#seriously tho the development/the friendship aspect was beautiful

[sageandred]

Lucas does kind of slay tho the one friend he managed to make is the cool guy he fancied

He slayed! He got close like many people wish they could with their crush.

Here... they are very good friends..

[artisticplace]

Astrology Observations🏹

🏹Mercury conjunct Neptune, the type of people that their imagination is immense, the way they talk and express themselves is very mystical and magical, they have a power with words that really is beyond this world. For example Taylor Swift has this one and the storytelling in her songs makes her very appealing. Another example would be Olivia Rodrigo, her lyrics are incredible and hit you very deeply even if the story they are telling is not their own, the way this natives can portray stories is just so magical.

🏹Mercury in the 2nd, this placement can point out that your income can come from your words, things like being a writer, or a singer for example Taylor and Olivia have this placement as well.

🏹 Virgo Venus, are so prone to be so critical with themselves and the way they view beauty and this can affect on how they view themselves and very prone to not feeling beautiful. This can lead to self esteem issues and making a lot of beauty surgeries. For example Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian and Bella Hadid have this placement.

🏹This one is so accurate and makes all sense, all of the kardashian/jenner sisters have neptune in the 10th or the 1st house, so idealization is very common with them, and they are the embodiment of the false idea of beauty.

🏹 Neptune and Venus, both rule beauty and totally different ways, Venus is real beauty, the realistic beauty, beauty that is approachable for example nature, nature is real and is beautiful. Neptunian beauty is something not real, for example a paint of nature, is a distorted reality.

🏹 Air Venuses: these natives are so so misunderstood, they are not detached, I already talked about Aquarius Venus in one of my astronotes but I want to develop better this point because I think is so important:

Aquarius Venus and Uranus-Venus aspects:

so aquarius nature is working together, what I have seen is these natives have a realistic idea of love and that is something that people don’t get, let me explain; these natives appreciate a lot friendship in a relationship and that is something it should be talked about more, they don’t romanticize the idea of love (unless they have other aspects that indicate that) they want to work together with their partner, they feel complete alone that is why is hard for them to settle down, they won’t settle for something that they don’t truly want. They aren’t the most expressive type that’s why people think is “detachment” but they are emotional and they love hard just sometimes is so confusing for them everything about feelings or being vulnerable, specially when it comes to express themselves.

Libra Venus:

These natives are pure love, the embodiment of loving the idea of love, the thing here is that they tend to have huge expectations about love very movie oriented like and when they enter to a relationship and the honeymoon phase is over they suffer a lot. Now, these people can have a lot of crushes but again they won’t settle down for something that doesn’t fullfil their expectations. They are very flirty tho, people that gives you all of their attention and is very charming and charismatic that makes people feel confused nonetheless when they are truly in love or like someone like very seriously they are very cute and the kind of people that gets red while talking with their crush and things like that, very detailed oriented. These people fall hard one time and if that relationship ends, they are just going to be kissing and playing around with people just to fill that void. I really see these natives being in the same relationship for various years, because when they are sure about someone they won’t let go. Balance and reciprocation is super important for these people.

Gemini Venus:

My gemini venus people, is very common for these people to have various s/o before settle down, but don’t get me wrong they have huge standards so that’s why their romances don’t last a lot of time, if they feel unfulfilled they are going to say goodbye to you. These people are so loyal to their crushes, like they can be in love with the same person for a very long time and this only happens when they find what they have been looking for. Intelligence for these people is so important, like very important; they love talking with their s/o a lot so if you don’t like to talk the chances are very minimum. Remember these natives have a venus ruled by mercury, they are constantly thinking about the relationship and they are going to be critical about you and they are going to analyze the relationship very quickly, when they don’t feel the connection with someone is over, they are going to be analyzing you constantly or asking a lot of questions, they are going to be asking you a lot of things believe me.

🏹 Moon and the menstrual cycle, @hillarysss inspired this astro note, she talks about how moon-pluto natives have painful menstrual cycles, and I totally agree as a moon-pluto native. So I thought about the co-relation of the moon and menstrual cycles, as you would know is thought that the moon phases represent the cycle of our bodies. For example I think that people with pluto and mars people are going to have very painful menstrual cycles due the nature of these planets. This can be applied to people with aries and scorpio moons. I have seen that people with saturn-moon aspects are other natives that suffer a lot with their menstrual cycles. Again this can apply to capricorn and Aquarius. Talking about Aquarius I think they tend to suffer a lot with cramps or have difficulties during their period and I think Uranus and Saturn nature can be the produce of this. Another thing I have seen about these topic is that people with Uranus and Pluto aspects with the moon tend to have a very disorganized cycle, some months they have their period and sometimes not, they tend to have a irregular cycle, of course go to the doctor and check that. People with saturn or capricorn aspects can have some kind of trauma with their cycle for some reason or being the last people on having their period. For mars and mercury aspects to the moon I see these natives having their period very soon in life. Another thing that I have seen is that virgo moons tend to have their menstrual cycle late very similar to saturn-moon and capricorn moons. For cancer moons I think that they can be synchronized or have a similar type of period cycle as their mother. Chiron-Moon aspects they can have such painful menstrual cycles as well.

🏹 Moon and food, so I have been reading a book about what things rules each planet and I was the moon talked about food, diets, drinks so I really think that the moon rules the way you relation with food. For example I see someone with a earth moon having a very consistent routine with food, now this can be good or bad, I have seen capricorn moons specially having a very good way of eating and very balanced but I have known another capricorn moons that are very consistent in eating a little portion of food, I think here is the consistency because capricorn moons are stubborn and are saturn rules so when something have became in their tradition is so difficult to make them change and remember that the moon rules cycles. Fire moons really doesn’t know what is consistency with food, today they can eat a lot and the whole other day they are picking healthy food. I think if you check your 6th house can show you like your routine with eating, combined with your moon. And for pleasurable eating go to the 2nd house to find the food that you enjoy and check your moon as well you may find a lot about your food patterns. It rules digestion as well, so if you have a good or bad digestion can be pointed out by the moon of course go to a doctor if you don’t feel good about how your body is working. About drinking water I really see air moons and fire moons being very inconsistent with drinking water.

🏹 2nd House energy is clinging to material stuff, I think that 2nd house placements makes someone that likes to sleep with stuffed animals or have a special blanket.

🏹 Lilith represents where we feel rejected, where we envy and attract very toxic things. Lilith was the first wife of Adam but sexually she didn’t wanted to commit and Eva was the submissive wife. And that makes me think of how Eva represents Venus in a way, a beautiful woman that loves love, and Lilith is rejected because of her rebel nature.

🏹 Lilith is our black hole, where we feel empty, forgotten and betrayed. We try to fill Lilith emptiness with proving yourself, with anger and envy and very curiously lilith is where people tend to envy more, you attract jealousy depending where is Lilith positioned and aspects.

🏹Lilith aspecting asc, these people tend to feel rejected as a whole, specially woman can be very harsh and is going to be difficult to find girls that doesn’t envy you our makes you feel bad in some way, very secretive and dark people.

🏹Lilith and Pluto, people tend to put a lot of Lilith energy between Pluto. Pluto is the planet of rebirth and transformation, destroying things to make something better, pluto has a reason of why is destroying, intensity and sex because sex can be transformative and destructive at the same time, extremes. For Lilith is destruction with the point of feeling free, Lilith is darkness, and rawness, sexual fantasies, jealousy energy, destructive and seductive. Both energies attract jealousy from people just pluto is conscious of that destruction, of that envy and toxicity. Lilith is not aware, because she already feels rejected so she doesn’t see the difference between toxic and non toxic behavior.

🏹Mars-Saturn harsh aspects, these natives tend to restrict themselves so so much, as you would know mars represents your desires and sometimes more egoistical that anything so with saturn aspecting to it in a bad aspect you tend to be very harsh, maybe even thinking that you don’t deserve things like you need to win things. Sexually these natives tend to not be very sexual oriented because sex is about enjoying, and pleasure something that this natives tend to repress so this can lead to repress sexual desires.

🏹 Cardinal Venuses, these natives tend to rush in love very easily I was thinking about cardinal energy in general, cardinal energy wants to move forward so I think these natives are the ones that want a relationship sometimes just for having a relationship, feeling that they succeed specially because cardinal energy is very oriented towards goals and future. I think these natives are the ones to get married fast. People that can love without crushes, very hopeless romantic and people that doesn’t like to waste their time specially when it comes to love. People that get tired of dating at some point of their lives because since little they were looking for a relationship.

🏹 Mental Health Issues, I investigated planets that have a co-relation with mental health issues but before I start remember that are just indicators don’t self diagnose yourself.

-Saturn: Isn’t a surprise that saturn have a relation with mental health issues; rules depression and anxiety.

-Moon: It rules mental instability and co-rules depression, it makes a lot of sense because moon rules cycles and mental issues become a cycle that is so difficult to break.

-Mercury: It isn’t a surprise as well anxiety is also ruled by mercury and makes a lot of sense because mercury being the sign that is related to your mind, sometimes it can make anxiety disorders and lead to overthinking.

-Uranus: First of all it rules psychiatrists and psychology, and nervious diseases as stress, worry and overwork.

🏹Mars in Leo: Let me explain, how you ever met a mars in leo that doesn’t get angry easily or even has anger issues? These people gets angry so easily, and are very selfish when it comes to there anger.

🏹 Mars in Pisces: These people are far away from passive aggressive in my opinion, they get blinded with their anger literally, remember that pisces is ruled by neptune that is confusion and jupiter expands that, so is very easily to those people to get carried away by their emotions.

🏹 Mars in the signs: I truly think that the sign you have in mars is the most darkest version of the sign, it represents anger and desires.

