#im just trying to reason to you why i couldve thought they all were really similar..

[inbabylontheywept]

bad dating stories time: the shoe incident

so in highschool, my best friend wasnt allowed to go on dates unless there was another couple there to keep an eye on him. part of this was his parents being insane, but also, part of it was him being insane. in a problem with no reasonable parties, there are no reasonable solutions.

at some point in my junior year, my sorta-gf broke up with me, and i just wasnt feeling dating, which was bad for my friend, because he had a good thing going with a girl he met in court.

he kind of hounded me about it. kept pushing me to just put me feet back in the dating pool and i wasnt real thrilled about it, because i knew he was pushing me for his own benefit, not mine, so i kept telling him to fuck off, and after a few weeks of being told that i would date when i was damn well ready, he eventually said: okay. what if i paid for the date AND found you a blind date AND all you had to do was show up?

and i shouldve said no, i know, but i let him wear me down, and i will own my fault in that. a date starting on such a stupid premise could never have gone well.

but he still managed to find a way to make it worse.

i dont know how long he tried to set a blind date up. it couldve been multiple attempts. he couldve stooped to this immediately. but what happened in the end was that he called a girl from the ward he attended - a girl that he knew had a giant, mushy crush on him - and he said: hey! how would you feel about going on a date this weekend?

(you know, implying it was with him, but never actually saying it.)

and she said YES WOW I WOULD LOVE TO and he said great! and then he called me up and said he found me a date.

i did not learn about his crimes until several weeks later. i will die swearing before god almighty that i would never have allowed this travesty to happen if i had known.

that was on a monday. the date of the date rolled around that friday evening, and im sorry to confess, i really phoned the whole thing in. i showed up in my favorite comfy outfit, which was also a fashion crime: basketball shorts and flipflops and a baja hoodie. it was super comfy but it made me look kind of crazy. i picked him up first, and then i picked up his date next, and then we went to pick up my date, and thats where you're gonna get the play by play.

i arrived, walked across the yard, and knocked on the front door. she opened it almost immediately, like shed been waiting right by it, and i could see her expression go from OMG IM SO EXCITED to super disappointed, then disgusted and finally pissed. and because i didn't know about my friends sins, i thought it was from my outfit. which seemed... harsh. like, hey, im allowed to be quirky, fuck you. also its a blind date, i thought the deal was that we were both going to be sad broken sacks of mortality.

anyway, we looked at each other for several seconds before she slammed the door in my face.

i looked back at my friend. he was sweating bullets. i dont know what he expected from this, but there was this big long pause where we both tried to figure out what to do, and then the door opened up, and her dad invited me in, and he said she was gonna need a few minutes to finish getting ready, and that in the meantime we could sit and talk.

we did not talk. we did sit. i sat down on the couch, and he sat down in a chair across the couch, and then instead of talking he cleaned his pistol on the coffee table. i wasnt actually sure if it was a threat, or if it was just a fidget thing for 40+ year old republican men, but when i tried to help he got snappy so i just watched him put a pistol back together.

he was okay at it.

eventually my date came downstairs, still mad as hell for reasons beyond my ken, and i felt pretty guilty for being such a mess because i thought that was why she was so angry. i tried to make up for by walking her to the car and getting the door for her, just generally trying to be extra polite, but before i could make it back to the drivers side, her dad called me back to the door. so i flipped around, went to the door, and immediately regreted my decision.

soon as i was within range, her dad got waaaay too close to me, leaned in, and said "whatever you do to her, i will do to you," and my brain went into overdrive making three consecutive realizations.

realization one was, damn, the pistol thing was a threat. that sucks. what an asshole. realization two was, wait, im autistic and even i know theres a 0% chance me and my date even hold hands, least of all boink. does this guy actually think there's even a 1% chance of anyone in that car getting laid tonight? is he an idiot? and then realization three went through, which was wait, is this guy threatening to fuck me? and unfortunately, with my brain doing so much processing, my mouth was left to run amok, so somewhere between realization 2 and 3, i said:

"i can't get pregnant"

which, i swear, wasn't actually me trying to be a smartass, it was just me pointing out that he couldn't actually follow up on that threat. it just wasn't possible. we do not live in the omegaverse and im not scared of you.

still, it was an insanely catastrophic thing to say, and the moment we both heard it, we bluescreened. that single sentence obliterated both of our momentary streams of consciousness like a saltine in front of a sand blaster. problem was, he'd probably gone his whole life not even realizing someone could say something that stupid, and making that realization was going to cost him a lot of thinking time. me though? i had been saying shit like that for 17 years, i didnt have to rewrite my expectations of human nature, i just had to plan an exit and start striding. so i was already halfway back to the car before i heard "hey. hey come back. Hey. Hey. HEY. HEY WAIT. HEY GET BACK HERE. HEY-"

and then i was in my car, and i drove away.

if this happened today, he'd have called her, and the whole thing wouldve imploded then and there, but back then, there were still a decent number of teenagers without cell phones. especially the teenagers of insane, gun toting parents. so she just said: whoa what was that all about? and i said: dont worry about it, he'll tell you about it when you get home.

and she said: ok and went back to staring daggers at me and my friend.

WHICH SURPRISINGLY isnt even how the story ends.

we went to an improv comedy show, and it was a disaster. it shouldve been like, 7/10 tops, but between my date being mad, and my friend having a good time, and me having the existential terror of knowing that a guy with a pistol was probably waiting outside his house for me to come back, it was easily 11/10. i laughed way too hard at everything. especially the jokes that flopped. id sit there in this mostly silent room and laugh until i dry heaved a little, and my date was absolutely disgusted, and even my friend was a little embarrassed, which would just make me laugh harder. i laughed so hard that night i could barely talk the next day. and then the show ended, and my friend said, you know, that was a good time, but i think we should maybe do something a little chiller? who wants to walk around the park? and his date said yeah, and my date said no, and i finally had mercy on the poor woman so i said, look, im gonna drop you off. and i am so, so sorry about this, but im dropping you off like a block away. super duper sorry.

do talk to your dad about the pistols thing if you dont want this happening more in the future tho.

and she said: okay. so i dropped her off, and she walked a block down, and that was that.

then i drove my friend and his date to a park that was good for wandering. i figured they wanted something more private, so instead of following them around point blank, i chose a park with this 30 foot rope tower, and i climbed to the top and i said: hey i can see you anywhere from up here, you are officially chaperoned from a distance. get panopticoned idiot. except my friend really is an idiot, and he didnt really get the whole 'now i dont have to third wheel so insanely hard with you guys' thing so he climbed up the tower too, and then his date followed behind him, so there are three people basically sitting together on top of a telephone pole.

and then they started making out.

i was close enough to hear it.

i didnt really know what to do so i was just kind of sitting there, dissociating, when some college kids came around and started shaking the tower. my friend's date went aaaaaaaaaa im afraid of heights :( and my friend went oh, dont worry, ill hold you tight ;) and i went hey, im gonna climb down and ask them to stop.

so i did climb down, and i did ask them to stop, and they flipped me off, which i wasnt even mad about. at that point i was i was like yeah, it would be weirder if this wasnt a mess. gods plan has been to fly this day like a 747 into my metaphorical twin towers and brother he is close enough for me to see him grinning through the cockpit window. still, eventually the college students got bored, so they climbed up the tower, which gave my friend and his date a window to climb down, and together we walked back to my car.

now, i cant explain why this is, but sitting back in the drivers seat was my carriage-back-into-a-pumpkin moment. i'd been chill about all the chaos, just rolling with the punches, but sitting down made me realize how much of a shitshow the day had been, and while i couldnt go back and fix all of it, i could go back and fix one thing.

so i told my friend and his date, hey, you two, stay here and don't do anything weird. don't. then i walked back to the rope tower, and i started picking up the shoes the college students had left at the base in order to climb.

about halfway through this, i realized that if i took all their shoes, they might think i was in it for the money, and i actually wanted them to know i was in it specifically to spite them. fuck those guys. so i put all the right shoes back, gave myself a 100 foot headstart, yelled "nice shoes, assholes", did a little jig, and started running.

my advice to everyone is that college students are faster than you think. even with the headstart, and the whole climb down the tower thing, i was still only fivish seconds ahead of them by the time i got to my car. i flung the door open, looked in the backseat, didnt see anyone, flung the stolen shoes in the backseat, heard two "ow"s, took that as proof of presence, jumped in and pealed out of the lot.

my friend and his date popped up a few seconds later. they were, uh, doing something weird in the back seat. my one request - obliterated.

they climbed up to ask where the hell all the shoes had come from, and i was like yeah i stole them from the college students, and they were like oh. cool. hope you had fun. and i was like, i did. i did. but speaking of fun, what were you doing back there?

and for the first time in my buddies life, i think he was actually embarassed.

