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infectedpaul · 4 months ago

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oh yes beetlejuice 2 is just kinda okay . its got a lot of fun gags and sfx but. man is it too long and just kinda is like 2 different movies . like they establish its villain really early on as beetlejuice's ex wife which is hilarious in concept and her presence is really cool...for like the 5 minutes total she is on screen. then we forget about her for like an hour to focus on the human stuff and the other two 'antagonists' on top of the subplot between the deetz and delia mourning her husband + we gotta make sure to put in a bunch of. really pointlessly drawn out musical dream sequences becuse First movie (even though the banana boat segment is what. like a minute? theres two of them that are like . 3-5 times longer) idk i just feel like theres too many god damn characters in this movie

you got the legacy characters (lydia, bj, delia, charles, the shrunken heads ig?? theyre in it a lot more idk why) plus lydias daughter astrid, her boyfriend Megaminds dad, bjs ex wife, the treehouse kid, willem dafoe and theyre all taking up their own little sideplots so its like . 4 different stories all going on at once and theyre all . enjoyable...i guess but idk i feel like the first movie was simple enough with. reverse ghostbusters , two ghosts that wanna get living people out of their house so they call up this schmuck. and they just stick with that the only other plot is lydias grief and crappy family life which ties into the main couples stuff well creating a nice weird. family of sorts. in this movie it feels like they just put a pause on one story for a while and then come back to it 40 minutes later. they establish early on that astrids dad/lydias ex husband died after they got divorced and even though lydia can see dead people she has never seen the dad and the whole plot leads to. the most disappointing and milktoast conclusion of hey. We love each other . Because family.

idk. i liked how they brought charles back without bringing back jeffrey jones it was actually really funny. i really liked all the special effects and they got like a bit gorier/grosser than the first i did like that. beetlejuice himself ill be real hes never been all too funny to me hes barely in that first movie for a reason hes better in small doses. winona ryder and jenna ortega are fine i feel like they really werent given much to really show off their chops despite being in the movie a lot theyre both just kinda. rushing through the mother/daughter story line youd expect. i dont like the boyfriend he just feels like alec baldwin from the cat in the hat. speaking of which no the maitlands arent in this they literally have one line saying they found "a loophole" and just left (although i did see their crash was on the miniature in the opening, nice touch /gen) catherine o'hara no notes as always. the new villain lady i wanna steal her away shes so fine im sorry shes in it for like 5 minutes. willem dafoe being in the movie was a nice surprise and he serves. really no purpose to the movie he could be cut but he was funny i like him and his secretaries

idk 7/10 but a low 7 just wait for it to come out on sflix watch the teen titans go episode for now

#dex says things #beetlejuice beetlejuice spoilers

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voltaspistol · 4 months ago

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(Points of reference about how The Stand 1994 Miniseries laid the groundwork for pandemic-era Qanon craziness from part 1) ✅ Disabled people exist but they're totally cool with being called words that are absolutely verboten now, and were also slurs back in 1994, the cool ones won't mind. Yeah, you can use them for canon fodder if you want. ✅ Of course there will be diversity! Two black people. Who never speak to each other, whose mannerisms are indistinguishable from white people. All of the black people who actually "act black" are in the town of Satan Worshippers.

✅ Oh right! Almost forgot!! Literal Satan. All of the evil people in the world will come together in a single community that is basically the mirror image of yours, but they're all nasty and mean. No nice people exist there and they all follow the instructions of exactly one leader. If you meet a nasty person online who seems to be surviving the pandemic because they are making smart choices instead of "faith"? They're following literal Satan. You should be sure to tell them that. ✅ Satan has a girlfriend who will infiltrate town to suck the dicks of the weak of spirit. The Magical Negro Trope will immediately clock her as a source of terrible danger, children gaze upon her in terror, everyone will immediately and unwaveringly realize that is trouble and Does Not Belong, but don't bother trying to throw her out or anything, she's part of The Prophecy™. ✅ If the magical Negro Trope tells you that it's part of the prophecy for a bunch of dudes to walk to Las Vegas with nothing but the clothes they're currently wearing, you can still go back and bring your guitar (???), but you absolutely may not bring anything normally recommended for a hike. Certainly not rope, a first aid kit, or even hiking boots, or even food. You won't need to, as there will be product placement food and drink to eat along the way. Remember, there's no such thing as running out of pre-apocalypse food. It respawns if no one visits the area after a few days, video-game style. ✅ It's actually great almost all of the disabled and black people died because they're gonna be the Deux Ex Machina who will set off nukes that kill off Satan and his minions. It's fine, they come back in spirit for to assure you that they're actually much happier now that they're dead and not disabled (but are presumably still black). ✅ The superflu that killed 99% of the planet can live on surfaces for MONTHS and will provide a few minutes of dramatic tension when preemie newborns catch it, but their parents are so beautiful and pure and wholesome that they definitely will not die and absolutely will not suffer lifelong disabilities because of it. I can definitely see how an entire generation of raised Evangelical/born again Gen X would have watched this during their formative years in 1994 and 40 years later decided that their assumptions about how Covid would play out just popped into their minds organically instead of from the mind of a cocaine-addicted horror novelist. Still doesn't explain why we all decided to go apeshit about toilet paper of all things, but some Covid mysteries might never be solved.

#The Stand #stephen king #ex evangelical #Qanon

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spiritclusters · 4 years ago

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Fic Review-1

This is going to be an ongoing series where I read, review, and generally fan about SPN fics that I've read. Because it's one of the deepest desires of my soul to discuss fics in detail with people, and fan and generally just be a nerd, like you would with a original story Unfortunally, I really, really want to do this with the authors, but I'm shy and reclusive, and don't feel comfortable doing so. So instead, I'm going to make a giant tumblr post to describe how much I love their work.

So, no crit in these reviews, just love

*If you have a recommendation for a SPN fic (gen, preferably), your own or someone else's that you want me to read and "review", please leave and ask or DM me. (<20k for now).

Today's victim: Karma's Gonna Come Collect Your Debt

Set: S13

Parings: gen

Length: 35k

Main character: Written to be Sam, but I would also argue Dean.

Summary:

Sam is dead. Dean isn’t processing.

And then Sam is not dead, Lucifer is there, and they’re suddenly on a deadline- thirty one hours before their single way home literally ceases to exist. Jack needs to be kept away from Lucifer, Sam needs to be kept away from Lucifer, they need to get thirty three people through a rift miles away, and that’s not even mentioning the fucking war currently being waged all over this- literally -godforsaken planet.

But Sam is alive, (alive, alive, Dean’s brother is alive), albeit having one continuous panic attack. This is fine.

(It is so, so not.)

(EVERYTHING BELOW THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS!)

Reasons You Should Read This:

You know those writers that actually manage to take trauma into account, while pushing forward the story and not allowing this to get buried? this is one of those.

Sam and Lucifer content is just. mm. It's horrible, and it's treated like it's horrible.

Dean's anxiety is actually shown

Dean is traumatized by what happened to Sam by the vampires. his brother's throat gets ripped open, and Dean isn't like "oh, we're okay" after Sam walks up alive again, he spends the entire fic stressed about it

The pacing is lovely, no detail is spared

Lucifer shows up at the camp and no one goes "he's in chains, ergo, he's no longer a problem." He is the Devil, and he is treated as the untrustworthy, snake-like creature he is.

Cas isn't powerless, and he's not stupid.

Mary isn't amazing, but she actually tries to have some form of a bond. Sort of.

LUCIFER TORTURING SAM FOR 180+ YEARS IS NOT IGNORED!

Gabriel isn't useless or just there to please fans, he actually does something

The Cage is talked about.

Jack learns about the Cage

Upon learning about the Cage, Jack decides he doesn't want to talk to Lucifer anymore.

Dean is not ignorant to what Lucifer's presence is doing to Sam, or what it has done to Sam in the past. The fic implies that while Sam probably doesn't talk about it to Dean (Because PTSD and it makes sense), Sam isn't unaffected by what happened to him.

Dean is overly paranoid about anywhere he goes, trying to make sure that it's safe. (Such a small detail, but it always, always pleases me to read it)

Dean and Sam actually have a bond, and it's so very present and so very, very enjoyable.

Sam kills Lucifer

No Michael possession!

Protective!Dean

Sam speaks Enochian, which always gets a win for me.

++My Analysis of the fic:

Writing style and why it works:

The writing is very authentic to how I think Dean's brain works. It's anxiety riddled, fast with worry, and clearly shows the depth of how much hunting has affected him. Dean's brain isn't...smooth is the only word I can think of for this, it's not point A to B like other characters are and that makes sense. The writing focuses deeply on reactions, the way words are spoken, and physical sensations. Especially for Dean, there's little to 0 regard on how he's feeling. Which is something I totally see Dean doing.

But the reason that this frantic, almost skittering writing works is because this is a situation that you'd be thinking like that. Lines cut out because Dean, trauma riddled, doesn't want to think about something. There's jumping and processing and "well, crap" moments. My favorite thing about this author's writing style? they are very much into show not tell, which allows the readers to draw their own conclusions, but also makes it a much more enjoyable experience.

The focus on time, especially given these circumstances, was a beautiful detail to add. It kept a sense of pressure on the writing, because everyone knows that we are on a time limit.

There's also a deep sense of secrecy between Sam, Dean and Cas and the others in the story. They have and share information between the three of them that no one else has, and that makes sense because they have been working together for years.

But because, Sam and Dean especially, they are aware of each other, the characters don't feel like strangers. They know each other, and have been living with each other for a long, long time, and you can clearly see that with how attuned they are to each other. It was beautiful.

Character portrayal:

One of my favorite things about how the characters are portrayed here is that Sam is visibly uncomfortable in Lucifer's presence. Sam was disgusted by Lucifer, and when we're told that because Sam still has residual grace left in him and he can kill Lucifer, Sam is horrified. Sam is allowed to be as trauma riddled as someone who went through that would be. It's beautiful.

I also really appreciate how Dean is allowed to be freaked out about Sam literally getting his throat ripped out. Dean is allowed to not be this perfect fearless older brother. Dean is human here. He's a person with struggles who is concerned about Sam and others, but Dean still feels distinct.

I will also forever appreciate how the characters interact here. Everything is so subtle. If they're soft, it's not blatant, if they hate each other, then it's angry staring, but nothing feels explicit, and I love that.

Small details that make me go "mm.":

Dean always checking the "safety" of a room when they enter.

Mary not knowing about the Cage or John telling Dean to kill Sam

Sam's body language when he's around Lucifer

Upon 1 (one) glance at lucifer, Sam is completely aware that the chains have no effect on Lucifer and tells Dean

(pale face, frantic eyes, mouth open in an agonized scream)

Dean not knowing Maggie's name

Favorite scene and why:

This was hard, but man, the scene where Sam and Dean lay down to get some rest after Sam comes back to camp with Lucifer, and they just...don't sleep. There's something about this scene that just is so...deeply and utterly horrifying. Because Sam and Dean are supposed to be safe, right?

