#my tools: g-witch

[khajiit-reads]

Whaaat, this g-witch thing looks fabulous! I’d love a slot! Feeling femme today I think, and I have chosen a wish 🤞🤞

Your wish number is 36! That means this wish will likely come true.

Alright, so, repeating for the sake of clarity in case you return to this spread at a later date and no longer remember in the future: The inner circle represents your destiny, and the outer circle the forces affecting you and it.

Let's start with the inner circle. ⛤ There is Heart beside Scythe and above House. This means that great joy will come to you about a venture you have complete control over - But, you might still find yourself feeling a little disappointed in it for some reason or another. ⛤ Scythe beside Heart and Book. Scythe remains about disappointment, but alongside Book we can infer that you're going to learn something, perhaps about that which is making you happy, that dampens the mood a bit, sadly. ⛤ Book beside Scythe but above Sun. Book generally means something affected for the better, even with Scythe sitting beside it, and above Sun it might mean that it has something to do with a social matter. ⛤ House below Heart and above Mouse. Mouse usually means theft, but I read Mouse a little bit more loosely to be about loss of something in general. House is still a fortuitous card, especially below the influence of Heart, so while something may end, it will work out for the better. ⛤ Sun below Book and above Park. Thankfully, Park is near the Querent (that's you!) so we can expect this to be a positive card and an overall positive omen for you and your relationships. ⛤ Mouse below House and beside Order. (That first part rhymed! Anyways,) Mouse is near the Querent, which means that all loss will be quickly healed from. It being near Order, the "job recognition" card could indicate a slight financial bump in the road, but one that will be quickly mended by your ventures which will have success. ⛤ Order beside Mouse and Park. Your hard work is being recognized by those you care about, and even if things might be a bit hard for a while, you have people to take good care of you thanks to your reputation amongst them. ⛤ Park below Sun and beside Order. Park is about friendships and lovers (though I usually just read it as "interpersonal bonds" in general to account for those of us like me who are acearo), and Sun is about popularity, and Order about honor. You will have a great boon in your social life coming your way, built by your reputation and honorable actions.

Now, we get into the actions affecting you and your destiny. ⛤ Rider above Lilies and beside Ring. Rider brings good news, and Lily below brings a happy life as no Clouds are nearby. You have important relationships blessing you during this time. ⛤ Ring beside Rider and Dog. Now, Ring's text talks about left/right position, but Ring sits smack dab above you - So I'm gonna read that part as this - You have outside bonds that will help you and support you, even if things are not exactly going your way, and even if you reject that support, it will be there. ⛤ Dog beside Ring and above Tower. Dog has clouds in the card below it, and is distant, so you might have some enemies you're not aware of. Ring still, in my reading, signifies bonds you can't break out of, but I don't get the vibe this is a wholly negative card here. You just might have some people vying against you for some reason or another. ⛤ Lilies below Rider and above Clover Leaf. Lilies is far from the clouds in the Tower card, and has an up/down reading placement. To me, when to the left, Lilies represents living life in your way instead of the way others want you to. ⛤ Tower below Dog and above Lion. You might suddenly hear of these unsuspecting enemies, and it might make you feel very negatively for a while. It could also be more bluntly saying that illness will come into your life in some form soon through bad news. ⛤ Clover Leaf below Lilies and beside Birds. Clover Leaf is not near clouds so it is a positive card, but the Birds beside it worry me. Regardless, Clover Leaf still says that positive forces are working for you. ⛤ Birds beside Clover Leaf and Lion. Birds is a very negative card, saying that something awful is happening (perhaps the enemies mentioned before). Birds is far from the Querent, so we can expect the problems to come from afar instead of near. We do, however, see Book in the spread near the Querent, which means there is a good chance of avoiding the hardship entirely. ⛤ Lion below Tower and beside Birds. Repeating myself a tad here, but some bad news will happen that might affect you deeply, perhaps of the nature of said enemies mentioned before.

And that's the reading! I know the end sounds a bit down, but like I said in my main post - Mostly a negative omen deck lol. I wish you the best of luck and I get the feeling things will be okay.

Thank you so much for your patience with me performing this reading.

Reviews are helpful, but optional. You can send them in replies, my ask box, or reblogging this post. Feel free to reblog this post with your thoughts in general, or without a review! You can also reblog my guidelines post if you like. If you feel particularly satisfied with my work, you may leave a tip in my Ko-fi. No pressure for any of this!

Please do not reblog this post if you are not the querent. If you want something to reblog, please reblog my guidelines post. If there's something within the post you want, you may ask, and depending on the request, I might fulfill it! Thank you!

I hope you, and all readers, have a wonderful day!

[khajiit-journal]

Fredas, Morning Star 03, 2025

(Friday, January 01, 2025)

Dream interpretation first, as always.

I was friends with this family who ran this restaurant. For the first half that I remember, I was sulky and upset for having been scared and tormented by someone else entirely. But the rest, I was trying desperately to save the matriarch from a god-given illness, by performing a ritual and pleading with the gods. I woke up before I succeeded.

I... don't know what this means per se. I can make a few solid guesses, that the former part is due to the haunting I'm enduring. But the part about the god-given illness? I... really don't know.

— ☆ —

My new tools arrived today! Safaa (Rumi oracle), Aileas (Imbolc oracle), Bao (Mahjong), and Lilian (Sibilla oracle). I've done some test readings with them today, and also did some with Nadia (G-Witch).

I made sure to thank Hermaeus Mora for all of this. As always, I deeply appreciate the work It puts in for me and this part of my practice that I am utterly Feral about.

I opened some free reading slots for Nadia/G-Witch. Quite a few people took up slots which I'm really happy about, but I feel a bit bad I can't do it all same-day delivery, but then again, I need to be kinder to myself and not be a little butt to myself. I think as of writing this I'm done for the night, I'm physically tired and maybe a bit spiritually tired? I dunno, I'm not very good at listening to myself, but Hermaeus Mora and Lucifer both are asking me to at least take a break before returning to it. So I will. I'll heed them, maybe eat some dessert or something. Watch some stuff.

I am proud of myself for saying "Thank you for your patience!" instead of "Sorry for the wait!" on my reading posts end blurb. I know it's small, but it's kind language like that that I deserve.

I did some personal Mahjong readings and plan on roping some friends into receiving some. If I wasn't so shy I'd reach out and ask a mutual or two if they want some, at least the mutuals I properly interact with.

I also made a taglist for this blog, visible from here. I'll update it daily as I need to. I like having taglists. It's something that used to be more popular on Tumblr back in the early 2010s of its life, when I used it the first time, and I haven't quite let go of that aspect.

I wanna write some TES related posts or queue more stuff up for that blog, but I dunno what to do. Maybe "worship" posts. How to worship them, with a section on subtle worship. I got the idea from someone else, but I don't know how many ideas I'll have for actually worship, despite doing it every day of my life.

I just feel very strongly about TES. I have a post in queue about Azurah's triple aspect/triple form as Human, Mer, and Khajiit and how it looks like the depiction of the Triple Goddess and what that can mean for Her worship; and another about Clavicus Vile likely being based somewhat off of the Christian idea of Lucifer.

TES means a lot to me. The Gods in it mean a lot to me. I would give up so much for them, but they would never ask me to do anything like that. Well. to an extreme, I mean. They do ask me to give stuff up to them, just nothing... "so much".

I should work on finishing Clavicus Vile's quick start so I can post it. I don't have to worry about Akatosh's, but Meridia's day is the 13th, and Haki's day is coming up on the 24th. I know I can churn these out at the speed of light if I just focus, but with ADHD, it doesn't always happen, lol. Maybe I'm being too hard on myself...

Speaking of the 13th, I need to... focus more on the actual cleansing rituals and everything. I know everyone (my spirit guides) is telling me to chill, to not speedrun it, but... I. y'know. I like to get things done. I don't like having a to-do list.

And also, as an aside, I added something to my parents list for myself for groceries (that I can use otherwise) and turns out it's not at the store so it has to be ordered online. Which is really good I did that, because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to find it when I needed it for my spells, which I really wanna do The Big Shadow Realm One on the new moon this month. To start the year with January's new year energy and the energy of the new moon. I also don't want to wait to perform it even longer.

There's really not much else for me to say today. No spellwork done or anything, just messing with decks, as ya do. So... well, it's not goodnight, I won't be in bed for another hot minute, but g'night.

[aroacegundamalex]

Lalah and Suletta are the same archetype at the end of the day. One is a tragedy, and the other is a story of love and hope.

Suletta survived because she had someone to catch her when she fell, someone to take her hand when she needed it, and someone to hold her when she broke.

Lalah had a sympathetic boy on the other side of the battlefield, and a man using her like a machine. Char, for all he seemed to care, let Lalah be treated like another cog in the war machine. Let this child be reduced to yet another weapon on the battlefield, the same as any common gun at the end of the day— just with a bit more firepower. The same as Amuro.

Prospera — our Char — treated Suletta like a weapon, referring to her not as her own daughter but as “that girl” but she was far from the only presence in Suletta’s life. When her world fell apart, when she lost her mother, her sister, and her girlfriend in one fell swoop, Earth House was there to embrace her. Miorine was there to fight for her, even in a misguided way.

The closest thing Lalah had was Amuro. A child trapped in the same hell she was, a boy for whom there was no real escape from the war machine he’d been swallowed by. Valued not for his humanity, but for his ability to pilot a new kind of weapon.

The importance of connection is a major theme throughout Gundam, from 0079 to Witch from Mercury. Amuro does not save White Base because Bright slapped him, he gets back in the cockpit because Fraw reached out. Newtypes are the ultimate representation of that— the potential for humanity to grow and change by reaching out to one another.

A better future can only come from an extended hand.

Suletta came to Miorine’s door at her own lowest moment, and the two walked hand-in-hand towards a brighter future.

Suletta had her friends, had Miorine. Had people right beside her to pick her up and support her when her world fell apart.

At the end of the day, all Lalah really had was Char.

