#i feel like (some) fans tend to take an either or stance and that’s how we get shit takes and questionable characterization in fan work

[futuremrscameron]

rafe being a loser and a heinous individual are not mutually exclusive

[winged-wheel]

Undertale's First Hint at Self Denial

Spoilers for Undertale, I guess, but surely if you're reading this you don't need a spoiler warning for this game...

Howdy!

A simple look at my reblogs will indicate that I'm a big fan of Undertale Yellow, at least currently moreso than Undertale itself. But that doesn't mean I don't think about Undertale a good deal too. And while I'm not exactly an extreme lorehead or Chara superfan like some others are (god knows how many blogs there are out there who have THAT covered) I do like to think, sometimes, about the exact nature of Undertale's metanarrative, the themes the game intends for you to take away from it (and the ones that fans have read into it that may not have been intended but which serve as interesting and thought-provoking alternative interpretations), and my own stance on things. Chara/the first fallen human, both who they are (were) and what they represent, makes up a lot of that.

So, context out of the way, I realized something that maybe other people have as well but that I've never actually seen anyone put into words (though it's entirely possible if not probable that I've just missed it before lol).

If Chara, on a metanarrative level, represents you--both through the game's expectation of you to use your own name to "Name the fallen child", but also in a less literal sense your inner desire for completionism, addiction to increasing numbers, disregard for video games as anything more than short-time entertainment to be moved on from, etc--then the image of their final resting place, the patch of golden flowers that grows at the bottom of the fissure outside the Ruins, the very first room in the game, takes on especial meaning with regard to the metanarrative itself.

Undertale's metanarrative choice that it gives you, to either treat the game and its characters as real, deserving of respect, and worth being let go of to allow them continued freedom after completing a true pacifist route, or to lean into what Chara embodies and treat it as "just another RPG game", grinding for levels as would be "normal" in so many other worlds until you reach the Absolute, is a well understood one more than 9 years on from the game's release. None of that is probably news to anyone (or at least anyone who's cared to try and understand the game lol).

But it never quite struck me until now that the former--the choice to treat Undertale as "real"--is symbolized by Chara's grave. In order to do that, to care about and respect Undertale's characters so much that you're willing to forego almost all the concessions of a normal RPG, and ultimately content yourself with refusing to True Reset after the credits roll, you have to bury that part of yourself. You have to kill the desire within you to see what happens if you level up. To get stronger. Those learned traits and tendencies which have been established as the expectation by decades of video games past, even if you didn't grow up playing them yourself, have to be interred in the very first room of the game.

I'll draw no ultimate conclusions as to what that means literally with regards to Toriel and Asriel's attachment to tending the flowers there, and certainly none in relation to the direct characterization of Chara as a character within the story itself, as details are notoriously vague, few in number, and tend to produce interpretations that vary wildly from one another and, from some, have the potential to engender feelings of distaste or assumptions about others' "understanding" of characters (or perceived lack thereof). But the metaphorical significance of Undertale's first room being a burial site was something I hadn't quite considered on a conscious level until recently, and I feel like it might at least be an interesting thought to share.

'Til next time...

[wildissylupus]

I see people joking about how, despite being one of the best snipers lore wise, Widow always seems to miss her shots.

And I know this is a joke but I thought I'd actually analyse this.

Cause that's what I do.

I look way too far into dumb bullshit.

.....ANYWAY-

The times we see Widow in an active sniper role is in three cinematics. The ones in question being The Overwatch Cinematic Trailer, Alive and Infiltration.

Let's start off with the cinematic trailer, now the first thing to point out is the fact that Widow misses several shots on Winston;

Now this.... is just kinda embarrassing. Winston was standing still, he doesn't have a helmet on, and he's fucking huge, Widow, honey, you need to stop drinking before missions-

Jokes aside I can justify her not getting a headshot for more reason then just "lack of aim or skill".

For one this is what happened before hand;

And I don't care how genetically enhanced she is, she isn't Jack or Gabe, she's going to need some time to recover from that. Soe her missing headshots and even some body shots in this moment is understandable. However, she does have time to recover when this happens;

Lena is right on her, she wasn't even that quiet, and she was startled by that. She doesn't even realise that Lena is there until she starts talking.

This isn't even the first time she had to deal wither Tracer sneaking up on her, and the first time she actually handled it better. This brings us to Alive.

Where this happened;

Through out the fight in Alive, though she does fight against Lena well, she doesn't land a shot on her until the end. Not only that but we see that she already had a clean shot on Mondatta, she had time to shoot him then but didn't.

In Infiltration, she doesn't really do much on screen, and she never really got a clean shot due to Sombra. In the times she is active Reaper is the one doing the killing, not her.

Now what does this have to do with Widow missing her shots? You might notice that I never use the comics as an example, that's because most of her time in the comics is in positions where she is in her element. In all these examples there are common flaws that other sniper characters like Ana, Hanzo, Cassidy and even Ashe don't have. Widow, as a sniper, lacks the ability to land a shot when doing sudden movements/repositioning, and lacks spatial awareness when trying to take a shot.

Despite what fans and Widow herself thinks, she was not trained to be a sniper in active combat. She was trained to be an assassin, a hidden threat, the backup plan. So her being in these active fights where people are aware of her, are her weak spot.

Let me pull up the examples again and compare them to how other characters who were trained to be in the full blast of combat react.

In the Overwatch Trailer we not only see Lena sneak up on her, but an untrained kid steal Doomfists gauntlet without her noticing;

Compare this to Cassidy in Reunion and there is a very big difference;

Not only that but if you actually look at Widow's fighting style compared to the other snipers, it lacks personality. Lore wise if you genuinely look at Widow fighting, she is very precise and is always focusing on the target but there is no movement she does that feels like her own style.

Let's look at the other snipers, both Ashe and Ana are very still when sniping, however Ana uses a lot of swift movements and tends to reposition herself regularly. She's always aware of her surroundings to the point where we have never really seen her be snuck up on. As for Ashe, her stance is much the same as Widow, however, you can tell the reason she stays a lot more still is because she is a very team orientated fighter, not only that but in Deadlock Rebels she does move around a lot more.

There is also the fact that both of these characters have fighting habits, both tend to do back-to-back fighting when fighting along side another person, Ashe tends to either use B.O.B as cover or just tends to look for cover in general. Again, Ana tends to reposition a lot not only that but an over the shoulder shot when someone is sneaking up on her is something specific to her and Cassidy.

Speaking of which I could make a whole separate analysis on Cassidy and Hanzo's fighting styles. If Ashe and Ana's fighting styles have personality then Cassidy and Hanzo's are swimming with it.

Hanzo uses a mix of long and close ranged fighting, often combining the two, he also moves around frequently, not staying in one place for a long time. Another thing he does is if one angle doesn't work he instantly changes the trajectory of his arrows. And I won't get into it too much here, but he also uses his bow as a melee weapon more then in necessary.

With Cassidy he's a lot more improvised, as well as he's a lot more aware of his surroundings then any other character. Meaning he ends up using the environment a lot more then the other aim orientated characters. In "Train Hopper" he uses a tunnel to his advantage to take out several Talon agents, in Reunion he uses several environmental factors to throw off Deadlock members, he also is very much a close ranged fighter when in active combat.

I am telling you all now that I am holding back a lot because this is a Widow post but I REALLY want to talk more about Cassidy and Hanzo's fighting styles. I find them so interesting.

The thing is with Widow is that she fights on a technical standpoint, she fights like a Talon member, not like herself. She fights like a sniper, a basic level of what Ana and Ashe do, but considering what her gun actually does, I think she would be a better sniper if she fought more like Cassidy and Hanzo, using a combination of long ranged and close ranged techniques.

I also think that if she added more of herself when fighting she's have a better chance of handling herself in a 1v1. Which is something I hope happens in her redemption. I would love to see her use dance techniques when fighting, or use the fact that she would be a lot more flexible then a lot of other characters to get into positions that other couldn't.

I think that her being emotionless and her only using the skills taught to her by Talon is actively holding her back from being a better sniper. It's something I really hope is pointed out in canon. It's something I genuinely hope is a big part of her arc and how she bonds with other characters.

And I think I need to re-iterate this, Widowmaker is still a great shot and a great sniper, she is just not really as skilled as she thinks she is. She was trained to be an assassin, which I believe she is the best assassin in the game, but as a sniper in an active battle field she is not as good as the other characters.

[ca-suffit]

I really want to know why book fans get mad and up in arms when people don’t like Marius…a canonical pedophile. When I read the books I didn’t really like him at all so why would I get excited for his AMC debut? Sorry but not all of us fold on sight just because the predator happens to be a pretty white man with yellow hair.

This insistent defense squad for him feels very strange. Especially because they all seem to know what he’s hated for and yet whenever someone expresses any kind of contempt for him they run in to protect him and usually talk down to others like he’s some misunderstood teenager who we’re too stupid to understand. I noticed many Book fans tend to have Anne’s arrogant, know-it-all, “I can never be wrong because I read words” attitude as well which usually hinders any proper discussion or response. No one wants to talk to an arrogant stranger that is heavily implying that they’re stupid. But these fans continue to take that approach and then act superior when they’re not responded to.

(It’s also weird racist that from their perspective book!Louis and even movie!Louis are victims of Lestat but AMC!Louis? Well he deserved it because he was mean, ungrateful and stopped putting out. Never thought I would see people claim that because Louis made empty threats towards Lestat that they were mutually abusive to one another and yet these are common stances that I’ve seen an alarming amount of people accept with no questions or forethought attached. but that’s an issue for an entirely different rant.)

even if ppl want to remove the pedo thing from marius with whatever excuse they have, his personality is ass anyway. I think a lot of ppl who read the books started off thinking he's gonna be likeable and wise and then he's just....some dickhead.

a lot of these ppl are not ppl who can stand critical thinking or have looked at maybe their own trauma in regards to how they perceive these characters (and at what ages they read the books too). a lot of ppl in this fandom have linked characters to themselves somehow, so there's no way to talk about a character without personally insulting ppl. it's rly tiring. that's not unique to this fandom either but the level of harassment u will receive kinda is, cuz it's based on anne rice's behavior (as u noted).

a lot of this racism too stems from the same ppl who can't hear criticisms about characters like marius bcuz the whole book series is nothing but promoting white supremacy. I don't think it's something she did consciously but it's so fucking blatant (the vampires literally get whiter as they get more powerful, for one?????) and shouldn't even be controversial for adults to say out loud. so many ppl bonded to this shit at young ages tho that it's "fun" nostalgia to them and fuck anyone who tries to say otherwise. that's how we're here. ppl cling hard to this notion that something has to be "pure" to be enjoyed or else ur a bad person for liking it. idk how that's become a thing bcuz u can still like things but be critical of them, that's how most things work???

[dansedan]

hi! big fan of your work. do you have any thoughts you could share about how you title your pieces? and one piece in particular, your wk17 painting lycanthropy (under the sign of gemini). it's such an interesting choice for that match and i was wondering if you were willing to share some insight that went into the decision to title it as such. obviously i drew my own conclusions but i've always been curious about your reasoning behind it as the artist... 💌 (it's also completely fine if you'd rather not share and just leave your titles up for interpretation)

thank you for your support and for the ask! I never think people are going to care about my silly titles so I'm glad you've found them interesting.

Honestly, text and aphorism are just a big part of the artistic process for me and a lot of the time when I'm painting I go through a lot of phrases that don't make it into the final painting or performance, or I read something or listen to something that affects my thinking or direction with it and a lot of the times those are the phrases that twist into the titles I end up with! I tend to talk to myself and experience speech in a way that's kind of relatable to like echolalia or something? So just twisting words over and over again is a lot of the process of titling work for me.

As for the Omega v. Ospreay piece, the title was a lot of little things coming together in the mania of getting it done the same day lol-- the still aggressively fresh speculation around Ibushi's return to wrestling and specifically the return of the golden lovers (orginally slated to be named the "golden twins", they're the origin of the invocation of Gemini in the piece and the title), the sheer brutality and stiffness of kenny's fighting style in it (I've got a terrible memory but I have an impression of Ospreay bleeding visibly during it?? which is always extra shocking in the New Japan ring), the uncomfortable out-of-kayfabe dynamics of the fight itself happening not too long after the legal/pr disaster breakdown of Ibushi leaving NJPW and centering Ospreay who is a controversial figure to say the least (I don't personally feel that people Must take an oppositional stance to either personally to be clear but my own discomfort with both was on my mind as an element of why I felt the match was relevant to my general artistic practice in commenting on the complexity of making art through imagery from wrestling and not just to my interest as a fan), as well as the external influences of the song 'Werewolf Gimmick' from the Mountain Goat's 'Beat the Champ' concept album (one of my early introductions to wrestling!) and Deftones' 'Change (in the House of Flies)'.

It's kind of a convoluted process but I hope that's a satisfying answer! I'd love to hear what you thought of it previously, just out of curiosity.

