#second favorite season of character art is The Seven

[sharkieboi]

hi okay so i’m rewatching Starstruck and

a) being able to binge it as the Complete Experience with the Adventuring Party(s) right after each episode is very great and I like being able to revisit the story this way

b) I actually think this is my favorite season of character art in general, and in particular Sundry Sidney’s portrait is no contest my absolute favorite character art of all of D20

[lotrlocked]

Confessions from a Hater (who is willing to be wrong)

Ok listen. I was feeling so mid about about this whole show. I’m 33 and have been a fan of Anne Rice since I was 14. Because of how damn dramatic the text is, you can expect the people who love it to match that freak. What I mean to say is that many of us are super haters of anything that deviates from the word of our Problematic Queen, Anne Rice in a particularly passionate way that only us elitist hipster goths can be.

Yes we know we are this way, deep down, we know. Anyway. I went into this show with a lemon shoved my ass about how it wasn’t going to live up to my expectations, no matter how much I publicly claimed I was ‘going into watching it with an open mind’; as I did not want to seem too overly concerned about the show.

I watched it, blank faced, giving half hearted replies about it but generally trying to forget the shows existence after the end of the first season. I considered not watching the second season at all but I thought, eh what the hell? I’ll admit I was bored in the first few episodes but then episode seven happened.

The spirit of Anne Rice was there in that episode ya’ll.

Oh my god though. This was art. People, This was one of the most beautifully gothic things I’ve ever seen. The depth of character and acting from everyone on that stage was incredible.

While of course Claudia’s death scene was different, the agency they gave her there and the love story they built with Madeline was incredible in this show. She had Louis bottomless of love and Lestat’s indomandable passion. I could not look away from the screen. I believed I was watching vampires putting on a trial play.

“My coven is Claudia” oh my GOD. That’s all she ever wanted, to be put first. To be loved first.

All season Santiago has stood out. The second he appeared, I could not take my eyes off of him. His hate that others are doing things he cannot allow himself to do. I want his backstory. The was he said “We’re monsters”. chills.

Louis. Oh messy, too human, Louis. I wasn’t sure about him in particular this whole time. I need to rewatch and give Jacob Anderson an actual fair viewing. He’s so elegant even in the depths of his pain. This is a vampire who feels too much.

And then my love….Lestat has always been one of my very favorite character, ever. No could ever be him I thought. Then, Sam Reid. Sam Reid is Lestat. He looked through the screen and snatched my soul in the only the way book Lestat ever could. I truly believe that’s how Anne would have wanted him to be. The way he moves, the arrogance, the beauty. This is the vampire who will wake Akasha, the mother of all vampires. God, the way he moved through the audience. ‘Where lies their disgust now?’ His voice. He’s amazing. That’s an Emmy worthy performance.

“You can’t script a hurricane” holy shit

I’m glad there is one more episode but I almost wish the ended it there for the hook of that tension and horror and made us wait.

I felt the fear, the love, the horror. My god they felt like actual vampires so much more and real than us mere mortals.

I will rewatch all of this.

[thanx-files]

Gethsemane Review and Season 4 Wrap-Up

Listen. Listen. These get longer every season, but I can’t help myself. I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to put my thoughts into comprehensible language after Gethsemane. So please, indulge me, agree with me, start a fight with me in the replies, but whatever you do, just join me in being unwell about season 4 of The X-Files. Spoilers, of course.

Gethsemane

I, a child of the 21st century, am watching this show on a streaming platform. It has long since wrapped, and I know for damn sure that David Duchovny will return as Fox Mulder for many of the seasons to follow. Even so, I am choking on this ending. What the exact and entire fuck do you mean HE DIED?

I cannot imagine watching this, then waiting MONTHS to know what happened. I know those message boards were buzzing. Not only that, but the viewers would not have had the benefit of the Dean Winchester trope thanks to which every time a main character dies you think, “it’s fine honestly don’t even worry about it, they’ll be back in two weeks.” (Even if you’re wrong.)

UGH okay now that I’ve talked about that, it’s time to be a broken record: I love to see Mulder and Scully at odds. The scene as they’re leaving the Smithsonian is ART to me. They’re no longer fighting the same war; they’re on the same battlefield, arguing about who the fuck is shooting at them in the first place.

He doesn’t see that she needs him because of how desperately she doesn’t want to need him. She says she’s out of the game while sliding all her chips into the center of the table. They’re impossible. I’m obsessed with them.

Also we got more Catholic Scully in this ep, and we know I love that, too. I love that no one can touch whatever God is to her — not a priest and not Mulder either. I love that she is unthreatened by the truth, whatever it happens to be.

Also, the dialogue this ep goes hard in general, but Mulder hearing the phrase, “They invented you” is so fucked up. He’s a cog in the very machine he hopes to dismantle. Or is he? Or was he?

This ep had me, who jumped onboard with MSR the second Mulder turned on that slide projector in the pilot, wondering if I had been wrong the whole time. Then they pulled that ending. The last seven seconds of the ep had me so fucked up. Scully getting choked up — the FBI official she’s been explaining it all to trying to keep her from saying the thing out loud. It’s overwhelming.

This has all been a lot of summary and not a lot of reviewing, but what else is new? TL;DR: This ep fucks. Favorite season finale so far, followed by Anasazi.

Season 4

One of the strengths of season 4 is how connected it all feels. With a few notable exceptions, we start up on this rollercoaster hill of autonomy, mortality, power, and the self. I know those are major themes of the whole series, but when you look at them through the lens of the cancer arc, they look kinda different. Suddenly we have foreshadowing. We have the specter of death looking in on us for more than just an episode, a moment. We start to feel like maybe something bad could actually happen to Mulder and Scully —something permanent and paradigm-shifting.

The weakness, for me, of season 4 is that it has no sense of humor. No Clyde Bruckman. No Coprophages. No Jose Chung. The episodes are good, of course, but none of them are fun! I don’t need another sitcom ep, but I do need a breath, for the love of God.

5 favorite eps:

Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man: Yes! I am as surprised as you are, seeing as I made a comment last season about how little patience I have for the CSM and his musings, specifically. But I find I did actually want to know who this guy is. And the fact that he’s watching the Gunmen the whole time — that’s the power thing I was talking about before. He says it himself: He could kill them anytime. But not today.

Tunguska & Terma: The first time a 2-part mytharc sequence has made it to my favorites list! I fucking love it when Alex Krycek shows his face around Mulder and Scully because he WILL stab them in the back and it WILL be dramatic as fuck. (I wrote down the phrase “just kiss already” something like 7 times in my notes during these eps, basically any time Mulder and Krycek were on screen.)

Demons: I know we all love to see a pathetic shell of a man abandoning all reason. We also love to see Scully as the deranged, protective one, stopping at nothing to save her partner. Even if said partner made some truly terrible decisions.