Sam's alive, Dean's alive, they're close to each other, neither of them are injured. They're fine.

And yet.

Yet...they're not. And you can feel that. Dean is tense and not-sleeping, and Sam is tense and not-sleeping. And there's something just so deeply haunting about that scene and I just. My love. <3

Favorite quotes:

“No,” Jack shook his head. “Why do they hate you?”

“It’s in me Dean, oh, god-” (“I’ve got demon blood in me Dean, this disease pumping through my veins-”) Dean shuts his eyes against the unwanted memory that had risen unbidden to the forefront of his mind. He firmly shoves it away.

"And now Sam was somewhere. Probably having a panic attack. Dean needed to find him."

"Sam, I know you will, I know you can, this isn’t me doubting you I swear. But, man, you don’t have to. You shouldn’t have to"

He hadn’t, not since the Cage. Maybe he couldn’t.

Because Dean will make time, damnit, because Sam shouldn’t have to f--ing schedule his panic attacks-

Dean can’t see it, but he knows his brother well enough to read the tightness in his shoulders and shifts in his elbows under the jacket that tell him Sam’s pressing into his palm scar again.

Because Sam never got angry anymore... not since the Cage.

“Heyyyyy Cassie! You’re back! Thank Dad.” Dean turned to see Gabriel trotting up to them, a scowling Lucifer in tow. “Take im’, please, he’s all yours.” He said, motioning to the Devil behind him."

Over all, I think that the story is beautiful. please be sure to leave a kudos and a comment if you read, because this author is dear to my heart and deserves them.

link once more

Author tag or link: @widowronin, Огромное спасибо! :D

#fic rec #spn fic rec #hbo spn #sam and dean #sam and lucifer #sam and trauma #cage trauma #fic reviews

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bigskydreaming · 4 years ago

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That last reblog is very informative and useful in figuring out where to find certain storylines. Purely on a personal recommendation note, for anyone looking for good reads and who tends to like my take on things, my recs from that list (and not saying that others I don’t rec aren’t good, just what immediately popped into my head) would be:

Batman: The Long Halloween (yes. its a good)

Batman: Birth of the Demon (if you want to set canon on fire, as many people are wont to do, a good place to start is aggressively ignoring Morrison’s take on Damian’s birth and origin and instead treating this story as his origin and just building off the idea that Talia lied at the end which is waaaaaaaaay better and just like...go from there)

Batman: The Killing Joke (kill it with the fire. we’ve had enough of the killing joke. it can die. even alan moore hates it and he wrote it and alan moore usually loves everything he writes and hates everyone ELSE for like, liking it the wrong way, so I mean, that should tell you a lot)

Batman: The Cult (holy shit I totally forgot about this story and now am off to go reread it again myself)

I have Issues with how ADITF AND A Lonely Place of Dying play out and most popular takes on them, so like, I’m not like, recommending RECOMMENDING them, but I mean like, they are pivotal.

Batman: Knightfall, Legacy, Cataclysm and all things No Man’s Land related have some good stuff throughout all of them. Like, things I don’t like, sure, but overall, there’s a lot of good material in them. Also, a good way to get a strong sense of actual canon Tim, who is not fanon Tim, and who would probably take one look at fanon Tim and go LOL nerd, and kickflip away on his skateboard to go tell Nightwing about this AU version of himself he just met, as like, he actually likes and respects Nightwing, among other differences.

JLA Tower of Babel (its a yawn from me, lads. the source of pretty much all “Batman can beat all of the JLA because he has the greatest superpower of all: PREP TIME!!!” hot takes and I mean, yeah that’s pretty core to Batman and who he is at this point, but the story itself its just like. Eh. Could you not. Idk. Basically I just mean this is all part of an era of JLA that for the most part I actually tend to LIKE Bruce’s interactions with the rest of the team, but then there was this and it was just like. Eh. Could you not).

Bruce Wayne: Murderer? and Bruce Wayne: Fugitive (Quality reads IMO that emphasize the Detective part of the Batfranchise and contain good moments for the whole currently present Batfam, lots of great Cass and Dick stuff in particular. Idk. I havent read them in awhile but I have fond memories)

Batman: Hush (this gets a bad rep and not entirely deserved IMO. Like, its not the greatest story in the world but I like how it portrays Bruce as having flawed dynamics with a lot of his loved ones but not shying away from his role in that but also without overly vilifying him....he’s an appropriately complex character in this, is what I mean, and I also like that this is another story that emphasizes the often lost-and-forgotten Detective part of his core concept. Also, it utilizes some of my fave villains in ways that bring home how much potential certain combinations/team-ups of villains could have if they were utilized more instead of overlooked in favor of ITS TIME FOR THE JOKER AGAIN WHEEEEEEEE!)

Batman: Under the Red Hood (hahahhahaha no. like could you imagine me reccing this? LOL its not realistic. Nah, stick with the animated movie retelling. At least Bruce doesn’t slit his son’s throat in that one to save the damn clown again)

Batman: R.I.P (I reluctantly rec this not because I like it, cuz I don’t, its Morrison back on his bullshit in a most I AM THE MOST GALAXY BRAINED OF ALL THE GALAXY BRAINED AND ALSO IM A CHAOS MAGICIAN DID U KNOW THAT HUH DID YA DID YA, like, fashion. Its. A lot. The story is A Lot. I don’t say that in a complimentary way. BUT I recommend it anyway out of pure stubbornness and Dick Grayson fanboy spite, as its set like, directly before Bruce is believed dead and gets lost in time, and like, A LOT happens to Dick in that story that SHOULD BE extremely relevant and crucial to examinations of his mental and emotional state at the time of him assuming Bruce’s role in the family and as Batman, but that just like....ISN’T, and that annoys me. Also, the primary villain of this, Dr. Hurt, like.....

his grand endgame involved torturing the fuck out of Dick to hurt Bruce specifically, and pretty much the first thing that happens when Bruce DOES come back from being lost in time is Dr. Hurt pops up out of nowhere and shoots Dick in the head, like FIRST THING, like this is the absolute first thing Bruce has to deal with when coming back, and this is just like....NONEXISTENT in most fics about that era. Because lolol how can we blame Dick for everything that went wrong and make Bruce be mad at him for how Dick wronged Tim and Jason and all of Gotham probably, if we’re going by actual canon and thus dealing with the fact that Bruce is preoccupied with hovering over his just-shot-in-the-head-specifically-to-fuck-with-Bruce son’s bedside and WORRYING about him. LOLOL hashtag Fandom Willfully Erases The Majority of Dick’s Canon Traumas Not Because They Want To Set Canon On Fire - they’re usually fine with sticking to every instance of canon in which Dick does something even in the ZIP CODE of wrong - but rather because if we acknowledge Dick’s traumas then eww, he might come across as....sympathetic? No, we can’t have that. ERGO HE WAS NEVER SHOT IN THE HEAD HAHAHAH WE FIXED IT, WE FIXED CANON).

But I digress.

Battle for the Cowl (another reluctant rec because like, its dumb and its bad, but its one of those things that I’d still rather more people read than didn’t, because like it is pivotal and relevant, and it contains key plot points like oh Idk, Arkham literally blowing up as all the currently locked up inmates escape, which led to Dick having Wayne Enterprises rebuild it himself, and like, the only villains present in it when he was Batman being the villains he and Damian CAUGHT while he was Batman, which did NOT include the Joker, and thus all the hot takes about how Dick locked up Jason two doors down from his murderer like the uncaring bastard that he is, like.....instead of the reality that Dick pulled strings to have Jason put in Arkham instead of Blackgate when the POLICE ARRIVED ON SCENE AND LOCKED UP THE ANONYMOUS RED HOOD BECAUSE HE WAS CLEARLY DEFEATED AND CLEARLY A WANTED CRIMINAL AND THUS LIKE, HIS IMPRISONMENT LITERALLY HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH DICK OTHER THAN THE FACT THAT DICK DEFEATED JASON RATHER THAN LETTING HIM KILL HIM AND DAMIAN.....

like, its literal canon that Dick explains himself for having Jason put in Arkham instead of Blackgate because it allowed him to keep Jason OUT of gen pop where he had literal dozens of enemies that he, Jason, WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR PUTTING THEM IN THERE HIMSELF, and it was to keep Jason SAFE, and it WORKED as Jason’s only actual canon complaint at that time was that he was BORED. So in conclusion, AS ALWAYS, you can do what you want, but when you literally manufacture the fake fanon - and completely fail to make any effort to establish that this is NOT actual canon and that you’re not actually riffing off of an actual canon moment - that Dick callously locked his brother up a few doors down from his own murderer (the dude that Dick himself literally once beat to death because he killed Jason).....like, inquiring minds would like to know, why are you trying so hard to make Dick look like THIS MUCH of an asshole, hmm?)

Batman: The Gates of Gotham (a weird, but fun little read IMO, that delves deep into the backstory of Gotham, the Waynes, and also Dick’s ancestors the Crownes, and establishes a lot of the history revolving around all of the above, and like, it actually has Dick as Batman and being competent and respected by the rest of the family in that role, and its also one of the only times Cass and Damian interacted one on one, stuff like that)

Batman and Robin Eternal (eww no, kill it also with the fire, burn it, I hate it, uggggggh why is this series so praised, its so baaaaaaaaaaaad, its like what if literally every character involved in it is an asshole to Dick for no valid reason whatsoever.....huh, weird thought, wonder if the fact that its so praised as being so good and Dick’s so hated for weird reasons by a lot of fandom are connected....almost like.....the fiction influenced how people viewed his character....and thus....critical commentary of how the fiction was bad is....relevant....HMM I MUST PONDER THIS STRANGE AND NOVEL THOUGHT).

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panharmonium · 4 years ago

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more rambling re: that last post (+ the merlin/will fic survey overview)

because i generally refrain from reading fic while i’m actively writing for a fandom, the only real ao3 reading i have done for merlin is my survey of the merlin/will ship tag. and the only reason i undertook that survey in the first place is because while i was doing an introductory cruise of the various merlin tags during my first exploration of the fandom (after i finally finished S5 and was able to start looking into fandom dynamics without fearing spoilers), i noticed that a LOT of the fic tagged with this ship was also tagged merlin/arthur, and despite the fact that i personally am more interested in gen stuff, i started to get both suspicious and annoyed about what i was seeing. but i also wanted to have the data to back up my annoyed feelings, so i made a little spreadsheet for myself and then just filled it in whenever i had time to kill and wanted something to do.

the data, when i eventually finished, backed up my annoyance pretty much as well as i expected, which was disappointing, but not surprising.

to clarify - i’m not annoyed by the fact that will and merlin don’t have a whole lot of material in their ship tag. will only showed up directly in one episode; i don’t expect him to be a popular subject. what i AM annoyed by is the fact that there are actually more merlin/arthur fics in the merlin/will tag than there are fics that actually focus on...merlin/will. by, like - an extreme margin.