[docholligay]

“We are what we pretend to be. So we must be careful what we pretend to be”

Hello! This is about up to Episode 3 of Yellowjackets, and ONLY episode 3 of Yellowjackets. I have not seen beyond the third episode, at all, and know NOTHING about this show. Please do not spoil it for me.  Things that are spoilery in nature, for me, include: saying things like  “Just wait!!” confirming or denying anything I put forward, outside information about the cast interviews or creator statements, leading questions like “Do you think “blank moment” means anything?” etc. Remember  that Y’ALL HAVE SEEN THE SHOW AND I HAVE NOT. This informs the way you  talk about things relating to the show. Just be really careful is all  I’m asking. Also: If there is LITERALLY any stance I  could take on this show or character that would make you upset, please  just fucking block the tag

If you WOULD like to discuss the show and my takes on it, the Discord is right here! I don’t go there, so it’s a great place to get every emotion out.

Please thank @sailorsunspot and @moonlight-frittata for backing this odd way of doing a liveblog, and remember my tip jar is always open

I have never read the Vonnegut novel that quote above is from. I confess to keeping a bit of distance from Vonnegut through absolutely no fault of his own, but because his fans tend to be incredibly insufferable and some of his lines make great tattoos and insta posts for people who read one book a year. If that sounds judgmental, congratulations, you’ve passed the tone portion of the reading comprehension test.

Anyway, I don’t think you need to know the context for the first quote, because on the one hand, it’s what we would call in the literary world: foreshadowing. My immediate reaction was “Oh, he’s the sort of dude who wants you to know he reads Vonnegut” although in full fairness most of those dudes immediately after say, ‘that’s Kurt Vonnegut” so I might be unfair there. But he fits a lot of the profile: he’s young, he considers himself charming, he’s outre and considers himself an individual, all that. And that’s not wrong, maybe. This scene is doing a lot of things at once, it can definitely juggle that.

BUT.

What this is, is the show:

A) Putting a red flag in front of Adam. I have thought Adam was a liar and maybe doing the same shit as the reporter for awhile now, but this confirms it. he’s pretending. This whole thing with Shauna is manufactured and is abotu something that has nothing to do with Shauna, and how the fuck is Shauna going to react when she realizes that this person she’s throwing herself at to make herself feel alive again, this person she’s throwing herself at because she’s tired of fucking the corpse of her love and hatred for her best friend through her husband, who, if he isn’t Jeff the old boyfriend I will eat my fucking hat, this person she feels SOME KINSHIP with, is playing her.

This whole episode is about playing, I think that’s why it’s called The Dollhouse. Playing at adulthood, playing at love, playing at marriage, and also, Adam is playing at seduction.

B) Offering up a thesis statement for the show. All of these girls are actively hiding and pretending to be the thing they are (except, actually, Misty, who has no gift for such things. More on her in her own post, the little scamp. I hate her so much and she’s the greatest character of all time).

Shauna is playacting at being a stay at home mom because she thinks that’s safe, but she’s someone who fucking ate a girl and also participated in the murder of at least one. She is, to go back to an earlier post, a wolf full on masquerading as a RABBIT, because she’s living jackie’s life as a source of atonement.

Taissa is a good upright clean liberal with a nice family, on paper. She’s pretending to be that, and not the cunning and dangerous wolf she is with a child who is either literally or figuratively haunted by the specter of Tai’s grandmother, which I think might be some kind of statement about tai’s interaction with mortality and knowing, but I want to see more show before I come down anywhere on that. Anyhow.

Nat is pretending to be clean when even at her fucking best she was just a dry drunk. “I’m not high, if it matters.” But you’re still arrested. She’s pretending to be a tough girl, when she’s the girl to whom I would most easily affix “pathetic and wet” She’s a fucking sandcastle of a human being, and I actually do not think adult Nat will survive the show though i don’t know the means by which i think that’ll happen the call could easily come from inside the house but I don’t know the narrative place being set well enough to know if that’ll serve it.

ANYHOW. In pretending to be these things, do they risk becoming them? Or is the risk in that, at a very formative time in their lives, they pretended to be a pack of wolves? And so they became it. It seems as if it cannot be unmade.

And Shauna replies with another Vonnegut quote, from a novel i HAVE read: “And I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep.”

So Slaughterhouse-Five is about war, and trauma, and particularly the effects of war and trauma on children. I’m really really collapsing the book in on itself, which is a good book, a great book, even if it is one of those books someone reads when they’re fucking seventeen and thinks that’s pretty much it--HOLD ON YES THAT IS THE POINT TOO.

Shauna is smart, but is she just, seventeen smart? Is this response just another of the ways in which Shauna is trapped in the moment of the crash? In the aftermath? Amazing.

Anyway, that quote is early on in the book and for me, though, I last read it probably a decade ago, comes to tie together the notion of time, and how time is like standing in a field of wildflowers, and you could never gather them all, and if you did, it would never be like seeing that field, and that is part of the beauty of human existence, is we can only keep so much of each moment. The present is all around us, and beyond us, and so little of it can stay.

Now, I don’t know if the writers/shauna are seeing it the same way, but her response is doing two things: On a chracter level it’s establishing relationship between her and Adam. She feels CLOSENESS with him, being so equally affected by the same author to offer up a quote in reply. Two, it does, in some way, reply to his quote. If I were going to smack at that pitch, I would say it’s saying, “Don’t pretend to be fine with things, or you’ll become fine with them.” “My present is a fucking marianas trench of complication and even I am not sure what is me anymore.”

And then Adam asks a question I fucking LOVE about confirming a suspicion: “And once you do, will it make you happier?” I think about this a lot. DO people want the truth? I don’t think they do this has not been my observation of human nature. That’s not even a criticism, I don’t even always want the truth, sometimes I would prefer a half-truth or concealment or even a full on lie. I am a very big fan of being honest with ourselves, of being candid. Don’t seek answers you don’t want.

And she says no. And he says ‘You’re beautiful when you’re honest”

And I’m trapped between thinking that Shauna is never honest, not even now, and thinking that Shauna doesn’t even know what it means to be honest, because she is still emotionally processing something that happened to her so long ago that it’s a memory suitable for commemorative coins. Both come to the same end, but they FEEL different to me.

[agent-bash]

You’re a union member correct? What do you think of the double strike, and some of the confusion being caused with things like con appearances?

I am. Obviously, it's a very different union, but yes I am a member of a union.

I fully support the double strike. I don’t think any of either union’s demands are unreasonable or unnegotiable, if it's met with good faith. Particularly regarding the use of AI. And the more the AMPTP talks trying to defend themselves and their stances, the harder I roll my eyes.

It’s always important to remember when/if you’re struggling to get behind WGA and SAG-AFRTA and their demands for money and the like, is that the union represents all members, while we tend to immediately think of the severe minority. Not everyone in the union is pulling in millions or even hundreds of thousands for every appearance they make. Not every tv actor is getting paid a million dollars per episode like the core 3 from TBBT did. Most of them aren't. Unions are fighting for that dude you’re distracted by in the background because you swear you’ve seen him before. Or that woman whose voice is so familiar even though she only spoke two sentences in the movie you're watching. The majority of SAG-AFRTA members don’t even make enough to qualify for the union's health insurance plan. So yeah, a good thing to keep in mind.

As to cons, if it were me, there’s no confusion; they’re a no-go. Because, like it or not, conventions, meet and greets etc., do promote the shows/studios that the union is striking against. Even if it's not a studio-involved appearance, like San Diego Comic-Con, the real target of that rule. Actors can't promote at all. Even unofficially. And that's exactly what this convention is. Unofficial promotion. It's why this stuff isn't usually in actors' contracts. Because studios see them as free promotions. They don't have to pay actors to appear, and it has the chance to draw eyes to their shows or movies. Win-Win for them.

Then there are the photos for the meet and greets. People are going to tag the show on their socials. Either the shows Insta directly or in the tags. That's more promotion. And while I don't think that is something that can/should be held against the actors in an official capacity, a) it could be, and b) if it were me, I'd feel like a scab.

There's also thinking of it from a fan perspective. They can't talk about the show. A large part of the reason people are there. People are (rightly) curious about their takes on the show. The characters they play. Where the next season is going to go. Or, in the case of Jesse, Nick and Torrey, what they think their characters' are getting up to off-screen. They can't answer any of those questions. They can't talk about upcoming projects they may have been in prep for. Even generic career day-like questions, like 'How did you get into acting,' carry an element of risk in answering. So what's left to ask? 'Top things to do in Chicago?' 'What is your favourite hidden gem restaurant?' 'Jesse, what golf course do you most want to play?' Not anything the majority - even of fans who show up for events like this - care about. So I'd feel like an ass, asking fans to pay money to not get an actual convention experience.

[dlamp-dictator]

"A public apology or admittance of all the skeletons in the closet, controversies, and other mistakes recently made would go a long way in rebuilding goodwill with me. As much as I would like see to see a rehiring of fired artists I know some of those folks might had broken NDAs to speak out and professionally that wouldn't be a good look to ignore, so maybe a quiet and private restitution for those effected would be a good way of good PR." -Allen X, September 3rd, 2023

Welp... looks like I gotta' answer for myself, huh?

Okay, so been debating this one for awhile now too, but thankfully this took a lot less deliberation, namely because I had the intention to way a few days before talking about it. For those new a quick recap.

About 2-ish months ago the video game company Project Moon, develops of games such as Library of Ruina, Lobotomy Corporation, and most recently the gacha game Limbus Company, had been bombarded with a number of controversies including the firing of a beloved artist, several other artists involved with the company coming out to admit the company's mismanagement, the removal of certain side materials and content, and a few other major things I personally haven't been keeping up with nor care to discuss in detail. This had led to a mass boycott/protests against Project Moon's latest game, Limbus Company by what has mostly been the Korea fanbase for a while now, but several Westerners, myself included, have also taken a step back away from the game in either solidarity of the cause or wanting to stay away from a game that is actively losing profit and could shut down in the next few months due to the massive profit dip.

As of two months later, the loss of about a third of their profits (depending on the source) and Tokyo Game Show going in full swing drawing further eyes on them, the company has finally spoken about the issues that had happened during the summer event and gave official apologies on it, promising to do better with how they manage things going forth.

That's the general situation as far as I care to look into it and this post is mostly me backing up my own words that I said early this month. Now that Project Moon has officially apologized how do I feel and do I think it's worth coming back?

Short Version: Yeah, this is more or less fine... For now.

Long Version: Well... it's more complicated than that.

To repeat, I did wait about a week or so after this apology came out because a lot of things tend to get lost in the noise of fandom and tensions get high for really dumb reasons. Also, needed to make sure things didn't explode further or another necromancer decided make Project Moon's skeletons start Cossack Dancing out of their closet again before I could get a word in. Especially given how Tumblr and Twitter work in terms of mob mentality I'm glad I waited a minute before posting. But with that all said here's the general rundown of the apology (link here for those curious):

An admittance that bad things happened and that they offended certain parties to the point of feeling pressured to let go of vital staff/contractors.

An admittance that said bad things were due to cyberbullying and other online attacks via social media.

An admittance to a spread of misinformation that lead oversea fans to come to conclusions of varying levels of accuracy.

An overall apology for the mishandling and harm said issues have happened to both staff and fans.

A promise to take a harder stance against cyberbullying and spreading of misinformation, including legal action (I believe Korea has some stricter laws against cyberbullying than the US) if need be.

A denouncement/non-endorsement of hateful ideologies and promise to do better in the future with their management of employees.

These are all the basic gist of what was said. This basically covers everything I wanted them to cover in an apology back when the month started (and if this also comes with another free 1300 lunacy down the line I won't complain either), but the important thing in terms of criticism is that the overall wording of the apology is very vague. Personally, I think this is about as direct an apology as we're going to get from a company, but I also know that this is written with enough wiggle room that this is either everything I personally wanted to hear from Project Moon, or a general smokescreen that is worded with just enough admittance that they take minimal heat for it. I'm an optimist, so I'm looking to the former, but I don't blame anyone for thinking the latter. Not to mention the way they discuss the use of legal action in terms of cyberbullying and misinformation is a bit suspect as well. It's to the point that several parties and groups can and have come to different opinions and conclusions on this apology.

While I have came to the conclusion that Project Moon is, if not remorseful, then at least savvy enough to understand they needed to say something in terms of admitting fault to get their customers back, I still understand if some people see this more as a company getting their arm twisted and grunting out a few vague words of apology to get people back into spending money on their product again.

For me, this is... enough. For now. I'm taking the stance of the Youth Union: I'll buy it for now, but I'll keep my eyes and ears open for future misdeeds if news comes my way. I completely understand if folks are wanting more, either a more direct apology, some actual proper action done about the misinformation and aforementioned hate groups, them admitting their losing money with all this happening, so on and so forth. This is one of the more popular Korea companies with a global audience, so they should have the influence to do something like that. However, I also know barring an actual lawsuit this is probably the most to expect from a corporation in terms of actions taken.

I'm... willing to accept this for now. My previous points still stand though. Canto V needs to be a 12/10 for this game to truly make a comback, and Project Moon should probably keep it's head down after the TGS ends and stay quiet and peaceful until that update is ready. This game still lost a lot of profit and trust is earned, not bought. But for now... I'm willing to at least redownload the game check things out again. Again, this is... enough. For now.

