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tonowarii · 2 years ago

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Could you do something with Lo’ak missing and thinking about his human best friend/crush that came from earth that he had to leave behind in the forest and she eventually comes to visits and she tells him about this friend that she made back at the lane and he gets jealous? This is extremely specific but I rlly hope it makes sense your writing is amazing

oHOHOHO YES

Do I Wanna Know

lo'ak te suli tsyek'itan x human!fem! reader

wc: 1.6k

warning/s: jealous lo'ak, suggestive ending, that's it ig <3

GIF is not mine, credits to the owner!

After months of settling in Awa'atlu after the war, Tonowari finally allowed some of Jake's most trusted dreamwalker friends to visit from time to time. Once Jake deemed the samson's location wasn't being tracked, he immediately gave Norm the 'go' signal.

Now, why does this news had Lo'ak's ears perking up as he listened to his father talking to his comms with Norm?

It's because he gets to see you.

Yes, his favorite human best friend.

Well, Spider comes in close second, but with you it's different. Because ever since growing up in the forest with the two of you, he grew close to you and Spider rather than some of his family. That's when he also discovered he had taken a liking to you.

So when the time came they had to hide in a different clan, it broke him, his thoughts rushed to his head knowing that he'll might never get to see Spider or worse, you, again.

A day had never passed that he didn't think about you. But due to the war, he had to focus on himself, but as the war was won, his first thought was you. How were you doing back in the forest? Were you having fun there without him? Were you going on adventures all on your own? Have you have met someone else that was much cooler than him?

Pfft, yeah right.

Neteyam chuckles at his brother who's face had shown his thoughts were running a million miles an hour. He met you and boy, if only you knew the effect you had on his brother.

"When are they coming?" Lo'ak asked the second Jake ends the conversation with Norm. Jake looks at him with a raised eyebrow and a smile tugging on the edge of his lip. "Tomorrow morning, why?"

Lo'ak gulped as he was met with the question why. His throat goes dry as the sand as his mouth hangs lightly open, wanting to play it off.

Neteyam and Jake shared a knowing look and Jake strides over to Lo'ak's sitting form to lean over and pat him on the back. "She's coming, don't worry, kid. I heard Norm say she's excited to see someone here." Jake playfully teased his youngest son as Neteyam laughed again.

"Baby brother can't wait to meet his little human, hm?" Neteyam teased as Lo'ak bared his fangs and hissed at him for his teasing.

"Hey, quit it." Jake says, but there's a playful tone in his voice too.

Lo'ak winced, wanting nothing to rid himself as the center of attention between his brother and father. So he stands, brushing off his loincloth before nodding at his father then at Neteyam. "I'll just go outside."

He didn't even get to hear their reply as he was already out the door.

Before he knew it, he was looking at the aircraft in the sky, its blades whirring loudly and spraying sand everywhere as it landed and had left a ringing in his ears until the engines turn off.

The rest of the Metkayina had gotten used to it by now, but some would still stand there, inspecting what could they have bought today.

Lo'ak looked as Norm hopped off the chopper in his avatar while Max followed, still human. Then the last one to hop off was you with the help of Norm.

My Eywa you still looked amazing as the last time he saw you- which was like a few weeks ago.

You were wearing a brand new set of clothes than your usual one, so that peaked his curiosity and would likely be a topic later.

When he was about to approach you, the other metkayina girls already beat him to it as they towered all over you and began gossiping. He frowns as you laughed with them and then some of the boys approached as well, greeting you.

He just wanted to trudge over there and pull you away from them to finally get to talk to you but that would probably end with yet another scolding from his father.

He didn't know how long his face turned sour as you were in front of him, well- looking up at him.

To your surprise it seemed like Lo'ak had gotten a little taller than before, his features sharpening. But the sour look on his face makes you tilt your head.

"Hey, Pandora to Lo'ak, you there? You don't seem happy to see me." You joke.

Lo'ak shakes his head, features softening as his eyes widened as he looks down at you and a smile forms on his face. "(Y/N)!"

Without thinking, he pulls you up in a hug which makes you grab onto him for dear life as you were suddenly hoisted up a couple feet in the air as you laughed. "Woah woah, chill! You're about to kill me!"

Lo'ak smiles as your eyes met, his big yellow eyes staring right into your small ones. "Sorry." He mutters sheepishly, slowly letting you down as his hands brush over your skin that leaves tingles in its wake.

The silence was broken by you. "So! What have you been up to?"

After Lo'ak had showed you fruits you haven't tasted before, having you and him explore things in the ocean, and telling you stories of his week, it was your turn.

"Yeah you should've seen the way Neteyam looked as I told Payakan to go faster as he was holding onto him." Lo'ak laughs, recalling the memory.

You laugh at his stories, your smile never left your face the moment you two talked and hung out.

Lo'ak coughs, subtly moving the topic to you. "So, (Y/N)," he starts.

You raise your eyebrows at him, urging him to go on.

"You look amazing."

That sends your cheeks to go warm as he inspects you. "Thank you, I- I made it myself." You say, smiling proudly as you looked down at your set of clothes.

Lo'ak was about to speak again when you bought up something he wasn't expecting. "I couldn't have done it without Käetxo's help!" You smile, remembering your friend.

"Käetxo?" Lo'ak repeated, squinting his eyes as if to remember someone back in the forest with that name.

"Yes, he's amazing and did you know he just completed his dream hunt? I was worried for him." You said in a worried tone that had Lo'ak's ears almost flattening against his head.

Lo'ak was about to change the subject as a certain dislike for that 'Käetxo' grew but you seemed to have picked that as the next topic, which as seconds passed as he heard nothing but stories of him come out of your mouth had him frowning.

"We went exploring one time and he taught me how to shoot a bow properly and how I could make all kinds of knots for traps!"

Lo'ak was sure you could catch a glance of smoke coming out of his as he breathed out rather harshly, thinking how this guy could possibly had his hands over you, your arms- your waist.

"Can't you talk about something else?!" Lo'ak suddenly bursts out, surprising you mid-sentence as your mouth hanged open, staring at him.

"Lo'ak...?" You say, tilting your head and scooting closer to him as he was across from you.

He shakes his head, huffing. "I'm sorry- It just...sucks I can't hang out with you anytime when he gets to have you all to himself."

The last part wasn't supposed to come out as his eyes widened. "Forget that, tell me something else, just not about him." He said.

"Why..?" Oh you knew why. You were observing him not too long ago how his fists would clench whenever you mention him and how his ears seem to flatten as his tail swayed annoyingly behind him.

Lo'ak doesn't respond. You chuckle. "You jealous?" Saying that probably had your friendship dangling on thin wire but you just had to push your luck sometimes, you never know.

"No, why don't you go back and have fun with him then?" He said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, Lo'ak you skxawng." You say, having enough of hiding your feelings for him. "I wore this for you, hoping you'd notice- you did." You laugh.

Lo'ak's brain freezes. "Huh?"

"I said nothing." You played, scooting away; but it was his turn to scoot closer to you, almost a little too close.

"Say it again." You could feel the warmth of his arms that was keeping you from escaping.

You gulp. "I wore this for you. I guess you haven't noticed all these years I love you and you only, Lo'ak." He stares at you.

"Käetxo's just a friend, nothing more, and besides, he already chose his mate which I was about to tell you until you interrupted me." You laugh.

Lo'ak feels the heat rise to his cheeks in embarassment, but he makes a bold move to move his huge hand to your waist, touching your skin, rubbing circles on it with his thumb.

"Oh-"

"Yeah, oh."

Lo'ak looks at you, then down at your waist where he was touching you. He liked this, and the way your breath hitched didn't go unnoticed.

"Say, why don't you just stay here?" He offered, squeezing your waist with a playful smile as his fangs showed.

You avoided his gaze as you felt butterflies erupt in your stomach.

"Hm? Maybe I could convince Norm..." You say. You really did want to stay here, with Lo'ak and his family, since they were also used to you back in the Omaticaya.

"Great, maybe I could just show you how much I did miss you."

It was a simple sentence yet it had you gulping as Lo'ak was smiling at you playfully.

Oh my Eywa.

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roseytoesy · 6 days ago

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vore ask cause im not sure if this was mentioned before, do your predcrushes stay strictly as pred or do you have moments of like wanting to make them prey so you can keep them safe and close too (vore is a comfort for me <3) -opossum anon

OH heck yea!

first off thank you so much for this ask opossum anon! I've been itching to write something for a while but had no set inspiration. also congrats on being my first real ask in like 4 months.

Anyway! onto your ask! warning it will be very long cause I went a bit crazy remembering all my pred crushes.

Also warning to start I start off on legend of zelda and don't stop for like 6 names... also sorry for the crazy comments im just letting my mind barf all over this post.

I have had pred crushes on just about every enemy in most legend of zelda games, but ill stick to ones that make the most sense for this ask otherwise this will take forever.

Ghirahim: sassy demon lord and sword to the demon king demise, very much a pred from how he likes to be above those around him. could I see him as prey? honestly no, especially not with that tongue. this man can summon daggers with a snap of his fingers, so unless he's somehow willing, there is no way you'll survive his onslaught to your insides.

Link: the hero of legend and owner of the triforce of courage. yes yes yes. Hes been hurt in many games, been saved by others many times too. so absolutly i can see him needing some rescue and rest inside an allies coughsidoncough stomach.

Midna: we meet her in her cursed imp form. She's bossy and mischievous, but not invincible. I have daydreamed many times about her when I played twilight princess. and yea I could see her needing to be eaten and kept safe from the harsh light of the day/light spirits. she wouldn't be happy but she would show appreciation for it once she realized why its happening. Her twilight form is much more powerful so I honestly don't believe that that form would need protection.

Sidon: BIG SHARK MAN. A favorite of many for his award winning smile and large stature and larger heart. I adore this Zora so much and many others agree that he is a kindhearted pred. Could he be prey? sure in dire circumstances but he would have to be shrunk in the first place for anyone to even have a chance of getting him down. he wouldn't mind as long as he was made aware that it was safe.

The imprisioned: A hulking beast that is the cursed form of the demon king. its literally a giant spiky egg with only 2 legs and a giant mouth. I have pred crushes on a lot of the boss monsters but this one is the most memorable cause duh. and no this is a monster with dark magic. no eating.

Ganondorf: specifically tears of the kingdom, man has a DILF body. his story is so cool and he takes great pleasure in the suffering of others, being above them. he is an amazing villainous pred, but never prey.

Abigale (from stardew valley): my crystal eating wife! a girl with sass and a kind adventurous heart, maybe some magic too. A gal who is fine being eaten or eating the farmer when either are in trouble. She adores the idea and its like a new adventure every time since everything is moving and stuff. She would be very thankful for the save even if it is a bit unconventional.

Reaper leviathan (subnautica): Giant monster everyone knows and fear. An apex predator of the sea. could it be eaten? maybe when shrunk, but good luck. Those teeth and pinchers are wicked sharp.

Emperor leviathan: A beautiful smart creature of the deep, who wanted nothing more than to ensure her children could go out into the world. a kind pred who has minor healing properties thanks to that special enzyme. Not one to be eaten though as one of the largest creatures in the entire game. even her babies are the size of an adult human.

Al-An: I totally haven't been making my own architect OC for this exact kind of thing noooo. in my heart I like to think that he would be a good protective if not a bit oblivious pred. if he were much smaller, maybe he could be eaten but the body shape and density would make things very difficult. also with his ability to just teleport out if he was unwilling.

John J Juniper (I expect you to die): HHHHHHhhhhhhhhh charismatic preds are a weakness dude. This amazing actor turned villain had some of the best lines and subtle hints for just about anything in this game. he would adore eating an unexperienced agent. He wouldn't take well to being eaten, especially by an agent, he would squirm and kick and make all kinds of comments. maybe he will eventually calm down but that's only if he knows he's stuck/safe and if he knows/trusts the person who ate him.

Doc Ock (marvel Spiderman villain): those arms make good restraints and the energy he gives off is just to perfect. he was a kind man before the implants. and with the no way home movie he was able to regain his senses. I love both corrupt or kind preds so this is amazing. You would have to make sure that he (and his arms) were comfortable with being eaten otherwise you could easily be skewered. in a dangerous situation when he would need help, yea he could understand. maybe study it himself later.

Remus (sanders sides): this guy is literally intrusive thoughts personified. he would happily eat or be eaten by anything/anybody. he finds it a crazy idea and adventure. really odd prey that asks some insane questions. he does get into trouble but since he's imaginary he can handle whatever happens. he appreciates that you care enough about him to eat him, like some crazed beloved animal.

Beel (obey me): The personification of gluttony. like come on. He already hints at eating the player so many times its just normal conversation with him. I think that if he was shrunk and some how satiated he would be ok being eaten, he understand what its like to be so hungry you could eat a person or 5. If he was in danger yet somehow you weren't then he would be ok with it, if you were both in danger he'd be more likely to eat you to protect you. he'd rather die protecting others, since he failed once before.

Floyd (twisted wonderland): This crazy eel twin loves to play and mess with other guppies around him, so of course he loves to scare people via vore. probably a more common occurrence for merfolk since swallowing things whole is a common thing fish do. he would not be happy in a stomach, mostly just because its so boring. he has quite a bit of power to him so be careful cause he could cause some damage if he decides to be violent.

jade: The more silent and deadly of the twins. he is a mastermind of mischief and manipulation, enjoying the torment of others. He only consumes others when truly hungry or he needs a special kind of power trip after some form of immense disappointment. he might not seem too upset about being eaten if he was in danger, but know that he is plotting to get you back in some way for this. even if its safe you gave him a decent scare, its only fair he returns the favor~

Azul: The caecilian business man himself. a sly pred who doesn't indulge on others very often, he likes to think he's above that compared to the twins habits. Nevertheless, when he gets a special opportunity he wont turn it down. he has been eaten in the past before. and he vowed it would never happen again, outside of Floyd and Jade. So you would have to be very close to him otherwise it's going to be very difficult and afterward your life will be hell from the Octavinelle group. if youre someone he trusts and he was truely in danger, he would curl up inside and shutter, its hard to admit he needed help, and in such a way as traumatic as this. poor dude will need some time to recover.

Sun/moon (security breach): the day care assistants have such an amazing personality to them! so many fun stories for them too out there. sun isn't much of a pred but will be in dire situations. meanwhile moon is very much a pred and will gobble up troublemakers to detain them more often than not. gives them a good scare too. both would hate being eaten, the wetness of insides doesn't mix well with an animatronic body. even if you ate sun they would change to moon in the darkness inside, unless provided with a light. sun is miffed and a bit more sassy about it, more upset at the cleaning he will have to do. and moon is similar but more dangerous. if unwilling he will rip apart soft insides.

Eye of Cthulhu (terraria): again I'm a sucker for monsters that are mostly mouth. fun monster pred. could you eat him, not really since it has the ability to phase through the ground and objects easy enough.

