#i feel like this scene captures that sentiment really well

[yoroshiu]

Sometimes the Sora thoughts go to the KH2 ending, the quiet, almost to himself,

"You know...maybe the darkness has gotten to me, too."

From Japanese, it can be translated to:

"Somehow, I wonder if I've also gotten stained by the Realm of Darkness."

It's the way it's said and then not fully touched upon since Riku falls over. What it might mean for Sora in the grander scale of things. Going from "You gotta think positive!" not too long ago to this moment of vulnerability. Sora doesn't get too many moments where he gets to contemplate so long for his own state of being, and it's got me thinking a lot as always.

[eraenaa]

Mine

Aemond Targaryen x Wife Reader Tag List

Synopsis: You are the best thing that has ever been Aemond’s, which is why you cannot really blame him for being so possessive and cautious not to lose you. 

Warnings: Possessiveness, Jealousy, Mature, 18+, P in V Sex, Fingering, Not Proofread 

Word Count: 3,193

A/N: This is based on an anonymous request where they wanted a glimpse of the married life of Aemond and Reader from my other one-shot 'But Daddy, I love him'

They often say marriage was a duty— it was a dire chore that not many seemed to enjoy, but that sentiment was one Aemond could ever agree to because being married to you was the most pleasurable and honorable thing he had ever experienced. He thought riding his Vhagar was the purest and most gratifying experience he would ever feel, but he was proven wrong. Being with you— being your husband would be the greatest pleasure he would have the honor of knowing. 

Aemond sighed in contentment as he clutched you closer to his chest. Burying his nose atop your head as you slept soundly in his arms. It was a scene he quickly had gotten used to. It had only been three moons since your marriage, but Aemond could not recall a day where he woke with you, not in his arms. He could not recall a moment where his lips had not known the pressure or the taste of yours. Aemond refused to reminisce upon the days when you were not his.

Aemond felt his lips twitch as you huddled yourself closer to his chest, a small moan emitting from you as the wake of the morning sun slowly crept in. “Happy name day, my love,” You mumbled against Aemond’s smooth and chiseled chest, deeply inhaling his scent as you felt his arms wrap around you tighter. “My name day is not until the morrow.” He said and ran his hands through your hair. You hummed and stretched your limbs, slowly peeling your eyes open to see the handsomeness of your husband as the fresh morning sun lit his Valyrian features. “I know, but the celebrations are tonight, so I thought it would be best to greet you today as well,” You smiled and moved your head to kiss his lips. 

Aemond sighed happily when he felt your lips against his. Aemond cupped your cheek and deepened your kiss, his whole body aflame with the burning desire to be intimate with you once more. You feel his cold hand venture to the plump flesh of your behind, squeezing it roughly, making you gasp in shock. Your husband taking the opportunity of your parting lips to snake his tongue in and feel and taste you. You felt his wanting against your thigh, warm and pulsating. And though you, too, want Aemond, feeling the need for him gathering in your folds, you gently push your husband away. You bit your lip to hinder a laugh as he looked at you, lips still puckered and eye filled with question and hurt that you would deny him of your kisses. 

“We have lots to do today, husband… I am afraid we cannot indulge ourselves this morning.” You say and tried to pull away. Aemond shook his head, feeling his cock painfully seek pleasure as his eye caught your naked form being exposed as the thin sheet was removed from your frame. “It is my name day. You cannot be so cruel and deny your lord husband on the day they celebrate his birth,” Aemond reasoned, pulling on your arm and trying to capture your lips once more. You laughed, “As you’ve said, your name day is not until the morrow— now, let go of me, for I shall need to bathe,” You said and quickly pecked his lips. 

You smiled as you heard him groan and whine like a little child. You loved seeing him in such a way— when in the privy of your chambers, his stoic and imposing demeanor was shed and you could see the actuality of him. You get to enjoy his handsome smiles, his genuine laughs, and his fiery touches. But the moment you stepped foot out of the four walls of your marital chambers, he once again returned to the stony, aloof prince that he is known to be. It is saddening that the world will never know the truth of your husband. You would note how the ladies and lords at court would look at you with pity. Bound and tied to what they perceive as a cold prince, but Aemond was far from it. He was a blazing fire that kept you warm even in the coldest of nights. But you supposed it was a prestigious honor to be the few who knew of your husband’s tenderness and love. 

Your smile widened as your husband called for your name once more; you peeked your head from the wet room where a steaming bath was already waiting. “Come back to bed, my light,” Aemond called, and you shook your head. “I need to bathe,” You countered, enjoying the way his thin lips almost formed a pout. “And I need someone to wash my back as well… will you help me, dearest?” You bit your tongue as Aemond was quick to his feet and escorted the both of you to the tub. He did not waste a moment as he placed his lips against yours again. Pulling you to rest atop his chest as he leaned back against the copper tub, bare bodies tangled under the milky, scented water of the bath that was meant for only you. 

Your breathing hitched as his lips moved from your lips to the apex of your neck and shoulder, feeling as his teeth nipped the supple skin to leave his marks. Your eyes closed pleasurably as you feel your husband’s hands guide your hips so your sex could grind upon his length. “Aemond,” You sighed as you felt the tip of his cock repeatedly glide against the sensitive pearl of your cunt. “Yes, my wife?” Aemond hummed; his voice had an edge that you were growing all too familiar with. He wanted to succumb to pleasure, to be buried deep inside you, but he wanted you to beg for the pleasure he, too, was desperate for. You clenched your jaw and moved your hips, grinding upon his length with more pressure. Aemond hissed and threw his head back, you simply just watched his reactions to the pleasurable torment that both of you were enveloped in. 

Your breathing caught in your throat, and your jaw slacked as your husband abruptly entered you— you harshly sinking on his well-endowed length. Aemond’s breathing was quick to grow labored as your walls clenched around him. The only thing heard in the room was your moans, Aemond’s heavy, pleasured sighs, and the slosh of water as your husband guided you to bounce on his cock. “A…Aemond,” You called, fisting his silky, silver hair as his head dipped down to take one of your breasts into his mouth, nibbling at the bud, making you clench around him tighter. Your moans grew louder as Aemond lifted his hips to meet yours, fucking you deeper to the point that your eyes rolled back, and only incoherent words were uttered from your lips. “Fuck, look at you so pleasured by your husband… louder, little wife, I want them to hear how I pleasure you so— so early in the morning as well,” Aemond hummed and moved his hand that was on your hips to your cunt, his thumb drawing circles upon the pearl of your cunt making you moan louder, just like Aemond had wished. 

“Oh… Aemond, please! Please, please, please,” You cried, placing your hands on his shoulders as you hoisted yourself to take him deeper and harsher, feeling the bubbling need for release. The prince smirked up at you. Gods, he loved you even more when you were on the verge of coming for him; he loved how desperate and more lewd you became for him. The stifled groans Aemond held were let out when you suddenly reached behind you and cradled his sacks. He looked up at you through hooded eyes, a small smirk on your lips as you moaned his name, your tits bouncing before him as you both reached your peak. You tried to catch your breath as you rested your forehead upon your husband’s. “Well, that was most productive. Do you not think so, wife?” He teased and cupped your behind with both of his hands; you let out an amused breath and shook your head, letting him carry you out of the tub so the both of you could truly get ready for the day. 

For the rest of the day, you were busy with the final preparations for that night’s festivities. Inspecting if everything is in perfect order for your husband’s name day. In truth, Aemond had no wish for such a grand celebration. He would rather spend his special day in the privy of your company, and usually, you would oblige your husband. However, after hearing that not once was his name day celebrated with such an event, you had to change that. You wished for him to experience the joy and festivity of a whole kingdom celebrating the day you were born. 

“Do not strain yourself, sister; it is not good for the both of you,” You hear Helaena hum as she pauses by the great hall to see how the preparations are coming. You lightly chuckle, “Aye, Aemond had been insisting for me to cancel this feast, fearing that it would burry me in work, but I do not mind it, truly.” You smiled and fixed an askew goblet on the long table. “I did not mean Aemond,” Helaena said, her voice far off, making you pause in confusion. But that confusion was quick to vanish as you heard the call of your beloved brother. “Sister!” Lucerys ran to where you stood, and you quickly enveloped your younger brother in an embrace. 

“Oh. I have missed you, sweet boy!” You beamed and held him tighter. You turned to the end of the hall and saw the other members of your family entering, them obliging your request and coming all the way from Dragonstone to attend your husband’s name day. “I’m so glad you all came,” You smiled and went to kiss your mother on her cheek. You turned to your father, who could only grunt; his animosity towards your husband was still there, but you could see it slowly fading with each moment he saw how truly happy you were to be Aemond’s wife. “We would not have missed it, my sweet girl,” Your mother smiled. “Isn’t that right, dear husband?” Your mother nudged your father, who took a deep, burdened breath before reluctantly nodding. “All your chambers have been prepared; I think it would be best if you rest before the feast… so all could be in a more cheery mood,” You turn to your father with a pointed look. “Very well then,” He sighed and kissed your temple before walking off and going to their bed chambers. 

“How has married life treated you, my sweet?” Your mother asked as you two were left alone. “I would guess it has treated you well… you look positively radiant, but I want to hear it from your lips.” She added, and your smile widened. “I… I am incandescently overjoyed, mother.” You said, and your mother lightly laughed to see the joyous glint in your eyes. “I am glad you found such happiness with Aemond,” She sighed, and you could only smile in agreement. Your smile grows wider as you see your husband across the hall, walking towards you and your mother. “Sister,” he nodded civilly, and your mother did the same. “Might I have a moment with my wife?” He asked, and you felt your body tingle as he was quick to wrap his strong arm around your waist, “Of course, I’ll see you two at the feast. Happy name day, Aemond.” Your mother said with a small smile. 

“What is it?” You asked your husband as he was guiding you towards the direction of your chambers with hastened steps. When behind closed doors, you feel his lips against yours and your bodies flushing against each other. “Nothing, I just terribly missed my wife,” He said in between breaths after parting your kiss. You laugh and lightly hit his chest. “I was with you just a few hours ago,” You said against his lips, your heart spiking as you felt his fingers sly try to undo the lace of your gown. “Stop it.” You warned, but Aemond only grinned wider, connecting your lips to distract you from his other actions. You giggled as you heard your husband whine when you pushed him away and parted your lips. “We do not have time for this, Aemond. We still have to prepare for the feast.” 

“Fuck the feats,” He said, and your eyes widened in slight offense as he dismissed the event that you had been working on tirelessly for weeks. His eye too soon widened as he saw the offense in yours. “No— I… that is not what I meant, my light.” He quickly said and cupped your cheeks. “It’s just that I… I need you.” He whispered and pecked your lips. “You just had me this morning,” You say and wrap your arms around his neck. “That was not enough… I could never have enough of you,” he smiled as your heart turned to mush and your mind turned simple by the look in his eye. You whimpered as you felt his lips on your neck, threading closer to your clavicle. It took a whole lot of control in you to push him away once more and not be tempted by the prospect of pleasure. 

“Patience, my prince,” You say as Aemond’s hands were firmly placed on your waist. “You will have me over and over and over again tonight… just as long as you be patient,” You whispered, watching as his lilac eye turned dark at your words. “Just be obliging and welcoming to our guests until the feast ends, and you and I could be locked here in our chambers, drowning in pleasure until the next moon if you so wish.” You added, and you watched as he gulped. Aemond searched your eyes and only saw seriousness to back your words. “Very well,” He said and felt his heart stutter as you went to the tip of your toes to peck his lips. 

