#i mean we KNOW the main plot but yk what i mean... how the hell does this pan out..

[todayisafridaynight]

So Allegedly Infinite Wealth is 100 hours... not that you can't already spend that long on the games if you really want to, but I'd say it's the first time that could be said to be the base experience rather than a time only hardcore completionists are likely to get.

Yokoyama was talking at length about wanting to make the game worth the price tag since the team is incredibly conscious about the value of the players' time and money. They essentially feel they owe players ten times what they paid, so they're aiming for "an enjoyable 100 hours, but also an unforgettable 100 hours."

If they pull it off, I personally think it'd be 100% worth it and not just a "well other studios are doing it so we can get away with it too" price hike... I'm at least happy to know that's not the intent, and I'm intrigued to see how everything pans out and what the ratio is between story and side content

oh yayaya i saw that article this morning!!! 100 hours is actually so unfathomable to me in terms of an rgg game- i mean y7 was At Minimum around 45~50 hours but when i think of other RPGS that easily dip into 70's and 100's of hours, i'm not too surprised to see LAD start to climb towards those numbers now. it'd be such a jump in rgg's terms tho, so i'm TRULY curious to see where the nearly doubled gameplay hours comes from..

i really appreciate yoko's respect not just to RGGS but also to its customers: they want to make a great product, but they also don't want to sacrifice what they want to do to do that in the process

[mariposahxh]

TOGASHI CREATED KILLUGON BASED ON A ROMANTIC COUPLE FROM THE ROMCOM HE WROTE !!

Did you know Togashi created a romantic comedy manga back in 1989? He always talked about liking shojo and romance but it’s not very known that he actually wrote one! (this is about killugon i promise keep reading)

title : Ten de Shōwaru Cupid

disclaimer : it’s nsfw and kinda gross (MINORSDON’TREADIT) but i’m not showing or talking about any of those nsfw things in this post so don’t worry!

It was never officially licensed so there’s no released English translation.

Very vaguely, the story is about Ryuji and Maria, the main romantic couple (pictured above) . It’s sorta a “ friends to lovers “ situation… in it’s own way.

Anyway, there’s one scene that started this whole discovery. Ryuji and Maria essentially go on a star gazing date. (yakwtfgo)

a few panels from the scene :

Star gazing. Shooting star. Deep conversation.

Doesn’t that sound familiar?

But wait, it also LOOKS familiar.

losing my mind bc ohmygoddd togashi ur so insane for this.

hell, even the set up and light/dark scheme is similar.

1989 : Togashi creates a star gazing date between the protagonist and deuteragonist of his shojo.

1998 : Togashi creates a star gazing date between the protagonist and deuteragonist of his shonen.

it took him ten years to make it gay

There’s more :

As we all know, Killua has electric powers. He has one move in particular called “ 落雷 “ (thunderbolt/lightning strike)

Coincidentally, Maria from the romcom ALSO has electric powers. Not just any electric power though, she has a move called “ 落雷 “ (thunderbolt/lightning strike)

Deuteragonists with electric powers and a thunderbolt move.

What’s next? Maria also being immune to poison just like Killua?

Exactly.

Miss Maria over here is the OG “ i’m immune to poison ” character. She drinks the poison from the snake to hide her demon tail (wild plot ik)

—

(( 4/27 update : i was just reminded of how Killua has that snake awaken thing with his aura hhhhhhomg

when they’re both associated with snakes ))

—

So, a deuteragonist who is strongly devoted to the protagonist, in love with the protagonist, immune to poison, has lightning powers, uses a move called "thunderbolt", and has been on a stargazing date with their protagonist.

It’s almost as if… Maria was Togashi’s blueprint for Killua.

This next portion isn’t as big but they’re just little situations that gave me deja vu :

Here we have the classic jealousy situation when a “romantic rival” enters the story.

- Stalking as they talk by a tree.

- Fuming with anger as something affectionate happens between them.

- Fleeing when the current situation became too much to handle. (in killua’s case he left to go fight a rabbit but still. yk he wasn’t about to stick around for what came next😭)

And there’s also the way they bump heads and bicker with each other like a married couple.

i’m sure there’s more similarities and hxh inspo in the story but i don’t feel like rereading and translating it all

In conclusion :

This means that from the very beginning, Togashi intentionally coded Gon and Killua from a romantic couple. KilluGon is the recreated/reimagined version of Ryuji and Maria (a pure and sfw and gay version)

goated behavior tbh

[xadenviolct]

personally i think an elucien book would really hit yk? like with lucien being diplomat for the night court and also the unresolved issues with helion being his father, his relationship with eris (where we hopefully find out more about what happened with mor and eris) also tamlin and lucien like tamlin was just left to die what else happens with that. all of elains powers and how she uses them, not to mention the mating bond between them. no hate to ur opinion ofc! xx

First, I'll say that chances are, no matter who ends up with whom, I will probably enjoy it. SJM is just that kinda author for me, ever since I first read ACOTAR, so yeah.

Second, if I felt like the book was going to center around Lucien as the MC, then I'd be more likely to go with this, because yes, there are several aspects of his character than can be explored and whatnot.

The problem is, I do not (personally) believe that any other character will get a "Main Character" story before Elain does. From a purely writing perspective, SJM has told Feyre's story (acotar, acomaf, acowar), she's told Nesta's story (acofas to acosf)-- why would she just jump into another character when the third sister's story remains untold?

That being said, let's (for argument's sake) say that Elain is the MC of the next story. What are the obstacles or hurdles or plot points or drama or conflict or whatever else between Elain ending up with Lucien?

Really-- nothing. Yes, there are aspects of each of their pasts that can be told, there are aspects of what their futures might bring, but at the end of the day, there's absolutely nothing keeping them apart, because "they are mates" -- according to the Cauldron*

*NOTE: And if we go by the "new information" that CC3 revealed, since we known the universes are all connected(ish?), and we find out the Daglan/Asteri "corrupted" the Cauldron in that book... What does that mean as far as mates and bonds are concerned?

We know from the earlier books of the series that ones can be considered "mates" and still not be "right" for each other. CC3 gave us the information that the bonds (corrupted by the Daglan/Asteri) chose those who would make the strongest bloodlines/powerful offspring/etc.

How will that play into the future ACOTAR books? We don't know yet, but I'd be surprised (from, again, a writing perspective) if such information had no bearing on anything whatsoever.

Also, at the very end of it all, it's a romance. Fantasy romance, romantic fantasy, etc. Therefore by definition, the characters and the romance between them is a fairly large point of the story. It's not just the background subplot like in some other types of genres.

So while you do have potential story in other characters, the romantic story has nothing to prevent Elain & Lucien. But when it comes to the romantic side of Elain & Azriel, there are hurdles. There are conflicts.

There is also a story that hasn't yet been told in the sense that what does it mean to reject a mating bond? how does it work? is there a love greater than a mating bond? how does choice play into partnerships?

Etc. Etc.

As I have stated on other posts, we know how mating bonds are accepted. So the (romantic part) of the STORY for Elain & Lucien is nothing. Accept the bond and the end.

But we would get a hell of a lot more lore, world-building, conflict (political fallout? problems b/w the courts? etc.) if Elain rejects the bond with Lucien and chooses Azriel.

An Elriel story can still give insight into the past of characters (say, for instance, in Elain's rejection of the bond and what comes of that, we find out more of Lucien's past in terms of allies in a potential political minefield, etc.), so yes, I am firmly in the belief that Elain and Azriel will end up together, and while I do like that as a fan, I'm basing it more on the simple writing process, as I've outlined.

The whole three sisters/three brothers holds appeal to me, too, but it really, ultimately, boils down to this:

Who will be the MAIN CHARACTER of the next story?

I'd find it very hard to believe it will be anyone other Elain.

(Will SJM tell more for other characters? Maybe a Lucien story or a Rhys story or one for Mor or who knows what else? Quite possibly; I'm not discounting the idea that one of the other characters will get a central focus at some point. But it wouldn't make sense to tell THAT story before you tell Elain's.)

And this got so much longer than I initially intended.

[sevlawless]

okay so the n route has been bothering me ever since i played it and i needed to air my frustrations out as a way to cope i suppose

for reference my main detective who i use for n is felicity, but sometimes i also use arabella to test out some options i wouldn't normally pick and just to see how the romance works with a detective that isn't exactly that compatible with n. so when i first played, i used felicity and then later on when i was doing a deep dive into the romance and the plot, i was using arabella just to see if certain things held up yk! and lord how i wish it did LMFAO

just a little disclaimer that this is all just my opinion and i'm willing to listen to other points of view about this! and i do not mean any of what i say as a dig or to be hateful toward n, they are my favorite li in twc and the fact that i love their romance and their character so much is probably most if not all of the reason why their route in book 3 was so weird to me, and why i make the critiques that i do.

under the cut because this is a doozy and also book 3 spoilers

first of all the main thing in the demo chapters is that n gets mad if you try and fight the trappers bc they are so scared of losing you and like i GUESS i get it but this is literally our life now you're just gonna have to get used to it. and this wouldn't have even been an big issue for me if it was properly addressed! when i played using arabella i tried being mad, i tried staying mad, and it kept getting swept under the rug by the plot. like are we seriously not going to talk about this??? at all?????? and it seems very ooc for n NOT to say anything about it when you get a moment alone because why would they not address it, ESPECIALLY if your mc was still upset over it. AND ESPECIALLY IF YOU’RE IN A RELATIONSHIP LIKE- these things need to be discussed in order to grow as a couple and there needs to be healthy communication or else this is not going to work. like you're telling me we were living with unit bravo for WEEKS and this shit just never got brought up again?

this also ties into my next gripe- n's backstory. so, if you snooped in the demo they won't tell you anything, which okay. mc shouldn't have done that, sure, but n doesn't even give a reason as to why they're upset by that. obviously you can be like "well i think anyone would be upset if you delved into their past without their knowledge or permission" but YOU ARE IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH THIS PERSON WHY IS THERE NO COMMUNICATION OF FEELINGS. i would have appreciated that scene a hell of a lot more if n sat you down and was like "i'm upset that you did this, here's why," but all they do is get sad and then that's it. when i played as arabella i had her snoop AND get upset over the argument during the trapper fight, and n said something along the lines of "i know sometimes we regret doing things" as a reference to snooping AND the argument which??? just does NOT hold up at all and had me irritated as hell.

if you didn't snoop in the demo, n takes you to their room and shows you a picture of their family and talks about them and how his brother joined the navy and didn't come back (their brother was killed by vampires) and that's why they decided to join the navy, as a way to try and figure out what actually happened. this scene started off great, but it's cut short way too quickly because n drops the photo and the frame breaks. and then they basically just shoo you out. there's really not any option to comfort them, and the option that is there is not good enough. and it's not that n had to tell us EVERYTHING in that one scene, but it's more so the fact that it NEVER gets brought up again. your mc can't take a moment to bring it up and n sure as hell doesn't say anything else about it. which is so ?????? im sorry you supposedly love this person (im saying this for both mc and n) and yet neither of you address it again??? it makes no sense at all.

onto the research/combat scene… i've done the combat scene once so i can't really speak on that as much as the research one so. most of the research scene is fine aside from the fact if you're not in a relationship (which i did for one playthrough with felicity) n brings up bobby if you dated them which felt so bizarre but anyways. the option to realize you love n… i would love this IF the option where you tell n you love them actually mattered. LMFAO if you tell n you love them they literally just stare at you and then the sex scene pops up. like are you kidding me??? n would not just leave you hanging like that even if it was just to say that they don't feel that way yet. and the sex scene itself is… fine i suppose but it doesn't feel as intimate as it should be. there's little to no dialogue and it just feels so weird to read. like why would neither of you be saying anything?? not to mention the fact that you're literally OUTSIDE of the warehouse where any of ub could see you at any point it just feels wrong to have sex at that point at least in my opinion. and the talk after feels so short and weird i feel like both the detective and n would have more to say. and that moment is quickly brushed away by the plot.