[freakinator]

funny thing about how i view the conflict in todays stream is that i view flame and wemmbu in very separate ways despite them doing essentially the same thing

in flames case:

i view his betrayal as ultimately a tragedy, their history all thrown aside due to a combination of wounded pride and genuine upset

if yall didnt see his chat for this stream it was actually really, really bad, like his chat is genuinely so fucking annoying oh my god and is a really good demonstration of why i think streamers should be mean to their chatters sometimes to so i actually wasnt at all surprised that he was so upset but i thought hed log off instead of acting out like this

he wanted respect but literally ruined the months long work of one of the few ppl that were willing to trust him over something that couldve been resolved if he just waited until september, but at the same time i can kinda understand why he was being so impulsive considering again his chat is Really bad, but at the end of the day that really shouldnt have been something you took out on one of your few allies like???? bruh even mocked zams storytelling as if he didnt do thee same shit as well 😭

honestly one of the reasons i was sad about his betrayal is cause it kinda sounded to me like he was genuinely about to cry at first??? maybe im just making shit up tho and he def stopped sounding like he was gonna cry after blowing up the spacewaffles tower lol

in wemmbus case:

i feel no pity for this man, he wanted conflict wherever he can get it and he got it! i think hes a lot like zam in that he just wants some attention and most importantly something to do but whatever happens to him next is his own fault lmao, i respect his honesty tho like hey he sucks but he knows what hes about at least lol

the fact that he still kept trying to get a commission from zam (or at least guilttripping him about it for lack of a better word) like bro i know you wanted to do a capitalism morality dilemma arc with zam but read the room my guy 😭

maybe hes at least a little mad that zam kept turning him away despite the fact he accepted a commission from mapicc of all ppl but like. bro. theres a reason zam called him a nightmare customer lmao

that being said you can tell hes not used to going this overboard considering he offered to help repair the tree when zam got upset lmao

idk i just thought his evilness was kinda funny, still hope he gets his shit kicked in spectacularly tho!

its funny, despite being acting like the shitty no reading comprehension version of abyss he gives me the exact same feeling of schadenfreude i did for minute back in s5 and i believe part of it is his mockery of lore and weird complicated dismissal of moral conflict particularly regarding zam

by weird complicated dismissal of moral conflict i mean both he and minute both tried to convince zam to see ''their side'' and ''reason'' but coming at it from an angle that completely misunderstands zam and when zam points it out they dismiss it and act like it means nothing because of their ''objective'' view of reality, spoiler alert! its not objective at all and they refuse to understand things from zams perspective cause they think hes just being unreasonable or something

idk overall i think their motivations for doing things are just kinda... shit lol

like ik theres some pretty obvious parallels that can be made with s5 here but the difference between the og players and flamebu aside from the lack of style and drama is that the og players waited several months before they started acting out the way they did and when they did start acting out tgey always made sure evryone who wanted to get involved Actually got involved rather than doing it while everyone was away plus their opps werent their own allies (except maybe pangi depending on how you look at it)

[feelo-fick]

Headcanon: Chilchuck and his Bad Takes on Literature

i think chilchuck would be like my mom in the sense that he wouldnt like sad stories. dont get me wrong, cautionary tales? absolutely fine. they serve a purpose to him which is to tell people "dont be an idiot and do this or else something bad will happen"

generally sad or angsty stories though? no point to him, and in his perspective its really confusing how people just read things that make them sad. like whats the use of reading something if its just gonna make you sad. whats the lesson? its not even real so it doesnt help anyone.

whats the point in making yourself cry when you could just avoid that entirely by not reading it at all?

but the one of the biggest reasons why sad stories exist is to let you release all the built up grief in you. to send you something to let out all your emotions in a healthy way. catharsis. empathy.

even when i dont relate to the tragic experiences in some stories, several ones ive read have lead me to realize that im in a bad situation or that im following in the footsteps of the character suffering. its like a wake up call.

and making yourself cry isnt inherently a bad thing. if crying allows you to let go of building pressure and tension in you then thats good!

but chil wouldnt see that. of course he wouldnt, hes avoidant of most situations that would allow him to release emotion, and fearful of letting his mature (read: repressed) persona slip.

hes someone that runs away to quick comforts and distractions at the earliest sign of issue. hes already been in too many horrifying situations, dealing with another is a pain. and he knows denying everything and refusing to look at the situation doesnt help, but it definitely provides a quick and easy happiness in the comfort of ignorance.

because of this, reading something made to make one empathize with and confront these bad emotions is defeating the point of his cowering. if he faces his issues, even if only through the perspective of a story, he'd have to deal with acknowledging that things are bad and need fixing, and he'd feel terrible and guilty in the moment - which of course is the worst thing that could happen to a person (his thought, not mine).

which is why i find the concept of him being/becoming a tragedy himself at the same time as this headcanon soooo interesting. imagine the irony of him bashing on the protagonists of tragic stories for acting on emotion and impulse rather than logic, when he himself has fallen victim to irrational thinking while in grief.

cause... thats what people do when they grieve. they lash out, make bad decisions, ruin themselves, ruin others.

for a tragedy to be prevented, the protagonists would have to change fundamental parts of themselves, and act perfectly rational when under extreme stress. and chilchuck holds himself to these kinds of unrealistic standards because he unwittingly believes he can handle it all.

he cant, obviously. we see it for ourselves in his relationship with his wife. they were doomed from the beginning by chils already-established avoidance and lack of emotional vulnerabiltiy (and whatever else his wife had going on).

this is all just to say that if you told him about orpheus and eurydice, he'd probably be one of those idiots trying to point out the "plot hole" that he couldve "just not looked back" and "just trusted her"

i dont understand. whats the point in reading tragedies? the protagonist is stupid, anyways. why would you take bitter medicine? why subject yourself to that?

i think its just a bad story.

[pandoraroid]

The Pack Wedding 💥💥💥💗💥

reaction rambles bc yes

please keep in mind this is meant to be lighthearted i love these men with all my heart n life n soul

THIS IS 43 MINUTES IM SO SCARED WHY CANT I PRESS THE VIDEO this is too much nervousness for seven in the morning im dead

DAVEEEYYYYY HIIIIIII GMORNING MWAAAA

"it's the pack everything's gonna go crazy." bro it's the SHAW pack what does that say about you hm 🤔 /j i love you david 

"reception's gonna be a solstice party on steriods" I SNORTED SO DAMN LOUD 😭

now should be a good time to say that part of the reason why i like redacted so much is because it's so funny and lines like that do it for me every single time.

"i love you angel so very much" BOOGSH 💥 im so in love with you david shaw 

i think bro's in love with us guys idk 

"beautiful... you.." NO YOU 🫵 david we are not doing this back in forth in the morning JUST ACCEPT IT

he's triggering my cuteness/love aggression SO FUCKING SAPPY I LUV U MWAH

"you fucking menace c'mere" HIS LAUGH OMFG GOOD FUCKINH MORNINGGGG

IS ASHER NEXT PLEASE TELL ME HE'S NEXT 

MY MAN MY MAN MY MAN

"oh fuck it's the day" me just this morning

"asher breathe we're good you've been training for this your whole life" ELABORATE???? id love to know how exactly youve been training for this asher

"it's our wedding day. holy shit it's our wedding day. i'm gonna be a husband." KILLL MEEE RIGHT NOW I CAN HEAR HIM SMILEEE OMFG WEAR THAT SHIT WITH PRIDE ASHER

"i've always been husband material look at what we're working with" KILL ME RIGHT NOW /pos baabe smacking him though HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

id kiss you for the rest of my life asher

laughing against/while kissing THIS MAN WANTS ME DEAD

"say how much time do we have before we meet everybody in the lobby" LET THEM FUCKING WAIT

MILO AND SAM???? OH MY GOD???? (should go without fucking saying but... drive safe..... please...)

in my head: sam is driving. david's shotgun. ash & milo are in the back. just because. >> BRO I WAS RIGHT????

darlin driving in another car with the other mates??? that... isnt what i think it is.... is it......

david sounds so tired of their bs HAHAHA "rounded out with a little traditional opinion from them of all people" DARLIN FIGHT BACK

"hey we're fun too, right?" ASHER PLEASE

"well let's see: we've got a grouchy grandpa drivin us-" 

"hey." 

