#it's really cool to see especially since in the source material not all the characters got to spend much time together

[skaruresonic]

actually, yesterday I started playing Inuyasha: The Secret of the Cursed Mask for the PS2.

it's a pretty good game! plays a bit like a pared-down FF7 without all the bells and whistles, but it's a fairly solid experience otherwise. Sango is best girl <3

[visionsofmagic]

when they’re your best friend but secretly in love with you. || jujutsu kaisen

short, fluff, no proofread, tried best to stay in character. • masterlist. • just came into my mind, hope you like it! enjoy.

will buy you lots of things from flowers to necklaces, rings to treats, cute toys to dresses all the time. just love spending money on you because the smile on your face, kisses and hugs you give are enough to make them spend their money on you. nothing is precious than you. will kiss you like they do it accidentally but they blush anyway when you kiss them in return - chuckling. will want to be beside you all the time - day and night because you’re their source of air, energy, comfort - safe zone. will cling you while watching a movie - will choose horror movies purposefully in order to hug you or even sleep on your chest at the end of the movies. will get excited every time you get closer to them intentionally or unintentionally - blushing, shuttering, losing their own reality and focusing on you only. will try to be the only one in your life, getting a bit annoyed when others trying to flirt with you and can literally write an essay about how he can treat you better - can be a boyfriend/girlfriend material for you than others which will probably conclude by asking them whether they are in love with you or not. after a few moment in oblivion, they will understand what you are asking, getting fluffy, will say yes lots of times until you kiss them to shut them and chuckle. also, will try to show off their skills in front of you, asking how well they deal with the situations, being proud whenever you praise them.

yuji, satoru, nobara, choso, mei mei

will be mess around you, especially when you both are alone and no one else is around you because they can’t calm down enough to think straight beside you. probably will smile more, chuckle more, and even feel more talkative around you since you give them good vibes. will teach you the things you need to learn - want to learn with great attention and focus. will get blushing when they see how you are amazed by their skills, saying how it means nothing - literally humble even though they are so strong. will try to help you even if you don’t ask for it because they love taking some of your concerns from your shoulders, being there for you all the time even when their hands covered in blood. will confess their love to you all of sudden - even can be at a moment of highness, after a great mission maybe, just saying aloud their love and when you ask them directly, will get nervous and ask, “what? no. no?” but eventually will tell you - not so directly but enough to make you realize they love you. will smile childishly when you say you love them back.

suguru, megumi, yuta, nanami, toge

will act so cool around you like they even don’t know you are exist but they do - oh, they really do and you have all of their attention whenever you are in the same place with them. however, will act calm down when you get closer to them, making your presence known and smiling widely - such a brat but pretty, cute, beautiful, attractive, nearly perfect brat they love. will make you beg for them to help you since you are looking so cute while doing so. will not get excited so easily but oh, when they do, they will make sure you feel excited more than them at that moment. will not stop themselves to getting closer to you because what you can do when they get right behind, top, down on you? - nothing. no, you like it too and will reveal this fact like it’s a simple fact. will kiss you back - deeper each time, not realizing you being weak with their touches. will let you be the first one who confess love, then, will think about it for a while, teasing you and finally, will accept that they love you back but will not tell it aloud, no, will use their body language to make you realize that. will let you tease them in return though because you are their brat, no one’s else.

toji, maki, sukuna, shoko

[firestorm09890]

On Wuthering Heights and Canto VI (part 1)

if I don’t ramble I’ll die (spoilers, obviously)

so far this is probably the closest canto to its source material. we've got so many of the same things- Hindley being an asshole and treating Heathcliff poorly when running the Heights, Heathcliff only running away after hearing what Catherine said, Catherine getting married to Edgar (Linton, I guess? now that's interesting) and then dying, Hindley drinking his life away, even details down to Hindley asking his father for a violin on his trip where he picked up Heathcliff are the same.

The scene with Cathy talking about the feathers in the pillow was especially interesting to see, because that was such a small thing with a different context in the book and it's here in a different form.

What changed the most is that on his trip away from Wuthering Heights, instead of doing whatever the fuck he did in the book, Heathcliff ended up getting friends, AND got to see Ishmael go and destroy herself in the name of revenge firsthand, so he now has the character development to not perpetuate the cycle of abuse. I like that kind of canon divergence. we'll see if he gets worse from here, though!

I really appreciate them leaning into the gothic horror potential of a ghost in a house (though, of course, given how project moon stories go, it probably isn't just a ghost in a house, but like, that's what it gives the image of right now)

so, Linton. Linton Edgar, from the Edgar family. That's.... weird. Especially since Wuthering Heights already has a character with the given name Linton, and especially since Linton Edgar (LCB) and Linton Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights) are both very sickly (and, ngl, Linton Edgar is just as whiny as Linton Heathcliff....). But Linton Edgar seems to be filling the role of Edgar Linton. Linton Edgar also has an older brother who "left" and that's how he ended up with most of the family fortune, and neither Linton Heathcliff nor Edgar Linton had an older brother. it's definitely a standout when compared to all the stuff from above that's one-to-one with the source material. since they're already setting up some weird mirror world shit, I'm inclined to believe this is also related to that, but what the hell are they cooking

Nelly seems way too cool and cute, which makes me think she'll either betray us spectacularly, or die horribly.

Josephine, on the other hand, is hilarious and I hope she survives no matter what. I wasn't expecting Joseph at all and they went and genderbent him (gotta meet that old hag quota). Her personality is mostly the same, though the dedication to god seems to have been replaced by a dedication to the establishment, which makes sense in this setting.

thrilled to see how things get more fucked up

[suzuran777]

Review: Lamento stageplay

I've been waiting for a Lamento stageplay since the DRAMAtical Murder stageplay in 2019, so I'm really happy that it's finally real and that I got to watch this one! Since I also wrote a blog post about the sweet pool stageplay, I wanted to write one about the Lamento one too. I really enjoyed it! As usual the pictures I used in this blog are pictures posted by the staff and the official Twitter account! Please check it out if you want to see more.

First of all, this stageplay is pretty long! It's almost three hours long, an hour longer than Nitro+Chiral's previous stageplays. As usual, the first 45 minutes were a bit of a common route in which all the characters appeared. This was mostly the same in every route, but it did change a bit near the ending. After a short 10 minute break, it split into three different routes, so I had to watch three different shows to see all of the endings. It's technically a "musical drama (音楽劇)" which means it combines elements of a stageplay and a musical. I was kind of expecting only the Sanga to sing, but the main characters (Rai, Asato and Bardo) also sing together with Konoe sometimes! My favorite song was probably the opening song, when all of them sung a new version of Itou Kanako's "Lamento" with different lyrics! They also sang a slightly different version at the end of the stageplay. The common route also has two duet songs sung by Rai and Konoe, as Konoe learns about his power as a Sanga.

The new music was really nice, especially the background music. I love how they brought back the composers who made the game's OST to create new songs! I lowkey wish the devils had more songs because whenever they did sing during the opening and ending song of the stageplay, they sounded amazing together! I think it would also be great if they released studio recordings of the songs, as they are always a bit better than the live versions. So far they did already release an album of the instrumental songs which you can buy here, Ototoy shouldn't be region locked, so I think anyone can buy it!

The stage This time the venue was the same as the DRAMAtical Murder stageplay (Shinagawa Stellar Ball), which I've actually been to before, however it looked completely different this time! I liked how they turned the stage into one big forest. Whenever Leaks used his power on Konoe, they used this effect which made the stage look strange and trippy, it was really cool! I also really liked the green light effects they used whenever Konoe would use his Sanga abilities. The screenwriter Uchida Hiroki posted this picture on his Twitter account which kind of gives you an idea what it looked like!

Plot I was curious how they would turn a rather long game into a stageplay, but I think it worked surprisingly well. They kind of skipped over some of the stuff that happens early in the game when Konoe is still in Karou, but they do explain the general story, like the problems caused by the Void and the Sickness. Shui's character also kind of functions as a narrator in the stageplay, similar to Kamiya in the sweet pool stageplay and Virus and Trip in the DRAMAtical Murder stageplay, which is always a nice addition. It's not unusual for fans of the actors to watch stageplays without knowing the original source material, so I think this makes it possible for everyone to enjoy the show, no matter if they're familiar with the game or not.

Now for the different routes, I think all of them were great and the actors definitely put a lot of effort into their roles. Bardo's actor was really funny, especially in the scenes in which he teased Konoe (when he wanted a kiss lol), but I think he also did a great job during the serious scenes! I think Bardo's and Rai's actors had a lot of fun messing around with each other, like jokingly pushing each other, or fighting each other with their tails, which happened during one of the curtain calls people were allowed to record. Asato's actor definitely was a lot more calm compared to these two, but he did a great job at showing Asato's gentle personality! His actor mentioned listening to the drama CDs too including Lamento Love Love Gakuen, doing some extra research! (And for some reason he suddenly got into Togainu no Chi if I look at his Twitter account now...). They ended the stageplay performances on Sunday with Rai's route. Rai's actor, Katou Shou, did an incredible job as Rai during the more emotional scenes, like when Rai insists Konoe finds another Touga because he's afraid he will hurt Konoe. That scene in which Konoe realizes Karou (his hometown) had been completely consumed by the Void was also incredible.