Aemond was trying earnestly to appear cheery and obliging to the guests. He had been nodding ceaselessly to the guests who came and greeted him and offered their gifts. It was useless. He had no need for their things— he had everything he needed. He had shelter, food, the tiltyard, and most importantly, you. He had no care for the gold-threaded eye-patch house Lannister presented him nor the new stallion his mother’s house gave. All he cared about and wanted was a prolonged moment of privacy with you, where your attentions were not divided between him and the guests. 

Aemond’s jaw ticked as he saw a past suitor of yours approaching where the two of you sat. Aemond knew that he should not house doubts or insecurities about such matters. He was certainly the higher being. He was an unparalleled warrior; he was a prince; he was your husband. Jealousy is a pitiful, lesser motion that he should not entertain but could not help but do so when it comes to you. He could not help himself as he felt the fiery rage in him only grow with each moment you spoke with your past suitor. It took everything in him not to stab the irrelevant lord alive when he dared make you laugh. Aemond only saw red and was one hair away from beheading the lord as he had the gull to lead out his hand and ask you for a dance. He remembered at the first days of your marriage, even just the lingering look of any of the lords, squires, and even his brothers would cause him to grow enraged to the point he was ready to challenge those punny men. It took great restraint in him not to let his insecurities show through with the times you had to innocently speak with other men, bestowing them with your attention, warm smile, and melodious laughs.

Aemond’s fists clenched around nothing as he felt your expecting stare upon him. You silently waited for his approval that you were certain he would not deny, for it was only a dance. Aemond had promised you that he’d be obliging that night, that he would at least show a grain of warmness towards the lords and ladies, so, however difficult it was, your husband nodded. But Aemond soon regretted his decision as his eye zeroed in on the hold your past suitor had on you. His mind cruelly conjured an alternative life where you were not his but, instead, bound to that lord. He could not stomach to just think of the thought that you were not his wife and lady. He felt vile rising in his throat at the possibility that if the gods were not on his side that fateful day of the tourney for your hand, you would have been married to another, and Aemond would had no choice but to watch you be someone else’s wife. 

Aemond made hastened steps to where you and the lord danced and took his rightful place. “My prince… the song has not ended yet,” the lord had the gull to reason, and Aemond’s jaw clenched. “I have obliged you enough; do not overstep your bounds, my lord. Now, remove your hold from my wife.” He gritted, eye widening in fury. His expression is scarily serious, frightening away the lord. You smiled up at your husband as you felt his familiar and soothing touch upon your skin. 

“I had expected you to deny him of his first request,” You say to Aemond in ancient tongue. You watch him raise his brow in question and skepticism. “Really? It would seem that you had enjoyed his company.” You bit your lip at his words. “Do I sense jealousy, my dear prince?” You asked, tone riddled with tease. Aemond rolled his eye and shook his head, denying that he had succumbed to such a lowly emotion such as jealousy. You felt your lips twitch into a smile as your husband avoided your gaze as you two swayed to the tune of the dance.  You sighed and brought your palm to move his head to face you and for your eyes to lock. “The only company I truly enjoy is yours. You, my dear husband, are the only thing I want.” You say with a beaming smile. Aemond felt his heart and breathing stutter at the radiant smile on your lips and the sincerity in your voice. He sighed in contentment and placed a chaste kiss atop your head. He wished for deeper intimacy, but he could not do so as you two were still before the eyes of the court. 

“Do you wish to retire for the night?” You asked as the song ended, and Aemond eagerly nodded his head at you, making you laugh as he practically dragged you out the hall and back into the bed chambers to finally celebrate his name day in the way he wished. 

Other fics in this universe: But Daddy, I Love Him (Prequel) and King of My Heart (Sequel)

[maleyanderecafe]

May I recommend Deep obsession on itchio? It's 18+ tho, so heed the warnings.

Man... that sure is a r18+ game that I just played. That being said, there are some pretty interesting things after a lot of the smut parts were done. You can play the game here if you are interested. This is a game submitted to the Stained Red Yandere Jam which I will not only be participating in but also do recommendations from.

The story starts out with Hex on the news learning about how five reporters went missing after trying to go after a snuff streamer. Hex doesn't believe the news at first but becomes curious, searching into it. After some searching and getting a link, they log into one of the streams to see of course, a snuff stream. While horrified by the death of the lady on stream, Hex becomes entranced with their voice, something that they try to fight the urge to look to again. The next day, they go to the mall to get some snacks and hang out, only to have someone tap on their shoulder when resting. They find a chocolate in their pocket and presumably get their keys stolen (though they don't seem to realize this, believing they lost their keys) before going to sleep after the neighbors help them get in. After a restless night of what they presume to be sleep paralysis of being touched and watched, they get the morbid feeling of wanting to watch the snuff streamer again, to which they do. After jacking off and promptly falling asleep watching the stream, they wake up with a jolt, only to be kidnapped. Upon waking up, they find that they are indeed, captures by the person who they've been watching streaming. Hex actually gets quite into this, not only deepthroating but straight up asking the streamer to bite their thighs. They have various sexy times, with Hex seemingly into it.

If Hex is more or less chilled out, they will freak out when the streamer ends it stating that they will kill Hex. This turns out to be a lie, as the streamer actually keeps them alive as they like Hex. They reveal that their name is Victor. The last scene has Victor seemingly fighting his conscious as a mysterious person talks about how this will not last, how they are the same as the others, before he wakes up and coddles Hex to sleep.

If Hex screams, they will again freak out when the streamer states that he will kill them, though they reassure them that he will not. He also pretty much gets shot at, with the mysterious person, whose name is Simon, essentially recruiting Hex afterwards for something.

So far, it is a pretty interesting premise seeing Hex actually be into more of the snuff streaming things, considering how into Victor's voice they seem to be. I do like the kind of concepts where the MC is pretty messed up at least to this degree. We don't really get to know that much about Simon or Victor though. We know that Victor has been stalking Hex for a bit, considering I don't think it was sleep paralysis that was groping and watching them. And they seemingly know where Hex lives and even seems to know their name and probably gave them the chocolate while they were at the mall. Still, again, other than knowing that Victor is a snuff streamer, has no problems with killing people and likes Hex, we really know very little to nothing about him. Same with the Simon person who apparently hires us. I think it would be a cool twist that in the end Hex ends up being a snuff streamer as well, following in the twisted footsteps of Victor. The art style mostly consists of blacks and whites which is always a fun thing to see in terms of stylization. I'm not really into that kind of dark smut as much as other people (I'm more on the side of wanting to torture someone, but I know most people don't tend ot share that sentiment in the yandere community, so that's alright), but I think it can be appealing to those who are interested in that.

Overall, a short but dark story. Considering this is likely a demo, I am really hoping that they will flesh out more of the story for Victor and Simon since the start of it does seem to leave a lot of interesting pathways that might be nice to follow.

[mylucayathoughts]

Little moments that I love in Red White and Royal Blue. PART 7 (cannot stop sorry 🙈)

When Nora says how "Prince Henry is so yummy" Alex doesn't really contest Noras comment on Henrys good looks (read yumminess 😏), he just says how he is not really a good person (which he believed at that time) but that's besides the point. The important thing is that Alex seemed to be in agreement with that view 😏

When Bea snatches Nora away from Alex, you cannot tell me this wasn't intentional because like a moment ago she was telling Henry how she thinks Alex is hot and asked whether Henry met him or not. And next thing she does before Henry is about to meet Alex is take the one person Alex came to the party with away from him and make sure that person sticks with her the whole time. I see what you did there Bea 😏 and she was the most amused when Alex and Henry was having their little fight and the cake fell on them 😆

When Alex sees Henry talking so cheerfully with the cancer patient and stops to stare at them. He couldn't match his idea of Henry with this version. I love how he looks confused yet curious here.

He was observing a very oblivious Henry intently, and subconsciously he was allowing Henry to change his mind about him.

During the new years party, while dancing, Alex sees Henry sitting alone and comes running towards him and almost hits Henry's face with his 😆 (baby boy was drunk 😏) I love the energy with which he tries to lift Henry's mood up - "it's aaalll in the hips, LOOSEN UP!!", laughs with his entire face, hears his song and screams "OH MY GOD, this is the song of my childhood!!!" and says "you're dancing" and then he grabs Henrys hand and pulls him towards the dance floor. He is adorable here, always trying to keep Henry close or around.

Henry making this face when he says that his brother is completely oblivious about him being gay -

I noticed it only like a few days ago on my millionth rewatch of the movie and laughed so hard I almost fell off my bed 🤣

When Henry says that he has to belong to himself and he can only belong to someone else momentarily and Alexs first instinct is to hold his hand 🤧🤧 lt was too pure, too kind ❤️ and Henry says "not here" (and you can tell he is devastated that he couldn't let Alex take his hand) and Alex understands the sentiment immediately.

It's not like Alex didn't know where they were, plus Henry and he were just talking about Henry not being out to anyone but Bea. Alex still wanted to comfort Henry and to him, taking Henry's hand wasn't a romantic gesture, he just wanted to be supportive and make him feel better. But he understood Henry's predicament and played along.

When Alex writes to Henry "I'm out here giving my all for my mother. I cant have smut filling my inbox, corrupting my mind and bulging my pants like this! look buddy, you know I'm incorrigible, so don't incorrige me" and Henry writes "I'll behave" you can tell that Henry is trying to stifle a laugh and that he is so proud that he can make Alex feel that way 🤣 I know that it's supposed to be a written part in the movie but they had Taylor and Nicholas say these out loud and you can hear the emotions in their voices and I absolutely love Nicholas's delivery here.

My dumbass noticed something else a few days ago as well. That Alex practices speaking in front of the mirror before delivering his speeches. My boy really worked so hard to get his Texan votes 🤧

All the little scenes where Alex is shown to work in his Texas campaign perfectly capture Alex's passion for politics, his dedication to the Texan campaign, his desire to help mom with her election and his wish to do something for people. I love how this part also portrays how mature he and Henrys relationship has become. It was not about just their physical needs anymore, which is still there (obviously 😏) but they act as each others support system. The way Alex tells Henry about his fear "I'll only admit this to you and no one else..." that he is gonna let his mother down, and the way Henry reassures him 🤧 and then Henry says how his ribbon cuttings are so meaningless and how he wished he could do meaningful things like Alex. And even though Henry is not proud of it, Alex still makes sure to watch Henry's appearances. I love how sweet and kind and supportive they are to one another. And the passion with which both Nicholas and Taylor read theirs emails 🤧😭 so good!

At the V&A when they were slow dancing, you can't take your eyes off Taylor and Nicholas's hands 😍 they just keep lovingly caressing each other. It's soo beautiful to watch. They are so gentle and caring in those scenes.. Their eyes are soft, full of love 🤧 This is yet another scene where you can't possibly ask more from Taylor and Nicholas. They really went all in 👏

Their soft little smiles in this scene 😍🥺 Henry looks so relaxed and happy! They make me cry ok 🤧

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

[canmom]

dog day

went down to a local queer film thingy today and saw Dog Day Afternoon, in which Al Pacino plays attempted bank robber John Wojtowicz (nicknamed 'Sonny' in the film) who in 1972 ended up running a hostage situation and siege he really didn't intend to be in - someone who's a bit of a cause célèbre in these parts because honestly what's more iconic than robbing a bank to pay for your trans wife's bottom surgery?

