#probably the least important development about his character but i think it's so cute the way he warns him dfkjvfsjkb

[soniatera]

[wildstar25]

What physical part(s) of Arsay does her partners find the most attractive! Is it the same for all partners or does it differ between them?

(also optional bonus ask of what part(s) of/about Arsay generally do they love the most, physical or not!)

Meanwhile, if you were to ask the same of Arsay:

[tossawary]

I think it would be fun to do a "character swaps with older version of themselves" fic with Moshang. A post-canon Mobei-Jun who has been happily married for a while (probably at least 50 years old) accidentally touches some plot device artifact and time travels, swapping places with his 20ish-year-old self. Older MBJ wakes up in head disciple Shang Qinghua's bed where his younger self had been napping.

Younger MBJ lands in his own palace, where he is quickly found and fawned over by Older SQH, who can't help but think this MBJ is so cute. The System quickly confirms for Shang Qinghua that this situation has been sorted into a "multiple timelines" thing, so SQH doesn't have to worry about "protecting the timeline" by doing anything like hiding the fact that he's MBJ's husband. (So, there's an alternate timeline younger version of Airplane Bro now? He's just going to... ignore having an existential crisis about it. Yeah.)

Which is great because Older MBJ would not have thought about this at all as a potential issue. Older MBJ also thinks Younger SQH (Younger Airplane Bro) is incredibly cute and has no problem informing him that they're married in the future. Younger Airplane Bro is trying to figure what the fuck is happening, but he's having trouble thinking over the sound of how MBJ only became hotter: MBJ didn't get much taller, but he did get wider, heavier, more muscular, and hairier. Holy shit. Older MBJ doesn't even have any problems passionately kissing Younger SQH just to prove that they're married. And he smiles! He's so gentle and communicative! Comparatively!

("Luo Binghe is the Demon Emperor in my time," Older MBJ says. "Ah? Who's Luo Binghe?" Younger Airplane Bro lies very badly. "Hmmm, so you did know," Older MBJ says, and then makes some comment about LBH's husband that makes Younger SQH go, "HIS WHAT NOW?!")

Younger MBJ is trying to be cool, not really confused or scared, and Older SQH spoils him rotten by showing off the home that they're made together and how well the palace works to serve and defend MBJ. Linguang-Jun can't show up here because SQH will light him on fire if he shows his face. Younger MBJ doesn't even really like his SQH yet and is also struggling with how good Older SQH looks: a little taller, broader, relaxed and easygoing, answering all of his questions and explaining important things to him, dressed like a beloved demon lord's spouse, efficiently ordering everyone around. "Call me Gege," Older Shang Qinghua said with a wink, and it went straight to Younger MBJ's defenseless heart; he is developing new kinks immediately. Help him.

In the end, after a few days at most, they manage to switch Older and Younger MBJ back without too much issue. Older SQH is a little annoyed that his husband kissed an alternate timeline version of himself, but mostly because he sure would have liked that experience when he was only a disciple! Okay, SQH may have pet Younger MBJ's head and pinched his cheeks and hugged him and brushed his hair a little and shamelessly lavished him with good examples of human affection, but it's not the same!!!

Younger MBJ and Younger SQH in the alternate timeline are left in SQH's tiny head disciple house, completely flustered, sitting next to each other and barely able to look at each other. What. The. Fuck. Eventually, Shang Qinghua manages to say, "Uh, do you want to make out?" at the same time that Mobei-Jun says, "We should get married as soon as possible. Tomorrow."

[inbarfink]

I already talked about, like, the Obvious Symbolism of Simon reaching his lowest point literally dressed like the Ice King and then gradually gets back to his old outfit as he starts climbing out of his depressive spiral, at least somewhat.

But it’s also really interesting, maybe even more interesting, how Fionna’s outfit has been gradually shifting and changing with basically every adventure.

My first thought was that it really shows Fionna coming into her own as a character. The more she grows and also the more character development she gets - the more the audience learns to see her as more than just Girl Finn - the more her outfit moves away from just being a slightly girlier version of Finn’s classic look and into being its own thing. 

Because Fionna is her own character. 

But my second thought was more about the first time Fionna’s classic outfit got an update in this series.

This wouldn’t really relate to my first reading, since it just kinda makes her outfit closer to Finn. But it does relate to the most important Theme that her character arc revolves around - Fantasy versus Reality.

Fionna starts out the story interacting with the idea of magical adventure and heroism via the lens of fantasy. She compares everything to video games and just thinks about everything in terms of it being cool and fun and she literally tries to chase down a person from her dreams.

And her mindset was probably only reinforced by discovering she was literally created to be the Main Character in God’s little fantasy universe literally created out of self-indulgence for his silly little stories.

And because of that, she starts out the story with a huge Protagonist-Centered-Morality blind spot where she can’t recognize when she and Cake are in the wrong

And she rushes into action and violence just thinking it’s ‘cool’

And, like, in general acting without thinking of the consequences.

And at basically every step of this adventure, these kinda actions clashed against the reality of her situation. And it all started when she pointed out to her own creator that the outfit he designed for her is cute - but extremely unrealistic for an adventurer like herself

And from there we move to Fionna experiencing more and more of the harsh consequences of assuming everything should fit into her fantasies of heroes and villains 

And that she should punch first and ask questions later 

And in general that it’s always better to trust her guts over her head. 

And with every one of her experiences, the bright and adorable outfit that is a reminder of her origin as God’s Most Self-Indulgent OC gets tweaked in more way - turning it into something that looks a lot more, for the lack of a better word, gritty. And also turning it further and further away from the outfit of her own literal fantasies.

And all of these horrible traumatic experiences and the general dangers of the magical and very different world she’s in have all weathered down Fionna’s original optimism and eagerness and brashness that originally defined her and turned her terribly overprotective and scared instead. And it really reminds of how Simon’s own trauma weathered him down. 

Turning him from a kind man with a passion for adventure and the fantastical and a powerful parental instinct to a miserable jerk who aches for mundanity and made a little girl cry

Until he got to his very lowest point.

So I’m guessing next up for Fionna is getting to see her regain some of her old identity that the Trauma has been tearing away at - getting back some of that cheerfulness and brash attitude and adventurous spirit. Because while it has put herself and her teammates and others in serious troubles - it’s also been a huge help at other times (especially as she's a good counterbalance to Simon ‘slow but dependable’ Petrikov)

She needs to find the balance, learning the lessons from her multiverse adventure without losing all the things that made her Fionna Campbell in the first place.

And I wonder if this development is gonna be paralleled with a return of some of the more ‘classic’ elements of her look - or if her outfit is instead going to diverge farther?

[itsclydebitches]

Hi. Feel free to totally ignore to ignore this ask I just needed to vent to someone. Have a great day! 

I hate little. (Or somewhat now). I hate this stupid mouse that accomplished nothing for the entire volume.

They were a terrible guide, they weren't funny, they were ugly. And they didn't help Ruby at all.(honestly I would also talk for hours on how much I hated Ruby depression arc especially her breakdown but that's not important now) Hell for the most part I forgot they were even there.

And honestly I probably wouldn't care that much if it wasn't for the fact that then they try to tug our heartstrings by having Neo stomp them.

No! I don't care! This scene was already traumatic enough you seriously didn't need that!

Then they try to connect with this theme how the smallest act can impact someone's life. Which I call bias cuz the only thing Rwby did for them was to give them cheese. They tag along on their own after being lost. Ruby wanted them to leave but they insisted and that got them killed.

And it's not like the paper pleasers who were unhappy about their lives and wanted to ascend little was rather fulfilled and happy with his life. Then wtf all that was for.

Also they shouldn't have wasted an episode of rwby beyond on them.

Please vent away! :D

Little feels like such a wasted opportunity to me (if, you know, we resign ourselves to having some version of Volume 9) because:

a) I love cute familiar-like characters b) I love the fairy tale, butterfly effect lesson of 'One small act can lead to huge results, often times in ways you'll never fully understand' c) Little is the one consistent new character the group gets this Volume and thus should, by virtue of being the first they meet/the longest to hang around, the most developed and significant to the conflict.

But they're functionally useless. Worse, they're boring and (to me) annoying. Ruby helps Little get some cheese. Cute meeting! Would love to better understand why they're trying to gather food when they clearly can't do it on their own and why their tribe is otherwise engaged in hunting Blake (she barely even looks like a cat! Her ears blend into her hair and everything else is human!). Looking back, it feels like there are seeds of Little being an outsider here (why are they gathering alone when that's clearly a multi-mouse endeavor? Is it unusual for a mouse to not have a purpose at their age?), which would have helped to explain their motivation for leaving with Ruby, but as it stands it all just feels so rushed and disjointed.

In repayment for the cheese, Little agrees to be Team RWBY's guide. Great, that's very logical and helpful! Except Little spends the whole Volume engaging in a sleeping gag and reminding the girls (the viewer) that they don't actually know anything outside of their tiny territory.

They're emotionally available to Ruby when she's at her lowest? Sort of, but beyond whether you think those scenes feel forced or not (I personally do), I question why that role isn't given to someone we already care about. You all know I've got plenty to say about the previous Volume, but at least those later episodes had the wherewithal to send Yang after Ruby on the staircase. I honestly believe that part of the reason why some people are upset with Yang's response to the depression arc is not simply what she does do (compare Ruby to Ironwood, physically imply that she's siding with Blake, seemingly ignore Ruby's VERY obvious symptoms, etc.), but what she doesn't do too. By giving Ruby this new companion and trying to make Little an emotional center of the Volume, it deprives the other characters (including Ruby's sister) with that role. Granted, it could have been compelling to double-down on those feelings of alienation, culminating in Yang witnessing Ruby's suicide and regretting the choices that lead them there... but the show decided to turn Ruby's "ascension" into this supposedly feel-good moment instead.

Their death is the tipping point that sends Ruby over the edge? I admittedly like the idea. Giving us a small animal, one that many people are afraid of/find nasty, and equating it to a 'simple soul' could have helped sell the idea that all life - ALL LIFE - is precious. Hell, I wonder if it would have been better if Little was just a mouse. No talking, no magic, nothing but an (arguably) cute animal for the audience to cheer for. I can imagine a version of the dining room scene where Ruby is haunted by the people who have died, but she's also still centered enough to argue how those deaths weren't her fault, only for Neo to senselessly kill this little mouse on top of everything else. Maybe it scurries over when Ruby is beaten and bloody, gives her a little lick, something akin to a smile, this moment where she's connecting with a soul that is literally simple, and vulnerable, and doesn't care what Ruby may or may not have done because it's just another creature she's trying to protect... and then crunch comes the boot. It's a completely unnecessary act of cruelty on Neo's fault and the audience must sit with the death of an animal (something that always tugs at the heartstrings) rather than the arguable relief of being rid of Little.

