#im fine just rewatching this show lol

[angelxd-3303]

Ok I was watching Transformers: Prime, and something is bothering me.

So, in the end(spoiler alert), the Autobots reclaim Cybertron, and Optimus' sacrifice leaves them to rebuild. Ok, great.

Then, we see a scene where the bots are using the decepticon drones for labor, having them clear out rubble and in general doing some pretty dangerous tasks. One even falls off a ledge after getting struck by a piece of building material. All the while, the bots are standing over them with bitter expressions. Overseeing them like they're slaves.

Now, I can understand being a bit bitter about the whole thing; they were the ones the bots often fought, but you have to understand something. These drones were literally designed and built by the Decepticons to serve Megatron. In spite of them being essentially artificial intelligence, they've been shown to have their own personalities. They joke, they chat with each other, they scream when struck down. Their whole purpose is to serve a master that's mia. He's gone, not sure what he even wants. He's gone into self-imposed exile for his actions. So you can imagine that they're going through their own identity crisis. Their only purpose is gone. On top of that, you have the Autobots treating them with coldness, with a lack of support. Almost like they're slaves.

Remember, they didn't choose to serve Megatron. They were never given a choice, and it seems like the bots are taking their anger at Megatron out on them. And that's not fair.

Also, did they forget how this war started?? Megatronus was a slave, a miner who clawed his way up by fighting. It was all he knew; that he could fight, and that he deserved to fight for a better life. He was oppressed by those who saw him as nothing more than free labor and entertainment. Eventually he realized a fundamental truth.

That as long as there are those who benefit from a corrupt system, that system will prevail.

So, he took action in the only way he knew how. I'm not excusing his actions, but Megatron can at least be understood on a certain level.

Back to the clones, who's to say that Steve won't make the same decision? The Autobots have no right to mistreat them, after all. They're just reinstalling the same imbalanced system that led to Cybertron's fall in the first place.

It just pisses me off, they should all know better. After all. They've seen this before.

Then again, as they say: History is doomed to repeat itself.

[catbefriender]

its almost 5am and i just spent all night trying to find any old accounts i made as a kid and never deleted. i had TWO neopets accounts smh smh (neither of them seem to work now) and all the others are from now defunct sites o7

[when-did-this-become-difficult]

there's a game at work where we're supposed to submit our 4 favorite movies and i wanna include how to blow up a pipeline (2022) so fuckin bad but i will not this is a large corporation, the company i work for sksksksksksksk it's genuinely such a good movie though

[oflgtfol]

all around conflicted about this movie like im ultimately judging it from a show standpoint but i know its not meant to be the show so idk. i think if i found this movie on netflix without any prior knowledge of miraculous ladybug then it'd be cool perhaps but otherwise its like scream idk mixed feelings

[ricksanchezbignaturals]

i rewatched s7e3 and the weird sort of straight washing that happened with unity was worse than i realized in my first 1 and a half viewings. so im here to be a little bit more of a hater lol.

okay so like fuck this bitch in particular

now, i understand that unity has appeared in the comics which i haven't read so it's possible there's some lore there that idk about, but here's the deal as i understand it and why this specific alien acting like the face of unity bugs me so much. this alien is part of a species that, as of the episode in season 2, was very recently assimilated by unity. so like im not sure why there's so much focus placed on her specifically. having her act as a representative of sorts made sense in the first episode, she was a president on the newly assimilated planet that rick and the kids were visiting. but like, that's it, right? it doesn't make sense to me why she would be any more important than any of the other, what? trillions of life forms unity has under its belt? like the only reason for her to be here at all is to be recognizable to the audience, which like, fine. i think it's a little dumb, but whatever. the problem isn't having her as a symbol (personally i think it'd be cooler to not have an entity like unity tied down to being primarily represented through one body but i digress), the problem is that she's treated like more than that in this episode.

this is a part i didn't notice until my rewatch that really irked me.

these are concurrent shots from the scene when rick shows up and starts spraying unity. we see it in virginia telling rick to take it easy through the body of this human, then we see it continuing the conversation from its spaceship in the body of the alien. i am like super not a fan of the implications of that. this alien is not supposed to be unity any more than any one of my cells is me, but here it's depicted as though whenever unity does something in any of its bodies, it's coming from this lady. and like, that'd be super lame even if it wasn't an obvious womanification of a nongendered entity.

now im no english major so i don't have an elegant transition to put here, but yes, it is time to talk about pronouns. yeah yeah, ik, trans person gets hung up on pronouns, bite me okay, it's relevant. i went back and watched the first unity episode to be sure id remembered correctly, and yes, in that episode nobody uses gendered pronouns for unity. morty says "they" which seems more to be referring to a number of bodies, and other than that, people mostly say "unity" or "it". as for the new episode i noticed rick using nongendered pronouns twice

but after that he goes with she/her for the rest of the episode

and yeah, i think that is pretty disappointing. i didn't catch that "it" until my rewatch, but the use of "them" did make me really happy but then everybody started she/hering it. the combination of all that emphasis being put on a female body and people calling unity she so much makes for an episode that manages to be significantly less queer than the one that came out in 2015. it feels weirdly cowardly after that "we're all a little gay" bit in the last episode and doesn't inspire much confidence in me regarding rick's relationships with nonwomen. like stuff can be gay if it's for a joke, but there's more money on the line now than back in season 2, so rick's ex lover needed straightening up.

idk. i still like the episode because im easy and focusing on rick's mental health and relationships always makes me happy, but man, i am certainly not happy with how they handled unity. they really did it dirty, watered it down to being pretty much just another alien lady.

(also to be clear, i am not trying to shit on the writers here. obviously idk exactly what went on, but im pretty comfortable placing the blame squarely on execs)

[fairytaehl]

lgief rewatch ep. 1

okay so i wasnt able to stop myself from immediately discussing ep 4 here and ep 5 here and here because the festival is my favorite part of the show.

but ill now be starting from the beginning because i love this show and wanna discuss my personal favorite moments from the episodes!! im not much of an analyzer but i may say a few things here and there...

ep 1 / ep 2 / ep 3 / ep 4 pre-festival / ep 4 festival / ep 5, 5 part 2 / ep 6 / ep 7 / ep 8 / ep 9 / ep 10

where do i begin?! skipping past the first part where we're introduced to miaomiao and the her being struck by lightning and all (which was hilarious) let's get into how CUTE she was waving hi to fuyi!!! i fell in love with her smile asap (as someone who never saw esther yu before.)

what's extra hilarious is the cheering scene, and ill bring this point up again later, but the way she GOES for it, arms linked and all... oh, shes a drinker. in the real world, shes definitely able to outdrink someone.

and i just wanna say they made yao look SO cool on her entry!!! i love her weapon, shes so sick. what a scene!

the fight scene is neither here nor there for me, except for the fact that i felt like the glass pieces kept getting further away and then closer when required, LOL. the continuity was not there. love how ziqi comes in like goku, and never does it again in the series (i dont think?) amazing work. but he looks so hot stalking up to the mirror demon, uncaring about her threats. how'd they get out? what happened to them after that big fire blast? who knows. theyre fine. but heres the first shot of our ziqi being overprotective of yao!! goooood the sister dependency is such a character flaw for you my baby.

rolling his eyes at fuyi being so righteous, and then... dont touch my a'jie. the way his hair is blowing in this scene is phenomenal. credit to the fan making him even more gorgeous while all he's doing is staring at his sister. (ding yuxi has no bad angles and a handsome face coupled with amazing acting skills and weirdly great at intense staring.)

bombastic side eye.

but really appreciate the way we have scenes of how the novel went, seeing esther portray the serious and selfish lin yu is a nice look and so different from how miaomiao is. i didnt read the novel, not that i imagine the drama would follow the same plot, but i wonder how long the demon catchers had been with her for ziqi to see lin yu the way he does.

and, i love how miaomiao visibly shakes after remembering the way the marriage goes between lin yu and mu sheng in the book. girl, id be feeling just as shaken up.

ahhh glaring at her because she touched your sister and you think she has malicious intentions.

can i just say fuyi looks absolutely gorgeous here... literally handsome. breathtaking. i love the little detail with the cloth? streamers? folded over in his hair.

and lmaooooo again, cant let her rest, just have to let her know you do not like her.

im crrrryinggggg. "a'jie, are you okay?" / "i'm fine." "but i'm not :(((((" hes such a baby! yao scolding him is too funny. he obviously wants her attention, still so used to being treated as her precious little brother, but she draws her lines when he starts throwing tantrums. im not including it, but the line where he's dissing fuyi and goes as far as to say, "he even found a woman to marry" as if it wasn't for the purpose of capturing the demon!!! oh ziqi logic fails you when youre angry.

same, miaomiao...

god, this is so funny. you can tell how shes like in the real world. total fangirl and shipper, its beautiful. shes really one of us. also, youre not the supporting lead actress anymore! this is officially your novel, you just dont realize it yet.

love to again, see ziqi give her a look, cause thats all he can do when his a'jie is already berating him.

reblogged version with extra comments here

[holyblanchett]

I have mixed feelings about Aubrey Plaza but that’s a discussion I am keeping off your account for both of our sanities sake :) agreed tho, if Lady Death ever returns, i dont think it’ll be Aubrey, unless we do get aaa s2 somehow.