I should probably mention that they showed the good ends only, so no devil endings in this one sadly. Razel's actor agreed that Razel should have his own route because every devil gets quite some scenes depending on the route, but Razel is always kind of left out! Also, can I just say that I absolutely love Froud's stageplay actor, he did such a great job at making the character look intimidating (he's also very tall...) even his voice sounds similar to Froud in the game. I also really liked Leaks' actor, he has a nice deep voice, and Shui's actor liked teasing him sometimes!!

I'm just happy that Lamento has been getting new content again lately, first the webtoon and now the stageplay. You can find lots of pictures and recordings that were taken with permission if you look for the ラメステ hashtag on Twitter! I saw that both Froud's and Konoe's original voice actors (Sasanuma Akira and Hatano Kazutoshi) actually went to watch the stageplay in person. Slow Damage's artist Yamada Uiro, who's also in charge of lots of other official Nitro+Chiral illustrations, also watched the stageplay and drew some new art of it! Always happy to see new Lamento art in the year 2024, I've been enjoying all of the new fanart posted on Twitter as well.

I wonder what stageplay they're planning on doing next, only Slow Damage and Togainu no Chi remain (unless they're planning on bringing Itsuwari no Alkanet or World End's Nightmare back). Next year is Togainu no Chi's 20th anniversary, so I am curious if they are going to release anything new! The director of Nitroplus (Digitaro) also mentioned that N+C is currently working on a new project, though it's currently unknown if it's a new game, Slow Damage fandisc or something else. I guess I will be patient!

[monstersinthecosmos]

can i ask what you mean re: disliking how the amc show deals with SA? (zero judgement ftr i just love hearing opinions about this show from other simple italian perv enjoyers. btw you're one of my favorite fic authors ever ever & i think abt gallows bird daily 🙈)

Obviously since you mentioned Gallows Bird in this very ask (thank you btw dskjglads I’m blushing) I’m not going to sit here and say people should never write about rape!!!!!!!!!!!  And I’ve been soul searching and talking this out with a friend today to make sure I’m not just being a hater and that I’m not having cognitive dissonance over the difference between writing porn (intentionally, intended as porn, labeled as porn) vs lazily throwing sexual assault at female characters for “character development”.

(putting this under a cut bc I'm not trying to hate on youse guys's show!!)

It's not that we should never talk about it, or never write about it, but I think it’s like any other storytelling where like, the framework and intention inside the text matters, and criticizing if it landed the way the creator intended is worth discussing. So like, I’m a fan of noncon smut fic, I won’t deny that. I also approach it in a context where I know I’m consuming smut, and it was intended as smut, and it belongs in its own lane. And I think, personally, I enjoy fics (which by nature are anarchistic and transformative) because they tend to be a commentary either on our culture or on the canon source material. Even when fanfics are PWPs that don’t go out of their way to talk about character arcs or make profound commentary on the canon, fanfic EXISTS as a commentary on canon in the first place, so it’s there by default.

So with AMC there’s a few things that really bother me about how they wrote Claudia in S1, and full disclosure I haven’t watched S2 yet, so take this with a grain of salt.

I don’t think it’s cool when a production team of mostly cishet men think that the only way to develop a female character is to have her raped. It’s lazy and it’s hurtful to the audience, and in this particular show it was not handled with sensitivity to make the story worth it. Like, what was the weight of the scene vs what it told us, and what was the payoff? Did the show earn this? (I personally don’t think it did.)

RJ himself said it was to “toughen her up” and that’s just, absolutely fucking nauseating to me, especially when it’s stamped with so many hallmarks of How Not to Write Rape. For example, the fact that they use it to tell us about LOUIS. It’s about LOUIS. It’s not about Claudia at all; we see her assault and the net result is seeing how it affects the MEN in her life. And even using her diary as a framing device for these moments, to tell it from her own words the best they can, it’s still about Louis. The pages being ripped out (in S1, idk how this lands in S2) are about protecting Louis. Claudia didn't remove the pages to protect herself, as far as we know--the men in her life removed them to protect Louis. Fridging a female character for the sake of developing the mens feelings is lazy and obnoxious, and in this story in particular it felt extremely unnecessary to the plot, and adding it at all just came across as gratuitous to me.

(Also, I can tell that this show is like, an exercise in slow burning, but, I just think the bar is really fucking high if they make this all mean something smarter but made everyone sit through this and wait 1.5+ years to get around to tucking it in lol. And like, idk what the pages could possibly say/how they will present it that will change my opinion, but RJ's comments can't be unheard so I'm not sure it matters and the trust simply isn't here, for me. Personally I don't have the patience to wait years for a show to close a loop like this but maybe you're more patient than me.)

I don’t want to get into a whole side essay about how gross I find the Claudia writing in general, but like, as a TLDR the way they aged her up only to reduce her to sex is just so fucking gross to me, and not like in a IT’S HORROR, IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE GROSS way, but in a This Is Kinda Fucking Sexist way. Especially with the sexist comments RJ has made about Anne Rice herself, while piggybacking her IP to make his show. But like, there were OTHER things about Claudia already. They already told us she came from an abusive background. She did not need to be raped for her to come home and recognize the abuse between her parents. Any number of horrific things could’ve happened to her out in the world, but the only way this team knows how to traumatize a girl is to have her raped.

And again I didn’t watch S2 yet so like, I’m not entirely sure how it shakes out, correct me if I’m wrong, but we find out now that it was prolonged and worse than what S1 showed us?

Like, why.

Who does the torture porn serve. We already got it, it was already horrific. We already got it. You’re overselling lol.

Claudia is already tough. She survived her dismal mortal life, she survived Lestat. She was brave enough to wander into the world, not just as a teen, but as a Black girl! She was already independent! In the book, she was the driving force behind helping Louis escape Lestat, and she was pulling the strings in getting them to Europe. The show has that material to pull from. We can see that she’s strong already. We don’t need more rape to communicate it. It’s lazy and gross. Especially when, in the same episode, they are able to traumatize Louis with horrific violence. The show knew how to use violence, mind gift manipulation, race and age and power dynamics in ways that did not involve rape, but still chose to have Claudia raped.

I don’t have an issue with stories talking about sexual assault but I think like, especially after Game of Thrones, we’ve had like, 10 years of media criticism mapping out how to write sexual assault successfully or respectfully, we’ve had endless commentary about how we can find other ways to traumatize women that do not rely on sexual assault, we’ve had endless commentary about how stories about sexual assault would be more effective if they were about the victim and not ultimately about the men in the story.  Like, enough of this already.

So, I’ll be curious to see how the show handles Armand’s sexual assault history, and if we see the writing handled differently because he’s a man, or because we have him directly on screen to tell us about it. This might reveal if this is a like, “only tool in the toolbox is rape” situation or a “women exist in fiction to be raped” situation. But if Lestat suffered at the hands of Magnus without being raped and Louis suffered at the hands of Lestat without being raped*, I have to ask why it was okay to have Claudia raped, why that was the thing they came up with, and while they can’t backpedal and fix the way RJ spoke about it during S1, they have an opportunity to be more intentional with the way they write it for Armand.

(*I do want to add that S1E5 being bookended by blood drinking was a hint that Lestat drinking from Louis during their fight was also rape, contrasted by the way Louis drinks from Armand in the beginning as ~ lovemaking ~; imo that could've been a more tasteful way to handle it in this universe specifically, when that’s the sex analog in the books. So like, yes in some ways Louis was raped by Lestat in this episode, but that also shows we respect Louis enough to have it symbolic vs Claudia’s being literal.)

But I just have a real bad feeling, the way they made Lestat WAY WORSE I just imagine they’ll do the same to Marius. And it’s sort of ironic that the show in a lot of ways exists in conversation with the book canon, like, the racial commentary feels at times like a commentary on the books’ racism, and I wonder what the decision making process was when they were picking which themes to correct, or comment on. Because a LOT of people criticize themes of rape and abuse in VC, and in some ways the show making it more overt feels like they’re putting a huge spotlight on it to acknowledge it properly, and in other ways, having Claudia raped feels like it’s going down the same path of insensitive, shallow writing.

And also, idk where I’m supposed to tuck this thought lol, but as an addendum I can’t not mention that I think it’s really fucked up that they’ve talked nonstop about how much they respect AR and the canon and yet had the analog character of her daughter raped. Like, in S1 they burn the tapes, in S2 they mock the plotlines as being a soap opera, and they have her daughter raped. Like, Claudia was the REASON for VC in the first place. IWTV is about Anne Rice grieving her daughter, and it sucks that the best way they could come up with existential cosmic horror for a teen girl vampire was to give her a perma-hymen and have her raped. It’s just gross, I don’t like it lol.