i guess the next plot line is whether u told tina or verda or nobody about the supernatural. going into book 3 this was probably what i looked forward to the most and ofc it barely delivered. i liked seeing tina and n interact but that quickly turned sour for me, not because tina started rightfully bringing up how much mc has been through, but because n really does not do anything with that pov being voiced to them, which is so fucking ooc it pains me. when they go to talk to mc after their conversation there's no discussion just "i wanted to see you" okay but WHY did you? i would have taken a li pov of what tina relayed to them literally anything! and it's just another thing that gets swept under the rug because of the stupid ass plot.

another thing about the dinner that gets lost in the plot of book 3: tina/verda bringing up your li possibly drinking your blood and mc can react a number of different ways and i wish it had been talked about more than just in that moment 😭

the only scene that i genuinely enjoyed in all of n's route was after that building caves in on mc and you're back at the warehouse traumatized and bruised and defeated. n runs you a bath and if you pick that option helps you out of your clothes and then helps you settle into bed. i wish there had been more discussion of anything in that scene but mc was so out of it i was okay with no talking. and then redacted petname <3 the other thing i was most looking forward to! one thing i did dislike about this scene though was that we didn't really get a glimpse on how n was feeling yk usually mishka offers the li's pov on a scene and not having that made that moment not feel as rounded out.

the pool scene… first of all why did n get this one. like it would have made sense for m, hell even a! and again the scene felt so shallow and then the option to have sex. you're telling me your first time with n can be on a fucking pool table???? that is so not their vibe AT ALL and it feels so weird to even have that there. it was unnecessary as well as the other opportunity to have sex and i feel like mishka just put them in there as like fan service when who (in my opinion) genuinely wants this if they romance n and have them as their main route. i had hoped the first time n and mc have the opportunity to have sex it would be a more intimate setting because that's more fitting for them and my nate mc, felicity. but nope! and then the scene gets cut short because n has to go on patrol??? and again the sex scene itself … neither of them feel personable it's like a "one size fits all" type of approach and that just does not work if this is supposed to be interactive fiction where we create a personality for our mc's that cannot fit this specific mold mishka wants to put everyone in.

being invited to what might as well just be a fucking slave trade (i have many thoughts about this auction plotline as well but for now im discussing n's route) had me so confused because why would mishka even do that and then n's comment about the stationary? i need you to be fucking for real. the scene before you leave for the mission with n just felt so weird like we get it n is protective of mc but at this point it just felt like a hinderance which sucks because one of the things i love most about n is their deep care for mc and they just sounded like a broken record and it annoyed me so bad.

after all that, the scene when you come back and n is in tears confessing their love for mc i wanted to enjoy it i really did and i just could not upon replaying because it feels so unbelievably hollow. we have not discussed anything pertaining our relationship and when there are things that need to be discussed they are so underwhelming it's hard to even care. there are a handful of things n and mc both need to work on in order for this relationship to work and the fact that they're not being addressed makes it difficult for me to enjoy anything about this route. you can't even tell n you love them back for fuck's sake like hello.

a theme that i did not think was going to be as prominent as it was in this book but n contemplating mc turning into a vampire and AGAIN there wasn't ever really a discussion about this between mc and n and i feel like this will come to a head as the books progress but i don't think it fit into book 3 considering so many other things were being thrown at us.

all in all i truly desperately wanted to enjoy book 3 and enjoy being with n but i cannot when there are so many things ignored, sidelined, or just completely forgotten in order to push the plot forward.

[infraaa]

So , if the requests are open may I ask for fluffy headcannons for Longan?(pls pls pls they're hawt as hell and my friends from other games know that I am in love with a cookie)

『I mean- he is a scrimblo. lub ❤️❤️❤️』

longan dragon — fluff headcanons (gender not specified)

poor baby man— this lil guy looks in the face of fluff culture and spits in it.

doesn’t understand how you mortals can just sit with each other like this… but then again, they don’t have a clear understanding of what love is either to be true.

they are about as stiff as a stick in the mud that has hardened down. Very tough cookie on the outside. they don’t like getting distracted from their war crime that is quite literally omnicide.

however… a certain cookie struck them differently. they took a bite outta you and said… “this hit different ngl wtf is this-“

favorite activity with you is pottery I feel, like I can see them taking in an artistic hobby to quell their violent thoughts of world domination. It keeps their mind busy yk? Just sitting behind you, guiding your little hands along the clay as it spins round and round… it’s so relaxing.

they also like to sit with you in their den, with you in between their legs as you rest on them, their sharp claws combing through your hair. Having conversations or hell, even in the depths of silence.

doesn’t know the first thing about cooking but will try if it means making you happy. I imagine the only thing they know how to make is pasta. and we can go in depth abt this like they love pasta with a passion and will make different kinds for you.

like “honey it’s 2 in the morning, why on earthbread are you making tonkotsu ramen?” “bc I’ve lost control of my life.”

loves movies and will watch them with you. let them pick one. just do it. most likely it will be something like Get Out or Us, they like scifi horror. again, doesn’t understand romantic movies and that gush shit.

you pick out a hallmark movie and they make fun of you, jokingly w affection

“let me guess the main protag is a wealthy business woman living in upstate New York and is slightly materialistic, meets your average joe who is actually rich but hides it until the very end as a pointless plot twist, they fall in love right on Christmas Eve, with snow and everything and somehow the main protag’s father is Santa Claus. Woooooow” “fuckinf stop”

respect dragon culture— if you don’t you hurt their feelins 😢 (nah jk but they have their own ways of expressing love that are definitely 100% foreign and unorthodox to you.)

dragon nibbles dragon nibbles dragon nibbles dragon nibbles dragon nibbles dragon nibbles dragon nibbles dragon-

om nom nom nom nom (gentle— may or may not be suggestive)

this is about as close as you will get to cuddles as they really aren’t a cuddly dragon.

and they aren’t a very soft dragon again. but they try their hardest. 🧡

[diamondsandlemons]

Hi sorry for being the least normal person on the planet about this but I saw you rbing some The Locked Tomb stuff and it's only been like a week or two since I got extremely into the series and it's nice to see someone I follow also show interest in it around the same-ish time as me! Can I ask abt your take on the books so far n fav character/s?

well I've only read the first book (I'm definitely interested in continuing with the series but I probably won't get to it for a while, esp. since I wanna get back into playing Ace Attorney games, as playing a visual novel kinda takes up the same time slot in my day as reading a novel, yk?) so there's def stuff I don't know abt yet.

but anyway yeah! I did really enjoy it. I appreciate the comedy in it, which I wasn't really expecting since like the cover art is so grim and it opens with some really dense politics stuff and a bunch of long names (that I just know should be pronounced with a british accent but I can't really make my head voice do that) and like the actual plot is very serious with deaths and stuff but nonetheless This Book Has Jokes

and its best when they're the dumbest, simplest jokes you could think of and Gideon says them out loud because thats the kind character she is. love her

Palamedes is great too because he entertains Gideon's antics while also being the one most focused on solving the mystery castle puzzles. (this girl who's been here for like a month and has never spoken a word to anyone is talking to me now? and she's rude? thats fine I'll just roll with it). he's also like the most normal dude in the whole cast. you feel comfortable when he's around

(btw what the hell was up with the thing he discovered about the rooms in Canaan House being from different time periods? like the different rooms are literally different ages? I don't think that was ever explained or brought up again???)

Also, for "lesbian fiction" being basically the one thing everyone says about this series, I was kinda surprised at the lack of a romantic plot in this one? I mean maybe there will be more of that in the other books idk, but like. ok so from the beginning it's very clear that Gideon and Harrow are gonna be the main pair here. and I was a little skeptical they were gonna be able to sell me on that because of where their relationship started, but nahhh I had nothing to worry about. they were meant for each other and enemies to lovers works great it turns out. but like. their relationship definitely improves a lot over the course of the story, but most of the time they don't talk to each other about anything but their jobs. its all bones and skeletons and locked doors with them.

don't get me wrong it has strong gay vibes all the way through (and Gideon is constantly commenting on how hot other women are, which is great) but at no point are Harrow and Gideon actually like. dating. closest they got was when I think it was implied they fucked once, after the pool scene. which like, good for them, I'm glad they got the opportunity to do that before, ah, y'know.

speaking of which I have NO clue what'll happen next based on how it ended. and the brief glimpse of the emperor at the very end was not at all what I expected, so that's curious as well...

OH yeah and speaking of the empire. uh at least the copy of the book that I have has a bunch of bonus material at the end, like in-universe essays and reports (and a pronunciation guide where I frustratingly learned I'd been reading half the characters' names wrong). and ONLY in that bonus material was it ever acknowledged that other inhabited planets exist outside of the empire. like for the whole book it kinda seems like there are nine planets that comprise the empire, and that's it. no humans anywhere else in the universe. no life outside the empire.

sure, the Cohort supposedly fights "enemies of the empire" but that's all that's ever said about that. could be like evil skeletons or some other kind of space monster for all we know. but no there ARE other civilizations, which I guess might be at war with the necromancers? it's cool to know that, that this story's universe is bigger than we've seen, and if I had to guess I'd say bigger than we probably ever will see, since there's still so many ghost/death mysteries and House history stuff our beloved necros have yet to solve.

ok thats probably everything I have to say about Gideon the Ninth for now. thanks for giving me an opportunity to put it all into words, lol

[m1ckeyb3rry]

BOYTOY no that’s exactly what I was going for thank you for providing this information

Miraverse crack>>> actually just miraverse in general LMAOO

THATS WHAT IM SAYING like why are you suddenly reviving a character per chapter hello?? But iirc i think gege does have some sort of pressure from the editor (s??) and has had some to just prolong the story in general so maybe it was actually meant to end closer to Shibuya but

Ok wait i was also expecting a LOT more from Lorenzo what happened?? We saw him shine for like two chapters and that was it like what was the point of adding him atp (back to our point of how ng11 shouldn’t have been introduced yet) trust me i will definitely be translating those!! Stop imagine we get updated profiles too and we finally find out how many valentines gifts Barou got….ok time to drop all the manifestations in here I’ll start SHOW ME CANON YAYOI AND SEIKO

OH ok also wasn’t aware of the breeding only acquisition

I’m laughing so hard at the way you described it but it’s literally so accurate like yeah let me risk my life and go mediate the fight between some gods with beef in the underworld space time continuum ok

Ash misty and Brock the iconic trio Lowk they were so unhinged and so funny

No because the first evolution/base evolutions are all cute like horsea shinx amaura ducklett nidoran (Lowk nidoran girl looks like it would bite but I’m imagining the usual pokemon official like poster design of it so I���m sure she’s got cute moments) and beldum (it’s cute in a weird way ig but I mean I wouldn’t say intimidating so) I can imagine Otoya trying to build his team and he goes to hunt specifically for cool looking pokemon but instead finds all the cute ones instead and with a mix of “this will get me girls” and “wait it’s cute I kinda vibe with it” he takes them in instead LMAOO

LMAOOO WAIT DROP THE WEBSITE??? I’m gonna reference that from now on but DONPHAN SUPREMACY

Ness would fr track him down and try to scare him into stopping his business (as if gagamaru couldn’t beat him up if he wanted to but he won’t) I can imagine ness tweaking like he did in that one panel after kaisers watching Isagi on the monitor and ness is like biting his lip questionably gripping his hands except this time it’s “I’ll show you that my poffins reign supreme…….”

the “uhh yeah only for the plot yk” is sending me LMAOOO

LMAOAAOAO I KNOW EXACTLY WHICH AUDIO YOURE TALKING ABOUT HAHAHAHA BUT FR when you first mentioned the Karasu beef that’s how I imagined the exchange going too it’s so funny (someone needs to tally how many times I say ‘so funny’ in a response I need more creative ways to say that I’m laughing my ass off because every other word is just LMAOOO)

Oh shit I did not even realize that um HAHA yes turn away we will not acknowledge that

LOLLL Karasu fr like “bro do you know how much time it took me to train these other birds wtf”

STOPPP NOT THE SWANNA AND BAROU BESTIES IN HELL GOODBYE. Wait this is lowk reminding me of one episode that almost exclusively features the pokemon with no trainers or humans and we see them interacting and talking to each other napoleon complex galvantula is hilarious but hey i mean if it’s sweeping the floor with Barou’s team LOL wait baby magikarp complex gyarados is a dynamic I didn’t know I needed I actually love that

I’m crying I’m gonna be sobbing reading this if/when it gets formally written out the reader Barou houndoom^2 ideas have me in my feels

The way I’d always get rid of rain dance because id think “this shit does nothing!!! If it’s not damage I don’t want it” LMAOO sending gyarados out just to set up rain dance is so funny also kinda brutal I’d imagine gyarados returns to its ball like “damn ok then.”