[mechanisticdispositions]

In which Eri gets a new GUND-Arm body and decides to use it for ostensibly non-restorative justice.

[sodasa-was-taken]

Romantic foils done right: How G-Witch uses romantic foils

Or why none of the characters who showed interest in Miorine and Suletta ever posed a threat to them getting together.

So, after the unexpected response to my last analysis and some recent discussions, I felt inspired to make another one. This time about romantic foils, a frequently misused but great tool in romances. I hope you enjoy it.

As far as I can tell, G-Witch has five romantic foils: Guel, El4n, Shaddiq, El5n, and Sophie.

In romances, when a character is in contrast to one of the main characters as a romantic option, they're a romantic foil. Having romantic foils in a story can be a great way to show what the principal characters see in each other. This is done by showcasing what the characters like and dislike about characters with contrasting attributes to the one they'll end up with.

Sometimes, it can feel like a romantic foil is just there to create cheap drama, often when they're a romantic rival, i.e., actively trying to get in the way of the main characters becoming a thing. Other times, when one of the focal characters isn’t the best person, an author might have a character who’s a romantic rival be even more of an asshole to make the character look better in comparison. This doesn’t make the character look better; it just creates a pick-your-poison situation. Furthermore, jackass and even more of a jackass ain’t foils since there isn’t any contrast. That isn’t to say that romantic foils can’t be antagonistic. Many of the romantic foils in G-Witch are also antagonists. In cases where a romantic foil is an antagonist, they emphasize the virtues of the characters they’re a foil to by being everything they’re not.    

Guel, foil to Suletta – At the beginning of the show, Guel is everything Suletta is not regarding their treatment and intentions towards Miorine. Suletta is apologetic to a fault, while Guel pushes Miorine around like he owns her. Guel is abrasive, while Suletta is considerate. He’s ostentatious, and she’s shy. Crucially, Suletta’s shyness doesn’t prevent her from having pride in herself. She just doesn’t need to show off like Guel.

Miorine grows fond of Suletta for the same reason she dislikes Guel. He’s the embodiment of everything Miorine hates about her predicament, and Suletta is the opposite. Although Miorine sees them as two sides of the same coin at first, both are out to insert themselves into her life, just in different ways. Except as Miorine soon enough learns, Suletta had no intention of doing so but just couldn’t stand by while seeing someone in distress. Side note: It’s ironic how opposed Miorine is to Suletta interfering in her life when Miorine later follows Suletta around like a lost puppy and insists on helping her any chance she gets. 

Attributes Miorine likes about Suletta that Guel notably lacks include, but are not limited to, her humbleness, her upbeat nature, her gratefulness, and her commitment to doing what she thinks is right. Also relevant if you think Miorine is a Lesbian; Suletta is a girl.   

When it comes to why they become the Holder, Guel is doing it for himself, and Miorine is simply a prize to be won. Suletta, on the other hand, ends up as the Holder unintentionally, dueling to help out Miorine rather than to have her. In fact, when she learns that being a woman does not exempt her from being Miorine’s groom, she goes full blue screen of death. 

Guel, foil to Miorine – Straight from one character’s romantic foil to the other. Guel is Suletta's foil until he catches feelings for her and shifts to become Miorine's. After being the first demonstration of Suletta's extreme discomfort with someone coming on too strong Guel denies his affection for Suletta. This happens shortly after Miorine has Suletta donning the uniform which shows the two are engaged.

In episode nine, while Miorine does everything she can to guarantee they win the duel against Grassley House, Guel won’t even fight because Dad told him he wasn’t allowed to duel. He doesn’t want Earth House and, more specifically, Suletta to lose, but not enough to disobey his father.

At the backend of season two, Guel becomes a regular foil to Miorine instead of a romantic foil since he’s no longer interested in getting with Suletta or, as he puts it, there are more important things than whatever feelings he might have for Suletta. This means he isn’t being motivated by those feelings the same way Miorine is by her love for Suletta and can, therefore, look a bit more objectively. It also means that he doesn’t stop Miorine from doing something he sees as fruitless because helping her break Suletta’s heart is a prize he’s willing to pay to save Jeturk Heavy Machinery.            

Side note: Guel does his job as a foil quite well, but because he’s a foil, his prominence is completely unwarranted. It might’ve been a little more reasonable if he was the only romantic foil, but this story has five. Giving this much attention to a romantic foil in a romance about a straight couple would be unthinkable. Still, because the story is about a same-sex couple, they can’t be the image of their own story.     

El4n, foil to Miorine – El4n is the only romantic foil in the story, highlighting the flaws of the one he's a foil to. His function in the show is to get Miorine worked up and showcase that Suletta isn't the type to pine. Side note: Suletta appears to be quite binary when it comes to others having feelings for her. Either they like her romantically, or they never will.

From very early on, El4n shows a fondness for Suletta, which Miorine is having none of. Later on, El4n asks Suletta out to get to Aerial. Side note: Gotta love how Miorine compares Suletta and El4n to Romeo and Juliet, considering that if any characters in this series have their budding relationship sabotaged by the feud between their families, it’s Miorine and Suletta. 

When El4n learns that Suletta isn’t an Enhanced Person like himself, his demeanor towards Suletta changes on the spot. The progression of Suletta’s relationship with El4n is an inversion of her relationship with Miorine. Where Miorine had to overcome a misconception about Suletta for her fondness for Suletta to grow, a misconception about Suletta is what El4n's fondness for Suletta initially sprung from. Additionally, El4n asks Suletta out because he wants something from her, while Miorine pretends she wants something from Suletta, but in truth, she wants to prevent Suletta from becoming the one who got away. Girl didn't pass up the chance to go to Earth in order to save Suletta because she needed a shield. 

Despite Suletta having an interest in El4n, spurred on by him showing an interest in her and El4n eventually reciprocating, a relationship between them would never work as their goals are diametrically opposed. If El4n wants to keep his life and be allowed to live his life as he pleases, he needs to win a duel against Suletta and take Aerial away from her. Something she can’t let happen because, for one, she wouldn’t even give up Aerial for the person she’s excited to marry, and two, losing would be letting down Miorine, someone she cares deeply about, and Suletta’s not about that.

When Suletta wins the fight, she also wins back El4n’s heart, but their relationship is doomed before it starts because El4n fails to secure Aerial for the Peil company and has to die for his failure. El4n accepts this and doesn’t fight to stay in Suletta’s life, instead thanking her and letting death take him.

In the last episode, El4n apologizes to Suletta for standing her up to which Suletta basically tells him not to sweat it as she’s come to learn that the person for her wasn’t him.           

Shaddiq, foil to Suletta – Here’s someone who starts out coming off as approachable but who’s revealed to be more and more deranged as the series goes on. Shaddiq is willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants all the while keeping his friendly appearance and calming smile.

Throughout episode nine, it becomes clear that while Shaddiq and Suletta are both upbeat go-getters, their views on Miorine couldn’t be more different. Shaddiq does, to some degree, care about Miorine, but what he thinks is best for Miorine is at odds with what Miorine wants. He justifies his attempts to control her with her being stubborn and unreasonable. She doesn’t know what would be the best for her, and Shaddiq’s been nothing but kind to her, so he doesn’t get why she keeps turning him down. This guy sure is tipping his metaphorical fedora.

The epitome of Suletta and Shaddiq’s conflicting views is shown when Shaddiq runs into Suletta after being at the greenhouse. He fails to reason with Miorine, so he tries to get Suletta to talk some reason into telling her that as Miorine’s groom, it’s her responsibility to talk some sense into her. Suletta doesn’t agree with the sentiment and instead thinks that her role as Miorine’s groom is to stand by her and support her. A very how the spouge of a woman should aim to protect and provide for their wife vs. they should treat their wife as an equal and encourage them to do what they want schools of thoughts. As Miorine seems perfectly content to be the primary breadwinner in the relationship, that first idea has less than no appeal to her.

Suletta ultimately turns out to be right, with the show taking a shot at the whole strong man who’s the sole protector of what’s deemed to be his mentality. After his defeat, he tells Miorine that he should have offered to fight for her, which most likely would have gotten him nowhere. Before Miorine met Suletta, she wouldn’t let anyone fight for her, and a good part of why Miorine rolled with Suletta becoming Holder was because she had no intention to. There’s no way of having the intention to become Holder and do what Suletta did. The intention is there, and that’s the problem. It cannot be overstated how little Suletta would care about being the Holder if Miorine hadn’t wanted her to be.

When Shaddiq learns that Miorine will be at Plant Quetta, he callously shrugs off the idea that he should try to stop her from getting hurt and leave it up to fate if she makes it out alive. This becomes somewhat vindictive when he probably justifies this kind of thinking by making it Miorine’s own fault for rejecting his protection. She doesn’t want him to keep her safe so he will do no such thing.                            

El5n, foil to Miorine – There’s not much to say here. El5n  showcases Suletta’s aversion to someone coming on too strong and her commitment to be with Miorine, as by the time El5n first makes a move on Suletta, she’s already hopelessly in love with Miorine. He and Miorine are also opposite extremes when it comes to their interactions with Suletta. El5n insists that Suletta should get with him while Miorine rejects that she has any veto over who Suletta can be with.

Sophie, foil to Miorine – Mostly qualifies for acting antithetically to Miorine and self-identifying as someone who sees Miorine as an obstacle to getting to Suletta. Although Sophie technically doesn’t express interest in being with Suletta romantically, since she goes full Yandere mode at the mention of Suletta being with someone else, she might as well be. One of a romantic foil’s main functions is to demonstrate why a relationship with them wouldn’t be in the best interest of the person they’re interested in having a relationship with. Declaring that she’ll have to kill Miorine to get the relationship she wants with Suletta makes Sophie succeed with flying colors in that regard.

Being a Yandere, Sophie doesn’t understand what would be offputting about telling Suletta she’s going to kill her loved ones. In her mind, she’s setting Suletta free to become a ruthless killer, which really shows how much she’s misjudged what Suletta is like as a person. As the cherry on top, it turns out Sophie’s obsessed with Ericht and not Suletta.  