"at least he didn't call you cowboy." BRO

"now don't you start." 

"and we got the grumpy alpha."

"i'm not grumpy. just preoccupied."

"right. right." bros didnt even try to sound convinced

"we're fun." 

"asher. we spent your bachelor party playing destiny 2." 

"and smash!" 

"oh my mistake."

this entire conversation. peak.

"i dont even wanna imagine what chaos those four are getting up to piled in one vehicle." OH WOULDNT YOU LIKE TO SAM 

DEAD ASS SILENCE I LOVE IT i cant fycking breathe this is too funny.

in my head, they were definitely arguing over directions. or darlin's driving, or making fun of the other car.

wait darlin what

"or you'll likely end up staring down the maw of my own beautiful mate-" SAMUEL COLLINS

"oh move it mr. wedding day" WHY DOES THAT SOUND SO GOOD

"and fix your hair."

"it's suppose to look like this!"

"are you trying to look like you got married in a wind tunnel?" BRO NOT ON HIS WEDDING DAY 💀

sam encouraging milo omgomg

"you talk more than anyone i know. and i know asher." AHAHHAHAHAHAHA

"is my tie on straight?" 

"is it ever?" is the one wearing it straight /jjjj

david helping him with his tie someone kill me right now

GABE'S CHILI RECIPE WHAT

"why did you pick me?" OH SHIT

i seriously just listened and payed attention to their conversation so no thoughts head empty only them

"what really mattered in a beta was having a person that was the other side of your coin."

"i picked you because you were the one person i trusted more than anyone else. you made me feel safe at a time more than i couldve explained. you were everything i wasnt. where i was distant you were outgoing. where i was rough you were warm. where i was analytical you were intuitive. you're the other side of my coin. you always have been. so it never mattered to me what anyone else thought of what i needed in a beta because they didnt know me. i did. you did. and i needed the person that was right for me not for anybody else."

i couldve typed out everything david said but THIS!!!! I WAS SOBBING!!!! THEY ARE THE OTHER SIDE OF OTHER'S COIN NEVER FORGET THAT!!!!!!!! their vows to each other fr

this is wrecking me THEY LOVE EACH OTHER SO MUCH

"you're too hard on yourself too."

"well we had to have something in common other than destiny and smash bros, right?" the range of friendship everyone 

THEYRE HOLDING BACK TEARS IN THIS ONE TRUST ME 

my heart felt so heavy in this WHY

"i think you're the best fucking beta i could have ever asked for. i think you're the besy friend i could have ever asked for. i deserved most of the time."

aaaanndd got heavier 😁

GROUP HUG GROUP HUG GROUP HUG GROUP HUG GROUP HUG GROUP HUG GROUP HUG GROUP HUG GROUP HUG

"i just feel bad that i'm going to be up there looking this good y'know people are going to get confused on whose wedding day it really is." EAT EM UP SWEETHEART (i meant milo but them too ofc)

"do we get a step stool for behind the podium?" HAHSHAHAHAHHA THE CONCERN IN HIS VOICE HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA

"i love you milo"

"i love you too asshole" CRYING 

"thank you for doing this milo"

"i got you. always." ALWAYS.

CEREMONY CEREMONY CEREMONY CEREMONY CEREMONY CEREMONY CEREMONY CEREMONY CEREMONY 

"when i was asked by my friends to officiate their unions, i only had one question for them: how much does it pay?" ASKING THE REAL QUESTIONS

im really listening on this part so head empty.

oohh asher (i think it's asher) laughing through baabe's vows IS SO SWEET I LOVE YOU AND I ALWAYS WILL

OH DAVID GETTING CHOKED UP ON ANGEL'S VOWS KILL ME

"you're the best part of me. and i'll spend the rest of our lives showing that i'm worthy of that." oh david shaw you dont even have to try

"i now pronounce you all married the-the pairs of you to each other not all together" OH THEY ARE NEVER GOING TO LET HIM LIVE THAT DOWN

THE KISSES OMMMGGGKFHEKHEJSS 

CONGRATULATIONS ANGEL & DAVID

CONGRATUALTIONS BABE & ASHER MWAAAAAAAAHH TO ALL OF YOUUU

[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)

[scalproie]

kfp4 is literally fine. idk why everyone is so mixed about it

that being said I do have some gripes with it like: the anachronistic names like steve and larry did piss me off bc it broke the immersion SO HARD for me. I dont remember it being such a problem before

Kai and Shen were distracting. Them being here with no narrative importance was obviously going to make people go "hey why dont they do more/have literally no lines?" rather than "oh look it's Kai and Shen! All the previous villains are here!", like I genuinely wouldve been fine if we just saw the chameleon transform into them or them not being here at all. It shouldve just been about kung fu masters which neither Kai nor Shen are. Genuinely only Tai Lung shouldve shown up.

Speaking of him, LOVED Tai Lung's inclusion, his scenes were great and I'm glad we got him back even for a bit. BUT. he was underutilized as hell. Like obv I wasnt expecting him to have a major role or to end up the new dragon warrior (like many people thought/hoped would happen for some reason? Guys it wouldnt have been satisfying) or even to have a scene with Shifu (like if THAT does happen, it needs a bigger focus and obv the movie was not going to be about that)... but I think he shouldve had longer scenes with Po. And unlike the other two main villains, he does have potential narrative importance: the movie is about the dragon warrior title itself again like the first movie (second was about Po himself, third was about chi as a whole/the panda village), and Tai Lung does embody the mastery of physical strength, which is what the chameleon is after. So yeah, while I dont want him to steal the spotlight more than he does anyway, I still think he couldve been used for more than just for a few snarky comments, and I'm a bit sad if this really is the last we'll see of him but also yknow, glad we got Just A Bit more. His very first and last scenes were sweet tho, him finally calling Po dragon warrior was nice (as long as I dont think too much about it tho lmao)

Anyway

The 5 not being present is such a non-issue for me. I love them sooo much DO NOT get me wrong but like genuinely, what would they have added to the story? How would you have worked them into it without breaking everything? I do not get why them not being here was such a deal-breaker for so many people bc you wanna argue they were well-utilized in kfp3? I'd rather the story focus on Po and another new character than trying to juggle the 5 into it, and besides, we got an explanation for why theyre missing (even if a little on the nose) so im not asking for more.

Anyway I'm gonna wait a few years before people calm down and realize kfp4 is literally fine, even good dare I say, because I remember how it was when kfp3 came out in 2016.