I also agree with you that the casting of Aubrey and Kathryn and the fact they just both did really damn good with their characters and dynamic is the main reason people are so okay with letting Disney get away with lacklustre representation. Hell, they still somehow get flowers for it as if the homosexual tension all season to lead to a single kiss (if at all) to lead to one of them dying storyline isn’t a tale as old as time. It’s not that revolutionary and it plays into doomed Yuri and bury your gays and its just straight up not enough anymore in this day and age. Especially in this day and age. But i said I wouldn’t get political here.

Overall im super happy Wandavision and now AAA have made me notice and get into Kathryn Hahn, she is such a joy and i do love an unproblematic fave to get into, I am but a simple faggot after all.

But, and this is also about fandom culture overall, I do see a surprising lack of productive discussion on AAAs problems. People were really mad and then everyone just shut up and was fine because the showrunner said something about cottagecore on a podcast(or article i am not looking that up rn lol).

When we could very well be like No Jac, they didn’t actually live in a cottage because you didn’t write that in your script when you might as well could have. Own up to that Queen. It’s not 2015 anymore, if your queer rep sucks then you gotta take accountability. We deserve better. Always have.

I dunno, I dont like queers as a money maker in media, even tho its actually such an interesting topic too, i could go on forever (clearly). Look guys were so woke! Kind of! A little bit! Don’t look too close and by god, be grateful!

Long Story Short, the more Schaefer tries to sell us this lesbian wives love story epos the less I buy it. Still hoping for season 2 but not optimistic thats actually gonna happen.

Remember kids, Big Corp just wants your money, they dont care about your feeling at the end of the day. Do with that what you will.

- 🐇

Thank you for sparing us both the future discourse her fans are insane lmao. At the time, it honestly felt like I was the only one upset after the episode aired. If you followed me during that time -- I apologize, I think my crash out lasted like three days 😭 I still refuse to rewatch the show because of the way Jac/Marvel treated their relationship. It is by far one of the worst things I've seen in a long time. And before people come for me, yeah you can cry in my comments about censoring all you want. Jac literally said the reason there wasn't more Agathario was because she didn't think people would actually care. So if you're easily triggered, I would suggest you skip this post cus I'm not arguing with yall in the comments today.

Now back to your point. The bury your gays trope, particularly involving wlw ships plays into decades of exploitation of the queer community. Also let's be real, it's such a cliché and for someone that had queer writers (allegedly) on the show idkw no one told her how detrimental and insulting it is. I honestly wouldn't have been as upset if Agatha had died any other way. But killing her while she's essentially vulnerable and in the arms of the woman she has so much unresolved conflict/feelings with is just nasty work. Jac knew Agatha was supposed to die from the beginning. Which means she could have written it any other way. Hell, the final battle should have been against the Salem Seven and I stand by this.

There's going to come a time when playing both sides isn't going to work. I can only hope that in the future Marvel gets with the times and puts more care into their queer ships. It's what we deserve and we shouldn't settle for anything less.

[mephoj]

what did you think of the iii finale?

SO sorry i meant to answer asks sooner but i just kept putting it off to better word my thoughts later. so um. Well

ill be very brutally honest, i thought the iii finale was stupid as all hell. i don't have the right words right now to fully elaborate on the specific parts i hated (maybe if i remember ill add onto this in a reblog,) but everything about it felt so unnecessarily rushed and nothing like the energy of the original show that i loved so much. and im not saying this to be a hater !!! trust me, i avoided speaking on the finale for a while on purpose, in case i just needed time to process it (i was iffy on the alien plot in ii14 on the first watch too but now i LOVE it, so yknow that can happen with sudden new twists and characters sometimes)

i really really wanted to like it, but as it simmered in my head more, and the more i rewatched it, the more ridiculous and out of place it all felt. they weren't just throwing spaghetti at the wall until it stuck at this point, they threw out the whole damn pot and wasted it all. (does that even make sense?)

most of all, it just felt so deeply disappointing. it did have some interesting parts (like the reference to the s1 finale or opening more on mephone issues) but they did them all so strangely, all i can think about is all the ways it could've been better. and thats honestly way more frustrating than just being plain bad.

so many characters were filed down and reduced to clean, perfect Nice Ones by the end just so they could have a sweet feel-good ending which really doesn't fit into any of the rest of the current show's tone, especially if they plan to connect it back to s2. on top of that, it all felt so undeserved and empty. there was hardly any real conflict, emotional or otherwise lasting any longer than 5 seconds at a time throughout the entire season for the character's rest by the end to truly feel cathartic. it felt more like those shallow kids movie endings where everyone dances together and everythings fine. and sure, i know kids are the primary AE audience, but so much of iii just felt near insulting how much the the characters would talk down and overexplain every single emotion they felt and end every conflict with a hug or whatever. its like watching petty toddler fights lmao

this is more than i was expecting to write and ill admit its mostly about my issues with how they wrote mephone by the end but whatever lol i do not like most of iii . sorry 👍

[tsumuus]

here for the 555 event!! congrats ^^

i’d like to rq a romantic matchup!! i’ve watched hq a lot so i’m way more familiar w the charas, but if you think there’s a better mha chara, i’ve recently gotten into it and so i’d really love that too! i’m a straight female so i’d like the matchup to be male please :))

my good friends would call me super bubbly and super energetic. i’m often told that i light up a room, and i’m super positive and optimistic. i am a d1 yapper and the ultimate thought daughter lmao. it does, however, take a little while for me to get comfortable and really let my personality come out with new people. i’m a bit quieter with people i don’t know. (trust you js gotta let my personality defrost) while i love people and spending time with my loved ones, i do need time alone to recharge. my mbti is infp. i can spend lots of time with my close friends when we can just sit together and cuddle and not talk, but i find it difficult to spend lots of time with people who have to be doing something all the time. i’m SUPER empathetic and a big crier. it takes NOTHING to make me cry. hopecore tiktok? sobbing. old people eating alone? crying. my friends sharing their traumatic experiences? bawling. a children’s movie? wailing. someone talking about animals? weeping. someone telling me how much they love me? howling. when my parents talk abt my immigrant grandparents’ upbringing? dying on the floor. i have the most tender heart ever and i feel things very deeply. however, i would not say that i let my emotions control me. when faced with upsetting situations, i have never once lost my temper or yelled at someone. my family is full of hotheads, and i’m really the only one able to stay calm and coolheaded. anger kind of scares me because of my family and so i really like people who are like me in the sense that they can be patient and understanding and talk things out instead of yelling. sometimes, i can get kind of avoidant and pretend like the problem doesn’t exist (due to my confrontation-avoidance) in addition to being unable to describe what i’m feeling in words when i’m worked up and also bc i’m scared of how they’ll react. i get annoyed with people who aren’t self-aware or aren’t able to pick up context clues. i get intense cuteness aggression and i love ppl who are smushes. sometimes i’ll just see one of my friends sitting there and i have to just run up to them and give them a fat hug and scream abt how much i love them and how cute they are and how they make me wanna sob bc i love them sm and they’re so FREAKIG CUTE.

