#sorry for treating Jesus like an anime character

[areyouscaredyet]

im not particularly religious but i think it’s very cute that Trans Day of Visibility and Easter are on the same day this year :)

its no question that something like this could be triggering or upsetting to a number of queer ppl given the current sociopolitical climate, so i want everyone to remember that u are loved! Regardless of what u or others believe, there are ppl who will love and support you always. Give yourself patience and treat yourself with care!!!

happy and peaceful TDOV everyone!! And Easter to those who celebrate :D

[thlayli-ra]

Trick or treat is such a fun idea!

Could I request a Punkintyre ficlet with the shock collar prompt 🥺 (I would very much appreciate Drew being the one in the collar but I leave the details in your very capable hands)

Ok so, just, let me explain myself here! By the time this prompt came through I had already received the Cody Rhodes 'Shock Collar' prompt and I didn't want to essentially write the same fic so I tried to come up with something different and I couldn't stop thinking about this gifset from Bad Blood and @fantasticalleigh 's tags on it about Punk and Drew being like two beasts mating in captivity, and it made me think of the original Planet of the Apes movie and well... this is the final result. Hope it's kinda, sorta what you were hoping for (I'm sorry!)??? 😬

Trick - 'Shock Collar'

Characters - CM Punk, Drew McIntyre

Rating - Mature (18+)

Warning Tags - Alien Abduction, Drugging, Breeding, Non-Con, Dub-Con, Rough Sex

'Punk! Wake up! Wake up, ye stupid prick!'

A meaty palm slapped his cheek, stirring him from his deep sleep. 'Ow!' Punk grunted moodily. 'What the fuck's wrong with you?'

It was then that he saw the raw terror in Drew McIntyre's eyes. 'Everything is wrong! Everything is as fucking wrong as it can possibly be!'

His vision started juddering back into focus and Punk spied the metal above Drew's head. For a split second he thought they were both in the Cell, and that he'd taken a bad bump and passed out during their match but he soon realised that these were not the zig-zag mesh of Hell in a Cell.

These were bars!

They were both locked in some kind of cage!

Punk sat up like a shot to look around. The cage was large, more like an enclosure, and rich in foliage, wiry bushes, dirt and rocks. Punk was lying on a bed of hay in the top-most corner, under a bamboo canopy like some kind of animal in a zoo.

'Drew?' he stammered out. 'Where the hell are we?'

'I have no idea...'

The large Scot lumbered up to his feet and tentatively stepped out from under the canopy and into the make-shift forest. Behind him, Punk gawked when he noticed Drew's attire. Or lack of it! 'What are you wearing?'

Drew glanced down at the sparse shred of clothing to his name - a loin-cloth made from animal pelt draped around his waist and a metal collar around his neck. 'Same as you,' he shot back and Punk looked down and found to his horror that Drew was right. Letting out a curse, he shoved the front of his loin cloth down between his legs to give himself some decency then moved his fingers up to inspect the steel collar at his throat. It was bolted fast. The panic escalated into full-on alarm! 'What the fuck is going on?'

'Shh,' Drew hushed him, his ears pricked.

'You hear something?' Punk whispered.

'Shut up!'

Drew edged his way forward, reaching out his long arm to swipe through a clump of giant leaves and push them aside to reveal-

'JESUS CHRIST!' Drew toppled backwards with fright, landing hard on his lower back.

'FUCK!' Punk yelled, shuffling further back into his corner.

Quick as a flash Drew rushed up beside him, the two men shaking with terror. 'You saw that, right?' the Scot asked.

'Yeah,' Punk hushed out, trying to process what he had just seen. 'Yeah I saw it.'

Behind the leaves there had been a gap in the bars, filled with what looked like glass. A viewing gallery to peer into their enclosure. And there standing at the window were two figures crafted from their very nightmares. Impossibly tall and thin, something not of his world or the limits of his understanding, something that was completely...

...alien!

Suddenly a high-pitched shriek tore through Punk's head. He let out a wail as the pain screeched behind his eyes, covering his ears to try and stifle the blare.

'-creatures of P-0087453-E,' a tinny voice spoke inside Punk's very skull. 'We believe they refer to it as Earth-'

'W-what's happening?' Drew gritted out through his clenched teeth, tearing at his hair. He could hear it too!

'I don't know, I- GAH!'

'-simple creatures, not highly advanced. They can be prone to acts of violence and aggression, acting purely on their most basic urges-'

'I can hear a voice!' Punk yelled over the static in his skull. 'I think... I think it's them. Whatever they are!'

'I hear it too. How is that possible?'

'I have no idea! AAAGHHH!' The pain was growing, like somebody was blasting a badly tuned radio in his head.

'-but incredibly rare and valuable. Which is why our experts identified these two as a fertile pair and brought them here for our breeding programme-'

Punk froze. Had he really heard that right? Or did he just imagine it? Glancing up at Drew he was shocked to find the Scot looking deathly pale. He was afraid the larger man was about to keel over any second and shook him roughly by the shoulder to snap him out of his stupor. 'Hey, you ok?'

'This can't be happening! This is all some fucked up dream. This can't be-'

'-we will start our programme by activating the pheromones in the dominant male-'

Punk's stomach fell out from under him, wondering what on Earth that meant! Perhaps there was some kind of mechanism in the cage that would spray it into the enclosure? Anticipating it, he grabbed in a lungful of air and held it, waiting, listening, watching for anything to happen.

But nothing did.

He released his breath with a loud gasp, coughing oxygen back into his bloodstream. 'I think we're in the clear,' he told Drew, 'I didn't see or hear anything and I don't feel any different so-'

Drew let out a heavy grunt beside him, cutting him off and Punk turned to find the Scot shaking his head like he was trying to fend off an incoming sneeze.

'Drew? What's wrong?'

Drew's head shot up, his gaze finding Punk and fixing on him. His pupils were completely blown, erasing all the blue from his eyes. Making him resemble some kind of wild animal in the woods, a bear or wolf or... no, more like a shark circling the water, smelling fresh blood. Strong and dangerous. And hungry!

Guess he'd just found out who the so-called 'dominant male' was, and if that was Drew, then what exactly did that make Punk?

'Pheromones activated. Now all we have to do is wait and we'll hopefully see the mating rituals of this fascinating species.'

Shhhhhit! 'D-Drew?'

But the larger man wasn't listening! Settling onto his haunches like a crouched tiger, he began to stalk closer to his prey who scrabbled backwards with a yelp but where could Punk go? They were completely caged in and inevitably his spine collided with the metal bars of the cage, cutting off his retreat. Drew was on him now, mammoth arms boxing him in on either side and trapping him completely.

'Drew! Snap out of- urk!'

Punk's heart twisted with fear when Drew's bear paw found his chin, grasped it and lifted it up like he had done so many times before. The black, lifeless eyes looked him all over, Drew tilting his head slightly and giving that exact same elated smirk he'd worn back in the Cell at the first sight of Punk's blood. The hand at his chin then went for his throat, wrapping around Punk's collar and pushing him back until the base of his skull clattered against the bars.

Eyes clouded. No thoughts, only instinct.

'Drew! Hey McIntyre, listen to me!' Punk tried to break through the Scot's hysteria, tried to snap him out of this trance. 'You gotta fight it, you hear me? Fight it!'

But it was in vain. Punk's mouth was abruptly gagged by Drew's invading tongue, the larger man growling and snarling, rumbles vibrating down his throat and through their chests pressed together, while large, thick hands stroked all over Punk's shoulders and back and chest and nipples then trailed down his ribs and stomach and pelvis to-

'NO!' Punk wrenched his face to the side, freeing his mouth. His hand grabbed hold of Drew's wrist, stopping it in its tracks. 'GET OFF! STOP IT, DREW! THIS ISN'T YOU!'

And then the blue flickered back into Drew's eyes and for a brief moment, his humanity returned, only to be engulfed once again. 'No, no, no, no,' Drew pushed himself off of Punk, stumbling away. Punk, still packed tight against the bars of the cage, watched as the Scot roared in distress, grabbing fistfuls of his own hair, twisting his head from left-to-right and back again, a man trying to evade a swarm of invisible wasps.

'No,' he growled under his breath. 'No, not like this! Not this way!' Drew blinked the blue back into his eyes, holding onto himself again, however fleetingly. Then turned his attention towards the window of terror hidden away at the far end of the cage. 'No!' he spat at their captors, 'I won't!'

