#the animation was complete garbage when the show first came out

[coolsomejet]

First and last scenes of Ready Jet Go!

Tour of the Solar System (2016) // Space Camp (movie, 2023)

[tenebriskukris]

Oshi No Ko Chapter 166 - My Thoughts/Analysis

One last ride. I want to lay these chapter reviews to rest better than the series dropped the ball for its ending. As always, spoilers for Oshi No Ko Chapter 166 below.

And we are back with Oshi No Powerpoint. Can this manga actually organically show events or is this entire chapter going to be more slideshow?

No—it is indeed more slideshow. Fantastic. Ruby doesn’t even get to be a fucking character in a chapter dedicated to her. Of course. After being sidelined for a good half of the manga this is how the authors deal with her character. By having her get over Aqua in such a half assed manner that it doesn’t feel earned, doesn’t feel resonant, and simply does not make sense considering how she was when she found out Goro was dead. That girl has nothing now. Why is she still striving to become an idol when there’s no one waiting for her at the end of the day when there’s nothing that the narrative has done to make us think she could get over this tragedy?

More slideshow of all the characters. It seems I was wrong. Most children’s television shows can salvage a more cohesive and thematic ending than this slop. I don’t even care about the new B-Komachi member, Kana and Akane’s appearances, even Ruby at the Dome. It’s just a hollow and empty slideshow that’s trying to evoke emotions that aren’t disgust at the ending.

It’s incredible that Ruby turned out to be Ai 2.0 when the revelations made in Chapter 122-123 onward said that she doesn’t want to be an idol that lies and now here she is, being an idol that lies. Thank you Aqua, for being such a supreme idiot. Ruby’s time as an idol will fade but I’m sure she’d rather have that transient career rather than have you alongside her.

The final few panels are a kick in the teeth for every fan that’s gotten invested in this series. I’d say that I would be surprised but it’s become obvious that the quality of this manga has massively declined for ages by now. This ending is one final reminder of that fact. 

And that’s the end. Analyzing it further is a useless endeavor. It’s a pile of shit and no amount of pretty art will be able to refute that. I could list off any number of reasons Why I think the ending is a hot steaming pile of garbage but for an ending that fails in so many ways that one could say pretty much anything negative about the ending and it’ll hit somewhat accurately. I don’t even want to give it my time and effort in gesturing to just how bad it is when it’s so plainly obvious. There’s no satisfaction in ripping apart the chapter’s guts when it’s already rotting away in the ground.

This is not a good ending. I don’t want to hear anything about tragic endings and the nature of revenge and tragedy and all that bullshit. All those claims might have some merit if the ending wasn’t a Windows Powerpoint Slideshow that forced its content down the readers throats. Even leaving that aside there are a whole host of subplots that never got addressed, character development that was aborted in this manga’s womb, a complete disregard for the themes established in the previous parts in the manga—it’s just—bad. Bad in a way that’s almost like a “fuck you” for being invested in the manga in the first place.

Tragedy in itself does not make a good ending. Sadness and moving on does not inherently make a good ending. The buildup and relevant character beats for these characters contradict the message this chapter is trying to sell. This ending feels divorced from everything that came before it. I can almost smell that this is a first draft kind of ending that came before everything actually happened.

I’d say that I want the series to put me in my grave so it could let me down one last time, but knowing how bad it fumbled with this ending I don’t even trust it to do That. 

I almost want to see how the anime tackles this ending if only because I’m sure that it’ll be canceled before it can even get close to this point. Could you imagine adapting the clusterfuck that were the last couple of chapters? The utter mess that was the movie arc? I can already smell people defending this ending saying it’s actually good because it’s a tragedy and that there was a host of foreshadowing involved. On almost every scale I can come up with in regards to ending does this series’ finale just fucking suck.

On more content adjacent to the manga but related to the series itself; apparently there’s one bonus chapter that’ll be released with the volume? People are really coping that it’ll save this manga but as far as I’m concerned it’s absolutely nothing. No, it’s less than nothing, because it’s the equivalent of a pie to the face after eating a shit sandwich. A joke at the reader’s expense. How despicable. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was another Kaguya-sama crossover. Any additional content that this manga vomits up wouldn’t change the fact that this ending exists in the first place. One final cherry on top of a pile of shit doesn’t change much after all is said and done.