For those still on the fence I believe the second legal entity that could be an actual threat to Project Moon has finally gotten the funds together for a proper lawsuit and you can just wait until that to fully goes through and see what happens. I'll equally say that for those still hardline against continue to stay away from this game to just ask yourself what you want from the company and what will it take to bring you back. If your faith is truly crushed and you have no interest in Project Moon anymore then I recommend going to games like Arknights, or Monster Hunter, or even Eternal Return, all fun games with a pretty decent gameplay loop that's worth playing.

As for me, the Mirror Dungeon is calling and there's still enough time for me to at least get Molar Yi Sang for the log-in event. I feel okay enough about this game to actively do that overview I was wanting to write months ago and I'll happily start working on that this week with all the other stuff I'm writing doesn't wear me out first. Until then, I'll see you folks later.

[mamamittens]

I'm contemplating what to do for Hancock's jewelry and bouncing ideas in my head for the two new Oh Sweet Child requests.

Pending thoughts for jewelry

I'm thinking something like a choker but it's a snake that gently bites the end of its tail. I've long had a motif that folks connected to the RA have a pearl somewhere in their jewelry so maybe the eyes?

Perhaps some scales are gemstones depending on what kinda snake I do though keeping it mostly gold would match with her usual tastes ngl.

Considered a hanging chain from the fangs to a teardrop ruby that is meant to hang between or just under her breasts. I forget if there's a specific name for this but it's usually only done to compliment a plunge neckline or draw the eye to the breasts in general for women--I've never seen this in men's jewelry fashion unless you count dog tags or a ring that is meant to hide under a shirt when desired. Maaayybe 'drops' of rubies down the chain as a sexy intrigue piece that also hunts at how damn dangerous this woman is to get close to.

Okay, so thoughts for Whitebeard's platonic end

I'm not entirely sure on what I'll have for his. Maybe reader has a bad dream (cliche I know lol) and ends up talking to him in a little heart to heart.

Oh! Or maybe reader sneaks out when everyone has passed tf out during a party to try and either escape or get fresh air without being hounded. Idk. Depends on when this takes place cause at the end of Sweet Child they've pretty well resigned to sticking around.

Anyway, party walk, the reader thinks everyone is asleep but as it turns out, Whitebeard tends to be a very light sleeper when on deck and it leads to a soft conversation.

I've tried very hard to not have too much detail in reader's past so it's not specific to anyone--no mention of family or friends--but I have mentioned some vague nothings about "shit choices" implying the marine enlisting wasn't entirely by choice. I didn't have any specific plans for that or secret btw, I just needed something to give the reader a reason to not fold immediately into Whitebeard's crew.

Anyway, I thought it'd be sweet if part of this heart to heart is a conversation about wanting to have a choice in a world that very much doesn't really let you have that. Not knowing what they want to do with their life because they haven't had the ability to put much stock into the future--which is ultimately why they're so passive about their fate despite having a desire to leave.

Which naturally leads to Whitebeard talking about the different reasons he "adopts" his children. The one relevant to the reader is protection and a desire to see them flourish. He didn't seem them out but he knew when they arrived that he wanted them to be apart of his family.

Maybe he suggests they start writing about the many dangerous animals they seem to have a natural ability to charm. At the very least, it gives them an excuse to go after them and well... It's hardly the most dangerous hobby any of his children have picked up Whitebeard adopts feral pirates almost daily he feels kinship at how much reader loves things that could and would rip them to shreds.

And finally Izo.

Izo gives me the most trouble because as far as I'm aware of he's a fan of his guns and he likes cross dressing--if only just in cosmetics and performing traditional Japanese activities that are usually reserved for women like dancing.

I'd need to double check that last part honestly but that's where I'm at right now for understanding his character.

And he hasn't really shown up so I don't have any real basis for his stance on the reader--nor do I have any direction for the request. But I feel like he'd admire the reader not caving into the crew quickly given that it shows they do have dedication and standards.

But I'm pretty lost in bonding for either romantic or platonic senses. At least without getting into conversations about gender which would be difficult to dance around without assigning the reader a specific gender outright.

I know from comments most assume the reader is female and in rather hoping that's because the readers are mostly female as opposed to me missing glaring red "THIS IS NOT A MAN" flags... Which would make me sad cause y'all it's really hard to write some of this stuff without committing to a sex or gender 🥲

But! The point is that from the sounds of it so far, at the very least the reader doesn't typically do any of the cosmetics associated with feminine presenting fashion. So I'd need to be very careful in phrasing to avoid breaking this without talking about "well I'm a dude and dudes don't usually wear lipstick where I'm from" or "I was never a girly girl growing up" cause of the obvious reasons (at least I hope it's obvious).

I'm just not sure what kind of common ground they'd bond over so there's a strong chance it'll be a bit before Izo's comes out, unfortunately.

Perhaps a conversation about duty? And growing last what you'd previously assumed would be your entire life??? That'd be interesting and a unique point only the marine!reader could come from given the drastic difference from marine to full on pirate.

Anyway, I need to sleep now before I completely fuck myself up for work Monday lol

Btw, Melody hasn't been forgotten I just set it down for a moment while I consider how/if I'll drag out the next part before I move Koala into the story.

[allseeinganalyst]

Sailor Moon Crystal - Season 2 Review

I'll spare you the Grandpa Simpson rambling intro this time, as I think I got that mostly out of the way as of my previous review. As of 15/04/2023 I completed the second "season" of Sailor Moon Crystal.

I don't actually know if these things count as "seasons" in the typical sense. Crystal was released as an Original Net Animation on streaming services and the end of season 1 was pretty much a direct lead in to season 2. They can be watched back-to-back without it feeling like a "season break" has occurred. Still according to Wikipedia, there was a two week gap between the end of "season 1" and the start of "season 2" - And also, Wikipedia does count them as separate seasons, so that's how I'm referring to them. Sorry if that pisses off any really specific streaming fans out there.

So, I'm still finding the style I want to use when writing out these review/semi-kinda-not-really analysis things. I have read a number of blogs now, and I noticed most of them tend to go for the same kind of approach you see on YouTube channels like Atop the Fourth Wall: A recap of the episode/issue/chapter/whatever, mixed with thoughts, analysis, jokes and commentary as they go.

This style is great! I very much enjoy watching it. It's very thorough, and allows for a complete breakdown without bringing the whole review to a grinding halt. It's also an approach that I do not feel works for me here, not one bit.

I actually did try and do this with my Nanoha post, which is... still taking a while, partly because I tried to do it this way and dear god… I can not. There are many reasons, but the most notable is as follows:

The way I like to consume media is a "semi-binge" style. I like to really watch something, and then continue watching that thing. (Or reading or playing or whatever is appropriate). While I don't tend to consume whole series in a single day, mostly for time related reasons, it's rare for me to stop at a single episode of something, and while I'm watching something I don't like to stop-start. If I do that, I find I struggle to get invested in what I'm watching. I also can't properly write out every thought and nitpick and breakdown of something while I'm watching it, lest I miss the next thing, or miss a detail or scene... Bottom line is, trying to watch and write at the same time for me allows me to do no justice to either. So bare with me while I find an approach that does work.

Anyway, I'm eager to actually talk about this, because I have some things to say, so lets shout "MOON CRYSTAL POWER, MAKE UP", get into our colour coordinated Sailor Suits again, and have a chat about Sailor Moon Crystal - Season 2! Spoiler ahead!

I feel like I spent a lot of the first review talking about what Crystal wasn't. Comparing it to the original 1992 anime, and discussing what it did differently, for better or for worse.

And like it or not, I absolutely. 100% maintain my stance comparisons to previous Sailor Moon media are necessary to get the best experience from Crystal. Normally any form of media, no matter whether it's an adaptation of something, a remake, or something wholly original should be able to be taken on its own merits, not being weighed down by the standards, high or low of the past - But there are exceptions to every rule, and Crystal is one such exception. Prior knowledge of Sailor Moon is, in my opinion, required reading for a full enjoyment of Crystal. In my case, that’s the original 1992 anime.

But given that a lot of those comparisons are out of the way, I feel that I should be able to focus more on Crystal as an anime for this “review”.

And with that being said…

Let’s get this out of the way…

I HATE this season.

That’s not purely a Crystal thing, I felt the same way about this stuff back when I watched Sailor Moon R, the corresponding second season of the original 92 anime, but for all the changes, good and bad, that Crystal has made, it has failed to change my feelings of disappointment and rage at this god damn stupid season. And a lot of that hatred stems from almost every scene involving THIS pink haired pustule…

Pictured here, ready to fire off a perfectly aimed shot at the show's kneecaps.

I despise Chibiusa in this arc. I have never liked her — I’m not particularly fond of the “token mini moe” type of character in general — and I find just about everything she says and does profoundly annoying. I realize it’s part of her character, I realize she’s supposed to be like that, for a number of reasons, but to me it’s the total lack of endearing traits to counter it out that grates me. She takes over almost every scene she appears in, and she constantly acts weird and creepy. Like a disease, she infects other characters, making them behave annoyingly around her, and while I understand that at least one character has a reason for that, it’s still SUPER annoying to see characters unhesitatingly praise and coddle this IDIOT CHILD. This is without mentioning the effect she has on Usagi, which is quite frankly disturbing. I’ll get to all of this shortly, but my thoughts are going to be clouded by my dislike for this character, who is essentially the main focus, and indeed arguably the main character, of this arc.

Unfortunately, she sticks around from here on in. I have plenty to say about say about her role in the series going forth, but I’ll try and keep my thoughts relevant to the season we’re discussing, especially since I’m not sure how Crystal will handle its new adaptations of those stories.

So! The plot!

I don’t really want to summarise the plot in any detail (I feel it bloats my posts, and they’re already pretty bloated) but I feel that perhaps a general gist is fine. It’ll also let me lead into some other stuff.

Season 2 of Crystal picks up straight away from the end of Season 1. Chibiusa — she first identifies herself as “Usagi” and gets the nickname later — falls from the sky to threaten our heroes with a gun and brainwash their friends and family!

She’s actually Usagi and Mamoru’s daughter from The Future™ who’s traveled back in time, fleeing a powerful and mysterious enemy, desperate to get help from the legendary Sailor Moon, basically the superhero of her bedtime stories. Unfortunately, said powerful and mysterious enemy has followed her back in time and now, it’s up to our heroes to stop them!

Just to side track a bit: This should be a fantastic plot. I LOVE time travel stories. I have since I was a kid. I have memories of watching Back to the Future before I could even remember school. I have consumed so much Doctor Who, both classic and revival, that I could talk about it all day and still have more to say! I love The Terminator movies, all two of them! (Okay look, the others have their place, but c’mon, 1 & 2 are in a different league). I would DEARLY LOVE to go back and listen to Ars Paradoxica again because I LOVED it, and I wish it had more recognition than it does, (seriously go listen to Ars Paradoxica. It’s better than reading this.)

So time travel? That’s a check! And to add onto this, how does this sound:

The child of two main characters, witnessing terrifying and borderline unstoppable antagonists destroy their world, travels back in time to enlist the help of younger versions of their parents and allies.

They even have similar HAIR!!

The whole Androids/Cell/Future Trunks arc(s) were my favourite in Dragon Ball Z — so when I saw a similar set up in Sailor Moon R, you better believe I was excited!!

Yeah that didn’t… pan out so well.

(Urgh. Can’t believe I’m comparing that pink snot-face to my boy Trunks. ANYWAY…)

Getting back to the point of this post though, how does Crystal handle this arc?

Not so good.

Unfortunately, even leaving Chibiusa aside for the moment (where she BELONGS) the series does not do well in this arc.

I'm struggling to thing of a way to properly launch into what I want to discuss here. I think it's important to clarify that, despite it's flaws, I really did enjoy the first season. Using the pre-knowledge I have of Sailor Moon, I felt like Crystal addressed a lot of what I wanted to see when I watched the '92 anime. There's a trade off, of course - less episodes, less focus on secondary characters etc, but what we got was a good, fast paced story that hit the major beats of Sailor Moon: Introducing the Senshi, facing off against the Four Heavenly Kings, Usagi and Mamoru's past, fighting Queen Beryl and Metalia... It's good stuff!

Season 2... Does not do that. Despite flying at the same pace as Season 1, it somehow feels both too slow and too fast. A lot of this has to do with it's characters - Specifically the villains. I wanted to save this until I got more into the character piece, but every time I tried to begin explaining my issues with Season 2's pacing, I kept coming around to them, so I just have to discuss them here....

The villains of Season 2 are the Black Moon Clan, ostensibly led by the white haired Prince Demande, but really being manipulated by the enigmatic Wiseman.

Just quickly as an aside - I've always liked Wiseman's design, but it cracks me up how he basically looks exactly like No Heart from Care Bears:

The “Red eyes, piercing through a Featureless Void, enshrouded in an all concealing hooded cloak” look, paired with the “gnarled inhuman talon hands” was in vogue at the time.

In general, Sailor Moon villains have a pattern. If you’re familiar with any Super Sentai or Power Rangers shows, you’ll recognise it:

There is a Villain. Sometimes a group, but there’s always a “leader”

That “leader” will then have a set of “generals”, each with a distinct quirk or personality.

These “Generals” will then have their own “foot-soldiers”, which function as the “Monster of the Week”

You can squeeze a few sub-groups between those categories (And Sailor Moon always seems to have an additional “Higher Villain” above the “leader”) — but this is the patterns for most sentai-type shows. And Sailor Moon is basically a Sentai show, or at least heavily inspired by them. Coloured outfits, themed names, transformation sequences, roll calls… you get the idea.