Gethsemane: See above.

5 least favorite eps:

The Field Where I Died: Not only was this slow and boring, but by the end, I was ready to crawl into the TV and slap Fox Mulder my own self. This case could’ve been solved and no one had to die. But he wasted their time. (Please feel free to correct me in the replies; I would actually love to be wrong.) Also, the southern accent for the big field monologue made my Carolina girl heart wither.

El Mundo Gira: That’s not even remotely what a chupacabra is. I feel like this was supposed to be our Jose Chung this season. It let me down.

Tempus Fugit & Max: Back to our regularly scheduled programming where I get lost in these two-parters because who is that? Where are they going? Who is chasing them? What? Huh?

Zero Sum: I am confused and I miss Scully. Skinner and Mulder will just do circles around each other and growl at people without her. I know this is a glimpse of the stakes of the cancer arc, but it’s not very good TV, is it?

[bakedbakermom]

Hi ! I’m relatively new to txf fandom and you seem very knowledgeable and lovely, and I just saw a post that had this tweet and I wanted to ask if there’s a fic like that for us ? And if not, do you have any recommendations for your all time favorite txf fics ? Thank you :)

Well aren't you sweet. Not sure about knowledgeable and lovely, but I am quite susceptible to flattery!

Off the top of my head, I can think of 3 fics that have remained key pieces in the fandom since their publication:

Arizona Highways by Fialka Fialka's entire body of work is astonishing, but AH remains not only a staple for the XF fandom, but is widely regarded as one of the classics of fanfiction itself. It made an impressive showing at the 2000 Spooky Awards (fanfic awards within the fandom), winning the outstanding novel, x-file (casefile), angst, Scully characterization, and "other" character categories, and second place for outstanding Mulder characterization.

The story provides a resolution to the Emily arc that both fans and characters were otherwise denied in show canon. It follows Scully, Mulder, and Kresge (from the Christmas Carol/Emily episodes) as they discover that Emily - like the Samanthas and other clones - was but one of a series of children produced from Scully's ova to be test subjects in the wider hybridization conspiracy.

Iolokus by RivkaT and MustangSally A grim alternate universe take on the show's mytharc, this fic is highly controversial due to its bleak takes on Mulder and Scully's characterization, and the horrible things they endure throughout. Clones, rape, human experiments... I must admit that I have not finished this one - it got too dark for me quite early on - but it remains bookmarked for a time I feel ready to get into it.

This fic is both famous and infamous, and has been sparking controversy since its first publication in 1998. Proceed at your own risk.

Incrementum by Lepusarcticus A far more recent entry into the fandom (2017), this work is a series of canon-compliant alternate-universe vignettes which explore what would have happened if Mulder and Scully's romantic and sexual relationship had begun much, much earlier than in canon.

Honorable mention goes to Parabiosis by Penumbra which explores Mulder and Scully's shifting relationship throughout season seven. Penumbra is another author whose entire body of work is worthy of a deep-dive; Fathoms Five is a stunning piece concerning Scully's struggle to understand her own immortality as the world around her marches inexorably onward, and Upsidaisium is a heart-breaking story set in the long grim night of Gethsemane.

Also of note is the series Life During Wartime, a years-long collaboration between four of the fandom's best writers (Maria Nicole, cofax7, finisterre/Marasmus, and Fialka) exploring the colonization apocalypse that never came. Sweet, heart-wrenching, poignant, and fearless.

Do also check out the fics listed under the various categories of the Spooky Awards (linked above) - some are enduring classics, some are great stories that have merely been buried in the sands of time. Many of the fics listed there can be found on Gossamer (one of the few surviving archives from the show's original run and a fandom archaeologist's wet dream) or X-Libris (one person's effort to save older fics and their art from the Wayback Machine in epub and pdf format for posterity and personal use).

Also dig through the XF Book Club's archive on Livejournal for some interesting pieces you can browse by category - and as an added bonus, you can watch fellow fans debate, critique, and generally lose their minds in the comments section!

I know I have some mutuals who are fellow fandom-oldies (or newcomers who have done deep dives) so please feel free to add your recommendations to this post.

[aquamonstra]

Suddenly feeling very indignant that the Voyager crew had to get flung into the Delta quadrant so they don't get to ever properly rendezvous with the Enterprise because I feel in my heart that THEY DESERVE TO SO MUCH, THESE PRECIOUS SPACE CHICKEN NUGGETS

Like you KNOW Janeway would have jumped on Riker. That 5 min preview Q gave her was NOT ENOUGH 😂

And B'Elanna already has SUCH heart eyes for Data and she and Geordi might butt head for 2 seconds before having that same kind of engineering bonding moment she had with Janeway.

Worf and Tuvok would be best friends. Hands down. Immediate respect. They would sit in stern silence and hardly every speak other than to stoically debate the best martial arts styles and the merits of Klingon vs Vulcan opera, but still. Best friends.

Tom and Harry would end up forming a lil friend gang with Geordi, Data, and Barclay and combine forces to design the most insane holodeck adventures. Shit that makes your your favorite PS5 games feel like Pong.

Chakotay and Picard would totally bond over discussing archaeology and anthropology. You can find them in the lab analyzing pottery or going over tribal musical pieces that Picard is trying to learn on his flute.

The Doctor would just get totally fawned over by Barclay, and he'd probably rub Bev the wrong way at first but then earn her respect hard and fast the more they get to know each other. Also the Doctor absolutely developes a crush on Deanna.

And speaking of Deanna, she would LOVE the hell outta both Kes and Neelix. She'd bond with Kes over the similarities of their abilities and go nuts consulting with Neelix about different crew morale activities she could incorporate aboard the Enterprise.

And on that note, Neelix and Guinan would totally team up to throw the BEST Ten Forward parties 🙌🙌🙌

**i promise this is not Seven of Nine erasure i'm just only in season 2 of Voyager and haven't met her yet pls don't get mad at me i promise i'll come back and update this as soon as i get to know her character**

[p-receh]

Hi! What are your thoughts on season 2 of bbbglxy so far?

Great question!

Currently, I'm writing about Boboiboy's appreciation post but your question instantly made me, "Wait, should I review the second season or wait until all arcs are animated?"

But then I figured if I waited until next year, I already forgot about your question. So I answered now.

edit: this is a rewritten one cause my previous answer malfunctioned. my apologies, anon.

Tbf, I wanted to wait for all arcs animated then read the comic, but I reaaaallly curious and adore the art style so much. Usually, Monsta releases comics as an extension after tv/movie aired. However, due to the pandemic, they release the comic first. Even they initially went all comic and no animation. Glad they managed to release per arc in season 2. Eventually, I continued to read about it after watching 3 episodes of Sori.