due to family situations, i am kind of attention-starved and so when someone pays attention to me i am locked in with them for LIFE. i’m super loving and super affectionate and i have no issue showing it in private. however, in public, i’m not the hugest pda fan. if we’re watching a movie with friends, a head on the shoulder or a hand on the thigh is fine, but i just feel awk when people around me are like super pda lovey-dovey. it just icks me. i have no problem being suuuuper affectionate with my friends in public, but it’s different with bfs. i’d say my love languages are physical touch and quality time, but i will honestly soak up any love anyone gives me. i’m definitely kind of clingy, and i would get kind of insecure if they couldn’t love me with the same sort of passion. i have a lot of love to give, and i’m able to receive a lot of love in turn!!

i’d say my interests are pretty basic lol. i’m a big sabrina carpenter/ariana grande fan, i really like sweet drinks, im super girly and i like anything pink, i love romcoms, i play volleyball, im a big sephora enthusiast, i’ve rewatched gossip girl and clueless and mean girls many times, but i’m also big on children’s shows. sofia the first, liv and maddie, my little pony, ever after high, descendants, phineas and ferb, etc. i’m TERRIFIED of anything remotely horror or scary (one time i watched paddington 2 and i had nightmares for weeks) and so i think i like the comfort they give me knowing nothing REALLY scary can happen in them. (i’m still scared sometimes) i’m not really scared about getting run over by a car or getting kidnapped or anything real that has almost happened multiple times, but i am very scared that the evil princess ivy will come and cast a spell on me.

wow this was a lot of info sorry. (can you tell i’m a yapper) thank you sm in advance and congrats on 555!

your perfect match is…

₊✩‧₊˚ keiji akaashi ! ˚₊✩‧₊

₊✩‧₊˚ runner ups: osamu miya and eijiro kirishima ˚₊✩‧₊

✧₊⁺ akaashi’s calm and composed demeanor would provide the perfect balance to your bubbly and energetic personality

✧₊⁺ he’s someone who thrives in environments where he can observe and be thoughtful

✧₊⁺ which would allow him to appreciate your enthusiasm without being overwhelmed by it

✧₊⁺ since you mentioned being avoidant in confrontational situations

✧₊⁺ akaashi's patient and understanding nature would be a comforting presence

✧₊⁺ he’s known for his emotional intelligence and communication skills

✧₊⁺ which means he’d handle your emotions with care, always taking the time to talk things out rather than reacting impulsively

✧₊⁺ akaashi isn’t the type to raise his voice or get frustrated

✧₊⁺ he’s calm, composed, and would understand your need to avoid conflict while gently encouraging you to open up.

✧₊⁺ akaashi would appreciate your empathy and tender heart, always paying attention to your emotional cues

✧₊⁺ he’d be that person who notices when you’re on the verge of tears and subtly offers comfort without making you feel overwhelmed

✧₊⁺ his intuitive understanding of people would make him the perfect partner for someone who feels deeply, offering quiet support when you’re moved by something emotional, and he wouldn’t shy away from giving you all the attention you crave in meaningful, subtle ways

✧₊⁺ akaashi would find your affectionate outbursts both endearing and amusing

✧₊⁺ he might not be as open, but he’d secretly love your sudden hugs and declarations of love

✧₊⁺ probably offering you a small, amused smile or a gentle pat on the head in return

✧₊⁺ he’d let you express your affection fully without feeling awkward, knowing it’s your way of showing love

✧₊⁺ your preference for subtle PDA would align well with Akaashi's own more reserved nature

✧₊⁺ he wouldn’t feel the need for grand public displays of affection but would enjoy the quiet, private moments

✧₊⁺ like holding hands under the table or resting your head on his shoulder

✧₊⁺ in private, he’d return your affectionate, clingy nature, appreciating the warmth and comfort that comes with your love

✧₊⁺ your love for comfort shows and avoidance of anything remotely scary would also be something akaashi could relate to

✧₊⁺ he’s someone who appreciates calm, low-stress environments

✧₊⁺ given your love for quality time

✧₊⁺ akaashi would excel in creating meaningful moments with you

✧₊⁺ with your tendency to be super affectionate and sometimes clingy

✧₊⁺ akaashi’s emotional stability would provide a solid foundation

✧₊⁺ he’s not someone who would feel overwhelmed by your love

✧₊⁺ instead, he’d welcome it and offer reassurance, making you feel secure in your relationship

✧₊⁺ his calm approach would ease any insecurity, as he’d show through his actions and words that he’s there for you wholeheartedly

a/n holy yap😭 idk i just love akaashi so much <3

₊✩‧₊˚ 555 follower event ! ˚₊✩‧₊

main masterlist

[writteninlunarlight-years]

hiii!!! i just came across ur blog and i would love to get a bg3 matchup if that’s ok!!!

gender - female

pronouns - she/they

sexuality - pansexual! i’m fine with being matched with any gender!!

appearance - i’m 5’0 and have small bone structure, so overall just small lol . i have long platinum blonde hair and hazel eyes! i like dressing cute and wear a lot of skirts n stuff!! i also have rlly big glasses

mbti - infp

personality - i am very shy!! i rlly like talking to ppl, im just bad at it and it makes me nervous. im also a pretty anxious person, so i usually stick to whoever im with in public or around ppl (literally stick, i will hold on and not let go). overall im a very quiet and gentle person!!

likes - i play wayyyy too many video games (bg3, ff7, ow2)! i also spend a lot of time painting and i rlly love art!! while im painting i usually rewatch my fav shows (hxh and attack on titan)!!

dislikes - vegetables >:/ i also dislike ppl who don’t understand that socializing is hard for me, and will try to push me into social situations i’m uncomfortable in. i’m also extremely scared and hate any body of water :c

extra fun fact - my fav color is pink :D

characters i don’t want - no shadowheart if that’s ok!! nothing against our girl but i don’t like her romantically!!

bg3 extras :D

race - human

class - druid!!!!

~~~~~ MATCHUPS ~~~~~

BG3

Gale Dekarios

~~~~~ HEADCANONS ~~~~~

Gale is a big softy but wants to be Alpha Male so bad.

He will happily allow you to hold on to his arm, and he will try to act all big and tough when he is a schoolgirl inside.

When he first met you, he thought you were too timid to be the leader of the group. However, your quick thinking proved him wrong.

He loves spending lazy days between battles with you in the fields, teaching you about magic and how he learned it.

Gale always keeps a hand on your lower back when out in public, or he will intertwine your fingers.

Mans is jealous; he will be a big baby if you cling to anyone but him on your outings.

Will literally throw a fit by yanking you into his presence.

He loves watching you commune with nature and the world and is interested in your magical abilities.

Will bend over backward for you. It is gotten for you in a heartbeat if you want or need anything.

He wants you to feel worshiped and treasured. I mean, the only love he has ever had was with a god, so this is only right....right?

When you comfort and remind him he is enough without the lavishing gifts, he is overwhelmed but so happy.

He happily and willingly gives up Mystra for you, not caring about godhood or kingdom.

He loves being with you all the time, and when the illithids are handled, he makes you a permanent fixture in his tower in Waterdeep.

~~~~~ BLURB ~~~~~

You and Gale were sat out in the open fields just before Baldurs Gate. The Iron Golems proving to be more of a hindrance than initially thought. The team decided to take a breather and devise a plan to get around this issue. However, working on magical skills with Gale was probably more of a distraction, especially with how cute his focusing face was. Sitting quietly watching him enchant a simple thorns spell was fascinating.

Once he had gotten the hang of the basics of a ring of thorns, you congratulated him and wrapped your arms around his midsection. Gale was taken aback, but a quick laugh and warm arms wrapped around you soon replaced every thought in either of your minds. You two had been like this since he saved you from an arrow to the back, so close yet so far. When Elminster told you he was to die, you lay in his arms, crying your eyes out, begging him not to go through with it.

Enjoying the warmth of the hug, you two soon moved to cuddle in the grass, pointing out odd-shaped clouds. You knew you should be planning how to get into Baldur Gate, but this was so nice. Gale was a new normal for you, and you hated to think it could go horribly wrong in any passing days; you wrapped your arms tighter around the man and kissed him on the cheek before burying your face into his neck. Gale had already made up his mind and would fight till his last breath to have a forever with you.