The first quote I saw from RJ when the show got announced, he said something like "IWTV was written by a grieving mother" -- not Anne Rice, best selling author who reinvented the vampire genre, but "a grieving mother." And it's just, idk. Rubs me the wrong way that he can reduce her that way and be this disrespectful for the character based on her daughter. =/

[temporalhiccup]

I'm trying to write about this without getting emotional, but it's pretty hard! Hah!

But it's been officially announced so I can finally talk about it! I'm the Lead Designer (damn) on the official Tomb Raider TTRPG (double damn). Shadows of Truth has a public playtest coming up soon, and I'm excited for folks to see what we've been working on!

It's been a wild ride and a fun time, but this is also the biggest challenge I've had to face as a ttrpg designer. Like many indie folks I've drawn inspiration from the media we love (Apocalypse Keys is proudly Hellboy-inspired, among other things!) while still making it our own unique thing.

Tomb Raider has been completely different, in that I have to do my best to translate some awesome video game history into a ttrpg experience. And I gotta be as true to the source material and experience as possible, while still centering what makes ttrpgs great!

Tomb Raider is also a franchise that's been around for almost 30 years and is a HUGE DEAL. It's hard to describe how much of an impact it's made on action-adventure video games, repeatedly! Lara Croft is easily one of the most iconic characters in video games and the genre, and her Adventures include (several) dinosaurs, wild transhuman demonic Atlantean stuff, and apocalypse-inducing artifacts.

But Lara to me, especially since the 2013 game, has been a truly amazing and conflicted heroine. The last three games that grounded her and made her vulnerable, while still creating intense experiences, really hooked me. I really wanted to honor the journey of Tomb Raider and make a really fun and thrilling ttrpg for folks.

But anyone who knows me, knows that anti-colonial design is in all my games. It's just who I am, and it's not something I consciously did at first. It wasn't even until I started designing ttrpgs, in my 30s, that I realized how important my personal decolonization process was, and a lot of that has helped me discover new aspects of my identity (including being a transmasculine person).

So, I don't need to tell you that a franchise called Tomb Raider has some colonial implications, right?

As development goes on, folks have asked me "How is the game anti-colonial?" or "How are you addressing the colonialism?" I want to start off by saying as a team we conceptualized what that could mean while still being true to the franchise. But since then, as Lead Designer, I've had to make hundreds of decisions that are reflected in countless design and structural choices. I can point to dozens of mechanics and things and describe how this is my personal attempt to present anti-colonial gaming, and I'm grateful for the help our team of consultants and playtesters in guiding me.

It's kind of wild, but in chasing after and reaching for anti-colonial design, I've had to figure out how to implement great tech from other designers, but also come up with lots of new stuff too. There's some really cool Adventure design stuff that is really hard to pull off in a PbtA framework where you play to find out. (Arguably, PbtA itself has a lot of anti-colonial play about it compared to mainstream ttrpgs and it's one of the reasons we used PbtA as a design framework but that's a whole other conversation)

I'm really so grateful for the support from the team! It's hard to feel like I'm good enough and can measure up to Evil Hat's faith in me, but they've been incredibly supportive and open, and it's been stellar. Crystal Dynamics has also been amazing to work with, especially because it was important to me that while we honor how awesome Tomb Raider is, we don't downplay the difficult truths of colonialism and its ongoing effects. And they were so incredibly on board for that! It's so rare for a marginalized person like me to be granted an opportunity like this, and I am determined to give it my all.

We've built a team that's been amazing to collaborate with, and @ostrichmonkey-games has been doing incredible work alongside me. I'm really proud of what we're doing as a team! I can't wait for folks to see it come together.

You can also check out the Polygon (!!!) article about the game, which gives you a sense of some of the cool mechanics at play!

I know it's easy to write off an IP ttrpg based on a really big franchise (and for good reasons, unfortunately). But I really do think we're doing something special here! I hope y'all will give the game a chance and check it out when the public playtest starts up!

[filmmarvel]

PJO Series Overall Thoughts + Pros and Cons

Disclaimer! First of all, there are a lot more cons than pros here, and if you loved the show and don’t want to hear my criticism just keep scrolling. Second, I’m not someone to complain just because it isn’t exactly how it was in the book! I have quite a range of feelings about story changes. In regard to the ones I’ve listed as cons, i’m just irritated that they haven’t been able to match the book in frankly any capacity. I believe that if you’re making changes, it should be a) out of necessity, b) to improve upon the material, or c) taking positive creative license to try a new spin on an element from the source material. But the changes I’m complaining about, for the most part, haven’t met any of those requirements.

Pros:

Sets and Visuals

It was so magical seeing camp come to life!

The Underworld looks fantastic, the visuals are super cool, especially the Fields of Asphodel. That was a really cool spin on the books- the CGI was pretty good, and the concept there was really interesting.

Olympus was very cool looking too! It reminded me of Asgard.

Overall I Just Think There’s Lots of Potential!

Since the leads are fairly inexperienced (and kids), you can’t expect them to be incredible. They’re doing just fine, but I think they have a lot of potential, and I’m excited to see them grow over the course of the series!

Generally I still really like the casting and have high hopes for these actors, I just wish (for our sake and theirs) that they had better material to work with.

Plot Changes

This ones kind of a pro AND a con: Generally, I really like the flashbacks! They add a lot more depth to Sally, and her relationships with Percy and Poseidon. That being said, the episodes typically feel far too short to be adding material that wasn’t in the books. I thought it was fantastic in episode 7, but in other episodes it didn’t quite work when so much else was cut, or there were opportunities left untaken as a result.

I also liked that they included a few flashbacks with Luke in the finale- there was so much training and time at camp that didn’t fit into the first two episodes.

They got rid of the “names have power” stuff which is great (never made sense in the books).

They did a really nice job humanizing Medusa, but still creating conflict with her, and simultaneously setting up further issues with the gods.

I also agreed with their decision to move the fight from Santa Monica to Montauk, to save time.

Cons:

Dialogue and Writing

The dialogue is definitely less charming than in the books. It’s a huge part of what makes them fun, and the dialogue here is honestly pretty bland. The characters don’t totally feel like themselves, but it isn’t only the acting. Forcing the characters to be explaining stuff to each other nearly every time they have a conversation makes them a lot less personable.

Honestly, this series feels kind of elementary in comparison to the middle grade books. I’d imagine that, like the books, they were aiming to create something that could be enjoyed by young kids and adults alike. But I didn’t find it as successful as the book in this regard.

And the dialogue is consistently so surface level! Stiff, boring, and above all, CONSTANTLY telling over showing. This affects the likability of the characters, and the ability of the actors. Both parties are deterred by the info dumping, as they aren’t really given as many genuine lines or interactions as they should have.

Honestly, it kind of feels a bit like they gave some of Percy’s personality to Annabeth in parts of the show? I saw someone else point out that they’re kind of giving Annabeth the Hermione treatment (ie giving her some of the other characters good moments), which I kind of agree with. However, a lot of that was towards the beginning and middle of the season and has somewhat improved since.

I posted a whole rant earlier about the Lotus Casino episode, which I’ll just summarize: theres a consistent pattern in the show of having the characters figure out what’s going on immediately, removing the danger, and more importantly, not allowing the characters to make mistakes, which weakens both them and the plot. In addition, I didn’t like that they brought up May Castellan already, primarily because it was just another info dump, which (in my mind) gets lost amongst all the other info dumps and removes the poignancy from the reveal. Now, there’s absolutely time to fix the May Castellan situation and ensure that it still packs a punch later on, but for this season it wasn’t great. Go check out my last post if you’d like to hear the rest of my argument on that episode!

Some additional examples of the ‘not letting the characters experience danger’ thing: Procrustes (obviously), and Kronos- forget whether or not Percy should know who Kronos is, the biggest issue is that there’s very little evidence or buildup, so (again) there’s no tension or shock at the reveal. And finally, with Luke. I was so annoyed when Percy figured it out! I could’ve believe that they were doing it AGAIN. I still enjoyed that scene because Walker and Charlie were great, but that was disappointing for sure.

The thing with the pearls honestly amounted to nothing, and there was no reason for Annabeth to not be present in the underworld: that was just a tearjerker for the sake of being a tearjerker (manufactured drama).

Lowering the Stakes

I just wish they’d made it SLIGHTLY more mature- don’t get me wrong, it’s a kids show! I’m very well aware of that! But this feels a lot tamer than a lot of kids (PG) movies involving monsters and stuff.

Gabe was a real piece of shit in the books, but in the show they just kinda made him look lazy and turned him into comic relief. And I don’t believe in the argument that they had to make this change to benefit a younger audience- they didn’t really need to change anything there.

