#seriously tho NAFF NAFF

[crow-n-tell]

I read the newest chapter of Cryptid Sightings, and @naffeclipse I SWEAR ON MY LIFE. The minute I read them say those lines I thought of that scene with the rake but IT FELT DIFFERENT. IT DUNKED MY BRAIN IN THE INSPIRATION POOL so I drew the thing

And if ya wanna see it a little better I have some lighter ones under the cut :)

Also just a lil doodle cause I changed they look

Eclipse looks a lil… dare I say whorish??? Or maybe maniacal. I have a hard time separating those two

[absolutebl]

10 Best BL Shows with the Hottest Sexitimes

Because this is English and word order matters, this title means the show itself has to be good AS WELL AS the scenes high heat, as opposed to the best sex scenes in BL. The two are not necessarily the same list. Anyway I tried to pick both high heat and a fun show. This was hard (pun intended).

FYI expect triggers with your high heat.

(Oh right. For me to get a 3/3 heat rating the BL has simulated sex in it or very close to it. And usually one or more other sexual acts like bjs, a-ply, etc...)

So, I went to the spreadsheet, and sorted it by high heat and then ranking, and here is what I got. I think #1 will surprise you. What will not surprise you is it's mostly Thai and Taiwanese.

10. TharnType (and follow ups)

Thai 2019 Viki

Should it still rank, all these years later? I am sorry to say, yes it should. University setting, great acting and complex characters, interesting friendship groups, enemies to lovers, seriously angsty coming out, high production values, AMAZING chemistry, multiple BL side couples with all the issues, damaging queer rep, strong seme/uke and husband/wife language, classic tropes and lots of them bad.

But it's famous for a reason.

This was KinnPorsche before KinnPorsche.

9. Addicted: Heroin

China 2016 Viki

When Chinese BL was good it was very dirty good and when it was bad it was censored. This is the model for that statement: rich kid falls madly for the genius poor kid in his class, starts an aggressive pursuit, includes kidnapping for love, obsession, stepbrother trope, plus some cheating. I love this BL because of what I could have been.

Just stop watching it after The Sex Scene. Okay?

8. Love Stage!!

Thai 2022 YouTube

This BL surprised me with its charm. The acting was good, the leads were appealing, support cast on point, and the production values high. It followed the original manga story arc relatively closely: boy falls in love with girl as a child, grows up to discover girl is actually a very pretty boy.

Although there are some quintessentially Thai changes that mellowed, softened, and extended the romance arc and heat levels.

7. HIStory 4: Close to You

Taiwan 2021 Viki

Nancy Chen directs, the side dish plot is basically a pastiche of problematic BL tropes inherited from the above. Great chemistry, high heat, stepbrothers, dubcon, obsession, stalker etc…

They sexy tho.

6. My Day

Pinoy 2020 YouTube

The set up on this one is enemies (also boss/employee) and they don’t like each other to start. But that gets resolved pretty quickly. And then they are some of the cutest, hottest, and best boyfriends ever.

This is an under-appreciated BL, IMHO.

5. Cutie Pie

Thai 2022 YouTube

Very high production (and heat) and a lot of visual references to live action yaoi gave this show a whiff of Japan but ultimately it stayed firmly in Thailand’s BL camp veering from absurd to appealing to annoying and then back to absurd again. If you can roll with the arranged marriage conceit and very lifestyle D/s relationships, the chemistry is spot on even if the plot is naff and driven by miscommunication.

Watch this one for the pretty, give it a pass on depth. (It has depth, it just depth of tongue kisses.)

Also the follow up: Naughty Babe

4. Bed Friend

Thai 2023 YouTube but for high heat you'll net to watch on iQIYI

Office frienamies transition a flaming hot one night stand into a f-buddy relationship that is built on a puppy/cat dynamic (and kinks into it at one point). Our puppy is loyal, smitten, and protective with endlessly longing eyes, while our cat is snarky, prickly, and deeply damaged (ALL THE TRIGGERS).

NetJames give lovely high-heat with excellent chemistry and tuned-in performances of surprising depth, unfortunately the story ultimately failed them. Had the show had the strength of its convictions and kept to a tighter, darker, harsher 8 eps it would have been the first high heat to earn a 10/10 from me, but once they fussed with it, it dropped to a solid 8/10. Could have been great but was overworked.

