#its not really the fault of the character so much as the fact she's pretty much pure plot.

[onetoomanyfandomfixations]

Helluva Boss Characters Reacting to You Asking for a Hug

Tbh this series is just for my own enjoyment at this point lmao

I’m so normal about them, I swear.

BLITZØ

Honestly, it depends on what type of relationship you have with him

Familial relationship? Best BELIEVE he’s coddling the shit outta you rn

^ def a cheek pincher

“Hey sweetie? Do you need me ta fuck someone up for ya?”

But if y’all are platonic, or SATAN FORBID

R O M A N T I C ?

Ur not getting Shit

Well, until you start crying

“You’re a fuckin’ baby, you know that?”

Very casual hugs

Always sits his chin on you

Will complain the entire time

But you both know he loves you

LOONA

“Oh shit, you good?”

She’s blunt, not heartless

Honestly pretty touched that you asked for a hug instead of just going for one

Like her adoptive dad, very casual hugs

Usually just slings an arm over your shoulders

Won’t talk to you about it

Y’all just sit in comforting silence

Don’t let anyone point out that she’s letting you touch her

Will get v flustered

Depending on how you both feel - may let you play with her hair to self regulate

MILLIE

“Sure thing, hun!”

Doesn’t matter who you are, or why you need a hug, she’ll take it

Physical affection is her top love language idc

Squeezes super super tight

Like, you can barely breathe

Gushes over how sweet you are

Will probs pepper your face in kisses too (doesn’t matter what ur relationship with her is)

((Millie is a strong believer in non-romantic kisses, she told me herself))

Will probs ask Moxxie to bring y’all a drink

MOXXIE

“Uhh, you sure you want a hug from me?”

Yes babe I’m sure

Doesn’t think he’s the best one to be comforting you - will palm you off to Millie if he can

But will be offended if anyone else says he can’t look after you

^^ Gets all huffy about it

Distraction is his new best friend

Will tell you a mixture of stories and fun facts to try and make you feel better

Will also make you a hot drink

If you want to, will talk out your feelings with you

STOLAS

Babes just blinks for a hot minute as your words register with him

Has the softest smile

“Of course, dearest. Come here.”

A hug isn’t enough for him, you’re in for a full blown cuddle sesh now

Likes the feeling of having you fully wrapped up in his arms

Forehead kisses. Forehead Kisses.

Will sometimes swaddle you in blankets like a literal baby

Hums softly for you

Tries to ask what’s wrong, will def push the subject

He just wants to fix it, okay?

Will just,,, smother you in affection until you’re okay

And then some

OCTAVIA

Judgemental eyebrow raise.

Judgy, judgy girl

Y’all gotta be CLOSE for her to hug

((But not really, she’s so touch starved its not funny, but we don’t talk about that-))

Long, comforting hugs

If u end up crying, will fix your makeup for you

Don’t mention it though

Like, literally don’t mention it or it won’t happen again

She probs just breathes a sigh of relief when y’all hugs

Holds on a little too tight, for a little too long

If you ask first, she’ll start coming to you for hugs now too

FIZZAROLLI

Baby. Baby, baby man.

Will wrap his arms around you several times over

Another really tight hugger

You had shit to do?

Sike, not anymore

Now you’re spending all day with Fizz

Your fault, you started it by asking for a hug

Is super worried about you, but tries to play it down

Will do stupid shit just to see you laugh

Will ALSO flirt with you until you can’t stand it anymore

ASMODEUS

Immediately concerned, does not try to hide it

Much like his bf, cancels all plans for today

Y’all are gonna be chilling in bed and cuddling now

Just kinda,,, scoops you up?

Definitely plays with your hair

Gives a SOLID head massage

So so gentle and sweet

Just lays you on his chest

Draws pictures on your back and makes you guess what he’s drawing

^^ he does this to help ground you

Tbh he’ll probably drag Fizz to bed too, so know they’re both looking after you

Mans isn’t gonna let anyone get left out

[sparrowlucero]

thoughts on thasmin?

I find it (and a lot of the era) both pretty fascinating and kind of miserable and also not very good. I think enough has been said about how it goes basically unacknowledged until the last 3 episodes and how it feels queerbaity and how the main episode grappling with it is pretty bad, so let me throw something else into the ring: I think it thematically works, it's just that the themes are fucking nuts. In my opinion, the Chibnall era and especially its finale is, at the end of the day, trying to reconcile something it finds emotionally unsatisfying about the classic show - mainly that characters will leave the show suddenly and never really be mentioned again - by characterizing the Doctor as a person who habitually shuts people out before ultimately dropping contact with them and leaving them to emotionally deal with that. Dan, on day one of returning home, is immediately left with the impression that the Doctor is angry with him. After that, you see 80s characters Tegan and Ace on year 30, who have spent a sizeable amount of their lives under a similar impression. The Doctor, the show is saying, is someone who can never cease abandoning people and leaving them with this strife. Time will always run out, a production fact reimagined as a deepset anxiety for the characters. Everyone she knows will be doomed to the same fate of lost contact no matter what, and Yaz is next on the chopping block:

even though the doctor is the one rejecting her (and will ultimately leave her) by what's seemingly her own volition, she expresses that she doesn't actually want that at all. It's just, to her mind, unavoidable:

So you know theoretically I like this, there's something heady and despairing and metafictional about it. "I'm sorry Yaz, I'm fucked, I know for a fact that this season is gonna end and I'm gonna move on to the next person because that's how the casting works on this show so we might as well just cut it here." I feel like the obvious payoff to this would be the character going against this thought process in some way at the end, love is more important than inevitable loss, or whatever. But it actually comes to much weirder conclusion: It absolves the Doctor entirely. Her viewpoint is, in the end, truly objective and justified. She's positioned as someone who genuinely lacks agency, and the harm caused by these relationships suddenly ending and her never contacting again is simply an inevitable fact of the universe; even when she herself seems to be at fault, it's not a thing she herself actually does to people with any intent to harm. Most interestingly, I think, the emotional turmoil of the companions is characterized as basically being their own fault. Yaz tells Dan, for instance, that he's misinterpreting the Doctor being upset at him; she's acting that way because simply because she "doesn't like goodbyes" rather than out of anger:

Any assumption Tegan has made about why she never heard from him again is negated; he always cared, she just didn't get him:

Most pointedly, Ace's emotional resolution involves her acknowledging that she was entirely wrong in judging him for anything, as she was simply failing to grasp his personal burden:

TLDR; I think the thesis statement at the end of the chibnall era is basically "The Doctor leaves everyone, that's how the show works, and the only way the characters can find resolution is to move forward and just accept that it's not the Doctor's fault and no bad feelings were ever involved." (I think this is, again, the result of attempting to recontextualize the doctor losing contact with characters suddenly and with little or no resolution in the classic show as an entirely intentional character beat for her, without coming to any overly nasty conclusions about her being in the wrong)

So on that note, there's a lot of confusion over Yaz's ending; the doctor, dying, is like "well, that's it then, I'd rather be alone now" and Yaz accepts this without further pushback. It's not made especially clear why she has to leave or why she doesn't argue the point, and a lot of people have struggled to explain why she actually leaves (as they've never sent anyone away when they've died before)

I don't think this is quite as random as it's usually taken, though; Yaz here leaves the show when subject to the same inevitable abandonment the story has been exploring the entire time, but unlike the other characters, she actually gets the doctor. She's connected to them on a deep enough level to understand that they're not actually leaving on bad terms. She's accepted her role in this cycle and the doctor's lack of fault in it and will therefore never be tegan or ace or dan wondering what went wrong. She, unlike the doctor, holds all the agency here. It's her actions going forward that will determine if this is tragedy or merely bittersweet. And we know it's the latter, because she knows not to say goodbye. genuinely batshit and i kind of have to respect it. anyways I also just have to say it's wild that they have a set up where the doctor pressures yaz into taking a gun against her better judgement and then later gets shot and it's 1) not yaz who shoots her, 2) not the same gun and 3) not what kills her. my god they were so close to some insane tragically ironic gay drama there and they fucked it up. unforgivable. think of the fanart.

[werewolfcave]

I think generally one of the biggest overall faults of ORV is how much the women are so frequently defined by the men around them.

Jung Heewon is Kim Dokja's sword and a matching pair with Lee Hyunsung. She was sexually assaulted and left to die and only survived because a man saved her. Her connection with Uriel is the most major one she has with another woman, which I cannot understate but it is something we only see glimpses of. The Paradise Arc is one of the few places where we really get to see Jung Heewon's own feelings, outside of just the definition or framework of the men in her life.

Uriel's most notable defining traits that make her more than just WoS Uriel are (in the 1864th turn) her love of Kim Dokja and Yoo Joonghyuk and (in the 999th turn) being in love with Yoo Joonghyuk. [This is a bit of an oversimplified and pessimistic view of the way Uriel is presented but I think you guys get what I'm trying to say]

Lee Jihye is mostly defined by Yoo Joonghyuk (the guy who taught her to fight), Kim Dokja (the guy who convinced her live), and Kim Namwoon (the guy who has feelings for her that she doesn't return). She is close with Jung Heewon but we never actually get elaboration on this fact! Na Bori and the kids are like the only things we get outside of the men in her life and even then she is usually just the babysitter!!

Lee Seolhwa is literally only spared because Kim Dokja thought that Yoo Joonghyuk would fall apart if she didn't live! Not because of her extreme medical prowess, not because she is a person, but simply because her boyfriend would be sad. Hell! We barely know anything about her outside of Yoo Joonghyuk!!!

Yoo Mia is also entirely defined by Yoo Joonghyuk! We don't know anything about her besides her connections to her brother!!

Anna Croft is pretty much exclusively defined by Yoo Joonghyuk and Kim Dokja! Neither of which have good opinions on her! So she's just kind of framed as a bitch with little elaboration otherwise. There are implications she is more but goddamn if we barely get to see them!

Don't get me wrong, ORV has its really awesome moments. But fuck do a lot of the women not really exist outside of the men for a large portion of the story.

I know this has likely been talked about to death for most of the characters but Jung Heewon was one that particularly stuck out to me as Jung Heewon in the sequel is not only saved by a man but saved by a man who is specifically a fanboy of hers (not sure how it's handled past that tho).