'-hmm, perhaps the first dose wasn't strong enough. Activating a second dosage-'

This time, Punk saw the powder puff up from Drew's metal collar, engulfing his face, and like before he struggled and writhed, trying to evade the poison but it was clinging to him, following him around the enclosure no matter how far he tried to run. His roars filled the air, Punk quaking with fear at its feral nature. Too scared to move, he watched as the huge Scotsman bent down and heaved a huge rock right up out of the ground.

'What the hell is he-?'

Drew rushed towards the observation window, the boulder raised high, meaning to throw it right through the glass and shatter it to smithereens.

'Immediate threat detected. Engaging collar!'

A loud crackle and Drew tossed his head back, screaming in agony. The boulder plunged from his arms and his body soon followed, both hitting the floor with a crash.

Punk leapt up to his feet, his heart in his throat.

'There, that should pacify him-'

But their captors grossly underestimated the fortitude of their prisoner. 'I'm no some beast in a cage,' he croaked, dragged his arms under him to push himself up, 'and you won't reduce me to one!'

'Shock him again!'

Another crackle and Drew fell onto his back, spine rigid and arched painfully off the filthy floor, howling through his gritted teeth, until the shockwave released him and all four limbs flopped, lifelessly. From his position by the bars, Punk held his breath, looking for any sign of life.

It all seemed hopeless. Until Drew rolled his hips back.

Unbelievably, he flipped up onto his feet in a perfect kip-up, just like he would in the ring and before they had a chance to shock him again, he grabbed up the boulder and launched it through the air with all his might.

'WATCH OUT! WATCH OUT!'

Drew went down with another terrible shockwave just as the boulder crashed against the glass, not shattering it but creating a crack that almost split the screen in two. Only this time, the gruelling torture didn't stop. The shocks continued, the Scot's body contorted horribly, flailing rigidly in the dirt. Punk rushed towards him, hearing the electricity running through his fellow wrestler, seeing the turmoil on his face. He looked towards that window of terror, and the creatures hidden behind the fractured spiderweb of broken glass.

'That's enough!' he yelled towards it, hoping that, by some miracle, if he could hear those things that they could hear him too. 'You'll kill him! Stop!'

But still the jolts continued, one after the other. And now Drew wasn't screaming anymore and Punk could see froth foaming at his mouth, his blue eyes rolling into the back of his head.

'I SAID THAT'S ENOUGH!'

Still nothing. Punk's head went blank with panic, desperation.

'WE'LL DO IT! WE'LL DO WHATEVER YOU WANT! JUST TURN OFF THE COLLAR FOR FUCK'S SAKE!'

And finally... the crackling stopped. Followed by dreadful silence, highlighting the heavy breathing of both men and the putrid smell of burning flesh in the air.

'Punk...'

Punk's eyes found Drew's weakly fluttering back at him, pain-filled and weak. Ringed by the tiniest sliver of blue. 'It's ok, Drew, it's alright.'

'No... don't...'

Looking around him, Punk found the perfect spot and shuffled over to a large, flat rock. Slumping down to his knees, he bent over and lay atop the cold surface, lifting his hips up into the air.

Nothing happened. He looked back to find Drew where he left him, refusing to move.

'Come on Drew, it's alright. Just do as they say.' The Scot shook his head stubbornly. 'One little fuck isn't worth killing yourself over. Anyway, isn't this what you've wanted this whole time?'

'Not like this,' Drew choked out with a sob.

'If they kill one of us, they'll kill both of us,' Punk protested. 'The only chance we have of getting out of this is by sticking together.'

But still, Drew refused to move.

Punk sighed with defeat. Turning his face away, he placed his cheek against the cold rock and whispered, 'hit him with the pheromones again.'

From behind him, he could hear Drew call 'what did you just- urgh!' Then he held his breath and waited.

It didn't take long for Drew to crawl over, sniffing like a curious beast at Punk's rear. The tattooed man flinched when his loin cloth was ripped up, exposing his open cheeks and Drew mounted him from behind, his hairy chest and stomach rubbing up against his bare back. Two huge fists wrapped around Punk's skinny wrists and held them down, keeping Punk securely pinned on his front to the rock face as Drew rubbed his sopping wet and rock hard dick between Punk's glutes, prodding his head around until it lined up against his puckered hole.

Then rammed himself in. Punk choked on a cry of pain, a terrible burning at his rectum as he was stretched wide and entered. The beast on his back hooking himself into his body, breaking through the seal and into his guts, tearing him open.

No thoughts, only instinct.

And Punk closed his eyes and tried to fight the growing ache between his own legs and Drew's hands shackling his wrists tightly, and his warm breath grunting against his ear and his sweat falling onto Punk's back and pooling in that small hollow at the base of his spine and his huge dick ravishing him again and again.

But soon the blood and the pre-cum lubricated his passage, and Drew began to move easier and the thrusts became long and powerful and struck that perfect little sweet spot deep inside of him and Punk began to hear the crackles in his own skull and see the explosions of electricity behind his own eyelids and in an instant, he forgot the cage, the window, their plight and he became lost in the throes of the delicious mix of pain and pleasure. Opening his thighs up wider to entice Drew in even further, his lips fell open and he moaned, a line of drool escaping the corner of his mouth and dripping onto the stone beneath him.

Drew began to pump in harder, scrubbing Punk's naked chest against the jagged rock and Punk was so helpless, caught in the larger man's strong grip and he couldn't help but love his helplessness, being held down and bred like a bitch in heat, all while being watched, being observed. A thought bubbled to the surface of his consciousness, wondering if he too had been hit with some kind of pheromone to muddle his senses but it fell away again when Drew hit his bundle of nerves head-on with the blunt tip of his dick. His own cock was full to bursting and it was too much to bear and when he let out a strangled cry, Drew obliged him by letting go of his wrist and grabbing him between the legs, pumping his shaft with a taut grip, the pad of his thumb teasing his slit.

'Fascinating! We always wondered how two males of this species mated and now we know it's through the-'

Punk went blind and deaf and even the blaring static in his head was drowned out as warm cum seeped into him and out of him, sopping from his wrecked hole and between his swollen cheeks and down his ragged thighs onto the dirt below. Drew collapsed onto him, nuzzling his face into the hollow between Punk's shoulder blades and kissed his flushed skin tenderly. 'S'you ok?' was all Punk's numb lips could form. Drew answered with a throaty purr.

Later, the pair were up on the hay under the canopy, Punk firmly snuggled in Drew's arms, both of them fast asleep. But something stirred the tattooed man slightly from his slumber, a tinny voice echoing around his skull.

'-a success. But this is only phase one of our breeding programme. Tomorrow we'll prep the submissive male for surgery and move into phase two-'

[estcaligo]

Hey

Sorry if this comes off as insensitive, and no pressure to answer if it’s uncomfortable. I’m pretty new to the whole “yume” thing but I really love your blog! I just had a question and wanted to make sure I’m getting it right.

You mentioned being non-sharing but I noticed you post some Sebek x reader fics which seem like they’re for others too. Does that go against the idea of being non-sharing or do fics not count in that?

Sorry if this is an awkward question I’m just trying to understand better and wanted to know your take on it.

No worries if you’d rather skip it! Hugs!

....oh my.....

Hi hello!

It's ok, but I'm afraid I might not be much help here. I only use the term "yume" because it makes navigating things easier for me. I don't really have deep knowledge about the etiquette or "rules" of this field, honestly. I'm too exhausted and busy to pay much attention to it😓 I just love pixel guys because it's fun and good for my mental health!💞

If you ask me, I actually prefer terms like muse haha. But honestly, whatever works for you is fine!😊

As for the "non-sharing" part.

Yeah, I don't 100% like the term, but using it helps me curate and navigate my online experience better, I think. I try to do it quietly and as unnoticeably as possible, though some people still seem to have issues with it🙂

It's probably context-dependent too - like who's depicting certain characters and how they do it. It's all about interpretations, you know? I don't really get why people get mad about this so much.

It's normal to have different opinions about how a trope or a character is portrayed. I mean...just look at something like Jesus - there are so many different branches of religion. If that's the case, what can we even say about anime guys?

So yeah, I don't understand why some people act confused or upset when they learn that someone has specific preferences. We all have different lives and experiences, and those inevitably shape how we perceive the world, including media.

I don't have any problems with people in general. Well, except for one specific person whose actions caused me a lot of pain earlier this year (and still do to some extent). But that's just one case.

In fact, in most cases, it's quite the opposite! I love some certain character x prefect ships and could even recommend a few - they're adorable😊 If I hadn't come across other people's SbKn art, I probably wouldn’t have dared to create my own. So I'm actually really grateful to those JP artists who shared their work. Their art inspired me and ignited my love and interest when I was still unsure about how to play with my pixel dolls.

