#itself* I have never seen a nice shipper of this stupid ship

[lemonhemlock]

I really wonder what happened with people in the last few years because it's become pretty much unbearable to be in a fandom these days. It's not the HOTD fandom that's rancid, it's most fandoms that are big enough to attract a high number of fans (I got into a different fandom recently and I swear things are just as bad, if not worse sometimes). There are always groups of people who will (morally) police everyone else for having a different interpretation of the source material, for coming up with headcanons different than their own or for shipping the wrong thing and writing the wrong type of fan fiction. And it's not that they're only targeting those who are into what is deemed problematic like fictional incest or toxic relationships, which is bad enough in itself (the targeting of people based on their preference in fiction, I mean), but I see more and more people targeted for coming up with totally inoffensive headcanons, like imagining their favorite character as a parent and being called horrible names over it. To some extent it looks like these people project themselves and their life experiences onto fictional characters so much so that whenever they are confronted with people who have different takes and history, well, they start to spiral out of control. This, and the fact that being online under anonymity gives them a lot of courage and their bully persona finally comes out. Ultimately it's just very bizarre to me that people can't simply accept the fact that others can enjoy fictional things and fictional characters in a different way and act like you're either stupid and delusional if you think differently OR you must have some hidden motives (like the ones who accuse Helaemond shippers of being secret Team Black stans who want to paint the Greens in a bad light).

this is so real, friend, every fandom is getting worse; the problems we are having here are not limited or intrinsic to asoiaf. my guess would be that participating in fandoms has switched over the years from being a super nerdy activity to being more widespread, also in relation to the proliferation of social media. in the before times, you had a few message boards and livejournal, nowadays you have so many platforms where fans can participate and more and more people have gained access to the internet. so, with an increased number of users, it goes to reason that more personality types are interacting with each other.

this is how you get so many people hung up on morality politics that want to consume media in a god-fearing way or people who go berserk when their interpretation is contradicted. the parasocial and projection aspect of media consumption has brainrotted so many people to the point where bullying and generally being nasty have become acceptable responses.

it's getting so rare to have interactions in which you can simply disagree with someone on whatever issue and have it be just be that, a difference in interpretation, no feelings hurt and then back to normal engagement! nowadays, it's like fans want to surround themselves with people who think 100% like them (which is never going to happen) and, when opinions diverge, it becomes a downright schism, instead of just a normal facet of being alive and talking to someone.

so many times i've seen fans adopt this position that if you happen to have formed a different view of an event or a character, it means you're some flavour of stupid or naive or delulu. when, in reality, the text was vague enough to support MULTIPLE interpretations and, if the writers decided to go into direction A instead of B, that's just down to luck. maybe that version simply won out in the writers' room and that's that. it doesn't amount to supporters of A having a deeper, more sophisticated level of media literacy than supporters of B, but that's the line that often gets pushed by those who feel vindicated against the "losers"

a couple more asks under the cut

Anonymous asked: You’re too nice to say it but the “helaemond vs helaegon” “ship war” was very specifically started by a few select people and it was not anyone who actually liked helaemond 😭 it’s so frustrating to see as someone who loves both ships but now you have people claiming it’s impossible or anyone who says they like helaegon and helaemond both are lying? who gets aegond in the divorce? just discourse for discourse sake when the real enemy is this show not letting helaena speak to either of her brothers (forget daeron! she probably doesn’t know he exists). I’m sure that’s enough discourse so I hope you have a great day Miss Lemon! sending you the best

seven blessings to you, anon!!! <3 i honestly wouldn't know bc i don't keep tabs on users to that degree, but anyone saying it's impossible to like both is just inventing their own reality based on arbitrary rules they dreamt up. and, completely agree, the biggest impediment both helaegon and helaemond have is that helaena is so underdeveloped and issues almost no opinions or actions of her own. what does she even think of aemond or aegon that's not simply vibes?

Anonymous asked: Oh I dunno how much you are on places like Twitter or Reddit (i hope not much because you are nice!) but there are large groups of fans who will tell you Ewan and Phia being nice about Helaemond was nothing more than fan service and nobody should care. Or that they don’t like the ship and are patronizing shippers. Nobody likes to have fun anymore 😭

you guys are so nice to me!! thank you sm anon. <3 i do go on reddit and twitter occasionally, but i can't say i scour the platforms in detail, because i don't have that kind of time or patience (also i end up annoyed by many takes, so there's also that)

but, you know, even if ewan and phia were just being nice and they don't really care, then it's because they didn't want to shit on people's harmless fun! and if they want to ship a non-canon ship for their entertainment, then it's not hurting anyone and shouldn't be made to feel shitty for no reason

but, then again, why would they say they deliberately acted with helaemond in mind? so whatever. antis coping.

[elriel-oblivion]

Okay here's the thing.. I respect everyone's opinions and they can ship whoever they want but like... For Elucien and Gwynriel... I literally cannot even see how. I would gladly ship them if someone gave me a valid reason. Elain avoids talking or even being in the same room as Lucien, and Azriel had one polite conversation with Gwyn. Az is just nice to her. As nice as he would be to any female. Elriel has foreshadowing & chemistry- The roses painted on her drawer and the rose necklace...👀

Strongly agree with all of this!! My main problem with anything that's not elriel is that a lot of anti-elriel shippers completely ignore or erase Elain. With these ships, it's always what benefits Elain does or doesn't bring. It's so misogynistic, people just ignore everything she's mentioned about her own heart and how she doesn't want a mate or the bond, she doesn't care for it, but oh Lucien's had such a hard life, he deserves his mate!!!!!

😒😒😒

Surely he deserves someone who wants him as much as he wants them, no?

Non-elriel-endgame with the canon we currently have would mean Elain's choices are stripped once again since she'd have to give up/lose the love she actually wants in favour of one she doesn't want that's attached to some cultural concept that means zilch to her and her human heart. I mean, sure sjm could spin it so Elain catches feelings for Lucien and they end up happily mated. But then what is the point of having Elain constantly avoid him for three books? That's not even setting up for a good relationship bc every time they interact/meet, the communication just gets worse.

While I can honestly see the potential of gwynriel bc platonic interactions can later become romantic, I still don't ship it bc it doesn't feel right the way elriel does to me. I can def see gwynriel becoming a strong healthy friendship, but if it's endgame then Elain ends up with Lucien, whom she visibly shrinks from and has been avoiding since acowar. She doesn't feel seen by him at all - as much as I love Lucien and truly do want him to have his own HEA, we can't deny that he's really just pursuing (I use pursuing in the loosest way since he's very respectful about it 😅) Elain bc of the bond. If we take that away, there's nothing between them imo and he probably wouldn't give Elain more than a passing glance for her beauty and that's it bc she's not the type of girl he's into.

But people don't wanna think about how that makes Elain feel. This girl who previously felt seen by only one person - who then rejected her bc of that bond itself - and craves someone to see who she truly is, is being courted by someone who doesn't actually like her for her, but just the idea of what a relationship with her would entail. He's only trying bc of some divine belief she doesn't share. That must suck like hell. It's almost objectfying, the bond. And again, I don't blame Lucien at all, not even for trying bc it is something that's important to him and his culture, but it's not a mutual thing. If it were important to Elain too and she just wasn't cooperating bc of some stupid shallow reason, then I'd be angry at her. But that's not the case at all.

But with Azriel, the first person to see her since Graysen, there's so much potential for growth - for both of them. They make each other feel seen. And for all that antis say neither has grown in the time they've known each other, how did Az pluck up the courage to almost kiss Elain after having not done anything with Mor for five centuries? How did Elain initiate that kiss - ie have the courage to follow her heart again after having it torn and shredded by Graysen? And anyway, weve never seen into Elain's head so we don't know what she feels has changed within her; we can only detect subtle changes from other povs, but there might be some huge changes in her learnt from Azriel, maybe about her outlook on life/strength, that she's just keeping hidden for the time (or that no one has bothered to see bc Elain is invisible 😭). Same with Azriel. One little chapter isn't gonna tell us everything he's been thinking the past two years.

But either way, we know now that they both have feelings for each other. Why is a mutual healthy relationship shut down so quickly, one where both partners' choices are taken heed of? If Elain had said no in that moment, Azriel would've stepped back instantly, no questions asked. He probably would've have some huge internal conflict about his own self worth but he wouldn't have gone further without Elain's consent. He's already shown he respects her, he said they've been sharing looks and touches, and these are things fandom eat up, so I don't understand why it's suddenly wrong or unwanted just bc Elain makes up half the ship.

And there's so much foreshadowing/symbolism that antis seem oblivious to, which, fair enough, interpret the text how you want. But even if somebody doesn't see the spark or blooming feelings between the pair throughout the books (how do they explain away all the stiffness whenever one of them is mentioned or is in the same room or something though? Genuinely curious here), there's a lot of plot foreshadowing. The Blood Duel has now been mentioned twice, as has the idea of breaking the bond, maybe more. There's the issue with Koschei and Elain not being able to see things related to him past mist and shadow. There's all this potential conflict that could arise between the Courts if elriel pursue their love, and conflict is the driving force of any novel.

If gwynriel were an IRL couple, I wouldn't care if there were never any conflict, but if I'm reading their story, I want more than just them falling in love and having internal conflict about whether they should kiss the other or not. Especially if the backdrop is a fantasy world on the brink of war with many players. I saw a gwynriel post mentioning Merrill once and while I do think she has the potential to be a running antagonist, I don't see her as anything but a subplot/crony for/associate with another stronger villain. I don't think she could carry a whole novel at the moment. So Gwyn is tied to nothing in the overarching plot. Same with Az. Not to mention all the theories about the Koschei/Swan Lake/firebird folklore that is potentially inspiring this new series in the acotar world. Of course, this could all change as we get more info about the next book/s and all, but compared to elriel certainly, I don't think there's as much conflict with gwynriel.

Ultimately, I don't claim knowledge of the next books' content, so I don't really care what people ship, but the main thing I take issue with is how they treat Elain in the midst. A lot of gwynriel arguments I've seen portray certain acts in a romantic/positive light for Gwyn but either completely ignore or erase any semblance of romance for Elain or tear her down. Like, we shouldn't push the narrative that Gwyn as an SA survivor can't have healthy meaningful sex in the future (yeah, of course I agree), yet some of the same people who say that are also people who judge and make fun of Elain and call her too vanilla for Az without having a clue what her bedroom habits/preferences are 🤯 This is just one of many. There are so many double standards I've seen for gwynriel against elriel and I'm just tired of it. And even if they're not doing any of that, they simply hate Elain and don't want her to be with Az and so ship gwynriel as the next best alternative. Like, can they not push down Elain in favour of Gwyn, please? That's so misogynistic 🤮

For all that this fandom flaunts the series being feminist with strong female characters, they sure do a good job in tearing down females who don't fit their definition of strong, despite even Feyre stating and acknowledging multiple times that Elain has a different kind of strength 😒

Gahhhhhhh. *exhales deeeeeeeeply* Sorry this is so damn LONG!! 😅😅😅😅😅 I did not expect to write a whole bloody essay lol but I hope it was fun/comforting to read at least 😅😆 I know I fall back on elriel posts when the ship war gets too intense bc I actually enjoy shipping elriel. They've become my otp, and I absolutely adore both characters of the ship; I think most of us elriels do. I haven't really seen any elriel stans who dislike/don't care for Elain and her welfare so it's nice being in this corner of the fandom where we can appreciate both Az and Elain equally. And of course, the other characters with their due respect. I truly do want Lucien to finally get his good life, but I don't think that's with Elain 😕

[shinneth]

Spill the tea on Stevinel (just because I saw one for conniverse) And yes, I'm not on Anonymous. Because I'm a proud stevinel shipper and no one's going to stop me from loving it, also your blog is cool

And you know what? That’s the right attitude to have! People should be free to express what they ship without shielding themselves with anonymity. I don’t blame the people that do these days - antis are fucking dangerous people - but goddamn, people. It’s fiction. 

So I commend you for shipping Stevinel openly and proudly! Hard to believe it’s actually considered a bold and brave move just to be open and honest about harmless preferences these days. 

That said, I’m sorry it took so long to get to this. I felt you deserved an epic, given how unexpectedly successful my tirade on why Connverse is a shit ship with an undeserved golden reputation was...

But the truth is, even though I’m very much a Stevinel shipper, it’s definitely not my OTP.

And it’s very tricky for me to figure out how to spill the tea on Stevinel in a way that’s distinct from me doing the same with Stevidot.

Because, well, let’s face it: these two ships, beyond being very similar in nature, have also endured identical hardships from the fandom.

All the death threats Stevinel fans get from the raging antis for daring to ship something so “problematic/immoral/wrong/not Connverse”? 

Stevidot fans have been treated that exact same way for years. And still are. For the exact same reasons.

Both Stevinel and Stevidot shippers are valid, but the fandom constantly turns a blind eye to Rebecca Sugar’s husband who also worked on the show outright saying gem x human ships are FAIR GAME.

And also turn a blind eye to the recent interview where Sugar herself stated that the gems are more like AI - a conclusion I and many others deduced ages ago just by how gems are portrayed in the show. 

But by god, they’ll hang on Matt Burnett’s word that “grown gems” are a thing even though canon itself explicitly states that GEMS DON’T GROW.

Just like how despite Maya Petersen outright admitting that Aroace!Peridot is just her headcanon, people treat it like the fucking gospel now.

(no offense to anyone who’s committed to that particular headcanon - I just don’t really see it with Peridot in particular and it’s really fucking stupid to claim it’s 100% canon when the source herself explicitly said it wasn’t)

Well, it’s canon that Spinel kissed Steven and he didn’t turn into dust. And Steven was already well on his way down the path of self-destruction at this point in time; he would’ve gone monster whether this happened or not. 

Also, how often does a character get the “heart eyes” expression for just a platonic love?

If there was ever a scene where Connie or Steven had heart eyes, no doubt most of the pricks would scream “YES!!!! UNDENIABLE PROOF THAT THEY’RE IN LOVE!!!”

But when it’s Spinel, suddenly it doesn’t count? Really?

How convenient.

There’s also the stupid idiots who saw the conceptual development of Spinel in that movie artbook and saw some vague color keys during a conceptual stage and claimed that Spinel was “family” to Steven - which of course must mean “related” and therefore must make Stevinel an incestuous relationship! 

Which is bull. Also shit. It’s already common knowledge that gems don’t work that way. She was the designated playmate for Steven’s mother. Nothing more.

Of course, most gems who come in Steven’s orbit end up being sort of a family to him. 

But everyone seems to have this impression that a gem being part of Steven’s family means they become additional surrogate mom figures.

And yeah no, that’s dumb and wrong. Garnet and Pearl are really the only ones I’d consider actual “mom figures”. Amethyst’s more of a big sister. Everyone else can vary depending on perspective, but I’ve never seen any of the other gems as anything close to a motherly figure for Steven. Any time I see shit about Lapis or Peridot being regarded as “gem moms” to Steven, I laugh my ass off. They are so not moms or any kind of authoritative figure for Steven. Bismuth at best is more of the fun-loving aunt.

There are more roles in a family than just a paternal/maternal substitute. In fact, I believe Steven has considered Connie to be part of his family well before they hooked up in canon.

(as a side-note, I love how people who are allegedly SO squicked out by age gap ships totally pardon Connverse - you guys realize Connie was 14 in Future, right? Possibly 15 depending on the time scale? There’s gonna be a point in the relative near future where Steven is 18 and Connie isn’t - why don’t I hear you assholes angst about that “atrocity”, huh?)

I honestly do consider the CG B-Team as part of Steven’s family, but more in a loose sense. But by that same token, I consider Connie as part of the family in a similar manner. 

Especially since Spinel was shoved off to live with the Diamonds after the movie - and the Diamonds themselves have a very fucked-up relationship among themselves to the point where I honestly hesitate to put a familial label on it at all - it’s extra stupid to try and paint Stevinel as something with incestuous overtones when it clearly doesn’t. 

Spinel does happen to be a perfect representative of how full of shit antis are about age gaps, though. 

While Peridot’s age has always been left vague, we know she can’t be 5K or older due to being an Era 2 gem. Due to her utter lack of knowledge of Era 1 events (or being completely sold on the Diamonds’ propaganda) and her general inexperience with her own equipment - as well as her ability to quickly adapt to Earth - I always headcanoned Peridot as being especially young. Like, younger-than-Steven young. 

