#not the biggest fan of positioning being relevant to fights

[violentlydefending]

KEEP LIVING, ICHI............

[danceofthephilos]

SK8 Cast Image Colors, and the Super Sentai Roots of Character Color Coding

Unlike my post about hanakotoba, where only a few examples can be confirmed to be intentionally meaningful choices, image colors are an aspect of SK8's visual symbolism that has been explicitly assigned by the creators to each of the eight main cast members. From design elements to official art and merchandise (such as the art and the Infinity Week logo above) to shots in the show itself, these image colors are a consistent aspect of the series' visual language, and colors, like flowers, have meanings and associations that can provide interesting insight into why these colors were chosen for these characters. Color-coded casts are also strongly historically rooted in the super sentai subgenre of tokusatsu series, a genre that has had massive impact on Japanese pop culture, especially battle anime like SK8, in part, is, so I'll also examine the archetypes associated with their colors in super sentai (and, in Adam's case, another important piece of anime history.)

As color associations can vary by culture, I made sure to use Japanese sources - I mainly started with the dictionary on TC Color Therapy for basic color meanings but frequently checked other sources. My primary source on colors in super sentai is a paper on color theory in tokusatsu by Misako Takahashi, along with fan wikis such as Pixiv Dictionary and other Japanese blogs analyzing the subject. I also supplemented with quotes from SK8's staff when relevant.

All the image colors come from the official character guide included in volume 4 of the Blu-rays.

Reki Kyan - Yellow

Despite his red hair, Reki's image color is yellow, the color of the signature hoodie he always wears at S. Yellow is associated with brightness, cheerfulness, fun and excitement - all things that Reki embodies at his best, and are very important parts of his character arc and what he represents to the people around him. In Utsumi's instructions to colorist Yukari Gotou, as shown in SK8 Design Works, she requested Reki's design have "so many bright and colorful primary colors it's tiring" in order to draw the eye, fitting of a bright and energetic protagonist. Yellow is a common color for team members in sentai anime, being the third most common after red and blue and appearing in the majority of series, and are often bright and cheerful "life of the party" type characters as well. This is a trend dating back to Himitsu Sentai Gorenger, the very first long-running super sentai series (beginning in 1975,) whose color coding has persisted for decades. Kirenger, the yellow member in Gorenger, was even a big eater with a signature favorite food (a trait more commonly attributed to Langa, but Reki's love for ramen and all things salty - even toothpaste - is a recurring bit in SK8 as well) and a big family.

In Takahashi's paper, she quotes another academic, Asako Yoshida's, analysis of another core aspect of yellow sentai characters, where she describes them as "an intelligent type who gathers information and forms strategies before taking action", and "rather than fighting on the front, they're a tactician who uses their wits and comes up with strategies," traits that Reki also shows frequently, especially in his biggest triumph in episode 11.

Like many of the image colors, it's also used in the show (both in the opening - highlighting his yellow-orange eyes - and in episode 11.)

~

Langa Hasegawa - Blue

Langa's image color is blue, selected along with white from the beginning to fit his snow theme. Blue is associated with positive meanings like calmness and intelligence, but also more negative ones like coldness, sadness and loneliness, fitting of both Langa's calm exterior and the grief that's central to his storyline. Blue sentai members are classically considered "cool" characters, an association that remains strong even as actual characters of that type have grown somewhat rarer over time, with newer series sometimes deliberately subverting expectations. Like yellow, the association of blue with the cool member of a team also dates back to Gorenger, with Aorenger (the blue member) being a cool, stoic character who came from a snowy region. Takahashi quotes Yoshida's description of blue heroes as "the calm, composed and cool second in command type," a character who "doesn't worry about what's in front of him, never seems to get worked up and deals with things calmly," which certainly describes the impression Langa gives off at first - and belies what SK8's producer Kyoko Uryuu described (when comparing him to a petit gâteau) as his "surprisingly passionate" interior.

Like with Reki, Langa's color is shown off in the opening and in the show itself - notably as his "aura" when he's in the Zone with Adam.

~

Miya Chinen - Light Green

Miya's image color is light green, usually shown as a yellowish lime green. I'll get to green as a whole for Kojiro, but yellow-green specifically is associated with youthfulness, beginnings and hope, as it's the color of newly budding plants - and it can also be associated with immaturity, all meanings fitting of a very young character like Miya. While his costume is meant to be an in-universe game character, his bright green hood could also be seen as vaguely evoking Link from the Legend of Zelda series.

Green sentai characters have more varied archetypes, but were historically often the youngest member of the team, while more recently it's been a trend for them to be the oldest member of the team - fitting for the youngest and oldest members of the six characters making up SK8's main "team." The idea of a green member being the youngest also dates back to Gorenger, with Midorenger (the green member) being an innocent younger boy compared to the rest of the team, who was treated like a "mascot" of sorts and even shared Miya's affinity for animals. It's also become a trend for green characters to have close relationships with the yellow members, and to be in conflict with the red members.

Like with most of the other characters, Miya's color is highlighted in the opening.

~

Hiromi Higa - Purple

Hiromi's image color is purple, the color of his lipstick and the inside of his cape. Purple is associated with mystery, rarity, luxury and nobility, and in Japan in particular it's frequently associated with horror (from urban legends like the purple mirror to the common use of purple miasma to show disgusting/horrific food in anime.) Purple sentai members are incredibly rare, and at the time of Takahashi's paper the few that existed were usually mentor figures, but several since have been "dark heroes" or antiheroes - as "Shadow-sama" (fitting of the link to nobility) calls himself, as the self-proclaimed Antihero of the S community. With how he becomes a close friend (and even somewhat of a mentor) to the boys despite his very antagonistic first appearance, he certainly fits the "enemy-turned-ally" archetype, and while he's not actually the much older mentor early purple members were, Reki constantly calling him "old man" does evoke that trope too.

His color appears in the opening as well as featuring heavily in his S costume.

~

Kaoru Sakurayashiki - Pink

True to his surname and aesthetic, Kaoru's image color is pink, the color of cherry blossoms. Pink is associated with beauty, grace, luxury and love. Just like in the west, it's considered a very feminine color - also shown in the fact that pink sentai members are almost exclusively women, and typically particularly feminine and glamorous when on teams with other female members. This is a case where Cherry is in large part a departure from the classic color coding just because of his gender; SK8's colorist, Yukari Gotou, even expressed in Skater's Backstage that she was a bit worried about having a male character with pink hair, but Utsumi described him as a "pink ninja" from the get-go in her coloring notes.

And even Kaoru isn't completely immune to hitting the sentai archetypes either, with his noted beauty and a concern for his looks that Kojiro mocks as effeminate in the series; the contrast between the feminine characteristics he has and his masculine voice and personality are a core part of how his character was designed. He even has a surprising connection with Momorenger (Gorenger's pink member, and only woman) in his affinity for kicks. (As of 2022, there's also finally been a male character properly featuring as the pink member in a sentai series in Avataro Sentai Donbrothers.)

Of course, on top of featuring so heavily in his design, Cherry's color is also used in the opening.

~

Kojiro Nanjo - Green

Rather than Miya's light green, Kojiro's image color is a regular green. Green is associated with calmness, stability, growth and nature, fitting for a very calming and stable mentor character who just "goes with his feelings" like Kojiro - but like light green, it can also signify immaturity, which also suits a character who proudly proclaims to be a "kid" when he's on vacation. Where Miya fits the "youngest member" trope for green sentai members, Kojiro fits the "oldest member" trope, and he also fits the recently trendy close relationship with yellow and conflict with red. In Takahashi's paper, she quotes Yoshida describing green characters as a whole as "a caring type who's always concerned if things are peaceful" (also fitting of Miya, who's always the most concerned for Reki and Langa,) "a soothing person who makes you feel warm and comforted just by being next to them" and as someone who "loves their friends, and 'being together with everyone' is important to them," and in Utsumi's color notes in SK8 Design Works, she described Kojiro as "A calming, mature green. Comforting."

And like with the others, on top of being his hair color, Kojiro's color is also shown in the opening.

~

Ainosuke Shindo - Red

Naturally for the "Matador of Love", Adam's image color is red, a color associated with love, passion and excitement, but also danger and anger, covering both sides of the duality of Adam's connection with love and romance and his violent skating. Utsumi's color notes in SK8 Design Works describe it as "the color of love and blood", and described Adam himself as "a guy who stole a main character's color" - fitting of the fact that in sentai series (and many anime influenced by them,) the red member is almost always the main protagonist and leader. (And perhaps a cheeky reference to Reki, though it seems Adam's color was decided on much earlier on.) Between red and blue being tied for their inclusion in sentai series and yellow in a close second place, the three primary colors form a core trio of characters in sentai series that's also reflected by Reki, Langa and Adam as the three most central characters in SK8.

While many works follow Gorenger's lead with the red protagonist being a hot-headed, passionate natural leader (a role that Adam does command at S as a whole, at least at first,) it's covered such a wide spectrum of protagonists over the course of the genre's history that red's biggest association is simply "being the main character," superseding a single specific character archetype. To momentarily dip into the history of anime itself rather than tokusatsu's influence, I'd be remiss not to mention that thanks to the influence of Mobile Suit Gundam (a franchise that both writer Okouchi and character designer Chiba have history with and mentioned in interviews on Febri as inspiring their interest in anime) it does have a memetic association with speed (and rival characters,) as Gundam's frequently-imitated masked antagonist Char Aznable's custom red mecha is notoriously "three times faster" than any other. (Adam's voice actor, Takehito Koyasu, has even played two "Char Clones" himself.)

As with the other characters, Adam's color appears in the opening but it also surrounds him frequently in the show even from his first appearance, including a red glowing aura to mirror Langa's blue when they're in the Zone (even in the finale when the red is gone from his costume.)

~

Tadashi Kikuchi - Gray

(Tadashi never got an official Twitter icon like the other characters, so I used a different piece of merch.)

Lastly, Tadashi's image color is gray, which is mostly known for being... a bit of a non-color, though it can be associated with gloom, ambiguity or uneasiness. It's mostly seen as a color that blends in and doesn't stand out by itself, which was the purpose behind Tadashi's color scheme, as Utsumi described in her notes as wanting his coloring to "make the main character stand out", given that he was designed from the beginning to appear alongside Adam, who has the "main character's color." Gray is an incredibly rare theme color in sentai series, to the point that there aren't specific character archetypes either; in 2014, at the time of Takahashi's paper, the only gray character she noted was a literal ghost. Even Tadashi's image color is alienated from the other skaters'...

While there are comparatively few (and less obvious) examples of Tadashi's image color appearing in the show, his last emotional scene with Ainosuke takes place in an almost entirely gray room.

It'll be interesting to see how these associations might continue to be used in the future.

[paganminiskirt]

haii gooseberry number one fan here. whats yr thoughts on phylis ... i lov lov lov yr posts abt picking apart coyles character and lore hehe

“You're too delicate! You're too precious! You can't go!”

Well first of all, I love that she’s fat, in part because you can bet your ass that if she wasn’t, she’d be overeroticized and made the object of those shallow copy-pasted “awoooooooga step on me mommy” screeds that fandom regurgitates to avoid having to put coherent thought into female characters. Much like queerness and the role it plays in Coyle’s storyline, fat characters that are conceptualized to act as fonts of horror have traditionally reinforced fatphobic social norms. And because of the gory, grotesque conventions of horror as a genre, these cases are often distinctly more damaging and offensive than, say, a fatphobic character in a sitcom. (You can read more about this topic here and here.)

The voice acting carries all of her appearances, too. Her now infamous cocaine song is the first example to come to mind; that overwrought, wavering tone she adopts makes it sound like she’s always on the brink of breaking down entirely. The sustained anxiety created a harsh juxtaposition between her tone and the lewd lines share’s parroting (“fucking and fighting.”) The quote that I highlighted at the top of the post also shines. Gooseberry’s great vocal performance is cool not least of all because the last major fat antagonist in the series, Chris Walker, didn’t get a lot of lines. I’m midway through replaying the first Outlast, and I think the game treats Chris Walker with a lot more pathos and significance than many games treat fat characters of his kind, although that assessment falls apart once you get to The Murkoff Account.

Chris is the main villain of Outlast. He’s portrayed as brutal but also competent and deliberately ruthless, which implies that he’s capable of complex thought in spite of the dehumanization he endured as a variant. The contradiction there underscores the game’s main theme & the overarching tragedy and atrocity of Mount Massive. In the end, Chris is brutally murdered on screen, and you could argue that the imagery incorporated in his death scene - that of expanding and blowing up - has fatphobic undertones. But unlike Rick Traeger and Eddie Gluskin, who meet similarly grizzly fates, the audience surrogate Miles directly suggests that the viewer should sympathize with Chris after his death. Somehow, Chris emerges as the least monstrous of the three, no matter how much abuse was piled onto his body and mind, and no matter what crimes he committed under that duress. Overall, Outlast presents him as a relevant, memorable, and fully autonomous character. Not bad, for a game that came out while The Biggest Loser was still airing on NBC.