-Artistic Place🎀

[barryjeanblues]

taz balance characters favorite video games

magnus: undertale - he likes the pacifist story best but he can also do genocide (not without crying tho) bc he likes to fight things

lup: earthbound/the whole mother series - she appreciates the classics and the good story and how much goddamn heart and creativity and all it has, but she also has the patience for the crappy inventory management system and the difficulty

taako: cooking mama. fuckin duh. also loves shitty dress up doll internet games.

davenport: breath of the wild - he absolutely loves the exploration aspect, the beautiful visuals, and the story, esp the whole past champion sacrifices kinda thing. he also relates to links iconic lack of voice, as well as link being 'hidden away and useless while the world suffers' for a long stretch of time.

barry: stardew valley - its relaxing, but theres a science to doing well, as well as time management. he finds it relaxing and is v good at getting 10 hearts with every villager v v quickly. barry wants to like alien isolation and other similar games but can only play them when lup is next to him.

merle: hatoful boyfriend - he keeps trying to tell everyone how good a game it is, how its a really interesting bait-and-switch that turns from a parody dating sim to a wonderful game with fascinating lore, great character development, and some absolutely unexpected twists that will utterly break your heart (especially the sequel), but no one will take him seriously and play it because its a fuckin bird dating simulator.

lucretia: pokemon mystery dungeon: explorers of sky. it has it all - time fuckery. genuine eternal friendship. betrayal. silly humor. deep emotions. an overarching darkness. pokemon. complete memory loss. a weirdly dark storyline for a pokemon game. also, its pokemon, and how can you not love pokemon? ALSO LOVES CHRONO TRIGGER - again, time fuckery and sacrifice and an overarching evil who vores worlds and is the fault of everything.

angus: ace attorney. also duh.

killian: overwatch babey!!!! shes the reigning queen. i dont know anything abt overwatch but i bet she mains the hot buff pink haired lady

carey: the last of us - shes really good at sneaking and loves the story and moral dilemmas and all. wants to adopt ellie. carey also really likes metal gear solid.

johann: halo but mostly because he fucks with that song so hard

garfield the deals warlock: catlateral damage. cat fucks things up.

FEEL FREE TO ADD MORE

[gra-sonas]

I have to admit I so admire your continued positivity about s3. With recent bts stuff and Lily confirming that Alex still doesn't have a relationship with Michael's family even when Malex is presumably happening this season is seriously bumming me out. My biggest wish for s3 was a less isolated Alex, and nothing we know about the season so far has been reassuring on that front. I really hope we get some sort of panel/interview/IG live/Q&A/whatever with Tyler or Vlamburn at some point, so we can get literally any info about his arc that says more than 'personal'. The fact that we still know next to nothing about anything this season is so bizarre.

Nonnie, that positivity is what keeps me going and helps me make it through this eternal hiatus.

Some days are harder (the day after the second part of Chris’s Q&A, man, I didn’t feel positive at all...), and ngl, it’s not easy to stay so positive. But I’m making a conscious effort to look at things that make me happy, to think of things I’d love to see and avoid most discourse (and certain types of fic). I have blacklisted a shit ton of stuff, I have a shit ton of unanswered asks in my inbox that focus on more negative aspects of the show, and so on.

I’m basically just LALALA-I-CAN’T-HEAR-YOU-ing my way through this hiatus.

Because I know from past experience if I’d give in to looking at negative aspects, participate in discourse, or focus on things I dislike (and there are plenty of those, don’t get me wrong, PLENTY), it would not end well. I’ve been there, and it’s not a good place for me. Especially not after this hell of a year.

I’ve painted the walls of my fandom in all the colors of the rainbow and aggressively focus on every last shred of what I love about the show. I’m still prepared for some things about S3 to be disappointing (that’s almost inevitable, but you don’t have to love every little thing about something to love it as a whole), but I’ll worry about that when S3 airs. Now I’m allowing myself to dream and think of all the beautiful What Ifs.

As for Alex: I’ve wanted an Alex/Isobel friendship to develop since S1, but it looks like S3′s not the season for that. YET (Lily keeps pushing, let’s see what S4 brings). And while I would’ve loved for Lily to tease upcoming A/I scenes, I understand that they can only wrangle so much into one season.

I don’t think Alex is going to be “isolated” tho. He’s going to be busy with Deep Sky, he’s going to be busy reconnecting with Michael, Gregory’ll be in plenty of scenes throughout the season, so we’ll get Alex + family. After the absolute disaster S2 was in regards to Kylex, I expect them to reconnect in S3, and Alex will have plenty of scenes with other characters (including Liz, going by that bts pic of Tyler, Vlam, and Jeanine), too. I’m not worried at all.

From what little we know about S3, there seem to be plenty of friendship scenes and the core 8 interacting. Chris is writing character-driven, not plot-driven. Alex’s season is going to be PERSONAL. Which means there’ll be a lot of development for him on a personal level.

We don’t know even a fraction of what’s to come, and so far nothing that we’ve learned is worrying me. On the contrary, I’m so excited for Alex’s journey in S3, Lily is super pumped for Isobel this season, Jeanine is soooo excited, Vlamis can barely contain his Malex excitement.

Nah, S3′s gonna be great, and I’m certain Alex will be right in the middle of it all! :D

I really hope we get some sort of panel/interview/IG live/Q&A/whatever with Tyler or Vlamburn at some point

[hellswolfie]

The Mark of Athena Review

Ok so once again i continue reading “The Heroes of Olympus” and once again i need to vent so Tadaaaaa !!

So before I start, here is a  more general Review : I really REALLY liked this book. Favorite of the serie so far. Also, obviously, SPOILERS !!

THINGS I DIDNT LIKE : 

- The role of Frank : I can maybe forgive that, because with 7 main characters i  understand it’s difficult to give them all an important role in one single book. But I really loved him in “The Son of Neptune” and I really wanted to see more of him, and the most of what we got was him being the Jealous Boyfriend. It was kind of disappointing so I hope it’ll change in the next books. 

- Piper : it costs me a lot to put her there because I really really loved her in “The Lost Hero” but I have to admit I didn’t like one single chapter of hers in “The Mark of Athena”. Or at least not completely. In the first book there was the relationship with her dad, her culture, her dealing with the fact she was an Aphrodite children, the begining of a friendship with Annabeth and Leo... But in this book ? It’s only about Jason. Endlessly. And it’s so tiring and eyeroll worthy, especially when we compare her “issues” over JASON with the others’. And even without that, she was really not a great person in this book and not in the interesting way : she was ready to put the whole World in danger just so Jason wouldnt stay in New Rome, kept Charming Up her friends just for convenience (like srsly i know thats not supposed to be a Big Deal but thats still mind control so yikes), and when it came down to it, no matter what she said about how Leo is like her little brother or Annabeth is her BFF, she only gave a crap about Jason Jason Jason...There was barely a scene of her with the other two. And I find it frustrasting that it didn’t even feel like the plot during her chapters were about her, but more about Jason and her being a support for him, even though they were HER chapters !!

- Jasiper : Well I guess that’s not really a surprise lol. I never liked this pairing and this book didn’t change my mind on that at all. Piper keeps clinging to the three months THAT NEVER HAPPENED (and that apparently weren’t faithful to Jason’s character like srsly is she even really in love with HIM or the idea of him she had in her mind ?) instead of the 8 real months they spent together, thinks it’s a miracle when Jason appologizes (he’s a real catch huh ?) and is so so sure he’ll leave her to go to New Rome which first : wow you really have faith in this relationship huh ? But also second : why is this such a Big Deal ?? Even if he did go to New Rome she could still follow him (she made it pretty clear she’d leave all of her friends in Camp Half Blood to be with him), it’s not like he’s a whole new different person when he’s there !! And my baby Reyna was so hurt by that, like Jason was a reall asshole here, even if he was oblivious and didn’t realize her feelings for him she’s still supposed to be his friend and the first thing he asks after 8 months of disappearing is if he can spend alone time with his gf ? And I found it kind of frustrating that in the end, all the others left on their own to do their own things (yk, to save the fucking world ?) while literaly risking their life and Jasiper just...went on a date. Like seriously ? So yeah. Not a fan. 

- The whole Frank x Leo “rivalery” : Why make another older character be attracted to 13 years old ?? Can you stop that ??? Leo could also be a real ass sometimes, even tho I still love him and Frank well...I already talked about that. This book had enough pissing contests between guys as it is. 

- Percy apparently forgetting all the Hercules stuff  he learned in “The Titan Curse”. I know it might not seem like THAT much of a deal but it was a really important thing for his character ? That he learned how Heroes, especially Hercules, were real assholes too and that he had to learn to not be like them ? That Zoe, his friend who sacrificiced herself to save the world, was treated like shit by this guy but now he was still like “omg this is Hercules I SO want to meet this guy he seems great !!” ???. It was just one sentence but I hated it. 

- The focus on the Romantic relationships. Look I have nothing against romance and ships. I love romantic love in stories !! But I also love friendships and I really wish this book would have given us more of that instead of spending so much time on romantic relationships. I mean it is pretty well illustrated in the end of the book when they all separate : all the groups are romantic pairings. Percabeth, Jiper, and Frazel with Leo who has kind of a crush on Hazel. And as much as I love Frazel and Percabeth, where are the friendships ?? Percy and Jason’s relationship was supposed to be very important in this book so why didn’t we see more of that ?? What about the friendships that were already established like Percy with Frank and Hazel, Leo with Piper and Jason, Piper and Anabeth,...And all the new friendships that could have had more screen time like Annabeth and Frank or something !! So yeah that was disappointing. 

THINGS I LOVED : 

- the River God scene. Ok so yes I kind of lied : I enjoyed this chapter of Piper. Well this scene at least. And only kind off, because it is still a Jasiper moment but anyway. In my last review of “the Son of Neptune”, I mentionned how it always annoyed me that the heroes have a habit of always making the Good Moral Decision, without any hesitation, even if the fate of the world is in the balance. I was like “Give me morally conflicted characters damn it” !! And that’s what I got here. Piper having to lie to the God, taking his horn that was so important to him, even tho he was just a very tragic dude, to save Jason and the World, realizing that even if it is bad and she feels like shit after doing it, she still had to do it...YES !!! THANK YOU !! I LOVED THAT !!!