Don't even get me started on their ascension. It straight up doesn't make sense and has the same kind of 'rule' structure as wishing for Penny to get a new body.

[alpaca-clouds]

The Question For Queer Representation

2024 surprises me in so far, that we finally seem to have reached the point where we can talk a bit more clearly about the question of queer representation.

Now, this seems to be a topic where we still very much see the difference between younger people within the community and older ones. Because the conversation is mostly driven by millenial and Gen X queers - while some of Gen Z and younger will still often insist on needing "Good Representation".

But I thought towards the end of this year's strange Pride Month, in which there was so little pinkwashing, I want to talk about this a bit. Even though I have spoken about this before.

Finally Some Toxic Gays

During those laIst two years something has happened. Not only did we see a sharp increase of queer representation in media, but we also got a lot more diverse queer representation. There is still a lot of cute and fluffy stuff, but also a lot of shitty and toxic gays with tons of bad habbits, that never the less are allowed to be the protagonists or otherwise important characters in their stories.

I took some characters I could think off in the picture above. And yes, I will admit, that I am mostly watching animated stuff, which shows above. Mostly because the more fantasy-oriented stuff tends to be animated. And yes, also because animated stuff is somehow a lot more openly queer.

But we got quite a lot either toxic, unhealthy or otherwise "problematic" gay characters. Be it those who betray their partners, or those who are abusive (Lestat in IWTV, Malcolm in Captain Laserhawk). Be it people who gaslight and manipulate (like both Carmilla and Olrox from Castlevania). Or be it those survivors of abuse, who have developed a lot of toxic coping mechanism (like Angel Dust or Astarion).

And I really got to say: This is good. It is actually good. At least in the context that it appears in now.

Gays Don't Need To Be Perfect

Now, it should be noted that of course - especially here on tumblr - quite a lot of people have complained about this. Like there are several blogs about each of the characters above and how they are horrible and the worst thing to happen to queer representation ever and such. As well as people who ignored several trigger warnings at the beginnings of episodes, only to then complain about being triggered. (This showed so very much with Hazbin Hotel Episode 4. Because that episode had a Trigger Warning.)

The one I found most interesting in terms of the anti-discourse was Astarion, though, probably. Because a lot of the discourse about him - outside being a toxic queer man - was also very much about how he was not a perfect victim. Sure, they did also complain about the other stuff and did not use the words "perfect victim", but it was surely implied in some blogs I saw. Basically using both the entire story with the Gur and his learned toxic behaviors to say: "He is not only bad queer representation, but also bad for sexual abuse/sex trafficking survivors." Which... is of course ironic, given that especially in terms of the latter he is a lot closer to reality than any innocent honey-bu would be.

And this is a big thing. See, here is the thing: In the real world, a lot of queer folks are messy. Because a lot of us are traumatized from the queerphobia that is so very present in society. So many of us have been abused for our queerness by parents, classmates and teachers. A lot of us do have mental health issues - and statistically we are also more likely to be neurodivergent to begin with. So many of us have learned quite a few bad coping mechanisms.

So, yes... This is just something that is fair to depict as well. Because the world is not that easy, if we are honest.

The Numbers Game

Now, if those shows and games had come out 10 years ago, I might have well deriled them as well. Not just because I was a lot younger then and had a very different idea of what made for good representation, but also because the numbers out there were different.

10 years ago, we barely had any queer representation. And back then, yes, it was very, very noticable to a lot of folks that most queer characters we got to say, were either shown to be shitty people, or would simply die or have a very miserable storyline with a lot of death and such things.

I will remind you: The Korrasami reveal, that was so important for studios/channels/services realizing that actually they could get away with a lot more than they had previously thought, happened in December 2014. The finale of the first season Steven Universe, where we got the Ruby/Sapphire reveal, happened a bit later in 2015.

Again, yes, those are animated examples, but... Well, it did not look better in terms of live action shows. While those (due to having older audiences) might have had their token queer character, this character often was either a stereotype, died, or was living a miserable life with no resolution.

And now? Well, now we can have the toxic gay vampires - be they named Lestat, Olrox, or Astarion - and we also can have sweet, fluffy queer representation in other shows, like Heartstopper. And it is good to have both of them. We deserve both.

The Missing Rep

I wrote an essay last year about this, but because tumblr's search is shit, I cannot find it again. So I will just put this out here again. Because I noticed an issue here - and you should notice the same issue if you look at the picture above.

The toxic queer characters right now are very much mostly men. Partly, because gay and bi/pan men make up a very large part of queer representation, especially in adult media. While I can name you quite a few fluffy, kidfriendly shows with lesbian or bi/pan female characters, the adult media often focuses more on queer men. And even if there are queer women, those are often a lot more wholesome, compared the men.

I mean, I think that Euphoria (which I don't watch) focuses more on queer young women, who are kinda shitty, but... Yeah, exceptions to the rule.

Now, we can speculate why this is. I personally still think that part of it has to do that sapphic women are seen as more innocent for several reasons. For one, we tend to portray women as more passive and innocent either way than men. But also, there is the fact that especially sapphic women are seen as a lot more innocent in total, because "they don't have real sex" (according to some people). As there is still the stigma that sex needs to involve at least one cock to be real sex.

And yeah, it should be noted that of course all the other types of queer representation are still lacking especially in Western media. We have little in terms of trans representation (especially trans men are super underrepresented), basically no intersex representation, and aroace representation is also quite lacking.

Conclusion

I think right now, we are making really good strides when it comes to at least certain types of representation. We get to see queer charactres in so many shows, movies, and games right now. Not to speak of books and comics. And this is good. No, not all the representation is perfect, but given that we get quite a lot it does not need to be.

No, having characters be toxic, depressed or otherwise not perfect does not make them bad representation. Because there are a lot of toxic, depressed and otherwise not perfect queer people in reality. And that deserves to be represented as well.

Yes, we need more representation of certain groups of queer people. Again: Trans folks, especially trans men, intersex people and aroaces do deserve more representation. Both the fluffy kind and the dramatic bitch type.

But... I really think folks need to stop complaining when queer characters in media are not perfect. It is okay for them to not be perfect. Real queer people are not either.

[nfcv-saltmine]

How do people think NetflixVania Alucard is an upgrade. Seriously, who'd pick that horse faced man whore who belittles his "friends" and calls one of the pretentious meanwhile he thinks he's above Trevor for being a drunkard when the later turned to alcohol to cope with his emence trauma (also later Aluacrd turns to booze)

The cold and sharp Alucard who yes in Nocturne of Recollection is petty and shoves Maria away is better because he actually has a bit of a reason. He's had to kill his father twice now, literally hates his entire existence to the point he went to sleep for 300 years and also was made to relive his trauma by Magnus. And he at least tries to change. He has been a bit of a dick to Maria but he grows as a person. NetflixVania horse faced whore does non of that.

NetflixVania horse face, when the succubus took the form of his mother would turn into a raging misogynistic piece of crap essentially making it every last woman's problem for one demons actions. Faced with actual Alucard who when in that situation didn't degrade her. All he did was kill her (and rightfully tell her death is too good for her)

All the posts claiming horse face is a "girls girl" and saying how he's such a baby girl uwu make me want to slap the shit out of them

I swear some people needs to develop their critical skills. I mean if you say you prefer N!Alucard, fine, I don't care, but to say he's better than game Alucard...? Yeah no you lost me there. We're all entitled to our own opinions, but for one: Game!Alucard just looks better thanks to Ayami Kojima ❤️ (and his sprite has more details than N!Alucard entire design) and also, Game!Alucard at least respects his companions and doesn't insult them to their faces and behind their backs. He sees vampires for what they are, monsters, dangers to humans, to the point of hating himself for being only one in half (which already makes him more tragic than N!Alucard, who lives his dhampir nature very well). When Dracula started his genocide, Alucard didn't tell him "yo just kill the ones who killed mom and let the others alone". No - he said "don't kill any human, that's not what mother would've wanted", which makes a great difference. He never talked ill about Trevor, in fact, he remembers him fondly in GoS (i know it's probably not canon but still, my heart...). And we didn't have half as many dialogues and direct interactions with them as we did in the show... but you can bet whatever they make N!Alucard say in Nocturne s2 will not be even half as impactful and heartwarming as GoS made it. I saw the trailer. I mean fuck, I saw the end of s1. He has not changed and still looks down on Belmonts, because this show is incapable of respecting the protagonists of the games they pretend to adapt. One instant he's like "trevor would be proud :)". And the other he says "yeah they're all so annoying lol" (i can't remember his exact words to Annette in the trailer, but I'm not watching it again just for this post). Considering he spent the whole original show being a bitch to Trevor, excuse me if I don't find him STILL insulting him AND HIS BLOODLINE centuries later, particularly cute or funny. Get a fucking life, dude. Seriously. Grow up.

And you know, it's been a while since I listened to Nocturne of Recollection, so I can't remember enough of it to talk about it (i do remember the horrible imp character. God I hate this guy, why did they feel the need to make him so fucking punchable), and I'm not sure how canon it really is, but... Alucard has the excuse of having been asleep for the past centuries to explain his behavior.

Let's say he was around 18 years old when he put himself to sleep... he obviously did not grow and mature during the next centuries. Because he was not awake. I feel like people who hates on Mariacard because of the "age gap" completely overlook that very extremely important fact. So, even if he is technically 300+ years old, in his mind, he's still the young adult he was back in 1476. It's plain logic. And due to all the things he went through, and maybe being a little too sheltered, and not having had the time to mature enough yet (and everything that happens in the CD drama), he can say dumb things and make mistakes even if he has good intentions. He is not a perfect being who can do no wrong, and growing up as a dhampir in Dracula's Castle definitely had some consequences on his psyche. But he's, you know... human. More than he realizes.

N!Alucard doesn't have that excuse, however. Because it's clear from what Nocturne s2's trailer that the bastard did not sleep during these past 300 years. He literally said he has been helping Belmonts... well, more like that Belmonts have been helping him. So he lived, he stayed awake, he went through a LOT of stuff, probably met many people over the centuries, he had his own experiences... and he did not fucking change a single bit. They literally made his first line in Nocturne a mockery of the Belmont clan. I can't wait to see how much he stayed the same, actually.

I'm not sure about N!Alucard turning into a raging mysoginist though. He never made any comment about gender to anyone, from what I remember. He's a cunt to everyone equally. :)

[sebadztian]

Hello!

Do you think the real Ciel might have been poisoning our Ciel to develop asthma, control, and keep his younger brother close? He seemed upset when our Ciel said he wanted to move to London to open a toy and sweets shop. The older brother used to bring food and warm milk with honey to the younger one. Could he have added something to the food? There’s also a moment when the twins were held captive by the cult, living in horrible conditions. Our Ciel should have fallen ill during the first few weeks there, but he didn’t. Why? Perhaps because the real Ciel wasn’t bringing him food and tea anymore. What do you think about this?