Leshy (inscryption): The scribe of beasts, who acts like one himself when in control of the game. the way he grabs the player and makes them go through hard animalistic trials and sacrifices, it only makes sense that he would make a good pred. likely describing everything like the DM that he is. He would not be happy about being eaten, even in a dire situation, he hates being overpowered, finding it unbelievable in many cases. would he be understanding, yes since of course his whole moto is "sacrifices must be made".

Extra!! my soul mate @abellyfulloffriends my beloved switch. he protects me and I protect him on hard days. and yes I would absolutely tuck him away and protect him when he needs it cause he would do the same for me. Its a wonderful thing we have. Just wanted to add this in cause I'm a sap.

#soft vore #safe vore #roses ramblings #vore stuff #extreme cuddling #my stuff #asks #thank you!#good gosh this got long sorry about that #feel free to look these guys up

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inshelliesworld · 6 months ago

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Insomnia 🌛

I've always been a night owl

🌚🦉

Lately though it seems a bit more common/worse than normal. I suppose this is due to the MIRIAD of high-stress situations, both planned events & emergency surprises, that have occurred in the month of May. I won't drone on with the odious details but this month has handed my family (both blood and chosen) and me: 3 trips to Vanderbilt, 2 visits to the local emergency departments, an adult temperature of 103.2F, a scheduled whipple procedure, a diagnosis of strep pneumonia, progressively worsening facial seizures, a scheduled hysteroscopy & d&c, an emergency craniotomy, 2 biopsies, several cases of the stomach bug, a stroke, and prescriptions in a pear tree 🎶. OH ... not to leave out that we still yet will be rounding out the month with asthma re-testing and a scheduled esophageal dilation at the end of the month. May has been a doozie to say the least. But tonight, as I sit and think about how I do not have any clue where the month of May went, I'm reminded of how lucky I (we) really am. So many of these events, or all of these events, could have gone terribly wrong at any point. But they didn't - and haven't - so far. I'm not an overly religious person but I do believe in the overwhelming power of prayer in whatever form one feels comfortable practicing it. It can be old-fashioned praying, journaling, meditation, sending warm thoughts & healing vibes, or just simply being grateful. They all work in the same manner and serve the same purpose. And the impact I've witnessed it have on all of us this month is heart-warming & humbling.🌠

Specifically, though, I'm so incredibly lucky to have somehow, in all the fandoms in all the internet, stumbled my way into this one about a year and a half ago and linked up with the right people. I have been able to create some wonderful bonds with so many mutuals! I very much adore sharing many similar interests with all of you and I love learning new things all the time! I miss sharing my love of astrology and can't wait to get back to it soon (hoping the interest is still there!) I have connected with so many amazing, good-hearted, spectacular humans on this app AND then carried that over to a totally different app and built an incredible, supportive, understanding, and trustworthy community there. It is certainly more than I could ask for, and much more than I expected in January 2023!

I'm a lucky girl. 🍀💚 I love hearing all of your lovely voices when I catch up on the conversation. I love our fun little FAPBC 📚🤐. (iykyk) I love being the Supreme Court Justice Barbie & the ChairBarbie of the Board for the official unofficial committees that have been established. I love the gossip and the thirsting and the real-life discussions that happen daily. I love being your adopted Mam across the ocean. I love sharing brain cells & walks down tin-foil-covered paths with you. Every single one of you. Thank you for trusting me & thank you for loving us as much as I love us. You couldn't be any more phenomenal if you tried. 😽😽😽

My flabbers are well and truly gasted.

🖤

#friendship #fandom #the good side of fandom #besties #love #care bears #FAPBC #iykyk

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fairytale-poll · 1 year ago

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ROUND 1B! MATCH 4 OUT OF 8

Propaganda Under the Cut:

Ruby Lucas:

she's cool, and a werewolf!

She's a red/big bad wolf combo, she's bi, she gets tragically underused like so many OUaT characters

She’s a werewolf :)

We first see her as Ruby in Storybrooke where she's initially depicted as a fun-loving flirt who spends her nights most likely in a bar while wearing revealing clothes that her grandma disapproves of (and is all in red. Absolutely everything). She lives with her grandma who runs a diner and that's where Ruby works. When Emma wakes up the sleeping town, she tries to leave Granny's and ends up helping in a case that Emma's working on by following her nose. That episode also has her backstory, but when we first see her as Red in the Enchanted Forest, she's confident and helpful and not afraid to use her lycanthropy. But the start of her story has her being an innocent young woman with a love for discovering the world and her boyfriend Peter (of Peter and the Wolf, I guess). She meets Snow while still living with her Granny in her cabin in the woods and takes her in. She's so hopeful - and then she turns into a werewolf and kills Peter (after they all thought he was the werewolf and had chained him to a tree). She is obviously quite traumatized by this and takes off with Snow. But that and her subsequent adventures gives her the growth she needs to be comfortable in her own skin, whether human or wolf. And, when the curse breaks completely, you can see the change in her - she would absolutely walk through fire to help Snow and the other good guys.

Another version where Red Riding Hood also ends up being the Big Bad Wolf. She eats her boyfriend which is sad but she falls in love with Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz in like Season 5. Her red cloak is what keeps her in human form which I think is neat. When all the storybook characters are transported to the modern world, she runs a diner with Granny.

She's one of my favorite characters from Once Upon a Time. She's a cool Red Riding hood wolf girl who is bi and has seen like 3 of her love interests and her mother die. She slays very hard so I nominate her. (Also I used to have a crush on her as a kid)

VOTE RUBY LUCAS FROM ONCE UPON A TIME. SHE WAS IGNORED BY THE WRITERS SO MUCH SHE DESERVES THIS SO MUCH. QUEER ICON!!!

Ruby Rose:

She has a scythe that is also a high-impact sniper rifle.

She is literally just based on Red Riding Hood and she's such an amazing character holy heck

Red Riding Hood but with a gun. (Specifically a combination scythe/high-impact sniper rifle called Crescent Rose). Also she's gone through so much she deserves it. She's trying to save the world and keep going despite all the people she's lost. Grew up dreaming of being a hero who fights monsters. She knows life isn't a fairy tale and wants to make it better. Just went through a mental health arc where she had depression from trying to live up to her (presumed dead) mom and from her friend dying for the second time. Killed the Big Bad Wolf with her magic eye powers. Her sister is Goldilocks and her friends are Beauty and Snow White. also I love her <3

She’s the little red riding hood but also a powerful fighter with a massive fucking scythe that is also a sniper rifle and she’s so skrunkly and so gender. Also RWBY’s whole thing (well one of them) is that their characters are all inspired by pre-existing ones from older stories and Ruby’s the main character so like, poster child of ‘character based off [insert relevant fairytale here]’ so I think she deserves to at least get pretty far

Aesthetics, themes, meta, personality and raw coolness.

She is the main character of her show. The most common monster they fight is a type of wolf (its been a while since ive seen it). Her job is to hunt them down before they can eat her. this story is very much about failed fairy tales, many of the side character's inspired arcs end in failure, but (having not seen the most recent bits) Ruby is still going strong, and i really like her cape, rose petals, and use of a scythe.

She is THE RRH character of all time. She has a scythe that's also a gun and she has to be the hero because she's got super rare main character powers. She is my happy girl. Also her mom was Sleeping Beauty and her sister is Goldilocks, and she fights to stop Rapunzel from destroying everything on the world, the gods, and then herself.

Ruby as a character is literally based on little red riding hood! She has a red cape with a hood

the Red trailer is better propaganda than I could ever write

She is a badass with a scythe, inspired by her uncle and fueled by her mother's death and her sense of righteousness

She has a giant scythe

#red riding poll #round 1 #round 1b #ruby rose #rwby #ruby lucas #once upon a time #red riding hood #little red riding hood #polls #poll bracket #poll tournament #character polls #battle of the rubys!#ouat #meghan ory

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pearlgisa · 1 year ago

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qala and the style over substance argument

so, i watched qala (dir. by anvita dutt) immediately when it came out - a story that exposed the music industry and the position of women in it, especially focusing on the toxic nature of indian classical music? it was like they made the film for me (someone who's spent a good chunk of their life trained in hindustani classical music). however, i was sorely disappointed.

in essence, qala, along with other films that did commercially well that came out in bollywood last year, solidified my understanding that the audience of today's generation of movie-watchers genuinely puts style over substance and in fact, uses it as a way to defend their favourite movies from criticism. the recent resurgence of praise for om shanti om of all films, only strengthened this opinion.

my criticisms for qala are in plenty, yet i will choose to expand on the ones that strike out the most to me, all of which range from the lightest to the harshest criticism:

the choice of music

the acting

the direction + writing

the handling of the serious issues that are the main theme of the film

before you read ahead, please know that there are spoilers.

in indian classical music, there are two distinct forms: hindustani (or, north indian) and carnatic (or south indian) music. each have their differences and similarities and even someone who hasn't trained can tell them apart upon listening. within hindustani music - which is the genre of music that qala learns from her mother - you have many different styles of singing, ranging from shastriya sangeet (classical form of singing) to laghu sangeet (semi-classical and sometimes, light music). of course, this categorization also has its roots in religion and caste. shastriya sangeet has forms of singing like dhrupad (the oldest form and a strictly devotional medium), khyal (the most common one, telling tales or speaking of human emotions), bhajan (also a devotional medium), etc.

laghu sangeet has forms of classical music like the thumri, a form of singing popularized and invented by courtesans. the lyrics were sensual, romantic and more explicit. of course, owing to these, they were looked down upon. even the british had a huge role in diminishing the status of indian women performers. the "other woman" concept was specifically one that they propagated and the rise of the "perfect housewife" phenomena began since the seventeenth century. the extreme effect of that? the courtesans lost out on their patrons and were forced into prostitution.

hence, that was the primary history behind qala's mother, urmila, shaming her into never being a performer, i.e, in a more derogatory term, a "singing girl". a courtesan, essentially. which is accurate, considering the film is set in the 1940s. if a girl was too "out there in the world", i.e, her achievements being publicised in newspapers or her getting recognition for her academics, her future marital prospects were ruined. and the "shame" that befell the family if she was learning music or dance was worse. a significant number of the prominent female musicians that emerged from this era of pre-independence to post-independence were unmarried. or they had many patrons and salacious rumours regarding their love life were in plenty. the film pakeezah (1972) explores such themes quite well. and the many renditions and retellings of devdas also serve as a good example of the stature of performing women.

however, it's the music itself where it goes wrong for me. the choice of songs as well as qala's singing (of course, all of qala's songs are sung by the amazing sireesha bhagavatula), is in a style all too similar to laghu singing. the years of egregious training, no matter how much her mother dismissed her, would've developed a voice which would've sounded a lot more like what a lot of classical singers would sound like, unless they were singing a lighter form of singing. and it isn't a matter of pitch or using falsetto. qala's mom is referred to as a master of qawallis, which is a sufi form of devotional singing (and comes well under hindustani music too). even the lyrics of qala's songs, while full of very obvious foreshadowing, do not match the overall orthodox classical upbringing that the film portrays.

while bhagavatula has an amazing voice well versed in classical music (especially since she sings bhajans so often), considering the time that qala was set in, you would've expected a sound similar to something along the lines of noor jehan or even roshan ara begum. instead, it sounds a lot like a mix of semi-classical instrumental with a more pop-based voice. which is easier for our generation to digest and consume, however, it comes at the cost of a sound which is very typical of the 50s-70s era of bollywood.

one that qala does right are the costumes. they do their job well. not the sets as much, which i will get into later. at some points, they are well in line with the rest of the era of the film, other times it just sticks out like a sore thumb. here's where the "symbolism" comes in.

one of the most jarring examples is the song qala sings at the first performance, a very light classical song just by the sound of the vocals. even the song jagan sings is very contemporary at its core. despite the characters having an allegedly strict, traditional schooling of music (jagan's voice is devoid of the typical heavy accent or dialects that those who are from underprivileged backgrounds tends to have), the songs at hand present a very modern take on qawallis, despite bollywood being a flourishing ground for many iconic qawallis. therefore, the compositions sometimes falter at some points specifically because of the vocal choices. choosing to do away with alaaps, especially in qala's part, less aakar and more bariki, are all signficant details that feel jarring to someone who's lived in the world of classical music as long as qala. otherwise, there are some signature sounds retained from the era that the film is set in.

and while still on the topic of singing, a very important issue that i find least addressed is the acting of it. despite there being little vocal variations in the compositions, the actors don't show that they are singing. and in the film specifically revolving around music, that's an extremely important detail that i find amiss. hardly opening the mouth, the movement of the lips, the posture as well as the hand gestures (yes, a very important detail!), are all obvious flaws. a recent film that does that does those details well is the disciple (2020). the first scene of urmila teaching qala singing displays urmila wearing an elaborate piece of nose jewellery that covers half of her mouth, and that's when they're doing rehyaas (practice), not a performance. it's huge details like these that don't sell the film to me.

the acting is quite underwhelming and here is where disagreements with my opinions might enter. i find trupti dimri's rendition of qala extremely, for lack of politer words, exasperating. she tends to show the same expressions for all of her problems, i.e., there is no great difference between her feeling anger or feeling despair or feeling depressed or feeling cheated or just plain exhaustion. qala's character is a complex one and difficult to act, which is a concession i will give, however, the hype around her is a little unnerving when the audience is given such an unremarkable delivery of dialogues and emotion. it comes off as school-play acting at times. swastika mukherjee, who plays urmila, is quite two-note with her acting, which sometimes suits her character and sometimes just feels very low-effort. babil khan has his moments, yet there is such less versatility. you'd think the babil of qala's hallucinations and the one who existed in real life would have some distinct characteristics (which they do), but they never come off as that. it feels so half-hearted at times.

the whole point of symbolism is that it's subtle at heart and not on the face. qala has on-the-face symbolism, which is an irony in itself. the black swan scene, the frosty room in the beginning, the ghostly jagan, etc. almost made me bump my nose into a wall. it comes off as pretentious at best, as if the viewer is stupid. it is also very off-putting in some scenes. for example, the black swan scene - there is very little buildup and it feels very predictable in the sense that "it all goes downhill from here". however, there is one scene which i like, which is the gargoyle one (a very traumatic scene, for those who recall, it is the one right before ghodey pe sawaar gets recorded for the final time). i think that is the most effective filmmaking in the entire film. the best thing about symbolism is always the subtlety. it makes the viewer keep coming back to pick up on something they might have missed in the first watch, it helps them pick up the pieces along the way instead of being able to tell the twists thirty minutes before they are revealed.

and one of the most egregious crimes of the entire film is the direction. here is where we get a little more technical (but just briefly, do not worry). the way it cuts from one scene to the next is like watching a poorly edited reel put out by the team of an out-of-touch marketing firm. the editing could have been better at many places. the writing falls flat specifically when it comes to the characters. i'm pretty sure on paper, the script must've been a delight to read. the story has so much potential - considering that it's based on two books, where there might've been even more depth given to the characters - it isn't new in any way but it offers a different, feminist perspective of the indian music industry. yet, the characters are paper thin on screen - in their ambitions, psychology and sociology. hence, urmila suddenly turning a new leaf in the last ten minutes of the film is something that feels wrong, because all along, she has been portrayed as a heartless mother. qala's actions make sense because her character has nearly always been rooted in self pity and rage. jagan is nothing without music. there is very little dimension to them apart from me summarizing their characters in one sentence with less than thirty words each.

that is why, the film feels even more half-hearted when it speaks of the issues that it centers around. all of these elements add up and make for a tiring watch. i gave qala a second chance, to be fair and omitted some of my pettier criticisms, yet the more serious ones remain. to a certain extent, it does aestheticize depression, which i have a huge issue with. however, baby steps as always with bollywood. it's no dear zindagi considering it is set in a different period with a different ending. however, the writing of the characters could've been so much better. a little more exploration of urmila's intentions would've given her so much depth. a few more interactions between qala and jagan might've given qala the chance to befriend him and not just see him a rival, thus intensifying the decision she took. the characters do not feel human, they are strictly white or black and qala being the anti-hero feels very off since it requires better writing and a stronger plot. and of course, much better acting.

however, qala re-opened up discussion of a nearly-always forgotten discourse - that of the position of women in music. and for achieving that bare minimum, i give it full credit. however, when there have been films with much better writing, characterization and cinematography in bollywood itself, with a similar theme, qala needs to be seen for what it contains than what it displays. just because it glitters, doesn't mean it's gold.

