#her ability with speech can be iffy

[evintide]

aloe :   how does your muse handle grief ?

amaryllis :   what is something or someone that your muse takes pride in ?   how do they express that pride ?   

botanical headcanons » ★ !!

ALOE: how does your muse handle grief?

pretty poorly, all things considered. while Midna has a capacity to push through it and numb those feelings by throwing herself into work, that sort of energy will only sustain her for a certain amount of time. after that drive has either emptied itself or has been interrupted, the twili will fall into a moody state and often hole herself away in her room for days at a time.

she can get incredibly snippy and harsh towards others, even over the slightest infraction, and can be quite a force of nature to tangle with if pushed to leave her comfort zone too early. depending on what has caused her grief, Midna has different methods with which to try and sort herself out. sometimes it can be putting her nose to the grindstone and work on things in total seclusion, and other times she may find spending quiet time with shadowed forms made of her own magic to be a better way to comfort herself. she doesn’t like to allow herself to cry during these moments either, even in times of complete loneliness, and will burn herself out by practicing magic instead of expressing her pain by any other means.

AMARYLLIS: what is something or someone that your muse takes pride in? how do they express that pride?

Midna has always been a proud creature since birth, especially in regards to her abilities. she was more or less humbled for a time during her youth when she discovered her innate talents could only get her so far, but when given guidance and new methods with which she could attain further control and power, Midna took the chance by the reins and ran with it. since then she has challenged herself ( and, by extension, certain others ) to grow stronger and get better at the magics her people have passed down from generation to generation.

while not a well practiced in all things her people have come to master, Midna knows she still stands out as a prime example of what a member of the twili tribe can do with their abilities. additionally, given that she was only made stronger by ascending the throne, she is very much willing and aware of what she can and cannot do. casual examples of this include her ability to float with nary a thought, or handle ancient relics from her tribe with very little issue. she also has access to a vast array of texts and materials to practice and read over whenever she pleases, though those opportunities can be cut short many a time due to other responsibilities.

more overt displays of this power come into play when aiding her citizens with joining or helping rebuild after Zant’s insurrection. she has put much of her time and effort into helping lift structures, physically heal her people by offering her essence, and giving whatever energy she can to reestablish a semblance of normalcy after the war. to add even further onto this, since her merging with Zelda she has become the first of her kind that can live comfortably in the light, and by extension in the light realm, which has allowed her access to other types of magics she herself doesn’t even fully understand yet. ahe has kept these abilities more to herself since her return however, as she doesn’t have much time to practice or figure out what they even are.

[the-ninja-legacy-whip]

I'm bored so I have to ask, how would you rate everyone's ability to give words of support? Who turns out to be more dramatic and who is more direct? Who works best at giving a more personal motivational talk and who is best at giving an inspirational speech to a crowd?

Kai: ...well. Kai's one consistently good quality is his ability to pep talk anyone else, due to his inability to not give up himself. Whether it be in the middle of a battle, a matter of perspectives, or issues of the heart, his advice and support is honestly pretty solid—if you look past the veneer of haughtiness he usually speaks with. He's pretty direct when pushed to the nitty gritty of a problem, regardless of whether it's one-on-one or to a whole crowd (as he's great at both), but like. Dramatic eleventh hour pep speeches are sort of his thing (and if you think it's not I will PROVE it should be—!)

Jay: He is usually the one in need of support, and when there's somebody else that needs it, another person is already beating him to the punch, therefore he hardly ever has to jump in with his own two cents. So when the opportunity arises for him to be on the supporting end, he's very dramatic about it, and I'd say he's better at doing crowd control than having to deal with someone face to face. You've just gotta give him the chance to go for it, first.

Cole: He's good at giving support (as that's part of his whole elemental schtick, being a foundation for others, and it goes hand-in-hand with his role as a leader) he's just not the best at it, as he can't always phrase what he wants to say how he wants to say it. He can motivate a crowd, but not necessarily inspire them, while one-on-one he can comfort people very well, but not necessarily have the words to help them see what they need to do to fix their problems.

Zane: Cannot handle a crowd to save his life, BUT one-on-one he's usually able to hone in on exactly how to help and support—although he rarely likes to intervene unless the situation is truly dire (such as with Kai in Book 1 and Cole in Book 2). Extremely direct with his approach, to the point that it comes off as dramatic lol.

Nya: She does give solid advice and support—but only at, like, the very minimum level? Her words will get the job done in the moment, but it tends to not really stick with whomever she directs it to. Honestly ends up getting the script flipped on her a lot–so busy trying to ignore her problems by helping others that the person she's trying to help has to give her a healthy dose of perspective instead (...which is usually Lloyd, oop, and with Cole as an exception–she's very good at comforting Cole specifically). Thus, is probably a little more effective at corralling a crowd than trying to drive a point home one-on-one.

Lloyd: Takes after Kai in giving uplifting speeches (it's the protagonist syndrome) and inexplicably always gives good support (it's the empathy/connection powers), and at first he's only good at comforting others individually, but once he grows into it more he's able to inspire a crowd (like in S9, woooooo), but, we all gotta start from somewhere (and that start is with Kai in an erupting volcano, I guess). And you know he's always gotta be dramatic with it gfdgfdfdfd

Jesse: Hyping up a crowd for a performance is one thing; trying to organize a crowd into heeding his warnings is another matter entirely. Even if his crowd control is iffy (though it gets somewhat better with time and confidence), he's killer when it comes to personal motivation. Even when he doesn't have the perfect advice, he has the right thing to say (kind of like his mom ;w;) Emotional support ninja ftw.

[akirakirxaa]

Final Thoughts on Dawntrail

Final thoughts on MSQ. There are some positives that I will open with, but as I do have many criticisms and overall did not have as good of a time as I've had in other expacs, I will put it under a break. This will also be quite long.

I will start off by listing some of the things I enjoyed. I liked the overall themes of found and adoptive family, as well as family in general. Most of the plot threads and cutscenes around these themes tended to be quite good. I will admit, I bawled like a baby when they introduced baby Gulool Ja to Koana. I also very much enjoyed the plot revolving around the milalla and honestly wish there were more; I love Erenville's mom a lot as a character, but I feel like she took up comparatively a lot of narrative space when Krile's parents were much more plot relevant. I also liked Bakool's character arc as I'm just a sucker for the bully becoming a big well meaning lug. This is another plot I wish we'd gotten more about since, once we left the woods, we never see him outside of combat again; I'd have liked to see him struggling to connect with the people in non-life threatening situations and learning to not react to everything with violence.

Unfortunately, that is the end of what I actually enjoyed without a "but" that isn't "I'd have liked more". I am so sorry, but by the time I got to the end I did not like Wuk Lamat anymore. The sheer amount of time we spend with her and the sheer amount of that time spent on the same exact speech again and again grated by the end. There were some moments where she really shone though, and that's why I'm putting this to poor writing and misuse of her character than her character actually being bad. I loved her in the whole bit with Zarool Ja, and during the Rite it was fine because her learning to grow up was the point. Which leads to the second thing I really did not like; that we existed to be a camera for her story. 99% of the story could have happened even were we not there, and the last 1% is honestly iffy. I understand letting her have her time, and despite finding it excruciatingly dull to my tastes, the rite was fine and she should take point during it since it's to test her abilities. But...there was not one moment where we got to be the hero. Not one. Hell, in several cutscenes I could barely even see my character because it's her show the whole time. Even at the end, where it finally matters that we're here, because we have the magic crystal that lets us call backup and stay and fight...it still didn't, because she just broke into the fight anyways. Once again, we might as well not even be there.

"Well what's the problem with that!" I hear you cry, and the problem with that is this is a Final Fantasy. I'm here to play the protagonist. I'm not here to control the camera while the writer's NPC does everything. She can be the main character of the expac, but I should not be able to remove my character entirely and have everything go the exact same way. Literally any scion could've done the same things we did while we drank on the beach and nothing would change. A great example of this was when Gulool Ja Ja was killed. Not only did we just stand there and not even attempt to interfere (this could have been a good moment to push the difference of another culture by having an ally stop the WoL), we barely had any reaction at all to it and were covered up most of the time by NPCs. At that point, just have us not be there, have us out protecting civilians and we arrive too late. We've had cutscenes from other PoVs before where we show up right at the end (for good or ill) so no excuse.

I very much did not like any of the plot around Alexandria and Living Memory. It strikes me as that meme of "can I copy your homework?" "Sure, just change it a little so it doesn't look the same". Tell me if you've heard this one before. Immortal being, unable to bear loss, creates a city full of the memories of their lost loved ones in a recreation of their former home. They want to sacrifice the people of the Source to restore these loved ones. When we try to reason with them, they tell us that they cannot give up on their fallen loved ones and refuse to move on. They show us their memories of their loved ones in their former home. At the end, they turn into a big damn monster that we fight. We're close to losing when an ally falls from the sky to our aid. When we win, they ask us to remember.

It's knock off brand Shadowbringers.

Not to mention it seriously feels like the writer forgot while doing Living Memory that, not only does no one remember these people we're erasing, but their souls were eaten so that people can not worry about, idk, falling pianos and such. These people literally just do not exist anymore and we are now the only people who remember them. What's worse, there are probably millions more people we didn't get to meet that we still erased, so they're just gone forever. That's...literally the opposite of the plot of Ultima Thule from EW. We, in this case, are playing the role of Meteion, and not a single Endless seems to have an opinion on it outside of Erenville's mother and Krile's parents.

Never mentioning Dynamis really bugged me too. I was kinda hoping that Wuk Lamat's "specialty", the thing that set her apart, was maybe she was just very good at subconsciously wielding dynamis, letting her easily befriend others and draw greater strength when she needs it. But, like many many pieces of lore, it's never even suggested. In fact, if a piece of lore was in EW, you can almost guarantee it isn't mentioned. Like the boy with a lightning aether imbalance. We literally have the cure for that, but say nothing at all, not even to our allies when we meet back up. I'm hoping this will be addressed in a later patch since it was specifically pointed out (chekov's gun and all) but still. It felt over and over that things we learned in ShB and EW were glossed over at best or outright ignored at worst. The pacing of everything after the dome appeared was strange; some parts went too fast, then some went on forever.

Unfortunately, this comes in as my least favorite expac. Even below SB, which I famously dislike. I'm hoping moving forward we'll see some more interesting stories that once again require us to be present to be told, and I am curious about why the key bears Azem's symbol, but I will not be rushing to play through this expac again any time soon. And will most likely be tweaking the scenes in anything I write to make more sense, flow better, or actually require Akira's attention.

[of-elitiism]

@cantuscorvi asked: omg pls gimme raum/adri for the kid meme i wanna see what their crazy spawn looks like If they had a kid:

Name: Rosalind

Gender: female

General Appearance: tall, elegant and statuesque, pale skin and icy blue eyes, hair a dusty blonde that catches the light just right. Often seen wearing classic, feminine ensembles, shirts with cashmere jumpers, pleated skirts, mary jane shoes, a headband and pearls. Got her stare from Adrianna, stoic, stern and alluring.

Personality: very intelligent, snobby and entitled. Her speech is very eloquent and precise, insults and harsh remarks are spitted without hesitation. Has a rare kind of dark humor and would cover her mouth with the back of her hand when giggling. Not particularly cruel, but most definitely a little twisted.

Special Talents: Daughter of a fallen angel and a demon Rosalind is a Nephilim of the worst kind. Her abilities while not mature just yet, include being able to enter people's minds and dreams and torture them from within. Her talents are fright/terror based overall.

Who they like better: honestly i don't think she likes either of her parents. Raum might be spoiling his little monster a little too much and thus might make her a bit iffy [ she's not too big into displays of affection. She might like Adrianna more simply because she would get to steal her make-up, perfume and clothes from time to time.

Who they take after more: Definitely her father. .

Personal Head canon: Her laugh can drive people mad.

[local-redhead-bookworm]

I'm asking you about your autistic Eleven headcanons because I'm fascinated to hear about them, especially with the intersection between it and her post institutionalization syndrome

I’m more than happy to share my thoughts on this!

@strangerthings4theories actually was the person who first put this headcanon on my radar, so go check out this post by them on it. Full disclosure, I am not diagnosed autistic, although I’m about as sure that I am as possible without a clinical diagnosis. I’ve only been researching autism for a few months, so my understanding may be flawed in some areas, but I’ll do my best.

So, from my very brief research, post-institutionalization syndrome can result in behaviors that look autistic to an outsider’s perspective, in addition to some anger issues. Many of these traits include speech delays, repetitive motions such as rocking, difficulties with eye contact, and sensory issues, especially when pertaining to physical touch.

Based on this (admittedly inadequate and outdated) research, post-institutionalization syndrome seems to be something that can sometimes be acclimated out of during puberty, but it does often take years to unlearn. The two can look very similar.

So, reasons for my autistic El headcanon:

She struggles verbally and exhibits what I would label as echolalia. El says very little on her own at first, and she seems to learn words by repeating them. This could be connected to the coma she supposedly went into after the Hawkins Lab Massacre, but I still lean toward autism as the root.

She is deeply emotional but struggles to regulate those emotions. We’ve seen her express a wide range of emotions, but when she’s in emotional distress, she tends to lash out. She breaks Troy’s arm with her powers. When she sees Max with Mike, she immediately trips Max’s skateboard. She breaks several windows when she finds out about her mom. She attacks Angela with a skate and gives her a grade two concussion.

She has extremely high empathy. Her ability is quite literally to connect with people. She saves her friends by tapping into the emotions she has from good memories with them. She exhibits many of the same emotions as the person she is near. She is kind to Billy and uses his good memory of his mom to remind him, “you were happy.” And as silly as I think this was, her pep talk from Mike and her choice to focus on kindness and love over evil is what allows her to win. (This is kind of iffy toward the end, but it felt relevant)

She doesn’t fully understand social cues or boundaries, so she mimics others. She mirrors the boys in s1, she mirrors Hopper and Kali in s2, and she behaves like Mike and later Max in s3, and we also see her mirror Will in s4. We see her sit in the recliner the way Mike did in s1. She takes her cue from whoever she deems the most in-charge person in the group. She also mimics fashion from them too, such as her more boyish style in s2 and her more feminine look in early s3. Even her hair in s4 is strongly reminiscent of Joyce.

She feels inhuman and out of step with her peers. She says what she has to in order to seem normal and fit in. We hear her ask several times in the show, “am I a monster?” She tells Mike that she doesn’t fit in in Hawkins, at Lenora Hills, or anywhere. She’s also told she’s different by Henry, who makes her difference out to be a superiority.