But the comics have a lot less time to develop Chris than the game did. In The Murkoff Account, his main purpose is to act as a human example of broader institutional cruelty, much like Billy Hope did in Outlast. That position naturally invites the audience to view Chris as victimized and, to an extent, sympathetic, but his only notable characteristic outside of that victimization is a childish inability to control his aggression or prevent himself from being bullied. Those two details seem to form a paradox, right? Chris is a former military police officer, he brags about knowing judo, he should be able to get his coworkers to shut up and stop making fun of him. But he lacks the drive, conviction and strength of will necessary to do that. He’s basically a big baby, characterization which is reinforced by the comics’ art style.

Compared to the thin characters, Chris isn’t allowed to act with nearly as much autonomy as he did in the game. What happens to him in the comics could happen to anyone, and the only distinctions relevant to him as a person are crass stereotypes revolving around his body. The cost of expanding on the game’s lore was that the main villain got whittled down to the latent antifat tropes which had always lingered just below the surface - Chris doesn’t get to be a mad doctor like Trager or an abhorrent admirer like Gluskin. Instead, he’s the stout strength trope, he’s the fat idiot trope, and he expands on the pig imagery. Not great times.

And Gooseberry was probably influenced by Chris. She’s fat, she’s strong, she’s associated with an animal, and to an extent, she’s infantile! Although I think that her characterization as hysterical and not fully in control of herself is less a manifestation of fatphobia, as it was with Chris, and more a direct allusion to antiquated perceptions of mentally ill women. “Goose” is itself old-world slang for a silly or witless person. If one thing has emerged from my thoughts on Coyle, it would be that the writers of Trials are a lot more conscientious of social perceptions and stereotyping than the writers of Outlast were. It’s natural for a series that’s been going on for this long to begin to develop redundancy, but Trials’ 1950s setting and new game mechanics help gloss over that. Phyllis’ asserted sexual relationships with in-game characters struck me as unnecessary, but fat women (like dark skin women) are often depicted as masculine and drained of eroticism, so. You win some, you lose some.

You can read Gooseberry as a sort of a combination between Chris and Eddie, with her body and maturity interconnected to present her as disturbingly naive and immature in contrast with the great violence she enacts. This is a concept also explored with Eddie Gluskin: his hand-wringing need to preserve his would-be victim’s “chastity” becomes bizarre and unsettling when pushed up against the graphic, vindictive misogyny. Similarly, one reason the chases with Chris are so unbearably scary is because the sound of his clinking chains gets louder and louder as he gains on you, but he also does this laborious breathing when he runs which emphasizes his weight. When Phyllis chases you, you hear Futterman’s drill and the sound of her mindless shrieking - it’s terrifying in a way that doesn’t incorporate her fatness into the fear factor. Love that. The same unfortunately can’t be said for her implied DID, a demonization which is unfortunately very common, very old and very damaging all at once. (You can read more about that here, and in tons of other places.)

Michel Foucault used a two-pronged framework to examine popular narratives about The Plague and pandemics in general. Within this framework, there is one “political” story model which is defined by a controlling environment and another “literary” dimension which is defined by a collectivized, frenzied environment. Perhaps because Outlast: Trials was developed amidst a pandemic, I think Foucault’s framework translates nicely to examining Trials’ narrative about the cold war and the red scare. Some common themes include mass hysteria, xenophobia, heightened interpersonal suspicion and a seemingly unprecedented increase in government control.

On the surface, Coyle would represent the “political” dimension of Trials’ horror, acting as an exaggerated, kinda ridiculous extension of the extreme social control that white supremacy & patriarchy enforce. Within this dichotomy, Gooseberry would represent the “literary” dimension of the game’s horror, acting as a chaotic dissolver of all social barriers rather than an enforcer of them and creating a frenzied, carnival-like effect within anyone who comes under her spell. The children who watched her old show and took to violence and drug consumption come to mind; regardless of background, parenting or culture, Phyllis changed them. She didn’t even have to see them in person. She did it over the TV.

Gooseberry [hosted] a children's variety show known as 'The Mother Gooseberry Hour” [produced by Futterland Studios] which started airing in 1951. Following Dr. Futterman's death, the cause of which is still unknown, she had a hysterical episode and began experiencing dissociation. The tone of the Mother Gooseberry Hour shifted accordingly. Throughout her tenure on the show, she used her television platform and mail-order "dental drops" business to get children addicted to narcotics, violence, theft, and possibly murder. Over the years, the children watching her show became cult-like, engaging in immoral behavior, drug use, and other shenanigans, leading to larceny and assault. In 1955, Futterland Studios was raided by the police, after which she was charged with racketeering, kidnapping, and conspiracy to commit murder. The raid left two police officers dead and five others injured, as she escaped into the tunnels beneath the set to attack them with drills. It is unclear exactly what was inside Futterland Studios, but police captain Stanley Hoad described the contents of the studios as "The most grotesque architectural perversion since H.H. Holmes’ Chicago Murder Castle.”

Trials is the first Outlast game to allow us to have character customization, and unlike the previous protagonists (who both get stand out from the other characters by being in some way Special within the setting,) the Reagents are intended to act as an endless supply of nameless, faceless grunts, the vast majority of which will die gruesome deaths during the guinea pig stage. In this game, we play as the people who would’ve been those nameless, faceless heads we see on the shelves in Outlast, or hanging from a tree branch in Outlast 2. The game’s customization elements are justified in-universe by the notion that they’re so addled that they can’t even establish a stable perception of their own features: an example of the collectivizing, depersonalizing nature of the literary dimension if I’ve ever seen one. As the popularity of the customizable character feature ebbs and flows, other franchises pull it out just out of laziness in the creative department. With that in mind, I’m really glad Trials did something cool and innovative with the concept instead of just dumping in RPG elements for no reason.

Phyllis’ multiple personas mimic the changeable qualities of the Reagents themselves, though they’re grounded in her stated backstory: there is the doll, the dead abuser, and there is her, the child-turned-woman reenacting that trauma seemingly without fully grasping what’s doing. We’re left with this character who’s genuineness we’re always unsure about, in hard contrast to Coyle’s blunt, undisguised self-servingness and complete lack of conscious guile or shame. The first time the player gets up close with Phyllis will be in the kill animation, where she nods at the puppet she thinks is her father before slaughtering you unceremoniously. Who can say for sure, if Phyllis is more malicious or misguided? Not us, not the other Reagents, not Murkoff, and least of all herself. I’m glad she was included.

[superkooku]

So, remember when I said I probably wasn't gonna watch Kaos ?

Well, long story short, my family members asked to watch it with me because they found it kinda funny and, out of curiosity, I did. The first 3 episodes at least.

So, for all the fans, it's not a hate post but I'm still gonna complain, because yeah, there are problems. Just know that you're free to enjoy whatever you want, I have no problem with it.

I'm gonna add a "read more" just in case you don't want to read a (mostly) negative rant about your favorite show 😝. But of course, any friendly debate or counterargument is welcome on this post.

There will be some positives but it's mostly in a "if we forget the source material" way. Which Kaos did multiple times. But it was quite difficult for me to do.

My impressions

You know when doctors watch hospital series and point out every mistake and/or inaccuracy ? Like "No, that's not how anatomy works" or smth ? And somehow kinda being entertained by the mess ? That was me 😅. The whole time.

I don't have anything to say about the actors. They did a good job.

About cultural accuracy, that's obviously not the priority here (unfortunately). But I honestly prefer letting actual Greek users criticize the details like @margaretkart , @katerinaaqu or @wordsmithic. Btw I feel this isn't the type of shows you three would like (I myself spent the whole time finding errors lol).

Why so many shortened names ? I thought it was only Eurydice (Riddy still sounds dumb) but here they are saying Ari for Ariadne and Nax for Astyanax. Three syllables isn't that much, guys.

I kept thinking "You're a wizard Ari" the whole time. (In my language, the H in Harry is silent)

Hades and Persephone were cute, ngl. I don't know, just seeing them work together not in a toxic dark romance setting is refreshing. I just wished Hades was more intimidating. Not evil, per se, that's dumb. But more kingly. Because the Underworld is his domain.

The video explaining how the Underworld works to the shades is fun.

For the 100th time IT'S HERACLES, NOT HERCULES !!!

Thank you @sarafangirlart for mentally preparing me about Hera X Poseidon because... WTH was that ???? I audibly cringed and explained why Hera would never do that.

And for Hestia being a dog... seriously. Why ? How about we actually respect the goddess of the hearth ?

But you did NOT mentally prepare me for Zeus "originally being a human". No he wasn't 🤣🤣. Again with the gods being killable. I really hate it.

I'll repeat it : Ariadne being in the anti-god prophecy is stupid. There are way better choices than a freaking olympian god's wife

Eurydice falling out of love feels weird. It's one of the most healthy pairings in mythology 🤦‍♀️. I prefer the Hades version, she feels more like a fleshed out character and has a more legitimate reason to be mad at him.

Zeus and Prometheus' relationship is kinda fun. Especially Zeus just seeking wisdom from him and teleporting him to the eagle again.

Conversely, I don't like Zeus himself. Probably one of my biggest pet peeves in the show. He just follows the modern "Zeus is 100% horrible" approach. I'm bored by it at this point.

And Zeus would NEVER murder his infant child !!! He'd hide it, protect it, like he did with Dionysus when Semele died.

Godly red blood my beloathed ��. Where is ichor ?

And yes, Wikipedia is right, Theseus and Astyanax are lovers in this.

(I'm referring to this post. All my problems with this are still relevant) :

If they desperately wanted gay/bi Theseus, Pirithous is literally right here.

Btw why does Theseus work for Minos ? Why did both the Immortals movie and Kaos forget that Theseus is a king and not some financially struggling guy ?

Also, for Kaos alone, he tried to save Athenians by fighting for them, for his people... and to solidify himself as king too. But he still succeeded in saving them.

(here I am defending Theseus. Yup...)

I feel the one who'd bring Ariadne to bloody shows and encourage her to break rules would be Dionysus. Not Theseus. (The Dionysus X Ariadne shipper in me is talking)

Though I still buy him trying to charm her in order to get her help. But yeah, not as much a complaint than something I noticed.

I couldn't resist explaining to my family that they never met, Astyanax died as an infant in most versions and that Minos kept ATHENIANS captive, not Trojans.

When we saw the Minotaur's silhouette, my brother and I sang Batman's theme song 🤣. Because, again, why respect the "bull-headed" man depiction when we can make it lame ?

Polyphemus' depiction was also disappointing btw

Some characters should have more fantastical aspects imo. Like the Erinyes or the Fates. And I needed some time to recognize Charon.

I like some characters like Prometheus, Medusa (she's too attractive but I like her sass), Hades/Persephone and... surprisingly Dionysus.

Ok. I'll finish off with Dionysus (because I love complaining about him in particular)

So, on one hand, this version is pretty fun. I like his energy, how he's not afraid of anything and just chills with mortals. He has a very "cool bro" energy. I liked the scene where he drove the truck in a "idgaf" way. And his dedication to help Orpheus to find a purpose is really cool. Overall if he was an original character, I'd honestly really like him.

On the other hand, as a representation of Dionysus the god ? Not really.

I'll only say he's one of the best, not because he's very accurate, but because the bar is extremely low 🤣🤣. Like at least he isn't a stupid drunkard or a background character.

But it's still very disappointing. The fact that in Episode 1, he's introduced as the god of wine and madness. And yet the second part isn't used at all 🤣. Feels like a decoration rather than the core part of his mythological character.

Also, Dionysus isn't insignificant. He had a whole journey proving his worth, traveling, expanding his cult. I'd understand Hera calling him that (in his youth, before he helped her with Hephaestus), but Zeus ? No !

Zeus values his son, he even trusted him to go to India and make them believe in the gods. He saved his son twice if we count Orphism, then enthrusted Hermes to hide him from Hera. Because Zeus can be a good father at times, yk ? 😂. He's not a horrible demon, just a representation of kings.

Coming back to Dionysus, in my mind he's a fun guy 50% of the time... and a menace to society the other 50%. And a free spirit with zero limit 100% of the time.

Also, where are the maenads and satyrs ? Why is he alone ?? He has a big following !!! I'd feel like in his moments of doubt, he'd ask Silenus or hang out with them.

Finally, him helping Orpheus is hilarious considering that

1. Orphism. Orpheus should have recognized him instantly.

2. Orpheus dies dismembered by maenads. In a way, Dionysus DID help Orpheus to reunite with his wife, huh 😂😂 ?

The scene where he and another guy made love in the toilet reminded me of the Prosymnus myth... that comes from veeeeeeeery late sources. Idk how to feel about it. I would have preferred him to show his might as a god.

(plus I don't like sex scenes in general. Yeah, I had to skip these parts 😅.)

More about my opinion on this version of Dionysus here :

Global conclusion

Idk I'm mixed about this. I don't like how they handled most of the mythological depictions, but independently, it was kinda enjoyable. Some scenes are fun independently from the myth.

I don't have a lot to say about the plot : interesting for an original show, stupid for a mythology adaptation (wth is that prophecy ?).