Okay on to the story!

It's well known that the Comic version was more ruthless than tv/movie ones. There's one tweet mentioned compare this scene below(it's also one of the reasons why I want to read the comics ver.)

So it's not surprising that Season 2 comic book went on the same route. That's also one of my shopping lists when I visit to Malaysia(the shipping cost is higher in Indonesia btw :/)

ehem.

This session will be from my perspective. So this paragraph onwards is purely my opinion.

So my take on this season is ... I am so glad they delve deeper than I thought. AND ended beautifully back their original roots: become the earth's protector once again! (and take care of Tok Aba but I'm not ready for that :'( )

If Season 1 is about the responsibility of being the heroes of galaxy, therefore, Season 2 is about the cost and risk of them.

I love the Kokotiam gang's character journey throughout the arc. Holy shit the conflict on each planet was wild for sure! the intensity, the humor, and the revelation are well-balanced. All the new characters are memorable enough that I can see why people were angry when Sori cut most of them from the early issues. (Manifesting they wouldn't do that for Windara's arc :) )

I'd say I am satisfied with all the action and story of Kokotiam gang's arc!

For elementals, I WILL rant more about this in the next topic. Holy-my head is full of theories and shit, I want to explode myself.

...

If I choose some takeaways from this season, It's the fusion part. Don't get me wrong, I love the design, the animation, and their attacks, and is the last option when Boboiboy couldn't use his 3rd tier (my personal favorites are Glacier and Supra). I've mentioned it briefly in my previous post.

But when they add personal traits? hooo boy, I...got issues with that.

I don't want them getting too dominant when there are already seven elementals with distinct personalities and upgrades(and their fanbases) other than Boboiboy's original trait. And now there's 5 fusion elementals???

But then, it is what it is... I can't blame them. Their original concept of the Galaxy series was weirder than this but I hope this fusion comes with more cost to Boboiboy's mental health(bro, he's a freaking human being, not superman >:/). His amnesia got worse and I don't think fusion will making him better ^^)'

So there's that. Hope i can answer your question, anon!

[asamitakamybeloved]

Shangri La Frontier Thoughts

I've been watching Shangri La Frontier lately, and I'm enjoying it and all but I've gotta say, I'm surprised it got renewed for a second season. For some reason the art style has this weird quality about it that I can't put my finger on that's bothering me. Maybe it's the proportions of the faces or the shape of the eyes? The way everyone's lips are shiny? Does anyone else know what I'm talking about?

Other than that, the characters are likeable enough and there are some REALLY funny ongoing gags. It's one of those shows that you can just turn your brain off and not worry about any real stakes. There might some sinister overarching plotline, but I'm 18 episodes in and it hasn't revealed itself yet. While I don't have any problems with any of the characters, I have to admit that I don't feel strongly about any of them either. I don't know the names of the humans who play the game (even Sunraku's player, and he's the main character?) and there's no fun chemistry between anyone that makes me want to ship them. I like Oikatzo the best and feel vague irritation when Psyger-0's player has her contrived romantic plotline going on, but other than that I don't have much to say. I don't love or hate anyone in the show yet and that kind of detracts from my enjoyment of the show. It lacks the emotional highs and lows of getting to see your favorite character show up and watching your least favorite character hog the screentime, you know what I mean?

At first I was really impressed with the opening bars of Opening 2 where the players are shown in shadow and their avatars light up on the screen behind them, but after transitioning to the titlecard, the animation and music become very cluttered. The blacksmithing scene was really good and the Sunraku-Pencilgon-Oikatzo antics are cute. The way one of the major battles gets resolved was kind of clever too. I don't care about the bunnies (besides the fact that their faces bother me more than the humans') but the monster designs are kind of interesting. It kind of reminds me of Maplestory. So far, I guess I'd recommend it but I also don't think you're missing out on much if you skip it. I'll see how the last seven episodes go though.

[bluevelvetvideo]

I have some feelings to share:

I know that the majority of people didn't like the later seasons of Riverdale. I held off watching the last two seasons until recently. I finished season 6 mid-August and just finished season 7 about fifteen minutes ago.

Were they ridiculous seasons, and did they look nothing like seasons 1 and 2? Yes. Were they straight up bad? Absolutely not. I am sure I'm in the minority here, but I did not hate them.

Season 6 was outlandish and supernatural, but I chose to look at it through a lens of fanfiction. Season 6 was an AU. It was built to be fanciful and weird because that's what AUs can be. Our favorite characters can be superheros and fight comets and bad guys because that's what superheros do in AUs. By very definition, its an alternate universe.

Season 7, being back in the 1950s is again, an AU choice. However, being set in the 1950s is an homage to the comics. Did the ships play out how we wanted? No. Did they give us tastes and teases of what we did want? Sure. We got glimpses of what we knew these characters to be.

I watched the last 40ish episodes in a state of suspended disbelief. I knew I wasn't going to get Bughead in its purist form. I knew things would be different, but I watched anyway because I spent years getting to know these characters. I've spent years loving them and appreciating them.

I did not expect to sob uncontrollably after watching the series finale. (If you don't believe me, ask Bina, I sent her a snapchat of my sobbing.)

The Bughead fandom, this show, has brought me immense joy over the past seven years. It has given me space to find my love of writing again. It has provided me with a small corner of the internet to learn and create and find my people. It provided comfort in a time of global uncertainty. It gave me one of my best friends. It gave me somewhere to escape when I didn't know how else to deal with myself or my emotions. I hid here for a very long time until I was ready to face things. I got to experience things and people I'd never have gotten the chance to without it.

Riverdale isn't just Murdertown, USA. Riverdale is where I went for a visit, and it welcomed me without question. In my time in Riverdale, I learned about myself. I learned about life and love and people. I learned that everything is not what it appears to be. I learned the art of kindness to strangers. I learned appreciation for art and hope. Riverdale has given me so much that I will never be able to thank it for properly.

Riverdale will always be a second home. This community will always be a second home, even if there isn't much left of it.

[ridley-was-a-cat]

Summer 2024 Anime Roundup

Anime of the Season - Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master

I added this to my list of spring shows to check out purely for the key visual they released before the season started. It showed four women in beautifully styled kimonos standing on a large stone staircase, and the vibes just screamed "period drama for grownups", which happens to be one of my favorite foods.