There is also a light novel that focuses on Akane and Kana coming out for some reason. Incredible. Even after all of that the authors are still trying to milk out fans for their waifu bucks when they were handled so shoddily. But the lowest common denominator and yuri fans will be eating, I suppose. If they get disappointed by the quality of the work, that’s as much as they deserve, I guess.

Doing some light research on reactions to this clusterfuck of an ending reveals in an interview that this was the ending that the author had in mind all along which—well. I wouldn’t trust the author to write a book for children after this ending, let alone another manga. But this world isn’t an ideal one so he’s managed to hitch his horse to another manga artist and is now on the way to make yet another manga. From what I hear he’s already 2 for 2 with shoddily written endings and mediocre series so it’s surprising that people let him get away with crap like this.

I don’t think I’ll be touching any of the other works by the author with a ten foot pole. I wouldn’t even recommend this series to anyone simply because of how bad everything was so close to the end. There are better media out there that don’t waste the readers’ time and handle its themes better. An ending is the last word that the author has on their series and more often than not when a series’ ending is garbage it sullies the rest of the work by proxy. Every single arc before this one will be stained by the knowledge that its ending was so shoddily written that it dispenses with everything that came before it.

Guess that’s the end of the line. I’d say that it was a pleasure, but that would be a lie. Perhaps that’s fitting given that the manga claims that lies are love and never quite did anything with it.

[marumafan]

Helloo! So, I'm just getting into this fandom as of like... a day ago. I want to read the light novels, but I keep getting hung up on the fact that they're unfinished. It's just I don't want to invest so much time and energy into somethig that I will ultimately be left unsatisfied with closure-wise, you know? From the research rabbit hole I've found myself in (how I came across this blog to begin with) it seems like the story has a few different arcs. If I were to read up to the last complete arc, would it wrap up in a nice place or would I still be left on a sort of cliff-hanger?

Thank you!

Hello! I would say: maruma is a journey, not a destination. Picture it as a mildly BL Dragon Ball.

Technically, the last available novel ends in cliffhanger. However, if you read the manga, plus all the novels, plus all the extra stories,+ listen to the drama cds, (everything's available online), you might get a pretty good idea of how it's meant to wrap up. The last arc available pretty much foreshadows how it will end, plus some of the extra stories throw in some nice stuff.

If you'd like to consume everything: - I'd start with the anime, which is the worst adaptation of the novels. However the Japanese seiyuus are amazing, and if you listen to the drama cds those lovely voices will be easily recognizable and you'll associate voices and character design to what you will read in the novels.

If you'd like to skip the anime completely: Understandable and you will miss very little, the character adaptation in anime was garbage. (the plot changes completely after episode 40) . However, if you'd like to know why a lot of people in the fandom have a completely weird idea of certain characters' personalities, well... that's because of the anime adaptation (which, as you can imagine, is the most popular format to consume this series).

As for my recommendation... I mean... I love this shit. Watch it all, consume it all, bathe in it, roll in it.

If you wanna skip the anime, my recommendation would be, read all of the manga first to get an overarching idea of the plot/characters. Then, read the novels. along with the extra stories+ drama cds. Here're some links to guide you a bit in terms of drama cds and extra stories Drama cds: https://marumafan.tumblr.com/post/626611889351327744/list-of-drama-cds-canon-rate-and-when-to-listen

Extra stories: https://marumafan.tumblr.com/post/174365388404/hey-how-are-you-doing-i-found-out-about-kkm-some

I'm always here to answer questions, also my DMs are open.

tl;dr: anime-> manga-> novels+extra+dramacds (There's more stuff like musicals(3), radio shows (6 seasons) and games (2?3?), so you can get really into it if you want to... there's a lot of media to get through) If you only read the novels... please read the extra stories too!

