#series (not pictured); she is introduced at the very end of the second episode‚ as Disraeli finally enters government

[mariocki]

Rosemary Leach as Queen Victoria gradually comes to trust and then depend on her prime minister, in Disraeli (ATV, 1978)

[ladyloveandjustice]

Spring 2024 Anime Overview: Train to the End of the World and Tonari no Yokai-san

Who knows if poor Whisper Me a Love Song (a cute yuri anime about a girl band... with dire animation conditions so it's currently stuck on episode 10 with the last two episodes delayed indefinitely) is ever going to finish, but here’s some my first post reviewing the rest of what I watched.

Delicious in Dungeon continued to kill it with the second half of the season, kicking into high gear and introducing cranky catgirls, but you can see my general thoughts on the show here.

Train to the End of the World

I love bizarre anime, especially bizarre anime starring loveable weird girls, and Train absolutely delivers.

 A teenage girl named Yoka is bullied by a slimy businessman into pushing a button that activates the 7G cellular network across Japan, but said network warps and changes Japan completely, having bizarre effects on the citizens. For example, all the adults in Yoka's hometown have been transformed into animals and are starting to act like animals.

Shizuru is Yoka's best friend, and she said some seriously nasty things to Yoka before her friend left town. Yoka's been missing ever since the 7G incident and Shizuru is desperate to find her and apologize. So when she sees a picture showing Yoka in Ikebukuro, she decides to drive a train to find her, and her friends Reimi, Akira, Nadeshiko, and also her dog come along. As they travel across the warped Japan, they face many weird encounters and obstacles.

Train to the End of the World is greatly entertaining, as we see the girls encounter nihiists with mushrooms growing out of their heads, screaming goatmen that ram into the train and even zombies on their journey. The dialogue is snappy, and the girls all have a fun personalities. As a lover of girls doing silly violence, I also adored how everyone besides Akira (who is the smart one) has ridiculous combat skills, with Shizuru having her own form of martial art, Reimi being physically unstoppable when she's mad, and Nadeshiko might come off as the ladylike bow and error wielder...but actually she also can beat the shit out of people with said bow as a blunt object. It's fun to watch them go wild.

An example of how ridiculous the show can get is the encounter with the zombies--the absolutely bizarre logic is that since zombies are supposed to be dead to all sensation, arousal will make them blow up. Instead of the girls acting sexy to arouse them like most anime would do, they just say dirty words, and Akira recites a whole paragraph from Lady Chatterley's Lover that she apparently memorized, and they sing a hilariously bawdy folk song. This episode DOES contain the show's biggest moment of sexualizing the teenage girls though- a hyper detailed panty shot that was super jarring considering the show avoided fanservice before then.

And the next episode had Nadeshiko forced to don a somewhat skimpy outfit. Those are the only two instances of fanservice, but that episode also had a joke where this character in this children's cartoon come to life's entire gimmick was that she was suicidal. It was probably meant to be "lol look how inappropriate this would be for children" but it still felt fairly mean spirited at times.

Despite those hiccups to watch out for, the anime works because it never forgets it's core theme or friendship--the relationships between the girls are developed at a good pace, and Shizuru's guilt over what she did to Yoka is explored well too. It's not just a ridiculous anime, it has a heart too. So if an anime where a girl punches a bear in the face and arms herself with vegetables appeals to you…check it out!

Tonari No Yokai-san

Tonari no Yokai-san takes place in a world where yokai have integrated into human society. The central characters are Buchio, a cat who became a nekomata after living to twenty, and Jiro, a crow tengu who is close friends with a little girl he calls Mu-chan.

This is a very sweet, gentle series that has some heartwrenching and dark undertones occasionally.  Mu’s father has been lost to an eerie void, and a lot of the stories focus on grief. The immediate comparison tone and content-wise is Natsume’s Book of Friends, but it distinguishes itself by presenting a world where yokai are very much part of society, to the point where they have to do paperwork  and pay taxes. (There was also a confirmation that one character is bisexual when his backstory involves dating a guy yokai, so that was nice, especially since he's currently in a relationship with a car yokai that's probably meant to be romantic? Yes I said car yokai it is his car.)

There’s also some sci-fi elements mixed in with alternate timelines and what not. I think these elements could be integrated more smoothly, but they are pretty novel. It’s a really solid series.

I do love stories about yokai and I thought it was enjoyable and touching, but it didn’t rock my world the way I wanted it to…it might be that it followed too many characters at once so I couldn’t dig into any of them the way I really wanted to. Still, it’s a sweet, tender and pleasant watch, I definitely rec it.

[420technoblazeit]

hello! i'd love to hear your thoughts on hazbin hotel's writing :] i really like the show, but i'm not really sure if i think it's...good? if that makes sense. so i'd love a second opinion :O

oh my god thank you so much for sending this ask bc ive been thinking about this for sooooo long ive got a lot to say about this show. picture that scene in the first episode where charlie whips out her longass pile of drawings to explain the hotel. that's me rn i have many things good and bad to say about this show. first off im gonna keep it a buck fifty with you anyone genuinely saying this show is really bad needs to watch more shows. watch supernatural season 13 or something. this was not by any stretch of the imagination a bad show for me writing-wise and even the criticisms i have here are mostly nitpicks

i actually think they did a pretty good job given the constraints they had. 8 episodes with 25 minutes each is a ridiculously small amount of time. that's less than 4 hours total to tell this whole story and develop, what, 6 main characters? and introduce major antagonists and the minor antagonists for the next season. i don't know how much they had to cut but i'm willing to bet it was a substantial amount since the show in-universe takes place over the span of 6 months. like i know everyone says this about the show but i really do feel bad that they were given such a short amount of time because it's pretty clear to me that there's a lot of passion put behind this project

i've heard a lot of people say that they have issues with the pacing of the show and i kind of agree. i think the timeline of the plot is kind of weird with episode 1 taking place 6 months from the extermination and episode 2 taking place very soon after. if i remember correctly we don't know when episodes 3 and 4 take place but episodes 5, 6, and 7 all take place back to back probably because they didn't want to shove angel, husk, and sir pentious' major character development right at the end of the series as the plot came to its climax. i think i can understand that reasoning but it does make for a very odd structure and leave the story feeling rushed near the end. i don't know what could have fixed this because having vaggie and charlie visit heaven earlier would have meant that a lot of the show had a higher sense of tension and i think that would've been worse. idk. i understand the criticism and i agree with it i just don't know what could have fixed it

the songs are banger. obviously. that's what happens when you hire half of the living tombstone to write your songs theyre just going to be sick as hell. loser, baby was my favorite and the one from dad beat dad was a close second i liked it a lot. i also think they did a great job developing all of the characters and giving them really solid character arcs with a couple exceptions, mostly alastor, niffty, and vaggie. i'll touch on that in a second. to me angel dust is the emotional core of the show and i really like him and husk. theyre my favorites ill b so sad if they get wrenched apart next season

i have some thoughts on vaggie and this comes from a place of love because i think she's an example of a really great character concept with a not-so-great execution. here's what i think. the writers seem to have a tendency of only giving vaggie big character moments that are tied to her relationship with charlie. and it bugs me a little bit. im not saying that vaggie being charlie's girlfriend has to be a smaller part of her character but every time we get a moment with her like her song in episode 3 it's about how she wants to protect charlie. as much as i love 'out for love' in episode 7 it was kind of unnecessary because we already know how devoted vaggie is to charlie. that was never called into question. for her to go to heaven, knowing that they would recognize her there as a fallen angel, just because charlie wanted her to be there really shows how much she loves her. and i think that part of episode 7 could have been better devoted to exploring the reason why she put her faith in the hotel and what charlie was doing in the first place, because she wants to believe that she can find redemption for the crimes she committed as an exorcist. i don't think they talked enough about the idea that vaggie was cast out of heaven for showing mercy to a sinner. and how this shows the very black-and-white view of morality that heaven has. i think i would like vaggie as a character more if the show stopped trying to frame her belief in the hotel as loyalty to her girlfriend and instead talked about how she's trying to find redemption herself, not in trying to get into heaven but in atoning for the many sinners she killed during the exterminations. that's a really big part of her character that i think should be touched on more often

if you follow me you already know my nitpicks about alastor. theyre problems that will almost certainly be fixed in the next season and theyre incredibly minor, i just dont like characters who seem to always inexplicably one step ahead of everyone else and above all sense of consequence. and to me this is made worse by the fact that alastor appears so often in season 1 without having any character development right next to characters like husk and angel who are going through such horrible, horrible things in their lives. and i think the longer we get alastor as a mysterious 5d chessmaster type of character without knowing his true motivations the more annoying it gets. again, nitpicks that almost certainly won't be a problem next season given the way they're setting up his character. you might not have even considered this to be a problem and think that i'm just being a fucked up little whiny bitch. lmao. it's just a personal thing. niffty i think doesn't have to have character development, as it stands she's entertaining enough by herself and i'm fine with having her run around the hotel with no discernible motivations. she's just havin fun

i think the vees are some really strong love to hate them villains. val obviously is a despicable piece of shit and im looking forward to seeing him get what's coming to him. i have no complaints in regards to them i think their moments were tied into the series very well and theyre interesting antagonists already. it's gonna be great seeing them come more into the spotlight in season 2. i will say that i think some of the time dedicated to exploring their characters could have been put towards the actual main villains of this season, heaven and the rest of the angels, but whatever. as i said before i think a lot of the major plot exposition could have been spread out. but in general i think the vees are really interesting

[denimbex1986]

'To celebrate David Tennant’s triumphant return to Doctor Who for the 60th anniversary, we’ve scoured the Radio Times Archive to present some fabulous images from the numerous RT photoshoots Tennant took part in between 2005 and 2009, when he first played the Time Lord.

Many have never been published before, and some were never shown in this form with plain studio backdrops that were digitally changed for RT covers and features across those years.

Christmas 2005

By Christmas 2005, showrunner Russell T Davies was flush with success after his storming first season starring Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper. But now he was introducing David Tennant as the 10th incarnation of the Time Lord.

Writing in the Christmas double issue of Radio Times, Davies explained, "This is the advent of a brand new Doctor. With David Tennant now at the helm of the Tardis, bringing a wholly different dynamic to the show, we decided to make the story even more epic."

For much of the storyline of The Christmas Invasion, the new Doctor was running around in pyjamas – as reflected in his first Radio Times photoshoot. But Tennant was already looking ahead, as he told RT: "Filming [for the new season] lasts 38 weeks. It’s relentless, certainly, but it’s not like a real job. Daily, it’s incredibly exciting because it’s so mind-expanding and bonkers!"

The Radio Times Covers Party

In February 2006, Russell T Davies, David Tennant and Billie Piper were honoured guests at the Radio Times Covers Party, celebrating the magazine’s cover stars of the previous year. Acting giant Helen Mirren, who has never appeared in Doctor Who, joined in the fun on the night.

Piper said of co-star Tennant, "He is just the most straight-down-the-line bloke you could wish to meet. He’s your best friend, your brother and your boyfriend kind of rolled into one."

Season 2 - 2006

For the launch of season two, David Tennant’s first full run, Radio Times set up a special photoshoot that would form a gatefold cover of friends and foes.

The photographer, Matt Holyoak, appears himself in several of these rare behind-the-scenes images taken by Ben Gold.

Asked how long he thought he might play the Doctor, Tennant told RT, "I just don’t know and, of course, it’s all anybody ever asks me.

"We’ve just about finished this series and I’m fairly certain I’ll do the next one. Although I’ve yet to record the closing seconds of episode 13 – literally anything could happen. Who knows who’s coming back?!"

Christmas 2006

Come Christmas 2006, the Tenth Doctor found himself embroiled with Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) in The Runaway Bride. "There’s no let-up for him," Tennant told RT. "He’s suddenly flung into a new, bizarre set of circumstances with this woman who’s appeared in his front room, as it were. Then he’s off on this madcap romp with Donna."

Sadly, we have no RT pictures of Donna from that year, but Tate told us in 2006, "We were just delighted that no one was expecting me to turn up in the TARDIS. They said it’s the first time a secret hasn’t leaked out on Doctor Who." Of her character, she revealed, "She’s absolutely furious! She has no time for this madman. And she’s quite feisty, is Donna. That’s her keyword: feisty."

Season 3 - 2007

For his second season, David Tennant teamed up with Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones. He told RT, "It’s one of the things that’s given this show the longevity it has; that it’s essentially the same format, but putting a new relationship at the heart of it spices things up a little bit. Also, obviously, Freema’s a very different actress, so that gives it a different vibe, too."

By the end of the season, the duo would become a trio with the return of John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness for the final three episodes, Utopia, The Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords.

These two sets of RT pictures were all taken on the same day in February 2007, allowing for a change of clothing for Tennant and Agyeman.

Children in Need - 2007

For the BBC’s fundraiser Children in Need in 2007, David Tennant was unexpectedly united with Fifth Doctor Peter Davison.

This short interlude set inside the TARDIS was written by Steven Moffat, who told RT: "I bumped into David at a concert and we talked about a way of getting Peter Davison back, because we’re both big fans of Peter’s Doctor. They hadn’t had different Doctors meeting up on the new show. So if we could justify him being a bit older and pop him back in, that would be a laugh."

Moffat continued, "They loved each other! And they worked really well together because they’ve both got a lot of pace and energy as actors. There's a tremendous charm to these two men: both Doctors and both Doctor Who fans."

Tennant would later marry Davison’s daughter Georgia Moffett, bringing them even closer together.

Christmas 2007

For the 2007 Christmas special, Voyage of the Damned, David Tennant joined forces with pop icon Kylie Minogue, who was persuaded to return to acting to play Astrid Peth, a doomed waitress aboard a space liner called Titanic.

Tennant told RT, "The Doctor and Astrid very quickly become inseparable." He described co-starring with Minogue as "a very nice meeting of the planets". But would the Time Lord and Astrid kiss? "Well, if you had Kylie in the Christmas special, would you have her kiss the Doctor?"

As the special was set on space version of Titanic, the creative forces of Radio Times and Doctor Who built a set-up in homage to the James Cameron cinema blockbuster with Tennant and Minogue on the prow of the ship. For the RT cover and features, a starry background was added. These are the raw shots.

Season 4 - 2008

For David Tennant’s final season, Catherine Tate was back full-time as Donna Noble.

"Everyone assumed Donna was a one-off – myself included," she told RT. "But now she has a whole season to have a story arc. So none of the feistiness has been lost, but you also get to tap into a different side of her – a much more vulnerable side. They’ve really rounded Donna out from being a shouting fish wife to someone who’s quite vulnerable and emotional."

