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makeste · 4 years ago

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BnHA Chapter 309: Gotta Go My Own Way

Previously on BnHA: Muscular was all “well if it isn’t the protagonist on his solo journey of self-discovery, for some reason I’m unironically glad I get to fight you!” Deku was all “hey Muscular before I finish kicking your ass would you please take a moment to answer these two survey questions? Question one, do you regret being a total piece of shit? And question two, if you could do anything at all in the world other than being a total piece of shit, would you?” Muscular was all, “pfft, no and no.” Deku was all, “thanks buddy, your feedback helps make me a better hero, here’s a coupon for fifteen percent off your next ass-whooping.” Then he whooped his ass.

Today on BnHA: Deku is all “what up All Might can you believe you’ve been here this entire time?” All Might is all “I sure can since that’s literally my catch phrase, anyway how are your magic movie 1 gauntlets holding up?” Deku is all “they’re holding up fine, how are Hawks, Endeavor, and Best Jeanist doing?” Hawks, Endeavor, and Best Jeanist are all “we, your fellow co-conspirators, are also doing fine, thanks for asking!” Flashback!Deku is all “anyway so I secretly have All Might’s quirk and the most dangerous people in the world are after me, so sorry mom but that’s why I’m dropping out of school.” Inko is all “I CAN’T ACCEPT THAT” while totally accepting it. All Might is all “I GUESS WE’LL JUST HAVE TO GO ALONG WITH IT SINCE I DON’T FEEL LIKE TRYING TO STOP HIM.” Hawks, Jeanist, and Endeavor, as previously mentioned, are all “yeah that sounds like a good plan”, and Gran is all “see ya kid, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” So basically everyone in the entire world has suddenly teamed up with Deku to defeat AFO, except for the one person whose entire foreshadowed endgame is “teaming up with Deku to defeat AFO.” O Kacchan where art thou.

dear tumblr image limit: okay look. you don’t like me, and I don’t like you. but just as an experiment, I’m gonna try writing this recap with as few images as possible and we’ll see how it goes

(ETA: spoilers for how it went: it didn’t, lol.)

oh my god WHY ARE WE OPENING WITH MORE KETSUBUTSU ACADEMY KIDS.ffs we’d better at least finally get some Ms. Joke content out of this

(ETA: seriously who do I have to bribe.)

so these two KB kids who no one cares about are watching Deku leap away from the scene after dispatching Muscular. but more importantly wtf is this chapter title omg. “I can’t stay being a child” so that’s how it is huh. we’re gonna have feels and we’re going to like them. well then

oh my god he’s hauling Muscular away dhfksklfkh okay this is gonna have to be our first image because I can’t fucking help myself. look at this

just. Deku is so tiny and he’s carting away this massive unconscious lump of a man like it’s nothing why is this so funny to me. it’s like when people buy furniture, and they don’t want to pay extra for delivery and so they’re like, “I can definitely fit this king-sized mattress in the back of my compact sedan if I fold the fucking seat down, idk.” and they refuse to be talked out of it, and the next thing you know you’re watching them drive home with their open trunk door haphazardly tied down with bungee cords, and somehow it fucking works. because it turns out the compact sedan has super strength

anyway for SOME REASON now Horikoshi is all “have fun with that Deku, meanwhile we now return you to your regularly scheduled SHINDOU CONTENT” whyyyyyy

look at this. we’re really using up a whole fucking entire page on everyone arguing over who gets the honor of carrying Shindou

love how the civilians are all, “shit lol is this actually our fault?? quick, how do we play this off all casual like we were the reasonable parties here all along”

turns out all it took to finally get them to listen was making them watch while a kid got his insides ground into a pulp because of their stupidity!! what a heartwarming conclusion to this little standoff

anyways THANK GOD we’re cutting back to Deku now!! well actually we’re cutting back to Muscular who is being dropped off at the police precinct, good bye and good riddance lol

so Deku’s leaving him there and bounding away and okjdlSKFJLKJDSL OH MY GOD

no fucking way. no fucking way this little jaunt is All Might-sanctioned and approved. are you serious?? then who else is in on this?? what the hell is going on

so All Might is just WAITING FOR HIM IN AN ALLEY FFF WHO ARE YOU, JIM GORDON. or would Alfred be a better analogy here?? but like, Alfred if he ditched the suit for a moto jacket and shades

this new ensemble of All Might’s may or may not severely impact my ability to take this forthcoming conversation seriously; please stand by

also, quite the spectacular landing there, Deku. seriously lol what was that

“HOW ARE YOUR LIMBS” “THANKS TO YOU THEY’RE COMPLETELY FINE” I’M SORRY WHAT

LOL WHAT. “THANKS TO THE POWER OF THESE MAGIC GLOVES” OH I SEE THAT EXPLAINS IT

are these the same gauntlets from the first movie, then? well that’s all well and good, except that now there’s going to be more Deku Discourse than fucking ever lol. so if it’s all the same to you guys, I’m gonna once again go ahead and declare this week’s post a discourse-free zone, at least when it comes to the specific discourse of Deku’s merits as a MC, and the impact that him kicking ass and having working arms has on said merits. this has been something of a low mental energy week for me, so I’d rather reserve the energy I do have for more fun topics, such as All Might’s bitchin’ leather jacket

anyway so All Might’s saying that the gauntlets will help reinforce Deku’s arms, but they can’t withstand OFA at 100%. so basically it’s a support item designed to maintain the status quo lol. we’re basically in the same situation we were before, arm-capability-wise

homg All Might’s getting a call. time to see who else is in on Operation: Deku Alone?? or not so alone for that matter

omg

HI HAWKS, WHERE ARE YOUR WINGS

(ETA: seriously are they really gone for good?? why would he even be back on active duty then?? does he have his own American ex-boyfriend who can hook him up with exclusive support items?? dammit Horikoshi we want answers.)

looks like Jeanist and Endeavor are teaming up as well, just like they said they would. I would gladly follow this trio around all day long tbh

is this the same giant villain from the very first chapter??

looks like it to me, and it would tie in with that callback from the end of chapter 306. we all thought that was Muscular, but maybe it was this guy, and Deku left these three to deal with him while he ran off to take Muscular down

oh my god now Deku is running off again just like that

kids these days

ffffff I have not had nearly enough sleep to follow along with whatever tf Hawks is talking about here sob

like, is he trying to say that All Might is keeping Deku’s whereabouts unknown to anyone except for him?? in order to keep him safe?? but Hawks is pointing out that that’s a bad strategy and probably won’t do shit against AFO and it’s better if he lets Deku work with the rest of them?

(ETA: so @hanashimas’ translation makes a lot more sense -- it’s not All Might who’s being overprotective, but Deku. in other words he’s trying not to drag All Might into his battles. and in addition Hawks is saying that their strategy is to take the offensive and go after AFO themselves rather than wait for him to come to them. which I’m not too sure about myself, but that’s another topic for another day.)

btw I can’t help thinking how much better this entire conversation would be if All Might was still wearing his sunglasses. put them back on my dude. it’s not too late. embrace your inner badass

DKLJSLDKFJL FLASHBACK ALERT, FUCKING FINALLY

“turns out, we were just trying to scare you straight. fuck lot of good that did though lol”

also what is this. one true love: the hospital bed. is that a scanlator joke or is Horikoshi actually that funny omg

SKLJDFLJLK

ITSA ME!! omg I love this hospital so much. though it’s sure not helping me in my quest to try and keep this post below ten images. I’m already up to eleven haha r.i.p. to me if tumblr doesn’t get its shit together

whaaaaaat, so he’s saying that Deku’s injuries were external (i.e. Tomura beating the shit out of him) rather than internal this time?? whaaaaat. excuse me but that’s some bullshit lmao. believe me, I was there

okay now he’s going on to explain that Deku’s “internal structure” seems to have been protected from the inside and out, and the corresponding panel seems to be implying that using Blackwhip as a brace paid off. huh

and also that his body is just stronger now?? so I guess he’s better able to withstand the quirk after an additional year of training?? I’M NOT SURE IF I BUY ANY OF THIS LOL but I’m willing to suspend my disbelief

OH MY GOD RED ALERT, INKO IS ASKING ALL MIGHT TO EXPLAIN WTAF DEKU’S QUIRK IS, IS IT FINALLY THAT TIME OMGGGG

SO HE’S EXPLAINING IT TO HER OFF-SCREEN, AND INKO IS JUST LIKE

I GUESS THAT’S FAIR LOL. IT’S TRUE INKO I’M SO SORRY, YOUR SON IS A PROGATONIST R.I.P.

AHHKKJH DEKU ANGST IS IT FINALLY THAT TIME OMGGGGGG

what is this soft pop beat that’s suddenly being pumped in over the speakers. I’VE GOT TO MOVE ON~ AND BE WHO~ I~ AM~~~, I JUST DON’T BELONG HERE, I HOPE YOU UNDERSTAAAAAAAND. also, follow-up question, when is Kacchan finally going to come back so he can jump in with the “WHAT ABOUT US~~~” bridge, huh. come the fuck on, Horikoshi

lmao All Might jesus christ

but given that it’s a stupid-ass decision...

anyway, yes!! finally that sweet, sweet “I don’t want to put anyone else in danger” angst!!

mmm that’s good angst Brent. Kacchan with center panel honors as usual, you love to see it. anyways though who do I have to yell at to get Deku a goddamn HUG around here seriously

so Inko is of course reacting with panic, and sensibly saying that she doesn’t approve of Deku’s “RUN AWAY AND FIGHT THE BAD GUYS ALL ON MY OWN, DON’T WORRY MOM I’LL JUST GET STRONGER, EASY AS PIE, IT’S A FOOLPROOF STRATEGY” plan

son of a bitch this manipulative green asshole is really gonna sit here and smile fondly at his mom and try to convince her that he’s Not A Little Kid Anymore. the hell you’re not mister

y'all are really just gonna sit there and let him talk you into this?? surely it can’t be that easy??

OH MY GOD

THE FEELS oh my god oh my god. BUT ALSO YOU’RE SERIOUSLY JUST GOING TO COLLAPSE INTO HIS ARMS SOBBING AND LET HIM DO WHATEVER THE FUCK HE WANTS LKJLJLFK. WHERE ARE ALL THE STRICT PARENTS AT?? AIZAWA, GANG ORCA, MITSUKI, SOMEONE PLEASE COME AND TELL DEKU TO SIT HIS ASS THE FUCK DOWN. NOW LISTEN HERE YOUNG MAN!!

“EVEN IF I TRY TO STOP YOU YOU’LL STILL LEAVE” WELL SURE, IF BY “TRY TO STOP HIM” YOU MEAN POLITELY TRY TO TALK HIM OUT OF IT FOR THREE SECONDS. HE’S SIXTEEN WTF WHEN DID HE BECOME THE BOSS OF YOU ALL. SOMEONE NEEDS TO COME AND TELL HIM HE’S GROUNDED

anyway sob so that’s the story of how Deku talked his parents into letting him drop out of school, and even convinced All Might to be his own personal Guy In The Chair. holy shit. this kid really went and rolled a nat 20 and the rest of them had no choice but to fold without argument

meanwhile here’s a panel of Best Jeanist trying to braid his phone into his hair just cuz

I’m dying to know which part of his language he considers to be crude here. you literally didn’t even use a contraction my guy

so now flashback!Deku is talking to Gran in the dark, and Gran is all “can you believe I’m not fucking dead yet lol that’s too funny. anyway, you sure I can’t interest you in killing Tomura after all?? no?? okay then here’s my cape.” truly a heartwarming scene

I’m kind of torn here tbh. on the one hand, my adhd ass wasn’t all that interested in sitting down and having an extended scene between these two when there’s so much else that I want to get to. but on the other hand, even I can admit that cramming this entire reunion into a single page seems just a BIT rushed. idk. like maybe someone can let Horikoshi know it’s a marathon and not a race. Deku didn’t even get any dialogue here, some of us want to know his thoughts!! but anyway

AND JUST LIKE THAT?!

how did all four of them let him con them into this. I literally just watched it happen and I still can’t figure out how. “I GUESS THIS SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT IS OUR LEADER NOW” ffflfjf. when Aizawa finds out he’s gonna go apeshit. AND DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON BAKUGOU KATSUKI, WHO I HAVE BEEN ASSURED DOES IN FACT STILL EXIST. WHAT ABOUT USSSSS, WHAT ABOUT EVERYTHING WE’VE BEEN THROUGH. WHAT ABOUT TRUST???! YOU KNOW I NEVER WANTED TO HURT YOUUUUU

btw lol don’t get me wrong, I am enjoying this, and I’m honestly glad Deku’s not alone because that would suck for him! but that said, Hawks and Jeanist have lost any credibility they might have once had as far as being The Responsible Ones, and as for All Might and Endeavor, fucking hell lol. everyone just deposited all of their fucks in a bank somewhere for safekeeping and decided to never look back. godspeed you mad lads

#bnha 309 #midoriya izuku #all might #midoriya inko #gran torino #hawks #best jeanist #endeavor #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha #petition for kacchan to form his own dynamic battle squad whose sole purpose is hunting down deku and talking some sense into him #if deku gets to drop out of school and make his own rules than so do we #what do you say icyhot are you in #actually can you just text your dad and ask him where deku is #maybe save us all some trouble

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danhoemei · 4 years ago

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Tag game

I was tagged by @oddishblossom (but I’m writing from this blog instead of my tagged main @fismoll7secinv , because people rather know me here and maybe won’t be too baffled if I tag them xd)

Rules: tag nine people you want to get to know better.