I think I'll keep watching the show, just to laugh a bit 🤣.

Btw seeing how they handled the couples, I'm glad characters like Odysseus/Penelope, Perseus/Andromeda didn't appear 😅. I'm betting they'd be portrayed as misogynistic cheaters or smth.

And Penelope or Andromeda as women who hate their husbands and have no common characteristics with their myth versions.

[gamergirlshelby]

Alright I just finished Chapter 1 of Rejuvenation 13.5 and I have many thoughts I want to ramble about.

I want to note that I have done 100% playthrough of version 13.0 a few months after it had initially released, so although my memory is a bit rusty, I will be talking a bit about some of the changes between the versions (i want to note that they're all positive imo)

Also should note that be wary of spoilers for new content for 13.5 as well as spoilers for story stuff since I want to talk about how good the writing in this game is. I've taken a lot of screenshots and will be adding them when i think they fit in my little rambles and stuff.

Without further ado my ramblings are under the read more!

To start things off I wanna just gloss over the beginning scene with Maria and the prologue on the SS Oceana. From what I can remember nothing really changed between those two sections but honestly I think they are as close to perfect if not as perfect as they can be. They give just the right amount of information to set up some of the first main mysteries and plot threads, and I think they do amazingly at setting the tone for the game.

Next I want to talk about how East Gearen has changed, having made some small adjustments to the city to help make traveling through it all the more easier. I'm happy that the changes were minimal enough that walking through the city I still knew where everything was, so everything felt familiar but it had been different enough where seeing everything game me the same sort of wonder and comfort that it had in my first playthroughs.

I think the biggest changes being to the designs for the Gearen lab and the Gearen Help Center (I haven't made it to Sheridan yet so I'm not sure if all of the help centers have been changed to be the same sort of layout, or if they all have a unique sort of look to them). The only change I'm not the biggest fan of is the starters all being lined up in rows as shown above. It definitely makes choosing the starter easier since they're all in one space, but having them all in their own little enclosures had this quaint sort of feeling to it. Still I do think that it was a good change overall, it just doesn't pander to me specifically.

Next change that I want to point out is the ability to take on quests right when you see the npc and not needing to go to the help center. Overall I think everything about quests has been changed to be much easier and more streamlined. The little quest notification does a lot in making finding the details for quests and even just finding quests a lot easier. Overall I'm a big fan.

I also adore the additions of finding some relevant story npcs out in the world outside of big story events and areas. It just adds so much to the world and helps make the world feel more alive, like its really worth saving. Whether its just small dialogue that doesn't impact anything, a conversation that can build up on your relationships with characters, or even having a quick battle, I love these small changes.

Next on the list is the completely new content, with the most notable being Mr. Luck's tent. I'm gonna be honest I am a big fan of him, I love this character archetype of just these mischievous tricksters (probably a more common term for this trope but. y'know the sort of characters I'm probably thinking of) Honestly the whole quest introducing Prism Pokemon was very fun! Melia also explains them later on during the Goldenwood Forest section with the fight with the Prism Nidorino, but I think being able to learn about it early through the quest is fun. Also I am just a huge fan of the contracts and items you can trade in. I'm gonna save a bit though for some of the more expensive items though, at least for now. If I can find a way to grind for the Black Prisms easily I'll probably grind for that ??? contract, but I have no idea what it could be (also 999 is a lot,,,).

Next up I want to talk about the update to Venam's gym! It definitely feels a lot more her than the last one, but I do think there was a bit of charm to the idea that she didn't really get a say in what her gym was like, to the point she made a gym grave yard to help preserve those old gyms. The factory is still there and I'm gonna be honest I kinda just walked there first when it was time to challenge Venam and I was very confused-- Not complaining just a silly thing I thought I'd mention.

Next I want to talk about the Zygarde quest. I think introducing it during the main story instead of pushing it to the side in the help center was a smart move, but I did not realize who Ayuda was at first when I saw him in Venam's gym. I'm gonna be honest though, I don't see myself going out of my way to work on completing the Zygarde quest this playthrough, mostly just cause I'm not the biggest Zygarde fan, but also its just very tedious to look for all of them.

Next I wanna talk about the Goldenwood Forest Section and I just. Wow I think how it was reworked was phenomenal. First I absolutely ADORE how instead of having it be a cutscene you can help out everyone in Goldenwood made the trip feel a lot more impactful. I adored that original cutscene but honestly I think having a few quick quests to help everyone in the area made what was once gonna be one of the best days ever into the worst day ever feel a lot more... real if that makes sense, telling a story through gameplay and not just cutscenes, something Rejuvenation never had a problem with, but I'm glad they made the change here.

Also the fishing quest. Oh my goodness the fishing quest. The mechanical Lairon encounter hinting towards the future mechanical Pokemon you have to fight later on even more intense cause like. This rusty old one can give you trouble if you're not prepared for it, and and the fully functional mechanical Pokemon found later on in the game can be pretty rough, especially since there are so many of them in some sections like in the pearl route of chapter 15. That said there was something really funny to me about the idea of this fisherman having the hardest time trying to get a Magikarp haha.

Next I love the information Melia gives about the mural, how she talks about how the squares couldn't be buildings, since the Garufans hadn't been very technologically advanced. Honestly there being so many differing interpretations for the Garufans and how they handled things is so cool to me, cause I feel like its just like how people who research ancient civilizations are in real life, especially when there isn't a lot of information available. This might be partly because I have this stuff on my mind because I am taking a World Civilizations class rn for my college classes. Karen talking about in the Missing Starly quest that the Garufa were a nomadic tribe that harvested the powers from Pokemon's souls to be able to cast magic. Then in the Hidden Library quest we learn that they hated Pokemon, seeing them as vile pests. Even the idea that their technology was undeveloped is something that gets disproved later on in the story. I just find it fascinating that nobody can seem to agree on what the Garufa were like. I may be pulling at straws here though I just think its cool.

Next is the whole redesign for the Silent Grove. First I think the name itself is new but tbh I may just be forgetting and I don't feel like looking up an old playthrough to check (tbh thats just me being lazy tho). I personally was a big fan of the grove being a small secluded area, but I think the big castle builds on the lore that was first established in the Goomy Kingdom quest, that being what the world was like all the way back before the calamity decades ago, and showing that there where even more castles. Also it just makes more sense that this would lead to the secret Garufa settlement that we explore in the Pearl Route for Chapter 15. Also I love the new statue design being based on the Ranger sprite for Arceus.

Lastly I just wanted to say I think the battle with Zetta being changed to take place in a crater instead of the lake front just makes sense. It didn't make sense to me that the park had been closed off for so long after the Rift Gyrados was dealt with. I know it's because the Gyrados wasn't completely gotten rid of, but before it was just overgrown, but still manageable. This level of damage I could see needing to have a full quest line repairing.

Anyways that's it for my thoughts on Chapter 1 and the Prologue for version 13.5 of Rejuvenation. Hope you enjoyed my rambles and thank you again for reading all of them :D

[familyagrestefanblog]

Though this still leaves us with the problem that Marinette is written like s4-onwards-Bloom (what a coincidence) after the first story arc ended with Bloom finding her family and saving her planet.

Bloom being criticized as a Mary Sue only holds weight from season 4 onwards because that's where the show started portraying her as always the greatest, strongest and only capable person to be able to really do well in a fight, whom the universe MUST center around and everyone gets significantly reduced roles.

First arc Bloom wasn't a Mary Sue the ways shes called, the actual initial story had her as actual center piece the way Adrien is and yet the other characters all got to shine and be important in plenty of ways (season 2 finale literally had everyone else take center stage to save her). But the accusation is valid from season 4 onwards.

In Miraculous rarely anyone besides Marinette gets to really shine now because it could mean that Marinette could be perceived as less than the greatest person ever for 5 whole seconds. Bloom also got ruined that way once her show did exactly the same.

Bloom's character was crucially forced into story breaking - the way Marinette is - after the first arc because then most of the big plots weren't about her specifically anymore, but the show still forced it.

Biggest offense here was season 5 where Aisha's - who is the second most story relevant Winx and imo the best written - family and home territory was the main focus, with the villain being her evil cousin who wants to destroy their family and take the throne.

And yet by the end Aisha was literally tossed into a cave to sit out the finale because the show couldn't handle Bloom not being the main focus for once anymore and it resulted in the whole emotional core of the season and plot line being gutted and left hollow.

And, of course, with fans upset and bitter because all they wanted was a good story.

That's literally season 5 of Miraculous. Just that Miraculous made it so much worse because at least in Winx it was a one season thing, Miraculous had fans invested for almost a decade with 5 seasons and then delivered a pay off for Adrien even worse than Aisha's.

Yes, by Magical Girl show standards Adrien is a specialist and by itself there is no problem in that, but the story put him in Aisha's position as second most important Winx narrative wise (yes, even more than Stella) hence why people react the same upset way to both of them getting screwed over in favor of the "flawlessly amazing main girl", just 200x worse.

Especially when you consider that it's still ADRIEN without whom the entire story couldn't work because his creation is what lead to Emilie's death. ADRIEN is at the core of the entire story, not Marinette.

I always say that I think Kagami would have been the perfect Main character because she has actual lore relevance like Adrien.

Winx can't work without Bloom because she's the Fairy of the Dragon Flame, the ultimate power the villains are after. Her home planet was destroyed when she was a baby to get HER. everything actually centered around her.

But Miraculous doesn't work like that. Marinette is, by all means, irrelevant hence why absolutely everything needs to be made about her and handed to her. Cause she herself isn't important. Get Kagami or Alya as Ladybug and it works too (and probably even better because Kagami has actual ties to the stakes of the plot and Alya is actually INTERESTED in anything lore related. Marinette's interest at this point stops with her personal involvement and then the show has her turn around and cry when that leads to things not being taken care of, when, no shit girl, this ain't about you).

Bloom being the focus despite things not always being about her in the first arc wasn't bothersome because she's the Main character who's actually the center piece of her high scale plot. That warrants her special treatment and makes it not annoying for the viewer.

Marinette as Main character and main focus on everything that ever happens on the other hand is literally wasting everyone's time and everything escalated so badly by the end of season 5 explicitly because Marinette never once did her actual job of taking any interest in what's going on in the war she's fighting and FINDING the villain and stopping him. This was taken so far to the point where she had to be spoon-feed into even being around for the end battle herself because she literally did barely anything that warrants her main character position. She fucked around for 5 seasons and then I'm supposed to feel bad for her being stuck alone in the worst outcome because she forbid her plot relevant partner from asking any help from her or even being a real person underneath the mask because that was declared "mistreating and disrespecting her"

Yeah, nah. That's a bad main character and a waste of the viewers time. She literally did everything BUT her job as MC and that's not up to Magical Girl Standards either.

I wouldn't really agree that boys are just arm candy in magical girl shows and only there to look cute. Yeah, sure the girls' friendships are the focus, but the boys are usually very much involved in the plot and most shows do explore their feelings about the odd things that happen due to magical shenanigans even if they aren't in the know (It's why ML baffles me even more with how they screwed up Adren's arc when he's the deuteragonist, when all these boys are supporting cast and get well rounded arcs)

I'm not much of a winx fan, but the specialists were very much not arm candy. Did the girls talk about them being cute? Yes, it's what teenage girls do. Did the narrative suggest they were good looking? Yes, but that's standard for most love interests in any genre. But we still got scenes with them talking amongst themselves about how they themselves feel and they got a fair share of badass fight scenes even if they wield no magic. A large amount of episodes actually included the boys and girls working as a team solving a mystery or fighting a villain. The girls might deal the finishing blow but the boys were still integral to the plot.

I hope this doesn't come across as hate, it definitely wasn't my intention. I'm just a bit too passionate about the magical girl genre.

I do think you have a good point with ML having a problem choosing a genre or blending two genres successfully.

For the CCS fans, I will add though that Cardcaptor Sakura had both Tomoyo and Syaoran serve as sources of motivation for Sakura. And both Sakura and Syaoran collecting cards even if Sakura is the only one who could seal them and yet never made you question whether Syaoran was even necessary for the job the way ml does with Chat.

I wasn't trying to say that boys have no part to play in magical girl team shows or that they're always treated as having no lives beyond the girls, that's why I mentioned that the Winx Club boys - aka, the Specialists - have their own (mostly off screen) lives and occasionally show up help the girls:

the boys are usually off doing their own thing and only occasionally show up for a date or to give the girls a ride on their cool bikes or magical spaceship

Even then, this is certainly a simplification of the roles that they play in the story, but I kind of had to simplify their roles down to their base components for the original post's discussion as I was talking in broad strokes of how these stories are written.

In terms of those broad strokes, the Specialists are absolutely only there for shipping fodder. That's why each one is assigned to a girl from the start and why their main role in the narrative is supporting their assigned love interest or causing relationship-based drama for their assigned love interest. If it weren't for shipping, then the Specialists would not exist.

