#sai watches arc v... with the squad

[cutely-inserts-my-opinion]

SO when i was watching the recent tsams ep where nexus talked w earth. honestly ngl although i get that he mightve been manipulative like. he wasnt Wrong??

specifically im thinkin abt what he said abt Earth not being a therapist bc like. yeah! true! and Earth responding by saying that she never claimed to be one was .... hrm. she... literally has a job as a therapist? even if shes not directly claiming to be one, shes still working as one and isnt correcting other people (and her patients) when they think/say she is one.

not to mention idk if its just me having this opinion within the fandom but i just Cannot get behind a therapist providing therapy to family members ;v; its just not a good thing to do bc of the power imbalances and bias inherent to forming close personal relationships with someone who you are medically treating,, which tbh is like. my primary gripe with Earth and why i just dont rlly like her (on a personal level. like, i like her as a character, but if i met her irl i wouldnt get along w her At All type beat)

honestly i rlly didnt like nexus's villain arc in the beginning but im warming up to it i think! also im on the nexus defense squad now actually. i dont condone him torturing my other fav characters but also. *insert handshake emoji here* tfw mentally ill....

(-points- anon you are my hero thank you for the confesssion <3)

Anyway, I'm so glad someone else agrees about the whole Earth not treating her family members. Especially in such a formal setting. It's not like she's just psycholayzing them or giving them advice like on of my friends does for me. She has them come into a literal office a lot of the time?? Literally how is she not claiming to be a therapist- she is acting exactly like one

[lazella]

It would be so funny post canon if the gang finds a way to travel back and forth between their world and twst because I know damn well these powered by friendship mfs would pull tooth and nail to be able to stay connected to their new friends

And the reactions of the yu squads friends to the twst gang and the twst gangs reaction to their worlds

The Zexal crew meet Leona and they’re just “ I guess Yumas got a lion for a father now???”

Tell Leona about the barian shit and watch him lose his fucking mind. Also.. just shark and rio and Leona talking about royal stuff would probably be a very cute scenario, Leona’s interactions with the twins would be so fun you already KNOW he’s doing whatever the hell rio wants and you already KNOW he’s teaming up with her to bully shark and call him guppy

Ruggie would be terrified of Rio for his heart DO NOT tell him about her Barian morph he’ll shit himself. He’d get along well with flip me thinks and would teach him some tricks and what not

Cathy is LOOSING HER MIND about the beastmen WHAT DO YOU MEAN PEOPLE WITH CAT EARS AND TAILS EXIST??? if you tell her the octo trio are actually mermen using a potion to be human you already know she’s going to be BEGGING Yuma to get her a potion that gives her REAL cat ears and a tail. She HATES jack though and hisses at him often, He says he doesn’t care (he does. A lot)

A good rest of the cast are just like “WHAT DO YOU MEAN YUMA HAS MAGIC POWERS?!? WHO LET THIS HAPPEN??? WHY???”

The scientific research Chris would wanna do on Yuma 🫠🫠

Meanwhile we go to GX and nobody there is fucking surprised, like “ hey judai what have you been up to” and cut to him telling the entirety of chapters 1-7 and the gangs just like “ yup the usual :)” and the twst cast is like “tf you mean the usual????”

Cater 🤝Chazz/manjoume-> shitty siblings

Somebody stop ace he’s been bantering with aster for the past hour somebody make it stop PLEASE

Judai introduces riddle to Jessie and Jessie immediately going “you are my friend now :)” somebody send riddle a floating he’s drowning in positivity

If I’m gonna be so damn honest treys gonna be interested in the duel spirits dental hygiene crystal beast especially I’m so sorry he’s so cringe I need to bonk him with a comically large rubber hammer 🤺

We cut to Arc-v, and yuyas encouraging Jamil to show off to his friends he was hesitant at first but Yuyas friends started ADORING Jamil thinking he was so cool and he was just having the time of his life and was genuinely interested in learning about duel monsters and Dueltaining thinking up a potential dance routine he could do while dueling was something he genuinely enjoyed doing with yuya

Sylvio DOES NOT like Jamil whatsoever “so he uses magic and comes from another world big whoop, I travelled too MULTIPLE worlds and saved them didn’t I 🙄” he likes kalim though ( mostly his praises but still)

Yuya shows his unique magic to Declan in hopes they can use it in a way to separate the yu boys and bracelet girls from each other, safe to say everyone freaked out about it XD

Over in DM Rook is making Joey PISS 👏HIM👏 SELF👏 he went through hell and back for yug but that creepy ass hunter with the shitty bob is making him lose his GODAMN MIND rook just says or freaking moans smth in French like his freaky ass usual does Joey is standing there losing his mind “IF YOU DONT SHUT—“

You already know Anzu is asking Vil for advice on EVERYTHING fashion, makeup, dancing, hair, NAME IT SHES ON IT and I know vils gonna adore her I feel it in my spidey senses

I’m gonna stop it here before I go insane and make this 100000 words long

I'm already going insane of thinking about post story shenanigans! I have plans and you are not far off in some ideas

[vraisetzen]

V, who's your favourite hashira?

Ooh, that's a great question, Anon! How does one choose! I think it's a testament to Gotouge's writing that I love all characters in KnY — though some more than others, haha.

When I first started watching this anime, I really fell for Rengoku (as with Tanjiro and the rest of the Kamaboko squad); I was just so inspired by his steadfast, positive attitude and his righteous spirit, and I cried a lot when he died.

But then, as I waited between the Mugen Train film and the adaptation of the Entertainment District, I went and read the entire series from start to finish, and by then pretty much decided Uzui was my favourite Hashira.

On his own, Uzui shares many characteristics with my other favourites from other series — he's very charismatic and charming with the ladies, but he also has a true heart of gold and beneath that easygoing exterior is someone who is committed to the right cause and protecting others (think: Gintoki from Gin Tama, Gojo from Jujutsu Kaisen, Shunsui from BLEACH, and Schönkopf from LOGH). In fact, there is a specific scene from the Entertainment District arc that makes me swoon every time:

I can't think of any other Hashira who would be willing to do this — granted, Uzui had a very personal stake in this mission, with his wives and Zenitsu missing, but I think he was the only Hashira who understood, more than anyone else, the ways of the real world.

Uzui turned his back and fled from his family, at the age of 15, with his wives. Before that, he was forced to grow up in an entirely different setting — one where he learned that to survive was to be ruthless and rose above the others. It's a completely different backstory from, say, Sanemi and Giyuu who had their childhood innocence destroyed by demons. But it also gave Uzui an edge in perceiving the world differently from the rest of the members; sure, he wanted to rid the world of demons, but at the same time, he cherished and loved his wives more than anything else in the world. His family meant as much to him as his duty to the Corps.

(That scream he let out when he saw Gyutaro holding Hinatsuru hostage was one of the most chilling moments in the entire arc — a shoutout to Konishi Katsuyuki's fantastic voice acting!)

Even if it meant sending three junior slayers into Yoshiwara to investigate the whereabouts of his wives (something he would come to regret), and even if it meant an early retirement (much to the dismay of Obanai) so he could spend the rest of his days with his family.

In a world where many of these characters seem to live by extremes — to be a slayer and die protecting one's humanity than to succumb to being a demon — Uzui's perspective of the world sets him apart from the rest of the Hashira. He actually has something to lose, and by god would he fight to death protecting that. It is a perspective that I relate to, at least; saving the world and making it a better place is just an important a responsibility as it is cherishing your near and dear.

