#i mean this arc coulda been something

[alexissara]

My Favorite Movies/TV/Anime of 2023

Going into 2023 I've done a lot more taking in art then in previous years and this section is all about the audio/visual/auditory art I've taken in this year and enjoyed. In fact it's a content and clickable top 10 list! Wow so engaging, much content, please enjoy. This is gonna be inclusive of movies, cartoons, anime, TV shows, etc because I don't engage any one of these mediums alone enough to make a nice little list, at least not this year.

These are roughly in an order by how much I enjoyed them but these are different pieces of art that hit you in different places for different reasons and no one piece of art here is like "Better" than the other. Ask me at a different hour let alone day and this list could be all scrambled.

Adolescence Of Utena

So I finally watched some Utena, I mean I watched a little but of Utena before, just a few episodes with some friends but I watched the full ass movie now so that counts for something. The anime is really artful and it's a very compelling queer coming of age story with all the messy trauma and feelings attached. It's a weird movie, a girl turns into a car, and that's amazing, 12/10, another girl can also turn into a car, we're really just living the dream here. Finally true lesbian representation is when a girl can turn into a car and I am here for it. It's a really great piece of art and I am glad to have finally got to take it in and enjoy it.

Glass Onion

So this is probably the biggest surprise on the list for folks who follow me but one of my girlfriends really loves mysteries and so a Glass Onion I did watch with her. It's super funny and fun, it's just good. The cast has good chemistry, the jokes land, the mystery has fun twists, and it's just a good experience overall.

One Piece Film Red

I am not a One Piece fan, I do not care for One Piece, It's like fine Shonen. However, this movie fucking slapped, it was a good fucking time. Uta is One Pieces best character and she should show up and take over the final arc of the manga because she is so good. The music was fucking killer with Ado slaying every single fucking song and it really just hit. Every song is so good on it's own and in it's context. It's what you want from a truly killer musical experience and every song being from "the villain" is just extra fun. The power of friendship and bounds is really great here, it's just good and well animated even if the women all have the same exact body.

Everything, Everywhere, All At Once

I finally watched this movie after all the hype had died down and well, it was worth the hype, it isn't my favorite movie of all time but it's a good movie. It's funny, amazingly acted, well shot, silly and just in general a good time. It touches on a lot of good themes of family, trauma, homophobia, expectations, and parental relationships. I think the queerness coulda been better in the movie and have complaints on how that is displayed here but I mean it was at least a little bit queer and that's more than most movies. As a former actor who really loves the craft I envy everyone involved too for getting to be in such a fun film, I can only imagine what a blast it was to see the final product of what I am sure was a ton of hard work to make something so fun.

Gundam The Witch From Mercury - Season 2 

Gundam ended on more of a whimper than a bang to me. Which is both not uncommon for a Gundam series to have a shitty ending but also not shocking given this series was given it had a much shorter run time. Regardless of me thinking this half of the anime is much weaker than the first half it still undeniably striking in it's animation, stunning visually, engaging to watch with a cast of very endearing characters to watch in the dramatic stakes of it all. The very end was not terrible but the time we spent to get to the final epilogue moments were questionable. Regardless, this show did not kill off Prospera, Chuchu, Secelia or Rouhi and they all were in a lot of these episodes so like an 8/10 cuz their all fucking brilliant and I really like Sulletta a ton too, I am just probably Mio's weakest solider among lesbians preferring my sweet little nervous lesbian settle down with a nice earthian girl or make use of her second hand to be polyamarous.

Kakegurui Twin

I never have and likely never will watch Kakegurui's main series but the twins series female focused cast and yuri energy captured my attention and so I turned it on. Wow, what a fucking ride. This over the top gambling game is Jojo's bizarre adventure, is sports anime, is card game anime, it's the raw spirit of these things radiating in the horny submissive lesbian factory and served back in animated form. The fucking faces these women get to make as they smugly battle in bounts of gambling is just so delicious and the tension they manage to put into each of these games of chance as the fucked up students try and cheat each other and win is just brilliant.

Harley Quinn 

HarIvy is a ship of all time for me, it's hard to have the concept of a show be "HarIvy comedy" and me not to at least kinda enjoy it and I enjoyed it a lot this new season. At the start of the season I wasn't click with it, it felt weird and forced for Harly and Ivy to be placed in these really binary hero and villain roles but in the end that's what it was really about. Neither of them are traditional heroes or villains and the show actually recognized that and let them trying to fit into the strict mold of the universe as an active issue for themself, their sense of self, their relationship, the world and more. From time to time they felt fairly out of character but I am just happy to see this arcs over all themes and the work they put into that.

I’m In Love With The Villainess 

While I would have rather had a tighter pace that went through the first two books of the series rather than one and some tiny jumps into the second book I'm In Love With The Villainess still managed to be one of my favorite things to watch this year with me viewing it multiple times. Rae's Isekai fantasy of being bullied by a hot rich woman and the eventual need to confront her own internalized homophobia and self pity as blocking her path to happiness are fun to see. Rae is really good in the anime adaptation and in it more than any other adaption it feels like everyone is friends and cares about each other which fits the light hearted comedy tone better than the light novels Rae will kill anyone for Clair, she has no friends mindset.

Scott Pilgrim: Takes Off

This was the biggest surprise of the year. I had grown out of Scott Pilgrim, while I was a fan of the comics before the movie was even a thing, I watched the movie before it even released, I even at some point was collecting the colored editions, I eventually soured on the series and sold everything I had of it. I wasn't excited about the anime and felt more like "let it go" then "OMG thing from when I was young" but hearing the good things I heard about it and about the Scott twist along with seeing the great animation in the OP I decided, fuck it why not give it a shot. So I did and wow, it's really good. It's a great take down, commentary, adaption, whatever it is of the original work. It is Scott Pilgrim having grown up alongside me, funnier than ever and a lot better about everything. I really loved all the changes and it still felt very true to the heart of Scott Pilgrim which is messy adults trying to fix their fucked up selves and relationships.

The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady

This certainly sits among my favorite anime of all time and very highly if not number one. MagiRevo mastered a light novel adaptations tempo perfecting how to make one season of what would be a nothing slow burn with no pay off at the novel and mangas pace into an exciting action packed yuri with more gay kisses in it than the rest of the years anime put together. It's funny, charming, fun but it also captures some really hard emotions too, I'll never forget the scene with Anis being pressured by old men to have children and stuff and the utter disgust she has at being treated like a piece of meat as she attempts to fill her role to the kingdom. It is devastating and heart wrenching and it just makes all the joy feel so strong.

If you want to help me enjoy more art then consider checking out my Patreon or Ko-fi and giving me a little bit of cash so I can do more of this kind of writing but also like make lots of my own art, art is hard to make and costs money and like maintain my chronically ill and trans body also takes money so anything helps, thank you. If you want more details on any of these I do have reviews for many of the pieces of art above but you can also let me know you want more and maybe I'll write more.

[jadewing-realms]

okay okay, I've been listening to Coulda Been Me by The Strats and I'm in my feels and thinking too much but like like people talk about how Astarion turns vampire tropes on their heads and he really does but I haven't seen anyone talk about the specific trope of like

How the entire concept of what it means to be human is such a recurring theme with them and usually, there's an unspoken point of how immortality is dehumanizing and how these vampires live for so long, they're just entirely removed from empathy for mortals because why would they stop to consider it any more than a human stops to consider the life of a fly, which is comparatively short

Something something mortality, knowing it will all end one day, is what drives humans to live well and make the most of the time they have

While immortals are usually the contrast of cold, aloof and removed from the passion that makes life worth living because they're not alive, they're dead men walking and will be forever, so alien they shall become

AND YET

Despite everything

Despite all the horrors he's experienced, despite the understandably devastating blow to his morale, the jaded self-defense mechanisms he developed because of course he did, he had to just to survive

Astarion never really... stops thinking like a mortal. Even after two whole centuries of pure shit, as he so eloquently puts it, the MOMENT he gets the opportunity, the chance at freedom, at living again, he friggin leaps for it and dives in head first

He wants to experience everything he possibly can, he's insatiable, he wants nothing more than to just see, think, do, feel All The Things

He maintains such a zest for life, a passion for freedom and experience, that most vampires in media just. Lack. Or only get back through a romantic subplot pff

He claims a romanced Tav helped him want to live again, but honestly, when Tav can say "nah, you did it yourself, I just gave you a nudge when you needed it" its absolutely the truth. He loves and wants life so badly that he overcompensates, is desperate not to lose it, is almost willing to lose his soul for it if not convinced he doesn't have to

And I've never really seen a functionally immortal character represent such a drive to Live before, its such a break from form

From Dracula and Lestat to Tolkien elves, we're used to seeing a sort of malaise, a despondency and passiveness associated with characters doomed to live forever, to the point that they've forgotten so much of what it means to be alive, truly alive, are confused by the "shortsighted" wants and goals of shorter lived companions, yet here's Astarion, undead yet more alive than any of them

Like, he sells himself so short sometimes, but he's positively bursting with life 24/7, he's vivacious and passionate and his energy is infectious and god, I don't know how anyone could genuinely, thoughtlessly choose the dialogue where you accuse him of having given up while suffering under Cazador, this man is so strong and so determined to live, it's probably what made him the scapegoat in the first place

His character arc is just a battle cry of LIVE

LIVE YOUR LIFE

No matter what you've seen, no matter how you've suffered, there is so much worth living for and all you have to do is reach out and seize every opportunity you get

Don't waste a single moment because time is precious and we never know how much we have

[cyberdragoninfinity]

I would love to hear your Indigo Disk thoughts

YES!!!!!!! 💎🐢💥 full disclosure I only just finished Indigo Disk's main storyline like....less than 24 hours ago so I am still RIDING HIGH FROM THE RUSH OF IT ALL. will probably be spoilers ahead, as a head's up:

first off I love that like. right off the bat youre getting hit with cyrano and cavell old man yaoi. busting out the cute little nicknames like HELLO!!! AND then you have geeta showing up and rika is there for no reason whatsoever and it's like. well ok i think they were having lesbian activities on the plane over you love to see it!

anyway setting wise, the Big Ol Blueberry is pretty fun! I love running around and the Synchro Machine is SUCH a ridiculously fun feature (FINALLY, TRUE GAMING: Dana can run around as a Ninetales and smack a big ball around.) I love all the Unova callbacks and I LOVE THE DIFFERENT CLUB ROOM LAYOUTS!! The monochrome one made me tear up and SEEING THE FUCKIGN. POKESTAR STUDIOS ENEMIES. IN THE FUTURISTIC ONE. MADE ME FEEL SOMETHING. pokestar studios my beloved i miss it sooo much 😭 My buddy Snap was talkin about how the Terarium really kind of lacks... yknow, landmarks and points of interest, though, and god I agree so hard. I love that Kitakami had its own little set of interesting features and places to go and use as landmarks and the Terariuam kind of. Doesn't really have those. It's a bit of a pain in the ass to navigate and easy to get lost but not in a fun way.... even though you have these little neat natural features like The Pride Rock and Chargestone Caves, I wish we coulda had a little bit more :( For such a widely used part of the school it doesn't feel very 'lived' in by the students there. It would've been fun to see more gathering places aside from the Very Sterile Outside Classrooms.....

