#i did not fucking expect them to kill her offscreen what the fuck

[stopthefeeling]

REBECCA IS DEAD?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

[yveltalreal]

[Offscreen Post: Return to Sender]

The dorm was quiet, the only sounds being the steady ticking of the clock hung on the wall. Even the hall was quiet, with most of the students for the upcoming semester not having arrived yet.

In this quiet moment, Pickle idly groomed herself. The feline pokemon ought to look her best, especially if her trainer was deciding to keep that evil distortionspawn wearing the flesh of a glameow. She refused to be replaced by that... thing. Maybe it would convince Maple that he didn't NEED another catmon, especially not that one.

The meowscarada carefully adjusted her mask when out of the corner of her eye she noticed Tami the absol's head suddenly shoot up. It didn't take long for the source of the absol's sudden panic to be located though as suddenly a strange light filled the room and the ever present sound of the clock ceased.

Pickle took a few wary steps back, fur standing on end as Tami stood up to join herm The absol was wary but not alarmed. Pickle thought that was stupid because clearly the world was about to end and the absol should have been freaking out about that.

As the source of the light shifted, becoming more humanoid in appearance, Princess Creature trotted out from her hiding spot to join the other two felines with a curious mrrp.

Of course! This was obviously Creature's fault! Creature had summoned the end times! There was but one way Pickle could fix this.

She picked up the Glameow and threw it at the light.

Creature sailed through the air before hitting the figure in the light squate in the chest and bring caught in its arms. In an instant, the light dissipated and the figure was revealed to be a woman with dark skin, a gaunt face, and long blue hair.

The woman looked stared a bewildered Tami and Pickle, before looking down at the evil, horrible glameow in her arms. The second she registered Creature, she happily lifted the catmon above her head with a wide smile, cooing and babbling at the thing as if it was a mere kitty and not some foul beast.

"THERE YOU ARE!" The woman exclaimed happily before bringing creature down towards her face and nuzzling it excitedly. "My sweet little baby girl! My wonderful little daughter! Mommy missed you so much she had no idea where you went! Don't ever run off without me again! My sweet little baby!!"

Pickle stared on. She was one of THOSE trainers. And to that monster no less. Disgusting.

The meowscarada began to growl lowly when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up, expecting her trainer only to be dissapointed when she realized it was the other one

"Rona," The One That Was Not Her Trainer started, getting the strange woman's attention. "It's been years. You cannot keep calling that thing your daughter to cope with me killing the real one."

The woman said something about not knowing for sure but Pickle didn't pay full attention, just staring at The Other One, The One That Was Not Her Trainer, in shock. She really did just say that, huh? Out of fucking pocket.

She was snapped out of her shock when The Other One spoke again.

"Right. Whatever. You have your glameow, so leave."

The woman made an exaggerated pout and began to whine dramatically.

"Awwww, I can't stay and hang out with an old friend? Catch up? Discuss what we've been up to? Talk about you chose this one to be your little toy for the next couple thousand years?" As she asked the question, she tucked Creature under her arm like a sportsball and gestured towards Maple's body, the body The Other One was currently posessing.

The One That Was Not Her Trainer was not amused.

"No," it said simply. "Leave. I have no wish to discuss anything with you."

The woman was clearly disappointed but relented anyways. Good choice. Pickle wouldn't have pushed The Other One anymore either.

She quickly said her goodbyes and thanked them for keeping the glameow (who's name was Fortune, actually. Not Princess creature. It should have been named Vile Evil Thing in Pickle's opinion) before dissappearing into the same light she had appeared in. As soon as she was gone, the clock began to tick again.

Pickle just stared until the other one spoke.

"Let's not let Maple know about this one either."

[thewhumpcaretaker]

No because if Chad Stahelski doesn't drop the Impossible Task, I will write it myself and it'll be WickedSaint. I even have ideas, so Chad... gimme, but I'll still write my version bc yes. I need desperate Santino, I just need Santino feeling proud bc John Wick asked HIM for help (crush asked him out, date idea was killing ppl <3). Imagine, Santino was trying to prove himself to his father, who always had higher expectations, and apparently nothing was good enough, but then JOHN WICK THE BOOGEYMAN asked specifically Santino for help. His father must be rolling in his grave but fuck him, Santino was suffering. And the trust between Santino and John, you could see in the movie how much they trusted each other (until that trust got unfortunately broken). So something definitely happened, John doesn't just trust people. Yes, the marker and all that but still there was some level of respect. (And kissing).

I yapped a lot but I wanted to hear your thoughts on the Impossible Task AHAH

Soooooo I learned a little bit about how to write a film treatment (a kind of outline written before the script) and I went ahead and wrote one for The Impossible Task! I tried to make this completely canon-compliant and something that Chad Stahelski could actually make without breaking his franchise (even if he won't T_T). So, it's short and action-packed, and isn't exactly how I'd like to think things happened, but it fits better with the John Wick movies somewhat than what I usually write for wickedsaint. I have a lot of conflicted feelings about it, especially with how it compares Helen and Santino, but I did my best. This was fun to make!!

P.S. it also relies on some of the plot points from @mrssimply's story, because I'm not that good at coming up with what the impossible task was actually all about. I think she wrote that it was about killing all the crime lords in the area at once, and I reused that idea.

♥♥ The Impossible Task ♥♥

Log Line: John Wick asks his former lover to help him one last time in escaping the business, resulting in a nostalgic, heartbreaking postmortem on their doomed love affair.

TW: canon-typical violence, alcohol, homophobia from Santino's father, what could be interpreted as suicidal ideation from Santino but it's not overt

We open on a dreamy sequence, similar to the opening of John Wick Chapter One. It's cutting between a young John Wick in the Tarkovsky Theater, reading The Little Mermaid (the sad, Hans Christian Anderson version), and a young Santino reading the same book. Santino is dressed in all black, and so is John. Eventually we see that Santino is hiding from everyone at his mother's funeral. He is called away from his book to talk to important people. He refuses, but is dragged offscreen anyway. John is also called away, by The Director, who is scolding him that he should be practicing. He quickly hides the book and runs offscreen too. But we see both boys look back towards the places where the two books are hidden.

We cut to some five years before the events of the John Wick movies. We see John raise his head from under bloody bathwater. Helen is bathing him. She begs him to quit his work and come to her world. He agrees, and kisses her. 

Next, we see John coming to Viggo, requesting to leave. He’s “dressed for a resignation.” Viggo thinks, and says that in return, he must kill every other crime lord in the New York tristate area. John protests that it would have to be done all at once, or they would warn each other and flee. Viggo shrugs and says that is the impossible task. 

Realizing he can’t do this alone, John sneaks into the D’Antonio estate in Rome. It’s a reversal of the similar scene from John Wick 2. Gianna sees him and tells him that he shouldn’t be here, and to stay away from her little brother before he gets them both killed. John protests that it would be his own funeral, not Santino’s. Gianna says he knows better, implying how violent Giovanni (Santino's father) is, but Santino walks in at that moment. 

John and Santino talk, with John explaining that he needs someone who the New York crime lords trust to gather them all in one place. It’s tense. We get the sense that Santino dumped John at some point, but we don’t know why. John doesn’t seem to know why either. John says that he remembers what Santino told him, to come back if he ever seriously needed help. Now he does. He wants Santino to gather everyone in one place, which he is trusted enough to do. Santino asks for his oath in blood.

The next thing we see is the two of them exchanging the marker back in New York, with Winston as their witness. The scene is intercut with flashbacks to a sex scene in a Continental hotel room (it’s fairly PG, but there are some very intense kisses and Santino begging and moaning). Santino’s dirty talk includes asking John to swear that he’ll always serve him when he’s needed. John swears, with “the devil” as his witness. Back in the present day, the two of them conclude the marker ceremony and return to their respective hotel rooms alone.

The two of them suit up for the day. It’s a classic “John Wick getting dressed” scene, except that we’re seeing the same thing for Santino as well. In addition to getting suited up, John buys weapons, including bombs, while Santino starts making phone calls inviting everyone to a boat party that will take place on the New York bay that night. We can see that the plan is to place bombs on the boat, and that Santino will not be onboard once the bombs detonate. He will leave via life raft. We also see that Santino can’t persuad everyone - John has two people to kill who declined the invitation. So he won’t be around while the boat party is happening.

While John is planting the bombs on the boat an hour or two later, we see that Helen is watching from a car nearby, with a medical kit in the vehicle. She is tailing John, presumably to protect him. She looks scared but determined. He doesn’t see her. Meanwhile, Santino shows up at the boat. John scolds him for being there - it’s important that it look like Santino had no involvement in the plot and that this is risky. But Santino just jokes around and hovers over John, seemingly wanting to take this last chance to be close to him. He says he is coming with John on the first kill, “for old time’s sake,” and he’s not bringing his bodyguards. John will be his bodyguard for now. There will be plenty of time to get back to the boat, he says. John reluctantly agrees. He looks painfully nostalgic - we can see that he misses Santino on some level. Finally, we see Helen watching them together, but we don’t see her face. Is she jealous, or no?

They attack the first target early in the day, around noon. The target works in a high end fashion design business as a front, and the store is full of wedding dresses (yes, we’re going full camp.) Things get complicated when the target’s guards get involved, chasing them throughout the building. John takes a lot of trouble to ensure that Santino’s suit is not damaged for the party later. There are lots of antics with the wedding dresses - white dresses covered in blood, white heels used as weapons, etc. Santino is getting increasingly manic throughout all of this as he contemplates John getting married to someone else and eventually ends up with a wedding veil over his head somehow, trying to joke about a situation that hurts him deeply. The fight scene ends. They’re both severely wounded but John has managed not to get much blood on Santino.

Helen comes in and reveals herself to give John medical supplies. John is very upset that she’s there, as he says it’s too risky. Santino seems to take this personally - it’s too dangerous for Helen, but it’s fine if he risks himself? Of course, that’s different because he has training with weapons and she doesn’t, but it doesn’t feel that way for him at the moment. Also, he and Helen are in the same room and it’s awkward. It’s clear that Santino feels threatened and insecure but Helen does not. She thanks Santino for helping to set her future husband free. Santino looks miserable and says something snappy. John gets mad at him - no one treats Helen like that. And it was Santino’s choice to give up on their love. Pretty rich of him to be jealous now. Frustrated, Santino leaves to get back to the boat. There’s not much time left. 

