#i just dont want anything more done with the main cast their stories are over and it should stay that way canon-wise

[carr10nb1rd]

on my hands and knees begging horikoshi to never write a sequel to mha

[thepumpkincorsair]

So, I watched the first episode of “Those About To Die” on Peacock.

I enjoyed it, and Im willing to do write ups if folks would be interested…

Since I wana talk about details, and I dont wana spread spoilers, everything is below the readmore.

What I liked: 🔵 And what I disliked: 🟠

Total Ranking: 8/10 - very good, worth the watch 👍

🟠 It dove into the Intrigue right away, which made it hard to watch while doing other things, but I can appreciate a show that grabs you by the shoulders and shoves you down into the couch to pay attention.

🔵 It wasn’t boring, quite the contrary, I felt fully engaged throughout the episode. Theres a lot of small moving parts to the story, and it orchestrates together incredibly well so far, even for Episode One. The writing is very well done, which is a lynchpin for me on a show like this. You cant pretend to be an intrigue type series without a proper plot. And, in my opinion, they’ve set their plots well right away. Tenax getting those shares in Blue was a great con, which had clearly been going a while, but we only saw the tail end of it. I see this little setup as a great look at how the writers DO their work. Connections matter, money does more than talk, and if you play the game wrong, you die. Don’t trust anyone.

🔵 I REALLY enjoyed the historical aspects of the first episode. Like, yes, this plot happened, its a historical fiction and a number of these characters exist in history, but its not just that. Its the small details, the different knives in different cultures, the veterinary care of race horses, the deities from more than just the main roman pantheon, the drinkware, the VARIOUS clothes from various cultures and climates…. And yes, women often went topless when they were a sxwrkr. Gotta advert.

🔵 ON THAT SUBJECT: can we talk about “3 sesterce… and Im tighter than both of them.” MY BOY, YOU ARE RIZZIN TOO HARD AND I LOST IT. Please, please let him be in future episodes. Omfg….

🟠 I am forced to concede the accuracy isnt PERFECT, the horses wore modern driving bridles to go with their ancient styled chariots. However, Im realistic about how many horses are trained today to pull anything without blinders, and how much safer modern bridles are. I’ll also note: I absolutely saw the animal handler grab the horse differently (calmly) before the riot surrounded it, then direct the horse to dance in the crowd. Great training with the horse! Bad camera angle. Lol

🔵 I also really like this cast so far. Everyone fills their roles incredibly well.

Hopkins doesnt even need an introduction, the mans a legend and brings all his experience to the stage with him every time. -chefs kiss-

Rheon was great in GOT, he plays calculatingly unhinged exceptionally well. But I wont lie, seeing him in a more commanding, level headedly calculating person?

Hashim….. HASHIM!!! Im SO excited to see where his character goes. We haven’t seen much of him in Ep 1 just yet, but he’s clearly going to be one of the main players. Im not familiar with him as an actor, but I’ve enjoyed his performance so far, and I REALLY appreciate the story being told.

Martins is also incredible. She does a fantastic job of knowing the danger her characters children are facing, but also knowing she HAS to play her cards right to save them. She personifies the strength and determination of a mother perfectly.

🔵 Quite honestly, I have to give points to that whole plot-line in general. That point of view is something we’ve had hidden from us (in America) for so long, that I think a LOT of people have… become calloused. I hope seeing it will potentially help others come to an empathetic understanding. This isn’t glossing over what happened, or whats likely to happen to any of the three children.

🔵 I also want to gush over actually SHOWING the wider Roman Empire, we get to see the direct effect of their influence in both Africa and Spain so far. Egypt was their bread basket, and without that grain, youve got problems. The Berber Coast has animals, and people they want, and we see money exchanging hands for the purpose of those ends. We see how the locals were told they’d be treated fairly, paid properly, and even eventually become citizens, like the Spaniards, only to have those promises thrown aside as soon as the Romans have better money to make. These people gave the Empire everything it wanted, but the Empire is never satisfied.

We also get to appreciate how far west the empire went when the Spaniards are trying to sell their horses. (Plot-bunny: Andies are dancing horses, exceptionally athletic, and a prime choice for chariots, though, a standardbred is the usual choice for modern cart racers)

🟠 I will say the CGI isnt the best. You can tell exactly when they change from live action to CGI. But this is a minor issue for me tbh. Its passable CGI, and they use it to avoid putting animals or people in danger which, obviously, I appreciate. A chariot wreck was shown, annnnnd it was pretty darn accurate to how messy those would have been. Not good times y’all. Not good times. Also, the ramifications of a major concussion. Oof. At least the guy would have barely knew what was happening? Still.

🔵 The sound effects were enough without being over the top. Often times when theres gore to show, theres all these extra squelching noises and gratuitous blood… not this time. It’s actually… pretty durn accurate. Don’t ask how I know. I don’t wana tell you, and you dont wana know.

Overall, it was a really solid first episode, and I plan on watching the rest.

[mihai-florescu]

Putting a message i sent earlier under a read more, it has some thoughts ive expressed before tho. ES, of course

My thoughts as an EichiP... i view ! and !! as different stories in the way they're approached tbh, what i fell in love with enstars for was the character driven storytelling of one event seen through different perspectives, where you see the antagonist in one perspective become a protagonist in another story and can empathize with the entire cast like this. I fell in love with eichi's story of second chances, getting what you want and regretting your actions in the process, redemption, desperation, overcoming fate and asserting one's self into the story, saving a school in a dying industry that saved your life by giving you a dream; i consider it an arc fulfilling to the reader at the end of ! era. But we still had to continue... and it's not like we didnt get inklings of eichi's dreams of idol utopia, the idol soldier idea goes back to main story 1, but !! loses the charm of the original series through expanding the worldbuilding so much and shifting to a plot driven story that opens 10 cans of worms instead of offering resolutions. There's not really room to breathe if the stakes just keep getting higher and higher...

As for the colonisation plotline, it's been here since the beginning of ES2. The SS arc makes it obvious, but i remember even before, the talks about ES taking over from local businesses, trying to be seen as the standard, it was always the direction ensemble square as an institution would take. But the "antagonist in one story, protagonist in another" approach doesnt work anymore with such subjects. The guys responsible for this are your coworkers you share dorms with. I read the stories but cant empathize anymore, so i've been feeling disconnected from eichi for a while. I see enstars with eichi at its core but i didnt care for his center event, i read it, didnt like the ending, and overall felt off. Eichi becoming the villain of ! to attone for the war kind of loses significance if a year later he is a cartoon villain idol colonialist you can't even sympathize with anymore because of the magnitude of events. However i do think !! has done good things for some characters pushing them further or developing them in a way ! didnt. But for others...

I also have my issues with sci fi elements becoming the norm, even taken metaphorically or as hyperboles, when one of the central themes i love about enstars is humanity. Then again, i am a war era fan that relied on manipulating human desires and perceptions, and the fact that there were no monsters or gods, just humans framed as such, playing on people's fears and beliefs, it's a bit jarring to me to have them introduce AIs forming from escaped comatose brains (im minimizing the switch climax rn, i didnt even hate it as a whole, just this resolution im unhappy with)

It also feels like we've lost some of the meta aspects of the writing i liked, a certain awareness of being characters in a story and there being an audience. But im still struggling to word my thoughts on this matter. I felt it present in main story 2, even if it annoyed me at parts in its obviousness ("good thing we're not protagonists, no one would want to read about us" youre right aira you are not interesting to me. And yet i'll read your story to try and empathize nevertheless. I have other thoughts on aira too, perhaps for another time). I wish we explored a bit more what it means to no longer be the central protagonist, from trickstar's perspective...and brought back the successors topic. But i havent read every ts story yet so i'd be foolish to complain before really making sure i've checked everything. To me ! ended satisfyingly with room left for elaborations and imagination, but i dont feel like !!'s ending is really ending anything at all. Not necessarily bad since it's not like the game is shutting down, but overwhelming worldbuilding wise while underwhelming character wise...

Let's see... im not sure how to end this. Just a bit of a stream of consciousness as a ! fan who still loves enstars despite my critiques. Mainly, well, no one's gonna take away the stories that already exist that i do love and impacted my life greatly. And i do think !! had some really good things too it brought, or at least stories i hold dear too. Change is scary and i don't think it's always for the best, but it's also fun to see where it goes next...

[pianostarinwonderland]

I’m seeing some drama pop up around the new event concerning Rollo, I hope the fandom will act maturely and not to blow things out of proportion this time around.

Ask 3: On a separate note, the amount of discourse surrounding him has the fandom divided and it’s kinda funny (as long as we’re not harassing anyone over diff opinions). Like some ppl love him and some hate him. My only thing is that bc he hasn’t done anything diabolical to warrant any major hate from me so he’s cool, and idk if ppl notice but twst characters are not direct copies of the villain they’re inspired by. They take notable characteristics sure but for some they change it up so much that they have two different characters. Hades is outwardly confident and has not problem socializing w ppl, now compare that to Idia. They’re pretty diff with the only exception is that they can talk fast when they want and are cocky, but w Idia it’s in spurs. Also with Vil, they were able to make a pretty static, run of the mill Evil Queen villain into a hard working, role model-esque celebrity. Either way his uniform be popping off and I would not mind wearing it. Plus their school get nice magic rings so that’s a win too.

Ask 4: tho most of the fandom, so far from what ive seen, has just been headcanoning him as a ripoff scaramouche from genshin - violently cold, the grinch, a highschool mean girl, homophobic (thats a meme i think), and aggressively catholic (i dont disagree with that due to what villain he's based on but no way to know for sure just yet). all that. like stereotypically those themes, despite us not even having a proper introduction from him yet/not having seen enough of him to see how he's truly like (we only have a few frames, non translated i dont think). the fandom just see's 1 pic of character with a frown/neutral expression and goes wild with it.. which makes me kinda sad :( just cuz their based on a villain doesnt mean their batshit evil- that goes for a lot of the cast already.

Putting the last 2 asks as text here since they are both part of much longer asks that I want to give a separate post to respectively.

Since the next part is coming out today and I have some time on my hands, I think it’s about time I give my thoughts about the elephant in the room regarding Rollo. I think the discourse died down a bit for the time being, but with the next four parts that will still come out from today till November, it's not impossible for it to revive depending on what happens next.

To sum up what has been happening in the fandom, there are a lot of mixed responses with TWST Frollo becoming real. Some are very excited about this, but others are uncomfortable due to the racism that Frollo aims at the Romani people. A few Romani people on Twitter have apparently spoken up about their sentiments and discomforts, and the discourse started from there. It doesn't help that the Kohaku article "The Disney Villains Game is Having a Horny Racism Controversy" fanned the flames further.

For starters, my stances and sentiments are very similar to @raven-at-the-writing-desk’s, which you can find over here. As the anons in asks 3 and 4 have stated, we don't know much about Rollo enough that we could make a fair judgment. Even if this event concludes in a month, I think we'll come out of it with more questions than answers since it seems pretty clear that he will make an appearance in main story (what with him having a formal introduction and an official voice). We don't know yet how much he'll resemble Frollo, nor do we know how much traits he'll share with Quasimodo. Something important to consider is that nobody in TWST is truly evil. Rather, they're people who have their shitty sides and good sides, who have made shit choices and good ones, and I doubt this will change with Rollo. All that I have to say on this matter is (a) to not define Frollo, and thus Rollo, for the racism they exhibit, and (b) to not jump into conclusions and assumptions about a character we barely know.

As for the racism, I think that the problem itself is not the presence of racism but how the racism is presented. It's one thing for racism to be presented. It's another thing for the racism to be glorified, and it's yet another thing for the racism to be condemned. If TWST glorifies Rollo's racism or even just ignores it, there's going to be a problem there. But if Rollo's racism is condemned (via the characters' disgust, etc.), then it will depict racism in a bad light. And so far, TWST has been pretty good with depicting that racism is a no-no, particularly with Sebek's way of talking to humans (Silver and Riddle would reprimand him for the way that he speaks. You can see this in chapter 5 and in Riddle's robe story). Either way, I believe that Frollo's racism should not be swept under the rug and should be something that is addressed here, especially considering the conflict that is being set up in chapter 7 with the whole fae vs humans thing.