(this is the real Wojtowicz during the event)

as a movie it's absolutely really solid. Pacino definitely does a fantastic job giving us a sympathetic portrayal of the increasingly harried Sonny trying to juggle all the competing elements of the robbery - reassuring his partner Sal, negotiating with the cops outside, managing the hostages. on a pure narrative level, it's a great screenplay, both full of escalating tension and capturing the humour of the unlikely camaraderie that forms between the robbers and their hostages. they get a lot out of the contrast between mundane concerns (not swearing) and the extreme situation, and it generally works really well.

the film portrays Sonny accidentally stumbling into being a folk hero - his televised calls in which he mentions the Attica massacre, and interactions with the crowd outside, becoming central the narrative that forms around the attempted robbery. it's compelling stuff even today - indeed the whole sensibility of it, the sympathetic bi and trans characters, the sympathy for all the characters, felt very modern.

speaking of, not really quite knowing the timespan of Al Pacino's career (I've still seen very few of his movies), I kinda assumed this movie would have been made, say, a couple decades after the robbery. so I was very impressed with how well it nailed the 70s period aesthetic... which turns out to be for a very simple reason, this movie was made in 1975, just three years after the events it portrays. which is wild to me, don't filmmakers normally wait a bit for it to be less 'the news' before they fictionalise the events? anyway it was a big deal in its day, scooping up a bunch of oscars.

this makes it quite interesting to look back because it really is a slice of how people felt about shit back in the 70s - as edited by the filmmakers of course, but every sentiment in this film is a genuine 70s sentiment by definition, right? the justified distrust of the police, the highly political gay angle, that's all shit we're hashing out today still. all these characters feel very much like real people out of their depth, and it's interesting to read about the process of filming it involving a fair amount of improvised elaboration.

anyway that all has the fascinating consequence that Wojtowicz was alive and watched the movie made about him. apparently there was a whole campaign to get the film screened for Wojtowicz in prison, which meant he could make a critique of it. as a result, he could write to the newspaper criticising their portrayal (via wikipedia). evidently the filmmakers took quite some liberties for drama - Wojtowicz calls it 'about 30% accurate'.

for example they portray him as still having been with his cis wife 'Angie' (irl, Carmen) at the time of the robbery, and add a fictionalised meeting with his mother where she is dismissive of Angie for weight etc., suggesting that it's somehow her fault that Sonny should go and do something as unseemly as have a relationship with a trans woman. as I took it, it's a portrayal of his mother's prejudice which the film broadly rejects - but in any case, all of that was just straight-up made up for the film, presumably because of the drama that the trans wife vs cis wife angle brings. in reality it seems that Wojtowicz separated from Carmen two years before the robbery, and he disputes her characterisation in the film (he's actually quite rude about the actress who portrays her, who to me looked like a regular-ass woman).

A third scene shows me speaking to my female wife, Carmen, on the telephone. (The actress who portrays her in the movie is an ugly and greasy looking women with a big mouth, when in real life my wife is beautiful and very loving wife.) I did try to call her, but the F.B.I. cut the phone lines and air conditioning before I could get to speak to her on the line. I did not like the horrible way they tried to make her the blame or the scapegoat for everything that happened, especially because of the Gay aspects involved. (...) First, the actress playing my wife, Carmen, made her look horrible and inferred that I left her and winded up in the arms of a Gay man because of her. This is completely untrue, and I feel sorry for the actress for having to play such a horrible role.

this is perhaps something of an aspect where values drift between when the film was made and the present. to us the idea that 'cis woman is ugly/unloving so guy is gay' is just laughable homophobic nonsense, something that the mother or the unfortunate estranged wife might believe but clearly not true - but Wojtowicz apparently felt that was a plausible editorial angle being suggested by the film, which he needed to correct.

but honestly it's Sonny's partner Sal who truly gets the short end of the portrayal stick here. he is pretty much set up with death flags from the early on - he's got greasy hair, he's taciturn, glowering, religious, kinda ignorant, and the one who's actually willing to go through with killing the hostages - in contrast to the charismatic, beleagured Sonny who definitely is framed as being in over his head and not likely to actually do it.

so when Sal's killed abruptly at the end of the film it's essentially framed as tragic but kinda inevitable, the only way they were going to get him to stand down. according to Wojtowicz, he was actually already immobilised when the FBI killed him, and Wojtowicz disputes that it was necessary to kill him.

the only photo I have of the real Salvator Naturile is a grainy police mugshot which is inevitably far from flattering! in this portrait he has somewhat similar hair to his film portrayal but the actor in the film is 39-year-old John Cazale.

the film has the main FBI goon (truly the most FBI looking FBI goon you've ever seen) warn Sonny that they're going to kill Sal; Sonny hides this from Sal as the group make their way to the airport in the bus he demanded, allowing Sal to be tricked into lowering his weapon so the FBI can suddenly kill him and arrest Sonny. the way the film suggests it played out, Sonny implicitly figures out that flying to maybe Algeria was not really on the cards, but makes an effort to keep the ball rolling all the same, to stop Sal from killing anyone and perhaps from some delusional doublethink hope they'll all manage to fly away in the end.

the real Wojtowicz was pretty appalled at this implication. he writes:

Now to one of the most despicable parts of the film. In it they hint very dramatically that I made some kind of a deal to betray my partner, Sal. It hurt me that the same F.B.I. who cold-bloodedly killed an 18-year-old boy can be depicted as having me help then. This is not true and there is no human being low enough in this world who would let the F.B.I. kill his partner in order for him to survive. It can be labeled as just Hollywood trying to sell a movie or just to increase the drama, but I call it sick.

Wojtowicz's trans wife Elizabeth Eden is portrayed in the film with a male name 'Leon', by Chris Sarandon. As I read it at the screening, the film portrays a time the line between 'gay' and 'trans' was far less clear-cut; Sonny is declared a 'homosexual' for his relationship with 'Leon', and refers to her with male pronouns despite calling her his wife. This appears broadly to be accurate: in Wojtowicz's letter, he refers to Eden as Ernie, and calls her his 'male lover'. He praises Chris Sarandon's performance, writing:

I feel he did it perfectly. If in real life Ernie had said those things and done those actions, he would have done them exactly as Chris did them. In the telephone scene between Pacino and himself his performance was unfathomable and a tribute to his mastery of an unbelievably difficult role. I was moved to tears by it because the realism was there and so professionally done.

the film paints 'Leon' as not supporting the robbery and actually wishing to escape from the increasingly erratic and violent Sonny - there's a compelling scene where they speak on the phone while the cops tune in. but is any of that actually true? Wojtowicz doesn't defend himself from any of that portrayal in the letter beyond briefly saying that 'some of what they both said ... were true statements of facts', even though they weren't discussed during the actual robbery.

all these inaccuracies notwithstanding, some good did come of the film for the main couple. consistent with Wojtowicz's stated intent, the film portrays Sonny as motivated in large part by paying for Leon's bottom surgery (in the film they call it a 'sex change operation', and the suggestion seems to be that Leon will only be a woman after that), and a scene near the end sees Sonny dictating. in reality, the filmmakers paid Wojtowicz $7500 for the use of his story (though he says they had agreed to give him more and did not honour that deal), and he used some of that money to pay for the real Elizabeth Eden's bottom surgery so... in a sense robbing a bank does pay, if you do it in a stylish enough way to get a movie made of you!

looking back on this whole thing nearly 50 years after the event... both the main characters portrayed in it are dead. Elizabeth Eden died during the AIDS crisis in the mid 80s - by that point Wojtowicz was out of prison and was able to give her a eulogy. Wojtowicz himself made it to 60, dying of cancer in 2006. both seem to have lead pretty regular lives. and now what remains is this movie, which found in their lives a suitably dramatic 125 minutes of screen time, where they could both come to represent something bigger.

most films I tend to watch depict entirely fictional events, so it's interesting watching a film which purports to portray something real. I end up thinking about all the ways in which turning it into film makes it artificial, simplifies people into characters. the way camera angles and lighting are arranged to inform us of a character's emotional state. the way the chaotic events are organised into a series of arcs of rising and falling tension, the rhythms of tense confrontations on the street and quiet moments inside the bank, the sense of space it creates between the outside (full of crowds and cops with guns where every movement is risky) and inside (where people can, ironically, play around with guns or have mundane medical problems). everything gradually escalating as new problems arise and their consequences play out - and all the boring hours of the robbery are elided, but still suggested by the changing costumes and lighting.

sifting through the chaos of life and making narrative out of it is what films do of course, and this film does it better than most, but it's weird to think about that. to try and imagine what it would be like to have a film made out of me, what dramatic choices they would make. biopics of 'great people' are well established, but this is a film about pretty ordinary people who did something kinda crazy once, and about the systems that they acted within.

very interesting movie, definitely holds up very well, much to think about. big shoutout to Small Trans Library for screening it, really looking forward to whatever they have for us next in a couple weeks.

[dark-frosted-heart]

Crown’s S Class Mission - Roger Barel (Bitter End)

As usual, can’t guarantee 100% accuracy on this.

Roger: Hold up. Not gonna let you kill my cute student. Now then, it’s time for Instructor Roger’s fun and exciting punishment.

Master of the estate: Oliver, shut that guy up!

Instructor Oliver: The one who needs to shut up is you.

Oliver grabbed the man and pinned him to the floor.

Master of the estate: *cough* Wha-what are you doing!

Instructor Oliver: I can’t lie to myself anymore. That’s all.

Roger: Capture everyone involved.

--

What awaited was an unimaginable scene.

Roger used rigorous muscle training to punish those involved.

When they were no longer able to stand, they were handed over to the police.

Kate: The Beauty Muscle Club has pretty much dissolved.

Roger: That’s good. And all the hospitalized women will be compensated.

Kate: While money won’t fix their situation…I hope it’ll help, even if just a little.

Oliver the instructor also came forward as one of the accomplices.

After atoning for his crimes, he planned on running his own sports gym.

He wanted to establish a place for women to work out together.

???: Um, excuse me…

Kate: Emilia…

Emilia’s wise gaze caught mine when I turned around. 

(...If she overheard us, she knows that she got deceived, doesn't she?)

(...What can I say to her—)

Emilia: Um, thank you so much!

Kate: Huh?

Emilia winked and smiled.

Emilia: I’ve faced a series of disappointments, but I can’t let that get me down.

Her strength revealed how much she had gone through in her life.

Kate: …I’ve also faced a series of disappointments. I could only think about how useless and pathetic I was. But I can’t stay depressed.

Emilia: I agree. I’ll see you around. Take care of yourself, Kate.

While I waved goodbye to Emilia, I noticed Roger’s gaze on me.

Kate: What is it?

Roger: Nothing. Just thinking about how you’re growing into a fine woman.

Kate: D-don’t praise me out of the blue. Besides, it’s not like you raised…

Roger: Yeah, yeah. Anyway, as a reward for growing up well, I’m taking you out somewhere nice.

--

Roger took me to a restaurant by Big Ben.

Roger: Been coming here ever since Ellis told me about it. Basically, everything here’s pretty good.

(...Roger brought me to such a nice restaurant)

Alarms bells started going off in my head.

Kate: …Are you’re going to make me do something again?

Roger: What do you take me for?

Roger stifled back a laugh and stared straight at me.

Roger: Don’t worry. There’s nothing behind the reward today.

Emma: …Reward?

Roger: I saw how hard you’ve been working…Good job.

(Ah…)

Hearing those words, it was clear that he brought me here as a reward.

Kate: Thank you…But, I don’t deserve it. I got too emotional to make rational decisions.

Roger: I suppose that’s true. But I would’ve slapped that guy myself if you didn’t. He deserved it. Getting angry for the sake of others is admirable.

Kate: …

Roger: Kate.

Kate: Yes?

Roger: You’re strong enough.

(What do I do…I’m going to cry)

Roger’s carrot and stick method always disturbed my heart.

If he did this on purpose, then he’s pretty evil.

Roger: Oh it’s here. The roast beef here’s delicious. Here.

The simple look on Roger’s face when he looked at the meat blew my sentiments away.

