#in other news i really wish they used Amy more???? shes such a cool character

[sunflowers-and-sweetviolets]

hi????? im gay????

[creative-soul-22]

I watched all 3 Night at the Museum movies!

1. I liked all 3 movies, they were all good!

2. They were all really funny, I laughed a lot!

- Favourite movie:

Hard to tell, but I maybe the second one. Yeah I guess I liked that one best.

- Favourite Character(s):

Jedediah! He's such a cool cowboy and such a buddy you could hang out and really have a good time with him. He's def the one who invites his friends to the saloon (imagine him and Octavius at the Saloon). And of course, I know he hates it (sorry, Jed) he's tiny and cute and I would totally cuddle and kiss him and adore him because he's a small figurine! (@professional-termite would snatch him and run away because tinyyyyy boiiii)

Very close second is Akmenrah! He is a very distinguished, elegant son of a pharao and he is really kindhearted. I like him.

Teddy Rosewelt! He is so caring and such a father to everyone it's heartmelting. Robin Williams, may he rest in peace, was the perfect cast for him because, well, that's how I always saw Robin Williams. As a loving, caring father who encourages others and wants to make everyone feel special and who is there for others when they have a problem (maybe because he was always casted for these roles?).

- Favourite relationship(s):

Larry's and Jedediah's friendship! They are such bros and they really care for each other, it's so cute!

Jedediah's and Octavius' friendship! I know you ship them, and I totally understand why. I see it. But for me it's more like Jed and Octavius ARE a little in love with each other, and maybe would want to make out BUT also don't want to change their relationship so they decide to be bros. It's bromance. Brotherhood with a romantic touch (That's just how I see it please don't kill me!!!).

The exhibits and Larry growing to a big found family!

- What I liked:

The opening scene of Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb

How natm 3 adressed the "returndiscussion" (as we call it in Germany). It might never went beneath the surface (which is indeed a bit of a pity but it's okay), but still it adressed and paid attention to it. And that's important because this has become a thing for museums nowadays (gonna put this in a seperate post for further discussion/explanation)

The whole lore/story arch about the tablet

Jed and Octavius in Pompeii (I just wish it wouldn't have been by the time it went down because they were finally in a place in the right size for them and they would have really enjoyed Roman citylife, especially Octavius, he almost felt home there)

The opening show for the new planetarium because it's magical (I just wish it wouldn't have been interrupted by the tablet loosing it's magic causing everyone to glitch)

Amelia Earheart's adventurous spirit (she's just an AU Giselle, not only, but mostly because it's Amy Adams)

Abraham Lincoln (I wish he and Teddy had met!)

Dick van Dyke! It's always a pleasure seeing him so this was a nice surprise. Pretty sure it was the best day of their life for the residents of the retirement home when Dick van Dyke came in to dance with them to "Shake your booty".

Everytime Dexter was cute with Larry or anyone else (hugs!!)

Akmenrah's mum, she is pretty

Ben Kingsley playing Akmenrah's dad (that wasn't the only time Ben played a pharao, right? He played a pharao in another movie? Can't put my finger on it rn)

Akmenrah being together with mumy and daddy after 4,000 (?) years

All 3 movies ending with a party - creates a full circle

The Night at the Museum main theme (epic!)

The little bird-thingy before the xiangliu (forgot it's name but it's cute)

Somebody listening to Abba's Dancing Queen on the bus

Jed and Octavius using the internet/phones (the machine for the comments! Commentmachine!)

- What I didn't like:

Everytime Dexter was peeing on somebody/something (Ewwww!)

Everytime Dexter was mischivious

The way the museum director was depicted (seriously, what was that? Messiest character arch ever - if there even WAS a character arch?)

The solution to the problem with the tablet (for real guys that thing looses it's magic and all it takes to fix is to put it in MOONLIGHT?! Okay then how about you put it on the roof of the museum like a solar panel so it can charge like a glow in the dark sticker everytime the moon shines on a starry night?)

The museum director holding the tablet at the end of natm 3 whilst grinning like Dexter (seriously, after what we've seen from him, he knows what the tablet can do - which is no longer in HIS museum - and you're telling me he's not up to SOMETHING?? I'm not buying it.)

The tablet staying in the British Museum (I know they want Akmenrah and his parents to be together and I really like it BUT how do you explain this to the Museum? "Oh, we're leaving the mummy and it's tablet here, you know, the mummy's their son so we think it's nice for the family to be united. They might be very precious artefacts but we'll present them to you. You can have them.")

The ceremony being interrupted by the corroding tablet which caused the exhibits to glitch (this was the ONLY! moment of glory for Larry and the exhibits in public and it turned into a disaster - heartless filmmakers!)

Tilly's and Larry's cringey talk when we first meet her (annoying! Also, her name is Tilly... Jennifer Tilly namedrop here!)

Jed being picked up like a kitten (ruuuude!! And humilliating!)

- What I found hilarious:

The notion of dinosaurs just being doggos who want to catch sticks might not be historically accurat but it's totally funny

The cuts everytime Jed and/or Octavius did something epic to demonstrate how small they actually are (although it's a bit rude)

Octavius in the pillory and Jed watching it like "ooh"😎 by the time the sun has come up so they stand there until the sun goes down

Abraham Lincoln snatching Kamunrah's army as if they were pigeons and them disapearing to where they came from just like "Nah. We're out."

Jed in the cage like a little birdy (although I feel sorry for him but he looks just like a little titmouse in there - yeah, @professional-termite : snatched again!!)

[lizardinkart]

Lizard Reads Ward

Arc 1: Daybreak

Lizard’s Cry Counter: 2

TL;DR: A Victoria-focused arc that dragged a bit in places but ultimately felt like everything we needed to know about her (and more). I wished it’d started closer to the fight but having the fight, the trauma, and the family drama laid out felt like the groundwork that was missing from the prologue, especially with the shifted role of Amy. Wish that we had a little more about the other characters introduced in the prologue tho. 8/10 Aight! Let’s get wormin’!

So in my brain I’ve split the arc in to 3 parts, pre-fight, fight, and post-fight, so I’ll talk about the arc in terms of those mini-arcs. Mini-Arc 1: Pre-Fight (Victoria, not Glory Girl)

Ok the fact that the city is Gold colored is hilarious to me. This is Children’s Hospital Red™ levels of awful design choices, somebody really just said color theory in context is fake. I also appreciate the later indications that most of The City is in fact shittily built but hey shitty shelter is better than no shelter I guess (also relatable as someone looking at apartments). Other worldbuilding things I was thinking about since Wildbow really wants us to see the cool world he built (but it’s not really about the world tbh)- the technology of post-GM is so weird. Like you have dial-up internet but it also works perfectly fine and technology works when you need it to. Like I’m sorry but Reddit-AOL would be so much buggier. But all that being said, it’s really funny to see the irl jump in technology from when WB was writing Worm to when he was writing Ward, because Taylor’s flip phone vs smartphone drama was so real and relatable, and now dial-up internet just works on smartphones...I’m baffled. anywho! Onto Victoria lol. So Victoria is working with the new kiddie PRT- awesome, very cool. I appreciate the focus on her wanting to still feel heroic even if she gets that massive body dysmorphic/dysphoric (yes, both) feeling from actually using her powers. Though I also appreciate the small touches we see when she’s on her way to work with a much better mirror scene than the opening of Worm, her interactions with the one hero during the obelisk incident show that she still gets heroes and feels bad for the shit being thrown their way (idk, it gave me big closeted queer energy, queer-to-queer communication in a queerphobic environment one might say). “Nice response time” really is the dorkiest shit to say tho and I appreciate it. Victoria is a dork.  I also appreciate the setup with her parents, laying the groundwork for what’s to come later. Also that she enjoys working with the disillusioned and directionless kids/teens, cause that really is a thing that is the kind of selfless-selfish pull that I think Victoria is shown to be struggling with (finding the balance in the healing process is difficult!). While I felt like this part really did drag the most in the arc, I think there were some really good parts that make it worth it. And it leads into the first Wildbow fight of the story! Woohoo!  Mini Arc 2: The Fight (The Trauma Hammer)

Oh boy I do love me some Wildbow fights. I felt my little storyboarder brain light up because there were some God-tier moments in here that I wanted to draw sooooo bad. But alas, too many, not enough time. 

Crystalclear is cool as hell and I think he may be one of my faves of the new powers so far, he’s a very Wildbow-concept hero and I do really appreciate the man’s flare for the complex and flashy. Tempera is also cool, and Fume Hood is a snarky bitch and I love her. What a queen. She did not deserve to get shot (maybe a little tho).  

But overall there was some great tension in the ticking clock leading up to the fight, and seeing how shit played out was super fun as always, I was not expecting the 18-wheeler to come out of nowhere but it was a very fun time. I gotta say tho, I know Lord of Loss and Snag are important, but I for the life of me could not keep them straight in my brain since Snag made Victoria feel Loss, but like, that’s LoL’s name lmao. 

And on the topic of loss: oof. I did not call this the Trauma Hammer for nothing lol. This is where things went from meh to great for me in this arc, because since Victoria’s story was so ancillary to Worm, I had 1) forgotten how she triggered, and 2) didn’t really remember too much about the specifics of her story outside of the hospital interlude. But god, just sitting in her shoes through falling in love with Dean, losing him, losing her family, feeling inadequate to the rest of her family, and the ever-present looming threat of Her (that we will get to, don’t worry lol), it was just so helpful in really honing in on Victoria’s entire ish that is rattling around in the background. As someone who does characters like this, esp in TTRPGs, having that context of someone’s thought process really is helpful to have in understanding how you’re supposed to interpret the character, even if you’re already in their head (since characters and people lie to themselves, see: Taylor). But yeah, since Victoria avoids those thoughts anyway, it was clever to give them to us up front. And the fact that it happened while she was being a hero again? Kickass. Loved it. 

Mini Arc 3: Post- Fight (Her)

Oh my god this family is messy. I have essays I could write on Carol Dallon and just the Dallons in general but I think I’ll get the chance to eventually cause this is already too long lol. But oh my GOD I truly was thinking “yeah this is gonna go poorly, maybe some passive-aggressive family stuff, getting overwhelmed, getting pie and then leaving”, but holy SHIT the fact that Carol really just ambushed Victoria with lawyer speak and finessed the entire narrative of what was going on- jesus. Manipulative ass snake, but in such a relatable way. 

Once again, have been in that situation before and the way that Victoria goes from like a 2 to 1000 in 0.2 seconds when all the pieces come together- holy shit if that is not the exact feeling of trauma. I know the “#triggered” discourse is old hat at this point, but man I could feel myself get short of breath and panicky when Vicky got trauma triggered in this chapter (this is the spiritual Cry Point). It was so convincingly written that I wanna hold Wildbow in my hands to make sure he’s good.

But I’m proud of how Victoria handled herself, definitely snaps for that therapy working its magic, but man. The Amy Ambush (an Am(y)bush if you will, yes haha joke away), was so something I did not see coming this early, but I’m glad that it did because holy fuck. Victoria talking about moving on and then her family (mom) “moving on” but in a “forgive with an emphasis on forget” kinda way really does leave Victoria in a place that proves all that feeling of inadequacy right, and it’s crushing. But it provides that big stumbling block for her to overcome esp when she finds her new group. 

And seeing how many times she was forced to confront her worst moments and she still actively avoided Amy... oh baby. As an Amy Enjoyer (less “condoning her actions” more “study her like a bug”) I am highly intrigued in how this is gonna go. This is 7 levels of Fucked Up. 

I screamed with joy when Dr. Yamada showed up, I am in love with her and think she is wonderful, and also a great addition to the central cast of this story (esp in a story about healing from trauma? YES get the therapist in there). Also Crystal is wonderful and a good ally for Victoria, and I appreciate Victoria’s need to scrutinize both public and private Aesthetic (shoutout to me and Crystal vibing as 2 fun ADHD individuals). 

Also a shoutout for Gilpatrick because he’s cool and funky and a good boss. Get u someone like Gilpatrick. 

Bonus: The Interlude!

I would give my left kidney for Moose. I’m kicking Prancer’s ass, and I hope Velvet keeps her truck forever and ever. A better love story than her and Prancer tbfh. Also Nursery is so cool guys, she’s so neat. I love the weird shit being done with powers so far in Ward. 

AND A MARQUIS CAMEO HELLO???? HUSBAND?????? Sorry I really like Marquis lol. 

