#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)

[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*

[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)

[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

[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.

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

ofmd s2e4 rewatch where i pause to jot down my thoughts and other random shit

it's been a busy week since last thursday and shit's only gonna get busier for me after tomorrow so hopefully i can get through these two episodes out before i go to bed lol!!! anyway once again these posts are just me rambling so i can process the insane amount of information in these episodes and if u want to read them too that's fine.

s2e1, s2e2, s2e3, s2e4, s2e5, s2e6, s2e7, s2e8

rip everyone who wanted homoerotic sword fighting in the gentebeard reunion. have a headbutt as a consolation prize.

obsessed with stede holding raw room-temperature meat against his bruised face bc that's not even a little bit how that works. i love this show.

ok so jim saying "he'll probably get around to killing you after he's rested" in response to stede saying ed needs to regain his strength actually gives some pretty good context to why they want ed of the ship so bad. bc they DID fully try to kill ed and now he's here and alive and like. if i were jim i would be pretty worried abt ed holding a grudge abt that.

wont lie stede being like "we dont just banish people, that's not us!" makes me thinkg abt how they fully banished izzy from the ship in e6. i mean technically izzy banished himself on accident but. lol.

also izzy's absence in this scene indicating he is not yet considered part of the entire crew

roach: i need that steak back, it's dinner stede: (pulling the steak away) oh, right fang: maybe let's put the banishment to a vote? stede: (steak back on his face, apparently having forgotten he was literally just about to give the meat to roach) aw do we have to :(

ed chained to the ship is doing. a lot for me. i wont lie.

buttons saying he's been to the gravy basket a few times... how many times has this man almost died??????

it is deeply funny to me that they edit the split second flashback of the drowning and mermaid hallucination to look all creepy as if that whole scene wasn't set to an incredibly sappy 80's love song (said with immense affection)

OBSESSED with stede trying to be like. encouraging to izzy. and being like "he cant hear you he's got no head" about izzy yelling at the ruined figurehead. this fucking dork.

so ive seen ppl talking abt how the crew's in a deadlock abt banishing ed and which ppl they think were pro-banishment and which were against, but the scenes with the crew make it look like everyone's voting for ed to get kicked out. so tbh i think like either of the following interpretations are pretty valid: the crew is split 50/50 on if they should banish ed OR the crew 100% wants to banish ed and stede was gonna try and leverage izzy's vote to try and get more ppl to change their mind. doesnt rlly matter either way tho

also the fact that izzy was the one to keep ed's body is. interesting. the others must've known abt it and helped izzy hide the body in the secret room. but izzy being the one to be like "no we're not throwing him overboard" is. something. no conclusions abt this atm im just rotating this fact in my brain.

i also just have a lot of thoughts abt the mutiny and the fact that like, jim's a trained assassin and the others are also pretty experienced killers and they probably knew they hadn't completely finished the job. and there was plenty of opportunity for them to do something about that. but instead they hid his body and waited for ed to succumb to his injuries. it feels kinda like ed's "technically i outsource the big job" rule. idk. thoughtssss.

frenchie in this scene is so funny bc he seems both actually apologetic abt kicking ed off the ship but also very relieved/vindicated to see him go.

didnt realize olu almost said smthng to ed lol i thought ed was just saying "fuck you" to him for no reason ghfjkghjkfh

"first time i've ever been on this side of a walk of shame" wee john i have so many questions. how many times have you been banished from a ship.

obsessed with archie just being like "way to make this awkward brah." her shitty boss put her life at risk in an attempt to make her and her coworkers kill him in a weird roundabout suicide attempt and her summary of the situation is "well, this is awkward :/"

"shitty sailing with you" sick burn, jim

"you're making it really hard to look up to you, man" LOVE how black pete is still a blackbeard stan. despite everything.