Mostly because Peri’s attitude reeks of Gen Z - also because it’d be nice for a change to have a gem who isn’t thousands of years old like literally every other noteworthy gem in the show. We need a representative of gemkind who hasn’t been around for ages. 

Of course, Spinel’s backstory proves that even if they went the boring route and made Peridot thousands of years old just like everybody else, it wouldn’t really mean much of anything. She’d be no less of a valid romantic option for Steven regardless of age.

Spinel is several thousands of years old, and the movie explicitly shows us what exactly that amounts to for a gem.

As I mentioned earlier, Sugar sees the gems more like AI. Spinel remaining in one spot for several millennnia, not moving an inch, not speaking to anyone, not seeing anything other than a gradually-deteriorating garden... yeah, and somehow, despite all that, Spinel’s still very childlike per her design. She had literally no room to mature or accrue life experience: Pink Diamond basically hit the pause button on her entire life.

Even though she’s several thousands of years old, through no fault of her own, Spinel’s mindset remained unchanged. It wasn’t until Steven inadvertently came into her life that she became twisted - understandably so after finally realizing she’d been abandoned by Pink. 

But she still didn’t completely lose her true self. Spinel realized on her own that Steven didn’t deserve to suffer just because his mom was a negligent asshole. She also came to understand on her own that unlike Pink, Steven truly cared for her no matter what shit she threw his way. 

Steven could give Spinel the care and attention she always deserved; something Pink totally denied her while deceiving her into wasting away with her abandoned playground. He could be the one to give Spinel the love she always deserved but was either denied or manipulated into believing she got. 

Honestly, this is more than enough to warrant building something more between these two. 

The age gap is irrelevant. The two have chemistry. They aren’t related.

(and honestly, this is fiction - these details are largely irrelevant in fiction anyway. I’m only bringing it up because it doesn’t take much research to find that every label the antis put on Stevinel is complete inaccurate Diamond propaganda bullshit)

Stevinel is FINE. Let people ship it if they want to!

Um... is that good enough?

Honestly, I’m not gonna lie: Stevinel’s pretty goddamned popular; so much that I’m a bit jealous of it. I enjoy the ship a lot, but I’ve been keeping it at arms-length all this time. I’m looking forward to when I can write my own brand of Stevinel interaction when I get to introduce her in my series, but that’s still a while to go. 

Also, there’s almost zero Peridot/Spinel material, let alone my Peridot/Steven/Spinel OT3. And Stevidot material is still hard to come by; I’m noticing Stevinel’s still quite a bit easier to find by comparison. 

So in a way, I feel many other unpopular ships deserve some tea-spilling sooner than Stevinel because Stevinel at least still has a sizable fanbase. Same can’t really be said for a lot of similar ships here...

A lot of this can apply to other Steven x gem ships, honestly. 

But I guess I haven’t been showing Stevinel much proper love due to my devotion to my superior SU-AU. I can only hope I can soon reach a point where I can have GA Spinel react to Steven, since their dynamic will be significantly different.

(and then one day I’ll finally make the Peridot/Steven/Spinel OT3 fic!!)

Until then, I can only hope I did Stevinel some justice here!

[aros001]

Going in blind: Watching season 5 for the first time. Random thoughts.

Episode 1: Well...that dinner got dark. From what other fans have told me apparently Glimmer gets a lot of hate for her decisions during the series and I just find that odd. I was more annoyed with her in the early seasons where her actions were more harmless simply because she had no patience and wouldn't listen because of her immaturity. Season 4 and here though? Even her most reckless and risky actions have at least been fueled by the genuine desire to keep people safe during a very hard situation. Even here, yeah, she tells Prime something it's very bad for him to know but he was going to have Adora and everyone else literally murdered before her eyes if she didn't. I can't really be mad at Glimmer for making a bad choice when it flows logically and fueled by the desire to keep the people she cares about from being slaughtered.

I don't think we've ever seen Catra this completely at the mercy of another person before, save maybe for Shadow Weaver when she was a child. She has nothing to offer that Prime doesn't already possess. Nothing he wants that he can't get for himself. Her relationship with everyone these past few seasons have been either "I'm your commander and you have to do what I say" or "You are my commander and here's the reason you have to keep me around". This time she has nothing to protect herself behind and the only reason she's still around is because Prime might think of a use for her later.

I love having Scorpia on the heroes' side.

Episode 2: That ending though.

I think what helps elevate Entrapta for me and keeps her for being annoying or irritating is that the show really sells that she just genuinely has trouble understanding why she should/shouldn't be doing certain things. It's not stupidity or even pure self-absorption, she just struggles with people and social ques while machines and science is a lot more straightforward. Heck, she was probably able to bond so well with Hordak because work together in the lab was them meeting on a common middle ground she could understand and relax in. The way she's trying to overcome the issue to help save Glimmer reminds me a little of Mob from Mob Psycho 100, feeling a little frustrated in not understanding something that she knows she should be.

Episode 3: Anybody else get a Disney's Hercules vibes at the end there?

Catra: "Besides, O Oneness, you can't beat her! She has no weaknesses! She's gonna kick your...!"

Prime, smiling: "I think she does, little sister." [Strokes Catra's hair] "I truly think...she does."

This episode really sold how completely isolated Catra is. With the sole exception of Glimmer, she's in space, no idea where exactly she is, onboard a ship filled with nothing but Prime and hundreds of cultist clones. Throughout the entire series we've seen Catra push everyone away and now that she's in a situation where she is almost well and truly on her own with no power, freedom, or authority, she seeks out the one other person around to find any sense of comfort in. Despite everything, Catra doesn't like being alone.

Little child Catra lashing out because she didn't want Adora to have any friends other than her kind of reminds me of Glimmer and Bow during the Princess Prom episode. I imagine it's the same mentality. Growing up in isolation, even if in different forms, and finding only that one person they feel thay can really lean on, there is that fear that they'll find someone else they like more and start caring about them less, or even outright stop. The difference is Bow set Glimmer straight, assuring her he'll always be her friend no matter what but he's not going to be just solely dedicated to her. Her fear was understandable but she was not respecting him as a friend either. Adora never really had that with Catra, one because she was much younger and less mature than Bow, and Catra was probably all she had too, to an extent. As we saw season 1, she was always trying to look after her, even when Catra needed to take responsibility for herself. Bow is not Glimmer's keeper, while Adora too often was that for Catra, so Bow and Glimmer have a better foundation of mutual respect while Adora and Catra's dynamic has been really screwed up for a long time.

Kind of tying into that, despite all that's happened between them, the minute Adora hears Catra's in distress she starts panicking and tearing up. The last time they saw each other they were very much enemies and Adora was done reaching her hand out to her. I suppose you could make the argument she's really been hoping all this time that Catra would finally do the right thing for once, just probably didn't expect it to be like this.

Prime better not mind wipe Catra like he did Hordak.

Episode 4: See, calling the heroes the rebellion now makes sense since they are rebelling against the established power, which is Prime.

Love that trick with the reflections, where you can sort of see/sort of can't see She-Ra. A nice little tease for what I imagine will be a big reveal later.

I really like that explanation for what Bow's going through. Last season's finale was the last he'd seen Glimmer and was desperately trying to save her, and he's been consistently worried for her since then. Now that she's safe he's starting to let himself process his other emotions towards her, and I totally get it. It's hard to be mad at someone when you're also terrified over what might be happening to them, even if your anger is justified. While I get why Glimmer last season did what she thought she had to, it was still a big risk that Bow warned her about and she didn't listen, putting them all in danger. This situation and Glimmer's words is a very mature way of handle this topic. He's not wrong for being mad and it's not a contradiction to what we've been seeing from him this season. Humans and emotions are complicated.

Episode 5: SHE HAS PAAAAAAAAANTS!!! (I will miss the cape though)

That almost makes up for them cutting Catra hair. Seriously, that mane was beautiful!

But boy, speaking of Hercules, that return of She-Ra definitely felt like Hercules emerging from the pool of souls to save Meg.

With the one clone being disconnected from the hive mind and having a breakdown over it, that does make me wonder if Hordak has been connected to it. Wasn't he deemed a defect because Prime couldn't connect to his mind? I suppose it's possible that flaw was corrected. Clearly Prime can take over minds other than just his clones, like with Catra. But if he could do that I'm wondering why he just didn't when Hordak was first created and he instead cast him out to Etheria.

Was Catra purring at the end? I swear there was a sound that sounded like purring.

Episode 6: Assimilation is easily one of my biggest fears in fiction, be it zombies, Borgs and Cybermen, Get Out, the freaking Sapphire Dragon from Xiaolin Showdown that scared the hell out of me as a kid! Just the concept of having your free will and autonomy completely ripped away from you, potentially with you still being aware but unable to do anything about it, is horrifying! At least with Prime's chips the process is reversible.

Anyway, in lighter plots, I kind of love Wrong Hordak. He's really funny. I feel bad that he's being deliberately misled, but he really shouldn't be following Prime anyway, so...

I do like that Adora is being a little more tough on Catra. She needs kindness, yes, but she also needs honesty and discipline, the kind that has actual love and care behind it, unlike what she got from Shadow Weaver. Adora is genuinely trying to help so Catra needs to stop acting like a brat and LET HER HELP.

Episode 7: Catra was definitely purring.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume people probably ship Scorpia and Perfuma. Not that I have any problem with that. It's like the Midoriya/Todoroki ship; I don't ship it myself but I totally get why others do. It's a relationship based in mutual respect and one of the characters having a significantly positive effect on the life of the other. As long as the shipper themselves is not horrifically toxic, I don't care.

Also, I don't think I've ever been so intimidated by Mermista before than I was with that one shot of her in silhouette, just before the reveal she was chipped.

Episode 8: Okay, I definitely love Wrong Hordak. Just that realization of his. "Horde Prime...lied to us..." There's just something about it that's so full of character. Obviously he's a brainwashed clone but he was truly devoted to Prime and just to find out that he would keep something so big from them, from the hive mind that's supposed to be so open to him and each other, it destroys everything he ever believed in. It's hilarious to watch him prepare to lead his brothers in a revolt against Prime.

I assume magic is Prime's "weakness" in that he himself cannot control it. Obviously he can control magical beings like Spinnerella and have them use magic but magic itself is too free and too powerful for him to contain and fully fight back against. He's all about order and stillness and magic is basically chaos.

Episode 9: I like to believe the mushroom kingdom they saved is a Mario reference.

Something I like in hero stories is "the power of a name" or "the power of a symbol". Something as simple as Superman's S-shield can have so much weight and meaning behind it just because of the person it's tied to. She-Ra isn't just a powerful warrior to the people of Etheria, she's a hero of legend. We saw it touched on even back in season 1 how much Adora returning She-Ra to the world meant to everyone. She-Ra to them is a symbol of hope. If they have her on their side, then they believe they might be able to win and with that ordinary people can find the strength to fight too. It's something I think the Green Lantern put best with how the Blue Rings of hope supercharge the Green Rings of will but lose a lot of their functions when the greens are not around. Hope is useless if you don't have the will to also act, but in turn hope can give people the will to act. The more hope they have that they can win, the more they will fight to win.

That was the nerdiest comparison I've ever made.

Episode 10: I appreciate a good bad dad joke and that's why I can't approve of "punderstand". It's too much of stretch to flow well. "Ruined" was good though.

I'm less surprised that Scorpia's been chipped and more that she's even alive. She was at the bottom of the ocean when the roof broke and she's a scorpion woman. I don't think water is a very friendly element for her. She's even commented on how good the desert was to her.

I wonder her She-Ra mode is not working for her simply because Adora is exhausted; mentally and physically. I don't think she's ever used the form this continuously before, and she's been doing it without the First Ones' sword that she has experience with. Her new sword and its transformations may be made out of her own energy for all we know. And then there's just the emotional toil of having Catra back in her life while it feels like more and more of the world is being turned against her.

Episode 11: Oh, I'm definitely shipping Hordak and Entrapta.

I think Re:Zero has spoiled me on dark magic. While Micah with his dark magic is a threat, in this show and many others dark magic basically just equates to "spooky, evil, bad stuff" magic that isn't that different from most other kinds of magic other than being either harder to control or more geared towards causing harm. In Re:Zero, dark magic was DARK. It felt unnatural, like a perversion of how their world's magic is supposed to be and that it didn't belong in this reality. Micah's dark magic is basically "I'm attacking you with shadows, oOoOoOo so scary!"

Not really surprised Catra left. She just got Adora back and now she's potentially about to let herself die. Perfuma said it best, letting people in and letting herself be vulnerable is hard. Caring about Adora and watching her die would be a huge blow, so Catra would rather curl back up into her shell and block out Adora again than have to risk taking that hit.

Episode 12: I keep saying it but now having them right next to each other, yeah, Mara's She-Ra outfit is better than Adora's. I don't know, there's just something grander about it. Anyway, on topic, I'm a big fan of superheroes and legacy and all that and I really like Mara's words to Adora. All she did and sacrificed was so that others, especially the next She-Ra, wouldn't have to do the same. It doesn't matter how noble and heroic it is, tragedy is tragedy and anyone who knows that kind of pain doesn't want anyone else to have to go through it.

I'm not surprised by the love confession between Glimmer and Bow. I felt it could go either way with them either hooking up or just staying really good friends, but that in itself is a sign of how good and natural their friendship is. I can easily buy how it would evolve into something more between them. The situation they're in probably helps. When Glimmer was taken they both thought they might never see each other again and that fear and worry probably caused them to reevaluate how they feel about the other. They've been clinging to each other since getting back, as every day could be their last. Something like that is naturally going to push two people together.

Episode 13: So...are there any plans for a season 6? Or a comic continuation like Avatar and Korra got? Because this was a good finale...buuuuuuuuut I feel there are definitely some things that needed a bit more exploration.

This is typically why I like stories with epilogue endings, especially those set some number of years in the future. Little glimpses of what everyone's doing now, allowing the audience to fill in for themselves what happened in-between. There's nothing wrong with this episode but it does just kind of...stop. They beat Prime. Everybody's cheering and happy. Adora suggests they bring magic back to the universe. And...that's it. We don't see anything more. No aftermath, no post-war, nothing. We end on the moment of victory, and while it's not a bad moment it leaves the ending feeling a little incomplete.

It kind of feels like the writers either really had to rush to the ending to make the 13 episode deadline or simply didn't want to address whatever happens with Catra and Hordak now. With the bigger threat of Horde Prime it makes sense why everyone puts aside past issues and works together. But now that the crisis is over, naturally everyone would have to address everything the Horde had done to Etheria for years with Hordak and Catra leading it. Don't get me wrong, I believe that Catra loves Adora, I believe Adora loves her, and I believe Catra wants to be a better person. It's not like I'm saying she needs to be locked up or executed. But she did cause a lot of damage and put Adora especially through hell, and just because Shadow Weaver is the one who screwed her up so bad doesn't mean she doesn't have any responsibility for her own actions. So it just would have been nice to get even a little bit of lip service to show that Catra would be trying to right her wrongs from this point forward, instead of just "Prime's gone, everyone's happy, bye!" At least with Entrapta she seemed to genuinely not understand why what she was doing at the time was wrong and Scorpia, like Adora and Huntara, defected from the Horde to do the right thing despite it being even more part of her upbringing than anyone else. I can't even imagine what happens with Hordak now.

Don't get me wrong, this is far from the worst I've ever seen a redemption handled. I haven't read/watched any of Boruto outside of the movie and Gaiden tie-in but I've read all of Naruto and there is no reason that Orochimaru should just be walking around and casually talking with people after all he's done. Kaiba in the Yu-Gi-Oh manga built an entire theme park to try an murder Yugi and his friends and they bring it up like twice after that arc. Kylo Ren turning back to the light was one of the potential paths for his character, so that made sense in TROS, but they essentially did "He died heroically and therefore totally redeemed himself for every terrible thing he's ever done."; basically a cop-out. Catra's alive and can at least potentially still own up to her actions and work to redeem herself. And I love Steven Universe, but kind of like with Catra nearly killing everyone (including herself) via the unstable portal, fans have naturally pointed out that the Diamonds enslaved and committed genocide on multiple planets and really faced no consequences for that other than "Stop it". Catra's not at the gold standard of redemption stories, which for me is probably Zuko and Endeavor, but she's far from the bottom. I think the best way to describe it is that Catra had as good, if not better, reasons for being so bad and screwed up as Zuko did, just as good step-up for turning good as Zuko did, but she didn't have nearly as much payoff afterwards to make it feel like a full journey like Zuko did.