Still if high heat is your thing, this one will not let you down.

3. HIStory 3: Trapped

Taiwan 2019 Viki

Basically the definition of enemies to lovers from Lin Pei Yu. This is a cop + the mafia man he is chasing but WAIT, they fall in love. Added bonus side couple: assassin and nerd cop ALSO falling in love. It’s great. All the leads are stellar. Its high heat, fun action, and a bit of a mystery drama but pretty about all of it.

My only warning is that the main couple doesn’t entirely end up together, it’s implied, but… amorphous ending.

2. Why R U?

Thai 2020 Viki

No one knows what’s going on, not even the characters, but absolutely no one cares 'cause it's so thirsty. The plot seems to be "great chemistry and make sure Zee's shirts are NEVER BUTTONED PROPERLY." We, the collective, have a pro Hawaiian shirt anti-button stance, so rah rah rah! (Still the most confusing thing about this show is: why they didn't just title it YRU?)

The FighterTuror sex scenes still stand as some of the best ever fielded in a Thai BL. I will not be entertaining opposition on this matter.

1. Be Loved In House: I Do

Taiwan 2021 Viki

A cute classy office set BL with a few plot raised eyebrows, but no other concerns. ALL THE TROPES plus a general sweet softness that’s pretty rare from Taiwan, who usually prefer to go hard, but all their signature domesticity.

There is one high heat sex scene and it's great. But it's the whole package of classic sappy Taiwanese BL that puts this at the very top for me.

Generally just v high heat?

Hottest sex scenes in BL is frankly gonna be largely a matter of your personal taste.

But if the ones mentioned above don't work try:

KinnPorsche

Love in the Air

Big Dragon

HIStory 3; MODC (the BL that shall not be named)

Be Mine Super Star

Manner of Death (and anything else with MaxTul)

Oh My Sunshine Night (sides)

Secret Crush on You

Wedding Plan

Most dark JBL has very good high heat, but... ya know.

For @samara44 by request.

Dated Nov 2023, not responsible for amazing high head that came after.

(source)

[tumblunni]

Holy shit man i went in this "american restaurant" and had the WILDEST time! Britain is so fuckin weeaboo for america and ive seen how you guys treat "british" characters in sitcoms so i know youre just the same with us lol. Fake american accents vs fake british accents, who's the biggest cringe? XD

But this restaurant was ABSOLUTELY THE CRINGE WINNER

Like it was trying to be an 'american diner' but it seemed to only know what one looked like from friggin Grease 2 or something. (I wouldnt even give it the honor of the first one...) It was just old 50s stuff, as if thats what america is still like?? And playing elvis 24/7 and had a giant wax statue of elvis at the door. And also a giant fake 50s car crashed thru the wall decoration. Like man thats THE MOST cliche "american" thing, you see it goddamn everywhere and its the most ridiculous thing to become a cliche. That and the fake buffalo skull of texasness. Oh and a fake jukebox but An American One aka A 50s One seriously why not just call it the 50s shop?? Half of this stufd was the same in 50s britain and half of it you never even really had in 50s america outside of the movies.

And then HOLY SHIT the cheesy fries

THE CHEESY FRIES

What i expected: fries. Most likely with that stringy cheese sauce stuff from movie america diners. (Since over here "cheesy" usually just means literal grated cheese on top)

What did i get?

Well first the literal grated cheese on top and then THE BRITISHEST CHIPS EVER

Not fries by any stretch of the imagination! Whopping chunky thumb sized potato chunks straight out of a corner shop takeaway in any damn city across this island.

So i just bought.. A chippy meal. They literally just gave american names to all the same shit you get in a regular restaurant for cheaper.

Wow dude...

Man at least the other terrible 50s themed "american" diner down the bay with THE CRASHED CAR DECORATION AGAIN sold actual american food, lol

Only thing american was the portions being huge! Like i guess i can understand it being dpuble the price when its literally two regular takeaways shoved together in a bucket. But i could only eat like 1/3rd of it so it was a huge waste of money.

Fun for the experience though! And havibg a laugh at how naff it was! Also like just the fun of eating stuff out of cliche old diner cups and plates, even if i coulda just bought those online or somethin. I mean they were plastic replicas!

