#i know im not giving many examples but i just woke up

[qasian-tech-support]

The loss of forums is also part of why you have to add "reddit" to the end of search queries on Google to find any human answers to your questions, instead of article and article of AI generated slop. Go and create your own forums for shit, and fight back against Discord

[barblaz-arts]

I think people have been accustomed to couples being in that honeymoon phase when they’re shown onscreen together. We ALWAYS see that with newly-established couples in pretty much any type of media… But that’s not Chaggie.

Charlie and Vaggie have been together for years. Their honeymoon phase has long past. They’re not doing outlandish displays of affection. They’re just, comfortable. Doesn’t mean they love each other any less, just that those sappy moments aren’t as common anymore

Yes! also the way a lot of people are surprised that charlie and vaggie aren't only best friends is such a good example of the double standards wlw ships get. thinking they aren't dating is understandable. Overlooking that Vaggie and Charlie were meant to at least be shipped together is INSANE.

If i never knew they were dating already, i and so many other sapphic ship lovers would be eyeing tf out of Vaggie and Charlie's relationship. Lookit some of the things that happened/are established before the "she's my girlfriend" line in ep 5

- the newcaster lady made a homophobic comment towards Charlie, saying she "doesn't touch the gays" when Charlie tried to give her a handshake

- THIS

- just all the times Vaggie would soften up as soon as she sees Charlie smiling or being her dorky self despite being previously upset/angry

- Vaggie's whole friggin verse in Whatever It Takes is very obviously meant to be romantic

- Charlie being worried about Angel Dust while Vaggie gives her the most "i love you and im sad that you're upset but i love that you're upset over something like this because it shows how amazing of a person you are" look at Charlie as she tucks her hair behind her ear

- Angel: I think this belongs to you *hands Charlie over to Vaggie*

- just all the casual touches they do that would totally be read as shipping fuel AT LEAST if it happened between a male/female duo or two men

- the fact Vaggie woke up?? Looking beside her to find Charlie?? To show that they sleep in the same bed?????

- Vaggie offering her hand unprompted when Charlie was having a stressful phone call with her dad and Charlie readily accepting it

And I'm sure there are people who'd go "But it's always shown from Vaggie's end! It looks so one-sided!" So? Aren't there tons of ships out there that seem one-sided but yall are perfectly fine shipping? And it's harder to see Charlie's love for Vaggie because Charlie at her core is a very loving and affectionate person. Of course it's gonna be more obvious for Vaggie since she's so prickly towards anyone else.

If all these things still happened without any of us knowing that they were actually girlfriends, we'd have a certain section of the fandom shipping it hoping they DO become canon while others would be claiming we'd be ruining a perfectly good platonic friendship by making it gay. They'd say we're reading too much into things.

But they ARE a couple. we aren't reading too much into things because it was meant to be read as romantic. And yet we're still the delusional ones for thinking an already established sapphic couple is "cute and interesting" because now they're claiming they simply dont have chemistry. It's frustrating.

Of course I have my criticisms too. The show could portray more of how Vaggie is more special to Charlie than anyone else, have them flirting more overtly or something. But any argument that they're "so boring i thought it was het" is invalid to me because i damn well know if at least one them was a dude a lot of them would be saying otherwise.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

you know i've been thinking about the consequences of malleus's actions in book 7 and i realized how much he's fucked everyone over including his grandma. bc like other than the fact that he ob'd (which literally has NEGATIVE connotations one of which being is idk ""UNSTABLE"" which isnt necessarily a good look for a crown prince is all im saying) he's literally causing terrorism (??? can you call it that idk how else to call it) which is going to setback his grandma's efforts (and lilia's and baul's, and every supporter of his and his family) in keeping peace in their kingdom and the favor of the humans towards the fae. Like. i feel so bad for grandmother draconia rn i can only imagine the stress and pressure she's under.

Then theres also aside from PHYSCIALLY compromising everyone's healths in sage island (BECAUSE THE MAJORITY ARE HUMANS OR AT LEAST THEY DONT LIVE AS LONG AS THE FAE). He's also fucked everyone mentally twice over!!!! By booting them straight into a world where none of their problems exist. Now that wouldnt sound bad if it weren't for the fact that dreams have to end, and life isnt kind. It rarely ever is, and i can only imagine how distraught i would be if i were to say, hypothetically lost someone a year before and the wound is so fresh and raw and, in my dreams, they never died and everything is okay, then i wake up and realize that it was just that. A dream, they are still gone and i wish i never woke up which would be a LITERAL DEATH SENTENCE. This isnt just an event that takes place in NRC either BUT THE WHOLE ISLAND and that domain is GROWING, GROWING. I can't imagine just how many would be so emotionally ruined after this. Like.....

If Malleus does not suffer the consequences of his actions istg i will be so pissed, at least REMOVE HIM FROM THE PREMISE OR SOMETHING GODDDDDDD this cannot be remedied with a slap on the hand!!!!!

(Note: Sorry for the long rant. I felt the need to get this out of my chest bc i dont mind malleus's archetype actually nor do i actually hate him, bc i enjoy him interacting w other characters a lot (my fave ever vigenette is him giving deuce the equivalent of minecraft diamon for fixing a retrobit gaming toy) BUT GOD DOES HE MAKE MY BLOOD BOIL)

Yeah, I do feel like the scale of Malleus's actions cannot be understated. I know it's kind of a fandom joke that the OB boys are left off with a slap on the wrist + maybe some social ramifications at school, but this is the ONE time in the main story where things are getting super big and the effects could be cripplingly long-lasting.

I don't know if TWST will seriously address the consequences after book 7, but I sure hope they do!! There is a lot of interesting ground to cover (many points which this anon has already brought up) in a follow-up main story arc or the next book.

For example:

Malleus obviously has to regain the trust of his peers and staff. He didn’t really have it before but now has to work twice as hard to make connections since he just took a drastic action that confirmed the rumors some were already spreading about how he’s a monster.

He’s the sole heir to the throne and has just betrayed the trust of the people of Briar Valley. How are they feeling about him now? Do they still trust him to lead them?

How does this impact their relations with other countries (since Malleus himself stresses how he represents Briar Valley)? This is a problem visible on a global scale, and surely this would damage their rep with other nations, particularly the predominantly human ones. It’s setting back what is hundreds of years of trying to fix the broken trust between their races.

Malleus’s UM potentially puts his victims in physical harm; in book 7, Ortho suggests that since everyone is sleeping, their bodies are not getting the food or water they need. As a result, they may physically waste away and then perish. (We have seen that there are sleep blessings that keep people sleeping for hundreds of years without detriment to the blessed though, such as the one cast on Silver—so we cannot be entirely sure if Ortho’s theory is correct or not.)

There is the possibility that Malleus’s dreams may traumatize or retraumatize his victims, particularly those with deep rooted troubles. An example of this is Idia, who had suffered the loss of his brother when he was like… 8 years old??? But then in his dream, Idia is living a happy false reality that Ortho never died. When he finally comes to this realization, he has to relive the trauma of the discovery all over again and breaks down sobbing. We also see in the most recent book 7 update that Vil had to face the evilest aspects of himself and a dark reality; Rook became very emotional upon waking himself. Admittedly, Idia and co. coped with it well enough—this is proof of their character development and the strength of the new friendships they’ve formed. However, all the people on Sage’s Island/Twisted Wonderland may not react so positively or be so accepting of their cruel realities.

Again, just the overall moral dilemma of one person robbing all of Sage’s Island (and soon all of Twisted Wonderland) of their autonomy.

Potential extra work for STYX and whichever countries Malleus’s magic manages to spread to (repairing any physical damage caused by the thorns + mental damage done to those that fell asleep). That’s money, time, and resources that aren’t going toward other everyday endeavors.

How will Malleus himself mentally and emotionally cope with what he has done? Is he going to show remorse and shame? How does he plan on rectifying his actions, if at all?

Will this change how his dorm members + family view him? For example, will Sebek become disillusioned with his liege/realize Malleus is not as perfect as he seems? Will Maleficia blame herself for not being there for Malleus? Will Lilia feel guilty for not teaching Malleus right from wrong? Etc, etc, etc.

I’d honestly love to read all of these! 🤔 It would add a lot to the lore and history of Twisted Wonderland, as well as serve as motivators for Malleus to change, “be better”, and actually earn the respect he’s so used to being handed by default. This would be huge for him, especially seeing as he has not really faced significant backlash or consequences for any other missteps he was responsible for or involved in. (I know I bring this one up a lot, but Endless Halloween Night is one such major example.)

[m1sa-w1sa]

Hmm I'm curious about seeing your spin on a yandere Akane Owari and Sonia nevermind~ I hope this request is right up your alley😊😊😊

(WOOOOO!!! Our yandere requests are coming back!! Ill try my best! Hope u enjoy!!

Sonia Nevermind

•So lets start off when you two first met so for example lets say you twi were best friends, and slowly over time she started to develop a crush on you, it was a harmless crush at first but it slowly got WORSE

•Soon you two were out taking a peaceful walk around the park u til you told her something that made her snap

‘Sonia, I know I should’ve told you sooner but.. Tomorrow Im leaving japan and I’m going to [HOME COUNTRY NAME]’

•That made her freak out, realizing how much she LOVED YOU how she NEEDED you and your just..LEAVING?! She had to do something about that she wasnt allowing that!

•Before you left you hugged Sonia tightly but while in the hug you felt a sharp pain on your neck making you dizzy the last thing you heard was

‘ It will all be over soon.. ‘

•You woke up in a fancy house, golden furniture everywhere, but the windows were sealed shut as you were chained to a bed hearing footsteps coming through the door, seeing sonia with a sadistic smile on her face

‘ You’re finally mine dear! All mine.. ‘

Akane Owari

•Most likely you both met by you giving her your food, but she thought you were really cool! And really pretty to..

•She always tried to help you work out a bit, liking your confidence but she also started to develop a small crush like sonia did

•She went for advise to Neckomaru and he said ‘ Go for it! ‘ so she did and this can go both ways, she would take you on a food date setting up a little picnic at [FAVORITE PARK NAME]

‘ Name.. Would you like to be my [S/O]..? ‘

•If you said yes then she would be so happy, hugging you and spinning you around, but she would be very overprotective, if anyone looks at you, touches you, even BREATHES on you their dead, dont you wonder why so many people went missing?

•If you said no then, she would look at you with a blank stare, before you could react she knocked you out cold

•You woke up with cold sweat on your face as you would be tied to a chair and tape over your mouth as your struggled and struggled before the door opened

‘ It doesnt matter if you dont love me… you are MINE ‘

(TY FOR REQUESTING!!! NEXT POST COMING IN A FEE HOURS!!)

[kurogane2512]

I recently got into Nikke too and the gameplay I gotta say is actually enjoyable. Im also enjoying some of the women. But I guess I've been spoiled by PTN, I just cant get over the fact that I, a woman, have to play as a dude. like hello why cant we be woman? Its minor issue but I dont kmow it just makes me kinda feel not seen and i get little annoyed? women play those games too and we deserve our female MC.

The gameplay certainly grows on you especially as you get better characters, even with just auto play it's quite fun to watch cause it's so active all the time. It's also sometimes just nice to have these relaxing games where you don't have to do much in gameplay and can spend more time with the story.

As for mc, I definitely understand you and it did upset me in the beginning too but I got used to it since I have played so many other similar games having the same issue over the years. I have digged into this and analysed from the perspective of various games so I do have an understanding of why this is the case. For one, most gachas target male audiences even now. While Genshin definitely changed the landscape, there are many layers to this that are quite complex and would take me a while to explain so this is gonna be a long read if you are really interested to hear.

Gacha gaming space has evolved a lot after Genshin and many new games emerged trying to copy Genshin's success in their own way. Genshin in terms of fanservice is super mild, as seen by its age rating of 12+ and its popularity on a global scale is what attracted everyone. This issue has got to do a lot with censorship and the reaction of men and women in the gacha communities. In simple words, it's likely that the devs only intended this for a male audience since the cast is all female and they don't expect to attract many women players. Or, they may deliberately not want women players. It's quite messed up and complicated idk how to explain without appearing rude or something 😅

Lemme give an example of a recent controversy another game had- Snowbreak Containment Zone. Just like Nikke, this game has an exclusive male mc and all female cast. However, in the early stage this game had a male character which was forcefully removed by the players cause they didn't want a man between their waifus. Yes it sounds quite pathetic, but but hear me out more. Initially, Snowbreak was following Genshin's route of having a mild fanservice story to attract a larger audience but it didn't work for them. Their revenue went down and they were on the verge of eos, then they made a crucial decision to change the direction of the game.

Snowbreak bumped up its rating to 18+ and started having a 'Master Love' story which is basically harem route. This worked and saved the game and for now it's doing good enough, but another thing came into light from this. Apparently there were some female player groups in China who reported Snowbreak for it's skimpy designs and the story catering to men, this caused some discourse in the players online and the conclusion that came out was these female players were typical woke feminists who hate seeing fanservice and bias for male players so they demanded female characters to be removed and instead some male characters to be put in.

Now, while this issue is recent and Nikke was released 2 years ago, I believe the causes are similar. It's sad to say this but when these games attempt to target female players, they mostly get straight women who demand more male characters and start hating on the female designs cause it goes against feminist propaganda. Genshin's old censorship of Jean, Amber, Mona etc was another case of this. Yes I know Nikke is Korean so it shouldn't be the same but I really believe it ends up that way. Now you'd wonder, why don't these games just give equal treatment to male and female characters to appease both sides? Imo, it's really not simple to balance this in a fanservice heavy game.

I won't say revenue cause there are examples to show male characters can earn just as good as females. I truly believe it's got to do with gender roles/interests/ideologies etc. I agree that Ptn is impressive in this sense that it somehow attracted such a large yuri fandom and I personally don't think the devs planned for this. From my understanding, it's due to its design being different from the conventional anime style that males weren't attracted as much and there being mostly adult women characters while the majority of men want teen or young girls as waifus. Also the fact that both mcs are treated quite equally in not just role but even design philosophy, it's likely why more women ended up here. Also it has a mature story which doesn't have anime stereotypes that I suppose it just didn't reach the audience the devs planned for.

But okay yeah lemme just finish here. I get your disappointment and I also wish Nikke had the option for female mc but looking at various factors I understand why the devs wanted a harem story this way. There are otome games like Love and Deepspace topping revenue charts which obviously shows women play these games too but I think the majority is still made up of straight women hence why these other games flourish more. But I won't lie, I'm very tempted to make a game like Nikke or love and deepspace for us lesbians like yes we deserve to have this too with hot women 😩

[gege-wondering-around]

guys, i was thinking and i think someone needs to hear this.

talk to the people you wanna talk to.

if you're curious about them or wanna know them better or start to know them from nothing -> hit them up in their dm. i promise you it's worth giving it a try or you'll never know if they are who you're searching for.

and maybe it could unveil something you thought was lost within you...

and lemme give ya an example:

for those who don't know me from the start, my first posts were theories/analysis/interpretation etc. and i haven't done one of those in a very long time cause nothing came to my mind, i just stick to reblogs.

then someone came knocking at my door and i started to get to know @dontcallpanic a bit more, ask after ask. then, yesterday (i think it was yesterday) i got a dm from this sweet soul and we were chatting a bit and it came out something that really woke up that part in me again, of doing those kind of posts. (i'll post it when it's ready)

so, this is a silly, simply example of how a stranger (whom i plan to get to know better🩵) can wake you up from hibernation without even knowing it. of how a pretty soul can light back up that spark you thought was gone.

you can be the lighter and the spark. you can be the new comer or the old veteran, and both are good. both need each other cause it's just happier that way. you pour your passion which lighten up their spark, and your passions and feeling gets read by someone who understands them and you'll be happy.

and this is how the people you are curious about might be the best that could happen to you today, so go and talk to them, even if you're awkward or dont know how to start, just hit them up with...

idk, maybe why you follow them? maybe your intention to know them better if they'd be down to it too? maybe sending them one of their own post and sharing your opinion with them as a private convo?

there are many ways you can do this and i believe you can do this.

if you are curious, talk to people.

you'll find the right one for ya, but you gotta swim in the wild, vast ocean to find your species, cause there isn't any community or friendship without the hardship of building them.

I want you to meet your people, i want you to find someone who gets your feeling for your passions and hobbies and i want you to swim in the ocean to find them. you'll hit some rocks, maybe hook yourself to false baits but it'll be worth it when you'll find your buddies, i promise you.

it'd be my wildest dream to do those posts once again and get the community to hit them up with their opinions and ideas and everything in between (cause im genuinenly a curious person), it'd be my wild wild dream to be part of something and you can be part of it too.

you can find your people, you can find your freaks and beans. they are out there, you just gotta take a chance with people and i know it might be scary cause the internet is scary, the amount of cruelty and hate people have nowadays is bewildering, the way fandoms, communities etc got so weak (as someone rightfully said but i don't remember who) it's sad to see cause the new comers just see... that.

the dying light of a fandom, the hateful reblogs someone does under other's posts, the seemengly lost spark when you search your fav ship, or your new obsession, or your fav artist of the moment, or your fav actor or anything else and all you see are old posts (that makes you feel you're too late to join in) and hateful discussion that were meant to be nothing more than a chitchat within a part of the fandom (and you feel like you're wrong supporting your passion for that one thing)

but lemme tell you something.

lemme let you in on somethng, come here. come closer...

it's not dead. what you're searching for it's not dead, it just got weak and you can be one of the many little sparks that can bring back the joy of chatting and reblogging posts, of leaving playful and happy comments under other's posts about their passions.

you aren't late, you aren't in the wrong for liking it, you aren't walking in a cementary. it's more like everyone is in hibernation and you kinda have to shake'em up a bit with care, showing them your passion about that little ship, that character analysis, that little poem you wrote about your ex or about your boss being the worst. you woke'em up a bit and you keep being kind and respectfull and polite and you'll see how the fandom isn't dead, it just needed to hear the starting bell.

"hey guys, weird but true, here's my thoughts" and you pour everything down and i bet, i BET someone is gonna love it, you'll wake'em up and they'll be like 'finally someone with that pretty spark and those deep dives into ---' and i promise you, i swear on my name, you'll get yourself a small audience and you'll feel happy about sharing your thoughts while other will he eager to read them. then maybe they'll reblog it and comment on it, and you'll build a small connection with them, then maybe, one day a few months later, you'll wake up to a dm. or you'll the one sending it.

