#it’s also just a good post also about representation but that was a bonus

[asatroende]

I’ve not read Percy Jackson, I think I watched the first movie but that’s it

The reason I reblogged is because of this;

“When I ran out of the old stuff, I made up a new Greek hero: a kid named Percy”

I know that many in the asatro community comes into it with the thought that we want all myths to be real and thus unless something divine happens to us to scientifically document then writing new stories is off the table

But I can’t help but to think about antiquity:

An Ancient Greek father, illiterate but pious to his gods and pantheon, telling his child all the stories he knows until his child wants to hear a new story, and like humans tend to do; the parents to this child use the knowledge they have of the gods and they give birth to a new story that might by us now be considered part of the canon

Percy Jackson and the Olympians premieres Dec. 20 on Disney+

[juicedaloe]

Mithrun and brain damage

I'm not sure if anyone is interested in this, but I wanted to make a post talking about why I think that Mithrun has brain damage from a traumatic brain injury instead of him being a representation of other neurological disorders or mental illness. I'm not that involved in the dunmesh fandom so I don't know how common this headcanon is, though I've seen a few people mention it here and there.

This is just my own opinion so if you disagree then that's fine. Some of this is just speculation and I can't say what Kui's intentions were. This post isn't meant to be that serious. I just wanted to talk about it and hopefully inform about how brain damage can affect some people in a way that I hope is interesting and relevant.

This will be kind of long because I like to talk so it will be under the cut. Apologies for the length and how much I ramble. Feel free to give input especially if I got anything wrong or if this is too confusing.

Okay let's go

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is incredibly complex. The long-term effects of a TBI include a wide array of symptoms. Each injury is different, and some people can completely recover rather quickly while others can become permanently disabled, even for seemingly "minor" injuries. What I'll cover here isn't a definitive representation of the experiences of all those who have long-term effects from TBI, nor do I speak for everyone with brain damage.

Here are some long term symptoms relevant to this post:

Alexithymia (inability to process and name emotions)

Inability to process and name physical perceptions

Mood swings and emotional regulation difficulties

Communication difficulties

Social impairment

Apathy about caring for oneself

Lack of motivation

Alexithymia and inability to process physical perceptions

This one is rather obvious. While Mithrun is shown to feel emotions and have physical sensations (for instance, describing his location when he gets lost in the dungeon as "a cold place"), he is also apathetic to how this affects him. This means that his physical and emotional perceptions are reduced in some way. He says that becoming lord of the dungeon will leave someone "empty", showing he is aware of his dulled emotional state.

A good example of this is can be seen here in a bonus comic where he doesn't give much of a reaction to burning his mouth on hot food.

(I love these two a lot, by the way. Pattadol is really under appreciated.)

He is also not able to recognize bodily signals, such as hunger or when he is tired. Despite collapsing from exhaustion and not eating for long periods of time, he still insists he is not tired or hungry.

Mood swings

Mood swings in combination with alexithymia can be an especially disorientating experience. Those who struggle to perceive their own emotions can still feel them even if they don't know how to recognize it.

Individuals with brain injuries often experience drastic mood swings, particularly anger. To those around them, they can appear to go from 0 to 100 in an instant.

This is more speculation/headcanon on my part, as the strongest emotion Mithrun has for most of his appearances is anger. However one could interpret this as being unrelated as he is seeking revenge for a traumatic experience.

Communication difficulties and social impairment

Not only can naming personal experiences be incredibly difficult with a brain injury, but other areas of communication are often affected as well.

Mithrun is not able to set boundaries for himself even if someone is doing something he would not actually want them to do, which can leave him in a vulnerable position.

People with brain injuries can sometimes have a paradoxical experience when it comes to communicating with others. They can go from being very quiet to speaking at length about one topic, seemingly without regard for the importance of each bit of information. (I see it like Newton's first law of motion. It is hard to start speaking and it can be just as hard to stop.)

I really like this aspect of Mithrun's characterization. Usually, he is very quiet because he has no reason to speak. However, once he starts talking he is shown to be overly specific and goes on for long periods of time. Kabru has to spend multiple days figuring out his story.

In a side comic, Kabru tells Mithrun he should condense some of the personal details that Kabru finds irrelevant to the topic of the dungeon.

Mithrun shares many details about himself because his desire not to do so is gone. This mirrors the experience of many people who have brain damage to overshare and not understand how their words will come across to others. Sometimes they say or do things that are insensitive or inappropriate for the situation.

Caring for oneself and motivation

In the dungeon, Mithrun becomes reliant on others for self care. He also seems especially incapable of motivating himself to take care of his body when he is particularly focused on his goals.

In these panels, thus far he had been fairly receptive of Kabru trying to take care of him. However, he could sense that the demon was close and was too focused on that to care to eat.

Refusal of care and treatment is often an effect of traumatic brain injury. This can be for seemingly no reason, even if the person knows that this will help them. Sometimes people will lie about receiving treatment or doing things to take care of themselves, either so they can avoid it or avoid having someone take care of them.

He knows that eating regularly and not pushing himself too much will help him - he's been told multiple times on-screen - but he still has to be continuously told by others to give him that motivation to take care of himself. He's very apathetic to his physical state, even if it seems his only desire is for revenge and he should be doing anything he can to achieve that.

Other things of note

I wasn't sure where to put this, but while Mithrun's sense of direction is speculated by Kabru to be left over from his time as lord of an ever-changing, confusing dungeon, having poor sense of direction in the way he does could also be indicative of brain injury as well.

While the dungeon is confusing and illogical, he is known to have a poor sense of direction and to get frequently lost by those around him, even trying to exit an entrance he just came through. He is shown to be very intelligent, but memory is greatly impacted by brain injuries which affects a person's sense of direction and location.

Something that really stands out to me about Mithrun is how much the things that help him are particularly helpful to those with brain damage. He is physically capable of performing tasks, but he needs an outside source to remind him and get him started. He relies entirely on routine, and when that regularity is taken away he shows extreme difficulty taking care of himself.

Sometimes, the care that some people need is simply someone else to encourage them or to tell them when to do things. The care that he needs is pretty consistent with a person with a brain injury who does not need a full time caretaker and would prefer to have some independence.

Also, healing magic is specified to not work with brain injury unless the person is killed and revived. Mithrun had not been revived after his injuries, so it is entirely possible for him to have sustained a TBI. I don't think this matters that much because one is still allowed to have headcanons even if there is a magical explanation or isn't really possible in canon, but I thought it was an interesting detail.

In conclusion

Because of all this I don't believe that his lack of self care is due solely to mental illness. While mental illnesses like depression or PTSD can cause a decline in self care, the reasons why the affected individual is avoidant of these tasks differs. These disorders can also cause cognitive difficulties and emotional regulation issues, but not to the same extent or in the same way that brain damage would. I think that he does have both depression and PTSD (both are common after a TBI) but those are not his only disabilities.

And on a personal note, I just think that having a character with brain damage is really cool. Most of the time I've seen it the characters are not given very much respect and they are treated as comic relief and a joke. Regardless of whether you agree with this post or not, it is still nice to see a character with a disability like this.

Thank you if you read all of this. I hope it was easy to understand and I did not ramble too much. I don't have anything else to say but I've been wanting to write this out for a while.

Okay bye

[catgirlbussy]

im gonna do a lil sadpost, as a treat. if u dun wanna read that or interact or anything there's no harm done <3 it kinda feels nice sayin stuff into the void tbh, cause i know as i look out ill always see myself at minimum, and im still thankful. im alive. if someone can relate or whatever then thats a neat bonus ★

I'm not super sure how to formulate these thoughts, cause lots of it is just incompressible /feeling/. I've been on HRT for close to two years now, and modifying my internal physical landscape alongside the work I put in with the ways I've learned sharing benefit so far, like therapy and self-directed exploration of my emotions and the simple but vital practice of being more open with others about how I'm feeling, has uncovered a lot.