While the Specialists do have fleshed out characters and may even effect the plot, the execution of those elements is designed around the girls. A really obvious example of this is the character Timmy, who has character development as the boy's tech guy. Why is he into technology? Because he's the designated love interest for the fairy of Technology and we have to show why they're a good match. Along similar lines, the boys don't really get plots that are removed from the girls because this is the girl's show. Every episode features one or more of the Winx, but the boys are optional and often don't appear.

This is because, narratively speaking, the boys are just love interests and that brings us back to Miraculous' big problem. You can't have a show where Adrien is written like a Specialist while also being part of the Winx Club and where Alya is written like she's part of the Winx Club while technically being more of a Specialist in terms of power set and actual narrative role.

I'm was thinking back to my memories of various Winx Club plots to find one that really highlighted what I mean here and I remembered that one of the big dramas in season one was the reveal that Bloom's love interest - Sky - was in an arranged marriage and had just never told her. As it turns out, that's a great example of what I'm talking about re Adrien!

Is that plot line technically based around Sky and letting his life effect the plot? Sure, but the fallout of that reveal revolves around Bloom, not Sky. The story doesn't really care how Sky's feeling as the conflict progresses. Instead, it focuses on how it affects Bloom and her friends because of course it does! She's the main character. It would be really weird if that plot suddenly focused on her side character love interest and his friends during one of her darkest hours/biggest moments.

Think of that and then consider how the ending of season five is written. Notice any similarities? Sure, this is Adrien's family drama, but because he's just a Specialist, the focus isn't on him. It's on Winx Club member Marinette and Adrien only shows up at the end for a kiss. That is the problem. That is what I'm talking about when I say that Miraculous will randomly write him as if we're watching a magical girl team show where Adrien is just the love interest.

In fact, let's really dig into this example because it's a good one.

You can have a look at the transcript for the finale episode of Miraculous season five here and see for yourself that Adrien doesn't even show up on screen until the final scenes when the big drama is over. The Winx Club wiki also has episode transcripts, so I took a look to see what happened in Winx land during the arranged marriage reveal plot (I love that this is a thing. It's so useful for fact checking myself!) This is the script for the episode after Bloom learns the truth. Sky does not appear even though his lies and family drama are the fuel for this episode's events, which are a major part of the season's arc. Note how perfectly that matches Adrien's writing?

Similarly, Sky's dialogue in the reveal episode is all about Bloom. He's worried about her learning the truth and thinking less of him. To match that, here's Adrien's only real dialogue in the penultimate episode of season five (full transcript):

Adrien:(Covers his ears.) I cannot transform... (Looks at his ring and tries taking it off.) Plagg: What are you doing?! Adrien: I'm not in my right mind. I'm too angry — at myself for falling short of Marinette's love, at my father for sending me here in London, at this stupid app and these rings that use my image... it makes me sick! This nightmare is giving me the horrible feeling that, if I transform, I'll get akumatized and destroy everything with my Cataclysm — Marinette, Ladybug... (Takes off the ring and hands it to Plagg.)

Switching back to Winx. After Bloom learns the truth about Sky, bad things happen because she's depressed. This results in her and the Winx going off on a journey to learn the truth of who Bloom is. After the girls share this big plot moment and Bloom gets her mojo back, the boys show up to be their ride home and to give Bloom her romance moment where Sky wins her back by declaring that he broke off the arranged married because he loves her.

Sky notably doesn't get an arc about choosing between his arranged marriage and his true love. We don't even know that the marriage is broken off until he tells Bloom because that was never really a conflict as far as the narrative was concerned. Of course he's going to pick Bloom! He's her designated side character love interest! He only exists to be with her. We don't need to treat this as a serious thing for him. The arranged marriage plot was never about him anyway. It was about giving Bloom a reason to have a darkest hour moment that moves the plot forward. Similarly, Sky calling off the marriage is nowhere near as important as him telling Bloom that he's called off the marriage to be with her in a grand romantic gesture.

This perfectly mirrors Miraculous' season five ending where Adrien doesn't appear until after Marinette is done fighting her big girl power fight against his father. As far as the writing is concerned, that fight isn't about him. His connection to the villain only really matters in terms of how it affects Marinette's actions during the final battle. Then, when the battle is over, Adrien shows up to give Marinette her big romance moment because, while the plot may be driven by Adrien's family, he is not a Winx club member. He's just a Specialist. Or, in the words of the head writer:

[image text: She's Barbie, he's Ken. You don't like it. I get it. It won't change. Anything else?] (The full, even more damning context of this tweet can be found here.)

What else can I say other than, "I rest my case."

Oh, and also that I didn't take this as an attack. I just thought it was a good opportunity to really dig into the nuances of this and what I was talking about in that original post as I never know how obvious this stuff is if you don't closely study story telling. As this case study hopefully shows, if a show is about a group of girl friends using the power of friendship, then their love interests may have important roles, but the boys are never going to be more important than the girls and most of the boy's screen time will be focused on romance and how their existence effects the girls because it's ultimately the girls' world. Without them, the show wouldn't exist. Without the boys? Well, then we just wouldn't have a romance plot.

[ganymedesclock]

Lots of people besides me have said lots of things about cringe, some of them more poetic, some of them more rude, and probably more relevant to at least one person out there but I feel like, to weigh in with my own feelings here:

I think that cringe is very well-named because the act of cringing is a physical reflex and it’s usually synonymous with- although somewhat an intensifier of- a flinch. That is to say, when we cringe away from something, we fear it. The root of most fear is, on some level, a fear of pain- physical pain, psychological pain.

In our society we are often inundated with messages to Be Yourself! sometimes with tongue-in-cheek “everybody else is taken”. but the thing about Being Yourself is it is not very safe. That’s what it means when we talk about the mortifying ordeal of being known. 

This is why, overwhelmingly, when we ask, “what is cringe?” it boils down to people who are flashily existing in a way that is not ‘safe’. A football fan in America can get pretty crazy and flashy before anybody suggests he’s too into football. Meanwhile someone who has even half that level of excitement about pong championships or chess club, uh-oh, cringe alert!

The inevitable reality of human beings is none of us were designed from the cradle with cultural norms of unthreatening opinions in mind. I guarantee no matter how inoffensive or ordinary you might think you are, you believe at least one thing that’d start a fight somewhere. Cringe sneaks in, often when we’re at an emotionally vulnerable or insecure part of our lives, quite often in high school, which is the point where for many people our perspectives start to broaden and we’re exposed to an expectation to make ourselves some kind of Identity, before which, unless we lucked out and hit on something that caused adults and our peers to separate us (which comes with its own kettle of problems), we were probably coasting without. And once you have an obligation to build an identity, you want to build a good one.

We want to cut to the part where we get to be Ourselves and have all the rewards of being a person with opinions and a strong identity without ever having been embarrassing, but the thing about cringe is it is basically a reaction to any time someone seems to be having themselves too exposed emotionally- and for many people, the threshold of exposure is set extremely low.

Overwhelmingly when I talk about people having powerful energy, what I’m actually describing is often only tangentially related to the skill that they’re exhibiting; the biggest part is confidence. And confidence is the natural predator of cringe- which is why people tend to cringe hardest when they watch someone else being weird confidently, because for cringe to maintain its power, it needs to somehow strip away that confidence. Cringe is an inherently insecure and unconfident position, both in and of itself (if you’re emotionally threatened by someone existing around you in a way that isn’t Normal, you are showing your own vulnerability) and also self-servingly, in that if you dismiss a bunch of other people as cringy losers who aren’t as cool as you, then you feel safer because at least you’re a nice normal guy, not like them, which appeals to unconfident people.

This is of course not to say that there are never situations where discomfort is warranted, or that confidence without any other qualities attached is a virtue- but actually, I think, conquering the cringe reflex is even more important in those cases because that will allow you to ask yourself “is this person actually just being weird / doing something I don’t personally like, or are they genuinely mounting a threat to myself, my ideals, my community, or my friends”

[sabraeal]

Hey! I have been a long time fan of your work and I recently converted from being a long time lurker reader on ao3 to becoming a writer. Do you have any tips for new writers? Specifically about actions and dialogue. Whenever I try to write its always ends up being character study or introspection. Thank you!

Oh jeeze nonnie, you asked this forever ago and I'm sorry to have made you wait! First off, thank you for dropping into my inbox and saying hi! I love when people delurk to come talk to me! Second, let me try to give you so basic writing advice-- it may not work for everyone, but this is the way I tend to approach action & dialogue.

ACTIONS

I assume you don't mean big sprawling fight scenes but rather the little bits you sprinkle in scenes and between dialogue, so my best piece of advice is: draft. Sit down with a blank page and write the scene as you see it-- don't worry about getting every bit onto the paper, or it reading well. If you are going to throw a pot, you have to get clay on the wheel. Your first draft is all clay-- you want as much of your thoughts there as possible.

Second: read that draft. Think about all the things that don't quite work, or could be better elsewhere, or really need to be cleaned up. NOW start your second draft. This one is where you refine the concepts you set down before. I prefer to use a whole new word doc because I feel beholden to words already in front of me otherwise, but some people prefer to just tweak on the page...do whatever allows you to work best. No judgement.

There's a whole art to doing a second draft, but that's a lot to cover, so let's dial in to action. Here is where you want to refine the actions you've already written, and replace things like repetitive dialogue tags with something that does more heavy lifting. There are two rules to these minor actions:

They must have purpose

They must be interesting

It's best to remember is that lots of actions are implied, which means you don't have to describe the doing unless it's relevant. If two characters are walking somewhere and talking, you don't have to keep reminding the reader they are walking, unless some part of it is exceptional, or would provide development to their characters. Is one struggling to keep up? Are they winded? Do they have to take two steps to the other person's one? Or conversely, do they have to shorten their stride to make in comfortable? Do they have FEELINGS about it? All that is more interesting than saying "he said as they walked."

If you do have an action that must be described-- say someone has to walk across a room to get them in position for another action later, you don't want to say "She walked across the room." Do they saunter or creep? Are they going over there to do something in particular? Find the thing that readers will care about that action and dial in on that. Is you POV character crossing the room because they are having an EMOTION? Focus on that rather than the movement.

You also don't want to bog down sections with too much movement; when you go through your draft-- and also, your edits-- think about whether lines are necessary. The biggest mistake most people make in prose is not trusting the reader to pick up what you're putting down. Get away with as little blocking as you can, and let the reader fill in the small details.

DIALOGUE

The best advice I ever got for learning how to do dialogue is: listen to people. When I was in high school & college, I had a notebook where I wrote down stuff people said every day that was funny or meaningful, and I would look at how people said things, the small tics each speaker has, what bit of their voice sounded unique to me. It also helped a lot with understanding what made something a "ya had to be there" joke, and what actually stayed funny months after being written down.

When you first start to write a character, you want to think about what makes their voice unique. Word choice matters a lot in dialogue; some people have large vocabularies and use them, some people prefer to stick to more common words, and some use as few words as possible. You also want to avoid the Joss Whedon effect: everyone is equally quippy, and the few differences between their jokes are based on a few character traits. You want to think about whether someone would make a comment...and also how they would say it.

It's really easy in a comedy fic to try to keep the joke going by having every line parceled out the way you say it in your own head-- and in a first draft, you should let it happen! But in the second draft, slow down and ask if that's the way a joke or conversation would go with these characters. I've had some scenes I've loved in first draft that had to be all turned about because Shirayuki is truly a joke ruiner when it comes to timing...but also taking that into account can really elevate a scene. And just like in canon, it makes the times she does get her quips in even more funny.

[padawanlost]

In a universe dominated by war it is easy to reduce Star Wars politics to the more obvious issues that plagued the GFFA. However, politics goes beyond the bigger picture, beyond war, laws and corruption. It was part of the everyday lives of every character of the franchise. And in the most ‘mundane’ side of politics lies one of the biggest enemies the Jedi Order had face: the status quo.

In the year 1000 BBY when the last (open) Sith war ended and the Republic was reformulated into what we saw during the Prequels, the greatest challenge of the Jedi Order began. With no more wars to fight, without enemies to defeat, the Jedi’s role within the galaxy shifted from warriors to diplomats. A hard transition for a group that had spent over 24000 years fighting for the Republic. In that context it’s understandable the narrative (and our) desire not to fault them for that happened next.

As they were put in a position they were utterly unprepared for, slowly, over a millennium, they lost sight of some pretty important issues that would later overwhelm them. The more obvious ones are related to their incapacity to navigate the politics of an overpopulated and corrupt Senate.

As warriors they faced political situations headfirst, as one would charge their opponent on the battlefield. They opted for the sword in situations where a scalpel would be the more appropriate tool. That somewhat naïve approach to politics not only left them vulnerable to manipulation, it also undermined any chance they had of acquiring political relevance within the Republic. To most, they were viewed as magical tools for the Republic’s interests, not independent political agents.

Their political mishaps made they vulnerable to attacks that eventually would culminate in their downfall, but it was the Order’s internal issues that cemented their inability to fight back.

The Jedi were not political animals and that’s usually used to explain why they failed to see Palpatine’s schemes for what they truly were. However, if the 1000 years between the Ruusan Reformation and the Phantom Menace set the stage for what saw of the relationship between the jedi Order and the Senate, the same period was also of great significance to the internal structure of the group.