'hey, i think you're pretty cool and i like what you write, wanna chat a bit?'

and you'll find your people.

you will find them.

be kind, polite, respectfull in sharing your thoughts and you'll slowly build something with your strangers, then mutuals, then dm buddies, and maybe you'll end up with a friend sending you pic of their home made bread cause they care for you to the point they make bread for ya even if you cant eat it, but they know you'll love it and they'll eat for you.

nothing is dead, kiddo. you gotta dig up the fish from the bottom of the ocean but i promise you, they just need a little light to follow to come back and show you how to build a comfy aquarium with'em.

you'll find your people kiddo, you just gotta be curious about them.

and if you are one of those who just like to read and are eager to know more, you'll still be part of it. people will notice you, i promise you i notice those few beans of mine that likes many of my reblogs and i treasure them dearly. you'll be welcome too buddy, everyone is.

search for you freaks and beans, kiddo, you'll find them in the wild, vast and scary ocean. you'll wake up that feeling of belonging into a community and your spark will be treasured while you'll wake back up theirs. (which was never gone to begin with, they just needed to feel at home between a bunch of strangers calling each other darling and sweetheart while talking about two gay dudes)

find them kiddo, find them...

i believe you can.

[moth-flowers]

gender-confusion-and-probably-mental illness-based rap lyrics

12-12-21

(post under the cut)

but it gets hard when i try to explain to others

and it seems like im tryna make a whole new colour

and its even harder to give examples and explain

when even I dont understand whats going on inside my brain

and everytime i speak, the walls feel so thin

like if i talk too loud they'll cave right on in

quoth the raven: fuck

and if I were a guy, I'd probably wanna tuck

and i'd probably tuck away all my thoughts and feelings

never talk about them until moments before i stop breathing

if i woke up in a male body, I'd think "what the hell?"

cos it seems like it might be just another layer to this shell

crack crack! but this egg ain't breakin'

just more stories of confusion and the building won't stop shakin'

the very ground I've stood on is in the midst of quakin'

and the cracks that form give off heat enough to cook eggs and bacon

and here i fry, with the pressures mounting

piled so high you'd think it's a mountain

something else to maintain

no more crying, only gains

but i can only gain so much before I'm at the edge of a cliff

and I've already lost the race, so you know what?

fuck this shit

----

why do they always say "either ; or"?

when i know so many people who feel like "neither" and "nor" ?

when they ask me "what do you feel like?"

i feel like whatever answer i give just isnt quite right

i could just say "yes"

but im worried itd cause me stress

but if I said "no"

it wouldn't give me room to grow

[krewekreep]

Im so sorry I can’t actually cause people are taking this advice 😭 im just gonna have to be an « asshole »

Let’s go in reverse: I agree the trend of mature, 18+, gritty/graphic, ROUGH, « dark » fanfics are a problem! But why? It’s an opportunity for larger conversation about the fact TOO historically « women’s literature » (don’t get annoying about semantics this is how historically women dominated genres are referred as… cause yall sensitive and don’t know shit to actually disagree💕) . HISTORICALLY!!! WOMEN’s LITERATURE IS RAUNCHY, NAUGHTY, HORNY, etc.

If you don’t know, now you do…hey! Women don’t get to enjoy ANYTHING in a public facing forum…so those dark horny thoughts gotta go somewhere…and that’s quite literally aspects of the origins of the « romance » genre in general…

Now back to BLACK PEOPLE. Again, old tumblr hoe—celebrated ten years of my OG blog 2023…I’m 25…I went to an arts school and am published in a Harvard Journal (Transition Magazine #121 & among other things had FICTION published and acknowledged by scholastic in high school…my story is included in the purchasable edition of Best Teen Writing of 2017 Scholastic…)

Im only giving SOME of the resume cause people LOVE to debate and in this instance this is just someone with more awareness and actual training clarifying some inadvertently HARMFUL advice…

BLACK PEOPLE BLUSH! IM A DARKER MEDIUM TONED BLACK WOMAN WITH RED UNDERTONES AND I HAVE BEEN EMBARRASSED IN MY LIFE (like the white girls) and had my blush VISIBLE AND POINTED OUT! That was just a weird and annoying thing to see someone STAND ON? You saying someone lightskin…WHO IS BLACK…can’t blush? Like I know I’m being nitpicking but you can’t give advice if you can’t also take someone pointing out it’s weaknesses…😩🫤 that makes zero sense right?

*The Youthforia foundation example is the ELITE example now to scientifically prove and disagree with folks who say black people don’t have undertones…yes we can blush

Nooooooo nice intentioned people in the replies « flushed » « blushed » « mewled » whatever the fuck like just use the damn word 😭 someone is gonna suddenly STOP and close your fanfic cause damn…the black girl blushed? UNREALISTIC! Like im sorry yall take the internet too serious onfg 😭😭

Respectfully…the portion about hair…is to each they own cause everyone gonna call texturism or some weird shit when no! A lot of black women across the hair curl spectrum can…maneuver their hair however…if you are black and not…projecting your experience onto everyone else…like I went to a black school in a black community…in New Orleans…I’ve seen all kinds of hair and the things you can do…this is with the UTMOST respect to my sisters but like your hair issues are not universal and I can’t wait for black women to stop doing that about our looks, bodies, hair, etc…

FOR NON BLACK WRITERS: Baby if it’s too out of bounds how about you just don’t write black characters? From the girl who has sat in front of white published authors who visited my arts high school with terrible narrative attempts at USURPING black narratives for their own….i know how to challenge actual bad faith writing. Look my loves…if you know someone black ask them to read it—if you don’t know anybody black respectfully besides diversity points and seeming to woke id challenge you to give me a reason you need a black character…heart of hearts it’s gonna be just because…so let’s also too check our need to be « inclusive » just coming off as hand fisted diversity…ANYWAY!!! LMAOOO

For my black writers: When did we all become the same? I’m so confused? Maybe cause I’m very GROWN and act like it I don’t get and am growing tired of the necessity for their to almost be prescriptive RULES on how to BE black and engage with blackness…write my loves. That’s why so many people end up like SpongeBob with a fantastically designed « THE » and nothing the fuck else…you gotta fall to figure out riding a bike right? Just WRITE AND SHARE IT! discord, Twitter but find spaces just for that! Waiting on acknowledgement from tumblr, Twitter, wattpad (I don’t know wtf yall are on now fr anyway) is why yall stay in a insecure headspace too…too hungry for the likes and love but can yall admit that??? just fucking write bro 😭 before you literally continue your unchecked compulsive nature to not be disruptive or a problem…(cause yall tryna make the internet a safe space and it’s the internet like stop and go find community in real life no tea no shade I swear) just write…it’s inconsequential TUMBLR SMUT LIKE STOP THIS ISNT SIGNING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE WE ARE ALL COLLECTIVELY HORNY, CURIOUS PEOPLE IN LOVE WITH REAL LIFE AND FICTIONAL PEOPLE WE WILL NEVER BE WITH!

IF JUNGKOOK MAKES THE BLACK GIRL FUCKING BLUSH SHE FUCKING BLUSHED! IF NANAMI RUNS HIS FINGERS THROUGH HER HAIR EASILY DAMN MAYBE HER LEAVE IN JUST THAT GOOD!!! IF SHE WANTS TO BE HELD DOWN IN THE DARKNESS UNTIL SHE CANT BREATHE AND BROUGHT BACK TO THE LIGHT BY THE SAME *INSERT* LET HER!! ITS FAN FIC YALL 😭🫡

for fanfic writers and readers

as a black girl who loves a lot of different movies and shows, fanfic allows me to read stories that put me in the middle of my favorite things. however, fanfic often (unintentionally) excludes girls who look like me.

i am so sick and tired of reading a fanfiction and having to rewrite it in my brain because a character description immediately implies that the reader is white. if you don't know what i mean, here are some examples.

"your skin turned pink" or "you blushed": black girls and women with darker skin tones CANNOT blush. our skin does not just turn pink

"pulled your hair into a messy bun": my 4a hair cannot be pulled into a messy bun at random. i may be able to do a ponytail if i have braids in, and i might be able to tie it up if I have an old twist-out, but a "messy bun" is often not possible.

"he ran his hands through your hair": yeah...unless my hair is in a silk press (and an OLD silk press), that's not happening

there are a plethora of other examples that would make this post insanely long, so let me get to the point. there are very easy ways to make fanfic a bit more inclusive; all you have to do is tweak a few character descriptions. OR, put in your pairing or warnings that the reader is implied to be white.

and finally: please, please stop tagging your DARK fanfictions "xblack!reader." i am tired of searching for fluff under the black reader tag and finding non-con, dark themes, etc., ESPECIALLY when the fic ends up being for a white reader💀.

the goal of my page is to create a safe space for black girls who love reading fanfiction. i am only one person, so if you'd like to help, here are some ways to do that!

send me fics (preferably marvel and stranger things to start) that are with a black reader

comment some other things in fanfics that imply that the reader is white or that make the fic a little less accessible

REBLOG FICS BY BLACK WRITERS

[sehodreamsthoughts]

omg pls that’s so cute though🤭🤭 i love the idea too of that after a long day you come home and you have a responsibility to take care of ur pups so you’ve got to let them get their exercise 🤭🤭

the breeds you chose for them i think are so perfect<33 and feels true to their personalities that’s sooo cute im just obsessed with what u said about jake being rowdier and anton being more reserved because i love the idea of jake trying to cause trouble and encouraging anton to do the same

i think u mentioned it before but if you were already completely exhausted from being at work all day and then fucking both of them, you’d finally fallen asleep with one of either side of you to cuddle n sleep but they get needy again just seeing your breasts rising and falling with ur soft snores .. so jake would just start humping your leg, and paw at your tits, anton would be like no you’re going to wake her! he’s such a good boy he doesn’t want to upset you :(( knows how mad you’d be if they woke you up cuz they’re still needy :(( but jake says he doesn’t care, telling anton he can, he should, just hump you too, eventually waking you up with his little cries of please, please, please, you’d be too groggy at first, just letting them both just cum in their pajamas from the friction alone before taking care of them more intimately… you’d save the punishment for another time.

or do u see them as more dominant with u? i’m not really sure..

- 🥟 anon

You saw my vision perfectly! 😭 I see them exactly how you mentioned but I think that's when they're normal, more than dominant, I just see them active, HOWEVER, there's a moment in which they're total doms.

I know (just recently I discovered) that males don't get ruts (like omegaverse taught me), but I can't think of a moment in which they don't get that need to breed.

So, IN MY HEAD, when you're ovulating they can sense it and go crazy, it's like, the aroma, the way you get wetter than usual, even your temperature, they can just sense it the minute they see you, and they lose their heads when they realize it's happening.

You become more compliant too so they feel euphoric, using you more, harder, and doing things they don't always dare to do.

For example, Jake is a biter, but you don't like it very much, so he leaves small bites on your shoulder while fucking, because when he tries to do more, there's Anton to stop him.

But the minute he realizes you're on that stage he tosses the idea of not biting you hard aside. He wants to mark you, to keep you in your place, so he thrusts into you, giving a soft lick on your neck, going down until he finds the curve of your shoulder, and he bites as deep as he wants to not let you move while he pumps you, "Take it all- you like it when I treat you like this, right? Just look how you're leaking, it's calling for me to give you a pup, and you'll have it for me, don't ya?"

Usually Anton would be telling him to stop, but Anton is so horny too, he doesn't stop him so he finishes fast, and also because he knows that in that moment, even if Jake is not aggressive with him, things could easily get out of control.

Anton, on the other hand, like I said, it's not as messy, he doesn't drool as much as Jake, or leaves as many marks, but he's still way more intense.

Anton is used to pushing your legs open and covering you with his entire body, he likes it, and you do too, but you can't really keep up with his strength and broadness, so usually after two rounds max, you stop him so you don't end up too sore the next morning.

And, when you're ovulating, that limit doesn't exist anymore.

Anton likes sliding deep inside, deep until his entire cock rests all the way inside. The bigger boy can go for many rounds, and with his elbows on each side of your head, he has you in the dream mating press, "My pussy, my woman, my person, all mine. Come on, say you're mine."

Feeling how wet you are, he doesn't stop even when you sink onto the mattress, or even when you're crying so loud he knows the next day you won't be able to walk or sit properly, and whenever you try to close your legs he opens them more without mercy so he can bottom out until there's nothing left out of his cock.

Jake never thinks about stopping the youngest, but Anton's so brute at those times that even he looks at your face with pain. That's why usually Jake takes the first turn (he tells Anton he does it because he's older, but it's a complete lie), and after Anton knot goes down, Jake doesn't let you go out of his grasp, kissing your shoulder and licking your tears, making sure that Anton doesn't take you again.

At least, not before a two-hour nap, and another of his orgasms.

[f0xd13-blog]

Them giving it back: my stomach empty after all the unecessary shit i had to go thorugh that they themselves creatsd!! Like i wasn't even in the conversation before because i accepted that i was framed as a fascist and tried to live my life the best i can before madonna appeared again to fuck me up... your star!!!

......

Oh well yall just don learn... the way my life was destroyed and could have commited suicide just like the rest because we have no flag to hide behind .. oh men... god will punish you all its ok

Oh no... i knew this was comming.. exactly like it always happens... god knows better

So everybody got their money from my efforts except me just like god antecipaded... ahahahah yall just never learn

When you have a good mother right? They will always think they know better... thats why they're fucked lol

Anyways wait for camps in america tired of dealing with your nazi nonsense

Oh you is treated goo because you are a football player in italy???ohhh so cute. Just wait for the italian camps anyways

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Just wait until you ork and it doesn't get recognized.... you don get with words you will get and exemplified. Just the mere fact i did all of what i did and it aint considered work when you have creatives being paid for the ideas i had is astonoshing

Oh and btw thanks because i totally got disappointed with so many stars and celebs to the point i don respect them at all anymore...god certainly doesn't aswell... yall behave like animals lol

Yah right... totally framed anf it was one of the massonical jews you have in america always oing that sort of shit to gain control of ou shit

Insta is behaving so normally like it doesn't seem tempered at all

I sure hope yo didn't had the stupid idea of putting that wrestling algorithm for everyone... because people will just notie where the nazi schemes are comming from as nobody watches that fag shit that went donwhill since the woke shit started

https://echoboomer.pt/programas-wwe-deixaram-sport-tv-em-portugal/

We don even air it here... thats how much boring it became

Angola datroyed namibia as expected because duhhh gypsy and portuguese blood where the og footballers cama from

Messi just went to saudi and straight up said to elon...

I gotta admit sometimes i just trash random people to prove a poi t... like let me beef with those niggas of course nothing i say is untrue but i do force it sometimes coz they gotta understand people ain't perfect and part of being alive is to do arguments and then make up or not but let us fight with each other and say wtv tf we want we will deal with the consequences of that WITH THE PERSON WE OFFENDED

For example i came online and they decided to put some random basketball shit... listen i only use chicano bulls because it looks hot and im a g so you know bulls and shit? Yah.. tbh... because i don even follow american leagues just never happened and we have a big futebol culture over

I just cant with this fucking t0kenism... if it wasn't him it would be a G but with more ratings

Have you ever wtached esmeralda or wtv the name is? Yah jews got jelky even of that!!!and took our jobs to be in our place while i live in third world conditions

And have to deal with this from fucking billionaries that should have humanity right? Thats what they sell right?

The level of real ass mental disability this people have that they had to stretch the fucking meaning of a gypsy with a person with disability and the bond that happenedd because we was both targets of jewish nazi germany but still they had to even HAVE TYAT!!! CRAZY

Like it doesn't even make sense because your budddies was the ones genociding us and thats why we created that bond even using the image of a clown (you know typical clown visit at the hospital?) Yah.. well years later they even WENT FOR THAT... like now i have a jew in my place performing and getting along with people with disabilities in my place! Thats how insane this people are!! Diversite it to basically rob me of my only role ahahah

Soms people think they arr fixing me but they got it all wrong... yall the ones that need to be fixed omg

[cepheusgalaxy]

Ok, your question was a bit vague, so if you want to detail it more I'll be able to give something more helpful, but generally speaking:

Basic terms for those who don't know:

Genderfluid: person whose gender isn't static

Gender dysphoria: Discomfort relating to one's gender, assigned sex or perceived gender (what gender people usually assume you are)

Gender euphoria: Joy relating to one's gender or perceived gender

Misgendering: When someone refers to you as the wrong gender or gendered terms (ie. calling a she/her a "dude")

1. How are they genderfluid?

Typically you would see your average genderfluid character alternating between Girl and Boy, but that are a bunch of ways someone can be genderfluid, as you may or not know. These ways may encompass how long does it take for the gender to switch (which can be very inconsistent too) or which or how many genders your character has at a given time. We have microlabels for that, but your character might just not use them.

So we have, genderfluid people who change gender very often, like once a day, or less often, like once every few months, genderfluid people who only change between masculine genders, only between xenogenders, between genders they can't really name, having two separate fluctuating genders at all time, genderflux people, etc. etc. It changes from person to person and it's something you might want to consider.

Tip: Looking for genderfluid micro-labels might help you here.

2. How to make it clear that they are genderfluid?

If you are writing with a 1st person PoV for this specific character or a limited 3rd person PoV (and 2nd person too ig but i'm not very good at that) then you can just straight up write their gender changing, of course (telling instead of showing). They just probably won't notice it everytime. Gender is a bit tricky and it doesn't wait for us to happen, usually. So in that case you can have them be "oh, wait, when i woke up i noticed i was a girl but now i went to check again and im nonbinary. ok", or rely on the dysphoria (if they have any)/euphoria aspect, which you can show through any of the other characters' eyes as well.

Example: Caracter A is genderfluid, and character B is your PoV character at the moment. Character A was wearing a very nice new dress they got, and B could tell they were really happy in it, until A started looking a bit upset. A then uses the first opportunity to change outfits and picks up their trousers, looking comfortable again.

If your audience is observant and it was already stabilished that your character is genderfluid, they'll probably pick up on that.

Then we have our "how to stabilish character A is genderfluid?"

We can Show the audience (by little things like the example above, which might be a little too subtle, so i'd avise you to pair that up with telling) or Tell them, by having a character come out to another, express their gender changed from A to B or have them correct when someone misgenders them (accidentally or not).

Also, there is no formula for characterization but something that I can think that would help with stabilishing that would be: At the beggining of their arc (when they're introduced in the story), Show first thing and then Tell the audience they're genderfluid. Throhough the middle and beyond, rely on the Show and sprinkle some Tell every now and then so your audience doesn't forget that information.

I mean, that's obviously just a way of doing it, so you might want to use that info to figure other ways of using Show and Tell to characterize them.

