#i love how magic is 100% real but they never explain how it works or anything so u just have to accept whatever happens.

[willlmesh]

totally normal utapri plotline where they kill satan and then go back to their lives like it's nothing. what

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

I think part of the trouble with reading ML as a magical girl team is that it’s really written to be Marinette as the Lone Hero.

Sticking with Winx Club as an example (which I absolutely loved), even though Bloom was clearly the main character, the other girls got focus and attention and their own narratives unrelated to Bloom’s. Alya doesn’t have that; nearly the entirety of her scenes and focus are still for or related to Marinette’s story, which the writers have outright told us is always meant to come first.

As such, I think the more solid reading of ML is that it’s a poorly written superhero romcom that pretends to be a magical girl team, but only ends up offering crumbs. It’s why we’re shown the extra Miraculous and given a “core four/five,” only for it to be revealed that the new holders aren’t actually permanent team members. A decision I remember thinking at the time made absolutely no sense, but now in hindsight can be perfectly explained by how doing so would necessitate that attention/focus be taken from Marinette, which ML absolutely refuses to do.

In fact, I’d wager that’s the actual reason Chat Noir has a crush on Ladybug before Adrien falls for Marinette: it keeps his attention even as a hero focused on her. There’s plenty of salters who love to deride him for not focusing enough on the “job” and making LB pick up his “slack,” but that fits the show’s intentions perfectly. Chat can’t be written to (as) capable if LB is to shine. Hence why we had the whole Catwalker argument being nonsensically centered around “perfection.” 😭

(Post with the Winx club example for context.)

You're absolutely right. Miraculous is trying to be a loan hero show (or perhaps a serious hero and silly sidekick show) where Marinette is the only important character outside of the villains, a magical girl team show where female friendships are the most important relationships in the show, and a heterosexual rom-com all at the same time which leads to a ton of nonsense choices because those are three genres that really don't mix!

While I never outright said it, the post about rom-coms vs magical girl team shows was spawned by the fandom conflict over Alya's writing in the later seasons. I wanted to take a moment to point out why she keeps being given the roles that people expect Chat Noir to get and why both sides of that fandom conflict have very valid feelings given the way that the show is being written, so I didn't talk about the lone hero thing since that doesn't really play a part in Alya and Adrien's fight for narrative importance. If we're looking at Miraculous as a whole though, then it's 100% a piece of the puzzle when you're trying to figure out where the writing went wrong.

I've mentioned a couple of times that they're putting way too much on Marinette's shoulders. The main reason that I feel that way is because they also decided to give her a full team of heroes to work with which is deeply confusing. If they really wanted to go the Marinette-is-the-only-real-hero route, then we should have never gotten any additional heroes beyond Ladybug and Chat Noir. Keep Chat Noir as the comedy sidekick and let Ladybug use all of the other miraculous as powerups without ever handing them out.

After all, when it comes down to their actual role in the narrative, most of the team feels like nothing more than a powerup since they basically just do whatever Ladybug tells them to do. Outside of Viperion and Bunnyx, there's no reason why Ladybug can't just dual, triple, or quadruple wield. This is extra true because they took the time to tell us that Marinette is able to wield more miraculous than most people and then... never really did anything with that. Why have a line like this one from Kwamibuster if you're never going to have Marinette do more than the occasional dual wield?

Master Fu: No Miraculous owner in all of history has ever been mentally and physically strong enough to use that many Miraculous at the same time. Wayzz: Marinette truly is special, Master.

Switching from a team back to a duo would also fix the awkwardness of Adrien's writing as that really wasn't a problem back in season one. The hero who does all the cool stuff and their wacky comedy sidekick who keeps things fun is a classic setup for a reason!

[incarnadin3]

How Obey Me Brothers realized they were in love with MC: Part Five, Asmodeous

A/N: Thank you so much y'all for almost 100 followers and 2k notes! I'm literally sobbing😭😭 I kinda broke the order cuz I low-key got lost and had a writer's block, so I just yapped. Btw I lowkey did not know what to write for him, so this ones a bit...bad? Anyways, enjoy!~

Asmodeous: The Narcissistic Fifthborn

Part of being the Avatar of Lust was that, well everyone wanted you. It was quite nice for Asmodeous, since he loved and craved the attention he got. But then you came along. You didn't exactly blow him off, but for starters, his magic didn't work on you, to Lucifer's relief (he did not want another person, especially a human to fawn over Asmo), and you sorta just...didn't care about his looks?

It would leave him confused, and honestly a bit shocked. Was he not your type? No no no, that wasn't possible, Asmo was everybody's type! Was it his perfume, perhaps? But that couldn't be it either. He had his perfume hand made, only from the freshest of flowers in Hell, since the flowers of Heaven burned him (who knew holy flowers had Holy water inside?). So it couldn't be his perfume. But as he stood in front of his mirror, examining every inch of his body, the realization hit him like a ton of bricks.

Could it be perhaps....that you found him, the great Asmodeous, ugly? But...how? Asmodeous was the prettiest demon all around!

But he decided not to worry too much and went to bed.

Over the next few days Asmo did his best to look good for you. But he kept failing. You kept brushing him off. He stopped posting as often, and his fans and brothers took notice pretty quickly.

One day, as he was finally uploading a picture, he noticed something he had never expected.

A pimple.

He wailed so loudly that you came rushing into his room and slamming the door shut behind you. You gasped when you saw the pimple, and Asmo assumed the worst. You now definitely found him ugly.

“Go away MC! I’m ugly!”

You approached him, and Asmo felt to soft hands on his cheeks, cupping them.

“Hey…Hey Asmo, look at me. You’re not ugly.”

“B-but I have a pimple!”

“So? I get pimples constantly, do you think I’m ugly?”

“What?! No!”

“Exactly. Why do you think you, the Avatar of Lust, is ugly?”

Asmo looked into your eyes, a soft and sad smile etched onto his face, as he explained why. You smiled softly and sighed.

”Asmo, you’re the most beautiful and handsome man I’ve ever met. I want to be friends and something more. But I want to be friends with you. Not the person you pretend to be. The real you. Free from makeup, the weight of looking pretty, and lust. The you I know you are, but hide.”

Asmo felt his face heat up as he comprehended your words.l

Being the Avatar of Lust meant that people only focused on his lust and beauty, never his own self. And for someone like you to recognize that he was something more than a demon of lust? It made him realize, that maybe he didn’t need to pretend to be something he didn’t want to be constantly…

[wolves-and-stars]

Beginner's Guide to Wolfstar (Long Fics)

(here's a list of my top 10 favorite long fics ranging from 259k to 59k words)

Momentum by children_of_the_shadows (ao3) 259k

If you have to ready any canon compliant (mostly) marauders through the years fic, this is the one, Children_of_the_shadows is one of the best writers ever, Top 3 fic authors.

2. Text Talk by merlywhirls (ao3) 141k

Everyone knows text talk, it's basically wolfstar bible, Non Magic AU where the boys meet by accidently texting the wrong number.

3. Time is a Fine Invention by bluepeony (ao3) 105k

Brilliant university non magic au, with the most imperfect and human characterization of both Remus and Sirius, read it if only to humanize the both of them and their relationship. Insecurity in a relationship and Coming of age and all the thoughts accompanying it are perfectly described in this. so much foreshadowing if you read it carefully enough.

It'll make you hate and simultaneously empathize with both characters.

4. Slughorn's Sanitarium for Troubled Boys by MelloPie 65k

TW: discussion of mental health, SA, institutionalization, ab*use, s*icide, self h*rm.

Non-Magic AU, set in a mental institution, where both noys have to share a room. Its one of the first long fics i ever read, so maybe i have a soft spot for this one, and every other fic on this list.

5. The Lad That Loved You. by MollyMaryMarie (ao3) 81k

I've said this once and I'll say it again, mollymarymarie is one of the best writers out there, another top 3 author for me, all of her fics are amazing, obviously including dear you holiness, we can pretend, the only living boy in new york, i might have to do a separate recs list for that.

But, if you had to read just one, i would say The lad that loved you is the perfect one, set in their 6th or 7th year? of hogwarts, they hide their new relationship by acting like they hate each other, and let me tell you, they are exactly, perfectly themselves in this fic, and by that i mean exactly how i imagine them.

There is not one single thing about this fic that i would change. Perfection.