That’s funny because that’s probably the one spelling I’ve never seen before LMAOOO (I alr struggled sm trying not to repeat pokemon when I thought of my own team ideas for just the more main characters so I feel you) OUUU WAIT I forgot/didn’t think about it but I think you’re right?? I definitely remember the earlier gyms not having a full team and it gradually increases kinda….i remember the first or second gyms having like two to three pokemon max iirc

ADAM BLAKE WITH A PURUGLY IS SO REAL I randomly picked him earlier while reading our convo just trying to see what pokemon immediately vibes with him and the first thought i had was Persian but i knew something was missing because it almost didn’t seem sassy/snooty enough purugly is perfect

MALAMAR MENTION wait id totally imagine anri raising a little inkay!!! On that note I think its really funny that (iirc) to evolve inkay you have to hold your ds upside down LMFAO

Based off ashs hawlucha id say it also gave me yayoi vibes LOL wait also why does roserade give luna…like some of these vibes just match up too well but I can’t explain why

VOLCARONA MENTION TOO Lowk one of my fav bug types also pause Chris’ entire team gives such prince vibes like especially so even more than everyone else and their teams like I look at the pokemon itself and I can say with confidence like “yup it’s giving Chris this reminds me of Chris” LMFAO also scrafty with snuffy is giving me Lorenzo vibes LOL Noel noa having a Klefki is also sending me but I see the vision

- Karasu anon

NFJDJJS he was a very goofy little guy…he was a mini horse so the size of like a great dane and he was lowkey an npc he didn’t really do anything 😭 but he was cute and his name was funny KDJDSJJS whenever i would put him in his field it felt like i was walking a dog but an evil one with feet made of iron

it’s so random and also why are they just monologuing about the previous fight?? like we were all there…we all read it already…there’s literally like two chapters left right?? or is it three??? either way it doesn’t feel like nearly enough to wrap things up 😭 but ig we will see how it goes

no yeah lorenzo is specifically who i was referring to when i said ng11s shouldn’t have been introduced yet like yeah okay kaiser and isagi having a rivalry is a little far-fetched given how good kaiser should be BUT LORENZO?? bro barely did anything and now people rank him as the worst ng11 even though he’s canonically been able to completely shut kaiser down which by “feats” or wtvr power scaling lingo should put him above kaiser?? it would’ve been much much better if aiku was just given lorenzo’s NEL role completely and maybe snuffy mentions a ng11 defensive player that he knows of that would put even aiku to shame (aka lorenzo) which gives aiku a reason to strive to be even better so snuffy will eventually acknowledge him too (#egodevelopmentasf)

you know what i want to see is BABY NAGI AND HIS PARENTS mr and mrs nagi are my literal opps they’re lowkey insane?? i will never be over the way they straight up left him behind and treat him like a friend instead of their child to the point that they literally haven’t even had background panels or mentions in the manga…KANESHIRO SHOW ME MY ENEMIES IN THE EGOIST BIBLE 👁️👁️ AND MY LIFE IS YOURS

tbh the original few seasons of the pokémon anime (everything before brock left ig) were lowkey so unhinged like upon rewatch it’s crazy how much you missed as a kid 😭 truly a show which holds up to the test of time!!

hiori definitely thinks he’s going to have all cutesy pokémon given how adorable all of the babies are and then they evolve and are sooo scary and intimidating (except swanna who’s ironically the only one of the six that’s actually mean) HAHAHA omg otoya’s team acquisitions are so funny in the au i crack up thinking abt them…obviously froakie he just gets because it’s his starter and he’s from a ninja clan but then with ampharos it’s just because reader and co went to a farm for some reason?? and one of the mareeps was so obsessed with otoya that the farm was like “just take it” and otoya’s like “bro i don’t want it i can’t be seen with this 😟” but then the mareep is like “🥺💛🩵” and tullia’s like “yo don’t be a douche anyways it’ll evolve into an ampharos that’s strong” so otoya’s just like FINE I GUESS 😭 after that he’s given a happiny by a nurse joy that he rizzed up…he thinks it’s proof of rizz but apparently karasu overheard the nurse joy saying the owner abandoned the happiny because taking care of a baby pokémon is too much work so she gave it to otoya since he seemed trustworthy enough (her first choice was tullia but tullia already has a full team from the start so she wouldn’t be able to manage it) and he tells otoya and otoya (who was about to release the happiny lowkey) is immediately like “😱 bitch i’m a mother 😤 no drama 🤩” even though he lowkey makes tullia and karasu’s talonflame do most of the work of taking care of happiny 😩 then while they’re at yayoi’s gym otoya has a MASSIVE crush on yayoi so while tullia’s battling her (reader and karasu already have their badges so karasu stays to watch tullia and reader accompanies otoya) he goes to find a flying type to impress yayoi but it can’t be just ANY flying type it has to be a special one so he searches high and low until he finally finds a swablu which is pretty rare so he figures it works…however yayoi does not care whatsoever so now he just has a swablu on his team 😭 he gets the vulpix by buying one of chris prince’s online courses that come with a free egg for the top tier subscribes and he’s so excited because he thinks the egg will hatch into a magby (so he can eventually have a magmortar) or a torchic (so he can eventually have a blaziken) but then it hatches into a VULPIX and he reads the fine print and realizes that it says the eggs will hatch into random fire-type pokémon but not any of chris’s main pokémon so he’s FUMING that he wasted his money and he has one sided beef w chris prince now 😓 finally sylveon he’s SOOOO HYPE because he catches and eevee and he’s like “let’s go i’m going to get an umbreon” so tullia tells him he has to have a high friendship with his eevee and battle with it at night to achieve that so he brings eevee EVERYWHERE to ensure the friendship is maxed out…however by in-game mechanics and therefore in-verse laws sylveon takes precedence over espeon and umbreon 😰 so he’s just battling one evening with reader or something and then his eevee starts to glow and he’s like FINALLY but then it finishes evolving and turns out to be a sylveon and he just gives up

this is the website it’s super easy to use and intuitive as it also provides all of the pokémon there so you don’t have to keep googling online 🤩 i rlly liked using it to build everyone’s teams even though i didn’t use the analysis function as much with anyone but reader

THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT I WAS PICTURING like amidst all of the corruption and fighting and anarchy there’s also just randomly a market war going on between ness and gagamaru but it’s completely one sided because gagamaru is perfectly content with the 5 customers he currently has 😭

see reader and nagi have such an insane slow burn that even by the aegislash arc they’re still only marginally friendly rivals that save each other’s asses but aren’t really close (of mc trio and reader&co the only ones that actually are good friends are tullia + chigiri…otoya and karasu think mc trio are all goofy so they just bully them and whenever mc trio pulls up reader is always busy with nagi so she never becomes friends w the other two) so the “in order to escape this world we just have to be in love i suppose” is their rationalization for why they are a littleeee too eager to live out the plot line 😭

HELP POKÉMON AU KARASU FR IS JUST ALWAYS CATCHING STRAYS THOUGH like nagi innocently suggests that he might be dating reader and reader tweaks out, two-thirds of his team is just pokémon his sister rejected, and this random kid from his hometown would probably beat him in a battle if he ever cared enough to do so

I KNOW WHICH EP YOU MEAN that one was so cute…i feel like galvantula especially as a joltik just rode around on reader’s should and chattered angrily when people made fun of it LMAOAO it’s such a babyyyy but honestly it deserves to be sassy considering the work it puts in for the team 😓 plsss whenever reader releases gyarados the first thing it does is try to tackle her in a hug because it loves her sm and she has to be like “no baby you’re the size of a school bus please get off” it’s very uncharacteristic because most gyarados are very mean and angry but reader was so kind to it as a magikarp and never did anything to hurt it/put it in danger just for the sake of its evolution (since she basically gave up on it every evolving based on tullia’s and karasu’s advice) that her gyarados LOVES her

okay but i was on tik tok earlier and i saw this video and tbh the video itself is kinda irrelevant but the song??? (full audio apparently from a satosugu edit but hot take idgaf abt satosugu 😓) and i was like. reader and barou. IT’S READER AND BAROU. HE LOOKS LIKE THE REAL THING 😭😭😭😭😭😭

tbh i always got rid of moves that didn’t do damage in the game but according to the anime’s logic pokémon can learn more than four moves so gyarados can keep rain dance KFJDJS i can imagine gyarados doing the rain dance like “yay 😄 i’m helping y/n 🕺🏻” meanwhile the opposing pokémon is about to cry because a happy gyarados is so rare that they think her gyarados is just a new level of insanely mad 😭 also apparently gyarados can learn thunderbolt, thunder, and flamethrower (ostensibly because it’s supposed to be a sea serpent that brings storms and whatnot) so galvantula doesn’t have to carry COMPLETELY since gyarados can also use some electric attacks 🤩 that would be a really cool battle in the conference like maybe substitutions aren’t allowed so when reader sends out her gyarados against and sets up a rain dance her opponent (who’s possibly a water type trainer) is like “that won’t work this time 😌 rain dance makes my pokémon stronger too 😏 and you can’t switch out for your galvantula 🤓☝🏻” since they’ve studied her and seen her use that combo in past battles but instead of panicking reader’s just like “lol okay gyarados use thunder” and that’s the end of that 🥶

yeahh the first few gyms only have a couple of pokémon each i tried to distribute so it’s kinda even and moves up with the reader’s power scaling?? so the first gym has two, second and third have three, fourth and fifth have four, sixth and seventh have five, and the eighth and e4 have a full team of 6 (in the game only the champion and possibly your rival have full teams of 6 but given how good reader is + the different stakes of the world it made more sense for the final gym and e4 to have full teams)

i literally looked up a list of all normal types while picking his team and as SOON as i saw purugly i was like oh this is perfect…reo already has a persian so i couldn’t give one to adam blake sadly 😓 some of the repetitions had me tweaking i really wanted the ace of loki’s team to be a zebstrika in reference to his speed but chigiri already has one so now loki’s ace is his emolga!!

anri with an inkay and a little espurr (before they evolve) is such a cute image to me 🥹 inkay is such a random pokémon for the upside down thing too i wonder how the first person to get a malamar figured that specific mechanic out

honestly if the karasus weren’t so obviously bird themed i would’ve made yayoi a fighting type gym leader and snuffy the flying type e4 member (since his aura or symbol or whatever is an eagle i think) but hawlucha truly is sooo yayoi coded FJSKSKS and omg wait originally i was really set on chris prince being a fighting type specialist and luna was the fire type gym leader but then i couldn’t think of a type for snuffy and i was like “well ig fighting types fit with his whole discipline thing” so he got the fighting type designation…then i had to come up w smth for chris prince and the only types that were rlly left were ones that didn’t really fit him so i was like ok sorry luna but chris prince will be the fire type specialist!! and then i had to come up with the new type for luna and the first one i thought of was poison…i didn’t think it fit him too well but then when i started assigning pokémon i was like wait this COOKS like roserade tentacruel and scolipede especially have very strong luna vibes