Final Thoughts

The only things I would criticize this arc for that lowered it a bit in my eyes is that the prologue really didn’t do a fantastic job of prepping us to only focus on Victoria. I wished we had sped things along a bit with getting to the others from PHO, even with little PHO interludes interspersed in to let us know what these guys were up to. Bc like, this really did feel like 3 arcs so I feel like we could have used another interlude or 2, just for spice and to break things up a little. Like a commercial break!

The other thing is Wildbow’s uh... underlying ish breaking through. I know Ward was written in the shadow of Worm for him, but there are some parts of these chapters that just feel very mean-spirited and pointed towards people who enjoyed certain parts of Worm. Mainly stuff that could be construed as “fandom” things, or things that fandom would like, that Wildbow seems to be very overt in saying “hey, fuck you for liking/engaging with this.” I dunno, it may just be me, but that kinda attitude cropping up often enough for me to notice the pissed-off hand of the author was off-putting and distracting from I think the greatest parts of this arc. Because it is a good story, it just feels like the occasional potshots WB takes are more coming from his own bitterness than Victoria’s, and are ultimately detrimental to the story as a whole. Idk, I will try not to bring it up so often, but it’s definitely something that’s running in the back of my head and I hope that it subsides soon-ish. 

But all of that to say, I enjoyed the arc! It was a solid opening that’s got me really excited to read more (which by this point, I have, and I will be writing up my arc 2 thoughts shortly lol), and the Trauma Hammer really hit home in a way that felt earnest and really earned. 

That’s all for now tho! As always, I’m happy to discuss stuff wherever, so let me know what you thought of the arc if you’ve read Ward! 

Until next time: Ward out ✨

[gale-gentlepenguin]

Gale Reviews: Sonic Prime: Episode 1 Shattered

(Spoilers if you havent watched it)

-Sonic is running late to an eggman fight.

-So I really like Big’s voice. It fits him

-Sonics little intro is great.

-Shadow is mentioned and is like “We... will get to him later”

-So I love all the character designs. I like how Rouge is style. (I think the update is a welcome change)

-I am not crazy  about knuckles voice. I prefered Travis Willinghams in Sonic boom. But I adore Amy’s it fits so well

-The quick banter between each one shows the dynamic he has with the team,

-Sonic is into amy, They are so flirting

-Sonic didnt listen and shattered the prism

-I do wish they didnt do this out of order but... its like a mystery.

-Okay so the fight animation is so fluid, really sells Sonics speed.

-New Yoke city. Chaos Council? Damn its nuts. Reminds me of Sonic Satam

-Sonic sees the Big look alike and got so happy, Baby boy

-Sonic did pretty well avoiding bots

-And a flashback.

-Eggman is baiting sonic to destroy his bot. Which tails warned him. But sonic didnt get it

-Sonic only got baited by Eggman insulting tails. And then just completely missed the point

-Eggman used Sonic to make an earthquake to get to the prism

-ORBOT AND CUBOT!

-”Papa wants his prism”

-i SAW THAT YEAR REFERENCE. 1992

-Sonic brought him comics to cheer up tails

-Sonic is such a sweetie. He wants to apologize to tails

-Tails figured it out quick

-ROUGE EXPLAINS IT ALL (Also. I do love the voice they gave her. She is all cool like a spy)

Rouge has great character acting (all of the character acting is great)

-Rouge reveals the door is open

-The comedy is is amusing

-The loopty loop

-Eggman monologuing

-Orbot and Cubot are both idiots

-The Paradox prism looks cool as heck

-Sonic MISSED THE DUMPSTER

-Amy is evil?

-Babels? Who?

-BABY TOY ROBOT?!

-The music shift was unexpected

-I like how the robot is crawling and acting like a baby. It give it character

-ITS A BABY EGGMAN!!!! HES WEIRDLY ADORABLE

-ROUGE AND KNUCKLES!

-Wait the Rouge is called Rebel?

-The knuxouge still counts!

-That may look like tails but not him

-OH S*** HE GOT NINE TAILS

-OH he calls himself Nine. He got mechanical legs

-This is a cool fight

-Damn tails/Nine is a badass

-So I think Rouge and Knuckles are good guys

-Nine is vicious

-Sonic banter is funny

-Sonic saved him

-Sonic looks so heartbroken that tails doesnt recognize him

-Oh snap! Pixel flashbacks!

-Nine’s back story

-Nine is just a kid. Someone give him hugs

-Nine wants to know about the other world

-Sonic telling Nine about his world

-Nine fixes the problem and Sonic gets a wardrobe outfit

-My theory is sonic got paradox prism energy

-Sonic loving his new style

-Sonic in an incredibles trap

-AMY!

-Oh no... Rusty Rose. Thats a cool name

-Not a robot... but a cyborg

- OH S*** THE CHAOS COUNCIL

-its like eggman, but in different stages of life

-Oldest is Dr.Done it (cause he has done it)

-Dr. deep. (tHE THEATER KID EGGMAN)

-Dr. dont (The teen eggman)

-Dr. Bables (Adorable)

- Mr.Dr. Eggman. He is eggman with hair

-Sonic is a mood

- OHHH, this is a world without sonic

-Rusty please stop helping

-Sonic is just pure Quips

-Damn, Amy is cold blooded

-SONIC SLOW TIME

- Sonic handling the test casually

-Sonic hurt that amy is hardless

-OMG FLICKY. She has a flicky core

-Sonic is going crazy fast

-They keep calling him wrong mammale names

-Shadow?!

-Tails still has hope in him

-Amy figured out something is up

-Sonic collecting rings

-And The first person shot before Shadow appears

-The theme music

___________________________________________________________________

Overall, I am left with more questions than answers

but the animation is steller

The New Yoke city is a great local

The comedy is amusing

I do wish it didnt end on a cliff hanger

Solid 8/10

[joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh]

Anyway with Origins Plus finally formally announced I would say I am leaning on the range of somewhat disappointed to still weirdly optimistic about it.

Having the entire Game Gear Sonic library added is I think a really good thing without a doubt - based on the trailer at least it is just emulation but honestly I’m fine with that knowing that it would’ve resulted in a way healthier work environment than trying to Taxmanify tons of Game Gear games. Do think it’s kind of sad that we’re not getting the Master System versions of Sonic 1 and 2 and the like since iirc they’re literally just the Game Gear titles with a bigger display? That one’s weird. But anyway the disappointment comes from the fact that if you’re just slapping ROMs in there to begin with, why not throw in the other Genesis titles? Real Spinball and 3D Blast and Mean Bean Machine, or you know how about a Knuckles Chaotix rerelease for the first time ever? I genuinely do not think this is too much to ask especially given that they‘re already using emulation for the Game Gear titles to begin with.

The other big thing is a new playable Amy! That’s actually sick as hell. She doesn’t even seem to be borrowing from her Advance moveset either but rather has a wholly new playstyle, that’s super sick. Given how much she’s all over the marketing for the game despite only appearing in CD otherwise, this was a really obvious move to make. Plus, yeah, it’s something new to add to Origins, which is just a really good selling point to have. Implementing new playable characters is a lot more effort than throwing some ROMs in an emulator, so I’m not quite as disappointed in this scenario, but I do wish we had some more characters. Mighty and Ray almost go without saying since hey they’re finished and playable classic characters with defined movesets that also already exist in the retro engine. And you know, Metal Sonic is also all over the marketing despite only being in CD. It would be cool if he were playable. But yeah no I’m not losing as much sleep on that front because again new characters are a lot more to ask for than ROMs.

And then what else are we doing to justify making an entire separate Plus purchase? Oh, nothing. Well I mean, same nice physical release box with an artbook and shit that I’ll buy because yes. But that seems to be it on new stuff. I guess I can’t complain that much - Mania Plus was just 2 new characters and Encore mode, the latter effectively just a palette swap with like some gameplay changes - but idk it still feels like more could be done to justify the “Plus” part of the title than 1 character and a Game Gear emulator.

But! This is where we circle back to optimism. Because Mania Plus wasn’t just that Plus content - it was also a free upgrade with some visual touchups, bug fixes, and most prominently, an entirely new Metal Sonic boss fight. Do I expect that much from Origins Plus? Not necessarily, but hey if new announcements aside Origins Plus is also just a big patch that irons out lots of the remaining issues Origins still has - maybe makes the in-game menus more consistent, fix some of the Retro engine things leading to like 3&K being too fast or that spring in Metropolis that launches you into spikes in Sonic 2 , or you know just fucking puts Knuckles in CD already - that’d be pretty sick. And if I really wanna dream then use actual fucking Genesis ROMs in classic mode instead of just cropping the screen and also restore 3&K soundtrack please and ty. yk I can take or leave those last 2 things but I do genuinely think just sorting those core issues Origins still has would be enough to make it the definitive way to legally experience these titles on modern hardware*.

But yeah. I’m gonna buy it because physical media my beloved, looking forward to playable Amy as well as actually experiencing the Game Gear titles for pretty much the first time. And hopefully they do clean up the core issues and turn Origins into something that can be easily recommended to new fans.

* okay like yeah the best ways to play these titles are on PC with the various ultimate versions fans have made that I’m blanking on the names for but like Sonic 3 A.I.R. and stuff, but iirc you can really only do that legally if you bought the Genesis titles before they were delisted on Steam, so you’re shit out of luck otherwise. That is unless you want to just illegally download the ROMs lol. Which to be clear, I’m totally okay with - I’ve done that plenty myself, duh. Origins is never going to be the definitive edition when stacked up against good old fashioned emulation and ROM hacks and like that’s fine. But hey having a good version on consoles and shit is nice too, you know?

[riverofempathy]

I just watched Disenchanted, and I’m… well… disenchanted.

It didn’t even feel like the same cast of characters going on a new adventure. It felt like surface-level imitations of those characters being plopped into a watered-down plot we’ve all seen before.

We all know “happily ever after” isn’t that simple. I get what they were going for, and why. But beyond my issue of “we’ve seen this plot over and over, and you don’t even do anything groundbreaking with it”… Giselle already learned this in the first film! That was the whole point! She chose real life over happily ever after because the happily ever after didn’t make her happy.

Now, I’ve had several moments throughout the past 10-15 years of my life where I got disappointed or frustrated or confused about how different adulthood/marriage/moving was from what I expected or wanted it to be. So yes, it does make sense for Giselle to go through this kind of crisis when real life is even harder than she expected, especially after a big change, and after relationships change.

And that’s what they should have focused on more. The relationships. With actual DEPTH.

Quick tangent… Robert was ROBBED. What the hell were they thinking? He wasn’t even close to the same character! And his subplot was completely unforgettable, uninspired, and unnecessary. What was the POINT?! He had so much character growth in the first one, and in the sequel, he was just… one-dimensional. Brainwashing everyone into acting like Monrolasia was their everyday life was stupid and cheap, and it took away all their agency and personality. Sure, Amy Adams’ acting was on point with her descent into villainy, but duh, it’s Amy Adams. But even that dulled over time because she became a stereotype, without them even trying to subvert the stereotype like they did in the first film, and then she was defeated SO EASILY. Same with Malvina. She could have been amazing, but instead she was just… meh. In the beginning, I thought she was being set up as an actual real-life witch (like, clearly she’s in a coven with the other two, come on). Also, her last name’s Monroe but they never explained if she/the family built the town, but I assume so. So… why not just go all the way into making her a nefarious villain controlling the whole town, and then SHE can use magic to turn things into a fairytale. I mean, look at those houses and the marketing billboard; was that not her plan? Seriously, give me anything other than a plot convenience magic wand for Giselle & Robert’s new baby (who didn’t really add much to the plot, either. Also, really? Sofia? What, is Disney running out of names now?) I just… the whole “wish gone wrong thing” was so predictable. We all knew she was gonna do it, we all knew it’d be a disaster, and we all knew the wish would be undone at the last minute after Giselle came to her senses… Stealing magic/life from Andalasia was a cool concept, but they didn’t even hit hard with that, either. They just didn’t GO FOR IT with anything, except maybe the costumes and a couple of the songs.

Okay, back to the relationships thing.

Let’s talk about Morgan. The actress who played her was so spot-on I didn’t realize til afterward that she wasn’t the original. She was delightful. But she could have been phenomenal if she’d been given the dialogue and plot to back her up. Because it was right there: Morgan’s disenchantment with the whimsical, fantastical Disney princessness of her stepmother. (Oh, that transition from calling her Mom to calling her stepmother?? That was so realistic and relatable! Source: my mom remarried when I was 7.) Instead of everyone just saying, “Oh, teenagers are just like this,” let’s actually dive in and figure out why Morgan is like this. And don’t just “bedtime story” us into the current emotional state; take us along for the ride. Don’t just give us flashbacks of memories at the climax, let us experience those memories with them so we can actually feel their impact.

