#its not that hes this amazing human being-- he has a lot of flaws and he's still working to do his best

[tigergender]

I like going back over early SU episodes and thinking about them too hard until my blood vessels in my brain pop. I enjoy the show as much as I did when I was younger but I think my enjoyment has shifted from "watching Steven go on exciting magical adventures" to "watching the horrible threads of everything that encompasses Steven in SU:F betray themselves through innocuous interactions and episodes."

[welcometohellfilm]

Hi! I recently saw W2H2 part 1 and I must say it’s pretty amazing! Even better then the first one (which I loved btw), I know you anticipated that it wouldn’t have been full done, but I still wished the animation and the coloring were completed, like the first short. Nevertheless It has its charm anyway so good job, still amazing as always ! I just wanted to ask a few questions about Mephistopheles:

1) Is Mephistopheles actually capable of being evil and doing evil things as well ? Is he the type of guy that is usually pretty chill but can get REALLY angry if you piss him off? At the end of the first act, he said to Sock that he would fired him if he didn’t complete the job… did he mean literally “to fire him” (like burn or hurt him), or just meant “fired from the job” without causing him any harm? I am very curious about this character, I find him pretty charming and interesting! (I also love his character design)

2) How long will it be before the second and third parts of W2H2 release more or less (Months, years…)? And how long each part will be? Don’t wanna put preassure on you ofc , I’m just curious but I will be patient if that’s the case!

Thank you for this amazing little cartoon! I really love the plot and the characters and I look foward to see more! I hope you’ll reply soon and thank u again <33 (also sorry for my bad english but I am Italian eheh)

haha... yeah I'm getting that comment from a lot of people. But idk, when I look at the first short it looks pretty incomplete to me! Like to me, I think having better animation and less color is a decent trade-off, but I guess for a lot of people the color really did a lot of heavy-lifting. Anyway, I know it's a little disappointing, but my options were "call it good enough and post it", or "drive myself crazy working on it until I die", I know that sounds dramatic, and maybe I could've forced myself to finish at least throwing color on it, but I don't know, I didn't want to start resenting the thing I'm supposed to be passionate about. I kinda put myself between a rock and a hard place, didn't I? Sorry for the rant! I'm glad you enjoyed it anyway, haha. UHHH on to questions! 1. Mephistopheles is complicated. Or at least, I think he is, and I'm trying to figure out what that balance is. (I have an entire wordpad file full of notes/thoughts on Mephistopheles from one of my friends who's given a surprising amount of thought to the morality of the character that I'm gonna have to reference moving forward, haha). But as for my original thoughts on the character--- I don't consider him evil, but I think he's capable of doing things we would call 'evil', just like any human is. And like humans, he can be motivated by flawed, negative thoughts and feelings; spite, revenge, jealousy, whatever. But unlike humans he exists outside of space and time, and he's not a human himself, so his perception of morality is just different. The "you're fired" comment is meant to be a little confusing... like, you come to expect these stupid hell jokes from him, but then he clarifies "that wasn't a pun". And he's the devil, so maybe he's not joking. He COULD condemn Sock to hell. So that's the stakes of the story! If Meph is serious, Sock could be in a lot of trouble. We're not sure exactly how lenient he's going to be, or how trust-worthy he is. He's the devil! Toying with people is kind of his whole thing! haha. 2. It's not gonna' be another 10 years, that's for sure!!! Most of Part 2 is already rough animated (at least as much as Part 1 has been). There's still... one or two scenes that need more animation, and pretty much every shot of Shadow!Jonathan still needs to be done. It also needs more backgrounds, but there's FEWER backgrounds in Part 2 (Hell is just a re-usable Shadow-Realmy-y void), and a lot of the stuff from Jonathan's house can be re-used with different lighting. I'll have a better idea of the timeline once I sit down and crack it open again... and it's about to get kind of busy with the holidays and all, but it should be finished some time next year! Hopefully in the first half of 2025! I'll try to keep everyone posted. Anyway thanks for your questions! Hope this helped!

[david-talks-sw]

It's a shame that the multi-media franchise of star wars have twisted the original narrative of the Jedi. I really love the sequel trilogy, I love season 7 of TCW, and Dave Filoni is amazing storyteller. But over the years, it's gotten to the point where the Jedi are being criticized to such a degree that now some people believe the Jedi should've changed their entire belief system. It's great to criticize the Jedi. They are flawed and not perfect. But now because they are now being framed negatively over the past 2-3 years and so now, some justify their genocide, disrespect their belief system, and believe Anakin was a poor victim who got caught up in everything. Lucasfilm or any writer is to blame for this, but I think people need to look a little more deeper into the media literacy behind star wars, and consider the fact that a child is going to love the Jedi despite their flaws and will be sad when they see them get killed. Because star wars is made for children who can look up to the Jedi as role models.

All of this.

I frankly don't know what else to add, @thecenturyofmusic said it all.

I also think there's an argument to be made for shifting global values.

I don't know about how it was in the U.S. specifically, but I don't remember there being as much of an emphasis on mental health back in the early 2000s as there is today.

Back then, I remember many fans sorta getting the core story but hating it, which resulted in a lot of them just bashing the Prequels.

Nowadays, a spin has been put on the Prequels wherein Anakin is the poster boy for the mental illness, he's just a victim:

he grew up a slave which gave him severe PTSD,

then was ripped away from the arms of his mother by

an elite order of emotionless monks whose emotionally-repressing teachings are the perfect representation of toxic masculinity and force you to never get emotionally attached,

who berated and rejected him at every turn,

he also doesn't have a father figure except for the Chancellor, who grooms him and isolates him,

and instead of supporting him in his hour of need, the Jedi hurt Anakin psychologically to a degree where at some point he just loses it and kills them all, because as far as he's concerned they were evil to him.

And... yeah. It can be interpreted that way. It resonates more to people when seen that way.

But it wasn't meant to be seen that way.

If it was, then we'd have seen very different Prequels.

Watto would have physically abused Anakin left and right like he's DiCaprio in Django: Unchained, instead of joking around about humans with him.

Shmi would've been on the ground crying, holding Anakin's leg and screaming "please no give me back my babyyyy!!!"

Literally every shot of the Jedi emoting, screaming, chuckling, being worried would be absent and they'd all speak with a monotonous voice, including Yoda, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan.

If we were supposed to feel like Anakin is in the right and the Jedi are in the wrong then we'd be shown an Anakin who isn't petulant, arrogant and overly emotional. We'd see a normal person who gets berated by a group of unfeeling old men.

Anakin wouldn't call Obi-Wan his father twice (which is admittedly a nuanced situation because while Anakin may see Obi-Wan as a father, Obi-Wan sees Anakin as a little brother so hey).

We'd see Anakin explicitly state that he's afraid of his wife dying, maybe carrying her unconscious body to the temple steps begging for help only for someone to reject him at the door because "it goes against protocol" and that's when Palpatine swoops in.

Y'know, more explicit, emotion-eliciting stuff?

But we didn't see any of that. Because it wasn't about any of that. If it was, then it goes about delivering its message in the weakest way possible.

While nowadays, the popular take is that Anakin's downfall is the fault of everyone around him, the intended take was that Anakin's fall was his own fault. Anakin is a victim of his own flaws.

The Prequels weren't meant to show you what happens when you keep pushing a mentally unstable person, they were about cautioning children about not giving in to their own fear and greed.

"How does a good kid become a bad man?" He let his inner demons - fear, anger, greed - get the better of him.

And that's not necessarily a take most people agree with these days, but that takes us back to how much importance you actually give to GL's original vision.

[iris-sistibly]

My final take on Queen of Tears? It was a one hell of a fucking journey + Thoughts on the finale

[Warning: Long-ass post ahead]

Queen of Tears released its final episode last Sunday, April 28. The show made history as it became tvN’s most watched drama, surpassing the 2019 hit Crash Landing on You. Park Ji-eun was the writer for both shows.

The story is about a couple who underwent a crisis in their third year of marriage. However, a significant event will not only change their lives but also pave the way for them to rediscover their love for each other. 

I personally got hooked into this show for three reasons:

First, the plot: Marriage tropes in a lot of dramas are usually about infidelity, toxic and abusive relationships that end in a nasty divorce. It happens in real life sadly, but I appreciate the fact that Park Ji-eun took a different route and gave us another realistic side of marriage. A couple who once had this warm, passionate love for each other became cold and distant over time because of one tragic event that left them wounded and broken. There were also other factors that added salt to the wound which caused them to drift further from one another. I’m not gonna go into details because I have already discussed this in earlier episodes. However, I love that there were a couple of flashbacks that tells the viewers of how their love story began, plus some extra bits and pieces in the epilogue that were either related to Hyun-woo and Hae-in’s past, or a particular scene in the current episode that was told from either of the character’s point of view. 