Throughout the majority of the season, I felt like they weren’t allowing the gods to be truly intimidating, or powerful. First with Ares, who wasn’t BAD but generally didn’t have that kind of dramatic presence that he had in the books. Again with Hades, who wasn’t shown as being REMOTELY intimidating, and perhaps the biggest offense of all- Zeus. Having the deadline pass with seemingly zero consequence or threat of consequence does absolutely nothing (and certainly doesn’t increase tension like I’m pretty sure Rick Riordan said was their reason for changing it). Up until the finale, viewers had very few reasons to fear the Gods. Even Dionysus and Hephaestus! In the books there’s a clear line- you can interact with them, but you DONT want to offend them. There’s a clear threat of power, and that just wasn’t remotely present for a while.

And again, I just want to clarify- this is an overall writing problem! It’s not that Ares, or any other one of the gods I just mentioned has a different personality than in the books, it’s that a show like this (KIDS OR NOT) should still be compelling, and part of that includes having real danger and clear stakes.

I would add that they did a much better job with this in the finale! Lance Reddick gave such an amazing performance, and truly made Zeus an intimidating figure. The fight on the beach with Ares was great as well. So I’m optimistic about this criticism moving into season 2, but I stand by the idea that this was an issue for the majority of the series.

Overall, it felt like they weren’t taking the serious parts seriously, AND they didn’t take the comedy as seriously either? So it isn’t as lighthearted OR as impactful as the books. It feels so much more bland and watered down by comparison.

Episodes Were Too Short

Everything just flowed really well in the books, here the pacing is off and the dialogue isn’t as natural (again, they’re forced to rely on a lot of telling instead of showing which takes away from genuine moments). Many character details and personality traits were cut for the sake of additional verbal explanation

As many others have pointed out, the fight scenes also feel pretty rushed, and haven’t quite conveyed the sense of urgency that they should. It all just lowers the stakes.

This Ones Kind of a Joke, but the Casting for Hephaestus

It’s mostly my book bias. This guy was NOT giving Hephaestus. Mainly because Hephaestus is the god of the forge, and I can’t picture this guy anywhere near one of those. He kind of looked like one of Santa’s elves, he’s giving tinkerer not GOD of the FORGE. This is also something they can absolutely fix/win me over in time lmao

Changes

I already mentioned most of the changes (good and bad) already, but there’s one more. I kind of wish they had kept Percy’s dream about Tartarus, especially given that they decided to have Percy figure out Kronos is behind it all earlier- it just would’ve clicked a little easier.

Finishing Thoughts

I don’t want to totally sound like a hater! I’m still enjoying the series, and I really hope it gets renewed for season 2! I was just disappointed in the weak writing. I hope that the writers will be able to recognize these flaws and improve for season 2.

Alright, I don’t really expect anyone to read this whole thing, but if you made it: thanks for reading! I’m curious to hear your thoughts, so I’d really appreciate comments, just keep it civil!

[waeirfaahl]

Balto 2 Wolf Quest main problem

Balto-2 was… a very controversial topic among fans, especially fans of the original Balto 1995 film. The only defense for the sequel that I can say — the crew of Balto-2 (especially the writer and the director) were really nice people, as well as the sources of inspiration for Wolf Quest were really deep, mature and interesting and gave very promising themes about coming of age, parent-child relationships, finding own place in the world, self-discovering, learning the culture of far relatives and ties with nature. And they had several fresh and cool ideas for another sequel. However, the story has issues, which, unfortunately, ruin really a good story. From the story perspective there are two aspects, which totally contradict to the original film and hence devalue it.

First of all. In the original Balto the main protagonist becomes the hero, who saved sick kids of Nome, so both humans and dogs finally accept him and see his kindness and nobility. In Balto-2 Aleu is the only pup, who resembles Balto the most, hence every family would adopt her first, a daughter of the wolf hero. But for some reason nobody wants to adopt her due to wolf traits despite there's no reasons for distrust toward wolfdogs anymore.

Second. In the original film Balto finds out who he truly is (a wolf) and embraces his wolf nature, overcoming his inner demons and self-doubts in the gorgeous white wolf scene. Simply saying, Balto accepts his wolf heritage and becomes confident, he realizes that it is a strength, not a weakness or disgrace, and exactly this saved his life and lifes of those kids, hence he would teach his pups to be noble and confident, be proud of the wolf ancestory.

However, for some reason Balto-2 ignores this crucial moment and makes Balto to be ashamed of his wolf side again and to hide from his daughter the fact of his wild roots, insisting the idea that she will be a good dog and her heritage is great due to her mother being a purebred dog. Yep, the same character, who said "Since when you need a pedigree to help someone?" in the original movie, in the sequel points out purebred dogs as superior... The main complaint from fans of the original film was the decision of the sequel to turn the White Wolf into Balto's mother, Aniu, ruining mystery of the scene and this character. Fans tried to find explanation to this in the original film, but the answer is simple — the crew of the sequel simply enjoyed the white wolf from the original film, they had no information about the intention of the original film. Yes, they said that Aniu was the white wolf from the original film, but it is not true. If you read interview with the director of the original film, read the script and see all production materials (concept arts and storyboards), you'll find out that the white wolf was a male and symbolised Balto's wolf side and self-acceptance, as well as Balto's wolf side came from his father.

What I can say, the main problem and mistake of Balto-2 is exactly the decision to make Balto's mother to be his wolf side, because other morbid moments exist only because of this decision, erasing the original movie and creating plot holes, logical holes and contradictions. But about everything in order.

In the sequel Balto mentions that he lived only with his wolf mother and knew only her, i.e. there's no pack or whatever. And he had fond memories about her, her white fur and warm voice. Being very young pup, he accidentally got lost, Boris the goose found and took him in, raising him as his own son. Balto never had a father — according to the sequel's crew, Balto's father was never developed, but was intended to be an unknown stray dog, a loner, who begets a pup and then never even knows it. I.e. there was no love between him and Aniu, he abandoned her after mating. Yes, you get it right. If in the original film dogs were afraid of wolves, here we see some crazy dog, who runs hundreds miles away from a village or town to the forest, full of hungry wild animals, mates with legendary and revered she-wolf, leaves her without any consequences and then has no idea about Balto's existence. So, here's my questions. Why the she-wolf mated with this random stray mutt? Why she raised Balto alone, not in a pack? Why did Balto think that his father is a dog, if Balto never had a father and vaguely remembered only his mother? Why Balto considered himself as a half-breed instead of a wolf, if he was only with his wolf mother? Why humans from Nome considered Balto as a wolfdog instead of a regular wolf, if Boris the goose found and raised Balto, not humans? Why he didn't leave Nome and didn't try to find his wolf mother all this time? Why his mother didn't use her nose for finding her son's scent and returning her son?! Balto used his nose to find the lost sled dog team, travelling many miles, and succeeded in this! Why Boris brought young Balto in Nome (and travelled thousands of miles from the forest somehow) instead of help to find his mother? Since Balto knew only his wolf mother and loved her, why on Earth he would be ashamed of his wolf heritage? Why on Earth he would have this inner conflict with "Who am I? Wolf or dog?"? Balto would perfectly know that he is a wolf and would be proud of this, he'd go with a pack! Why on Earth he would desperately want to be a sled dog and to be accepted by humans and dogs, if his mother figure was a wolf and his father figure was a wild goose, who disliked humans, and especially if all townfolks and all dogs of Nome rejected Balto all his life, while wolves were friendly to him and wanted him to become a part of their family? (not to mention stupid fan-theory "Hunters killed Balto's mom" from nowhere — then Balto would hate humans and dogs even more) The idea of Balto's mother being a wolf makes zero sense and impossible. It ruins everything.

I especially "like", how she reveals herself to Balto and then disappears, showing no love to her son and no answers to audience. Not to mention Balto's clear attempt to blame her in his and Aleu's troubles, since he refers to her as "the wolf" and "she" and is ashamed of her despite the fact that Balto knew only her and lived with only her and loved her (and at the same time he wanted to be a dog and refered as "dad" to unknown dog, who abandoned his mother and has no idea about Balto).

2. If you didn't know, Aniu is the wolf deity, the author described her as The Great Mother of all wolves and a part of The Great Guardian Spirit, she symbolizes the call of the wild and helps to find true self. Plus, the sequel itself hints this — wolves always refer to her as the Great Aniu, she transforms into various other totem spirits, and she is depicted on the totem pole, hinting how ancient she is. This fact makes Balto literally a demigod-wolf, half-spirit basically. And there's a serious problem, because making this wolf goddess as Balto's mother creates a lot more questions, holes and morbid moments.