But enough about all that. Love the basically goddess She-Ra Adora became. Given the emphasis on healing powers with She-Ra we've had, I'm guessing that's essentially how she destroyed Prime. She purified Hordak and Prime was basically an infection within him. I like when heroes snatch victory from the jaws of defeat but I also when there's an implication towards the villain that "Wow. I never stood a chance." She-Ra's power just dwarfs his. Full potential realized by Adora and he was just gone.

Also I don't know how I forgot that Prime could jump into the bodies of his clones but his possession of Hordak got me. I genuinely couldn't think of how he'd survive after Hordak shoved him off the edge (set free by the power of love!).

And even if the ending feels a little incomplete, the episode itself still did well with my emotional investment. I was gripped by during Catra's confession and the tension within the heart.

Season 5 and overall series verdict: I'm very glad I saw this series. Even though its ending falls a little short for me, this was still really good. Seasons 3 was probably my favorite overall but this story had a very good flow to it. It steadily built up bigger each season, with Catra and Hordak being really compelling villains driving the whole thing. Not that Prime was bad. He was a genuine threat and his cult of clones is a good creepy concept. He's just not as good as the other two. I'm sure part of what elevates him up is because I'm thinking of the JL director's cut but Hordak really is just better Steppenwolf. Everything that worked about that character, Hordak is that to an 11.

Given how I've talked about her more than any of the others, Catra is probably my favorite character. Just the damage that girl has been through. I always understood why she was doing what she did, even though there was rarely a moment I'd agree with exactly what she was doing. Again, it's one of the reasons it feels like the series just kind of ended. There's a lot to be seen with Catra's character now, a lot that can be done, and it just feels like a shame to really not show any of it. This isn't a fault of SRPOP itself because so many series, especially animated and anime, are guilty of but it always bugs me when a series ends on two characters hooking. Relationships are interesting, I'd argue more so than the build-up to them, but no writer ever wants to actually explore them after the hook-up. I never cared about Korra and Mako being a couple but I still found their relationship as a couple more interesting and character building than any of the will they/won't they build-up to it. And I actually like the idea of Adora and Catra as a couple. It's a big reason why I'm so happy the Harley Quinn animated series got renewed for a third season, as it otherwise would have just ended on a hook-up between two characters who, like Adora and Catra, love each other but have had a complicated dynamic for a while. I believe Adora and Catra love each other, but they've got a lot of stuff to work out and I want to see that! Catra's got abandonment issues and that in turn caused her to be unhealthily possessive over Adora. Just seeing the two of them try to work through that alone would be fascinating.

Like I suspected early on, Scorpia's my favorite supporting character. Entrapta's a decent 2nd. Took a small dip when it seemed like she was joining the Horde over feeling abandoned by the princesses when they thought she was dead but that picked back up once it was made more clear "Oh, okay, you're not being petty or stupid. You genuinely don't understand." It made her a more interesting character, and I love her and Hordak's relationship.

Least favorite characters...probably Sea Hawk and those three former Horde friends of Adora and Catra. I never hated them but I never cared about what was happening when they were on screen. They fill out the world a bit, they drive the plot, they're not wastes of space, they even get some laughs. There are just so many other characters in the series way more interesting than them.

Biggest surprise for me was definitely Glimmer and Bow. I never thought I'd dislike them but the best friends characters in series like this can kind of go one way or another with how relevant or deep they are. Glimmer especially I was surprised how much I was invested. She really grew a lot as a person throughout the series and I thought the dilemma over the Heart of Etheria was a good one.

Honestly there's a lot more I could talk about but I have only so many words and my thoughts are a jumble right now so I'm going to leave it at that. I will say I really appreciate how supportive you all on this Reddit have been. It's something I hate about some other fandoms I'm in where they basically are so toxic that they make no one else actually want to watch/read the thing they're fans of because they can't help but associate it with them.

Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/PrincessesOfPower/comments/o2p6wq/going_in_blind_watching_season_5_for_the_first/

[popculturebuffet]

OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes!: You’re Everybody’s Sidekick Review

OK KO was easily one of the best animated series of the 2010′s and i’ll stand by those words. The brainchild of Ian Jones Quartlery, voice of Wallow in Bravest Warriors and more importantly former head writer for Steven Universe, and current longtime romantic partner of that series creator Rebecca Sugar. That part isn’t AS important, but I still find it sweet.  Anyways OK KO was the story of K.O., a 6-11, not my own laziness for once but the show’s own way of doing age, year old boy who wants to be the best like no one ever was. In this case i’ts being a hero in a world that’s basically like if someone took the marvel universe and smashed a retro game collection and a pile of manga on top of it and then blended up the result and shot it full of gamma rays. Full of heroes of all kinds ranging from those fighitng crime to those who just want to loiter outside strip malls or cut hair.  To achieve this goal KO gets a job at Gar’s Bodega, the combination of your average bodega (for those unfamiliar with the term, i’ts a convience store) and a video game item shop, so the slurpee machine is right next to the power ups and ninja stars, and everything from skateboard polish to Spread Guns is avaliable. The bodega is owned by Mr.Gar, a mustachiosed muscle man whose basically a shoutier mexican version of MIke Haggar but with shades and a mustache. So a somehow better version of him, though with him being busy watching over the plaza itself, doing secret hero missions and what not the day to day operations are left to two teens: Rad, a muscle bound dude bro alien with telekenisis and a secret heart of gold and Enid, a cynical, slacker ninja whose also bilogically a witch because her parents are a vampire and a werewolf. So the series follows these three as they run the boedega, grow as people and fight the robots that frequently attack the plaza sent by the evil Lord Boxman who hates the place literally because it’s there and it’s existance annoys him. This is the canon explination and it is utterly hilarious.  The series was funny, had great character work, decent ongoing stories, great jokes and a fun tone that could go from meaningful and well thorught ot utterly batshit from episode to episode and was sadly canceled after 3 seasons because Cartoon Network is kinda stupid right now and dosen’t know how to handle a superhero show that still makes action a priority, but it did get a solid ending, a slew of great crossovers and a decent amount of representation under i’ts belt.  WHich brings us to today and the start of RED ACTION WEEK: A week dedicated to the series most prominent gay character and the bisexual ninja witch who loves her. I’m covering all 5 of Red’s more prominent apperances... I was just going to do the red/enid episodes but decided this was a better introduction to the series itself, as well as the fact it allows her character arc to better tie together by her final episode, which directly uses this one as a major plot point. I also threw Plaza Prom in there since, even if she’s only a supporting character, it’s still one of her few major apperances, is part of her final major episode, is one of my faviorites, and the climactic dance fights is one of the most intentionally homoerotic fight scenes i’ve seen in some time. With all that out of the way, let’s do this after the cut. 

We start at Gar’s Bodega, just after the opening two parter, with KO starting his first day of work, part of the reason this episode is a fairly smooth introduction into the show. Not even in the door he accidently shoryukyn’s joe cuppa, a stand up comedian with a cup of coffee in the big time for a head... I told you anything goes and I meants it.  After that accident, we find Enid at the counter, ignoring the customers before shooing them away and when KO asks for work, plays along with his enthusasim and tells him to clean the store.. which he does in minutes, before being told to sort the penny dish, and while he does the two discuss KO’s love of helping people: KO just genuinely thinks that’s part of his job, the right thing to do and feels good while Enid.. dosen’t feel it’s worth the effort and people are just generally ungreatful and not worth it.  I really like this scene for showing off their character dynamic beautifully: It starts showing that while at this stage Enid is largely an asshole, she does care about K.O. and while he’s cleaning, despite usually turning customers away, still let’s Ginger, an elderly patron and one of KO’s mom’s dojo customers, not only check out but pay in freaking pennies. It shows that try as she might, Enid really isn’t a cyncial or heartlesss as she claims. It’s also nice setup for later in the season as, and as i’m sure Ian Jones Quartlery and crew were preparing for, we later DO see why Enid hates people so much: her best friend, possibly more, Elodie, who i’ll certainly be covering eventually, betrayed her for a spot at Point Prep, basically UHA or Xavier’s for this world and claimed their friendship was just a ploy (It wasn’t, but again, story for another time), while her one date with Rad went terribly due to him acting like a huge jackass at the advice of his even bigger jackasses of friends. It’s easy to see why she stopped carring: When she opened up in the past it only lead to her being hurt and alone. K.O.... is the opposite. He genuinely belivies in everyone and tries to help them because, as said above, it’s just what he does and what he belivies a hero should be... he hasn’t been hurt or influenced by assholes like his friends, and thus is able to get them to open up. It’s a wonderful dynamic and I love it.  And naturally, KO is determined to help Enid see the light, with Enid responding with the wonderful line “You’ll never melt my icy heart”... give him a few more episodes Enid, give him a few more episodes.  So K.O. Decides to set out helping people, shouting about it to enid back at the store as he does because he’s 6-11 and kids in that age range are many things, but subtle is not one of them. He starts with Geoff and Nick Army, a monk and gay duke nukem reflectivity who despite having polar oppositie personalities, are both a couple, as confirmed by the creative team and then the finale, and a crime fighting duo who are having a dispute over opening a pickle jar with the good old ultra violence or non violence, which KO solves by letting both do it once, which results in a pickle jar explosion, both men in their underwear and everyone happy, especially the shippers.  KO continues his quest, going to Logical Cuts where we meet Mr.Logic, a robot who has a rather moving and well done backstory we’ll certainly get to, and is voice by James Urabanik, aka the voice of Rusty Venture on the venture bros, to my utter delight. And yes i’ll be covering the venture bros eventually, and might be this month. His customer, another one of KO’s mom’s regulars, is upset because her haircut isn’t right while Mr.Logic is upset, well as upset as a monotone robot can convey, that his usually 100% mathmatically perfect haircuts are off. KO pitches in and the new result is perfect, with both being greatful. 

KO’s next stop on his good will help people crying for help tour, after the above bit of wonderful art shift as that version of ko moveds like a south park character for some reason. Anyways, it turns out best friends, co workers and the dante and randal of this show, i.e.two best friends working a dead end job who despite arguing a lot need each other, A Real Magical Skeleton, self explaintory and Greg, a bear, are having an argument because RMS is trying to do their job and frame a baseball for a guy while Greg is being a dickhead and playing the drums constantly. As you can probably wager, I do not like Greg, probably more than rusty, partly because a future episode has him making KO doubt his macaroni art gift for his mom so he can eat it, yes really,and partly because he’s less intresting than his buddy and yet the two are shipped frequently despite my honest assumption they’d kill each other.. much like if dante and randall finally banged. However if you do ship them, I have no hostility with you. Unlike say loudcest or shipping sam with lincoln over at the loud hosue, there's nothing wrong with RMS X Brandon, it’s just not for me.  Anywho KO solves it in the hilarious and awesome manner of just putting Brandon inside one of those baseball cube things... it’s a shame he apparently gave him air holes but whatever. Proud of himself, K.O. plans to head back when he runs into the Ally Teens: Red Action, rude teen warrior from the future who just had a bad haircut, Drupe, a sentient strawberry because of course, and Greg, Drupe’s nonbinary best friend and combination of one of the bone cousins and Woodstock. K.O. offers to help and , with the trio being huge steaming bowls of elephant piss at this point, they instead trick him into waiting in a lava flow and then have drupe whip him every time the lava causes him to cartoonishily jump in the air.  Yeah despite both Red Action and Drupe going on to having supporting roles, like our good pal tom, who I will get back to this month, there isn’t nearly as much wiggle room in their first apperance. With Tom Lucitor, he was a dick.. but you could make the case, even just off that ep that he genuinely dosen’t know HOW to be a good person or that what he’s doing is sketchy at best. Here, it’s fairly obvious the ally teens know setting a child on fire and using vine whip on him super effectively is wrong, that’s why their doing it. Red, being that special brand of asshole, posts it on social media. I mean posting a video of yourself hurting a child, that’s Tucker Carlson level’s of dickery right there. Stone cold. Enid sees it and is understandably concerned, and goes over to see if KO’s allright when he returns and is forced to explain to him that no they weren’t laughing with him, they were laughing at him and were just being dicks. Also he wasn’t in lava, it was magma. It was above ground. 

K.O. glumly wonders why and Enid reitrates this kind of shit is why she dosen’t help people. K.O. also wonders how she saw it and we find out Enid is basically facebook stalking red action on her social media, as you do, and that Red’s been on a bit of a tear lately, smashing up shit and farting in Geoff’s face all because she got a bad haircut, with K.O. , likely going thorugh more of her posts, realizing theirs a pattern: When bad things happen to her she lashes out at others.. just like Enid. I do like the parallel there: Enid likely has a crush on her because the two are fairly similar.. but Enid runs cold and tens to be standoffish as a result of her past, while Red tens to take out her anger and frustration on everyone else and runs red hot. But they come together because opposities attract... it’s what noble laurite MC Scat Kat taaught us after all.  K.O. however, having Steven Universe level’s of empahty and an equal sense of wanting to help, and just as few boundries as he had as a tween, decides that it’s clear the ally teens have underlying issues to adress and gets Enid help to look at their social media. Returning to the ally,and seemingly unphased by earlier, K.O. sets out helping them, starting by helping red get her haircut fixed by Mr. Logic. Red is adorably delighted. Moving on K.O. notes that Drupe basically just follows Red’s lead but has a fashion blog and clearly an identiy of her own and we soon learn she believes no one reads it. K.O. showed it to the not at all ambigiously gay duo and Geoff and Nick thank her> That’s two blushes and two wins in K.O.’s court.  Finishing up, K.O. realizes Gregg stays quiet because they have low self esteem and feel they have nothing to be proud of. K.O. however found lots to be proud of and framed Gregg’s valdectorian certificate for him, again with some help from earlier.  Instead of graditude red just calls him weird and leaves and KO slumps back depressed. I’ts a good lesson though: people DON’T change just because you did one weirdly kind thing for them. That takes time.. as we’ll see with Red and as we see with Drupe, who has less of an ons creen journey but is far nicer after her next apperance. While Enid is grossed out over having helped someone, Gregg comes in.. and after some great deranged animation thanks K.O. and Enid admits after some prodding that it does feel good to help, and K.O. is happy to have helped her int he process. The two playfully mess around as the episode ends. Final Thoughts: This was a really good one. Reaching back this far into the series, I didn’t think it’d would be nearly as good as it ended up: It serves both as a good proper introduction for a lot of the plaza regulars, a good setup for Enid’s character arc, and was also really funny with great animation. LIke Tom, I don’t think the creators knew exactly what they were going to do with the Alley Teens and thus take the two they end up focusing on in opposite directon: Red keeps her assholishness for her next apperance and grows from it, while Drupe’s drops off by the end of this season, likely due to her fashion blog taking off, but we’ll get into Red more in a review or so and Drupe more later this month.For now this episode was good and next up we have their next apperance in Plaza Prom. Until then, follow this blog for more reviews and nonsense, like and reblog it if you enjoyed this, hit me up with asks for review suggestions or comssions and until next time, later days!

[darkzorua100]

In works of fiction, one of the hardest things to do isn’t so much as writing a solid story but trying to find a way to end it with a satisfying conclusion. It could be a happy, sad, or all of the above as long as it fits the story that you have building up to at this point. After all, this is the last thing your viewers are going to be seeing. The last big take away before they have to move on. What is going to be the legacy of this fiction? A ending can make or break a series after all. Just look at Yu-Gi-Oh ARC-V for example. Looking back at it, it was such a groundbreaking entry into the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise for being the first series to make all the Extra Deck Summoning Mechanics relevant to the story instead of pushing them off to the side for the newest one in Pendulum at the time. It was a huge nostalgia trip by paying homage to the past series that came before it from using their locations for the different dimensions to bringing back past characters, in a way anyway, to the forefront. There is just so much more I could say about that spin-off but to put it in a nutshell, ARC-V just did so much right at the time but of course we all can’t forget that damn ending. The way that ARC-V ended just left pretty much everyone who had watched it from the very beginning with such a sour taste in our mouths. I don’t think I need to explain why, anyone who has seen the final knows exactly what I’m talking about, but yeah, it goes to show that a finale leaves a lasting impression and is pretty much why, even to this day, a majority of people consider ARC-V to be the worst Yu-Gi-Oh series to date. 