John heads to the second target. He doesn’t bother to send Helen away this time - she’s coming no matter what, and it will be better if he can keep an eye on her. They double-team the second fight, which takes place in a butcher shop. Helen stays at a distance but she’s still very helpful. We see the contrast between John and Santino fighting together versus John and Helen fighting together. In both cases, John is protecting the other person and it’s distracting. But in Helen’s case, she seems to be protecting John in return. Instead of egging him on, she tries to minimize collateral damage. She brings an element of innocence to what’s happening and even apologizes to him that he had to do that. To Santino, John’s killing is a beautiful thing, a marriage of their skills as crime lord and assassin. To Helen, it’s butchering, it’s carnage, and she wants to save him. They are both drenched in blood at the end and he kisses her and thanks her for taking him away from all of this. She says she’s sorry his ex still has to be caught in that world. John says regretfully that it’s what he chose. 

Then, John gets a call from Gianna. She says she did something stupid: she told Giovanni that Santino is planning something with him. Giovanni is being rash. He has sent people to kill Santino. John and Helen get back in the car and start rushing to the boat to protect him. 

Santino gets back to the boat. He looks nervous as hell while greeting the other guests. He’s shaking, etc., but he’s doing his best to hide it. He has already started drinking before the other guests arrived. He’s ignoring his messages from John. We see a suspicious looking group of people board the boat just before it can launch. 

John kisses Helen goodbye and leaves her on the shore - he insists she can’t come this time because the whole boat is rigged to blow up and anyway, he’ll be right back. Helen tells him to live for her, and that he can’t die with the old world. He has a new world in front of him. John steals a speedboat and chases the party boat out into the bay.

With the boat out at the center of the bay and detonation coming soon, Santino prepares to board the life raft. But the people sent by Giovanni corner him and prevent him from leaving. (They don't know about the bombs on the boat or exactly what Santino is planning.) It’s interspersed with flashbacks in which we see Santino being beaten by Giovanni after his relationship with John was discovered. This is the first time the audience knows for sure that that’s why he left John.

John climbs up the side of the boat and starts killing, just killing everyone. He ends up killing everyone who would have died to the bomb anyway as he tries to get to Santino. There are boat related fight scene antics (there’s a seafood table and he stabs someone with a crab claw, etc.). Eventually John reaches Santino, but he is so distraught that he refuses to go to the life raft. 

There are only seconds left until detonation. John throws Santino overboard and drags him to shore while the boat explodes. Onshore, Santino breaks down. John tries to cheer him up, referencing The Little Mermaid rescuing the prince, and saying he will always save his prince, even if they’re from different worlds now. Santino says that he wanted to be John’s prince but he’s always been the monster, the sea witch, and whether he grants John access to a better life or not, his own life is damned. He tells John the truth about why he left him - to protect him from Giovanni. John cries with him, mourning their relationship and the way that the High Table tore them apart. He says that the real Impossible Task is to walk away from Santino after knowing all of this. He asks Santino to leave, and find love in the ordinary world. To find his “soul” (another little mermaid reference). He says he wants Santino to have a good life like he has with Helen. Santino says he can’t. He will wait for John to come back to HIS world instead. John walks away with Helen while the sun sets.

[pid-widgin]

for personal reasons i try to keep my offscreen and onscreen life separate.

but guys, this is tough. this is scary. im scared, not only for myself as a minority (nonbinary, pansexual, hispanic) but also because i teach. i teach pre-k, and while my state is flipped to blue last night, i know that the bigotry and hatred is here. i live in the South, and even though my state has a large metropolitian area, i live in the rural area. the center im employed by is a non-profit, and 80% of the families we serve are well below the poverty line. i have children in my class who are homeless, or receiving DSS subsidy to attend the center, and im scared that one of the first things that's going to be sacrificed for corporate tax cuts is education, and at that the first thing to go is going to be Head Start/Pre K/ Early Intervention, ie the services for those who are poor and at risk. i may not have a job this time next year, and these children won't have anywhere to go, and their parents won't have any other options because we are the only center in the tricounty area that accepts DSS subsidy for payment.

i am friends with parents of my students on facebook. im already not open about my gender identity and sexuality because it's not anyone's business, but also because i know what kind of backlash the center would receive for employing a non "cookie cutter" person, but now i am having to come to work and face parents who voted for a man who thinks there's no place for people like me in this country.

a man whose first order of business is mass deportation of my people, or people who look like me. a man who openly mocked a disabled reporter. a man who was publicly endorsed by the KKK. the man who is going to run the country for the next 4 years.

these are people ill have to look in the eye and know for the rest of their time here that they would rather people like me not exist in this country.

these are people who post things like "make America great again" or "Let's see how many people are offended by this" or my personal favorite "we can have different opinions and still be friends."

but here's the thing: no, you fucking can't.

you can't vote for someone who wants to deport your kids' teacher and still be friends.

you can't vote for someone who thinks your kids' teacher shouldn't have rights and still be friends.

you can't vote for someone who spouts ignorance and still be friends.

and my own children are friends with some of these parents' older kids. they've been in my home. we've celebrated our children's birthdays and holidays, and ive watched these children in my free time. ive cheered them for their accomplishments, ive grieved with them, ive held them and rocked them to sleep and taught them their abcs, and now these children's parents have voted for someone who doesn't think their "friend" should get the same rights as them, and ill still be expected to keep doing these things as if i don't know where i stand in their eyes.

and im lucky enough to have been born here to parents who were already citizens, and don't have to worry that ill be deported. but i have 3 children in my class who might not be so lucky, and one of them did not come to school today. just didn't come, and her mother's phone is disconnected today and wasn't yesterday, and we don't know if it's because they don't have money for the phone and no ride, or if they have fled because they're scared of what's to come.

my seven year old got off the bus and told me her classmates are talking about "a war" that's coming because of Harris, and what would have happened if she won. seven year olds. that's literally first grade. she can't even do subtraction yet and her classmates are talking about riots and killing and assassination attempts that didn't happen but would have if she won.

my partner woke up, checked the results, and immediately removed all our yard signage. took any stickers off my car that would have pointed to who we voted for or which way we swing, and they did this because they're scared of what people will do now.

and this is just a long winded way of saying that your American friends are probably not okay.

we're scared.

we're facing prejudice and anger and bigotry on unprecedented levels, and our own people did it to us.

we've been betrayed and unsure of what's to come, and we don't know what to do.

[asknarashikari]

One thing that's always bothered me about episode 46 is that...yeah, I know Sara getting brought back is supposed to be the most impactful for the characters (Keiwa anyways) but... what about the OTHER victims stuck on that tree? Did the other riders just go "Oh yeah, these unfortunate victims don't deserve to be saved and can rot in hell for all we care" or something?! Were THEY were saved at all?

Speaking of which, I'm also not really a fan of how in Kamen Rider Geats, no one could really give a shit about bringing back the victims that lost their lives in the DGP. (It's not like these people died in some random accident or a serial murder...no, these were people that forcibly lost their lives in some fucked up competition started for entertainment by some outside source) Were they REALLY beyond saving even WITHOUT the wish granting at the cost of other's happening? Did no one really bother try to find a way to make it happen? It didn't that early in the show, it set expectations with Keiwa making that goal to bring back lives lost in the DGP only to stop caring about doing that...besides, I don't think that WASN'T even Keiwa's fault that deceased horrible riders were brought back WITH ACTUAL DRIVERS AND DGP MEMORIES they shouldn't have access to. (Sara didn't get the same treatment and Toru never returned oddly enough, like wtf?)

Long rant ahead. Not for the Geats fans lol

Well, in a show that literally just shrugged off one of the main characters being complicit in the murder of hundreds (including the main & secondary riders) in a sadistic game, what else would you expect? Of course the NPCs are barely spared a second thought by anyone, not even the writer it seems.

We're even shown Keiwa being reported missing by Sara, which should imply that everyone else who was also killed in the Heaven and Hell round were also MIA (read: dead), and yet we don't even see similar reports for other people. Hundreds of people don't just go missing without mass hysteria and people demanding answers from the police and government, even with a fucking conspiracy to cover it all up involved. But nope, nothing for the plebians 🤷‍♀️

For your second question... I'm sure they can BS some reason for why they can't revive all the victims. Heck, even Riders get shafted. All the other Riders who were killed onscreen (Taira/Ginpen, Tooru/Togetchi, Yukie/Letter and Takeshi/Shirowe) stayed dead, along with countless others who died offscreen. Fuck them all and anyone who would be looking for them, I guess?

Tsumuri revived Ace just by wishing and subconsciously using her goddess powers, Keiwa was revived by Kekera using Mitsume's power probably, and Sara was revived through wish shenanigans and/or Daichi's Jyamato Potion... But they're the exceptions to the rule somehow. What made them the exception? Plot armor, is that all?

I'm unconvinced that the Riders who caused chaos in the wake of Keiwa's wish were even ones who died in the DGP to begin with. We're told they were revived Riders.. by Jiit, aka the last person who I would expect to tell the truth about anything.

As it was, we know someone had to supply those Riders with Drivers and ID Cores because no one else who revived got their Drivers and ID Cores back automatically except for Ace (who's practically the exception for every goddamned rule this show attempts to set).

But of course, it's way easier to blame Keiwa for "reviving" those nasty people, than it is to think of a scenario where Jiit and his cohorts never bothered reviving anyone other than Sara and Keiwa's parents to lull him into thinking his wish worked, and just gave Drivers to all the worst (but living) people they could find.

[proxylynn]

What is your opinion on those male power fantasy video games where the male MC gets multiple girls? Me as a women I really hate it but hey it’s fictional so who cares but I still wanna know your thoughts on it.

[Oh boy, as a tomboy gal I'm gonna have very interesting perspectives on this due to mainly going for guy games when growing up. That said, I'm not gonna let them slide when I see shit that isn't necessary, so even games I love are on the chopping block.

Now, I see nothing wrong with power fantasy-themed games. I love the Overlord and God of War series. Nothing quite feels as satisfying as just being this all-powerful force that dominates the world by being OP. But when they add this extra bit because they want to appease the "maidenless", then I get annoyed. God of War, the OG games, and Overlord are products of their time. Kratos fucking women in between slaying is a way to get bonus blood orbs doesn't make a lot of sense to me narratively speaking. He's on a revenge kick for being tricked into killing his wife and daughter, so why is this grief and rage-filled man stopping to get his sword wet with randoms? I don't think I'd be on a god murder quest for the sake of my fallen husband, spend countless hours killing monsters, swearing to commit to my cause, only to be sidetracked by finding a random bed with horny guys on it. I'm just gonna be "You guys have fun" and walk away. I'm on a revenge my love guest damn it! I am not fuking around. The new God of War did this so much better. All the power, the emotion, the trauma, and it's written with consistency that I'm ashamed when I first hear about it that I expected it to still have Kratos fuck around. Bad me.