If you’re gonna montage Morgan’s whole childhood, take a little more time with it. Show her being enraptured with stories of the memory tree and drawing her own; show her embracing Giselle as her mom; and then show how the family dynamics change as they all grow older; show Morgan missing her birth mom but not knowing how to talk about it; show Morgan getting more and more embarrassed by Giselle’s bubbly, over-the-top optimism and singing in public (I do love that Morgan is following in Robert’s shoes by being weirded out by all the singing; great twist) because of course she would be! Maybe people at school start picking on her, or maybe they always have, but she finally found her own friend group… until Giselle shows up and does her dramatic, Disney princess thing, and her new friends think it’s weird. Morgan just wants to be a normal, real-life kid now; she doesn’t want the fairy tale. And she can’t believe that after all these years, Giselle is still clinging to fantasy. So they have a huge fight about it. And yeah, it can end with the big bomb drop of “stepmother.” Because that hurts.

The ending of the movie tried. It tried to show how desperately Giselle wanted to be a good mom to Morgan, and to fill her life with all the magic and joy and whimsy that connected them when they first met. It just (again) didn’t go FAR enough. It didn’t have the emotional depth behind it.

So how about this… when Morgan rejects Giselle in a way that cuts deep, how about either A) that’s when Giselle suggests they go to Monroeville, but just for vacation, to try and rekindle magic in Morgan’s life or B) they did already move to Monroeville but Giselle gets tricked into making a wish.

Let’s run with the second one.

So Malvina the obvious witch turns the world into a fairytale. Except that it’s only a fairytale on the surface. Underneath, it’s a horror movie (the Disneyfied version of course). People act happy, but they’re also not themselves. Like Robert going questing and singing musical numbers, and Morgan spending all her time blissfully doing chores. Giselle will realize this is wrong because she doesn’t even recognize the people that she loves… and then she doesn’t recognize herself. Because she didn’t say which fairy tale she wanted, did she? Now she’s becoming the wicked stepmother Cinderella-style, and she has to wake up other people from this fantasy before she’s evil for good… It takes time, but finally Morgan comes to… just in time for Giselle to cross over to the dark. So now Morgan has to bring her mother back. With the memory tree, yes. The one she drew. It also takes time, but she gets through to Giselle by talking about all the memories they shared and how yes, even if it’s embarrassing, she loves all the whimsical, over-the-top, silly things Giselle does to bring a little more magic into everyday life. That’s who she is. Neither one of them should have tried to change who the other person is. Evil!Giselle can say, “This is who I am now! You want me to be your stepmother? Fine! Now I’m your stepmother.” And Morgan realizes how badly that hurt her, and how she didn’t mean it, but also… she has to hold space for the truth of it. “So what? You’re my stepmother. But you’re also my mom. Just like how Sofia is my sister. You’re my family, and I love you. Yeah, I miss my biological mom. Of course I do. And yeah, you miss your fairytale world. Of course you do. They’re a part of us, and they always will be. But you’re a part of me. We’re a part of each other. I don’t want to let that go. I don’t want to let any of it go.“

And THAT’S the message: having a balance of reality and fantasy, holding a special place in our hearts for the past but moving on toward the future. Embracing all parts of ourselves and the ones we love. And meeting each other halfway. The epilogue scenes can include Giselle wanting to burst into song in front of Morgan’s school, but limiting it to a quiet, musical goodbye so it doesn’t embarrass her (because that’s a valid request!!) and maybe Morgan quietly sings goodbye back. Just… show that they BOTH learned something.

Or they could have gone an entirely different direction. 🤷🏻‍♀️ As long as they did it well. (Example: what if they all take a trip to Andalasia but then they get stuck and the movie’s all about getting back to the real world because fairytales are actually kind of hard, too? So like… the opposite of the first one. That could have been interesting.)

[midnightmeteora]

MEDIA THREAD-FEBRUARY

A short month no doubt, spent most of it drawing (I gonna try to finish those wips I swear). Anyway:

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

14.-Hazbin Hotel (season 1)

I'm not someone who enjoys negative ranting on media. But oh my god I didn't like this show. Thankfully I watched this along side my GF and my Bestie but still, it was quite dreadful getting through this show. The script was annoying. All of those parodies about Vivzie's shows are true, there's always a swear in most sentences. It stops being funny and it becomes annoying, cringe even. I don't get this show, is it a comedy or a genuine attempt of making a social commentary??? It tries to tell a story about redemption and the value of change, but it doesn't have the pay off nor the build up to excel imo. For most of the runtime, this show barely attempts to dive deep into the nuance of the characters, most of the time if there is nuance to be found. It later decides to either treat it as a joke or rush to no end, lacking the payoff expected for serious issues like sexual and psychological abuse. The visuals were also kinda sucky. It has a unique style no doubt. But everything blends together when there's so much color overlap and over designed characters with similar motifs and color palettes. Most of the songs are alright on their own, but in the show itself, I only enjoyed like half of them. Yeah this show wasn't for me, and the more I think about it, the angrier I get ngl.

. #15.-Kimi ni Todoke (season 1)

Love letter to shojo media (? One of my favorite shows rn, it's so comfy, yet it still pulls them punches with the drama when it needs to. Every character is so loveable and the humor is wholesome fun. I really like how it develops the characters thru meaningful interactions and moments that pushes these teens foward. I'm loving this show, quite excited for S3 later on this year :]

.

#16.-Sonic Frontiers (main game replay and update 2 content playthrough)

I still really like this game! Admitedly, its luster did shine off a bit now that it's been a while since the original release. This time more cracks became more noticeable to me, particularly the plot itself is rather empty and on a second playthrough it brings the game down a tad bit. The last section in Ouranos island is veryy weak plot wise, even though I had a blast with the gameplay. I still believe that this is a cleverly designed game, but I wished it had more production values behind it. By far the main aspect that will age the game later on. This game kinda lacks the visual aesthetic and presence that many other games in this franchise have. Not only that, the new additions like the jump acceleration kind of made some of the open zone sections kind of dry... I really look foward to the next mainline game, this game is still the best step in the right direction it could've been. The update 2 content was also really fun! I really like the action challenges and the new kokos were neat to get. I mightttt need another replay to abuse the spindash to hell and back, but I still need to finish new horizons as of writing.

.

#17.-Sonic Frontiers: Final Horizons update

Damn was this a mixbag. I'm a bit underwhelmed ngl. It wasn't bad, but it kinda pushed the game to its absolute limits, and not in a pleasant way. The unrefinement from the main game is in an all time high. The new island content and characters are ok. Amy is fine for the most part, doe I wish she was able to wall climb. Knuckles was so much fun and I hope they use this template for future appearances. And Tails' tornado was so broken that made his sections redundant. I think everyone but knuckles kinda show the issues with the open zone. You can skip so much of the platforming that it kinda robs you from the main draw of the game. The new cyberspace levels are really cool!! But I did not enjoy completing the extra missions, they made the experience far more frustrating and unpleasant, not only that but you hardly even need to engange with cyberspace, but i'll get to it in a second. The new mixes are nice and the new levels are pretty sick and fun to speedrun but I still feel like they don't benefit from the asset re-use and the weird jank the game has.

The tower challenges were a bit of a mixbag, the platforming got a bit obnoxious on tower 2 and 4 ngl, but I did enjoy the trials. Trial 5 is no doubt quite infamous, but I actually found it fun, I liked figuring out how to minmax my time defeating the titans. It kinda show how clunky the parry and the animations are however, and yet, it also made me appreciate the enemy design and the combat way more than I already did! Finally, we got a new final boss battle, and it was alright? The spectacle was nice, but after all the things I had to do to even get there, I'd rather have the original ouranos island section as easy and anticlimatic it might've been. The new added story wasn't that much different either, just a tad more flashy with a bit more involvement from the main cast. Overall it was an ok addition, but I wished I didn't spent that much time doing the extra missions and stuff, many of the parts of this update lacks the incentive I desired and at times, the payoff I expected. Which is why it felt underwhelming for me. I hope the next game is an improvement over final horizons, if this is going to be the main base for the forseeable future, then there's still work to be done.

.

#18.-Super Mario Bros (NES)

I'm starting to play more retro games as of lately since I really want to have more games that I can replay whenever I want a quick gaming session aside from Mega man and Sonic. So I'm want to try the 2D Mario games since admitedly, I was never a Mario guy (If you couldn't tell by my Sonic fanatism). 2D Mario has never grabbed my attention since it is rather vanilla and the "new super mario" series also left a very bad taste in my mouth just like everyone else growing up. Anyway, og super mario on NES was fun tbh. It is quite challenging for modern standards, but I found plenty to like tbh. The potential for further replays is hampered by those tight physics doe, I'm already playing SMB3 (I'm gonna skip 2 for the time being tbh) and I can already tell that the control was pretty tight in this first game. Hammer bros are really agressive too. I'm glad I'm finally beat this game, even though it cramped my hands like a MF bc I played this on a 3DS.

.

#19.-Kimi Ni Todoke (Season 2)

THIS WAS PRETTY GOOD, the drama got pretty interesting and it developed the characters extremely well. It has a ton of nuance that I want to rewatch and admire all over again ngl. Left extremely soft after watching it. Can't wait for season 3

.

Might start to do more stand alone posts from now on if I want to continue logging these opinions lol.

[chqrryvelvet]

Hi could I request headcanons for chuuya and dazai(you can include any other character you'd like☺️) when their s/o doesn't really express love, cuz she feels filthy whenever someone touches them, but doesn't mind if chuuya/dazai give them affection, but sometimes when she's touch starved she won't show it but she will just put the back of her hand on their cheeks for a few mins and go on with what their doing (omg this is huge, it's okay if you don't write the headcanons, have a nice day <3)

ngh

chuuya nakahara

• he’s not huge on physical affection either if i’m awnest

• not to the extent that he feels gross if someone touches him

• he is just not used to it

• so he’s not too bothered by it when you first meet but as you two start getting closer he will maybe... try to initiate... omg 😣 scary of him

• he is almost shitting his pants (almost) at the thought of touching you because what if you don’t like him like that or what if you think he smells bad

• news flash you already think he smells bad... you think about telling him to take a shower

• anyways

• when YOU initiate the touching he doesn’t realize that you’ve touched him until you pull away and you’re blushing or whatever

• and he short circuits.

• anytime you place the back of your hand on his cheek he is like a dog

• woof 🐶

• would worship the ground you walk on if he wasn’t cool 🙄😻😁👨‍🦳❤️😏

• sometimes he will force you to cuddle with him if he’s had a bad day and you will hesitate slightly but he makes you anyways

• if someone tries to touch you he will probably bark at them (what did i say... he is a dog yup)

• not even because you don’t like to be touched he just doesn’t like anyone trying to do something that only he can do

• that is certified baddie priv 😁

• sometimes he does get insecure boooo

• because you don’t show him a ton of love all of the time and he maybe wishes sometimes you would be a little more clingy

• but who are you to change for a man

• he will survive

dazai osamu

• tease

• why does this 😈 emoji show up when that word is mentioned ... 🤔

• n e ways he will give you so much shit for not showing him affection at first

• eat his toes so he cannot walk that’s the only option

• no but he is so mean to you 😣 give y/n rights.

• “it’s ok y/n you don’t smell too bad today! i am ok with a hug :]”

• big mon pls ur embarrassing yourself! stop!

• but sometimes you get sad 😔 because all of the tv shows you watch to try to gain some normalcy in your life have cute couples and you realize you want what jake and amy have

• so you knock on his door one day and give him a hug 🫂 aw

• and then you stay the night because you will not let go of him

• he cannot even act cocky because he was not expecting it! y/n - 69 dazai - 0

• after that you are officially together. cute. and you progressively are more ok with him initiating contact with you but you prefer going to him more

• he especially loves when you lean over him when he tries to show you something

• or when you run your hands through his hair because you think it’s soft

• will make comments like “oh my, what is this? vying for my affection?!”

• you don’t talk to him after that

• all in all it’s healthy. he enjoys ur company :]

akutagawa ryuunosuke

• he doesn’t care

• but sometimes you wish he would 🤨 do better.

• he doesn’t notice

• until one day you are out doing mafia tingz in 4k action and someone tries to touch you just to be gross

• and their hand! sliced clean off! wow!

• aku is shocked because that was hot! double wow!