Switching from light and funny scenes to a more intense one then back to swoon-worthy moments and then the last thing you knew you were bawling your eyes out because of the heartbreaking scenes felt like a roller coaster ride, needless to say I was always on edge and I sometimes had to pause in the middle of the episode so I could breathe. That’s how intense the emotions were in this show. Like I have said before, this is not a rom-com but more like a heavy drama with a couple of light and funny scenes.

But the part in this story that appealed to me the most is that it will make you question, how much love can someone truly give? How far can you go to be with the person you love? And when everything seems black and white, would you be willing to stay? Or walk away? 

Second, the characters: Immediately, I was drawn to Baek Hyun-woo and Hong Hae-in. Usually in KDramas, it’s always the male lead who is cool, cold, nonchalant and rich af and the girl is the bubbly, cutesy-cutesy, overly dramatic, and broke. I absolutely LOVE the role reversal. Hae-in is the cool and badass wife while Hyun-woo is the cute, dramatic hubby and together, they make an ✨iconic couple✨. But on a more serious note, a lot of characters nowadays are into the red light/green light spectrum and don’t get me wrong, I love it. Who doesn’t love a green light character right? But again, Park Ji-eun wrote them in such a way that you wouldn’t perceive them as this ultra-perfect, no flaw character, but they aren’t toxic either (except for the main villains of course). A lot of the characters in the show have a good and flawed side, and I love it because that’s what makes them human, they are multi-layered which makes them complex, but at the same time, they were written in such a way that the viewers could have a deeper understanding of the characters, and even relate to them in some ways. 

Again with the exception of the villains, the character developments were so good. Witnessing this whole-ass process of them being flawed and broken characters to becoming the best versions of themselves were just the best.  

Third, the cast: Ah, I can go on and on about how every actor in this show was absolutely amazing! Again, Kim Soo-hyun has proven why he is Korea’s highest paid actor. I love that he can switch from this handsome, smart, and sexy lawyer, to a super cute, loving hubby, and then a man who would fight for his woman no matter what it takes. BITCH! The acting range of this guy is fucking LIMITLESS! As for Kim Ji-won, this is by far her best acting performance in my opinion. Hong Hae-in was such a difficult character to portray, but I love how she was able to effortlessly deliver Hae-in’s stoic, nonchalant exterior and when you look into her eyes you’ll see that vulnerable part of her that no one else except [her husband] sees. 

SooWon’s chemistry on the other hand is GOD-TIER! They were born to play Baek Hyun-woo and Hong Hae-in. Whether it’s a funny, romantic, or heavy scene, they nailed it to perfection! These two are the most married couple I have seen in a show. I feel sad that I’m not gonna see them together on-screen for sometime but I am hoping that they’d be able to work together again in the future. Although my delulu self is manifesting for them to be together irl 😂🤧

Park Sung-hoon, I have said before that he is so good at playing a villain. But I hope he gets to show his ability to portray a nice guy in the future, I need a break from him playing evil. 

Kwak Dong-yeon and Lee Joo-bin’s performances as the second couple deserve to be applauded as well. Despite their characters going through crazy shit, I love that they were able to deliver it on a lighter, heartwarming note in contrast to SoWoon’s heavier scenes.

Special mentions to the following 🗣️:

The Official Playlist of the Show- When I tell you that I have listened to every song in this playlist, I really mean it. I don’t understand the language, but everytime I hear a song from QOT, I can instantly imagine a particular scene from the show, that’s how magical it is. My most replayed song is The Reasons of my Smiles by BSS, but I also love Heize’s Hold me back, and the song that makes me the most emotional: Love you with all my heart by Crush. 

The cinematography: I’m not gonna go into details about the technicalities, but everything was perfectly shot, especially the scenes in Germany–it was dreamy, romantic, and beautiful. 

The crew members who worked behind the camera also need to be praised for the hard work, effort, and dedication they’ve put into making this show. 

There are things however about the show that I didn’t personally like or I think they could have done better. Here’s the link of why I think the storyline isn’t as good as I thought it would be: 

The final episode didn’t turn out the way I hoped it would be, although there were some parts of it that were really good like:

📍 Cheon Da-hye and Grace choosing to take accountability for their past actions (also Grace being the key player in bringing Mo Seul-hee down was the cherry on top) and has been given another chance to live honestly was one of the best character redemptions. 

📍The Hong family reclaiming what’s rightfully theirs, that was such a powerful scene.

📍Hyun-woo and Hae-in looking at each other after Mo Seul-hee was proven guilty for killing Hong Man-dae and all the other bullshits she did to Queens and the Hong family, as if saying, “It’s finally over,” and they did it together was so power couple coded. 

📍Aunt Beom-ja and husband #4 [really] taking their time to get to know each other…like literally. Her facial expression when Yeong-seong kissed her on the cheek instead of the lips like she was expecting was GOLD.

📍Mama and Papa Hong choosing a simpler and quieter life and hanging out with their besties (Mama and Papa Baek).

📍The family portrait of the Hong and Baek family 🥹

📍Hyun-woo and Hae-in taking their time to rebuild their relationship, then goes on to get married and have a baby, then visiting Germany every so often was the most heartwarming scene. 

📍I would say that the ending was a bittersweet one. Hae-in’s premonition came true, she died first and Hyun-woo never failed to visit her grave, and then eventually reuniting was one of the most realistic endings in a Kdrama. They lived a good life, they built a family, grew old together and reunited in the afterlife was beautiful but there was a certain ache in that part, perhaps a reminder that no matter how painful it gets, there is always a silver lining, and if you’re meant to be, you’re meant to be.

However, in addition to my linked post:

📍The first half of the story started really strong, but it dwindled the moment they added all of these ridiculous subplots. One Tumblr user commented that Hyun-woo and Hae-in’s marriage had enough issues as far as drama is concerned and I couldn’t agree more. 

📍I get that Mo Seul-hee is a shitty person but I don’t even know why she chose to prey on Hong Man-dae of all people. She could have done the same to other wealthy families (I mean he’s not the only gullible man out there with tons of money), but the question is, what did the Hong family do to her? Surely, there must have been a deeper meaning than just wanting money but alas, it's a question we'll probably never get an answer too.

📍The good thing is that we now fully understand why Yoon Eun-seong acted the way he did. He has mommy issues, abandonment issues, anger issues, etc. My prediction about him dying in the finale was correct, but there was no character redemption for him thus I don’t see the point on why they had to extend his Hae-in obsession arc towards the end. Take out all the irrelevant subplots, and the story still would have worked.

📍One of my biggest frustrations in the show was the fact that they only addressed BaekHong’s miscarriage after Hae-in lost her memories when they could have done that in the earlier episode (the scene where Hyun-woo and Hae-in had a heart-to-heart conversation about their failed marriage), it’s like the writer forgot about that part–which by the way was such a crucial part then she just inserted this scene somewhere in the finale. 

📍I was also disappointed that Hae-in's mom wasn't the one who comforted her during that scene where Hyun-woo was undergoing surgery after getting shot. It would have been such a perfect opportunity to heal their relationship. Also, I would have appreciated it if Mama Hong was the one who personally apologized to Hyun-woo for being harsh towards him.

📍I know I said that the ending was a more realistic one, but babes we were ROBBED! I would have loved to see a BaekHong wedding part 2, their pregnancy journey and moments with baby Soo-bin but alas, we were deprived of that too. As much as I find the finale realistic, I wouldn’t say that I was satisfied either.

📍I just remembered this now, but Papa Hong's and Aunt Beom-ja's other sibling could have actually contributed to ending the villain arc. He could have made moves to unravel Seul-hee and Eun-seong's crap, but idk writer-nim just placed him there just because 🤷.

Overall, do I think that this show is over hyped? Storywise, yes. As far as the actors’ performances go, they deserve it. 

Is the show worth watching? I’d say it’s worth checking out if you’re someone who likes heavy, intense dramas. If not, avoid this. Again, this is not a light rom-com. 

Would I rewatch? For BaekHong, yes but I’ll skip the irrelevant parts.

Ratings:

Performance: 100/10

OST: 10/10

Cinematography, Editing, etc.: 10/10

Story-telling: 6/10

[psalmsofpsychosis]

"#Alfred basically catches a lamb and goes

#''you're a beautiful wolf; i know you are; now you're gonna bite my hand until you draw blood so we both believe it;

#because that's the way we know how to be men.''

#and then 10 years down the line he looks at Bruce and he whispers in horror; ''that's a wolf''

#GIRL YES HE IS; YOU MADE HIM ONE. IT WAS YOU"

Your tags are so- Idk I don't have the words. No wait I DO-

THIS IS FREAKING BEAUTIFUL OMG

The way Bruce wasn't born with sharp teeth and claws to defend himself against the world. The place he was born into removed any need to grow them, but at the same time the place he was born into was the catalyst for him to turn into stone. Hard, unyielding to pressure and with its own jagged edges that you can hit until your knuckels bleed.