So with all that being said, how did Yu-Gi-Oh Vrains finale do? Was it able to wrap everything up into a perfect little package with a nice bow on top? Well honestly, the package itself was a freaking mess and a half but I will say the bow on top wasn’t half bad for what it was worth. We all knew with Vrains ending way to early compared to the previous series that things were going to be getting rushed at the end but I will say that even if things were rushed, and it wasn’t the most satisfying ending they could have given us, what they did give us still left me feeling fulfilled and with Vrains being the absolute train wreck that it was, at the end of the day, I’ll call that a win. 

So let’s start off with the final part of the Playmaker vs Ai duel. These two really were just full on neck and neck that it literally came down to their aces (because yes, Decode Talker is Playmaker’s true ace monster of show) batting each other, once again like from the opening, with Yusaku only being able to pull out the win in the end because Ai wanted to make sure that he was going to be able to finish him off during his turn. If his greed didn’t get the best of him, he would have actually won. That is actually really crazy to think about. At one point, just before Playmaker summoned Accesscode Talker, I seriously thought he was going to summon a Link 8 since he had the total Link Rating on his field with his three monsters plus Darkfluid being a Link 5 but nope, he summoned basically his new combination of the six Ignises in the form of a Code Talker (which all seem to be model after an Ignis anyway). I mean how he was actually able to summon out Accesscode was kinda BS but that’s just normal BS when it comes to the final duels in a Yu-Gi-Oh final. I’m still questioning how in the actual world did Yusaku not deck himself out during this duel. Seriously just how many cards did this boy go through? Way to many from the looks of things.

Now let’s talk about Playmaker and Ai scenes. My god, those shouldn’t have hurt as much as they did. Just at the beginning when Yusaku was telling Ai about how the bonds between others were the things that created the future, not predetermined simulations, and how Ai just couldn’t understand it just hurt right off the bat because I can understand why Ai can’t think that way. Just like he told Yusaku, he is data. To find a situation to a problem is all he knows. To base something with nothing to support it makes no sense to him especially when he can’t chance it. He has seen the alternative and my god, Ai. We didn’t even see the full simulation play out (but what we did see is definitely getting censored in the dub no questions there) but I could already tell what exactly played out. If Dr. Kogami was right about anything, it is that it is inevitable for humanity not to turn against artificial intelligence out of fear that they would one day surpass humanity and try and take us over or just kill us on the spot. I think the future we saw in that simulation was just that with Yusaku trying to convince them that Ai was no danger to humanity and well....we all saw how well that ended. Honestly I lowkey wished we got to see more of that simulation just to see the moment that Ai snaps and murders anyone. Because lets face it, Yusaku literally is the only family that Ai had left at that point. If something happened to him, Ai was actually going to snap. And it wasn’t even if something terrible would happen to him. Yusaku is still human while Ai is an artificial intelligence. If nothing happened to him, Yusaku would have just aged over time and eventually pass away while Ai would always remain immortal which once again would probably lead to a snap. I honestly don’t blame Ai for picking the path that he did in the end. Even if Lightning never showed him the first simulation, I don’t think it would have been long before Ai would have put the pieces together and start doing his own simulations. Ai was just a goner since the moment he was created as a A.I. with free-will. As for his death scene, I almost did start crying because things shouldn’t have had to have ended this way. I don’t care what Yusaku said. You should have took the fusion deal, young man. It worked out pretty freaking well for Judai and Yubel. Heck, regardless how stupid it was, the Yuu Boys and the Bracelet Girls were all still their own individual people too. I don’t see how that would be any different for you two, especially considering that Ai came from you, Yusaku. I have a lot of feelings about this but I will say that the moments that really hurt for me was when Ai asked Yusaku if he was a good partner, to which Yusaku answered “yes”, and when Yusaku explained to Ai that his name meant “love”. I actually didn’t think they were going to explain the meaning of Ai’s name in the show but I’m so thankful that they did but damn, that freaking hurt! Also Aiballshipping is canon. I actually find it hilarious that Ai stole Yusaku from Ryoken at the last second XD

As for everyone else’s endings. As much as it is still the most convenient bullsh*t ever, I am happy that Jin was able to move on after freaking years of being tormented by his PTSD and by Lightning in season 2 and is now happily working with his brother at the hot dog truck just like Kusanagi always wanted. I’m glad that they are slowly starting to make up for all the time that they have lost together because of this one incident. Aoi seems to be doing okay but I won’t lie, I was bit salty that Miyu wasn’t with her when she was visiting the brothers since it seemed like the perfect opportunity for them to be together and to show that their friendship is still strong after all of these years. Like what the heck? If they are going to force this stupid storyline on us, at least commit to it damn it! It has been three months and wait? Is she still in the damn hospital? Like we literally don’t know what happened to Miyu after all of this and I just find that infuriating but what’s new there? Akira is now CEO of SOL Technologies and I’m kinda mixed on how to feel about this. I mean we all were expecting this since the very beginning but again it is one of those things like what happened to Queen? Vrains threw away the rest of the Chess Pieces long ago but Queen was still a character. I mean I like to think that Queen just up and give Akira the company out of fear of being attacked again by someone else in the future but it is still one of those things that you wished you knew what happened to her as to how Akira got this position. It seems that Vrains has continued to grow and expand during this three month time skip and I don’t know if it was intentional or not but all the connections make it look like The Arrival Cyberse @Ignister and if that truly was the case that was a really nice detail to add, Vrains. Emma and Kengo seemed to have teamed up as a brother and sister bounty hunter team in the network which is fitting. Go is back to being his entertainer self to please his younger fans. I’m planning on giving my full thoughts about Vrains sometime later this week hopefully so I’m get into more detail about him and everyone else there. The Knights of Hanoi are taking Takeru’s declaration to heart and are watching over Link Vrains from Ryoken’s freaking cruise ship apparently while Ryoken and Spectre are watching over everything inside of Link Vrains. Now that Vrains is over, I officially have to ask. Where the actual hell is Ryoken getting all of this money from? Correction, WHERE IS HE GETTING ALL OF THESE BOATS FROM?! Geez and I thought we as a fandom were the shippers. This boy has a freaking navy of them in hiding.

HOMURA TAKERU GOT HIMSELF A GIRLFRIEND! MY BOY IS GETTING LAID TONIGHT! 

No but seriously, before they showed the duel disks and just them sitting on the bed, my brain went places. The dialogue did not help. Yes my brain is extremely dirty but that’s besides the point. 

ENTRUSTSHIPPING IS CANON! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

I like to think that wherever Flame ended up in the A.I. afterlife, he is looking down at Takeru with a proud smile during this moment. I also just find it fun that since Kiku doesn’t have an avatar, if anyone knows her in real life sees her in Link Vrains with Soulburner, they are obviously going to put the pieces together real quick about who Soulburner actually is. I’m in just such amazement right now over this even though I had any idea that something like this was going to happen. During the closing interviews from the VAs, Kaji Yuuki made a comment about how we were going to be seeing Takeru getting “unmasked” during the finale and I just knew that something like this was going to happen and I was not disappointed at all. I’m sorry but I just have such a huge sh*t eating grin across my face because of this. 

THIS IS AWESOME!!!!! I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY ACTUALLY MADE THIS CANON!

How is it that Kiku, a freaking SIDE CHARACTER, ended up being my favorite female of Vrains? I don’t know, I’m just going to move on before I start freaking out again about these two being so freaking adorable. 

I do like how Naoki, as soon as he saw these two, makes it his new goal to get himself a special someone of his own. I don’t know how that’s going to work out for him but hey good for him.

And as for Yusaku, the shows ends with him going on some kind of journey, leaving his final fate obscure which is pretty normal for a Yu-Gi-Oh series as they did the same in the past with Judai and Yusei. My guess he’s going around the network to try and find a way to bring back Ai and maybe the rest of the Ignis.

Speaking of which, the last scene we get of this series is that Ai is apparently alive. Maybe. Who actually knows. He could be in A.I. heaven for all we know but if that’s the case I feel they would have shown us a scene of him being greeted and welcomed by the rest of the Ignis but what we got of him instead was him in his eyeball form looking to be restored. Man Ai is literally like a cockroach and I am saying that in the nicest way possibly. He gets his data eaten by a dragon, tore to pieces by a Data Storm, destroyed by a powerful program, and even kills himself by his own hand and yet he still lives. I am very curious to know if anything is going to come from this reveal, such as if YGO 7 actually is a crossover series, or if this was just the writers giving us a break and letting us know that Ai is still alive and there is hope of him returning. I mean I’m happy he is alive, don’t get me wrong, but I feel like it would have just been fine keeping him dead with the rest of the Ignis. Because if he is still alive, won’t Ai just try and kill himself again? Seems kinda counterproductive but I digress.

So yeah, I very much enjoyed the final episode of Vrains. The series had a lot of problems, and I mean A LOT of them, but it had its shining moments, such as this. Like I said, I’m planning to go into more detail about my full thoughts about the series but when it comes to its ending, I think it delivered what it needed to. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you Yu-Gi-Oh Vrains. You were a freaking struggle to watch at times but you were a joy to have around all the same. I guess the best compliment I can give you is that you literally are Ai. You are insufferable at times but you had your charm that kept me coming back for more and I’m sad to see you go just like I was with Ai.

Now it is onto Yu-Gi-Oh 7th and who knows. If it actually is a crossover series, Vrains might just be back sooner then we expect. I hope so because I’m not ready to say goodbye to my meme-lord and my fire child and his new girlfriend yet! I don’t think it has fully hit me yet that Vrains is actually over and it is going to suck when next week comes around and there is just no more episodes.

[xpouii]

fandom meme: B, C, D, N, and Z?? ^^

B - A pairing you initially didn’t consider but someone changed your mind

(TS) Tbh I was totally unimpressed with Intrulogical (like can you even believe it? MY boys??) But there was just this thing that clicked during Tentacletober and now I have a strict obsession for my curious science boy and his tentacle-ridden monster boyfriend.

C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will (be nice)

(JSE) I’m trying to think of one. I am so pro-shipping that I like any and all ships at some time or another. Probably my least favorite is Marvin with anybody but Jackie because they’re so cuuuuuute together I can’t even (and Anti cuz Marvin/Anti forbidden magician/demon romance is kinda great not gonna lie. Seriously though I support and will read any ship. I just love me some love y’all!

D - A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t (again: be nice)

(Cross-Fandom) Um… I seriously can’t think of one that I can’t like. I can dig any one of them across the fandoms seriously. Some of my favorites are cross-fandoms (aka Dapperstache and BingAverage)

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice)

(JSE/Markiplier) Shipping acceptance—like there’s a lot of us shippers but there are some straight up snooties who judge so harshly when you ship egos. Like chill y’all and just let us make these paperdolls kiss already!

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go (prompts optional but encouraged)

(Cross-Platform) so you’re just gonna set me loose huh?? Well let’s see… I could probably go on for a few hours on some personal theories but let’s just say HOLY COW have we ever gotten some juicy ego content lately? 2019 was the year of the EGO y’all! We got major developments across the board in Sanders Sides. Mark gave us so much Darkiplier (and some sweet delicious Warfstache too) that I was drowning in it in the best way. Jack knocked my socks off with the Chase, Henrik and JJ content!

In that same vein I’ll say what I’m kinda hoping to see this year (not that I’ll be disappointed without it, but this is like my wishlist!)

TS: I want to see MOAR Deceit! I think we’re gonna get it cuz the next full length video is supposed to be a SvS sequel and I kinda hope Deceit is gonna be all huffy about Remus fitting in (at least in his own mind) with the “light sides”. I also wanna see the drama with Virgil come to a head and please somebody check on Roman cuz he’s been asking for help since back in the Crofter’s days.

Markiplier: Holy lord where do I even start? Of course a lost of Mark’s egos are one-offs (or at least I assume so?) but I would love love love to see more ego content as a group. The board meeting with a lot of the “core” egos (but missing Bing, Yan and Eric IMO) was so awesome that I’d love to see more interactions like that. Mark has the acting chops and the editing prowess (or somebody on his team does) to pull that off if he wants to. I think right now the most “in-need” of fleshing out could be The Host. Mark could get some real drama out of that one and he does serious angst/horror so damn well doesn’t he? Maybe some quick little videos about how all the other egos got sucked into the manor? Mark said they were all people with lives before Actor!Mark or the Manor itself caught them in this weird loop that centers around Actor, Dark and Wilford. I know Mark tends to make HUGE productions of his ego stuff but he could totally give us some tiny video snippets with little teases about how these egos were caught up in the nonsense and I would love that. Seriously he could take a picture of Dark and play fucking kazoo behind it and I’d be excited. I’m such a freaking ego addict.

JSE: Jack has been knocking it out of the park and I know he’s got this whole cinematic universe planned out. I hesitate to say what I wanna see cuz I don’t want to seem selfish or impatient. I just wanna see Marvin and Jackie this year. I almost know we will. I’m not even mentioning Anti cuz I’m convinced I’ve already seen hints of him if not this year then super late December (I’m stupid with dates) so I already feel the imminent arrival of the Glitch Bitch. Also, if I get nothing but scrambled text and manic glances I’ll still be happy cuz it’ll mean that Anti is still in existence even if Jack isn’t wanting to develop him right now—but I’ll be super surprised if he doesn’t bust out some more ego plot progression in 2020.

How about some gifts I feel like I already GOT from the fandoms last year?

(JSE) Jameson Jackeson using sign language—headcanon confirmed!

(TS) Deceit in pj pants—I know it was an accident but come on. It was a gift from the heavens.

(Markiplier) Heist—seriously A Heist With Markiplier was more than I hoped for, more than I wished for, everything I dreamed for.

I hope you don’t regret letting me ramble!

[aenslem]

What do you think about Adam and Lilith?

im kinda not sure why you ask ME what i think about them cause ya know… i already said i don’t ship them  idk if you saw it but anyway I don’t think about them at all lmao but now i have to??/ i guess to answer this huh

i tried to answer to it a few times already and idk how to do it without going into much details or write it so i don’t get 1246 messages of how horrible i am for doing it just because i ship something else??? like, you ok? so here i go writing a lot which has 0 sense and idk you asked you get it

if you followed me since 2018, since i started watching caos, you would know that i don’t like the way adam was introduced in the show. at all. I am fine with adam being there, i have nothing against him and him and lilith together, even though i ship madam spellman, it doesn’t mean i automatically hate other ships and i kinda feel like that’s what everyone thinks while throwing stupid asks in my inbox or just writing about madam spellman shippers in general out there. 

the show itself stated (and i already mentioned it somewhere here) that mary wardwell lives alone, that she is alone, that was right in the first episode. no adam was mentioned before, nothing indicated his existence at all. so yes, when they said there will be mary’s fiance it was like “what? what the fuuuuck?” so this is the main issue i have with adam being there. if they, at least once, slightly, mentioned his existence - i would not throw tantrums about adam :D

and you know what? it took few episodes, a lot of time when you have just 9 episodes in part 2, so i don;’t think writers did not know what to write in part 2 and came up with this idea AFTER part 1, as we know it’s all just s1 and most of it should be written or at least the main ideas of it should be there in the beginning, if it was something small then yes, but it was not small thing, if so, then i think they just don’t know what they do with characters and what to do with them now, and we can get any possible shit in part 3 and 4. i mean, they have to have some kind of an idea of where they go with main characters…

and while yeah, i can excuse this with “this is caos, when they did something right at all???” but i should not, writers should do it so we don’t have such a plotholes. 

and if anyone goes here with: if you don’t enjoy don’t watch i will find you lmao 

i enjoy caos, i hate it but enjoy :’D it’s difficult 

so, to adam and lilith. 

adam himself is… meh :D he could be more, but he was there just to make lilith’s character deeper, he was… a tool. ok, i always write something is “meh” but never explain what does it mean. i mean he is not worth of my attention, he is there but i don’t care, he was not interesting enough for me to like him or hate him, he is just there. i just don’t feel anything towards this character… if he was something in the show without lilith, then maybe i would like him? yeah, he was nice and all, but also was not?? i did not like him kissing mary just because they are in relationship, even if you are in a relationship it doesn’t mean you go and kiss the other person when they clearly don’t want it. on the other hand he really tried to be nice, dinner and all, he at least bought flowers lmao at first i was really like ready to hate him because i will never stop going about it - he never existed before! and appears from nowhere. but somehow he was not that horrible to hate him :’D some scenes were funny, some were just to make it clear what lilith thinks about something like marriage, can’t remember but i guess he said back then that they will not do anything she is not comfortable with - which is like GOOD, you dude grow up, thanks. but i am glad he was not there to have funny scenes only. 