While my read on the serious tone was on target, rather than a straight period drama, it's actually a fantasy series set in the royal court of a society of yatagarasu - a mythical three-legged raven from folklore that can take human form - that's in the midst of a succession struggle, with the four noble houses all sending a prospective bride to the capital for the crown prince to choose from. Joining the would-be consorts is a large cast of characters with a wide variety of interests and loyalties, from factions favoring the crown prince's older brother, to a scheming empress, and a clever teenage boy who'd just like to do his job and get back to his family outside the capital. The first two thirds of the series craft one of the best executed mystery plots that I've seen in an anime, with an incredibly satisfying conclusion at the end of a meticulous setup that made just about every detail count. While the resolution to the mystery in the last seven episodes lacked a bit of the punch the first one had, the setting details it revealed along the way made me wish for a sequel or an English translation of the source novels to get even more of this story.

This would have made its way into the top of the season on the strength of the story alone, but the production quality takes it to the top of the year. The art is nothing short of incredible, with gorgeous painted backgrounds, distinctive character designs, and beautiful Heian era-styled kimonos in vibrant colors. On top of the sparkling visuals, the soundtrack is rich and moody, the opening and ending are unskippable, and the voice cast is full of talented actors. It was the sort of series that comes around once a decade at most, and my pick for the best of the season couldn't have been easier. 9/10

First Runner-Up – Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines!

Before the season began, I saw the premise of nothingburger boy collecting a trio of girls rejected by their crushes, I looked at those goofy bows on the girls' uniforms, and I took a pretty hard pass on this. Everyone's praise got to me by the end of the season, though, and I ended up checking it out and getting completely charmed by it. The kids are all pretty lovable, and the production is top notch, with fantastic character animation and excellent voice acting performances. 8/10

Second Runner-Up – The Elusive Samurai

Centered on the lone survivor of the coup that took down the Hojo clan and set up the Ashikaga shogunate to rule in their place, this shounen action series tells the lightly embellished story of his journey to take back what was taken from him. The balance of slapstick comedy and grisly violence walks the line between purposeful and disorienting, but the art and animation are spectacular, and there isn't a single boring character in the large cast. 8/10

Senpai is an Otokonoko - You don't often get stories like this in anime, where a girl confesses to her senpai she thinks is a girl, then still wants to go out after finding out they're actually a cross-dressing boy, forming a love triangle with another boy who also has a crush on him, and have it treated seriously like a proper coming of age romance instead of a big joke. The jarring chibi animated scenes, and the way it handles a couple of the issues it introduces, keeps this from being as good of a series as it could've been. The upcoming movie sequel may resolve some of these problems, though. 8/10

My Hero Academia S7 - The struggle between the heroes and the league of villains runs towards its climax in this penultimate season, and like much of the series leading up to this point, it's a bit of a mixed bag. At the highest points you get turbo-tsundere Bakugo putting his life on the line for Deku, and the emotional climax for the Todoroki family's struggles, while the lows include a poorly executed storyline centered on a persecuted minority turning violent, and a frustrating decision to make the one fight between two girls be about feelings and crushing on the same boy. I'm still looking forward to the final season next year. 7/10

Pseudo Harem - A girl joins the theater club at school, where she goofs around with a senpai by acting out the different archetypal characters of harem romance, and it's somehow one of the sweetest, most genuine romance series I've seen. It takes a couple episodes to settle into its groove, and the transitions between sketches could be a little jarring, but the couple's chemistry is fantastic, and their relationship steadily progresses up through a perfectly charming and satisfying ending. 7/10

Mayonaka Punch - P.A. Works original anime series like to take a group of clumsy but earnest girls with a dream, and put them in a situation. In this original series, the girls are vampires, the dream is to earn a million subscribers on (not)YouTube, and the situation is avoiding homelessness. The characters come in different shades of girl failure, the stunts are amusingly familiar to anyone who watches YouTube, and the comedy comes with a generous helping of heartwarming friendship moments. A fun ride that stops just short of great. 7/10

The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies - It was a little hard sometimes to watch this knowing that the mangaka passed away while she was writing this. The characters were so charming, the chemistry between the leads was so electric, the art was so beautiful, and the story hook was so catchy, that it hurts to know we'll never get any more of it because a talented woman left us far too soon. I'm thankful that we got such a beautifully produced series for her final work. 7/10

The Fable - As consistently entertaining as this dark comedy about a legendary hitman trying to live a normal life was, and as fantastic as the voice actor performances were, any recommendation for this show needs a big asterisk for the visuals, which combined poor animation with characters that frequently went off-model. The large cast of rogues, and the deathly absurd situations they got into, had me interested enough to watch week after week despite the production flaws. 7/10

Shoshimin: How to Become Ordinary - I wasn't sure what to think about this high school set mystery series at first. The cases were extremely mundane, the production was oddly ambitious, and the characters were a little hard to relate to. Over the series run, however, the characters showed their true nature, and the Holmes and Moriarty vibe came through loud and clear. I look forward to the second cour next year. 7/10

Dungeon People - A lone adventurer gets a big surprise when her fight with a monster breaks through the dungeon wall, revealing a woman's bedroom on the other side, and leading to a new job as that woman's assistant, managing the day to day minutiae of the dungeon. Setting a cozy slice of life series in a monster packed dungeon shouldn't work, but the two main characters had a fun dynamic, and the monsters and humans in and around the dungeon had enough variety and personality to pull it off somehow. 7/10

Twilight Out of Focus - Set in a boys high school with a dorm, this anthology BL series follows three separate couples in the school's film-making club, and like most anthology series, the vibe and enjoyment varies a bit from story to story. The roommate friends-to-lovers first couple was merely ok, the enemies-to-lovers second couple was a step up, and the opposites-attract third couple was straight up great fun. Taken altogether, it's a solid entry in the genre, and a rare romance series that includes sex scenes. 7/10

Days with My Stepsister - Based on the series' title, I assumed this would be a trashy romcom full of light novel cliches, but it turned out to be a nicely directed, low-key drama about two teenagers who happen to become step-siblings. It does a remarkable job of capturing the awkwardness of suddenly living with strangers and calling them family, and the changing relationship between the two was just messy enough to be interesting without being melodramatic. It was a little slow at times, and there's one weird scene between them early on, but it was generally a solid romantic drama on the grounded side. 7/10

The Ossan Newbie Adventurer, Trained to Death by the Most Powerful Party, Became Invincible - For a one-note comedy that's basically two tournament arcs stapled together, this was a surprisingly fun action-comedy series in the style of the manly action shows of the 80s and 90s, where men talked it out with their fists. There were a few characters whose main job seemed to be having breasts, but the main character was such a great guy, and everything happening around him was so over the top and silly, that I can't really complain. 7/10

VTuber Legend: How I Went Viral after Forgetting to Turn Off My Stream - Knowing approximately nothing about VTubers myself, I can't speak to how well this series does or doesn't capture the streaming scene, but being an outsider did not stop me from laughing at the cast of eccentric streamers and their nonsense. From the main character forgetting to end her stream before cracking a cold one and drunkenly visiting her fellow streamers, to a dramatic game of Among Us, to copious amounts of sexual harassment (affectionate), it had something to make me chuckle every week. 7/10