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Finals

Propaganda Under Cut

Sakura Haruno

Her husband is gay and her author doesn't know how to write women. So many people say she's the worst but she. DESERVES. BETTER!!! Save her from this franchise.

My baby girl my bestie my best friend. She committed the crime of um being written by kishimoto who both doesn’t know how to write women and somehow writes men in the gayest way possible specifically naruto and sasuke. Like the thing is naruto and sasuke ARE gay and also she gets so much hate for the crime of kishimoto writing her one dimensionally in love with sasuke. I know her personally she is a butch lesbian to me just trust me she’s in love with Ino and has a lesbian thing going on with Karin okay just trust me. My everything. She needs to divorce the loveless lavender marriage she’s in 

What is there to say, even? The OG Threat to my 90s anime brain, the only woman I've ever hated with such a passion she made me turn away from the color pink. I used to write fics with my friend where she got left behind on purpose so our OCs could join the Naruto and Sasuke team instead. I loathed this bitch until I was 16 and realized the author simply couldnt write women and decided it was time to make peace with Sakura. It is not her fault she's vaguely written and obsessive over Sasuke. She deserves better. Sasuke and Naruto still should be together and Sakura shouldnt be with Sasuke but I no longer believe this because I hate Sakura, it is because I love her. She deserves a spouse who will actually put in the time to treat her like the hero she is.

Misa Amane

she gets treated in-canon the way fandoms treat female characters that Threaten an m/m ship. it's like, "oh why don't you go sit in the corner and be pretty, misa, while the Men have intelligent conversation and pretend they aren't ten seconds from fucking each other, doesn't that sound nice?" it's infuriating. and MAYBE it's better now but i remember her getting treated the same way in fanfiction too, like we all need to do just as badly by our female secondary characters as fucking tsugumi ohba, but with the added insult of making her be alternately oblivious of the relationship between light and L or actively trying to sabotage it—incompetently, of course, because god forbid misa be allowed dignity or moments of cleverness.

she's one of the first characters I think of when I consider old school fandom misogyny. The annoying bitch and clingy crazy gf allegations were AFTER HER ASS. She's also a lot more intelligent than people gave her credit for, but most seem inclined to take the Very Biased word of our unreliable, narcissistic narrator and his homoerotic arch nemesis and claim that just because she's bubbly and into romance that she's also a complete moron. Which is blatantly untrue. Everyone was afraid of Misa girlbossing too hard. Killing people and devoting yourself to the deranged twink of your dreams even though you know he'll never love you back??? Having a hardcore goth aesthetic and being so Hot even literal Death Gods are into you?? God forbid women do ANYTHING!

Not only is she the victim of yaoi culture, she is the victim of early 2000s misogyny by an author that wanted to introduce a girl character because he knew his male rivals were getting too homoerotic. She is a goth bimbo icon who portrays what I think is one of the few callouts for stan culture and what parasocial relationships can do to both the stan and the idol. The fact that she is a toxic fan of Kira and also hot, funny, sociable is tragic in its own way, which I think the author did try to touch on but was too misogynistic too really get through. Of course, she was reduced to villain status by the fandom and anime alike because she got in the way of the supposed romance in their psychological horror anime

[hervygervy]

For today's KIU localization post, I'd like to talk about something a little more... mundane. There's a running joke of sorts in the Japanese version that isn't really carried over in its full extent in the English version. Let me explain...

Palutena's a bit of a troll. It's not uncommon for her to take part in some good old tomfoolery, you could say. In particular, there are a few moments in the game where she kinda just makes up random abilities to mess with the other characters. Both versions essentially share the same setup in these moments, but the punchlines end up being slightly different. This is because the Japanese version attempts to adhere to the "face fault" trope as it's called. You might have seen it before in anime--it's the comedic gag where a character reacts to an absurd remark from another character by falling over in a swift, exaggerated motion. It's kind of like an extreme version of a facepalm. Anyway, I've gathered here every instance of this gag in the game. Or, at least, I hope I did. More below the cutoff, as usual.

The first instance of this bit occurs early on in the flight segment of chapter 4. Actually, this specific exchange is highlighted during one overview video for the game in order to showcase how the game is funny. They must have been really proud of this one if that's the case... Here's the scene in question:

Oh, but there's a lot of extraneous stuff going on here in this file, huh? I'm only sharing the audio for the sake of allowing you to hear how the dialogue sounds for when I get around to the Japanese version, and I like leaving the English for the sake of comparison. And it's fun too, right? :)

But it doesn't change the fact there's a lot of fluff. Here's the gist of what I want to look at:

This conversation can never leave my mind because, not kidding, 12 year old me did NOT get the joke. But the overview video narrator told me it was funny so therefore it had to be funny. I was simply a profoundly stupid child. I will never let myself live this down.

I'm getting off topic. As you can see, we've got the setup of Palutena making up some ability. Pit just brushes her off here in the English version, but he abides by the face fault in Japanese:

"It can't be found by any means."

"Even though I have this 'Palutena Eye.'"

"Lady Palutena, do you really have such an ability?"

"No, I just wanted to try saying it."

"Guh!" ...well it's literally more like "ngah" but perhaps you can take a listen for yourself:

Oh, right, the extraneous stuff. I guess I'll translate the whole thing. Here I go!

Pit: I got it, I got it already! But why specifically are we going to such a place?

Palutena: To find Pandora, one of Medusa's subordinates.

Pit: Pandora... the evil goddess of calamity, right?

Palutena: The Trap Dungeon she's in is hidden by the reaper fort's magic powers. It can't be found by any means. Even though I have this "Palutena Eye."

Pit: Lady Palutena, do you really have such an ability?

Palutena: No, I just wanted to try saying it.

Pit: Gah!

Palutena: In any case, your mission is to capture the reaper fort!

Pit: R-roger that!

Pandora's Labyrinth of Deceit is called the "Trap Dungeon" in the Japanese version which honestly sounds comically mundane by comparison. But they're using English words so it probably sounds cool and exotic to a Japanese audience, as English words tend to do. It's also fun to say English words in the Japanese sound system anyway.

Anyway, as you can see, identical setup, different punchline. Obviously, Pit can't really fall over in game, but his vocalization is pretty much identical to how a character would typically react when toppling over. It's evidently meant to evoke the face fault.

Another instance occurs in beginning of the ground section of chapter 13.

Once again a lot of fluff. Actually, if you'll allow me to get off topic for a bit, the last bit personally interests me. So "to gird one's loins" is just an expression meaning "to ready oneself" but Pit's line makes a joke about the "loins" part. It's in reference to how "loins" means "groin." Very curious that the writers would make such a joke considering that, according to an interview with the English script's cowriter, one thing they paid attention to when it came to regional changes were "things that were inappropriate for a little boy to say."

I believe I brought this up before in the possessed Palutena post. In the conversation in the ground segment of chapter 20 when Pit's talking about how loyal he is to Palutena, he blurts out that he "loves her," and the other characters react accordingly, thus prompting him to stammer that he doesn't mean in the romantic way. The idea is that what he's saying sounds like a love confession. I surmised that the line was altered because it could easily be taken the wrong way. So, what I'm trying to say, is I wonder how an unintentional "I love you" crosses a line but an added joke referencing the genital region doesn't.

I could honestly make a whole post on every moment that I think the English scriptwriters found questionable in that regard because believe me, there are a lot. But again, daily reminder that Pit's the equivalent of a thirteen year old. It might get weird really fast. If you're still curious, let me know if you'd want to see something like that.

Back on topic... here's the main part of the conversation we just listened to that I want to take a look at:

I think this exchange probably carries the same sentiments as the Japanese version the most out of all of these types of moments. It's just very blunt about it, comparatively anyway.

Of course, next is the Japanese equivalent:

"How irritating! Won't you do something, Lady Palutena?"

"Well then, allow me to activate the Palutena Super Sensor...!"

"Lady Palutena? Do you really have such an ability?"

"No, I just wanted to try saying it."

"Wha--!"

Here's the full audio so you can hear how it sounds:

We finally get to hear Arlon. Personally I think he sounds very silly in Japanese due to his goofy voice. I'll translate this whole thing too:

Pit: Is this...?

Palutena: An illusion? Or perhaps a hologram?

Arlon: Well, it probably wouldn't even be enough of an hors d'oeuvres for Lord Pit.

Pit: How irritating! Won't you do something, Lady Palutena?

Palutena: Well then, allow me to activate the Palutena Super Sensor...!

Pit: Lady Palutena? Do you really have such an ability?

Palutena: No, I just wanted to try saying it.

Pit: Wha--!

Palutena: Don't worry. Navigate the route forward by following the green arrows.

Arlon: Your relationship is remarkably close, huh? I admire you. However, it seems you've indeed seized the illusion control core. It's unavoidable. I'll harden my defenses and wait. Oh, and this isn't a trap or anything. I'm serious, okay?

Pit: There's definitely something, isn't there...

See? The loins joke is added in for the English version. It was totally intentional. I'm onto you, English writers...

You've probably caught onto it by now, but Palutena will say "I just wanted to try saying it" every single time, hence why I called it a running joke. The closest the English version seems to get is the fact that Palutena still makes up abilities.

Moving on! The last one is in the boss fight of chapter 22. Palutena's still able to be silly even in a situation as dire as this...

Personally I find it funny how Dark Pit's line is presented as so smug and snarky when he's saying something very ultimately mundane. It's probably as funny as Viridi's line. But that's unrelated. Here's the main bit:

Nobody really has any kind of exaggerated reaction. They're brushing her off, much like Pit did in the first example.

You probably guessed it: this time, it's Dark Pit's turn to face fault. Here's how it goes:

"Found you at last! You guys are awfully good at running away."

"That's thanks to my Palutena Stealth Barrier."

"Do you have such an ability?"

"No, I just wanted to try saying it."

"Gah!"

Oh, look, he fell over! What a perfect way to complete this running gag. If I remember correctly, I think that portrait is only ever used once in the English version. It's used a lot more frequently in the Japanese.

So you can hear it, here's the full audio. Oh, be warned, Pandora's whole bit is REALLY hammed up in the Japanese version. Just prepare yourself.

Naturally I'll translate the whole thing. Here goes:

Hades: Found you at last! You guys are awfully good at running away.

Palutena: That's thanks to my Palutena Stealth Barrier.

Viridi: Do you have such an ability?

Palutena: No, I just wanted to try saying it.