Favorite color: green 💚💚💚 (which you could probably guess xd)

Currently reading: ghhhh nothing really because after I finished tyk, I’ve been dwelling on it too much to start anything else. I planned to move to other things or watch the drama after I finish my first fic, because I wanted to keep my impression from the book before it gets mixed up with the drama’s, but then I just got repeatedly flooded with more and more ideas for writing and I can’t let gooo. So yeah, I’m kinda into rereading tyk, so may do just that if I have any time to read. And after that I have so many new titles on the list to read, like other priest novels and so many more danmei novels I learnt about since I fully joined this fandom not long ago 💚 So excited about them

Last song: Astronaut by Sir Sly 💚 It's so far my song of 2021 and I even have a song radio with similar songs ajksfnjg

Last movie: I- honestly don’t remember when I last watched a movie and what it was?? I’m this meme

Last series: The Haunting of Hill House (rewatched with a friend) 💚 It’s such a great series, I could rewatch it again. It’s a horror but more focused on the psychology of the characters, their (broken) relationships and family issues running very deep. As the show goes you slowly learn more and more about this family and the story of each member, how they got to where they are now, what they struggle with, and who they were in the past. They are also one of the most complex, diverse, and well played characters I’ve seen. Everything is done in such a beautiful way, from storytelling to setting and even camera work, some scenes are still so vividly stuck in my head. And the music is gorgeous, especially this piece which became one of my fav piano pieces of all time. I freaking just made a post of my live experience because it pretty much says everything (without spoilers). This show took me through so many emotions, very anxious towards the end, but smoothed and untwisted them steadily, ending with a sense of completion and calmness. I felt literal catharsis and was left full of good emotions after experiencing a worthwhile story. I wholeheartedly recommend. But yeah, it’s still a horror with some scary scenes (but mostly in the beginnings, it gets chill towards the end because you learn what’s the deal and know the ‘monsters’). It didn’t scare me but my friend was more jumpy xd

Sweet, savory, or spicy: spicy my beloved. I can’t handle too much sweetness and savory is very much nope (vege go brrr)

Craving: I bet violet and green with a pinch of night sky on top and a smell of white-golden light would taste amazing

Tea or coffee: hard choice because I can’t live without coffee but I would lead an unhappy life without tea

Currently working on: oh boi so many things, so I’m toning it down to only danmei fandom stuff. So there is this fic that I’m slowly working on, I have the whole list of events and a general outline, plus a wip of the next chapter, and it’s gradually gaining more and more details to the point of already being a whole-ass au in my head. There is another fic (this time smut with some wenzhou-typical banters and shenanigans xd) which I had an idea for while still reading tyk, and I decided to commit to it and actually write it, so for now it’s a wip with some outline and a messy intro. Also I have ideas for 3 more drawings connected to this silly art of mine, because I need to meme and it’s gonna become a stupid compilation of a group of clowns lmfao

Tagging: aaa I don’t know many people here, I’ve only recently crawled out of my lurking cave. So feel free to ignore me or let me know if you want me to remove the mention 👉👉

@gaygothfarmer @wrrinkl @thaya-wamani @contraltoviola @lil-sestra @nightjar-draws @verycharismaticdragon @marsipanart @a-very-fond-farewell @carriewangxian

#it's my first tag game so thank you so much for tagging me oddishblossom omg I feel so blessed ;-; 🙏#tag game #the haunting of hill house #tyk #fanfics #oddishblossom #danshushmei

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jayjaysocks · 5 years ago

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Listing my favorite animes (because I’m jumping on the bandwagon)

❗️⚠️ *spoilers!! (Duh)* ❗️⚠️

5. Deadman Wonderland

I was really really sad when I found out this anime got cancelled. The music was fantastic, the animation was really good, and the voice acting was incredible. Even the fucking dubbed version (I loved the voice they chose for Senji. God he was hilarious). I binged this show so fucking fast it wasn’t even funny. I loved watching the characters go through their own struggles and grow as people in the very small amount of episodes provided. There was a lot of development within the snippet that we actually saw, and I was thoroughly impressed with how well it was done. I wanted to scream or something when I found out there wouldn’t be a second season.

Sigh. Oh well. At least we got some of the manga’s masterpiece translated into a show, even if we were missing some fucking awesome characters.

4. Guilty Crown

Ugh, don’t even get me started. This anime was beautiful and I got so invested so freaking quickly. I literally go back every few years to rewatch it because I get ship starved.

Shu and Inori’s story was so beautifully done; between Shu uncovering his courage and Inori’s journey of self-discovery, I was continuously awe-struck and filled with feelings—I mean, I had never felt such raw emotion while watching something and I was completely blown away by the affect it had on me. Anger, hatred, sadness, it was all there (even for the main character lmao) and it was one of the first times I had ever felt a ship so heavily that I literally cried at the end. It was one of the very first Animes I’d ever seen and was one of the reasons I got such a taste for them. Thanks for throwing me down that rabbit hole, GC.

3. Soul Eater

This was literally the first Anime I’d ever seen, and my god I couldn’t have asked for a better starter. What I like about this one is that it’s style is so unique and different. It’s very punk and grunge, something I admired and appreciated in a genre that is normally the opposite (like Guilty Crown, for example). Also the fight scenes were badass, like holy shit just look at that gif ??? Freaking amazing.

I loved the way the show transitioned from light hearted to intense and adrenaline pumping so effortlessly. That can be said about a lot of shows, but this one went from *haha cute show* to *holy shit, like they’re actually gonna die ohmygod howaretheygoingtosurvivethis* so smoothly I was genuinely surprised. They made one of the main villains actually cool and each character had their own beautifully done arc. I loved and adored how the show solidified and expanded on the different friendships/relationships that were involved—specifically Soul and Maka’s (also, holy shit, Stein’s arc? Fucking prime, dude). There was a lot of growth in each and every friendship (CRONA!!!), and that really pushed the viewer to invest in the individual characters.

I am fucking delighted that this was my first anime, and (though the ending was a little anticlimactic) it remains one of my top favorites to this day. It set the bar pretty fucking high, and for that I am extremely greatful.

No one asked for Soul Eater: Not! It is the unspoken sin of the Soul Eater world (then again, it is called Soul Eater: Not!)

2. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

If you have been following me for a while, then you are no stranger to my love of FMAB. Some of my most popular posts are about this anime, and for good reason.

Unfortunately, I was late to the party. I actually didn’t watch this until last year, but got invested really damn quick. I have a tendency to be extremely picky about the animes that I watch/like (which is why NONE of these shows are that recent), to the point that I will literally research them before I start watching (a bad habit, do not copy me). I have an incomparably hard time finishing a show when I start, because I get bored really quickly, but this was an exception. I started watching and I just... didn’t stop. I spent a straight week watching FMAB, gobbling it up during any small amount free time I could manage, and finished it before I even knew what happened. I wasn’t picky about it, I didn’t research it, I just dove right in and gosh, I was not disappointed.

The subtle romance that was alluded throughout the entire show was super cute, the devotion the brothers had for each other was to die for, and the struggles that each person went through was more than moving. I never once found myself bored while watching, and that’s saying a lot for my adhd ass. I was invested in each and every second of that damn anime and I was never, ever left underwhelmed. That probably had to do with the fact that every. Single. Character. Had a purpose. I’m not even kidding. Every single person contributed to the big fight at the end and that alone is fucking fantastic.

Not to mention ALL the women, every female character, was a badass bitch. None of them were reduced to sex appeal or romantic subplot, they all had real feelings, real arcs and real, unadulterated badassery that I thoroughly admired and appreciated. I could watch this anime over and over again every single month and I wouldn’t get bored. Between the emotional struggle, self discovery, and personal development of each character, I promise you will not see a lack of plot or meaning here. The more you watch, the more you discover and that is not a lie. There are so many layers to its story, which only makes me wish I had watched this sooner.

There is nothing I have to offer in the ways of criticism, and for that I couldn’t be happier. Thank you, Hiromu Arakawa, for such an incredible piece of art. You deserve every bit of love that this manga/anime gets. You go girl.

1. Cowboy Bepop

Holy shit holy shit holy shit this anime is so fucking good and it has been my favorite for so damn long. I have been watching anime for years, and while some of the shows in my list have moved around, this one has yet to be bumped down from the top (and I doubt it ever will). There’s a reason it became such a cult classic.

For starters, the animation. I mean, just look at Spike and the way they animate his fighting (yes I am aware that this gif is from the movie, but that still doesn’t change my point). The sequences in the show/film have been reused in many other shows and for good reason. It’s good, incredible, actually and they make him look so badass with just a few hand movements. I was consistently impressed with the way the fight scenes were portrayed and wasn’t ever left underwhelmed or disappointed (or, for that matter, feeling like they completely over exaggerated/overcompensated the scene with huge close-ups and tons of debris and lights). I loved watching this and my heart was always pounding with every intense interaction. I didn’t feel bored during any of the episodes and always found myself laughing when they cracked a joke—pretty much all of their funny lines hit and that’s saying something, dude.

The show, while having a lighthearted surface, has a heavy meaning that you don’t see at first glance. It’s about dealing with grief and loss, and how the characters themselves accomplished that in different ways. The most prominent quote is the biggest indication of its moral “you’re gonna carry that weight”. Basically: ‘You’ve gotta pick up your baggage, because the world moves on, with or without you’. Or ‘You’re going to carry that weight whether you like it or not, because life keeps going’. When I figured out the show’s actual message, while staring at my ceiling in the long hours of the night, I almost cried. This realization brought something entirely different to the table, a new understanding of the show’s characters and overall essence.

The main characters, all of them, had depth. They had real, palpable depth, and even if you didn’t want to care you found yourself seriously interested in their lives. Each of them had relatively shitty pasts. Faye with her lost memories, Spike with Julia and the people who fucked him over, Jet with his old flame and the ISSP, Ed and her/his father... throughout the entire show we got to see how all of them dealt with these things, whether they wanted to continue on with life or not. The way they portrayed it was engaging, because the characters individual, contrasting journeys weren’t repetitive or one note. The beauty that the show holds so achinging close to its core, the layers of grief that the characters are wrapped in so delicately is almost suffocatingly real—because they’re all different. It’s something you discover when you think on the subject in a deeper light, which is another reason why I enjoy it so much. It has both a surface story and a deeper one. You can either take the show at face value or choose to understand the underlying moral.

This show inspired my very first, thoroughly fleshed out OC, and continues to inspire me to this day. It has contributed to my own personal growth, and has helped push me to continue my art and writing. It is beautifully written, beautifully executed and even though some of the episodes seem like filler, it has never disappointed me. I rewatch it all the time because there’s something so infinitely refreshing about the beauty of this anime, whether it be the way we watch the characters develop or the overall moral it portrays. This show has given us a message that is essentially timeless, it can be ‘carried’ through generation after generation, and still have the same impact—something I absolutely fucking adore.

I owe so much to this anime, including my very own artistic development. I discovered it during a really shitty time in my life and I couldn’t have asked for better timing. I will never tire of the bittersweet message or the thoroughly fucking fantastic animation. Everyone who contributed to this masterpiece deserves love, because it’s seriously fucking gold.