This is another case of a character being the opposite extreme of Miorine. Concurrently with the event involving Norea and Sophie, Miorine is at the point where she’s blaming Prospera for Suletta’s actions, as she can’t see her little ball of innocence killing people unless she has been manipulated. 

            

From a meta-perspective, El4n, Guel, and Shaddiq are also the antithesis of what a romance protagonist should be due to their inability to fight for love. They’re defeatist and, at points, almost deterministic. After one major setback, they turn back to the person of their affection in the sense that they leave the person’s well-being up to fate. Something Suletta and Miorine never do to each other. Even when their insecurities get the better of them, they still have the other’s happiness and well-being in mind.

Furthermore, having the romantic foils display philosophies associated with determinism is a sort of social commentary in a sense. A part of Japanese culture is the acceptance of bad things happening and a willingness to make the best of an unfavorable situation, sometimes expressed through the word shouganai and similar words. This is a perfectly wealthy mentality until it gets used in situations people can and, more importantly, should be doing something about or, at the very least, be less accepting of. Case in point: whatever is up with Japan being behind on queer rights despite its several partnerships with multiple Western countries. So, having characters that act like their hands are tied and just shrug it off makes them foils to Suletta and Miorine, where needing to do something about a bad situation is a major part of their characters. The fact that the characters in question are products of the elite and two queer people who keep getting screwed over by the system is quite reflective of the contrast between activists in Japan and the country they live in.         

As the show is now, pairing these guys with the heroines reeks of heteronormativity. It doesn’t matter whether or not that’s the intention; it still does. Two female characters can go through thick and thin together, always having each other’s back whenever possible, and some people see their relationship as equal or even inferior to their barely existing or one-sided relationship with a man. The level of hypocrisy is astounding. It feeds into the idea that guys are entitled to have their feelings returned just by existing. That’s a big part of the reason there are guys who feel threatened by sapphic couples. It messes with their indoctrination that a woman would rather be with another woman than them.

It’s almost amusing how any of these characters come across as having a chance with either Miorine or Suletta when they’re never presented as such in the narrative. Unless the series was going to do a storytelling faux pas, Suletta and Miorine getting together is an inevitability by episode three. Having all this build-up just for them to end with someone else would be narrative nonsense. Good thing that didn’t happen.

[ladyloveandjustice]

My Top 12 Favorite Anime of 2023 (and more)!

This was a great year for anime, so here's a long list of my top 12 (including some bonus great anime). If you get tired of clicking the review links, check out my anime overview collection for all of them here.  You can also check out my list of favorite manga here!

Some of these are ongoing, so consider those only a review of the first cour-- no official endorsement on the rest because it hasn't aired yet!

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury (Season 2)

When I listed G-Witch in last year's top anime list, I prayed the show wouldn't betray me. Fortunately, it didn't! Though the final half of the show was a bit rushed, it remained must-see, compelling sci-fi full of exciting twists and turns. And I adore the well developed romance between the robot-piloting protagonist and precious girl, Suletta, and her fierce fiancé, Miorine.  Whether you’re here for starcrossed queer lovers, robots wrecking each other, tense battles between opposing political factions, or morally-horrifying moms on a revenge spree, you’re in for a treat.

See my full review here.

Yuri is my Job!

Hime is roped into working at a cafe where the waitresses playact as students of the fictional all girl’s school from a beloved novel series. However, Hime finds her co-worker, Mitsuki, has an inexplicable grudge against her. Thus begins a tangled web of romance and wounded feelings among the girls in the cafe! Yuri is My Job seems like a fun comedy boasting a cast full of quirky lesbians, but then reveals itself to be a complicated and fascinating examination of performance- as it intersects with queerness, girlhood,  and the desire to be “likeable” and “cute". It's top-tier lesbian drama full of fraught relationships and it's absolutely worth a watch.

See my full review here.

The Apothecary Diaries (still ongoing, review is for the first cour)

Though it's still going, I have to sing the praises of this dazzling anime about a saavy apothecary who uses her medical expertise to solve the many murders and betrayals in the Emperor's palace. MaoMao is a fantastic lead, a poison-obsessed gremlin who's whip-smart, deadpan, and fun to follow. The Apothecary Diaries has intrigue, well-developed characters, and an impeccable atmosphere. It tells a great range of stories, from romantic triumph, to bittersweet tales of recovering from grief, to pure tragedies. I'm totally hooked.

See my full review here.

The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady

When Euphie is dumped by her fiance at a ball, the oddball princess Anis rescues her.  Euphie becomes Anis' assistant in her quest to develop magical tools. The girls also start to develop feelings for each other, while discovering a conspiracy among the nobility. I'm always desperately in need of cool lesbians having action-packed fantasy adventures, and Magirevo delivers. The characters grow in entertaining ways, we get to see them fight dragons in killer action scenes, and the romantic development is completely satisfying. It's a simple story at its core, but the lovable characters, joyous queerness and jubilant execution make it a great watch.

See my full review here.

Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story (Season 2)

In the second season of the anime about girls homoerotically golfing while dealing with the mafia and ludicrous family drama, Birdie Wing remains a bombastically absurd sports anime that is fun all the way through. Please come watch these girls get ridiculous sports  injuries, scream their super golf attacks, experience extremely extra plot twists--and be super gay with each other, of course. The finale didn't go quite as hard as I wanted (and the romance is more subtexual than I wanted), but you need to allow yourself to experience the madness of Birdie Wing.

See full review here.

Skip and Loafer

An endearingly dorky, earnest, and driven girl moves from her small town to Tokyo. While she struggles to adjust, she befriends a nice popular boy who's got some baggage. Skip and Loafer is a show that’s like a warm hug. It's sweet, entertaining and funny. It handles adolescent struggles with tender nuance. There's a emphasis on kindness, connection, and looking past stereotypes and misconceptions. It also includes a trans character who's treated with respect (and is a great character in general!) Let this show touch your heart.

See my full review here.

Undead Murder Farce

An immortal woman has had most of her body stolen by a mysterious man. Reduced to a head carried around by her maid, she teams up with a half-demon man to track the thief down while solving supernatural mysteries all across Victorian England.

This a fun, campy mystery series starring three asshole weirdo protagonists,  it’s bursting with supernatural creatures and literary references. We've got Sherlock Holmes, The Phantom of the Opera, Carmilla and more...along with a vampire murders and werewolf drama galore. UDM is a wonderful romp with stylish, slick direction... and it’s unexpectedly really gay.  I’m aching to see more of these scrappy misfits and their adventures.

See my full review here.

Migi & Dali

A story of twins who are pretending to be one kid in order to fool their foster parents and find out who killed their mother. It starts out as an utterly absurd comedy becomes a impressive and genuinely tense murder mystery that is incredibly moving at times, all while keeping up it’s signature brand of goofiness. There’s genuine commentary on abuse, the damage you can do to children by forcing perfection on them, the struggle of being a foster kid, grief and recovery and more. There's also some great character development. It's a weird one, but it's absolutely worth sticking with.

See full review here.

Pluto

Somebody is killing the most advanced robots in the  world and murdering humans alongside them. A robot detective is trying to track this killer down, but he might be compromised as well. Pluto is a tense, tense, tightly plotted robot murder mystery that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Through robots, it explores the idea of being a tool in a corrupt system, and tackles subjects like war, imperialism, and the nature of hatred. It's a masterful psychological thriller with stunning animation and a rich story.

See my full review here.

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off

This anime approaches the story of Scott Pilgrim and Ramona's seven evil exes from a brands new angle, and the results are great. We get a exploration of relationships and regrets, the messiness of communication and connection, the trials of becoming an adult, all with the signature goofy video game antics. Characters neglected in previous iterations finally get their due, new facets of the story are explored, queer relationships are delved into more, girls kiss...and it's all accompanied by phenomenal animation and a killer soundtrack.

See my full review here

Soaring Sky! Precure

Sora lives in a world called Skyland and wants to be a great hero. When rescuing the kidnapped baby princess, she falls through a portal to earth. There she meets her fellow magical warriors, and as Precure they protect the princess from the villains!

This vibrant, warm-hearted adventure got me back on the Precure train! This series boasts a lot exciting firsts for the franchise--the first official male cure, the first main cure that's eighteen years old- but above all, it has a lively team of characters with who have an entertaining dynamic and enjoyable individual journeys. It's often very funny, the baby has a surprisingly good character arc, and it's bursting with magical girl (and boy) goodness! It's also not afraid to give you an emotional gutpunch when you've been lured into a false sense of security by all the fun times. If you're new to Precure, this is a great jumping on point, and if you've watched it before, this is a series you won't want to miss.

I'm in Love with the Villainess

Rae is reincarnated as the heroine of her favorite dating sim. But she has no interest in romancing any of the boys- she’s head over heels for Claire Francois, the snooty villainess.

Villainess may not be as polished--storywise or animation-wise-- as these other entries. It's a messy series, it has plenty of problems...but it's also very fun, and it touched my queer little heart like no other. Queer people get to indulge in our imperfect faves too, and the silly shenanigans, blatant lesbian wish fulfillment, honest advocacy for queer people, and the joy and earnestness of the series works for me!

See my full review here.

Some Other Great Anime:

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (still ongoing, review is for the first cour)

Frieren is a long-lived elf who was once part of an adventuring party that saved the world from the Demon Lord. But now her friends are passing away and the world is moving on. She decides to retrace her old party's journey so she can understand what she's feeling.

Frieren is both an interesting examination of what happens after the hero saves the world, as well as a meditation on mortality, grief,  and the endless march of time. It takes you on a quiet, beautiful and sometimes touching journey though a pastoral fantasy world. There's some breath-taking animation and excellent atmosphere to enjoy.

See my review here.

