#she doesnt have enough impact on the story to be called that. which again is a shame because she really COULD have meant something.

[mxdotpng]

as much as i love tear and luke i was like thinking about how they market them as the main "duo" of tales of the abyss but ultimately fail to have a story thats about the two of them? the game is About luke, and has an equal share for each of its characters throughout the game, but never once did i really get that they were a duo as much as i did for other characters. luke and guy are a duo - their stories are intertwined. anise and ion are a duo - their stories are, again, intertwined. luke and asch, tear and van, etc and etc. but i never got the feeling that luke and tears stories were as woven together as they were likely intended to, which is a shame because the seeds are there. luke and tears stories are meant to directly parallel each other. tear calls luke a fool for saying he would give his life up for the world, despite she herself doing the exact same one act prior. she understands his want to keep his illness a secret, because she knows exactly what it is like for him to be in that position. and yet they fail to make anything truly meaningful out of it - their stories stop at being just parallels, and i believe the strongest scene with the two of them is luke and tear in the library in baticul. which is a shame because it, again, isn't advertised as "their" scene, or even really seen as such by fans. for as bittersweet and lovely luke's words the night before the battle with van were, it isn't even close to being the most meaningful moment between the two of them. it's the closest either of them ever really got to a fully fleshed out interwoven story arc, and it still feels unfinished, because the truth of the matter is the writers kind of just... forgot tear existed at some point in the story. which. again, is a shame, because the two of them have enough in common to be as meaningful as the other character stories in the game.

[ganondoodle]

as i was awake in the middle of the night for like 2 hours bc i felt sick i had more somewhat random totk thoughts

one being that i really hate how raurus response to concerned zelda is, after sonia died in that almost funny how little impactful it was way, "im sure you are here for a reason" (actually, i hate how often this sentence is used in general to .. idk i guess its supposed to be inspiritational???)

bc what does that mean actually? him saying that to someone who got there absolutely by accident really just sounds like "i dont care go figure it out yourself bc i dont want to think about anything concerning you or your troubles lol" i guess its meant to sound like OOOOH fate has BROUGHT you here bc you have to furfill a role you dont know yet (spoiler its being a sacrifice girl with no personality) and besides me hating the 'inescapable fate' trope in general (at least the way its usually done in these games, which is not to struggle against it but willingly accept whatever you are told and pretend thats good) its really jsut goddamn boring and is really only an excuse to well .. ignore her and her trouble; shouldnt you, if you were actually such a cool guy like the game wants me to believe so bad, do everything in your power to get zelda back to her own world before shes pulled even further into the war you caused now that her only ""mentor"" that could help her get more use of her pretty much useless sudden powers is gone too?? i know shes basically dead wife sonia replacement (can of worms ugh) but it still grinds my gears whenever i think of that cutscene, bc i cant help but hear it as the lamest excuse in existence to not care about her and just kinda .. see what happens which in this case means leave zelda completely on her her own since both rauru and mineru die as well (honestly shouldnt rauru have thought about like .. any plan to defeat gan besides dying himself, given hes the oh so cool and goodest guy king whos only mistake was not stabbing gan the second he stepped into their kathedral castle thing, like even if you had a plan it can still fail but it seemed like he just kinda went in with a handful of people that didnt seem to know each other at all, never got names or faces -or unique voices for that matter- to fight gan face to face inlcuding the girl that came from a different time and had nothing to do with any of this conflict and couldnt even really control her sudden new powers just seems pretty stupid)

thought 2

how totk really feels like botw but for the people who didnt like shiekah tech, its not a sequel, its botw again, but version of only sonau, its like a pokemon game that had two versions but one has weirdly incoherent story and acts like the other never existed jsut as a whole its like retreading the same points but worse, all shiekah tech that was so integral to the world and had such a long history just vanishing and no one caring about any of it like it never happened, HELL the titans were called divine beasts in english but i guess they werent divine or important enough to keep around LOL champions WHO and isntead a never before seen or even heard of race for that matter showing up and planting their ass in every place the shiekah were before, dare i say it feels weirdly manipulative, like either them or some outside force erasing every fact about the ancient shiekah and replace them with sonau stuff bc they are the hot new shit now

this is a point that just doesnt stop bothering me, how the shiekah tech seemed so carefully designed and integrated into botws world and story, its a difficult to keep balance after all, integrating high tech stuff into a medieval setting, but they made it work! and then totk comes around and throws a bunch modern day tech into it puts some vague greenish stone filter on its exterior and call that even better more ancient tech; why did they even bother to make pottery inspired laser shooting spider legged robots so well integrated when they throw a car and rockets into the next game without a thought and call it a day, what was the fucking point

it feels like someone was dead set on having a set of legos thrown into the game it had no place in, if you want players to build whatever they want make a building game instead!! especially if you are just gonna throw it in with seemingly no consideration how out of place it feels togehter with the fACT THAT YOU ALREADY HAD AND ANCIENT HIGH TECH CIVILIZATION WITH A VERY DISTINCT AESTHETIC THAT WAS ALREADY WELL INTEGRATED INTO THE WORLD YOU ARE PLANNING TO REUSE WITH ALOT OF MYSTERY AND UNKOWN STUFF ABOUT THEM TO EXPLORE FURTHER YOU COULD HAVE USED!! but i guess they just "didnt want to play with you anymore" and that so much so that they went out of their way to erase every trace of it, i dont think the words shiekah tech are ever used in the game, and the purah pad and her towers just drive me more isnane bc they are the same shit but called different and also much worse, liek the purah pad isnt some more developed shiekah stone, no its a glorified camera with a teleport function and thats it

(i know i said this before but i really cant stand how obsessed every single NPC is with sonau shit, you get told to your face every second line of dialog that they are so cool and are so mysterious that it just makes me annoyed of them even more, the game is obsessed with shoving them everywhere and telling you over and over you too should obsess over them, they werent weird like that about the shiekah stuff in botw?? the biggesst talking point in botw was calamity ganon ..... which makes sense and in totk its like ... gan is mentioned what, in a newspaper article??? once???and then not even by name i think???)

aside from that big point which will never let me go, its also just .. its not moving forward anything, it actively walks BACK the progress that was made in botw, call me dumb but i dont really count moving one step up in the social roles of each race as a character development (for the side characters like the champions desc- ahem SAGES) but mainly zelda ... god how dirty she was done, totk pretty explicitely makes her regress any development she made in botw aside from she likes link uwu and some people like her too, but also not enough to notice that that weird zelda being all evil and weird isnt her (INLCUDING THE CHAMP- SAGES WHO YOU ARE SUPPOSEDLY FRIENDS WITH??? you dont have to be a genius to pick up on that my god, were you all given the mc dumbo potion or what)

she gets put back to square one, back into the little itty bitty princessy maiden role forced upon her by her royal parentage, this time rauru edition, back into a white little dress, back into the scared puppy eyed teenager, back into a situation she cant handle, back into losing everyone around her (tho honestly botw made me care more about rhoam than totk did about rauru), back into being forced to do a big sacrifice- but worse actually

in botw she went to FIGHT AND HOLD GANON IN THE CASTLE SO LINK HAD TIME TO RECOVER AND IT WOULDNT DESTROY THE LAND!! and you are telling me in totk rauru takes up her botw role and she bascially killed herself to ... restore the mastersword.

......... she ... she did that only to be a glorified version of the stone pedestal in the forest. and then she gets returned to normal itty bitty girly no problem via magic sparkle beam at the end and

DOESNT

EVEN

REMEMBER.

it really is just botw but worse, you even get yet another ghost king of hyrule to guide you around (rhoam did it better fight me ... we dont talk about the questionable choice to make himself darker skinned when posing as just some guy)

i honestly dont think i was ever truly taken aback by anythign that happened in botw, while in totk, the further i played, the more i had to fight with myself to keep the feeling of unease, disappointment and betrayal down

its such a god damn shame, totk should have stayed a DLC, i will forever mournfully dream of a game that explores more of the ancient shiekah, doesnt erase integral parts of the world, developes characters more instead of making them regress back and make them end up even less developed than at the start of the game, dives into buried secrets and mistakes of dark pages of history without giving into a weirldy nationalist(imperalisitc?) narrative and lets characters have some agency for once

if it werent for the yiga i might have actually considered refunding the game, just to be at peace with myself

anyway, aboslutely incoherent word vomit.

[hookhausen]

i have a lot of thoughts about what happened with sasha and naomi tonight so warning: long post ahead.

basically what im trying to say is what i tweeted below. wwe time and time again has shown who their favorites are and what they are willing to sacrifice in order to keep them happy. it's especially ironic how badly becky's comment aged abt the aew womens division when the division and company you work for wont even listen to their top tag team stars. like i am not trying to sit here and play the "aEw Is BetTeR" card bc i frankly do not care enough to argue abt that but to see how this all fell out and the only support outside of fans sasha and naomi had was fucking mia yim is ridiculous.

no one called becky and charlotte unprofessional for their dumbass stunt last year on tv. no one called brock unprofessional when he literally whipped the championship belt at vince a few years back. this situation happened backstage and could have been kept that way but for whatever reason this had to be aired out? and they had to add corey graves' stupid ass "unprofessional" comment on top of that? corey graves especially has a lot of nerve to say that when he was the one caught up allegedly cheating on his ex wife a few years back the day before a PPV so miss me with that snarky ass comment corey.

either wwe wanted to see if ppl would agree with them and thats why they mentioned the situstion so openly or they were on crack to think that ppl would agree right off the bat. and to the ppl saying this could be a ploy to have more ppl talk abt wwe, while i doubt it is, if that is the case, they let this get out of control and idk how theyre gonna get it back. this hit mainstream media outlets and this is becoming public information, not just news that stays between wrestling fans in the wrestling realm. wwe would never openly let shit get this bad for a storyline nor would vince ever let his company be aired out like this. that mf would rather die than to see this many ppl have this much anger towards the company on purpose for a creative plot.

like i hate to be that person but wwe in recent years lost so much of me as a fan. the last time i truly sat down to see shows back to back was in 2020. being a fan of a product that only delivers once or twice a year and leaving fans unhappy the rest of the time gets tiring and seeing talent this unhappy just proves that sometimes it is the companies fault and it is isnt the fans overcomplaining.

vince, bruce, john, and whoever else has creative control backstage along with producers can go to hell. you're the reason why so many fans leave to watch other promotions or just stop watching in general.

sasha and naomi deserve so much better and sasha alone has so much going for her regardless if she continues to wrestle for other companies or if she decides to fully immerse herself in acting and retires for a while. she was on the fucking mandalorian and assumingly was under contract with DISNEY for while to which I'm sure she could get back if she wanted too. and thankfully she used her real name so she didn't have ties with wwe for it. she doesnt need wwe in the way they think she does and as for naomi, there are countless other companies that would love to have her. impacts womens division could thrive even more with her there. hell, she'd kill it if she decided to go the Stardom route and wrestle in japan for a while. wwe loses a lot if they let sasha and naomi go but sasha and naomi wont lose much if they decide to depart from the company and find other promotions to be apart of. end of story.

[jaekaicx]

so ive had this idea for an amphibia fangame for a lil while now-

(LONG post)

its based around the idea that sometime after anne got sent back to earth, she decides to sneak out one night to visit sasha and marcys bedrooms and poke through their stuff. this causes a bunch of memories to come back to anne through flashbacks while she tries to process everything thats happened and her feelings abt their friendship.

i was thinking itd be mostly a visual novel type thing. maybe with a few small choices, but the story would be mostly linear. thered be around 3 main story beats: a prologue bit w/ anne sneaking out of her house, marcys bedroom, and sashas bedroom. also one of the main mechanics would be looking at one of their bedrooms and clicking on random objects of importance and triggering a flashback sequence.

it came from the idea that anne will probably try to just shove all her emotions down and try to ignore her feelings abt true colors and everything that went down then. especially with what we saw in the sneak peek, anne will probably try to hide her emotions and bottle them up, which is obviously not healthy. so eventually shes gonna have to work through her emptional baggage and try to process everything.

i havent thought through EVERYTHING just yet, just some more major plot points and maybe one or two ideas for flashbacks. nothing too solid yet. but heres a bit more detailed runthrough of the plot

summary - prologue

so it would start off with anne at home. she and her mom are talking outside annes room. her moms concerned abt how annes been handling everything that happened in amphibia but anne keeps brushing everything off. her mom tries to get her to open up, but she keeps dismissing her and eventually shuts herself in her room. after taking a bit to cool off and think anne decides that shes gonna take the night to just ride off her emotions and stop repressing them for once. she also makes an impulsive decision to sneak out and check out marcy and sashas rooms.

anne goes to gather her stuff in her room, and just as shes about to climb out the window, sprig walks in to check on her. hes still rly concerned abt his big sis but he knows he cant stop her. he tries to go with anne, but she tells him she needs to do this on her own. so, sprig lets her go and tries to cover for her while shes gone.

so at this point i’ll probably give the player the choice of whose house to visit first. it doesnt rly impact the story or whatever, but i guess it might have a small emotional impact depending on whose house u choose to go to first??