Overlord is interesting in YOU are the bad guy, so naturally I fell in love with that instantly. Game one I think handled this best (there are like 5 games but I only know the first and second so that's my insight), in the first one you are rebuilding the Empire of Evil after the last overlord was killed. You have a mortality level, you can be an evil prick that causes so much damage that it's not canon to the sequel or a force of power that is a threat by your people like you more than the fallen heroes who have been terrorizing them. So far, sounds awesome. Then you find Rose and she becomes your mistress and, aside from how your minions act (Fuck you, Gnarl!), you treat her as an equal. Eventually, you find Rose's sister and you get to make a choice, the tower can't hold both of them, so do you stick with Rose or replace her with her vain sister Velvet... whoever you pick will then thank you with sex. Now why is this okay? Because it only happens once and isn't a main game mechanic. In Overlord 2 however...It's still not a game mechanic but now it's a reward for vain reasons. In game 2, you can now have up to 3 mistresses (the childhood friend/crush who's a badass that does like you, the vain rich hot noble bitch that only likes your money and power, and a fae goddess who hates you but gets corrupted and now is thirsty for your dick) and the game doesn't handle them or anything right, lots of sexists and fatphobic jokes but that's a rant for another day. To get the sex all you have to do is buy all the furniture for their rooms and getting all three unlocks a fourth scene as they group on you. (I should note the sex is offscreen like GoW and derpy, so why bother) This basically plays on something Gnarl says about female being simple and to keep them happy you just have to give them shiny things. (Again, fuck you, Gnarl!) This sucks as it was very incel before incel was a thing but, remember what I said about the Fae mistress? Her corruption is something we can't stop and it's US that does it, we drain her power to fuel our tower heart but doing so taints her with evil, and it's here we have a choice. We take only enough to fuel the heart or we take all her power and kill her as she becomes a banshee...either way, she loses who she is and just wants to fuck us. This is fucked up as her people are there and begging this to stop, for her to fight back and she's too pure to sink so low, and it's worse if you kill her because as a banshee she's tied eternally to the Overlord...she can't leave us even if she could. Why? Why does it have to be so fucking dark and insulting? They even represent this in the new morality system, no longer is it based on acts of Selfishness and Selflessness, now it's based on Domination and Destruction. You even learn a magic to force your will on others and if you use it too much on a target they die!

Things like this are so damn needless and I'm convinced it's just some devs tapping into their own fetishes when they do it. You can do power fantasies without pointless sex or dehumanizing actions. In fact, it's hypocritical that there is none for women players. If devs feel uncomfortable with such things happening for male characters, then they shouldn't do it for female characters. This is an age of all genders playing games. Grow some damn balls and either stop doing this pointless piss poor excuse you call "fan service" or be equal by doing this treatment to guys in games as well as gals. I have mounted this hill and I shall die on it, but I shan't die without making my point.]

[somuchfuckingsalt]

Steve should have been Vecna’d instead of Nancy and here’s why.

Firstly, I explain in this post that I think the Duffer brothers aren’t doing enough with Steve and that he should be the leader of the teens but in it I explain that him getting Vecna’d would have showed that fucking with his head would’ve had an affect on the entire group. 

Secondly, the Duffers have given Steve very little but one thing they did give him is that he’s the babysitter, the protector and the people he protects are people that we, the audience, care deeply about. Now, most of what we saw in Nancy’s vision was the pool, Vecna’s disembodied attic, The Exposition, the lab, and the gates opening. However, Nancy tells us later on that she also saw deaths like her mom and Holly that we, the audience, didn’t see. 

Now, firstly imagine what watching Steve see people, that he views is his job to protect, dead when protection is something Steve’s primarily done season after season. Now imagine we, the audience, watching with Steve characters we know and love die in Vecna’s planned apocalypse. It literally would’ve taken an extra thirty seconds to a minute and they very easily could’ve ripped our hearts to shreds in that short amount of time because it would be main characters we care deeply about brutally killed. And in order to avoid full spoilers they literally just could’ve shown us the deaths of characters like Lucas and Dustin, or for characters like Max who we’re already expecting to get hurt, show her all crumpled but either someplace not the Creel House or not identifiable as the Creel House so later on we think she’ll be fine since it looks different. 

And if they really didn’t want to go that route and show the apocalypse deaths, in place of Nancy in the pool they could’ve showed Steve in the tunnels but the kids are screaming while the demodogs eat them (offscreen, because Steve running around panicking trying to find them would’ve been *chef’s kiss*) or Dustin, Erica, and Robin getting tortured in Steve’s place while Steve is tied up forced to watch.

Anyway, I think emotionally using Steve as Vecna’s exposition dump would’ve been a lot better overall.

[sheikahwarriork]

Even though Hopes was actually not very good compared to Houses; we gotta appreciate how it mixed up a lot of things and brought a breath of new life to the fandom and I am forever thankful for it even if the rest was not the best for many charcters, what do you think about it?

hi anon, thank you for the ask! oh boy where do i start-

first of all, you should know i LOVE musou games. i love smashing those buttons and defeating hundreds of eniemies. so, when they announced three hopes, i was THRILLED.

but maybe my expectations were a bit too high.

(spoilers about all the routes and endings)

i think the story is fine, but it could have been much better. i like shez, no, i love shez as a character: theyre silly but strong, determinated and yet loving. i like that theyre dubbed, i like their quirky and yet silly comments, i like how they flirt with some characters and yet are completely clueless, and the female VA did a WONDERFUL job. also, i simply ADORE arval. theyre so sassy i always laugh when arval says anything. the dynamic between shez and arval is written better than the one between byleth and sothis imo. (i love sothis too, but i feel her relationship with byleth needed more screentime)

but shez has a problem. (well, actually two.) the first problem is that shez isnt byleth. shez works well with the majority of the cast, but not with the three lords (a bit better with edelgard but still meh). shez's presence in the war doesnt make much sense as byleth's one did in three houses: the fucking school closed like two WEEKS after the lords met shez, they didnt have the time to bond and to know each others as byleth did (cuz, yk, byleth was their fucking teacher for a year). so, even if i like shez A LOT, their presence in fódlan war seems a bit off to me. i wish shez was in a different game overall.

the second, big problem of shez, is that we get to know almost nothing about their past. but this is a writing problem, not of the character themselves. i wanted to know who their mother was, why they are arval's vessel. RIP dlc i guess

about the three routes:

azure gleam: oh boy. OH BOY. the most disappointing of all. i LOVED the first part, for it explores much better all the kingdom's issues and we get more informations about the tragedy of duscur. but, "and then?". i'm gonna be honest dear anon: i dont remember much about the second part of azure gleam, just this big sense of disappointment. i'm actually re-playing it right now, so maybe i'll be back here in a few weeks. anyway, i do remember liking the fact you can save jeritza here tho, mercie deserves her little brother back!

scarlet blaze: the exact opposite of my thoughts about AG: scarlet blaze is a GREAT black eagles route. dont get me wrong, i liked crimson flower (its actually my second fav route of three houses), but being it the shortest one i always felt it was missing something, aka the fight against TWSITD (since, yk, we dont fight them in CF, they just defeat them offscreen in the ending cards. wtf). and in scarlet blaze we got it!!! also edelgard is better written in SB: shes still resolute and yet willing to *not* kill almost everyone on fódlan (i have Opinions about the ending of CF but another time). i never liked how edelgard sides with TWSITD in three houses, and im glad she didnt in SB. i mean, lets kill those bastards gurl!!!!!

golden wildfire: LMAO. ok i must admit i have a big problem: i dont like the golden deers (as a house; i like some of them alone, like marianne and lysithea), and claude is my least favourite lord, and i think verdant wind is the worst route of all three houses. so, GW was the last one i played. aaaaand. it is better than VW! i liked how claude allied with edelgard to defeat the church! i liked how claude is a little bastard plotter in there! as for AG, i think the first part of the route is much better than the second part (if you dont recruit byleth, judith dies in a dumb way just like rodrigue..... claude-routes-dont-copy-other-route's-things challenge). overall, i think GW is much better than VW, bc i think VW i just a weak copy of silver snow (sorry claude)

about the supports overall: some are cute and i like how we get supports between characters that didnt have ones in three houses, like bernadetta and marianne, or bernadetta and dimitri, or ashe and flayn.

and at last we've come to the elephant in the room.... byleth. how did they treat byleth in my opinion? short answer: terrible. long answer: terrible, because byleth doesnt have supports (except for shez and jeralt ikik). like WTF!!!!! give me supports with the lords, at least! let me see the byleth in this timeline, where they arent a professor, where their father isnt dead!!!! and why did they make byleth the ENEMY?? and we can recruit them too late in the game! GIVE ME MY PROFESSOR BACK-

the (one sided) rivalry between shez and byleth doesnt make any sense. "ohh the ashen demon killed my merc company >:[" says shez, just to admit five minutes later that they didnt really care about that company. and yes, okay, shez wants to prove everyone (themselves included) theyre stronger than byleth. thats fine. but here too, shez lets the matter drops too fast. "i will be stronger i will kill youuuuu- oh wait the lord wants you to join our side of the war. guess we're bestie now!". most of the time (before we actually recruit byleth) i get the feeling shez doesnt really give a fuck about the ashen demon, and this could have been okay, IF THEIR RIVALRY WASNT THE POINT OF ALL THE TRAILERS???????? their relationship is not explored well. shez's initial resentment doesnt make any sense bc THEY THEMSELVES say they really didnt care about the company. SO, if even the new protagonist, who was supposed to hate byleth, doesnt actually hate byleth, why make byleth the antagonist in the first place? why do we have to fight byleth? just to have a different fódlan story?¿?¿?

and i'll shut up about how they treated my dimileth in the game. you dont want to open this pandora's box dear anon.

so, the summary is: the gameplay is great bc i love musou games. the additions to the lore are pretty cool. i like that claude has his own original route that makes sense, and that edelgard got a much better written route. byleth deserved better. SHEZ! is fantastic, and arval is one of my fav character of all fódlan games. also i think arval and sothis should kiss

thank you anon for the ask, i enjoyed writing my thoughts on three hopes! hope i didnt bore you to death lmao

[watcherintheweyr]

I hate to inform the general population of this but no. Context really doesn't matter here. Nothing excuses SA. Nothing excuses sexual abuse, and he *did not have to do it.*

Rhysand claimed he was doing it to keep her from going mad in the dark cells- but do you honestly think having drugged half-memories of being assaulted, objectified, touched without consent and made into a toy for a man won't damage you mentally?

