#now i just feel bad and selfish for pursuing something i care about

[astriiformes]

.

[lizzaneia-elizalde]

okaaaaaaay i think im now madly obsessed w yan player amor so what if barista reader noticed and slowly became uncomfortable w his uncannily nice advances and overly big tips and all that knowing he has quite the reputation? but i think that the gods also shot an arrow into my heart as i read abt yan player >< <33

Yandere! Male! Player x gn! Barista! Reader part 2

An order of Amor coming right up!

"He's here again."

One of your coworkers nudged your side, smirking at your deadpan face. "Aw, what's the face for? Aren't you happy that you got such an icon pursuing you?"

You want to gag.

Amor has been going here, everyday. Drinking the same coffee, eating the same cake. It's been like that to the point that you'll prepare the order beforehand.

He always come to the cafe at 7:30 in the morning, walk up to you and with that dumb smile on his handsome face, he would say "Hello darling. One order of caramel machiatto and a slice of red velvet please." And you would hand the order immediately just to minimize interaction.

But he would stay at the counter just to smile creepily at you.

It doesn't help that your coworker would gush about how lucky you are, how amazing it is to have THE Amor fawning over you.

But guess what, you didn't care. You wanted out.

And you made sure Amor knew about it.

You ignored him, always adamantly returning his ever so generous tips, and shooting him down whenever you had the chances.

On the other hand, Amor is getting quite... Pissed.

Why aren't you falling for him?

He made sure to wish for every person to fall for him in his next life, which is this current life. So why aren't you fawning over him? Even the god of love doesn't have an answer at all.

It was infuriating.

You were so close. So painfully near to his grasp but so far. You were like an unreachable dream to someone so selfish as him. Like a punishment for being so over himself.

But, he's the Amor. He gets what he wants.

So, begging to his family, throwing a quite embarrassing tantrum, he managed to...

"MOM! DAD!" You yelled at your parents as they stopped arguing. The dark circles below their eyes were a signal that something's wrong. Terribly wrong.

They looked at each other before your mother gave a pointed look at your dad.

"Do not tell them." Your mother seethed, but your dad groaned.

"They deserve to know!"

"But they don't live here anymore! They don't have anything to do with our debts!"

Debts? Your parents had debts?

You looked at them incredulously, not believing at what they're talking about right now. Your parents were pious, they never, ever had debts and always were good people. So what's with debts? And why haven't they paid it yet?

"Dad, mom, debts? You guys made sure to pay them always if you did get debts or favors or whatever." You raised your hands in disbelief. You had a bad feeling about this.

"It's just that, we somehow got debted to the Kim's." Your dad said, worried.

"Kim's?" You asked. "There's too many Kim's! Which?!"

Your gut feeling made you remember a certain playboy.

"You know, that Kpop idol Taejoon Kim. With his wife the miss Universe Alyssa Kim? Their son... Amor Kim."

Your eyes widened, a feeling of dread creeping up your back and making you shiver from the sudden chill. No way, right?

"How did you even get debted to them?" Your voice carried a humorless laugh that seeped out a bit of fear. Your parents looked at each other before your mom sighed.

"I work in that fancy hotel, right?" Your mother grimaced. "I apparently broke their pipeline? I swear I was only in the pipe system to investigate the rat problem but I bumped into a faulty pipe and now the whole hotel is flooded... That hotel was owned by Mrs. Kim..."

Your father fidgeted on the spot also, looking away.

"The company I work at, had this pipe system too, and as their main cleaning manager I manage the waterline. I thought I could fix the problem by myself... Ended up flooding the building also... Owned by Mr. Kim."

You shivered from the weird coincidence. Both pipelines? Really? How did that even happen?

"So? Both of you are going to pay for it?" You asked with a slight grit on your voice and they nodded.

They looked so defeated, it broke your heart into tiny smithereens. The anger flared up for Amor once more.

"Those rich people..." You seethed.

"It was our fault dear." Your mother cooed, hugging your frame. "I... I wasn't careful enough."

"Me too. I should have called for an expert." Your father frowned sadly.

You never felt so helpless in your entire life. If only there was a way to help them.

"How can I help..?"

This time, your parents froze and they coughed loudly, looking away.

Another bout of the twisted gut, you looked at them with worry in your eyes. "What is it?"

"I-it's nothing, dear." Your mother whispered, avoiding eye contact. "We will find a solution ourself."

"No! If I can help then I will!" You stepped up to them. Your body moving in order to meet their evasive eyes. "Please! Look at me! What is it?"

"Ah..." Your father looked at your mother before whispering something to your ear.

"No."

Goosebumps riddled your body as you froze from the sudden shock going through your form. "Marriage?! What is this?! The 17th century?!"

Your parents looked at each other before shrugging. "It's really weird, dear. There's so many other chaebols out there who's more rich than us. But why you? We're not rich at all."

The whole situation was so fishy.

And a flash of that lovesick look Amor slips through sometimes came up on your mind.

You're too smart for your own good.

You knew it was due to him.

You had enough.

You can't just let your parents suffer like this.

So, with a heavy heart and a defeated look, you held their hands and hugged them both. "Thank you for taking care of me for my whole life, mom and dad."

A loving whisper, and a touch affectionate, your parents knew of your plan. And they paled.

"No! Dear, this is not your burden to carry!" Your father shakily let out. "You... You have so much to live for!"

"Look at the bright side, dad! I will be... Uh, rich! We will be!" You reasoned, trying, scouring for the bright side to this situation. "It's okay dad. Rather than being homeless trying to find money to pay for such a huge debt. I would take this road for the both of you."

Your mother started to weep, and you inwardly died.

You can't believe Amor would stoop this low.

You don't even know him that well.

And as you, in an elaborate and extravagant wedding garment, reach your hand towards the extended ones of Amor, with that triumphant and obsessive look that you abhor, you cursed him inwardly.

You never stood a chance.

The gods are on his side after all.

You are now his, fully.

Now it's up to you if you want to make his life miserable, or melt into his arms.

[yanderes-galore]

Yandere Platonic Shadow the hedgehog(Boom) with reader being controlled by Lyric

I'm not familiar with Sonic Boom, but I watched cutscenes from Rise of Lyric and Shattered Crystal so hopefully that'll do?

Yandere! Platonic! Boom! Shadow with Darling controlled by Lyric

Pairing: Platonic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Violence, Overprotective behavior, Murder, Blood, Dubious companionship.

Well, if Shadow was mad when he found out Lyric was controlling him... he'd be even more mad if you were under his control too.

Boom! Shadow is probably the most aggressive version of Shadow I've seen.

He's blunt, aggressive, uncaring, and arrogant.

He disposes of anyone who gets in his way.

He's selfish and out of ant of the Boom characters, he may be the most likely to kill.

He lacks a general interest in anything and often acts calm when not pursuing a goal.

Shadow is independent and sees friendship as a weakness...

Despite this Shadow and you have managed to form something similar to a friendship with each other.

You allow him to do his own thing and he has soft spot towards you.

Shadow has also been shown to be vengeful.

He hates that Lyric controlled him and focuses on getting revenge for it.

That makes him bad enough.

But when he sees that very same mind control device on you?

Team Sonic notes that it looks like something snaps in Shadow when he sees such a thing.

Shadow always tries to downplay your friendship to others.

He feels he's superior to you like he is with Sonic, he doesn't care about friendship.

Yet he blows off such a facade the moment he sees you in such a state.

He wastes no time breaking off the device from your head and smashing and robots that come near you.

It's like there's a feral anger in his eyes when he walks away from the rubble.

You're stunned and surprised when Shadow stands over you.

He checks to see if anyone is looking before helping you up.

"Lyric did this to you, didn't he?"

You don't even need to answer, he already knows.

Shadow may not be the most caring character but he does check in on you.

He now has another reason to get revenge on Lyric.

Although before he leaves, he unexpectedly pulls you into a hug.

He's shaking in what you assume to be anger... yet it's also relief.

He's happy you're no longer controlled.

Shadow would hide you somewhere you can't be hurt before heading off to take on Lyric.

You can imagine that after you being hurt, not just Shadow, Lyric is in for a wild time.

I have a feeling Shadow isn't going to settle for just throwing the snake out of an airlock.

He plans to beat him to a pulp... he wants to stain his gloves in the blood of that snake...

He wants him dead.

Sonic may try to stop him, but Shadow pushes him aside.

No... Lyric will pay.

He will pay with his life.

By the time Shadow comes back, who knows what state he's in?

Maybe he comes back covered in blood?

You don't know if you want to ask what happened or not.

Does it make it any better when he tells you he took care of the issue for you?

His quills are covered in the stuff... his gloves are too...

His eyes... they stare into you with a cooling rage and... adoration.

"You're safe now."

His grin is smug... he's satisfied with what he's done.

You stare at him terrified.

"He can't hurt you anymore... you're lucky to have someone like me, aren't you?"

[skrewtiny]

Maybe it’s just me, buuuuuuuut…

Colby fits actually quite well as Seymour from Little Shop of Horrors

*i’m thinking more the Broadway(?) Musical, not the Film, but eh both really*

Behold… visualization, and then i’ll explain my thought process

Yes the Plant is not consistent in the two but i figured out how to draw the plant a bit more to my liking after the colored picture HHHHhhhhHHhhhH..anyway.

Major Spoilers for Little Shop of Horrors it’s inevitable i’m sorry—

*for those who aren’t familiar with Lsoh, it’s a ‘musical about a timid florist named Seymour who discovers a carnivorous plant called Audrey II(Which i’ve named Cassie II, for the sake of this), which brings him sudden success by attracting customers with its strange beauty, but at a terrible price as the plant demands increasingly gruesome sustenance, forcing Seymour to make dark choices to maintain his newfound fame and pursue his love interest, Audrey’, thanks Google lollll! Btw this is going to be kinda long so rip attention span-*

First off, we know Colby is a fan of Herbology, and i’d assume just plants in general, as well as i’d assume he knows quite a bit about them. So working at a Florist Shop and having Strange Plants as a hobby isn’t far off, in my opinion.

And then we get to the Plant itself. Frankly, sad as it might be, i do think Colby could be sweet-talked into feeding the plant the ‘gruesome’ things, given the correct incentive(this isn’t to say he absolutely would, but yk). In this case, it’s fame, wealth, wanting for absolutely nothing, and *cough* Cassandra to like him back *cough*.

If we think back to the ending of Playing with Dragons Fire, MC basically says/thinks ‘I’m glad Colby gets to be the center of attention for once’, or something similar. And yeah, Colby very much gets overshadowed by the company he keeps, pretty much wherever he goes. Whether it’s Fischer, Cassandra, or anyone else, really. He’s not the most eccentric, and doesn’t actively try to get the attention onto him, unlike…certain..brothers…of his..but given the offer to have that attention, to be known as a ‘Botanical Genius’ of sorts, to pretty much be a celebrity and have the love of hundreds- i think he would be tempted. Just add in the rest and it’s a done deal, really.

That, and the Plant being able to get him to do things isn’t really out of pocket or anything. Going back to the Black Lake Lullaby Q&A, it says:

"Oh, yes, definitely. Fischer's eyes are a slightly darker shade of mean. No? Okay, so maybe you can't tell the brothers apart by looking at them, but they do have different personalities. Fischer is the leader, more apt to draw his wand, and always eager to start a fight.

Colby is the sensitive soul who hesitates before casting that curse (sometimes) and would rather not get into trouble but has difficulty saying no to his brother.”

Now of course Fischer isn’t a carnivorous Plant, but the concept is the same. Colby has a bit of difficulty saying no, likely more so to those he cares about. And He’s been taking care of this Plant for quite some time, talks to the thing, affectionately calls it ‘Twoey’- and yeah i get it’s a plant and how close could he really be with it, but…still.