...i kinda wanna go back just to try wtf a "coke float" is like tho. I would never actually know if they did it right or not cos i have no frame of reference XD

[whifferdills]

"The Lie of the Land" quick takes

geddit the title's a pun, geddit???

i've seen a lot of complaints that this episode shoves 10 pounds of story into a 5 pound bag, and i agree, but also: when is modern DW not doing that? it loves doing that. it's a short story, not a novel, it's saying 'ok so here's the characters, here's the world, got it? let's go' and focuses on what story that setup is being used to tell. it's not perfect, i could nitpick, but i do wonder how much of the critique is coming from people who somehow still expect DW to operate on the same narrative mechanics of the 5-novel YA series. Or if my willingness to forgive the rapid world-building and skipping-over of things is down to most of my experience w/ SF being with short stories

not big on that grey-blue grading that is de rigueur for post-apocalyptic stories, but both 12 and Bill look real good in a grimy bleak dystopian sort of way so i'll give it a pass

seriously tho. like. unf.

the voiceover kiiiinda feels like we're not being trusted to follow along - it's not a complicated story, and you could deliver the exposition much better with a montage. it doesn't really work for me. i do like how it's framed as Bill talking to (the idea of) her mom, and it gets less naff the closer we get to Bill And Her Mom Save The Day, but it's just...eh.

i completely adore Bill and Nardole as buddies

tho i'm waffling between 'she shoulda fuckin punched 12' after the reveal and wondering if her reaction is down to what we've seen before abt Bill, that she does kind of just...want to be in on the joke. tonally it felt off but i think you could save it with a nice bit of meta or a post-ep fic where she totally rails on 12.

MISSY

oh god Missy

lying on a piano

i also add 'and a pony' whenever someone's like 'ayo what you need'. usually i am picturing a Shetland pony, those are the best

idk what it is but it does really feel like Dr Who and Missy have been here, doing this, for decades. the relationship feels lived-in

one armchair facing the inner cell, presumably for the Dr to, uh. THREE chairs at the little table. sorry, Nardole, that's a hell of a third-wheel situation, bald egg-shaped man

Nardole canonically knits

2017 the world is saved by the image of a black woman with an afro, smiling. i like this, this feels good

i am uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Into the Dr being fucked up, then tied up, then yelling in sheer desperation it uh. yeh.

guess the Monks weren't Cybermen after all. or am i?

that last scene - and the bit that establishes that the Dr can enter the diorama prison ok ok that was hot ok - where they're just. there? very close? domestically??? 12 is reading a comic book or w/e and Missy is theatrically crying - or maybe it's genuine and that's a harder offensive move? leveraging real emotion as a tactical thing? idk but jeeeeeze the two of them

Twissy shippers start your engines

i’d put this as way behind “Extremis”, slightly ahead of “Pyramid” in this trilogy’s rankings. it’s flawed but it gets a lot more right than “Pyramid”, imo

NEXT TIME ON: i don't really give a heck about the Ice Warriors and i'm not sure why they're brought back outside the context of Mark Gatiss' nostalgia boner but i guess that’s a thing that’s about to happen

[tumblunni]

OH FUCK U GUYS SHOULD I BUY ALL THE KINDGOM HEARTS IN A ONCENESS???

Holy jesus i knew they did hd ps4 ports of the playstation games but they ALSO added all the final mix content that engkishspeaking fans never got during my childhood? And they ALSO remade chain of memories entireky in 3d with Very Animated Ice Dad?? And they ALSO remade BBS despite it not needing it nearly as much as the old games and thet ALSO remade friggin dream drop distance which came out on a goddamn current gen console?? Like they seriously just made a non portable version?? Now all the spinoffs are on the same console at last?? Why did you not just do this in the first place?? I mean the psp and 3ds games were basically ps2 equivelant graphics and disc space anyway...

Oh and fuckin ALLLLSOOOOO

Also the final mixes of all of those! Also a movie version of the plot of khux! And also Coded and Days, which is a really big shame cos Coded is indeed sparse enough on content to deserve it but Days was my FAVOURITE GAME and it sucks its the only one that didnt get remade! I mean its in the same spinoff category as bbs and com, its not a cheapo mess like coded. Nothing else in the series deserves to be shoved in the Coded bin, even khux at least has better plot even if the backtracking and lootbox shit makes it harder to get to it...