Quality Assurance in Another World - Without spoiling the premise, which is genuinely surprising when it's revealed early on, this series takes a couple of popular isekai and isekai-adjacent sub-genres, and makes a fresh and clever story out of them. The production won't win any awards, and the story cuts off abruptly at the end with no announcement for a second season, but the setting nailed the feel of buggy video games, and the characters were a lot of fun to watch as they navigated a freaky situation. 7/10

Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin - Adapted from a video game, this follows a lazy young goddess who has her peaceful days of lying around in the lofty realm interrupted by a group of humans who wander in and cause an incident that gets them all sent off to a demon-infested island as punishment. I enjoyed watching the characters learn how to cultivate rice over the course of the early episodes, and there were some nice twists and character developments in the second half, but the human characters could be pretty annoying, and the monster fighting action lacked excitement. 7/10

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime S3 - After spending the first half of the season bogged down in meetings, the second half gathered most of the enormous cast together for a low-stakes festival arc. A few episodes of action between the two halves offered some excitement, but the season as a whole felt pretty subdued. It feels a bit like the anime doesn't know what kind of show it wants to be, and is now bouncing between dialogue-heavy drama, action-adventure, or slice of life, and it's not equally good at all three genres. 7/10

A Journey Through Another World: Raising Kids While Adventuring - We're drowning in paint-by-numbers isekai every season, and I'm part of the problem, since I usually pick one of them as a potato chip watch. This season's selection features a man accidentally isekaied by a clumsy god, who finds a pair of young overpowered kids and takes them with him on his adventure. Vapid, but cozy. 6/10

Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian - I very much was not the target audience for this romantic comedy about a Russian-Japanese girl and a boy who doesn't tell her he understands what she's saying when she talks about him in Russian, but it was kinda fun by the halfway point with the full cast of girls, so I stuck around. A decision I regretted once the school election plot fired up and the story got tedious, with too much telling and not enough showing. 6/10

Wistoria: Wand and Sword - Since I enjoy the writer's other series, I figured I'd enjoy this as well, but week after week, it kept tricking me into thinking it'd turned a corner and become good, then suck just as hard as ever. It has an insufferable protagonist with the idiotic character motivation of chasing after a girl over a promise made as children, a dreadful case of Proper Noun worldbuilding vomit, and a painfully derivative setting, but it was nicely animated I guess. 5/10

[translationandbetrayals]

Let´s talk about sexualization (please, we need to)

-----DISCLAIMER: THIS POST WILL TALK ABOUT SENSITIVE TOPICS! DISCRETION IS RECCOMENDED. TW: Harassement, Sexualization------ As anime fans, we need to be more critical about the things that we consume and why we must talk about certain topics and how we see certain scenes in our favorite shows.

Why I started this text with that sentence? Because we need to talk about the sexualization of women inside the animation, and in specific, in anime.

Maybe for some of us, scenes like a woman with big breasts, normative body, half (or even full) naked, etc, are normalized inside our favorite shows. Some of these animes have also their counterpart as a very masculine men, fighter, with a deep personality, like a hero, etc. And making all the woman around him like an object that or he possess, or he wants.

It is very known that a lot of actual anime has scenes that are completely out of context from the original topic of the show. It isn´t normal that inside an anime, a female character has to be victim of some harassment of any kind, like scenes that shows the main character looking at the female companion breasts or even touching her without her consent, for example, when she is sleeping.

  As a consumer, I don´t want to see how a woman is assaulted by the “hero in turn”. It´s like “dude, the world is ending, there are more important things that being a creep with the normative girl in your group”.

Is like that the only personality of that character is to be an asshole, and that’s ok, we can write anything that we want to write and how to do it, but you can´t tell me that EVERY story that has that kind of scene is well written. If it is to make a funny moment or to fill the work because reasons, then it´s not good!

In other hand, we have some “”fans”” that only appreciate the anime only if it fulfills their fantasies, even if the character that do that fanservice is a minor. It’s a very creepy thing that those people only search for that type of body wherever it comes.

It is very problematic see some articles about anime with titles like “see how hot looks [insert name of any female character] here in this cosplay/art/IA generated image/etc.” like reducing their personality into only their body. In my personal life, I’ve seen examples like yor briar (spy x family) Android 18 (saga Dragon ball), Elizabeth (Seven deadly Sins) etc.

Proof: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UrqXYmNUqYXmjDRmDNn9a99HngIW_oYw/view?usp=sharing 

Also, these phenomena also occur thanks to the fanservice that some industries put around their shows. Literally some scenes doesn´t have any importance or even relevance inside the show. This sexualization only affects us as fans and make us look like creeps.

For example, ME! ME! ME! is a work from the Japan animator expo that shows how this obsession and how this could affect our social interactions. Well, there´s people that avoid that message and only say “LOOK, BOOBS”.

Honestly, as a personal point of view, I’m very tired of it. I tried to see, for example, Record of Ragnarok, but when I saw the design of Aphrodite, I lost all my interest on that anime. And when the rework of her appeared in the second season of the anime and the people claimed that the anime now it´s trash because they did it ¨¨¨¨a little””” more realistic, I personally just quit my intentions to see that anime because of the people.

In other hand, can we talk about how a lot of scholar animes has that fanservice with the students or the teachers? Those girls and woman are drawn in a way that their only function is to be an eye candy for those that only search those series because of that fanservice. Examples there´s a lot:  Kakegurui, Highschool of the Dead, prison school, etc.

  In conclusion, there´s a lot of problems inside of the making of anime. It is a very problematic thing that only degrades our favorite shows. What can we do? We can’t avoid them, but we can see them being capable to understand that those scenes aren`t necessary and that we shouldn’t stay with that perception nor thinking that those actions, like harassments, are good in any way. We need to analyze more that kind of things. When we do it, we will feel uncomfortable seeing those scenes and you will comprehend why those scenes are bad and unnecessary.

If you want some animes that does not have this kind of fan service, you can see Nichijou, Carole and tuesday, Little witch academia, Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken and March Comes in Like a Lion.

-Pedro Maizares

[lampmanliveblogs]

Eda being so excited to join the Emperor’s (fascist cult military) Coven (and enforce his oppressive policies that are all in service of some great plot that may or may not lead to the end of their world as they know it) with Lilith is so cute and wholesome (that I forget the whole ”Lilith cursed Eda over this” thing).

So there are seven months between now and the Emperor’sCoven’s tryouts, the day Lilith cursed Eda. I’m not sure how long a Demon Realm month is in human time measurements, but it’s a good bit. At the moment, Eda is really enthusiastic about joining. But we know that in seven months' time, she will have come to the conclusion that covens are not for her. So the question is, was her decision to skip out on the coven life a decision she came to her own, something she was thinking about for a long time (she was always a chaotic person after all), or does it have something to do with a certain cute bard.