~~~~~ EXTRA ~~~~~

(Everyone was celebrating the defeat of the elder brain. A few rounds of drinks had flowed, and many were a bit tipsy.)

Astarion: Cheers to our fearless leader, who took us through these trials and allowed us freedom!

Everyone: Cheers!

Shadowheart: Cheers to our new-found friendships, which, though strained, ended up being the best thing to come out of this horrible experience!

Everyone: Cheers!

Gale: I, too, have an announcement to make! Y/N, I want you to know that since the day you saved me from that rock, you have stolen my mind. You are perfect; please marry me.

La'zek: 20 copper. He is the furthest gone of all of us, and he won't remember in the morning.

Y/N: Oh, come on, it's cute, but yes, Gale, we should try again when you aren't the color red of the setting sun.

Gale: MMMMkay *hicups*

[angelmichelangelo]

What are your thoughts on Mutant Mayhem/Tales?

i think now with enough time behind them both, i wouldn't say it's my favourite iteration of the ninja turtles..

that being said! i don't think it's bad! i enjoyed both the movie and the show and think they were both really well made! both seem to have a lot of love and care poured into them and i think that's always a good sign when the creators obviously are just as big fans as the viewers :)

but ultimately there's a lot missing from this verse that makes it hard for me to love it. for the most part i will say that the voice acting choice was/is excellent! getting real teens to voice the boys is so refreshing and fun - those four have a really fun chemistry and it shines through, especially in the movie (i have opinions on mikey's va but i always feel like im being too mean and nitpicky so i'll shelve that thought for now lol)

the show was a lot of fun when i watched it when it first came out but i haven't really found an urge to rewatch it again after that. same with mutant mayhem. i think this is just because to me it lacks a lot that to me, makes up the ninja turtles. yes the chemistry between the four of them is there, but there doesn't feel to be a great deal of individuality, and they kind of all blur into one another. i've always said that tmnt as a whole can sometimes suffer for having four main characters -- usually meaning more than one character often gets sidelined in favour of someone else having their moment (cough, cough donnie and mikey) but here, i guess they kind of decided to do a 180 on that but, it just missed the mark a little for me. they got along great together! but i missed my b-team moments. mikey teasing raph. donnie geeking out with leo. it felt a little empty without those moments to stand out that they're each other's best friends.

and with the show, they kind of repeated themselves a lot. singular centric episodes to highlights each turtles strengths and insecurities!! awesome!! first half of the season done? great, what's next-- oh. second half of the season is.. that.. again.. huh. okay. feels like we just did this but sure. guess they REALLY wanted them to have their character arcs checked off real quick. they could have done something different in that second half but chose to kind of just give us what we already just watched. it wasn't awful but a missed opportunity.

the whole thing as well as it kinda not being part of canon was.. an odd choice. i would have been alright with them just coming out and saying it wasn't canon, but having it in the show with the whole 'leo wrote this for a comic book' kind of ending was confusing to me. not sure what the angle was there, but not sure i loved it in full. even more so when they did it twice to us lol

and the jackie chan thing in tales. i aint gonna lie, chat. that kinda pissed me off a little bit. if they couldn't get jackie chan back for splinter for a mini series, fine. understandable. either take him out of the show entirely or just get a stand in, it would have been fine. but to have him speak rat and THEN have raphael's va dub over him AS raph? im just so confused as to what the point of that was. i guess if maybe the show had already been written with splinter in it and at the last minute he had to pull out, then maaybbbee?? it could be excused?? but again. just get a stand in at this point. listening to raph's bad japanese accent during some moments (especially during the parts where splinter was having more emotional moments) was kind of off putting, and i think i would have rather listened to him speak in rat talk lmao -- that's my only big angry grievance with the show where i will say i hated it lmao

i think as well the thing is, with the mutant mayhem/tales verse, we don't get any filler. filler, my bread and butter!! we see them fighting, and fighting, and kicking ass, and doing tasks and missions and fighting... filler is so integral imo when it's done right, to fleshing out characters a little more. remember them stealing from he bodega in the movie?! more of that, please !! boys being boys !! we know that mikey likes theatre but just through him constantly telling us about it! where's my filler eps that have him sneaking into broadway and causing havoc by someone thinking he's part of the set design!!

i will also say i am not a super big fan of the turtles being exposed to the outside world.... i adore plot lines where they yearn for a normal life, i think that's always interesting in any way (looking at bayverse quietly) but i was shocked at the end of mutant mayhem when they straight up were like. welp! turtles are off to school now! just normal kids!! don't know how i really feel about that since the intimacy of them having just each other and depending on one another is such a big draw as to why i love tmnt in the first place. found family and all that just tugs at my heartstrings and them just being part of the real world feels like that's kind of snuffed out a little bit. but i suppose we'll see how they deal with that in the sequel, since school wasn't at all included in the show. (again, i would have even preferred that over the repeated storyline we got)

with mutant mayhem and tales it felt like it was just about to scratch that itch and then pulled away at the last second. it was so close to being genuinely very near perfect, but for whatever reason fell short on a lot of points that unfortunately for me didn't make it re-watchable in any way, not with urgency at least.

i'll watch the sequel for sure! and whether they make a season two that feels a bit more fleshed out and weighty then i can get behind that. the verse overall, like i said, seems to have a lot of care put into it for sure. there's a lot i really do love about it that made it fun to watch the first time around, but i think that for whatever reason they're holding back on certain aspects, they need to just trust themselves and trust us to enjoy it and go the nine yards instead of hesitating.

i think that's why, from my perspective, it kind of just, faded into the shadows (pun intended) whilst a show like rise that was cancelled still gets a lot of hype and noise. heck, 2003 and 2012 have been done and finished for 15+ years and still probably get more engagement than a tmnt 'verse that's still very much fresh and active. it's telling, and maybe that's just a result of me not following the right people but it does feel like overall it's missing something big to make it better. and i just hope that going forward they find it and don't balk out on giving it their all next time.

i like the game, though. not sure if it's canon to the main storyline but i have fun playing it when i can be bothered lol

i will say this 'verse will gain instant million points to me if they add woody. i will take back every bad point i made about this if he shows up in the sequel. i'll delete my blog buy a hat and then eat it. if they wanna do something crazy like putting them in school then they can add niche idw character woody dirkins and make me happy lmao

[spacehostilityy]

rewatch nnt with me s2ep13-18

Hey boiz this is a draft from the summer but i want to enjoy interests again so it's getting published (ps i have an even cringier sideblog now @sillyspacehostilityy where i can rb things and not clog up y'all's feeds heehee)

it’s going by so fast 😭 BUT im gonna reread/actually finish the manga so it’s fine

“what do you think youre doing with her???” he’s making out with her Jericho, it’s kinda obvious

“I don’t think i like you. 😕” kwjfnlfsfighskfgl lollll

NEW INTROOOOO my second fave theme song too hehe

also the angst on this one is so good

there goes ban’s shirt. again

I honestly love Elaine’s rage, i wish they had left her just a tiny bit more fucked up. bc he exploding like that makes sense after all that she’s been through

cat fightttt. this does NOT pass the bechdel test

“asleep or awake, you’re the only thing that man thinks about” ouchie

mmm mind control anguish delicious

ban hearing that meliodas is the “traitor of the demon race” and just rolling with it<3

“Oh wait that was two! sorryyy i lost count” such a sassy little man i love him

ban has a pure and beautiful soul🥺

catch me crying over melban hahahaaaa

hendy looks cute in the tavern uniform tho haha

:(

im just glad they kill galand quick so zhivago can return to his son in a peaceful death

the “dad” KILLS MEEEE

im in love with deldry. which i guess is her whole thing

deldry and arden tho... 👀👀👀

actually so impressed with Jericho

galand liking golf is canon. do with this information what you will

IM SO EXCITED FOR ESCANOR HEEHEE

wait how did i forget Escanor’s tavern is called my sweet glutton thats so cute🥺🥺

escanor is so babygirl i love him so fucking much

i love them so much too

IN ENGLISH ESCANOR SAYS HE’S FEELING CHARITABLE FOR LETTING MELASCULA GO BUT IN SPANISH HE SAYS HES FEELING FEMINIST LOLLLL

Ban and King brother in law relationship is actually the funniest possible relationship in this show

Diane constantly wanting to eat hawk sparks joy

gilfrost kinda hot, sad that hes literally just vivian :/

howzer saying “that’s our diane” after she uses double hammer and she winks at him...

theyre just rlly cute im sorrry

no bc why does sir nanashi seem like a western portrayed japanese stereotype in japanese media?

arthur and meliodas are so cute i want to see them interact more !!