She dresses primarily for comfort. This is especially evident in s2 with her cozy shirts and overalls, but it’s also true in other seasons. Even as bright as the colors are in some of her s3 outfits, they still prioritize comfort and freedom of movement. She wears soft and warm textures almost constantly in s4.

She has routines and safe foods. Eggos are obviously a safe food for her, considering her love for them. She also keeps careful track of when Hopper is supposed to be back from work. Even her preparation to enter the void is a sort of routine. She keeps the door open three inches, even after Hopper’s disappearance.

El’s initial reaction to the roller rink debacle comes across like sensory overload. This final detail was what really started the headcanon in full force for me. The noise, the feeling of the world spinning around you, being overwhelmed by the lights and all the people. It had me immediately going “that is sensory overload. That right there is what it feels like.”

So there you have it! I’ll be honest, I wasn’t aware of post-institutionalization syndrome before now, but I enjoyed the research. Most of my reasons for headcanoning El as autistic could go either way. The two look pretty similar sometimes, I’ll admit, but I think that there’s room for both interpretations in fan works, and I’m curious to hear anyone else’s thoughts if they’d like to add on!

[animeyanderelover]

I feel kind of bad for neglecting those sexy and cute ladies their spotlight😅. Here we go.

Tw: Yandere themes, unhealthy mindset, unhealthy relationship, obsessiveness, manipulation, clingyness, manipulation, guilt-tripping

Yandere Kiyoko Shimizu and Hitoka Yachi Hc’s

Kiyoko Shimizu (Aged Up)

m🖤Kiyoko is a lucid and more stalkerish Yandere. She was shown as a more aloof girl and given the fact that she’s ashamed of her feelings made her at first just being more distant to her darling, not able to handle her feelings. It isn’t like she hated her darling or anything, she was just worried that she might do something to her darling or people around them. She’s just more careful.

🖤Kiyoko is also a overprotective, manipulative and slightly obsessive over her darling. Despite her more cold impression she might have made on her darling, Kiyoko is a greatly caring person. She might not show it as often, but it’s rather obvious since she often assists her darling when they’re under a lot of stress or feel anxious about something. She isn’t really manipulative in the sense that she lies to them since she’s very straightforward, but somehow she manages to make her words so that her s/o will start feel like they should listen to her. After all she sincerely wants the best. She isn’t very obsessive like Hinata or Oikawa are, but she does insist on knowing her darling at least good enough so that she can take care of them.

🖤The beauty manager has to deal with a lot of things, including two dorks who keep try to flirt with her. In short, she has patience which doesn’t waver easily. She has trust in her darling and for that doesn’t feel threatened when other people talk to them. She isn’t very talkative, but the whole school does know that you two are together and I can see the third-years from the volleyball team being somewhat more protective over you as well. She wouldn’t step in unless she sees that you feel uncomfortable or she does feel a tingling of jealousy.

🖤I can’t really see her killing someone. She has a good sense on whether the people she’s in contact with are bad or good. She relies much more on legal forces and has a old friend as a police officer after all. If she thinks that someone gives of troublesome vibes in a bad way she doesn’t start getting in contact with them in the first place.

🖤Would also not kidnap her darling since she wants to move in with them when both of them wish for it. Despite her rather abnormal feelings she wants to have a normal relationship with you and for that wouldn’t really force you into anything. She doesn’t really mind if you two don’t live together even though hoping that it might happen later on. She would just schedule that she can see you everyday at least for a few hours. The reason why she is like this is because Kiyoko herself needs a bit time for her alone as well.

🖤I can see her as someone who might come over as really cold, but is in reality a really warm person for you. At the beginning she might have been a bit more distant, but she started warming up to you over time, joking a bit with you and giving you smiles. She’s also rather shy when she holds a speech to you and when she confessed she became a bit ore bashful since she isn’t confident in her talking abilities. Was a bit too protective of you when introducing you to the team, especially to Tanaka and Nishinoya. Both of them didn’t really dislike you, they were just a bit more iffy and grumpy to hear that Kiyoko was now taken. But over time they might just start getting overprotective over your relationship with Kiyoko and then they will bark at anyone who tries to talk to you, making sure that you don’t leave Kiyoko.

Hitoka Yachi (Aged Up)

🍬Yachi is a delusional and clingy Yandere. She isn’t the classic kind of delusional Yandere who thinks that her feelings are right or that she’s already in a relationship with her darling. She does realize that they aren’t together yet and is funnily lucid of her feelings. But she just believes that despite all of this she will be able to have a normal relationship with her s/o. She’s shown to be pretty anxious and nervous and for that somewhat seeks protection in her darling, making her follow them around almost everywhere. She’s needy to say the least.

🍬Yachi is also a lovestruck and obsessive Yandere. She somewhat idolizes her darling a lot, making her automatically adore her darling. Due to that she’s obsessive with the things they do, wanting to know everything about the person she sees somewhat as her protector. She has this habit of using the things her darling gifts or borrows her as lucky items and comfort objects. If you borrow her a jacket for example she won’t stop wearing it the whole day, searching for comfort in the fabric that smells like you. It puts her nerves a bit more at ease. She’s also manipulative. It’s up to question it she does it on purpose or not, but she’s just really scared that her darling will leave her and for that often guilt-trips them into spending more time with her.

🍬Rather than feeling jealous, she feels nervous. Yachi is just frightened of the thought that her s/o will find someone that is better than her since she’s aware of the fact that she is a coward. She knows that there are people who might be far more better than her and for that she’s scared. She really doesn’t want her darling to lose interest in her because of someone else and for that often tends to cling into them when jealous. She might be not the boldest, but she for sure also won’t lose you to someone else.

🍬No. She’s pretty much one of the last persons I can see doing anything like this. She has not the nerves for it if I’m being honest. Similar to Kiyoko she might rely more on legal forces. In High School she used to ask the team for help whenever she noticed that someone was bothering her s/o. Especially with Hinata she had a good relationship and that ginger head is up to this day super supportive of her relationship with you and was always there to help her because what Yachi lacks on boldness, Hinata possesses, which would make for a good poly relationship.

🍬There’s no doubt that she doesn’t want to move in with her s/o. But Yachi is just super worried that you might stop liking her if she forces you. She’s pretty prone and overthinks and misreads some things on a common base. It would be probably better if her darling moves in because Yachi stresses herself a bit out whenever her darling isn’t with her. Because different from Kiyoko she could spend gladly the whole day with them.

🍬The best word to describe Yachi with is very needy. She just seeks in you the way to make her feel more at ease. She’s insecure when it comes to your relationship with her and just overthinks things too much. Despite being clingy she’s rather bashful when you are the one who gives her physical affection. She knows that she isn’t the most courageous girl and for that tries to find ways to make up for her anxiety, helping you with upcoming exams for example.

[danwhobrowses]

One Piece Chapter 1023 - Initial Thoughts

15 Minutes is on the clock

Onigashima reaches the mainland and the fights continue on. Including the Wings of the King vs the Disasters of the Beast

Without further ado, let's get into it

Spoilers for Chapter 1023, Support the Official Release too

Vivi cover page is nice, proper Disney Princess action with Karoo being jealous birb again, but now I have worries because last we heard something went down with Alabasta...all those post-Reverie questions

Back to where we left off with the boys being back in town

Miyagi can you not ominously foreshadow Zoro's future pain please?

Kawamatsu's here to save Zoro from interference, and Hyou's telling the Yakuza not to get in the way of this fight

Marco though is a pensive Pineapple, taking a good long look at King as he recalls Whitebeard telling him about King's race living on the Red Line before the world nobles, Void Century and before stuff

Mention of Gods does fuel one of my old post fan theories, but also fuels that the WG kicked King's race out of the Red Line

Izo though out here saving Marco from being an easy target, tbh Marineford did show he was prone to a surprise attack

Asking Izo if they believe in God though in a raid that may lead to their deaths is kinda irreverent right now though huh?

Queen back to hyping themselves up though

Hm? Is there a limitation to Sanji's raid suit? Sanji's saying he feels weird

Zoro wasting no time to banter with it though, saving Sanji from King as Sanji returns the favour with Queen

Queen does make a valid point though, as much as Sanji expresses that he is unenhanced by Germa he can also set himself on fire, I do wonder if it is just part of that enhancement in there that he expresses as his 'fiery hot passion'

Lunarian though, that must be King's species' name: moon people again I bet which feeds my fan theories

Also since we mentioned Germa again what happened to them? Jimbei made it out after all and I wanna see me some alive and well Baeju

I would issue doubt on Queen's claim that their enhancements are beyond Vegapunk's, given how little we know of Vegapunk after all

King's got a special sword too, it can change its edge to be teethy which he used to ensnare Zoro's swords

Wado saves Zoro's face from eating King's spiked fist though

King does make a fair point though, traditional weapons are romanticized but a fight's about getting every advantage you can, Zoro at least respects that since King never claimed to be a Swordsman, while also reminding King that he could be a feral bastard too

Kinda gave me mini Mr. 1 fight vibes there

Oh here we go, potential Zoro lineage time

Kawamatsu and Hyou muse over how Zoro was like Ushimaru when he was young, even down to his style (though that could be more Shimotsuki Koushiro's doing since he's Zoro's master)

Also Ushimaru was Ryuma's direct descendant, which means that 1. Ryuma banged, 2. Swordsmanship runs in the blood and 3. Ryuma banged

Also Ryuma also had the one eye, and it does seem pretty mythical that a swordsman of similar skill and stature returns Shusui back to Wano (even though this should mean that Shusui would be Zoro's birthright and he was kinda forced into relinquishing it)

Also worth reminding that Kozaburo was Kuina's grandpa so there may only be loose relations if Zoro is a Shimotsuki too, we don't exactly know how Kozaburo and Ushimaru are related if it's by blood or clan, plus I still wonder about Tashigi

Over to Jack vs Inu though, and Jack's hybrid form is just...weird

I did not need to see an Elephant head with abs you know Oda!

Both are pretty tired, as Jack mocks Inu saying he has forgiven Zou for the Raizo stuff, since he already destroyed most of it

Inu though with the shoulder toss, reminding Jack that they had to make these sacrifices to get to here

But we're getting the epic speech, and the hole in the roof caused by Ashura's sacrifice is changing Inu back into Su Long

Same thing is happening with Neko, turning Su Long in front of Carrot and Wanda (who I guess are covering from the moon) as he stares down Perospero

And I'm glad Neko's pointing out that Pedro's sacrifice is valid. I truthfully always felt a bit iffy about people saying that Carrot's desire to avenge Pedro was ill-found because 'Pedro killed himself'. Had Pedro not sacrificed himself then Brook and Chopper would've been dead by candy and Big Mom would've obliterated the rest on the ship

Raizo and Megaforehead though prelude with the mention of maturity, that everyone - even the Akazaya - needed time to mature into who they wanted to be

Down to the surface though and the Heart Pirates are on high alert/panic, they think Kaido's here

But it's Momo, and he looks magnificent

Shinobu's aged him up to 28, the age he'd be had he not been leapt through time, but now she's upset he looks like Kaido

There's new fire in Momo's eyes though, the return ascent begins!

Can you feel that? It feels like the last stretch before the ultimate battle of Wano

Sanji and Zoro vs King and Queen hopefully will remain a tag bout, but I am curious as to King's abilities and what's affecting Sanji in terms of the raid suit. It's not bad to have a limitation but this is the first we've heard of it after seeing him use it 4 times. I don't hate Zoro being a Shimotsuki, though I do feel like we could've built to this, plus we're still lacking in the how.

One wonders what role Marco will now play, and whether Tiny Tiny Chopper is due to recover. We haven't heard from the others for a bit, nor CP0 nor Yamato. Our Pineapple does have unfinished business with Edward Weevil tbf so he could make it out, Izo may be a variable in that, they've yet to learn of Kiku's fate.

Also we never did see who that mystery person was did we? Still could be Hiyori

Marco's musing about gods does feel like we're gonna get more about King, and more lore of the world that Robin will love to soak up like a sponge, Oda have been leaving these seeds since Skypeia, and where there are Gods, there are Devils.

We are however getting major death flags from the minks, one last turn to Su Long to enable their efforts. I like how Ashura's sacrifice is not in vain because of this though, it makes me wonder if there's a slither of hope for Kin and Kiku. If anything though the minks will die from exhaustion rather than being defeated, Su Long eats away at you after all, it's probably gonna be traumatizing for Carrot a little but I hope we see some resolve out of her more like when she was in Zou and WCI, I still want her for Nakama.

And then the final coup de grace, giant dragon Momo, it's one hell of a panel and it means we're bringing Luffy back into the fight. But the extent of Momo's ripening is only in body remember, in mind he's still young. But now we have the setup for the final fight between Luffy and Kaido, I'll expect in that time we'll have to try and finish off everything else with the Akazaya, reconvening the Straw Hats, King, Queen, Big Mom, Kid, Law, Killer, Hawkins, Apoo and Drake.

Act's not over yet, less than 15 minutes until Onigashima Falls.

[whoisbxcky]

After School Special

request: Your writing is amazing!!!! I have a request for a peter Parker imagine where the reader has healing powers and he falls for her and he gets hurt on a mission and she rushes in to save him and she heals him and the gets hurt and peter carries her out and stays by her side the whole time? Sorry if that was confusing

pairing: peter parker x reader (!!reader and peter both 16 in this fic!!)

word count: 3500 +/-

warnings: reader suffering from anxiety and a lil panic attack thrown in the mix, some angst but a lot of fluff also, descriptive violence, gunshot wound

author’s note: Okay first ever Peter Parker fic, apologies if it’s a little iffy (especially at the end- i flopped lol) I really struggled getting this one written despite the fact it ended up being uber long by my standards! I think I struggle writing for Peter purely because of the ‘trying to get into the mindset of a teenager’ thing lmao. 

But as always, feedback welcomed and appreciated, big huge thank you to anon for the request, and I am currently accepting requested so hit that inbox my lovelies! ~ Toria <3

“You ready for your first ever mission tonight, Y/N?”

You practically jumped out of your skin, your head crashing into the top of your locker with a sickening thwack.

With a groan of pain, you spun on your heel, murderous eyes fixating on Peter Parker, who was now stood staring at you with a mixture of shock and fear etched rather comically on his face.

“Well, geez, Peter. Hard to say, you think I can manage it with a concussion?”

You softened your gaze, shaking your head with a rueful smile as you brought a hand tentatively to your head and letting it rest over the knot that was rapidly growing there.

You let your eyelids flutter shut, summoning a warm, white light to your palm and allowing the healing energy to envelop your injury, smiling softly as you did.