Past Hexside! Not a whole lot has changed in the last thirty years or so as far as I can tell at a quick glance, but I’m excited because I have the feeling we’ll get to see some familiar faces in younger form.

Like these two, one of whom has three eyes and kinda the same face as Boscha while the other has the same hair color as Boscha. Three-eyes even has the same eye color as our favorite grudgby player in the year 2022.

(oh and by the way, in case you missed my little revelation as brought on by THIS ask; I’ve determined that the series’ present-day most likely takes place in 2022. the other closest possible year would be 2016, but remember back in season one, Eda called fidget spinners an outdated human reference. fidget spinners wouldn’t be an outdated reference in 2016 because fidget spinners were popular in 2017… for like a month. This is the riveting kind of analysis you can only get from Lampman Liveblogs)

Next up on our list of baby versions of characters from the present, we get to see Alador, Odalia and Darius. We’ve already seen younger version of them all before as brief cameos in flashbacks or in photographs, but here they are, actually animated this time.

The thing that is really interesting about this interaction though is the fact that they’re all friends. We saw in the photo of Alador at the Bonesborough Brawl that Darius was in the audience, booing. And this rivalry has continued ever since, with Alador and Darius both taking shots at the other.

I went back to take a second look at that photo and Alador looks older there than he does here. It’s a bit harder to tell with Darius & Odalia, but Eda & Raine in the background seem to resemble the young adult versions we’ve seen in some flashbacks. So some years pass between now and then. This leads to the inevidble… ineveitble… inedible… unavoidable question of what happened to make them such enemies? What was it that came between them?

Yikes! The former Principal at Hexside did not joke around, he was intense! Manifests himself out of a fire pillar and sends multiple students to detention for being ”late to being early.” He even invokes the slippery slope fallacy, truly an intellectual powerhouse. His tail is cool though.

Faust is, of course, the name of a famous play about some guy named Faust who makes a deal with the devil.

And as I just found out, Johann Faust was a real man who supposedly dabbled in the dark arts. As in magic, not painting.

In addition to Johnny Blaze here, we also get to meet a younger Hieronymus Bump. And it’s shown that he was always a bit of a softie, trying to look out for the students’ best and whatnot. That line about staking his career on an irredeemable student sounds like a set-up for a plot.

[janus-cadet]

J'ai publié 61 fois en 2022

49 billets créés (80%)

12 billets reblogués (20%)

Les blogs que j'ai le plus reblogués :

@mimmixerenard

@jonathanstims

@mimmixereblogs

J'ai étiqueté 56 billets en 2022

Seulement 8% de mes billets ne comportaient pas de tag

#fanart - 18 billets

#digital art - 18 billets

#artwork - 17 billets

#tarot card - 10 billets

#le visiteur du futur - 9 billets

#vdf - 8 billets

#art request - 8 billets

#tarot card concept - 8 billets

#sanders sides - 8 billets

#pride month 2022 - 8 billets

Tag le plus long : 98 caractères

#but i mean if you're looking for stuff about the corinthian you are probably not triggered by eyes

Mes billets vedette en 2022 :

n°5

This one was request quite a few time on Instagram- therefore, many version of the same drawings. I would love to make a version for each one, but let’s be honest, time is working against me! 

And it’s not like I will never draw that character again.

Sooo here come our favorite demon, Crowley, with the non-binary, genderfluid and mlm flag.

Voir l'intégralité du billet

286 notes - publié le 22 juin 2022

n°4

I’ve started a drawing before the six fanarts challenge, and therefore, I’m finishing it now. Like, let’s call it a sort-of-a-break, while being aware it’s not really a break, since it’s definitely more complicated than a serie of portrait...  

So basically, I was feeling hyped because of the second season, and I drew the Ineffable Husbands from Good Omens. It’s been so long since I last drew them!

Yes, I wanted to draw the wings- but more importantly, Crowley’s hair. So yes, it’s the part of the drawing I spent most of the time on.

I still like the ensemble! It was supposed to be a background for my computer.

Voir l'intégralité du billet

317 notes - publié le 22 février 2022

n°3

It's been a while since I last drew a simple portrait, and I did not realise how much I loved and missed it! Alan Rickman is a delight to draw.

I think I might try to make prints for that one, in a close future.

571 notes - publié le 8 novembre 2022

n°2

I seem to be on my way to do all Major Arcanes, and, for some reason, also the Suit of Swords. Ah, well.

Today, I drew the Seven of Swords ; and who's better to incarnate a card about betrayal, deception, lies et keeping secrets than our one and onely Lord Of the Lies, Janus Sanders ?

Believe it or not, the swords were actually not easy to draw. I am no sword-person. So why draw the Suit of Swords ? Eh.

Upright, this card indicates theft, trickery, among other things : you may be trying to get away with something, or are being sneaky. You use cunning and deception to get the advantage in situations. On another note, it suggests that you may need to put yourself first to get that stuff you want, and grossly, don't hesitate to, ya know, attack the Piñata. Sometimes, you need to put your own needs first, even if other may not agree with you.

Reversed, the cards implies you feel like a fraud, that you are deceiving yourself, attempt to fool yourself that everything is okay when it's not. Il represents keeping secrets hidden from others, which may bring you stress, tension, along with guilt and shame.

I think you can see why I picked my favorite snake to represente the card !

Voir l'intégralité du billet

611 notes - publié le 2 août 2022

Mon billet n°1 en 2022

I may developped a fixation on that movie. And on that guy. Oopsie daisies.

“There was blood all over my nice antic couch.

- Which one ? The red one ?

- Well, it’s red now, Ja.”

668 notes - publié le 26 mai 2022

Obtenez votre année 2022 en revue sur Tumblr →

[middle-class-trash]

2,6,8,17

thanks for your ask!!

2. first anime crush: fun fact attack on titan was my first anime, a friend recommended it in high school. I watched the first episode, was traumatized watching titans do titan shit, and didnt watch the second episode for a whole month 😂 anyway all that to say my first anime crush was levi ackerman I love him to DEATH

6. popular anime you didn’t like: sword art online. arc 1 of season 1 is the best it gets, and that isn't even executed well. the show has SUCH a strong start in the concept and gravity of the situation, but it's just so terribly done afterwards. honorable mention to seven deadly sins, it's almost impressive how ass it is for having such a cool concept.