6. Discards by picascribit (ao3) 76k words

I can't make a fic rec without picascribit. Cure for nightmares changed my life. Non-magic AU, Remus meets Sirius in the library he goes to study at, real love isn't always perfect and doesn't involve perfect people, is what i've take away from this fic.

7. ten reasons (to go to michigan) by greyeyedmonster18 (ao3) 59k

Top 3 Fics. If you had to read any wolfstar fic, it would be this one. I've read 100's spanning from 2016 - till date, and this is the best one ive ever read.

Remus is newly divorced, and he meets Sirius Black.

If you've ever lost someone one and had to re-learn how to live without someone you never thought you would have to live without, this fic will encapsulate the gist of it in words.

In one of their notes the authors says something close to 'the hardest thing about losing someone is finding out that the earth keeps spinning and you have to keep living'

8. Dating Remus Lupin by Children_of_the_Shadows (ao3) 83k

Top 3 fics. I can't explain this fic in any words, the writing style is brilliant, the characterizations are unique and wonderful and perfect. Everything about this fic is brilliant.

Set in Year 5, Sirius Black wants a boyfriend and James tells him about the only other openly gay boy in in their year, it just happens to be Remus Lupin. Much to his disdain.

9. Remus Lupin's Guide to Successful Courting by Children_of_the_Shadows (ao3) 87k

Non Magic AU, Remus Lupin finds harry in his yard having escaped from school and return him back to Dr. Sirius Black, who's new to town and coincidently doesn't have an inkling about Remus's past, his eyes clear of any judgement are what make Remus fall for him and pursue him, court if you will.

I again cannot explain this fic. Children_of_the_shadows is the most talented writer, i will make a separate fic list for their other brilliant work.

10. Sex Pistol by ArtificialAorta (ffnet) 86k

Musicians AU, Remus is punk rock, Sirius is akin to the prince of pop, how can they not fall in love?

[no-psi-nan]

Actually Terusai has kind of a fascinating element of psychological horror that I don't think most people notice.

Think about it. In a world where psychic powers are real and can be strong enough to destroy the planet, a girl is born who has two special abilities:

(Nearly) every guy immediately falls in love with her, and

The world in general bends over backwards to her will, affecting probability, the weather, and even the physics of falling droplets.

In the face of this, even Saiki's godly set of abilities are barely enough to counter her second power. And despite how much trouble Teruhashi puts him in and will continue to put him in, and despite Teruhashi's completely superficial crush on him, Saiki feels himself starting to fall in love with her too.

Is it true love? Is it Teruhashi's power eventually working its way through his natural defenses? Is it the will of God/the mangaka forcing him to be together with Teruhashi for some reason, possibly just because she wants it, or to appease an audience he knows exists out there somewhere?

How long can Saiki fight against Teruhashi's powers and God's will? How can he ever know whether his feelings are genuine?

The only way to know 100% for sure would be if Teruhashi loses interest in him and he then finds that he's also lost interest in her. Or potentially if he significantly powers up somehow and then finds that his feelings for Teruhashi aren't as strong any more.

The same problem still applies to any Teruhashi ship, of course, except that none of them would know that their feelings could potentially have been forced onto them by supernatural power, and so would live and love in ignorant bliss. 🤔 It might be possible for wlw ships to dodge this issue, except that Aiura and Imu's strong reactions to Teruhashi at first sight imply that Teruhashi's first power extends to anyone attracted to women (which would also explain Hairo's disinterest).

And if Teruhashi herself should ever realize that she was born with these powers and that her hard work isn't the source of them (as proven by the fact that she had them as a baby and also in all apocalyptic scenarios and she's gone evil, she still is loved and worshipped), she would have SUCH a breakdown, rip...

What a way to shatter a worldview! And how could she trust that ANYONE'S feelings towards her could be legitimate if she knows she has a magic power that forces the issue?? Maybe that's what tips her over the edge into cult leader in some of those AUs tbh!

You could hypothetically argue that Aiura's soulmate readings also exert control, except that Aiura's powers are only good for getting information, she's never shown any ability to affect reality. And it seems that soulmates don't necessarily always end up together for whatever reason (like geography/being in completely different areas of the world), so if Saiki wanted to ignore that prediction, there really wouldn't be anything stopping him.

He clearly didn't fall in love with Aiura at first sight (nor she with him) and no circumstances have ever evolved to force him into close contact with Aiura. Even the time Imu shoved Saiki and Aiura into the closet was in Teruhashi's favor because hearing her admit she liked Saiki was enough to prevent Saiki from carrying on his plan with Aiura. 🤷🏾

So any feelings that develop between Aiura and Saiki would be undoubtedly natural. But any feelings Saiki develops for Teruhashi would be perpetually under question...

[radiance1]

BOOM SHAKALA MOTHERFUCKERS I HAVE ANOTHER IDEA!!!!!!!!

So, this time it's not anything to do with worlds or space but BIRDS.

Bet you didn't expect that one didn't you!

Sam have a great expansion of knowledge about the Paranormal, Mythological and the Occult. So, she finds out magic is real and is fucking ecstatic, well after she met Pandora, she started going through all of her material for spells and what not.

She knows all witches have to have a familiar, but she doesn't know what she would want to have as one, then a crow catches her eye and she just goes fuck it.

Then she started collecting an army of crows.

Pandora herself helps teach her the more, mystic, parts of magic whenever she's available, with Undergrowth begrudgingly helping her along with other parts such as nature magic.

Which is actually surprisingly difficult and rather easy and the same time.

Undergrowth uses a completely different system to use his abilities, whereas Sam uses mana and the occult to achieve her magic. So some things that Undergrowth can do easily might be hard to do for Sam, and where things that Sam can do easily would be a bit difficult for Undergrowth to do too.

The same thing is true for Pandora, albeit to a much lesser extent. She knows about spells and mana, so it's easier for her to translate to into teaching for Sam unlike Undergrowth.

Pandora is the one who helped to unlock Sam's mana when she was interested in it, finding that she has a great amount of mana right off the bat.

Enough that in the olden days she would be fought over by magicians fiercely.

Even more so by how greatly it increases by the added on amount of her familiars.

Now, a single crow's mana isn't that much in the grand scheme of things, but add on 50, 100, 1000? Now, that is a great boost indeed.

Sam has enough crows to cover the sky has an entire city. Though most of them she never uses, that's still a great deal of mana that she and her familiar's are constantly sharing with each other, she even managed to cast protection magic on each and every one.

At least she's dedicated.

Hotep Ra is back in town, despite his attempts to plot and use Tucker to further his own ends, he now wants to serve the boy just as he did Duulaman.

To which Tucker was rightfully suspicious of.

Hotep Ra explained that now that Tucker has defeated him, no matter if he had help from his friends or that ghost boy or not, he has recognized him as the rightful heir to the throne.

Even if that throne is long gone, Hotep Ra is not.

With the time he spent with Tucker, he would sometimes urge the boy to reclaim his past self's throne, claiming that Duulaman and by an obvious extension Tucker, was born to rule over others.

To which tucker doesn't really want so he just nopes outta that one.

Hotep Ra also help him be able to control the scepter, although he himself doesn't have complete knowledge of it, he's learned through observing Duulaman what to do and how to use it.

He also got Tucker a few birds as an apology, specifically Golden Eagles, as Duulaman himself quite loved the apex birds, and thought it would be a fitting apology if Tucker happened to share the same trait.

It worked.

So now tucker has pet Eagles that come to him whenever he wants.

Danny is a bit miffed at current events, don't get him wrong he's happy that his friends get to learn magic and stuff, but now they barely have anytime to hang out!

Seeing that his kid isn't feeling that great what with his recent friends learning magic and having birds, Pariah thought that it would score him a few dad points if he got his kid his own bird!

Said bird is a giant the size of two houses that can and would kill if given a reason to. Pariah Dark literally forced it into submission so his son can be happy, it can also split itself up into multiple smaller birds.

Danny is happy with his gift.

Sam, when she isn't learning with Pandora or Undergrowth or hanging out with Danny and Tucker, usually occupies herself trying out magical concoctions or rituals.

A recent one she wants to try is to make a stone, a stone which is surprisingly apart of the family tree with the Philosopher's stone, just that this one uses no alchemy and pure magic to achieve its results.

She's confident in herself and that she can do, so she gathered all the ingredients listed for it. The first few of the ingredients were rather easy to get at first.

A lotus whom blooms at the crack of morn yet lay dormant 'i its absence.