When you opened your eyes, your head felt good as new, and you were met with Peter’s wide, curious gaze.

You frowned at him then, raising your brow dubiously as he continued to stare. After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, you cleared your throat, narrowing your eyes at him.

“Something the matter?”

Peter blinked a few times, his cheeks donning an unmistakable pink hue as his gaze shifted anywhere and everywhere that wasn’t your face. You strained to contain an eye roll as your fellow Avenger stuttered uselessly for a minute.

“I… Well no… No, it’s just… Well… Mr. Stark said we shouldn’t use our powers just out in the open like that and well…”

He trailed off, swallowing hard as you fixed him with your best ‘keep-going-and-I’ll-flatten-you’ stare. You had to hand it to the guy, usually when you gave people that look, they turned tail and got as far away as possible from you in the other direction.

“Well, what Mr. Stark doesn’t know won’t land me with another lecture, now will it, Peter?”

You folded your arms, flashing him with a conspirator’s grin.

“Besides, you’re the one announcing tonight’s mission to the whole school.”

You raised your brows, turning to slam your locker shut before grinning at him once more, taking off towards the school exit, after a few beats, you heard Peter scrambling to catch up with you.

The two of you discussed the task ahead of you in hushed tones as you left the school building and hastily made your way across campus. You tried to focus on the conversation at hand, but the nausea gripping your stomach at the thought of your first ever mission made it increasingly difficult.

It had been a year since Tony Stark had found you and recruited you.

A whole year of missing school dances, mall dates with your friends, even class sometimes, in the interest of training to become one of the Earth’s ‘mightiest’ heroes.

You winced at the thought.

After the alien invasion in NYC back in 2012, footage had emerged of an eleven-year-old you healing wounded civilians, an ability you had been entirely unaware of possessing up until that day.

You’d thought nothing of it at the time, given that the video quality was… questionable, at best, and you magically healing the wounded was far from the strangest thing to have occurred in NYC that day.

And, despite the magical healing hands, you had done a spectacular job at being a regular old, boring high school student. Right up until Stark had shown up on your doorstep and told you the Avenger’s needed your unique skill set, and you had found yourself agreeing, against your better judgement.  

Now here you were, a year into your training and about to embark on your first ever mission as a fully-fledged Avenger.

Oh joy.

Your inner musings were interrupted by Peter’s distant voice, alerting you to the fact you had arrived at the tower. You had been so lost in thought, you hadn’t even registered getting into the car Tony had sent for you both.

You reluctantly made your way up to the briefing room, nervously chewing on your thumbnail as Steve hit you with the ‘health and safety come first’ speech, in between briefing you for the mission at hand.

The task was simple: you, Peter, Sam and Wanda would head to a warehouse housing a Hydra sleeper cell, you would infiltrate the building, eliminate any threats and gather as much intel as you could. Easy-peasy. What could go wrong?

A few hours later, the Quinjet was parked up a little way away from the warehouse, and you and Peter were stood just outside the sole entrance, neither of you saying a word.

Sam and Wanda had gone inside already to do a primary sweep, ordering the two of you to wait outside as backup, as well as taking out any hostiles that may try to flee.

Five minutes had past, and the silence was becoming deafening. You could see Peter out of the corner of your eye, his body poised and ready, his focus absolute.

You let out a defeated sigh, before clearing your throat, your eyes fixated on the pebble you were kicking around at your feet.

“They’ve been in there for a while… You think they’re alright?”

You glanced up to find Peter’s perplexed expression staring back at you, sighing again, you continued.

“I mean I know they’re the professionals and all… But shouldn’t they be back by now? What if something’s gone wrong and they-“

You were cut off in surprise as a gentle hand on your shoulder caused you to flinch. When your eyes snapped up once more, Peter was stood just inches from you, a soft smile on his face and warmth in his eyes.

“They’ll be just fine, Y/N. We’re Avengers, this mission will be a piece of cake, you’ll see.”

You felt an uncomfortable heat rising in your cheeks and you studiously averted your eyes, clearing your throat in embarrassment.

“Oh… Of course.”

Peter chuckled then, offering you a boyish grin before your amicable exchange was interrupted by the sound of shouting, followed by gunfire, followed by an explosion.

As the two of you whipped around to face the warehouse, you half registered the fact that Peter had your hand in his and had pulled you to stand behind him. But the sound of Sam’s panicked voice over the coms kept you from thinking too much about it.

“Parker, Y/L/N, we need backup, now. Get in here-“

There was more gunfire, a yell, and the coms cut off. You felt your stomach drop.

You stumbled slightly as your arm was pulled forward, and you yanked it back, your wide eyes meeting Peter’s.

“Y/N? Let’s go, they need us!”

“I… I can’t…”

Peter stared at you incredulously, glancing back at the warehouse that was now half on fire. More gunshots. More yelling.

“Our teammates are in danger, we have to-“

“I know! But I… I can’t do it, I…”

You could feel the ice-cold jaws of panic latch around your throat, making breathing feel almost impossible. You looked around frantically for a way out, but only found the chaos unfolding in front of you.

Peter let out a breath of despair, before turning on his heel and running into the building ahead of you. You moved to call him back but found that the words would not leave your throat. They were trapped there, fear holding them in place and making you choke.

I can’t do this… I’m not a hero. I’m just a sophomore for gods sake. I should be doing homework right now, making weekend plans with friends… Not running into a burning building to risk my life fighting god knows what…

You let out a sob of frustration, falling to your knees in the gravel, your hands coming up to grip your hair desperately. Your breathing was erratic, and you knew you were having a panic attack.

As you willed your breathing to slow, trying to find a calm place in your mind, Peter’s face materialised in your thoughts. You found your mind subconsciously wandering back to the first day you met in the Avenger’s Tower, your surprise at learning your classmate was the infamous Spider-man...

“I can’t believe it, Peter Parker, a hero… And… Part spider…?”

Peter gave a short barking laugh, and you flashed him a sharp-toothed grin. The two of you were sat on the balcony of the Avenger’s tower, the day of your recruitment. Despite the fact you were both freshman at the same school, it was the first time you’d ever conversed with the guy.

“I mean, yeah, you could say that. Here, check this out…”

He grinned at you then, his eyes twinkling in the growing darkness around you. With a flick of his wrist, a strand of web shot out, attaching to the rafter above you. Next thing you knew, he had pulled himself up on the web and was now dangling upside down in front of you, waving his free arm in a mock ‘ta-dah’ fashion.

You grinned at him once more, overcome with a fit of giggles as he let himself drop back to the ground, tripping over the chair as he did.

“Very cool. Doesn’t it scare you though? Putting your life at risk for complete strangers like you do…?”

You trailed of, worrying your lip between your teeth as you stared out onto the skyline. Peter paused for a moment before responding, his gaze moving from the view to rest fondly on you.

“I guess a little… But you got to do what you got to do, right?”

“I suppose… but why you? I mean… There’s a whole tower of heroes here, couldn’t you just… Not? You know, have a normal life?”

Peter chuckled then, and you slid your gaze from the city below to find his eyes fixated on you, and you smiled shyly at him.

“The way I see it? Those with the power to make a difference who chose not to, are just as bad as the bad guys.”

You stared at him for a beat, his words settling deep in your subconscious. After a moment of thoughtful silence, he hopped to his feet, offering you a hand.

“Come on, let’s go check out the cinema room.”

Your eyes lit up, and you accepted his hand as he pulled you to your feet, steadying you with a hand on your waist.

“You guys have a cinema room here!?”

Peter’s laugh mingling with your own faded into the darkness of your subconscious once more, a nearby blast drawing you out of your memories.

You found yourself back on your feet, breathing even once more and a new-found resolve coursing through your veins.

Peter was right, you were afraid, and that was okay. But if you let your fear win and abandoned your teammates right now, you didn’t deserve to call yourself an Avenger.

Sprinting towards the now half destroyed warehouse, you paused for a moment to pick up a nearby steal pipe that was laying in the gravel, likely thrown there in one of the explosions. You may have healing powers, but combat lessons had not been your strong suit, so you hadn’t bothered to bring a weapon with you, other than some knuckle dusters that Natasha had gifted you and a mace from Rhodey.

As you entered the building, your senses were momentarily overloaded. You could see Wanda facing off against an armada of automatic weaponry, bullets raining down on her in succession. Sam was off to your right, engaged with a particularly large man with a suit that echoed Tony’s Iron-man get up. And there, in front of you, Peter was taking on the bulk of the Hydra forces, dipping and weaving to avoid their gunfire while taking them out one-by-one.

A yell to your left alerted you to an incoming hostile, and you cried out in determination as you swung the pipe at the man’s face, knocking him out and onto his back.

You ducked behind a slab of concrete to your right as gunfire peppered the wall behind you, cursing as a stray bullet whizzed past your ear, far too close for comfort.

With a grimace, you stood up, ready to throw yourself back into the fray, when Sam’s voice screaming down the coms made you stop dead in your tracks.

“Grenade, everyone down!”

You threw yourself back behind the concrete slab, your heart stopping in your chest as a deafening boom went off from the other side of the room. You were vaguely aware of debris, fire and the occasional body flying over your head, and you screwed your eyes closed.

You thought things couldn’t get any worse than this, surely, they couldn’t get worse.

You were wrong.

“Peter is down!”

Wanda’s panicked tone came crackling over the coms and you felt bile rise in your throat.

Without thinking, you clambered to your feet, steel pipe abandoned. You stumbled over concrete, bodies and scrap metal as you blindly made your way over to where you had last seen your friend.

“Peter!?”

You heard a voice screaming and took a moment to realise it was your own, horse and cracking with fear as you scrambled to find him amongst the wreckage on the far side on the room.

There, a flash of red and blue under a few wooden beams.

“Peter!”

You called out for him, rushing to his side as you began to dig him out of the rubble. You almost sobbed in relief when he let out a groan of disapproval, helping you shift the largest beam from his torso. He glanced up at you with a lopsided grin, although the pain in his eyes was unmistakable.

“You came.”

You stared back at him, the relief at him being alive giving way to worry for the wounds he had clearly sustained in the explosion.

“I did. Hold still while I fix you up.”

Without another word, you placed your hands gingerly on his chest, willing the warm, white light to manifest in your palms and spread throughout Peter’s whole body.

You heard him gasp and felt his whole body relax, as tendrils of your focused energy reached out throughout his wounded form, finding cuts, breaks and bruises and restoring them as you went.

Once you were done, you summoned the white light back into your palms, sagging forward in exhaustion as your eyelids fluttered open.

Peter sat up, entirely healthy once more, to catch your shoulders.

“Are you alright, Y/N?”

You smiled up at him weakly, nodding.

“Mhm. I’ve just never healed that many injuries all at once before, it’s… Taken it out of me a little”

He gave you a warm smile back, and a whistle from behind you made you both spin around to attention. You found Sam and Wanda heading your way, delicately navigating the warehouse floor.

“You two alright?”

Sam called out, fixing you with a concerned look.

“Yeah, we’re good.”

Peter called back, hopping to his feet and offering you a hand up, which you gladly accepted. You felt completely drained, both from the adrenaline that was now depleting in your blood stream and the expended energy, but you managed to hold yourself up steadily in front of your fellow Avengers.

“Good. That seems to be the last of them. Let’s get to the control room, get those damn files and get the hell out of dodge.”

Sam started walking towards a gaping hole in the wall behind you, which you recalled from the building’s blueprints would lead to a concrete bunker under the warehouse. Everyone nodded in agreement, moving to follow him.

You had only taken a few steps when the sound of a gunshot rang out, thunderously loud in the silence of the decimated room.

Everything seemed to happen at half-speed then.

Your eyes caught the flash of the sniper rifle on one of the corridors above you.

Wanda, without missing a beat, captured the perpetrator in a net of red energy, launching him from the balcony and through a hole in the warehouse roof.

There was a deafening ringing in your ears, making the world around you feel blurry. You became numbly aware of the sensation of warm liquid running down your arm and chest, freezing in terror as you glanced down to see a stream of red on your tactical vest.

You’d just been shot.

Your legs gave out from under you, your eyes rolling to the back of your head in shock. However, the feeling of your body hitting concrete never came.

Instead, when you opened your eyes once more you found yourself in Peter’s arms, his face twisted in fear, panic and rage as he called to you, telling you to hold on, to stay awake.

You could hear Sam telling Wanda to fetch the first aid kit while he started up the Quinjet to extract you.

Wanda’s voice in your mind telling you to stay awake, that you’d be okay.

You took in a shaky breath, willing your voice to return to you as the ringing in your ears finally subsided, and everything became clear once more.

“Stop!”

You half-croaked, half-yelled. Your fellow Avengers stopped dead in their tracks, staring at you in confusion.

Peter grabbed your hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze as he held you.

“Don’t worry, Y/N. You’re fine, okay? You’re fine-“

“It’s not that.”

You winced as a fit of coughing racked your trembling form, and you met each of your teammates’ stares with a determined one of your own.

“We have a mission to complete. You guys go and get the files.”

Stares of confusion turned to disbelief, and it was Wanda who finally broke the stunned silence.

“That bullet has torn through your chest, Y/N, you need assistance right now.”

You coughed again, struggling to sit up, but Peter held you firmly down in his arms, moving to speak before you cut him off.

“I can stem the bleeding with what’s left of my energy. That’ll keep me going while you guys do what we came here for.”

You met Sam’s gaze, your eyes burning with fierce resolve, and he nodded slowly.

“Alright then, Parker, you get her outside and into the Quinjet ready to go. We’ll be as fast as possible. Y/N, you hang tough until we get back, you hear?”

You nodded in response, offering him a small smile as he and Wanda took off running down the corridor.

Peter followed by scooping you up in his arms bridal style, murmuring reassurances to you as he briskly navigated your way back through the debris and out of the warehouse. You let your head fall against his chest, focusing your energy on the part of your chest the bullet had gone through.

By the time you were both safely aboard the Quinjet, you had successfully stopped the bleeding and made a haphazard attempt at patching the skin up, but given the complete lack of energy you now possessed, it was far from your finest work.

Peter gently lowered himself to the floor, keeping you securely in his arms and bringing you to settle in his lap. When he finally spoke, his voice held an unmistakable waiver of emotion, and you glanced up to see the worry mixed with pride etched on his face as he spoke.

“That, what you did back there, Y/N… That was the bravest thing I’ve ever seen.”

He smiled gently down at you, reaching up to your face to move a stray strand of hair from your eye, you smiled in response.

“Honestly, I just thought to myself: what would Peter do? The confidence came naturally after that.”

