teenager with no charisma skills but he could've been written like Tigerstar 1.

Unfinished plots/Plotholes

While ranting and raving about Splashtail I remembered how in the earlier books, It seemed like He and Berryheart (and their supporters) had a plan together from the beginning. But then STAR comes around and Berryheart and Splashtail's plan seemed to just be...her joining him? merging SC and RC? It seemed like it was a bigger deal in the first few books but it just felt like it fell flat here. Was their plan to try and vote Tigerstar 2 out of his position?

Tree specifically is mentioned twice, having to mediate the SC invading RC situation and both times I'm pretty sure we don't get a follow-up. And he seemingly did a bad job because RC still is really really, hostile against SC. So...Maybe he shouldn't be a mediator if he can't even mediate...correctly?

Leaders can be 'voted' out yet RC doesn't do this with Splashtail when he threatens kittens and obviously doesn't have the best interest in mind anymore.

One of the first lines Nightheart has is about Leadership being fluid, and being a shared responsibility between a few cats. In STAR, RC does just this when Splashtail is killed, even having two representatives during a gathering. I don't understand why RC just tried to disband instead of trying this out...

In STAR Sparrowtail has a conversation about family vs clan duties to Tigerstar 2. as if Tigerstar 2 doesn't CONSTANTLY put his family above his clan.

In STAR Frostpaw acts like she's never heard or seen of Leopardstar but...isn't Leopardstar the first Starclan cat she ever sees.

When Nightheart returns to TC It's implied Finchlight knows what heartbreak feels like, in regards to romantic love. WHO DID SHE LIKE...

Things I liked

Frostpaw, that's it. Frostpaw's POV actually carried this entire ARC. Even in TBC Bristlefrost and Rootspring's POV's may have dragged a bit (especially Rootpsrings) But they still contributed to the plot and characters greatly. Here, Nightheart and Sunbeam POV's mostly involve just each other and their feelings for each other to the point I think, it's obsessive.

I liked the warrior code changes, and I liked seeing Berryheart try to get Tigerstar 2 demoted, even if it was disappointing to actually witness and see play out.

I REALLY loved the names Splashtail gave Mistpaw and Greypaw. and I really like the idea of leaders giving new names as a punishment-of sorts. It reminds me of the cruel names from the first ARC.

I loved the relationship between parents and how that effects Frostpaw and Sunbeam. I wish we actually had more content of Lightleap and her parents, maybe to see how that effects her but whatever...

final thoughts

Sunbeams relationship with Nightheart wasn't anything new I really wanted to see her interact more with Lightleap and her family. Just, overall having Sunbeam STAY in SC instead of *immediately* joining TC would've been better. We have had all these arcs in TC's POV and just having Sunbeam stay in SC would've been SO MUCH BETTER!!!!

Having her realize she loves SC's territory and wants her kits to experience what she experienced so in the 2 month timeskip she and Nightheart move to SC instead would've sufficed.

overall. maybe a 4/10. and that 4 is completely from Frostpaw.

[basedkikuenjoyer]

Spiderwebs Part 6: Master of Puppets

I know I let this fall by the wayside, but I didn't realize it had been almost a year. Wild. This series was about trying to nail down how Dressrosa thematically ties in with where we're at in Wano to Egghead. Particularly the through line that passes through Kiku's quietly significant story. For Doffy himself, the idea is quite simple; if I'm making the argument that many of these New World women have built a space for a sensible final member, whoever it may be, then Doflamingo is the display of how vexing it can be to face someone with this skill set.