I LOVE MELIODAS AND BAN SM their funny little deranged rituals are so cute 🤪

rip to arthur tho he looked terrified lol

im going to cry like a bitch when they get reunited in purgatory

why does meliodas call Hawk “bovine bastard”? Bovine means cow or beef. As someone from Texas, i am intimately familiar with livestock classifications and i am CONFUSED. it should be porcine

tiny griamore is so fucking cute on hendy’s back😭

but ban looks fucking terrifying what is up with his face lol

I cant believe escanor almost got fucking taken out by gloxinia lol hes so much stronger than him

the start of arthur and nanashi’s friendship !!

gloxinia’s substitute looking like gerheade 😭

shes so beautiful 🥺

I love the implication that Elaine WAS in fact going to kill them lol

Ban: I KNOW you didn’t just call me a baby *hand gets torn off*

Meliodas: uhh Ban, what just happened to your hand??

Ban: don’t you change the subject >:/

king is about to die from being too horny damn

bro why is dreyfus so fucking ripped bitch got me blushing like DAMN

[stackslip]

augh yeah as much as i do love the parts of COS that are very obviously trying to do something competent and genuine, the amestris parts are just so ????

ill be honest, im pretty sure i blocked those scenes out, so remembering that what happened on the amestris side is. yikes

definitely wish the movie was more focused and didnt try to add as much as it did. especially roy -- i dont mind the beginning, hell i think him exiling himself to the north is a good concept, but the fact that he takes back his position (iirc) is just. so are we throwing away the character development and him realizing that he CANT change the military from the inside or what.

in general i honestly wanted to see less of the military cast. they frankly dont have much reason to be there other than the fact people wanted to see them (esp armstrong... just. WHY). im sure there are still ways to work in roy if the creators really wanted him to be there but like. idk! they sure didnt have to do it like that! we couldve spent more time on exploring noah as a character. or let izumi die on screen. sigh

been a while since i rewatched COS but thanks for pointing out all the weird stuff, i'd almost forgotten it and i honestly shouldn't.

(and of course i have to say i love your posts on the series proper. i will never be normal about scar. ever)

the second i saw roy in there i was like why is roy still in the military at all. wasn't his whole arc about realizing that he can't do shit within the military because it is an institution built on atrocities and exploitation? why is he still in it then. why is he talking about serving his country. why's he talking about waiting for ED that makes no fucking SENSE. (why is he alive. someone said they thought roy was supposed to die by the end of 03 but they kept him alive bc he's a fan fave and i wholly believe this frankly). why is the country's military still seemingly intact with a whole surveillance network, when 03 ended on the military being severely crippled and amestris's neighbours getting ready to invade it and bring it to its knees? why are we literally seeing *the fucking weimar republic* in cos only for amestris to not parallel it in any way and instead be the brotherhood-type funland where once you've taken out the mean führer, everything is fine and there's nothing to fix?

and like. this is a short movie right! i know that they were denied a season, maybe even a season and a half to finish off the show and that some elements of cos were meant to be in the og show's ending. and it shows! bc again munich is fucking reasonably competent considering how much is crammed in on hour thirty. and i know that cos's production was also rushed as hell and that as an Anime Movie they were contractually obligated to 1) put as many recurring fan faves in as possible 2) have at least a third of the movie be a big action scene. so like. i can understand the limits. you have no time, you're told you have to put all this shit in, you want to finish off the brothers' story at the very least. but my gd! you're telling me you had an izumi death scene and it doesn't happen??? you could cut roy out ENTIRELY from this. you could not put ARMSTRONG IN LIORE. you could..... i know they had no time at all, i know once again it was 03 being shafted by production committees and time and budget but it's legit insane how the very stupid and seemingly innocuous choice of having armstrong "rebuild" liore comedically completely slapped me out of whatever headspace cos had managed to slip me in before. i was enjoying it a lot until we got to amestris. and this armstrong thing, followed by rose's line here:

it's just. it's almost comedic. i'm almost wondering if the writer is fucking with me here and acknowledging just how stupid it is to put armstrong doing alchemy in liore is. probably not but gd this is bad. this is brotherhood levels of obliviousness to the themes.

anyhow i'm not finishing cos tonight bc i'm too pissed about it lol. it's funny bc for years i was told it was bad but for the opposite reasons that it's actually bad. like folks kept saying the munich parts were bad/stupid/wrong and made no sense when to me they're by far the most thematically coherent and interesting/emotional bits of it. i LOVE the relationship between noah and ed. and like, i know the bar is is in hell when it comes to depicting roma on screen, but i can't help but appreciate the little and big ways both noah and her people get humanized, how they feel like the most real and concrete part of this world ed insists is a dream or hell. but really, genuinely noah is so good, alfons's weird crush on ed is hysterical, the general atmosphere and research around 1923 munich seems genuinely thoughtful (and it also tells me that the writers had been thinking about this long, long before even 03 ended). i genuinely believe that making munich! hugues a nazi sympathizer and a racist is a really inspired and brave choice that makes the audience reflects THEIR hugues and how the amestrian military behaved. so anyhow these parts are good, genuinely. it's sad that that's the first third and then you get thrown into this mess, and there's still a whole stupid nazi battle to come. it's stupid. it's stupid especially bc there's a genuine part of the movie that IS smart and thoughtful. it'd be so much easier if all of it were bad, or if the difference between the writing in each part weren't so obvious. anyhow. i wanna finish cos bc i wanna see wrath's arc end and envy eating hoheinheim and ed/al reunion and more of noah. but also i think i'm gonna be writing off large chunks of it lol.

(also thank you very much, i'm trying to preach 03 to whoever i can whenever i can. appreciate the love)

[coochellati]

Team Bruno fr, I think I was sold pretty quickly and he only got better and better for me haha-

It’s pretty funny because if I’m watching anything with someone and they see me taking notes they’re usually a bit confused but curious about what I might be writing down haha. Usually it’s never anything that important to the story (unless it’s some major detail I don’t wanna forget) and it’s just me just taking notes about traits about the characters I like.

Here, I’m happy to share a couple of my silly notes! I think this shows a pretty accurate variety of the stuff I was noting:

How it started😭😭: “Ok wow Bruno’s little partners are completely insane.

This guy in blue is super superstitious

Fugo acts all calm but he has QUITE a temper

Little guy is just learning. And also incredibly angry.

Abbacchio.”

“Bruno has a good heart🥺🥺”

I wrote out the bit of backstory they revealed about his childhood, which is one thing, but as I was scrolling through my notes looking for interesting examples I noticed I even wrote down a note about how Bruno weighed a little bit more than Prosciutto, I guess I just found that interesting lol.

And I found a special fondness for his place in the other team member’s backstories, but specifically Narancia’s. Bruno’s a specific character type I’ve always admired. I know I won’t be the best at explaining it but I loved that part about how he yelled at Narancia about joining the mafia, but he wasn’t really angry and was just trying to protect him from a life he might regret. One of my favorite scenes for sure. I love that kinda thing.

AND the way his face softened when Narancia swam after them, he was so. Happy. Please. Let Bruno be happy more often-

And I lost it at the “Arrivederci,” scene during the Grateful Dead arc, it was actually so cool and I feel like just watching that scene raised my own coolness by 5%.

Ok trying not to ramble too much but I especially appreciated his reaction to Abbacchio’s death. Watching the leader character having to be strong for the team, but inwardly it’s hurting them so badly-

And to end it on a lighter note, even before I had started jjba I always had a fondness for Bruno’s design since I considered it super iconic and cool. It was neat to finally get to actually see him since he was one of the few Jojo characters I actually knew by name before watching.