But the thing about stone is that you can chip away at it until it looks like what you want.

So Bruce was a lamb at the beginning, possessing talc for a heart, easy to rub to dust, but after the murders, he was molded into something different. He grew teeth and claws so big and strong it became difficult to be gentle, his heart was rubbed to dust and reformed and compressed and rubbed to dust and reformed and compressed until it turned into a diamond.

Alfred taught him how to be a wolf but didn't account on what would happen once Bruce's claws were bigger than his own.

CAN YOU TALK MORE ABOUT BRUCE AND ALFRED'S DYNAMIC PLEASE? You're literally rearranging my brain chemistry as I'm typing, wow. This feels so freaking strange. Thank you so so SO much

I wish you an AMAZING day

GOOD MAD MONDAY NOON TO YOU ANON YOU'RE KILLING ME. Like i'm over here lying face flat on the ground, head fucking full 99 thoughts per second this ride is going straight to hell—

You actually made them sound a lot like the Pygmalion myth, which is so right and true and also a very delicately apt interpretation of the way Bruce and Alfred's dynamic unfolds, particularly in Bruce's childhood, and particularly as portrayed in the Gotham series (which is my all time favourite Bruce&Alfred dynamic anyway, so excuse me for being annoying and immediately nosedive down that rabbithole)

See, to me the thing is, i dont think Bruce and Alfred understand each other at all. They're cut from very different clothes, and Alfred doesn't understand what Bruce /is/, but he understands what Bruce /can become/, maybe even what he's supposed to become, Bruce is the fifth element to him. Combine that lack of understanding and all the love and affection Alfred holds for Bruce and of course he makes a project of perfection out of him; Alfred molds and makes Bruce. Batman as a persona and as a purpose precisely exists *because of the way Alfred raises Bruce*, this is something that Gotham TV puts extra emphasis on. In many ways Alfred does carve Bruce into an idea of perfection, *his* idea of perfection, and Bruce lets him too. This is where stuff get a bit complicated though; Alfred is someone who struggles with his own humanity and darker side. He's so loving and loyal, but he's also bitter and mean with a vicious bite and he handles Bruce with such cold hands sometimes, and he hates every second of it, he hates his own humanity. So he pushes Bruce to get rid of his too, and they have this constant push and pull because Bruce has those exact traits. they're similar not in what they own about themselves, but in their shadows, when the sun shines on them their flawed humanity has the exact same shape and they both don't want a shadow; eventually the way they resolve this is by standing back to back and protecting each other and now they share their shadows and it's not so scary anymore. The Pygmalion myth as a parallel interpretation of their narrative fits so darn well because you are right, Bruce is made into stone and Alfred sculpts him to something beautiful and almost horrifying, almost inhuman, he sometimes forgets that Bruce is a person and not an idea, and it shows. But Bruce breaks mold, he always does, he forces Alfred to live with his own humanity and Bruce's, and this brings up a lot of grief for Alfred, but he loves Bruce so he finds a way to live with it and he does.

The Lamb/wolf metaphor is a different face to this same transformation process; in the early years Alfred has little space for Bruce's terrifying softness, but neither does Bruce. Bruce is scared of his own vulnurability and tenderness, this lamb *wants* to become something else, something less weak and helpless, something that could've saved his parents. He doesn't want to become a wolf persay, but the thing is, he has the makings. This is the reason Alfred can bring it out of him; he very much has the makings of a wolf. to juxtapose it with the pygmalion allegory; you cannot carve out of the stone what is not already in it. (this does bring up the question wether Bruce was ever a lamb at all, but that's a different topic for another day✨️)

anyway yep, i love your mind Anon, and thank you for the question! Hope you have an absolutely wonderful day too ❤️❤️

[jaegersmoon]

idk why but i soooooo see chasing mars being a little bit of a phoebe bridgers / frank ocean / arctic monkeys / tv girls kinda vibe idk!! just my silly mind being silly overthinking stuff it doesnt need to.. but like screaming outside in a shitty parking lot at 3am when no ones there and i know the end is playing in the background (its a need not a want) but like ahsdahdajdas love you youre so amazing ilove your writing i love ob- also like sorry ima go on another little ramble bc idk i do that a bit sometimes like the way i can see myself in like both jean and bambi in sucha specific, particular way is so.. its just so AGHDSHS bc like jeans little habits while drawing, the way he thinks and im like wow im like that.. a lot sometimes.. and the way you write that is just so so so spectacular, actually so spectacular. and also of course theres bambi, who i love so much who reminds me of a star in the sky thats so beautiful, but no one notices because they dont look hard enough.. who thinks and thinks and talks and walks and presents herself as a being thats somewhat ethereal in a human way. who seems like just a regular cool lookin person you see, walking down the street- who has so many flaws and so much beauty placed into a person. what a person should be.

anywayws i check ur pinterest boards daily and can i just say.. shoko and geto in chasing mars are gonna be smthing that i am rlly rlly looking forward to... like i can alr sense how amazing the groups gonna be (if they are a group idk sorry im assuming but also like there was a pic in the board so im just assuming) but yes!!! i love you. you're amazing. you're rlly cool. i love your writing, your everything

<3333 my heart is truly so warm after reading this, thank you so much for every word written. its so comforting to know that you view ob, bambi and my writing as a whole in such a positive light. wish i could explain the encouragement it gives me to know that you are here supporting me through ob and that you will follow me to chasing mars too. it truly gives me the motivation i need to keep going. i love you so dearly and always always always !! <3333

[pearl484-blog]

My main issue with senti-monsters

Alright, so first of all, this is not an essay about the senti-Adrien, senti-Felix, senti-Kagami, senti-Chloe or any other senti-person theories. There are a lot of complex theories and debates and discussions about the ethics and moral implications around it. 

No. This is an essay about missed potential surrounding senti-monsters, which is probably one of the least relevant things you’ll need to hear about it. This isn’t about poor execution or predicting where the show will go. It’s not about someone who did something right (well, not completely), or anything like that. In fact, I am veering far away from most of the usual senti-monster topics. So, if you’re hear to discuss humans born of senti-monsters or anything like that, this is not for you. Sorry.  

Now, first of all, I have opinions about the name senti-monster. Now, it’s not what you think. I’m not one of those people about to advocate for using senti-being here. No. I’m here because I want to ask: “Where are all the monsters?”

My introduction to the Peacock was a black eyed woman ripping a monstrous butterfly made of grief painfully out of Hawk Moth against his will. This thing was huge, massive, and scary. It’s design was creative and clearly reflected that this thing belonged to Hawk Moth, and he didn’t have any say in its creation whatsoever. 

My next few introductions were promising. A lolipop monster made out of a need for processed sugar from a baby, and I read that very well, and a simple monster made from hunger which was nearly impossible to defeat, which yeah, giant frog that’s basically a moving mouth. I can get behind that. 

But unfortunately, we also had Senti-bug, and that kinda derailed things. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love Senti-bug, and the moral implications behind her and her destruction are beautiful, and it raised the sentiment of “Good God, the Peacock’s ability to create life and take it away in the snap of their fingers is horrifying”, but alas, it set us down the path of human monsters, which is most decidely not monster-like. 

See, what I thought was going to happen was that the senti-monsters would be representative of deeply buried emotions, the dark, forbidden secrets that you shamefully keep locked up and hidden away for no one to find, and that their creations would be a very unpleasant experience for their hosts. 

The design team has proven with it’s design ideas to be more than capable of being up to the task. The akumas especially are amazing design wise. Most of them have a unique silhouette, are recognizable at a glance, and you can tell important character traits with them. (Except Vanisher who does not have a distinct character design and doesn’t even have their own episode). There are some pretty obvious flops, yes, but even those often have a reason. Some of these akumas do not look good at all, but usually there’s a reason behind it. Ie, Aspik’s hood is concealing his hair, reflecting his need to hide himself and a visual reference to Hawk Moth, Reflekta’s design is almost painful, but memorable, and the Bubbler reflects his childnessness of both his worldview and his influence, blowing bubbles. 

However, it was clear that akumas were begining to stagnate. It was obviously getting harder and harder to come up with realistic reasons why a character might lose their cool, and the loads and loads of characters was starting to become worrisome if the series wanted to keep up the momentum and focus on the characters they already had. 

The obvious solution, I believed, was making the Peacock target deeply buried emotions, setting up a one-two punch. Either you could become an akuma, losing yourself to your flaws in a moment that you lose control, or you could bury your feelings until they became strong enough to become a senti-monster, a living embodiment of a feeling you never wanted revealed. This would start a catch-22, either you deal with your emotions in a healthy way and resolve them, hopefully in a way where neither of you lose your cool, or you avoid it and it turns on you. 