It's been overwhelmingly positive in so many ways. I don't have any regrets for starting this set of changes, even with full knowledge of the difficulties I've had rise as a result and that more are on the horizon, and also full awareness in that I will need to continue putting in the *good* work to care for myself and learn how to navigate the parts in my mind I'd kept hidden or obscured for so long. It's not /bad/, I feel so grateful to have this opportunity at all and I feel bounteous joys in this trove of beautiful experiences that, up 'till not too long ago, I never thought I'd be able to experience -- though I absolutely still dreamed of having them so vividly.

I have a lot of good graces in my life re: my transition. In a lot of ways I feel I've been exceedingly lucky. Canada has its fair share of problems without a doubt, but I also know full well there are a lot more places on our planet where it's much more difficult to be openly trans, let alone dangerous or lethal. I don't take that as an opportunity to rest, either, because having cracks forming in the firmament, letting in light to my dream of a world where trans experiences are accepted (and to note most thoroughly, I'm learning more of a lot of cultures in days gone by, /including some aspects of my own heritage/, having extended gender representations ingrained in their societal norms, some as far even to revere the dynamic and unique experience of existing beyond the gender binary in whatever way they saw as such) for **everyone** spurs in me an even deeper and impassioned drive to work in the ways I'm able to foster communication and connection while rebuking hostility so more and more beautiful, valid trans folks can experience respite and respect and safety as well.

I'm not wanting necessarily to change minds and upend the posture of society with this particular post, though, and so I hope you'll forgive me in my expressing my small, localised set of emotions in this moment. At the root of everything I experience I'm starting to get better at reminding myself that I'm a valid *individual person* in addition to being a contributor in the push for good and kindness for all.

It's probably telling that I feel the need to offer ~4 paragraphs as a disclaimer that I spend time learning about the global scale and am effortful in enacting progress there before just getting on with what I'm even feeling sad about. I don't see myself as a holy martyr for being nervous about expressing myself, but it seems more and more common evidently rather than by my hypothesis alone that many trans individuals would get by prior to exploring their gendered identity with burgeoning self-acceptance with a marked self-exclusionary behaviour when it came to opening themselves to emotional experience, regardless of any given instance being gendered or not. Until it becomes unmanageable, it feels easier to lock away senses of joy, sadness, etc. cause you can keep gettin on by in a sort of functional state and you tell yourself thats enough.

This is far from the worst thing I've come across so far, but I am feeling confused and the confusion is unique in its own way to the extent that I'm not even able to pin down how I /feel/ about feeling it. At its heart I can't seem to muster the right formulation of words to explain to others these particular experiences I'm having in my transition. Painting in broad strokes can be such disservice to the nuance for any individual's cluster of experiences, but tumblr if anything *for me* has brought much happiness in finding threads of commonality with others. Stark contrasts to my feelings of loneliness and seclusion from the world around me give me so much hope. I'm writing this partly in hopes that there is another one of those threads people might appreciate seeing. I do more than my fair share of journaling, but this one feels special and worth sharing right now, and so decadently I write these words for a community beyond myself.

To be blunted, perhaps I might phrase it by saying 'i feel sad about being happy.' It's that sort of absurdist perspective that helps me wrap my head around it a little better with how little sense it makes to my normal machinations. I'm not sad that I am having these new and thrilling experiences of adding or or changing parts of myself to live in the way I best see fit for who I am, but I feel sad because I don't know how to.

I get locked up at the slightest things. Someone compliments my nails, and its so hard to communicate efficiently the impossibly depthed importance this literally surficial act has for me. They aren't even painted well, but I painted them /myself/, I felt catharsis in exploring my love of artistic expression in the choice of colours, I rode high on the thrill of watching this new skill form in my own hands. The coat is uneven and I can't quite keep myself from getting knicks in places as they dry yet and I'm still practicing the nail care associated with maintaining healthy and resilient nails, but if I can be so bold to say, god forbid women do anything.

This person obviously wasn't chastising me for partaking in a traditionally "femininely-associated act", let alone that so thoroughly most things people take for gendered in no way innately are, the whole binary supposition is a damned myth. But because of how I was brought up and the mindset I was taught to have before I fought to think for myself instead, this was a joy I'd always admired but felt I was abhorrent for wanting to partake in. Absolutely anyone who feels otherwise can irrevocably go fuck themselves if they aren't willing to examine the falsity of the foundational thoughts they 'think' they have leading them to ever want someone to abstain from such a viscerally unobstructive and innocuous form of self exploration and creativity bexause it's "for girls". This goes for anything. For anyone. Idc who you are or what label you wanna use at any given moment, go explore. Live life. God fuck do we need people to just experience joy in some ways so we aren't so incorrigible and hostile towards eachother.

But you don't stop whoever took 15 seconds out of their say to mention to you they like the colour and wanted you to know to discurse at length upon the structural bastardisation of who people are allowed to be, cause more than any of that I just want to feel happy about it.

I literally stutter out whatever form of thanks my malformed emotionally-communicative faculties can muster in this surprise and try not to start sobbing in the grocery store aisle or whatever. It's so /good/, and it's so frustrating that I don't even know how to just process and appreciate that it is.

I was so much an absentee in my own bodied self that I could not fathom an understanding of what gender euphoria was until it snuck up smashed me in the teeth. I didn't have any basis of understanding for what it was really like to be happy about some part of myself.

Despite my loneliness I have still had the experiences of friendships, people caring about me, and relationships where a partner genuinely appreciated parts of me, physical, mental, emotional, whatever. More now than ever I am having those experiences as I learn to come out of my cloister inside my head. But this time I'm not just numb to everything. Sure, as I'm learning to not just be unilaterally numb until my bastion of self-isolation fails and I break there is abundance of pain, but the pain I honestly prefer. It's more vivid than it's ever been before, but I can benchmark that I'm still alive by its contrast to neutrality. It's familiar, and my mechanisms of clutching my emotions into my soul can still carry me forward as I try to figure things out. But fuck me is it ever hard to have a happy experience and not know how to communicate that it tore my sense of stability in those moments to shreds. To lose the composure that carried me for so many years because someone sought to share something with me they thought I'd appreciate because they care about me feels so counterproductive to just enjoying the absolute gift that experience is.

Abstractly, as I'm wont to do to a remarkably self-apparent fault, I can tell myself that these things take time. Human emotion is so complex, and its panoply of shifting lights glinting as the facets move their positioning relative to the light of being alive is what drives me to do art, and it always has been, contradictory so fully to my desire to lock everything away. I can't circumnavigate multiple decades of trauma and be free and unfettered in my senses in an instant just because I'm aware it's possible. And so I try so fucking hard not to just sit down and cry in that grocery store aisle, cause it hurts so bad to be happy.

How dare I find glints of good in the polluted landscape we live in. But that mindset helps nothing. People striving to live amidst turmoil is what makes life worth living. There will always be strife, but there will always be the possibility for hope alongside it.

Without fail, each night I'll self-soothe myself into a mode of somewhat-restfulness imagining what it would be like to trust myself enough to be imperfect and let someone hold me. It's the only thing I do anymore. It even backfires sometimes and I just waking-dream my way through countless blissful scenarios about what it would be like if that cute girl I've been starting to become friends with mentioned she wanted to hold my hand for hours until the sun comes up and I know I won't have any sleep at all. It's so goddamn worth it. I revel in it, because at least in the theatre of my mind I can find small ways of letting myself feel those joys. They aren't really happening. It's my own hand rubbing a thumb gently along my collarbone in a faux affection. But it's the only way I've found that's not so obstructively blinding in intensity for me to practice what it would be like to be close to others.

I still lose my sense of self so often. I find bruises from where I bumped into things and wholesale didn't notice until the tiredness sets in and I can't autonomously ignore how sore I am. I dive effortlessly into the placid waters of dissociation when someone gives me a hug, despite that being what I have dreamed of for so many years during my self-imposed isolation. Someone tells me they like an art piece I've made and I stopper any sense of pride or appreciation for their kind words despite pouring however much time channeling my slowly uncoiling understanding of reality into every particle of it and wishing that my experiences could convey any amount of any feeling whatsoever to another living being with the entirely selfish act of wanting that I feel like I had a real connection.