Why this wolf goddess mated with a random stray mongrel? When young Balto accidentally got lost, why Aniu didn't try to find and return him? If she couldn't be with him due to her divine nature and duties, why she didn't bring him to a wolf family? She is the revered goddess, every wolf would be proud to adopt and raise her son! But nobody among wolves knew that their goddess had a demi-god son all this time! She literally abandoned Balto to suffer among humans and dogs and to deny his wolf nature and she ignored him all his life. Plus, according to the crew, the totem spirits attacked Balto, 'cause he denied his wolf part, while Aleu didn't. Ah... then they should attack him since puppyhood. The same thing with the nightmares Balto had — the reason is that 'cause he denied his wolf side, but he had nothing of this in the original film. And exactly Aniu made these nightmares and visions.

Moreover, this idea literally destroys the original film. The original film was about self-acceptance and inner nobility, how Balto, being nobody with regular parents, becomes hero due to own moral qualities and noble deeds in contrast to the purebred and evil malamute Steele — the choice and deeds matter, not origin. Balto-2 Wolf Quest instead makes the opposite idea that Balto is a noble hero, because he has divine heritage, because his mother is a goddess, and that his daughter became the leader of the wolf pack because she is a granddaughter of this wolf goddess. Plus, as I pointed out here, the totem pole always was here, so Aniu and other spirits saw Balto's pain and suffering, but did nothing to help him, Aniu didn't help to Balto to embrace his wolf heritage, when he was a pup or a teen, so he could go with a pack. She did nothing, when Steele tried to murder Balto several times. Why?

Well, according to the author, because Balto was "only a part of greater plan", and the result of the Aniu's prophecy is Aleu, Balto's daughter, who inherited magical abilities from Aniu and was the chosen one. And Wolf Quest several times hints that Aniu has foreseen everything.

It means that Balto was unloved, unwanted and unneeded pup for Aniu. She mated with a random mutt only for this "greater plan" and "prophecy". She birthed Balto and then abandoned him only for this "greater plan". She ignored him all his life and ignored his pain only for the prophecy. She doomed her son to suffer among humans and dogs only for this and only for birth of Aleu as the chosen one. By this same logic, she, the one who protects wolves, decides to help humans (i.e. enemies of every wolf) by throwing Balto as the one who will save them and mate with another dog. Simply saying, Balto was born as a wolf demi-god and abandoned in suffer and pain simply to birth the female demi-god wolfdog, who is the chosen one. Because some totem deities decided so, and one of these deities was his own mother. And everything in the original movie and the sequel was predetermined then. Great, no comments...

[prince-of-elsinore]

might follow this up with more thoughtful meta and less of a vent but I gotta get this out: I finally got around to watching the second half of season 9 for the first time since 2019 and boy do I want answers. namely how did half of fandom (it feels like) get convinced that the season is a rape narrative and that sam's anger and response to the experience have anything to do with the trauma of possession and lacking bodily autonomy. I'll be honest, I was expecting to see where that reading comes from on this rewatch, and instead I realized how objectively inaccurate and misleading an analysis it is. and no, it's not 'open to interpretation'--it's very clear what the conflict is, why Sam reacts the way he does, and what the story arc is; it has everything to do Dean lying to Sam, treating him not like an equal partner but like the little brother that needs to be protected--and here's the crucial part--at the expense of others, and especially at the expense of Kevin's life, and what that means about their priorities and values as hunters. it's got nothing to do with the horrors of possession. it's got everything to do with Sam and Dean's ethical role in the world, their net effect for good or ill. and it's also tied up in Sam's martyr complex. it's a perfectly natural extension of his arc in every season up till now, his struggle with his personal innate nature, and his desire to be and do good.

The cool thing is that when you view season 9 as it's meant to be viewed, you see how perfect a response season 10 is, with its mirror narrative. the idea that season 9 and gadreel are an unhealed trauma hanging over sam and dean is totally false. in 8-10 each brother struggles with his own self-worth, feels they'd be better off dead--and there's situations where the world may be better off with them dead!--and the other brother goes to unethical lengths to save him, because they realize, and ultimately both accept, that they can't lose the other, not under those circumstances. lines like "don't go thinking that's the problem because it's not" and "I lied," that frustrated me before with their opacity, make perfect sense now that my view is no longer clouded by fan-invented discourse. they're linchpins in a cohesive, balanced, multi-season emotional story arc that bring sam and dean to a place of equal footing.

The sort of ironic part is that, I realize now, I never fully understood Sam's perspective in the conflict before. season 9 was stressful for me in the past, because, being a fan first and foremost of the brother bond, I could only really see Dean's perspective and interpret Sam's anger as a rejection of the bond. but I felt that I ought to be able to see Sam's side; I didn't want to just be angry at the character or his writing. so when I came to tumblr in the finale-induced craze of 2020 and read so much meta predicated on the idea of Sam carrying this deep wound over the bodily violation of Gadreel, I more or less thought 'oh I guess that's what I was missing, all these fans who call themselves sam stans repeat it unquestioningly so there must be truth to it, they ought to understand their own favorite character.' How silly of me, to ever trust internet fandom on anything (or stans on the character they stan). I should've returned to the source material ages ago, would've saved me a lot of headache. because I do understand Sam's behavior perfectly now. it doesn't anger me, because I get and sympathize with his values, just as I do with Dean's. turns out when you actually watch the show and don't try to force it to conform to your fan-made narrative, it actually makes sense.

[captmickey]

Shoppy talky, feel free to do all or none: where do you get your cute ideas, how long does it take to make something on average, what program and pens are you using when you go digital, do you color drop or eyeball it, what makes you happy and what's kinda flustering about the hobby in general, who do you love drawing most and from which angle~.

I could (and did) read this in Graham's voice haaaaaa~

1 - where do you get your cute ideas It depends? Comedy-wise, it almost always stems from either a- A conversation that was between me and someone else laugh or b- it made ME laugh. I ah... I have a weird rule where if it doesn't make me laugh, I don't make it. However, the cute ideas? It's usually inspired by seeing prompts or thinking of situations that has me kicking my feet, something that makes chest feel all warm like a big ol' hug and a comfort I desperately want to give the character. (Sorry if I'm vague... even I'm trying to think where I get it from.) 2 - how long does it take to make something on average Haaaaaa that one is tricky if only because it depends on the work? Like, okay... drabbles and quick prompts is no more than a few days (rarely, but sometimes, its on the spot), but a comic page, colored doodle or a longer fic takes easily a week at the shortest and a few at the longest. Sea of Adventurers and 3adv as a whole can easily take a few months if only because I'm a perfectionist and tend to revise. A lot... act 8 has been in the works since like, September? And as I write this have only finished chapter 2 of Sea of Adventurers. Out of three.

3 - what program and pens are you using when you go digital So for my basic drawings, I use Clip Studio Paint and honestly I use the generic g-pen or texture pen (depending on I guess the theme? Like the anniversary page was g-pen, but my recent KQ comic was texture pen). However! When I do a comic page, I use both CSP and Medibang.... I prefer the comic font/texture Medibang has but I looooooooove the cleanliness of CSP so I do all my roughs/lineart on CSP (sometimes even color on it) but I transfer it to Medibang for that grayscale coloring/texture.

4 - do you color drop or eyeball it Both! Like, for characters that pre-exist I've color in the past (e.g. Guybrush, Graham or Neese), then I'll pull up either their original source material and color drop. However, if it's one that never existed (e.g. 3adv!Zelda or Mako) then I eyeball the colors until it's appealing to me. However, once it's set and I'm repeating them several times.... color drop~

5 - what makes you happy and what's kinda flustering about the hobby in general What makes me happy is really having the ability TO create? I know it'll sound vain but honestly, there's nothing that delights me more than knowing if there's something I want to see, and I'm not seeing it, I can pull up a computer or sketchbook and get to making what I want (that was literally what stemmed 3adv haaa). I also love seeing how people react to my artwork as a whole... sometimes I'll get comments about it that makes me really sit and go "wow, people like my stuff" and it makes me happy. But on the other side of the coin, the flustering part about it... there is a few things, but it boils down ti having the time and energy and motivation to create. Like, sometimes I want somebody else to come up with the idea and the drawing and so on and so forth. Sometimes my bouts with depression gets the better of me and I can't bring myself to create. Sometimes I find myself with an idea that looks so cool in my head but when I try drawing/writing it, it's just... garbage. And it's frustrating. (And then I boot up Final Fantasy when I grumble how I should be working on making it work). And sometimes it clicks for me at 2 in the freaking morning and I forget to write it down and poof! Gone it goes. Like my sleep.

6 - who do you love drawing most and from which angle~ Hmm... while I do love drawing Link (especially in action shots) and Graham without his hat, I have to say it's my two favorite captains: Guybrush and Number One. Especially from like... the 3/4 angles because of how their hair is floop.

Also Guybrush lowkey became ten times more tolerable to draw once I fixed his hair for 3adv and I really really really really love drawing No1's stache.