Not to mention, the first k!ll the Plant suggests is Audrey’s very(TW) Abusive and Toxic boyfriend, whom Seymour/Colby already very much dislikes for what he does to Audrey, and he really wants to help her out of the Relationship so she doesn’t get hurt. Using that as a manipulation tactic to get him to give in, the Plant has a good chance. After all, ‘How bad could it really be, that the jerk’s gone’(i forget the actual quote but it’s something along those lines).

And of course, Colby would eventually come to his senses and feel guilty, what with the things he did just to keep the Plant alive and thus keep his selfish fame ongoing. That would absolutely drive him crazy, and i think he would decide to quit feeding the plant, leaving it to d!e even at the cost of success. But the one cost he realizes he can’t well live with, is losing Cassandra/Audrey. He believes she only realized she liked him because of the fame and success, and is afraid to lose that. So he can’t stop, can he…? No.

That mindset ends quickly however when the Plant tries to eat the Girl, in which his resolve quickly hardens and he would indeed attempt to chop the plant to pieces.

In the Broadway(?) Musical i’m pretty sure he does not succeed, but in the Movie he does…so, yeah. That’s fun.

So yeah! Those are my thoughts, sorry i’m bad at explaining my thoughts, i hope that was coherent and made some sliver of sense!

Quite a bit of it is likely headcanon and it might not line up with yall’s view of him, but yeah this is just me :>

*P.S. Cassandra does NOT fit Audrey whatsoever, but she is Colby’s canon crush, so i can pretend……..also here’s that snipped from the Q&A(on the Wiki cuz the actual Q&A is gone), i don’t want to say things are canon without proof, which is ALSO probably just a me thing, but yeah :D*

[vampiric-transsexual]

I’ve got a bit of a theory brewing in my noggin regarding the Guide. I’m placing bets that the Guide’s storyline points towards her villain arc. Hear me out-

In season 3 the Guide is appointed to assist the new leaders of the Vampiric Council, our Staten Island vampires. She has been an underling for the vampiric council for centuries and manages the Temple of Blood-Devourers.

She has followed the orders of many legendary councils, "the best of the best" as she refers to them. Now she is in the hands of a group of vampires who do not care about the rules and who violate the vampiric code by which they live at every turn. But she is required to help them and so she does.

In season 4, she quickly finds that she cannot control them. Laszlo and Colin destroy artifacts from the Chamber of Curiosities. Nandor and Nadja neglect to feed the sire and he escapes. She oversaw the sacred reliquary for hundreds of years and they dismantled all of it in a matter of weeks. Then Nadja suggests they turn the whole place into a bar. She is completely opposed to this idea and only comes around when Nadja tells the Guide that the liquidator of underlings of the Supreme Worldwide Vampiric Council, Lord Tyractus (?), said that it would be better used as a bar.

This is of course a lie but the Guide cares what the Supreme Vampiric Council thinks of her and her dedicated work. So, she agrees to the bar. She can’t get her wraiths to help with converting the space into a bar because “they know what her heart really wants”. To help get through this mental block, Laszlo books her for a therapy session. That’s where we discover her history of falling in love with a Van Helsing. (I would also like to point out that the picture of the Guide with the Van Helsing in her flashback is the same one we see in the open credits for season 5) Her form of punishment is to serve the Vampiric Council as an underling for eternity. She explicitly tells Laszlo in her therapy session that “if anything gets changed here something very bad will happen.” Could this be hinting towards some greater power beyond her control?

Finally they are able to gut the chambers for Nadja’s bar. Nadja treats the Guide and her wraiths so poorly the whole time. Despite all this, she sticks by Nadja’s side. She does her best to fulfill her duties despite their constant mistreatment.

We learn in the beginning of season 5 that she is once again left waiting at the Vampiric Council. At this point she has mostly given up on trying to make them follow the legacy of the vampiric council. So instead, she pursues respect and admiration from the vampires. But she cannot make her way into the clique.

She wants to live with them, but they make up a fake excuse about there being zoning rules that limit four vampires to a house. Then she tries to support a depressed Nadja after the bar burned down from the fire Nadja started. The guide can’t get through to her, so she suggests maybe it is a hex. She asks Nadja if she has been unkind to anyone in her past. Nadja is in denial that she could have possibly hurt anyone, let alone the Guide.

The Guide knows witchcraft, so it would make sense that she placed this “hex” on Nadja. But is the hex even real? Or did the Guide just say that to scare Nadja into realizing her own selfish behaviors?

Now the Roast is where we see things shift for the Guide.

At the roast she tells Baron that Guillermo was the one who set him on fire, because she felt bad that he wasn’t in on the joke. She mentions how bad it feels to not feel included. But then she also tells the Baron that Guillermo is a Van Helsing. This I believe is purposeful.

They have neglected her, given her nothing to actually guide, and left her aimless. She ends up apologizing and admitting to Nandor and Nadja that she told the Baron that Guillermo burned him. But she purposefully leaves out that she told the Baron about Guillermo's Van Helsing blood, too.

In the end, she is an underling for the Vampiric Council. She will not risk everything for these vampires, because her loyalties lie with the Supreme Vampiric Council. I am theorizing that she may end up selling Guillermo out to show her loyalty to the Supreme Vampiric Council and as a way of getting some revenge on the vamps for how they’ve mistreated her. I believe it’s possible she could be working with this “mysterious, illustrious” vampire (possibly part of the Supreme Vampiric Council?) to lure Guillermo into a trap.

In the screen capture for the 9th episode, we see Guillermo and the Guide standing next to each other. I don’t believe the Guide has any good intentions towards Guillermo after seeing how she betrayed him by telling the Baron about his slayer blood.

I mean there’s only so long someone can put up with being left out of a friend group and being unappreciated.

Addition:

I mean, the Guide has barely been a part of the last few episodes. They added her to the main cast/opening credits but her character's only story so far is that she wants to be roomies with the vampires. She made no progress in her own story up until the Roast. She took matters into her own hands by divulging Guillermo's secrets.. and if she continues in that direction then she could very well become the villian. It just doesn't make sense to have so little story for a main cast member. They have to be taking a big jump with her character in these last two episodes. Otherwise the whole Nadja and Guide subplot will fall completely flat. And imagine Nadja's surprise when she finds out that the Guide was behind the hex?

[casual-praxis]

May I present the post-canon vidow in my genderbent au?

They've been through character development, but at least they still have each other! :)

I think about them a lot. I have more ramblings about them below the cut if anyone is interested in that.

The genderbent au is something I cobbled together originally because I have an easier time drawing women, but I didn't do anything with it since it was mostly just the Four Swords manga with girls instead.

Now that I have had time to think about it though, I've made a few more adjustments so it's not just a carbon copy. The bulk of changes happen with Red and Blue, but Vio and Shadow definitely have the most going on post-canon, which you can somewhat see here.

After Shadow dies, Vio spends a year or two without much purpose. She didn't have any goals or aspirations like the others. She barely knew how to process feelings beyond the basics. So now that they'd defeated the big bad, returned the sword, and miraculously not disappeared, what was left for her?

All the others seemed to pick up loose ends left behind by the original Link; Green became the personal guard of Zelda, Blue was working her way towards captain of the royal guard, and Red was pursuing blacksmithing (something Link had found interesting but had no time to dabble with). There wasn't much else left for Vio, and so she simply kept on as she had before. Learning emotions from the others, absorbing information regardless of utility, and waiting.

It wasn't until Zelda approached her with the request to investigate some ruins that she began to find a calling for herself. None of the others could be pulled away for this task, and that was fine. They were all busy with their own lives. She could read between the lines.

The dark and ancient air of the underground passages was oddly comforting to her anyway, and she found her time never wasted when transcribing olden words near faded to parchment. It felt refreshing, in a way, to be so enraptured by the secrets carved in stone.

Had she ever felt such a way before? She must have. Recognizing how she was feeling was something Red had been most thorough in teaching her. So when had she... Oh.

Vio hadn't thought of Shadow in a while. She tried not to, really. Her death had been the first time she'd truly had to grapple with the notion that someday, you'll have your last conversation with someone.

No matter how much you enjoy that person's company, or how much you wish you'd said something different. Someday, you'll say your last words to someone, and that will be that.

It was sad.

She wished she could cry. She wished she could grieve properly. The belief she couldn't feel these emotions was what got her in that mess to begin with. She did feel sad. She just couldn't express it.

More than anything, she wished she'd told Shadow that.

If only she had told her with those stupid words Vio touted so proudly above emotion. Maybe then Shadow wouldn't have died staring up into Vio's cold dry eyes and blank expression. Maybe then she would have known how Vio felt.

But she didn't.

And there was nothing in the world of light that could change that.

So she'd turned to the dark.

One more conversation is all she wanted, and then one more conversation after that. Call it selfish if you would, but she didn't care, she was selfishness embodied after all. She'd trade her listless life for the one who'd had hers cut tragically short if that's what it took.

Even if she can't emote well, or speak the way she feels, she'll show Shadow how much her friendship meant to her, no matter what.

And thus, Vio's dark magic arc began.

While already attund to earth magic, dark magic was a difficult secondary type to pick up. It was finicky and liable to kill its caster with litte warning, so much of the early process was spent learning theory over practice.

The others thought little of it at first, simply figuring it was more miscellaneous research tied to Vio's sudden interest in forgotten ruins and text. It wasn't until Green stumbled across Vio casually casting it did they start to ask more questions about why she was looking into forbidden magic. Surely this wasn't actually her hobby, right?

Well, yes and no. Her magic studies were begining to branch out into less devious arts (much to Red's delight, "magic besties!!"), but ultimatly it served a purpose to her outside being a fun challange. She was going to resurect Shadow.

Green and Blue, as expected, were incredibly hesitant about the idea. Meanwhile Red was more optimistically on the fence. None of them wanted to outright discourage Vio, but none of them had really known Shadow the way Vio had. Who's to say she wouldn't just go right back to being evil? One sacrifice in the grand scheme of things didn't suddenly vouch for a life on the straight and narrow.

In the end, it was Zelda's call to let Vio continue her studies (with Zelda's assistance) to bring Shadow back. Should she turn out to still be evil, they'd just shoot her with a light arrow or something. Zelda really wasn't that worried about it, she knew Shadow could be convinced to see reason.

This all culminated in a few years of study, a giant mirror, blood rituals, and Vio literally dragging Shadow out of said giant mirror.

Vio's arm, which she'd used to pull Shadow out, was irrevocably stained by the dark magic, and will presumably remain this way until she dies. Small sacrifices, in her opinion. She's able to cast way stronger spells with it now.

Shadow, meanwhile, was coated completely in the dark magic of the ritual mirror, and bares the stains all over her body. She'd remained in somewhat of a limbo state after death, floating in eternal darkness up until Vio reached in to pull her out.

She was actually feeling a little petty when she noticed Vio attempting to reach her and intentionally didn't take her hand right away. This quickly changed however once she realized Vio was going to keep leaning further into the mirror until she either fell in or found Shadow, hence why the dark stains go so far up Vio's arm.

Though technically dead, Shadow did remain aging along with the others, on account of being their shadow. She was thrown for a loop initially by being brought back by an older-looking Vio with a wider range of emotions, but she bounced back quick.

After a year or so in the light world, she managed to adjust to life amongst the colors and Zelda. She's unofficially officially Zelda's "fun advisor", and makes her and Green take breaks whenever it seems like they need enrichment and time away from work. She spars with Blue to keep both their skills up, while also just hanging out and intimidating new recruits for the hell of it. She and Red gossip about town drama and only occasionally commit arson with Red's newest projects at the time. Lots of fun.

Shadow and Vio start off as just friends, trying to rebuild their relationship in a less back-stabby way, but quickly realize their feelings run a lot deeper than that. They travel together a lot, but Shadow's role as Zelda's advisor always brings them back to town after too long. Shadow's still getting used to Vio's more obvious shows of affection, as it was never something Vio did before, but she's found the change to be exhilarating. They are sickly sweet together.