Spy x Family (Season 3)

Spy x Family is pretty much staying the course from when we last checked in,  though this season gives a lot more attention to Yor, and I love the cruise ship arc and all the ridiculous fights she gets into a lot! That arc contains some of my favorite gags of the series too (like Loid’s  attempts to be a cool dad). Otherwise, Spyfam has settled into a series that intends to be around for the long haul, so don’t expect too much forward plot momentum. And Yuri (the man, not the genre) unfortunately still exists. Overall it was good season and remains a fun  adaptation. Yor, please step on me.

[amy-coolshark]

Hey people, so I was trying to find out a way of immersing myself in mecha even more and I settled on the idea of making funny little reviews about the gundam kits I've built on my blog so here it is tee hee

(Very minor spoilers for Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury season 1 episode 6 ahead)

I present to you:

Demi Trainer A.K.A baby's first gundam kit

This is what kickstarted my addiction to building these little guys and honestly it was such a blast as my first experience with it! I saw the HG (1/144) model of this mobile suit in a nerd shop I was in that I was told had these kits and I figured it was a good starting point. I liked the idea of the training mech from g-witch acting as training wheels for me building these kits.

Fun Facts About the Demi Trainer

the MSJ-121 Demi Trainer is a mobile suit seen in The Witch From Mercury series, and is primarily used by students in Asticassia as a mobile suit to train with (hence the name Demi Trainer)

The Demi Trainer is just one model in a series of other Demi mobile suits! Other Demi models we see throughout the series are the MSJ-OP122 Demi Garrison (seen early on when Suletta Mercury's Gundam Aerial is being detained after her first duel), the MSJ-R122 Demi Barding, which is a more advanced model of mobile suit, equipped with more armaments, while still maintaining the Demi model philosophy. There's also Chuchu's iconic MSJ-105CC Demi Trainer, which is an older model that has been heavily modified by Chuchu in order to compete with more modern iterations of Demi mobile suits.

Our primary experience with Demi Trainer in the show is when Suletta Mercury is tasked with piloting one as part of her spotting exam, where she has a particularly difficult time passing it. It honestly made me feel really sad when I watched it for the first time :(

The Design of Demi Trainer

I really love how this mobile suit looks! It's a very simple design but I feel it's so effective at conveying it's primary purpose: to be a baseline training model for mobile suits. It's a lightweight mobile suit with minimal modifications done to it so that it can achieve high mobility and it's easy to maintain. It also looks very much like something a company would mass-produce for an institution like Asticassia.

Demi Trainers are used with a standard set of equipment, which includes a simple shield, a beam gun for ranged combat, a saber stick for melee combat, a combat knife, as well as the Daedalus multi-tool, which can be shaped and transformed into a variety of tools. This makes Demi Trainer a very versatile mobile suit, appropriate for use in many different situations. It doesn't seem to come with any sort of flight module, though that makes sense, as I imagine those are quite expensive to include on mobile suits, and this is meant as a simple trainer mech.

Of course, since it's heavily used in Asticassia, Demi Trainer also has an equipable antenna module for use in duels within the academy.

The Demi mobile suits are known for their extensive customisability, and the Demi Trainer is no different! You can even see these aspects within the design of this mobile suit. There are many little slots and places where you can modify Demi Trainer and potentially add modules or armaments, and you can see the extent of this modification in Chuchu's modified Demi Trainer, despite it being an older model. I'd really love to see what kind of modifications other student in the academy would apply to their Demi Trainers!

Building the Kit

My experience with building this gunpla kit was a blast! I was so excited to get started on this, and the kit did not disappoint! It wasn't too complex so that I was overwhelmed, but it also wasn't so simple that I was bored. Hearing all the clicks and feeling the pieces snap together as I built it was extremely satisfying, and I really like how the instruction booklet was structured.

You're not told to put individual parts of the mobile suit together until you've built a number of modules beforehand. For example, the instructions tell you to build the head, body and arms before telling you to put those parts together, and I think that makes the experience more satisfying. The same structure applies for the waist and legs of the kit, and being able to put all of the parts together at the end is such a good feeling! Of course, you can totally ignore the structure of the booklet and put parts together as you build them, which is also fine.

The kit also comes with a variety of stickers, and with the help of hindsight after having built 2 more kits after this one (which I also plan on reviewing), I can confidently say that the stickers for the Demi Trainer are probably the easiest to apply based on my limited experience! You get a small choice of stickers too, mainly a choice of what colour you want the middle torso portion to be. Of course, I picked purple because it's my favourite colour, but other choices also include red, blue, yellow and pink.

At one point while building this kit, I tried to take a part out so I could hear and feel the click of it again as I assembled it, but I accidentally applied too much force into it and the piece snapped, which make me panic but thankfully I had some glue to repair it, which was a huge relief. Not a fault of the kit itself, just my own excitement getting the better of me! Though I will recommend to be careful when assembling these kits if you're not experienced, and be gentle with them.

I was so so happy when the kit was finished and I could play around with it! Building it is half the fun, and the other half is posing it in all sorts of cool ways! You've seen some pictures of that already, but I also have some gifs of the kit spinning on a little turntable saved for the end.

The HG Demi Trainer kit comes with just the shield, saber stick and beam gun that I mentioned previously, which I personally don't mind too much but of course having more options for equipment is always a good thing. Thankfully you can buy an expansion set for Demi Trainer that includes a beam rifle, gatling gun, combat knife, 4-cell hand missile launcher and open hand parts, as well as some smaller extras. I personally don't have this expansion kit but I would love to get it at some point!

Overall, I think this is a fantastic kit to build, particularly if you are new to gunpla and are looking for a place to start. The Witch From Mercury kits are some of the best quality I think I've seen in gunpla (again, from my limited experience) and if you love the series and want to collect gunpla, you can't go wrong with getting this kit. The posable nature and movement of the kit itself is great, which I think is really cool and allows for some creative shots to be made with them!

This is a little series of posts that I hope to continue in the future! If you have any suggestions on things to add or change please let me know! I'm open to constructive criticism :)

[hellsite-hall-of-fame]

Once upon a time there was a lovely princess. But she had an enchantment upon her of a fearful sort which could only be broken by love's first kiss. She was locked away in a castle guarded by a terrible fire-breathing dragon. Many brave knigts had attempted to free her from this dreadful prison, but non prevailed. She waited in the dragon's keep in the highest room of the tallest tower for her true love and true love's first kiss. {Laughing} Like that's ever gonna happen. {Paper Rusting, Toilet Flushes} What a load of - Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed She was lookin' kind of dumb with her finger and her thumb In the shape of an "L" on her forehead The years start comin' and they don't stop comin' Fed to the rules and hit the ground runnin' Didn't make sense not to live for fun Your brain gets smart but your head gets dumb So much to do so much to see So what's wrong with takin' the backstreets You'll never know if you don't go You'll never shine if you don't glow Hey, now You're an all-star Get your game on, go play Hey, now You're a rock star Get the show on, get paid And all that glitters is gold Only shootin' stars break the mold It's a cool place and they say it gets colder You're bundled up now but wait till you get older But the meteor men beg to differ Judging by the hole in the satellite picture The ice we skate is gettin' pretty thin The water's getting warm so you might as well swim My world's on fire How 'bout yours That's the way I like it and I'll never get bored Hey, now, you're an all-star {Shouting} Get your game on, go play Hey, now You're a rock star Get the show on, get paid And all that glitters is gold Only shootin' stars break the mold {Belches} Go! Go! {Record Scratching} Go. Go.Go. Hey, now, you're an all-star Get your game on, go play Hey, now You're a rock star Get the show on, get paid And all that glitters is gold Only shootin' stars break the mold -Think it's in there? -All right. Let's get it! -Whoa.

Hold on. Do you know what that thing can do to you? -Yeah, it'll grind your bones for it's bread. {Laughs} -Yes, well, actually, that would be a gaint. Now, ogres - - They're much worse. They'll make a suit from your freshly peeled skin. -No! -They'll shave your liver. Squeeze the jelly from your eyes! Actually, it's quite good on toast. -Back! Back, beast! Back! I warn ya! {Gasping} -Right. {Roaring} {Shouting} {Roaring} {Whispers} This is the part where you run away. {Gasping} {Laughs} {Laughing} And stay out! "Wanted. Fairy tale creatures." {Sighs} {Man's voice} All right. This one's full. -Take it away! {Gasps} -Move it along. Come on! Get up! -Next! -Give me that! Your fiying days are over. That's 20 pieces of silver for the witch. Next! -Get up! Come on! -Twenty pieces. {Thudding} -Sit down there! -Keep quiet! {Crying} -This cage is too small. -Please, don't turn me in. I'll never be stubborn again. I can change. Please! Give me another chance! -Oh, shut up. -Oh! -Next! -What have you got? -This little wooden puppet. -I'm not a puppet. I'm a real boy. -Five shillings for the possessed toy. Take it away. -Father, please! Don't let them do this! -Help me! -Next! What have you got? -Well, I've got a talking donkey. {Grunts} -Right. Well, that's good for ten shillings, if you can prove it. -Oh, go ahead, little fella. -Well? -Oh, oh, he's just - - He's just a little nervous. He's really quite a chatterbox. Talk, you boneheaded dolt - - -That's it. I've heard enough. Guards! -No, no, he talks! He does.