Tennant added, "They’re good at limiting each other’s less appealing excesses. There’s an equality. It’s not quite teacher and pupil, which in a sense the Doctor and Martha and the Doctor and Rose were."

Speaking of whom… Freema Agyeman and Billie Piper were returning as Martha and Rose later in this season – and attending the same Radio Times photoshoot.

Christmas 2008

David Tennant had recently announced his departure from Doctor Who, and this festive special was teasingly entitled The Next Doctor.

Russell T Davies told RT, "Hopefully, that creates a bit more intrigue and hints at interesting developments in the show’s future. Let’s just say that regeneration is a complicated process and never as simple as it seems."

Although the Doctor’s identity and future were in question, Tennant posed for a definitive set of photographs in a Radio Times shoot.

Planet of the Dead - 2009

David Tennant’s initial run in Doctor Who ended with a series of specials. In Planet of the Dead, for Easter 2009, he was teamed with former EastEnders and Bionic Woman star Michelle Ryan as Lady Christina.

"She’s very easy-going," Tennant told RT. "Considering she’s been to Hollywood and back, she’s untouched by pretension or actors' lunacy, which others in her position might be. She’s a delight to have around and seems to be having fun."

Tennant continued, "This Easter episode is, I suppose, the last hurrah for my Doctor. The end is nigh. You can sense the Grim Reaper knocking on the door. But how many times?"

The Sarah Jane Adventures - 2009

By May 2009, David Tennant had filmed The End of Time, his last two episodes of Doctor Who as the incumbent Doctor. But there was one further assignment. A guest appearance in The Sarah Jane Adventures for The Wedding of Sarah Jane. Which makes this his final photoshoot for Radio Times during his four-year tenure, alongside his childhood heroine Elisabeth Sladen.

Tennant told RT in 2009, "If The Sarah Jane Adventures had existed when I was eight, and [Fourth Doctor] Tom Baker had come in for an episode, I would have thought that was the coolest thing on Earth! It’s the sort of proper, sophisticated, exciting drama with which we should be inspiring young minds."'

[xian1na]

buncha words bout some spring animes #5

Now that I'm a Serious and Employed Person I appreciate series like Skip and Loafer or SpyFam even more. There's nothing better than coming back home and relaxing with some cute and funny anime. It may well be that if I rewatched some older series which I'd dropped or skipped altogether because they seemed boring, I would actually like them much more now. Well, for now let's stick to spring shows. Enjoy!

The Witch from Mercury (season 2, ep. 1-3) - one more week and I'll finally catch up to GWitch. These first three episodes were a real rollercoaster - we started with a pretty chill one, just reestablishing the characters and plot for the second cour. AND THEN! Episode two was wild. I gotta say, what's really amazing about the writing in this series is how it keeps introducing asshole characters, only to make you feel sorry for them after just a couple of episodes. And it actually works, I really care about these guys. I want to believe they're going to be alright... I don't know how dark Gundam endings usually are, but I get a feeling it's better to expect the worst and get a nice surprise, instead of the other way around.

Oshi no Ko (ep. 6) - yeah, yeah, I've watched another one. I planned to give it one last chance before dropping it but then Oshi no Ko had the gall to drop the best episode since the prologue. I still have some issues with it but I think it did a great job characterising Akane (and Yuki, too), making her relatable and sympathetic. What helped a lot was that Aqua was barely present in this one. You know what guys, I don't think I like Aqua very much. Which is a shame, because acting and film stuff in this series interests me more than idol stuff. Methinks I should look for some anime/manga about acting.

Skip and Loafer (ep. 7) - The highlight of this episode was seeing the drama club pres guy actually doing something decent for a change. And of course we have a brand new character introduced in the last minutes of the episode. I guess she's either Shima's family or one of the people he met when he was an actor. I wonder how will this plot develop and how will this person be neutralised by Mitsumi. Or hey, maybe she won't be! There are some people with whom you just don't get along, and I don't see that a lot in anime, I don't think.

Heavenly Delusion (ep. 6-7) - We got less school and more Maru and Kiruko's adventures, I'm definitely fine with that. Episode 6 had some great jokes, faces and cuts of animation, and episode 7 on the other hand got really disturbing towards the end. I like how this series treats the characters' sexuality (so far) - I mean, they're kids, they're figuring things out, and it's presented with honesty you don't often see. These episodes were also a bit thinner on plot elements and mysteries, but I liked that. I guess it could be a breather before what comes next.

Hell's Paradise (ep. 7) - Last week I speculated, that something major was going to happen this episode. That... turned out to be wrong, more or less. We now know a little bit more about the island and the elixir of life, but the majority of the episode was devoted to lighter character moments. So now I don't even know what I should expect next week. To be honest Jigokuraku is also close to falling off my watchlist but I'll give it one more chance.

Insomniacs after school (ep. 4-6) - Aaaand I caught up to Insomniacs. I think it's growing on me - the side characters were nicely fleshed out in the recent episodes and the relationship between the two leads is cute (not my top ship of the season, but they're nice kids!). Am I really going to watch another romance series this season? I almost never watch them!

I skipped Yamada-kun this week, but I'm definitely coming back to it next time. And finally:

Spy x Family (ep. 10-12) - Ok, two things: 1) Bill Watkins (6) was even better than whatever I was picturing before watching the episode and the whole game of dodgeball was a riot. 2) And then episode 11 had some brilliant Anya Starlight Anya moments. I can't wait to see the pupper. Thankfully I don't have to wait three months, I can jump right in the second cour. Episode 12 was kind of a weak follow-up to the two preceding episodes and a weird finale to the whole season, but the penguins were cute. So really, it's impossible to say if it was good or bad.

And that's it from me! Thanks so much for reading, have a great week and see you next Saturday!

[mdhwrites]

When would you say was the point in Owl House that you started thinking it was going in the wrong direction?

This… Actually isn't a hard one for me. I could try to give a larger picture answer or be snarky and say "From the concept" but I did like the show at some point. I loved the show at one point. So I suppose the real question is when did the problems that were always there suddenly come to the forefront?

And there is only one real option: Escaping Expulsion.

Escaping Expulsion is the second worst episode of the series to me. Its comedy is either barely based on the characters or just… Not funny or clever. Or both. The entire montage of convincing Bump just feels wrong to me, even the first time I watched it, because all evidence points to him preferring a calm, quiet school that runs by the books. Otherwise he would have always loved how Eda behaved.

It has villains that while entertaining in their evil, are rock bottom stupid and feel like they came straight out of the 90s, if not earlier. In the 2020s. The fuck? I will always hate that Odalia decides proving your home security can murder a (also read as 'your' because that's how marketing works) child will sell more units. Like… This isn't even a good scheme to make money off of!

But the real issue, the thing that Escaping Expulsion added that just about no other episode did was the idea of resolution and shrinking of potential without exploration of that potential. And it's in both of the plots and both of the plots are just… VERY poorly thought out in execution because they FEEL like they're written to be functional. The whole episode does. It's just there to remove obstacles so they can do what they want.

It feels like something an author writes because they got tired of a plot point and just want to get rid of it.

First problem with how they tackled killing Luz's magic and resolving Amity's parents: Neither character is actually a major part of their own plotline. Amity gets what? Five lines MAYBE before her big "My Luz" moment? Maybe like a minute of screen time total? It might be a bit more than that but this is resolving her family issues. The ones that will continue to be blamed and focused on for her behavior. For who she is and what made her who she is. And she's just not a part of it. There is no building of anger, momentum, etc. towards her parents or the like. No build up to the moment where she tells them to fuck off. It's just that once Luz is threatened… She is all in on telling them to stop. Which actually is the exact same as they did with killing her relationship with Boscha but one is a friend who is a bully. The other is your heavily abusive, neglectful family who have decided who you are up to this point.

I'm just saying that maybe there should have been ANY exploration of her feelings besides, "Sorry mom. I have apparently decided that this girl is literally more important than anything else in my life and will do anything to make her happy and like me."

The other side… actually is worse though. It's the end of Luz's journey with magic. There will be no training, trying or work put into this afterwards despite theoretically being part of the thesis of the story. I still think this episode effectively was a part of why TOH got shortened because Disney would be right to have asked they were lied to with the elevator pitch of the story. EVEN THE ANIMATION TEST PUTS MORE EMPHASIS ON LEARNING MAGIC AND EXPLORING IT THAN THE SHOW EVER WILL AFTER THIS.

And Luz? Luz isn't a part of it AT ALL. She introduces the concept theoretically, has the hilarious line of "I haven't found a new one since the fire glyph" which happened FIVE EPISODES AGO so it's not like it has been that long since she got one and then… just peaces out. And the rest of the plot line is shenanigans between Lilith and Eda before Lilith gives an exposition dumb that effectively means nothing. I mean… All the glyphs they use are either combo glyphs or a single regular glyph. And they are always as strong as they need to be, glyph circles be damned.

It hard matters. None of it matters. But it was such a major part of the show's pitch. Luz wanted to be a witch. Well, I guess you are, and clearly one of the strongest out there with what we saw in the S1 finale and the S2 opener so… shrug Just end it and move on. Only introduce a new spell (of which they only add two, three if you count teleportation) when it's necessary for something cool you want to do or for the plot.

And there is more I could go into how bad this episode is and how poorly the episode handles ending these plotlines, like how the B plot with Luz's magic, which is a b plot at all eye twitch, is effectively just an update to the "King gets a minion and loses control of them" B plots of season 1 where he has to swallow his pride and get some help before he is consumed. That's just what happens with Eda here. Just it's with magic instead.

But I don't feel like going hard diatribe in this blog because the larger points are this for why this episode to me is the turning point:

It introduces the idea that the characters aren't nearly as deep, well thought out or complex as we have always believed. How much smaller does Amity feel after this episode? How much less sense do the Blights make? How much does this indeed fuck up her character arc in the moment and retroactively?

It introduces the idea that the world and its functionality isn't well thought out. If this is how they're treating something as big as Luz's glyphs, which will only prove to get worse with time, what else do they not care about? The plot? The story? The actual flavor of the Isles?

And honestly I feel like it highlights that the show doesn't only fail when it's a filler episode. This is probably the first non-filler, or close to filler, episode in the series that just… Isn't good. How many people actually remember anything from that episode besides "My Luz?" Some people might remember the Odalador stuff because they like those characters but you could tell me what happens during the montage to get back into Hexide? What Gus or Willow say or think about anything? What Amity even says about most things in that episode? Fucking anything Hooty, Eda and Lilith do besides the Hooty swan and the super glyph?

And this episode killed TWO major plotlines people were excited for. That dominated our minds because the show HAD placed importance on them. This isn't like Willow where you had to choose to be invested eventually. The show always made her feel less important than everyone else. This is part of the thesis of the show and the backbone to Luz's girlfriend's character being resolved AT THE SAME TIME.

It's bad. It's just bad. And you can see the cracks growing even throughout S2A. Cracks started right here. Right when Luz was expelled.

[juusankai]

A little something about the seiyuu, Umehara Yuuichirou that I want to get off my chest.

As the Fall Anime Season approached me, I looked for different series I could watch in my spare time. Besides the ones I already wanted to watch I thought to myself I should check out MAL for an official listing of all the anime confirmed for the season. I thought to myself: "Hm...why not?". My curiosity was at it's peak.

As I scrolled the long list of anime, some of them that reached my interest, I immediately noted them down. One of them happened to be this long-titled isekai romance with a title I couldn't even understand. The poster of the anime didn't really peak my interest but I noted it down anyway.

The first episode aired and then the second one, the third one.

I was hooked.

"I'm the Villainess so I'm Taming the Final Boss" or Akulas for short hooked me from the first episode. The opening, the ending, the story, the MC and of course Claude, the Demon King, played by no one else than Umehara Yuuichirou.

What I'm trying to say is that Akulas introduced me to Umehara-san and I couldn't be more grateful. The tone of his voice? The raspy and velvety sound of his voice? Hearing him talking about how he wants to spoil his then fiancee to the rotten, just made me shiver. I had to look him up.

And that's where it all started...and now I feel like a teenager again, who fell in love with the boy who offered her his pencil because she forgot hers in the other backpack.

And when I looked him up it truly felt like home..somehow. I loved everything about him, his face, his style and his movements. His mannerisms and the way he talks in interviews. His calm demeanor and the way he says "Oi" when things get awkward around him. The way he forces out a laugh because he is out of energy and just wants to synchronize with the others. His weird humor and vulgar words that has 0 correlation with his personality. But I love that honesty.

I tried to clean up this photo of him since it's one of my favourites so far. I know it's the 1000th time I'm mentioning his beauty, but can I do it again? And again?

In the back of my mind I hope that one day I will meet him.

And in the deeper corners of my mind, a part of me wishes that "me" would never existed and another "me" would emerge, one who is closer to him.

I'm pretty sure we all love our idols, or seiyuus in this case, but didn't you ever wish you can be friends with them? See them everyday? Talk to them about their daily life. Or just be there to see their career take off?

I will always have Umehara-san in my mind and heart because he truly makes he happy. He offered me so much peace in a time where i felt angry, sad and lonely. I loved the sound of his voice, it made my heart tremble with happiness.

I want to meet him and I want to see him in real life.

But most I can do now is to support his career and watch it as it blooms. So far he has a few roles confirmed for 2023 which is great! I will name a few that come at the top of my mind.

Spy Classroom (main character)

Revenger (main cast)

Ayaka (main character)

The Reason why Raeliana Ended up at the Duke's Mansion (main character)

More of them to be confirmed. We will be very luck if we get him in Jigokuraku or Jujutsu Kaisen. He could do a great Toji. Or we get even luckier and get him as the main character in My Happy Marriage.

No matter what kind of character he will play, I will be there to support it, watch his lives, save his pictures, think about him when a love song starts playing and talk about him just like I did now.

And as I'm entering the conclusion for this little essay, I want to bring attention to the fact that he is also in a band!

It's called Sir Vanity and they have an album out! Go check it out and stream it. Their genre is rock and a very good one. Some of the tracks have been written by Umehara himself and surprise, surprise he writes about break ups. He can sing really well and guitar too. The other 3 members are talented as well so please support them! They will have a new song out so please follow their social media! They have an official Twitter account.

So, as I'm typing my final words I'm hoping that you, my dearest reader, had the patience to at least read a bit about Umehara. Maybe you will end up loving him as much as I do.

I will link now some of the social media that might help you learn about Umehara-san a bit better.