I have more notes on these two but I didn't mean for this post to get this long and the sun has risen in the time I spent writing it all out why am I like this. If anyone has stuck around and read all this, thank you! I love to ramble about my fixations and it makes me happy when people listen! I appreciate it.

Bonus: Isolated Shadow and Vio.

[bird-inacage]

Only Friends: Sand's First Display of 'Messy' Behaviour

I'll preface this by saying I adore this man, and he's probably been the least problematic individual out of the Self-Proclaimed Friendship Circus. However, what left me with a chill was how Sand behaved when he revealed the affair to Ray.

Since we've been introduced to Sand, I think many of us have been pretty relieved by his largely green flag behaviour (in the midst of a very low bar being set in this group). This has often had me wondering what Sand's wider arc is going to be. The writers are not going to keep his storyline on one setting the whole way through. Therefore it's natural to anticipate we will be given another side to Sand - perhaps a less sympathetic or irrational part of his character. And maybe this was our first inkling into Sand's imperfections. He's also prone to vengeance and acting with an ulterior motive in mind.

Why it left me feeling so uncomfortable is because we haven't seen Sand in this light before. His score card has been pretty blemish-free.

Fuelled by a Vendetta

Nick shared this knowledge with Sand a while ago. However what triggered Sand to do something about it now was his confrontation with Top. We don't yet know what the circumstances were behind Top stealing Sand's ex from him, and how that played out. But it's evidently a sore grudge that Sand still very much holds against him.

Seeing Top again reminded Sand of the information he has at his disposal which could be used to teach Top a lesson. Sand is a very righteous person, and he doesn't think it's fair that someone should ruin his previous relationship, and now get what he wants with Mew as well. He wants Top to be punished. 'You're going to get what's coming to you, just wait'. It's possible that Sand didn't have the resources or means to get back at Top back then. But now he sees an opportunity to do so.

Combined with the fact that Sand has recently discovered that Ray loves Mew, this provides him with the perfect excuse for passing this information on. One, because as an outsider of their group, this can't come directly from him. Two, he knows based on Ray's temperament and his feelings for Mew, he'll be guaranteed to act.

Motivated by Selflessness or Selfishness?

I was originally going to post a deep dive on the scene between Ray and Sand at the bar, but I found myself constantly yo-yoing and ultimately undecided as to whether Sand's intentions were good or bad.

On the one hand, he's sharing this because he knows Ray will reveal the affair and Top will suffer the consequences. Thus, satisfying an act of indirect revenge.

On the other hand, he could also be doing this (as he so claims) due to his sense of righteousness. He just can't bear bad people getting away with bad things. And perhaps he does genuinely see Mew as a innocent victim here, and wants him to expose Top for who he is.

What also had me conflicted is that 'breaking' up Mew and Top doesn't play to Sand's interests. If Sand is romantically invested in Ray, and Mew becomes single again, this would allow Ray to continue pursuing Mew, which means Sand loses out. This is plausible if you're fuelled by unconditional love and a desire to see the person you love be happy. But I'm not entirely convinced that is the case here either.

You can also argue that Sand is 'using' Ray in this instance to achieve his objective, which is very questionable. He knows what a loose cannon Ray can be. Either he didn't think too much about the possible repercussions of how Ray would react, or he didn't care as long as Top got what he deserved. I don't think by any means Sand wishes to cause Ray any harm, but something really primal seemed to drive Sand to do this regardless of how Ray may be affected as the messenger.

So I don't know if I've decided yet. It could be a mix of all the above. This did seem to veer more on petty vengeance under the guise of righteousness. Mainly due to how Sand looks at Ray in that entire scene, which felt slightly manipulative and cold compared to how he usually has been with Ray. Especially when he says, "Mew is lucky though to have you by his side." It's almost with pinpoint precision that Sand triggers an image in Ray, to be the saviour swooping in to protect Mew.

All in all, I found Sand's behaviour this episode to be highly intriguing and unexpected. I saw a clip of First talking at an event recently, where he says something along the lines of 'when you see Sand do this, please forgive him', which implies there will be some further questionable or inexplicable behaviour later on potentially. Hmn.

[fantasygerard2000]

Hypocrisy in WISH Criticism

Wish is one of those types of pieces of media where people talk more about its reputation than the actual film itself. Mainly due to its reputation for being a "letdown" of a movie meant to celebrate Disney's centennial anniversary. However, what they meant by "letdown" is a complicated matter as most of the vocal complaints about this movie are over a version of a character that was scrapped.

Now, the legit genuine criticism I get towards this film is that it's half baked. I myself even wrote down the things I thought that would refine this movie.

I get why most people ended up not liking it. I get why the songs don't fit. I get why certain characters missed the mark. I also get why they made questionable choices.

However, what I don't get is why they think Asha's is the bad guy and Magnifico's is the real hero. Why this film needed a villain couple. Or why fangirls think a glowing Jack Frost recolor could've saved this movie.

But I already know why, and they're I do not something agree with.

Starting with...

The Villainization of Asha

Asha's character is quite frowned upon by most critics. She labeled as another quirky girl and that her motivations are flawed. This is just a surface level reading by morons who couldn't look pass her "quirks" which are actually few and far between.

The only moments where she's quirky is during her interview with Magnifico, her meeting with Star and her attempting to use an improve wand Star gave her. And she isn't all that quirky, nor were the heroines before her. They just act excited, make goofy faces, get all awkward.

I get that people were tired of these kind of main character, but she's more than just being quirky. She's determined, passionate, idealistic, selfless. She cares deeply about her community and the people she's close to and love. It's why she cares about wanting the wishes returned (emphasis on RETURN, not granted) because she sees how unfair it is for someone to live a life without feeling complete. She sees how people can achieve their dreams and greatness desire if they try to pursue them. It's literally in her song, "To have something more than this". Ironic given that "fans" want something more than a mid movie but literally missed this major factor about her character and the film's message.

Her motivation to return the wishes is greatly misunderstood as her being selfish. Selfish, for what exactly? She has no ulterior motives nor goals that are self centered. Sure, she ended up becoming a magic user and granter of wishes in Magnifico's place, but she initially refused the position. I get why the film's message says they don't need magic for wishes to come true, but Asha being made into a fairy godmother is so she can do what Magnifico should've done in the first place; safely granting the wishes by helping them pursue them. Asha's sole motivation is to help others. It's why she applied to be Magnifico's assistant apprentice.

But why are these motivations to help others are being read as "selfish"? I'd probably say racism but that's just too easy. Instead, it's more likely deliberate ignorance. Asha came across has "annoying" to some people, didn't payed attention to her motives cuz they're too fumed over her being "quirky" and misread them as her being an idiot whose gonna destroy Rosas.

One has to to be this stupid to actually accept that this wasn't accidental. The writers are not that dumb to actually wrote this in. Anything that comes across as slightly accidental is branded as deliberate by media illiterate asshats.

Magnifico Almighty

Magnifico may be a (hot) mess of a villain but "complicated" he is not. Well, he sorta is but this complication is the result of vagueness. And people tend to use vagueness as an opportunity to either make stuff or obscuring major factors, like his right to rule Rosas.

Magnifico is split by critics either as "a tragic hero who once swore to protect his people" and "MANIACAL POWER HUNGRY TRYANT", which are separate things. I can see why they think this is the case and how that makes him an ineffective villain but, they ignore the part where Magnifico has always been shady.

From the introduction song, Asha addresses that people forget what their wishes were once they give them to Magnifico. That's initially seem as a good thing until she figures out that taking away people's memories of their greatest desire means they have no motivation to pursue it. This is the equivalent of taking away someone's necessities to access a more fulfilling life happier without them knowing.

Magnifico created a system that mostly benefits himself by having people rely on him to have their dreams fulfilled without knowing when he will are what they are.

"But, what about him swearing to protect the wishes?" I hear you say. He uses that as an excuse to keep them. He even breaks that promise by breaking Sakina's wish as punishment to Asha and finding that crushes and finding out absorbing the wishes gives him more power. He even falsely promised his subjects that once he has Star, he'll grant their wishes, basically contradicting his alleged belief that the wishes should not be granted.

Even his backstory is no justification for his actions. A recent trend of "tragic villains" have been criticized for being more prevalent in media. Even characters who aren't even villains are branded as such. An even understandable complaint is that they are being redeemed in spite of their crimes. And that's essentially what Magnifico's simps are doing. Pardoning his atrocities because he's a tragic sad handsome white baby who "only wanted to protect his people", ignoring the part where he inslaved them once he has enough before to no longer rely on them.

I initially see Magnifico as a bad guy who thinks he's a goof guy, a unique take for Disney villain. But after rewatching and negating claims that he's a good guy, I see him as a once good intentioned man who's paranoid about losing control and wants to remain in control by be seeking more power.

The people who think he sucks as a villain just don't know what a villain is anymore. They even bill characters who are accurately described as antagonists as villains and even characters who only briefly act antagonistic at the climax as villains. Hell, they think Alma, Ming and Anxiety are villains while Magnifico is not.

Tropes Are Not Your Friends

Wish gets flack for not having its own identity because it relies too much on referencing the previous well known Disney films. I find this criticism rather dumb, largely because Wish was deliberately made to be an homage to those films.

And despite what people say, Disney's older and more well known films, especially the Princess ones were the subject of poorly misinterpreted online criticism. The same kind of criticism Wish is getting today. Princesses being misinterpreted as damsels waiting for a prince, villains being the true heroes because they're gay icons (which I find iffy given that what they are saying is that gay people are evil) and the princes having no personality.

Now, despite what people think that Disney does not pay attention to these "critics" they do listen to their complaints, hence why their recent films deviate from the formula. Frozen subverted the "true love's kiss" as an "act of true love", the act being Anna saving Elsa from Hans. The reason why the trolls and us the audience think the act is a kiss because that's what we expect from Disney. And despite what people say about Hans not being a good villain, he is known for subverting the prince charming trope.

Magnifico is kind of like Hans. Kings in Disney movies are always expected to be the big good like Triton and Sultan, however, he subverts this by being the villain.

Asha, despite not being princess by blood or marriage, is often treated as one by both fans and detractors. Complaints about how she should not wear the color purple is mute, mainly she's not even part of the brand but also she's made as a not to heroines long before the Princess brand was made.

Even tho I have written numerous post about my disinterest and annoyance about fan rewrites and how they tend to be the same but with minor differences, there's this "vibe" about how they made Wish more blander than it already is.

Now, it's no secret like Wish as is even I get it's "fine", but adding in stuff like a love interest would not only make things too cluttered, but would be very unnecessary to its premise and themes.

You see, Wish's message is about encouraging people to try and pursue their own dreams instead of relying on a system and waiting. Adding in a love interest for Asha would be a very unnecessary addition because she has to try to free and return the wishes while falling in love. It's a fine concept on paper, but on execution? This film has a short runtime and if even given an extra few minutes this romance would feel rush.

People tend to use Tangled as an example as it is the last fairy tale princess film with romance as a major plot point, with Rapunzel and Eugene finding out they can start a new dream together. The thing here is that Tangled is conditioned to have a romance because it's original fairy tale has the two main characters fall in love and marry at the end. A lot of Disney's princess films are like this. Even Frozen despite its original fairy tale not having a traditional love interest, except in cases where Gerda and Kai aren't siblings (Elsa is a composite of Kai and the Snow Queen btw so you're welcome for that information), Anna and Kristoff fall in love because it's expected for them to be. And that's why Kristoff's subplot in the sequel is ass.

Wish is not based on an existing fairy tale but is inspired after films that were adaptations of them. The creators could have chose to make a different film and have it be a fairytale romance, but they choose not to. Because they intend to make a film with a different premise.