And of course the occasional: wow Bruno is so hot when he *insert various hot Bruno moments here*

Fell so hard for him, wow. I do enjoy a few Jojo characters, my other really big one being Rohan, but like. If I had to pick one to actually be with how could I Not pick Bruno-

Anyways thanks for listening to this little ramble about things I ended up writing down about Bruno❤️ and I’m so glad you liked the sketch! He’s fun to draw~

Ack !!! I’m sorry this took me so long to answer 😭

I love how you’re annotating Golden Wind. I wish that I took more notes on Bruno while watching.,,.,,.. Next rewatch i think i will do that,.,.,..

“Little guy is just learning. And also incredibly angry” 😭💀 IM DEAD

Okay, I’m glad you wrote down that Bruno weighs more than Prosciutto, because I totally forgot about that. Cool fact to know.

On the topic of Bruno’s role in Narancia’s backstory—I’m going to recommend you read Purple Haze Feedback. (Here’s a link to the translated story!) It’s a novel that takes place after the events of Golden Wind. The story follows Fugo as he attempts to redeem himself in Giorno’s eyes. The best part is that PHF expands on everyone’s backstory—especially for Narancia, Bruno, and of most of all, Fugo.

PHF is not written by Araki, but there’s original illustrations from him within the novel. So is it canon? Eh—it’s semi-canon. Because this was written well before the anime came out, there are some minor contradictions to the anime’s version of the story. PHF lines up fine with the manga. …So I guess you can choose if it’s canon or not. (I like to pretend it is.)

PHF isn’t very long. I read it straight through in about 4 hours. (I could NOT put it down.)

Anyway!

You know what’s funny? I also adored Bruno’s design before actually watching part 5. And then I watched it and the same shit happened to me. We’re absolutely twinning in this scenario. 😩

…And full confession, I’m also a Rohan stan. I need that narcissistic asshole to put me in my place.

I’m always happy to listen to anyone’s jojo info dumps! You are always welcome to ramble here :)

thanks for the ask! <3

[joelletwo]

wrestling with the 4devas bitchslap again to convince myself its fine if graveyard wins the best ep tourney: it's not the other bloggers who are wrong, it's me

not a complete response to but definitely in conversation with and asking some of the same questions again as @reductionisms's 4devas essay, which tries to square gintoki's "life doesn't need to be fun, i just need you to live" being a series-sanctioned message he's given to villains as an arc-concluding moral continuously up until 4devas with it here being an incorrect worldview that needs to be (physically) corrected by shinpachi, the straightman tonal signpost of gintama

a conflict i have been perplexed by ever since i got to this line on my first watch a year or two ago, since i've seen this line before! all over fandom! as part of the general "dont [bottom text] kill yourself" motivational messaging of gintama that i love!

and, briefly, when i hit 4devas i was also in the middle of being really frustrated by the new arc pattern i was seeing crop up: i loved the villains-turned sympathetic-turned someone worth saving by gintoki tune of the first half of gintama, but it fell massively flat for me in Yoshiwara in Flames, where i was never convinced to be on housen's side but had to watch him get a heartwarming redemptive death at the side of the woman he abused anyways.

then shortly after i had the same exact experience in Red Spider with jiraia, and i thought, if this is what gintama is gonna do with its shitty dudes from now on im gonna quit the fucking show. and then shortly after that i met jirochou and saw him cut down otose the woman he loved (under a raining sky!!! the fucking sky motifs!!! the signpost im about to watch a dude be shittily violent to women and be expected to feel sorry for him about it) and saw too much red to really take in the rest of the arc level-headedly or care about anything in it lol.

so it was written off in my mind as the 'otose almost gets fridged' arc until i rewatched it this week. then i had to remember, oh yeah, there's a ton of political maneuvering fakeouts in this arc that i never actually squared back with how the plot presented itself prior to the reveals, so i'd still been thinking about the "fakeout" plot. then i read the manga version with all the "truths" in mind from the start, and finally i felt like i could understand what this arc is doing a little better.

(way) tldr (4.4k words. sorry): do i love this arc? eh. do i still hate it? eh. but it's doing stuff!

first, i was able to see an echo in all the "actually i was planning to betray you the whole time" "actually i was working to help you the whole time" plot beats of what sorachi does with the larger edo/universe story further into the back half of the manga. if i ever sound like i didnt enjoy or wasnt convinced by the execution of these "reveals," it's because i didnt and wasnt, lol. but it's fun that he had fun with them i guess.

the arc starts with pirako ingratiating herself into yorozuya, then having a classic "bump into you and pretend to be injured to extort you" encounter w her dad's gang. to resolve this without escalating into violence, gintoki... does it back to them, which is really funny. but thus the tone is set for the arc of: DISHONEST APPROACHES TO CONFLICT.

pirako isnt honest about her overall intentions the, like, seven different times that she "admits her real ones." kada plays at peacekeeper in the devas while being the ultimate person scheming to get the upper hand over everyone else in the end. (she's also secretly harusame, evil amanto outsider who acts as a unifying force for the kabukicho fighting itself to band together against and expel: sorachi's favorite move! the problem was never internal, it's the shadowy REAL antagonists who infiltrated us)

jirochou and otose are ultimately doing a pantomime of conflict to try to keep temperatures down and escalations from breaking out, so no one they care about has to get hurt. gintoki doesn't know this until the end, but he follows in their footsteps after his encounter with them in the graveyard: he plays at having given up to the rest of yorozuya so they'll leave and escape the coming kabukicho war, the same thing otose was trying with him. it fails both times. i'm really not sure why gintoki and otose thought it would work, honestly. they should know their kids are stubborn as hell.

but gintoki is in a bind because of the things he needs to protect, and all of his actions are primarily in service of that, to the detriment of how he'd prefer to act if he were less restricted. he is unsurprised and unoffended to hear saigou is only willing to warn them, not help them, because her son is in danger if she acts directly. all four devas are, seemingly, being mutually restrained this way, holding back even when blatantly manipulated to do so. the other constant of this arc: everyone is dishonest, and no one wants to risk losing what they have.

gintoki understands that! of course! he's had to make that calculus before, after all :)

and this arc is just one big cliff scene echo: the entire graveyard scene pushing gintoki to emotional regression because he thinks he's losing another parent figure, one he's just seen the Gintoki Figure of the arc cut down, no less (takasugi stolen valor when he goes berserk against him and only ends up uselessly bleeding out on the ground about it, honestly). otose goes into this willingly so gintoki can live. he accepts this decision because he values protecting her values (her kids living on) and is briefly broken by it (the story says, before giving him shinpachi to "put him back on track"). prior to the bitchslap, after saying he just wants them to live, even if it has to be without him, he says:

i dont have a good understanding of when we start getting reveals of gintoki's backstory versus foreshadowing because i went into gintama already knowing most of it, but definitely by the recent red spider where we get our first real look at (or really, first listen to) shouyou. but here we actually get some of what gintoki felt about it, which he keeps closely guarded even when the whole truth comes out: he's done his best to survive having lost, but it was so unbearable he can't face losing again.