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lavenderek · 4 years ago

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i have a thought to express, feel free to scroll past.

i’m gonna discuss rape and sexual abuse in this post. it’s also long because i don’t really have a conclusion, it’s just some thoughts.

so i was looking into that reality show that facilitated shane dawson’s horrible movie “not cool” and i stumbled across a reddit thread posted by someone who was a fan of his as a preteen. the OP alleged that shane’s content contributed to them developing some serious issues including body dysmorphia and the normalization of sexual behavior involving children.

some of the comments were in support and agreement, but a large amount of them were like, “where were your parents? it’s not shane’s job to police what you see online. it’s not his fault you were too young for his content.”

now, shane was well aware from the jump that his fans were mostly kids and teens - he talked about it multiple times - but that’s not what this post is about. this post is about that particular argument, which does not sit well with me.

it reminded me of a couple years ago when i made a very critical post about c*ptive prince.

pause: i want to make it crystal clear that i am not drawing a comparison between people who like cp and shane dawson. i’m not mad anymore, so i am not making this post making a value judgment on cp or fans of it, positive or negative.

specifically, i was really bothered by the way cp content was posted and shared with no mention of or reference to the actual material. people were calling it a queer romance. it was a little-known series by a little-known author, so there were no synopses anywhere online, only the summary you’d see on the back of the book. so people would seek out cp thinking it was a romance and be blindsided by the fact that, spoilers, the story is set in a fantasy world where child rape is a major tenet of society. the scenes are explicit, detailed, and many. it’s not a thing that happens once or twice and is a major plot point, it’s a thing that happens multiple times in every chapter and is just kind of a thing that’s going on. if you’ve ever read twilight, i would compare the presence of rape in cp to the presence of rain in twilight.

like, that’s how often it happened, that’s how it was treated. sometimes with indifference, sometimes with a negative opinion, sometimes it caused problems, bella talks about it every two pages. it is a very rapey series.

and people like, did not want to discuss this. they were like, “the characters decide the rape is bad in the end. and that’s not even what the story is about, it just happens in the story. i don’t know what to tell you.” like... people were not receptive to any kind of conversation about this topic lmfao, it was very touchy. they wanted to acknowledge that rape itself is bad, and then they wanted the subject closed.

now, why is this a problem? i read the books. there were parts i enjoyed, and there were parts i didn’t enjoy. i’m not gonna reread them, but i’m still game to talk about it. ultimately i wanted to be able to talk about books with a friend of mine, and while i was like, “yikes, this is a lot of rape, was not expecting the volume of rape,” it didn’t occur to me this would be a pervasive issue at all until a different friend of mine happened upon it. this other friend was a rape survivor, and i happened to know she would find this content very upsetting. when she said she was thinking of buying the book, i was like, “halt, you know what happens in it, right?”

nope! she didn’t. she saw cute fanart and a ficlet on her dash, somebody told her it was a queer romance. nowhere was there any indicator in summaries online or the posts she was seeing that the book would describe a person being drugged and sexually abused. she was pretty relieved that i’d warned her and shaken that that’s what happens in the books lmao. she would never have guessed. the cp fandom was made up of people who loved the main pairing, and they’d talk about them being in love and draw them being in love, and it felt like everybody was just acting like the rape wasn’t even present in the books lmao.

pause: i didn’t go in the tags. this is not representative of the fandom as a whole. this is just my and my friend’s experience of it as passive internetgoers.

people got uncomfortable and a little defensive if i brought it up. they’d agree to tag for cp, but if you don’t know what cp is about, that isn’t helpful information. like that post that’s like, “waterboarding at guantanamo bay sounds like a lot of fun if you don’t know what either of those things are” lmao. if you don’t know what cp is about, tagging for it just tells you what it’s called. and it very clearly ruined everyone’s fun if i talked about this.

so that’s what i was mad about, i was mad that i felt as though there was no recourse here, and i was mad because i felt like the cp fandom was the emperor’s new clothes. nobody was acting like it even existed and everybody got uncomfortable if i brought it up, like, i legitimately wondered at some point if i had somehow accidentally read a kinky rewrite of it, that the real version did not have rape in it and nobody knew what i was talking about. i felt like i was going crazy and i got shitty in the middle of the night one time, and wrote that post.

i ultimately deleted it, so i do not remember how it was worded; but i do recall that it was a venting post, it was not intended to reach a wider audience. i was not trying to convince anyone in that moment, i was just talking shit. so i can bet that it probably came across as very judgmental and unkind.

i made a bunch of people very angry with that post. somebody got thousands of notes by reblogging with an impassioned smackdown saying basically what those redditors were saying about shane - it’s not their job to police what people see online. it’s not their fault you were unprepared for cp.

i do not think this is a nuanced enough argument because i do not think it acknowledges that not all content is created equal.

i even got an anon ask in good faith saying, well, a huge trigger for me is body horror, and people will draw or reblog stuff with body horror in it, and i can’t hold that against them.

and like, no, you can’t, but body horror is not the same as rape or child sexual abuse. body horror isn’t the same as sex trafficking. right? like those things aren’t comparable in the way that i think the anon was wanting them to be. they were saying that both of these are common triggers that people would want tagged and be unable to move past in media, you know? and i get that, i got what they were saying.

kind of like that cartoonist who wrote a spooky horror comic a while ago and somebody sent them an ask being like, “that was really scary, you usually post fun comics, this was damaging, unfollowed :/” like obviously a stranger’s fear of spooky things is not something he should be expected to take on on his own blog lmao. i am deeply afraid of ghosts, by the way.

but according to rainn.org, 1 in 5 women experience rape in their lifetime. 1 in 5 women are not frightened by literal ghosts in their lifetime. 1 in 3 girls and 1 in 7 boys aren’t body horrored. body horror and ghosts aren’t used on a global scale as tools to control and abuse people and they do not have the same connotations of shame, degradation, and control. the things are not the same.

i don’t have an easy answer. i can’t wave my magic wand and make people not enjoy the rape erotica, nor was that my goal in the first place. i wasn’t clutching my pearls like, “how dare you! do not draw this art! think of the children!” and i don’t know how else i would have solved the problem, aside from having a weird disclaimer under your art of two dudes cuddling that says “warning, these dudes are from a book that’s got several thousand words of explicit rape in it, and i know that, you’re not the only one seeing that,” like that’s a lot and i get it.

i don’t have an easy answer because there isn’t one. i felt like “well, that’s not my problem” was an easy answer.

as i get older, the more responsibility i have as an adult online to maintain boundaries between me and minors, for example. i am not responsible for their internet experience and they can’t get mad at me for cussing or writing about gay werewolves on my blog, but i do have to be mindful of that context if i’m interacting with someone online. that’s where the complexity comes in. you can’t wash your hands of the context of the things you say and do online.

just how to solve these problems, i did not know then and i do not know now. i guess we take it on a case by case basis.

if you’re curious about shane dawson and his horrible movie, by the way, this guy did a few funny videos about the horrible movie and this guy did a not funny but comprehensive breakdown of shane and his career.

and i tried to tint my eyebrows for the first time the other day, i have red hair and my eyebrows are darker than my hair for some reason, so i tried to use an eyebrow tint to lift my brows just like, a shade, so be closer to my hair? but in doing this i discovered that my eyebrows are a mixture of red and brown?

so the red hairs lifted to a sunny orange, and the brown hairs stayed brown. so my eyebrows are fully like, calico right now. boom, orange juice, that’s life

#diary post #long post

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paladin-andric · 5 years ago

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Tag Catchup

Hey there everyone. I’ve gotten a few tag games recently on the backlog, so I’m gonna knock em’ all out in one post. S’ what happens when you’re not on the site for a while. Sorry!

#1: First and Last Tag Game

Rules: Post the current first and last lines of your WIP.

Tagged by @corishadowfang! Thank you very much. I’m excluding context, because it is the finished product.

First:

The dawning sun streamed in through the window of a lavish bedroom.

Last:

“The sun has risen, and its light touches us all.”

These are pretty good, since they’re too vague to give any real spoilers. They’re also great first and last lines for a story.

#2: OC Theme Song Tag Game

Rules: Come up with the name of your OC’s theme song(s), were they to appear in a movie/show/game/etc. and tag one person per OC included! Musically-inclined participants can include how the songs would sound, such as what instruments or vocal parts would be included, but this is not required.

This one’s from @homesteadchronicles! Thank you, this tag’s really interesting!

Alexander: Great Awakening

Senci: Fantasy

Lexius: Journey’s End

Leianna: Holy Work (Atonement)

Wurie: Shoulder To Lean On

Tourthun: The Wounds Within

Razorwing: Burning Heart! The Mighty Razorwing!

Paul: Two Hearts (Alter Ego)

Charles: Mark Of The Beast

Andric: Et Lux In Tenebris

Eignach: A Place To Call Home

Clara: Martyrdom

Aurelio: The Black Soul Hurts No More

Basilrin: Shattered Memories

Julroul: Dance Of The Mad Dragon

Gira: Precious Memories

Helical: Paper Dragon

Ikon: Joy of the Hunt

This is my most comprehensive list of the characters of Blackheart yet. A few remain, but they’re ancillary characters mostly. This list is notable for being the first time where certain characters, including villains, are mentioned! These were on the spot. Some draw from events in the story (Alexander’s is a reference to his character arc, from a flawed and hateful knight still fighting for good, to a courageous hero worthy of his legend), some from character traits (Senci’s innocence and desire to be heroic, Paul’s past as a heartless bounty hunter driving him to help the citizens he put in this hellscape), and some were just really quickly thought up. Razorwing’s fits his overdramatic, super-heroic persona. Andric’s is actually the Latin version of the Bible passage John 1:5, meaning: The Light Shines in Darkness. Probably the coolest one, if I’m being honest.

#3: Last Line Tag

Well, this one might count in #1, but I’m doing the last line I edited.

The last one here is from @writer-candy! Good to hear from you.

It came into being out of nothing, and vanished as quickly as it had manifested. Things remained normal for a moment more, before another flash and an explosion of magic rocked the area. The burst of magic flowed over the knight, and it felt like he was being torn asunder invisible hands pulling his limbs in different directions. There was a great force as he reeled from the impact, teeth chattering and body flying backwards.

Alexander always seems to be having a rough time. Maybe it’s karma for being a huge jerk for the first quarter of the book.

Well, that’s it! I’ll be dropping a couple tags, more just to say hello than for anything else. If you’re wondering about Blackheart, it’s...still just about done. I’m just waiting on some art and the book cover before I can publish it. Should be out soon, fingers crossed! You’ll be the first to know.

Tagging @lady-redshield-writes, @paper-shield-and-wooden-sword, @sheralynnramsey and @oceanwriter, along with the three taggers. Feel free to do all, any or none of these, whatever floats your boat really.

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spacedragonsxx · 5 years ago

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TROS REVIEW (spoilers)

Well...it was better than TLJ and there’s some pros and cons, so I’ll list them below👇👇

Things I didn’t like :

* FORCE ABILITIES

- I already hated force-FaceTiming, now you can apparently teleport objects through force connections??? Ummm yeah no.

-FORCE HEALING HAS ALWAYS BEEN CANON, BUT NOT TO THAT EXTENT WHAT THE KRIFF. It wouldn’t have been so bad if they wouldn’t have done the whole IMPALING KYLO AND THEN HEALING IT COMPLETELY thing😒. Also, it ruins other movies because there are so many instances where this could have been used. And you can say that it’s a new force ability that was discovered by Rey and Kylo (or perhaps Luke? And he taught it to both of them like when Ben was young and when Rey was training) but if that’s the case then, HOW DOES BABY YODA, WHO HAS NO TRAINING OR EVEN CONCEPT OF WHAT THE FORCE IS BC HES A BABY, KNOW HOW TO DO IT!? ok so let’s say that you have to be EXTREMELY powerful in the force to do it. So, we can say Baby Yoda is a clone of Yoda and Rey is the emperor’s granddaughter, ok so they’re really powerful and they can do it. But, why can Kylo (assuming that’s what he did to bring Rey back since both cases are channeling force energy into another being) do it? What makes him anymore powerful than Luke or Anakin? Why couldn’t they do it? Or why couldn’t Yoda do it in the Clone Wars (if Baby Yoda is his clone and obv. Yoda would be strong enough for an ability like this)? Idk the whole thing is very confusing...

- FORCE GHOSTS CANNOT INTERACT WITH THE PHYSICAL WORLD!!!! Whyyyyy would they make any indication otherwise because, once again, it ruins other movies. If force ghosts can hold objects and use the force, then why not help in battles? Is there like a force ghost code that says you can’t help your friends after death so that you don’t interfere with anything involving the way or the force or “destinies”? This just opens more questions and plot holes...why not just keep force ghosts how they were (guides/advisors that were at peace)? Instead, Luke can apparently hold his lightsaber and use the force to pick up his X-Wing. Isn’t he one with the force now? Isn’t he just a part of the flow of the force? imo, he shouldn’t be able to interact/interfere with anything in the physical world besides speaking and appearing to others.

* PLOT HOLES (there were lots of wait how did they do that, why is he here wasn’t he just-, can they do that...Moments. Also the concept of time in this movie is really bad...felt like GoT season 8 with the way they just seemed to be here and then somewhere else within 5 minutes with no real concept of time<<<but then again JJ did have a lot to cram in with this movie due to TLJ not really taking the plot ANYWHERE).

* FAKE DEATHS (too many. That’s all I’m gonna say😂).

* LACK OF LUKE IMPACT

- THIS IS HIS LEGACY. He was hardly in the Sequels and had little impact in them overall. I feel like at the end, he should have had something to do with the Emperor’s death ( my thought would be to have his force ghosts appear behind Rey and help her push back the force lightning since apparently force ghosts can do that now and that way he could have a larger role as a hero in the story and be directly involved in fulfilling his fathers final goal).

* Space Jumping

- I don’t think you should be able to exit hyperspace in the middle of the atmosphere of another planet. Also, doing it that quickly doesn’t make sense as well (once again concept of time/plot holes^^^).

Anyways....negativity is over!! 👇

Things I liked :

* The concept of the plot

-I actually liked what they tried to do with the plot, however it was just very jumpy and forced in your face sometimes (more of an explanation for this point with the points bellow). But I feel like TLJ left this movie with a lot to pick up from soooo...once again, I’m cutting it some slack.

* Sith lore

-OK SO THE THRONE ROOM (which is actually original concept art for the Emperor’s throne) AND SITH HOLOCRON/RELIC THINGS AND THE WHOLE CONCEPT OF THE DARKSIDE WAS VERY COOL.