So, yeah — I think there are so many aspects to Uzui's character that I find immensely compelling. He's an extroverted person with a complex inner life that not many are privy to, and might even consider to think about because of his outlandish person. But as Shrek might put it, he has layers, and beneath that flashy exterior and flamboyant accessories is where one can see who he really is — very much like when he removed his makeup for the first time, and we see how handsome he really is.

xoxo, V ♥️

[love-is-a-pearl]

Alright, I will be honest:

I don't like Black&White saga cause it feels like flopoed retcon/reboot of pokeanime. Like, in the beginning it cut ties to previous sagas and regions. Like, after whole THE BUILD UP in Sinnoh, it felt like Ash got robbed. Also doesn't help that in beginning they isolated Unova pokemon from previous generations. And the thing is, is that 5 gen pokemon design already stylistically different from previous ones: more round, simplified.

Also, it didn't help that relationship with rivals are less close and tense than in Diamond&Pearl. Like, all other characters beside main trio feels shallow and caricatures. In Sinnoh, both Ash and Dawn learned something from their rivals, Paul and Zoe were REALLY IMPACTFUL to them. But when we compare Iris and Dragon huntress (yes, I don't even remember her name)... That's basic. Like, Iris's rival surved as plot tool few times at best.

But second part of saga is better (*cough - cough * cause Cynthia and Dawn came back *cough- cough*) : old pokemon are back, we see mythical pokemon in action. Also, I enjoyed Decolora arc!

Good points of BW:

I like Cylan and Iris. For Iris in particular... She feels like Misty's other version, but in a good way. I also like her story arcs with her team, like damn, homegirl got her own Suicide squad in pokeworld 😂.

Also, there's Team R... One one hand, it's was hard for me to see them drop comedy tone. On another hand, they demonstrated us how much dangerous they can be! Like, they got their business! Our trio was more menacing than whole Team Plazma, honestly 😅.

All in all, my main issue is that Black and White drop most of connections with Diamond and Pearl. Like, transition was too DRASTIC. But I do understand, that there ate people who adores 5 gen. I mean, I heard that 5 gen games was top tier. It's just, unfortunately, I stsrted to dwell into pokemon games since 6 gen, so I was unable to even play Black and White. Maybe in that case I watched anime in different context.

Also, I really like movies in that saga! Like Keldeo and Mewtwo (or Newtwo ( if you know you know)) put everything in their movies, and Victini's one with TWO DIFFERENT VERSIONS was low-key something in cinematic universe level.

... That was looong ask, but I really need that out of my chest 😅

Nah, dont worry, go and vent its the first step to overcoming trauma lol I joke but seriously, if everyone sat down to understand what they dislike and like about a season like that, things would be so much simpler :v

BW is totally an attempt to a soft reboot! But there's one thing I feel folks often forget: The games themselves were that too!!

The lack of pokemon pre gen 5 was something that came from the games, as unova was the first region outside of Japan. Pokemon company was trying to start anew from all sides and that ended up affecting the anime the most because for some reason, it was decided that they would star anew, but keep a familiar face in Ash.

And then we have the fact that the BW games got a sequel immediately after, Black and White 2, and the story on those was directly connected to the first games, showcasing an Unova 2 years after BW1 (highly reccomend them btw, some of the best overarching story in pokemon games ever)

And like, the anime started with the narrator just saying Ash was still 10!! Someone surely made that a rule in the background, so how could they tell the story of a Unova 2 years later with a main character that just couldn't age?

So the writers just had to do their own thing. And probably made up so much of it halfway and also explain why they just scrapped so many characters of the day post league. They just wanted some time for people to forget the first half of BW to try and implement things from BW2.

And that's the thing, this issue is not from BW only. We know for a fact that there were plans for Ash to leave the anime during Johto, but they couldn't just say goodbye to him, so he stayed. Black and White was just the culmination of that decision. And I feel like hating on it alone is just… not aknowledging that pokeani is flawed from the get-go yknow?

What made BW that weird is what made Ash and Serena and the Kalos loss weird, what made journeys weird and what made 2beamaster miniseries that FUCKING WEIRD.

BUT GOSH TRIO!! Now the way those 3 were handled in the season is one thing I can't excuse lmao

People love to talk how out of character Ash acts this season, even though is not even that OOC when compared to pre DP, but TR were the ones that felt like complete different characters! And while I enjoy the whiplash of Ash gang doing silly things overlapped with very serious evil dutiestm, I feel like that that was a bad decision throught and throught. I get that at first they wanted a Team Rocket vs Team Plasma situation, but doing that with the TRio is just so weird.

HELL YEAH, I LOVE THE NEWTWO MOVIE! It makes no sense but gosh Mewtwo2 and genesect's relationship is just so ADORABLE i love them so much. Is those kind of stuff that makes me sad about BW, folks see a mewtwo that is not the main one and they dont give it a shot, but is such a heartwarming story in the end.

[laufire]

Thank you @redhoodinternaldialectical for tagging me!

rules: answer and tag nine people you want to get to know better and catch up with.

favourite colour: any shade of purple/lilac/violet/etc. also maroon/burgundy. also deep blues. that whole spectrum xD

last song: I was out partying last night and it was actually some techno song I couldn't name (it was good though), but the last song I actually remember and can tell you is Aloisio's "Flashbacks". Some eye-roll worthy lines but admittedly "Por ti me arrodillo y no te llamas Mary / No eres la muerte pero eres parecida" does things to me.

currently reading: I'm still going through "Burning Your Boats", a compillation of Angela Carter's short stories, and "Olvidado Rey Gudú" by Ana María Matute, both of which I'll finish this month. I also started reading my ARC of "We Will Devour The Night" by Camilla Andrews (aka @aninkwellofnectar) and caught up with the chapters she's posted of part three of the series (The Essence of the Equinox) in her ko-fi \o/

And, as usual, I'm reading through... many comics. I'm actually going to embarrass myself and list them lol. I'm completing some characters' appearances (prime earth!Jason, new earth's Cass, Steph, Talia, Leslie, Mia), almost done Green Arrow '01 and No Man's Land... + I started Devin Grayson's Catwoman's run (A++ so far!), Suicide Squad '87, and The Death of Superman.

Aaaand I'm keeping up with some ongoing runs. Monstress, Saga (IT'S BACK), Robin Lives, The Boy Wonder, Zatanna: Bring Down the House, Batman '89: Echoes, Batman: Dark Age, Batman: Justice Buster, WFA, Batman: Off-World, Ram V's 'Tec, Batman: Gargoyle of Gotham

currently watching: currently I'm on pause (I'm away on vacation) but when I'm back I'll continue watching old DCAU shows and FINALLY watch part 2 of The Glory. And finishing season 7 of stacked100, since I didn't even watch yesterday's episode lol.

currently craving: an hysterectomy.

coffee or tea: teaaaaaaa, always.

hobby to try: writing poetry. Attempts have been made but I want to go for it lol.

current au: "ooooohhh I got a million of these going at all times" <- same lmao. I'm just going to name the few I'm most focused on rn:

Young Justice: FÉNIX. That One Long Idea About Jason Reuniting With Everyone in the YJTV verse. It will include at least one additional (waaaay shorter, thankfully) story.

Damon & Elena, Marriage of Doom. I'm going to get so MEAN about this one <3

Mia & Jason Dollhouse AU!!

Jason Survives ADITF/No Death in the Family. What is says. Long series expanding from immediately post ADITF to the end of new earth añsdlfjasf. In my head, at least. You will see different versions of Knightfall, No Man's Land, Joker: Last Laugh, Murderer?/Fugitive, War Games/UTRH, and so on...

