#i love that a lot of thoughts and opinions and ships and things have matured so much since 2014

[jerksbitch]

twitter has poisoned this fandom i fear ... we used to be a community..

[puryartist]

This is exhausting.

I wanted to just move on but turned out something actually happened. I think I had to speak out.

I've been a Helsa artist for a long time. Of course, I've been attacked by a lot of weird ass people (and friendly reminder: I was a minor, imagine I had to spend time making at least one Helsa fan art per week, did homework, and had to deal with these weirdos) BUT this is the first time I got attacked by my own community with a super ridiculous reason.

This made me think "They even did it to their own community, I can't imagine what they might have done to others." cause what do you mean the one that wants me to stop making helsa fan arts is helsa shipper who's using my art without permission, not crediting, not even apologize to me, just disappeared to the thin air with zero responsibility.

A lot of people told me this is not their first time, they have a notorious reputation with how they policing how people should enjoy works the way they do, causing a lot of dramas, and love to claiming you're not a real helsa stan if you don't think exactly like them when people tend to have different opinions.

Yeah, the real helsa stan is stealing people art, causing drama left and right within the fandom, and throwing tantrum when things don't go in the way they like. Sounds pretty normal, right?

It's funny tho because it used to be "You're toxic because you ship helsa!" but now it's "You're toxic because you don't ship helsa in the way I like!" Well, these people are allergic to fun. I love helsa/Hans fandom because WE ARE DIFFERENT. This person doesn't like the idea of Hans redemption? cool! This person wants helsa to be canon? cool! This person doesn't want helsa to be canon? cool! This person doesn't even ship helsa but want to share thoughts with me? cool! That is the beauty of discourse. We exchange new things with each other, both likes and dislikes, while still respecting one another. Just like that.

I'm disappointed but I know the majority of this fandom is chill and mature. I wish I could be the last person to encounter this kind of behavior. Be safe and enjoy your things <3

[hollowed-theory-hall]

What are your thoughts on drarry?

spireasalix asked:

Hi! I just found your blog and find your theories really interesting. I don't know if anyone has asked you before, but what do you think of Draco Malfoy? Do you think he would have a chance with Harry? Could they fall in love or there is too much history between them? Let's make Harry/Draco canon! Hahahaha

Hi, thank you so much! 😊

Since it's a ship/character ask I want to preface that everyone can ship what they want and like whatever characters they want and this is my personal highly subjective opinion.

I'll start with my thoughts on Drarry, as I had an arc there, like, back when I just got into the fandom I really liked the concept of Drarry, so I read some Drarry and didn't like most of what I found back then. That dislike kinda colored Drarry and Draco's character as a whole for me, so it was kinda like: "I can see the appeal on paper, but I don't like it". More recently though I read a lot about canon Drarry from @iamnmbr3 and she honestly got me rethinking my opinion on Draco and Drarry.

As I stand on it now, I'm not invested in Drarry, but I see them occasionally on my dash and sometimes I like what I see. It's the: yeah, I can see it happen, but it's not a pairing I'm passionate about.

Now, to @spireasalix more specific questions.

Draco Malfoy is an interesting character in theory but I don't think it comes across in the books as much as it could. Like, in books 1-5, I find him an annoying spoilt little brat. It can be entertaining when he comes on the page, and I know he'd be whining and dramatic and make a scene. And it makes sense Draco is this way, he's an only child of very rich parents who love him, he looks up to his father like Lucius could do no wrong, but he is lonely and attention-seeking. This need for attention is interesting and is part of why he is so obsessed with Harry. It shows he wants approval and is actually quite insecure under all his pride and mean attitude. He was raised to be a blood-supremacist spoilt jerk, and he does a decent job at being a schoolyard bully without crossing any super major lines.

Younger Draco can be a fun character, he's a problem Harry feels comfortable with because he knows how to deal with him, unlike his other problems (of which he has a lot). I think part of why Harry focuses on Draco as much as he does is because Draco is a predictable problem, one Harry feels he has control over how he wants to deal with him. Which is comforting considering how little control he has over literally every other area of his life.

Then in books 6 and 7, that's when Draco starts actually having his character development, and there are interesting things there, or the potential for them. I love what he goes through, becoming a Death eater only to realize, that: no, he can't really do violence. The constant fear for himself and his family, the torture he most likely goes through, being a prisoner in his own home, like, there is so much potential good angst there but I don't feel like the books really take it as far as it can go.

I recently finished my reread of HBP, and Draco in it was having a crap time, truly. He partially brought it on himself, but he really was thrown into the deep end and he is flailing around to keep his head above water regretting ever asking to leave the kiddie pool (because make no mistake, he asked to be in the grown-ups' pool). And you see how he matures there, going from a spoilt brat to a terrified teen. In one summer he went from the top of his own little world to seeing how powerless he actually is. And, like, out of everyone, the person he apparently confides in is Moaning Myrtle, like, idk, I love that, I think this friendship should be mentioned more. Like, Draco is having a crisis over his family, his worldview, his own worth, being a Death Eater and what it means, and his confidant is the ghost of a muggleborn girl who Tom Riddle, his new master, killed. Like, there are some implications.

I find it fascinating Myrtle says this about Draco:

“No,” said Myrtle defiantly, her voice echoing loudly around the old tiled bathroom. “I mean he’s sensitive, people bully him too, and he feels lonely and hasn’t got anybody to talk to, and he’s not afraid to show his feelings and cry!”

(HBP, 462)

That combined with the fact that Draco doesn't ever really try to harm Harry too badly (@iamnmbr3 wrote many great posts about this). Like, at the beginning of HBP, he has Harry petrified and he just breaks his nose. And this is already after he becomes a Death Eater. He also helps Harry multiple times throughout Deathly Hollows, something that places him and his family at risk.

And, yes, he makes some attempts to kill Dumbledore that harm others (the cursed necklace that hurt Katie Bell and the poison Ron drank) but I think the methods he uses are telling. Draco attempts to kill Dumbledore with methods where he himself is far away from the action. You can say it's due to a Slytherin sense of self-preservation, and that's part of it, I'm sure, but I think the main part of it is that Draco is averse to violence. At the end when he was face to face with Dumbledore he couldn't bring himself to cast the curse. Dumbledore was disarmed and surrounded, there was nothing he could've (or would've) done to hurt Draco, but Draco still hesitated. He couldn't kill him even when his own life and his family's were on the line. Harry also talks about how much Draco is likely hurt from having to torture others on Voldemort's orders in Deathly Hollows, and I think Harry is spot on about it.

If we look at the bullying of younger Draco, he doesn't act out violently. He is the cruel words and insults type, and I remember being honestly surprised he physically hit Harry in HBP because it's not the sort of thing Draco does. So, while Draco as schoolyard bully is mean, he practically is never shown to be physically violent, at least not that I remember. He only starts being more of a physical threat in HBP, and in the cases of Ron and Katie, he does so from a distance in a way he isn't directly involved in the violence.

That being said, while what he goes through is interesting and has plenty of potential and I do like his character, I find him kinda annoying. Like, in my very subjective opinion, I find his whining in the early books incredibly annoying and I find him, even in the later books, kinda underwhelming. Like, I want more out of his character, idk. Like, really, all power to you for liking Draco, he just, unfortunately, doesn't make it into my top Harry Potter characters purely because of personal subjective bias.

Like, for all of Draco being a Slytherin from a long line of Slytherins, he doesn't showcase many Slytherin characteristics (yes, that's something I dislike about his character, go figure 🤷‍♀️). Like, Draco isn't cunning, like, at all. He's smart, I'm not saying he isn't, he gets good and even outstanding grades in various school subjects, and he fixes the vanishing cabinet he knows nothing about on his own. He is skilled and talented magically and he can figure out complex magic on his own, but when it comes to long-term planning or general cunning... yeah, I don't think that's part of Draco's arsenal.

He acts out on useful information on the first opportunity he has, with very little thought about timing or how to best use it and very little forethought in general. In 1st year he gets Harry and Co caught outside after curfew but doesn't think his plan through so he too, is caught out after curfew. And sure, he's 11, but 11-year-old Harry wouldn't have made that mistake, I think (neither would Ron or Hermione). In 3rd year, his plan against Buckbeak and Hagrid was laughable and only worked because Lucius could pull it off. I mean, Draco wasn't even doing a good job at faking an injury compared to Harry who could believably pretend to be the Bloody Baron to scare off Peeves at 11, not to mention lying reliably to McGonagall at 12. In GoF he makes these Potter stinks badges, which are magically impressive (considering they still work 3 years later) but are again, an example of Draco acting on something immediately because that's how he tends to operate. Like how he goes straight to Harry every time he finds something in the Daily Prophet to make fun of.