just ONCE i want someone to appreciate roach's sandwiches :(

"dont you want your sammy" STEDE I WOULD DIE FOR YOU

also i disagree with the subtitles here im like 99% sure says "you're no fuckin mermaid" not "you're not a fuckin mermaid" but that's just me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

stede looks SO sad abt not being a mermaid

love how everyone in this episode just sort of nods and is like "yeah okay" every time buttons tells them he's turning into a bird

altho with stede in this scene specifically im convinced that he's just jumping at the chance to follow ed to the island. he was absolutely gonna come up with some shitty excuse to go ashore anyway but it's nice of buttons to give him plausible deniability

i love how much ed hates nature

why do the subtitles say "gyp-" this has been bothering me all week. the line is "like a drifter"

i also love ed's line delivery of "a wolf?"

anyway dumb posts abt the spider tattoo backstory: 1, 2, 3

i love to see ed getting hugs... wish i could give him a hug :(

ok also buttons talking abt the gravy basket made me think ed needed like some sort of spell or smthng to snap out of it but instead it just kinda wore off by the end of the episode (maybe, depends on how you read the whole buttons turning into a bird scene). this is very funny to me for some reason

anne rubbing the cup she's holding against her tit. queen.

stede bonnet idiot dumbfuck moments

i LOVE anne's line delivery of "eddie motherfuckin teeeeach" like yeah that's cj's girl alright. or was cj's girl. who knows.

SECRET HANDSHAKE im cryinggggg. i love them.

stede's voice sounds so weird when he says "i wasn't looking for you" and that's because he's fucking lying through his teeth

LOVE how anne and mary look at each other after the "shipmates" "former" interaction like they are immediately on the same wavelength. and that wavelength is fucking with ed and his ex. they sniffed out a messy relationship dynamic and were like "oh hell yeah we need more of this in our lives"

ed is SO bitchy this whole scene i fucking love it. ed's face when he says "him?" fdhjksgfjhdgkj

ed: whatever 🙄 anne: whatever? 👀 mary: whatever! 😈

wee john getting more goth is so good

drunk izzy rambling at the ship's figurehead is so funny to me tho i miss drunk izzy

ed's crew lady macbeth "out damned spot" moments

i like how there's a goat in the background of this scene in anne and mary's house and it is unexplained and also never seen again.

ed's face after stede says "that's romance" is soooo good this bitch is so pissed. like oh would you have met me at the docs if i peeled the guard's face off instead of just paying him off? is that what fuckin does it for you???? not that it matters bc i dont care. but. cunt.

yeah im just focusing in on all of ed's faces in this scene. "quite the shift going from wearing people's faces to antique collectors" gets ed to freeze in the middle of bringing his drink up to his lips and just kinda stare off into the distance.

"how did you meet" has ed kind of frowning for a split second before stede starts answering and then he rolls his eyes very dramatically and sighs deeply