You grinned up at him, wincing as a giggle bubbled up in your throat.

Peter began to chuckle in turn, shaking his head with a dazed smile.

“First official day as an Avenger, and you take a bullet to the chest. That’s pretty badass, you know.”

You smirked, the pain from your wound subsiding as you lost yourself in oak-brown of his eyes.

“Badass enough to take you on, I think. What do you say, sparring session when we get back?”

“Oh, it’s a date, Y/N!”

You both burst into a fit of laughter, half delirious with exhaustion, half relieved at having survived the day.

Despite your fear, despite your doubts, despite getting shot on your first day on the job, you became absolutely clear of one thing in the safety of Peter’s grasp.

With him by your side, you had the strength to be an Avenger.

[thecorteztwins]

I love how you care so much about obscure characters. Who is your favorite underrated female X-men character

Awww thank you! I love bringing them love, so it makes me really happy for you to say that! My absolute fave is Haven, but I read “faves” as plural so I wrote down a bunch...my faves can bounce around a bit but here’s a list of some of them! It’s under a cut because it’s long, I really like to explain who these gals are and why I like them so much! Warning, there is some description of pretty horrendous sexism and racism for some of these, since nothing makes me latch on to a woman harder than wanting to defend her from the SHITTY THINGS WRITERS DID TO HER! I kinda wrote novels for Haven and Madelyne, then I did links to previous things I’ve written about others. This is a LOT, I’m so sorry, I just love sharing!! Thank you for asking!!

THE BIG ONES Basically my consistent mega-faves I’m always ready to talk about! RADHA “HAVEN” DASTOOR - This lady has been at the top of my list for over five years and counting! She just really resonated with me on a deep level. She’s this mysterious woman who turns up in X-Factor for seven issues, and though she’s very benevolent towards them (even when they attack her) she is technically a villain, as she’s trying to destroy 3/4 of the world to bring about the Mahapralaya, a sort of Hindu apocalypse that will bring about an age of peace and end to suffering. So, her motives are very compassionate, and as it turns out, the horrible things she’s trying to do aren’t actually her fault. She’s being posessed by the Adversary, a demon of the highest order and an entity of cosmic evil. Or more specifically, her unborn child is. See, Haven was a really, really good woman. She was not a mutant, but she was sensitive to the pain and suffering of others from an early age, and she devoted her life to helping the poor and needy. She’s incredibly rich, so she could have helped just from afar, but instead she not only used her wealth to help others, she herself went out in the streets to attend to the poor and sick with her own hands. She bathed lepers, cradled dying babies, everything. She actually GOT the name “Haven” from a children’s hospital that she renovated, the kids started calling HER that instead. What a villain, huh? It all goes super wrong when she fell in love with a guy. After he took her virginity, he took off, leaving her pregnant. This was in 1970s India, and she was a very a religious woman, she felt INTENSE shame and horrible guilt and sunk into a deep depression, now living on the streets herself she was so broken. And then...then her fetus started talking to her. Yeah, see, technically she wasn’t posessed by the Adversary, her unborn child was. It incubated in her for twenty years, corrupting her mind, making her its pawn, all basically for its own amusement til it could be reborn into the world, killing her. And the guy who knocked her up? Got off scott-free. Basically she had sex ONE time and she had to be punished for it by being stripped of her agency, forced to betray everything she loved and believed, and then finally killed in the mud while a Marvel deity stood over and told her how she brought this on herself. It’s a slut-shaming Victorian morality tale of how no matter how good a person you are, you’re tainted forever if you violate purity culture just once, and we’re expected to AGREE with this narrative as readers. It’s sick. It gets even worse in how X-Factor treats her. She first appears RESCUING Polaris from government agents who are trying to kill her, because despite WORKING for the government at this time (X-Factor was a government team during this period) Polaris’s energy signature matched Magneto’s. Haven is the one who saved Polaris by teleporting her away. Polaris was distrustful and threatened Haven. Haven tried to talk her down, but also opened her arms and said that if Polaris truly did not believe her, then she would not resist. Polaris decided to “give trust a try” but I also truly believe that if Lorna had attacked her, Haven indeed would have let her. Haven is a human but the Adversary gave her INCREDIBLE power, she could WIPE PEOPLE FROM EXISTENCE by THINKING ABOUT IT, but she was a pacifist every step of the way, even as a villain. X-Factor would REPEATEDLY attack her later...she NEVER retaliated. The worst thing she did was, once they kept on attacking her, she just kinda put them in her pocket dimension as a time-out, but didn’t hurt them any. I really don’t think she COULD, possessed or not. Anyway, after meeting Lorna, she ‘ports Lorna back to safety and leaves her be. She is interested in recruiting Lorna and the rest of X-Factor to her cause, but she’s very moral about it, and never uses situations like these as leverage; for instance, when she heals Rahne of the Genoshan bonding process and gives her back her free will and her ability to resume her fully human form, Rahne is ECSTATIC and ready to do ANYTHING for her. And rather than exploit this, Haven just hugs her and tells her that her joy is thanks enough. Again, what a villain! Anyway, it turns out this Haven lady is also an activist! She’s big on promoting peace between warring groups (which I think makes it very significant that she’s an Indian character from Mumbai, then Bombay, who was created in 1992, the same year when Hindu/Muslim tensions in India resulted in the Bombay Bombings and subsequent riots, and she indeed mentions Hindu/Muslim tensions in her pro-peace speeches) and she emphasizes accepting MUTANTS in particular. It is very rare we see humans who are pro-mutant, though they had happened before, but this is the first time we see a human who is pro-mutant WITHOUT any affiliation or friendship with the X-men, and who is a public figure who seems to have some real social power---she’s a best-selling author, lecturer, and apparently her being a very wealthy woman has made some very wealthy people listen to her. She is basically the perfect ally for mutants if you take out the demon-possessed part, and I always found this super interesting and wish more had been done with it. So, she’s speaking at Brahma Hall (Brahma, notably, is the Hindu creator god) and...THIS happens. It’s...it’s really distressing. I’m sure it’s bad enough in its own time, but reading it NOW, in a post-9/11 world, a world where POC are routinely slaughtered by law enforcement (they always were but social media has made us more aware) it’s chilling. And we, the reader, are supposed to see X-Factor as JUSTIFIED in how they treat this unarmed, non-threatening, apparently-human-for-all-they-know woman who is promoting peace. Because no matter how nice she is, the US government says she’s an evil terrorist, and the US government turns out to be right! Yay, America! This might be a good time to mention Haven was the first Hindu character in X-Men comics, and the philosophy that the Adversary is manipulating her with comes directly from Hindu cosmology, and that is WAY IFFY to say THE LEAST. Holy xenophobia, Batman! And in an X-MEN comic of ALL PLACES! Oh yeah, and our good guys also describe her beliefs as “New Age psychobabble” and make fun of her temple decor as "very 60s" when BOTH ARE FROM HINDUISM, WHITE USA HIPPIES DID NOT INVENT IT, YOU IGNORANT SHITS So anyway, Haven’s very interesting to me as someone who is so deeply pacifistic and compassionate, that even when she’s being steered by a literal demon that has been talking in her womb for 20 years, she’s still someone who is perpetually polite, who won’t hurt the HEROES even when they want to hurt her, who SURRENDERS during a FIGHT in order to HEAL ONE OF THEM, and...who ends up with an abruptly aborted arc where she’s killed by her own “child” and victim-blamed in her last moments by Roma, the Omniversal Guardian Goddess and foe/counterpart of the Adversary. It’s made all the more tragic by the fact that Haven’s last pleas to Roma weren’t for herself, but for Roma to stop the Adversary, as she had realized now what her “child” really was. Even in her final moments, Haven was thinking of others, of the world. It’s just....awful to me that a character as interesting and unique as she was was thrown away like that, and that she was treated in such a sexist, racist, xenophobic way by both the HEROES and the story itself. I stan Haven 4 life. MADELYNE PRYOR- She’s maybe not “obscure” per se, I think most X-Men readers have a basic understanding of who she is, but the problem is that “basic” is not enough. What most people know is ”she’s Jean Grey’s evil clone” and some might know that “she was married to Scott Summers and went evil when he ditched her for Jean”. But that’s so far from the whole story, and it really does Madelyne a disservice, and canon has done her ENOUGH disservice already. Madelyne was originally created by Chris Claremont to truly be just a human woman who looked just like the dead Jean, with whom Scott would settle down and have a kid, and leave the X-Men. It’s a pretty nonsensical notion, the idea that this woman just happens to look exactly like Jean and meet Scott and fall in love, but this was his plan, he has confirmed it. And like...that’s pretty sexist from the start, in that she’s very literally created as a replacement for Jean on a narrative level, there’s NO REASON that she should have to look exactly like Scott’s dead ex besides as a way for Scott to still “get” Jean in a way. But Maddie rises above that swiftly by being a super strong, super cool character in her own right. She’s a pilot, she’s fearless, she’s adventurous, she’s got a mean right hook, and she’s got a tragic backstory when she crashed her plane and cost the lives of over three hundred passengers. She gets involved with Scott and by extension the X-Men, and she holds her own despite having no powers. Weird fact, this means that some of the X-Men, like Rogue, met Madelyne before they ever met Jean. She also gets a cool story where she gained healing powers, and the reason her powers specifically took the form of healing is because they were what she wanted them to be. She’s a good person, and also a total badass. Then, Jean came back, and the Powers That Be wanted her back together with Scott. But Scott was married to Madelyne. Rather than have them get a divorce or something, it was decided Madelyne had to be very literally demonized and then murdered, because we can’t just have two women co-exist, no, they must be divided into a “good” woman and a “bad” woman and fight over a man. Actual quote from Chris Claremont: “ Then, unfortunately, Jean was resurrected, Scott dumps his wife and kid and goes back to the old girlfriend. So it not only destroys Scott's character as a hero and as a decent human being it creates an untenable structural situation: what do we do with Madelyne and the kid? ... So ultimately the resolution was: turn her into the Goblin Queen and kill her off.” So, after something like EIGHT YEARS of being a character unto herself, Madelyne gets retconned as actually having been Jean’s clone all along! Which, okay, does make sense, certainly more sense than ‘this woman just happens to look EXACTLY like Jean and hook up with Jean’s ex” but then the REASON that Sinister cloned her...is nothing to do with Maddie or Jean themselves. Madelyne’s creation isn’t ABOUT her the way so many other clone/created-in-a-lab type stories are, like Laura Kinney. She wasn’t important. She was made literally just to have a baby with Scott, the BABY is what’s important. She is REPEATEDLY called a “brood mare” in fact (a female horse used specifically for breeding) So basically, her only value, her only REASON for existing, is her reproductive capacity. A lot of people think that Madelyne either found out she was a clone and went crazy-evil, or she went crazy-evil when Scott went back to Jean. That’s not what happened. Madelyne goes through a long, long series of arduous tragedies that piece by piece dehumanize and violate and traumatize her, and even then she doesn’t become evil until she’s TRICKED into being infected with demonic energy. Being “evil” was NEVER her choice, and everyone forgets that. See, first Scott walked out on her and the baby. Then, the Marauders attacked her, nearly killed her, and stole her baby and left her for dead in a coma for months. When she woke up, her baby was still missing, and she rejoined the X-Men to help them while they also helped search for her son. She sacrificed her LIFE alongside them to defeat the Adversary (yes, the same one Haven was pregnant with!) and then was resurrected with them too by Roma (yes, same Roma). She continued to work with the X-Men, despite the fact Scott had left her, and used her tech expertise to be the X-Men’s computer gal in Australia. When she saw X-Factor on one of the news monitors, including Scott with Jean, she realized why he’d abandoned her. She punched the screen and the explosion knocked her unconscious. While she was knocked out and dreaming, the demon Sym invaded her mind showed her a few different reflections of things she could be, one of which was a demonic reflection of herself. She chose that one, saying “What the heck, it’s only a dream.” And then Sym infected her with demonic energy. So she literally JUST found out her husband left her and their now-missing son for another woman, and she thinks she’s dreaming so yeah she picks the idea of being a demon IN THE CONTEXT OF A DREAM, A FUCKING FANTASY, WHEN SHE’S GOT EVERY RIGHT TO BE PISSED and oh well now you’re gonna be evil for real honey you don’t get a choice. Serves you right for being angry even for a moment, woman! But even then, she didn’t instantly turn evil. Horrible shit had already happened to her, but she still held out…so of course, more shit happened to her. While she and the X-Men were trying to help an escapee from Genosha (which was still enslaving mutants at that point) she ended up captured herself, and since their readings indicated she was not quite human (though what exactly she was, they didn’t know) they tried to put her through the “mutate bonding process” that would enslave her too. As a result, her latent psychic powers finally manifest, and she telekinetically explodes the place. From there, we start seeing big hints that something is going really wrong with Maddie, she seduces Havok and she’s entered into a secret bargain with the demon N’astrih, who promised to help her find her still-missing son (whom she still wanted to find and save at that point because she was still mostly herself) and of course, that bargain transformed her into the Goblyn Queen. After this transformation, though, she STILL had not gone past the point of no return. That didn’t happen until she met Sinister and she found out the truth of her origins—-not only was she a clone of Jean Grey physically, the few memories that she had also came from Jean, and her emotions from Scott had been PROGRAMMED into her (meaning she never had a choice at all in the man she loved) and it was all to be a brood mare, to produce a child with him. Only then did she go off the deep end completely, and agreed to N’astrih’s plan to sacrifice her own son (who he now found and gave to her, as this was his plan all along) because it was the absolute BIGGEST fuck you she could give to Sinister and to Cyclops. And like, yes, that’s evil, but given at that point she was not only magically infected/corrupted with demon energy AND insane with trauma that had been building up for months if not YEARS of development…she basically had a better excuse than ANYONE in all this who was also corrupted by Inferno. Yet she’s the one who doesn’t get a break. The unfairness is just…staggering, really. Even her death isn’t without indignity, violation, and depersonalization---she tries to commit a murder suicide, linking her mind with Jean’s and killing herself so that Jean will be dragged down into death with her. Jean, who really is the kindest to Maddie, urges Maddie to live instead, but Maddie’s last words are “not in the same world as you”. Jean survives. Maddie does not. And then...Jean takes Maddie’s memories and psyche into herself. It’s meant as beautiful, but to me it’s a heinous violation. Maddie wanted nothing more than be APART from Jean, so much so she KILLED HERSELF, and now Jean has made her a part of her forever, and we’re meant to applaud this? It’s DISGUSTING. Madelyne gets resurrected in the 1990s by Nate Grey, but it turns out that was an accident on his part, his mind was subconsciously seeking...Jean Grey, of course. And we he finds out he’s the one who brought her back to life, HE TRIES TO KILL HER. Jean stops him, but it’s no wonder to me that poor Maddie runs to the arms of Sebastian Shaw...who, of all people, actually treats her as an individual from the get-go and ends up being a pretty good boyfriend to her. Never even tries to use her in any evil schemes, it’s crazy. Madelyne has come back and died again and come back a few times since then, but she’s never really been “Maddie” again, whether it was brave adventurous Badass Normal pilot Maddie who just wanted to help people, or the bitter, conflicted, morally grey Maddie of the 90s. No, she’s just....she’s not even Goblyn Queen anymore, she lacks the pathos, she’s just this sexy evil misogynist caricature of herself and I hate it. I really love Madelyne Pryor. She came into this crazy world as a normal human, and when she got pulled into superhero shenanigans she held her own. She was a badass, she was a spitfire, she had a huge heart. She deserves a lot better than just being a gross Sexy Evil Lady with no personality, especially since she no longer has the whole “demonically possessed” issue going on. It’s just stupid and sexist at this point. I personally love original 80s Maddie, and also 90s Maddie where like...this shit has happened to her and she’s darker for it now, and understandably so, but she’s also still HER. Like, she leaves Sebastian Shaw not because he ever treated her badly, which he did not, but because he was doing things that could hurt OTHER PEOPLE, and that was where she drew the line. She was an enemy to the X-Men now or at least really hated them, she killed Threnody for bringing up her past as being “bred to breed”, but she also wasn’t about to be with a man who would risk the lives of millions of innocent people with his schemes, no matter how well he treated her, no matter if he was the one man who ever saw her for HER. Real Maddie is INTERESTING and Real Maddie is GOOD and I want Real Maddie back so she can call everyone on their shit and then go off and live her best life instead of being eternally dragged back into pointless villainy by authors who can’t think of anything better! MEGGAN PUCEANU - As with Madelyne, she’s maybe not UNKNOWN per se, I mean she’s one of the lead characters of Excalibur, but I also don’t think she’s an A-lister at all either. I’ve written about her HERE and HERE and her relationship dynamics with Brian Braddock/Captain Britain HERE so I feel like those links will probably be better than another novel like I did for Haven and Maddie! CATSEYE AKA SHARON SMITH - The deaths of all the Hellions were a tragedy, but Catseye is the one I found most interesting and with the most potential! I’ve written about her HERE and the Hellions in general HERE with a segment on her. She’s just so cute and innocent and INTERESTING, I want to know so much more about how she behaves, how she perceives the world and interact with others, how she gets on with her teammates, how she reacts this and that, I just love her! MINDMELD - Appears for only one issue, is arguably the first transgender mutant in Marvel, and also a total badass who I think is really sexy. I write more about her HERE and HERE. HONORABLE MENTIONS I’m not freaking out over these girls AS MUCH or AS CONSISTENTLY but they all have a place in my heart!! Really all it takes is someone MENTIONING them to get me revved up all over again!