DARMANITAN LOWKEY HAS THE SAME EXPRESSION AS PRINCE TOO maybe that’s why it fits so well same with simisear…tbh outside of the starters there are very few fire types and of the ones that exist i already couldn’t use half (reader/barou have houndooms, nagi had an arcanine, isagi has a charizard, tullia has an infernape, chigiri has a rapidash and a pyroar, otoya has a ninetales, karasu has a talonflame, ego has a chandelure, and lavinho has a volcarona) so i was STRUGGLING coming up with his team (and also loki’s there are very few electric types and most of them were also already in use by other characters) but i honestly ended up loving it!! agreed it has very chris prince vibes to it

DNDJSJS scrafty actually does give strong lorenzo energy maybe that’s why snuffy caught it /j 😭 tbh i just liked its typing (it’s technically 4x weak to fairy but reader doesn’t have any fairy types so she’s in the clear in terms of no easy sweeps of the e4) and i was also trying to come up with fighting types that were cool and hadn’t been taken (cough isagi and his machamp cough reo and his gallade cough tullia and her infernape/hitmonchan cough lavinho and his heracross cough yayoi and her hawlucha cough chris prince and his blaziken cough barou and his pangoro cough yukimiya and his breloom cough)

LMAOOOOO noel noa having a klefki truly is so random but i was also out of steel types (reo has mawile already, lavinho has scizor, reader has aegislash, hiori has metagross, loki has magnezone, yukimiya has steelix, and yayoi has skarmory) so we had to make do 😩 technically klefki does have rlly good typing since fairy is only weak to steel and poison but steel types are immune to poison so all of the fairy-type weakness are negated 🤩 maybe noel noa decided to be rational and just train the damn klefki for the type advantage LMAOAOA king for that tbh

[sunnywalnut]

Yk I WOULD say we need more lovable bastards in media but I know full well that y'all will babygirl their asses until the narrative turns haywire to the point even the AUTHOR will forget how they're characterized and that makes me sad.

Like yeah dude ruined the life of some stranger for looking at him wrong, but he ALSO is completely and utterly loyal to those who are closest to him.

Those two things CAN and SHOULD coexist. You don't just get to choose what's canon and what's not (I mean you can if you're doing fanfiction but like. Talking about actual canon events and leaving out pivotal moments??? Not swag). Especially if the main characterization of those bastards is that they ARE bastards.

Give me dudes who say rude shit just to say rude shit but then turn around and pay for the person behind them. Give me people who will influence others to make bad decisions and then laugh when it crashes and burns but be holding a glass of water to put out the fire. Give me absolute downright BASTARDS who's only reason they're not completely gone is that for every awful thing they do, they do an equally good thing to balance it out because they believe in karma.

Are these people as enjoyable in real life as they are in media? Of course not. But they are fucking funny to watch. And I hate to see this characterization butchered to hell because some people (including myself during times) can't fathom why they enjoy this character if they're not fundamentally good/they think that liking this character despite/because of actions have some sort of narrative on themselves as people.

Sometimes things are just more funny in media than they are in real life.

And sometimes, we just wish we could bitch about everything and watch the world burn as safely as the assholes on screen because they have plot armor and we don't.

That shouldn't be a bad thing.

I mean shit. If we judged every single author for having an awful protagonist, we wouldn't have over HALF of the horror genre, romance, adventure, comedy, or anything of the like.

I mean look at fuckin Kuzko. Everyone liked his dumbass. He's still an ass!! And dude isn't even fully reformed by the end of the movie!! He still doesn't like to admit he's wrong!! But now he's got friends and family and knows the value of other people's lives!! BUT HE'S STILL STUCK UP AND RICH!!

I dunno. I just like to ramble.

Enjoy✨(or not. I can't tell you what to do)

[sweetbitterimpossiblecreature]

A Brief And Concise Summary Of Is Wrong With The ACOTAR Series

I think we can agree that a lot of ACOTAR is pretty iffy. Consider this a very brief refresher.

What's Wrong With Feyre/Rhysand (juxtaposed against Feyre/Tamlin)

Rhysand drugs and sexually assaults her in Book 1

This is "for her own good". Because he "has no choice". Despite the fact that, from what we know of the plot, Amarantha thinks that Clare Beddor was the one Rhysand was diddling, and is only interested in Feyre because Rhysand, "her" man male, has taken an interest in her.

If we extrapolate from this we can figure that Rhysand is the one directly putting her into danger.

Now, let's be clear: drugging someone is bad. Sexually assaulting someone is bad. One could argue there were extenuating circumstances. But if, in such a situation, what your mind goes to is "I know, I should assault this person... for their safety" I have questions about your moral qualities. There were a million things he could have done. He could have done whatever he did to Clare - that is, remove her ability to feel any pain - easily. He could have helped her escape. Under The Mountain, he - while still there unwillingly - has a lot of power, as Amarantha's side piece. Maybe this would have resulted in him being punished- however, he is hundreds of years old and a badass motherfucker, and she is a nineteen year old human girl.

Now, onto Tamlin. Obviously not a lot of people really ship F/T anymore after ACOMAF, because compared to F/R, it's boring. I read another person's post about it, which was very enlightening: they said that Feyre's personality is essentially a mirror. When she is with Rhysand, she's snarky and malicious- because she is "bouncing off" his energy. When she's with Mor she's super feminist and "in awe of her strength". On the other hand, Tamlin is kind of an empty character. He's a pretty boy with anger issues, which should be more interesting than it is. SJM manages to make him bland. Because Feyre has nothing to bounce off of, (a lot of this is from the person's post), she and Tamlin together is mainly just him introducing her to his world.

What Tamlin Does: prevents a skinny twenty year old from going on dangerous missions with him and combat-trained soldiers, accidentally blows up a room with her in it, and, at the end, prevents her from leaving the house.

This is not a Tamlin apologist post. Obviously it was really fucking gross of him to do that, and their relationship was toxic. However, a lot of his abuse stems from their inability to communicate, as well as own negligence. He does not knowingly and purposefully sexually assault her or rape her mind. And tbh, leaving a girl without combat training at home while he goes on missions with a bunch of muscled sentries is... kind of reasonable?

Again: not a Tamlin apologist post. It was abuse. However, if Rhysand is "allowed" to sexually assault, mind-rape, and drug Feyre "for her own safety", why is Tamlin demonized for preventing her from leaving his mansion "for her own safety"?

Another pertinent point: Rhys is never punished for sexually assaulting her. It is brushed off as part of his "mask" or that his hand was forced. Jesus Christ my dudes, his hand was not forced under her skirt. If he has to maintain his gross rapist abuser tyrant oppressor mask... why? Who did that benefit beside him? None of his actions remotely helped Prythian. They were done solely for his buddies - five people safe in a rich hidden city - and no one else, which is explicitly stated.

Finally, the power dynamic is fucked up. Feyre is less than twenty five years old. Rhysand is 500. There is a tendency in fantasy romance to romanticize a centuries year old man with a young girl, because the man does not show symptoms of age, and so it is easily ignorable. However, can we just briefly acknowledge how fucked up it is? Rhys is over five times older than Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein, and other known predators/abusers. She is twenty. That is really fucking gross. She is in a vulnerable position and he takes rampant advantage of that.

If he had wrinkles, liver problems, and erectile dysfunction, more people would acknowledge it.

Let's be clear: I'm not saying writing a book with an uneven power dynamic is automatically bad. For example, in The Locked Tomb series, which is in my opinion THE BEST FANTASY SERIES THAT HAS GRACED THIS EARTH (lol i'm starting fires), one main character Harrowhark Nonagesimus is in a position of power over Gideon Nav, the other main character. However, this is not glossed over or romanticized. Gideon resents Harrow for this- there is a relationship of mutual antagonism, fraught with unwilling familiarity and intimacy from growing up together. They are roughly the same age. While there is a certain power dynamic (in that world, there is a dynamic of necromancer and cavalier, i.e. sorcerer and sword) the "empowered" character (Harrow) emphatically respects her and does not abuse this power, although both would of course deny this, and she does make a show of threatening and being aloof. In short, while Gideon obeys her, Gideon also has power over Harrow, and the idea of what is essentially slavery is not romanticized.

Feyre Doesn't Face Any Consequences For Her Own Actions

Let me present a radical notion: a guy preventing you from leaving his house does not justify completely fucking ruining his country and harming the people inside it.

In other words: Tamlin does not deserve what she did to him.

I know that sounds iffy. We're conditioned to think that if someone is an abuser, then they are the scum of the earth, they deserve to die, torturing/murdering/doing anything to them is completely A-OK. However, here's another radical notion: someone harming you does not justify you doing worse.

Obviously, the effects of psychological abuse can cause you to hurt other people (see: Nesta), but Feyre deliberately and maliciously (oh, God, that insufferable POV of her in Spring Court; she reads like a cartoonish Disney villain) dismantles his country. She uses sexual manipulation (Lucien), torture (causing the sentry to be whipped), and mind-rape (who didn't she do this to? lol).

A summary of the entire first half of ACOWAR: "It smelled like roses. I hated roses. For this capital offense against my olfactory system, Tamlin and the entire Spring Court deserved to burn in hell. I knew exactly what I was doing. I smiled at him sweetly: no longer a doe, but a wolf. He didn't see my fangs.............." *aesthetic noises*

Man. I'm starting to think SJM had a horrible experience at a Bath & Body Works and took it out on the rest of us. Don't do it, Sarah!! I know Pink Chiffon and Triple Berry Martini are way too strong, but don't take it out on an innocent population!!

She steals from Summer Court (there are, yk, other solutions to theft. Like maybe asking politely) and ruins Spring Court. Her boyfriend - yeesh sorry, MATE - does nothing while a dozen Winter Court children are murdered.

Now: moral ambiguity is not automatically bad. Again using The Locked Tomb as an example, in the second book (spoiler alert), Harrowhark has a sort of moral ambiguity. She was raised from the beginning to worship the King Undying as God, and so she obeys him without question. Because of this, she commits a lot of crimes in His name: she "flips" - i.e. kills - the life force of planets, and she plots murder (albeit the murder of someone who tried to kill her first). There is no attempt to justify this. There is also no attempt to paint her as a virtuous and yet also badass Madonna figure. She is desperate, plagued with the "wreck of herself", and the book clearly displays her moral pitfalls. While her POV is of course colored by her mindset, it also is limited by her lack of information, and we as readers can acknowledge that.

BACK TO ACOTAR: Feyre is seen by everyone as gorgeous, formidable, and essentially perfect. Rhys sees her as flawless, "made for him", wonderful, beautiful, blah blah blah. (THEY ARE SO BAD FOR EACH OTHER; THEY EXCUSE AND GLORIFY EACH OTHER'S CRIMES, IT'S SO BAD, GUYYYS). Tamlin is insanely batshit in love with her, or whatever. To the Night Court she's the High Lady. In this way she personifies the Mary Sue character. (Excerpt from the TV Tropes page on Mary Sues: "She's exotically beautiful, often having an unusual hair or eye color, and has a similarly cool and exotic name. She's exceptionally talented in an implausibly wide variety of areas, and may possess skills that are rare or nonexistent in the canon setting. She also lacks any realistic, or at least story-relevant, character flaws — either that or her "flaws" are obviously meant to be endearing. She has an unusual and dramatic Back Story. The canon protagonists are all overwhelmed with admiration for her beauty, wit, courage and other virtues, and are quick to adopt her as one of their True Companions, even characters who are usually antisocial and untrusting; if any character doesn't love her, that character gets an extremely unsympathetic portrayal." Sound familiar?)