I can't get by with chainsmoking and shelf-set pain medications and blind ignorance any more. I can't ignore how badly I want to feel. I am figuring it out instant by instant and it scares me horribly. One day my yearnings for closeness will be actualised because I'll be ready to open when they come. My selfsense-extracted mutterings of the hypothetical joys of being pressed down into sheets and kissed because someone deigned to gift me with attention for they hold appreciation of this newly forming, ill-configured, but ultimately revelatory feminine self I'm becoming will no longer be fiction and prose but the rawness of experience that I, once, and then more, can lose myself into without terror thay I'm inadequate and never truly worth it. Someone will touch my breasts and love me for loving them myself and I'll give in to the annihilating instant where I am no longer a sense of self but just am. This body is not me but my, and I will scrape and fight however I can muster to live vicariously thru it because that is what I am meant to do by being here alive at all. If anything ever again I want to feel what love is like.

I'm not even reading this back to see if it conveys properly let alone makes sense at all. I'm exhausted and in so much pain. If you read this, thanks, and, if you can, go hug someone you love today.

[bonefall]

Hi Bones!! Thank you for you hard work on this project and for sharing it with us!

I've seen your posts about weird representation of society (regarding the "natural order of things") in xenofiction, especially in lion king, so I wanted to ask:

could you recommend any xenofiction media that has all (or most of the) animal species sapient? Or is the only solution to make just one or two species sapient while the others (especially prey) are plain animals?

Really sorry if you've seen this ask from me before - my account had a weird laggy period when I couldn't send or receive messages and asks, so I don't know if you got the previous one! I just know that now it's fixed so I double all the asks sent haha

Honestly I'm not totally sure! If any 3rd person has some good recommendations for "every being is alive" xenofiction types, feel free to weigh in.

If you want to jump in with me though, I am following the webcomic Africa. It updates every Wednesday. Africa is about a mother Leopard on the verge of a great ecological disaster, the relationship between her children and the animals around her, and the strength of both instinct and choice as the characters face an uncertain future.

Since it's ongoing, I still don't know how it's going to end and can't judge it as a full work! But it's absolutely fascinating and I think the author is doing a fantastic job so far. Bonus points for the way it portrays humans, btw.

No more spoilers though, if you're interested, it's on Webtoons.

(I'm also planning to read Oren's Forge soon. Ask me about it again in a few months over on Bonebabbles and I'll give you my thoughts)

As an aside though, funny you mention it because like... ever since I was a kid I've had a story I want to tell with the premise. It's a scintilla I've kept close to me for well over a decade but haven't done anything official with. So this is actually a theme I've thought about a lot.

It's rare to see it done well though because like... its very premise butts heads with reality. The "natural order" that an animal follows is not something it moralizes. A tiger doesn't have the capacity to think about how fucked up it is to kill to stay alive, the deer doesn't know that if its population isn't controlled it will destroy the forest.

They're animals. They don't HAVE that agency. Your dog does not care about being sterilized. A snake doesn't differentiate between a pinky and an adult mouse except in terms of if it will fit in its mouth. But the minute you put human morality in there... they have the ability to reason, create and agree on the rules of a society, make choices about MORALITY.

If nothing is going to change about their world, you just end up putting human arguments about "natural order" in their mouths and, well... start telling a parable justifying this "natural order."

(Genuine) Does what I'm saying make sense? Animals DON'T rationalize or negotiate. HUMANS do.

So the minute you're approaching a world with that logic, like it or not, you are invoking those "arguments from nature." And you're putting them in a being that is not fully an animal or a human, but an anthropomorphic mix which CAN rationalize but WON'T make an effort to change their world.

(Which is why tbh the best examples i know of are works with a theme of "change.")

OH WAIT I also remember another that's interesting!! Leafy: Hen into the Wild actually has a fascinating take on it. It's not interested in "moralizing" or really being about an animal society. It's a very emotional sort of movie, and it's about joys in adversity, the freedom that choice gives you, how bad things are going to happen and you can never completely prevent them.

INTENSE movie emotionally, the ending will wreck you (especially in the English translation which leaves out a really important theme making it feel abrupt x_x) but it's really good. Check that one out.

OH and also You Are Umasou. That one has more pitfalls imo (it does try to moralize a bit) but it's super unique as a movie. And is about dinosaurs.

[vvooper]

alright. next up in my ffvii character pokemon teams: it's Tifa Time

tifa's team was pretty straightforward for me to come up with. details under the cut as always

tifa's sprite is a recolor of the gen 4 battle girl. seemed perfect for her

species: lopunny

ability: cute charm

item: muscle band

moves: close combat, return, power-up punch, captivate

ok I'll just address the obvious: there is some meta commentary going on here with my pokemon choice. people online can be very not normal about tifa's appearance. and I get it, I fully agree that Tifa Pretty, but let's not lose sight of the important fact that she can kill a man (and much scarier opponents) with her fists. I didn't give stargazer lopunnite here because that felt a little unfair to all the other characters who didn't get megas, but I definitely had mega lopunny in mind for the theme. the name is not really related, but I felt like it was a good name for a pokemon.

the ability cute charm and captivate kind of follow in the same vein. but muscle band, close combat, and power-up punch are all about kickin ass. I chose return because tifa is kind of a people pleaser, if that makes sense

species: mudsdale

ability: stamina

item: leftovers

moves: high horsepower, body press, smack down, rest

I chose a mudsdale because of tifa's cowgirl outfit from when she was a teen. yknow for a long time I thought that that was some kind of phase tifa went through. it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that the entirety of nibelheim is a weird fusion of nordic and wild west influences. the name comes from one of tifa's limit breaks but again is not super related.

the stamina ability is for tifa being in great shape. it also works well with body press. high horsepower is just for the horse theme

species: togekiss

ability: serene grace

item: berry juice

moves: air slash, aura sphere, water pulse, roost

for seventh heaven, I had to go with an angel shaped pokemon. there are... surprisingly few of those.

the serence grace ability is yet another reference to tifa being in great physical shape. for some reason, the thing that immediately comes to mind is her summon animation from remake and rebirth. she does this cartwheel maneuver and the whole thing is so smooth and impressive.

berry juice is a god awful item, but I really wanted seventh heaven to have a beverage.

aura sphere felt like a good representation of tifa's chi mechanic in remake and rebirth. water pulse is another choice vaguely related to seventh heaven being the local watering hole. similar for roost, as it's a place for people to gather and recharge (or get plastered, but whatever)

species: palafin

ability: zero to hero

item: punching glove

moves: jet punch, drain punch, focus punch, bulk up

a dolphin pokemon is mandatory for tifa! now that I'm looking at it, maybe I should have named it dolphin flurry from remake and rebirth rather than dolphin blow from og, but too late.

the set is just pure punchy woman. punching glove powers up all the punching moves. as an added bonus, jet punch is a priority move, which is fitting because of how speedy tifa is. as for bulk up... square I'm BEGGING you to give tifa more muscle. her arms should not look like that!

species: medicham

ability: pure power

item: life orb

moves: close combat, zen headbutt, bullet punch, counter

premium heart is tifa's ultimate weapon. I chose medicham as another pokemon that can be related to her chi mechanic.

the life orb item and counter refer to premium heart's special mechanic. it deals more damage the higher tifa's limit gauge is, but in order to fill the limit gauge, tifa must take damage.

species: urshifu (rapid strike)

ability: unseen fist

item: choice band

moves: close combat, surging strikes, brick break, u-turn

tifa's legendary pokemon is urshifu, named zangan after her martial arts instructor. I've taken all of the pokemon artwork for these posts from pokemon home, but apparently it only has one urshifu icon for both forms, in which it just kinda... stands there. rest assured I chose the rapid strike form, both for tifa's speed and for the water type.

honestly the set itself is not super thematic, just fully geared toward physical power from martial arts-inspired moves.

previous entries found here. aerith is up next

[lenaboskow]

Buddies wanted a cheating trope and given the latest interview from his past girlfriend... Ryan is the perfect man for that 👀

yeah so what we're not going to do is wish for a cheating trope. cheating is never something we should romanticize. not only that, it would completely ruin whatever progress we've made in terms of people accepting casual queer rep.

i don't know what interview you're talking about (tried to find it, but all i could find were the ones from 2023), but even if ryan is the "perfect man" to play someone who cheats, that doesn't mean he should.