Anyway ALSO a random new sidestory with Aqua going thru like one dungeon or somethin?? I dunno?? Its like a glorified tech demo for kh3, its just 'hey fuckin look what we can do visually on a proper ps4 game' and wow how have i never fuckin heard of this it looks so pretty!! I mean i dont know if its even more than 5 hours or somethin but.. Pretty!! And apparantly you get unlockable costumes for her or somethin? I hope they keep that feature in kh3! Itd rock if it wasnt just the main character too, and we could dress up riku and kairi and goofy and donald and roxas and axel and every the friends :3 new secret to how they defeat xehanort: slap a bow on his damn head

ALSO ALSO

All of this is available in one big bundle pack for £90 which ALSO contains literally kh3. THIS IS HOW THEYRE HANDLING PREORDERS?? THATS SUCH A GOOD WAY TO HANDLE PREORDERS!! Get a discounted price on this new game but while youre waiting for it you get to enjoy an (also discounted) giant fuckin 300 hours memory lane compilation of every damn thing from the last 15 years in one beautiful updated package. Holy fuck its like they made this for ME SPECIFICALLY!this is the perfect way to get people back into the franchise who dropped off in The Great KH3 Wait cos they couldnt afford all the damn million portables needed to gather that Dank Lore. God fuckin hell it cost more than the price of this bundle just to play any one of those games individually on some stupid retro machine i bought exclusively for that one damn game. THAT PSP STILL ROTS IN MY KITCHEN CUPBOARD YO

So

So so so so so

Guys

Please give me permission to buy this

Or like please convince me not to waste my money if you think i'd waste my money??

I really just DONT KNOW! ive been out of the fandom for so long and my last experience was really hatting BBS and feeling horribly out of place as everyone else raved about it being the best thing ever. And i know NOTHING about what kh3 is gonna be or whether its even possible for me to get back into the fandom and like.. Care about it at all again. I just got fuckin fatigued with it and my teenage years were like me clinging on to the edge of a cliff by my fingernails begging everyone to believe me that Its Still Good, Honestly, Its Worth It while square enix is up there all LONG LIVE THE KING and they push me off. Into a stampede of PSPs. Somehow.

And then aaargh i know i literally only came back to the fandom because organization xiii fuckin eternally holds my heart in their lil grabby hands. It was indeed a good nostalgic moment remembering how i loved them! And getting a new appreciation for Vexen and being blown away by how much he should have been my favourite but i just never got to play COM as a kid and then when i played it as an adult all the way after bbs i ended up quitting before even getting to meet half the org cos this one stupid 'defeat 99 shadows jn 99 seconds' mission kicked my ass. I'M JUST NOT GOOD AT ACTION RPGS OKAY!

Aaaagh thats another Big Worry, yknow? Like asa kid i was Bad, as an adult i'm Barely Better , and as a both i never enjoyed beat em up thingies of any kind at all. And on top of that i was never big into disney, i never saw them as any sort of 'childhood magic' but just some naff cliche shit retelling public domain fairy tales in the safest way possible with a bunch of obnoxious celebrity cameos. Also lion king and snow white terrified me as a kid. Also i associated robin hood with my dead grandma. Also as a kid i couldnt appreciate good artistic ability or voiceacting, i was all about the story, yknow? And most of kh's adaptations are really rushed and barebones versions of an already shoddy story, without any of the visual splendor. ALSO i never saw any of the darker or more emotionally focused stuff like Hunchback and Beauty and the Beast until way after i quit playing kingdom hearts, oddly enough. Wtf beauty and thebeast is actually real good and looks so far beyond its time!! Wtf hunchback has my goddamn evil dad in it!! Why did i miss the only good didneys!! Why did snow white traumatize me and those didnt!!

ANYWAY the point im getting at is that im not inherantly predisposed to like.. Any of kingdom hearts's appeal at all. I didnt know half the disneys and i didnt have any hype for the others. None of my fave final fantasy games made it into it until the sequel and then never again after that. CMON I CANT JUST DEAL WITH ONE VIVI CAMEO Y'ALL! And i haaaate the genre and its an uphill struggle to play a game like that with my stupid inelegant sausage hands. So i just came for the story and then everything after the first game has been conspiring to ruin it for me, sheesh! I felt so much for that short concise self contained first episode and then i fall more and more out of love as they establish this status quo of everything being retconnable so dont bother get attatched to it. Blablabla the entire worldbuilding is different now and everyone was secretly someone else and please memorize a bunch of shit from fifty fuckin spinoffs and also time travel and cloning suddenly exist and ALSO Grandpa Onlyblackmanintheworld is generic motiveless evil and everything was him even of it looked like it was actually a sympathetic villain. *insert dio meme face*

So yeah now im just.. In it for the characters?? And the cute art style and monsters and lovely animations and big fanfic oc potentials stuff. But man even tho i had Big Feel for those things i was able to completely drop it all and forget about the series for years, that was just HOW BAD the kh3 drought was. Steven universe hiatus eat your heart out...