I really do get the worries. Even I'm waiting for the next part with scrutiny because I want to see how they will handle Rollo. But I think we should be less rash about our judgments and see what happens first. Let's also be careful of where we get our translations from too since we do have some sketchy ass tlers around. If you need any clarifications on what happens in the event, ask any trustworthy tler or even me. But as the first anon said, I hope we're all mature about this and not blow things out of proportion. ^^;;

[cielospeaks]

ok predictions/reactions to f-h (not negative necessarily?)

firstoff the banner itself

-shame abt the 17 stuff. imo its really fucking clear that the people in charge of f e as a whole hate the game for its more whimsical/shonen/super sentai tone of “friendship and understanding” and just want a cringey “angst” fest (aka angst that just excuses horrible characters) like 16 (and to be fair a lot of other things in the franchise too). but like imo its not the worst. the vas are clearly doing a good job and the artist too, and its cool and cute to see ivy in the game, even if its just a seasonal

-the others i dont rlly care abt. if i liked e ir at all i def dont after she screwed over an entire country and her presumable former friends there just because she found out her birth family’s world is a place she likes better. like its awful what she went through but imo she still killed a person for no reason when she couldve just told the truth, and even if it would have been painful she should have taken responsibility for her position. but whatever its very eh. and thats all my thoughts pretty much. actually suprised f jorm wasnt the duo but whatevs

-the new story/new oc: i was rooting for all 4 alfr to get resplendent/ect darn it! oh well. it looks like most likely peo and plumie will be the focus (which is good for me bc i love plumie but i wish tri would get good things too ; ; ) and hopefully tri and peo will actually get scenes together acknowledging their relationship as sisters (esp as it was alluded to in last years peo! gosh i hope so pls.) bc b4 screwed them over (esp tri) big time with its fruitless and nonsensical “plot twists”

-another thing that im really happy abt is that the temptri stories (except b3 for... reasons) tend to not involve the main cast of the game, which honestly is a breath of fresh air. b2′s one was horrendous bc of the dragons and the retcons, but it could have been so much worse. 3′s too if im being honest. e irs obsession w the main cast is... very regrettable but also understandable, so it wasnt too much detracting imo. im just hoping they keep this up with b4 and dont fucking involve those horrible and ridiculous “plot twists” from book 4. can we please just fucking forget any shitty changeling stories/plotlines in any media ever pls. (except m l p. youre cool you can stay. cough cough unrealistic expectations for this kind of story cough cough)

-that being said plumie + peo is hilarious and sweet. plumie calling her a little petal or something is so funny/cute. and my kasuplumie shipper heart is like “aw plumie took up nicknaming people from kasumi!” like this is character development done right take notes b2 temptri. i think itll be really wholesome if they do end up being the ascendants for this year, seeing them become friends. i would have liked tri but i feel like it also fits as the two of them are the more active of their groups (mira is really passive, and i feel like tri is more distant than aggressive like plumie is). so plumie being super jaded and scornful + peo being really caring with no strings attached and self sacrificing will be really wholesome to see if it comes to pass

-new character: interesting that theyre a rearmed but ok saitama face. people are saying maybe 4/5 next but i feel like it could be 17 (and add less royalty characters- maybe one of the younger siblings, the player character, side characters/enemy only? morion pls im politely asking). i think the best case scenario is theyre the queen from the past, that would be wholesome to have her actually meet kind friends in the alfr. kinda like another character i dont really have anything against her when she was a child- she kidnapped and forced children to work for her just bc they were poor and from a bad home life as an adult, but as a child she was abused by her peers and only treated well by her brother bc he wanted to marry her off to them. like her actually meeting nice people and getting standards would be great but idk if itll happen.

-also just fucking release that dirtbag in the next mythic. just let the memes die. im sick of this guy and ive been sick of him for years. glad hes not much plot relevant.

tldr the good news is i get to save orbs bc i spent them all on not getting shez wooo (sarcasm) (also donny is so pure im so glad hes the free unit!!!! get hype!!!)

[ajockeynamedpod]

13-14 for the ask meme for jojo 🙈

13. Unpopular opinion about XXX character

ohhh I can’t wait for this one. Kakyoin is not the interesting character everyone says he is. Now I love me some unimportant characters, side characters and what have you: but I also know they’re not terribly important big characters.

Kakyoin however!! He’s like the fandom’s darling, and all of his character development has been done BY THE FANDOM. Which is great for characters like Sale, Ghiaccio, D’Arby, and other SIDE characters, but NOT A MAIN CHARACTER!

He’s dead for a big chunk of it, has like two or three fights that showcase very little, and unlike Avdol (who I love) has very little personality to show for it! Especially for a series like Jojo whose characters are supposed to hit you over the head with weirdness and flamboyance, Kakyoin doesn’t do that. He’s too subtle for this series. The fandom shouldn’t be shouldering the character development of a MAIN CHARACTER, and the most interesting things he did were play a video game and die.

And the people who defend him every time I’ve said this say shit like WELL YOU LIKE MARIO ZUCCHERO AND D+G YOU DONT GET TO SAY ANYTHING ABOUT NO DEVELOPMENT CHARACTERS

yes I do! Because mine are side characters that I know don’t get that level of development /personality and it’s up to me and others like me to take the scraps we’re thrown and build them. Main cast should not have BASIC THINGS be determined by fanon. Like him if you want but don’t pretend he’s this amazing incredibly developed character.

14. Unpopular opinion about your fandom:

Fandom is so weird about the characters they put on a pedestal. ESPECIALLY part 5 fans. You like Zucchero? You’re weird!! But Cioccolata and Secco, they’re fine and so super sexy I guess??? Even though they look JUST as weird? (I also enjoy them too for the record)

It’s like the fandom collectively throws a dart at a board and decides that’s the popular side character. You could argue it’s “typically attractive” characters, but what about Sale? What about Luca and Scolippi? Luca and Scolippi, who were arguably more important to the story as a whole than Prosciutto was, and did just as much if not MORE, and are ALSO typically attractive. “Well they have stupid hair”. AND GIORNO DOESNT? Prosciutto and his horse hairstyle? Cioccolata’s covid-19 moment???

“We know more about them” WE KNOW NOTHING ABOUT PROSCIUTTO? Logically if the fandom takes a conventionally attractive character and creates a really good accepted fanon for them, they should be SCREAMING popular, with nendoroids and figures and tons of fan content, all of that BUT THEY DONT. Formaggio is a CHOICE example of this and the best one off the top of my head. Mikitaka. Scolippi. Steely Dan. Santana. Bruford. All characters who are wonderful and pretty and deserve better than they get.

It’s what makes me VIOLENTLY dislike Prosciutto. And I’ve said all this and gotten SWARMED by Prosciutto fans on the bird site to tell me for a solid two days how ugly Zucchero is (despite Prosciutto only being able to take out Mista and not even permanently as opposed to Zucchero taking out EVERYONE BUT BRUNO but I digress.)

what I’m saying is side characters deserve more and not just the random ass “pretty” ones who get more content for some reason.

Side note: dudebros please stop putting stroheim on a pedestal thanks

[sasudou]

right so, i don't have that many strong opinions on side characters tbh, but i really do agree with what the op on reddit said regarding people getting too attached to quirky characters and expecting them to be something big later in the story even though they were never intended that way. i think personally for utahime (i'll get to shoko in a sec) is that majority of her fans want to see more of her simply because they ship her with gojo, even though that pairing has no basis whatsoever nor any proper foundation to make sense in the entirety of the jjk plot. i don't think utahime was created to be gojo's extra or whatever, i think gege created her with the purpose solely to show how gojo is being treated and percieved by those around him, he is annoying, plenty characters react differently to his antics. shippers ofc will treat this differently because tsundere is such a major thing in anime, needless to say i think it's wrong because utahime is an adult who has had to put up with gojo's bs for over 10 years, and regardless what some may say, i don't think they are close friends, or friends even, nothing in the show says this, i think they work together and trust each other simply because they have same positions in the school, same as kusakabe. now i think utahime could do anything in the story, if gege wants her to, but i dont think she's gonna be doing anything big because as the op on reddit said, if she did bare minimum then she'll continue to do so, her and anyone else. perhaps her role was to root out the mole and be done with it, perhaps later in the story she will suffer the consequences if the mole is revealed and for being in cahoots with gojou. other than that, gege just brought yuji and megumi back after almost a year i think? nobara still nowhere to be found, status unknown or know (dead?) manga is fast paced. shoko is supposed to be important because her skill is very valued as she's a rare technique healer, however she's also nowhere to be seen, there are theories that she could be the second traitor but im not sure? she's not in the higher rank nor is she a higher up so? she used to be trio with gojo and geto, they shared some experiences together but all that is just sidelined and exists/ sashisu fanarts are great i love them but i think they are deluding people in how close these three may have been if they even were.

the only female character that i like is maki, she has had the most development but a part of me still does feel like gege doesn't treat her that well either. idk, i wish i could know why but maybe again it's simply because it's shonen. jjk has a very limited cast and mostly what i see some people talk about is which ship is gonna be canon and which characters have most chemistry, i dont think this matters people will always ship no matter what. i just find it hilarious how on twitter people come up with 50 pages of essay trying to convince people why two characters that had the barest minimum of interaction need to become a thing at the end, especially when said characters hadn't gotten along for a decade. gege literally said that he cannot imagine gojo being sincere to any woman/ that alone is enough to confirm that his main character will not have a romantic subplot, at least no more than the one he "had" with Geto i imagine? dunno, the subtext is there. lastly i just don't care, if people wanna ship this or that, the main issue here is character utilization or better yet are they even supposed to be utilized more than what they already did. i think there's also a pretty good chance that many of them will end up dying, gege literally said no one can return to their normal daily lives after shibuya. needless, i think wanting to see a character more in the story simply because of the ship is a petty reason and just somebody having a wishful thinking that desires a wish fullfilment because characters serve as a projection.

idk, i hope this gives u some insight on what i had in mind but well, if u have more to share please do so! i enjoyed reading ur thoughts :)

yeah i don’t think utahime and gojo are that close lol. i don’t think gojo is that close with anyone—at least, not anymore (rip to my man geto). (this also ties back to a post i made previously about the interview you mentioned)

people in fandom will always ship (hell, i ship characters), but i think people need to learn how to enjoy a piece of media without constantly involving them. it’s totally ok for you to like a ship and want more content for it, but it sometimes gets to the point where they completely misunderstand/misrepresent the two characters and stop viewing the manga as a manga. writing is a form of art that has purpose, themes, symbols, metaphors, etc. it’s meant to be analyzed. you can have fun with it as well (shipping is often harmless) but that’s ultimately not what the manga is about. have fun with fandom, have fun with shipping, but remember to take off your shipping or fanon lenses when reading/analyzing the actual material.

i also don’t think utahime is meant to have a big role. her fans wishing they had more content is perfectly fine, but sometimes side characters are just side characters. like i said before, not everyone has a big role to play, and that’s completely normal. the best part about fandom is that you can produce content. write fanfics, creat art, think of headcanons, etc. if you like a character that doesn’t have much content, then make some yourself (which is what majority of utahime stans do, at least from what i’ve seen).

i don’t have an opinion on utahime. if i had to, then yeah i can imagine a situation where she might become relevant again, but i don’t particularly care one way or the other.

oh!! i also don’t think a majority of the characters will be alive at the end of the manga. gege loves his angst, he loves his character deaths, which is an aspect of his writing i love so much. i feel like a lot of manga authors (especially after gaining popularity) are scared of killing off characters or get stopped by their editors. there’s also an interview that states “among gojo and the first years, either one person will die or everyone will die except one person” and i can’t wait to see which one it is.

[swashbucklcr]

1, 3, 10, 93, 94, 95, 100, 105 (dont have to answer all these, just want the world to know!)

@iron-hearts-ablaze | Questions for my Tav

This is super fucking long so it's under a read more:

1. What is their backstory and why did you choose it?

Well, I wrote up a bit on his backstory on the carrd but essentially he's a classic story of a good lad being forced into a criminal lifestyle cause of family and left events.

Finn's moral compass for most of his life is constantly spinning around, not sure which way to point. His mother raised him until just before his teens and she tried her best to nurture a kind hearted nature, a boy who loved music and arts and just wanted to play the lute and sing.