THRENODY AKA MELODY JACOBS- Another Marvel gal who can’t catch a break, when she’s remembered by anyone at all. I wrote about her HERE prior to her most recent return in Deadpool, then HERE about said return. I just really, really want Threnody to be happy. She’s suffered enough. Admittedly, that could be said for most women on this list, maybe all of them. GOSAMYR- Wrote about her HERE! Most people who know of her at all typically hate her but I find her extremely interesting. She’s like everything people HATE about women, every stereotype of “toxic femininity”, but then this is explained as part of her culture and biology, and this is, to her, what is normal, and how is she to KNOW that everyone acts nuts around her when she has no basis for knowing how they act when she’s NOT around? She interests me in the questions and dilemmas she raises, and I just kinda have a thing for women we’re supposed to hate because of their feminine traits. KWANNON- The Japanese woman whose body Betsy Braddock had for years. I was very excited when she was brought back to life and given her own series, I wanted for her at last to be a CHARACTER with her own PERSONALITY and LIFE that wasn’t just an excuse to give a white woman a ninja makeover, and then I got...Fallen Angels. And she’s just...she’s literally just 90s Psylocke. I was very disappointed. But I still like Kwannon HERSELF in terms of potential, and now that she’s back maybe she’ll become a real person sooner or later. SATURNYNE AND SAT-YR-9: Wrote about them HERE! I really like Sat-Yr-9 as a villain (I especially enjoyed her short stint in the Hellfire Club as White Queen with Viper as her lieutenant and not-so-subtle girlfriend) and I like Saturnyne as a sort of celestial bureaucrat, someone who isn’t a force of good or evil but a force of ORDER, like the opposite of “embodiment of chaos” type characters. MURMUR AKA ARLETTE TRUFFEAU: I have not written about her before but HERE IS HER WIKI ARTICLE. As with Gossamyr, she seems like the “sexy shallow slut we’re supposed to dislike” type, so of course I like her. BIANCA LANEIGE- A Generation X villain who bore a grudge against Emma Frost from her days in the Hellfire Club, I wrote about her HERE. She’s pretty comedic as a bad guy, but that’s not a bad thing! I’d like to see her around again one day, either as silly as ever or made more serious. LIFEGUARD: Wrote about here HERE. She was in the first X-Men graphic novel that I bought and I’ve always had a soft spot for her since. I really liked that she didn’t give a shit when she found out who her bio-father was, it’s such a refreshing reaction compared to the usual “what if I’m just like my father/I can’t believe I’m adopted/etc” angst. Comparatively, she’s super upset about her Shi’ar lineage, because that actually altered her INTERNAL self when it manifested, she started seeing everyone around her as PREY and I reckon that’s pretty distressing for someone like her. Always wanted to see her come back; she’s in the background at a Krakoa party! SILHOUETTE CHORD: Wrote about her HERE and HERE. I just like her I guess! She’s maybe not obscure per se since she’s a main cast member of The New Warriors, but I’ve never really seen her get any attention. BLACK MAMBA AKA TANYA SEALY: Wrote about her HERE! THE ASP AKA CLEOPATRA NEFERTITI: Wrote about her HERE! SKEIN AKA SYBIL DVORAK: Wrote about her HERE and HERE! She was on the “Woman Warriors” team with Black Mamba and Asp, and I like the idea they just hang out as friends a lot!! ANACONDA AKA BLANCHE “BLONDIE” SITZINSKI: Wrote about her HERE! I just want her to hug me...really, really hard :) SHARADA DARTHRI: A minor villain that shows up during the “all female X-Men” team era in...2013, I think? Wrote about her HERE. DRAGONFLY AKA VERONICA DULTRY: Wrote about her HERE MANTIS : Despite the fact that she’s very well-known for her film version in Guardians of the Galaxy, most people don’t seem to know much at all about her comics version even though she’s been an Avengers member since the 70s. Wrote about her HERE and HERE and HERE, someone else writes about her HERE PENDING These are characters that I have not had the chance to personally read up on myself yet, but I want to! Their names link to their Marvel wiki articles! TOPAZ FIREBIRD SNOWBIRD SILVERCLAW There are honestly countless others I’m probably not remembering but this is a good handful I think! Oh, yeah, and also...COOTER. Because her name is COOTER oh my god.

[that-shamrock-vibe]

Movie Review: Cats (Spoilers)

Spoiler Warning: I am posting this review the day after the movie first airs in the U.K, so if you haven’t yet seen the movie don’t read on.

General Reaction:

First of all I want to put out there that I believe the success or failure of this movie Tom Hooper and how he's adapted the screenplay of Cats to transition from stage to screen, because I feel the negativity this movie is already getting are coming in two waves. From the general movie goer and then from fans of the stage musical.

Where I stand is as a casual movie goer in this instance but also a fan of musical theatre, so much so that my attire for this movie is somewhat Macavity inspired, although someone did say that my collar was very Rum Tum Tugger...I'm okay with that.

But to clarify, I have never seen the stage production of Cats. All I knew about it even leading up to the release of this movie was the one big song Memory and that I liked the look of the costumes.

Now with my relationship with the property explained, did I like this movie? Well I enjoyed parts of it. It’s a little bit like how I felt about The Rise of Skywalker, but while I thought the latest Star Wars was outwardly a hot mess with some enjoyable aspects, Cats is more of a “Not really knowing how to feel about it” type of movie.

There are some really great takeaways from this movie, and I feel again depending on the individual’s relationship with this property and musicals in general, will determine exactly what those takeaways are.

What’s Good:

Alright so this is what I found good/enjoyable, again I can’t decide whether or not I think this movie is good but these elements definitely are.

Costumes:

So I am going to start with the costumes because they're probably my favourite thing about the movie.

I enjoyed how for those who had costumes, because not every cat did, that they at least gave those cats a sense of identity; Macavity was one of these shady mysterious characters that you would come across in a dark alley and his clothes reflected that, Mr. Mistoffelees was a magical tuxedo cat and so dressed as a magician. Bustopher was an aristocratic cat, or Aristocat...sorry I had to go there as there are two Aristocat references in this movie, and Grizabella was a glamour cat but had been shunned and therefore sleeping rough possibly, this is all reflected in the clothing and it's fabulous.

The only outfit I didn't really get was Jennyanydots, I did find it funny that she had to unzip the one cat suit to reveal this pink almost work out outfit but I didn't understand the point of it.

Visual Effects:

As for the CGI used on the "digital fur", I appreciate the artistic stance Hooper and company took with the movie because, frankly I wouldn't expect anything less from the guy that directed both Les Miserables and The King's Speech, however, I did not really understand the need for digital fur as for a large portion of the movie they all just look like they’re wearing practical catsuits, and again with Rebel Wilson’s character when she unzips the one to reveal the other, which she does twice, you can tell it’s supposed to be a real suit.

That being said, from when you first see these cats during the opening number, you can see the payoff to these visual effects. They look genuinely like cats and all have markings that try to differentiate them. I didn’t know from the trailers that Victoria had markings on her I just thought she was a plain white cat but she looks almost snow leopardesk.

I also really enjoyed how they showed Macavity’s apparent ability to transport himself and/or others with that gold dust effect that was later used as Bombalurina’s (Taylor Swift’s) catnip to incapacitate the other cats.

Musical Numbers:

So I’m going to talk about the songs at the end as I do with all musical reviews but the actual productions of these numbers were fantastic. From the choreography to the cinematography of them, this was a very low on dialogue movie as literally at one point you have I believe three songs in solid succession with only one or two lines of actual dialogue in between them, so the actual musical numbers had to be impressive and for the most part they were.

There were never any numbers I was embarassed or cringing while watching, I do have my favourites and my not so favourites which again I will get into further down, but as I say everything from the choreography, cinematography to even the actors giving it their all during the numbers made them enjoyable for me.

Cast:

That brings me nicely on to my final good thing which is the cast, who as I said take this production seriously. I remembered seeing an interview with Judi Dench about this movie recently and she said that when acting as a cat the cast don’t know what the end result will be like because I imagine the actual visual effects of the cat appearance is put in after the filming.

Regardless of this, all these actors from the most seasoned such as Sir Ian McKellen and Dame Judi Dench to the younger more inexperienced like leading lady Francesca Hayward and even Jason Derulo who is of course a seasoned singer, but hasn’t really acted before, give it everything and take the role and universe they now inhabit so seriously that it never feels gimmicky or uncomfortable in that regards.

Do I think this movie has awards chances for acting? No because again the movie is mostly sung, I believe more so than Les Mis, but for costume, music and visual effects I’d definitely think they have a chance of at least a nomination.

What’s Meh:

Alright so nothing is outrightly or offensively bad in this movie, again thinking back to Star Wars yesterday which had blatant issues, this doesn’t really have that but when it does it’s not as glaring or as troublesome as Star Wars was.

The Story:

I say the story is meh because I still don’t really understand it, what my takeaway is that there effectively a talent competition night where Judi Dench’s decides which cat will ascend to this higher realm and be reborn into another life...

That’s great...but for the one who is chosen...does that mean they die? The very definition of “reborn” usually means reincarnation which means you need to die first...so when they send the cat off in that chandelier attached to that hot air balloon, does that cat die? From oxygen starvation?

Also, they practically cement this movie as taking place in 1930s London and you see the feet of one human and hear the voice of another so this is Earth just including these particular cats, so how does no one notice a hot air balloon attached to a chandelier floating through the sky? I don’t know if the 1930s had satellites or anything but something should have picked that up?

My final point is on the term “Jellicle Cats”, I still don’t know what a Jellicle cat actually is, they don’t exactly do their best at defining what one is despite the fact they have several songs containing the word “Jellicle”. “Jellicle Cat” “Jellicle Moon” and “Jellicle Ball” just to name a few.

I mean for fans of the stage show, they may have more of an understanding because maybe that explains the term better but in terms of trying to get non-Cats fans interested...not explaining what is clearly a core concept of the movie is a bit of a misstep.

The Ending:

Of everything in this movie, the ending monologue by Judi Dench was the only thing I felt was a little bit cringeworthy. First of all, I understand the musical Cats is based on a series of poems and I also understand this ending message is about being nice to cats, but I just didn’t think it was either necessary or needed.

Also the fact that Macavity was so easily thwarted, I mean I know musicals don’t have to have the big dramatic endings for its villains but for Macavity to literally try and hitchhike on Grizbella’s ride into the great beyond only to fall and just land on the roof without any consequences aside from maybe the loss of his powers? It was a bit of a damp ending.

The Cats:

Okay so we’ve talked about what’s good and meh, now going into the cats as characters. Not a full blown character analysis breakdown but, like my song section, in sections in order of my favourites.

By far my favourite cats were Macavity and Grizabella, Idris Elba as the villainous Macavity was great in the trailers and great here. As I stated before his outfit really added another layer to his performance, he has the right acting chops to be this type of villain. I still haven’t seen Hobbs & Shaw but have heard similar praise for his role there.

Grizabella meanwhile, is Jennifer Hudson...enough said. I loved her in Dreamgirls and I love her here. I do see similarities between her character and Anne Hathaway’s character in Les Mis particularly with their big emotional songs but I enjoyed the backstory to her character here.

I would also say Mistoffelees and Victoria do a great job. While not my favourites it is almost as if we are seeing the world from Francesca Hayward’s eyes. I know she’s supposed to be a kitten but I never believed her as such. Mistoffelees meanwhile had his moment to shine towards the end of the movie and was one of the more compelling characters from the trailers.

The veteran staples Judi Dench and Ian McKellen were great in this movie, as they always are. I know Dench’s role was gender-bent from the stage show but I think she works better as a female character. Theatre Gus meanwhile is a great example of the old thespians who maybe once had their time but are just looking for another spotlight.