The Area Zero Underdepths, though...hooouughhHHHhhh. I just. I really have to admire the fact that Indigo Disk said "ohhh you want answers?? you wanna know what's going on in this place? fuck you, youre gonna have MORE questions after this, and theyre gonna be even CRAZIER ones." YOU GO IN THAT HOLE AND LEARN NOTHING AND IM NOT EVEN MAD ABOUT IT. GO LOOK AT THE CRYSTAL TREE DOWN THIS RANDOM PATHWAY. i neeeed to make a terapagos post sometime and talk more about it i cannot stop thinking about this little freak. POKEMON THAT SCARE ME A LITTLE I MUST SAY. POKEMON I DO NOT FEEL IN CONTROL OF. i Know they didnt make its charged terastal form look like a dream catcher for no reason. I Know its Stellar Form Looking Like That isnt for no reason. I know its borderline dangerous power and THAT LITTLE STUNT IT PULLS. AT THE CRYSTAL POOL. THAT'S INDICATIVE OF SOMETHING I THINK. >when Terapagos's cry was the sound Terastalizing has been making all fucking game. SCREAMS.

also again oh my god if you beat the main indigo disk storyline go to the crystal pool right now GO. GO FEEL SOMETHING. GO!!!!

ok well that's. less about setting and more about story though huh. well!! story wise, absolutely loved it! I know there was a lot of apprehension when the DLCs got more properly announced and we found out they didnt really center on Our Dear Paldea Friends as scarvio proper did, and yeah I definitely can see why that's a frustration and a deterrent for some (and I'm soo so excited to hang out with Nemona and Arven and Penny in the epilogue next month....peach time (: ) but for me in the end I'm really just so enamored and delighted with all the new friends you get to make in the DLC and they more than carry that little narrative's arc on its own. The Elite 4 of the BB League are all GREAT, they got nonstop autistic girls out here in gen 9 (nemona, amarys, briar ?!??!) and it ROCKS. and i LOVE Carmine so much, everyone always wants mean rivals and mean women and folks cant even handle Carmine 🙄 you can tell she genuinely has such a big heart and cares about her friends and her brother!!! and Kieran wahhh wahh kieran my newest Little Guy ;____;.... he is SO fourteen and I did not expect to go into the DLC getting really invested in a new character's arc but it's just GOOD. He REALLY feels like a loose yugioh character in Indigo Disk, he's so angry and obsessed with victory and ultimately under it all still capable of so much kindness and regret and he's just GOOD. And his champion battle was terrifying and a BLAST!! THE MUSIC RULES. HE EVEN HAD INCINEROAR.

god and all the music in Indigo Disk was a banger. gen 9 music save me. gen 9 music. save me gen 9 music.

i'm SUPER hyped to do more BBQs with my bestie and do more postgame stuff with the "hanging out with Gym Leaders" thing and the Legendary hunting and such... lots more to roll around in and have a good time with. All in all had just a great time with it, I genuinely might put Violet as my favorite Pokemon game of all time at this point! I do grow very sad thinking about just how even more fantastic this game couldve been if it had 1-3 more years to cook properly though, like..god damn. I was getting some LAG on those cutscenes, and I know I made out pretty alright in the bugs department!!

but for now i'll just be thinking about the shit that happens at the crystal pool for the rest of my life. also Indigo Disk gave me the best possible trainer ID photo i never need to change it again

[gingergofastboatsmojito]

The weakes3t link

S3 works like an experiment in a lab, not like an actual show on tv. Storer wanted to experiment with us.

S3 works as a stand-alone, not as part of an ensemble of previously flawless seasons, with the exception of the MPDG, the only cliché flaw we had had to put up with so far, which is debatable because her character's addition to the story could still work.

S3 was nothing but a sleight of hand that no one needed or asked for, even if the whole purpose of it was making the series longer. So many other paths coulda been explored to achieve that goal of prolonging it that it still doesn't justify THIS, what we were served.

I do like it and it grows on me as I keep dissecting it but I still don't want it, not like this. I'm all about putting the characters through hell, I never expected a fairy tale, I'm all about the redemption arcs that are not sugar-coated and based on realism and challenges that the characters don't always conquer, I'm an Austenian animal. What I'm not OK with and never will be is the unnecessary suffering. There were OTHER ways to do this and get to the obvious place Storer is going with Carmy, which is him finding "a cure" to his loneliness, as JAW once said. This will include all the other characters of the show as well, like I said long ago, the structure is Austenian so we know where they are all gonna end up. Why make us, the viewers, suffer, and why gaslighting us? Why not just shut the fuck up and show us how these characters suffer and find a glimpse of hope at the end of the season at least? Just a glimpse that makes us wanna see more of that?

Why not show me how Carmy realizes after letting himself cry for the first time in years that everything he did all season long is wrong and literally shows us he wants to change? I don't need to see the change right this sec, this season, sure, but give me some actual visual sign, please! IK that's what's gonna happen anyway, so... I mean obviously the protagonist of the fucking story will not end up throwing himself under a bus after getting that fucking review, so show me a glimpse of hope that involves the 2 fucking main characters that are literally emotionally broken right now and I will follow you down to hell and back to see how they pull through.

Show me SOMETHING that reassures me. IK that's where this is headed anyway, so why THIS!??! WHY LIKE THIS?!?! WHY THE SADISM?!!

This season was unnecessarily harsh and for the same reason poetic, if you can find beauty in pain, knowing that through that pain, an equal or greater joy will come eventually. But still. It was not supposed to be like this, given the previous 2 seasons that didn't need to be processed as a stand-alone to work.

The show is a whole entity, this season only works as an isolated event that will only make total sense once the show ends and we can look back. It's a season meant to be fully appreciated in perspective not right now, that's a mistake. I shouldn't have to wait a whole year to fucking love it, I certainly didn't have to do that with the other 2.

All the good things it has, and IMO it has many, are totally diminished by the many other things that ruin it.

IK S4 will fix this, I'm positive, or even 3B for that matter if that's even a thing... but we shouldn't need that, The Bear is not, or was not, a show that needed "fixing" till Storer FUCKED UP THIS BAD.

[wewebaggit]

i am conflicted about max (bc i don't like killing a suicidal kid who fought tooth and nail to survive and also the aspect of ending an interracial relationship while all the white straights get to be happy would be really bad), but hopper and steve should have died 100%. not only hopper's fake out death was nonsensical, but it was such a chickening out moment that made the entire loss of his character pointless, plus the whole russia arc was shitty. him dying actually would fit the story so much. also steve... like please the writers suck up this dude so much that they created an entire new character (eddie) to kill him off in steve's place. cowardly behavior. should have left steve die but ofc st doesnt have good writing so we have to watch shit like these bending the narrative just to not kill your two white men.

I would have been sad if Max had actually died cuz I do enjoy her character a lot. However, what ended up happening with her saving at the end by the magical hand magic of El in a realm she wasn't even present in btw (whatever we no care for consistency) was much more offensive to her arc. I mean she goes thru all that but in the end what saves her is none of that shit. Just magic. There is no sense of urgency or real danger because the stakes are never high in ST. Which I've finally come to peace with is not the type of show it advertises itself as i.e. horror/sci-fi. But instead is more superhero shit. So. Max is and was always expendable and created to service the one true god El. N if that's the case I rather her arc amount to something important. Than just one more instance to show us how OPed El is.

Regarding your feelings about one half of the interracial couple and the suicidal kid getting shafted, well the interracial couple never got to showcase their romance anyway. What sells it is the easy camaraderie and the fact that we're told they're together. The romance aspect has been clearly reserved for MiIeven among the kids. So idk I've never been that interested in Lumax cuz of Lumax but cuz I like Lucas and Max individually. Lucas also keeps getting a bad deal regardless of the equation he makes a half or third or fourth of.

Now about the suicidal kid dying? She is dead. She's alive by deus ex machina and nothing else. It's not her fighting back. It's not even ALL the people rallying behind her to save her and save hawkins. No. It's all El. I don't see the appeal in that.

So she was better off fridged. Steve and Hopper should've been dead. This show should have had script doctors. But shoulda woulda coulda changes nothing.

[casliveblog]

Custom Toonami Block Week 138 Rundown

Spy X Family: Following last week’s… explosive entrance into school, Anya has an uphill battle trying to fit in. Loid becomes an almost literal helicopter parent making sure she’ll apologize to him and despite Anya’s new friend Becky objectively being a best girl, she’s kinda getting in the way of the apology and everyone else hating Anya’s guts is kinda not helping. She eventually does get to apologize after Loid’s vandalized like a quarter of the school to give her the hint but because Damian’s friends mentally teasing her, Anya ends up crying while apologizing and making a really moe face, this combined with Damian going to Spike Spiegel school of loving women that kick his ass, means he now has an epic crush on her but given he’s like six this just amounts to shouting at her and running away, making everyone else think he hates her. Back at home, Loid’s trying to tutor Anya but just because she’s psychic doesn’t mean she’s smart so she’s having a really hard time of it and runs off. Loid and Yor have a nice little talk about how to do what Anya wants and lay off the Tiger Dad stuff a bit and Yor talks about how her brother loved sharing his knowledge with her and if Anya doesn’t find joy in learning and/or motivation in improving her mind to show her loved ones things will be hard for her on that front. Loid agrees and they try to find a gentle way to motivate and encourage her but when he goes to check on her he finds she’s already been studying as much as she can and knows how important it is that she does well. Kinda fucked up honestly that Yor just thinks Loid’s pushing this huge academic weight on Anya to honor his dead wife like that’s a lot of pressure to put on a six year old like getting into the school was one thing  but keeping her on the super elite honor roll deal feels like overkill. Anyway the stinger shows Yor’s brother getting home from doing espionage shit and finding out his sister’s apparently been married for supposedly like a year and never told him so… that’ll be fun to explain.

Inuyasha: We continue with the Naginata of Kenkon filler arc and the group faces off against the four Demon Ninja henchmen. Sango gets a lizard guy that can shoot scales or some shit, Miroku fights the tiger dude that can just kinda fuck him up, Inuyasha gets a turtle dude that’s too tough for him once Hoshiyomi sucks the power out of the Tessaiga and Akitoki and Shippo get the gay bird guy that can fuck up Shippo because he’s Shippo but also has WAY too much trouble fucking up Shippo for any respectable demon. Though the fights are brief and instead of a 1v1 where everyone gets to shine and do some trickery to beat their bad guy Inuyasha fucking does a sneak attack that frees Miroku and he just fucking Wind Tunnel’s all four of them, like props for efficiency if nothing else, just throwing all the filler villains under the bus and reminding us why Narkau carries a metric fuckton of Saimyosho everywhere he goes, though for Demon Ninjas you’d think at least one of them would be versed in poisons but guess not, get wrecked I guess. Meanwhile Hoshiyomi has Kagome and reveals his tragic backstory of being betrayed by a priestess woman and now he thinks humans are stupid and shitty and the reason he didn’t take the other half of the naginata is because he uses the blade to absorb Kagome’s spirutal power to break the priestess woman’s seal on it and just kinda fucking call the other half right out of Akitoki’s hands so I guess it didn’t matter but like he coulda just grabbed the other blade on the way or something Akitoki was right next to Kagome when he captured her. Hoshiyomi uses the completed naginata to open the Dead Zone and floats up into the air because when you open a hellish nether realm portal the first thing you wanna do is get right up next to it, man learned from Garlic Jr. and took his lessons to heart. But yeah the crew’s kinda fucked, Miroku can’t suck up Kagome and Inuyasha’s down one sword and you can’t just throw Hiraikotsu at a hell portal and hope for the best.

Yu Yu Hakusho: So this episode’s kind of fucking fantastic. Turns out Itsuki’s power is summoning Prismo from Adventure Time to swallow everyone but Yusuke up so he and Sensui can have a fair right. You know for all Hiei’s talk about ‘Toguro wanted to release your potential and Sensui won’t be that generous about handing you the key on a silver platter’ if Sensui really wanted to he could’ve just had Yusuke swallowed up too and the plan would kinda be fucked right here but luckily Sensui does want the chance to be proven wrong by Yusuke. Itsuki’s motivation is kinda interesting, he’s actually a demon that stalked Sensui when he was a young Spirit Detective and started to get Sensui to think about how some demons can be good which paved the path for his flip on humanity. Itsuki makes no bones about being totally fucking gay for Sensui and says he’s the kind of pure person that will reflect anything given to him so if he’s become evil and deranged it’s because he’s absorbed a world that is equally so and whatever he does to the world is justice. That’s basically a fancy way of saying ‘the guy I simp for can’t be wrong’ but it’s nuanced enough that it makes sense as the logical thought process of someone that’s become enamored with the depth of Sensui’s multifaceted personality. Meanwhile Sensui’s giving Yusuke his own lecture about how doing a hard job like this will inevitably corrupt him and if he embraces it and chills out and enjoys becoming a sociopath it’ll be a lot easier. Yusuke has a pretty awesome comeback about how up until now his life’s been pretty shitty and the so-called dirty job Sensui thinks is corrupting him is the thing that’s let him help people and learn to reach out to others and he refuses to be bent over backwards by it or by Sensui. The rest of the episode is the fun opening volleys of Yusuke vs Sensui and we get the reveal that Yusuke is actually stronger than Sensui in most every regard but Sensui’s smarter and more experienced, like a Piccolo vs Form 2 Frieza situation. After being off the wall enough to catch Sensui off-guard Yusuke gets a couple first blood shots in and Sensui reveals he’s fucking covered in scars that he inflicted on himself as part of his training, just in case we hadn’t sold the fact he’s crazy enough yet.