Kate: Hehe…It really does look delicious…

Roger: … Hey, Kate.

Kate: Yes?

Roger: Being strong doesn’t mean doing things alone. Being able to rely on someone’s also a strength. So you can rely on me.

After saying that, Roger took a huge bite out of the meat.

Roger: Mmm, yum. Come on, it’s getting cold.

Kate: O-okay. Mmm…Wow, it’s really good! It’s so juicy and tender. It’s amazing.

Roger: …o_o Hahaha! You’re as restless as ever. Remember to chew. My family’s corgi used to eat so fast that they’d choke. They look just like you.

Kate: There you go again comparing me to a dog!

Roger: All that barking’s the same too.

Kate: Ugh…

We argued like usual, but my heart felt warmer.

Roger’s words made me feel really happy…and I kept arguing with him so that he wouldn’t notice.

--

Some time later, I joined Jude and Ellis on another mission.

Ellis: Kate, you’ve been moving pretty smoothly.

Kate: Thank you. I’ve been doing strength training.

Jude: Ya still lookin’ pretty soft.

Kate: I-I’m planning on gaining muscle!

Ellis: Good luck, I’ll be cheering you on.

Ellis smiled and put his lips close to my ear.

Kate: Ellis…?

Ellis: Kate, Roger’s going to be in the lounge tonight.

Kate: Huh?

Ellis: You want to report your hard work and get praised, don’t you?

Ellis smiled gently at my surprise.

(I didn’t say that…)

Ellis: Or do you want to go out to dinner?

Kate: I’m heading back. I…have things to do in the castle.

I wonder how Roger will react when I tell him how I did today.

I definitely didn’t want him to know that I was walking a little faster than usual.

[imagitory]

Yes, I know, I'm shocked too -- but once again, it seems, I have to talk about Disney's Wish. Truthfully, this entire analysis was one I never set out to write, but I felt like I had to after having a really good conversation with my mum about this deleted scene featuring Asha's grandpa, Sabino; the sentiment expressed by some Disney fans that its inclusion would've helped fix the film; and even the purported perspective that the development team was deeply unhappy about the corporate decision to cut it.

So first off -- do I think this scene is that magical missing piece that would've fixed Wish? Not exactly. I do think that Sabino putting the idea of wishes being worth fighting for into words for Asha that she even could've reprised later while fighting Magnifico could've been very powerful. Just imagine how much stronger the story would've been if Asha had used Sabino's song to rally the town against Magnifico -- not only creating the payoff of Asha making her dear Saba's wish of inspiring people as well as her own wish to make things in Rosas better come true, but ALSO bringing Magnifico's worst fears of rebellion against his rule to life in an ironic twist! But even if including this scene could've improved the film, I don't think it would've fixed everything wrong with its story and characters. It did, however, inspire that really fun conversation with my mum, and we realized together what this scene at least partially provides that the finished film didn't --

A reason to care about the wishes Magnifico hoards away.

When I was in college, I took a screenwriting class, and one of the most important lessons the professor taught us was to give your main character(s) a strong desire and then give your audience three strong, disparate reasons to root for your character in reaching their goal. This way, if one of the reasons doesn't resonate with a member of your audience, maybe another one will. The more reasons you give your character to want to succeed, the more people in your audience are likely to feel for your character's position and support them in their actions.

Let's use Disney-Pixar's absolute masterpiece Finding Nemo as an example, just for kicks. Marlin wants to save his son, Nemo, after he gets captured and taken away by human scuba divers. The audience wants Marlin to succeed because his reasons include --

Love. Marlin loves his son very much and is very protective of him, partly because Nemo has a disability that Marlin worries puts him at particular risk being on his own.

Past trauma. As seen in the prologue of the film, Marlin lost the entire rest of his family to a horrific barracuda attack that also resulted in injuring Nemo while he was still an egg, so Nemo is the only family Marlin has left.

Guilt. Marlin feels responsible for what happened to Nemo, because they were in the midst of a fight about Marlin's helicopter parenting when Nemo put himself so close to the human boat and got captured.

The thought process behind this writing trick is that you want your audience to care about what your character is working toward. This is how you get an audience really emotionally invested in their struggles and story, and it also helps define who the character is as a person, understanding not just what they want, but seeing the lengths they'll go to in order to chase that desire. And this is what Wish seems to understand symbolically, but not enough to use this knowledge while shaping its screenplay or characters.

In the finale of the film, all of the people in Rosas whose wishes were taken can still gather enough "stardust" or "magic" or "dreaming whatever" to defeat Magnifico without them. The magic is inside of them, even without the contents of the bubbles Magnifico took from them -- because our wishes, dreams, and ambitions come from who we are, as people. They're a piece of us -- they're informed by who we are -- our happy memories, our past scars, our personalities and hobbies and values. What makes dreams coming true so beautiful is seeing someone become a more complete version of themselves through it!

And yet...what do we learn about any of these characters that tie into these wishes and why it's so important their wishes be returned and/or granted? What visually communicates that these wishes are so integral to these people's personalities and souls that they're a pale shadow of who they used to be without them? What emotional justification is there for anyone to care if Rosas's citizens achieve these flights of fancy? Are there any real stakes or grave consequences if those wishes aren't granted?

Why do we care if this one lady wishes she could fly, or this other one wants to make dresses? What do we care if this one person wants to sail a ship and travel the world? This one guy wants to climb a mountain or something, but...so what? We don't know any of them from Adam! The film tells us that these wishes are really important to these people, but we don't get any emotional reasons to be invested in whether or not these people's individual wishes come true.

Even characters we do meet like Simon -- what about him made him want to be a knight? Where did that wish come from, in his character? Was it fueled by misguided patriotism? A desire for glory? Being bullied as a child and wanting to prevent others from going through the same thing? We have no idea! Imagine how much more Simon's "betrayal" scene would've hurt if we'd gotten to know Simon as this dreamy, idealistic person who grew up reading fairy tales about knights bravely protecting their kingdom and being heralded for it, only for that wish to be twisted by Magnifico to make Simon serve his king blindly with no free will of his own. Imagine how much more interesting of a character Simon would've been if there had been real context behind that wish he'd made and given up, and how much more interesting his relationships with his friends could've been as a result.

What about Asha's mother? Her wish is treated as incredibly important in the film, since Asha tries to steal it from Magnifico like she did Sabino's and Asha and her family react with such upset when Magnifico crushes it, and yet we never once learn what the wish even was. Even when the wish is reformed and returned to Asha's mother, we STILL never learn what it was and by extension what it meant to her mom and why it was a bad thing that it got crushed. Why should we believe this wish of Asha's mum's is so important if we never even learn what it is? Because the film said it's important? In the immortal words of Will Turner,

(source)

Just look at Joe Gardner in Pixar's Soul. Would you care so much about him wanting to get back to the world of the living if you didn't learn through the film that he'd been dreaming of playing jazz since he was a child and had finally landed this big gig with a jazz band after years of rejection and his own mother never supporting his dream right before dying? Would Joe have connected with 22 the way he had over the course of the story if it weren't for not only his goal, but the character, passions, and world view that fueled his pursuit of that goal in the first place?

My mum, while we had this discussion of ours, put forward her own experience. When she was a young woman, she dreamed of having a family of her own: a husband, 2.5 kids, a house with a white picket fence where people could gather together. Over time, though, Mum kind of resigned herself to the reality that it probably wasn't going to happen -- she was pretty solidly focused on her career, she hadn't had much luck in her long-term relationships, and she'd gotten to an age that having her own children was incredibly unlikely. This doesn't mean my mum lost that desire for family -- it's still a part of her, and it informs who she is as a person. She's always taken care of the many cats she's had over the years as if they were her children. She made and has kept life-long friendships with people who've become like siblings to her. She even ended up becoming something like a mother figure for her ex-boyfriend's daughter from a previous marriage, while she and that boyfriend were together. And when I was conceived (pretty miraculously too!), my mum never hesitated for a moment about whether or not she wanted me. Even if my father had chosen not to stand by her and me, she would've pursued that dream of motherhood she'd thought was lost to her all the same.

THIS is what the deleted Sabino scene has that the finished film doesn't, though still in a bite-size amount. The reason the filmmakers give us for why we should care about Sabino's wish (and, one could argue, the town's wishes) is that when his wish is returned to him, it allows Sabino to connect more deeply with his granddaughter and his daughter-in-law through the music he's so passionate about.

The reason we the audience should care about Sabino's wish is the connection he makes with others.

We still don't know where that wish came from in Sabino's character or back-story, and the theme of connection through one's dreams is something that certainly could've been explored more if it had been kept...but for the first time, through this deleted scene, the filmmakers gave us a reason to care about that little magic bubble besides just telling us that they represent a heart's deepest desire and we should want everyone's wishes to come true because wishes are good. (Which honestly has a lot of problems -- the film never even bothers to explore any scenarios where wishes could truly be dangerous or morally wrong to grant, such as a wish to rule this particular kingdom or that this one person will marry you, regardless of their opinion on the matter.)

The song Sabino sings in this scene says that if a wish is powerful enough to fill your heart and make it "close to breaking," then it's one "worth making." But to tell a story worth telling and create characters worth rooting for, you need to show -- not just verbally explain -- why your audience should care.

[animereviewsbykyranskye]

My current top 15 Anime and why

Because why the fuck not. I'm doing top 15 so that I have some variety behind it. Otherwise I would just be gushing non stop XD

Apparently numbers go big now - AND THEY GO SMALLER IF YOU TRY TO TYPE IN THE SAME LINE AS THEM???

comparison:

15

15 -

DA HECK????

(Edit: I was going to colour all the numbers because I wanted a rainbow. WHY THE FUCK FOR THEY CHANGE TO SMALL WHEN YOU COLOUR THEM??????)

Guess the titles of the anime get a small heading. Anyways. Onto the actual list!

15

Technoroid OVERMIND

Ayo. Starting out with a really random one. So if anyone were to look at my Anilist then they might be a bit confused. I decided I'd keep movies out of here as well as anything I haven't specifically finished. Also takt op. Destiny needs a re evaluation.

Anyways. This premise is so sick and I feel like they managed it really well. The characters were all really fun and the music was fantastic which is honestly the most important thing about Idol shows. I really like idol shows but often struggle with the stupid drama in them that just leads to seasons upon seasons that didn't need to happen or wouldn't actually happen.

In this they're just androids. The fantasy twist works so well for the genre and I honestly don't know why it isn't done more often. This way they can bullshit the drama and it actually makes sense.

Honestly my favourite character was Kite. He was great and his voice always gave me shivers. Especially his piece in the closing. Damn.

I don't want to go into full reviews with this, rather just gushing about things I like and stuff. I really don't think this got the recognition it deserves - probably because of it's deviation from the norm - but it would be cool to get some sort of sequel.

(Edit: There's a manga releasing apparently. Imma check that out.)

14

UniteUp!

Continuing on with the trend of idol animes apparently. UniteUp! was so good. As I mentioned in my Reviews while I watch of the show, it felt so grounded and real that other idol shows just don't seem to capture. These were all real people with real problems dealing with real life.

I also like how we had such a large cast of characters but it never really felt overwhelming as they focused on group dynamics and specific individuals rather than trying to cram every single person into their own arcs.

Once again the music was fantastic and by god was this show pretty gay. Honestly I don't know what the sentiments of others are, but the Anela duo definitely weren't straight and neither were Akira and Daiki. That bath scene says it all.

Anyways. If you want a fun time with a really solid idol anime, please check it out. I saw earlier that we're getting a season two soon. I am so looking forward to it.