also, yes, lately i am so tired of hetero shit on screen that anything which is hetero is automatically OH FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE - AGAIN??? so i was not expecting anything here, only hate towards it all :D but i guess, since i was like that, that is exactly why i did not hate it. not good enough to love but i was not expecting anything good, so whatever it was - it was not bad. it was funny in some scenes, mostly because michelle gomez has incredible facial expressions and also, you can clearly see - she enjoys playing with another human being. oh poor thing, give michelle people to play with :’D 

as someone who is here because they love michelle and lilith, i look at adam from the side of how he affected lilith. and again, he would not be there at all without lilith, he would be nothing in the show, he would have nothing to do, he was just a tool for another character’s arc. I loved seeing her like that, not entirely, but most of the time, like she was not doing shit for dark lord, was not preparing herself to meet him, she was just drinking tea/coffee, doing school job, sitting peacefully, i loved seeing her smile. not that mischivious one, or that one where you realize, that’s it, that woman’s gonna kill me bye bye :D but that warm smile, let michelle gomez smile more!

let her play female joker

i mean no, not that kind of smile but it’s not a bad idea :’D dc take note

if adam and lilith would become a thing and dark lord would not kill him, i guess i would not care for the ship, i would not be against it, it would be just there. not my type of a ship… like there’s lois lane and clark kent and i don’t give a shit about them, they are there and let them be, they don’t touch me, i don’t touch them lmao but i do realize how much lois means to clark, so yes, i do realize adam means something for lilith, and i don’t erase it because i ship something else, there’s this thing… idk what it’s called, it’s when you ship something and ship another thing also, or just don’t hate it because you ship the first thing. aham, good thing by the way, ya all could use it.

there was this theory here, can’t remember who wrote it tho, that adam never existed at all and it was all dark lord’s plan to see if lilith is still on his side or something or torture her, good one, that would be such a great if it was real in the show, cause that would explain why he never existed before. and it would not erase her growth that we see, that soft (sOFT?) side of her, that domestic mother of demons/queen of hell side which walks on heels in her own house in the middle of the night to drink some water :D. it would be unfair to her, but dark lord already killed adam and made her eat him, so what could be worse?  i really did not want her to suffer that much :( she deserves so much better that what she gets… 

honestly, life is unfair to lilith so much, she was there all the time for dark lord, she did everything for him and he did not even hold his promise, he just gives the throne to someone who doesn’t even want it and clearly doesn’t deserve it, just because you are a daughter of the king doesn’t mean you deserve the throne. lilith really worked for it, she earned it! she deserves the crown and the throne. she was there for lucifer for so long and he just uses her… and once she gets something nice, something good, it’s taken away so brutally! so yeah, if adam never existed and was just dark lord’s manipulation of lilith, then yeah, it’s much worse but again, he already made her eat adam… none of other characters get so much shit in this show. if they make lilith suffer more i swear i will buy ticket and find them all and i will go to them with a chainsaw. 

anyway, i saw people going miles writing how madam spellman shippers are all like: lilith never loved adam for real. like i have not seen those shippers myself but somehow i saw everyone else writing how bad MS shippers are… like yes, we have idiots around, but which ship doesn’t have such an idiots? like dude, why do you even care? ship your ship and be happy lmao same goes for everyone, stop fucking fighting over something that doesn’t even exist. canon or not? why do you care, it’s all fiction in the end. just because your ship is canon doesn’t allow you to tell everyone else to shut up about something that is not. can we all just ship whatever we want and have fun??? like, if you can’t laugh at your own ship - then honey, you have a problem. like, i will be the first one making shitty jokes about madam spellman :’D wait, i already do it.  you can love something without being too serious, it can bring you joy and happiness, but you don’t have to ruin it with all the shit. 

be smart ffs everyone: IGNORE WHAT YOU DON’T LIKE, block it, scroll down, stop spreading hate. 

and ya know, if you say that YOU DON’T WANT TO INSULT SOMEONE/YOU DON’T HATE IT BUUUUUUUUT… and then go miles writing how you hate it and insult someone doesn’t mean that doesn’t count as an insult, just because in the beginning you stated that you don;t want to insult or you don’t hate it. you do! i don’t really remember what it’s called but it has a name…  

anyway

i can’t say she loved him, he was nice to her, he tried to make her happy, but i don’t believe in love which happens so fast, and events were going really fast in those parts. so i think she enjoyed that there’s someone who cares for her finally, and she cared for adam for sure, she liked him, he was someone who finally was good to her, something that did not happen for a loooong time. so yeah, taking it away from her was really unfair and i hate everyone for it.  but loved? not sure. bUT she was totally ready to give it a chance.

also, don’t comment, it was my opinion and i don’t need a conversations about anything here. you asked you get it. don’t throw your opinions here, don’t reblog to add what you think, make your own posts for it. please.  

[caskit2]

Gorillaz Analysis

Caskit’s not ready to throw all their cards on the table but the time has come!!! 

Okay then, I had to think long and hard about what I wanted to talk about here with Gorillaz cause DAMN!! 

I love gorillaz, 

I love the characters 

damon is a gift that we just dont deserve 

But how did I end up in the fandom pool? 

Well for one, I have heard of gorillaz music back in middleschool but at the time I was busy with Invader Zim and Inuyasha as well as jumping into this band wagon as well  (Full metal Alchemist) 

so by the time I turned to look at Gorillaz was when phase 3 was JUST wrapping up and making way for phase 4. which means I jumped into a fandom that had characters that I knew NOTHING ABOUT. Do you know what that means?

It means I also had no understanding or knowledge of why people shipped “this or that” in the fandom, but I gained some intel on the characters and the growing plot of the story, but other than that, I didnt understand why I was drawn to a particular “ship” in the fandom.  

*actual expression made, im not joking*

Once upon a time, caskit discovered 2doc and was not surprised that this was a ship. I have seen similar stuff that has a common theme that i was drawn to at the time. I was more interested in why fans ship them so I dived in head first into the boiling lava and came to a conclusion.,.....

I dont see them as able (capable?) of ever ending up in the way that most 2doc shippers would pick. The two are chaotic on levels of different tiers of “weird and gross” and I dont really have a reason as to why i was drawn to the ship, but It made me want to analyse what exactly a stable relationship is!

I basically walked around in that area of the fandom and didnt really form any “attachment” to it. I never really experienced a “healthy relationship”, lived in childhood and teen years were I went through life avoiding relationships. So I didnt have a good start, but I knew eventually that I would have to explain myself. 

I feel bad that I wouldnt be able to give a solid answer to what makes me want to sit down and analyse any scenario that has “present abuse undertones” but I know that in the past and how I grew up with what I was exposed to...That I would come to realize how unhealthy it is just for me. 

This post isnt particularly about 2doc itself, but its more about discussing how I handled MY reaction to something that I have seen over and over. In a way, I could see those abusive tones that were present.

Basically Caskit never experienced good healthy relationships and decided that it was a good idea to use gorillaz as a processing strategy....not a good idea in the end cause...OOOHHHHHHH 

It confused me more than before!!! 

I got friends that tag their stuff, and I dont really get so bothered with peoples own opinions, cause I was more worried about how I would come to understand everything. 

When I think about how fans are dividing and putting up a wall to keep “haters outa my yard”  it usually has to deal with shipping stuff, and character hating. And I guess I was confused about everyone’s perception of the characters.

Talking about the characters, I dont have a “least favorite to most” cause I have specific connections to them in different ways. 

I can find similarities to noodle for the expectations she had in a band at age 10 and growing up (plus we are both gays that dont like to publicly talk about relationships) 

I connect with Russel cause I lost a piece of myself  after a paranormal encounter and 3 near death experiences and suffer hallucinations. His protective demeanor to little noodle clicked with me. I see him as the Heart and soul, dedicated and warm friendly guy. ( you mean a decent human being right?)

I relate to 2d in a way that I share his enthusiasm, and mad bravery to live with the same guy who ran him over and caused 2 accidents that are permanent. 

I relate to murdoc in a weird way...  His childhood hits too close to home for me, as a CSA survivor of 2 incidents, pain addict and victim of abuse, draws similarities. But there were things that he has done that match things to my past like the abusive father, and dwelling on the darker aspect of a bittersweet reality. I was expressing physical violence to “show affection” and was never called out for it. I was not just a victim, I was also the abuser and since it was something that murdoc is faced with, is why I hated him. He is (for me) the thing I hate about myself. 

When I saw more and more fans hating on murdoc I wondered if people would ever think I was the same as him. Fans didnt like the way he treated 2d  and the rest of the band, And I agreed. Fans hated him for lying and causing drama and I agreed.  

His ignorance was a comedy slapstick (dressing in a nazi uniform cause he thought it “looked cool” despite russel telling him that its not a good idea) and was seen as the “crazy hooligan that has delusional dreams of fame”  and it bothered me that jamie used this to cover up allot of obvious issues that needed to be addressed. and the way that the fandom treated him made me think about how I would be accused of being like him. 

(thank goodness I didnt cause a car accident and have to sell my soul to satan for a shot at fame with a kickass band and didnt make uncomfortable sexual jokes or ignore others that tried to help me.) 

I can separate what justifies the hate on murdoc when it comes to abuse and causing shit to go down. becuase I did those things in the past, but it didnt take me more than a decade or more to realize that what I did was wrong! I didnt take forever to change for the better. so Im frustrated at him for taking so long to turn around and go “holly fuck im a bastard! I should probably fix that” 

Yeah NyOO ShiTT HunnayYY!! 

I dont hate him for being an idiot, I hate that he symbolizes all things wrong about me that never got closure! 

him admitting to being the cause of 2d’s social anxiety and eye damage as well as the abuse is easier said than done! but the fact that he is letting everything out of the “in-denial basket” is nice for me to see, cause right now Healing and progression in closure to issues of trauma is what is important to me. 

The endgame for my perspective on 2d and murdocs relationship is this: 

I dont want to ship them

I dont even see it as a thing regardless of character development and both guys working through their own shit themselves. 

I am not the best person to explain what a toxic or abusive relationship can be. 

Why? becuase I lived through it and I was both the victim and abuser to myself  and grew up without a good relationship (and I have a fear of positive affection) so I dont enjoy going through the same pattern as before where i shipped abuse in the past as a “dumb 13 year old weeboo” 

I dont view their relationship as romantic, or platonic, or healthy. 

I just want the boys to enjoy their own character growth individually. 

I would like to eventually see a friendship with them But I’ll be more excited if instead the whole band eventually gain a healthy relationship with everyone.  

Year 2018 marks the year I jumped in head first into gorillaz as a blind fruit bat 

(I call it the year caskit played with fire) for cosplaying ‘murdoc fuckn wrinkles’ at a convention around the time the fandom was yelling at him and jamming to 2d’s album. 

Caskit jumped into the shipping lava all for Behavioral analyzing and hopped over fences to see other fans perspectives of characters they liked and hated just to make sure Caskit could understand the illuminati that is Gorillaz. 

I made friends all over the fandom, and thanks to a few people, I gained more confidence to push my art skills and create some kickass art of Gorillaz. 

And yeah I yap yap about murdoc ( looks over @russelhusselhobbs im sorry you put up with my bullshit) but remember peeps. 

I like hearing about the others and have gotten more into 2d’s character as well as Jumping over the fence to go hang out with russel fans and listen to fangirling from friends and just trying to be a freakn fairy godmother and deliver some good representing art. 

And for those who aren’t aware, my past artwork is probably gonna float around so if its signed as Caskit or Caskit19 then its mine and if you see my old 2doc stuff.....,

for the trigger. 

But YEAHHHHHH!!! I wanted to throw all this on the table. and I dont know how to feel about that...(I swear my friend jokes with “need some feel good inc for Caskit” ) Kinda contemplating my choice between sticking my head into a hornets nest or jumping into a dark water trench.... the hornets nest sounds less likely to give me a seizure induced panic attack so ill go for that. ( I have a tolerance for inflicted pain so no you cant hurt me by using violence cause I dont have any consideration for myself and my safety)  

But yeah now I can get back to drawing fun stuff. (hopefuly caskit wont have to bore you guys with stupid shit ever again! xD) 

[marionthegeek]

Can We Talk About Pavi? Heck, Can We Just Talk About Ravi?

Because he needs to be a better man if he wants this to work out.

Ok, I know what you’re thinking.  She’s a big-time RaviOli shipper, of course, she doesn’t like Pavi.  But just hear me out a minute, okay?  Because I want to like Pavi.  I really wish I could. 

I adore both Peyton and Ravi.  I want them to be happy.  I just have serious concerns about how Ravi (and to a much lesser extent, Peyton) views romantic relationships.  Ravi’s so bad at it I don’t even want him with Liv until he gets his shit together.  And you know I ship it...hard.   This essay is not about one ship vs. another.  This essay is about how Ravi needs to grow as a character.

Ravi tries very hard to impress Peyton.  That, in and of itself, isn’t so bad.  But he treats their relationship (and Peyton) like a prize to be won.  Like an end goal.  Not like the beginning of a partnership or the start of a life together.  She deserves better than that.  They both do.

I’m not saying they couldn’t get there.  And if they do, I will at least be reasonably happy with the narrative.  I could be happy for them and happy with Liv and Ravi as the best of platonic friends.

Ravi, even in season 1, has one real flaw.  He likes to impress pretty girls.  And yes, it’s with the goal of dating them.  But he’ll talk himself into a corner to achieve goal one.  He never thinks very far beyond what he wants to get out of it.  See episode 1x2, where he lets a woman believe he’s a detective so he can chat her up.

Ravi is gorgeous and tall and smart.  More than that, he’s funny and charming and a genuinely nice guy.  In a show full of morally grey characters, Ravi is as close as we get to a perfectly good “good guy”.  He’s forthright and loyal to his friends.  He takes his Hippocratic Oath very seriously.  He has a noble goal of finding a cure and saving the world.  He’ll even put his life on the line to save one of the “bad guys”.  And at first, his one real flaw is a “blink and you’ll miss it” thing.

When he’s first asking Liv to find out if Peyton’s dating anyone, he expresses interest in dating her.  But, he has her best friend right there.  Someone who he’s very close to.  And he asks absolutely nothing about Peyton except if she’s dating anyone.  She’s a goal.  A thing he wants.  He doesn’t ask Liv what Peyton likes to do or what her dreams are.  He doesn’t even ask what kind of flowers she’d like or what her favorite color is.  My point is, he takes very little interest in Peyton beyond her being a sexual object.  A goal.

Once they have a few dates, he does try to tailor them more to her interests.  Visiting the sites where Vertigo was filmed would probably have made Peyton happy.  But it is still very much framed in the narrative as Ravi trying to impress her.  And then Peyton leaves.  And Ravi is more upset for Liv than he is for himself.  Because he knows Liv has far more emotional attachment to Peyton than he does.  Which strikes me as a little off, given how fast he formed emotional bonds with Liv and Major...  It tells me Ravi views friendship and romance very very differently.

Now, let’s talk about Steph.  Because Ravi’s epic f***-ups of season 3 were very well foreshadowed in season 2.

He meets a girl at a club the one time in his life that he’s high.  But she’s cute and willing to sleep with him, so he decides to keep seeing her.  They start seeing a lot of each other.  She’s clearly into it.  Into Ravi.  And we see from the way he talks about her with Lv and Clive (and later Peyton and Major) that he’s just not that into her.  But he keeps dating her.  Because she’s cute and willing to sleep with him.  She starts to assume a real relationship is possible here.  And he panics.

Meanwhile, he’s enjoying the fact that his hot ex, Peyton, is staying with him.  First of all, I’d like to point out that Steph is a class act.  She wasn’t bothered by Peyton staying there.  And when he tries to whine to Peyton about Steph becoming clingy, Peyton shuts him down masterfully.

Now, Steph and Ravi didn’t have much in common.  And her sweet but misguided attempt to remind him of home is played for laughs.  And their break-up was inevitable.  But he treated her poorly.  He let her believe there was relationship potential when there wasn’t because he likes getting laid on the regular.  He knew weeks before he broke up with her that they at least needed to have a conversation about what they wanted.  He put it off because she might take sex off the table.  And even when he absolutely knew he was going to break up with her... he slept with her.  He waited until the morning after.  Dick move, Ravi.

The audience wasn’t emotionally invested in Steph.  And Ravi is such a wonderful person otherwise.  And Steph was played for laughs.  But Ravi’s pattern of bad behavior is there if you look.