(also, honorable mention backstory echo, the person calling him a brother sets his home on fire to drive him and his parent figure out of town. as i liveblogged: this one would really hurt gintoki if gintoki cared about anything oboro ever did!)

but with the shinpachi story-rerouting, they get the good end, keep everyone (otose, yorozuya, all of kabukicho, even pirako and her dad - everyone but kada) safe without having to sacrifice a single thing, even keep gintoki hopeful for this outcome. so, as goose points out, we are left to understand that there could have been a good end on the cliff, that something is different here than there, and, skipping a lot of math, that that is the people around gintoki.

which i do find really funny to imagine as a slam on takasugi and katsura. sorry you kids suck too much, your teacher dies bc u were cringefail. but lets look at it.

everyone is dishonest, no one wants to risk what they have: gintoki rallies himself to keep fighting but is determined to do it alone. kagura and shinpachi fight him on this; they can't leave because they don't want to lose their home, they can't let him fight alone because they don't want to lose him. they're just as restricted by what they have to keep safe, but their only option is to act where everyone else's is inaction. shinpachi says:

if i may skip over the bitchslap itself for now, gintoki does consent to let his allies fight with him after it. yorozuya stands alone against saigou, who's heavily demoralized but resigned, strongarmed into fighting them by the threat to her son. but on seeing their resolve to keep protecting their own precious home and family she says:

and, to skip straight to my thought, i think this is what turns the tides back in their favor. there are more twists and turns to the fight. pirako equates what binds saigou, which she herself equates to what binds the yorozuya, to what binds her:

(with an intentional distinction that she's willing to actively destroy the others', as opposed to their purely self defensive fighting, which is echoed at some point in her distinguishing gintoki from jirochou in the same way, that jirochou not only lives to protect like gintoki but is willing to destroy in the process. i don't find that part as interesting, but it's more fuel to the power of having something to protect as a driving force as an arc theme.)

so now all three stand on the same ground, absolutely unwilling to give up what they hold dear, but all their cards are on the table. they aren't dealing in 12 dimensions of tricksy defensive pre-emptive moves anymore. they know it wouldnt work, anyways, since they all know their drives to protect are the same and no one will be talked into backing down. now they can directly duke it out and let the winner be determined that way, on strength of will. even before the actual circumstances change, the fight somehow feels freer seeing how inevitable it is. and with everything out in the open, yorozuya can now protect each other and saigou's son, taking out one side of the conflict.

(and with everything out in the open, the ultimate 4devas villain can become the single person who continues to betray the others, kada, whose further machinations - with everything out in the open! - saigou (and later yorozuya) can choose to protect pirako from. everyone wins! because everything was out in the open! do you see where i'm going)

and so we come back to the question: gintoki is corrected, the arc is rerailed to the better outcome. so is the correction justified?

what does the correction accomplish outside of its moment? most convincingly to me of goose's presented options, i also think it's done as a thematic shift, a, okay, just live was a strategy that worked before but now doesn't suffice, so we need something more.

as to why this is needed now and not earlier or later...tldr bad planning <3 but like.

we have, prior to this, a consistent thrust of arcs where gintoki teaches people to lose. as well, while we meet the harusame and we visit space and we get the barest glimpses of takasugi's weird shadowy background moves there, largely we're dealing with kabukicho characters and kabukicho stories. we see or only hear about the shogun for short comedic moments only. we've largely dropped the series intro focus on things like the shinsengumi or hasegawa acting as foreign diplomats. it's a local series, a hometown series, a kabukicho and not even an edo at large series, a personal story about gintoki making personal connections with his personal experience as a flawed person with a flawed approach to life that has let him, chronic slacker, get by on the bare minimum.

at this moment, chapter 300, we have a slow trickle of gintoki backstory starting to come out to us. we've recently expanded the story focus to include yoshiwara, which gets a callout in this arc by kada to keep it relevant. we have an arc of sorachi testing out plot beats that he'll use again for the endgame, in all the political maneuvering and alliancing and betraying and shadowy outsider space governmenting, where he's also doing a lot of echoing of that backstory that only becomes clear later. so it's possible he's thinking about shifting gears and setting up for the eventual endgame, which means getting out of the episodic cycle so things can stick.

and after this arc, to my opinion and memory, we stop getting the classic gintama flavor sympathizable'd antagonists. a lot of the bigger arcs don't even have clear Big Shot antagonists anymore, being more about the shouyoucore theme of characters fighting against themselves, or if there is one they're always explicitly part of the Shadow Government now, a unified and more daunting force than someone they can win over with an inspiring gintoki interaction.

so 4devas does act as a turning point at least in some way. and it's not possible to say this definitively, since all gintama arcs are ultimately never going to be about gintoki or his friends Actually losing something instead of beating the odds, but it does feel like theres a different flavor to, say, dekobokko with its direct look at how chars lives could be different and better and they will still choose to keep struggling as themselves. and Kintama arc definitely doesn't feel like an early days arc, like it can only resolve the way it does with a gintoki who is now able to face his past and the possibility of losing again and again and again (now with, natch, his faith that yorozuya will by his side when he does).

why now, after 300 chapters of letting it sit ignored in the back of his brain working out perfectly fine except when it doesn't (the very reminder of shouyou in a fight making him go Demon Mode, which is like regular gintoki but worse at fighting, bc he is so unprepared to think about shouyou)? well i personally am in big favor of the "take a decade off" strategy for facing problems. it worked for me too. realistically watsonianly its nice to let things percolate in the brain and do some of the processing behind the scenes until its less immediately painful. and he's made many bonds over these 300 chapters, shown in this arc when the whole town rallies behind him, that are there to support him when he needs it now and weren't there before.

realistically doylistly eh. bad planning.

and so we come back to the question: gintoki is corrected, the series as a result is rerailed to a writing space where things can start changing (leave the episodic, as you guys say, sazae-san format). it's useful in the future. so is the correction justified in terms of what comes before it? was the correction needed?

thinking about the bitchslap leads to thinking about the cliff scene leads to (sorry kagura and katsura, you guys arent really relevant here) pitting shinpachi and takasugi against each other in how they act with something on the line they can't bear to give up.

i don’t need the lesson of 4devas to apply logistically to the cliff scene. once they were set up on that chessboard, frozen in their assigned places as a backstory, it’s not like takasugi could’ve power of friendship’d his way out of being physically retrained if he decided he wanted to. it’s set up as a forced choice, it has to play out as a forced choice.

but we see that even before it’s asked of him, takasugi is willing, prepared, unbothered to give up his own life for shouyou’s. this is, goose lays out in the sequel, the cardinal sin in gintama - a teacher shouldn’t outlive their student. it would have been especially egregious to shouyou, whose whole desired life’s purpose is to raise students who can outlive him and outgrow him, take his lessons and go out into the world and do their own thing with them. takasugi doesn’t expect to do this and doesn’t seem to see a point in the possibility if shouyou isn’t back with them.

though we can also think of shouyou as a little too quickly willing to give up on the cliff - sorry, gintoki, the suicidal guy has thought about it for .02 seconds and decided the best outcome is for you to kill him even though he could get out of this no problem. maybe its no wonder gintoki gave up too. can we ask katsura what he would’ve done?

and is takasugi different from shinpachi there? he rejects the mentor’s attempt to exchange his own life for his. he’s not willing to consider a life without him.

but shinpachi is convinced no one is going to die. because they’ll be there together. incredibly naive - shinpachi and kagura, restricted to one option by what they need to protect like everyone is in 4devas, have acting as that one option because they are still free in a way gintoki and the other adults aren't. they’ve never actually experienced the impossible choice that forces you to give up, so they can act as if there isn’t one - what else would they do? why would they think to give up?

but gintoki is defined by having lived the impossible choice. its built into the foundation of him as a character and leaks out everywhere. he couldn’t have relied on his friends on the cliff because they were quite forcibly removed from the picture as an option, not by his or their choice. its written as an inevitability, logistics we find out later be damned.

if we refocus to 4devas, we can look at the Gintoki Figure for a different angle. jirochou, after he and gintoki resolve the arc conflict by being able to team up because they - say it with me - put everything out in the open, tells gintoki about his impetus for abandoning his family and coming back to his wayward life in kabukicho, the death of otose's husband.

it's, um, another now really obvious parallel to gintoki, lol. characters talk about how jirochou does everything he does in this arc to try to atone for his failure to both otose and tatsugorou, and i guess thats true bc he was written that way but he has an odd way of showing it, but anyways he resolves that, despite his guilt over this, all he can do now is keep living and keep protecting what they loved together. he's come to the usual gintama message all on his own, reinforcing that this is the correct way to live in this series. he had his own unavoidably shitty situation, and he came to terms with it.

so then where did jirochou go wrong, in the narrative's eyes (other than abandoning one woman and their child to deal drugs in the town of his other woman while ignoring her)? was there a point he could've changed how their trio's story played out? but he loved and trusted tatsugorou, and he was happy to step aside and let him be the one by their otose's side. i doubt he would have been happy stealing her away even if it were possible.