Yuuichirou Umehara official Twitter account: https://twitter.com/UmeuMeumE_Y?t=9QDkhFiESomsDnCogENQkg&s=09

Sir Vanity Official Twitter Account:

https://twitter.com/SirVanity?t=gv29iHmsGz3LUZ5_UcuKqw&s=09

Sir Vanity official YouTube channel:

Sir Vanity official Spotify account so you can officially stream their album and other songs:

His "Behind the Voice Actors" page so you can see more of his roles:

His radio show "Hyrotto Danshi" with Nishimya Koutarou:

"Saturday Machiavellism Night", Umehara's radio show:

And you can follow @/umeupdates for daily posts, news about Umehara on Instagram:

https://instagram.com/umeupdates?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

That was all! Thank you for reading.

[tharizdun-03]

Sonny Boy Watchthrough

Episode 1: The Island at the Far End of Summer

Sonny Boy's first episode was great! Definitely get a Lord of the Flies feel, very much about personal authority and ego, order vs anarchy, etc. The second episode will probably dig even more into that. Who knows where it'll go next, but as a stand-alone mood piece, excellent!

Visually, it was great. I love how at first for this scene, for example, you're like, "woah, fish eye lens", but no, it turns out the actual space is distorted. That's awesome.

Also, can I just say? I love this hairstyle.

Themes have already been introduced, and we were quickly introduced to a bunch of characters and how their values differ. For what's really going on, my first guess would be they're all dead, but.  So far, this show, good in my book. Hella excited for more.

Episode 2: Aliens

There were even more Lord of the Flies influences in the second episode, hammering home on the authoritarianism vs. anarchy themes. So far, the show has been most critical of the leaders of the group. Yet it seems to posit the thought that order is still necessary, with all these rules in these worlds (unless that's manufactured by some being). So, potential for lots of allegorical, social commentary here.

I'm suspecting the kid with the star on his face, might be different from the rest. Might be the guy who set this all up, as an experiment of sorts. Also, Rajdhani is smart as hell, they're very lucky to have him there.

I also noticed there's very little to no music in this show, it's just ambient noise, which is an interesting artistic choice. 

Most of the drama in this episode was centered around Mizuho and her blue flames, but I'm not quite sure why she didn't just apologize. 

I get that she's sulky, but on principle alone? There was a hint about something to do with some teacher (her having a crush on them was an immediate thought), so maybe more will be revealed.

So far, I'm invested in the sense of being very curious as to what's happening and why, but that's as far as it goes right now. But even with just that, that means it's plenty good in my eyes, and I'm reasonably hopeful Sonny Boy will fulfill its ambitions here.

Episode 3: The Cat Who Wore Sandals

Ah yes, Mizuho's power opens up this kind of social commentary, nice.

Booo

The voice in Hoshi's head having a completely different audio quality is a really cool effect.

I'm still feeling the Lord of the Flies influences here. It's not nearly as brutal (yet at least), but it touches on the same core thematic idea that people are fundamentally fucked up and society's rules are what keep them in check. Maybe Sonny Boy will diverge later on tho.

It hasn't chosen an explicit side yet or anything but it's critiquing institutions and abuse of power, it's critiquing the leaders of this group who force the reclused children back into the caged society even though they were happier alone. So, I'm getting those vibes. 

The fact that Mizuho is the only one with this power that sustains their entire structure, that she was given it without any effort or warrant, and its comparisons to our real-life system. It's pretty obvious it's an evil systemic issue regardless of intentions. 

But again, the show still values order, it still values pragmatism and rationality and everything, so I don't think it's just gonna go anarchy all the way, as cool as that would be. It's a tough thematic nut to crack, but, I'm here for it.

Episode 4: The Great Monkey Baseball

All I could think about was, "what the fuck are you on about with these monkeys?"

What I got from this was the story about that one monkey that supported the rules, and was torn to pieces for it, since the series is all about rules. And the whole talent talk maybe? Other than that, have a hard time figuring out what this contributes to the bigger picture.

Nagara not being able to choose which world to go to, he'll either have to team up with Nozomi to do so, or he's what got us into this mess in the first place, and he has some psychological issues to solve before he can use this power more precisely.

Episode 5: Leaping Classrooms

Nagara's power being revealed to actually create worlds (although it'd also have to be teleporting, cause otherwise, it's useless lol) makes me think it's not just a cause of his running away, but it has to tie into the social commentary somehow.

Don't ask me exactly how, cause that part, I'm still figuring out. So far, its thematic plate is very broad, but I wonder how in-depth it's actually going to go while juggling this many topics. 

Visually, it's great as usual (hence screenshot). Lots of trippy stuff. Need them to go all out with that for the finale.

Episode 6: The Long Goodbye

EP 6 was practically like an ending, and I guess it'll very much prove to be one to the first half of the series. The set-up is probably mostly done now. For what's to come, God knows.

The world in this episode being a film world is a very cool idea (altho, I'll say, Raj being this technical genius who can create an app for anything is a bit of a narrative cheat).

Hoshi is very adamant about saving people with his ark, but I like that when it's shown they can edit themselves back into their world, he does support the project. 

I am still just intellectually invested rather than emotionally, and at this point, I think that's gonna last throughout. But, that's okay, some series are like that. This second half could be very EoE-like, so I'm interested in how it'll switch things up.

Episode 7: Road Book

Even though the last episode kinda indicated that it would switch things up with this second half, I'm not so sure anymore that it'll be a very drastic difference lol. This series seems intent to kind of just keep going as it always has.

Nagara seems to have decided that he doesn't want their drifting to be a mistake, so he's more determined to actually get them out of here, I guess. And the umbrella/bat guy is satisfied with that answer and lets him go.

I think I'm following along pretty nicely, and if I've interpreted how this episode contributes to the bigger picture, it's that the whole Tower of Babel thing being a false hope made Nagara realize he doesn't want that.

Yeah... I've mentioned it before, but, while I'm still curious about the answers, I have little to no emotional investment in the story, and honestly, wouldn't surprise me if most people felt like that. 

I can't imagine that many people were really rooting for these kids to make it back home, cause they're that emotionally invested, but they're just curious about what will happen story-wise. 

Which is fine! Not every story needs to be emotionally investful, but it does mean that there will be a ceiling for me. But, this very much seems like a story Natsume's mostly making just for himself anyway.

Episode 8: Laughing Dog

EP 8 was yet another interesting subplot (best-directed episode so far, holy shit), but also proves to be yet another cryptic puzzle piece in how it could fit into this bigger picture. Not much to do about it either, but keep watching.

Episode 9: This Salmon Chazuke, Forgot the Salmon

My only thoughts on Sonny Boy's 9th episode is that I like that the cats are getting a more active role.

Well, a few more thoughts actually. I'm not sure what the whole twins fighting over one strand of hair subplot was about, that struck me as more metaphorical (somehow)

And then there's also when Nagara said to Nozomi that he had changed because of her, and it was just kind of like, really? In what ways specifically has he changed so much because of her? The character development he's referencing there isn't too coherent to me.

Episode 10: Summer and Shura

EP 10 just continues to trudge along as it usually does. I'll probably finish the series today, so we get somewhere lol. Hope this wasn't it for Nozomi.

Episode 11: Boy and the Sea

I do feel that Natsume let the audience a bit closer with EP 11 (about damn time), big tonal shift, but very much appreciated. I still feel like the narrative is a bit of a mess, but you know, I'll take what I can get. Mizuho leaving her cats behind is the saddest shit.

I do feel like, when it comes to Nozomi, that a lot of her character was to contribute to Nagara's and Asakaze's arcs rather than focusing a bit more on her as her own person. Since she does seem to be really gone, I'd want more of that. 

Episode 12: A Two-Year Recess

Yeah, I wasn't really satisfied with that.

Yes, one of the issues is the lack of clarity. Were these twelve episodes intellectually stimulating? Sure. But we don't really get any explanations, many plot lines aren't addressed, and several character arcs get no real resolutions.

It just came off as vague meditations on random topics Natsume found interesting strung together in random order. I'm not sure I even want to tackle my interpretations on the finale.

One of the things I thought we'd dig into here, was precisely why Nagara and Mizuho decided to go home, she actually asked him this even, and well, the answer wasn't exactly satisfying. 

Nagara's character resolution with Nozomi, kinda getting over his apathy and accepting that hurdles are part of the journey, I guess that was fine. Nice callback to the bird. 

Yeah, just overall, I found it to be a messy work. Maybe I'm just not smart enough to get it. Maybe it comes down to personal preference, I dunno, but it wasn't satisfying to me and I personally didn't get enough out of the series compared to the investment it asked of me.

But again, I'm thankful it does exist and that we can still get unique art like this at a time where the medium is riddled with light novel adaptations and the likes. I want more like this, even if I personally didn't buy into the hype for this one, in particular.

Overall Thoughts: 

I'm happy we still get creative art like this, but, I do not buy into the hype for this one. Un-addressed plotlines, no proper resolutions, just a messy meditation on random topics. Some interesting ideas there, but didn't really come together for me. Music and visuals tho are excellent.

[theblackdragon-studios]

Rereading this I want to clarify-even though no one asked or called me out on it-that I am referring to mystery villains that pop up in the middle of the story that aren’t established as villains at the start of the show or game or whatever, or as the final boss especially. They just get introduced and you’re supposed to accept that this is the Big Bad now. Not the character you spent at least a whole season watching and thinking this is the final boss I am eager to see the heroes defeat.

I will give DB some grace…they were a small studio working for a big company that very likely wanted their show to fail. They did what they had to to keep people watching, and I don’t know this for sure, but I don’t think they had much time to do things.

However, I want to give some examples of villains that showed up halfway through the source and that are the Big Bad that worked:

Fire Lord Ozai from Avatar: The Last Airbender

Emperor Belos from The Owl House

Ganondorf from Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Demise from Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Odin from God of War 4 & Ragnarok

-

Ozai: It was made clear in the very first and second episodes of the show that Zuko was not the main threat. Ozai is mentioned at least twice in that time, and Zuko being a prince makes it obvious he isn’t the one in charge.

When General Zhao enters the picture, we still know Ozai is the main threat. Though it helps that Zhao is killed at the end of season 1, I think it was…when the Water spirit drags him under and into the Spirit World. Plus his motivation wasn’t very big. He just wanted to be the one famous for slaying the spirit of the moon…never planned to take Zuko or even Ozai’s places or anything.

Azula was also established as being motivated by her unfailing devotion and loyalty to her father (and a resentment toward Zuko) and while she was the most entertaining and eerie villain in the series, we are made aware very early into her introduction that she is just another pawn in Ozai’s war strategy.

Belos: The first episodes of TOH are mostly episodic, building up the world you’re entering and exploring while hinting at the darker elements as it progresses. From wild magic being illegal to weirdos being imprisoned, then the school system and Lilith’s introduction.

There wasn’t an established central villain in that show before this. As far as the audience knew, it was a dark comedy in a magical land but soon it is revealed there is someone behind all these decisions and rules, and that that is the bad guy (though I was told he tricks you and the hero into thinking he’s not a few times…but that’s fine. Because he is still established as the Big Bad and those trickery moments make you hate him even more. Then you learn what a scumbag he truly is when you get his backstory.)

Ganondorf: Twilight Princess (and A Link Between Worlds, but that one reveals the twist much sooner) is the only game I have knowledge of in the franchise (meaning there could be others) where you spend most of it believing the Big Bad is the villain you hear about most of the game (Zant, in this case). Only to learn during his boss fight that he was just a servant of Ganon’s. This would fall under the category of “bad villain reveal” except Ganondorf has always been understood to be the central villain of the Zelda franchise, so him showing up like this isn’t too surprising to veterans of the franchise.

Yes he is a “mystery villain” brought in late to the game, but the clues leading up to it establish why. Twilight Princess takes place after one timeline of Ocarina of Time. At the end of Ocarina of Time, Ganondorf was arrested and we think killed…but turns out he was banished to the Twilight Realm.

But still, he is the central villain of the franchise. Anyone that knows the Zelda lore knows this. He didn’t just show up as a new, never before seen character in that game and steal the spotlight from the villain we’ve been watching and fighting all game (Zant). He is a staple of the series as much as the other two in the trio.

Demise: I’m including him because this is another example of a villain that comes in late, but was established early on as the Big Bad. Except it is different from TP!Ganondorf. Ghirahim is the villain you run into most of the game…but he does make it clear when you meet him that he is working for someone. On top of that, the imprisoned is established the first time you fight him as being an ancient evil that is the true bad guy. There is nothing sudden and “new more evil bad guy, who dis?” about it.

Odin: This counts too, because he doesn’t show up in person until Ragnarok, much like Ozai isn’t truly revealed until Zuko’s return home, but he is talked about constantly. The first game is building him up through dialogue, Mimir’s stories, and side quest stuff as being the Big Bad. Not to mention that’s the theme of God of War: The pantheon leader is the final boss. No one we spent hours with was watered down for Odin to take center stage. They were all working for him, and the villain we deal with in the first game is dead, so of course he can be pushed aside.

Those are a few examples of Big Bads that show up late done well.

Unless your villain we spent hours to seasons following is killed and stays dead, introducing a new Big Bad that is just that character but more powerful is bad writing, in my opinion.

Either you establish from the beginning that the villain we’ve been watching was working for the Big Bad and/or has personal relations to that Big Bad that makes the reveal more interesting, you kill off the other villain, or you show hints at this Big Bad early in.

Don’t be Dragon Booster, basically.

TL;DR: I hate secret mystery villains that have never been mentioned in-story as being a bad guy before they show up half-way through the source. It’s only appropriate if they are established from the beginning as being the main threat even if you don’t meet them for a long time, or the original established big bad is dead and stays dead.

Some examples of this trope done well are: Ozai (Avatar: The Last Airbender), Belos (The Owl House). Ganondorf/Demise (Legend of Zelda games), and Odin (God of War franchise).

👀 Curious about your rant abt Word and Meggy. Also, what are your headcanons for libris for the ask meme 👀

Rant

With Armeggadon it’s not only his entrance into the show’s plot, but also his reveal. As in what he actually looks like. But on top of that: I find secret villain pop-ups annoying. Because they remove the focus from the original villain and make that villain out to be pretty pathetic in comparison. I don’t care how important your ancient evil returned character is to your plot, it isn’t an excuse to water down the villain we have been watching before this new guy has shown up.