Animation Fandom's Hypocrisy

Even though this journal is about Wish, a major factor why it's rated as the "worst" Disney film is largely because of this unhealthy competitive mindset audiences have.

There's this claim that's spread around about how they want an original hand drawn animated film. A claim that's dubious over the fact that they complain film companies making sequels and reboots that rely on nostalgia baiting more than they do watching those films.

This also brings up how animators are being disregarded on the matter. When a show is cancelled, they complain about they won't get to see more of it while the animators are over there struggling to find other projects to work on. Crunch is a real issue in both mainstream and indie industries.

Even if you give that an original animated hand drawn film like the described, they say "we want better". They are moving the goal post. They don't actually want an original film, what they want is a film similar to the ones they already seen.

The claim that they want original hand drawn films is a lie the moment they got angry The Boy and the Heron won the Oscar over Across the Spider-verse. The Boy and the Heron is an original animated film made by a well known an respected animator while Across the Spider-verse is a sequel.

This isn't the first time this behavior was on full display. They have this pathetic feud between Puss and Boots: The Last Wish and Turning Red. The Last Wish being a sequel no one asked for but love it so much they compare other films after it as inferior. There are also these dumb tiktok/shorts comparing Disney and Dreamworks, with clips literally showing gay characters on Disney's side while villains are shown on Dreamworks' side. I find this rather immature because these kinds of fans thinking maturity is about cool villains and fight scenes. But no, maturity does not equate to death and sex jokes. Disney's maturity are all thematically while Dreamworks' maturity is all visually.

Disney's previous recent films mature have mature elements. Encanto is literally about a woman's trauma of losing her husband and the effect it has to her family. Soul was about existentialism and living life to the fullest. Turning Red is about breaking the cycle of unhealthy parenting. These are all mature themes but because Disney is the punching bag for things unrelated to these films, they are considered inferior to true art.

I refuse the reality that there's "peak fiction". Because what peak fiction is a piece of media you really really like and want others to be like it.

[thankshermin]

About Beast!Dazai and His Strategies Backfiring

It backfired so bad he ended up offing himself so I have to talk about it a little. I might be a little biased because I've been crying to Beast for like two years now and I can't be consoled.

Look... Beast!Dazai makes me want to cry hysterically, just like most things about Beast, but one thing especially strikes. 

Literally, NO ONE liked him and that was not what he wanted, at all he was not cool with this but there was nothing he could do about it.

He did every little shitty thing purely out of his selfish wishes– he wanted to be loved, particularly by Oda. So he thought he could do whatever he wanted because he knew he had/has people who cared/cares about him in the other universes. He was paying special attention to Oda because they couldn’t be both alive and well and friends in any other universe. He thought that the other bonds he had with other people would just happen someday and that it was a package deal. 

But he did NOT put any effort into that. Therefore, no one likes him. In fact, I'd say lots of characters dislike Beast!Dazai strongly. 

(and I can't even blame them because Dazai was an asshole for the whole light novel,,, if you want people to care about you YOU have to show them that, Dazai, I'm sorry no one taught you that you are so tragically unaware of everything it makes me sad) 

Still... he didn’t want it to turn that way. The thing I'd like to see more people mentioning is the fact that Beast!Dazai is a very emotionally driven character. He might be the Boss of the Mafia but that doesn't automatically mean he can't be highly emotional. He acted the way he did because he tried to pursue something he wanted, not because it was necessary for the Port Mafia. 

...Says the Boss himself.

While the mafia is obviously powerful as hell in Beast, it is still sad because... well, still no one likes the boss so what is even the point of being the leader. (I’m aware Mori is also not loved among most of the characters but it’s not his turn yet so just ignore him.) 

And I’m always telling people this but what makes me like (canon) Dazai’s character is the fact that he is constantly trying. He is not the best person out there but hey he is improving, okay? And that’s what matters to me. I love it when characters show development, whether it’s towards the good or bad side. 

What draws the line between Canon and Beast Dazai’s is that Canon!Dazai has people who care about his well-being (I'm not arguing about this with anybody but just in case if you want examples; Atsushi, Kunikida, the whole ADA actually, Chuuya, Ango, even Mori and i can still go on) and that he is learning from his mistake whileBeast!Dazai had never tried to change and just did whatever he wanted and now, surprise surprise, no one likes him. 

TL;DR: I feel so bad for Beast!Dazai I wish he didn’t constantly harm those around him and instead made some friends. His small conversation at the bar with Oda speaks volumes.

He was so happy that his eyes were glowing because he finally found someone he thought would be the #1 best friend in the world (yeah how did that feel when you got a gun pointed at you, Dazai? Turns out you don't automatically become friends with the person who has a valid reason to hate you.) 

Anyway thx for reading my rambling I have to go back to study biology for now.

[something-about-sunflowers]

I kinda feel like too many people aren't looking at the whole picture with Guillermo and Nandor/his family this season?

Guillermo knows, to a certain extent, that it's hurting Nandor that he's avoiding him. He just can't not avoid him because of the whole 'secretly turned by another vampire and Nandor will have to kill him then himself for the sake of his bruised honor/ego' thing.

Guillermo is also hurting though. His attempt to take some agency for himself by actively pursuing something he's wanted since before he even met Nandor has massively backfired on him in every possible way he couldn't even begin to expect. He didn't know he'd have a Weird Transformation. He didn't know there was some taboo for having another vampire turn him as Nandor's familiar (and he's not actually Nandor's familiar anymore anyway, technically, they're all just dumb and forgot that fact). He, comparatively, only recently found out about the whole Van Helsing thing and that his family can't control themselves around vampires (though I feel like it probably will be different with their Memo, if we're being honest), so he very likely thought for most of his time waiting for Nandor to turn him that he'd still be able to see them occasionally and get/give closure over a longer period of time before he had to stop seeing them when it became obvious he wasn't aging like they were.

He does care about his mom, yall, did you miss him breaking down in the elevator or were you just distracted by him breaking the hand-rail? He's just been very preoccupied with a whole lot of drama (Which he complained about! He told Nandor how upset he was that the wedding and Baby Colin were keeping him too busy to see his family! The end of season 4 was days before the start of season 5.) and an extreme life change. He's an adult. That kind of shit happens when you're an adult (granted, his situation is significantly more fantastical given the whole vampires thing but still). Sometimes you get caught up in your adult life and you miss your mom's birthday. Sometimes you make a big life change that you think is what's best for you and it means you won't be able to be as close to your family. Yes. It's selfish of him - to an extent - but for fuck's sake you can't live your life for other people, even - especially, in some cases - if those people are your family. I'm kind of appalled at people saying that he's deserving to feel bad and rejected because he made a choice for himself. Do you think his mom is blaming him as harshly as some of you are? No! The first thing she asked him was 'are you happy with this change?' She cares about her son's happiness. He's not entirely in the right but fuck do yall know how to do anything but swing hard in the other direction? There's grey areas! All in the middle! Right there, look!!

And then on top of him already being extremely emotionally compromised from reckoning with having to leave his family behind, on top of the already 'emotionally difficult' avoiding Nandor for both of their sakes, he gets another big rejection in his own home from the people he cares most about. I don't know if Nandor noticed that his rejection hurt Guillermo. He's dumb but I really don't know if he's that dumb. He's been able to recognize in the past when he's hurt Guillermo so I don't see why he couldn't now. Are yall gonna blame Memo for feeling bad if Nandor decides to do something to try and win him back or cheer him up? Or if Nandor is upset/worried about having hurt Guillermo?

I don't really know where I'm going with this anymore lmao. My point is: Yes, Guillermo's choice is hurting people but it's also hurting him and he's been hurt for a while now and hurt people hurt people (which is why Nandor lashed out too!) so cut him a little bit of slack maybe? He didn't do anything to intentionally hurt anyone he just wanted to take some agency back for himself that he's been missing for like. Ten. Thirteen years or so now.

[utilitycaster]

Something that I find misses the point so completely it is breathtaking is when people are like "this player hates engaging with their backstory" about the CR cast. It's pretty much never true, and what's worst is that I've seen it the most about Travis and Taliesin, two of the players who I think have the strongest grasp on how to create and engage with a backstory.

The choice to have a character who avoids elements of their past can be a valid, informed, and deliberate character choice. People run from their pasts! People decide not to pursue things for a number of reasons - because it hurts too much, because they're scared to know the answer, because they think the people around them don't care, and because their interests change. Caduceus very much is an avoidant character. He has access to Sending by the time we first meet him, and he never uses it to try to contact his family. That's not Taliesin being stupid or avoiding. That's Caduceus making a conscious choice to not ask the question "is my family dead" because he is terrified the answer is yes. He waits for a concrete sign to go after his family to the point of deep loneliness and self-harm out of this fear. That's a crucial trait that you need to understand him as a character! Ashton is also on some level similar in that he engages in no shortage of harmful, wallowing, and self-indulgent behaviors - and that is a choice. They also have obviously messy feelings about the Hishari and it's pretty plain to see they feel extremely conflicted about their growing bonds with Bells Hells because now they'll feel bad if Bells Hells leaves them. So of course he's hesitant to bring this to Orym, because then he's entrusted Orym with this information, and he has to care, and again, this is a major part of who Ashton is.

The same goes with Fjord and Vandran (and Sabian). One of the core themes of Fjord's story is deciding whether to run from or embrace your past, and which parts of that past you want to bring forward as you change, which means that to explore that, he has to do some running! He makes efforts to learn more about where they are (going to search for Vandran during the Zadash downtime; hiring a bounty hunter for Sabian) but those get interrupted by Fjord's shifting feelings about Vandran, and fact that this is an ensemble and the story naturally shifts.

Which brings us to the practical element. Fjord doesn't want to release Uk'otoa at the time, so it makes sense to return to the mainland and process next steps, and the focus of the story then turns to rescuing Yeza, and then finding Yasha, and rescuing Caduceus's family, and changing Veth back, and brokering peace, and TravelerCon, and Eiselcross. Through this, he still in fact does quite a lot of backstory work (changing patrons and taking a paladin oath, asking Jester to contact Vandran), as well as an immense amount of character growth and engagement with the ongoing story, but Travis doesn't wrench everything off its natural course just to check off every box on Fjord's list, because that would be selfish, obnoxious, and not fun to watch. And Caduceus achieves exactly what he set out to do! He found and rescued his family and found a way to hold off the corruption! Despite his avoidance, he covers all the bases! And as for Ashton...we've had precious little time to cover anyone's backstory in depth other than Imogen's, and we've actually seen a decent amount of Ashton's backstory regardless with their contacts in Bassuras and their interactions with Jiana. There simply was not time in Bassuras to stray from the main objectives and search for the Nobodies, and I think if we had people would be annoyed since that arc already took a very long time (and, for what it's worth, rather like Fjord, Ashton has explicitly asked after The Nobodies. Do not mistake lack of payoff for character disinterest).

It is, to me, incredibly telling this criticism is most commonly seen about the two players who I think also get the most "well they had an central arc/more focus than my fave" criticism.There's no way to make everyone in the fandom happy, and I think Travis and Taliesin are the players at the table who most understand that and give the least fucks about what the fandom thinks, and who (possibly relatedly) have some of the strongest grasps of narrative and what it means to play in an ensemble. Which is in my opinion a major factor in why their characters are so good - even the ones I do not vibe with are fully realized and well-crafted, because the players are not trying to make likeable characters, but rather interesting ones, and they're not trying to take center stage, but rather be generous at the table.

[beautifulpersonpeach]

Suga has to be the best gatekept secret in BTS. He is so beautiful, cute, caring, charming, and funny!!! After months of questioning your taste ranking him second after Jimin in visuals when tkk is right there!, I'm sorry to say I was wrong. Yoongi is THE visual. I'm not going to the concerts but every photo I see on Twitter makes me wish I was going BPP. Does it sound like I'm getting wrecked? It's because I am. I relate to your other anon so bad haahaha. Before this tour, only Jimin and Jung Kook turned my head, but Suga now owns my soul. Is this how people become true OT7? Through BTS concerts?