After her passing and his father returns to his life to take him "under his wing", Finn's life of music and art is torn to shreds as his father toughens him up for the life of a pirate. At first Finn resents his father, but over time begins to see it as his father trying his best to make sure Finn survives and thrives in this lifestyle. And by his late teens he certainly thrives. He earned the name Finn "The Fury" Locke for his rage during raids but mostly his constant simmering anger even out of fights.

He's fiercely loyal to his father, the captain, and the crew, having taken many injuries and killed for them throughout his life. Out of the crew, his closest friend and mentor was a half wood-elf named Jon. Jon was the chef and took wee Finn under his care when Finn was still a child grieving the loss of his mother and the life he once knew. Jon was much calmer than most of the other pirates, more patient and open-minded. The kitchen was always a space for Finn to be himself and funnily enough, the one spot on the ship where he never simmered to anger.

As for WHY I went with Finn? I've always been fond of the sea, I've sailed, dived, surfed, etc. I spend so much of my free time at the beach. I wanted to write a character that also shared the same love for the ocean and with all the plotting we've done Vix, Finn as a pirate just fell into place for me. I wanted to write someone who's maIn obstacle isn't anything or anyone but just finding himself again. For the story of the fight against the Dead Three, Finn doesn't have his own personal battles per say, just the slow crawl to self discovery and finally feeling happiness with himself. The fact he has also met Osian, the man who makes him finally believe soulmates just makes his journey all the better.

3. Do they multiclass? Why (not)?

Yes! With our playthrough we're going up to level 20 (😎) and so my current plan for Finn is:

Level 12 Rogue Pirate

Level 5 Fighter Battle Master

Level 3 Bard College of Swords ( only happens near the end of Act 3 as he begins to embrace his Bardic nature )

10. What was your Tav like as a child?

Near unrecognisable to the man now. Young lad, not well off by any means but rarely knew hunger. Carefree, happy, excitable child that had a small group of friends where he loved being the jokester with. He would sneak to watch street performers play songs and tried to set up a terrible band with his friends.

Academically he was perfectly average in most classes, with exception to music and writings where he excelled. His mother worked hard to save up to buy him a lute that he treasured until his father took it from him and cast it into the ocean.

93. What do you think happens to the party, afterwards? Do they go for drinks? Do they go their separate ways?

Finn would certainly suggest drinks, a well earned rest. He'd also be very glad the Elfsong is still standing.

Now, the question is would Finn join Karlach in Avernus? I'm between two minds on this cause Finn would adore Karlach so much, she's a very dear friend to him but he'd also know that Wyll (or Gale of we're throwing in our HeatWeave plot) would join her too.

If he doesn't join her, he'll be dashing after Astarion and using his cloak to cover him up enough until Osian can join them and help with some magic. After that, he will insist on serving all those who remain a pint or two in the Elfsong but he wouldn't feel much joy to celebrate. His best friend(s) is(are) fighting for her life and freedom in the Hells. If anything he's just grateful it's all over and he can focus on the next stage of his life.

Otherwise, he's diving right into Avenrus and smoking that fat cigar before chopping up as many demons as possible while the smarter lads work on a way to fix her engine for good.

94. Years after the game, what do you think your Tav is up to?

Most of his adventuring, and rogue lifestyle has been put away. Finn has now focused his energy on being a simple bard and author. He's trying to write the story of the journey of their adventure with the tadpoles and how a group with little in common banded together to crush the plan of the Dead Three and later the Netherbrain.

Finn has no ties to anywhere on land, his home in Waterdeep is long gone and so he will happily go wherever Osian needs to be. He will ensure to visit his favourite niece Calise as often as he can, and has regular correspondence with Osian's family who have taken him in as his own. He's far happier and more relaxed now with the love of his life and the life he always wanted to live.

One day he also meets Jon, who's left the pirate life to set up an inn in Baldur's Gate and Finn makes sure to be as much of a regular customer as possible.

95. What do you think of your Tav's development throughout the game? If you compared them to who they were at the start, what would be different?

Like chalk and cheese, Finn in Act 1 wouldn't recognise Finn in Act 3, from physical appearance to his entire personality. Finn slowly gets calmer and open to new ideas, plus Finn in Act 1 would have never expected to fall in love with a wood elf wizard and yet by Act 3 Finn can't imagine his life without him.

Yet, Finn post game finally understands how it is to be truly happy with himself. He's finding peace.

100. Did Karlach get upgraded? Did she turn Illithid? Did she return to Avernus? If so, did Tav join her, or Wyll, or both?

Mostly answered this in question 93!

No fucking way would be agree with illithid Karlach.

105. Anything you want to say about your Tav! Give a random headcanon, answer a random question, say whatever you want!

Pigeon is the real hero of the story.

[biohazard2017]

top 5 persona games

obligatory take list w a grain of salt bc idk anyth abt p1 and 2, im playing 3 fes, and my only exposure to p4g and p5 vanilla has been through streams

1. p4g. it means so much to me. i love the feeling of inaba so much, im a sucker for small town stories. yu is my fav protag solely bc of the heavy lifting done by the anime. it has adachi in it. everything about it is so meticulously laid out from character backstories to personas to mythos. i even dont mind teddie

2. p3 fes. yeah yeah is good. ive only gotten to july when ken joins, but i rly do enjoy the dungeon crawling. i love when i havent saved in an hour and die 🙃 bur srsly i do genuinely enjoy tartarus grinding?? yeah idk. i love the overall msg of the game and it kinda runs parallel to that of p4's so ofc theyre honestly grouped together in my head

3. p5s. OK I KNOW it is kind of a hot take to put STRIKERS over royal but as i said before i havent seen any content about royal other than story spoilers so i can do this. strikers is like The spin-off. it takes the time to focus on charas who got shafted in the main story + develops 2 very good new charas. obv i like zenkichi ok but yeah i tgink the game is really solid and cute so i like it:) and im sorry but i adore the music of strikers SO much more than i do vanillas ost. COUNTERSTRIKE IS SO GOOD?

4. p4au. yeah idk idc abt fighting games but the lore is so :) i love that they actually decided to outline the lives of the p3 cast post-p3. and i desperately Desperately want them to commit with p4 as well. im SO mad p5a never became a thing. but yeah just seeing p3 cast + "woah a white guy!" + everything about adachi (again sorry) + the narukami cover art (sorry as well)

5. p5 vanilla. yeah p5 is still Good, but after p3 and p4 where everything about every character is so inherently connected to the themes of the game, p5 does fall short for me. there are just so many little discrepancies that are like :// this can be improved you know!! so yeah, while i do enjoy the phantom thieves and the overall story of p5, all my nitpicks add up.

honorable mention to p4d bc the dancing game did not have to go that hard! it did NOT have to have an actual story focused on rise (its really evident that the p4 team's fav member is rise huh) nor deliver so flawlessly on the ending. i genuinely GENUINELY watch the reach out to the truth music video every now and then for fun!! and when im stressed i literally watch narukami's dance! dance. also simply they didnt havebto go that hard for dance! its actually my fav persona song. other honorable mention is p3d i know it is a soulless cash grab like p5d but unlike p5d it actually takes the time to put as much storytelling into its broader range of songs. every makoto fever time ☹️

[fangirlstorycreator]

Can you do helping us recover from a surgery kk3 and ck

Kk3: you had just been brought back home by Terry after having surgery on your arm. You had a bad accident in the dojo which resulted in you breaking your arm in 4 different places. You had a full cast on aswell as a sling, and you were also on pain medication for it too. Terry was waiting on you hand and food the next few days. Even when you told him you could do something, he just told you to sit down and relax. One afternoon, he had to run to the dojo to help out John, and you were on your own. You were in the kitchen trying to make a cup of tea, but it was a little trickier as the arm you broke was the one you used the most. Terry came back just as you were pouring the water into the mug, when he came over to you looking concerned. "Baby you should be resting" " I am Terry, I'm just making my self a drink" "well I can make it for you, you go and sit down" you have appreciated Terry's help, but he had been a little too protective. And you were about to tell him. "Terry look, it's a cup of tea. I am perfectly capable of doing it all by myself. I dont need to be treated like im made of glass all the time" Terry looks a little worried. "I know baby I just, I dont want you too worry about anything. I dont...want to see you get hurt again" you pull him in for a hug, and he gently hugs you back, being careful of your arm. "Terry I love you, and I really appreciate what you have been doing recently. But I'm alright, I'm not going to get hurt again. I promise. You can stop worrying so much" you rest your hand on his cheek as you lean in and give him a little kiss. "I'm sorry I have been overboard lately. I promise I'll stop treating you like glass" "thank you babe. I love you" "I love you too"

CK: you had been allowed back home after having a rather big operation called a hysterectomy. You had to have it done for health reasons, but you were ok with it. You and Terry already had two kids and were happy with that number. The doctor told you that you can walk around the house to get some exercise, but not to do anything else that could cause your stitches or your scar to rupture. You were resting in bed most of the days, with your two kids and Terry sat talking and playing with you. But you felt guilty when Terry had to be the main parent throughout most of the day. One evening when your up and about, Terry is tucking the kids into bed and reading them a bedtime story. It was a wonderful sight to look at. Terry was such a loving and devoted father. You could tell he loved being a dad. It was like he was made for it. You go to the kitchen and make yourself a drink, when Terry comes in. "They're both asleep now. Little angels were tired out from our outing to the park this afternoon" you give him a small smile, but Terry notices something is wrong. "Sweetheart are you alright? Are you in pain?" "No I'm not in pain Terry, I just feel kind of giulty" he walks over to you and puts his arm around you. "Why would you feel guilty sweetheart?" "Well because for the last few weeks you have had to do most of the daily parenting on your own. I know that cant be easy and I just wish I could help you and the kids more" he turns you to face him and strokes your cheek with his thumb. "Y/N you have had to undergo an incredibly physical and emotionally draining surgery. You need the time to get back to normal and you should never feel guilty about that. You still spend time with the kids every day. And I love spending quality time with them. I'm not struggling with them at all. I promise" he leans down and gives you a tender kiss. "Alright Terry. Thank you for everything, I really appreciate you looking after me, and the kids" "your welcome sweetheart. Plus! As soon as your better I can make a whole load of dishes for you" both you and Terry laugh. "Oi! You cheeky bugger!"

[hawkfurze]

wait what happened with penumbra podcast? i dont listen to it currently but i used to

It's gonna be a bit long and I might get some details wrong as this happened around last September. Also please note: I haven't been keeping up with anything involving Penumbra Podcast and the people who worked on it since these events happened, nor listened to the podcast past S3, before these events, and everything I saw I saw through Twitter, where these events happened, and through videos on tik tok from the TPP community there. I'm white and a lot of other creators, ones more affected by this than me, have made more detailed videos about this on tik tok (I never check the TPP tag here but there most likely are more better posts about it on here too). Also I don't condemn this post being used as an excuse to harass the people involved cause I'm not about that. The best thing to do is just to stop listening and posting about Penumbra Podcast.

CW for racism, ablieism, and transphobia

TDLR if you don't want to read the whole thing: The TPP creators hired an artist with a lineup of the Junoverse story characters portrayed with racist and abliest caricatures. After people expressed their concerns, Harley makes a vague thread about bullies that was targeted towards people that expressed their concerns about the racist art, pulling more of the fandoms attention towards the situation. The thread is deleted and the TPP creators are silent. The artist makes their own apology, holding themself accountable for the art they have made and promises not to make the same mistakes in the future. After a week, TPP posts a public statement made by the other creator of TPP, Kevin, shifting the blame for the events and "apologizing" for what had happened but giving no clear plan going forward to make sure this doesn't repeat for a third time. Harley theirself still hasn't apologized for the thread they made. I don't listen to The Penumbra Podcast anymore and you shouldn't''t either.

So last year, a couple weeks before the first episode of Season 4 was supposed to come out, TPP announced the artist they hired for the art for the new episodes of S4. You can go on their Twitter and find the artist there if you really want to, but a lot of people were not happy with the choice, specifically because of the artists lineup they made around 2 years ago (at the time of the announcement) of the main cast of Junoverse, mainly because of their designs for Buddy, Peter, Vespa, and Alessandra. Buddy and Alessandra's designs were both racist caricatures of black women, Peter's of east Asian men, and Vespa, a canonical paranoid schizophrenic woman, was portrayed as violent and bloodthirsty (I also saw some comments saying her design was also transphobic, but I believe this lineup was made before it was confirmed that Vespa is trans).