ed immediately being like "actually i was gonna kill him myself!" trying to undermine stede's meet-cute story. also anne and mary nodding along in complete unison bc this is just normal pirate conversation to them.

~~~

also as someone who has been team "no ed was dead serious abt the plan to steal stede's identity" this was very vindicating for me. it's a bad plan and it doesn't make any sense but logistics literally dont matter in this show. what matters is giving this story the "falling for the mark" trope makes ed's character arc in season 1 that much tastier!!!!

ed and stede going back and forth telling their story i cant fucking wait until theyre happily together telling this story and instead of ed trying to downplay it and ruin the meet-cute-iness of it they're just building on each other and being sappy and adorable

"more like i relented" one of the biggest lies i've ever heard this man say fjhkgjkfdhk

"until he completely boned it" SAY IT. FUCKING SAY IT. SOOOOO TRUE ED.

auauhghgh the beard bit......... crying

THE!!!!! QUIETEST LITTLE "thank you" OF ALL TIME. TIED MAYBE WITH ED SAYING "thank you" AFTER "i think you're very sophisticated" IN 1.05

i dont blame stede for trying to get ed to open up right after that bc that was the first bone ed's thrown stede's way since he woke up. unfortunately ed is not in the mood to talk abt his near-death experience and mermaid hallucination sequence.

LOVE anne's little gesture when she says "rabbit" and the little hip cocking

stede being like "uhhhh we could leave" during the knifeplay exhibitionism moment

i giggle every time at the way the crew is instantly like "fuck closing our eyes we're doing any fucking surprises"

ngl idgw the crew yelled abt the piñata reveal. but ok

loooove stede's half of the crew just blowing past all the screaming and tension from ed's half. jim screams "STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!!!" abt the blindfold and roach is like "you won't want to stay the fuck away from this caaaake!" like roach fdhsjfgdhfjkghkj read the room?????

i love how much stede just. completely misses all of annie's flirting

ed coughing during the blunt session i love himmmmm

ok but ed's trying to be like "im totally over stede i dont even like him" and then ed reminiscing fondly with a distant smile abt the 1.06 stabbing scene

"and that was the... second time you left your wife?" underrated line

love how annie's been all quiet and seductive and then when she goes to make her move she's just like "WOUND THIS" and aggressively sits in stede's lap

also ok. "they're gonna be so jealous" is that annie talking abt ed and mary or is that annie using they/them pronouns for mary.

BUTTONS JUMPSCARE

also i love how they have that one medusa painting just. in their kitchen. im obsessed with the interior decor of this lesbian antique store that annie and mary live in

the way she's so touched by the poisoning attempt hjfgfjksghskjhgjkh

buttons being like "aahhhhhh do i give her... this bowl......????" fhjkghkfsjhk

"yeah, babe" TEALORANGES WIN

im honestly sad izzy's pathetic wet beast moment only really went for like three tiny scenes in one episode bc this shit was so funny to me. crawling away saying "you're born alone you die alone" over and over again. sir what are you even doing.

god buttons in this episode is so fucking funny bc i keep forgetting he's there. also why is he even there. like was he even invited to dinner or did he just sit down and annie and mary were like "oh ok i uh. guess we'll go make another plate??"

ed's face after buttons says the bit abt "i can tell this rabbit was intelligent" is soooo funny why is he so fucking pissed fdhsjkgyjdfkghjk

NO WAIT HE'S PISSED BC THAT WAS HIS FRIEND. THAT WAS HIS FRIEND THE WOLF HE WAS TELLING HIS SECRETS. NOW IM KINDA SAD :(:(:(

stede talking abt the sea when what he's actually talking abt is ed part 2 electric boogaloo

ed very calmly. standing up. and smashing the chair. im obsessed with him.

stede bonnet stupid dumbass moments

IMPROMPTU BLANKET FORT TIME

ed's voice is so quiet at the start of this scene he's not even yelling at stede until stede says "it's not fair" ohhhhhh my babygirl is so fucking sad........

"you ditching me without a note or anything" ed's literacy confirmed

"expecting me to just melt back into your arms" eddie my man. stede has not given literally any indication that he expected this at all. you are telling on yourself fhdjskghfkjshd

this scene is so fucking good i barely have anything to say abt it. just. u can rlly tell david jenkins wrote this ep himself lolll

"i was all in, mate. i was all in." IM SOBBING

oh nooooo i forgot that ed's line delivery of "im sorry my horrible naked chin disgusts you so much" isnt actually as sarcastic as the words itself make it seem. like it feels like ed wanted to say that all angrily and bitter but instead he just sounds sadddddd

ok ok but the way stede says "i love your chin naked or otherwise" and then after a pause (during which ed is keeping INCREDIBLY still bc u know otherwise he's just gonna burst into tearssss) stede whispers "ed" and ed is immediately like "don't" and then. stede going in for the "i love you" but like the way he's so slow with it?? he's literally like "i. love." and idk if it's bc he's trying to make this as clear as possible or if he's giving ed enough time to cut him off if he doesn't want to hear it

and ed DOES he DOES cut him off with "you don't get to say that to me" and he like. keeps glancing at stede out of the corner of his eye but not quite looking at him directly bc he knowwwwws it's like staring into the sun baby and ed knows if he looks at stede's face it's literally all over.

but also ed's face after stede pivots to "i love everything about you" he's SO pissed. he quietly groans and rolls his eyes bc this bitch. finding stupid loopholes to not being allowed to say "i love you." fuck this guy ed hates him so fucking much (lying)

oooooh when stede says "you don't have to say it back to me" ed's mouth opens and closes a bit before "not about to" bc this man is trying. SO hard not to cry (so am i but it's not working sorry there are tears on my face right now)

idk idk idk smthng abt "it's nice. feels good." makes me hurt so fucking bad bc the entire time since ed's woken up stede's been getting headbutted and snarked at passive-aggressively but stede's still like "i love being near you it makes me happy :)" brb i need. a fucking moment.

honestly tho how did annie and mary even overhear that bit bc they were on the other side of the room and stede was whispering SO quietly. opposite of when ppl in this show dont hear things despite the things being said like two feet away from them (1.03 geraldo and jackie talking abt how blackbeard was looking for stede, 2.01 zheng saying the indigo was worth way more than she spent on it)

LOVE how anne being like "stede likes the ladies" is how ed figures out "ohhhh wait ok theyre just fucking with us, got it" bc this guy??? liking women????? lmao

this also HAS to be why he gets over mary like his brain mustve gone "wait hang on why the fuck would he go back to her he doesn't even like women. guess maybe he really did panic huh" hdjksghfckghkjsh

obsessed with these TINY tiny details abt the ed/jack/annie/mary polycule dynamics we're given. ed would've expected as much from annie bc she's a fucking psycho. mary apparently used to not be like this. im putting the pieces together im connecting the dots.

ed and stede's knowing smug looks at each other. im obsessed.

annie being rlly sensitive to the word "bitch" im considering that more hints abt the polycule backstory

yayy fanny newspaper

"really? i mean she stabbed you, you poisoned her, and then she jumped on my face" stede this is all part of their very elaborate and deeply toxic sex life ok stop kinkshaming them