In many dramas, manhwas, and mangas, the main character returns to the past to change their fate/future and avoid a tragic end that caused their death. What if Sebastian or Ciel went back in time 3–4 years before the attack on Phantomhive/the demon contract/Ciel’s trauma? What would Sebastian or Ciel do, knowing what the future holds? How would their actions and their relationship with each other change? (This doesn’t involve the manga or anime canon.)

In your story about Sebasciel, are there any cute, jealous, or possessive moments between Ciel and Sebastian? If so, what are they?

In your story about demon Ciel, will there be dramatic, tragic, or emotional moments between Ciel and Sebastian? If so, what kind of moments?

In your opinion, what moments are missing between Ciel and Sebastian that would help them get to know each other better, build trust, and fall in love?

How do your Ciel and Sebastian show possessiveness toward each other?

Hello! Sorry for the delay. Been super busy these days. Anyways...

1. Ah, yes... The theory that r!Ciel is somehow poisoning o!Ciel. Well, in the manga, there's no evidence of it, but I personally think that he didn't knowingly poisoned his brother. Yes, he was upset when he found out that o!Ciel wanted to move to London, but o!Ciel's health was already bad even before that. What I think happened was that they confined him in the manor and the lack of exercise, fresh air, sunlight, etc might've contributed to his poor health. As for why he was 'healthy' during captivity, well, I honestly have no explanation for that. What I'm saying is, there is a possibility that r!Ciel might've poisoned his brother, but there's no evidence that could prove it.

2. Time travel is a very tricky thing. If they did go back in time, what would they do? Would Ciel try to save his family? Probably. He's only human, after all.

The more important question is, what would Sebastian do? I know you said that this is not canon to the manga or the anime, but I don't think Seb would be very happy about it.

In Seb's eyes, what made Ciel's soul so delectable is the darkness within. That darkness was a result from his suffering, which wouldn't have happened if he were to save his family.

Needless to say, if there was no fire, then there would be no cage and sacrifice, and there wouldn't be any contract in the first place.

I think it would make the contract void and as for their relationship, well, there wouldn't be any.

3. Well, in 'The Spare', there was a part when Ciel got jealous of Sebastian's previous masters/mistress. Seb married one of them and Ciel wasn't happy about it. I do love their picnic scenes though. I tried to make those scenes sweet and fluffy.

In 'Learning to Love', Ciel gor jealous of Seb's past hook-ups. And in the recent chapter, he was possessive about his boyfriend when a woman tried to flirt with Sebas. There are lots of sweet and cute moments in this story. Their dates, celebrating each other's birthday, etc.

4. Yes, there will be. Or at least, I hope it would be as dramatic as I imagine it in my head. But I can't tell you anything because it'd be a spoiler for the next installment of the Phantom P. I. series 🤫😉

5. Hm... The tension between them and their power inbalance are what made Kuro, well, Kuro. Canonically, I wouldn't want to change anything between them, but if this were to be a romance, then I'd say they need to stop being so damn stubborn and start acknowledging their feelings for another.

Ciel is afraid of caring, of loving because he feels that he's living in borrowed time and because he's scared that his feelings would make him weak.

Seb is afraid of emotions because... "Demons don't have one". Yet, we've seen him show a wide array of emotions throughout the manga.

6. Ah... Different story has somewhat different Sebaciel dynamics, but mostly, Sebastian is bold in his claim. He's not shy to declare that Ciel was his. Ciel is more reserved about it in public, but he's all about claiming Sebas too, telling him how he's his demon. They sometimes get jealous, and depending on the stage of their relationship, they might not voice it out and sulk instead.

Thanks again for the ask!

[amerricanartwork]

More Love for Lilypad

Hi! To be honest, I don’t know why I’m writing this, I guess because reading everything has moved me more than I probably thought.

I don’t know how much text he let me put

I have read the current Lilypad publication and I honestly loved it, otherwise I would be here writing like an excited silly girl.

How do you connect the story of Luna and No Harassment with Sleeping Beauty (From the Disney movie because the original story is horrible, believe me, you wouldn’t want to use it if it were the original), it’s so beautiful that it moved me and connected me more with the ships. how much I love them and lilypad mainly sadly for my part I don’t see much art from them (I think it happens to me with ships that generally are not so popular or so loved, it happens to me with the message of love from SpearmasterXHunter, Godmode SaintXEnot, lilypad and PebblesXSun )

The topic, I loved reading these ideas that come from your ingenious and beautiful imagination, I want to read more of this and that would be all! Nice day/night :3!

PD: As a warning, I don’t know where I had to send this and I’m sorry if I didn’t have to send it here, and I take this opportunity to say that your ArtiXGourmand is simply beautiful and I adore it!

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Oh my, @amaerumeru, thank you so much for this submission!!

I’m so glad to see someone enjoy those ideas so much, and to hear my essay has inspired some more love for these two sweethearts! Seeing people sympathize at least with the fairytale stuff is a very pleasant surprise!

Regarding the lack of content, I feel you, I’ve had my fair share of rarepairs across my fandoms too (heck, I’m even considering adopting a super rare RW ship right now...), and not being able to find content of them is always pretty rough! Although for me, the struggle doesn’t always come from lacking any content of the ship, but lacking the specific kind of content I want for it. 

Part of the reason why I began that extension of the Lilypad essay by listing the ship tropes I love and particularly explaining the main two was because, to me, how a ship is depicted is just as important as which ship is depicted. It’s so much so I actually won’t like content of a ship I normally love if I don’t like the way the characters are and act within it, or if I don’t like the ideas being shown through the characters enough. 

Both situations exist with Lilypad, and although I can excuse the lack of content as Rain World generally not having much canon ship potential, the portrayal struggle is one I have faced in basically every fandom I’ve been in, where no one seems to really appreciate those traditional dynamics I love with the ships I enjoy the most. Most of the time I still enjoy the content because it’s pretty cute and romantic, and I don’t dislike anything about it enough to cancel out that cuteness/romance factor, but it’s still not what I love most, tailored to what I identify with the greatest; I’ll eat it, but it’s not my favorite flavor. And with the New Year and self-improvement being a common focus this time of year, I figured I’d finally get the courage to take my classic art approach with these themes now; if I can’t find someone else who’s made the content I want, I’ll make it myself (like this sketch I drew up for this post), and just maybe they’ll find me!

And find someone I have! Once again, I’m so glad someone appreciates these older fairytale tropes, and I really do feel inspired to openly make more content including these ideas! I’ve always had a habit of thinking about not just ships, but fiction in general through the lens of the poetic significance characters, scenes, and plot points do or can have, and recently I’ve developed a habit of linking characters and ships back to songs and previous characters from other cartoons (like I did with Sleeping Beauty here), and trust me, if you want more content of this sort, I could both write similar essays deriving these themes within other ships AND make a lot more Lilypad content like this! I mean, after posting that addition I realized somehow forgot to talk about “Once Upon a Dream” specifically and how it so perfectly fits this ship, so I’m already probably gonna do a post and drawing on that sometime soon — !

And one last thing, thanks for liking the Artimand stuff too! Artimand is probably a better example of my “I like this ship in general, but I really wanna see more of these traditional themes in content for it“ attitude, so it’s nice to see that’s enjoyable to other people on some level too!

 Big thanks for the submission, a reason to ramble even more about Lilypad and my favorite ship tropes, and inspiration to make that drawing, Meru! And hey, I love hearing the deeper reasons why other people ship what they do too, so if you ever wanna ramble about your own ships, I’m all ears!

[repapapapa]

My most to least favorite redacted Characters!!

But as we go down the list my thoughts become even more incoherent.

1. Guy:

He’s just a quirky guy. I love me a narrative story down, but Guy is one of those exceptions! Honey’s and Guy’s relationship is so cute and I eat the roommates to lovers trope up. I love the playfulness nature of their bond.

2. Hush:

Love at first listen. I don’t care how morally grey he may be, his storyline is one I cannot wait to watch develop. I love me a cryptid eldritch character who does not understand humanity and is actively learning about humans in order to. RAAAAH

3. Vincent:

If he has zero fans, I’m dead. I was hooked on this character ever since the audio that sets up his character and past.

4. Lasko:

At first it was “ooooh Lasko” as a joke, but bro… I don’t think it’s a joke anymore… Him getting a listener was the best thing because bam! Another side of Lasko that we probably wouldn’t have gotten to see. And to see him grow 🥺 ugh, slay.

5. Milo:

What can I say that is not already known? His latest audio with chef kiss! He and Sweetheart are indeed the moment.

6. Geordie:

As much as it pains me to listen to his audios, I still adore this character. His playlist showing that relationships aren’t rainbows and sunshines and how important consent is.

7. Elliot:

Give them a break pleassseeeee!!! Anyway, I think he’s pretty neat and coo.

8. Avior:

The whole storyline is so good! The fact that he had been tormented by having to watch his lover back in Dahlia, Starlight’s memory being erased, Avior trying not to make history repeat itself by being stand offish. If you look up star crossed lovers you’ll see them under the definition.

9. Vega:

His relationship with Pet, that got me a little. Just a little, but I will not be forgetting what he did to Caelum. 😡

10. Blake:

I just like his suffering. Some angst for my tea

11. David:

I cannot stand his earlier audios but I think his and Angel’s relationship is pretty cute or whatever.

12. Asher:

Meh.

13. Ollie:

I mean… he’s okay.

14. Aaron:

uhm…

15. Sam:

Don’t fight me because I know how you guys like to tussle. He just doesn’t give for me.

16. Porter:

Honk shhoooo, Honk shoooo. 😴

[assassyart]

Odd question.

Who would you say was more unfairly sidelined?

Angela Cross, Sasha Phyronix or Talwyn?

Hmm. That's an interesting one. Sure, I'll bite!

I guess this may be a bit controversial, but I don't really think Angela was "unfairly sidelined" at all. She had her place in the story in Going Commando, a prominent one at that, and despite me thinking her arc kinda sucks in GC, it doesn't erase the fact that her character was basically done after Going Commando. Her one goal was to stop Fizzwidget Qwark from releasing the crazy Protopet.

It's only now with ACiT and RA that Angela actually serves a purpose beyond Going Commando (and even saying that is a stretch, considering the purpose as of right now is just a mix between "where did she go?", "is she a lombax?", and the fact she is presumably with max apogee). She was never *intentionally* sidelined, in my opinion.

Overall, she was just a fan-favorite side character until they accidentally messed up with the whole "last Lombax" thing, and she didn't really seem all that important to the main characters beyond being a girl Ratchet thinks is pretty and wants to impress lol.

The other two, on the other hand... they both have it pretty bad.