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lookingforcactus · 11 months ago

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Live action Yu Yu Hakusho liveblog (ep 2)

Okay listen. Whoever wrote and whoever is voicing the little kid Yusuke saves has never heard an actual six year old talk in their lives

Also forgot to say last ep but liked the move to age yusuke up a bit. Also Botan's digital file of Yusuke talking back at her is hilarious

Botan's voice (Eng dub) isn't quiiiite as expressive as would hit the mark for me compared to the anime but whatever she's adorable I forgive her

Also forgot to say last ep "Maybe it's better you're dead" BOTAN STOP ASDLKFJADS I love her your honor

Fights and vfx on Goki are actually kind of shockingly good, esp given how much I Did Not like him in the anime

VERY annoying and unfortunately typical that the darkest-skinned guy we've seen so far is. very specifically. the demon that eats children and that the anime makes uh iirc a lot more directly than I ever wanted to watch into a Certain Allegory

Interested that Reikai doesn't seem to know who Kurama actually is. Was that the case in the anime/manga?? I feel like no, they knew who he used to be from the initial briefing on the thieves but idk season 1 wasn't exactly my favorite to go back and rewatch literally ever

My favorite was 2 and 4. If you even care. lol

Kurama standing there during the fight like a creeper go

Actually fight with Goki is very epic. Again super creative and impressively believable way for Yusuke to survive and fight back against a guy with WAYYYY superior strength

Also wow is Yusuke underqualified for these fights rn lol. I mean we knew that but he's lucky he pulled that one out in the end. And esp lucky that Kurama won't want to fight, obv

YUKINA

Her wig is sadly Not as impressive as Botan's, and I'm not a fan of what looks like her contacts. Did they make her eyes green??? Bc her eyes being red is kind of narratively. you know. Relevant

Wait is that guy helping Yukina Hiei???!!! Human-form Hiei??!!!

Wait no of course not Hiei would've just killed everyone and gotten her out

(Listen we don't have any good shots of his face yet okay. That little sister line made me think!)

Interesting new jagan origin + (presumably?) moving up Yukina as Hiei's motivation. Makes sense given how everything about Hiei's first manga/anime appearance was ignored afterward lol when he was too popular to kill off

I hope they got rid of his original plan/motivation, anyway. I hated the mind control arc thing with him esp on Keiko. Dickhead

Well. Eyehead. Technically. But yknow

Pfft Kurama 100% staging that entire encounter and stalking ep meaning Yusuke thinks he's being sooo sneaky

Kurama's outfit is really pretty actually btw. I like it better than his anime outfit by a lot. The pink always clashed with his hair sooo bad

Also the pink in the preview images made me think/hope he was a girl (who actually got to fight in a shounen anime!!!!) and you have no idea how disappointed I was when I realized that wasn't true

Pfft Kurama using his demon powers to?? Pull a quickchange?? Amazing

His hair continues to not work nearly as well as in the anime but that was a lost battle from the beginning let's be real. At least it's better than Hiei's

(Which is so actively bad what was that shadow with his hair in the knife scene what)

Shiori benefits a lot from being played by like. an actually human person who also is older and has visibly aged. Gives her Character, makes her less of Just An Archetype

Momma's boy Kurama excellent as always. Meanwhile Yusuke's just flat out not replying to a single thing Shiori is literally saying to him lol

Wait does the quickchange imply that Kurama only uses that outfit on demon business. Bc in the show it's just his (ugly) school uniform but here it's clearly not. I really desperately want that to be his On Demon Business outfit in this show lol

Also makes the fact that he had Yusuke stalk him in that outfit funnier. then. boom. quickchange. Mom can't see the Demon Business Outfit

Hmm something about Kurama and his delivery isn't rly landing for me here. But to be fair he is being super Performative and Deliberate about all of this so that may be on purpose

I hope it's on purpose. Bc Kurama's great and I'd REALLY like to buy him/his lines as a character in this

He does successfully pull off "casually menacing" (you know, without murdering someone first) much more easily than his anime counterpart tho so that's cool

Meanwhile, Yusuke's face. Great face-acting there. Also great face

The scrapes on Yusuke's face really are v aesthetically arranged lol. but still look legit enough. I'm a fan

Okay I'm buying Kurama now. Excellent

"I've been deceiving that woman for many years" genuinely love that he put it that way. He's come to care about her so much but he's not trying to make himself sound better or lying to himself about the situation

It is killing me that he used the phrase "fertilized egg" in this explanation. It's killing me. It's also raising Fucking Questions. (But does at least give an explanation for how Kurama didn't like. Kill the original Shuichi's soul when he took the body.)

Oh the pattern on Kurama's outfit is roses!!! love it

Kurama: Sees Kuwabara following them

Kurama: ...Anyway.

The mirror of darkness looks like a fucking ipad. I can't take it seriously why does the mirror of darkness look like an ipad!!!

IT DOESN'T EVEN REFLECT ANYTHING

What's with the weird scifi aesthetics here and on the other artifacts? This is a fantasy show, fantasy aesthetics would fit better

The mirror-realm life-taking sequence is just. so much. lol it's so much once again I am unable to take it seriously!

Wait Shiori! You don't know there was magic saving you!! Don't take off your oxygen mask without a doctor's permission!!! Practice self-care!!!

Okay Kuwabara looks super different from his anime/manga self-from the front, but from the back he has the EXACT same silhouette as anime!Kuwabara, so much it's EERIE. I'm learning lots of things about what pompadours look like in real life-

hsb, ig???

HIEI HAS BLUE EYES?!!??!?!?!!!!

I mean at least they didn't only change Yukina's

But this is WEIRD

Also making the jagan not purple anymore, just an actual third eye, was the correct choice

Hmm I don't like how they translated Hiei's outfit as much as I do the others. (I like how they translated literally everyone else's outfits. This is so disappointing, esp since Hiei's aesthetics go off. There's too much white and too much detail in his outfits. Give me his cloak!!! Also changing the scarf into a turtleneck is highkey Not Working For Me

Anime!Hiei would literally never wear a turtleneck

Why is he wearing a turtleneck, he's a FIRE DEMON, it's not like he can get cold

The scarf is okay because it was clearly not primarily for keeping him warm

Give him the cloak I want the cloak!!

And he should be wearing all black underneath it! I mean I know he wears other color shirts under it in the dark tournament arc iirc. But live action won't have the control over the cloak for that lol

At least give him something all black (except the scarf or something similar) (NOT a turtleneck) with a similar silhouette to the cloak

And idk compared to the others I think his costume looks kinda cheap

OOF effects on the Toguros are NOT convincing. Oof. I admire their commitment to taking their physicalities literally but uh. They should've been less ambitious and focused more on translating the vibe. Imho

Okay! Time for episode 3!

#yu yu hakusho #netflix yu yu hakusho #yu yu hakusho spoilers #me #liveblogging

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medea10 · 1 year ago

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My Review of My Hero Academia

Okay…okay…

It’s done. It’s taken me 10 whole years, but I finished Gintama. My long-running comedic/drama nightmare has come to an end until they decide to come out with another damn sequel. But for now, it is DONE. And now, I can finally sit down and make good on a promise I made with one of my best friends. I will now watch Hunter x Hunter.

Huh?

No. I said Hunter x Hunter.

Tough shit, loser. You’re watching this shit!

Sorry, Marcus.

Yeah, My Hero Academia has been around for a couple of years now. It’ll emerge every couple of years in the anime world and the manga has been a massive hit. Not as big as Demon Slayer, but then again, no one can be as awesome as Demon Slayer. I had my chance to pick this series up, but I picked Black Clover instead. I made my decision and I stand by it. But once I noticed this series had several films and over 100 episodes to its name, I thought it be best to save this anime for after finishing my long-numbered series. Once I was able to get through Gintama, we can set this up.

Quirks or super powers are in about 80% of humanity. These quirks can vary from being super flashy, awesomely strong…or it could be like the Crest Man.

I was going to make this joke one way or another.

(He’s living in his car)

Many of these people decide to become heroes, especially those with potential. Now what about those 20% of humans that don’t have a quirk? Can they one day become a hero even though they have no power to their name? I guess we’ll find out with a young lad named Izuku Midoriya (or Deku). He has no quirk, no chance of developing one in his later years, and yet still wants to attend an academy that’s specifically for those with quirks.

It wasn’t until he was given a chance by Japan’s #1 hero All Might who sees potential in the young Deku to pass down his powers to him. Due to an ugly fight a few years ago, All Might can only stay in hero form for 3 hours at the most a day. In the span of two episodes, Deku was able to go through 10 months of All Might’s training, inherit his power, and get accepted to UA, the academy for potential students with amazing quirks who want to become heroes. Let’s enter UA to meet all the special students and administration with amazing powers and see who’s going to be a smashing hero one day.

Do keep in mind that I’m only summing up the first couple of episodes from the first season here. Each season has much more going on as Deku and his classmates learn what it means to become a great hero.

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: You know, the five years of me not picking this anime up, I would take a look at these characters and say to myself, “Yeah, you’re totally voiced by this person”. Look at All Might, if that guy isn’t voiced by Chris Sabat this world doesn’t make sense. Oh look, it really is Chris Sabat! Hey, it’s a main girl and loved by majority of fans. Gotta be voiced by Luci Christian! It’s like I’m fucking psychic! Sexy big girl, gotta be Jamie Marchi! Wow! Strait-laced megane boy! My lady-loins are on fire so that could only mean a role by J. Michael Tatum. Okay, let me give it a try in the Japanese.

Screaming…

Nobuhiko Okamoto! I only need the word “screaming”. I didn’t need to look at any character profiles to know this. Thank God Bakugo’s screaming didn’t get on my nerves the entire time. I sometimes have a problem with characters who scream so much that you just want to rip their mouths off their faces. Bakugo…he makes me laugh. He’s a tsundere with a short fuse, what’s not to like?!

As you can tell, I watched the majority of this series dubbed. The cast had a wide variety of seasoned veterans and modern favorite voice actors. Juli Erickson was also in the cast for a short time before retiring from voice acting. I’m glad I got to hear her one more time. There was another replacement in the dub. Alex Organ voiced Mr. Aizawa for the first season. After that however, Christopher Wehkamp took over and has remained since then. Scheduling conflicts, I suppose. I wasn’t even aware of the change until I read about it.

Oof. Both the sub and the dub have some great people behind these heroes and aspiring heroes. Let’s just say I give a gold star to everyone here. Even Tomokazu Seki was in this series as the spotted seal hero Selkie. Love it. Love everything about it! Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

JAPANESE CAST: *Deku is played by Daiki Yamashita (known for Goh on Pokemon Journeys, Yushirou on Demon Slayer, Joro on Oresuki, Umino on Sailor Moon Crystal, and Shion on UtaPri)

*Bakugo is played by Nobuhiko Okamoto (known for Gladion on Pokemon SM, Accelerator on Railgun/Index, Rin on Blue Exorcist, Garfiel on Re:Zero, Usui on Maid-sama, Ryou on Food Wars, and Liebe on Black Clover)

*All Might is played by Kenta Miyake (known for Giovanni on Pokemon, Scar on FMA: Brotherhood, Avdol on Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Pt. 3, Cocytus on Overlord, Zodd on Berserk 2016, and Takaoka on Assassination Classroom)

*Uraraka is played by Ayane Sakura (known for Nero on Black Clover, Tomori on Charlotte, Gasper on High School DxD, Tsubaki on Your Lie in April, Haru on Nisekoi, and Shimotsuki on Psycho Pass)

*Todoroki is played by Yuki Kaji (known for Clemont on Pokemon XY, Eren on Attack on Titan, Koichi on Jojo’s Pt. 4, Finn on Black Butler, Issei on High School DxD, Kuga on Food Wars, and Kenma on Haikyuu)

*Aizawa is played by Junichi Suwabe (known for Greed on FMA, Yami on Black Clover, Victor on Yuri on Ice, Archer on Fate/Stay Night, Hayama on Food Wars, Undertaker on Black Butler, and Grimmjow on Bleach)

*Shigaraki is played by Kouki Uchiyama (known for Soul on Soul Eater, Rui on Demon Slayer, Yurio on Yuri on Ice, Benedict on Violet Evergarden, Ikuya on Free!, Yuuki on Shiki, and Ichijou on Nisekoi)

ENGLISH CAST: *Deku is played by Justin Briner (known for Shou on Fire Force, Luck on Black Clover, Yukito on Cardcaptor Sakura: CC, and Mitarai on Danganronpa 3)

*Bakugo is played by Clifford Chapin (known for Connie on Attack on Titan, Touya on Cardcaptor Sakura: CC, Cabba on DB Super, Langris on Black Clover, Kamui on Psycho Pass 2, and Hamazura on Railgun/Index)

*All Might is played by Chris Sabat (known for Armstrong on FMA, Vegeta & Piccolo on DBZ, Kurabara on Yu Yu Hakusho, Zoro on One Piece, Yami on Black Clover, Ayame on Fruits Basket, and Christophe on Yuri on Ice)

*Uraraka is played by Luci Christian (known for Wrath on FMA, Nagisa on Clannad, Yukari on Azumanga Daioh, Medusa on Soul Eater, Nami on One Piece, Huni on Ouran HSHC, and Alois on Black Butler)

*Todoroki is played by David Matranga (known for Tomoya on Clannad, Bertolt on Attack on Titan, Ookami on Wolf Children, Hinata on Angel Beats, Usui on Maid-sama, and Himura on ef – a tale of memories)

*Aizawa is played by Christopher Wehkamp (known for Ruijerd on Mushoku Tensei, Nyanko-Sensei on Natsume’s Book of Friends, Sylvester on Ascendance of a Bookworm, Hinawa on Fire Force, and Miles on Ace Attorney)

*Shigaraki is played by Eric Vale (known for Kimblee on FMA, Trunks on DBZ, Yuki on Fruits Basket, Sanji on One Piece, Tamaki on Deadman Wonderland, Kisumi on Free!, Arthur on Fire Force, and Nishiki on Tokyo Ghoul)

FAVORITE CHARACTER: I’ve gone through this over and over in my mind. There were a lot of characters I’ve grown to admire and ones I think are pretty nifty. I still can’t believe I was able to keep track of so many characters in this one series, but I think I did a pretty good job. Yes, I have a guilty pleasure for Bakugo. But that’s just it, he’s a guilty pleasure. I like him and am amused by him, but at the same time I can get annoyed with him. But if there was one character who I enjoyed the most out of all the characters that have appeared so far, it would be her.