13

Trigun Stampede

Damn! I don't even know what to really say about this one. The visuals are absolutely stunning - there is no doubt about that. The score and the characters are excellent. And how dare they leave us on that cliff hanger.

I have absolutely no history with this story and still need to watch and read the originally but I am really looking forward to seeing how the story adapts between the three.

You can ask my partner. I've already said we're watching everything trigun related as soon as we are done with our current show.

I'm really looking forward to season two. And especially seeing how this all pans out. Apparently there will be tears according to the fandom. Concern.

12

Re-main

Damn this show came out of nowhere for me. I watched it quite awhile ago and have been meaning to rewatch it again.

The premise is definitely a sports anime but honestly so different. All because of one thing. The fact that he is an amnesiac is such a fascinating concept to work with - especially with how he was before (trying not to spoil - can't remember when this comes up in the anime)

And then the ending?? Damn. They seriously set up that cliff hanger and I really hope this show gets a sequel.

I really can't say too much about it without giving away some spoilers but damn does it change up the formula and do it so fucking well.

11

Given

Given is great. Such a pure but heartbreaking portrayal of love on one side with such conflicting but also nurturing views on the other. Having the different realtionships throughout this is really well done how they all bounce off of each other. Especially when they entertwine it with the music.

As it is said. That is how they communicate - through the music.

I'm busy catching up with the manga and really hope the anime continues with it.

Also the fucking is just fucking gorgeous. It has no write to hit you that hard.

Also - something else that shouldn't be allowed to hit you that hard. Damn Mafuyu has had a difficult past. We love how he learns to heal and grow with Uenoyama at his side.

Anyways, moving on.

10

Bakuten!!

Okay. Who said a sports anime could be this pretty.

I love the art style and the music throughout all of this. I love the portayal and the evolution of these character - seriously all their arcs are great. The interactions of the team is so tangible and real.

I watch a lot of sports anime and I often struggle with some of the drama used within the sports - it feels like the only thing that ever fuels the story is the matches. Whereas in Bakuten - the character seriously fuel the story. You can understand their motivations much more than just - I want to play this sport and be the best!

I also feel like they really captured everything really well in the movie. The whole concept of wanting to sore is great and really well executed.

I also love the interactions they have with the other team. It's not just a once off competition or practice match that they face each other. We actually get tangible characters for the whole team and see how much they two teams are similar to one another. It's a very healthy rivalry that isn't normally this expanded on in sports anime.

9

Sasaki and Miyano

Yesssssss. These two are just absolutely amazing. Their whole story arc and relationship is just tooth rottingly sweet. They bounce off of each other so well.

And I love the fact of how slow the actual story is. They meet at the start of Miyanos first year (from what I know - I still need to read the novels) and sasaki's second and they only end up confessing just before graduation happens. It really plays out well and is so healthy.

There is no problematic elements like in so many BL stories which is such a breath of fresh air. And the fact that sasaki is very specific about making sure to maintain boundaries to ensure that miyano is comfortable is also excellent.

On a slightly different note - I still need to see the Hirano and Kagiura movie. Been dying to watch it. I've been keeping up to date with both manga and both of these stories are amazing. I love the dichotomy of the two stories and how they are coming to their own realisations of their feelings in honestly very different ways.

I also recently watched the dub of the anime due to some videos on tiktok. Fucking hell it is absolutely hilarious. Kellen Goff as Sasaki has no reason for being that good. Seriously. Damn.

8

Link Click

On a completely different note. Damn this one makes you questions your own morals and reality as you know it.

I really don't want to get into this one much as I do believe watching it blind is the best way to go.

The art style is fantastic and that opening hits like a truck it is so good. The characters just click (pun not intended) and you just understand their motivations and don't know which side to side with most of the time. It brings about such high moral dilemmas that will seriously mess with your brain sometimes and there is one episode that will likely make you cry.

Anyways. Season 2 has just started airing and I am so ready for it.

7

Buddy Daddies

Why did a show about two queer platonic dudes who adopt a child while beings assassins hit so damn hard.

The show jumps between episodes with backstory and episodes with them just being good dads and it is balanced so well. This anime won't end up getting a sequel most likely with how it ended but damn I wouldn't say no to one.

Rei is my favourite character and I relate to him far too much. His interactions with the world are so fascinating and his whole arc with Miri is honestly some of the best media I've seen.

I absolutely loved watching this show weekly and it always brightened up my day when I realised a new episode would be up.

If you would like further thoughts on this one then check the Reviews while I watch on it for more chaos.

6

No Game No Life

So. This was the first ever anime that I ever watched. It was a random recomendation from a friend. Look at where we are today.

This show is honestly just so fun. The characters are silly and the whole plot is just absolute chaos. I really enjoy the games aspect and how it was all incorporated into the world.

I can't even really say much about it. It is just a guilty pleasure of mine and will always hold a special place in my heart.

Also. Please can it just get a second season already.

5

Assassination Classroom

So. Unlike everything else on the list - this one I only finished really recently. My partner and I were watching it together. And to put it out there straight away. I cried. That ending was far too emotional.

I really enjoyed the humour throughout the whole thing as well as the constant underlying dread of the whole situation.

They also really played out Koro-senseis backstory really well. The teasing to it was excellent. I must say though that one of the twists seriously came out of left field. Like damn.

I've just recently bought the boxset and am reading through the manga. Once again. It's absolutely amazing.

Also the openings of them all jumping are absolutely fucking hilarious and you can't tell me otherwise.

If you want to know what officially sold me on the show was just in the first episode. (Note we watched in dub)

Don't ask me why but I found this to be the most hilarious thing ever. The absurdity and the line delivery was magnificent. I annoy my partner by quoting it atleast once a day.

4

Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan

Speaking of comedies. This show has no right to be this good. The absudist dead pan comedy in the middle of whats meant to be a TV show is such a random premise but just works so well.

Due to the nature of the show, the characters are extremely relateable. I especially love Kumatani and Kikaku.

If your on the same side of anime tiktok that I am then you have definitely seen/heard snippets of the dub.

I think this was the first anime that I originally watched in sub and then tried it in dub and actually enjoyed it. (I often find that whatever I originally watched it in is the only one I can watch it in - it's very difficult for me to change it)

The voice acting on both sides just works perfectly for the show. And that final episode and how they did it was the best thing ever.

Please just give it a try.

3

Angel Beats

Okay. Time for a hard hitter. This comedy like assassintaion classroom is fucking excellent but will make you cry, like damn.

In complete and utter contrast to No game no life, this was the second anime I had ever watched. I had found a video that gave some suggestions and thought I would give this one a try. When I say it destoryed me, I mean it literally. I constantly think about the end of this and I absolutely love revisiting it.

The twist and turns along the way are fascinating and I love how each one alters the characters and the narrative. Each of the characters feel unique - even the lesser developed side characters - with fascinating and complex backstories.

The whole thing just makes you question your own place in life.

2

Moriarty the Patriot

Another one I just randomly tried because I saw a video on tiktok. The first episode immediately pulled me in. I thought it was just going to be some simple detective story (At the time I didn't know much about Sherlock Holmes and who Moriaty was so I didn't have any of that to guide me into this story.) But nope.

I keep saying this but in this one I really mean it. The characters are built so well. The dichotomy between William and Sherlock - as the fandom would probably agree - is just amazing. How they bounce off of each other - i don't even know how to really descirbe it.

Honestly just go watch it.

And if you enjoyed the anime - please go check out the manga too. If the anime was done well - then the manga is done to lamost perfection.

This show was what got me into reading and then eventually buying manga. I now have every single one that is out.

1

Yuri!!! on ICE

Did I make the title gay? Yes.

Okayyyyy. This is just going to be me going on about how much I love this show. Bare with me.

So I was in an anime watching slump just before I picked up this show. I had been seeing some videos popping up talking about it and decided to give it a try (this was in 2020)

I immediately fell in love with this show. Literally everything about it. I ended up rewatching it three times over the course of a week. It got to a point where I was so upset that there wasn't more content for it that I just cried for half a day. (Ask my partner - it was chaos)

This show is the reason I now read fanfiction - all because I found a way to technically have more content for it.

This show holds such an important place in my heart that I sincerely cannot express it properly.

If you've never watched it - go give it a try. It would mean a lot - and hopefully one day we might get a season two.

----

Thanks for reading, if you managed to get to this point. I find it interesting how my explanations managed to slowly get shorter throughout the list as I just started becoming more emotional than factual.

I hope you enjoyed it and maybe grabbed a recommendation or two. If you'd like to know more or hear me ramble on more about anything in particular then please let me know.

[cypionate60mg]

hello, do you have other songs recs that have similar vibes like if you can't do it good do it hard?

Sure, here's a sampling. All of these are best listened to with headphones.

That track is from this album by Against All Logic, Nicolas Jaar's side project. Worth listening to all the way through. I prefer the first release from AAL. 2012-2017, that first LP, is a lot groovier and more analog-feeling, with many homages to the sentimental sampling style of old school house. In both releases, Jaar puts different sounds in conversation with each other, looping and cutting them to make these gorgeous sound collages. The result varies. In 2012-2017, he turns these old records into something powerfully nostalgic and sensual. 2017-2019 is a little more jagged and digital, but it has better flow from track to track.

If you like the hydraulic sounds of IYCDIGDIH, check out Drexciya, where things go underwater but still remain futurist. This particular track is a good starting comparison, but I highly recommend listening to their entire discography, release by release. I feel like it's important to understand the magical, mysterious way their music entered onto the 90s Detroit scene, one wax pressing at a time. Little vinyl discs with sci-fi art about the African diaspora. Other people explain it better. They crafted a mythos that many people have written about. You could start listening here.

The members of Drexciya had all sorts of side projects too, many of which served as further commentaries on race in the electronic music scene. I'll let you discover those for yourself.

If AAL's 2017-2019 is a stainless steel blade, then Daft Punk's Homework is a fork in a microwave. It still holds up well, if you like a thudding, fuzzy, driving sound. A far cry from the poppy stuff they did later in their career.

Some of Arca's older music, like that from her debut album Xen, might interest you if you're into something a little less tied to rhythm and more spacious. But there are dancier tracks peppered throughout her discography. She's always going to sound incredibly cutting-edge.

If you liked the darkness of early Arca but still want the insistent rhythms of AAL, try this out. A little more industrial. This particular Tzusing album holds a special place in my heart.

And if it was the Lydia Lunch sample in IYCDIGDIH that really captured your attention, then perhaps you'd like to hear more from her.

Happy listening

[fictionadventurer]

the animation style isn't for everyone, but my family typically watches the 2009 Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey - if you're up to try another adaptation I wonder what you'd think of it! It does include both the scene of the ghosts and of Ignorance and Want, and iirc a pretty big percentage of the dialogue is straight out of the original book.

I'm actually watching it right now, and I've been checking patches of the dialogue against Gutenberg. Aside from cutting out some lines from conversations, the dialogue is pretty much word-for-word from the book. In the scene with Marley, Scrooge even says, "Thank'ee," where it would have been easy to substitute, "Thank you." Unfortunately, some of the lines they've cut are the religious ones, but I guess we can't have everything.

I was going to wait to give thoughts until I could give a full review, but I'm actually watching this version because I was so impressed by the patches of it I caught on TV, and this gives me a chance to talk about some of the things I've liked.

Jim Carrey as Scrooge works shockingly well. He really throws himself into the part. All the weird little gremliny body language makes him this loathsome creature, but in a comic way that feels very Dickens.

Starting with Scrooge signing Marley's death certificate was such a smart choice. They managed to work in the "dead as a doornail" line without narration!

I had been hoping for Scrooge to steal something from Marley's body during his death scene in the Sim version, and was disappointed they didn't go that route. But this version does! It's such a good choice.