*

Ask 2: Anyhow, did you notice how obsessed (maybe too heavy a word) Yoongi is with BS&T Jimin?? I just noticed after Suchwita. I think he really likes & remembers bst Jimin fondly & fervently. Please correct my delusion, if you think it's farfetched. (While reading your blogs and army detective twts, I'm realizing more and more how clueless and unobservant I am. I've given up being astute in noticing these matters and just gonna outsource these insightful findings to others. haha) +

But I think, Yoongi really LOVES bst Jimin. I mean who wouldn't?!? I just watched the MV & performances, and WOW JIMIN!!!! My words don't do bst jimin justice. That head tilt?! the fluttering of his eyelids?! his hand motion? his jaw line? the way he glides?! I see a ballroom behind him! GAH. the song is a BOP. I'm absolutely mesmerized, and let's be real, who can blame Yoongi for forgetting how to close his mouth in front of jimin! I want members reacting to mvs back!! T T

***

Hi Anon(s),

I started reading your asks giggling, by the time I got to the end I was full on howling lmaooo. Anon in ask 2, I too want the guys reacting to their MVs back, just cause we'll see them all going "Ahh, Jimin!"

Anon in ask 1, sigh, you have no idea what you’re in for with Yoongi.

Maybe all Yoongi biases are the same, because I truly feel like gatekeeping everything about him and I see that impulse in other Yoongi biases too. I’m very selfish with Yoongi.

You mentioned his visuals and him being caring etc, so let me try something here. It’s easy for me to talk about Jimin, but near impossible for me to talk about Yoongi, so I’m going to try talking about Yoongi through some of his actions with Jimin. And I’ll sprinkle in some okay pictures of him I don’t mind sharing, since you’ve acquired a taste for his visuals as well. :)

First, a preamble of his delectable visuals:

(ASDHJKJLSHKSADLK)

*

When people typically talk about Yoonmin, they stick to a rotation of Yoongi’s mouth hanging open watching Jimin, Jimin’s teasing of Yoongi, their bickering, etc. This is a jikook space so we hear all the time about how Jungkook looks out for Jimin, cares for him, encourages him and protects him. JK is introverted so when he becomes very assertive, usually on account of Jimin, it stands out. Yoongi too is introverted, but when he deals with Jimin he doesn't really break character, and so, oftentimes his quiet encouragement of Jimin, the significance of his actions, typically goes under the radar for a lot of people.

For example,

I'm not sure how many people realize how big a deal it was for Yoongi to recommend Jimin for A&R director when the boys were making BE. Jimin has said during that time, he felt lost - with their tour getting canceled, all their plans upended with no end in sight, the pandemic had taken away his core reason to live by his own admission i.e. performing for ARMYs. He was starting to drift and become unmoored (emotions we now see in Alone), and so Yoongi recognizing that, and recommending that Jimin take on the responsibility for determining the direction of their self-driven album, to get Jimin "closer to music again", is a small thing, but I see it as one of many ways Yoongi was pushing Jimin to better express and assert himself in that situation. Advice that Jimin finally took to heart during their Vegas concerts, when he began pursuing his solo music in force. The A&R role would’ve typically gone to RM since he drives most of their songwriting and oftentimes sets the tone of their music with BH, but Yoongi pushing for Jimin to be active, with Jimin eventually writing some songs for BE (though those were rejected), registered in my mind as yet another way Yoongi sees Jimin in ways many of the members don’t, and quietly advocates for him. Pushes him to go out of his comfort zone, because of how much he loves him. RM eventually took on a more active role during BE but Jimin being able to come on YouTube lives in Fall 2020 to talk about things he was doing for BE, those glimpses into him starting to find himself again, those details registered for me in ways I’m not sure I can properly express.

Yoongi sees Jimin, and loves him dearly. And it's mutual.

(I've never cared for animal prints but that leopard-print furry hat on Yoongi... he's a big cat)

*

Another moment I want to highlight is their 2016 Festa dinner. You know the one, where Taehyung talks about how Jimin grabs the spotlight/center. Yoongi was the first to come to Jimin's defense, saying how Jimin just naturally knows how to be a good performer, that a friend had told him that Jimin naturally knows how to act on stage to capture the audience. I'm not sure if it's obvious to many people, but that comment shifted the direction of the conversation, and soon other members were talking about how good and confident a performer Jimin is. J-hope would later say he's learned about performing by watching Jimin, and Jungkook would say this in later years too.

(… I have no words)

Yoongi saw Jimin's potential since way back in pre-debut, encouraging him and advocating for Jimin to be added to the final line-up in BTS, and has supported him in key periods of doubt since. Everyone saw how hard Jimin was working as one of the last trainees to join a nearly bankrupt agency with limited resources to train even just 7 people - I can't imagine the anxiety Jimin had to deal with but I imagine it was so much. And so when Jimin talks about that period and nearly always mentions how Yoongi supported him, I don't take it lightly.

(There's a reason Yoongi will always choose Jimin)

*

[Full disclosure here, but yoonmin's antics during the whole Shadow/Daechwita MVs shooting drives me to near madness. Because if you understand what Yoongi is, (which Jimin does btw), you'd see why this is borderline one of the most homoerotic unresolved cases we've ever had in Bangtan history.

If not for the fact that Jungkook exists, I'd be in a very different blog space right now honest to God. And I'll just leave it at that. ]

*

Whew! Okay, I need a break so enough about Yoonmin for now. I’ll try to focus more on Yoongi now.

Anon in ask 1, his pictures on Twitter is what’s fucking you up? Then welcome to my world lool. What got me initially though, was his music. Like, weeks later and I’m still struggling with myself not to loop D-DAY 40 hours a day 10 days a week. The fact he makes music like HUH?! while looking like this

(…and the fact this isn’t even in the top 30 hottest pictures I have of him. Just…)

I’ve written sonnets and poems about his voice and it still doesn’t feel enough to explain what it does to me.

(More Yoongi…)

(…just because…)

(…he’s that perfect.)

Good luck to you becoming a Yoongi bias because I have no idea how I’ve been surviving all these years. If we’re both still standing by the time this tour is over, please stop by my inbox again to tell me how you’re doing. I’d love to hear all about it. :)

[mobumi]

I have to admit that I'm kinda disappointed in Bucchigiri so far, but at the same time I want to see more 'cause the setting and the designs are really cool. Even the story could be interesting if it's done right. I've seen all the discourse with Arajin and as much as I love my boy Matakara I've realized something.

Matakara and Arajin are actually very similar but Matakara is just done better. Let me explain.

Arajin's goal: lose his virginity

Matakara's goal: become a Honkibito

Arajin's obsession: Mahoro/ girls

Matakara's obsession: Arajin/ become Honki people with him

Mahoro shows no interest in Arajin, broke his love stone but Arajin still believes he has a chance. Meanwhile, Arajin avoids Marakara, rejects him and still Matakara believes in him and holds on to his stone.

They both don't let go and pursue the person they like in some ways.

Matakara is as obsessive as Arajin, but his character is more fleshed out. He has a social circle with good friends. We have a backstory with his brother, so there's someone important to him other than Arajin.

He doesn't only use his strength for selfish reasons like Arajin but to protect his friends or the Minato Kai gang.

There's mystery surrounding the shadow in his room, we don't know what will happen to him. That gives the audience some anticipation and keeps its interest in the character and his potential.

I don't think people don't like Arajin because he's flawed. Matakara as sweet as he is has flaws too and other characters on the show as well. Sen'ya for example is shady af and doesn't tell Arajin everything and keeps stuff from him, so not everyone is a saint. And it's not because of bad writing or anything, it's just the way it was intended to be.

The intent here is to subvert expectations. I was surprised at first that it didn't go the way I thought. First, the harem trope is completely different from what we're used to.

- The mc pursues a girl but mostly men are after him, every gang leader wants him on their team because they think he's really strong. So they completely change what people expect of the harem genre.

- Mahoro is not the typical cute and innocent girl the mc usually falls for. She's ruthless, a brocon and doesn't hesitate to manipulate people to get what she wants. That makes her interesting because she's really not what she seems and is similar to Arajin and Matakara (her obsession with her brother)

- Arajin is not the typical shonen prota with big morals or big dreams (the "I want to become xx" type of hero), he doesn't want to be strong or anything significant other than losing his virginity like a normal teenager, and that's the joke. You expected something else? No, we get a pathetic mc who's most likely going to surprise us again just to break our expectations.

We're not supposed to root for Arajin, I think he is a tool to tell a delinquent story in a new kind of way. His character is annoying but I think it's on purpose and he's going to be useful somehow. How? Idk time will tell.

The process is not enjoyable right now and that's fine that people feel that way, but I think it's going to make sense at one point or another as to why Arajin acts like that.

I've seen some people not understanding all the criticism he gets, but I think it's fair criticism, judging that Arajin is not the type of character you would root for. While we know he's going to change it still seems like a long way, especially when you just don't care about the mc or you don't find him interesting in any way. That got me thinking that this is exactly how we're supposed to feel about him, at least for now. Arajin's not supposed to be a likable character so I'd say it's working. it's all fine because for once it's different, this is not what we expect of a shonen protagonist, so it's interesting.

I've also seen people say that Arajin has some development and I'm not sure about that. Sure, as the story progresses and he's getting more and more in a mess, Arajin's reactions have more range, there are some elements here and there that show us he cares about some things. But his attitude remains the same. And I think something bigger has to happen for him to actually break out of his character.

We've seen how he reacted to Akutaro's speech about Mahoro. It demonstrates that he can get mad for someone else, but he left Matakara tied up in a basement and doesn't get mad for him at all. We have a whole flashback with him feeling guilty for leaving Matakara and he has no remorse doing it again because he's not his priority. Something bad is going to happen so Arajin will finally snap out of it and pay attention to Matakara and realize his behavior was not okay. I hope that's the course of action at least or I'll be really disappointed. Arajin is not a good mc and that's cool, it's not groundbreaking but different. That being said, it has to mean something in the story and I haven't seen that yet.

So yeah, I'm not giving up on this anime and I'm looking forward to see how the story will unfold!

[faresong]

I haven't played YTTS yet, is it okay to ask what those lines from YTTS are and the implications?

(in regard to this piece)

of course! however, I will preface this with the fact that 1) nankidai is homophobic, or is at least playing into a homophobic stereotype with little other gay representation to off-set it; and 2) I tend to overthink things. while this may not have been something he intended to be taken seriously, considering this is one of the only pieces we have on kugie's lore/character (& you only discover it when playing as mishima) I am inclined to incorporate it as a part of their histories when I am digging into their characters!

additionally, I understand why most people are reluctant to include this in their own interpretations and instead discard this information. it is a very serious topic that should be handled carefully, and I honestly wouldn't want people to handle it at all if they find it uncomfortable or intend to make light of it as nankidai has.

cw: discussion of pedophilia/grooming, and the abuse that comes with that.

Mishima's events with Kanna are primarily focused on what it means to become an adult, wherein you can finally make your own choices. Part of this, as the professor cites, is independence — but not just anything... it is to handle your independence with maturity, which can only be gained through experience (inevitably, meaning there must be "wrong paths" made along the way).

MISHIMA: Of course, that includes mental independence. The ability to decide the right course for oneself... That's what makes one an adult. KANNA: Umm... That's hard... MISHIMA: Experience is necessary. For common sense depends on the time and place. KANNA: Then... Kanna can't become an adult yet... MISHIMA: Don't think of that as such a bad thing.