There is the Ourobous scene. And yet, paradoxically, while presented as an acknowledgment of her flaws, it is in fact a rejection of them. She sees her own brutality... and instead of recognizing that she has these deep, deep moral flaws and realizing that she needs to grow and be better, she in fact "accepts" them.

Guys: Self love means: "I'm important to me, so I'm going to get a massage today after work", or "heck, why not splurge on some expensive lotion, you only live once" or "you know what? I had a tough day today. I'm going to get that strawberry cupcake". SELF LOVE DOES NOT MEAN "oh, I accept all the war crimes I have done, I love myself". LOVING YOURSELF DOES NOT MEAN ABSOLVING YOURSELF OF ALL WRONGDOING.

It's this refusal to acknowledge wrongdoing that is so grating about ACOTAR. It's so goddamn one-sided. And you can tell that after Book 1, SJM decided to completely change the trajectory simply because of how jarring Book 2 reads compared to the first one.

Also: Feyre is a very, very young girl (compared to the other ruling fey) who did not know how to read for the majority of her life. She has no experience whatsoever in politics. Her being High Lady is not a win for feminism.

Rhysand: He Sucks

First, he is 500 years old. He should be written as such, not as some 20 year old virile frat boy feminist. Fantasy is all the more compelling for its elements of realism, which is a concept that SJM does not appear to grasp.

Second of all, his morals are absurd. He is written as the Second Coming of Christ, as someone who can do no wrong, ever, and his flaws only serve to make Feyre love him more. Anything shitty he does is written as part of his "mask" and she can See Beneath It and knows that it "hurts" him to maintain this "mask".

Fellas, WHY DOES HE HAVE TO MAINTAIN THIS MASK???? There is no reason for it. If A) he does not give a shit about Court of Nightmares (we'll get back to that), only about Velaris, and B) Velaris is hidden/protected from the world, what is he pretending for?

It would not hurt him politically to be seen as someone who cares about his country.

"Pretending" to be "Amarantha's whore" does not in any way shape or form benefit the macro-world that is Prythian. In Amarantha's name, he commits atrocities. He commits war crimes; he systemically oppresses entire societies. It doesn't even really benefit Velaris, because Velaris is already hidden.

Let me put this in a real-world perspective. This would be like if Donald Trump was suddenly like: "I know I was a shitty president but IT WAS ALL PART OF MY MASK, WHICH WAS TO PROTECT THIS MICROCOSM OF PRIVILEGED PEOPLE THAT I CARE ABOUT". Like: okay? Sorry, or whatever, but I don't actually give a shit. What about the parents of the children who died? What about Clare Beddor? What about the people who were held in slavery, murdered, tortured?

Rhysand: omg it sucks that my cousin Mor was oppressed by this toxic misogynistic culture from the Court of Nightmares.

Also Rhysand: lol whatever, who gives a shit about Court of Nightmares. They all suck. They meanie. Lol what did you say? That there might be other girls just like Mor who are oppressed by this system? Lol whatever. I can't do anything, I gotta maintain my Mask. I gotta sit on this throne and show the entire Court that not respecting women is completely okay.

In summary: by parading Feyre around as his "whore" (!!) he demonstrates by example that it is completely okay for the Court of Nightmares to abuse their women.

A good ruler cares about all his people. Rhysand cares about a tiny tiny fraction of his people: those who were fortunate enough to be born into Velaris.

God, I'm exhausted. Onto Nesta:

The only character who successfully breaks the Mary Sue effect Feyre exerts on her people is Nesta. Her POV for the first half is a joy to read.

Obviously it sucks that Nesta was a huge bitch to Feyre for the beginning of her childhood. However, it was wrong for Rhysand to threaten her- he is a man male with a huge insane amount of power, and it is not okay for him to threaten to bring the brunt of it down on a young girl because she was a bitch to his girlfriend.

I've seen a lot of discourse on the morality of F/R sending her out of Velaris. Here is my two cents:

It was okay for them to cut her off of their money. If they don't want to enable her self-harm, that is their choice. Again, it's their money, even if it wasn't fairly earned (Rhysand born into an enormous fortune).

It was not okay for them to banish her from Velaris with the implication that she was an embarrassment. Let me explain.

If Rhysand and Feyre are talking to her as sister/brother-in-law, then that is that. They have the complete right to express disapproval and try to help. However, they should not be using their royal privilege against her.

If they are talking to her as ruler to subject, then they have the power to banish her from the city. However, a ruler would not give a shit about a random subject getting drunk and having sex. So, they should not be talking her about her problems as a ruler to subject.

I've heard it compared to her being sent to rehab. However, rehab is a system designed to help people with certain problems. It has specialized medical centers and involves therapy. Nesta gets her life threatened multiple times. It is not rehab.

In summary: why did SJM inflict this upon us. Throne of Glass was actually good! GAHHH! After the first few books she completely whipped around and introduced the idea of males and mates and fey and that C is actually A and the quality took a huge nosedive. Sigh.

Final horrible but unmistakable truth: The entire ACOTAR series reads like a bad A/B/O fic. I hate to say it but it's true. We're lucky there were no heat cycles. OH WAIT

[organic-guacamole]

episode 209 spoilers below

I'm so late today but here it is

I love EJ, he's finally learning to be happy. I'm so proud.

Ms Jenn = every boomer during zoom calls, like jeez yes we can hear you stop shouting at me.

LOVE THE SUBTLE JOKE ABOUT QUARANTINE "these dark times" "you mean spring break?"

ah yes, remember when we thought covid was just gonna give us a longer spring break? good times

SEBLOS

damn the passive aggressiveness from Carlos and the absolutely over it tone from seb✋

CASWELL COUSINS!!!!! THEY'RE THE BEST!!!!

we needed more if this kind of goofiness for the first part of season 2 that only such an iconic duo can provide.

old old movies-

is it even that old, or is Nini being a gen alpha rn-

i choose to imagine EJ being scared of the movie and hiding in Ashlyn's shoulder while she keeps a straight face and then EJ pretending to be tough afterwards

aww redlyn are soulmates.... yknow, if gingers had souls

(please ignore me)

y'all saw how EJ's face *lit up* when Gina logged on? how dare you tell me he doesn't like her

ofc she's no damsel in distress, she's Gina porter, she's amazing.

so do we think she'd be the type to just glare at suspicious people? or bark at them

do they not know that Rini broke up? or is Ms Jenn just wanting Nini to suffer through her heartbreak to make her a better actress....

speaking of, why is Nini in the call? she's not in the show anymore. Unless she is, even after the rose and the song got cut, which would be so unfair to all those that auditioned properly before she even came back but whatever, she's the main character I get it 🙄

big red is a hero honestly, Nini better thank him for changing the subject like that

I can't-

i won't work you over the break-

this woman would 100% work her kids 24/7 if it was legal and idk how to feel about it.

YES GINA USE THAT CHARM

QUEEN

FRENCH QUEEN

SHE LEARNT FROM THE BEST (antoine obvi)

smh the airport lady, eavesdropping on Gina's call.

The way she was so happy to answer EJ's call, "eej"

I love them your honour.

EJ WITH PAINTED NAILS YES PLEASE

great now we need to see Gina, Ashlyn and EJ having a complete spa day and EJ getting really into it and Gina and Ashlyn take pictures of him when he's laying down in a robe with a mask and cucumbers on his eyes.

finally we get to see Gina's side of portwell

the way she considered it as flirting, this is the sign she asked for in episode 6 come onnnnn

no is Asher/jack really doing tiktok dances in an airport-

Ricky is me. I am burrito.

oh Lynne, sweetie, I'm sorry but the blonde hair is not it

is that even the same lady or-

THE BEAN

THE CHICAGO BEAN

THE BIG OLD METAL BEAN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CITY 😭

jetlag is my go to excuse for anything... I haven't travelled in 2 years.

"welcome to the Lynne and Mike gossip show. where we talk about our depressed son that we both neglect in certain ways! And now a word from our sponsor, Nord VPN..."

SO MANY CANDLES

WHAT DEMON IS LYNNE TRYING TO SUMMON IN HIS ROOM-

is Nina becoming social media obsessed EJ from season 1? AND SHE LIED ABOUT HAVING SONGS TOO PLEASE WHY ARW THEY RECYCLING THE SAME PLOT-

Gina smiling at the picture of her family on Instagram makes me so happy, idek why.

EJ's nails are so pretty, we needed to see it more (unless he had it on for the rest of the episode and I just.... didn't notice🧍🏽‍♀️)

oh not the tiktok kid✋

yes ma'am end this strange mans whole tiktok career

sir take a hint and leave

GINA NO DONT SAY YOUR LAST NAME HE COULD BE A HUMAN TRAFFICKER

Ricky, walking in style✨

weird kid, ok then Lynne, can't you see he's this close to the edge?

not all your fault baby Ricky, Nini sucks a bit more

RICKY YOU DIDN'T COME DOWN HARD ON THE SONG-

YOU ASKED WHAT IT WAS ABOUT AND SHE SHUT YOU DOWN-

PLEASE DO NOT BLAME YOURSELF

ok but the deleting comment thing was very bad

still don't know if I like Jack honestly

hmmm so Nini's calling herself Nini instead of Nina in her little egg seat, while trying to write a song without inspiration.... Nini, honey, Ricky was your muse, he inspired you to write all those songs, even if it wasn't good for the relationship.

that doesn't mean you gotta get back with him, or that you can't write a song that not about him butttt it'll take some time

the rainbow sticker in her box and her rainbow shirt-

anyways wbk she's not totally straight

Jack are you a criminal?

quick, Gina, check his ankle for a tracker

THE YES AND PRACTICE STRIKES AGAIN

the way Gina wasn't into it in episode 6 but she's used the technique twice now

stole her grandma's Pomeranian-

Jack where the hell did you pull that out from-

the fake crying killed me, that looks like so much fun though

anyone wanna raid a first class lounge with me?

wait so is jack not gonna go in with her?

wouldn't he go in too? help look for the credit card? SO CONFUSED

the first class lounge guy was so into the drama though, watch his face when they start arguing 😭

sorry to break this to you Kourtney, but you haven't even blocked the second act yet soooo...

take that as you will

I love how all of them are totally dissing the dance off

that's the most realistic part of this show tbh

shouldn't Nini have asked how she knew....since the start? why is the fact that her best friend has knowledge of a North high secret now dawning on her...

Howie is sweet honestly, at least he's trying to help. but I stand with Kourtney, don't take him back just because he sang an amazing song, and is giving you a heads up on what's gonna happen...

KOURTNEY IS ME TRYING TO LEAVE AN ONLINE CLASS

I hate school

ooo Nini's writing a song about bad internet connection 🤩🤩🤩

I never lie, except when I do-

son that is the creepiest thing you could say to a stranger that you've been "helping"

2 truths and a lie👀

he's an Ariana fan 100%

called it.

OLDER BROTHER-

WHAT-

free spirit? damn so brother porter was in that horse movie

so has she been kissed or not?????????

I feel like she's moved more than 15 times though so possibly

but then if she's moved so much, and before east high she never opened up to anyone, she's never been kissed then?? damn

same though Gina so let's be besties please

heartbreak president is a great song title idea, give Nini a call rn

but wait

is the no strings attached feeling thing about her telling Ricky she liked him? she thought she was moving away so she thought it'd be no strings attached???

guys I think I figured it out insert the "I've connected two dots" meme

THE DUKE SWEATSHIRT

IS THAT YOUR BOYFRIEND'S

OMG I LOVE I LOVE

NOT THAT I KNOW OF???

ma'am did you just kill me

yes you did

Lynne and Ricky have such a weird relationship

YES IT DID SUCK

TODD SUCKS

LYNNE SUCKS

yeah I get that you wanted Ricky to like Todd BUT THAT WASN'T THE TIME

right so we already know that Ricky was so desperate to keep Nini cuz he didn't want to be like his parents, and now Lynne's talking about this-

Richard needs a long hug

yes Lynne, it is your fault. thank you for finally admitting it.

