#i just dont trust him with words

[bklily]

If I have to read another fucking comment about how "marichat is better than ladrien because in the former they can be their true selves with each other" I'm going to commit a federal crime with violent repercussions.

Ladrien is another peak side of the love square and I'm tired of pretending otherwise.

[ilikerosesalot]

I think chapter 21 of Jambound shot up to like, my fav chapters. I still am not sure if it beats out chap 10 and 11 but its ITS THAT LEVEL YK. MY GOD. FUCK. I AM THAT ONE LIVE REACTOR IN THE COMMENTS AND I LIKE TO PAUSE MY TYPING MULTIPLE TIMES BECAUSE. I COULDNT. I COULDNT EVEN. WORDS. HARD. TOO STUNNED AND INVESTED. GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

[wackywatchdotcom]

something i genuinely adore about tadc is how painfully flawed everyone in the circus is. and not in a small way

everyone does SOMETHING that negatively impacts the others. but it makes the fact that you are supposed to sympathize with and really connect with them all the more potent. because its easy to want to put a bunch of characters in a bad situation together and to just have them all be nice to each other and everyone and never make mistakes because theres no reason to hurt each other, and most of them dont TRY to, but the way they cope is so, so realistic for each of their personalities, and it doesnt always mesh with the others, and sometimes it exceeds self destructive and Just Hurts Others, Too

they still generally care about each other and the mistakes they make and the ways they end up hurting each other dont lose their weight but like. it doesnt take away from their humanity and the fact that they are all trying so hard to manage in an awful situation

and the characters seem to have sooome sort of understanding of this too. not fully, because the characters dont tend to be 100% communicative, but when they hurt each other, it often makes EVERYONE uncomfortable. because these are the only people they have. these are their friends. and theyre all coping. but it doesnt change how much it affects them (best illustrated by ragathas lines at the start of ep 2 or gangles 'i love her, but after a while it gets kinda hard to tell how genuine shes actually being'). its not all like this, theres a good amnt of variety, but characters knowing this but not really knowing what to do about it is very painful in an effective way

(i think a subtle example of this is how zooble handles gangles situation in ep 4- they were so genuinely trying to help her because they care. but could tell as the day went on that oh, this is not working at all and its making things worse, and they leave gangle alone- something that very genuinely couldve been the moment she abstracted, because of the mask zooble gave her- and we dont get to have a super blatant explanation of zoobles thoughts on it, but they reach a fairly healthy conclusion about it that helps both of them, and i like that a lot, because on paper zooble could be placed at fault but the narrative doesnt dwell on it excessively, because thats not the point. i dont know if that tangent makes sense but i think about it sometimes. i think zooble wasnt 'to blame' but it was still a mistake, which is a hard balance to strike, and having them help at the end feels extremely effective at rounding it off!!!)

but like. in general its complicated balancing making characters in a bad situation act flawed because it can run the risk of seeming like the story is scolding them or blaming them for the situation theyre in, or like youre expected to not sympathize with them despite it (though the inverse also has complications- if characters in a bad situation never mess up, it feels unrealistic and hard to relate to, and can imply that their innocence is why whats happening to them is bad at all), but the show handles it so well

even the characters who are genuinely trying all try in different ways- some of them have similar outlooks or attitudes towards these thing but theres vital differences for ALL of them- sometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt. in fact some of the more painful mistakes characters have made in the show have come from them so genuinely trying (like the thing i mentioned w zooble, or basically Everything Ragatha Does, or pomnis first attempt at helping gangle, etc), which hits harder than if every mistake characters made had wholly selfish and cruel goals.

i mean, there is a selfishness to many of the characters' actions but imo not in a way thats not warranted. because all of them are in a horrible setting. its uncomfortable to watch characters be selfish. but it is a natural instinct to survive. its not the foundation of most of their actions, but when it is, its uncomfortable but hard to completely disparage them for in a way that makes you feel kinda conflicted

and like. it hurts to be doing your best and for that to make things worse, but its what happens often in the show. because no one in a bad situation is gonna handle it well. by the very nature of trying to survive something is gonna give, but it makes the themes of the show so much more powerful. that making sure the people around you dont feel unloved, cherishing them and finding meaning with others is no less important just because everyone is fucking up. it complicates things, for sure, but it doesnt make those characters exempt fromt this. theres a reason pomni tells gummigoo that she doesnt want "anyone" to feel like theyre nothing, and that kinger doesnt add ANY quallifiers to making sure people feel wanted and loved (not that i think either of them were thinking SUPER super hard, but it conveys smth from the perspective of the narrative

it gets complicated when you add in jax for sure, since i think on the surface he IS the exception to this concept- none of the characters like him, including pomni or kinger. but i think this is something thats gonna be examined further down the line, bc hes the main complicating factor in this reading of the show, but i feel like thats on purpose. hes universally disliked (and so is caine, in a different way) and his actions arent mistakes. they are him coping. the show has made it clear that he can be a complex person AND also a piece of shit. his actions dont detract from the fact that hes a person and the show reminds us of this. so it makes things so messy, but im genuinely super excited to see how the show examines that. where his character goes is, imo, going to be a massive piece of how this show fleshes out this concept

[alexiethymia]

just watched beetlejuice beetlejuice at the theaters, and can I just say, I loved it! it definitely didn’t disappoint and was a zany adventure, just like the first one.