Sasha is never brought up after Deadlocked's intro scene until the comics, post-ACiT. Even in the comics, Ratchet and Sasha's relationship is barely touched on, so we don't really have any idea of why they broke up besides that one site that claimed it was because of political differences. Sasha is treated like she wasn't important to the cast when she clearly WAS important to, at the very least, Ratchet. She isn't that important of a character to the story which is why I wouldn't be all that surprised if we don't see her again, but she was still IMPORTANT to a character and that alone means she deserved more than just an offscreen send-off in the comics.

It's like they specifically took Ratchet to a completely different galaxy so they could avoid past characters and introduce new ones, and OH HEEY WAIT A MINUTE, does this kinda sound familiar...?

Because it happened again. That's essentially the same thing that Rift Apart does. To avoid the elephant in the room (Ratchet's important relationships with other characters that would add to his hesitation with risking it all to go find the Lombaxes, i.e. Azimuth, Vendra, Talwyn, Cronk, Zephyr, Tachyon, etc.) they straight up just ignore having to talk about those characters by putting him in a position where they will never realistically be brought up— a different dimension, with new characters.

Despite Into the Nexus cementing Talwyn as an important character and RA being the sequel to Nexus, Rift Apart chooses to play it as safely as possible by vaguely mentioning her in one very easily missable dialogue that is, while cute, not important whatsoever towards Ratchet's inner conflict.

If this was the first time her character was treated like this, it wouldn't be a big deal... but this isn't the first time. She was (allegedly) axed from A Crack in Time, axed from Full Frontal Assault, had her role minimized in Into the Nexus, and was reduced to a credits cameo in Rift Apart. Anytime she DID have screentime, it was rarely spent developing her or her goals, and instead developing Ratchet's character and motivations.

Things do HAPPEN to Talwyn, but they happen so that she can be more relatable to Ratchet, not because it'll benefit her character.

In conclusion: sasha got the worst of it by being completely ignored until the comics because she was too cool and capable and will probably never show up again. angela isn't that bad because she still gets referenced and the door is still wide open for her to be included in a future game whenever IG decides they've had enough fun messing with going commando fans, but i do understand and sympathize with the pain of waiting over twenty years to see her again. aaaaand talwyn is a big ole mess but she's my mess so i love her no matter how many times they cut her from the games :D

[beifong-brainrot]

I watched Korra again for the Weilin but I still Don’t Get It even though I want to!!! Can you give me the rundown/pitch/Weilin 101??

Oh boy I am so sorry I made such a fuss to over weilin you felt like you needed to rewatch the show for it.

So basically, Wei and Bolin don't have many interactions in canon. In fact I would say that there are only two scenes that properly count as one on one interactions. Its also important to note that the only Beifong twin Bolin ever interacts with as a singular person rarher than a pair is Wei. He never interacts with Wing unless he is addressing both twins.

The first interaction between Bolin and Wei is during B3 when Bolin is trying and failing miserably to learn metalbending. Wei seems annoyed to be stuck with someone who doesn't know metalbending and decides to sandwich Bo between two metal plates. As you do.

He then claims that 'trial by fire' is the best way to learn metalbending. Since Wei is such a minor character, we don't know enough about him to be able to fully pinpoint where this action came from. Does Wei genuinely think that bodily harm is the best way to learn a martial art? Was he trying to distract Bolin from his constant failure to bend metal? Was this the equivalent of a puppy biting someone as an attempt to initiate playtime? Is he just a douche?

We will probably never know. Thanks nickelodeon.

Bolin does eventually return the gesture in kind, getting his own petty revenge. And hitting Wei in the head with a pebble.

I like this scene, because it showcases Bolin's pettier side. One that rarely, if ever comes out with his canon romantic interests. Bolin is a character that has a habit of reigning in his less palatable traits, in order to appeal more to the people around him. His petty and more sarcastic nature is reserved mainly for Mako, probably the person he feels most comfortable with.

I think it's a very fun thing to see this side of him flare up with this random guy and it gave me thought about how their relationship could incorporate this. Wei enjoying pressing Bolin's buttons, causing Bolin to showcase more of his more authentic self.

They so seem to both have a passion for sports and earthbending which is cute. They're both competitive which adds some nice flavour and potential spicy sparring scenes.

The next scene is the famed catch n' pat.

Youre gonna tell me this wasn't at least a bit fruity?

The prolonged eye contact? The damsel in distress imagery? Bolin's lil smirk that is soon replaced with bisexual confusiom?

Imo they have a lot of chemisrty in both these scenes and make me want more of their relationship.

I also think it would be very interesting to see Bolin develop feelings for a guy. We see that he puts his female love interests on a certain pedestal. Id assume this is due to a rather naive and innocent view of love, most likely due to the fact that he didn't get to emotionally mature enough to acknowledge that romance isn't like what the fairytales say it is.

It would be interesting to see Bolin not get to 'court' said male romantic interest like he usually does. Bolin wouldn't be as 'showmany' with a guy friend than with a girl he'd like to seduce. This causes an interesting dynamic to the relationship if Bolin were to want to seduce said guy, who has seen him with his guard down.

Also seeing comphet boy Bolin going through a crisis of sexuality because his (ex?) girlfriend's brother patted his face is very appealing to me

I think what entices me in weilin is being able to have a dynamic no other ship could fully offer Bolin. And the potential of character growth it could afford Bolin, a character whose complexity is often overlooked, much to my upset. Personally, I dislike all of Bolin's canon relationships, so when Weilin came chemistry guns a blazing I was very intrigued. And then I fell down the rabbit hole and now im here.

If you have any more questions on Weilin please feel free to ask! I'm over the moon to ramble about them to whoever will listen. Hope this was enough to start you off with.

Also, if you're interested, I have a concerningly long essay on the subject because I am very sane and normal about them:

Rest assured my feelings have since evolved and i now have more reasons to ship them.

I guess there's so much fun to have with this ship and the dynamics and stories they could have.

[bcbdrums]

👛 your favorite rare pair?

♟️a character you feel is overrated?

🤍 a fandom you’ve only recently discovered?

thank you for the ask!! since you didn't specify a fandom, i'm gonna go two.

👛 your favorite rare pair?

For Kim Possible - Ron x Yori. Is it rare? I dunno. I never see it. Maybe it didn't used to be. But maaaaan I think there's SO much incredible character development potential there for Ron. I still think of Ron x Kim as endgame, but...could be interesting to explore the boy figuring out his life without Kim and with someone else for a bit. Ultimately to make him better for Kim. I don't say any of that against Yori, I just don't think she's the one in the end. And I also don't see him dumping Kim for Yori, more a thing of happenstance.

For Soul Eater - This was a hard choice. And I don't want to call a pairing with less attention but clearly an obvious pairing "rare." Like, Ox/Harvar doesn't get much notice but I wouldn't call it rare. So.... here we go. Spirit x Azusa. Hear me out... You've got two extremely driven, hardworking people. They went to school together. You have Azusa who's a bit of a feminist and so would naturally see Spirit's actions in a negative light, since on the surface he appears to treat women as objects at least as a teen, and then there's the drinking too which she likely wouldn't see positively toward academic/career success. Then there's Spirit who is in fact genuinely hardworking despite his faults, and he makes death scythe before her. She probably doesn't think he deserves it. There's also the age difference; Azusa is the youngest (except she's probably older than Sid, but she's younger than Marie and we know Spirit is the oldest so yeah). So Spirit probably did think of her as an annoying bossy tattletale brat. But thinking of them in the anime especially, stuck in the Death Room during those crucial moments... And just her time there in Death City after all those years apart. She'd have gotten to see Spirit shine. He'd have gotten to see her grown up and shining in her role. They're not kids anymore, a lot has changed, and they have so much in common now... This would be a wild one. This one would be hard work. This isn't some fall into lust/infatuation romance. This would be a relationship built on respect over time. But I can see it... There's some great art of this ship on the blog "Illogicat" sorry I can't tag it.

♟️a character you feel is overrated?

For Kim Possible - Wade Load. He's just the deus ex machina guy. He exists to give Kim a magical way out, and there's nothing else to him... Well, actually I see a LOT of villain potential in him. But in terms of people acting like he's an important main character... Well, yeah, I guess. Kim would have died many times over if not for him. But that's all he does... A quick phone call, magically he's already put exactly what she needs in her backpack without her knowledge somehow for that exact predicament that no one knew she'd be in... Yes, it's a cartoon, this is part of the humor, I get it. But the only real he interest he holds for me are his villainous tendencies that show up at times. But in his assigned role... Sorry, he ain't nothing.

For Soul Eater - Crona comes to mind first... I likely wouldn't have thought so if not for the fandom obsession, but it's like... There's not much to Crona? Crona is sort of a....blank slate. For self-projection. Yeah... All Crona ever seems to get noticed for is "cute when shipped with Maka" and never acknowledged for the things that matter like, abuse by parent/"sibling" and madness (serious, serious mental health issues here) and we could use Crona to talk about those topics in ways that matter. I'm not saying it's not valid to make a ship cute because you like cute, absolutely nothing wrong with that. But there's other issues (I briefly addressed in a prior ask maybe even today actually) and it's just... Crona could be so important. But that's never what I see in fandom. Overrated for the wrong things, underrated for the right things. (And like, the fandom targeting random ppl who haven't read the manga to tell them it's bad cuz you don't like Crona's ending... Come on, fandom.) I'm keeping this extremely brief for the sake of post-length.

🤍 a fandom you’ve only recently discovered?

It's been some months now, but, Psycho-Pass. 😌 I have a Soul Eater crossover fic to thank for this (my GOSH if any characters ever belonged in another universe.... SE chars belong in Pyscho-Pass my GOSH). I'm stalled on season 3 though because there's no dub and I haven't had the energy for the sub in months.... But I've been itching to get back to it and heh I just may have energy now...

Psycho-Pass is an anime crime drama. Pretty gory actually, so for me I do have to look away from the screen at times (also - two SE voice actors star as the main characters!). Each season/movie jumps to a different point in time, but it's all one big connected story in the end. Season 1 is the best (so far) and my goodness... The themes are mature. If you enjoy deeply intellectual shows, you'll enjoy this. It's also a lot of mystery. I like the animation style too, it's really stunning.

Here have some amazing Soul Eater x Psycho-Pass crossover art because IT'S AWESOME.

[ravenya003]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Prophecy Girl, S01E12

It has taken me SO LONG to get to this episode, so my bad. Maybe on some level I just didn’t want to finish season one, as there’s a unique vibe about it that disappears once we hit season two, and never really returns. Maybe it’s the grainy quality of the film, or the tinkling piano music, or the dodgy special effects, or the cute little baby-ness of the cast...

In any case, “Prophecy Girl” serves as a great finale for the seasonal arc, and would have made for a decent conclusion to the show in its entirety, had it not been renewed for a second season (which many thought might be the case at the time). It’s terrifying to think that these days, the show probably wouldn’t have advanced beyond this season before getting cancelled.