- The LEO X NICO INTERACTIONS !!!!!! After spending 2 books shipping them (they’d fit so well together i will die on this hill) they finally talked !!! Well once, and about the fact that Percabeth just fell into fucking Tartarus but like !!! TALKING !!!! And the first thing Nico tell him is to reassure him <3 (look I know it won’t be canon but the POTIENTIAL!!!)

- Annabeth’s chapters. I can’t imagine anyone who wouldn’t like them like we finally got her point of view people !!! And it was awesome !!! I loved seeing her on a quest, the way she thinks and sees the world, how she uses her intelligence,... Like she’s so brave and smart but also so sentimental even tho she’d never admit it (like getting emo about having lost the white hair because it was a connection with Percy ? My baby is so fucking precious). And obviously we already knew that but to actually be in her head ??? It was so fucking good !! And it really succeeded to make me feel so much for her, like she’s just a kid and her mother literaly sent her to her death and she was so scared but she still kept going (only to end up in Tartarus WHYYYYYY) and I’m so proud of her. I love this character so much !!

- Percabeth : The reunion !!!! FINALLY !!!! That’s my first ever OTP right there and they’re so in love !! They’re such a badass power couple and they love eachother so fucking much !! God i missed them X( I loved every Percabeth scenes, they were so adorable and beautiful. I loved how even tho they are differents and are not always in the same page, they still know eachother so well and the communication was just so cheff’s kiss. And omg their lasts scenes together ?? Chills !! Like when Percy almost begged the (kind of?) gods to let him stay just a few more moments with her because he was so scared of never seeing her again almost brought tears to my eyes and then of course their final scene when they fall together into Tartarus, because all that matter is that they’re together...MY HEART !!!

- Percy’s and Leo’s chapters. I put them together because I don’t have much  to say except that I love them so much and that I would literaly lay down my life for this two. Their chapters are always such joy to read, and after one whole book without him, I was really glad to get back with Leo. Probably the funniest chapters too. 

- The Crazy Dolphins scene. This scene was fucking hilarious. Pic comedy ^^

- The crumb of friendhips dynamics we got. So much potential I want to see more !! Like Percy x Jason, Annabeth x Frank (so much Hermione x Neville vibes), Leo x Frank, Hazel x Annabeth, Percy x Frank, Annabeth x Leo (Leo who is so scared of and impressed by her as he should lol),...That’s probably one of the reasons I was so bitter about the romantic relationships getting so much more time, like ALL the friendhships that were so interestings like come on !!

- Percy thinking about LUKE !!! hjfgjehgfjhsegf !!! The fact that he still considers Luke as his fighting teacher, still thinks about his training and his advices !!! Even going as far as thinking he totally understood where he came from for doing all this horrible things !!! That was so awesome !! And such a character development !!! And that makes Percy even more of an interesting character !!! Anyway I loved that ^^

- All the mythological aspect like Rick can be such a genius sometimes with how he uses them, managing to stay faithful to them while sill adapting them to a more modern setting and that works so well !! Well its there in every single one of the PJO series book, but I just wanted to put it out there so here. 

- Hazel story. Look I didn’t like the whole weird kind off “love triangle” thing with Leo and Frank. But I love Hazel and I LOVED knowing more about her and also knowing more about Leo’s ancestor (who was awesome btw). That was such an interesting story, how she discovered that her only friend back then and first love spent his whole life thinking her disappearence was his fault.  And the flackback was so cute too ^^ Also Loved her being so desperate finding her brother because that’s what Nico deserves and that was adorable. I really hope we’ll get to see more of their bond. 

- The end. Such an amazing cliffhanger. I could feel the tension in the scene, I could’t stop reading and then the last chapter were everyone was just so in chock but Nico still believed that Percy would come back out of it alive because he admires him so much. It was SO !!! FUCKING !!! GREAT !!! Amazing way to end this book.

And that’s also how I will end this review ^^ Feel free to comment on it (respectfully) in the comments if you want. 

[shanyyhermosoxoxo]

My Top 5 Manhwa List

5. Omniscient Readers Viewpoint

Status: On going

Chapters: 52

Reviews:

The first time I read this, it caught my attention. The Chapter 0 was written well. I was writing this after reading chapter 22 and like the others say, at the beginning of the story, it has a slow paced story but the growth of the MC is what I like about these types of manhwas. How to use the knowledge of knowing what will happen is what makes you continue this manhwa. The scenario and art are similar to other dungeon related manhwas but I really have high expectations from this.

Story - 9/10

Art - 10/10

Characters - 9/10

Overall - 9/10

4. The God of High School

Status: On going

Chapters: 509

Reviews:

THIS WEBTOON IS AWESOME!! The plot, art style and the character development is top tier. Characters with great personality, these martial artist, some genuin fighters (Mori Jin) some power borrowers (Daewi Han, Mira Yoo), are some exceptional characters in GOH and the main protagonists. Their will to achieve their goals, their loyalty to their friendship and all the mysteries of their pasts that they in tern did not even know about. They go through ups and the even higher ups while staying true to themselves and they pass your love for them like a batton to each other throughout the story.

Storyline is great, it's funny and always keeping you on your toes. To be honest when I had just started I had no clue to where it was going, I just knew that it was about martial arts... and a lot happened in the manhwa that I cannot comprehend. After reading it, all the details and informations are still processing to me. I thought it was all about MARTIAL ARTS and SCHOOL and stuff but man, it was a roller coaster ride. I‘m sure you’ll be hooked as well. The plot twist is giving me anxiety lmao so yeah, if you like a lot of fighting, great characters and detestable villains then what are you waiting for?? I’m sure it is perfect for you and you’re gonna like it.

Story - 9/10

Art Style - 9/10

Characters 10/10

Overall - 9/10

3. Eleceed

Status: On going

Chapters: 136

Reviews:

I really really love this story so just read it and don't read useless reviews. But I made one anyways lol. Sooo...

I clicked on Eleceed by mistake and I don't regret it at all. The cover picture looked very boring to me but the story is amaziiing. What are you still waiting for? Art will also get better with time and characters. I don't know how this is possible but I love almost every character in this manhwa. Like yeah, first you won't like everyone but there is this thing called character development. I am an avid fan of solo leveling so I made it in top 3 but solo leveling is still higher tho hahaha yes I do have favoritism. The protagonist will also become OP but you can see that he worked hard and well KAYDEN-SAMA (he's proly not japanese but I had to show some respects) is his teacher. Kayden is not the protagonist (sadly) but he's also the OP from the beginning. On the top of that he's very cruel and the tsundere type (which is really popular in the manhwa), haha. In the first chapter, he got seriously hurt by his enemies so he decided to turn into cat and hide. Meanwhile in this time, Jiwoo will find him (this manhwa is full of cat lovers, I love it) and take care of him. That's when they will get to know each other and build their beautiful father-pupil relationship. In next chapters, we will encounter many difficult situations with many different characters but seriously - I LOVE THEM ALL. They will turn into such babies, I swear, you will love them too.

This manhwa made me cry so many times. But not because it was sad. It was sooo funny! I don't normally read comedies but this is a gem. Yeah, so if you liked Solo leveling or The beginning after the End, you will most likely like this too. I feel like this is way too underrated, so let's change it! Let's make it into a well-known manhwa!

Story - 9/10

Art - 10/10

Characters - 10/10

Overall - 10/10

2. The Beginning After the End

Status: Ongoing

Chapters: 101

Reviews:

This manhwa which is about a king being reborn in another world. The protagonist Arthur, short Art(pre-rebirth: King Grey), is learning magic and fighting from a young age and is good at it since he can use his experiences from his former life in swordsmanship and the KI from his previous world is similiar to the mana in the world the story is taking place in. The characters have nice backgrounds that are getting more clear as the story moves on. Also the characters are developing over time. The story is very interesting: Not only is it very exciting but it also has a lot of events that make sense and dont just come out of nowhere like it often happens in such mangas. If u don't read this you will really miss a lot of joy and exitement. I have put this on top 2 because I can? Haha lol jokes aside, I just really really love the storyline so much as it progresses, in recent chapter I just gosh my sail just sailed. I don’t know author-nim is focusing on more action/adventure/isekai genre but no hun, romance is in it as well!

As for negative things about the manga...The art isn't the best. Art's family loves fem heartily, but at times it can come across as a bit too gooey. There is homophobia in chapter 40.

Story - 10/10

Art - 5/10

Characters - 9/10

Overall - 9/10

1. Only I Level Up - Solo Leveling

Status: On going

Chapters: 148

Review: I put this on my top 1 because duh?? The plot/ storyline is top tier, I know this is overrated by some of you but this manhwa is the defenition of a perfect masterpiece.

Well to be honest it is the best manhwa so far that i ever read and i love to know more so please author dont stop this manga for atleast a century and also waiting for when it is going to release its anime version.

Solo Leveling is a manga with the leveling aspect similar to ''the gamer or shield hero'' where we follow the breathtaking journey Sung Jin-Woo who is at the weakest amongst all hunters ''E-Rank'' fighting his way through many life and death experiences and hardships.