- It gave more of an idea that the sith were a cult sort of thing it felt very tied to the history of the dark side/sith culture and I liked that a lot.

-gave a more in depth look at palps power👇 and his role in the sequels which ties it to the other trilogies as well.

* Rey/Kylo dynamic

- Not specifically Reylo (though I’ve never had a strong opinion about the ship, and I’m fine with them getting together bc I never really cared about that part) but the concept of: Ben👉🏼born out of light (Leia) but falls to darkness VS. Rey👉🏼 Born out of darkness (Palpatine) but raised in the light. Both are tempted to swing the other way around ( Kylo temped by his parents, Rey, and the force itself to go back to the light and Rey tempted by her grandfather, her need for a legacy/purpose, and Kylo to go towards the Darkness). However, in the end, Darth Vader’s grandson and Emperor Palpatine’s granddaughter (two of the most powerful Sith in history) must unite to destroy the ultimate evil and the darkness once and for all. Plus Ben’s sacrifice for Rey is really the only thing that made that kiss acceptable to me (other wise it would have been forced for fan service imo).

* Palpatine

- I think his broken body hanging from the crane was extremely terrifying (which is a good thing because you’re supposed to FEAR the emperor) and I loved the whole concept of him repairing himself with the life energy of Rey and Ben. His voice even sounded more demonic before he healed himself and I thought that was cool.

-Him being Rey’s grandfather explains A LOT about her abilities and fixes some of the parts of the movie that I didn’t like while watching.

-making him be the one to create Snoke (via cloning as we saw) was good because it shows how Snoke was just a tool he used to orchestrate this entire thing (in a way it fixed the crap pulled by killing him off in TLJ).

* Lightsaber Battles

- Let’s be real, I may not like the Force face timing or teleportation of objects via force connection....BUT that battle where Kylo figures out Rey’s location by breaking the stand Vader’s mask was on was pretty clever and the fight itself was well done.

- THE BATTLE ON THE DEATH STAR WAS VERY COOL (minus the “killing” Kylo part 😒). I liked the pure rage they both had while fighting and the jumping over the waves

* Other small parts I liked :)

-c3po (he was pretty much the comedy in this movie)

-Lando (he wasn’t in it much but they handled his character VERY WELL).

-prequel references (first time the sequels reference the prequels via quotes, lore, voices)

-voices cameos (along with what I said above^, it was REALLY cool to hear TWO animated characters make an appearance: Ahsoka and Kanan. <<<really ties it in to the rest of the franchise and makes everything more connected)

-Leia/Luke flashback (LEIA TRAINED AS A JEDI AND HER LIGHTSABER WAS SO PRETTY JSIDJDJFKFNFKGK). Side note: I was also fine with Leia’s death (she pushed all of the light-sided energy she had into Kylo, which resulted in her death but Ben’s rebirth 🥺).

-Final Scene on Tatooine (as Maul said in Rebels: “It ends where it all began. A desert planet with twin suns) ...ok but why bury the lightsabers :(

So was it the perfect ending to the Skywalker saga? No. But it did the best it could with what it had to work with. Overall, I’m happy I think and I’m just going to leave it at that. Feel free put your own opinions (I’m open to any and love to discuss SW so😂). Also there were a ton of Easter eggs that I plan on making a separate post about (I’ll probably have to watch again before that to see if I missed any)!

#star wars #the rise of skywalker #tros spoilers #the rise of skywalker spoilers #tros #sw sequels #rey #kylo ren #ben solo #finn #poe dameron #leia organa #luke skywalker #han solo #sw #rose tico #jannah #lando calrissian

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caden · 6 years ago

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i feel we should examine the whole idea of “do spoilers matter” or not at a deeper level then ‘people who complain about spoilers are annoying so spoiler warnings are stupid’. like the idea that a lot of you guys seem to have of “if having the plot spoiled ruins the movie for you then the plot wasnt any good anyways” seems sort of... not fully wrong but also underdeveloped to me. like, there are tons and tons and tons of stories that are widely considered to be amazing and have clear artistic merit that you absolutely wouldn’t want spoiled. Like, you wouldnt want to know darth vader was lukes father. you wouldnt want to know bruce willis was a ghost the whole time. For drama to be effective you need tension, and a very very efficient way of keeping the audience engaged is by putting them in a mindset where they’re unsure of what will happen next, or by revealing a game-changing plot twist, or by suddenly putting a character into an unexpected position. It seems totally disingenuous to me to be like ‘well it shouldnt matter to the audience whether or not they get to be surprised by what happens in the film they’re watching’. You can’t honestly believe that to be true. Being able to be surprised by a story is like one of the fundamental draws of good storytelling and probably has been for all of human history. Imagine how much worse US or Get Out or any Shakespeare play would be if you knew exactly where the plot would go before you saw it. I know there’s some research that suggests people actually enjoy stuff more if they already know what will happen but you can cast a lot of doubt on that data-- i think that it indicates more that people are more likely to appreciate a good plot once they understand it more thoroughly, hence why you might like a great movie more the second time you watch it. That doesnt mean there isnt value in the first time, it’s just a different way of viewing it.

All that said, the stuff with people not wanting spoilers for endgame has different wrinkles to it. (dont worry im not about to spoil anything). It can’t all be chalked up to ‘people care super deeply about the characters and plot and the writing is always so unpredictable and engaging that they dont want to know a single thing before going in’. Ive spent a lot of time recently thinking about the way infinity war and endgame are constructed, and they’re made in such a way that REALLY facilitates them being ‘spoiled’. because they’re written around moments. The plot isn’t so much a naturally moving thing with motivations and momentum of its own as much as a connective tissue between various cool things happening. Like, whoa, spider-man just met the guardians of the galaxy. oh sick, theyre in wakanda. holy shit, half of them died. Endgame goes REAAAAAALLY hard on this style of writing. And as a method of milking emotion from the audience, it really really works. Assuming the moments themselves are all effective, you’re guaranteeing constant engagement because every three minutes another epic thing is gonna happen. And I think when people fault marvel fans for being obsessed with spoiler warnings, this style of filmmaking is really what they’re trying to critique. because there’s a suggestion that if your movie is just jumping from crazy twist to shocking death to funny reference to epic fight, you’re losing the thing that should actually be the connective tissue of a film-- its themes, character arcs, ideas, setting... etc. And while I personally don’t think those things are mutually exclusive, (bc i do believe that infinity war and endgame genuinely have themes they try to discuss), i would also agree with the argument that reliance on shocking moments over actual ideas is bad writing. But as I mentioned earlier, a filmmaker like Jordan Peele whose works are generally agreed to be very good also uses this writing style-- his plots escalate via twists and turns and are expertly constructed to keep the audience wondering what’ll happen next, and he does a really great job with it.

Now, i DEFINITELY think there’s an argument for ‘disney intentionally plays up the spoiler warning angle in a way that’s ultimately toxic to the filmmaking process’. Like I don’t believe that the “tom holland doesnt get to read the script” stuff is true, I 100% think it’s all a publicity stunt-- but they shouldnt be setting a precedent that makes people think doing something like that to a lead actor is acceptable. It’s not how films should be made, and the only reason I’m sure its all fake is because I have enough filmmaking experience to know itd literally be impossible to efficiently shoot a big-budget film under those conditions. Of course all the buzz about endgame spoilers is HUGELY beneficial to their marketing teams, so obviously they’re gonna go hard as hell on enforcing that narrative. Like they 100% WANT everyone to both be spoiling the movie and getting anxious about having the movie spoiled, because its all free advertising for them. But in terms of ‘big movie studios having greedy practices that harmfully affect the artistic process and make their films worse’, its incredibly low on the list of bad stuff that studios do imo.

So, like, if you’re gonna critique all the various aspects of that, I think you should A) put your efforts towards exposing all the spoiler panic through the lens of how it affects the way that films are produced and consumed, or B) put your efforts towards analyzing the media itself, watch the film and ask ‘is this film more engaging and well-made because of its reliance on moments that can be spoiled? If no, why is that not working? If yes, is that engagement coming at a cost or is it justified? Essentially, I’d like to feel that the criticism was either coming from a social angle or an artistic one. And if that were the case I think i’d have less of an issue with it. Just saying “people are dumb for caring about spoilers” is silly. Maybe it’s dumb, but that’s not the point. People will consume media however they want to and if they want to care about spoilers then they have a right to care. You guys aren’t wrong if you think marvel shit is stupid and badly made, because art is subjective and no opinion on it is wrong. But other people also aren’t wrong for liking and caring about it, and being like ‘we should spoil it for them to teach them a lesson” is gross and totally unproductive. I know 99% of it is jokes but you gotta remember that some people have spent a very long time being very excited to see this movie and doing something that wrecks that for them is just mean and inconsiderate. It’s not about whether them feeling that way is stupid or not, because yeah, it’s stupid to be that invested in superhero movies. It’s about it not being cool to intentionally hurt someone just because you can. And the reason i don’t have a lot of tolerance for it is because I feel like saying “caring about spoilers is stupid” is a kneejerk, surface level attempt at media criticism and we can do better. I obviously care pretty deeply about the way we consume and criticize pop culture and i think it’s in everyone’s benefit to have more productive discourse about this stuff. No ill will towards my friends who are saying the things that i’m ragging on, i obviously don’t think it’s coming from a malicious place or anything-- this is just my read on the situation. Was gonna post this like two days ago but then decided someone would prob message me a spoiler because of it lol

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honeylikewords · 6 years ago

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Gimme your thoughts about Us, I’m still dumb af - You know who it be

I’m putting off an essay to write this but let’s ROCK and ROLL, BABY!

So, spoilers below the cut, just as a warning for anyone who still wants to see Us (2019), dir. Jordan Peele. If you’re unable to see the movie for whatever reason, you can feel free to read this and garner some ideas from it, but I still suggest seeing the film, in the end. A lot of this won’t make sense unless you’ve seen Us!

I normally don’t go out for too much horror, but I do think the Jordan Peele movies are legitimately great works of art, and very culturally relevant, so if you want to be supportive of black artists, black art, and the vocalization of the black experience, I highly suggest going to see these movies or watching them at home.

They’re not actually overly violent or exploitative, and understanding that the violence in the films is meant to be metaphorical for the systemic violence perpetrated against oppressed groups helps to contextualize the stuff you do end up seeing. So, without further ado, let’s get into some Thoughts about some Cinema.

So, first of all, I have to say that I haven’t stopped thinking about this movie since I saw it at, like, 5:30 pm on Sunday. It’s been on my mind non-stop, and I’ve been fixated on the soundtrack, particularly “Anthem” and “Pas de Deux”, along with the “Tethered Remix” of “I Got Five On It”. I love the intentionally jarring combination of sounds, and how “Anthem” is directly reflective of the idea of the “U.S. Anthem”. “Us Anthem”.

Jordan himself has been very open about the fact that the title Us is meant to also represent “U.S.”, and when Red is asked “what she is” and she rasps out “We’re Americans” it just... stuck with me.

The nonsense-singing of “Anthem”, too, fixates me, since the scorer for the film has talked about how it’s the “voices of the Tethered”, and how they’re “angry” and “ready to get free”. We know that the Tethered cannot speak, which is a major and interesting facet of their life, to me, since they’re never given “a voice” beyond this kind of animal screaming and groaning.

It’s what makes a lot of viewers see them as “sub-human”, but always gets to my heart and makes me think about the fact that they are so very keenly human. It makes me think about the repression of “lesser” languages, native languages, “non-verbal” languages. The Tethered DO have a means of communication-- clicks and rasps, cries and screams-- which definitely do pull at the human fear of “unnatural” noises, but also remind me of native languages that utilize clicks or throat sounds often not found in English.

The Tethered are deeply, intimately human. While it is mentioned by Red that two bodies cannot share the one soul, that doesn’t mean to me that the other is soulless. I really don’t think that about the Tethered. I think that they are their own people, and that their rising proves that. They’re not hollow machines that just mimic their “original” on the surface, but are just people with their own souls, people who have been wrongly oppressed and mistreated.

Us is openly a discussion about the way we, as people and as Americans, treat “others”. Whether that means the racial other, the cultural other, the class other, the gendered other, or anything other system we try to dichotomize, binarize, or diametrically oppose to something else, it’s very definitely about the ways we abuse and mistreat people in order to systemically oppress them and gain from that.

Adelaide represents this interesting kind of class-traitor, in a way, because she rises “above the others”, both literally and figuratively, and instead of making an effort to free those around her, she just rises to the top and forgets where she came from. Whether that’s about assimilating into white culture and “rejecting” the culture one came from (joining in the oppression of your own people by claiming to ‘not be one of those kinds’) or about rising to a wealthy position and oppressing the poor, forgetting what it was like to be poor one’s self, or about any number of other things, that’s up for interpretation. But the issue is still there.

Jordan intentionally left the specific meaning of the film open so that every viewer would be forced to engage with it personally. Who do you, personally, help to betray? Who do you, personally, help to oppress? Whose suffering do you, personally, benefit from? You’re forced to grapple with that, and forced to acknowledge the reality that every single one of us is part of the issue. You only climb higher by putting someone below you, and this movie forces you to recognize that.