This ~future canon series that takes inspiration from some elements from A Lonely Place of Living and Duke's story but places them in New Earth. It includes a Damibats story with Damian and Colin as recent exes, a Jaytim story, TWO Jason & Duke stories, and another one where Chris Kent parent traps a divorced Clois. For now xD

Amnesiac Jason. Jason has suffered a psych attack and Bruce gets some creative licenses when he "fixes" him :)))

I'm gonna stop there. For all our sakes lol.

tagging (no pressure): @missbrunettebarbie @blairwaldcrf @wowthatsextra @mircallaruthven @lichfucker

@jaynotwayne @nastasyafilippovnas @danystargaryens @snowdropsandtigers

[hamofjustice]

I don't want to just painstakingly copypaste my triple-layered self-QRT thread about it on Twitter and any other ones floating around but

I am very emotionally invested in seeing Penny, Arven, and (personally) especially Nemona again in the Scarlet/Violet DLC, after GF followed up the best 3 hours of Pokemon game story ever by having to abruptly cut it off the second these lonely kids finish opening up to you and say you can hang out with them anytime. Which you never do. It was some pretty painful whiplash, and I was sure the main point of the DLC was to relieve that, especially when their arcs don't seem quite complete yet. Very clever, evil marketing! But uh... well... about that...

It is very worrying that aside from a little "the story so far" montage, they have not been seen or mentioned in promotional material/footage whatsoever. Y'know, DLC for the game that's about how the real treasure was the friends you found along the way (literally, in Nemona's case), and even if your family and support systems fail you, you still have each other? Written from the heart by someone who said Arven's story is inspired by their own life? With the sappy Ed Sheeran song about reaching out for connection with others, that also seems to be named after Team Star? The game where one of the features the devs seemed most proud of was going on adventures and into boss fights with 3 of your friends? The game that ended with a fully functional and quite immersive bonding adventure with these characters you'd gotten to know and care about, that basically everyone thought was the best part of the game by a mile, and were left wishing the whole game was like that?

Yeah, I (and everyone else) have been driving around alone in that game for 8 months ever since finishing that story. 8 months of minor updates with a ton of the beloved characters functionally or literally gone, while we go around doing online stuff with nothing else to do in the world, with a single player postgame more barren than we had on Game Boy Color (thank god for mints and bottle caps though). I'm left just... wanting to go back to the way things were before I beat the game. Not to be overly dramatic, but this world I supposedly saved feels like one I failed to save. And I'm getting really frustrated. (The framerate hasn't gotten any better, either, but this isn't about that.)

It's like Game Freak (or whoever forced this thing out a year early, or both) never expected you to boot the game up again once you got bored of the Ace Academy Tournament, which the game acts like is the entire total of what you could want from being friends and "rivals for life" with your squad (I mean I'm the sicko that loves Tera Raids, so I'm not that bored, but still). It makes a bunch of implications that your adventure is just beginning, and then it totally just... isn't. Why is the E4 building closed? Why do you only rematch the gyms once? And most of all, for me personally: Why did we get access to our friends' rooms if there's nothing to do or talk about there? (Besides look for character study clues, which they have lots of)

All they could come up with when asked to write a newsletter email about what you can still do in S/V and why you should still be playing it was Raids. That was it. Remember when you had an endless challenge in the Tower/Maison that you could optionally take on with a bunch of story characters as your partners instead of alone, that motivated you to keep getting stronger bit by bit? Remember rematching gym leaders multiple times and watching their teams grow and evolve each time? Yeah, there's none of that here, because that would take more than a week to implement. If you want friends and you want battles, you'll have to do it yourself online now. They're not allocating any budget for that.

Your rival for life, who's so excited you're on her level now, who seems to have the passion and skill to be the your Battle Tower gameplay loop by herself if she wanted to, who battles you for hours offscreen with multiple teams, whose whole character arc is that she finally has someone she can do this with... is fully static, with one kinda mediocre team that never grows or changes. She can't keep up with you and doesn't know what items or EVs are. You have to get lucky to even see her at all. She is no more your rival than your Home Ec teacher is (no offense Saguaro, you're cool too). I think it's really, really sad.

I'm left nostalgic and pining to go back, having to cope through fanfic because my character can't spend the day with - or even so much as take a new trainer card photo with - the girl who said they might be her greatest treasure, without resetting my save, because she and the others are standing somewhere that the camera and internet features are both disabled.

Like, legitimately, I want to keep being friends with these kids the way we were before, and have the ability to do post-game stuff with them, like being able to go out and adventure together whenever in some basic, non-story capacity, or just, I don't know, maybe give them more than one line of dialogue in their rooms? I don't want a new region or new characters. Not yet, anyway.

I thought I was preordering the continuation of their story and rewarding the company for making me care about Pokemon so much again.

But, uh... I'm really worried that the people who own these characters do not care. And as I said on the trailer's comments before they turned them off (lol), I'll be pissed enough to not buy any more games if I'm right, and we're forced to abandon these poor kids. At the very least, it's some pretty garbage marketing to leave the possibility of that up in the air. If nothing else, that is a frustration that I'm going to keep talking about for a while, even if it ends up being fine.

I thought it was impossible, and I was being silly. Why not have our friends in cute new outfits as promo art when the DLC was first announced, and all they had was promo art? Seems like an easy slam dunk. Oh, they didn't yet? Well, I'm sure it'll happen eventually.

And then they weren't in the trailer either, months later. Are they trying to sell us on it or not?

The whole reason I want the DLCs. Still not a single word acknowledging them, just that little opening montage. Still no hints of how the DLCs have anything to do with Area Zero's ongoing story, either. How is a sea turtle linked with a landlocked crater?

So like... At this point I have to assume both DLCs start with you making your friends cry as they're left alone again, arbitrarily excluded from events they're more than qualified to be invited to, to make room for some new dweebs we don't need, who won't be given nearly enough time to be as compelling as Nemona, Arven, and Penny were, because that makes the trailer look more like a new game, and that's the only way they know how to advertise. More. New. Buy. Consume. Throw away. Buy. Consume. Throw away. I should assume this so that whatever we get can't be worse.

But they're probably not (self-aware enough / allowed / both) to write that. Your lonely / orphaned / anime-binging friends might just cheer you on for getting to go do something cool like being forced to train a new legendary because the story said so, then go back to being statues with as much relevance to your life as an NPC in a third story apartment that tells you what a hold item is.

Can't I just live in Paldea with my friends, in the version of the game we would have gotten if it was finished, instead of being pulled into these adventures for the sake of looking good in a trailer? (which it doesn't btw lol) It's not an unrealistic thing to want when that's what it briefly was, and I was so excited that it would keep being that I've been thinking about it this entire time.

...

I hope I'm wrong about all this, and next year I can look back on this post, happy that the DLC did actually allow us to continue to take care of these characters, conclude Area Zero's mysteries in a satisfying way, fix up some technical issues, let us relive some things that are currently once-only (including letting us see that photo album our character made but we had to screenshot ourselves), and make it fun to keep playing for years afterward, and let that be the model for games going forward, but uh...

They really are not showing me anything I care about in the game I desperately want to care about, that I saw - and wanted to defend - the heart in, despite the circumstances it was produced under, and that really worries and frustrates me. The surprisingly many great things about this game got my hopes up for an awesome postgame full of warm fuzzy feelings and cool things to do 8 months ago that just didn't deliver, and now, I'm not sure if they'll even let me pay for one, at this rate, because they're not advertising one.