YES DYE YOUR HAIR

BLOND HIGHLIGHTS RICKY WILL RISE AGAIN

"sometimes the best, last thing you can do for someone you love, is let them go."

gotta admit I teared up at that point

not me thinking big red was calling ms Jenn cupcake for a hot second-

Carlos please omg, you're at the "beach" and they're leaving for the pool?

also, why not just do the call from the hotel room please omg

"don't ask me"

"Carlos"

OMG WHAT HAPPENED

big red wants the tea

O M G

SEB IS JEALOUS

JEALOUS SEBBY IS MY FAVOURITE THING IDC

I'm surprised ms Jenn knew how to give Nini permission to screenshare tbh

So lily's been stalking the East high kids and spending time editing this video while she's supposedly in an immersion trip.... right

EJ and Ashlyn's picture is so chaotic, what even is happening there

"slacking off" bestie its spring break, obviously they're confident enough that they'll get it done in time so why not focus on your own musical.

jealous seb = sassy seb

please what if those guys Carlos is posing with are his cousins or something and that's why he's so confused about Seb

6 YEAR OLD EJ I LOVE HIM I LOVE HIM I LOVE HIM

Nini saying she's obsessed with her ex, that's not weird at all 👍

I can just tell Matt had a blast harassing Julia with those puppets.

Jack please dont be like that, "yet"

chances are you'll never see eachother again 🥰

(honestly sometimes I really miss those friends I made on trips and stuff when we'd spend the day or week together, only to never see them again....those were the good days though)

Ashlyn and Nini should write more songs..... something better than this one at least

Nini: "im good"

cue the Tia Mowry (please I can't spell) crying gif

oh I forgot Ricky was in the show for a hot second

1. where did Gina get to film this without people being around

2. did she just... randomly change her clothes???

ok but the transition between Carlos and EJ

*chefs kiss*

now everyone shut up, EJ's singing

oh i think I'm pregnant

HIS MUSCLES

YES KOURTNEY

I love how big red and Kourtney went from being "the best friends™" to the couple in season 1, to kinda close themselves and having their own plots

sebby makes me so happy

props to biggies editing skills honestly

PORTWELL BEING SIDE TO SIDE I CANT

AND SEBLOS OMG

big red lives for the drama

"wow" so true Ricky

no he is not cute, stop it

"holding" ok that's kinda cute

yeah EJ's a lucky guy😌

jokes aside, it's not that hard to exchange numbers-

keep in touch if you want

ok I really like Jack now

if he comes back in season 3, maybe have him be LGBTQ+ ?

like the only out characters they have rn are Seb and Carlos and they're like the sterotypes, yk?

I'd love to see jack kinda break the mold

Ricky's breaking my heart

that song just hurts

the only thing

now I don't hate Lynne????????

HOW DARE THEY WRITE IN A PROPER REDEMPTION ARC FOR HER

UGH IM SUPPOSED TO HATE HER FOREVER

I mean I don't live her now but she's good

but honestly

"mom can I show you something"

IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL

THE PICTURE AND EVERYTHING OMG

I'm sobbing please help

Gina saying she's just waiting for the right guy and then EJ coming to the airport to pick her up late at night without her asking, offering to bring her back in the morning so she won't have to Uber, bringing her a granola bar (WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT SHE FORGOT TO PACK) and without expecting anything in return???

ms ma'am you've got a keeper right there

her smile at the end was so heartwarming I really can't.

this episode was great.

it felt really short but I liked it, great character development for Ricky, Lynne and Gina.

Cant wait for next episode to see more of EJ being the ideal boyfriend /hj

[aerltarg]

Maybe this is a stupid question, buuuuut:

I just can't imagine a world that Rhaegar comes back from the Trident, wins the war and becomes king. No, I'm not a anti Rhaegar, matter of fact I like him very much, I'm just can imagine how would Lya, little Jon, this whole affair, would settle in the capital. The norm that fics (at least those I read) tend to follow is to make Rhaegar:

1. A douche, paranoid and destiny-obessed king.

2. Completely incompetent, aloof monarch, that deep down has a heart of gold, but can't really be understood.

I mean, isn't he supposed to be a scholar since he was a kid? What's are your thoughts about it?

oh, yeah, i can totally understand this! it's is the whole point in canon actually, "the wrong man came back from the trident". you would expect a hero win against his antagonist and have a happy ending w his lady love but it doesn't happen. instead the subversion happens to them with rhaegar being killed by robert who becomes obviously a shitty king and lyanna dying after him. they were never supposed to have happy ending, they were created as tragic and doomed and dead from the beginning for the whole plot to start, jon to have his parentage mystery and dany to take the passed baton as the last dragon, prophesied savoir and the heir who has to carry entire house on her back now.

as for the realistic rhaegar wins aus that's the difficult question. tbh we just don't know enough abt their situation, plans and wishes. you see, e.g. in agot we can be right in ned's head and see his motivations, what he was thinking abt, what he was planning, what he was hoping to do. but if his story was told the way rhaegar's was i bet he would have his own crowd of haters and ~intellectuals~ jumping out every two seconds w their "hot takes" how actually all hints abt what rlly happened (ned being a good man w his own sense of honour, justice and experiences affecting him and the deal w cersei's children) doesn't matter and he was an ambitious prick, planned to grasp the power by being joffrey's regent and make his daughter sansa queen. (you can actually insert there any bullshit and still don't reach the level of stupidity of such "hot takes" this fandom loves so much lmao). also he would be blamed to the hell and beyond for being too stupid and not foreseeing the future and actions of other ppl bc ofc after everything happened it's so easy to say what was so obvious to notice. also they would say that the deaths of his men and horrible fates of his kids are 100% his fault and even straight up say he killed them lmao. i can rant abt it for hours so yeah. this is a situation w too many unknown variables bc it depends too much on actions of too many characters we don't know enough abt. the only thing it's possible to tell for sure is the fact that there couldn't be any perfect solutions since things got too complicated at this point.

such fics as you've mentioned tho are just a part of this dumb fanon where rhaegar is "too prophecy obsessed"/"incapable of love"/shrodinger's rhaegar both smart and stupid at the same time/whatever/all of this combined lmfao. the man was notably intelligent from the early age as you've absolutely rightly mentioned, his guesses abt himself being tptwp have nothing to do w egocentrism as some parts of the fandom would want us all to believe unless he wouldn't be so reasonable abt it and later on, after so many years, wouldn't have changed his mind and thought his son could be tptwp.

and literally fuck all antis that think you shouldn't consider prophecies that hold real power in this fantasy world lol. you know, aegon the conqueror was said to be motivated (or at least partly) to unify westeros by the prophecy and still got the treatment of perfect/maximum close to perfect figure of a leader everyone should look up to from the narrative and grrm. prophecy obsessed much, huh? i don't even talk abt all these parallels between him and rhaegar grrm put there not for bitches to ignore them completely! and i will never get tired of reminding that dismissing prophecies is UNWISE for targaryens of all people. the house whose story is built on the dream of young daenys and her father aenar that listened to her despite common sense (or what local "anti magic"/"anti prophecies" clowns consider to be common sense). targs would be as dead as the rest of dragonlords if not for daenys the dreamer. who else in the world has as many reasons to take prophecies seriously as them?

yet antis out there act as if rhaegar is one dimensional weirdo whose every character trait is abt mf ~prophecy obsession~. like how can they miss one of the main points so badly?? the game of thrones distracts ppl from the real danger beyond the wall, yk, the one rhaegar was aware of and meant to deal with. there wouldn't be such a problem if he became king and had as many years of head start before ice zombies apocalypse as ignorant bobby b did. rhaegar had to die just for westeros to sink in shit and our main heroes to save everyone to make this story more epic LMAO

so yeah, too many ppl portray rhaegar as this one dimensional robotic creature without any knowledge of what feelings are idk even for what reason. it seems these ppl can't read for real bc rhaegar was not only intelligent af as well as dutiful ("it seems i must be a warrior" but "he loved his harp more than his lance") but also. ugh emotional?? my boy had constant emo sessions w brooding at ruins of summerhall, sleeping out there beneath the stars all alone and writing songs that made all women cry. does it sound as someone who "isn't capable of love" lol? folks act as if he was completely heartless from the day he was born (bc he didnt play w other kids ig??) but in reality their emotional range is less than the one of a spoon in comparison to rhaegar's lol. i'm not even gonna address the horrible attitude of demonizing him for his implied depression, vile clowns never listen to themselves when they talk abt targaryens and their "madness".

tldr; these fics are mostly lame af and suck at characterization if they're making rhaegar like that lol. anyway his character isn't abt being a good or a bad king, it's abt being a would-be-king for characters in books and readers in reality to sigh over his tragic aura and pretty aesthetic abt how it could've been. however, grrm clearly doesn't write rhaegar as evil or incapable as some parts of the fandom would want to try to persuade others. realistically speaking in the scenario where he wins there couldn't be any perfect decisions but it's a territory of speculations on thin air and lit nothing more since canon doesn't provide us with enough information to rlly theorize anything instead of building biased headcanons some ppl call "analysis".

but remember what barristan said about rhaegar while practically watching him all his life, from a literal baby to the man grown:

“I know little of Rhaegar. Only the tales Viserys told, and he was a little boy when our brother died. What was he truly like?”

The old man considered a moment. “Able. That above all. Determined, deliberate, dutiful, single-minded.” (ASOS, Daenerys I)

“Prince Rhaegar’s prowess was unquestioned, but he seldom entered the lists. He never loved the song of swords the way that Robert did, or Jaime Lannister. It was something he had to do, a task the world had set him. He did it well, for he did everything well. That was his nature. But he took no joy in it. Men said that he loved his harp much better than his lance.” (ASOS, Daenerys IV)

[paintingraves]

Crimes of Grindelwald info dump

CAREFUL : SPOILERS ! There’s no structure to this I’m sorry 

the humor is still very present. from newt’s awkward flirting skills to Jacob’s tell-tale high-pitched screams, it’s all here and guaranteed to bring a smile to your face.

seeing Hogwarts again was a great plus as well. Dumbledore as a teacher is a great thing.

Speaking of which Jude Law makes a perfect young Dumbledore. His performance is great, and I wish he’d had more screentime. I’m looking forward to seeing his role grow in further movies.

Credence is GROWING and that’s GREAT even if he MAKES MISTAKES

the baby nifflers - and as a matter of fact, all creatures - are delightful. the CGI is very well-done, and the creativity behind each of them is palatable. I love those guys so much.

Newt and Tina are actually adorable as fuck

Dan Fogler is great. Scratch that, he steals the show. He’s brilliant.

The cinematography, costumes, etc - all that is great as well. it’s believable.

in terms of acting… none of the actors get much screentime. Queenie & Jacob do get some emotional scenes. Credence is very busy making angry murder faces at the camera. I liked Tina as well, but again - not enough screentime.

there’s a lot of new characters being introduced, some who get no more than perhaps ten minutes of screentime as a whole (looking at you Nagini.) We get this whole building plot about Credence being Leta’s long-lost brother, thought dead, only to have it crumble in the last minutes - the same as it was with Credence’s sister Modesty in the first movie who we thought was the Obscurus. Now that worked actually well in FB1 but here it feels… kind of anticlimactic? Leaving you to wonder the whys and the hows because nothing led up to it.

I’d like to know how Credence came to know Nagini and how he found himself working in a circus, as well as how he survived. How?!