Jujutsu Kaisen: So this week’s our official intro to Gojo’s powers and it’s suitable epic, he spends the whole episode bouncing Captain Magma around faster than you can say Krackatoa. He has like… parabola armor in that the closer you get to him the harder it is to actually hit him with anything and also he has the power of Infinity which for some reason means shooting laserbeams like idk I can’t exactly tell him it’s scientifically incorrect to be able to shoot laser beams by touching infinity because who would be able to fucking test that. Like his power doesn’t really seem to have ‘mechanics’ to it beyond the theme of Infinity and his ability seems to just be ‘be stronger than you’ from what I can gather which don’t get me wrong it’s fucking awesome I’m just not entirely wrapping my head around how it functions and how it displays the mechanics of Jujutsu. Captain Magma is so pissed that he forgets all about the Hypercube plan and just wants to fucking murder Gojo which he should’ve realized wasn’t going to happen when Gojo pulls a fucking Metro Man from Megamind and dips out of the fight halfway to run an errand to grab Yuji and come back so he can watch their Domains expand. From what I understand Doman Expansion basically means everyone gets a Reality Marble from Fate to power up their attacks and like create fire and shit if your power is fire or… be Itachi’s Tsukuyomi in Gojo’s case since he just basically paralyzes Captain Magma with infinite possibilities aka the college experience. So yeah basically Domains work on Bleach rules where the stronger power overpowers the weaker one or how Field Spells used to work in Yugioh where one can overtake the other with splashes of Pokemon with elemental weaknesses can trump things that are basically tied otherwise. Idk how I feel about that like I don’t really like the mechanics of the show telling me ‘this person is stronger so they can no-sell the other’ like I’ll have to see how it plays out in the series but I think it’d be a lot more interesting if the Domains mingled so you had a different type of terrain for every battle based on the clash of the two peoples’ innate powers. But yeah Gojo fucks Captain Magma up and rips off his head but Flower Dude comes to save him and run like a bitch. So Gojo’s just like ‘yeah let’s get you strong enough to do something like that’ and meanwhile evil leader dude is chilling on a beach playing soccer with Captain Magma’s still living head.

Chainsaw Man: We cut right back into the Eternity Devil fight which again has Jujutsu Kaisen mirroring the pacing of Chainsaw Man with them fighting something that has to do with Infinity, though in this case unlike Gojo the Eternity Devil gets its fucking ass kicked because it’s basically a million balloons filled with purple flurp against Chainsaws and Denji can use their blood like gasoline to keep healing and fueling forever literally out-eternitying the Eternity Devil. Himeno has a flashback to her partners talking about how the only way to beat Devils is to not be afraid of them and only someone fucking crazy wouldn’t be afraid of them and luckily Fucking Crazy is Denji’s middle name… possibly also his last name idk if he has any other names besides Denji. So Denji carves up the Eternity Devil like a Thanksgiving Turkey full of Grimace Shake for THREE DAYS and the Eternity Devil’s just like ‘fine here’s my glowing weak point just please stop bro this is awful’. So yay victory for Team Fucking Crazy. Himeno’s really happy about this because it means she may be able to save Aki from going all Kurakpika and blowing his life force load in search of vengeance and the plan is to throw Denji at the problem and hope he out-crazies the Gun Devil which isn’t a great plan but given their last plan was not having a plan it’s an improvement. Kobeni and other dude are quitting after trying to murder Denji and shitting themselves at the first sign of miserable groundhog looping hell so they’re having a big drinking party to… celebrate that I guess. But yeah we go around and flesh out the side characters a little bit and even get some more character stuff for Makima so that’s fun and Himeno gets shitfaced and decides to give Denji his kiss and… fucking pukes in his mouth which even Denji has standards against but I’m sure it’s someone’s fetish, two devils one cup and all that, I knew the scene was coming and Hulu pixilated it but I’m still glad I watched it after dinner instead of before. While Denji’s puking his guts out and having an existential crisis over why his every step towards physical intimacy is fucking cursed as hell, he passes out and Himeno just kinda abducts him from the bar and takes him back to her place, so shitfaced that she doesn’t even remember doing it until he wakes up in her bed and she’s half naked. Still pretty fucking drunk and watching another man hopelessly chase after Makima, Himeno does a little projecting and offers Denji they just fucking fuck which is kinda… dodgy? Idk what the ethics are here like Denji can barely fucking move so I don’t think either of them are in a consenting position and also Denji’s 16 but because he’s Denji even he’s not entirely sure of how old he is and he’s probably just guessing which gives hentai artists plausible deniability I guess so the situation is so fucked up that it kinda wraps back around to being morally gray enough to not be all that problematic I guess?

Ranking of Kings: So Turns out Daida’s gross dad milkshake was a potion of resurrection and led to him getting his body possessed by presumably his dad. Meanwhile Bojji’s still in hell trying to get training and they bribe Despa enough for him to actually train Bojji and despite seeming dodgy at first it seems like he’s a nice guy that really wants Bojji to succeed and is on the up and up. He analyzes Bojji’s potential and finds out he has zero muscle potential and literally can’t get stronger no matter how hard he works so he’s basically like a Reverse Rock Lee. Still Despa’s like ‘motherfucker you paid me, I am gonna make a fucking king out of you’ and resolves to train Bojji, giving him a mystery weapon that suits him and training him for weeks outside of Kage’s (and our) view. We get a nice little montage of how Bojji’s doing studying, training, and housework before anyone’s even awake and then going to the real training to learn techniques from Despa to make up for his lack of physical strength and capitalize on his speed and skill, almost like standardized teaching is bullshit and playing to your students’ strengths is the only way to help them succeed. Anyway there’s a huge explosion and Kage sees Bojji standing in front of a huge fucking rock looking like he cut it in half somehow, like this could easily be a joke or a swerve but if he found a way to actually be good at fighting this is big.

Vinland Saga: Turns out the King of the Danes decides to let the soliders take the winter off from killing the English which makes things hard for Askeladd’s crew since they’re profiting off the war and have already sacked all the good places around. Askeladd’s just like ‘hey somebody’s gotta be killin’ somebody somewhere right?’ and they just fucking go to France for the winter. In France they find a skirmish already in progress where two French generals are just kinda fighting each other I guess, one’s raiding the other’s fortress and Askeladd wants to join the raiders since taking everything from the fort is probably better pay than helping defend it and sends Thorfinn to go negotiate with the raiders specifically because he doesn’t care if the raiders just fucking off him for the language barrier. Thorfinn’s getting fed up with being strung along for like the better part of a decade at this point and asks Askeladd when he’s gonna get his fucking duel and Askeladd tells him if he kills a general and brings him his head he’ll duel him. Thorfinn meets with the lizard-looking motherfucker leading the raiders and it’s funny because they just have a translator but since we’re obviously not gonna have them speak French and Norse he’s just repeating everything that’s said in English. Thorfinn tells him it’s better to attack from the river than the front door but apparently there’s waterfalls and shit stopping them from getting upriver, meanwhile after Thorfinn gives the signal that the raiders are in on the plan, the French soldiers see Askeladd’s men carrying the figurehead of one of their ships over the mountains and mistake it for a real fucking dragon which is pretty cool. The battle starts and turns out the fucking Vikings carried all three ships across the plains to drop it in the river right by the base to flank the fortress. Askeladd sees the French general and immediately just fucking leaps over the fortress to go for his head, distracting the crossbow guys and inadvertently saving some of Askeladd’s men and it’s kinda funny because he mows through the French troops like crazy but then accidentally drops the general’s head off the side of the fort and is just like ‘ah fuck’ and has to go in after it. Askeladd’s men flank the base and just fucking slaughter everyone before the raiders even get inside and by the time the raiders figure out what’s going on Askeladd already has all the treasure and is like ‘yup, our half’s all this shitty gold, you get the fort and all the glory, pretty cool deal huh?’ and Thorfinn fucking jumps back onto the boat just in time and tosses the general’s head in front of Askeladd, challenging him to a duel. Askeladd’s just like ‘yeah kid that’s pretty cool and I’mma let you finish but we gotta get the fuck out of France like five minutes ago so we’re gonna hit pause on that for right now’.

[caveofwanderers]

"How long had it been...."

Arc was traveling through the wilds of Lastation for a quest, partly to stave boredom. But there was something else that had his attention, someone who had been roaming across the land... A girl dressed in gold with bright hair.

"(I didn't think I'd run into an unwritten possibility's player... But if she's the real deal or not remains to be seen.)" hearing noises of battle, he'd prepare a short sword, with a crystalline red sheen.

"C'MON! I'LL TAKE YOU ALL DOWN--!" The source of the noise would be made known as it seemed someone was throwing down with one of the wild monsters in the area, but it seemed this person was on the ropes before her current opponent was slashed in twain by Arc's blade.

"Heh, looks like I made it just in time..." there's a brief moment of desummoning the blade, before he'd turn to face the other.

OST: Comedy

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?! If one of those things got you killed you woulda been carted off to the ferryman!"

"Pssh, I had it cover--"

"Don't give me that crap! There was a slim chance you coulda died if I didn't make it in time! Don't you have SOME self-preservation?!"

OST: nocturne

"...Sorry, I... I just didn't want you to lose your 'possibility'."

"...Possibility? You know about the Continuum Shift from my world?"

"Not 'your' world particularly... But your possibility, unwritten in the logbook of phenomena, is still a possibility worth protecting."

"Heh... I don't understand what ya mean, but... Thanks for the save. I hafta keep going. I'm nearing my next destination."

"Not in the shape you're in right now. We're headed back to my place in Lastation. Some healing magic should do ya nice."

"I suppose.... You got a name, pal?"

"...It's Arc. Now come along."

[knowlessman]

idfk knowless got a pokemon game and then got pinkeye edition, bhna s4e10-14

oh yeah it's the plague doctor faction, with the tiefling kid

"you need to heal up so I can fight you to the death properly!" okay so this punchy guy wandered in from dbz then

yup. lockdown got redshirted -- so vampire girl can create clothes with her disguises, but because this writer is the way he is, that doesn't mean she can just transform her clothes when she morphs? wheretf did she put them, then? also aizawa fell for that ruse for like 0.5 seconds longer than he should've -- also also I have a feeling deku isn't gonna get the news that she infiltrated a school to whoever needs to know in time (or maybe that was revealed to them ages ago? I forget)

handface: "no, I don't know how to play chess. take your fancy-pants stradgedy and shove it, I do what I want"

"I can only read the future once a day, but luckily I'm also Batman"

"but we don't wanna work for the yakuza!" "we're gonna double-cross 'em." "on it!" he probably coulda just said "deku will be there" and the token protagonist-obsessed knife-licker would've shown up in a plague mask

(twice and vampire girl got hypnotized into saying how their abilities work) …wait, "my clothes transform with me, but they overlap with stuff because I purposefully wear clothes that sabotage my own ability just so I have to take them off?" …the fuck

mr zone of truth keeps holding his gun by the trigger. idjit's gonna shoot his own kidney out any moment -- sidenote, I imagine this confession guy's quirk is very popular in fanfic

"ultimate move: phantom threat!" you can't fool me, subtitles, I know what I heard 'XD it's jojo all over again

maybe don't scream your target's name when making a surprise attack tho? -- running time? you got the girl, I'm pretty sure chisaki's quirk is touch range… run away time?

…togata's not the main character tho. they ain't gonna let him solo this. …probably. -- ayup. hella move on the yakuza's part, tho - oh wait no, the dart probably wouldn't have erased eri's quirk, that's just her own quirk. he just guessed that togata wouldn't realize it wasn't a bullet, I guess. or that he wouldn't realize that it probably (?) wouldn't have any effect on eri.

…ngl, they did have me going for a second. I wasn't sure whether togata had somehow avoided the effects of the dart, or was gonna just Karate Kid it and beat chisaki to a pulp without powers, or what

goddamn after-credits scenes. -- oh wait so the after-credits bit here was just preview or something. well, fucked if I know

I still say Nighteye's future sight shouldn't make him able to dodge perfectly since it doesn't give him the superhuman speed to match his opponent's. -- …and there it is.

oh right, he ate the confession guy. …huh.