(the rest of this is just me griping about fandom trends. popping it under a cut so folks can just move on with their days if this isn’t relevant to their interests.)

The Numbers

two quick notes before i get into the nitty-gritty:

1) i originally did this survey a few months ago, but i updated it this week with fics that have been added since then, so the numbers are current.

2) some of the data below would probably vary slightly depending on who was conducting the survey, so there’s a bit of wiggle room in either direction. the criteria i had to use [aka what counts as just a ship ‘mention’ vs actual content] would be subject to reader interpretation, obviously, but even with that, i do feel that most stories fell into pretty clear categories.)

so, without further ado -

total # of fics in the ship tag: 145

number of fics that are inappropriately tagged (meaning either will himself or merlin/will as a ship does not actually appear [which is kind of bizarre, but which i saw happen surprisingly frequently], OR where there is only a brief reference to will or past!merlin/will and that’s the extent of their inclusion: 50

number of fics that are duplicates of works already in the tag (ie podfic), or (in one case) a meta podcast about the show: 5

so, that brings down our total number of fics with some sort of actual merlin/will content to 90.

of these 90 works, only 17 of them are actually focused on merlin/will.

everything else in will’s ship tag, including the 54 works from the previously discussed "incorrectly tagged” category, is either a) fic where will is dumped, broken up with, or otherwise passed over in favor of arthur (and very occasionally gwaine, at least once mordred, once percival, once arthur and gwaine in a threesome, and once CENRED, which i’m sure will would be especially thrilled about), or b) fic where will is only included as a previous/ex relationship (again, almost always in lieu of arthur).

moreover - of the 17 actual merlin/will fics, 7 still end with will dying or the relationship ending for reasons other than him being passed over for arthur. an additional 4 are <1000 word PWP snippets, generally written for old LJ summer pornathons, one of which still somehow manages to be...you guessed it - all about arthur.

in terms of actual one-shots/full fics where merlin/will is the endgame/non-dead pairing, there are only 6 stories.

i repeat: will gets six earnest stories, IN HIS OWN SHIP TAG.

i repeat once again: will, in a non-dead, endgame form, gets 4% of his own ship tag.

The Content

the in-fic trends are frustrating, if you actually like this character.

the asshole. will is an abusive boyfriend. he is a jealous ex. he’s a shitty friend. he’s a stalker. he’s manipulative. he’s emotionally abusive. he’s physically abusive. he dumps merlin for someone else. he cheats. in one fic he’s so mad at merlin that he outs merlin’s magic to arthur. in multiple fics, i watched him literally go off the rails and try to murder somebody.

the fuckbuddy. they’re just messing around, guys! no, of course it’s not serious! they just do this for fun! of course there’s nothing to get in the way of arthur’s inevitable arrival! no sirree!

the unrequited. will is actually in it deep for merlin, but merlin doesn’t feel the same. this does not, however, prevent merlin from using will for sex, companionship, comfort, distraction, etc - until arthur shows up, when will either steps aside in deference to merlin’s all-consuming passion for arthur or is dropped like a hot potato.

“not even will.” that sentence. over and over again. merlin had never felt like this before, not even with will. nobody had ever understood merlin like this, not even will. even in fic when they were like. married. or engaged. fanon arthur pendragon must be truly mind-blowing, y’all.

dead long-term relationship. will was merlin’s husband/fiancé/long-term partner. now he is Dead. merlin getting together with arthur is what allows merlin to Heal. (these stories sometimes contain some variation of “not even will,” as discussed above.)

lastly, in a related phenomenon:

who are you and what have you done with arthur pendragon??? i suppose in a way it’s nice to know that will isn’t the only one who gets the OOC treatment, but it is still really...something, to read fic where will is twisted into an unpleasant, abusive, canon non-compliant version of himself, and then to see arthur, on the very same page, transformed into a gentle, solicitous, kind, caring, equally canon non-compliant angel. fanon!arthur is more worried about merlin’s well-being than literally anyone i have ever seen. he is so invested in merlin’s emotional health. he is so concerned about merlin’s boundaries. he says things to merlin that no version of arthur pendragon has ever - EVER - in any universe, thought about saying to anybody. he wants to hear all about merlin’s problems, and he’s all about taking it slow and making sure merlin feels comfortable and loved and worthy and safe (from all that horrible stuff done by that horrible other guy; that must’ve been so hard, merlin; ‘it’s okay, i’ve got you now’) - the man is utterly unrecognizable. and you know what? it’s okay! it is fine to make your characters as OOC as you want. it is fine to make them better/nicer than they were in the canon. sometimes we all want that, right? it’s fanfic! have a ball. i will never tell anyone to stop writing what they like, and i will NEVER interact negatively with a fic i don’t care for. EVER. do not do this, people - click the back button and move on with your life. but i reserve the right to be annoyed, in my own space, about a persistent trend of will and arthur’s canon functions being flat-out reversed, in service of merlin/arthur. not in the sense that canon!will is particularly gentle or sweet, because that’s not the case - but in the sense that will, in canon, is the one who actually cares about merlin’s best interests, whereas arthur is, quite frankly, the ass. a lovable ass (sometimes). but an ass nonetheless, and one whose relationship with merlin is, from start to finish, an unhealthy, oppressive mess.

The Point

the point of me typing this up is not to say that what people choose to write is bad or wrong. this is fanfic! you can write whatever you want. you can make characters as OOC as you want. you can create as many AUs as you want. i don’t mind fic authors writing stuff i don’t personally care for; someone else probably loves those stories! and i am never going to interact negatively with anything i don’t personally enjoy - i am going to let people continue to have fun in their own ways, and i am going to grumble about my frustrations in my own space, and then i’m going to direct my energy into writing stuff i would personally like to read.

the point is just that i needed a brief second to complain, on my own blog, about my most familiar bbc merlin nemesis (otherwise known as ‘single-ship ubiquity’). and what i mean by this is that it is REALLY FRUSTRATING that other little relationships are not even granted the tiniest concession of owning their own ship tags, in a fandom that is already so SATURATED with merlin/arthur content. like - even if i’m generous and use the number 17 for the number of actual merlin/will fics in the tag, that still means 88% of will’s ship tag is actually fic about merlin falling in love with people who aren’t will (*cougharthur*). eighty-eight percent! of his own ship tag!

(to put it another way - the ship tag isn’t supposed to be where you go to watch your character get repeatedly dumped or left behind for someone else, okay? it’s supposed to be literally the opposite of that.)

will’s ship tag is already tiny. and almost all of it belongs to arthur. moreover, a significant chunk of it uses will as a convenient villain (completely contradicting every canon aspect of his characterization), when in the actual story will dies to protect arthur (who he doesn’t even like) and then lies to save merlin (at the expense of his own reputation, and despite the fact that he personally thinks merlin returning to camelot is a bad idea). his behavior in canon is selfless, and wholly committed to merlin’s welfare, and yet in his ship tag he gets treated like trash.

the kid can’t catch a break. and it’s such a pervasive thing that even though i personally am primarily interested in merlin and will as friends (i am pretty romance-averse in general when it comes to media, and i have never written anything that isn’t gen, for any fandom, ever, in my life), i am also so indignant on will’s behalf that i’ve basically become invested in the well-being of this ship as a matter of principle. it’s not my main thing, and it’s not necessarily how i view the canon-verse, but i am SO IRRITATED about how virtually all of will’s shipfic has been taken over by merthur (and about how maligned will is in his own tag) that i have actively committed myself to supporting merlin and will together in as many AUs as possible.

(this is basically like when i trained myself to love allison argent after teen wolf killed her off. i did that out of spite, y’all. it’s the principle of the thing.)

so, y’know. all i am saying is that i think will deserves his share of happy endings, and i think it would be nice to see fics where he is not just a stepping stone on the road to merthur or an unrecognizable parody of himself.

more importantly - EVERY merlin ship deserves to have a tag that isn’t completely swallowed by the local fandom behemoth. merlin/arthur already owns three quarters of the archive. a gargantuan oil tanker like that can afford to let the little rarepair canoes float down their own streams in peace.

#tl;dr version:#GIVE MERLIN AND WILL THEIR OWN FICS 2K20 #I WILL NOT REST UNTIL THIS INJUSTICE HAS BEEN ADDRESSED #(y'all think i am kidding but i have already walked the walk ok)#(i am currently the internet title-holder for 'most words dedicated to this relationship')#(it might be the platonic version but if you don't think i will stretch myself and try something new)#(then you underestimate just how aggravated i am)#(and just how much i want this kid to get everything he deserves)#the once and future slowburn #no kings no masters #fandom

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kingstylesdaily · 4 years ago

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Harry Styles Is the World's Biggest Young Rock Star. Why Won't Rock Radio Play Him?

If you were to invent an artist to keep the flame burning for classic rock in a musical mainstream increasingly unfriendly to the genre's traditions, they'd probably look and sound a lot like Harry Styles.

A dashing, long-haired, highly fashionable and occasionally gender-bending young Briton who dates pop stars and supermodels, makes free-love music videos, worships at the altars of Mick Jagger and Stevie Nicks and sells out arenas worldwide with his guitar-based, lightly psychedelic pop-rock? At times, Styles' superstardom almost feels fictional, like some character a middle-aged writer would draw up for Russell Brand to play in a slapstick comedy, despite the archetype being almost entirely absent from the last decade-plus of popular music.

But it isn't just real, it's still growing. Styles' sophomore LP Fine Line posted one of the best first-week numbers of 2019 -- moving 478,000 equivalent album units in its first week, double the first-week number for his 2017 self-titled debut -- and it's still in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 albums chart seven months later. While traditional radio success eluded Harry on his first album, Fine Line has seen two of its singles, "Adore You" and "Watermelon Sugar," wholeheartedly embraced on the airwaves, becoming his first two top five hits on Billboard's Pop Songs chart -- and his first two top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 since his solo debut "Sign of the Times" bowed at No. 4.

Yet for all his current success and acclaim, the world's biggest young rock star continues to be ignored at rock radio. While he appears well on his way to becoming a pop radio fixture, Styles has never even cracked any of Billboard's rock or alternative airplay charts.

Rock radio's initial reluctance to embrace Styles was hardly surprising, given his musical roots as one-fifth of the massively successful vocal group One Direction. Despite having their own fair share of rock-flavored hits, 1D was considered to be firmly in the pop lane, especially by radio. So have virtually all rock-leaning groups to fall under the "boy band" umbrella, even including acts like the Jonas Brothers and 5 Seconds of Summer who play some or all of their own instruments. Even though Styles' solo debut was clearly more indebted to David Bowie and Queen than Michael Jackson and ABBA, he was still very much "Harry Styles of One Direction" -- and like all the group's alums, had to prove himself as an artist outside of their well-established milieu.