(quick note: after this bit, there arent too many specific details for the plot and stuff like that. its largely just an overall idea of how the plot is gonna go. and even then, there isnt much to it. i didnt think that far ahead yet, which is why there isnt as much refinement yet. so far i just have general ideas for how annes gonna get to the bedrooms, with a couple of vague flashback ideas. just keep that in mind; this whole thing is still being thought over and planned as im typing this out)

summary - sasha

with sasha, annes still rly conflicted abt how she feels abt her. of course shes still rly hurt by being backstabbed by her twice and swordfighting her as many times. but as much as she hates sasha she cant bring herself to fully give up on sash. she hates her guts but deep down shes still willing to give sash another chance.

there may or may not be a small sequence where anne has to sneak into sashas house, but eventually she works her way into sashas room. im not entirely sure abt the details of sashas house n her family yet. im probably gonna wait for info from s3 until i solidify anything, but for now i do know that sashas family has a big house n theyre probably rich.

so anne goes into sashas room and its been left pretty much untouched ever since annes birthday, save for the few times someone came in to dust things off. again, dont rly have all the details for sashas room, but it kind of has a vibe of controlled chaos, with organized clutter and a bit of a touch of a rebellious teen girl. one detail i do want to have is a calendar opened up to the month the trio disappeared, with annes birthday circled and highlighted so much that its impossible to miss.

the calendar itself might include a flashback. im thinking of also having a varsity jacket and some old stuffed animal be different “artifacts” that trigger their own memories. there’ll be a bunch more, but those are the only ideas i have so far fjsbndnd

summary - marcy

ok so i want to be rly mean about marcys segment: this is going off the theory that marcys parents moved away while the trio was in amphibia.

anne doesnt know this yet tho, so shes in for quite a surprise when she turns onto marcys street to find a realtor sign on the front lawn. the clues are all there: an empty driveway, sign on the lawn, an overall empty vibe coming from the house. but it doesnt completely register at first. its not til anne actually comes up close does she notice the sign.

anne tries to deny it, and decides to prove to herself that “no marcys parents wouldnt do this. theyre not that cruel. im just gonna check marcys room myself.” the front doors locked, so she just goes over to marcys window and climbs in.

but its completely empty.

ok not totally empty, but a lot of marcys furniture and stuff is gone, except for a few stray toys and other “junk.” the home guys (idk what theyre called????) are still kind of in the process of cleaning everything out, so theres still some stuff left here and there around the house. but its still way too empty. and its yet another gut punch for anne.

anne searches the rest of the house a bit more, hoping that shes just hallucinating. but no, marcys parents are really gone. she tried to deny it before, but now she has more of an idea of how shitty the wu parents are. so anne decides to just mope around in marcys old room, checking out the stuff their parents left behind.

maybe she finds an old blanket marcy liked when he was rly young. or an old rubiks cube from marcys vast collection. a cnc figurine, some cards, a pride flag, and old diary? a couple of other old toys, an old report card or two, or maybe even some stray clothes. whatever anne finds, its all thats left of marcy, at least in LA.

it really doesnt leave anne in that much of a better emotional position. she already felt conflicted enough about what happened in true colors and what she found out abt marcy. but seeing even a small glimpse of what marcy was dealing with, it just makes her more confused. marcy was such a sweet kid! theres no way they couldve done anything wrong. yet here anne was, betrayed by both of her childhood friends.

only now is anne really taking the time to process the fact that marcy essentially kidnapped her and sasha with the calamity box. he didnt mean to do it, and theres no way they couldve known the box would actually work, but it doesnt completely excuse marcy. his actions still hurt anne and sash, and while they meant the best of intentions, it didnt rly come through that way.

and now marcy was dead. stabbed in the back by the newt king.

and now annes curled up in an empty bedroom, wrapped up in one of marcys old blankets, trying to wrap her head around her feelings about marcy while reminiscing in the past.

summary - extras/epilogue??

i kind of like the idea that anne ends up drifting off in which ever bedroom ended up being the second one she visited. she slowly comes back to consciousness, with her surroundings feeling somewhat familiar, only to wake up in horror bc “OH SHIT I FORGOT TO GO BACK HOME” im not completely sold on the idea tho bc it feels a bit abrupt and like too much of a tone shift?? idk it doesnt feel exactly right

but anyways, im also playing around with the idea of a small epilogue scene with the calamity trio hanging out in annes room, a good amount of time after amphibia ended. dont know what theyre doing in there, but theyre just chilling and feeling a bit nostalgic i guess.

but uh yeah thats pretty much what ive got for the overall idea. it doesnt feel too out of reach, but somethjng like this would definitely be ambitious. i could mayyyybe handle writing out the vn and drawing the character sprites, but i have no idea how to code a vn or draw detailed backgrounds, both of which would be pretty important to this fangame fjsndj. so i might consider having help with this.

THIS ISNT ANY SORT OF PROMISE OR WHATEVER. id rly love to follow through and make this fangame a thing, but im not making any guarantees. i have no idea if i’ll actually follow through, but i would definitely love to.

who knows. maybe in like a couple years this might actually become a thing. but for now i have no idea

[shoezuki]

Tommy's prison/revival arc isnt well written actually

Anyways ive been wanting to talk on it a while for a bit here but havent had the Time or like. The thought to. But im gonna go off now.

First off im gonna say im ASSUMING this stream and plot of tommy being in the prison with dream is written entirely by tommy and dream. Wilbur May be involved in the latest stream but im not sure.

Bringing tommy back to life after only three days of him being dead did practically nothing to progress plot, the characters, or audience's understanding. In fact i feel that it damaged Other characters' potential and plot and already established plotlines.

The 'development' aspect

A really, really easy way to see if anything has changed or developed through an arc or plotline is to straightup just compare the 'beginning' to the 'end' in terms of the barebones situation. So;

Beginning: tommy is trapped in an isolated prison cell with dream, his own abuser who has hurt him in the past, for an unknown amount of time. He's terrified of dream and being stuck there with him.

End: tommy is trapped in an isolated prison cell with dream after being killed then revived by him, his own abuser whos hurt him in the past, for an unknown amount of time. Hes terrified of dream and being stuck there with him.

Okay. This is simplified obvious. But the point stands. ALTHOUGH the troupe of 'going back to the beginning' is common in the heroes journey its. It doesnt work here. Has tommy learned anything? Has he changed as a character? Is the severity of their situation any different? Have we, as the audience, learned anything new?

Im going to expand on that last point because i think it has the strongest potential argument. Technically for progression in literature and development of plot/characters, things can Change without them being Aware as characters. It can change just by the audience's perception changing or being challenge.

Slight example: i've been reading a webcomic called Your Throne. Its a fantasy/political drama about a noble lady who entered a competition with another noble lady to become the empress. The main lady lost despite her being a better fit, and the comic starts with the main lady trying to assassinate the empress. Its assumed and stated by the main lady that she 'ruined her life' and so thats all the readers know. However, later in the novel we see flashbacks to the competition itself and find that the two ladies were extremely close friends, neither wanting anything bad for the other, but it was the emperor himself who manipulated both of them for his own agenda. Those flashbacks gave us an entirely different idea of who the real antagonist is and completely changed the two main ladies' relationship. THAT is how the audience's understanding of the plot and novel can be used to change the entire story. We dont get such here though

Some things that were brought to light during tommy being dead/revived:

Dream is capable of reviving people infinitely

This was already implicated and assumed. The book dream has being a means of reviving people has been around Technically since schlatt's death. This just 'confirmed' what was known

Time works differently/feels longer in the afterlife

This doesnt really impact much beyond emotions and implications. If we had more insight into what the 'afterlife' is like beyond nothingness perhaps so. But really it just makes it so wilbur being dead for what feels like 9 years and tommy having been dead for 2 months appeal to emotions.

Wilbur is evil

This one fuckin sucks i cant lie HSKSHSISSGEGDV. Like i was gon go on bout it and i will but it jus sucks. We have nothing to go on besides tommy's word, no examlles of what Horrible things wilbur said could make tommy assume this, etcetc. Ill most likely make a seperate post on how this feels like we're just going to get 'wilbur is a horrible villain' type with him. But still. I feel wilbur Not Being Good isnt a new development.

Dream is going to revive wilbur

This doesnt feel new either, part because phil had wanted to revive wilbur before (ill get to that more later) and that tommy had kept dream alive/initially imprisoned him with the idea of him reviving wilbur.

Dream believes wilbur will break him out of prison

Okau this makes no sense to me actually. I cwnt understand How exactly wilbur would be able to do this? Or why dream believes he even Could? Mans been dead for like 9 years and all we Know of the afterlife is that its black... nothingness. How would 9 years of that make wilbur capable of busting the prison open?

So. Yeah. All in all this plotline hasnt done anything new, developed things, or altered people's perceptions. We just ended up back at square one. Back to tommy being traumatized, dream being 'evil' and horrible and doing villain monologues, and them being stuck together.

Other characters and plotlines

Im pretty damn sure tommy's revival fucked up a LOT of other characters' plotlines and potential development. Honestly i feel this has a lot to do with the writers not communicating with other ccs well enough. But Ill talk about specific characters from least to most fucked over in my opinion:

Sam

He's the best off. He hqd been there during tommy's death, had been close to tommy, had majorly blamed himself and his own mistakes for tommy's death. His grief and self hatred was actually really heartbreaking and well done. The attached character of Sam Nook being unaware of tommy's death and simply waiting for tommy to return was a really good parallel to sam's own grief and anger. like it really snapped sam the guy who cares for tommy and wants to do Right by him back together with him as the Warden of the prison. Mixed personal life with 'just business'.

I feel it wouldve been nice to have him like. Have more time to grieve properly and come to terms eith tommy's death and his own involvement/influence over the events. Him finding tommy alive again Could be a means of him like. Facing his own grief head on if done well.

Ranboo

Mostly in the context of him and sam's argument do i feel it got screwed over. The weight of them yelling at each other and trying to find who to blame and the implications that Maybe ranboo was the one who caused the security breach that closed down the prison on tommy just.... doesnt hit so hard anymore. Because how can there be blame and arguments and a 'who done it' mystery when tommy popped up all fine again?

Puffy

I dony know much of her involvement or how she found out tommy died (besides metagaming shhhhh) but i saw her monologuing of how they 'failed' tommy and like. Her whole 'he was so young we the Adults failed him' spiel is like........... inconsequential? Now??? Like no dont worry he died but hes alright now.

Philza

BET YOU DIDNY EXPECT TO SEE THIS FUCKER!!!!!! But actually though i want to talk bout how this ties into phil. A LOT. for Zalbr ❤. But also because i see ppl tying phil to tommy's death n like nah shutup u doin it wrong. Ill go off more in a Wilbur Post. But essentially: i dont like that dream is now going to revive wilbur. I feel they arent going to tie philza into this Despite phil having originally been trying to revive his son and studying on it and Attempting and Failing. But now suddenly dream can just. Say some magic words and Poof wilbur lives? So we're just going to Kill philza's revival attempts plotline and leave that hanging? This made his efforts seem pointless and Wack like oh why didnt you just Say The Magic Words phil????

Niki

I feel really bad for niki. She hasnt been able to do a lore stream during tommy's 'death' (she tweeted she wanted to but her computer wasnt working) and considering her entire character.... that shit is important. We seen it with Jack Manifold how tommy's death impacted Him considering he literally wanted tommy dead. And since niki is in a similar boat to jack of trying to kill tommy and it being her Only goal...... thats extremely important.

BUT. i feel there wasnt any communication. Did she or anyone even know tommy would be revived? Did no one consider they could At Least let her do a single stream on it? Like jack manifold????

We couldve gotten a Really good niki lore stream. I genuinely was so excited for it and i dont regularly watch her. But we seen it with jack manifold which is why i dont feel he got screwed because mans genuinely did So Good he could pop off with anything n i think it works in His favour. But now........ for niki. Canonically she never even knew tommy was Dead. So its like nothing even happened for her. Is she just supposed to continue on trying to kill tommy with no progression?

What i think would work

This is more me being like 'hey @ the dsmp writers let me in' type speculation sbosegussgs. But i was thinkin on a Really easy way to 'fix' this without rewriting lore and the streams.

Dream should kill tommy again now that he's been revived and Leave Him Dead.

More development for the characters who are affected by his death Especially niki. More time for grief and self reflection and development

A chance for the audience to figure out what the 'afterlife' really is.

Dream is supposed to be smart and a master manipulator or something right? Why doesnt he use being able to revive tommy as a bargaining chip with sam for his own freedom?

The audience would now Know dream's intentions with tommy better, that this death isnt 'final', but we could still see other characters' grief and reactions and coping without it feeling cheap. Ive seen some 'but people dont know tommy is alive so hes still dead in their mind' but that sucks imo.

We'd know more on dream's ability to revive people and that he can just Do It on a whim (which i think sucks but hey im trying) but no one else would know this canonically

Okay. Im done. If you read this. Thankyou. I love you. Hmu.

[ofcowardiceandkings]

I think you mentioned listening to podcasts? Do you have any favorites to reccommend? I've run out of content :(

that i do !

im not entirely sure what kind of podcast you'd be interested in but i'll throw out a few of the goodies in my huge library of stuff , i'll miss out a few of the HUGE podcasts that have been all over tumblr though

a LOT of it is true crime or human interest stuff , or history because im nerd ,, and a few of these dont have nearly enough attention so [shrug] i'll try to keep this short i guess lol this isnt EVERYTHING ive got in my library or listened series' by any measure

i AM gonna pop a shout to both Stuff You Missed in History Class and Stuff You Should Know from iHeartRadio because their HUGE archives have kept me from losing my mind many times over , and they cover a wide range of both important and wacky topics

BomBARDed (ongoing) this is the only fiction podcast i have happening right now really but its DAMN GOOD ONE .... it's an actual-play D&D 5E podcast in the DMs own musically-inspired world, focussed on a group of multiclass bards going to music school !! and all players (+DM) are members of the Texas band Lindby !! and they actually use and play music in the show with one original song an episode !! Kyle's worldbuilding and storycraft are truly incredible, and (Nick) Goodrich, (also Nick) Spurrier, and Ali's characters are in depth and interesting as well as an absolute powerhouse :') i actually made a piece for its first fanzine, Bardic Dreaming, which published earlier this year and is free to view now, all the players and the community are super wholesome its just very good overall 💙

History & Humans;

Fall of Civilisations (ongoing) legit one of my favourite podcast finds, im so glad my youtube autoplayed one of these ... it took me like 2 hours to realise it was 1) not the same as what was playing before and 2) had been on for 2 hours and wasnt near finished lmao. anyway, this is a series by historical fiction writer Paul Cooper, and is honest to all thats good one of the best documentary series ive encountered in years - and ive consumed a LOT of documentaries. it covered the downfall of various civilisations through history, and the episodes run from an hour to FOUR hours depending on the topic. its so chill to listen to and just get done, but over the pandemic all of the episodes have been given full movie-quality video versions too on youtube if youre more of a visual person.