I’ve heard people complaining that Us isn’t as good as Get Out specifically because it’s more open-ended, but I think that’s what makes both films fantastic and beautiful. Get Out brazenly exposes the direct experience of everyday black horror, and is completely open about it. It’s a one-to-one analogy. But Us is for everyone, making you wrestle with yourself. You are your own Tethered. You are the good and the bad of yourself. And neither one is fully good and neither one is fully bad. Get Out was a master-class in analogy, but Us is more of a metaphor; it doesn’t need to have everything laid out. Its horror and its beauty lay inside of its intentional cloudiness.

I’m really obsessed with the rabbit imagery, too. I love bunnies, and seeing them become symbolic of this horror really was an interesting take. Jordan himself has expressed being uncomfortable with and scared of rabbits, specifically because he can see that they’re “soulless” inside; he says that if you took the brain of a rabbit and put it in a person, you’d get Michael Myers. Totally void, just ready to hurt. And I think that’s an interesting take on them. He also points out that the image of rabbit ears, the shape of their head, mirrors the shape of the scissors that the Tethereds use.

I also love the way that rabbits are largely docile little creatures, but can bite pretty hard if provoked, and I feel that’s a good way to look at the Tethered. I don’t see them as inherently evil or violent, just pushed beyond their own limitations. They did what we all did as Americans: they led a violent uprising against their oppressors, then ‘peacefully’ took their place, all the way across America. They are us, for better, for worse.

The choice to use the 80′s references really often also caught my attention; Jordan talks about how the 80′s nostalgia is this double-edged sword, since everyone is longing to go back, but not realizing the costs and weights of that, the evil lurking under the placidity and “wholesome American image” that the 80′s sought to project.

The all-American, apple pie, small-town fun and games of the 80′s also came with the Reagan administration, the AIDs crisis, the war on drugs, a massive rift between the rich and the poor (with a steadily more wealthy middle class expanding from just middle class into rich, upper middle class individuals and extremely poor lower middle class), and “sublimated racism”. We pretended, as a nation, that we were now post-racial, but that was such, such, such a huge lie.

So setting the memory scenes in the 80′s, using 80′s film references, 80′s imagery, 80′s sound-a-likes, the Michael Jackson stuff: it all points to the duality of what we love, what we are nostalgic for. Michael was a hero of the 80′s, but now...

Speaking of Michael Jackson, notice carefully the costuming of the Tethereds. Red jumpsuit, single glove, ‘the monster is not what it seems’, the “Thriller” t-shirt... why, Jordan, one might think that you made the Tethereds look like Michael in “Thriller”!

Which he obviously did, guh-doy.

I mean, the glove/sharp symbol also is an homage to good ol’ shithead Freddy Krueger, too, but it’s definitely a potent nod to Michael Jackson. We know that Adelaide (now Red) had seen the “Thriller” video as a child, and that she wanted the shirt with him on it, so the image of the Tethered is this combination between the Hands Across America symbols and the Michael Jackson look in “Thriller”. Adelaide (now Red) never forgot.

Also, god, Hands Across America? Talk about 80′s false optimism! It’s incredible how potent that image is for the issue being discussed. For those of you who don’t know, Hands Across America was an initiative in the 80′s to help end hunger and homelessness in America. The idea was that every person in America would join hands and form a line “from sea to shining sea” across the entire lower 48 continental states, and for each person in line, $10 dollars would be donated to the cause.

The event, of course, failed in many ways. First, there’s no POSSIBLE way for people to join hands across the whole continent; the terrain of the US makes it entirely impossible. Plus, the time necessary to conduct that would be incredibly exhausting for people standing in line! But what’s worse? The project did successfully raise ~$34 million, but nearly $20 million of that disappeared into “event costs”: paying the celebrities that endorsed it, paying the event organizers, et cetera. Only around $15 millions made it to the homeless and hungry. While $15 mil. is no small number, that’s.... less than half of what was raised. So where did all that go? Into the pockets of the already rich. It’s such powerful symbolism, especially within the context of the film.

Oh, also, while still on the 80′s talk, the opening shot of the film features a VHS copy of the movie C.H.U.D., a movie about “sub-human underground sewer dwellers” who rose up to eat the surface humans. These “CHUDs” were one-to-one analogies for the homeless and impoverished.

I cannot get over how strong the storytelling is in Us, I just can’t. I’m obsessed with it. I cannot help but wanna talk about it all the time! It’s so GOOD and I’m so FRUSTRATED that I’m gonna cut myself off here to stop from ranting about every teeny tiny thing and every big major thing because no one will know what I’m on about, but, seriously, do yourselves a favor and go see Us.

This movie will make you have to sit down and think about whose suffering you’ve benefited from, and what you need to do within yourself to change this.

Also, before I go, I just gotta say I love, love, love the decision Jordan made about having the 1980s version of the hall of mirrors be “Native American” themed, only to have that “politically corrected” in the 2010s to be “Merlin’s Hall Of Mirrors”, which is just a facade thrown up over a still-racist, exactly the same hall of mirrors. The problem lurks within, never gone, just covered.

Also, that ties to the Kubrick connection (The Shining is a major inspiration for Jordan) and the genocide connection, so, uh, it’s deep out here, lads.

Anyway, I have opinions about movies.

#also lupita deserves an oscar for this role no joke #her 'red' voice? ogh my god... oh my god #HER M II I I I I N D !!!!#messages #long post #us spoilers #Anonymous

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comicteaparty · 6 years ago

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February 11th-February 17th, 2019 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party week long chat that occurred from February 11th, 2019 to February 17th, 2019. The chat focused on Sombulus by Christina Major.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB START!

Hello and welcome everyone to Comic Tea Party’s Week Long Book Club~! This week we’ll be focusing on Sombulus by Christina Major~! (http://www.sombulus.com/)

You are free to read and comment about the comic all week at your own pace, so stop on by whenever it suits your schedule! Remember, though, that while we allow constructive criticism, our focus is to have fun and appreciate the comic. Below you will find four questions to get you started on the discussion. However, a new question will be posted and pinned everyday (between 12:01AM and 6AM PST), so keep checking back for more! You have until February 17th to tell us all your wonderful thoughts! With that established, let’s get going on the reading and the chatting!

QUESTION 1. What has been your favorite scene in the comic so far? What specifically did you like about it?

QUESTION 2. At the moment, who is your favorite character? What about that character earns them this favor?

QUESTION 3. What do you think caused Rana, Astyr, and Sydney to wind up bound all together since Astyr didn’t do it on purpose? Do you believe the trio will be able to become unbounded? How might this affect their relationships?

QUESTION 4. Who exactly are Hannah and Vuudo working for? Why are the two so intent in spying on Astyr? Further, what about Kazar? What spying activity is Kazar doing and why was Yanell’s presence of interest to her? How will these spying activities affect the main trio?

Delphina

It's my comic! I'm so excited!

khkddn

I have not started reading yet but I wanted to say the website looks really nice. The archive is so neat looking!!

Delphina

Thanks! I know the archive is long, so having a nice-looking archive page that would be helpful for seeing where you left off was important to me. XD

varethane

I think Sydney is my favourite, but that is liable to change at any minute cuz I like Astyr and Rana and Tenge a lot too lol

kayotics

1. I think I like lot of the more recent scenes the best. I really like the emotional depth that's happening between the main characters, specifically Astyr and Sydney. The scenes where Sydney was actively working with Astyr are some of my favorite, just because it shows a lot of character growth. 2. I like Tenge a lot (I'm a sucker for nerds), but I think I like Astyr and Sydney the best! Mostly I like their dynamic and the emotional development that has started between them. Overall, the cast is really fun because they all have something unique about them. 3. I don't really have much speculation on how they became bound together, but I do think that they're going to eventually become unbound from each other, but I think that at least Rana will choose to stay with Astyr after becoming unbound. 4. Again, I haven't speculated too much on who they work for, but my guess on why they're intent on following around Astyr is he's caused some sort of significant disruption in magic before (it seems that he does that frequently enough), or he's important in some sort of larger plot that he's not aware of.

keii4ii

Can I just say I love the main trio a lot + Tenge? Also, I'm entertaining a vague AU idea about half-ascended Astyr with one blue eye.

kayotics

Oooh I like that AU

Delphina

He looks like that guy from My Hero Academia XDDD

kayotics

huh, you're right

RebelVampire

QUESTION 5. Do you believe that Tenge will destroy his own Morphid father? If not, what do you think he’ll do alternatively? Whether he does it or not, how do you think further contact with his father will affect him? What about his relationship with Astyr?

RebelVampire

1) its hard to pick so im picking two. the first one is the scene where sydney is confronted with the fact not all demshull can do magic. i felt at that point in the comic thered been a lot of build up for sydney being confronted with her own racism, and i felt that moment was a great pay off. especially cause sydney's facial expressions in the moment are just fantastic and like she got hit with a ton of bricks. for the second fave scene though, the one where astyr and sydney first meet rana and rana discovers that basically her life is a lie. there was something fantastic in the pacing and atmosphere that really drove home the fact that this was a life changing moment for rana. 2) Astyr. I like how Astyr is sort of this gray character where he's not terrible yet he causes lots of property damage that makes you think Sydney is kind of right about him. And I really just like this complicated dynamic cause it makes you feel unsure about whether to trust him or not. I also love though that deep down hes willing to risk a lot of people he cares about. 3) i actually think it was rana who bound them all, not astyr. theres one moment where rana is looking off into the distance getting internally emotional and then suddenly the alarm about essence going off triggers. and rana is shown to basically be kind of weird where thats concerned, so i think she inadvertantly bound them so she could leave with them. Regardless, I consider it inevitable that they'll become unbounded. While Rana and Astyr will probably be fine, Sydney I think is gonna be most affected. Cause at that point she's either going have to destroy the friendship or admit that Astyr isn't so bad. I assume she'll choose the latter after all the build up, but itll certainly strengthen the relationships since the relationships will have to become by choice and not force.

4) i actually think hannah and vuudo are working for whoever organized the experiments all the half-bred children were part of. cause hannah seems like the type whod do that. so obviously if that's the case, that's why theyre watching astyr. hes their favorite experiment kid and maybe someday hell do something useful. as for kazar, idk. at the moment it just feels like kazar is just doing generic spying, possibly charged with making sure there's no peace to be made (hence why yanell is of interest to her). As for the effect of hte main trio, I think theyre just gonna become public enemy number one for both groups for various reasons, cause theyre clearly super powered weirdos who know too much and should be stopped. 5) I don't think Tenge will go through with it. He'll certainly try, but I think Astyr's pleas are gonna haunt him and he'll hesitate wondering if there is some merit to his father. However, I kind of think Tenge will banish him and still not talk to him. Overall, I think Tenge is gonna start questioning his place in life more. Wonder why he continues when he has to hide out avoiding everyone. As for his relationship with Astyr, eh, it'll probably continue to just be strained cause Astyr has bigger fish to fry right now I think.

Stefan G

@Delphina I have to take additional time to read more comics ... but the first impression is [beautiful cartoons/drawing] ... and the website looks really nice [like how you added a store, archive and how to support your art - good job ... I might steal that ] ... did you code that website yourself or do you hire somebody to do that?

Delphina

Thanks so much! My coder buddy Kemayo built me a very simple webcomic CMS, and the store functionality is powered by Gumroad, but all the HTML/CSS was done by me!

lomcia (princess_lom)

1. DETAILS! It's the best detailed page, colors are nice for eye

2. I don't have yet fav character.... but for now Brendolyn looks ok

And I read it and I need to say, that seeing how your style changed make me impress. I got a question actually, everyone got move to do comic because of some event, movie, game etc. a] Who/what inspired you to do that comic? (I'm asking everyone that question, I just want and need to know!) b] What you feel now, when you look on your comic, how characters develop and how your style improved?

Delphina

Thanks so much! I really had a lot of fun with the colors in this whole scene, so I'm happy you like them! For me: a) Sombulus was a NaNoMango project (like a NaNoWriMo community except for comics) that I started when I was putting off what I thought was going to be my bigger, better story. The main trio of characters and the idea of world-hopping to lots of weird magical places just wouldn't leave me alone. The shape of it has changed a lot, but I'm really happy with where it's gone and it's exciting to be dropping some of the big big spoilers I've had in my head for years! b) I'm going through a lot of Act 3 right now preparing things for print, so I've been staring at pages I did 5 years ago a lot recently. Part of how I designed Sombulus was because I knew it would take a long time, I wanted to incorporate the idea of each world being in a different style. When I didn't have a lot of practice, it was much easier to get the story going in black/white until I got faster at art, but it's also nice to have a built in reason to try different software and brushes. Of course, there's a lot of loose and sloppy anatomy in the past, but I'm the kind of person who really values seeing that as a sign of growth so I'm trying not to update that much and just focus on making parts of the story clearer and more supportive of where it eventually went.