James Corden, Jason Derulo and Ray Winstone were all surprises for me here. I knew the first two could sing but I found Bustopher’s aristocratic nature hilarious and he really lifted the mood when he came in. Rum Tum Tugger meanwhile is dubbed “the curious cat” however by the end of his song I went from thinking he was curious to just suffering with ADHD. As for Ray Winstone, it’s Ray Winstone as a cat! It’s fantastic!

Then there are the iffy cats, namely Bombalurina, Jennyanydots and Munkustrap. Munkustrap is possibly the least offensive but that’s because his role in the movie is the same as in the stage show which is narrator. It did annoy me that he effectively butted in to a lot of people’s songs but again as narrator I guess that’s his job.

Rebel Wilson as Jennyanydots, as I said before, really confused me in terms of her outfit. I don’t understand why she didn’t just wear the pink suit and that be it instead of having to unzip the one catsuit to reveal this other catsuit. I mean I guess it helped them later in the film but still. Also the fact she wanted a different life to get out of that kitchen? Why was she trapped in the kitchen?

As for Taylor Swift, if you’ve seen her in the trailers you’ve pretty much seen her scenes. Bombalurina is literally in this movie for one scene and it is for Macavity’s musical number. She is seen once more in a slightly later scene but then it’s never quite explained what becomes of her.

Songs:

Alright so here we go with the songs of the movie, grouped in order of the songs I loved, the songs I liked, and the songs I thought were...okay.

My favourites, again, were “Macavity”, “Memory” and “Bustopher Jones: The Cat About Town”. “Memory” is the only thing I knew and adored about this musical prior to this movie. The song speaks to me both as a musical fan and just a fan of great music. When I knew Jennifer Hudson would be performing it I already knew I’d love it.

“Macavity” is a very catchy song and Taylor Swift really works it. It’s not quite jazzy but it is close enough and the fact Elba also has some involvement in the song is great because I know he does also sing as a side gig. I thought it was a great character introduction despite the fact we have seen him throughout the movie.

“Bustopher Jones” was just a very fun and uplifting number, I loved James Corden’s aristocratic accent and how he moved around the streets even as fat as the character is. Interestingly I know Corden isn’t that fat anymore but again he was comfortable in himself to play it so I loved him for that.

The songs I liked were “The Rum Tum Tugger”, “Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer” and “Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat”. All three were brilliant production pieces, “Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer” was a great romp of a song, Jason Derulo brought his all to “The Rum Tum Tugger” and tap-dancing in any production will win me over let alone a tap-dancing cat.

The other songs I thought were okay on a varying scale, I don’t know why but Rebel Wilson didn’t win me over as she usually does. I think the production of her song was very off-putting. The mice with child faces and the cockroaches with female faces didn’t really work.

The others were very well sung but didn’t quite stick with me as the already mentioned ones did. Also “Beautiful Ghosts” was penned as Taylor Swift’s original song for the movie so I presumed her character would sing it, but the new girl Victoria did in the movie while Swift sang it over the credits...

Recommendation:

We’ve finally reached the end, okay so if you saw the trailers and were not one of the many haters who trolled the movie for its use of CGI and are interested in the story then go and see it because you will get something out of it. If you’re a fan of the stage production then I would still say see it because it allows you to form your own opinion.

If you are simply a casual movie-goer who wants an enjoyable two and a half hours then I would still recommend to go and see it but be prepared to be slightly confused if you don’t know what to expect.

Overall I rate this movie a 5/10, it was enjoyable and roughly 40-50% of this movie does work really well, it’s just the rest of it that needed more attention to detail in my opinion.

So that’s my review of Cats, what did you guys think? Post your comments and check out more Movie Reviews as well as other reviews and posts.

[hockey-more-like]

I see all these Fallout ocs on here and I love them all so much! They're all so fun and creative, so I thought I'd finally post one of mine, though I dont think shes as good as all the great ones I see fhzjfzjfzjts

Before I start though all the art on this post was done by my amazing and talented friend @yobrorainbow !

Game: Fallout New Vegas

Name: Lucky

Age: 19

S.P.E.C.I.A.L: S3, P6, E3, C7, I3, A8, L10

Tag Skills: Medicince, Speech, Survival

Faction: House

Alignment: Lawful Good

Game: Fallout 4

Name: Lucky

Age: 20

S.P.E.C.I.A.L: S2, P2, E2, C6, I3, A4, L9

Faction: Nukaworld Raiders

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Lucky is a very very sweet and kind person. After waking up in doc Mitchell's house she had lost pretty much all of her memories, making up the name Lucky on the spot, figuring she had been very lucky to have survived being shot in the head by Benny. She's really nice but a big big scaredy cat and crybaby. She focuses her abilities to things like speech and medicine because she wants to do whatever she can to help the people of the Mojave, as well as somehow get her package that Benny had stolen back. Shes strongly against violence, but shes found shes pretty good at fighting if she has to. When Lucky eventually makes it to the Strip and meets house she feels she has an obligation to help him. She sees the Legion as an extremely evil group that shed never support. She doesnt want to join the NCR either, because they're and army and she dowsnt want to fight (even though she must no matter who she sides with). She doesn't side with Benny and Yesman because shes still very iffy on them. Benny did shoot her after all. So that leaves house, who, like I said above, she feels she has an obligation to. The package was his and she was his courier, so she felt she should help him because she had screwed up her job for him.

Throughout the course of her time in the Mojave she slowly regains her memories, and after the Second Battle of Hoover Dam she finally regains them all. In reality, she had been a horrible person before she was shot by Benny. Lucky was someone who thrived off the suffering of others. Someone violent and evil, doing everything for her own gain and raising and attacking people and settlements for gun and sport, even if she had always gone solo and without a raider group.

Instead of taking everything in stride, being proud of the new person she was, looking at all the good she had done in the Mojave and all the people she had helped in her time she reverted back to her old self. She traveld to Boston, eventually joining up with a raider group for the first time, becoming the Nukaworld Overboss.

[kosmosinusa]

Jay Reviews the NogiMyu 2018 Cast

... Let’s try this again. Apparently I was too ambitious last time, so we’re gonna make this a little simpler. Anyway, with NogiMyu 2019 just around the corner, I thought I’d review the 2018 cast one last time so that way, when we see the 2019 cast, I can compare my current opinions with the new cast and see how they favor! This review is only for the senshi, since everyone else (Minus Team Moon Luna) is returning! With that said, let’s start!

Sailor Moon - Mizuki Yamashita Before I say anything, I do want to say that I DO like Mizuki! However, after watching her more in Nogizaka46, I don’t see her as Moon anymore. She’s very serious (her serious face showed a LOT in the show. Like she has that “stone-cold” face that you guys KNOW irks me. XD) and sassy. WHICH WORKS FOR HER, like in the 7th birthday live she was giving me LIFE and I was LIVING for it! (I have to make a gifset of her so I can share. xD) but yeah, I’m not very keen on her. Her singing... Let me just put it this way, I love the Blu-Ray for what it does. x’D What I can say is that she did have nice chemistry with Mikako-Tux, but... that’s about it. 

Sailor Mercury - Riria Ito When the cast pictures first came out, I really wasn’t feeling Riria. She looked bored and didn’t seem interested. I was actually very surprised that I liked her performance! She’s like a baby Ami! So adorable and sweet. However, maybe TOO sweet. IDK it’s not that it doesn’t fit the role of Ami, but she isn’t my preferred option. Her singing is really nice, though! Overall she isn’t bad to me, I actually like her a lot! Just wouldn’t exactly pick her of the 2.

Sailor Mars - Kazumi Takayama Uhm... I don’t even need to explain how much I love her. xD Like, I’ve never been a HUGE Mars fan, but after Kazumi, I gained a new love for her! Kazumi’s my second-favorite Mars of all time, and I just adore her to bits! I love her fiery passionate side, and her sweet and wise side! Her singing voice is also REALLY superb and I love listening to it! Her deeper voice also very much matches the character (I prefer Sailor Moon Crystal to the 90′s anime, so I prefer that style) and not to mention SHE LITERALLY JUST LOOKS LIKE MARS LIKE THEY DID SO WELL CASTING HER. <3

Sailor Jupiter - Ami Nojo Like Riria, when the cast photos came out, I was really iffy on Ami. To me, she did not look like Jupiter. But as soon as she came on stage with that Radiant smile, I was shooketh! AND THEN THE QUEEN STARTED SINGING AND I WAS SHOOKETH AGAIN. Like Ami’s SUCH a good singer! It’s a shame Nogi used her as an under member, cause really she’s fucking amazing. xD She isn’t my preferred of the 2, but Ami really felt like Jupiter to me, and I adore her so much. <3

Sailor Venus - Hina Higuchi Oh boy... This is where my opinion really differs from many. Now, when the cast photos came out, I was SO EXCITED for Hina. I thought she would be my favorite! To me, she looked a lot like Shiori Sakata (Venus in NelkeMyu from La Reconquista to Un Nouveau Voyage) and I was like “YAS QUEEN GIVE IT TO ME!!!” But uh... For me, personally? Hina just feels like she’s self-centered. She doesn’t give me that “leader Venus” vibe and more of a “pop star Venus” vibe. Which is fine for normal Minako moments, but not really for season 1 Minako especially. DK Minako is supposed to be very leader-type and serious. And Hina seriously lacked that. Yeah, she’s pretty, but I feel like that’s all she has to her. Her singing is fine, but it’s not like WHOA THERE either. 

Team Moon Review Honestly, you can watch either version of NogiMyu and enjoy it. There’s something good about each version. But what lacks so much in Team Moon for me is chemistry. It felt like most girls were more to themselves and didn’t really work as a team. I think they’re all great separately, but together just didn’t mesh for me. 

Sailor Moon - Sayuri Inoue Okay, it is no secret that I ADORE SAYURI. Like if I was straight I’d marry her. Like I LOVE her. She did SO well as Usagi! And being the older one of the 2 playing her, you’d think it’d be the other way around! I didn’t expect to like Sayuri NEARLY as much as I do! The moment she wakes up in act 1 I literally screamed “OH MY GOD SHE’S SO CUTE”. Sayuri radiates Usagi energy just as much as Satomi and Miyuki. All her cute little faces, her ad-libs. She just exhales Usagi for me and I can’t get enough of it! AND HER SINGING. OH MY GOD IS SHE AMAZING. Just thank you Lord for giving me Sayuri. xD

Sailor Mercury - Miria Watanabe I like Miria, I really do. She’s not a favorite of mine, but I do like her! Her smile is very warm and inviting (unless you’ve seen Zambi... In that case, run. xD) and I really love her warmness in her performance! Her ad-lib when she screams at Usagi is legit one of my favorite things ever. xD That said, however, her singing... YIKES... She seemed VERY strained when singing and like she couldn’t catch her breath. When you’re in a MUSICAL, your singing ability is important. You don’t have to be the BEST singer, but you should at least have decent breath control and pitch control. Maybe with time, Miria could improve, but let’s just say she’s another who benefitted from the Blu-Ray. xD

Sailor Mars - Ranze Terada Ranze is so fucking cute. Like literally, just watch Team Star’s Making of, she’s literally so damn adorable. That being said, adorable isn’t a trait for Rei, and I don’t think Ranze really portrayed Mars correctly. However, you can tell she REALLY tried to give that fire passion. When she sings, she tries to give a lower pitch to simulate a more Mars-feel. Ranze is a high-voiced, very quiet person. She does have some sass to her, though. I loved when she gave sass to Rina during the Senshuuraku speeches. XD I honestly do not think Ranze was fit for Mars, BUT I do enjoy her just as herself. I get SO happy every time I see her in Nogi. xD

Sailor Jupiter - Minami Umezawa I LOVE HER. xD Like as soon as she walked on stage, I FELT IT. Maybe Ami is more accurate to the character, but Minami feels like a mix of Emi Kuriyama and Yu Takahashi and I LOVE IT. Her dynamics between power and softness felt JUST right and I love it. The one area I think she lacks is her singing. She isn’t BAD, and she does have a naturally deeper voice. But, a lot of times when she went too deep, her voice cracked. But the passion of her performance really shone for me. She’s my second-favorite Jupiter and I stand by that!

Sailor Venus - Kana Nakada UNLESS YOU’RE NEW HERE, YOU KNOW I LOVE MY QUEEN KANA. <3 Like some of the others, I judged Kana before I got to see her performance and I feel SO bad for that. When the cast photos came out, I was NOT feeling her at all. But then as soon as she came out I was like “Oh, I was so wrong about you...” I tried so hard to like Hina more, but I can’t do it. Kana just has something about her that I love. Her general personality, her awesome dancing, just everything about her feels genuine and I love it. She definitely has that leader Venus vibe and she’s more serious than Hina, which I appreciate. Kana is my sweet precious baby and I will protect her at all costs! <3

Team Star Review I ADORE Team Star. One thing that’s very important with them is they have CHEMISTRY. Like they really worked together to bring the show alive. From their backstage to the main stage, they really worked hard together to produce a great show, and that they did. I adore Team Star, and I will stan them. 

Well, that’s it for me, I hope you enjoyed reading this. xD

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: Vol. 5 "Dread in the Air"

This is a re-posting from Oct. 21st, 2017 in an effort to get all my recaps fully on tumblr. Thanks!

Seeing the intro for the first time as an intro in Episode 2 is always exciting, especially since RWBY has a history of hinting at things to come in their openings. Though it is a little reminiscent of an Instagram filter, I do enjoy the grainy texture given to each of the girls' introduction shots--a move from pure, bright coloring to a darker texture reflective of the show's darker themes. The fact that we have house shenanigans alongside a passing silhouette of Ozpin, an intense fight against a literally larger than life Salem while Ruby still finds reasons to smile... it's looking like Volume 5 is finding its balance.

Indeed, in the name of balance this is one of the rare episodes where Ruby never shows up. "Rare" doesn't even cover it really, considering that in previous episodes focusing on others she at least appeared in the background: attending class, cheering on her teammates in the tournament, etc. However, as the stakes and cast grow, we should expect more time to be devoted to the other players in this game. "Dread in the Air" pays particular attention to its villains.

Any lingering doubts about Lionheart's loyalty are laid to rest as Watts visits him personally, escorting him to one of Salem's jellyfish grimm that's... just hanging out in the middle of the school somewhere? Alright then. We see partly now why Lionheart got rid of all his security. Not easy to keep your duplicity a secret if you're housing stuff like that next to the broom closet. Regardless, it's clear that he's being threatened or blackmailed and is caving under that pressure pretty quick. For a long time the fandom considered Qrow/Tai/Ironwood/Ozpin as the scarecrow/cowardly lion/tin man/wizard representatives, but with the introduction of Lionheart as a cowardly figure and an obviously lion-ish look/name, we might eventually be getting a third school headmaster in need of a brain...