This would begin to force people to move things very quickly or suffer the consequences. Long simmering grudges you know are stupid and pointless get brought to the surface. Deep fears come alive. Secrets you keep hidden from everyone come alive. It could also affect the heroes too, without completely incapicatating them. For example, Adrien’s hidden resentments could come to life, or Marinette’s crush may decide to confess regardless of her say so. Even better, you could take inspiration from Fu’s montster and make the host have a strong emotional reaction to them. From panic to anger to fear to hopelessness. It’s rife with drama.

Now, originally, the Peacock was meant to be used for good, so how would it work if they were heroic? Well, the same way Shadows work in the Persona series. Yes, each character rejects their shadows, but when they accept their Shadows, they become allies. Yet, when rejected Shadows are a problem. It’d be a case of Bad Powers, Good People, where the Peacock’s abilities are dark and creepy, but could be used for good, not just for combat, but for self-growth, and it’d absolutely deserve the moniker senti-monster.  

This would let us see the heroes deal with talking people down in their own ways, each with their strengths and weaknesses. Queen Bee could cut straight to the heart of the matter and tell you what’s going on, no frills, but that might also hurt people and she might have to learn how to stop being callous but still use her skill at dissecting people and seeing their flaws. Ladybug may be kind and compassionate, with a lot of people looking up to her, but she might have a tendency to miss the point. Rena Rouge may be confident and have an internal strength that allows for no bullsh*t, but she can also be pushy. Carapace may be calm and non-judgemental, but might need to work on pushing people out of their comfort zone. Chat Noir would be great at this, being that he is very naturally empathetic, and tends to understand what people are dealing with quickly, but he’s also conflict avoidant, and would be screwed if it happened to him. 

Plus, I’d be able to see monstrous representations of problems and each character needing to accept terrible parts of themselves or be afraid of others learning about it. And I’d get to see fan material that leans into monsters and that creative side a bit more. Like debates over what Alix’s monster would be or represent, or fan art of Rose’s sick looking unicorn design. 

[antares-8]

hello! i recently finished rereading the pilgrim's progress and honestly, it's some of (if not the) best beast!wirt fic i've ever read! there's a lot of stuff that i've realized makes it so good, especially after giving it more than one read through.

first of all, beatrice's characterization throughout the whole series is AMAZING and feels really accurate to the show. she's angry and almost always ready and willing to punch a man, but that's only part of her character. like, i've seen a decent bit of otgw fic where she just gets reduced down to "the angry one" but in tpp, her other emotions get the spotlight too sometimes and it makes her feels so real and human. she's determined and stubborn and willing to go to the ends of the earth for the people she cares about and you can really feel it!! she's her own person with her own stuff to deal with and it makes her so interesting in this series. i think she's possibly my favorite character.

(also, in writing that paragraph about beatrice i realized that tpp, or at least the arc with the witches, has a lot to do with grief and anger. this is more of a half-formed thought, but the way they're fairly consistent elements throughout and fit in perfectly with its other themes. i'm not exactly sure what else to say about this since i haven't put much thought into it until just now, but it's definitely something i like about it, although it's more of a personal preference.)

characters in general are one of tpp's strong suits, i think! the ocs created for this series are amazing without detracting from the main cast. felicity sticks out to me in particular, likely because we get to see things from her perspective. her motives manage to be understandable without detracting from the sense that she's in the wrong. also, shoutout to peg-leg polly, whose character description is amazingly evocative, as well as literally everything else about her. 10/10, no notes.

i think something else tpp does amazingly is all the "side" stuff. not "side" as in, like, subplots (this is all pretty much main plot, which is part of why it's so great), but as in "not the first thing you think of when you think of a beast!wirt au." "weren't you someone's son" is possibly the best example of this. we get to see how wirt's family is affected personally, something that's so often ignored. and it's a *whole main plot thing*--they never get fully shoved off to the side. the same goes with the unknown's reactions to wirt as the "new beast"--it's not glossed over. in fact, it's one the things the story is based around. tpp is BUILT around the stuff that's not immediately obvious, and it really makes it stand out in the best way possible.

and somewhat relatedly, wirt's character arc, about CHOOSING to stay in the unknown, is so good! it takes 30 works and tens of thousands of words until he fully admits it to himself but the payoff is so, so worth it. the line at the end of "to wind thy soul" where wirt says he *wants* to stay is built up so beautifully. it's another one of those things that makes tpp so unique and amazing.

and last, but definitely not least, is the WORLDBUILDING. there's a lot to say about it, but i love your version of the unknown!! it feels so real and alive, and the people in it do too. it really manages to capture the feeling of the original show--there's darkness, but it's not ALL sad times and eldritch horror, and some things are even a bit silly. and the way the unknown keeps on feeling mysterious even as we learn more and more about it is impressive. the fact that some things are mentioned but never expanded upon (like the beast-cult or the wars against nature) is far from a flaw here--they make the unknown feel like a real place, and help keep up the sense of mystery, magic, and a long history by sounding so interesting while being left mostly up-in-the-air. and the idea of using edelwood to cleanse corruption is also so good. like, if i force myself to look at it from a doylist perspective, i can say that it might exist to avoid a moral quandary which would seriously hurt everything that tpp is trying to say (although honestly, i don't think that it's a bad thing if that's the case; i love worldbuilding but making sure it plays nice with story and message is important, often moreso than making it feel "good"), but i have to force myself to think like that. while reading, it's foreshadowed well and feels so natural that i sometimes forget it was created for this series. and that's just one part of the worldbuilding! so much of this version of the unknown feels so in line with everything the show gives us, and there's so much attention to detail. it's so fantastic and i love it!!

also, a couple small details i noticed (and are appreciated):

in "all that was lost," enoch says that he can tell beatrice + greg where wirt is if they stay the night, and in "wish i was a shadow" it's mentioned that enoch vists the queen of the clouds a lot. did. did enoch ask the queen of the clouds where wirt was for beatrice and greg?

in "only one thing" greg mentions that he's sure that the cloak wirt gave him is enchanted, and in "gone to the tree" wirt mentions that he'd only tried to imbue something with his protection once before. did wirt enchant greg's cloak?? if so that's ADORABLE. wirt really loves greg huh?

anyway, yeah, the pilgrim's progress is amazing!! i didn't realize that i had this much to say about it, but it honestly deserves all the praise i can throw at it. there are some other small things that i love, but this is getting pretty long as it is. i can't wait for the next update, and i hope that you're doing well!! <3

First off, thank you for making my day! (And hopefully inspiring me finally finish the next installment. One can hope, right?) I always love to hear from readers, especially readers who enjoy my work.

Beatrice is a lot of fun to write. She accepts no nonsense (except when she doles it out to get something), her first impulse is violence, and she's fiercely loyal to all those she loves. Plus, some of her reactions to Wirt are just hilarious. She knows enough to realize how weird--or perhaps extraordinary--he really is.

I wanted to say something about how family was important in the show (the bluebirds, the brothers), but the truth is that I really like outsider POV and the parents gave me a good opportunity to play with that. That can remain our secret.

Sometimes, I feel like this entire series is just one big exercise in worldbuilding. Because the Beast is so well-known (and feared), I have to think about how the new Beast interacts with the world in general and how the world's reactions reflect back onto the character. That being said, I've still got a few headcanons that I'd like to explore.

Both of your theories regarding small details are correct. Enoch asked the Queen of the Clouds where to find Wirt waaaay back in the beginning, and Wirt added a few enchantments to the cloak before giving it to Greg. The enchantments... well, let's just say that no one will ever try to bully Greg while he's wearing it.

Unfortunately, I can't say for certain when the next update will be out. The next one is a new arc (or maybe it will be the one after that, because I've got another WIP that could become part 31 instead), so I've been obsessively tweaking it to get everything set up correctly.

As Wirt says to the people who try to drive him out of their town with torches and pitchforks, have a nice day!