In the year 1000 BBY, the same year the Republic reformulated the senate, restructured its territories, dissolved its military in an attempt to mitigate open armed conflicts, the Jedi Order began it’s tenure as diplomats. Considering how the last period of war had decimated the Jedi and almost ruined the Republic permanently, shifting their scarce resources to conflict resolutions was a smart decision…on paper.  In practice, the Jedi’s new role left them vulnerable to the internal problems that would later serve as base for Palpatine’s rise to power.

Changing is hard and, more often than not, it breeds conflict. But what happens when structural (and cultural) change is followed by almost 900 years of peace? What happens when you no longer have an enemy to fight? When you no longer see reasons to change?

“The Jedi Order’s problem is Yoda. No being can wield that kind of power for centuries without becoming complacent at best or corrupt at worst. He has no idea that it’s overtaken him; he no longer sees all the little cumulative evils that the Republic tolerates and fosters, from slavery to endless wars, and he never asks, “Why are we not acting to stop this?” Live alongside corruption for too long, and you no longer notice the stench. The Jedi cannot help the slaves of Tatooine, but they can help the slavemasters.” The Clone Wars by Karen Traviss)

I know most fans dismiss Dooku’s views on the Jedi Order’s internal shortcomings because he’s a bad guy and we’ve been trained to ignore anything that could make our heroes as anything less them utterly…heroic. But what if he’s right? Or, at least, what if he’s right about the dangers of complacency?

Perhaps the core of the issue here is not Yoda himself but what he represents. And in this case the character represents that “enemy’ I’ve mentioned before: the status quo.

Yoda remained in charge of the Jedi order for over 900 years. Almost a millennium of relative peace, almost of a millennium in where no real, lasting change happened within the Order. And that, as Yoda himself would later admit, was the reason beyond their inability to adapt to a new galaxy and to a new form of warfare.

“My failure, this was. Failed the Jedi, I did.” He spoke to the Force. And the Force answered him. Do not blame yourself, my old friend. As it sometimes had these past thirteen years, when the Force spoke to him, it spoke in the voice of Qui-Gon Jinn.

“Too old I was,” Yoda said. “Too rigid. Too arrogant to see that the old way is not the only way. These Jedi, I trained to become the Jedi who had trained me, long centuries ago—but those ancient Jedi, of a different time they were. Changed, has the galaxy. Changed, the Order did not—because let it change, I did not.” [Matthew Stover. Revenge of the Sith]

In the words of Yoda, the old way is not the only way. That simple truth shaped the Order into an organization that would later crumble in the face of Palpatine’s political maneuvers. Their inability to keep up with the natural changes of the GFFA represents the failure of adaptation and that failure is directly related to how time passed for them.

The years the GFFA experienced were the same ones the Order did, however where things naturally changed for the rest Republic – time changed families, leaders, governments, habits, views, etc – it didn’t change the Jedi order’s because for 900 years the same person led the Order and guided its habits, views and actions.

The few changes the Jedi order experienced in that millennia were reactionary. An external situation forced them to change out of necessity or survival. But no real attempt was made to debate and reorganize the internal structure of the group. There was no movement to even analyses if change was necessary. They became adept of the “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” proverb and that would cost them everything.

[The Jedi] sort of persuade people into doing the right thing but their job really isn’t to go around fighting people yet there are now used as generals and they are fighting a war and they are doing something they really weren’t meant to do. They are being corrupted by this war, by being forced to be generals instead of peacemakers. – George Lucas for E! Behind the Scenes - Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith

By failing to notice the war (and the galaxy) had changed, they allowed themselves to be easily manipulated by Palpatine. In their desperate attempt to protect the galaxy they made themselves susceptible to outside forces, to corruption, to the dangers of blind certainty.

The story being told in ‘Star Wars’ is a classic one. Every few hundred years, the story is retold because we have a tendency to do the same things over and over again. Power corrupts, and when you’re in charge, you start doing things that you think are right, but they’re actually not. – George Lucas in 2005

The Jedi won the war, the one they believed would be the last one, and so they fell into a place of comfortable complacency. Instead of occupying the role of active agents of change within the galaxy, they passively allowed others to conduct them into a role they were unprepared for.

Passivity allied with a lack of self-analysis is dangerous, especially for those in leadership positions. It took Yoda 900 years to realize and vocalize his fears about the failings of the Jedi Order.

If he had been less passive about everything he witnessed in his time as their leader, maybe they would’ve been more prepared for the Palaptine’s schemes. Maybe, it would’ve been much harder for them to be push into corrupting their purpose by becoming agents of war instead of peace.

within the political context of the story, Yoda becomes the embodiment of the complacent leader who no longer leads, only reacts. He represents our leaders and institutions inability to adapt, to evolve, to be become active instruments of change within society. By maintaining the status quo, not only he failed the group he was supposed to be leading, he allowed their purpose to be corrupted.

The Jedi were, unquestionably, the heroes of the story. They are and always have been the good guys. But where most current heroes are presented to us as beyond reproach, George imbued them with a sense of humanity most fictional heroes lack: real vulnerability. The Jedi’s Achilles’ heels were not in some magical object that could rob them of their best qualities. Their vulnerability was far more nuanced, far more human. Their mistakes were the most human mistakes of all, the ones we all make sometimes in our daily lives even when we are trying to do good, perhaps, especially then.

They tried valiantly to protect the galaxy but their inability (or perhaps, unwillingness) to keep up with the social, cultural and political changes around them was what ultimately doomed them all.

And here George Lucas gives us an important lesson about time and the status quo: things changes and so should we. In episode VI, to the shock of us all, Darth Vader changed. After almost 20 years of cruelty and pain he changed his mind and his heart to save his son. And his ability to do so saved the galaxy.

Anakin’s more redeemable moment was also a moment of choice, a moment of change.

Maybe we can’t all walk around with laser swords or move rocks with our minds but we do have the possibility to be heroic in our daily lives. Nothing exemplifies that better than our willingness to act for the benefit of others. Our heroism lies in our ability to change, to defy the status quo, to act on our beliefs simply because we believe it’s the right thing to do.

When we choose to become active agents of change, when we choose to act to improve ourselves and the world around us, even if only for a little bit, we become heroes.

[beevean]

I’m a big fan of IDW. I know there are problems with the writing here and there. I know it isn’t a perfect comic, but I think it’s a fun alternate medium to enjoy Sonic in. Plus, comics are a medium where characters can talk more and get more in-depth.

To be honest, I feel like you and your anti-IDW group get too bent up on things. I understand pointing out faults with a series, but sometimes you and your friends go on for so much. It’s causing fights and definitely has gathered mockery online off of tumblr.

I think you all try to articulate your points well, but I also feel you’re all so determined to hate everything in the comics or anything Ian Flynn works on. I’ve read through many of your points. Some are valid and fair, but sometimes it feels like you’re searching for the tiniest nugget to make a stink over. What’s the saying? Making a mountain out of an ant hill? I don’t remember.

I’m writing as one of the most avid IDW Sonic fans around. I hope you don’t get mad at this message, but this endless barrage against these mediums have don’t more harm than good.

I just think that if you hate the comics that much, just please stop reading it. You’re not enjoying it, you’re bothering people (also many if not most of your posts still pop up in the IDW tag), your group is being marked as a ridiculous part of the fandom, and it’s just very sad and draining to see.

That’s all. Thanks for reading.

I feel like you're someone I know. I hope I'm wrong.

I won't read anything after #50, that much I promised to myself. I'm also genuinely sorry that my posts pop up in the main tag - what other tag could I use? Maybe "anti idw"? I can try and replace all my tags and see if they still appear in the page. Again, I apologize for that :(

I know it seems like I'm trying very hard to be angry, but I'm not trying at all. It's just stuff that pops into my brain. What I'm pointing at are (in my opinion, you can disagree) genuine, glaring writing flaws that ruined my previously enjoyable experience, and only got worse as time went on. I care about these writing flaws because I care about Sonic, both the series and the character, and I'm very alienated by the constant praise Flynn gets, praise that got him to be called by SEGA to collaborate on what could be the biggest Sonic game to date

I'm a little skeptical of your claim that "we made a mockery of the fandom" - IDW is nowhere near as relevant outside of the Western Sonic fandom as the games are, and in the Western Sonic fandom it's clearly popular enough that SEGA considers him trustworthy enough to make him work on so many Sonic products: IDW, Frontiers, Origins, Prime, the low-quality enclyclospeedia. People adore the guy, we are a tiny minority. Trust me, non Sonic fans don't need IDW critics to think that Sonic fans are cringy.

Anyway, feel free to enjoy the comic. I have nothing against people who simply like it, and don't use it to bash the games, deliberately misinterpret the other side's position, or worse harass the other side like it has happened here on Tumblr. I'll try to find a better tag so that I will stay away from the main tag, and I apologize for ruining your fun.

And if you're someone I know and I've annoyed you to the point that you can't stand me anymore, feel free to unfollow me, I won't be mad. I understand.

[voteformightyclocks]

The Year Marvel Lost

There are many people who would love to jump and argue with me on this if they saw it, but I'm here to announce that Marvel has officially lost it's position as the unstoppable giant. Seriously. And I'm going to explain how DC, Lucasfilm, and Sonic The Hedgehog (...yes. Sonic The Hedgehog) have dealt massive blows that Marvel will have to work hard to recover from. Let's start with...

The DCEU

Few companies have even had the even had the ability to attempt to compete against Marvel. The MCU got kickstarted 14 years ago with Iron Man in 2008, and ever since then the biggest competitor Marvel has had has been, well, DC. The two companies rivaled each other, but we all know how far the DCEU fell. Until they decided to do something new: a project not in the DCEU...a stand-alone Batman movie. And this movie was a BLAST! It was the closest film has ever been to a true Batman, and while it was certainly a bit odd getting a Batman movie that wasn't a crime-fighting action film, but rather an investigative film (and yes, I say this despite how badly the third act went), it was so satisfying! And I'm not the only person who believed that. And while for personal reasons I am avoiding Peacemaker (I have an aversion to blood/gore, which the show is reportedly heavy on), reviews for that were insane, too

Star Wars

...this is easily my favorite franchise of all time, but...how do I put it...the last phenomenal thing Star Wars released that could easily pound Marvel into the dirt was Revenge Of The Sith in 2005, something that released ahead of the MCU's reign. Since then, the Clone Wars TV show was the only thing that gave the franchise momentum (with Rebels managing to keep things together and Resistance being wrongfully overlooked) until the release of The Mandalorian, a show that singlehandedly revived Star Wars and made it relevant again. But at the end of the day, Marvel still took home every victory. That's why this year was major for Star Was: between Kenobi and Andor, Lucasfilm was looking to make a huge mark in cinematic history, and Marvel was getting lazy with their content. Unfortunately, Star Wars' momentum was slowed by Kenobi's questionable quality of content, and Andor has also been unfortunately overlooked for the most part, but it's worth noting that Andor has given the loyal fans something they haven't had in a long time: hope. And that's all we need to scoff at Marvel and turn back to Star Wars

...Sonic The Hedgehog

The first Sonic outing was, admittingly, something I laughed at when I found out it was a thing. Video game movies DON'T WORK. Then Sonic took a drastic turn: it wasn't a video game movie, it was a superhero movie. This shocked me, but it worked really well. And this year, we also had the release of Sonic The Hedgehog 2, which easily replicated the first movie's success. This is a much more minor victory over Marvel than even Lucasfilm had, but consider this: if a video game movie sequel can be way more enjoyable than some of the most anticipated projects the biggest franchise has pushed out around the same time...what else is possible? Who else could rise to challenge Marvel? The Mario movie might stomp the giant. Maybe the next Transformers movie will turn into a major threat. The Hunger Games prequel might be the last one standing. WHO KNOWS?!

The fact of the matter is that while Marvel's content this year has been good, it's not what we expect. Marvel has set it's own bar so high and gotten so lazy that it's come nowhere near where it needs to be to safely keep it's position. The King of Entertainment is a title that is now up for grabs, and the Mario Movie, one of the most controversial recent announcements, has the chance to take the crown for itself. This is a bad time to be a Marvel fan, but it's never been better to be a movie fan

Though, real talk, I am SUPER EXCITED for the upcoming Mario movie! Anyone else?!

[my-name-is-dre]

Mettaton is a False Prophet [OLD THEORY]

To start things off and make sure we have a reference, we need to list off the eerie yet superficial similarities between Mettaton and Asriel:

They both have multiple forms, with Mettaton having his normal form at the beginning, his EX form during his fight, and his NEO form in the No Mercy run. Asriel has his flower form throughout most of the game, his child form at the end of the True Pacifist run, and his “God of Hyperdeath” form also at the end of the True Pacifist run.

This is a minor detail, but they both possess the power to change the application’s name, with Mettaton turning it to “Undertale The Musical” during the track Oh! One True Love and Flowey turning it into “Floweytale” during his boss fight at the end of a neutral run. With the ability to change meta elements like this being traditionally associated with possessing determination in fan theories, we can conclude that there’s a case of overlap here. Another minor detail is that they’re the only two characters who can audibly speak, with Flowey’s creepy “that’s a wonderful idea!” and Mettaton’s famous “oh yes!”