[citrus-blade]

42

Baby Mine (From 'Dumbo'/Soundtrack Version) - Arcade Fire

This song is a great inspiration for another fanfiction I am working on. If you know the song/listen to it, you probably easily find out what it's gonna be about lol

The song is from Dumbo and I love the old animated movie and dislike the real life one, but I do favor this version of the song over the old one

Also I had written this and had to change it completely cause I literally wrote the summary of the fanfiction I kinda work on rn lol So this is not my FIRST idea that comes up by the song but my second one!

I don't know if I ever said this but if ANYONE finds ANY of the ideas interesting you can use them of course. You can credit me when you want then but it's not a must of course! :]

I also think this is the longest one sooo. Here are some CWs that are in this idea: Inplied Mpreg, Omegaverse, Omega Dream, Alpha Techno, retelling of murder, kinda Utopia vs Dystopia vibes, guns

AU:

Dream loved his child. Phoebe (using Phoebe from Infinitesimal here) was adorable and lovely, the sweetest little girl in existence. And he loved her oh so much, the worse it was that he had to hide her away. Because babies weren't allowed, they were seen as a burden in society, only the rich and wealthy could have children. The poor ones on the lowest layer of society couldn't.

There wasn't enough space, not enough food and the rich people who lived on the highest plattform - where the 'better ones' lived - were disgusted by them. How could they keep building their factories and dumb their garbage down there when humans needed to space to live?

No, it wasn't possible. So the easiest solution was to ban having children when you didn't live on the highest plattform. And if you did and authorities found out? Well, you were thrown into prison where you'd either work for free for the rest of your live, or died.

What happened to the children? Dream couldn't even think about it, the way he had seen grown men and women holding their weapon to their heads only to pull the trigger. Unless the child was 'pretty enough', then some rich family would get it as a gift.

Disgusting, but the hard reality. So Dream had hid when he had gotten pregnant, unplanned, after making money by sleeping with every Alpha there was. Every time authorities came to check he found a new hiding spot, always moving to make sure he wouldn't be found.

And then she was born, little Phoebe came a bit too early, but it was okay. She was perfect and he would protect her with everything he could. They lived at the highest apartment of a large building, one that had gotten shut down cause no one could afford rent. So high up no one heard a baby cry and no one went to check there.

Until someone did. Dream was taking a nap after he had returned from the market to get some food and water. He hadn't noticed the man who had followed him, he had felt safe, he had made a mistake.

Cause suddenly there was an Alpha in his home, holding a gun at his head. Dream jumped back, already knowing that he had screwed up, but maybe he could persude the man to leave before Phoebe would show herself.

The man was called Techno, as he had said, and had wondered how someone could live in this building. Dream did everything to get him to leave, tried using his Omega side in hope that the Alpha would want to please him. But it didn't work, because Techno - who worked for the government - had seen the toys. He had smelled someone else.

And then Phoebe came out of her room, tired and sleepy with a plushie under her arm. Immediately the gun was aimed at her, Dream jumping to his daughter and holding her close, pleading to keep her alive, to let them both live.

Techno stared at them, watched Dream cry and Phoebe look confused. And then she giggled, hiding her face in her toy and Techno lowered his weapon. He looked down at himself, breathing heavily, before looking back up.

The Alpha carefully put his weapon down as he kneeled to the ground. Dream watched him, holding his daughter close and not trusting the man. He had seen those people trick children, pretend they were friendly to shoot them when they thought they were safe.

In a moment of confusion Phoebe pulled away from Dream and ran over to Techno. Dream cried out for her but she didn't react. To his surprise the pinket held his arms out, picking the little girl up who laughed.

That's when Dream had noticed it, that something had changed. The icy and hard eyes of the man turned soft, watery even. Slowly the Omega crawled over to the two, telling Techno about Phoebe and how they lived.

Techno listened, nodded and watched as the little girl snuggled up to him for another nap. It was dark outside when Dream finished, watching how the man held his little girl in his arms. The Alpha turned to him, telling him he wouldn't tell anyone about them, that he had been questioning the government and society for a long time now.

It was that day when a very special relationship started, one that would bring Dream a lot of pain but also a lot of laugh. And one that would later make a revolution rise.