Even if we look at Draco's later plans, like in HBP, he was mostly trying to buy plans rather than think about how to solve his problem. Because Draco knows how to buy his way out of problems, not think his way out. And while all this does make for an interesting trait for him to have in his rule in the story and he has an invisible arc to break away from this thinking pattern and that does lead him to the vanishing cabinet eventually, it does make me like him less. I'm biased, I can't help it.

His ambition is another thing, I don't know if this is an unpopular opinion, but I don't think Draco is particularly ambitious. Like, he wants to make his parents (especially Lucius) proud, he wants people to like him, and he wants to be popular, sure, but he doesn't have any long-term plans or specific goals in mind. He grew up already having everything, so he doesn't really have any ambitions bigger than that. I'm not saying there needs to be, Harry isn't particularly ambitious either, it's just interesting to me that our poster Slytherin in Harry's year isn't that much of a Slytherin at all.

As I mentioned earlier, Draco also seems to be averse to violence and doesn't have as much of a ruthless streak as his house is usually associated with. Draco, at the end of the day, seems to me like a very sheltered kid who idolized war when he heard about it in stories up until he had to actually take part in it. He is one of the softer characters in the books actually, in my opinion.

While I think he definitely values the traits of house Slytherin as he grew up learning to appreciate them, he doesn't actually possess them, at least, not in abundance. Maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but honestly, I think Draco is more of a Gryffindor than a Slytherin considering he is brave (in the last book especially. I want to note he isn't the same brave as Harry. Draco fears a lot more than Harry does, but when push comes to shove, he keeps going despite his fear. He's more similar to Neville in that regard), bold, and definitely has his personal code of honor and chivalry he acts according to, but I digress.

My personal issue with Draco is the main issue I have with Drarry as a ship, because, like, I can't be actively invested in a ship when I find one of the characters annoying. I have a similar stance on Romione as I have on Drarry. I like Romione well enough, I enjoy the fanart of them I see, but I wouldn't actively search for fics of them. Neither would I write fics where they are the main pairing. In Romione's case, I love Ron but find Hermione kinda annoying, I don't hate her, I don't even dislike her, I actually like her, but she annoys me. Draco is the same way, I like him, but he just gets on my nerves sometimes.

To summarise, I see the appeal of Drarry, and I can see how it could work on paper. I don't think Harry and Draco ever truly hated each other in the books, so, yeah, I think they could get together. They could definitely forgive each other everything, hell, the books practically outright say they forgive each other everything in canon. I think you can build a very compelling love story for them, it's just not a story I'm invested in reading/writing mostly because Draco isn't a character that I'm overly invested in.

[just-orbiting-you]

I actually agree quite a bit with the other anon regarding TH/JK hyung/dongsaeng relationship. You say they don't have that stereotypical relationship, but I think that's more because JK is more emotionally mature that TH, which I think is also part of the reason they grew distant. I think TH does want that kind of relationship with JK, but he oversteps JK's boundaries into an almost coddling/condescending territory (think him squeezing JK's cheeks in that one twt video after BB #1 or him making this almost grossly cutesy caption for the recent photos) which I think pushes JK away. I think JK has always been kind sensitive to boundaries, but I think as he's gotten older, he's gotten even more strict about setting boundaries (which includes with fans based on stuff he said during his livestreams).

I think TH's personality naturally does not always respect boundaries, but with JK, I think he can push it further because of him being the hyung, so he does. But as we know, JK doesn't want to be "cute", he wants to be acknowledged as having matured and I think sometimes the way TH treats him disrespects that, him probably feeling more mature than TH probably exacerbates that feeling too (plus being in a group without a strict age hierarchy that never forced him into a maknae role). I don't know about posting, but a lot of the babying or disrespecting boundaries stuff TH does to JK, he would never be allowed to do towards the older members. They give him grace because they obviously love him, but there are limits.

I do think TH feels some jealousy towards jikook, but its not about fame , attention, or fan engagement, but about their genuine closeness and feeling left out. I don't think TH feels close to hyung line much beyond them being like older brothers (compare to like JM who gets along with all of them and has JH especially close, or JK who also get along with most of them, but also is very close to jin). Over the years, the maknae line dynamic shifted a ton, with TH ending up kind of the outsider, and with JK specifically pulling away from him (IMO for the reasons I mentioned above). Now JM and JK enlisted together and have a travel show coming out, and I do think he probably feels pretty left out. To me, if he did post those photos for a negative reason, it wasn't about shippers or attention, but feeling left out and maybe a little petty. He probably also feels a little defensive of his relationship with JK, not so much to fans, but even internally. Weirdly, although they hung out more in 2023, I don't know if I can tell they actually bonded or got closer? Like JK leaving the movie premier to go live on his own or them going on trips, but with other people and to do specific activities. I understand why jkkers think they hung out more because JM was busy, because tbh, that's kind of the way it looks. And I mean that outside of any shipping discourse, I think JK's preferred person to hand with in bts is JM most of the time (base don the things he says and how much time we hear about them spending together behind the scenes). Maybe we'll see some strongly renewed bond between TH and JK after military service, but I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't. And I wouldn't be surprised if TH felt a little insecure about that, like he wanted or tried to reconnect with JK and I'm sure they had fun, but it didn't go any deeper. I'm not saying they don't care about each other, but I do think their personalities kind of inhibit the sort of closeness some of the other members have.

i'm being so real when i say anon you hit it right on the nose. i've been trying to form my own thoughts on this and i really love hearing other opinions on tae in relation to jikook.

JK is more emotionally mature that TH, which I think is also part of the reason they grew distant. I think TH does want that kind of relationship with JK, but he oversteps JK's boundaries into an almost coddling/condescending territory (think him squeezing JK's cheeks in that one twt video after BB #1 or him making this almost grossly cutesy caption for the recent photos) which I think pushes JK away.

this perfectly encapsulates how i feel about tae in that he always takes it a step too far and doesn't have the awareness to understand why that is. i think you clarified a point from the first anon about if tae were to post disrespecting boundaries of other members, it wouldn't go over well. it just doesn't sit well that tae gets a hyung card pass to kind of post about jungkook in the way he does. of course its kinda harmless and i don't think jungkook will do anything about it, but to me its clear he doesn't feed into the relationship like tae does.

my mind goes straight to the conversation they had in the first in the soop (where jimin had to go fetch jk for tae), and jungkook spoke about how him and tae drifted apart. but also that tae pushed for jungkook to drop honorfics and jungkook was very strict in that he does not want to. tae is always looking to push the envelope further.

also i think its funny that tae posts like he does about jungkook, but jungkook doesn't even have instagram anymore to actually interact with the posts. i have no clue if tae lets jungkook vet the posts before he posts them. from what we can understand, it is tae crafting the narrative around current t@ekook, not jungkook. and that enables tae's power over jungkook's wishes even further.

I do think TH feels some jealousy towards jikook, but its not about fame , attention, or fan engagement, but about their genuine closeness and feeling left out.

i've sensed this for a long time and it goes back to old 2019 lives where tae asks jimin to join him, but jimin says he's with jungkook so he can't. it just always feels like he wants in on jimin and jungkook, separately and together, but often is fresh out of luck. i think the telltale sign that tae and jungkook's relationship did not go any deeper last year was 1. jungkook never talked about him and 2. it was always with a group of friends.

plus from other asks too and what you said, i don't think tae has strong relationships with the hyung line, expect for hobi (but even hobi seems closer to jikook). so his only tie to bts is clinging to this newfound relationship he is trying to build with jungkook by pushing for him to join his friend group, and broadcasting it to the whole world.

thank you for putting so much attention into this ask anon, because the emotional difference between tae and jk really wasn't illuminated for me until now. jungkook i think has progressed past tae's immaturity, making him a better match for someone like jimin anyway.

[comradekarin]

In your rhaenys post, What do you mean that the male characters around them are smarter than them (alicent and rhaenyra)?