• he also gets worried because when you get back to base you’re scrubbing your hands furiously trying to get the yucky feeling off

• yeah so he liked you... a lot. but now he’s not sure if he’s even allowed to look at you pls

• but then you get hurt after the two of you have progressed in your relationship from acquaintances to friends (cute) and he’s helping tend to your wounds

• but then he stops half way when he comes at you with the bandage because he respects you and does not want you to look at him different_ or worse- lose an arm

• you eye him a little confused and then you realize! oh! and then you softly murmur “you can touch me, akutagawa. it’s ok if it’s you...”

• whew that sent him into a coughing fit

• get aku an inhaler

• anyways after he’s done you hug him! and tell him thank you.

• once you start dating i feel like he would actually show you a lot of affection if he really really really really really likes you

• which he does

• give him a hug and he will combust...

[discotreque]

Disco 4.02: Anomaly

Me, about halfway through last season:

It’s been a pleasant, if occasionally heart-wrenching, surprise to feel something about this show besides “whoa, cool CGI!” or bone-chilling dread—but hopefully Season 4 won’t feel quite so much like it’s being aired directly at me.

I know we’re only two episodes in, but I feel like that hope is already doomed. (And a big welcome back to bone-chilling dread!)

Listen, I hear you: “Amy, don’t you want a show that resonates with you thematically?” Yeah, but… not like this. I literally don’t know if I can deal with an entire season of TV about processing unimaginable grief and loss through the deeply difficult but equally rewarding work of connecting with other people. That’s just… my day-to-day life right now. And it’s not like I’m special: is anybody not perpetually processing a shitload of grief anymore?

Maybe the frankly hilarious lack of subtlety in the writing will carry me through. Let’s see.

⚠️ #disco spoilers beyond this point ⚠️

The trick to writing an effective teenage character—and Adira is excellent—is to have them alternate between being unexpectedly immature and unexpectedly mature, because: teenagers! The scene where they let their bruised ego essentially get slapped back into place by Tilly was absolutely perfect; I had so much respect for Adira in that moment—and for Tilly too! I will take as many “Tilly is Adira’s big sister now” moments as the Disco writers want to give us.

Every scene with Book almost made me wish David Ajala were like… 20% less good of an actor, as stupid as that sounds. Going into this episode, I wasn’t sure how anyone could sell “my whole planet and everyone who lived on it just fucking DIED” levels of despair… and then he did… and then I kind of wished he hadn’t. 💔️

Also I have a nephew Leto’s age, so fuck this show for that in particular.

When they introduced Lt. Christopher last week, I assumed he was there to replace Bryce because Ronnie Rowe was busy filming another project… but this episode we get Bryce and no Christopher? And boy do we ever get Bryce—he practically leaps in from off-camera in this, his THIRTY-FIFTH EPISODE, to save the day with the one and only thing we’ve ever learned about his character. And I’m not complaining! I’ve been begging for this for three seasons! They finally delivered! I’m fucking celebrating! 🎉🎆🎊✨ (Now give Nilsson a first name, ffs…) I hope we still get more Lt. Christopher, though; I liked his energy.

I’m not going to pretend to understand why they shuffled Saru off the ship at the end of last season only to shuffle him back on 1.5 episodes later, and also I don’t really care? His relationship with Michael is one of my favourites on the show. They’ve been through so much together, as colleagues and rivals and friends and found family. Burnham belongs as captain of Discovery, but I still like Saru as a captain, and it would make sense to give him his own separate command; on the other hand, that would mean losing Doug Jones, so I don’t care if it makes sense—First Officer Captain Mr. Saru is fine with me.

Possibly the most on-the-nose scene—in an episode that took place essentially inside my left nostril—was the one where Tilly makes a therapy appointment with Dr. Culber. That was a Very Special Episode® About Taking Care of Your Mental Health™ and you know what? There’s a time and a place for subtlety—maybe the year 2021 just isn’t it. Maybe we literally need to see “the relatable one” struggling with vaguely-defined malaise and being unconditionally supported by “the caretaking one.” No metaphors, no subtext, no sci-fi abstractions: just “here is how we should be with ourselves and each other.” Which is, for the record, vulnerable and compassionate and sometimes making silly voices to break the tension. Can’t really argue with that, tbh.

Speaking of Tilly, can I be a shallow lesbian for one minute and talk about how good she looks in this uniform? Mary Wiseman is fucking gorgeous, obviously, and that new tunic makes her look like a badass, and the blue in particular makes her eyes pop in the most incredible way 🥺️🙈️😍 OKAY I’M DONE

(The new uniforms are actually super flattering on everybody; this is an obscenely attractive cast, even by TV standards.)

This episode and 4.01 were done in the same production block, and I think the stunt scenes for both were shot more or less concurrently—which means, as per last week’s interview with Wil Wheaton on The Ready Room, Sonequa Martin-Green was doing that “gravity failure” wire work just TWELVE WEEKS after giving birth. What a legend.

Prop of the week: Dr. Culber’s little dermal regenerator, which seems to 3D-print new skin onto your face (!) and, at least to me, vaguely evoked the new touchscreen hand phasers from Prodigy.

Other scenes that had exactly as much subtlety as they needed, i.e. none, included the one where they fine-tuned Gray’s eventual Soong-type (!) body—and how glad am I, btw, that it’s just “yeah, we can solve that” and not a whole-ass quest for him—and basically everything with Stamets and Book bonding on the worst road trip ever.

Speaking of that, we kept seeing shots of them inside Book’s (infuriatingly-still-unnamed) ship from outside the ship, and if you’ve been following this blog for a minute, you know that kind of thing is like crack to me.

Mmmmm... that’s the stuff.

Now that I’m thinking about it, if the theme this season is actually “people dealing with horrible circumstances in emotionally healthy ways,” like… it might not be the easiest thing to get through? But I’m probably going to be glad I did.

[thecomposerofstories]

Information on Amy.

(Be warned it's a ~little bit~ long, any other pieces of information you want to know I'll gladly answer if you ask.)

~General Information~

Fandom: Toy Story.

Name: Amy the Ragdoll.

Nickname, if any: Amy, Ames, and Doll-Face(usually by more villainous characters or used in a joking manner).

Gender: Female.

Sexuality: ??? (I mean I know the gender of who she has a crush on, but I'm unsure on what her actual sexuality should be tbh)

Age: Mentally, mid-twenties in the first story second movie, thirties to forties in the third and fourth. Physically, she doesn’t have an age, but in regards to when she was made (the 1950’s) makes her fifty to sixty.

City they currently live in: San Francisco, apparently that’s where Toy Story takes place.

Any pets: Would Rex count? He just follows her around like a nervous puppy.

Current occupation: I mean she’s practically a therapist, but she’s a toy and she only treats Rex so it probably doesn’t count lol

~Physical Appearance~

Height: 10 inches.

Body type: Stocky, but a bit gangly too, similar to Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Eye colour: Black.

Skin tone: Light.

Clothing style: Pale green/turquoise shirt with short puffed sleeves, with a denim dungaree dress with a daisy print in the centre over it. She wears yellow rain boots.

Hairstyle: No style, it’s just there. It’s messy and gets in her face easily and is made out of dark brown thin string.

~Speech/Language/Communication~

Amy speaks quietly and politely, rambles a bit if left without a reply or under pressure, very nervous in front of intimidating characters.

First language: English.

Learned languages: A bit of Spanish (Ya’ll remember Toy Story 3!)

Accent: American.

Pitch of voice: High, but soft, not quite annoying, unless she’s stressed, then it gets very pitchy and shrill.

~Behaviour/Habits~

Amy tends to just stand there when she can’t find anything to do, and will immediately try to find Rex, Hamm, Buzz or Jessie if surrounded by strangers (Though she’s not sure if it’s for their comfort or her own) Amy is very polite.

Spending habits: She doesn’t like to be made a fuss of at all, the very fact of someone giving something to her is unnerving (even if the thing never costed anything at all) and she feels compelled to give the giver something in return.

Morning routine: She gets up same time as the others, but wishes she could stay in bed a bit longer though. Before she came to Andy’s room, her sleep pattern was all over the place.

Bedtime routine: Similar to above, now she goes to bed the same time as the others, but before she just slept and got up willy-nilly.

Nervous habits: Amy will try to find Rex if she’s nervous, and she’ll pretend it’s because she’s worried for him, which is quite true, but she also just feels most safe with him. Speaking of, Amy will let Rex hold her hand and squish it whenever he or Amy is nervous, it’s calming to the both of them.

Bad habits: Not a very good exerciser, but then again, she’s spend basically half her life in a small attic, so I’ll give her a break.

Skills/talents: She’ very logical, mind-over-matter, (mostly, very good at calming others down and/or convincing them. She’s very good at spelling and knows quite a lot of words, some of which others haven’t even heard of.

Hobbies: Reading, talking (especially with Rex, Jessie or Hamm), and generally just lazing about or walking around somewhere, on her own or with a friend.

~The Past~

Amy’s first owner was a little girl called Alice. Alice loved nothing more than to read Amy stories (Mostly fairy tales), but of course, Alice grew up like all kids do, and she left Amy in the attic for someone else to have her.

Amy waited for many years, and all that time she’d never given up that someone would find her.

She thought she’s hit the jackpot when Andy and his family move into Alice’s old house, but they don’t go up into the attic to collect her. Some weeks later, though, Andy’s mother brings a set of boxes filled with junk into the attic and leaves. Woody, Buzz, Slinky, and Rex were trapped in one of the boxes (Call me a cheater but this part was actually inspired by a Toy Story comic, where those four toys get stuck in the attic that way and have to escape. It struck me odd that they never met at least one new friend there, so I made one. It was also my first story, I needed some inspiration!)

Amy, in a fit of panic, goes and hides.

But then she’s found by Rex as he and the others try to find a way out.

They then decide to let the strange, dust-covered ragdoll come back to Andy’s rom with them. (well, Rex did, anyway.)

Home town: Would Alice’s old room count? But it’s now Andy’s Room, so it won’t count will it?

Happy or sad childhood: Pretty normal to be honest, as normal a life as a toy could have anyway. And as for sadness, having spent all that time on her own for all those years, having missed out on so much, is a little sad. But Amy made sure she never became bitter over it or used it as an excuse for anything.

Earliest memory: Waking up in her toy store, with a friend of hers for company (a ragdoll Prospector, a much as she remembers) and as she gets bought by Alice’s Auntie, she says she hopes he gets picked up by a kid. (Unbeknownst to her, she would meet him again in a while to find out he never got to experience it)

Saddest memory: One, being left by Alice, yet being so happy for her and how much she’s grown up, if she could cry tears of joy for her owner, she would. Two, some (or most) of the days she spent waiting for a new owner to arrive. And three, watching Rex have a mental breakdown of anxiety.

Happiest memory: One, the time she and Alice went to the park, (Amy absolutely adores nature) Two after sliding down a drainpipe to get to Andy’s room, and three, having known she’d helped her friend out.

Significant events: Being bought, being left in an attic, being rescued from the attic, while gaining some new friends.

~Family~

The entirety of Andy’s room, whether they like it or not, they’re all in this together and are some kind of mish-mash, found family in a sense.

Siblings: I’ve been thinking of giving Amy a brother (since I based her on Raggedy Ann, a matching bootleg Raggedy Andy seems reasonable) bur I’m unsure about it, since I’ve already mapped out Amy’s entire series of stories (Around six or seven all together, so far I’m currently writing only the third) and I can only fit him in the fifth or sixth if I can.

~Relationships~

Romantically? I’d like to say she has a crush on Rex, I don’t know why I thought of it, I was contemplating it one day as I sketched a rough (and terrible) sketch of her, and I drew Rex too because he’s just so fun to draw and I wanted to make a scale for Amy’s size, and one of my friends (who had been watching me) immediately said “I ship it!” and well, the rest is history, I made the decision to ship it too.

Friends: Jessie, Hamm, Buzz, and Rex are her closet friends, but she’d like to say that all the Gang are her friends. Later on she becomes good friends with Mr. Prickle Pants, Buttercup, Trixie and Totoro, and she absolutely loves the peas and Forky.

Best friend(s): Hamm, Mr. Prickle Pants, Jessie, and Rex.

What do people like about them? Amy’s pretty easy to talk to, she’s polite and attentive and will sit in companionable silence with someone if they need it. But she won’t hesitate to give hard truths and advice if it’s needed.

What do people dislike about them? Amy is quite a doormat, if someone is rude to her or breaches anything she just lets it happen, and sometimes she’s too indecisive about her own stuff, unsure whether she’s going to offend others or not over the smallest things, which annoys others quite a bit.