but if we look at the resolution tool of 4devas... he never put everything out in the open!!! everyone knows he loved otose, but in more of an open secret way. in classic romance plot, he never confessed for second male lead rejection closure. indeed, in the closest we ever get to a main character having a romantic plot in gintama, the very ending of the arc flirts with him doing just that now that he's made a little progress with the arc message, with the entire cast of the arc expecting him to (and interrupting before he can).

but if he had when they were young. if he had been honest with his friends. could it have opened up other options that weren't available on his own, that they didnt know to offer? i have a preferred one lol. but u can get creative with all sorts of life paths that avoid tatsugorou dying that way or, at the least, jirochou feeling chained to a shameful life (living in a town he doesn't go out in to protect a woman he doesnt talk to and feeling like he doesnt deserve the family he abandoned for this) because of it.

and then if we take this and rewind back to the cliff... we get to grind my favorite ax, "shouyou shouldve told literally anyone literally anything about his deal." if gintoki knew more about shouyou, they could've faced his horrors together, the whole time. he couldve known that shouyou was being literal calling himself a demon and not internalized his own identity as one for life just because shouyou bonded with him over it. i truly genuinely think the logical conclusion of all of gintama's big messages are that shouyou and gintoki should have been more open with each other.

but i don't think sorachi thinks that. and, you know, by 4devas rules, the unriskable precious things he was protecting by staying silent were his students' humanity, and secondarily his own fragilely newly hopeful heart that literally couldnt stand another 10 millionth round of rejection (killed himself and then went on a 12 year rampage over it. girl i would too).

and takasugi really isn't dishonest about what's going on in his head when he tells us he expects to die for shouyou. that's as cards on the table as i could ask. gintoki is, a little bit, by omission. he does what i'd want him to here - tells takasugi try just not dying - but doesn't give him a reason to, and doesn't tell him he has no plans of letting anyone die for shouyou.

so what goes wrong on the cliff - shouyou is happy, gintoki is happy, oboro's even kind of happy, katsura is irrelevant - is that takasugi is blindsided (whoops) by their silent agreement that betrays the one he thought he and gintoki had. and then ruins everyone's party about it and spends the next ten years doing so for good measure.

which is also, basically, what shinpachi is going through that prompts the bitchslap, too. he thought they were a team, that they had each others backs, not that gintoki is a one-way protector of them. he is blindsided by gintoki lying to and tricking them and hiding things from them. he is hurt by gintoki feeling hopeless all by himself when he could share that with them and be encouraged by their endless child optimism.

and would it need to have changed anything on the cliff? in the moment after the bitchslap, what contributes to gintoki changing his mindset is tama telling him, we trust that you're capable bc youve always shown us that, can you trust us this time? when, later in the arc, gintoki seems to regress by sending kagura and shinpachi away, he asks them to trust that he's still trusting them, relying on them to help shoulder his burden, and in return they know he's staying alive, not self sacrificing. maybe it would've helped just to feel on the same team and not shut out, to be able to trust gintoki like gintoki was trusting shouyou?

so. two paralleled instances of gintoki making a bad situation worse by keeping to himself and being too self sufficient. that feels clear cut that feels fine im okay with that as a takeaway. do i think its exactly what sorachi had in mind while writing this, as opposed to just a good series 'hey lean on your friends' moment to read cool and tug at the heartstrings? eh lol. i think theres definitely room to read takasugi into this arc (i still need to refind the takagin 4devas post...) but its not so baked in that i think he was a PRIORITY in the plotting.

but is the shinpachi SCOLDING necessary is the scolding justified... and yes its in response to life doesnt need to be fun i just want you to live. still a confusing framing i can't immediately square. but/and more immediately its directly responding. to gintoki opening up to them about his insecurities!!

which, as said, he doesnt do!! he doesnt talk about his failures! its basically like, here and to hijikata that one time and otherwise even when we know all the facts about what happened we still never hear gintoki himself talk about it. (so he really DOESNT learn the lesson here either. he stays dissociated and triggered every time utsuro comes up. he tries to solve the altana baby problem on his own. he doesnt talk to his new friends OR his old friends. bwah. gintoki. silver soul.)

so this is like. its just in the wrong order!! its just in a baffling order lol. if you want gintoki to share his burden do you need to punch him when he shares it. does it also need to sound like you're blaming him for not being capable of upholding his promise to protect anyone when thats the insecurity thats got him all discombobulated this arc in the first place (a whole set of notes i took on this that i didnt find a place for in this post)?? its so weeeeiiiiiirddd lol i dont liiikeee itttttt. theres plenty of things shinpachi can validly punch gintoki for but this is such a weird one.

so i guess. having a clearer understanding of this arc do i hate it less? YES honestly. i hate fakeout plots generally they irritate me but everything... more or less makes sense by gintama standards now that i have the whole plot in mind.

do i hate jirochou less SORT OF? i enjoy him. in his individual relationships. i like his shitty dad deal i love shitty dads. i like him pining for otose who genuinely likes him but also brings up her husband every sentence she says to him just to keep him down. i like his parallels with gintoki that they both explicitly acknowledge and find macho comfort in. hes still not theeeeeeeee most well-developed gintama antagonist but you know? i at least think otose and pirako would want to be around him after this.

do i feel like i have a clearer understanding of the bitchslap moment. NOT CONVINCED I DO. i feel like its going to be one of those things that slips in and out of my understanding like sand in cupped hands. i have a tentative understanding of it that i dont think sorachi actually had in mind. so i dont think ive solved it lol.

will i be cursed to think about 4devas forever? god i hope not. am i okay with it beating farewell shins in the polls. god i fucking hope it does. in the horrible timeline where i have to see 305 make it all the way and then lose i guess id rather it be to this one than to hijigin. consider this poll propaganda?

[demise-seems-dead]

*cracks my knuckles*

hello doctor who fandom. Im here to throw out my opinions in a vibey way, just to get it over with. I may literally never talk about doctor who on this acc ever again, but i figure i may as well lay out all my nuwho opinions right now for anyone who wants to vibe or to know who will hate my opinions so i can get a nord vpn sponsorship and hide my ip address.

so heres where im at.

9: my all time favourite, wrote well- if not a bit cheesy- and acted very well. Do i think anyone actually skips nine? Not really. Do i feel like defending him on my life from the evil tenners? Nope. I think hes the best, but its not like hes under-rated, people just like to make up conflicts for the fun of it. Its the internet, its what we do. Favourite episode is empty child or boom town.

10: hes fine! I liked him well enough. Good actor, great establishing episode, but i dont feel too strongly about him. Hes pretty neat but i think there wasnt a lot of creativity? Like fun monsters, but we didnt get a lot of the real timey wimey shit we get to see later that i think 10 could have acted very well. Favourite ep is 42. Sorry weeping angels, your like 3 or 4th tho!!!

11. i actually really like him. I think later season stuff was fantastic but there was a dip in my enjoyment around lets kill hitler. Found him to be a lot more dynamic than 10 or really 9 in his personality. Hard to characterise, which is great when your talking about basically a god. Favourite episode isssssssssssss the impossible astronaut? Maybe the lodger actually. I dont like james cordon, but i do like the concept.

12: beautiful wonderful old man. Admittedly, watching his season was a blur, right before i started falling off the who train for a bit, but i do know i fucking love him. Uh, i think i remember liking knock knock. Im due for a rewatch.

13: i promise im coming back to it. I fucking love jodie but the end of 12 is just when i started struggling to watch doctor who (dealt with heart issues and a car accident and just could not divide more attention to a tv show) but im coming in with optimism. I know a lot of people thing her season was shitty, i'll probably think the same, but by god im going to try and love it! Also shes hot /hj

14: skipping because i dont really have a lot to say????

15: oh boy. Im really trying to like it. I think its good tv! I like what its about. But i just dont think it feels like doctor who. I dont really care for talking about ai/media bad (even though the actual theme of that episode is racism that is still part of it, literally dont come for me lol i think the racism part of it is very well wrote) or economy failing/bad in my show about a time alien and their human friend against the world. Not that its bad, but its just not for me. So far ive liked boom or 73 yards the most.

and yeah, those are P much my thoughts. Feel free to debate with me. Dont argue- because thats stupid- but debating is fine! I'd love for somebody to show their passion and make me rethink. Most of this posts purpose is to encourage civil discussion.