For all the love some other lines get, the best one from Doffy is right here as he's revealing he played Law like a damn fiddle. I swear I have thoughts when I go looking for this stuff and it never ceases to impress me how the story always seems to up the ante when you finally do. The best illusions rely on the simplest tricks. He's right, especially with the follow-up:

I want to be 100% clear, when I talk about the way Kiku & Yamato play off each other in Wano...this logic is what it runs on. It's that simple trick that spins a grand illusion and it works because it doesn't feel very battle shonen. Kiku does way more in terms of bonding with the crew and contributing to the plot, not to mention the deeper connections, but the story plays along with both you not liking it when people dote on you as well as Yamato's bluster. If nothing else, Doffy shows Eiichiro Oda is familiar with the concept. The assumption this series wouldn't rely on a kinda meta plot like that for something big because it hasn't before is exactly why it'd work.

What makes Doffy different than the Paradise warlords? Crocodile and Moria lost in the New World but stayed their own men. They just had to retreat and lower their aims. Learn to take things slower. The hard version of the growth we like seeing out of Luffy in early Wano. Doffy on the other hand takes the other route for survival in the New World. He works with the Emperors. But as a broker. Someone who is working his "benefactors" to his own ends too. To me there's a logic there; finding someone like Doffy to fill these gaps is a way to move ahead where the others failed, not have to learn that lesson the hard way. But the wrong person can use those same skills to instigate infighting and manipulate you.

Getting there though, gotta love how Doffy takes over the country. I just adore the design of him lounging in King Riku's window like that. It's such a well executed plan he gets by with open, horrific evil and the people cheer him. Twice, the people cheer for a "hero" that destroys the country. He doesn't rule the same way Kaido will, if you play by his rules Dressrosa actually becomes wealthier. At a cost of contributing more to global suffering as an arms dealer. A lot of the people give in though, indulge their bloodlust in the Colosseum and even with his Birdcage game.

Speaking of, full display of the strengths someone like this relies on. For so much time he was able to sit up there with his executives and make the country fight itself. Promise of money, fear, someone who understands people understands how easy it is to motivate them.

If the main villains are all manifestations of what Luffy could become...that makes Doffy interesting. See I actually think Luffy could become this type of person. Jaded and cynical enough he justifies atrocities through the idea he's protecting his family. Perverting his natural charm and charisma to manipulate those with nowhere else to go. It's why Oden is a great cautionary tale too. Gets me to Baby 5 here. I love this little interchange where Doffy & Luffy show how different they are. Baby 5 immediately steps up and blasts this guy who laughs at Pica's voice. Any of them would, it's cool though how Baby 5 wasn't really a major part of the scene and it feels so sudden. Luffy immediately does the same after, and it isn't long after that we see him learn Doflamingo killed Corazon.

That's usually Luffy's big line, he hates leaders who abuse their subordinates and honestly I chalk that up to the likely (to me) idea a big part of his motivation was growing up a lonely kid sitting in a small town bar. The story makes them natural enemies, which comes up in what we learn of the big D. But we learn a lot from our enemies and that's what I feel gets carried over into WCI/Wano/Egghead.

[dllamarama]

Episode 16 Queen of Tears BaekHong recap

I just have to say this again. It was fine if this amnesia plot happened in an earlier episode so that we can see Hae In slowly fall in love with Hyun Woo again even with YES manipulation. We should be able to see Hae In being guided by her own feelings towards Hyun Woo instead of just relying on her notebook or memories. To see they rediscover their miraculous love and how it blooms into something stronger than their attraction in the past. I love the angst from the early episodes and I imagine how perfect this drama would be if they can show the slow burn of their rediscovery of love. BUT… We lost a much more important plot for the BaekHong couple because PJE is much more interested in making more plot twists and having a ridiculous climax episode where Hyun Woo was hit by a car and then shot by YES but miraculously live. Even without the gunshot scene, it was already a life threatening situation for Hyun Woo after the accident. He had a severe ribs and liver injury WITH suspected internal bleeding. But that man survives (of course) it in the end even with a gunshot and loss of blood. I’m not complaining that the man survives (no one even surprised that he lives) but the extravagance of the situation was totally unnecessary when you have so many things left unexplained.