He also claimed he was doing it to make Tamlin angry, so he'd kill Amarantha when the time came- but why on earth would Tamlin, who killed Rhysand' father with a single blow, who has buried Amarantha's victims with his own two hands, whose best friend was mutilated and tortured for Amarantha's whims, who has now been made more or less into Amarantha's 'pet', and is likely being abused and assaulted himself offscreen, hesitate? Why would he shy away from killing her? She's been obsessed with him since he was little more than a child. He despises her. And he wants to save his people and Feyre. He wouldn't hesitate.

Rhysand objectified and dehumanized and assaulted her. There's no escaping that and his excuses of 'context', do not absolve him, especially because he has **never apologized.** and genuinely, GENUINELY, how the fuck did this save her??? How??? How did him kissing her against her will, which he admitted was done to make Tamlin jealous, to hurt him, save Feyre in any way?

Aww oh boo hoo, Tamlin was being a dick and sexually humiliated Feyre in front of all the High Lords-

Which Rhysand did first. And no one cares or holds it against him.

And furthermore if you're going to call that abuse or humiliation or objectification of Feyre, what exactly do you call Rhys fingering her in front of his subjects, all to maintain his 'mask'? How on earth do you- or he- expect that to garner respect for her or him? Or fear? It's just pity and disgust.

Tamlin made some bitchy, inappropriate comments about the girl who ruined his court and took advantage of his own UTM trauma to warp him and his perception, and thus his court's perception of him. Weakened it to the point that Hybern was able to ruin it and kill his people, alongside Summer's- the girl who, when confronted about that, launched into a tirade about stars eternal like the Night Court is exempt of consequences to their actions. 'We aren't responsible for the choices made by Hybern' Rhys inserts [by this logic Nesta isn't responsible for Feyre choosing to hunt, by the by!], clearly showing where this attitude came from. [His influence on her is scary. Genuinely]

Rhysand took a girl who was being tormented and challenged and pushed to her breaking point with tests in order to free the fae she's fallen in love with, had her painted and dressed in cobwebs, and humiliated and dehumanized her before the High Lords, before Amarantha, before the courts. For bullshit reasons and his own damn satisfaction. It's gross. Yall want your king to be 'morally grey' so stop excusing his shitty actions and calling them good and right!

You hate Tamlin because he sexually harassed Feyre by making a snide remark about their sex life in front of the high lords?

Damn... then you must have REALLYYYY strong opinions about the way Rhys drugged Feyre and forced her to perform lap-dances UTM as well as compared her breasts to apples in front of another high lord and his advisors.

👀👀

[woodsfae]

Babylon 5 S01e16: Eyes First Previous

Shaal Mayan is coming back! Maybe this time we will get to hear one of her poems. She's super badass, I'm glad she's a recurring character! edit: Maybe she'll be back next episode? I guess she might have present on the station, but only been offscreen, which would be a bummer.

The motorcycle hobby is potentially cool. And Lennier hanging out with anyone makes them seem nicer by association. He is too good for this world.

Partner (who isn't not watching this episode with me) says "[Garibaldi's] going to be real upset when [Lennier] reads the whole manual and puts it together before he gets back." Don't be too impressed if that's super accurate though; he saw some episodes as they originally aired and half-remembers a lot.

The last gas powered motorcycle is made in 2035. Wow. We're about to enter an era of badass electric bikes! Going ahead and integrating that into my expectations for the future.

Sinclair is right. No one needs a corporate lawsuit.

Garibaldi: "you know me?" Ben Zayn: "Intimately. Can I fix you a drink?" Garibaldi: "I don't drink." Ben Zayn: "Really?! Good."

pffft, hilarious. But also.Everything we learn about psi corps and the rising authoritarianism of Earth's government along with hate groups and xenophobic attacks is painting an increasingly terrifying picture.

Harrison Grey the telepath really wants to be buds. Trauma dumping on Ivanova who does not give a flying fuck. But he cannot stand in the face of her extremely inventive threats.

Don't be mean to Lennier, Garibaldi! He's too earnest, and if you kill him it will start a war.

Ivanova is having the craziest dream.

Ivanova: "Momma?" Sofia: "Will it makes the voices go away?" Masked ominous figure: "No, but it will make them sing like birds, Sofie."

Really, seriously wondering if Susan is an undiscovered, untrained telepath. How heritable is the ability??

Ivanova is absolutely adamant that no psi corps will scan her, not for any reason whatsoever. But thankfully, Sinclair's all-night studying binge has revealed a loophole!

Bester (my guy <3) has a hand in this.

It is odd how Ben Zayn wants to be buds with Garibaldi. A stratagem, perhaps, to get the inside scoop?

Harriman cannot help but put his foot in his mouth with his presumptive familiarity. It's the exact right way to put her hackles all the way up. As evidenced by her literal shouting at him. Nevertheless, she's got a lead on arms smuggling!

Sinclair is usurped! Er...relieved of duty pending a full military tribunal, unless Sinclair can successfully maneuver pedantically enough to dodge. Get on the phone with some other officials, Sinclair. But no help is forthcoming from that attempt.

That was a very weird cut away from Ivanova with a drunk, aggressive dude taking a fistful of her hair. Did they cut out part of this episode? Cut back to her successfully kicking the ass of every single person in the bar.

Ivanova: "Going to arrest me, Garibaldi?" Garibaldi: "No way! I wanna live to see the future."

Sinclair is playing mind games! Was it enough to intrigue Harriman into scanning Zayn?? Yes. He's great at pissing people off and goading them into doing what he wants. "Colonel, pain." Sinclair: *knockout punch to the jaw*

Extremely badass, lol.

"Told you. Who called it? Make sure to note that in your blog." - Partner

Whoa, Garibaldi is capable of being gracious and he likes the fancy Minbari power source. Lennier really makes everyone nicer just by being unflappably kind and diffidently confident, as odd as it is. Lennier has been having little bonding episodes with so many characters lately. I will accept any number of future Field Trips with Lennier eps. ^^

to the next!

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 317: My Boy Was Just Like Me

Previously on BnHA: AFO randomly blew up Lady Nagant as a good reminder of why you should never make a deal with this fucking guy, smdh. Hawks was all “well if it isn’t my two best friends, Deku and Lady Nagant, both of whom I respect and love tremendously.” Everyone was all “??” and Horikoshi was all “shh... just pretend” because it was too embarrassing for him to admit that he forgot to write a couple of set-up flashbacks I guess. Anyway so Hawks got Lady to tell them where AFO was hiding out, and everyone said goodbye to her and Overhaul, who never did get to see his boss (sorry buddy, I’ll send you a vial of my tears in the mail), and headed out to a house in the woods. AFO was all “hello Deku :) :) it sure is fun making you suffer :) :) :) anyways this is a trap”, and blew up the house. Yeah, we all here are getting reaaaaaaaal tired of your shit, AFO.

Today on BnHA: The Hawksquad and Edgeplatoon meet in a warehouse and are all “what should we do about the fact that everything sucks?” Mt. Lady is all “here’s a thought, what if we tried battling AFO with more than six people.” Hawks and Endeavor are all “great initiative, but just a friendly reminder that our friends also suck and would probably betray Deku which would suck further still.” Shouto is all “ANSWER THE PHONE DAD” and Endeavor is all “[IRONICALLY DOESN’T ANSWER THE PHONE].” Meanwhile over in Sadtown, capital of Sadland Prefecture, Japan, Deku is all “All Might, as you can clearly see I am completely fine and good, never been better in fact, definitely not caught up in the throes of an epic mental breakdown which is shutting me down emotionally, anyway so on that note I would like to leave you now goodbye!!” All Might is all “[can’t actually form any words because he’s too distraught].” Fandom is all “o(╥﹏╥)o.” Horikoshi is all “(*＾-’) 乃 [pew pew finger guns and barrel rolls into the darkness].”

sweet jesus lord

this literally doesn’t even look like Deku anymore?? this looks like Dark!Deku who shows up to fight you in that one room in the Water Temple. he looks like he’s about to crawl out of my television set and murder me with his psychic powers good lord

holy shit lmao Horikoshi is really just shrugging his shoulders and resolving last week’s cliffhanger with a single line of dialogue

fire is no one’s weakness. idk what other options you’ve got, AFO, but you’re gonna have to go back to the drawing board. maybe try bees or something. I’m just saying. we’re all expecting fire at this point but nobody is expecting bees

anyway so now they’re all sitting in some warehouse somewhere chatting about it I guess. shoutout to Horikoshi for finally giving my man Edgeshot some more dialogue at long last

well, Edgeshot, to answer your question, she exploded. so naturally she’s fine

nah just kidding, Hawks says she won’t be able to help them out much because she’s recovering from being exploded. this is the part where we all ignore the fact that Hawks got set on fire for like a full ten minutes back during the War arc and was only in the hospital for a day. anyways enjoy your temporary plot hiatus Nagant

man there’s a lot of dialogue here and I’m trying to figure out where to insert commentary but it’s kinda difficult lol. basically, Edge and the others are saying that they should gather up the other remaining heroes and get them all caught up on the whole OFA situation. which, hmmmm

like on the one hand, these guys definitely aren’t going to cut it on their own, so it’s a reasonable suggestion on the face of it. but on the other hand, do we really want to entrust the OFA secret to a bunch of other people, most of whom shat the bed during the War arc to be quite frank? is it really worth the additional risk? especially given that any one of them might go spilling the beans to the public -- or worse, betray them to AFO??

also just a quick side note here, Mt. Lady’s character development never ceases to delight me. she’s become so committed to her responsibility as a hero these days, and it fucking suits her. I genuinely consider to be one of the elites now. I mean it doesn’t hurt that all the other elites are fucking dead lol but still

wait what? Death Arms retired??