TW. long post……….

what i mean is that in the writers’ pursuit of portraying their female characters as “peacelovers that don’t wish for destruction and bloodshed”, they are also making them appear extremely naive, much to the detriment of their respective factions. lucerys has been murdered by aemond while acting as an envoy. visenya was born pre-maturely after rhaenyra heard the news of viserys’ death and the greens’ usurpation. jaehaerys was killed as a placeholder for aemond due to the rat catchers inability to find the latter. viserys is presumed to have been killed by the greens to even steal the throne from rhaenyra. do we see rhaenyra truly reckoning with all of these events? no. alicent lost her grandson and clearly still does have gripes over aemond losing his eye as a child (i have a personal headcanon that alicent edged the possibility of aemond getting revenge further down the line). alicent is also responsible for spreading those illegitimacy claims about rhaenyra’s three children, and consequently endangering her and her kids’ lives. she is also—albeit indirectly—involved in harwin and lyonel’s death. despite the fact that their families are at war and are killing each other, these women remain firm in keeping peace. yet their stances aren’t cemented because of their losses, but because of the writers’ consistent efforts to erase what has happened to them now and in their past.

rhaenyra goes to kings landing to sue for peace. that in of itself is extremely foolish. she doesn’t tell her council where she’s going, nor does she seem to have a plan if things go sideways. and in her absence, jacaerys and baela are essentially thrown to the wolves mitigating the black council’s frustrations with, again, no info on where rhaenyra even is. rhaenyra goes to KL, speaks to alicent, and by bad writing extreme luck is able to leave unharmed. alicent literally doesn’t tell anyone that nyra infiltrated, OR that she let her go. they come off as silly to the audience, not wise. jacaerys seems to be the only person with common sense, to make matters even worse. there’s even times where you’re thinking that rhaenyra should have listened to daemon.

these women are not allowed to express how they feel about the events happening around them. not only are the writers destroying the complexity of their feelings, but they’re also falsely equating alicent and rhaneyra even though narratively it doesn’t make sense to put them on the same pedestal. rhaenys spoke to alicent herself, who wanted her help to rob rhaneyra of her throne, thus endangering the lives of baela and rhaena due to them being betrothed to jace and luke. yet, a couple of episodes later, we have rhaenys implying that rhaenyra is to blame for jaehaerys’ death and sees the “violence” in the men around alicent, thus urging nyra to go to KL. baela is only being used as a rhaenyra’s cheerleader so far this season, never really having her own thoughts and opinions on this war outside of her support for nyra (which isn’t inherently wrong, her support I mean). and don’t even get me started on helaena’s lack of reaction to her son’s death. i think daemon cried more over that little boy than her. rhaena doesn’t even have enough scenes for me to make an assumption, which is bad in of itself.

lastly, in going this “peaceful women, evil men” route, we also get a lot of contradictions with the writing of these characters. especially so with alicent. no longer is alicent this protective, cunning and bitter woman we saw in season one. now? it’s almost as if the writers are trying to absolve her of the things she did in season one, thus erasing what makes her the character her fans love. whether it’s trying to push the rhaenyra x alicent ship, bad writing, or both, overall, i just think it’s really silly and just soft misogyny to even have this line of thinking when writing women. the writers only have like six anyway, and it’s like they haven’t done any of them justice.

[suika-suigetsu]

Quick question what are your fav Yaoi and Yuri Ships in The Narutoverse? Just curious lol

Sorry to answer your quick question with a long text, but I'm just like this... 🥹

So, since I was a kid, I never watched Naruto thinking about couples, I was never a "stan", as they say. I just loved the story and the characters.

It was only very recently, when I started to like the character Suigetsu and researched everything about him, that I saw how perfect I think his relationship with Karin is.

I say this because, as much as I like the cannon couples and defend the story of some of them, I do it more because I respect Kishimoto's decision of the ending and because I think it's cute, but I didn't research it in depth to ship it faithfully like I do with SuiKa. But I like to respect what is cannon, even if some have destroyed other ships that I liked more (but I'll never say... 😭)

I ship when I think that, based on the character's story and the context, they make a good couple.

So, here are some same-sex couples I ship (using information that I think makes them perfect for each other):

Itachi x Kisame

I never really thought about it because I'm not a fan of Itachi, but I like Kisame, so I never saw them together romantically. But I've been thinking and researching about it for a few months now, and after seeing some cute art of them, I'm even more convinced.

I think Kisame fell in love first, and like Sasuke, I don't think Itachi was emotionally mature enough to reciprocate, but as an artist, I plan on pretending that they had a lot of loving moments together and I'll draw them as soon as I have time (I already have some sketches). 🩷

Gaara x Rock Lee

I don't like shipping characters that I feel have a more "innocent" aura. Rock Lee, Jugo, Mitsuki... I see them as babies. But I like to hear everyone's opinion and, sometimes, they convince me.

I like GaaLee nowadays, even though I don't have much information for it, but I just like the idea that the two of them are single parents who share a mutual love for each other and their children, and I also think that Rock Lee's energy would make Gaara's life happy, since he has such a sad past...

Izumo x Kotetsu

I don't need to say anything, right? They've been cannon since the first chapters they appeared, that's just a fact. They're stuck together like nails and flesh, nowadays they must be living together and traveling the world on a never-ending honeymoon. 💖💖💖

A little steal on the list: Sakura x Karin

This one doesn't make any sense, I only shipped them when I was younger, I didn't care about Suigetsu and I hated Sasuke. I just wanted them to use their love for Sasuke to get closer and form a couple, and they were my favorite female characters 🥹🥹 Obviously I don't think that way anymore nowadays, but I'll still draw them together a lot just because I really like it lol.

Another little steal: SuiKarin

Haha, I know it doesn't fit here, but I just think they love each other too much and have enough experience to have tried a lot of things together. After Naruto invented the Sexy jutsu, anything is possible, right? I still want to draw SuiKarin yaoi and SuiKarin yuri... I'm looking forward to it 🫣🫣

Now, other couples that I find cute when I see them, but I don't have enough information to ship them:

Kakuzu x Hidan (I think Hidan would be easy with Kakuzu, but Kakuzu seems too shallow to be with anyone...? Although Hidan seems to be very convincing when he wants to be...), Sasori x Deidara (I'm not just talking about sexuality here, but also about feelings. If Sasori still loves his parents, he can love someone romantically, and I think it's cute to think of him with Deidara. But that said, I didn't feel any chemistry between them in the scenes where they appear together. I'm rewatching Naruto now, maybe my opinion will change, and I hope it does, because I think the art of them together is really cute...), Jiraya x Orochimaru and Tsunade (This is another steal from the list, I shipped them when I was younger, haha. I just think they're a trio that only works if the three of them are together, and if it's just two of them, it doesn't work, you know? It's a hc I've had for a long time. Unfortunately, it didn't come to fruition... In fact, I have another ship with 3 people that I think would close the anime with a flourish, but I'll never be able to say which one it is publicly... 🥹)

Just about Kiri and the Swordsmen of the Mist

I think that just like in Akatsuki, they (the Seven) must have had romances between them too. And unlike Konoha, Kirigakure doesn't seem to care so much about marriage, starting a family and things like that... In fact, I don't know if it's cannon (I don't think so), but it really struck me when I saw in the anime that one of the call girls that Jiraya went out with was married to one of the men that Jiraya captured to get information about Pain. I still think to this day "wow, the people of Kiri are so bold..." .

Anyway, thinking about Kisame's story, they even avoided that (love someone). So I think there had a lot of "quick romances", maybe with more than one person at the same time. They weren't very emotional, you know? Life was hard, just killing and missions... So relationships were just a way to de-stress. That's one of the things that made me ship ItaKisame, because I think that even though he thought that way just because he grew up among the cold population of Kiri, Kisame ended up falling in love with Itachi after knowing him more than he knew anyone else.

Spending time with companions ends up breaking the coldness, even of assassins, so I think there must have been couples who loved each other within the Seven, but I just don't have enough information to know who would end up with who. Give me information, Kishi... 😭

I'm sorry for being so annoying about ships 🥹 But I really like having evidence that makes me like the couple. There are cannon couples that I don't like at all, even though I drew them...... And there are others that I love, but like with SuiKarin, we'll never have confirmation... But since things are complicated on the internet, I prefer to keep my opinion about them to myself.

Thanks for reading. 🩷

[photogirl894]

Oh my gosh, y'all, I was ready to throw hands with someone on the Star Wars Facebook page!! 😡😡 Angry rant ahead! Slight spoilers but not really...

It started off with the guy saying the new episode of Bad Batch was "another filler episode", (which that word makes me SO angry already) so I told him that word is so overused and this wasn't filler. I even broke down the points of each episode that contributed to the plot as well as character development. Then we kept going back and forth about it and he questioned if we watched the same episodes and I'm like "clearly not cuz you obviously missed the point!" and he said "we didn't need 3 episodes in the prison". I told him there were only 2 in the prison: the first and the third because the second was centered on Hunter and Wrecker. Then this asshat had the nerve to say "The second episode was horrible and I tend to block out every episode with Wrecker because he's the worst Star Wars character ever created after Omega"............ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh the absolute RAGE I felt when I saw he said that!! 🤬🤬

I so wanted to say, "well no wonder you're missing the point of the show cuz you're blocking out one of the best characters who's in pretty much every episode of the whole damn show!!!!"

But I was getting so mad that I just blocked him instead. I didn't wanna hear anymore of his wrong opinions. Though I did say before I blocked him "wow...just when I thought your opinion couldn't get any worse...you had to say THAT". Uuuggghhh I was furious! I honestly still am!