Nagini and Credence seem to be close friends, nothing more. Which is good - he could use some good friends, especially given the direction he’s taking. Just wish Nagini had more screentime to really show up the mechanics of their relationship and how close they are, because it really isn’t clear. We’re just supposed to take at face value that they know each other and that’s it.

How did Credence even find his adoption papers? Isn’t he being wanted by every government in the world? How does his status work?

They’re literally sending assassins after him because he’s supposedly Grindelwald’s greatest weapon, which like… chill a bit guys maybe. Rethink this through???

Oh, Grindelwald. Grindelwald is grooming Credence like hell, calling him “my boy” again and again and hugging him and touching him and making promises and Credence is falling for it hook, line and sinker. Someone help him holy shit.

One of the characters that actually does make sense is actually Abernathy. His role is minimal but he does help Grindelwald escape and seems to be given tasks of importance - which seems to be a great deal for a man who, like him, appeared to be no one before. It’s easy to see how he could have been seduced to Grindelwald’s side.

We don’t know much about Rosier yet. She’s just here. Looking pretty and threatening and hinting at her ‘close relationship’ with Grindelwald, whatever that means (I don’t want to think about it.) She seems to be his second-in-command.

I liked the fact that at the end Grindelwald and Queenie are like bros. Bitch bros. That’s wonderful and terrifying.

I didn’t say it enough, but the grooming

There were so many times. So many times where they could have mentioned Percival Graves and what happened to him in passing but not only once. NoT OnLy oNcE

but that’s a whole other headache SO. moving on

Hmmm Leta. What to say about Leta? She’s great. She seems like a good person, and Zoé did a great job portraying her. She’s the one who gets the most emotional scenes, next to Jacob and Queenie. There’s a whole family drama unfolding here (which oooh boi is it complicated) and it’s kind of easy to see how she became the woman she is?

She and Theseus seem to love each other very much. I’m wishing they had had more screentime, the two of them.

Nicolas Flamel is here for comic value.

I loved the relationship between Theseus and Newt. There’s some real brotherly love and character growth in there, and it felt good to see it depicted well.

I’m wondering how powerful that assassin sent by the british minister needed to be to resist the full-blown assault of a grown obscurus. even Grindelwald had trouble doing that. where’s the logic ???

also how did they obliviate the entire city of Paris following that little trick with the dark cloaks inviting people to Grindelwald’s little rendez-vous? Unless it was visible only to wizards, but since they show us an old intrigued man looking out the window I don’t think it was the case. So?

Same thing with the blue fires and red fires in the cemetery - how’re they gonna explain that to the muggle police and fire brigade should they come running?

Bunty is here for comic value.

Newt literally isn’t aware of his own appeal. I’m afraid oblivious!Newt from the fics is sorta canon now.

TINA DOESN’T GET ENOUGH SCREENTIME. She’s one of the characters who, along with Jacob, seems to have her shit together and seems eager to get shit done but we don’t see her progress. The movie prefers to focus on her relationship with Newt - which, don’t get me wrong, they’re adorable as fuck - instead of the much more interesting investigation plot line she has got going on. She’s an Auror; let her be an Auror ! Show us that side of her !

Queenie was certainly… something in this movie. I get the feeling she’s suffering a lot and Grindelwald is the only one, unfortunately, who listens.

Jacob the poor guy goes through a lot in this one too. I don’t know how he’s expected to survive in a world he really shouldn’t be in, and I think he’s starting to realize that. At the end of the movie he looks to be on the verge of a breakdown.

Leta dies sacrificing herself so the others can escape. Which is very noble but… I don’t know how I feel about that one just yet.

Grindelwald and Dumbledore… Hmm. Dumbledore shows us his suffering intimately. It’s a short but intense scene that goes one with him in front of that mirror and it’s a great piece of acting. Seeing Johnny Depp in front of him stiiiiill doesn’t cut it but oH WELL

Seeing Jamie morph into JD was about as bad as seeing Colin Farrell morph into him tbh. It’s unbelievable.

Now Grindelwald… Grindelwald is… He is Grindelwald. He is busy being Grindelwald. He’s not particularly striking but he gets the job done. That’s it.

Sometimes he looks terrifying and sometimes he looks ridiculous. The character design is still a hard pill to swallow.

I got the feeling at some points that Grindelwald worked well when he was doing some Johnny Depp. Like when he asks Queenie if Credence trusts him or when he says “I hate Paris” after killing a dozen people at the end of his rally - that was funny. Unexpected. And it worked well.

For someone who claims they are the non-violent ones he does seems very prone to like, drowning people, killing children and burning people with fire lol - but all that away from the public eye, which is clever. I’d say in Grindelwald’s and his followers’ opinion that rally worked very well. It did what it was meant to - give them an insight into his hopes and beliefs and then scare them into joining his side.

They introduced World War II which, oh boi. Wonder how they’re gonna weave the muggle history and wizarding world plotline together.

Credence joining him also makes sense for his character. He wants to know who he is and Grindelwald offers him that. But Grindelwald plays him so well it’s also very sad to watch it unfold.

Credence is gonna be so powerful growing under his tutelage though.

The actors playing young Newt and Leta were awesome! Very good casting, very believable. Young Newt’s got Eddie Redmayne’s trademark Newt mannerisms down to a point - congrats to them both!

Newt the adult… well he is busy being Newt. He’s quite cute and clumsy, but he still has some growth to do as a protagonist. I like him being the main character though. He’s caring.

Yusuf Kama doesn’t get much screentime either. He’s part of the whole Lestrange family drama plotline. We don’t have time to get attached to the character.

We don’t relate much to any character, actually. Not to Credence, not to Dumbledore, not to any minor new character either. We might relate slightly to Newt’s rivalry with his brother or his difficulties in approaching the woman he likes as well as the difficulties Jacob and Queenie are facing as a couple buuuut that’s pretty much it.

There’s a scene at the beginning when we’re in the carriage and Grindelwald gets illuminated by lightning - he looks properly terrifying. My heart skipped a beat.

Newt and Leta’s relationship is really touching. It’s easy to see how they could have become close friends.

The Ministry trying to recruit Newt into the auror department like you seriously thought that was gonna work ? lmao

Jacob being charmed by Queenie is problematic…. but it’s interesting to see how Queenie evolves, how she could be driven to such desperations. In my opinion Jacob is a bit too quick to forgive something like this lol but yK

Newt just wants to get to Tina and that’s cute

God these two are just terribly awkward

I genuinely thought they were gonna kiss at one point though.

I felt bad for Credence seeing the servant who was a link to his family (or maybe not ahaa SPOILER) die like minutes after he met her. the poor dude.

So Credence is a Dumbledore uh. Wonder how that one skipped past Rita Skeeter’s sharp quill.

Credence blasting that hole in the mountain like YEAH BABY THERE YOU GO !!!!!

The niffler steals the blood pact Grindelwald keeps on him at all times and im like YES BABY THERE YOU GO TOO !!! GOOD BOY !

and idk there’s probably more to say but here you go

Now I’m saying all this but personally I have a really hard time caring about anything I’m saying or any of the characters. But that’s personal. 

[mcsochists]

*record scratch* *freeze frame* yep, that’s me. VJNOKM i’m noelle, i’m twenty1, my timezone is est, i use she/her pronouns & small disclaimer: i don’t know what the fuck i’m doing, okay!! just keep that in mind when you .. read this .. “ intro ” i whipped up in half an hour. anywhen! if u wanna plot, feel free to hmu on discord at [mournful bagpipe music]#2581 or yk use the lil chat thing on tumblr if u aint got discord NVJOF. MOVING ON.. 

freya’s pinterest board(s): here!

content warning: neglect, alcohol, drugs

freya lockhart has been a medina complex resident for seven years, now. they’re twenty-two years old, and they tend to find a way to turn every conversation into an argument. sometimes when i walk by F24, i hear suncity by khalid playing. lately, i’d say they’re pretty magnetic, but sometimes that’s overwhelmed by the fact that they’re callous. i mean, they usually pay their rent on time, though, and that’s most important fact here. the distorted and desaturated world on the other side of a rainy window pane, detatched glances cast from bleary and bloodshot eyes & fuzzy and distorted recollections of the night before.

right off the bat i want u to know that i’m illiterate

anyways, freya was born & raised in east la w/ her parents and a plethora of extended family/family friends less than a block away. money was Always tight, but the one thing they never really had to worry about was safety bc her dad was a gang leader in their area ( tho it was only rly seen as a gang by the police & the few people in their neighborhood who weren’t colombian lmao ). her dad, saul puentes was like the big man on campus around where they lived, but people liked to rail him for marrying a gringa. ‘we were in love’ is the story he liked to tell, but they were polar opposites — his main focus had always been keeping himself and his family safe, no matter the cost. she, on the other hand, wanted a life she could brag to her friends and colleagues about. clearly, there were some warring factors there.

things were.. how u say.. Tense for the first handful of years of freya’s life, though she thought the entire world of her papa ( saw him as a kinda Hero, especially w/ the way most people deferred to him ). like she’d known her parents weren’t exactly In Love with each other but she just figured that was how all adults acted ( leaving her Uninterested in being married from a young age lmao ).

it was when her dad got arrested that changed things. at first they figured it would blow over & he’d be home in no time, but as evidence kept stacking up, it became less and less likely that he’d be released ( freya was like 8 at the time ). freya’s mom, completely strung out and Over It at this point, packed her and freya’s things & tried to move them out, but freya was uhh Not Having It, like at all, so some of her extended family took her in when her mom gave up trying to fight freya into the cab ( honestly, her mom is a self-centered bitch with no regard for anyone but herself, but i digress )

in the years following, freya continued to visit her dad in prison, always parting with the same promise of freeing him one day ( his bail was set at some outrageous sum, so she’s literally been saving forever ). being so focused on that goal & completely disinterested in going to college, freya dropped right out of high school as soon as she turned 16 and moved into the medina apartments so she wasn’t freeloading off her dad’s friends anymore. when she leased the apt, she did so under her mother’s maiden name cos it’s better to be safe than sorry & bc her dad also had a lot of enemies lmao lbr

being a mechanic hadnt ever crossed her mind as something she’d be good at & even less something she’d enjoy. when she was fifteen, though, one of her cousins ( think, like, 5th cousins lmao ) offered to let her work at his garage instead of having to wait tables at a shitty diner or, even worse, babysit. at first she wasn’t too thrilled about it & it felt like she’d never get the hang of it, but with time, she found she really enjoyed the work, especially the reward of hearing the engine rumble when you start it up for the first time. she didn’t fall in love with it, though, until the charger. her cousin had the shell of a ‘69 dodge charger & told her that if she could fix it up, she could keep it. WELL, the next 4 years of scavenging and looting for parts eventually paid off, leaving her with a love for cars & the envy of muscled white guys everywhere.

a part of her life she’s much more public about, tho, is how much she loves to party. now, according to her, [shrek vc] parties have layers. there are the dull parties, where it’s frowned upon to drink more than champagne, there are club parties where it’s more dancing and drinking than doing hard drugs ( fun, but not the best ) & there’s the house party in which both alcohol and drugs are always available ( her personal favorite ). it doesnt stop there tho bc there are also layers to house parties! the absolute best kind of party, in her opinion, are valley parties. sure, there’s bound to be stuck up rich people with sticks so far up their asses they can’t bend to tie their shoes, but valley parties also have the best selection of top shelf liquor & entire rooms dedicated to doing lines. those parties are the absolute peak, in her opinion & she will never pass up an opportunity to attend.

personality wise .. well, let’s just say she doesn’t really have one ? unless you count being completely bitter and cynical about everything as a personality.. she’s very very short tempered and will not hesitate to make a scene if the need arises ( she loves to argue! loves to shout! so im sorry to all her neighbors! ). literally disagrees with everyone on everything for the hell of it and is the most stubborn personal alive. when her mind is made up u will absolutely never be able to change it so i mean good luck if u wanna try! adding on to the bitter thing.. she p much has it out for anyone who even thinks of lording themself over her ( @ her mom ) and pretending to be better than anyone else so she’d highkey start a fight with little to no provocation

im trying to think of other things that should be included on here but ? i cant vnjcomk feel free to ask me anything specific & hmu if u wanna plot!!