what we can hope for, however, is a presumed cheating trope, if done right, and only if done right. (apologies in advance if the explanation doesn't make sense, i haven't had coffee yet)

there's a post going around (not sure who the op is, someone drop the @ in the replies please) about how buddie should get semi-blackout drunk, and while they're running around trying to save chim, the only memories they have is them taking their jackets off and then falling together on the couch, causing them to think they hooked up.

if done right, this means that buck and eddie are torn over this. like, i'm talking absolutely distraught. they can't look tommy or marisol in the eye the entire time, because how could they do something like that?

bonus points if tommy notices how weird they're being, but doesn't bring it up because its buckandeddie.

once we find chim, the story comes out, and turns out they fell because they were trying to put a fire out. they took their jackets off because it got hot. then buck and eddie start to wonder why their first thought was they hooked up, and bonus points if we see eddie wonder why he wasn't disgusted at the thought of hooking up with buck, just at the thought of cheating.

if they went this way, it would need to be made clear that buck and eddie are distraught, maybe even more so than tommy and marisol would be if they found out. we couldn't have them being like "oh we hooked up cool bet it was great"

however, i don't think we're getting that, and for good reason. oliver's recent interview, while definitely weird and dodgy, brought up a good point. they need to do this right. they're raising the bar for future representation, and we don't want it to start off on a bad foot. even a presumed cheating storyline would be iffy, and could set the wrong people off. there's also a fine line here where even if they didn't physically cheat, they could end up emotionally cheating, which is just as bad.

what i could see happening, however, is at least one feelings realization.

[blackwatervial]

The Pete Show.

For the my rewatch of The Pete Show (sometimes and more uncommonly known as KinnPorsche The Series La Forte), I will be noting down time stamps in which the main character Pete (from the Pete Show) makes an appearance. I will also, as a little bonus, add appearances of his romantic interest “Vegas”. Today:

Episode 2

After the out-of-focus background Pete of the first episode, minute 6 of the second introduces to in-full-focus backside Pete. Peachy!

And while I usually only add one visual representation per timestamp, there is one moment in this one that deserves to be singled out. It occurs at 6:46, where we're getting out first title drop of The Pete Show!

It sure is, buddy!

He next appears at the 18:00 mark for another whopping 20 seconds! We see him next to a pool (Pete-Trivia! This won't be his last fun pool-moment)! Here, we are dealing with the rare swimsuit-edition Pete. He comes in two different versions and this is the fully clothed one

After a brief intermission of unimportant Pete-less moments he returns at minute 19:42, which he lights up with his dazzling Pete Smile™ (Not to be confused with the feral Pete Smile™, which will be displayed about 9 episodes later)

Minute 25 sees the return of a fan-favourite: blurry background Pete! But this one is a special boy indeed - look at that piece of bread he's clutching in his paw! Delightful!

At 27:24, we meet exposition Pete slash gossip Pete! He makes sure we're all caught up on the goings-on in the family while being a little judgy-judgy about it. Deserved!

At 40:14, we encounter bodyguard Pete. He's doing his job! His job is...guard. He's quite good at it, standing there all prim and proper and giving some more exposition, such as introducing his boyfriend to the audience:

At 45:38 appears another all time favourite of Pete enthusiasts out there: smoking Pete. Literally and figuratively smoking hot. Nothing more to be said, just look at him!

At 48:44 we have underappreciated Pete. I hope he goes to the bodyguard union and files a complaint.

Love-Interest appreance counter

At 50:46, Vegas is having a talk with his dad. Mildly exciting.

But!

A fun fact for everyone who made it his far! At minute 38:50 we get introduced to dear Vegas for the first time! And who does he appear as? That's right: blurry foreground Vegas! Him and Pete have so much in common <3

Previous Pete Show Posts

[musicalcastingideas]

The Princess Bride Musical Dreamcast

The fact that with all the new broadway musicals are adaptations and NO ONE has done the Princess Bride yet is absolutely criminal, so if that were to hypothetically happen, here's my dream cast list.

Framing Device:

Grandchild: I can't really put anyone for grandchild, since I don't know many child actors, but I do think there should be a rotating cast, like they had with Mathilda on Broadway.

Grandfather: Mandy Patinkin, aka the original Inigo Montoya.

Mother: Robin Wright, aka the original Princess Buttercup.

I think it would be really sweet and fun to have two of the original movie's cast play parts in the framing device, almost like they're passing the baton of telling the story to the next cast.

Main Story:

Westly: Joshua Henry

I don't know if this is a controversial statement, but Westly is a baritone, and I think Joshua Henry would be absolutely perfect. He's charming as fuck, he's a phenomenal actor and vocalist, and he's absolutely gorgeous. Perfect leading man for a story that is about telling the best story ever.

Buttercup: Maria Bilbao

I think Buttercup would be a legit soprano, and as a big fan of Sweeney Todd and the recent revival, Maria Bilbao, who played Johanna, would be absolutely perfect for it. Just go listen to her Green Finch and Linnet Bird and you'll get it.

Inigo Montoya: Colman Domingo

Does Colman Domingo sing? I don't know. Could he act the absolute SHIT out of the confrontation between Inigo and the Six-Fingered Man? ABSOLUTELY. I have this vision of how to adapt the scene, which would also kinda translate Inigo's arc to a musical version. So in the original, the Six-Fingered Man trying anything to manipulate him, mocking him, that great "you have an overdeveloped sense of vengeance line, and Inigo is just not having it. He just keeps repeating the iconic line over and over again. In the musical, I would have the six-fingered man sing, like he's trying to get Inigo to sing with him, to give in to the performance, but Inigo won't sing, he just keeps repeating his line over and over. He refuses to conform to the typical "rising above" narrative and leave the Six-Fingered Man alive, he will be true to himself and his mission and won't let himself be distracted. Anyway, I don't know if this is a good idea, but Colman Domingo would be amazing either way.

Prince Humperdink: Aaron Tveit

I think Prince Humperdink should be the archetypal tenor boy and who is a better representation of current archetypal tenor boys on broadway than Aaron Tveit? Also he's really talented and I think he would act the shit out of this smarmy bastard role.

Count Rugen aka The Six Fingered Man: Josh Groban

I need Josh Groban on Broadway more, and I think he would do great at a quieter villain role, especially coming off a more angry and bloodthirsty role like Sweeney Todd. Also he looks a bit like the original Count Rugen, so that's a bonus.

Vizzini: Alex Brightman

I don't really have much behind this one, other than Vizzini is a weird little guy and Alex Brightman plays weird little guys really well.

Fezzik: Jason Segal

So ideally, I'd actually be able to cast an actor with gigantism to play the part, but I don't know of any, and couldn't find any while googling, so this is my backup essentially. During the lockdowns, a bunch of celebrities did The Princess Bride over zoom, and the scene with Rainn Wilson as Vizzini, Pedro Pascal as Inigo and Jason Segal as Fezzik is genuinely really great, but Jason Segal's Fezzik impression is spot-on and actually amazing. Also, we know from the Muppet Movie, How I Met Your Mother and Forgetting Sarah Marshall that he can sing so, I think he would do great.

Miracle Max and Valerie: Joey Richter and Lauren Lopez

I assume posting this to Tumblr, more people would know who Joey Richter and Lauren Lopez are than the average social media platform, but they are part of Team Starkid and Tin Can Bros and do some fantastic original musicals (please look up the Hatchetfield Trilogy and Spies Are Forever if you haven't seen them yet). They're both extremely talented performers, and also married in real life, so they would absolutely kill this.

Clergyman(Mawage guy): Brian d'Arcy James

I don't really have much of a reasoning behind this, I just think he'd do a good job.

Backups/Close Calls:

Denee Benton as Princess Buttercup

She's one of the best parts of Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, and that's saying something because that musical is (in my opinion) one of the best of all time

Pedro Pascal as Inigo Montoya

I don't know if he sings, and he would be amazing for this, but I wanted to challenge myself to think outside the most obvious choice. However, sometimes the obvious choice is a good one.