~Mentality/Personal Beliefs~

Amy is a toy of logic, and though she believes others can do it if they set their minds to it, she doesn’t quite believe in herself. She believes she must follow the rules of being a toy at all times, no matter what.

Phobias: Dust. She hates it. It took a good five weeks to brush all the dust out her hair and clothes, and even so there’s still some in her pockets and places she can’t reach. And being alone, too. Now she can’t be alone for more than an hour before she starts to get antsy and nervous. And for a short time books gave her a strange tiredness, after reading them for so long and for so many years she couldn’t even stand the sight of them.

But of course, not for long, since Amy found out Andy had a copy of Red’s Dream by a Mr. William Reeves.

Optimist or pessimist: Depends on the situation really, if her mind can’t come up with a solution, then there’s no point in trying anymore. Unless someone else can think of something, that is.

Personal philosophies: “You are here to make good things happen. No person here is made for one reason only, or even only one. There’s no point in pretending to be someone you’re not just for the attention of others, no matter how cool they are. We should find are own meaning, as we’re the only ones who have control of it.

It’ll take a while, but I swear, it’ll be worth it.”

Biggest dream/wish: Amy wants nothing more than to find meaning for herself, but finds it rather hard to do so. Of course, that doesn’t mean she’ll settle for someone else’s meaning. As cheesy as it sounds, she just wants an adventure. She doesn’t necessarily want to be the hero, though, she’s just happy to go along with the ride so long as it gets her out the house for a few hours. She also, above all else, wants Rex to find meaning too, even if she never does, it would be nice to know that he had.

Greatest strength(s): Persuasion, story-telling, logic, and good grammar.

Biggest flaw: Despite being a ragdoll, Amy can’t sew because of her fingerless hands, which are just soft mittens in shape. Amy is also quite a doormat, as I said before, so if her calm persuasion and reasoning doesn’t work, she’s left to be walked all over.

Regrets: Staying in that dratted attic too long, the window was open, she could’ve just climbed out, but no, she had to stay there for some mind-rotting decades. But if she had just escaped, she would never have met her new friends. Amy just wishes she had met them a lot sooner.

Achievements: Escaped the attic, slid down a drainpipe, leapt onto the windowsill (though nearly knocking Woody and Buzz over in the process) stopped her friend from having a panic attack, and managed to remember the entire Dictionary and is able to recite it down from A to Z, and even Z to A.

Secrets: Not much, just strange feelings for one of her friends, but it’s not much of a secret, Bo knows, and Mr. Potato Head and Hamm could see it from a mile away, and the others have their suspicions.

Goals: Read the entirety of Andy’s (and later Bonnie’s) bookshelves, become more confident in herself, have her own book-worthy adventure, and figure out what those strange feelings for her friend is.

~Likes/Favourites~

Favourite colour: Even before meeting Rex, Amy’s favourite colour was always green. Every time Alice had taken her to the park, Amy adored watching the sunlight pour through the leaves with a golden-green glow.

Favourite book(s): Because it’s sentimental to her, being her owner’s favourites, she loves Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and The Wizard of Oz. They all hold similar plots (a little girl in a blue dress goes to a fantasy land, has a few adventures, and then leaves said fantasy land to go home to her family and responsibilities) but it reminds Amy of her old owner Alice (who was actually named after Alice from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland) and their playtimes together.

Favourite Book Quotation(s):

“Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises.”

“There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The true courage is facing danger when you are afraid.”

Favourite movie: Amy does much prefer books, since they allow her to imagine the setting and characters in her own way, but doesn’t mind movies, and isn’t picky on what they watch, though she does quite like horror films.

Favourite song: Amy likes any kind of music, new or old.

Favourite game: Amy never really cared for games, the competitiveness always bothered her and stressed her out. But she’s more than happy to watch Rex play his video games and cheer him on.

~Relationships with other characters~

~Rex~

- Hit it off pretty quickly.

- Amy helps him with his anxiety, and helps him find confidence in himself, she acts as a certain therapist to him.

- Both become very stressed without the other around.

- Rex will hold and knead at Amy’s hands sometimes; it calms him down.

- Rex will let Amy ride on his back if she’s tired or needs to see something (Because she’s so short).

- One of them can basically be talking about the most boring-est things ever, yet still the other will hang on to their every word.

~Jessie~

- Became friends pretty quickly.

- Will drag Amy along anywhere.

- Get along fairly well.

- Jessie does the talking and Amy does the planning.

- Jessie always pranks the other toys and makes Amy tag along (along with Hamm).

- Introvert/Extrovert dynamic for sure.

- Both were left in alone for years so like to find solace in each other.

~Hamm~

- Hamm begrudgingly warmed up to the timorous ragdoll.

- Surprisingly good pals.

- Have full conversations without saying anything.

- Like to sit and look out of the window together.

- Hamm makes Amy laugh when she really shouldn’t (mainly when he makes fun of the other toys, mainly Woody).

- Hamm makes fun of Amy having a crush on Rex every once in a while, though he doesn’t mean any harm.

~The Potato Heads~

- Mr. doesn’t really interact with Amy much, but finds her surprisingly tolerable, if a bit high-strung and annoying.

- Like Hamm, Mr. makes Amy laugh at the most wrong moments.

- She and Mrs. Are quite good friends, and she sometimes lets Amy take care of the aliens if she and her husband are busy.

~Woody~

- Are aquianteces.

- Don’t exactly interact much, even though the whole room practically revolves around him, in Amy’s opinion, though she would never say it to his face.

~Buzz~

- Amy thinks he’s super cool (then again, he is Buzz Lightyear, he practically invented coolness)

- Both are just as clueless as one another when it comes to social cues and interactions.

- Amy helps him with vocabulary and spelling every once in a while.

~Mr. Prickle Pants~

- Are absolute BFF’s.

- Go back and forth with book quotes to the point of driving the other toys insane.

~Bo Peep~

- Amy's not exactly sure if Bo has befriended her or not.

- (She has)

- They later become good friends.

- Amy misses their talks, Bo was one of the only toys she could talk to that could keep a secret.

[ffamranxii]

Sailor Moon is the only series where I have different ships depending on the adaption. For the most part, manga and anime have the same ships, but the absolute curveball that was PGSM (my favorite adaption, hands down) gave me a TON of new ships I’d have never considered otherwise, who I DON’T ship in the manga/anime.

1. Usagi/Mamoru. Across all adaptions, I ship these two, and the reason is actually funny. I never used to like either of them, so I just shoved them together. It wasn’t until PGSM that I ever liked Usagi at all. I found her to be whiney and annoying in the anime, and once I got my hands on the manga, my dislike of anime Usagi had permeated too deep for me to like manga Usagi. PGSM Usagi is a much more expanded concept of Usagi as a whole, and Mamoru (while still embodying Sailor Moon’s very own Princess Peach) has a whole arc of development and backstory himself. PGSM is the only adaption in which I like Mamoru, even now.

2. Ami/Nephrite, PGSM only. PGSM has a whole side story for many of its minor characters and expands on the girls outside of the concept of senshi. Tbh PGSM is a slice of life show disguised as a tokusatsu, and it’s super apparent in how they treat the characters. Ami has an entire arc of her own where she ends up brainwashed and has several scenes with Nephrite, who is sort of the black sheep of the Shitennou for reasons that are never explained. This fledging relationship continues after Nephrite is reincarnated as human and it’s really cute to see Ami develop outside of her relationship with Usagi (her strongest relationship in this series) and the girls. Nephrite is hotheaded and angry at the world and Ami makes him just so soft.

3. Ami/Zoisite, manga and Crystal. While I very much detest the first two seasons of Crystal for their abominable animation (through no fault of the animators, I blame Toei and their complete disregard of their fans and employees), I DO like that they tried to work in the senshi/Shitennou romance that Naoko hinted at in the art books. It was stupid rushed but it’s the only incarnation that really attempts it. I wish it had had time to develop.

4. Rei/Minako, PGSM only. PGSM only deals with the Dark Kingdom (sadly) and Rei/Minako are its Haruka/Michiru. I actually ship them harder than I ship PGSM Usagi/Mamoru. Several episodes are given over to the development of their relationship, which is not easy to do given the way they took Minako in this series, and Rei is the only one of the girls to even have a real relationship with Minako, even over Usagi. They trust each other on a deep level, and fight with each others’ weapons at two critical points in the series.

5. Minako/Zoisite, PGSM only. Zoisite in this series, like most of the Shitennou, differs drastically from his manga and anime component, and I actually really like this one more than I like him in the anime and manga. Beryl’s hold on Zoisite is the weakest of all the Shitennou, and he spends his time doing exactly three things: playing piano, pining over Mamoru Endymion, and stalking Minako. (Truth be told, I enjoy his relationship with Endymion more, but the one with Minako leads into my next point.)

6. Minako/Kunzite, anime and manga. Minako managed to bag not one but two Shitennou with her love powers and that is a FEAT. You get it, girl. I really like the dynamic of two leaders together, and really enjoy Silver Millennium Minako/Kunzite fics.

7. Makoto/Motoki, PGSM only. This was another fun little thing PGSM did, and Makoto is the only other senshi to have a confirmed relationship in the series. Motoki himself is pretty fleshed out for a minor character, with his own little quirks (turtles!), and he is over the moon for Makoto. By the end of the series they’re engaged.

8. Haruka/Michiru, anime and manga. Who DOESN’T ship HaruMichi? I actually shipped HaruMichi way before I ever shipped anyone else on this list. Along with Touya/Yukito from Cardcaptor Sakura, they were THE definition of LGBTQ+ relationships (for me) for much of my childhood. They have an extremely adult relationship, possibly even an open relationship (or at least Michiru seems to have no problem with Haruka’s flirting hobby), which isn’t really something you see often in anime. I love them, they are goals.

9. Haruka/Michiru/Setsuna, anime and manga. Very specifically during the time they are raising Hotaru. Sometimes a family can be three moms and their child the incarnation of death and destruction and that’s beautiful. They’re just such a cohesive unit that I have a hard time believing that they live together and HaruMichi HAVEN’T invited Setsuna to join them from time to time. They’re also the first OT3 I ever shipped.

10. Helios/Chibiusa, anime and manga. I think the Helios/Chibiusa shippers are as numerous as the Usagi/Mamoru shippers tbh. Like Mamoru, Helios also is a damsel in distress for much of his arc (I guess the Tsukinos have a type, which raises some interesting questions about Ikuko and Kenji), and what I really liked was that, despite the single kiss they shared, it was never really pushed on us? I think Chibiusa/Helios is the first thing I ever shipped without the source material directly telling me to do so, because I wanted them together SO BAD and was SO PISSED they weren’t. 

11. Chibiusa/Hotaru, anime and manga. Another ship I put together on my own with no direction from the source material, and the first lesbian ship I ever did that with. They are just too close and love each other too much, and Chibiusa shares more pictures with Hotaru in official media (art books, stills, promo art) than her supposed future love interest Helios! They’re just a very sweet ship, two girls trying to figure out love and stuff. 

12. Setsuna/Endymion, anime and manga. Setsuna has a thing for Endymion, but never really seems to transfer that to Mamoru. I do like unrequited ships, and this one is my favorite.

HONORABLE MENTION

1. Ami/Usagi, PGSM. Ami has a huge lesbian crush on Usagi in this version. I’m not even making this up. She ends up brainwashed due to her insecurity and depression that Usagi is replacing her by making more friends and getting a boyfriend. Usagi, of course, is oblivious.

2. Kunzite/Zoisite, classic anime. Classic anime gave us (female) Zoisite and Kunzite (named Malachite in the dub I watched) as a couple, which I actually really enjoyed. I remember being disappointed when I read the manga and Zoisite was not only not female but also not banging Malachite. They were another adult relationship, way before HaruMichi existed, that I looked forward to seeing onscreen. I’m cool now with Zoisite not being female, and Malachite’s real name being Kunzite, but I still really like their relationship in classic. Plus, they’re the only ship that can crossover the adaptions in my brain to form the ultimate ot3 Minako/Zoisite/Kunzite. You get it, Minako.

[mashounen2003]

Sonic opinions - 2

In large portions of every fandom, it looks like it prevails the idea that you can only take one of two positions: praising the story in every respect, including both the ideas themselves and their execution by the writers, or admitting not to like the story and not to praise any element of it at all. I think my ideas regarding the Archie-Sonic comics and the Sonic franchise in general cannot be pigeonholed into either of these two extremes.

More below the "keep reading" cut.