Dark Pit: Gah!

Viridi: Ah, is that really okay, goddess of light?

Pandora: Lord Hades, Lord Hades! It's been a while.

Hades: Hm? Uhh... Who're you again?

Pandora: It's me, Pandora! You know, from the Trap Dungeon.

Hades: ... No way!

Pandora: Oh I'm for real!

Hades: Hmm... That settles it! I shall completely plug up the Rewind Spring. Yeah? This is a dangerous thing, as you saw.

Palutena: That would be troubling!

Viridi: Put an end to Pandora and defeat her immediately!

Dark Pit: Leave it to me!

And there you have it. It's not surprising that the Japanese version of Kid Icarus Uprising would use this trope as part of a running gag considering how common it is in comedies over in Japan. I think it's a fun trope, anyway.

Evidently the English writers liked the bit of Palutena making up powers enough to keep these scenes intact in some capacity, but I think the ultimate lack of this trope in western media is what probably led to these punchlines being altered. Personally, I don't think it would have been too weird to retain more of it. The way it was executed in the English version of the chapter 13 convo works well enough I'd say. Besides, we do have the facepalm in western media, the general idea of the trope still exists over here. Heck, I watched the Pokémon XY anime as a kid and I'll say younger me absolutely loved it when the gang would fall over upon hearing whatever nonsense Clemont had to say.

...well, it probably doesn't translate as well when you can't do any falling over, huh? Maybe there was no avoiding change.

As usual, thanks for sticking around. Feel free to leave a message in my inbox if there's any specific line or scene you'd like me to look at that I haven't done already. If I'm feeling like doing another mundane post, I think I'll take a look at differences in fourth wall breaking jokes for next time. See you then!

[absolutebl]

Hi P’abl!!

Basically, I died back in early July and have missed all things BL, GL, and all the works. I tried to figure out on my own, but I just keep running into spoilers of things I didn’t know had even aired!

Could you just give me a rundown of what’s been going on/happened? I honestly trust you with my life now~

In the last 3 months? Sure:

(I feel like this should be sung to We Didn't Start the Fire)

Wandee Goodday 9/10

Such a FUN show. A charming quintessentially modern Thai BL about a doctor and a boxer who start as a one night stand and then fall in love. Great rep for everything from Muay Thai, to safe sex, to FUN sex, to ace, to bisexuality, to smiley kisses, to the first legal gay wedding in a Thai BL. It’s a delight and I enjoyed (almost) every single moment of it. 

Century of Love 9/10

This is a great little show about a young man who fell in love with a pretty girl 100 years ago, and when she died in his arms, he was cursed to live until he could meet her reborn self. Only this time around, she’s reborn into the body of a man. I love it when Thailand gets all up in its own historical business and reincarnation and shizz.

I like this pair. (It’s not DaouOffroad’s fault I didn’t enjoy most of their first series.) Daou’s wushu is pretty snazzy and we got a fun meet cute. (Erm… Remeet cute? Meet cute 2.0?) Plus this is a very PRETTY show. Despite some ham handed comedy moments, this ultimately has more in common with something like I Feel You Linger in the Air meets First Love Again, then (as one might expect) Until We Meet Again or The Director Who Buys Me Dinner.

The leads turned in great performances, although Daou outclassed everybody else on that screen. It’s a good story and a great BL. I’m not sure this is going in my rewatch rotation, but I can’t find any major faults with it beyond a certain level of camp that is sadly endemic to lackorns. Also I’m going to give it credit as the kind of BL that one could safely recommend to lovers of melodrama and historical romance, without having to qualify it as “good for a BL.” It was, to put it succinctly, simply a VERY ENJOYABLE show. 

We Are 9/10

We Are was slow to find its stride (I didn’t get into it until ep 7) but I’m very glad I gave it a chance. It’s a soft ensemble piece with multiple couples and very little plot, but I didn’t care because it’s not trying to be anything more substantial. Essentially this was a series of vignettes covering one year of uni for a queer friendship group finding love, new friends, and laughter. It’s not being harsh with us or it’s characters the way some offerings of this ilk have been (side eyes Friend Zone and Only Friends) nor did it tumble into Gen Y chaos.

In fact, this reminded me more than anything of a refined and elevated Love Sick - just with older characters and occurring within a genre that has matured too. It has that close queer friendship group meets earnest gentleness that made me adore Love Sick so much. In other words, this was Thai BL at its finest, finding it roots again 10 years on, but also stretching upwards and showing us what it could do with that original seed. So? I loved it. Did it blow my mind? No. But it left me smiling and made me belly laugh quite a bit.

Cosmetic Playlover 9/10

I loved this little show. It was a classic office BL about the older workaholic who loves his job and the younger upstart who unexpectedly loves his boss. It’s a hyung romance where everybody is extremely earnest and sweet and pretty about everything. Except our seme, who is slightly unhinged and a little obsessed in all the ways one likes best from Japan. Plus the kisses were good! I can’t ask for anything more, utterly charming unexpected gem. What a great time!

The Rebound 9/10

This was a sports romance Thai BL pulp with everything I could have asked for given this sub genre. More, actually, since MeenPing are both great basketball players and the team component really did form part of the connective tissue of the show (vital in a sports romance). Meen has his shirt off within the first two minutes which is all I needed but he's still pretty great as the sullen secret keeper against Ping's cheerful survivor - childhood sweethearts torn asunder and now reunited. Then Frank sweeps in to give everyone a bad case of second lead syndrome.

I always try to judge BL for what it is AS BL, and what it’s trying to do within its own territory and purview. This did exactly what it claimed on the tin: gay boys play b-ball and fall in love. That was all I wanted from it. Sure there was random kidnapping and a light bought of mass murder, but what’s a BL in 2024 without a touch of the mafia? You do you little pulp, I’m disposed to be pleased.

My Love Mix-Up (Thai Remake) 8/10

It was fine and it was charming, but it was also a little meh. Thailand managed to take one of Japan's softest cutest most bonkers BLs in recent memory and make it softer and cuter and… dull. They did this by watering it down. JBLs almost always have an edge to them, even the rom-coms, by dulling the edge, MLMU lost a great deal of the sparkle and tension as well. What an office setting managed to mostly maintain in the consummate hands of TayNew felt somewhat lackluster when handed off to the next generation and a high school setting. Cherry Magic was a lovely reinterpretation, Mix Up was an amateur's watercolor rendition of a colorful oil painting.

Am I being harsh? G4 tried their best, and Fourth turned in some outrageously good acting in the latter half. But the show? It was fine. If you like water colors and you haven't seen (and loved) Kieta Hatsukoi.

This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans 8/10

A story about a kid who infiltrates a cooking competition under false pretenses and then has to deal with the consequences when he falls in love with the head chef. The side couple is a poor little rich boy meets physical therapist (morality chain). The core friendships are excellent and the chemistry cannot be faulted across the (charcuterie) board. What this show lacks in substance it makes up for in health code violations. It was all chili all the time.

Considering that the plot centered on betrayal but the romantic relationship never sweetened enough to balance that bitterness; one could be forgiven for throwing this one in the compost. But I got over all its weaknesses in flavor balancing for an ultimately satisfying meal, with a great dessert course. I've always loved spicy food. Plus the blooper reels were fantastic.

My Stand-In 8/10

Adaptation of Chinese novel "Professional Body Double" by Shui Qiang Cheng. Stars Up (Lovely Writer) and Poom (Bake Me Please) directed by the same team as KinnPorsche.

Stuntman Joe dies on the job and wakes up in the body of another Joe with an entirely different life. But Joe just starts repeating the mistakes of his previous self - love, work, play.

I enjoyed the experience of watching this show, I looked forward to it every week. I thought everybody did a great job with it and in it, and I liked that is was something substantially different for Thai BL.

But I’m not sure I'll rewatch it or if it's bingeable. It left me feeling more sanguine than happy. Is there, objectively, anything wrong with it? No. But am I in love with it? No. I think that rests on the central characters, Ming in particular. I never liked him or warmed to them as a couple. I spent most of this show just very very sorry for poor Joe. Thus I was never rooting for their romance.

I would recommend it, if you enjoy your BL more cerebral, with complicated unlikable love interests, and a downtrodden sympathetic lead. Is it, perhaps, more JBL that ThBL? Am I biased because it's a Thai production and I had expectations? What magical carnage could Japan have done with this IP? I'm left with questions, but I'm ultimately glad I watched this.

SunsetXVibes 8/10

Classic CEO meets ingenue archetypes make for a somewhat banal and simplistic romance. This could’ve come from an 80s Harlequin, except that they’re gay. It's… old fashioned. There was nothing meta about this, there was no subversion or commentary on anything BL, queer, or beyond. It’s just a straight up (okay not straight) romance. I was not wild about these characters for this particular pair, but that’s not the pair's fault, they did a decent job with their parts and I look forward to their next show - here’s hoping it’s a bit more meaty. I preferred the side couple because they were more complex and true to BL archetypes, even if they were also a bit miss-handled.

Ultimately? This is a serviceable show if somewhat lacking in its convictions, but with some beautiful sex scenes, people, and fashion. I was a particular fan of Lin‘s gender bending femme style. It’s groundbreaking to see that aesthetic on one of the leads. There were multiple times they could’ve leaned into well established plot points, paranormal elements, and character tension, and instead just glossed over them. This should probably get a 7/10, but I’m giving it an 8 because of that one oppa line at the beginning, Tenon's tatas, and the call back to Big Dragon with that iconic musical refrain in the final episode. It was a pretty fun ride, emphasis on pretty and ride. 

Love Sea 7/10

Same couple as LITA2 (FortPeat) , new characters to the Mameverse. While traveling a writer has a one night stand with a very irritating man (who also breaks into his hotel room, among other red flag agendas). FortPeat are hot and great together, the GL sides are problematic, neglected, and forgotten. Frankly, this is probably a 8/10 show but I’m mad I wasn’t madder at it, and I'm mad I was so bored throughout. So it gets a 7/10 and let us not speak of this again. I’d like to simply forget about it. Trash watch here.

Knock Knock Boys 7/10

A story about 4 boys of differing personalities who end up living together and pair up, falling in love. Slow moving and waffling, with some artificially generated family drama makes this a classic Thai pulp except that in general it's a smiley kiss of a show. It had plenty of good qualities like great communication and sexual rep (including toys, first time, safe sex, and sexual identities). The heat levels were on point and well executed, and the performances were good. It’s just that the script and the directing were lackluster, rendering it ultimately forgettable. Still, fine on a rainy afternoon with some camomile tea or whatever.