That's actually one of the reasons I post, too. Fics including. I just want to share love and make people's lives maybe a little bit brighter. We live in dark times, anon.

I hope that maybe someone will see my work and feel the same kind of inspiration and confidence I did. Just like how others' creations helped me, I want to pass on this warm, blissful feeling - the courage to love what you love no matter what others say or how they treat you.

I don't know if this was helpful, but that's all I can offer for now.

Take care, and don't forget to have fun! 💚

[got-into-worm-by-mistake]

Gestation 1.1 Live Reactions

(This is me, writing reactions as I read, because why the fuck not. They're not complete, mature thoughts taken after I sit back and evaluate what I've read. Consider them as such)

He was animated, clearly excited about what he was talking about, and for once, the class was listening.  He was the sort of teacher who tried to be friends with his students, the sort who went by “Mr. G” instead of Mr. Gladly.  He liked to end class a little earlier than usual and chat with the popular kids, gave lots of group work so others could hang out with their friends in class, and had ‘fun’ assignments like mock trials. He struck me as one of the ‘popular’ kids who had become a teacher.  He probably thought he was everyone’s favorite.  I wondered how he’d react if he heard my opinion on the subject.  Would it shatter his self image or would he shrug it off as an anomaly from the gloomy girl that never spoke up in class?

Well, certainly does a good job of making it clear what sort of character we're starting with, and what sort of character they're looking at.

Knowing where it goes, knowing how it ends.

Sure is a start, isn't it?

“Let me wrap up here,” Mr. Gladly said, “Sorry, guys, but there is homework for the weekend.  Think about capes and how they’ve impacted the world around you.  Make a list if you want, but it’s not mandatory.  On Monday we’ll break up into groups of four and see what group has the best list.  I’ll buy the winning group treats from the vending machine.”

Jesus Christ.

Though, I'm not sure if High School me would have found Mr. Gladly insufferable or not. I would have liked the lack of real homework, maybe. Hard to say. I wasn't a popular kid he'd have liked tho, and plenty nerdy and I didn't hate homework (for subjects I liked). Also, while I was bullied sometimes, hardly to the extent some people could be, let alone Taylor, so... very different perspectives.

I didn’t deck myself out in bright colors like a bird showing off its plumage

A very... odd phrasing, IMO. Maybe it felt less odd in 2011, or within a specific space of reading/writing. Or maybe I'm just reacting weird at this line because I had untoasted bread with jam for breakfast or what. Who the fuck knows? It stands out for some reason though.

The only book in my bag that I hadn’t already read was called ‘Triumvirate’, a biography of the leading three members of the Protectorate.  I was thinking I would spend as long as I could on Mr. Gladly’s assignment before reading, because I wasn’t enjoying the book.  Biographies weren’t my thing, and they were especially not my thing when I was suspicious it was all made up.

Obviously it's a little different reading the story when you know what things are, then when you go into it not knowing who the Triumvirate are, or the Protectorate or what a 'Cape' is (hasn't actually been explained quite yet). But I do. Still, trying to appreciate it cold, I do like the way the worldbuilding starts. The capital letters and the context makes it clear it's important in-universe, the reference to 'suspicious it was all made up' does as much worldbuilding by reference as mentioning the Triumvirate's existence. It's certainly nicely done.

I do wonder, obviously at some point this made it to Space Battles and got put up all over TV tropes, but how did it first start finding an audience? Where did Wildbow talk about it/share it/etc to first start to get traction?

Like, from what I gather, he was not prepared for the way Worm took off, and got so popular, and he sure wasn't prepared for the fandom he got, but I'm curious what he had been expecting when he started?

I could taste it as it ran down to my nose and mouth.  Cranberry juice.

I've heard about the juice incident and had it referenced in enough fics, etc, to know a lot about it, but no one, to my knowledge, ever said it was cranberry juice. Is there a reason Wildbow picked that? Or just because he needed to pick which juice and he picked it partially or totally at random? If there was a reason, how complex was it?

I'm definitely overthinking, more than I usually do when reading shit, but fuck it, why not?

Still. Odd that the detail of it being cranberry has literally never made it into any fic or reference to this event in discussions, etc, that I've seen.

Sophia and Emma were the types of girls that fit the ‘prom queen’ image.  Sophia was dark skinned, with a slender, athletic build she’d developed as a runner on the school track team.  Red-headed Emma, by contrast, had all the curves the guys wanted.  She was good looking enough to get occasional jobs as a amateur model for the catalogs that the local department stores and malls put out.  

I have to admit, while I don't really have a strong mental image of 'prom queen' anyway, 'slender, athletic runner's build' is not what I associate with prom queen. The way Emma is described seems to fit better.

“What the fuck!?” I screamed to nobody in particular, my voice echoing in the bathroom.  There were tears in the corners of my eyes. “The hell am I supposed to do!?”  I wanted to hit something, break something.  To retaliate against the unfairness of the world.  I almost struck the mirror, but I held back.  It was such a small thing that it felt like it would make me feel more insignificant instead of venting my frustration. I’d been enduring this from the very first day of high school, a year and a half ago.  The bathroom had been the closest thing I could find to refuge.  It had been lonely and undignified, but it had been a place I could retreat to, a place where I was off their radar.  Now I didn’t even have that.

ooooof. Just.

Ooof.

The buzzing at the edge of my consciousness was getting worse.  My hands shook as I bent over and gripped the edge of the sink, let out a long, slow breath, and let my defenses drop.  For three months, I’d held back.  Right now?  I didn’t care anymore. I shut my eyes and felt the buzzing crystallize into concrete information.  As numerous as stars in the night sky, tiny knots of intricate data filled the area around me.  I could focus on each one in turn, pick out details.  The clusters of data had been reflexively drifting towards me since I was first splashed in the face.  They responded to my subconscious thoughts and emotions, as much of a reflection of my frustration, my anger, my hatred for those three girls as my pounding heart and trembling hands were.  I could make them stop or direct them to move almost without thinking about it, the same way I could raise an arm or twitch a finger. I opened my eyes.  I could feel adrenaline thrumming through my body, blood coursing in my veins.  I shivered in response to the chilled soft drinks and juices the trio had poured over me, with anticipation and with just a little fear.  On every surface of the bathroom were bugs; Flies, ants, spiders, centipedes, millipedes, earwigs, beetles, wasps and bees.  With every passing second, more streamed in through the open window and the various openings in the bathroom, moving with surprising speed.  Some crawled in through a gap where the sink drain entered the wall while others emerged from the triangular hole in the ceiling where a section of foam tile had broken off, or from the opened window with peeling paint and cigarette butts squished out in the recesses.  They gathered around me and spread out over every available surface; primitive bundles of signals and responses, waiting for further instruction.

I do like the slow build up to the reveal that she's controlling bugs.

No one (well, no, not no-one, I've seen the claims that Wildbow is a hack but I've never believed they were correct, my other opinions on his character based on his reddit comments notwithstanding) ever said Wildbow was a bad writer.

Its not the most innovative of choices, revealing information the way he is, very tried and true techniques and tactics, but hardly makes them either bad, or tired or not do the job well.

It would be so easy, so easy to just go Carrie on the school.  To give the trio their just desserts and make them regret what they had put me through: the vicious e-mails, the trash they’d upended over my desk, the flute –my mother’s flute– they’d stolen from my locker.  It wasn’t just them either.  Other girls and a small handful of boys had joined in, ‘accidentally’ skipping over me when passing out assignment handouts, adding their own voices to the taunts and the flood of nasty emails, to get the favor and attention of three of the prettier and more popular girls in our grade. I was all too aware that I’d get caught and arrested if I attacked my fellow students.  There were three teams of superheroes and any number of solo heroes in the city.  I didn’t really care.  The thought of my father seeing the aftermath on the news, his disappointment in me, his shame?  That was more daunting, but it still didn’t outweigh the anger and frustration. Except I was better than that.

Yeah, I don't think I'd have Taylor's self-control.

Like, maybe not full Carrie, fear of getting caught might stop me, but using my powers to make them suffer? Absolutely would give in to that temptation, hard.

I was going to be a superhero.  That was the goal I used to calm myself down at moments like these.  It was what I used to make myself get out of bed on a school day.  It was a crazy dream that made things tolerable.  It was something to look forward to, something to work towards.  It made it possible to keep from dwelling on the fact that Emma Barnes, leader of the trio, had once been my best friend.