8. anime character you are most like: with the least possible context, shouto todoroki from my hero academia. I think that is tied with tohru honda from fruits basket lmao

17. biggest anime crush: not to be repetitive, but probably levi ackerman from attack on titan 🤪 I have big feelings about that man. other notable characters that I absolutely love are mikasa ackerman (also from attack on titan), inuyasha (from inuyasha lol), aizawa from my hero academia, ed from fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood, and probably any of the hashira from demon slayer. take your pick. that anime has been a hilarious experience where my favorite character at any time has been tied between tanjiro and the featured hashira of that season (so shinobu, rengoku, tengen, mitsuri, then muichiro lmao. muichiro's a child so obviously not the same but you get the point). demon slayer has such compelling characters all around

original post:

[randoimago]

Naruto for the ask game pls!

Here's this!

Ask Game Here

3 male characters I love: Itachi (😭), Kakashi, Rock Lee (my baby)

3 female characters I love: Hinata, Konan, Sakura (mostly Sakura cause there's really not a whole lot of screen time given to other female characters)

3 romantic ships I love: Sakura/Rock Lee (he would've treated her right. He was such a better pick than Sasuke), Kiba/Hinata, Kakashi/Therapy

3 platonic dynamics I love: Shikamaru/Naruto (they were the true best friends, your honor, fuck Sasuke), Shikamaru/Choji (oh I love these two so much), Sakura/Naruto (I enjoyed the development of their friendship even if there were many moments I wanted to strangle the two).

3 favorite moments in canon:

Rock Lee vs Gaara fight was so freaking amazing. Still sad about the outcome, but it was so cool. Definitely solidified Rock Lee is my favorite.

The second Kakashi vs. Team Seven fight was so nice to see (and I definitely felt some anxiety since the Gaara vs. Deidara thing was happening in the same damn episode).

As absolutely heart wrenching it was, I absolutely loved the 6th opening (Sign by Flow). The damn Jiraiya and Naruto relationship mirrored by the Sasuke and Itachi relationship. Again, it was heartbreaking but I loved that OP so much.

3 favorite headcanons:

Sakura gave up on Sasuke and had a good life with Rock Lee or literally anyone else in that village (of the same age range) cause I genuinely do not care for Sasuke/Sakura.

Ten Ten became a super cool ninja weapon seller. She creates her own weapons too. Eventually she invents a gun (the gun thing is more of a joke headcanon, but I would have loved to see her creating ninja weapons too).

That the cast could've just gotten to be fucking kids. Playing tag together or taking and teasing each other about crushes. Just getting to be kids without the amount of trauma they ended up with and instead of being trained as child soldiers essentially.

3 least favorite things about it:

Love that all the cool ninja women became housewives in Boruto (I haven't watched Boruto, but I've seen enough clips and such). I'd understand people retiring after all of the stuff that happened in Shippuden, but I would've the girls being more than "Oh now we're making these ships canon and they'll have babies".

Ngl, I'm not a huge fan with the change in art style that happened. I'm sure it's probably easier to animate with it being a bit more simplified, but it's not for me.

The amount of filler in it. I don't mind filler being used after a tenses season as a palate cleanser, but I had to look up a list of filler so I know what to skip and there are way too much seasons of pure filler.

[thesuperduckling24]

i figure i’d respond with some of my own favorites from seasons i’ve watched!! your choices are all absolutely top tier tho

(note: i’m doing this in chronological order of release date, not watch date cause i’m gonna be so fr i do not remember in what order i’ve watched shit)

fantasy high freshman year: gorgug is also top contender for me, if only because both the "are you my dad?" and his parents being super cheerful and also fucking menace artificers is so so hilarious. fabian also gets an honorable mention though, i Love lou wilson and "rich boy gets friends who care about him" is so so delightful to me. also fabian’s "papa!" lives in my head rent free as a stim lmao

escape from the bloodkeep: god, it’s hard. matt mercer as my most beloved cringefail warlock man leiland, but also weird-creature lover ranger sokhbarr, but also the wettest oracle efink murderdeath, but also supportive wine mom lilith!!! honestly if i had to choose i think i’d pick lilith, solely because i adore erika ishii so so much. lilith is slaying and i’m so excited for you to see where the story goes!!

(i haven’t actually watched fantasy high sophomore year because the livestream format kind of scares me, but with the announcement of junior year i’m gonna try and get into it cause i gotta get caught up!)

unsleeping city: only watched season one as well, but i gotta say that my favorite is absolutely one hundred percent ricky matsui, mr march himself. in general you’re gonna see i have a bias towards zac’s characters but they’re just. so funny! the bit about bringing forth the darkness in his heart and there just Isn’t any cracks me up every time. shoutout to siobhan with misty moore though! so fancy and distinguished :D

misfits and magic: god i love brennan as a player. evan kelmp my beloved. i really don’t have any words i just think about evan kelmp sending a kid to hell and laugh sometimes. so so so good.

the seven (currently watching): i’m only at the second episode or so but god i love katja. horse girl who is just so so awkward around people but deeply deeply loyal to her friends (and of course her horse) my utterly beloved. also the moment where her dad tells the servants to get her anything she wants when all she wants is him back home is. man ;-;. big shoutout to izzy and ostentatia though, utterly obsessed with the accent and also the deep love for her family.

starstruck odyssey: oh god this one is so hard for me. starstruck is like my Favorite d20 season and they’re all just such good characters in this one. barry and the barries are so so delightful to me. rich boy gunnie just Immediately fucking his space adventure up is so beloved to me. sundry sydney my most especially beloved cyborg girl, emily and murph as a cyborg duo meant literally everything to me and i adored her arc of discovering herself and finding her own purpose. and, of course, norman "skip" takamori, brain slug extraordinaire. "i got my proldier’s license right here!" *high kick to fire my straight down gun boots*

a court of fey and flowers: brennan as a player my utter beloved, but my h(e)art was stolen by none other than the lords of the wing. i fucking love birds and emily and lou’s duo of "cousin! cousin? cousin!!!" was just so endlessly entertaining, i was in tears over the chair scene. yes yes, pining and yearning are all good and well, but the flouncy nature of chirp featherfowl and rakish audacity of squak airavas truly stole the show for me

neverafter: god i love pib. pib was catered Specifically To Me, cause that little guy is a Tabaxi Rogue played by Zac Oyama, three of literally my favorite things in dnd. lou’s pinocchio voice was fucking hilarious, though, the nat20 whale screeching scene in burned into my ears forever and ever.

ravening war: to no one’s surprise, i fucking loved colin provolone. ultimate straight man to brennan’s bullshittery, and also deeply hilarious that the guy specifically built around lying and keeping secrets couldn’t do it half as well as zac just chilling there. raphaniel and karna are tied for the shoutout, though, because brennan and aabria are such good storytellers and it’s always fascinating to see that poured into a single character and how it plays out.