A lotus which grants thou both power and strength tied with the god of kinship, physic, protection, travelling lamp and welken

A stone what be foe of any poison

A stone quoth to dispatch any whom comes into contact

All four of these weren't hard to get, though she had to wait quite a while for her crows to bring her the items requested.

The last item was a liquid.

Substance of greenist glow quoth to bring the dead to life and the corky to youth

Easy, she thought. There is loads of that stuff all around the ghost zone, though when she tried it, it failed.

Again, she tried failed.

She never knew what went wrong, she had all the ingredients, so what is happening? She looked over the recipe again, seeing that everything she had should have worked.

Was it her timing?

No, her timing was perfect.

Were her ingredients defective of some kind?

No, if they were she would know.

She paced back and forth through her room, thinking to herself what she could be doing wrong with a few crows looking at her curiously. She went through the recipe over and over, looking over her timing and ingredients before stopping.

Wait.

Bring the dead to life. Ectoplasm can't do that.

Sam sent out a village's worth of crows to find this mysterious substance that she thought was ectoplasm, but isn't. Yet when her familiars came back, not a single one could find it for her.

So, she sent them into the zone, confident in her protections so that they won't be harmed. It was when she was sleeping that she felt it.

A vicious snaping withing her chest that forced her awake and out of bed, almost immediately she called all of her crows to her, all of them coming but one.

So, she sent out to find her missing crow. Going to where she can feel the bond's last traces and with coming upon a portal. She then departed without hesitation with only half of her scout crows.

Almost immediately she could feel the bond pick back up again and made hast to follow it. When she got there she was ecstatic, there right in front of her was a glowing green pool of the liquid she thinks she needed.

Though she was cautious in approaching it.

It was only when she was nearby the pool did she realize a man was in the room with her, a man who stepped out of the pool with his attention fully on her, his red eyes gazing at her with interest.

She tensed when she noticed one of her scout crows gripped tightly in his hand.

-------

Man idk what I'm doing lmao but I wanted to make this a dc x dp crossover so hhehaheheh.

-------

Danny and Tucker are worried about Sam, they haven't seen her in a while, and while it isn't all that usual for her to be doing her own magic thing for days on end.

They couldn't help this foreboding feeling in the back of they're heads.

Which was only furthered by how her crows gathered around them and pushed them towards a portal in the zone. Hotep Ra went with them, not one to leave his master.

The three stepped into the portal, and not knowing that they stepped into an entire different universe.

They started to search for their missing friend with the help of her crows and their own birds.

--------

A thing, Sam doesn't know where all of her familiars are and vice versa normally. But if she ever focuses on their bond it would lead her to them, and she can call them to her whenever she wants.

--------

[frost-link]

can I ask for a Sidon x reader where the reader is from our world and still has a phone? Just something cute about reader teaching Sidon how a phone works and maybe Sidon comforting reader when she feels homesick

So this is the first time I've ever made a request so if it's stupid please ignore

What an interesting idea! I'd love to write this! I'll be writing in a headcanon format! This one is mainly just silly, I hope it's okay! ^^

The Power of Technology - Sidon X Reader

Sidon is immediately fascinated when you show him your weird glowing brick that looks like a sheikah slate, or how else would he put it... a Purah Pad? He knows that Link has one too. You try to explain that it is a "phone" and only you have one. Sidon just goes along with it because he has no idea how new technology works, but he'll try to understand!

He's amazed how you have everything by the power of your finger tip on such a small device. Despite not having any service or internet in their world, Sidon thinks that your phone is something out of a sci-fi child story.

When your phone dies for the first time and he learns that they need to be charged by electricity, he suggests that you leave your phone outside during a thunderstorm so it could "charge".

Once Sidon learns how to use your phone, the man immediately loves watching silly videos you had saved on your phone before you came to Hyrule. He will 100% watch the same video on loop for hours on end.

"Wow! Such wonderful art! It's like real life!" Sidon would exclaim looking in your camera roll. You would have to explain that these are "photos" not drawings. Sidon didn't believe you at first.

Oh... You poor thing... Now that Sidon has discovered the magic of the camera on your phone, he will sneak your phone and take hundreds of pictures, half of them being himself with his silly cheeky smile. You'll wake up to a message on your phone about your storage being "full", you'll know why.

You'll both scroll through your phone's camera roll together. Sidon will see ones of you back in your world and will have so many questions. Looking back on these photos will make you emotional, as much as you love Hyrule and Sidon, you do get homesick.

When you're homesick, Sidon will grab your phone out of your hand and take a silly picture of himself and change your wallpaper to himself. "Look my love! You can now look at me whenever you open your phone!" He would say with a silly grin. The photo would be taken at the worst angle, yet it would make you laugh, making you feel better.

You have a mix of different songs saved on your phone but Sidon had decided that he liked a certain band the most. In the early hours of the morning, you'll hear him softly sing to himself "Weeeee are the champions!!" Low and Behold... The band was Queen.

He 100% listens to the same song on loop, and he'll NEVER get tired of that song. "It's a catchy song! How could you NOT want to sing it?"

When you are on your phone at night, he's shocked at just how bright it is. "What is that thing even made of??"

Both of you will cuddle at night sometimes watching a movie or two. You only have a few, Sidon doesn't mind rewatching. He finds it amazing how you can record life on it and then watch it on such a tiny screen.

[ansbobcar]

My thoughts on the mashle stage play becuz I'm sad I didn't record the whole thing

Only thing I didn't record but I did watch once was the Abel vs Mash part so I think I'm okay enough.

So, overall it was fun. Reminds me of how much fun I had while watching one of the mha stage plays (think the 3rd).

I love the details they added in this medium:

1. Mash NEVER sings showing just how unmagic he is (really looking forward to what the Divine Visionaries will sound like) it reminded me of Shrek and why the Shrek musical felt weird when I watched it. Like everybody sings and dances—except for Mash which really shows just how out of place he is. It makes you focus on the other characters too ngl.

2. Mash's muscles wearing creampuffs for headgear AND having nametags was just *chef's kiss*. I found it extra funny and they really help emphasise the absurdity of Mash's physical powers AND have their own personalities? They're like Mash's minions—the Duello moment where they score a bunch of goals—iconic.

3. Just the stagehands/prop ppl in general working with the projector to make the magic—magic itself in reality was extra cool. Like Abyss' Secondth Spell set up was kinda wild as if his own magic wasn't with the people waving around arrow flags. Using fabric for Wirth's Mud stuff. HECK THEY ONLY HAD 3 PARTISAN PROPS AND STILL MADE IT LOOK COOL.

Alright, so any highlights?

Let me go in order if I can.

The first door prop was wild. I think they used magnets in order to make it work. Pls use it againnnn in the next stage play.

The way Lemon and Love are the only two who use the rewind function is really funny, becuz Lemon's is for her introduction solo song and also semi-glosses over what happened during the entrance exam just like the rest of it was in song while also establishing her delulu love for Mash, honestly she's so real for it. Meanwhile, Love's isn't a musical number and is just the one where she explains how they got duped a coin. The use of practical magic tricks is really cool (I think they used one for the coin itself, those flipping blinds things to make the illusion of a diff object yk.)

The Magia Lupus choir-y ensemble songs were prolly one of my favourites, although I think it's just becuz I really liked Love Cute's presence as a whole since they only focused on Love, Wirth, Abyss and Abel as like the lead singers and Shuen is nowhere in sight? (I forgot if he was Magia Lupus in the first place) alongside the Finn-Lemon duet about like "ganbare Mash" (istg they made FinnMash so much more possible with this one song) and they're like definitely bestie coded 100%.

Anything with Mash's muscles is super funny too.

Lance's solos are emo, Dot had such a main character entrance but I dunno how to feel about the fact he doesn't tuck in his shirt (for context: the tea and the grades) but the fact I can't tell when his actor changes his fucking wig for the Ira Kreuz reveal is crazy.

RAYNE'S ENTRANCE GUYS. Bro has like my favourite musical solo entrance out of all of them. AND HE ALSO DANCES. HE FUCKING DANCES GUYS. KPOP IDOL RAYNE IS SO CLOSE TO BEING REALITY GUYS. They triple killed me in less than 10 minutes for that one.

Also the way they manage to put on the puppet masks without ruining the pacing makes me lose my mind becuz like... HOW???