One big similarity is that they’re both products of Alphys, with Mettaton being an attempt to purposefully enfuse a monster soul into an inanimate robot initially with the purpose of being efficient at killing humans, while Flowey was an incident caused by injecting determination into an inanimate object that had the remnants of a monster soul within it.

This is a bit of a stretch, but both characters are artificially inserted into your journey in an attempt to please an ulterior motive, with Flowey enacting his agency at the level equivalent of a player to toy with the same experiences and reconnect with whom he believes to be Chara while Mettaton was conscripted by Alphys to set up an elaborate stage play where she can rescue from him to feel better about herself, acting only at the level of agency as a monster.

The biggest emotional similarity is that both possess a mournful attitude towards a lost sibling, with Asriel on an endless quest of ironic spite against Chara for severing their old friendship by dying while Mettaton leaves Napstablook behind to pursue hedonistic dreams of fame and beauty, destroying the potential they had as a performance duo. Both rectify the holes these relationships left in them, with Asriel destroying the very thing that led to Chara’s death and Mettaton humbling himself reconnecting with Napstablook.

Goal-wise, they both obsess over humans but for very different reasons: Asriel has an obsession with only one human, and the reasons for this are very deep-seated and personal. Mettaton’s obsession however is more vain and is concerned with growing his audience beyond the borders of the Underground and being seen as a sort of vanguard for monsterkind among humanity. Or more insidiously, he feels as if he can assimilate into them. Both seek a form of transcendence that comes with obtaining a human soul: Asriel, as Flowey, seeks one so he can restore a bit of what he lost when he became a flower. Mettaton wants one again for vain reasons; those being to deprive Asgore of the opportunity and claim the title of the “Savior of the Underground” to himself.

Despite this being the most superficial similarity, it’s likely the most important: Both of their ‘ultimate’ forms—Mettaton NEO and God of Hyperdeath—have some interesting similarities between their designs. The most obvious is that they have these large wings jutting out, with Asriel’s having intricate color patterns while Mettaton’s flash between a brighter and darker shade of grey. Other similarities include excessively large shoulder blades and heart patterns on the chest area that are also shared with Undyne the Undying, indicating that this design motif is a trend among all major bosses considered to possess determination. Finally, this form also vaguely resembles the Delta Rune symbol, which I will elaborate on what they mean later. Despite all of this, it’s mainly the wings that are the contentious point of comparison, which I’ll get into later.

Lastly, they both seek a form of integration outside of themselves, with Asriel seeking once again the fusion of their soul with Chara’s, while Mettaton seeks total unification of their soul with their new body, and this is represented in the designs of their ultimate forms, with Mettaton’s ensignia featuring two hearts (one empty and one a monster soul) opposing each other, while Asriel’s features an empty soul within another empty soul. This is likely a metaphor that, despite all of the power he possesses, he’s still empty because he doesn’t have his friend with him. Conversely, this can apply to how Mettaton, despite achieving everything he basically dreamed of (as written in his diaries), feels empty because he abandoned Napstablook.

We’re finally done with comparisons to lay down the evidence for the main point. Now, we’ll get onto the Deltarune prophecy and what it means:

As most of you probably know, the Delta Rune is an emblem that represents the Kingdom of Monsters and is seen on the garments of every Boss Monster. In Waterfall, there are glyphs that describe a prophecy: “The Angel… The One Who Has Seen The Surface… They will return. And the underground will go empty.” If you ask Gerson to elaborate on what this means, he says that some monsters believe that this refers to a bleaker outlook: That the angel prophesied is actually a harbinger of death, and that this freedom actually refers to death.

If you connect the dots, you end up with two conflictingly obvious solutions: The first is that the player is the prophesied angel who appropriately fits both outlooks, being able to destroy the barrier and free monsterkind or free them mortally by attempting to slaughter all of them. However, another conclusion that can be drawn is that the angel prophesied is actually Asriel, and that you’re merely a vessel for his unwitting divine plan. While both are valid interpretations, the second is far more relevant to my point.

Also mentioned in those glyphs is the fact that not a single human soul was taken in the war between humans and monsters, alongside this is the missed opportunity to uncover that one can achieve godhood if they combine a human and monster’s souls. This implies a type of dualism as to whether or not the angel symbolizes the player or Asriel, as it’s more accurate to say that both the player and Asriel—the fusion of their souls—is the angel. This makes sense in both the contexts of the True Pacifist and No Mercy runs (and technically neutral), as both are attempts by Asriel to integrate with Chara again, with the former favoring Asriel’s determination while the latter favoring the player’s.

Now, what if I told you that Mettaton’s character in the story is his attempt to fulfill this prophecy artificially, thus making a false prophet of himself?

It seems hard to believe at first, but considering all the weird similarities between the staging and capabilities of both Asriel and Mettaton, it seems to imply that there’s some similarities between them in the context of the fate of monsterkind. Not only is it common knowledge among all monsters to speak of the prophecy, we also know Mettaton grew up in Waterfall alongside Napstablook and Shyren, meaning that this prophecy could’ve had more meaning to him specifically.

Now, it’s unknown whether or not the intentions to save monsterkind came about because of his hubris or because they were suggested to him by some higher command like Asgore, but considering that he states directly that he wants to kill you to prevent Asgore from taking your soul, it implies that Mettaton’s attempt at fulfilling the Delta Rune prophecy is entirely selfish.

One point of evidence in the camp that Mettaton was intentionally made to fulfill the Delta Rune prophecy is that Mettaton was made to impress Asgore according to Catty and Bratty. If this is true, then his position as a celebrity implies that he was made to be a beacon of hope that could be predictably grown and made to accomplish a purpose that fulfilled everyone’s collective desire. But the hair covering his right eye and its further concealment in his NEO form tells that, if he was created to fulfill the prophecy, then he wasn’t finished for this task and still required further tinkering from Alphys.

It may be entirely coincidental that Mettaton’s motivations as a character parallel and complement Asriel’s, but I find that hard to believe especially given the similarities of being separated from a lost sibling, seeking an integration of souls that’ll grant extraordinary power to embrace humanity to a degree, and possessing soulless objects. What I think really drives it home for me is the similarities between Mettaton NEO and the God of Hyperdeath, both of which are depicted as being angelic with prominent wings, which I’ll go on record to state are the only two boss fights in the game that feature wings prominently.

If Asriel is fulfilled as the angel of death, then the depiction of Mettaton NEO is given a newfound authenticity as he serves as the image of a guardian angel meant to stop you in a place where there is nobody to onlook, forcing him to act in authentic spirit. He now has the duty of protecting both monsterkind and humankind from you, even if he utterly fails at it.

One thing that’s hard to answer is how Mettaton is able to perform actions that imply metatextual awareness of the game and other similar actions Flowey does despite never being implied or hinted at possessing determination. Does this imply that, like Flowey, the process of integrating monster souls into inanimate objects grants them some form of determination? If so, it would grant greater proof as to why Mettaton has such a vested interest in fulfilling the Delta Rune prophecy beyond merely hearing about it. Yet, we know from the True Lab logs that Flowey was injected with determination while there’s no such implication that the same was done with Mettaton. However, we can gather from Napstablook being able to avoid being absorbed into Flowey as he transforms into Asriel that ghosts, as a type of monster, are seemingly immune to things other monsters aren’t. Perhaps this implies that they have metatextual powers like monsters with determination?

Now, here comes the really fun (and fortunately last) part where I draw parallels between these characters and the real-world mythology that may have inspired them:

Now, it’s a factoid among some that Asriel’s name may be inspired by Azrael, who is described as the angel of death in Judaism and Islam, and as part of that title, he separated souls from their bodies. His appearance has been described as being cosmically large, having an insurmountable amount of wings, and possessing a body formed of an amount of eyes and tongues representing every human being. Right away, we can see parallels to the God of Hyperdeath, who also has very large wings that appear to project a cosmic pattern within them. While its appearance may not correspond literally, he is a being composed of every human and monster soul in the Underground, eerily matching the description. Not to mention that Asriel absorbed Chara’s soul into them, equivalent to Azrael’s job of severing souls from their bodies.

Another factoid is that Metaton’s name is possibly inspired by Metatron, another angel of Judaism that, unlike Azrael, isn’t found in the Tanakh but is mentioned briefly in the Talmud. He has a similar job to Azrael in that he records the sins and merits of men, similar to how Azrael was able to see which names were blessed or damned. However, Metatron holds an even more lofty title in Kabbalistic mysticism as God’s mediator between men, being described as one “whose name is like that of his master”, even going as far as to be called “the lesser YHWH.” This is obviously a heretical dualistic proclivity in an otherwise monotheistic Judaism. Further, Metatron is related to Enoch, being described in Jewish apocrypha as the name Metatron used to have before he was transformed into an angel. Now, for all of that backstory, it parallels to Mettaton specifically in transformation: It seems as if Mettaton’s obsession with human reciprocation and the very humanoid appearance of his EX form imply that he wants to integrate into humanity similar to how Enoch entered angeldom.

The hot topic is whether or not Metatron’s power compared to that of God given the texts stating he was a secondary power in heaven with YHWH, but the answer most Rabbinistic scholars give is that he obviously wasn’t despite that it was written that all other angels bowed before him. However, this idea of there being dual power in Heaven is what later laid the groundwork for understanding the nature of Christ in Christianity. But in most Jewish sects, this doesn’t fly and is seen as a dualistic heresy, implying that there’s a falseness to Metatron’s power. Just like how there is a falseness to Mettaton’s power and intentions in all runs of the game. Another neat thing to note is that, as part of accepting Metatron as a real angel, one believes that any time a human believes God has directly spoken to them, it’s actually Metatron acting as his vessel. Perhaps this is parallel with how Mettaton is the voice of the Underground and it’s desire to be free despite himself possessing relatively lacking power?

The angel required a fusion of both a monster and human soul, and while Mettaton is the fusion between a monster soul and a soulless object akin to Flowey, it wasn’t enough to fulfill the role of the angel, falling short of his lofty dreams of being a savior. However, this disillusionment isn’t cruel, especially when you spare Mettaton and he receives a call from Napstablook (implied) that reminds him of his importance to monsterkind, making him reconsider his lofty ambitions to appeal to humanity. This is telling Mettaton that he is not a mediator between monster and humankind that he thought of himself as, for he never had the ability to combine both human and monster soul like Asriel. Perhaps he had the determination to be able to foresee the realization of the prophecy but not enough to put it into effect?

That’s just about everything I have to potentially support this theory, including referents to Jewish mythology. I firmly believe that Mettaton’s presence in the story was to serve as a false prophet to fulfill the prophecy of the Delta Rune, and that explains why his character and origin is so similar to that of Flowey.

[wattpadscapcons]

I know no one wants to hear this from me. You can just skip this if you want to.

I just watched a playthrough of a video game that literally showed me what it's like to suffer for the sake of numbers and views. It's easy to lose yourself in the interaction you get online, regardless of whether or not it's positive. I've honestly felt that in a way that may be negatively affecting me and my writing.

I mean, I'm fine, don't worry. It's just the thought of me having to de-train myself from relying on the approval and praise of people I don't even really know, it's scary. You can often get lost in that feeling, it manifests into this ugly mass of guilt and self-hatred that can metaphorically suffocate you. The literal amount of stress it takes to stay relevant on any platform must be soul crushing.

-

When I first started making posts on this platform, I was receiving lots of that feeling. It hadn't quite become the overall sickening stress by the end of the first week, not even the second week. I just received so many likes that it became addicting to seek out others attention by writing. The whole "numbers game". Over 300 likes at my very peak of this "career"! Now a days I can barely hit 30 or on a good week maybe I'll hit 70 or more. That's still a lot of people, and believe me I'm very grateful for those who are still here.

-

I hate just how sick and disappointed that makes me feel. It fuels me with so many negative thoughts like:

"Do people not like my content?"

"Is the only way to get any kind of feedback is to do exactly what my followers ask me to?"

"Have I already become boring?"

"Have I been shadowbanned?"

"Why won't anyone talk to me? Did I do something wrong?"

The lack of interaction kills me. I hate how quiet it is here even when everyone's awake. It doesn't even have to be positive, tell me my work sucks! That you hate it! Tell me you liked it! Gush about the characters you like in my dms or comment section of my posts! I really don't care! Just say something so that I know you're reading and that I'm not slaying over the computer screen for hours at a time for no reason!

-

I know it's a needy, selfish request. Please don't hate me for saying it here. I know some people don't have the time, nor the energy to do anything. I have mutuals that are like that, busy people, parents even!

They can feel really stressed out and I always feel like I'm bothering them when I text them out of the blue after being silent for a few days. That's fine. I just hate the feeling of being ghosted. I'm not going to bite, I'm not some kind of god or celebrity that thinks they're above you.