Nobody...and I mean NOBODY...talks about my boy, Wrecker, like that!!!!! He is a wonderful, sweet, funny and complex character that has more emotional maturity in his pinky finger than that guy could ever hope to have! He's incredibly kind, intelligent and is in tune with his emotions. He might not know a lot about technology or things like that, but he knows how to disassemble an explosive and makes a pretty good tank! He cares so much about his family and can bring a smile to anyone's face!

Ugh sorry...I got so mad seeing that comment from someone who clearly has no understanding of Wrecker's character and ZERO understanding of The Bad Batch in general. I'm so sick and tired of many people saying it has a bunch of "filler" episodes, which is 100% false! The show would do so much better if more of the freaking SW fandom had better media literacy, but clearly, that ship sailed long ago 🙄

I love this show so much and I will defend it to my last breath against anyone who dares to say it's nothing but "filler" or anyone who dares to insult ANY of my boys or my little blonde angel!!!

[andreal831]

Hi!!! I love your posts! Idk if you've spoken abt this before but I was thinking about how a lot of people say that Rebekah was so wrong for leaving Hope to herself & not helping her much in Legacies.... but like. Hope is supposed to be 18, and Rebekah is 17. I mean, obviously it's kinda hard to write her as a 17yo bc Claire Holt obviously isn't one (no hate or anything - but like she wasn't even a teenager when she started over ten years ago), so I can understand why they write her as more mature than how she was originally, but STILL. Like. Can you imagine. This child who you're supposed to look after is suddenly older than you?? I imagine it'd be so jarring for Bex. (Also, touching on the whole 17 thing... Rebekah with Marcel is lowkey gross in that light. Obviously no grosser than Damon and Elena, but still. Like, especially if Rebekah had been shown to be dating him when she first appeared. That would look really weird, I think.) Anyway I guess I was just wondering if you'd seen that and what you thought of it? :)

Hi! Sorry for the delay in responding!

I personally don't subscribe to the belief that their brains stop developing at the age they are turned. This would cause so many issues throughout the show. Like you pointed out, Hope would grow up to be older than even her own parents at some point. It would make no sense for Caroline to be running a school at 17 years old. Caroline would have been stuck as the insecure, selfish teenager. Elena would have been stuck in her grief. The characters would be incapable of character growth if their brains were permanently stunted. So we have to assume they are capable of growth. Meaning, they are not stuck, mentally, at the age they turn even if they are physically.

I think the other argument here is that Rebekah has spent a large portion of her life claiming to want to be a mother, even at the cost of other people (i.e. fighting Elena and even Klaus for the cure to be human). Yes, of course she is entitled to change her mind and, yes, of course, no sibling should be forced to raise their orphaned niece or nephew. But I think the thing people are upset by is that it goes against everything the Mikaelsons stand for and against the character they created out of Rebekah. I personally hated that they made Rebekah so focused on wanting children, it felt out of character for her most of the time and just because she was a woman, but that is canon. She wanted to give up her immortality and power to be a mother and have that human experience, but then as soon as a child needs her, she is nowhere to be seen. It felt like she wanted a baby, not a child. She loved watching Hope as a baby and was sad to give her back to her parents, but can't even be bothered to call teen Hope? Also, the Mikaelsons were all about "always and forever" to the point of their own ruin, but Rebekah just abandons it as soon as Elijah and Klaus are gone? Again, she has every right to live her own life, but I think Hope also has every right to be mad at her family for abandoning her. I can't even imagine the conversation Rebekah would have in the after life with Elijah, Hayley, and Klaus after she turned her back on Hope.

I also wouldn't think it is jarring to Rebekah to see Hope look physically older than her. She's seen it countless times in her life. They are used to people aging past them. I do think they would make jokes about it, but I think it would just be hard for them to watch Hope age, fearing she could die.

I have talked about Marbekah being strange. Not only cause she saw him as a child and helped raise him, but sure, if we assume Rebekah still has the mindset of a 17 year old, Marcel is older than her by at least five years at that point. But it would also be gross when she slept with Damon since she would still be mentally 17 and he would be mentally 24/25. Again, we have to assume their brains can develop otherwise like all of the ships in the show are gross.

Obviously this is just my opinion on the topics, and not super based in canon since the showrunners are so inconsistent with the brain development/ages. I've seen people make good arguments on both sides.

Thanks for the ask!

[northoftheroad]

I know I just gave you an ask and you must be super busy, but what do you think abt Dickory vs Dickbabs?? Personally, I think Dickory is way better but in Tom Taylor’s run and the current runs, Dickbabs is the main ship. Anyways, I just wanted your opinion on it :D

Also thoughts on Tom Taylor’s run? I thought about it and I kinda have mixed feelings. On one hand, it’s great for fanservice and has some super cute and funny moments. On the other hand, the characters and their relationships are kinda one dimensional. Thoughts?? Take your time and thanks if you answer! <3

Hi, As I've said before (and I'm going to quote myself from older posts here quite a lot, if you happen to come across them 😉 ), I'm fine with both pairings as long as it's well written. I guess a lot of fans lean towards preferring what they grew up with and such like. I'm old enough to have started reading Batman when the idea of another Robin than Dick Grayson was ludicrous, and read the NTT in my slightly older teens. So I definitely have a nostalgic feeling for Dick/Kory.

I think they worked well because they were so different; they each learned from the other and grew as people. Being with Kory helped Dick become more emotionally open after some ten years of growing up with Bruce and Alfred. In NTT # 26, he talks about how he is too introspective and that Batman taught him to be guided by his head, not his heart. And in turn, I'd say Kory learned not always to be ruled by her emotions, and Dick helped to ground her on Earth. They had their fair share of problems, one obstacle was their different approach to relationships and sex. While Starfire is fine with being married to another guy, for reasons of state, but live with Dick, it takes Dick quite some time to come to terms with that he loves Kory enough to get over that. Dick and Kory were one of the most stable and loving couples in DC for over ten years. Now, in superhero comics, writers and/or editoral make the rules. There were plans to let them get married, but as far as I remember a change of editorial led to that being scrapped. We got Dick being raped by Mirage instead, and eventually, the couple split up. Disregarding that, I think you could very well see them growing apart. They were young when they started dating. I guess they were a couple for two-three years? At that age, it's not unreasonable to think they developed in ways that made them decide to go their separate ways.

If Dick and Kory were good because they were poles apart, I'd say Dick and Barbara are more alike. They have both worked with Batman; they are originally street-level detectives and athletes; they are used to work in similar ways. I could see them as a slightly more mature couple than Dick and Kory, being more in sync and relaxed with each other because they have similar backgrounds and shared experiences. (Which, of course, could make them a more boring couple in fiction…) I'm not a fan of the retcon that they've been friends since school, but they did work occasionally together as youngsters, so it can still make sense to write them as really good friends, imo. I honestly think Dick and Kory have been written as a good couple more than Dick and Barbara. Maybe things had been different if Devin Grayson had got the chance to tie up her long arc with Dick in Nightwing vol 2. Not that I think her run was without its problems, but it would presumably have been better if she had got the opportunity to finish what she started. The ending (or rather the absence of a decent ending) of her run, and the fact that the first Nightwing stories after Infinite Crisis were downright cringeworthy, has soured my impression of her writing of Dick/Babs. So I guess editorial decisions have ruined both Dick's most important relationships…?

I don't know if you're new to the debate about Dick/Kory vs. Dick/Barbara? Because it's sometimes a heated discussion, with people claiming he doesn't deserve either of them, he mistreated one or the other etc.

(Here's what Barbara herself had to say about Dick, by the way. In Birds of Prey # 71. By Gail Simone, art Ron Adrian and Rob Lea.)

I can definitely work myself up too much about fictional characters myself, but there are a few things I try to keep in mind… Fictional characters have no agency. Creators and editoral use them to tell stories (and sell stuff…). Don't get angry at fictional characters or, even worse, real people who love them. Also, reading comics is a lot about filling in the blanks between panels, and different readers can put a book down with very different pictures of what has happened. You can absolutely find examples where Dick has been written as behaving badly against both of them. Sometimes, it's a reasonable part of the writer's long game, sometimes it actually is bad and out-of-character writing. (And if you look, you can find examples where the women have been written as behaving badly against Dick too.)

Honestly, the most important thing for me when it comes to Dick and relationships is that he takes them very seriously indeed. Dick has not had a lot of one-night stands and is on record as saying he's not comfortable with casual sex. When he had one with Helena/Huntress, he wanted to talk about starting a relationship just because of that. When he (fake) married a girl to try to expose her as a murderer, he still avoided to sleep with her, and then he offered to stay with her when the case was closed, because he felt bad for deceiving her. Outside the blasted annual, I don't know of any time he was written as (knowingly) having sex with someone while he's in a relationship with another. Girls tend to break up with him, not the other way around. I'm sure other people have different ideas, and it can vary between writers and eras, but I think you can read Dick as someone who likes to be in a relationship, to be intimate with someone – but who's not into casual sex.