Scene: The promise he made

I’m kind of angry and disbelieving that they chose to show his promise right after he was being hit by the car. I don’t understand what more they want from him? He already realised his mistake and paid for it with their divorce and allowing Hae In to do as she please with the process, he got his karma when Hae In loss her memory and treated him badly which was how he was treated after their big fight which was also the start of their relationship going downhill. Both of them contribute the same for their divorce but I thought it was already settled when they both had a talk in front of Yongduri supermarket in episode 10. So honestly this part of memory just pissed me off.

The writer is portraying him as someone who forgot his promise but the timeline is wrong in my opinion. Hyun Woo promised to always take her side even if she can’t do the same for him. But, this promise comes before he knows that Hae In is a chaebol. After he knew the truth, he was hiding from Hae In by sending his resignation letter and staying at Yongduri when Hae In came with a helicopter to propose to him by promising to not make him cry and to put his trust on her. The problem here is that if they want to make it a point that Hyun Woo broke and forgot his promise to her, it should come with the understanding that he knew the full story. I’m not saying that his promise is invalid because he didn’t know the full story. I just fcking pissed that they had to pointed this out at this exact moment for a guy who had suffered so much from the family that didn’t appreciate him and with his wife that haven’t fully recovered her memory. It just sucks.

Scene: Lunatic Baek Hyun Woo

This guy with a severe rib and liver injury ran away from the ER to save his wife. He endures a long walk in forest which was covered in thick snow while braving through his injury. Does this even make sense? And to know later that he will be shot in his shoulder with a gun but still comes out alive and well. Can’t they make it a bit more realistic and choose one injury out of those two to make him survive till the end? Anyway, Hyun Woo arrives at Queen's family villa and has to walk through the forest in order to keep hiding from YES men. Luckily before he entered the family villa, their keeper’s clever dog found him and led the way to the keeper’s house. Shout out to this clever cutie for helping his saviour. He obtained the back door’s key and was able to find Hae In inside the villa.

Before we get to the point where Hyun Woo saves Hae In, I have something to say about YES's memory of the day Hong Soo Wan died. So, basically the back story is that YES was there when his mom caused the boat to capsize and caused the death of Hae In’s brother and her mother to hate her. I understand that this plot was important for Hae In to testify in court later for MSH crime. But let me stress this again. If you have so many back stories that need explanation, why don’t you do it sooner or have an extra episode? It’s not even the worst part. The worst part is that we didn’t even know how she did that and why was Hae In and her brother the only one on the boat without any adults? So many questions unanswered and so many things were left being told in a half-assed format.

Back to our couple, Hyun Woo cuts off the electricity in the villa and manages to bring Hae In out of there. But, they have to walk a long way through the thick snow to meet up with Yang Gi at the main gate. When Hyun Woo stumbles in the snow and Hae In worries about him, this is the first time she ever talks to him with warmth in her tone and gaze after her surgery. Hyun Woo was touched with her words and held back his tears while reaching to hold her hand and walking side by side through the snow. It seems that they are already close to the main gate before YES appears with crazy eyes holding a gun. Hyun Woo was shot when YES was aiming his gun at Hae In. While this guy is on the verge of dying, the only one he cares about is Hae In and tells her that he is okay while reaching her hands to tell her not to cry. The parallel that we never wanted was shoved to us when Hyun Woo asked her to not go anywhere, the exact same thing that Hae In asked from him in Germany. Hae In’s dialogue to Hyun Woo is also similar to his promises to her in Germany.