However, at this point, Harry Styles no longer needs the "of One Direction" to establish his place in the musical mainstream -- he is very much a solo star in his own right, with his own identity (and plenty of his own fans) totally outside of 1D's massive shadow. And as his own artist, though many of his songs are pop-accessible, his chosen lane is obviously rock, as evident by his (oft-namechecked) classic rock influences, his full-band setup, and his predominantly guitar- and piano-driven songs. As traditional rock music continues to fade from contemporary relevance, and youth-appealing, streaming-embraced stars like Styles are in particularly short supply, there would certainly be good reason to embrace him as part of the format -- particularly at alternative radio, where many stations have already begun to stretch their playlists to include pop-approved, less traditionally rock stars like Billie Eilish and Post Malone.

There are few indications to this point, though, that many are interested in doing so with Styles. While "Watermelon Sugar" continues to climb at pop radio, only one station monitored by Billboard for our Alternative Songs airplay chart has attempted to play it: Alt 92.3 (WNYL) in New York, which gave it a paltry two spins in the prior tracking week. (WNYL declined to speak to Billboard about Styles for this story.)

Part of the reason for this is, simply, that Styles' label Columbia Records isn't actively working his songs to rock or alternative radio. Even in a streaming age where programmers don't need to literally be sent an artist's song to have the ability to play it, that still matters. Radio columnist Sean Ross (of the Ross on Radio newsletter) explains that songs not being promoted to a certain radio format "tends to be the number one explanation for, “Why isn’t anybody playing this?'"

"I wish radio, in general, showed more enterprise on music," Ross says. "But there’s no reason to expect that even the stations that play a quirky, pop-leaning version of the alternative format would go out of their way to play a Harry Styles song without being asked.”

It's also worth noting that pop radio has also been slow to embrace Styles -- even going back to the One Direction days, where despite the group's massive popularity, they only ever notched two top 5 hits on Mainstream Top 40 (as many as Styles has already as a solo artist). By choosing "Adore You" as an advance single from Fine Line -- following the more reintroductory first taste "Lights Up" -- Styles' team made their priorities clear. "Last time around, Harry Styles presented himself as a rock artist, and didn’t find a home at rock or pop radio," Ross says. "This time, he’s clearly pursuing pop radio with the singles that have been chosen."

One place on rock radio where Styles might have better luck finding a home is at Adult Alternative, where both "Sign of the Times" and "Watermelon Sugar" have received airplay. It's not a ton in either case -- "Watermelon Sugar" is currently only being played at two stations reporting to Billboard's Triple A listing, WCLX in Burlington, Vt. and KVYN in Napa Valley, Calif. But neither station views playing the song as all that out of character for their brand.

"It fits what we’re doing, and we don’t care where it came from," WCLX programmer Chip Morgan explains. "We like Harry... and that’s it. It’s a great summer song." Playing a song by a top 40 artist who comes from the pop world doesn't mean a ton to Morgan, because he says that they "don't pay attention to top 40" at WCLX anyway. "Before ['Adore You'], we didn’t really know that much about [Styles]," he admits.

Despite his younger-leaning core following, it makes sense that Styles might also appeal to more Adult Alternative listeners, because his older musical reference points are actually much more in line with traditional Gen X and boomer sensibilities than the millennials and Gen Z-ers that mostly comprise his fanbase. "On KVYN, it wouldn't be a rare thing to have a mix of music where Harry Styles was donuted in between Tom Waits and the Grateful Dead," explains Nate Campbell, director of music and programming for the station. "I'm sure other radio programmers would laugh at this, and that's fine with me. But that's how we are choosing to try and entertain our market. And reception has been good, I'd say."

It's unclear whether the rock radio world will ever fully accept Harry Styles as their own -- or if Styles' own team will see much advantage in pushing him as such, when they've already conquered the much-bigger pop world. But Morgan and Campbell agree that it's crucial for radio programmers in 2020 to be open-minded when it comes to filling their playlists, and not to be too influenced by what musical world an artist originally comes from.

"I may have some reservations in the back of my mind about 'credibility' when it comes to some pop acts," Campbell admits. "But I think it's important to quickly move past my own biases, based on my belief that [our genre's defintion] IS amorphous now -- it's a completely different listening world now in this streaming era. And it's important to take that into consideration when trying to blend your radio station in with that listening landscape."

via Billboard

#kingstylesdaily #Harry Styles #hs: article #hs: billboard #July 2020

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hirazuki · 4 years ago

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Ooo I'm curious about your hot takes on the Inuyasha reboot after reading your tags 👀

Ahaha, where to start XD Idk if they are hot takes, but here are my thoughts in bullet point form for coherency, I couldn’t figure out how else to organize them. Under a cut, as usual, because it got lengthy... as usual :D

We are 13 episodes in, and I still have no idea wtf is going on or what the series is actually about. And yes, I’m aware that we didn’t know of Naraku’s existence or of the overarching plot until at least episode 16 of that series either and Inuyasha was still very episodic in nature at that early point too, but here’s the thing: Inuyasha did not build upon a pre-existing series. For better or for worse, Yashahime has certain expectations to live up to that the original anime didn’t, by virtue of its being a sequel. Unfair? Maybe, but tough; that’s what happens when you make a sequel. Additionally, despite us not knowing The Main Plot™ of Inuyasha until later, the basic framework for it was laid out clearly by... episode 2? I think? Find and collect the Shikon Jewel shards. Boom, done. Were there distractions or fillers? Sure, but you never got the sense that the characters simply up and forgot about the shards. Even in fillers, the shards often made some kind of appearance. With Yashahime, there’s like three potential storylines going on: 1. The most obvious: most of our main cast from the OG is missing; where are they? Apparently no one in-story cares! :D Inuyasha, who’s that lol. I’m all for a sequel focusing on the new generation with cameos of the old crew; after all, they already had their own series. But this is like... no one cares about them? No one talks about them? And the more characters go about not mentioning them, the stronger their absence is felt. Like, for instance, Kaede knows Moroha is InuKag’s daughter. Moroha grew up on her own, doesn’t know her parents. Kaede doesn’t mention them to Moroha, doesn’t even spare a passing thought about them for the audience’s benefit, Moroha doesn’t ask. Kagome’s family in the present day meet Moroha, recognize her as Kagome’s daughter and... say nothing??? Souta shows Towa Kagome and Inuyasha’s old photos, but doesn’t say a word to Moroha?! Like. It makes no sense. By people not even acknowledging their existence, it makes the fact that they are nowhere to be found even weirder. Also the new gen girls don’t care about their parents or finding out who they were/are... like, okay, it would maybe be in character for one or two of them, but all three don’t give a fuck??? 2. Kirinmaru/the rainbow pearls: Idk how familiar you are with the story, but similar deal with Naraku and the shards here. Kirinmaru is being set up as the villain, still a mysterious figure; our new gen trio is supposed to collect the rainbow pearls that... some of his henchmen have? Or he is after them? Or is that Riku? Unclear. ANYWAY the new gen girls often forget all about the pearls’ existence :D 3. Setsuna’s memories: Setsuna’s dreams have been stolen by the dream butterfly and they need to get them back, because without her dreams she has no memories and is unable to sleep. Cool! Finally a solid, easy-to-follow plot line! Except wait! Towa, who supposedly made it her goal to get Setsuna’s sleep back, forgets all about it! All the time! Like, none of them make an effort to look into this other than being like “oh yeah, know anything about the dream butterfly?” to random folks every now and then. The Inugang back in the day was putting some grad school level research towards their goals, just saying. It just feels like everything’s all wishy-washy and there’s nothing really solid tying the series together. People just remember shit exists when it’s convenient.

Character development is MIA. I’m not expecting ground-breaking char dev in 13 episodes (though I do know 12 episode series that were phenomenal in that regard), but like... I do expect the series to focus on building the dynamics between the main three characters. So far, the series is more focused on teasing the audience with glimpses and promises of the OG cast instead. The creators are using nostalgia and bait (esp of a certain pairing) to drive interest in the series, rather than developing the new characters as fully-fledged characters for their own sakes.

Moroha is was the only thing I actually liked about the series. She is a little spitfire and you can somehow instantly see both Inuyasha and Kagome in her, while she also remains very uniquely herself; I have never seen such a successfully developed main pairing child in any series. She featured quite prominently in the first few episodes -- and unlike both her parents, she’s got a great memory and knowledge of lore -- where she balanced funny moments with badass fighting moments and being the token supernatural encyclopedia. It was great! And then... they’ve like... forgotten her. She’s been left behind so many times by the twins. She’s the butt of every joke. She’s become the type of comic relief that’s, well, insulting. More like a buffoon than anything else. And it’s basically all for the sake of giving the floor to Towa :/

Setsuna is okay. Not offensive, but unremarkable. She’s got her dad’s personality but like way toned down due to her different growing up circumstances, which is nice, but like... I feel she isn’t given any room to grow or breathe or anything. She’s also basically there as a device to enhance Towa’s development.

Towa... oy. I tried to like her, I really did, but she just doesn’t work for me. They set her up having a very Kurosaki Ichigo type deal with beating up bullies and getting into trouble at school and shit -- I’m fine with that. That’s cool. Esp if it’s linked to not feeling like she fits in bc she’s a hanyou? Awesome. Except once she travels back in time to the feudal era it’s all “Oh killing is bad you shouldn’t kill people” and “even though they attacked me I can’t possibly hurt them” and “you need to empathize and talk things out” and “friendship is magic” and shit. It feels like she had a personality transplant, it literally makes no sense. Her design is totally nonsensical too -- out of everyone at her school, she’s the only one dressed in a bright white suit? Do protags not wear the school uniform? Someone should tell Kagome lmao. She’s a pro at hand to hand, and she can absorb demons’ powers and fling them back at them like a personified Tessaiga, and she has a lightsaber sword, and she’s immune to miasma, and -- like... you get it. It’s too much. It’s way too OP for the type of universe that Inuyasha/Yashahime is set in. She’s hanyou for fuck’s sake; remember all the training Inuyasha had to go through? When he couldn’t lift his sword? When his sword attacked him? Sango, Miroku, Kagome, even Sesshomaru all had trouble with their weapons and had to work to become stronger. But Towa? Nope. Towa is straight out of the Yas Queen/Girl Boss manual, so she gets a free pass on everything.

UGH they are doing the VLD/bad writing thing where things happen (like, BIG THINGS) and none of the characters actually react to them. Or stuff happens and there are no consequences. No one ever talks about anything. It’s wild.

Everyone has amnesia!! :D People either don’t know or don’t remember anything or anyone. People who absolutely should know things all of a sudden magically don’t know them. Like, Kohaku -- traveled with an undead priestess, spent years in the company of demons, traveled with Sesshomaru... and yet had NO CLUE that Setsuna is Sesshomaru’s daughter or that she is hanyou, despite her living and working with his team of demon slayers all this time. Like... how, man. How. And Kaede! Don’t get me started. Since when does she perpetuate random demon-boogeyman type stories as facts? Demon children will kill each other in the nest so that only the strongest one will survive, therefore Setsuna must have killed Towa when they were infants. O_O What are they, sharks? Has she been hanging out with Kisame? Wtf?? And she’s speaking about Sess’s kids as though she doesn’t know him or anything about him, when she has had Rin under her roof all these years. It just makes. no. sense.