This might be the first Bob Crachit I haven't loved--he looks too ratlike and henchman-y. But he's growing on me a bit, and I love that they include the scene of him sliding on the ice with the boys.

This version seems to overexaggerate the horror and nightmare elements of the story. Not a huge fan of that, but it could be worse.

I adore how they capture Scrooge's joy in the Christmas Past scenes. I was disappointed we didn't get him going into raptures over his childhood reading, but I've liked everything else I've seen so far of that portion.

Seeing young Jim Carrey in Victorian garb as young Scrooge was...an odd experience.

This version's Belle absolutely blew me away. Every other version of her I've seen makes her just Scrooge's girlfriend. She's there to be a sweet and sentimental lost love. But this Belle is a mature, responsible woman, who knows her own mind and heart and can make good choices for her life. This is a woman who could have captured Scrooge's heart and would have made an excellent wife. Astounding performance on every level.

Want and Ignorance were the only parts of the Christmas Present scene I've caught so far. Loved that they were included, didn't like the expansion into much weirder nightmare imagery.

I'm obsessed with how Carrey keeps Scrooge's gremliny body language even after he reforms. So it plays as "Mwahaha, I've trapped you in my evil plan to...give your family a comfortable life!" Not how I would have envisioned his post-reform behavior, but a believable and very fun choice.

[kindestegg]

In my previous posts, I have spoken about Collector's good side quite a lot, their eagerness to learn from their environment, their ability to grow when around good influences, the growth they have shown around King, their love for titans and their compelling backstory... and have as well touched upon their flaws and their darker side.

But I feel like I am lacking in an exploration of their darker side in its own dedicated post like I have done for their growth and good side. And I feel like such a post is way overdue because recently I have seen a pretty concerning uptick in the sentiment that Collector "never meant to hurt anyone", that they don't know what killing is and that they were overall an unwitting pawn in Belos' plan. And that is... simply not the truth? There are several instances in canon that contradict this and I would like to dive into them in this post.

Let's start with a pretty controversial scene: the capturing of the Owl Beast. Now, there's a lot of people who have associated the fact that there are multiple collectors and that the collector in the Owl Beast's dream sequence appears bigger and has a different outfit to indicate that the collector that captured the Owl Beast is a different one.

Now, while I admit that that is a possibility, I would like to at the very least make some arguments for the fact that this could still be our Collector, and why that matters.

Let's start by the most glaring issue: the voice. The collector that captured the Owl Beast has the exact same voice actress, exactly the same voice as our Collector, and is in the credits as "the Collector". It is very hard to argue with that: even if we go with the theory that then all collectors must sound the same, that is an incredibly big stretch that has no real backing in canon aside from an assumption to try and explain away this clash.

Another argument often seen is that the collector seen here "sounds different" from our Collector as in their line delivery is different, as if the sadism in their voice and laughter would be enough to imply being a completely different person and uhhh...

Do you guys... also think that about the Collector in the Hollow Mind scene that properly introduced them? Because they sounded... kind of like that. But I'll touch on that soon. Back to the Owl Beast dream for now.

Another argument I have seen is that this collectors outfit is different and they are too tall/big to be our Collector... which once again I need to remind you of this?

This is a scene in which our Collector undoubtedly shows he can change sizes (becoming big enough to nearly fill up the entire room he is in, towering above everything) and the cape he's in is clearly different from his usual outfit.

And the ability that collectors have to change size is backed by the paintings in the archive halls: when in space they can be bigger than whole planets, even our Collector who is younger being nearly the same size as the planet, but when they actually go to the planet they adjust their size to the creatures on it, such as the trappers or in Collector's case, the titan babies.

There is also the matter of the Owl Beast clearly remembering the Collector and having a reaction even during the DOU to just the disc itself cracking, and later becoming frenzied when seeing him face to face. Sure, the Owl Beast could just felt threatened by any Collector, but... doesn't it make more narrative sense and have more significance that it's this Collector that it specifically has problems with? That was a REALLY strong reaction to just be a generalization.

Anyway, I briefly mentioned how Collector talks in Hollow Mind, and I feel like it really bears to examine it again and remind ourselves of it, not let it be forgotten just because he's recently been nice. As I said before, Collector is canonically someone who can be pretty sadistic and find something funny about suffering.

But... even this is something that the fandom has been trying to smooth away the edges of. I've encountered some people who, despite I'm sure just being well meaning fans of the character who want to offer a new perspective, inevitably attempt to defang him and imply that he did not know the draining spell would hurt or kill people, that the screams he imitated were something he wasn't aware was bad, and even that this extends to how Collector interpreted Belos and the grimwalkers. Essentially, through a lot of stretching and attempting to re-interpret the Hollow Mind scenes, Collector's being slowly made into a naive child who was being led around by Belos to commit crimes while somehow never learning anything from context clues.

This is essentially problematic because I feel like it misses the point of Collector's character and metanarrative purpose and turns them into something they are not. But I'll be getting to that around the end of this post. For now, rather than just going "you're wrong and that's it" (which would be rude to do!) I will try to, as kindly as possible, explain my reasoning as to why these interpretations feel like they are misreading the material.

Examining then, their behavior in Hollow Mind. Here is why I believe that they are aware of what the Draining Spell does:

First off, they mention that they and Belos will have revenge when reciting the second half of their poem. Why would they consider the Day of Unity a kind of revenge for both of them if they didn't know it would hurt people?

Similarly, the imagery they portray when talking about what the spell does definitely implies that they know the draining spell would at least affect people negatively, as they portray them blowing away into dust as well as having the sigils affect their bodies and similarly make them turn to nothing.

I know this happens rather in King's Tide, but it's something I want to use to reinforce my point: In King's Tide, Collector makes a point to say they gave Belos the draining spell, they taught him magic stronger than anybody's. I highly doubt Collector would teach Belos a spell that he didn't know the consequences of, specially considering his freedom was riding on this spell working, and Belos made sure to remind him of that every time.

Also to drive home the point he knows screams mean something bad, before Collector imitates Belos screaming and presumably lashing out at Hunter, he says that Belos was mad. So at the very least he knows that you can scream in anger.

I feel like people tend to get caught up in the fact Collector says it's like the world is singing when talking about his happiness and King snarkily responds that he wouldn't call people screaming singing. I can see how that could be interpreted as if Collector doesn't know screams are bad... but with the previous knowledge we have of this character, that makes hard to justify, and I'd like to call attention to the fact Collector never states he was talking about the people, King just uses the opportunity to point out people are screaming, and then lead onto how he should stop "freaking everyone out".

So, yes, Collector knew about the Draining Spell and all that it would entail, he likely even tailored it for Belos, and he also knows what Grimwalkers are in a sense and what is being done to them.

At the very least... he knows grimwalkers can be made, what they are called, and also insinuates they are to be played with, but is intrigued by the fact Belos keeps making them and then destroying them. We can clearly see that one of Collector's biggest flaws is his problem with rationalizing the environment around him, since he views things by what is most fun to do, he imagines putting all this effort into building something and tearing it down must be fun... ignoring that these are real people Belos is building, abusing and then killing.

In general, though, this ties to the running theme of Collector viewing anyone they haven't gotten to know and befriended with extreme disinterest. While they would prefer not to kill or hurt anyone, if the situation really calls for it as a means to an end, they will do so. There is no incentive for them to care for the grimwalkers and view them as people... so they do not. Their current only friend acts as if it's natural, so they act accordingly. King tells them they need lots of players for a game of pretend? That's easy then, just make everyone into puppets, and you don't have to worry about them as people. Dehumanization is perhaps the key word here, which ties into their themes also of bulldozing the environment and culture of the Isles, as well as their harmful escapism, refusing to see things for what they are and trying to only focus on having fun and feeling good.

I feel like it is important to establish and argue for this because many people forget that Collector's character isn't just meant to be a fully sadistic selfish villain or a genuine and kind naive child. What makes the Collector so great and interesting is that he is both those things, those parts of him mix up and dance around to create a character that fits in the narrative as a foil and parallel to multiple characters, as well as provoke interesting ethical questions to us, such as:

If a child is given the opportunity to hurt animals and people and does so, playing roughly with them and traumatizing them, what is the course of action to follow from there? Imprison them? Hurt them? Punish them in some other way? Where is the root of this child's destructive and harmful behavior? Why are they acting this way? What do they have to say about their actions?

And we do know the root: For the Future makes it a point to let us know of their backstory, that they were raised into a society that believed coming in and taking whatever they wanted was natural and anything in their way deserved their wrath. And that even if he did reject this notion in part, he cannot shake off entirely the influence this has had on him, causing him to find extreme acts of violence as a means to an end natural as well as to not consider how his altering of the landscape and culture of the Isles enacts cultural violence upon them.

The true tragedy of Collector is that they are a child that wants to learn and do good, and ultimately wants nothing more than to be free, to play, and to have friends, but because of the circumstances around them, what they were taught to believe in and the psychological torture they were subjected to inside the prison, and the fact Belos was the one person they had contact for the last four hundred years or so... they inevitably became also incredibly accustomed to violence, to taking what they want by force, to justifying as many corpses piling up as necessary to get what they want. They're terrifying, they're horrible, they're sad, they're tragic, they're genuine, they're willing to learn, they have so much potential, they are multifaceted and that is what makes them an interesting character, bad things and good things alike.

[bobbydagen24]

some little story ideas I thought up about Chef coming back in the next movie inspired by this other persons post.

so yeah I liked this other person's idea for a 4th film a lot so I thought up some extra details for a possible story where Branch is taken by Chef who gets revealed to still be alive.

I do really like this idea as the older Brothers coming together to save him from his greatest fear would be a satisfying story arc.

as the movie could maybe open with Poppy Peppy and Viva as well as all of Bro zone all just playing happy families getting along with each other and adjusting to the whole thing pretty easily.

meanwhile Branch Despite putting on a fake smile and hiding how he feels is still just feeling uneasy about the whole thing he could kinda be on a constant nervous edge where he's so afraid of doing or saying the wrong thing and causing tension that may cause them to fight and thus leave him again.

that he's pretty much a nervous wreck around his Brothers desperately trying to make sure everything is perfect all the time and never asking them for help or letting them know about any negative feelings he has from time to time Regarding them and also Grandma.

and he overall just doesn't feel like he has a family he can rely on anymore than he did During all those years that he had no family for.

in short he just still doesn't exactly trust them nor feel comfortable around them as their still somewhat strangers to him who he mostly knows from the past as being unreliable and quick to flee when the going gets tough.

which maybe causes some sorta argument where during an event JD gets frustrated with how he and the others can clearly tell he's been hiding something from them due to how weird and off he acts.

and he's tired of waiting for him to open up on his own and like I said this causes a big argument between Branch and JD Floyd and Clay try to calm things down but to no Avail.

Bruce steps in and agrees with JD tho he's less aggressive about it and more just calm and concerned.

but ultimately stuff is said on both ends ending with Branch finally letting out his true feelings and screaming at them about how they didn't care enough to stick around they didn't care enough to come back and they didn't care even when he was upset over them wanting to leave him again.

so why should he believe that they care now? and Branch runs away into the Forrest which could be when he's captured by Chef.