[beevean]

Really enjoy reading your analyses of Netflixvania. Makes me feel like I'm not crazy for disliking the series, since it seems most people really like it. I'm not a huge Castlevania fan (I wasn't even aware of any Castlevania manga until I read your posts), but the fight with Dracula at the end of season 2 just felt really off to me. Like every single character came out of it ten times worse than when they started. So I'm curious, what do you think of how Dracula was defeated?

I'm glad you liked it! <3 And I completely understand. The show gets praised to high heavens from everyone, and while I can dismiss the occasional "god i want to smother myself in alucard's tiddies" post, the long articles gushing about the stellar animation and carefully woven characters leave me more at loss... And like I said, it's not even a matter of being a fan of the games, the writing itself is seriously flawed.

Anyway, the Dracula sequence has me conflicted.

Pros:

Dracula is appropriately shown to be an absolute beast in combat. Three against one can barely scratch the guy. And Godbrand says in an earlier episode that Dracula hasn't been feeding regularly, meaning he's also in a weakened state. It is, in theory, viscerally satisfying to see.

The animation finally reaches the standards that the general praise attributes to it. That is to say, it's really fucking cool. I appreciated the focus given to his giant Hellfire attack, since it's his most iconic one (although I don't think it should be touched with anything, but eh)

The "my boy" sequence is the most heartwrenching scene in the show, both because it's simply well written, because I like the poetry that a monster like Dracula can only be put down by his own human emotions, and because Graham McTavish's back must have hurt so bad, carrying the show like that. Seriously, he's leagues above every other voice actor.

Cons:

Dracula being an absolute beast only makes me angrier in retrospect because the rest of S2 painted him as a Depressed Old Man™ slumping in his chair and being too Tired to properly supervise the war he started. "Carmilla has made her move" no shit you absolute dumbass, you and your lackey Isaac allowed her to do so! You were aware that she was dangerous and you didn't care!! Where were you all this time!!!

(and don't give me "well drac doesn't lift his own ass until the very last possible moment in the games either, it's lore accurate". that is a sign of arrogance and power. like drac doesn't need to lift a finger to stop intruders in their tracks, his legions of hell can do all the work. only if you actually, physically reach him, then he starts to fight. In the show he was so apathetic, that I almost lowkey agree with Carmilla's frustrations... and that's the point. It was artificial conflict for the sake of propping this OC.)

Dracula no-selling every attack paints the heroes as weak. Especially Trevor, who after making such a scene of the Morning Star in a previous episode can only piss him off with it.

Trevor punching Dracula, and him recognizing him as a Belmont because of that. The sheer lack of respect towards Trevor as a character and the source material cannot be contained :^)

(and this is minor, but I don't like how Sypha is the one getting scarred by the encounter. Alucard also got scarred by his father way back at the beginning, as he loves to flaunt. Meaning, Trevor is the only one who wasn't impacted by him, which boggles my mind - the scars that game Trevor has on his face and chest aren't there for show! They mark him as the Legendary Belmont who first survived against the Dark Lord! Why do y'all hate this guy so much?)

Alucard steals the entire glory. In a vacuum, it makes sense because they have the closest, most interesting relationship. Lore wise, this should have been Trevor's moment and once again he gets deprived of it. The Belmonts just don't have a legacy in the show.

Overall, For Love is a very well written emotional payoff to a huge waste of time. I don't care that Alucard is setting to kill his father because we barely know how he feels about that. I don't care that Trevor is finally about to fulfill his own legacy because the show kept spitting on it. Sypha is just there to be OP I guess. Their entire "arc" in S2 was them getting cooped up in the Belmont Hold, and Alucard and Sypha having fun being the biggest dicks to Trevor. They didn't even train! The most they did was to conveniently find that the castle uses an engine to move.

dracula doesn't even turn into anything :< where's my giant goat/bat monster form :<

... so I have more negatives than positives lmao. I agree with your general assertion that everyone looks worse than they should. However, there are genuine aspects to praise. I guess the scene is beautiful if you're a fan of Dracula and Alucard, and really disappointing if you're a fan of Trevor :P

[vonkarma2]

why I don't like pokemon rocketshipping

james pokemon is gay whereas jessie pokemon is bisexual to this day i think shipping them sucks. it's like this ↓

this post was meant to be the above minus the title and nothing else but then I went insane. so now i will articulate my feelings, which i have had in mind since i got really into team rocket for a few months in 2020 because of lockdown induced susceptibility.

i can also see straight or lesbian for jessie and james can be bisexual so long as you acknowledge they are both theater people. which ordinarily i dislike as a hc because i dislike theater people usually but in this case it is objective fact. this brief clip here will help demonstrate my vision

for example in sun and moon anime they crashed a group of children's school play because jessie was jealous of not being in the spot light. which brings me to my next point that due to being a cartoon for young children this material is obviously very silly, to the point where mapping any of it onto anything based in reality or taking it remotely seriously is very ridiculous. which is why i am moving into just make an oc territory at this point. but I think the huge part of the charm is that these characters are preexisting, and came into the world naturally, because some childrens cartoon execs thought it would be funny for one of the recurring villains to be kind of gay. the crossdressing, the moltres outfit.. we lost so much when they turned the homophobia down over time ����. that's a joke.

(and don't get me wrong, it is kind of homophobic, given these are the villains and the characters you're supposed to laugh at and think are ridiculous, including because of the gay shit. i don't want to not take it seriously at all like even vague homophobia (and transphobia of course) in a kids' cartoon is insane. but they aren't evil per se and are more silly and sympathetic than anything, and iirc correctly they don't draw attention to the cross dressing? it just kinda happens rather than like ash and misty are like ewww a guy in a dress or whatever. but I could be wrong about this. there's also a discussion to be had about japanese vs american attitudes to this kind of thing especially in the 90s but we are getting off track enough as it is. did you know meowth was originally voiced by a trans woman isn't that cool :))

anyone can make a flamboyant guy and girl pair of ocs, and many have, but there isn't the same sense of unexpectedness or sincerity that makes the pleasantly surprisingly plausible gay jokes as fun to make. there is external, light hearted validation for this kind of hc in pop culture because of pokeani, and these specific characters' popularity.

similarly, i also think the ridiculousness of the source material makes adding even a little more grounding in reality very charming. highlighted in yellow is some evidence for this point. (the orange is highlighted because it's relevant to my next point and the blue is highlighted because it's hilarious).

in my opinion, the yellow text here is pretty funny, notably with regards to how it considers age as a legitimate factor. as a cartoon character in a long running show, james emphatically cannot age, and yet this writing proposes that he does, and attributes changing writing decisions to this process. the author paints a somewhat stereotypical image of someone exhausted by a dead end job. that person being a saturday morning cartoon villain. it's cute. i think this kind of portrayal whether in fan art, fan fics, or just posts like this, that treats an exaggerated fictional world with not serious emotional gravitas but mere realism, is very charming. especially when you consider he's also being portrayed as a gay man specifically, and yet still meant to be sympathized with by a presumably heterosexual audience. i know it's stereotypical, but i think the inclusion of those details makes the ties to reality more endearing through being more culturally specific and sympathetic to an outgroup.

like the writers of pokeani, the author of this 2006-looking neocities page was likely not gay themself, which makes it interesting they were such a fervent james is gay truther, dedicated enough to the point where they probably see it as a positive more interesting than ignoring the subtext. definitely not saying they went about it in the best way (this excerpt is pretty harmless , but some other parts of their page haven't aged as well, and it's clear they aren't actively trying to be progressive), but it's an interesting perspective thinking about internet culture at that time. predating broader movements of both progressivism and homophobia, and the formation of internet-based subcultures we know today. that was mostly a tangent but i included the link to my source yayyy <3

so now we have seen that adding reality, including specific cultural details that one can relate to or appreciate in some way, is fun, and i think it can be pretty charming as well. and in this case i think we have the potential to compare the characters to dynamics underrepresented in popular media. ok stay with me on this part. remember how the orange said jessie is a huge bitch.

here i am disrespecting this completely serious and kind of beautiful substack essay by comparing it to pokemon characters. but we can clearly see this exact kind of relationship depicted between the jessie and james in their lifelong, codependent friendship. (we can also compare these figures' status as outsiders to jessie and james being career criminals in universe and perenially misfortunate saturday morning cartoon villains on a meta level).

i am not saying this because i take team rocket seriously as characters in the fandom angst sense, or the sense that the show has good writing. i mean it in the sense that it's fun when there is something in pop culture that you have the ability to claim as part of your/a subculture, even if that wasn't the intention. an unintentional reflection of reality in something that was meant to be purely mainstream, and is clearly a joke, but you can joke about it as someone who is genuinely familiar with that kind of relationship in reality, or at least more respectful of it than before. unlike the essay, but much like the chris fleming clip above.

i really want to draw attention to the gender roles here as well. as stated in the essay, this is what the gay guy/hag (sorry. i feel kinda bad saying it myself on here lol) relationship can be predicated on.