Things that happened in the original series are happening again now! Because that’s the best we’ve got, recycled plot elements wooo! No, but really, characters that died or things that were resolved in Inuyasha keep coming back. Why? What was the purpose of bringing back Kinka and Ginka? To have a foil for Towa and Setsuna as twins? Someone please tell Sunrise they can just create new characters. Like, it’s one thing to have call backs to the original or cameos, references, whatever. But like... this is entire (dead) characters and interactions.

No one knows how long it’s been since the original series ended. Fans initially heard 20 years from promo material, then “over 15″ and “10 years since” in-series regarding two different events, and now in a future episode summary we’ve gotten 18 years since Hosenki II gave Inuyasha the black pearl. But like, which black pearl? Because the one in Inuyasha’s eye doesn’t exist anymore, but Hosenki II had told Inuyasha that it would take 100 years for him to produce one. So, are we retconning that or where the fuck did it come from? Also, this doesn’t help one bit, it just confuses things even more. Back to the point, though, we have no coherent timeline or real frame of reference whatsoever, and I’m betting it’s in large part to keep the mystery of who is Sesshomaru’s wife going, as it keeps Rin’s age very vague. Everything is vague and mysterious in Yashahime, to the point where no one knows what’s going on, in fandom or in-story even. It’s kinda like how too much plot twist/shock reveal ruins a story, too much mystery does the same. It’s insane that both shippers and antis of that ship can lay equal claim that the “18 years since” announcement works in their favor.

tl;dr: Idk man, Yashahime is a clusterfuck of a series. Even if the mother of Sess’s twins is either of the characters I ship him with, I will still not like the series. There’s no saving this writing. Every episode feels like this:

#baked-hylian #i've been wanting to rant for a while about this series thanks for enabling me! :D #i'm actually not upset about this sequel which is amazing; i thought for sure it would impact my love for the OG but nope!#it is so wild and out there that my brain literally cannot comprehend it as part of the same material #i'm just watching it out of the kind of morbid curiosity you'd watch a horrifying experiment with #and watching the fandom drama too ofc #popcorn in hand #so it's a win-win all around ¯\_(ツ)_/¯#talk: yh

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strangenewfriends · 4 years ago

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Part of the reason for this is, simply, that Styles' label Columbia Records isn't actively working his songs to rock or alternative radio. Even in a streaming age where programmers don't need to literally be sent an artist's song to have the ability to play it, that still matters. Radio columnist Sean Ross (of the Ross on Radio newsletter) explains that songs not being promoted to a certain radio "tends to be the number one explanation for, “Why isn’t anybody playing this?'"

#just thought this was interesting #despite some of the tone of this #and that dating popstars and models paragraph lmao #billboard

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toonstarterz · 5 years ago

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BECAUSE I’M NOT POPULAR, I’LL READ WATAMOTE: CHAPTER #167

Hey, I’m not dead!

Yeah, sorry that took a while. Had a lot of real-life shit to work through, honestly. In any case, I finally sat my butt down to really crack down on yet another fun-tastical chapter. Tomoko’s actually doing what a lot of quasi-incel degenerates are afraid to do in high school and is taking an actual stab at self-improvement. Will karma rear its ugly head, or is the series now beyond that point?

Chapter 167: Because I’m Not Popular, I’ll Spend My Time Wisely unlike me

This is a really pretty shot and...that’s about it. Real pretty.

Oh dear! The friendship disease has disrupted Tomoko’s gremlin-like body clock and has her waking up early like a healthy human being!

Reminds of that one Gintama episode. You know, that one with Kagura and the sick kid and you don’t care, do you?

I know Japan prides itself on its cheap, quality goods, but Tomoko is a real penny-pincher, eh? Well, she’s a Gen Zer, so I can’t complain.

Not sure if this makes me sound like a perv or whatever, but hot damn, the detail on this model is stupidly good. I mean, just look at the patterning on that bra. You can really tell when Ikko’s really getting into the art.

They’re really milking the armpit fetish, aren’t they?

Tomoko...sweetie...my girl...

You don’t even have a dick. I mean, sure, you could find it fascinating from a purely educational, not-applicable-to-you perspective. And yeah, I suppose it could be useful if you were to start a sexual relationship with a noncanonical male. But to be honest, I can’t help but take it as more signs of your gender dysphoria here.

I mean, hey, whatever floats your boat.

Well, they say kids learn more about practical knowledge out in the real world than in school, don’t they?

Then again, coughgoogleitcough.

I always thought Tomoko was just having some kind of psychosomatic experience when she talks about being de-energized from a lack of sexual stimulation.

Now I’m inches from calling that shit an actual, physiological withdrawal.

Ah, the good ol’ days. Back when future prospects felt like a lifetime away and you could spend days on end dicking around, lamenting the need to get serious, and disregarding your resolve right after because you secretly didn’t really care.

...I gotta stop projecting.

Despite Tomoko proving time and again that she can be a crass-hole with a negative outlook on life, it’s when she does childish things like laying your head on your arm when studying and cuddling her plushies that her innocent side pops up and you realize that Tomoko’s a legitimate cutie.

Fake-smoking? Tomoko, stop! If you keep this up, you’ll turn from a deconstruction of a cute, moe girl to becoming an actual cute, moe girl.

I only just noticed that Tomoko’s wearing a “happy” shirt. Remember when she was sporting the “alone” shirt back in year one? Even her clothes get character development.

Oh, shit. Your girl Yuu-chan talking this whole cram school thing seriously even though she’s at a disadvantage. You see, this is why Yuu is literally the best. Despite being at the “top” of the school clique food chain, she has not once ever felt like “bottomfeeders” like Tomoko and Komi were below her in any way. Sure, she knows they’re weirdos, but she makes those acknowledgments without judgement, and all while putting herself on the same leveling field. She doesn’t love them ironically–she loves them sincerely, and that’s why Yuu is awesome.

Sorry if this turned into a ramble, but Yuu only gets like, one panel of dialogue nowadays and I wanted to make the most of it.

Tomoko be raising that “phone-call” flag like a motherfucking chad.

...

Oh, sorry. I saw Yuri with her hair down and lost track of time.

...

Damn, Yuri’s pretty.

Black leggings at home? That’s exactly the kind of conservative attire Yuri would wear and only Yuri could look amazing in. Seriously, If Ikko hadn’t become a manga artist, she would have made a damn fine fashion designer.

And Tomoko be crushing that “home-visit” flag like a motherfucking chode.

I could make a pretty tasteless joke about how “haha, Yuri will never look at you like you’re trash like she does at Tomoko,” but,

a. it’s just the angle of the smartphone like Yuri said, and

b. you’d probably prefer to get denied like that, wouldn’t you?

I can’t help but wonder if Tomoko realizes just how homoerotic she sounds. Like, does she have any inclination that her borderline-sexual harassment jokes could easily be misconstrued as flirting? Sure, she might be using the old excuse that “we’re both girls, so it’s fine right?”, but given that Tomoko at least knows about LGBTQ+, you’d think it would have at least crossed her mind.

Or maybe, on a sadder note, Tomoko doesn’t see it as flirting because she really does have zero faith in her own attractiveness...

There is no heterosexual reason for this exchange whatsoever.

Alright, so I’m a dude, so...hell do I know. But do girls typically not wear bras when just lounging around the house? I know Tomoko is the kind to just wear tank tops if she can help it, but I always thought that was a characterization unique to her, and that other girls wear bras for the comfort and support like any other undergarment. I mean, sure, Yuri’s kind of reserved, but I wouldn’t think wearing a bra at home would be considered an oddity, yeah? I ask this out of genuine curiosity, but I’ll stop before it gets too creepy.

Side note, you can officially tell when Yuri gets pissed by her nose crinkles.

I could give a long, analytical spiel about why Yuri didn’t give Tomoko a straight answer and speculate on what she was doing, but I eventually realized the answer was actually really simple:

It didn’t fucking matter to the story.

The last time Tomoko had one of these “I know!” moments, she ended up trimming her pubes on a class trip. But surely Tomoko’s character growth wouldn’t allow something like that to happen again, would it not? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Adorbs.

Can’t fight awkward with awkward, can you?

Tomoko, what are you playing at? You just said that video chatting was erotic and tried to get Yuri to lewd herself for you. And now you were planning to appear on-screen totally naked and you somehow don’t see any sexual implications for this at all? Finding it funny would be an elementary schooler’s mentality. If you seriously have no confidence in your sexuality, then sweetheart, you need some help.

You ever notice that Tomoko can lie through her teeth when trying to screw with people, but when lying to be nice, it sounds so phony? I think that says a lot about the kind of person she is.

Ya’ll knew I was gonna add this panel, didn’t you?

I was never one to go crazy about blushing anime girls ‘cause to me, it always felt like it stemmed from some sadistic desire to see girls look uncomfortable. So while I can’t get behind it for reasons like that, I can admit that Yuri’s blush is fucking precious and I think that’s because I love seeing her so emotionally transparent for once. It feels rare, raw and well-earned after all this time, so yeah. A++

Oh, Tomoko, if only you knew that skill often has nothing to do with it. Yuri’s not embarrassed because she sucks at humming, but because you saw a side of her that she only lets out in private. Trying to reassure her is a good move, but putting the girl on blast like that is not going to end well.

I felt like the vibration alone would’ve left a huge-ass crack on Yuri’s phone screen. This whole moment is like eleven tiers of funny because even though Tomoko is probably miles away, the impact of Yuri’s punch still jostles her. It also helps that we can visibly see Yuri’s fist come down mere millimeters from Tomoko’s mug.

There is no escaping her wrath, Tomoko.

I feel you, girl. For me, nothing beats a good ol’ burger and fries after a hard day of studying.

Careful there, Tomoko. If there’s one thing that studying has taught me (other than I hate it), it’s that you could get serious burn out if you go all-out on the first day, especially if you’re typically not a regular studier. Always make sure to get dem breaks in.

That sounds like the kind of line you’d see in a mainstream shounen action manga like [ ]. I don’t even have a direct reference here, so feel free to fill in the blank.

Hey, with Tomoko’s luck, I was expecting karma to hit her harder than Truck-kun in an isekai anime, so I consider this a small loss.

Man, remember when we were young and had ambitions as high as the sky, and we all wanted to change the world by being firefighters, astronauts, idols, and presidents?

Kind of sucks that “financial stability” has become our goal in life as we enter adulthood. Perhaps that’s just the mindset creative-types like Tomoko have towards the STEM industry when it’s hard to see what makes that world so personally fulfilling.

Oops, my opinions are starting to seep in, so let's move on.

Nooo, don’t do it, Nico Tanigawa Tomoko! Don’t sell out your passions for financial security even though it’s a totally viable career decision! How else are we going to validate the pursuit of our artistic dreams?