I forgot to mention Wahlberg but honestly, him and Regro weren't my favourite favourite parts—I think it's becuz they have a lot of exposition dumps and more of a comedy out of the plot element since him and the cop interact with the audience quite a bit—oh but the acting that Regro does to make it look like he's squeezing from the neck makes you as the audience feel and believe his pain (when tehre isn't any). Like it was convincing. Plus they were funny during the entrance exam, they were dancing too.

Also Wahlberg pulled off the flash-paper thing. It was cool. I'm hoping for the thirds magic they make it look really cool in the next stage play.

The best part I looked forward too... was the Shu Cream Funk dance the main 5 did. They also made the others do it on the 2nd and 3rd time. Including Rayne. I recorded this in low-res. It was great.

Overall, highly entertaining. I think considering how they had to cut down 4 hours down to 2 hours with song, choreo (fight and dance numbers) they were pretty successful. I just think as someone who cannot understand japanese that the first 20 minutes was really REAAALLLY plot dump exposition a bit like the funny stuff from Ep 2 and Ep 3 with the entrance exam doesn't exist.

But they made up for it enough.

There's a lot that I skipped like the bullying thing and Bamboo guy. I don't remember his name but that's kinda covered with the rest. I'm really wondering how they're gonna pull off the next arc... I forgot who they cast...

[nevraeldarya]

If you get Isekai-ed in Twisted Wonderland what would you do ?

Well me personally it depends :

In the case where I still have the plot knowledge:

1- I'll pray that I have a System even the Original Game Mechanism will do, and knowing how Isekai in Games works, there is a 100% chance that a System will be there.

2- If I have a System, I'll make sure to learn basic physical skills, a powerful punch and kick should put the boys straight.

3- Resources, if Rook can use his bow and arrows then I too will learn how to use that thing to hunt my own food. Cause Crowley is a piece of shit, I mean have you seen how he threatened us with taking food during chapter 3 ??? Sure he didn't say it out loud but hinted at it.

4- Knowing my dumbass I would be dead back in the real world so searching for a way to get citizenship is a MUST do.

5- The magic hammer, I shall get my hand on that thing.

6- Money ? The System covers that with Missions.

7- Relationships, uuuh what can I say ? The Dwarf Mines thing will never happen with me there I would let the trio deal with that shit alone, I am not the "Oh I should make sure the plot progress as it should" kind of person, bitch fuck that shit ! I want to live and I am clumsy as fuck, besides with how annoying Grim is I would have beaten some respect in him, that's why I would hope that Yuu is there to deal with that part, I am realistic not an idiot thank you.

Also being friends with Ace is a huge no for me, cause let's be fr for a moment and lets push our love for him to the side, are you telling me you're gonna become friends with the person who mocked you the first time they spoke to you ? The answer is no, of course not.

Not to mention at the rate that I am in, Idia has a better chance of getting friends more than me. (<_<)

8- I will NEVER make a contract with Azul, keep that golden trap away from me, so if Yuu isn't there to deal with it, I will never sign that shit to save anyones ass, you caused yourself that problem now swim in it.

Another Note : With Yuu being there it means we get kicked out from Ramshackle because they are stupid, and I am a vengeful person, I will make it so hard for them to finish that contact which means, one way or another I'll get that picture before them hide it, then sneak in Azul's vault take the Idiot Duos contract and keep it (not Deuce I love Deuce) and never let them get away. (Yes I am horrible)

9- When I get my shit together move away from Sage Island and live in peace. But that will take a long time. And if I have to suffer so does everyone.

Now In case I don't have a system but still know how the plot goes :

1- Get the magic hammer

2- See if Glyphs work (Owl House Fan) if they do good ! If they don't shit

3- Same as above, learn how to use a bow and hunt for my own food.

4- Follow the idiots to the Dwarf Mines and get the blot stone before Grim eats it and make sure HE DOES NOT EAT IT ! Then innocently walk up to Ortho who will scan me, ask for the blot rock for research I innocently ask why, he explains takes me to Idia who explains more and I ask something in exchange for it, I will explain to him that I am from another world, can't return and need citizenship, he will accept because hey ! Blot rocks are good for research !

5- Go around for a job, see if Sam can hire me if he can't... well Azul it is but I am bringing Ortho with me to help me get a good deal so I won’t get scammed.

6- If the Glyphs do work then I'll be praying for a Palisman, I guess ask the fairies if they have a tree seed that looks like a blue snail carapace ? If they do have it good, if they don't have it, well there goes another dream in the air.

7- Publish "Villain/Villainess Trope" cause Twisted Wonderland most likely doesn't have that, I will ask Ortho to help me by giving me tips on how to make it popular quickly.

8- Learn how to use potion in the case where Glyphs don't work, I mean have you seen what Yzma does with those things ??

9- Eeeh try to live a good life while I can.

In case I don't know anything :

1- Try my best

2- Die at the Dwarf Mines...... yeah.

[fluffypotatey]

I dunno if you talked about this yet, but very few ppl are talking about s5 since the dub hasn't come out yet so I'll just put a thought I had here (and again, if you've already talked about this, sorry!!)

This isn't really a theory, bc the "evidence" is flimsy, more like a gut feeling, but like:

You know how 9 (I think that's his name) asked Macaque "who did you make a deal with to get these powers?" and Macaque seemed genuinely confused?

I think Wukong might have been the one who made some sort of deal.

Again, this is mostly speculation, I'll honestly have to rewatch the LBD storyline just to ensure that it doesn't contradict this, but idk, for me this would explain certain things fans were pointing out before- I'll just get to the point tbh:

1) It would explain Wukong's lack of confusion at Macaque's first appearance.

Macaque died, plain and simple, and as far as we're aware, this was the first time they had seen eachother. Wukong is definitely not happy to see him, but he certainly doesn't look confused. He never questioned it, actually.

I don't remember if he was surprised with him working with LBD, but I do remember that despite everything, he still affirmed to MK that Liu Er was not a bad guy. And coming from Wukong, especially at that point in the series, that's not something small.

2) Wukong clearly regrets Macaque's murder.

It's difficult to tell what happened when Macaque died, since we only have some vague screenshots and (now) a small audio that might have or might have not have actually happened (since Wukong's memory might have been very biased). But what matters is that we now know with 100% certainty that the murder HAPPENED. It wasn't mind control (or at least doesn't seem like it), it wasn't an illusion by a third party that tricked Macaque, and Wukong certainly KNEW that Macaque was dead.

This is important bc the main conclusion lots of fans got from the whole "Wukong didn't seem confused about Macaque being alive" thing was those theories. Which now seem pretty much impossible.

For a character to do something in a story, 2 things need to be true: they need to have a reason AND they need to actually be able to do it.

Considering desire alone, it seems like a Wukong thing to do. He clearly didn't wanna have anything to do with Macaque (seeming at least annoyed and at worst angry with his presence at the beginningof the story), but he also just didn't want him dead. It wouldn't be out of character for him to revive Macaque if given the chance, but also simply not look for him.

If he can do it? I don't know. He has alot of artifacts, and he's known for breaking rules to get his way, both in JTTW and in lmk. Whatever it was, it probably had to do with chaos magic, but (although not the the lmk's team fault, it's clear that this was mostly bc of complications in production) the season's plot was kinda rushed, they had litte time to tell their story, so I can't be sure.

3) Wukong's conversation with Macaque at the start of the season.

Okay, so this is the main one (bc it can make or break my entire point, which I'll explain real soon), since this WHOLE season had alot of references to past events AND alot of the first episodes' scenes were brought back in some way by the end.

And their conversation felt a little... idk, out of place. Kinda Chekhov's Gun-y.

Bc this wasn't a season focused on how their old enemies came back. Heck, it wasn't focused on Wukong at all! Sure, the poor guy was the season's punching bag (or in this case, more like a squishy stress toy lmao), but the vast majority of his scenes were focused on his bond with MK (be it with the fact both of them came from the same stone, or just his general love and care for the kid, to the point where he was willing to die in his place if it meant keping MK and the world safe.)- and those that weren't were glimpses with Macaque.

Okay, so why can it make or break my point? Because it's gonna entirely depend on weather or not Wukong is being honest in that conversation.

Now, Wukong is a big, fat liar. We all know this. The Samhadi Fire thing happened ENTIRELY bc of his lies. This man is not honest, and he loooves passing the blame to someone else when he can, especially to Macaque.

And I think he's lying in that conversation. I genuinely think he's lying. Why? Because he said he didn't know what MK was before he chose him as his sucessor.