(I know this chat is specifically focused on the comic of the week, so if you want answers from people who aren't me, you might want to ask in #general maybe!)

lomcia (princess_lom)

Yeah, I asked, not everyone is answering, so I'm using week and thirsday bookclub to ask

rae

Nanomango is super good at giving people a kick in the ass for projects. You've done really good with getting it off the ground

Delphina

Thanks, Rae, it's been... whew... a while! Nanomango is a good little group project, though now that I've been at this comic for 9 years, I really think trying to do 30 pages in 30 days (even as sketches) was never going to work for me, and it's never fun to feel like you've failed to meet a goal. But one thing that I think was really good for me was participating year after year gave me sort of a drafting process? Letting what I had done stew and simmer for a few months let me see everything with fresh eyes when I came back, so I could come back the next time and focus on the parts I wanted and cut the parts that didn't seem like good directions anymore.

rae

i feel like it was easier to do 30 comics with the community we had

and yeah, editing is def a thing I wish I could do more for webcomics. >_>

RebelVampire

QUESTION 6. Who or what do you think Rana is? Why was Rana locked away in the Library? What does all this potentially have to do with Rana’s strange abilities that seem to have some ill affects on magic? How will Rana’s abilities affect the group further?

keii4ii

I don't have theories because I'm the type of the reader who just wants to see the answers as they come, but I wanna say I am super curious about this #6.

kayotics

I read the same way, but yeah I’ve been curious about Rana too. Considering some of the recent pages have shown that Sydney has a very strange origin story, it might be safe to assume that Rana is the same. I like that Rana seems to often get the group out of trouble too. Rana has a lot of mystery around her that makes me intrigued to see what the full extent of her abilities are, since I think there’s a lot more to her

Delphina

Rana is so problematic because I love coming up with ideas for her, but it also means I gotta find a million references for gadgets and machines to draw scenes where she does cool things.

kayotics

Rana, the problematic fav

Kezhound - What it Takes

Considering we just found out that Sydney is the daughter of a spear and a magic spring, I'm guessing whatever Rana is, it's a kind of spontaneous creation too. Maybe she's the result of a computer dropped into a magic volcano

it's always possible she IS a machine from another world, one so advanced no one can figure her out

but...have we ever seen her bleed? Or injured?

https://tenor.com/view/arnold-schwarzenegger-blood-leaf-flannel-shirt-gif-3519051

Delphina

I am so here for the Compucano ship

varethane

omg

RebelVampire

QUESTION 7. What do you think happened in the past that ruined Yanell’s peace talk progress? Do you believe that the Kanites and Demshul will continue their fear-mongering ways, or will Yanell advance peace again? What is your reasoning?

RebelVampire

@Kezhound - What it Takes I love this Rana is a machine theory. That is so far from something I would guess, yet would love to see be true to a degree. It fits with all the symptoms.

RebelVampire

6) I think Rana is some mega essence container or something. Like connected to the origin of it all or something like that. It adds up to me why Morphids are so super affected by her presence and why she'd be locked up in the library. You don't just leave your essence power house unattended. You lock them away where they can be "safe." As for future affects, I mean I figure at some point someone somewhere is gonna be like "Hey wait a second weird magic stuff? Isn't that the person we locked in the library?" And then more manhunts ensue. 7) I'm taking a stab in the dark and saying I think it's direct sabotage. Like Yanell's disappearance and entrapement wasn't just happen stance. There is a shadow puppet somewhere making sure that no peace will ever be had. I do think they'll get to peace though. Mostly because I'm an optimist and assume peace will prevail. And also because their entire conflict seems to be based more around fear mongering than actual things they should be that mad about.

Cheshire777

I think that Hannah and Vuudo are working for whoever is messing up Yannell's peace treatys; they're pretty much the only wild cards at this point besides the morphids.

RebelVampire

(the archive for Offshore Comic is now up! https://comicteaparty.com/post/182818407550/february-4th-february-10th-2019-ctp-archive @Stefan G )

so basically its all a giant conspiracy because ppl be hating on peace? O_O @Cheshire777

Stefan G

@RebelVampire Thanks for everything, RebelVampire ... 1) really enjoyed everyone’s comments and suggestions for Offshore. Thanks y’all 2) I also rewrote/fixed the js-code on my website [www.offshorecomic.com] ... now the strips flow smoother and I added a counter in order to better follow your progression. Check it out

Cheshire777

@RebelVampire I'm guessing that the "Big Bad Boss" has some ulterior motive/motives besides just indefinitely extending the war, whether the war is a side effect or that they will profit directly from it (I've just been reading back through the old Akatsuki storyline of Naruto) I have no guess.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 8. Given what’s shown of Astyr’s past, what do you think the experimenters were attempting to do? Why were they targeting half-breed children like Astyr, Cioara, and Tenge? What was their ultimate goal having Astyr explore the Weave?

RebelVampire

8) I feel like theres some power source theyre searching for in the Weave. Maybe a person, maybe just a thing, but they need someone super good at exploring the Weave to find it. I cant fathom why though, albeit i doubt it's anything good. As for why half-breeds, I think it's because they have a different sort of connection with essence and the Weave. Like we've already seen how Rana's strange relationship with essence affects Cioara, and i dont think that's entirely on Rana. I think it's just who Cioara's own strange relationship with it too since plenty of others interact with Rana fine. Either way, I think the experimenters are just trying to figure out if their atypical nature has practical uses for stuff like that.

Cheshire777

8. I think that they were probably recruiting/kidnapping anyone with odd powers, and those three just happened to be half breeds. I think that they briefly refered to other compounds? As for what they are looking for, at this point it could be a whole lot of different things, but a magic/essence/mana/etc store is quite likely.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 9. Do you believe that Astyr and Sydney will be able to successfully restore Sydney’s physical form? How might the ordeal change their relationship? How might it also change Sydney’s views on Demshul in general?

Cheshire777

They probably will, it has been established that Sydney is dissolving: a) Sydney is one of the main characters. b) we're right in the middle of finding out her backstory. She is finding reality at odds with her brainwashing (mosty through experiencing Astyr's memorys) and will have to come to terms with that.

snuffysam

1) act 3. acts 1 & 2 I was like "essence? jumping between worlds? currency? what the heck is going on?". act 3 was like "ohhhh i get what this comic is. it's a bread comic." and i love it.(edited)

2) the combo of vuudo and hannah. something about the way our heroes just keep falling for their lies, the pairing of hannah's planning and vuudo's acting... i just love them.

snuffysam

3) my interpretation is that binding is just something that happens when a demshul tries to bring someone world-hopping. since astyr is inexperienced, he goofed up and brought sydney along for the ride.

snuffysam

4) hannah's doing a truman show starring astyr. no further explanation needed. for kazar, I'm guessing she's just working for the government as a spy in general.

looking at #5, i'm wondering... is tenge & ciora's father a morphid, or the morphid? morphids seem to endlessly divide, and neither tenge nor the morphids seem to have a "hive mind". is it possible that there's just one morphid, and it happens to be in a lot of places at once?

Cheshire777

@snuffysam From what I've observed so far, the Morphid (and Tenge's) multiplication works vaguely like Naruto's shadow clones- when they split all of them have the same base memorys, they have separate experiences and basically act like different people (that are clones of each other ), and when they "regroup" the single has all the experiences of the doubles.(edited)

snuffysam

which would explain why astyr could say something along the lines of "oh, you're one of the ones that recognizes me"

RebelVampire

QUESTION 10. What are you most looking forward to in the comic? Also, do you have any final thoughts to share overall?

RebelVampire

i assume theyre a single being, but tbf i dont discount the possibility theres multiple morphid originals. in the sense that there were multiple "original" people who split into morphids. just cause it still fits with astyr saying one of the ones that recognize me. cause i highly doubt if theres multiple originals they know whose morphid is whos. again tho, just not discounting the possibility. i do get more of the sense that they were once a single entity.

9) yes because narratively i cant forsee the comic semi-killing off a main character quite yet. and sydney has unresolved matters as well, like her meeting with her old mentor and such. idk if the experience will change her view on demshul, but i think shell come to terms that astyr has some inner demons, is a weirdo, but also has a good heart. and that he isnt out to see sydney's demise. 10) im looking forward to more of everything. i wanna see all the inner turmoils, and i especially want to find more hints as to what the deal with rana is. cause astyr and sydney dont seem to care much rana is a weirdo outside of when she doesnt eat, so i will care enough for the both of them.

Delphina

I just want to thank you all for reading Sombulus! I know it's got... several pages, so I really appreciate folks who make it through everything, and such amazing thoughtful questions and responses!

keii4ii

My brain is a mush right now and I can't articulate my feels thoughtfully, but I really want to say Sombulus updates really help brighten my day, every time. I always look forward new pages and am glad it updates twice a week

Delphina

(Also this discussion made me draw Tenge as Naruto. Poor guy, I torture him so.)

snuffysam

before the chat ends, I just wanted to say that I really love sombulus, and I can't wait to see where it goes next!

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB END!

Thank you everyone so much for reading and chatting about Sombulus this week! Please also give a special thank you to Christina Major for volunteering the comic and creating it! If you liked Sombulus, make sure to continue to support it via some of the links below!

Read and Comment: http://www.sombulus.com/

Christina Major’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Delphina

Christina Major’s Store: http://www.sombulus.com/store

Christina Major’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Delphina2k

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #book club #bookclub #webcomic book club #webcomic bookclub #comic tea party #ctp #sombulus #christina major

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smdarling · 7 years ago

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Re:This Blog and Spoilers

My personal policy when a new MCU movie is gearing up and coming out for tagging/blacklisting purposes (not tagging this post so anyone that could possibly benefit from it will definitely see it ha press J now if you don’t care):

TLDR: Anything Infinity War related that has new content (released today- on) that I cannot resist reblogging OMG will be tagged Infinity War and Infinity War Spoilers. But that will be very limited, not even fan art. Unless I majorly fuck up, I intend to keep this blog 97%+ free of new Infinity Wars content from now, April 7 (minus fic recs, but those would be tagged and you’d have to click on the link and read the fic to get spoiled) til at least the beginning of June, and until Ant-Man and The Wasp I will do my damnedest to tag 100% for spoilers.

Joking speculation (I don’t do serious speculation) will be tagged (although I’m still gonna cry) if you don’t even wanna see that.

I try very hard NOT to reblog anything spoilery in the lead up (so like I’ve reblogged the initial trailers and fan art related to them, and the character posters, and joking speculation but I’m 90% sure I haven’t reblogged any serious speculation which will continue), and now - with the new thing that came out today, and when the movie itself comes out - I basically don’t reblog ANYTHING with new stuff for Quite A While. (think until next movie comes out, some exceptions are fic recs but I try to tag )

(I’m only now starting to reblog Black Panther fan art that has anything spoiler-y, and other Black Panther stuff I still mostly don’t reblog but when I do I still tag “Black Panther spoilers”. As soon as I see Infinity War, btw, I will reblog Black Panther under “fandom nonsense” and “fan art” without apology.)

I’m gonna probably write a post once I see Infinity War that’s gonna be mostly OMG SCREAMING THE THING AND THE THING???!!! Not actually elaborating on The Things and an open invitation for people to scream at me via messaging or in my ask box. If my brain is still functioning enough I’ll tag that too, but there won’t be actual spoilers.

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askjonfreeman · 7 years ago

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JUSTICE LEAGUE (mostly) SPOILER FREE REVIEW