And hours... just hours... after he ended things with Steph, he tries to kiss Peyton.  The woman who wants to be his friend and hang out.  He goes in for the kiss without even thinking about it.  And she calls him on it.  Thank goodness.  But he also doesn’t pick up on the fact that she needed a friend because he’s too disappointed that she isn’t sexually interested in him.  She’s visibly upset and he retreats to his room because of the failed kiss, even though she clearly wants to still hang out.

When he finally does realize Peyton is having problems a couple of episodes later, we start down the saga of Ravi being hungover all the time trying to impress Peyton who can drink him under the table.  The sad part here is this was the best time between them.  They were talking.  They were being friends.  And Ravi was showing real concern for Peyton as a person, not just a potential lay.

Another window into Ravi’s dating habits is given in season 2.  Darcy, the barista at Positivity Coffee from episode 2x14.  Ravi thinks she’s the “city’s foxiest cashier.”  And later in the episode, he tries to flirt with her.  It falls completely flat.  She’s never seen Star Wars and she likes transgressive rhymes.  It’s played for laughs, and it is funny.  But it also shows that Ravi knew nothing about this girl.  He’s been making eyes at her for (at least) months, but all he knows is she’s cute to look at.  Ravi’s priorities about the women he views as potential romantic partners are very one dimensional.

The end of season 2 sees Peyton and Ravi getting back together after Ravi jokes about “Nice guys finishing last.”  Let’s pause for a moment at this point in the timeline to talk about this for a second.  Ravi is a genuinely nice man.  He’s a great friend.  But in many ways, his dating life verges on him being a Nice Guy™️.  Now, it’s definitely on the cusp.  It’s one of the things that makes the writing in this show great.  Ravi is shown to be a genuinely nice friend to Liv, a woman that at least in earlier seasons he cannot be sexually interested in without becoming undead.  So, we know he can have a successful friendship with a woman.  But Ravi doesn’t really have any other female friends.  If you discounted his friendship with Liv, every other attractive woman --of the right age, who is available-- he’s encountered in the show has been a potential bang.

Now, I think Ravi fights these tendencies.  He’s not blowing up at women who reject him.  He’s the least violent person in the show.  A true passivist.  And he means his apologies when his romantic overtures fall flat.  But it’s not hard to imagine Ravi as someone who would describe himself as “in the friendzone”.

So, Peyton and Ravi are back together.  And then Ravi finds out she once slept with Blaine.  He freaks out.  Even he knows it’s irrational.  But it still happens.  Peyton is kidnapped and Blaine saves the day.  And yes, Peyton is grateful to Blaine for saving her life.  But as far as she was concerned, she was still dating Ravi.  But he ghosts her for a week after she’s just had the most traumatic experience of her life.  Because he can’t get right with the fact that one of her past sexual partners was Blaine.  And Ravi tries to figure out why he can’t put it behind him and comes to the conclusion that it must be that he’s in love with Peyton.  Which he blurts out at an extremely inopportune moment.

Of course, Peyton didn’t know what to think of that.  Who would?  He’s been ghosting her and treating her poorly for something she can’t go back and change.  When she slept with Blaine, she didn’t know who he was.  She didn’t know the horrible things he’d done.  But Ravi was still holding it against her.  I’ll give Ravi credit for knowing it’s his own stupid macho problem and not hers.  But he handles it terribly.  Peyton was 100% in the right when she told him off in her office.

Then there’s Katty.  He’s just blurted out that he’s in love with Peyton.  But he’s pretty damn sure he’s blown that up completely.  So he accepts Katty’s offer of a hook up the very same day.  And then kisses Peyton when she shows up with Katty still in the next room.  Not good.

I saw a lot of upset in the fandom about this incident.  Much was said of it being out of character for Ravi to screw up so badly.  But the foreshadowing is all there.  The pattern of behavior is there.  I wouldn’t even call what Peyton, Ravi, and Blaine had a “love triangle”.  Ravi screwed up his chance with her.  Blaine was Peyton moving on.

Then it comes out that Blaine was lying and Peyton is now single again.  Ravi, in episode 3x9, is straight up obnoxious to her while the group is playing D&D.  He’s making her uncomfortable and he doesn’t seem to notice.

Now, let’s talk about Rachel.  Because when Ravi thinks with his penis instead of his brain he gets stupid.  He didn’t know very much about this woman, but on the off chance it’ll get him laid, he tells her all about zombies.  She turns out to be a reporter, and Liv ends up on the front page of the Alt-weekly.  He’s put himself at risk as the doctor who is working on the cure, and he’s put his very best friend at risk because she’s now Seattle’s only recognizable zombie.  Good job, there.

Which brings us to season 4.  Everyone seems to be getting along.  Our core group of Liv, Ravi, Peyton, Clive, and Major have wildly different experiences in New Seattle.  But they’re all friends.  Ravi and Peyton seem to be getting along well, even though she’s dating other people.

One day, Peyton drops by the morgue.  She’s having a rough week and she wants a win.  She needs to find this dog. (Now don’t get me started on the fact that they live in a walled city and could probably have shown a picture of the dog on the news.  It’s not like he could have gone far.)  Ravi points out that the guy she asks Liv to eat is a heroin addict.  All three of them agree this is a terrible idea.  Liv does not eat the brain.

Then Ravi realizes it’s his (zombie) time of the month.  And in his apparently never-ending quest to impress Peyton (Major even calls him on it), Ravi decides to do the stupidest possible thing.  Even he knows it’s a terrible idea.  That’s why he stopped Liv from doing it.  When it works and actually gets him the attention he wants from Peyton, no one looks more surprised than Ravi.

Well, now Ravi’s won the affection of the woman of his dreams.  Now what?  That remains to be seen.  Is he going to grow into this relationship and be the kind of partner Peyton deserves?  I don’t know.  I’m watching with interest to find out.  I’d like to see him develop a friendship with her like he has with Liv.  Something that could be a real foundation for something more.  And if that happens, I’ll root for them.  I’m already rooting for Ravi.  For his character arc and his growth.  And Peyton deserves much more than to be his learning experience.  Whether she finds that “something more” with him or in herself in her own arc remains to be seen.

Characters need flaws.  Otherwise, they’re boring and come off sanctimonious.  Ravi is an excellent character.  He balances being a compassionate, compelling man, with having flaws that stem, in part, from social awkwardness and a lack of relationship experience.  And I think, for the most part, he’s actively trying to get better. Ravi’s incredibly likable, and even loveable, both to the other characters and to the audience.  But he still has some growing up to do.

[danfanciesphil]

Love your writing! A prompt for you: I'd love to see Phil reacting to people saying he doesn't love Dan as much as Dan loves him which I think is stupid??

So, if you’ve read my fic Birthday Sex then you will know that I do not buy into this trope whatsoever, which i must say is a big reason I wrote it. I really just do not see where people are coming from when they say that Dan loves Phil more?? Maybe at the very, very beginning of their relationship it kind of seemed like Dan was a bit of an obsessed lovestruck young kiddo (spoiler: he was) but firstly, it’s important to remember that we don’t get to see everything the two of them say to one another and we already know that Dan tends to share a lot more with the public than Phil does. For example, when has Phil ever (barr his Draw My Life and a few other sparse instances) ever revealed anything serious and personal about himself? Whereas Dan just yesterday opened up about something so deeply intimate that it’s honestly baffling he had the courage at all. My point is that it’s highly, highly likely that there were things said between them behind the scenes that we just did not have any knowledge of whatsoever. I’d draw your attention to the Video That Will Not Be Named as an example, because obviously (if you choose to ignore dnp’s ‘explanation’ and see it as real/true) then it was NEVER meant to be seen by anyone except Dan. Think about that... if youtube hadn’t glitched, that video would not exist to us. How many more videos are there like this one? How many texts and phone calls and private conversations that are probably WAY more schmaltzy and incriminating??

Not only this, but as a follow up point, Phil is older, and he is maturer than Dan. The latter possibly gets less true as time goes on and Dan grows as a person (what a fantastic man he’s becoming I stg im so proud), but certainly up until now, Phil has been the adult of the two of them. Don’t try telling me he acts like a child either, because that’s not the same thing - he’s an entertainer for a family friendly YouTube channel, it doesn’t mean he isn’t a millionaire/business owner/well-educated, successful man. I find it not only silly that people expect him to be fawning over Dan every minute of the goddamn day on camera in order to prove his affection, but just ridiculously unrealistic. He’s a 30 year old man. If he is with Dan, then he’s been in a committed relationship with him for years. They’re over the honeymoon stage. They’re into something far more serious and committed now, and it’s a kind of love that doesn’t need to be shown at all times. 

Finally, I just want to add that apart from all I’ve said - neither of them (imo) show much sign of being madly in love with the other at all? I mean, you have to remember that we are a fandom, and it’s so easy to pick apart something and pull out the bits you want to fit your ideal picture. There is evidence of them being a couple, yes, but there’s also evidence against it! Neither of them refer to one another as ‘boyfriend’ or ‘partner’ and I honestly doubt they ever will! Dan is not constantly gooey over Phil, and the same goes the other way around. It baffles me that people can dissect every one of their looks and actions (I’m guilty of it too of course) and come up with these absurd headcanons such as “AWW DAn looks so in love here, and Phil looks so indifferent” because it’s just... it’s just completely ridiculous?? You have nothing to base that on whatsoever apart from a half second clip from a video - the leap to conclusion is beyond crazy. 

Idk I am aware i went off on a little ramble here, but this kind of thing is where the phandom descends into a total clusterfucky mess. It’s good to take a breather every once in a while and remind ourselves that the things we do know about the boys is very limited. Our ‘evidence’ from the past is still just a bunch of tweets and videos, none of us know them. I don’t want to destroy any ships, because personally I think there’s a LOT of mystery and confusion shrouding their relationship which could absolutely mean something else is going on, but again, I’m not going to make any mad assumptions about anything because at the end of the day I just don’t know. 

ANYWAY. Nothing wrong with writing FICTION about this, and that’s what you’ve asked for, so here my love! Thanks for the question (none of this was aimed at you btw! I know you’re just asking in general about the topic, I just wanted to share my thoughts on it).

Got a prompt for me? Click here! (Please be aware that due to an abundance of prompts, your prompt may take a few days to complete - but thank you all for submitting so far!)

The comment catches his attention, and Phil isn’t sure why. 

He’s scrolling through the comment section of the latest DanAndPhilGAMES video, a smile playing on his mouth as he reads everyone’s reactions to Dil’s latest adventures. 

It’s a treat he allows himself very rarely nowadays, to look through the comments. As Dan once said, it can be like picking through a minefield. Sure, the vast majority of the comments will be overwhelmingly positive, filled with adoration and appreciation of them both, lulling him into a false sense of security and then BAM! One will jump out, jarring him with its nasty words, or its negative perspective. Reading a mean comment can, even now, when there are literally thousands of nice once to combat it, throw Phil off-kilter for days. 

It can make him second guess every creative instinct. It can make him snappy and irritable, or just glum. 

This comment, though not exactly mean per se, is one such instance. He tries to ignore it, to just scroll past and move on with his life. It’s just a shipper comment, after all. That’s what he and Dan call them. Around half the comments they get on their videos are from the ‘shippers’. It’s fine. Usually neither of them pay any attention to them whatsoever. 

But this one has been upvoted 600 times. It has dozens of replies attached to it, clearly a topic of hot discussion. Phil scrolls back up, gnawing at his lip, and lets his eyes scan over the words again:

It’s so sad when Dan says something funny and looks at Phil all hopeful but Phil just ignores him. Heartbreaking to know that Dan will always love Phil more - ever since 2009. 3

Phil closes his laptop, wishing the words would dissolve from his brain. He shuts his eyes, but they burn behind his retinas, bright and jarring. Where do they get this stuff? Is that truly what people believe? 

He reopens his laptop and scrolls back up to the video, dragging the slider over the bar at the bottom of the window, scanning his and Dan’s faces for any signs of what that subscriber had said. 

As he scrolls through the video for the sixth time, squinting at the screen, he feels Dan flop down onto the sofa beside him, crunching something. Phil sits up, turning to Dan with warm cheeks, feeling caught out. 

Dan raises an eyebrow at him, glancing at the screen. He offers Phil a crisp from the packet in his hands. 

“Watching phan videos again?” Dan asks him, smiling. 

“Just... checking the comments on the Dil vid.” Phil tells him, and Dan sighs knowingly, placing the crisp packet aside. 

“Oh God, what’ve they said now?” Dan asks, shuffling towards Phil in order to see. 

Phil wonders if he should even mention this to Dan; it seems like it might be worse for him to know the fans seem to think this way, after all. Inevitably though, Phil breaks, not able to think up a good enough lie. 

With some reluctance, he scrolls down to the comment, and waits for Dan to read it, chewing his lip. 

“Oh,” Dan says in a strange voice, sitting upright. “That’s... I thought it was gonna be like ‘gay emo dicks’ or something.” 

Phil laughs a little, but it’s a hollow, unconvincing sound. “You know that... that’s not true, right?” 

Dan looks at him, something small and fearful hidden deep in the recesses of his eyes. “Yeah.”

He doesn’t sound very convinced, and it worries Phil immensely. “You’re my whole world, Dan.” Phil tells him with complete sincerity; Dan looks away, obviously embarrassed by the loaded emotion. “I know it sounds melodramatic. But you are. You’re my best friend, my favourite person in the world. I love you so much it’s crazy.”

There’s a choke to Dan’s voice when he next speaks. “Yeah,” he says again, sniffing. “I dunno where they get their weird ideas, tbh.”

Phil pushes his laptop off his knee, reaching for Dan and pulling him in. He holds him tight, pressing firm kisses into his soft curls. “I’m sorry if it ever comes off that way.” Phil tells him, voice a whisper of itself. “I’m sorry if I’ve ever made you feel that I might not... love you as much.”

Dan shakes his head. “Don’t be stupid.” He pulls away a little, looking up into Phil’s eyes, his smile watery. “I know how much you love me, you sap.”

Phil surveys him carefully, scanning his face for signs of a lie. Eventually a smirk creeps onto his lips, and Dan zeroes in on it, confused. 

“Well,” Phil purrs, leaning forwards until their lips brush. “If you ever need a reminder...” 

Dan snorts with laughter, trying to wriggle free of his grip. A few kisses later, however, he seems to give in.  

[ifiwantmagicinmylife]

About the Shannara finale & season in general

This is gonna be long so…

First of all, i wanna be very clear. I’m not trying to spread hate for the show. I love this show. i would never say anything hateful cause i appreciate how this show is and how it wants to be, and i don’t want it to be cancelled due to negativity. I’ve just been frustrated about it…at least lets say since the finale, and I’m writing this to try to get it out of my system.

First of all, I’m a wilretria shipper. since day 1 Eretria&Wil have been my babies. so I’m sure you can see where some of my frustration comes from.

Second. From day one my favourite characters have been Eretria, Allanon and Ander (see why my frustration?)

Eretria: I love Ivana. when she won the Goya award i clapped like crazy. And then turned our Eretria was awesume. Anything anyone would want to be. Strong, an amazing fighter, brave, loyal….and as we also learn, kind and even sweet.

Allanon: i love Manu since i don’t know when, so him being the druid guy…i knew it was gonna be badass. and then it was. and i couldn’t love Allanon more.

Ander: the cool friendly uncle. helping niece to run the race, going to get her at the party like “omg girl you look stunning, that’s ma niece” and then talking relationships with her. I JUST LOVED HIM. and then he also made impossiblefor me to focus on tragic moments. i don’t tag him “the ‘dat ass’ elf” for no reason…

Well, so far you can see season 2 has not given me happiness in this matter. 1 became ashes and the other a waterfall (sort of)

What frustrates me about these is, well..the books. I still haven’t read them, cause i was waiting for the end of the season, but i read a couple of things, from which i got that Ander&Allanon probs both died on the 3rd book. Ok, i can deal with that but...I can’t? cause I thought this season was filling a gap between book 2 and 3. but that’s ok i guess. follow the book way too early.

But what gets me about this is that then I can think or say, “ok, so i guess then they will also follow the book for Eretria and Wil, right? I mean…cmon. It doesn’t seem like that for now, but you know, that’s what a season 3 would be for”, but then people say “oh cmon, the tv show doesn’t have to follow the book, stop with the books”. But the thing is, season 1 was very much like the book from what I’ve heard. I remember reading in the Nerdist website they said they wanted to keep it very similar to the book, that they only made Eretria have more depth and do something more than FALL IN LOVE WITH WIL AND FOLLOW HIM AROUND (sorry, dunno why that capbloq itself…oh wait, i do) So, they are gonna follow and even make happen ahead of time things that happen in the book, but others..neeeh. ok, that frustrates me.