Tsuyu Asui (a.k.a. Froppy; Tsu)

I love Tsu. She’s best girl. And that’s all there is to it!

DISLIKED CHARACTER: Ooh boy, you all knew I was going to discuss papa of the year over here! Long before I started this series, I was well aware of the existence of a shitty parent by the name of Endeavor. I thought if I sat through this long enough, I would switch my hatred from Endeavor to Overhaul. It didn’t happen. I’m still on this hate-train. Endeavor has had this unhealthy obsession and rivalry with All Might and wanting to surpass him. Thinking he could never reach that position of #1 hero, he stuck to the next generation by making it with another powerful quirk user and have babies.

He had a total of four kids. One of his son’s is presumed dead due to trying to impress his father (wait until season six for the truth). One of his son’s hates Endeavor for what he’s done to the family. His daughter tries her best to keep things together, but you can tell she’s feeling uber stressed. And (Shoto) Todoroki still has daddy issues. I guess you can chalk all of this up to these kids upbringing. Todoroki witnessed his father’s physical abuse first-hand as he was rough with trainings. Not only that, but the abuse of his own wife that led to her mental breakdown giving Todoroki his trademark scar. And somehow Todoroki’s eldest had the worst of it all. All he wanted was his daddy’s approval and was just left for dead. Again, season six has the answers there. Bottom line, Endeavor was a very bad father. But, he is trying.

You cannot expect your fully grown children to pretend that everything is okay now that you’re going to change and be father of the year. Natsuo was partially saved by his father and was unable to give him any satisfaction. And it seems like Todoroki is just using his father to further his quirk and can easily get into work study programs because of him. As for his wife, you know Rei may never forgive him for all that has happened to this family. That’s just my two cents on the matter. I think every one of the Todoroki’s might eventually forgive Endeavor…not the older two sons.

SHIPPING: Guys, seriously. There are more important things to discuss here than which characters should shack up. Japan has a severe problem with villains and these kids specifically signed up to be in an academy focused on serving the public as heroes.

I support Uraraka x Deku

And aside from a few dropped hints by Uraraka, I seriously find no other ship that could…

I also support Kirishima x Ashido

But aside from those two, this show is strictly about kids wanting to be heroes and let’s keep it that way.

Mineta x his hand tonight

Yeah, I had to add that silly ship.

ENDING TO SEASON ONE: It’s been well established since the beginning that All Might was one of the greatest heroes, if not THE greatest. A symbol of peace and justice! And now, he’s a teacher at UA. So, everyone pretty much wants a piece of him. During a field trip to a simulated area filled with terrains and weather patterns, Deku and his classmates were bombarded by villains. This is not a drill, these guys mean business and they also want All Might. While their teacher Mr. Aizawa was busy taking care of some of the bigger villains, the students were being separated so the enemies can learn about what quirks these kids have. Some of the more powerful classmates like Bakugo and Todoroki were able to get rid of their batch of baddies with little-to-no problem. Others, it was a little more challenging. Even Aizawa found himself in dire-straits. Meanwhile, where is All Might?

We all know about All Might’s injury. It’s just that everyone else isn’t aware of it and All Might goes to great lengths to keep it a secret. Rightly so! If it’s learned by the wrong people that All Might has at most 3 hours a day in hero form, villains will swarm the area to cause havoc. Thankfully, dude shows up in the knick of time before these bad guys could do damage to Deku and the rest. Unfortunately, All Might already saved the day in another area and is at his max of what he’s capable of handling. Now these villains don’t know the specifics of All Might’s power, but someone controlling them from the shadows dropped hints about All Might being weaker than in his heyday.

Bad guys Shigaraki, Nomu, and Kurogiri definitely put a dent in All Might, but All Might didn’t let up his bluff in front of the bad guys. But that steam coming from his body is not a good sign. And yeah, the only one who knows about All Might is Deku and Deku was worried about All Might dying on his feet or someone about to find out his big secret. Thankfully, Iida was able to escape and call for backup. The administration at UA came and they were able to put an end to the situation. It’s unknown how much extra damage was done to All Might and it seems like his time where he can spend in hero form has been cut drastically to only 90 minutes at the most. But for now, All Might and Deku can relax for a second knowing their actions saved a whole class of freshmen from being harmed or worse.

Now as for those bad guys like Shigaraki, who is filling his head with ideas that there might be something wrong with All Might? I guess that’s an answer to be filled in another season. Because now we’re about to head into a tournament arc!

Okay, good introduction to the students of UA. Get our feet wet with all the quirks the students have. Even though Deku isn’t a full zero to hero quite yet, he’s certainly one hell of a strategian when it comes to problem solving. And from here on out, the series gains more episodes. This season is the only one with 13 episodes. Every season from here on out will have 25. Just how many chapters are there for My Hero Academia?

SEASON TWO: One recap episode and one Anime Festa OVA later…

The entire school is about to hold their annual sports festival. This sports festival is a big freakin’ deal. Hell, it’s even a bigger deal than the Olympics! Okay, I wouldn’t go that far. The students have opportunities of being discovered by a hero agency and might even become a sidekick for a famous hero. Other opportunities also include having kids from the lower-level classes get nudged up to a higher-level class. After the events of season one, Deku and the kids of class 1-A were getting a lot of fame and news coverage as the students who took out the league of villains that infiltrated a highly secured building of UA. As for the sports festival, Bakugo took home the gold.

Pfft. Watching him bound and getting forced with the gold medal is truly a laughable moment.

This season, we learn about what’s driving these students to excel at UA. Uraraka wants to earn money to help her struggling family. Todoroki wants to escape the grasp of his legendary father, the #2 hero Endeavor. Iida tries following in his big brother’s footsteps in a bit of revenge after someone injured him. And Deku wants to make a name for himself as All Might’s power has weakened significantly. Again, Deku’s the only one who knows.

After the sports festival, the students end up as apprentices for either hero agencies or heroes themselves. This part of the story focuses on Deku learning to control his power and Iida finding the hero killer (Stain) who severely injured his older brother. Dealing with Stain was a very difficult task. Deku, along with Todoroki and Iida were all caught up in that fight. They beat the dude, but couldn’t get any credit due to bureaucratic issues with the police and certified heroes. As a repercussion, Iida ended up doing permanent damage to his hand and it might be the end of his career as a hero (unless the surgery is a miracle). They make this a big deal here, but I don’t recall hearing any more on that subject from season 3-6. Moving on!

The end of this season consists of Deku learning the truth about his power One For All and the originator All For One. This guy is still out there, he’s a dick, and guess what, he’s the head of that league of villains that was behind the attack at the end of season one. Other than that, it’s exam time for class 1-A. Let’s have them fight against the teachers! Aside from two teams failing, everyone did pretty well considering they were up against UA’s greatest. And this was to be especially difficult for Deku as he had to be partnered with Bakugo and fight against All Might.

The final episode consisted of Deku being cornered by Shigaraki. Yes, the guy behind the Nomus and the attack from season one’s finale. We finally see his face and we get a bit of foreshadowing of things to come from the League of Villains. The heinous group has recruited several new villains who we will see more of come season three. Speaking of…

SEASON THREE: It’s time for summer training camp. And for funsies, let’s add class 1-B too. These kids will be pushed to their limits to enhance their quirks. Because while everyone has improved in other departments, their quirk powers haven’t moved much since the beginning of the semester! Gee, wouldn’t it suck if a bunch of villains come in and ruin everything? The League of Villains has arrived with new powerful members including Dabi and Toga. Their target this time is Bakugo! Their attack on the UA students kinda broke a lot of morale with not just the students, but the faculty as well. The end result was that many of the students and the faculty watching over them wound up injured and Bakugo was kidnapped.

Saving face didn’t go as smoothly as anyone would hope. Deku got four of his classmates to defy orders to try and infiltrate the League of Villains to save Bakugo. At that very same time, several ranked heroes did their own rescue mission. It did not go well for either side! On the plus side, Deku and friends were able to save Bakugo without breaking the law by fighting crime without a license. But then All For One wrecked the whole place. He took out so many villains and heroes in his way. I think he might have killed one of them. Didn’t matter to him anyways because he was after All Might! This fight took everything from All Might.

All For One exposed All Might to the entire world his ugly secret. Not only that, but dropped an unfortunate fact bomb involving All Might’s sensei and Shigaraki. And to top it all off, injured him so bad that All Might will never fight crime again. After all of that, the students of class 1-A were highly requested by the school to live in the school dorms from now on. Most parents agreed to it, though Deku’s mother was the most worried. Long story short, he’s living in the dorms now. Not before seeing this poor woman cry again.

The next big arc after the fall of All Might was the provisional hero license exam. We meet a lot of brand-new soon-to-be heroes much like the students of UA from other schools across the land. The end result of that exam, everyone except two students from class 1-A got their provisional license. And surprisingly those two were Todoroki and Bakugo! Bakugo is so obvious that I don’t even need to waste the time explaining why he flunked. Todoroki on the other hand had someone from another school get under his skin with a comment likening him to his father Endeavor.

While Bakugo was angry about not passing his provisional license exam, something else has been grinding his gears and for some time at that. Bakugo’s anger hits fever pitch when he confronts Deku alone after the exam about his relationship with All Might. And throwing punches! Despite that thick layer of anger he puts up, Bakugo is a sad boy who loves his favorite hero All Might. He was of course jealous that Deku got to be his protégé but guilty because Bakugo thought it was because of him being kidnapped that caused All Might to lose his powers permanently. All Might reassured the boys of everything. And then the boys were on lockdown for breaking curfew to fight. In the meantime, the League of Villains is still at it despite All For One being in a maximum security prison. Toga infiltrated the hero provisional license exam by posing as another student. Shigaraki is growing more menacing. And then there’s Overhaul…ooh boy, I can’t wait to talk about this guy in the following season.

And class 1-A got to meet the top students of the third-year class (a.k.a. The Big Three). The strongest of the three (Mirio) wiped out the entire class by himself. Big difference between the power of the first years and this pant-less wonder!

Okay, this season had its ups and downs. But the ups were definitely worth it and we had a big payoff when it came to scenes involving All Might and All For One. Now let’s see what’s going on with that movie that came out around the same time.

TWO HEROES: We got a glimpse of what to expect with this movie in an episode during the third season. Meaning, they gave us a filler in the middle of a tournament arc and are introduced to a movie character for five seconds. Let me guess how this movie goes; this in no way connects to any villain currently in the series, there is no character growth, serves no purpose to the main plot, and the new character introduced is the bad guy.

Most of what I said was pretty true! Deku gets invited by All Might to go with him to a special island that is full of people who manufacture AI technology. Most of the class ends up there under some special circumstances and yes, it’s just the popular ones fans like most. All Might’s friend from his younger days David wanted to help All Might regain his strength (he just doesn’t know the true story of why he’s losing his strength). And David ends up in cahoots with terrorists that took a whole island hostage. And these terrorists are also connected to All For One. Okay, I was wrong, All For One is somehow connected (or at least mentioned by the leader of the terrorists).

SEASON FOUR: So, it’s not just Bakugo that caught onto Deku and All Might’s relationship. It leaked to the press! One reporter knows there’s a protégé out there. And thankfully he has the right mind to shut up about it! Onto the main stuff! Deku and the rest of class-A are about to go through work study programs. And the League of Villains are ready for their next move. But right now, we gotta watch out for a lone Mafioso causing mischief.

Deku winds up doing a work study with All Might’s previous side-kick Sir Nighteye. Several other characters like Kirishima, Tsu, and Uraraka also got a chance for a work study program. Deku unfortunately got a lot thrown at him in the drama department. He learned that Nighteye had a falling out with All Might due to the fatal injury All Might acquired and made worse once he decided to give Deku is One for All power.

Next, all of these students I mentioned, plus their mentors, and the three 3rd years are all caught up trying to take down a lone Mafioso and some of the League of Villains in order to save one little girl. Overhaul was trying to use this young girl (Eri) and her power in order to suppress and end hero powers permanently. Eri has a quirk that can rewind a person’s body. But due to her age, she’s unable to control it properly and that has caused a lot of mental damage to her. Overhaul is quite the disgusting little shit abusing this poor girl. Thank goodness after this long, hard-fought battle, the heroes were able to prevail and save Eri.

But at what cost?

Deku was able to survive with not so many injuries to his person. Some of the other heroes and classmates involved in the giant raid were not so lucky. Kirishima and Fat Gum sustained heavy injuries. Mirio’s power might have been altered permanently due to Overhaul and his gang having these serums that can erase quirks. And Eri (the girl they all saved) is forever haunted by the psychological horror she’s endured. But worst of all was Sir Nighteye. During the fight between the heroes and Overhaul, Nighteye literally got impaled and was at death’s door when All Might, Deku, and Mirio spoke to him. Up to this point, we really never saw death strike any of these characters. This was a heart tugger! Shit is getting real now for Deku. All I can say is…wait until season six. Meanwhile, Overhaul not only got his ass kicked by Deku, but was left powerless and crippled by Shigaraki.

The last half of season four revolved around UA putting together a culture festival. This is both a wise and stupid decision. Wise because these students deserve a little fun after everything the students of UA (especially class 1-A) have gone through. Stupid because UA has been a giant target for villains since All Might became a teacher. And if one little thing happens with a villain coming near the area, the festival is going to be called off. At that exact same time, a new villain emerges and wants to break into the festival. Of course, he does!

This guy is a tea-drinking gentleman with a side-kick I’m so not comfortable seeing together with him. I’m sorry, but this combination makes me feel a little ill inside and confused. Thankfully, Deku happened to be in the area and prevented the festival from getting shut down. Not only does he want to give his school this moment of peace, but because Eri is coming, he wants to make sure she has a great time. Thankfully, Deku was able to break through to this confused villain and he turns himself in with no more damage done. But most important for Deku, the festival went off perfectly. Class 1-A was commended for their performance on stage and Eri was able to smile and enjoy herself.

We end the season off with some severe changes. First of all, Eri is going to attend UA. She’s stable enough to stay out of the psych ward and is all healed up. Deku and Mirio must protect this girl’s smile! And then my question was answered. I thought to myself, will there be another #1 hero now that All Might is retired? Yep, there’s a new top 10 and a new #1 with Endeavor taking the top spot. Will the world see him as the new symbol of peace? Endeavor is put to the test when he and #2 hero Hawkes got attacked by an overpowered Nomu. This was a tough fight as Endeavor was tossed around a lot. Thankfully, he won. He went beyond, PLUS ULTRA!