many people have pointed out that in couples' disguises, james dresses as a girl and jessie dresses as a man, with james tending to cross dress significantly more often. this, as well as jessie's bullying personality vs james' relatively much more laid back nature. but I think it's interesting how it's taken for granted and not drawn attention to; or rather, not an incidental situation, but rather part of the fundamental nature of their characters. low key kind of feminist. I think it's also important to note that jessie and james are close friends, so he is clearly drawn to her in some way, but james hates her kind of personality in the context of romantic relationships, evidenced both here in this joking scenario, and in the episode where he has to escape an arranged marriage to a girl who looks and acts exactly like jessie, except she is in love with him. we can see the jessebelle episode as emblematic of the rejection of the heterosexual life paths and the pursuit of an existence outside the mainstream [i get shot in the head by a sniper]

i included this picture of mac and dennis move to the suburbs because i think the sitcom structures make them similar. they can't leave because of the concept of the show. metanarratively doomed to be together. an eternal relationship between people who make each other miserable but can never bear to leave, and can also both be compared to and is fundamentally incompatible with a stable, married, heterosexual relationship. one who is aggressive and one who is usually powerless. and is this all portrayed in the show? absolutely not LOL. but we are talking about fan culture here overall, which for better and worse (much worse) is oftentimes about seeing the potential in a source material and iterating on it in some way. it's there for those with eyes to see. i think the codependent friends + gay/hag relationship both has more canon evidence, is truer to the heart and soul of the source material (as seen through its endless cyclical structure), and is more unique and interesting.

This quote is here because jessie is definitely NOT "fully-actualized" as this describes. as stated earlier she is frequently insecure and childish, especially with regards to femininity. (perhaps we can trace this back to her backstory of an unstable childhood with her mom dying and her almost straight up starving to death as a result.) she wants to find love and be percieved as beautiful, but due to her mean and evil personality she can't, and is stuck being an outsider with this cat and this gay man. there is an obvious insecurity at the heart of these characters, and within the show's narrative they are cursed to remain as they are. if we as fans are trying to take this a step further and create some kind of tension or arc, we can say it's because of their mutual failure to self actualize (especially factoring in the gender/lgbt stuff) that they are drawn together.

i don't think people shipping these two is like, remotely a serious societal issue. it's literally fine. i don't care that much these are differing interpretations of a mediocre anime meant to sell toys cards and video games. but i dislike it personally because i feel like in both practice and inherently, it means ignoring a lot of what makes the relationship itself unique, fun to interpret, and grounded in some nonserious form of reality. people are always like wow.. 2 gnc bisexuals that commit crimes together and also kiss.. but i think that's at best a way of resolving or explaining an underlying tension that's better left existent and at worst based on purely surface level observations. big city greens didn't even let them have meowth they are nothing without meowth

overall thesis if you're a fan reinrerpreting kids show characters for fun do it in style

disclaimers:

i'm not a cis gay man or transfem and so i dont have that perspective

joke portrayals of super flamboyant feminine and cross dressing gay men can contribute a lot to transmisogyny as well as homophobia, and the two are often conflated, especially in older media

i can see why someone would dislike this kind of character and view the portrayal as more mean spirited than i did, like even though the character of james himself is meant to be likeable you can see this aspect itself as demeaning

you know that thing where it's like the tme nb or trans masc is like omg theyre so gender but it's just transmisogyny. I obviously don't want to repeat that myself. there is some gray area of course and generally I think this specific example has room for interpretation, but I'm not the expert on this topic over all

I also haven't seen the whole show. there's like 600 episodes plus movies and it's not even good

there are like 40 separate essays you could write about that in general (gay coded villains in childrens' media and overlap of homophobia/transmisogyny therein in both the media itself and audiences' reactions). and i'm not doing that. but just know i'm aware it's a nuanced topic at least

[6kuros]

As a fellow creator who is also disturbed and upset by the revelation of pizza tower being a product of 4chan type people, I'm wondering how you handle it? I still want to draw fan art but Im struggling to not get uncomfortable. Basically, I have both love and hate for the game now, and you seem like a cool person so Im wondering how you deal with that. Love your pizza tower fan art sm btw!

im really glad that you enjoy my art, and also am flattered you think im cool!!!

first of all, id like to mention that the art i posted just now was art that i had finished last night, before everything about mcpig came to light and i just wanted to post it since i already had it done…still unsure if im going to draw consistent pizza tower in the future honestly, id like to because its a lot of fun and i really do love a lot about the game. ideally, the current situation would change somehow so i can do that without any discomfort for myself or others, but the only way i foresee that happening is if the devs actually remove the racist shit from the game

what makes me feel (kind of) okay about producing fanart for the game despite what emerged is mostly the fact that as long as i am not reproducing the harmful contents of the game, nor directly supporting the people behind it, im not putting any harm into the world or perpetuating the 4chan stuff i guess? the only thing im really worried about is possibly getting people to want to buy the game by putting my fanart out there, but considering the games popularity from streaming and youtube videos i dont see my own art as contributing to that much. that makes it easier for me not to feel unsettled when i draw fanart for it, but i think that depends on how you view the relationship between fanart and source material, especially in an interactive space like the internet. if you think your art risks sending the message that you approve of negative aspects of a piece of media then its probably better not to share that art

theres also the fact that from the messages that were revealed i get the impression that at some point mcpig had a sort of disdain for "cringe leftists" being fans of the game i guess, and i would consider myself someone who he would/would have found cringe at one point lol. so by being into the game its kind of a fuck you idc that you hate me, this thing you made is being enjoyed by cringe leftists. considering the tone of some of the messages was "if people get mad at me im just going to be edgy in response" i dont even think disengaging with the game would even bother him at all. but all of that is really just speculation and i dont want to insinuate that engaging with bigoted media is proactive just because you are a marginalized person or have progressive politics. its important to actually weigh the harm of your actions and what effect you have with your consumption of said media i dont really know if thats a good answer though, and if it holds up to any sort of moral judgement. i do think its possible to enjoy problematic media, but considering how new the game is its not the kind of thing i can look at and be like "this piece of media is from x years ago and doesnt do real harm now". my worst fear is that there are pizza tower fans who are going to see the awful shit in the game and replicate it, bc the game somehow makes them thinks theres nothing wrong with it or that they can do so without consequence. just from a scope of the fandom there seem to be a lot of young teenagers so Yeah. im concerned in that regard and id like to beam a message into kids' brains thats just like Hey this character design/behavior fucking sucks Dont do this

so, by posting my art anyway i hope i can contribute to a portion of the fanbase that is outwardly against the bigoted content in the game, as an alternative to mcpig dick riders/defenders. and if there are any fans out there involved in the community who dont know better, hopefully they can learn, and avoid perpetuating bigotry

all that being said, your feelings on the matter may be very different, and you dont have to abide to any of this thinking. if a piece of media is upsetting you, its okay to step away from it as long as you need. maybe see how you feel when you come back to it and if the hateful feelings are still there, there is no obligation to engage further

(and as a bottom line if anybody reading this is considering playing pizza tower i suggest you pirate it instead of paying for it)

[castlebyersafterdark]

i just had a week off fandom because i was away on spooky holiday, and spent some time watching halloweeny things and other shows. then i watched some stranger things, out of order, the early seasons. and i totally got lost in the show and forgot about fandom, it felt just like when i first saw it. and i realised coming back here, that mike and will's relationship is so much bigger and more thematic than byler v mileven. it's meaningful in terms of queer writing, in terms of how trauma is portrayed, its meaningful for them separately and together as characters outside of their sexualities.

i think this sometimes gets lost in the byler fandom, mainly because there is such pushback that it sort of becomes about proving they are real instead of enjoying the story for what it is, and how much more important mike + will as a romantic pair will be in grand scheme of things than just proving milevens wrong. its actually quite jarring to come back and see that so much byler content is people just sassing milevens, or trying to prove something, or being defensive. it gives enjoying byler a strange flavour because it makes it about being on edge rather than just enjoying the story. this fandom is a fascinating case study in propaganda and social influence, how if youre told something enough times ("byler will never happen") you start to believe it despite hard evidence (the show itself) to the contrary.

i still love this small community and check my fav blogs though. but it was a nice reality check, esp at this time of year! spooky season is the perfect time to step back and rewatch the show as a total newbie who just wants a good mystery thriller. i feel happier than ever to wait for s5, our boys are coming together and all we need is patience 😊 and if you can recommend any more blogs who focus on the good stuff like you, please do! i'm sick of being jumpscared by 'milevens say that...' posts lmao

Yes!!! Agree. I also took a tiny break and I'm back, well, I wouldn't say refreshed (still a little bit exhausted from the past few days 😅 Halloween wore me down yall haha) but it's always beneficial I feel to step away for whatever reason and then dive back into fandom when you feel up to it. Brain needs a break from the fandom focus sometimes. Good points in this ask. I haven't actually sat down and watched the show in a while, but revisiting those favorite episodes is a cool idea. Hit the mark on what's important and why the show, and these two characters in particular since that's what I and many focus on around here, resonates so deeply. It's more than just "oh, these two are cute, they should be a couple, this is a ship in the fandom yay" but it's... it's a lot more. It's an important story. Not trying to sound cheesy but I always end up that way 😉