For what's currently airing go here.

[metalwarrior22]

Arcane S2 - On how the death of [redacted] brought peace

Probably.

[This is obviously from my perspective, so take it with a grain of salt.]

The alternate world shown on episode 7 differed greatly from the one we know, specifically, Piltover and Zaun coexisted in harmony, their societies mingling with each other with ease. The event that apparently marked the beginning of this big change was the death of one young Vi.

There were some key differences in the robbery of Jayce’s apartment, the one that put all things in motion for the show. When the gemstone blew up, Vi was caught in the blast of the explosion, perhaps protecting Powder, losing her life. What followed was the arrival of officer Marcus, who witnessed firsthand the grief of three kids over the death of a member of their family.

How did this tragic incident bring peace to two antagonistic cities?

In the main timeline (MT), four kids partially destroyed a building, causing Piltover to fear for its own denizens. In the alternate one (AT), a kid from Zaun, a place with less than Piltover, lost her life while trying to steal to survive. Vi’s death, instead of fear, caused sympathy for Zaun and its people.

In the MT, word traveled fast, reaching The Last Drop even before the kids made it home. In the AT the scenario was almost the same, but the focus was not on the explosion, but on the girl who would not leave her dead sister’s side. It was the first thing the enforcers saw when they arrived, and probably the first thing people in the vicinity heard after the explosion: the inconsolable crying of a small girl. (Important to note that the death of any of the other kids would not have caused such a heartbreaking scene.) After a quick investigation, it would be revealed that the explosion, though probably caused by the kids, was the responsibility of Jayce Talis, a student of Piltover’s Academy.

In summary, Vi’s death was Piltover’s fault.

On the Kirammans

Cassandra Kiramman, a member of Piltover’s council, was indirectly involved in the incident for various reasons: she owned the building that was destroyed, she was Jayce’s patron, and her daughter was near the site of the explosion (probably). Would this, coupled with the sympathy for the mourning girl, be enough for her to take action towards the betterment of Zaun? Not really.

Cassandra was a pragmatic woman, the name of her family carried a lot of weight in the city, and it was a currency she wasn’t going to squander. In the MT, she supported Jayce before the other members of the council, but only to demonstrate that she was a good judge of character, that Jayce was misguided but that she hadn’t made a mistake by sponsoring him. The moment the “trial” ended, she turned her back on Jayce because he had turned into a liability.

Back to the AT, Cassandra would have been minimizing the damage to her House’s name and nothing else. Enter, Caitlyn.

Caitlyn’s inquisitive nature would have led her to learn about Zaun and its people, on why its society was so different from Piltover’s despite the cities being next to each other. Four zaunite kids breaking and entering opened up her whole world. Why? Because the kid that passed away was about her age, yet both couldn’t have been more different in their upbringing. And again, it was Piltover’s fault.

Season 2 revealed that the Kirammans built a ventilation system for the underground, one neglected by them and forgotten by everyone else… and yet, the Lanes have clean air in the AT. It’s possible that Caitlyn’s efforts to help and understand Zaun would have led to her mother finally using them for their intended purpose. It’s also possible that I’m way off mark… but the fact remains that Zaun had clean, unpolluted air.

On Piltover

This one is harder to explain, we don’t know much about the council members aside from Mel and Heimerdinger, the former looking to leave her mark on the world, the latter pretty content with the state of things. And of course, Cassandra, who I’ve already talked about.

Vi’s tragic death comes into play again, pushing the council to truly pay attention to Zaun for the first time in ages and how to help it so that nothing like that happened ever again. Maybe one of the steps they took towards this goal was to create a meeting place for both societies, one where they could mingle and truly look at each other, hence, the bridge market was created, offering goods and services from both cities, encouraging people to cross to the other side.

With this point of view in mind, it’s possible that the Kirammans’ ventilation system was used not only to help Zaun, but to ensure Piltover’s people safety. A selfish reason, but one that fits the current narrative.

On Jayce

Jayce is not present at all in the AT, but it’s easy to infer what happened to him, initially. After his tampering with magic and the subsequent demise of Vi, he was swiftly banished from Piltover, his research destroyed. Thus, Hextech was never invented.

(MT Heimerdinger was “transported” to the AT 3 years before Ekko’s arrival, that is roughly 4 years after Vi’s death, so he wouldn’t have been able to interfere in these events.)

On Silco

Chem baron in one universe… savior in another one?

Despite being at odds after their failed rebellion, Silco kept tabs on Vander and his family, and he quickly learned of the death of Felicia’s daughter. Maybe it was a way to respect Felicia’s memory, but it didn’t take long for him to approach Vander and recognize the grief he was experiencing, the same grief that turned to rage and led to the fallout between the two brothers. This time there was no rage, just deep sorrow. And if Silco was not keen on forgiveness yet, he was open to try once more for a better Zaun, because that was his dream: Piltover and Zaun as equals.

Silco could have used Vi’s death as a way to instill rebellion once more in Zaun, but there were no hints that shimmer was ever used in the AT (Singed did invent it); Benzo, being one of its first victims, was alive and well. Plus, the enforcers never flooded Zaun with their numbers, Piltover’s efforts focused on healing instead of punishing.

Putting his plans to become a chem baron on hold, Silco looked for ways that would actually help Zaun. With Vander’s involvement, arguably the most respected person in the Lanes, and the recent show of goodwill from Piltover, there was an opportunity there to lift up Zaun and its denizens.

In the MT, after Vander’s death, Silco was able to control Zaun and its criminal world thanks to careful years of planning. What if in the AT, he took that planning not to become a chem baron, but to undermine them and remove power from them? His objectives were the same, but his approach changed.

Finally, MT Silco became more resentful of Piltover’s progress thanks to the Hexgates, he felt Zaun would never be able to be equal to Piltover with them, but given that those were never invented in the AT, his sense of inadequacy was never exacerbated.

(I don’t know where to shoehorn this, but Silco’s face looks fine in the AT, healthy. Perhaps he received help from Piltover?)

In short, Silco and Vander worked together at some point, like in old times, but this time it wasn’t an uphill battle, tragedy gave way to opportunity, and they seized it to achieve their shared vision of the nation of Zaun.

In summary, Vi’s death alone didn’t bring peace to Piltover and Zaun, but the circumstances around it created a sequence of events that ultimately led to the thriving and prosperity of Zaun, putting it on more equal grounds with Piltover.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading. If you don’t agree with me and want to let me know, be civil about it.

[statyx02]

okay actually more assorted moon and turtle and peril thoughts

moon and peril have pretty much no positive interaction within the arc (with the only two exceptions to my knowledge being when moon looked at peril with pity at the end of chapter 8 of escaping peril and when moon laughs at peril’s thoughts in chapter 19 of the same book) and in fact, throughout most of escaping peril moon is outright aggressive towards peril, and describes her thoughts as “disturbing”, (which is interesting given how turtle is noted to have developed violent intrusive thoughts in talons of power following his fight with chameleon-as-shapeshifter in the previous book). It seems almost out of character given her willingness to excuse winter, flame, darkstalker, etc.’s hostility, even when others tell her she shouldn’t. moon is usually portrayed as empathetic to a fault, and yet she switched to being hostile to peril in a way that contradicts their initial interactions in moon rising, especially given that moon saw peril try to save carnelian and bigtail in the fire. she has a level of disdain for her that only makes sense if we assume she’s taken winter’s opinions on her as gospel, which she notably refuses to do later for darkstalker, but i digress*

turtle does have a positive relationship with both of them, in both cases seeming to stem from his feeling of solidarity towards them and their “dangerous” powers. in the case of peril, he goes as far as to say he had considered telling peril about his animus magic, a secret he has kept from everyone his entire life, based solely on the principle that, “we’re not so different, you and i.”

the three do share a narrative similarity as well, being that they all temporarily lose their abilities in their own books. moon becomes unable to read minds when she takes the skyfire necklace from onyx, peril gives up her firescales when she accepts the enchanted pendant from chameleon, and turtle is enchanted to lose his animus magic by darkstalker. interestingly though, they all have different reactions to it. for moon, she is startled and afraid by the sudden quietness, and describes feeling as though she is drowning in silence. she is quick to pass the amulet to qibli, and feels as though she needs to sit and take in the noise after her powers return. turtles reaction is both negative and positive. while he feels that his powers being taken away is worse than his imprisonment, he describes feeling as though he has been “scoured clean” of his power. peril losing her power was a gift to her, she views it as a kindness to “no longer be herself”. she loses this mentality towards the end of the book as she works through her trauma from queen scarlet, but her initial reaction to losing her powers is still positive.

i think turtles neutral view towards his ability is what lets him relate to both moon and peril, he understands what its like to feel anxiety at the thought of that power being taken away, but he also knows why peril feels her firescales are a curse. he approaches both with a kindness and compassion that peril and moon do not show each other.

we started seeing the signs of a more positive relationship between the two towards the end of escaping peril (such as the scene in which peril burns the scroll, qibli and winter are horrified, but moon and turtle are both appreciative of peril), but unfortunately given the group is separated following darkstalker’s release, that dynamic was never explored further, i really think with how turtle cares for both of them, the three of them could have been close friends had they spent more time together

*having reread that scene i realized she’s specifically hostile to peril because she, in her thoughts, insulted qibli’s intelligence and implied it would be easy to defeat him in a fight, which feels like a strange thing to be upset about given several of her close friends (i.e. darkstalker, winter, and qibli himself) plan how they could defeat others in a fight if they had to, and have been known to insult turtle (and others), peril isnt any more hostile than they are, so moons fear of her is based almost entirely on her firescales. its somewhat reciprocated with peril’s reaction to moon’s ability, but peril was upset with turtle having assumed it to be a trap, not moon

[fizzbot]