The original series REALLY played this format for all its worth. It’s how it squeezed 200+ episodes out of the manga. It just kept adding more “Monsters-of-the-Week”

Crystal does not have 30+ filler episodes per season with which it can fuck around with random monsters and one-shot characters, so it has to shrink that roster. So for season 2, our “Foot-Soldiers” are what would normally be a seperate subgroup. The “Specter Sisters”

You might notice that there’s four sisters! That’s one for each senshi, minus Sailor Moon. Could this be deliberate?

Yeah of course it is.

I’m trying really hard to keep my thoughts on some kind of track here, so the review doesn’t become as much of a word salad as the first one did, so I really don’t want to talk about them as characters yet and explain why they make the plot feel slow.

The Black Moon Clan also come from The Future™, you see. They’re the terrible enemy that Chibiusa is fleeing from. They’ve already won, having destroyed much of the utopian Earth. They've also incapacitated Neo Queen Serenity, the future self of our very own Usagi, along with her Sailor Guardians and King Endymion — you guessed it, the future version of Mamoru. We’ll get into why the Black Moon Clan do this later, but the point is, the only thing keeping their victory from being absolute is Chibiusa, who, with the knowledge from a very special friend, escaped into the past, bringing with her the Legendary Silver Crystal from her own time.

However, even if Chibiusa escaped, thanks to the machinations of Wiseman, the Black Moon Clan are able to follow her. After they realize that their target has managed to enlist help, Prince Demand and his generals launch their plan

Their general gist starts out with each of the Specter Sisters concoct an Evil Plan, which targets one of the senshi specifically, playing on their interests on personality, while also angling to capture Chibiusa. Mars, Mercury and Jupiter are all captured, but their respective sister is destroyed in the process. (Venus successfully evades being captured by her respective Specter Sister)

This part isn't the worst... The sisters are bland and they don't leave any real impact, but that's to be expected... but the fights are somewhat engaging and even provide some focus to those who missed out last season (Mercury especially benefits). The issue is when the “foot-soliders” (not really the right word for them but best I’ve got) are defeated, we’re left with the “Generals” and…

Yeah they’re just so boring.

There’s an attempt to make them interesting. We get information about them like…

… Esme is a woman and might love Prince Demande

… Rubeus is… uh… well he exists...

And Saphir, brother of Prince Demande thinks maybe his brother has gone too far and betrayed their ideals because he's been corrupted by Wiseman and also he's a massive simp.

Yeah no, I'm not kidding, that's Prince Demande's thing. He's a huge fucking simp for Neo Queen Serenity, obsessed with making her submit to him et cetra....

That dramatic wind blew the fedora right off his head.

He even forcibly kisses Usagi at one point. Demande is just the Sailor Moon version of those incels that try and shoot up places because they think they deserve to get laid by their lust object.

Without going on too much about it, these four villains are boring as all hell, and yet we spend a lot of time with them. Their motivations suck - Basically they're anarchists who reject the long life and utopia of The Future™ because they believe it makes humans greedy or stagnate or something. I know I made that "Demande is an Incel", but in all honesty these guys come off as a group of 4Chan weirdos, rallying against "society" and thinking they're cool by quoting the Joker from The Dark Knight. They're dumb, and they're not compelling in the slightest, and every time they were on screen, I found myself zoning out. Crystal speeds the plot forward with all the grace of a car manufacturer's crash test, but this season it feels like it drags because we spend so much of that time with these fucks.

They're not like other Sailor Moon characters. They're edgy and different!

Wiseman is better, but only marginally. His backstory as the original terrorist that Neo Queen Serenity defeated and banished to Nemesis is kind of cool here, and it actually gives him a less stupid explanation for his villainy. Sure, revenge is basic, but basic works. Sure, his motivations back when he was Death Phantom are basically the same anarchist bullshit, but by now, that's faded away and he's consumed by revenge. I found his scenes entertaining, and I liked him as the shadowy force, moving everything toward his own ends. His scenes where he whispers to Chibiusa are genuinely creepy, and I like his focus on manipulation and trickery.

He's happy because he finished Darth Sidious's self-help book "100 Ways to Manipulate Horny Men who Think they're Special (plus Hooded Cloak Style Tips)"

Even the final battle with him involves him tricking everyone into thinking that he's first about to destroy everything, and then that he himself has been destroyed. He's probably more engaging of a villain that Queen Metalia, if only because he actually has somewhat of a character beyond "I am a dark energy being, gimmie the Legendary Silver Crystal".

(Side note, we're gonna get to Sailor Moon's tendency to have it's villains become planet sized energy monsters in the next review, but it's a thing that happens really, really often in this series, and I don't know why...)

Anyway, I'm making an effort to keep this short, so I'm going to summarize.

The Villains in Sailor Moon Crystal Season 2 are boring, and we spend way too much time with them.

It's not all bad though. There are parts of this plot I genuienly like. I think the scenes with King Endymion are cool, and once we finally get to the last battle, I think the story flows nicely. The stretch of the last 3-4 episodes is solid, as things move toward their conclusion, the final confrontation against Wiseman by Usagi is genuinely epic, and overall, I think it managed to "stick the landing" well enough.

So, now I should probably talk about the characters on our heroes side. And since you all already know it's coming, I might as well get Chibiusa out of the way.

Look, I know “man rants and makes jokes” is a popular review format. I’m doing it now. But I also don’t want this entire review to be “Analyst writes 100 pages on why he hates child character”.

I’ve already said I don’t like her. I don’t want to go on about it for 127 years, but I do want to talk about why I hate this character so much, because she is a big reason of I think this arc is so poor.

Chibiusa — or rather, “Small Lady” as she’s actually known (Jesus Usagi, you and Mamoru SUCK at names in the future! What, were you aiming for “exotic”?)

Ahem.

Chibiusa is basically Usagi, with all her annoying traits turned up. This is probably intentional, she is after all an actual child, but just because it makes sense doesn’t make it any fun to watch. We’re already watching a lot of the bratty, kind-of selfish traits in Usagi anyway (although they are pretty subdued in a lot of Crystal due to its rapid pace), but Usagi has a lot of positives to balance it out, and her negative traits are usually still entertaining to watch. As Usagi herself reminds us, she’s a klutz and a crybaby, but these make her feel more genuine, and as a result, I’ve always thought she was pretty endearing.

That “endearing” trait just gets missed completely with Chibiusa. She starts out by pointing a gun at Usagi to try and rob her (it turns out it’s a fake gun, but still…), follows that up by brainwashing Usagi’s parents into loving her and letting her live in their home, then forcefully inserting herself into Usagi’s life, invading her personal space, insulting her, and behaving in a way to her boyfriend that makes Usagi uncomfortable…

And she just… gets away with this?! There’s a bit of suspicion about her early on, but it doesn’t last and everyone, everyone except Usagi instantly believes they need to protect this child.

And look, I get it, she is a helpless child. She’s been through trauma and that can affect the way you behave. There is ONE moment where I feel genuinely bad for her, even. But that doesn’t make it okay for her to go out of her way to make Usagi’s life miserable. I can understand a character being a brat, but she suffers no real consequences for her behavior. Not even comedically! You’d think that once their relationship was revealed and smoothed out a bit, there’d be ripe potential for Usagi making a “You’re grounded” crack or something, but… nope.

Like I said, I get that Chibiusa is traumatized and whatever, but I can not stress enough that she just acts like a huge pain in the ass, with Usagi being the only one who kinda sorta calls her on her bullshit. If it were just all this, she’d just be another “annoying kid” type character. I wouldn’t like her, but I wouldn’t despise her the way I do. No, the absolute worst parts of her character comes in the way she interacts with Mamoru.

Did you know the counterpart to an Oidipus Complex is an "Electra Complex"? I do now, because of this fuck.

YEEEEEEEEEAHHHHH… There’s no real easy way to get around this. Chibiusa has a crush on the younger version of her father, and she frequently acts on that crush.

This is creepy in so many ways that trancend the usual "SIGH, anime..." mentality you sometimes need to adopt when watching anime. First off, while there has always been a weird thing in Sailor Moon where The Future™ versions of the characters are considered somewhat separate characters to the "main" versions, it's not like Mamoru actually looks any different to King Endymion. Chibiusa should clearly be able to see that this man his her father. She does know it's her father! She just persists with the crush for some reason!

And while the lip-lock pictured above, cringe-inducing as it may be, is ultimately accidental, it doesn't stop Chibiusa from generally acting as if she is trying to steal Mamoru from Usagi, clinging to him, shoving her out of the way, generally being inappropriate.

And frustratingly, while Mamoru does brush off her affections as "she's just a kid" to a degree (This is like a weird, reverse version of Back to the Future where Loraine is coming on to Marty...), he also doesn't shut down the crush. He doesn't make any "don't be inappropriate" comments to her. Instead, he feels an innate instinct to protect her - I get it, he's her father - and just allows her behavior to continue, despite the fact that his prioritization to Chibiusa is clearly bothering Usagi.

This is arguably the worst part of this whole fucked up thing. Usagi is actively jealous of Chibiusa, getting frustrated and upset when she takes her boyfriends affection away, and the way she shows it and words she uses clearly show she does consider Mamoru giving Chibiusa (who looks about FIVE-TO-EIGHT YEARS OLD) attention similar to how she'd consider him giving attention to another girl. Usagi is JEALOUS, and it pisses me off. Usagi may not be the brightest bulb, but I'm pretty sure she should know that a fucking child isn't a threat to her relationship.

This drives a lot of needless and creepy angst and no-one comes off as likeable in this fucked up triangle. Chibiusa is being weird-as-all-fuck, Mamoru is letting it happen and not talking to his girlfriend about her feelings, and Usagi is getting jealous of a toddler.

This all gets so, so much worse when Wiseman is able to exploit Chibiusa's weaknesses and trauma to brainwash her, transforming her into the aged up "Black Lady" - A form closer to what Chibiusa theoretically "should" be. (She's said to be a couple hundred years old, but her physical and mental growth have stagnated for some reason).

Black Lady is able to do a bit of her own brainwashing, in order to realize the now corrupted and twisted desires from her true self. And so, she snatches away Tuxedo Mask and...

THIS ONE IS NOT AN ACCIDENT. NOT AN ACCIDENT.

YeeeeeeeeaHHHHH...

Look, I can give anime a fair bit of leeway in the "this is actually fairly creepy" department. But everyone has a line and Chibiusa was already stepping over it with her crush on Mamoru. The whole thing with her keeping her father as her brainwashed lover is just.... ick.

I could talk about how these things affect the plot but... I just don't want to? There was no need for the incest-y subplot. Chibiusa's whole thing would've worked the same without the weird way she gets Usagi and Mamoru acting around her, and the Black Lady development should have more relied on the concept of "Evil Princess Usagi" and the shock that came from the fact that the ideals passed down from Neo Queen Serenity could become so twisted.

I'm done. I'm done with Chibiusa. I really don't want to think about this part anymore. I'm moving onto the other characters so I can be done with this whole thing.

Mamoru has more to do in this season than last. He gains access to his "Tuxedo La Smoking Bomber" attack, which is actually pretty cool, and gets to participate in a few fights. Chibiusa's weird interactions with him aside, we also get to see him be a bit more of a loving boyfriend to Usagi in parts, and explore how he really does feel weak compared to her.

I like seeing his interactions with his future self, King Endymion, and I really like how he fights Death Phantom side by side with Usagi at the end. That was just straight up cool, and one of the few highlights from this season.

(Also, just as a quick aside, from here on in, Tuxedo Mask appears with his snazzy top hat less and less. I like the top hat, man, bring it back!)

The senshi are a mixed bag. They do continue to feel like a group of genuine best friends though.

(I particularly love this moment, where Rei has her arm around Usagi while all the senshi tease her about it being time for them to protect their Princess again. It's so fucking sweet to see them treat Usagi like that.)

Some of the characters who got left a bit by the wayside in Season 1 get a little more focus.

Mercury and Jupiter each get a focus episode that fleshes them out a bit more, something they kind of lacked in Season 1. It's nothing too new on either count... Mercury gets to play chess (she's smart you see...) and Jupiter has a boy who has a little crush on her, and she likes him back. She even tells him about her secret identity. Also she gets sick and fights while she has a cold...

It's nothing we haven't seen before for this characters but it's nice to spend some more time with them

Arguably, Venus gets the most "development" here. She's the only Senshi to escape capture by her respective Specter Sister, and thus, gets to team up with Usagi and Mamoru as they travel to The Future™ and speak with King Endymion... She kind of works as mission control in some capacity and while in Crystal Tokyo, she's doing research on The Future™ and their enemy.

Mind you, the time travel nerd in me wants to start yelling about how you can't know too much about your own future, but Venus appears to stay away from Sports Almanacs and future diaries, so it's probably alright.

I liked Venus in this arc. She gets to be both a bit of a goofball and show off how competent she is. This season introduces some of the comedy that the original anime had, but the first season lacked, and it's nice. Venus provides some of the best.

Oh yeah, this season also introduces Diana, future daughter of Luna and Artemis...