[ordinaryschmuck]

"Ooh, look! Another Amphibia critique from Schmuck!"

Yeah, yeah, blame Twitter. This one came to me last night because of a post and it's been stewing in my brain ever since.

I'm learning more and more that nothing causes an Amphibia fan to foam at the mouth more than when you tell them that the first season is mostly filler.

Cause here's the thing: I've seen that first season THREE times. And every time, it felt like a chore to get through as I'm forced to watch characters go on silly adventures as the show dangles this carrot on a stick in front of your face, promising something interesting with a grander story.

"Ooh, look! Something's going to happen with the music box!"

"Ooh, look! Sasha's here and she means business!"

"What will come of this? Tune in next time to find out!"

And when you tune in next time, you're met with Anne and Sprig pretending to be cops or the town having a literal shipping war. And sure, that can be funny, but when you promise a grander story and take too long to get to it, it leaves people WANTING that story feeling a little disappointed.

Or worse: Annoyed.

Even MORE worse: Angry.

And when you bring up that season one is mostly filler, you're given the usual three responses:

"It's to build the world and develop characters!"

"It's starting off fun to suck people in before getting darker like [Insert show here]"

"[Insert show here] had a first season that was mostly filler and people loved THAT. Y'all just hating."

And those are good arguments, but there's also good counters to all of them.

Infinity Train is a series that has a new cast of characters every season, each one having only thirteen episodes to grow and develop while showing off the world around them. The writers make each episode count though, not wasting time as every goofy adventure the characters go on it either reveals something about themselves or about the lore of the train. You can absolutely let characters go and do something silly for ten minutes AND have it feel like the plot and development of the world and characters are moving forward. You just gotta do more than something as inconsequential as Sprig learning to be more patient when watching a hog or Hop Pop learning how to be honest instead of selling literal garbage. The meat of those episodes (I.E. the LESSONS) can be brought up in smarter, better ways that leaves EVERYONE satisfied, especially when they learn these exact lessons later in the series anyway.

As for starting off by being fun defense, it's a fair one until you realize what show everyone's trying to copy.

You see, Adventure Time is a great show. One that nailed the "silly at first but serious later" mindset. It changed the landscape for serialized animation, and shows have been trying to do what IT did ever since. BUT they forget one essential factor that's the reason to Adventure Time's success: It had NO plan. It started off silly and fun only to get more serious over time, but in a similar vein to your favorite comic series. The writers just wanted to have goofy fun times and nothing else, but the longer the series went, it would get more and more serious as it started to evolve into serialized storytelling. There was never a singular arc in Adventure Time or even an endgame in mind for how the show would conclude. There were definitely arcs but they were treated as small webs of something the show COULD build upon if the writers wanted to and less as a part of this grand narrative to a complete story. Even the latest spin off, which has a singular story in mind, is something based on an idea that NEVER went further beyond being something silly upon its conception. The writers just wanted to do something fun and would LATER come up with a good and expansive story through it.

Basically, the reason why Adventure Time nailed the silly THEN serious style is because it improvised the whole thing. When a show like Amphibia tries to go through the same style, it does it WITH a plan in mind and forgets that Adventure Time succeeded because it didn't HAVE one. The writers know exactly where they want the show to go and plan out how to reach that finish line, leaving behind crumbs of the grander narrative every now and again. But in Season One, so much of the focus is about characters going on fun adventures and leaving behind those crumbs not as often as they should. The end result might just be one of the weakest examples of a show being silly THEN serious because of it tries to be one thing while also wanting to be another.

And as for the final defense, about how other shows tries to be silly THEN serious too, let's look ANOTHER series made by Disney: Gravity Falls.