Have a mystery villain that appears, fine, but don’t use them to make your central villain either less threatening to pathetic or to redeem the central villain just because there can’t be two villains…or because somehow he suddenly gives a damn about his errand boy-I mean “beloved” son. 🙄

Apparently the writers had stuff planned with him, explaining in DB Academy who he was/is and his history with the war. That sounds interesting, I like that…but in the process Word Paynn has been reduced to an annoyance at best, nonexistent to the conflict anymore at worst. Why can’t he and Armeggadon work together? They have the same goal and the same motivation, and yeah it’ll lead to one screwing the other over in the end…but it gives Word a reason to be a threat still and possibly MORE of a threat.

But no, Word gets his ass kicked then needs rescuing by his ex-friend and then by their children so all four can temporarily beat this ancient evil returned before going back to the status quo (sort of, since Word’s final moments are to cheat at the final challenge of the series for his son then bitch to the judges about why Artha shouldn’t be allowed into the Academy-cause the kid was badly injured at the beginning of the episode…and a hint at redemption for Moordyd going forward) while it’s foreshadowed that Armeggadon is the new major threat to all of them, Moordryd included, who was the puppet he (Armeggadon) was manipulating.

I’m not a fan of this direction with stories. I don’t want a secret mystery villain to take the spotlight from the established villain, followed by the established villain being watered down to be less threatening than the cool new one. Especially when I liked the villain that is being replaced or weakened by this new guy. If they were using it in an attempt to show Word isn’t beyond redemption either, they did a poor job of it.

That’s my rant.

Bonus: Armeggadon’s design is also not great. They were going for ancient battle armor, but it isn’t impressive to me. Makes him look like a hammerhead shark/spider hybrid trying to be a human.

Change the helmet maybe, and he might have a more impressive silhouette. Also a signature dragon. Not the same model of the failed artificial Black dragons scheme Word had in When Darkness Falls.

DB Ask Meme

11. What are your headcanons for X character?

Headcanons on Libris? Well…a lot of them are from my own rewrite project for the show (yes, I have one…but it’s got a twist that lines up with my personal tastes in these things) but one can be applied to that OR the show itself:

Rivett was able to sneak Libris into the Academy through Grey cloaking gear, which made Libris’ colors and texture appearance change so he passed as a hybrid Star-Class of some kind. This was how they got through the Academy and eventually Rivett was able to help Libris evolve.

As for why Libris went through the Academy…probably because Libris is a Black Sheep of the Grey dragons. He thinks differently from them, since he was said to have fought in the original Dragon/Human War. He probably could read the signs as well of another War stirring and agreed to work with Rivett in an attempt to find a way to stop it.

Except much later when he hears the horn, he thinks he was too late and his mind turns to doing what he can to keep the fighting from escalating further. It takes Beau proving he is the reborn Dragon of Legend for Libris to see that all hope is not lost and that war can still be prevented.

If a war actually breaks out later, I think Libris would join the fight again, and this time it would be more devastating because of the sheer size and power of the Evolved dragons like him.

Dragon Booster Ask Meme

[black-velvet-lady]

"Who's scarier? Ozai, Azula, Hama, or Koh?"

I think a question like this directly ignores some legitimately terrifying characters that we were introduced to in avatar last Air bender. Such as General Fong, the earth bender Prison Warden, Zhao, Avatar Yangchen, Fire Lord Sozin, Fire Lord Azulon, Combustion Man, the dragon of the west, and Long Feng to name a few.

Now many of these characters are undercut by little screen time, narrative framing, being overshadowed, or having their information be supplemental material.

Going in order of the books the Prison Warden of the earth bender Prison is a legitimately terrifying boss with violent impulses as volatile as a grenade locked behind a hair pin trigger. This guy throws fire at a prisoner's feet and locks him in solitary confinement for a week for coughing while he was talking. Coughing. Not only that he tossed his captain overboard for asking a question, he didn’t even know it was the captain. Then later near the end of the episode Haru throws a rock at his head and he immediately went to burn the kid for the offense. Course this is undercut by the end of the episode with him meekly saying he can't swim and Taro calling him a coward.

General Fong is another character that is legitimately terrifying due to his actual power hungry nature. Fong wants to weaponize a twelve-year-old boy and brandishes guilt upon the boy to achieve these ends. When told no he uses violence to achieve his goal against not only Aang, but Katara and Sokka as well. He buries Katara alive to force Aang into the Avatar State endangering the lives of his comrades and the injured stationed at his base, and he doesn't learn his lesson. He still believes he was right in doing all of this by the end of the episode cause he wants to wield the Avatar as the ultimate weapon and carve a bloody path of vengeance through the fire nation straight to the royal palace. Still he's undercut by sharing screen time with Azula who arguably steals the show from every major villain in the series.

The Rough Rhinos are kind of undercut by the fact that they always loose to the protagonist characters, but they were instrumental in the war effort as the forward troops. Not only that but they also have a canonical body count since they were responsible for the deaths of Jets parents during the burning of his village and they did have murderous intent in the village of Chin.

Sozin. Picture is worth a thousand words and I got two.

Enough said.

Azulon. Man was responsible for 90% of the hundred year war and ordered the death of his grandson cause his second son insulted him. He's a horrible POS.

Long Feng. Controls the largest city in the world through mind control and fear and is able to kill kids with impunity cause he's controlling the King like a puppet. Even when placed in prison he is still a danger to the city and its people.

Combustion Man. I think it's very telling that the gang will fight the dangerous ladies but their go to strategy with him is run and hide.

Yangchen and Iroh seem to stick out like a sore thumb now don't they? Don't be fooled. Yangchen's original lore actually states she took her job deadly serious. Yangchen was a fully realized Avatar at 17 and terrorized the world into such a state of paralyzing fear that there was a lasting peace for an entire generation after her death cause everyone feared her wrath. The framing around her and Kyoshi kinda makes them seem like the other way around but I find it very telling that Yangchen says you must sacrifice your own needs to protect the world while Kyoshi equates not lifting a hand to save Chin from dying to be the same killing him.

Iroh is the last one cause honestly you don't need me to explain why Zhao is bad. Let's keep one thing in mind with Iroh. He met the dragons before Zuko was born. He learned that fire is life 9 years before campaigning in the Earth Kingdom and laying siege to Ba Sing Se for 600 days. He only stopped when his son died. Did nothing as his brother took the throne and burned his son. Retired to the place he laid siege to. Brought the white Lotus into power and they continued his father's inhumane prisons on the red Lotus.

And Ty Lee is the scariest and most effective member of the dangerous ladies. No I will not elaborate.

[marypenelope]

Artificial Magic

After the airing of Young Blood, Old Souls, many fans noticed that there was something... odd about how Emperor Belos used his magic. Not only is his staff entirely mechanical as opposed to being made of palistrum wood, but his magic has a distinct and menacing red aura, and he never uses spell circles - in fact, the few times we actually see him cast, he simply waves or snaps a finger:

(ID: A series of screenshots from The Owl House: Young Blood, Old Souls. 1: Belos stands with his back to the audience, his hand glowing with a red aura, his pointer finger extended. Eda, currently in her cursed form, is surrounded by a similar red aura as Belos' spell sends her flying off-screen. 2: Belos is turned partially towards the audience as he reaches out a hand to snap his fingers. 3: Lilith stands in the Emperor's throne room, her hands outstretched as an inert Owlbert and the accompanying staff materialize in a burst of red energy. This shot immediately follows the previous picture. /end id)

Every other instance, things just happen, without him so much as moving. For instance:

(ID: Screenshot from The Owl House: Young Blood, Old Souls. Belos stands completely still as a giant, worm-like creatures emerges from the ground around him, its open mouth framing his form. /end id)

And despite its intriguing design, we only see him use his actual staff once: to bring Eda's consciousness forward while she's still in her cursed state.

(ID: Screenshot from The Owl House: Young Blood, Old Souls. Belos stands in front of a cursed and bound Eda, his staff raised in the air. A stream of wavy red energy extends from the staff's orb to Eda's head. Lilith stands off to the side, her body language indicating concern. /end id)

Belos’ magic was strange, that much was certain, but given that he’d only appeared in the very last episode of season 1, it seemed unlikely we’d get many chances to really observe it.

(Continued beneath cut)

And then season 2 came along, and with the premiere of Separate Tides, we were introduced to a second character who uses this distinctive form of magic:

(ID: Screenshot from The Owl House: Separate Tides. Steam billows off of the Golden Guard dramatically as he kneels on the shore in a superhero landing pose. In one hand, he holds a covered birdcage. In the other, he holds his staff – a wooden shaft with a mechanical topper, which is still glowing red. /end id)

The Golden Guard – or, as we've come to know him, Hunter.

Now, as I said, Hunter's magic is very similar to Belos' – with one caveat.

(ID: Screenshot from The Owl House: Hunting Palismen. Hunter glares off to the side as an off-screen Luz confronts him with his powerless nature. /end id)

Unlike his uncle, Hunter can only cast with his staff.

Later in the episode, Hunter gives a brief explanation of his origins, and provides us with a name for this specific form of spellcasting: Artificial Magic.

But what exactly is artificial magic?

Based on what we've seen from Belos and Hunter, it definitely seems to involve the use of technology, making it likely that both the reconstructed portal and the petrification device are at least partially fueled by artificial magic.

(ID: A pair of screenshots from The Owl House: Young Blood, Old Souls. 1: A large, winged metallic ring is being constructed around the damaged portal door, which is connected to multiple tubes and/or wires. 2: A three-sided statue of a pleading witch rises from a panel in the floor, attached to a copper-colored metal base. On either side of the statue are strange bulb-like contraptions sparking with green energy. A similarly colored orb tops the statue, partially obscured in its place between the three heads. /end ID)

Artificial magic also seems to be somewhat goopy, and likely to produce flesh-like constructs. For instance, when Belos goes goopy during his fight with Luz, he's surrounded by that same red aura.

(ID: Screenshot from The Owl House: Young Blood, Old Souls. Emperor Belos, having just been attacked with an Ice spell by Luz, is glowing red and beginning to melt in a disturbing manner. /id end)

(Side note: interestingly enough, during the times in Hunting Palismen where Belos once again took on a more goopy form, he didn't glow red at all. It's possible that involuntary goopification is not considered use of the artificial magic, but given that I'm pretty sure he struck out at Hunter on purpose, this seems unlikely.)

As well, when Hunter conjures a sword for Luz in Separate Tides, it knits itself together out of flesh before solidifying into something (presumably) composed of metal.

(ID: Screenshot from The Owl House: Separate Tides. The Golden Guard holds out his staff - which is surrounded by red, blobby energy - and conjures a sword. The sword is in the middle of said conjuration, and half is composed of a red, fleshy substance while the other half looks normal. It is surrounded by a red glow. /end id)

Even the actual energy of it seems somewhat goop-like. You can see in previous screenshots that when Hunter and Belos use their staffs, the energy produced is very fluid and blobby.

The final known identifier is that red aura – and this is particularly interesting, because it connects artificial magic to another mysterious spell; one that's baffled experts from the Healing and Beast-Keeping Covens alike:

Eda's curse.

When Lilith casts the curse in her YBOS flashback, we see a red glow emanate from the parchment and fill the room, indicating that it, too, is the result of artificial magic.

(ID: Screenshot from The Owl House: Young Blood, Old Souls. A peacefully sleeping, young Eda lies in bed as a partially off-screen Lilith reads from a glowing red piece of parchment. /end id)

In fact, this theory is corroborated by Knock, Knock, Knocking on Hooty's Door, wherein we see a flashback to the curse's actual creation. As the owl beast falls into the ocean and changes from a creature into a sealed piece of parchment, the resulting scroll glows with a red aura. This could imply that artificial magic is what The Collector used to create the curse in the first place.

(ID: A pair of screenshots from The Owl House: Knock, Knock, Knocking on Hooty's Door. 1: A glowing red piece of parchment begins to form within a blob of displaced water. 2: The curse scroll, sealed with an owl symbol and still glowing red, washes up onto the shores of the Boiling Isles. /end id)

Of course, this still doesn't answer any of our questions. What is artificial magic? How did Belos learn it? And, most importantly in my mind, how, specifically,does it differ from wild and conventional magic?

At this point, we can only wonder, and with only two episodes left before the mid-season hiatus, it's unclear if we'll receive any any answers in the near future.

[apollos-boyfriend]

finally. my breakdown/analysis of why i despise hello charlotte episode 3 so deeply. i will be going into spoilers for the entire series obv, so be weary if you plan to play the games. warning for talks of forced abortion, transphobia, and suicide. i'm putting this under the cut because by god it got long.

my main and biggest critique centers around the character of scarlett eyler, pictured below, and one of the biggest plot twists of the series.

scarlett is first introduced in the second game, where she's charlotte's class representative and a student council member (president?). she takes her own life by jumping off the roof of their school, ending her story and role.

hc2 has a heavy focus on charlotte and her trans-coding. charlotte's identity is heavily tied to her femininity, such as her long hair and love of dresses. one of charlotte's happiest memories that's outright titled "feminine" involves aiden, her butler, encouraging her to try on dresses and grow her hair out at a young age.

this is how charlotte is depicted as a child. short hair, masculine clothing. in the "feminine" memory, charlotte outright states that she doesn't believe dresses and skirts are "made for her", despite her showing clear interest and a want to wear them. her eyes would always sparkle when she watched aiden make dresses, and yet, she didn't believe she was allowed to wear them.

additionally, charlotte has a male puppeteer. there's a line where vincent goes out of his way to mention how odd that is, as girls are assigned to eves or liliths, and boys are assigned to seths or adams. it's an odd line to throw in there for no reason, and something that could've been left out entirely, as it's not that important when it comes to the grand scheme of the lore/worldbuilding. but it's mentioned anyways. such an odd assignment would make sense if charlotte was meant to be read as a transgirl, with her puppeteer being assigned to her AGAB.

lastly, near the end of the game, there's a very impactful and disturbing scene where charlotte is held down by the bullies in her school as they cut her hair. charlotte's hair is a huge tie-in to her femininity and identity, and the act causes her to have quite a major panic attack and subsequently, causes her to fall deeper into depression.

she even says she can't recognize herself in the mirror after her hair is fixed by aidan, and feels as if she's looking at a stranger. while a cis girl would also likely freak out due to something like this, charlotte's reaction and the narrative impact of her hair suggests something much deeper. with hello charlotte episode 1 and 2 taking place in the same universe and telling the story of the same charlotte, hc2's trans-coding extends to hc1.

with all of that in mind, let's go back to scarlett. in hc3, scarlett is not a student that has committed suicide, but a tulpa created by charles eyler, her brother. to make a long, confusing story short, the worlds of hello charlotte were created from the soul of charles after he committed suicide himself in the real world. in said real world, scarlett was his unborn sister, who his mother was forced to abort by their father and something she never got over. their mother essentially took her frustrations out on charles, leading him to detest the theoretical scarlett eyler to the point where he manifests her in the form of a tulpa. when he dies, he brings her into his new universe to get revenge on everything she'd "made him go through."

scarlett was never born, but as her mother knew her sex, she would've been AFAB.

one of the huge twists in hc3 is that scarlett, in an attempt to better understand charlotte, implants her soul/being into another charlotte vessel. it's revealed throughout the game that charlotte is not one person, but instead, has infinite versions of herself throughout an infinite amount of worlds/realities. scarlett implants herself into one such charlotte to try to understand charlotte better by literally being in charlotte's shoes.

scarlett implants herself into the body of charlotte from the first two games, with the first game starting right after she does so. essentially, hc3 is a prequel to the first two games. and that's where i have my problem. hc2 is an extremely queer-coded story. not in the romance sense, but in the sense of being queer in itself. hc2 charlotte feels very alienated from her peers for reasons she can't quite comprehend. she and vincent are outcasts, repeatedly bullied for nothing other than the fact that they're alive and they're themselves. that, combined with all of charlotte's trans-coding (and anri's own arc, which can be very much interpreted as some level of internalized homophobia), hello charlotte 2 is very heavily intended to read as a queer story.

but then you backtrack on all of that by saying charlotte was scarlett the entire time. she's no longer trans, as scarlett was always a cis woman, or at least theoretically one. all of her coding is instantly erased. and that's one of the most irritating things for me, because hello charlotte 2 is a beautiful story. i have cried to it before and i have no doubt that i will again in the future. but the whole re-writing of scarlett being charlotte, the whole erasure of a transgirl's progression into that of a cis abortion tulpa, it will never sit right with me. and it taints and sours the story for me, which is why i do not recommend the third game and hold such a strong hatred for it, among certain other reasons.