Now that jellyfish thing is certainly creepy--remember Mercury and Emerald's first reactions?--but here we get to see that even the creepiest grimm become a thousand times worse in Salem's hands. Lionheart makes the mistake of trying to order her around, telling Salem to hurry and get the Spring Maiden before Qrow does, and his outburst is rewarded by tentacles snapping out to choke him, one threatening to put out an eye. The fact that Salem can control her grimm from such a distance lends credence to the theory that she's the other "brother" from Qrow's story, capable of manipulating all her creations. Or at least she’s connected to them somehow. She is, in short, their god. Does that mean then Ozpin can do similar things with life as her opposite? Regardless, this moment also implies that these jellyfish grimm aren't inherently weird scroll replacements, but rather that this communication is an ability that Salem is bestowing on them. After all, we haven't seen any of the other creatures being used as tools yet.  

As Lionheart reports that he's found the Spring Maiden we learn that Cinder has finally recovered, at least enough to tell Watts to shut up and argue with Salem about murdering children. (Didn't you miss her?). I'm always pretty attuned to when people use names vs. epithets, and Cinder's move from "the silver eyed girl" to "Ruby" when she begs Salem to kill her shows just how personal this fight has become. Salem also warns Cinder that Ruby's powers--once she harnesses them--are a real threat to the Maiden's. Jury’s still out on whether that’s because of their magic or something else intrinsic to the Maidens. 

After Salem asks to speak with Tyrion (appearing highly displeased) and Watts is tasked with somehow getting him a new tail, we cut to Weiss where my reading of last's week's conflict (and Weiss' character) rings true. They are still near the ship that sent out the distress call and after another one crashes Weiss says enough is enough. She's going to help, "What we should have done in the first place." We're then treated to what are, in my humble opinion, the most god awful grimm to ever grace the RWBY screen.

Wasps.

Or lancers, as they're called, with stingers that act like grappling hooks--isn't that wonderful?

A lot of people have complained about the fight sequences since Monty's death, but there's still a wonderful wealth of creativity here. Flexible magic structures aside, from a purely fight standpoint I've always appreciated the ways that Weiss utilizes her glyphs, in this case to steady herself on a moving airship, shoot volleys at a number of moving targets, slow their descent, and lift an entire cargo hold of dust to turn it into a bomb. (Seriously... she can do anything with that semblance.) When that doesn’t work we get what we all knew was coming: that knight. For the first time we really get to see it in action and learn that these summoned creatures aren't just mindless minions, but rather avatars that Weiss can control. While she closes her eyes in concentration the knight fights with her style: using glyphs as launching points to attack, the exact move we first got in her trailer.

It's also worth noting Weiss' little smirk while they're getting attacked by freaking wasps that shoot spikes and have a queen that is impervious to dust. It doesn't matter how hard things get. Like Ruby, Weiss just loves the challenge.

Meanwhile RWBY is once again showing that they have a very iffy handle on race issues. People have voiced numerous grievances over the years, from the small (that the racism against faunus is never actually shown--Cardin doesn't count when he's a bully to everyone), to the large (turning the group demanding equality into one of the series' main villains is...not good.) These problems are even more overt with the introduction of Sienna Khan, a tiger faunus who is murdered after just a few minutes of screen time. Her opinion that attacking the schools "crosses a line" and her speech that she wants respect from the humans sets her apart from Adam's radicalism. Yet at the same time including "fear" in what she wants and the implication that she's only refraining from going to war because she might not win... it adds complexity to her motives, complexity that we rarely see in so short a scene. Not that it matters, considering Adam runs her through with his sword seconds later. The fact that Sienna is one of the very few PoCs in RWBY (and a woman to boot) just makes her sudden death all the more cringe-worthy. It wasn't impactful and it hardly seemed necessary. Was I really the only one who thought Adam was already in charge of the White Fang? RWBY's wiki assures me Salem mentioned Sienna once, but it was hardly emphasized. Her loss of power means little when at least some of us didn't realize she had that power to begin with.

Admittedly some fans are already theorizing that Sienna survived (A single stabbing couldn't kill her, right? What's her semblance? Where’s her aura? They didn't have to mention that burial...) but we'll have to wait to find out if Sienna pops back up and spills some blood when they try to put her in the ground. For now Adam lounges on the throne, dreaming of the humans serving him, and Hazel laments that, "Nobody needed to die today." Despite my interest in Hazel and his connection to Oscar, I can't overlook the fact that this is two white men seizing power (and the scene) through violence. It's apt, but not exactly refreshing.

Luckily we don't end with these two. Poor Weiss takes a beating in that crash and the final scene is her waking up, begging two shady-looking men for help. Who should walk over then but Raven. See? Groups are already coming together! Just... not how we wanted.

First the Spring Maiden and now the (former) Schnee heiress. Raven sure does like kidnapping important young women. Sadly we'll have to wait until next week to see how Weiss gets out of this one.

Until then,

<3

Other Details of Note

Watts - "A little birdie told us." You're hilarious, asshole. Please stick around.

Nice change in audio as Salem speaks through the grimm. Her voice echoes a great deal, making her appear even more powerful and threatening than usual.

I appreciated the pilot's skill helping to save Weiss' ass. It's incredibly rare for us to see non-Huntsmen making a difference in combat.

We learn that the White Fang will execute its members if needed. They're no longer just an "activist" organization, but truly creating their own government and rule. Salem is, in many ways, no longer the biggest threat.

Can't help but think that Adam's choice to blame Sienna's death on a human huntsmen will cause serious trouble down the road (as is his intention). The kingdoms are already divided on the huntsman's place within society and having the White Fang hyper-focused on them (as an embodiment of the worst of humanity) certainly won't help.

[ghoultyrant]

Alt-power Taylor patterns

Have some random ‘rules’ (read: recurring, but not absolute, patterns) of how alt-power Taylors get written in Worm fanfic.

Rule#1: Thou Shalt Be Power

Alt-power Taylors are almost always more obviously powerful than canon Taylor. This isn’t exactly a feat in and of itself given what canon Taylor’s power is, but alt-power Taylor’s generally don’t simply settle for picking an interesting power that happens to be more powerful than canon Taylor’s and exploring that.

No, they also generally have...

Rule#2: The Judge Rules Favorably

Say you’ve got an alt-power that’s pretty much literally ‘Taylor’s powerset is X from Y other setting’. You know, like a lot of these fanfics go with.

Generally, any such power set is going to have edge cases and murky elements, if only in the context of how to translate it into a parahuman ability... and alt-power stories have a habit of picking whatever interpretation is most favorable to Taylor.

This is actually even more striking when it’s a ‘shardswap’, where Taylor has a canon cape’s power and the fanfic invariably chooses to rule edge cases favorably to Taylor... but the exact same power on the actual canon cape in some other fanfic by the exact same author gets ruled in a more limited manner. This kind of thing makes it pretty obvious the decision-making process wasn’t ‘it makes sense to this author for this power to operate this way’, but rather was ‘it’s an edge case I can rule favorably to Taylor! I’m doing that!’

These two points lead into...

Rule #3: Shock And Awe

Whatever Taylor’s power is, people are impressed by it. This is true even if they barely know anything about it -she’ll give a description that could mean just about anything, and they’ll nod along and say ‘that sounds broken’ or whatever. Villains treat her with respect, even if she hasn’t done anything yet. The PRT is willing to bend rules to get her on their side because she’s ‘so powerful’. Tattletale flees in terror of her because her canon ability to read the script means she knows the author intends Taylor to be broken, even if her power has no basis to feed her anything alarming enough to justify instantly fleeing.

Often, people being impressed by Taylor’s power will take up several chapters of the story, in place of any kind of plot advancement. It’s that important to the author.

Nonetheless...

Rule #4: Titanic Whale, Itty-Bitty-Pond

No matter how powerful Taylor’s powers get emphasized as being, this just gets used to let Taylor bully everyone around her into doing what she wants. She isn’t forced onto the world stage by the sheer scale of her powers. She doesn’t get targeted for assassination by villains when she single-handedly steamrolls the entirety of Empire Eighty-Eight. No matter how much she bullies the local PRT, the Triumvirate won’t show up to convey the message that such behavior is Not Cool And We Do Have The Ability To Make You Stop.

Instead of being treated as a big fish in a small pond, her advantages over the locals just means she can get away with whatever.

Rule#5: Laser-Focused Karmic Revenge

Events will conspire to ensure that Taylor learns that Sophia is Shadow Stalker, promptly lets the PRT know that a Ward has participated in a cruel campaign of bullying, and they instantly side with her on little or no actual evidence and the hammer of justice comes down on Shadow Stalker in no time flat.

Curiously, Emma and Madison are rarely targeted by fanfic in an equivalent manner, even though Emma’s participation is an intensely personal betrayal and Madison’s motive seems to be an extremely shallow drive for popularity. It’s not like they’re particularly popular targets for reconciliation, either.

This does lead to the somewhat amusing point that where in canon Taylor gives Emma a giant speech about how unimportant Emma is to her that makes it blatantly obvious how massively important Emma is to her, fanfic Taylor usually actually has essentially moved on from the Emma end of things, pretty much completely forgetting she even exists once the Sophia part is handled.

Rule#6: Choo-Choo

No matter how divergent Taylor’s powers are, no matter how different her own behavior is from canon, no matter how many ripple effects are applied... Taylor will still generally interrupt Lung’s attack on the Undersiders, still end up on vaguely friendly terms with Tattletale (But usually not any of the other Undersiders), and still end up meeting Armsmaster in a manner vaguely equivalent to canon for the exclusive purpose of this alt-power Taylor getting to blatantly sidestep the canon situation that came about from canon Taylor’s interactions with Armsmaster. (ie the alt-power Taylor doesn’t let him take the credit for taking down Lung, or whatever, and often explicitly calls him out on his glory-hog nature with no consequences)

Less consistent, though still typical, is for the Undersiders to attack the bank and for Panacea to be there, even though Coil’s canon goal is a distraction, with the bank itself a means to an end. The lack of Skitter being involved in the planning process generally inexplicably results in an apparently-identical plan from the Undersiders, regardless of whether they have no replacement member or very different replacement members.

I imagine I’d have more examples of railroading stations of canon into the fanfic if it weren’t for the fact that alt-power Taylors have a habit of sputtering out before they can get much farther than this. Most of them don’t even make it to Bakuda!

Rule#7: Crunching The People Numbers

A curiously recurring trend with alt-power Taylors is for them to fundamentally approach human interaction in a deliberate, calculating manner. Alt-power Taylor is nice to people in an attempt to curry favor. She decides to share details of her powers that are good PR, and withhold details she suspects will cause the PRT to put additional limitations on her. (Even if the limitations she’s imagining are completely reasonable) She befriends people not because she finds them relatable, but because she finds them useful. She avoids making enemies with people because they’re important or powerful. (Exception: it’s not unusual for her to make enemies with Armsmaster... in which case events generally conspire to make it irrelevant because he gets his ‘just desserts’)

She also will routinely lie as convenient, distort the truth as convenient, and otherwise engage in deception because it’s expedient... and default to getting away with it. People usually won’t even find out, and when they do find out alt-power Taylor will generally provide an excuse -one that is not consistent with the internal narration she had when making the original decision to deceive, hence excuse- for why she did so, and this will be accepted as reasonable and people will go right on trusting her even though she lied to them.

This is particularly disconcerting given how often it gets combined with...

Rule#8: Love Is Life

Canon Taylor had a very poor relationship with her father. She couldn’t find it in herself to let him know about her powers. She couldn’t find it in herself to let him properly know about the ongoing bullying. She never revealed that Emma had stopped being a friend and was in fact heading the charge of bullying her. On his end, he outright tries locking her in when he’s trying to be nice and understanding, as perhaps his most blatantly dubious decision.

Fanfic Taylor is, quite inexplicably, often quick to reveal her powers to Danny -even, arguably especially when her powers are such she actually has good reason to be uncomfortable sharing with him- and in turn Danny is generally confused but supportive and kind. She reveals all kinds of worrying details about her powers, to which he endlessly tells her that she’ll always be his little girl and he loves her and is proud of her no matter what. He even goes to bat for her at the PRT quite frequently.

Somewhat alarmingly, while fanfic Taylor often feels affection for fanfic Danny, the relationship seems to be fundamentally one-way: Danny does all the giving, and Taylor does all the taking. There may or may not be sentences that imply Taylor is eg using her newfound cash to shore up their own iffy income stream, but generally speaking no actual evidence of such manifests: the rotting step from canon won’t get replaced using Taylor’s cash. She won’t make a grocery trip to fill the pantry using her Ward/bounty/whatever funding.

Nor is she likely to really go to bat for him over the Union’s issues. It’s not unusual for her to rail at other people in the story over their failure to somehow ‘fix’ the city, but it’s much rarer for her to do anything concrete to help.

To be entirely fair, these fanfics usually treat the whole thing as substantially improving Danny’s own psychological health, but it’s generally unclear whether that’s really the intent (ie that Danny actually feels better as a result of his relationship improving with his daughter and so on) or if the fanfic is essentially just ignoring Danny’s canon issues and the appearance of improvement is due to audience assumptions rather than authorial intent.

Rule#9: Fanon Piggot Is Not Canon Piggot

I mostly only really see three versions of Piggot in fanfic:

A: Miss Piggy.

Piggot as the canon wards seem to see her: an unreasonable taskmaster who makes cruel and bad decisions for no particular reason, with the circumstances of the city failing to really justify this behavior. (In the story’s mind, anyway)

Inexplicably, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a single fanfic using this version try to have her replaced with someone less reprehensible, even when it’s paired up with ‘karmic revenge’ on Armsmaster.

B: Mama Emily.

Alarmingly often, Piggot is turned into an endlessly supportive mother-figure for Taylor who is also weirdly understanding and supportive of the Wards in general. (With the exception of Shadow Stalker, who she almost always comes down on like a ton of bricks) We’ll pretty much never see a sign of the women who, in canon, was perfectly happy to basically sneer at the Undersiders over the possibility that a bombing run on Crawler might catch them too.

Even aside how out-of-character it is, one often ends up wondering where Emily even finds the time to do her actual job in between all her long personal talks with the Wards.

C: Piggot the Bigot.