~~~

curious if ed and stede are too distracted by mary spelling out their worst fears to comment on all the smoke coming into the room

"everything must go" like a fucking clearance sale. this is such a silly line. this is a silly show. i love it here.

WHY DONT THEY MAKE OUT SLOPPY STYLE HERE THO

wait are they crying while they hug??? bro these girls are so fucking messy i love them

ed saying "see you guys" before he leaves them in their burning house. i would die for him

ok team arts and craft time while making a prosthetic for izzy. obsessed with how the b plot of this episode is literally "the crew struggles to get along but they eventually set aside their differences and work together when they realize there's someone even more cringe and pathetic than any of them"

"YOU ARE!!! HARASSING A CRIPPLE!!!!!!" is suchhhh a funny line im sorry im gonna miss izzy at his lowest fhsjkhjksf. literally they just knocked on the door my dude calm downnnn

obsessed with izzy being genuinelly touched and expressing it by saying "fucking cocksuckers." this man is allergic to having feelings.

stede and ed painfully talking over each other bc everything is awkward and difficult. i love them.

ed's face when stede offers to let ed stay. his very quiet "yis." the way he says "might be nice" and then VERY QUICKLY looks away

stede yelling GREAT at the top of his lungs fhdsjkguydfgfjkhl

i love when these guys try to play it cool bc theyre so fucking bad at it hgdfgvjfxdkgjjdkkgjhfdkh

stede bonnet dumb idiot moron moments

ed staring off lovinglyyyyyy

buttons jumpscare

also is that fucking sage. are we doing cultural appropriation here

buttons saying "Earth Wind and Fire i wanna go higher" hfjkhgfdjkhgjkh

i love how ed. does not question this "fuck yeah, brother. fly."

ed teach lovesick fool moments

i love how happy ed sounds telling stede abt buttons he sounds like his old goofy self for the first time all season.... im gonna cry

also i like how the crew adopts izzy as their new creature. 10/10

post credits scene is annie and mary at dinner with buttons. i guess it's after stede goes to comfort ed but before they go eavesdrop on that convo.

buttons enjoying his last meal as a human. and also he's like "there's too much fucking on that ship i need to get away from it all." and his way of doing this is becoming a bird. love that.