Examples of showing vs. telling a character is genderfluid:

Telling:

Character A introduces themselves saying they're genderfluid, [insert genderfluid microlabel], "my gender changes" or "my pronouns change"

Other characters introduce them as genderfluid

Character A comes out as genderfluid

Character A makes some mention that their gender changes

Showing

Character A wears a genderfluid pride pin

Character A's friends ask them what their gender is with some consistency

Character A expresses their gender changed (or wears pronoun pins or other alternative to them, like pronoun bracelets to indicate that)

Character A internally cringes when somebody misgenders them

Their PoV changes the pronouns they use for themselves every now and then

Applying that

There are not many genderfluid characters out there, but the more proeminent examples I can think of are Alex Fierro from Magnus Chase and The Gods Of Asgard, Nimona from the movie with the same name, and Osana Najimi from Komi Can't Communicate.

Examples with Tell with these characters: When Alex's friend, Magnus, asks what is her gender, and she takes a moment thinking and then answers; Najimi corrects people when someone refers to them by the wrong gendered terms.

Examples with Show with these characters: Nimona is characterized as having a very fluid relationship with her gender throhough the movie and denying any attempt people around her make of categorizing her in a gender box.

I myself have a genderfluid character, Voile. They use pronoun bracelets with different colors to indicate how people should refer to them at a given time, and correct people when they misgender them. But Quin, another genderfluid oc, is a little more reserved on correcting people so she just internally cringes and lets things slide.

TL;DR: Use a mix of showing and telling.

and now, last but not least, because you might also want to consider that:

3. How does your character's genderfluidity affect them?

Between dysphoria, euphoria, and worrying about not being accepted, everything together is going to make your character a little bit different than your ocs who have a static gender, along with their unique perspective that comes with having a fluid relationship with it. A lot of trans people also have a different relatonship with gender, as you know, so that'll also apply to your genderfluid characters.

That won't come up everytime and you don't need to force yourself to touch on that, but it's something to consider (specially the dysphoria/euphoria part: maybe making a list of what causes it for them might help)

Any doubts?

Oh great gender fluid gods, how do I write a gender fluid character without being disrespectful but still making it clear that the character is gender fluid?

as an author I like actually have no idea

[badmuni]

↺ heeseung as a boyfriend ↻

we know heeseung is caring and kind, but i think he's bold too

you would immediately know he was into you because he made sure you were aware

he flirted in a subtle way to make you curious about what would be his next move

and heeseung's next move was call you out...

he wasn't hasty about your relationship, actually he was pretty patient about it

he waited for your response to his investments and he was so happy when you assured him you felt the same

so one day you woke up in a morning and he was calling you his girlfriend

he would do it all the time now that you were dating

specially in front of the members, he would say things like “oh i miss my girlfriend so much” “wait a minute, i'm talking to my girlfriend”

just because he's so proud of being with you

and because he highly values ​​using words to show it

he loves it when you say sweet things to him

or if you write long texts to him, he would love that

words it's just so important to him

sometimes when you were distracted, he would appear from behind and whisper in your ear, how much he loves you or how much pretty you are for his eyes

overall heeseung would surprise you a lot with his acts of love

he's a cozy man

he's your best company on your bad days

and despite his sentimentalism, he's also so funny. he would make you laugh for hours because he has so many stories to tell

he's open with you and expects you to be the same

even though he doesn't like to pressure you, he wants you to be just his

so he wants to know your secrets and your deep thoughts

because this way he feels close to you in a way anyone else is

and he likes this feeling

but it's not like heeseung is clingy

actually he gives you a lot of space (he's an introvert himself so...)

he just shows his love in many ways

he likes the touch, the words, the looks

and because of that, he is so sensual sometimes

he flirts with you even being already in a relationship

“did it hurt?” “what?” “when you fell from heaven-” “NO WAY HEESEUNG” “im sorry for this one my love😐”

can you blame him?

you would never feel unloved by him

he has this protective side of him, even when you are in public he would keep you close to him, for example, hold your hand to cross the street so you don't run the risk of getting hit by car; these things only your grandma would do lol

his jealousy is very silent; he watches you a lot to know if you need him to get you out of these kinds of situations

but he trusts you to fire any guy who tries something

and because of that, he would get so disappointed if he sees you returning someone's flirtation. that wouldn't happen though, i bet you wouldn't do it (you know, he can get so cold if you hurt him in any way)

sometimes he gets caught up in the details, because the little things matter to him

he would praise you a lot and he'd be proud of every little thing you accomplished

when it comes to disagreements, heeseung is pretty rational

he's calm and doesn't get angry easily, he doesn't even likes to argue to be honest

he thinks is a waste of time fight over things so instead he tries to resolve things quickly

even being kinda stubborn with his ideas, he would still understand your side

i don't know but i just think that a relationship with hee would be so easy

he likes to keep the peace and comfort

his favorite time to do things is at night, so with him you would expect a lot of outings at dawn

he likes it when you take him out of his comfort zone and show him new things

and he would do it too, specially when he see you need to rest your mind

overall a very kind and considerate boyfriend who wants to makes you feel good and keep things stable

୧୨

# masterlist

© badmuni | 2022

[inariyazaki]

Part 1 of the Kitsune reader ( fem ) x 5wirl /6reeze + Cyno & Tighnari :)

Part 2 ! Redoing this bcs it's so cringe

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( disclaimer I made it as a fem reader bcs it is said that majority of the kitsunea are female. I apologize deeply, however, you can try reader the "her" as they instead. I hope this does not ruin it, please enjoy! It is all also seperated fics, for example : part 2 Kazuha x reader, part 3 Heizou x reader so on and so forth. Every part will be related to the story, the ending ?? Idk poly relationship WIKFWIA please give reccomendations for the ending otherwise im sticking with this ) ( btw pt2 of the Xiao ff I made is almost done !! So is why, little cupid? They're both almost done, after this I'll be postinng why little cupid first then the Xiao ff, thank you all sm for the attention I'm recieving !! )

-

Summary : Aether, Venti, Xiao, Kazuha, Heizou, Scaramouche, Tighnari, Cyno, Paimon and Lumine got teleported to an enchanted forest, they decided to go in the forest and they found a girl.

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Characters mention : Aether, Venti, Xiao, Kazuha, Heizou, Scaramouche, Tighnari, Cyno, Lumine, Paimon, reader.

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warnings : mentions of scratching / scratched, mentions of blood.

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genre : Fluff <3

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part 1 ; the meeting

-

Some slight screamings can be heard. "Woah! Is everyone okay!?" A high pitched voice said. "Me and Aether is fine. The others?" A female voice responded. "We're alright!" A male voice said with a slight playful tone said, "ahh that's good!"

-

they fell from the sky. I know, weird, but they came from a portal, don't ask. Rustling can be heard in the distance, the group of people looked at the beautiful forest behind them "what.. is this place!?" The high pitched voice yelled. "Shh Paimon! Whatever is in there we don't want to alarm them." A male voice said. "Paimon's sorry!" The high pitched voice that is so called Paimon apologized. "Let's just approach this forest with caution." A male with a comforting voice said. "Good idea Aether! I knew my brother would thought of that." A female voice said "Thanks, Lumine." The group proceeds go near the forest, as they get deeper they saw a figure lying on a rock. "Hey is that a girl?!" Paimon yelled, the girl groaned in annoyance, then Paimon covered her mouth, "what is she doing here?" Someone asks. "Oh! She might be stuck in here like us, c'mon Lumine! Let's wake her up." Paimon said "uh Paimon– I don't think we should wake someone up in their sle–" Lumine got cut by Paimon because she pulled her arm. They slowly approached a girl with rather long ears, you heard some foot steps near you so you woke up. You saw a blonde haired girl beside a floating ash white haired child, your eyes widen and sat up quickly "woah!" Paimon yelled in shock, "wh– who are you? And what are you doing here?!" You yelled, the others who decided to observe was shocked as well, "We–we're sorry! Paimon's sorry ! We just wanted to wake you up because we wanted to know if you're also stuck here!" Paimom apologizes. "What..? Stuck here..? Oh! So you went to the portal, I see.." you said while you calmed down "what portal?" The bloned haired female asks "before I answer your questions who are you guys? All of you." You said while turning your head to the other people, "Oh well Paimon's name is Paimon! And this is Lumine, this is her brother, Aether!" Paimon says as she pointed at him. "I see.. the others?" You asked "Well the guy here similliar to your ears is Tighnari, the one beaide him is Cyno, and our friendly bard here! His name is Venti. Oh and an adeptus! His name is Xiao, and a samurai! Kazuha! And a wanderer Scaramouche, a detective Heizou! And that's everyone!" Paimon said, "so many.. how does everyone remember their names!?" You aggressively ask "ehehe.." Paimon awkwardly giggles and scratches her head "anyways.. I'll get to know everyone by time." You said while standing up to stretch "you have a tail?!" Paimon surprisely asks "of course I do! Every kitsune in this world has at least 4 to 9 tails!" You yelled, "then why do you only have 1?" Paimon asks "because I hide the other tails." You tell Paimon "oh okay!" Paimon says understanding "oh question." Tighnari says "oh! Go ahead uh.." "Tighnari." "Right yes Tighnari, go ahead Tighnari." You say "what are the different types of kitsunes? Rather what kitsune are you?" Tighnari asks "oh I have the blood of Tengoku and Kukan, my family was also a tenko, so I have that running through my veins as well." You inform Tighnari. "Teng.. tengu.. uh.. Koka.. tek.. I'm sorry but these are even harder than our names!" Paimon complains you sigh in disappointment. "Very interesting. Can you please tell me what they are?" Tighnari asks again "huh? You're actually interested..? Well, sure Tengoku is a mix of 4 elements. Heaven, Celestial, Light, and prime. My element is Celestial. Kukan is void, or dark. Mine is void, however I haven't mastered it yet, a tenko is one of the strongest kitsunes to ever exist in this world. And the steongest kitsune are the kitsunes with 9 tails and an age of 1,000." You tell Tighnari, "interesting, I'm assuming you're a kitsune with 9 tails and an age of 1,000?" Tighnari asks "That's correct. However I haven't really mastered my power yet.. I tend to lose control over my power at some times, but that's only rare, so don't worry, if you guys need soneone to accompany you I'll be a decent kitsune as I roamed this area for thousands of years, I can help you find the existing portal to go back to your world." You said to them. "Are you sure..?" Paimon asks

-

"what do you mean?" you ask Paimon. "It's said Kitsunes likes to play tricks.." Paimon says suspiciously. "Majority of the Kitsunes are like that, but I can assure you I'm not like that." You assure Paimon "Oh! Alright, Paimon trusts you then!" Paimon says, you weren't listening instead you were staring at Tighnari, he didn't notice until he looked at you "Is everything okay..?" Tighnari nervously asks, "You give an awfully familiar feeling.. it's like I've met you before. Sorry." you say then looked at the ground. "Ah no- It's okay." Tighnari says, you then slightly tilt your head to Paimon's direction, "You can touch it, no worries" you said "r-really?!" Paimon says in shock, "Of course! Not that it's uncomfortable" Paimon squeeled happily and rubbed your ears. "It's so fluffy..! I could touch it forever!!" Paimon said in excitment. "You could however.. we still need to find that portal to your world." You said "awh you're right.." Paimon said in disappointment, "I just noticed those 3 don't really talk much, it's quite.. intimidating.. Why is that?" You whispered to Paimon and Lumine "they're just really quiet people in general, they aren't judging you though, don't worry, they're nice people." Lumine whispered back "oh alright I see, sorry for misunderstanding.." You tell them nervously scratching your neck, Tighnari is holding his laugh for some reason, "oh don't tell me you heard that." You tell him "don't worry I won't tell." Tighnari whisperes, you had a worried expression as you just noticed Cyno also has ears, Cyno was staring at you in confusion to why you were staring at him so worriedly so you just bowed as an apology "huh..?" Cyno mummbled in confusion "she uh apologized? No idea." Scaramouche said "weird.." he said in addition to his sentence. "Anyways let's get going.. the sooner the better." You said going deeper to the forest, "wait we don't know the way!" Paimon yelled "I do! So follow me and don't get lost!" You say. "A– alright!" Paimon said and floated to your way, Lumine followed and Aether signed the others to follow you. "W–wait!" Paimon said panting "oh? Was I too fast? I apologize." You stopped and turned around "yes.. and we didn't get your name!" Paimon said "oh right! My name is Y/n, really sorry.." you said "alright Y/n slow down! Paimon can't keep up!" Paimon said, you nervously laugh, your ears twitch to a rustling sound, "did you guys hear that?" You asks. "Yeah.." Lumine says quietly "shit.. what part of the forest are we in..?" You say worriedly. You looked around the forest

-

then realization hits you, your eyes widen "oh.. no." You say "why? What's wrong?" The golden eyed male said. "We.. went to the wrong side of the forest.. I accidentally led you guys to the deadly part of the forest." You said with a worried tone "you what?!" The golden eyed male said once again "I'm sorry! I wasn't looking at my directions and accidentally led you guys here.. I'm sorry. Whatever happens to everyone here I'm to blame." You say in an apologetic tone "shit." The male said, you took a glance at him to maybe recognize his face and to remember his name, you did, "Xiao right..?" You mumbled, you sighed "let's take the other way." You say "no! Now that we're let's find a safer place. I feel like that's a safer option rather than making too much noise coming back." Paimon requests, your ears slightly flop down thinking about a place then it pops back up once you thought of something "I know a place!" You say, "you do?!" Paimon asks "yeah!" You tell Paimon "don't lead us to the wrong way again." Xiao says you slightly smile to his overprotective personality to his friends, you weren't someone close to the kitsunes so you kind of envied them. "I won't, I promise." You said, your voice had slight comfort in it, Xiao's eyes slightly relaxed since he realized you were sincere with you words, he didn't fully trust you but you fully trusted them already, as they treated you kindly, as if you weren't surperior and didn't act all nervous around you, you were glad you were treated normally.

-

"is this place good?" You ask the group "it's good! Thank Y/n." Paimon thanks you "no problem, now all of you can rest now." You say "Woohoo!" Lumine and Paimon celebrated, you chuckled a bit. Everyone has settelled (?) in, you decided to go hunt for some food "Guys I'll be hunting, you guys stay here." You tell the group "wait by yourself?" Tighnari asks "yeah? I hunt almost everyday by myself anyways, there's no really difference." You say trying to reassure him, "alright.. stay safe." Tighnari tells you, you nod in response and go outside "alright.. now should I use my kitsune form or..? Eh yeah sure why not, it's smaller and faster, and I'll make less noise anyways." You whisper to yourself

-

"I'm back! Brought us some wood too to start a fire, anyone here that has can manipulate fire?" You say placing down the items, "Y/n!– Y/n?! Your face.. your hair.. it's filled with blood!" Paimon says worriedly "huh? Oh, it isn't mine don't worry." You tel Paimon with a smile "Oh thank heavens! I thought it was your blood, I was about to faint!" Paimon says you giggle "oh and I can manipulate pyro." Aether says you tilt your head a little "pyro?" You ask "ah– pyro is fire, pyro is the element fire in our world." Aether explains "I see! Thank you for explaining." You thank him, he nods as a reply and casts his elemental skill on the wood, "don't excpect this to be a luxrious meal, it's just normal meat." You inform the others Lumine and Paimon nods excitedly, you were in a corner to prevent the others to get burnt or injured by the fire, they were all talking "Y/n is a really sweet girl isn't she?" Tighnari says "yeah she really is! She's very thoughtful too, we just met her and I really want to be close to her! And maybe she can come with us to teyvat!" Venti requests, "hopefully. We can journey again teyvat but with Y/n." Aether says "I wonder though.. how strong is she..?" Xiao says, "that is true.. we shouldn't underestimate her as she is one of the strongest kitsunes here, plus she hasn't mastered her power yet." Cyno says "er.. don't say that you guys! Paimon's getting scared.." Paimon says hugging Lumine's arm, Xiao chuckled a bit "Sorry." He says "oh!" You say while quickly standing up "Is everything okay, Y/n?" Xiao asks "oh uh nothing! The wind accidentally blew the fire to my direction, the fire almost got caught in my outfit, sorry.. did I alarm anyone?" You say, Xiao shakes his head and you sigh in relief "oh! Y/n want me to help?" Venti asks you "yeah sure! I do need a hand." You accept his help, Venti smiles and walks to you, the two of you chat while the both of you cook

-( the food is done )

"guys food is done!" Venti said "thanks for helping me, Venti." You thank him "oh not a problem! I hope the others will enjoy the food though." Venti said with a cheerful smile, you smile at him and nod "woah.. it smells so good! It smells like the sticky honey roast from mondstat!" Paimon says happily "oh now that you mention it it really does! Y/n did everything herself, I just helped her cook the meat. Y/n you're an amazing cook! Despite being in the wild you have some toppings as well!" Venti says in amazement, "awh guys.. you're all really sweet, thank you. I'm sure you guys are hungry? Don't be shy you can eat already!" You tell them, for some reason Xiao didn't eat unlike the others, "Xiao? You okay?" You go near Xiao to sit beside him "yeah? Why?" He says "you aren't eating." You say while fiddling with your tail. "I'm a picky eater. I only consume food when I already ate them." Xiao admits "I see. Any specific dish you like? Maybe I can cook it if I know the ingredients." You ask him, Xiao hesitates a bit "Almond tofu. Lumine and Aether has the recipe if you want to try making it.." Xiao says, you stand up and ask the twins about it, they gave you a copy and you looked at it and studied it. "I see.. So it's a rather sweet dish, interesting.." you say to yourself, you go back the the corner but stood by the side of the pot, you checked it from time to time for some reason, then, after awhile you started cooking.

-

the whole group was talking, you were sitting beside Xiao eating his almond tofu you cooked him, you were looking up in the sky recalling some memories, "You okay?" You heard Xiao say, you giggled a bit because he was still chewing "fine, thanks for your concern." you say, Cyno looks at you and you smile at him "Guys I have a game idea!" Venti yells "don't yell too loud-- my ears!" you say "Oh I'm sorry!" Venti apologizes, you sigh and nod as a reply to saying it's okay, "what is it anyways?" you ask "glad you asked but hide n seek!" Venti say, your face grows curious and confused at the same time, "but there's a twist. Tighnari, Cyno, do you both have good sense of smelling?" Venti asks "why do you ask..?" Cyno say, "Because the twist is going to be we'll hide and the people that have a good sense of smelling are going to find us, blind folded!" Venti says, "Ooh interesting.. sounds fun!" You say, you then put your chin on top of your palm to listen closely, "alright, so Cyno? Tighnari?" Venti asks Tighnari sighs and nods Cyno nods as well, "Great! Let's start!" Venti says excitedly

-( game ends )

"that was so fun!" you shout happily, "I know right?! You're so fun to be with Y/n!" Venti says to you, you smile at him, and he gives a warming smile. A lot of time passes by that you all have been together, you completely forgot about the portal going back to their world, they did too. They've been so comfortable in your forest and your presence, you didn't notice. "Y/n, what are you doing here" Cyno asks, you didn't notice where you are since you were just thinking while walking, "oh-- Cyno, sorry, I wasn't aware to where I was going. Why are you up this late?" You ask him, he switches his gaze to the side to hide his face, "I figured you'd leave at this hour, so I wanted to spend time with you." Cyno says, your ears slightly perked up in surprise because he'd only normally look at you, and wave at you, but you didn't want to miss this opportunity to bond with him so you excitedly nod, you pull his arm to go somewhere.