And, okay, he might not have known the full story, but that man knew SOMETHING. We see in flashbacks that he had been observing MK far before he found the staff. He might not have known that MK came from the same stone as him, but c'mon. He is not that stupid. Also, the body language might be a bit harder to read bc of the budget cuts, but he did not seem honest at all. His first instinct as he said it was to avert his eyes and then TURN THE OTHER WAY, angry.

"Okay, anon, but your whole argument was about Macaque's revival, not MK's birth-" I'm getting to it.

What I'm trying to say is that we should take Wukong's words here with a massive grain of salt. Him and Macaque seem to be working together to discover more about MK, but that does not mean that Wukong is gonna be 100% honest with him.

Which comes the juicy part of this conversation: when the topic switches to Wukong's old friends with grudges returning. More specifically, Macaque mentions Azure Lion.

M: We still don't know who released Azure Lion. All of your old friends are back at once. You don't-

W: What about you?! You came back all of a sudden too!

Wukong's body language was really weird here. Like he was angry that Macaque was questioning things. Maybe it's just him being nervous about it too and letting his fear show off as anger, but it's still weird. This could be him just immediately throwing this at Macaque, because it's easier, with something along the lines of "What about you huh?? You came back too!" as a response for having his methods questioned, but again, it feels really weird.

Especially since this is not the thing you do when you're willing to be honest. Even when you're not willing to be criticized.

This might be a language barrier thing, since the subs I watched with weren't the best, but it was unclear to me wether Wukong was trying to lump Macaque together with everyone else that returned OR wether he was trying to differentiate him from the rest. With the eng dub it'll probably be clearer, but I genuinely couldn't be sure wether this was a "You came back too, just like the rest of them." or a "It wasn't JUST them, you came back too" meaning. This could also be attributed to him possibly being the only one who might have actually died before his return, instead of just "imprisoned", but idk.

And then Wukong looks down, with this weird conflicted look, until he mentions that someone might be manipulating MK, which makes him blink up and immediately pin it all on Macaque again, despite him definitely knowing by this point that Macaque would not do this.

As if he felt like it was a personal attack over something he did.

Which makes me feel like he was involved in some way with at least SOME of these returns, and not just in a "the ppl I messed with came back with a grudge" way. Since the topic of a deal was specifically mentioned by this season's villain, (which Macaque, again, didn't really seem to know about) it might have been that.

4) Lady Bone Demon.

So, I'm really gonna have to rewatch her entire story to be sure about the details, but this woman is the definition of opportunistic. She knows quite alot about destiny, and at some points, even the future.

She was sealed and became a whole lot stronger, sure, but the power to bring others back from the dead? Lmk is not very accurate to JTTW, but she was legit just a skeleton demon with the power of illusion from what I've managed to find. Heck, before she tricked MK into releasing more of her power, she was pretty much stuck with the Spider Queen.

And this was AFTER she supposedly brought Macaque back from the dead.

This woman is powerful, but not THAT powerful. Not at that point! Wukong supposedly defeated her with ease before according to the show, and even he had troubles with the underworld. Also, out of all of Wukong's past foes, it feels weird that she'd willingly choose Macaque to be the one to be revived- the guy with a conflicted past with Wukong that, considering everyone else he's faced, is pretty avarage in terms of power. Also, again, this man has a huge grudge, but he also has a really big past with Wukong. Even IF she could just bring someone back from the dead like this, she'd be smart enough not to choose Macaque. The risk of disobedience was far too great (since he's pretty smart + would likely not want to put up with her bs for long) and his strength is simply not great enough to justify that decision. She had to constantly check on him, threaten him, and even THEN he still found a way out of it.

Sure, maybe Wukong could go easier on him compared to other foes, but that's still not a good bet. Wukong killed him, after all, likely bc he was a danger to his JTTW friends based on previous scenes- so who's to say he wouldn't do it again?

So all of this: the flawed logic of choosing to revive macaque; the likelihood of her being able to just bring someone back from the dead WHILE weakened; the fact that she clearly didn't trust Macaque like she did the totally not a mayor guy; how her biggest strategy has always been to wait for an opportunity instead of doing the work herself... It makes me question wether she brought Macaque back at all.

Because maybe she just saw an opportunity and took it, maybe she just tricked him into thinking that she was behind his revival- as to make him obey at least somewhat- so she could lock him in a deal. Maybe it wasn't Wukong, maybe it was someone else, but the fact that the chaos magic thing along with the word "deal" wasn't immediately attributed with LBD (the only one we know to have made a deal with Macaque at some point till now) was just really weird to me.

Anyway, wow this was long! Sorry about that! Again, I don't truly believe this is the show's intention, I might just be overthinking/misinterpreting things, but idk. I thought it was at least an interesting enough hypothesis to bring it up fhdhdhhdhd

gawddam anon 👀 that’s quite a theory

also here’s a link of what Nines said to Macky (also there seems to be a new ship between the two and i, for one, suggest that their ship name should be called SixNine :D )

idk i agree with Wukong being the one who struck the deal but you do bring up a lot of hood points 👀✍️ Wukong lying about only having a “feeling” when he met MK (even i could smell the bs), Wukong’s “and what about you!” being more of a misdirect from what Macky wanted to talk about -> like these things i def thought were fishy but you bring up a new perspective 🧐

time will only tell!

[windvexer]

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I'm not even quite sure how to articulate what I want to ask. I have religious trauma- specifically Christian- and am presently in an environment where this is being aggravated on the daily. When it comes to spirit work and witchcraft, in spite of a deep fascination with and desire to explore these practices, I feel like... to welcome them into my life on the level that they require would also be to open myself to the magical thinking inherent in this religious paradigm, and all the ways I would be violating it (and am already doing so by simply existing in ways seen as deviant, or sinful). I'm prone to succumbing to scrupulosity, and am perhaps wondering if you have any advice or experience in this regard. How to overcome it, or perhaps your opinion? I've been following you for some time, and you seem like a very intelligent, and level-headed person; I would value and deeply appreciate your feedback on the matter.

Previous anon (hopefully)- on that note, how much of magic do you think can be explained by confirmation bias? Thank you, again, for your time.

Hello, Anon.

Let's start with the easy bit!

I believe in literal magic. That is to say, I think magical power, spirits, & so forth, are actually real.

Therefore, I think no magic is explained by confirmation bias. If something is just confirmation bias, it isn't magic. I think there are very interesting discussions to be had about the intersection of personal perception and tinkering with reality, and I don't mean to disregard the nuances of the conversation.

I think there is a chance that what you might be asking is, "how often do people think they are doing Magic(tm) but are just experiencing confirmation bias?" to which I say, probably quite a lot.

I have very specific beliefs about how to accomplish magic, especially Witchcraft, which is one kind of way to work magic. I think very many people who are intending to do magic, aren't.

[...] to welcome them into my life on the level that they require would also be to open myself to the magical thinking inherent in this religious paradigm

When you say "this religious paradigm" do you mean Witchcraft, or Christianity? I suspect what you're saying, but I'm not 100% sure, is that to embrace spirit work and witchcraft is to also breach a barrier you've built to protect yourself against your scrupulosity.

I think this prior ask might be helpful to you.

I don't at all mean to try and speak in a general theological sense, but only out of personal experience:

I was raised Christian and it did leave me with Problems, one of those being the tricky matter of love.

I recall in Sunday school, we watched a video with puppets or something, that taught us how to correctly think about love, and how to correctly feel love. This was twenty years ago or so, and I don't remember the details, but it was like this:

"You might say that you love a cheeseburger, but do you? NO! You like a cheeseburger, but you love God. "You might say that you love watching TV, but do you? NO! You like watching television, but you love God."

I still think about this sometimes. We were a lot of children in a room, being taught that the only true love that's acceptable to feel is towards this specific deity (I think parents got a piece of the pie, which was nice for them).

We learned lots and lots about love, and how God's love is perfect and human love is flawed, and how we should love, and... a whole big thing, you know?

And later on when I realized I had to stop being Christian, there was this problem of love again:

That there is no more pure or unconditional love in the universe, and that turning away from God and Jesus meant that I would never experience unconditional love ever again. That there was no other being or force in the universe that would want to protect me and cherish me as much as God did.

Well. Imagine the stress. I was someone out there who knew my toes were in a stream, but what a lonely stream it was. And it took me a while to figure it out, which is:

Witchcraft - the kind I practice, at least - is all about love. It's about the love of finding your Family, and living as an active member of that family.