Story - 10/10

Art - 10/10

Characters - 10/10

And so.. that’s it!! I just wanna share my experience while reading these Manhwas. I am so glad that I found these masterpieces and so thankful to be born in this era hahaha. Author-nims’ I hope you won’t stop giving and feeding us this type of story. <33

[itsswimmingtragedycollection]

The Dumpster Fire that is ‘The Order’

First of all, why is his show labeled as a horror? My humble guess is that it was intended for younger audiences?? I genuinely wanna know. Because, even if it was for teens, some blood and a few dead bodies does not a horror make.  Secondly, what the fuck? And I truly mean that.  I mean, the idea itself doesn’t sound bad at all. A college student joins a secret society and finds out his supposedly evil dad is the head of it? He’s also in a werewolf club that fights that same secret society? Sign me tf up. But the execution just takes a really weird turn.  From the get go, you kinda aren’t sure if the show wants to be takes seriously or not. And that question is never answered. Literally in the opening scene the letter changes from ‘we regret to inform you’ to ‘congratulations’ in front of Jack’s eyes and he has absolutely no reaction whatsoever to that peculiar development, which kind of screams ‘not to be taken seriously’ similarly to the whole ‘My evil dad killed my mom so naturally I’m gonna join a secret society, become someone important and powerful and eventually use that power to fight him.’ Who on earth plots a revenge along those lines? But then a second later, the plot falls back in the supernatural drama category.  To top it all off there’s a whole lot of ‘woke humor’ which most of the time comes across as cringe worthy edginess we’re all happy we outgrew after HS.  But, even if you could somehow get pas the not-so-subtle jumps from complete absurdity to realism, there’s nothing else to hold on to. No character, no relationship, no plot line we’re offered is strong enough to pull us in.  In fact. one of the most annoying things about The Order is that basically no character has a personality. I am 8 episodes deep (and I don’t intend to finish it because that’s how boring it is) and I still don’t know anything substantial about anyone. And can we take a second to just look at Jake’s relationship with Alyssa? What even is that? Are they flirting are they not, does he really like her or is she a means to an end, is she into him or his dad, why are they kissing and why does it look so uncomfortable, did they just cast two people with the least chemistry on purpose or is bad writing/directing? So many questions. If we draw a parallel between Jack’s progress with her and him being on board with the wolves, it makes even less sense. He needs how many episodes to decide to try and kiss her, but when it comes to dedicating your whole life to fighting bad magic, you go from ‘no way, you’re all insane, you made me kill an innocent man’ to ‘I pledge my life to the cause’ within two seconds.   Speaking of things that make no sense, I have to mention Jack’s ‘friendship’ with Amir. Don’t get me wrong, I get that we meet people and think to ourselves how that could grow into a beautiful friendship, but acting as if someone you just met is really your friend, and that odd flashback to like one beer they shared, when Amir was found dead, is just... I don’t even know what to say.  The Order as an organization is equally puzzling. Who are they? Why are they? What’s the purpose, what’s the goal, the mission? I can’t settle for just a group of magic users who follow strict hierarchies but kinda all look out for themselves and don’t really like each other that much. And occasionally sacrifice goats. And change people’s memories.(And they can revive a golem and ask it who made it, but the fact that Jack, who found out about magic like yesterday, sabotaged their spell somehow goes right over their magical heads. ) But essentially it’s for the good of the whole wide world.????????????? And the masks are what makes me think an 8yo came up with the whole concept.  If you thought the werewolf knights are any less confusing, think again. They hear noises when ‘bad magic’ happens and solve it by killing anything that moves. Heroes. Also, how do they know what they are supposed to do if they refuse to read anything? I mean, that’s not how a secret society, since that’s more or less what they are, works. Someone has to tell you, show you, teach you. Sure, you have the wolves inside you, but if you don’t know they speak a certain language, it’s fairly certain you don’t know a whole lot. And why is there only four of you? How can four knights take down an organization as big as The Order? Especially since their preferred method is violent murder, something that is not very subtle and does not go unnoticed for long, which basically ensures the rage of the entire Order falling on their heads before they even begin their so called mission. Once again: ????????????????? And what even does ‘bad magic’ mean? The term is so vague and abstract that I have a hard time understanding how can you form an organization that fights something barely defined. All magic can potentially be bad magic. What are the guidelines here? Help me comprehend.  The show also has a very odd relationship towards death. One can sort of ‘forgive’ the wizards and the wolves for being chill about it, but if someone was targeting and butchering people on your campus, wouldn’t you be at least a bit worried? We don’t see any students panicking, we saw one police officer, there were no measures taken by the college, unless you count turning Amir’s death into a bike accident. And just when you start getting used to being casual about it, Jack has a whole meltdown over killing someone the first time he turned. And then also his professor. But even that meltdown is not very convincing, since most of what he does is just screaming ‘I KILLED AN INNOCENT MAN!!!’ into the void, without a much deeper attempt to deal with that. Which is why I don’t get why the show even made an issue out of it.  I also don’t get Jack’s grandpa. Like not even a little bit. Because if you think about it, it’s not * that * unimaginable that a little boy would come up with the idea of joining a secret society to avenge his mother’s death, but it is * very * odd to imagine an old ass grown up who not only thinks it’s a good idea to direct your whole young life towards revenge, but encourages it to a point of making a detailed plan on how to do that, and basically spends your entire childhood grooming you to become a little rage fueled bundle of psychological damage. All of this is only scratching the surface of the mess that is The fucking Order, because the show is a giant entangled coil of nonsense and I barely knew where to start. It’s fair to say that the biggest buzzkill is failure to pick a direction and stick with it. You don’t have to look that close to see some of the influences. The biggest one being, obviously, The Magicians, followed by some Teen Wolf, there’s even elements from Scream Queens, a bit of Buffy, a pinch of the Craft, etc. Almost like someone decided to look up successful shows in the supernatural/fantasy/horror genre and just smash them all up together in hopes of making something appealing to the largest audience possible. Personally, as a * very big * fan of before mentioned The Magicians, I get the feeling that Netflix wanted to make something that could rival it, but better. Because TM is, dare I say so, one of the best, if not the best, shows of the decade. I honestly have not seen anything like it, that has the same platform, in literally a decade. If you have, please let me know. 

Whit the BDE, edgy, but in a good way, humor, strong political views, strong female characters, fun twist and turns that actually do manage to mix absurd with normal life in a magical, no pun intended, way, sexuality representation, but not in a ‘we just want to please the gays so they give us the views’ way, great male characters we wish we saw more of, compelling character development and so on. Tho the most likable aspect of the series is probably the take on overdone story lines, where they twist the narrative just enough for it to become actually relatable. We all are tired of super special chosen ones who save the world because they are soo special and specially chosen by gods to save the world and all the dumb boring unspecial people with their pure hearts and strong characters. And also find true love.  You see attempts at this within The Order on every turn, except that it doesn’t work nearly as well for them, precisely because they went for that AND MORE. More wouldn’t even be a bad thing if it was’t so all over the place that it just comes off as ‘WE WANT EVERYONE TO LIKE THIS, GIVE US ALL THE VIEWS, ALL OF THEM.’ I am very much inclined to think this is what happened, considering other stuff Netflix has put out there. (Mostly referring to endlessly stupid shit like YOU, which only has the intention of being controversial and attention grabbing, for the views. Tho they do have some fun shit too, don’t get me wrong.) So I guess what I’m trying to say is,  the though of making something like TM, is not a bad one,  I’m all for it, but you actually have to put a shit ton more imagination into it if you want it to work out. But that’s just my opinion.   

[gavetawrtes]

okay i am literally in the process of leaving my job rn, college only starts in February and i want some plots so pls check out the plots here under the read more and if anything sparks your interest pls like this so i can message you or just message me !

mumu

something based on friends ?? a tiny thing where we get 3 characters each and they can be heavily based on the friends character or just a little bit ? then we can have like relationships between them . friendships ? old flings ? siblings ? different dynamics for each of them and threads with more than one at the same time. they always go to the same coffee shop together or they are always in each others apartment. a has a thing for b but b is oblivious and b has always been bffs with c and so on. honestly it can be so much fun and so pure ? pls i deserve nice things

oKay but like wizards in a wizarding school ? ? i would say hogwarts but that world is a mess right now so we could make our own lil world? where like we decide the subjects and the kind of magic and all that. it could have aspects from any magical world we want like idk hogwarts house or like different types of magics ( physical, natural, Illusion, healing, psychic ) from the tv show the magicians. and honestly whatever else we want ? we can throw our lil characters into it and populate this little world with tiny plots like ‘our houses are eternal rivals and i intend to crush you at this quidditch game but also pls go to the winter formal with me bc you are the prettiest person in school ?’ & ‘my family has been historically amazing at physical magic but i’m really bad at this. you seem amazing pls teach me so people will stop making fun of me’ & ‘i didn’t know magic existed and now i do and this is all new to me how is the frog talking and why are you not scared at any of this ? ? ‘ && ‘whhy do you think it’s cute to be the skater punk version of magical world and fly standing up in your broom ? you could seriously get hurt ? and see there you got hurt. what do you mean ?  help you with healer magic ? no i don’t want you to get expelled but we should call a teacher !’ and honestly whatever else you can think of 

okay but like a group of high school friends and their older selves ?? ?  ?? ??  like we could set all the high school threads in the 80s ?? ? ? ?? ? and have different personalities ? and then we also have threads like in 2018 years later when they see each other again in the high school reunion ? just ? pls? the high school sweethearts who signed the divorce papers three years ago and we are doing both the thread in which they fell in love and the one where they see each other again for the first time after the divorce. the high school rebel who became the local sheriff and the girl he loved who used to be the biggest nerd who had a thing over their last summer. we are doing both their wild adventures and them seeing each other again for the first time bc she moved back with her parents. the two best friends who remained best friends for all those years and they are seeing all of those people again and it’s just like ‘oh man glad this didn’t Help to us’ and we can have them as teens bickering and making fun of their teacher and them years later at the bar like ‘i miss having adventures like we used to’ there are so many possibilities ? for like people who grew disillusioned with their lives ? or people who got really successful . ? people who stopped talking altogether ? people who remained friends forever ?? ? plspls it could be so nice