-

to be continued <3 I hope you liked this 1st part, though it seemed boring, I will work on the pt2 of "Why, Little Cupid?" and the pt2 of the Xiao x reader arranged marriage. if you like either one of them please stay tuned <33

[bratz-kitten]

ASTRO OBSERVATIONS [part 5]

— people with jupiter in the 8th may experience an “abundance” of traumatic experiences throughout life, often relating to death; these are the people who truly feel like everyone they love ends up dying. at their worst, they can become desensitized to death— jupiter is ruled by sagittarius, a sign known for being in denial when in difficult situations in favor of optimism. these natives can pretend like nothing actually happened, or minimize the situation in their head so that they don’t have to face it.

— okay this might be a weird one... like, you know in asoiaf when arya was walking through the streets and was always like “i’m as quiet as a shadow”? that’s literally the energy of someone with planets in the 12th house/chart ruler in the 12th house. these people are so stealthy. they’re able to move so quietly and without anyone noticing, both literally and figuratively. on one hand, they’re very quiet about their plans and ambitions to the point where other people only find out when they’re achieving success over it; on the other hand, they just. don’t like making noise while walking idk bitch you’ll only see me coming when i’m right beside you, i even get paranoid that i’m breathing too loud and that other people will hear 

— people with moon aspecting mars can be incredibly impulsive when they feel hurt or triggered. yall need to be careful with doing things in the heat of the moment that you know you’ll regret later... but in the moment, you feel so hurt that it clouds your rational side. please be more self-aware about this because you may make decisions that will directly affect you for the worse in the future 

— people with leo mars ft. constantly asking you for pictures... about anything. they just wanna SEE LMFAO THEY DON’T CARE WHAT IT IS THEY’RE SEEING. you just got ready to go out? “send pics of your makeup and your full outfit”. you’re waiting in a long boring line to get the covid vaccine? “send pics of the line”. your mom baked cake? “send pics of the cake”. plus they send so many random pictures while texting, it’s their special love language

— having moon conjunct moon/venus in synastry feels insane. you tell them something you’ve been through, and they’re immediately like “that happened with me as well.�� it doesn’t even have to be something grand, sometimes just very specific things you thought were particular about you. the amount of understanding that comes with this aspect in synastry can feel very new and intense especially if you’re used to seeing yourself as the “odd one out”, used to feeling isolated in your experiences 

— people with pluto in the 1st house often feel the need to erase “traces” of their existence, for example deleting messages that they sent people, deleting all of their social media posts. they can feel anxious and paranoid about other people having access to their past self, even if the past self in question is from, like. a week ago 

— people with chiron in the water houses (4th/8th/12th) might’ve suffered bullying to the point where they repress their memories. a lot of their memories of their school years may feel foggy if they were bullied in those years

— also. people with chiron in the 8th house may feel as though they’ve been punished for wanting to experience intimacy. it’s like, the people who were supposed to be the closest to them – for example, their sibling or something – were the ones who hurt them the most. 

— people with mercury-neptune aspects and strong pisces/neptune energy in their birth chart might struggle with only remembering things when they’re right in front of them. you should keep things in your peripheral vision to remind you of reality, especially when it comes to feelings— so that you won’t start getting lost inside your own head. like... keep the letters your friends wrote you by your bedside table so you can read them every time your brain starts convincing you that you’re not loved. keep the gifts you’ve been sent on display in your bedroom wall, or sentimental material things that remind you of past happy experiences.

— earth placements and their thing for asmr... omfg. it’s like they’re always looking for things to up their sensory experience/sensitivity. like, earth signs are the ones most connected to worldly experiences so they feel so soothed with the whole asmr experience: just hearing someone gently whispering or tapping on/scratching things calms them down and helps them fall asleep. they love the tingles it’s heaven for them

— moon-saturn aspects might hold and caress themselves while they sleep because their parents never did. yes i woke up and chose violence <3 your secret is NOT safe with me 💋

— while we’re on the topic of sleeping, a majority of the pisces moons i know need to sleep while hugging something, at least a pillow. they can’t just not hug something while they sleep, it’s very instinctive for them. anyways if any pisces moon needs a pillow to hold, i volunteer as tribute 💋

— virgo placements feel sososo soothed by hearing their cats purr. thinking about how my virgo placement friends are always the ones who send me videos of them petting their cats... and then i get soothed by how soothed they feel. it’s a win win situation, if you have virgo placements it’s hereby your duty to send me a video of you petting your cat while they purr. right now. GO

— people with gemini in the 3rd house might have shaky movements of the hands when other people look at them doing things. very specific i know but the third house rules hands and gemini is a sign that has somewhat of an anxious, twitchy quality to it. on the other hand, people with capricorn in the 3rd house (scorpio risings, using whole signs) have the steadiest hands i’ve ever seen lol their movements ooze confidence, these bitches know how to make you feel as thought they know exactly what they’re doing

— people with venus in the 1st house ft. altering their pics with photoshop and hating posting selfies without filters because they never feel like their appearance is good enough. stop it. you don’t need to always look your best and especially not if your ‘best’ isn’t even what you actually look like. also... don’t even think about making self-deprecative jokes about your appearance. next time i find one of yall saying “ahaha im not bad for a 5 without talent” i’m squishing your head between 2 pieces of toast and calling you an idiot sandwich. you’re BEAUTIFUL 

— having venus in the 3rd house in composite with someone? do you mean calling each other the absolute ugliest nicknames in the most endearing way? 

— leo deals with themes of the ego, and it seems that leo placements often struggle with attracting narcissistic people into their life... leo suns/mercuries can be raised by loud, overbearing, narcissistic parents who see their kid as an extension of themselves and who teach the kid to always be very supportive and caring towards them or else they’ll deny them of words of affirmation-- either by insulting them to shatter their self-esteem or simply never complimenting the kid back. leo moons/mars/venus tend to attract narcissistic partners who only care about serving their own emotional needs and ignore the ones of their partner, and who feed off of their supportive and giving nature. which is why leo placements really need to watch out for being gullible, naïve and dismissing the red flags because my god, you be falling for some shady people. 

— people with personal planets in the 12th house/chart ruler in the 12th house might feel like they can’t let go of their past life— they may dream of memories, people or places from another life. it’s like they can’t detach from it, and even if they can’t directly remember their past life, it’s like they feel it in their bones. also, they might’ve felt... estranged from their family ever since childhood; there may have been feelings of being unable to emotionally connect to their (often, distant) parents, and they might’ve even wondered if they were adopted because of how different they felt to the rest of the family. 

— okay so, a thing that people with saturn in the 3rd house need to look out for is mentally checking out of conversations while they’re still happening. these people can detect when they’re being manipulated really fast and their way of dealing with it can be to immediately shut down, to grow cold and silent and not even bother answering when you’re expected to respond. and, like, that’s great when someone starts screaming at you or being insulting/trying to coerce you into shit, but take notice if you find yourself shutting your loved ones out as soon as they say anything that triggers you. don’t simply detach from them, communicate what’s wrong

— aries placements, ESPECIALLY aries suns and moons, value generosity so much and they get so turned off by stingy ppl who don’t share with others, especially when others need it. like.. if you’re hanging out in a group with them and someone asks for a bite of your food because they have no money and you say no... espect them to never respect you. ever. 

— people with libra placements use soooo many adjectives to describe things. something can’t just be beautiful, it has to be DIVINE and CELESTIAL and INTOXICATING. they can be so expressive god it’s so fcking funny 

— capricorn placements HATE asking others for advice because they think no one knows better than them (and they’re not wrong, lol). when they truly care for someone, they might ask the person for advice simply as a sign that they respect, trust and value their judgement. even if they don’t plan on taking it LMFAO 

— people with mars in a water sign can have this terrible habit of expecting other people to guess what they want. and then they get passive agressive when you don’t instinctively feel what it is they want... and when you ask them “do you want this?”, they go like “FINALLY. i thought you’d never get there”. stop it. i know that you want people to understand you in a way that transcends words, but you can’t expect people to read your mind and then get disappointed when they don’t, thinking “oh if they loved me that much then they would’ve known that i really want chipotle for dinner :(” GIRL WHAT. COMMUNICATE YOUR NEEDS  

[n7punk]

@cynnamonfomx oh my god?? that's so much effort and i'll be honest, i still don't know if it's right 😭

okay so i'll give the context, but it's mild Slipstream spoilers so it'll be under a cut.

last night when i went to bed i outlined three paragraphs for a scene where catra and adora discuss mara and in particular catra's current feelings on her/the state of their relationship with each other. the final sentence of that outlined section (once cleaned up) was this:

i then did two line breaks (aka left a blank line between paragraphs) and wrote the undecipherable sentence from the original post.

whenever i do two breaks in my outlines like that, it means i'm either switching scenes, shifting to a different form of outlining (going from the above exact sentence meant to be used in the fic to something like "catra goes over right after the breakup"), making meta commentary (either for my own benefit for writing or to later put in the fic notes), or switching gears to a different scene somewhere else in the story.

i vaguely, vaguely remember thinking i had to make a meta note about something I'd just written for later - either the scene i was outlining then or the one i had just been writing on my computer before going to bed, which was catra/mara interacting. i cant think of what markers or numbers has to do with these, or what it was even supposed to spark when i woke up in the morning... honestly whatever i was supposed to write is definitely lost, but now im even more curious what word i tried to type at least.

also i love that you described the margin of error as catastrophic lmao. i'm dyslexic (sometimes type a totally different word than i meant because it's next to the one i need in my brain's filing system. example: my dog is nicknamed kitty because i accidentally called her that instead of puppy so many times. yes dyslexia affects your spoken speech too lmao) and have motor issues that make it very difficult for me to type on my phone keyboard, so i have these csi moments the next morning very often because i can't stop writing at 1am lmao

maybe i shouldn't outline at 1:19am

[unlimitedhorsepower]

been rotating t&b2 cour2 in my mind like a 5D object...

i wanted to write more comprehensive post to air some of my grievances, and of course finally releasing my exclusive statement on my special beast ryan goldsmith.

however when i started to write this i realized i have a shitton of thoughts and could rewrite the entire cour if i really thought about it, so i actually mention most characters in this self-indulgent essay of mine and you can just skim through if you were interested in my thoughts.

i talk a lot of yuri here even if i went into this thinking that ive already talked about him enough, because he fascinates me...

anyhow, here they are, my more comprehensive thoughts under the cut because theyre not spoiler free:

this is unbearably long: ive bolded some key sentences that build up to something if youd like to skim it instead of reading it. i also suggest you using Ctrl+F to find mentions of characters you care about because ive literally mentioned every single character in this in some way and it genuinely is incredibly long and convoluted.

i talk about some characters way more because i wrote those parts earlier and felt more full of energy. i also talk a lot about ryan. perhaps even more than he deserves! but he is my favourite character, youve been warned. i didnt even mean to make him seem so important because hes not, lmfao.

ill say, it can definitely be a bit confusing if its not being read it order but like, meh... i guess it was also more important for me to get my thoughts out so that i can have other thoughts again.

this entire thing got away from me and at many points devolved to me not only ragging on t&b2 but extensively discussing my alternatives which couldve imo built the entire thing into something more worthwhile...

ive added like three screencaps to make it a little more exciting to scroll through, and if i have energy left im gonna add more images to make it less like a huge wall of text, which it is. but right now i just wanna post it because i genuinely spent 10 hours straight writing this and then woke up today and spent another 10 hours writing it.

i think this is my therapy over yuris arc, because that genuinely made me sick. maybe im unreasonable and just pissed off about that specifically, but who knows. not me!

so, to begin... t&b2 cour2.

hmm.

i initially called it “good” and said i enjoyed it besides yuris arc, but that feeling was born from the sheer emotional turmoil yuris death gave me. in comparison, everything else in the cour was fine- great, even!

there can be missteps and flaws that diminish your enjoyment but that are easy enough to fix in your mind, and then theres a misstep of the sort of a character dying after the narrative spends a lot of time giving me what i can only describe as trauma porn.

i already wrote about that here, so ill skip some of the things related to yuri (i just cant get over it... i keep circling back to him throughout this document because hes such a central figure to what we got and what i thought we would get).

cour2 had such a solid basic understanding of characters, but there was just way too much going on at the same time and way too many loose plot threads. cour2 was like building a house of cards on top of a solid brick foundation and expecting it to hold water.

cour1 isnt perfect, but it was pretty good in introducing us to new concepts, new characters (three new heroes to our ensemble cast, one returning talent from the rising who needs less establishing, and the new villains, and more) and the new plot threads, but i also feel that misogyny unfortunately played a great role in who got arcs and what sort of arcs.

season1 isnt perfect either, of course, but one could imagine a sequel follows up tonally with its predecessor and also improves upon it, especially because this has been explicitly suggested by the creators (like improving on nathans portrayal, for example!).

cour2 majorly failed to follow up on the promises of cour1 and the overall promises of what t&b is like in tone and content. there were too many plot threads and too many characters. i wouldve entirely cut out aurora and large parts of yuris/lunatics “arc”. the latter i wouldve tied into LL audun and a greater plotline of mr.legend and heroism.

speaking of mr.legend, yuris hallucinations of him were excessive and felt extremely cheap. i know i said i wouldnt focus on yuri, but i feel like i have to... mr.legends force ghost saying anything will never amount to any healing or retributive action from the man himself, but i felt like i was supposed to feel it was “good” he knew those things.

i felt that the narrative was telling me that indeed, yuri had loved his father once, and he had positive qualities, but i already knew that. i also never doubted that both of his parents had once loved him- its just that those things dont take away from how poorly they treated yuri in the end.

im willing to extend some sympathy to yuris mother, but to mr.legend, never. in one of the mangas mr.legend in the past asks young maverick to wipe his memories of him ever having powers (even though the memories will return to him in due time since thats a major thing to change) so that he can be free of the guilt he feels.

even without that, i already knew that the real mr.legend most likely felt some sense of guilt over his actions, not just the mr.legend force ghost/yuris hallucination.

i know: i simply dont care! he may have been put into a shitty situation and suffered, but it was his choice to hurt others. it was him who used his status to fix fights and beat his wife and child. he was in a position of power, and he took advantage of it to make himself feel better.

side note, alcoholism keeps being equated to evil by it being explicitly referenced with mr.legend and gregory sunshine even if by itself its a taxing addiction and addicts are people who are suffering, not caricaturish evildoers. antonios drinking habits have been equally worrisome sometimes -if you look at his schedule in KOW the rising, he is very much using alcohol to drown his sorrows- and this briefly comes up in cour1.

in cour2, its played up for jokes: antonio took ivan drinking and ivan drank way too much and did funny things while he was drunk (more on this later). antonios just different actually, because hes fundamentally good.

it was shown to us that mr.legend was very active in the match fixing himself... i think it wouldve been more fitting to show child yuri spying on his fathers discussion with maverick trying to suggest it to test the waters of seeing how easy it would be to manipulate mr.legend into it, perhaps about to offer him coffee to signify hes about to change memories if he needs to, and mr.legend jumping on the offer instead of declining it and shattering yuris high opinion of his father.

maverick not being included just reminds me how yuri is somehow a secret child nobody knows about. we remain in the dark on how yuri ended up taking care of his own mother and what he did to attain the position of a judge.

we still dont know the details of who covered up mr.legends death and why and how. it wouldve only made sense it was maverick, but how the hell did he then not know that yuri must be the one with the powerful NEXT power?.. how did he in general not recognize yuri once he became a judge? was he not distrustful?

more importantly, why did he not try to manipulate yuri? wouldnt it have been a huge boon for him to find a vulnerable child who is mr.legends son no less, and to raise him into a tool like he eventually raised barnaby?

i could see that yuris mother olga (i think its officially translated as origa, but its definitely olga) actually protected him back then. after all, he was the only remaining family she had left, even if she too grew to resent yuri at some point for some reason (and somewhat understandable, given how she was portrayed in s1 accepting mr.legends treatment: she had submitted to her fate and become traumatized).

however, olga has calmed down from her potrayal of throwing plates at yuri in s1 and the change happened without explanation but an acknowledgment from the caregiver, and she is never given any depth as to why she could blame yuri so deeply and fervently in some of her more lucid (?) moments.

in cour2, she becomes just a vessel for inflicting more trauma on yuri, and its her only purpose: shes not her own character. shes a woman, specifically a mother, and thats all we need to know about her.

i know that my tinfoil hat theory of gregory sunshine being yuris biological father is implausible at this point after all that talk about hero blood in yuris veins, but it wouldve genuinely given olga much more depth to give her a reason (not a justification) on why shes been so aggressive towards yuri and blames him specifically, if yuri had been an illegitimate child or somesuch. but i wrote about that already in the linked post and its replies.

back to parental figures, i think laras mother zamira was a great character in cour1. shes not a morally good character, no, but i think her portrayal was strong? it was very clear to me that shes treating lara as an extension of herself instead of her own person. she controls her and her life, and she reprimands lara for having thoughts and feelings beyond her control.

it is her who has set lara on this path to heroism, and it is for her benefit. lara is a vessel for her to life through, and this could be easily contrasted with yuri and his burden about being mr.legends son.

however, in cour2 the entire premise is undermined when zamira is proven to “actually care” about lara. if i dont remember wrong, paolin even says that “she reminds her of her own mother”, which i was meant to understand in a positive way. this is presented in tandem with mr.legend(s ghost) somehow “really caring about yuri” in that odd scene they had together.

its also proven that zamira wasnt an unreliable narrator about her prior tennis partner pamela, because we see pamela easily blame NEXT for existing in the news as proof that she is cruel. i get the sense were supposed to think zamira was just sad and trying her best to raise lara and make sure nobody takes advantage of her like she was taken advantage of.