Death Arms as in the guy who was too afraid of a little fire to try and save a terrified 14-year-old kid who was slowly suffocating right before his eyes?? that Death Arms???? color me surprised. shocked, I tell you

...okay but holy fuck

Death Arms. bro. my expectations for you were low but holy shit. like I’m sorry, but I don’t even have it in me to try and pretend like I feel the slightest bit of sympathy for him or Old Man Samurai or any of those other guys today. thanks for a whole lot of nothing my dude. good riddance

(ETA: so I’m rereading this the next day and realize this comes off as kind of harsh, so let me just try to clarify. it’s not the fact that he’s quitting that bothers me, to be honest. it’s the fact that he’s quitting specifically because he feels like the public is being mean to him. that’s it.

seriously. it would be one thing if he was quitting because he was scared, because now that is human. nobody wants to die, and I doubt any amount of training can ever fully prepare someone to go up against that fear. but the thing is, he never once mentions that, or talks about the danger aspect. instead, I got the distinct vibe from this speech that Death Arms is one of those people who only became a hero because of the limelight. and I just don’t have any patience for that. if all you care about are likes and subscribes then go become a fucking youtuber or some shit. nothing wrong with that! but you didn’t; you signed up to be a hero and protect these people. they gave you their respect and admiration because they trusted you to protect them. and now that they’re no longer in the mood to worship and applaud your every move on account of them being scared shitless because they’re living in the literal end times, you decide to dip. so like okay, fine then. don’t let the door hit you on the way out. anyways lol sorry for the rant.)

anyway so yeah. perfect example of why I don’t exactly have a ton of faith in most of the remaining heroes out there lol. also let me just once again give a shoutout to my best girl Mt. Lady whom I suddenly find myself appreciating all the more

“please calm down makeste. drink some water and enjoy this fresh new jeans pun” listen Horikoshi don’t tell me what to do dammit

fine. it is a nice pun, I guess

-- damn so now Endeavor’s saying that the media is already being fed info by the retired heroes. so for some of these guys it wasn’t enough for them to abandon all the people they swore to protect and to leave their fellow heroes out in the cold; they decided they might as well actively make things worse for them while they were at it, huh. like I get wanting to spill all the dirty secrets from your old job that you just quit, but this isn’t Jeff Bezos you’re screwing over, this is a sixteen-year-old kid

-- like, yes!! this, right here!!

exactly!! let’s not forget that there are already two prior instances of this happening. Endeavor arguably deserved it, but Katsuki not so much

huh. Endeavor seems to have a more optimistic outlook regarding this than I do lol

I mean, this is the same public that didn’t hesitant to blame a kidnapped child for his own kidnapping, and then later on for being the downfall of the Symbol of Peace. but okay then

anyway so blah blah blah, more talk about how they need to use Deku as bait, which basically puts them back at square one, and then they’re all just trailing off into silence and sitting around in the dark lmao this is getting very depressing

SKDJFLSDKJ:LFKJ

SHOUTO?????

NOOOOOOOO ARE YOU KIDDING ME

OH HOW THE TURNTABLES OMG. THE GHOSTER HAS BECOME THE GHOSTEE. Endeavor you petty son of a bitch. and what a brutal cut to that flashback too. “let’s stop Touya together” nah Shouto I’ve got a better idea why don’t I abandon you in U.A. and sally off with Hawks and Jeanist to found the “let’s pretend like we’re doing something to help Deku” club, which basically consists of us sitting around making terrible decisions all day long

Shouto, honey. you deserve better my little Coca Cola can. .........but if you really do have something important you need to tell your dad you could just text it to him. all the love and support, hugs and kisses, you’re doing amazing sweetie. but if you need to pass on any vital information you can just write it down and hit send honey that’s all I’m saying love

now he’s getting another call?? -- or, no, Hawks is getting a call from All Might

ARE YOU FOR REAL HAWKS OMFG

so while you all were sitting around talking about how useless you are, the kid you’re supposed to be protecting was battling another hired gun. I see. please pardon me for one second, I have a phone call to make. the phone call is to RockLockRock and Manual. the reason for the call is to apologize for calling them the worst bodyguards ever back during the War arc. the reason for the apology is because it turns out I WAS SEVERELY MISTAKEN OMFG

JESUS CHRIST DEKU DID YOU JUST KILL THIS MAN LMAO

shoutout to Horikoshi for offscreening this fight. we get it, lol. Deku strong and scary, villains ineffectual and feeble, and AFO... [checks notes] yep, still a dick. the angst arc continues

-- the angst arc continues, SIR

jesus christ I may have to rethink all of my opinions about Deku being framed for murder in movie 3 lmao. never mind. he did it, your honor

holy fucking shit Deku. “he might blow up, so please be careful” fdlskjflk jlskdjflk lwkejflk anyway so I’ve decided the explosion running gag can stay, actually

DEKU WAIT YOU FORGOT YOUR LUNCH!!

lol why do I get the feeling some serious shit is about to go down. ALL MIGHT NEVER MIND BACK OFF I THINK HE NEEDS HIS SPACE

OH MY FUCK I GASPED OUT LOUD

NO NO NO. I KNEW THIS WAS COMING GODDAMMIT BUT NO. NEVER MIND, I CHANGED MY MIND ABOUT IT, I’M NOT READY TO CRY TODAY

shit. shit shit shit shit and OF COURSE all I can fucking think about is that stupid fucking prophecy and gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Deku please. please please please if you really are going to leave All Might here, please be so very careful in choosing your farewell words to him now because have this sudden horrible fear that this might be the last time you ever see him alive and oh god. oh god oh god

DEKU NO, YOU’RE REALLY NOT!?!?

I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYONE LESS FINE IN MY LIFE, ACTUALLY????

holy shit. and the fucking callback to the prophecy now. just in case we forgot. WHICH FYI, WE DIDN’T. but that’s basically confirming that this is all still very much on the table and HORIKOSHI NEVER FORGETS oh my god someone please hold me

and the fact that Deku’s flashing back to it now too, though?? because he never forgot either, because of course he didn’t, and now all this stuff is happening, and AFO’s words are getting to him, and this is literally his worst fear come to life and so of course he’s distancing himself from everyone, and now it’s finally come to even this. even the person he admires most

-- OKAY NO, FUCKING COME ON ALREADY I CAN’T TAKE THIS

I GET IT OH MY GOD, I ALREADY UNDERSTAND THE EMOTIONAL IMPACT OF THIS MOMENT WITHOUT ALL OF THE DEVASTATING FLASHBACKS THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!! YOU ACTUALLY DO WANT ME TO CRY, HUH, IS THAT IT. THIS MAN THAT HE THINKS OF AS A FATHER, THIS MAN WHO HAS BEEN EVERYTHING TO HIM SINCE HE WAS A VERY YOUNG CHILD. EVERYTHING THEY’VE BEEN THROUGH, JUXTAPOSED AGAINST EVERYTHING DEKU IS UP AGAINST, EVERYTHING THAT’S AT RISK. LET’S JUST PUT IT ALL SIDE BY SIDE. LET’S JUST PILE ON ALL OF THE FEELS

(ETA: just a quick note that even though some of the posts I’ve read have described these as All Might’s flashbacks, I’m pretty sure they are Deku’s. most of these are scenes that only he was there for, so yeah. even though All Might is the one thinking the thoughts on the next page, the flashbacks are what’s running through Deku’s mind right now, and so we’re getting that emotion from both of them, which makes it extra devastating lol.)

wait, what???

WHAT??? do you really think that’s why he’s been so determined to protect you this entire time?? simply because you’re his successor?

-- oh no wait lol I think I got that mixed up, this is All Might saying that Deku feels the need to protect him. well that makes more sense lol

oh my god I cannot

his last words. his last words to him. and we can’t even see if he is smiling, like All Might always encouraged him to do. but what are the odds he can’t actually bring himself to do it. what are the odds he’s actually crying. oh god this scene is going to rip my heart out and STOMP on it in the anime isn’t it. Deku’s VA is going to full on murder me with emotion. not that there’ll be much of me left to murder after the thorough job that Horikoshi has already done here

YOU’RE CRYING. DEKU IS LEAVING ALL MIGHT AND IGNORING HIS OUTSTRETCHED HAND AND YOU’RE CRYING. AND BY “YOU” I MEAN “ME”, FUCK

nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope no words just feels just a big ol’ pile of feels. I do not have the strength. future me... [broadly gestures] good luck with all that

(ETA: LOL, WELL THEN.

what breaks my heart here is All Might. All Might, and everything he’s been through, and history repeating itself, and forcing him to live this moment from both sides because he wasn’t strong enough to fix things.

Toshinori had only just turned eighteen when Nana died. like, I feel like we don’t mention this enough. the All Might we know is a sixty-something-year-old man, and so everyone always talks about him like he’s basically been an adult forever. but he was a child when he met Nana. and he was still just a child when she died. barely a year older than Deku is now. younger than Mirio was when we first met him.

and we don’t talk about that. we don’t talk about how devastating that was for him. and we don’t talk about how the reason he grew up to become so reserved and withdrawn -- for all that he always tried so hard to outwardly project the image of a bold, confident, smiling hero -- was specifically because of what AFO did to him. because AFO targeted him in the exact way that he is now targeting Deku. because that’s what he does. he goes after every new user of OFA, and he finds out what’s most important to them, and then he destroys it. and for Toshinori, that was Nana. if you’ve read All Might Rising, you know that AFO basically killed her in front of him (and only killed her, while letting Toshinori and Gran get away). Toshinori (while crying) later says she was like a mother to him. and interestingly enough, during this same conversation, Gran tells Toshinori that he can see “that madness in [his] eyes” when Toshi talks about becoming strong enough to defeat AFO. madness in his eyes. sound familiar??

what’s happening to Deku now is the exact same thing that happened to Toshinori when he was a boy. AFO tried every bit as hard to break him as he’s trying with Deku now. “the path you’ve chosen is a thorny one. every battle grinds away at your soul with no end in sight.” we don’t talk about how Toshinori experienced this same thing for forty fucking years. and all the while isolating himself, exactly like Deku is doing now. pushing people away, exactly like Deku. because he never had anyone who was able to reach out and pull him back. and those words that he now finds himself frozen and unable to speak -- “don’t push yourself”; “you can rest” -- are the same words that no one ever said to him until decades later, when it was already far too late to make any difference.

everything that Deku is experiencing now is what Toshinori also went through. and it’s only now, as he watches it happen to his student, the boy he loves like a son, that he’s finally starting to realize the full extent of how wrong it was. you shouldn’t have to fight alone. you shouldn’t have to bear that kind of enormous burden alone. you shouldn’t have to push yourself, and you can rest. you can rest.

but it’s too late. just as he’s finally coming to understand it all, it’s all too fucking late. and he can’t say the words, he doesn’t know how to say the words, and then just like that, Deku is gone.

and he’s alone. again.)