When it comes to Tom Taylor's run, I pretty much agree with you. I don't hate it, as some people seem to do, but I think the art has been the best part. It's mostly been pretty meh, TT has at several times spoken about how Nightwing is an A-lister among DC superheroes, but I don't think he shows it. And here and there he produces some really nice panels/pages (sometimes it's up to debate whether the characters are out of character or not). We're heading towards the end of his and Bruno Redondon's run and they've hinted he's going to stop being Nightwing. As if we need a third period of Dick not being Nightwing in ten years… 🙄 The best writer of Nightwing vol 4 was Sam Humphries, in my opinion. Unfortunately, it was very short.

Ok, this post has definitely gone on long enough... but if you want to go deeper into the rabbit hole, here are some earlier posts.

[echo-lover]

!The Bad Batch season 3 spoilers!

I'd like to share with you my feelings and opinion about the new episode of the Bad Batch. Again, I wanted to do this right after watching it but my mind had other plans... emotions I felt overwhelmed me and I needed some time to put myself together. I WAS A CRYING MESS I SWEAR! And I felt a lot.

From the beginning to the very end, this episode has my whole heart. Honestly, this might be my favorite episode of season three so far, even though the previous ones were absolutely wonderful. I love Omega and Crosshair duo so much and seing their bond getting stronger means the world to me. They showed the typical brother - sister dynamic. Crosshair now looks more like himself, just like I remember him from the Clone Wars episodes. Confident about his skills, with sharp tongue and painfully honest. Despite everything he's been through and his apparent trust issues, he allows Omega to lead their small group. Of course, he adds some sarcastic comments of his own, but overall he does not question Omega's ideas and, despite his hesitation, helps her the best he can.

Batcher is so adorable and I love how she tries to get closer to Crosshair even though he is clearly offended and annoyed. This bring smile on my face.

Omega once again shows her more mature side. She's confident and seems to have taken some of Crosshair's sarcasm with her. She wants a peacefull way to left this planet and only when things get really bad, she allow Crosshair to do it -his way-.

Absolute chaos and destruction, it looks like Crosshair wants to enjoy as much freedom as he can. He's free and he won't let him and Omega get captured again. He has nothing to lose and this little girl has become his main priority. He even allows physical contact, which we know he didn't like to share at all. A gentle touch of a hand on her shoulder, ahh I love them. And the way he was called Omega's father and she confirmed it without hesitation. Crossdad is real guys, haha.

But it was the ending that was so shocking to me. The way Crosshair tried to convince Omega that Hunter and Wrecker might not have survived, that so much time had passed... and she don't want to listen. She strongly believes that her brothers will come, that they will take them, save them and they can all be together, she does not accept that they may no longer be alive.

All doubts disappeared the moment I saw Marauder on the screen. Of course, in the back of my mind I had the thought that it might be a trap, but then...

Omega running out of the ship with a wide smile, Wrecker shows up in the open door of the Marauder... OMG I couldn't hold back the tears. I DIDN'T EXPECT THEY REUNION SO QUICKLY. Tears came to my eyes when Wrecker literally ran to her and lifted Omega into air, hugging her tightly close to him. Our little girl could finally allow herself to show her emotions. She had been so strong for so long when she had been on MountTantiss, now she could be a child again, let others take care of her now. She's not alone anymore. Tears flowed, both from Omega and Wrecker, and from me.

I love the fact that Wrecker was the first to welcome her, not Hunter. He was second. Here my tears were flowing down my cheeks uncontrollably.

Hunter wanted to find his little girl for so long... That one word "five" made my heart beat so fast. This is what happened, this is real. They were finally together.

The moment Omega saw Hunter showed all her emotions. Relief, longing, fear and happiness all mixed together. Hunter practically fell on his knees with his arms open for Omega to jump into his embrace. HE FINALLY HUGS HER! The way he held her, the focus on his hands... He finally had his little girl with him, nothing bad could happen to her in his arms. When they broke apart, Omega wiped her tears and Hunter just simply smiled warmly at her. They really looked like father and daughter here, I swear. Words cannot describe how much this means to me. I felt like I was there with them in that moment.

And then the atmosphere thickened as Crosshair appeared, slowly exiting the ship. THE MUSIC HERE WAS ABSOLUTELY MARVELOUS! I have mixed feelings about Hunter and Wrecker reaction to their brother's arrival. I understand the lack of trust, but were such hateful and cold looks towards him necessary? Hunter tightened his fists, freezing in place, even Wrecker had a cold look in his eyes.

I feel that in the next episode they will have to explain many things to each other... it won't be pleasant... Maybe there will be harsh words, maybe they will blame each other for Tech's death, maybe they will never fully trust each other again. I just hope that they will be okay after all this. No matter what, they have to stick together...

And I have one little question WHERE THE KRIFF IS ECHO?! It's forth episode and we still don't see him!

Oh Force... it was a huge amount of emotion for such a short moment.

[dimalry]

Previous anon here 🙋🏼‍♀️

And yes I agree. Sjm did not handle it very well since people have been fighting each other for over a year now and I believe people can have different opinions on it. I accept that people can see the situation in different ways because of how it was handled and/or from the bits they remember since most of us haven't read the books in a while 😅. I too haven't read them in a long time but from what I remember I didn't see it as SA or know all the details of what happened. And there are a lot of very similar debates happening in the fandom and there aren't any new ones, just a repeat of the same arguments people used one month ago, I guess this is a way to keep the fandom alive since we haven't been given anything?? But idk lol. I just keep to myself most of the time when I see someone having a different opinion as me and just continue with the things I enjoy.

Because of the way she handles certain topics, he have people arguing over who‘s right constantly. It’s actually so interesting how everyone has their own Interpretation of the text. There’s some beauty that comes with that, but people rather want everyone to think like them and that leads to this wildness in the fandom. When you have someone getting so triggered over your opinions, not only do they attack you but they create 5 more posts talking trash about you, that’s how you know the fandom is WILD 💀

When Rhys was first introduced I shipped Feysand right away (I thought Feylin was cute but I love me some morally grey characters). Things started to become.. weird when I arrived at the utm scenes and they made me uncomfortable. I didn’t think much of it when I finished the book because I thought we‘re going to get an epic redemption arc. We didn’t. Though I still loved Acomaf, I was fairly disappointed with how it was handled. My second time reading the books it only frustrated me. I really wanted to see some good redemption arc from a morally grey character, but it turned out that he isn’t morally grey in the first place and that isn’t a trope that I particularly like 😬I like Feysand and they’re fun to draw (I have most of them still in my drafts). I sometimes think of how I would‘ve written the story. Especially after Under the Mountain, that’s when I imagine what route Feyre and Feysand together would take. I took some inspiration from the atla world (I‘m so excited to draw and share my thoughts on this when I get the time 🥹), and Rhys In my imagination is definitely held accountable (no character is safe from accountability, even my favs)

You’re one of the great people who can bring a safe space in the fandom. Minding your own business and enjoying life is very mature ✨

[erinelliotc]

Why do you love EddEddy more than KevEdd? I mean, the dynamics of these pairings are similar, I personally love them equally. Interesting to read your opinion :)

Hey, anon!

I'll try my best not to sound rude because it's not that I just love EddEddy more, but I don't ship KevEdd at all. I kinda did in the past when I came across their fanarts, but not anymore. I just want to make it clear that everyone can ship whatever they want, as long as it's not immoral (like BroEdd, for example). This is just my opinion and no one needs or should change their mind just because I don't like this ship.