I haven't talked about the cats much - I love Luna and Artemis and all like any Sailor Moon fan does - but a running joke I had with my partner while we were watching this is that the cats suck at their jobs. A lot of problems could be avoided if Luna and/or Artemis was more forthcoming with information, or stopped to think a situation though.

Diana's a bit of a nothing character... She doesn't get a lot to do, although she does have one important moment we'll get to in a moment. She is, however, a small grey kitten, which makes her adorable, so she gets a pass. Her English voice is also kind of weird, with an accent I can't place. The way she says "Small Lady" drives me insane.

The last character I want to talk about is... Well probably my favourite character introduced in this arc. Getting a new Sailor senshi is always a pleasure, and it's time to meet the poor gal who, at the time this series was ending, couldn't even call herself a planet anymore. Please give a drumroll and a warm welcome toooooo...

SAILOR PLUTO!

The guardian of space and time is introduced this season, and she's just great. She steals almost every scene she's in, just on her visual's alone. I've always liked Pluto - the quiet elegance and more refined facial features, plus the whole space-time powers thing make her very appealing to me. To the best of my understanding, Pluto is the only one of the senshi who hasn't been "reborn", having been guarding the "door of space and time" for... well, basically forever. Since Queen Serenity's day, so at least since Silver Millennium which makes it a few thousand years at a bare minimum. God, what was she doing for fun all that time? It's a miracle she's not insane.

Imagine this. Every day. For thousands of years. And you don't get a bathroom break.

Anyway, Pluto is the very special friend I alluded to earlier. Her friendship with "Small Lady"/Chibiusa (probably some of the only human interaction the poor woman's gotten in the last couple of millennia, not counting the King or Queen...) is what leads to the little piss-child being able to travel back in time, when she steals one of Pluto's keys and uses it to escape after the Black Moon clan's attack. Not sure if Pluto was even aware the attack was taking place...

There's something inherently cool about Pluto. She's more mature in every sense compared to, well, almost every other character. She takes her duty so seriously that the instant the protagonist's come through to the future, they're immediately attacked by her. Which, by the way, is hilarious when you think about later events, which I'll get to in a bit, but after they sort out the misunderstanding she immediately goes back to being kind and caring.

Pluto is, in many ways, a parallel to Chibiusa - Both of them are connected to important people (the Sailor senshi and the Royal Family, respectively) but feel distant from them for their own reasons. They're both "timeless" - as I mentioned, Pluto has been her 18-ish year old self for eons and Chibiusa is stuck as a child, no matter how many hundreds of years pass. Also, the appearance of Chibiusa gives Pluto someone to act motherly toward, showing the same kindness that Queen Serenity showed to her. This motherly side of Pluto is going to be important in a season or so...

Anyway, Pluto is, bound by the nature of her duties to guard that damned door, out of action for most of the series, only intervening at the end (Diana offers to watch the door for her... Making me wonder that if a tiny kitten is sufficient to watch over the door, why the fuck did they give the job to a human in the first place!?), where she gets to prevent a paradox, stopping time to prevent Prince Demande destroying everything by bringing the past and future versions of the Legendary Silver Crystal together. (I really don't want to get into why that’s apparently dangerous, yet later on, Usagi will have physical contact with Neo Queen Serentiy which is the SAME CONCEPT but time travel in Sailor Moon breaks my brain...)

In the process.... Pluto fucking dies... But this is Sailor Moon so don't stress too much about that...

Pluto gets a lot to do in the short time we know her. I've mentioned Cystal having pacing issues about a million times, and it's really hard for characters to be distinguished from each other once their introductions are over. There's no filler episodes to show their personalities off, and there's no time for slice-of-life or normal life scenes between all the action, so a lot of the characters who are not A: Usagi, B: Dating Usagi or C: Came from Usagi get short-changed. Pluto manages to mostly avoid these problems, partly because of the nature of her duties. She exists in a timeless void with a door, which she refuses to leave. Scenes with her are very dialogue and flashback heavy, which lets us learn a lot about her. Granted a decent chunk of it is "telling", not exactly "showing", but we still learn things about her. Like her aforementioned motherly nature, or the fact that she might have a crush on King Endymion.

Office romances are a bad idea Pluto, especially when he's married and his wife's the goddess-queen of mankind.

The scenes with Pluto are a real highlight to what's otherwise a kind of crappy season. I really like her, as you might have been able to tell by the time I spent talking about her.

Moving on, because I want to wrap this up...

I can't get to the end of this without talking about the actual main character

This season's not without it's strong points and although they are few and far between, I should mention that it does continue the improvements for Usagi that Season 1 established (her bizarre fear that a toddler might steal her man not withstanding) - That Usagi is not useless. Once again, she's crippled into inaction by villains taking her off guard and attacking her emotions. Separating her from those she loves, making her question her ability to protect them, etc... But once she overcomes that, she starts kicking ass. There's an awesome moment where, alone in the enemy fortress, Usagi gives herself a pep talk into not giving up, and overcomes the evil powers and fear preventing her from transforming.

She then proceeds to become Sailor Moon, telepathically find the captured Mercury, Mars and Jupiter, give them a pep talk about not giving into fear or despair, power them up to be able to transform, and then call them to her.

Effectively, it's a princess summoning her knights to her side, and it's awesome. It perfectly encapsulates Usagi's real strength: her ability to care for and connect to others. It's moments like that where we see a glimpse of what I can assume is fully developed in Neo Queen Serenity, and we understand how this ditz comes to rule the world in its golden Utopia.

That's not the only time in the season where Usagi kicks ass either. She really just has amazing moments with most of the characters. We really get to see her love for all of her friends (some of the funniest and sweetest moments are her interactions with them) and her relationship with Mamoru gets to progress. Again, weird things with Chibiusa aside, they really do feel like a couple. It's nice stuff.

For all the high points this series has though, for me, it was still a let down.

The great scenes I've just talked about are wedged between a lot of crappy scenes of nothing happening, especially when the villains are involved, and Chibiusa is really not a part of this season you can ignore at all, which means everything is - for me at least - tainted by her presence. I admit, I was relieved when I got to the final episode.

There are good moments in this arc, but overall, it's definitely weaker than season 1. I'd call it better than the original Sailor Moon R anime series for the sole value that this one is shorter, but in reality, that just means the bad parts are more concentrated.... Urgh.

So, one final thing.

Like I mentioned before, time travel in this show is WEIRD.

See, as I mentioned right back at the beginning, I'm something of Time Travel Media Connoisseur. So I always enjoy trying to figure out how time travel works whenever it shows up.

Doctor Who plays with all forms, but Back to the Future is a straight "what happened, happened until you changed it, and if you change it you create an alternate timeline, which can effect your personal history". Ars Paradoxica follows a similar, but more developed and complex path where you can change the past but not your past, although it does permanently change the timeline.

Dragon Ball Z uses the version where you can travel back in time to your past, but changes simply create an alternate timeline, and you can only return to your personal timeline, so you can only travel back to the future you came from, you can't change the history of your timeline...

(And yeah, that's the same time travel as Avengers Endgame, by the way... Yeah, the movie that thinks it's being so clever and "realistic" about time travel that it calls Back to the Future "bullshit" uses the same form of time travel as DRAGON BALL Z.)

There are plenty of other examples. The point is, I can not, for the life of me, work out how in the actual fuck the time travel works in Sailor Moon. At first it seems like Chibiusa's travel back to the past created an alternate timeline, so when Mamoru and Venus and all visit The Future™ and meet King Endymion, it's the "first time" all of this happened for all characters involved, but also, King Endymion is the one who guides Mamoru to learning things like his "Tuxedo La Smoking Bomber" attack, which makes me wonder where he learned it from in the first place to be able to teach his younger self...

And in the next season, there's a comment from Chibiusa that actually suggests everything here is a Stable Time Loop, where Neo Queen Serenity and the others actually remember the events of their past exactly how they happened, including Chibiusa being present, which complicates things because if everything that's going to happen has already happened from their perspective, then why are they shocked or surprised when certain things happen?

Then again, Diana does mention that the reason Neo Queen Serenity doesn't emerge from her hibernation in the Silver Crystal until the situation is most dire, and maybe that's because she knew that her younger self would get involved and took the chance to take a long nap, which actually does seem like something Usagi would do now that I think of it.

And finally, at the very end, as the characters leave, the senshi see Neo Queen Serenity, King Endymion and the future Sailor Guardians, and comment that "one day, that will be us" - but they could mean that less than literally.

The time travel thing is only going to get weirder as we move forward, I promise you... It's really hard to tell if there are alternate timelines or not...

At any rate, if I keep talking about this, I'm going to spill over into talking about Season 3 and Sailor Moon Eternal, so I'll save my thoughts for them later on.

Sailor Moon Crystal Season 2 is a step down from Season 1 in almost every respect, but it does have a few highlights that make it somewhat more tolerable in places. I imagine that a lot of younger fans, especially those who participate in modern fandom, are going to take issues with this season. And honestly, fair enough... Whilst I do think that media shouldn’t be labeled “The Bad Evil” just for including controversial topics, as I mentioned, this season includes subjects that cross the line even for me… But lets not give up hope just yet!!

As of writing I've now completed both Season 3 and the Sailor Moon Eternal movies (on Netflix) and I’m keen to discuss my feelings about them, so we’ll get into that on my next post.

For now, farewell!

*The Analyst has now sealed himself in the Legendary Bronze Crystal until such time he is needed again*

[prof-peach]

if fans wanted to include peach in stuff they write, would that be okay? and how would they write peach's personality? aside from "FIGHT ME" anyway, i think that much is a given lol. i only really write the anime characters 'cause that's what i know, but it sounds like it'd be kinda fun to try making a version of ash that fits into this blog's universe! nerf'd Obviously, but i think she'd probably appreciate how hands-on he gets when training his pokemon!

Ok, I get a lot of these messages, and I often hear folks wanting to throw peach into their stories and comics and writings, and I will always simply ask that if it’s published online publicly, to be linked to it so I can snoop and enjoy the content too. If someone asks about her in your work, let them know about the blog I guess? But literally I love that people take this stuff, these characters and stories, and make new stuff with it. No ones making money off my work here? So where’s the issue? Go for it buddy, knock yourself out, I’m all for it.

For you, and all the others out there who want to add peach, and other characters to your world building, I will give you a detailed rundown of the main lot, and how they behave, what they do, how they function. You can use that, use bits, or use none of it, I do not mind at all. If you’re creating something, you’re in control, not me.

So, peach doesn’t actually fight people as much as you’d think. She’s very aware most cannot and do not want to do that, and so she likes to keep to herself with regards to that aspect of her life, she doesn’t ask to spar with people, or even bring it up at all, but people ask her all the time, even if they clearly would lose or become hurt should she miscalculate during the fight. She looks at people like they usually create problems, and often has a somewhat reserved nature to other humans. You have to work quite hard to get anything more than formalities out of her. She will dead-pan handle people with blunt and very to-the-point statements, aid whenever possible, but very quickly get back to handling the Pokemon she so carefully tends. Her focus is clear, she’s all about hard work, her very small select family, and the Pokemon.

Her brutal, loud and brash personality only comes out with friends, family, difficult humans, OR any Pokemon. She will joke and laugh and play with Pokemon, but clam up around humans, maintaining tight body language and generally will be a little cold by regular standards. She does however have some weaknesses in this emotionless shield she puts up. When peach was young she was always angry, which swung so fast to sadness, back and forth. Her teenage years it just got worse and worse, it was crippling at points. She is to this day, full of fire and rage, even sadness, but now she has learnt to control it, to use it. When she sees that in others, it’s familiar, and she is pushed to drop the front, and be very real with the person. Underdogs I suppose, people who get bad reps, but deserve the same as everyone else. She can’t ignore it.

Once you start to pry open her personality, you’ll find she’s a lot more laid back and fun than originally appeared, you just have to work hard to find that side of her. She will meme reference, can’t dance to save her life, loves her coffee, and can be caught in quiet contemplation while gardening. This hobby is her calmest, and often is why she can stay so level headed when her quiet rage boils up again. Without time outside she will become grouchy, a little snippy, and lethargic. Will not go in the ocean for any reason other than life or death, is fine with ponds and rivers, or water at wading height. Likes the rain.

With regards to her training others, they usually have to tolerate her somewhat strict nature. She is a little....unforgiving, holds a grudge if you make a lot of mistakes, and has no tolerance for ignorance in the age of information that we all live in. In previous posts I’ve mentioned she’s only recently selected two students, after many years of testing kids who want to learn from her. Hundred tried out, only two have ever been approved. How she teaches is very fast paced, be prepared to get some scrapes and bruises, she will test your physical and emotional tolerances with intense tasks, carefully watching students like a hawk. Bad posture in your stance? She’ll be the first to tell you to sort it out. Not hearing your Pokemon partner? Right, now you spend the day without using words trying to communicate, let’s see how you like not being listened to.

This is a woman who has spent her life saying very little, and watching everything, she watches Pokemon and can see an issue from a mile off, and in battles, her observations are why she can react fast, and chose effective strategy to avoid damage and achieve results. Don’t let her body fool you, her strongest asset is analysing, watching, planning. Those skills have over the years transferred to people too. As a student, mistakes don’t go unnoticed with this professor.