So ffff i dont even KNOW if i'll be able to get feels'd for these characters again or if they actually hold up to modern bunni standards of huggable. And i know all the ones i want to hug the most got like zero sympathy and all died horribly and were also retroactively revealed to be clone oldmanvirus somethingy and aaaaaagh. But also something something people say they all came back and got cured?? And this is why?? I am here?? Again?? And buying?? The thing??

Like man fuck i am already building it up so much in my head aaaa what if i dont actually love axel as much as i used to love axel and i dont love Grumply Science as much as i always love That Character Archetype seriously MAN how was he like THE ONLY ONE I DIDNT GET TO SEE AS A KID

Aaauuuuaggh gahhh like maybe this will reignite my passion for the series or maybe i'll just be all critical and dumb and waste all my moneys

Guys... What do??

[tumblunni]

OKAY WHOA

I just started playing ‘Orion: A sci Fi Visual Novel’, a thing I got in last year’s steam sale and took this long to play cos it looked like a naff cliche fest. BUt like... its starting out really strong???

Protagonist is a really relateable lil kid who suffers from like.. psychic future powers or something that’re being used as a relateable mental illness metaphor. And its also implied that he has problems with anorexia. And we’re introduced to his really goddamn nice brother figure who’s trying to figure out what’s causing the poor kid’s nightmares and AAA he raised him alone cos their parents are dead and AAA we get lots of internal monologue from the protagonist that even tho he is a grumpy gus he really does love his brother!!! AAAA HE WAS TOO SHY TO SAY ‘I LOVE YOU’ BUT HIS BROTHER KNEW WHAT HE WANTED TO SAY!!! And he says he appreciates his bro trying to help him with his disordered eating problems, and he thinks of himself as a burden to be taken care of, and aaaaa NOOOOO The game’s description said it was gonna be a dating sim I think, tho? So is this a flashback prologue? I BET THE NICE BROTHER IS GONNA DIE, DAMMIT PLEASE SAY I’M WRONG like, maybe the art style just makes this character look younger than he’s supposed to be, and he’s actually a teenager, i dunno. we only see small clips of him from the head up cos its from his perspective, so i could totally be getting it wrong. PLEASE LIVE FOREVER KIND BRO BRO

okay, apparantly protag is 16! I would have guessed the brother was that old, lol! I like the unique art style but it does still kinda suffer from anime age syndrome XD

also seriously LOOK AT THE HIGH PRODUCTION VALUES!! and there’s voiceacting and like.. i wouldnt say it was professional quality or anything, there’s some mixing issues with different characters sounding more faded out than others. But its just very GENUINE! Its not bored people reading out lines off a piece of paper, it sounds like people who were passionate to play these characters! Also the music is REAL GOOD, I feel like I’ve already got attatched to these two cos of the really well placed calming music through their whole big ol heartwarming intro. Also, i like that the clche of ‘dreaming an omen of the future bad guys, then waking up’ as an opening is like.. actually being explored. Its not just NEVER EXPLAINED or anything! We get to see the protagonist being emotionally affected by it, and its a chance to have him be introduced in a vunerable and honest state, hugging his big brother. And it’s something thats implied to have greatly shaped his past and personality, if he’s been suffering weird omen dreams for YEARS! And is getting actual real psychological councelling for it! And being very relateable!!! I know barely ANYTHING about this guy yet and I’m already emotional about him!!!