And speaking of kfp3, it has it easy bc "The Kung Fu Panda Trilogy" sounds nice and people just put it alongside the masterpieces that were kfp1 and kfp2 even tho, in my honest opinion, kfp4 is better, is funnier (the humor is on par with kfp2's even), has a similar pacing anyway, and the chameleon is a better villain than Kai byyyeee

[thesillyvivi]

i made a post asking if u guys would like my oc being a failed eva/trish thingy (would it be eva or trish i still dont know) and i think yall did and i did say if enough people liked it i would make a post going a bit more into it. yeah. something like that. anyway this is thay post

be warned this is one of the few times ive decided to write out oc lore n stuaff so it migjt be a little sloppy. a bit bad. im not a professional at this sort of thing. we ball

ok yap time

so the whole idea was that Liniyal (the dmc oc in question) was like. a proto trish i guess u could say???? that eventually escapes mallet island and tries to live a normal life. or as normal as she can all things considered

how she escapes i havent really figured out yet. i think during the collapse would make tje most sene but thats as far as that goes. i heard that trish and dante got there by boat so maybe she made her own little makeshift boat and skedaddled??? who knows. but she Gets Out

the only reason why mundus even keeps her long enough that she manages to escape is that he wanted to punish her failure (even if technically he was the one that failed) by keeping her locked up and showing her what she couldve been and what she couldve done when he finally creates the perfect one aka trish. its like when a parent says "you should/could be more like (person)" but way worse if that makes sense

so then dmc1 happens and all the while liniyal is like somewhere just kinda trapped and then mundus is defeated and shes able to be set free since his magic stuff was beung used to keep her locked up and since hes like gone? probably? it would kinda just disappear. you know??.????

so yada yada she escapes and arrives to main land and the immediate first thing she wants to do is remove or cover anything that reminds her of what she is. basically starting a new life or at least trying to

its like a V situation where she has to go around stealing stuff and hunting demons 4 food (since i think he does that in vov) at first she probably has the mosy horrendous fashion taste but for like 95% of her life she WAS naked so u cant blame her too much. she does get better eventually i hopr

ive yet to decide whether or not i want to give her a buddy who like helps her w everythinf because while i do think it would be nice idk if id want to make it a canon character and if not that would mean id have to make up a whole new character and i just Dont Know how to go about that. maybe i can jusg say there was some guy and you can put your own interpetations on em if u wanted

also still thinkimg about when she would actually appear in "canon" either during dmc4 or dmc5. not sure when in dmc4 but for 5 i thought about maybe her firsy appearence would be in the far background when nero is fightinf (checks notes) artemis kinda like how in the one dmc4 cutscene you can see dante just chilling while neros kicking ass

and then her like meeting appearence if that also makes sense would be when V or nero come across a later boss (still on surface or when v is in the queen empusa area) and she gets like whacked so one of em decides they gotta like help??? and soon enough she'll be bavk on her feet and syart fighting alongside em and be like a companion. dont know where to go after that though

i 100% do think that if she were to ever meet trish it would be AWKWARD. even if trish wouldnt know her (another thing i havent decided on. that comes up a lot in here) she would know trish and just feel all weird aroun her because. You Know

and i think? thats all i can think off the top of my head????? it is fsirly late when im writing this so idk i might be too tired to remember anything else that would be important

i hope this isnt a let down like i said im not very good this sort of thing. at some point i think im gonna make a ref that has liniyal, trish, and eva to likr compare them and see how liniyal was considered a failure. and thrn also her weapon and yada yada

if anyone has any suggestions or questions or corrections u wanna make feel free to reblog or senf me an ask i am open to Everything

okauy. goodnight

[cycle-hit]

kotoko being a drop out/"on break" will never not be important to me. she says its just because theres "something she wanted to do" but i know its deeper than that girl. you dont go on break or drop out just because you abruptly decided you need to hunt down criminals with no deeper reason. did you grow tired of what you were being taught kotoko. did you realise that none of it would actually help the cause youre fighting for and become frustrated. did you realise what youre being taught actually just perpetuates the unfairness of the system.

like. i make fun of kotoko by saying "she'd probably beat the shit out of you if you said acab" but kotoko. WASNT trying to become a cop. she went to law school for at least two years instead of a police academy. its not like she wouldve been afraid of the direct confrontation that comes with policework either. she knew the justice system sucked shit and desperately wanted to change the world's beliefs, enough to the point she deliberately chose to go into law instead of becoming a part of the corrupted police force.

kotoko PLEASE just tell us your childhood trauma. PLEASE. I WANT TO KNOW WHY OUTSIDE OF MILGRAM YOU ONLY HUNTED CRIMINALS WHO ENDANGERED WOMEN OR CHILDREN. I WANT TO KNOW WHY YOU KNEW ENOUGH TO NOT GO INTO THE DOGSHIT POLICE SYSTEM WHEN YOUR BLACK AND WHITE BELIEFS AND BEHAVIOUR IN T2 COULDVE EASILY LED YOU TO THAT. WHAT DROVE YOU TO THE BOILING POINT OF "TAKING A BREAK" FROM EDUCATION.

"umm shes a cop in t2" yes but also no. she is very much meant to be reminiscent of a cop but we made her into that. she was desperate to see milgram (and in proxy, es) as being the ultimate determination of "right and wrong" or "good and evil" because she wanted to be told that what she did was right. so she could have a reason to keep going. and then that same system, us, essentially told her "yeah you were correct in beating up that guy bc he was evil" with our t1 innocent verdict with no further thought put into it. and then we went "yeah we judged these four prisoners as guilty" or. "evil" in the standards kotoko gave. and two of those prisoners were two people who kotoko questioned if they really belonged in milgram (mahiru and mikoto) and then. A CHILD.

we told her that a woman, a child, and a guy with a disorder were "evil". like. damn imagine trusting so fully in the narrative and then having it hit you in the face with a complete "yeah you know the "weak" you wanted to protect? these people fit all those criterias. but we judged them evil and also that it was cool to beat the shit out of that guy because the vast majority of innocent voters in trial 1 affirmed the absolute worst parts of her eagerness to fight crime. so yeah what we're saying is go beat the shit out of the people you once strived to protect. lol. lmao." like. damn. fuck.

and not es. btw. es didnt say that. es tells us multiple times that they didnt want this. the fuckign voices dude!! kotoko can literally HEAR why people thought she was innocent and the vast majority played fully into her "i want to be told i was right so i don't have to think about it anymore- think about myself anymore." in the absolute worst ways possible. kotoko wasnt a "cop" pre-milgram or in trial 1 as much as she is in trial 2 because that wasnt who she was. we made her into that.

anyways. srry. im terminally diseased about kotoko

[strawbubbysugar]

hello hello

heres me having thoughts on morgans situation

so ill be honest, when i first read that morgan was in P&S my first reaction was also "bitch gtfo" and a lot of what they said also made me sit there like "...oh really? you say that like we never felt like that either" but i have decided to go apeshit instead

now here i am analyzing their character and thinking about wut they couldve done that wouldnt have ended up in them getting stabbed (exaggeration)

so we can obviously agree on the abusive part. manipulation, gaslighting, etc. and it seems that morgan still feels like they were in the right for what they did (correct me if im wrong, this is just what im interpreting) as they dont say things like "im sorry for what i did" but rather "i was just trying to help." now, ofc, nobody is obligated to forgive their abuser, but im just thinking that morgan wouldve had a higher chance of being forgiven if they actually said sorry sincerely and fully understood that what they did was wrong and not just "i was trying to help" (which seems to always be their go-to defense instead of admitting they were wrong). but ofc thats a natural reaction as most people dont realize that what theyre doing is abusive and they fully believe that what theyre doing is right.

now theres also "well their soulmate died at a young age and they didnt want to be alone." yes, that garners them sympathy points, but it is not an excuse, its a reason. an excuse gives them an immediate out, a reason tells you why they did what they did so you can understand better, but it does not release them from all consequences.

also, i have severe abandonment issues, so i understand the feeling of not wanting to be alone and the crippling fear it gives. but just bc i have trauma does not mean that im allowed to go around and do whatever morgan did then when the consequences slap me in the face i pull out my uno reverse and go "i have trauma you cant be mad" (another exaggeration)

also this isnt me hating on morgan, i find them to be a fascinating character. this is just me over analyzing atp.

but in conclusion, morgan needs to realize what they did was wrong, get some therapy, and learn from their mistakes to become a better person. well... thats if they live-

uhhh i probably got some of this wrong but yeah these are my thoughts-

insert sparkle on jerma gif here

I really really adore this analysis, thank you for putting so much time & love into it!!! <3

[sixosix]

I need you to know that I squawked at the cliffhanger of childe’s appearance. Lost my mind and almost threw my phone. Fingers crossed that Aether got to him before the banquet!