Just throw us a scrap. If whoever's in charge here stops caring about this story, I won't care about the next one.

Anyone else feeling this?

[burinazar]

I'm sure you've mentioned it before, but I was wondering who your favorite Made in Abyss character is and why they're your favorite? :3

I love all the main kids as well as many other characters so it's hard to choose but I think I'd have to say mine is Faputa. Not only is she a super interesting and cool character, but she's also A Creature. A little ball of fluff that can kill

---------------------

Thank you very much for the ask, anon! haha, "little ball of fluff that can kill"...yes, Faputa is great, and I think the main cast of Abyss is very endearing and very well fleshed-out. I was having a nice exchange on AO3 the other day regarding how GOOD the characterization of Abyss is and how it's often overlooked in favor of the also-extremely-good worldbuilding and plot, and why that might be, and was considering how it links together with some of my other Thoughts about ways this fandom is different from my other ones as far as what people are into (I need to finish the self-reblog I was gonna do about that on a recent related post actually). Anyway, pretty much the whole cast is endearing and/or enjoyable to watch in some capacity. But there is a definite answer as to favorite(s).

I put these up on my wall this evening, which may help to answer your question.

(Please note the scrolls. I missed the Amiami preorder period for those two because they closed earlier than the rest for some reason, but was able to get them from Suruga-ya eventually. They'll be on the wall at some point too.)

The story and cast prior to s2 I enjoyed in a, like, normal way, and then the Ganja squad arc hit me like a damn asteroid. These people...I've thought and felt and said so much about them, and after a year and a half I'm still brimming with something that feels like it has to be poured out, onto blank canvases and into the written word, and there's no end in sight. I have never had characters that were such good muses to me except perhaps for a couple I made up myself. Belaf has to be called my favorite at this point, but for a long time it was Vueko, and I really, really like Waz too; the manner in which these three characterize one another makes it a little painful to try to separate and rank them, but yes, that's the order. I dote on B and V in particular.

(Self portrait circa August 2023.)

At this point I have so much to say about them that being asked why I like them is hard to answer succinctly. Belaf is so, so sweet, but in an unusual weird, intense nerd way that I find incredibly endearing .....and then that kindness and strength of character fucking destroys him and it's tragic and beautiful and there is so much to pick apart in the manner and meaning of his transformation and his absolution, and it's also a great deal of fun to depict him as he was before. "Before" Belaf is such a fun sort of quirky nerd and his relationships wth Waz and Vue and Iru offer, like, SO much to turn over and look upon fondly, humor and friendship and loyalty and love.

And yet, when I write about his years of friendship with and loyalty and closeness to Wazukyan and Vueko and his parenthood and tutelage of Irumyuui and (note: hallucinatory) camaraderie with the other Ganja, hanging over my shoulder always is his downfall and it makes all of those things so much more beautiful, the tinny note of tragedy that is always playing at the edge of our hearing once we see it all and know how it must end.

(Another crispy fried self portrait from last year. I don't really draw myself these days at all EXCEPT in the context of making fun of my sages obsession.)

As for Vueko, since she's fairly popular maybe explaining her appeal isn't needed...or maybe it is, because it's so much more than the shy and gentle and somewhat silly person she is on the surface, it is so, so much more. Under the Layer of Fuheh she's made of steel --it's just that she's very, very softspoken, which people mistake for passivity and spinelessness. Even fans who purport to like her sometimes reduce her to victimhood and weakness. Perhaps because it's a misconception she clearly holds about herself, and a viewer can be forgiven for not putting together that Vueko might literally be the sage that acts with the most agency. There's so much more I can say that I love about her and her story, especially in the context of the other characters and the way she subtly skews some narrative and trope-related expectations, but I think that's the heart of it -- yes, she was endearing as soon as I met her, but when I saw the subtle yet unmistakeable strength under it all (and parsed that she never saw it herself, I think that little pop of tragedy really makes it hit for me lol), I think that's what made me adore her.

This next little bit might be kind of fucked up but what really makes that strength into something that haunts and compels me is that Vueko has so much determination and strength of character that she will unhesitatingly act to destroy the people she cares about very very much if she has decided at that moment that it is the best thing for them (Irumyuui, Belaf, Irumyuui again.) I can trace the real beginning of my obsession with these characters to when s2e8 aired and this is pretty much why.

So...yeah. Belaf and Vueko! Aaaand there's no way I can write about Waz here without making this post way too fucking long but.

One more shitty self portrait from earlier in the obsession should do it.

Yep!

[blueiight]

idk if you remember this but a little while back there was a group of anons or just one dedicated troll who was going to popular blogs saying loumand was a healthier dynamic basically trying to make loumand girlies look unhinged i think the same thing is happening now to the pillow princess louis squad because i've seen some very questionable asks that look like they're trying to stir the pot

yea i had that AxL troll in my inbox too lmaoooo . its like 4 different ppl linking me to random posts someone linked me to a thinkpiece on hannibal from 2017 tryna relate the general line of thought there to w/e show iwtv fans is recycling and fussing about. like i watched a season& a half of hannibal w/ my sister years ago& it certainly didnt stick in my memory lol. im not the shaderoom of cockwatching guys im just yani blueiight👍🏾take it up w anne rolin nem idk what else to say. im only observing general trends in how fans rl perception/bias toward black people impacts their perception and inability to fully analyze the story arcs of fictional black charas. whether its not recognizing the character louis canonly has a preferred relationship dynamic, whether its treating louis like hes satan incarnate smearing ur white martyr, whether its apologetics for louis’s terrible actions & expecting louis and claudia to get along perfectly well in s2 on some wayans bros shit, n whatever stupid shit ppl think. s1 questions what it even means to tell a story. what is in the reliability of Word, whos words we value, what perspectives we hold as Truth, the filtering of a black male vampire’s eternal life thru his own lens, before, during, and all the while it falls into the lens of the white male interviewer, and the audience who watches the construction of the story [what louis tells daniel that we see, what louis chooses not to tell daniel that we see, v. what we dont see that louis shows neither us or dan]. falling into petty stan wars throwing up bullshit cuz u to scared to @ somebody so u use a blogger’s askbox to instigate is a waste of time & quite frankly, a disservice to a marvelous adaptation.

[the-chickenshit-oddity]

B99 Obsession Chart Season 1 :) PART ONE

SPOILERS FOR ALL OF SEASON ONE OF BROOKLYN 99

so, i'm rewatching B99, and a lot of it makes me want more stories, more details, more more more. so, here are my notes, and what they make me think of.

for efficiency's sake, this will also be where i "store" my B99 s1 prompts. might be some spoilers for later seasons if the inspiration came from watching this one. just look for links in there to see the prompts. also, some prompts are grouped as an "arc" and i don't know what the hell i'm supposed to do with those so they're a bit randomly placed.

1:1

bear nanny cam has same backstory as pimento (long undercover, forgotten who i am)

diaz's type : anyone but boyle > diaz dated a shit boyle 1

diaz "old people gunk" > diaz working at old ppl home 2

holt sneaking up on jake count : ii

holt's sneaky dad lessons : team uniform (jake)

>> all the lessons prompts 8

1981 disco strangler

jake's lessons to dad : robot noises

1:2

holt's sneaky dad lessons : clean your room ; job > career ; don't be late (jake jake and jake again)

holt 12 years to get command

holt & jake vs authority count : i

1:3

holt's sneaky dad lessons : get out of a slump (jake)

gina = "at risk kid"

holt & jake selfie 9

1:4

amy skipped 4th 11

holt pokerfaced > harassed over evth 3

jake appendix inflamed 10

squad sexcapades : boyle futon couch mode

jake's lessons to dad : pa pa pa papa

holt says "baroque" > holt & amy bonding over art history 4

1:5

oldest collar : 81 JP 96 AS 78 RD 2x50 S/ 68 CB > rosa's old ppl home UC work

holt's sneaky dad lessons : team work (jake); gun certified (terry)

jake good baby holding technique > babysitter jake 5

diaz wants to shag vulture & knows where he lives

holt has seen top gun

vulture obsessed by jake's "big white ass"

1:6

"was it a maple" > scully catches a maple shagger.