[izvmimi]

okay so i’m pulling my notes app out because i started a list in case i ever needed to give recs out so uhhhhh

if you want sports,

- run with the wind is like haikyuu vibes but for running! it’s like 23 eps and there’s a kageyama in there lol uhhhh what else, idk it’s more like found family than simp material so hopefully?? maybe!!

- daiya no ace/ace of diamond, it sounds like you know of it already but omg the way this had me sobbing (THAT ONE SCENE!!!!!) but rewatching after a long time is always fun :3

- sk8 the infinity because duh i think i’ll need to rewatch this one too actually lol (there’s like 2 simpable characters in the series and i don’t think they’re your type so safe!!! …i hope im not lying ;-;)

- yuri on ice! toeing the line of simp country but it’s fine, who doesn’t love gay men skating lol

maybe sports isn’t what you want rn and you want something else!

- 91 days! idk if you’ve watched this one before but i recently watched it again and i remembered why i marked it as a favorite it’s just so good! it’s set in the states prohibition time period and there might be some tw’s? like guns, death, etc (because gang wars)

- ranking of kings is such a cute anime and the style is so cuteeee i really enjoyed the story and i remember it won an award (like best animation or something) and you can def see why!

- wotakoi, have you watched this one?? it’s full on romance and it’s so CUTEEEEE but god there is a character in there where i’m conflicted on if i want him for myself or support his relationship ;-;

- great pretender! it’s been a while since i’ve seen this one actually but i remember being so like impressed with how good it was!! also more of a plot (and i swear i mean plot) than characters thing???

- millionaire detective, there’s like 2 (or 3, depending how you swing) characters to simp for but everyone simps for them so technically safe! i will always watch this one for the plot (plot being kanbe daisuke <3 LOL)

- school babysitters, IT’S SO CUTE LITERALLY SO CUTE if this doesn’t make you squeal, rolling around in your bed and kicking your feet, i need to resign my list and question my life choices (joking! sort of! but i really enjoyed this one)

- assassination classroom. iconic. need i say more? :3

- spy x family..? have you boarded the spy x family bandwagon and by spy x family i mean LOID FORGER BECAUSE GOD HE IS SO FINE

- disastrous life of saiki k. i think i sent you an ask about this one before…? but it’s so funny, def rewatch worthy lol

- banana fish…….. ooh if you’ve watched this one, are you okay? if you haven’t watched it… i recommend with a giant bag of salt!

- monster is like one of my top 5 all time favs! and so i wanted to share with you in case you haven’t watched!

- detective conan. okay this one i recommend with a grain of salt because it’s… longer than one piece. and has more filler than naruto… BUT the filler i think is fun!! but i’m biased… BUT THE ART STYLE IS SO GOOD!!!

- horimiya! not sure if you’ve watched this one either but super wholesome super cute!!

- oshi no ko! have you watched this one yet?? i really liked it and the op (YOASOBI MY QUEEN) IS LITERALLY SO GOOD it’s so good

- one punch man for the vibes!!

- erased! i don’t remember much of this but i thought it was pretty good..? actually make this a plan z lol

- classroom of the elite! has… fanservice… BUT if you like the overpowered type of character you might like this one!!

- my love story (and not to be confused with the yamada-kun at lv 999 one!) it’s so cute i loved it sm (and i was bawling for some parts of it because of how adorable it was!!)

- natsume’s book of friends! i actually never finished this one because of the influx of new anime but i def didn’t drop it because i thought it was bad! it’s really cute and wholesome and it makes for a good background show too!

okay i went through my lists like many many times to squeeze out anymore recs! I TRIED TO GIVE A LOT IN CASE YOU ALREADY SAW SOME OF THEM BUT AAAHHH i hope at least one is interesting ;-; or inspired you to rewatch something!!

omg 🥺🥺🥺 these are amazing thank you for working so hard on this!! I’ve heard of horimiya and might try erased, i’ve heard great things!