Figuring this out was wonderfully healing to me, because all of the sudden a big piece of that Christianity thing started to make a lot of sense.

Sure, God is love. But to me, he's a specific kind of love. His kind of love isn't home to me. And when you go out there and start touching all these spirits, and pagan gods, and powers in ourselves and in nature, I think you might come to the same conclusions I did:

Love abounds. Pure, true, unconditional love is as common as water. It fills the sky like clouds, like vapor, like rain. Unconditional love, true benevolence, and deep spiritual acceptance infuse the world. The world around us is overflowing with it.

The problem is, not each of us are kin with the same spiritual families. The rainforest pond that nurtures my damp frog skin may be suffocating to you, if you're a jackrabbit. If you're a jackrabbit, you've got to get yourself over to a nice chaparral zone. The good Christian God is an ancient oak tree, and the perfect home to many.

But jackrabbits don't live in oak trees. Neither do rainforest frogs. Sometimes I seek out the shelter of his shade (depending on the angle of the sun), and I know exactly where to go if only an acorn will do.

I'm a spiritual critter. I have spiritual needs. And spirit work and witchcraft can just be fucking around with the otherworld to do sorcery, sure. I don't even mean that in a derogatory way - sorcery is great, and doesn't have to be deeply spiritual, or whatever.

But spirit work and witchcraft is also finding where you belong, and learning how to be an active member of your personal spiritual microbiome. And we all deserve that. We all deserve a chance to live spiritually with our true spiritual families, in our natural spiritual environments.

The oak tree doesn't judge the rabbit for living in a burrow. From time to time the birds get confused about the situation, but that's quite alright.

Lots of room to hide from birds in burrows.

You can mess around with sorcery, if that's all that interests you. But if you're someone who senses, or dares to hope, that Home is still out there somewhere -

What deviancy can there be in trying to find it?

[talenlee]

July 2024 Wrapup!

I don’t know if there’s any kind of rhyme to go with July. I think when I set this post up at first I had some idea about the fist being a symbol for paper rock scissors, but now I’m saying it I don’t think that’s the case. Anyway, July ends! July has drawn to its miserable close, its cold and haunted month and – oh I should go schedule a COVID booster.

But while I do that, you should check out this festival of fun writing, articles and videos that are all about the stuff I have made and done throughout the course of July, paid for with the support of my beloved Patrons, and presented here, for you, to read, for free.

First of all, every week I do a Game Pile article, which is a treatment of a game of some sort. This month we had:

Princess Wing, a TTRPG that by one metric, is better than Dungeons & Dragons 5.5.

Traffic Department 2192, a game from the 1990s that was ‘made wrong’ – a hugely overwritten novel of a book that has cool fly-shooty levels between it.

Knit Wit, a beautifully produced game about playing with the social, which is predicated on its exclusions.

and finally Fox and I played Pet or Pass with the creatures of Thunder Junction! See what critters from that Magic: The Gathering set we have opinions on!

Also, for those of you hungering for more time with Fox and me, you can check out our playthrough of Day of the Tentacle (part 1, part 2)!

Then there’s the Story Pile articles, where I take a piece of media and inspect it from a few angles.

Barry, Season 4, which wraps up a show I really liked and did a good job of it!

The Phantom of the Paradise, a movie demonstrating that the surreality of the 70s just looks like the queerness of the now.

Shy, which sucks.

Love Flops, which sucks also but in a way that’s pretty interesting to talk about.

Zom 100, which absolutely whips ass because we all deserve a little treat.

Do you want to read me talking about making games? I did a bunch of that this month! First, even a little tangential, there’s an assessment of things that Brennan Lee Mulligan does in his dungeonmastering that I can use for myself. I also did a reflection article about Lysen Co, talked about specifics in making the Loom videos and the Youtube interface problems it presented. I shared a tool I use when dealing with students and other designers to consider the choices they make in their game, in the form of 50 questions. Then I even did a treatment for a game concept I’ve wanted to make for a while now, Intergalactic Paper Rock Scissors.

There were some thoughts about ‘evil people’ this month in world building. Specifically, I got thinking about Demons and Ogres, and the ways that stories represent them as threats for people to deal with. But don’t worry, there’s also some nerdy stuff about street food and magical theories!

If you like reading about older editions of Dungeons & Dragons we had two articles in the specific genre of ‘whoops, this was a mistake’ design stories. One, I did an article about the absolutely broken ridiculousness of Psychofeedback, a power so wonky that it needs an article explaining how it’s wonky, and the 4th edition class the Blackguard, which not only fails to deliver on its promise, but makes it worse.

Sometimes a shirt design is just a matter of a joke in my mind that I go ‘hey, can I make that design look good?’ and never whether or not anyone wants it. Anyway, here’s a design based on two ideas crossing over.

July was a big month, wasn’t it? I try to not let real world events play into things on this blog – the impersonal, kinda thing. Still, July featured a major windstorm, two major international news incidents that distracted me at length, power outages and a weekend where I couldn’t get into my work email right before the start of semester. Which means that as this month winds down I’ve been kind of exhausted, but in a totally new way. Like, I don’t have to worry about this happening, I don’t imagine anyone’s going to shoot at a Presidential candidate for the first time in my lifetime again.

Wait hang on, maybe I was alive when Reagan got shot at.

A chunk of July is spent between teaching. That means there’s no income but it also means there’s no demands. July was largely spent grinding my way through some PhD writing and trying to address my backlog on the blog. That felt productive, and man, literature review writing is really fun and interesting after Methodology writing. I found a new favourite academic, and I’m going to feel really embarrassed if she ever finds my work and roasts it.

That was an impact on my videos next month; I thought I’d have a lot to say about one of the topics, but it turns out the game is very fluid and easy, and mostly it pulled me back to two sources I really like – The Art of Failure and Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation. Which is itself, a whole thing. It’s wild to write this month’s wrapup post and realise that I’m already a step ahead. As I write this, my scripted videos for August are made, and they’re scheduled on Youtube, ready to go. Part of what let me do that was getting the videos for July done ahead of time — which did mean moving something from July to September.

We’ll see how that goes when it drops.

It’s a little thing too but I’ve been practicing card handling all month. Whenever I’m nervous I try to shuffle a deck of cards controlling the same pair of cards to the top, every time. This has been such an extensive practice that now, one of those two cards has my fingernails worn in the top of it, which tells you that this deck of cards is in fact, a bit bad.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[lookstairs]

Wish (2023)

Since I’ve been hearing so many mixed reviews I had to see this movie for myself

🚨***CAUTION SPOILERS ***🚨

I watched the trailer when it was released and like most people I was really questioning the animation BUT I tried to keep an open mind

I also wasn’t sure exactly what the plot was aside from “Evil king is greedy on who’s wishes get grant”

ALRIGHT ON TO THE REVIEW

Now it starts off as a storybook intro

The king Magnifico is the only one in the kingdom who’s able to use magic and grant wishes

Every month he does a wish granting ceremony for the citizens of the kingdom

The main character Asha is in the running of becoming the kings apprentice which is a nice change from another princess story

She wants to help make people’s wishes come true (especially her grandfather Sabino who just turned 100 but hasn’t gotten his wish granted)

Now this is where more of the whole “wish” concept gets explained

When Magnifico takes a persons wish they forget what their wish was. So Sabino doesn’t know what exactly his wish is

A persons wish gets taken either when they turn 18 or if they officially join the kingdom

Asha ask if her grandpas wish can be granted and is immediately shut down by Magnifico

Asha finds out that Magnifico has to approve of any wish that gets granted and Sabinos wish is considered to broad

His wish is to inspire the future generations and Magnifico argues that since there’s nothing specific he wants to inspire then the wish won’t be granted

In fact most wishes won’t be granted

This prompts Asha to question why Magnifico doesn’t just return the wishes so that people will remember them and work yo make them real on their own

Obviously Magnifico being the evil control freak he is hates the idea so Asha is officially out of the running for apprentice

Asha is upset but doesn’t give up and tries to tell her Sabino his wish

He gets upset that she’s disobeying the king and revealing that his wish will never be granted

Asha runs into the woods and wishes on a star which releases this light (?) over the whole kingdom

I have to hand it to Ariana DeBose because she did an amazing job with the songs in this movie

She was the only part I knew I’d love

After he wish is when star appears

Star wants to help Asha release the wishes and starts granting the wishes of the animals around her including her pet goat Valentino