Scene: Hyun Woo being loved by everyone

Hae In’s mother finally realised that Hyun Woo was the one who saved Hae In from the drowning accident years ago. She regrets and is ashamed that she treated him badly while he was married to Hae In and giving him a hard time throughout their marriage. But, Hyun Woo’s mother is a saint and Hyun Woo is the exact copy of Jeon Bong Ae. She does not resent Sun Hwa and just asks for her to pray for Hyun Woo so that he can pull through the surgery and to be grateful once he regains consciousness. Another point worth mentioning here, the Queens family owes so much to Hyun Woo and I wanted to see them treating him better. But we never get the chance, because it seems like PJE loves to see him suffer and denying us the chances to see him being respected and doted on by the Queens family or even in the company. He was treated so badly in the family and within the Queens Group itself, but we never saw the difference after all his effort reinstating the Queens family back into their company. It just does not balance out.

Hae In did not move an inch from Hyun Woo’s bedside while waiting for him to regain consciousness. She regrets all her harsh words and treatment for him when she thought that he’s the bad guy due to YES manipulation. She tells him that now she understands why her heart’s ache the first time she sees him in prison and why she keeps making excuses just to see him. She might not love him yet but she will definitely fall in love with him again just how he found his love back towards her. And to think that we were robbed of the opportunities to see them falling in love slowly as she regains her memories and love. After seeing that Hyun Woo does not show any sign of consciousness, Hae In resorts to blackmail (lol). But of course that works on Hyun Woo. He wouldn’t want to see her falling sick and after the moments she told him that she felt dizzy, he just miraculously (decided) to wake up. The first word he utters… Hae In-ah with that weak voice, this parallelism is killing meeeee. Of course it’s Baek Hyun Woo’s signature to ask “gwaenchana?” when he was the one getting hit by a car and shot by a gun in the same night (not to forget braving through a thick snowy forest).

Hae In finally (officially) said sorry for failing to recognise him and couldn’t remember anything while only saying harsh things to him. Hyun Woo cuts her off and said that he also forgot about how much he wanted (desired) her in the past. He forgot his determination to stay by her side through thick and thin. He forgot all about his promises and only caused her pain. He said sorry and that he loves her. He reaches for her hand where she gladly takes it and brings it closer to her lips. He said thank you to her this time and his thank you means so many things; that she comes back to him, for accepting him, for being there for him and for remembering him. My favourite Baek Hyun Woo’s moves; cupping her face and caressing her cheek. Hingggg….. Finally, with only less than one hour left for this series to end, our couple is finally back together and their total screen time for this episode is around 15 minutes only HAHAHAHAHAAA

Scene: Fox Baek Hyun Woo

Where did you learn this behaviour Baek Hyun Woo? Well probably from old Hong Hae In. She was the one giving him the opportunity and advantage to use his foxy skill on the new Hae In. His database for having the foxy attitude includes that;

1) Hae In is VERY jealous of him always being the centre of attraction especially when he is being cute or showing his forearm muscle with rolled up sleeve or even just standing mindlessly while waiting for train.

2) Knowing that he was his first love and probably the only guy she has ever love and will be loved in her life.

3) They are THE couple with the greatest fate of all time.

4) Knowing that he was her most prized possession and the biggest waste to not have in her life.

5) She loves that he is handsome, kind, smart but not arrogant, cooks delicious stew and will always date him even if she’s reborn a hundred times.

6) He knows exactly his effects on her and how to use it.

7) He read her notebook and knew how much he is loved by her.

So, he has all these saved in his database and he is confident with her love for him even though she still doesn’t fully remember all about him. He was unsure of her love for him when he drafted the divorce settlement paper. He probably thinks that he was just a prized possession for her and he got all the qualities she needed in a husband. Hae In also did not express her love for him before their divorce so he had zero knowledge about how much she loved him. But, it’s different now. She started to express her honest feelings for him starting from their trip to Germany for her first treatment. And after that, both of them started to understand each other better. With newly found confidence in their love for each other, they become more expressive and playful.

The way he wrote back to her and purposely not putting the notebook back into her handbag, the way he flirts back to her “Yes, I’m looking at you” makes her speechless for a few seconds and the way he purposely wanted validation from her when she tells him that he is perfect and having all the traits that she loves. I wouldn’t survive a day as Baek Hyun Woo’s wife, I’ll just melt to the floor and evaporate into air. He looks at Hae In like she hung the star on the sky for him and she is the loveliest human being (can’t deny this) on earth.