"then who was the deku we just saw" I was wondering how he got up there that fast. -- "…how DID we, kronk?" "well, you got me. I guess we copied that other teammate of ours and used his pokeball quirk to dig our way out" - wait a minute holy shit this is a lot of quirk copying going on. both these two can do it, Ditto from Class B can do it, it's a whole subgenre of superpower, huh

…subtitles, tiefling kid has been in the opening and outro for this whole arc. she's the macguffin of the whole thing. I know who Eri is.

"I have to go back…" eri's homura. calling it. we're about to re:zero this whole arc.

nighteye you have rock where most of your torso is sposed to be and an arm off, how in fuck are you still talking

"eri rewinds humans, so I just gotta keep taking damage to balance it out so I don't overheal and turn into a monkey!" …okay??? I guess??? -- I was just thinking how deku's power is kind of like if saitama's body wasn't immune to damage

you, sir, are a resident evil boss

hehe deku's hair kinda makes him look like a Bluper Saiyan here

(chisaki's backstory) "that girl is a person. does that mean nothing to you?" and I'm sure you, a mob boss, would be saying that even if she weren't your granddaughter

"midoriya… he changed the future…" actually I'm pretty sure that was little miss groundhog day who did that. -- altho, I guess it'd be a little much to assume that her ability actually fucks with the time continuum or whatnot, given that it seems that it just reverts bodies to earlier versions of themselves. it is pretty wonky that the first thing it does is healing and the second thing it does is erase quirks tho, rather than de-aging, and we haven't actually seen if it has any middle grounds (like other kinds of de-evolution) between that and complete annihilation.

(seer's gone) huh. …well, he did have a big ol' spike replacing most of his internal organs. maybe eri coulda done something, but tbf she can neither steer nor control what she does, so (according to chisaki) she'd probably have just turned him into a monkey anyway

[autumnslance]

The lead-in to EW was decently done, though without the stressful urgency of StB's late patches. Getting to see Sharlayan and Thavnair was great, though I still think there's a cultural/translation disconnect in what they tried to do with Fourchenault in the patch set up versus the MSQ itself. Coulda done with a few less, or better spaced out, "follow a target without being caught" quests, as it front-loaded them a bit. The walkaround with buddies mechanic is great. Metal Gear Thancred was also a neat divergence from the usual duties.

I wish we got more of Ilsabard, but I can see why they nixed a Garlemald expac. As it is the sequence is a long and difficult one, challenging for those who don't want to examine some things closely and think in terms of blame and punishment, and culminating in one of the most memorably horrifying solo instances ever. Even with the tweaks since release, it's still harrowing. And then the shock of "wait, if that's the dungeon boss than what--what do you mean this is the level 83 trial?!"

It makes sense honestly, to trigger off the Final Days. Fandaniel joins Ilberd in the underrated but incredibly effective antagonists club, and his story doesn't technically end at that trial--we have to see how it begins before he's drug to Superhell by an angry twink.

The Loporrits section is often said to be slow and silly, but after everything before it in Garlemald and the first part of the moon, and then everything that comes after in Thavnair, it's honestly needed for a pacing/emotions break. Also hangout time with the older Scions, which is rare, and a big moment for Urianger.

Elidibus felt more like himself in the Tower, including his final message to Hydaelyn (the "my dear Hydaelyn" in French really hits me for some reason).

Elpis is another very long sequence, but we delve a lot deeper into the main Ancient characters. It's a single tiny research station in the boonies, which I feel many players forget, so we still see little of Ancient culture, but what glimpses we do get are interesting. And the connection to Venat, Emet-Selch, and Hythlodeaus as the WoL, not Azem, really works for me narratively; Azem is incidental, it's always ever only been about the WoL as they are now, not who their soul just happened to belong to once upon a time. And the friendships forged throughout the journey have always been important so very often, and are a central theme to Endwalker itself.

It's the expansion that pays off having done all the side content and made all those friends, especially when the world answers the Scions' call to aid with the aetherburner. Fourchenault represents the entire Forum and their policy of isolation and self-sufficiency, and learning that maybe that's not the best way to go about things, especially not something so important as the end of the world.

I love Vrtra and Thavnair. I love how the devs worked to make it a multicultural, melting pot society, with care and intent. How in world the guidance of this ancient dragon who is also everyone's "little brother" has created a nation like this; not without it's flaws still, but far more in harmony than many others.

And Ultima Thule; a very well done zone (except the darn lighting issues ever plaguing this game). Yeah, even if as a player one's fairly certain you'll get the gang back, the characters don't know for sure; it's a case where the narrative stakes are used and I've talked at length about the subject before.

I finally appreciated Zenos. I think that was too long in coming to treat him as the wandering blood knight nuisance seeking answers as well as challenge, instead of him sleepwalking through plot he doesn't care about. The final battle works for his and Default WoL's arc, and harkens back to other FF games. He was almost incidental to the plot despite all his build up, but then his record scratch Kool Aid man appearance at the end was hilarious and fitting.

There's a few different takes and messages in the story about pain and loss, hope and perseverance, finding one's own meaning in life's tribulations and triumphs. It hits for a lot of folks, and misses for others. But overall, the storybeats work for the tale being told (I feel people can sometimes miss that part, trying to order milkshakes from Home Depot, etc), culminating a 10 year+ storyline and tying a lot of pieces together, even if they had to go back and massage or outright retcon a few things to make it all work (as is common in continuing, evolving media, really).

I liked Myths, though kinda wish we didn't get a definite answer for the Twelve, either, and that it didn't go back yet again to the Ancients. Again, it made sense, the raids were fun, good glamours and music, and I was more emotional than expected at the end. But it was definitely tying off a mystery that didn't need tying off.

Pandaemonium was also a good time storywise, music, and fights. Less orange on orange though; you'd think they'd learn. I liked getting more on Lahabrea after he was pretty shafted, being the early villain and before the story revamp (though going back to the ARR MSQ revamp, his solo duty is great). Elidibus gets the final word and a much better send off after his breakdown in ShB. Erichthonios was great and...Sorry Athena, you only don't get FF Worst Mom of the Year award cuz FF16 happened and Anabella may not have tried to become a god, but whew. Still, I figured Athena was the greater scope villain after the events in P8 and it was nice to see that play out. If I had one wish for Panda, especially once the "surprise, here it is in the Aitiascope!" happened, was that Thancred could have gotten involved to get some follow up and plot bits pertaining to his connection to Lahabrea in ARR. But I guess that's what fanfic'll have to be for.

Hildibrand was particularly wacky this go 'round, gave us yet more Thavnairian lore, and...was the content grind for Relics. I know so many people getting their first relics this expansion. Optional content is optional, and comedy is very subjective. Still, I do hope folks have discovered that despite some of its misses, there's a lot of heart behind Hildi and his stories, between the shenanigans.

Variant Dungeons are fun new content for lore and hanging out with some beloved NPCs. Nice rewards, and various ways to get them. I do hope to see more, and going back to older content (all those levels of Ishgard, for instance...)

The island started rough for me, but once I got into it, it sustains itself easily enough, and is a nice source of materia and dyes, some great story moments for some characters, lovely screenshot opportunities, and overall nice side content. Tataru's quest chain was heartfelt, let us spend time with some old pals and added significant lore to Leofard, and got us a new source of portraits. Appreciation for Tataru and the callbacks to the original Path of the Twelve and early Scions was a lovely touch. She's come quite far.

I like the Void story but do think the MSQ and side stories both suffered for the longer patch cycle. A lot more forgetting plot points from 6.0 and each patch happening. I am hoping to see how playing it through all at once on an alt (or in NG+) makes or breaks it. The longer patch cycle drug the story out and made it hard to see or appreciate what was happening sometimes with the characters, particularly Zero's growth from traumatized reaper avatar to remembering how to be a real person again, growing into a hero. I'm still pretty sure the shard of WoL is original, corrupted and memoria'd Golbez, with Durante-Golbez and Zero learning how to be heroes on their own that their world needs (not unlike some of the Scions having to grow into themselves instead of thinking they're in WoL or Louisoix or Minfilia's shadows).

And after all their losses and fraught histories, the First Brood needed that hard-won win. To regain a sibling for once, with mortals struggling through world-endangering hardship to bring her home. All from a simple purchase to seek out a simple adventure.

My criticism is how it doesn't tie into the Void Quests from ShB because it can't, as that content is locked behind Role Quests. It's easier to level roles thanks to full duty support--which EW saw the completion of--but that's a LOT of content grind, and I hope they find a way to tie Cyella, Unukalhai, and the others into MSQ if they pursue this thread in the future (and it seems likely). The additional MSQ scene with Gaia if Eden's completed worked pretty well in that regard, and they've done it before with optional side content becoming relevant to MSQ. So we'll see.

And now...Tural! I love Wuk Lamat already. My FC has mild speculation about Erenville's role in aiding her. Watching the other Scions find their reasons and ways to cross the sea. It's a shorter set up, as everything before 6.55 was the Void story, but we're in uncharted territory at the start of a new arc. Let the old gang get their rest, they earned it (and we need the break from Ancients, Ascians, and Allagans honestly) and let's see what new adventures are in store...

Endwalker, the one that had to wrap everything up. The war with Garlemald, the repercussions of Lahabrea, Emet-Selch, and Elidibus now gone from the world leaving the Ascians in the hands of Fandaniel. And Garlemald to burn in the ambition of Zenos returned. To tell what was happening with Hydaelyn and what has been going on with Sharlayan. The last step to face off against Zodiark as the Final Days from the time of Amaurot returns to our world. Would we live to see the end? And what secrets would we uncover? And in the post, the secrets of the Twelve, of Lahabrea's past, of Hildibrand and Godbert returned, of the Thirteenth Shard and Zero and of the future ahead with Wuk Lamat.

Did you find joy in it? Was your adventure worth it all? Here at the fall of the first curtain. Its ups, its downs. For better or for worst. Did you enjoy Endwalker? Yes and no are very limited. So at the end of this poll series. Let me know at the end of this story now closed with 6.55. What you think of it. Reflect...and listen.

[mysterylover123]

Mysterylover Watches Bleach Episode 363-

1. OK so Video game World has turned into a model of Ichi's city, because apparently one big fight in that location wasn't enough, we had to do it twice. Way to be original, Bleach.

2. OOH but we're getting an Ichigo/Uryu team up against this guy! Yees the Shonen rival team up some tropes were meant to be followed

3. They're making up after their recent fights, which is nice to see. Though I really wish they'd just kick Villain Dude's ass already.

4. Kenny and Pink Hair are done with their fight and like me annoyed that everyone else is sitting around playing video games instead of getting out to deal with the real problem - world.

5. Hitsu then takes out his opponent really quickly, thank god. Let's get this train a rolling!

6. Ooor maybe not. Dammit I agree hitsu this guy is really annoying. Please make him shut up for me.

7. Pigtails vs Ruki involves Ruki being like "Do not tempt me with stuffed animals, my one weakness!" LOL I forgot ruki likes stuffed animals I MISSED HER.

8. RukiBro elsewhere banters a bunch with Generic Vlllain Dude (I'm sure he has a name and a fanbase but I don't care) about the moon for a while. DAMMIT RUKIBRO YOU'RE OUR MOST EFFICIENT FIGHTER HERE QUIT WASTING TIME.

9. And finally on our rundown list we have blah blah vs ikkaku and I don't care. But hey, Renji vs Dirty Boots lady! That's a fight I'm all over.

10. We get a cool back and forth battle between those two full of kicks and loud attack names. All that good Shounen stuff.

11. He beats her but interestingly refuses to kill her. Oh, good. I honestly liked her, and I'm not sure (because I can't follow the plot this arc very well) if she's being mind controlled or not.

12. OH BUT DAMMIT SHE DIES ANYWAY. DAMMIT THE REALLY COOL ONE DIES AND THE OTHER ASSHOLES LIVE? WHAT KIND OF JUSTICE?!

13. OH DAMMIT and now Hitsu's enemy is cheating and doing stupid stuff to prolong their fight. HITSU YOU HAVE ICE POWERS FREEZE HIS ASS ALREADY.