Okay but a group of old immortals/wizards/witches ? something a long the lines of the originals but they are not all siblings or the hogwarts funders but there is no school involved. like they have known each other for centuries and they have been friendly-ish. they probably got a hand in many important world changing events in history and like maybe they have to come together and stop the apocalypse every 500 years or one of them call them all up and it’s like ‘hey guys so skarsgård is going all ruler of the world again and i can’t stop him alone bc he is more powerful than me so could you pls? help me?‘ ? ? ? ? there are so many possibilities. we could play with different types of characters like ( one wizard who spent the last 100 years in a hole on the ground and he is just done with humanity while there is another one traveling around and trying to write a beautiful book about humans and life but it lowkey sounds like a fake deep tweet ) or like hundred years old relationships where they go ‘making me jealous in 1954 didn’t work why do you think it’s gonna work now?’ or smth like ‘baby we have been together for 3 centuries and you still make me blush’ OR OR  we could get more into plot like half of them go ‘i’m done with saving humans every hundred years. maybe skarsgård is right and we Should rule the world’ while the other half goes ‘what ? no humans are amazing? our job is to save them ’ and just those super mega powerful wizards fighting each other ? pls we could go in whatever direction you want just pls let me play incredibly powerful wizards

the PTA group ?? i love playing older characters but also like there are so many possibilities and it could be legit funny and full fluff and angst like ? we have those two married characters who are a perfect couple but maybe they are not that perfect ? the single parent who is just really Trying but is always late ? the divorced couple who is only participating bc the other is and they wanna show how much Better of a parent they are ? the teacher who loves to do all of this and is honestly worried about everyone drama ? the teacher who Had to sign up for this bc it was given to them as a punishment after they didn’t something and they are just standing there like ‘why are all of you so extra? just go home. you know this is optional now?’ everyone getting involved in each other’s business ?? ? everyone being lowkey friends ?? ? dR a Ma also all the supportive parents going to the kids games and the kids just being super happy

a greek god mumus ??  maybe we pick two ships and develop them like ( idk hera & zeus and hades & persophone ) or we just pick around the characters we wanna play. and we can have like all of them stuck in the real world, stuck in a human body. zeus wanting to fly to be an eagle to go somewhere but being stuck to earth. being the biggest asshole in the face of this earth but also not being able to let hera go? ? not knowing how to function properly when she is not around. and maybe idk maybe in this life hera doesn’t stick around. maybe in this life the only reason why they are still legally together is because he didn’t sign divorce papers, maybe she is done with him and done with trying when he clearly doesn’t give a fuck. maybe in this life she is a wedding planner and when people ask her to plan their marriages she gives them advice on knowing when to be forgiving and when to stick up for yourself. hades is the leader of a biker gang but he is mostly really quiet and chill and he has three pit bulls who just hang around him and do nothing of true harm ?? and the only person you can actually be terrified of is his wife ? ? bc even tho logic dictates otherwise it seems like she sets fire on the concrete she walks through and makes plants grow when she passes by and it baffles every existing human ?? and hades being ‘listen man i would forgive your betrayal but my wife i mean, she kinda asked me for your head and i can’t say no….’ chris evans a poseydon, poseydon as a surfer dude ??  as a guy who works/owns an aquarium and understands the animal there in a way that doesn’t make sense to anyone else ?? who has the biggest pools for the animals to swim around, even if it makes looking at them harder for whoever is vising, bc all those animals have been raised in captivate and they wouldn’t survive in the ocean but he doesn’t want them to feel stuck ? he wouldn’t know what he would if he couldn’t swim around  in the ocean and he just wants them to feel free even if he can’t free them. ?? there are so many ways in which things can go ? i mean honestly i’ll shower in headcanons pls gimme.

this is the last one i promise but a plot with a bunch of criminals maybe ex-navy/army who work together. maybe based on the losers ?? where you got like the leader of the group who makes dubious decisions when there are woman involved and the stoic explosions specialist who knows the leader so well that the moment the leader flinchs he goes like ‘imma take over now. okay? okay.’ maybe you got the gun slinging asshole who makes inappropriate jokes and the person who is just Too Qualified to be around this sea of idiots. maybe they were all framed for the same crime and they have to live in the shadows hiding in a city in the middle of nowhere pretending they are normal civilians. maybe they were all trying to save someone and it backfired and they wanna go back to their lives but how  ? ? idk there are so many possibilities just pls.

1x1

muse a is hopeless romantic that may or may not be more in love with the idea of love itself than he has ever be with anyone. he quits relationships as soon as they get a tiny bit complicated but he is always talking about ~~~~ soulmates ~~~~. muse b the girl who is way too generous and helps everyone out of the kindness of her heart but expects way too much from everyone. she is always falling in love with people and breaking her own heart by thinking they care more about her than they really do. — now close your eyes and imagine. .. . there is so much potential for angst and fluff ?? ? like he prepares overly dramatic moment in front of everyone and like serenades her ? paints her as his muse and puts it up in galareis ? but also one fight and he talks about breaking up bc that is not true love ? while she is there just interested in the tiny things ? in the days at home with him alone and the way they make each other laugh ? she is such a simple girl and they make each other so happy and he just Can’t see it ? ? ? pls 

muse a is the overly responsible single father/mother had to take care of themselves and his son/daughter ever since they can remember. they Cannot Relax because they must do 110% percent at all times for his kid. muse b is the mother/father of three who laughs way too easily and embarrasses his/her kids dancing in public and cracking bad jokes but they are so bad with time and like doing the Simplest things… — now just .. .. just picture. ..  the two of them meet at a school thing and become friends like maybe everyone talks about the two hottest dads in school getting together maybe they are talking shit about Sharon who doesn’t tell her son no and they bond bc ofc they do. .. and it’s totally like pfffftt pfffffffffff we are just friends .. . expect ‘i knew you would forget your kid’s lunch bc i know you so i packed one for your kid too’ and ‘yeah i know you have a kid but i have a babysitter and we are going out bc you are not Allowed to stay inside another Saturday’ and ‘ofc i’ll go with to the game’ and ‘yes we would love to spend the holidays with your family’ and ‘we are just two bros chilling on a hot tub 5 feet apart bc we are not together. the fact that i wanna kiss you doesn’t change anything.’

characters i would love to play in any plot

okay, so here is the thing, i have two characters. they are super wealthy brothers. one is your local asshole i’m too cool for feelings. he is in his 30s and he goes around partying and making bad decisions and he made himself a successful businessman on his own just to spite his family bc they said he couldn’t do it. 99,99% of his decisions are made either based on anger or just so to feel good. the other one is your local golden boy. he is everything his family ever wanted him to be, and he was a child prodigy type who graduated college super young and has never acted like a child. he is his early 20s. 99,99% of his decisions are made based on what he thinks people want him to do and he just wants to please everybody if you would let me play them in literally any plot  ( preferably like some tiny mumu, i have two characters, you have two characters type of thing ) i’ll literally give the sun !! or cookies !! or anything really omg !! they also have a younger sister so maybe you could play her? ? or you could play some character who is dating the younger brother is starts to fall in love with the older and drama~~ or it could be some two character that you would like to play? like any two characters you wanna develop and we figure out a plot? pls? thanks

[loki-hargreeves]

The Apprentice - Loki Imagine [Part 3]

[PART 1] [PART 2] [PART 3][PART 4]

Warnings; This chapter; -

Your P.O.V.

Four- nearly five weeks had passed, every day going strictly in a planned routine. Loki would have me ready before noon and then he’d take me to this cliff, usually by riding a horse. Then he’d make me climb the cliff to ‘warm up’ before teaching me some tricks with my sword and some daggers he gave me. To be quite honest, he was pushing my limits but I didn’t mind. Clearly, it was important to be in good shape so I let him torture my muscles. As I returned to my room, I’d take a long bath and fall asleep soon after. 

Sadly, he never spoke to me unless he had to. Loki didn’t seem to melt at all, in fact, I was afraid he just straight up hated me. He showed no sign of interest in friendship and so far, I hadn’t said anything against that. But to be quite honest, it was getting on my nerves. I didn’t care how rude I’d sound but I was ready to confront him, then live with the consequences that would follow. 

Today was a resting day, thank heavens. I had slept in late and had my morning tea in peace, taking my time with everything. I was planning my words carefully as I prepared to meet Loki. It was undeniable that I was nervous. I had hoped a morning bath could’ve hoped but I had been left alone to think and it made everything worse. But I knew if I was quiet all the time, there would be no change.

As I got dressed in a green dress, I got out of the room. Some guards were roaming around the corridors, which I had gotten used to by now. Loki’s room was nearby, I only had to take a turn to the left after reaching the end of this corridor and his door would be on the right. I was stubborn and determined so nothing could stop me now.

‘‘I got this’‘ I pep-talked myself, hands in tight fists as I made my way towards his room. My mind was racing, thoughts of how he’d react playing before my eyes. Time passed quickly and then I found myself behind his door. It surprised me to see it was open, only slightly but still open. Then I heard a conversation, muffled tho. I recognized Thor’s voice and then Loki’s. They were speaking of something almost angrily. Were they arguing?

Sneakily, I pushed the door open and stepped inside. They shut up immediately and I watched as both turned to look at me, suspiciously. Loki was leaning against his wall as Thor was right in front of him, eyebrows knitted and jaw clenched. Loki, on the other hand, seemed mad. He rolled his eyes and walked away from Thor so we wouldn’t just stare at each other forever. 

‘‘What do you want?’‘ Loki wondered, facing me with his back. I wasn’t sure what he was doing but now that I was here, the words got stuck in my throat. Thor eyed me silently, almost like he knew why I was here. ‘‘I’ll leave you two alone, be nice, brother’‘ He told Loki sharply before leaving. The behaviour of the two princes was definitely strange but I didn’t question it. I tried to focus on the reason why I came in the first place.

‘‘Can we talk, please?’‘ I wondered, failing to hide my nervousness. Loki was my master, mentor, whatever you might call it. I knew I had to respect him but I had actual feelings as a person and I hated being so lonely. Ever since I had moved to this castle, I had felt like a burden. ‘‘What about?’‘ Loki turned around, arms crossed as he waited for me to speak.