Casting Lots: A Survival Cannibalism Podcast (on series break) yeah that says that lol ... its a SUPER niche topic but its very interesting and treated very well despite being kind of comical at times, the hosts are just naturally funny lol ... it delves around from the history of cannibalism in whole regions to specific incidents as recently as the 1970s, and of course the first episode is about the Donner Party, and it covers things ive never heard of despite being kind of important ?? anyway Alix and Carmella are good eggs

Sawbones (ongoing) i probably dont need to mention much here other than say that Justin and Sydnee saved me from being SO BORED sooo often, the history of medicine is wacky as hell and its what most of my history GCSE was on so [shrugs]

Cautionary Tales (on series break) this was a wild-card find lol ... it's by Tim Harford "the undercover economist" who writes for the Financial Times, and its topics kind of weave modern topics and science with how to learn from historical errors ... its a bit weird but well worth a go, also each series has a few celebrity guest voice actors which is pretty awesome

Ephemeral (ongoing) this is a very strange but thought provoking series about sounds and other things just barely saved. topics include the last castrato, the hello girls, hand-stamped records, the spread of kīkā kila music, and acoustic fossils of wild places.

Neat! The Boozecast (ongoing) history and bartending whats not to like lol ... hosted by Teylor Smirl and now their dad Tommy, they're just digging around in how important booze is to human culture

True Crime (white collar and weirdness);

Swindled (ongoing) this is an amazing show full stop. A Concerned Citizen details some of the most impactful and unruly things to happen in white collar and corporate crime. very factually accurate but given the sheer bullshit of the topics the deadpan snarking is [chefs kiss] absolutely warranted ..

American Scandal (on series break) this one is a series within a series type, and spends a few episodes at a time poking holes in some of America's biggest scandals, from a dramatised but fact-based point of view. such as what the hell was going on with Enron, how big tobacco was forced to own up to covering its own ass, how Iran-Contra happened, etc. it also now has a sister show called British Scandal, which does the same thing for British cases but with a slightly different format.

Missing in Alaska (finished) this was a fascinating series, a deep dive into what happened to two US government officials who disappeared on a small chartered flight in Alaska in 1972. it goes some really strange places, but it actually turned up a lot of previously unknown information through the audience. John Walczak's new series in a new feed is Missing on 9/11 which looks into what happened to Dr Sneha Philip.

Pretend (ongoing) Host Javier Leiva holds interviews with anyone living a lie, or who have been touched by them. con artists, snake oil salesmen, former cult members, catfishing victims, anyone and everyone.

Power: The Maxwells (finished) hosted by journalist Tara Palmeri, the story of media tycoon Robert Maxwell from nothing to empire to mysterious death and the scandals uncovered after he was gone.

Lets Talk About Sects (ongoing) Sarah Steele covering cults from around the world, in particular those in Australia - where she is from. She often has former members on the show to share their stories, and share knowledge of how they left. each story has the relevant content warnings at the start of each episode.

Brainwashed (finished) investigation of the CIA's covert mind control experiments, centred on the experiments performed at a hospital in Montreal, and its cultural impact.

Dr Death (2 series finished) two series investigating huge cases of fraud and medical malpractice, and how they were brought to a stop. series 1 covers Dr Duntsch and his horribly butchered neurosurgery, series 2 covers Dr Fata and his fraudulent cancer clinic

The Immaculate Deception (finished) untangling the weird and disturbing fertility fraud of Dr Jan Karbaat, who fathered children himself through his fertility clinic, and the impact of his deception. later episodes also touch on other similar cases.

True Crime (Violent/General);

The Casual Criminalist (ongoing) Simon Whistler of-the-many-youtube-channels cold reads a script about the case of the day, with some of his daft commentary thrown in.

Southern Fried True Crime (ongoing) Crimes from the American South hosted by Erica Kelley, she puts all the facts out there but refreshingly for true crime she doesnt hesitate to tell you if she thinks someone is human garbage lol

They Walk Among Us (ongoing) probably one of the most popular UK crime podcasts, very measured and well put together, not weird or annoying about it either.

All Crime No Cattle (ongoing, feed slowed down for now) specifically about crimes from Texas, hosted by Erin and Shay, they're very sensitive hosts and a lot of the cases they cover shed light on why the Texas criminal system is how it is or show an impact at a national level

Canadian True Crime (ongoing) Canadian crime from an Aussie who's lived there for a decade, Kristi is again a sensitive and measured host covering some important topics

True Crime (Violent/Deep Dive);

Hitman (finished) journalist Jasmyn Morris digs around in the sticky tangle around a book published by fringe publisher Paladin Press, and its apparent use as a blueprint in the killing of a mother, her friend and her 8 year old boy for financial gain.

Camp Hell: Anneewakee (ongoing) this series is exploring how a wilderness camp "correctional facility" was endorsed by the Georgia care and juvenile reform system, despite widespread abuses and shady practices the whole time. warning for csa and child cruelty throughout.

True Crime Bullshit (on series break) this one is a huge huge rabbithole but a very interesting one where the host Josh Hallmark has spent years digging into the life and potential crimes of Israel Keyes. Keyes is often mentioned as a serial killer with no pattern, but in picking it apart thats not quite true, and has sparked some re-evaluations of missing persons cases and stumbling upon information the FBI has redacted organically. there's also a series in the middle looking into the crimes of Kelly Cochran

Forgotten: Women of Juárez (finished) this series looks into the huge numbers of missing women of Ciudad Juárez, the strange circumstances surrounding them, and the potential cover-ups and corruptions on both sides of the border, trying to give a voice to all of the forgotten women and girls and their families without answers. the series itself is finished, but a spanish language edition is being released every week now.

aaaaaand i'll call it there before i list everything lol, i hope you find something to plug your boredom hole with !!

[argumentl]

The Freedom of Expression, radio version - Ep 38, June 2016 - Subliminal messages, Japanese comedian takes on Cambodian citizenship to compete in Olympics, The appeal of Japanese women overseas.

Kaoru starts by saying at the time of this broadcast, the band will be mid-tour and will have just finished the show at Namba Hatch. Kaoru's voice sounds kinda husky, as if he has a cold. Joe says he will be dropping by the Tokyo shows, and then comments on the huskyness of Kaoru's voice. Kaoru jokes that he's been shouting too much at Namba Hatch.

Next Kaoru plays another entry in the show's new jingle campaign. He says he likes this one, which quite surprises Joe. Having said he likes it, he still won't give it a sticker. It would be unfair to the previous entrants who tried so hard if this entry were to get a sticker now.

Kaoru's first talking point is about the use of subliminal messaging. Joe points out that inserting subliminal messages is strictly banned in all Japanese public broadcasts, as it is in many countries. Kaoru says that talk of subliminal messaging is heard more often these days, and he asks Joe what he thinks about this. Joe says that secretly inserting subliminal messages into footage is quite a 20th century method. Technology has advanced a lot in the 21st century, so there might be new ways of delving into the subconscious going on right now, that we are not even aware of. Kaoru says he likes this type of thing. He wants to know all about it. Joe says he's not sure if this is the best way to describe it but, for example, with Nazi propaganda in Germany, despite being lies, after it was repeated ten thousand times it began to be believed. If the media is used to repeat something over and over again, it eventually becomes accepted. Now in the age of the internet, online restrictions are few, and there is a risk that hate speech will gain prominence if it is continuously repeated online. In this way, the human subconscious can be infiltrated without necessarily the use of old fashioned style subliminal messaging.

Kaoru says Dir are very aware of making sure they don't attract attention for subliminal messaging with the footage they use in thier MVs. Joe asks him if the band need to be aware of this with thier music too, and brings up the examples of Ozzy Osbourne's 'Sucide Solution', and Judas Priest's 'Better by you, Better than me', both of which were accused of and taken to court for use of subliminal messages resulting in suicide. Joe adds that these cases concern the use of negative subliminal messages, but conversely subliminal messages could also be used to produce positive effects. Kaoru says he has the feeling that Dir might have used reversed lyrics at some point during thier earlier years, due to the original lyrics being a no-go (*Is this refering to egnirys cimredopyh?*) , which he thinks might have a kind of subliminal effect, but they otherwise havn't given much thought to subliminal effects in thier music. They have been much more concerned about thier footage, and are keen to avoid anything resembling the 'Pokemon shock', where strobe lights in a scene of Pokemon caused seizures in some viewers in 1997. Joe asks Kaoru if this also applies to footage used during lives, or only to broadcasted material. Kaoru isn't quite sure about if it would apply to live footage too. He then says there is probably still a lot of dark, difficult to watch material being shown on tv. Joe says there probably is, but he doesnt know because he doesnt own a tv. He adds that as for making creative shows, a certain amount stimulation is needed, while at the same time keeping it safe to watch. Getting the right balance becomes harder and harder in the current era. Kaoru wonders whether new unexpected effects will be produced from all the different new technology that is being created these days. They wonder whether Hiranabe and Kami are using some kind of subliminal messaging in the way they both carry on, and especially with Kami's voice.

Next, they welcome Tasai for the Tokyo Sports corner. Joe mentions how Hiranabe appeared on the previous show, and asks Tasai if he sees Hiranabe a lot in the Tokyo Sports office. Tasai says due to his work schedule he doesn't, but he sometimes accompanies him to the night/entertainment districts. Joe asks Tasai what Hiranabe is like, and Tasai says 'He's an idiot'. He tells the story of how he recently went to a place in Ginza with Hiranabe in relation to work. It was Tasai's first time in this bar, but Hiranabe had been there before. A woman who knew him, kept flirting and calling out to him, 'Nabe-chaan!', and Tasai thought it sounded pretty stupid. He also tells of how Hiranabe got cheated by a woman into ordering a ¥300000 bottle without realising, and only had ¥40000 cash on him. There are so many episodes surrounding Hiranabe, like how he recently got his head smashed in etc, but thats a story for later, says Tasai.

Tasai's first news is that Japanese comedian Neko Hiroshi has taken on Cambodian citizenship in order to represent Cambodia in the men's marathon during the 2016 Rio de Janeiro summer Olympics. This has become quite controversial, with people questioning whether its ok to randomly take on Cambodian nationality just to represent in sport? Joe is pretty impressed that someone could be passionate enough about competing that they would change thier nationality, but he still isn't sure if he approves. He says Neko Hiroshi can do this easily coming from a rich country like Japan, so it seems as if some inequality is showing. Tasai comments that Neko Hiroshi did also try to enter the London Olympics in 2011, but was rejected because at that time he had been a Cambodian citizen for less than one year. He has spent the last four years training in Cambodia, and is considered one of the country's best runners. Kaoru is surprised to hear he is that good. Kaoru says he doesn't really understand why the Neko applied for London, knowing he would be rejected. Publicity? Joe also says it may be difficult for the Cambodian people to show much support for him, knowing he is not originally Cambodian. Tasai says he knows a Cambodian chef who is living in Japan, and he asked his opinion. It seems Neko Hiroshi is not that popular with the Cambodian people, but it will be interesting to see what kind of impact he will have.

Tasai's next story relates to the group Morning Musume. Tasai asks the others if they have heard of this group, and of course they both have, but Joe momentarily questions whether he's thinking of the right group. Tasai continues to say that Morning Musume member, Suzuki Kanon (also known as Zukki) is very popular with overseas fans, despite not having the same level of popularity in Japan. Tasai says that unlike a regular idol, Zukki has a plump figure, and she is apparently popular with Americans due to her cute smile. This prompts Tasai to ask Kaoru whether Dir en grey experience different reactions in Japan and overseas. Kaoru says that they personally don't see much difference, but he thinks Japanese women are viewed a lot differently by people overseas than they are by Japanese men. He mentions the idea of the 'Asian Beauty', and the fact that Americans etc find a woman with a bit of meat on her more sexy than a very thin woman. He then tells a story about how once when Dir were touring overseas with other bands (*Family Values?*), they took some of thier female staff with them, and the members of the other foreign bands were going crazy lusting after these Japanese women, which made Kaoru realise that Japanese women in general are seen as more attractive in some countries.

To finish, Kaoru pleads with listeners to send in more new jingle attempts, he'll feel a bit sad if none get sent in. He then plugs his DVD and new single Utafumi, stating the new single will be played in full for the first time on this show on the 2nd of July, 2016.

Songs - Dir en grey/New Age Culture, The Rasmus/In the Shadows.

[yearoftheyuki]

Fruits Basket and Death: Lessons Learned (Part 1)

Spoilers

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Fruits Basket has taught me a lot about death, and the feelings that come with it. Specifically, it has taught me more about what is involved when there is the death of an individual, traumatic experiences with death, and the death of self. Through all this, I have gained new understandings on some common side effects for dealing with death; the complexity of grief, the pain of guilt, and the bittersweet feeling of self discovery as well as self abandonment. As someone, who has fortunately not had to deal with death too much in their own life, the lessons Fruits Basket has provided me with pave the way for me to be more empathetic when encountering those who are dealing with death.

This chart sinplifies what I will be discussing in a more organized fashion:

Death of an Individual: 𝑮𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒇

Grief is something I never knew too much about. At its simplest form, I mostly got that it was a feeling of sadness- which it is but there is way more that comes with it. Like how grieving works. In this country, (United States) I think we are doing better at talking about greif but that whole “move on” philosohy still exists. Its like we are praised for being so strong about death, when in reality we are paving the way for a more fragile self later by not letting ourselves be human and feel the loss. Though, likewise, we sometimes may feel like we have to be more sad than we actually are.