A lot of people were vocal about their choice for the artist saying it wasn't a good idea and that they should consider hiring another artist to do the promotional art for TPP because of this line up. They could have listened or made a public post about peoples concerns, but instead threw more fuel into the fire. I don't know how long after the announcement this post was made, but one of the creators, Harley Takagi Kaner, conveniently and undoubtedly was targeted towards the people pointing out the artists racism in their work, made a thread about "bullies." I admit, I don't remember everything that was in it and don't have screenshots as the thread has been deleted, but the timing of the post as well as the content of it, made things boil over and the fandom was collectively pissed. Kevin Vibert, the other creator of TPP, says Harley gets a lot of transphobic messages sent to them, but that's not an excuse when it's pointed out that the artist you hired has made racist and abliest fan art of your show.

The thread got deleted a day or so after it was made, but the damage was already done and there was only silence from the TPP creators as people directed their messages to the artist in question. The artist did apologize and promised to not lean into those caricatures again, though they used the word "goofy" instead of calling it what it is, but was left to deal with the fallout by theirself with silence from the TPP creators.

About a week later they announced they will issue a public statement, and one was made by Kevin. In the statement, Kevin apologizes and talks about the harassment Harley receives (even before this event) vs the harassment he receives, mainly these messages being transphobic attacks towards Harley, focusing more on this than on the fact that most people were respectful when raising their concerns about the racist art before Harley made that thread calling members of their own fandom bullies and that everyone only wanted to hear some kind of accountability from the creators. Kevin also admits that of the two POC people they had hired to review the artists they were considering hiring, neither of them were black, despite most of the cast for Junoverse being headcannoned as such, and that what pushed him to make the statement in the first place was because the Patreon was losing patrons as people pulled their pledges away from the show because of these events. He talks about the show being a part of his and Harley's livelihood but no real clear indication about how and if they will try to stop something like this from happening again, especially since this was not the first time this has happened (tho I didn't find that out until after this whole thing). Harley hasn't made a public apology yet, at least on twitter, and I think is taking a much needed break from Twitter. The apology, as a whole, was a messy thing that shifted blame and highlighted the mistakes behind the scenes, without giving some kind of clear statement of if the creators even intend on making sure that nothing like this will happen again.

Personally I think the way this situation was handled was sloppy and unprofessional, and as Harley Takagi Kaner still hasn't made an apology on Twitter, I am not holding out much hope that they will say anything about it at all, though I am glad they're taking a break from Twitter as they very much need it. I can't support a show that claims to be inclusive and diverse when you are alienating a whole part of your fandom, especially if you are actively encouraging people to design the main cast of characters as POC, and behaving like this when people point out your racism instead of apologizing and trying to do something better. Also by taking so long to even announce that there will be a public statement made, leaving your artist to handle the backlash alone, but, in Kevin's case, still being able to do a livestream while the shows fans are practically begging for some accountability, and only making a statement once it started affecting your patreon, doesn't make me feel like there will be any changes in the future when it comes to how things like this will be prevented before they even have the chance to happen, and how they will be handled when they do.

If you were unaware of this having had happened, I highly encourage you reconsider continuing listening to the show, and if you must must must listen to it, figure out how to without directly supporting the creators, as well as not post about the show anymore. I haven't listened to TPP since this all happened, even though it was one of my favorite shows at the time, and there are other creators out there who can and have had handled situations like this more sensitively than how the TPP crew has. Racism from the creators shouldn't be ignored in favor of the queer rep The Penumbra Podcast brings, and no show should call itself inclusive if it's creators are going to treat it's non-white audience like this.

[rivalsforlife]

Popular character, case, ship whatever that you just dont like but not enough to actively complain about it. Like 'I really dont get why you're all so into this but I'm glad you're having fun I guess'

thanks for giving me permission to complain I've been wanting to do that. right now the main thing on my mind is van zieks. I just can't get into him. I know he might not be "popular" according to certain circles but idk I see people talk about him favorably a lot.

I recognize he has a critical role in the story and themes, and I also recognize that he has his moments where he can be funny, but definitely not to the degree that he stands out for me among the rest of the tgaa cast and definitely not to the degree where he's at all high on my list of prosecutors, and sometimes I see him ranked like, first, and am shaking my head. it's like these people forget what miles edgeworth has done for them. (speaking of which I see so many "vampire edgeworth" comparisons and like outside of some basic traits (grey hair, archaic clothing) I can't see that at all.)

it's like. for me it is absolutely largely the racism. I find it very hard to like a character when every time they speak I have to prepare myself to hear some sort of comment. and when people say "he's not racist because he has a ~reason~" or whatever that's extremely annoying though admittedly I don't see that opinion much. I don't want to get into a bunch of spoilers here but I don't love how the narrative handled that whole aspect either. I couldn't ever see myself rooting for him. Even when the narrative was trying to push me to be on his side and against [redacted] I was the whole time going "okay but I really like [redacted] and don't like bvz so I can't do this". The parts where he's actually somewhat appealing to me only happen halfway through the second game which for me is quite a bit of sitting through "you japanese blah blah blah" that I just can't really get over. and then of course around the time he starts getting interesting there's ~someone else~ I like more. bad (and long) first impression and not enough to make up for it imo.

which is not to say that I'm like... accusing people who do like him of anything I don't think you're a bad person if you like his character and stuff. (unless you're one of the aforementioned "he's not racist he has a reason" people then I'm just not interested in talking to you ever.) Like you said anon, "I really don't get why you're all so into this but have fun I guess."

Basically, his role in the story is acknowledged and I do think cutting him out of the story would hurt it quite a bit, I just don't love how the game handled his racism which got very tiresome for me and stopped me from getting attached to him, and even outside of that there are so many other tgaa characters I find more appealing that picking out bvz as the favorite is a bit baffling to me. again my own two cents on the matter.

[thosch3i]

Hi hi! So the lost tombs and chronology all super confuse me. So tlt2 ended on a cliffhanger that was not resolved by tlt3 which is ultimate note, but now there is another tlt3 that I am guessing is made by the same studio as tlt2 (but not UN) that actually follows tlt2? And it has the same WPZ as tlt2 (but sadly different WX, ZQL though I’m sure these guys are great). You seem to know what you’re talking about so I’m hoping you can help!

UN also ended on a cliff hanger so I’m wondering if they’ll get a sequel from their studio that comes before tomb of the sea.

ahhh hello anon! yes ahaha the dmbj dramas are certainly very confusing--because they keep switching the screenwriters/entire production team between dramas. huanrui did tlt1 (2015), tlt2 (2019), and the sequel to tlt2 (2021). they're also technically the production company for un (2020), but linghe did like all the directing/casting/writing so its significantly different in tone and quality from the other dramas huanrui produced. npss (dmbj author) did sha hai (2018) and tltr (2020), with sha hai being in collab with linghe, so you can see lots of parallels with un and shared cast. (gonna add that i dont know much about the m9 because that’s not what im personally interested in, so i’m only going by stories with wu xie & the iron triangle.)

unfortunately, the dramas pretty have no continuity as a result of all the weird shit and multiple studios doing different dramas and messy stuff going on behind the scenes. the author's production company currently has all the rights back for filming future dramas, which is......imo, a good thing for book fans who love the author but a 😬 thing for book fans who like the original story more than what the author is now doing with it. I'll uh avoid saying too much opinion stuff though so no more on that 😅

that aside! yes 云顶天宫 “explore with the note” part 2......is the direct sequel to tlt2 and done by the same studio. unfortunately the writers are different and im not sure how much of the production team is the same either. idk how much you know about the novels so brief summary here--for the chinese version, the main story has 9 parts split among 8 books (though the official eng tls have each part being a different book) with some important content being as follows:

official eng title “cavern of blood zombies” (first time wx goes into a tomb, first t3j meeting)

official eng title “angry sea, hidden sands” (xisha seabed tomb, introduce a-ning)

official eng title “bronze tree of death” (bronze tree in qinling, wx & lao yang solo adventure)

official eng title “palace of doom” (heavenly palace on the clouds, introduce bronze gate)

official eng title “deadly desert winds” (golmud, introduce hei xiazi, desert, rainforest, tamutuo)

official eng title “graveyard of a queen” (the rest of that arc, wu sanxing & xie lianhuan reveal, jade meteorite, amnesiac xiaoge and escape, sanshu vanishes for good--also i think the official eng tl covers a couple chapters of the beginning of the next part too)

阴山古楼 (searching for xiaoge’s memories in banai, miluotuo cave, i think introduction of wu erbai)

邛笼石影 (auction/hotel iron triangle fight, introduce xiao hua & xiuxiu, wx & xh on the mountains alone while pz & xg go with granny huo)

finale (rescue from zhang family mansion, changbai mountain goodbye, 10 years promise)

after the main story are the main sequels:

zang hai hua (tibetan sea flower; unfinished & abandoned) covers wu xie a few years after xiaoge has entered the gate, searching to understand xiaoge’s past

sha hai (tomb of the sea; unfinished & abandoned) covers wu xie’s plan to wipe out the wang family, after zhh

chongqi (reunion: the sound of the providence) covers wu xie’s lung disease and how he recovers from that, set after they pick up xiaoge again from the bronze gate. thunder city and everything.

灯海寻尸&万山极夜 (still updating on wechat) don’t worry about this one since it’s still a WIP lol

btw between sha hai and chongqi there’s also ten years later (a short story) that covers how wu xie and pangzi pick up xiaoge from the bronze gate and take him home

the dramas Do Not Connect To Each Other At All, which the exception of tlt2 & tlt2 pt2 somewhat, but they go in this order:

盗墓笔记 / the lost tomb 1 (2015): covers part 1 but with major OCs and filler, and includes the auction scene from part 8 for some reason, so introduces xiao hua early.

怒海潜沙&秦岭神树 / the lost tomb 2 (2019) technically “explore with the note”: covers parts 2 & 3 but with major OCs and filler, introduces xiao hua & xiuxiu (and hei xiazi briefly) early. last couple episodes also cover the beginning of part 4. not a direct sequel to tlt1 despite being done by the same studio.

云顶天宫 / heavenly palace on the clouds (2021) technically also “explore with the note”: covers part 4 with major OCs and filler (and the same changes carrying over from tlt2). some episodes are identical to the last couple episodes of tlt2. works as a direct sequel only if you ignore the last couple episodes of tlt2 that take place in the snowy mountains. (those episodes of tlt2 were filmed after this drama was filmed, and im still not sure why they dragged the wu xie and xiaoge from tlt2 back to changbai mountain to film those episodes.)

终极笔记 / ultimate note (2020): covers parts 5-8 with minor OCs and minimal filler, also introduces xiao hua & xiuxiu early. the only adaptation that resembles its source material most of the time.

沙海 / tomb of the sea (2018): covers the second sequel with major OCs and filler. includes some bits from zhh and the short story “three days of silence”.