After the “previously on,” which namedrops the Master and the Codex and so on, we open with Xander trying to ask someone out. This is fitting considering his role in the episode (I’d argue it’s just as much his coming-of-age story as it is Buffy’s) and the reveal that he’s just practicing on Willow.

This also neatly sets up Willow’s arc across the episode. Although she’s given less to do than the other two members of this particular love triangle, her development from sappily pretending that Xander is talking to her, to turning down his invitation to go to the dance with him after Buffy rejects him, is an important stepping stone for her.

It’s also incredibly insensitive that Xander is using Willow in this way, as “The Pack” revealed that he’s not completely oblivious to her feelings for him, but hey – they have to start him in an immature place so he can man-up later. Heroism always shines brighter when it comes from someone you know is capable of being a lot worse.

Buffy is out slaying (at this point they’re still calling it “hunting” instead of “patrolling” which is amusing) and a little perturbed by the number of vampires that are out and about. Nearby, Cordelia and her latest toyboy Kevin are trying to make out in a parked car, but she can hear noises outside.

I’m not entirely sure what the point of this scene was, especially since nothing is done with the clichéd “hey, did you hear something?”/“it's nothing, baby” set-up (you’d expect this show to have the male character getting anxious and the female character getting out of the car to take a look around) but hey... Cordelia is here.

Back at Sunnydale High, Giles is studying the Pergamum Codex in the library. There I was, appreciating the moody piano music and the slow panning shot and the reading montage and thinking about how shows back then were confident enough to take their time setting the scene – and then I realized the emphasis on the skylight was to establish it as an important location that the Master will eventually be thrown through.

But that’s not until later; right now Giles is reading the relevant passages and not liking what they’re telling him. “The Master shall rise, and the Slayer shall...” We don’t hear what comes next, as this is the moment that an earthquake hits.

I recall earthquakes being used at least one more time (in season four?) as a harbinger of the end times, but this is really the only apocalypse in the show's whole duration that gets all the ominous signs and portents. I suppose after this, the end of the world became a little ho-hum given the gang were dealing with one in every season finale (and sometimes in the mid-season finale).

We get a montage of everyone reacting: Giles in the library, Buffy in the park, Cordelia and Kevin in their car, Willow and Xander amidst panicking patrons at the Bronze. Random note, but I love montages of character reactions to big events across a large area. Remember in the first episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, when people all over the world were reacting to the signs of Aang’s return? That was cool.

The best response comes from the Master, who is ranting and raving about his coming glory... and then asks the Anointed One: “what do you think, a 5.1?”

HAHAHA. I honestly think that’s one of my favourite gags in the entire show, and definitely a quintessential Master line. I know he’s considered one of the least interesting Big Bads, but I’ll always love that excitable droll humour.

That said, an earthquake that causes cracks and fissures to appear in the library walls would have been much bigger than a 5.1. Take it from a Christchurch girl.

Buffy arrives at the library the following morning and Giles reacts oddly to her appearance. Yup, whatever he read in that Codex was pretty bad. It’s kinda crazy to consider they were all worried about an invisible girl just last week.

Later that day the trio emerge from class and Xander makes his move, instructing Willow to leave. She really is a saint for putting up with all this nonsense.

His invitation to the dance ends about as well as you’d expect: Buffy lets him down as gently as possible, but it’s obvious (and has been from the inception of their relationship) that he’s just not her type. It hurts, but for my money, he handles the rejection reasonably well... until the subject of Angel comes up. DUDE. That is none of your business. The “I can wait” comment doesn’t go down too well with me either.

Now look, I’m not going to defend Xander for his behaviour here, but I do think what we see is a. the realistic reaction of a teenage boy, and b. an interaction that was not as bad as it could have been. He’s honest and straightforward with his intentions. Buffy makes herself clear, and he accepts it. Not very gracefully, but he does.

I’ve said before that I think Joss Whedon doomed Xander when he revealed that he considered this character to be the one most based on himself, which means that a lot of the later revelations about Whedon were retrospectively projected onto Xander. But Xander Harris is a much better human being than Joss Whedon, and it’s important on a narrative level that he feels the sting of rejection and responds with a level of petulance and entitlement. It serves as a contrast to his later behaviour when he seeks out Angel for assistance AFTER Buffy has refused him, without expecting anything in return. 

In any case, I feel bad for him in this scene, and I think he avoids the worst of the Nice Guy tendencies that are often attributed to him. If it weren’t for him bringing up Angel, I wouldn’t have had a huge problem with anything he does in the scene.

Giles is on the phone, and as we later find out he’s talking to Angel, I think it’s amusing that he identifies him as “Giles” and then clarifies “Rupert Giles.” Are we meant to infer that Angel knows more than one Giles? It’s also of interest to me that Giles knows how to contact Angel. Did they swap phone numbers at some point?

Jenny Calendar (yay!) listens in on the conversation, and rattles off a list of weird occurrences that she’s noticed on the internet: a cat giving birth to a litter of snakes, a family that were swimming in a lake when it started to boil, and a child born with his eyes in back-to-front. And again – what’s with all these crazy portents? Does shit like this happen every apocalypse? Because we never really hear about stuff like this again, even though that’s a LOT for a relatively self-contained averted-apocalypse that ultimately doesn’t even disturb the dance going on a few blocks away. For most of Sunnydale, it would have just been an ordinary night.

Another iconic line: “I’d say the end is most seriously nigh.” Classic Jenny.

She goes on to say that she’s receiving emails from a monk called Brother Luca, who is sending out prophecies concerning someone called the Anointed One (this is presumably the prophecy from the “Never Kill a Boy On The First Date” episode, about how “the Slayer will not know him, will not stop him, and he will lead her into Hell.”) Giles asks her to contact Luca for more information.

If you’ve been reading these reviews of mine, you’ll know that sometimes I fixate on minutia, and in this case: who is this Brother Luca? What did he know about the Anointed One? Why did he disappear? It’s kind of a shame the writers didn’t keep him in their back pocket, as it would have made for a cool bit of continuity if they’d ever needed an Exposition Guy.

We get a seemingly pointless scene in which Cordelia and Kevin act all cutesy-poo about the upcoming dance, followed by Cordelia spotting Willow and asking her to hook up the sound system at the Bronze, but it does set up a lot of plot-points: that Cordelia and Willow are on speaking terms (which makes her saving of Willow and Jenny less random), that Cordelia has got a good thing going with Kevin (which makes his death all the more tragic), that the AV room is a place that exists (where the massacre happens), and that Cordy is expecting to see Kevin at the Bronze that night (she won’t though).

So much is packed into a brief transitory scene – I mean, that’s actually kind of impressive.

Willow spots Xander in an empty classroom, throwing a ball against the wall. He’s stroppy, she’s mildly sympathetic, but when he pivots and asks her to the dance instead, she refuses him. No way is she going to spend the evening watching him wish that he was with Buffy. Good for her! And Xander, stop taking her for granted!

For some reason, the next scene takes place after dark. I say “for some reason” because the school day is over and yet a handful of students seem to be just leaving, including Buffy, who ducks into the bathroom and turns on the facet to find the sink filling with blood instead of water.

She heads into the library to tell Giles, only to discover him and Angel in a heated conversation. She catches the tail-end of the argument, which is that Buffy is prophesied to meet the Master, and to die at his hands.

Before we get to Buffy’s reaction, there’s a nice line from Giles in which he says: “some prophecies are dodgy; mutable – Buffy herself has thwarted them time and time again.” It’s clever because he’s presumably referring to the prophecy of the Anointed One and the fact that they all THINK she avoided it when she killed Andrew Borba... even though we the audience know that the Anointed One was never Borba at all, but Collin, and he’s still very much alive.

So for us at least, thwarting a prophecy is off the table. It has never actually happened.

This leads to a great scene from Sarah Michelle Gellar, probably the one that made everyone sit up and think – “damn, She Really Can Act.” She goes through hysteria, numbness, anger, tears, defiance. She rejects the call, throws books at Giles, and yanks off the crucifix from around her neck. It’s really beautifully done, and I think my favourite part is her quiet little: “do you think it’ll hurt?” That one hits really hard.

(Quick note: she dramatically throws away the crucifix in this scene, and yet I totally missed her retrieving it again, even though I noticed she was wearing it when she goes to face the Master. I’m assuming she picks it up from the floor when she clocks Giles?)

Her solution to the problem is simple: she quits. Screw the world, she’s saving her own skin. I can’t say I blame her.

A quick scene depicts the Master sending the Anointed One out of the buried church to fulfil his destiny (not that this destiny amounts to much, and it’s a bit premature since another day passes before Collin makes his move. What was he doing for those twenty-four hours?)*

Elsewhere, Willow tries to check in with Xander, but he’s not answering his phone – too busy wallowing in self-pity and listening to country music. Buffy goes home and starts thumbing through a photo album, and hey – remember these things? How each page had sticky lines across them which were covered in a clear film, and it was an absolute nightmare to line up the photos and then smooth down the film without crinkling them?

These things were THE WORST.

Joyce comes in and Buffy pitches a weekend getaway with just the two of them, only for her mum to open the wardrobe and reveal a surprise white prom dress. It’s all very virgin sacrifice, but Joyce encourages her to go to the dance stag.

(Another quick note: Sarah Michelle Gellar can still fit into this thing!)

In another good line, in which Joyce manages to unconsciously tap into the theme of the episode, she responds to Buffy’s insistence she can’t go to the dance with: “says who? Is it written somewhere? You can do what you want.” Then she shares a story about how she went to a dance by herself during college and ended up meeting Buffy’s dad. It’s all very sweet, and a reminder that things at least started out good between Joyce and Hank.

The following morning Cordelia is complaining to Willow about how Kevin never turned up at the Bronze last night to help her with the decorations for the dance, but is uncharacteristically okay about it. They reach the AV room and look though the window in the door to see a group of boys watching cartoons – but on unlocking the door, the reality of the situation is gruesomely revealed: everyone inside, including Kevin, is dead.

Willow steps inside as Cordelia screams, her eyes on a bloody handprint smeared across the television screen, upon which animated piglets are dancing around. That shot strikes me as very Whedon.

So, we need to talk about Kevin. The episode had only a very short amount of time to establish him as a murder victim whose death we would be sadder about than usual, and... well, it doesn’t really work. It’s mostly attained through Cordelia being considerably warmer and softer toward him than she has been toward her other boytoys (her biggest concern about Mitch being hit in the face by a baseball bat last episode was that he’d look terrible in the prom photos) but after Kevin's body is discovered she never mentions him again!

It's a wonder they didn’t just use Mitch, though I suppose he’d already been characterized as a douche and no one would really care if he’d been the one who was killed.