Yeah, the dynamics of both ships are kinda similar because Eddy and Kevin are similar in personality (not the same, but similar. Just "same energy"). But still, the thing is Double D's relationship with Eddy is far different from his relationship with Kevin. Even though Eddy often acts like a jerk to Edd (to everyone in general actually), it's very clear that he likes and cares deeply for him, that their relationship is much more than their fights, while with Kevin it's not even clear whether he considers Edd at least his friend or not (but in my opinion it's more likely that he doesn't until the end of Big Picture Show). A relationship between Edd and Kevin seems to me like it'd be very toxic and unhealthy, but trying to imagine a relationship between them is hard for me in itself because they really aren't close, I honestly don't see what they have in common other than the times when they want revenge on Eddy. I can't imagine Edd being romantically interested in Kevin and vice versa. I can even imagine a friendship, but not a romantic relationship. If they were very close and the show had worked on their relationship maybe it'd be different, but seeing Kevin bullying Double D so much just makes me imagine an abusive relationship between them. Not that Edd and Eddy's relationship is perfect, far from it, especially because they're both still immature kids full of problems, insecurities and raging hormones. But Edd and Eddy's relationship is very mutual and reciprocal, they're both bitches to each other and the love they have for each other is very evident too. They're on the same page, which is basically a long-term intimate friendship full of chaos, alternating between flirting with each other and teasing/picking on each other, between two confused preteens who still don't understand that what they feel for each other goes beyond friendship and that they've been acting and living like a couple without realizing it all this time. They still have a lot to work on in their relationship (a maturation process that begins during the movie), but they're both great together, they're good for each other, their personalities complement each other perfectly towards the personal growth and character development of both, they're a positive influence on each other, they help each other with their difficulties and flaws, they help each other to improve. Unlike with Kevin, Double D is very intimate with Eddy both emotionally and physically, they've been close friends forever, they have countless interactions that are too strangely intimate for just friends, the crew ships them and purposely gave a romantic touch to their interactions and relationship. They're the main focus of the show. I mean, the focus the show gives to EddEddy is much greater than anything else, so I don't think it makes any sense to think about KevEdd. I think even KevEddy makes more sense than KevEdd. I'd never have thought of KevEdd if I had just watched the show without seeing any fanart of them. After watching the entire show, I was left wondering why people ship Edd and Kevin when EddEddy is so obvious, solid and intentional throughout the entire show. They were intentionally made to have an old married couple dynamic, whether as a joke/comic relief or not. The show is mainly centered around their relationship. We have far more scenes between Double D and Eddy than with any other character, and their relationship is so well-built and developed that I can't understand how not to ship them. To me, what makes sense is EddEddy and Kevin x Rolf, or Kevin x Nazz (I like to ship Marie x Nazz x Kevin x Rolf).

I'm going to leave here a text written by @bonkerbuster69 to complement what I'm saying because I think it explains very well about comparing EddEddy and KevEdd and I share the same opinion:

One of my problems with this ship is that it's such a cliché. I think everyone who ships KevEdd does so because they like the shy nerd x popular jock/bully dynamic. When I was younger I liked clichés, so I found this ship kinda interesting and appealing. But nowadays, especially after rewatching the show, I find it so… I just can't like it. Sorry, but I think it's boring and doesn't make sense. They have a few friendly interactions, most of them when Edd teams up with Kevin/helps him with something, and that's it. The rest of the time Kevin is just being a jerk to Edd.

And my other problem with KevEdd is that to me, EddEddy is so well structured that I don't see why I should think about other ships involving Edd or Eddy. Why would I do that? They're already perfect for each other and practically canon, why think about other ships with them? What more could I want? I'm completely satisfied with what I got and I don't really want to see them with anyone else. I'm just that kind of person. If I were to think about them with someone else, to me the only option that would make the most sense would be Ed, and even then I don't imagine either Edd or Eddy liking him romantically, but I think at least it's a very cute ship. The only situation that makes me think about exploring ships with them is writing fanfics in which they date other people before they date or during a breakup. I can at most imagine Kevin being someone who makes both Edd and Eddy jealous when he's with one of them, but not Edd and Kevin actually interested in each other (I can imagine Eddy being interested in Kevin, but that's not the focus here).

But again, you're all free to ship whatever you want. I'm just answering what I think about KevEdd.

Okay, now you might ask me:

So why do you ship Marie x Nazz if they don't even have a single interaction together?

Well, busted. You got me there...

But hey! I have my reasons, I promise.

I'm a lesbian, so I'm more likely to ship sapphic relationships than achillean relationships, even if they "don't make sense"

The fact that we never see them interacting directly leaves more room for the possibility of a relationship than characters who have frequent bad interactions (from what I remember, I think the closest thing to an interaction between them was in "May I Have This Ed?" when Marie got jealous seeing Nazz dancing with Edd and tried to separate them by dancing with Eddy)

Ed, Edd n Eddy has a major lack of sapphic representation, so it's natural for me to try to seek this representation. I already talked about this in the comments of another post of mine, so I'll copy and paste it here:

@sporadicninjacrusade: Thinking now, wasn't strange how queerness seems to spread all the male cast, but the female cast seems to be strictly straight? I mean, all the 5 girls only seem interested on males and touches and sensitivity so common between the boys never seem to happen between the girls.

Me: You're right. I find it quite curious and unusual because cishet men are often disgusted by gay/queer male characters (because homophobia) but tend to like gay female characters because they fetishize sapphic relationships. So I find it interesting and even kinda positive because it indicates that the crew really supports the LGBTQ+ community and doesn't fetishize sapphics (which doesn't stop them from being somewhat sexist/more focused on male characters). I tend to feel very uncomfortable with the way cishet men portray sapphic characters because it really tends to be quite fetishized, so I can't complain too much about the lack of queer girls. I have queer headcanons of the female characters, but unlike the male ones, there really is almost no concrete evidence or indication of them being interested in girls or not interested in boys, and my only reasons are personal impressions and preferences.

While I can think it'd be plausible for several of the male characters to be strictly gay (Eddy, Rolf, Jimmy, Ed) the only female character I can think of being strictly lesbian is Marie and it's still a bit of a difficult mission to sustain it. I never understood where the Nazz x Marie ship came from (but I love it). I don't know if it was after "May I Have This Ed?" (the scene where Marie's trying to separate Edd and Nazz had SO MUCH potential for an accidental couple swap [Edd x Eddy / Marie x Nazz]. I'd have LOVED it, even as a joke/comic relief. A couple swap that goes wrong and forms that pairs, they blush and it lasts 2 seconds because they're like "Get off me!", anything, because I missed more ship stuff at that dance and as always I wish there was more EddEddy), or if it's because people like to see the "prettiest" (seems to be the general opinion of the fandom) female characters together, because I don't remember any minimally positive interaction between them, but since the show fails to feature queer female characters it makes sense for fans to look for sapphic representation even if it "doesn't make sense".

I can see Sarah having a crush on Nazz that she could mistake for just friendship and admiration (I see the same with Jimmy regarding Kevin, although in his case it seems more visible that it's a crush) and I'd love for her to be a lesbian but she seems genuinely interested in Edd, although she doesn't let her crush on him distract her and get her down when it comes to teaching him a lesson, which makes me question how much she really likes him but I find it an interesting trait in her cause although she gets angry easily and seems like an out-of-control person, this shows how she's able to put her emotions aside when it comes to beating someone up when she thinks they deserve it, even if she likes the person. Either way, it would have been nice to have had more visibly sapphic characters on the show.

[moononmyfloor]

Dashing Youth Ep 36-40 Commentary

Ep 1-10, Ep 11-16, Ep 17-21, Ep 22-25, Ep 26-32, Ep 33-35

Ep 36

This ep had nothing much of interest for me, all this talk of "bringing Ye Dingzhi back to the rightful path" is boring af like you never asked him what is it exactly that he wants, not before, not now

The part where Dongjun cultivates at the edge where mortal world meets the start of heavens was very cool, if a story wants to convince me that he rebuilt his lost cultivation in a year, this place is as good as it gets for the purpose.

Evil sister being permanently imprisoned and left to rot than being granted an immediate death is super satisfying

This part was pretty sweet, the way he closed his eyes and put his stubbly chin in her palms

Ep 37

When I watched He Yu's Dashing Youth interviews etc, I thought he sounded unusually straightforward and frank for an idol actor. And then I looked at his profile and realised that dude is an Architecture graduate and went to Vancouver for further studies and then returned to China to participate in acting workshops. Well THAT explains a lot of things. For example, how he carries himself with such gravitas and confidence despite being a new actor, he basically stole the show from HMH from the very ep 1 imo and that did not happen just because he looks good, because everyone looks amazeballs in this show anyway.

Not to mention "hurt young dad trying his best" is not a role you often see among Chinese idol dramaland main characters, and even rarer for a newbie actor to take on such a role. Like he came in and served. End of the story.

FINALLY. The two most grounded characters of the show meet up! Funny how at first I shipped them with Dongjun and as time went on the less interesting let alone shippy Dongjun felt and now I can't help but imagine, what if these two met earlier, instead?

And gods, this is exactly what I love about Changfeng. Despite being the sweetest baby of the show, he's incredibly realistic and doesn't care for the popular beliefs let alone factions. He'd rather have a face-to-face with the problem at hand and form his opinion.

"Hey buddy, wanna spar?" Just like that. Unafraid and non-judgemental, because he has not formed any yet, because he doesn't have a reason to. And he instantly won over Dingzhi who rarely trusts anyone. Too bad they met only now.

Aww, I feel like this is a nudge to their other-selves in I Am Nobody, right?

"I've stopped saying corny things and have turned mature because any sentence could be your last in the battlefield, and ends up getting carved on your tombstone."

-insert gremlin laugh-

Yeah Mengsha, that's exactly what will be on your grave. "HAHAHAHAHA"

PFft I love him.