A powerful chapter ending, but also one that almost feels like it implies Emma will end up being more important, long-term, to the story.

On the other hand, for all that work is 'one work', it's really not. 1.6 Million Words is not one book. It's a whole series.

It's not so simple as each arc being it's own book, conceptually, I'm sure, but equally -

:thinking_face:

[sweetieviktor]

thoughts on the new season so far??

i just watched the 2nd arc and bro .......

SEASON 2 SPOILERS AHEAD!

(and a big big biiiiig rant)

first things first! the artstyle is amazing!! fortiche made a reaaaaaly good job. the way we can clearly see and understand what the characters feel is so crazy yk?? this animation is the best thing lol related that riot spend its money on.

also, isha is the cutest child in the whole world and, if they die, im going riot on fking riot i swear to u, this child can't die! i would be so sad, really. but, now talking about the series itself, i do like how things are going but i just feel like its a bit rushed ?? idk but its just too much information all at once and everything is happening at the same time and aaaargh its all too much. i just ... cant process it all and be like "ok cool i liked it and understood it" no! i cant!! even though i play lol and understand a bit of its lore, its still hard to comprehend, especially now that almost every character that is both in league and in arcane is getting a full remake on their background stories.

but i do like some stuff, like the black rose and medardas stuff happening (and omg im dieing to see leblanc on the screen, i really want to see her), jinx and vi finally being able act like sisters again, the most heartbreaking angst i've ever seen (jayvik and caitvi), orianna my sweetheart!! finally appearing, more secondary characters screen time (sevika, singed, ekko, scar...), and some of the background stuff being revealed as the episodes goes on. its all good but theres just some thing that i personally dont like :/

such as viktor. yep.

he is completely different from his league self, and i know he is going to get a rework on the game soon, but i really wished he could make to his glorious evolution and all but instead he starts a cult????? something that he hated on the original lore???? bcs this meant that people looked at him like he was a savior, but he wasn't. he just wanted to help but people treated him like a divine being and he associated the things these people felt with being weak, so he despised them. he hated feelings and he stripped himself of those. but now he is a saint. and he have a cult. that him, the machine herald, started. idk its just not like him at all???? i just dont feel like its him. nor the sky (i dont think that the sky he sees is the real sky ok, i think its the hexcore) he talks to, she sounds so unlike her.

but oh boy he is pretty, bro is rocking his jesus era but i still wish we could get to see his full machine self. i really want to see him flesh and steel, augmented self, a complete mess of what once was human yk? but i think we wouldn't get machine herald vik :(((

also, another thing i didn't like is the warwick/vander. at first i thought he would be just like the game, but then he came to viktor's cult alongside vi, jinx and isha, and he aint the blood thirsty animal we have on the game and im a bit disappointed :(

oh and i wished that some of the league characters made to the series, like renata glasc, blitzcrank and janna, bcs renata helped viktor became what he is now in the game, blitz is viktor's invention and janna is the most knowed goddess in both piltover and zaun. so why not yk?

and jayce goddam talis putting a hole on viktor heart is just so ?????? what? yk????? im shocked but i understand him. he promised to destroy hexcore. and he did. but i didn't expected it to be like this!

i just watched the last episode and now im praying so hard, wishing that vik turns into machine since hes dieing. and if he does, be sure that i will be literally screaming. im going to be the happiest person in the whole world, i swear!

but overall, arcane is sooooo good but im a bit sad that they changed so much the characters lore. anyways, sorry for this big rant!! and if i typed something wrongly, im really sorry! im sleepy now but i needed to let my thoughts flow since i just finished 2nd act. oh and thank u for asking though, anon! :DDD

[mcbitchtits]

the most horrifying part of alien romulus is the fucking facial cgi (as always)

pretty fantastic movie otherwise though, excellent horror. more in line with the original alien than any of its sequels, although it does feel like a lot of the beats are also like "DO YOU REMEMBER ALIEN (1986)??? see what we did there?!"

the writing starts off strong with what felt to me personally like a very interesting approach to, you know, the horrors of capitalism and mining (poverty, dead parents, teen pregnancies, trapped by the remoteness of the environment, company towns and company stores), and it does a fair number of interesting things contrasting that to the parts in orbit (gravity fields, etc.) and, frankly, some absolutely fantastic horror visuals that make you feel like they are really innovating with both creature design as well as like they maybe used to work in halloween haunt mazes? very... personal shots? which i appreciate because i feel like covenant et al were more cinematic, which was fine, but also less horrifying in some ways. the acting was pretty good.

however the facial cgi for [spoiler character] was fucking terrible! this has been my #1 complaint about cgi for going on decades now and i have to be honest, this was some of the ugliest finished work i have ever seen. textures not mapping cleanly, form distention with animation, just real shit work. dunno if it's lack of budget or a bad art/animation director or the ever-present crunch because SFX is ununionized, but jesus fucking christ i hate this shit. it was bad in I, Robot and it was slightly less bad in Tron Legacy and it sucked all over again in Rogue One and The Mandalorian and Dial of Destiny! learn some fucking lessons from animators and rediscover the uncanny valley!!! watch jaws and spend a metric asston of time considering why we see so little of the shark! APPLY THE LESSON

(or, like, you've already got a half-destroyed character, just lean into it and make their mouth mechanics destroyed by acid or something. or make it look even more unnatural on purpose! it's a horror film! there are a lot of solutions and bad cgi is the worst one always!)

anyway i just really DO appreciate any time the alien sequels really dig into the birth/body horror. it's good! more of them should be better at it! fuck off james cameron! (sorry had to get that dig in there) (also, i mean, specifically, all the growth and rupturing and body-breaking, and to a lesser extent all the giger-styled vulvas etc; the actual uh babies and so forth are less interesting to me from a horror perspective. definitely weird and unsettling but also a little slenderman-was-born-on-the-something-awful-forums, you know?)

also effective use of treating the facehuggers like spiders or tarantulas. underrated approach to reinterpreting their horror. (unfortunate time to have a fur gremlin running around the house.) what i liked most about this movie is it managed to take a lot of the existing horror elements of the alien franchise and make them feel fresh and new and horrifying in completely new ways. real good shit.

also i see you weyland-yutani "W" podships, i see you AD and props. go prod team

love the score also. felt almost williams-ish and kinda raidersesqe (in the ark horror sense) and i vibed with it severely

[number1villainstan]

Random questions? I'm down! So on the whole thing with deku not existing and all, can you elaborate I've had some thoughts on it but haven't thought of it hard enogh too write anything about it?

jesus fuck this took so long to answer, i straight up forgot this was in my drafts--

The short answer/thesis statement: Midoriya Izuku is a "black hole protagonist": he, as a character, twists the story around him in order to make himself look sympathetic/always right/super cool (or, more accurately, Horikoshi writes the story that way) to the detriment of the plot, themes, and development of other characters--hell, even to the detriment of his own character depth/development.

(Disclaimers and justification/the rest of the essay under the cut. This is going to be long, and will probably take a long time to answer.)

(Disclaimer: I've really only watched the anime to the end of the Shie Hassaikai arc and through part of the Gentle Criminal--sorry, School Festival arc and read the manga chapters where Lady Nagant appears (the first time) or is mentioned. Quite frankly, I don't want to watch or read further, except for maybe watching the Nagant episodes, or clips of the MLA. That being said, from what I've seen of spoilers, I'm not sure the later part of the series is much different on the points I'm going to talk about.)

Probably the first thing is Deku's internal/inherent traits as a character. What traits does he have? Well, there's his physical appearance, he's a fan of All Might, he cries a lot, he wants to be a hero. Okay, sure. But why does he want to be a hero? What does he get emotional about? He was bullied for being Quirkless--where do we see the effects of that in canon? He and the rest of Class 1A have been repeatedly attacked by villains and lived through seeing one of their classmates chained up like an animal on live television BY THEIR SCHOOL and then kidnapped by a group of villains that attacked a summer camp that was supposed to be safe. (Yes, I am salty about the Sports Festival and Bakugo, because that was bullshit.) Moreover, that student that got chained up was supposed to be someone Deku looked up to. What the hell are the emotional effects of that? Does Deku even see Bakugo Katsuki as a person? A bully? Or just as a standard to surpass? Canon doesn't answer any of these questions--it doesn't even treat them as relevant. Deku's just a bland character for the author to make look cool through Beating Up Villains and pretty (but ultimately hollow) Speeches About The Importance of Heroics and Compassion.