APOLOGY TOUR SPOILERS / HELLUVA BOSS CRITICAL POST

(please just dont read if youre a fan/are gonna be annoying in my tags/replies)

i LOVE verosika. i was super excited to see an episode all about her. she has EVERY right to be mad at blitz, and i do enjoy seeing things from the perspective of his victims. BUT.....i was really disappointed in her portrayal in apology tour. MOSTLY just because i was dissapointed in stolas portrayal in apology tour, and think this ep wouldve been better if it was more about BLITZ instead. rant under the cut

im not gonna give the whole rant about how annoying it is that stolas is constantly woobified, because 100 critical blogs have done it much more gracefully than i ever could. but it is just SO dissapointing to watch a man that couldve been SUCH a compelling villain be the ONLY one who is EVER sympathized with in the show. we are supposed to feel bad for him and believe that both sides are wrong in the stolitz situation, when stolas' crimes are SO MUCH WORSE than all of blitzs bad deeds combined. he co-erced blitz into a sex contract as the only means of doing his job, and then made HIM feel guilty for not falling n love with him during it. the 'both sides are in the wrong' comment gets particularly frustrating when the show has, tme and time again, only let stolas be the one with support. blitz is made to look unreasonable, no matter how right he is. and, in this instance, stolas is the one getting invited to this party to celebrate being ""wronged"" by blitz.

back to verosika. especially now that the episode is out, i am even more firmly on her side. the fact that blitz broke up with HER because things were getting too serious is interesting (albiet not as interesting as i think it couldve been but thats a rant for another post). im not saying she should forgive blitz, but i do struggle to fully agree with her because of how she treated stolas in the episode. she is the first to comfort him, the first to try and encourage him to shit-talk blitz, etc etc and i just dont understand.....why?

ive already had problems with her character since the sexual assault ""joke"" from spring broken, but this also really left a bad taste in my mouth. i totally understand her desire to party and sympathize with other people who were harmed by blitz, but its frustrating that stolas was invited to be among them. stolas, the man who is very much NOT THE VICTIM in his relationship with blitz. this is more the fault of the writers than verosika herself, but it is SO FRUSTRATING that she gave him the spotlight and is trying to help him heal from a situation that is ENTIRELY HIS FAULT. stolas didnt just hurt blitzs feelings, he sexually coerced and abused him. of all people, shouldnt verosika understand how terrible that can be? the kind of hurt that can do to a person? im not saying that this terrible relationship FORGIVES blitz's wrongdoings, but you shouldnt be giving his fucking abuser a stage and a microphone to talk shit about his victim. this becomes so much more insidious to me with the conversation she has with blitz on the balcony, later. this was actually a pretty good scene imo but it could certainly be better.

this is much more opinionated and i wouldnt be surprised if even the critical community isnt with me on this one, but i long for an alternate verson of this episode thats focused on verosika being on blitz's side, instead. its been over 5 years since they dated, and even though she is still allowed to be mad, it would be nice to see that shes moved on. maybe give her a new partner like barbie wire and let her throw these parties just so she can look back and laugh and help blitz's other victims heal in the same way that she has. not to bring up an also not-great show, but in rick and morty, we see a relationship between rick and one of his ex-partners named unity. they were really terrible for each other, enabling bad/unhealthy behaviors, generally being awful. their break-up was messy, but in recent seasons, we see unity coming back, upon hearing that rick was doing something self-destructive. they worried about him, because a part of them still cared, as much as they were hurt by his actions. i would have LOVED to see a similar thing with blitz and verosika, where verosika finds out about the relationship blitz is trapped in/just got out of. i think it would be SO MUCH MORE naratively interesting, for her to be supportive of his little apology tour, and maybe even inviting HIM to the "blitzo sucks" party. not everyone (or anyone) needs to forgive him; in fact, i think coming to this party would give him perspective. his relationship with stolas has hurt him so badly, he can finally step back and understand the harm that he did to all these people. the apologies that he gave, as he admits in the episode, were shallow. but i think framing stolas as the toxic one would be better in helping him realize that he has done wrong more than what the show is currently doing. and maybe some people at the party WILL forgive him. maybe he can apologize on the stage, and some people will empathize with his situation and believe that the apology is genuine, because hes finally had to be on the other end of his own hurt. and maybe THAT would be the first step in helping blitz realize that maybe he isnt completely unlovable, because there are people who cared about him enough to be THIS DEVASTATED upon getting their heart broken by him. a conversation with verosika about what he did to her would hit so much harder after this, imo

anyway. im sorry if this is completely incoherent/a bad point. i was just thinking about it and i am so sick of everyone being a stolas apologist </3

[ifidra]

Some silly animatic I was working on for past MONTH (I lowkey hate it, but it'll be fine)

That is supposed to be another AU of mine, in which I just swapped Bill with his parents :)

🟥INFO DUMP🟦

Scalene and Euclid are the only survivors from a two-dimensional dimension. They destroyed a lot of dimensions in search of the perfect vessel to revive their son, who died years ago "by a terrible accident" along with their home dimension. They still carry a piece of him with them, as only with its help the child can be reborn.

If we go by the plot of the series, then in the eighties they find Ford, who is able to build them a portal to move to his dimension (this is what they need, because in their dimension there is no one who would be suitable for the role of a vessel). They also manipulate the hell out of him, he destroys the portal, and then we skip to right when Gideon summons them again, and they finally find what they need - the perfect host in the form of Dipper. Further skip to the end of the series, Scalene tricks Mabel into cracking and opening the portal, chaos begins, they blackmail Mabel and Dipper and threaten to kill their gruncles, eventually Dipper sacrifices himself and they are banished by wiping his memory (again, in general everything is almost like in the original story, only a little bit of role swap), except that unlike Bill they don't ask for help from Axolotl, but regenerate each other from themselves (it's hard to explain, they kind of give all their strength and part of their body to each other to survive), and they sort of fuse together. That's how it is...

When it comes to their characters, it's pretty simple. I love parents - villains trope in general, so their dynamics are very appealing to me. Euclid is a charismatic and VERY emotional father with anger issues, but he's also the most empathic of the two and a little 🤏🤏🤏 more sober, and even somewhat aware of how much fucked up shit he and Scalene have done. Scalene on the other hand is cold, unemotional, and at first glance more normal-looking than her husband, but in fact she's the most mad one, and she's the one who "pushes" the duo. They are really tough lovers, perfectly complement each other and adore each other, and both are obsessed with the idea of reviving their first and only son, as they consider his death the most painful grief in their lives.

They had always dreamed of showing him the stars, and were very happy when their baby boy was diagnosed as a child with the same eye anomaly they had. But there was one problem. He was partially blind. However, father and mother were so obsessed with their sick idea of "showing their son what they see" that they chose to ignore this " unserious" problem, and after they destroyed the dimension, after millions of years, they forgot what their son was like, as memories tend to change over time. And if Euclid still sometimes catches flashbacks and talks about his worries and suspicions, then Scalene goes into severe denial, and does not perceive the past as something that is her or her husband's fault. By behavior they are typical parents - narcissists, as they see themselves and their son as something united, and make up a future for Bill, who has long since passed away. They don't even remember what he was really like, they have only an idealized image in their heads, which they made up themselves.

Yea smth like that, I hope you liked it💙

Some WIP's hehe)))

[jax-winchester]

The Gilmore Girls biggest fault is ruining already established great characters. Very long ramble and its just my opinion. Please read and tell me your thoughts but be nice!

Dean

Dean was a great character in the beginning! He was a dreamy, slightly mysterious, new kid from Chicago who worked on cars. His initial attraction to Rory is because of how intently she reads, Lane says he is thrilled when he hears Rory has been accepted to the prestigious private school Chilton. Then the writers dumb him down, Rory’s love of books bores him, he doesn’t care about her pursuit of an Ivy League education, he cheats on his wife with Rory.

Jess

Now I do really like Jess but his character was basically just an edgier version of Deans original character. Dreamy new boy from New York, mysterious, and he also notices how much Rory likes to read, but he likes reading too. However, to set them apart Jess has an attitude and is mischievous. Jess makes it known he has a thing for Rory pretty much since he’s introduced (Like Dean). It makes Jess look like a jerk. Since he’s literally encouraging Rory to leave her boyfriend for him. Then they do get into a relationship! Jess’s attitude just grows and grows. Some of his actions towards Rory are inexcusable. Then ✨poof✨ he just disappears. Jess was a complex character with a bad past, the show really could have leaned into that. We could have seen more character growth. But nope! (Also side note I think Jess and Paris would have been a great couple)

Marty

Marty was a funny new guy Rory meets at college. We first see him when He and Rory show up extra early to their first class (showing one of their similarities). Then, his first introduction is Rory finding him butt naked in front of her dorm. (My personal favorite introduction). He also has a slightly similar financial situation as Rory. While yes Rory’s grandparents have money Rory doesn’t. What money she gets from Emily and Richard comes with strings. Marty is always working odd jobs to help put him through school. He isn’t a trust fund kid and while I think Rory has a trust fund. She does know what its like not to have money. Lets not forget Lorelai and Rory lived in a shed! (But yeah Rory is pretty spoiled by the end) They have similar sense of humors and they like the same movies! He was really sweet (also cute) and he was a perfect new friend for Rory. But Noooo, he just had to have feelings for her. Then, he disappears for like 3? seasons and pops up like 2 more times.

Paris

Paris was a highly competitive, extremely smart, and witty student. (Also slightly a bitch but love her though). Paris and Rory pushed each other to do better in their classes. We find out though Paris is more than just a strong student. She has home life issues and struggles with self esteem. She also has had a long time crush on cute classmate Tristian. There is some focus on Paris’s issues with self-esteem especially when she meets Jamie and she mentions her bad home life. But, her home life is treated more or less as an ongoing joke. I think Paris’s issues should have been taken more seriously. Especially when she goes to Yale after her breakdown when she isn’t accepted into Harvard. But, when Paris goes to Yale she’s basically just a joke. Her issues are solved by her obsession with arts and crafts? She still has anger issues and takes control over things. Like the newspaper and then CHEATS on her great boyfriend Jamie. I don’t have anything really against Doyle. Im just not a fan of how they did Paris’s character.

Lane

Its pretty universally agreed that Lane was done wrong. Lane was a great kid! The show really could have done so much more with Lane’s religious trauma. Also, with the fact Lane gets kicked out. Not to mention the Dave situation. AMAZING boyfriend Dave. I get it the actor left to star in The OC but Zach? Why not add a new member to the band? Create a nice new character, maybe a member of a different band thats playing at the same placed they are. But Nope! She marries Zach, has an awful experience with sex, then gets pregnant with twins. Zach slept around plenty before Lane, you’d think he would be better with birth control. 🤷🏻‍♀️

That’s enough rambling for now.