Gravity Falls' first season, let's be honest with ourselves, is a lot like Amphibia's. There's hints of a story there, but much more time is dedicated to Dipper and Mable going on goofy one-off adventures while the second season takes a much more serious direction towards the plot and characters. It still leaves crumbs as well, like what's going on with Gideon and the Journals, but the majority of the season is still stuff like Mabel freeing a merman trapped in a public pool or Dipper using a video game character to intimidate Robby. So while it's the same as Amphibia it terms of tone, there's ONE difference: Episode length. Within the first season, Gravity Falls has twenty episodes where Amphibia has thirty-nine. Amphibia has ten-minute episodes stitched together to meet the twenty-minute runtime that Gravity falls have, and the end result is making a series feel MUCH longer than it actually is. It drags out the silliness longer, making Gravity Falls more digestible because we're watching random nonsense ONCE per week and not TWICE. So when the bigger, more serious story stuff comes, it feels like less time was wasted to get to it.

You can argue all you want about how Amphibia's first season doesn't have filler or, if it does, it's not a detriment. And if that's how you see things, that's fine. But not everyone is going to feel that way.

Look, filler can be fun. It can give you an enjoyable little adventure in between the meat of this grander narrative the writers are building. But filler isn't fun ALL THE TIME, and you need to find a right way to space it out between the story bits if a serialized story is what you want to make. As fun as it can be, it's not the necessity that people claim it is for a good show to exist. Some amazing series exist when they're all killer and no filler. Just because the characters don't randomly go to a casino for an episode, that doesn't mean it's a lesser form of storytelling.

And the same goes for shows WITH filler. If you like Amphibia's first season because of how silly and fun it is, I don't blame you. To me, it was a show that got my attention because there was a hint to a bigger narrative, but it's not what the show tried to do in it's first season. It took its time and the end result was a finale that legitimately brought me to tears, so SURELY it isn't all bad, even if most of those silly adventures weren't my cup of tea. It's DEFINITELY a season of filler, but whether or not that's a detriment to a show is depending on who you ask.

[whatyourusherthinks]

IF Review

Boy howdy this trailer was baaaaaaaaaad. I was intrigued by the teaser, but I thought that it would only be good if the teaser was hiding something. Then the actual trailer came out, and well, you read the first sentence. I dunno, it just looked like Ryan Reynolds doing his most child-friendly jokes and that was it. Which, I guess if it carries the Deadpool movies, but I expect more from the guy who wrote A Quiet Place, y'know. (Wait, John Krasinski wrote A Quiet Place Part II too? Well good thing I didn't see it and therefore can't delegitimize my claim to his writing quality.)

Then Twitter got mad at this movie. Why? Hell if I know. I can barely stand to use this website, honestly, why would I ever go on that garbage fire of social media platform. Does it have something to do with the premise's similarity to Foster's Home For Imaginary Kids? Maybe, but why is it a problem for two takes on a similar premise to exist? Batman and the Dark Knight have the exact same plot structure and people love jerking those to movies off.

What's The Movie About?

Bea is a 12-year-old girl who becomes a social worker for Imaginary Friends (or IFs hurhurhur) and she teams up with a cynical Ryan Reynolds named Calvin.

What I Like.

Bea. She's a really good character, clearly John wrote this movie with the intention of her being the completely focal character. (He writes really good female characters, as all who saw A Quiet Place can attest.) The trailer made it seems like a stern female who has to be the support/babysitter for a silly guy (Calvin, in this case), but really it's the opposite. Calvin is a cynical and sarcastic character who is only helping everyone else out because he HAS to, and it's up to Bea to show him why helping out the IFs is a fulfilling life. I also really like the message of the movie, but it's kind of a spoiler. Just know if you are perpetually young at heart (or if you're incredibly childish like me) it's going to cut you completely to your core with warm fuzzies. I also got invested in the IFs. Again, I wasn't really interested from the trailer since it didn't seem imaginative enough for me. Like, oh, the imaginary friends are basically a bunch of anthropomorphic things. A gummy bear, a stiffed animal, the guy from the Neighborhood Watch sign. But they give the character little hints of deeper personalities, even if they are on screen for a few seconds.

What I Didn't Like.

...I don't know if I should bring up the problems with this movie. Not because there isn't problems, or even that they aren't substantial. Because there are certainly substantial problems with this movie. This movie completely falls apart if you think about the it for even a second. But it's nothing a kid is going to notice. Or if they did notice, they wouldn't care. The age demographic for this movie isn't going to care that the stakes of this movie are basically non-existent. They aren't going to give a crap there is a twist that comes out of nowhere, or that the rules on how the IFs work make no sense. They're just going to laugh and silly purple monster and be happy when he finds a friend. And is there anything wrong with that?