Surprisingly, it’s actually fairly rare for Piggot’s canon issues with parahumans to be brought out, made explicit, and used as a basis for villain-izing Piggot. Nonetheless, it’s not at all unusual for Piggot to end up behaving as if she has a grudge with Taylor (And anyone else who ends up a secondary main character), an implacable enemy who can be counted on to get in the way at all times, to the point that Taylor is completely justified in ignoring orders and doing her own thing if she happens to be a Ward... or, on the flipside, is easily able to lure Wards away into her alternate team if the story is going the unusual route of an Indie Hero Taylor.

Of course, even when Piggot is written more or less in character, there’s still a habit in fanfic to write Piggot as handling pretty much everything personally, to the point she couldn’t possibly actually do her job as local PRT head. Mama Emily is worst about this, but I’m not sure I’ve seen a single fanfic that dealt with Piggot in reasonable detail without turning her into a micro-manager with no way to realistically have time for her actual duties. Even the Deputy series is a bit guilty of this, and it’s got probably the best Piggot depiction I’ve ever seen!

Rule#10: Panacea Is A Woobie

This tends to crop up fastest in cases where Taylor’s power eg involves the creation and control of organisms of some sort, with the story frequently endeavoring to arrange for Panacea and Taylor to meet ASAP, but it’s very much the default for Panacea to be treated as someone who deserves sympathy and support, and specifically to end up having Taylor befriend her -even if it’s not really in-character for the alt-power Taylor to do so.

By extension, Brandish is often treated as basically a villain, while Glory Girl varies whether she gets treated as a dumb brute contributing to Panacea’s situation or a sympathetic figure who happens to be ignorant and that’s a problem.

Notably, no matter how little synergy may exist between Taylor’s power and Panacea’s power in a given fanfic, there’s a tendency to find some excuse to have the two doing something ‘gamebreaking’ together.

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

There’s a bunch of other patterns that recur a fair amount, but these ones stand out to me in part because they paint a trajectory, as opposed to just being an unrelated collection of trends.

[recentanimenews]

Our Crappy Social Game Club Is Gonna Make the Most Epic Game, Vol. 1

By Oriori Siki and Azuri Hyuga. Released in Japan as “Jakushou Soshage-bu no Bokura ga Kamige wo Tsukuru Made” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Mikey N.

Sometimes you just have to power through even when your initial impression is bad. This novel started off iffy for me. A sad-sack protagonist who had difficulties communicating with others. A perky, happy ball of sunshine who ends up dragging him back into a world he was desperately trying to avoid. Even the world the book takes place in didn’t impress me; it’s not a fantasy or isekai, but it does take place in a world where education has become driven by “gacha”, that game mechanic where you spend money to get a cool thing – possibly. I’m not sure why it needed to jump through the extra hoops, unless a pre-reader asked why everyone cared so much about social games. Fortunately, after a rough start it settles into what the book is actually about: the trauma of past failures crippling your ability to move forward and recognize your own worth, and how others can help you move past that.

Kai has just moved far from Tokyo after being driven from his previous school, one of the best in the country, for sabotaging a popular social game for reasons we are not immediately privy to. He’s trying to move on and have nothing to do with social games, but unfortunately, he’s arrived at one of those “everyone has to be in a club” schools, and the girl showing him around, Aoi, is head of the Social Game club, which consists of her, programmer and gacha-addict Aya, and perpetually angry artist Eru. The club is about to be shut down, and the Student Council President hates it, so Kai joins up impulsively. Unfortunately, the club is a mess – Eru is angry at Aoi, Kai, and most everything else, Aya is never there as she has to gacha all the time, and Aoi’s bubbly, happy side masks a girl who fears she is useless and a burden. Can the club be saved in time?

As I said, when you get past the original cliches (there’s also a pervy older sister who loves to tease Kai, and the arrogant/snarky student council duo are pure 100% cliche), there’s more to like here than expected. Kai, of course, did not sabotage the game back in Tokyo because he was being a villain, it was for a very good reason. Both he and Aoi suffer from crippling self-doubt, and both of them have to have it demonstrated to them, explicitly, that their fears are unfounded. Kai really does have terrific value as a planner, as his sempai at the Tokyo school (who is awesome, and has a great semi-robotic speech pattern) demonstrated to him, and while Aoi’s art is still not as good as Eru’s, she is improving constantly and is ready to take the next step. They make their game better AND they step in to help save the original game that Kai sabotaged. It’s quite the feel good ending.

So yes, there’s gold to be found here, though I’d recommend liking gacha games a whole lot more than I do if you really want to get the full experience.

By: Sean Gaffney

[returnerofthesky]

why do you hate skyrim so much, anyway?

To be honest, I don’t… “hate” Skyrim, per-say? Hate’s too strong a word for any game for me, and even then Skyrim isn’t necessarily a terrible game despite how much I dislike it.

Which probably sounds weird, but that’s just me; most games that I dislike aren’t just plain old bad games. I don’t have an emotional dislike of, say, Bubsy, or Superman 64, or so on. They’re shit games, but there’s nothing particularly redeemable about them. They might have had potential, but it’s more conceptual, rather than being very flawed games with some good ideas (like Gates to Infinity, or Super Mystery Dungeon to a lesser extent).

Anyway, to get back to the question, the reason I don’t like Skyrim is because it feels creatively bankrupt.

To steal a quote from Super Bunnyhop, it’s hard to get engaged in Skyrim when every character feels like the most boring character, when every quest feels like the most boring quest, when every dungeon feels like the most boring crawl… you get the idea. To me it feels like every single time Bethesda had the opportunity to do something creative or interesting in Skyrim or its DLCs, they took the easiest, most boring route possible instead, even though it actively hurts the game’s appeal. And it’s very telling that what I consider to be the two most interesting quests in the game (the murder mystery in Windhelm and the peace treaty in the main story) are also two of the buggiest quests in the game.

Like, vampires in Skyrim are a good example of what I’m talking about. There’s a book in the previous games about a vampire hunter and a scholar (actually a vampire) advising him, and he describes Skyrim vampires as having breath that could freeze the blood inside of you, as well as actually living underneath frozen lakes and being able to reach up through the ice, grab people, and drag them under to feed. That’s not only a fascinating (and grim) concept, but an incredibly cool idea for a snow-based vampire.

Now granted, that’s a fairly dynamic idea, and it’d be hard to implement in Skyrim (especially given they never bothered to add underwater combat), so while I could criticize them for that, I won’t. What I will criticize is the fact that they didn’t even try to make the best approximation of that idea, instead opting to make vampires into slightly tweaked and reskinned bandits/draugr/etc etc.

Like, it wouldn’t need to be exactly like the idea presented in the book, but imagine this: vampires spawn in this invisible, walk-through-able state and have a circle that activates them. Once you walk in and out of that circle, an “invisibility spell wears off” animation plays and they properly spawn, body, weapons and all. Then, they aggro and you might get ambushed if you weren’t being careful. It’s not exactly like the book, but it’s close enough, and since the rest of the game’s enemies are so samey it’d be a nice change of pace.

There’s so many elements that are lacking that it’s very easy to sense the hand of the devs making out exactly what you can and can’t do, despite the whole TES brand emphasizing freedom. It’s obvious that you can’t do absolutely anything (well, at least it was obvious until Breath of the Wild came out), but Skyrim is especially bad at locking you out or not considering other options.

You can’t double-cross or double-deal in the Civil War aside from one single part that basically is the last chance for you to decide your faction. Being a thief is basically useless unless you join the guild, because the Fence perk for Speech doesn’t unlock until the skill is almost max. Conversations in general are far less varied and open-ended than before, meaning speech checks are few and far between as is. Stealth is only really useful for sneak-attacking, since most dungeons aren’t designed to be stealthed through completely. Most of the game’s “puzzles” are those simple match-the-symbol ones, and there isn’t anything particular brain-teasing or dynamic compared to even Oblivion.

I mean, even dragons have this issue. Anyone ever try fighting a dragon without any ranged options? It’s hell. And boring. And oh, oh so bland.

Similarly, like I mentioned, the quests themselves are incredibly bland. I’ve already seen plenty of posts on here throughout the years about how even the most mundane, non-combat-sounding quests usually end up with “please go to this dungeon full of Draugr and get my thing”, but it really is that bad. Most of the quests in Skyrim are either being sent to a dungeon to deal with the incredibly mediocre combat, or you get a vague, completely unashamed fetch quest.

A lot of this is tied to the Miscellaneous quest option, which is basically the game’s way of saying “we whipped up a quick, shitty quest in an hour or two, have fun”. In Riften alone, there’s at least seven or eight Misc quests that essentially amount to “I need you to find me some items, please”:

Finding ten fire salts for the blacksmith

Getting a sword and bringing it to its owner at the castle

Finding alchemy ingredients for the alchemy shop’s apprentice

Finding some gemstones and other items for a jeweler

Finding some gemstones for a bartender’s unfinished wedding ring

Finding ice wraith teeth for a lady to preserve her

Going to another big city to deliver a dagger

Going to a small village to pick up some ore and bring it back

And there’s very little proper “masking” to make these quests seem more interesting. The two quests that I didn’t include that are still fetch quests are a quest about mead being stolen (actually smuggled out at lower prices, which you can partake in or tell to the guards), and a quest about a Dunmer raised by Argonians who wants to find out more about his real parents (which is at least vaguely interesting in and of itself, due to the general relationship between Dunmer and Argonians and all that).

It isn’t just the Misc quests that suffer from this, though. Most of the writing is flawed, bland, or otherwise retreading old ground already, and a lot of it suffers from huge pacing issues. The main quest seems to expect that you’re not going to get distracted, so all of the “urgent” situations it sets up fall flat.

The Fighters Guild recruits you, has you do one proper quest where you find out that they’re werewolves, do one more radiant quest and suddenly they decide that you’re important enough to become a werewolf too. Not that “you know so you might as well”, but that you’ve actually done enough work (two quests worth, oh boy) to merit it (also you’re forced to become a werewolf even if you don’t want to). The Dark Brotherhood essentially does the same Oblivion story of a traitor in the guild over again, except with less interesting characters and less personal stake in the goings-on.

And the quests that aren’t tied to guilds aren’t really that much better, save for maybe a handful that I can’t even think of off the top of my head. It’s lazy, messy, and boring. It’s not completely, utterly terrible or full of plotholes, it’s passable at its best, but it’s still not terribly thought-provoking. I mean, thinking about it is what made me realize it’s not that good, so.

Perhaps more damning than any of this though, is that the gameplay itself is so boring. It’s already kind of an issue that Skyrim has iffy writing in a genre that generally needs to have semi-decent writing most of the time, but its gameplay isn’t really interesting enough to pick up the slack, either.

Admittedly, this problem goes back deeper than just Skyrim - even back during the Morrowind days, people were complaining about the combat due to how you could walk up to enemies and attack or use a spell, and you’d miss even though you’re standing right next to them. People still complain to this day about how confusing the combat is for an action-RPG.

But the problem with that logic is that Morrowind isn’t an action-RPG, it’s a proper old CRPG, more along the lines of Baldur’s Gate or Icewind Dale. You might be moving in first-person with the WASD keys and so on, but make no mistake that its core gameplay is far more in line with how the older isometric RPGs played, right down to standing right next to an enemy and missing your swings even though the animation played. When you view the game this way, most of its design decisions make a lot more sense.

Unfortunately, that never really registered (again, people still say Morrowind’s an action-RPG), so Oblivion changed things to have some sorta-kinda action-RPG combat. They didn’t rebalance the rest of the RPG elements (how to level up, level scaling, etc) to compensate, though, but instead of tweaking everything to work more naturally in Skyrim, they just removed all of the RPG elements entirely except for the Health/Magicka/Stamina thing.

Of course, that results in another problem: if the game is going to lean so hard on its action elements instead of its RPG elements… why not just play a better action game? Like, Skyrim’s combat is nothing to write home about. Oblivion’s wasn’t great, but at least it was faster and you could attack while jumping and swimming. Skyrim’s is just slow and clunky, and lacking in depth unless you actively choose to add it in.

The perks system is what ties into the combat problems the most. The issue is that the combat actually does have a small bit of depth and quality of life improvements… if you pick the perks that activate them. There’s two main screws with this, the first one being that due to how the level scaling works, you’re better off choosing the perks that just upgrade the raw damage you deal. Since even the most basic enemies slowly become health sponges, the fancy perks usually aren’t as helpful when it comes to actually defeating them.

The other screw is that these upgrades are even perks in the first place. While some abilities are understandable (like the one that sometimes replaces a normal cinematic kill with a decapitation), the ones that alter your power attacks to have extra effects have absolutely no business being optional when the combat is already as shallow as it is. If these tweaks to the power attacks had been default abilities, the perk trees could have been changed or expanded to capitalize on the differences between each kind of attack. On top of this, the choice between maces, axes and swords could have been more significant, rather than simply being minor differences in speed and power.

I know there are more abilities and special things you can do with the dragon shouts, of course, but between having to fight through dungeons in order to get those shouts, and then kill a dragon for a soul to unlock it, it’s usually too much of a pain in the ass to be worth it. Forget going out of my way to get Throw Voice - why not just give me a Noisemaker Arrow or something and be done with it?

The unfortunate thing is that despite all these issues, the combat is still generally just okay at best, so it can be hard sometimes to complain about it. But when the entire game is focused almost entirely around this combat, with almost no quest or gameplay variety to speak of, the only way it could be really seen as “good” by any stretch is by people who haven’t played other, better games.

But anyway… uh, yeah. tl;dr: I don’t like Skyrim because even though it’s incredibly safe and boring to play… it’s incredibly safe and boring to play.

Like, it’s oddly depressing to hash all this out because I really was excited for Skyrim six years ago, and I did genuinely enjoy it at first. Hell, despite all these problems I’ve still probably put way too many hours into it than I really should have. But nowadays, it just doesn’t feel that interesting. Oblivion, Morrowind, Daggerfall, and ESO are all much, much better games, and even though they have their flaws, they have a lot more interesting ups, as well. Morrowind is all-around an excellent CRPG, Daggerfall is an incredibly interesting roguelikey experience, Oblivion generally has better atmosphere and more quest variety, ESO has great combat and writing, albeit at the expense of stealth and some puzzles.

Skyrim... I dunno. Skyrim is stuck somewhere between being an average game and an undercooked one, and that really eats at me because I know that the franchise can do better. I didn’t even discuss a lot of the other problems I have with the game, just the major ones. But considering that Fallout 4 has a lot of the same issues, but even worse... I worry for what the next entry in the series might be, if it’s handled by Bethesda proper.