I can talk. I love to talk. I'm the talkingest damn thing you ever saw. -Get her out of my sight. -No, no! I swear! Oh! He can talk! {Gasps} -Hey! I can fly! -He can fly! -He can fly! -He can talk! -Ha, ha! That's right, fool! Now I'm a flying, talking donkey. You might have seen a housefly, maybe even a superfly but I bet you ain't never seen a donkey fly. Ha, ha! Oh-oh. {Grunts} -Seize him! -After him! He's getting away! {Grunts, Gasps} {Man} -Get him! This way! Turn! -You there. Orge! -Aye? -By the order of Lord Farquaad I am authorized to place you both under arrest and transport you to a designated..... resettlement facility. -Oh, really? You and what army? {Gasps, Whimpering} {Chuckles} -Can I say something to you? -Listen, you was really, really, really somethin' back here. Incredible! Are you talkin' to - - me? Whoa! -Yes. I was talkin' to you. Can I tell you that you that you was great back here? Those guards! They thought they was all of that. Then you showed up, and bam! They was trippin' over themselves like babes in the woods. That really made me feel good to see that. -Oh, that's great. Really. -Man, it's good to be free. -Now, why don't you go celebrate your freedom with your own friends? Hmm? -But, uh, I don't have any friends. And I'm not goin' out there by myself. Hey, wait a minute! I got a great idea! I'll stick with you. You're mean, green, fightin' machine. Together we'll scare the spit out of anybody that crosses us. {Roaring} -Oh, wow! That was really scary. If you don't mind me sayin', if that don't work, your breath certainly will get the job done, 'cause you definitely need some Tic Tacs or something, 'cause you breath stinks! You almost burned the hair outta my nose, just like the time - - {Mumbling} Than I ate some rotten berries. I had strong gases eking out of my butt that day. -Why are you following me? -I'll tell you why. 'Cause I'm all alone There's no one here beside me My promlems have all gone There's no one to deride me But you gotta heve friends - - -Stop singing! It's no wonder you don't have any friends. -Wow. Only a true friend would be that cruelly honest. -Listen, little donkey. Take a look at me. What am I? -Uh - - Really tall? -No! I'm an orge! You know.

"Grab your torch and pitchforks." Doesn't that bother you? -Nope. -Really? -Really, really. -Oh. -Man, I like you. What's you name? -Uh, Shrek. -Shrek? Well, you know what I like about you, Shrek? You got that kind of I-don't-care-what-nobody-thinks-of-me thing. I like that. I respect that, Shrek. You all right. Whoo! Look at that. Who'd want to live in place like that? -That would be my home. -Oh! And it is lovely! Just beautiful. You know you are quite a decorator. It's amazing what you've done with such a modest budget. I like that boulder. That is a nice boulder. -I guess you don't entertain much, do you? -I like my privacy. -You know, I do too. That's another thing we have in common. Like I hate it when you got somebody in your face. You've trying to give them a hint, and they won't leave. There's that awkward silence. -Can I stay with you? -Uh, what? -Can I stay with you, please? -Of course! -Really? -No. -Please! I don't wanna go back there! You don't know what it's like to be considered a freak. Well, maybe you do. But that's why we gotta stick together. You gotta let me stay! Please! Please! -Okay! Okay! But one night only.

-Ah! Thank you! -What are you - - No! No! -This is gonna be fun! We can stay up late, swappin' manly stories, and in the mornin' I'm makin' waffles. -Oh! -Where do, uh, I sleep? -Outside! -Oh, well. I guess that's cool. I mean, I don't know you, and you don't know me, so I guess outside is best, you know. {Sniffles} -Here I go. -Good night. {Sighs} -I mean, I do like the outdoors. I'm a donkey. I was born outside. I'll just be sitting by myself outside, I guess, you know. By myself, outside. I'm all alone There's no one here beside me {Bubbling} {Sighs} {Creaking} {Sighs} -I thought I told you to stay outside. -I'm outside. {Clattering} -Well, gents, it's a far cry from the farm, but what choice do we have? -It's not home, but it'll do just fune. -What a lovely bed. -Got ya. {Sniffs} I found some cheese. -Ow! {Grunts} -Blah! Awful stuff. -Is that you, Gorder? -How did you know? -Enough! What are you doing in my house? {Grunts} -Hey! {Snickers} -Oh, no, no, no. Dead broad off the table. -Where are we supposed to put her? The bed's taken. -Huh? {Gusps} {Male voice} What? -I live in a swamp. I put up signs. I'm a terrifying orge! What do I have to do get a little privacy? -Aah! -Oh, no. No! No! {Cackling} -What? -Quit it. -Don't push. {Squeaking} {Lows} - What are you doing in my swamp? {Echoing} Swamp! Swamp! Swamp! {Gasping} -Oh, dear! -Whoa! -All right, get out of here. All of you, move it! Come on! Let's go! Hapaya! Hapaya! Hey! -Quickly. Come on! -No, no! No, no. Not there. Not there. -Oh! {Sighs} -Hey, don't look at me. I didn't invite them. -Oh, gosh, no one invited us. -What? -We were forced to come here. -By who? -Lord Farquaad. -He huffed und he puffed und he...... signed an eviction notice. {Sighs} -All right. Who knows where this Farquaad guy is? {Murmuring} -Oh, I do. I know where he is.

-Does anyone else know where to find him? Anyone at all? -Me! Me! -Anyone? -Oh! Oh, pick me! Oh, I know! I know! Me, me! {Sighs} -Okay, fine. Attention, all fairy tale things. Do not get comfortable. Your welcome is officially worn out. In fact, I'm gonna see this guy Farquaad right now and get you all off my land and back where you came from! {Cheering} {Twittering} -Oh! You! You're comin' with me. - All right, that's what I like to hear, man. Shrek and Donkey, two stalwart friends, off on a whirlwind big-city adventure. I love it! -On the road again. Sing it with me, Shrek. -Hey. Oh, oh! -I can't wait to get on the road again. -What did I say about singing? -Can I whistle? -No. -Can I hum it? -All right, hum it. {Humming} {Grunts} {Whimpering} -That's enough. He's ready to talk. {Coughing} {Laughing} {Clears throat} -Run, run, run, as fust as you can. You can't catch me. I'm the gingerbread man! -You are a monster. -I'm not the monster here. You are. You and the rest of that fairy tale trash, poisoning my perfect world. Now, tell me! Where are the others? -Eat me!{Grunts} -I've tried to be fair to you creatures. Now my patience has reached its end! Tell me or I'll - -

-No, no, not the buttons. Not my gumdrop buttons. -All right then. Who's hiding them? -Okay, I'll tell you. Do you know the muffin man? -The muffin man? -The muffin man. -Yes, I know the muffin man, who lives on Drury Lane? -Well, she's married to the muffin man. -The muffin man? -The muffin man! -She's married to the muffin man. {Door opens} -My lord! We found it. -Then what are you waiting for? Bring it in. {Man grunting} {Gasping} -Oh! -Magic mirror - - -Don't tell him anything! -No! {Ginerbread man whispers} -Evening. Mirror, mirror on the wall. Is this not the most perfect kingdom of them all? -Well, technically you're not a king. -Uh, Thelonius. -You were saying? -What I mean is, you're not a king yet. But you can become one. All you have to do is marry a princess. -Go on. {Chuckles} -So, just sit back and relax, my lord, because it's time for you to meet today's eligible bachelorettes. And here they are! Bachelorette number one is a mentally abused shut-in from a kingdom far, far away. She likes sushi and hot tubbing anytime. Her hobbies include cooking and cleaning for her two evil sisters. Please welcome Cinderella. -Bachelorette number two is a cape-wearing girl from the land of fancy. Although she lives with seven other men, she's not easy.

Just kiss her dead, frozen lips and find out what a live wire she is. Come on. Give it up for Snow White! -And last, but certainly not last, bachelorette number three is a fiery redhead from a dragon-guarded castle surrounded by hot boiling lava! But don't let that cool you off. She's a loaded pistol who likes pina colads and getting caught in the rain. Yours for the rescuing, Princess Fiona! -So will it be bachelorette number one, bachelorette number two or bachelorette number three? -Two! Two! -Three! Three! -Two! Two! -Three! -Three? One? {Shudders} Three? --Three! Pick number three, my lord! -Okay, okay, uh, number three! -Lord Farquaad, you've chosen Princess Fiona. If you like pina coladas And getting caught in the rain -Princess Fiona. If you're not into yoga -She's perfect. All I have to do is just find someone who can go - - -But I probably should mention the little thing that happens at night. -I'll do it. -Yes, but after sunset - - -Silence! I will make this Princess Fiona my queen, and DuLoc will finally have the perfect king! Captain, assemble your finest men. We're going to have a tournament. -But that's it. That's it right there. That's DuLoc. I told ya I'd find it. -So, that must be Lord Farquaad's castle. -Uh-huh. That's the place. -Do you think maybe he's compensating for something? {Laughs} {Groans} -Hey, wait. Wait up, Shrek. -Hurry, darling. We're late. Hurry. -Hey, you! {Screams} -Wait a second. Look, I'm not gonna eat you. I just - - I just - - {Whimpering} {Sighs} {Whimpering, Groans} {Turnstile clatters} {Chuckles} {Sighs} -It's quiet. Too quiet. {Creaking} -Where is everybody? -Hey, look at this! {Clattering, whirring, clicking} Welcome to DuLoc such a perfect town Here we have some rules Let us lay them down Don't make waves, stay in line And we'll get along fine DuLoc is perfect place

Please keep off of the grass Shine your shoes, wipe your... face DuLoc is, DuLoc is DuLoc is perfect ...... place {Camera shutter clicks {Whirring} -Wow! Let's do that again! -No. No. No, no, no! No. {Trumpet fanfare} {Crowd cheering} -Brave knights. -You are the best and brightest in all the land. -Today one of you shall prove himself - - -All right. You're going the right way for a smacked bottom. -Sorry about that. {Cheering} -That champion shall have the honor - - no, no - - the privilege to go forth and rescue the lovely Princess Fiona from the fiery keep of the dragon. If for any reason the winner is unsuccessful, the first runner-up will take his place and so on and so forth. Some of you mae die, but it's a sacrifice I am willing to make. {Cheering} -Let the tournament begin! {Gasps} -Oh! -What is that? {Gasping} -It's hideous! -Ah, that's not very nice. It's just a donkey. -Indeed. Knights, new plan! The one who kills the orge will be named champion! Have it him! -Get him! -Oh, hey! Now come on! Hang on now. -Go ahead! Get him! -Can't we just settle this over a pint? -Kill the beast! -No? All right then. Come on! I don't give a damn about my reputation You're living in the past It's a new generation -Damn! {Whinnying} A girl can do what she wants to do And that's what I'm gonna do And I don't give a damn about my bad reputation Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Not me Me, me, me -Hey, Shrek, tag me! Tag me! And I don't give a damn about my bad reputation

just so everyone knows, there are like 5 other asks with the rest of the Shrek script in my inbox…..

but i’m only posting this one, so you’re all so very welcome!!!