I can’t. this can’t be their goodbye. I’m not ready. for this to be how they finally part, and then they never see each other again except in OFA. how is that fair. how is that fair. how is that fair

fuck me. lol. how many pages are left in this thing. let’s just wrap this up lol. so now of all the times for this fucking guy to finally show up

I can’t believe Stain has been here literally this entire time hiding behind this random wall and cutting onions. that was you who was cutting the onions, right. no need to answer that we’ll just say it was

HORIKOSHI JUST END THE CHAPTER PLEASE I’M OUT OF SPOONS. YOU HURT ME SO GOOD AND I LOVE YOU FOR IT BUT YOU NEED TO LET ME GO NOW SO I CAN BEGIN THE PROCESS OF TRYING TO PUT MY LIFE BACK IN ORDER HERE. SO WHERE ARE WE CUTTING TO NOW WHAT IS HAPPENING

Stain did you also let AFO give you a new quirk. what’s with you guys. do you like blowing up

oh nvm lol because they were talking about THIS GUY ohhhhhh my fucking god

THAT’S BECAUSE HE’S SAD, LINDA!! jesus

omfg. and so yes, good, the chapter is ending here now on page 15. for once I am FULLY on board with that lmao

anyway so tune in next week for more adventures of Werewolf Deku!! that is, assuming we don’t finally cut back to U.A. at long last, which is actually a strong possibility considering that this chapter will likely mark the end of volume 31. it sure wouldn’t kill Horikoshi to start giving us some hope after everything he’s just put us through lol. KACCHAN COME GET YA BOY

[gayninjas]

(1/2) Okay so I'm still new to Naruto so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Also, this is long. I'm sorry. I'll split it.😅

Out of the K12 kids, Naruto, Sasuke and Neji were fucked over by Konoha (either by their clans, the old man hokage or the villagers). I'd include Rock Lee but I think he was just bullied as a small kid for being... weird? or not having chakra?? And he worked super hard and that didn't last long.

Anyway, I've read plenty of reviews about how the series ended poorly and how messages like "you can change your fate" were disregarded. That the the Naruto franchise would've done better staying an actiony, ninja shonen that focused more on changing the shinobi system instead of turning into the forced romantic shojo that it became. I agree with all of that.

And I said that to say this, I really am disgusted with how things went for Naruto, Sasuke and Neji. Naruto doesn't receive any apologies from those who should give him one (like the villagers! I think the old hokage bastard died so.. no apology there I guess). Like, I know Iruka apologizes to him and I don't know why. I know Iruka was Naruto's first bond, what'd he and only him have to apologize for.

Not only that but Naruto just accepts everyone and then hides the fact that those in charge of Konoha planned the Uchiha massacre!!! (Does Sasuke know he's doing that?) It's ridiculous to just hide the genocide committed by the state (because he's patriotic? Wants to stick to the status quo as much as possible while trying to change things??). And it's somehow worse to hide it when you have this intensely close relationship with the lone survivor of that genocide.

Like, why write Naruto like that? To receive no actual closure (imo) on how he grew up in Konoha and tp make him a top tier bootlicker

included the second part of the ask

(2/2) With Sasuke, that genocide happened and he was just left to his own devices on the outskirts. And he's treated as a villian for justifiably wanting to "destroy" Konoha and wanting a revolution. It gets under my skin how much the K12 kids don't give a fuck about stuff like this. (I like all of them (except for 2) and stuff like this sours my opinion on them)

Not only is he treated as a villain, it appears that no one pay's for the Uchiha massacre (except for Itachi?) which is bullshit. It's just swept under the rug. And THEN Sasuke is written to become another Konoha bootlicker??! He has to go off on his own to atone for his sins? What!

And finally Neji. He died as he knew he would, for the main house family. I will hate that forever and always. His destiny didn't change. Little!Neji in the chunin exams exposing how fucked up the Hyuuga clan is, no one (except Naruto?) cares. He gave Hinata a chance to back out before he killed her, which was allowed, she didn't, he was about to end it and then 4 teachers(?) jump in to save her because, special treatment. Can't let the (former) Hyuuga heir die, she means more than the other kids.

And he was treated as an antagonist for being rightfully pissed off. But no, he just gets over it I guess after befriending Naruto, the Hyuuga clan continues with its slavery bullshit and he dies sacrificing himself for Hinata. What a way to go.

And I know they don't address the slavery Neji wanted to abolish in Boruto. They just ignore it and act like everything's fine and dandy. Naruto isn't one of those series where things just happen offscreen and we know it's cool, right? They can't just expect ppl to think the Hyuuga clan changed right? They don't even focus on them, Neji died and so did any relevance to the Hyuugas because Hinata doesn't do anything.

(Had Neji lived I know he also would've been turned into a major bootlicker too)

In conclusion I can't stand how these 3 boys were screwed over by the village in many ways and then screwed over by bad writing. It's irritating. I love Naruto but there's so many problems with it.

i tried to be concise, hope i covered everything!

I agree that if the Naruto franchise didn’t end off with lackluster romance plots and instead gave closure for all the things they left open ended after the end of the war it would have made a much better ending to the series.

Kishimoto had even admitted he had trouble writing romance in as he hadn’t ever planned on it. He never considered it that relevant so when they did include it, the whole thing felt so forced and awkward it was even kinda ooc for Naruto and Sasuke (scenes like narutos flat ‘im not in touch with my emotions’ reaction to hinatas confession that butchered his character were an absolute pain to sit through)

Nejis death being an awful plot devise to develop NH was a terrible move, like neji sacrificed himself for someone who moments later held narutos hand and went "his hands are warm"??

Don’t even wanna list anything I dislike about ss cause their marriage is so lifeless i feel dead thinking about it.

As for the villagers, they were happy to alienate a poor kid who couldn’t fend for himself and let him believe he was a demon and was deserving of it all but then started licking his boots when they realized they had the equivalent of a nuclear weapon desperate to protect them, and even then they weren’t remorseful of their actions, its all very sickening really,

I think the whole end of Naruto was handled in a way that went against the characters values? like I can easily imagine Naruto being rightfully enraged at the people who issued the massacre of hundreds of innocents, and he wouldn’t ever think of hiding anything like that, especially from the victim who was also his friend??.

How they wrote sasuke as someone who now fucking bows down and becomes a soldier for a village that destroyed him and has done nothing for him is just absolute bs. Although with sasuke, even if one argues his loyalty was for Naruto, the patriotic lines are just too much.

As for the rest, I don’t have much to say cause they never tried to understand why sasuke was doing what he did, they only saw a power hungry uchiha who was seeking revenge.

And yes nejis end was tragic for all the wrong reasons, i was more pissed than sad watching it. He was treated as a tool for nh and his anger at the hyuga clan and their issues was brushed off without much thought because the series never delved into it or resolved it.

And yes we got no real closure for the uchiha massacre, all the messed up things in the hyuga clan and the way Naruto was mistreated his whole life etc. Its aggravating how they expect us to believe its all fixed and fine now

I really do love the pre shippuden arcs like the zabuza and haku arc especially though. They were the peak naruto experience for me and are always the scenes I reminisce and often get nostalgic over.

[melrosing]

okay so, thoughts

blood & cheese is my biggest gripe, like I don't have a problem with getting rid of Maelor and making it just a case of Helaena having to point. but we spent so long watching blood and cheese wandering through the castle, and then the actual moment they find helaena and the children it's like. she barely panics. she points almost immediately. this didn't even strike me as her characterisation but rather just saban not being given the time or direction on how to respond

also given that it's helaena who has to endure this moment, it would make more sense imo to have at least one scene of her with both the children and actually interacting with them. the fact that we didn't have that made helaena seem even more detached from jaehaerys' fate

alicent??? like i don't really mind the alicent/criston affair, I can see it as like they're both obsessed with rhaenyra and so end up directing that at one another and they're both uptight and don't really know what they want sex to mean to them, esp in the absence of the woman they both love etc etc idk whatever. but opening on that when there is surely SO much else going on with alicent in terms of one son killing rhaenyra's and rhaenyra despising her now and aegon is on the throne and did she make the right call and..... nah let's just open on alicent getting head lol. and then they never really show what it means to either of them?? I assume there's more on this to come but the way they've opened this subplot feels so fucking dead lol

also Alicent hardly seems to be wrestling with anything she just looks tired. I like the scene where she lights a candle for Luke but it would have hit harder if we'd seen her actively working through that, arguing with Aemond maybe. as it stands it looks like she's just lightly pondered it. if Alicent and Rhaenyra's relationship is the core of this series, SHOW it

wow baela and rhaena had nothing to say again who would've guessed. we had time to catch up w everyone else so why not them?? baela could've expressed her hunger for war. rhaena could've expressed like.... a single feeling over losing her betrothed. they could've had a moment w daemon?? anything??? i expect we'll get more from them soon but every ep that goes by where they have nothing to say or do is like. glaring

aegon..... idk i like the direction w Aegon, I think he's really different to any other character we've seen in the books or shows, it's interesting to see someone who has some good instincts and some absolutely appalling ones. but I think it's yet to be seen how well they pull off this balancing act. like ok don't mind it starting off w Aegon trying to be the paragon of good bc this is his Fresh Start but we have very much established that he has some truly nasty impulses so let's not forget ourselves.... today's characterisation was a little bit whiplash

no interiority for aemond. maybe that comes later but at least hint at it now idk??

rhaenyra moments were stunning only I think the director could've lingered on them longer. they needed a few more beats to breathe. also I think they should've bundled them together in the latter half of the episode. leave rhaenyra offscreen for the first half, save that for tackling the greens. then get into the meat of the grief on the black side by finally revealing where rhaenyra has been. it's emotional whiplash constantly switching between Rhaenyra's grief and green politics

everything else fine. think it just had huge potential for an emotional punch and kept faltering on that

going on a hotd reblogging spree shortly

e1 was a 3/5 imo I didn't mind most of their choices but the direction was kind of off?? felt like every character was suffocated by the pace in an episode that should've been all about interiority?? I need a minute

[faelapis]

so. while this was confirmed a year ago, new tweets by ian jq have reawakened the discourse about humans being the first intelligent life gems encountered. note intelligent life, not organic life. alien animals still died from previous invasions, but humans are the first intelligent creatures gems encountered. 

apparently, the party line on twitter (where nuance goes to die) is that it’s too “convenient” that humans are the first other intelligent species gems met.

i take a few issues with that assessment: 

a) “it was pink’s first colony, isn’t it convenient the diamond concerned with organic life owns the first planet populated by intelligent organics? wouldn’t they have died if any other diamond got them? isn’t that super lucky?”

no. we know rose/pink was very interested in organic life from before earth. she always thought aliens were cool, interesting, fun, and liked learning about them and keeping some as pets - such as the rainbow worms. we know she visited the others’ colonies, even if she doesn’t own them. she’s the only diamond who is simultaneously “selfish” enough to visit colonies up-close on a whim because it’s fun AND doesn’t see herself as too good to play with local organics.

so, then, why on earth (hah) wouldn’t she care if there had been intelligent life on any of the other planets? she didn’t fight for earth just because she “owned” it. she cared because she was able to form connections to humans... which she would have done regardless of which diamond’s colony it was. if anything, ownership is a hindrance to her usual romps, because blue & yellow expected her to stay put in her moon base. smile and wave. be a “leader”. 