>> oldest collar : AS = flasher, RD = old, S = tree hot twins, JP = drug 6

rosa : catholic school - dance thingy > kicked outta dance school for beating ballerinas 7

>> holt teaches jake chess

amy hates halloween

rosa picks locks

1:7

jake at splash mountain

terry plays guitar

jake knows amy's only friend kylie

amy caught guy subway bag human ears

terry's mean bro in law

>> jake statue dance floor 12

argos bakery 1912 >> charles reincarn 13

1:8

"is this a dream am i asleep" >> amy dreams of perfect employee jake 14

jimmy brogan reporter >> kevin book about cops 15

>>jimmy brogan school bully ? 16

Amy’s grandpa cop >> baby amy tagging along / meeting holt? 17

1:9

Jake’s sal’s pizza

Diaz’s captain job offer

Gina’s IT job itws. >> gina ruining teachers? Tie up to gina’s at risk childhood // gina ruining nannies? 18

Nypd v fdny fight >> injured jp & cb 19

Baby jake plays baseball

“you’ve been booned” >> prank war 20

1:10

Holt’s mom is a judge >> jake stalks judges ref. Girls stalk kevin prompt 21

Holt’s sneaky dad lessons : team as family (jake AGAIN geez mate)

Amy’s shit at cooking >> amy did boy stuff, jake did girl stuff? 22

Amy’s shit at thanksgiving

1:11

Safe house ep

>> missing Hanukkah ep + jake hosting? 23

>> holt reluctantly plays jake’s pretend game 24

Holt misjudges jake

“don’t say son” count since beginning of show : dozennnns

Sleepover vibes

Jake can read holt

1982 holt says punk

Jakes asks holt for a train trip 25

Boyle gets shot in the butt

1:12

Holt offers maths lessons (jake)

Jake & diaz academy buddy

Holt is a puppy’s grandpa

>>jake becomes buddies with mrs judy 26

[overflowchute]

i've only seen parts of arc v so i don't know the context for this song in show but i really like it. the context of the parts i HAVE seen makes me associate this with a specific context though. arc v is often about battle royal duels where ppl can join in the middle and there can be a team ganging up on an individual. it colors a lot of the academia plot bc their tactics are actively designed to exploit unfair elements of the human wave tactics this enables

i often kinda piece together an impression of what i think s1 told me abt a show would be like... then when i watch the show im sometimes disappointed. but sometimes the way the show does it is really cool in a way i hadnt thought about and i end up mixing the two in my head

the image i get from this song is like... they're trying to get out of a contested urban war zone, and the enemy is in the stage where they have individual teams hunting for anyone. its shoneny so some ppl have powers that are much stronger than others. so there's a character we know is a very strong, say, mage - but while trying to get out they're acquired by a 5 or 6 man hunting team. and they're using squad tactics in such a way that despite a sheer individual power gap the char is being really really harried

[chromsai]

when i watch

the arc v

i am like

the fhappies t bitch in

 the world

[chromsai]

i hate y’all so much

Looks like no matter how much Yuya tries to change, he’s too similar to Zarc

[atley01]

C!Puffy lore infodump/ramble

I was talking with a friend about c!puffy and now that I take a good look at her character, she's such an interesting character and I love everything about her. 

(if you're too lazy to read the very disorganized rambling, there is a tldr at the bottom ^^ /nm /nf)  

first off, she’s so good to c!tommy like genuinely wanted to see him get better and was there for him, wouldn't get mad at him for acting like a child, and was just so chill. I mean I could be misremembering, but I remember being like “damn I'm glad SOMEONE is acknowledging the kids of the dsmp are mentally ill” (in ref. to the whole c!puffy therapist arc) 

side note: the theropay stream with puffy and tommy was honestly very fun and just yes. 

also she was that bitch?? /pos she's a good friend and wants to lead her friends to the right path, like was fully willing to help bbh figure out what the egg was when the egg was first discovered, then she realized like “okay maybe the egg isn't good” and was willing to fight for what she believed is right. 

when she realized how corrupt the eggpire was?? that moment gave me chills. she fucking destroyed the mini egg thing that was built, then wrote something along the lines of “fuck the eggpire” in the sand with the scattered remains of that mini egg. like that was so powerful and you could feel the anger c!puffy felt towards the eggpire without her flat out saying it. she was the leader of the omelet brigade-squad thing, and got Technoblade and I believe also Phil, two of which are very very powerful allies, on her side, (didn't she get the entire syndicate on her side?? /genq its been a bit since I’ve watched the lore.) 

together, they all plotted to take down the eggpire at the banquet. like in my opinion, this shows just how good of a leader puffy can really be. things went a little south but her and quackity and the other anti-egg members still could take them down! thats just so cool and badass. 

the whole “ANTFROST- YOURE DEAD.” -C!puffy scene is still one of my favorite scenes to this day, I think. top 10 puffy coolest moment methinks. but also she had to watch her son die as a sacrifice, which his death was very symbolic when you think about it but also god that was really fucking sad too. 

and then like the whole mysterious past that she cant really remember? but what we do know is that she was once a captain of a pirate ship? its just so cool like I'm a sucker for pirates. 

I also think that the monologues her character went on how she's pissed with everyone, especially the adults of the server, and how she is done with everything, etc., is very fair. like after all the shit she's seen and went through, yeah man I’d be just about done as well. pop off I'm also just a sucker for monologues LMFAO

and as someone who draws, I’ve always had a blast drawing her character. its such a fun character design, v fun to color. (I should draw her again) 

tldr; c!puffy is a very capable leader, cc!puffy has written an amazing character, cool pirate woman pog. I think puffy’s anti-egg arc is one of my favorite character arcs, and she's a criminally underrated character. c!puffy my absolute favorite. 

[biomic]

Taiga was pretty meh to me when I watched it, but following your liveblogs has made me realize that I didn't fully appreciate it the first time around. There's a lot of good stuff here, especially in conjunction with the v-dramas.

yeah i get the sense most people let taiga sorta pass them by, and i'd guess for a lot of people it was an issue of marketing. all the pre-show hype was about taiga being the son of taro and there's a team of ultras this time! but the show's not really about any of that at its core. it touches on it from time to time (like this excellent arc with taiga's corruption), but the show overall is much more interested in exploring smaller, personal stories about humanity's relationship to aliens and how they can relate to and learn from one another. it's something that's been a staple of ultra for a long time but taiga is the series where it's felt the most fully realized to me. but thoughtful introspections on topics like immigration and prejudice aren't Marketable™ so you get the tri-squad and legacy stuff thrown into the mix

that's not to say those elements are completely superfluous, the tri-squad being comprised of three ultras each from a different "section" of the franchise reinforces the series' main theme of connecting with people that are different from you and they're certainly fun to have around, they're just not the focal point. taiga's a very classic series in that sense, a nice blend of new gen's aesthetics and advancements to the formula while going back to that episodic style of show where each episode is designed to tell a mostly self-contained story that'll get you thinking about something. that's why i don't mind all the backstory stuff being relegated to the voice dramas bc it frees the show up to being able to do what it's really good at while the VAs are there for all that juicy, juicy lore. it's a best of both worlds situation for me

anyways, im rambling, but yeah! im hoping taiga will be reevaluated with time (and hopefully a good mill creek release to get eyes on it again) bc if you can get on board with what it's actually doing rather than what it was initially pitched as, i think it's some of the best ultra out there