And one other thing, since i’m talking about my ship. I feel wilretria shippers have been mostly completely silent this season. I don’t think we have created any drama regarding Lyria. We just kept getting blows and letting that relationship happen without saying a thing. Because we fear if we say anything we will be called “homophobic”, get hate and things like that. And it is frustrating cause we aren’t voicing ourselves because we aren’t dicks, and we are letting everyone enjoy their ship, but this may ruin any chance of our ship happening if they think we don’t care. And we are seeing it getting even harder with the Mareth thing. So i want you to understand, i don’t care if Eretria has a gf, she is bi so she can have all the gfs she wants. But shutting out Wil completly as a possibility cause yes...no. I love Wil and Eretria even since before i watched the show. I do care, so much.

Now about season 2 in general:

PROS

Garet Jax or “jarjar gax” how i like to call him for funsies. total badass. I wished we could have know what was his past entirely cause it seemed interesting, dammit.

Mareth: She was cute and sassy, a magic user in a different way we had seen, which was cool! and then, related to Allanon, which is great considering we also know nothing about Allanon, or Mareth’s mom. So nice, she could be anything and take us anywhere

And on that note, something I’ve always appreciated about this show, from Tilton, to Allanon, to the gardener, to the background actors, to the rovers & elf hunters...this world really seems like a real post-apocaliptic world cause there’s people from all etnicities. these season some more in leads. good show

This stupid season made me love Wil. That lil bitch annoyed me so much. But he is too cute. And we saw him in his lows and in his highs. using the magic unwisely, hugging the hell out of Eretria when it turned out she wasn’t dead (this poor kid, i swear to god. a whole year thinking he lost Amberle and Eretria; the latest being his fault for leaving her behind). Also he made his peace with Allanon awww. And to be honest I love his death scene. It mirrored Amberle’s and now all our 3 heroes have died to save everyone (let’s not forget ma rover bleeding herself out, ok?) And thank whomever must be thanked, he isn’t dead. You can’t die when i start to love you, a-hole. tho that’s what this show does to me.

Eretria: We got to see where she comes from, what will be her challenges and how her loyalty to her friends is stronger and bigger than anyone could ever have thought. Also she was badass as always.

Ander. I mean, Ander is everything. anything with Ander was the best scene ever. dat ass. best king ever. bless. he also said Eretria is family and at this point I dunno if i want Eretria to marry Wil or him cause honestly “yes, i remember when i met your mom...i fell for her instantly. i mean, she kicked me in the face and let me unconcious, but..” is a great “meetcute” Also the threw that traitor down the waterfall omg my king is so fucking badass.

Allanon: i mean...pfft it’s allanon. everything about him is a pro, duh. Giving him a family and showing him caring for Wil was nice too. he is not a heartless guy. he loves all this crazy kids.

Bandon, Riga, Warlock lord: god, you bunch of asshoooles. i hate you all so muuuuch. Good bad guys :) The warlock lord became my hero when he de-headed Riga. you deserve it biiitch omgggg for Andeeeer. Then the Bandon thing...i mean...poor Bandon, but bitch, you had everyone occupied and Riga killed Ander. Then my new hero warlock lord killed that ship traitor Allanon (i was like that’s what you get! but then he was cursed and became ashes....and i was like, ok a bit too much) and then he did the other thing and i was disappointed on my new hero. i was all “i was rooting for youu” They all where awesume at being bad. is awesume having such great baddies

I can’t believe i almost forgot her

Ambertree: or Amberle, as you prefer. I really didn’t want her to be back for the sake of my ship. but I also did start crying when i saw her in the trailer. So i guess i love her too. And seeing her was so nice. I missed the elf princess. but stay as a tree please Amberle. (ps, also wtf amberle you too with the Mareth thing, i take it back, i hate everyone on this show)

CONS

Ander: Can you please explain to me what the hell has this poor thing done to deserve this shit? His brother dies. he becomes this depressed drinking ball of an elf and loses his gf. years later his dad, his bro, half of his goddamn castle, his ex he still loves die. ALL DIE. His niece becomes a tree. And he has to be king. Also Eretria kicked him in the face (i kind of ship it) And then we get to season 2 and the girl he is with s murdered (....i wasn’t on board of this anyway cause god Catania, you effed the Bandon inprisonment, didn’t ya. but if Ander my love was happy. but no. and then he gets murdered trying to save this girl (Eretria i’m never going to forgive you for being up to tell her to get up and run, but not to throw a knife and save my elf husband). and so the story of Ander ends. Being throw down the traitors waterfall, where no one can recover his body and give him the royal funeral he deserves. I will forever be bitter about this, i kid you not. #longlivetheking

Allanon: Again, my babies cant catch a break. He is trying to stop Bandon, turns out he has a daughter with his loved one and we don’t get to see them become dad and daughter. I had already accepted he was gonna die because i read someone saying “after what happens in book 3″ And then he drops that “you and mareth are ma ship” bomb. my brain: “oh you asshole how dare you to compare them with you and Pyria. You can die now, byeeeee” (i’m evil, i know).

Eretria: I feel this season didn’t do much for her. I guess she did all the development she could do in season 1. But i feel they mistreated her a lot. I get she has a girlfriend, or so, cause at some point she had broken up with her i think...but i feel the way they made her interact with Wil was just weird. The little times they interacted. that was annoying. (those two have so much chemistry they have to keep ‘em apart or we all would be arranging their wedding by the “welcome back, shorttips”) Eretria has always been in love with Wil, let’s be honest. We all saw her face the day Wil said “there is no us” or when she saw him kissing Amberle. We all know without Amberle in the picture things would be very different. Does no one really remember he was up for it the same day he met Eretria? and then some days after in the palace room? (also let me point out Eretria does love will cause to rob some stones she could have giving him an “Ander” and leave. but she didn’t. she stayed, and said would never call him shortips again). So this two at the very least had the hots for each other to begin with. Also let me remind you how Wil cried when Eretria died. He used the stones for something else than killing a demon for the first time to save her (if that doesn’t scream love, soulmates, endgame or whatever, i dunno what does) And this season, tho they have kept giving us sweet moments of the two, where we shippers kept our hopes high (the tree girl was gone, this was out moment), and we hoped to see THEM FALL IN LOVE AND GET TOGETHER (since its a space between books, you know)... and that’s why the complete anulation of this ship is so painful for some of us. We felt Amberle was some sort of puppy teenage love, and Eretria would be the true love woman for Wil....but no. anyway...a Shannara and a child of the Apocalypse. Good magic & (bad/good) magic. ancient kings blood, ancient humans blood. like honestly.

Wil: I’m not gonna blame the poor kid for being an emo and be mad at the world, cause his life went to shit last epi of last season (if not all season in general). And i honestly developed love for him this season. BUT...this thing about him and Mareth...I feel it came out of nowhere. They were just friends and then one day she makes eyes to him and he makes eyes to her? there wasn’t even a big thing where i could say, where there they realized they love each other...and out of nowhere they are the biggest love story eveeer. im sorry, no. i can’t. I get everyone loves them, but i...no. (again, i guess is the wilretria shipper in me who sees more past and more development in the relationship and that this was happening too quickly out of nowhere) (Also the pre-death kiss, that was i guess so romantic and adfghjklñ....kinda ruined the scene for me. like “oh ffs, die already, Wil!”*narrow*” was a thing that happened in my brain)

Others: I dont think I have much complains about the others. One of the only ones is Lyria’s storyline. i feel like the only thing i saw her do was mope and cry? and that one time she stood up to her mom, planned a wedding with Ander and once held a sword (which i feel they really exploded to make her look badass)...i feel like they made this character to be the love interest, and im sorry for it cause it could have been so much more. Also that “don’t wanna be a princess I’m running away but yas i wanna be queen” thing...does it even make sense for the person we were introduced to? also it was the fact that I had to buy into her love story with Eretria. When i saw in the trailer she was gonna have a gf i was like, oh no...more difficulties for my ship, but hey yes, let’s see what happened here. But then...i didn’t know anything about them? when did they meet? how long have they been dating? “where you go, i go”...where does that come from? how did i know what Lyria’s mom told Eretria about her saying that to everyone wasn’t true? Maybe my ship blinds me, but i feel this relationships started as if i started season 1 with will and Amberle frickfracking and then she becoming a tree and I’m supposed to be super sad, but i can’t I don’t know if it makes sense since i shipped Pyria and Allanon since moment 1 but that’s probably my “omg star crossed lovers, him staying young while she grows old, not seeing each other in 30 years shdfadlgfhañsla” loser heart Mareth: I was here for the magic kids friendship until it stopped being a friendship. now she is ruining my life. and i don’t appreciate it.

((me being annoying: also the blingbling palace was too much for me, omg did i miss Arborlon))

Ok, I think that is all. I know it seems like I didn’t like this season, but omg, i loved it. it was so intense all the time, and so many awesume fights, and some great new characters. Is just that I had hopes for my ship just to see them sinking more and more. at this point I’m Artax and my ship is more a submarine.

I can’t wait to see what they do in season 3 (and probably cry and hate everyone cause my ship sinks), but this show is too good to end forever in a “to be continued”. I want my babies back

and please show, stop getting people i love into #crispinskorner

[aros001]

Read through light novel vol. 5. Random thoughts.

Yeah, I can see why this volume was adapted into a movie. How good of an adaptation the movie is, I have no idea because I haven't seen it yet.

A crude pelt. For a weapon, a hatchet it must have stolen from somewhere. Its color was good; it showed no sign of starving.

I love this little detail. It's follows an obvious logic but it's not anything most people would even think of. Yeah, of course Goblin Slayer would pay attention to a goblin's color. How well-fed a goblin is hints at how strong the nest as a whole is likely to be and how well they've been able to gather food for themselves.

“Yes. And we don’t have much time to search.” Goblin Slayer jogged up to an intersection, then moved close to Priestess as if asking her to watch his back. To be suddenly so close to him—her heart began to race, even though she knew this was entirely platonic.

Yeah, that went in one ear and other the other for the shipper side of me. It's only a half-serious ship, since there's the age difference between the two and Cow Girl is more likely to be the endgame (if there even is one), but it's easy to get wrapped up in the two since they're the ones I've seen the more interaction, attachment, and development between. I like Cow Girl a lot and her relationship with Goblin Slayer but she is usually up at the farm away from everything that's happening, so I don't have as solid a picture of their relationship as I do with him and Priestess.

It's pretty clever writing that the goblins learned how to make an arrow that deliberately breaks apart after Goblin Slayer did it to only one them even once. Despite all his warnings about the dangers of leaving even a single goblin alive after a battle because of how they'll grow and learn from it, it only feels like he made a mistake and not a stupid one. His logic of spreading rot was sound, especially with the limited time table the party had, and throughout the series he's been experimenting with different methods of killing and combat. But they still learned from him because he let one get away. Even he had unintentionally underestimated the goblins. Even Goblin Slayer is not infallible when it comes to goblins. A nice little added detail though that, just because the goblins found out how to create more of the arrows, it doesn't mean they know how to use them effectively, shooting them improperly while they're not even that strong to begin with and basically making all their arrows like that, hindering them in situations where regular arrows would be more effective.

Symbol of the Green Moon, God of Wisdom, and a goblin paladin. I love mythology in stories. Funny enough, because they can't speak in a way that can typically be understood, this group of goblins might have been scarier than Dark Elf, because unlike him we don't know what they were up to. We just have theories at the book's end from Goblin Slayer. The uncertainty makes you worry that the party missed something big and that it's going to come back to haunt them.

“How could I know?” Goblin Slayer said, sounding a bit annoyed. He could be curt, and abrupt, and cold. But he almost never shouted. “What should I have said to her? ‘I’m sorry your friends are dead, but at least you survived’?”

This took the wind out of High Elf Archer’s sails. “Well... Well...” She opened her mouth, then closed it again, before finally saying, “There’s such a thing as the sensitive way to say things.”

Goblin Slayer’s reply was brief: “It doesn’t change what they mean.”

Come to think of it...

Priestess bit her lip gently. He had not tried to comfort her in her own case, either. Nor when they had rescued the injured elf adventurer from the ruins. He was always just...

The faint taste of blood was so bitter it almost brought tears to her eyes.

I'd made a comment in my last post about his words to Spearwoman, how his words about her spear were him trying to comfort her in his own way, and I still feel that way with Noble Fencer. Obviously I don't like that she was raped and her party killed by the goblins but it was nice that we have a character fighting the goblins with the party whom actually did suffer through the common fate of those who lose to them. It almost happened to Priestess and High Elf Archer and Goblin Slayer was forced to watch what they did to his sister and his village, but like with Sword Maiden, all that is still different from actually suffering through what the goblins do to people. This series isn't mature because it has rape and trauma in it but rather because it takes rape and trauma seriously. We saw one end of the spectrum with Sword Maiden, her trauma making her unable to fight the goblins, and now we get the other with Noble Fencer, her trauma making it so that she needs to fight the goblins because it's all she can hold onto right now. Even a nice little parallel between her and Spearwoman focusing so much on their stolen weapons; it's not so much the weapon itself as it is the one tangible thing they can get back out of everything else the goblins have taken from them.

And yeah, Goblin Slayer doesn't comfort in the traditional sense. He offers just the one thing that helps him keep going after his own trauma. With Priestess and Noble Fencer, he allowed them to come with him and help him kill the goblins that made them suffer, and even the elf adventurer he assured her he would kill all the goblins who'd held her captive. It's not probably the most healthy of comfort but its the one tool he has to work with because even he doesn't have the answer for how to recover, just how to move forward. I'm hoping this isn't the last we see of Noble Fencer.

“I will get back your sword.”

“And I will kill that goblin paladin. Along with the other goblins.”

“I don’t mean one or two of them. I don’t mean an entire nest. I don’t mean even this entire

fortress.”

“I will slay all the goblins.”

So do not cry.

That's going right up there with "Even in my dreams?" "Yes." as one of my favorite lines of the series.

One of my favorite recurring gags in this series is the escalating and extreme ways Goblin Slayer finds around High Elf Archer's rules. No fire, no water, no poison...so he uses an explosion. And when explosions are forbidden, he uses a freaking avalanche. He didn't even cheat to set it off, as Noble Fencer used lightning (though it might be a little technical cheat with snow basically being water).

And again, nothing this series sets up goes to waste. The breathing rings were established last volume and they come back into play continuously here. It's good writing and never feels like a contrivance or a Deus ex Machina.

All thought and jokes about ships and romance aside, Priestess continues to be one of my favorite characters in this series next to Goblin Slayer himself, in no small part because their interactions are my favorites out of all the cast. They're just opposite enough to complement each other perfectly and their relationship quietly grows stronger as time goes on. There's a lot of trust and respect between the two and it runs both ways, surprising and delighting even Priestess how much faith he has in her.

Someone in my vol. 3 post commented on how we can see how much better an adventurer Priestess becomes as time goes on and I agree. It's now been a full year since she started adventuring with Goblin Slayer and it shows a lot here, having more confidence and wisdom in her abilities thanks to her experiences. She's more openly compassionate than Goblin Slayer, but I like how she completely understands Noble Fencer's desire/need to keep fighting the goblins, because it was exactly the same for her.

I just gone done with the Rising of the Shield Hero light novels before starting this series (the ones available in english, anyway) so that's probably why I'm thinking about this but I'm hoping Goblin Slayer and Priestess continue to develop in a manner similar to Naofumi and Raphtalia. In the beginning, Raphtalia is easily Naofumi's subordinate or sidekick, but as time goes on and both characters continue to grow she very much becomes his partner, standing with him as an equal as they always have each others backs. Obviously Goblin Slayer and Priestess will never be complete equals in terms of positions or abilities. Goblin Slayer can't use Miracles and Priestess isn't a warrior. But I am hoping that as the series goes along Priestess does feel more and more like his partner. Not someone he needs to look after but someone fighting beside him on equal footing. We've already been seeing some of that here and in the battle against Dark Elf with the unspoken understandings over plans and trust to have the other's back. But she is still young and still learning. Still a few steps behind Goblin Slayer, but she's making an effort to keep pace.

Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/GoblinSlayer/comments/fwbsvt/read_through_light_novel_vol_5_random_thoughts/

[mercurialsmile]

What are your top 5 notps

tHANK YOU for asking me I woke up this morning still kinda salty so like. 