[zynart]

humanity is worth loving, humans are worth saving

(yes we are. we absolutely are. and cynicism and nihilism is lame)

i was dwelling a lot on that idea a lot this afternoon about my views of humanity and my conviction in us, inspired by the central theme of the show and movies, which is that maybe loneliness and yearning for connection is the most human possible feeling, and that most human beings are to some level closed off from human connection that there's a hedgehog's dilemma among humanity — that fear of connection, fear of being seen as a mirror of what you most fear about yourself/fear of hurt from both vulnerability placed in others and the inevitability of change/the inherent inability to ever be truly known when human minds are fundamentally separated from each other — is inherent to humans

so to contextualize the rest of this post i’ll describe things i’d been thinking about today. evangelion rebuild 2.0 and the ending of that movie, the choice that the characters make there. the ending of life is strange and the choice that you make there (i said fuck arcadia bay). and then the mirror examples, that one episode of angel where angel becomes human, or the ending of final fantasy x. every piece of fiction where people face a choice between saving someone they love and saving the world and they say fuck the world. even when it makes no sense and even if it means they and you both will die soon enough in a destroyed world anyway, even when it’s morally indefensible and unquestionably selfish. every time that question comes up, it’s so obvious what the right answer *should* be, but how human is it to just choose wrong anyway? that’s what i did when i had to choose and i said fuck arcadia bay. at that moment i felt such a sense of connection with what it meant to be human

in the original neon genesis evangelion it’s an argument between a worldview that it’s the inherent flaw of human nature, which would mean that the ideal vision of heaven is all-as-one where all humans exist together in kind of a hivemind free-flowing soup of minds (or with how little we know ourselves, that maybe even worldview is just being so afraid of connection that you’re afraid to reach out and try unless it’s with the safety of it being complete and universal and inescapable)… or whether what is special about humans and the most human thing possible is humans choosing, with full knowledge of the fear and hurt and inability to ever be known and the inevitability of change with passage of time and death, to put fear aside and connect with others

that latter view has long been the frame of thought where i feel most tender and optimistic toward humanity and individual human beings as creatures of grace. what takes away times where i feel jaded or cynical or fatalistic or disgusted or hopeless, which it is easy to be. often when people talk about being proud of humanity is pride at collective humanity and amazed at what the human race could achieve working together, but that’s barely part of the equation for me. it’s just that one single core aspect of the human soul, that every day humans choose to put aside all that fear about things that are right to fear and just choose human connection anyway. better to have loved and lost than never loved at all isn’t a platitude or an expression, it’s a summation of the most fundamental element to being human — its just that it’s not only about romance, it’s about all love — for friends, family, children, pets, characters in fiction, music made by others, art created by others, memories with others

(this made me google that phrase, to learn more about this phrase that puts the deepest truth about being human into 13 words, and turns out it’s by tennyson writing about the sudden death from a cerebral haemorrhage of his friend— or maybe more, we don’t know, but it’s besides the point that it was someone that he loved dearly — arthur henry hallam, who died aged 22 when tennyson was 23. and it’s a line from a 2,916-line, 133-canto poem titled “in memoriam a.h.h.” that he spent 16 years writing. 16 years where the pain didn’t stop. they met each other as teenagers, knew each other for about 3 years, and that was it. when he finished that poem after 16 years, he’d lived almost half of his life with that pain. he’d lived with that loss for almost five times longer than the time he’d had with him. and he still felt it was all worth it. it was better to have had the honour and privilege to feel that love, even at the price of decades of pain, than it would’ve been if he’d never gotten to feel that love at all)

caring about anyone is opening yourself up to a world of hurt in so many ways outside your control and humans are the only beings we know of that actually has that knowledge but we choose to care anyway. we have children, we attach to family, we form friendships, we fall in love, we even get emotionally attached to pets with short lifespans and emotionally invested in fictional characters

animals don’t have that knowledge. it’s easy for me to imagine many rational beings or sentience that could have that knowledge and optimize toward the pain-minimizing path of closing off completely and dying off in a generation. if pain is the price we pay for the ability to live and feel things and love things, is the price of entry worth it at all? i think most versions of a fully realized consciousness that wasn’t human would think that it wasn’t worth it at all. nonexistence over pain feels rational. but we don’t make that choice. human beings choose over and over and over to love things. and when i think about it, it makes me feel proud and giddy even for inherent human nature, it makes me feel in love with the concept of people with the same butterflies, and it makes me a firm believer that we should exist and humanity deserves to exist

one could say that it’s very stupid to love. it's very stupid to make an active commitment to inevitable future pain. it’s suboptimal for an entity that optimizes to avoid debilitating, all-consuming pain in a world where the passage of time can never stop and loss is inevitable, where there is literally no possible ending in which there isn’t an ending. and it’s kind of a miracle that we choose to do so, billions of people, every day

if you liked this, feel free to check out my other 'essays' on internet/pop culture stuff on my homepage. here's a selection:

· “book lovers” don’t love anything about books and it’s weird (or, defending classic novels)

· there are things we owe to each other

· i trained a neural net on 10,000 irony-poisoned tweets and it just gave me cringe?

· what makes someone good, bad, cancelled, or redeemed? i don't know either!

· please tell me if you have a definitive answer on what makes someone a bad person

· ok, fine, my social justice politics feel a bit like religion sometimes and that’s ok

· after the deluge (short story) (dispatch from an island state post climate apocalypse)

[bleedingcoffee42]

Some secrets will stay secrets. SIGH.

Especially, if you dig a little harder and read stuff from other Screaming Eagles like memories of Donald R. Burgett from A Company (I think) and George Koskimaki's antology of memories of people from whole division, Speirs shooting POWs seems to be nothing unusual and a lot of worse things has happened (as sad at it is). Bill was not a saint and did similar stuff and absolutely no one is bitching about him. What I want to say is, Winters saying he would have put Speirs on court martial - when I read it I was like, Dick? Seriously?. No one would have shot prisoners if there was no order and Speirs, imo, acted rather according to the rules not against them.

It just shows how communicating orders SUCKED in American army that time.

You know... looking at Sparky's popularity and the amount of time he was on screen and comparing it to Winters.... it shows that people prefer ambiguous characters? As much as I love Winters he is not my top five, because he is simply too GOOD. I think I like his fandom version a lot more than his show/book version, because people dig out his flaws and made him more human. That's why I immediately liked Nix more, then Harry and Sparky. Dick just suffers from, dunno, being the perfect main, I guess.

And well, Sparky in the show is a perfect example of an amazing character's journey, it's something people LOVE. We agreed already that you can love him or hate him, but you can't have no feelings and opinions about him. While Dick is, I think?, generally loved and you hardly can find anything negative or even neutral about him.

...Speirs could steal even spotlight, huh?

I think I had a point when I started writing but have no freaking idea what was it, lol. SORRY

MORE GRANT, BLESS.

Well, the power of Nix :D

I absolutely understand you and all I have is undying admiration and gratitude for the whole research work you SHARE with us. Some of the stuff is fucking amazing and I have no idea how you find it but that's some university level research. But I enjoy every little piece. Thank you so so sooooo much for it.

(Fingers crossed for watching GK in some future.)

Even the first layer of stories, there are a lot of admissions later on of things that were seen and done. War is hell, it happens. I agree it's interesting that Speirs becomes THE poster boy for it though. It's interesting when we have someone like Lieb who Dick was like 'He was rough with prisoners' but then he still sends him with the prisoners! Ambrose makes a point of saying "Winters and Lipton both said Speirs was the cruelest man they ever met" but nobody expands on that. Idk if its because admitting they saw and didn't stop implicates them or what.

I think what gets overlooked is it's little over 20 years from the last world war and a lot of these guys had relatives lost to that. A lot of these guys were kids of immigrants and were Leary of letting people know they spoke German more or less were German. (Muck spoke it but never told anyone and let people believe he was another nationality.) Malarkey repeatedly mentions Uncles who were still dealing with being gassed in WW1 and suffering because of it. It breeds a 'We wouldn't be here if we got rid of you last time' mentality. But I think that's just me applying some ghetto logic, someone comes at you who you know is going to make you keep watching your back for retaliation...you make sure they don't get back up.

Speirs has the draw of being the enigma and backs it up with bonafide bad-assery and hero of Foy. I don't think Lip's POV was overplayed, I think that Breaking Point ep was spot on with how they all felt they were going to get slaughtered following Dike's orders and out comes Speirs and just bing-bang-boom Let's go.

Dick is very squeaky clean in the show and I think that's great for the show.....but it really does crack you in the face when you get into his letters and stuff and you're confronted with him being more human than the show allowed. I love the show, I really do. I love that we have a book, a series, more books and letters and more letters and interviews and we're still finding stuff. It does kinda make him too much of a Boy Scout for personal tastes though, I get you.

I'm enjoying the search, a lot. It's adding a bunch of dimension to already intriguing people. I'd like to get my hands on the Craver appeal that probably explains WHY he was let out of prison 20 years after the war.