In Fruits Basket, our main character is suffering the pain of lossing her own mother so suddenly.  Coincidentally, her own mother lost her husband years before as well. Tohru often thinks about her mother a lot throughout the series, as other characters have picked up. She brings up her mom in most conversations through stories about her mom her direct quotes from her. She feels the need to bring her mom along with her whereever she goes. What is clear to me is that Tohru is grieving her Mother’s loss. While that is certainly no surprise, her constatnt need to bring up her mother all the time and force herself to not fall in love surprised me because I didnt realize that the constant repetition is a form of greiving.

Fruits Basket taught me how badly one can torture themselves while greiving over making sure that they dont let themselves forget who they lost. This is clear when Tohru says “she is becomming a memory” its also clear when her grandfather says “I needed to prove to her that Kyoko existed” I used to not really get those lines because, of course Kyoko existed, Tohru knows that. These are important lines that cant be taken too literally. They tell me that a greiving person suffers something just as painful as lossing a person; time. As time moves on, we tend to forget details of the person, and that can be frightening. I always thought that you could never forget anything about a loved one that lost but thats just not true. We are human, we forget details after a while. That doesnt diminish any of the impact that person had on our lives. But Tohru isnt the only one who has to constantly keep her mom alive. Dont we do that too? Dont we make memorials so people’s legacy lives on? Dont we feel the need to repeat people’s names who have died so that their life is forvever remembered? We all do that. We all fear forgetting as time moves on. I always knew that. I just didnt know its a form of greif. Now I realize why I once wanted to make a locket with a picture of a relative who I was semi close with when they passed away; I needed to keep their memory alive. And poor Tohru is keeping all of this bottled up. Her carrying around her picture of her mother is her form of greiving, of trying to keep her alive. And her letting herself love Kyo is her coming out of greif.

Now, Kyoko lossing her husband has taught me that we need help while we are grieving. Kyoko had no help from anyone when she lost her husband. If we think about it, he was the only person she had in her life besides Tohru. Placing one person on such a high pedestal is dangerous because in reality we can lose someone at any time. Who are we then when that person is not here to give us a sense of identity? With no one to talk to about her depression, which she was clearly facing, she went off to go “meet Katsuya again” herself. She was dangerously suicidal. Only brought back to life by remembering her place a parent. But what if Tohru didnt exist? Well, I fear Kyoko really would have acted on her her suicide attempts. Because she felt she had nothing else to live for. Bottom line, we need other people. Not that someone would have pulled her all the way out of depression but they definitelty could have been of some guidance. I truly thought that some of us were strong enough to survive greif, but like Kyoko we all need that call back to reality.

To be continued with Traumatic Expereince with Death...

[camelely]

TFATWS Spoilers under the cut

Literally the following is my thoughts and opinions, and there are probably some unpopular opinions lol. It's kinda really long lol.

Starting with some positives.

I loved how the two leads had storylines that mirrored each other. Sam needed to become Captain America and gain a title and Bucky needed to move on from The Winter Solider and loose a title.

Sam. Just Sam I loved him before but now I love him more.

Sam becoming Cap.

I loved Isaiah and his story.

I loved Sam's family, how they welcomed Bucky and the struggles Sarah had.

I really liked how they spent time with both Sam and Bucky and didn't forget the show was supposed to be about both of them. Often times shows tend to lean into the more popular or fan favorite lead and this show didn't do that. When Sam took center it felt natural and when Bucky took center it felt natural.

The Wakandans were great. I love Ayo and her friendship with Bucky.

Zemo was fine and fun enough.

John Walker was incredibly done. Wyatt Russell did an amazing job and the scene with the blood on the shield will forever be in my memory. Hands down one of the most impactful MCU moments.

I like the genderbend on Karl/Karli and the direction they took her character. People that go from sympathetic ideas to unforgivable means, make good villains. I think her more boring elements come from the lack of development she got.

Now on to the negatives.

This show could have been like two hours shorter and still told the same story with the same impact. Also earlier episodes, (maybe later episodes too I might have just gotten used to it and stopped noticing lol), had some weird ADR moments. IDK what happened behind the scenes but it was noticeable.

I would have loved it if one of the episodes was a flashback episode. The Sharon twist was obvious from the first episode she appeared in but like they thought it was good enough to save confirmation for the mid/end of the finale? Both her and Karli would have been benefited from a flashback episode.

Karli should have fought Bucky while Sam was focused on Walker. Sam could have had a moment where he tells him he will never be forgiven and Walker would responded with something similar to "I do what is right. I don't need forgiveness." Then when he becomes USAgent it lands more like the next progression in an arc rather than the redemption arc this could be interpreted as. I personally think this is a stepping stone and not a redemption but the MCU (and Disney) doesnt have a great track record when it comes to handling anything with nuance and the fans have an even worse track record when handling things that arent black and white. I guess my point is they could have handled the John Walker set up better.

Speaking of set up, this entire show was set up. This is my main and only real problem with this show. Nothing felt like it was resolved at the end. Karli even says she was part of a bigger movement. Killing her didn't change the fact a lot of people felt the un blip ruined their lives. People always shit on Tony for wanting to bring people back five years later instead of going back in time but like it had been five years, while some like Steve and Natasha hadn't moved on, others had. Some had better lives. Assuming everyone wanted to back to the way things used to be would also be a mistake. This has consequences too, as we see in these shows. But ruining the lives of the people who had bettered themselves would have been shitty too. And yea some people who had been bettered were worsened once again when the un blip happened but my point is going back and erasing the five years would have been shitty too. There is not really a right answer here as the right answer would have been to either stop the snap before it happened or to come to terms with the fact that the snap can never be undone. Leaving everyone as dead might have hurt, but it was the best thing for a community that had five years of mourning and moving on and counseling ETC. Ooof that was a tangent lol and I could probably write an essay so going back to my original point about set up. The flag smashers, or at least people who think the way they did still exist, Sharon Carter is the powerbroker but Sam and Bucky dont know and now shes back as agent 13, John Walker went from war hero to committing war crimes and his journey as USAgent is just starting, Sam has taken the Cap mantle and is ready to begin acting as Cap, and Bucky is both coming to terms with and moving on from his past. Nothing is actually resolved in this mini series. I know it's supposed to make you excited for the next movie/show/season whatever but have six episodes of little to no payoff IMO made for a flat show.

Building off the set up problem. This show had too much going on. Sam and Bucky each had their own personal journey (The A and B plot depending on the episode), Sam and Bucky being friends and their shared journey (C), John Walker and the Flag Smashers (the D and E plot depending on the episode), Zemo and the Wakandans (F), The PowerBroker/Sharon (G), The boat and Sarah which could be considered part of Sam's plot but since if you cut it out the only thing that actually effected Sam's journey would be the bank in the first episode and yet it still went on till basically the end I'm calling it it's own plot (H), Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, which might be part of John Walker's story but since it's all set up for her to take a bigger role in the future and his set up could be completed without her I'm counts her separately (I), then you have the big meeting at the end, the senators and policy makers making choices the vote that they keep mentioning and once again more set up... (J). 10 ideas by my count, all needed their own set up, follow through, and payoff. And yes some stuff like Valentina the pay off will come later but still... It's all too many plots! And thats not mentioning side characters that were new to the show that they wanted to spend time with but couldn't.

Even though I think the shows aren't comparable/two different genres WandaVision had two more episodes (and yes some were shorter but I already mentioned I think FATWS could have benefited from that), completed all the main plots and had Wanda's journey (A), Vision's journey (B), Agatha, Pietro/Ralph, and the citizens of the hex (C), Outside the hex Monica (D), Outside the hex everyone else and sure you can separate Darcy, Jimmy and Heyward but none of them were setting up future stories or had their own distinctive plot outside the hex thing like Monica so she is the only one I am separating (E), the kids who could be counted as an extension of the Wanda and Vision plots since they didnt really have their own arc or story (F). 6 total. And some of those could be combined. Like I think we should separate Wanda Vision and the kids but technically they are just an extension of Wanda. And same with Monica, her story was mostly intertwined with Darcy, Jimmy and the outside the hex stuff. I separated her since I think she had enough moments to herself and she set up secret invasion or whatever, but like Valentina being a part of John's story it is arguable. Of these plots only the missing witness Jimmy thing, Wanda's post credits moment a moment seperate from everything else, Monica's mid credits i think? moment another one separate from everything else, and white vision were unresolved. They gave Agatha an opening ending but it was still an ending. And yes Darcy Heyward etc will probably come back but the plot they had here was finished. So arguably they had 2/6 unfinished plots. And if you don't count Jimmy's witness as a plot and just count it as an unanswered question then 1/6. And technically white vision is just half a vision and the other vision got a complete plot so really it's 0.5/6 At best they completed 92(ish)% of the plots and left 8 (ish) % for future stuff.

In contrast FATWS only finished Sam's journey into becoming Cap, Zemo and the Wakandans, and arguably Sam and Bucky's friendship. You might be able to argue that Bucky had a full circle moment with the guy whose son he killed, but that is one guy and Bucky has been carrying around a list of people like that guy. It's not the end of a story it is the start of a journey. And maybe it is possible to say the boat thing had an ending kinda. 2/10 completed. maybe 3/10 if you wanna push it 5/10. IMO at best they completed 50% of plot set up.

Clearly FATWS is meant to be this way and thats why it bothered me. They want you to watch Cap 4 or whatever they decide to call the theatrical movie that will come after this. I guess I was just expecting it to stand on it's own, and other than Sam's journey into becoming Captain America, which was amazing and deserved in every way, nothing this show did felt like it could have stood on its own. I know it's arguable that was the main story and only story that deserved to end. But I've already pointed out all the other running plots this show had, and I think at least two or three of them should have had follow through in the show.

Someone who plans to never seen an MCU movie after these shows could have watched WandaVision and enjoyed it. That is not the case for FATWS. If you don't plan on watching any MCU stuff in the future you won't know how over half the plots of this show will end. THis isn't even how the movies work. They each tell their own story while also setting up other things, so it is clear they know how to do this.

I can see why Disney decided to submit it as a series and not a mini series. Not only do they not want to compete with themselves (nominating WV as a miniseries) but also this isn't a miniseries.

I guess to conclude I'll say I did really enjoy watching this show. It was fun and there were some great moments. It featured amazing character and amazing actors, but I wish it had bothered to finish more of what it started.

Thank you so much for reading till the end of a post that has surely become unintelligible gloop by now. If you disagree I'd love to hear why!

[zelskzerker]

Mangadex went down so I read alot 1/7

Lets review a bunch of isekai and related stuff I binged because mangadex went down. The scale will be a single thumbs up to a single thumbs down in terms of how much I would consider recommending it in general.

Legend

Chapters 1-51 Pretty straight forward in most aspects. For the best. Nothing crazy bad or good happening, making it surprisingly straight forward for an isekai. [Insert isekai startup here] but this time the MC is given a super magic body and the knowledge of ancient magic. Which he promptly uses to create a griffon buddy. Gets a THUMB IN THE UPPER CORNER for just being a nice, believable stay in a world, but I have read some stuff that really has interesting sparks the way this doesnt. MC is brutal at times and General Princess is cute. They make a good pair for each other.  Although there are no ecchi situations, that artist really knows how to slide in the lewds, whether its mid combat flourishes or pre chapter artwork.

The Black Create Summoner: Revolt of Reincarnated

All Chapters

Truly is revolting. A resounding THUMBS DOWN.  Apparently this was just an advertisement manga, which means that its intentionally incomplete and unsatisfying. Ontop of that, the sketchy artwork was generally rough and got worse to look at the more it went on. [Insert isekai startup here] but this time he has a grimoire that lets him summon stuff he draws. The power isn’t used that much though or in that creative of ways. Characters didn’t really leave an impact except maybe the elf little sister that is stubborn yet knows she is incompotent and recruits a dragon out of stubbornness. 

Minotaur’s Sweetheart

Chapters 1-16

So what if a minotaur accidentally seduced the adventurer that was assigned to kill him? This is a good romance manga deserving a THUMBS UP because the pure-hearted minotaur boy and the unmarriageable adventurer girl actually develop a relationship and progress as people. The manga is ultimately about monsters and humans interacting and is fresh due to having a plot that evolves the situation a lot beyond the initial setup of the manga.

Moon-led Journey Across Another World

Chapters 1-64

[Insert isekai startup here] but this time the god of the new world calls the MC ugly and banishes him to the edge of the world to die off. In order to help out the MC, the god of our world (Tsukuyomi) gives him a bit of power. The MC is funny to watch once you realize that he is an incredibly cautious pureboy and expecting every common street thug to potentially end him but in reality he is a god-rivaling cataclysm himself and never realizes. He is so powerful that he recruits the blue haired mist dragon, Tomoe, and accidentally turns her into a weeaboo. Tomoe can read minds and access pocket space with her mist ontop of her sick weeaboo katana skills. She really shines as the most mature person in the story, gaining information that no one else in the story has and carefully withholding it from the MC in order to protect his innocence. She is a DAMN good tomboyish waifu and sarashii is a blessing. Other main girl is yandere spider, Mio, which has shockingly good and well conveyed bouts of emotion. She has an extremely rare “can’t cook at all” joke that is explained due to her “eat literally anything” nature. In terms of plot, the MC hates the god of the world he is in and pretty much plans to do everything she doesn’t want him to. Which means mingling with humans, and eventually, god slaying/usurption. Odd think about this manga is that it’s heavily Japanese-inspired. That may sound odd because its a manga, but generally isekai are most medieval/western skinned than this one which leans in on Japanese mythos. Just look at the god of our world in the manga.