-

I have trouble reaching out to a lot of you myself, to tell you I like your work because I don't want to come off as awkward. So believe me, I know how it feels! It doesn't even have to be a long conversation! You don't have to wait for a reply before you log off. That would be fine.

-

I've already had a major fight on this platform too. Well, not exactly major, nothing I would have to go to therapy over. It was upsetting, and I'm sure some of the followers I've had since the very beginning remember what I'm talking about. I bring this up because that had a negative affect too, as it was a simple misunderstanding that showed me just how cruel anons could be to people online.

I know this may hit kind of heavy coming from a small time tumblr user that not everyone is the biggest fan of, but I... I don't know. I guess I just feel a little better after writing this out? I know this platform is exactly the best for letting out all of this negative steam. I don't want to come off as needy or obsessive or self-centered. This is just how I feel.

[max-vandenburg-is-life]

Long Loki rant incoming

Ok first things first I've always liked Loki a lot as a character but I don't consider myself a really really big fan mainly because I haven't read the comics. So all this rant is gonna be only about mcu loki and loki in the mcu has been written differently depending on the movie so yeah. And on that note let's go!!!!

So today I'm gonna talk about what I liked and what I didn't like about the Loki show. This is obviously just my opinion, you can disagree with me! I'd love to hear your opinions!

First I wanna talk about is the writing of Loki's character. So previously it has been established in the mcu that Loki doesn't do bad things just because he's a bad guy or because he wants power above everything else, but because after all the manipulation and lying he went through as a child, the abuse, always been seen as less than those around him and being taught to hate himself for who he was (a Jotun). He wants validation and being treated the same as the others, he doesn't really care about ruling or being king. His actions are a result of his trauma. So the show painting him as "He's a bad guy!! He's evil he can't help it it's in his nature!! He just wants to be king!!!" felt off to me since it completely goes against all the previous canon. Apart from that, I feel the show also erased other aspects of him that had always been essential to his character, such as him being very smart and always having a plan, and his powers (he BARELY used his powers throughout the season and he's supposed to be the best sorcerer in the nine realms. Please). So yeah there's that. I didn't absolutely despise his character in the show or anything like that, he generally seemed more happy and chill and that was good, I just felt some aspects of the character seemed inconsistent.

Apart from Loki, something I loved about the show were all the new characters that we were introduced to. Sylvie was absolutely fantastic, she had a well written tragic backstory, she had a goal and she had layers. She was a really well written character. Also she was just really cool overall, she had a cool personality and seeing her use her powers was very fun. (Sylvie your hand in marriage) (I guess I can talk about the "betrayal" now. So yeah not gonna lie I don't think it was that bad. She had a goal she had been pursuing her whole life and she obviously prioritized that before a guy who she met a few days ago. She did hurt him of course but still it's easy to understand her decision.) Mobius was also really cool, in the first episode I didn't like him much but I started liking him a lot later on. He's just a good guy, he wants to help people. (HE ONLY WANTED A JETSKI MARVEL). And I liked his story a lot, he was forced into working for the tva because his memories were erased and he was told what he was doing the right thing when killing all those people, but once he finds out all of it was false he immediately starts going against it and trying to help as many people as he can. Ravonna was also a good character (I keep saying all of them are good characters lol they're well written ok). Like okay she was a little bit evil but I liked her. I really liked her ambition and her confidence. I would have loved to know more about her life at the tva, because it seemed like because of her position she knew some things that most didn't. Hunter B15 was also really good, loved her character development. Casey only appeared in the first two eps but for some reason I liked him a lot idk why. Casey my beloved. Kang was mind-blowing good, he absolutely carried the episode. He was so fun to watch and a very interesting character. This is how you do villains Marvel. And then all the Loki variants were amazing. Classic Loki was great, he was more mature and wiser than the Loki we're used to watching and I felt really sad about his whole situation (aka trying and failing to find his brother because he missed him, getting pruned and then dying). Kid loki was a BLAST, I really liked the little funky dude and I would love to know more about his life. Boastful Loki didn't appear for long but I liked him a lot, he looked like a really funny guy I wish he had had more screen time. And then there was the Lokigator which was also great. President Loki was also cool (meaning he had the coolest outfit), but we didn't see much of him. I think that's a big problem with the show, because they made it seem like it was gonna be more about the other Loki variants and their timelines (that's what it seemed to me from the trailers) but then we barely got that. Sad shit.

Now let's talk about the writing of the show in general. The writers definitely went off with the philosophical conversations, I enjoyed them greatly (Loki's and Mobius' talk in the second ep and Loki's and Sylvie's talk in the third ep were amazing). Something I didn't like at all about the show (this is probably my biggest complaint) is that the writing of the show throughout the episodes didn't seem consistent, like each episode seemed to be a different genre, and that made the whole story feel weird. What I'm trying to say is: the first episode was about Loki learning more about his life and reflecting on why he does the things he does. There was more to the episode but it was mainly that. It was a very emotional episode. The second episode looked like a cop show, they investigated a crime scene in the beginning, they did some detectiving, they had a great breakthrough and found out were the villain was hiding in the end. The third episode was an action episode. It gave me the vibes of mid season episode that isn't too relevant to the plot in which the characters go on some short mission. The fourth episode I can't exactly categorize it I think it was kinda like episode 1 but with some more action. The fifth episode was also a mix, they had a lot of reflecting on Loki's character like in the first episode and then also some action. And the last episode was mostly just exposition and a tiny bit of action at the end, very philosophical and stuff. It also felt like in the first two episodes they were indicating that the show was gonna be about free will and good and evil but that kind of disappeared for a big part of the show. I'm trying so hard to explain myself well, I hope what I say makes sense. Now my opinion on the episodes, my favourites were definitely ep 1, 3 and 5 (haha odd numbers go brrrr). The pilot was absolutely amazing, and I loved the direction the show seemed to be taking (YES MARVEL explore his trauma mmmm that's some good shit right there). It was really emotional but like in a good way. The third episode was great. I think it balanced really well the action and the dialogue, seeing Loki and Sylvie going on their shenanigans, using their powers and fighting was really fun, and then the train talk scene was absolutely amazing (bi loki yay! Gonna talk about this later). The fifth episode was great mostly because seeing all the other Loki variants and how they contrasted between each other was fantastic and I loved it. I really hope we see more of the variants in the next season. The other eps, the second and fourth were okay, the one I think was the worst one was the last one. Damn that episode. It was a very slow episode. Thank god the guy who plays Kang was really good because otherwise the episode would have been impossible to watch. There was so much exposure but it felt like we already knew most of it? They talked about how multiple timelines existing was bad because chaos and stuff, and they talked about the war in which the different timelines battled each other. Ok we already knew this. I feel like the only important thing to take from that whole talk was that Kang's variants are very powerful and dangerous and they were introducing the villain to the mcu. The whole episode felt like instead of giving closure to the characters or ending some storylines, the main thing it was doing was introducing the concept of the multiverse for the next marvel movies.

Something that surprised me a lot about the show is how important it is for the mcu storyline. Like in the first episode they talked about how the tva (and of course Kang) was much more powerful than the Infinity Stones, when basically all previous marvel movies were about them and about their power. And then Kang was revealed to have created a sacred timeline, he controls absolutely everything that happens. All of this is so important and for some reason I didn't think the show was gonna be like this. Not that I'm complaining, this is great. And I feel like a lot of people are not realising how big it is? Like I don't see much talking about how this is literally the greatest power in the universe.

Damn this is getting long sorry.

I suppose I'll have to talk about it because it has been this big thing. I'm talking about the loki x sylvie pairing. I didn't like it too much, it felt a lot like the writers went "he's a guy she's a girl so they have to fall in love", like I felt they had a very different dynamic and when they said that I was mostly surprised and confused. Because they were variants of each other their romance felt weird to me, and the fact that they made a character genderfluid and then made a woman and a man version fall in love also rubbed me the wrong way (I'll talk about the genderfluidity later). I did like the mobius x loki pairing more, but still I don't think they should have got any romance this season, I feel like there has to be a lot more progress in that relationship before any romance. I generally feel like Loki should first start getting some friends and then later on we can start with romance. But yeah this is just my opinion. And all the drama and discourse there has been over this???? Some of you guys look ridiculous not gonna lie.

Ok now let's talk about representation. I'm not poc myself so I don't feel like I'm in the position to say if something was good or bad, so I'm not gonna talk about poc rep. The show did a good job with female characters, many of the main characters were women and they were very well-written, not sexualized and cast appropriately for their age (I can't believe I'm praising this, this should be the bare minimum. Why is media in general so bad. Like please just.) About the bi rep now. I'm sure that the writers or directors of the show had to fight really hard with marvel so that they could make loki canon bi, so yeah cheers to that guys good job. Obviously it's not enough, and I really hope his bisexuality is explored more later. But yeah we finally have a queer character in the mcu this is big. Now about the genderfluid rep. OOF. I have a lot to say about this. It was bad. Really bad. I don't know if they just don't know what genderfluid means but that's what it looks like after watching the show. Not only were all of the variants cis, but they also went on to say that Loki as a woman was a weird and uncommon thing. Oh my god. And what angers me the most is the fact that Marvel used the so called genderfluid confirmation to their benefit. They exploited so much that little piece of paper that said his sex (not even gender) was fluid. I saw SO MANY articles praising marvel for making him canon genderfluid, and then it was absolutely shit. Absolutely shit. Out of everything in the show this is definitely what I hate the most.

Gotta calm down now. The soundtrack of the show was amazing, the actual songs they used were perfect and then the music they composed for the show was just *chef's kiss* (i have no idea how they're called but the song that plays during the title sequence WHAT A BANGER and the one that plays when loki and mobius are looking at the whole tva from the balcony in the first ep WHAT A BANGER). The aesthetic of the show was also great, the colours were really pretty (Lamentis bi colours my beloved) and I think it had some really cool shots. The acting was great, I'm gonna highlight Kang because I thought he was amazing. The costumes and that stuff were also really cool, I really liked seeing all the different versions of outfits they gave to the Loki variants (if anyone is interested I made another post reviewing all the variants' outfits) and Kang's funky costume was great too. The design of the places and that stuff (I have no idea how to call these lol I'm trying so hard but I don't know any of the technical words) was great: Lamentis was really beautiful, the void was also very cool and the tva was really well designed.

Ok y'all I think this is it. I'm so sorry this is much longer than I expected and if anyone actually reads all of it i love you and PLEASE tell me your thoughts (if anyone wanna chat about the show with me privately send me a message!!! I love talking with y'all). A little final note, English is not my first language, nor my second, so yeah sorry if I can't explain myself well. Bye!!!!

[aot-snk-4238]

AOT No Requiem Fanfic Review Part 2

Disclaimer: I am not a supporter of ANR myself, so I knew that I probably wouldn't like most of what this fanfiction is putting out there. That being said, I decided to check it out anyway because I was interested in seeing what changes these people were planning on making. This review is not meant to bash the work or the team of artists and writers behind it. These are just my own personal opinions, and I will try to express them as professionally as I can without coming across as aggressive or rude, as that is not my intention.

After a four month hiatus, it looks like the popular fan fiction Attack On Titan No Requiem is back in action. I'm glad to hear that their creator is doing okay. Since this fan fiction covers the final three chapters, I'm splitting my review into three parts. The first one can be found here so if you haven't read it, you can check that out first. I kept it short and to the point and I intend to try and do that with the rest of these as well, so without further ado, here are my thoughts on the second installment of this short series:

This chapter opens up where the previous one left off, with a clash between Eren and Armin's ideologies, their discussion getting more heated by the minute. Armin still believes in a more peaceful way out of the situation that involves more talking and less bloodshed, whereas Eren sees no other options other than the path he is currently on. Fuming with anger now, Armin grabs Eren by the shirt and this is where the scene transitions to the rest of Eren and Historia's conversation from chapter 130. I still can't believe we were deprived of this in the canon universe, so I was interested to see if any of it would play out in a way that I wasn't already expecting. As it turns out, it did not. I was fully prepared for them to confirm or at least imply that Eren is the father of Historia's baby considering what theory this whole thing is based off of and that's exactly what happened. To their credit, they didn't make it as cheesy and overly-romantic as I was afraid they might, but it still could have used a bit more exposition and time to develop. I didn't care for what appeared to be a brief elopement scene in the woods, though. And was that supposed to be Floch officiating it? That's...just too weird for me. Sorry, but a secret wedding in the woods with Floch as the priest felt more like a joke to me rather than a serious event. I remember when most fans used to hate him, but that changed at some point and now he's quite popular. I can't tell if it's for the sake of memes or if people really had a change of heart. And just to be clear I have no issues with people liking him, I'm just a little confused as to how it came about. As for the whole pregnancy subplot in general, I don't think there's anything that can done to make me like it at this point. It came out of nowhere and it led to nowhere. It looks pretty clear to me that making Eren the baby father is the only solution that people can come up with to have it actually mean something and have relevance, which only serves as further proof to me that it never should have happened in the first place. Even if this team has something clever up their sleeve, I feel like there's only so much they can do to make it better, especially considering that they're only changing the last three chapters. To me, a much better handling of Historia post time-skip by Isayama would have involved giving her a chance to actually be queen and exploring her thoughts on Eren's actions and whether she would have allowed the Yeagerists to take over the island. We saw in the end that she did let them take over, but we're not clearly shown why. We also never found out why Eren was able to change her mind so suddenly regarding his plan and what made her decide to have a child. Not to mention that not once did we get to see her interact with the rest of the cast, which it doesn't look like will happen in this fan ending either. It was just her in that stupid chair and then the baby is born and that's it. I appreciate the AOTNR team's attempt to breathe some life back into her, but it still doesn't make up for all the missing screentime she had from chapter 90 onwards.