I loved all the world-building in Archie-Sonic, the elements the comic introduced, their many characters and the potential to tell stories about them; I also really liked much of the art and personal styles of several artists Archie-Sonic has had throughout its history, with very few exceptions (and such exceptions include Ron Lim, of course). That's why, of all the Sonic continuities, I often use the pre-reboot Archie-Sonic comic as the primary source for world-building elements and story ideas.

What really makes me feel bad about that comic, what motivates most of my criticism, is the ideas’ execution by the main writers, as well as aspects that I think are more linked to each writer as a person, the unique way in which each of them has written their stories.

Firstly, Michael Gallagher: the writer for the first few dozen issues of the comic had a terrible sense of humour, and this hurt the comic hugely since those first issues were fundamentally based on that low-quality comedy style. The characterization of the entire cast also suffered greatly from this; in Sally's case, something quite ironic happened too: Gallagher portrayed her as bossy, annoying, temperamental, usually bickering with Sonic, and now that's also how Sally is seen by many fans of the videogames’ continuity (at best). Other than this, not much more could be said about him.

Karl Bollers wrote quite decent stories with some nice comedy, with “Return to Angel Island” being his best work, one of the best stories in the entire comic and perhaps even one of the best in the franchise; but Bollers’s work was "torpedoed" by Ken Penders and then-editor Justin Gabrie, which ruined the stories’ final versions sometimes or led to elements introduced by Bollers being "retconned" and overwritten by whatever Penders smoked and decided to do when taking over. The characterization of Fiona Fox is one of the main examples, with Bollers's Fiona being a quite under-utilized character but with a great potential that would later be wasted by both Penders and Ian Flynn. Another similar case was Sally breaking up with Sonic: Bollers tried to give context to such a drastic decision by Sally and show how she was the one who was suffering the most at that time and also that both she and Sonic were partially right, but Penders and Gabrie didn't let Bollers develop this subplot properly and all we had was a quite infamous scene that unfairly made Sally one of the most hated characters. It’s also known of several plans Bollers had for future stories, and one of them was Antoine being corrupted by the Source of All and turning into a villain; this had the potential to be a good story by subverting the concept of the Source of All and making it an actual threat, but on the other hand, it’d have meant resorting once again to the resource of "this character isn’t doing anything, let's make them evil", something quite disappointing, which later would have disastrous results when Flynn did the same with Fiona a few years later. However, these plans of Bollers were just ideas, and the quality of a story created from them still depends a lot on execution. In the end, I can't say anything about how good or bad Bollers was as a writer, simply because I have no way of knowing what his stories would have been like if he had been given more freedom and had stayed as the writer longer.

There were two writers who influenced Archie-Sonic comics far more than any other writer in its history: Penders and Flynn. The first of them was a retarded pervert with an overly inflated and fragile ego. He became obsessed with the primitive, toxic ideal of "family" North-Americans have. He wrote nonsensical, contradictory stories, having already decided the end down to the last detail long before even thinking about how the story would come to that end (I also made this specific mistake a few times when I was just starting to write fanfiction, I must admit). He increased Fiona's age in order to be able to pair her with the Don Juan that Sonic had become, which also ruined Fiona's characterization forever. The issues 150s -right before being replaced by Flynn- were the worst part of Penders’s run, as Bollers was no longer there to put a stop to his madness in any way, and it was at this time when there was the most egregious case of Penders pouring into the comic his worst perversions and retarded ideas: he hinted at a sex scene in one of the most infamous cases in the history of the entire Sonic franchise, although it wasn’t infamous for the implied sex per se but rather because what happened was technically a rape by deception; to add insult to injury, the writer implicitly blamed the victim some years later when asked about it on Twitter.

I could go on talking about “Ken Perverts”, but I think that's not necessary and would be a waste of time since, as everyone here already knows, he's been the laughingstock of the entire Sonic franchise for years; @ponett even has a whole secondary blog, @thankskenpenders, mainly dedicated to this. On the other hand, there’s still another writer who has also contributed a lot and also made huge mistakes but is not criticized in the least by almost anyone, simply because he was better than Penders.

Ian Flynn usually reduced the characters to slightly oversimplified portrayals, similar to the personalities of the characters in the most recent videogames. Under his pen, Sonic was more sympathetic but his words sometimes sounded too empty and shallow, his apologies for past mistakes didn’t lead to genuine changes on his part, and sometimes he even seemed plain insensitive to all the tragedies happening around him, especially at the Mecha Sally Arc (I nickname Ian Flynn’s Sonic "Plastic Smile" for this). Admittedly, this had already happened several times with previous writers (Penders portraying Sonic as a Don Juan, as I already mentioned), and this is why I think the original Sonic from Sonic SatAM was always better for feeling more "genuine", less "empty", and more heroic and likeable as a result. Perhaps the only ones to escape the oversimplified portrayal have been Shadow and E-123 Omega, whose characterizations in Archie-Sonic were the best in the whole franchise.

Besides, Flynn had strong favouritism for Amy Rose, which only made things worse because this Amy was much more similar to the one in the videogames from Sonic Heroes onwards. Anyway, this also happened with previous writers, like when Amy wished to be younger at the cost of a chance to save Sally's mother and no one ever berated her for it.

Let’s look at the villains. Unlike the typical Eggman from the videogames, with his follies, eccentricities and other absurd aspects, the Robotnik “inherited” by the comic from Sonic SatAM was explicitly a genocidal bastard and crueller while at the same time being sane enough to realize everything he was doing (@robotnik-mun already spoke in detail about this once); however, Flynn tried to combine the two characters into the pre-reboot Archie-Sonic Eggman, and the result created some severe problems with the stories’ tone. Something derived from this was how Sonic let Eggman live and even felt sorry for his fall into madness, in addition to treating him as if they were the Sonic and Eggman from the videogames, Sonic X or Sonic Boom; it’s worth remembering this Eggman technically is a sort of reincarnation of the SatAM Robotnik (his exact nature is quite complicated and includes parallel universes, but yes, he’s supposed to be exactly the same as the SatAM Robotnik, with memories and everything) and this Sonic is supposed to have fought a bloody decade-long guerilla war against him just like his SatAM counterpart.

Scourge was turned into a massive Mary-Sue who achieved easy victories, as subtle as a huge neon sign saying "the bad guys win"; he was also an abusive manipulator towards Fiona Fox, and Flynn was unable to show that properly for fear of making his pet look no longer cool, which makes you wonder how alike Flynn and Penders might actually be in some ways. To clearly understand the horrible damage this has caused: it not only created a generation of young Sonic fans -mostly boys from the USA- who romanticize abuse either consciously or unconsciously, but also there are even women -including scholars, committed feminists and transgender people who are also activists for social justice- who either sympathize with Scourge or think Fiona made a right, wise, rational or informed decision by joining him in the story (I’ll not give names of those women, I’m not really eager to get into heated fallacious discussions about “the true meaning of Feminism”); to top it off, among the writers who started working with Ian Flynn either on IDW-Sonic or the last years of Archie-Sonic, there’s at least one person who got the job of writing official Sonic comics after gaining quite a bit of fame with a fan-comic where they used the pairing of Scourge & Fiona to inspire its readers to feel sorry... for Scourge. And speaking of Fiona specifically: the subplot of her career as a villain was ill-conceived, was built by using as a cornerstone the A-story of Issue #150 (that quite infamous and widely known story written by Penders where Scourge may or may not have raped Bunnie by deception), and was also seemingly "abandoned" as Fiona ended up merely being Scourge's new abuse victim girlfriend and her status as a traitor didn’t even have a significant emotional effect on the Freedom Fighters.

Flynn also followed something like a pattern of taking tropes from famous works and then using them when writing the comic but not actually understanding why those tropes had worked in the first place. Perhaps the prime example of this was Scourge giving Sonic the Joker's "One Bad Day" speech: it almost felt a bit like giving the same speech to the Batman of Batman vs. Superman, as Sonic had already had a whole "bad decade" and was still a hero despite it; also, Sonic's answer to that speech (telling Scourge it only takes a tiny bit of selflessness and decency for him to be a good person) wasn’t that great, not at all compared to the mildly masterful answer Batman had originally given to the Joker in The Killing Joke, and it even made Sonic look more like a bad judge of character.

Lastly, the entire Mecha Sally Arc was poorly planned, had some contradictions with itself and with previous stories, was stretched through dozens of comic issues no matter if that felt forced, and the main events and plot twists throughout the story arc were heavily based on shock-value without giving any substance to this or making it a bit more sense when putting it under scrutiny; meanwhile, Flynn always seemed to have quite a hard time when writing long story arcs, so these long stories looked like he was trying and outright failing to imitate Toriyama (someone quite known for putting together stories ad-lib according to what seemed most convenient at the time).

Despite this, it looks like those Sonic fans who are still interested in material outside of the videogames will keep buying and reading whatever Ian Flynn or one of his colleagues writes, simply because they’re better than Penders... even though it's been 15 years since Penders wrote something official about Sonic. Seriously, we should have gotten over it by now, instead of continuing to compare all material in the franchise with Penders's work, which sets the bar too low for any official content creator. Now that I think about it, Penders's work is to the North-American Sonic canon what Sonic 2006 is to the videogames: people can criticize the latest games all they want, and rightfully so, but if someone even casually mentions Sonic 2006, any Sonic game from 2010 onwards instantly becomes a masterpiece just for being marginally better than Sonic 2006; the same happens between Penders's work on pre-reboot Archie-Sonic and any other North-American Sonic comic written by Flynn after Penders left.

Right now it looks like it's also forbidden to criticize Flynn as a writer at all just because he's much nicer in his personal life and engages with fans more directly through his podcasts, or because Flynn is truly progressive while Penders claimed to be progressive and a feminist and was affiliated with the USA Democrats but his work showed how misogynistic, perverted, retarded, reactionary and downright sick he was. Also, now saying something about Flynn other than total blind admiration for him and his work, even asking for the Freedom Fighters to return in the IDW comics, has become synonymous with agreeing with those assholes who cry "Rally4Sally" or "Udon4Sonic" on Twitter: "nostalgic" fans of SatAM and Penders's work on Archie, in their 40s or 50s, deeply conservative and absurdly paranoid, who claim that those new inclusive cartoons such as Steven Universe or She-Ra "are ruining their childhood", are mad at Flynn just because he hinted Sally and Nicole may be a lesbian couple (and in a rather platonic way, not even romantic in the traditional sense), and try to justify their own warped ideas and fantasies about SatAM by ignoring any “liberal” political messages SatAM may have had at the subtext level.

[filmmakerdreamst]

‘Boy Meets World’ Re-watch (as an Adult)

‘Girl Meets World’ doesn’t count as a sequel. Not because of the writing/tonal choices but because in the original show - despite continuity issues - the characters felt like real people e.g. the way they spoke/acted/dressed was the way people behaved in the 90s where as in the spin off, they were Disney characters e.g. hyper versions of themselves especially Cory and Eric. And the transition between both shows didn’t come naturally. It’s not an objectivity badly written show but it was pretty much a re-do of the old show with the same storylines/tropes without continuing the story. (I say the same thing about ‘The Incredibles’. vs ‘Incredibles 2’.) Also there were too many cooks in the kitchen pushing one way or another. You could see Micheal Jacobs style, all the aspects were there, but he was also creating a ‘DISNEY’ show at the same time. I don’t know about you but the one message I took from the original show was ‘finding out that life cannot be packenged into a lovely little present ’ which kind of contradicts everything that the new show is. If anything GMW is an AU universe (and it really felt like that, rewatching it right after BMW e.g. it felt flipped) almost like Disney’s version of ‘what happened next?’ The primal difference between both shows is BMW is portraying what is real and GMW is based on what is real.

Going off my point, I will however be always thankful that it exists because I probably wouldn’t of found out about ‘Boy Meets World’ otherwise. Although saying that, I never thought that the original show needed a continuation of any kind (a lot of things make sense about the spin off if you acknowledge that Disney requested it - I think it would of been much better off on its original platform) ‘Boy Meets World’ was very much a product of its time i.e. when tv shows were still relevetivley new and had no rules - like there is stuff in there that not even adult shows today have. Plus there was something about it that felt very personal (such as the characters and setting) as if the creator based it on his own childhood growing up and I think that was part of its charm and why it had such a big effect on pop culture - I’m not so sure you can repeat that.

BMW is big on meta I’ll tell you that. I love how it’s so aware of itself. The amount of depth that it has never ceases to amaze me. It’s whole universe is so dense and huge. Every quote/storyline is so unique it sticks in your brain forever. (I swear the humour got more and more deranged every season). The show was also incredibly queer and progressive.  It didn’t give a crap about sexuality. Much more than I remember. Proof to never use ‘but it was made in the 90s’ excuse.        