[nobodyfamousposts]

Any Tikki/Plagg salt?

So I'm taking this to mean you are asking if I have salt about Tikki and Plagg.

Here's the main central issue: Why are the kwamis even necessary? I mean this narratively. What purpose do they serve to the story that couldn't be accomplished without them?

When I was originally introduced to the show and the concept behind it, I thought Plagg and Tikki were going to be the Wise Mentors/Wise Animal Mentors for the heroes. The ones who offer the "moral of the story", give advice to their respective chosen, and...y'know...train them. Prepare them. Give them some lore and history of how things worked for them in the past as well as info on what they are, what their powers are, and what they're up against.

We got a little of that with Tikki offering lessons and advice, but the advice is minimal and comes few and far between for what should be warranted by the situations they face. Tikki had no problem with judging and admonishing Marinette for things, but Tikki has done very little to actually help guide Marinette on the "right" decisions she seems to want Marinette to take. She did reprimand Marinette for selfish use of her Lucky Charm in Bubbler and trying to help Juleka in a dishonest way in Reflekta, but she didn't really come up with other options for her or offer any real advice or input other than telling Marinette that she disapproves.

With Plagg, we didn't get that at all. Sure, he's made catty comments on Adrien's behavior such as in Copycat and Desperada, but since Adrien "is perfect" and thus never needs to learn a lesson, Plagg never needs to be the mouthpiece for the episode's moral. This also cements Plagg as the lazy and "fun" kwami in contrast to Tikki—which would work if we had more consistent interaction between the two to highlight that comparison.

The only purpose the kwamis seem to have is to 1) be the cute mascot characters for the series and 2) have someone for Marinette and Adrien to talk to and play off of—the second of which is specifically notable in the case of Plagg, who is ultimately the only thing about any of Adrien's scenes when he's not Chat Noir that makes them entertaining or interesting to watch.

This is especially noteworthy as the writers clearly struggle with the "show, don't tell" philosophy of writing, and the kwamis are prime tools to try to get around that little issue without putting in any actual effort because Miraculous has all the subtlety of a brick to the face. Why SHOW the Main Duo falling in love over time through their interactions and slowly growing closeness and relationship building among all four sides of the love square that is touted as the main draw of the series in the first place...when they can just have the two be cringingly awkward around one another and chuck in a magical plot device I mean mouthpiece I mean kwami for the heroes to expound on their "unrequited love" to?

Also, much like many things in this series, everything about the kwamis from their powers to their natures to their personalities are contradictory and confusing. For all powerful beings who serve as the focus of the plot as well as the plot device around which the series is supposed to revolve, they are demoted both narratively and in the story itself.

If they HAVE any personality, it's that of children. Children who don't understand the world, don't understand people, don't actually actually embody the concepts of which they are supposed to be centered around, and quite frankly don't seem to have any business having the level of power they seem to have given the complete lack of control they display they actually have over it. These ancient beings—OLDER than the universe, who should at least have SOME idea of how their own powers work or at least what the leaking from people's eyes means but honestly come off as the biggest threat to everyone around them through sheer callousness and ignorance.

It's the same issue with Adrien that if this individual is supposed to be the moral mouthpiece for the writers, one would think they would have more maturity, especially as ancient all powerful beings that they are who predate humanity. It could be argued that it's a result of them being trapped in the Miracle Box for so long, but that still doesn't account for all the time they existed BEFORE being put in the Box or the times they were taken out and used after it was made. Nor does it account for why they all seem to have a childish mob mentality.

It'd make sense if their childishness served a purpose in a narrative sense—like haivng them actually learn about the world and get some growth of their own, but that doesn't happen. And if two or more kamis appear on screen together, they seem to revert to the same personality.

As it stands, all of this really countermines the idea that the kwamis are supposed to be the guides or go-to figures for morals and lessons for our main heroes or even the temporary heroes. It'd be one thing if their morals were just "different" due to being active at different ages and time frames. That would explain some discrepancy. But the writers don't use that and all the kwamis pretty much act the same.

Then comes the OTHER narrative issue that as soon as Fu and the Order of the Guardians officially enter the picture, the idea of kwamis being guides or mentors for the heroes is made completely moot. And it says something when a guy who never completed the test to become a true Guardian and whom was ultimately responsible for the entire Order being destroyed made for a better mentor figure than the kwamis whose power is supposed to be running the show.

It would be one thing if it ultimately became a sort of reversal where Marinette's time with the kwamis makes her reevaluate their roles and look at Tikki in a new way as someone who ISN'T perfect and who CAN be wrong. But the show still has Marinette looking to Tikki for answers in a way that gives me the same impression as if she was looking for life guidance from Manon.

Other than giving credence to the "5 minute time limit" and some "missing kwami/can't transform" shenanigans, removing the kwamis really wouldn't lose anything narratively from the show.

...well, other than what entertainment there can be had from Adrien's scenes secondary to Plagg's involvement in them.

So, tl;dr, my biggest salt about the kwamis boils down to:

They have little purpose narratively.

Anything they could do is devalued by the presence of others that perform their roles and explain or use their abilities better than they can.

For ancient beings with immense lore and involvement in history, they don't do much to expand on that.

For moral mouthpieces, they don't do much to actually HELP their holders.

In and of themselves, they are used by the writers in such a way that they end up limiting the ability of the narrative to tell a good story instead of adding it.

[wkemeup]

Sunrise (7)

summary: After an explosion takes his arm and his only sense of belonging, Bucky is content to live out the rest of his days in the hollow comfort of the dark. This is, until Sam drags him down to the local VA and he meets you. (Modern AU) pairings: bucky x reader chapter word count: 4.8k warnings: ✨kissin✨ 🧡 series masterlist / series playlist

“I can't believe this happened,” Natasha groaned, sinking further into her couch cushions as if it could swallow her whole. She held a bottle of cheap vodka in her right hand, her left digging through a bag of sour cream and onion chips. Her red hair was untamed for the first time since you’d known her with strands sticking out at the sides and pieces falling out of her braid. She took another swig from the bottle.  

“Maybe it’s not that bad?” you offered, though the slight alteration of your pitch gave way to your doubt.  

Natasha had been hired through her new security firm to work the art rooms at MOMA. You’d walked her through the hiring process and sat through hours' worth of practice interviews and resume building and anxiously bouncing your knee as you both huddled around the library computer and waited for the email to come through confirming her hire.  

She’d worked so hard for this job. She’d held it for almost six months without incident.  

Nat deadpanned as she wiped the excess droplet of vodka from her lips with the wrist of her sweatshirt. “I tackled a civilian, Y/n.”

“You said he was acting suspicious! Isn’t that enough of a defense?” you tried, betrayed again by your tone. You winced.  

“He was staring at me with those beady little eyes of his,” Nat grumbled, shoving a few more chips in her mouth, continuing before she had a chance to swallow. “He kept looking over his shoulder toward me like he was checking the surveillance of the exhibit, like he might be staging a robbery in his head or coming up with methods to blow it all to shit.”  

She huffed the hair from her eyes, only for it to fall down exactly back into place at the center of her forehead. “Turns out the only plotting he was doing was to get my phone number. Didn’t know that, of course, until I’d had him pinned to the ground and his hands behind his back.”

You sighed. It wasn’t an uncommon occurrence for veterans like Natasha to struggle in maintaining steady employment. Adjusting to civilian life never came easy. It was why so many soldiers chose to reenlist again and again. Even after years of PTSD and the fractured relationships their distance left behind, they boarded that plane. You’d witnessed it firsthand.  

“They fired me,” Nat admitted, sinking further into the couch.  

She was one at the VA the others feared. With her strong features and deep voice, intimidating glare and the aura of a woman twice her size, no one took to her be anything but the stone-cold persona she amplified. You were one of the few she let her guard down around long enough to see the fragile, loving person underneath.  

“I’m sorry, Nat,” you told her. You reached for her hand, squeezing it in your own.  

She shrugged. “It’s fine. Move on to the next one, right?”

You nodded. Keep moving forward. It was the most she could do.  

“But enough about me,” she huffed, rolling her eyes. “What’s going on with you and the broody amputee?”  

“Nat!” You swatted her hard on the arm.

She was unbothered, shoving another handful of chips into her mouth. “Don’t pretend like it's not completely obvious how much the two of you are into each other. Every time I look up to take a sip of coffee at book club, one of you is making heart eyes at the other. Spill.”

You didn’t know where to begin. It felt like you’d known Bucky your whole life. But you started with the moment Sam introduced you at the VA. You told her about the moments at the library and how eagerly he read through every book you placed in his hand. You told her about the coffee trips to Luciana’s and the extra time he spent helping you set up for book club and cleaning up when it ended. You told her about the walks in the park and surprise visits at the library. 

There were a few moments you left out, like Bucky’s panic attack on the crowded streets and the flashback episode the fireworks created, but you told her about the good parts. The holding hands. The comfort you felt when he walked into the room. The kiss you’d shared just a few hours earlier.  

“Shit, we’re talking about James Barnes, right?” Natasha laughed as you told her he’d been the one to press forward to kiss you first. “Sam used to talk about him all the time before he started showing his face around the VA. I’d gotten the impression that he was barely keeping it together after what happened over there, like he was a ghost or something. Sounds like he’s got some game back though.”  

You nodded, a laugh on your lips though it felt a little drained. You thought of the picture on Sam’s desk and the vibrance in Bucky’s smile with his arms thrown over the shoulders of his closest friends. You thought of the version of the man Natasha described, the same one Sam referenced in the library the day before when he thanked you for helping Bucky find himself again.  

Curiosity crept it. It was more than that, though. You wanted to understand how a man so full of life and charm and energy could be wiped clean so quickly. You wanted to know, not for your own selfish indulgences, but so you could better understand the man you were falling for. A man who lost himself for so long and was only now starting to pick up the pieces again.  

“Do you know what happened to him?” you asked, a bitter taste of shame lingering in your mouth.

“I don’t.” Natasha shook her head and you sighed, nodding. You resigned to let the inquiry go entirely – it wasn’t something you’d ever ask Bucky about directly, but then Natasha cleared her throat. “I do know he came home with a Bronze Star, though. Sam said he won't even look at it.”

You narrowed your eyes. “A what?”

“A Bronze Star. It’s awarded for exceptional bravery in combat,” Natasha explained. “My guess is it’s got something to do with how he lost his arm.”

You suspected as much. He carried himself with such distain, as if he couldn’t stand the body he was in. You’d felt the sharp cringe in his back whenever your hand drew too close to his left side, how he’d often stare at you in disbelief whenever you so willingly reached out to touch him. He’d never once removed his jacket in front of you and sometimes you wondered if he made careful avoidance of the mirrors in his own home, too.  

***

The first time you saw Bucky again, you’d kissed him on the sidewalk. Rushed up to him as you skipped steps descending outside the doors of the Brooklyn Library, hands pressed firmly to the sides of his face, and just... kissed him.

It startled him at first, enough for his arm to hold out at his side, frozen, for just a second too long before it settled on your spine. Your fingers gently traced along the stubble on his cheeks, smiling bright against his lips, and he’d kissed you back as tourists and locals filtered through the busy walkway as if they were little more than a blur around you.  

It became routine, it seemed, for Bucky to be waiting at the steps of the library for you. He didn’t shy away when you raced towards him, didn’t flinch when you reached for his hand, didn’t hold his breath so tight he could hardly focus.  

Instead, he was full of laughter. He made jokes that would put Sam’s cheesy one-liners to shame. He walked with you on empty residential side streets even when his anxiety had started to ease only so could take his time with you, dragging his feet along the pavement to stay by your side as long as possible. It was what he told you, anyway, and your heart just about leapt from your chest. 

You began to see glimpses of the man in the framed picture upon Sam’s desk. Outgoing. Flirtatious. Charming.  

Sam noticed the difference almost instantly. The way his eyes flickered over to the two of you, narrowed upon the absence of space between you both as you leaned against Bucky on the couch, books nestled in your hands. Sam had been standing in the doorway to book club, peering in through the window, when you noticed him staring. His smile grew wide upon his face, a very unsubtle and enthusiastic thumbs-up followed, and you waved him off before Bucky noticed he was there.  

No one in book club asked questions when after another meeting, you’d taken to resting your head on Bucky’s lap as you read, his own book settling on your shoulder. Tony peered over the top of his binding a few times with a curious stare the time Bucky had finished his book early and spend the remainder of the time reading yours over your shoulder, his finger drawing patterns on the top of your thigh, a kiss pressed to your shoulder here and there. Natasha smirked from her seat on the floor.  

It happened so quickly, how easily you’d fallen for him.  