But to the chapter as a whole! There are?? So many things I wanna talk about? I’ll try to keep it somewhat short so I can fit it all into one ask but sienussnei-

I’m like 50 percent sure those strings pulled had something to do with the fauti. Something I remembered!! Not every person from the house of the hearth becomes one of the fauti! But they still do remain close to the group! My crack theory is that Rosalie is one of people in that latter group. Arlecchino was able to fully attempt an assassination on Furina without anyone knowing before or after( including the orphans in this as well since they don’t say thing about it as far as i know? And im absolutely positive they wouldn’t push for more info and take her at her word that she didn’t have the gnosis) and the only reason why it was a attempt and not a success is because she stopped herself! Either way though, considering her disguise used for that same attempt, I sure that the hooded figure was Father herself.

ALSO THE PINING OF THIS MAN!!! That polearm?? The sudden flip from fake to real the moment he saw Rosseland (I’m assuming that was the kitty in question) had led Thawed!Reader to him? The instant flirtations? Not to mention that despite the fact Thawed!Reader kept talking about kissing him, he refused!! Because he knew they were both drunk and not quite in their right minds to do that!!! THE MAN CARES!! It’s also a blessing and a curse rn that Thawed!Reader is kinda drunk. A blessing because she isn’t hiding her feelings as much, but a curse because she isn’t being subtle at all. The straight forward question she asked? Lyney isn’t drunk enough to forget that.

The callback to the last chapter too! She really does know lyney so well, even after all this time. He was right, she did know he was lying. And she’s just sitting there, trying to figure out what’s going on while Aether’s just sitting there like ‘you two nerds love each other.’ Not that she would admit it out loud. Yet. Also RIP reader, paimon and Rosalie are friends now, friendship forged by food. They aren’t gonna leave readers life once this is over and done. Say goodbye to your peace and quiet! (Although lyney may complain about that but that’s a different story-)

Losing my mind also over Rosalie and Thawed!Reader’s connection. She doesn’t even realize she is calling Rosalie maman!! But Rosalie does and it’s just so soft and sweet and family and rurnfjkeis. I’ve known Rosalie for 7 chapters and if anything happens to her I will kill everyone in this room and then myself.

Great chapter as always! I’m a little sad to hear regular updates are potentially stopping for a bit but I fully understand! Best of luck with school!!

-Deadman Aether Anon

deadman aether anon i wish you couldve seen my face when i saw your ask i literally lit up. and im sure that the other readers have been waiting for your thoughts as well, based on the tags of reblogs i read (“cant wait for deadman aether anon's insight now”)

HAHA i talked about this w my friend but i wanted to make childes appearance TERRIBLE. i wanted everyone to be like "FUCK. I LOVE YOU BUT NOT NOW." while childe shows up lke a celebrity in a disneyshow. it seems like it worked LMFAOO

INTERESTNG CRACK THEORY U HAVE!!!! the truth will be revealed eventually but i applaud u for how ure thinking of it. :D big brain as usual. it is also interesting to see people trying to figure out who the hooded figure was? deadman aether anon idk if u saw but there are other people guessing differently. im surprised bc i thought it was pretty obvious !!

YEAHH!! IT WAS ROSSELAND !!! i love rosseland and how lyney ended up making the cat his assistant-- that little backstory is so cute. rosseland is such a smart cat, too; writing that scene of leading mc to lyney didnt seem absurd in the slightest to me.

drunk t!reader is a mess kwdhkdfhd some drunk words are sober thoughts. and yes i think and know that lyney is a gentleman. even drunk he would always put reader first. always!

aether is so silly he came in there to blackmail someone and ended up playing secondhand matchmaker, if that makes sense LMFAOO i actually love aether and readers dynamic its so absurd when you look at it from a different perspective. its such a strange friendship they ended up making

yes ure right!!!!!1 im not sure if im portraying it well but reader calling rosalie maman is so ? subconsciously done. its like looking at a cat and going "here kitty". u look at rosalie and the way she treats reader and u go "thanks maman".

tysm for this ask!!!!!!!!! always such a delight to see you stopping by and sharing your thoughts, but i think ive said that every time by now LOL. and thank u too for the wishes T__T ill need them when i deal with chemistry <333 MUCH LOVE

[hanasnx]

no yeah i need more of the indy x beef love story!! add a cut if you have to (jokey joke i'm not trying to nag) i've got a cup of ice water and a bowl of popcorn beside me (also a joke. the popcorn, not the ice water. it is toasty rn) i'm invested, i'm seated, i'm tuned in!! much love xoxo

part one sorry this took so long

i had this sense of belonging with him. i was already comfortable with him even though we'd only had a handful of conversations. this was a big step for me seeing as how i'd only ever been with people that gave me that thrill in my stomach especially if i was doing something wrong. in this case, that thrill was completely gone, replaced with a sense of safety i'd never felt before besides a friendship that was very dear to me. so i thought i needed to be his friend. i wanted to hang out with him.

i think i decided this when i went out walking late at night because its my favorite thing to do and it started pouring rain so i went to the little mailbox garage to keep my phone/earbuds dry otherwise i wouldnt have minded the rain. but i was sitting there and i found myself wanting to run into him. i was wishing he'd, for some reason, come check his mail so that we could talk more.

now that its decided that i knew i wanted to be closer to him, i did not have a game plan. instead, i applied the logic i usually would apply to this situation: if it's meant to be it'll come back. because i was too scared to make a move when he came in for coffee in the morning. we said our usual hellos etc but i did not give him my number. i was disappointed, even though it was my own fault, because its rare that i see him twice in one day. so the "if it's meant to be it'll come back" was kind a way out for me, 1) i wouldnt have to do the thing i was dreading, creating a sense of relief 2) but that would mean i dont get to do the thing i wanted to do, creating a sense of disappointment.

i was working all day and my boss left early, which means that when i went home for lunch, i put on non-corporate dress code socks because my feet were cold. ones that her micro-managing ass would've noticed and told me to take off. but i was behind the desk, it was nearing the end of the day, no one would notice my crazy socks. my coworker that knew i liked this guy was sitting next to me, and my head maintenance guy who didnt know and could not know. we were all talking when beef came in.

like i said before, it was rare to see him twice in one day, so my stomach did a flip. it meant i had to give him my number, i made that commitment. i wrote it down on a sticky note, waiting for my chance. but my maintenance guy wouldnt leave, and beef was making his coffee. i was running out of time. i didnt know how to find a situation to give it to him in which my maintenance guy wouldnt see it because i knew his ass would report me or hold it over my head. and beef left before i could figure it out.

crestfallen, i hadnt fulfilled my commitment. i was really upset with myself, it was perfect. he came back just like he was supposed to, just like the mantra. if it's meant to be it will come back.

i was beating myself up for it tbh. "you always do this shit, indy, you always do this shit." which is so rare considering how kind i am to myself, which goes to show just how upset i was at myself for not manning up about it.

some time passed and it was probably the last thirty minutes of the day, so i was gonna go put the golf cart back. i was walking out when something told me to go back to my desk, so i went back, and i grabbed the sticky note with my number on it. to this day i have no idea why i did that. something came over me that i went back to my desk and grabbed the sticky note with my number on it to shove into my pocket to take with me. maybe it was because i didnt want other people to see it on my desk, but i couldve just thrown it away.

i drive around and i go the longways because i usually did that. its about evening time, the sky is orange, im still upset over earlier.

and i see in the distance a familiar silhouette. one i've seen a thousand times. it was beef roller blading alongside his running dog. i cant believe my eyes it was like magic. i was genuinely, to my core, shocked. a third time. a third time in one day.

he goes to the sidewalk to let me pass, but i turn in to a parking spot like a mad man. i am determined to get this over with. a third time in the same day, ive never seen him three times in one day, this had to be it. i have to give him the number and miraculously i brought the fucking note with me. i march up, i say "hi (name), hi (dogs name)" quick asf. "dont look at my socks" i tell him because im still wearing the crazy socks that dont go with my shoes or outfit and the first thing he fucking does is look down at my socks. he laughs at them. i hand him the note "call me if you wanna hangout sometime." i say and get back in the cart to take it to the garage.

an hour later he texts. "hi :) this is (name)" and we text for hours. paragraphs about our pasts and shows we like and what we do for fun, everything. at one point he texts that he feels like he needs to say that hes "not ready for a relationship, and hes happy being friends" and i said "thats fine because thats why i gave you my number. to hang out" which is true. i asked him if he wanted to go around the community yard sale on thursday with me, and he said yes.