Bernadette Peters as Valerie

If the Witch from Into the Woods found love and inner peace

[signed-sapphire]

Who do you see as the voice actors of your characters from The Fallen Star au? P.S. The question appeared after reading this post: https://www.tumblr.com/annymation/740501852095905792/the-voices-in-my-wish-rewrite?source=share

OOHHHHHHHHH thank you for asking!

Okay okay so I will be recasting most of the main characters. Like @annymation, Chris Pine is still Magnifico because he’s literally Magnifico, and I don’t really have a problem with any of the seven teens’ voices.

So here we go!

Asha is voiced by Cynthia Ervo!

I really like Ariana’s voice, it’s very much what someone would associate with the 3D Disney princesses. However, TFS!Asha has a completely different personality than most Disney princesses, and I want her voice to match that. She has a very strong singing conviction, and it’s different voice representation! Plus, Cynthia has HUGE vocal range, it’s seriously amazing, and honestly fits exactly how TFS!Asha is

And as a bonus, Cynthia was in Disney before!

Cielo is voiced by Anthony Ramos!

I first found out about Anthony because of Hamilton, and I’ve loved him in everything since. Literally every character he plays or voices is similar to Cielo! Particularly his roles in In the Heights and Bad Guys, he sings in both too!

Anthony is just so funny and goofy, and has SUCH STRONG flirtatious vibes EXACTLY how I imagine Cielo to be with Asha

^This is the song I’m imagining when I imagine domestic royalstar. I’m only attaching the song instead of the music video bc it’s a tad suggestive and also, Jasmine (his then girlfriend and fiancée featured in the video) broke up and that makes me sad

But!!! Musical experience, chill personality, Spanish, literally all Cielo.

Magnus is voiced by Chris Pine!

DON’T COME AFTER ME OKAY HIS VOICE SOUNDS AMAZING IN THIS SONG

It won’t be used like this in my rewrite but CMON IS VOICE SOUNDS AMAZING AND IT FITS HIS CHARACTER IN THE FALLEN STAR

Seriously, Chris Pine really loved his role, you can tell. “This is the Thanks I Get” didn’t fit his voice in the honeyed way it’s perfect in, and I’ll forever be mad at Disney for that. Chris is good in slow, emotional songs, which is why his villain song in my rewrite will be perfect for him

Amaya is voiced by Carolina Gaitán

So I’m still not really sure about this one. Amaya in TFS is Egyptian-Hispanic and I didn’t really know a lot of singers outside of Broadway tbh, but Carolina is such a great one! She voices Pepa in Encanto and it’s a shame we didn’t get to hear much of her singing voice (besides that small bit in “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”) because she’s such a great singer! I’m not 100% sure of her voice, but I do think it fits and that it will grow on me. I also haven’t had the chance to draw Amaya as much as I’d like to, so I feel like once I do I’ll be able to picture her more.

Valentino is voiced by Ravi Cabot-Conyers

Now, Valentino doesn't have any significant singing roles in my AU, but he does still speak. And I love, love Alan and know he has done amazing things for Disney, so I want to find him a voice in The Fallen Star too, but Ravi also voiced this little cutie

And yes, it's another Encanto voice, but Ravi was so adorable and amazing and it would be funny to have his dichotomy with the deep-voiced Asha

[santiagonex]

I can’t sleep. Let’s talk about the four sacred top fives of 2022 as in top 5 gay movies, top 5 gay tv ships (or shows as whole), top 5 short gay movies and for the next one, let’s change it up a little bit and I’ll provide you with top 5 upcoming gay movies (2023) I’m looking forward to and are currently in the process of pre-production, production or post-production.

Top 5 Gay Movies of 2022

5. La Santa Piccola - very different from your usual gay movies, but the scenery is gorgerous and the story made me feel things 4. Badhaai Do - amazing queer representation in Indian Cinema, "gay guy and a lesbian woman enter into holy matrimony to appease their families”... just pure comedy and romance and the friendship is beautiful 3. Fire Island - a classic rom-com, must-see 2. In from the Side - rugby gays, affair, romance... all of that 1. Sublime - since it’s finally available on VoD, I had a chance to watch it this weekend and the soundtrack and story got me... Mi mejor amigo vibes but actually gay

Top 5 Gay Ships/TV Shows of 2022

5. Heartstopper - a classic, it was honestly hard to rate the shows because they’re all equally brilliant in my eyes 4. Heartbreak High - australian Sex Education, obsessed 3. The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself - magic, witches, gays... c’mon 2. Prisma - very important show 1. Patrick/Iván in Élite - they’re literally everything to me, if you get it you get it, if you don’t you don’t, if you know you know and if you don’t know I honestly feel bad for you like I literally cannot explain it, I don’t have the vocabulary to sit here and explain like either you get the vibe or you don’t

Top 5 Gay Shorts of 2022

5. Catalina - a queer man and his two childhood best friends reunite for a weekend camping trip on Catalina Island... could there be sumn more? 4. Too Rough - Nick wakes up next to his boyfriend Charlie and must conceal him from his own homophobic and dysfunctional family... very sad 3. Jean est tombé amoureux - two football players of opposite teams falling in love... mm very good! 2. Swim - two swimmers develop a strong friendship during their weekly sessions, but their relationship is tested outside the pool, when true identities are revealed... this one fawked me up good 1. Hard - Mikey experiences awkwardness and struggles to navigate the uncertainties of his sexuality after his first time with a girl doesn't go as expected, forcing him to confront his feelings of desire for his best friend... this was so much fun to watch

Top 5 Upcoming Gay Movies in 2023

5. The History of Sound - Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor in a gay romance period drama? We’re looking forward to that actually! Anyways, they were supposed to film it this year, but they had busy schedules. Current plan is next year. Also Paul was hanging out with the director last month, so maybe something’s cooking. 4. Glitter & Doom - described as a summer romance musical feature told with the iconic tunes of folk duo Indigo Girls. Film follows a musician who wears charisma as camouflage and a carefree guy about to run away with the circus as they fall in love at first sight. Sounds fun. 3. Nuovo Olimpo - any Ferzan Özpetek fans? Any Manuel from Un professore fans? Well, looks like we won. Period drama set in Italy, following two men who have a chance encounter and then fall deeply in love, and then are torn apart. The film then follows them both over the next decades as they attempt to find each other again. 2. Strangers - yes, another one with Paul Mescal... yes, I’m crazy. And hi Andrew Scott. Directed by Andrew Haigh (Weekend, HBO’s Looking). Word on the street is that their characters will be romantically involved since Mescal's character corresponds to a woman who has a romance with the protagonist (Scott) in the original novel. We will be tuning in. 1. Bonus Track - film set in 2006, follows a small-town boy with dreams of being a gifted musician. When the son of an iconic musical duo enrols at his school, a powerful bond between the boys begins to grow. Based on an original story by Josh O'Connor (yes, him) and Michael Gilbert.

Anyways, that is it. There are a lot of movies that weren’t released THIS year yet, and I’m looking forward to them (Punch, Aristotle and Dante, Spoiler Alert,...). But I would be just repeating myself, so I’m not gonna talk about that.

[kitty-is-writing]

Bonus Lorepost: Nightcats

I know the poll results chose magic weaving, but since I wrote it already, and just feel like sharing it anyway, here is the lore dump about Nightcats too. You can find the magic weaving post here if you missed it!

I wrote this from two separate viewpoints, that of a human researcher studying them and below the cut, a nightcat speaking about their own kind. Enjoy!

human pov

On their appearance: Small, semi-bipedal catfolk. Fur colour is a dark, midnight blue, with brighter blue markings. Long fluffy tails, sharp retractable claws. Females tend to have more hair than males. Most will remain unclothed, but a few wear simple loincloths or wraps. The reasons for this are so far unknown, speculation varies between mating displays, hierarchy within groups, or possibly a simple matter of preference.

On their behaviour: Intelligent but reclusive, they are rarely seen by anyone. Known to herd rats as humans would sheep. Males are slightly larger, and tend towards more openly aggressive behaviour. Females prefer stealth over strength, but if cornered will fight as fiercely as the males. Though they have claws and teeth, many also carry weapons fashioned from rocks or bones.