jumping back into this business of posting reviews. I'm gonna focus more on single page bits. TL;DR = It's a pretty good movie. Find the rung on the ladder that's labeled "good movie" and place this one on the rung just below it. While you won't mind actually seeing it, it's not exactly one to whole-heartedly recommend to people (hence the super weak 91mil domestic opener on a film with a 300-ish mil budget) How does it compare to BvS? - BvS is a total train wreck you can't look away from. - JL is a car crash that you can walk away from and still laugh about. ... micro spoilers ahead. be ye warned ... OVERVIEW Snyder started off with a 3 hour brood-fest marathon, then was forced to reshoot a lot of the film for overall course direction. Then after he left for family reasons, Joss Weedon came on to finish it out. Surprisingly, even with all this, it doesn't really feel like a schizophrenic mess. Though if you watch it with a savvy eye you can spot which parts were done during which phase of production. (and mind you, this is downhill slope Joss ... so expect the same "missing something" you experienced in Ultron) Also also, they trimmed it down to 2 hours 1 min. Basically cutting out a ton of fluff to get to the better parts faster (and I'm guessing a lot of the slower parts). This, coupled with the nack of banter Joss has, made it a pretty enjoyable experience ... just not a great one ... or a good one. But it is pretty enjoyable. THE GOOD Actors did their part and they did it well. - Batfleck is still the best balanced bruce/batman, which is a shame since he's not going to be doing it any more due to the hollywood sex-land scandal thing going on. Oh well. - The flash is one of the best parts, surprisingly - Wondie's still good (even with her habit of weird faces) - Aquaman ... my brothers and I think that Snyder wanted him to be OH SO COOL SO BADASS (which nobody buys) ... so Joss provided chinks in the armor to make him more human. So he's surprisingly cool - Cyborg is the weakest link, but you can't blame the actor. There's subtle nuances about how he acts and thinks inhuman in a convincing way. cinematography - This is snyder's strong point. Most of it carried though, but a lot of it got cut or reshot - But this got hampered by things below. so it's not as pretty as Snyder's other films. It's enjoyable - I didn't actively wish for the film to be over. THE BAD ... again, remember, it's enjoyable despite all this. THAT IS SAYING SOMETHING. action choreography - Imagine a 6 year old with toys going "and then he goes BWVOOOM and he flies over here" - That's a lot of what you get here. Broken physics, no consequences, tons of wtf, and a lot of repetition - saw it with extended family, my mom fell asleep in the final battle because it was repeating itself a bit snyder-isms - pretty pictures without meaning - a lot of it got cut, but there's still a good number in montages remaining - also, threaten the children. that's another snyderism - no Frank Miller whores, though art direction - is bad. Best summation is the badguy, Steppenwolf (who's a Jack Kirby minion of darksied) here's a couple of his Jack Kirby iterations (being a little unfamiliar, I'm not sure it's the same guy, or if he plays counselor and general at different times) www.cosmicteams.com/newgods/im… cdn2us.denofgeek.com/sites/den… and here's his more current iteration cdn2us.denofgeek.com/sites/den… - ... this is what we get in film ... i0.wp.com/www.heyuguys.com/ima… a 9 foot tall rubber cg giant wearing reject bayformers crumpled tinfoil. ZERO COLORS. - ... for reference on how to do Kirby right ... www.cinematographe.it/wp-conte… - this really gets bad when I have to second guess if it's a parademon or cyborg, since they're both 99% silver the CGI - even ragnarok had moments of bad CG. it happens when the budget gets stretched ... but this film had very few points of GOOD CG. (not sure if it's art direction or what) - and a lot of this is due to bad art design, but it's a bleed over - half the action sequences are just vague green screen flailing against the Superstasche - so, backstory time in case you didn't hear ... Henry Cavill got called in for reshoots along with everyone else - Unfortunately, he had already started filming Mission Impossible and was unable to shave his mustache due to contract - LOOK AT ITS MAJESTY cdn.flickeringmyth.com/wp-cont… - so WB had to remove it digitally - It looks bad - in theatres (again, saw it with extended fam) the film opens with a celphone recording of Supes (flashback). My mom immediately leans over "Is that the same actor? I think it's the same actor? I can't tell. He looks different. Whaaaaaaaaaaa?" - There's a solid reason: lips used by most people to lipread (even on a subconscious level). So if that's off it triggers uncanny valley. Is there a silver lining? - This is where I get into business, and this is the highly abridged version. - Recipe for good business: master your craft, treat customers fairly, do marketing right, remember the customers are paying you (free exchange of currency thanks to capitalism) - the recipe ISN'T figure out how to get more money. Do that and you'll end up like EA Games. - Disney/Marvel is clearly on this path. The evidence is in their films which are genuinely getting better over time (Ragnarok is honestly one of the best films out there). - the DCEU was born out of a need to make another superman film in order to keep the rights (ya have to do some spelunking to 2010-2013, but that's the truth), which led to the rushed Justice League film - in other words = WB was focusing on retaining and earning money. ... WHY I BRING THAT UP ... Justice League had the weakest opening weekend out of any DCEU film. And given the negative word of mouth, it's not going to pull a wonder woman and stick around (especially with Ragnarok STILL in theatres and Star Wars just around the corner). Even with extra investments and heavy changes, JL didn't match their goal of more money. ... As such, I don't know how WB will respond to this. Hopefully they'll keep on this new trajectory, 'cause it is better. But with money hungry execs you never know.

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cabinboy100 · 7 years ago

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BABY DRIVER: Edgar Eggs!

Edgar Eggs—They're kind of like what people call Easter Eggs in other films, but with a quality that's distinctly Wrightian. Or perhaps forthWright? What follows is a collection of notes and details from the film—references, motifs, callbacks, and connections—narrative, filmmaking, and personal—inserted and/or found (or imagined by me =) in the perfectly timed rhythmic clockwork beauty that is BABY DRIVER.

Please note that my memory for quotes is tres imperfect these days. I may present some dialogue in quotes or screenplay-ish format, but it's best-of-my-recollection, and the result is likely paraphrased.

Now entering SPOILER CITY…

The Octane Shuffle

On his Octane run after the first heist, Baby musicals his way down the road to "Harlem Shuffle." As he roughly follows the song's instructions, the song is backed up by the city itself, its lyrics presented in graffiti art, spray paint, and signs in Baby's environment. And it's not just static. In at least one instance, the graffiti on his way back from Octane is different, added to, compared to the graffiti on his way to Octane. A piece of wall that echoes "Right" the first time, also tells him "Shake Shake" the second.

Also, on the way to Octane, along with Baby’s “Harlem Shuffle” track syncing with graffiti and posted words in the environment, we see Baby match poses with a mural of a guy looking up to the sky and play “air horn” in front of a show window featuring a trumpet.

Also also, on the way to Octane we overhear a guy on the phone telling someone that they're late. On the way back from Octane he passes the same guy dressing down the other guy in person about having to be on time.

Just before leaving Octane, a girl across the street catches his eye, right in front of a graffiti'd heart. It’s our Muse, Debora, but Baby doesn’t know that yet. By the time he exits the coffee shop, seconds later and heading in the same direction as her, she's mysteriously disappeared. On his way back to the Healey, he dodges a face-to-face with a policeman, two-steps around a sandwich board doomsayer telling him that he must save himself from sin, and when crossing the street, a police car just passes him by before turning on its siren. Signs and portents.

I wonder…Could the lyrics to “Harlem Shuffle” be a map to one of the getaway scenes? Or the acts and plot of the entire film…? Certainly can’t put it past Professor Wright =)

Baby makes another Octane run after the armored truck heist, considerably less joyful, and for us, abridged. Along with the change in the cover of "Harlem Shuffle" it's a great barometer of a downward, darkward, trend in Baby's crime-adjacent fortunes.

What's on the Telly?

When Baby flips thru channels at home w/Joe early on, I was hit with some deja view to the channel-hopping in SHAUN OF THE DEAD which connects clips from different shows to create a message about what's actually going on before our heroes quite suss it out. That's not quite what happens here, but the apparently random snippets of content do end up being (1) useful and (2) meaningful.

1. Useful?

If we pay attention, we learn that Baby doesn't just electronically remix (Kid Koala!) the samples of the people in his neighborhood that he records on his microcassette recorder. He also does it conversationally. When he finds himself at a loss for original words, he verbally samples/replays dialogue—from art and life—that he's stored on his personal hard drive. So, on the TV, we see Alfalfa of THE LITTLE RASCALS squeaking out "You Are So Beautiful." These are the words that seem to uncontrollably fall from his lips soon after meeting Debora. On the TV, we see John Krasinski holding Meryl Streep in some farewell moment in I-don't-know-the-movie, no-doubt-cheekily announcing, "They grow up so fast, don't they?" When casing the post office with Nephew Samm, that's what Baby says to cover up his flub of a guess at the boy's age…

TELLER: How old is he? BABY: Four. SAMM: I'm eight. BABY: They grow up so fast, don't they?

On the TV, we see Mike telling Sulley in MONSTERS, INC, "You and I are a team. Nothing is more important than our friendship." Later, this is what Baby tells Doc to reassure him of his loyalty and commitment to him. The clips are tools that Baby adds to his inventory for later use. They also serve as a Wrightian map of events to come.

It's not just media Baby remixes, tho. He pulls from life, too. In the elevator down after the first heist, he hears Darling approve of Buddy's post-heist celebration plan…"That's the finest wining and dining of all the wines and dines in town." And that's how he describes Bacchanalia when he suggests it to Debora for their first date. Of course, the suggestion itself is a Buddy sample.

I've gotta wonder if Edgar Wright is a fan of a particular sketch from THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW, with Alan Alda as guest. It was an immediate favorite when I saw it as a kid. Alda plays a fellow on a date who seems to be quite the charmer, saying all the right things. I forget if the date was at her place or maybe they show up there at the end of the night, but once she turns on the TV, we learn that most of what he's said to her have been lines from the movies. I think he denies it for a while, but when he finally breaks down into an emotional confession, a few seconds later, we hear that very same confession in the dialogue of a movie of the week. Genius.

It's probably very telling that that sketch should burn itself into my brain, eh? =)

2. Meaningful?

At the end of this series of channel flipping clips, we land on coverage of a bullfight. We see a matador stepping around a skewered but still strutting bull. We hear, and see via cc, the announcer…"The bull still stands.” In the moment, that seems to be a comment on the conversation between Baby and Joe. Baby has just told him, "One more job and I'm done." Joe tells him that he doesn't want anyone to get hurt, so Baby promises that he'll make sure nothing will happen to him. Joe explains that it's not himself he's worried about, a concern which somehow sails over his high-altitude head.

However, before we cut to the next scene, the bullfight announcer continues…"The bull still stands…Bloodied, but not defeated. Gaston could not finish him on horseback and now must try his luck on foot." To different degrees, this predicts what happens to Baby after the post office robbery and also in his finale duel with Buddy in the parking garage. Post-post office, after skewering Bats, Baby (and Buddy and Darling) have to abandon their steed and escape on foot.

By the way, the meaning behind the name "Gaston" can be stranger or guest.

Later, when it’s down to Baby and Debora vs. Buddy, they start car-v-car (the red Challenger and the police cruiser), but Baby tells Debora they have to get out of the car so that he can end this, and although he does that just to get into a different car, the final confrontation has all of the players on their feet. Well, y'know, until they’re not any more.

I think the second time we see Baby or Joe channel-hopping at home, Noel Fielding appears on screen for a few seconds. On my first screening, I thought it was a clip from THE MIGHTY BOOSH, but now I realize that it’s from the video for Mint Royale’s “Blue Song,” which Wright directed. It was sort of an early short form riff of his full-blown BABY DRIVER concept—a wheelman waiting on his crew to the sound—and duration—of a favorite song of the right length. A very fun watch and listen.

Speaking of Prophecy…

I covered this in my "BABY DRIVER: What's in a name?" post, but I think it's worth mentioning again for anyone who's going back for more. Pay attention to what Griff says about and tells Baby in his little tirade after the heist. I'm fairly certain every bit of it is true or will be proven true by the end of the film. Baby *does* think himself, if not better than, then outside and apart from, the crews that he works with. He can't be in crime and not be a little criminal. He will have blood on his hands.

His closing remark is something like…

GRIFF: Gotta hand it to ya, Totem Pole. I don't know if you're brave as shit or scared shitless, but you're gonna have to figure it out…Which one are you?

Courageous or cowardly? Baby himself doesn't know, partly because he probably hasn't thought about it, partly because he hasn't put himself in a place where that's truly been tested, but it will.

Actually, now that I think about it, on that matter, Griff is not right. It's not either-or, because Baby is both scared shitless *and* brave as shit. That’s kind of the point.

Bo's Diner and the Laundromat…

Thinking about Bo’s Diner's decor theme and wall art…The big long wall has a mural of a couple in a convertible heading down Route 66, apparently a replica of postcard art that Debora later sends to Baby while he's in jail.

Soon after Debora and Baby first speak at Bo's, she excuses herself and tells him to feel free to ask her any questions he might have. When he calls after her to do just that and ask about the "Baby" song she's singing, we see her turn back to look at him with that wall mural as the backdrop, a premix of the moment when they hit the road together, first in Baby's vision, then in reality, five years later.

How about the laundromat's decor theme and wall art? Space-y, featuring rockets and rows of laundry machines against a field of stars. Something fun to note: at whatever hour it is Debora and Baby hit the 'mat, everyone's drying their clothes in loads of red, blue, and yellow—popping primaries. A perfect musical film backdrop to their subliminal dance number. =)

Does Baby ever actually eat, drink, or order anything at Bo's?

Where is Bo’s Diner? If ever in the area, gotta go—gotta go!

I wonder if the decor in the diner and laundromat was redone for the movie, or was left as magically found?

We see Baby dial up Bo’s Diner before he leaves to take Joe to safety—555-1270. I think that was it. December 1970? Does that line up with a significant birthday or cinematic event?

What it *does* line up with is a car part—a Steeda Mustang Pedal Kit, Manual! =)

The Rainbow Connection…

POSTAL WORKER: Everybody wants happiness, nobody wants pain, but you can’t have a rainbow without a little rain.

This after saying she’s working “9 to 5, just like Dolly.”

It’s a sweet connect to the rain that falls the next day, the day of the post office heist, and the rainbow that appears five years later when Deb picks up Miles on his release from prison, ready to drive west on 20 in a car they can’t afford with a plan they don’t have.

I guess that’s romantic? Sounds like a lot of stress to me. =)

A slight stretch, but a little more “rain” falls during the parking garage duel, when the sprinklers kick in.

It may also be a callback to Debora's first anonymous and unacknowledged appearance in the film, during Baby's first "Harlem Shuffle" to Octane. A headphoned Debora (who's not yet looking like a zeb-o-ra) passes Octane on the other side of the street. When Baby spots her, she crosses directly in front of a graffiti'd heart sitting on rainbows, sync'd of course to a nice beat or sting in the music. I *think* they're rainbows below the heart. Something to look for on my next screening.

Also, kind of walking the long way around, a figurative-to-literal connection to Paul Williams!