重启之极海听雷 / the lost tomb reboot (2020): covers third sequel with major OCs and filler.

in addition there is the prequel series mystic nine (2016) and side movies for the dramas that the author produced. there is also a single standalone movie--time raiders (2016) that is....well it’s. very strange. it’s fully subbed on youtube if you’re interested?

the best way to watch the dramas is to assume each one is its own self-contained AU set along different points of the dmbj timeline because even the dramas the author himself worked on don’t have continuity LOL (and with the exception of ultimate note & sha hai most of the time, also assume most characters are pretty OOC from the novels).

i uh regret to inform you though, that ultimate note will not be getting a sequel unless the author magically decides to not care about making money anymore and sells the rights to film the finale to linghe or something ^^;;;; it’s....unfortunate bc un is the most highly-rated dmbj adaptation on douban by A Lot, but it’s an adaptation that the author had literally nothing to do with whatsoever.

more information on some of the side movies/stage plays/manhua/donghua here.

summaries of the main novel stories (currently through zhh) here.

edited mtl (some of which has apparently been looked over by native cn speakers) of the novels following where official eng tls end here. (there are many scattered extras as well.)

you can get the official eng tl books/ebooks on amazon or elsewhere(?), but if you have problems purchasing them or like you just dont wanna support amazon or something, dm me off anon. (also i dont want to be mean but frankly the official tls are kinda bad too ^^;;;)

a rough timeline (spoilers galore) for the dmbj novels here. (fair warning im not 100% sure how accurate all of this is--they put three days of silence as 1991 but looking at the info in zhh, it seems like it should have been before the 1950s...but it’s more than fine as a general overview.)

anyway i hope that was helpful in some way? dmbj is a Very Confusing thing to get into ahahaha, one of my twitter mutuals has made a few carrds if you think they might be helpful: book, dramas (slightly out of date bc it says heavenly palace hasn’t aired yet), ultimate note (got its own carrd by virtue of being the only adaptation aside from sha hai sometimes that most og book fans acknowledge lol ^^;;;)

also anon if anything wasn’t clear or if you had more questions feel free to ask again sorry ahahaha im kinda tired rn @.@ 

[hellokittysasuke]

one thing that strikes me in naruto is the equation of naturally talented characters = work alone = dont know the power of others/friendship. its a sort of consistent theme that pops up throughout the manga. and if you like think about, sasuke and neji are two characters in the age group of the main cast that are 'geniuses', but like...they are both shown to train pretty hard.

i dont exactly remember with neji, but i think its implied that sasuke devoted like a lot of his time to training after the massacre bcs of his sole objective to kill itachi (even before, with learning the katon jutsu at 7 thing bcs he wanted his father to look at him too) and hes introduced as this arrogant top-of-the-class genius character (atleast from narutos perspective), but like we see how inferior he felt compared to itachi in flashbacks. waiit yeah he was shown to be top of the class before too actually, but the standard itachi set was like... impossibly high and so it still didnt compare to that. and top of the class is really good, buts its still not the same as graduating early like itachi and kakashi are implied to have (i think?). there must be a factor of peacetime vs. wartime as well...

a thing i keep thinking of is like prodigies vs genius in association with characters like kakashi & itachi vs sasuke, which made more sense in my head. but listen the contrast between sasuke being really good (through ig both natural talent and hardwork) but from his perspective its not worth acknowledging bcs its still not good enough.

and like a part of this is obviously the underdog narrative, where the main character is generally average but ambitious, and through hard work or perseverance or something he excels and slowly over the story all the characters acknowledge his strength and that he was actually really cool all along. and a natural counterpart is that the naturally talented characters take everything for granted and are generally arrogant assholes that dont "deserve" strength bcs theyve never had to apparently worked hard for anything. and yeah its meant to make the reader feel better about themselves, that theyre great but people cant see it, and justifies their resentment/bitterness to people who they perceive as "not needing to working hard a day in their lives" and "undeserving" solely bcs they have natural talent. and the mc over the course of the story slowly achieves his dreams while those characters fall from grace. it can just feel like a really immature fantasy if not done right and given enough depth, and while its not that bad in naruto its still there.

oh and also a part of this is that the genius receives "attention", acknowledgement and popularity that the mc craves but appears takes it for granted. so the mc is simultaneously bitter and desires a rivalry and fantasizes about defeating them and feeling superior/ proving his worth while being extremely envious. ok this derailed a lot, to be clear i dont think naruto is a story like that, there are just certain common elements (that people exaggerate, but thats another thing)

but yeah sasuke is shown to have natural talent, (the sharingan and i remember a dialogue from orochimaru about how fast sasuke picks up things and how people used to call him a genius but it doesnt even compare to sasuke) but he...works and trains pretty hard. and he far from takes it for granted, as is the view people have formed from some of his lines about being uchiha.

generally all "superiority complexes" in media are rooted in a need to be strong, a inferiority complex if you will. disregard that actually, im probably misusing those terms bcs i dont know to frame it better. basically its never as simple as im the strongest and if im not i throw a hissy fit, theres sually a deeper reason behhind those feelings (in sasukes case he needs to be strong enough to catch up to itachi to avenge his clan and fulfill the goal itachi gave him, along with the entire "youre not stong enough now for me to kill you / cling to your pathetic life")

not to mention the indra and ashura thing and again being naturally talented is equated to arrogance(?)/not forming bonds with others/underestimating teamwork. not that people like that dont exist, but to make it like that everytime feels oversimplified

also its not like sasuke was this lone wolf type to the point of sabotaging everybody, in team 7 genin days atleast he understood the usefulness of teamwork well enough, and lifts up sakura and naruto at several instances (noticing and restoring sakuras confidence with the genjutsu thing at the start of the chuunin exams, he is also the first to feed naruto and pass kakashi's test), he allies with taka too (my takeaway is that he understands the benefits of teamwork well enough- but killing itachi is something he has to do alone)

also also i forgot the spelling of strength halfway through this and needed to google it

[batarangsoundsdumb]

yet another ask dump yeehaw!

do you ever think that jay's mother was one of those bitch who believes in horoscope and tarots and things like that and so he believes in these things too, or it is just me projecting?

sheila haywood took one look at jason's birthchart said 'nah this won't do' and left.

Wait, but what happens when the justice league does find out that Bruce and John fucked? Lmao it sounds like it would be hilarious, really, I don’t want a justice league that doesn’t make fun of Bruce for like his entire life.

barry runs out of the meeting immediately and comes back with an entire sti testing kit. diana fully seriously wants bruce to get tested while bruce is sitting there like 'come on guys, you're being ridiculous, i already checked twice'

john is standing in the corner clearly offended while bruce is just like 'don't even say anything, constantine, you fucked a shark'

tim was like "i'm drake now" and everyone was like ahh so your fursona is a dragon and tim was like pffffft no. ducks.

on the one hand, good for him, on the other hand, bro, how do you still have a secret identity when your superhero name is just your last name,,,,

Your fic on ao3 was GOLD PLEASE CONTINUE I loved Dinah's cameo btw ( @purple-vixen

thanks so much! i already continued but this ask is like 10 years old because i'm a notorious procrastinator (also yes! i love dinah so much aahhhhhhhhhhhh)

I've FINALLY been watching the Batman animated series and I gotta say, after watching "the gray ghost" I am CONVINCED that Batman is a closeted super hero geek who was 100% freaking out the first time he met Superman and is just REALLY good at hiding it.

bruce internally: holy fuck holy shit holy fuck holy shit holy fuck holy shit holy fuck holy shit holy fuck holy shit bruce externally: get out of my city, alien

AHHH ur multimedia fic is the only thing that brings me happiness anymore continue it forever pls

uhh thanks, but can't continue it forever because my attention span is that of a toddler on crack on a good day and i can't function without at least 10 things going on at the same time and music in the background

Oi, so I'm getting into dc and watching batman the animated series, and they use fruitcake a lot. Which I thought was very funny and wanted to share w you - Denilla

wait like fruitcake (food) or fruitcake (derogatory) ?

young justice 🤝 teen titans slut shaming batman

tim drake and dick grayson to their respective teams 'you guys stop it, that's my dad'

Happyhoganon: If an eighty year old Batman had fought crime in Gotham City for decades and the only threats to him and the city lately are a wheel chair bounded Penguin, your usual purse snatchers and a few con artists popping up every now and then, how well could the Dark Knight do in maintaining the peace in Gotham despite him being just somewhat fit to do that as an elderly man (which says A LOT given how old he is)

uhh he'll probably do what my grandpa does and that is ruthlessly prank them until they die of shame.

in the death in the family interactive movie there's an ending where Jason is tasked with raising Damian and he decides he's gonna raise Damian to take down the waynes and al ghuls which uh maybe isn't great BUT the idea of Jason raising Damian... PRICELESS. CHAOTIC. I just need more people to know about this :)

yes i saw that wow holy shit but jason would accidentally drop damian on his head one (1) hour in and jason just yeets him into the lazarus pit.

Headcanon: The Penguin has a really hard time fighting any of the Robins because of his avian obsession means there's always a small part of his mind that's like "Birb. Child. Protect" ( @subspacecadet )

as soon as dick becomes nightwing the penguin is like 'you know what, fuck this dude' and shoots at him.

Y'all talking about King Shark dating Constantine, let's not forget about John literally hooking up with Satan

listen there's a clear difference between monsterfucker and satanfucker in that king shark is literally a shark and satan still looks like a normal dude

Does everyone in Gotham think Batman is a teen dad?

everyone in gotham thinks batman has been around since gotham was founded, but they do think that bruce wayne is actually a teen father and dick grayson's biological dad.

why. why would you do that fancast when you know it will only hurt people

what? i loved my fancast it was really well done. i did it with good representation in mind and i really managed that with alfred pennyworth being ✨italian✨

Seeing james charles a jason gave me psychic damage how dare you i need to wash my eyes

well that's a you problem isn't it?

do you think dick grayson thirst tweets about nightwing just to annoy his family/cause problems on purpose in general?

he thinks nightwing is hot, next question.

holy jiminy cricket batman, its as cold as the good lords ass crack in here!!

i- what? this is why i don't fuck with english expressions it's way too goddamn weird

Brooooooo, your teen dad!Bruce au is soooo good. I've got brainrot.

Honestly if you ever write anymore, I'd read that shit twice. Sign me the fuck up. Good stuff, Good Stuff.

uh yeah i'm thinking about writing a fic, but i have exams coming up and i don't wanna fail because that would suck. but after i'll certainly be writing more tho

your teen dad AU is so great! bruce acting like a big brother for all of like a week before he's telling everyone about his son. what if in the AU dick meets the JL because they need to rescue him? maybe he's in trouble/kidnapped at a gala and bruce starts calling for JL. clark finds him and has to fly with dick to bring him home - that's how dick and clark meet and superman becomes dick's fave hero. he goes around the manor thinking he can fly with a red blanket draped around him like a cape.

actually- if you want a young dad! bruce fic with like that kinda stuff(just with damian) go check uhh- in for a penny by cdelphiki. it's really good and bruce is like 24/25-ish. (and dick's there!!!)

This account has solely convinced me that Tim is a trash goblin ( @hamilcat-and-magic-turtle )

because he is. that boy has slept in dumpsters on multiple occasions even if he is the son of a billionaire.

Okay but when you said victory dance I did think of the whole justice league defeating the big bad and then they all start flossing

well that's exactly what hal jordan does and that's why batman uses a gun now. no but the victory dance in my opinion is like the 'we're all in this together' dance from high school musical.

The horrors in Invincible s1 was nothing compared to the comics, I cant wait for s2

oh well okay, i mean i personally react to horror and violence by laughing awkwardly so i can't wait to be called a monster for accidentally laughing at a mass murder.

I'm currently watching Batman: The Brave and The Bold and- Bruce is just talking about Oliver like he's an old love (@nightwings-kid)

okay im going to watch that lmao that's totally and completely in character for him tho.

The invincible comic is like super gratuitous with its violence so much so I'm shocked the show was able to adapt it in a faithful way! Anyway had the show been live action it absolutely wouldn't have the same impact as it does as an animated show and I'm so glad so many people agree with me on that

also because a live action casting would've been like uhh amanda stenberg for amber, the dude- the guy from the supernatural but with a mustache for omni-man, and scarlet johanssen for debbie grayson

Debbie grayson is a milf, yes. You're welcome for the invincible propoganda, now you can questions your life. Bruce def seems like the perfect father next to Omni-man. Like they really took a rip off justice league and I was like well, now I'm attached even tho I was like hah I know who they're supposed to be. And then bam- death gore death gore gore gore sad Mark grayson just had to have daddy issues. Why does every character have daddy issues. I'm sick of the attacks

because daddy issues make a person arguably funnier, that's why i'm not even remotely funny (haha good dad flex). i liked that it was dark contextually, but not in the colouring, bc i hate when it's like 'uh yeah graphic murder and now a shot so dark you have to sit in a dark room and squint at the screen to faintly see the characters. (like dcau ugh)

About the Wayne insurance, for a moment I thought you would put the video with moans over the waves.

i mean- i could've done that, but rick rolling seemed more family friendly.

Its the first time in forever that im surpise rickrolled, i usually expect it. Congratulations (i really should know better this is tumblr)

i get rickrolled so often but i actually like the song so i dont really give a fuck

Actually, my information about Damian and John's kids is outdated because it was revealed that the old men telling the kids stories about the Supersons were actually Jon and Damian the whole time. I was blinded by my thirst for Grandpa!Bruce Wayne but I was wrong... I liked my version better, tbh (@artemisa97)

fair enough. but i'd honestly like to see damian and jon getting together, just because it's a really fun dynamic and their friendship was really cute when they were kids. (also idk maybe it would be nice to have one (1) main batfam/superfam character that's not cishet)

How am i JUST finding your blog skdskfkd you're so fucking funny and ur takes are hot

i thought u were calling me hot :( but youre not :( crime detected (but lmao thanks)

So I have depression and I swear that your memes are one of the few things that have made me laugh so thank you 💛🥺 (@katekanebadass)

aw you're welcome, and i hope you're doing okay!