THUMBS UP.

The Unsuccessful yet Academically Unparalleled Sage ~A Cheating S-Rank Sorcerer's Post-Rebirth Adventurer Log~

Chapter 1-10 So lets set up this genre here. This is a part of the “reincarnation” genre, which is a spinoff of isekai. They generally depict a very capable mage who reincarnates themselves into the future of their own world. At which point they realize that although they were pretty strong in their day, they are now practically a god in the deteriorated modern day. This genre will hereby be indicated by [Insert reincarnation startup here]. For this manga in specific, [Insert isekai startup here] but this time the MC could only use lightning magic and was the best at it but failed the gene gacha then [Insert reincarnation startup here] and he fails gene gacha again but is still the walking thunder god. These kinds of manga are always precious when the MC can walk through the world and see the fruits of their past labor. Specifically through Merlin, the MC’s adopted demon daughter who has grown up to be his heritor and bridge human/demon relationships. Truly adorable and heart warming. Lacks a bit of spice from themeing or ongoing plot due to its short length however. THUMB IN THE UPPER CORNER.

Older Elite Knight is cute only in front of me

Chapters 1-17.1

THUMBS UP. This is an oneshota manga where shota is a chad with incredibly good tastes. A really good ecchi manga with a light hearted story featuring Haru(the shota) knight that joins Karen’s(the oneesan) knight crew. As with all good romance manga, the main plot isn’t romance. Knight shenanigins are always happening, with a big (and lewd) bad entering recently. Top tier variation on the lewds, even including a princess loli in on the fun. Must read for all oneshota fans.

Lonely Attack on A Different World

Chapter 1-91

[Insert isekai startup forma de classroom here] but this time the MC gets leftover garbage skills and has to learn to survive. Learning to survive thus makes him the most op and he can magic trick his way out of literally anything. Strong start as the whole classroom first tries to get their footing, but after the starting arc is done this manga starts spinning it’s wheels. The manga is kinda lacking in themes, overarching plot and end goals, so stuff just happens to make this a sort of slice of life trap room escape manga. Magic “just works” in this universe so its not very dramatic when the MC pulls out a new trick out of his bag of million tricks. Just kinda stagnates too much for my liking. THUMB IN THE BOTTOM CORNER.

The Unwanted Undead Adventurer

Chapters 1-34

Rentt Faina, the MC, is a good guy with no talent who aspires to be a legendary adventurer. But then he gets turned into a skeleton, giving the chance to evolve his way to greatness, kinda like in Spider isekai or Dragon isekai. The MC is most like Goblin Slayer in his serious and knowledgeable approach to the world, how characters that know him revere him. End goal so far is just him seeing how far he can evolve as he comes across other vampires and vampire hunters. Really want to see him go to the top. Fuckin great art. Girls drawn perfect. Like the hat on the guild girl, but nothing beats the witch Lorraine. THUMBS UP.

Teihen Ryoushu No Kanchigai Eiyuutan

Chapters 1-13

THUMB IN UPPER CORNER. Pretty funny comedy about a lord of a poor land who wants to be a stereotypical evil lord but can only use healing magic. Therefore he bumbles his way into accepting a heretical cult nun, beast men who hate humans, etc. All the girls are to crazy for him to want to sex them(weak. give the assassin nun your babies). Most interesting parts are aforementioned nun, his fujoshi assistant, and the MC’s willingness to use his power to commit heretical and immoral warcrimes. 

The Undead Lord of the Palace of Darkness

Chapters 1-11

Art average, don’t come to this one for spectacle. It’s strength is in the subertfuge that it’s recently-necromanced-back-to-life MC goes through to get his Master killed and to later, probably, evolve into a vampire. MC isn’t evil though, just wants to survive. Main girl on cover was born and raised to hunt vampires but has a compassionate heart. Obviously she goes easy on and relates to MC. Story is still kinda in it’s first arc so the overall trajectory of the story is a bit hard to gauge and not quite satisfying enough by its own right. Probably a thumb up with more chapters but for now THUMB IN THE UPPER CORNER.

The Reincarnated Inferior Magic Swordsman

Chapters 1-38

[Insert isekai startup here] but this time.... uh... THUMB SIDEWAYS. Usually I am patient, but 31 chapters with no goal and just barely plot? Wow. Saving grace is uh... I guess the world of “other isekai people existed but they sucked because they didn’t level uncap like MC” could go somewhere but. I take it back, lowering this one to a THUMB DOWN.

The Invincible Sage in the Second World.

Chapters 1-12

[Insert isekai startup here] but this time a pro mmo player in a game called “Broken Balance Online.” Guess what his class, the sage class, was considered in the game? Not far along enough to really pop off but it isn’t horrible. MC is moderately cautious to a healthy degree which is actually rare in most isekai. THUMB IN BOTTOM LEFT CORNER. 

The Dark Queen and I Strike Back

Chapters 1-29.5

Although technically an isekai, no isekai startup here. This a battle manga with a big mystery on the backdrop of a war. That is to say, the MC gets teleported to a world to kill the demons but he ends up defending them from the humans with all he’s got. Of special note is the complete seriousness of this manga that whiplashes into debauchery like tentacles, the above cover, oneshota, and even really dark jokes in some of the omake. That tonal lash effect will be either make or break, and it is a HUGE make for me. I love when a single piece can have both absolute serious scenes and utterly lighthearted and fluffy ones. Or in this case utterly lewd ones. May the average-human-amount-of-perverted MC one day slam some demon lord loli. THUMBS UP.

Chillin' in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers

Chapters 1-24

THUMB SIDEWAYS. Has the feeling of a nerfed slime isekai. Nerfed in all ways except romance. Art surprisingly good.

[frankendykes-monster]

So probably the best way to start this is to mention the obvious and say that Joker (2019) has pretty much all of nothing to do with...The Joker.  I had mention to someone else a week or two back, but for as much as The Joker can work in a wide variety of stories, the character is inherently limited, my go-to phrase being “one dimensional.”  The Joker’s ongoing motivation is that he wants to defeat Batman, nothing more, nothing less.  “Killing Batman” is only a single part of it, “it” being proving that Batman is fallible and has some weakness.  There are characters like The Riddler that zero in on a single aspect of that such as, surely there are some problems that can be created that even The World’s Greatest Detective cannot solve, but The Joker is a convenient character in that he can be applied to any aspect of Batman’s character, which is why you get stories like Batman and The Joker getting into a surfing contest, because it all goes back to that theme of if there’s something that Batman is not the best at, Batman is ultimately doomed to fail (with regards to suspension of disbelief that is needed for superheroes to work, both creators and the audience have to commit to the concept that superheroes existing 100% makes the world around them a better place, and a major incoming failure on Batman’s part makes for greatest suspense in that it threatens that concept.)

But then, there lies the issue.  Joker does not actually have any driving motivation for WHY he wants to defeat Batman, he simply is.  It’s my theory on why no origin story has ever permanently stuck, because you can’t ever really make sense of that.  This compounds itself into Batman and Joker’s relationship and can never really evolve, it’ll play out in the same way every time just with new set dressing.  What you can do is raise the stakes, but with the back to back publishing of “The Killing Joke” and “A Death in The Family” in 1988, raising the stakes meant making The Joker a sadistic serial killer at the cost of everything else about the character, creating a Joker where everyone questions why he deserves to be alive to appear in another comic three to six months down the pipeline.  There have been some instances of trying to make The Joker more nuanced, like Grant Morrison introducing the concept of “super sanity” in their Batman work and addressing how The Joker reinvents his personality on the fly, but it’s ultimately set dressing that doesn’t alter anything.

So, that begs the question of why Joker, the film, calls itself “Joker” in the first place or why it takes place in Gotham instead of New York and blah blah blah the short answer is if they didn’t, Warner Bros wouldn’t have been able to rake in a billion dollars.  It’s on par with Sony deciding to make Venom (2018) and never addressing why Venom has those large white eye covers if his design isn’t based on Spider-Man, I’ll give Joker (2019) the compliment that it’s more interesting than that film at least.  I really did not want to bring up all this Batman shit while watching this but then they started addressing Thomas Wayne and I began mentally groaning.  I don’t want to dive into the concept of how or if the Batman mythos is impacted if you make Thomas (and Martha Wayne, who like in most Batman stories is more of a cameo than an actual character here) a shitty person, but then again I wouldn’t have to bring that up if the film didn’t cram it in in the first place.  I am...SO...SO THANKFUL I did not see any memes or theories or head canons surrounding “B-B_BUH JOCKER IS BEETMANS HALF BROTHER?????/???” which...whatever. Come to think I didn't see anyone bitch that he doesnt become The Joker until 90 minutes in either.  I think the majority of my goodwill (what turned it from, oh you know the good outweighs the bad enough for me to be able to tell someone this is watchable, to, oh you can skip this) was destroyed at the Waynes getting shot scene with, WHOOPS, The Joker was responsible (indirectly!)  That gave me BAD Batman (1989) flashbacks, and when you remind me of Batman (1989), you kind of do get on my bad side.  Fuck that movie.

SO.  In the midst of ALLL of this.  Let’s talk about the “““real source material”““ for Joker (2019): Taxi Driver (1976) and The King of Comedy (1982).

I don’t think I’m ruffling any feathers by saying that that is the case and that both of those films are wayyy better than Joker (2019).  I mean, there’s a reason why Robert De Niro was not only cast in this film, but he’s second billed right under Joaquin Phoenix.  Those are two fairly different films but they’re, at their core, stories of men who are ticking time bombs of violence ready for someone to light the fuse.  It’s another point against Joker (2019), not only for reminding me of much better films, but forcing me to ask why another pastiche of this story needed to be told.  Martin Scorsese kind of made his career with a monopoly on men losing their shit and everyone around them being caught in the tornado.  Joker (2019) admittedly plays the material much differently, in that all the way through we are supposed to sympathize with Arthur Fleck and stand alongside him every step of this of his downward spiral, and even with where he ends up, I’ll admit I don’t have an issue with that, but the film struggles with making me care half the time.  Like, yes, when Arthur is alone at home trying not to go awol, yeah, I get that, but at other times there’s stuff like how Arthur’s relationship with Sophie is never developed in any meaningful capacity, like why is enamored with him, why is she not as disturbed by him as most other people seem to be?  When we discover she’s not real, that explains it from a logical perspective I guess, but it isn’t a shock or a gut punch.

Can I be real for a second?  There are a lot of moments in this film where it made me embarrased as a neurodivergent person.  The number of people who definitely saw this, because, once again, it made a billion dollars, and came away thinking oh so that’s what mentally ill people are like, even if they’re sympathetic about it, it makes me sigh.

Even though the crux of this film is Arthur’s descent, it desperately wants to be important.  I know I’m not the first person to make this observation, but it does read like, oh, what’s popular now?  Incels?  Better make part of Arthur’s character arc that he can’t hit up any actual real women so he has to entertain himself with fantasies.  Antifa?  Better make it so Arthur accidentally inspires a movement of nebulous anti-rich people who all wear masks.  And so on and so on with no actual commentary while simultaneously it’s not really world-building either because it’s so front and center to the plot. I gotta say, if the film is about people in general not putting up with things anymore after being shat on nonstop, why oh why is there a joke aimed at a little person pretty early on, even through some meta lense where “oh the person telling the joke is an asshat who dies later so it’s cool”?

Now I’m not sure what to say next about the film itself so I guess now would be a good time to discuss the film’s ~impact~ as it were.  If it weren’t for Parasite (2019) I’d have no problem saying this was the biggest film of 2019 in the grand scheme of things, like EVERYONE came in with every possible perspective on this thing long before it came out.  I remember how back in like, late-2017/early-2018?  A bunch of people were shitting on the announcement of this film and Warner Bros had to do damage control by releasing some on-set photos of the second subway scene two days later.  It’s surreal more than anything actually watching this film now and seeing, wait, this is what everyone was memeing about nonstop?  This is a mainstream film?  With the directions it goes in?  With the topics it brings up?  Well I’ll be damned.  This is probably the first time since Les Miserables (2013) and Man of Steel (2013) where a movie comes out and no two people have the exact same opinion on it, so I’m curious as to how Joker is going to age in like, a decade.  So fucking weird that this is called a “superhero film” in retrospect just because it shares a name with a comic book character owned by the same company that developed and distributed this.

I wouldn’t be talking about this film if it wasn’t called “Joker” but then again hey nobody else would either.  I don’t hate this film despite how I’ve said nothing positive about and I was pretty prepared to call it “barely good” before the finale, so I don’t regret watching it, I don’t know what the fuck to say anymore.  Gang Weed memes are pretty funny if you haven’t actually seen any in the wild.  1940: “Let’s throw him into chemicals.”  2019: “Let’s throw him into society.”

[batboysheadcanons]

This is your spoiler warning about Justice League Dark: Apokolips War. I’ll put it in the tags too.

But basically, I thought it was beautifully done. It was violent, heartfelt, heartbreaking, and I just felt so many emotions during it all. Truly, it was a master piece to me. Let’s start from the beginning.

John and Zatanna were great together. I love their chemistry, and knowing that they had seemingly worked out their issues since the first JLD, and it’s just lovely. The humor of Bruce being a cockblock was a nice touch.

When discussing Apokolips showing up on Earth’s doorstep, I think they did a good job of showing Superman’s trauma. He is the big blue Boy Scout, and is usually level headed and reasonable but you could see his encounter with Doomsday and Hank in Reign of the Superman, fucked with him and it showed there. To the point where he angerily damages part of their conference room, and is being stubborn with his plan. He didn’t want to take any chances with Darkseid again.