Always in the smallest moments, in the sweetness of his smile, in the way he glanced over at you every so often as if he were checking to make sure you were still there. He opened up pieces of himself to you, set them gently into your hands and waited to see whether you’d keep them safe or throw them to the fire. It was agonizing for him – the vulnerability of trust – but you’d hoped that by protecting the pieces he showed you, he’d feel safe enough to give you more. You wanted it all. You wanted all of him.  

Sam insisted he’d never seen Bucky smile as much as he has been since he met you, including in the time before the war. It surprised you at first, until you remembered the photo on Sam’s desk. It was the same smile Bucky flashed you just moments before when he swiped a bite from your donut while you were talking to Tony. Teasing. Lighthearted. The weight of mere feathers on his back.  

“Y/n? You alright?”

Bucky’s voice drew your attention away from the tourists wandering around the park, taking photographs of the ducks at the edge of the pond and the old oak trees with leaves of fallen red and orange at their roots, the open branches giving way to a view of the Manhattan skyline.  

You blinked a few times, turning to Bucky as he sat on your left, his brows furrowed in concern. You must have been quiet for too long, which was unusual for you, so you pushed out a smile for him, a slight squeeze in his hand.  

“Just thinking,” you told him.

“What about?”

You pulled his hand into your lap, tracing over the lines in his palm absentmindedly. A distant pulse of his heartbeat could be felt in the tips of his fingers.  

“You.”  

He smiled at that, the corners of his mouth curving high up into his cheeks. A twinge of pink rested on the tips of his ears. He chuckled in an effort to hide his nervousness, though it lingered into his voice. “Me? I’m sitting right here.”

“What? I can’t think about you?” you teased, bringing his hand up to your lips as you pressed a kiss to his knuckles. He watched you with the kind of awe that left him speechless for a moment. It was your favorite look on him; how his lips parted ever so slightly, the blue of his eyes shading into something softer, the muscles in his face slacking.  

He cleared his throat. “Uh, I guess that’s okay.”

“Good,” you smirked, setting in against his side. You rested your head on his shoulder, playing with his hand in your lap as you watched two little boys chasing the ducks around the pond, flapping their arms and trying to encourage the ducks to fly.  

You’d been sitting on the old, wooden bench under the tallest oak tree for nearly two hours when you glanced up to find a series of dark clouds rolling in and obstructing the cast of red and oranges filtering along the horizon. They hung heavy and ominous as a shadow lingered over the park.  

“Hey Bucky?” you started, sitting up straight as you gestured to the clouds. He had a sort of sleepy look in his eyes like he could have been content to sit there with you all night long. “We should probably get out of here before—”  

You felt the first raindrop on your cheek. Wiping it away, you looked up into the sky just in time as sheets of rain poured out from the clouds. You gasped, grabbing a firm hold of Bucky’s hand and yanking him up to his feet.  

“Come on!” you yelled over the rush of rain as it slammed onto the cobblestones in the park and shook the trees. Bursting into laughter, you threw the hood of your jacket up over your head in a half-ditched effort to stay dry. Bucky’s hand secure in your own, you took off running, only for his laughter to follow you as he chased you down the streets.

Rain drenched into your hair and ran in droplets down your spine, clothes soaked through to the bone by the time you realized where you were running. Luciana’s was just around the corner, calling to you like trumpets at the golden gates. Hot chocolate nestled between your palms, the warm hum of the radiator, nibbling on leftover pastries from the day. Truly, Heaven.  

By the time you reached Luciana’s, you’d nearly slammed into the door trying to get inside. The canopy was incredibly small, no bigger than space for a single person, but you reached out and gripped Bucky by the lapel of his jacket and tugged him beside you to pull him from the rain. You could feel the heat of his breath through his labored pants, the small puffs of warm air pressing out into the cold, and you laughed nervously at how close you were standing.  

“Her daughter has a dance recital tonight,” Bucky read from the sign posted on the inside of the door. “It’s closed.”

Sure enough, as you looked inside, the lights were out, chairs flipped upside down and resting on the tops of the tables. Rain poured against the windows, the mist of it still catching your spine and you pressed up closer to Bucky, nearly against his chest. You tried to control how fast your heart was beating, but you were almost certain he could feel it.  

“Okay, let me think,” you said, more so to yourself, as you looked out into the streets. They were empty, save for a few cars going about ten under the speed limit and a few teenagers sprinting by in backpacks and school uniforms. Your apartment wasn’t too far from here...

“Follow me!” you shouted over the rainfall, grabbing a hold of his hand.  

***

Bucky didn’t have much time to ask questions, because your hand was in his again and suddenly you were dragging him back out into the streets. You took him down the block, through a few back streets, and along a series of brownstones with fallen leaves littering the streets and the high arch of tree branches shading the sidewalk in small relief from the rain.

You skipped up a few stairs, shouldering open the door and pushed Bucky inside. He waiting in the small doorway as you dug through your bag for a pair of keys, wiping a line of rain from your forehead. You exhaled in relief as the door unlatched and you reached for Bucky’s hand again, guiding him inside.

One floor up and the first door on the left, you stepped inside of your apartment and quickly began rushing around to rid yourself of your jacket and the soaking wet shoes on your feet. Bucky stood planted on the doormat, the door closing slowly behind him.

Rain tapped against the outside windows, a dark cloud of grey hanging in the sky and casting a shadow into your living room. A single lamp illuminated the space in a soft yellow tone, touching over dozens of blankets hanging over the couch and bundled up in a basket on the floor, books piled high on the coffee table, newspapers with highlighter marks folded neatly on the kitchen table, and a few cardigans draped over the chairs.

“Can I make you coffee? Tea?” you asked from the kitchen as you wrung out your hair in the sink, shaking off the excess droplets from your hands. Bucky glanced down at the floor, realizing he was carrying water through the hardwoods in your apartment. He winced, quickly making his way back to the doormat.

“I’m alright, thanks,” he said, keeping himself as small as he could on the mat.

“Take your shoes off,” you instructed, pointing to the series of boots lined up by the door. “I’ll go find you some dry clothes.”

With that, you disappeared into your bedroom.  

Bucky stepped out of his shoes, wandering further inside. He’d been too out of it the last time he was inside your apartment, too unfocused with one foot across the ocean to really look around.  

He found himself drawn to the hallway leading up to your bedroom, with pictures hanging along the wall in old, wooden frames. Some from what looked to be your childhood, with softer features upon your face and dressed in overalls and bright pink sneakers. Then, a few from high school with your arms hung around the shoulders of your friends, mid-laugh. But there was one in particular that caught his attention. 

At the very end of the line, hung a photograph of you standing in front of a couple who looked to be your parents. You seemed to be a few years younger, judging by the cut of your hair and the softness in your features. On your left was a man dressed in an air force uniform, hands clasped behind his back. You were standing on an airbase, smiling, but your eyes were red, reflective. Like you’d been saying goodbye and were desperately pretending otherwise.

“This was all I could find,” you said, emerging back from the bedroom with t-shirt and sweatpants in hand. They were too large for you, men’s sizes, and Bucky felt his heart clench as he saw the faded air force logo on top corner of the shirt. He wondered if it belonged to the man in the photo.

“Thank you,” he nodded as you placed them on the counter.  

You were wringing out your hair with a towel when he realized you’d changed, too. The dampness on your skin clung to the fresh cotton of your t-shirt, pulling it tight against your chest. He exhaled a tense breath.  

"God, look at you,” you laughed, a hand reaching up to touch the tips of his hair as they dripped excess water down onto his shoulders. You pushed it to rest behind his ear, brushing the lingering rain from his cheeks. “It’s unfair, you know?”

Bucky narrowed his eyes, confused. “What is?”

“That you look this handsome soaking wet.”

His instinct was to laugh, but the way you were looking at him made his breaths a little shallow, his stomach twisting into knots. You weren’t teasing as you said it, no lingering joke in its wake. He swallowed.  

“I... uh... what? No.” He tried to brush it off, but your hands had slid along his waist behind the hem of his jacket and it stopped him dead in his tracks.  

He held his breath as you flattened your palms against his stomach, running your fingers over what once had been hardened muscle before he let himself fall into darkness that took over his life for months. Now, his body favored something softer. You didn’t seem to mind though as you bit down on the fullest part of your lip, hands sliding around to his spine.  

“Let me take this off? Please?” you asked, voice low, with the kind of inflections laced within your tone that made Bucky shift uncomfortably in his stance. Your hands slipped up along his chest, lingering by his shoulders and you gripped onto the lapel. It was soaking wet.  

“You must be freezing,” you tried again, a little lighter this time, offering him a sweet smile. You must have noticed his apprehension because you softened a bit, letting your hands rest against his cheeks as you drew his attention to you. “It’s alright, Bucky. It’s just me.”

He searched your eyes as you gazed up at him and though he tried, he found no reason to turn you away. His heart was pounding in his chest, his right hand shaking a bit, but then, you leaned forward and captured his lips against your own, and suddenly, he was at ease again.

You kissed him and his right hand found its way to rest against your lower back, pressed flat against your spine; it clenched into the fabric, seeking more, and his fingertips brushed over a sliver of bare skin. He felt your hands slid down along his neck, to his collar, until they slipped under the fabric of his jacket against, resting on his shoulders. You were waiting for his permission.  

Then, as you pulled away from his lips for only a second, he nodded. Your lips returned to his almost instantly, and he wondered if maybe you were trying to distract him, or help to ease him as the fabric draped down off his shoulders. His heart was thunderous in his chest, louder than the press of rainfall against the windows outside, but there was a sense of calm in it, a nervousness certainly, but a comfort, too.  

He felt the weight of the jacket lift from his shoulders as you set it to hang over the chair. He felt instantly lighter, like you’d removed an anvil from his back, and he suspected it had less to do with the rain-soaked fabric than he cared to admit. He kept his eyes closed as your hands roamed along his shoulders, focusing on the feel of your lips as they traveled from the corner of his mouth along his jaw line.  

“Bucky?” you called so sweetly it nearly made his knees buckle.  

“Mmm?” He felt a little dizzy, high on the touch of your lips to his skin.  

He heard the soft ruffle of fabric as you grabbed the clean clothes you brought for him on the counter. Then, your hand slipped into his and he let his eyes flutter open. You were watching him with more affection than he was prepared for. His heart lurched forward, aching to jump right into your arms.

“Come this way.”  

He nodded, trailing behind you as you led him into your bedroom. The lighting was dim, barely casting in a soft orange glow from the lamp at your bedside. The clouds were still dark and heavy as they hung outside the windows, the rain obstructing the view of the brownstones across the street.  

“Here,” you set the clothes on the bed. “Get changed alright? I don’t want you catching a cold.”

You smiled for him and his heart just about burst. Then, you disappeared into the bathroom, closing the door behind you.  

Bucky stepped forward, running his hand over the Air Force logo in the top corner of the t-shirt. He picked up the shirt, and held it against his nose. It smelled like you, like maybe you’d been wearing it for years now, but there was a name written in sharpie on the inside tag. It was barely legible, but it didn’t look like your own. He tried not to think about who gave you this shirt and who wore it before him, and he quickly removed the damp one soaked to his skin in favor of the one you’d given him.  

He changed his pants, too, and a wash of relief came over his body as the chill faded from his skin. The clothes were warm, soft, and he raked his fingers through his hair, thankful it had dried enough to stop from dripping down onto the fabric.

“Hey,” you called, emerging from the bathroom. Your eyes paused on him for a moment, taking him in with the fresh clothes on and something unrecognizable flashed over your features – something that resembled sadness. You shook it off quickly, pushing out a smile as you walked toward him. “Better?”

“Yeah,” he admitted, pressing a kiss to your hairline as you wrapped your arms around his waist. “Thank you.”

You leaned up to kiss him again and he swore everything around him came to a sudden stop. You tugged him down onto the bed, sliding in behind him as you threw the covers over you. Bucky kept his back pressed to the mattress as you climbed over his waist, settling with just enough of your weight compressing against him that he found a relief in it.  

His right hand slipped along your waist line, sliding flat over bare skin, warm to the touch. You smiled against his lips and he found himself laughing as you peppered kisses along his cheekbones, his nose, his hairline, down along his jaw, and then finally – back to his lips again.

So lost in you, in the moment, he felt his left hand slid along the underside of your shirt, fabric brushing over the top of his hand as he touched over your ribs and inching closer to your chest. He stifled a moan as he cupped at your breast, swiping his thumb along the pebbled nipple. It wasn’t until he felt an echo of a muscle spasm at his left shoulder that he realized he wasn’t feeling anything at all.  

His eyes snapped open and he found his right hand at the base of your spine, your shirt untouched. Reluctantly he glanced down at his left side; the open sleeve of the t-shirt leaving no pretenses in its wake. He was empty there. A piece of him missing. He tried to swallow back the frustrated groan before it passed through his lips, but you heard it. You felt it, too.

“Bucky?” you questioned, concern littering your eyes as you pulled away. “Are you okay? Did I do something wrong?”

“What? No, of course not,” he replied quickly, brushing his hand along the side of your face until it drew a smile back to your lips. The way you were watching him, like maybe he could entrust you with the darkest parts of himself, if only for glimpse, and it pushed him to say more. “I just... I hate that I can’t hold you the way I want. There’s more that I would—” He groaned, head sinking back into the pillows. “I’m not used to... I don’t— I don’t know how to with only one... um...I haven’t— Not since before—”  

He bit down on the inside of his cheek, his ears flushing red. You seemed to understand what he was saying as you nodded ever so slightly; the fact that he’d barely learned how to manage his life again with only one arm – everything from washing his hair to getting dressed in the morning, to chopping vegetables and reading a book. He hadn’t even attempted to consider what it was like to be with a woman like this; to want to hold her and please her and touch as much of her as he could. It never crossed his mind before you.  

“I’m in no rush,” you said simply, like maybe you were implying you’d wait around long enough for him to figure it out. Or maybe, you’d be willing to help him learn again. You leaned in to press a chaste kiss to his lips. “It’s late. You’ll stay tonight, won’t you? I don’t want you out in that storm.”

Bucky nodded, feeling a little dizzy as he stared up at you. Backlit from the soft glow of the lamp illuminating around you like a halo, Bucky would have said yes to just about anything you could have asked of him. Relief pressed over your features and you sank down onto the bed beside him, curling up against his right side.  

Your arm draped across his waist as his circled around your shoulders, fingertips drawing patterns along your skin and leaving goosebumps in their wake. Then, you reached over him to turn off the lamp and a comfortable darkness blanketed the room, the only break from the silence the gentle tap of the rain against the windowpane.  