On their habitat: They are believed to be native to the Glistering Forest in Trizes, north of the Snowy Wastes. Their territory overlaps somewhat with that of the white wildcats. From the few observations made so far, there seems little conflict between the two species, but details are scant. It is possible they recognise each other as kin, as one researcher theorises (Atwood etc, 1903).

On their culture: What cultural or spiritual practices they may have are largely unknown to us, though there are suggestions they may follow a simple kind of druidism. The one artefact of their race known to us appears to be a wand-like item, primitively carved from wood and marked with strange sigils. Whether this means the creatures are capable of magic use, or that it is simply a toy or ornament, we have yet to discover.

On their reproductive habits: It has been suggested that the catfolk have a third physical sex (Johns etc, 1918) in addition to male and female. While this is a possibility, many dismiss it as misinterpretation of the creatures’ appearances. None have managed to get close enough to examine them to confirm either way. To summarise the Johns study, the long haired are presumed females, the short haired presumed males, and those with short body hair and long manes are thought to be the third ‘kimale’ sex. Others think this may be no more than genetic variance, or possibly a representation of individual status. So-called ‘kimales’ have been known to perform most child rearing, suggesting a position similar to that of a wet nurse.

Nightcat pov

We cats are sleek and beautiful. Furless eyes are too weak to see our colours. We are many glorious shades of night sky, covered in hidden stars. Cloth is for keeping catlings warm, or modesty of shecats carrying them. Sometimes for holding things to keep our claws free. Our tails are long and swishy. They keep us steady and serve as extra defence if we are surprised by enemies.

We are clever. Clever enough to know the furless are dangerous and should be avoided. You will not see us if we do not want you to. The scurriers belong to us and are well protected. Trophies from our hunts make good extra weapons, when we want something different than bite or scratch.

All of us are fierce fighters, but not all like to fight. Some are sneaky, or gentle, or creative, or more clever than the rest. Shecats often like to sneak or think, but not always. Hecats often like to fight or build, but not always. Theycats often make good Alits or Runecats, but not always. But all cats have skill, and are good cats.

We live in the snow trees, far from the furless and their kind. The daycats live near, and are wild enough to keep bad furless away. They are not us, and we are not them, but we are friends. We were not always such. Once we fought over food and trees, and many cats became still. Then the furless came to take our trees, and nightcats joined with daycats to drive them away. Nightcat and daycat have been friends since then.

Sometimes a good furless appears in our trees. We do not mind the good furless, but they are few. A good furless can become catfriend, if they learn well enough and behave more like cat than furless. Most furless do not have the patience and cleverness for this.

We live in aliteras, of no more than thirty cats. When an alitera becomes too big, a new one is made with a new Alit. The Alit is our leader, who understands the scurriers and trees and snow better than the rest. The Alit must be the best cat, their role to all of us like a parent to their young. A good Alit is fair and kind, loved by their own alitera and respected by others. A bad Alit is challenged by the rest of their alitera, sometimes even made still, and a new Alit is chosen.

Some cats talk with spirits, and can work with them to make strange things happen. These cats are called Runecats. Though Runecats are much loved and respected, they are also apart from most cats. We have heard some furless are like Runecats, and wonder if they are apart also.

Catlings are made when a shecat and a hecat bond. The shecat carries them until they are born, protected by the hecat, and a theycat will then raise them. Once catling becomes full grown cat, it becomes she-, he-, or theycat. Sometimes it is not so obvious which a catling will be, and those ones are simply cats until it becomes clear.

[hummingbird-games]

Dev Diaries

April 4th, 2024

😃When did writing updates become such a chore to me??? I remember when I was excited to share what I was doing, grrrrrrrrrr...

Well. Here's what's happening in Gemini World:

The Knight Dance HOPEFULLY will go live this month because the team and I are entering it in the Amare Festival. I really want y'all to play this game but I also have been working on it for so long that I want to check it off my list lol.

Please check Ko-fi for free posts (and if I'm not posting enough HSD on Tumblr, which, I'M SO SORRY!!!) The most recent thing I threw in the queue was a certain student's I.D. card 👀 but I have plans to put everyone's on there!

HSD: JY #2 is getting its updated, non-snapshot demo this summer! Also, I'd like to clear up some confusion. As awesome as it would be, the full game is not coming out this year. The focus is to put out this last demo and then hunker down and finish writing. As of this post, I decided to write Ryan's full route from top to bottom. His common route content and Billie's are the only finished ones (and may or may not make an appearance in the upcoming demo. lol idk yet). However, Ryan's route has been crystalized in my mind for MONTHS so I figure we'll get my boy out the way so I can focus on the rest of the children 🥲Remember, Florence still doesn't have an outline and das not good....

One of the things I want to be better about with this sequel is embracing the spectrum that is asexuality and aromanticism. I did...something with the first game ☠️ but I feel like the rep could have been better in a lot of places (and I identify as ace, not aro, so I KNOW rep could have been better 🤧)

Having a friendship route was a solid decision, and even if most players didn't fool with it, a few let me know that they played HSD #1 for that feature. Which is cool because I'm tired of playing games that make ending up with a friend character a consolation. FRIENDSHIP IS NOT A CONSOLATION!!!

That said, there are STILL so many things that I won't be able touch on in HSD #2, but I don't claim to be the authority on any sexuality. The above screen is only seen in the friendship route and gives flavor dialogue that can help players define their MC. As someone who came into her asexuality waaaay past her HS and college days, I didn't have the representation to better explain and understand myself, so. Yup.

Alsoooo while we're going on about this sequel, no spoilers but even if you pick a romance route, you're not safe from friend angst 🤷🏽‍♀️Now, if your MC is directly affected or just a poor bystander...?👀🔍

And that's it! April is gonna be SO MUCH FUN because so many game updates are dropping

Our Wonderland finale *sob*

TCT DLC bonus stories

Date With Death DLC Kickstarter

chapter 7 release date announcement for College Craze

Breathless Winds release

And other stuff I probably forgot! So yeah. Heading to work now, but I hope all of y'all have a great day/night, and I'll see you in the next update! 💛

- Gemini

[aaal-iz-well]

Guyssss...

Okay, babe, deep breath.

Done?

Good.

Let's roll

WTF is happening? I swear to god a month ago I was checking this hashtag for updates like my life depended on it, and I had great plans for my wip's and everyone was making predictions about what the vault might contain.

Then I tell myself to start making some headway with my studies because exams are breathing down my neck and I (somehow) manage to keep away from this fandom that has been my life and blood for so long. AND ALL HELL BREAKS LOSE!!

Now we know that there are THREE books related to this fandom coming out this year and we might get Toby and Hannah and I'm so excited!

But there are two characters who have my undivided attention atm and I want to talk about them!

So now we have all the main characters, I'm so thrilled that Rohan is one of them because his story is so intriguing to me and it also adds to some much needed Indian or Pakistani (though most prob Indian) representation.

Just think about the kind of background he must have come from, let that blow your mind!

I know that he is going to have a real tragic backstory. Think something involving childhood abandonment or abuse or (most probably) separation from his loving family, coming to London, being faced with the HUGE cultural shock and the nail biting cold and relentless rain. Add to this: making sense of the weird accent. Being picked off the street to do some odd work for the Devil's Mercy. Slowly getting to know it's secrets and rising among its ranks till he reached Factotum. Falling for Zella (first love, maybe?), having his heart broken.

AND THEN HAVING HIS TITLE STRIPPED AT THE END!

CAN YOU FEEL THE BAD BLOOD ENERGY RISING?

'cause baby now we got bad blood...

I also believe that often things are not so one dimensional and that Zella is nothing short of deserving the position. She has undeniably had her struggles with gaining the power she now holds and being a woman of colour in a royal household. But I'm focusing of Rohan here, maybe I'll make a detailed post about Zella sometime later?

These are all only theories, but I can't help thinking that it's going to be something along these lines.

And then there's the fact that Jameson is not going to be a main character (*crying emoji cause I cant seem to insert one of the proper size*) Like he has so many unfinished threads and so much family drama to sort out.

We never got to see an independent confrontation of Ian over how he used Jameson to get what he wanted, or anything about the Prague mystery!!