[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

[stormyoceans]

can i rant here a little bit? i hope you don't mind! okay so... i'm a big yinwar fan and have been since love mechanics (it was not a perfect show we know that but their chemistry was top tier), the partners in crime trailer was amazing tbh can't tell you how many times i've rewatched it it's just so good! and they did that just for a concert like good for them!!! so i was soooo excited about j&j! and i enjoyed the first episodes so much, it's a good show, it has social commentary it has good acting it has war wanarat it has slowburn (i looove a good slowburn) but at some point they... lost me? and i'm so sad about it lol because i love them! but like the last three episodes i found boring i was fast forwarding some scenes even, the pacing was weird, some decisions i didn't understand, the conflicts didn't hook me up at all, the tension they have been building up completely flattened for me, the kiss felt so anticlimactic 😭 i hate this, i guess i wanted to know your opinion maybe i need to give it some time or something idk idk i enjoyed sooooo much the first half of the show that's why i'm sad

hello, anon!!!!

first of all, please remember that if you need to rant about a show or even life in general, my ask box is always open and i will always gladly listen, so i don’t mind at all!!!!

about jack & joker…….oh boy. okay. i feel like someone is gonna snipe me out of the fandom by the end of this, but let’s talk about it. i want to preface this by saying that i appreciate this show a whole lot and that yinwar will always have my undying admiration and support for being able to put together a series like this without a company to back them up: they dared to do a unique plot without knowing how well it was going to be received, which is a risk that big consolidated companies are still too afraid to take ([coughs] GMMTV [coughs]), and they’re doing so while also serving great social commentary, complex characters, interesting dynamics, incredible acting, insane chemistry, and an actual slow burn

all this being said, i try my best to be objective and honest in my opinions, and while the show has all the elements that i love and that would normally make me go crazy, it’s unfortunately not working as much for me, and that’s because i agree that the show has MAJOR narrative and pacing issues. you actually nailed one of the main problems down, which is that the tension that was steadily building in the first few episodes, both plot-wise and relationship-wise, all of a sudden completely flattened out. and don’t get me wrong, it’s perfectly fine to include moments where the pace is slowed down to add new information or character motivation, because while they do temporarily slow down the momentum of the story, they also help to make the later tension that much greater and more gripping, but after episodes 5 and 6 – after the group steals aran’s mother’s necklace back from rosé, after jack forgives joke, after aran gets disowned by his father and moves in with tattoo – the tension has had trouble picking up again

even if they included new conflicts – grandma getting sick, jack becoming boss’ adopted son and being forced to court rosé, the four horsemen – the narrative has started to crumble around the edges, because suddenly it has lost sight of the characters that it used to build tension up until that moment, and instead of releasing that tension, it just leaves you with all these loose threads that don’t really get tied up: how did tattoo and aran get closer? did aran’s father beat up any bodyguard in place of aran or was it always hope? is hope still recovering? is jack going to find out about what save did? how close jack and save even were? how did they meet? how did hope and save meet? i still have no idea who nang is for rosé and the boss and idk if i’ve missed something or ??????

and like im sure some of these questions will get an answer in the last three episodes, but the focus has shifted so much that whatever tension was built over them is now gone. i personally think they were able to raise it back up a little in episode 9 thanks to the heist and the group being back together (which is why i enjoyed it way more than the previous two), but the narrative feels very clunky to me. as for the kiss itself, i actually liked it, but i understand how the entire confession scene might feel a bit anticlimactic, and again i think it’s because all the tension they built up between jack and joke basically disappeared once jack forgave him. yes, the divorce era in episode 7 and 8 hurt, but by then the viewers already knew that the two of them had feelings for each other, and the entire thing with rosé was never really a threat to their relationship, so you’re just waiting for them to confess. they could have made the tension rise again by making them do that in the heat of the moment (while arguing, after one of them got hurt, etc.), but i guess they wanted that to be a small moment of peaceful joy for them, so i appreciate it

this got so incredibly long so im shutting up now, but the point is. i very much feel the same way as you, anon, and believe me when i say im also incredibly sad that im not going crazy over the show like i wished to. it’s still probably gonna make it into my top 10 BLs of the year for a couple of different reasons, but yeah, for what is worth, you’re not alone

let’s hope the last three episodes can up the stakes and tie up all the loose ends somewhat nicely!!!!