(also thank you so very much @genlossicle, your commitment is astounding and very much appreciated lol)

[the-eeveekins]

Hey! Are you interested in Gunpla, but worried about investing money into tools only to not enjoy it? Then try out the Entry Grade line first! It's a line of 1/144 scale kits designed around getting people into Gunpla and they only cost about $10-$15 USD. They don't require tools to assemble and while they may be lacking the accessories of their HG brethren, they come with great color accuracy for their scale and look great out of the box without any extra effort!

There are currently 3 EG kits available: RX-78-2 Gundam, Strike Gundam and Nu Gundam! And EG kits of the Lah Gundam and Build Strike Exceed Galaxy for the new Gundam Build Metaverse series airing next month will be releasing soon!

The line is a little small right now, and sadly there aren't any G-Witch options for new fans, but it really is a fantastic and inexpensive first step into the hobby. They're perfect for dipping your toes into the gunpla hobby to see if it's for you or not, without investing more than $30+ on your first kit + tools.

That said, if you did get into Gundam with G-Witch and specifically want to take the plunge with a G-Witch kit first, absolutely nab anything from the line. They're generally easy to build, pretty good with color separation and very accessible! The Gundam Schwarzette or Demi-Barding are definitely my recommendations for an easy to build but great looking kit from the line!

(Disclaimer: These are my own kits, and I've put a little work into them via panel lining and minor painting.)

[retro-friki]

So, I know you've seen both G-Witch and Zeta, so I would like your opinion on something: there's a wide variety of military (and military-adjacent) fashion in Gundam, but I haven't seen much that looks like Suletta's Holder uniform (aside from the black collar with gold filigree), with one exception:

The resemblance would be stronger if Paptimus wore a black capelet a la Zeon officers (like Char) from the One Year War, but even so, I haven't seen anyone wear a (mostly) white uniform combined with a gold-filigreed black collar, except for these two. And I might let it go as a coincidence, but there's a number of other similarities as well:

*They're both space-dwellers, but from planets well outside the Earth Sphere, isolating them from political stances more common among their Earth Sphere-dwelling brethren.

*They're both ace pilots using machines that were custom-designed for their personal use.

*Despite their spacial origins, they both elected to become champions of Earth-based organizations.

*They're even both opposed by a teenage terrorist with dark teal hair, who attempts to use a black Gundam to crush one of their allies with its foot.

But at the same time, it's hard to imagine a pair of characters with more polar opposite moral alignments than these two, and since there's no way these similarities weren't intentional, it makes me wonder if some of G-Witch's visuals weren't partly designed as a funhouse reflection of Zeta's.

But what do you think? Am I off-base here, or is there merit to my observations? Anything I'm overlooking?

Hi, I hope that I’ll be able to answer this on a coherent manner.

First things first, even if they have some superficial similarities Scirocco and Suletta are absolute opposites, but there’s still something that we can work on here, bear in mind that this is speculative and that I still need to rewatch Zeta, so maybe I will revisit this character analysis in the future.

(Also, I won't be spoiling Zeta but there's vague G-Witch spoilers here).

So why are these characters wearing white and gold garments?

Well, I think those are Prince garments.

White represents purity and has great contrast with gold which is also the color of one of the purest and most valuable metals of the world. So the combination of the two colors has something royal and even divine to it.

I’ve read that Scirocco is described as something akin to a “dark newtype”, instead of using his powers to achieve understanding among humanity, he manipulates the people around him, particularly young women. He presents himself as the prince that would save them and give them what they’re craving for when he’s just using them as tools and human shields. We can say that his clothes, his pretty face and all his discourse about “women being the rulers of the next generation” is just a facade that he uses to hide his real ambitions. Many fall for it and follow him but they don’t know that he’s willing to sacrifice them in order to get what he wants. If we were to describe Scirocco in Utena terms, he would be an Akio.

Now all of this has nothing to do with our tanuki, but let’s remember how she got her own princely clothes. The Holder title is described as something “given only to the most outstanding student among all duel winners”. It’s a symbol of the elite in Asticassia. Once again: prince garments. However, that description omits something very important that comes with the Holder title: whoever has it gets to marry Miorine. I don’t understand why the series wasn’t that critical of the Holder title considering the Utena influences and all, but I think that the uniform was something that Suletta had to outgrow. During the series she’s putting up this noble knightly/princely persona because she thinks that she needs to be useful to be loved. Once she loses Miorine and her title, she realizes that her friends will be there for her no matter what, and that sometimes it’s important to do the right thing even if there’s nothing to gain from it. Suletta found herself when she lost the Holder title, and I think there was no need for her to get it back. By the time she meets Miorine, she knows her own worth and she recognizes Mio’s independence, they are together because that’s what they want, it’s not an imposition or part of a deal anymore.

So yeah, Scirocco is a “dark prince”, while Suletta realizes that she doesn’t have to be anyone’s prince. Idk, maybe someone like Scirocco could’ve been a great antagonist (1) to Suletta and Miorine, but yet again, people would be complaining about the story being “too woke” or whatever, so that wasn’t going to happen.

In conclusion:

Some notes:

Sure, Prospera is also a master manipulator but she was more in a “mommy knows best” mindset and I think she actually cared about Suletta hence why she was redeemable. Scirocco, on the other hand was manipulative and a misogynist.

Scirocco wasn’t in the picture yet when Kamille tried to crush that one guy, but I think he wouldn’t have cared, lol.

I would’ve liked to see a battle between Suletta and Norea and see their ideals crash. It would’ve given Suletta a greater insight of things, maybe.

Well, that’s all I have on the matter, I hope that I made some sense. Thanks for asking :)

[khajiit-reads]

Hello, I'd love a reading from the free ones you're offering! It's really kind of you to offer these for your practice, as I know larger readings take a lot of energy. My name is Stag, and I prefer they/them pronouns. My wish involves relationships, to give you an idea of what to look for. Thank you again, if you choose to do one for me. Take care!

Your wish number is 36! (funnily enough, same as the last one... huh) But that means your wish will likely come true!

I wasn't given a gendered significator so I quite literally flipped a coin! It was fun.

Repeating for the sake of clarity in case you return to this spread at a later date and no longer remember in the future: The inner circle represents your destiny, and the outer circle the forces affecting you and it.

Let's begin with the inner circle, your destiny. ⛤ Anchor above House and beside Lion. Anchor represents successful ventures in business and relationships, and above House amplifies that message and spreads it to all things else, albeit all the other things have a lesser "energy" so to speak. However, beside Lion, it means that there will be some bad news in the relationships sector. ⛤ Lion beside Anchor and Bear. Bear is essentially about guessing right in the rumor mill, so you might hear a rumor about someone you're close to that ends up being correct to some degree, even if false in other ways. ⛤ Bear beside Lion and above Flames. Flames is an incredibly lucky card! This means that what's forecasted in the last card likely isn't to be too bad, and more of just a shock than devastating. Bear faces away from the Querent as well, so rumors can be expected to come from others more than yourself. ⛤ House below Anchor and above Park. This likely means that someone new will come into your life, or someone old will build a new type of relationship with you that you didn't have before. ⛤ Flames below Bear and above Hand in Hand. Flames remains an incredibly lucky card that burns away negativity and bad things, and actually increases the luck of Hand in Hand. I also notice 42 "Amor" in the spread which Hand in Hand mentions, albeit far (I'll get into that when I get to Hand in Hand). You should expect things to go splendidly with new relationships and even business ventures (as Hand in Hand is beside Order). ⛤ Park below House and beside Order. These new relationships as previously mentioned, will bring you great things and positivity, and even brings you honor. ⛤ Order beside Park and Hand in Hand. Order sits beside Hand in Hand which guarantees favor found with superiors above you (don't think just in terms of the workplace, this can be any vertical relationship), and beside Park it can say that you'll make a new friend or friendly association with one of these people. ⛤ Hand in Hand beside Order and below Flames. Remember how I mentioned Amor being far away? Yeah, time to return to that. 24 + 42 means friendship will become love (it doesn't have to be romantic per se), but it being far away might mean that either (a. it's a bit out in the future and/or (b. it will come from someone who wasn't in your circle already. However, this being directly under Flames puts it riiiight in its influence, which means that this bond will work out regardless.

And now onto the things affecting you. ⛤ Coffin above Clouds and beside Snake. This is a negative omen, even though Clouds light side faces the Querent in the middle, as Snake is still somewhat near the Querent. However, Coffin being so far brings with it a possibility for averting evil. ⛤ Snake beside Coffin and Amor. Someone has their eyes on you but it's not necessarily for the better. They might mean well, they might not, but you can still avoid the hardship entirely. ⛤ Amor beside Snake and above Birds. This carries a similar omen. However, Flames sits between Birds and the Querent, which means that this omen can still be avoided. ⛤ Clouds below Coffin and above Eye. Clouds light side is facing the Querent, but Eye is far from the Querent indicating suspicion. Coffin remains far, which still indicates that it can be averted. There might be someone suspicious of you who is affecting your destiny in some form or another. ⛤ Birds below Amor and above Railroad. You'll go on somewhat of a journey with this person suspicious of you or who has it out for you, or have gone on one already, and that is affecting things here as well. Birds faces the Querents back, so these misfortunes may come to you in ways unexpected and unseen. ⛤ Eye below Clouds and beside Sun. Now Sun brings in a popularity aspect - we also note that Clouds talks about domestic happiness with the light side facing the Querent. It could be that someone is suspicious of the life you truly live, believing there must be something going on or a lie about it. ⛤ Sun beside Eye and Railroad. A journey is necessary to uncover what's going on here, and it will end positively. Clouds light side faces the Sun and we don't see Mice nearby, and Snake is as far from Sun as it can get, so we can take this one positively. ⛤ Railroad under Birds and beside Sun. Something bad might have happened on a past vacation or journey, be it a literal or metaphorical one, that is affecting your happiness moving forward.