Also, is anybody else thrown off by the Endeavor fanboy? It doesn’t help that he looks like Natsu from Fairy Tail, but did the English version REALLY have to get Haberkorn to play this guy too?

HEROES RISING: In the second movie, it almost looked like we were getting some action between the UA students and the League of Villlains. In actuality, the villains of this movie get into an alliance with Shigaraki. These new villains end up attacking a lone island that Deku and his classmates just happen to be on as part of hero work. The villains want this one kid on the island because of this special quirk he possesses. We get some pretty primo fight scenes where Deku and Bakugo are actually working together to beat the villains. I’m going to be legit and ask, did anyone fall for that shit about Deku giving his One For All power to Bakugo? Yeah, me neither. There are two seasons after this movie. No way in hell Deku is losing his power this early in the game.

SEASON FIVE: Endeavor’s fight with the superpowered Nomu came with a lot of baggage. His popularity as the new #1 hero is steadily rising. It’s just that people really saw him get his ass kicked pretty badly. And now, dude has a pretty gnarly scar on his face. Just like his son! I almost want to say something here, but…nah, bad taste. On top of that, Endeavor is now going to start acting like a real father instead of the bastard he’s been up to this point. Meanwhile, Deku has been getting visions during his sleep of the past One For All users and kinda using his power while sleeping. It got worse when his powers decided to go haywire during a class competition with class 1-B.

I will say this. The stuff with Deku and controlling the powers of One For All was the only interesting part of the first part of season 5. I checked out when there were many episodes dedicated to class 1-A and 1-B fighting each other. I know several class 1-B classmates showcase their quirks in a big way in the following season, I just wasn’t a fan of this arc of the story. In the second part, work studies seem to be back in effect. And now that Bakugo and Todoroki finally obtained their licenses, they can finally catch up to the rest of their classmates. Geez, you only now realize that we’re halfway into season five with 100 episodes in and these kids are still only first years. Deku ends up joining Todoroki and Bakugo to work study under the world’s #1 hero…the current one.

Okay Endeavor, let’s see if you can redeem yourself a little more. Actually, we only got a few episodes dedicated to Endeavor, his family, Deku, and Bakugo. There was an altercation between some rando villain and Endeavor’s son Natsuo. It happened, Natsuo’s safe, we moved on. Okay, now it’s time for My Hero Academia to turn into My Villain Academia. The League of Villains found themselves in severe trouble as another group of baddies ambush them. This was an ugly showdown as it pushed many of the league members to their breaking points. Himeko almost died and Shigaraki was pushed to remembering his own past.

Yeah, we got the typical backstory for a villain of Shigaraki’s caliber. Misunderstood child, abusive father, enabling family members to abusive father, accidentally murders the entire family, yep, it’s all here on the checklist. Several seasons prior to this moment, we learned that Shigaraki’s paternal grandmother was Nana Shimura. Yes, the same Nana Shimura who was All Might’s mentor and previous carrier to the One For All quirk. Well, Shigaraki’s father was really resentful about his mother because he felt as though he was abandoned by her. That birthed a hatred for heroes and he would get angry if his children mention heroes or wanting to be one. So, there’s that. Shigaraki wound up gaining a quirk and much like Eri in season 4, his quirk went haywire and it took out his entire family. After being a sudden orphan, no one came to Shigaraki’s aid. Not one single hero! All For One did however. He took the boy in, gave him hands of his family members, and gave him a new name and purpose in life.

Shigaraki, while almost broken to the point of no return, he took out Re-Destro and his gang of baddies. This led to an alliance. Shigaraki’s League of Villains and Re-Destro’s Meta Liberation Front have joined together under a new name, the Paranormal Liberation Front. We end the season with class 1-A showing off what they’ve learned from their work studies. Oh, and Hawkes is still infiltrating the newly formed league. Okay, I’m going to say it. This season was pretty lousy. Don’t get me wrong, I liked several moments in this season including Endeavor trying to atone for his sins, Deku’s new ability, and the My Villain Academia arc. But that class 1-A vs. class 1-B crap was for the birds.

There’s a third movie sometime after this. I really don’t feel like talking about it since I felt so disinterested with it. Blah, blah, Deku is wanted by the police, blah, blah, big fight, blah, blah, no one’s going to die here!

SEASON SIX: Hey, I caught up when it was airing!

Shit’s about to go down! There’s a heavier tone in this anime everywhere you look. Even in the eye-catches halfway through an episode. The professional heroes, teachers from U.A., class 1-A of U.A. and even a few other students are all part of this sting operation to take down the newly united villain squad, the Paranormal Liberation Front. Besides going after that group, some of this sting is to get this doctor who was behind the creation of the Nomus and is also shielding Shigaraki until he’s 100% and then some. Shigaraki was in rough shape near the end of the fifth season, so he's being constantly monitored. But during the sting, Shigaraki awakened.

The awakening of Shigaraki led to a domino effect of destruction everywhere. One of the giant villains couldn’t be controlled and ended up wrecking a lot of pro-heroes. Shigaraki’s decay power went berserk and took out the entire area. Deku, Todoroki, Bakugo, and Endeavor went toe-to-toe with Shigaraki and ended up putting a dent in him. Shigaraki is terrifying now, but because he wasn’t finished with the doctor’s experiment yet, his power isn’t what it could be. That’s when All For One took over Shigaraki’s body for his own…even though he’s in super jail. Yeah, I know that doesn’t make a lick of sense, but just roll with it because Shigaraki is going to be a puppet for a while. Moving on!

And now for the moment I’ve been anticipating! League of Villain alumni Dabi comes in to drop a bomb on the Todoroki family. After Shigaraki ended his rampage, Dabi came in to break the news to not just Endeavor and Todoroki, but to the entire world. He put out a video prior to the current chaos to announce that Endeavor, the #1 hero is his father and went into detail about what a horrible father he was. Dabi (or Touya Todoroki) was Endeavor’s eldest son who was thought to be dead. This broke Endeavor inside causing him to look upon both of his sons fighting. Yes, I’ve been looking forward to this story. The Todoroki family story intrigues me.

This giant fight that lasted several episodes (if not half of the season) is finally coming to an end without a happy ending. It’s much worse than anyone jumping into the anime without reading spoilers could have imagined. Many characters got messed up badly. Worse than in any other season. Deku winds up in a coma. Bakugo was impaled, but survived. Mr. Aizawa sliced off his own leg to prevent losing his quirk from one of those quirk deleters that got Mirio the other season. Midnight and several prominent ranked heroes are dead. On the antagonist side, Twice ends up dying by Hawkes after he admits to betraying the front. Many of the villains were arrested including the doctor, Re-Destro, Mr. Compress, and Machia. Himiko is on the loose. Shigaraki ended up torching several prisons releasing many convicts with powerful quirks on the public along with All For One. This leaves the public to wonder if they can ever trust heroes again. If it took all of these heroes to take down all of these villains and they still couldn’t complete the mission, what good are they?

That’s not my take, that’s just public opinion…except the public was a lot crueler when it came to the heroes.

AND NOW THE START OF THE FINAL ARC: With All For One taking over Shigaraki’s weakened state, he can get what he truly wants. The quirk, One For All. Shigaraki mentions it during the giant battle during this season and it catches the attention of Endeavor, Hawks, and even the angry media demanding answers about everything that has happened. Deku decided to make some pretty big decisions once he got out of his coma. Up to this point, Deku’s quirk was only known to All Might and later on Bakugo. Now, he decides to let the rest of his classmates know before he leaves U.A. Deku teams up with All Might, Endeavor, Hawks, and Jeanist to take down the rampant crime going on everywhere. Since season 5, Deku has been seeing past wielders of One For All and slowly unlocking their powers. A lot is riding on Deku with this ultimate power as he can’t pass the power down like All Might did. His life expectancy might be cut short. Kinda like Eren Yeager in Attack on Titan. And he’s getting prepped to take down Shigaraki with no regrets.

I make the Eren Yeager reference here because this is the part of the story that things take a harsher, somber-er tone compared to previous seasons. This includes the opening theme, ending themes, eye-catches, the preview, the background, the music, and Deku.

Endeavor also made a promise to his family that he will take down Dabi (Touya). But for now, we are focusing on Deku teaming up with the top 3 heroes and All Might to take down every kind of crime from small stuff, misplaced anger, and anything involving the escaped convicts from the several jail breaks. With all of the other One For All quirks unleashed, Deku is able to make use of every one of them with his mission. It came in handy when going up against a former hero and present-day convict Lady Nagant. She is one of the escaped convicts. While All For One told nearly all convicts to do as they please, he had other plans for some special ones. He used Nagant to try and take down Deku. But Deku got through to her near the end of their match and it looked like she was going to see life for more than what she was used to. Unfortunately, things have a funny way of working out when All For One is involved.

He planted explosives on Nagant. I’m pretty sure she’s a goner. This did not sit well with Deku. And neither did All For One’s taunt where he copied All Might’s infamous line, “now it’s your turn”. Rogue Deku is in quite the state. And now, let’s add his classmates to the mix. They’re going to bring him back to the academy by any means necessary. One Deku with 7 quirks vs. 19 classmates of his. With many flashbacks and a lot of push and pull, the class was able to subdue Deku and bring him back to U.A. which is currently being used as a refuge area. However, the people are not liking the idea of having Deku in the same place as them because Shigaraki’s looking for him and he has One For All. Thankfully, some kind words from Uraraka and a few supporters, the angry crowd came together to let Deku in.

All For One and Shigaraki’s big threat seems to be looming closer. It’s hard to nail down how long the heroes have. All Might wound up getting this information from the hero-killer Stain. Yeah, you remember him, right? The guy that wrecked Iida and his brother back in season two. I remember Stain always wanting to kill All Might. But seeing All Might the way he is now, either he doesn’t know it’s really him or refuses to believe that’s really All Might. Well, rest up class 1-A because season 7 is gonna be a doozy from what I’ve heard. At least it will be for Bakugo from what I’ve heard. Oh, and we meet America’s #1 hero for a sec, Star and Stripe (voiced by Romi Park).

Wowee-wow-wow-wow! I did not expect to like this series the way I did. I mean, I really do love My Hero Academia. I know I had the opportunity to watch this but chose to watch Black Clover instead. I don’t regret that decision; I just wish I got to watch this a lot sooner and maybe start on the manga. Now that doesn’t mean this entire series is flawless, far from it. There were some seasons that fell flat on its face. I think we all can get on the same page of which season was the one that is the flat can of soda out of this six-pack.

The answer is season five. It’s always going to be season five. No amount of My Villain Academia you throw at the audience is going to undo that. But I suppose that’s where that arc landed and call it bad timing. Long-running manga series have really awesome arcs and really slumpy arcs. Case and point, the anime Food Wars is a good example to bring up here. Their first 2 seasons were really good, but after that is when things started falling by the waist-side. When it comes to My Hero Academia, I had several hits of highs and lows watching. The field trip at the beginning season three, the culture festival at the end of season four, and the majority of season five were my lows. I only put that moment in season three up as, I have to be honest in this review. That arc actually got really good faster than I thought. The other two I mentioned just dragged on. Especially the class competition! I love watching class 1-A in action, but this was just so exhausting to sit through.

I think I’ve beat that dead horse enough. Let’s talk about the characters. I’ve always had the hardest time keeping up with the many characters an anime might have. Especially animes that are set in school and we focus on one particular class. Despite my love for the series Assassination Classroom, I could not remember every single person from that class. With My Hero Academia, I think I was able to recall every classmate. Just class 1-A though. Maybe it’s because of their quirks, some of their looks, or their quirky behavior. The same can be said about characters outside class 1-A like the professional heroes, the villains, the townspeople, Bakugo’s mother…yeah, you have to see the woman who gave birth to a feral, screaming grenade of loud noises.

I do have a legit question for manga readers. Do these kids finally become second years at U.A.? You don’t notice that these kids are in the same grade until it’s season five and you see a Christmas episode and you’re like, “Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me, they’re still in their first year”. Don’t answer that. I know they’re probably going to age soon. Okay, enough of my dumbassary here. If you have a lot of time on your hands, I give this a full recommendation. If you’re able to sit through 100+ episodes of this, yes definitely give it a watch. And also keep in mind that Studio Bones animates this and they’re the ones who did Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Mob Psycho 100, and Soul Eater. So, that’s a pretty big incentive.

I know I said some pretty rough things about several moments of this series. But here’s how I would break it down. Season one was a nice start as we get an introduction to Deku and what he’s going to go through to become a hero. Season two was wonderful with more of a build-up to the antagonists of the story. Plus, a tournament arc! Season three had a bit of a slow start, but once you get to Bakugo’s kidnapping and All Might vs. All For One, this season was a sure-fire hit. Season four starts great, but it hits a lull spot. Okay, I guess I can accept that as these kids do deserve some time off. Season five had some good moments with Deku learning a little more about the previous users of One For All and the My Villain Academia arc. Other than that, this season was nothing to write home about. Season six will rock you like a hurricane. It’s almost a little overwhelming in the first half with all of these heroes and villains going up against each other. But never a dull moment.

If you would like to watch My Hero Academia, several sites have the series streaming including FUNimation, Crunchyroll, and Hulu. It is also a staple on Adult Swim’s Toonami, so if it’s on, check it out.

Okay, now that I finished this long series, I think it’s high-time I watch Hunter x Hunter Urusei Yatsura! Huh? Okay, guess we’re doing something else instead.

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raayllum · 1 year ago

Note

Hi!

First of all, thank you for everything you do for the fandom. I always love your screenshots + meaningful text combinations, they are so good! Thanks to you I have also added some new amazing songs to my playlists (Dark Horse and Anti-hero included).

I have a question and a song to share. First goes the question: do you happen to know any, just ANY tdp fanfiction which explores the what-if scenario where team Zym loses the Battle of the Storm Spire? If not, it would be great if you shared your own thoughts about it. Like, what if Viren & Aaravos succeeded in draining power from Zym? What would happen then? I tried to find something on Ao3 but all I got was a couple of works focused entirely on Viravos or something about reincarnation. Which is fine but not exactly what I am looking for.

I'd also like to share a song with you. It's Storm by Blackmore's Night. As the title suggests, it's about the storm and I've been fascinated with this song for a few years now. Maybe you'll like it too :)

Aww thank you so much, that is so sweet!! I can't think of any fics or headcanon posts I've seen like that along those regards, but I do have a tag for canon divergences in general and one for my specific explorations.

I think the biggest thing to consider would be if Zym was successfully killed or not.