I'd think her motive is wanting revenge not just on all of Pop Village but also on Bergen Town given they Banished her twice but she somehow needs the magic that a Troll produces to achieve her plan hence why she takes Branch when he wonders off on his own.

maybe she does something similar to Velvet and Veneer where she drains the Troll magic out of him but this time she's using it to power a device that she's going to use to topple all of Bergen town and its people.

and then Pop Village just out of spite.

and it'd be just be nice as a emotional plot to have Bro zone rescuing Branch from their Grandma's killer maybe we even get some parallels where during the climax Chef in a last ditch effort out of spite goes to try and kill Branch only for one of the older Bros either JD or Bruce.

to push him out of the way sacrificing themselves in a scene mirroring when their Grandma was taken when Branch was a kid tho I'd have it just be a fake out death and they get saved soon afterwards.

but point is the sentiment is the same where they were willing to sacrifice themselves for him.

and early on in the film it'd be good to finally have Branch acknowledge that he is aware it was Chef from that fateful day and he angrily comments on it only for her to callously not Remember who or what he's talking about stating that she killed so many Trolls that his Grandma wasn't at all special and she doesn't even remember the day he's talking about.

obviously Hurting and angering Branch given that day pretty much shaped who he became afterwards for his whole life.

and maybe in another scene Branch states to Chef that knows that Poppy will come to save him but when he thinks about his brothers he just thinks back to how easily they've all broken up in the past at the first sign of trouble and he sadly thinks to himself that they likely wouldn't bother coming to save him.

and this leads to Bro zone actually stepping up and Risking their lives to save him from the source of his greatest Trauma aka their Grandmother's killer thus by the end actually showing Branch that he really can trust his family to be there for him this time.

and just Chef getting to face off with Bro zone would be neat since ya know she killed their Grandma and Honestly I've always found it weird from a writing perspective how her being the one who killed Branch's Grandmother was never actually acknowledged at any point in the first movie the only reason we the audience know is a super brief glimpse we see of her During Branch's flashback scene.

so even getting to see Branch himself have a proper face off with Chef over his Grandma would be nice since they never actually Directly interacted in the first film except for the scene where she tried to force feed him to Gristle Jr poor guy.

so yeah what do you think about the idea? the person behind the post did also say that the idea could still maybe work without the whole Chef being Revealed to be alive angle and it instead just being a new villain who kidnaps Branch.

but I feel the first idea where she is the main villain again would add a nice sense of personal stakes to the story for the main characters involved given it wraps up a nice little part of the Bro zone family's History.

sure we saw her get eaten at the end of the first film but that can easily be Retconned where she somehow survived and was able to escape from the creatures mouth.

plus it'd be satisfying to see The Brothers all work together to defeat her in the final battle and this time her Defeat could be Ironic for a whole different reason where due to some magic nonsense in the end Chef gets shrunken down to the point she's now smaller than the Trolls by a lot.

she's made so small that she's as Helpless as her past Troll victims were.

and she isn't actually capable of hurting them anymore we see her angrily charge at Branch and start swinging away and he's scared at first only for him to then awkwardly Realise she isn't actually Hurting him.

Despite her best efforts and he just kinda flicks her away

not to mention it'd be fun seeing Branch and his Bros just playfully toss her back and fourth like some sorta ball kids play with.

really showing how none of them are afraid of her anymore not even Branch which would be very satisfying imo.

and after some mocking by Bro zone towards Chef they pick her up and toss her in a tiny cage where she's most likely kept in prison either at Bergen town or at one of the other Trolls Tribes since they most likely wouldn't want to keep her at Pop Village.

anyway I just love this persons idea I think Chef coming back would work great as an emotional plot device to Develop Bro zone's Relationship with Branch Further.

and it could expand on all of the Bros's Relationship with their Grandma a little further as well which would be nice.

what do you think?

[astrovian]

Richard Armitage on playing Thorin Oakenshield for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Chronicles

The first meeting I had with Peter, Fran and Phillipa was the casting. I was given a scene to read that was actually a construct - it wasn't from the book. It was at this point that I became really excited by the idea, that the book was going to be the backbone of a much more fleshed out, well-rounded story. The scene they gave me to read was Thorin talking to Balin about who the Dwarves had once been, what they had become, why the Wizard had come to him with the map and the key, but that he didn't feel he had the strength to do this. In one scene, the writers had captured exactly what his character was all about - his dreams, his regrets, his insecurities, and his power.

Throughout the filming process, I was able to bounce my ideas around our forum. Often, ideas would spring from drafts of scenes being 'workshopped', or in progress. As we all grew to know and understand Thorin, the collaboration became easier. The way the character looked was very much in Peter, Fran and Philippa's hands; the way he moved, spoke, and delivered the ideas on the page were mine and Tolkien's. I was inspired very much by a particular pencil sketch of John Howe's, particularly the hands, eyes and nose. I felt they weren't dissimilar to my own. There was also a gentle, pensive attitude in the picture which I hadn't seen in Tolkien. It gave me a useful colour to paint with.

The most exciting part of collaboration though, isn't when one sits down to negotiate for ideas to make it into the script or film, but when they appear in the script at the very moment when they are desired. This happened a lot. This is when I felt we were all in tune. The lines never had to be learned. I suppose Peter, Fran and Philippa were hearing my voice when they wrote a scene - another great compliment - and when imagining that scene, I was in tune with the flavour of neo-classicism that I felt our writers were enjoying: the Dwarf kingdoms felt like the great Roman empires, and the literature and philosophical ideas were in line with Greek tragedy, at times Shakespearean. I felt that it was appropriate to allow myself to wander down that path, after all Thorin was heading for a kind of megalomaniacal insanity, which is a difficult thing to play without embracing that 'full throttle' style of art.

I always imagine chracters who are defined by their history. If it's not there than I will inevitably construct a detailed biography. For Thorin this was very easy as Tolkien had given so much material to us through various other sources in his literature, but I still needed to investigate a more domestic biography; 'What do Thorin and Dwalin "chew the fat about"?' or, 'What was Thorin's relationship with his sister Dís like?' I felt that might inform how Fili and Kili would feature in Thorin's life.

The difficulty with Thorin is that he enters the story on the edge of failure, but with everything to win. I remember thinking when I first read the scene for the casting, that here was a character who felt like a dying ember, yet with the energy and hope to reignite into the furnace that once powered this great warrior. But, he has all the potential to fail.

I connect personally with that last sentiment. I was never really sure if I could pull this role off; I felt secretly that many others also felt the same and it's one of the reasons I could never sit down on set (I am a pacer, apparently). I could never rest.

Thorin is the same . He hasn't slept easily in his bed since the Dragon expelled them from Erebor. Thorin's grandfather went mad and his father disappeared a year ago to the day when the Quest begins. The desire for revenge upon Smaug and also on Azog, who beheaded his grandfather, has been bequeathed to him. That's a huge burden to carry, and one that can't be shared.

The glory of returning his people to their homeland is also in the mix, along with the personal revenge on the slaughter of his family. Also, buried deep inside of Thorin is a dormant lust for gold, a lust inherited from the line of Durin, and just as the Dragon who will be woken when the King returns to the Mountain, so too that dormant illness inside of Thorin will awake. He knows this and he fears it.

So really, the 'engine' which brings Thorin to lead his fellow Dwarves to their destiny is fuelled by the past but is 'front wheel' driven, towards their future, their destiny, their prophecy. It's a great place to imagine a character because they are always in flux, pulled towards something, which they fear, springing from a rage-fuelled past.

[as-i-watch]

To answer your question about the reaction of non-fans regarding the show’s tone, I watched the first 3 episodes with people mostly unfamiliar with OP, and their verdict was that it was fine. These were their impressions:

They didn’t have a problem with something mixing cartoonish action with violence (if anything they thought the biggest issue with the tone was that it wasn’t consistently weird/stylized *enough*) BUT they did have a lot of moments where they’d go “wait why did that happen” during scenes, mainly having to do with the character development. One asked what Nami sewing the straw hat at the end of episode 2 had to do with the rest of the episode because she and Luffy were separated for 3/4 of the runtime and all of Buggy and Luffy’s conversations were about Shanks abandoning Luffy and being an outcast. And all of them were just as confused you were about Zoro’s development.

Another friend similarly thought it was weird that the setup for episode 2 had Nami saying she hated pirates and disliked Luffy, but then the episode itself was more about Zoro and Nami bonding and proving their loyalty to Luffy instead of the other way around.

They hated the flashbacks. Mainly because they felt the editing and segues into those flashbacks made the backstories feel tacked on at best and intrusive at worst - not helped by how they thought the pacing in those flashbacks was clunky and way too fast; even started laughing in disbelief when Usopp’s mom died just because of how it happened in less than a minute.

Got REALLY restless and bored whenever Garp and Koby were on screen.

One friend also thought that the Den Den Mushi were meant to signal that a person was a villain because the expressions on the animatronics read to her as *In Constant Pain* and therefore were meant to be seen as animal cruelty, and because so far only antagonistic forces have used them. She was VERY surprised when I showed her what they look like in the anime/manga and went “wait but those are cute”

All are in agreement that Buggy is the highlight of the entire show so far. “Surprise shithead” and Buggy punching the glass got the biggest laughs of the night.

Do enjoy the action (think the sword fights were the best) and enjoy the sets. They did start to notice a lot of those sets didn’t get a chance to shine because of all the closeups though.

Episode 3 left them kinda cold. Not just because of the flashback, but at the end one friend went “Did this Usopp guy just leave his sickly friend alone in a mansion with 3 murderers just to run *all the way* back to town to ring a bell, even though Luffy and Nami are much closer? What an asshole” So I think on that front the show kinda failed to capture the essentials of Usopp’s character in the abridged timeframe.

One friend also said at the end of the night “This is fun, but it’s not really *about* anything...” He later elaborated that he thought that the episodes we saw were more like a string of Things That Happen, and the character’s actions all seemed to either just exist in a vacuum with no connection to other characters or parts of the plot, or they make choices that don’t make sense unless the characters have read the script.

So yeah, overall my friends unfamiliar with OP said they enjoyed it well enough, certainly had some laughs, but also weren’t in a huge hurry to finish the series. But it’s hard to say if the sentiments they held are common since I haven’t had the chance to talk with many other people talk about it in person. As for me, I’m just kinda letting it digest and waiting to see how I feel about it a few months from now.

Ohh this so interesting!

I share most of that. Specially in ep 2. I absolutely love LA Buggy and it was the best part of the ep but the rest of that ep was so off. It was an exposition episode and i agree the actions of Zoro and Nami were out of the blue, they barely shared any screentime together and suddently they were already so loyal to Luffy just bc. If onlynif was the one thing that actually annoy me, particulary Zoro's development (in ep 3 they madenit right tho) I wasnt sure if it was just me and bc the comparison with the anime or like an actual thing so thank you for that input

The sword fights i love, i really really really do

That read on the den den mushis gave my whiplash but i so get it

Garp and Koby are really interesting to me but bc they are new and i want to see the direction they take, but is mostly curiosity, so that to me is a new way of seeing it too

But mostly your friend is right, im also at ep three and if you strip away all the world building we know from the anime it does feel a bit like a succesion of things happening, but also like a check list of thing that happened in the anime and that must be covered. I get it tho bc run time and all, but its a shame thats the read for a first time watcher that doesnt know about what couldnt be fit in the ep and that helps understand a charecter or a scene better.

[tobiasdrake]

Zuko and Iroh really shine in episode 4.

Like episode 3, episode 4 is an amalgam of multiple plots from the original show. For Zuko and Iroh, they're doing the "Iroh captured by Earthbenders" story from season 2.

Aang and Zuko's fight last episode resulted in both Aang and Zuko Iroh, taking the fall to protect Zuko, being imprisoned. For Aang, this is the setup for him to meet Bumi. For Iroh, he is to be transported to an Earth Kingdom mining colony, allowing an easy segue into Iroh in chains on a cart, transported by Earthbenders who (quite understandably) have a grudge against the famous Dragon of the West.