[peppermint-whiskers]

Rat Pack cuddles!! I love them your honor, and they've been on my mind for a long time now XD

Okay, Imma sound them off from left to right XD Here goes nothing

Possum is on the far left, he has vitiligo and is a chronic insomniac. The least he's slept was about 30 minutes. He's quite the clean freak and likes to keep the ship as tidy as possible, but it's hard to do that when you're living with slobs XD His twin is Pika, and he's basically the only one keeping Pika from going ballistic. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't (belongs to Ender)

Jerboa is in the gray shirt, he's chill with the pack but not very with others. He's Rat's batchmate, and he's one of the 4 ARC troopers in the Pack (belongs to Wowza)

Rat has the gray streak in his hair, he's the team captain and the only one trying to keep them alive despite not having the Pack's only brain cell. He has a togruta wife who could easily bench press him (belongs to Wowza)

Cuy is the one with the face tattoo, he's pretty short and was taken in by a tribe when his original squad crashed and burned (belongs to Blitzy)

Tasmanian Devil (Taz for short) is the redhead under Cuy. She's the only woman and is trans. She's one of the 4 ARC troopers in the Pack. She has a bounty hunter girlfriend, and they have an adopted kid together uwu (belongs to Ender)

Hedge is the one with the brown hair and the facial scars, he's a self-sacrificing idiot who constantly stresses Chilla out. Like Rat, he tries to keep his team alive, but in the most chaotic and self-sacrificing ways possible. He's one of the 4 ARCS. He definitely doesn't have the community brain cell (belongs to ARCFives)

Chinchilla (Chilla for short) is the team medic and self-appointed therapist. He's a mother hen who gives medbay smooches and likes to watch the world burn. His husband is Weasel, and frankly he could do better than Weasel, but they're very much in love uwu Do he have the brain cell? Nah (belongs to me uwu)

Capybara (Capy for short) is Chilla's bestie and the victim of cuddle pile injuries. He's got his own bit of trauma that Chilla helped him through, so they're pretty close. He's also deeply in love with Mal but won't say a thing because he's a f o o l (belongs to Blitzy)

Malabar (Mal for short) is the resident artist and hairdresser! He's got this lil mutation where he has functional female reproductive parts with all the lovely things that come with it uwu He's also deeply traumatized but ya know,,, hide the pain lmao. He's got a few kids with his old commander and one with Capy. He also has a massive crush on Capy but also won't say a thing because he's a f o o l (belongs to @incorrectclonequotes)

Dinua is the tiny baby in Capy's armpit uwu She was born a few months after Mal joined. Mal is her mom and Mal's old commander (Commander Asshole, I call him) is her dad, and Mouse is her brother. She's force sensitive (belongs to @incorrectclonequotes)

Mouse is the wild albino child who stowed away because Kamino be stinky. He wasn't aware that Mal was his mom at first and became very clingy when he found out. The Pack loves him very much uwu (belongs to @incorrectclonequotes, she made so many Bois here uwu)

Pika is very touch aversive and often refuses to join cuddle piles. He's also quite short, and he's very angry. He will fight literally anyone (belongs to Ender)

Raccoon, the one with the white stripes, will literally cuddle with no one but Weasel and only cares for Weasel and Mouse. The only thoughts in his head are "must smooch Weasel" and "protecc the tiny white thing." He will steal and eat anything not bolted down. He's probably the most feral one here, and he sticks around only for the food. And Weasel. He's special ops uwu (belongs to @incorrectclonequotes)

Weasel is a w h o r e. He sleeps around with anyone and marries anyone. My boy's had so many divorces too. He and Chilla got drunk married and are in l o v e. He somehow married Hondo and single handedly made the Pack Hondo's sugar baby. Oh, and he's special ops (belongs to @incorrectclonequotes)

Leruk is the little girl with the orange hair. She's a miraluka and Taz's adopted daughter. She's quite friendly, but Mouse likes to fight her. She's close to Dinua (belongs to Ender)

Shrew is the one with the blue hair, he's quite young and very anxious. He's also Chilla's adopted son and he will fight anyone who fucks with his s o n. The Pack helps Shrew with his anxiety in their own little ways. He's Chilla's medical assistant, so he gets a green medic symbol on his pauldrons and a lil medic fanny pack uwu (belongs to @incorrectclonequotes)

Goldie is the one with the brain cell and he won't share it. He's the kind of guy who watches the world burn without doing anything about it even though he knows exactly how to fix it. Call it spite uwu He's also fukkin b l i n d, but will that stop him? Nah. He's the resident badass, and Chilla sees him as his dad/older brother. Goldie clicks to "see," and his wife (miraluka, and she's a delight uwu) helps him get around on his own. At this point, he'd probably refuse prosthetic eyes (belongs to @incorrectclonequotes)

NOT SHOWN HERE:

Vizcacha (Viz for short): they're Chilla's batchmate and the 4th ARC trooper. They're pretty chill, but they collect blackmail like no one's business. No one's secrets are safe. The only one better at collecting secrets is Raccoon, but Raccoon don't share no secrets. Not out of courtesy, but just because talking is too much effort (belongs to Blitzy)

Spilo: He tol, red-headed, and has vitiligo. He's incredibly confident and bitchy uwu He's also Mal's bestie, and he helps Shrew with his confidence. Even though Shrew is terrified of Spilo (belongs to @incorrectclonequotes)

Guinea Pig: he's an interesting character. He was basically a test subject in Kaminoan labs and only ever had contact with Kaminoans. He'd managed to surgically alter his appearance to look more Kaminoan, and he practically worships them like gods. He doesn't play well with the others, basically (belongs to Vurn)

Degú: even younger than Dinua, probably comes around near the end of the war? He'll put literally anything in his mouth. His parents are Mal and Capy uwu (belongs to Blitzy)

There are definitely more Rat Pack kids, but the ones listed here are the ones who live on the ship XD Rat's and Goldie's kids stay with their mothers, away from the war uwu

[bamfdaddio]

X-Men Abridged: 1981

The X-Men, those back-to-the-future mutants that have sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them, are a cultural juggernaut with a long, tangled history. Want to unravel this tapestry? Then read the Abridged X-Men!

(Uncanny X-Men 141 - 152) - by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, Brent Anderson, Dave Cockrum, Jim Sherman, Bob McLeod and Josef Rubinstein

While I also committed various fashion atrocities at the age of 14 (tye-die and fauxhawks, oh my), even Liberace would find Kitty’s outfits too much. (Uncanny X-Men 149; Uncanny X-Men Annual ‘81)

We dial back from the v. epic scope of the last few arcs. Instead, 1981 is just a lot of fun! We get:

Storm and Emma doing a Freaky Friday!

the X-Men vs. Magneto (again!)

A surprisingly effective Alien rip-off

An dystopian future! (OoOoOoOo)

Last year was the year of the Dark Phoenix, this is the year of Kitty Pryde. That’s not to say Jean’s death is swept under the rug: all throughout, we see her friends mourning her loss or remembering her fondly. (Scott even gets to have a demonic adventure about it.) But in general, Claremont puts Kitty in the forefront, fleshing out his YA-addition to the team. And what would a YA heroine be without a grim dystopia? Roll out the iconic Days of Future Past!