How in the hell is Tomoko balancing that drink? I’m willing to let it pass for rule of cute, but I don’t care how secure that cup is. One wrong move and those practice sheets are done for.

Jesus Christ, Nemo is on some otherworldly dimension of cute right here.

I don’t even think Tomoko is trying to one-up her or anything. This is already the most effort she’s given to study in a single instance, so I think she genuinely just wants to share this personal accomplishment.

You know, while it’s already been established that Tomoko and Nemo have different tastes in anime, that doesn’t necessarily mean they wouldn’t watch the same show, right? Just for different reasons. While Nemo would watch her cute slice-of-life series earnestly, Tomoko would probably watch them ironically MST3K-style. In any case, it’s a good way for them to find some common ground.

Bruh, Nemo must be over the fucking moon for this opportunity. Think about it: when was the last time she’s had someone to watch anime with her? After concealing her power level for so long, this could be the first time Nemo has had a fellow anime fan to geek out over a series with. And not just discussing it afterward, but actually reacting to a live episode together.

Nemo may give Tomoko all kinds of shit, but this is actually what she wanted all along, wasn’t it?

Boy, Tomoko sure gets pretty demanding when she’s sleep-deprived, huh? I’d hate to see how loose her inhibitions get when she’s stark-raving drunk.

Is this referencing the Quintessential Quintuplets anime? I don’t know anything about it other than that’s a kickass title.

Hey now, Tomoko, beggars can’t be choosers. Let Nemo give you the play-by-play at her own pace. She’s even acknowledging that you hate the source magazine without a hint of judgment. She’s gonna go places.

At first, I thought all this recent armpit content was just an incidental joke. Then I thought it was the mangaka slyly inserting their fetish into the series. Then I realized the series turned the joke on its head and made it a meta-reference about their very thing their readers were accusing them of.

Well played.

You ain’t slick with that leg service, Nino Tanigawa. Just sayin’.

Seriously though, I love the dynamic going on in this conversation. Tomoko and Nemo are approaching the discussion from different outlooks, the former looking at it from a degenerate’s perspective and the latter looking at it more optimistically. But even so, they’re not trying to “get the upper hand” like they might've done before. They’re simply having a totally organic talk about what they do and don’t like about the series, while still recognizing each other’s personal preferences. For once, it’s completely devoid of passive aggressiveness and it really shows how earnest their friendship has become.

At some point, I think Tomoko’s consumed so much near-pornographic content that pretty much all anime, manga, VNs, etc. looks like the same hentai to her.

Every fiber of my being says that this is a reference to Komi-san Can’t Communicate, but it could just as well be the mangaka shooting themselves in the foot for a good joke. In any case, I do like how they point out shy, socially awkward girls is a rising trend that borders on romanticizing communication problems.

Does that make Watamote a hipster manga since it did the whole “social anxiety girl” shtick before it was cool?

I wanted to make a pretentious joke about how basic that anime sounds and how I’m so above a show that panders to the masses, but even I like junk food, so I’ll spare you the hypocritical humor.

If Ucchi caught a glimpse of this, she’d probably explode right on the spot.

I spent a good five minutes trying to decipher how Tomoko’s sleeping expression could be seen as “happy”, and I realized that it’s not that she looks happy. It’s that she doesn’t look unhappy. I’d imagine that those plagued by anxiety and stress have it evident on their face when they sleep, so the fact that Tomoko fell asleep in relative bliss must mean she’s had a pretty satisfying day. To top it all off, this is one of the few times someone–and Nemo of all people–has seen Tomoko in all her vulnerability.

And you know what? Nothing bad happened. No punchline undermining the moment, no sarcastic quip, no embarrassment. Just genuine sweetness and it really speaks to the series’ faith in its heartwarming moments.

As a final note, I just wanted to thank everyone again for their patience. I’ve been trying to put a fresh spin on this, making it a little more comedic since its honestly getting harder to “analyze” without constantly repeating myself. It’s a lot of fun, and I hope you guys enjoy it for what it is.

#watamote #watamote review #chapter 167 #no matter how i look at it it's you guys' fault i'm not popular!#tomoko kuroki #yuu naruse #yuri tamura #hina nemoto #review

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pluckyredhead · 5 years ago

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Daredevil 101: The Devil in Cell Block D, Part 1

Y’all, I am so excited. “The Devil in Cell Block D” is one of my all-time favorite Daredevil stories and I have been chomping at the bit waiting to share it with you for...*checks watch* four years. Um. *cough*

Anyway, we ended the last Daredevil 101 with Matt in Riker’s Island, awaiting trial for charges of, essentially, Being Daredevil and Thus Annoying the FBI. We also ended with the final Bendis/Maleev issue of the regular series, which means we have a new creative team: Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark, who provide a very seamless transition, not least because Lark’s art is very similar to Maleev’s in style.

This storyline covers DD v2 #82-87.

Content Warnings: There are two incidences of murder that are made to look like suicide in this story. I have not included the images here but if you look up the storyline for yourself be warned that both “suicides” are shown on the page. Also, there’s a lot of prison violence, unsurprisingly.

We begin with Matt, unsurprisingly, not having a very good time:

No one in jail believes that he’s not Daredevil and pretty much everyone is looking forward to him inevitably being killed, guards and supervillains and regular prisoners alike. Poor Matt.

Also, there’s someone else running around on the outside as Daredevil, and Matt has no idea who. And neither do his friends:

EVERYONE IS SO CRANKY. But yeah, as Ben points out, obviously having someone operating as Daredevil while Matt’s demonstrably in jail reinforces their defense that Matt isn’t Daredevil, but it would be profoundly unethical for Foggy to be involved with that. Which he tells the Fake Daredevil when he runs into him:

Foggy going “LA LA LA I LEGALLY CAN’T HEAR YOU” is a very wonderful thing for my heart. Anyway Fake Daredevil will stay a mystery for now!

But the next morning, it’s more bad news:

Of course Foggy, old-fashioned bougie fussbudget, shaves with a straight razor. And of course Foggy, exhausted workaholic, shaves in his office.

The woman is Dakota North. She was a preexisting Marvel character who’d debuted in her own miniseries about 15 years earlier before bopping around with cameos and supporting roles in other heroes’ books. Basically, she’s a former model turned PI, and right now she’s working as Nelson and Murdock’s investigator.

Anyway, she’s here to warn Foggy that the feds are going to argue that Matt can be put in gen pop (general population) with the regular prisoners, since if he’s really Daredevil, he’ll be fine. Of course, even if he is Daredevil, sticking him in the middle of 10,000 other inmates, most of whom have it out for him, is not going to end well - but then, the FBI has made it clear that they’d be as happy with a prison death as a conviction.

Meanwhile, things continue to go poorly for Matt. On his way back from a doctor’s visit, the guard tasked with returning him to his cell instead leads him into a room full of other prisoners. They work for the supervillain Hammerhead and are very much there to beat the crap out of him. Matt manages to defend himself, but then has to explain how he defended himself:

So Matt has been manipulated into solitary. But why?

He’s let out to meet with his lawyer:

I love this beat, because, like, neither one of them wants to commit perjury or fraud, but they also want to get Matt out of there. It’s rare that we see Matt and Foggy wrestling with an ethical issue from the same side because as a narrative device it makes so much more sense for them to argue it with each other, but I love this moment where they’re trying to figure out, together, how to solve this problem without sacrificing their souls. Which will become thematically important later.

Also, they’re in love:

I’M NOT CRYING YOU’RE CRYING etc etc

Anyway. Matt is led back to solitary. Foggy and Dakota are escorted towards the exit.

And then Foggy is attacked.

Foggy’s heart stops beating. And deep within the bowels of Rikers, Fisk laughs.

What a way to attend your best friend’s funeral, jeez.

(Also, I believe this, like Foggy’s wedding, is confirmation that he is at least nominally Catholic as well.)

I always like scanning the crowds in funeral scenes to see who turned up, and there’s some noteworthy appearances and omissions in this one:

So we’ve got Jessica, Luke, Danny with some very Robert Redford hair. Becky and Dakota and Ben are juuuust barely visible in the very last panel (and Ben is narrating). And Rosalind is here, in her last appearance ever, and touchingly, she’s clearly deeply upset over Foggy’s death.

Not in attendance? Literally any Nelson. Also any of Foggy’s other superhero clients, including the Fantastic Four, Tony, and Carol. Nice, guys.

Matt returns to jail with only one thing on his mind: vengeance.

“He was so scared.” NOOOO FOGGY. SOMEONE HUG HIM. SOMEONE HUG EVERYONE.

Becky Blake - remember her? - has gotten a law degree and taken over as Matt’s lawyer now that Foggy’s dead. They go to the hearing to determine whether or not Matt will remain in protective custody, and, well...

I! LOVE! THIS! MOMENT! It is some POWERFUL “I’m not trapped in here with you. You’re trapped in here with me” realness. Matt’s going to gen pop, and that means he can finally start beating up anyone who knows anything about Foggy’s death.

Also the Owl, just for fun:

I mean, not really for fun, but the level of viciousness at play here shows you where Matt’s head is at.

Meanwhile, Ben and Dakota team up to discuss the case:

So: whoever has Foggy killed is cleaning house, and Matt has gone totally apeshit in prison. Neither of these things are great news.

And in more not-great news, guess who’s coming to Rikers!

Party in jail! Bullseye’s bringing the beer! Uh, maybe don’t drink it, though.

Meanwhile, Matt’s reign of terror has even spread to the guards:

As you’ll recall, Hammerhead’s goons attacking Matt was the reason Matt got put in solitary, where he was unable to help Foggy or contact anyone who could help. So Matt puts on a mask, avoids the security cameras, and pays Hammerhead a visit to find out why:

Matt makes it very clear here that the nerve pinches he’s used on Hammerhead are basically torture, and usually he doesn’t use them for that reason. But with Foggy dead, all bets are off. I LOVE MATT GOING FERAL OVER FOGGY. But it does him no good - Hammerhead doesn’t know anything.

Meanwhile, Ben and Dakota get a lead:

This lawyer, Alton Lennox, is the person who hired the prisoner who shanked Foggy. But why?

I’m going to pause here because this is getting looong, but we have a lot of questions on the table: Who is Alton Lennox, and who hired him to have Foggy killed? Where is the prisoner who actually did the stabbing? Has Matt gone irrevocably over the edge? And who is Fake Daredevil?

Next up: Milla, the Punisher, and a prison riot!