around 11 o clock that day, we meet up, and i remember he looked me up and down. he gave me that scan. it was subtle but i was like oh?

we walked around together and i got a bunch of stuff for my roommates cats and a lemon soap dispenser for my roommate who loves lemons etc. beef hasnt gotten anything, but he helps me carry my stuff :) he had insisted on it. at one point we come across a collection of framed paintings, and he looks particularly taken with a small portrait of a snowy landscape with a man in furs. he sets it back down. i check the price, its $5 so i buy it for him. he looks touched.

we text a little for the next week, but he says hes really busy with work and has to focus on that so i give him that space. at one point i subtly try to hang out with him late at night using the excuse of putting our crystals out for the full moon, and he says that he'd love to but can't, and i had to backtrack and act like i wasnt trying to hang out 💀

towards the end of that week, i had started texted with an ex-best-friend of mine we'll call her EBF. ebf invited me to a kava bar, then asked if her boyfriend could come, i said no that makes me uncomfortable bcos i dont know her boyfriend, she says "oh then i cant go", im like wow i wonderrr why we stopped being friends u pos but whateverrr so i said "if you get to bring someone, i get to bring someone" and invited beef. i said "hey i know its short notice but im going out tonight at a kava bar you should come" he says "great! give me the address ill be there" so i do. while im getting ready, EBF texts to cancel last minute. fucking dick n balls, right? so i had to text beef to be like "hey man so sorry but my friend cancelled. do you still wanna go just us?" and he says yea :)

he picks me up and at one point i pay a compliment to myself, i say i've got nice curves. he looks at me while hes got a spare moment driving and gives me a little once over again... and says "yeah, you do have nice curves" i couldve died

we talk about anything and everything on the way here, at the kava bar, and then when we take a walk. we walk up and down that strip for like an hour and a half. we drive back to the community and we take another walk. when i look at my phone after all this walking and talking it realize its 2am and we started hanging out at 7pm. so i have to run back home bcos ive gotta get ready for work in 6 hours.

the next day my roommates rly wanna meet him, so invite him over to hang with them. after that, i walk him home, and spent a bit of time with him there. i tell him im cold, and he says "heres my favorite hoodie". i go home and spend a few hours apart at my place. we keep texting, and he says "let me know if you wanna play some games tonight" as in like online, but i was like "im literally packing up my ps3 to bring over rn" bcos he had mentioned he wanted to play black ops 2 and i was feeling spontaneous. around midnight im back at his place and we play games until way later, and im feeling too tired to keep playing so we put on a movie and we "cuddle" which was kind of spooning but he kept his crotch away from my ass. (he tells me later that the reason he did that was because he got a boner laying down with me)

we fall asleep watching rio, our first sleepover. he had set an alarm for me so that i wouldnt miss work and i didnt even ask.

the next day he asked me to come over again. he cooks me dinner. we have another sleepover. i got to work, and then i go right back to his place. that night we're sitting and facing one another in the dark, that invisible string is pulling us together. he's murmuring, "i don't wanna be friends. i wanna be your boyfriend." and we kiss. its soft and slow, and it marks may 7th our anniversary.

since our first sleepover, i did not sleep again at my own place, which means that before we were officially dating, we were technically living together first.

[iratusmus]

Hii, I read that freakishly looong (but interesting) take on Fiona

Personally, I think the major problem for her in the comics was that she wasnt really of major importance to the writers. I think the writers thought of her as interesting at first then got bored of her and she was lost to the wind.

I think thats where the problem started.

Secondly, I think the freedom fighters were also at fault. I think they forgot that not everyone has the mental capacity to be a hero. Not exactly good person but I think they expected too much of Fiona. Im not saying this in a degrading way tho. I mean, she went through a lot and they expected her to be healed already, they expected her to suddenly see them as heroes and want to be good. They forgot that not everyone has that inclination. They expected too much and I think that also got her overwhelmed.

Im not sure if this makes sense but yeah this is my take on it.

its pretty clear that bollers and penders didnt have much investment in her character at all, but also that that point she was really just a tangentially relevant side character. like i said in my post, frankly before ian gave her a corruption arc she didnt really have much to offer in the first place. you cant really fault the writers all that much because she wasnt really meant to be of major importance. when ian took the helm as main writer he clearly thought she had potential as a character and utilized that through the corruption arc. she wasnt "lost to the wind", she just became a villain and, as such, didnt need to be on the main screen all the time. archie sonic has a lot of villains and it would be honestly a bit annoying if we spent all of our time with just a handful of them - theyre great characters and should be used accordingly! yeah she took a bit of a backseat in the "scourge+fiona+ss go to mobius and get whacked for it" arc, but like. come on they were clearly setting something up here

she comes back in journey to the east and is pulling together her own gang there, and then comes back in full swing in scourge lockdown, in which they were. also. clearly setting something up

the plan according to ian is i believe that scourge & fiona were gonna have an epic breakup and she'd take the destructix in the divorce, which tracks plenty enough with the setup that was being put in place.

also, honestly im gonna have to partially disagree with you on the second point. its a complicated situation and i think youre simplifying it a bit too much. fiona willingly chose to "become a hero" - its not like they made her. she literally couldve left at any point in time to just be a normal civilian (which is... literally what mina did. nobody had an issue with it, even though mina's superspeed wouldve been a massive aid in battle. she wasnt equipped to be a hero in that way because, like you said, that kind of life really isnt for everybody).

also, the freedom fighters frankly cant be everybody's personal therapist - theyve all got so much baggage themselves and they cant even address that because theyre all in the middle of a war 😭 i dont think its that they expected too much of her - id say its much more in the direction of that they didnt even really consider what she went through or how it wouldve affected her in the first place. its less that she got overwhelmed and more that she was functionally an outsider who had no support system and no friends to stick up for her or try to really make her feel like she was one of the team - not out of malice or anything, but just because nobody really ever thought about it in the first place.

overall its just a really messy situation and while fiona made the bad choices that she did of her own volition, there were real reasons behind why she made those decisions in the first place

[thebigqueer]

Genuine thoughts on the pjo tv series?

i had a lot more thoughts when i first finished the show so this isnt as comprehensive as it could be but these are all the most important things i can remember. but im glad you asked cuz im alwasy ready to answer this question

i didnt hate it. i think i might have had too high expectations but ill be watching s2.

i will say that i think they def stuck to the books more, which i liked, but they made some changes i def didnt like.

my biggest issue was probably with the way that the kids - especially percy - just knew everything going on, because it took a lot away from the childlike wonder that the books had when the trio went on their first quest. i think the fact that percy didn't know a lot in the books was also essential to kid readers, who most likely dont know anything about greek mythology. obviously i think the fact that show percy knows a lot is good because it highlights his intelligence & could be explained by the fact that his mother told him all the stories, but at the same time i think percy served as a really important way to teach kids about the greek myths, so it kind of sucks that he immediately knows whats going on at some points, especially when we have no idea as to how he even learned about it. for example, at some points it made sense that percy knew what was going on, like when they realized quick that Auntie Em's Gnome Emporium was where medusa lived. but when we came to crusty's place, they just totally skipped everything about how percy came to find out about who crusty even was. taking out that context totally messed things up, because if i wasnt a reader i literally would not have understood how we even got there and how percy knew who this guy was. i understand it was to save time, but i think it couldve been handled better.

on the note of medusa, LOVED THAT EPISODE. i thought it had to be one of the best episodes of the season because it really displayed how no one is ever 1 dimensional, and i loved the way they drew to sally and medusa's similariteis because it really made percy consider what "good" and "bad" really meant - which is to say, theres never a clear line. and i loved that annabeth was so reserved because it really served to how wholly she beleives in her mother and the gods because it sets up her character arc so well. the entire episode was just so good. ALSO THE ACTRESS FOR MEDUSA WAS WAYYYYY TOO GOOD. too good.