Her methods are harsh but fair, and should you prove yourself, she will protect you with her life.

Because of her disinterest in kids and lots of noise, she does pass the training of students on to the other staff members whenever possible. Grey takes on the lions share of battle lessons, he is far calmer, more open and friendly, with patience for people, and an empathy that peach sometimes struggles to have. When you go through a lot of harsh training, and difficult events, it’s hard to change how you feel or think, with peach, well, she’s been through it. Most do not come out the other end in one piece, but she did, and it made her strong. You may think I mean strong like buff and big, and yeah sure she is, but I mean it mentally more than anything. Peach will not quit. She has learnt to destroy the boundaries that stop people getting hurt, gone is the fear that freezes you in your tracks, that feeling that you’ll pass out if you go one more step. She’s learnt to ignore it.

This means she’s a little forgetful at how it is to be normal, to be vulnerable and soft and squishy like students so usually are.

She has her issues, but for the most part, visitors get a laugh, a smile, a calm assertive confidence, and facts. She will indulge those who have genuine interest, or show a connection with nature, an understanding of the balance that needs to be struck for everyone to live well together.

Despite her many flaws, she’s fiercely protective, and will go above and beyond to defend the island, it’s staff, the Pokemon and the visitors. Injustice is her biggest gripe, along with littering, and she doesn’t stand by quietly if something happens that seems unfair.

You will not see her without Valka, her vulpix, close by. That Pokemon doesn’t like to be touched by strangers, at all, and will run the second someone comes at her with that intent. Peach will scold you for pushing yourself onto her, should you persistently try to get close to pet Val. They are in sync, if peach is sad, Val is sad, if Val is stressed, peach is stressed, and so on. They are inherently connected, it’s just been that long, the psychic bridge between them has been built, and reinforced over the years.

The only other Pokemon who follows her so endlessly is Booker, a teddiursa who’s pretty rough looking. He quietly trots behind, grouchy and stoic, they fight closely together a lot. He lost his mom a long time ago to poachers, and peach took him in, and changed her whole life for him. Not many people know, but Booker was the reason she left the rangers, changed career, and got so strong. Will tolerate people petting him but isn’t keen at all, grumbles a lot and tries to move away.

You may also need to know about the others, for the sake of writing, she here a few more bits that may be important to you, or others wanting to do this.

Grey is very tall, very burly, composed, tells bad dad jokes, is a bit of a goof if allowed to be. If he sees a pun, he’ll say it. Can’t help himself. Very nice guy to work with, good at keeping people calm and grounded. Pokemon are drawn to him like a moth to a flame, he gives off warm energy, and has inhuman amounts of patience. If you wrong his family however, he will snap back.

He grew up in the city, loves to swim and hike and cycle, can snowboard, is really sporty. A total brain box with held items, and boosting stats. He will explore many paths, to make sure visitors and students get the information they need, in a way that can be remembered and retained for later. Is a huge guy, but will get on the floor to play with a tiny Pokemon. Treats big “meaner” looking species like babies, very good with all pokemon.

His free time is spent either tinkering, swimming, or trimming his bonsai trees. This guy stares at screens a lot, so appreciates time away from them. Peach built him his own little greenhouse for his trees and tools, which he keeps clean and loves dearly.

His methods as a teacher are built around fun and games, he makes hard work easier to do by distracting trainers from the difficult bits, and focusing in on something more interesting or compelling.

His most commonly seen Pokemon would be a houndoom, Saxon, old battle veteran, retired now to herding and being a good boy. Very gentle, loves a pet.

Pari, now a fully fledged nurse, often oversees the labs front desk and pokecentre features, such as healing pokemon, and informing trainers who come to visit. Her skills with eggs and hatchlings is high, she’s great with younger Pokemon, and hands out good advice to trainers a lot. She’s not a fighter, never was, but can find any file, any study, any book, and any refrence you may need. A true bookworm, loves her romance novels, chat shows and upbeat celebrity gossip mags. Will cry at a lot of stuff, be it sad or happy.

She’s got a seriously upbeat personality, but if caught off guard or shocked, she gets a little flustered. Too much chaos will overwhelm her, but usually she’s on top of things. The years spent on the island have made her better at maintaining composure in emergencies. With lots of siblings, she’s very competent with others, and has a good ability to disarm cagey people with her jolly nature. Because of this, she can sometimes gain information from trainers that some of the more harsh professors may not have access to. Charming is a word for it.

Her partners are an eevee, and a happiny. They are quite sweet and well adjusted, the eevee gets a bit bouncy if you get it too excited.

[mcmoth]

Dream SMP fandom etiquette

So. This post is probably too little, too late, considering the fandom and the issues I'm about to talk about have existed for so long now, and a lot of the people who need to hear this probably aren't on tumblr anyways, but I just wanted to dedicate a quick post to talk about fandom etiquette. Mostly pertaining to discourse, and interactions with people outside of our circle. These are just going to be my own personal thoughts, of course, but I felt it could be good to bring some of this to attention. So without further introduction:

Where to (not) talk about discourse:

Don't go into other streamer's vods to only focus about a different character. If you want to analyse, for example, c!Techno, do it in Techno's stream. Don't go into unrelated streams, like Tommy's, Tubbo's etc. to do it, even if they were a part of the event in question. This is, of course, with the exception if the character in question didn't stream their own pov. But otherwise, stay in your own space. This is to prevent cluttering a streamer's comments about unrelated discussion. To give further example: Tubbo's vod comments should primarily focus on Tubbo's character. Not Tommy's, Ranboo's, Techno's or whoever else's.

Don't start discourse in the comments of animatics. Seriously, stop that. Animatics aren't discussion boards. The comments are there to analyse and appreciate the video presented, not argue. It's especially rude if you pick a small detail, that wasn't even the focus of the animatic, or even a completely unrelated issue to rant out your frustrations about. To give examples: starting disc discourse in an animatic of Tommy talking to Wilbur, or rambling about how tragic Techno's character is in an animatic focused on clingy duo, etc.

This applies to fan songs as well.

Video essays are the exception to these rules. I think it's safe to say they're the place to bring your hot takes, if you really feel so inclined to argue in youtube comment sections (Though I'd personally advise to still keep the topic relevant).

Keep negativity out of fanfic comments. This isn't nearly as big of an issue as the last points, but I've seen it happen a couple times, so I'm deciding to mention it. Fanfics are written for fun. Even if you disagree with the characterisation or something else, unless the author is clear in accepting critique, keep criticism to yourself. And definitely don't rant about how you dislike a character unrelated to the fanfic. Sharing your thoughts on the fanfic itself is of course fine and welcomed, but when it turns from discussing the author's story to talking about how you dislike a character in canon, that's when it crosses a line. Example: comment talking about what you don't like about c!Tommy on a Bench Trio fanfiction.

When commenting on art, keep the feedback positive. Even if you dislike any presented character, keep that to yourself. Example: Don't say things like "I hate x character, but this art is good". You might think the author would feel honoured, but it's actually just hurtful.

How to deal with discourse:

This is gonna be a shorter section, because I think we all chose to do it in different ways, and that's valid. Also, it's just that I, myself, am still learning how to do this well, but I thought it could be good to try to lay it out anyways.

Try to scroll past takes you disagree with instead of arguing if you don't think you'd be able to keep your cool. Noone likes a random person yelling at them through a screen, and if you rant, you'll get an equally frustrated reply back, and noone will be happy. Either explain your point in a calm manner, or scroll past/ unfollow/block.

On the keeping cool thing, remember to just step away. Take a deep breath and calm yourself down before proceeding. To minimize the frustration you feel on a daily basis, filter tags, block people, avoid videos and youtube comment sections that you know will upset you, and leave certain internet spaces if you find yourself unable to escape negativity even with all those steps. Remember: in the end, it's all a game played by friends, a story, and your enjoyment of it lies in what you take from it. Abandon what makes you unhappy. Marie Kondo your fandom experience.

Also, here's your reminder, to whom this is relevant, to take care of yourself. Hydrate, eat, sleep, clean up, get fresh air, remember the things outside of all this. There's plenty to do outside of this fandom, and what you can do here can wait. There is no pressure, or obligation. Not for the content you create, not for the discussions you bring, not for responding to discourse, not for anything. Fandom is meant purely for fun, so take care <3

Interacting with people outside of the fandom:

This is something that I've seen a bit of talk about, and I thought I'd drop in my own thoughts on this as well. No matter the differences, we're all just trying to vibe, and I think these are important things to keep in mind to leave both sides better off:

Don't interact with hate posts. Just don't. You don't want to see them, they don't want to see you. Even if your response is lighthearted, their animosity is not. They will feel frustrated regardless, and the grudge will only grow. And if they're being agressive, calm discussion most likely won't happen even if you're being polite. Just leave it, please.

Correct misinformation calmly. I completely get how it can be frustrating to see blatant lies and all, but with our reputation, people will not listen if you're being antagonistic. Provide sources, explain, and leave it at that.

Don't be hateful, send death threats, or assume privilege or whatever else. That's stepping into the same shoes of the people you hate. Misunderstandings go both ways, and the fact of the matter is, I think most people who dislike DSMP, even the ones who are agressive about it, don't have their stance rooted in maliciousness. To expand on why the situation became what it is today, taken from a discussion on discord:

I think it's just a combination of Dream growing so insanely quickly + how internet spaces have changed over the years. When ccs like jackstepticeye or pewdiepie etc. grew popular, activism wasn't as prevalent and held to such importance. Now it's thankfully more talked about, but that also leads to Dream being more scrutinized in comparision. Add twitter trends and the general prevalence of the fandom, and you've got everyone feeling tired and frustrated and paranoid. People also tend not to fact check stuff, especially when it comes to celebrities and stuff they're not really interested in, so rumors spread fast.

And actually, I think there's absolutely valid reasons to be made uncomfortable by Dream SMP, either in it's creators, content or fandom, and there is, of course, stuff to criticise in general. The problem is the hate and misinformation and overexposure, but we are not going to solve any of that by being aggressive in return.

(This is, by the way, not talking about more serious cases. Like doxxing, or leaving gore images in hashtags, or similar instances. That's a whole different complicated issue that I don't feel qualified to tackle.)

And finally, don't overwhelm outsiders who merely mention the Dream SMP. Don't send asks asking them to watch it, don't write paragraphs explaining the lore, don't confuse them with inside jokes, just... Don't jump on people like that. Unless they're explicitly clear in wanting interaction and getting into the fandom, that kind of thing will just drive them away. This is in no way exclusive to the Dream SMP fandom, pretty much every fandom has people enthiastic to have more people involved, but since there are so unbelievably many of us, it's especially easy to go overboard with this stuff. Just... be polite, and don't pressure anyone. Be nice, please.

So.... ya! This would be it for this one, I think. Sorry that it's kinda long, thank you if you read it at all. Hope y'all have pleasant days ^^

[13eyond13]

I recently saw someone saying that L was actually the most evil character all along and he deleted all the data instead of providing it to his successors and let Kira kill innocents during that time and they said Light got evil after the death note , L was evil all along. I have always thought of L as evil but never the most evil among all the characters and now I am really confused. Sorry I am still really new to this show and a little bit dumb.

What are your thoughts on this ?

Hi! Good question.

Saying that a character is objectively "the most evil" one in a series like this is kind of a tricky thing, because it depends on how you're defining evil and what your criteria for that actually is. I think fans often bring a pretty personal and specific viewpoint to these matters, and something that can seem understandable or excusable to one person will seem unforgivable and irredeemable to another. One of the things that makes it a pretty interesting story to think about and discuss in general is that nearly all of the characters are morally grey and pretty difficult to easily slot into black and white right and wrong/purely good and evil categories. And it was intentionally written that way. In addition to just being an entertaining story it was also meant to be the kind of series that brings up those kinds of thoughts and questions and debates, and it doesn't often go out of its way to definitively answer them itself.

Ohba said in the behind the scenes that he personally sees L as "slightly evil." I normally tend to see L as sort of in the middle in these matters myself as well. There is quite a range of behaviours going on here that lots of people consider immoral actions and thoughts and behaviours in real life. And though L isn't one of the characters murdering people himself in the story, and though he is given the role of detective that is so often depicted in crime thrillers as the guy who saves the day, he also wasn't originally meant to be seen just as unquestionably heroic and noble, either. I think we are often meant to be wondering about him and what he is really thinking and doing as he tries to win against Light, and how heroic and justifiable much of it actually really is. I don't think L is likely a murderer like the Kiras are for example, but he did do a lot of shady and corrupt and ruthless things while also demonstrating that he fully understood that it was shady (like kidnapping and torturing his suspects, framing innocents for crimes they didn't commit and having them wrongfully imprisoned, etc). He also can be seen as offensive on a more minor scale to people sometimes for things like being a condescending bully or a know-it-all, and some people read into stuff like him not sharing his information with the successors as an intentional slight or neglect of them as well.