i frankly dont care! she had, undoubtedly, treated lara the way she treats her in cour1 for laras entire life: shes 14. it leaves a lasting mark she can never take back. “im sorry” doesnt even begin to fix it.

i wrote about yuri adopting lara here, so i wont delve into some very specific AU, but it wouldve felt much more reasonable and realistic for lara to be freed from her mother, not even necessarily in the way my pipeline dream describes, in a way that couldve emphasized yuri and his good qualities.

t&b has never been free of misogyny and other issues, but i feel like this cour really brought a lot of those issues to the surface instead of improving on them... instead of a nuanced portrayal of a fractured mother-daughter relationship, we were given something that just felt like underlining the fact that zamira is a mother, of course she cares about lara in more ways than for her own benefit.

zamira is a mother like olga, and thats what we “needed” to know about them in addition to knowing that they experienced trauma that just made them forget about their motherhood for a moment, but we learn that olga cared too, she even made those cookies. their mother-son relationship is similarly glossed over.

lara -like yuri- is done a great disservice in the process of redeeming abusive parents. shes a kid who killed a villain on accident in self-defense in cour1, and it felt significant. cour2 doesnt bring this up as a plot point in any way.

i was imagining her getting a much bigger arc that couldve overall easily tied into revealing mr.legend as a horrible parent instead of being its own distinctly separate arc.

speaking of mr.legend being exposed, it was ridiculous that yuri revealed mr.legends awfulness to kotetsu and barnaby and it fell fully flat due to kotetsus and barnabys reactions, or rather due to their lack of reactions, which was strange for them both.

its realistic enough to have yuri do something like that, even if it was sudden: it feels like he was under a lot of duress and clearly seeking help in any way he could, justifying it to himself in some “logical” reasoning for it because i dont think he would consciously realize he needs and wants someone to believe him.

before i get into that and how i think they shouldve reacted with far more compassion, i want to say that to me its clear that kotetsus career in heroism has led him to neglect kaede, especially in the past when kaede didnt know that her father was a hero. this is brought up a bit in cour1, and for example is prominent in the beginnings additional scene where kaede begs for her father to show up at the ice rink just this once.

the series shows their father-daughter relationship mostly from kotetsus side, so that we know hes trying his best and really wants to be involved in kaedes life but hes genuinely busy, but if you think about it from kaedes perspective, kotetsu hasnt always been a good father to her and kotetsus business doesnt take away from his failings.

misogyny plays a role in this portrayal, and that i cant blame kotetsu for as a fictional character, but the fact that some of his actions are played for jokes and the fact that he continues doing them bother me, like pretending hes doing yoga like kaede suggested and instead of actually doing it. i wish he was more honest with her, even about those little things!

narratively in the rising, again, kaede is forced to adopt a tomoe-like role in encouraging her own father to continue his hero work, which isnt cute to me at all. its extremely emotionally taxing to have to be more responsible than your own parent and give them advice.. in cour2 she is again protecting her father from the truth that his mother is bedridden (nothing, afaik, comes out of that by the way?).

why is kaede protecting kotetsu, and why does she feel the need to do that? shes a child! she should be able to depend on his father, not feel like she has to protect him just because hes a hero.

those things frustrate me about kotetsu and the narrative around him and kaede, because i think this moment especially couldve used to do something about this dynamic and parenting. however, every parenting-related thing in cour2 was atrocious.

kotetsu has flaws and i think he has done wrong despite trying his best (sometimes your best isnt enough!), but he isnt cruel and genuinely does care about kaede, and he cares about others even if theyre not his family (he is a busybody, after all). he is a single father and a widower whose late wife pushed him into hero work, and his old mother supports him greatly, as does his brother.

despite family being so important to kotetsu, he ends up not reacting much to yuris admission that mr.legend beat his wife and child. doesnt that seem like something he wouldve focused on? good-hearted as he is, wouldnt he have been utterly shocked to hear that someone who “saved” him couldve been so thoroughly rotten?

it shouldve shocked him more than match-fixing and clinging to the identity of a hero: imagining himself becoming a cruel parent (and a husband).

i think he shouldve admitted that his own hero career has caused him to neglect kaede, and that he didnt even properly realize until as of late how much it had affected her- that he has flaws too and cant claim to be special or that mr.legend was an outlier, and that he cant imagine how hard it mustve been for yuri to go through that.

it wouldve been far more compassionate of him, and he really has a lot of compassion for others! i refuse to watch that scene again right now so maybe i remember some part wrong, but still: in my opinion he was a dick to yuri, and very defensive about himself. he didnt try to console him, it felt like he wanted to set himself apart as a better person than mr.legend.

i dont understand why he didnt at least try to find yuri after hes stormed off and hes realized that he said stuff yuri probably didnt want to hear? thats a thing kotetsu does all the time: he meddles. he gets things wrong, sure, but he meddles, and pulls people aside to have a chat with them and to try to help (like he later on does with barnaby).

kotetsu believes in heroism and his ideals of heroes, and its also very personal and family-related to him, so for him to be more shocked by mr.legend clinging to his hero image than the abuse part explicitly was a weird narrative choice to inflict more pain on yuri. i dont think yuri felt understood at all.

i think kotetsu wouldve been able to discern the most important part of this: that mr.legend was a bad father and husband, and he shouldve extended compassion to yuri (even if yuri didnt ask for any). thats what he did with barnaby in s1 as well!

just like kotetsus nonreaction to what really mattered in what yuri told the two of them, barnaby didnt have much to say which made the entire scene feel more callous.

its a deliberate choice, and its as odd as kotetsus reaction.

barnaby saw his parents dead in front of his eyes and was taken in by maverick and regarded him as a parental figure he could depend on up until the moment it was explicitly revealed to him that maverick had killed his parents and used him like a tool.

i could understand kotetsu initially being defensive (hearing someone he was “saved” by being thoroughly awful is not easy!) if barnaby had chimed in and snapped kotetsu out of it, which wouldve also played into the idea that people need others to support them and also to “steer them on the right path” so that kotetsu manages to focus on the most important but also the most painful part even if it also hurts him to think about, including admitting to his own failures as a father.

i think barnaby shouldve immediately been sympathetic towards yuri, and it couldve also signified how far he has come from his first appearance in s1 where he explicitly had closed himself off from others, and perhaps even realized that yuri is acting like he once did and is deeply lonely.

his sudden admittance to being mr.legends son is an urgent cry for help!

canonically, the moment started and ended and neither kotetsu or barnaby cared enough to say anything nice or follow after him. i think it was out-of-character, and they were forced to act like that to make sure yuris downwards spiral would continue. it was cruel.

the plot often felt explicitly manufactured towards a certain endpoint instead of feeling natural and in-character, going so far the narrative took explicit steps to prevent certain things from happening.

the “prevention of things” was especially obvious with ryan.

this is going to be long because not only is he my favourite character, but ever since his introduction in the rising he has occupied a specific niche that couldve played into the theme of questioning who really is a hero and why, and what makes a hero.

because karina forms blue golden with ryan, i dont think i can discuss ryans lack of any real arc without bringing her up, especially because karina and ryan have both been positioned as being more of “main characters” than the rest of the supporting hero ensemble, which is why i especially expected more out of them.

karina has been central ever since the pilot of t&b, in which she is featured: she has a lot of connections to kotetsu including her childish crush, and out of all heroes, it is her who kaede calls when she wants to plan something, and ryan was introduced as a main character in the rising and embodies traits from both kotetsu and barnaby, including visually.

to begin with, ryans themes from the rising arent contradicted by cour1 setting him up as having very personal beef with gregory sunshine, the most prominent antagonist because the heroes never properly meet rosicky and LL audun is a last-minute addition (who wouldve deserved more screen time, more on him later).

in cour1, we come to know that gregory caused ryan collapse a building on himself and nobody helped him, his fellow heroes laughing at him before they leave him bleeding underneath rubble. in cour2, we see more of it and that he didnt only get buried underneath large amounts of rubble, but that he majorly injured (or worse) a large amount of civilians as well.

again, im not sure because im not going to rewatch, but i understood it was supposed to be the same instance as the one where his fellow heroes laugh at him, unless its just a nightmare he has that civilians were injured as well.

regardless, he was personally affected by gregory, and he wants gregory to not to run free, and its a fact that hes actually very emotional and acts impulsively under duress, like trying to leave sternbild the moment he thought karina was going to ditch him as a buddy (because he, like yuri, is actually lonely and wants people to understand him but gives up way too quickly).

he also breaks the door into gregorys apartment without a second thought (this is breaking&entering!), and later on we see him yelling and gesturing at blue goldens manager in a quick background scene about their new contracts.

however, his reaction to mattia allegedly ratting them out to gregory is “slightly miffed” at best, even if gregory was so close to being caught by him. it feels unbelievable to me, especially because i think his loud and genuine emotions are his strength but also his potential flaw.

i think he shouldve acted way more unreasonably emotional about it, instead of only bringing up how anyone can betray you at any time. to take a detour to karina for a bit, it was also ridiculous that karina had nothing significant to say to that.

she has difficulties speaking up sometimes, but karina shouldve been allowed to feel personally slighted by ryan after all the buddy hero arcs being about trusting each other.

it seems that she can only be given arcs that revolve around men and not, for example, her feelings about herself and being able to take pride in being a very hard-working hero, idol, and now a friend too, especially when the new manga shows her reoccurring troubles in trying to balance different aspects of her life like studying and being a hero.

it wouldve stung to hear ryan say that like he was brushing her off: did ryan learn nothing, and was he just saying all that stuff earlier to put her at ease instead of being genuine? it also ties into ryans issue of always being genuine but his eccentric personality making him seem fake/suspicious, like in the rising.

his personality felt utterly stagnant in cour2 with smug quips, however, and he was just positioned as “morally good” instead of the narrative allowing him to reasonably continue his arc and meaning for the narrative by going after gregory as a hero even when its against the law.

some of the themes of ryans character pair off with yuris and any arc he couldve been given with gregory wouldve been perfect to compliment an arc with yuri/lunatic, the truth about mr.legend, how LL audun couldve tied into that.

yuri is positioned as a vigilante, even a villain, but hes shown to save kotetsu on-screen, and he follows his code of justice very strictly. we know his reasons to act the way he does, and he is sympathetic. ryan, on the other hand, is positioned as a hero, but he can be kind of a prick and his idea of justice is remarkably lax in some ways. we can make a good guess why he acts like that, and like yuri, he is sympathetic.

they both are characters kotetsu and barnaby know well, and theyre both more severe than the titular protagonists. kotetsu has bent the rules on occasion to act according to his idea of heroism, but in my opinion ryan is set up as someone who would explicitly break rules for his idea of heroism (or lack thereof).

ryan is a good person and very much a hero, but he isnt the flawed but idealistic hero full of passion like wild tiger, or the humble and pure-hearted storybook hero like sky high, hes the egotistical heracles clad in the golden pelt of the slain nemean lion who knows just how good he is (and thats all he has going on for him, that ego of his).

its obvious that he can be a bit selfish: in the rising he uses his gravity dome to not only to save the building, but he traps all the other heroes in it, including pulling sky high from the air. from the movie commentary track ive gotten the idea that he did it on purpose since he can control the height of the dome he creates.

he also stretches out his dome later, so it begs the question if it was ever necessary to get any of the other heroes trapped in it to begin with.

he does save that building and the civilians within and causes no significant harm because he really is good at being a hero and hes not evil, but the narrative shows that he doesnt treat heroism like the heroes of sternbild do: he lacks the same sense of honorable justice our sternbild heroes have.

being a hero is first and foremost his career, which is why he brings up that “the money is good”, and because hes positioned as an experienced hero, he mustve started out as a child, given that he is younger than barnaby (even if in my opinion is not so much younger than he is).

the rising is strongly themed around justice day and the myth, and its also about him seeing the heroes of sternbild care about each other and their bonds with each other, instead of them all regarding each other as competition like hes used to people treating him, given how unbothered he is by figuring out barnaby didnt only distrust him but outright suspected him of being a villain.

due to seeing the bonds of the heroes of sternbild, he starts to “carry a heart of justice” as per the myth. barnaby suspected that he is a villain and the goddess of the story even if he ended up being more like the people cast aside by the goddess for their selfishness.

in the end he makes a choice: he can stay and keep the central bond between kotetsu and barnaby broken, or he can leave and mend the bond his hiring caused and bring the two of them back together as a duo. in the last shot, the winged lion of apollon media faces away from the camera like the way ryan leaves, while the justice tower smiles.

justice was enacted and she approves of it, and funnily ryan never thought that he could be a part of these bonds which is why he wholly leaves sternbild. in his KOW the rising schedule he meets up with a lot of people but theyre all just acquantaices, and he talks with his iguana. he moves around a lot, its in his title of the “wandering gravity prince”.

he lacks bonds like yuri lacks them, but by giving him a buddy partner in t&b2, he becomes more of a part of sternbild heroes, but its not just going to change who he has grown into overnight.

its intentional that ryan has wings on his hero suit like the ones the goddess is portrayed with, and the rest of his imagery plays into the this theming of the goddess/the sun while echoing kotetsus “tiger”.

lions are associated with the sun, even the zodiac sign leo is ruled by the sun. royals and gods have been linked to the sun in many places, so his old hero suit and title play into it. gold, similarly, echoes this sentiment.

in the opening, ryan “sun” is composed of the streets of the city and missing its center where the sponsor is displayed, but knowing the legend, its where the city was caved in, and it uses the same colours as the illustrated parts of the legend of justice day (in which the sun is displayed similarly, and yes, if you disagree on it looking like the sun, you could be right, perhaps that part is a coincidence.)

yuri is shown in the opening of the rising as well, his slide after ryans and his red moon the central piece of his background and juxtaposed with ryans hollow sun.

and i want to be clear, ryans background changes into a sky full of stars before yuris slide is displayed, which also makes sense for ryan because the heroes of sternbild are portrayed as stars more than once (and its funny for ryan to be the sun because the sun is just a star, its just closer to earth. hes not special, hes just loud about it).

its also significant to me that all heroes are portrayed with slides with a side-view of buildings in the background whenever applicable, even keith who can literally fly: it is ryan who has a momentary birds-eye view.

its the opposite of yuris, in which the lines around his red moon are buildings as if someone was looking upwards from the ground and also somewhat echoes the parts, including colour-wise, where the people are trapped in the cave by the goddess.

lunatic features prominently in the rising once yuri figures whats going on, and kotetsu gets to talk to him about how hes trying to save virgil/andrew from the burden of having killed and whatnot. the entire movie is themed around a holiday called justice day and showing mercy and who deserves mercy and why?

i genuinely thought that ryan being brought back indicates that tiger&bunny continues to question what being a hero really means, by giving the titular protagonists and the narrative someone to contrast with lunatic while ensuring kotetsu and barnaby can stay on the side of “good”/heroes for the sake of them being the main characters.

it wouldve been a purpose fulfilled for ryan to go against the law and becoming a vigilante because of how badly he wants to catch gregory: he has a huge personal reason to do so.

instead of the narrative following the logical conclusion of ryan going rogue due to how badly he wants to see gregory out of the streets, we get a scene specifically to explain why ryan cant follow through with the logical next step of his arc?

what a waste of everyones time, and i get the sense that the writers understand how strongly ryan feels about it (the foundation is there!) because it required both the company owner and manager to hang karinas fate over his head to ensure he doesnt just go on his merry way.

(i dont, by the way, understand that scene, and i cant bear to look at t&b2 scenes again... if you can explain it to me, then please do lol. like i specifically dont understand why ryan doing anything would cause harm to karinas privacy.)

not only wouldve it been meaningful for the entire narrative and ryan, this couldve so easily been used to give karina a satisfying arc that also shows that she is just as capable and deserving of an arc as the guy heroes of the cast, especially as the most prominent woman hero. now, instead, she ends up being a plot device to make ryan feel one way or another.

even if blue goldens buddy arc included ryan realizing that he doesnt need to protect karina, it was immediately undermined by “protecting karina” being his only reason to not go rogue to find gregory?

instead of letting ryan go rogue and giving karina agency in going after him by his own choice, we get that. what was the point?

one buddy pair explicitly going against the (unjust!) law couldve served to put lunatic in a different light and interrogate the hero system as a whole, and it wouldve make sense for it to be blue golden due to their proximity to the titular main characters.

realistically i imagine ryan would have enough respect for karina to tell her beforehand what hes about to do, but unaccustomed to working together with people, he would imply that hes going alone and karina puts her foot down about it: shes not going to stop him, but shes not letting him go alone, because shes going with him.

it is her decision, and it gives her agency and an active role.

they cant have a character essentially say “yeah misogyny and gender roles and that shit is kinda fucked up” and then follow it up with Absolutely Nothing and also give karina an another arc about her crush on a man.

karinas potential as a character is squandered time and time again. in s1 its incredibly easy to miss that shes almost always the 2nd on the hero leaderboard because more attention is paid to her funny moments like her “cutie escape” and general fanservice which is awful by the way, considering that for the most part of it she is a child.

its also realistic for the idol industry, and at times the show comes close to making some sort of commentary out of it but it never quite manages, in no small part because karina is never allowed to really shine.

either way, shelving the heroes couldve been more impactful for muddying the waters about the hero industry. the cartoonishly evil interference from the cops only serves to promote the view that the heroes are acting Morally Good because theyre being hindered by not the hero system and the law but the individually selfish police chief and ouroboros interference, and serves to imply lunatic is definitely Morally Bad for acting outside of the law.

it is eventually agnes who “gets everyone to break the law, together!”, and it undermines any reasonable narrative meaning for the entire thing and makes it feel like our heroes couldnt be heroes for a bit for the sake of a meaningless and boring shock twist included for some shock value because nothing really comes out of it.

having blue golden go rogue and the police going after them wouldve forced their hands into actually fighting against non-heroes and the law, not just being on the run while they try to find gregory. ryan and karina could cause significant infrastructure damage very easily to make sure the police dont catch up, and it wouldve been easy to summarise it as collapsed roads frozen over.

while i wouldve in this hypothetical scenario loved an extensive focus on this because ryan is my favourite, i think the whole “going rogue” part couldve been conveyed without taking up an absurd amount of screentime, and couldve easily been condensed for time by having the other heroes watching a news segment about it which wouldnt have felt an out-of-place gimmick given that heroTV exists as a central thing and the fact that this has happened more than once in t&b...

kotetsu and barnaby, and the rest of the heroes could be watching a live feed, and surprised to spot ryan and karina on the run because its unlike they wouldve announced thi. our hero ensemble, especially the protagonist pair, would know that theyre not evil and that they definitely havent turned against the people of sternbild, no matter that theyve now been labeled dangerous NEXT vigilantes.