And of course, we have the traits we're told he has, like compassion and understanding, but that don't actually play out--or at least don't play out consistently--in his actions. If he's so compassionate, why doesn't it extend to Overhaul, who breaks out into hives every time someone touches him? That's not normal or healthy! If he's so understanding, then what's this shit I hear about him telling Dabi he's worse than his abusive father? And--furthermore--why does this "compassion" only seem to come out when he's physically fighting people? Why is it that he never steps down from a fighting stance and sits down next to someone? (Although maybe that part's just shonen bullshit.) Furthermore, his informed compassion never leads him to change his mind--no matter what his opponent's arguments are, the narrative always frames Deku as in the right.

And then, of course, there's the fact that he takes up far more than his fair share of screen time. Yes, even though he's the main character. Like 80% of every single episode is dedicated to just showing him off (and despite the disproportionate amount of screentime he gets, he's still such a nothing of a character). How much character development does anyone else around him get, outside of maybe one or two arcs? Hell, it's so bad that Bakugo Katsuki, the guy who's apparently supposed to be his long-term bully/friend/frenemy, has practically no details about him. We don't see his room in the dorm tour, we don't see his parents outside of the montage of a bunch of different characters' parents when the teachers are going around (and the fact that his mother slaps him and calls him weak for getting kidnapped goes completely unaddressed? In a series with the Todoroki family and the Hassaikai arc???), we see comparatively little of Bakugo outside of his interactions/relationship with Deku. And Bakugo is supposed to be a deuteragonist--think of how many secondary characters have their characterization cut short or subsumed into the black hole of Deku. Uraraka Ochako, Iida Tenya, to some extent even Todoroki Shouto, every other member of Class 1A.

And then there's the effect of having Deku as a protagonist on the story's treatment of its villains. BnHA tries to send the message of "everyone deserves to be saved" or "villains are products of their circumstances", but, for a variety of reasons--including Deku being a "black hole protagonist"!--not a whole lot of the villains actually end up getting saved (rather than arrested), and when they do sometimes it's in a way that negates their very real concerns/reasons for being a villain. Very first to my mind is, of course, the Hassaikai: the only one in that group "saved" in any capacity is Eri, which, being one of thirteen named characters (among a host of unnamed ones), isn't exactly a very high rate of 'saving.' I thought everyone was supposed to be saved? And of course, there's the added factor of Overhaul--the main villain for that arc--being the character most heavily coded as mentally ill and/or neurodivergent in the series, and that that coding is used to make him seem more scary/villainous/evil. (I could write a whole Rant on how the narrative's treatment of Overhaul's character is ableist as fuck, but that's not what we're focusing on here.) And then we have Lady Nagant--who is saved, yes, but how many of her concerns about the deep structural issues associated with hero society and the HPSC are actually, meaningfully, specifically addressed? She shouldn't have been 'saved' by a fifteen-year-old cop in training. She shouldn't have been able to be 'saved' by a fifteen-year-old cop in training.

Sometimes, the kind of self-indulgent overpowered protagonist that Deku is can have its place, but BnHA as a story is trying to make a point, and Deku's role in the story actively contradicts its messages. BnHA is supposed to send a message of compassion and "everyone deserves to be saved" and whatnot, but then, not least because of its black hole protagonist, turns around and says that actually the mentally ill don't count, queer people don't count, anyone who's ever hurt a child doesn't count, anyone who reacts to trauma in the "wrong way" (with anger, irritability, etc) doesn't count, anyone who was subject to the wrong high-control group doesn't count, anyone who has the wrong idea about how the world should be doesn't count, anyone who isn't "sympathetic" for whatever fucking reason doesn't fucking count. Maybe I could just write Boku no Hero Academia off as a mediocre show if it had failed its goals in some other way, but as someone who fits just a few too many of the traits I just listed, it's hard to ignore the bigotry and judgement behind these contradictions.

And quite frankly, this shit makes me mad.

[wizardcurse]

i wanna hear your thoughts on chainsaw man, if you don't mind 👀

MY THOUGHTS, you say?

This is only about the anime as I haven’t read the manga or engaged much with csm at all besides that. and sorry that this is disjointed this is just my natural unfiltered sleep deprived word splatter

OKAY. so once I adapted to the graphic gore and constant sex jokes and channeled my inner edgy teenager and adjusted to how bizarre and alarming it was… I was surprised but I actually started to really enjoy it. because I feel the disjointed cynicism and humour and general awfulness of it fits this bleak awful universe it’s set in and makes it all the more believable

I really love the idea of an object or concept becoming a devil and having an appropriate level of threat and danger based on how people perceive it? and that it can change with major events and become worse over time and fluctuate. I think the concept is what got me hooked.

I really want to know more about the universe it’s set in. it’s fascinating to me. It was casually mentioned that the Soviet Union exists??? What year is this anime even set… Are nuclear weapons present in this universe? I feel that nuclear energy would be the most threatening devil but there’s been no mention of it. Or any epidemics? or natural disasters? instead the gun devil is the largest threat. also if the gun devil appeared in america why are bits of it all over japan? how did it get there? can devils cross oceans. do they do interplanar travel or something. do you get extremely culturally specific devils that are only found in specific countries. are there geographic influences. WHY is everyone suddenly so obsessed with denji when he just had a puppy chainsaw possess him

I loved the time loop episode and I really loved seeing the characters get fleshed out! I love the tiny bits of lovely mundane normality in the series too like aki just trying to live and do cooking and do the laundry which gets destroyed by denji and power turning up. poor fucking guy

Strange thought but now I’m wondering if people can be forcibly manipulated in order to deliberately increase the power of a devil? if you kidnapped 1,000 people and made them develop a severe phobia of spoons for example, would the spoon devil gain immense power. is that just how it works. can you merge devils persona style. what is the most contracts anyone has ever made, is there a world record?how do you stop ordinary people from making contracts?

If you can have devils as more abstract concepts could you end up with comic book villains or characters manifesting? memes? a situation where all popular media has to be very carefully controlled? how does consumerism and capitalism influence devils. I NEED THE LORE. have devils always existed or is this a recent phenomenon? if they’ve always existed then would older devils be stronger? ANCIENT SOCIETIES WITH DEVILS? dinosaur devil???

the christian imagery is interesting and I'm curious to see where it is going. especially that painting in the ending where makima is holding denji like mother mary holding jesus… interesting that all the graves are in western style too

if there’s an infinity devil is there gonna be a Death devil? contracts and devils they are so interesting to me. the devil hunters are SUCH assholes. the way denji and power are completely treated as tools and have no agency. the way aki is treated by pretty much everyone is ridiculous this guy can’t even eat his apples in hospital in peace. I would peel apples for him at his bedside. I LOVE aki. which is very typical of me I always fall for characters like him. I love characters doomed by the narrative and revenge driven. It’s terrifying and devastating but also morbidly hilarious seeing him battle with the depths of grief juxtaposed to the flippant attitude of everyone else who shrugs it off and can go back to laughing

I am also fascinated and in love with Makima. I have to know what her deal is. she can’t be human… I would listen to whatever she says and end up destroying the world for her <3 she is the girl manipulator of all time. THE BIT ON THE TRAIN AND THE HUMAN SACRIFICE SCENE… damn

Okay where was I going with this. So chainsaw man! it’s definitely not the usual kind of thing I’d watch, and I don’t think I’d have continued past the first two episodes if my friend hadn’t sat down and watched it with me. but I really am interested to see where it’s going? and kind of concerned now that I think about it. like if it is going to use any real world historical events, like wars? that’s probably my biggest fear, can't see that being done tactfully

BUT YEAH THE ANIMATION… was so good. MAPPA really is something else. and I love the openings and endings, I can’t believe every ending was different. insane anime. ultimately it’s a nightmare but I enjoyed it. might try to read the manga next so I can get some Answers

[thegeminisage]

Why do you have complaints about Uncharted? No judgement, just sincere curiosity.

to be 100% fair to unch*rted, i haven't played it. i've watched bits and pieces of some but not all of the games - i saw a lot of 4 and a little bit of 2, but none of 1 or 3. my main complaints are with narrative and they are as follows:

1. Guy Game ie they don't treat women very well...from what i saw of nathan drake in uncharted 4 he seems like a TERRIBLE husband, lying and downplaying his wife's concerns, etc, because she's not the main character! i know they have a girls only gay lady game (in which the black lady is voice by a white woman?! i know that was on bad hiring practices but jesus christ) but in general the atmosphere feels very aimed at white dudeguys who constantly call female characters "annoying" unless she's "not like other girls" or extremely hot. in 4 it felt like elena was just there to nag nate until she came around to his way of thinking ("adventure good, let's forgive the lying husband and go have fun!") and then their marriage PASSIONATELY reignited once she decided he was right. he didn't even really wind up in the doghouse. like cmon.