Moving on to the last part of this chapter, we see that after learning Eren's secret, Armin has had enough. He calls Eren a hypocrite for hiding what he did with Historia from everyone and how things could have been better if he just trusted them, but Eren is still unfazed. Armin asks Eren why he was brought back into Paths if it wasn't actually going to fix anything, and this is how the rest of the chapter plays out:

I like the way this cliffhanger is depicted. It shows Eren and Armin both as children this time facing each other, each with a determined look on their face while their adult faces shine in the background. It serves as a good visual representation of just how much things have changed between them since their early years and prepares the audience for a huge face-off outside of PATHS where everyone else is still trying to fight off Ymir's horde of ancient titans. Speaking of that, these two fan-made chapters have not given much focus to what's been going on on the outside, unlike Isayama's chapter 138. It looks like their three biggest priorities here are giving us Eren's POV, which we didn't get until the very end, Historia's POV, which we never got at all, and a final boost of character development for Armin. As a result, other important plot points are put on hold, such as what's next for Zeke and the rest of Eren's friends. This, paired with a lack of action sequences, causes the pacing to feel slow. Seeing where we are now, though, I'm assuming that it will pick up next chapter. And now that they've given Historia some much needed attention, I'm interested in seeing if they have any plans for Mikasa. There are a lot of people who strongly dislike her, so changing that perspective into something more positive looks like it's going to be a big challenge and I'll be very impressed if they pull it off. Overall, I thought this chapter was okay. It's very good for a fanfiction, though, and I'm glad that other people are enjoying it. I'll be grateful if it brings at least some level of peace to this fandom in the end, so until next time, thanks for reading ✌.

[purplerose244]

My thoughts on Ninjago the Island!!! 🏝🏝🏝

So, gotta be honest... this is not a Blind reaction thing, I actually watched it in French first so I know most of the stuff already 😅 It's entertaining, it got great animation, but nothing more than that in my opinion 🤷‍♀️

Still there is stuff I liked or I want to point out, and finally I'm seeing the English version so I can actually understand what the HECK they are saying 🤩

Alright, nothing else to say, here we go!

UNCHARTED

I haven't actually seen anything Clutch Powers related before Ninjago, is he always like this? I love that he is a jerk honestly, just wondering 😂

Press F for respect for intern Dwaine (at least he seems to like being... used?)

Clutch: It's just a bunch of rocks! It's not alive!

Totem: I'm about to end this man's whole career

Wait, Misako is part of the explorers club? ... that would have come in handy in season 11 to get the scroll of Forbitten Spinjitzu from the club instead of begging uncle Powers for it... *sighs* I don't mind plot holes in Ninjago like most fans I think, but if you wanna make Misako relevant again at least pay attention to the details 😅

Wow, after the end of season 13 I would've thought Wu was going to go through a midlife crisis, not Misako 😂😂

Oww, everytime I hear I get 😢 Bless your soul Kirby, always in our hearts 🖤🖤🖤

Well hello Brian

Always nice to see you 😊

Twitchy Tim must have been pretty interesting to voice 🤔 I like him enough, he's fun and all, maybe not at the level of the characters we got last season

Okay, the place is called the STORM belt, there are LIGHTNINGS, and the sand of the beach is BLUE. Are we gonna address any of these similarities to our Bluebell here or not? 😅

Wait, Tim was giving a hot air balloon tour, does that mean other people where with him? What of them? Are they dead? Did he let them die on the island?... am I reading too much into this? Probably 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Alright, the part of the boats? SO COOL 🤩🤩 I literally can't say anything bad about the animation at this point

Why did they think leaving Kai, Jay and Cole on one boat was going to be a good idea 😂 Also Zane just randomly doing sick tricks on his vehicle, love that nindroid

I'm guessing Nya is keeping her water abilities for her season 🤷‍♀️

Yep, yep, this is why the creators try to keep Pixal out of the adventures, with her everything is way too cool and easy to access to 😎😎

Twitchy Tim: There are statues that become alive!!

Lloyd:... so it's a season 2 stone army ripoff, we've seen worse

It's a cute episode overall 👍

THE KEEPERS OF THE AMULET

OKAY THE INTRO IS SO FREAKING COOL 🤩🤩🤩🤩

So Twitchy Tim has temporarily taken over Jay's role of spazzing out and complain about worse case scenarios... in another occasion they might have bonded over this, maybe 😂

Okay, survival position? MOOD

Nya: DRAGOOON 😱

Me: DRAGOOOOOOON 😍😍😍

Why am I not surprised that Jay was the one that named him Zippy? 💙 Also HE'S SO CUTE 💕💕💕 Love how in every adventure, we always get very different types of dragon in this show 👌 I'm a simple person, I see a dragon... 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩

Oh-oh, it's the "Lloyd's done with this crap"'s face

This means serious business... am I that used to LEGO characters that this way of crossing arms on the chest looks almost normal to me? 😅

Soooo, Master of the Mountain clearly gave Cole too much development... because now he got demoted to "the one who is always hungry" 🤦‍♀️ I'm all for Cole's endearing love for cakes, which is super relatable, but if you're gonna push it on his fun side, at least be coherent 🙃

Is it just me or it feels like the writing of this special was made by someone different from the one of season 13? Like, it's not bad, just less engaging and witty. For now. Maybe I'm being premature 🤷‍♀️

New way of nerfing powers, we got... weird, sucking power totem thingies... OKAY

My gosh I really can't say anything about the animation, look at that! It's all cinematic with such a light! YES!! 🤩

I'M SORRY

WHY ARE WE LOOKING OVER THIS??? IT LOOKS LIKE COLE'S LAVA PUNCHES BUT THEY ARE JAY LIGHTNING FEET??? IT'S A GREAT IDEA AND I WOULD LOVE TO SEE IT AGAIN??? WHY ARE WE IGNORING THIS??? 💙💙💙💙

So they at least addressed that lightning isn't a Jay's thing only anymore 😅

Alright, Jay having a mental breakdown because of a bridge because it always breaks, that's the Bluebell I know and love 😂😂 Nya telling him to keep moving was cute too 💙❤💙❤

Okay, I'm sorry but this really bothers me, what kind of lightning can instantly knock out the MASTER OF LIGHTNING??? Like, my gosh, really??? I hope they give us an explanation, like it's some sort of special lightning, because this really doesn't sit right with me. Jay is lightning proof, we've seen it in Skybound, we've seen it in Sons of Garmadon, I DON'T BELIEVE HE WOULD JUST BE KNOCKED OUT LIKE THAT 😡😡😡

Soooooo, storm amulet? Being one with the lightning? Is that the reason why Jay got to be the sacrifice? 😅

THE GIFT OF JAY

Alright, I am kinda looking forward for this one, what did Bluebell actually say or do to get him into trouble this time 😂😂

Oh, he just... introduced himself... well that was underwhelming

SENSEI👏YOU👏ARE👏A👏FREAKING👏GOD👏STOP👏GETTING👏KIDNAPPED👏BY👏RANDOM👏VILLAINS👏

Bring ooooon Lloyd Grills 💪

Okay I did like the little speech, definitely resonates with how Lloyd survived this long even though everything wanted him to give up, even his father... I'M NOT CRYING YOU'RE CRYING 😭

Jay out there making the real questions 😂

Awwww Edna used to call him gift of Jay? I can totally see it, so cute 💙💙 Makes even more sense if Libber actually left Jay at the Walkers' door...

Pff, Jay made the connection I would've done honestly 🤷‍♀️ Like, him being the master of lightning really didn't give these dudes any impression or inspiration? Any cool idea, full Road of El Dorado style? 🙃🙃

Lloyd out there abusing of the animation budget 💚💚💚

Somehow these ninja never actual sneak in, it's always a huge mess everyone knows about beforehand 😂 It's familiar though, I'm used to it and happy with it 👍

I might not be the biggest Misako fan, but you know what I am a fan of?

LEGO HUGS 😍😍😍😍😍

Dang it uncle Powers, you just got here to make a mess did you 😅

Not the first person of the fandom to say this, but Jay looks absolutely lovely with that flower crown 🌺🌺🌺

Oh poor greenie

Lloyd just has the worst luck 😓

Jay: Why would I be the gift?

Kai: Yeah who would want Jay?

Nya: Huh, me?? 😡

Got some very good Jaya for this little special, can't complain 💙❤💙❤

I mean, not matter how big of a snake Wojira might turn out to be, we've already seen the biggest and the second biggest snake of all so 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Whoa, at last... IT WAS THE FIRST SPINJITZU MASTER THAT HAD SOMETHING HE SHOULD'VE TOLD WU A LONG TIME AGO!! 😱 Wu, you got pulled a Wu, how does it feel? 😂

Again, Jay freaking out, kinda my jam it's too funny 💙💙

Wow Kai way to be hominous offscreen 👏👏 I miss talking about my flame babe, this really isn't his time 🤷‍♀️

THE TOOTH OF WOJIRA

So when I first watched this I was genuinely, really excited about knowing the truth behind all this. It turned out very different from what I first thought, but at least in this case it's okay (besides I was pushing with the lightning meaning just to see Libber again 😅😅😅)

I feel like the guys get their powers stolen or blocked so much it takes them a minute to remember "Oh wait I can literally burn my way out" 🤷‍♀️

SPINJITZU YAY 🤩

I... forgot that Misako knows how to fight 😅 She knows how to do spinjitzu too if I remember correctly...

NYA BEING LIKE "OUT OF THE WAY IMMA SAVE MY BOYFRIEND AGAIN" ❤💙❤💙

Gotta love how they were all crazy worried about Jay, like, this is something that never changes through the show. They really care so so much for each other 💕💕💕

Ooohhhh, okay, so Wojira does seem to be the main villain of next season according to the story. I remember Tommy saying that we needed to have faith and this is probably why. The special was okay, nothing too much, and hopefully that too much we will see in Nya's season 😍😍😍

What the- pff, I didn't notice this the first time 😂

At this point I can't tell if that one short with the chicken of the movie carried a hate or a love for chickens in the actual show 😂😂

Nice to see Jay standing up for himself at least for a little while 💪 Also Lloyd being "He's our trouble", aww family 💜

THERE IT IS

MY BRUISE HEART IS SOARING 🖤💙🖤💙

Gotta give props to the voice actors, voicing an explanation while fighting must be pretty hard! WE ARE BLESSED WITH AN AMAZING CAST!!! 🤩🤩🤩

And there he is, our favorite jerk... shaved Ronin 😂 He does look a little weird, but it's fair, new animation and all. Not the weirdest until now 🤷‍♀️

I genuinely had to make a mental check to see where we are with Ronin now, like, he started as a villain, then a partner, he betrayed us, became an ally, he hunted the ninja, then joined them, that timeline was erased, he was around in SoG and... wow this man is chaotic 😂😂

Yaaaay, Twitchy's last minute redemption act! Lloyd is too good at motivational speeches 👏👏

A bit of Lava OTP/BrOTP

Cause it's good for the heart ❤🖤❤🖤

Okay, Scooby doo reference, why not? Also honestly, I'm confident Ronin has seen A LOT of jails and prisons... probably won't stay behind bars for long 😅

Mammatus: sorry for imprisoning you and almost killing your friend

Kai: no biggie, that's how we make friends in this show

Alright the "And Clutch Powers" gag made me chuckle 😂 ... wait where is he- DANG IT UNCLE POWERS

Okay, this is the last time I say it I promise, but I mean. I MEAN

THE ANIMATION GUYS 😍😍😍

Aaaaand sensei you jinxed it 😅 But you apparently awakened Nya's season so I'm gonna forgive you on this one 😉

FINAL THOUGHTS

There are a few little details that bothered me a little, and it wasn't as exciting as I maybe hoped it was going to be, but it was fine. Enjoyable still. These characters make me like the show, even when it got nothing too impactful 🤷‍♀️

But I got triggered about that lightning thing with Jay 😅 I guess I'll just fanfic whatever I had in mind...

Don't have to repeat myself about the animation *chef's kiss*

The writing was really less engaging, a little normal in a way? Idk just a feeling. Nice to see Ronin again though, I really like him. And nice to see Jay freaking out, I really like that too 😂

To be honest I wanted to put down my thoughts on this one because I REALLY wanna do the same with Nya's season 🤩🤩 I already know that Maya is gonna be there and I am so HAPPY already!!! 💙💙💙

So that's it from me! Thank you for reading me ranting, see you next season! 😊