The metropolis memes are so funny, I love them 💀😌

i think metropolis is also so fucking funny it deserves more attention imagine having your entire police force being upstaged by an alien from kansas and his kids

as an american i feel your complete lack of knowledge of us geography is just so sexy (platonic) ❤️

thanks so much (i also don't know any other geography, i'm not kidding, like you can tell me you're from hungary and it will just blank, there will be nothing that comes to mind)

In the DC universe they don't say "Can't have shit in Detroit" they say "Can't have shit in Gotham"

this just reminds me of that guy whose porch got stolen like the steps to his door, and i'm thinking of people living in gotham and waking up without a front door and going "can't have shit in gotham"

honestly all i know about chicago is the bean, so. what would gotham's famous sculpture be?

gigantic gargoyle statue in front of one of the police precincts because a villain thought it was a smart way to keep the police inside, but it's too heavy to move.

why tf do people go on about how batman "works alone" or how he's the "lone wolf" when he like 38290202 members in his family

bc people think it's cool that a grown man in his 30s has no friends or family instead of calling it what it is (sad)

Bruce is gotham's sugar daddy

why would say something so controversial yet so brave.

my favorite batfamily fanfictions are the ones where they use their shitty codenames, unironically, in any context

dick: gerard way are you in position, gerard way are you in position

tim: for the last fucking time, my codename is 'totally not count olaf' this week, abbafan 3000

dick: shut up my codename isn't 'abbafan 3000'

dick: it's 'abbafan number 1' and you know it

I have a feeling Tim drake is ur favourite batfamily member but okay u don't have favs if u say so ok

i mean he is, i won't deny it. but i love each and every one of the batfam just the same, i just have a weak spot for short dumbass nerds, because i'm a short dumbass nerd.

Omg i fuckin love boy meets world too fam shsjkfk

bro boy meets world was the shit!!! it was just fire and awesome and so fucking great like bro. it was so good im not even going to be accepting criticism

you know I find the whole "joker completes batman" thing a bit disgusting considering the horrendous stuff the batfamily went through because of the joker and let's not get started on the "joker has a point" thing like yeah he's this cool complex villain but he's absolutely batshit crazy

like yes! i get what you mean the joker just fucking sucks man he doesn't do shit for batman's character or the batfam he's literally just annoying as fuck. like the joker has a point' shit is so stupid. i will accept 'magneto was right' because he fucking was and i think he didn't do anything wrong, but joker? he's just like that. he's not even cool and complex he's just a weirdo with a bleach kink at this point.

ALSO YOUR RACISM POST- SO TRUE BESTIE

thanks bestie, i'm glad you agree.

in today's essay of why I think cass should become batman- I was thinking Tim would probably be the most efficient batman in many ways but I also think he wouldn't want to be batman tbh none of the batfamily members would want to be batman because they're trying to outgrow him but cass is the one who wants to represent the symbol that is batman

absofuckinglutely i will say it again and again that cass represents the batsymbol more than anyone in the batfam, in batgirl (2000) she literally didn't care about anything else than bruce's oath to not kill, she thought the batsymbol was more important than anything in gotham. she's just an excellent character because her motivation to not kill is not 'i'm scared i can't come back from it' or 'well my dad says no murder so i'll go along with it' but that she's killed somebody as a young child and she never wants to kill a human ever again and that's so fucking beautiful for a new batman like yes.

need more cass, duke and tim inclusion in gothamite memes

yes yes, a tall order of cass, duke and tim coming up in 1-14 business days

oldest to youngest batfam members cus I'm confused as shit

okay order of being taken in: dick, jason, tim, cass, damian, duke order of age: alfred, bruce, dick, cass, jason, tim, duke, damian (though cass and jason are around the same age general consensus is that cass is a little older)

I'm so confused Steph is a redhead?? like how was it that hard to get this right? the source material is literally right there and free

cw is jared, 19

do you receive anon hate? if so, how do you deal with it

uh no, i'm not remotely popular enough to get anon hate and i also don't say a lot of things that would attract anon hate, but i do send anon hate to @the-real-peter-parker because he forgot about the specialists from winx club

Wait how many languages do you speak??

uhh- 5 if you include latin, but that's a dead language and i'm really bad at it. but english, my native language, german, and french also, tho german and french not fluently.

You can mix aguaepanela with aguardiente 😈 and is tasty

okay but now i'm curious if the liquor deserves the 😈 emoji or if that's a you problem. but i googled it and it looks like something you'd take one sip of and then not remember the rest of your evening.

[popculturebuffet]

Scottrospective: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together! or Days of Summer

Hello all you happy scottaholics! Welcome back to those of you who’ve read the rest of this retrospective and welcome to those of you just joining us. This is the Scottrospective, my look at all 6 volumes of Scott Pilgrim, the game and the movie. It’s all the video game refrenes, slice of life story telling and boob punches you can handle!

It’s been three months since I left off with “The Infinite Sadness” , and while I intended to cover this one for Valentine’s Day, my schedule got away from me and with March being full up, this ended taking till April

I”m not too put off by it though as the hiatus between these two reviews is fitting for this one both in story and out. In story there’s a couple month time skip between books, while out.. this book got delayed a few times.  

This is notable to me at least because this was the first volume of the series I bought when it came out. As i’ve brought up before I came into the series via the Free Comic Book Day Issue and the second and third volumes, picking one up later. I still have my original copies despite no longer really needing them thanks to having the color editions in general. Always will provided something dosne’t happen to them. So this was my first instalment that I got to read fresh and got to wait for and be hyped about and i’d saved enough money that I was able to pre-order it. So the experince of waiting and waiting for the book only to keep seeing it slide back is vivid in my mind as is the frustration I felt having the one thing I COULD NOT WAIT FOR, keep going further and further back. 

So with this long wait and the fact I bought this one when it came out, as I would for the next two which didn’t get delayed thank god, this volume naturally means a lot for me. When I wrote Scott Pilgrim fanfiction, this volume’s status quo is what I based it on. It was the coolest to me and the one I loved to reread the most. It has the most contained story, the most character growth at the time, and the best art due to Bryan’s style having finally hit it’s stride. Not that the art for volumes 1-3 is bad mind you, but it’s very clear his style was changing and shaping into what it is now with each one and while it’d change a bit more, this volume is where the style and quality everyone thinks of when they think of this series and the kind you see on various art done from it comes from. 

So as you can tell i’m excited for this one. Before we get started there WERE two shorter comics released between this one both for Free Comic Book day, the first of which, Free Scott Pilgrim, is the reason I got into the series and the second, the Wonderful World of Kim Pine .. was both delightful and sets up Kim moving in with Hollie for this volume. Originally I intended to cover these in this review.. but I realized they wouldn’t of helped the pacing and this review is going to be way longer than my standard as is.

So instead I came up with the compromise. I did review them.. but as bonus reviews on my patreon. For just one buck a month you can read them and help me reach my stretch goals which now include reviews of Lost at Sea, Seconds and SnotGirl, aka Bryan’s OTHER comics. You can find my patreon THROUGH THIS LINK HERE if your intrested in the exclusives or helping me reach my reviews. I also intend to do an exclusive of Monica Beetle, a short comic Bryan did starring Scott’s dad in the 70s at some point so keep your eyes peeled for that, as well as the three strips he did of Style, the comic that gave us the prototypes for Lisa and Kim. 

I will talk about their connections and setups for this volume briefly: FSP sets up the next ex as a ninja, with Roxy having a bunch of posters come to live and pummel our boy, while Wonderful World has Hollie tell Kim she can move in with her. It’s not much, hence why i made these exclusives but they are good stories, so check them out. And with that JOIN ME UNDER THE CUT, as we enter Scott’s world once more as he grapples with the past, employment, and saying the L-Word... which might be Lesbians. I don’t know. Find out bellow!

So we open Two Months after Volume 3 with a beach birthday party! Complete with Kim in a swim suit!

But it’s for Julie who lobs a volley ball at Scott’s head when he and Ramona try to make out. 

I also dont’ know if “Manfiesting out of all the world’s collectives sorrows” counts as a “birth” necessarily but whatever. I love a good beach story. It’s just a fun setitng for swimming, romance and battling a giant crab with the help of the bird what lives in your backpack.

So after the beach our heroes get dinner and Ramona sweetly calls Scott the nicest guy she’s ever dated. He responds with “That’s sad”. Blunt, but entirely accruate. Julie calls it pathetic and tries to counter Ramona RIGHTFULLY saying “who the hell asked you?” something that really should come after EVERYTHING Julie said with “Back off bitch i’ts my birthday”

So later that night Sex Bomb-Omb has a beach sing along, and I can’t help but notice Neil’s hairy legs. 

I mean yes it does make since for a 19 year old to have leg hair, but of all the characters besides Stephen, the ONLY other character we’ve seen it with to give it to, why the character you specifically single out as “Young” it’s just a weird choice I never noticed before. 

But anyways Julie has to whine about it because she’s Julie, she can’t stand other people being happy and complains the song...

One of my faviorite moments of the series. Knives puts a nicer spin on it, she’s here too and not over with Neil because, as we’ll find out later they broke up, but she just asks if Knives should be drinking. She shouldn’t but for fucks sake lady she was just trying to talk. I also do like that despite Julie trying to control Ramona’s love life, you know the thing the VILLIANS are doing, Ramona cannot stand her now.. and honestly probably never did. 

But Julie, SOMEHOW turns out to be right for once as Kim and Knives have disappeared later that night, and Scott elects to go look for them. Also Ramona says she wants to marry kim while drunk after Julie asks if she does. The throuple is strong with these three... serioulsy that’s my one true pairing for all three now. I mean it ballances out their collective flaws, it’s cute and Ramona is just as into her boyfriends ex as she is her actual boyfriend even when she’s not hamered. Why the fuck not?

Scott instead finds the two making out. I will confess I shipped these two when I was younger.. but I don’t. Not because their gay or anything or because I found another ship for them but because the age gap is still just as wide as it was for Scott. The game did not get this memo and made them a couple which is... ehhhhhhhhh. I mean I wouldn’t mind either being bi, but it just brings up the same problems even if their both hammered. I also question why this scene exists. No really outside of one face punchingly dickish comment from Scott later, this never comes up again and it doesn’t effect Kim’s or Knives character any. Why have this? it’s clearly not fanservice, it’s just a thing that happened. And while Scott Pilgrim as a series does have some of those, as does life and that’s fine.. this is a bit too major, i.e. Kim and Knives, two of the main cast, making out, drunkenly or not, to just.. gloss over you know? I feel Kim would feel majorly guilty for this, as she has the most active moral compass of the main group, and Knives would be massively confused but it’s just.. forgotten because I dunno. In a story that’s otherwise pretty stellar this stands out as an utter waste of potential. I’m not saying have them hook up, gay or not it’s still not better than what Scott did, but have them at least talk about it and have both grow or something from it. Sheesh. 

So we cut to.. another day. Maybe the next day I dunno but it’s August. Point is Scott and Wallace are grocery shopping and Wallace notes they can’t get fancy mayo as their barely in budget. I would’ve glossed over this scene... but @panur​ pointed out back around the Infinite Sadness review that this scene reveals something very intrestng: Scott.. is kind of a fincial burdern to Wallace. Before this while Scott mooched off him it wasn’t all that clear that Wallace was struggling. 

But here we notice that outside of some Havarti, it’s just the simplest stuff imaginable: turkey, bread, boxed mac and cheese ramen noodles... it’s nto BAD stuff, I have all of that in my house and it’s good stuff... but it’s not the kind of thing that you need to carefully budget for. Now granted part of this probably is Wallace as he likely spends a LOT on drinks, condoms and two 2 liters of diet soda a day.. but while he really needs to adress his alcohol issues, the rest is fair. He should be allowed to have as much sex and diet coke as he wants it’s his money. Same with the havarti. He earned it if he wants some really delcious cheese with herbs, seriously Havarati is the best, then that’s his bidness. But the rest of the time he’s barely managing to get  a basketfull of cheap food.. because he has to provide for Scott. It’s clearly something Scott dosen’t get and something I can relate to not getting. It took me a while to get how hard it is to budget for a full family, let alone two people on one income like Wallace has to. But Wallace is working on a nice job... but still a call center or something. He can’t pay for everything and the finccial stress is about to give as their landlord wants to meet with them. And as we’re about to learn things were even worse than we thought. 