14. Oh and Hitsu got him monologuing too. Don't do taht Hitsu once you get a Shonen villain monologuing it'll never stop.

15. Back to Ikka and whatshisface you gotta be kidding me! KILL HIM ALREADY IKKA I DON'T CARE.

16. Whatever so we end with Rukibro's fight again. Is it just me or did literally nothing happen in this entire episode? And I've already written about a full review about basically nothing.

17. Man I think I'm starting to see why people didn't like this arc. There's an attempt at emotional stakes, with Hime and Chad getting brainwashed and everyone forgetting Ichi, and if they'd run with the "having to fight his friends" thing it almost could have worked. But now it's just another showdown with all the Shinigami fighting disposable goons. And not even interesting ones. Ah well. I guess they tried something new, (Or I should say Kubo did, since Shounen is very much a "one author" kind of media) but people I'm betting didn't care for a Shinigami free Bleach; so they decided to bring back the Shinigami crew, which was awesome at first, but really killed what could have made this arc interesting. Just kinda reverted to the same choices we've seen before.

Ah well. There's another big action arc coming up next and hopefully this one will wrap soon.

[tearsofgrace]

endings are hard... but they aren’t impossible

tldr; the good place fucking nailed the finale, supernatural completely and utterly bombed it.

tags: wc--4.5k, gif heavy, spn meta, the good place, supernatural finale, spn wank, all gifs are mine, if you read til the end there’s a pretty gif

so i recently finished the good place (i was watching w my family and we finally had time to sit down and watch the last season) and god fucking dammit that ending is FLAWLESS. literally flawless. 

and because i’m, well, me… i spent most of the time during that hour long finale thinking about how supernatural could have had even a fraction of that and avoided so much heartbreak. 

anyways. i decided to compare them. to REALLY compare them. to get into the nitty gritty of why the fuck the good place ending left me feeling, as the finale is all about, sated and complete. and why the spn ending left me confused, lost, broken, betrayed, unable to even enjoy my comfort show at all until a dear friend finally just watched an episode (8.08) start to finish with me. 

so without further ado (always wanted to say that) here’s the good place/supernatural finale meta that no one asked for

comedy

we’ll start small. both these shows have excellent comedy. in extremely different ways… but still

in the good place finale, the comedy was perfect. whether it was jason reappearing in the forest, michael trying to get through The Door, tahani reversing the “hot bod” bit on eleanor, every comedic moment was actually pretty emotional and added something to the show. they deepened characters’ meanings, added to their relationships, and made the audience think as much as they made the audience laugh.

in the spn finale… the comedy was the pie gag. the whole sam shoving pie into dean’s face. beyond this being… like meta as hell (the whole prank thing) it doesn’t have any depth to it.

and to add salt to the wound, this “hilarious” thing happens RIGHT AFTER salmondean have a conversation about missing jack and cas that is equal parts flat and infuriating. the brothers, in particular sam about jack and dean about cas, should care more. this is their family. and family is everything to them. but, no, by all means pie dean in the face.

last lines

this one IRKS me. okay. 

the last line of the good place  "I'll say this to you, my friend, with all the love in my heart and all the wisdom of the universe: Take it sleazy.” “All right.”  is ICONIC. okay?

it’s a reference to season 1 that doesn’t feel fan-servicey. it’s kinda honestly emotional cuz it’s like a message to us, the audience. it perfectly completes michael’s arc. it captures the light-hearted vibe of the show while also somehow managing to be poignant. you can see it coming like the second before it happens but it’s also not the obvious choice. it’s just. goddamn it’s good.

the last line of supernatural…. is… “and cut.” not even said by one of j2. i mean i know it’s a meta show but COME ON ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME??????????

now i hear you shouting wait but that’s just the end of the thank you message. okay fine whatever. in that case the last lines are “Hey, Sammy.” “Dean.” (i couldn’t bring myself to gif that moment)

i’m sorry but. that’s predictable. that’s obvious. that’s boring. that’s flat. sure, it celebrates the bond between the brothers. but like… that’s not what this show is about anymore. it’s not just about sam and dean winchester it’s about what they’ve created. it’s about the world they’ve saved, the family they’ve made, about how they always keep fighting but nope we get bland, boring, coulda seen ‘em coming from miles away lines for the very end. that’s fine.

montages

the spn finale is like 50% montages that don’t make sense and are poorly done and not emotional

the good place has a montage of michael being human that brought me to tears

timing

here’s another short section. the good place finale was 53 minutes long as opposed to the usual 20 minute long runtime of every episode. granted, the fandom of the good place is very different, but STILL there was no documentary telling the fans things they ALREADY knew (there was a short special after the ep, but the episode itself was still far longer than normal). it was 53 minutes of plot. of really fucking good not rushed plot. 

the supernatural finale was… what 36 minutes long?? as opposed to the normal 40 minute runtime?? granted, we did get an hour long documentary of things we’ve all heard in cons and interviews a billion times so hey. take what you can get i guess.

character arcs

this is most of the meat of this meta. one thing we’ve all been harping on a TON is how they RUINED character arcs. soooo let’s go through and juxtapose some character arcs shall we

eleanor

eleanor shellstrop starts the show completely self-obsessed. she died getting hit by shopping carts while picking up margarita mix and let’s be real she’s a total icon. love her to death. she grows a ton, becomes one of the most selfless characters on the show, and starts to actually (jack forbid) CARE about things. it’s one of the most satisfying and relatable character arcs i’ve ever seen. 

it’s not just her selfishness either, her character is super multi-faceted and complex, and i feel like even in the end we’re getting to know her better. she’s afraid of commitment, always worried about what others’ actions will do to her, loves the trivial side of life, is queer as fuck (as acknowledged by the show in a way that’s not harmful at all but also isn’t explicitly bi/pan/unlabeled/omni etc, allowing queer fans to see their own identity in her), and is all around a HUMAN BEING. her ending at the beginning of the show was her death. her stupid, trivial, meaningless death where she was, as she puts it, all alone. and her final ending ISNT that. yes, everyone goes before her. and i think that’s purposeful. to show that she’s grown enough that being alone in some sense is okay.

but she’s never TRULY alone. and in the end. the REAL end. janet is there. the whole time. because eleanor asked her to be!! she got over her crazy need for independence and simply asked for help. and eleanor dies an amazing person that has become selfless, has found joy in philosophy while still enjoying trashy content, has fixed her relationship with her mother, and has found a sense of completion. eleanor’s life ends on her terms, and it’s beautiful.

dean

alright. now just as you’re feeling all warm and fuzzy let’s look at dean winchester’s ending. you’ve heard it a million times, so i’ll be brief. dean was raised to be a hunter, a soldier, a killing machine with no feelings and no purpose. he was raised to die scared on a hunt, his life over because of some mistake he made because he will NEVER measure up. at least that’s what john and everyone else told him with the exceptions of some of his family (and family don’t end in blood). he started to accept that he didn’t have to have this. he started to realize that he could CHOOSE what his ending was. 

the beautiful thing is, we never truly got to see what that was. i personally like to think it’s similar to the roadhouse michael locked him in while he was trapped in his own mind. a safe place for hunters, somewhere he (and cas in my opinion, but that’s not important) could settle down and still be in the life. it would be an amazing tribute to jo and ellen, and just all around a great ending. he wouldn’t have to be scared, but he wouldn’t have to conform to some apple pie facade of normalcy. and ya know what?? say that he died so he could have peace i dare you. because dean doesn’t find peace until sam is there anyway so i beg of you WHAT WAS THE FUCKING POINT. 

dean winchester died scared. dean winchester died on a hunt. dean winchester died on one of john’s old hunts. dean winchester died not directly at the hands of a monster, but at the hands of a mistake. his mistake. dean winchester died without ever working through the trauma of his best friend in the entire world confessing his love in a final act of self-sacrifice. dean winchester died in a way that leaves a sour taste in my mouth and does not at all show the audience what he’s been through and how much he’s grown. dean winchester did not die on his terms, and he deserved better.

chidi

okay back to happy. chidi anagonye. by far my personal favorite good place character (don’t tell anyone i always say jason cuz he and i are very similar). chidi in the last few episodes is SO DRASTICALLY different than the chidi we meet at the beginning. he’s decisive, confident, self-assured, and it’s amazing to see. he’s not afraid of life anymore. he’s not afraid to make the wrong decision and forever alter his reality, because he’s okay with failure. 

at the beginning, chidi was so petrified of life that… it killed him. and in the end, he’s completely at peace with every decision he makes, even the final one. yes, he considered staying for eleanor, but that just shows how his moral code and his compassion for others is still very much still intact. it shows the audience that you can be confident and decisive without being a selfish asshole. 

chidi leaves the good place knowing that it’s the right thing to do. knowing without a doubt that his time has come. the old chidi never would have been able to fathom being that sure about something. it’s beautiful. it’s a development that can give the audience peace, can show them that this drastic of change is possible, and that chidi became a better person for all of it. chidi went on his own terms, and it was beautiful.

sam

… this one might be controversial… but sam winchester. god i hated sam’s ending. at first i was kinda okay with it. like, okay fine he got his normal life. but, really, in the end that’s not what sam wanted. he started to realize that he didn’t need that apple pie, white picket fence life. he didn’t need the wife and the kids and the backyard and the barbecues because that is NOT sam’s personality and i will throw hands on that. 

that’s not to say he doesn’t want some sort of romance, maybe even kids, but not in that way. he lets himself see that he doesn’t need to be defined by his rebellion to john. doesn’t need to be defined by going to college or any of those “normal” smart kid things because it doesn’t fit him. and that’s okay! but how does sam’s story end? it ends with a wife (that isn’t even important enough to show her face). with kids. with a goddamn white picket fence. we think he’s still hunting to some extent… but it’s not the arc we were led to believe would happen. it’s not this amazing leader sam that we see in season 12-14, uniting hunters and organizing them. 

he had SO MUCH potential and they throw it away on a vanilla ending that shows only surface level pain at losing his brother. he doesn’t even invite the rest of their family to the wake for fuck’s sake. jared did an incredible job. pls don’t think i’m saying he didn’t. but that script…. sam winchester’s arc was cut short. he didn’t go on his terms, and he deserved better.

jason

jason mandoza. the only character that has ever embodied my complete dumbass energy to the insane extent that it exists. he went to hell for his impulsivity. he never thought before a decision. i aspire to be as reckless as jason while on earth. but he LEARNED. he got better, just like they all did. and by the end of the show, jason doesn’t need to be impulsive anymore. much like eleanor being left “alone,” the show does a masterful job with making him be the first one to go, capturing his old impulsiveness. but he chooses to leave. he takes his time in deliberation, waiting until a feeling of peace, of completion, of well, ‘true happiness’ (sorry cas stans, i’m right there with you) has settled over him. 

the ending of his story is one of growth, just like all these characters have been. and the best part? the show makes it comedic in the most poignant and beautiful way, because it’s jason, it had to be funny. we learn that jason has been in the woods for like, eons, just waiting to go through the door because he wants to give janet a necklace. he’s learned to simply wait. to be at peace with… nothing. his torture was being a monk, but in the end, jason embodies those ideals. his arc comes to fruition in an extremely satisfying way. jason goes on his own terms, and it’s beautiful.

castiel

this one is gonna hurt like a bitch. castiel is my comfort character. he’s my role model. he’s me in a lot of ways. i love him. so fucking much. so excuse me if this is slightly incoherent. i’m actually okay with cas’ ending… in a way. because his actual ending as an on-screen character? perfect. self-sacrifice while coming out and professing his love to dean winchester. a little bit bury the gays, but let’s be real, it’s supernatural. and “happiness is in just saying it” has to be the most powerful way to think of coming out. it takes away the fear, it takes away so much of the pain that can follow. because the joy is in just saying the words.

it’s how this was treated on the show that makes cas’ character arc terrible (and we haven’t even gotten to 15.20). YOU CANNOT JUST IGNORE A LOVE CONFESSION. that is god awful writing and i will never change my mind on that. cas deserved his family to care about him. to at least address and be sad about the fact he was gone. jesus fucking christ after everything castiel deserved at least that. and then we go to 15.20. cas is in heaven. cas is serving god. cas is right back where he started. now, i’m coming off a little strong. 