Buffy is trying on her dress when Joyce bursts in, saying: “there’s something on the news – Willow.” I know she’s frantic, but this some weird phrasing: it makes it sound like Willow herself was on the news, even though think the idea is that Joyce has seen the massacre on the television and Willow has just called up on the phone in relation to it.

We get nothing of the news coverage, nothing on the parents of the deceased, nothing from Snyder... yeah, I know the episode has got to hurry along, but sometimes you need to sit with these horrors for a while, or at least get a better grasp of their ramifications.

In this case, we only get to see Willow’s shock and grief, though Alyson Hannigan also plays it really beautifully. If nothing else, you do get a sense that this atrocity is different somehow: "I'm not okay. I can't imagine what it's like to be okay. I knew those guys. I go to that room every day. And when I walked in there, it was... It wasn't our world anymore. They made it theirs. And they had fun."

With that, Buffy’s sense of duty and responsibility comes surging back, and I like that Willow was the impetus for it. Until Dawn came along, I think Willow was the person most emblematic of the people that Buffy was protecting, and as she doesn’t get much else to do this episode, I like that she provides this push for Buffy to step up – and she’s not so distracted that she doesn’t hear the sense of finality in Buffy’s final words: “take care.”

*(Another aside: okay, so I watched the episode last night, but have been writing out this post while referring to the shooting script as well as my own notes. And as it turns out, THIS is the point where the Master sends out the Anointed One on his semi-pointless mission to lead the Slayer into Hell, which does account for his whereabouts on the night of the Master’s escape, eliminating the question of where he disappears to for those extra twenty-four hours.

In the final cut of the episode, he doesn’t leave a day early, though in the shooting script, he spends that time visiting Angel at his apartment, warning him not to interfere with the Master’s plans, and suitably cowling Angel into submission. This explains why he’s just loafing around his apartment when Xander goes to rope him in on the rescue mission, and it’s a shame that scene was cut. It helps explain a lot).

Back at the library, Jenny neatly sums up the stakes, but Brother Luca has apparently disappeared, leaving only a Bible verse as his final missive: “The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.”

Giles makes the HUGE leap that this is referring to the Anointed One, and that he wasn’t Andrew Borba after all, but a little child. I mean, he’s right, but that’s quite a conclusion to draw on the basis of a vague Biblical verse from a monk he’s never met before. During all this, Giles has been gathering weapons, now determined to go and face the Master by himself.

But that’s Buffy’s cue to arrive, and we get yet another banger of a line. After she punches Giles in the face and knocks him unconscious, she tells Jenny: “When he wakes up, tell him... I don't know. Think of something cool, tell him I said it.” HAH! (Though it does make we wonder if Jenny did come up with something cool to tell Giles when he regained consciousness).

Jenny reminds her that if she faces the Master, she’ll die, and Buffy responds that perhaps at least she’ll get the chance to take him down with her.

Outside, the Anointed One is waiting with a pitiful little “help me,” but Buffy overheard enough of Jenny and Giles’s conversation to know that it’s a scam. She’s not fooled, and takes his hand to be led away.

And there are still so many unanswered questions about this kid. What if they’d never figured out who he really was and he actually had to trick Buffy into following him? How would that have worked? It could have been quite interesting if her compassion had led her into a trap.

Was this kid even a vampire in the end? If so, why doesn’t she stake him? There’s simply not enough time for a satisfying conclusion here.

Unsurprisingly, Willow noticed there was something odd about Buffy’s demeanour, and Xander is called in. They reach the library and not only find out about the prophecy, but that Buffy has gone off by herself to face the Master. As Giles testily states: “as the soon-to-be purple area on my jaw will indicate, I did not LET her go.”

As Xander rushes out with an idea to assist Buffy, Jenny reminds Giles and Willow that the Hellmouth is due to open with the Master’s release. (Why? Unclear. It’s just end of the world stuff, I guess).

On my initial watch of this episode, I was surprised to discover that Angel is just lounging around his apartment instead of keeping tabs on Buffy. Then (as mentioned above) I discovered that in a deleted scene, the Anointed One visits him and warns him off getting involved. With that explanation gone, I suppose it tracks that the last Angel saw of Buffy was her heading for the hills, so perhaps he just assumed she was safe and chose to wait for the end of the world in the comfort of his own place.

But Xander is here to relieve him of that luxury, demanding that he take him to the Master’s hideout. Angel is initially bemused by Xander’s determination to try and help... and perhaps a little humbled by it as well. This human kid is prepared to go after Buffy, so why isn’t he?

And we get the whole: “you’re in love with her”/”aren’t you?” exchange. As a teenage girl, that was a Big Deal, and we’re witness to the first of the show’s many, many unlikely alliances. They’re doing this for Buffy.

(Still, doesn’t Angel’s ability to reach the underground church negate the role of the Anointed One a little? “He will lead her into Hell,” or through the sewers to a subterranean cave, whatever).

Throughout all this, there’ve been scenes of Buffy following Collin through the expansive sewer system beneath Sunnydale. She’s wearing that white dress/black jacket combo which... look, I know it’s iconic, but it’s also so damn impractical. And she’s armed with nothing but a flimsy little crossbow? Takes some stakes, girl!

Topside, Jenny is asking the sensible questions: like where is the Hellmouth meant to open exactly? And it’s funny because I had totally forgotten that this was a reveal!! Part of me assumed that everyone always knew it was under the library, and that it ended up being a surprise twist was rather mind-boggling.

I like how it’s handled though: after Jenny points out that it has to open somewhere, they come up with the not-unreasonable conclusion that it’s under the Bronze. That’s where the vampires went to gather victims for the Harvest, after all. It’s a wrong but logical conclusion to draw, and as a result, Jenny and Willow head out to warn people attending the Spring Fling.

Meanwhile, Buffy and the Master come face-to-face. After some cat-and-mousing, “feeble banter,” and Buffy trying to get in a good shot, the Master reveals he’s got some hypnosis abilities (er, okay?) and gets her in his grasp.

I love a good old Prophecy Twist/Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, and this is a two-for-one! As the Master says himself: “Prophecies are tricky creatures, they don’t always tell you everything.” Before he drinks Buffy’s blood, he gleefully points out that if Buffy hadn’t come to stop him from leaving, he wouldn’t have been given access to her Slayer blood, which grants him enough power to break through the magical barrier that contains him. (How’d the Master know this though? Did he have a copy of the Codex lying around?)

But more importantly, the Master (and the prophecy) was not counting on the fact that Buffy doesn’t work alone. After the Master has taken his fill of her blood and drops her into a nearby pool of water, he leaves for the surface world... just before Angel and Xander arrive.

Buffy is certifiably dead. Somewhere out there, Kendra is called.

Ascertaining that she’s gone, but also that the cause of death is drowning, Angel announces he can’t give Buffy CPR – he has no breath in his lungs. So that’s Xander’s cue to step up.

Now, a couple of things. As people have consistently pointed out since this episode first aired, Angel does in fact breathe. It’s required in order to speak. Furthermore, there’s no reason why being undead can’t prevent a person from inhaling and exhaling, even if it’s not necessary for them to do so (as established in “Out of Sight, Out of Mind,” when Angel was able to enter the gas-filled boiler room without harm).

This has led some to presume that Angel simply didn’t know how to perform CPR. To which I say no – no, no, no. That explanation is to entirely miss the point of this scene, which is that only a living person can save Buffy’s life. More to the point, only her recently rejected friend can do so, over the superpowered vampire love interest.

This is like, the very crux of the show in its entirety. Friendship is what saves Buffy’s life, not romantic love. She is a special Slayer, who lives as long as she does, because she surrounds herself with worthy friends that care about her. In this case, Xander is a good enough person to rush to her aid after she’s rejected him (I mean, of course he is. He wouldn’t be a worthwhile character if he wasn’t).

And so, I am completely open to a bit of lore that prohibits Angel from performing CPR because he is undead, and therefore his breath has no mystical vitality or life-giving qualities to it. He could have hypothetically blown air into Buffy’s lungs, but it would not have brought her back. The only person who could have done this was Xander; her friend and not her love interest. That was the whole point.

(The whole thing also provides a very neat bookend with the very last episode of Angel, in which his vampirism is the only thing that allows him to get the upper hand over Marcus Hamilton after he drinks the man’s blood and imbibes himself with its power).

While all this is going down, Willow and Jenny have tried to reach the latter’s car, only for them to release that the Bronze is not the target this time around – it’s the school. They’re soon surrounded by vampires, though luckily it’s Cordelia to the rescue! She drives up in her car and they all pile in.

Another favourite trope of mine is when a bunch of characters scream at the same time – which is what Willow, Cordelia and Jenny do when a vampire lands on the roof of the car. Cordelia floors it and drives straight through the school entrance to the library, where they’re soon trying to bar the door against the onslaught of vampires.

Giles joins them (“what’s happening?” “GUESS!”) and they’re all so busy trying to fend the vampires off that they miss the tentacle sliding across the floor...

Above them, the Master steps out onto the school rooftop and looks out over lights of Sunnydale, his new kingdom.

Just when it seems hopeless, Buffy opens her eyes. What happened while she was “away”? Did she have an afterlife experience? I only ask because as she gets up, she states that: “I feel strong, I feel different.” It's interesting line, but not one that’s ever explained in any subsequent episode. Much like Obi Wan Kenobi’s “if you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine,” it’s never given any meaningful context.

(My pet theory is that like the snowfall in “Amends,” Buffy’s newfound strength and ability to sense the location of the Master is something of a gift from the Powers That Be, a little extra oomph that she needs to save the day. If nothing else, it explains why she’s not caught by the Master’s hypnotism a second time, whilst Kendra eventually falls to a similar trick at Drusilla’s hands. From this point on, Buffy is a special Slayer and not just because she’s surrounded by a support team).

There’s a great cut between Cordelia screaming “somebody help!” to Buffy marching towards the school, flanked by Angel and Xander, to the sound of her very own theme music – the first and only time this particular music plays during the course of an actual episode.

Things go from bad to worse when one of the tentacles of the Hellmouth demon wraps itself around Willow’s leg, the monster itself emerging seconds later. Three heads! Rows of teeth! Loads more tentacles!

Things wrap up pretty quickly after this, and I don’t want it to come across as anticlimactic, but... Buffy confronts the Master on the roof,  defies his next attempt at hypnosis, notices that a table leg is sticking up from the library floor where the Hellmouth beast has shattered it, and hefts the Master over her head, through the skylight, and down to his death below, impaling him on the conveniently-situated table leg.

The Hell-beast is sucked back from whence it came, the vampires disperse, and our heroes slowly convene on the floor of the library, looking down at the (unseen to the audience) remains of the Master. There’s a nice Buffy/Giles moment, when the latter acknowledges his Slayer’s tenacity, and Jenny is again the only one talking sense, asking what they should do about the Master.