Our heroes head home where we get a truly iconic conversation when, over margeritas (again proving my point that while Scott certainly isn’t HELPIGN wallace’s finacials, it’s not all on him)

This will be imporant later.. both the Lesbians part and Scott’s struggle saying it. he tried earlier on the beach but couldn’t get it out and Ramona clearly didn’t want to hear it as she kapt sshhhhing him.. playfully of course but still. 

So some time later it’s moving day! Kim is moving into Hollie and Josephs, and Scott, Stephen and Jason are helping. You might be wondeirng who the hell Jason is. He’s Kim’s boyfriend. I do not likes him. Not because he’s kim’s boyfriend, getting upset because a fictional character you fancy is dating is just patently stupid. I’ts like getting upset a celebrity crush is in a relationship: you had no chance anyway why. I wasn’t even bothered as a kid. I don’t really like him.. because he has no real personaliy and no real baring on the plot and I struggle to think why Bryan included him other than for a really annoying plot twist next time, which does not help my liking him knowing what’s coming. 

But while our heroes help our heroine move in, and Scott is suprised Hollie is there despite Kim having told him a minute ago she was moving in with her, something I can relate to sadly, we get something vitally plot important; Stephen passes Joseph’s room.. and notices he has a small recording setup in his room. Stephen quickly begs him to record the band’s album and Joseph agrees if only because he finds Stephen hot. Eh i’ve seen better relationships start on less, fair enough. And yes I said relationship more on that in a bit. 

So after a brief scene of Scott and Ramona having lunch where Scott fails to know her age and when Ramona says he could just ask.. hea sks and she dosen’t tell, not a bad scene character wise just not very plot important and probably should’ve bene swapped in order with the previous scene, we get to the next day. There’s a heat wave so Wallace orders Scott to go to the mall maybe find a job. He emphasises that. 

Instead Scott just sorta bums around thirst but nto having any money.. until an old face shows up. 

For those who forgot like Scott has, it’s Lisa Miller from the Volume 2 flashback, the girl who had a crush on Scott and was close friends with him and Kim. After a tackle hug  and some panic Scott eventually remembers.... if in a curiously unique and self serving way

At the time this was just hilarous. Now it’s very clear foreshadowing for the big twist in Volume 6. The two catch up while Scott is very clearly attracted to her but very clearly dosen’t want to be, with Lisa wondering where kim is, finding about Ramona, etc, before offering Scott lunch as the two catch up and Scott is very conflicted about how he feels. It’s nice visual stuff as he’s blushing, something more clear in the color version and trying to desperatley sort things out. As for why Lisa’s here she’s moving to the states soon, but is staying with her sister for now. 

So after an incdental scene with Wallace we catch up with Knives, who has broken up with Neil. And after some talk about Clash at the Demonhead, Tamra notes Knives apparently put a big x on her shrine of Scott... which baffles Knifves as she sure as hell didn’t do it and is still, sadly, obessed with Scott as ever. Granted Tamra isn’t at all helpful here claiming she did it even when she says she didn’t, is clearly confused and while yes we don’t know who else would care Tams, that just makes it all the more creepy. Stop gaslighting your bestie, she’s already got enoguh issues. She dosen’t need thinking she might have a split personality on top of the stalking, obession over a guy who has no intrest in loving her back, and attempted stabbings. Knives dosesn’t get a ton of focus in this one sadly. She kind of takes a back seat, and while sh’es not GONE from the volumle and someone close to her does impact it, she dosen’t really have any personal progression, negative or positive, like she does in every other volume, a shame since her personal jouney is one of the most intresting of the main cast. 

Anyways that night Scott hangs out with Lisa, having not gotten around to telling Ramona she exists yet and plays a game of find the Kim Pine. She goes to Neil’ and Stephen’s place for practice, but finds no one there and Neil being a dick... get used to that it’s going to get about 80 times worse soon enough. Though we do get this classic panel i’ve gotten some use out of 

He goes to Kim’s place, but she , Hollie and Satan’s Misterss have all left to Sneaky Dee’s, the local mexican place, for something to eat and Stephen is either high or doing.. something with Joseph. 

Yeah i’m not hiding that Stephen turns out to be gay in the final volume or cheating on Bitch and a Half with Joseph. And even if I hate Julie with the power of a frozen sun, I still dont’ think cheating on her is kosher. He could’ve just broken up with her and while part of it was likely confusion, and he could also be bi and not decided which one he wanted to be with, it’s still a dick move.. and later makes him a hypocrite but that’s a rant for next volume. 

So our heroes FINALLY find Kim, along with Hollie and Mouthface. And a nice thing I like is that Kim and Lisa are just.. increidbly close, happily catching up and making plans to hang before Lisa leaves, that despite Lisa having feelings for Scott the two ended up as close and She and Scott did and i’ts sweet to see. it’s also just.. rare to see Kim GENUINELY happy. I mean look at her

It’s not like she HASN’T smiled across the series but normally she’s just so miserable, likely because her best friends are a grumbly asshole who forces them to hang out with a raging typhoon of bitchiness, and an insenitive asshat who she never got closure with. This is the first decent human being whose not Ramona or Hollie, and that last one’s not going to last, in a while. It’s genuinely sweet to just see her.. enjoy the moment for once, honestly engaged with someone. Ramona shows up and finally meets Lisa, who apparently was on Degrassi.. I mean she says candaian show no one ever watched, and I watched that plenty but i’d like to think she was on there for a season or two. I liked Degrassi.. I honeslty miss it and think it could use some form of revivial and think porting it to netflix was a smart decision.. what wasn’t so smart was not having the other seasons leading into it on there. Need to watch more of it. 

So the next day Ramona stumbles into Scott’s dreams and both are annoyed, with Ramona suggesting he get a job. This finally gets him to try. He asks about Wallace’s work but understandably, he dosen’t really want scott there and asks if he even knows. So Scott sets out to ask his other friends for jobs, while Knives shows up saying she’s “totally not stalking him” but someone is following HER, a mysterious spiky haired dude in a black leather jacket, shades and with a sword on his back. Whu-oh. 

He tries Second Cup, with Julie annoyed that Stephen’s recording.. it’s hard to tell if she’s annoyed because she’s a bitch or because Stephen is both gneuinely annoying right now and clearly screwing around behind her back. My take?

But Scott realizes maybe getting a job at his Sister’s place of work who also works with his arch enemy might be stupid and backs out. He next tries Kim’s, but backs out of that too, admitting to kim it’d be stupid and Kim lists off all the reasons (His lack of resume, the fact them working together would be stresful and his ountain of late fees) why that’d be stupid, but in a jovial way. For once i’ts clear that while she’s still taking the piss out of them she isn’t mad at Scott.

In fact she genuinely helps him get a job, taking him to Stephen’s work since hers is dead right now anyway, a vegan place.  While Scott naturally compares things to a job system as he’d start as dishwasher while Stephen taught him prep, Scott agrees to genuinely take this seriously and Stephen’s boss decides “eh why not” when he asks her to employ him. Scott is gainfully employed baby! God I miss that. Seriously i’m not pimping my patreon for shits and giggles. 

But as he celebrates and Kim wishes she could punch his life in the face, they run into some trouble on the way home: Katana man who slices a motherfucking bus in half and chases them, with Scott reluctnat to fight because he has a sword and Scott does not, which is valid. He does escape though using subspace. He and Kim part awkardly and he returns home to Wallace throwing a party with two intresting charcters, a woman and a man of color, one of the few in the entire work, who are never seen again. 

The next night is practice.. or rather recording, and we start to see Neil get edged out, with him unable to come due to exams and clearly not happy about it, and Stephen just kind of ignoring anything he cares about like the dickhead he is. It dosen’t get any better as “recording” ends up just being Scott, Ramona, and Ratfaced Knacker watching bored with Joseph and Stephen work. Eventaully Scott and Ramona decide to get out of there as things are getting tensed between thing one and thing bitch, and leave.. and take Julie with them for some reason. 

So the three have dinner with Lisa, Kim, and Jason before The Mummies Curse thankfully leaves. Jason thought they were friends. 

We also get this exchange. 

I mean.. she is the better option. She his THE option. But before we can get the obvious answer of 

Stephen comes in with Knives. He smuggled her in. This leads to problems when Scott returns from the bathroom to find Queen Bitch throwing a bitch fit about him having brought her and screechs at her when she dares to talk to him “How do you even know my name?” Well Ted Cruz, you see when someone is an actually thoughtful and likes other people, they keep track of things about them and don’t constnatly tear them down or assume their partneer is automatically bonking a 17 year old instead of you know, actually forming something of a friendship and not shutting her out sensing she needs this friend group. Some people are not vacous piles of vitriol who care about nothing but themself and seem to go off at the slightest thing. 

Scott takes Ramona home but finds a drunken barely awake wallace so no sexy times. Not that he could anyway as the next day is the meeting with Peter their landlord. 

Peter reveals they’ll have to clear out by the 27th as their lease was for one year and their paid up.. as in only the first and last month. The two part melacholy knowing this sucks and isn’t a great situation. Then it’s time for Scott to work work, angelica, work work, eliza and peggy. After grueling day, can relate, he runs into  a wisp on teh wend and steels himself for a fight.. okay he bitches about it being too hot but it’s Scott. so it’s expected. He does get a hit in on his mysterious persuer.. and that’s when we meet Roxy.

Via boob punch, something Scott’s not proud of but in his defense, as Roxy keeps complaning about it, he was blindly struggling for a hit and din’t know the next Ex, or any of them, were female.. not that Ramona didn’t suggest it loudly enough by empahsising “exes” but scott’s a bit of a fuckwit. She mentions “everyone allways remmebers you”.. which is kind of ominus and tells me she tried to hook back up with ramona despite her having a boyfriend and she rejected her. Still on good terms though. But this confusing encounter ends with Roxy vowing she’ll get him next time gadget, next time. 

So we get some assorted slice of life scenes with the band, lisa and what have you as Scott tries to get in touch with Ramona but she keeps avoiding him. THat’s not worrysome at all. And Lisa brings up high school while drunk and clearly hits on Scott. He sidesteps it with her drunkness.. but this clearly isn’t over or going to stop being a problem. 

Speaking of problems Wallace makes Scott confront the truth: He either needs to find a new place to live or commit to staying, though Wallace is trying to nudge him toward asking Ramona to move into her place. Scott starts thinking it over, it being very hard especially since, as Stephen points out this was his very first place of his own.. but Stephen also points out these things are temoporary.. right before Scott ducks from katana guy. 

At work Scott wonders who it could be, though it turns out Stephen’s met him before, as he’s brought his family in here. So he’s PROBABLY not one of the exes.. but it leaves the question why he wants to cut Scott in half like Dewey Cox’s brother. But it turns out he’s nto the only enemy Scott’s casually running into as Roxy is there too.. with Ramona. 

The two talk, clearly about Scott and Lisa with Roxy trying to convince her he’s cheating and Ramona rightfully trusting Scott: while he IS attracted to her, he’s been fighting it every step of the way. Scott storms over to find out what’s going on and while Ramona is more distracted by his new job, she eventually realizes Roxy did attack him and he simply dscribed her poorly when he mentioned the incident over the phone. Scott is confused as he dosen’t get it. Is she with one of the exes what? After some hiinting from both parties, and Roxy rightfully mocking him for not getting the obvious... he finallyg ets it in the grandest way possible. 

So Roxy gets ready to fight and Scott can’t because sword, and gets fired in the background as he hides in Ramona’s bag and Ramona prepares to step in. Roxy screams at her for trusting him and defending him when Ramona.. just dosen’t her boyfriend to be bisected by her ex. A fight insues and a damn cool one at that. I honestly wish the movie had taken more from this, but simply didn’t have time leading it to instead be more like the envy fight with a bit of the Winfried Hailey fight from Free Scott Pilgrim. 