if the show had decided to show us cas and jack in heaven makin’ the world a better place… i woulda come around to it. i woulda realized that that’s not REALLY erasing 12 years of character development and cas realizing that his whole identity isn’t just him serving heaven and isn’t just him being an angel and that he’s so much more than all of that and he could still be happy as a human… because really he’s with his son. but they didn’t show us that. they barely even mentioned him. and to me. that counts as a bad character arc. and i’m sorry if you disagree. castiel may have gone on his own terms, but they treated that beautiful sacrifice with disrespect and disdain, plus resolved his arc by putting him back where he started. he deserved better.

tahani

*deep breaths guys this is a long post i’m sorry* anywayyyy tahani!!! we love tahani obviously. let’s talk about her arc, because it always kinda bothered me. throughout the show, we see all the other character’s growing and expanding their knowledge of right and wrong. and, don’t get me wrong. we see tahani grow a lot. but she makes a lot of the same types of comments and shit like that. but it’s how she treats the reactions to those comments. by the end of the show, she laughs at the caricature of herself that the others see. she isn’t looking for vindication in name-dropping, she just does it. she is far less self-absorbed, and is genuinely interested in those around her. she fixes her relationships with her sister and her parents in a way that doesn’t feel forced and actually feels like a beautiful, healthy family reunion. 

she has a list and she does everything on it. it’s worth noting, that the things on her list are not at all what they would have been at the beginning of the show. most of them are humble “labor” type tasks, and all of them are in self improvement. tahani’s end on the show is not the same as everyone else’s. she realizes that she doesn’t need to be done. that there doesn’t have to be an end to self-improvement. and she becomes an architect. the writers perfectly embody her transformation from a self-obsessed rich girl who has never done a thing for herself and laughs at the lower-class to a down-to-earth worker that simply doesn’t want the journey to end. 

it’s incredible how perfectly the writers were able to close off these character arc’s without it feeling forced, and without ignoring their character development. imagine that. tahani chooses her own way, and it’s beautiful.

jack

jack’s ending may be the only one that i’ve actually somewhat come to terms with. it’s not terrible. it’s not great. but it’s not nearly as bad. because ignoring that awful monologue about every drop of rain and shit, jack really does end up helping people. he ends up doing something that he loves and that makes the world a better place. and he doesn’t lose his personality in it. but. i dunno, that’s still his destiny, right? to create paradise. and this is a show about ripping up the rule book, about choosing free will above all else… so to have every single character just fulfill their destiny is cheap. 

still… i’ll try to be unbiased. because really at the beginning of jack’s time on the show, he’s unsure what he wants. and at least, in the end, he’s sure. he has a wisdom that he’s always had but he’s now using. and i’m good with that. but what’s NOT okay about jack’s ending is the lack of on-screen family. jack learns that family is important. sam, cas, dean those are the people he cares about. and you’re telling me he would just NEVER see them again? and be okay with that? i know he rebuilds heaven with cas, but we don’t even get a story about him rescuing cas from the empty. and he seems in 15.19 to not be that concerned about it (after the amazing emotional scene at the beginning). jack should have cared about his family. he did. but they ruined that for him. so jack kline deserved better.

michael

oh man where do i start. michael’s growth is the biggest on the show. i mean. he starts as a literal demon and ends a human. he gets better, he falls in love with humanity (*castiel fan in me sobbing again*) and he chooses over and over to be good instead of bad. his whole arc is a classic redemption arc, and every single beat just gets better. he chooses selfishly to side with humans but in the end it turns out to be the best decision he could have made. because he develops emotions, he develops compassion, he develops a moral compass. 

and his end reflects that. because to complete this arc of a demon becoming more human… he literally becomes human!!!! it fits so well. and he’s allowed to make mistakes and be happy and gain all that humanity has to offer. this just shows that human!endgame for cosmic beings that become more human WORKS SO WELL (and it shoulda happened for cas and jack that’s all i’m saying). michael went on his own terms, and it was beautiful.

eileen

oh boy… this one stings. because they brought her back, used her up, and we never saw her again. eileen was one of the best side characters on the show, and they rarely addressed her arc. she comes onto the show as a hunter seeking revenge, and gets that revenge in the same episode. her s15 arc is focused on what’s real and what’s not, with her relationship to sam admittedly being a central part of her character because… it’s supernatural and women can’t exist without that. but still! eileen grows throughout the show and in the end… we don’t even know what happens to her. it’s as if her arc wasn’t important enough to even glance at. 

it’s as if the connections the boys make outside of each other mean nothing when in reality they mean everything. they prove that the co-dependency is behind them and that family doesn’t end with blood and that real connections can be formed between people that last a lifetime. eileen was a disabled hunter that was shown to still be one of the best in the business, and they didn’t even give her the courtesy of a goodbye. eileen didn’t go on her own terms, and she deserved better.

janet

this is gonna unbalance my list but goddammit janet’s ending was perfect. she was a not-robot, not-girl that should have been incapable of feelings. but throughout the series we get to watch as she learns first-hand about human emotions and processes them. she cares about the humans in her charge and fights for them on multiple counts. 

in the end, we see janet come to terms with both her cosmic being side, and her human side. she never stops being with the “cockroaches.” she sees them all leave, she’s there for them while they’re there, and she also continues to speak her mind and live autonomously. janet was a non-human character done right. she lived on her own terms, and it was beautiful.

some honorable mentions

spn ignored (in the finale) chuck, amara, stevie, charlie, jody, donna, garth, bess, the other angels, claire, kaia, patience, alex, and the list goes ON in favor of focusing on JUST sam and dean. did none of those characters at least deserve a quick goodbye??????

the good place wrapped up multiple arcs i had completely forgotten about in a totally natural and not forced way. mindy, doug forester, (the mushroom guy, i know, it took me a second), pillboy, donkey doug, kamilah, tahani’s parents, eleanor’s mother, eleanor’s friends, chidi’s best friend, vicki, shawn, glenn, simone and so many that i’m forgetting all got satisfying ends that they totally deserved. 

they even fucking resolved FROG GUY’S arc and gave him a real frog. that’s right. frog guy (jeff) had a better character arc resolution than dean motherfucking winchester. 

heaven and hell

obviously in very different vehicles, both shows explore in depth the realities of the afterlife. and lemme tell ya, at the end of the day, one sits a whole lot better than the other. 

the good place finale ends this quest for the perfect afterlife by saying that everyone can improve and that an eternal paradise shouldn’t keep you from eternal rest. they pretty much make me wish that this is what our afterlife looked like. they handle everything with care so it’s balanced precariously in a way that doesn’t give you anxiety looking at it but instead fills you with peace and faith in humanity. 

supernatural addresses this series long battle between heaven and hell by creating a heaven where you drive for forty years without seeing the people (cough cough cas and jack not his parents) that matter to you and drink beer that tastes like shit. a place you can’t be happy or find any sense of peace until your brother has died and he’s there too.

and hell… well they barely even address it. there’s a new queen of hell i guess? but so what. it’s still very much heaven and hell in a way that’s the worst and hey plus to them… makes me wanna stay alive thank you very much. oh and purgatory is in shambles and not functioning properly cuz all that eve bullshit.

loose ends

whenever something is ending, you gotta tie up the loose ends. not in a “oh, we must wrap everything up and leave no stone unturned” kinda way but in a “wow, we should probably try to make this unambiguous because this is the last time we will ever see these characters” kinda way. 

the good place does that. so fucking masterfully. all these side plots with all these different characters were taken care of all while focusing on the main six characters. we get to see how their intervention has changed everyone else. for example, mindy’s arc is wrapped up perfectly, with eleanor going to save her.

plus different running jokes like “take it sleazy” are wrapped up, we revisit really old callbacks like the original neighborhood, and all of it feels natural and in the moment. it feels like full circle in a way that doesn’t erase growth. 

supernatural, on the other hand, left a million loose ends open. what happened to the boys they saved? where the fuck are jody, donna, etc.? did eileen make it back? cuz sam was pretty upset about that. what happened to it “being loud” in the empty? hell, what happened to the empty? what happened to hell? what about chuck? it woulda been nice to see just for a second what became of him. did charlie and stevie make it (i’m very invested in that relationship)? if we’re taking the original ending… why the fuck is jimmy there? did kansas just all,,, die? 

i’m not saying they needed to address everything… but god a few wrapped up storylines besides the brothers wouldn’t have hurt

coloring

can i just… real quick… as a giffer lodge a complaint

the good place has beautiful vibrant coloring in the finale

spn has like bland washed out whatever the fuck that is coloring. it’s not even the dark early aesthetic cuz they dropped that it’s just… ew. so. do with that what you will. 

conclusion

first… while writing this i realized just HOW MUCH it’s not about destiel… like believe me. i knew i wasn’t just pissed about destiel. but holy shit it’s not destiel at all like did i even mention destiel that much???? this was never about a ship. this was just a trash finale. 

in the end. the good place writers knew what they were doing. they knew their fans, they knew their characters, they knew their world, and they knew how to wrap it up in a way that was satisfying and sad and perfectly fit the tone of the whole show. it wasn’t out of character or rushed, basically every loose end was tied up without the audience even realizing that’s what they were doing, and i feel happy and complete having watched it. 

the supernatural ending was a betrayal. flat out. to the audience that has stuck by it in a way bigger way than the good place fandom. to the characters that have helped so many people. to the actors that have given so much of their lives. to the other members of the crew, to certain writers… all of it was just a slap in the face.

we deserved better guys. there are better endings possible. so i’m sorry. i really am. but i guess… that’s what fanfic is for, right?

[poppyseed799]

Okay fellow 3rd life fans I think it’s time I come clean. I have been silent about this the entire time, thinking about staying quiet cuz it seemed the whole fandom disagrees with what I’m about to say but I will stay silent no longer.

I don’t get why people say the Desert was “clearly the bad guys”.

Let’s get this out of the way: I mainly watched Scar’s POV along with Grian’s. I watched a fair amount of Martyn’s episodes as well, a couple from Scott and then random episodes from Skizz, Cleo, Impulse, Jimmy, and probably more. Definitely plot important ones I watched from more POVs than just my main guys Scar and Grian.

I just don’t get why, when people look at all of the different factions, they look at the Desert and go “yes they are clearly in the wrong and the only ones I can easily label as the villains in the overall story” what??? Don’t even get me started on “it’s interesting that the villains won in 3rd life” what??? I always viewed them as the more innocent ones, although the story is very morally grey so it doesn’t say TOO much lmao.

So let me explain why! Well, honestly, I’m more confused as to why y’all say they’re so obviously the villains, so I’m just explaining why I’m confused here lol.

So first of all let’s get the scamming and monopolies out of the way. I have less to say about the monopoly so let’s start with that. THEY NEVER HAD A MONOPOLY… if the idea of making a monopoly is bad enough for you guys, then might I remind y’all of the cow monopoly that was attempted? Everyone was looking for ways to make business… and a SAND monopoly was CLEARLY doomed to fail!! Not to bring Dream SMP into this but if y’all are gonna say OG L’Manberg was innocent because they didn’t succeed in the potion monopoly at all then let’s have that same energy for the Sand People!!!

Now for the scams. “Oooh poppy how are you gonna defend the scamming” BECAUSE IT WASN’T SCAMMING??? Scar made it clear what he wanted and what the person would receive in return. They were told they were going to receive a piece of paper and they agreed to it! Don’t listen to Grian “don’t listen to Scar it’s a scam the papers don’t mean anything” because he was LYING. Not purposely, but he was lying. Scar NEVER said “hey Grian let’s scam people with fRiEnDsHiP” instead he always told Grian that it WAS real and that he WOULD go through with all of the papers. And he did! There were a couple of mishaps but obviously it’s really difficult to control every situation. Plus Scar had a hard time remembering all of the friendship passes lmao. But he really did try, he really did value these trades, it wasn’t scamming just because Grian thought there was no way it was worth it.