Buffy looks very shaken and tearful, which is only to be expected, and we’ll see a great deal more of the aftermath of this experience next season. But then Xander reminds them there’s a party going on nearby, and they all opt for some cathartic downtime amongst the living.

They file out, chattering among themselves, and the camera slowly pans back to the Master... now just a picked-clean skeleton on the floor of the library.

Finis.

That was that: the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It’s a solid run of episodes, one that alternated between the “high school is hell” metaphor and the overarching story of the Master and his attempts at breaking free of his metaphysical prison. We were introduced to our five leads, as well as a supporting cast that will stick around for years to come: Angel, Harmony, Snyder, Jenny Calendar, Joyce Summers...

In the grand tradition of final episodes, the story has our heroes break up into groups and then all converge on a single location to fight off the baddies. With that, the seasonal Big Bad is defeated, everyone gets some decent character development (Xander pushes through rejection to do the right thing, Willow is less of a doormat, Cordelia helps out the Scoobies, Angel finds his courage) and the set is trashed.

Out of all the characters, Willow maybe fared the worst in what her character actually did in this episode. Alyson Hannigan got that great “I’m not okay” scene, but after that she just calls up Xander and gets damselled when the Hellmouth creature grabs a hold of her. Angel wasn’t that useful either, his contribution simply being to lead Xander where he needs to go.

But everyone else does great: Giles letting his paternal instincts show, Cordelia’s big rescue with her car, Jenny making important suggestions, and of course Xander’s crowning moment: saving Buffy’s life. Even Joyce gets a really sweet scene, though she remains oblivious as to what’s really going on.

There is an old-school charm to season one; I know a lot of people think it’s one of the lesser seasons, and yet for me, those first three years of Buffy when the show was set at high school was the show at its quintessence. Am I using that word correctly? You should know what I mean. The later seasons had their ups and downs, but those high school years were something special.

Miscellaneous Observations:

The show never again delves into the concept of fate and prophecy after this episode (as stated, none of the other apocalypses come with anything like this amount of omens and portents, let alone any prophecies) but it’s always interesting to see how any given story will handle the subject of “as it is written” destiny.

It’s essentially a golden rule of storytelling that prophecies must be immutable. You can find twists or loopholes in the wording (as they did here) but the basics of the prediction have to be accurate, otherwise what’s the point of even including it in the first place? If a prophecy states: “you will meet your destiny in London” and then the subject of that prophecy never goes to London during the course of the story, it had no narrative purpose whatsoever.

You have a prophecy so you can engage with said prophecy.

Even the Anointed One, which the gang thought Buffy had successfully dealt with back in “Never Kill a Boy on the First Date” ended up playing out exactly as the prophecy stated; perhaps as foreshadowing that this one was also unavoidable. And it was. Buffy died.

(Interestingly, she also dies at the Master’s hands in “The Wish,” which means that the prophecy was going to be fulfilled no matter what timeline Buffy was in).

But what the prophecy didn’t count on was that the Slayer would have a friend that followed her into danger and resuscitated her. And to me, this is the beating heart of the show in its entirety. It is the central theme and core subject of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

In any other supernaturally-themed, fairy tale-tinged story such as this, it would have been the broody and tortured love interest that gets to administer True Love’s Kiss to awaken the sleeping princess in a white gown. But here, it’s subverted. It’s the friend who the princess rejected earlier in the episode who wakes her up, and it’s not a kiss that saves her, but CPR.

(There’s also a sort of poetry in the fact that Xander “kisses” Buffy in this episode - the proverbial kiss of life - but it’s entirely chaste and platonic. It reminds me of how Han Solo was the only one to never see Leia in the slave-girl bikini, because he was blind the whole time).

Somehow, this specific example of playing around with the familiar tropes and expectations of how a scenario like this usually plays out is the essence of what Buffy the Vampire Slayer is as a story.

Prophecy wins, because it always wins, and yet it doesn’t win, because Buffy does things differently and surrounds herself with friends that help her.

On that note, Buffy is also spurred to take action by Willow’s personal grief over the massacre and her mother (unknowingly) telling her: “where is that written? You should do what you want.” Again, it is Buffy’s human connections that push her into action.

But while we’re on the subject of prophecy, I’m left wondering (as I always am when it comes to prophecies) about who wrote them. Who was behind the Pergamum Codex? That Aurelius guy? Giles says it contains: “the most complete prophecies about the Slayer in the final years,” so... does it mention anything about Angelus or Acathla or the Mayor’s Ascension? Or did it just stop because it wrongly assumed the world ended with Buffy’s death?

Giles also states: “there is nothing in it that does not come to pass.” Like what? I would have appreciated a couple of examples! Does it talk about other Slayers in the past? And what happens to it afterwards? Look, I know that it’s just a plot-point, but I’m powerfully curious about this sort of thing!

As stated, this was a very self-contained apocalypse, to the point where nobody outside the Scooby Gang even realized it was happening. All those creepy portents, and for what?

Speaking of, I wonder how that boy who was born with his eyeballs in backwards is doing? I think about these things.

I know the Hellmouth monster makes a reappearance in season three, but I was always kind of disappointed that the activated Potentials didn’t fight it in “Chosen.” Tell me that would not have been cool, especially if it had grown exponentially bigger by that point. And yes, I realize it was probably a budgetary thing.

This is not the first or the last time that the subject of a Slayer’s blood and its innate power comes up, so I’m going to have to keep my eye on how it’s used regarding the creation of Dawn and the activating of the Hellmouth seal in later seasons. I’m pretty sure it’s mentioned again, but don’t think they ever delve into it all that deeply, which is a shame.

I liked that the hide-and-seek hunt that Buffy has with the Master in his lair was reminiscent of her dream in “Nightmares.”

So, what exactly was the plan when the vampires attacked the school? They were clearly heading for the Hellmouth... but for what purpose?

Xander confronting Angel in his apartment and brandishing the crucifix would have been a great place for a Jesse reference. Just saying.

I noticed that Cordelia namedrops Aura – she was the popular girl who discovered the dead guy stuffed into her locker in the pilot episode.

Xander tells Buffy: “I want to dance with you.” Be careful what you wish for, dude.

As mentioned, the shooting script had some interesting tidbits that were cut, most notably the Anointed One going to visit Angel’s apartment to warn him against interfering. There also would have been a rain of pebbles directly after Xander’s thwarted attempt to ask out Buffy, more details concerning Jenny Calendar’s litany of portents (notably, that the snake-birthing cat ate its owner, two people were killed in the boiling lake, and that they all happened within three miles of Sunnydale) and the Anointed One watching the Master die from a distance, and then head off into the darkness by himself. I wonder if any of this was shot, or if it was cut early on.

In a season where the tagline might as well have been “high school is hell,” the Master wasn’t really a metaphor for anything; just a Nosferatu-type vampire king who's big and scary and rather impersonal. Technically his greatest contribution to the show was triggering Buffy’s PTSD, which we don’t get into until next season.

Still, I thought Mark Metcalf nailed both the physical threat and the droll humour of the character, and for a Starter Villain, he was exactly what the story required. I’m always chuffed when he pops up in flashbacks later on in the show.

Probably the biggest letdown in the episode is the Anointed One, whose grand destiny (“he will lead her into Hell”) amounts to escorting Buffy down through the sewers. Heck, Angel could have done that. An entire episode was given over to the twist that the Anointed One was actually a child, indicating that he was going to be a big deal, and then... he wasn’t.

Also, the way in which Giles realizes they killed the wrong vampire was very weaksauce. A Bible passage emailed out by a random monk leads him to the conclusion that the Anointed One was a child? Really? They don’t even connect the dots with the bus accident and say: “yes, there was a child called Collin on that bus whose body is unaccounted for.”

If they’d played it differently, it could have been milked for maximum drama – like, say if Angel had figured it out during his little subplot in “Out of Mind, Out of Sight” and broken the news to Giles after he reads the Codex prophecy about Buffy’s death, confirming that prophecies are in fact, immutable.

(Except that the Anointed One prophecy said that: “the Slayer will not know him.” But she DID recognize him when he appeared to her as a lost little boy. Perhaps it was referring to the mix-up with Andrew Borba).

I loved the vibe between Angel and Giles. Even though Giles LOOKS older, Angel has a few hundred years on him, and they talk as equals and peers as a result. I really missed this dynamic when Angel headed off into his own spin-off.

In many ways, this episode belonged to Buffy and Xander. It opens with him trying to ask her out, and ends with him accepting that it’s not going to happen. His feelings for Buffy make him a jerk in the first half of the episode, and those very same feelings turn him into a hero for the second half.

Buffy and Willow are the most important people in his life, and this is an important stepping stone in regards to his relationship with each of them: the former has made her feelings clear, and the latter has decided to stop being a doormat around him.

That’s important for Willow too. At the start of this season she probably would have gone with him to the dance as his second choice – now Buffy (ironically, her love rival) has shown her that she’s worth more.

As for Buffy, I love the fact that even though she summoned her courage and did what was right, she’s not rewarded with moral certitude or a sense of “I did what was right” accomplishment. Instead, the next season takes the opportunity to demonstrate how badly shaken she was by the events of this episode, and the detrimental effect that has on her friends.

Best Line: SO MANY. I suppose I have to go with “tell him... I don’t know, think of something cool and tell him I said it.” A quintessential Buffy quote, though sometimes I wonder whether Jenny DID come up with something cool and passed it onto Giles when he woke up.

Best Scene: Again, so many. I think I covered most of them in the recap.

Best Subversion: Well, I’ve already been over it. When the “fairy tale” ambiance of Buffy’s death is flipped on its head, and it’s not the romantic dark prince but the dorky rejected friend that saves her life – not with true love’s kiss, but good old CPR.

Biggest Disappointment: That the Anointed One didn't really amount to much.

Death Toll: One on-screen vampire, Kevin and the other students (five in total) in the AV room, and finally the Master himself.

Grand Total: Twenty civilians, seventeen villains, one ally.

[kerubimcrepin]

Episode 20 - My Friend Bashi (Part 2)

He's been fishing since childhood. Friends, I cannot do this blog anymore. It's too cute.

This is the face of the boy who is very happy about his position in the temple and serving God Ecaflip personally.

I never mentioned it before, since it's always very hard to see, but even as a child Kerubim already has one very prominent and big scar. Perhaps the result of whatever killed the entire Crepin family? Some other incident, like a fight at the temple? Either way, very interesting.

Well, Bashi, Kerubim shouldn't tell you this either, but the Ecaflip temple is his dad's too.

He's so trusting it's killing me. (Edit from the future: Bashi saying he has a scale and can't walk suggests a lot about Joris's future, as a person who, too, can grow scales. Imagine having to be like "my socks are uncomfortable today. Because of the scales.".. Yeah I am insane.)