they couldve been compared to lunatic, which is a very overt way to make the hero ensemble question lunatics status as a vigilante both loved, hated and feared by the general public.

it would be ridiculously easy to play up ryans “evilness” by including a reporter from that introductory press event in the rising where he just randomly used his power on all people in the room to introduce himself (why did he do that. hes so quirky and random.), and then another shot from the rising where he traps all heroes in the gravity dome and thats feels like proof enough? they couldve also recycled the animation.

the narrative couldve made a statement on positioning medias reaction to the beloved idol blue rose on the run as “ryans bad influence” instead of granting her agency, and maybe some of the heroes couldve thought that as well, leaving it to someone else (most likely kotetsu because he is our main character!) to remark that karinas not the type of person to let ryan talk her into this sort of thing and that she mustve instead agreed with him.

having ryan on the hunt for gregory feels natural, but it couldve also been meaningful for karina.

another established thing about gregory is that hes a fucking creep. and karina has dealt with creeps her entire life due to being objectified idol. in cour1, we see that guy trying to hug karina “just this once!”, and it wasnt made into as much of a big deal as it shouldve been because we focused on ryans feelings instead.

that wouldve been fine if it was brought up again, and its utterly wild to me that it feels like they perfectly paved the way for karina to have some sort of arc with gregory herself with ryan bringing up “hug the gregory”, but then the show entirely bailed on it? why the hug theme, then?

it couldve been plot-relevant for karina and the narrative to question what being a hero means for her when her career in heroism has notably led her achievements being belittled in favor of “cutie escape" -moments and even now the media thinks shes out here because of “ryans influence” and not her own choice.

frustrated karina affirming the media somehow that shes doing this for her sense of justice, not because of ryan when some civilian fan of hers tries to save her, the poor little girl, from this vigilante escapade: what wouldve yuri thought of that?

to give karina cool moments wouldve been more impactful and couldve been plot-relevant instead of the disjointed ~girlboss moments~ of rosicky telling gregory to stop being a creep which equated to so little when rosicky is also killed by gregory.

capturing gregory couldve meant something, not been a footnote, and by showing us that fight with blue golden and gregory, they couldve showed us what they half-heartedly tried to show with the quick LL audun fight scene, with karina being the one who ends up protecting ryan after he was knocked out first?

ryan doesnt even need to have his skull caved in like that, all they wouldve had to do is to give ryan a reason to use his power and not be able to let go by having to continue holding something down with his gravity, calling back to barnaby accidentally letting him get knocked unconscious because he wanted to save schneider, except karina actually saves him.

in the process of capturing/pursuing gregory, karina wouldve had a reason to give us some sort of opinion on what she thinks about creeps without it being shoehorned in and how she has to tolerate them because theres so many loopholes in the law but finally, gregory is the one she can fight back against and its because now other people agree that hes evil!

also i genuinely think ryan wouldve loved to not only capture him but to beat the shit out of gregory because he really is different than our heroes from sternbild (and i think he wouldve been justified to do so too, lol).

to exemplify the themes of bonds, karina couldve stopped him but remarked that she feels like gregory wouldve deserved it, and she couldve vocally acknowledged shes having doubts on whether lunatic is so wrong or not, because has anyone or the hero industry itself ever really protected karina from creeps? no!

lunatic is actually making some sort of point when he kills a guy who is a serial killer of women? a bit drastic but hey. it works. that guy cant kill anyone ever again.

it would mean so much for karina to acknowledge that there indeed is something wrong with the hero industry as it exists now and heroes and heroism isnt just “morally good” by default, which also begs the question whether vigilantes etc are ontologically evil by default.

and personally, i dont think ryan would disagree with her? he is well-traveled and has seen so much more than just sternbild: im sure he has met corrupt heroes and heroes who arent even nice or “good”. im sure some places have very fucked up hero systems?..

they couldve made both ryans and karinas arcs mean something by having them face off against gregory (ive been talking of capturing, but they wouldnt even had to been successful and instead gotten captured by the police themselves or been forced to retreat), and it feels so obvious to me?

both members of blue golden wouldve gained something out of it, the overall plotline wouldve gained something out of it, and the setup of the plot wouldve benefited?

the viewer would also know that gregory deserves anything coming for him regardless of the media/public opinion because he is a freak, and the heroes too could explicitly acknowledge that maybe theyve been too harsh on lunatic by not trying to understand him like how blue golden is now misrepresented by the media without any grace? is lunatic just a killer, or... he does keep talking about that justice, after all.

both ryan and karina have interacted plenty with our protagonist pair, so it wouldve served well to draw kotetsus and barnabys attention to it. continuing to question lunatics “evilness” feels so central!

some of the children already said in the cour1 in that that law class of yuris that they thought lunatic was really protecting them and kotetsu was there to hear it, and then nothing came out of that? are you fucking kidding me? he was just like nope, wrong! its evil, end of story.

its like they were given the perfect foundation to do something interesting and valuable, and they didnt end up do any of that just to punish yuri for daring to exist in the way they forced him to exist since t&b is who made yuri the person who he is... but anyways.

yuri is prominently featured in cour2 for all of the wrong reasons, but his prominence couldve been interesting instead: he couldve been standing there looking over the heroes reacting to two of their friends gone rogue and given a cryptic statement on how it seems theyre no different than lunatic in the eyes of the public now that theyre pursuing their own brand of justice...

and everyone couldve been like alright director petrov:)! but also genuinely considered this while yuri is just there, observing the discussion and wondering how their bonds with the two new vigilantes makes it harder for them to be so sure who is a villain to be stopped and who is not.

unrelated to things i think explicitly realistic or in line of t&bs spirit, if i could choose i wouldve also had ryan and lunatic interact.

i think it wouldve been in-character for lunatic to show up to question what ryans going to do with gregory once he finds the man, with ryan answering genuinely but flippantly while karina is bewildered ryan is just trying to have a casual conversation with an fire arrow dramatically pointed at him.

lunatic questions his end goal, like are you gonna kill that guy maybe, and ryans like i dunno, i didnt think that far. now that you mention it maybe i should lol? and karinas like im sorry what is wrong with you?

we couldve gotten the yuri petrov comedy hes hard to rope into by having ryan act like he usually does with lunatic? you try to be dramatic and brooding when some guy is arguing with his emotional support buddy hero girl? ryans only prior interaction with lunatic is in the rising and saying that he looks creepy: he didnt care about a vigilante showing up because he knew the mecha flying over sternbild was the thing he should stop.

its funny because ryans notable trait is “treating everyone equally”, i dont see why he wouldve acted differently with lunatic, and to imagine karina interacting with lunatic because he showed up and ryan isnt having a normal reaction to it by being concerned. but why would ryan be concerned?.. hes good at insight and im sure he knows lunatics justice is very serious to him, and ryan knows hes not a killer so why would he be concerned right now?

but yes, the barebones idea of using ryan especially as a vessel to force the hero ensemble to reconsider vigilantism and lunatic couldve in my opinion been done without the two of them ever interacting directly, because its about what they stand for in the narrative.

what we needed to see was kotetsu (and barnaby) forming some sort of opinion on this, since we mostly see the hero side through kotetsus eyes: he is the main character, after all. all the narrative had to do was let ryan to go do what he clearly wants to.

my description of this all is very elaborate and keeps the entire thing somehow separate from the other heroes, but i think the idea or something akin to my elaborate view couldve been conveyed in a fairly conservative amount of scenes, because the cour only has limited time!

theres also a huge potential for the other characters to join in on the vigilante shenanigans like what ended up happening in the end in canon with all of them “going rogue”, and ryan and karinas involvement couldve been greater than other heroes but still far more smaller once kotetsu and barnaby get their ball rolling over the matter...

t&b2 has a lot of characters, and i think they couldve made it work, but the scenes wouldve had to been carefully picked without wasting scenes on counteracting things they had already set up?..

i dont feel like i can answer the question of “what narrative purpose did it serve to make sure ryan doesnt try to capture gregory on his own?” without pivoting back to “it had to be like this so that yuri would suffer and die and our heroes would stay morally Good unlike lunatic!”.

like, i LOVE ryan, hes my favourite character! and many of the scenes he was in i couldve lived without, because they didnt really add anything of worth to the overall narrative or plotline save for reminding us that he exists.

the entire thing where blue golden separates from the other heroes to go try to find gregory in the jail itself was similarly needlessly drawn out and condensed all the same?..

i understand it as necessary somehow (for the current plotline) to introduce LL audun, but because ryan and karina dont really have anything to do with the guy, it feels wasteful.

the pacing felt awkward to me overall. i was actually bored in some of the first episodes of the cour! and after that, everything starts happening so fast: the LL audun situation is especially sped through.

in cour1, heroes got progressively taken out until only “the essentials” in completing the arc were left, which was a great idea for the sake of stretching the limited screentime available.

it also had real in-world impact, unlike blue golden getting up a while later even if gregory flaunted that “it was so easy for LL audun to kill heroes”. it served so little purpose and was a waste of everyones time for a cheap “shock” because since it happened off-screen, i easily guessed they wouldnt kill a character off like that.

in cour2, we start knocking out heroes very late to the episodes and its not even semi-permanent. it wouldve been way more sensible to have some of the cast get knocked out somewhat early to let the remaining heroes to shine! they couldve even made to go berserk by gregory, so that we couldve then knocked HIM out and then gotten most of the heroes back for a grand finale of sorts, probably facing off LL audun and accompanied by lunatic.

even in the canon scenario, subaru couldve charged in (his whole thing is that hes hot-headed and a bit stupid even if his heart is in the right place!) and thomas couldve shown up earlier, eliminating many scenes that had little worth and focused on efficiently introducing LL audun.

they couldve had that fight with him and thomas couldve swiftly explained key details about him for exposition and made it natural because we already knew hes a fan. i also think their arcs werent so bad i suppose, but them fighting together was the conclusion to the mr.thomas buddy arc, so getting knocked out for a few episodes because theyre still rookie heroes and a bit silly wouldve made sense...

especially when they already were in the last fight in cour1!

it wouldnt have been a disservice to their arcs and wouldve given others more time to shine, and it wouldve been interesting to have other heroes react that the rookie team is presumed dead? they wouldve been fighting even harder against LL audun!

which leads me to say that the one good thing about cour2 for me was LL auduns character, but his potential wasnt realized. he was so prominent as imagery in cour1, with the twins and thomas both idolizing him.

we also know that mr.legend was a corrupt hero and there probably were others? instead of auroras introduction (it was such a gimmick), and gregory getting so much screentime for being creepy, it wouldve been far more interesting to focus on the fact LL auduns time active in vigilantism overlapped with mr.legends time as a hero.

i keep coming back to this, but LL audun couldve been the perfect setup for mr.legends crimes becoming public? it wouldve added intrique to the viewer too by have mr.thomas presumed dead and LL audun fighting the remaining heroes.

that wouldve made it harder to believe mr.legend really sucked so much by the general public and many heroes! kotetsu and barnaby wouldve felt inclined to share some part of what they learned from yuri earlier?

i feel like this wouldve been such an interesting way to make kotetsu and barnaby realize even more things about mr.legend, the hero system itself, medias part in who gets to be a hero and whos not, and lunatic... in a deeper way than the canon, half-hearted attempt at sympathetizing we got, because i just think its not in-character to have them react like that!

in-show its mentioned that LL audun “started to think hes a true hero around his tenth year in prison” but it felt like pure ouroboros/maverick interference to me (even if the current narrative mightve meant it for real).

wouldnt it have made more sense that LL audun was actually a "true hero” fighting against the establishment of the hero system itself, not because he hates heroes, but because he had figured out it was already rotten to the core becasue of maverick?

his simple nature was refreshing (in the same way i really liked fugan and mugan because they were villains but also funny about it) and kept the scenes with him light-hearted, a quality ive always been fond of in tiger&bunny. i do like intense scenes, but i think tiger&bunny should also be a little bit funny and not hard to watch.

he couldve lost his grip on reality a little bit since he spent decades in solitary confinement and focused very hard on his idea of heroism, or maverick couldve even fucked with his thoughts and made him into a ticking time bomb of wanting to destroy so many random people if he ever got out?

how the hell did maverick, mr.legend and the heroes of that time, realistically defeat LL audun back then? its not explained (again i could misremember) and its not important to the canon as-is, but imagine if the canon had focused on idk, being nicer to yuri and on the angle of mr.legends crimes and what if maverick, with mr.legend in tow, had promised to destroy sternbild if LL audun doesnt let them have their way?

it wouldve been, i feel, very easy to let us catch on that maverick was manufacturing LL auduns crimes and spread them on the media for the benefit of mr.legend and heroTV, and that LL audun couldnt stop maverick because he had been honorable about it, like a “true hero”?

hundred power is extremely versatile since it heightens all senses and weve seen that it can even boost recovery, and he can activate it almost continuously: what was it that stopped him from cracking mr.legends skull like an egg once the man himself had fully lost his power, given the canon itself features mr.legend worried about having to face someone he cant realistically win against?

LL audun outright refusing to kill mr.legend and/or maverick feels like the logical conclusion to the question of why he could be defeated. it would also give kotetsu something to think about, to realize this on the screen as our main character!

mr.legend was the hero who saved kotetsu, and then he learns from yuri that mr.legend was actually an awful person, and then, as i suggest, he sees a buddy hero pair go rogue- and then they all have to go rogue?

and to bring all of that to a satisfying conclusion, he faces off against LL audun, with the man questioning gregorys claims about who the real villains are because theyve all protected each other.

some further exposition later he could learn that mr.legend wouldnt have been able to be so awful if LL audun had just killed him when he had the chance, and that maverick couldnt have manipulated barnaby and been evil overall if LL audun hadnt taken up my suggested deal from maverick to voluntarily get imprisoned to protect sternbild and had gone the lunatic route instead?

kotetsu has always been so against killing people, and i dont think hes wrong to think so (well yes i think he is wrong. i think its morally okay to kill evil people! albeit not without emotional consequences for the person taking up that burden like lunatic. but i think its important for kotetsu to disagree with killing) and he wouldnt have had to abandon that principle of his, but this troubling reveal couldve given the narrative way more depth?..

and when kotetsu talks of the goal in the rising being saving virgil/andrew from himself: couldnt he have recognized the emotional toll lunatics actions take on him, and the emotional toll LL audun has taken due to his inaction?

like a real bit of some gray morality that actually has a purpose!

thinking about it makes me want to break something- i feel like everything was so perfectly set up for something like this, and not even this scenario but the concept of sympathizing with yuri further and helping him heal!

it couldve happened without revealing that lunatic is yuri and letting yuri continue in his position as the director of the heroes after the season has concluded (i wouldve enjoyed this personally so that i can imagine him out there), because i feel that revealing mr.legends crimes wouldve changed yuris position so significantly, and for the better!

kotetsu, as the main chracter, wouldnt have had to reveal judge petrov is mr.legends son either, maybe just lunatic for example! imagine yuri seeing people condemn his father? that wouldve been incredibly cathartic? that people agree that whoever mr.legends family was, they mustve suffered, truly and deeply?

yuri couldve gotten a scene like what kotetsu got at the end of the rising, with heroTV broadcasting random people having various positive opinions on him instead as he stands somewhere, contemplating taking off his mask and killing himself for his sins and his justice and whatnot while kotetsu and barnaby arent able to calm him down?

we couldve had a dramatic scene like that, and one of the manga chapters features that scene where yuri revealed his face to the terminally ill woman who had wanted to know who the man behind the mask is: he couldve even revealed himself to kotetsu and barnaby at least since theyre the main characters and still retained his anonymity by using his fire to shield himself from heroTV.

and on the broadcasted heroTV screen people from across sternbild could thank him for what hes done: could yuri, at that point, deny himself the possibility of being forgiven in some way?

it couldve also given us the hilarious dynamic of kotetsu and barnaby at least (and just for me, as a treat, ideally most if not all heroes) knowing that yuri is lunatic but they have a pact to keep his secret.

lunatic half-bleeds to death before jumping off but he doesnt set himself on fire and we dont see him fully fall but it serves as a momentary death fakeout.

then theres an ending scene of judge petrov opening the door to the hero lounge to give a briefing (returning us to the start of the season with yuri briefing everyone about buddy heroes) and he looks incredibly beat up.

agnes asks what the hell happened to him and he says he “got caught by one of the rampaging NEXT” or something else not unbelievable but ridiculous with a straight face, and none of the heroes contradict him.

like, wouldnt it be on-brand for kotetsu to try to joke about it while barnaby tried to shush him and causing someone like keith to quip that he doesnt really get it, isnt it a secret? and agnes could just scoff because whatever are the heroes talking about now...

my dream scenario is everyone laughing about this with yuri who is also laughing a little in confusion because now he has those bonds he hasnt had before? ngl i dont care i just want to see him happy lmfao<3

anyways see how ive lost the plot of this opinions document? bible-length and ive rambled about various topics, jeez. i also said i wouldnt talk about yuri so much but he just feels like such a central character and i like it- i just wish theyd been gentle with him instead of whatever we got. and yes, im about to talk about yuri again...

its unfortunate that with such a big cast, again, only the titular protagonists are often given scenes to interact with plot-relevant matters personally and with any depth...

of course, kotetsu and barnaby should remain at the centre of it all since theyre the protagonists, but cour2 especially included us seeing tidbits from the perspective of so many random characters, it begs the question why add so many bits from characters when i think its pretty clear the fans are interested in tiger&bunny for the ensemble cast too and want to see more of them?..

sorry to fervent mario the announcer fans or something i suppose, but if cour2 had used its time more wisely, we couldve gotten great moments from various heroes in the same time we didnt get anything done?

wasnt a single writer aware that the fandom adores the titular protagonists but theres also large fandom pockets for the other hero characters AND yuri? didnt anyone think that s2 and its buddy hero premise couldve more effectively been used to give us more lore and funny moments also for the supporting cast?

this makes me, for example, think of the scenes where everyone is deliberating X rampages and gregory things.

youre telling me that weve got all of these characters in a room and youre capable of making them act in-character while interacting with each other, but you chose the most boring ways to do it in pursuit of some sort of unneeded seriousness?

those scenes by themselves couldve been majorly improved by playing into what ive seen as the strength of tiger&bunny, with the way every hero has a distinct personality easy to play up for light-hearted moments without making it unnatural or forced?..

for example, they could be trying to talk of something serious when ryan, kotetsu and subaru get into a nonsensical argument because theyre all so loud and kotetsu and ryan actually get along well, so they couldve argued on purpose to ease the mood, while subaru got really serious about the argument because hes 17 and goofy?