#daredevil #daredevil 101

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trisanachandlers · 5 years ago

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I read Wild Magic really fast and here are all my thoughts on THAT:

the only thing this book is missing for which there is NO excuse is Raoul. 5/5 stars. needs more Raoul. that is my entire review

I had forgotten how deeply I love these books and these characters, including and perhaps especially Numair? and by “these books”, to be clear, I mean Wild Magic, Wolf Speaker, and Emperor Mage, you know, the Immortals trilogy

Ok that’s my whole review I’m actually done now

just kidding

Honestly make Daine like 5 years older so she’s 17-18 at the beginning and 20-21 at the end and like... it’s fine. I wouldn’t mind. It’s still not great but it’s okay. That’s my take, that in fact if/when Immortals gets adapted I will be fine with Daine/Numair as long as she is a young adult at the beginning when they meet instead of a literal 13-year-old. Just do what g*me of thr*nes did with Daenerys in the beginning! it’s fine!

haha daine and daenerys. dainerys. haha

mother of dragons haha wait a minute -

HOLD ON JUST ONE SECOND HERE

these books predate a s*ng of *ce and f*re I’m just saying

I forgot Onua was like at least in her 40s (based on she’s been working with horses for 28 years) and like she’s a cool early-middle-aged lady with a no-nonsense attitude who wanders the wilderness with her dog? oh boy is 23-year-old lesbian me into THAT, conceptually, in a way kid me was not so much yet

of course everyone is gay but YOU KNOW WHO’S GAY? MIRI. THIS IS MIRI’S INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH:

“She had dark hair cut boyishly short and a pair of dancing green eyes. With a tip-tilted nose, a cleft chin, and a dusting of freckles, she looked like pure mischief.”

GAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know things were not exactly the same in the 1990s as they are now but this is just every single late millennial/gen z queer I have ever met in my entire life

anyway

Just generally it is very cool how many more women are in this book, because as much as I love Jon (usually) and Raoul and George and Myles and Thom and Coram and and and, up until Thayet and Buri showed up in Lioness Rampant there were like... not a lot of women who were around very much in SotL and it’s just very nice that in this book the cast is much closer to even

“Let’s only name our plot-relevant children after our dead relatives whom readers will remember from the last book,” the friends all agreed collectively

Can you imagine Maude’s face when Alanna was presumably like “Maude, I have a favor to ask of you. I’ve just had a son, and I hope you’ll come help me take care of him as you raised my brother and me. I’ve named him after Thom and he has the Gift” Maude: oh gods FUCKING help us all

anyway I love Roald, Kally, and Thom so much and I wish there was more of all of them in the books but especially Kally? like we do get plenty of Roald development in Protector and there’s a little of grownup Thom in Trickster but Kally agrees to not go for her shield and be a princess and a healer instead and then goes to Carthak to marry Kaddar when she grows up and where is that quartet, dammit

Speaking of Thoms, I assume Alanna meeting Arram went something like this:

Arram: hello

Alanna: oh fuck. ok everyone out of the way, let me handle this, I’m the expert on dealing with vain and overconfident magical prodigies around here as I have trained literally since the moment of my birth and you guys sure royally fucked it up when I was gone last time so I’m adopting this overgrown puppy of a mage. he is mine now. I will not be hearing objections good day

Arram: ... okay cool!

I have so many questions about the timeline of Numair’s backstory that make me think I need to reread Tempests & Slaughter before I go any further because if he’s 25 in this book (for some reason I always thought he was 14 years older than Daine, not 12, turns out I was wrong about that) and he’s been in Tortall doing his thing for 5 years that means everything with Ozorne and the multiple years of being homeless and on the run (as well as becoming a Black Robe!) all happened before he was 20, and I do not remember how old he was at the end of Tempests & Slaughter and the wiki is deeply unhelpful on that cause apparently no one has updated it since that book was published???? I guess I could fix that but my first day of my second semester of law school is tomorrow so I’m not going to

I want Cate Blanchett to voice the mom dragon and that is my one (1) strong opinion on tv show casting that I have developed from rereading these books so far

I also think whoever plays Roger should voice the kraken, just to make viewers go “wait... no. wait. what? no. what?”, because it would be fun

Actually the 10-year time skip makes me really question how they’d even include Song of the Lioness in a tv show (since Immortals + Protector pretty much run straight through), except that a) it’s kind of necessary to get that backstory in order for people watching to have the degree of attachment to all the adult characters in this book that readers do, and b) I guess the Numair books should fill in the gap basically right? but also because the Lioness and Protector books are so inconsistently paced (4:4:1:1 years for SotL, 1:3:4:1 years roughly for PotS) I don’t know how they’d pace out seasons and obviously if they tried to adapt it all and keep about 1 season for every 2 years or so they’d end up with like. 20 seasons total which, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

anyway I really really love Numair and I’m very angry about how thoroughly that love is going to get destroyed a few books from now

#tortall #wild magic

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inikavulpixelreviews · 5 years ago

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Let’s Talk About Pokemon - The Ghost Type

Gosh we're getting so close now. We're at my second favorite type of all, the Ghost type! Probably surprising nobody with that one, given my love for all things Halloween. What better way to appreciate Halloween than with he Halloweeniest type of them all!

Ghost types had a really slow start with me at the beginning. I wasn't too impressed with the Gastly family and Misdreavous didn't make a dent there either. Was Ghost just doomed to little sheet-ghost looking things in various colors? That's a shame, cause Ghost as a conceptual type is really cool. Then Gen 3 happened and my feelings on the type turned around so hard it did like 7 rotations before stopping at a complete 180. We got the absolutely spooky gold that is Banette, and DUSKULL, and freaking SHEDINJA. Then Gen 4 happened and didn't stop there! With the funny but still spooky Drifloon and Rotom, and the big and scary Spritiomb and Giratina to go with em. Then Gen 5! Then Gen 6! Okay, tl;dr, the type's been on the up-and-up ever since that turnaround in Gen 3.

And true to their theme, Ghost types often get the spookiest lore to go with them. Shedinja's back-hole sucking out your soul, Drifloon attempting to abduct children, Phantump's whole thing of being the soul of a child that died in the woods. Yeah, that's right, some of these Ghosts are even the spirits of dead humans! There's something oddly existential about catching a Yamask and learning that it's the ghost of a human being that you're throwing at people's pet dogs and cats to beat them up. Doesn't help the whole image people like to project onto the series of “Pokemon is messed up if you think about it too hard.”

Top 10 Favorite Ghost Types:

This is so haaaaaaard cause they're all so GOOD. Help me.

My Top 11-20 Favorite Ghost Types:

I just GOTTA. Ghost types are too cool, alright?!

My Bottom 10 Least Favorite Ghost Types:

...Huh. This was easier than I thought it'd be. Honestly, it’s just Hoopa and Marshadow that I’m kinda indifferent towards. The rest are just some slightly less cool dudes.

The Cutest:

The Coolest:

The Prettiest:

The Spookiest:

The Other Spookiest:

Ghost type is just so spooky, it's gotta have TWO spooky categories.

Weirdest/Most Unique:

Most Inventive Use of the Type:

This one's just hard because most Ghost types are just different kinds of dead things. Shedinja gets a lot of credit NOT JUST for being probably THE most genius design in the whole dex, but also for being the sole animated corpse in the whole Ghost-dex so far. And Blacephalon for getting the “spooky clown” thing done and over with in a way that isn't overbearingly leaning on “haha geddit, cause it's a spooky weird clown?” Phantump, Drifloon, and Pumpkaboo especially are some ghost designs that are just absolutely gorgeous in terms of how effective they are for their simplicity. And Cofagrigus is just a neat way to make a living coffin creature.

The Most Halloweeny:

Now THESE are the Pokemon that make me think of the Halloween season every time I look at em. Happy Halloween!

GHOST TYPE WISHLIST:

NOTE: These Type Wishlists were written out before any news on new Pokemon from Sword and Shield. The Pokemon revealed over time will not affect these wishlists. Just to present them unaltered despite spoilers and in the interest of getting the wishlist out there, and to see which items on said wishlists get fulfilled by Sword and Shield!

A Shadow:

Marshadow and Gengar are fine and all, but they seem to have an overbearing excess of dimensions for what are supposed to be “shadow” monsters. Can you imagine the cool visual of a Ghost type Pokemon that is truly nothing BUT a shadow on the ground? Perhaps even a shadow protruding from its trainer's own shadow when it's sent out in battle?! Sadly, that might be expecting a bit much, hmmm. If we just get a perfectly flat but standing monster, that'd be rad too.

A Skeleton:

C'MON GUYS, skeletons have been memes for like, a whole DECADE at this point, where's our friggin Skelemon?! Duskull is a good temporary make-up but I really just want a Pokemon that is truly nothing BUT a skeleton. It's like, THE thing missing to make any Nightmare Before Christmas parody involving Pokemon perfect, and you're missing the main character here!

A Haunted Suit of Armor:

Perhaps a bit cliched, but it's so cliché at this point that it'd be hilarious if they included a ghost that took control of a human knight's suit of armor. Though if we ever DID get a suit of armor ghostly Pokemon, I feel like its proportions would get messed with to keep it from looking TOTALLY human.

A Zombie:

A direct interpretation of a zombie, I can't say I blame them for not wanting to jump on. If you were to literally animate a corpse in Pokemon, it'd probably feel a little out of place. At least Shedinja has the excuse of the “corpse” just being an insect's shed skin. But there's still so many ways to ELUDE to zombies without making a complete direct reference to them. What about a monster that is little more than a hand erupt from the ground?! Its evolution could be a “living” dirt mound with TWO hands, even!

A Tombstone:

Speaking of dead things, you could TOTALLY get away with an animated spooky tombstone monster! A perfect Rock/Ghost type!

A Vampire:

How do we still have no vampire monster?! Is it because they're too busy making OTHER bats?! Well, I guess that's fair enough. But I still want my vampire bat.

A Ghostly Deep-Sea Dweller:

Any one will do, I'm not gonna be ridiculously picky. Jellicent was a decent enough start but I think for my ideal Water/Ghost type we can go DEEPER. A gulper eel? A tube-eyed fish? A haunting ANGLER fish?!? Yes please!!

A Scarecrow:

Cacturne's got me settled enough to where the lack of one isn't bothering me a ton, but a full-on proper ghostly scarecrow would be killer to have anyway.

A Frankenstein's Monster:

I guess it wouldn't need to be a GHOST type necessarily, I just bring it up here since it fits in with the Halloween theme. Pokemon’s no stranger to having human-like ogreish creatures between ones like Conkeldurr and Machamp, anyway.

[Archive]

#Pokemon #Ghost Type #The Ghost Type #Pokemon Reviews #Halloween

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eponymous-rose · 6 years ago

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Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E55

This week’s guests are Laura Bailey and Taliesin Jaffe! This week’s theme: leaning hard into the post-con tired. This week’s conspiracy: beards. Why? How? WHEN?!

Announcements: General Admission tickets for Gen Con on August 2nd go on sale tomorrow at 10 AM Eastern Time! Everyone was really blown away by the love at ECCC (over 200 people were at one of the CR cosplay meetups!). Kickstarter update: with 30 days left in the campaign, over $7.6m has been raised thus far. If the next stretch goal is hit, there will be an entire 10-episode series. Brian and Laura also know Ashley’s idea for a one-shot and he’s excited to see it happen.