To be fair, 2013 was a dark time for all of us: What Does the Fox Say somehow got to the top of the charts and I was still watching Glee. (Uncanny X-Men 141)

How cool would it have been to see a name like Jonothon Starsmore or Eva Bell on those tombstones?

Anyway, that’s Kate. Kate’s had it rough. Mutants are at the bottom of the foodchain, most X-Men are dead and only a small cadre of resistance fighters remain, Sentinels dominate, and while she is married to Piotr, her children have been murdered. Bleak. Luckily, the rebellion has concocted the plan to shunt Kate’s spirit back in time to prevent this awful future from happening. (You’ve seen Days of Future Past, the last passably good X-Men film, you know what’s up.)

Let’s do the time warp again! 1981!Kitty’s mind gets taken over by 2013!Kitty, who promptly tries to convince the X-Men that a new Brotherhood of v. Evil Mutants will try to kill Senator Kelly, a presidential candidate who tries to put the mutant menace on the agenda. (Mutants tend to blow stuff up when he’s around.) Since the X-Men recently took a literal trip to Dante’s Infero and also befriended a cosmic world-ending entity, they basically shrug and go: “Yeah, this checks out.”

Off to Washington they go (zoommm) and there, they happen upon the Baddest Bitches in Herstory:

“How dare you hate mutants, senator Kelly! We’ll fix that by killing you!” (Uncanny X-Men 141)

This All-New, All-Different Brotherhood consists out of:

Destiny, a blind woman who can see the future. Definitely the eeriest member of this group. Badass lesbian, though that won´t be canon for years.

Avalanche. Greek who makes things shake. Is a long-standing member of the X-Men Rogue’s gallery, but rarely features in the spotlight. I think he got more characterization in four years of X-Men Evolution than he ever did in the comics.

Mystique. Shapeshifter. Ruthless and unhinged, the Cersei Lannister of the X-Men universe. Absolute legend, secretly the wife of Destiny, currently not as unhinged as she’ll be later. Immediately implied to be related to Nightcrawler: it’s the yellow-eyes-blue-skin-combo.

Pyro. Can manipulate fire, not create it. Absolute pillock, in all the best ways of the word. Originally intended as gay, but they decided to make him Australian instead. (?!)

Blob. Big, strong, immovable. We’ve seen him before.

One of the details in this fight I enjoy is that Storm is still struggling with her leadership, although she has a better grip on things than Cyclops:

Wolverine then proceeds to use those iconic but deadly claws about twice per issue for the next, oh, forty years. (Uncanny X-Men 142)

While the X-Men fight the Brotherhood in the present, we cut back and forth to the future. There, the X-Men consist out of some familiar faces - Storm, Colossus, Wolverine - and some surprises: Magneto (in a wheelchair), Franklin Richards (son of) and an unfamiliar ginger girl called Rachel. (She’ll be important later.) We even learn (one of) Magneto’s names: this is the first time he’s canonically called Magnus.

One of the strengths of Days of Future Past lies in its brevity, the way it tantalizingly taunts us with a brutal but familiar future without giving away too much. It’s single-handedly responsible for all those dark future timelines the X-lines are so fond of which will eventually culminate in time-displaced grandsons from alternative dimensions and the impossibility of a succinct answer to the question: “Who’s Cable?” Too much of a good thing and all that.

Still, what Days of Future Past does so successfully is:

Put the idea of the mutant menace back at the forefront, hammering home the metaphor of mutants being a minority. Mutants being put in camps and being forbidden to breed should - regretfully - make us think of all too many real life equivalents. (Specifically, all of the imagery harkens back to the Holocaust.)

It starkly shows what happens should the X-Men lose, reminding everyone of the stakes. The X-Men are here for a reason: bridging the gap between mutants and humankind. If they fuck up, we end up with mutant concentration camps.

It helps that the X-Men in the future almost all die horribly: Franklin is incinerated, Storm is impaled… It's brutal stuff. The only one to survive is Rachel, who wonders if their plan actually changed the future or if they created an alternative timeline. (It did the latter, sorry ‘bout it, Rachel.)

In the present, Kate chases after Destiny, who trains a gun on senator Kelly. I always wondered how this works: if Destiny saw the future, she knew that killing Kelly would trigger a terrifying future. What in the current Marvel timeline made her decide that the Days of Future Past was better? Did she see her own death? Did she see the Onslaught-crossover coming? The Chuck Austen run? What was it?

In any case, time-anomalous Kate stops Destiny from killing Kelly and the future is safe! For now. Kate disappears, Kitty returns to her body and some of the Brotherhood are apprehended. All is well, for now.

After being a key figure in DoFP, Kitty is also the main character in the Christmas special, which is basically a straight up horror and a pastiche of the Alien-movie.

Seriously, John Byrne still isn’t sure why he wasn’t sued by Ridley Scott for this. (Uncanny X-Men 143)

If you love Kitty Pryde? Read this issue. If you’re not convinced you like 80’s Kitty? Read this issue. It’s not continuity relevant and it’s basically Kitty playing the part of a Final Girl in a horror where she’s being chased by a demon, but it’s so good. It showcases all her strengths and her foibles. Kitty’s intelligent, cute (sometimes preciously so) and brave, but she’s also young, self-conscious and hot-headed. And it's not as if the other X-Men automatically adore her: Storm berates her all the time, she’s afraid of Kurt because of the way he looks (though she grows out of that) and she fights with Professor Xavier a lot. Moreover, she has a clever power-set for a young superhero who faces menaces on a daily basis: a thirteen year old who can go intangible is far less likely to have reality ensue on her and be dramatically offed because she's better at protecting herself.

I’m sure there are people who thought Sprite was hogging the spotlight, but I, for one, say she brings more to the table than, say, Angel. She’s not the Dawn Summers of this franchise.

Scott also gets a side quest. Poor guy can’t catch a break: first the love of his life dies, so he quits the X-Men, then he realizes he can’t do much else than be a superhero. He becomes a sailor on the ship of spunky captain Lee Forrester, is drawn into the sadistic plans of a demon unironically named D’Spayre and then shipwrecks in Bermuda with Lee.

The X-Men, meanwhile, are tormented by a team-up of Doom (who’s currently Latverialess and working on a comeback) and Arcade, that annoying crony. Locke, Arcade’s dom, has kidnapped the loved ones of the X-Men (Moira MacTaggart, Jean Grey’s parents, Illyana Rasputin and Amanda Sefton) in order to blackmail them into getting Doom to free Arcade. Apparently, Arcade accidentally insulted Doom and DOOM DOES NOT FORGIVE THAT FOLLY.

While the B-Squad (Polaris, Havok, Banshee and Iceman) goes to save Arcade’s hostages, the X-Men sneak into Doom’s castle. Well, except for Storm, who doesn’t give a single fuck and simply flies up to Doom, demanding an audience. Doom likes the cut of her jib and invites her to have dinner. (This is pre-Tinder, so this is a legit way of scoring a date.)

If Storm has a flaw (I said if!), it’s got to be her atrocious taste in men. (Uncanny X-Men 145)

The X-Men find Arcade’s cell empty, while Arcade casually saunters up to Storm and says hi. Storm realizes too late that this is a trap: while the X-Men are all trapped in Saw-like traps, Storm is encased in ‘living chrome’.

If you remember she’s claustrophobic, you know why this is a bad move.