[abnomi]

i really appreciate bojack horseman for having characters that feel so human.

they feel real, people you could encounter just passing by on a sidewalk. theyre flawed but human with feelings and intentions and desires and opinions! i think its so interesting to see them clash together in their daily lives. they are all multidimensional and have more lingering under the surface than at first glance, and they keep peeling back as the show goes forward, whether the layers are ugly or beautiful. i love learning about them.

this show is So Real. you can point at any major scenario in the episodes and think "That could have happened to me or someone i know" while in the same breath, the most absurd shit imaginable happens in the background inside of this universe with such flawed logic (that is kind of just a caricature of real life). even the people are exaggerated, and the ways they react and speak is very blunt and straightforward. its interesting to see how they all adapt and live in this ridiculous world while still feeling like actual people, even with them speaking in exaggerated ways. i think that the writing in bojack horseman is genius, i dont know if ive seen anything like it anywhere else. the reality being maintained even through the exaggeration is amazing to me, and the fact that theres still enough space left to make serious scenes hit hard and make you KNOW something fucked up happened.

bojack himself being a mentally tormented individual is never used as an excuse for his actions and I really admire and respect that. you can empathize with him while still acknowledging that hes a fucked up person (Horse) . its such a wake up call, too. noticing how his behavior affects other people encourages the viewer to improve but still shows the underlying mental illness in a sensitive light. he isolates himself and punishes himself and it does nothing but make everything worse. the severity of the people in his life's reactions put him further in this pit of self-hatred and loathing when all he needs to do is change for the better. the world crumbles around him, and instead of changing or listening, he tries to make himself feel better and escape it. "fetishizing your own sadness" is a line that really struck me because i was severely depressed and i did that exact thing; i made myself feel horrible because i "deserved" it to compensate for the guilt i felt instead of doing anything productive to get out of the spiral. im not saying that any of this is easy, its so fucking hard. but bojack had resources on SO many occasions and NEVER accepted help. also, seeing Todd of all people reach a breaking point is a Lot. hes such a forgiving person who sees the good in everyone and he still has limits.

the philosophy and messages conveyed through the characters are so important to me. especially with Diane, shes such a complex character. i love her quote of there being no good or bad people, theres only people who do good things and people who do bad things. she is the realest.

so much thought was put into every crevice of this show, everything that was explored was understood by the writers and this was communicated incredibly well. i would say more but im kind of squeezing my mind juices and im low on them rn. I FUCKING LOVE BOJACK HORSEMAN !!!!!!!

[panic-at-the-waffle-house]

I don’t like BookTok :)

I know the is isn’t the “hottest take” but I just don’t like it for a lot of reasons, one big one is that it spreads the idea of “you can’t read that book”.

Growing up, I always lived by the idea that you should read what you enjoy/makes you happy. Reading in general does wonders for the brain and creativity. This is coming from not only an avid reader, but someone whose mom was a reading teacher, albeit for elementary school. The growth of all of the students was amazing and they weren’t English speakers at all. She had students who could fluently speak it/read it to kids who knew nothing. I grew up in a VERY diverse town in the Midwest. Like white people were the MINORITY. So that also meant we had a lot of different cultures and different books/entertainment that was specific to that culture.

Anyway back to books lol.

The biggest critique I have with BookTok is that if there’s a book or series you like, someone is bound to nitpick it for some reason. I love criticism of a book, I think it’s great and being able to point out flaws leads to deep discussion. But a lot of the time, people like these books simply because THEY LIKE IT. You don’t have to like it, but they like it. Main examples are books by Colleen Hoover (I have my gripes with her, I can’t stand her books), but the people who read her books enjoy them so I’m not going to harass or bully them for something they enjoy. SJ Mass is another author who gets a lot of flame, again for reasonable reasons, but even I have enjoyed her books.

I really got into YA fantasy like early high school and late middle school. One of the first series I read was the Throne of Glass series which I picked up since my mom had the first book. I actually really enjoyed it and I was in like 7th grade at the time so some of the simplicity and common tropes were well worth it for me. But as I got older and tried to re-read the series, I couldn’t. I fell in love with the side characters more than the main ones. (Dorian was my number one boy and he still is. I was so excited whenever he appeared. Still my fav character.) I didn’t care for Aelin, Rowan, or some others simply because I just didn’t really care for them. They’re fine, just not my favs and I know some people love them which is valid.

I couldn’t even finish ACOTAR. I got halfway through and DNF’d it. I don’t care for first person point of view in general and I didn’t like her characters or the plot. Roman e was never my thing—I love it as a side plot but if the entire book is about romance I find it boring. I barely made it through The Selection.

Before fantasy YA, I was big into dystopian. THG was my first real YA book and I loved it, with the Maze Runner after it. It’s my favorite YA fictional series to this day even though it has its flaws. The move from dystopian to fantasy was very much in a certain span of my life and now I see it being so popular in media which is great. Except for the people who don’t know how to respect OPINIONS. Not only that, but gatekeeping makes me mad.

All through my life I liked reading classics, classics of every region. My mom always had classic books lying around so I would pick them up and the ones from the different ethnic groups and cultures were always at the public library for me to read. That’s how I got books like

Crime and Punishment- Russian Literature

No Longer Human- Japanese Literature

The Iliad- Greek Literature

Dracula-Irish Literature

Journey to The West-Chinese Literature

The Idiot- Japanese Literature

Don Quixote-Spanish Literature

And so many others at an early age. Some of them are well known and some aren’t—which is normal. But when some people who read classics look down on others or say “you can’t read that because you’re doing it to be quirky”, it bothers me. I always wanted to talk to others about these books and damn it I was STRUGGLING to find people to talk to about The Great Gatsby who actually liked it in seventh grade. This is PROMINENT in the BSD fandom since the characters are named after famous classical authors and some people are stuck up, not wanting these books to be read.

It never made sense to me. Maybe I’m the stupid one.

Overall, there are very few people on BookTok who I enjoy watching or listening to. Each series has its highlights and its flaws, like humans do, so just let people enjoy a book damnit. And if people want to vent or explain why they DONT like a book let them damnit.

Anyway what’s a book that scarred you for like???? I read Where The Red Feen Grows at like 10 years old and am still traumatized by it. :D

[variousqueerthings]

i went and read through all the scorecards and commentary you’ve written so far, and i just have to comment that i think you’ll have a much better time rewatching twelve’s era - it’s got its own problems, of course, but it’s such a breath of fresh air. i think m*ffat actually took some of people’s biggest criticisms of s5-7 to heart - the hamfisted sexiness is toned way down, and he did away with the whole “the doctor is the center of the universe and the most specialest guy ever” angle almost entirely. honestly, i almost have a hard time believing both eras were written by the same person.

hahaaa thank you, and idk why the below got so long, when your ask was relatively simple, blame it on the hyperfixation!

I acknowledge I tend to write m*ffat (mainly because im not trying to put stuff in tags to be a buzzkill but also as a joke about censoring him), but I do think he got... better

in the sense that he was overall less sexist and more character-driven later on and seems to have really run with a lot of what people wanted set up in terms of genderbending Timelords and queer lead characters, although I am finding s6 has some really good stuff... not.... his episodes so much lol...... but I'm liking it more than s5 which runs contrary with my assumptions/memory of his era, which is pleasantly surprising

I don't think he's egregious in the way writers like, say, Joss Whedon were, I've not heard stories of him being an asshole on set (except for that one story about him throwing a hissyfit about not getting the horse through the mirror in GitF back in s2), which may just be me missing stuff, so can let me know, BUT... nothing I know of. and while he's said some... Highly Dubious Shit About Women Especially and also asexuality, I genuinely think he's been working on some of those biases and fucking nonsense

we went from the Doctor kissing a lesbian without her consent to Bill Potts (who has some flaws -- the fat joke I've been seeing mentioned on Tumbls, the somewhat off-centre flirtation with the one-night stand she doesn't get to have that seems more like it comes from girl-on-girl porn than like a way lesbians might speak with one another)

from writing Rants about the dullness of asexuality that assumed a cis- and heteronormative perspective of the Doctor (he's a bloke of course he'd want to have sex was a lot of the Vibes of it) to in a "confused but got some of the spirit" writing about how the Doctor wouldn't understand human definitions of sexuality and monogamous relationship structures (there's a post about that somewhere in the depths of my blog @fabiansociety made some excellent points)

from describing the original first casting for Amy as "wee and dumpy" to... well, actually can we have some clarification there sir, also the shit you said about Karen Gillen basically just being cast because she was hot (I'm not saying I am super Yay Moffat after all), but at least toning down the sexy sexy talk on the show from what you say!

also maybe a smallish thing, and idk how much power he had and and and, buuut I appreciate how he went from the way he talked in GiTF about how Reinette was "worthy" of the Doctor because she was cultured and educated and whatnot... when Rose is literally the companion of the season and semi-textually Created Ten (regardless of youknow, reads of the relationship and all that, definitely important to the narrative and the Doctor), to having Rose appear as The Bad Wolf in the 50th anniversary special... haunting the naaarrative baybey

and I remember feeling like "Missy" when introduced was just a rehash of River Song rehash of Irene Adler (or whatever way around those characters existed) but then Gomez is actually amazing as The Master, to the point that she's the Number One thing I remember from that era of the show

and he's not an asshole about trans people, which, low bar perhaps, but not in this flipping country, especially not saying so out loud, which, like... Doctor Who is a big deal in this country and RTD is obviously a big ol' queer who's been yelling from the rooftops from Day One, but to not just have it be him, to have a cultural institution firmly in our corner, it's good feeling-wise, and Moffat is a part of that too

and what you're saying, which I cannot quite remember the details of but will eventually reach, the pivot from how the Doctor is portrayed in the Eleven arc vs the Twelve arc, and what the core of that story is, and the glory of Capaldi!