2. the whole premise of Explorers and Treasure Hunters feels racist. again i have not seen all of these games. but like you're going off to some "exotic land" to "explore" and "hunt treasure" what you're doing is going to somebody else's house that they've ALREADY explored and taking their stuff to sell to some asshole while making yourself rich. idk. i love adventures and adventure games but that whole concept is cursed. i'm sure for people who are passionate about that genre there's a way to tell that kind of story more ethically/respectfully (return the lost treasure to its rightful owners maybe!) but i'm also sure naughty dog did not do it

3. actually on that note. this complaint is about ludonarrative dissonance so it's only partially about the narrative. when mr nathan drake goes to all these other countries and has to fight off lots of enemies bc the game needs to give you something to do but in actuality if he'd killed that many people he'd be like. a mass murderer. and they're ALWAYS brown. like man cmon i know you need something to do i KNOW it but CMON. its one thing for a jedi to do it to animals in star wars but these are PEOPLE

idk im sure the games are fun and maybe mr drake wasnt at his best in uncharted 4 and he's super lovable if you got to know him starting in uncharted 1 but like...i think he's kind of annoying and not in the fun way and also i reject the entire premise so. the games are simply not for me, love and light. sorry to dunk on your game unch*rted fans

[mnkiss]

A quick list of animes I watched and don't want to forget 2:

Spoiler, duh

OG post here:

Corpse party - similar to Another: I watched it and forgot about it…kids being creepy and killing a lot (i think) (2/10)

Yuri on Ice - loved it for the romance and the soundtrack but couldn’t care less about the skating lol Cute anime tho, I recommend it (8/10)

Kimi no nawa - cute, I cried of course, but i really wish we could have learned about their relationships more. I wanted to see them falling in love slowly and helplessly, not just a montage haha. Maybe a 7/10. Wasn’t thaaaaat great.

Dororo - I’m not as a big fan as others, but it was an interesting journey on the historical side with a much less repetitive story than I expected. It’s an old tale, a myth, told by an old man about demons and humans, and two children’s (well, an adult-ish boy and a kid) fate and character development. The show shows war and all it’s gory, terrible reality so be ready for some depressing episodes… The message of the anime is very clear and heavy. This is a remake, there is supposed to be a much older version of the anime with not 12, but 48 demons and missing body parts, but I’m not really sure if I want to watch it again. (7/10)

Citrus - Yuri, cute, well-done, but 1) Yuzu is sooooooo ugh, she is nice and kind but so easy to influence jesus she really is not the sharpest tool in the shed and that got soo annoying around ep7. >< 2) The story is weirdly written, they introduce characters as they go and as it gets comfortable for the plot, which feels like a rookie mistake but ok. Only 12 eps, two sweet girls and lots of sexual tension between them. Btw some people have misconceptions about the manga/anime. There is no incest as they are both teens and strangers when they happen to become step-sisters, and sexual assault does not get romanticized because if somebody is uncomfortable they struggle and voice that they don’t feel comfortable. That being said “You should consider other people’s feelings” is a fucking stupid answer to “Hey I don’t want to have sex with somebody”. Also the silent treatment? AND always coming with the “I had a bad childhood” shit? I’m treating the kindest, dearest person on earth like shit just because I was rejected once? Really? Fucking Mei lol. Yuzu deserves better. Like Harumi. You know, somebody who actually cares about her. 5/10

Baccano! - Gory mafia stories are always amazing but this one is like… dude. Watch it. It’s beautiful, has an amazing opening, wonderful characters (Naaa Miriyaa!!!! Neee Isaccu!!!!) and weird ties to the supernatural. No tears only happy smiling even during the 13th episode. One of my favourite stories of all time. (Oh and if you're one of those weirdos who love it when animes use weird brand names instead of the real ones [like hollywood becomes woodland, daily mail becomes daily days, hersheys becomes baccano] then you’ll love the small details lol) (11/10)

Tower of God - S1 is only a prologue :/ I usually don’t care about isekai or isekai-like stuff but this story is pretty immersive. I loved that there is only a moderate amount of gore even though people dying is half the anime. All the supporting characters are easy to remember, have enough screen time and we learn their history so we do care about them, the main character has all the characteristics a shounen protagonist needs but the anime itself is not in the shounen category. The soundtrack is phenomenal except the opening (sorry stray kids). Yeah, go watch it and be ready for the webtoon, they say its super long but worth it (8/10)

Wolf’s Rain - i love animals/shapeshifters in animes, but this was boooring. I was hoping for a crazy adventure with ancient legends and animaguses and stuff instead I got bored cuz nothing actually happened. I got to 17 episodes and just stopped watching. The story had potential, the wolfish behavior was fun. Maybe I'll try watching it again...later...some day (5/10)

Cyberpunk Edgerunners - Found family? Check. Cute girl? Check. Worldbuilding, sexy superpowers, neon lights, awesome action, greedy capitalism? Check. But for 10 episodes you’ll have the feeling that something will happen and yes, that thing indeed will happen (8/10)

Jujutsu Kaisen - S1 only yet. I'm - again - more invested in the adult's story and scheming behind the scenes. Character development? It is there, baby, and it is not just thought-provoking/brooding all the time. Competent enemy? There it is, the menacing, cunning, sexy-sexy enemy. Bro time? There is some healthy, masculine bro time! (9/10)

Chainsaw Man - This is a Jujutsu Kaisen 2.0. Teen boy gets adopted to an organization that uses dark superpowers that come with a price and they kill demons but they also are too crazy for the world and die easily. Also 2 boys 1 girl, the girl is nonconvenional but looks cute, the black haired friend of main character is super cold on the outside but has a heart of butter and is like a strong brother for the MC... I'd also really love if they'd STOP FUCKING KILLING ALL THE CHARACTERS. Seriously what's up with that nowadays?? They show you how friendly and happy they are together, and the next episode is just filled with deaths. However the story is fun, I like the pacing, the artstyle, the enemies and the music sooo S2 when? (8/10)

Spy x Family - Superduper cute, feel good anime with some badass characters. Some second hand embarrassement is in order tho lol (9/10)

Sailor Moon (90's series) - It's. So. Good. Such a comfort show. It has it's problems (the combat seems very... repetitive, the girls forget about their new powers, SM doesnt do much except in the movies), but a) this show is gorgeous b) it has characters that you wish they were your friends c) it's long so the story is well paced. It has good humour, super powers, a long and immersive story, surprisingly well made character arcs, ammmmaazing opening (and overall the soundtrack is ICONIC), 90's aesthetics and lots of gay vibes. However, it's extremely romance-centered, so probably not the best choice if you are in search for an action anime (9/10)

Soul Eater - 51 episodes of a surprisingly good story with surprisingly bad characters. The ending was disappointing, and the most powerful or intriguing characters just... weren't used? The monologues made no sense? Guy who can't die literally only fought 2 times? Madness wasn't mad? Brave girl wasn't brave? Like what even happened in this show? (5/10)

[running2reanimation]

What hurts me most about the whole Dark lord situation is that bro literally defied his CODE for Chosen just for all of that to be thrown away, do I condone his actions on wanting to literally mass murder innocent people? No, do I get where he’s coming from? HELL YEAH, JESUS ALAN NEEDS TO TAKE HIS HOLLOW HEAD SONS TO THERAPY ALREADY, and Idk bout YALL but I’m on Victims side this season IDC what he’s planing this revenge is long over due, sorry Alan-

You sent this to me just as I was settling in for bed, sorry for taking a bit to answer it!

To be fair we’re still not 100% sure what Dark’s plan was - only what Chosen assumed it was. There are times I do wish there was speaking in this show, because it leads to ambiguity like this (but that’s also what leaves room for fans to fill in headcanons).

I’ve always thought that Dark’s beef was with Creators/Users/Humans and it’s part of why I kind of hope we’ll see him in the new season. I can imagine that Victim is very similar in their goals as well (but we don’t really know for certain yet).

I definitely feel character!Alan has a reckoning coming. The series is called Animator VS Animation, after all.

It would help if we actually saw some regret from character!Alan for how he treated Victim and Chosen and Dark in his younger years (and honestly how he treated Second too - at least when they first met).