While the X-Men free themselves from their traps - Polaris hilariously has to deal with a murderous merry-go-round - Storm is slowly driven mad in her prison, triggering a worldwide tempest. (She causes Lee and Scott to shipwreck.) Under the threat of Wolverine’s claws, Doom releases Storm - or rather, unleashes her.

“Instead of a Dark Lord, you would have a queen, not dark but beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Tempestuous as the sea, and stronger than the foundations of the earth! All shall love me and despair!” (Uncanny X-Men 147)

The memory of Jean brings Ororo back to herself and she starts undoing the superstorm she created. (If only climate change were reversed that easily.) Their confrontation ends by Storm easily forgiving Doom, because she apparently trespassed on his grounds without adequate cause.

Mkay.

All of Arcade’s hostages return to their homesteads, except for Illyana Rasputin, Piotr’s sister: she’s staying at the mansion for a while. Angel, who’s sort of been a part of the team since the Phoenix thing, has had it with Wolverine and his ‘tude, and decides to quit the X-Men : he doesn’t want to be a part of an outfit that has a killer like Wolverine on it. (Or maybe he’s just mad Claremont didn’t give him any storylines: his presence has been mostly pointless.) It’s too bad he left before Kitty started experimenting with her outfits: I bet he would have loved her ugly-ass costumes.

Equally inconsequential is the introduction of a brand new character, who then proceeds to disappear from the narrative for the rest of the year:

Black Tom has tried to kill you at least twice, but him sending you a long-lost daughter doesn’t give you pause? Ugh, Sean, you deserve Moira. (Uncanny X-Men 148)

Intrigued by Theresa? TOO BAD, WON’T SEE HER AGAIN ANYTIME SOON.

Another new character is the lonely, decidedly mutant looking Caliban, who can sense “people like him” and is on the lookout for companions. Like many lonely people who try and grasp at friendship, he decides to overshoot his shot and ruin the night of Storm, Kitty and Jessica Drew at a Dazzler concert. Because he tries to kidnap Kitty, the girls react a trifle aggressively. When they realize their mistake - the eerily pale Caliban is a simpleton rather than a menace - he’s already fled. No mention is made of the Morlocks yet!

There’s also another dull annual where the X-Men team up with the Fantastic Four to save Arkon’s dimension from the Badoon and yaaaaawn. Far more interesting is the landmark issue #150. Slowly, through the adventures of Scott and Lee Forrester, Claremont has been setting things up for the return of a favorite villain. While the X-Men investigate Magneto’s old base in Antarctica on a hunch of Professor X and tangle with Garruk, Scott and Lee survive Storm’s tempest, only to wake up next to a strange island that seems to have been raised from the ocean.

It’s apparently some ancient citadel from a long forgotten civilization with a fondness for squid statues. (I don’t know man, I’ve never been to the Bermuda Triangle, maybe this is just super-accurate.)The tentacles make Lee Forrester feel very amorous, but before Scott can tell her he is way too repressed to just have sex with an attractive someone he’s known intimately for a month or two, Magneto saves his ass by revealing he, in fact, raised this island from the seafloor.

Oh, Magneto. So extra.

My ambitious little mutant demagogue then proceeds to take the entire world hostage, showing how much he’s grown from the pompous, raving madman from the sixties. (Sure, Magneto is still a bit of a madman, but increasingly, he starts being on the right side of history.)

“I’m trying to make Magneto more sympathetic.”

“Just put him on a page with some bigger villains who are less noble, like the Vanisher, Count Nefaria, or…”

“Reagan, Thatcher and Brezhnov?”

“Er.” (Uncanny X-Men 150)

It’s obvious Magneto is being pivoted as a more noble villain, codified into the well-intentioned extremist we know and love today. Not only do we get the first hints at his past, fleshing out his motivations, he’s also not wrong. Humans are historically not great at taking care of the planet or each other.

When the Russians call his bluff and launch nukes at Magneto’s new island, he quickly disarms them. His retribution is swift and ferocious: the entire citadel is a machine that massively amplifies his powers. He sinks the submarine that launched the missiles, condemning the entire crew to death, and he casually erects a vulcano in a Russian city in Siberia.

Damn. Not messing around this time.

Despite his good intentions, Magneto is still definitely in the wrong: not only because of his methods, but as Scott points out: if Magneto unifies the world under his kind of benevolent dictatorship, all of that will simply fall apart as soon as Magnus dies.

In a way, Magneto is just as big a dreamer as Charles is: Charles believes in peace and integration, whereas Magneto believes his iron fist will be enough to make a perfect world happen. Both of them ignore the reality that acceptance is difficult and messy, because you’re trying to change essential human nature: the fear of the other. Magneto believes in big, sweeping gestures that will fix the world in move, while changing the world is also boring, hard work. One step forward, two steps back. Magneto just wants to leapfrog to his ultimate goal.

The X-Men fly over the citadel, returning from Antarctica, and their plane crashes into the ocean. (Magneto does not brook planes over his territory, humans!) The Professor is also nearby, looking for Scott with Moira, Peter Corbeau and Carol Danvers. The X-Men sneak onto the island, but to their horror, their powers are nullified by some machine of Magneto. They reunite with Scott, who formulates a plan to thwart the would-be ruler of the world.

While the rest of the X-Men go to trash the machine, Storm, Kitty and Lee infiltrate the control chamber where Storm finds a sleeping, shirtless Magneto. Once again showing her terrible taste in men, she is not weak in the knees at the sight of a sleeping Magnus: instead, she contemplates killing him.

Storm knows how dangerous he is, but she also knows that he’s a great man who’s fighting for ideals, no matter how misguided. She hesitates too long: Magneto stirs, suspects an attack and tosses her out of the window, to her death.

Magneto quickly undoes the sabotage the other X-Men have wrought to his machine. A fight erupts. Storm, meanwhile, has managed to grab hold of a ledge. She crawls back up and smashes an important-looking computer, restoring everyone’s powers.

The battle turns grim, but Scott sends Kitty away to wreck Magneto’s machinery. She sneaks off, following Scott’s orders and destroying both Magneto's power-up device and all of his plans by phasing though the computer circuitry. Magneto senses this and furiously gives chase. Overcome by rage, he attacks Kitty and disrupts her phasing power with a magnetic bolt, seemingly killing her?

Everything about this story beat is great: mama bear!Ororo, mournful Magnus and even the fact that Kitty’s godawful outfit serves a narrative function: highlighting to us (and Magneto) just how young she is. The fact that Kitty’s Jewish is just icing on the cake. (Uncanny X-Men 150)

And thus, the softening of Magneto commences. 1981 might be a year with wildly varying narratives, but it has given us at least three enduring legacies to the X-Mythos: a new kind of Magneto, a fondness for dystopian futures and the character of Kitty Pryde, who's really come into her own this year.

Ugliest Costume: Kitty! Purposefully, but still. Best costume, by the way, goes to Destiny, with her creepy, creepy golden mask. Just imagine this lady casually strolling across a battlefield, eerily calm and collected, dodging everything you throw at her. Awesome design.

Best new character: I usually pick one character - what good is having a shared award when declaring the best of anything? - but this year, it’s going to one of my favorite couples: Mystique and Destiny. Can’t wait to see more of them.

Most audacious retcon: Blob somehow retroactively becomes a member of the original Brotherhood, which is not what happened. Ever weirder is Xavier pondering that he never met Magneto before his attack in X-Men #1, while their cordially adversarial relationship rooted in a youthful friendship would soon become a cornerstone of the X-Men.

What to read: Uncanny X-Men 141 - 143 and 150 - 152