For the first night in months, he welcomed the kind embrace of a dreamless sleep.  

[tenchiforum]

Top 10 Worst Tenchi Muyo! Episodes in 2022 #30YearsofTenchi

Original post and results

It’s finally here! The top 10 worst episodes of Tenchi Muyo! as voted on by YOU, the fans. Here’s what you chose! 10. Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki: OVA5 EP3 – “Welcome to Tabletop Island”

Starting off the list is OVA5 episode 3 “Welcome to Tabletop Island”. Earlier in OVA5, the characters are told about Tabletop Island, a place that is essentially a tropical paradise that would be good for Kenshi’s development, because at this point the plot literally revolves around whether or not anything will affect Kenshi going to Geminar. This is where we are introduced to the characters from the Paradise War novels. You wouldn’t know this because they don’t properly introduce anyone and these characters are in a spin-off of a spin-off. Episode three is actually somewhat ambitious though, in that the characters actually move around instead of just sitting the entire episode. This results in one of the worst animations in the series in Tenchi “jumping” through the trees and not even connecting with them. As the episode goes on, Tenchi starts to remember that he has a large group of women around him, and has a moment with Ryoko on the beach at night. This is where the episode makes probably one of its worst mistakes. Ryoko starts reminiscing about events from OVA1, with the episode showing us the redrawn scene from OVA1 of her sitting around the fire and destruction of Jurai, reminding the viewer of when the main characters in Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki were actually the main characters and they actually did anything other than talk. To end it, Tenchi says he’s “envious of Seina“, and decides the harem is now.

9. Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki: OVA3 EP2 – “Fiancée”

The third OVA series of Tenchi Muyo! is often pointed to as the fall from grace for Tenchi as a franchise, and episode two of OVA3 is absolutely the prime example of why. Beginning from the cliffhanger of the first episode where Tenchi believes he sees his long-dead mother in the flesh—a plot point that has been the source of many poignant and moving moments throughout the franchise—OVA3 episode two decides to say just kidding, it’s actually his 80 year old sister who he (and everyone else) has never seen before. Her purpose? To introduce Tenchi’s fiancée of course! We’re then greeted to this green haired woman named Airi, who is also his grandmother because hey you surely must have watched GXP right? Within 30 seconds of being introduced to many for the first time, Airi singlehandedly lays out the fan favorite Ryoko, uncontested. His fiancée you ask? Noike Kamiki Jurai, Mihoshi’s “long-time partner”, who no one has ever seen before unless you, again, watched GXP—but lets be real, no one likes GXP—who then proceeds to spend the rest of the episode showing how she’s fit to be the “main” girl over the rest. If there exists a checklist on how not to introduce new characters and plot points to a well-established series, this episode checks off every single one of those boxes. Arguably the worst part of this episode is the pretension by which all of these new characters treat the older, established, beloved characters we all know and love. As Ryoko is acting predictably as Ryoko would (and should) to word of Tenchi having a fiancée out of nowhere, Tennyo says back coldly, “This was all decided long before either of you were in the picture.” As if to say nothing you can do will matter, that regardless of if you like it or not, this is how it is. A theme you’ll notice is unfortunately repeated ad nauseum and with greater intensity as the OVA continues.

8. Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki: OVA3 Special – “Final Confrontations”

Final Confrontations opens up with the world being reset, again, after a failed universal reset, and finally ties up the Misao Kuramitsu arc, not before, of course, giving Ryoko another beating. Then the episode gets to probably why it was voted onto this list and very easily makes it one of the worst episodes of Tenchi Muyo! period: the complete character assassination and retcon of Tenchi’s mother. The one thing that the Ryo-Ohki OVA had never done was go in-depth on why Tenchi’s mother had died. Up to this point, we knew Tenchi’s mother as a calm, sweet, gentle soul who would do anything for Tenchi. Well, as it turns out, this characterization was all a ruse! You see, actually, apparently, everyone but Tenchi knew that Kiyone Masaki was actually a lunatic, who loved to write “idiot” on people's heads when they would get hurt, and was generally a mean-spirited, horrible person. (more on that later) Oh, and those good ol’ memories Tenchi has? (ie. the one’s all the fans have) actually those can be attributed to either his newly-introduced 80 year old sister, Tennyo, OR his new “old” not actually yet stepmother, Rea. What really puts it over the top though, is when Tenchi runs off to Ryoko’s cave to get away from this lunacy. First, Rea shows up and gaslights Tenchi into thinking that his memories of Kiyone are wrong and he should face “reality”, then Noike comes over and basically says “Oh, you think that’s bad? I was an orphan because my parents left me because my mom sucks, that’s life huh?” and finishes it off with quote “I had a chance to see her for who she really was, and I guess that sometimes that’s all we’re gonna get, right?” Imagine, after 12 years of fantastic characterization in virtually every medium from every other creator previously, writing this line and expecting people to take it seriously.

Tied for 6 & 7. Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki: OVA5 EP6 – “The Max Level (?) Hero Departs”

One might think that surely, the last episode of OVA5 would be solely dedicated to the “main” characters of Tenchi Muyo! but at this point, who even are those characters, really? If you go by this OVA you would think it was the characters of the GXP and Paradise War novels, as well as the spin-off series, Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari, or as Funimation knew was the only way to sell it and have people care about it, Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar. One of the most talked about things by fans of the last three decades has been who Tenchi is going to have kids with, something Ryoko fans in particular have seen could be a possibility for a long time.

Well, she does, but it’s not this supersweet moment, it’s not the house coming together to help with the birth or hearing the first cries, Tenchi holding Ryoko and the baby. No, it’s an afterthought to Kenshi’s training montages. The same follows for Ayeka, and eventually even Ryo-Ohki, yes, Tenchi has sex with Ryo-Ohki.

Anyway, back to what matters, we finally hear from Tokimi that it’s time to send Kenshi to Geminar, and we do, with Nobuyuki and Ryo-Ohki crying and the music building up to the moment where Rea’s spell is broken and she’s “free”. Only for Washu to say, not only can they watch him, but if anything happens, they can just pull him back.

So then… Why all this build-up? Does anyone really believe that if they couldn’t save Geminar, that they would really let Rea die or have anything bad happen to her? Also, why are we focusing on Geminar so much in the first place? In a series where consequences no longer exist, what effect would letting Geminar’s society disintegrate have on Earth, or even our universe that is in another dimension? Naturally, the only thing that matters now, is that Kenshi has made it to Geminar, and OVA5 has fulfilled its purpose.

& Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki: OVA4 EP3 – “Oath and Wish”

The big day for Rea and Nobuyuki is finally here. Before we can get to that, we have to do more talking, in particular getting Rea inducted into the Masaki Village Counsel (yes apparently where they live is now called Masaki Village, yes this was only brought up anime-wise in OVA4). In this episode alone there are 42 unique characters on screen.

42.

Back in the day, OVA series were able to have a unique following outside of traditional ways of broadcasting by having bigger budgets per episode and more risqué content. In 2016 however, doing an OVA means that you have no budget and can’t get any sponsors. A point made abundantly clear by the two dozen nameless women sitting right next to each other with the same exact face. The most interesting thing that happens, and arguably the highlight of OVA4, is finding out that Rea, Tenchi’s new unassuming stepmother is actually an artificial human from another dimension… And that she was sent from her world to ours without her knowledge because of a rampaging mechanoid named Gaia that was going to destroy the Final Fantasy-like prior civilization that was Geminar. She is found by Kiyone Masaki after isekai-ing, and that’s her connection to Tenchi, Nobuyuki, and Kiyone, and the reason why Kenshi goes to Geminar.

Everything I just wrote, sadly, is infinitely more efficient and interesting than how it plays out on screen, with most of that being done as, you guessed it, exposition between Azusa, Seto, and Washu.

5. Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki: OVA4 EP4 – “Good Days, Departure”

The last episode of OVA4 starts off with Kenshi being born and a very quick montage of him as a child before a very jarring time skip to a few years later. This episode in particular is 29 minutes long, and 25 minutes of it is just sitting and talking about Kenshi and whether to send him to Geminar. Literally, that’s it. You switch back and forth between only two scenes of characters sitting and talking, 15 women in one and 6 men in the other.

One person on crunchyroll referred to it as quote “‘Sitting and Talking’ the anime” and that is exactly what it is. The pacing is abysmally slow and uninteresting, which is actually a feat when OVA4 manages to do this for three episodes already. It is mind-numbing to such a degree that OVA4 episode four might be the only anime episode to make fanservice and anime food look boring just by association and proximity. There’s a golden rule called “Show, don’t tell“, often attributed to Anton Chekhov, where the writer should show the reader or viewer the scene instead of describing it in words.

OVA4 and this episode in particular are the literal opposite of that.

4. Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki: OVA5 EP1 – “Step Mother, Step Sister, Inheritance, and…”

One would think, seeing six brand new episodes coming out for a series would be a good thing, but in the case of OVA5, episode one wastes no time at claiming its rightful spot among the worst of the worst ever. For some reason, two whole years after OVA4 (production wise) and almost 15 years after OVA3, the Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki OVA continues to find ways to want to desecrate Kiyone Masaki. In what ways you ask? The first 10 minutes of OVA5 are solely dedicated to it as a matter of fact. Rea and Tennyo (who now has dark grey hair, because why not) sit down and talk (or more accurately, Tennyo complains) about how much of a burden her mother was to everyone. How Kiyone Masaki is now a scatterbrained genius hoarder who stole things from the academy for her research. But we have to make sure that Rea’s character gets fluffed up too, so Rea says that she should have gotten an aide. To which Tennyo exclaimed that they called Nobuyuki a quote, “god, a saint, and the ultimate masochist” at the Galaxy Academy for marrying Kiyone. She treated him so badly, in fact, that the human rights commission conducted an investigation into his well-being.

I’m gonna repeat that one more time: a human rights commission conducted an investigation into Nobuyuki’s well-being because of how badly Kiyone treated him. To which Rea and Tennyo thank each other for not being that.

Speaking of bad, this episode has some of the most god-awful art in the entirety of Tenchi. The screenshot above is also not in-between shots from the show, that's a keyframe. That's on screen for more than a second.

And before we get off the subject of Kiyone, because the show literally won’t let us now, we find out what her whole purpose was with her research in the first place. After hearing via Nobuyuki’s journals that Kiyone inflicted quote “psychological terror” in their relationship, we hear that the plan “all along” (now from Tennyo via the journals but also from everyone in OVA4) was to send Kenshi back to Geminar, but then Tenchi was born and got in the way of that and Kiyone died.

Tenchi being born got in the way of the main plot. Kajishima Good Hank‘d Tenchi Masaki in a show named after him.

This is bad fan fiction. This would give even the worst Ken Penders comic a run for its money.

3. Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki: OVA4 EP2 – “The Masaki Destiny”

Continuing from where episode one left off, episode two of OVA4 does more of the same, talking about Rea’s wedding. The first 10 minutes are dedicated to characters from GXP and Rea talking about the upcoming wedding and sending Seina’s friend off. That’s one of the other huge problems with OVA4 and 5 and is a cardinal sin in storytelling, they don’t make any attempt to even tell you who some of these characters are. If you have only watched the Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki OVA and are a casual fan, or heck even if you’ve watched all of the Kajishima anime, you’re still flying blind. OVA3 at least made the attempt at explaining who a new character was and their association to the OVA from another series, but here? You’re out of luck. There’s also more changing of backstories to minor characters who are now more important. Tenchi’s aunt from the first episode of OVA2? She’s actually the sister of the old woman who runs the onsen from the earlier OVA, but if you blink you’ll miss it because she refers to her by name (which you wouldn’t know just by watching the OVA) as sister, once.

There’s also the continued degradation of Kiyone Masaki, still, 10 years after OVA3 came out, with instances like Yosho telling Nobuyuki he’s become meaner, probably by being close to Kiyone. The rest of the episode is dedicated to Tenchi’s space aunt from the first episode of OVA4 getting close to Tenchi and taking a bath with him and doing totally normal things an aunt would do. Daughter of Darkness made you wince and recoil at the incest, but OVA4 celebrates it. When Tenchi’s aunt announces that they’re going to take a bath, Ryoko and Ayeka question it. Bear in mind this episode takes place at the same time as OVA3, where just the mention of another girl with Tenchi would send Ryoko off the wall. Now? Ryoko just goes “Oh, I guess that’s how it is.” and goes back to just doing nothing.

Whatever this show is now, it is Tenchi Muyo! in name only.

2. Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki: OVA5 EP5 – “I am sure you have your opinion on the matter, but please consider the matter closed”

Episode 5 starts off with another time-skip and yet more exposition about how Kenshi is doing. Shocker, I know at this point. In particular, Minaho (that’s Tenchi’s space aunt who says she looks just like his mother but doesn’t look like her at all) laments about how Kenshi is being groomed to Seto’s liking, (even though everyone agreed at the end of OVA4 to do this) she is “trying” to change the direction of it, but is too powerless to change it. Remember kids, if things in life aren’t going your way, never try and change things and just suffer, because I am sure you have your opinion on the matter, but please consider the matter closed.

The episode ends with Tenchi finally getting around to making the harem ending “official”. Where despite the fact that Azusa says this will more than likely cause conflict, screw it, it’s happening. That’s one of the worst aspects of this show, is the answer to every question is “that’s just how it is.” Which, in turn, just makes the entire thing look like a contrived charade. Why does no one ever go against the grain? All this does is make you want to root against the “main” characters, not for them. Every single instance of a character showing even an inkling of controversial thinking or conflict, internal or external, is immediately hand-waived away as a non-issue and never comes up again. Everything is in service to getting Kenshi to Geminar and Seina and Tenchi settling down.

Oh, and according to Tenchi the catalyst for him getting married now is because of quote “hearing about Seina-kun’s wedding plans.”

To quote AnimatedEmpress on this episode, “The animators, the subtitlers, everyone is honestly tired of this OVA and Kajishima’s bullshit at this point.

1. Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki OVA4 EP1 – “The Day Before the Party”

Episode 1 of OVA4 being number one on the list is fitting for a number of reasons, even though there are somehow demonstrably worse episodes that follow it. That reason could be because OVA4 represents the ultimate line being crossed in the minds of fans that can never be crossed back over, the effects of a collective Baader–Meinhof phenomenon finally playing out to its conclusion. Yet another badly animated, stilted, soulless pastiche of the Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki OVA can no longer be seen as a fluke, it was intended. This is the world of Masaki Kajishima laid bare for all to see completely unrestrained, unhinged, and unencumbered by any other human input, and devoid of any excuse for its shortcomings one could muster from any previous tired mental gymnastics session with the Ryo-Ohki OVA. That ugly but inconvenient truth plays out here, committing multiple egregious sins in storytelling, the most important of which is that it is painfully boring when it doesn’t have to be, purely because Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki is no longer made for millions of fans around the world, it is made in spite of them, and explicitly for an audience of one.

[junicai]

Relationship with Stray Kids

➣ CHAN ☾ dachan

daeun is chan’s baby and the fact that she’s only two years younger than him changes nothing 

really really dependent on his approval. especially on mixing during the first few songs for skz 

skz has a completely different sound to what daeun was used to, and changing her production style to mirror that was a challenge

there are a lot of clips in the first few episodes of the survival show of daeun sidling up to chan with a notebook in her hand

and them sitting beside each other on the sofa while they worked

you can find dozens of ‘Bang Chan doing the Proud Dad smile because Daeun existed’ videos on youtube

its a very common occurrence 

hence why daeun hates hates hates being told off by him 

its never anything serious 

but she always feels so guilty afterwards, and then she’ll cry and then chan feels guilty

and it’s a whole guilt-fest 

so daeun usually tries to avoid having to be told off

now that doesn’t stop her from telling him off

can and will drag him out by the ear if he stays in his studio for too long

that’s a lie

she’ll just stand in the doorway and pout until he saves his work down and leaves 

works every time

sorry but this man loves to pick her up? 

its a problem 

girl isn’t even hurt or tired just piggybacks 

always 

he said he likes to carry her because he knows that she dances in heels for so long so her feet must hurt more than theirs does

YEAH-

FAN FAVOURITE MOMENT.

chan walks at the end of the group, we all know this. but the one time he wasn’t, was when daeun was the second last getting out of the van, and had to dip back in to snag the bag she had left behind. already three strides into the building, 

chan - upon realizing that he had seven heads in  front of him, and not eight - spun around in a circle, eyes wide and shoulders pushed back as he tried to peer over the crowds. when he spotted daeun, he took her bag from her hand, snagging her hand in his other one, and refused to let go of her until they made it safely into the venue.  

➣ MINHO ☾ mieun

actually attached at the hip?

genuinely

like, no one was going to peg the very intimidating and sullen looking-fellow with the bubbly bitch with pink in her hair and yet: 

✨besties✨ 

it’s comical 

minho’s dry humor perfectly balances with daeun’s unique blend of absolute buffoonery

 they have a lil tradition before they go onstage of exchanging bracelets

yes, they have matching bracelets

it was minho’s idea and yes, stays freaked out

it’s like a little, ‘see you on the other side’ thing

because lord knows daeun spent hours upon hours running herself ragged in practices until all hours of the night 

and minho Wasn’t Having It

so the bracelets are a little. U Got This. from him

really doesn’t like it when she cries 

to the point where he’ll do absolutely anything to get her to stop crying

it was then, that daeun discovered that minho gives god tier hugs 

God. Tier. 

minho and daeun cuddling when they’re drunk? more likely than you’d think 

they’re hilarious together, and probably one of stays most preferred ships with daeun and any of the boys 

the twt threadfics here are Legendary

the most popular one is a coffee shop au - where daeun is a struggling literature grad, and minho is a long-suffering night shift worker

absolutely does not tolerate any kind of hate towards daeun - verbal or otherwise. he blew a fuse the first time she trended for sexy pictures someone had taken of her at a fansign 

daeun had to tell him it was fine twelve times before he calmed down

FAN FAVOURITE MOMENT.

daeun pulled down her skirt again for the nth time, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. she had her ankles tucked behind the leg of the chair and her hands folded over her lap to try and prevent anyone getting a glimpse up further into her skirt than was strictly necessary, but was - ultimately - doing a poor job of protecting her modesty. 

leaning over, minho took a glance at daeun shifting uncomfortably in her seat again, and shucked off his jacket - leaving him in a thin t-shirt in the cold breeze. before daeun could protest, he had laid the jacket over her legs, tucking it in and then sliding his hand in between hers and holding it tightly over his own lap. 

➣ CHANGBIN ☾ dabin

same age siblings !

both being in the ‘99 line, and with daeun originally training to be a main rapper than a vocalist

they were pretty comfortable around each other having spent so long training in each other’s presence

in fact

they even performed a duet together for one of the monthly evaluations

that was when they really became friends so to speak 

daeun fell asleep during one of their rehearsals on the floor of the studio

and changbin couldn’t just, leave her

so he ended up staying with her the whole night

was she embarrassed in the morning? yeah. and then changbin told her off for not prioritizing sleep more, and then she was more embarrassed.

now in the group, their dynamic settled into something extremely comfortable

when daeun was first introduced to the boys as a team, changbin was the only one she was completely comfortable rooming with 

his studio? nah, their studio 

did daeun sit in on a lot of the 3RACHA work prior to debut? yes, solely because she wanted the experience, and changbin said she could stay

it is actually his studio, but there’s a small collection (read: four) of soft pillows in the corner of the room for daeun to sit on as they work

according to her, she works better on the floor

changbin can’t find it in him to refute the argument, so he always ends up down there with her, with sheets sprawled over the carpet

when he started working out, he started taking daeun to the gym

swole buddies 

except daeun wasn’t allowed to build muscle and just had to run on the treadmill the whole time and changbin wasn’t made about that. he wasn’t.

FAN FAVOURITE MOMENT.

changbin and daeun being the mafia when playing with skz and neither of them being able to look at each other without laughing. every time they’d make eye contact, daeun’s lips would twitch up, and changbin would have to turn away to cough into his arm lest he give himself away. 

ultimately, they lost - much to the chagrin of the pair, who wailed at their loss and proceeded to drink their sorrows away with the coca cola that they were sponsored for. 

product placement at it’s finest, even if it was a metaphor for alcoholism. 

➣ HYUNJIN ☾ dajin

lil beans

babies

awh

not at the start but now, yes.

he was wary around her, at first because hyunjin knows he’s attractive and the Last Thing He Wants is a groupmate that has a crush on him

so he was a bit, cold and aloof with daeun at the beginning of the survival show

he didn’t want to give her the wrong impression !

but then 

then 

daeun apologized to him in her video message after her elimination for ‘upsetting him, and making him feel like he couldn’t be comfortable around her’ and dear god

hyunjin’s heart = broken. destroyed. shattered into pieces. 

he still feels Very Guilty about this sometimes because he knows that his attitude towards her played a huge part in her feeling alienated and not like she belonged in the group

daeun tells him it doesn’t bother her but he knows

they talked through it though

good communication besties 

A+

he doesn’t call her noona though

he did, once upon a time, but then daeun felt weird because realistically, there’s only four months between them and that’s not enough to make her any more of a noona to him than he is a hyung to jisung and felix? 

they have a little rountine now, when either of them are upset

they pack up all the emotions for a little bit

into a little box

get out a laptop (doesn’t matter whos)

and just cuddle, with some blankets, and a terrible show or movie that they’re not really watching until the person is ok to talk 

arguably the most healthy friendship you will ever find

therapists around the country are giving standing ovations 

FAN FAVOURITE MOMENT. 

felix padded into hyunjin’s room to shake the boy awake, before catching sight of an already-awake daeun wrapped in his arms.

“noona?”

“help-” she gasped out, patting frantically at hyunjin’s arm that was firmly wrapped around her middle. “he won’t let go. it’s been an hour.” 

felix bit his lip, trying to stifle the laugh that was threatening to burst out. “i don’t know, you look pretty comfortable.” he began backing out the door.

“felix. lee felix. lee felix you come back here!” the harsh whisper-shouts echoed down the hallway after the giggling boy. 

➣ JISUNG ☾ jidae

partners in crime

probably have committed some crime together at some point but there’s no proof so chan can’t yell at them for it

they met when daeun first sat in on the 3RACHA meetings 

did someone say: soulmates 

changbin is convinced that the angel choir played when they first locked eyes

like this

jisung kicked the angel off of daeun’s shoulder and now it’s just him and the devil racking up reverse-brownie points in daeun’s conscience 

he’s been a wonderful influence, truly

to be fair though, daeun did attempt to convince him to stop eating ramen every day (to a varying degree of success)

to no degree of success actually. she just takes him out of the dorm to eat it now, but chan doesn’t need to know that bit

daeun? did you mean: jisung’s pillow?

anywhere, any place - he just flops down onto her

many head pats

they are both givers and receivers 

no words spoken only HEAD PATS 

the comfort is exchanged through osmosis

jisung is wholeheartedly against her ever getting a boyfriend 

Absolutely Not. she is theirs, and he will glare at anyone else who dares to Look At Her

nap buddies 

they get a combined total of negative six hours of sleep per week so they always end up napping together 

it’s very cute

FAN FAVOURITE MOMENT. 

less of a ‘moment’ and more of a series of events that STAY found hilarious?

we all know han jisung’s iconic converse. they’re legendary. unofficial skz merch. 

right well, daeun was seen wearing them out and around a few times by fansites, and one of them asked had she bought her own pair after seeing jisung’s at a fansign.

daeun laughed and said no, they were almost the same size in shoe so she just borrowed his. 

daeun stole jisung’s shoes. 

➣ FELIX ☾ daelix

stop they love each other so much 

felix said once in a vlive that he finds daeun really comforting to be around because she’s so calm 

‘calm’ 

he had a lot of anxiety about debuting because of what jyp said to him upon his elimination *angry noises*

so daeun tried her best to alleviate as much of his worries as possible

even if that meant sacrificing her own sleep to sit with him in the kitchen and talk things out

sorry i’d like to revisit the point that They Love Each Other Very Much 

felix says that he was worried about leaving his sisters behind, so having another noona was really comforting to him 

daeun absolutely has an australian accent when she speaks english now and it is completely felix’s fault 

he’d actively correct her pronunciation to make her sound more australian because he thinks the accent is so cute on her  

aggressively cute together 

you will get a toothache if you watch them for too long 

someone stop them they’re so adorable 

he likes to give out random compliments to see how red he can make her face go before she whacks him to get him to stop 

the results conclude: a pretty nice cherry-cheeked colour

felix really lives up to his koala nickname when he’s around daeun

will latch on and will not let go until he has to 

you thought chan loved felix? now see: chan watching daeun and felix 

pain

its so painful he just smiles like everything is right with the world and it IS because felix and daeun are there and aaaaaAAAA-

FAN FAVOURITE MOMENT.

a sad moment, but one that features in every compilation of daelix’s interactions anyway. when daeun’s name was called for her elimination, she closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath and schooling her face into something impassive. the boys were all staring at her with devastated looks on their faces, but nothing was matching the look that felix was giving her from his position right by her side. 

he choked out her name, stumbling forwards into her arms as she caught him and wrapped him in a hug. felix apologized profusely for being the one in need of comfort, while daeun just ran a hand over his hair and told him it was alright, she was alright. 

➣ SEUNGMIN ☾ daseung

protector of daeun’s sanity

she has One (1) well behaved dongsaeng and its kim seungmin

it’s not that he’s less likely to act out than the others, really. it’s that he’s the least likely to die while doing it, so that = most well behaved, in daeun’s books 

daeun likes to squish his cheeks

no reason

other than, soft cheeks go squish and seungmin lets her so why would she forsake this golden opportunity

now if he wants to sit on the couch beside her he has to resign himself to cheek-smooshing 

also cheek kisses, rarely. usually when daeun’s intoxicated.

the boys had figured that both of their personalities together would just merge and create an even more chill environment

calm²

but NO

pemdas

it cancelled out

they’re not Chaotic but they’re certainly not Calm 

it’s a unique vibe that can only be described by this -> link

sorry

scholars but minus the education 

profound visionaries but they’re blind, type beat 

have the combined brainpower of the librarian gary from that one spongebob episode but they choose not to utilize it for the memes 

in all seriousness though, they’re very comfortable around each other 

seungmin struggled a lot with confidence during their debut months, and daeun was the only person who really knew the full extent of it all 

there was a Hefty Amount of nighttime talks on daeun’s bed under blankets stolen from the living room 

FAN FAVOURITE MOMENT. 

seungmin can sing, we all know that. but stray kids’ style rarely allows for full ballad songs on an album, so seungmin being given the opportunity to perform ‘Love Poem’ on Kingdom was truly a blessing in disguise. (the disguise being daeun’s re-occuring vocal nodules that left her unable to perform). 

after the performance, seungmin had barely taken a foot off the stage before he was being tackled by a teary-eyed daeun, who immediately buried her face into his shoulder to stop the cameras getting a good look at her crying. 

“n-noona?” 

“you can sing.” 

“yeah?”

“you sing so beautifully, minnie, oh my god.” 

➣ JEONGIN ☾ jeondae

the first thing you have to realize about daeun and jeongin’s relationship is that both of them can be the Biggest Babies in the world 

now with that out of the way

jeongin ADORES daeun 

im sorry did someone say ‘noona who wholeheartedly finds it impossible to say no to him’?

i think they did

he doesn’t take advantage of it, persay

but he Does and Will use it to others detriment - especially during games

“jeongin! you told me you weren’t the mafia! i believed you! this is a betrayal!”

she’s so so smitten with him and everything he does 

it is virtually impossible for her to be mad at him 

he just gets a little scowl and then a soft flick on his ear at the PEAK of scolding 

is the world’s worst enabler for All His Bad Ideas 

often complains that he’s growing up too fast and it isn’t fair that he’s taller than her now 

which he’ll then respond to by resting his elbow on her head and leaning on her, so. it never goes down very well 

daeun checks his micpack for him before every stage

every. stage. 

daeun is the only person who is allowed to coddle him as much as she does 

hyunjin is Bitter and daeun is Smug 

jeongin needs help with schoolwork? daeun would do it for him if she had been any good at school either, but alas 

 FAN FAVOURITE MOMENT. 

chan stepped into the kitchen, camera in hand. 

“what are you doing?” 

daeun and jeongin shove his backpack off the table, the coloured permanent markers rolling off immediately after, two black ones uncapped in their hands. 

“NOTHING” 

chan looked pointedly at them, and then to the backpack that had slid underneath the table. there, written all over the straps and the front pocket were small drawings, ranging from dinosours to the words (written in very terrible handwriting, so he couldn’t be sure which one of them wrote it): “skool suks!”

chan looked over to the pair. they scrambled off the chairs, abandoning the evidence in their break for safety.