There is definitely a thing in this fandom that I don't really vibe with, the insecurity and constant defense and ship wars. Maybe it's the fact that there technically is a love triangle existing, the slow burn, the impatience, the track record with queer relationships and getting crumbs when there's a gay character. But, there's also been a lot more progress and real canon gay relationships lately. I don't fear as heavily with this show, because the show has given the biggest proof. And I also... don't care what people who hate the idea of Byler or still love Mlvn are doing. I don't care! About Mlvn fans on the internet!! The show is the show and whatever happens happens. I think people would be sooooo much happier if they curated more. Don't seek out spaces of contention! Don't engage with people who are just gonna make you mad ☹️

Little communities are cool, happy here, hope other people are finding their spot, focusing on what's cool and interesting and just - cut out the noise. There's too much going on in the world and online to devote time to getting defensive over fandom, especially one where the source material is so good and there's so much creativity to be found from it. I wouldn't know where to start with recommending other blogs - have to admit I always feel bad if I'm calling people out and leaving others out and there's thousands of blogs in the stranger things fandom! I have friends in the fandom who I really enjoy talking to and who have cool blogs, but we don't 100% agree on theory and character dynamics and other stuff and that's totally ok. Even I have expressed opinions and people have been quick to jump at me and disagree and hey, no one has to be down with every single opinion I have either!! I just hope for kindness in those instances.

So, you really just gotta see where the hard lines are, what you do and don't care to deal with on your blog and see on your dash. Fandom is very imperfect, but all we can do is focus more on what we consider a positive so it drowns out the little negative things we do encounter.

[bohemian-nights]

Even in the book it’s clear that the relationship between Rhaenyra and Daemon isn’t healthy (in fact you can make the argument that no romantic relationship depicted in any of George R.R. Martin’s work is completely healthy) and isn’t something anyone should strive for.

So when I first watched the show and saw the romantic twist they put on Rhaenyra and Daemon I was confused (as someone who read the book first HOTD is to me what the Percy Jackson movies are to that fandom, enjoyable but differing vastly from the source material) and not going to lie intrigued.

But then as the episodes went on I developed a very big love-hate relationship with Daemon. Episodes 6-7 pissed me off 🫠 Hooking up with anyone at the funeral of your wife isn’t cool (also Harwin who was Rhaenyra’s lover for ten years who she had three children with just died) I mean I get that everyone grieves in different ways but the fact that he slept with Rhaenyra especially when I know how he treated Laena (and his daughters to some extent) 🥴🙄

I would also like to say that I don’t play around with domestic violence (fictional and in the real world) so Daemon choking Rhaenyra really turned me off his character. It also felt like another moment in HOTD to showcase brutal violence against women.

There are a handful of potentially healthy romantic relationships(Rhaena and Garmund might have actually had a happy marriage), but yeah if someone is using Dumbnyra as an example of one 🫠

To me, the show never framed their relationship in a romantic context. I mean Rhaenyra is underage when we first meet her, she looks super young next to her overly grown uncle, and the necklace he gives her could constitute as grooming.

I think people got confused with the “switch up” because they are the only “shippable couple”(I say this term loosely because shippable to this fandom equals too white people who breathe near each other hence why we have the clusterf*ck that is lucemond) on the show so far. If the red flags didn’t ring for people in episode one they should’ve rung by episode four when he abandoned her in the brothel. People seemed to ignore this because she’s 18, but abandoning someone in a dangerous place they aren’t familiar with no matter their age is really scary

This is going to be a very controversial take(I’m not a person who gets off on seeing domestic violence), but it seems like the choking scene was necessary since people thought Dumbnyra was supposed to be a romantic couple 🤷🏽‍♀️

Daemon from day one was a crazy a**hole who hardly cared about anyone. He does have redeeming qualities in the book(notably how is with Laena and Nettles, which they better not screw over because Ryan Condal himself has said the man is a gray character and she’s his only light now), but so far they’ve cut those parts out and turned him into a man obsessed with his brother.

Rhaenyra, as are all the other women in his life, is a causality of his obsession. People wanted her to be his exception, but she was never framed in that way. In fact, she’s one of his first “victims.”

Daemon has not changed fundamentally since episode one. So it makes sense why he’d violently snap at her too. Out of all the violent scenes directed at women in the past season, the choking scene makes the most sense to me.

Like I said above, I hope we do see him change(and yes I’ll be biased and say I want him to change for Nettles like he did in the books) because he is supposed to be a morally gray character, but Rhaenyra is not part of the lighter side of him.

[rockybloo]

What’s your favorite fairytale(s) reimagined piece of media? I’ll start first, beanstalked. It already looks so cool and reading about the characters makes me so excited to see more. The character design are amazing, your style is so damn nice to look at and seeing just how much these characters mean to you is so nice to see. MORE UNAPOLOGETIC LOVE FOR YOUR OWN STORIES! Everyone should I their own little fandoms in their heads! Draw those badass monsters! Make your silly little guys kiss! Your brain should be mush from your love of your own works! Also thanks for indirectly bring back my love for my oc’s from middle school, I missed those guys. Your stories have feel so nostalgic, so familiar and comforting but new and refreshing.

T thank yo ou u. I get so happy when people like Beanstalked, I KNOW I SAY THIS EVERYTIME SOMEONE SAYS THEY LIKE IT BUT I'MMA KEEP ON SAYING IT, because it is my baby 😭

AND YES-THE SELF INDULGENCE SPREADS

As for fav fairytale reimaginings-OH BOY here we go because do I have a LIST

Hammerstein's Cinderella (1997): One of my earliest memories of a fairy tale retellings that I actually enjoyed as a kid. There are so many things in it that just hit along with the songs. Honestly, every other live action Cinderella falls flat in comparison for me.

Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child: I grew up watching reruns on HBO and it was a big motivation for me to say "fuck it" and make a vast majority of the characters in Beanstalked people of color. Plus, I love the design choices they make for a lot of the characters. And the 90s vibes are just sooo good.

American McGee's Grim: I love this demented little game and its style. The execution makes it worth it to play for me even if you aren't into fairy tales. Plus, how can I turn down technically having the ability to run around inside an ACTUAL level based on fairy tales. I have Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, Pinocchio, Beauty and the Beast, and Cinderella and I like to play them occasionally just for the fun of it. And yes, that Jack and the Beanstalk is 100%ed

Shrek 1 and 2: I love both these films and they are very nostalgic to me but I especially love the second. It really goes all in on that "living in a fairy tale" aspect with Fairy Godmother, Prince Charming, the Frog Prince, Puss in Boots, etc. Plus, that "I Need a Hero" montage just goes so hard. It's honestly one of my fav animated scenes in a film.

Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio: I love stop motion. And I love retellings that know their source material while also adding their own flavor. This film is such a work of art from head to toe and I balled so many times watching. Plus the way it touches on the aspect of life and death makes me so happy.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish: I could gush on and on about how much I love the animations and characters but like…everyone has already done that for me so I will focus on what specifically made me love the film. And that's how it handles fairy tales. It takes a much more earnest approach than Shrek, which while I love, you have to admit it can be a bit mean spirited at times. So I enjoy how this movie was more of a "these tales are people living their lives". I love the found family aspect of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Puss in Boots being a legend and a bad ass and cocky like the OG tale. I even liked Jack Horner and how he was just that good classic "I am a dick and I own it" character. Personally, I view him as a sort of commentary on how companies will IP dump things to seem cooler and more successful. In this case, it's Fairy Tale dumping which is DEF something I've seen SO MANY TIMES because companies will thing having a bunch of tales in one thing automatically makes them cool since "DISNEY DID IT SO IT'LL WORK" and they just land flat on their face. I genuinely hope that more films in the Shrekverse have this sort of down to earthness to them…and if no the Shrekverse then maybe some more animated films that genuinely reimagine fairy tales.

Relating to the previous point but I do not care what anyone says that little boy with the cow and the giant covered in greenery was def a fuckin Jack and the Beanstalk reference and I will fight everyone tooth and nail about it I SEE A REF TO MY FAV TALE WHEN I SEE IT DAMMIT

Alice and the Nightmare: A webcomic that's based off Alice in Wonderland. Currently, it's one of the only Alice based reimaginings that I like and the art is just so GOOD??? I am always hyped to read the next update.

I'm sure there is like...a crumb of more but these are the ones that really resonate with me and motivate me to work on Beanstalked when I see them. I keep thinking the list is gonna be longer but honestly...it's the list of fairy tale retellings that I'm NOT into that is the long one. It doesn't help that I occasionally watch the off brand animated fairy tale based movie on Netflix for funzies and come out mildly disturbed.