Even though I was skeptical about the animation it all worked really well during the musical numbers

The colors were vibrant and reminded me of the older Disney animation so it was great to see

It still looked a little off during talking scenes but overall not bad

Magnifico realizes someone has made a wish and tries to hunt Asha down

Returning to the kingdom Asha gets her friends to help her get back into the Kings study so Star can grant Sabinos wish

Asha gets the wish back to her grandpa who is overjoyed to learn what his wish was

At this point Magníficos guards arrive to arrest them but they escape to a nearby island

Magnifico has resulted to using dark magic in order to maintain control

He realized he could harness the power of peoples wishes and starts stealing the wishes of people who questioned him

Asha gets betrayed by one of her friends but the others still decide to help her

Queen Amaya also switched to her side after seeing how corrupt Magnifico has become

The group attempts to release all the wishes but are overpowered by Magnifico

Asha inspires everyone in the kingdom to make their own wishes and overpower Magnifico

Once again the scene where Magnifico is about to lose really shows how well this animation style can work

The shapes and colors coming off the staff blend the 2D and 3D really nice and makes his defeat really fun to watch

Amaya becomes the sole ruler of the kingdom and everyone works towards making their wishes a reality on their own

Asha is given a magic wand by Star who later returns to the sky

Now did I love it ? No

Was it as awful as people say? No

The animation was lacking in areas but the musical sequences still held up and I really liked the blending of the two styles

The story itself felt a little rushed in areas but it wasn’t to bad

Magnifico as a villain was alright

I could tell they were trying to channel Scar and the Evil Queen especially during his song

It wasn’t bad but he felt very silly. I mean Scar was a sarcastic slightly dramatic villain but he was an overall serious and threatening presence

Magnifico was just an already douchey guy who got to much power and became even worse. Not very threatening but very showy

And this movie has a lot of callbacks to older Disney movies

A LOT OF CALLBACKS

I personally didn’t mind most of it but they kept pushing the fairy godmother thing which I thought was weird and a little random

They even gave her a cape that looked similar to the one the fairy godmother from Cinderella wore

It just felt like the movie walked the audience through everything

Obviously it’s a kids movie so the theme has to be obvious but it felt like it was just be recited by the characters

Make your own dreams come true stealing wishes is bad

That’s pretty much it

Overall it’s an entertaining movie for younger kids but that’s about it

Not one I’d go out of my way to rewatch or look for

People were overly harsh about the movie but I don’t regret watching one bit and neither did any kids in the audience

[showfallmediacameracrew]

[Showfall Media Speech to Text activated]

[ Input registered: Slow deliberate breathing, fabric shifting and shuffling on what sounds to be a couch as body weight moves on it. ]

J: ...Fuck. Hate today, damnit. 

[ Input registered: pained groan, and a resigned quiet sounding chirp just barely picked up by receiver, as the couch makes a sound as though he’s flopped backwards onto it and leaned against the back heavily. ]

I: Oh my god you’re actually in the goddamn Hot Topic.

[ Input registered: light laughter mixed with an undertone of static. ]

J: Jesus christ! When the hell did you get there? 

I: Well I got to the Mall a few minutes ago, but here specifically, I just showed up.

J: Apparently you're quiet as shit, where are your arms?

[ Input registered: quietly approaching footsteps ]

I: Eh, I’m still not quite at 100% and controlling a second pair of arms can get distracting. Plus I wanted to wear a jacket with sleeves so… 

J: Okay... and why are you here? Do you have stuff to do at the mall again or?

[Input Registered: Jasprix shifting on the couch again, another ‘fwump’ noise as something else takes up residence on the couch. ] 

I: Technically, I’m reviewing how well the Security upgrades are going in person, but honestly I just wanted to stop by in person now that I’m actually well enough to do so. Also I plan to scare the shit out of Marvvy Boy later.

[Input registered: Low grumble that sounds close to a growl before Jasprix coughs and sighs heavily. ]

J: Please don’t do that, I’d prefer to keep him in the same shape he’s in now.  

I: Oh please, I won’t actually attack him, I’ll just give him a little--

[ Input registered: A series of small mechanical whirrs along with the sound of cables sliding against each other. ] 

J: I think that’d give him a heart attack and he’d die and then I’d have to get you to revive him.

[ Input registered: cables shifting again and a series of mechanical clicks. ]

I: Aw what? You wouldn’t try to bring him back with a kiss of true love or whatever first?

J: I don’t kiss corpses, Iris. I’m not a shitty Disney movie Prince asshole. I don’t think a movie trope would actually work anyway. 

I: You did not just mention Disney.

J: I did because what you suggested is basically Sleeping bloody Beauty. 

I: God, that movie would be so much more interesting if the bloody part was actually part of the title. 

J: ...Yeah, it would. It’d also be better if there wasn't some random dude kissing someone he thought was dead and never met before. That’s some bullshit storytelling. 

I: Men are the worst.

J: They can be, yeah. Why do most non Showfall movies make them such dicks anyway? 

[ Input registered: slight shifting on the couch like someone settling in a bit more after a few seconds of silence. ]

I: Riiight, you were raised here, and are also a man, so you don’t really have much real world experience. It’s cause they’re all projecting, they make the characters dicks cause they’re dicks.

J: Oh. That explains why characters in those movies seem to underestimate the main character ladies. Even though in my experience, they can be much more competent and intimidating and shit. Like you, sometimes. Others... Theres not a lot of characters in nearly enough of those shows that are nonbinary and hyper competent and intimidating. 

I: Yup, fucking sucks, doesn’t it? Showfall can only do so much with “pushing boundaries” before it stops being profitable, but from what I understand, we do what we can.

J: I’d hope we’d be doing better then kissing a corpse and magically making it come to life again with true love that happens despite the two people not fucking knowing each other. 

[ Input registered: A sudden snort. ]

I: Well the bar’s in the fucking ground if that’s what we have to do better than. 

[ Input Registered: Quiet chuckle, then sigh, as skin rubs against skin quietly. ]

J: God, I hate meetings. Ugh, sorry for being boring or whatever. I guess it’s better than having to deal with the Doctor. Um. I need some advice actually, unrelated to that, but back to the Marvin topic. 

I: Meetings are the worst, aren’t they? But really? Worse than a doctor? Or is that like, a specific person?

J: She’s a specific person, it sucks talking about. She’s basically why I have a tail and everything. Marvin though, please?

[ Input registered: a playfully annoyed groan. ]

I: Fineee, what’s up with Marvvy Boy? Is it about how you’re worried he’s going to reject you?

J: Yeah, and I don’t want him to, but he will, and it sucks!

[ Input tone indicated: distressed whine. ] 

I: Ughhhhhhh this is worse than the soap operas Sammy makes me watch sometimes, dude, listen.

[ Input registered: Shifting fabric followed by two thumps. ]

I: If you go in ready for rejection, that’s all you’re going to get? M’kay? You’ve got to go in expecting at minimum a 50/50 chance, if not higher. Otherwise your confession is just gonna sound like you’re unsure of your own damn feelings like a little bitch.

J: But how do I tell him the truth, when this whole thing was because of some stupid fucking gay chicken game? It hardly seems like full truths and honesties are part of this stupid thing. I can be as confident as I want but he could still freak out and leave if he doesn’t like what I tell him.

[ Input registered: a long drawn out sigh that’s full of static. ]

I: Well then he’s an asshole and I’ll kill him. Specifically if he freaks out, if he calmly rejects you, I’ll only kill him if you ask. But anyways, isn’t that the whole point? To get away from the whole gay chicken thing?

J: That’s oddly comforting. Yeah, I’d like that obviously, but if he’d rather keep doing it and it’s the only way for me to be near him I don’t want to fuck that up. 

I: He kept your fucking ripped off wings. And is like, using them as a blanket or something, I’ve seen him post about it. I don’t know how that isn’t a sign to you that its not just “gay chicken” for him anymore.

J: To be fair, the wings were warm even if they were heavy and unusable most of the time, they did make good covers when I was cold somewhere on set...

I: In case you can’t tell based on my single fake eye right now, I’m looking at you disappointedly right now. Marvin’s a relatively normal guy from the outside world, he wouldn’t keep a pair of wings that were attached to a living person, if he didn’t also like that person.