1. Zym lives

This means the kids can potentially, if frantically, flee, with Janai and Amaya and any other surviving Sunfire elves being captured. Soren and co. could go looking for other archdragons (I'm sure Rayla would've heard of Rex Igneous) or Earthblood allies who would either worry about the encroaching invasion and/or recognize Zym as the future heir and advocate for his sovereignty. The biggest change here is that Lux Aurea is like, even more devastated, and I could see Janai being executed bc she's the next heir, but who knows

Kids come back six months later with an Earthblood army (also don't think the monster-humans would survive or thrive well long term, so that depletion could be over time) but it may not even matter, depending on what Aaravos' endgame (release?) was for harvesting Zym in the first place

2. Zym dies

This one is trickier, as it leaves us with a very heartbroken Ezran (the mind/soul link so recently formed and so brutally severed) and with no draconic heir. As long as Zym was alive, the kids would have hope, so with him gone I think they'd be very dejected (and of course, grieving their friend). I could see Ezran falling into a depression of sorts, just because he'd probably blame himself for his handling of the kingdom's troops, and he was the closest to Zym. Callum would delegate more time/thought to his brother as a result, leaving Soren and Rayla to maybe bond a bit more in terms of leading the group and figuring out what to do next, bound by the goal of keeping the remaining princes alive until they can figure out a plan. (Callum would also probably get his hands on a dark magic book, Just In Case, because I don't think he'd been willing to hold anything back now that he and particularly Ezran are Viren + Aaravos' #1 targets, in terms of eliminating any kind of uprising).

I could see Rayla bringing everyone back to the Silvergrove, as it is cloaked by illusions, and they can still interact with objects even if no one can see them, so it's kind of the perfect place to hide. Then maybe Callum and Rayla would go look for again, arch dragons or possible reinforcements, leaving Soren to look after Ezran when they'd do reconnaissance, since Rayla is their Xadian guide and Callum doesn't want her to go alone

This would probably be more of a slow build, and I could see them travelling to Duren as well (which, I suppose Aanya would be captured and executed for treason against the Pentarchy, just because Viren could - although I could see Claudia feeling bad/awkward about executing a girl who's not much younger than herself? Unexpected imprisoned Aanya and sympathetic conflicted Claudia bonding? Opeli gets executed, hopefully Corvus escapes). But yeah, two years before they can come back and take the throne, and I could see Callum and Rayla both becoming a bit more cut throat because they've had two years of like, protecting Ezran at the forefront, and surviving in the wild long term when you're hunted fugitives is just a different kind of experience. Ezran, because of their sheltering, remains just as kind, but he's much much Sadder in his day to day presentation, and that never entirely goes away

Depending on whether the Illusion stabbing happened - and let's just say that it didn't - I could see Claudia trying to reach out to and track down Soren, convinced she can get him to come home now that 'his side lost' and 'there's nothing left for him there anymore, can you get over your identity crisis and come home'. So I feel like Soren would actually probably be Angrier at Claudia in his scenario here than he is in canon, just because he sees more of the long lasting destruction and doesn't have victory to make him worried about his sister

Feel free to send in other asks and thoughts about this lil scenario (either one), it's definitely an interesting one to consider! Or any other canon divergences, really - I have a tiny list of ones I know I want to write drabbles for at the very least

#canon divergence #requests #AU #amber-in-the-rough #tdp #prompts #a thousand times which isn't half enough #s3 #3x09 #thanks for asking #the dragang #castle kids #plus rayla hi rayla #the dragon prince

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drowninginblox · 1 year ago

Text

Season one

Season two

Season three

God.. this season… so much in so little time fr. B u t. I am a committed woman, and I will continue what I started.

So. Let’s get into this.

Keith’s heritage

I’m beginning to take back what I said in one of my prior posts about how I want to redo Keith’s heritage. Specifically about it being a secret to everyone on the team. I’m learning to love the way the show reveals that fact about him to the audience. Truly.

But I think he should know. Not everything, just that he's not fully human. And I still stand by the fact that his galra side should be more physical. Fucking love the galra Keith HC so much wE WERE ROBBED MEN-

Growing pains- Heavy spoilers. Watch Voltron already if you haven't bc I will be talking about (arguably) the best arc of the series

This is going to be something.

As of starting the third season, I really like the change. Purely because of how uncomfortable it is for everyone involved. It’s gonna be painful. The best kind though. Because even though we aren’t expecting it, we know that through the context of the show- this could’ve happened at any time, to any of the paladins

Voltron is out here saying actions have consequences, and that is very compelling. Both in concept and in execution.

I think this plot point is fucking amazing.

The question of where tf Shirio is after the season 2 finale is great, the natural progression of the lions is a stark but needed change (love prioritizing the narritive, I hope this keeps happening in the future), hell- the character growth is fucking phamominal (will talk about that after this point)

WE ALSO GET THE JOURNEY FUCK I LOVE THAT EP-

Also- THE INTRO CHANGES WITH THE CHANGING OF LIONS SO YOU DON’T KNOW WHO THE BLACK PALADIN IS- UGGHHH!!!

I fucking love it man. I'm rocking with what season 3 is giving me. But I'm afraid of what season 4 has to offer. I remember how Shiro's missing/dead arc resolves itself (in season 4ish) but i dont fully remember the indetween bits and the stigma of Voltron falling off by that point is blarring through my mind

Looking forward to that Shiro/Keith fight tho!

Now let’s take some time for the characters during this transition

Keith... god what can I say about him that hasn't already been said? probably nothing honestly. His responce to all of this is so natural and realistic. Of course he doesn't want the responciblity of the Black lion. Shiro was qualified to be leader, not him! Just because this is what Shiro wanted, dosent mean it's what he wants for himself. The struggle is delicious!

Lance is really mature about this AND I AM LIVING FOR IT. Its moments like this that reminds me that Lance is a wonderful addition to Voltron. A needed addition even. (I really wanna ramble about the five man band dynamic, but I'll link a video about it when I find it again right here) I want to see more of this!!!! Give me serious Lance for more than just a minute!!

Hunk and Pidge are bystanders. I’m sorry but other than comic relief and voices of reason, they are secondary to Keith, Lance and Allura. Bless them both. They deserve better. I can feel it as soon as the first episode- they are slowly being ushered into the background. It leaves a sour taste in my mouth with hindsight.

Allura is radiating vibes that I can’t describe other than- “o k a y girl I see you.” In all honesty, the more I watch the show the more distain I have for Allura comes out. That bratty privileged princess that acts on impulses rather than thinking things through is grating. Now this could easily be fixed with intervention in the form of someone more mature than her- for the first two seasons, it was Shiro. But now that he’s gone, that aspect of her is showing more and more and no one is actually going against her like Shirio did. When it was at its worst, Shiro was the only one to put himself in danger as a kind of surogate bodyguard while the rest of the group is on standby. But ever since Keith became leader, there’s this mentality of “if the princess is going we’re all going.” And it’s Stupid. Stand your ground man! Be the stuburn dude you are!! Pleasae, ctually think about this for a moment! The worst part is that if anyone brought up Allura's implusivity then it would be amasing character development to the person that dose and to Keith and Allura as well! Keith would have to repremend/ talk to Allura about how dangerous that is to her and the team and Allura would have to learn the consequences of her actions!

Coran, Im so sorry that you are given crumbs my man. I love you so much- You are THE FUCKING FATHER FIGURE WE NEED!!! IM SO SORRY YOU ARE TASKED WITH LORE DUMPING, YOU ARE MORE THAN JUST A PLOT TOOL

Forming voltron

Bitches got this down too quick ngl. More team bonding rather than trauma bonding please

FOR THE LOVE OF FUCK COLOR COORDINATE!!!

Make LANCE RED

MAKE KEITH BLACK

M A K E ALLURA B L UE

It’s fucking irritating

And yes, I think it’s cool that Allura wears pink and pink is a color that Alteans used to honor those who fought for them. That’s cool. But it pisses me off to see Allura with a freaking blue bracer, and in the blue lion wearing pink like it’s Wednesday. Get with the program bitch. There is a uniform.

IF ANYTHING- give these bitches highlights for the lions they used to pilot. For example, give Keith a black uniform with red highlights along the shoulders or arms

Lotor

Mans said reading is fundamental 💅✨

I love his introduction. Manipulating the people into this unification that’s obviously distinct from his fathers but at the same time so traditional. Dude knows what he’s doing and he is going to do it for as long as he can.

This man also having combat prowess is fucking scary. He feels like more of a threat than his dad.

I also love his task force. Having a entourage that is distinctly other from the majority of the population is such a bold choice, whether it be from an audience or in universe point of view, it shows that the prince isn’t like the king. He is willing to make use of what's given to him with little public fuss.

Only critism I have is that I don't know any of these bitches names. Yall have them- please use them?

Allurance

Believe it or not, I can see more groundwork for the ship at the start of this season

With the passing over of the lions in Shiros absence, it’s allowing more neuance given the current plot.

Even though Keith and Lance don’t like it, they have to change because they’re in a time of change. War forces change.

I wish we can see that bleeding over to Coran, considering that his surrogate daughter is now on the front lines. But c’est la vie ig

Im rambling- Allurance

I can see this ship being built up but I don't know how to feel about the foundation yknow? I understand that the lion change would force Lance to mature. I love that shit. Good shit.

The slight role reversal Lance has with Alurra is refeshing. Love serious Lance

But like I said before- I don't like Alurra this season.

It also doesn't help that lance is still on his loverboy shit. Wich is fine! I have nothing against the trademark! I swear! It's just annoying that Lance has a specail place in his heart for Allura but continues on to swoon to/over every pretty girl he sees.

For the love of god- say dedicated Lance!! If you did maybe you'd get the girl!!

“Hole in the sky”

Desusex Machina the episode but I kind of like it

I hope someone made a fanfic out of this episode

The other reality is honestly v compelling it’s such a waste we only see it once

Shiro

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

FUCK THE JOURNEY WAS SO GOOD-!!!

Honest that whole episode makes up for the fact that dDeamworks had a Shirio bias my GOD

That episode was such a good lesson in (mostly) show don’t tell

And it still leaves the question of WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO SHIRO MY GOD

All of this to say, I’m torn.

Part of me wants the finality of Shiros death but the idea of Shiro clones is so good to me

Eh, I’ll figure it out.

So babes, rather than ramble about how long it’s been since I’ve done this I’d like to get an opinion from y’all.

Anyways that’s it. Take care of y’allselves

#voltron #voltron rewrite #voltron season 3 #TW voltron #voltron shiro #Shiro discussion lol

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sobbingdistantnoises · 1 year ago

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I am a little confused about the ask game buttttt

i just found this and i can’t stop laughing

also do you have any weird stories you’d like to tell?

HELPPHDJSJAKKA, THAT'S AMAZING, hdjsjaj. Don't you just hate when your subconuous mind makes you build shelves? </3

BUT WEIRD STORIES, hm.

OKAY I THOUGHT OF SOMETHING. Basically, context: I've had the same history teacher and class for two years, and said teacher has taught at the school for since it was built. Therefore he was there for its whole history

What's also to note is that my course was a 2 year course with both freshmen and sophomores, and we had about 60 kids in the classroom. Therefore we needed a BIG classroom. The school didn't initially have classrooms big enough, so what they ended up doing was knocking a wall down between two small classrooms to form a big history classroom. However, because there used to be a wall in the middle of the classroom, there still needed to be a pole for integral structural support or whatever. Thus, my classroom had a 1x1 foot pole towards the front of it

Now (time), the teachers have put stuff on it, like Caravaggio paintings, some student's drawing of a theoretical mid evil (<- can't figure out how to spell it) kingdom ensignia (<- I should really use words I can spell) for my teacher, and Raphael's School of Athens. However, what my teacher told us last year is that that wasn't ALWAYS the case. Because several years back, some girl put a picture of some celebrity on it, then someone else did the same, etc etc. Basically, for a few years, it became known as the pole of hotness

However, for some reason, the hot people went away, and no one has added anything else to it.....UNTIL NOW.

You see, this year, I liked and became friends with the 3 people that sat at my table. So we hatched a PLAN ("plan") somewhere in the middle of the year to go and put someone on the pole of hotness "one day". However, then exams happened and we cried and forgot to do this until the second to last Thursday of school. Then forgot to do it until Friday morning, which was the last day of the normal school schedule and our last chance to pull it off

We all basically frantically tried to think of hot people that would be more or less universally known. Through a combination of none of us knowing universally known hot people or not wanting to confess to finding someone attractive, we settled on. Wait for it. Dante Alighieri's hat.

This is Dante ^ He was a mid evil Italian who wrote a long poem about going to hell with his friend Virgil (dead Roman poet) who he may or may not have either fatherzoned or had a celebrity crush on. Not sure if I'm honest. But either way, I don't recall his hat ever being important

STILL I managed to get a fixation on this hat. Let's go through a list of what I have done

Wrote "Dante Alighieri's dumb hat" in response to the question of the day, "what is your pet peeve". My friend drew him underneath, and my teacher pointed it out to the whole class and called it "the most humanities student thing ever" the next day

Wrote 6 pages of crossover crack fanfiction between Dante, his hat (which I named Lauren after the fact that laurel leaves exist and John Laurens (I didn't watch Hamilton by this point but I think I read a few fanfics)), and Paul Revere based on the idea that Lauren could talk for an assignment

(Not hat specific but) wrote about wanting to time travel to the moment Dante finished writing the Divine Comedy in order to appear as a divine being and scare him on my FINAL EXAM ESSAY (the whole essay was slightly unhinged in general but shh)

Added Dante's hat to a slideshow my friend's friends made called "chest hair history" in which they put a lot of shirtless people and shared with the history teachers at the end of the year (MY FULL NAME IS ALSO ON THIS THING. ON THE FIRST SLIDE) (unrelated but this whole slideshow is so dumb, there's Elon Musk, Michelangelo's David, Bruce Dickinson (I LATER FOUND OUT MY TEACHER IS AN IRON MAIDEN FAN, dying), Steven Adler, and one of Genghis Khan's grandchildren, among others)

And now we have come to the point at which a fifth point will be added. But first, my friends and I frantically panicked as we realized that I was afraid to ask my art teacher (who is actually so nice, 10/10 teacher, I just fear things) to use the printer but was the only one with a period where I could effectively do whatever since it was the last days of school

So instead, I spent 40 minutes drawing, and then it was time to go to history, equipped with a colored pencil'd notebook paper drawing of his hat

Putting it on the pole was simultaneously both simpler and more difficult that we assumed (we had no plan). My teacher talked at the start of class, we realized we had no tape, we schemed (panicked) and didn't know what to do. My teacher finished went away to his farther away desk. We decided to go steal some tape from the teacher's table that was ~two meters away from us. (ALSO NOTE. WE WERE NOT SLY. WE SAT AT THE FRONT OF THE ROOM, AND DANTE'S HAT IS BRIGHT RED.)

Tape acquired, we all looked at each other in our seats not knowing when to get up nor who will get up to put the paper on the wall. So impulsively, I took the paper, walked a few meters over to an emptier side of the pole, STUCK IT ON THERE, speedwalked back to my seat. And then the paper fell and I had to tape it again not a full 15 seconds later whilst the teacher had actually TURNED SO THAT I THINK I WAS IN VIEW while I did the deed, hfjsjaka. (And there was also a group of guys sitting right in front of the pole who looked at the new addition so ???ly, FJSJAJA)

And that is. the story of how I indirectly called some old dead guy's hat hot and subtly announced this to my history classroom for hopefully years to come (we shall see whether it's still up next year). I will also now pray that no one irl finds this post (I think at least one of the three friends has tumblr so. Fear.)