The only Scar hater I stan is Skizzleman he had all right to be mad at Scar but that doesn’t mean Scar was the enemy of the whole story lol

Now onto something that I don’t know how to start explaining but is a very big reason why I’m confused about the fandom calling the Desert the bad guys. NOBODY IN THE SMP TOOK THEM SERIOUSLY. I saw SO many posts about how “Scar and Grian seem like fun guys in THEIR POV but in others POV they’re really scary!” Like no? I always thought it was the opposite. Like watching Scar’s POV I was like “ah man they have to kill people cuz red life this is so dramatic they are feared by the server…” BUT THEN I WATCH SOMEONE ELSE’S POV AND THEY LITERALLY SAY STUFF LIKE “lol we don’t have to worry about Scar” “dang all those people just exploded. Anyways Scar is the weakest red life and we have nothing to worry about when it comes to him it’s all the other red lifers that are a problem” “lol there goes those idiots trying to make a monopoly on sand so silly” and I’m like. Oh. The entire server treats them like silly cartoon villains that never achieve anything. And yes they say these things WHILE hunting the Desert People down like what. Basically the server treating the villainous things the Desert did as not very serious made me think the same, which is why I’m so confused that people think they’re the Big Bad Guys.

ANOTHER THING relating to how the server treats the Desert: alliances!! The Desert was very loyal. Scott and Jimmy trusted the Desert, which shocked many people on the server but were they wrong? No! The Desert trusted the Hobbits back fully as well. They were the only alliance they fully trusted, but they didn’t go behind their other allies’ backs just cuz they weren’t so sure about the alliance. Sure there were comments about Impulse, but that idea was fed to them by Impulse’s allies, they had no other information. And yet they STILL gave him stuff and didn’t flinch when alone with him above Dogwarts, because even with him being suspicious he was still their ally and they are loyal as heck!!! Sure there was Impulse’s demise but like. That was endgame, everyone was looking for a reason to kill someone, and the Desert was told that Impulse was sus af and his own allies didn’t trust him so it was an easy pick. Bdubs coulda said no. And yeah Scar betrayed Bdubs in the end but like. Once again, endgame, and also it was “kill the person who stuck with you since the beginning” or “kill the person who is only on your side cuz you gave him a clock a while ago and lied to you about liking watches”. What do you expect? Plus the ending showed how loyal Scar was to Grian, the guy who owed him his first life and stuck with him till the end. Beautiful.

ANYWAYS EVEN MEMBERS OF DOGWARTS WERE LIKE “I have a hard time killing Scar because he hasn’t really wronged me personally in any way, he’s fairly reliable as well” LIKE… bro they were ENEMIES. Scar also didn’t really want to hurt them!!! Also can I just say that the only reason Scar was as bad as he was was because he was the first person to go red? Red lifers are supposed to be like the villains, so I don’t disagree with people saying that at FIRST Scar was a villain cuz he was red (although wtf were some of these guys up to using excuses to kill people while green (not talking about Grian)) but he wasn’t even that bad while he was red. He was just the worst by default since he was red lol. Which was entirely not his fault, and he only wanted to kill Ren pretty much lol. So I guess Scar being the villain depends on if you consider Ren to be the main character of the entire server.

Which is another thing I don’t get… why people see Dogwarts as the good guys. There was a CLEAR corruption arc people. Dogwarts had loyalty, but it was very ride or die, as in “if you don’t ride with us you will die”. You watch these guys call everyone (not just the desert people) “filthy peasants” and not realize they are acting like villains??? Plus the ominous “red winter is coming” like what. Not saying they weren’t good at the start, nor that they were completely and totally bad, just that if you were to frame ANYONE in this MORALLY GREY SERVER as “The Bad Guys” why not the ones that made it their entire thing????? YES they were good at first, they had regrets and cared so much about their people (just not anyone else lololol). It’s a tragic story, and you’re gonna write it off like “no even when they started doing bad things to people who never hurt them it was justified” even when they regret those things towards the end or after death so clearly it was wrong??? Guys.

I don’t want to call anyone the Bad Guys in 3rd life tho. They all did bad things, they all had valid reasons, they all had people they cared about. I just don’t get why people pick the Desert when they try to pick villains. They weren’t totally innocent but I never saw them as THE villains. For me, even while watching Martyn, that was always Dogwarts, and even then I don’t consider them Total Villains because the server is so grey! I loved them I just think that if anyone is the bad guys maybe it’s the self-imposed king that threatens to take ALL of your lives if you don’t show complete and total loyalty to them and wave their banner above your house to show it. Even if that king started out innocent and only went red to protect his friends. Once again tho I don’t like picking Bad Guys for this server. It was a very good story without having a clear right or wrong.

Just wanted to confess that, don’t really feel like arguing about it cuz I see enough people calling the Desert the Villains just scrolling thru the main tag lmao.

[chromaji]

oh i really like how this scene looks… shadow & rouge look really nice here, and the nice sunset background… there’s also a slight texture over the characters i think? i like it.

Also it was funny recognizing this shadow face from that “it must suck teleporting with adhd” “how the FUCK did i end up in nevada” post. i’d been wondering where the images used there was from.

anyway i like that Shadow at least acknowledged that he, yanno, kinda fucked up a bit there. But really the whole metal virus arc was so “everything is happening so much” that it was like. bro they had to bust out the chaos emeralds & super forms to gaslight gatekeep girlboss their way out of this one hgkgh.

Like as cool as it was to see Super Silver after so long, the arc felt weird once it reached that point where Tails ALMOST had a solution and it just got blown up. Maybe im a lil biased towards Tails but it would’ve been cool to have an “eggman and tails are on an even level— eggman made the virus but tails engineers the cure” moment. A moment for them to be pitted against each other as geniuses even if not throwing hands in mechs. Then again im not sure how they’d spread the hypothetical cure around the world WITHOUT something like the super forms or some machine that would likely take a while to build… ehh, i’m sure some quick solution would’ve been figured out.

well anyway back to this scene, Shadow says this, which I’m assuming is either him deciding he’s gonna try and look for Sonic because he owes him one, or him saying “I DID owe him one… until he disappeared. Now what?”. Idk, the meaning of this line kinda has me stumped, but the meanings I had in mind could go hand-in-hand. Like… “I owe Sonic, but he’s gone. Should I look for him? He’s capable enough to find his way back, but…” ???

Anyway, the infamous metal virus arc… yeah I liked it well enough, just felt like things were getting a bit too stacked once they introduced the deadly six and needing to get the chaos emeralds instead of my goat Tails being able to do his thing. And you know… Shadow suddenly losing common sense to prove himself as superior to someone who’s already run off in issue 19 like come on now. My brother in christ, are you fr doing this in the middle of a zombie movie? I understand him feeling like he’d be immune to a virus, as he was created to be immune to illnesses n such as the Ultimate Lifeform. That’s one thing. But that whole part coulda been executed better…

And sidenote i really liked that Metal Sonic side-comic as a whole, but especially where he doesn’t get infected by the virus & just… stands there. Like there’s either a lot going on in his mind or he’s too stunned to have any thoughts. I’ve always liked Metal but smth about that side comic is bumping him up.

this kinda turned into a review of the arc I didnt even mean to do that lmao. idk when i’ll pick back up on idw, but im assuming there’s one or two more complete arcs before the current ongoing arc (which i think is at issue 53 at the time of writing this??), and i usually like to read arcs of things once its all released… eh i’ll figure it out

[tododeku-or-bust]

Okay, tbh (this is totally subjective bc I wrote a whole pre-reveal fic w/my own hcs)-

I feel like Horikoshi ain't really do right by Dabi/Touya's character motivations ✋🏾🤚🏾🤷🏾‍♀️

Like I get it! I get what Horikoshi's doing and it works for his story direction! But to me, it's almost like it casts Touya in a...bratty sort of light?

I'm prolly projecting (as someone who also had a dad who I know loved me but incorrectly deemed violence the best way to drive home dominance to an angsty child 🙄) but I just feel like him feeling the need to directly kill one sibling, and incidentally almost kill another just seems....misdirected, especially knowing by adulthood that half of em got neglected, and the "perfect" one was getting legit Hands thrown at him by age four. Like damn, don't nobody in this house really like Dad, Touya! Focus on beating his ass! 🤣

(Btw this small rant does not include my feelings on the 'redemption arc' but they do affect my POV)

I just feel like it woulda been more interesting plotwise if he showed any sort of internal conflict about "hey, we coulda had a loving, healthy life and family if Enji weren't such an insecure headass about our quirks. I lost my family and my 'life'. I want him dead for what he stole from us and I'm the only one willing to serve that justice". Like an anti-hero sort of approach where the ends don't justify the means, but you'd understand that he's doing this "for his family's greater good" and feel more for why he wanted it.

(or something else, I'm sure there are other inner conflicts he could have had. I just woulda liked to see more of his direct POV upon reveal)

The "Nobody in this house understood me, I hate you all, I hate Enji in particular, and I'll aid the literal apocalypse to make him miserable and then kill him" angle works, it's not bad but....idk, it seems so... Edgy? Simplified, in comparison to where his narrative seemed to be going. Is the word Shallow? Like they went through so much to give depth to characterize Enji as a flawed hero due to his personal life, I kind of figured that Touya would have received similar treatment with his personal traumas and villainy since he's Enji's direct threat/consequences. Maybe I'm thinking in circles, overthinking in general. Oh well.

I guess he couldn't be too relatable as a villain, huh. 🤣 In short, I prefer the Touya in my head, but thats the joy of fanfic 🤣 🤷🏾‍♀️ he'll probably figure it out with their end fight, thanks to Shouto. I hope so.

(I'm not doing this to start discourse, like I said, subjective take on a story!!!!)

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

Top 5 Character Deaths That Made Me Side-Eye the Writers

There are a lot of character deaths in TWDG... obviously. It a series about the literal dead walkin’ around and eating people, so as you’re playing, one of your favorite characters is bound to meet such a fate. To give this series credit, it does have quite a few well-executed deaths that, while I hate them, they have a purpose in the story that works. 

The best example of this is Lee’s death-- we all hate that Lee dies, but it’s well-done. It serves its purpose, it acted as both a shock and a slow-burn for the player, and left us all an emotional mess. 

However, we’re not talking about the “good” deaths today. No, we’re talking about the character deaths that are poorly executed, cheap, lazy, and just plain dumb... they’re the deaths that make me side-eye the writing team and wonder what the fuck happened there. 

By the way, it was reeeeeeal fun narrowing it down to only five deaths, because it seems like for every great death, there’s at least two bad ones.

5. Mariana and her death that ruined ANF’s potential story

I’ve talked at length about Mariana’s death and how much I hate it. Like, I get it TWDG... you love your sudden deaths and you’re so edgy for killing off a child character because you’ve never done that before... but maybe consider things a little further before pulling the trigger?

Yeah, killing off Mariana the way they did got a reaction outta people when it happened, and we got the burial scene if you stayed with Clementine... but you didn’t consider the future of this storyline? You pretend you did by name dropping Mari when it’s convenient, but then throw it out the window when it comes to characters like David or Gabe.

Listen, I know that ANF is a mess and what’s the point in telling the mess that it’s a mess? Well, I’m still annoyed at the writers for wasting the biggest opportunity for this game’s story, something that could’ve saved it from being a mess.

And I get it, you gotta make a death quota, so instead of killing Mariana off... why not kill Kate off instead? Oh no? We don’t get the stupid love triangle that no one actually enjoys or is engaged in?

Instead of this dumb story about Javi falling in love with his sister-in-law but oh no David’s back.... we could’ve had a story about Javi losing Kate and being left to care for two children by himself. Mariana and Gabe are all he has left, and he going to do whatever he can to keep them safe all while the three of them are mourning Kate.

Then David comes back, and he immediately takes these kids away from Javi.

There is no stupid storyline with Kate, but an actual conflict between two brothers who were never on the same page and two kids caught in the middle.

Plus, Mariana herself as a character really could’ve brought something to the table. She could’ve brought out a lot in David’s character since she seems to be more like Javi.

Her death is just... annoying. It’s frustrating when you know they could’ve told a better story with her alive, something ANF desperately needed.

My side-eye is one of disappointment and annoyance.

4.Luke and his easily preventable drowning

Ugh.... where to even begin? 

Luke really just gets butchered as a character throughout the second half of S2, and the writers end up demolishing the set up they placed at the beginning of the season for a Luke vs Kenny thing. 

Why? Well, Luke vs Kenny was the initial ending they were gonna go with, but because this season went through all kinds of bullshit, they scrapped that and replaced Luke with Jane... and it’s so dumb.

Hell, it kind of ruins a lot. Not only did it ruin Luke, a character that many players loved, but it forces the new character of Jane, who we only get two episodes to get to know, so they can fade Luke out. 