There will be no episode on Thursday, March 28th and no TM on the following Tuesday due to family commitments and half the cast being out of town.

Without further ado, it’s time to discuss Episode 55: Duplicity!

This episode sets the campaign 2 record for most player d20 rolls at 211. 230 was the record number of d20 rolls in campaign 1, in episode 114. 752 damage was dealt by the Mighty Nein, 280 of which was against each other. Jester and Caduceus both dealt 44 damage, none of which was friendly fire. By the end of the episode, the M9 had 8 spell slots left among them (of 45 total).

Taliesin’s reaction to last episode: “Maaaan. Ow. That hurt.”

For Clay, Taliesin only keeps notes for things he thinks he’d pay attention to. He occasionally peeks at Laura’s notes, mostly for entertainment value. Sam has the most detailed notes at that table right now.

Laura’s strong reaction to Caleb going bad was partly Laura just “giving Liam a lot of shit, because we’re actually siblings,” but this kind of betrayal was also a new experience for Jester.

Are they feeling betrayed by the M9? Taliesin: “Nah, he had siblings, man. He’s fine.” Laura: “Jester does not have siblings. She was pretty distraught about Caleb doing that.”

“This doll definitely comes alive at night.”

There is a very strange puppet show with Laura playing Caleb and Taliesin playing Jester until they decide it maybe makes more sense to swap.

Taliesin’s first thought with the explosive arrow was “Fuck, that’s expensive.” He knew Jester had the spell slot and he knew Clay would be okay. “That was not dumb. It would’ve been worse to be at the mercy of that creature there for a moment. I was toast no matter what. Better to do that there so we could get it in right away.” Laura points out that Sam had the explosive arrow prepped for that action regardless.

Jester is “definitely fighting the fear that she faces during battles now, because she feels mortal,” especially after seeing Caduceus fall. But at the same time, she is “at her core, a protector, both physically and emotionally, of people.”

Laura points out that she doesn’t heal in battle as much because she knows that she won’t be able to overcome the damage enemies are doing; it makes more sense to save lower-level spell slots to bring people back from unconsciousness than to heal people who are nearly down.

Gif of the Week: an extensive (and amazing) dice fail compilation!

Taliesin: “Oh man, that vision from the Wildmother was really good. That was Matt just giving me a big hug for everything that happened.” He’s excited to see some backstory hints there. “This is not what rattles him. Other things rattle him.” He’s of the opinion that grave clerics have probably been pushed to this place in ceremony a few times before.

Jester feels good about the revivify spell, but it’s also made the power of her abilities feel a lot more real. “Healing’s always second for her.”

Clay’s death experience was mainly just significant to him because it involved the Wildmother basically giving him a thumbs-up. “He definitely has a philosophy on the notion of destiny that’s very specific.” Taliesin’s excited to see how Caduceus will act if and when siblings show up. “I think he’s a trash fire. I don’t think this is the Caduceus you get when his siblings are around.”

Laura mentions the blood lust that comes up whenever Matt mentions that a baddie is “looking pretty rough”; it tends to make it tough to concentrate on anything else.

Fan Art of the Week: the revivify spell and Caduceus’ vision.

Jester’s bravery pre-dragon came from naiveté. Now it comes from love, and the people she surrounds herself with. “It’s like she’s trying to find the bravery herself.”

A question points out that Percy’s inventions indirectly led to Nott firing that explosive arrow... and hence he was somewhat responsible for killing his own character. “This is literally what the character was intended to do. This is literally what Percy was invented to do.” He absolutely thought last campaign that he may be killing a future character with his actions as Percy.

“Jester believes in the other gods. She just thinks that the Traveler is way cooler than any of them.” In her mind, the Wildmother has the same sort of relationship with Clay as she does with the Traveler. That’s why she immediately took the “go get his mom, he needs help” approach with her plea to the Traveler.

Is Caduceus holding a grudge against Nott? “I think there’ll be a little bit of a ‘hey, little buddy, be a little more careful there going forward’ talk.” But things happen.

Jester has had a bit of a “Fuck, I should have been there for Molly, too” reaction after the revivify.

In Clay’s mind, fiends are slightly better than the undead. “They’re better, but they don’t belong here. It’s like having an infestation in your home.”

“In retrospect, Nugget really should’ve stayed with Momma a little longer.” Sprinkle’s well-protected. “That’s how I’m saying Sprinkle is not dead.”

Taliesin has really been enjoying his first experience as a cleric. "There’s a lot of satisfaction to looking Matt in the eye and ruining something he’s been working on.”

Search for Grog Questions! CR1 SPOILERS ENSUE!

Taliesin and Laura felt like they didn’t miss a beat going back to Vex/Percy: “Fuckin’ power couple, man.”

Laura had no recollection of the joke about Percy losing his arm in the original episode and was extremely confused. Taliesin honestly didn’t believe Matt was going to do it, but he respects Sam’s commitment to the bit.

The Golden Snitch actually got stolen at some point when Matt’s car got broken into. Taliesin now has an Anti-Snitch that’s been working pretty well.

There’s some ideas thrown around about what to do with Percy’s arm. Some sort of greeter/wacky inflatable tube guy is the general consensus.

#critical role #critical role spoilers #talks machina #talks machina spoilers #long text post

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raveneira · 5 years ago

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Things I’ll never understand about this fandom

Sakura hitting Naruto is abusive and bitchy and makes her a terrible person for hitting nice guy Naruto who doesnt deserve it

But Karin hitting Suigetsu just for making her mad is completely fine and nobody bats an eye

Sakura only liking Sasuke because he was cool and handsome makes her love for him shallow

But Karin liking Sasuke for the EXACT SAME REASON is completely overlooked simply because he saved her and she has a tragic backstory

Karin only ever mentions Sasuke’s smile which is a part of his appearance, when she layed dying she thought of wanting to see that face once more, in the databook it said Karin stayed loyal to Sasuke in hopes of seeing his radiant smile again, this fandom loves to claim that she fell inlove with him because he saved her but Karin herself contradicts that very argument with her own words, even in that god awful filler her final request to Sasuke was to smile for her, not be happy like some people claim is what she wanted, just smile for her like that one time referring back to the chunin exams, but nobody cares about that and instead try to twist it into something more than it actually was, a shallow crush

Sakura not knowing or understanding Sasuke is such a big deal and why they shouldnt be together

But Karin knew nothing about Sasuke either as their encounter didnt even last a minute yet we’re supposed to believe she fell inlove with him and stayed inlove with him for 3 years just from that ONE encounter? he didnt even acknowledge her, just what scroll she had and then left when he saw it wasnt the one he needed, he made no attempt to check on her or ask if she was ok, yet we’re supposed to believe that this was enough for Karin to fall inlove with him and stay inlove with him for as long as she did, according to this fandom that makes perfect sense, but Sakura who actually was on a team with him and spent several months with him? totally shallow and no legitimate reason to have stayed inlove with him as long as she did

Everyone loves to ask WHY does Sakura love Sasuke

But nobody asks WHY Karin loves Sasuke, WHY Lee loves Sakura, the only one who needs a reason for their feelings to be legitimate is Sakura

Sakura lying to Naruto about being inlove with him is bad and makes her a total bitch for toying with his emotions like that

But Naruto transforming into Sasuke to trick Sakura into kissing him and also manipulate her into hating Sasuke by making him seem like a bad person so that he can have a shot at her is totally fine

Sakura ‘making fun’ of Naruto being an orphan is horrible and a bitch thing for her to do

But Ino mocking Sakura’s forehead, her biggest insecurity which Ino is more than aware of is totally fine

Sakura breaking off her friendship with Ino over a guy is terrible and shes a bad friend for that

But Ino allowing their friendship to fall apart over a guy is fine, Ino not fighting for her friendship with Sakura instead of letting a guy come between them is fine, Ino being a bitch to Sakura now is fine, Ino making no attempt to salvage their relationship at all and just going along with the whole thing is fine, Naruto fought tooth and nail for his and Sasukes friendship regardless of his feelings for Sakura he continued to pursue Sasuke for his own reasons, Ino didnt fight for their friendship in the slightest and let it fall apart but thats just fine, the responsibility is all Sakuras

Sakura covering up the Taka photo was horrible and a bitchy thing to do after all Karin did for them

But Sasuke not mentioning Karin or Taka to Sarada at all is completely overlooked, its Sakuras responsibility to tell Sarada about Sasukes former criminal teammates that she barely knows anything about to begin with, its not Sasukes place to explain this part of his past to Sarada its Sakuras, everything is Sakuras responsibility

Sakura not telling Sarada anything about Karin or Taka is bad

But Hinata not telling Boruto and Himawari about Jiraiya, Kiba, Shino, Sasuke is completely fine

Sakura is bad for being a housewife

But Hinata is literally the only one of her generation who is still a chunin and the only thing we see Hinata doing throughout Boruto is cooking and cleaning the house, and no Himawari is not an excuse because Boruto was literally her age running around the village with his friends just fine, and the old gen running around even younger, Himawari is well old enough to not need 24/7 Hinata supervision so that is no excuse, but its fine for Hinata to be a housewife and just cook and clean house but Sakura? how dare she do the dishes and clean the house

Sakura falling to her knees yelling for Naruto in the Pain arc was weak and pathetic

But Hinata tripping and asking Neji, her now-dead cousin to watch over Naruto, who she failed to get to by tripping on a rock

Sakura going up against Madara alone and getting stabbed was stupid and foolish and ha what a weak bitch

But Hinata going up against Pain alone and getting one-shotted was heroic and atleast she tried

Sakura going up against Gaara and being defeated easily is being stupid and useless

But Hinata going up against Momoshiki and being defeated easily is seen as brave and heroic wanting to save her husband

Sakura being flat-chested is a running joke within the fandom and anime as Sakura being less attractive than the other females with bigger breasts

But for some odd reason, Karin doesnt get this same mockery even though she is much flatter than Sakura is, yet no one says a thing, not to mention a flat ass too, but again crickets

Sakura was a bitch to Naruto for no reason even though he was nothing but nice to her and supported her

But Karin was a bitch to Suigetsu even though all he did was poke fun at her and never laid a hand on her Karin was a bitch to him just for speaking the truth, but thats completely fine

Finally, Sakura is stupid and shouldnt have been with Sasuke after he treated her like shit and tried to kill her and rejected her, shes a bad character for being obsessed with Sasuke after all he did to her

But Naruto can chase Sasuke tirelessly despite being told to leave him alone, Sasuke attempts to kill him multiple times, Sasuke rejects his friendship and calls them his ex-team, calls Naruto an outsider, outright asks Naruto why hes so obsessed with him, rejects Narutos friendship again and still threatens to destroy the entire village and kill him, completely fine and true friendship and true love, all of that is completely acceptable and forgivable, but Sakura? downright blasphemy

I could go on but I think I made my point, this fandoms hypocrisy never cease to amaze me

#rant #naruto fandom #Anti-karin #anti-sasukarin #anti-hinata #just in case

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