I personally think that L as a character is mostly just incredibly competitive, egotistical and self-centered in a fairly simple and straightforward way, and above all extremely determined to prove that he is right. And that will usually take precedence for him over things like worrying about other people's feelings or playing super fair or trying hard to be a morally upstanding person or take an idealistic stance of some kind. In the manga canon L shows himself to be pretty self-aware about his own character qualities that other people often see as negative ones, but also not terribly apologetic or regretful about that. There are other characters in the series I would call unambiguously evil more readily than L. But I also don't like it when people gloss over his flaws and bad behaviour and either ignore it or try to excuse it either, because to me that's a big part of what makes him interesting as a fictional character. I think the complexity of the characters and how difficult trying to categorize them as clear heroes or clear villains can be is basically one of the big major themes of the story, and a huge part of what makes the series fairly timeless and so interesting to discuss.

[akookminsupporter]

It me, the big bad multifan anon. *kisses*

1. Glad to have someone new to fight that’s not a taekook anon? Please take this response as lightly as I mean it. I am not offended by your response or the other responses I skimmed. I do take offense at the person who disliked Ateez, so rude taking potshots at my other favorite boys. Jungkook vs Jongho sing off when? (I lie, Jongho is too nice to be subjected to Army).

2. Saying I love BTS but I have problems with the fandom does not downgrade my argument. You can love something but have problems with things associated with it.

3. I think we’re coming at this from very different angles. I run in a lot of fandom spaces. Some of y’all say that I’m wasting my time doing that; that’s fine, but fandom is important to me (also you’re fighting with me on a fan blog so don’t fall off that high horse lmao). I’ve been in many over the years. When I mention stans I don’t talk about casual listeners but people who are active in online fan spaces. And Army has a pretty embarrassing reputation online of saying things without knowing context or believe BTS is unique in ways they aren’t. That’s specifically what fans I speak about. Obviously it’s in part love; when I’m having a bad day I have a BTS pick me up playlist and I actually keep BTS songs for special occasions so I don’t get tired of them, because it’s so special to me. No other group I treat like that.

4. Buuuuut. I think the One True Group idea perpetuates this behavior. I think Army and Blinks tend to be the worst, and not just because they’re big because other big name groups have better behaved fans, but because they tend to have a lot of the one group superiority complex.

5. So my opinion that you should explore beyond your favorites IF you want to involve yourself in kpop spaces.

6. Oh, and I didn’t mean that at you. I already knew your stance on others groups as a been there didn’t like it. My problem is with superiority complex’s stans have without looking past BTS ever.

7. I concede Jackson was a bad example, Blow is just my fav song of the year so far.

Anyways this is getting too long, I’m stoked about the anthology album even though they denied us Ddaeng. :/

This came out as a cocky, sarcastic and ironically with a hint of a superiority complex. You're a better fan because you like several groups and are in several fandoms. Let's have a party. I'll post this ask out of politeness but I think this conversation ends here. Anon, if I don't want to talk about tkkrs, I just don't do it. I just have to say that you, whoever is reading this can like 1 or a thousand groups. You can be a fan of BTS only or them and 5 other groups. That doesn't make you better or worse, it just makes you a person with a varied taste in music and maybe content in general. Anon, it's true that many fans have problems, extreme and biased opinions about many things. Many fans think they are superior because BTS is on top and that feeling of superiority makes them be stupid and say stupid things but that doesn't mean being a fan of just one group is bad. And that's basically what you said. You multi fans have a lot of problems too, some of you are "fans" of bts but are upset that your other favs don't earn what bts earn or don't have what bts has. "It's not fair for bts to win again, I'm a fan of them too but X group deserved it more" I've read more than one multi fan say. That doesn't sound good either.

People can like and be fans of whoever they want.

If they don't want to listen to other groups, that's their problem, they may be the ones missing out. But it's THEM. I don't understand how that's YOUR problem or anyone else's problem.

[dreamteamspace]

We hit 400 so here’s a- ✨ DREAM APPRECIATION ESSAY ✨

(by Yours Truly. Much thanks to the one, innocent anon who just wanted to ask a small talk question but hit my serotonin-providing hyperfixation.)

1. Self-esteem

I love the way he’s confident in his abilities when it’s become such a “trend” to either be completely and utterly self-depricating about your own skills out of fear of being labelled an asshole or overconfident nowadays.

At the same time you can still tell he doesn’t want to pull anyone down ever, and will always be really careful with that and take every oppertunity to lift up the people around him. Dream has a very emotional voice that gives him away a lot, so you can really tell he genuinely admires the people around him and he’s never afraid to say that they could totally easily beat him in something if he doesn’t have practice with it.

He tends to be a bit too hard on himself, so his friends always encourage him in his abilities, and that’s just. So nice. He celebrates his victories! He gets so so excited and happy when he wins in the manhunts, and I think celebrating your hard-earned victories isn’t something that should be villanized.

He won, and we should KNOW by now that doesn’t mean he thinks he’s somehow better than everyone. He has a pretty good eye on his abilities, and that allows him to really use them to the max.

2. Morality

He isn’t afraid to change the game! His adhd picks out a Cool New Thing and he just goes, You know what? Why not! His adhd goes “do this thing repeatedly another 3847 times” and he’s like, yeah sure!

Nobody expected him to release a song, but he just went for it! He’s been speedrunning so much, but he isn’t afraid to stream it every day 5 days in a row for hours while his friends bicker in the background.

Dream genuinely does the things he finds fun, but at the same time puts in so much effort to make them good and entertaining to watch and never forgets about his viewers.

He’s kidfriendly because he wants to be! Fame-wise, at this point he could definitly swear more if he wanted to (and he does when in other people’s content who don’t care about swearing), but despite that he doesn’t swear on his main because he wants his content to be accessable for everyone.

Sure, on one hand it could be for clout/money, but consider: Dream doesn’t stream the DSMP because he doesn’t want to take attention away from other people. He participates in the videos of his friends. He lets compilation channels and the like do whatever they want and even monetize his content. He lets his friends stream Road Trip on twitch as much as they want for free.

Dream doesn’t not swear just for his fanbase, but he does it because he has so so much respect for people. No matter how high he goes, he’s always consciously focused on respecting and admiring the people around him.

He has genuine respect for creators so much smaller than him, and he has respect for people in his fanbase that are younger than him. He isn’t afraid to go against the norm and STAND for that, either (see the video where he defends his stans).

And he defends his friends so much too! So much so it could almost be a little bit of a flaw sometimes, but I feel like he truly wants to learn from his mistakes. He apologizes for things even when nobody asked him to, and that just shows that he does it out of genuine guilt and fear of hurting someone.

He’s always seemed like someone who is genuinely willing to change to be a better version of himself, who isn’t afraid to challenge what he thinks and what other people think and what the norm thinks in order to improve everything for everyone.

Dream also doesn’t let any of the fame get to his head! As I said before - he’s confident in the things he’s good at, but in a way that doesn’t pull other people down, and he still remains firmly admirable of other people.

And even when OTHER people let fame get to their head (it was a while ago, but there was a video he made about five block jumps, where he added in a clip of a video of another guy doing it complete with credit and link etc. The guy was 100% alright with it at first, but when his video started getting more views because Dream’s video blew up, he started accusing Dream of “stealing” his content (when dozens of other videos of the 5 block jump already existed, and Dream could’ve just put in a clip of himself doing the jump)),,, but he insisted in his reponse that fame gets to people’s heads sometimes, nobody should blame anybody, he genuinely was never upset at him and just said that this just... happens sometimes.

He’s a very forgiving person all around, in part due to being willing to challenge his own norms and give people the benefit of the doubt JUST in case he’s wrong. He lets people enjoy things so long as they aren’t hurting anybody, like allowing people to ship him w people who are also alright with shipping, but at the same time taking a hard stance on, say, how shipping minors is absolutely wrong and should not be done ever (and he’s right).

3. Fandom

He appreciates said fanart and fanworks as well! He thinks dnf fanart is cool and he even appreciates the fanfic part of his fandom, something many ccs wish to ignore or forget it exists altogether (and it IS ofc in their right to do so or be uncomfortable with such content!), but Dream sees the work put into it and how people find connections and friendships through the fandom and appreciates it all the same.

He loves his fandom. So much. But not in the overdone, fake-feeling way I’ve seen other ccs be,,,, he’s just. Quiet and shy and genuine about it but not afraid to defend it.

He’s said before - and I QUOTE - “If you send hate to people or have sent hate to people, in the form of hateful comments or DMs, you aren’t welcome in my fandom. You’re no fan of mine”, which is the HOTTEST take he’s ever uttered and I love that. He really just went and said that. And he’s right. I like that despite how he’s usually more held back and waits things out before taking a stance, he chose this topic to really take a hard stance on and not budge and stick to it.

Pmbata has also said that he believes his fans have his back no matter what!! And that he really loves them a lot!!! And I am!! Emotional!!!!

4. ND/Adhd

He has adhd which is something I relate to personally (I have it as well sdlkfj). He gets excited sometimes!! I love how he shows being fidgety in mc, always pacing and parcouring around,, the way that in manhunts you can SEE when he’s thinking or bouncing back and forth between two options,,, or the way he gets close to people in mc to laugh with them.... He shows so much with his movements by them being quick and daring and calculated (and it’s especially hilarious to watch other people react to it in the video “mc but three people control one player”, where he’s the one moving and Sapnap and George will gasp or go “Dream!!” in surprise when Dream was THIS close to falling off a ledge, but he just laughs sdlkfjsdf).

When he’s not moving around he stands perfectly, perfectly still (which, idk if thats what all adhd ppl have, but I know I have something similar? Like when I’m nervous I’ll sometimes just. Freeze in place. No movement at all). He’s just relatable sdkjf.

There was one Manhunt extra scenes where he,,,,, stims by clapping,,,,,, the lil excited clap in the background,,, I’m gonna cry. I’m so soft for excited Dream that one is such a comfort clip for me!

He also tends to stim by getting under trap doors and then jumping back out of them, or jumping up a block and then walking back down over and over (especially noticable in The Village Went Mad tftsmp episode, where they were all discussing who the murderer could be and he was the only one moving, hopping up the log and then running back down again).

Also it is. Really Soft when he starts rambling and overexplaining something. What’s even better is that George, who is usually present at such moments, will laugh a little at his antics, and Dream will automatically laugh with him.

5. Rp/Uplifting other ccs

Dream wasn’t all THAT into the rp at first, but his server has been so strongly supporting and giving attention to smaller creators that he’s since completely rolled along with it. Being a villain in the RP is a difficult role because you will, inevitable, as much as it is just roleplay and all scripted, always get some amount of dislike from people for it.

Despite that, he’s basicly the main big villain on his own server where he let a bunch of theater kids beat him up in character and imprison him on his OWN SERVER. He wasn’t as into the rp at first, but has obviously been practicing and joins every Tales of the SMP when he can, despite getting zero clout for it.

What Dream also tends to do is find small content creators, see their talent and lift them high. His entire discord server is dedicated to give smaller ccs a place to grow, and when he first found Tubbo, Tommy, Ranboo, etc., they were much much smaller than they are now. He truly wanted to help them make it big.

He’s also added Foolish Shark and Hannah onto the SMP, both much smaller ccs (not tiny, but you get what I mean), allowing them to grow. He doesn’t stream on his OWN SERVER. He let himself get imprisoned to let the good guys win on his OWN. SERVER. He’s willing to play the villain and everything.

An interesting thing though! A lot of people used to/still do clown on Dream a bit for his sometimes uncertain acting,,, but when he’s around people he knows well (Sapnap and George, Tubbo and Tommy) we’ve seen him go ALL OUT. I have the theory Dream might be genuinely afraid to accidentally be mean to someone in character and have them misinterpret it sldkfjsdf,,, so he’s rly careful when he goes into the rp, and sometimes even when he’s in it he goes quiet, especially with other people around.

But also the fact that he needs time to feel comfortable around ppl is,, a mood,,, and adorable,,, sdlfkjsdf-

Apparently he’s also shared his youtube algorithm secrets with Tommy?? Which he had only shared with Sapnap and George before?? Dream took one look at that chaotic kid and immedietly adopted him as his little brother. He literally got up super early to rp the prison visit. Idk about ya’ll but I would die for someone first and get up horribly early for them second-

6. Friends!!

Dream?? Considers so so many people his friends?? And despite having so many friends, he also has his few closest friends (George and Sapnap) whom he would absolutely die for in a heartbeat. He WILL defend them with everything he has and loves them so so much.

He listens to them and really, truly wants them to succeed. He respects them so much and will go OFF about how good they actually are and how talented they are and how important they are to him.

I can’t even COVER everything about how much he is SOULMATES with Gorg. They live in each others heads rent-free. He mentions him all the time. They get!! So happy when they’re around each other!!! Their voices get so soft,,

And I can’t even BEGIN to explain the energy of Sapnap and Dream just moving together permanently. Imagine moving together with your best friend. Like, permanently. Into one house. They’re best friends Your Honor,,,,

Also,, remember the Techno and Dream rivalry? And Dream has recently said that he’s hesitant to make a serious manhunt against Techno because he doesn’t want there to be any feud between them or have them be compared to each other. He said that while he absolutely wanted nothing more than to beat Techno at first, now that he knows him better he just wants to be friends with him. He wants to be FRIENDS. With his, essentially, mc RIVAL. Friendly rival, but still. He doesn’t even wanna fight Techno or have ppl compare them cause he,,, wants to be friends with him,,,,

7. Vulnerability

What I feel like really sets Dream apart from some other ccs for me is that he’s willing to be vulnerable. He will tell George he loves him. He defends his friends. He sounds so, so genuine when he tells his fandom that he loves them.