Anyway, back to the game I go! oh, one random extra thing in like.. the next line I just clicked MORE COOL CHARACTER ESTABLISHING Establishing that big bro is a good big bro again, cos he chucks protagonist his holo-pad to answer, without snooping on his calls or anything. We are now informed that even though he’s an overprotective parent figure, he’s not an abusive sort! And its also casually established that protagonist might be a bit of a socially awkward loner, and some sort of child prodigy? Cos he’s wondering who on earth is actually calling him, since he usually only gets school emails and adverts for MMOs. Also apparantly his lockscreen password is a super long string of numbers or something. Oh, and apparantly the setting is ‘utopia’. That’s all we know about it so far, it’s supposed to be a perfect living environment but protagonist finds it boring. I’m already caught up wondering if maybe nobody can leave, and whether this utopia is really what it claims to be, or I dunno maybe its just a more down to earth story and the kid is just bored cos there arent many other people his age. Which makes me wonder how it would be handled on self-contained space colonies, actually! What do you even DO if one of the crewmembers has a baby? I’m imagining it’d be a very strange environment to grow up in, if he’s been the only non-adult on the space station and he’s never even seen earth before. BUT WHATEVER I NEED TO GO PLAY SOME MORE But I’m already going wild theorizing just from this intro!! That’s a good sign o quality!!!

[tumblunni]

Ok just... just... GIVE ME A SECOND to talk about the spoilery monster rancher stuffs, okay? Why THAT ENDING hurt so much but also fit so well with the rest of it, and why the third season kinda sucked so much despite being the continuation we all desperately craved. And why its still gonna have a place in everyone’s hearts, even the haters, JUST because it gave a conclusion to THAT FUCKING ENDING! I dont care if people say it would be more deep or whatever to leave on the downer cliffhanger, I still think it SHOULD have had a third season, just that it should have been better. Or I mean... maybe it would have worked better as a movie or a short ten episode season or something. Just there should have been SOME sequel to that ending, but a very very lighthearted season about a goofy tournement kinda wasnt what it should have been.

OKAY THE ENDING THE SEASON 2 ENDING the giant and damn awesome subversion of everything about the genre, which fit so well with everything else the show ever did, GAHHH Like.. there were SO MANY subversions and just interesting detailed twists on common ‘mon show’ tropes. One of the earliest episodes begins with an asshole trainer treating his Worm monster the same way a lot of people honestly might do while min-maxing in one of these videogames. He’s disgustingly abusive and feels like he’s justified because he’s making his monster stronger, and that’s all that it’s good for. And the show establishes its tearjerker tone early on by having this guy only repent after his horribly abused monster sacrifices itself to save him from the baddies, even after how badly he’d treated it. And he’s begging apologies to its dead disc stone, while it’s too late to do anything about it. But the show STILL gives him a chance at redemption, because our heroes trust him to raise a new newborn Worm, and to do it right. That’s just... what the show is. It went really REALLY dark, but it did this with this kind of determined optimism! And even the funnier episodes could have high stakes, and there was always the reminder that we were living in this dystopia and just trying to keep our smiles during it, because otherwise how can we change it?

And thats why season 3 fumbled by like.. not introducing its stakes early enough. Or.. at all. it was good that they finally introduced some good comic relief villains and generally villains with more motivations and backstory, but it combined badly with the no-intial-high-stakes thing to give a season that just felt way too happy. In a show that certainly had happiness in it before, but I mean it never felt hollow?? It kinda felt disrespectful to follow up a super depressing cliffhanger with such a badly explained and rushed flip back to the status quo, and then such a sparse plot with so few incentives to keep watching. Its only initial good point was that it resolved the cliffhanger AT ALL, but it could have done it WELL, and also established a new reason to wanna watch the show now the one big huge main plot has been resolved. Following up after the bad guy is defeated is always a hard thing, you cant just put no effort into it... Tho I feel bad even saying that, cos seriously season 3′s villains were the best part. They just might have fit better in season 1, or just if the plot kept up the slack surrounding them...