Kanna's primary motivator to mature quickly is to help the adults around her, instead of having to be cared for, and particularly to not be overshadowed by Kugie's new partner. When she asks for advice, this is what Mishima provides her:

KANNA: Kanna wants to keep walking home with her sister! She doesn't want to spend every day just watching a stranger walk home with her! Kanna's such a kid... She can't wish for her own sister's happiness... MISHIMA: I understand how you'd feel lonely. That goes to show how much you love your sister... KANNA: But... I know it would probably be better if I told her it's fine... MISHIMA: Perhaps so. As long as you don't feel that she's getting involved with a bad person, then... Yes, I'd think you should respect your sister's decision. KANNA: Yes... Yeah, you're right. As far as I could see... She was a kind, mature woman. Yeah, I should respect my sister's decision... I've made up my mind! Thank you so much, Professor Mishima! MISHIMA: ...I-I suppose that went well. I'm sure gender is no great issue these days... Still... it may have been wise to question her a bit more before giving advice.

Calling Kugie's partner "mature" in English is a... generous translation. As other people have pointed out, it was meant to be a two-hit joke—whiplash of Kugie not only pursuing a woman, but an adult woman.

While you see that Mishima is attempting to assure himself there's nothing more to be done, he hesitates in doing so & gets after himself for not digging deeper before letting Kanna resolve herself on this answer. Now this is enough on its own, but I'd like to draw attention to a few of his later lines specifically meant to discourage baseless trust in adults.

MISHIMA: Children can bring about something adults can't. KANNA: Huh?! What's that...?! MISHIMA: Harmony. In a world of only adults... People are prone to thinking of their own gain. But when there are children, even the adults will work harder than usual to be virtuous.

(Selfishness.)

KANNA: Then... Kanna can't become an adult yet... MISHIMA: Don't think of that as such a bad thing.

(& reiterating this line ^)

KANNA: Eheheh... But... even still, Kanna wants to grow up at least a little bit sooner. MISHIMA: Hrm... How troubling. KANNA: She at least wants to know more about adults! Things like… adult love…!

(& Mishima sees here that Kanna may pursue the same path she saw her sister take (along with being a bit of a romantic herself, much more openly loving than her sister is shown to be), which is clearly unsettling for him as he goes on to deflect her questioning. Unfortunately, this is given no real resolution because Nankidai favors humor in his work (not terrible in itself, but for serious subjects...). But, textually, there's something to be said about Kugie herself not taking it seriously, such that Kanna doesn't fully understand why Mishima's trying to dissuade her from taking this to heart. It'd be a jarring event to have, sure, but in my opinion it'd be very necessary to follow this through with proper acknowledgement.)

In any case, with Kanna, you see the implications of Mishima's own path toward adulthood throughout.

We're already aware that Mishima had gone through a rough period of his life after having initially failed college exams, during which he was a delinquent (as he admits to Gin) and was generally a harsh person (in the same scene with Nao). His perception of "mature independence" including knowledge of the right course to take is something that many younger people will simply not know. On the path to adulthood, they will make mistakes in "a world of only adults" that they aren't yet well-versed in.

Alongside [(petty) crime that Kazumi was briefly involved in], this of course applies for Kugie's situation. Even if she's aware she's being used, she likely won't pay it much mind as long as it gives her a platform where she feels validated for it. The mature woman in question would only have selfish intentions to initiate something with Kugie, but as long as it feels as if Kugie's actually being considered, and it's not impairing Kanna (who relies on her), she will allow it. We've seen her previous conflicts with her parents when they'd brought in Kanna, and there's presumably something deeper there about them not trusting her judgement; however, she trusts Kanna now that they understand each other (& Kugie saw she was treating Kanna with the same flippancy her parents did, which she realizes and regrets), hence why she seeks Kanna's validation instead of her parents before committing to this relationship fully.

Considering the majority of advice Mishima gives tends to be from his own experience... I am inclined to seeing this strike closer than Mishima lets on, especially with how he describes himself as 'conceited' in hindsight, as though he was too vain to see he had judged [someone who supported him] wrongly. It could just be a lesson learned in regard to his "hoodlum days," but regardless... it's just an interesting tidbit to me. They've both had an elevated sense of self, and I just wonder if it's through having someone of higher power give them a taste of what they could have if they play along with their terrible game; feigning adulthood before they were ready under flattery of their maturity, when it was in fact their inexperience that led them blindly down this path.

[k7l4d4]

K Reviews and Rants: Miraculous Ladybug Season 5! Episode 22

Alright, now onto the episode where we are supposed to sympathize with Andre! Emphasis on "supposed to."

There are several things I could focus on with this episode. I could call attention to the show arbitrarily trying to have Caline attempt to reach out to Chloe only to get her gesture slapped away, despite the prior episode having her "realize there isn't any good in her" at the end. We could focus on how Gabe is once more being painted as sympathetic, alongside Nathalie, because of videos from Emilie, despite the fact that they've known about those videos all this time and knowingly chose to go against her wishes anyway, even though they had known for YEARS that she was going to die. There is a lot I could focus on.

But no, what I'm going to focus on is the episode trying to depict Andre as sympathetic and honestly failing. This episode tries to double-down on the idea that Andre secretly isn't a bad guy... but that's wrong. No matter how pushy or bratty his daughter and wife might be, Andre is a grown man, one that has basically been mayor longer then the majority of the cast has been alive, with his wife spending ninety percent of her time overseas, long enough that she had a kid with someone else (not that the series ever acknowledges this!!).

This episode tries to frame Andre as having no choice but to obey Chloe's whims... and anyone, and I do mean ANYONE, who has kids should know that that is a load of horse shit. Andre goes out of his way in this episode to downplay or ignore his actions, and treats his running away from the consequences of his own actions as some noble deed, rather then cowardice. His claims that "City Hall is no longer for sale" is a farce; by abandoning his position, he is, if anything, making it MORE vulnerable because there is no guarantee that whoever replaces him won't be able to be manipulated, and he's leaving all the damage he inflicted on the city over the course of his tenure in place. The man is a coward, and a social parasite of the highest order.

Beyond that, I think it's time to get onto the review. There is too much to go over and too little that I can use to accurately express my frustration. I hope you aren't disappointed, but please mind the profanity.

Episode 22: Collusion

Alright, we open with Gabe monologuing to his wife, once again ignoring how he's going against her wishes for his own selfish inability to let go and move the fuck on with his life, WHY DO WE KEEP DOING THIS SHIT!?!? Also, he mentions something about a cycle. Now, if this were a better written story, this might hint towards there being some kind of time loop going on, or what have you... but it's not, and I've got no fucking clue what this asshole means.

Considering we literally had it revealed this Season that Emilie explicitly DID NOT WANT HIM to pursue the Miraculouses in her name, him saying he swore in her name that he would reunite them feels disgusting on multiple levels. He is explicitly using her as justification for his own obsession, with no regard for the harm he's caused his son in the process. Get bent, asshole.

And now we get Nathalie watching the videos from Emilie who is trying to justify Gabe's actions by how he just gets too focused on his goals and that he's doing it all to make his wife happy, all while ignoring how this season has literally shown Gabe ignoring his son's happiness on every level and trying to dictate his life. You can't try and paint a man as being haunted by his actions and driven beyond belief in the sake of those he cares about while ALSO having him act as a direct and deliberate obstacle towards the happiness of his only child!! Also, Nathalie is far too late to start giving a shit about Gabe's actions, especially as she's refusing to bite the bullet and just TELL THE POLICE WHAT HE'S BEEN DOING ALL THIS TIME. Seriously, STOP TRYING TO FUCKING PORTRAY NATHALIE AS SOME KIND OF MOTHER FIGURE FOR ADRIEN!! SHE HAS STOOD BY AND ENABLED ALL OF GABE'S BULLSHIT ALL THIS TIME!! THEY HAVE KNOWN ABOUT THESE VIDEOS ALL THIS TIME SO ALL HER WATCHING THEM IS DOING IS HER THROWING A FUCKING PITY PARTY FOR HERSELF!!! GET OVER IT ALREADY!!!

Now we get a montage of Adrien and Marinette spending their morning together through a video call. If it's meant to be sweet or cute, it's kinda undermined by the fact that being that fixated on your phone, up to the point of dragging it with you while you are brushing your teeth, is NOT healthy. Oh, and then we get Adrien walking into his kitchen where Gabe asks him if he's told Marinette about him moving to London... and for all that's good and decent in this world, I cannot fucking get WHY THE IDEA OF A LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP DOESN'T OCCUR TO THEM. Seriously, they are literally showing off one of the premiere methods of making a long-distance relationship work, VIDEO CALLS!!! It would honestly be more impactful to focus on how him moving to London would impact his abilities to be a superhero, or how it means he won't be able to hang out with his friends like Nino and the rest anymore, not just fixating on why it's all about him and Marinette!!

"I'm doing this for your happiness," he says as if he hasn't literally threatened his son's girlfriend into breaking things off with him and dictates who his son can and can't hang out with. Nathalie offers a token effort of sticking up for Adrien, which I'm ignoring because again TOO FUCKING LATE BITCH. And STOP WITH THE FUCKING PANCAKE METAPHOR!!! IT DIDN'T WORK TO START WITH AND IT JUST SOUNDS STUPID!!!

One thing that kind of baffles me is why Adrien or Plagg think Adrien going to London is something he can refuse. Abusive asshole or not, Gabe is his guardian; if he decides to move Adrien to London, there's nothing he can do to prevent it short of running away. Aaannnddd we get a sappy comment about how him and Marinette will last forever, no matter what. HA!! HAHAH!!! No. Not even gonna pretend to take that seriously, it's too dumb. Also, really dumb thing; Adrien was STILL ON HIS VIDEO CALL when he walked into breakfast, and I didn't see him turn it off before Gabe dropped his bomb, so that should've honestly revealed at least SOMETHING of what is going on to Marinette, yet she doesn't seem to know. Let's see if that changes. And multiple failed attempts at a kiss in a row and I'm gagging; this is dumb. This isn't cute. This is just obnoxious.

WHY THE FUCK ARE THEIR CLASSMATES STILL FIXATED ON THIS!? THEY ARE TOGETHER, MISSION SOLVED, GET OVER IT AND GET TO CLASS!!! THEY AREN'T A LIVING SOAP OPERA FOR YOU TO GAWK AT!!! Rose... sweet, innocent Rose... FUCK OFF. Do NOT DEMAND SOMEONE KISS IN FRONT OF YOU!! THERE IS SO MUCH FUCKING WRONG WITH THAT I CANNOT EVEN BEGIN TO GET INTO WHY THAT IS WRONG!!! GET A THERAPIST GIRL!!! Also, shut up about the "will seal the eternal love" BS; that isn't how love works, that is not how ANY healthy and lasting relationship works, and you are fucking old enough to know this by now, who the fuck am I kidding, this is the girl who honestly wanted to be a hairstylist for mythological animals!!! I'm honestly half-expecting the reason for this scene is meant to be one of Astruc's terrible attempts to be "in on the joke" by "signaling" to viewers that he fully gets how annoying dragging out the kiss is, but trying to reassure them it's for a good cause. Too bad it's condescending as hell!!

Yeah, the way that Rose is talking really feels like this is badly done meta-commentary, given her gushing about Adrien and Marinette being the "Cutest sweethearts ever" that they've been "waiting forever for." It just plain DOES NOT WORK, because an actual group of people openly and deliberately shipping two people they actually know like that is uncomfortable as hell, and it's the kind of thing that kills a ship for me (there's a reason I don't like Molly x Ollie for TGAMM).

"We're just waiting for the right time!" No, you really aren't seeing as how the two of you literally both tried to kiss each other twice already only to stop when you saw the other person was trying to initiate it. That isn't "waiting for the right time" that's "pussyfooting around something you are well past the point of being able to just fucking DO by now!!"