And I know this might be a bit controversial with some of you, but I really want to see him and Avery fight. Because ofc they are a power couple and express their love to each other in such creative ways. BUT, but you get to know so much about a character when you see their world shifting, when the one thing that they believed to be an anchor is uprooted. How they act when the other is out of orbit. AND WE SIMPLY HAVEN'T SEEN THAT FOR JAMESON. I also might be holding out for a very hot romantic make up later on, but my point stands.

So there's my little (rather late) bit, but still.

Also to those who have read my work and have been so kind to shower me with kudos and comments, I want to apologise profusely. There is a lot to come, but just not at this moment when exams are leeching the life out of me, and trust me when I say I have the most elaborate plans for the future!

Like always, can't wait to hear all your brilliant thoughts. Have a good day/night (depending on whatever time zone you guys are in)

Also please check out Lockwood and Co if you have the time because it's something that I can't stop thinking about and would love to talk about. As an added bonus, one of the mc is kinda like Jameson (and that's how you know I have a type)

[theblogwithoutfear]

My thoughts on Echo

(Not that anyone's dying to hear my takes lmao) This is gonna be a long post so buckle up

I feel like a lot of people either really loved it or really hated it. I think I'm somewhere in the middle. There was a lot to love about it, there were some really great moments, but also there was a lot left to be desired. I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I hoped, but I want to be fair about it. I'm interested to see if people agree with me, if I'm completely wrong, etc. So feel free to tell me if I'm way off base with some of these opinions.

To start, here's the things I liked about it (in no particular order):

The fight choreography. The brutality of it was really something, especially in that first episode. It felt pretty grounded and real for the most part, which I really appreciated. That's one of the things that set Daredevil apart, so it's really great to see that Marvel's willing to go there again (although I think it got tamer as the show went on, wish the brutality would have kept up)

Maya's characterization, especially in the beginning of the show. I liked her moral complexity, I liked her refusal to be a good guy or a bad guy (wish that continued more throughout, tbh)

The canonization of the Netflix shows!!! We finally have acknowledgement. The scene with the hammer? The flashbacks to Fisk's father? Amazing.

Parallels between Maya and Fisk. I loved the way their relationship directly mirrored the way Fisk interacted with his father. Fisk in essence, becoming his father—the exact person he always wanted to avoid. And then Maya kicking the ice cream man when he's already down? Like that scene with the bully in DD season 1? Chef's kiss.

Sound design/editing. They made some really cool creative decisions here, especially for a show about a deaf person. Very cool.

Depiction of Indigenous culture. I'm not qualified to really speak on this, so I may be way off base, but it felt really respectful to me. It didn't seem to fetishize or exoticize Maya's heritage; it explored the everyday lives of her and her family, the way they partcipate in their culture. The combination of her powers with her heritage was beautiful to me.

The cinematography at certain scenes. I don't think it was exceptional throughout, but there were some great moments. The flashback sequences with her ancestors, the silent movie thing, and the scene with Fisk and the ice cream man all had pretty stunning cinematography.

D'onofrio's acting. But that's a given.

Disability representation. It felt to me like it was done in a very respectful, normalizing way, which is so important.

Alaqua Cox's performance. I was really impressed. Maya Lopez is her first role; and she's really killed it. I think at times she could have expanded her range a little, but overall, very excellent.

As a bonus (because the show's not about him and I don't want to make it all about him): Matt's cameo. Amazing. It was such a cool decision to show a Daredevil fight from the villain perspective. It made Matt look soooo scary. Also, I love the implications that he's being puppeteered by Fisk! Even after all he's done to take Fisk down, Fisk still has the upper hand. Fisk knew he was there, and lured him there to get Maya to fight him? As a training exercise? Really cool, interesting implications to be explored in DDBA.

So there's a lot to love about the show obviously. However, at least for me, there was also a lot to criticize—and the criticisms overpowered the good things imo. Again, that's just me, and if you loved the show, more power to you!

Here's the things that I didn't like:

Tonal whiplash. It felt like the show couldn't really decide if it wanted to be a dark gritty crime thriller, or if it wanted to be a heartwarming family dramedy. There was also a little too much "Marvel humor," if you know what I mean. It was just really jarring at times.

The bait and switch. Whatever your thoughts on the show, I think it's fair to say that it was WAAAY off from what the trailers gave us. The trailers relied so heavily on content from the original Daredevil show, and the way they were edited made it seem like it was going to be a lot closer, tonally and quality-wise, to Daredevil. They made it look way darker and grittier than the show actually was. To be clear: I'm NOT upset that Matt wasn't in it more. It wasn't his show, and I was more than happy with his cameo. I'm just irritated at the bait and switch from the trailers, both tone and content wise.

Fisk's characterization. This is probably the thing that irritated me the most. He was so weak here!! I wasn't scared of him at all. In Daredevil, every time Fisk came on screen I felt like my intestines were shriveling up in fear. In Echo, though, he just felt so vulnerable and helpless and almost pathetic. I mean, Daredevil showed Fisk's vulnerability, but it almost made him scarier. Here, though, he just felt like a run-of-the-mill Marvel villain. A bad guy, sure, but not really scary. (I think the exception to this is the ice cream man scene, which was excellent).

Emotional stakes. They were too low for me. The writers didn't really give me any reason to care that much about what was going on. I didn't feel terribly connected to Maya or her family; I don't know, I just didn't feel that we had enough investment in them. I don't really know how to solve this problem—it definitely wasn't a matter of screen time, because they got plenty. But for some reason, I just didn't really feel connected to any of them. I think my one exception to this was Henry; something about him was really compelling, and I really cared what happened to him. But with everyone else, I just felt sort of disconnected and a little apathetic. To make matters worse, though, it felt like the writers kept trying to use shorthand to make us care—they used different tropes and techniques to try to manufacture emotion; lots of sappy music and dialogue and things like that. But honestly, it all felt very unearned. It felt like emotional manipulation a little bit, if I'm being honest.

Fisk and Maya's relationship. We were just kind of told that they are close, and we get one scene of Maya as a little girl (again, the ice cream scene, which was great). But at that point, they were already close. I think I would have bought into their relationship more if we got to see how they first met, and why Fisk cared about her so deeply. The thing that sets Fisk apart from other Marvel villains is his great capacity for love, imo. But their relationship felt cheap and inauthentic, and I just didn't buy it. I think we needed more scenes like the ice cream man scene for their relationship to feel really authentic.

Why was Fisk willing to give Maya his criminal empire? Make her the queenpin? After she shot him in the head??? This is a man who decapitated someone after that guy embarrassed him. Maya attempts murder, and Fisk is like "take my business." It just didn't make any sense to me. Maybe it would have made more sense if we got some more in-depth views of Fisk's love for Maya, but as it was, this just fell flat for me.

Fisk felt out of character in a lot of regards, but one of them is that he never learned ASL. What??? He's a smart man, and very good at languages. In Daredevil we see that he speaks the languages of everyone he works with—Madame Gao, Nobu, etc.—because he respects them and because he wants to be involved and know the ins and outs of his people. But he won't even learn ASL for a woman who he supposedly sees as a daughter???

The contact lens thing. That was just so weird, I did not like it Sam-I-Am. I don't know, maybe they'll make it work better if they use it in DDBA, but who knows.

How did Fisk gain so much power again??? At the end of Daredevil season 3, which is now officially canon, Fisk was universally hated by the city after everything he did. But suddenly he has all this power, and it's unexplained. To be fair, I'll give the show a temporary pass. I assume that DDBA will answer some of those questions, probably gaining power during the blip, going under the radar until he has the media under his control, etc. But it felt weird not to have any acknowledgement of his current position or how he got there throughout the course of the show.

Fisk being defeated with Maya's new powers. I don't know, I think just the way it was executed, it felt really cheesy. Even cringey. I think the storyline of the ancestor magic could have been so powerful and cool against a different sort of villain. It would have been more impactful against a villain who had been set up as a more direct metaphor for racism or colonialism (I mean, Fisk is used as a metaphor for gentrification in Daredevil, but they never really go into that in Echo). I don't know, I think the way he was defeated was just really dissatisfying, and I was just disappointed.