Roxy chases her and Ramona rightly points out Scott can’t run forever but takes him into Subspace.. where Roxy heads them off, having “taught you everything you know bitch” leading to a cool fight in the wintery version of subspace. Again why THIS wasn’t used instead I have no real idea. We also find out she’s a half ninja but she eventually leaves afer Ramona presses that button.. but Rammy is actually apologetic about it and Roxy’s “I hope you and your 24 children are happy together comment” is telling. 

Upon this readthrough of the volume.. I realized Roxy is the most layered and intresting of the exes next to Gideon himself. None of them are out and out terrible, but most of them have pretty simple motives: to kill Scott, ???, profit. Or in Todd’s case to kill scott, bang around and be a dick. But Roxy.. genuinely wants Ramona back. She’s the ONLY one who does: Gideon kinda does, but only in the sense that he wants her for his collection. But Roxy geninely still loves her, admitting so during this fight. And it’s not like she has no chance: out of the 7 exes she’s the ONLY one who parted with Ramona on anything resembling good terms. While intrestingly we don’t find out WHY they broke up, Ramona didn’t cheat on her like she did everyone else she was with. The two have coffee and hang out and Ramona geninely dosen’t even consider until Roxy tries to attack Scott that she’d really try killing him and tries her best to talk her out of it. But what holds Roxy back is her anger: She’s so bitter about the fact Ramona is bi or pan, so dedicated to viewing Ramona’s very orintation as a betryal (though Ramona calling it a phase dosen’t help and the movie RIGHTLY has Roxie comment on it and fly into a rage over it), and so driven to make sure the woman she loves dosen’t get hurt again that it blinds her to the fact Ramona dosen’t love her the same way anymore, and that while Scott is objectively a dick, and a cheater, and a greasy buttcrack pooflap, he is not a terrible person. A meh one sure, but he’s got good to him. She’s so biophobic she simply can’t see he’s a harmless moron.. well harmless to Ramona even with the cheating. He’s killed two people at this point and will kill again. Also she apparently has issues with only being a half ninja but this is never adressed. Point is Roxy’s really grown on me and is now probably my faviorite ex.  

Scott and Ramona talk it over on their way to Sneaky Dees and Scott finally asks to move in and gets a yes. His response is downright adorable. 

So at Sneaky Dee’s Young Neil is just a bit absolutely irate with Scott.. which isn’t fair as them not playing things is entirely on the blocky face asshole. Yell at him.. which he does, pointing out that they haven’t played shows in forever, and that the lady who owns Sneaky Dees not only runs shows, in the upstairs space, but has been asking them to play. Kim is rightly curious about this and to both Stephen just keeps saying “We’re recording right now.” And some of you may of wondered why I hate him. Well while he’s not exctly stellar in the first half in the second Stephen becomes goddman insufferable, slowly destroying the band for his affair and not giving one iota of a shit what anyone else wants. He’s a selfish, egomanical cheating prick. And yes I get it their recording an album.. but doing live shows would give them extra practice, MONEY, even if likely not a lot and exposure for said album. I get professoinal bands stop touring for a bit to do an album but you are not a professional band, and said bands still often iron out the album on the road. God you suck.

But while Scott sidesteps this argument he walks into another where Ramona confronts him about lisa about liking her.. and he rightly says if there was anything, which there was not it’s in the past. And while yes he is a cheater, she does not know this yet. This plot honestly would’ve worked better if she learned about the knives thing sooner, but instead she just comes off as paranoid for listening to Roxy about something that isn’t happening. Yes Scott’s been shown to be attracted to her.. but he’s been ashamed of it, fighting it and in denial about it, and is clealry all in with Ramona. Being attracted to someone else on a phsyical level does NOT mean your relationship is doomed. 

Things get worse as he goes home to ruminate.. and instead sees a man’s Penis. And Wallace..is at his second most unsymapthetic, not letting Scott get a shirt or a bus pass or something like a decent human being for no goddamn reason. Usually when Wallace is a dick to Scott, Scott’s earned it and badly needs a slap in the face. Here he’s just being a prick because.. the plot needs him to? I dunno it dosen’t work for me. It’s in character, I just don’t have to like it. 

So with no other options.. Scott ends up at Lisa’s. And so we get the last temptation of Scott. Lisa admits, embarassed that she’s been wearing sexy dresses and what not specifically to attract him, with Scott also mentioning how things are rough, Lisa tries to fight it herself pointing out he’s with ramona.. and when Scott points out they didn’t do anything in the past Lisa points out they should’ve.. and maybe they should now. 

We fade to black as Scott ends up in a dream and finds Roxy, who naturally has the same skill and tries to Freddy Kruger him before he wakes. He finds Lisa but they didn’t do anything: Scott pushed her away and babbled about how much he loved Ramona instead. As i’ve said.... his heart was never with LIsa... and even when he was so close to giving in he couldn’t. It’s a tangible sign of growth: He screwed around on Knives with Ramona, and given how bad things were getting with Ramona, it would be oh so easy to once again ditch a relationship the minute he found something else and oh so understandable. But... he dosen’t. He loves Ramona even if he hasn’t said it, he wants to make this work, and he’s changed. She’s changed him. He’s not quite a good man yet.. bu he’s getting to be good enough. Love turned him from a skeezy dumbass into a far more loveable dumbass. Ramona’s gotten him to stop dating a teenager (even if again he cheated), face his past with envy to finally move on and now get a job. He’s realized just hwo much she means to his life and world and so he goes to tell her. 

Riggghtttt after going to get his job back and works a shift, with steven wanting to punch his life in the balls. Stephen shut the fuck up. Just because Scott is lucky and your stuck dating satan’s scrotum does not mean you get to punch his life int he balls. Kim does, because he’s put her through more shit but not you. 

He goes to second cup to talk to Stacey.. only to end up at the wrong one where Knives also now has a job... and we finally get an answer to who the mystery katana guy is...

Yup turns out wielding giant weapons in vengance runs in the family. As for how he knows about Scott her aunt mentioned her boyfriend, everyone freaked out and obviously while her mom was mentioned as knowing in volume 1, they did not tell her dad whose brain turned into an engine of vengance and defaced the shrine. While part of it is apparnetly racisim for Scott being white the fact is he clearly saw Scott’s photograph. The guy is 5 years older. I get him being protective. Still dosen’t justify cutting off his head. His balls maybe but not his head. 

And then Scott ran, once agian finding a subspace entracne.. and this time we see inside ramona’s head and well...

Yeah.. that’s.. kind of fucked, and Ramona isn’t happy scott saw that, though she backs down once Scott explains..a nd then gets upset over him staying at Lisa’s but before SCott can tell her he loves her it turns out Roxy stayed over. So yeah, Ramona might of cheated, she tells him to alk it off and he runs around in a psycadelic haze of emtoinal confusion. And meets.. someone new...

Scott snaps out of his funk and ignores his doppleganger heading back for Ramona... whose fighting Mr. Chau. Scott left the door to Ramona’s head open and he followed him through Subspace. Scott lures him into the house and away from her only to run into Roxy. This leads to both of his attackers fighting and her wondering if Gideons ent him “Why does no one ever belivie in me?!” 

She soon realize no i’ts just unrelated and calls Scotto ut on hiding behind not having a sword and behind her being a woman, caling it a flimsy excuse. I mean she’s tring to kil lhim. It’s okay to hit an enemy combatant. Scott realizes he has to stop running... and get real with ramona leading to a truly epic, romantic and heartfelt speech and given how far he’s come and just how heartfelt it is it’s a real sign of how deep he feels. Sure we’ve seen genuine chemstiry between the two.. but htis moment is a shit.. from a simple relationship.. into true love. 

I may of only had a few but Relationships are not easy, They take work, they take time, they take patience and theyt ake love.. but if your willing to work with someone, look past some flaws and help them with the rest.. then it’s worth it. And Scott has finally realized it and for the first time in a while is running TOWARDS something difficult, actually working on this relationship and talking with his partner instead of running finding someone else or wallowing. He’s truly grown up. While he still has miles to go.. he’s taken about 50 steps forward with this. And as such given the kind of unvierse we’re in, as Ramona is genuinely touched by it he levels up a glowing sword with a heart shaped hilt coming out of his chest.. and realizing what’s happening he pulls it out....

So Scott faces off with roxy and in an awesomly short battle, their sords clash.. and he bisects her. 

Scott then honestly talks down Mr Chau who leaves after a nod, and Ramona tells Scott she loves him two. The two make out and all is well.

One make out fades into another, as we cut to Scott moving in with Kim and Blockhead’s help. Well kinda they only had one box but they owed him one. He and wallace comiserate over the end of their time as roomies. They’ll always be friend but it’s truly the end of an era. Also Wallace gets off another bit of dickery as he’’s very glad it all worked out for scott...

 Now there’s the Wallace I know and love. Dickish but just the right loveable kind of douchebag with that swagger. 

Back at Knives house she’s apparenlty into somebody though who I have no idea, Mr Chau give sher his blessing and she.. apparenlty doesen’t know chinese. I dunno. As I said her subplot this go round was her weakest overall. 

And so we end with the whole gang gathered to see Lisa off. It’s a REALLY nice shot, and one of the only times Wallace is seen with the Sex Bomb omb side of the group. Oh sure he goes to their shows and what not, but generally their never in the same vincinity so while there’s no interaction I still find this neat. Seriously the whole main cast is there, it’s a really lovely shot

Also Jason and Hollie.. who are getting awfully chummy. Whu Oh. And of course Craphole and Mouth Face are as likeable as ever. 

So we jsut get a genuinely nice sene. Except Stephen and Julie reconciling. Fuck that. Please move on. And as everyone fondly wishes Lisa adeu and wish she stuck arond the res tof the series we end on Scott and Ramona snuggling, Scott asking her her birthday and finding out she’s 24, and they both will be come september. Scott wishes this moment could last. 

They probperly snuggle as the volume ends on a high. 

Final Thoughts:

Yeah.. Gets it Together is, on rexamination, DEFINTELY my faviorite of the 6. Besides personal value i’ts hte best contained story, contaning lots of character development, great character moments, jokes, and EASILY the best art so far, with goregouness and creativty abounding. 

There is a problem here or there: Stephen and Julie’s subplot feels underbaked, and not just because I hates them, and there are several scenes that don’t further plot or character stuff. Ther’es also stuff that could’ve been expanded on.. but given this is still a pretty meaty graphic novel, it’s understandable why it wasn’t.. though it is why I’d love a streaming series since while the movie is excellent, a full series could expand on stuff from the books more Brian simply didn’t have time for. Knives also didn’t get a lot to do. 

But their drowned out by tons of great decisions: Lisa was a wonderful additoin to the cast and I genuinely wish she’d stuck around, adding in some energy, blending well with the Sex Bomb Omb crowd, and having great dynamics with everyone and her arc with Scott is heartbreaking,knowing she can’t have him but wanting him anyway having never gottne proper closure on the man she’s always wanted. She’s a heartbreaking character and its nice to see her end in a decent place and on good terms with Scott, having let him go for both thier sakes. 

And while Lisa is a highlight everyone is on their a game here for the most part apart from knives, girl hitler, and captain dumbass: Scott grows signfigantly but is funny as hell, Wallace has an intresting arc trying to nudge Scott out without being overt about it, scared to really confront him, Kim is in a happy and serene place for once and it shows. The villians are also intresting: While Mr Chau is a tad underbaked, he’s sitll a cool imposing presence. I do think he shoudl’ve had more to do with the plot.. but is still just so freaking cool it papers over that and him just.. disappearing after this like poor Lisa. 

Roxy is far more intresting, having clearly more going on than we see and while I wish we’d got her backstory, she’s easily the most engaging of the exes, being the only one to actively compete with Scott (All her and ramona end up doing is making out a little it turned out), and have bigger stakes than just “The glasses wearing douche asked me to beat up my exes boyfriend and I was like alright. 

All in all Gets it Together is really magical, the series high point, and just damn fun and it was a pleasure to go through

Next Month on Scott Pilgrim: It all falls down as we take a look into what once was my least faviorite Album, vs the unvierse. Two perfect assholes try and murder scott with Robutts, his relationship and band crumble and things get sad so very very sad. 

Next on this blog: More LIlo and Stitch! The Proud Family come to Kauai and get into a fight with our heroes. Also wizard kelly... who if nothing else is now far more tolerable now i’ve had to spend another volume with the wicked bitch of the west. Touche universe touche. See you at the next rainbow.