Yeah she found that man and then he died. Huhu.

The rest of the ep is about the so called righteous party trying to beat the hot young dad with their sheer incompetence and that wasn't interesting enough to comment on.

Ep 38

Putting the disturbed souls to rest in the name of his daughter, that's Sikong Changfeng. It sounds kinda morbid on paper, but in truth only the most purest, benevolent person in the world would be able to do that. I was reminded of The Untamed for a second there.

Daring the monarchy from atop the palace gate, as the most peerless person in jianghu atm. I think both Master Li and Master Rain Demon would be proud of you.

Yknow, for Dingzhi who suffered from wishy washy treatment from most people all his life (yes, that includes you too Dongjun), a clear yes/no answer to this question would've been a mercy.

Ep 39

This was unexpectedly hilarious lol

Little girl u are pissing me off. You weren't born when the definitions of right and wrong were created in the world.

"What is wrong is wrong" bruh shut up, you are embarrassing your dad and not in the serotonin-inducing way he always embarrassed himself.

And I called Dongjun blindly idealistic.

Speaking of whom, Dongjun and Yue Yao actually kinda redeemed themselves for me again in this ep, by proving that even at this point, the "righteousness" he cares for is for his Yun ge to get the happiness he deserves.

Would've been better if you actively stepped up earlier than this to safeguard the happiness that he and Wenjun had found by a margin, tho. You had years of opportunity and now it's too late.

For softhearted lackeys, Wuxin's gay uncles are pretty alright regarding being grounded characters. They don't have lots of choices to work with, but at least they aren't led around by nose with all the pointless politics and try their best to follow their hearts.

Ep 40

Yeah yeah, blame the woman in the end. The sad thing is that he's a historian, and it's not a surprise that this came out of his mouth.

Rocket science

Same as with Hanyi, I was mad at Ye Xiaofan too like kid what point exactly are you trying to prove to your ge by appearing like this at this moment, but then he redeemed himself and I'm very happy about that. Give him treats.

Ok I'm crying. Wenjun's conviction and determination in the final act makes me forgive her again. Honestly, I wouldn't have disliked her even a little bit if not for that lazy stupidity the show made her commit in ep 33 anyway.

But alas, it's too late. My baby 😭

Good to hear Yue Yao's sister died, even glad that screentime wasn't spared to see it happen because I really don't give a fuck.

Finally, Dongjun meets his ge's child. Lil Wuxin cowering away from him at first served him right.

It's so sad how Wuxin lost his parents and adoptive uncles all together within such a brief period of time. I remember disliking the uncles when they took Wuxin away in BoY, but now I understand them even though it was AGAIN at the expense of Wuxin's rights to be with the people he wants to at that moment. It's sad that whatever person Wuxin would grow emotionally attached to, he has to part from them because of others' arrangements.

Woah, you two have been canoodling around in your fairy carriage for the whole world to see for years and you haven't been married yet? Scandalous, Dongjun 😂

Final Verdict

Despite the lazy and unconvincing middle eps, the final stretch is near perfect, the characters I've grown to have beef with (Dongjun, Wenjun) redeemed themselves, Yue Yao grew a little bit more of personality, the amazing main characters remained amazing (Dingzhi, Changfeng) and so did the amazing side characters (Lei Mengsha, Master Li, Luo Qingyang, Jade deity). Well, I suppose they've written themselves to a corner with Prince Langya, he feels definitely less glorious of a person than he was treated in BoY, after seeing Dashing Youth. So I'm ok with not seeing his character wrap-up here.

I started with giving this a 8.5/10 and ended with a 7.5/10, but overall I really enjoyed the themes of how different generations of people answer times of suppression, and balance morality, friendship and family, and what exactly is the end goal of a martial artist. The people were extremely pleasant to look at, the fight CGIs were epic visual feasts, and I did enjoy myself a lot considering how I rarely watch idol Wuxia/Xianxia/Xuanhuan.

[cryscendo]

i was gonna reply to your comment on my post but i thought id bring the discourse straight to your inbox instead alskfjdslk its not like we're telling teenagers to go out and discover some weird kinks of their own right this second lmao but they absolutely have to learn to be comfortable with the fact that people are going to be into kinky shit they think is weird and thats its not in fact a moral issue and also none of their business lol

like when i was a kid everything was so fucking raunchy and im not saying it was better but everything has to be so fucking sanitized now and thats not good either. when i was a kid online in the 00s people would literally link you to shock porn videos as a joke and that was just an accepted norm. nowadays there are so many ways to tailor your online experience to you and people are just ignoring all these block and filter functions and look at shit they know they dont like and bitch about it when they had every opportunity not to see it

and it goes back to the fucking rocky horror discourse like god forbid youre trying to portray a queer character in a way thats anything other than the most palatable beige blank slate that ever was. god forbid a queer character acts or dresses or looks or behaves in a queer way aksfjsld they want everything to be so fucking boring and palatable to 1) encapsulate every single queer experience on earth in a single piece of media and 2) be tolerable to straight people because theyre under the illusion that there is any acceptable way for a queer person to be to a bigot other than dead. both are a useless endeavor and they need to quit wasting energy on caring about either

like god fandom just feels so bleak nowadays and i know part of it is bc of how fast things move and no one can hold longterm interest in stuff anymore but a huge part of it is how flat out prudish people are all of a sudden

let ships be problematic let queer characters be weird let sex be kinky lmao let fandom by fun again my godddd

sorry for the rant aklsfjkdshfdk i apparently had a lot to say but hey i love you thanks for complaining with me xxxxx

omg i’m so sorry i meant to respond to this earlier than now!!! i saw it originally when i was waking up for work and thought “ooooh she’s making some banger points i’ll respond to that on my break” and then i just… forgot. so here i am now better late than never 🥰

i’ve always had a bit of a problem with the incessant need to sanitize fandom. i’m not saying ppl can’t curate their fandom experience to appeal to their interests, because obviously, they absolutely can. HOWEVER i do think it has become much more policed than it once was.

i think kink, and understanding its place on a fundamental level (especially within queer spaces), is something that takes maturity to fully understand. like with the rocky horror thing, the use of sexuality and kink is inherently different than what a young person of today might perceive it as. it doesn’t particularly surprise me that people are so sensitive to it, because they simply don’t understand their roots — they’ve formed this concept of queerness that pleases them, and therefore find other demonstrations of queerness to be antiquated or “back-pedalling” (even though we both know it isn’t). i think it’s dumb and immature to try to dictate “right and wrong” ways to be queer, but i’m also not all that shocked that it’s happening.

all this to say, queer characters don’t have to fit into the boxes that we deem as “appropriate”. just like how real queer people don’t owe an explanation for who they are, these queer characters don’t HAVE to reflect every queer person that engages with their media.

personally for me, kink is a MASSIVE component of the queer experience. so because of that, i like my favourite bitches to be kinky but that’s just me 😌

absolutely feel free to rant anytime your opinions are literally always correct to me <3

[phightinghottakes]

While I'm at it, I'll talk about someone other than Subspace for once.

I've see a lot of drama about a couple of ships on my fyp recently (probably just me, but whatever), and those ships are:

1. Scythestaff

2. Banbox

3. Subgraft

First of all, I'm not even going to comment of Subgraft. I'm perfectly fine with Biobox, it's cute, but Subgraft is disgusting, that's my opinion and I don't want it to be commented on, but I had to say that I do not think that this ship is alright in any way shape or form.

Moving on: Scythestaff and Banbox

SCYTHESTAFF:

1. Uh, idk, I wanna say that idgaf about what you ship, tbh, as long as it's not illegal, this is just my personal thoughts on the ship

2. The main thing I see on this ship is about the age gap, which is a small reason on why I don't like the ship, but it is absolutely not the main reason.

3. The main reason as to why I do not like Scythestaff is that it is... a pretty good example of... being a creep. Scythe, to site directly from the official wiki app, "has remarked directly to Vine Staff about having her horns on her wall."

...

Think about that. Scythe has expressed direct interest in putting Vine Staff's horns on a wall, which is, to put it bluntly, a disgisting and disturbing thing to say to someone. I think that putting them in a relationship is bad because, this seems obvious, in my opinion, but because Vine Staff would not be safe, nor would she feel safe. She clearly doesn't trust Scythe, and, again, siting from the official wiki, "Scythe likes Vine Staff but is disliked in return."

Vine Staff does not like Scythe. In fact, she sees Scythe as a creepy woman (because Scythe is a creepy woman, no matter how much I love her), if I interpret their dialogue correctly.