Now they are doing the stereotypical "no you are" thing. Not cute, that's annoying as fuck. Also, them openly calling each other perfect is disgusting to me, considering how much this series itself has emphasized the toxicity of "perfect" as a concept. Them acting like lovestruck idiots gushing about how "perfect" the other is comes off as a red flag to me, not something sweet and/or entertaining. Even their classmates are fucking sick of it. Once again the show proves it can't do self-awareness to save its life.

Now we are in the classroom and Sabrina is apparently officially "good now," since she chooses to sit next to Nathaniel instead of Chloe. I'm honestly surprised Chloe didn't try and yell at her or anything and just sighed in exasperation. How long before this show makes things worse? And we get the grade-school insults upon seeing Adrien and Marinette, only this time she's focusing on Adrien. They really are committed to having her burn down every possible bridge they can.

Also, the way they are having Marinette confront Chloe by talking about how she was able to get rid of Lila, how she had to leave because of all her lies, while gripping Chloe's desk and looming over her... just the positioning and the way she's talking makes HER come across as the bully. Seriously, there is NO WAY TO MAKE HAVING YOUR PROTAGONIST THREATEN TO DO ALL SHE CAN TO GET SOMEONE KICKED OUT OF SCHOOL LOOK GOOD!!!

Now we get a look at Lila's lair, base, whatever this weird room with a map of Paris and a web of photos connected by strings is supposed to be. It's really disturbing to take in just how much of her life she's apparently willing to waste for... we haven't even been given a MOTIVE FOR HER YET. This isn't just pathetic, this is unhealthy. And we get a scene of Chloe choosing to play music and make a spectacle of herself. She isn't a threat. This, this petulant CHILD is not a threat. WHY IS THIS SHOW SO OBSESSED WITH MAKING HER LOOK LIKE SHE'S A THREAT!? THERE IS NO WAY TO TAKE HER SERIOUSLY AS ONE, SHE IS JUST ANNOYING!!!

Also, as an aside, as someone who has gone to school, any students unironically saying they care about the lesson is sus. On the other hand, them wanting her to quit being distracting is totally in-character; having someone be a jerk and loud is ANNOYING no matter where or when it happens. Also, oddly enough, while she took the wrong thing away from the lesson, she apparently WAS paying attention to it enough to correctly name and describe the subjects of it. It makes it a bit odd why Thomas insists she's dumb; lazy and unmotivated, maybe, but this scene makes it feel like the issue is that she thinks she doesn't need to apply herself. Then again, she's apparently ignorant of the fact that spending money makes it go away, and she can't expect to coast by on her family's collective wealth; as fucking awful as both of her parents are, they at least actually WORK and made their money.

Yup, Ms. Mendeleiev immediately proves to be just as, if not MORE spineless than Damocles. Marinette decides to scold Chloe over causing their pregnant teacher stress (despite her not seeming stressed out in the slightest), instead of Chloe once again abusing her father's authority to bully someone into doing what she wants. Alright, that's a choice I guess. And as meanly as she phrased it, Chloe's right; none of the class can STOP Chloe from abusing her dad's power and authority, only HE CAN.

What makes this stupider is that if Chloe was able to bully her dad into doing shit like this, WHY HASN'T SHE DONE IT BEFORE!?! For fuck's sake, this season has bent over backwards to make it clear that Chloe doesn't give a shit about protecting her reputation or being anything less then a complete and utter fucking pain in the ass, so why the fuck has it taken THIS FUCKING LONG for Caline to "realize" that Chloe is a cheater and a pain in the ass. If she was able to make her dad allow her to get away with playing music in class, WHY HASN'T SHE DONE IT BEFORE NOW!? The big fucking problem with all this is that if Chloe was ALWAYS supposed to be this bad, why hasn't she tried shit like this before?! WHY!?

Oh, and Andre isn't even pretending to give Chloe's whims legitimacy and just tells the school to let her do whatever she wants, and Ms. Mendeleiev keeps proving she's useless. "He's my superior." NO HE FUCKING ISN'T!! THE MAYOR OF PARIS HAS NO AUTHORITY LIKE THIS OVER THE SCHOOLS OF PARIS!! IT WAS LITERALLY A PLOT POINT IN SEASON 2 THAT HE HAS LIMITED ACTUAL AUTHORITY OVER THE SCHOOLS!!! GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!!!!

And now Lila has Chloe faking Marinette hurt her... I can see where this is going. And wow, Chloe seriously forgot that she's already been ratted out as a liar to Miss B, this is fucking stupid. And yup, immediately throwing her weight around. And now they are gonna shoot Chloe's one act of genuine kindness towards Miss B in the foot, just like they did everything else. Honestly, them having her try and reach out to Chloe NOW of all times doesn't work, considering that last episode involved her "realizing that Chloe has no goodness in her." FUCK THIS NOISE.

"We all tried to help you." THE FUCK YOU DID!!! YOU HAVE DONE JACK SHIT TO HELP HER!! WHERE WERE YOU WHEN HER MOTHER VERBALLY ABUSED HER ON LIVE TV!? WHERE WERE YOU WHEN CHLOE WAS CHEATING!? WHERE WERE YOU WHEN CHLOE HAS BEEN ABUSING HER DAD'S AUTHORITY FOR WHO KNOWS HOW LONG!? YOU HAVE NEVER DONE SHIT TO HELP HER, YOU ARE JUST GASLIGHTING HER!! If she wasn't meant to be the bad guy, this would be more disgusting then it already is.

Yada yada, Chloe being awful, Mendeleiev being a spineless worm, Hawkmoth tries an Akumatization, Caline calms herself down. This would be more effective if it weren't for the fact that he successfully Akumatized her LAST TIME despite her not even being the actual fucking target; them introducing the possibility of an Akumatization being rejected was awesome at first, but now it just feels pathetic. Also, them making it look like Bustier's gonna cry doesn't work when her tone of voice NEVER FUCKING CHANGES.

I'm just... I'm literally fast-fowarding so much of this since it's nothing but contrivance. This is bullshit. This is SHIT. I'm just waiting for it to get to the scene where Gabe meets with the Mayor, because so far this is just engineered idiocy, minute after minute of Chloe being a braindead, upper-class twit stereotype who makes me want to punch a wall. There isn't anything emotionally impactful about this, it's just INFURIATING.

Okay, that didn't take too long, and we get the Security Robots. Honestly? For starters, ignoring the fact that Andre does not have the authority to affect Paris' police force in the slightest, getting rid of these things DOES NOT EQUATE TO GETTING RID OF THE POLICE. You CAN have both, and if anything having them work in coordination would be the optimal choice in terms of ensuring that they are following their duties properly.

"It seems like Ladybug and Chat Noir are the ones enforcing the law in Paris." ...What is that even supposed to MEAN!? Outside of blatantly WEIRD stuff like that thing with the flying clone dinos and their patrols, they only deal with supervillain stuff. HOW does dealing with the one thing that NO police force, robotic or otherwise, could handle equate to them "being the ones enforcing the law in Paris." And Hawkmoth HAS MADE TECH CONTROLLING VILLAINS BEFORE IN THE FORM OF ROBUSTUS!!! I'm aware that it's Gabe and Tomoe pushing this, but Andre should KNOW about Robustus, meaning he should have a ready made reason to NOT ACCEPT THEM that doesn't involve badly executed arguments!!!

Seriously, this episode's entire root conflict basically relies on Andre somehow not remembering Robustus. Oh, and now Lila's infiltrating the hotel, which makes no sense as I'm pretty sure that the workers would be able to tell she's not one of them. Blah blah blah, pretentious rich girl sounds from Chloe... Lila using her video camera to spy on them...

Also, how the hell does Andre not realize that letting his daughter talk to him like she's his boss makes him look like a complete and utter loser in front of Tomoe and Gabe?

Lila is literally having Chloe say things she knows will make Gabe want to Akumatize her, clearly these two are criminal masterminds. /s

Wow, Gabe describes Chloe acting like a pretentious little brat as "not being cowardly." Even ignoring how he's clearly only doing this for Akuma reasons, this is fucking stupid.

Andre earns one point for pointing out that trying to ban superheroes is dumb as people love Ladybug and Chat Noir (not even mentioning the impossibility of actually ENFORCING such a ban)... and immediately loses it for not realizing that he has allowed Chloe to get away with PLENTY unreasonable bullshit, so him standing up on not BANNING HER ENTIRE CLASS FROM EVER GOING TO ANY HIGH SCHOOL is utterly toothless. Heck, he's not even standing up to her, as he's literally just standing up to her in the most superficial and tepid way imaginable.

Weird, when Gabe revealed he's taking Adrien out of Paris, even if she almost used her new grade school insult for him, Chloe almost sounded WORRIED about him not being around. I have zero doubts in my mind that if the show bothered to acknowledge this, it'd be because she's "upset at losing a new target to make suffer" or some pretentious shit like that. I feel like I'm using pretentious a lot.

And Andre once again proves to be a completely spineless JOKE when he "promises to do whatever Chloe wants" so she'll stop pestering him. My guy, it is so far past any point where you could salvage your image, you should've shut her down and had the staff take her to her room THE SECOND SHE CAME IN YELLING AT YOU WHILE YOU WERE IN A FUCKING MEETING!!! All admitting you are bowing to her whims does is make you look like a spineless jackass.

Oh, and Lila feeding Chloe's ego by saying that Chloe's engineered temper tantrum was a "real display of power." Yeah, how in the WORLD could Chloe have turned out so awful. /s

We are back to the class, all of them deciding to spend their afternoon at Juleka's place, ROSE SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT THE GODDAMN KISSES!!! Stop "awwwing" over them!! THEY ARE NOT THAT CUTE AS A COUPLE!!!!

And we're back to Gabe and Andre, Gabe's about to confront Andre, what was the fucking point with the scene at the boat?? They start off talking very familiar with each other, implying that they have history beyond both being Rich People In Paris, with Gabe basically pulling a "just trust me bro" to Andre's request for an explanation behind the robots. I'd honestly like one as well; what is even the fucking point of those stupid things?

"Remember when we were young and penniless?" No. NO. SHUT THE FUCK UP. YOU DO NOT GET TO DO THAT!! YOU DO NOT GET TO STOP AND REMINISCE ABOUT BEING POOR, NOT WHEN YOUR FUCKING NAME IS LITERALLY A TERM FOR BEING BORN INTO FUCKING WEALTH AND PRIVILEGE YOU CORRUPT PIECE OF SHIT!!! YOU DO NOT GET TO START TALKING ABOUT "THE GOOD OLD DAYS" AFTER ALL THIS FUCKING BULLSHIT, NOT WHEN YOU AND GABE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN PORTRAYED AS BEING RICH AS FUCK, EMILIE LITERALLY HAVING BEEN DESCRIBED AS FUCKING OLD MONEY!!! IF YOU WERE EVER FUCKING POOR FOR REAL I WOULD EAT MY LEFT FOOT!!!

"Don't you think we were much happier back then?" NO!! SHUT UP!!! YOU DO NOT GET TO GO "WOE IS ME" ABOUT BEING FUCKING RICH RIGHT NOW!! IT IS NOT A MATTER OF WHAT YOU HAVE NOW OR WHAT YOU HAD BACK THEN, ALL YOUR FUCKING PROBLEMS ARE ENTIRELY BECAUSE YOU ARE A CORRUPT, SPINELESS PIECE OF HUMAN FILTH!!!! YOU MADE YOUR CHOICES!!!! YOU CHOSE TO BE A FUCKING MONSTER!!! YOU DO NOT GET TO BLAME BEING WEALTHY!!! YOU HAVE NO FUCKING RIGHT TO DO THAT!!!!