The lie he tells to Bashi is a direct response to the lie Bashi himself told, and perhaps an attempt to stay peers.

I mean, he doesn't have parents AND he doesn't have magic. What if Bashi thinks he's too lame to be friends with?

Here are the flash frames. They got their butts whooped.

Yesss Ecaflip, shame your 5-9 year old for getting beaten up and robbed! Threaten to kill him too while you're at it! Girl slayyy :))))

Maybe Oropo was right. Maybe we should kill and dethrone the gods.

One may observe, that while Kerubim never explicitly condemns Ecaflip, he tries his best to be the opposite type of parent than him. He tries his best to raise Joris's self-esteem to insane levels, and, due to the insane power imbalance he felt in his relationship with Ecaflip, he treats Joris not as a lesser and a child, but as a fellow peer.

I think he's scared of being a bad father, and I think he's scared of being like Ecaflip. Not that he would ever say that out loud. Because Ecaflip is a God, and can, realistically, come and smite him.

There are parts of his childhood he internalized, and never examined: he implicitly expects and encourages Joris to help and serve him and his emotional needs, as an assistant and confidante, despite treating him as a peer.

It's not a necessarily harmful thing. Neither is Kerubim treating Joris like a peer. Being trusted with the house from a very young age helps develop very necessary skills for adulthood. Being treated like a person with opinions is very important for children. I think overall, in terms of the way he treats Joris, Kerubim is as good of a father as he can be.

But sometimes, it feels like he saw some of the things that were wrong with his childhood and decided to swing in the completely opposite fucking direction, and in the process, crashed into a fucking wall.

Anyway, if this happened to Joris, he would go outside and beat those kids himself or something. (But, only gently. He wouldn't hit a child.)

The face of a boy who is very happy about his position in the temple and serving God Ecaflip personally.

There are many distinct japanese cultural influences in Krosmoz, due to the inspiration that Ankama takes from anime and manga.

However,

Most often, ecaflips and pig people specifically are shown to be, at least in some way, "fantasy japanese". In the same way that pandawa are "fantasy chinese".

Does this little analysis mean anything? Probably not. Is it still interesting and useful? Yeah. Because I can use it to prove that J-Pop should, logically, exist in Krosmoz, AND that Joris Jurgen probably listens to it.

("guy who has a 40-song long Joris Jurgen character playlist" voice) Yes, while I don't think "character playlists" should have songs the characters would listen to, but instead songs that suit their stories and personalities, I do think Joris would love Inabakumori and Tadanoco—— [I am forcefully sedated and sat down to watch the rest of the episode]

Despite what Bashi tells himself, he still treasures their bond.

This too, will become a reoccurring theme with people (Atcham Crepin) who (Atcham Crepin) fucking (Atcham Crepin) hate Kerubim Crepin.

Way to break my heart, show!

[shychick-52]

What I liked and didn't like about Gyro in 'The Last Adventure' (long post)

This is a repost from my defunct blog. Just a summary of what I liked and thought they could've done better in how the last episode handled Gyro, especially his relationship with Boyd:

Gyro and Boyd at Webby's 'birthday party' at Funso's

This was in the beginning of the series finale 'The Last Adventure', and was the very first time Boyd was seen since 'Astro B.O.Y.D.' (which was only the 6th episode of the third season and came out May 2020; 'The Last Adventure' was the final episode and came out March 2021… just let that sink in).

Liked: It was so AWESOME to FINALLY see Gyro and Boyd together again, and I squealed so hard at this scene when I first watched this episode! He's spending time with Boyd at a birthday party, eeeee! (And I touched on the significance of this scene in this post).

Liked: Boyd could have hung out with Huey and the other kids (which definitely would've been awesome too), but he chose to spend time with his dad instead! That is so cute!!

Missed opportunity: Does anybody else wish Gyro had actually been smiling at seeing his son enjoying himself as a 'definitely real boy'?? Like, c'mon! (And back during the third season, Frank was asked on his Tumblr blog if Gyro and Boyd’s relationship was improving, and he emphasized- and I quote- “Oh, yes. Very much so", but we never really learned what that looked like.) I mean, it probably did warm Gyro's heart to spend time with Boyd and see him just being the happy, free child he'd truly become, but still, he could've looked less indifferent or awkward!

Missed opportunity: Gyro should have laughed here while shielding his face from the candy, instead of the irritated reaction when it hit him. Sheesh, Gyro, lighten up! ☹ Why’s he still so easily irritable, especially when it’s just Boyd having a good time?

Missed opportunity: Now that Gyro's attention has shifted from solely Boyd and more onto the main event, he's really got his typical grumpy expression on and is standing a bit further away from everyone else. It’s very disappointing he wasn’t shown to be at least a little happier and closer with everyone. It’s the final episode, all Scrooge’s friends and family have gathered together in one place for this very important event (not only to celebrate Webby’s birthday, but to finally take down their greatest threat of all), and all these characters have changed and grown so much since the start of the series or when they were very first introduced (which even Frank and Matt, the show’s creators, admitted in an interview). It would have been more meaningful if Gyro had been smiling like everyone else to show his character development since 'Astro B.O.Y.D.' I know people don’t change overnight, and Gyro had a LOT of trauma that affected him for so many years, but still… it would have been nice to show him with a little more growth.

Liked/Missed opportunity: During the entire scene where everyone was gathered around Webby for cake and the birthday song (which was the signal to destroy F.O.W.L.'s security cameras and launch their raid on their secret headquarters below Funso's), Boyd was sitting on Manny's arm instead of Gyro's shoulders. On the one hand, I like that Manny was holding Boyd because that tells me he became sort of an uncle-figure to him... but it would have been twice as cute if he was sitting on Gyro's shoulders, since that would've been more proof of how close they'd become!

Gyro and Boyd on Webby’s family board

Liked: I LOVE that Boyd apparently became an official member of Team Science off-screen, and that there's a string linking Huey to Boyd to say they're best friends (because you wouldn't think so by his absence from the majority of the third season).

Missed opportunity: Why wasn't there a string linking Gyro and Boyd?? And why is there a string between Boyd and Doofus?? It was never actually confirmed whether or not Boyd went to live with Gyro or if he continued staying with the Drakes, but regardless, Gyro and Boyd are absolutely family (FAR more than Doofus was, since he only saw Boyd as a mere machine and an interloper in his family, and there's the little fact that Boyd never had a choice about being part of the Drakes' family... which is why I don't get why he'd choose to still live with them after 'Astro B.O.Y.D.' when he embraced his identity as his own free person with the ability to make his own choices)! Boyd was Gyro's first and greatest creation, his pride and joy, his son in every sense of the word!

Where was Boyd and Fenton after they found May and June?

Missed opportunity: In this scene right after they find Webby's clones, we see Gyro, Huey, Lena, Beakley, Scrooge, Donald, and Della all gathered around, analyzing the clones and trying to figure out why F.O.W.L. created clones of Webby. But there's no reason why both Fenton and Boyd couldn't have been there too! They could have helped- Boyd is a highly resourceful Junior Woodchuck like Huey, and his brain is a supercomputer, making him super intelligent; and Fenton is a scientist (especially ever since Gyro promoted him at the end of 'Astro B.O.Y.D.')! And neither Fenton and Gyro nor Huey and Boyd interact at all in the final episode, so more missed opportunity to further develop their respective relationships too. And I mean, come on, why didn't they especially take what opportunities they had to have Gyro and Boyd share screentime or interact??

In the same scene, most of the rest of the kids burst into the room, anxious to learn more about the mystery of Webby's clones too. But no Boyd (Gosalyn was nowhere to be seen in the mansion either, oddly enough, but I'm assuming she was there somewhere with Drake/Darkwing)!

In fact, we didn't see Boyd and Fenton again until later when everyone boarded the plane to go storm the Lost Library. I'm assuming in the above scene, Boyd was with Manny and Fenton (wherever those two were, but I'd like to think they were somewhere in the mansion too). It was a shame Boyd didn't at least interact with the other kids while everyone was at the mansion, because he didn't hang out with them for nearly the entire third season (not on-screen, anyway)!

"Look After Your Brother"

Liked: SELF-EXPLANATORY. :D :D And I love how sincere, protective, and loving Gyro sounded and looked when he entrusted Lil Bulb with Boyd's safety. This was their most dangerous threat yet, and Boyd's first adventure with the Ducks, and Boyd and Gyro had been together again after 20 years for only some months... so, it only made sense for Gyro to worry about his son (and what makes it even more touching is that Boyd is a superpowered robot, more than capable of taking care of himself, but Gyro still worried about him). He trusted Lil Bulb with Boyd's life!!

(And Lil Bulb would indeed look after Boyd; after the plane crashed when the kids were onboard alone, following Dewey's sky-battle with Don Karnage, Boyd lost his body. So, Lil Bulb removed his bulb and attached Boyd's head onto his own body, which is how they stayed for most of the rest of the episode.)

Missed opportunity: They didn't exchange a single word to each other or even hug, despite knowing what a dangerous mission it was. :( :(

Why didn't Gyro seem more worried for Boyd?

Missed opportunity: I covered this in a separate post here, but throughout most of the rest of the episode ever since Gyro learned Bradford captured and planned to destroy everyone even remotely associated with Scrooge and his family (and Gyro spent the majority of the time captured himself, along with HDL, Webby, Gandra, and Ludwig Von Drake), he never once showed any sign he worried about or missed Boyd. Not once did he bring Boyd up.

The victory scene at the end

Liked: It was cool actually seeing Gyro and Fenton share screentime, even though they didn't interact!

Missed opportunity: Why the heck was Boyd/Lil Bulb standing so far away from Gyro and the rest of Team Science there (especially after they were separated the entire time)?? He should have been right there with them (especially in front of Gyro, or even in his arms)!

The plane-ride home

Liked: AHHHH. Boyd lying in Gyro's lap as he reattached his head, Gyro tenderly cupping his head, both smiling so lovingly at each other! Together again where they belong, safe. It's so beautiful. YES. JUST YES. You can really see the love between them in this scene.

Missed opportunity: Like the "Look after your brother" scene, it's sad they didn't say anything to each other or even hug one last time!

The end credits

Liked: BEAUTIFUL. The very last we'll ever see of them, and Gyro is smiling the biggest, happiest smile he's ever done in the entire series. In fact, I feel like this is the moment that perfectly summed up Gyro's healing journey and development (which we didn't really see after 'Astro B.O.Y.D.', but this almost makes up for that). He looks so happy and free. It's like it just hit him all-at-once here that he's no longer burdened by the demons of his past, that he's got Boyd in his life, and that he's part of Scrooge's family too.

Yeah, so many of these little details could have easily been improved without costing much time and budget. But when they nailed it, they nailed it!