b) “how is it realistic that humans are the first intelligent life gems have met?”

the SU universe as a whole is not a universe filled with life. it has been framed as cold, animalistic, overall lifeless, purposeless, and one in which you gaze at an empty sky and beg for an authority figure to give your life meaning. this works much, much better if life, especially intelligent life, is incredibly sparse. they are small flickers in a cold void. it adds to the feeling that both humans and gems feel of loneliness and pointlessness, where you create these intricate structures of organized almost-religion to feel devoted to a purpose. this existentialism, which we will explore further below, is a huge part of SU’s themes.

c) another theme - and this one is important - is that gems and humans have been treated as this mirror parallel of life, people, and society (tm) for the entire runtime of the show. hence, steven as the bridge. a bridge, usually, connects two sides, not five. they are more similar than they are different - to the point where you can use gemkind to comment on how humans are like, and see some of the horrors and tragedy of what humanity looks like “from the outside”. not once has there ever been implied to be any other intelligent species to disrupt this elegant, thematic dichotomy. ever. 

d) unlike fanon speculation, the show has always been very careful about never implying there were any previous rebellions. SU is not a star wars-esque universe populated with a million different intelligent species and cyclical rebellions + alliances between them. it is a big, cold, empty void, with tiny pockets of fragile life. which is part of why the connection between two alien species is so remarkable. it is the exception, not the rule.

e) many of us who looked at homeworld in a not-badfaith light already came to the conclusion that humans are probably the only intelligent life they’ve met. (based on what we know about the universe, its logic, the themes, the implications of other colonies, pink diamond’s personality, no other species ever bonded with enough to fight for, etc etc,)... and those of us who did, including myself, have (lovingly!!) compared the crystal gems to hippies or eco-terrorists. this 100% holds up to how homeworld gems generally, and the diamonds specifically, see them. 

this is why blue thinks a “solution” to pink being sad about the invasion is to create the zoo. it’s a petty conflict, from her perspective, of environmentalism vs conservationism. like how, if a capitalist is kinda sad about a rainforest being bulldozed, you might as well just take some pretty toucans and panthers and stick them in a zoo. they’re preserved for humans to enjoy. problem “solved”. it worked with the kyanite colony & rainbow worms, why not here?

this is part of why lapis accuses the CGs of not caring about gemkind. they put this silly little dirtball above gemkind, starting a war that hurt (”real”) people? 

this is also why pink, mocking the other diamonds, says “you wish to save these life-forms at the expense of our own? ha! don't be absurd!”. gemkind needs resources to create more gems. so, to the diamonds, of course that’s more important than Making The Bees and Monkeys Sad. they’re not even directly killing them, they’re just taking resources. it’s not “””their fault””” they need ‘em too, gems are more important. the same way, to us, humans are always the most important. many of us don’t give a damn about how we hurt animals.

f) it galls me that anything but the darkest possible interpretation, even when it makes perfect sense with what we know, is always seen as “convenient” by people who watched nostalgia critic once and think they’re now great media critics. i saw similar comments to jasper being brought back to life, even though it made perfect sense with what’s implied about the powers of the diamonds. most of that, too, was woven together by paying close attention to implication, not outright stated in a lore dump - but that doesn’t make it “convenient” in the bad way. it makes it the logical outcome of this world, if you paid attention.

like jasper coming back to life, it also told us something thematic about the diamonds’ absolute power over life & death. steven is kinda horrified, even if it’s a good thing, that things can ever be fixed. he still feels like he needs to be “punished”. he holds this toxic mindset that punishment is more important than healing, because of the pit of self-harm he’s fallen into... which is kind of how some people see the diamonds, and the world as a whole. 

even if things can get better, it doesn’t matter. at least not as much as punishing and distancing ourselves from the “bad people”. even though, actually, things CAN get better, and that’s more dependent on systemic change than it is on punishing “bad” individuals... that doesn’t fascinate them. it’s a fucked-up idea of “consequences” that is sadly prevalent in fandoms: they’d rather the world be doomed if they get to kill the bad people for it, than the world being slowly healed in this bittersweet way that includes everyone.

and i’m tired of that. on the whole, fiction is a reflection of this very dour, justice-oriented view of the world where we can only gain satisfaction from punishing the bad guys responsible. SU’s response to that is, that actually, just this once... no! the world gets better, and the “how” doesn’t revolve around individual punishment. it’s trying to heal everyone. 

g) it seems to me that for a substantial amount of people, “convenience” has less to do with the themes and logic of the world than it does with wanting canon to live up to their fanon image of homeworld and the diamonds. even if that means a ton of offscreen intelligent life dying Just for the sake of a 1-v-1 earth-vs-gems conflict, with no agency in the story. i don’t understand how that would make it better. all other life we’ve seen have been animals. pink was around for other colonies - even if she didn’t personally “own” them - yet didn’t care deeply enough to fight for them. because she couldn’t bond with worms the same way as humans. (yknow, unfortunately, for the worms :’<)

also, you don’t NEED other species of intelligent life to have been made extinct to still have a somewhat cynical interpretation of the diamonds’ intentions here. even if it makes the world less grimdark in praxis. it’s not enough to be aware of humans in the abstract, blue and yellow still won’t listen. you need to actually interact with humans in order to learn about / care for organics that don’t serve a purpose in your system. this was just the first chance gemkind had to do so. it makes sense that some would be curious, while others more jaded and dismissive, after encountering a universe mostly made of the lifeless & animals.

to give the other diamonds some credit, they’ve probably encountered plenty organic life, and thus have built up a bias that everyone but gemkind are aimless, animalistic life forms, and its up to them to give themselves purpose. why should humans be any different? oh wow, they live in groups? big whoop. so do ants. they build nests? so do birds. they babble? so do parrots and rainbow worms. they still serve no purpose. they still die if you breathe on them.

it’s only when blue meets greg - thousands of years later - that we see even the tiniest of cracks, in which blue is made aware of some level of emotional intelligence, but is still firmly entrenched in the view that he’s just a Slightly more advanced organic than others. like... puppies comforting you. she was surprised he could even do that much. this was a slow process for rose as well! 

but anyway, at the point of the war, to many gems, they are concerned first and foremost with gemkind. life matters because of your singular, gem-oriented “purpose”... but some gems, like pink, who never saw herself as a justified goddess, take the opposite approach. they don’t see themselves as “above” other life out of either lack of awareness of the capabilities of intelligent life forms or a self-appointed Higher Purpose. they’re curious, and then, willing to fight for life they can bond with, once they learn to love. 

which brings me to...

h) how a big theme of the show as a whole is selflessness vs selfishness. 

here, the crystal gems as a whole have actually been on the side of selfishness, from homeworld’s perspective. the end of gathering resources would mean they would no longer create more gems. which, to HW, is selfish. which... of course it is, if you think you’re the only intelligent life out there. 

the way homeworld gems express themselves is through an elaborate system of self-perpetuation and creation, in which the emergence of more gems is a higher purpose for the collective. the individual doesn’t matter. to them, the random creatures they find on other planets do not matter. they’re just organics.

humans matter to pink because she’s, like i said, curious about alien life, and less convinced about her own purpose... but also more personal, relationship-driven, and cares about what happens the specific individuals she subjectively bonds with, rather than prioritizing the overall “needs” of her species, like a good queen bee is “supposed” to do. 

homeworld thinks that no individual feelings - even a diamond’s - is more important than perpetuating of the system that gives their species meaning. most gems are happy to be shattered for that cause, because they’ve never formed those “selfish” relationships that makes life worth living without purpose. so actually, yes, this works with pink’s motivation, and blue and yellow not being as easily swayed works with theirs.

(all of this is extremely relevant to the arc steven has in “future”, btw. he needs a reason to be needed, purpose. and pearl’s arc, white diamond’s arc, jasper’s arc, etc etc - living for purpose vs living for relationships and selfish exploration of the self is a massive theme of the whole show!! at leaast if you pay attention to anything more subtle than merely “here’s a lore dump!”, which the show has always avoided. it’s more sublime than that. you, too, are supposed to only have a small, subjective understanding of the world, like steven does, which teaches you to value subjective perspectives. your purpose is not higher than the agency of others, and you shouldn’t control the world.)

i) it makes dramatic sense, actually, to center the conflict around the first time gems have met another species that stand a chance of understanding them! hence steven is a bridge. that’s a good basis for mirroring two species, a conflict that raises interesting questions about how we, too, see non-human life, the premium we place on emotional connection vs “purpose”, and how even when we learn to value humans that are different from us, we might still fuck around and bulldoze a rainforest, if it’s convenient and we can justify it internally. 

and again, it’s more logical. as we know it, the story went “long ago, gems took resources all over the universe, until pink found a species intelligent enough some of them learned to bond with on a deeper level than Cool Pet Worm”, NOT “long ago, gems zapped a bunch of intelligent species - which we will not mention ever, or give any agency in the story - and pink just ignored that, until she randomly decided humans were more important than all those, for no reason, even though she’d met countless intelligent species before”. 

the former makes more sense in ~every reading of canon, be it thematic, logical, personal, character-driven, etc~... except the one most favored by SU’s most badfaith of critics, which is that the only “logical” way for the story to go is one in which we can safely label the diamonds as inhumanly, unchangably bad, rather than having base assumptions, motivations and logics that aren’t so different from many non-dictator humans.

i think for some, they protest not because that makes more sense on a thematic, logical or character level, but simply because they want to. they’re USED to being fed that narrative satisfaction has to do with seeing the bad guys face comeuppance, in place of inclusive, welfare-oriented healing. faced with storytelling that rejects their view of justice while also openly being subjective, sublime, and loving of all of its characters, not just the “nice” ones, they see it as a “failure” to be what they’re used to. 

if the world CAN systemically heal in a way that includes people you personally don’t forgive, that must be a “flaw”. if those “bad guys” haven’t actually killed hundreds of intelligent species offscreen who have no chance to heal, that doesn’t fuel your justification for the most cynical interpretation of justice possible, so that, too, “must” be a “flaw”. if it’s framed as possible for them to work towards undoing their harm, that deprives you of the satisfaction of edgy punishment for unhealable hurt, so that, too, is of course a “flaw”. any world where healing is possible for everyone, and the perpetrators can contribute, must be a “flaw”, to a mind only concerned with the validity of vengeance. 

even when the story is perfectly candid that you’re personally allowed to be hurt and traumatized (like steven - and most characters, really), you’re still allowed to feel... you just can’t expect society as a whole to abandon its “inclusive healing” model and function on your logic; that your pain is solved by vengeance. it isn’t.

in short, cry about it. 