the limitations of this praise then come in the fact that he was learning this stuff while running two of the biggest British institutions, a version of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who, and so the above Things that he was a dick about, alongside the mocking of fandom during Sherlock and the weird "queer but not queer" stuff with Sherlock/Watson (look, the fucking... BBC marketed it through the lens of a ship, and then there was a whole idk... campaign to make fandom seem weird and over-invested, and then of course Sherlock actually sucked as a show for so many reasons...) means that he's managed to be a prat in real time and it's meant that what should have been fun engagement in storytelling wasn't so much for many of us wincing through the shit he was saying and writing in his shows

... that time he was like "people are accusing me of being sexist, but I love strong, sexually confident women who can step on me, and having a dominatrix kink that I'm projecting onto my female characters onscreen is the opposite of sexism actually Check Mate" (that paraphrasing was mean, sorry not sorry, but also.... I could find the quote or just a handful of handy videos that have aaaaalll of the quotes... because they were happening.... in national newspapers and in interviews and panels and twitter and.... like.... not in private... there's more I'm vaguely remembering but not sure enough to just throw out there, so yeah... but he did not shut up!)

also I will never think he's a good writer so much as Very good at thinking up cool concepts that others might be able to run with or work with him on, and he should never ever be left to his own devices and encouraged to do whatever he wants (... Sherlock..... Jekyll.... from what I've heard, Inside Man....) AND I think generally and hope that RTD2 is going to be about heralding in the next gen of creators, including perhaps... a future showrunner who didn't grow up when Classic!Who was in its infancy (I don't mean that as a diss, I just mean that we've had three of those showrunners so far), and perchance isn't a cis man, because I think a lot of cool shit that could have been better might have been if moffat wasn't learning the ABC's of third wave feminism at the same time

Gosh and he's the least sexy writer I have ever come across... maybe not ever, but considering how confident he was being about allosexual alloromantic Doctor, that man is as sexy as getting slapped by a wet fish (unless you're into that, in which case insert something else here)

ALL OF THIS TO SAY... yeah, I'm excited for Twelve. and I'm enjoying Eleven more by watching the way I'm watching and being able to set criteria for worse and for better!

[snurgle07]

Say all your psychonauts 2 thoughtS

All of them huh? I think about this game so much, I’d be here all day, but this certainly gives me a good excuse to ramble about some things I love about pn2. :D

- The characters are amazing! 10/10 I care about pretty much all of those freaks. The art style makes them all look so charming in a lopsided weird sort of way, and the game is so empathetic to everyone that even the characters we don’t get much of or who serve a limited purpose still feel well rounded and real.

- Raz is excellent. He’s loads of fun in the first game and continues to be a blast in the second. He’s even more adorable and earnest in the sequel and I love that for him!! He’s definitely one of my favorite characters of all time, I adore him.

- Adoring the characters goes for everyone though. And pn2 has a whole new cast of characters who are all super fun in their own ways. The Psychic 7 especially are super cool. My biggest soft spot is for Lucy, but I love Bob, Ford, and well, the rest of the seven really, a whole lot. Getting to meet the Aquatos is also awesome, and the interns are cool too. Lotsa cool groups of characters to enjoy.

- The story? Awesome. Feels grander than pn1 to be honest, and I like that, but also it’s completely great on its own. It’s got loads of mind shenanigans, drama, great mental health commentary, and manages to balance out all the trauma with enough healing and empathy and even a bit of humor that it all still feels nice and hopeful despite everything. Like yeah there’s a lot of angst material certainly, and as a fan I gotta love that, buuuut sometimes I need a piece of media to punch me in the gut and then give me a warm hug afterward.

- On the note of mental health stuff, I feel it did great. It’s noticeable that they talked to experts and people with personal experience. They were able to convey the mindscapes of certain traumas and mental health issues with more accuracy. The first game was certainly empathetic and kind in regards to that, which was a big deal at the time, buuuut the accuracy was a bit lacking back then. Pn1 shows it’s age a bit in that regard. Pn2 improves on that wonderfully with both kind and more researched explorations into the mind.

-The morals regarding the complexity of the human mind and the messiness of humanity and how we often make mistakes and have more to us under the surface… heroes are often flawed, villains may just be a version of a person we made up in our mind based off of our limited perceptions… aughh good stuff. There are so many good takeaways from psychonauts 2 and I love it!

- Also on a more personal note, I probably owe this game my fascination with psychic powers and psychics in fiction. It’s tangentially what got me into Mob Psycho 100, and has inspired me to make some psychic ocs. The art direction really impacted me and even the way I draw. My style has opened up so much more since practicing drawing such funky looking characters. I genuinely think it has helped me improve a lot and helped me discover more about what kinds of art style I adore and inspired my own. The gameplay too, alongside the art direction, has impacted my aspirations a lot as far as being an artist and hopefully to work in game design— which is to say it’s super inspiring! I think it can inspire people in a myriad of ways, it’s a very unique game like that, and it really reminds me why I love art, storytelling, and games so much. I genuinely feel I owe it a lot for a variety of reasons and I’ve seen many others who play it feel the same. :)

TLDR: Psychonauts 2 my beloved…

Thanks for the ask! I will never not want to talk about psychonauts, this game is sticking in my brain for good.

[classicmarvelera]

60 Years to the Marvel Age of Comics

This year Marvel Comics is celebrating 60 years of the Avengers and the Uncanny X-Men. Two superhero teams (not super teams equivalent to DC’s JSA & JLA) that have seen many highs and few lows over the decades. Both transitioned from the pages of comics and onto the TV as well as Silver Screen. Both were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, two names that would start the Marvel Age in the comic book industry with the Fantastic Four in 1961 

A lot has been written, and many documentaries have been produced about this particular era, referred to as the Silver Age. However, what needs to be examined is why we won’t be able to see a repeat of the Marvel Age till the end of time. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that this was Fukuyama’s “End of History” moment that brought superhero content full circle (foundations of which were established by Jerry Seigel and Joe Shuster in 1938) 

Had Stan given up the industry would still be producing content about ideal beings establishing truth, justice, and the American way, or World Peace for that matter. Luckily for every superhero fan out there, he didn’t nor did Jack Kirby (co-creator of Captain America and the man who drew him punching Hitler), Steve Ditko, John Romita, John Buscema, Gene Colan, Don Heck, Marie Severin, Jim Steranko and Larry Leiber (Stan’s brother). They added realism into a genre that was built on idealism 

Lee, Kirby, and Ditko by Alex Ross

The stories of this era have stood the test of time. Aside from old, heavy hardware being seen in the panels; the struggles of flawed humans speak out and connect till today. The Fantastic Four and The Amazing Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, the Invincible Iron-Man, Ant-Man, and Wasp are a reflection of our daily struggles be they financial, emotional, and in the case of X-Men, discrimination

The Age saw a new way of depicting heroes artistically. Kirby and Ditko’s art mesmerized the readers and the same happened when they were succeeded by other comic books art legends like John Romita, and Gil Kane to name a few but what many may not know was that it was during these years, Steve Ditko would introduce corner box art, now considered a cult classic, to help differentiate Marvel titles from the competition on the newsstands. DC had started branding its covers with illustrations of superheroes who would be appearing in anthology books but Ditko took it to a whole new level by making it more organized as well as enhancing the look and feel of the cover

The foundation laid by Lee, Kirby, and Ditko ensured that younger talents who would succeed them could produce more of such content without compromising their heroic DNA and still keeping them relevant for today’s readers. It is for this reason that the comic book industry’s most tragic tales involved two of the best creations from the Marvel Age, namely Spider-Man and the X-Men

The Night Gwen Stacy Died, written by Gerry Conway and illustrated by Gil Kane, shattered the rule that a superhero would never lose his/her love interest to death. This happened in 1973 (50 Years ago) and wasn’t done to create shock value for short-term sales boosts. It had to be done because the reality outside of the pages was a city suffering from one of the highest crime rates at the time and how can it be possible that a superhero doesn’t get affected by it. Even today, younger readers feel the same pain as their older peers when they actually read the story and go through the panels instead of looking it up on fandom. The X-Men’s Dark Phoenix Saga could have eclipsed Spider-Man’s tragedy had it not been for a reckless decision by Marvel Editorial to bring back Jean in the mid-80s (a decision even Dark Phoenix Saga author Chris Claremont didn’t agree with). Needless to say, Scott Summers lost Jean Grey, and Parker lost Gwen; this was the new precedent for the industry and a continuation of the Marvel Age which established the fact that superheroes can be fragile human beings for whom great power brings great responsibility along with adversity   