The jump from them flying into Apokolips and the paradoomen (that’s my new name for them), shattering their window to Earth, 2 years later, on fire and practically desolate, was harsh. It was like, they didn’t win. And it allowed us to get backstory, from multiple perspectives, which I thought was nice. John drinking was a good touch, as it shows his serious signs of PTSD, and guilt. Etrogen not even rhyming because he doesn’t see the point was just a hard hitting reminder that this world fucking sucked.

The first encounter between Superman, raven, and John was great. Raven’s annoyance, and “oh fuck this” were perfect. She’s already got a million things to be worried about, a drunk man and a drunk demon don’t need to be added to them. Also Etrogen just burping fire onto the paradoomen was great. A bit of humor to lighten up the dark bits. We also learned a bit more about what happened to the justice league, and got to see many of them visocusly ripped apart or seriously maimed. Knowing that Darkseid didn’t kill all of them either was horrifying, as you know many of them were actually better off dead at some point. John’s sarcastic nature was helpful to not make it too dark and depressing.

Next, to my best boy Damian, who immediately stops the battle with one word and threatens Superman, blaming him for the loss of his teammates and his father. This immediately stops when Raven collapses and we see a range of emotions cross his face, and we all saw those screen caps and they were every bit as good in the movie. He immediately sets aside his disdain for Superman and is worried about her. Finding out Dick died in front of him, protecting him from a paradoomen is super fucking depressing. Learning that he used a Lazarus pit to bring him back but it not working is even worse, and then we get gutted with the line of “he was my brother”. Like you can stop now, my heart can only bleed so much.

Next is the group going to see the suicide squad. First, seeing Lois Lane fight Harley Queen was hot as hell. Secondly, boomerang and John calling each other names and both ending on “wanker” was golden. Third, which this should have honestly been first but it just crossed my kind, is Damian, back in his Robin costume instead of his League of Assassins getup, was chicken noodle soup for my batboy soul. Honestly first thing should have been that king shark and John fucking is CANON. Continuing, Superman actively and positively cheering on Lois in her fight was adorable, and I liked it. Damian and Raven admitting their feelings for each other was great, and I’m really happy that this was the endgame.

Getting to LexCorp tower, and finding out Lex is the sleeper who was feeding Lois information was amazing, because we all wanted it to be Batman, and think that he had actually fought off Darkseid’s brainwashing, and was just in a deep cover until the right time came. But it showed that even Batman can break. They lost a lot of people in the tower, and watching a beast of a woman like Lady Shiva die was terrible, but I will say it felt almost meaningless. I do wish Damian had more of a reaction, as I’m sure he actually knew Shiva quite well, due to his time with the league of assassins since he was born, and when he went back to rule them after losing all of his friends and family. But I guess you can only take so many people to Apokolips. Story wise, it does make sense, it just seemed like it had very little impact on someone who I figured it would have a bigger impact on. Seeing all of Lex’s of kryptonite was good. “I had issues.” Was a great line.

The next part on Apokolips was horrifying. We get cyborg resemblances of what’s left of the justice league. It was physically awful to look at, and I’m sure for our heros, probably doing some psychological damage. The other part of that, took place in Darkseid’s throne room. I will say, I do not buy for one second that Damian would not avoid a laser beam. He’s not out of practice, and he’s been in extreme turmoil before. Back to the throne room, that was a masterfully thought out scene. And I would like to pinpoint the exact climax of the movie, which I found to be my second favorite part, the ending being my favorite part. But it’s not John debugging cyborg and the others, it’s not the beginning of the fight with cyborg, and not even Batman’s fight with Damian. The climax of the movie is when Bruce is getting ready to kill Damian and all of a sudden, he sees himself face to face with Joe Chill, at 8 years old, and dead parents in front of him. Bruce seeing himself in his blood son was the climax of the movie, because it set off the rest of the events for the rest of the movie. Batman breaks and throws the sword at Darkseid. He gets pissed and sends Omega beams towards Bruce, and Damian steps in front and takes it, which does kill him, and that breaks Raven, and she has John free trigon, who invaded Superman’s body, and it just continues from there, until they all got to leave and Darkseid and his paradoomens, along with trigon, end up stuck in the middle of nowhere. We get the damirae kiss at the end, and the flash starting another flashpoint, effectively ending this current continuity, and setting up another one, which I think really went well, considering this is the last movie in this continuity.

Now touching on the previous point of why the climax is my second favorite part of the movie, I never explained why it was that. And for me, it’s because it didn’t have any long winded “good man” speech to accompany it. Don’t get me wrong, I think it worked well with bad blood. But Talia only had him for a little over 2 weeks. Darkseid’s had him for at least 2 years. So it would take more than some words to get it together. But it couldn’t be just any action or any thought. The one thing that pulled him out of Darkseid’s control, is the event that created Batman. It was poetic, and it just worked for me. What better way to come to your senses than to just see the original, and just be like “this is who I am.” Damian mentioned this earlier in the movie too, that Dick’s death almost broke him, the key word being almost. I thought it was great, because Batman took Dick in, because he saw himself in Dick. Dick was the first Robin, and the next in-line to the mantel. Losing any of your children isn’t easy, but losing your first son, and the one who’s always been there is even harder. But it wasn’t enough to break him.

Now I’ll be talking about some things I really liked in this movie that I didn’t include up above, one of them being John Stewart’s last stand on Oa. John, is seemingly the last green lantern alive, the guardians are dead, and any green lanterns that were making a last stand were quickly and brutally dealt with. John is right in front of the source of the green lantern power, and he’s so close. He’s almost got it, the fist is raised, and Darkseid asks for a transfer of some of earth’s magma core onto Oa. He’s burned up, along with the power source for green lanterns. It’s super crushing because you were hoping, that even if he didn’t kill Darkseid, which he probably wasn’t going to, he could at least try to slow him down. But we never got there.

Another thing I liked is when Zatanna reveals that John didn’t run away on his own accord, and that Batman always has a contingency plan. Zatanna knew she was going to die at that point but made sure John made it out so the others could have a shot at eventually winning. First of all, holy shit that is traumatizing, watching someone you love die and you’re running away. But I’m assuming other magicians can feel when magic is being used on them, and so John is so upset with what’s happening that he doesnt even feel the magic being used. He just thinks he ran away, tail between his legs, because he was scared.

Raven letting go and using her demon powers to protect them from the laser beams and then afterwards “I will kill you boy” before immediately calming down and apologizing. Raven letting go to grab Luther and threatening him “no one will mourn you” was *chef’s kiss* everything I ever needed. Damian and Raven were so protective of each other this movie and it was so sweet to watch. You could really see that he did have feelings for her and it was just sweet.

Another part I liked was John offering himself up to Trigon to use as a host body and Trigon said “fuck that” and jumped into Superman, which if you look closely, burned the liquid kryptonite out of his body, which did allow him to return to his normal form when he watched Lois die, which holy shit. Wow. That was uh depressing. But it allowed Superman to gain control again, and it made sense on why Superman was back in his normal form. The other thing, is that Trigon is already a strong being, and from his past experience with the justice league, he knows Superman is strong too. It all made sense, and I do think it was done well.

Finally, John finding out that the Flash is the reason for this is amazing and also depressing, because at this point, if you’ve seen flashpoint paradox, Barry will have to sacrifice his mom to save the rest of the world. A world where everyone is alive. You also find out that their plan to blow up the generator won’t work because flash is the generator. They also use flash at the beginning to tell everyone that he’s seen what happens and that this may not be the time to do it. At the end, broken, battered, and utterly depressed, he knows what he needs to do. Create another flashpoint. I know I mentioned it above, but it really does bring a nice end to this animated universe and opens up the door for a new one. It does seem a little deus ex machina to me, but it’s not overly outlandish like time travel in the quantum realm using pym particles (looking at you marvel). The kiss at the end between Raven and Damian was perfect, because they truly were endgame and that’s all my baby bird heart wanted.

Basically all I wanted to say with this really long post is that I liked Justice Leage Dark: Apokolips War.

[rcinberry]

•♢  ▪  MEET THE JUNG FAMILY ( + IMMEDIATE )

as stated in my intro, the jungs were known worldwide as renowned physicians who would end up owning and funding hospitals all across the world, thus establishing the name JUNG. they’re a household name due to their impact in the medical world, if you hear the name JUNG - you know that their family is tied deep with their hospitality around the world and their influence spoke magnitude. the jung’s are no stranger to the media either, whether it’s on PAGE 6, TMZ, VOGUE or COSMO - their efforts, their style and their lives don’t go unnoticed by the media or the world; all eyes on them. their influence is unmatched; their list of connections are endless. knowing them is a blessing and a curse, depending which jung you knew! 

ELIZABETH JUNG - MOTHER

ah.. miss elizabeth .. liz .. lizabeth, or as sebastian likes to say to her face - waste of space taking the role of ‘mother’ when she lacks motherly love. he and his mother DO not get along,  at all - since the dawn of time, even upon birth he just never vibed with his mom - he can smell the fake from miles away. his mom was always someone who put on a different face but acted completely different in private - in short, his mother is ruthless that puts on a kind mask to the public. sebastian took it from her to be as he is, uncaring, disregards others and thanks to her - his true colors are his true colors. growing up, all they ever did was argue - but god, never in front of silvia. there was no mother son relationship, he felt like a stranger in his own home with her around.... i think they’ve gone to therapy together but you know how the story goes.... look where they are now. ever since elizabeth murdered his uncle when he was a teenager all his suspicions growing up about her lacking any empathy and only gave a fuck about money, it was evident in her life style in her mannerism and the way she spoke down to others (where do you think he gets it from?); after seeing her for what she is, sebastian’s relationship with his mother is non existent from 19 onwards, on paper he is her son but now in public he was nothing to do with her.u kno ? killing ur mother in ur head when ur 13 does wonders and then killing her again at 19 also does wonders this is y i say no matter what the elites say .. it doesnt hurt bc his mom has called him everything in the book that nothing hurts or phases him anymore, no wound cuts deeper than not having a motherly figure 

RICHARD JUNG  - FATHER

ah.. richie rich, dick jung ! anyway, richard is the kinder of the couple - hard working, driven, full of love and just everything elizabeth isn’t. i imagine that richard actually loved being a doctor and helping people out genuinely and like :( he rly loved his brother and losing him was so devastating like theres nothing like losing a twin that won’t hurt? also i think it’s funny, ellie if ur reading this, richard ran away when his brother died and silvia ran away to new zealand w him while seb and silvia died kinda funny huh? anyway, rich and sebastian had the strongest relationship like, he loved and looked up to his father. he would travel with his father to different countries to open up hospitals, attend events for reopenings or revamping whatever the case may be  - sebastian saw the world in a different lense with his dad, those were his favorite memories as a teenager. he didn’t do extra shit and like immerse himself in school and establishing his name the way silvia did, he wanted to travel and see the world with his dad which is what he did and was home schooled for that reason. even tho his dad is gone and he’s trying his best to find him, richard and sebastian have a father son bond that’s strong - sebastian’s like a little kid that finds home in his father, out of everyone in the family he’s the closest thing he has to holding onto his sanity but once that was gone, he was trying not to fall apart. mans just rly wants to find his dad, his inner child is all thats left that needs someone to hold him and tell him he’s doing good , i think .. his dad could do that :/ ouch

SILVIA JUNG - TWIN

ah.. silvia... his bestie since diapers....until you know as of recently, i know i said this in my intro but he would protect silvia like his life depended on it whether she wanted it or not - minus the fact she stabbed him in the back but like him and silvia were two peas in a pod , like not ot be cheesy - she was his best friend growing up because like sebastian... never made friends, he didn’t go to school like silvia did where she had the chance to meet different groups of people and expand her views on the world, all sebastian had was her and he was okay with that? he didn’t like to make friends, and i was talking to ellie bout this but without having a motherly figure in his life - he kind of projected wanting a mothers love onto silvia because she was the closest thing to a mother figure in that house and in his life. he would want her approval, her words cut just as deep as his mother so losing her was like a mind numbing experience. he puts on a brave face to the world acting like he doesn’t care but god it hurts, it genuinely hurts to lose his twin and doesn’t understand how she could turn so cold and cruel towards him yk? he didn’t realize he was suffocating her, he was supposed to protect her but in the end they fell apart. it was supposed to be them against the world yk? like the jung twins together were always a duo in the media, never one without the other - like he cut deep with his words and she was always the timid one between them but they both share qualities that deem them what they were - powerful together but :/ ok im gna cry if i keep typing more

BAMBI - HIS DOGGOOOO, thumper’s silvia’s !

bambi is thumpers sister, the twins got these pair of golden’s when they were babies and they grew up with them and sebastian .. god .. HE loves his dog so much it’s insane, she’s his emotional support and bambi is very protective sebastian - she may be old but she has enough to run and bite people on behalf of him and it’s very fitting, she’s his dog and they’re both selective of each other, there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for his pup - she gets the best treatment a dog can get, they cuddle in his bed every night, she’s probably seen over 309435 different faces in her life time, anyway sebastian and his dog like to sit together and listen to music and she makes him happy, she knows when he’s sad and cuddles up against him and he instantly feels better 

[redwoodrroad]

after i finished Jormag Rising, i uh wrote up something i immediately imagined--just like a wrap-up conversation between Rytlock and my commander. im really proud of it, but i don’t think it fits for ao3 where i would normally post fic, so im putting it here! if you’d like to give it a read, let me know what you think!

im also realizing it’s. a little similar in setting to the Rytlock’s short story segment that anet put out after season 4 episode 5, but who doesnt love a good talk by a fire--it’s low stakes, like having an emotional talk in the car because it eliminates the awkward feelings people have to face when they’re forced to look each other in the eye while talking about serious topics

anyway please enjoy <3 it’s no work of art, but i had such an influx of sudden inspiration that i really wanted to write it out, so let me know what you think if you’re interested in reading my take on how Rytlock feels about Ryland, the current situation, how fatherhood has affected him in this one instance, etc

Rytlock sat at the fire, hunched slightly and unmoving. Having been concerned for him throughout this Jormag-related escapade, Eridunis approached and sank down carefully beside him. They didn’t speak for a moment, but soon Eridunis looked to Rytlock and started,

“... Are you doing okay?”