dungeons and drag queens: so so torn, all of the questing queens were utterly fantastic. i think my favorites were either gertrude or twyla, though; gertrude because bob’s passion for theatrics and performance gave her and her magic such life, and twyla because jujubee got so so invested into the game and into the story that it just compelled me to keep watching her specifically.

mentopolis: there’s no picking a favorite here. the prefrontal pi’s were all utterly brilliant to me. i loved leaning into all the noir tropes, from the hardy gumshoe always looking for his next case to the femme fatale who ends up in a wonderful marriage with an ironclad prenup, and everyone in between. still not over dan fucks and his diamond hard nuts, though.

who are your favorite pcs on dimension 20? (either as a whole, per season, whatever you want!)

oh gosh, that's such a difficult decision! i might go based on seasons i've seen? and as a disclaimer: i love every single pc, everyone plays so well on dimension 20 and i love the choices people make, this is all just my opinion!

fantasy high freshman year: god i love gorgug in this season, he was such a goofy guy, and i love him. he honestly was what made me switch to playing more barbarians in my own gameplay

fhsy: fig was sooooo good in this season, the stuff with her and ayda, all the skateboarding away, and just her coming into her own as a person hit very hard for me.

the seven: ostentatia wallace was so good, and izzy was so fun at the table! i'm so excited to watch her in coffin run and in burrow's end. just yelling "i love you" at her dad and all the cleric shit was amazing, and i loved every second of her.

unsleeping city: i've only seen the first season, but i loved kugrash so much!! him being rat jesus was too funny, but he also had his heartbreaking moments. he was a very well developed character and murph played him so well

crown of candy: it's a tie between 3, which i know is so bad, but they are liam, lapin, and theo. they each are just so fantastic and i love them all so much. liam was so sweet, and then when he was a war guy, that was so good too! him and primsy <3. lapin was fucking hilarious, i don't care what anyone else says. his banter with theo was unmatched, and the last episode with him was heart-wrenching and i loved every second of it. theo is also so good. casting knock on the door!!! the banter, sprinkle, the protectiveness all of it!

ravening war: god i love colin and raphaniel so so much! they are such a duo. but so are colin and deli! but then deli and karna! but then karna and amongeux! god, that season was full of top players and i probably couldn't choose one rn.

starstruck oddyessy: god i loved gunnie! the ball is rolling up is in my vocabulary now, and i honestly enjoy everything that lou wilson does, he's phenomenal. also skip is fucking hilarious in the beginning, when he's learning how to talk, it makes me giggle all the time

neverafter: tbh i loved everyone in this season! my top favs were definitely ylfa and pinocchio though. lou's voice was fucking crazy but it was wonderful. his arc with his stepmother slayed. ylfa is a character that i relate to a little too much probably, but she is so wonderful. her and the wolf are crazy. i watch way too many edits with ylfa clips, it's probably something i should work on haha

escape from the bloodkeep: tbh i love leiland! i'm only on episode three but he slays figuratively and literally (though not much literally lol) matt mercer is a great player and i love everything he does!

i'm so sorry that this was so lengthy lmao, can you tell that i like dimension 20 and dungeons and dragons???

[justjensenanddean]

Jensen Ackles gets supe-d up as Soldier Boy in first look at The Boys season 3

A Captain America-esque figure, Soldier Boy is the original superhero. He's also the leader of the team Payback, which, in the world of the show, was the premiere group of superheroes before the Seven was formed.

Soldier Boy was active in the 1940s during World War II at a time when Vought founder Frederik Vought had "practical applications of Compound V tested in the field," Giancarlo Esposito's Mr. Edgar once said in season 2. "Soldier Boy killing Germans by the dozens" was one of those applications.

"Soldier Boy is the original badass," The Boys costume designer Laura Jean Shannon, who created Ackles' suit with concept artist Greg Hopwood, said in a statement. "Our goal was to highlight a bygone era of overt masculinity and grit. With that pedigree we dove headfirst into baking in an all-American quality grounded in a military soldier's practicality with a heavy dose of old school cowboy swagger. We knew that the actor had to have Steve McQueen looks and chops with a John Wayne attitude, luckily Jensen Ackles embodies all of that."

Showrunner Eric Kripke is just happy fans will finally "quit clogging" his "Twitter notifications with demands" to see Soldier Boy, he added in his own playful statement.

"When I cast Jensen as Soldier Boy, the first thing I said was, 'I'm most excited for you, because of the amazing process you'll go through with LJ, our Super Suit designer.' It took six months but the experience surpassed Jensen's expectations," he said. "LJ has made a work of art that tips its hat to the WWII Soldier Boy from the comics, while taking it in a sleek new direction. And if you think the photos are cool, just wait till you see Jensen in action. It's one of my very favorite suits."

It's unclear at this point if Ackles' character will also be involved in the present-day storyline of season 3, (SPOILERS) which picks up after the Boys disbanded and Congresswoman Neuman (Claudia Doumit) was revealed to be a head-exploding supe, but it seems likely. We already know Aya Cash's Stormfront has lived for decades without aging.

After tackling white supremacy, police brutality, alt-right extremism, and an actual Nazi in season 2, Kripke told EW season 3 will delve into "the history of the supes" and the team Payback in order to "tell a little bit about the history of America and how we ended up in the current fraught position that we're in... Soldier Boy gives us an opportunity to do that."

Clearly there are some big changes between the Soldier Boy in the comics and the Soldier Boy on screen. For one, Payback and the Seven operated at the same time in the comics. The character on the page was more of an anxious, insecure supe who was constantly belittled and overruled by his team member Stormfront (originally depicted as male). Soldier Boy was also vying for a spot in the Seven, which led to a particularly... intimate moment between he and Homelander during the comic arc known as Herogasm — which, as it happens, is being adapted in season 3.

By comparison, Ackles teased his version of the character on Instagram with an image of his Soldier Boy shield. "Every dent, every scratch, every mark tells a story. A story that ends with me, winning," he wrote.

Variety:

Ackles steps into the third season of the comic book-inspired drama as the original superhero, created by Compound V in the 1940s. He fought in World War II (killing German soldier by the dozen, it has been said) and then became the first super celebrity and a mainstay of American culture. In the comics, he was the leader of Payback, the second-strongest superhero team behind the Seven. (Though it should be noted he always wanted to join the Seven and mistakenly thought sleeping with Homelander was a test before being allowed to join.)

When it comes to Soldier Boy’s abilities, he is strong and agile, able to dodge bullets and blows equally easily. He also has a shield that he uses as a weapon, which has been incorporated into Ackles’ costume. (For a closer look at the shield, visit his Instagram.)

https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/jensen-ackles-the-boy-season-3-soldier-boy-costume-first-look-1234989106/

https://ew.com/tv/the-boys-season-3-jensen-ackles-soldier-boy-photo/