But that’s not all. 

His death is so... ugh. It’s stupid, okay? Stupid and easily preventable, but noooo... we gotta kill Luke off for reasons because all we know is that S1 killed off a lot of characters and we’re gonna do that again but worse because we failed to understand what made those deaths impactful in the first place. 

Lots of character death and despair = good game. 

Yep, uh-huh. Okay. 

So we all know that Luke’s leg is hurt, yeah? Great, so you’d think that the group that has an injured man and a new born baby would be extra cautious and go around the frozen lake. Yeah, Arvo says that it’s safe but let’s not take any chances. 

But no. We gotta go across like a group of dingdongs and whattya know-- the ice begins to crack beneath Luke’s feet. Now, even here, we coulda got him outta there safely... if Bonnie wasn’t a dingus. 

Think about it. If we shot the walkers who were coming towards Luke with all their weight, he could’ve slowly scooted away, even if he’s already fallen through. BUT NO. Bonnie either guilts Clementine into going towards him, adding more weight to the already fragile ice as Luke tells her to stop, or Bonnie will go over there herself... and she’s a full grown woman soooo her weight breaks the ice. 

Good job, you dipsticks. 

When you have to make your characters into morons in order to move the plot along and kill off characters....maybe do some rethinking, yeah? 

 3. Mitch and his shock-value death

This death is so dumb... so incredibly, dumb. Even now, I can’t help but give full side-eye to the writers every time one of them tries to justify this death. 

I’m sorry, but this death didn’t have the impact you wanted it to have. And because there’s always someone who says, “Mitch didn’t die for shock value, you just can’t tell the difference between a good and bad death” lemme tell you a thing. 

What was the point of killing of Mitch? Well, according to those who worked on TFS, it was to show that Lilly and the delta are serious. This is when shit gets real, and when Lilly is established as a bad bitch who will do whatever it takes to get what she wants. We should be scared of her now. 

Except no. 

This scene doesn’t tell me that Lilly is a bad bitch. It tells me that she has good reflexes, and going off her reaction after killing Mitch.... I’m not fucking scared of this dumbass. If anything, this scene says more about Mitch than it does Lilly. It says that Mitch is also a dumbass for running at her like he did. 

Y’know what would’ve been more impactful? If Mitch didn’t immediately get stabbed in the throat, but instead, actually got her on the ground and struggled with Lilly. Then, Lilly gets the upper hand and when you think she’s about to send Mitch to the cart, she fucking murders him in front of everyone to prove a point. 

There’s no remorse, it’s slow enough for Lilly to actually process what’s happening and show that she does know what she’s doing. That would scare me. That would show me that these people aren’t fucking around and they’re willing to kill some of them if that means getting the rest for their army. 

You still get your shock value death but it actually does something other than kill a character off. 

I’m really supposed to believe this is the same Lilly who can order to have Louis’ tongue cut off? 

But it doesn’t end there. No, no... there’s another part to Mitch’s death that annoys me, and it’s how insistent everyone was that his death is going to have a greater impact on the second half of the story. It had a purpose within the story, we did it for a reason.

...I mean, it has an impact on Willy and his arc for the second half. 

But that’s it. 

Oh... oh, what’s that? Oh, you were referring to those throwaway lines about Tenn? “He was screwing up again, just like when he got Mitch killed.”

OOOOOH.... I see, that’s what Mitch’s death was really amounting to... some lines dealing with whether or not AJ shot Tenn. Well, I guess I was wrong. Mitch’s death wasn’t just shock value. It really had a big purpose. In fact, Mitch’s death has the biggest impact on the series. Fuck Marlon and Brody’s deaths, and Lilly and James, and hell, fuck Tenn’s death, too. They’re meaningless compared to Mitch’s death. You did it, guys. You really did it. 

....Okay, I’m done. I’m just... salty, I fully admit. 

Being serious again, Mitch’s death is probably the worst in TFS as far as unpreventable deaths go and the real reason I side-eye the writers is because they tried to tell us it was going to have this huge impact in the future and it just... didn’t. 

2. Nick and his offscreen death.

I’m sorry, but what the fuck happened here? Why- what are you- how the hell did this happen??

I’m actually baffled. 

Someone wrote this. 

They set up at the end of ep3 that Nick is shot.... then ep4 comes and we find him like this. I just... did someone on the writing staff not wanna do their job that day? Someone was working on the story and at the last minute forgot Nick was a character, so they were like “Eh, he’s not important anyway, and it adds to the shittiness of everything so we’ll pretend this was 100% intentional.” 

Nick was one of your more interesting characters and you really thought killing him off like this was the way to go, huh? 

Like, his first death is shitty, but in the very least it kind of makes sense. 

But this? 

This is horrible. If I wrote this, I’d be embarrassed. 

I just... I’m so tired of S2 right now. 

This is at #2 because it’s just lazy, bad writing. At least with Luke, Mitch, and Mariana, we got to see their deaths and they had some, even if just a little, impact on the story afterward. 

But Nick? 

Nothin’.

Even Luke, who is the closest person to Nick, name drops him maybe twice? It’s just.... nothing. 

And yeah, you can come at me with the “oh well not every death has to have meaning!” 

This is a story, okay? This is a story crafted with characters who have arcs by people who wanted it to be a success, and usually that means having satisfying conclusions.... or, intentionally unsatisfying if that acts as a natural conclusion to their story or is a reoccurring theme. 

Nick’s death is just the writers falling flat on their faces and hoping no one would notice. 

1. Sarah and both of her shitty deaths. 

Ugh. UGH.

Okay. 

I’m not even side-eyeing anymore-- I’m fully glaring.

I don’t have to tell you how shitty both of Sarah’s deaths are. We all played S2, we all know that no matter what you do, Sarah dies in ep4. You can try to save her, she lives a little bit longer, and then falls to her death... and both deaths have her being devoured alive by walkers. 

Now, this is enough to annoy me. First off, I guess my choices don’t really matter. Sure, you can justify this as one of those “sometimes you can’t save someone, no matter how hard you try” ...and fine. Sure, if they had bothered to execute that point well, then great. 

But I disagree that the writers had that in mind when they were killing Sarah off. 

In fact, I know what what going on in their brains-- “God, can’t wait to kill Sarah off! Give us any reason to do it! She’s so damn annoying!”

The writers have openly admitted that a lot of the team were just waiting to kill Sarah off, waiting for any reason, so when the major part of the community who take everything at surface level because why think? kept complaining about Sarah, they jumped on the opportunity to kill her off.... but the deaths are dumb.

Listen, this isn’t like when the writers planned on killing Lee off. You can plan a death and even be excited about it because you’re excited about the story and execution of it all. You can be excited to see the heartbreaking end of this character’s story that you crafted because you know you put everything you had into it.

These deaths were lazy and the product of a team who didn’t care about the character. Sarah dies and no one cares. 

Sure, you leave her to die the first time and Jane does her thing about how you can’t save everyone, she talks about Jaime, and then Luke exposes himself as the fake Luke by agreeing that leaving Sarah behind was probably the right thing. Like what?

Now as much as I hate that first one, the second one is even worse. 

For some reason, Sarah is standing in the corner while they’re trying to fight off the walkers instead of being inside with Rebecca... y’know, where she would be if this was logical. 

Then the deck breaks and Sarah falls, trapped under a pile of wood. Jane, despite being the one who sees Sarah as a liability, goes down there to try and help her after Clementine begs her to. 

But because the writers don’t know what they’re doing, Jane gets hit by a random piece of wood and can’t get Sarah out in time, leaving her to be eaten alive by walkers. 

Then AJ is born and no one cares about Sarah ever again. 

I just.... 

Could’ve had an interesting story arc with a character who just lost her father in such a gruesome way, a character that already deals with anxiety and other problems that you never bothered to explain other than “she isn’t like Clementine” and you could’ve had her grow. 

But I guess that would’ve taken effort.... and screen time away from Kenny, and god forbid we ever do that. 

---

Honorable Mentions

-Ava falling to her death in the most comedic way possible, made even more hilarious by David’s two seconds of mourning. -Omid.... because hope is dead. Do you get it? Hope? is dead? Because Omid means hope? Do you get it?? -Honestly you could put most of S2′s deaths on this list because oh my god. -Ben because I’m still a salty bitch.  -I also wanna add Louis and Violet’s deaths on the bridge mostly because they die, Clem is sad for two seconds, Tenn says sorry, and then no one cares. Yeah, yeah, they mourned off screen and I call that lazy bullshit. -Hell, throw Tenn’s death on here, too, for similar reasons-- no one but Louis/Violet and AJ seem to care. Even Clementine is like “whatever” after it happens. 

---

Y’know, picking this one seemed like a good idea at the time, but by now I’m just annoyed by all these dumb deaths. So, what are your thoughts? Are there any deaths that make you question the writers that didn’t end up on the list? Do you agree or disagree with my list? Lemme know, we can have a friendly discussion about it. 

Have any suggestions for future T5F’s? Feel free to send ‘em in! :D

---

Next week’s T5F Top 5 Favorite Louis Moments

[shoezuki]

I think, narratively speaking, Techno will definitely use his favor for Dream at some point, whether it's to break him out of the prison or something else. It just makes sense, Chekhov's gun and all. That said, I think it has to be remembered that Dream did save Techno's life, and he's helped him out more than a few times as well. That, and I don't think Techno really knows anything about Dream and his unsavory actions, considering he hasn't really witnessed any "bad" thing he's done.

i see u yea i Do think the favour will be used in Some way in getting dream out of prison. like aside of How exactly dream will be able to relay a message to techno cuz i got NO clue klghlshg but yea. for the ‘favour’ to be called in at this point jus seems Right

however like. w the ‘favour’. i feel its importance n what it could Entail is hugely overstated. or overestimated? idk the word for it but its One a those im sure

basically like; techno ‘owes’ dream in that dream has done things for techno with the explicit intention of having techno at his beck and call at some point in the future. BUT in terms of where it gets Interesting is something techno said in a stream a While ago. sometime during the Racooninnit arc while tommy was hiding in his house. 

he said that he ‘believes in absolute reciprocity’ in response to dream bringing up that He Is Indebted to him in Some way. and ya that seems jus like a Techno Way a speakin yknow. dream was happy w that answer; affirmation that techno Will help him at some point. but also its worth sayin that techno is. Built Different. 

he doesnt know the absolutes and the details of why dream is Wack. but its noted that even though he’s ‘teamed up’ with dream he doesnt trust him much. doesnt care that hes in prison either. dream was more of a means of doing what he wanted and a way to get to his goal of defeating lmanberg. BUT thats not the biggest thing, mostly just i dont feel techno would go Far out of his way for someone he distrusts. 

but also. ‘absolute reciprocity’ suggests he’s saying he’d act in dream’s direction in the Same Way which dream acted towards him. again. not much. but what EXACTLY has dream done for techno?

its always that he ‘saved his life’ but its.like in Lose terms, not exactly. much of the things dream did were.... give techno some of the means to save Himself. he gave him a map to get to a woodland mansion; he didnt directly give him a totem, or help him go there, or clear through the mansion. giving a map, a ‘warning’ and pointing in a general direction is...... like its helpful? but not groundbreaking. 

BUT as for on the execution day in particular, dream did a few things; caused a distraction, moved carl into a place, gave technoblade iron armor and a pickaxe. then he left. Again, he gave him weak items and dipped. he didnt protect him, fight with him, make sure he was safe, or even really... give him Good items? like if more than jus quackity had chased him in there mans prob woulda been Screwed. if dream hadn’t helped? techno woulda bolted most likely and it woulda been awkward as he scrambled but i still feel he coulda gotten out. with or without carl, though im not sure. 

so like? dream HELPED him, but he didnt exactly Save him or Rescue him. mans.... didnt do much. he wasnt exactly the choosing factor in if techno lives or dies. like technically speaking dream coulda been sending him on a death mission to the mansion (altho.... its techno slkghslkhgkh)

SO. like. would dream giving techno a map, moving his horse, and giving him iron items and a pickaxe be equivalent to technoblade breaking him out of a high security prison and most likely turning the rest of the server on him in some way? nah. 

the CLOSEST i can think is. techno giving dream the Means of breaking Himself out. like. maybe somehow getting items into his prison or disturbing the machinations. but to straight up bust his whole ass out would be. too much