[crowtheghost]

the only problem is the fact that most of the shrimpo ships are GOOD including this one! like, this mf pulling everyone

True true there are a Lot of ships,, I'm a thorough believer in ship whatever you want (as long as it's not problematic), But I never got as invested in other dandy world ships as much. I think in my head it came down to the idea of their interactions.. Excuse me using your ask to rant . _. I'm gonna chatter about Shrimpo and Shelly's personalities and such.

So I think that with most Shrimpo x Toon ships the toon has to have a certain level of tolerance for him, obviously. His personality is aggressive and loud! If the other Toon can't at least look past that They probably would clash. Which is why most ships you see is with nicer toons. Goob, Boxten, Finn, (Those are some examples and there are exceptions to that but you get it) I think that a lot of ships work with Shrimpo because he makes his own problems, the other character has sort of 'I can fix him' (or 'I can match him' or 'I can understand him' etc etc) Which revolves around Shrimpo himself! Its pretty awesome. Then you have Shelly! She is a character with her own struggles, the story has shown how her character has been ignored and she hasn't gotten the spot light as much as she maybe should have. On top of that she is clearly much kinder to others as they sometimes are to her. (Vee for example) And I think this is where my mind realized their potential even just as friends. Shelly and Shrimpo are the most cast out of all the toons. But they also both have their own problems and issues! It becomes less 'one sane character makes the evil character Better' (which I love, don't get me wrong this is NOT a rant on how I dislike the other ships. I love them..) Shelly and Shrimpo can be equally insecure and scared and they can both make each other better. They surprisingly make up for each others faults really well.. Shrimpo can stand up for Shelly, and Shelly can be a side of reason for Shrimpo, as well as being someone kind. Their mutual respect for each other they eventually get allows them both to grow as people and I think that's so cool!! And If I saw them in other ships I'd go insane about them too I think- gjfjdgkh And I'm not gonna go into how Shrimpo never actually states he hates Shelly.. I dunno I'm gooey.. Can't express them how I want to.

[stargleam-star]

My thoughts on Star, and A Starless Clan as a whole:

Spoilers ahead for A Starless clan amd a bit of Ivypool's Heart if it wasn't obvious. Time for me to go on a rant! It's gonna feature me mostly gushing about Frostpaw because she's the only character with enough substance to talk in length about. But I've got other things to talk about too I guess. Lets get into it:

As usual, Frostpaw was the best character of the book and honestly the most relatable. She kept Going Through It until basically the very end and I felt so bad for her.

What I am glad about though is that she got the killing blow on Splashtail! Fuck yeah that's my baby girl <3

But he did get a hit in on her before the end and left her basically comatose which was tragic. Reading Frostpaw drift in and out of consciousness and what she saw while knocked out was really cool tho. I especially liked that she got to have deeper conversations with Curlfeather. She wanted so desperately for her mother to admit fault, to show some remose for her actions. Instead Curlfeather kept focusing on how Splashtail ruined her plans, and how he's to blame. All she wanted to do was protect Frostpaw and Riverclan. There wasn't the slightest bit of remorse at all. It was so tragic reading Frostpaw wishing her mother would hold herself accountable. It really hit home with me. In the end, Curlfeather couldn't face the truth and left Frostpaw behind to conclude her mother wasn't a good person and learn to accept that so she could move on. Heartwrenching stuff imo

I got really sad when Frostpaw started taking a turn for the worse and finally got to see Starclan. She got to meet her dad and was so happy, he made her realize that she needs to focus on herself and her happiness instead of worrying about everyone else's needs. Nobody understands how fucking Relatable that is to me. Nobody come near me rn.

Frostpaw wanted so badly to finally give up and be at peace. She wanted to be happy and relax, and to help in other ways. As much as that would have crushed me for her arc to conclude with her death, it really did feel like a good end for her. She would have done so well as a Starclan messenger. She deserves the rest. Sadly the narrative didn't want that to be the end of her, so she got to come back. Hooray /s

I like the medicine cat name she was given! Frostdawn is pretty (although I am lowkey disappointed she wasn't named Frostfeather, and that's not because I wanted her sharing a name with Curlfeather. I've got an oc named Frostfeather and it would have been amazing for a canon POV character to have that name too. Alas).

I'm also going crazy over the fact that her and Whistlepaw (now Whistlebreeze) got named together. I love these two lesbians so much its insane. The speech Frostpaw gave Whistlebreeze about being a good medicine cat and how grateful she was to have been saved by her? I'm planning their wedding as we speak

Frostdawn ended up choosing Icewing as Riverclan's leader, which was the obvious choice from the start imo. Also very predictable but what do I expect from a series written for 6th graders? I'm still salty as hell we got to see her leader ceremony but never Squirrelstar's.

I find it weird that Icewing was against Frostpaw in the beginning of Wind but then came around to "omg you were right" because Splashtail got mean. It was kind ooc for her, but then again she stopped having a bigger role during that book up until the end of Star.

Why tf was Icewing's voice the loudest that Frostpaw heard when cats started singing to bring her back to life? Also how tf were regular warriors able to sing to reach Frostpaw's spirit? I get that Tree was with them, and Icewing had spent a few days with The Sisters in Ivypool's super edition, but it doesn't explain how they were able to get that power. Also it was "all the she-cats that love [Frostpaw]" which included cats such as Duskfur and Mothwing who'd been mean to her throughout a good chunk of the arc... ok. Anyways.

All of A Starless Clan should have been soley in Frostdawn's point of view. Nightheart and Sunbeam barely brought anything to the table

Might as well talk about them. I like how Nightheart's character arc finished. He wasn't a jerk by the end and started being more respectful. His POV felt pointless most of the time, but I liked getting a glimpse of the inside of Riverclan during the height of Splashtail's reign (more on that soon)

Sunbeam's POV was completely unnecessary. While I liked that we got deeper thoughts on Berryheart as a result of Sunbeam, I don't think we really needed it for the story. I don't even think the way things wrapped up between them was good.

I'm gonna talk about Berryheart now because she's more interesting. I've come to the conclusion that the Erins dropped the ball with her as a villan. By the end, she was nothing more than a traitor in every single way. She was untrustworthy and I cheered when she died. She should have died 3 books ago if she wasn't gonna do anything worthwhile. No her trying to get Shadowclan on her side to let her be leader in the end qhike trying to convice them to rise up against Riverclan was not good. It was stupid as hell, almost as stupid as her joining Riverclan and becoming its deputy

I'm gonna talk about Splashtail but there's not a lot to say that I haven't already (but I will repeat myself). It felt like the Erins were trying to remake Tigerclawstar and his villan arc with Splashtail. Think about it. Ambitious, broad shouldered, dark brown tabby tom, who conspired with cats from another clan to kill their leader in order to gain power for themself? Check. A merger of Shadowclan and Riverclan? Check. Evil cat wanting to rule all the clans? Check. A deputy slain for having a different opinion? Check that off too.

As stated before the only differences between Tigerclawstar and Splashtail was that Splashtail was a lazy coward, Tigerstar actually belived in Starclan and its strength, and Splashtail had none of the charm or support that Tigerclawstar had. Also Splashtail had to resort to threatening the life of kits to get cats to do what he wanted, while Tigerclan followed Tigerclawstar's rule because he was formidable and had cats in it who truly believed in him and his vision for the future

Splashtail was written to be so cartoonishly evil and it was a sad thing to read. I'm glad Frostpaw got to kill him, and I loved how he was tormented until the end by Curlfeather's demon spirit.

I didn't like how they implied Splashtail might be the way he was due to mental illness though. I'm probably gonna get hate for saying that, lol. But in the last book they wrote him to seem like s psychopath, as well as implied him to be schizophrenic because he was talking to someone that wasn't visible (even though he was actually seeing a real dead person. But nobody but Splashtail and the audience got to know that). They literally called him crazy throughout the last book, the entire time. And idk it just felt like they were villifying mental illness a bit as a result. Again I'm probably reading into it too much, don't come at me please

The leaders were not as impactful in Star as I'd hoped. But at least they acted and fought together in the end. I loved that the leaders actually participated in the battles to liberated Riverclan instead of only sending warriors to do it. I love seeing leaders fighting for the good of their clan and putting their lives on the line (that's what their 9 lives are for. Looking at you Brambleclaw)

I didn't like that sone of Riverclan's cats were trying to join Thunderclan near the end of Star and I liked how Squirrelstar acknowledged that they had too many warriors as itwas, and how they had to expand the warrior's den in the past because of it. Wish the Erins would do something about all those cats

99% of Thunderclan was not mentioned at all this book, including the elders + Brambleclaw from what I read (I might've skimmed iver smth tho idk) but there was mention of cats like Myrtlebloom and fucking Eagletail for sone reason (is that their name? I can't remember). Tell me why any of these cats are alive if they're not worth mentioning while we have a camp scene? At least I got to see my girl Daisy <3

A Starless Clan had so much potential and the writing and mystery in the beginning were really good. I just wish they'd kept it up throughout.

Star felt like a flat finish and while I liked the way Frostpaw's chapters concluded and the whole main plot of Riverclan without a leader, I hate that the book ended on a Nightheart chapter and that the last like was about how he "could be brave and loyal no matter what his name was." Like that was a really dumb final chapter of the arc, a genuinely novice choice. It ruined the arc conclusion for me. Frostdawn's chapter should have been last

OverallI I will give Star a 3/10, and A Starless Clan 5/10 stars. It could have been great. But then, it wouldn't be Warriors would it?

[ninjagobythenumbers]

Season 18 Groupings

This is a spreadsheet that really only I care about, but I hope you enjoy nevertheless. It's basically a visual depiction of how the characters were split up each episode. I will also discuss my views on how well the show's managing to juggle a dozen main characters.

This is a broad overview. Go here if you want to see a legible version. For now, I am just going to show Dragons Rising so we can compare with Chaos Rising.

Quick Observations

Wyldfyre once again spent the season with Roby. I find it interesting that at this point, she really only has a close relationship with Kai. In earlier seasons, the ninja's relationships were sort of equal levels of closeness. I like the new variations.

Now that PIXAL and Jay are back, Zane and Nya once again have consistent plotline partners, making it easier to track them.