#asks #kk #dante alighieri

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homosexuhauls · 2 years ago

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On Gender-critical disputes - Maya Forstater

LINK

Helen Joyce comes up with really good allegories and mental models at the rate of about one a week. But the one that I keep coming back to is one she told me the first time I met her, when I was still scrambling to keep my job at CGD, and trying to understand how it was that my smart and normally convivial colleagues had succumbed to repeating and enforcing irrational, circular nonsense.

1=0

Helen (a mathematician by training) said that pretending that human beings can change sex is like saying 1=0, and that the rules and laws we use for sense-making and decision-making are like a series of interconnected equations. When the 1=0 untruth proliferates through them it breaks things: single-sex becomes mixed-sex, fair becomes unfair, truth becomes lie. It works like kryptonite on safeguards, and causes organisations to operate in direct opposition to their purpose. People who need or want to remain inside those institutions create layers of argument (which may be impenetrable even to themselves) in order to protect the untruth and avoid being cast out.

On the sidelines of FiLiA in October, Helen and I had a long conversation with Jane Clare Jones about our respective positions in the internecine feminist wars.

I’m a feminist in the Rebecca West sense. I don’t claim to know precisely what feminism is; “I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat, or a prostitute.” I subscribe to the radical notion that women are full human beings, but I don’t subscribe to radical feminism, because I think it’s fundamentally wrong about human nature. Still, I am happy to work with people with whom I disagree where we have common goals.

I have co-founded a human-rights organisation, and I think that the human-rights framework is the way to resolve the question of how society should treat people who identify as transgender (respect their basic human rights and liberties, but don’t respect their fantasy).

Pretending that 1=0 harms everyone’s human rights. It harms women and girls (and, as Julie Bindel points out, it hurts the most powerless women and girls first and hardest), but also parents and children, religious people, people who care about truth and people who care about science. Ultimately, it harms anyone who wants to be able to do their job with integrity, and the people who depend on institutions acting with integrity (which is everyone, but again the least powerful most of all).

So I will talk with everyone who cares about this truth, and who is not seeking to destroy basic human rights (the principle of being “worthy of respect in a democratic society”).

Like most ordinary women in this fight, I think that Woman’s Place UK has done an amazing job in holding indoor events and articulating left-wing arguments, and I think that Standing for Women does an amazing job in holding outdoor events where any woman can speak. The cross-party working with parliamentarians by political activists of all stripes is also crucial.

In our long discussion with Jane in Cardiff, I encouraged her to take her beef with those she disagrees with off Twitter and to write it in long-form, focusing on the principles rather than the interpersonal conflicts and hurts. She and her colleagues at Radical Notion have had a go at that this month.

https://theradicalnotion.org/gender-critical-disputes/

The essays and articles are long and winding (some of the footnotes are long enough to be blog posts in their own right). They add up to a broadside against people who work with anyone, the religious (Christians specifically), conservatives, and those with an evolutionary understanding of human psychology and society. Mary Harrington, Helen Joyce, Kellie-Jay Keen and Kathleen Stock all come in for personal criticism (Kellie-Jay Keen most of all).

I am she-who-cannot-be-named, but clearly I am one of the women doing-feminism-wrong.

I attend Standing for Women events and wear their merch; I follow @troonytunes; I view men dressing as women as a form of “womanface” (this is racist, apparently); I want to defend the word and concept of woman, not just female; I think Matt Walsh made a good film. I don’t think men who think they are women are oppressed, and I do think they can be laughed at.

Worse than this, I have taken part in events with Alliance Defending Freedom, and have even gone for a drink with them afterwards. I refused to denounce Kellie-Jay Keen because Hearts of Oak came to the Standing for Women event in Brighton and made a video. All this puts me outside the narrow bounds of acceptability defined by the Radical Notion team. Fair enough, that’s their party. I never applied to be part of the sisterhood. I don’t see much hope for it having mass appeal, though.

The criticisms of Kellie-Jay Keen, Kathleen Stock, Helen Joyce and Mary Harrington are long, personal, wrong and tedious (I just don’t recognise much of what they are describing and it would take me far too long to explain why). The articles vacillate incoherently between “we are not the same movement” and “we are mobilizing as a collective”.

Blame it on the Patriarchy

I think the reason the authors end up making long-winded and unsatisfactory arguments is because they start out from an idea about the world that is fundamentally wrong.

The editorial piece by Rose Rickford spells out the 1=0 statement in its first line: “Patriarchy is not universal, and it is not inevitable. It was developed by people through historical processes for the material purpose of controlling and appropriating women’s bodies and labour.

I think the idea that the thing called “patriarchy” was overlaid on top of (and after) the evolution of human bodies and minds is just as untrue as the idea that men can become women, or the nonsense that the “binary system of gender” is a Western, colonial export.

Every human being who was ever born was gestated inside the body of a woman (and until 1983 that woman was in every case the biological mother of that child). A foetus “appropriates” its mother’s body progressively from the moment of conception, stripping the calcium from her teeth and bones if it needs to, squashing her organs and stretching her pelvis. A baby may kill its mother on its way out. The whole process is primal and brutal. It is inevitable, universal, and in no sense man-made. “Patriarchy”, if it means appropriating women’s bodies for the production of children, is baked-in.

We share the basics of this with other animals, but human beings have some specific features: hidden ovulation (and therefore uncertain paternity) and long, dependent childhoods. It is our long and labour-intensive childhood that enables our species to be uniquely versatile in the ecological niches it occupies, and devastatingly creative in the problems we solve and create for each other. Human behavioural and intellectual flexibility, big brains, long dependent childhoods, painful birth, uncertain paternity, intensive parental involvement and sexual politics are inherent to humanity (it’s what the Bible seeks to explain in the story of The Fall).

The mother-child dyad and the mother-father-child triad are essential parts of who we are, in the same way that women are the “big gamete” people and men the “small gamete” ones. And this is not just about infancy. For a child to survive to reproductive adulthood, it must “appropriate” resources (food, energy, attention and protection), almost always from its mother and usually from its father too, for 15 years or more. Social structures co-evolved alongside the bodies and minds built to do this (men built for the small-gamete route to the future and women for the large-gamete one).

There are no societies that do not view nuclear family relationships as centrally important. The emotions that underpin them — lust, love, shame, sexual jealousy, the parent-child bond, guilt, anger, pride and so on — are evolved and universally recognisable.

There are no societies where women are not vulnerable to rape, or where men are not capable of it. There are no societies where women do not bear the risks and physical impacts of pregnancy, and the responsibility for their infants. There are no societies where men are not on average stronger, faster and more powerful than women. There are no societies where the question of who is the father of the child, and the role of the father in providing for that child, are not viewed as important, or which lack social norms, status and structures reflecting this.

The idea that these features of “patriarchy” did not co-evolve with our big-brained, creative, flexible, language-using species is as improbable as people being “born in the wrong body”.

While I recognise the painful split that Jane describes, her division of the two teams into “true feminists” and “gender-critical identitarianism” is off the mark.

I think what we are seeing is the contradictions of a philosophy that does not make sense (it envisages a world where male violence is universal, but not biological; where women and men’s interests are negotiated on a “sex-class” basis; where family can be replaced by collective, and where prosperity exists without capitalism). It is another case of when ideology meets reality.

By contrast, what might be called “Mumsnet feminism” focuses on the messy material reality of mothers, fathers (good and bad, present and absent) and children, who need care and protection. It may be low on theory but it can see gender ideology and queer theory for what it is; an attack on the social structures that protect children (many of which are derided as part of the patriarchy by those who see the world this way).

A key theme running through criticisms of the “populists” in the magazine is disapproval at calling-out the behaviour of male sexual deviants in dresses, and at “othering” people who pretend to be the opposite sex.

But this is the dark heart of what we have not been allowed to talk about. Pronouns are rohypnol. Language is an evolved, hard-wired risk-appraisal protocol. So too is the ability to see things, say what we see and recognise patterns. The moral disgust reflex is part of this. So too is laughter and ridicule.

Jane argues that we should try to repress feelings of distaste, disgust or mirth at men in women’s clothing (and sometimes that is the polite or prudent thing to do). But encouraging people to repress the tools of pattern recognition and risk appraisal, and cast-out those who don’t is how the gender ideology movement works. It make things unsayable and lowers people’s barriers. Men in women’s spaces should raise alarm. This is the practical truth that the thought-control and language-control has been trying to obscure.

Freedom of expression, the ability to make arguments and observations in plain, simple language is crucial. So too is the ability to mock and laugh (which is a means of saying that something isn’t right). None of this should be forbidden.

I hope that when the battle for clarity about biological sex in law and policy has been won, a new Darwinian feminist synthesis might develop. Understanding how we came to be does not mean accepting that we cannot change anything.

Right now, though, I am busy trying to work with and communicate with whoever is concerned by gender ideology. Jane Clare Jones and her colleagues may choose to work with a smaller circle that doesn’t include me, or Helen, Kellie-Jay, Kathleen Stock or Mary Harrington, or religious women and men, or conservative women and men, or so many ordinary people who just want to say men are not women, and children need protecting.

In a choice between being part of an ideologically pure sisterhood and pragmatic and effective impact, I would chose impact.

#maya forstater #radfems please interact #radfem safe #radical feminism #gender critical #idk what tags we use in this era lol

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therhythmafterthesummer · 1 year ago

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Bonjour!

Would our werewolves ever suffer from ailments which could affect their shifting? Perhaps being unable to shift into the wolf or not being able to change back? No longer hearing the wolf inside or losing their strength? Stress related or some AU sickness or magic?

How would you think each would handle it?

Sorry for the angst!

-🧁

hallo!!

what an interesting question. my short answer would be that: yes, yes this could potentially exist in this universe. it kinda makes sense to me for wolves to have specific illnesses that a human wouldn't have... things that could affect them not only physically, but also mentally as well!

as for how each would handle being sick... i'll leave some Thoughts under the cut.

Chris: regardless of the ailment, whenever Chris gets sick, he's GONE. he doesn't get sick often, but when he does he just becomes completely useless. can barely take care of himself. if he ever went through periods of not being able to shift it'll take him LONG time to recover. which, if it happens to be that he can't shift from wolf to human, would be very inconvenient. not only because he's got to work to maintain his flat, his house, and his life overall, but also because he wouldn't be able to be with his pretty girl, and that would be what would hurt him the most. on the other hand, if he weren't capable of shifting into his wolf form from his human form, he'd probably feel incredibly frustrated and inadequate bc at the end of the day he's an alpha and his wolf side is part of his pride as a werewolf, if that makes sense.

Minho: manages well enough on his own because he just... grew up taking care of himself. he'll be extra pouty if kitten is close just because he wants attention (she knows he's doing it on purpose, and he knows she knows, you know? lee know). anyway, minho already has trouble figuring out his instincts, so you could kinda say he's pretty much chronically ill on this aspect. unfortunately, this is a thing he carried over from his human self before being turned. he already had a condition, so it makes sense it affects his inner wolf, too.

Changbin: also becomes a bit useless when sick, but to a lesser degree than chris. will still be capable of going through with her day as long as his ailment isn't too serious, and will also heal fairly quickly if he follows doctor's orders religiously, but he'll be super whiny about it the entire time. cranky mood to the max. will snap at people often. not being able to hear his inner wolf or shift from either form would frustrate him, but it wouldn't be crippling.

Hyunjin: this boy is fuelled by spite, and something like being sick won't stop him. fuck everything and everyone, he's gonna keep doing his thing for as long as he can. he's passed out in inconvenient places before because of this mentality lol. heals quickly overall.

Jisung: hardly ever gets sick at all. he's been blessed with amazing health and antibodies. he does, however, tend to suffer from mental related stuff... will try his best not to burden anyone with his problems but will eventually open up to kitten or minho or chris about it.

Felix: hardly ever gets sick as well. his time living in the forest has prepared him for almost anything and made him immune to a lot of things because of it. will be able to push through just fine if he does get sick, though.

Seungmin: will keep any problems to himself. doesn't like it when people worry about him so if he's feeling bad he'll isolate himself until pretty mum figures it out and goes into his flat to pull on his ear. will suffer in silence.... i don't want to add much here because i don't wanna spoil anything i've got planned for seungmin hfdsljkfds

Jeongin: also doesn't like to burden people with his problems, but is definitely more open than seungmin. will also become a little useless when sick, and he'll need a lot of help from his pack mates to get better.

#anon #ask #wereroomies ask #wereroomies headcanons

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liugeaux · 1 year ago

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Greatest Songs Ever - Part 19 (Infinite)

The theme this time around is “Infinite”. It doesn’t mean anything specific. It just seems like if something goes on long enough it eventually will have some ridiculous, unobtainable, adjective like Infinite, Forever, or Invincible attached to it. Usually it signifies it's the beginning of the end for artist or project (See Puff Daddy, Kid Rock, Michael Jackson, The Spice Girls, Mariah Carey, Backstreet Boys, Halo...the list goes on). It’s a ridiculous notion, and I find leaning into it kinda funny. In short, it’s a joke for one.

Whatever, let’s get started. I’m not afraid to say this list is as amazing as it is diverse.

2019 “I Think I’m OKAY” - Machine Gun Kelly (feat. YUNGBLUD & Travis Barker)

That’s not a typo, Machine Gun Kelly (MGK) is officially on the list. I have no shame in choosing this song. “I Think I’m OKAY” is a painfully emotional song, that’s introspective, self destructive and it’s MGK’s first honest attempt to a rock music. Most of the emotional heavy lifting is done by the far-more-talented Yungblud, but the fact that MGK clearly doesn’t have the tools necessary to write or perform a track of this caliber and yet he does it anyway, is the most punk thing will he’ll probably ever pull off. The breakdown at the end where the instruments drop out and Yungblud is wailing over MKG “singing” creates an sonic tsunami rarely found outside of a My Chem song.

2002 “Bright Lights” - Matchbox Twenty

Shocked I was, when I realized I had never included a Matchbox Twenty song on the list. I was then, bogged down by the decision of which one to include. M20 hold a precious place in my heart. They are infallible and have nearly 10 tracks worthy of inclusion. Their debut album, Yourself or Someone Like You, was a formative force of nature for me, but most of its tracks have a 90s residue on them that dissuaded me from putting them here. “Bright Lights” from their 3rd album, is arguably their most universally beloved song, with the least baggage. It starts quaint, and builds into a stadium-level anthem and perfectly encapsulates what M20 does best. It’s so straightforward it could be considered bland, but too well crafted for anyone to dare and actually call it that. Side note: It’s also one of my favorite Karaoke songs.

1966 “Paint it Black” - The Rolling Stones

I don’t hate The Rolling Stones, but in a Stones vs. Beatles world, I very much fall on the side of The Beatles. Most of their most popular songs are SO popular they’ve lost all meaning. They make for amazing needle drops in film and in a lot of ways their library is a paragon of human creativity. Sadly, because of this, it’s hard to take them that seriously. The only exception I’ve found is “Paint it Black”. It doesn’t have the universal plug and play nature of a track like “Gimme Shelter” or “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” but it has a groove and haunt to it that routinely tricks me into forgetting it’s a Stones song. From the rolling bass line to the twangy sitar, “Paint it Black” still makes for a perfect needle drop, but unlike its brethren in the Stones’ catalogue, the tone and situation has to be perfect.