[unpopularly-opinionated]

Watched Dune and holy fuck was it actually an amazing movie...if you’ve read the books. If you’ve not read the books, I can understand why you might dislike the movie. If you’ve not read the books, it’s excessively long and full of what’ll seem like complete nonsense to anyone who doesn’t understand the full context.

They mention so many random terms and concepts that to the average viewer will seem like complete gibberish when it’s actually kind of important information.

There’s an entire section I personally think could’ve been cut without repercussion. There’s also a few scenes and explanations they did cut that I’m not entirely sure how they’ll do without, but whatever I guess...

Overall though, as someone who’s read the books (well 2/3 of them anyways...) the movie was great. 11/10. I easily can see why they’re calling this the new Lord of the Rings. Granted, I don’t think the audiences for both movies are 1:1, but since I’ve never actually read LOTR, I never got the same hype from the movies as I expect fans of the books might’ve, whereas I’ve read Dune so I 100% get the hype from this movie.

Spoilers below...

I’m really not sure why they cut the traitor subplot in the movie. I mean, they obviously kept in the part about Doctor Yueh being the traitor, but they skipped the part where they suspected someone was a traitor, which led to Paul suspecting his mother, Jessica, of being the traitor. This sets up their relationship for the entire book because Paul isn’t completely sure that his mother didn’t betray his father to the Harkonnens until much later when he learns definitively that it was Doctor Yueh.

I feel like this is incredibly important because it establishes Paul’s mistrust of his mother, and reinforces his distrust of the Bene Gesserit as well. Throughout the book, while he’s falling in love with Chani, Jessica is constantly warning him to stay away from her and it’s because of this mistrust he has towards her that he ignores her warnings.

The way they killed of Liet Kynes I actually appreciated. I knew it was super unlikely they’d show her dying like she did the books, so I kind of expected some offscreen death with a brief mention in the movie. So this change overall didn’t bother me, but I definitely noticed it.

When I think about it, I realize it might not actually be super important...but nevertheless I find it strange that they completely cut out the role of Mentats in the film. Thufir Hawat and Piter de Vries are both Mentats, and Paul is more or less trained to be one, but in the film Mentats aren’t even mentioned. I’ll be honest though, Stephen McKinley Henderson I can’t really say I see as being a master of assassins. David Dastmalchian I can kinda see in that role, but they basically cut him from the movie almost entirely.

All of this cut while I really felt like the initial spice crawler scene could’ve been cut with nothing significant lost. I understand they wanted to set up the big reveal of the Shai-Hulud, but I really feel like they could’ve pushed that to the second encounter with the Shai-Hulud. I also felt like the movie should’ve ended with the scene in the tent when Paul really starts to have his visions of the future. Which, by the way, I felt should’ve included Jessica’s pregnancy. I’m actually kind of annoyed they cut that because it doesn’t make any sense for them to have cut it. It’s what sets up the next movie perfectly, by Paul telling Jessica she’s pregnant with the late Duke’s child, and Paul’s sister, who will eventually become Alia.

Also, unrelated, but I thought it was kind of awkward that the one notable black guy in the movie was Jamis who just so happens to be the first guy Paul kills. I can’t wait for him to get to Sietch Tabr and claim Jamis’ (presumably black) wife and kids as his own. Really won’t be awkward at all, I’m sure. This book already gets crap for being the obligatory “white savior” trope, but they really took that shit and ran with it. Now this white kid’s going to roll up, claim to be their prophetic hero, and adopt a black wife and kids from the black dude he killed. I don’t really care but boy do I sure find it funny.

[poorlilpubby]

Okay get ready. Spoilers obvi.

So disappointed. Heres what pissed me off the most. When Gabby asked "is it a terrorist attack" okay wow the first thing to come to a kids mind is terrorism, and we all know its not domestic. Thanks western media for demonizing other cultures

This is just a societal problem ig. Well if im continuing on the track of not rlly the movies fault is how people treat victims/people with mental illness.

Almost every single new character was a shitty fucking person. Terrifier 2 the characters were kinda douchy, but they weren't complete assholes. For example the mom. She treated her kids pretty shittily. But you can still empathize with her. The parents here? So fucking bland. And treat sienna like a demon

This entire movie was like the 2nd movie but worse in basically every regard. Like oooo art is making his way to sienna 🙄 like sienna knows art is coming but come onnnn genuinely no tension. ESPECIALLY BECAUSE IT KEPT CUTTING BACK AND FORTH with hardly any connection!!! Felt like a shitty anthology movie.

Another similarity, the fucking kills. Idk if its supposed to be a reference to the first movie but like cmon another splitting the body in half? Ohhh scaryyy its with a guy this time.

Art pissing on Santas lap, we saw him like shit before like is this supposed to be just for humor? I saw it coming from a mile away with the christmas theme and santa.

I feel really bad for gabbys actor bc ik people will treat her like shit. The character gabby was so fucking annoying. YES I KNOW SHES A KID. A kid that has absolutely no sense of respect but understands terrorism and ughhhhh. Anyway, no hate to the actress but mmm character isnt the best.

HERE'S WHAT PISSES ME OFF THE MOST ABOUT HER CHARACTER. She has almost absolutely no fucking role in the movie. Her only, tiny tiny bit of need to be in the movie is towards the end. WHICH IS JUST THE SAME ACTIONS JOHNATHONHAD. EXCEPT JOHNATHON HAD DEPTH TO HIS CHARACTER AND ACTUALLY DID STUFF LAST MOVIE. Holy shit his character in the last movie was so good bc they mentioned slightly how young guys are indoctrinated into really fucked up conservative viewpoints!!! AND THEY FUCKING THREW AWAY HIS CHARACTER IN THIS FILM.

WHERE THE FUCK WAS JOHNATHON. FUCKING NOWHERE WHYYYYY. I was promised that his role would be bigger in this film. FUCKING LIES.

Instead he was replaced with gabby, and not even to further the plot, it was the exact same thing. They introduced the most bland characters to kill them off and leave us where? Not any further than the previous movie.

Like, the last movie introduced sienna with her friends and family. Great world building. But they introduced a neice out of fucking nowhere?? "She missed you so much" I HAD NO IDEA WHO THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT. I genuinely thought "did Johnathan transition or smth" bc that felt more reasonable than a random neice.

THE FUCKING TINY LITTLE ONES LINERS SUCKKED. Gabbys "you know im nosy" was literally just Johnathan's like "we're family" but so soulless. THEIR CONNECTION WAS SUPER FUCKING WEAKKK. Johnathan and siennas relationship felt so much better, stronger, more genuine, realistic whatever. It made so much more sense. Siblings that argue but still love each other regardless. AND IT WAS THROWN AWAY IN THIS MOVIE. For what? For sienna to be like "oh gabby ur so so precious" ugh

And now their relationship is so strained in this movie? I mean that can be expected but it was really just saddening. AND OH MY FUCKING GOD JOHNATHON GOT AN OFFSCREEN KILL? I KNEW THAT SKULL WASNT GABBYS BUT THE FACT THAT IT WAS JOHNATHONS WAS SO HEARTBREAKING. i kept thinking "please please Jonathan come through and kick art's ass" BUT NO. Gabby fucking hit him in the back once? What fucking everrrrr.

Im so tired of the "little girl doesnt get hurt trope" because why? This is a fucking sadistic demon we're talking about. Absolutely no one is spared. And just because someone is a little girl doesnt mean they're more deserving of life than someone else? Like, sorry its just, so many other people didnt deserve any of their treatment. But no one will care if they die bc they're not "innocent" little girls. This is a whole nother issue that i dont wanna get into rn.

Ik the beginning scene was a cold open but like...none of that related to the main story. Ik terrifier movies suck with plot but that was stupid. THEY PUT SO MUCH EMPHASIS ON THE LETTER WITH "ART WILL FOLLOW YOU ANYWHERE SIENNA AND KILL EVERYONE IMPORTANT TO YOU" but art killed ummm the most random people?

The family in the beginning was killed for the trailer but no other reason. The mall kills i get, bc he was close to sienna and yknow he kills along the way.

Back to the bar scene, again no real reason however i will say i enjoyed it. The two girls on santas lap was a good reference to the first movie. The drunk girls doing something stupid. THATS A GOOD REFERENCE. omg and art was so cute when he saw santa and was like "santa!! 🥺"

Otherwise, bar scene kinda ehhhhh. I lowkey love when art uses a gun tho. Ik some people hated when he used a gun but i love it. He's like so pissed off he doesn't give a fuck about being super sadistic anymore.

Okay im talking about it now. Vicky. The very beginning i was like hmmm idk how i feel about this, maybe she'll grow on me. SPEAKING OF BEGINNING HIII CHRIS JERICHOOO 🥰🥰

But slowly her character kept getting worse and worse. Was she supposed to be that um...eccentric? Its not that eccentric is bad its just not clicking in this film?

Then. The worst plot point. The thing that made me actually roll my eyes in the theater. When art used her as a vessel and basically whatever she was saying was what art was saying. ART. IS. SUPPOSED. TO. BE. SILENT. Idc if the clown is still silent. NEVER EVER WAS HE MEANT TO TALK. FUCK. SO FUCKING ANNOYING. And its not like the words were impactful. They could've easily been expressed (at least the idea) without words!!!

And what happened to the little girl? Like literally what? Okay weird. She complimented arts character much more than vicky tho

FINALLY. HERE'S WHAT I LIKED.

The actors were wonderful. Even if I didnt like the characters, they sold it. The shitty blonde girl mia, her actress is amazing bc oh my god ik girls like that. She did great. RETURNING ACTORS SO AMAZING. DAVID HOWARD THORTON BEING AMAZING AS ALWAYS.

Lauren lavera as sienna? Oh that emotion was gooodddddd. The thrashing was so perfectly good, not like a fish or anything.

ELLIOT FULLAM AS JOHNATHON. HE'S SUCH A COOL GUY. Little punk people!!! Omg and that one reference "Johnathan doesnt like metal anymore" oh if only you knew the guy. Omg and like, elliot is such a chill guy. So when he started trashing the dorm? I was so impressed it felt really passionate.

Gore was uhhh average. Soundtrack was good. Umm it luckily didnt run on too long. That was my biggest gripe with the last movie, it was way too long.

Ugh this movie was supposed to be the revenge!! NONE OF THAT HAPPENED. BECAUSE ART CAME BACK TO LIFE AT THE END. This is just the trend, the third movie is always the worst.

So um ig I'll rate this move a 4/10...i probably have more to say but whatever

I think I might be the only one in this theater!! I can't wait to see my baby Art the Clown 🥰🥰 I hope it'll be good, I avoided every single spoiler this time