His look was so dull, it made me want to yell to give him some other expression. But who was I kidding? A fight with the God of Mischief would be hopeless. ‘’Why do you hate me?’’ I forced the question out of my mouth, surprised I actually did it. Loki seemed slightly surprised too as his eyebrows rose up. As quickly as he had revealed another expression, he turned away once again. It annoyed me.

‘‘Can you face me when we’re speaking? Or is that too much to ask for?’‘ I spat, the rush of confidence clearly thriving me to say things I didn’t mean to. Loki chuckled but I knew it wasn’t a happy one. ‘‘Y/N, in all seriousness, do you really imagine that I hate you? Hate is a strong word’‘ He let me know but the tone of his smooth voice wasn’t too kind nor gentle either. I wanted to stomp my foot and kick but I took a deep breath to calm myself down- a bit. 

‘‘Well you clearly dislike me’‘ I stated, still not getting any answers from the silver-tongued prince. Now he was smiling like he found my rage funny. ‘‘Perhaps you should show me your anger during lessons? Trust me, it pushes you to cross your earlier limits’‘ He suggested, slowly but surely getting on my nerves worse than I had ever imagined he could.

‘‘Loki!’‘ I hissed his name, immediately regretting it. At least I wiped the smile off his pretty face. Pretty? Yes, alright I had to admit it to myself that he was attractive, damn attractive in fact. But the way he treated me was sad. Maybe I had expected too much? I deserved some respect tho. I had had enough of being the little obedient girl. I just wanted a friend, yes, a friend. 

‘‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come’‘ I whispered as I realized this wasn’t helping. Suddenly my anger faded and got replaced my sadness. I didn’t enjoy being like this but emotions were terribly hard to control. As I turned to leave, Loki sighed. ‘‘Don’t- don’t leave. We can talk, if you want to’‘ I heard him say, making my eyes widen in surprise. Did Loki Odinson just say that?

I turned around to study his face and I could tell he was serious. He didn’t seem too happy but he didn’t seem annoyed either. It’s like he genuinely wanted to talk, lords in Valhalla only knew why. ‘’Great’’ I chirped, facing the prince with a smile. ‘’That’s great, thank you’’ I added, my pitiful emotions long gone. For the first time in weeks, I felt hopeful again.

‘‘I suppose I’ve been acting cold, Y/N. But it’s not your fault’‘ He revealed, walking towards some black leather chairs he had by his large bookcases. I followed him, taking a seat on the chair next to him, sinking into the softness happily. For me, it was mind-blowing to sit down and have an actual conversation with Loki. Damn, I would make sure to behave now to make this last as long as it possibly could.

‘‘Whose fault is it then?’‘ I asked him curiously, not thinking about my actions as I sat, legs crossed and body directed towards him. I was that intrigued. Loki’s beautiful jade eyes met mine, almost sending shivers down my spine. His gaze was intense. It felt like I had earned his trust- at least a part of it - since he looked at me for so long. During our lessons, he didn’t face me for more than a few seconds. This was different.

‘‘My father would say it’s mine but I would like to say it’s his’‘ He explained with a shrug. It wasn’t a secret in Asgard that Odin didn’t treat Loki like he treated Thor. As Thor had gotten the hammer, rumour spread that Odin didn’t approve of Loki. A bunch of shit here and there but I didn’t know what to believe. Loki was likeable, although he didn’t warm up to strangers immediately. It made him mysterious.

‘‘I heard you rebelled on Midgard but I won’t believe anything unless it comes from you’‘ I let him know, being a woman of my words. I hated rumours since most of them were nasty and dumb lies. Loki got a tiny spark in his eyes as I said that. I wasn’t sure why but it seemed like a good sign. ‘‘I take it you do not like rumours’‘ He smiled again. This time I saw small crinkles by his eyes as his lips curved. I hadn’t noticed that before and to be honest, it was adorable. ‘‘The truth is, I didn’t rebel. I simply protected the mortals who actually like me from these lunatics. Odin didn’t approve of what I did. Which I don’t understand. I could go on for hours why I think he’s wrong but it would be a bore’‘ He told me, revealing a little bit more of him word by word. 

‘‘Maybe he just wanted an excuse to drag you into this’‘ I thought out loud, not realizing what I had said until it was too late to take it back. I was afraid I said something wrong but Loki didn’t seem offended. ‘‘You might be right, actually. May I ask why you were chosen as my apprentice?’‘ He tested the waters with me. I was more than happy to tell him everything I knew. Oh, I was more than happy to actually develop a friendship with my mentor, because during lessons we couldn’t really bond that well. I was a strong believer that if we had a good bond, our lessons would be more effective too.

‘‘Well, one day my father came home and just told me to pack my most important belongings...’‘ I began to tell Loki the story from my point of view. Little did I know it would lead to us having many, many other conversations in this sitting as we shared out thoughts about this entire thing. Eventually, the topic changed and we lost track of time as we finally began to walk on the same line.

____

‘‘Focus!’‘ I heard Loki whisper, encouraging me to focus even harder. My eyes were glued to the porcelain cup of tea on Loki’s desk. We had been drinking tea and he was convinced he could make me raise that cup with my mind. We hadn’t practised magic yet but Loki seemed like he couldn’t wait anymore. Our conversations had been thrilling and now we were standing in his room as I stared at the white cup.

‘‘Loki this isn’t working’‘ I muttered, not making the cup move at all. ‘‘You need to think about the cup in the air. Try to picture a connection between you and the object. The second you feel anything, even the slightest energy, focus on that and then try to lift it’‘ Loki explained to me what to do. I nodded, giving it another shot. My heart began to beat harder as I stared at it. The cup just was there, neatly in the middle of the table.

Then I felt it. I had been staring at it for so long that I felt like some invisible force was keeping my eyes attached to it. I wasn’t sure if that was the connection but I focused on it, studying every aspect of it as I could. I noticed that the odd connection felt like flowing energies around me. Then I tried to imagine what the cup would look like mid-air. I didn’t expect it to work, truthfully I never thought I could do anything special.

But I could. The cup didn’t touch the surface of the table anymore. It levitated above it, touching nothing but air. A gasp left my mouth and it nearly fell but I was quick to regain focus and it flew high up in the air. ‘’Holy shit Loki’’ I breathed out excitedly, not taking my eyes off the cup my mind was holding up. ‘’Yes! See? I told you it was possible’’ He cheered happily. I looked at him and noticed he looked very proud. A second later, I heard a crack.

The cup fell on the table and broke. I lost focus. ‘’Oh- I’m sorry’’ I covered my mouth with my hands, worried I fucked up. But Loki didn’t seem mad. ‘’Don’t worry, we have nearly ten thousand more of those’’ He let me know it was okay. ‘’You’ll learn to keep it up without focusing too hard. But that’s an amazing start, Y/N’’ He complimented me which was so unexpected. I was touched. Never in a million years would I have pictured me confronting Loki turning into this. This resting day was a good day indeed. 

‘‘Thank you, Loki’‘ I thanked him, then facing away from him. I was just beyond happy. As I turned, I looked outside his large windows only to see it was dark outside. It shocked me to learn I had been in his room all day. His voice pulled me out of my thoughts again. ‘‘Thank you as well, Y/N’‘ 

[Part 4]

Author’s Note: How could fetus Loki possibly let you walk away?You two are bonding! (yay)  He’s still a soft pure baby bean. But you also know that fluff will eventually lead to either angst or drama, or both. May I please hear your thoughts? <3

The Apprentice tags; @yuna-belikova  @chloe-skywalker  @colagirl5  @infp-lovesyou @part-time-patronus @nizem8 @priincesspriincesspriincess  @saved-by-stucky

Forever Taglist;  @iraniq @embrycallsgirl @blackroseyaz  @puddins-princess @r-alexandra01

[cvenir]

here i am to introduce EIGHT characters that i actually thought i had already introduced lmao set me on fire !! but yay, take a look under the cut! ofc eventually proper bios will hit my pages and their tasks will expand much more on my children! as always, pinterests and songs are linked if u wanna go a lil deeper

just kidding i drafted that when i was aCTUALLY gonna do 8 but thankfully tea says she won’t accept me until i post 2 intros so yOU SHALL RECEIVE 2 RN and 8 later <33333 gotta keep y’all on your toes heh also i wrote niall’s in my journal on the plane so like... it’s not great (literally just bullets of sentence fragments) but wtvr that’s what bios are for amirite

NIALL O'DONOGHUE looks an awful lot like TARON EGERTON. HE is TWENTY-EIGHT and while they're ASTUTE, they have a tendency to get pretty ARDUOUS. You’ve probably seen them around Kola listening to DON'T WANNA FALL IN LOVE by KYLE (ok his pinterest is incredibly unfinished look away)

v conflicting mix of soft and hard

king of suppressing his lowkey intense feelings

kinda awkward around others due to the fact that he spent his entire life reading, writing, and studying –– he rarely interacted with other people as a kid and this mostly continued into his adult life

sweet soft boi has a double masters in medieval and renaissance studies and french and romance philology; he’s working on his phd rn while interviewing to become an assistant professor at kola university

grew up w a single mom (never knew dad) and had no siblings so his childhood was even lonelier :////

so like mad libs = his bff :’(

well mad libs and the shoulder flashlight he invented for late night reading (shoutout to amy santiago)

v soft and passionate heart

loves intellectual discussions like my boi has v strong gemini/virgo/mercury influences –– and a libra (or taurus i haven’t decided yet) venus so waTCH OUT

takes friendship v seriously (love u grant <333 @mcnuggcts )

buttt he can be a giant asshole sorry i don’t make the rules

v organized and particular

and scared of getting close to people bc he’s so used to being alone ugh my son!!

but once you get in there you’ll see he’s a good guy like rlly is he just has a bad temper sometimes and can barely express any emotion but anger half the time :///