What’s just really rare to see, especially in male ccs, is that vulnerability. It’s becoming more acceptable as time goes on, but it’s certainly not easy, and a lot of people become and stay long-term fans BECAUSE they can see how genuine he is.

I know Dream looks up to Mr. Beast a lot, for example, but honestly? I think he’s a little better than Mr. Beast. Because he feels more genuine, more bound to what he believes is right. I’m sure Mr. Beast isn’t a bad content creator! But ultimately they have different target audiences and I’m very glad Dream is the way he is.

Less of that insecure masculinity and more willing to be vulnerable, to care about things, to get emotional and to encourage and uplift the people around him.

8. Pure Brainrot

Green boi has nice deep calm soothing voice. Little shy laugh. Wheeze laugh. Gorg live in his head rent-free. He lov friends. He lov block game. He good at block game,,, a little shy but confident,,, big heart,,,, soft voice,,,,, rambles sometimes....

He also Gender. He’s so gender. I don’t know how else to describe it. I want That. Whatever That is. My gender is Dreamwastaken

[mochegato]

I Can’t Fight This Feeling

Chapter 4

Chapter 1     Chapter 3

It took two weeks for Jason to break his vow to stay away from Marinette.  To be fair, it wasn’t entirely his fault.  He hadn’t sought her out and she hadn’t sought him out either.  But fate, or the universe, or luck, maybe she wasn’t wrong about having bad luck after all, had decided they weren’t done with each other.

His eyes were drawn to a figure making their way across the club.  It wasn’t so much that she caught his attention, though that dress definitely looked like it was poured on her and brought attention to her curves before it cascaded down to the floor like a waterfall from her hips, moving in mesmerizing patterns each time she took a step.  It was more the looks she was getting as she passed through the crowd that caught his attention.  Anyone getting that much attention was asking for trouble and it didn’t appear that she even realized the effect she had.

She had almost made it to the edge of the crowd when one of his regulars grabbed her arm and forced her to turn toward him. Jason cursed when he saw her face. Why was Marinette here?  The Iceberg Lounge wasn’t a place for someone like her.  He moved quickly to intercede before that particular regular, who had a reputation for getting handsy with women, touched Marinette again.  

He knew not to touch women without consent in Jason’s club, but if he forgot with Marinette, Jason was going to have to kill him, and he didn’t have murder on his schedule for today.  He would have to move around some of his other plans to accommodate.  Jason pulled his gun out of its holster, gripping it firmly, ready to take it off safety if he needed it.  He made it to them just as Marinette had dropped the guy with a well-placed punch. The man growled and stood up to hit her back, but stopped when he saw Jason behind her, his gun pointed at him. He snarled at them, but backed away and left the club as quickly as he could.

Marinette’s stance quickly relaxed and she let out a relieved breath.  She took a few more breaths before she started to move.  Her movement forced Jason to realize he had been staring at the way the dress molded to her and moved with her as she breathed.  He swallowed to wet his suddenly dry mouth and quickly moved behind her.  He couldn’t let her go just yet.  That guy got fixated easily and if he fixated on Marinette, he’d wait for her all night and either jump her immediately or trail her home to stalk her there.  Jason couldn’t let her leave yet or alone.

He holstered his gun and leaned closer to her with a smile.  “Fuck, you’re going to kill me in that dress,” he whispered in her ear.

She whirled around, her fist already cocked to lash out and punch him.  He caught it mid-swing.  “Careful, Pixie.  You could hurt someone that way,” he smirked.

“Jason,” she whispered out.  Her fist immediately relaxed in his hand.  A beaming smile made its way onto her face, taking Jason’s breath for a few seconds.  She looked down shyly and let out a light laugh before looking up at him again, a cheeky glint in her eye.  “Why would I kill you in this dress?  Though granted, if you ripped my dress trying to get into it, I would have to kill you, so I can see that happening.  But, I can design your own if you want one.”

He smirked at the offer.  He hadn’t seen this side of her before and he loved the thrill it sent through him.  “And I would look killer in it too.”

“You would look killer in anything.  I think the real design challenge would be to design something you wouldn’t look amazing in.”  She took a step closer to him as she spoke.

Jason pulled her hand against his chest.  “I’m glad you think so, Pixie,” he said quietly, suddenly feeling nervous.  He looked around anxiously, silently tallying all the eyes that were on them right now, which was definitely not good for Marinette.  He was supposed to be taking attention off of her, not adding to it. “Hey, let’s…”  He finally spotted what he was looking for.  “Let’s go someplace a bit quieter so we can talk, yeah?”

She examined his eyes for a few seconds before she nodded.  The trust she put in him made him smile, as undeserved as it was.  He gently pulled on the hand he was still holding and guided her to a curtained off VIP section he knew was unreserved.  He closed the curtain behind them.  It was private enough nobody would see her or bother her anymore, or more importantly, them together, but they could still hear the music from the club.

He brought her over to the personal bar in the corner of the room and moved behind the bar to pour a whiskey for himself. He motioned the alcohol around him and raised an eyebrow asking a silent question.  She shook her head and took a seat at the bar.  Jason took a sip and leaned against the bar.  “So, what are you doing here?  It’s not exactly the kind of place college students tend to frequent.”

She laughed again and God, that sound almost made it seem like there was something bright in this depraved club.  “Always so concerned with why I’m places,” she teased. “But, you’re right.  Normally I wouldn't. But, I was meeting with a client here.”

Jason’s hands curled into fists unintentionally. He curled them so tightly, his knuckles had turned white and his short nails were cutting into his palms.  “With a client?” he asked as casually as he could manage, which was a mixed success.  It was considerably less hostile than he felt, but definitely more aggressive than he intended.  Because she had the right to do anything she wanted with her body, but if someone was hurting her or manipulating her, he was going to kill whoever it was.

“Yeah, remember I mentioned I'm a designer?” she answered carefully, eying his fists as she spoke.  “I met her here to discuss designing a dress for her.”

Jason’s shoulders relaxed and he let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding in.  He shook his head in exasperation.  “Pixie… has nobody taught you survival skills for Gotham?”

She huffed in annoyance.  “That's why I insisted on a public meeting place.”  She motioned around them.

Jason groaned.  “The Iceberg Lounge is hardly a safe meeting place.  Almost nobody in here would blink an eye at somebody getting kidnapped in front of them. Hell, most of the people here would be the one doing it.”

She blinked at him a few times.  “You're here,” she noted.

“I can protect myself,” he stressed, leaning over the bar closer to her.

She quirked her head to the side and leaned away from him.  “And you think I can't?”  She raised a challenging eyebrow at him.  “Don't let the heels fool you.”

“No,” he said quietly.  “I know you can.  I just don't want you to have to and I don’t want you to test it if you don’t have to.”

Her brow furrowed in concern.  “If it's so unsafe, what are you doing here? Aren't you worried about yourself?

Jason chuckled ruefully.  “Don't worry, Pixie, nobody's worried about me, least of all me.”

“I am,” she answered softly.

Jason stared in her eyes, caught by the honesty and admiration bleeding through.  His hand had cupped her cheek before he even realized it had moved.  She grasped his forearm lightly and leaned into his touch. She closed her eyes when his thumb stroked her face.  He frowned suddenly and pulled his hand away.  He was getting too intimate.  This was about protecting her, not… more.  He couldn’t let this me more, no matter how captivating her eyes were.

She opened her eyes again when he pulled his hand away, but she kept her grip on his arm.  “Will you dance with me?”  Her voice was quiet but thick.

Jason couldn’t force himself to look away even though he knew he should.  For her benefit, for her safety, he should.  “I shouldn’t,” he answered, but his voice didn’t even sound sure to himself.

She smiled sweetly, and oh, that smile should be illegal.  She let her hand slip along his arm until she reached his hand and tugged gently toward the open space in the room.  “Come on, it’s just one dance.  What’s the worst that could happen?”

Jason knew the answer to that.  He knew the worst that could happen, he’d seen it. He’d lived it.  But he couldn’t force himself to say no.  It was just one dance.  One dance then he would say goodbye.  “Okay, Pixie.” His voice was huskier than he intended.  “One dance.”

She wound her arms around his neck and he wrapped his arms around her waist.  She rested her head on his chest and let out a contented sigh as he pulled her close against his chest and buried his face in her hair.  He could feel her skin on her bare back and it was sending tiny shocks though his fingers.  They swayed together through the end of the song and into the next few, never letting go of one another or letting any space between them.  It still counted as one dance, technically, they hadn’t let go or stopped moving, so it was still one.

He finally pulled away when his phone had been buzzing in his pocket for more than a minute now, which meant that something terrible must be happening in the club or on the streets.  He wet his lips to say something, but didn’t know what.  She beat him to it.  “Thank you for the dance and for worrying about me.”  She pushed up and placed a chaste kiss on his cheek.

He turned just as she was pulling away, his nose almost brushing against hers.  He froze, his lips just centimeters from hers, close enough for her breath to fan out across his lips.  He searched her eyes for something, he wasn’t sure what.  Hesitance? Regret?  But only found trust and affection.  His eyes flicked down to her lips for just a moment.  Her eyes softened at the motion.  

He leaned down before he could stop himself and crashed his lips into hers, letting the feeling of her lips and her body against his wash over him, getting lost in the sensation and losing all rational thought.  The only thing left was the feeling.  The feeling of her lips against his and her tongue caressing his and her breasts pressed against his chest and her hips clutched in his hands.

He squeezed her hips, pulling them closer until there was no space between them.  She whimpered into his mouth and he was gone.  His legs felt weak from the want he suddenly felt. The desire, the NEED coursing through him.  He forced himself to stop.  He wasn’t sure if he would be able to force himself to later.  He pressed his forehead to hers and stroked her cheeks gently. “I shouldn’t do this to you,” he murmured, his eyes still closed, just enjoying the feel of her against him.

“I liked it,” she encouraged him, her voice as smooth as silk.  “I wanted you to.  I still do.  I’m very much thinking about doing it again.”  She pushed up and captured his lips again.  Her hands caressed his face and pulled it closer at the same time.  She mourned the loss of his lips on hers when he pulled away until she felt his lips on her jaw and neck as he kissed a trail down her neck to her collarbone.  She moaned at the new contact.

The sound knocked Jason out of his passion induced stupor.  He pulled away again and swallowed heavily, gasping for breath and begging his heart to slow down to a semi normal rate.  He pressed his forehead back against hers again. “God, Pixie, that sound should be illegal.”

“So should that feeling,” Marinette nodded in agreement.  She pushed up to kiss him again, but he pulled away.  She gave him a confused look, but didn’t press forward again.

“I’m trying to do the right thing here,” he said. His voice was almost desperate for her to understand.

She reached up and ran her fingers along his jaw before cupping his face.  “If the right thing doesn’t involve you kissing me, I question your definition of right.”

He took a breath and looked at her lips again.  He very much longed to kiss them again.  “You don’t remember me.  If you did… I wasn’t good, Pixie.  I’m still not.  But you, you were always good.  You were always strong.  You were always too good for me.”

She guided his face back to her lips.  This kiss was sweet, loving.  “You’re trying to look out for me.  Do you know why that is?”  He shook his head lightly.  “Because you’re a good guy.”

Jason huffed and looked down.  “I’m just not that much of an asshole.”

“I already told you,” she said lightly, urging him to look back up at her.  “I don’t believe you’re a bad guy.  No matter how much you try to convince me.  And, if I remember you, I must not have thought you were that bad back then either.”

Jason shook his head and looked back in her eyes. “Someday I’ll tell you everything and I hope you still believe that.”

Marinette smiled at his words.  They meant he anticipated a future with her, together, and one in which he trusted her enough to tell her all his secrets.  She squeezed closer to his face.  “I can’t wait to find out as much about you as you’ll let me see.”  She wrapped her arms around his neck again, pulling him closer to her as she kissed him. He ran his fingers into her hair, holding her as he deepened the kiss.

They broke apart when someone pushed the curtain to the side.  Jason had his gun pointed at him with the safety off before Marinette even saw who it was.  Jason put the safety back on when he recognized his Club Manager.  “What the fuck do you want?” Jason growled as he reholstered his gun.  Marinette giggled and buried her now bright red face in his chest.

“We need you out front.  Sorry, boss, it’s important,” he said apologetically, trying not to look at Marinette.

Jason groaned and rested his forehead on Marinette’s head.  “Fine, fine.” He pulled away and gave her a placating motion.  “Just, stay here, yeah?  I’ll be right back.  Will you wait for me?”

Marinette smiled at him.  “Forever.”  Jason’s eyes softened and he smiled back at her.  Her smile suddenly turned sultry.  “Besides, I’m not done with you.”

Jason choked and looked down at her wide eyed. A roguish grin made its way onto his face.  “You might just be more dangerous than me, Pixie.”  He gave her a quick kiss before following his manager through the curtain.

Chapter 5

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@jasonette-july-event @jayjayspixiepop @aespades @how-to-function-properly @pawsitivelymiraculous @maribatserver