I loved how the show kept reinventing itself every season as Cory grew up so you really felt you were growing up with him and all the characters. The Character Development on this show was so natural/authentic. Every single character got a chance to shine. No one changed their look in one episode and no one had an intervention every time someone had an identity crisis (GMW) My favourite development was Shawn Hunter. He went from a cool kid to a ladies man to a poetic soul. It was so satisfying to watch.

I realised that Cory Matthews is actually my favourite character (before it was Eric or Shawn) I already have a special soft spot for ‘annoying’ characters because they tend to be the most memorable/real. For example, Karma Ashcroft from ‘Faking it’ was my babe while everyone was hating on her. I really related to his anxiety/self hatred about being average and I loved that he constantly made mistakes. It was very refreshing. He’s also incredibly queer-coded. I found that alot of his mannerisms make sense if you see him with extreme compulsory heterosexuality (because identity’s such as bisexual or gay couldn’t exist normally in the 90s) There are moments in the show where he literally mimics his best friend’s behaviour around girls e.g. when the class pretty much gets brainwashed by the sex ed video in ‘Boy Meets Girl’ Shawn gets asked out by a girl, making Cory jealous - which pushes him to ask out Topanga.

It’s funny how a few years of life experience can change perspectives completely because when I was sixteen (aka the same age as Cory and Topanga) watching BMW for the first time, I was mad at Amy for ‘not understanding that they were in love’ (in ‘A Walk to Pittsburg’) but now that I’m older I’m actually agreeing with her. Yeah, what do they know about love? Because all season long they were acting quite superficially.

Cory and Topanga became somewhat of a toxic couple in seasons 5 -7. Reminded me of my parents relationship because my mum gave up her chosen university to be closer to my dad and they aren’t together any more. Topanga’s love for Cory was very conditional and Cory cheated on her multiple times/openly begged for sex  (Again like my parents) And you should never be in a relationship with someone who makes you say “You make me think not so very much of myself” There are arguably much more signs of emotional abuse than love in their relationship especially from Topanga’s side. Plus their story was altered so many times to give it more basis (they retconned Shawn and Cory’s friendship to do this) I could write an essay on how Kevin and Winnie’s love story on ‘The Wonder Years’ is much more believable because it actually addresses how toxic it was and they grow apart in the end. If GMW was a realistic continuation, they would be divorced with a little girl - leave them in the 90s where they belong.

Alan and Amy were couple goals! Cory and Topanga wish that they could have what they have. Literally the definition of ‘a healthy relationship on tv that keeps thriving and over coming obstacles without big drama’. Best TV parents ever.

I loved the Matthews family; how they all had individual arcs and developments of their own. One of my favourite arcs was in season 5, when Eric and Cory were both jealous of what they ‘didn’t have’ with their dad, so Alan made an effort to give them both that they needed. Honestly, I had never seen so much healthy communication on TV before. Alan is the best father around. His whole personal arc of giving up managing a supermarket because he wasn’t passsionate about it anymore and buying a mountain store was so inspired. I found it funny that the family had more of a relationship with Shawn than Topanga.

Shawn Hunter never caught a break. It got a bit tiring. He was never allowed to be happy for five minutes. Every time he laughed or smiled, 5 years were added onto my lifespan. Why didn’t Johnathan Turner adopt him? I loved their dynamic. Why did he let him go back to his abusive father who just dumped him anyway?

Jack and Shawn’s complicated dynamic was possibly the most unique/interesting arc of the entire show and no one talks about it. I don’t care what y’all say - despite them being very different, Jack was the only one who fully took care of Shawn without second thoughts (Turner and the Matthews family had doubts)

I liked Shawn and Angela. I thought they were much better suited than Cory and Topanga. I honestly wouldn’t of minded if they ended up together even though I always had a feeling they wouldn’t. (Like I’m glad she went with her dad in the end) And considering how important they were as a interracial couple in the 90s, GMW handled that very poorly.

Shawn and Cory should of ended up together. And before you come at me with ‘it’s important to have m/m friendships without toxic masculinity’ (which is an important arguement to have) - yeah no shit there’s an entire Industry based around that/pitting women against each other. While it is important to have those friendships between men that are close and even intimate (take Chandler and Joey, Schmidt and Nick, Isak and Jonas and Jake and Charles for example) there was also another layer to their relationship which the narrative played off sometimes as them “going out” or “in love”.  I actually recently found out that a writer - who came into the show in season 3 - confirmed that she wrote gay undertones into their relationship on purpose ‘In my opinion as a writer, they thought they were “straight”, they both didn’t realise or understand their feelings for eachother’ but couldn’t deliever because the producers wanted to keep the show “kid friendly”. Kind of like Xena and Gabby. I know people prefer Jack & Eric (I love them as well) but everything got ruined for me as soon as they introduced the ‘love triangle’ and I always tend to prefer emotional tension over sexual. They were just so unconditional with each other/ their friendship was so good and healthy and now I’m so bitter that it never happened.

I never understood why Shawn and Cory had to stop being best friends after he got married. He’s not Topanga’s property. I always hated how Topanga tried to interrupt/interfere with their dynamic — although now I realise it was because the two of them purposely left her out. Looking back at it, If it really was just a intimate friendship then why would she get so easily jealous if she didn’t sense there was something else deeper going on? You should never marry someone who puts you second.

I didn’t like Topanga when she was with Cory (or vice versa) Especially after they got married. She was a great character on her own. Feminist before her time. Hermione Granger before her time. I always felt she deserved a lot better than him in a way e.g. if someone I considered a friend speard a rumour around high school that we slept together - I would never speak to that person again. SHE SHOULD OF GONE TO YALE GOD DAMN IT. And as someone pointed out the other day, if the roles were reversed some of the stuff she does or says to Cory would be considered domestic violence. ‘She’s always blaming Cory on shit that isn't even his fault or makes him feel bad or shuts down his emotions and turns it around so he's comforting her instead.’ There was even a moment in GMW (not that I consider that show a continuation) where she locks him out the house for a few days after he insulted her chicken, and his son Auggie had to bring him spaghetti. If Cory was a woman, that would not be played off as a joke - that would be considered abuse. They were however a better couple in GMW ironically.

Angela Moore is now one of my favourite characters on BMW. She was beautiful. Her friendship with Rachel (and Topanga) was the best. And I frickin’ loved her and Cory’s friendship development - when they could of easily not played into that. I hate that she got villiaized in GMW.

My favourite seasons are 4, 5 & 1. My least favourites are 3 & 2 & 7. And even then the show was still pretty darn good.

The back and fourth clash between Turner and Mr Feeny in season 2 was very entertaining.

Mr Feeny and Eric are my favourite relationship on ‘Boy Meets World’. I love how Eric was the only person that Feeny directly told that he loved him. Also, why didn’t Eric become the new Mr Feeny? He showed more traits of becoming a teacher in the show than Cory did.

Eric and Tommy was probably the most heartbreaking plot line in season 6. (That season was an emotional train wreck) I cried for a fourth time. The world doesn’t deserve him.

I loved the development of Shawn and Topanga’s friendship. Even though there was a silent competition over Cory, they eventually became good friends. I found out that the song ‘She will be loved’ was inspired by them which is awesome but it’s also proof that people ship for less if it’s an m/f dynamic - just sayin’. I however see a more convincing potiental romance with the two of them than Cory and Topanga sometimes.

On Cory and Topanga again - they weren’t a bad couple overall. I liked them in s1 - 3. They had some great moments. But upon my rewatch (getting out of that 90s idealised headspace) I found them to be too similar at times - chafing as another person put it - to the point where they cancel each other out. A lot of people pointed out that Riley and Maya paralleled them and I was thinking “That’s not nesserily a good thing.”

‘Dream. Try. Do good.’ is on my mantelpiece.

[cynthiaandsamus]

Custom Toonami Block Week 68 Rundown

Code Geass: Lelouch gets Rolo to Za Warudo Suzaku so he can talk to Nunally for a bit before pretending he doesn’t know her. Then they decide to go hijack Nunally’s airship and “rescue” her before she can become the new viceroy. Kallen gets a flying upgrade to the Guren that matches Suzaku’s “Lancelot but with bigger gun” model and now she can fly too which is enough to take out all of Britannia’s airforce apparently. Still Nunally sees Zero!Lelouch and is like “you’re running around murdering people, that’s not cool” and Lelouch is like “I’m murdering people for you damnit” and turns out Nunally asked to go become viceroy so she can continue Euphy’s “Let’s just all get along” plan which was basically pacification by the higher ups anyway so it’s not like she’s NOT being used but she at least has the illusion of agency and Nunally rejecting Zero kind of breaks Lelouch. Also Suzaku flies in and adbucts Nunally and instead of moving the Lancelot’s arm like one foot and fucking punting Zero into a wall to end this whole thing once and for all, he uses the safety triangle go save Nunally.

Inuyasha: It’s filler time again! This time we do have an admittedly adorable version of Inuyasha being duped into household chores for Totosai while taking care of a young lynx demon that reminds him of Shippo, being nicer to Bunza than he ever was to Shippo for some reason. Still Inuyasha breaks the Mantis Demon (it’s always Mantis Demons wtf) barrier and saves the day before Totosai has to come clean and we get way to much information about his hygiene habits but Inuyasha finally gets the real lead on how to break barriers because the Tessaiga is a swiss army knife of stolen techniques.

Yu Yu Hakusho: We’re up to the third Saint Beast and Hiei is not about to stand for some Ice asshole killing someone for being weak which taps into his tragic backstory gland and leaves everyone else puzzled as to why the most stoic person of their group is so triggered by betrayal he definitely would have done himself. Seiryu and Hiei do the ice tango for a bit before Hiei does ninja shit and no-sells the ice to slash him up like it’s nothing. Meanwhile Suzaku gets his info and is like “Oh boy, Yusuke has a childhood friend to exploit” like all the other villains find out sooner or later. Despite the stupid name he gives the song and the corny one-liners from the zombie teachers chasing Keiko, hearing the haunting melody of the Makai Whistle/Flute (seriously that’s not a whistle it’s a fucking flute) while seeing Keiko go about her day before being hunted down by zombies is pretty striking.

Fate Zero: So Kirei’s like “Oh no, Gilgamesh killed my only servant, better hide out in the church till this is all over” only to have like 39 other servants to fuck around with that are gonna try and get some stealth kills based on the fact no one knows they exist. Also Iskander is walking around Waver’s place in booty shorts trying to reenact Citizen Kang on President Clin-ton and fetishizing bombers and jets. Kiritsugu’s got his guns and shit, ready to do his Homura thing but is worried about having feels now and being a dad may make him only able to kill 999 people without breaking a sweat instead of the full 1000. And lastly we catch up with Saber and Iris who definitely knows she’s being thrown into this to die as Saber’s fake master so Saber takes her out for a night on the town to enjoy herself and possibly question her sexuality. Doesn’t last too long though as their lesbian outing is interrupted by Lancer, seems like the Lancers are just the starter bosses in Fate for some reason since UBW started with a Lancer fight too.

Konosuba: So the last member of Kazuma’s party is revealed, Darkness the Masochist Saber has arrived. I mean I really don’t know what to say about these bits because everyone already knows the premise of Konosuba and going too much into it is probably just explaining the joke. Kazuma gets his steal ability and can only steal panties because his luck is so good and haha irony. Cabbage hunting also happens and Darkness has the Dead or Alive 2 jiggle physics on her tits turned up to Age 102 (god I’m dating myself with that reference). But it’s funny, Kazuma doesn’t seem happy about it but everyone’s just kinda having a good time fucking around and being insane. Like I get the joke is none of this is practically useful but I kinda wish Kazuma would stop being such a wet blanket and just enjoy being friends with everybody while he can, the girls seem to get along well enough together and they even give him praise when he does cool stuff, like really this just seems like a pretty positive (if insane) friend group and I wish he was more down for it.

Sailor Moon Crystal: So our third Sailor Guardian is a priestess fresh off of preparing for the Cotton Drifting festival (wait, wrong anime, thank goodness, Usagi just plain would not survive Higurashi). But I love how Ami convinces Usagi to go with her just by saying there’s a pretty girl there, like it’s so ridiculously gay and Usagi’s just all for it. Rei’s probably the most complicated character so far and gives the most thought to why she’s doing this out of the first three, like Rei literally asks Usagi what she’s fighting for and she badly mangles a Spider-man quote. That being said we’re starting to see that group dynamic come together which is fun and other than weird teleportation shenanigans and teleporting right into the boss’s lair and then just leaving making me scratch my head, this was a fun episode.