[littleapocalypsekitten]

So, I have been having a bit of a moral quandary lately. It's this "Adjuster" stuff. Well, firstly, it makes me wonder JUST WHAT IS UP WITH PENNSYLVANIA MCDONALDS' LATELY? (My state, you shame me... Altoona's not anywhere near me, but take out from the Feasterville store made me sick even before President Evil showed up to cosplay). But, here's the thing... I do kind of feel bad for clowning on the murder victim even though he fits the profile of "Asshole Victim" to a T? Oh, no, no, don't get me wrong! This isn't a whine-cry of "Ooooh, he had a FAMILY!" when his own victims, numbering in masses, had families, too. Whenever anyone brings up that whine, I think of f a desk-killer's victims, or to put it in some Biblical terms of a blog I read (when it was talking about an entirely other thing quite a while before the shooting), "The violence of Harrod." I forget what the blog was writing about, it was a long time before this happened and was talking about something else, just about state-violence in general, I think - something about how our society treats individual crimes vs. legalized violence en masse (war, aiding and abetting war as part of foreign policy, Presidents ignoring pandemics, corporate/ Capitalist greed getting people killed). Slacktivist is a good, good blog. You should read it even if you don't like religion blogs. You should read it ESPECIALLY if you don't like religion blogs, because.. it is... different. Whenever I think of people saying "Isn't it ghoulish to be celebrating a murder?" I think "Fuck off. This is the outcry of the powerless! We don't have anything else! Let us joke!" But there is a part of me that feels bad, that feels I shouldn't feel gleeful at grim things. I call it my "inner Vash the Stampede" because of my revived main fandom. Vash is one of the all-time famous pacifist characters in anime. He's a gunman, which is ironic, but he's like "fights but doesn't kill." I'm also a big fan of the Mom-character who raised him to be that way (didn't work on his brother, sadly, which is why she's dead). There's this whole philosophy in Trigun that "the ticket to the future is always blank," meaning that anyone can change their life at any point, pick themselves up from mistakes, choose to stop doing evil if they've been doing so and seek to live a good life. You can move forward from anywhere and this is why Vash doesn't kill (people he could kill easily), even if they are terrible people and they sorely deserve it. (All angles of this are explored in both animes and especially the manga. Vash, for all of his kindness, does fail sometimes, and people die because he attracts trouble and cannot act decisively). In a lot of ways, my fangirling over Vash reminds me of my lingering religious / spiritual sensibilities, (I still revere Jesus, even though I am not sure I should call myself "Christian" anymore, given how the definition of the term has changed in the modern era, the fact that I don't believe in an eternal Hell anymore and the fact that I don't do church). But what I'm saying is...is that I believe that the ticket to the future is always blank, even, technically, for people whom I think are too far gone and are more in the "rabid dog" category of morally-ill people. So, I am left with the moral quandry in regards to clowning on death. On one hand, it it is the cry of the powerless. I'm not going to feel sorry for a rabid dog who had more power over us than we will ever have over even our own lives. On the other hand, I do feel kind of bad because Thompson died an asshole. He didn't turn around and become better (I'm sure he had many chances in life to do so). I think it always a tragedy when someone chooses to remain morally-ill for power and money or whatever and dies that way. It's like, in a spiritual / moral / human sense - "You wasted your life, dude."

[growling]

Okay

Bungou Stray Dogs. My beloved, my beloathed and my ex who keeps walking back into my life for a makeout session after I swore I was done with it for the 11th time.

It is- not a good story, structure wise at least. I get raising stakes but also we started s1 with "we're frenemies with our local gang and we occasionally homoeroticly fight eachother" to *gestures vaguely at s5*

And that doesn't bother me too much tbh because I love media that cares about its audience and keeping things silly but also *ducks nuke*

The mangaka keeps having to write reasons for Chuuya to not show up and murder everypony, that's silly

Fyodor has a funny accent and a silly goofy hat and a greasy hairstyle and I guess he sometimes is smart. I guess.

Justice for my boy Karma who showed up in one episode and then Fyodor killed him for some reason, RIP my boy

Idk man I have lots of thoughts

the stakes one is so real because like. they did get higher after season 1 with the whole moby dick crashing event, but like it made sense it was fine also i liked that season. and then we got introduced to demon fyodor who apparently was even worse both described at the s2 finale and in the dead apple movie, so like, dude got hyped up massively. and then he got s3 to himself but actually its not over yet, it was actually a setup for s4-s5 and. I am asking. since fukuchi is over. and they seem to be making fyodor out to be even more threatening (every single villain is more threatening than the last. you know.) than fukuchi, the goddamn man with time travel sword, reality-altering page, vampire goons, trying to (virtually. his motives as well as execution of them are.... Peculiar to me) achieve mind control world domination....... like how do they plan to go worse than that. the problem with trying to have every single villain be more powerful than the last is that one day you just gonna run out of ideas and just write a literal undefeatable god. which is fukuchi and also fyodor but i am legitimately terrified of what they're gonna do with him in the later chapters. i am all caught up and....... its looking very exhausting already

as well as how like, in the earlier seasons we got these episodes that are just purely character driven with way lower stakes that just exist there to establish the cast, and they just. slowly stopped doing that. right now, from like season 4 up to where we are currently there has been literally ZERO breathing room for the plot, every single scene is just stressful high tension main plot main plot main plot fighting the HD/DOA and it actually made me too tense as i was watching like jesus fuck slow down. which is why i cheer and clap so much whenever i see poe also being there sometimes. thank you for your service king. as well as all the other more minor characters that appeared and nikolai getting to jest with people, as well as the Bram & Aya Adventures, regardless on whether it is "important" to the plot . and also sigma's whole introduction in the manga that just established him as an actually really nice guy that the anime just cut out to make room For The Current Main Plot auurrrrhghgh. shut up about fukuchi show me kyouka. hey where the fuck was kyouka for most of this even

like. if they just released chuuya upon all their enemies it would be over. isnt he like, the actual incarnation of arahabaki you know the. literal god. just make them use corruption after you make sure dazai can stop them from eating shit and fucking dying, deploy her at the entire hunting dogs squad and its all over. like..... chuuya could just fix everything that is going on and the writers know it so they keep making up reasons (and sometimes they don't even do that, and just ignore it) as to why actually she's not available currently. you wrote this guy to be the single most powerful genderfuck in the universe please use him . chuuya i am so fucking sorry i could treat you so much better babygirl

fyodor sure is. A Character. that exists. and like, i like him, but also... i realized i'm only ever entertained by him whenever he's being silly, like with the whole mersault ball fyozai two man comedy show, or with his interactions with nikolai (who is one of the lights in the darkness of the current arc.... please keep being entertaining king). but like, i feel like the writer(s) drove themselves into a corner by making him so inhumanly intelligent, same with dazai. like. each of the serious interactions between him and dazai (the only nda member he's allowed to talk with apparently) just feel like two kids roleplaying "i slash u in the chest with my flaming sword and u are die!!!" "but before that I DODGED and hit u with my laser beam!!" "no but I moved out the way at last second and bring out the BOMBS and then i throw them at u and u explode and are dead for real!!!!" "no but then i miraculously survive steal ur flaming sword and set u on fire and u burn and die!!!" "but before i could die i put out the fire with my water bucket and then shoot u 100000 times and-" like. it was funny the first few times it happened but.... I get it. you have high IQ. I don't like this party I wanna leave chuuya can you please pick me up

karma got fucking massacred and for what. society if fyodor instead recruited him into the DOA and sigma got to have a single normal friend and they bonded over their mutual perpetual anguish. they really just introduced a really interesting guy just to kill him off in the same episode. but they. kept fukuchi i guess

[scentedchildnacho]

I did tell pastor the helicopter noise violence was people who whale....they kill whales and they don't care if many animals like humans are innately smart and kept treating something smart that way....

Yes my cousin is business....but she though from wisconsin has always been foriegn or the peripheral disease....we don't ever expect much or anything from those people and their vain attractions to British lifestyles....

Don't think I cry if yet another boring awful mean Lisa Thanksgiving is gone from my life....they never once tried to make me happy...

Lisa is that creep mean school kid that marries black guys that I have to find out about life are not above my civil designation in life....and wants to stalk around as an ego maniac so don't think I expect anything from someone that pours that much attention on herself unreflective people are horrible people and rude crude bores....

I was white and Catholic leaning and Jesus is black and black people live in perfect well meant correct societies and they obviously understand common order and a previous history of peace and fortune and it was really hard for me to leave that delusion....