[thegeminisage]

What other characters (of DBH) you think people should appreciate more and why? I love read your opinions❤

omg anon pls thats so sweet

(if anybody wasn’t here for the last ask the first character was north & there’s a follow-up here)

alright just a “””quick””” (lol as if) little thing for each one bc it’s getting late & you’ve already been waiting on this for like an hour at the time i started typing. it’s probably gonna be long as fuck but the tl;dr is at the bottom

LUTHER:

they did luther so dirty…it was like david cage was playing “racist trope bingo” for his entire debut chapter…and then on top of that all he cares about is kara & alice, these two near-strangers, and it’s real easy to get him killed for them. in fact, in an ending where kara sacrifices herself at the border, she tells alice that luther will get her across the border, and after that, rose will take care of her. UM WHAT? don’t call ur PSN trophy “happy family” and then try to erase luther like that!! what does luther want? what are his hopes and dreams, his fears? nobody ever bothers to ask bc they’re too busy making ralph alice’s dad. and it’s not that i don’t like ralph - i do! but he threatened alice with a knife TWICE. after her previous dad’s bullshit, that’s the last thing she needs!!

here’s my take on luther: he says that what his life was before kara & alice doesn’t matter, and that’s because david cage doesn’t care about him. but imagine instead that luther remembers what he did (was forced to do) before he broke his programming. our luther is sweet and gentle and good, but zlatko forced him to use his strength as a weapon for LITERALLY tearing people apart. don’t you think luther regrets that? don’t you think he wishes he could take it back? perhaps his even temper and loving heart is a RESULT of those early memories: he’s seen the worst sides of anger and callousness, he’s had to be complicit in it. my feeling is that he never ever wants to be complicit in something like that again…it feels weird when he picks up a gun in the game because i think he would be even more of a staunch pacifist than josh?? i feel like even when luther does get annoyed or angry he’s so afraid of the harm he’s capable of doing he doesn’t even really let himself feel it And That’s Sad. he should be able to get annoyed at like a broken coffee maker or some shit without illogically worrying it will result in someone’s maiming or death?? maybe he is So Ready to throw himself on a grenade for kara and alice because yes, he does love them, but also he feels he has to redeem himself somehow, yk? he has to be willing to do absolutely WHATEVER it takes to be Good

they didn’t give luther any depth…he never got to speak to zlatko’s captives and apologize, he never got to express a feeling about kara potentially burning down the whole fucking nightmare house (with living androids inside, i might add) - would he have wished to save those androids? would he be glad their suffering was over? would he have motherfucking hearts in his eyes for kara single-handedly destroying his own personal hell? he deviated for alice, it was alice that made him say “ok, doing this to kids is where i literally can’t take it anymore” - don’t you think he’d be so retroactively terrified of all the terrible things that could have happened to her? 

like i truly don’t get why people make ralph alice’s dad when luther loves her so fucking much he’d bring her the moon if she asked - he’s the only person who loves her just as selflessly and unconditionally as kara does. she accepted him and wanted him to say goodnight their very first night together…as soon as he resisted his programming, she stopped being afraid of him, and it must be so amazing for him to finally have people around who don’t either fear him or try to control him…whether u ship him with kara or not (i do, everyone should - it’s one thing to HC kara as gay but i side-eye people who don’t wanna ship luther with anybody) you know he’s gotta cherish them so much

AMANDA:

ok look i know amanda is the antag to connor’s story but honestly she’s metal as FUCK. i was so fucking floored to not only learn the garden isn’t a garden but that amanda isn’t amanda…my first playthrough i was letting connor be just a lil bit deviant but whenever amanda would ask about it i would panic and lie…now i know it doesnt matter what you can say and you can be blatantly deviant right in front of her and she’s like ok Whatever BUT i was deeply shook to realize all my lying to her all along hadn’t meant a thing…she did in fact KNOW i was lying because she wasn’t real, she was living in connor’s brain and she could see all that shit he was doing

and also?? like, imagine you were made out of a dead person’s face and voice. we don’t know if amanda has a body, we don’t know if kamski actually liked what he created or thought it was creepy (like imagine if he and amanda were close and then she died…it’d be weird to see her like that), we don’t know if amanda CAN deviate like the androids…she’s living this half life potentially stuck in some garden and just doing what her program says like everybody else. but even though machines get all the sympathy in this game i very rarely ever see people stop and go “dude, is she ok…is someone controlling her can we help her” - amanda’s a lot like connor, she’s hunting down deviants but she’s not a human and she’s not alive yet so who’s pulling her strings?? can they be cut??? 

JOSH:

i’ll be honest i haven’t figured out what Angle i like best for josh the way i’ve got one for luther and north but he has such strong convictions i feel like they would have to stem from some past experience. everybody’s always arguing about simon vs north that nobody stops to give josh the attention he deserves…he’s part of the fantastic 4 too!! who is josh? what does he want? what is he afraid of? does he refuse to be violent for reasons like luther - did he hurt someone, deliberately or accidentally? (to a lesser extent, a pacifist markus who shoved leo can also follow this pattern - he gave into violence and thought he’d killed carl’s son, so he swore to do no more violence after that.) or: did he see someone else get hurt/get hurt himself? i know the backstory they give him in the gallery but tbh it’s very similar and not stand-out from most of the rest of the stuff we hear…

like, what made josh deviate? we literally never find out. i think it would be interesting tho if instead of just being the victim of violence, he was ordered to DO violence, and refused - maybe that’s why he got hurt. but i think his relationship WITH violence could be a complex thing for anyone who wanted to tackle it. we know why north prefers violence, why does josh detest it? (similarly, why does simon prefer safety over either approach? - but fandom gives him a lot of love and attention and tries to explain this, and nobody tries to explain it for josh.)

KARA & ALICE:

like…to a small extent…i know they’re main characters but i could write an essay just on why they didn’t get a fair shake either - constant victims of assault, little depth, kara got to choose what happened to her but not what kind of person she was gonna be like markus & connor, significantly less playtime than markus & connor, had NO influence on the big macro plot like markus & connor, i could go on…but definitely the worst for me is that everything about kara that made us love her (from the short), was ERASED - david took her memories and never made the slightest move towards kara wanting them back, or her being able to get them back. she’s six years old and he took all of her history from her, all of her agency!! i feel like translated into fic they can both become very flat - all kara cares about is protecting alice, and alice is constantly scared or hurt or needing to be taken care of, like a baby doll. granted that’s not actually far from the game’s canon, but it could have been MORE. kara had six entire years of experiences before she met alice - what makes alice special? who is kara without alice? 

i really wish we had been able to take a personality route with kara - her main superpower seems to be empathy and getting people on her side (ralph, jerrys, zlatko’s creatures), but she can also wave around a gun at anybody who gets near her baby. it would have been really interesting to explore two sides of that - to have a kara who is 1000% Done and ready for wholesale murder if it means surviving vs having a kara who can bring out the best in anyone, even if they seem like bad people at first. (imagine the influence you could have over alice - she would learn to be wary of strangers or be warm to them.) but instead the narrative is wishy-washy; you can’t teach alice anything, and in fact she serves as kara’s moral compass instead of the other way around - you wind up doing things like comforting the guy who broke kara multiple times and waving a gun at ralph (who like, shouldn’t have done that, but also isn’t 100% in control of his own facualities all the time). it would have been really interesting to see kara be able to influence her own fate more as well - the camp sections are shitty and should not exist but like maybe a kara who had spent the whole game yelling at everyone with a gun would have the ability unlocked to then rally the people inside, and who cared what connor and markus were doing, you know? 

but david doesn’t know how to write women so that’s not what we got - kara carried that entire franchise into reality and he totally screwed her over!!

TL;DR

luther was forced to do terrible things and that could explain a lot of his behavior if anybody cared, nobody ever wonders if amanda is being forced to obey programming like the rest of the machines or if she’s ok, josh’s relationship with violence could be very complex and we don’t know his motivation for refusing to participate in it the way we know north’s for preferring it, and david can’t write women so he shafted kara so fucking bad and it is an honest to god shame

(dbh meta tag)

[beanieisnotabean]

So i’m just gonna type this here cuz twitter hardly has enough space.

so what the fuck is up, i am wreck, i am suicidal, i just deactivated my main twitter account for the 3rd time this month, i am basically every other self loathing individual in this fucking website and heres a fucking rant from me when im in the edge of tears for no apparent reason and for something that probably doesnt even concern me but you know what thats why im unstable you know, like fuck me whos idea was it to let my ass out of a vagina, or better yet, the ass, cuz i came from there judging from how fucking shit i am. you know when you hate people, like literally despise them, like you wouldnt fucking care if they died and youd feel more reassured if you killed them but u have no real reason behind it you just feel like this? thats me bro, like, fuck everyone, either i die or u die like fuck me idgas, i can be the next school shooter i dont give a fuck, but i have to hide this fucking feeling because no one likes a homicidal maniac, and im perfect at this btw, i start screaming and shouting sexual nonsense and i get up on everyone business and im just looking around till i can find that one opportunity to fucking slip by without anyone noticing (which never comes btw) and until then i wait and try n participate so that no one bothers me because im quiet but all i really wanna do is be in my fucking corner and look at some youtube or twitter posts or just triggered on tumblr or just rest my fucking head while listening to some playlists like why tf am i here, oh but heres the best part, IM FORCED TO BE THERE, but u know what i started not to mind, because stupid little ol’ me decide ‘’hey, feelings r cool, not too attached but enough for u wanting to hold up some sort of conversation yk’’ WELL GUESS WHAT THAT SHIT BROUGHT ME, man i just wanted to like, leave twitter, not check anything anymore, i have my vent account up in case i needed to spout shit, but yk, she has to go double teaming, she doesnt even realize i exist until i or someone else makes it clear, yet she continues to pester me, idk why when most of the time shes ghosting me, she doesnt even hide it we’re literally in the same group, and she is aware of this, but fuck me, other people man. now ik, im being awfully jealous arent i? WELL IM SORRY, ITS NOT EASY LIVING WITH 2 FUCKING PERSONALITIES AND KNOWING EVERYONE GETS A BETTER LIFE ONCE U LEAVE. u know i had an ex, she was MISERABLE with me, once we broke up, guess who started feeling great, SURE AS HELL WASNT ME NOW WAS IT?? OTHERWISE I WOULDNT BE HERE TYPING THIS LIKE THE 4EYED MORON I AM, ID BE STUDYING BECAUSE I HAVE A FUCKING TEST TOMORROW AND I MIGHT JUST FAIL THIS SEMESTER BUT YK WHAT FUCK IT, ITS NOT LIKE I INTEND ON KILLING MYSELF IF I FAIL ANYWAYS, NO FUCK YOU, YOURE RETARDED. but do u know what still makes me not shed a fucking tear? knowing, that everytime a tear is shed for me, is because i fucked up, i fucked their lifes, not because they feel any sort of emotion towards me, its more like, fuck you, idc that u exist, itd be the same, and yk what it would, so far ive ran every moment in my head in what if scenario with the plot twist being i never existed, and yk what i see? nothing changed, because not matter how hard i try the only tears i see are of pity for some random guy they hardly knew. thats my fucking life story, it makes zero sense but so does 70% percent of this hellhole anyways, and i mean this planet not this site, just wish i had some fucking courage to actually stab myself, but no, im a fucking pussy, god i just wanna fucking die.