Love how much time Kai and Nya have spent together this era. I hope that doesn't entirely go away now that Jay's returned.

The main Ninja Group (purple) now pretty much always consists of Lloyd, a friend of his, Riyu, and a couple kids. I don't expect this to change anytime soon. Show's about them after all.

Cole really does not spend time with the Ninja anymore. Cool that he still gets featured instead of being retired forever, though I sort of expected him to mentor Frak. I guess he already has kids. Maybe in the future.

Love how, for this entire show, Zane has had consistent solo missions. Upwards of 5 seasons where he gets a solo episode and then backseats for the rest of the season. Such an interesting character attribute and a wild balancing technique.

Chart & Key

Here's the key. Sorry that the names are silly.

Discussion

At long last, we have all of the Ninja. PIXAL's absence has been hard on my chart. But now that she's back and Jay's been kidnapped, we got to have another finale togetherness moment. (Almost. I primarily base my categorizations on where the Ninja are at the beginning of the episodes and Cole started the episode at home.) Every time I think the show has peaked in its plotline complexity, I am proven wrong. Especially with Dragons Rising, because the show is now juggling upwards of 10 main characters at a time. This season, despite having a fairly large primary group, I ended up with characters in 7 different simultaneous groupings. I added Frak because he seems to be taking a main role and I'm really hopeful about a Serpentine joining the team. However, he is only here on probation. If he fails to have a consistent presence over the next few seasons or so, I'll strike him. PIXAL and the rest of the Ninja have tenure so no amount of dipping will eliminate any of them. Wu is absent from my chart, because he has a very inconsistent manner of participation in the plot due to his status as a mentor figure. But, I mean the Ninja are now doing the same sort of stuff he'd do so I might add him later. A difficult part about both incorporating Frak and Jay was the fact that, for a lot of their episodes, despite being in the same scenes with the ninja, they would often be on different sides or even in entirely different plotlines. The latter problem is primarily Jay's fault. I ended up ignoring these distinctions between the categorization is based more on sharing scenes than why they're in the scene.

I would have had to add another Busy categorization, but I decided to instead stretch the definition of Homebase instead, because sure the Land of Lost Things isn't all of the ninja's homebase, but it's Cole's home, so for now, it works. As an aside, I find it hilarious that Cole said "hey guys, I'm gonna go look for Arin in my house" and then he just didn't return all season. Clearly an excuse to go home to Geo and his kids. Zane's clearly also angling to get out now that PIXAL's back.

It always sucks when a Ninja is stuck at home, but it's necessary. It's impossible to give proper time to a dozen characters. It's also a long-standing practice in the show. There's hardly a season where a character isn't homebasing (usually Nya or PIXAL in early seasons unfortunately, later on often Kai or Cole). I think I might make a post later about the techniques I've noticed that the show uses to balance all its characters (Homebase, backseating, solo missions) as well as what characters usually end up in such delegations. Thanks for reading all this! Let me know if you have any feedback or suggestions for additional charts.

[rivetgoth]

I’m sure I’ll add more on this later but as I think on House of Leaves (finished it, loved it, listened through all of Poe’s Haunted and loved that too) I think the conclusion I’ve come to (and this isn’t a wildly novel conclusion, but ah well) is that it is at its core fundamentally an exploration of grief, and specifically grief of the loss of a family member. This is especially obvious because… Mark Danielewski has literally said that it was inspired by the death of his father. Poe’s album as well. So like, this is no secret. And I think this is invoked in the very obvious way of the fact that a house that should feel like a home but instead feels unsafe, surreal, and literally larger and emptier on the inside than it naturally should be is a very clear metaphor for grappling with the loss of a parent, right? But I think it goes deeper than that… I think House of Leaves also spends a lot of time dwelling on the weird, impossible to untangle intricacies of trauma, childhood and generational trauma especially, mental illness, and genetics… the things you carry with you and the things that loom over you from your family, especially those deceased who you no longer have direct contact with, left only with this awareness weighing down upon you.

I think Chad and Daisy are pretty clearly functionally author inserts of Mark and Poe, right? And Will Navidson then is their father? Both are even filmmakers. But I also think that Zampanò himself is Mark as well… his middle initial is literally… But complicatedly I’m not saying that Chad is Zampanò, I don’t think HoL is straightforward like that, it’s more like that’s another embodiment of the grief. The child experiencing that, the adult retelling it, grappling with it, imagining and reimagining it, and I think I believe that Tom Navidson is functionally an author insert of Zampanò into The Navidson Record, functioning kind of like a guardian angel to his childhood self, this sort of stand-in hero character who sacrifices himself to protect the innocence and life of the child self. I think the slippage of “me” within that one line, where he refers to Tom in first person, alludes to this, as well as his emotional outburst over his chapter where he tries to write about the relationship between Will and Tom. And in the very back of the book, there’s the fragment of a typed page where Zampanò considers an ending where Chad and Daisy die instead, are killed by the house, with this much more pessimistic tone (similar to when he gets upset about writing about Tom and Will), than what’s shown in the published/Johnny’s version of The Navidson Record.

And would it complicate things too much to say I think Chad, Zampanò, and Johnny represent a sort of trinity of different stages of Mark’s life—the child experiencing it in real time, the young adult trying (and failing) to cope with it all, and the elder now looking back and engaging with it from an aged perspective. I think Johnny represents that crushing weight of this impending, unknown genetic fuckery, constantly feeling the weight of this figure who died long ago but who you know lives within you, and you’re trying to figure out what’s traumagenic, what’s just this completely unavoidable tumbling towards fate—his mother died severely psychotic in an institution, is this unavoidable? Can he escape this future? How much of what he deals with is her, her influence, her fault, and how much is caused by trauma inflicted upon him. I really don’t like the theory that his mother/Pelafina “was” Johnny all along or that Johnny never existed or that he was a stillborn baby like in the story and she’s functionally created a Johnny headmate. I think it’s sort of silly, like I can see some interesting merit in it (there’s clearly a bizarre Oedipal psychosexual complex going on between Pelafina and Johnny and her writing these detailed accounts of her basically stillborn son’s sexcapades is a pretty fascinating idea), but I’m more interested in a sort of backwards-reading of that theory where the end represents Johnny kind of embracing or succumbing to his mother’s identity, for better or worse, and the idea of this baby in critical condition that maybe just maybe had a slim chance for life but dying the moment his mother asks him to revealing instead his relationship to her, the helplessness of those genetics and the control and power she exerts over him even in death. When Shilo Wallace says “You, I've mistaken for destiny / but the truth is my legacy is not up to my genes” at the end of Repo! the Genetic Opera, House of Leaves says… terrifyingly… what if it is? What if your genetics are your destiny? And then you lose that genetic lineage, it becomes just story, infamy, legend, but you’re there and alive and trying to grapple with it?

I kinda like the theory that Johnny rewrote the end of The Navidson Record to have a happy ending, or maybe Zampanò did. I think they both desperately want the story to have a happier ending. And honestly, I love the ending of The Navidson Record as published by Johnny. Though maybe cliché on paper I love the idea that there is a hopeful answer to all that emptiness and fear and a way to silence those endless inexplicable winding hallways and the answer is to replace that emptiness with genuine love. Like, to overcome that fear and embrace the ones you’ve loved for all that they are and that this love can fix all of that… It can make all of the fear and uncertainty of the empty, insurmountable, nightmare house literally dissolve... I think the end of Poe’s album (“If You Were Here”) speaks to that too.

Uh there’s obviously way more to it than that. House of Leaves is a lot of things. Duh. But I do think right now my primary takeaway is just how informed it is by the crushing helpless grief of the death of an immediate family member with which you have an extremely tenuous or strained relationship and the weight of family history.

[shortystack75]

I just did my annual rewatch of Stars Align aka Hoshiai No Sora and now I once again have too many thoughts. Anyone seeing this is now the victim.

So basically this post is gonna be a long post explaining a tierlist I made for the kids and how they were effected by their parent/s. I made the tierlist at like 3am this morning and immediately passed out while working through my thought processes

OTHER PEOPLE ARE WELCOME TO READ MY RAMBLES TOO IT'S PRETTY ACCESSIBLE BC I EXPLAIN EVERYTHING

So I'm actually going to go from the bottom and work my way up bc I have so many more uncoordinated thoughts about Touma, Tsubasa, and Nao than anyone else.

RINTARO His adoptive parents have done everything right, he and they are delights. his main issue is the FACT that he's adopted. he feels like there's something inherently wrong with him that caused his birth parents to not want him. at the end of the series his birth mother gets ahold of his adoptive parents and wants to meet him, its assumed she shows up at the tournament but leaves before he can catch up to her, making him believe that because he lost his match she doesn't think he's worth even meeting. And yea I'm with the theory that he's Touma's twin and that makes his mom Rintaro's mom and boy would that fuck him up even more and I so wish we could've gotten our original 24 episodes. Overall his ACTUAL parents that he grew up with and currently have did not cause his problems so 10/10 love them sm

Arashi + Class Pres They are rich kids and though we dont see them being effected by this very much i assume they are negatively effected but overall their parents are probably okay

TAIYO Very soft spoken and probably would roll over and die if a bully or mugger approached him. His parents, while very well-meaning, dote on him in a way that probably killed any kind of confidence he had. "It's okay if you dont win" WOULD be good parent words, but they were followed up with "tennis is a two person sport, so its not your fault if your partner messes up" Taiyo actually scolds them for this which made me really happy, as by saying this not only are they making a dig at his friend and partner(who does not need anyone hurting him anymore goddamn), but also could be interpreted as if they do win then it could be all his partner and not him Overall 8/10 this boy just needs more confidence and screentime

ITSUKI He was hard to place because his parent situation has already been handled actually. he got todorokied as a kid. When he was a baby, his mother clearly suffered from some pretty hard postnatal depression, and possibly other stuff, and poured boiling water onto his back. this left him with some pretty horrific back scars that he actually doesn't mind but he clearly doesn't like talking about it, as shown in the show by him not changing in the club room until about halfway through the show, after he'd already known the MC Maki for a while. He's shown to have a very easy trigger to violence however when people belittle his homelife. Without even knowing about his mother, some bullies come talk down to him about his mother being out of the picture and his response was to bash them over the head with his racket 8/10 Current situation, we never see his dad but we can assume he's doing a decent job as a father bc Itsuki and Namie are actually kinda well adjusted despite his lil aggro moment

Mitsue Mitsue is not part of the tennis club but hands around them as the only people she can stand coughcoughADMITTHEY'REYOURFRIENDSLOSERcoughcough and uses their matches as inspiration for drawing. Her parents belittle her passion for drawing and tell her seemingly often that she'll never go anywhere in life, its implied that she starts hanging around the tennis club and Maki's house to get away from her parents as long as possible until she actually starts liking them

Yuu Yuu is a canonicaly non-binary/X-gender character and i love them but their mom is transphobic and yelled at them and was really shitty i hope she dies. not directly related to their mother, but we also see other students bullying them for being gay (no one other than Maki, their mother, and their sisters find out about them not being cis, but most people seem to know theyre gay or at least suspect it) they are physically harassed early on, only to have a friend, Touma, step in and literally scare off the bullies(more on that when we get to him) and towards the middle of the show some other sports guys come into the tennis team's room to talk and start to make comments on Yuu being gay. This is immediately shut down by several of the tennis club members showing their clear support for them at least in the gay sense.