J: Okay, but they also weren’t real wings, they were made with wires and synthetic shit and shoved in my back instead of giving me a wing harness. I feel like that would make a difference in the whole, keeping detached wings, thing. 

[ Input registered: A loud groan and the flump of someone falling back onto the couch. ]

I: Prixxy you are so fucking stupid. Stop looking for more reasons about why he “totally doesn’t like you” and start maybe reading into his other actions more. Jesus christ.

J: So should I like, ask him to come over and tell him the truth then, and let him decide if he wants to fuck off away from me or not? 

I: I mean, not right now, I want to hang out with you more before you bring your little, what is it you call him, Songbird? Over. Actually let me leave before you call him over, despite how much I’m rooting for you guys, I do not want to see that.

J: I think I’d rather do it now, and if it goes to shit, I can just contact you and ask for you to hang out, make me feel better if it ends weird. Before I lose my nerve and decide not to do it later, anyway.

[ Input registered: someone pulling themself up from the couch, a few mechanical whirrs and clicks can be heard. ]

I: Alright fine, fine, I guess that makes sense. Plus I do actually have to look at the Security upgrades before leaving, so I guess I should go do that while you do your thing.

J: Thanks, Iris. Hopefully this doesn’t fuck anything up too much. 

I: No problem Prixxy, just message me if I either need to come back or if I should actually avoid this area for a few hours. If you get what I mean. 

[ Input registered: Someone standing up from the couch, more mechanical whirrs and clicks can be heard. ]

[ Input registered: Quiet scoff as the mechanical sounds have finally faded. A sigh that fades into a deep steadying breath.]

[ Transcript ended manually. Thank you for using Showfall Media Speech-To-Text! ]

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

[Portrait of my mother, taken by my son :: 2000]

* * * * *

Always a day late [and a dollar short] :: remembering the anniversary of my mother's death.

Here is Ruth again. The anniversary of her death is here. The beginning of this blog was the end of her life so this is also an anniversary for this blog.

What to say about my mother 20+ years after her death? I'm getting closer to the age she was when she died which is disconcerting. A part of my experience of time is frozen with her death. Still. As I remember her I appreciate her more and know her less.

I had a lot of long [all night long] conversations with my mother in the several years before she died.If you've ever had a searching conversation with a schizophrenic it's a fascinating experience. We jumped from reality to reality in a way that is very hard to describe.  As a matter of fact I can't recall any of the content of these intense conversations.  They had the quality of meditation or prayer.  Of listening.  Both of us intensely listened.

I think those conversations were to prepare me for the conversations that we have now, now that she has died.  They may die but they don't really go away.  In those conversations we were memorizing each other.  We were recording the whorls of the fingerprints of one another so that we wouldn't ever be lost to each other.I guess that's just my fantasy or how I explain things to myself.

I'm watching our home movies that show our trip on "The Flying Cloud." There's a lot of film of people's backs. We see them going but not coming.  I just want a good long look at their/ our faces. One of the things I do is look at people's posture so I'm analyzing my family's posture on the film. We are people who are very bad liars and even worse at hiding how we feel. My mother loved that trip. I guess my father was already planning to leave us, so this would have been a "fuck you" trip. 

It's always bugged me that our mother loved it so much, as if it represented a new beginning. She had always wanted our father to do something nice for her. So she got a "goodbye cruise."

My mother had a hell of a temper. She could swear using words I still don't know the meaning of. She was swearing in tongues - divine words of frustration and condemnation. After our father left I heard her say many times that now her life was over. But it wasn't. Not by a long shot. Then in the year before she died, she said that it had occurred to her that she might live to be 100 so she should maybe make some plans.*

Now I'm at the place in the home movies where the super-8 movie camera mostly shakes and whites out.  It provides just a tiny peek and the tiny tykes my brothers and I were - appearing and disappearing with a quick dash of my mother then my father.  I think it was 1949 or 1950.  Can't we just have a sustained look at someone?  Can't we just look and look at them? It is just out of the corner of an eye before it's gone.

That was my mother.  We didn't really get to see her.  Just glimpses of her and then her back as she was cooking or walking away or working on one of her projects.  Projects made out of clay or ripping the sofa apart to put on new upholstery, where the incomplete project lay on the living room floor for weeks.  

There was more a flavor to her - or a spell.  

I look at photos of young teenage me and think - she had no idea that she had the power to cast a spell.  

My mother didn't know her powers, her magical self.  That's the real shame of her and her life trajectory. She possessed so much magic and never really knew.  Because there wasn't anyone who could or would tell her.*

*

“(and I think silently: love is a bow-string pulled back to the point of breaking)”

— Marina Tsvetaeva, trans. by Elaine Feinstein, from Bride of Ice: “Poem of the End”

*

And death shall have no dominion

Dylan Thomas - 1914-1953 And death shall have no dominion. Dead men naked they shall be one With the man in the wind and the west moon; When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone, They shall have stars at elbow and foot; Though they go mad they shall be sane, Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again; Though lovers be lost love shall not; And death shall have no dominion. And death shall have no dominion. Under the windings of the sea They lying long shall not die windily; Twisting on racks when sinews give way, Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break; Faith in their hands shall snap in two, And the unicorn evils run them through; Split all ends up they shan't crack; And death shall have no dominion. And death shall have no dominion. No more may gulls cry at their ears Or waves break loud on the seashores; Where blew a flower may a flower no more Lift its head to the blows of the rain; Though they be mad and dead as nails, Heads of the characters hammer through daisies; Break in the sun till the sun breaks down, And death shall have no dominion.

[from a post on “Alive On All Channels”]

[awellboiledicicle]

People kept saying that Gale and Anders would get along but you must remember that Anders is an iconoclast freedom fighter and street doctor from a world where his birth made him a liability.

Gale is a man from privilege that has never hidden a day in his life because of his magical talents, and has actually gained acclaim from them. His ambitions would lock him squarely, in Anders mind, in the place of "magister without the political power".

They'd get along in the same way Anders gets along with Merrill, but without as much patronizing because Gale is both human, a man, and not currently using blood magic.

I love him, but Anders is no longer the cheerfully sarcastic mage he was in Awakening. Granted, he wasn't exactly lighthearted in Awakening, but it wasn't as bad as when he went to Kirkwall and everything else happened. He's going to be a prickly old man about some shit until some good old trauma bonding happens.

It doesn't help that Gale absolutely would want to spend ample time with Hawke, to learn about another world and how things work there.

The only thing to chip through the initial icy 'they are my person, my reason, my anchor' response would be Gale switching to asking HIM to explain how magic and spirits work, in exchange for explaining how magic works in Faerun.

This is all, of course, predicated on the idea that he'd been sitting in a cave [enclosed spaces not great for him, underground also not good in general] waiting for Hawke to return to him like they always do, fighting with himself over how many losses the war has come to but hoping it ends out for the best.... only to receive a letter carried by one of Varric's people. It is short, to the point. Hawke is gone, the one rampaging across thedas with all the rifts has an archdemon and Varric wants him not to do something stupid with this information. At first he allows some small part of him to wonder if this is a fantastically poor joke. And then to let the crushing realization drown it out, falling to his knees and wondering why he isn't crying yet. He lays down, like that will help, as his world spins and his heart beats painfully. Again he's lost someone, again he's alone and again if only he'd been there maybe he could have done something. The plan comes to him after approximately five hours of laying on the floor, staring blankly at the wall and crying. Justice flared behind his eyes and across his skin, not quite manifesting; there was no danger to be fended off, only emotions he could not process for Anders. It was the flickering of fade-light through the small fissures in his skin that spurred it, really. If Hawke was in the Fade--physically in there, and Varric had escaped it with his Inquisitor--then it was possible for them to be alive in there. Trapped. Rifts into the raw fade were opening up all around the world, doorways letting things out-- but maybe also in. Plan might have been a generous term for the conviction that he was going to go get his Hawke or die trying. A very generous term for hunting down a rift several miles away, long ago giving up any thoughts of stealth, and--once he had dispatched the demons pouring out--thrown himself through. It certainly didn't apply once Justice found himself forefront and physically in the Fade, with no real driving motivation beyond his purpose and the desire to find Hawke. Which they did, after a long trek and many battles. And then they fell from the sky into someplace else and got captured before they could figure out what was going on.

Basically i'm saying Anders and Hawke in this are cagey for a bit before things calm down and Anders would need 100% less of Gale's excitement. Because logically he knows things are different but also it's weird.

[waves hands] I'm thinking about this much too hard