barnaby, karina and thomas are all collectively sighing because of course their buddy partners are acting like this, and this goes on while keith is trying to get a word out on something actually valuable he thought of but hes too polite to interrupt the conversation, so nathan has to raise her voice and be like “boys can we please calm down keith wants to say something<3 you have 30 seconds before i get mad!″

and kotetsu, ryan and subaru are forced to apologetically sit on the floor or something, just to let keith convey an actually good point he came up just now while listening to them argue. expositional scenes dont have to be boring and lifeless?

of course its sweet to have them work together, but giving them light-hearted moments wouldnt have diminished that. theres just so much potential with the cast we have, and while they had a great foundation, the real potential was never really reached.

the way they neglect the strength of their ensemble cast repeats with who interacts with lunatic/yuri. and i know- kotetsu and barnaby are our main characters here, but sometimes i feel like hes in protagonist jail, because there are so many great interactions to pursue with him that could actually add something to the narrative!

nathan was kind of accidentally framed by him in s1, but we dont really get any follow-up on that. and for me, one of yuris greatest moments is in the manga when he saves keith (civilian) from dying while keith is trying to save the two criminals from dying himself, and keith is never none the wiser about it.

but thats more of a self-indulgence than a realistic critique, i imagine. however, from this i can get to talking about the heroes i didnt yet mention, because i can see so many ways to tie the supporting cast into the narrative and not just include scenes for “fanservice”.

the peripheral material has done this and more, why not include some of it in the show?

this is all mostly just a lot of musing on how underutilized everyone was, and how a lot of it felt disjointed and a bit wasteful of the time they had to convey the entire story.

ill start with keith: it was disappointing how he only smiled through the entire cour2, especially when you think about LL audun, who pretty much shares his “simple” worldview on heroism. we didnt even see him fight LL audun at all if my memory serves me right.

he didnt have any reaction to when the heroes get shelved, and keith arguably has pretty much no other life than being a hero, but he never has any sort of thoughts about the matter.

closest we get is firesky reminiscensing on the moments they had respectively gotten their hero suits, and keith remains one of the heroes whose backstory we know absolutely nothing about. i actually thought keith would drop some backstory lore there, but he didnt.

i feel that cour1 did a fantastic job on telling us what sort of guy he is in the episode nathan complains about him to kotetsu and barnaby: he is insecure despite all of his fame and how “perfect” he is without trying by nature, and he still he tries to act even more perfect to make sure other people would like him.

cour2 didnt really give us anything? i was genuinely expecting keith to break down at some point and that he was trying really hard to act unbothered to not make anyone else lose heart, especially after kotetsu remarked in cour1 that its keith and nathan who are really doing most of the advising around here and not himself and barnaby, the real senior buddy hero pair.

it wouldve not only given us a continuation of things from cour1 and given keith some sort of arc for the 2nd cour, but it couldve given us a character-driven moment used to show us why its kotetsu who is the protagonist even if we all know keith is such a picture-perfect hero.

ive always thought that kotetsu is more approachable than keith on purpose: hes a very normal person with normal concerns that are easy for many to relate to, and that is his charm and his strength, and he doesnt particularly stand out or excel, hes in the hero business purely out of his conviction and doing his best.

wild tiger isnt the most popular hero, but he has dedicated fans, okay! hes goofy and easy-going and meddlesome, and hes trying to make the world better, whereas keith could never be the protagonist in the same way kotetsu is because hes just too good, like how nathan found his projected perfection unnerving.

to let kotetsu participate in reassuring keith (since hes the protagonist and a busybody!) besides nathan as his buddy partner couldve served as a plot point to strengthen the idea that kotetsus various flaws are a part of what makes him great, and it couldve been used in tandem to again, interrogate the narrative about what heroism is, who can be a hero, and so on and so forth.

and with regards to my earlier thoughts about LL audun, keith represents the same type of ideal LL audun at least thinks himself to be, and the sort of ideal LL audun couldve embodied if they let me write t&b2, lol.

there couldve been some sort of plot-relevant parallel there that lets kotetsu actually figure out that LL audun is genuinely thinking hes doing the right thing and gregory was taking advantage of him- something to let kotetsu take the initiative in making LL audun question whether he actually is fighting against villains or not, because LL audun randomly questioning it himself was a bit too convenient.

it couldve been a time for kotetsu to shine with what he does best, trying to talk his brand of sense into the people hes fighting against, like how he always has a lot to say when hes facing off lunatic, or how in season1 his entire plan for making people remember who he is includes him showing up in his old hero suit and talking to them.

isnt that part of kotetsus charm as a protagonist?.. and LL audun wouldve been perfect for a discussion, because his personality wouldve lended itself to a very campy “two heroes having a dramatic discussion during a fight”.

i suppose i also personally dont need or want kotetsu be really good at fighting with the most powerful NEXT power, because thats not what makes him a fun protagonist. him goofing off and slipping on a banana peel on his way to an arrest makes him fun, and him talking the socks off of his opponents is just part of his way of being a hero.

kotetsu is into the whole “superhero flair”: heroes need to have secret identities, and heroes need to be a bit campy with thematic outfits and have dramatic discussions while they fight, and thats the spirit of tiger&bunny, isnt it? isnt that what were here for?

i at least never watched tiger&bunny for a yuri petrov suffering arc, when tiger&bunny has had an uplifting message throughout even if it tackles more adult issues due to the adult protagonists?

either way, to return to keith, i just feel like hes overdue for having that sort of very human moment to his character, because his nuance has largely been confined to manga and peripheral materials... it wouldve been nice to see him get a big moment on-screen.

even in cour1, the episode with firesky is largely shown to us from nathans perspective. having keith break down wouldve also been a great way to show how serious the shelving of heroes is and making the situation feel tense because keith especially is always so happy.

it couldve been a tipping point of sorts, where everyone starts to lose heart whether theyll manage to figure out the X rampage issue or not, because despite the boring seriousness of those scenes, i at least never felt a real sense of urgency or huge concern about them not being able to be heroes?

keith confessing that he is having a very hard time with the circumstances and making everyone visibly falter wouldve actually left an impact, and couldve let kotetsu shine as a protagonist by him trying to pick up the pieces.

it couldve also have bit of a callback to that scene where in the beginning movie hes called everyone together and claimed that the heroes and barnaby want to meet each other and everyone gets upset and leaves, one by one, but i guess it couldve been more that everyone leaves buddy pair by buddy pair since the season makes a big deal of pairing them up with them buddy pairs whenever possible.

it wouldve made me sad but not in an utterly desperate way because i know that the heroes will pull through and save the day, it wouldve been a good sort of sad.

this couldve also given nathan more of a spot to shine, because shes keiths buddy hero partner! she wouldve been there for him, but i also dont want to suggest any sort of reduction of nathan to a mammy stereotype-adjacent spot where her main function in the narrative is to take care of others, but more on nathan later.

the scene where nathan offers to hire keith as a secretary especially perplexed me and was left in the forefront of my mind. it was funny and cute, but thinking of keith losing his hero status and not immediately looking into civilian ways to help like finding volunteer organizations to sign himself up for them is so unbelievable to me, sorry...

and because i think cour2 shouldve used their episodes and screentime wisely, any such things with keith couldve been, again, tied to the bigger themes of heroism and such, right on the nose in fact! i dont think its far-fetched to have a moment of hopelessness by having keith break down and then reveal later on that hes signed himself up to ten different volunteer organizations when prompted by kotetsu.

one remark and everyone figures keith is so sad too, but hes still trying so hard to help?

keith is in many ways the best of them, and even if he was so crestfallen and suffering, hes juggling ten volunteer jobs at once even as people have complicated feelings about NEXTs due to the X riots and whatever. hes trying so hard to get people to like him and hes troubled by having NEXT powers and possibly putting people in danger if he lost control somehow (like, is he bad by showing up as keith goodman without admitting first thing he has NEXT powers, and also maybe without admitting hes sky high, as if it was a crime).

it was actually so odd how none of the heroes were ever really concerned about losing control?.. especially the heroes with powers that have the capacity to be really destructive?

and to return to keith, in my opinion he wouldve also suffered with the very human desire to be a hero again: its a huge part of his identity and it occupies almost all of his time! i think he would feel guilty that even if hes helping still in his own way by volunteering, he would specifically want to be reinstated as a hero.

it would feel selfish to him, that he has such a private desire. hes also extremely introspective and he canonically spends a lot of time thinking. he couldve delivered a very neat and conscise but very human monologue on the topic and it wouldve given the other heroes a great character-driven moment to share a bit more about how they feel about the situation?

to have our hero ensemble shelved from hero work and dedicate no scene for them to talk about how they feel about it specifically is such a waste, when it couldve showcased their personas and furthered the plotline by having them remember why theyre heroes in the first place and/or why they want to continue being heroes, etc...

what bothered me with firesky was that they also felt oddly separate from the rest of the cast at times during cour2 and the trailer made their role seem far bigger than it ended up being.

they had a bunch of nice scenes together that very funny and showcased their personalities, but i was very disappointing how those scenes kind of failed to tie into the main plotline so that they were just... there. even though theyve been a part of the main cast since the start:/

they didnt even get a major fighting scene with a big bad because LL audun knocked them out off-screen.

nathan suffers from many of the things keith suffered... she also didnt really have any significant role and well, it wasnt too bad i suppose, it was just oddly disjointed.

the heroes met up at helios energy, i think, but they couldve done so much more with nathans position as the CEO of helios energy.

it has always been a footnote in the show, even if the new manga shows us that nathan is aware of various changes in the hero system before anyone else by getting to participate in the discussions about those changes as her own boss! which is also weird ethically, but i guess its not taken so seriously.

it could have been easy to make nathan more prominent because of her CEO status. what if wed gotten to see the mayor talk to a wider board of people that included the owners of the hero companies etc and nathan was allowed to be there, hearing the talk about shelving heroes and being like wow! that certainly is a suggestion, but!..

this couldve also been used to emphasize that as his buddy partner nathan knows how important keiths job is to him? she couldve even alluded to how some heroes have really dedicated their entire lives to hero work and this is no joking matter!

instead of us getting scenes of the mayor and the assistant or somesuch, we couldve literally had a character there and given her a moment to shine while keeping it plot-relevant?.. she couldve given kotetsu and barnaby some insider knowledge on how to talk with the mayor, too?

i think her being a CEO and a hero is interesting because i dont think “CEO” is a very heroic civilian job, but i dont know if id want the series to ever delve into it overmuch because i dont know how it would be respectful to nathan who has suffered from being reduced to a homophobic/transmisogynistic stereotype before...

not like nathan is the only rich hero either, its just very different to gain income from only from hero work versus being a CEO. the peripheral material sometimes comments something about it like a gag strip making nathan say she wishes the heroes wouldnt go on a strike due to her being one of the shareholders.

what this does remind me of is that i dont think t&b2 really had any significant commentary on how money makes things go around? in s1, it felt kind of prominent. kotetsus old hero company literally went bankrupt and antonio suffers from his unpopularity driving down his sponsors profits.

its why the heroes have to also keep up appearances- its not enough to just be a hero, you have to work to be popular as well. in s1 kotetsu & barnaby cant go to a crime scene because theyre doing an interview and other popularity stuff so their hero alerts were cancelled for the duration.

we get the whole “ouroboros controls everything, actually!..” and a vague allusion to affecting The Economy, but thats it?

anyway, disregarding all of that, i feel like they couldve used nathans CEO status for something. what if she had put her career and status on the line to use her connections and money to reacquire the hero suits of those whose companies had really put them under lock and key...

i also think back to momentarily developing some sort of mega optimism brain rot and thinking that karina couldve had some sort of gay crush plotline with the girl who was trying to pretend shes rampaging and how incredibly sweet it wouldve if the noted LGBT icon of our lineup, nathan, gender-haver extraordinaire, had been able to support karina with that... like yeah ryan wouldve been there for her but... hes ryan. lol

overall, i thought the buddy pairs were fun, but man, i want to see the hero ensemble interact with everyone and not just one assigned "important” character per hero. it also made a lot of scenes a bit disjointed with how buddy pairs were a bit separated, in my opinion... it worked better when it was just kotetsu and barnaby, because theyre the main characters! of course theyll have more plotlines than the others.

one thing i already found a bit strange at the start of cour1 is that nathan didnt talk with antonio almost at all, and we know the new director is a huge antonio fan (which is actually funny to me, and you can see the antonio love shining through).

but.... in prior content nathan has also been regularly paired up with antonio, and i dont mean in a shipping sense (even if that has happened as well but it has only really been to make gags on nathan being creepy because of her poor portrayal before), just that theyve specifically been portrayed as friends before.

so it feels like nathan got sidelined purposefully while making antonio have that entire thing about agnes seep from mainly peripheral content into the main show... (i have a huge brain and am a gay antonio truther, btw.)

it left a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth that someone who has some say over the happenings in the show (?) and loves antonio hasnt acknowledged their friendship in any way... and nathans portrayal prior has been unfortunate, so it wouldve meant something to see nathan get to be friends with antonio with the gross sterotypes removed?

its not enough to say things have changed and you want to improve on nathans portrayal: i want to fucking see it!

while their dynamic is funny, the above has made me worry that nathan and keith were paired as a buddy pair because the writers didnt have anything better to do with them and keith is “naive enough” to hang out with nathan without them having to address anything about nathan properly, and cour2 really didnt ease my fear about it.

like one thing nathan has done explicitly in various material is to behave in a specifically “boy crazy” way which i as a lesbian dont really care about, but i think it wouldve meant something to let nathan act in that way without making it weirdly creepy and uncomfortable, and instead let nathan be a whole person of her own.

i am a serial friendzoner of everyone except characters who havent interacted in canon (lmfao) but the purposes of respectfully portraying nathan and proving that the horrible stereotuping is over, i think there couldve been real narrative worth in her being canonically romantically interested in keith and have that relationship develop, to show that nathan is so much more than those creepy stereotypical actions forced on her characterization before.

it wouldnt have to be keith in the case they didnt want to introduce any romance between the hero ensemble, but any romance plotline for nathan couldve been used to show they really did want to improve on nathans portrayal like nathan would deserve.

it couldve easily been used for a scene in which nathan properly brings up their identity because sure, its been discussed some more in peripheral material and the rising improves on what she was given before, but still retains multiple harmful elements... and it just makes me mad to imply youre going to improve on stuff like this and then not do anything with nathan.

as far as i know, her civilian outfit in the rising seems to be inspired by a japanese comedians gag character called “hard gay”, whose ensemble includes a leather bodysuit, and hard gay isnt exactly a respectful portrayal.

i also love to read tiger&bunny opinions online through google translate, from people who would understand nathans identity/possible tropes better than i do by the virtue of being LGBT+ and japanese.

one of the things ive seen raised is that nathans declaration of self-love in the rising is more compassionate than their prior portrayal, but that it unfortunately is somewhat of a trope in itself given the wording of it, which i think further explains how i think nathan wouldve deserved a bigger role?

theres also the recurring issue of misogyny, because nathan specifically says (dirctly copied from netflix translation): “they say a man is made of courage, and a woman is made of love. so what does that mean for people that are gay? we are invincible!”

men being courageous and women being loving is a cliche, which they included as a narrative choice and is not nathans fault... and t&b2 really didnt improve on the baked-in misogyny, which ive already talked about...

and ill be honest, i dont know how nathan romance shenanigans couldve tied into the main plotline lmfao, but they couldve called back to s1 and keith asking the girls for romantic advice, except now it wouldve been keith with the younger girls in tow trying to advise nathan, which wouldve been funny.

it wouldnt even had to have been a fuck you to people who like firesky romantically, because nathans plans couldve fallen through (by for example having the guy have been an antagonistic force in some way, perhaps interested in getting close to a hero after theyve been shelved just for the gossip, like an evil reporter, to make a point about media) and they couldve included a buddy hero scene afterwards where nathan remarks how keith would not do that.

because its true, keith would not do that, and it wouldve given people something fun to elaborate on?..

instead of remarkable improvements for nathans character besides the passive “no more creepy things”, we also get that scene at the end of the skyfire episode where subarus quip comes across as somehow homophobic to me, and i genuinely dont know what im supposed to feel about it. if youre wiser, then please enlighten me.

at this point i realized that talking about each character individually might kill me, because i have so many opinions, and maybe i should focus on buddy hero pairs a little better since thats how they were given to us in s2.

i also probably have more opinions on keith and nathan than the rest because keith is one of my favourite characters and i do really like nathan too, im just frequently haunted by the narratives past crimes against nathan and the currently occurring crimes as well, lol.

talking of subaru, his buddy partner thomas, and his sister ruby, why didnt they do something with thomas and the fact that nathan has been mentioned to have a little sister she cares a lot about? that couldve tied into the plotline?

i was very surprised ruby had no particular role and felt very separate from the rest of the narrative, and how nobody except subaru seemed to notice thomas wasnt present?

subaru begrudgingly (because hes 17 and wants to be independent) asking nathan or the firesky duo for advice because kotetsu saw he was acting weird and pulled him aside to talk about it and directed him to nathan on the subject matter couldve been a fun addition.

it couldve again showed that kotetsus strength is more than just some imaginary scenario where hes the smartest and strongest with all of the answers, because its not true. kotetsu couldve put himself down about it like oh bunny, i couldnt do anything, see! its those two giving advice again!

but barnaby wouldve correctly assessed that its only because of kotetsu subaru is doing this, and without kotetsu meddling, nathan or keith wouldnt have noticed to help subaru either.

mr. thomas overall had an alright arc. ruby was introduced, but much wasnt done with her. i sincerely thought she wouldve been adopted by ouroboros after everything that happened in cour1 and the mentions of orphans.

this drives me up the wall, because yet again, they had an obvious route to question heroism and villainy, and who is a victim of their circumstances and what acts exactly are evil.

kotetsu and barnaby wouldve had a lot of sympathy for ruby just because of their own backstories and personalities, and nobody else wouldve been unsympathetic either?

ruby is reduced to “little sister who loves and supports thomas”, and thats all: she barely has any real agency, even if it was her who sought thomas out. her personality is “gentle and understanding”. she continues the theme of being a woman in the show being reduced to narrative vessels to make the guys of the show do or feel something...

i also talked about them a bit earlier, so i dont have much else to say.

but one huge unresolved plot thread is their entire company? why did they even introduce the owner and manager of jungle when they werent relevant? and why did they seemingly sabotage subaru in cour1 by having his PDA not go off when heroes were called?

i thought it was significant? i thought jungle was sabotaging him?.. nothing came out of that?!