This is easily the best part of the episode, as Iroh attempts to convey that war makes monsters of us all to an opposing soldier who isn't interested in lectures from the man who killed his brother. You feel the brutality of war in every word these men exchange.

And while one man nearly loses himself to the horror of war....

The other reflects on everything that war has already taken from him.

What an amazing scene, Lu Ten's funeral is. We see here both the trauma and the tragedy of Iroh, as well as the misguided but well-intentioned complexity of Zuko.

You can feel Zuko trying with all of his might to connect to his uncle. And yet his words ring hollow, because they're filled with sentiments his culture ingrained in him, but that meant nothing to a grieving father.

"What a great honor for you and Lu Ten," he says of Iroh's loss. But there's no nationalist pride or militarist fervor in his voice. Instead, he sounds very much like a child, desperately searching for the right words to say, to express his love and to share his grief.

This scene gets it. Laying out how much, before Zuko ever even needed Iroh, Iroh needed Zuko.

It does feel a bit early to be exploring this, especially as the episode sets up a significant decision for Zuko to make that seems much too early in his development to be making it. He's forced to choose between saving Iroh or pursuing Aang. He chooses Iroh with little hesitation.

I feel this lays out a similar quibble to the issue of Sokka's story in episode 2; These characters are not being treated as dynamic characters who grow and change over the course of their journey, but as static characters who enter the story already formed into the people they were meant to become.

Nonetheless, its negative effect on the story is far less of an issue than it was in episode 2. Overall, I'd say this bit of episode 4 has much more good than bad in it.

[cadybear420]

Masterlist of Gifts, Inspired Works, etc. made by others (NOTE: List is subject to updates)

This means stuff like:

Any works that have been gifted to me– including commissions, requests, or suggestions that I place, as well as works that were part of a Secret Pal Exchange Event.

Collaborations.

Additions to/Edits of any of my own works.

Any works that are inspired by discussions.

Any works that are inspired by any of my edits, stories, headcanons, art, etc.

Any works that feature any of my MCs.

I will not and never will accept any works that include the use of Generative AI, and they will not be included on this list. Please let me know if a work is AI-generated or possibly AI-generated and I don't notice.

OG HSS: Aiden Zhou mini moodboard, made by @lovealexhunt

A simple and sweet moodboard! The Promposal CG is easily one of my favorite Aiden moments in the game, as is the scene where they're on Hearst's rooftop together and Aiden tells MC that they're his muse.

OG HSS: "Moving", written by @tveitertotwrites (for December 2023 Secret Pal event)

A sweet short story about an older Aiden and Evie moving out of their long-time family home, after their kids (OCs still pending) have grown up and moved out. I love imagining Aiden and Evie in their more elder years; in my headcanons, they're certainly a "high school sweethearts" couple that stays together pretty much the rest of their lives and happily grows old together. Seeing the two of them being so affectionate with each other as an older couple is just precious.

And it also fits so well with my headcanon of Evie being a very sentimental and nostalgic person! She values memories a lot and has a tendency for visual/physical associations with memories, so her holding back to look around the empty house and go through the years of memories is spot on.

OG HSS: Angy Aiden, drawn by @hydn-jpg

Angy Aiden is precious, like who hurt you babygirl I will eat their souls for you

OG HSS: Aiden x Evie cuddling with Aiden in Evie's lap, drawn by @hydn-jpg and commissioned by @lilyoffandoms

I'm a total whore for seeing guys sitting on their ladies' laps, and Aiden and Evie were captured perfectly here! Aiden grinning and blushing with his arms wrapped around Evie's neck/shoulders is just super adorable, like you know that man is *proud* to be her boyfriend. And likewise, Evie is proud to be his girlfriend, and holding him him close to her by his waist which is such an Evie thing for her to do haha.

OG HSS: Aiden x Evie sharing a dance ft. Aiden in a dress, drawn by @lilyoffandoms

This is based on an edit I did of Aiden in the premium prom dress option for f!MC. Evie is of course wearing the premium suit option from the game, and seeing them share a dance in those outfits– especially with Evie dipping Aiden– is a dream come true.

The mood is just perfect with the two of them grinning and looking into each other's eyes lovingly! And the background that's mostly dark except for the lighting behind them really captures the feeling of "the world around you seems to fade away as you focus only on your partner" that is so very *them*.

ILITW: Jo x Lucas after a party ft. Jo bridal carrying a drunk Lucas, drawn by @oh-so-youre-a-nerd (for February 2024 Secret Pal event)

This one is based on a Q&A headcanon I had about Lucas being the bigger lightweight at parties and how he likes to be bridal carried home by Jo. The artstyle is so perfect for the ILA characters, and I love seeing Lucas drunk with his hair and glasses and sweater all messy! Jo gently teasing him is definitely something she'd do.

Both of their outfits are spot on for them. I especially love the open flannel shirt and the carabiner, they're definitely things Jo would wear. Lucas having a lil earring isn't something I'd thought about before but I am very here for it. And of course, their rings!

OG HSS: Aiden Zhou Portrait, drawn by @lilyoffandoms

That bright smile! My boi is happy, just as he deserves UuU

OG HSS: Evie x Aiden Drabble, written by @inlocusmads

I am in love with the Evie x Aiden banter here. They're captured so perfectly, especially Aiden! I love seeing the description of Evie's "tell" to Aiden and all the little details in his behavior. And you know I'm obsessed with Evie calling Aiden "Pretty Boy"! Evie loves her beautiful nerd bf.

I also love the mention of Aiden getting into video games with Nishan and Sakura. I don't know if I ever shared it, but one of my oldest HSS headcanons is actually that Evie and Aiden like to do gaming double-dates with Nishan and Sakura fairly often (and that Aiden is initially kind of crap at most computer games haha). So this part is very on-point.

OG HSS: Evie Picrew, made by @inlocusmads

To celebrate Evie being MC of the Month for March! The hairstyle and clothes suit her so perfectly! Rainbows and blazer jackets ftw.

OG HSS: Gyaru!Aiden, edited by @pulpitude

An edit of one of my own edits! I am very here for this alternate take on Aiden. The color scheme, the new hair, the nails, all of it. And it all looks so polished!

The flower in the hair is probably my favorite, simply because Aiden is precious and deserves to wear flowers uwu

OG HSS: An actual HSS Book 3 scene where Evie lifts up Aiden, drawn by @callmebeem and commissioned by @jerzwriter (a March 2024 giveaway gift)

A drawn version of a scene from the story, and frankly it delivered! Evie getting to lift Aiden!!! They both look so beautiful!!! The way they look at each other!!!! The way she holds him!!!!! The way he holds onto her!!!! It's so *them*. Everything about them is just perfect.

And the mood lighting with the city in the background makes it all the better. I always had a thing for cityscape views, especially when it's lit up at night– and I like to think that that sort of aesthetic goes well with Evie and Aiden. And it looks amazing in this piece for sure.

OG HSS: Aiden x Evie mini moodboard, made by @lovealexhunt

Another sweet moodboard! Like the first one, it captures Aiden and Evie so well. I don't remember which part of the story the quote came from (even after 7 playthroughs and counting of Aiden's route) but regardless, it will never not make my heart flutter.

OG HSS: Trans Girl Aiden (Giselle) meets Genderfucking Cis Guy Aiden, made by @pulpitude

What started out as a discussion about favorite foods has led to this blessed meeting. And this picrew shows it perfectly. They both just look so adorable! Everything chosen for them is just perfect. I'm especially obsessed with Aiden's skirt and the purple flowers in his hair. I just love black-and-purple color schemes for Aiden. It suits him so well to me and I don't know why.

ILB: Harper Addison giving Tom a Kissie, drawn by @lilyoffandoms (for April 2024 Secret Pal event)

Everything about this is so precious! Harper and Tom look so good in this artstyle, especially Tom's smile. He's an absolute ball of sunshine and it shows. He deserves all the love. And Addison is happy to give him all the love and kissies.

And I love that you included the detail of why Harper would wear the pink-and-grey casual outfit option! While I'd say red and black is her preferred color scheme and favorite colors, she definitely loves to wear pink-and-grey every now and then too. I just love that for them and I love that you included it.

OG HSS: Solrin's 2 Truths and a Lie, written by @somerandomjewelleryonthefloor

This was inspired by some of the character conversations I've made on here! This was such an enjoyable read and I loved getting to know Solrin for the first time!

OG HSS: Evie and Solrin working on English homework, drawn and written by @somerandomjewelleryonthefloor

Our MCs get to meet! And Evie just looks amazing here! Both of them do of course, but I just especially love how good you drew my MC. The hair texturing is gorgeous! And Sol's abs! They 100% would be buff besties.

And the dialogue bit is great too! Evie with the writer's block is so real. I imagine she also would often tune out of the books she has to read for English, but when Sol's asking for help she's just like "well what am I supposed to do, IDK how to stay invested in a book I don't care for" haha

OpH: "It's Bugging Me", written by @jerzwriter

This was such a cute and funny text fic! I just love their dynamic, and Tobias is such a tease! Such a good blend of sugar and spice, how quickly they can go from sweet talk to banter and then back to sweet talk. Also Casey going "Yey" is just the best thing ever, like same.

OG HSS: Alan in some f!MC outfits + Makeup, edited by @pulpitude

All of these came out so amazingly, and all of these are on-point for Alan's style!!! They look so much better on him frfr... and I love that we've both edited him into the cheerleader and floral top outfits.

Extra props to you for doing the lacy top outfit because I was very unsure about editing it onto him myself lol. The sleeves looked so difficult and it always intimidated me. But I definitely like your take on it because it still looks stylish with only one sleeve (and also as more midriff bearing hehe).

HSS: Julian Castillo yearbook photo, made by @rosesnink

CUNT JULIAN! CUNT JULIAN!! CUNT JULIAN!!! And I love highlighting that he's grown so much from how he was in Prime.

OG HSS: Solrin's story in HSS, written by @somerandomjewelleryonthefloor

I love love love reading about Solrin's experience of Berry High. She's such an interesting character! I also just adore seeing people's different takes on their own MCs. There's just something special about people building their own versions of Choices MCs.

I 100% wanna do something similar for Evie. But I'm very undecided if I should keep it concise like this or go super in-depth...

Nightbound: Funko Pop Love, written by @ladylamrian

This fic was so cute and sweet!!! Alex is precious, and I am in love with her and Nik's protectiveness of each other. Her playing with the Funkos is everything to me too. She's the epitome of "sunshine and protector" and I love it.

OG HSS: Aiden and Giselle (transfem!Aiden) Sleepover, edited by @pulpitude

They are sooooo CUTE together!!!!!! I am just so here for this crossover, they would be such a power duo. 100% giving me twins vibes. Also, Aiden stealing Gi's makeup? So fucking real

HSS: Julian x Quartz, edited by @somerandomjewelleryonthefloor

Quartz is so pretty!!! I especially love her makeup and lipstick. And I'm weirdly in love with the ring you gave to Julian, it suits him so well.

LOA: Fiona and Gigi at the beach, edited by @choicesmc

They look so good together! Fiona especially slays but both of them together are so good. And I love how their swimwear matches too!!!

ROD: Adelaide and Maya, edited by @pulpitude

Their outfits are amazing!! They look so good together!!! Their outfits look so good together!!!! An amazing duo.

Also how did I miss "addi and maya aka the girls that pumped and dumped colt kaneko" in the tags the first time because it is PERFECTTTTTT

OG HSS: Aiden Portraits, drawn by @rjschoicesstuff

Aiden looks so amazing in your artstyle! It suits him so well! My beautiful baby boy

I am also so feral over him in glasses. I've tried editing him in glasses before but for some reason it looked off? But after seeing this I have been awakened to the truth. Aiden looks so freaking good in glasses.