"A woman who barely respects me, a selfish heartless daughter, and a city hall that I never wanted!" SHUT UP!! SHUT! THE FUCK!! UP!! STOP WHINING ABOUT HOW AWFUL YOUR LIFE IS!! YOUR WIFE DOESN'T RESPECT YOU BECAUSE SHE'S A BITCH AND BECAUSE YOU ARE A SPINELESS WORM WHO DESERVES NO RESPECT!!! CHLOE IS ONLY SELFISH BECAUSE YOU HAVE SPENT YEAR AFTER FUCKING YEAR SPOILING AND NEGLECTING HER!! YOU MADE THIS FUCKING BED AND YOU CAN GODDAMN LIE IN IT LIKE THE FLEA BITTEN DOG THAT YOU ARE!!! AND YOU NEVER WANTED CITY HALL, YOU COULD FUCKING QUIT AT ANY TIME!! NO ONE IS FORCING YOU INTO THIS LIFE!! NO ONE IS MAKING YOU DO ANY OF THIS SHIT!!! YOUR MISTAKES ARE YOUR OWN, OWN UP TO THEM FOR ONCE IN YOUR MISERABLE EXCUSE FOR A LIFE YOU LIVING SHITSTAIN!!!

"All my life I've lied, cheated, and abused my power." NO ONE FORCED YOU TO!! YOU DON'T GET TO BELLYACHE ABOUT YOUR MISTAKES WHEN YOU HAVE DONE NOTHING TO CORRECT THEM YOU DEGENERATE SACK OF WASTE!!!

"I've become a tyrant in service to my family and their friends," STOP FUCKING BLAMING YOUR OWN CHOICES ON YOUR FAMILY!! THEY HAVE NO POWER TO FORCE YOU TO ABUSE YOUR POWER, YOU CHOSE TO DO SO!!! CHLOE BEING A BRAT IS ALL BECAUSE OF YOU!!! AUDREY DISRESPECTING YOU IS ALL BECAUSE OF YOU!!! YOUR LIFE IS NOBODY'S FAULT EXCEPT YOUR OWN!!!!

God fucking dammit, that isn't out of my system, but if I keep pausing for every little thing that upsets me, I'm gonna have an aneurysm. Yadda yadda, long-winded lecture about Andre abusing his power in stupid ways that he has no power to actually enforce, we get the "reveal" that Gabe used to be better, once again without any evidence when all the evidence regarding his treatment of Adrien instead points to him having always been a self-absorbed, self-righteous control freak, and FUCK does this bullshit piss me off. There is NOTHING I loathe more than slimeballs like Andre, who whine and cry about how unfair life is when everything being shit is entirely a product of their own actions, grow the fuck up and start doing something productive with your life. You've got the office, stop bending over backwards like a coward and just DO YOUR FUCKING JOB.

"Maybe there's still hope, maybe we can still change." I do not trust you to "change" in any meaningful way that doesn't involve running away from your mistakes and leaving someone else to clean up the mess. "Give up our privileges, go back to the way it was," yup, immediately proven right. His idea of "changing" is "plug his head in the sand, ignore reality, and act as if all the damage he's caused is no longer his problem." THIS is the man they want us to sympathize with? Yeah, fuck that.

Also, the way they used "privileges" reminds me of Astruc's bullshit about Chloe not redeeming or changing as a person. WHAT fucking privileges?? His status as the Mayor? All he has to do is stop running each election. Give up his money?? He's already rich because of his fucking hotel, that's not happening, and it means he'll still have a massive status to rely on. WHAT fucking privileges could he even give up!?

"City hall is no longer for sale." What, have you been making illicit deals like this with Tomoe before now? If it's ever been "for sale" you've got no one but yourself to blame. And Gabe had been recording the entire thing, and Andre's monologue just so happened to include a sarcastic list of awful abuses of power, conveniently all in a row, that Gabe can neatly and easily edit down into a "confession" he can use to induce an Akumatization, because apparently he can't just force the process despite having shown that yes, he can do exactly that during Zombizou. Also, weird thing with the edited video, it somehow changed the pitch and tone without any efforts to actually DO that, he just shuffled stuff around.

Caline's Akuma form is stupid looking on so many levels, and why would she even NEED the Pig Miraculous power?? Hawkmoth has made forced recruitment powers LOADS OF TIMES!! Heck, this time is even weaker then normal since her recruits are FUCKING BALLOONS!!!

Gabe and Tomoe plot to make Chloe look like a savior, I wonder how in the world they'll do that. /s

And now Caline's Akuma is on live TV, announcing her intentions. I can't even take her words seriously because of how stupid she looks.

Back to Adrien and Marinette, and right when it looks like Adrien's gonna share the bad news, word about Caline getting Akumatized arrived. They aren't even trying not to drag this out anymore.

Adrien, it's NEVER going to be the right time. It's the kind of thing you just have to get over with. Ideally, you do it in a situation where the other person is comfortable. But there's never gonna be a "right time for it."

Zoe takes off running after seeing the doctored video, and we get a scene with Chloe, who shows... well, annoyance at Andre's words. Either because she's dumb enough to think that this is a genuine and knowing confession, or because she has enough moral standards to know that what he's suggesting is idiotic... who am I kidding, of course it's because they think she's stupid.

Yeah, she's just stupid. She literally had to have Lila spell out the problem with assuming she'll still have any kind of power or protection from her actions after this engineered confession.

Caline confronts the cops, and after slashing through a bunch of them... all except the two that are LITERALLY right next to her landing spot are just standing in place, not doing anything, despite holding weapons. They, they aren't even RUNNING AWAY FROM THE SUPERVILLAIN IN THEIR MIDST. Also, this scene honestly makes Tomoe and Gabe's creation of a robotic police force look JUSTIFIED just due to how utterly incompetent the cops come off here.

"I think it's strange that Monarch would support a revolutionary." Ladybug, he literally already did this with Darkblade. He might've been more about personally seizing power, but it is literally the exact same fucking principle. He doesn't "support" anyone, he uses people's personal crusades as a bludgeon to get his way, nothing more and nothing less.

"A revolution when everyone is corrupt," you literally heard a single clip regarding a single politician. If that's proof that everyone's corrupt, that points more to you having been one bad day from going on a rampage to start with.

Also, just noticed, her "army" is even weaker than minion-maker Akumas normally are; they literally can't do anything but FLOAT THERE.

"It's not up to us to decide who should or shouldn't be a mayor, we just need to deakumatize the villain." ...NO FUCKING DUH!? FOR FUCK'S SAKE, THAT IS LITERALLY WHAT YOU WERE ALREADY DOING!! ARE YOU TRYING TO IMPLY YOU WEREN'T TAKING HER SERIOUSLY TO START WITH!? IT DIDN'T LOOK LIKE IT, BUT WHAT THE FUCK DO I KNOW, I'M NOT THE CREATOR WHO DECIDES EVERYTHING IN-UNIVERSE!!!

Oh hey, the Balloons finally do something, I wonder how hard it'll be to make literal balls of air go away... Oh, they are actually struggling. That's honestly sad.

"Deep down, he's not a bad mayor!" Zoe's on the scene for some reason, and trying to talk down an Akuma, clearly that'll do something. /s

Also, no Zoe, your step-dad is a TERRIBLE mayor. He's done nothing but use and abuse his powers for YEARS, and no matter what he says to the contrary, it's entirely his own fault, and he is literally planning on abandoning his position, doing nothing to actually correct his mistakes, to live out his hobby.

"I thought we were friends, Gabriel, but it seems that is no longer the case!" Andre, buddy, for him being your "friend," the two of you never hang out or communicate in any way. Heck, why would you think he's your friend when he literally made a high-end "get along shirt" to mock your dysfunctional marriage?

"Then again, what you did was finally the push I needed to make the right decision." I suspect you don't mean "own up to my mistakes and do all in my vast power as both the Mayor and a wealthy hotel owner to correct them and keep them from coming back again."

Seriously, why the hell aren't Ladybug and Chat just taking her out from behind. SHE IS DISTRACTED!! YOU LITERALLY SAID YOURSELF THAT IT IS NOT UP TO YOU TO DECIDE WHO GETS TO BE MAYOR OR NOT, YOUR ENTIRE POINT IS TO DEFEAT AKUMAS AND SHE IS NOT SO INTIMIDATING THAT YOU NEED TO ENABLE SOMEONE WHO IS CLEARLY NOT IN THEIR RIGHT FUCKING MIND!!!

Yup, just got confirmed that he's going to weasel his way out of his responsibilities and the consequences of his actions. Corruption carries steeper penalties then just losing the job, there's jail time and steep fines involved.

"The Lucky Charm was warning me about her!" ...How? How in the WORLD could it be warning you about the powerless BRAT before you? I just... I cannot deal with this shit. This is just stupid.

Also, this scene kinda shoots the "her spotty vision is all in her head" idea in the foot given that it only went off after Chloe entered the room. If it's meant to be a representation of Marinette being creative, it fails massively when it's clearly reacting exclusively to her biases right now.

"A crown for the queen of brats" OH GET THE FUCK OVER YOURSELF YOU LEATHER CAT-SUIT WEARING SIMP!!!

And here comes the scene of Chloe illegally taking power that she doesn't actually have, and trying to pin the blame on Ladybug and Chat Noir. How pathetic. And everyone watching the news as Chloe appoints herself mayor... I'm pretty sure the VICE MAYOR is the person who gets the position if anyone wants it. Also, if Andre DID resign under duress, he's technically still in office and can just COME BACK.

Also, if anyone believes that CHLOE of all people, especially when she's actively in the middle of illegally seizing power, would unironically say "power must return to the people," they are an idiot.

WOW, she just declared the known terrorist an outlaw, THAT will actually mean something and have a tangible effect on what happens going forward! /s

Not even gonna touch her "outlawing" Ladybug and Chat Noir, since that's stupid to start with.

[tis-miss-mae]

this whole situation with wilbur and his "apology" has got me all worked up. I'm glad he said something so those who were unconvinced it was him can move on, but what he said makes little difference

to sum things up, Wilbur admitted he was "slobbish, disrespectful, and selfish," was "shocked" by abuse allegations and thought the biting was consensual, apologized for "any pain that I caused," and believes he's a better person now and wants to earn and maintain others' trust

I'm all about extending second chances and not forcing people to stay at the lowest point or in their worst mistakes. everyone has a chance to become a better person and should pursue that chance. that doesn't mean they'll regain what was lost or be forgiven by all; there are consequences to our actions and avoiding those should never be the goal. that said, I genuinely hope that wilbur is actually working on himself and is becoming a better person

I just don't feel like I have much of a reason to believe that is true rn. his "apology" felt icky, like he knew he was caught and was trying to salvage his reputation. he never directly apologized for his actions or admitted to being wrong, aside from his "slobbish, disrespectful, and selfish" disposition at the end of the relationship. he didn't even say her name

Shubble's accusation against him were more than just biting and selfishness. she said he bit her to the point where they "needed" a safe word (he should've just been able to stop biting so hard or completely), would purposefully bite until the safe word had been yelled and then would bite some more, or grind his teeth, or smirk after doing it. the bruising was so bad that wilbur noted that it looked abusive and switched to biting concealed parts of her body (!!). he claimed to miss her but wouldn't give her time. he would have her clean his apartment and would purposefully not clean because he knew she would be there to do it. he lied about his activities and how long his friends would be in the area, thus controlling Shubble's. he expected her to pay for more than she should have, and wouldn't pay for things he agreed to. he returned her clothes that she asked for after moving out, but he sold every other item of hers that was left. and these are just the things I remember/know about

wilbur's "apology" didn't even touch the serious stuff that affected Shubble so much. it tried to paint him a better light as a man who had made mistakes and was learning from them, but instead it just helped to pull back the layers and revealed that he is a man that cares for his reputation above others' feelings and a man that refuses to actually acknowledge the weight of his actions or commit to doing better

disappointing doesn't begin to describe it