ISLA VARGA looks an awful lot like ALEXIS REN. SHE is TWENTY-TWO and while they're SAGACIOUS, they have a tendency to get pretty MACABRE. You’ve probably seen them around Kola listening to COOL GIRL by TOVE LO. 

so i’ve played isla before n i’m v sorry to do this but i feel hella lazy so i’m sORRY but here comes a fucking huge wall of text don’t look at me and don’t feel like u have to read it ://// all the triggers i tagged apply to her; she’s p dark so seriously do not read it if you think she will make you uncomfortable!!

to preface, isla is like the embodiment of all of the seven deadly sins, and i molded her a lot after amy dunne (scary, i know) and april ludgate (mostly amy tho april is just deadpan like she is –– when she’s being herself, that is), as she is an incredible pococurante yet perfectionist who borders on sociopathy

soooo this will make sense later but her real name is actually brigid (father’s surname idk) which she now uses as her middle name

so isla’s dad is a fucking rockstar !!! badass right. she’s half-siblings with hadley ( @ofadorations ) and colby ( @shtbgs ) but she actually never met her mom, something she’s not too pressed about

bc she was cute as a button, family friends decided to get her into the entertainment business as a child star almost as soon as she could walk –– she did it all, acted, modeled, danced, sang, she was literally hollywood’s little starlet and she hated every minute of it. the entertainment business loved who they created, but that girl was never her and it weighed deeply on her psyche.

when she was twelve, she decided to fake her own disappearance because she was fed up with everything –– she cut her hair to her ears, dyed it brown (and has continued to do so ever since) and sneaked her way to nyc hoping no one would recognize her

well someone did, and they happened to be a member of ruthless and organized mobs of the city –– in return for keeping her concealed, she pledged her devotion and became one of their most skilled and lethal honeytraps in the business (WHICH IS ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE BC THEY MADE HER START YOUNG I AM SO SORRY FOR WRITING THIS IT JUST PLAYS HEAVILY INTO HER CHARACTER)

along the way, members inevitably died –– people she was sworn to care for –– many times before her eyes as well, which only lead her to realize she enjoyed witnessing all sorts of death, even those of people she was supposed to “love”. emotion was almost nonexistent in isla’s childhood, a trait that bled into her character development.

she began to idolize the gang and its power, something she now craved. still, isla was doing a great job of portraying herself to those around her as a rosy, meek, baby-doll, when in actuality she was a child full of hate who would soon blossom into a young adult of the same tone. she became even more obsessed with death, fantasizing about it as if her unusual thoughts would make her less afraid when it came for her. 

eventually, as she grew older, she was accepted into the higher ranks of the mob; this couldn’t have made isla more content. the macabre girl was honored that someone else noticed her genius, the way she could predict things, assess situations, manipulate people to do her bidding. it was only right that she was initiated into a society that praised her for such harshness

but, as all things do, her time in the gang ended after ten years and isla did what she does best: disappeared. she’s relocated back close to home, kola california, and it’s only a matter of time before people and the industry realize just who she is

if she’s acting like her true self, she behaves like a negative, eldritch layabout who likes to watch others suffer (sounds extreme, i know). however, she rarely lets anyone see the real her, and instead accepts various facades in a big game –– the darkness is truly her personality, she’s not faking her cold demeanor. this image enables her to mask her true potential and the fact that she is unflaggingly loyal and cares about those she’s close to.

if i had to give her a label, it would probably be the pococurante (which is defined as: an indifferent person. possibly they’re bored, jaded or even been hurt. either way, they tend not to get attached to things and don’t show much enthusiasm, whether that’s on the outside or the inside, too)

on the other hand, she could be accurately summed up as an arcane, as she’s an enigmatic mystery and she prides herself on being a puzzle that several people have failed to solve. there are many sides to her personality; in some aspects, she’s very much an aesthete considering she spends a great deal of her time taking putting together outfits, so she has a very defined fashion sense and typically dresses like a princess half the time, which is very ironic considering her dark personality. she truly is so GLAMOROUS (and this is why i love alexis for her) and she works that mean girl, hard soul aesthetic while serving looks and also able to come across as incredibly sweet, which is perfect for her multiple personas. she’s a stunner, with both her appearance and personality; as much as she is indifferent and would prefer to fly under the radar, wherever she goes people always want to ask questions, making her into this intangible concept that everyone wants to define.

people will recognize parts of her as if they’ve seen here in another life, and because of her ostentatious, puzzling, and spellbinding personality, she’s unforgettable. on the other hand, she’s also something of a virago, due to the fact that she can be incredibly feisty when angered; but it takes quite a lot to actually set off her fuse, as she’s good at controlling which emotions she shares. for the most part, she is incredibly blasé and even-tempered. additionally, she’s is a bit of a picaro because her primary aim with her life at this point is to be independent and liberated from any and all attachments to other people. mostly, though, she’s is nothing more than a girl who’s afraid; of what, she still can’t decide.

all in all, she’s so much of everything that she isn’t quite certain of her own identity. her character is one shrouded in secrets and shadows yet alluring and sensual. but, lbr, most of all she’s just deadass terrifying. one of her defining characteristics is her desire to make things happen for her through her own abilities and determination. obstinate as all get out, she doesn’t like to own up to making mistakes so she tries to prove that she’s almost invincible to them bc she doesn’t wanna let anyone see her vulnerable, or she doesn’t want to let someone down - this refers only to those that she’s actually close to. due to her apathetic nature, all she really wants to do is let most people down – people she finds boring and useless – and have some fun because of it. however, when it comes to people she truly has allowed herself to care about, her deepest desire is for their happiness because they must be pretty damn special for making her give a shit.

still, because of her evasive tendencies, she almost always does ruin things for herself and for others, even when she actually cares. she’s like a double-edged sword; when she finds something worthwhile, she sees so much beauty and potential in it, but she’s got a midas touch. whenever she wants to obtain it or pursue it, her involvement makes everything fall to ashes, and she is afraid of her own influence. despite her tendency to run away, once she latches on and decides to be truly loyal, she’ll be devoted in such an extent that she would undoubtedly kill for them.

she can be a loudmouth whenever she actually decides to speak, constantly fabricating outlandish stories and even going off like a deranged person, but beneath her caustic and frightening exterior, isla is rather pensive. on the occasion that she chooses to offer legitimate advice, it’s usually very elaborate and composed. still, she doesn’t want people to know about capable she is, or how intelligent she can be, so she hides her rare brilliance with a tough exterior and stoic personality.

idk if you can tell but i like diving into the specifics of my character like their star signs and stuff so i searched an amy dunne mbti and tweaked it bc it really helped describe her even further! she’s a intj !

introverted intuition (ni): isla sees everything around her in a world of symbols, of metaphors, and of potential. her narration will continually be littered with predictions, with ideas about how things are going to be and what will result from this or that. despite her brashness that some may assume is impulsivity, she is a planner, anticipating new “problems” and seeking to rectify them with her own twisted brand of justice. she tries to work everything into her overall system of understanding, of her big ideas about how the world works, including her take on her various false identities she possesses for her previous job as an escort but also to mess with the minds of others around her. she’s always disappointed by how the real world is never as good as the way she imagined it; she is perfect and nothing else can catch up with her expectations.

extroverted feeling (fe): despite her aloofness, and rather lack of any sort of emotional bearing, empathy, or any sort of true feeling, isla is conscious of how others’ perceive her, of the image she’s created, and of how key that social perception is to her success, even if it’s just in her own imagination. she restrains her real opinions in order to adapt to her environment, as she’s somewhat of a chameleon, only a few have had a chance to catch the true witch beneath the crown. she’s the mistress of change, easily altering her identities in order to better fit in with new people, should the situation require it. she’s easily devastated when she reveals her real personality to others, as in the past, some that she’s left truly see her have refused to accept her twisted true-self. even though she is wholesomely selfish and self-seeking, isla is very people-focused, and applies most of her intellect and analysis onto general people-based functions, that may she can have the confidence that she has clearly manipulated and analyzed every aspect of her environment, as she needs this to feel in control.

introverted thinking (ti): as mentioned, isla is highly analytical, always trying to see the why of a scenario, what’s behind human behavior, which turns her attention to psychology and manifests in her flair for anticipating the thoughts and actions of those around her; she is so obsessed with understanding why people tick that she looks past her own slighted judgment, as she herself could easily qualify as a sociopath/psychopath. she’s always trying to fit in any new experience, or piece of information, into her pre-established system of facts, and as such is rarely ever surprised. despite her apathy and lack of care for her life or how it progresses, she’s highly organized and loves to make checklists, arrangements for the future, and methodically ticks of her obligations, one by one. while her emotions and feelings are significantly suppressed, and even nonexistent, she makes up for that human trait with a very powerful mind, one that is quick to learn and adept with languages, memorization, and logic. however, she doesn’t want anyone to know just how brilliant and quick she is, as it’s her greatest asset, thus explaining why she chose not to be a member on the intellectual team.

extroverted sensing (se): isla tends to respond her physical environment with fierce analysis, as expressed in her intellectual capabilities. she’s almost incapable of living in the moment, contrary to how people suspect she is, considering she portrays herself as impulsive and cunningly excitable. in reality, though, even when she’s crossed off everything on her checklist, she’s almost incapable of relaxing, or enjoying the world around her, as she doesn’t find things that other people find beautiful. she struggles the most with the physical side of her plans, even though she is a very physical individual. she is very open with her body and indulges with the lusts of the flesh, as she sensuality is at the same level as her wickedness. along with this, isla craves for the environment that houses her figure to be pleasant and organized, and can’t stand when things are out of order.