Scene: This should’ve been done before episode 15

The Queen's family returned to Queens Group and we had a glimpse of our favourite couple’s office romance. Hae In and Hyun Woo resume their positions in the Queens department store. When they bump into each other during lunch time, instead of passing each other and only seeing their backs, they are finally able to greet each other excitedly. Hyun Woo greets her first and tells her and her team to enjoy their lunch. Hae In is acting as nonchalant as possible but we can see clearly that she is giddy and melting inside. Secretary Na is giving Hae In a false hope when she tells her that Hyun Woo had a reservation made at a restaurant famous for marriage proposals. She anticipates the dinner and expects Hyun Woo to call but he didn’t call her, so she calls him. But the reservation was for his legal team dinner and she is disappointed and sulky at the revelation.

She went back home alone and decided to go into Hyun Woo’s bedroom. She stands at the same place Hyun Woo stands in episode 4 and looks around his room. She saw a glow in the dark smiley star on the ceiling and thought that he was too old for that kind of stuff, until… a memory flashes in her mind. She is brought to the day that she decided to get rid of everything inside the room. We saw her conflicted and sad expression while the workers were cleaning the room. She confronted Hyun Woo after she found out that Hyun Woo moves his stuff from their bedroom to their (empty) baby’s room.

They both are sad for the loss of their baby and instead of talking about it and mourning it together, they decided to make a decision based on their current emotional capacity. Our sweet and fragile Hae In with a deep emotional scar from her past trauma, she couldn’t bear the thought of having a room full of baby stuff without anyone to occupy it. She is haunted by her own insecurities and inability to carry a child and birthed it. I need to mention here that she is on medical leave for the miscarriage while Hyun Woo is at work (and obviously distraught) and being alone in this situation will make you overthink and postpartum depression is a bitch. But, she didn’t want to talk about it to anyone. She even shuts Hyun Woo and he was unable to penetrate her shield. Hae In’s sadness and mourning was very complex to be understood, because she bottled up her feelings so often that she herself starts to believe that she is a cold-blooded person unworthy of emotions. So, she hides her feelings and put on a mask to deceive others.

Hyun Woo, our sweet and sensitive Hyun Woo on the other hand wears his emotion on his sleeves. He needed more time to cherish the brief moment of their baby through the room, and for him it seems like Hae In was trying to erase everything about their unborn child by clearing out the nursery. And she did that while he was at work, without discussing it with him. The moment he came home, he saw all the stuff from the nursery was being removed. So, he asked her (flashback from episode 5) while containing his anger and sadness about her decision to clean out the room. But she responded with a defensive and cold tone void of all emotion “It only gets on my nerves (could also be translated as annoying).” He was hurt deeply by her choice of words that were associated with their loss; annoying and useless, like the baby was just an object of purpose and not the fruit of their love. He retreated from her as he realised that she had more important things to attend to; her work, believing that he cannot talk sense into her and the damage has been done anyway. He couldn’t see that she was just better than him at hiding her emotion. Deep down, he knew that her harsh words are not what she intended but maybe he is tired of trying to understand her while her words cut deeper than any wounds at that moment.

She confronted him when she found out he moved his stuff into the nursery. She’s hurt that Hyun Woo moved his stuff without telling her first but he gets back at her by using the same logic, she also made the decision to empty the nursery without telling him. But, Hong Hae In… she was raised in a twisted and toxic household so she heard it as something entirely different, she accused him of something that only her mother would do; blaming her for the miscarriage. Hyun Woo didn’t even spare a breath to deny her accusation while in confusion of her thought process. Before he even finished his sentences, she cut him off with a more venomous assumption, “I know you want to say that it’s my fault!”. Hyun Woo was rendered speechless at this and he sigh unbelievably at that. For, she accuses him of something he never even thought of and for her loss of faith towards him to paint him as something as low as that. And, he walks away again this time because he knows that she will believe nothing no matter what he says. She won’t listen and he stopped trying. They both shut off the other because it is easier for Hyun Woo to mourn freely and for Hae In to think that it is her punishment for failing to keep the baby.