Durarara!!: This episode kind of reminds me of a pre-school cartoon show, but in a good way. Like they just pick a theme, in this case “lost things” and have all the characters have a small plot around that and kinda navelgaze on it for a while. Obviously the main plot is Celty’s continuing existential crisis over losing her head and Shinra’s insistence that she doesn’t need it despite him being tied to the pharmaceuticals company that almost certainly has it and he probably knows where it is at this point. It’s an interesting philosophical point that the show keeps bringing up, that Celty has made a life in Ikebukuro and the real disembodied head was the friends she made along the way. In other anime that would probably be the answer but it’s more complicated than that because Celty does feel incomplete without it, hundreds of years of her life and something deeply personal to her is just missing. Shinra’s terrified that the person she’ll become once she’s “complete” won’t be the same woman he loves and will leave him behind and Celty wants to balance enjoying the time she has spent in this town with being complete in a metaphysical sense. She should be able to take solace in the life she’s made but you also understand her yearning and that makes some really good moral quandaries right there.

[underwaterdogballs]

The Birth House - Ami McKay

[ im only a new reader, so im still working on the reading daily thing ]

time it took me - 2-3 days (i was really into it lol)

published - 2006

pages - 368

TW for book: physical abuse, sexual abuse, sex scenes, sexism, violence, teen pregnancy + birth

chapters - 47 + epilogue, and there are notes from the Willow Book at the end (i actually typed the whole thing up lmao ( x ) )

genre - historical / realistic fiction

5/5 stars (but my standards are really fucking low, so don’t trust me)

honest opinion - I loved it. It was a great book for me. I loved the MC (stands for Main Character), and it was just a great book all around. I can't put my opinion into words, but I'd highly recommend it, but if you've faced sexual abuse and/or teen pregnancy I might pass it up, as it may be triggering.

basic summary (no major spoilers) (im writing this 3-4 months after reading the book, so sorry if a bit inaccurate) - 

Takes place in 1910s-1920s (WWI), Nova Scotia. Basically Dora Rare (first daughter in 5 generations of Rares), is drawn to Miss Babineau, a midwife and eventually after a few years becomes a midwife herself. But soon Dr. Gilbert Thomas, comes by and brings promises of quick, painless birth, and now many people start to question Babineau’s methods. Miss B disappears, and now Dora has to fight for her traditions. 

in depth ‘summary’ (spoilers. and a whole lot of them) !!CW!! physical abuse, sexual abuse(?), few sex scenes - 

Alrightie, buckle up.

“On the evening of a full moon in June, Silent went out in his canoe to catch the shad that were spawning around the tip of Cape Split. As the night wore on, Annie began to worry that some ill had befallen her love. . . . She walked to the cove where they had first met and began to call to him, promising her heart, her fidelity and a thousand loves to his name. The moon, seeing Annie’s sadness, began to sing, forcing the waves inland, strong and fast, bringing Silent safely back to his lover. Since that time, every child born from the Rare name has been male, and even now, when the moon is full, you can hear her voice, the voice of the moon, singing sailors home.” < why all Rare children have been men (for past 5 gen) >

Dora Rare is the only daughter in 5 generations of Rares. When Dora is first mentioned, she is 17 years old, and has 6 older brothers. Marie Babineau drags Dora to Mrs. Experience Ketch’s 13th kid, which would be a very prominent memory. Anyway if she didn’t give birth to this child today, she’d die. So she did, but she did not want her child. She pushed him away. So he died. Mr. Ketch is not deserving to be called a father, but here we are. Being the 1910s, he was a sexist wanker. “’I don’t trust nothin’ that can’t piss standin’ up.”’ like bitch who the fuck do you think you are?? 

Mrs. Ketch is a victim of serious domestic abuse, if the amount of children didn’t tell you otherwise (women can choose to have this many children, but... holy fuck.)

Archer, someone who Dora is sorta fond of (its been a while, dont remember her feelings), didn’t wish to fight in the war, but Grace and Precious really didn’t fucking like that. “’If I could, I’d march through Europe myself, killing Huns right and left, gutting them with a bayonet and crushing their skulls with the heel of my boot. But I can’t, and neither can any other woman who might wish for victory over evil... and neither can these boys who are too young to serve their king.’ She glared at Archer. ’But you can’” Mate. Take notes from Mulan. Masquerade as a man and beat them all. Fucking coward.

After Archer drags Dora to an empty room, Dora starts to become a horny fuck, and he begins undressing her, she mentions that that was her first kiss, and this Archer hoe backs off, and leaves.

Dr. Thomas comes bearing promises of quick and painless births. He makes Miss B and Dora seem like they’re using wooden tools and sawing a woman in half to get her baby out and taping her back together. Like stfu.

Well, a chapter or 2 later, Dora learns that she is marrying Archer, and she can’t refuse it. 

A couple pages later, on the start of chapter 18, B orders Dora to get her 2 long-handled spoons and to grease them up with tallow, to get a teacup cover out from Grace Hutner’s sweet spot, cause she’s a horndog.

On the day before their wedding night, Archer wants Dora to give him a bj. A motherfucking blowjob. As a thanks for the permission to marry him. 

“Come on, Dorrie. Just get on your knees. It won’t take long, no one needs to know. Now open up that mouth and take me in.” im not even going to say anything.

Anyway, the day before Dora has to marry Archer Bigelow, Miss B dies. :(

Archer wants Dora to give up the midwifery stuff (i think its sorta cool tbh, but k mate). This horny fuck wants sex every damn night. The book mentions the ‘supposed to hurt the first time’ and ‘breaking a woman in’ and just to let you know, the book talks like this bc it’s set in the 1910s-1920s, but irl, it doesn’t have to hurt the first time, i don’t think (but i havent fucked yet, and i dont plan to so idk), and breaking a woman in makes it sound like an object of some sort. 

On page 174, Archer attempts to punch her, but he misses and makes a hole in the wall. 

Dora gives in to sex when she doesn’t want to, and bc of her ‘obligations as a wife’  he treats her more like a sex toy than a human being. (not every guy is a piece of shit in this book, just most of them)

She heads to Dr. Thomas through a friend or her familys advice, and is diagnosed with hysteria, which is probably just ignored horniness, or a high libido or smth, the Doc basically uses a vibrator thing on her and the book states it’s better than what she’s felt in the arms of her husband.

(im wrapping this up cause my fingers are cold)

Influenza starts to pop up, and after Dora is outcasted for her practices, she goes to one of her older brothers.

Brady Ketch, husband of Experience Ketch, dumps his beat up and bruised pregnant 13-year old daughter on Dora’s doorstep, she dies, but delivers a perfectly healthy baby that Dora adopts as her own, and names Winnie/Wennie or whatever the fuck her name was.

After she comes back, she turns back to midwifery, and bars Dr. Thomas with a pitchfork after he attempts to interrupt a delivery (not Ketch’s daughter, as she died in childbirth) (obvi)

Archer dies out in sea, after Dora didn’t give him a thing known for protecting sailors from drowning and to bring them home safe and sound. But Archer has a brother, Hart, and claimed that he always had feelings for her, and he was disgusted at how he treated her. Dora doesn’t marry him, but stays as his lover. Also, the epilogue is about electricity coming to Scots Bay.

[sambergscott]

i know everything about you as people

I loved 7x09, don’t get me wrong, but I think they REALLY missed a trick not having the pregnancy reveal in that episode. Especially with Dillman knowing everything about all of them. So I fixed it. 

(not sure where ~exactly~ this scene would fit but it’s obviously after dillman’s arrival and sometime before jake gets suspended)

This Dillman character is a being a real pain in Jake’s ass. 

After watching them suspiciously for a full fifteen minutes, he drags both Jake and his wife into The Box for interrogation, stopping Jake from finding the real culprit of this glittery crime and convincing Holt that he should be the one picked to be in the task force. 

“I’m the victim here, you know,” Jake says first. The sooner he proves his innocence, the sooner he can out of here and back to crime solvin’. “It was my desk that blew up, my stuff that was destroyed. Why would I destroy my own stuff? Answer me that, best-detective-Holt’s-ever-worked-with.”  

“First of all, you do not seem very intelligent. I refuse to rule out the possibility that this was all just one of your silly pranks gone wrong.”

“Hurtful,” Jake sniffs.

“And wrong,” Amy pipes up, launching into a thorough defence. “Jake is very intelligent. Sure, maybe not in the most conventional way; he confuses the Vikings and the Romans and he has to use the calculator on his phone to do difficult sums and before me he’d only read fifteen books in his entire life, but he’s in the top 2% of detectives in the NYPD, can quote every Die Hard movie off by heart and he helped me answer three clues in my Times crossword last night. So don’t you dare imply that my husband is stupid, Detective Dillman,” she leans in, lowering her tone to a threatening whisper, “because it just makes you look like the stupid one.” 

She sits back straight in the metal chair and has this proud little smile on her face that makes him fall in love with her all over again. 

“Very well,” Dillman responds. “I will revert to my second hypothesis. “You two set up the explosion and orchestrated this entire Who Has Done This scenario in order to distract your co-workers from your big secret.”

Jake shifts uncomfortably on his chair. Said co-workers are right behind the mirrored glass and Jake knows their interest will be piqued by this new mystery. He tries to play it cool. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Me either,” Amy shrugs. “There is no secret.”

“Wrong. I know everything about you as people. I know you have ordered the same lunch at Two Daughter’s Diner for the last month, I know Santiago has a doctor’s appointment scheduled for tomorrow and I know that she has been holding files in front of her stomach in a failed attempt at concealing her growing baby bump.”

On the other side of the glass, Charles audibly gasps. 

He has to hand it do him, that’s a pretty dope reveal line. 

The light in the observation room switches on, unveiling three shocked faces and Charles. 

“I knew it!” He squeaks. “I knew it! I woke up the night you found out. I sensed that it finally happened.” 

“And you didn’t say anything? What the hell, Boyle?” Rosa punches him in the arm. 

“Well, you know, they had trouble conceiving for so long and it was early and I didn’t want to jinx anything for them. It wasn’t my secret to tell.”

Jake wraps his arm around his wife as she starts crying (dumb pregnancy hormones) and mouths “thank you” at Boyle through the glass. He wishes he would’ve understood boundaries a little earlier in their relationship (FaceTiming at 6am the morning after their wedding springs to mind), but he’s glad he managed to restrain himself over this. 

Amy was adamant that they wait until into her second trimester and the point where it was impossible to hide it anymore to tell people. Dozens of negative pregnancy tests had really done a number on her and she couldn’t handle the heartbreak if she lost the baby and everybody knew. 

He’s actually pretty proud of Charles. He was convinced there’d be a billboard in Times Square the moment he found out that Jake had finally put a baby in her. 

“Congrats guys!” Terry says excitedly. 

“I would also like to offer my congratulations,” Holt chimes in. “I am sure you will both be excellent parents.”

“Oh, thank you, sir,” Jake responds, his voice cracking with emotion. “That means a lot coming from you.” 

He clears his throat, refocusing his attention on Dillman. “There. Secret’s out. Now can we get out of here? My pregnant wife needs to pee every 27 minutes and it’s been 26 since she last went.”

He doesn’t even get to marvel at the joy of saying pregnant wife outside the four walls of their apartment because she really will need to pee soon. Pressing down on Amy’s bladder is their baby’s current favourite activity. 

“You may leave,” the older, balding detective concedes. 

He knows it’s not the end of the investigation into himself, but at least Amy is off the hook now and the secret is out. 

It’s been so stressful trying to hide it - even more stressful than when he couldn’t tell anyone Terry and Sharon were pregnant again - because it’s his baby this time round. He wanted to shout from the top of the Empire State Building that he was having a baby with Amy Santiago, that he’d never been happier. Instead, they couldn’t even talk about it at work. Surrounded by great detectives (and Hitchcock and Scully), it would’ve been uncovered pretty quick if they started acting differently. So they carried on like they were still trying and pretending Amy’s weight gain, sweating and constant crying were just side effects of the fertility drugs. 

He definitely slipped up once or twice, mentioning the baby when he didn’t realise Scully was lurking by the vending machine and being even more overprotective of Amy than usual, but somehow none of them put two and two together. 

Maybe they’re not as good detectives as he thought. 

An idea suddenly sparks in his mind. 

“Peralta, you’re a genius,” he whispers in his Captain Holt voice.  

Maybe Dillman is not a good detective either.