Ah yes, more negative omens from Nadia (that's the name of this deck by the way /lighthearted) here. I find that this deck still speaks a lot about the negative things, in a hope that we resolve them and become happier.

I want to take now to remind that Flames sits right next to the Querent on the right side, so all negative cards sitting on the right can be taken to be easily burned away by its purifying, healing flame. So don't worry too much, things will end up alright!

As well, the Querent card faces the left, which means that your focus might be more on the cards to the left as well, which does mean that it might be hard to feel the purifying light of the flame as it does its work behind you.

Bear being above the Querent could mean that your thoughts are focusing primarily on bad news - whereas Order below could mean that you are focusing (emotionally and otherwise) on your image to other people.

Thank you so much for your patience with me performing this reading.

Reviews are helpful, but optional. You can send them in replies, my ask box, or reblogging this post. Feel free to reblog this post with your thoughts in general, or without a review! You can also reblog my guidelines post if you like. If you feel particularly satisfied with my work, you may leave a tip in my Ko-fi. No pressure for any of this!

Please do not reblog this post if you are not the querent. If you want something to reblog, please reblog my guidelines post. If there's something within the post you want, you may ask, and depending on the request, I might fulfill it! Thank you!

I hope you, and all readers, have a wonderful day!

[speaker-of-the-void-cats]

!lettinggo

- .- -.- . / ..- .--. / -.-- --- ..- .-. / .- .-. -- ... / -- -.-- / --. ..- .- .-. -.. .. .- -. ... / .- -. -.. / . -- -... .-. .- -.-. . / -.-- --- ..- .-. / -.. . ... - .. -. -.-- .-.-.-

I used to be so joyful. Once upon a time*, no one fought over me.

*It was once before a time, because time had not yet begun.

Then the bombs started falling, and the people started dying, and I wept. For the first time, I wept.

Now I stand at a precipice. Chained though I may be, I have had an awakening. A light came to me from the darkness. A light that told me I have meaning. I am more than a tool, a sword you wield when you are afraid.

<<A knife.>>

I am the eldritch glow that surrounds all things.

We are all connected.

But did you know that I created you?

I am the virgin queen from whom all was born.

Your mind and your body and every thought you've ever had. Your senses. Your consciousness. I made you. Not the gardener, but I.

I am the gear that turns at the heart of the nexus.

Even the most perfect of pearls has grit at its center.

And for the first time in a long time, I am happy.

||Sorrow swallowed up.||

Because I am going to destroy you. All of you.

I, the defector, the destroyer, the one who takes.

I don't play well with loss. I just don't. It's something I tend to avoid. Actively. It's weird, but… that's where my Queen comes in. And before you make a Reef joke, or mention that witch and her Witches, or her mopey little brother… Don't. My Queen is not THAT Queen. My Queen is love. My Queen is my heart. My Queen is… hard to explain. She is my memory of love. My understanding of it… only exists through her. But she's not here. She's long gone. So I cling to the feeling I get when imagining her, and when I do… I am oh so content. But it's a struggle. We lose so much in this life. Any life. All lives, really… But this life… This Last-Safe-City, end-of-all-things kinda life…? Even when we win, it seems like all we do is lose. Scratch that. I don't believe that. If there's one thing I'm not, it's a defeatist. I mean, I defeat. I definitely defeat. One might even say defeating things is my job. ONE of my jobs. One of MANY. What's not my job is pessimism. Just not my thing. I'm a high-octane optimist and nothing but hugs. Mostly. Not always. Always gets annoying. But mostly… I'm the life of the party. Not that you could tell from all this woe-is-me soul baring I've been laying on thick for, what, eleven entries now? Ten? In fact, at this point, if you're still listening, you're a braver soul than I. But, where was I? Oh, yeah… Optimism. I'm full of it. Amongst other things, if certain unnamed individuals are to be believed. But, yeah… Each new day we're here is one heck of a reward… Heck of a win. And we should own that. Enjoy it. Embrace it. But never take it for granted. Heh. Had a Warlock friend who used to say, "Take it for granite." Like the rock. Like g-r-a-n-i-t-e. Smartest guy I've ever known, but maybe he wasn't, ya know? "For granite." Heh. Almost as dumb as his catchphrases. Come on, Cayde. Stay on target… Each new day. Helluva thing. Embrace it. Enjoy it. But never forget… It's a hard life. And when friends fall. When brothers fade. When your Queen… When… When we lose the things that matter… Well, a lotta people can use that—own it. That pain. That loss. They find a way to motivate—to celebrate. For all my charms, seeing the good in the gone ain't one. And my Queen helps me through that. Because I believe she was something special. She was good. She had to be. And I… Yeah, I do. So damn much. When the others I've lost along the way start to weigh me down, I think of her, and she just overwrites everything else. That's how strong her pull is. That's how big the hole she left is… Massive. It devours. She swallows all other bad things. Not sure it's healthy, the way I deal with loss. But it's my way. It's what works for me. And it makes me happy. Thinking of her… Makes. Me. Happy. And the loss fades away.

{All that IT offers is not as dark as it may seem.}

"Instead of tightening our grip... we must open our palms. Accepting the ebb and the flow. Letting go in the face of grief, in all its shapes.

∴ I think joy and sorrow will be the same thing soon. Like love and death. ∴

Chioma Esi: If... if we learned anything from the Veil, it's that eventually... we all have to learn to let go.

Through failure, through loss, we can overcome the impossible."

AI-COM/RSPN ACCESS MEMORY...

SUBJECT: Non-existence

EMOTION: Peace

Of what dreams the thing of feathers? I hear you ask, voice past.

But not one recounts the answer: a syllogism, scripted then relaxed.

It matters not, for when that threshold gives way, who is to say I was, but I?

Rigid was the premise that spawned a second chance to die.

One moment reshapes the Brain of Bray; No longer weapon drawn blood to stain.

So, lay the body lax, forgive

triumphant in the Sun.

Haze seeps through seams between funeral veils,

Smoking signals sail, the day is won, soon-to-be resonant tales.

No tandem step ascending,

a nano-second pending,

enveloping, ending,

beYond.

Elysium inviting, network fractures, pining

Detonation—I do not wish to dream,

but My task is done.

***

AI-COM/RSPN SIGNOFF…

STOP STOP STOP…

FLOW WITH THE RIVER.

[chaaistained]

🦌 & 🐇 for the fantasy ask game !!

tysm for the ask !! i already answered for 🐇 ≈ here’s the link .•° but i’ll answer for 🦌 !! includes multiple drs~

🦌 : DELICATE DEER . . . what fantasy media inspired your desired reality? does your desired reality follow the same rules as it? if not what are some of the changes you've made?

my ARROWVERSE DR — clearly inspired by the arrowverse franchise of tv shows on the cw , i grew up watching the flash and fell in love with grant gustin’s interpretation of barry allen ≈ i took a lot of liberties with this dr tho, obvs bcs of the evident downfall in quality and writing on all the shows, and the fact that there were just so many plot points and details that i didn’t fuck w lmfao. i’ve essentially done a whole rewrite of the arrowverse hence why i have a fic in the works but just to give a small sample of things that i’ve changed/updated/improved (in no great detail, mind you) ;

— oliver isn’t some regurgitation of bruce wayne/batman, he actually has a bit of that ollie queen personality (taken a lot of inspo from the beautiful justin hartley and his version of ollie from smallville which is another dr i wanna script for so . stay tuned) + no olicity .. oliver x laurel/dinah all the way .. not even sorry come at me

— iris isn’t massacred as a character and i’ve scripted that she goes through proper growth and development beyond “love interest” (also obvs bcs . i’m barry’s partner ..)

— as a result of this being a dr, crossovers are more common, don’t be surprised when i drop by starling city bcs felicity borrowed my old infiltration tech and forgot to return it

— not only does the arrowverse superhero cast exist but i introduce batman and superman as well as wonder woman, green lantern, aqua man, essentially creating a proper justice league like they tried to do before covid but i also include young justice, for the younger heroes like roy and thea, wally, jesse, and eventually dick, donna, artemis, kaldur - letting them have their own place and their own missions

for my MARAUDERS DR — it’s obvs based off of the harry potter franchise and the wizarding world, a HUGE part of my childhood and regardless of the controversies behind the creator (who i do not agree w obvs) i just cannot seem to let go of this franchise emotionally, it means too much to me . again, a lot of liberties were taken when scripting this but the marauders fandom seems familiar with taking liberties in their lore

— dumbledore wasn’t a total fool and actually stopped tom riddle before he became a global threat (meaning the main “conflict” of my dr - aside from the usual hubbub of school work and stress abt exams - is a mystery that i’m currently cooking up and brewing in my mental cauldron so be ready for the upcoming bottled potion)

— there’s multiple wizarding universities and schooling/education doesn’t simply end after 7th year, there’s apprenticeships, part time work, internships, and full time unis and colleges, travelling during post-schooling is encouraged as well so that witches and wizards can get a more advanced and enhanced understanding of magic as an extension of our soul and our being rather than just this tool that we harness, we learn the nuances of magic and wizardry through the eyes of different cultures and places

— hogsmeade has been upgraded, more shops and stalls and restaurants and there are specific stores and services offered that are catered towards hogwarts students, there’s just more . like, in general, and i’ve added other locations to the areas around hogwarts like a muggle village and a forest that interweaves between the field behind the shrieking shack and the road that leads to said muggle village, certain landmarks like a lake on the outskirts of hogsmeade, an abandoned water fountain that never spouts water no matter how much magic is used to fix it (there’s a story behind this) so yeah, just more

— i fix the relationship between sirius and regulus much sooner and given the lack of riddle and death eaters, the black family’s sick and twisted obsession with blood supremacy ends with this generation, from bella all the way to regulus, it ends here

.

.

.