In a way, Hyun Woo was making that decision so that he could cry freely. Hae In wouldn’t know the tears he shed every night missing someone he never met. Even his cry on the first night in the nursery was hushed and suppressed. He doesn't want her to heard his cries despite being in different room. That was his consideration for his wife who was mourning in silence. His whole body was shaking to contain his sorrow and pain.

My imagination just ran wild thinking of the possibility that had they lived in Hyun Woo’s small apartment after marriage. Maybe they will have no choice but to solve their issue faster, they can’t go anywhere in that small space. Even if Hyun Woo went out to clear out his head, he will have to come home and share the same bed with Hae In, maybe realising sooner that she had always waited for him to come home before going to bed. She will know how much he cried at night for the child they lost, he would be able to hug her when he realised that all the harsh words she chose was to protect herself.

I’m just furious and frustrated that; 1) they had to mention about their loss at the last 15 minutes of the last episode of the drama, 2) they talk about it after she loses her memory. Even then, it was too short! It’s like they thought of it at the last minute (but this drama is pre-produced) and goes "Shit! We forgot to give a closure for the reason they fell apart and why this drama begins. Let me just put this here.... there, done!"????¿¿¿. She remembered it as a fragment of her memories not as a whole thing that she experienced. Yes, she felt sad and devastated when she remembered it but the main point of it is that she is just a visitor of the memory and all the feelings from that time were not the same as what she felt when she remembered the moment. So, we did not get a proper closure from both of them because one of them is not present at that moment. Baby 1031 was used as a bridge for Hyun Woo and Hae In to finally take a step forward and move towards marriage in mind (again). If this conversation happened before Hae In lost her memory, we would get a full closure on how the miscarriage had affected them and both of them acknowledge that they both are using the baby’s due date for their password. Their apology would’ve been heartfelt and their journey for their rediscovery of love would feel complete.

Although I agree with Hae In that the reason they fell apart was not because of the miscarriage, but it was definitely what was shaping their relationship early in the marriage. Based on the due date, the incident probably happened just around the time they reach their first year anniversary. So, the remaining two years was the aftermath of their altercation about the nursery and their baby 1031. They probably had not always been rocky throughout the year, but the fact that they are still using separate bedrooms says much more than necessary. It’s true that they did not fall apart solely because of the miscarriage, but largely due to their ego and failure to talk and mend their broken heart and pain when it happens. They let it fester and avoiding the problem because resenting each other was easier than lowering their ego to knock on their doors. But still… For me it feels like there was no closure about baby 1031, I don’t know how to describe it but I just need them to acknowledge their loss of baby together. Because they both mourn on their own and then they never talk about it again, it pains me when I remembered the way Hae In treated their planned pregnancy by her parents in episode 1. She treated their baby as a necessity (I know she didn’t mean that), but I needed to hear that from her about baby 1031. That baby was not because of necessity, that baby was conceived out of love from both of them. And for the writer to not have the decency to at least let them talk about it when Hae In had a full understanding about it was what infuriates me the most.

Summary:

The bittersweet ending of the series will be much more appreciated if the execution of the last two episodes focuses more on the BaekHong couple’s development. Instead, they decided that they want to make the last two episodes in an overdramatic funfair that match makjang drama set up. Unless Baek Hyun Woo died in the last episode then only it will make sense to make the guy being hit by a car and shot by a gun. But, in the end he lives and no one is expecting him to die at the end also. So? All of it was very superficial in order to keep the viewer’s engagement in the plot twists.