SHINGO His mother is either dead or otherwise out of the picture completely but there seems to be no ill will from him or his father, who remarried. Father is great and supportive of him. His step-mother however... She's constantly comparing him to his mother who she clearly doesnt like and wants as little to do with him as possible. Shingo has a little half-sister whom he adores and she adores him right back, but his step-mom HATES them interacting and does everything she can to discourage it, despite his little sister's clear adoration and love for him. He overall isn't super outwardly very effected by her, but is still clearly put-out by her random hate towards him and likely feels very uncomfortable in her presence. 6.5/10 overall, 9/10 dad but 4/10 step-mom who gets a"Not being as bad as you could've been" award

Now we're getting spicy

MAKI Our main character Maki! He's an overall quiet but pleasant person who has a very realistic outlook on life. His single mother is amazing towards him but works very long hours at her job and so most of the chores fall into him, not that he minds all that much, when he was younger he was often looked after by his mother's friend Shou, a canonical transman that lead Maki to be very informed about gender and was just what Yuu needed. His father however.... physically and financially abusive. despite being divorced he shows up at their apartment when he knows his exwife wont be at home to steal money from them and be mean to Maki. in the after credits scene of the first episode he hits maki so hard something in his mouth starts bleeding(he likely bit his tongue or a part of his cheek) and he curls up into a ball and waits for him to leave. He's terrified of this man. Later in the show he shows up to terrorize maki again and Touma, Maki's doubles partner, gets involved to put an end to it. Throughout the exchange Maki is practically cowering behind Touma which is so jarring because Maki's normal demeanor is so nonchalant and calm. It's implied he's been abused for as long as he could remember to some extent. We see a couple other time that he has an interesting reaction to threats and violence, such as another character threatening him with a racket(he doesn't react and simply says "Use your hands") or upon learning Itsuki bludgeoned a guy with his racket(tells him not to break the equipment because its expensive) Oh also his mother is in the process of getting a restraining order but its not in place yet Mom and Shou are 8/10, dad is 0/10, overall 4/10 experience for our sadboy Maki

TOUMA He's some kind of neurospicy i just know it. His father is ??? never see this man but we know he;s in the household, i think he travels for work or smth cause its mentioned he's rarely at home His mother HATES him. like for no reason. She gives us a lot of vague words she says to his older brother, who seems to be Touma's only positive family relation, at one point she says that he scares her but she also yells at him all the time and compares him to his brother and basically constantly belittles him for no reason. He seems to blame everything on himself but silently. When the tennis team isn't doing good he blows up be throwing his racket on the ground and storming away, but later reveals to his brother that he thinks its his fault and that he's a bad captain. Similarly, when the team is having a celebration he stays to the edges and explains to Yuu that he doesn't like being around people who are having fun because he feels like he's going to ruin it be engaging. We can actually tie this into a little moment he has with Maki during a game when Maki turns to him exactly and goes "I really love tennis!" and Touma stands there with awe on his face as if he couldn't imagine someone having fun by playing with him. Speaking of Yuu, back when he scared off the bullies, 2/3 of the bullies were IMMEDIATELY scared upon seeing him walk up, they told the third one that "Everyone knows he's a psycho" while Touma stands there with a blank face. This coupled with how his mother talks about him makes me think he's had a little bit of a violent streak that may be linked to autistic breakdowns Back to his mother, it is revealed at the end that there's a third brother we've never seen or heard of when we get a scene of his mother and older brother talking. his brother says "I love both of my little brothers" and later that episode his mom calls him to tell him she's divorcing his dad and taking his older brother with her. I just know he'd be even more messed up if Rintaro ends up being his twin brother. Anyway his dad is 4/10 for absence and his mom is 1/10 for doing the bare minimum (really sad that she has any points at all). Overall 2.5/10

TSUBASA he's my little crunchy guy i love him so much We very very briefly see his mother have worry for him at a bad moment but never goes after him when he runs away and she never seems to check on him at any other point. The bad moment is when he falls down the stairs. Specifically he is hit in the face by his father so hard (on a flight of stairs) that he slams into the wall and then loses his balance and falls backwards onto his dominant wrist hard enough to break it. Let me backtrack a bit. at about 2/3 through the anime, we get a scene of him at home watching tv with his 2 older brothers. His dad comes through the door and the music stops, all three boys look tense but Tsubasa specifically immediately gets a fearful look and when addressed by his dad tries to leave the room. Tsubasa is a very loud and confrontational person, likely caused by his dad's toxic masculinity, and says something that isn't important but causes his father to follow him and grab his wrist so hard he looks in pain. What follows is the stair incident. He then runs out of the house in the middle of the night and ends up in front of Shingo's house. Shingo is his tennis partner. Shingo sees him, Tsubasa tries to run away but is quickly caught by the hurt wrist. After Shingo realizes he's hurt he immediately gets his dad to take Tsubasa to the hospital. When the doctor asks if anyone else was involved, Tsubasa denies this and calls himself an idiot with the most heart wrenching expression on his face i swear. He later confesses to Shingo he's sure his dad hates him all because he's not as good at soccer as his older brothers, and blames himself for Shingo not being able to play in the upcoming tournament. When asked why he came to Shingo's house he responds with "I didn't know where else to go" Which makes me want to hit someone, personally. At the start of the series there a part where he raises his racket as if to strike Maki with it, but backs down when Maki doesn't even flinch. I'm taking this to mean he was never actually planning to hit Maki, but acting big and threatening violence is likely something he learned from his dad. When it doesn't work he immediately backs down and leaves the situation, similar to how he acts with his dad. He's also one of the few we see get physical with anyone else. Barring Itsuki and the racket incident, Tsubasa is the only member of the tennis team to threaten another middle schooler. In the club room incident where Yuu was starting to be harassed, Tsubasa was one of the three (Touma and Maki were not present) out of 6 members to intervene. While Shingo and Itsuki told the other boy off and insulted him in turn, Tsubasa actually got up in his space and grabbed a hold of the other boy's face, lightly shoving him. The other boys immediately backed down after this like Tsubasa was assuming they would, like how he learned to behave with his father. Mom is like 4/10 for being useless 🎉and Father is 0/10 for an overall score of 2/10!!!

and now... for NAO My head is in my hands over him So to start, he's an only child and his father is distant and doesn't seem to interact with him or care for him whatsoever(unlike with Tsubasa and hopefully Touma, he's somehow being an absent parent while sitting right! next! to! him!!!), leaving him with no help or reprieve at home from his monster of a mother. She never physically hurts or lays a hand on him from what we've seen but she clearly has deep-rooted mental and emotional manipulation that has negatively effected Nao very deeply. We see a lot of signs early on that we brush away as little quirks he has, such as telling a lot of lies or "fairy tales" as the tennis club likes to call them, staring off into space, or even just looking impassively at what transpires around him as if he wasn't apart if it. That's right this boy disassociates. hard. His mother, to put it lightly, is an extremely controlling and authoritarian parent who wants to hand steer every little thing he thinks, feels, and does. She's constantly complaining to the principal about the club and lying or exaggerating in order for club activities to be suspended or halted because she doesn't think he gets anything from playing and would rather he spend all his time studying. Speaking of studying, that's what she has him do constantly at home. His room doesn't look like that of a middle school boy. It has a desk, a bed, and a dresser. I would even go so far as to say some of his spacey-ness comes from exhaustion. who knows how long she has him studying every night, and its revealed he gets up early so he can go on runs and practice swinging because she doesn't let him after he gets home from school. All of this feeds into his lies. He's learned that whenever he tells her the truth he gets yelled at and belittled and punished. So he lies. he tells her what he thinks she'll want to here and this bleeds into all of his relationships. Upon meeting Maki he lies immediately, something broad to appeal to everyone, but its called out by the rest of the club and he just sits there smiling through it all while looking at the sky. He's left handed and she hates that. He uses his left hand to eat once and she yells at him, making him freeze up and pull his right arm into his center, almost mimicking the fetal position. SPEAKING of eating... boy unintentionally has an eating disorder. We are shown multiple times when he is at home he pushes his food around his plate and eats little to none of it. While there are other scenes of him with food away from his mother, I dont think he's actually specifically shown eating then either, and could've easily not eaten anything there. OKAY so onto the really scary/sad part. There's a part where Shingo brings his little sister to watch their practice game with the girls' team, and she gets lost in the school. She ends up found sleeping in the nurses office, but they skipped over it bc the door was locked and figured she couldn't have gotten in there. They only find her when Maki hears the keys jingle in Nao's pocket and realizes he locked her in there. Nao himself seemed shocked that he had the keys and was the one to lock her in there. His mom had been yelling about the practice game and wanting it cancelled the night before. He found her, and instead of telling everyone or waking her up, he disociated and locked the door, than lied that he hadn't seen her. He seemed so shocked that Maki even thinks that he'd thought his own lie was real. Think of how scary that is. I also think he's neurospicy which his mom would absolutely fuck up even more but thats just me things Dad gets a 3/10 for personally pissing me off and his mom gets a funny lil 0/10 along with the two other shittiest parents. Overall a 1.5/10!!!

In all seriousness In my own little world most of them move in together and share an apartment. Yes ive seen the extra scenes no I dont care im ignoring them.