Maya's powers in general felt a little underdeveloped. It's different than the comics, which is fine, but in that case, I think they should have spent even more time going over exactly what she can do. I don't know, again, it just felt cheesy at times. Which would have been fine in another show, but in this one, which was billed as a gritty, dark, crime drama, it just felt really out of place.

Her family members suddenly getting powers and then easily beating up Fisk's goons? That felt really cheesy to me. It made Fisk feel absolutely powerless and way less interesting of a villain. I just was never at all in any doubt that Maya's family was going to come out of it okay, because Fisk was not scary and they beat him so easily. It made the stakes feel really low. At the end of the show I was just like, "Oh, Fisk is weak. Guess Matt apparently is too, because Maya and her family took Fisk out in like five minutes."

Honestly, just the whole last episode. Before that episode, the show was at, like, a 7 for me. But the last episode dropped it down to a 5 imo. Again, a lot of the stuff in episode 5 is fine, but just didn't necessarily fit the genre or tone of the show.

I was probably going into it with expectations too high. But I think, considering the talent that Marvel has, the show could have been incredible. I don't want to blame the artists too much, honestly, because there's clearly a lot of great artistic choices throughout. The whole thing feels like the writers wanted to do risky, interesting things with the storytelling, and then studio execs swooped in and were like

"No! You have to follow The Formula™️! The lead has to believe in herself and help everyone with magic and the villain needs to be defeated really conventionally and easily. And you need to use lots of jokes and sitcom style banter. It has to feel like a MARVEL movie, because everyone loves those. No one has any complaints about how stale they've gotten lately. Stick to the formula."

So it just feels like a bunch of half-baked decisions and risks they started on, but didn't fully commit to.

Idk, I'll give it a rewatch in a little while and see if my opinion changes or not. But those are my thoughts at this point. Again, not the worst show ever, but far below the bar of what it could have been. A lot of potential, but overall not to the standard that I think it deserved.

I'd be interested to hear other people's thoughts; if you agree, disagree, think I'm an idiot, etc.

(An obligatory Matt gif to end the post)

[wyldblunt]

i love your seeing your art, but I'm so curious to see what your salads (like lorelai, merritt, etc) look like in game! Ik sometimes in-game representations aren't completely accurate, but could you show some screenshots, for curiosity reasons 👀

i can!!! full disclosure i am very bad at screencaps (i WANT to get better i'm just lazy + impatient....) so i actually don't have a ton of good ones -- normally i just am kind of. spamming rough caps without even hiding the UI just to use as drawing reference. BUT, let's see what i do have!

starting with the big four: marina's commander, alan!

(the yellow guy in those last two caps is my clooney -- a lot of the time most of the good caps i have of marina's characters are duo ones like this bc we are really bad at remembering to send each other individual character caps from our respective computers lmao)

then of course my commander, glyn, who i have posted caps of before but why not more:

and then our lieutenant commanders, lorelei (mine) and merrit (marina's):

these are a little out of date bc i recently swapped lorelei over to the f model and i like a lot of things about that better, but i still consider both appearances canon!

also as a bonus, the most important merrit cap i have ever taken:

and under the cut i'll put some of our side characters!

OKAY SO here's a little more clooney (including some with lingering ui lol sorry):

(it is really fucked up that i can't keep his aviators on when he's wearing outfits so i have to self soothe)

bowyn (pink, mine) and rhys (dark purple, marina's):

(these are also out of date bc we decided later on that bowyn is actually way taller than rhys but. doesn't bother us bad enough for us to blow TWO makeover kits just to adjust height sliders, yknow)

maelduin (tawny, mine) and cadair (green, marina's):

aaand okay re: viper squad. i did make donner but i don't have any good caps rn and i am too lazy to start gw up to take them oops sorry. i do have PLANS for daimhin tho:

and here's an attempt i made at damage but... i don't think i'm actually gonna make her bc like. if i can't have the venus flytrap hair what's the point. i think it would bother me the whole time. this design is still cute tho:

AND THAT'S ALL THE IMAGES I'M ALLOWED TO PUT IN ONE POST APPARENTLY LMAO it's fine bc some of my other ocs i have caps of but i'm not quite satisfied w them yet!! so maybe someday :)

[imminentinertia]

I'm a nice little bisexual woman who find it unacceptable that the best piece of entertainment about girls who like girls I've ever seen is a film from 1998. 1998!!!

I've certainly liked more wlw films and shows than this. Also I watched Fucking Åmål at a very impressionable age. But surely I should be able to find something as good nearly three decades after it premiered, eh.

I'm giving pretty much every Asian GL I can find a go, as I've always given most wlw films and shows a go. I want them to be good. I need good wlw media in my life - and to be fair, there's a lot that's fairly good.

(I'm not really looking for representation I can personally relate to, as I've always felt like the odd one out in most settings and I'm very surprised whenever I see a me-ish bi or lesbian character. I just want a story that engages me and some prettiness or charm to admire. Bonus points for good cinematography, a soundtrack I like and so on.)

By GL I mean a tropey romance between girls/women. Some shows are often counted as GLs while I personally don't find them tropey enough, and as with all genres there's characteristics overlap and sometimes genre Venn diagrams look more or less like this:

So I'm not going to count things like She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat because I don't really see it as belonging in the queer romance sub-genre Girl's Love, but I'm not arguing with anyone who sees it as such.

I like to complain about how I dislike a number of the common QL tropes but let's be honest, I'll adore pretty much any tired trope if it's done in a way I find appealing (I even like the sort of body swap in My Stand-In, and I detest body swap (no really, I do)). So I ought to be all set to be swept off my feet by cute love stories featuring pretty girls and women, right?

Riiiight.

In this reblog of a post about the reception of 23.5, @illgiveyouahint makes some points that really resonate with me (reblogs are turned off, hence this separate post):

"(...) why do I have to sit through these shows about high femme girls that I have no connection to and who I frankly find boring (...) Why do I have to sit through these shows that sometimes just really don't make sense (...) Yes the girls are kissing but is it really enough for me? For us? Are we really watching these shows just to see girls kiss? Is that all? And are we not allowed to demand more. Can't we demand that we want coherent storylines and some depth to the characters?"

We absolutely can.

Also the girls kissing is usually pretty bad (scowling at the side couple in Wedding Plan, who ought to win awards for Worst Kiss of the Decade, although they were otherwise enjoyable) whereas the boys have mostly learned how to kiss and the directors and producers of BLs have mostly learned that the actors should kiss like human beings. Anyway.

I get that at this point GL production is speedrunning the BL development stages. Gap is arguably an office drama, it didn't take nearly a decade of mostly high school/uni dramas to get there. The Last Case looks like it will be a crime story (please get as far as airing). Love Senior looks fascinatingly a lot like a fix-it of a few uni BLs (and has good kissing). I give it at most two years until a series Y meta/criticism show appears where the Y is for Yuri.

But I mostly can't stand what's on offer so far. Sorry.

I noped out of Gap after episode 2 and all I can remember now is ALL THE THINGS ARE PINK and there was a horrible "comical" sidekick. I stopped watching 23.5 at some point in episode 2 because I was starting to need to kill Ongsa, and it's not good to want to kill the main character. I sort of enjoyed Love Senior, partly because the main character is enjoyable and a bit relatable to me, but I haven't finished it. And so on and so forth. Maybe The Two of Us will be enjoyable, since the characters are grown-ups and I liked Deep Night.

By all means adore the GLs that are out by now! It's just that I can't. The best GL storylines I've seen so far in this wave are honestly the wlw arcs in the strictly speaking non-QL show The Warp Effect. By best I mean those that were engaging and fulfilling to me.

So here's my demand:

coherent storylines would be nice (but I can live with messes if they're otherwise engaging)

plots that aren't all romance - crime, sci-fi, fantasy, action, period, sports, horror, give it to me

characters that aren't all stereotype

grown-ups! By all means make teen shows for the young crowd but please throw some grown women in too

by all means cater to those who appreciate high femme but please cater to the rest of us too

up the cinematography game, and I get that it will take some time to get better financing, but please make that a priority

have Mie Nannapas play a horny serial killer