4. Uh, the age gap adds onto this. The ship, in canon, would already be, like, a 3/10, but the age gap makes it a 1/10, because it makes Scythe even creepier if you see her interest in Vine Staff as romantic. This is a 42 year old woman, flirting with a (scientifically not fully mature, by the way) 23 year old, and the 23 year old is clearly stating her displeasure with such flirtations. I believe thar is called 'catcalling'. Let's be homest here, if Scythe was a man, this would be an incredibly disliked ship (coming from a woman, so no, I'm not being sexist here).

If you need it to be put in a simpler manner:

A much older person is catcalling a much younger person who clearly dislikesit and is expressing that they do not consent to these types of interactions with the older (is the way that I see it. Again, this is all opinions).

Alrighty, those are my veiws on Scythestaff, now time for... the other one.

BANBOX:

1. I personally just don't like this ship. I think in some ways it's better, seeing as Ban Hammer doesn't act creepy with Boombox, but in other ways it's worse, because Boombox is pretty clearly less emotionally mature than Vine Staff.

2. Age gap is actually one of the more major reasons that I don't like this ship, but we will talk about it later.

3. Banbox to me is... odd, because it just feels like Ban Hammer (in canon, your headcanons are valid, but I speak of ships in a relatively canon sense, so, y'know) would just be taking advantage of Boombox on multiple different levels, because not only would Ban Hammer have all the power in such a relationship, and in most relationships, it could still be healthy, even with one partner who could easily control the other, if the one with the power is a decent prson and eould not use this power to do so. But Ban Hammer is the type of person to do just that: exploit that power. I know that people like to make him 'silly buff man', and he is, to some degree, but he is also a fully grown, emotionally aware and intelligent, and very rude person, who uses his power to control others. Or, at least, he tries to. As stated in the magical official wiki: "Ban Hammer is, overall, a cocky and self-assured Phighter who will not hesitate to overstate his abilities and put others down." So uh, there's my proof.

Now here's where all of this 'power' is:

5. Ban Hanmer is much stronger than Boombox. He is over a foot and a half taller than him, and is a literal demigod. In a fight, Boombox would lose.

6. Ban Hammer is much older than Boombox. He has more experience, more information, etc. than Boombox because of this.

7. Ban Hammer is more powerful in the sense of status as well. He is the warden of Banlands, a feared figure, and a demigod. He could easily turn people against Boombox, or prevent Boonbox from getting help from others in the case of an agruement or serious/scary matter.

7. Boombox is a generally innocent character. He has never killed anyone, he tries to make friends with basically every phighter he comes across, and, well, just look at his character. Of course, he's much more than just that, but it is something I would like to point out, as Ban Hammer is... basically the opposite of that. He is rude, aggressive, offstandish, and has killed, seeing as Boombox is the only who hasn't.

Basically, Ban Hammer would have every ounce of power in this relationship and would definitely use this power to control and abuse Boombox, which is... icky.

THAT'S IT!!

Yeah, I don't like these ships.

If you do, go ahead! I'm just saying that in canon, these would never happen, and would be incredibly toxic if they did, to a point where it wouldn't be just 'toxic yaoi/yuri', but it would be openly disrespecting the abusive relationships in real life that people suffer through. However, if you acknowledge that these ships would be bad in canon, then you're fine. To be completely truthful, basically none of the ships are canon.

Honestly, this was just me explaining why I don't like the ships, personally. Headcanons are fine, aus are fine, as a previous anon has stated. Go crazy, just don't get mad when people express that the ship makes them uncomfortable, because, well, that's perfectly reasonable.

SHIP WHATEVER AS LONG AS IT'S NOT ILLEGAL, WOOHOO!!!!!!

-- 🌒 anon <3

.

[its-shugo-chara-time]

Shugo Chara Jewel Joker Ch. 1 Review

I thought I'd go over my thoughts about the first chapter of the sequel.

So, can we first start off with how gorgeous this chapter cover is? Like I absolutely love how the same art style is still there but it seems more refined and...mature (I don't know how but it just does).

I'll be completely honest that I'm not super thrilled about them adding on another love interest to the sequel. It makes sense, but, not super excited about it. The fact that he already appears to just be a younger version of Ikuto feels a bit lazy on Peach-Pit's end. Sorry if that's offensive but those were just my initial thoughts.

I also really like that it's a sequel directly after the events of Shugo Chara Encore. I think exploring Amu's growth through middle school is such a great concept. The ~ cool and spicy ~ line still makes me smile every time.

It's so good to see Rima, Yaya, and Kairi!! AAAH THEY ARE ALL SO PRECIOUS, especially Rima. I always have adored her.

Also, Kairi and Yaya's dynamic is so cute. I think they balance each other out really well. I know some thought their "pairing", if you can even call it that, in Shugo Chara Encore random, but I think it actually works well. I'd love to see some of the chapters show how Kairi and Yaya are doing taking over the Seiyo Academy Elementary guardians, maybe even see who the new King, Queen, and Joker end up being.

And then there's the adorable prince. I spent so much of middle and high school years going back and forth between him and Ikuto as my favorite. I started off liking Ikuto then went to Tadase then back to Ikuto haha. Now that I am 26 years old, I can acknowledge that the age gap between Amu and Ikuto is definitely valid in people considering it problematic, which I would have adamantly disagreed with at 16. Now that I am a therapist and have seen a lot (to say the least), my opinion has changed. I can't deny the appeal of that relationship in a fictional setting but also can't deny that the age gap is not something that can be overlooked. It would never fly in real life. I'll just leave it at that.

I'm not going to lie, I was pretty disappointed when I first read this about her going to a new school. I was like NOOO I WANT TO SEE AMU WITH THE SAME CHARACTERS AND JUST SEE ALL THE RELATIONSHIPS DEVELOP MORE. Alas, though, I also can agree that the new school and new characters can be great for Amu's growth and journey. Plus, I mean, there's got to be an actual plot lol. So there's that.

I also love how Tsukasa is downplaying all of this. Like it'll actually only take a week or two. Or a semester haha. Also weird how he's just shipping them off with little regard for their actual education or wants. Did Amu's parents actually say yes to this? Haha. It's those little things that I think about that I wonder if anyone else does.

First appearance of the new mysterious cat boy. I wonder if they're making him (at least appearance wise) identical to Ikuto because Peach-Pit realized that Ikuto being with Amu is deemed problematic more so now or if it's just another distraction until Amu ends up with Ikuto ..or Tadase? I honestly have no clue what they'll end up doing. I also just wanted to say that if you all do ship Amuto or Amu with Ikuto, there is no judgment from me. I must acknowledge that it is inappropriate but at the same time, I also know the nostalgia and very cute story they have too. Their relationship is very sweet, but the age gap can't be overlooked. But anyway, still not thrilled about this new guy, sorry.

Oh my gosh look how cute they are!!! Amu's uniform suits her so well, I 100% support her wearing that the rest of the series. Tadase also looks super cute too with that coat. He looks more grown up, aw.

I don't know how all these children get to go to these academies that look more beautiful than some cathedrals. Also can't wait to see how this new cute villain guy contributes to this story. I wonder how he'll differ from the other villains like Nikaidou and Kairi's sister (why can't I remember her name?) or the Easter director guy. I think Nikaidou has been my favorite "villain" so far. I think he was the most developed one.

I like the concept of the X not disappearing and having this cultish academy where everyone already has guardian characters. Where did the X egg go though? Did it just disappear? Am I stupid because I seriously don't know why it's not mentioned after this haha like where did it go? And whose was it? Can't wait to see why all the students are desensitized to this haha.

Possible villain number 2. I like her character design. I kind of like how she's more passive aggressive toward Amu instead of how it was with Rima and Utau where it was full on aggression at the beginning. I don't think we've really seen Amu handle that dynamic and I'm curious how their relationship will develop. It's funny how Amu knows there's something off about her immediately. Amu definitely isn't naive like she can read that the girl doesn't have good intentions pretty quickly.

Okay, this conversation that Amu has with Rima is so cute though. Whether I can fully ship Amuto or not, I have to say Rima giving Amu relationship advice (albeit, not good advice haha) is hilarious and we need to see more of this please.

Gosh I love Amu's different faces. And that's she's a scaredy cat.

Can we just remember -

And many, many more amazing Amu reactions from the anime.

I'll close with, I still don't like new boy but I guess I can't say I permanently think that until he actually gets formally introduced. I hope he's distinctly different from Ikuto or else it just feels kind of pointless having him there.

Welp, that's my commentary! Sorry that was EXTREMELY long. It's also almost midnight where I live, like wow I sure can blab about this manga for a long time. Please comment or like if you at least somewhat enjoyed this little review. Or if you didn't like it. I'm open to suggestions haha, or light-hearted, respectful debates. I'm very new to being back on tumblr so if my formatting is horrendous I'm down for some advice. I also will be posting about the second chapter in the upcoming days so be looking out for that too! Excited to be back on here and see what you all think about the sequel :)