BUT YEAH JUST THE SUBVERSIONS!! I could fuckin ramble forever about how great they were! Seriously it was just THE BEST ‘ending’ to a ‘stuck in another world’ story, ever! Having the main kid finally get back home, but at the ABSOLUTE WORST MOMENT, after all his friends have sacrificed themself to save that world and he’s the only one left alive. And he doesnt even get enough time to process the shock, he barely even sees the rescued world before he just wakes up home as if nothing happened. And he’s stuck feeling like he can’t adjust to being part of this world anymore, and he’s mourning people he can’t even talk to anyone about. Imagine how worried his parents must have been when he became depressed seemingly overnight and refuses to tell them why! And then it just ends on him crying in the rain and the ghosts of his friends trying to motivate him to get back up and find a reason to live again. That was ONE HELL of a cliffhanger, yo! So yeah OF COURSE people were cheering for a new season, but also OF COURSE that new season would fail if it insufficiently followed up on the emotional impact of the cliffhanger and then had a bazillion episodes of barely anything emotional ever happening again, when the first series had you crying your eyes out as early as episode 4...

oh and like DEAR GOD all the OTHER really good subversiony episode plots aaaaa like even down to little stuff like how genki actually fights alongside his monster pals. And he’s a total badass who does succeed in doing more than most humans could do, but still he’s just a human going against monsters. he knows what he’s doing is rash, but he does it anyway because he cares about his monsters and couldnt just let them die without throwing himself in front of the bullet. And every battle in this show is life or death rebellion against an oppressive regime like that! Random low risk tournement episodes used to be.. like.. FILLER in this series. It was a terrible idea for the entire third season’s plot... And I also loved how the team actually did help people along the way as they journeyed to defeat the baddies, and it wasn’t JUST fighting. They had a whole tearful episode about everyone struggling to hold back a dam that the baddies had sabotaged to wipe a village off the map, and it was INFINATELY MORE INTENSE than half of the things Pokemon has ever done, lol! (not that I dislike pokemon, just the anime in particular is a bit naff) God, how they were all strangers to this village and how they actually had bickering between the team members on whether they should really do this, and all the different ways they tried to save the dam and how they made it way too clear that they were gonna die from friggin holding this thing back with their bare hands. And how they organized the whole town to work themselves to the bone trying to divert the dam, and how a bunch of their attempts failed and they came so close to not having enough time! You had me weeping for the potential deaths of a hundred nameless faceless npcs just from putting me in the shoes of our heroes reacting to it! You made a little kid understand the complexity of civilian casualties in war! And OH MAN, Golem’s backstory! How he was a former war soldier who just shattered mentally after being forced to kill so many other monsters. And he was so gentle at heart, and he sat there guarding this church full of disc stones for god knows how many decades, blaming himself for what happened. Like.. it showed that even when you’re fighting villains, killing still breaks you. Dear GOD, his face when he came back down from his friggin ptsd flashback anger episode saving the heroes from the baddies, and he saw all the dead baddies, and just... you could not talk to that man and tell him that killing was justified just because they were BADDIES. Even if its in self defense, he still has to look at his hands that just murdered people. I’m so damn glad the heroes managed to befriend him and take him away from that place, cos that moment came so close to sending him back to his guilt spiral! If anything, I think that the dub calling them ‘baddies’ actually made all these moments way more effective. The childish terminology makes you think this is gonna be a paint by numbers story, so it hurts more when its anything but! Even in a world with a concept like ‘the bad guy magically turns people into his bad minions’, they still managed to deal with complex grey morality, and that’s one hell of a crowning achievement!

...plus it allowed for a happy ending after all. God, i cried for all those poor minor mooks getting brought back to normal in the end. Honestly, even though it hurt, I would have accepted it ending on all of the hero monsters being dead forever for the sake of bringing back all the dead civilians and brainwashed baddies. Sacrificing yourselves to save so many others! God, this show’s characters are too goddamn pure. AND COMPLEX TOO! man I loved how grumpy and selfish half of the hero cast is, yet they’re still heroes despite it, and god just HOW THEY ALL DIED TOGETHER AND OUR PROTAGONIST IS THE ONLY ONE FORCED TO KEEP ON LIVING that was such a fucking cliffhanger thank you terrible season 3 for fixing it man i can forgive anything you do because you did that baby mocchi lived and ate some mochi cakes and tiger and hare lived to bicker with each other once more and golem could find some peace knowing all the people he saved, even if he might never be free of the guilt of those he failed to save and suezo and holly didnt have to be apart again, he didnt have to end his life finally proving his ‘usefulness’ at the cost of everything else (SERIOUSLY SUEZO LOW SELF CONFIDENCE EPISODES KILL MY HEART) and genki didnt have to have his childhood completely destroyed by his ‘magical adventure’ plot ending on so much of a trope subversion even if still it was good that it happened it was a really fuckin good plot all that suffering just made the happy ending that much happier! GOD I miss this show very much...