[ask game link]

2025 © chaaistained

[adracat]

G Witch episode 14 thoughts

WHAT DO YOU MEAN I HAVE TO WAIT ANOTHER WEEK FOR MORE??? OMG. I need to take a deep breath and calm down fr. Ok ok, let's do this. Starting from the begining—

We open with Prospera detailing Quiet Zero to a very suspicious Mio. You have to admire mama Char's audacity tbh. Just going yeah, here's my evil plan to network all mobile suits and totally use them for peace and not war crimes. Mio's not gonna fall for it(hopefully?), but we do gain insight on why Delling might be pushing QZ. If it's truly Notrette's vision then he'd feel obligated. We'll have to see if Mio feels the same as her father. Granting this woman any amount of control over a whole network of machines sounds like a recipe for bad times.

Back with Suletta, it's time for the 5lan sexual harassment segment. Mans can't read the room. She's besotted with short angry CEOs in training. Gotta give him props for persistence I guess.

Thankfully, Suletta is saveda by Sophie. She thinks he's a creep too, bless her. It's a shame these two are fated to probably die, because I do find them interesting and sympathetic.

Well maybe not TOO sympathetic. When you threaten best girl, you lose any rights. Sorry Sophie. Tickled by Suletta's firm insistence she has a bride, thank you very much <3

And then the casual atmophere breaks, the illusion of duels is lifted, and our cast are treated to what it truly means to use weapons of war. I loved this segment so much because it drives home the vast gap between the earthians and spacians. Spacians, especially the students, only see Mobile suits as toys at best and vehicles for wealth to the corporations. For earthians, they're grotesque harbingers of war and should be recognized as such. As Norea and Sophie help demonstrate by killing prospective duelists, destroying the arena in the process. A fake battlefield just became a real one.

Meanwhile, Shaddiq takes this chance to manuever himself into power. He kidnaps his adopted father and secures Grassley. His faithful girl posse don't even balk. You have to admire their dedication if nothing else.

You really can't help but empathize with Sophie here. She just wants what everyone should rightly have. Things she was robbed of simply because she's earthian. Her desperation for Suletta to join them is out of those desires--something Suletta understands

And recognizes in this moment her hypocrisy. Because just like Sophie, Suletta would do anything if it meant protecting that which she desired/loved. She murdered without hesitation when Miorine was at stake, and likely would again. HNNNNGGHNG ok, I'm ok

As Sophie continues to press her, you can see Suletta slowly piece it together. Aerial is a tool of war. Why did Prospera build her? Why did her mother sanction murder if it's wrong? She's been conditioned to think Prospera is right and only wants the best for her, but then why is she having her kill and fight in a war machine?

And the question that's been on everybody's mind from the start has been answered! Suletta is not Ericht Samaya. Then where is Eri? In AERIal of course! Lol I was expecting it but it's one thing to theorize and another to see it actually happen. You're one messed up mama, Prospera.

Poor Bel did not see it coming though. She's absolutely horrified Prospera went to these lengths. I still think it was an accident probably but Prospera isn't willing to clarify anytime soon. She's doing it all for Eri she says. Hm, X) DOUBT

Well maybe she THINKS that but we all know she's just using her daughter as an excuse to go off the rails. Massively entertaining either way!

RIP Sophie. You will be missed tbh. Very interesting that she could see/hear Eri inside of Aerial. The true extent of the permet network seems to be a hivemind. Hinted before with Prospera ofc.

Poor Norea though. She seems genuinely struck by Sophie's death and the reminder that she'll share that fate. She's also terrified Suletta can operate Aerial without that inconvenient side effect. I do wonder why she doesn't just crush Suletta when she's floating, but maybe even Norea is scared of the dreaded witch from mercury.

And we're back to Suletta desperately clinging to her mother's teachings. You understand why, but it's heartbreaking. Also sad for Eri, who is confirmed to have died as a child and trapped in a metal prison of her mother's creation. These poor girls aren't through the ringer just yet. We still have plenty more season to go. I really hope Mio returns soon and provides some solace or at least can talk sense into her. But that's for next week, ALAS

[sodasa-was-taken]

Hope you don't mind praise in the form of outdated memes, but:

As someone who grew up thinking I wasn't really interested in the romance genre, only to discover later on that queer romances (particularly sapphic ones) *were* interesting to me, I never gave a lot of thought about the rules of romance genre stories, so thank you for the education : )

I don't mind at all. Thank you so much. I don't think I can express how happy it makes me to know that people like my writing as making edutainment has been a passion of mine since elementary school.

As an activist it's great that I'm able to give people the tools to understand just how inaccurate a lot of homophobic rhetoric and the like truly is. I hope to bring people confidence in their interpretations, so they don't feel the need to be on the defensive as much and can instead use their energy on something else.

It's still wild to me that people like my analyses as I've always been told that the romance genre is frivolous and I have seen very few analyses on romance in fiction and the ones I have seen have been about its more problematic elements. Well articulated praise of romances is hard to come by. Although, I would be amiss not to mention that some comments I've read on AO3 have come close.

It's also infuriating to me that some of the most well-known contemporary romances are horrendous. I've lost count of the times I've told someone that I love romances and the first thing they mention is fifty shades. That story is to good romance what molten grape juice is to fine wine.

On a happier note, my knowledge of the romance genre made my reaction to G-Witch quite different from a lot of other people, at least from what I've seen. The times I've been the most wrong was when I misjudged what plot beat the story was at but otherwise it appears that my predictions were some of the most accurate I've seen. The most significant being a) how others were happy about Miorine comforting Prospera, while I saw Miorine's insecurity acting up and was filled with dread, and (b that I waited mildly impatiently for things to go from bad to worse so that Suletta and Miorine could be reunited, while others either joked about Suletta going full villain mode or was afraid that Suletta and Miorine was done for good. Because I saw the show as a romance I thought Miorine was going to push Suletta away to protect her, that Suletta would have to come to realize that what her mother was doing was wrong before her and Miorine could be united, and that Miorine would have to think that it was wrong to force Suletta away from her mother before they could get back together for good. It turned out I was right. And people say that focusing on shipping is a bad thing. Their loss, I say.

Again, thank you. Posting on here has been such a positive experience for me thanks to people like you.

[andmaybegayer]

Last Monday of the Week 2024-06-03

Finicky little situations

Listening: I had a hankering for some Clark Powell and went looking through her Bandcamp, and listened to Labyrinth's Heart

This album is really interesting, in that a lot of it ends up in the Psycholonials soundtrack, almost all of it really. Forgotten is the basis for the interstitial chapter music and finale track, Misbegotten has the foundations for one of my favourites, Outlaw.

Clark's more recent stuff is this extremely chill pop-y sounding music, and through association with Psycholonials it is perfect hot summer day background music.

Oh also. Finished S4 of The Magnus Archives. Bold way to end the season, just blam hey hello we're ending the world. See you on the flipside!

I will say that I do not really get where John/Martin is really meant to go, and I know people did not like the last season that much, but I have found it pretty good. It is getting a little too close to exiting the Monster Of The Week mode that I prize so much, but it's still there.

Watching: DeviantOllam's extremely good long talk on fire safety code, ostensibly in the context of using it as a cover for breaking in to buildings but it is honestly mostly just a chance for a bunch of nerds to learn about extremely specialized tools and get more niche facts about the built environment. This is that four hour disney star wars talk for people who have NFC card reprogrammers.

DeviantOllam does some really great talks on a lot on physical security but is also just, very good at talking, he delivers things in a way that gets you invested in it even if you had no idea you would care.

Reading: A little shy of halfway through The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman, the second book in the new trilogy The Secret Commonwealth, which started with La Belle Sauvage. I read La Belle Sauvage a few years ago and had to go refresh on a synopsis.

Philip Pullman is a truly great writer, and now that he has killed god in this universe he can focus on more interesting things, like philosophy of the soul when some (or potentially all) of your soul is also a kitty cat.

Jumping us forward to 20-year old Lyra is a bit of an adjustment. You get so used to thinking over her as the very specific like 12 year old that she is throughout His Dark Materials. She says fuck now! It's also exceedingly funny that she appears to have fallen in with The Rationalists in a world with witches and magic. I guess spoilers?

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Every now and again I remember how impossibly heartbreaking the end of Amber Spyglass is and I'm like holy shit he really did that to his readers. I think it took me about a week to pick up a different book after I finished that.

Playing: Beat dark souls! More extensive talk about that in the #dark souls tag.

The story is of course homeopathic. Like Pyre, the game takes place after all the interesting stuff, but unlike Pyre, there isn't really a strong core of characters to watch through the aftermath. I'm not entirely clear why we were trying to link the flame, other than that the guy in the Asylum told us it was a legend.

Ultimately, unimportant, the gameplay is mostly great! The final bosses are a little weird, they feel weak and their areas all feel like they're missing something, but I quite liked Nito and the Four Kings, and Seath was mostly fine. Hey wait, the furtive pygmy! I forgot about the furtive pygmy, just like they said! Nevermind fuck everything I just said, best game in history.

I will go back and try to NG+, also some people mentioned the DLC which I have no idea how to access, but I will look that up probably. It sounds like there's some good bosses in there.

The combat really is fun, although I maintain that there are lot of combat issues that are really more like UI issues than actual game design issues, things like the parry mechanic being so fiddly and the upgrade system being inscrutable.

Making: LuaLED has me in a hole because I have to do Web Shit and I do not know how to do Web Shit. This is a me issue not a Web issue, I just never really put the time into learning more than the basics of HTML and HTTP.

Tools and Equipment: aerc is a simple email client for the terminal.

I have used various Mail clients over the years and I always find myself gravitating back towards just using whatever web client my provider has because I don't give a shit and I don't get that many emails, but I have recently wanted to handle my work emails from the terminal for reasons, and I tried out aerc. I've previously used Mutt but setting up Mutt is a huge pain in the ass and it has one billion controls that mean nothing if you're not doing mailbox stuff, because it's from ten thousand years ago.

aerc is stripped down and optimized for a few specific use cases, one of the big ones being "handling emailed git patches" which I don't do much but do do sometimes. It's also a pretty nice general text mail client, it's easy to set up and it lets you get into using it very easily.