and it kinda added layers to betelgeuse in a way. because spoilers I definitely thought they would go the same route for astrid and jeremy, the same way they did for lydia and betelgeuse in that what jeremy wanted was for astrid to marry him so that he could get out. instead it was a more sinister method, and it makes me wonder why betelgeuse never tried it. it can’t be because he doesn’t know about it, because he’s the type of ghost to read the handbook backwards and forwards just so he can find every loophole to exploit. like my head keeps going in circles. especially for the first movie where lydia had initially wanted ‘in’ while he wanted ‘out’, the switcheroo method that jeremy tried with astrid would’ve been perfect then. even in this movie where he already has experience of lydia backing out of their deal, he could have had lydia promise to exchange her soul for his. with how much she wanted to save astrid, I’m sure lydia would have agreed. instead, he just wanted to remarry her. it’s interesting because it means betelgeuse, as putrid, crass, disgusting, and opportunistic as he is, actually seems like he has lines he won’t cross.

[sunnykeysmash]

Man of words

[syrupmap]

Reaction post to this one because it's been driving me crazy the entire day 😅

I see a totally different thing.

Ray and Fraser are so perfectly in sync that Fraser doesn't even have to chew it all out for Ray because Ray understands Fraser on a much deeper level. Their partnership goes beyond words.

Ray knows Fraser is shaken up (he tells Welsh and Welsh trusts that Ray knows what's going on with Fraser) and that he's working on things on a deeper layer than this case.

Ray hasn't even met Victoria but he knows Scarpa is not to be trusted. She's manipulative and she's playing games with Fraser. He just doesn't know that Fraser sees through it. Even though Fraser keeps telling him.

But Fraser also knows he has this one chance to finally show himself that he is not going to fall for something like this again. Maybe even that he can open up and love.

That he is capable of doing this and not losing himself in the process again. He's learning to bluff.

And he has to do this part alone. Because the other time, it was taken from him by a bullet in the back.

So let me present you the way I see it. Fraser completely trusting Ray to have his back.

Ray being an absolute hero. There was never any doubt in Fraser's mind that Ray would get it, get him.

Song: Lost in Moments by Ulver

[xxplastic-cubexx]

i'd like to address the allegations that Charles is a dummy for cutting about in a METAL wheelchair when his nemesis is MAGNETO. Yes, Erik can at any time yeet Charles around by the chair. He also knows that as soon as he touches the chair, he has lost. As soon as he even THINKS about grabbing the chair in anything but a life or death situation, he puts himself in timeout in the south pole.

charles may be a dummy for putting faith in magneto Not to be a menace and yet its the trust he has in erik not to do him harm despite how easy it'd be ..... power move if you think about it ....

[leynaeithnea]

Jorge is single-handedly giving me trust issues and yet I STILL believe every word he says

[gibbearish]

oh another thing i didn't want to mention at the time, during The Happening™ i went looking through pre-2023 google to see what the talk abt james was like beforehand, and i managed to find his fucking prehistoric old twitter account. didn't find anything earth shattering but we can certainly still point and laugh

"political mouthpiece" sure man

oh dw man you didnt need to tell us you've never done drugs, we could all tell

oh so at least at one point he did know how to get jobs other than youtube, fascinating

lmao

[zirkkun]

hazuki is a wild character (at least to me) in the sense that he was in literally only 2 scenes, one of which very short, and he feels so insanely important to the plot in a way where i desperately want to write about him but we have so very little info that i feel as though i am scraping up bread crumbs that are crushed into the earth for a semblance of something to work with

[vulpine-gentleman]

On Ariel's missing soul, it wasn't taken with his permission. He has a contract, he doesn't entirely remember signing it, but he did. But that's only a contract, it isn't what happened. He's with someone he loved in a way, he trusted him, and he's humoring him. And then something happens. And when he wakes up he knows something bad happened to him, at the hand of that man, and he's alone now.

[dennisboobs]

every day i have to hold my tongue when m-cd-nnis shippers start sounding like frat guys with the way they talk about dennis' Secret Feelings toward mac. hey man. i don't actually think you get it. i don't think you understand what's going on between them.

[ooglywooglies]

i am now watching the critical response someone else made to moonys video that elliot linked and this guy is already pissing me off he says anime the japanese way every time he says it

[theloveinc]

hey sorry i feel the random need to defend myself but i wanted to let u guys know i have been writing a TON lately actually but its just i havent been finishing any of it.

[motordyk]

maybe this vacation was a good idea

[fatedroses]

Your Avendurer! Zenos comics are always so good, and I love how you write him. The touch about him being functionally doomed to immortality is the perfect level of extra spice on top, too. Imo it's the perfect motivation for him to genuinely try to better himself as a person.

Thank you! Tbh the concept has had a hold on my brain since the end of Endwalker, and I'm glad you really enjoy it ^-^

It’s the subtle character development he’s gotten over the course of the story and the potential he has that makes me adore writing Adventurer!Zenos and the journey he has in turn of following the WoL's (Meteor, in my cases) footsteps.

Making himself immortal is actually the main inspiration behind it too, it's a consequence that self-sabotaged his original goal. Maybe eventually becoming a wake up for him that Alisaie was absolutely right and that he may still have an opportunity to not doom himself to being alone forever.

It's actually why I also made him a tank too, having him turn away from being "the man who was willing to destroy the world for his own chase of his desires" to him being willing to throw himself in and to help and protect others even at the cost of himself for a time, a thought that has stuck with me since the theory of him saving WoL with the remote crossed my mind.