Firelight flickered across Rytlock’s face, reflecting in his eyes.

“No. I’ll be honest, Commander: I’m not.”

“I’m... here if you want to talk,” Eridunis offered, sliding back a little to give Rytlock more room.

Rytlock shook his head. “I just can’t believe it... I can’t believe... the arc I witnessed—First Ryland was just getting too damn cozy with an Imperator; then he was joining that Imperator on some... some fascist brigade... Then I thought—Well, he must have been brainwashed so well by Bangar that he could be convinced to willingly awaken an Elder Dragon to—to serve Bangar... And then this. How the hell did it come to this...”

Eridunis paused for a long time. After thinking carefully, he replied, “I think... This was probably Ryland’s plan for a while now... Maybe not the whole time, but—Let’s be honest here, Bangar was never gonna be Jormag’s Champion—“ Rytlock nodded with raised eyebrows, unsurprised by the observation. “—I mean I definitely didn’t think for a moment that would end up being Ryland, but... He’s smart. He... knew what he was going to do when he entered that ruin. This was all... leading up to it.”

Rytlock went still again, still staring at the fire. He flashed back to fighting Bangar, beside Ryland for the first time, only to watch him step forward and accept the horrific mark of Jormag.

Sighing, Rytlock blinked and leaned back, out of his head finally. “Do you know why I—“ He started slowly but cut himself off to restart: “Did I... Did I ever tell you why I never... brought him up... with you or with anyone?”

Eridunis blinked too and thought about it, scoring his mind for an answer. He soon shook his head. “No.”

Rytlock looked past the fire. He paused but soon began to explain, gesturing, “You know it’s... not really in Charr... culture or whatever... to be all family and kid-raising and all that... You know, you got your Sire and you got the Dam, and when she has the kid, it... goes away, right? Gets raised to... join a warband and not get all caught up by family shit. That’s the way it should be.” Eridunis squirmed, not agreeing—but Humans were different. His life was different. “But when Cre had Ryland,” Rytlock continued, shaking his head slowly, “I... I couldn’t stay away. I just felt this... this tug... towards him and towards him and towards this... this idea of being in his life.” He looked to Eridunis, seemingly a little uncertain suddenly. “Do you know what I mean?”

Eridunis nodded. “Yeah. I get that.”

Rytlock nodded back and looked away, pausing before he continued, “Something was different though. Now when... when I was a cub like that... I was... the smallest, weakest little runt in the group—no one liked me—couldn’t do anything right... Not to get all pity party on you...”

“Don’t worry about it,” Eridunis cut in with a small smile.

“But Ryland... He was liked enough... He got on just fine—got along with people too... He didn’t need any help.”

Eridunis frowned, suddenly thinking of something. “I was... under the impression that you didn’t see him,” he started quizzically, “Which was why Bangar was able to swoop in and... you know, get close to him in the first place.”

Rytlock scoffed. “Remember all those times Logan came to visit Divinity’s Reach to see you and his brother?”

Eridunis instantly thought of all the times Logan came to visit throughout his childhood—he had so many stories for him... He always looked forward to his visits. Smiling a little awkwardly, Eridunis nodded. “I guess you weren’t just twiddling your thumbs, huh?”

Rytlock let out a huffy laugh. “Yeah, exactly. I went to check on Ryland and... well, Ryland is my oldest, so... I guess my big head put a priority on him for some reason...” He trailed off, but after a long pause he continued again, “I kept... thinking he would need help... You know, what I would have done to have my Sire see me get pushed around—but I’m not—I’m not jealous—“ He began snarling with his self-defense, “I’m not—not rubbing my paws together like some sort of angry jackass—“

“No, no, no—“

“—waiting for him to fall over so I can sigh in relief over not being the weakest Charr in my bloodline—“

“Rytlock, I would have never thought that!” Eridunis cut in finally as Rytlock waved his hand in sharp dismissal. Eridunis turned to him fully and put his hand on Rytlock’s arm. “Rytlock, seriously—I get it. You weren’t jealous, you just—you wanted to be a father.” Rytlock stared at the ground as Eridunis continued, “You... lived this life of fear and frustration—no one understood you. I get that—I lived that! You thought... that if Ryland would be anything like you—his Sire—that he would struggle through his experience in the fahrar. You expected he would struggle in the same ways you did—and when he didn’t... you didn’t know what to do. You weren’t jealous that he was doing better than you at that age, you... you felt helpless.” Rytlock flicked his eyes up towards the fire again, looking drained by the actualization. “He... He didn’t need help. You kept... imagining what it would be like to be a father in this culture that doesn’t have fathers, but when your own son acted in ways you didn’t expect and didn’t look up to you, you pulled back even more and got distant, and you’ll never know if you could have had a better life if only you’d been honest with yourself and with him when it mattered most—and oh gods, I’m talking about me and Logan.”

Rytlock looked to Eridunis with wide eyes. Eridunis froze, looking down while he processed what he had said. He soon looked up to Rytlock again, and Rytlock raised his eyebrows before he asked, “You uh... got a lot still going on with that, huh?”

Eridunis paused but nodded as he let his head fall a little. He then shook and started again: “Anyway—What I really want to say is... You don’t need Ryland to look up to you.” Rytlock deflated and shook his head. “Really—I know it’s not all about that, but... It’s not your fault that this happened. It’s not... by some failure on you as his Sire that Ryland has chosen this path. Whether he chose it all himself or fell into it through bad influence, it’s not your fault.”

Rytlock looked gravely sullen. “... I won’t be able to kill him, Eridunis,” he said lowly, shaking his head as he stared at the fire again. Eridunis was struck not only by the use of his name, from someone who has primarily used his title for the past few years, but by the stark realism of the statement. Rytlock shook his head again. “No matter what he looks like. He could be... undead... Risen—Branded... and I would still know it’s him.” Rytlock’s eyes grew wetter. “I’d still see my son and think there must be a way to save him.”

Eridunis hesitated but gripped Rytlock’s arm again as he replied, “Don’t think about it—that’s not... on the table... not... now. Just—focus on where we are right now.” Rytlock closed his eyes and nodded, scowling at nothing when he opened them again. “Listen,” Eridunis continued, “Ryland’s... current situation aside... This is not your fault. You didn’t orchestrate this, Bangar did—“

Rytlock nodded with another scoff. “Yeah, him I’m okay with killing,” he bites.

Eridunis let out a dry laugh. “—Yeah, really—But look: You did not do this to him. You didn’t... screw him up, Rytlock...”

Rytlock didn’t seem completely convinced, but he looked to Eridunis and gave his best impression of a smile. “I get it. I know you’re trying to help, and... I appreciate it. I appreciate you being here.”

Eridunis nodded with his own smile. He sat back again and felt the urge to continue: “I know nothing can replace him in your heart...” Rytlock stifled the urge to gag. “... But if it helps... I’ve always looked up to you.”

Rytlock swung his gaze to Eridunis in absolute shock. “... Real shit?”

Eridunis cracked a bigger smile. “Yeah. I mean, when Logan first took me to meet Destiny’s Edge in old Lion’s Arch, I definitely walked away from that calling you an asshole under my breath to Logan—“

“Wow, thanks,” Rytlock grunted playfully.

Chuckling, Eridunis raised a hand, and he soon continued, “But—after I saw you save his life when we went up against the Flame Legion, this man who... had always been in my life and who I don’t know what I would do without his influence... When you saved his life, I immediately started to see you as someone I wanted to be.” Rytlock’s expression softened beyond what Eridunis thought could have been possible. Eridunis finished, “If you need to feel like you’ve made a good impact on someone in your life... let it be me. Let it be—Rox and Braham and Taimi and even Kas and Jory—Arkus, even. Let it be Logan, Rytlock.”

“Even Canach?” Rytlock cut in jokingly.

Eridunis snickered. “Yes—despite the fact that Canach would rather jump off a ravine than admit that he has feelings, I’m sure he appreciates the friendship you have.”

Rytlock let out a laugh and looked away again. He leaned back, propping his hands on the grass. “... Thanks.”

Eridunis paused, hoping he’d finally said the right thing for Rytlock to heal from this. “... You’re welcome, Rytlock.”

Eridunis soon leaned back and mirrored Rytlock’s position, and they both stared at the fire for a long while.

... Soon, though, Eridunis started again: “If you keep stressing out like this, you’re gonna grow more grey fur.”

“Say that again, and I’ll gut you right here.”

“I’m just saying; you’re gonna look like a snow leopard by the time we’re done with all this.”

“I’m pulling out Sohothin right now—“

“Don’t pull a hip while you’re at it.”

“—throw your body in the lake so when you come back to life again, you’ll be frozen solid anyway—“

Eridunis laughed, leaning his head back, and Rytlock couldn’t help but laugh with him, both of them finally relaxing after a long and terrible night.

[red-elric]

so ive read fruits basket like twenty times, and over the last couple of years i noticed that, each time, i was drawn more and more to the characters of kimi and momiji, and identified with them in a way that was really confusing to me because i didnt really think i *actually* had a very similar personality to either of them? (discord friends may disagree but, well, this whole post is going to be about people and characters who change up their personality to be more likable.) i got all introspective about it and finally came to a conclusion about their characters that i subconsciously knew already: the key similarity between the two of them and myself is the way we very carefully layer subtle personality masks for ourselves to protect ourselves and to seem more approachable and likable without actually being vulnerable to other people. (other characters in furuba do this a lot too--key examples that come to mind are tohru, kagura, and yuki--but i care more about momiji and kimi so this is about them.)

to clarify a bit what i mean by this, ill start with a personal example. ive always been pretty good at remembering people’s names, especially if i think theyre cool and want to become friends with them, but i noticed around middle school or high school that people subconsciously find it intimidating/stalkerish if you know their name and they cant remember yours, especially if youve only met once. on the other hand, if they *do* remember your name, and you admit to not remembering theirs, they feel empowered and sympathetic to your situation; and if neither of you remember the other’s name, you have a moment of solidarity that can lead to a more relaxed relationship. so, i started pretending to have a manageable amount of trouble remembering the names of people i wanted to be friends with. the first two or three times that i meet someone, at some point i will use “clarifying their name” as a conversation starter, ie: “you’re....[], right?” or “is it []?” this is a small effect of a pattern of behavior i tend to follow: feigning incompetence to gain trust and camaraderie. is it manipulative? absolutely, but harmlessly so. its directly derived from my own social anxieties, but its a relatively healthy way to feel more connected with my peers and to stop feeling ostracized by people who resent me for being “smarter” than them--something i struggled with a lot in my youth. momiji and kimi dont put up the *same* masks as myself, but they are both rather adept at maintaining their own masks, and are both incredibly socially perceptive in the same way that i am: they analyze people’s reactions to their behavior and sculpt themselves to get the reaction they want.

lets take a look at what this means for kimi. surface level, kimi seems pretty cookie cutter--sure, shes a little chaotic, but she fits quite nicely into the femme fatale/dumb blonde trope (even though shes not blonde). but did you know that shes actually at the top of her class? its subtle, but to me its always been obvious that shes actually incredibly intelligent and constantly manipulating people to suit her needs. there are easy examples of this, of course: flirting with a teacher to get a new whiteboard, anyone? but there’s one scene that’s always spoken volumes to me about her character, and that’s the one-off joke where kakeru starts to say some “secret” about her, clearly joking, and she immediately shuts him down by cutting him off with “don’t say unnecessary things!” and elbowing him in the side, all while still smiling cheerfully. the subtlety of this is that, with her reaction, she’s actually imitating their audience: yuki. it’s yuki she doesn’t want to know about whatever kakeru knows, so she shuts down kakeru in a way we’ve seen yuki yell at kakeru whenever kakeru makes idiotic jokes. the physical attack, the angry smile, accusing kakeru of saying something annoying, but that doesnt really matter; none of these are particularly characteristic to kimi, she causes as much chaos as kakeru on a good day, but they’re incredibly recognizable to yuki. her reaction is familiar to yuki, and it invokes an assumption that kakeru is making a lame joke, not trying to reveal one of her deepest, darkest secrets, and it works because yuki would react completely differently if kakeru tried to tell someone about *his* secrets. yuki doesnt pursue the subject further, kakeru bounces back easily and doesnt give it a second thought, and kimi is safe. so, we can tentatively say that kimi has a habit of reflecting other’s expectations to hide her true self.

now, is this one scene enough on its own to prove this idea? of course not. however, when we view her actions as a whole we start to see a pattern. we see several instances where kakeru will say something stupid and kimi will listen, encourage it, or say something just as stupid back; it’s only when he tries to reveal something about *her* that she shuts him down. we see subtle signs of genuine anger when he tries to reveal her secret: the overly violent jab, the tensed vein/angry eyebrows, etc--not very characteristic for happy-go-lucky, flirtatious kimi. and, of course, we have several examples of how she manipulates a) men into buying things for her, granting her favors, leaving their girlfriends for her, etc; and b) women into feeling inferior to her, feeling aggravated with her, and thinking she’s incredibly troublesome but knowing that they can’t argue with the men about it. overall, its not a far stretch at all to think she’s manipulating everyone around her to avoid revealing information about her true self: a proud, intelligent woman who enjoys causing chaos, but is also very manipulative and controlling to the people around her and hates being vulnerable.