the lotus casino episode was probably my least-liked because of the way they executed it. in the books that part was so fun and colorful because it was just the kids being kids - of course they were going to waste time having fun. but in the show they were so caught up in the mission that it kind of sucked not being able to see them just having fun like kids do. thats what i mean when i feel like the show just took so much away from that whimsy that kids have. i dont remember where i read it, but someone once replied to one of my posts with something about how they were kids just by physical appearance but not in character (or not completely) and i agree with that. i mean, sure, they had their scenes where they argued over trivial things like candy and chips and splashed percy with water because they seriously thought it would help, but i just so wish we coudlve seen them having fun being kids at the lotus casino.

im also not saying that they act like adults. they def dont act like adults (which is good) but theyre just not as childish as they were in the books, which is why im kind of disappointed. to sum it up, what im trying to say is that i think the show was just so focused on the plot points that they forgot to add in the children's characteristic qualities at points, because the storyline was just so plot-focused that i feel like even the points that the kids were supposed to be silly and funny just didnt hit the way they wouldve in the books.

this is more minor but i wish the scene where annabeth tries to reason with hephaestus when percy's stuck in the chair was somehow longer, or just ended with more vagueness. i loved the way leah took charge of that scene and i thought it was a really good execution, but i didnt understand how it only took hephaestus 5 minute of being scolded by a 12 year old to suddenly change his mind about power. i guess that could say something about annabeth's persuasiveness, but in reality it was just the showrunners trying to finish up scenes lol. i think what im trying to say is that the scene just felt sped up when it couldve been slower, or maybe the scene couldve ended with a little more of a lingering question that would make viewers wonder about the implications of this scene.

LOVED THE SALLY AND POSEIDON SCENE. PROBS ONE OF MY FAVS.

i didnt like the way hades was portrayed. im not saying the king of the underworld cant be funny but i felt like the way they changed hades will not do good to the rest of the show, especially if we get into season 3 or when we learn about hades' kids, beacuse i dont think itll line up with the way hades treats his kids later on in the series. like i cant imagine we get to season 5 and this is the hades storming into the battle in manhattan. sure, hes funny, but it does not line up with his character in the books at all. i dont mind minor changes to the books, but when youre completely changing an entire character - one whos important to the series as a whole - whats the point in calling it a book-accurate show 😭

i loveddd the lsat episode i loved the dream sequence and i loved that they went back to montauk i thought it added so much to the show.

this is minor but also not - WHY DIDNT ANYONE BOW WHEN PERCY GOT CLAIMED. THAT WAS SUCH A POWERFUL SCENE IN THE BOOK AND IT REALLY SET PERCY APART WHICH WOUDLVE DONE WONDERS FOR THE WAY PERCY ACTS IN TEH FIRST TWO EPS because hes like 'im so different and everyone keeps telling me im special but it all feels so condescending and no ones explaining anything to me.' FOREVER MAD THAT I COULDNT SEE THAT SHIT WITH MY OWN EYES. WHATS EVEN THE POINT OF ANYTHING ANYMORE

sally was portrayed interestingly. i know everyone has a lot of different opinions about how she was portrayed, as well as how gabe and the way the abuse in their family was potrayed and i agree and disagree with a lot of the points ive seen on the internet. firstly i did like that sally was portrayed with a lot more strength and stubbornness than the movie did, but at the same time there were points where i felt like she acted so un-sally like. ex. i like the way she was so serious & nervous & anxious with percy at the pool because that made sense; but i didnt think the scene where she was ordering percy to open the door was something i was expecting. and i understand that the entire situation was so difficult for both her and percy so it makes sense that she was easily frustrated with percy not listening to her, but i feel like at the very least she wouldve tried another line or two of reasoning with percy before ordering him to open the door, because in the books she seems a little more patient with him. idk this was a super specific moment lol i think what im trying to say is she doesnt feel like the same sally that i remember in the books, and thats def not a bad thing at all but at the same time i feel like the way they potrayed sally in terms of her mannerisms just isnt who she is. she is adamant and indepednent and blah blah but its the little things in her portrayal that dont feel the same.

on the topic of gabe's abuse - i know abuse can be more than just physical and we def saw aspects of the more financial and emotional abuse in the show. but i didnt like how gabe was portrayed because yeah he seems like a shitty guy but thats all he had; theres no context as to why hes even in their life or even how he got in there. i think the best way to describe it is the way i saw someone else describe it: he's gabe, just not smelly gabe from the books. so its essentially teh same thing as the sally bullet - i feel like they got rid of some of the important characteristics of gabe so his presence in teh story doesnt feel the same. i think this could be said about most of the characters in the show.

thats about all i can remember. theyre just my thoughts, and theyre not the most clean thoughts so sorry if its confusing. its been a minute since ive watched the show so im sure theres other thoughts and im sure my opinions could change if i watch again. but yeah thanks for asking anon!!

[chloeangelic]

thoughts re: Rendezvous series and forgiveness

ive had some thoughts recently about how people might react to part 5 of rendezvous when it comes out, ie the final part, and i wanted to share for no real reason

discussions about forgiveness, infidelity and such below the cut

firstly, i want to say that zero iteration the word "forgive" appears in part 5. there is no discussion about forgiveness really at all, and i dont think there needs to be. one of the reasons is that i think the concept of forgiveness can oversimplify complex situations, as well as assign unnecessary value judgments to things. i often feel like being forgiven for something means that you have to label that thing as 100% bad and terrible, and theres no space for what sort of positive change it couldve initiated. this is often the case when it comes to infidelity - which is a whole different can of worms.

on the topic of forgiveness, however, whether its mentioned explicitly or not, ive noticed an extreme allergy to joel being forgiven for any indiscretions towards the MC in fics on this website. it seems like the MC herself can do anything and nobody really questions it when joel takes her back, we can cuck tommy into oblivion, joel can cheat on his wife etc, and all of that is cool and hot and encouraged until joel is the one making dumb decisions. people will literally forgive him for being a mass murderer but not for fucking someone else.

the discussions of morality, which are a huge focus in tlou, seem to stop short when it comes to fictional relationships between joel and MCs. we can all discuss why he merked that hospital full of fireflies, and most tlou fans will justify his actions, saying he did it for a good reason, but any relationship related indiscretions do not get the same treatment. i understand that people are sensitive about cheating, being cheated on is awful, but its unproductive to shut down all discussions about it

just to make it clear: i do not consider his actions in rendezvous cheating, not on katy and not on the MC. the MC feels more cheated on because she has an unhealthy attachment to him

am i defending his actions in rendezvous? no. do i think they need to be defended or condemned? also no. i choose not to see things as binary good/bad - even if i thought everything he did was terrible, whats he supposed to do? be alone forever because of indiscretions towards one person? i know this is fic, and i could write him living under a rock for eternity if i wanted, but this is supposed to be a realistic (in my definition) series, and realistically, thats not what happens to people who fuck up in interpersonal relationships. they move on and live their lives. we all hurt people at some point - its juvenile and delusional to think that just because someone hurt another person, theyre bound to suffer for all eternity.

i think there are a lot of nuances when it comes to relationships especially, and trying to label what hes doing in this series as cheating on the MC/katy, and then saying CHEATING BAD is an oversimplification and ignores the scope of emotion im trying to cover here. even calling it cheating ignores the depth of unlabeled relationships. i think the MC deserves more than that, cause if we say hes cheating on katy, were basically calling the MC the other woman, and the other woman is ALWAYS vilified - except in this case where shes the "reader" character. what if i wrote this entire thing in a different perspective, and katy was the reader?

im in the brainstorming stages of my next big series after love me back, and if i go with the idea thats simmering in my head right now, its gonna be a completely infidelity focused series, about when its acceptable to cheat, who is allowed to cheat and why, etc. joel will not be fucking anyone else in that series or cheating on the MC calm down

this might not be very interesting, and its not addressed to any anons in particular at all, ive just been thinking about it as the parts have been posted and thought id share my thoughts in case anyones interested. its hard to give my full thoughts without spoiling ch 5, so after thats posted i might write another reflection on it for anyone whos interested in my thought process behind the decisions ive made.