These are gonna be in no particular order btw so ye! Also Ma/bill and Mab/ifica aren’t gonna be included as I already talked about why I don’t like those ships and why are they are part of my ever-growing notp list. 

1. D/rarry (Harry Potter)

Honestly? Just don’t like it. Like... that’s it. I like Dramione well enough, it was actually one of the first ships I started reading fanfiction for (as I just so happened to find a fic that sounded interesting that had it, read it, and was hooked) and I am a multi-shipper with certain characters, so by all means I should like d/rarry but I just don’t?

My theory for why I dislike this ship is easy: I find protag/antag ships kinda boring now after doing like. Everything with bill/dip. Don’t get me wrong, bill/dip and d/rarry are. Very different in numerous ways, but d/rarry reminds me of bill/dip and I already played and read about the dynamics of a protag/antag ship like this, so trying to get into d/rarry, which is similar, was boring for me. 

Also, in general, I don’t ship Harry with anyone? Like I dislike h/inny too, but that’s more of “I don’t like it, but it’s canon, and I have to deal with it so might as well just Not Care” instead of outright hating it. And though I say I would’ve preferred Harry to end up with Hermione, I don’t ship those two together either!

The only ship with Harry I kinda sorta like is Harry/Luna and even then, I see them as being something really low-key. No sexual relationship, just them being good friends and being borderline, what they would consider “romantic” once in a blue moon. And that’s it? 

Anyways, I find d/rarry boring and I feel like there isn’t anything new to the ship for me and shipping Harry w anyone sexually or in a heavily romantic way makes me kinda uncomfortable and I Don’t Like It so yeah. 

2. Amenadiel/Linda (Lucifer) 

God. Idk how many people who follow me watch Lucifer but this ship is. No. No? Nooooo?

They’re just. So awkward together. They’re kinda awkward together as friends but their awkward friendship is more kinda cute than anything. But together like... romantically? No? Pls no?

I also ship Linda with Maze like. A lot. A lot a lot. I ship Linda w Maze more than I do Chloe w Lucifer at least like. I am actively talking to the TV when I see Linda and Maze together to PLEASE KISS PLEASE YA’LL ARE SO GAY FOR EACH OTHER ITS OBV PLS KISS 

Hasn’t happened yet but. But. It could happen. I am really hoping this ain’t q*eer/baiting tho. I r r r hope so. I mean. Maze and Lucifer are both confirmed to be bi/pan basically (tho Lucifer seems to have a pref for women) so there are technically lgbt+ characters in the show already but like. But. B u t. 

Anyways. Luckily for me, it looks like Amenadiel/Linda won’t be canon at ALL and I really hope it stays that way and they stay kinda awkward friends. That’s cuter and a lot more interesting than shipping them together in my book. 

3. Hermione/Snape (Harry Potter)

Is anyone surprised this is a ship, really? I mean if you’ve been on tumblr for any length of time you’re prob sayin’ nah. Thing is, I found about this ship years before I had a tumblr and on ffnet so I was kinda. Shocked? As I didn’t realize how. Weird ships could get. 

And I can’t really say much about adult/minor ships or teacher/student whatever. I really can’t. But this is just so. Fucking random? Like. I guess bill/dip is random too.... but also i feel Hermione/Snape is even more so. 

And idk most the fics I’ve seen of this ship is just standard student/teacher shit nothing all that. Interesting I guess to me? which is if you like standard student/teacher whatever I guess but that doesn’t cut it for me.

But again. Why? Is it because Hermione is muggle-born and Snape an ex-magical na//zi? That’s.... even I wouldn’t touch that can of worms Jesus Christ. Like. I don’t get it. I don’t get it, I don’t wanna get it, and I’m gonna continue disliking it from my own corner and mind my own business ‘cause I don’t even wanna know.  

4. Kat/aang (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Z/utara should’ve been canon

No really I grew up watching A/tla and like. It was my fav show and I. Really liked Katara and Zuko together esp as I only shipped canon ships at that time for the most part (or if I didn’t like it I’d just ignore it but not actively ship those characters with anyone else) as I was young and didn’t think you could. Ship two people who aren’t together in canon I guess. 

But then. Kat/aang happened and I went “Wtf” and “that’s not right Zuko and Katara should’ve been together wtf wtf” I felt really cheated. And so Z/utara was the first technical non-canon ship I ever had.

Another reason I dislike kat/aang is that, for me, it felt forced, and the kat/anng episodes (like cave of two lovers or whatever its called) are just. Boring. And dumb. And not that good. I felt like they ended up together bc protagonist and deuteragonist not because I felt they went well together.

Idk! I felt like Aang and Katara had a more sibling relationship together! Like she was more of an older sister to Aang than anything else! And his crush on her was more like the young boy who has a crush on his older babysitter sorta thing but obv that would never go anywhere and it’d fade. 

That’s the general vibe I got so when they got together I was. Kinda uncomfortable. Because I felt they had a sibling relationship. And I felt it kinda came out of left field, was forced, and just. Stereotypical? Boring?

I mean I still enjoy the show and it’s, again, kinda like a “well it’s canon so whatever” but I still dislike it a lot and still feel like z/utara should’ve been canon. 

5. Ma/korra

I liked Korra well enough, but lets be real, the first season had some MAJOR issues trying to include a stupid love triangle like they were adapting some shitty YA novel. And even tho the second season was kinda blah as well, the third and fourth season made up for the previous two in my book.

But... ma/korra was just. A fucking mess. I hate this ship as I hate the things is stands for. 

The girl hate between Korra and Asami, Korra being a fucking asshole to Bolin (WHO IS A SWEETIE PIE HOW COULD YOU) and just. Me sitting there. Going “Are we really doing this. Are we really. How could you write a series as amazing as a:tla and think that a short sequel series needed something as complex as a LOVE TRIANGLE. 

(and yes: proper long triangles are very hard to pull off, very complex, could be a plot in itself, and that’s why most everything fails when incorporating one as a subplot lol) 

When the love triangle popped up, I just. No. No. Mako isn’t a bad guy ‘cause he liked Asami instead of Korra. Asami isn’t a bad guy ‘cause she liked Mako back. And the narrative kinda painted both of them as being “bad” because... idk Korra didn’t get the guy? Like Christ. Please stop. Please stop characterizing Korra as a fucking asshole and some sort of girl version of a Nice Guy TM. 

And though I think Korra and Mako did get some nice moments between each other once together, and though overall their relationship, on paper minus all the other shit wasn’t like. Pure garbage or anything, I def ship Korra with Asami a hell of a lot more. And the entire love triangle bullshit just. Ruined Mako and Korra, at least in my opinion. (Bolin and Asami came from that unscathed for me). It took me quite a while to start liking Mako again ‘cause of the love triangle and same with Korra.

So I guess for ma/korra it’s less the ship itself (tho imo the ship itself isn’t that special and kinda whatever) I hate the ship for what it did to the show and what it reminds me of. If that makes any sense. 

THIS IS SUCH A LONG POST I’m sorry but. Yeah I was salty last night and had a LOT to say. 

And I have more notps for sure but I have to... remember them. I tend to kinda forget my notps as well. I don’t like them. Why remember them?

Anyways, thanks for the ask!! 

[knightofbalance-13]

Thoughts on Little Witch Academia Finale

* Well, that is indeed the missile from hell. * An alarm is going off, potentially warning everyone of the apocalypse: Humanity tries to hit the snooze button...Why am i not surprised? * Yeah, I think knows now. * Man, i don’t think i noticed this before but Chariot is gorgeous with her natural red hair. * No Akko, she meant the imp she keeps locked down stairs. * Technology, amirite? * Damn it Croix, you should know hatred breeds hatred! Have you never seen Tumblr?! * Oh so NOW you give up huh? Not like ten episodes ago before you fucked everyone up? * Oh don’t you dare try blaming Chariot for that! * As always, Akko saves everyone. * And your in a Trigger anime, catching up to a missile would be like the twenty third impossible thing that studio has done. * I wonder if the “Nine New Witches” thing became a legend? * Makes for Diana to help Akko take it out: She is the second strongest witch left...Too bad people will say it’s for shipping. * Dawwwwww, Sucy * Shut up Croix * So...The Shiny Rod can basically do anything? Neat. * Man, White really suits Akko. * Well Akko, keep getting fired up: You’ll need all the magic and SPiral power you can muster. * I think Akko should be in front...or can she still not fly yet? * Considering LWA is like the second anime now to believe in the impossible, that’s a pretty dumb statement. * And off they go! * Lotte for MVP. * Oh, so it’s like a several stage rocket? * Jasminka for MVP. * Constanze for MVP. * Maybe someone should make sure Amanda ends up in England... * Why are people not rioting? * Sit down, Council of Old Dicks * Humanity, amirite? * God damnit, your son is more of man than you have ever been, and that includes when you made him! * Aw, Andrew sounds worried. * HYPE THRUSTERS 2.0! * I like the rundown of places, shows just how many people they’ve influenced. * Epic Fail, Humanity. * Oh great, it’s the fucking Original Life Fiber of magic missiles! * The power of believing motherfuckers! * Oh shut up Old Fart #2! * You tell him Andrew! * This is beautiful: Humanity was ready to tear itself apart a minute ago but was able to put their hearts and faith into two people, setting aside their differences. * Andrew, it has been a pleasure watching you. *Salutes* * Finally, an Old Guy whose not a dick! * A missile that fires missiles...Great... *Surfing Akko on a broom fight a hate monster: Doesn’t get any better than this. * Figures Akko would turn hate mini-missles into small, furry animals made of magic. * Diana’s manuvering reminds of that time I fought Asgore. * I call haxxes! * Nice use of Akko’s transformation magic. * Damnit Diana, you had one job! * Is-is Akko gonna be oka-WHAT WAS THAT?! * Fuck, I don’t like Dianakko shippers but I don’t want Diana to die! * Awesome use of Chekovk’s Gun. * You know, I got a special son for moments like these that I’ve been saving for Little Witch Academia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNQvLECht08 (Not kidding, t5he song works amazingly well with the final fight.) * Killed a hate missile and made everyone smile too: Akko is fucking amazing. * Look at that boy’s face: No doubt he’s got a crush. * Indeed it is Croix, indeed magic is. * Bye Shiny Rod, say hi to Senkestu and Kamina for me... * So...you’ll be back in the year 3000? * You’re too good for her, Chariot. * Damnit, Akko STILL CAN’T FLY?! * Oooooh Trigger, Are you gonna? * The hat returns! And...HOLY SHIT! SHE’S DOING IT! AKKO’S FLYING! Not only that, SHE DID IT AFTER ANDREW GAVE THE HAT BACK! THIS IS BETTER THAN CANON CONFIRMATION! THANK YOU TRIGGER! * Little Witch Academia, if this is really teh last time we meet, I want say how proud I am. From just a cute feel good story to a journey rivaling the likes of Gainax;’s Magnum Opus, Gurren Lagann, I wanna say how glad I am to have seen you grow so far. And though I’d be ecstatic for a season 2...This is good as well. Thank you LWA, thank you everyone who read these stupid little posts, thank you Trigger. Good Night and remember, a believing heart is the magic of the world!

[i-just-like-commenting]

Game of Thrones 7.04 mini-review

Again, we’re doing this like my old watch-while-reading ones, but I’m adding a new category of “unsure,” which is basically me thinking this could go someplace good or it might go someplace bad. In general, my summary would be: I had a lot of problems with this episode, which admittedly are mostly the result of bad decisions in previous seasons rather than this episode itself, until the ending because that battle was really well done.

The Good

As I said, the battle is great, not just because it’s well choreographed but because NCW is still pretty much perfect. He is trying so hard to add depths to the fairly simplistic show!Jaime, depicting Jaime as miserable and barely willing to defend the idea that Cersei might make a good queen. And perhaps most significantly, I think they finally did something with his character, as those shots of him watching men burn alive - somebody remembered Jaime’s PTSD at long last, and boy howdy that trigger him. No wonder he charged so recklessly to try to kill Aerys’ daughter.

If I were writing the show, I would use this as the perfect opportunity for Jaime to break, to run away and let Cersei think he was dead and try to figure out what he wants with his life. Or maybe have Daenerys take him prisoner to use in negotiations with Cersei, and Cersei could turn on him, making him realize how much she’s just been using him. But if spoilers are true, that won’t happen and boo because this is the perfect chance.

Can I also just address a few complaints people have raised about the battle? For once this isn’t teleportation, as Tarly explicitly says they are near the Blackwater Rush, which is right by King’s Landing. With Daenerys controlling the bay (at least when Euron isn’t cheating by plot-magic) she could easily land her Dothraki a little further down the coast, kill any scouts or outriders, and launch a sneak attack the way she did. Would that the rest of the movement this season had made this much sense.

The Odd

The battle scene had its flaws, though. Does Tyrion understand Dothraki now? Did he pick it up on their voyage over? Or does he not understand what was said but can kind of guess my context? It was a strange choice to not have that be in English.

At Winterfell, Arya and Sansa talk about how everyone who knew Ned’s face is dead but...most of their lords were alive then and knew him. What happened was that WInterfell was controlled by people (the Boltons) who didn’t give a damn about Ned, and the line could easily have suggested that, maybe give Sansa an excuse to confide in Arya about what she went through.

Oh, and do the show writers think Littlefinger actually loved Catelyn, with that speech he gave to Bran? Or are we supposed to assume (correctly) that he’s full of it? LIttlefinger loved Cat when she was a teenager, which is why he so quickly moved on to creeping on her look-alike, underage daughter. Ultimately he only cares about himself and his selfish goals.

The Dumb

This is more of a personal thing, but when LIttlefinger says “"You've seen things most men wouldn't believe,” I went “Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.” That’s a really famous speech, don’t mimic it. (Also, if you’ve never seen Bladerunner, don’t click that link, it’s spoilerific)

So just a few episodes ago Jon declared that they need every single person, including young children of any gender, to train to fight against the white walkers. And then a girl shows up at Winterfell, and rather than immediately recruiting her, the guards turn her away??? Arya should have had trouble convincing people of her identity, but not getting them to let her in. This is the kind of sloppy contradictions the show has gotten really bad at lately.

But in terms of just...this is so stupid, you can’t beat Jon discovering the oh-so-convenient white walker pictures that were never hinted at before. I’m pretty sure that the Wall will be falling right as Daenerys arrives given the timeline of the book, so they’re trying to come up with something to be convincing to her, but this was rather lame.

Unsure

What are they doing with Sansa? She rightfully says that LIttlefinger can’t be trusted but...why is she keeping him around? What was the look she was giving Arya? Was she supposed to be upset that Arya is keeping things from her? Envious of Arya’s talent? Worried that her sister is turning as creepy as her brother?

Speaking of which, what is going on with Bran’s characterization? I really hope this is not something that will happen in the books, because roboBran is so awful. I mean, it’s nice that the show is acknowledging how horrible he is, but Bran in the books is such a sympathetic child who just wanted to be a knight, damn you Jaime, and is having to learn there are other ways to be a hero, if that way reduces him to a shell I will be so sad. Or maybe this is a phase he has to work through, until he has full control of his new powers? I hope so.

The Bad

In skipping seasons 4 and 5 I got to miss how much they butchered Brienne’s relationship with Podrick. And after a whole day spent reviewing policies on positive reinforcement as a research-based method of training, ugh she is teaching him so badly, no wonder he still sucks. And the fact that she objects to “my lady,” when in the books she objects to “ser” is symptomatic of them turning her into a full-on tomboy who hates being referred to in a feminine way - as opposed to valuing knighthood enough to not want to lay claim to it falsely.

And then there’s the fact that no, she’s not being too hard on herself, she really did do next to nothing to fulfill her vow. That would be okay if it was something she had to grapple with, as she does in the books, but here Podrick just pats her on the back and we forget about it?

But none of that is as a big a problem within the show itself, as opposed to the show as adaptation, as Dany and Jon’s complete lack of chemistry. Davos claims to have seen Jon staring at Dany lustfully but, uh, was that scene cut? If they were just trying to build a Jonerys marriage as an alliance between two strong personalities, I would buy that, but outside the show actors and writers are claiming it’s meant to be romantic. They have a few episodes left, I suppose, but so far I don’t buy it, at all. I’m far from a Jonsa shipper, but they’re not wrong that thus far in the season he seems way more concerned about his sister than the woman who’s supposedly going to be his love interest. And you really need to build a relationship between them to get more people over the squick of Jon being her nephew.