momiji is in some ways similar, and in other ways very very different. most people--especially characters in the story with him--tend to put momiji in this “sweet, innocent child” box. it’s not just his height--his fashion, mannerisms, outlook on life, etc are all very reminiscent of someone much younger than he is, and people tend to *treat* him like he’s much younger than he is. even if they know intellectually that yes, momiji is significantly older than he appears, it’s very easy for the older sohmas to treat him as a troublesome but still loved younger sibling--someone to be taken care of, not taken too seriously, someone lovable. i’ve seen several people point out that part of *why* momiji does this is because he subconsciously feels that hes not allowed to act like an older sibling (to momo), so he acts as a younger sibling in an effort to get a similar sort of familial bond without overstepping the boundaries that his family instilled in his mind, and i agree. i believe momiji has a habit of feigning youth to more easily bond with the people he loves. his childish actions and behavior make him easier to deal with, and also give him a little more leeway to do things that would normally frowned upon if he appeared older, ex: sleeping in a bed with tohru, wearing a girl’s uniform top to school, taking any chance he can get to be physically affectionate with people, indulging in sweets and candy, etc.

two things draw momiji’s true personality out of its shell: his growth spurt, forcing people to acknowledge his actual age, and the breaking of his curse. late game momiji, to me, has always seemed bitter, tired, and sarcastic, as opposed to the sweet, energetic, and sincere front he’d put on for most of the series, which is very interesting to me. of course, you’d normally *expect* someone who’s gone through as much as momiji to *be* bitter, tired, sarcastic, etc; however, when he puts his child-like mask on, it’s easy to pretend that he’s this loving, saintly child who bears no ill will towards anyone, who can be knocked to hell and back and still stand back up to smile again. and i do think it’s true that momiji has an incredible capacity for forgiveness and love, but there’s also no denying that he has a limit, and we can see that during his first conversation with akito after his curse breaks. this, i think, is the most raw, true representation of momiji in the whole story; momiji has lost his link with the family he made for himself in the zodiac, he’s been physically forced to grow out of his persona, he’s finally seeing that his primary abuser is really not so powerful after all, and he’s forced to finally confront the fact that, while his curse, the thing that caused most of the troubles in his life, is broken, the impacts it already had on his life won’t magically go away. momiji in this scene seems completely disconnected from akito, who is still caught up in the curse, still desperately trying to hold everything together; in his lowest moment, we can finally see momiji, not as an all-forgiving saint, but as someone who just wants to start over. he’s not happy that his curse ended; id even go as far to say that momiji, out of every zodiac, is the one who most wishes it was still around, for the bond that it gave him with the other zodiacs and as something he could pin the blame on for his family struggles. which is why it is so sad to me that his was among the first to break.

now, yall probably know by now that i am a momimi bitch, so lets talk about them together. most of the people i see shipping them--and i fully admit, this is how i started shipping them--simply just say “same energy,” make a few cute headcanons about how they’d use each other for clout, and call it a day. this is perfectly fine. however, here at Overthinking It Inc., we take it a few steps deeper. personally, i have a hard time getting invested in a ship unless i can see how the characters compliment each other, how they help each other grow, and how they could genuinely enjoy each other’s company enough to pursue a romantic relationship. it took a little bit of obsessive extrapolating, but ive finally figured out just *how well* momiji and kimi compliment each other.

momiji, at the end of furuba, is going through a metamorphosis. he’s been forced out of his childish persona and into the life of an adult rather quickly, and he takes the opportunity to try to become more true to himself. we can see, in the last few chapters, the beginnings of bounds of growth; however, i imagine that there is a significant “awkward” period in his growth. judging from what i know about his character, i believe he would, in his effort to be more honest and confident, overcompensate a bit; he would become overbearing, intense, perhaps even oversharing. he might have a tendency to try to figure out what’s “wrong” with his friends and family, might always be trying to “fix” everything. i could easily see him, in fact, develop a bit of a selfish attitude (albeit rooted in kindness--it is, after all, still momiji); in his journey to stop letting people walk all over them, i believe he might become prone to walking over people himself. he’d have no idea where the lines are, where someone’s limits are, because he never had the chance to test them out in his youth, and because the people in power in his life (his parents and akito) never respected anyone else’s limits. enter kimi: tough, walled off, and incredibly secretive, though she tries to hide it. momiji, with his social perceptiveness, would notice at some point how difficult it is for her to form genuine, emotional connections with others, and would feel the urge to help her, to draw her out of her shell, not realizing that she doesnt necessarily want to be understood, nor that she’s (now entering headcanon territory, be warned) *scared* of those kinds of relationships. she’d take it, for a while, but there would come a time when she’d snap. this would do wonders for helping momiji figure out where the boundaries are, and how to be more aware of other people’s wants and needs (and it is something that tohru, reserved little wallflower that she is, would never be able to do for him).

kimi, on the other hand, has not quite started developing her character at the end of the manga. i like to apply all sorts of believable anxieties onto her: maybe she regrets not having an easy connection with other girls, like she does with boys. maybe she refuses to believe in the familial structure (that momiji idolizes). maybe she’s so used to playing the part of the homewrecker that, when she finally realizes that she’s found something or someone she truly loves, she doesn’t know how to handle it, and always worries that somebody’s going to take it away for her. maybe she views connections with others, or vulnerability, as a weakness, something that could be used against her, and tries to do everything she can to wall people off and hide her true feelings. well, good news for her, momiji is the resident king of loving family structures. family is something he truly loves and understands, from how much he’s admired it from afar, and been grateful for the family he’s made for himself in hatori, tohru, and the other zodiac. he’s well primed to help her understand what a true family is like, that real love is a good thing, not a scary thing, and that it’s okay to be vulnerable sometimes. this big, sweethearted doofus who somehow managed to see how much she was struggling under the many layers of masks that she hides beneath? there’s no way kimi wouldnt fall for him. and she, this girl who challenges everything he believes in, teaches him valuable lessons about how far is too far, and is basically the most fun person he’s ever met? there’s no way momiji wouldn’t fall for her.

i believe the two of them would start things off as almost a play; theyd portray a satire of the ideal male and female celebrity couple rather easily; theyd lean into the standard boy and girl roles almost ridiculously so, drawing attention to the absurdity of the standard relationship and somehow flirting through it. kimi, as we know, likes to pretend to be this helpless, flirtatious, “i couldnt possibly do anything on my own, oh whatever shall i do O3O” caricature of the feminine “ideal” to draw men in; momiji, i feel, would respond to that with a dorky, happy-go-lucky, “i can help you with that, miss ; )” caricature of the masculine, “ideal” gentleman, just for fun. theyd put on a show, for each other, for their peers, and for themselves, but they would eventually run into some troubles (detailed above). things would be tense, but theyd keep up their personas--why would they *ever* admit to their flaws to the outside world, theyre perfect? their friends would notice, of course, but wouldnt be able to do much about it; in the end, the only people perceptive enough to read through the bullshit of one is the other. theyd come to an understanding--spoken or unspoken (with the subtleties of their relationship, its not unreasonable that they could change their entire perspective of their relationship with just actions, not direct words or conversation)--and shift back into their previous, flirtatious relationship, except its different this time. because now, they understand each other, they love each other, theyre practically reading the other’s mind, and theyre perfectly in tune. rather than putting on masks to hide from each other, they wear one together to hide from the world--but, they think, that’s probably enough.

[tomiyeee]

finished the story quests for bl3 (but barely any of the side missions yet) and i got...Opinions(tm)

(sorry if this doesn’t cut on mobile! also if you want to hide spoilers i’m tagging all my bl3 posts as “bl3 spoilers” so ny’all can blacklist it)

in no particular order:

i honestly wanted to give gearbox some slack and try my best to like this game bc i know people had probably unfairly high expectations for this game given all the build up, but they really just kept letting me down in everything but the graphics

said this before but overall, the characters are all Quite lackluster

^^ tyreen and troy included. adding the word "bitch" to every sentence does not automatically make it funnier

that being said, i super love their backstory + relationship with typhon/nekofeyo-whatever

the character designs are equally boring. moxxi was the only one who got a real improvement imo. lilith and maya are okay. rhys...i dont think i have to explain. lia...i dislike her hair; the black felt like it balanced out her design better and the white streak was interesting and cool but full white just looks bad tbh. zer0 feels less sleek and more bulky which doesnt fit him much. tina lost her pretty color palette and cute outfit. where are all the bright pretty color palettes in general???? there are other colors besides brown and black???? use them?????

ending of pre-sequel: “you will need all the vault hunters you can get” me: “ooh does that mean all the vh’s from previous games are back? i can’t wait to see everyone meet each other! :D” bl3: only nine of them come back, 3 of them die, the rest are involved in maybe one mission at most

boss fights. super. boring. and tedious. i mean this could be partly because i was playing on ps4 which made it extra not fun but if the only reason the fight is difficult is because they have a lot of health...it's not fun or challenging. i want fights like handsome jack with interesting mechanics. i want fights like angel with emotional impact. i want fights like the pre-sequel final boss that i forgot the name of with variation that isnt just "now they have an attack that shines bright lights in ur eyes, covers the whole arena, and can knock you down in one hit im looking at you traunt and killavolt". tyreens fight was the only one that i somewhat enjoyed because of this. all the others were just like "ughhhh again?"

im really enjoying melee amara playstyle. taking out badass enemies in four hits is my jam. this is just my fallout 4 playthrough all over again babey heck yea

typhon just wanted to be a good dad!!! he called tyreen starlight which is adorable!!! he did the best he could and tyreen hated him for it!!! i don’t blame either of them for that tbh, it makes sense from both their perspectives. tyreen definitely should have been more understanding, but she’s a dick so :/ (not saying this is a writing flaw, just a character flaw)

hammerlock needs higher standards in men but i really appreciate the undeniably in-your-face "fuck you" to all gamer dudes

i really. hate. how little the player character seems to matter in the story. in pre-sequel the vh's all had unique dialogue AND npcs would respond, sometimes even with character-specific lines. even when it was the same across vh's, it still felt like the npcs were interacting and speaking directly to them. the player character felt like a character of their own, rather than just a vessel for the player to do quests and kill enemies with or an errand runner for the important characters. i thought that was the direction they were going in with bl3 too but this just feels like bl2 only worse. there’s a separation again between you and the story and it feels like you’re just watching things happen. now ur not just a silent protagonist, but instead your a speaking protagonist who gets completely ignored. whats the point of including unique dialogue if it's not even acknowledged beyond an "uh-huh, moving on"?

sometimes the logic just feels kinda dumb. the twins killed/disabled maya and lilith in a heartbeat, they can literally disintegrate the most powerful beings in the universe, but the vault hunters? absolutely not. they must fight them for 40 minutes and then die.

after the fight with troy, no one even touched tyreen. there's no way they could have thought "yup she's definitely dead, no need to shoot her in the head or anything just to make sure. we didn't do anything to even hurt her, we just assumed." turns out she's 100% alive and gets up to start the apocalypse. who'da thunk! i know they wanted the end to seem more dramatic but it just seems stupid that they could have stopped tyreen like 5 missions earlier had they even the slightest bit of common sense.

lilith was one of the biggest threats to tyreen and troy's whole plan. of course they should leave her alive and simply steal her powers. let's kill the monk siren instead.

i know they didn't include this to give all players a fair experience instead of favoring sirens, but it kinda sucks playing a siren character and it's just completely ignored outside of ur action skill. tyreen and troy are sapping siren powers left and right, but they choose to leave you with yours. when you enter the eridian place with typhon tannis starts glowing because it has "something to do with sirens". what about the one standing right next to her? this applies to bl2 as well...jack i would willingly charge ur vault key for u pls why do u take lilith instead :'(

oh yeah speaking of tannis! i LOVE that she got angels powers. for some reason it just makes me really happy. maybe it's bc i think it's sweet that part of angel survived. maybe it's because it makes for cool fanart. maybe it's just cool. idk. also like that we got a solid explanation of what angel's powers were (influence over technology). i always thought her having control over it in bl2 might've been cuz it was hyperion tech and she had access to it same as she had access to the satellite from bl1. it wasn't super clear since it seemed like she could also materialize things like the ammo during her fight.

that also reminds me: all the dramatic reveals in this game felt kinda badly done.

the very first one with zer0/katagawa. like the whole time i was walking around looking for him i was trying to think why he might've turned/something must have happened to him or rhys. everyone was saying it was undeniably zer0. i finally meet him and take one look at his bright ass maliwan armor and its like. really. you couldnt have made it anymore obvious that thats not zer0. and then his helmet gets knocked off and surprise! it's not him. i totally didnt already figure that out with one glance 10 seconds ago. (maybe even earlier when you got glimpses of him around the building but i always missed it cuz i was looking at the fish tanks n shit)

also the tannis reveal. she was speaking to me in the same way that only known siren characters could. weird unexplained things were happening and seemed to be related to tannis. i wonder if she's a siren? surprise! she's a siren.

tyreen and troy knew about the great vault through some unknown means. typhon was talking about having a son and a daughter who he told stories about the great vault. typhon calls tyreen his daughter a while later and lilith acts surprised like honey ur a little slow, i figured that out several lines ago.

basically i'm not saying they were so obvious that i knew from the beginning of the game; i only figured them out a little before they were outright stated. but it was enough that it kinda ruined the effect and the characters acting surprised only when it was blatantly spelled out for them just made it annoying.

i feel like most of this is pretty negative, but i don’t mean that i hate the game and was miserable playing it. it was honestly okay...like i said i wanted to like it, but gearbox hates me specifically and killed/ruined all my faves just to spite me sooo...*waves hand back and forth in a sort of “ehhh” gesture*. i think my opinion on bl games from most to least fav would be: tftbl, bltps, bl2, bl3, and bl1. so it’s not the worst, but deeefinitely not one of my faves. i mean jack’s not in it (or if he is he doesn’t have a big role) so it’s already at a huge disadvantage. the ending was ok, it was all dramatic n stuff and it kinda makes sense i guess, but it was just about as okay as the rest of the game really. i don’t hate it but it’s not great either yknow?