[livecharliereaction]

gonna be a long ahh post

ill try to see if theres anything strange for all of them but i dont remember all alibis n circumstances etc im using the red truths + question arc tip screen oki thats all i have Well i have my liveblogs too but that doesnt seem useful. first ep didnt have red truths yet but im quite sure it had to have been natsuhi or maria so

this was natsuhi + krauss + eva + hideyoshi + rudolf + kyrie

rosas definitely weird in ep2 i very vividly recall her BEING in that chapel too but i could be misremembering that part. though beatrice was there

this whole ordeal was a little strange i wish i remembered who exactly witnessed her bcs i feel like it wasnt just natsuhi n servants... Kyrie definitely saw her yes? I dont know what to make of it. What a cute outfit though shes so cute

also these mentions on shannon n kanon ep2 descs Awh

kanons key or servant involvement seeing as none of the others were first 6

kanon n jessica couldve killed each other Why? Who knows But someone carried kanons body out

"no one is hiding (regarding jessicas room)" STop i wouldve said that too im just like him i cant diss his abilities anymore.

Oh but also "kanon was killed in this room" =/= "kanon was killed in this room at that time" Im thinking about the scene where he "reappears" again i think its been said theres no disguise stuff so maybe

am i confusing the scenes because "theres no corpse" What happened in the doctors room???? when they saw him come back and bury his fingers to that wound i wouldve said he mightve died at that moment but then whats with the corpse. Girl

i miss her so much shes so funny "You are incompetent" in red is crazy

Beato:(.......

rosa had the keys yeahhhhhh i dont exactly remember Why i thought she was weird at the time but it was probably her. She was running around w the rifle too Well thats all for ep2 anyway

wtf even was charumi3 that was evas time to shine yes

Its definitely dead

None of the six committed suicide! hmm the weird linked one i remember it Though. Isnt "The six died instantly" incorrect in kinzos case if he was already dead... Since its a separate statement it doesnt have to refer to those six yes?? So maybe one of them besides kinzo didnt die instantly... Like battler suggested w a chain murder or one person going around to make up the chained rooms

Then theyd have a key too... girl i dont remember what eva was doing at this time also

at that point eva was supposedly in her room w a headache while witch eva was killing them so yeah doesnt look great for eva That servant things still possible too + rosa might as well have killed maria though idk who killed rosa in that case

eva did not kill hideyoshi... servant thing still strong and also wtf was kyrie thinking here anyway might as well blame her n then say eva killed kyrie but i forgor where eva was here again oopsie

"No life forms other than humans have any connection to this game" seems like a witch denying phrase but ok i guess its not a life form then

Lol. Once again kinzo thing makes this not matter... Though there go all my servants dawg maybe that was only for first twilight then

that is worrying. Do you think kanon n shannons names being pseudonyms affects the red truth. "shannon is dead" What if shannon is the idea of her servitude to the family and she threw it away for some reason and that way theres a Sayo who is killing people and doesnt really break the truths "shannon is dead" OR "there are no more than 18 humans on this island" All that goes for kanon too im just pretending that i didnt spoil myself his real name haha. Well kanon even more so since they made him appear and all but that couldve been jessicas delusion too...

she used to have so much fun that beato...

also even if eva was confirmed to not be involved in nanjos death that doesnt negate she couldve done well.everything else heart

thought about "Because of your sin, people die." a lot yesterday... The part about it not being about or with beatrice is of course very confusing and weird But yeah i cant even guess except apparently hes the reason the game exists? Or at least the reason it goes on or more specifically "cause of the eternal torture between us"

I dont understand how it could be about anything else BUT beatrice but ok. Maybe he was mean to maria like ange. But maria was literally 3 years old at that point... I guess he left the family 6 years ago but im having a terrible time trying to understand whats wrong with that really I guess asumu isnt blood related to him afterall but it cant be this great big sin beefing with rudolf u know. Id think his comebacks the reason the cerenomy was seen fit to be carried out (thinking about the amount of people) but angie wouldve normally been there instead of him anyway so the amount of people is the same and its over 14 anyway (13 sacrifices + whoevers imitating the epitaph) so i dont really understand blinks

i like when he goes Ah ngagh nnnghhh aaghh...!!! this vn loves to make people roar also They do it all the time. battler n beato do it the most but eva and many others always roaring too

also??? according to the wiki they didnt use red truth at all in ep3 until this point thats crazy i guess beato really WAS more careful about it

oh ange i miss u

i cant even tell what the first ones about theres no game record in ep4 tips how annoying <- doesnt remember at all what happened. Well ange was there uhh.

nvm its definitely about this one. I seriously remember nothing there was so much ange ange ange it was all eyes on ange.... I might reread my liveblogs

OH YEAH it was ppl supposedly witnessing kinzo killing everyone. Although uh "all ... acknowledged the presence of kinzo" Thats very different from "kinzo was there n killed everyone"... It couldve been in spirit or even if his corpse was there. Also last ones crazy u can just change that well i guess they were counting a corpse then

thats crazy confusing combined with knoxs rule about no accidents... what is left...

STOP. THERE GO BOTH OF MY SUSPECTS STOP IT

none of these negate kanon n rosa culprit yeah?

omfg wtf theres an image limit let me do the rest in another post

[partytricks]

young royals s3 thoughts (SPOILERS!!!!)

- first and foremost i think they tried to fit waaaayy too many things into this season. it feels like they wrote two seasons worth of content and instead of trying to cut plotlines that were unimportant to the overall narrative, they just said fuck it lets do them all. and it...did not work

- LOVE the idea of wille's speech having repercussions outside of wilmon and the royal family, and i love that the hazing was addressed, but again the whole reveal about erik and august felt like it was just thrown in to have sympathy for august and to lead to wille's breakdown at the bday dinner (which like...he had more than enough reason to do already). i do like the idea of erik actually being fucked up behind the scenes, but i wish they would have hinted at it in season 2 or something instead of just dropping it out of nowhere. idk

- WHY DOES IT FEEL LIKE THEY FORGOT ABOUT WILLE HAVING ANXIETY AND PANIC ATTACKS UNTIL THE LAST COUPLE EPISODES???? his anxious habits and the physical toll that stress takes on him were pretty consistently shown in the first two seasons and then suddenly not a thing until the halfway point???????? like idk something about that really bothered me. my one big hope for this season was that wille would get to address his panic attacks but it seems like theyre just not gonna acknowledge it, which i guess is true to real life anxiety it's just something you live with, but it was teased to be such a crucial thing about wille that im a little disappointed its not getting explored

- wilmon cannot communicate to save their lives and i feel like neither of them are ready to be in a relationship. they have a good dynamic and you can tell they care about each other, but they never look at issues from a dual perspective, only as an individual. and then when they call each other out they just get defensive. i think they only want the lovey dovey fun part of a relationship, and they cant accept the fact that things WILL go wrong and they have to work through it TOGETHER

- ive seen a lot of people say that wille got really mean out of nowhere this season and i kind of disagree?? yes, his aggression is def at the forefront of almost all his scenes, but we've seen in the past two seasons that he doesnt know how to deal with stress and takes frustration out on other people. it's just that now he's constantly stressed and therefore on a hair trigger. is it right of him?? no. but does it make sense?? yeah, for me at least

- i HATE that wille's anxiety is constantly pushed aside because it "isnt princely" but the MINUTE that kristina has mental health issues she gets to step back from her duties and see a therapist, get meds, etc... now to clarify, i hate it because wille deserves better and its so hypocritical. i LOVE that it was included in the story because you really get to see plain as day just how much wille's family does not give a shit about him. he was so worried about his mom because he knows what it feels like and wants to be there for her when she never was for him, but she cant even make eye contact with him. and his dad is no better. that scene where wille calls to ask about erik and his dad just goes "yeah i cant think of any of erik's flaws he was perfect" EVEN IF YOU THINK THAT YOU DONT SAY IT TO YOUR OTHER KID???? who, to wille's point, is CURRENTLY YOUR ONLY SON.

- simon dealt with a lot of shit this season, and he was right to be scared of wille during his blowup at the royals, but CALL ME CRAZY i think he couldve waited until like, idk, the NEXT DAY?? to breakup with him???? yes, wille has been an ass to simon this season and taking family drama out on him, thats not cool, but striking while the iron is hot is an AWFUL idea. bring it up while wille is in a more rational headspace and not as riled-up. like simon my bby i was with you til then