Dolly Parton -> imparter of Rainbow wisdom -> “The Rainbow Connection” -> written by Paul Williams.

An Educated Guess From an Uneducated Man…

Bats at Bo’s does a "reading" of Buddy and Darling. He calls Buddy out as an ex-Wall Street schmuck who played harder than he worked, running up debt that would "make a white man blush." He left behind a wife and maybe kid to run off with his favorite stripper and crime it up in a world of "three things—money, sex, drugs, and action…Oh, shit! That's four."

When he boils it down, he explains that Buddy and Darling rob banks to support a drug habit. Bats does drugs to support a bank robbing habit. They’re on vacation; he’s at work.

The look on Buddy's face tells me that Bats is spot-on. BTW, Jon Hamm kills in this film! =)

Buddy's got nothing to say, so Darling takes this opp to respond for both of them, explaining that Bats may think he's the crazy one in the crew, the wild card, but he's never seen Buddy when he's been pushed. "When he sees red, you won't see anything but black…" Darling's explicit warning for Bats actually predicts Buddy's relentless pursuit of revenge on Baby for her death.

Walter Hill Connections…

Walter Hill is the director of the 1978 getaway driver flick, THE DRIVER (and THE WARRIORS and 48 HOURS). I've only just recently seen THE DRIVER for the first time and it is definitely the godfather of dozens of heist and chase films I've seen over the years. It's uncanny how I recognize it now in the DNA of the likes of HEAT, THE ITALIAN JOB, and DRIVE. Kind of a missing link between LE SAMOURAI and RONIN. Edgar Wright acknowledges the film's huge inspiration on him and his filmmaking and he pays his respects in a couple of sweet ways in BABY DRIVER.

If you sit through the credits (and you should—these people made the film you just watched!) you'll see that Walter Hill played the court ASL translator for Baby's foster dad, Joe. He does not appear on screen. We only hear his voice as Joe signs…

JOE: He's got a good heart. Always has. Always will.

A minute or so later, we learn that Baby's been sentenced to a minimum of 5 years in jail, and we see him serving his time as prisoner number 28071978. That's 28-07-1978, aka the 28th of July, 1978, the original release date of Walter Hill's THE DRIVER!

Note that I did not pull that out of my wazoo. Seeing that number on screen, knowing it’s Edgar Wright at the helm, I just had a feeling, so went googling for info about THE DRIVER to uncover that connection.

Falcon Driver?

Oh, man! Who is responsible for Baby’s wardrobe? For half if not most of the film, he is strategically yet uncannily decked out in duds that scream “Han Solo” to me. I’m talking A NEW HOPE—black vest over white shirt with dark pants.

(Baby’s taste in clothes—as well as his backstory and talents—inspired this BABY DRIVER: Nerf Herder mashup… =)

After the film, I was told that our Baby, Ansel Elgort, had been on the short list for the young Han Solo film. I honestly had no idea as I did and do my best to block that sort of “news” as much as possible when it comes to films I’m looking forward to.

Was this Wright, Elgort, or another member or members of the crew expressing their support for HANsel? I have no idea how the timelines of young Solo casting and BABY DRIVER shooting line up. But if the decision was made before shooting, maybe Ansel’s turn as Baby becomes a kind of what-could-have-been/what-you-missed strutting? =)

When I heard about the LEGO MOVIE directors being dismissed from the project, I thought that maybe they’d seen BABY DRIVER and realized that Edgar Wright had already made the movie—what’s the point now? =)

And in the Hollywood minute before Ron Howard was announced, I wondered if maybe BABY DRIVER might possibly be the perfect proof of capabilities for Wright as the new director. Alas—*sigh*—not to be.

I wonder just what the heck happened with Disney/Marvel/ANT-MAN and Wright.

Musicians in BABY DRIVER…

When Baby delivers his coupe de grace in the parking garage…

BABY: Fuck you, Buddy.

A perfect phrase and sentiment all on its own, but me being me, I do also wonder if he's paraphrasing Elvis—FYB vs TCB?

When Baby does speak more than a couple of syllables, his southern drawl definitely vibes Elvis for me. And although we don't hear his voice when he's lip syncing to the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s “Bellbottoms” in the opening heist, he’s definitely channeling Elvis hard in the moment. Or channeling Jon Spencer channeling Elvis. In any case, the impression is made, and it stays with me.

Who gives Baby his mail in jail? Whoever it is has a very unique look—maybe costumed in an ill-fitting uniform?—a Sam Elliot mustache, and a distinctive voice. In the in-order-of-appearance credits, I didn't see him, expecting to find "prison guard" at the end of the list, after "judge." Later, on the twitters, I saw a tweet asking Edgar Wright who Jon Spencer played, and a reply that explained he was the prison guard! Yeah, I do not know my music or musicians very well, so never could've called that on my own. What a perfect cameo, though, right?

I can thank the end credits for informing me that Doc likes to hang out at Bacchanalia with Big Boi and Killer Mike (of Run the Jewels), two artists who contributed "Chase Me" to the movie's soundtrack.

Note that a lot of the above appeared in earlier posts here and here, but this rambling above is the most developed crazy talk (so far).

I've got some more half—well, more like quarter—baked thoughts, but will let them cook a while yet before posting. Don’t wanna give anyone blog salmonella. After all, these *are* made with eggs.

*groan*

If you’re interested in seeing some BABY DRIVER fan art poster designs inspired by Edgar Eggs, click here. =)

All you need is one killer track…

Keep on keepin' on~

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mlpandminecraftgirl1 · 8 years ago

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My Thoughts on the New Steven Bomb (WARNING: SPOILERS)

WELL THEN

I’ve finished watching the new Steven Universe episodes (not JUST finished watching, mind you. I watched them about a week ago) and I thought, with all of this time on my hands, I’d share what I thought about it.

And what I’ve got say is: - WHAT?! and - DOUBLE WHAT?!

(WARNING: These next sections concern the new Steven Bomb and will most definitely contain spoilers. I was unfortunate enough to have the new characters spoiled for me via Instagram (and my impatient non-suspense-wanting self looked at the plots on the wiki before watching the episode on YouTube because I couldn’t watch them on my TV, long story) but I am aware that some people excel at being spoiler-free (whoever you are, you’re very lucky) and I can not and will not be held responsible for anyone who ends up have the Steven Bomb spoiled for them. I apologize in advance).

Ok, so the plot of the first episode (“Doug Out”) starts out simple enough: A simple “filler” episode where Steven and Connie hang out with Connie’s dad while he’s on a stake-out. A very cute episode that I personally enjoyed and one that I know a lot of the fandom wanted after seeing the events of “Nightmare Hospital” unfold. (Also, I’d like to point out that Doug already seemed to know about Connie taking up sword-fighting and all of that at this point, so I’m guessing they already told him, which I thought was a very nice personal touch by the Crewniverse, seeing how this took away the stress of revealing this stuff to him). I also liked how he seemed genuinely O.K. with it and how he seemed more comfortable and friendly around Steven than Connie’s mom was. And of course, the bit at the end with the new gem silhouettes sent me for a loop. It was some good quality filler if I ever saw any, and I have.

The second episode, “Are You My Dad?” (I’m covering “The Good Lars”, along with “Stuck Together” as a whole because I have a lot to say about it.) was a very clever concoction of plot points and drama. We get a throwback to a VERY old episode (A very clever throwback, I might add) and we get to see two new gems: Aquamarine and Topaz.

Aquamarine is….well, she seems to be a very interesting character. It’s very interesting to see a character who is actually villainous and doesn’t also have any emotional problems like Jasper or Blue Diamond. (Inner me: You forgot about Eyeball. She’s villainous and she’s unemotional, sorta. Real me: Shut up, me).

Not that I don’t think that you can’t have real emotions and still be a villain. It’s just that I felt like the Diamonds got a little bit of hate from the fandom because they weren’t really what the fandom expected, which were intergalactic tyrants (Connie’s words, not mine). Granted, they were pretty mean-looking and they seemed pretty evil, but they were really just big ladies with insecurities for days. Jasper was the same way. She was an interesting antagonist and character but it turned out to be her insecurities that were her downfall. Appropriate concept, but a little cliché, you know? There’s a way for character to be developed without touching on sensitive emotion-y bits. So it was nice to meet a gem like Aquamarine. Her voice actor fits her perfectly and I hope to see more of her.

As for Topaz, I have just three words to say about her (breathes):

I. LOVE. HER.

Not just because of her quality voice acting, which is so cool, because her voice is so unexpected for her character yet it FITS SO WELL. It’s like how Kevin Hart and Thomas Middleditch are voicing George and Harold for the Captain Underpants movie (which I am very excited about. I’ve read all of the books at least once, except for the last two). Kevin and Thomas make George and Harold sound older than elementary kids, but they tackle it so well, I can’t imagine anyone else voicing them.

No, the reason I love this character is because I relate to her SO. FLIPPING. MUCH. Particularly, this line:

Topaz: They’re always sending me on these miserable missions. I’m always pretending that I’m fine with it. I have to pretend I’m fine.

And this is one of the relatable things I’ve heard on this show so far. If there’s one thing this show has taught me, is that it’s ok to feel bad about something. It’s ok to be sad or angry about something you can’t control, and yes, there are people out there who have these problems who like to pretend they’re fine. Most people think that this is the person’s own choice, but some people (bless their hearts) they don’t HAVE a choice. Some people know that it’s better to just hide it than to drag people down with them or to have to justify it or to keep it from slowing them down. It’s not healthy or wise to pretend you’re fine when you’re not, but most people do it because they don’t really have a second choice on what to do most of the time.

And I should know. I am (or at least, used to be) one of those people.

Anyway, I can’t wait to see more development on these new gems!

Now, for the main event…..

The Lars episodes.

“The Good Lars” and “Stuck Together” were, in my opinion, some pretty good episodes, mostly because of the Lars character development (that’s not the only reason I liked them, of course). I mean, we get to see these new sides of Lars, which show that he loves baking (which is awesome) and that, just like everyone else, he’s scared of what people think of him.

But that’s not what I want to talk about. You see, I’ve been hearing rumors (and seen fan art) that suggest that Steven and Lars are gonna fuse. Now, none of my friends really watch Steven Universe, but if any of them did, I’m sure they would’ve asked me “Do you think that Steven and Lars are going to fuse?” And my answer to that is: yes and no.

You see, I don’t exactly know what level a relationship has to be on in order for two beings to be able to fuse, but I’m guessing it has to be pretty high. I mean, Connie and Steven are the best of friends (“Alone Together”), Steven and Amethyst had a pretty strong relationship already (“Earthlings”), the Rubies were a pretty strong team (“Hit the Diamond”), Pearl and Amethyst are a good team (“Giant Woman”), and Garnet is….well, Garnet (“every episode ever”). I know that consent has to play a role, too, given the circumstances with Malachite. (I’m not going to mention Jasper’s fusion with the corrupted gem, because, as sad as it is, that gem wasn’t in its right mind to give consent at that moment, so it doesn’t apply).

Also, since Steven can fuse with Connie, a human, it’s a good guess that he can fuse with other humans as well.

So why Lars?

You don’t really need to watch every episode with Lars and Steven together to see that Lars can be a bit of a jerk, especially to Steven, but we know that Lars is just covering up the fact that he’s insecure (Inner me: just like everyone else on this show. Real me: Me, what did I just say? I said shut up), but I can’t help noticing that we’re getting a lot of character developments with Lars, and since I don’t think it would make sense to have all of this development without something big happening (and no, I don’t think he’s going to die, despite what they’re saying on Instagram), then it is definitely a possibility for a fusion to take place. Maybe we’ll end up getting a “defining moment” for their relationship like we got in “Earthlings” during this bomb.

On the other hand, the reason I say no is because of something I’ve noticed in the show, but something I’ve noticed in general, and I’m pretty sure that fandom has noticed it, to

No disrespect to the Crewniverse, but when it comes to giving people what they want, they can be a little late on their delivery.

Now, I know what that this isn’t their fault, but let’s be honest, they’ve made it a habit of raising fan’s hopes, and then shattering them. I mean, people have been asking for a Lapis/Peridot fusion for Lord knows how long, and don’t even get me started on the hate I saw on Instagram about “Rocknaldo”. I’m not trying to be disrespectful or trying to question their methods of storytelling, but if there’s one thing that this show has taught me, it’s that when expecting something big to happen, one shouldn’t hold their breath.

Like I said, I’m not saying a fusion between Steven and Lars is impossible. After all, another thing this show has taught me is to expect the unexpected. No one expected Steven and Connie to fuse, and look at them now.

Also, in Rebecca Sugar's defense, she may not give us what we want, but she gives us what we need. Anyway, that's all I have to say about this bomb so far. I can't wait for the next new episodes, because I'm sure they're going to be mind-blowing, and thank y'all for listening to my VERY LONG post about what I thought. Please like and reblog if you want me to keep on posting stuff like this and I will see you guys later! Adios!

#steven universe #su garnet #su amythest #su pearl #su peridot #su lazuli #su jasper #su lars #su connie #su topaz #su aquamarine #su thoughts

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