In law autumn that business woman also.....now I would never expect anything from people that boobie germane but her friend list that would truly rape me unconscionably like throwing me off a motorcycle or drinking me death if I desired pasta late at night like growing students do

These peripheral characters in my family my own family is what tries to kill me

No i found out my mother and sister are really correct and don't have much to worry about that's true they just can't be happy with me my case with my captors and perps arent something they deserve these peripheral characters though really really are what do all they can to stalk them to be with them....people like me are biological and if told divorce realities move on with my life like I could be way happier if their owners weren't around me

Business Snowden if their always needing to defame me to kill me of thievery to support french banlieus that deserve decency to.......then it's a never ending cyclic pattern or world dictators they will fuck with me till the states learns from east Europeans how to better defend itself and they will bomb Europe and bring back a lot of missing deserved life.....in the end they don't think I deserve the right to life they feel I pay for air for sleep etc ...

I don't like certain Parisians about human rights what is all this you have to have a house to have dignity life isn't fair though fair is never going to keep you alive......and I have a right to life not people too juvenile to ask themselves what their climate problem truly is.....

Well it's Her that told me on dignity levels I can't give whores and men a settlement that doesn't call them angels housing is for angels that's that delusion those people are whores and men and I shouldn't have to give nothing till all is given to European waist lines

Now they don't appreciate what the Lord gives their like give a whore a room of her own so it gets taken away till you settle....

They told me their are behavioural places to stay so I said I try to not be stalked with leave one condemnation for another when those people are stalkers and it's just somewhere private off camera to get to commit the murder

I did confess to her my contempt for that lady with her mother....it's I'm sorry but the elderly go through youthful things and that is not the place of the daughter to help with that hygiene

Uhm your not gay and you shouldn't do that

Truth is my mother was correct in life and if called a mental can pay for these spa like conversations now why won't you let your mother pay for these things

Uhm they did pair me with an elderly lady in Ruidoso but her weirdos are too violent for me ....it's a problem out of my capability but they did at least think about giving me a job with the elderly ....

I was white and it's difficult to want poor white people when privileged white people show up with gun training and the right contracts and security is again established

Many people do really need much better security.....

That's me about The People people thieve off The People with felons resilient to really any counter argument till their gunned off their parasitical focus

The library dance nazi lady.......uhm well when no one impoverished can take a shower or have a notary give them their case file and a suggested release route for boobie to program little things that did then keep me detained under her watch...

And they will accuse her of having professional titles that call me a retard to detain for life and take narcissistic lives off and she today did just yell at me but their propagandists will call her lash out something that connected to my brain permanently instead of negligence incompetence and pogrom....

Anyway she said in a few days she will be allowed something rectified.....so I shouldn't view this as beyond comprehension.....

[mischief-lies-and-stories]

Reacting to Animated Marvel Shows 1/?

Taking a break from my Loki rewatch to react to another animated Marvel show because I saw SIGYN in the thumbnail of this episode and got excited. Is Loki going to treat Sigyn poorly? Almost definitely. Is Marvel going to treat both of them poorly? Almost definitely. Am I going to watch it anyway because I'm a glutton for punishment? Absolutely. Let's get started.

[Post-watch edit: Sigyn is NOT in this. It is a case of mistaken identity in the thumbnail because this is the only episode of this show I've watched. I've been bamboozled and I'm still pissed about it. Sorry if I got your hopes up. I got mine up too.]

Spoilers for Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes 2x15

Okay so already in the recap I'm seeing they buried the lead and this is NOT the only episode of this show Loki is in. So once again I will be consuming Loki content backwards. Cool.

Fuck yeah Surtur, crush Amora in your fiery hand!!

Okay recap over

New York always just has tanks casually rolling around

Fuck no I SWEAR TO GOD IF I THOUGHT AMORA WAS SIGYN IN THE THUMBNAIL I'M GONNA BE SO PISSED

Loki that was the most chill groan of pain I've ever heard. Isn't this shit supposed to HURT? It seems like you're more annoyed than anything else.

Fuck I'm sorry y'all. Sigyn is not in this. Goddammit Marvel. IT'S THE VENOM MYTH [not Venom like the character] AND YOU PUT AMORA THERE INSTEAD OF SIGYN??? THE BITCH WHO BETRAYS HIM TIME AND AGAIN INSTEAD OF HIS WIFE. FUCK Y'ALL.

How fucking rude to replace Sigyn with AMORA. Just add to his fucking torture, Jesus.

Amora has Maleficent horns. Bitch take those off you ain't shit. You can't hold a candle to Maleficent. Get the fuck out of here and go get Sig.

Wait why does Thor still get to be buff but not Steve?

Dude the theme goes too hard for this show

The balls on Thor to call his fucking bodybuilder shit a frail form in front of Cap's asthmatic, wrinkly ass

Eew Amora stop touching Loki's face

WHERE IS SIGYN MARVEL I'M STORMING YOUR HEADQUARTERS

SHE JUST GAVE HIM THE ARMOR SIGYN WENT TO GREAT LENGTHS IN THE OLD COMICS TO GET FOR LOKI'S SOUL TO INHABIT (I mean it might be the Destroyer armor but I'm angry anyway so I'm going with the first option)

THEY JUST TIT FOR TAT REPLACED SIGYN WITH AMORA FUCK THIS WHAT THE HELL

Goddammit am I gonna have to write an AU for this episode specifically, where Sigyn shows up and punches Amora's lights out, like Get away from my husband, bitch!

Cap looks like he's both eleven and ninety

Damn it is the Destroyer, but I think Loki possesses it which is the thing that happens in the old comics? Idk, I only know this secondhand.

Steve I'm begging you to lose your temper just once. Thor is towering over you, at least twice your body mass, can still walk with a broken leg and hasn't once complained of the pain, but anytime the fucker opens his mouth it's to complain about how weak he is. Meanwhile you could drop dead any second, polio has been eradicated in the US and you've already gotten it, but you could probably breathe wrong and immediately need an iron lung in 2010 with your luck.

Thor says "That voice" like he didn't grow up for thousands of years with Loki by his side. Like this isn't fucking, I don't know, Ultron, someone you've fought once (I know they tend to fight him more in the comics and animated shows), that's your BROTHER

Tony saving Steve was cute

THOR FUCK OFF DID YOU JUST PLACE THAT VOICE YOU DUMBASS

Good job, Clint. You helped.

Well do we call that Sigynbait? Healthy relationship bait? Whatever it is I'm fucking pissed and I'm going to have to change my intro for this post to reflect it because I don't do clickbait (which you already know because you aren't reading my draft).

[towered]

All eight episodes have been watched. Stream of conscious SPOILERED thoughts:

Was so much more impressed by this show than I expected. I know Snyder has a reputation for being very uncompromising in his vision and his love of comics and violence. Sometimes that doesn't interest me, but here it worked very well. I loved that it was an adult animation that looked GOOD.

Part of that was nothing felt compromised. It WAS hyper violent. People exploded constantly. People were hacked in half. It was all played straight. No ironic detachment. Same for the sex. It was gay, it was trans, it was straight, it was threesomes, it was gentle, it was rough, and it was never treated like some taboo fetish thing, just part of the storytelling. Good handling of adult themes.

The damn character designs! There wasn't a character I didn't like, and there a bunch that made me hoot. Maybe I was being catered to incidentally, but all the severe goths, the determined warriors, the tragic gods, I loved em all.

The story itself was very straightforward (until the last 5 minutes), which was probably for the best given the number of characters and the complexity of the world building in the background.

I didn't love that the season ends in what feels like a teaser cliffhanger, especially without another season actually being confirmed, but I'll forgive it for being intriguing.

Some assorted thoughts/observations:

Sigrid is a great protagonist. Big Kill Bill energy from the Blood Bride.

Knowing Ulfr was Peter Stormare kept making me laugh. I love that actor. When his character died I could have sworn they played a stock wolf sound that I've heard 10,000 times in video games.

Thor had One Piece powers and they needed a rubber man to smack him around.

Loki was so fucking compelling. You keep wanting to trust him because he offers help, and every single time he stabs you in the guts. Really great writing for that character.

When Jesus Christ showed up I was BLOWN AWAY. There was no way of knowing it was coming, and the fact it gave Odin a panic attack was hilarious.

When the witch ascended at the end it was so Homestuck. Sorry/IYKYK

That's it. Hope there's a season 2.

I'm only two episodes in but I'm really liking Twilight of the Gods so far. Really visually clean. First episodes are paced well. Every character introduced so far has a cool design.