From The Coming of Galactus/Galactus Trilogy to the Death of Aunt May to Secret Invasion, all of these stories found a way to connect deep down with the audiences not just in terms of personalities or social issues but even beliefs as well as trust in one another which reminds us that it was during the 60s that Marvel broke the racial barrier long before any other publisher ever thought of, giving us stories that would be way ahead of their time. Whether it’s about Mutation and Cloning or Kirby’s Madbomb, we are living in a world that is seeing glimpses of such developments, if not in entirety 

Let’s face it, the Marvel Cinematic Universe won’t exist had it not been for the works produced in the 60s. The global popularity of Avengers, Spider-Man, and X-Men (thanks mainly to FOX Studios) shows that without a solid base, a structure or a studio can’t be erected on top of it 

A homage to Joe Simon and Jack Kirby 

All of Marvel’s success goes back to these formative years of 1961-63 in which flawed, struggling individuals would redefine what superheroes were all about in the pages of The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, The Avengers (Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Ant-Man and Wasp) and X-Men as well as breathe new life into Golden Age characters such as Captain America and Namor. The rest is history! 

‘Nuff said 

[cloudyarchive]

final thoughts on the pjo show

i feel the need to start this post by saying i LOVED the show. even with the criticism i have, i think it's an amazing show that stands on its own and sparked so much joy in me. it made me incredibly happy. however, like everything, it wasn't perfect and i want to talk about both my likes and dislikes.

obviously this post will have spoilers for the entire show, including the finale. long ramble ahead.

this will be very focused on the show in contraposition with the books, since i'm an old fan of the series and i watched it from the point of view of one as such. i will not address every change, as there are many and i mostly agree with them or just don't mind them. the book released almost twenty years ago so it's only natural that some stuff has been modernized and that rick has decided to change some things according to how he sees them now. it's also normal that some stuff changes when you go from book -> show because of the change in media. but i still want to address some specific stuff that i liked and disliked.

the first thing is sally. i think this is probably the change i liked the most, ironically, because i've seen a lot of sally hate/dislike by show only people (a CRAZY concept, i know) whereas i've never seen a book reader that didn't like her. i think this is because in the books, since they're from percy's pov, portray her solely as a mother. an angelic being that can do no wrong. and this is because of how deeply percy loves his mother, which is also seen in the show (a lot of people have pointed this out, but the scene with percy offering a sacrifice to his mother was such a fucking good scene).

however, the show made a point to portray her as a woman. a flawed human being. which is what has somehow caused some people to dislike her. pure misogyny, if you ask me, because the flaws showed aren't even big things. she's just humane. but anyway, i loved her. i wasn't 100% on board with her casting (one of the few ones i was doubtful about) but by the end of the show i can say: masterful performance, virginia kull.

speaking of the change from percy's direct pov to a more omniscient/third person pov (which is a one of the changes that naturally occurs because of the change in media), i think what suffered the most because of this change was the tone. it's one of the things that disappointed me as a book fan, and i know i'm not the only one. i haven't seen many people point out that it was most likely due to the pov change, though (although it wasn't the only factor). the tone of the show seemed a lot more serious than the books, even if it still had its points of humor. the books are so much sillier, which is the essence of percy jackson, both as a character and as a book series.

it wasn't very noticeable at first. it only started to REALLY bother me in the tunnel of love episode. and, honestly, my theory is that a lot of jokes in the books happen in percy's narration, which couldn't really be translated to the screen. however, they still deliberatedly changed a lot of stuff that could have been translated into the screen, and it started going downhill in that episode (tunnel of love) in specific. i won't go over every single joke that was taken out, or every single scene that was made more serious than in the book, but combining the fact that percy's internal jokes couldn't be included in the show with these deliberate tone changes was what ruined the tone for me.

on sort of the same topic of tone, the episode of the casino was just disappointing to me. even though i loved the taxi scene and i was glad for the silliness of it, the way the air of mystery was ruined from the start by the trio knowing what the lotus casino's trap was and just the general ambience of the casino not being at all what was described/what we as readers pictured in the book was a bit meh. not a big deal, really, but just something that piles up with the rest of tone changes that really didn't work as an adaptation of the books.

to talk about something more positive, and something i seem to disagree with a lot of book readers, i really liked the show's hades. i feel like he was an attempt to give back some of that silliness they took away, but it still worked for me. i know the book's hades is a lot darker, but i like it when hades is not pictured as this typical "dark, brooding" type. i also feel like he can still become a lot more serious in the future, when the situation calls for it. after all, he is a god. i do wonder how they'll deal with some of the scenes in the last olympian, but we'll see when we get there.

i also can't go forward without mentioning the change that everyone praised, as it should be. medusa. i won't go into detail, because there are entire meta posts made about it, but i feel like rick, the cast and the writers did an incredible job portraying her both as a victim and a villain.

something i feel neutral about is gabe. they didn't really portray him as the ruthless abuser he is in the books, it felt more like a neglectful type of abuse, which isn't a bad thing (it was probably disney that asked for this, i think). i was a bit afraid that they wouldn't kill him off, since he wasn't made to be as cruel as in the books and it could have felt out of place if sally killed him, but the way it was his own stupidity what killed him is something i can get on board with. i'm still a bit sad that we didn't have the cathartic moment of sally killing her abuser, since i think that portrayal that women have the right to get back at their abusers was good and necessary (and it would've also made an incredible contrast with the show's portrayal of medusa), but i'm also not particularly mad about it. he's dead, i'm happy. now give us paul!!

unfortunately, now i have to mention the change i quite literally hated. for most changes i disagreed with i mostly just didn't vibe with them or could understand where they were coming from but still didn't like them (as i've mentioned in this post), but this is a change that i genuinely cannot understand from a writing standpoint and thinking of the future of the series. i'm, of course, talking about backbiter.

i just don't get the necessity of giving it the power of opening "secret doors" that are basically portals, and then skipping completely over the fact that it's half normal steel and how luke is ready to kill both demigods and mortals to get what he wants (the downfall of the gods). but what pisses me off the most (unless they go deeper into how these "secret doors" work and somehow fix it) it's how it completely ruins the main point in the battle of the labyrinth. if you're a show only person, please skip the next paragraph because it will have spoilers for the fourth book of the series. you can continue after that.

the whole point in the battle of the labyrinth, unless i'm misremembering, is that chronos' army can use the labyrinth to move quickly to one point to another and, specifically, to sneak into camp half blood. what is the point of this if chronos can somehow give luke the power to just open portals to wherever??? i just don't get it. but well, we'll have to wait and see how they deal with it. still, i don't see the necessity at all to add this mysterious power to it. especially since they skipped over what makes backbiter actually terrifying.

as to not end this post on a negative point, i'll mention a few things i loved. first, the cast. they really were the lifeblood of the show, and it feels like rick shook the books and these people fell out of them. i think all of them did amazing, but of course walker, leah and aryn were just perfect. i acknowledge, like some people mentioned, that some scenes might have had some awkward acting, but it did not bother me at all. plus, they're young and they'll grow with the show.

second, and this is very specific and i've mentioned it before in my blog, the scene in the arch where percy tricks annabeth to fight the chimera himself. rick really knew what he was doing when he added that in. that scene is percy in a nutshell.

finally, this is a bit of a more self indulgent thing for me, and i will go into more depth soon in a different post, but the relationship between percy and poseidon was always something i really loved to think and headcanon about. i really liked how they portrayed him as someone who tries. he's a god, and he has "limitations" as a parent, but he still tries. the scene where he stops zeus from killing percy and immediately surrenders, something very significative because gods are prideful... i had to rewind and watch it again.

in general, i really liked the show. i especially like it as its own thing, even if i still think it was a decent adaptation with its errors/things i don't agree with. as a show on its own, probably because of how attached i am to these characters, i give it a solid 9/10 or even a 10/10. as an adaptation, i hesitate between a 7 and an 8.

great job, pjo team. and to the fans, especially old fans of the series, i think it's important to support the show even with the gripes i know we all have with it. it was very good, and pretty decent as an adaptation, but most importantly it's gonna bring a whole new generation to read the books. i work at a bookstore, and although we already sold pjo pretty often because it's one of our staple recommendations for middle schoolers, we've already seen a significant raise in the sales of the series. we even have a specific client, a full adult man, who is buying them for himself (i love him... we comment the books every time he comes to buy the next one).

that's all! lol i did say it was gonna be a long ramble.