2016 “Dancin’ On My Own” - Calum Scott

This song hit me across the face this year. I heard the Calum Scott version of “Dancing’ on My Own” and knew I knew it from somewhere. I immediately dove into the internet and found the original Robyn song. It was the version I was initially familiar with. The original was a somewhat obnoxious British dance track that gets annoying rather quickly. Scott, who apparently performed a stripped down version of the song on his YouTube Channel and subsequently on Britain’s Got Talent, breathed a life into Robyn’s words I had never heard before. Instead of being a matter-of-fact “I’m supposed to be sad now” pop song, it morphed into an analog for every lonely encounter ever experienced. There’s a warm humanity to Scott’s delivery and passion. If you’ve ever felt invisible or left out or brokenhearted, Calum Scott’s “Dancing on My Own” is engineered to squeeze tears from your ducts.

2020 “Physical” - Dua Lipa

Lipa is the highest quality pop princess we have right now an I don’t know if it’s even close. Don’t @ me Swifties, Taylor is her own category. I feel like Future Nostalgia will age like Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors, Carol King’s Tapestry or Madonna’s Like a Prayer. It was VERY hard to select a track off the album (other songs might actually make a later list), but for now, “Physical” is at bat. It’s aggressively sexy, oozes sleek production, and rides its bassline all the way to the bank. Being unapologetically “about sex” isn’t a new thing, but “Physical” carries itself like the a celebration of sex as an artform, or dance between partners. Lipa likely doesn’t know this, but with “Physical” she might have written sex’s national anthem.

1971 “Danny’s Song” - Loggins & Messina

“Danny’s Song” sounds like a song written and performed by a dude who lives in a house on the side of a hill that he built with his own hands. And while that itself is a feat, it means nothing without a family to put in it. Not quite country, not quite rock, and pretty folky, “Danny’s Song” fits in that nebulous category of “Singer-songwriter” that shouldn’t count as a genre. To think this song was written by the same dude that wrote “Footloose” is 1000% bonkers. It makes my insides smile and I don’t know why, but it reminds me of childhood. I don’t, however, remember either of my parents being into this type of music. Maybe an extended family member can explain it. *shrugs*

1998 “Still Not a Player” - Big Pun feat. Joe

An odd Mash-up years before they really hit the mainstream “Still Not a Player”, as silly as it is, was ahead of its time in a few ways. As a combination of Joe’s “Don’t Wanna Be A Player” and Big Pun’s “I’m Not a Player”, this track took two already established hits and made an arguably better song, that went on to become a 3rd and possibly bigger hit. Other artists found success with Mash-ups in the early 00′s, but in 1998 it was quite a novel idea. Also, Big Pun didn’t invent the idea of the feat., but this track helped establish the R&B Singer/Rapper collab that has dominated the last 20 years of pop-music. Rapper’s handing off the hook to an already popular singer is a short-cut to a hit song. We’ve seen Eminem, Jay-Z, Kanye, and even Nicki Minaj use it with great success. “Still Not a Player” by itself fits together nicely and paints a vivid picture of what late 90′s hip-hop was good at, getting you moving.

1957 "Walkin’ After Midnight” - Patsy Cline

I don’t know too much about “Walkin’ After Midnight” but I know it feels like a song that was never meant to be recorded. In my mind, I hear “...and now, the lovely Patsy Cline” from the speakers of a honky-tonk, everytime I listen to the track. Cline then gracefully walks to the mic, performs the song to a crowd watching her sing like she was on Ed Sullivan. No frills, no crescendo, just a velvety voice, a walking bassline, a steel guitar and a timeless chorus. The song moves as fast as its listeners, and no one is in a hurry.

1982 “Somebody’s Baby” - Jackson Browne

I would seriously like to know if Jackson Browne was ever considered “cool”. He’s wearing that leather jacket like he’s 1982′s The Fonz, but I’m just not buying it. “Somebody’s Baby” has old-man “Jessie’s Girl” vibes, but a quick Google search reveals that “Jessie’s Girl” is the old-man “Jessie’s Girl” of “Jessie’s Girl”-like tracks. I mean Rick Springfeild was 31 when it was released, THIRTY ONE! Note to self - add “Jessie’s Girl” to a future list. “Somebody’s Baby” also has “song playing between innings at a baseball game” energy. It has no business being this good, and no business being this fun. Why does the bass player go completely off script and throw in a couple funky slap-bass notes out of nowhere? I don’t understand this song at all, but ever since I chose it for this list, I can’t stop re-playing it. What have I done?

2003 “Everytime” - Britney Spears

Likely not a popular choice in the Spears catalog, “Everytime” has an origin mired in tabloid relationship non-sense. I’m not trying to diminish someone’s heartbreak, but to have two artists openly writing about a failed relationship, and then both of the songs become huge hits is peak tabloid theater. Removing the context and looking at the song alone, Spears and Annet Artani crafted an understated introspective anthem of sorrow. The music box instrumentation is something unseen in pop music at the time, and best of all Spears’ vocal ... um ... deficiencies are hidden behind her breathy delivery. It’s an emotional song that can sneak up on you if you’re already in a vulnerable state. Spears’ musical legacy will likely go down as checkered, but “Everytime” stands as evidence that she belongs in the annals of music history.

Next time around GSE turns 20, kinda. I’ve got something special planned, and it might take awhile to flesh it all out, or it might come together super quickly, who knows? It’ll have backstory, the promised playlist, 10 more tracks, and even some stats. I hope you come back to check out all the ridiculousness.

Cheers!

#britney spears #jackson browne #big pun #joe #patsy cline #loggins and messina #dua lipa #calum scott #MGK #machine gun kelly #yungblud #matchbox twenty #matchbox 20 #the rolling stones

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mewtonian-physics · 2 years ago

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Why I Like Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Yes, This Includes Rebellion)

I actually highly recommend people who haven't seen it but are shunning it based solely on what they've heard to read this. I'd say 'if they don't mind spoilers' but I get the feeling most if not all of them have already gotten all the spoilers without the proper context. Anyway, yeah. I have a lot to say about this show.

Let me just say right off the bat that no, I do not like Gen Urobuchi. He's done some truly horrifying things. I do not believe Puella Magi Madoka Magica to be one of those things; however, if someone is turned off from watching it due to his involvement I have no issue with that.

On to address the biggest argument I tend to see against this show.

"It's torture porn!"/"It's just a bunch of teenage girls suffering for twelve episodes!"/And so forth.

I feel like there's a double standard here. For example, there's another show I like called Hunter x Hunter. Hunter x Hunter has an extremely long arc generally referred to as the Chimera Ant arc.

Now, the Chimera Ant arc involves a lot of fucked up things. It's many chapters and many episodes of Gon and Killua, who are around 14 or 15 at the time, going through absolutely horrific trauma. This includes: all but watching a mentor figure die in front of them; fighting inhuman creatures, many of whom used to be human; being put into life-and-death situations by people who evidently don't care that much about their wellbeing; fighting amongst themselves; being driven to the brink of despair and becoming something truly horrifying and wanting nothing more than revenge; and almost dying many times.

These elements I listed... are some of the main things I see people complain about with regards to Madoka Magica.

Yet I have never once seen anyone call Hunter x Hunter torture porn. Not even the Chimera Ant arc specifically. I'm not saying that that never happens, but I've never seen it personally, and I certainly doubt it happens to the degree it does with regards to Madoka Magica. And the Chimera Ant arc is much, much longer. It is drawn out and horrible and gutwrenching and honestly, at some points, genuinely sickening.

So I can't help but wonder, why the double standard? To give people the benefit of the doubt, I tend to assume it's one or both of the following:

Madoka Magica is a magical girl show, which is not a genre you would typically expect such dark content. (Or, at least, it wasn't.)

It's because Gen Urobuchi is involved, and his other works cast a (fully justified) negative light on this one. Again, if this is your problem with it that is your prerogative and I do not blame you. But I actually rarely see people bring that up.

If I'm being less generous, I could say that perhaps it's some form of misogyny--that since the main characters of Madoka Magica are girls, it's worse and more unforgivable than it is for boy characters to go through similar things. (Because girls apparently can't handle trauma like boys can, or something? I don't claim to understand the reasoning behind it.) But I doubt that's actually the case in most situations, though I wouldn't be surprised if it was in a few.

Though really, if people want to complain about magical girl torture porn, Mahou Shoujo Site is right there. (God, I hate Mahou Shoujo Site.)

But that's enough with the rebuttals. I'm here to talk about why I personally like it.

Quality

I mean, come on. In terms of technical skill, this show has so much going for it. Outside of the occasional awkward moment (as showcased in the famous Meduka Meguca), the animation is stunning, particularly in the witch's labyrinths. The music is amazing and adds so much to each scene--some songs that played in particularly heartwrenching scenes still make me sad just to listen to. In my personal opinion, the voice acting in both the Japanese and English dubs is fantastic. (Though I know that's subjective for a lot of people.) The storyline is concise and does what it needs to do without padding things out or feeling rushed. Even the recap movies are worth watching for the new material they offer, to say noting of Rebellion. So much symbolism is packed into it without feeling forced (okay, except maybe for the 'Love Me Do' bit; that one felt a little excessive)--it's just something fun to think about. Hell, they came up with the runes system when they really didn't have to, and it's a great touch. On a purely technical level, I think Madoka Magica is amazing.

(General) Lack of Sexualization

Magical girl series are scary because they are a haven of fun costumes but also at high risk of oversexualizing teenage girls. I'd say it's the second worst genre in that regard. Although it's not perfect, particularly in regards to some of Mami's portrayal, Madoka Magica tends to steer away from sexualizing its characters. (Magia Record, on the other hand, went full tilt into that, which is a major factor when it comes to how much I despise it.) It does have some troubling moments, and honestly whoever animated the opening for the original show should come meet up with me some time (I just want to talk, I swear...) but I appreciate its general avoidance of the problem. (Also, the long transformation sequence in Rebellion not having a single moment of that at all is soooo refreshing. I love magical girl transformations. Right up until they start making the characters naked. Looking at you again, Magia Record... and like ten thousand other shows on top of that.)

Characters

My god. My god. I adore the characters. All five of the main girls feel so real to me, and they subvert expectations brilliantly. That calm, collected mentor figure? She's horribly lonely and acts like that because it makes her seem a lot stronger than she feels. The 'hero of justice'? So focused on her ideals that she doesn't see the truth of the matter until it's already too late. The selfish rival? Traumatized from her own time trying to be a hero and the horrible consequences. The cool, mysterious girl? An anxious kid trying to protect her only friend (and/or crush). And unlike a lot of magical girl shows, the main protagonist isn't a leader at all--she's just a normal kid watching her life fall apart around her and trying desperately to figure out what to do even as everything seems completely hopeless.

The character development feels genuine, and not just that--this show's portrayal of mental health issues is something I'm never going to forget. I watched it for the first time when I was the same age as the main characters and hadn't yet realized just how bad my own issues were, and I felt seen in a way I didn't fully understand myself. The scene where Madoka bursts into tears at breakfast because she's just realized the danger she was in and is grateful to be alive to eat breakfast with her family is heartwrenching. Kyouko and Homura closing themselves off to the world because their painful experiences have left them feeling like they can't rely on anyone else is horribly believable. Mami hiding her loneliness behind the façade of a cheerful, cool big sister figure is painful. And Sayaka. My god, Sayaka. I'll get into her in the next section.

Witches as a Metaphor for Depression

So, this is pretty obvious. I mean, it's despair that makes a magical girl turn into a witch. The things a witch leaves behind are literally called Grief Seeds. But it feels so true to life even outside of that. Watching Sayaka's ideals, hopes, and dreams get crushed and her subsequent spiral is something I've seen multiple other people talk about relating to in the same way I did. Sayaka is perhaps the most relatable character in the show for someone with depression. She starts out as a confident, cheerful, idealistic girl, and then the real world hits her. The world where there are truly horrible people who do awful things for no reason (the men on the train, for example). The world where good deeds don't necessarily get rewarded and good intentions don't make everything turn out okay. The world where sometimes things just suck and no amount of ideals can change that.

As her Soul Gem gets corrupted, it becomes more and more similar to severe depression. She experiences fatigue and dissociation and hopelessness, and she lashes out at her best friend for not being in her shoes even as she knows what she's doing is wrong--she runs away crying in the rain afterwards beating herself up over it. And at the end, when she reaches a point of absolute despair and no longer holds any of the ideals she once had, having become disillusioned with reality, she implodes. She draws into herself and creates a world of the things she loves, and attacks Madoka and Kyouko when they try to bring her out of it. She gives up entirely on the world and on herself. And supernatural influences or not, that's something a lot of people with severe depression can relate to.

But it doesn't stop there.

Rebellion And Its Inevitability

I've seen people talk about how they think Rebellion was out of character and unbelievable, but I have to disagree with that perspective. Rebellion is horribly believable, and despite the relative happiness of the main show's ending for everyone else (Madoka's speech about how people should hold on to hope and keep trying even when things seem impossible still brings tears to my eyes), Homura never really got any closure, and it's honestly not a surprise to me that things turned out how they did. I mean, think about it. The girl she spent literal years trying to protect just disappeared in the end, leaving her little brother and Homura as the only ones who remember her. No one else is even aware she ever existed at all. Homura says it herself in the movie--it made her feel like she was going crazy. Like her most precious memories with the person she loved most were just things she made up. How is a traumatized teenage girl supposed to deal with that? And yes, Homura is still a teenager--no matter how many loops she went through, she never actually aged. Her brain is still at the developmental stage it was when she started--that of a fourteen-year-old girl. She's not an adult and expecting her to make perfectly rational adult decisions is unfair--hell, expecting even an adult to make perfectly rational decisions in that kind of situation is unfair! And even though she decided to play the role of the devil, on some level she really thought she was doing what was best for Madoka, because the amnesiac Madoka told her that what happened would make her sad. Homura still spent the whole movie trying to do right by Madoka, even to the point where she was desperate to die so that Kyubey couldn't hurt Madoka anymore. Sure, her actions were hardly selfless, but again--this is a scared, traumatized teen in a desperate situation making a split-second decision. Even if she thinks Madoka will hate her for it, on some level she thinks she's doing the right thing. Actually, that's how you can tell--if it was a purely selfish action, she wouldn't accept Madoka potentially hating her. She'd want to keep Madoka by her side forever. But she doesn't. She accepts the fact that Madoka might someday hate her for what she did. She wanted to save Madoka even if it meant damning herself. And she didn't go about it in the smartest way, but yet again--scared, traumatized teenager.

All in all I think Homura's despair was inevitable under the circumstances. Rebellion's ending makes sense to me. And I love it just as much as the main show.

Okay, I'm going to call it there since this post is stupidly long already. Hopefully it helped explain at least a little bit of my love for this show.

#pmmm

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