origami rock kinda won... they had a lot of good scenes. antonio was clearly beloved by the narrative. ive also spent two days writing this post so im kinda sick of writing it and this is one of the last parts im bothering to comment about so itll be kinda short, but...

like i mentioned earlier, alcoholism was kind of painted as something evil people do and antonios drinking problem was kind of bypassed entirely, when i feel like its a major thing for him? in the KOW the rising schedule, he really goes hard in on drowning his sadness and loneliness in alcohol.

it was also made into a joke moreso, with antonio and ivan apparently having gone drinking together?.. i feel like a more healthy direction for antonio wouldve been them focusing on things ivan wants to do... like, ivan went out drinking? seriously?

i guess that does feel like a major step for him in the sense that hes less shy and far less mortified by knowing he did silly thinks while drunk which is good for him to be less self-conscious... but its also like... i dont know, just weird me out that antonio would introduce ivan to that part of his life, which i felt was just his loneliness coping mechanism.

last but not least, kid cat... they really got the short end of the stick. they even lived in a dorm together and nothing ever really came out of that? it felt like a waste. i already talked about them a little bit.

paolin didnt really get a separate arc but she did really shine in cour1 at least, and maybe its just me but the whole situation around laras mom and kid cat being shoved into it soured their entire thing for me, especially the part of paolin comparing laras mom to her own mom, again... oof. that shit hurted.

i disliked that paolin was pushed into somehow vaguely motherly/caretaker-esque role with lara with her even looking up those damn parenting books and her fun energetic and somewhat goofy personality wasnt so well preserved. i wish a girl character was allowed to be goofy while still having serious and cool moments: they could do this with subaru but not paolin.

i already talked about karina earlier, but again, even if its actually incharacter and natural for karina to be be “the responsible one” in her dynamic with ryan which i do enjoy, i cant help but notice the narrative forcing all girl characters into that sort of role... i would include nathan (haver of gender) in this, because i feel like being goofy on the occasion is very central to her as well, but hmm.

its not even that i dislike karinas and nathans dynamic with their buddy hero partners, its just unfortunate that all girlies had to do similar things, because i cant ignore it... t&b2 really goofed with that.

it disappoints me personally that even if i dont understand how it wouldve made any sense wrt the narrative, i wish paolin had allowed to show her gender non-comformity somehow?.. i probably had my hopes up after hearing about them essentially saying they want to add a bit of representation into t&b2.

but i suppose that mainly meant ruby mentioning she has two dads and the girl with an ex-girlfriend.

all of the girlies got sidelined, which ive already talked about...

i feel like karina got the most major arc which does make sense because shes more of a main character than the rest, but it was also taken a little bit too seriously in my opinion, i wish the characters clearly treated it as karina being a teen who has a crush on some old guy because teens do that.

it was also kind of like a waste for me... i didnt need so many scenes about it personally. shouldve made karina do things for herself.

i have to admit that for a moment i genuinely thought that karina talking to that fake rampaging girl about her unrequited love for an ex-gf was going to awaken some feelings in karina, lmfao.

another thing about mr.legend i didnt manage to fit anywhere is that we still dont know his name? hes just mr.legend, even yuri doesnt say his name. it makes sense, but narratively, this ensures that mr.legend remains the stuff of myths. it feels like this is what they wanted, but it sucks!

to give him a name behind the hero gimmick wouldve brought him down from his status to that of a normal human. ive always been certain that petrov is yuris mothers maiden name as well, so dropping mr.legends name wouldnt have immediately implicated “yuri petrov” of anything.

nobody even knows he had a family! it feels like maverick scrubbed all of that clean, just in case.

as for mattia, i think his character has worth but is used wastefully: not only is he the one to develop the drug that drives much of the plotline, he gives us more insight to the worldbuilding of t&b and normal peoples opinions on NEXT powers. he doesnt hate the NEXT, but if he could choose, he would have NEXT powers himself.

this sets him apart from other similar characters like ben or saito, who are both normal people at the periphery of the heroes without NEXT powers who have been portrayed heroically in the past, since he explicitly wishes he could attain a sliver of the heroism he sees barnaby have, and he thinks he needs a NEXT power to be able to do so.

this couldve been, yet again, used to reinforce the theme that heroism is so much more than just having a powerful NEXT power. mattia couldve also been used more intelligently, and while connecting him to barnaby is nice to give him a new friend, some of his functions couldve been covered by kotetsu or some other members of the hero ensemble.

it couldve worked better if, for example, the hero ensemble had more strongly reacted to suspecting mattia to have ratted them out. i already said that i think ryan wouldve been more than annoyed about it, but the moment couldve been used to showcase various characters and their reactions to it!

i think the moment couldve been drawn out instead of being immediately resolved, maybe even included something about how mattia needs to prove himself to not to be a spy for ouroboros, not because i think its reasonable, but it couldve meant something to have our heroes be utterly wrong about someone!

i come back to this again and again, but it couldve been used as a point that the heroes arent necessarily right just because theyre heroes, and that mattia couldve worked with saito and proven himself to act more “heroically” (alongside saito!) than how the heroes treated him.

and, unfortunately, the narrative itself undermines mattia because of auroras existence.

she introduces a huge plot hole for me. mattia has worked hard to try to develop a NEXT drug, and has actually gotten results, its just that he hasnt gotten the specific result he wanted: why doesnt he just mail that drugs composition to aurora and have her complete it, since her unclear NEXT power seems to have no limits and gives her a vast intellect without even trying?

in fact, when theres any sort of problem, why dont we ask aurora about it? if shes so important, why havent we ever heard of her before? her inclusion didnt feel natural at all.

i really hated aurora, because her character felt so cheap and gimmicky in every possible way. sure, she was foreshadowed in cour1, but since she obviously didnt exist in s1, it felt incredibly stupid that there conveniently is one single person ouroboros has to assassinate to ruin all relations between people who have NEXT powers and those who dont...

her power makes no sense: if shes so fucking smart and has been Thinking of ways to better the world for literally decades, then why capitalism all over the world?

i do think its realistic to expect she cant force the world to become an utopia, but the way shes introduced and dealt with doesnt really give me a well-nuanced view of her. she looks to the side and saves some lizard species form extinction with an idea.

i think her character couldve been interesting if they had used the whole season to set her up and i guess made the themes of the season somehow align with her and “not being able to fix the world alone no matter how smart you are etc” and included her as the brain and LL audun as the brawns and how neither of them could ever fix the world alone according to their opinions, and only in their bonds can our heroes find the most of their strengths, including connections with other people like how kotetsu could chat with a child in s1 to ease him down from his rampage at the ice rink etc.

buuuut i feel like that couldve been the plotline for some other season altogether. now that we know LL audun, he could get him back later and see how hes doing, etc... in the case he was given more nuance or something and not just sent back to jail, i mean.

theres also the moment where aurora opened her eyes and i guess i was supposed to feel it was significant but i genuinely didnt care. like okay. yeah i noticed that. no i dont care that the day was saved and “she felt comfortable closing her eyes again”.

was that purposeful?.. the implication that shes closing her eyes from the world?.. and she only opened them when she realized she personally was in danger?..

that was so wild to me, i still dont know what the purpose behind that was, but that certainly was how the overall arc felt about yuri. eyes closed, who cares if some guy suffers for no reason.

rosicky was interesting to me, and it was a waste she got shot before she could have any sort of discussion?.. she just felt like a cheap trick to get yuris body fucked up. it couldve been an interesting moment overall, but, well...

not like were going to get anything about yuri reacting to how all of that went down? so it was just... weird.

and then rosicky died and gregory "won” their little squabble, and i wish gregory had fucking exploded because lunatics been making some points and i fucking hate him...

also just to return to the ouroboros ties of the season, they made ouroboros so all-powerful it was stupid and lost a lot of meaning to me. like alright, they can do anything, why are we even fighting, and why is rosicky alone in charge of this operation... makes no fucking sense, its such a forced situation.

the ending of cour2 was... well, it existed. i mean, i dont personally mind kotetsu retiring for good overmuch i suppose, but i think with everything that happened (especially in the way i think things should have happened) he couldve just continued as proof that even people without NEXT powers can be superheroes...

and also as a some sort of proof that it was mr.legends refusal to change any part of his hero image that really did him in: kotetsu could cling to his heroism while accepting hes just a guy without powers and not make it such an issue.

and i suppose if he retires, i wouldve loved to see him take some sort of director-like role instead: i dont think he would be able to let hero stuff go completely, but him being a senior you ask for advice would still give him a lot of things to do.

right now its also a bit of my fear, if they have any thoughts of continuing tiger&bunny in any way ever and yuri had to die so that kotetsu could take over the spot he ended up occupying as a director...:( genuinely makes me make a sad face in real life.

by the point we got to the end they had already fucked up the entire premise and any message they wouldve hoped to send and if they had some sort of uplifting message after yuris death, i failed to understand it. but it felt like a giant fuck you to the fans of the show called “tiger&bunny” to get that last bit of tiger&bunny pair disbanding because of reasons.

i mean, theyre not even remotely my favourite characters and i dont think about them overmuch, but leaving it more open-ended wouldve been so much more fun for so many fans? they really fucked up the shows undercurrent of interrogating who can be a hero and why in the first place, but like...

yeah that shit sucked ass sorry. i dont even have anything to add. people who showed up to see more kotetsu and barnaby content getting that half-hearted discussion about where theyre gonna go from here and then showing their plaque in the “true heroes” hall...

i feel like it undercuts kotetsus character so much, because hes always been the “underdog”, and hes pulled through everything that came before this. they explicitly mention that hes been working really hard to supplement his waning power, and then leave it at that: if i was supposed to understand from that part that kotetsu isnt really retiring or anything, it didnt really come across due to the other circumstances.

and again, i dont even really care about kotetsu! its just that he really exemplifies the tone of the show as a fact, and i like to think i have a modicum of media literacy. and by undermining the uplifting message of the show, they directly undermined him, and by undermining him, they further muddied the spirit of t&b.

i feel like an ending i wouldve killed for is one that couldve included that sort of tour of a museum, but it wouldve showed mr.legend paraphernalia being moved away from “true heroes” and also included our protags being inducted in there if they so wished, but leaving it more open ended... and definitely proving that mr.legend was not worthy of being thought of as a hero.

it was weird that the second league isnt brought up at all during the entire season from what i can remember? i dont even have anything significant to say about it, but i think second league heroes are and have been important, just by existing, to the narrative asking the viewer who really is a true hero and who insnt and what it all means.

they just didnt care, just like they didnt care about that question and yuri. again, they fully ignored anything they had set up before, and kept introducing new characters when old side characters couldve been brought back.

i have some thoughts on the police chief being a younger version of the police chief from double decker... im unsure if the implication is that double decker is more than a spiritual sequel and its not just cameo, or if its something more.

mattia did off-handedly mention that hes developing now trying to develop a drug that takes NEXT powers away if i read and understood it right, which would, i guess, make a canonical disappearance of NEXT powers possible.

i have actually never seen double decker myself, but i understand it references tiger&bunny while being separate and clearly “in the future” from it, and as far as i understand, it doesnt have people with superpowers.

i personally think that imagining double deckers world as a canonical sequel to the world of tiger&bunny sucks, but i dunno what the real implication there is.

i also want to talk about the art direction of t&b2 since im airing out my opinions and complaints, so why not: the art direction kinda sucks. everyone has been smoothed and thinned down and the essence of t&bs charming style has been lost in some ways.

you can really see the jump between older art and the newer art with ryan, for example... ill talk about ryan now because this is my post and i love this guy.

he is downright ugly in some parts of the rising, and i love calling him ugly, but in a serious way, yes, i think hes explicitly supposed to be handsome (because what else does he have going on for him even except being loud and looking good lol).

hes just a different kind of attractive than barnaby who is pretty, and theres various scenes in the rising where you can see that barnaby has more of a button nose while ryan has a sharp, short nose, unlike yuri for example, who just has a large nose overall (and its his charm point!).

ryans most notable quality is that his eyes are drawn to look hooded and deep-set with straight eyebrows that make his strong brow even more prominent, and he usually has a very distinct wrinkle across his forehead.

and what does he look like in t&b2? certainly nothing like that.

i know that the rising has a much larger budget for the designs than the episodic show, and either way they wouldve had to simplify ryans design to translate it into the episodic format. and we all know the goofy parts of season1 they fixed in the bluray release...

that never was a huge problem, and i wouldnt mind it. yes, i guess ryan couldve been changed for marketing, but he looked like that through-out the entire movie and was hugely popular regardless and BECAUSE of how he looks. but its not just ryan, its that the art direction changed drastically, and it made all the characters look so much more generic and samey.

just after the scene i screencapped above, you can see barnaby and ryan from further away with less detail for a scene that passes by quicker, and you can see that less care was used to make them look good but they still were kept distinctive and different. (and sorry to barnaby, i caught him in in the middle of a movement, so he looks extra goofy.)

t&b2 doesnt even have a lot of scenes that i can remember that really let the chracters emote and make goofy faces: kotetsu has always been hugely expressive! i want to see him make a funny face! kotetsu is also the main character, and part of his thing is being an Old Man (even if he isnt even that old for real, but thats beside the point).

he has wrinkles around his eyes in that shot even if its not hugely detailed, and in contrast i feel he was very smooth in t&b2. the art direction felt as aimless as the bullshit plotline, and equally as uncaring towards established characters!

everyone was drawn very samey. another example to me is the scene in cour1 where thomas inspects keiths pectorals is just sad, because hes been thinned down like everyone else. what was there to inspect? absolutely nothing.

this screencap from s1 has more to inspect than the scene where keith is supposed to be noticeably buff. by the way, this entire scene with the girlies and keith has more personality and goofiness than most of cour2.

and heres a screencap of keith from that episode, where his face shape and features are distinct.

ts been a decade and i know that anime production has gone through changes in this time and netflix-style mass drop of episodes may be harder on people in general, but comparing my s2 screencap below to the screencap above just makes me miss the old style because im scared to but s2 keith next to the one above... his eyebrows were so sadly thin and so were his face and body.

you know, lunatic doesnt even have a distinctly large nose, and his eyes arent even particularly sunken and he doesnt have many wrinkles around his eyes like i think is charming for him, because everyone is just smoothed down... and the above screencap isnt even a good example of it, but the charming thickening of lines at some parts is entirely missing in t&b2 from what i can remember? i feel like the linework used to be stronger and more interesting overall.

anyhow, yes, t&b was also fixed up for the bluray release but i feel like the atrocious-looking parts are kind of funny to look back on. i wonder if theyll be editing s2 visually? (and please revise the entire storyline for yuri too, thanks.)

speaking of s1, where did this entire sentiment disappear to? into the ether?

also, i cant help but be plagued by thoughts because the episode i got those keith screencaps from, kotetsu & barnaby are interviewed by kids who are taking the reporting very seriously, and their reaction to kotetsu saying the person he looks up to is mr.legend is lukewarm at best.

then barnaby talks of his parents and robotics, and they light up, which is funny because barnaby is way more popular, but it also narratively, in my opinion, shows that especially the new generation of sternbild thinks mr.legend isnt that impressive and would be more willing to accept that despite the myths around him, he was a man who severely sucked.

theyre ready for new heroes to commemorate, ones that really deserve it, and they (even in cour1!) dont see lunatic as a villain but an antihero who protects them.

oh well.

thanks for reading, even if you didnt read all of it and just read interesting parts or skimmed through it! i guess writing this was like free therapy for me because i need to deal with how deeply yuris cour2 canon arc affected me lmfao.

i dont think ive ever been so blindsided and taken aback by the total surprise i felt at the direction his arc took and that definitely factored into how deeply it fucked me up because if i couldve anticipated that yuri could for example die, i wouldve been a lot more normal about it.

but out of all things, i cant believe that tiger&bunny would do that to me, and make me see all of that pain... genuinely fucked up not going to lie. fugan and mugan and their father being shot to death is one thing because its shocking of course, but yuri has been in the show since the start.

yuri has existed in the minds of people for over a decade, now, so it feels so unexpected they would so callously kill him off, it feels entirely uncharacteristic, and i feel like its not something that anyone couldve expected, and maybe it wouldve been less shocking if season2 had come out like, say, an another year after the rising...

but still, i dont understand how we make the jump from yuris portrayal and the overall themes of the rising into t&b2 and his role in cour2. its wild, i dont know how to get over it.

breathing through gritted teeth how i published a few fanfics with yuri in a huge hurry before cour2 dropped because i wanted to have them started in case some major yuri details drop and ill feel compelled the rewrite the yuri parts of them but huh... well.... cry laugh

i love imagining scenarios with my favourite characters, but i tend to include yuri in the core ensemble cast of heroes: trying to imagine any post-canon shenanigans feels so hard right now like watching a VHS reel that ran to the end and has to be rewound, and actually makes me incredibly sad.

theres that new audiodrama coming out with ryan featured in it and i cant even be excited because i just get sick, like physically... i guess imagining myself casually engaging with tiger&bunny content makes me feel like im spitting on yuris nonexistent grave. woe is me. fuck you tiger&bunny2 cour2. TL;DR - my opinions, this entire post condensed somehow:

the whole arc for yuri felt like a giant fuck you not only to him and all of the fans too, and same with the ending kinda

ryan was brought back for a fun cameo only because he never became plot-relevant really so what was the point lol? screentime waste

plot points set up in cour1 and further before were ignored and scenes were specifically used to counteract them?!

big misogyny moment for all woman characters of the show

hero ensemble overall was underutilized

new characters/excessive focus on side characters like the fucking mayor and the police chief in cour2 felt gimmicky and unnecessary and generally didnt add much worth. i dont care show me my funny heroes instead

they tried to do too many things and lost sight of why t&b has been so great and why the idea of a more self-conscious t&b is so exciting: of course the show has had a lot of flaws, like nathans initial portrayal, and to imagine a show that has the same spirit but improves on those flaws is amazing. its just not even remotely what we got</3

never expected a flawless show but there are flaws that you can headcanon away and there are flaws that undermine the entire theme of the show this far. i dont know how to make s2 any better after seeing cour2 without totally ignoring any of it happened

cour1 wasnt even bad. it was solid. shit just hit the fan in cour2

the art direction was a huge downgrade, but maybe it was just budget constraints, so i dont know how harsh i want to be about it.

leave a comment if you want, lo, i love to talk, its relaxing. i also mightve mixed shit up so dont embarrass me too much if you notice any overt mixups since i really did marathon the cour once and i dont know how i can bear to look at it again. i also have some confusion over some parts of the story which i detailed above in my manifesto so if you wanna educate me, please do, lmfao...peace out...