[the-cryptographer]

wrapped up playing final fantasy ix

yeah, idk, at some point it became clear to me that the game wasn’t really heading in the directions i wanted it to. that was... a while ago, lol. but i’m usually committed to finishing these things once i start them, even if they’re less than what i’d hoped.

on the game side of things... it’s a final fantasy game. it’s got all the regular final fantasy stuff going on. for this one in particular, i guess i like this type of ability system. otherwise it’s your standard, mostly-mindless turned based combat. summons take way to long to play. as usual i tend to favour physical combat interspersed with a healer that can cast holy. but i ended up relying a lot on Frog Drop and Dragon Crest, heh. my favourite team is something like Eiko and pick 2 {Quina, Freya, Amarant}.

Also this final fantasy gets credit for finally getting me to like moogles. they are... so cute in this. Stiltzkin is pretty great, as was Mogmi and Moguta being silly in love, but my absolute favourite was Moorock, who gets so gd excited about writing a letter and loudly exclaims ‘I love Mognet!’ even though he’s never heard of it before. why are he and Mozme not on disk four tho?! tell me they made it out okay D’x  Although, hmm, I’m not sure why we trusted Artemicion with more superslick at the end there. Since he apparently he got high snorting the last bottle. god, don’t trust the addict with more of his substance.

idk, I guess I’ll go through the story characters. and just... kind of hope I cover everything that way.

Quina

I... love them. And I tend to like gag characters but... I love them. Such ambition... to eat everything. So cute. So silly. So relatable. I also really like the nightgown/smock kind of thing going on. Need more characters dressed like granny that are trying to eat us out of house and home.

Amarant

Um... there seemed to be a lot going on in this sector of the story that kind of... needed more time. Or otherwise needed cutting out, probably. I find it conceptually interesting, at least: loners being confronted with the boundaries of their... determination to be alone. So I like him in spite of myself. But Zidane’s played a pretty shitty trick on him, once upon a time, and it’s a little hard to justify the kind of devotion Amarant has in lieu of that. Because... yes... it is devotion... somehow. And it’s a little hard to buy the way he becomes so easily enamored with how Zidane’s mind works with so little development.

Eiko

Mmm, again, there was some interesting stuff here about her growing up alone, and the way she immediately clung to Zidane as a way to escape that loneliness. But her crush on him is taken a bit too seriously by the narrative, like she’s really in love with him, and that gets a bit creepy, imo. The stuff with Mog is interesting, but kind of too much trying to tug on the heartstrings when the heartstrings haven’t been wound and tuned, if you know what I mean. I suppose, at the end of the day, I didn’t end up liking her all that much. But feel like I could have and should have if they had written her even a little better.

Freya

I love this aesthetic... so much. Kind of a mix of red mage and dragoon, both of which I love individually, plus rat person. She is one of my faves on this basis alone. In terms of her actual personality... it’s so sparse and inconsistent. Ah, there are some landmarks I like - the kind of quiet and sternly professional bits, the loyalty to her homeland, she has some good moments deciding to fight after the destruction of Cleyra, and talking with Amarant too. Just- I’m left feeling like she was never pushed to a workable extreme anywhere in the narrative, and so she doesn’t really have any clear, defining personality characteristic. It’s more like... a lot of shit happens to her, and she’s sad but not too sad, and strong but not too strong. And it’s kind of lacklustre at the end of the day.

Steiner

I don’t really know how to say this except to say it. He’s funny and sweet at times. Overly distracted by rules and decorum, of course. But he also veers hard into being rather annoying to watch at times. He is... not a practical person. Overall, I’m kind of impressed with his bit in the story, though. Even if it fades as the narrative progresses. His relationship with Beatrice was kind of a bright spot in the narrative as a whole for me. I maybe... can’t help but like the fact that this hypercompetent, beautiful lady falls for his bumbling ass. Beatrice in general strikes a neat line between being chilly and needy and, really, way too good for anyone else in the cast.

Vivi

A great character and... ultimately a huge copout. There was a lot of build up to Vivi dying and, ultimately, it felt rather unsatisfying. It felt like they were trying to rob the sadness out of it by limiting what they showed us of him in the epilogue to his breed of offspring. But, even before then, they touched on so many themes about him in a way that really attempted to distance itself from the fear of human mortality. Like, this isn’t something that only happens to weird artificially constructed lifeforms. Human being sometimes find out they only have a couple months or a year left to live, and have to come to terms with that. Hell, all of humanity is on a timer - and not once did anyone really say to Vivi, ‘yeah, it’s true for all of us. We could all die at any moment. We’re only going to last so long, whether it’s a year or ten or a hundred.’ Kuja came kind of close to communicating some of this ‘i’m going to die, just like the Black Mages’. But never in a way that emotionally impacted Vivi, which ws kind of shitty writing, imo.

Dagger/Garnet

I don’t know. She’s rather generic. Which... doesn’t necessarily preclude my attachment in of itself. But, yeah, she’s generic in a way that doesn’t resonate with me, heh. She leans super hard on Zidane the whole narrative, and it’s really not even a little fun. There was some interesting stuff with Ramuh, and with Eiko and her being from the same summoner clan, and her relationship with her mother was great as well. I liked that Dagger got to be sad about Brahne - because let her be sad about losing the people who loved her and who she loved. But... Brahne herself is such a conundrum. I don’t dislike her character and her design as a whole. But I don’t like the game’s ‘fat and ugly are evil’ vibes. And I also don’t like the way she’s immediately forgiven in the public eye, and the eyes of the narrative, once she dies. She... literally destroys cities and kills thousands of people. That’s not really forgivable.

But, regarding Garnet... I started liking her a bit more once she cut her hair and started smiling in her in-game portrait. so, if nothing else, we know I am very shallow.

Zidane

Aaaaand, if I wasn’t already, this is where I start really running into problems. When you don’t really like the main character. When you’re not invested in the main character’s romance that is front and centre of the story and its ending. When you really don’t believe the strength of the emotional connections between the cast that the game is attempting to sell you on... It just makes it really hard to enjoy things. Zidane often seems dismissive, in his own head, and even shallow in the way he attempts to relate to the rest of the cast. It’s everyone else that has to come around to his way of thinking and learn from him, rather than the narrative making much of an effort to teach him about how to actually empathise with others. and it’s kind of grating then that we hear them praise him so casually.

I think, then, combined with the womanising aspect of his character... I don’t know, because I’m certainly not opposed to somebody wanting to sleep with all the ladies. That is an A+ relatable feeling. But, for someone that’s so casual about cozying up to every woman he runs across, I was left feeling like the only woman he had any kind of legitimate connection to was Garnet. (The game tells us he’s good friends with Freya, but does it really show us why? or how?) Which is... I suppose why Garnet, and not Ruby and Freya, was propped up as being Zidane’s major romance. But... idk, it feels a little too much like entitlement. He’s allowed to hit on all the ladies and look good while doing it, while he has a serious relationship developing with Dagger and she’s arguably right there to see him hit on other women, and he also has basically no interest in providing any kind of emotional support or developing any kind of connection with pretty much any woman (except maybe Dagger). Combine this with Cid cheating on Hilda and then she jealously turns him into a beetle - but, wait, this is a happy marriage, the game tells us. and the fact that the game’s major villain is pointedly described as ‘not a skirt chaser like you’... it’s just deifying an entitled straight boy ‘boys will be boys’ kind of attitude when that’s already an accepted social norm. and it’s kind of disgusting. I think there are better ways to talk about infidelity and promiscuity and the desire for the ladies, ones that are still sympathetic to all the parties involved. I think the final fantasy series /has/ talked about it better. With Edgar, who wants to get with all the ladies, but who lets Terra and Celes into his protection and the bounty of Figaro castle without touching either of them, and who is pointedly single even though he’s the sole heir of a kingdom and pushing thirty. And with Tidus, who had a power fantasy dream where Yuna and Rikku are hanging off each of his arms as they roast his father, but that’s before he gets to know each of them better as people. once he does the objectification wanes. I’m not saying that Edgar and Tidus are perfect heroes and wonderfully written, but I think this aspect of them was delivered with more nuance and a more critical eye, and it makes a huge difference.

Also... Are you a team player, Zidane? Or are you just a team player until you’re angry, or decide your pride is on the line? For a kind of ‘friendship is everything’ message, it certainly gets muddled everytime Zidane’s in a snit. Running back into Ispen Castle alone was a weird moment when we’re just getting done telling Amarant not to run around alone. Only okay when I do it(tm) And when he’s being kind of an insufferable bastard at the end of disc 3... just... why are you chasing after him guys? and why, after all that hoopla about accepting his friends’ help, does he deny it when going after Kuja at the end? I'm not saying that there aren’t things one needs to do alone just- why is Zidane always right when he says he needs to do things alone, but everyone else is wrong when they say the same thing? it’s a terrible case of protagonist-centred morality, and it’s really terrible and trite.

idk, I just- I understand why people are sick of the angsty final fantasy heroes after Cloud and Squall (the former I love, the latter I don’t). But I feel Zidane basically fell short in every way that wasn’t being upbeat and energetic, and I’m not sure what everyone sees in him.

Kuja

I can’t help but like this flamboyant bastard. God, he... soooo did not need a tacked on redemption arc. Again, mass genocide isn’t really forgivable. He is a terrible person. full stop. But I’m irrationally pleased he got some sympathy from the narrative anyhow. He’s just... I never liked Sephiroth, but Kuja has convinced me I could have liked Sephiroth if Sephiroth had even a fraction of a personality in ff7.

other than that... the wind/earth/water/fire shrine part of the game was weird. give me real dungeons, devs. also the coffee sidequest is nigh impossible to complete and then the game guilted me, and i hate that.

in the end, i suppose i feel the game was messy. the tone whip-lashed quick between whimsy and pure horror - which should be my jam but, idk, it didn’t work here for me. and a lot of the major characters and storylines lacked depth, or otherwise lacked nuance, or otherwise lacked payoff. it’s kind of hard to watch so much effort and so many good ideas flop so hard, but it flopped hard for me. i don’t get the hype about this game.