Final Summation.

IF is a good kids' movie. There is a lot of bright colors, silly characters, and goofy humor that they are sure to get a kick out of. There is nothing for the parents in the audience, true, but I don't think there needs to be. If you are over the age of 15 and are going to see this movie alone, you shouldn't get pissy when none of your perceptions are challenged. And if you're mad about the movie not making sense, you need to remind yourself that one of the main characters in the movie is a giant furry purple creature called Blue. It's not that serious.

[weepingpussywillowtree]

Okay, given who typically watches anime I really shouldn't be surprised, but I was shocked when mushoku tensei came out and now I'm being shocked again. RANT INCOMING

I succumbed to the hype and watched the first episode of oshi no ko and oh my god was it bad. It was so bad. The reason I bring mushoku tensei up is because its the exact same feeling of ick I got when watching oshi no ko. I could go on a whole other rant about false depth of character/stories/themes in shitty anime, profoundly misogynistic writing, the weird fetish/sex stuff, the weird underage and baby shit. It's just all so bad.

All these baby reincarnation shows just boil down to a male protagonist getting put into a position where the fact that he retains his adult intellect makes him super extra special and a bunch of girls fall at his feet and/or he is the smartest and most precocious boy and can manipulate everyone into doing what he wants. It's all just redressed male power fantasy stuff.

Also, the lack of media literacy from the people who watch these shows is really disturbing. How on earth is oshi no ko a scathing takedown of the entertainment industry? What kind of idol is able to actually keep a pregnancy secret, and maintain her career completely, as well as getting her managers to raise her kids???

In mushoku tensei, the protagonist commits multiple acts of sexual violence against female characters, which every fanboy will tell you is part of his 'character arc' and is portrayed as bad actually. Okay, so then why do all the camera angles, shots, etc. try to make these scenes look sexy? Why is it frequently played for laughs or excused with no consequences? In a similar vein, all the oshi no ko people are defending the breastfeeding scene and similar content (it's just realistic!) Oh, and the writers cared about realism, I'm sure, when they made the babies born with full heads of hair, or capable of speech before their bodies developed the fine motor control for it. Give me a break.

Just admit you like it because it's half plot, and half weird sex stuff and power fantasy garbage. Everyone is allowed to like things that are simple and problematic and not deep. I just dislike when people try to pretend anime like this is at all profound.

[lazerv4]

Thoughts on Demon Slayer: Swordsmith Village Arc

Just my raw thoughts not a review or anything

I talked about junk food media not too long ago in the Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire ramble but well now we reach Demon Slayer which brings in a similar but different analogy, Demon Slayer is basically a really cool anime fight AMV that is very reliable to quench the thirst for stupid shonen shit my brain has sometimes. As always the story presented is mostly average with Tanjiro just traveling to the swordsmith village to get his sword repaired after it shattered (again) during the Red Light District arc and of course they get attacked by a couple of upper moons (again) and is joined by a pair of Hashira instead of his usual three man team. The plot and characters as always are average but that's not what we came here for, how good are the music and fight scenes? Still pretty good all things considered, I’ve heard issues with the pacing of this specific arc but I’ve never seen a Demon Slayer anything week by week so for me it's just a big long fight scene that flows pretty alright with some really good choreography when it tries to wow you with the skill of the Hashira or the relentlessness of Tanjiro and Nezuko, first for the Hashira is the second one introduced but the one that is more present in the story The Mist Hashira Muichiro Tokido who is overall a pretty boring character with a stupid backstory about his amnesia for a single event that makes it very nonsensical timeline wise how he became a Hashira let alone one strong enough to beat an upper moon by himself when Rengoku and Tengen failed and struggled respectively, he is fine I guess but he is helped a lot by a neat breath style and being one of two Hashira that show up in this arc as The Love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji stands out so much more not only because or her insane banger of a theme which is one of the best in the series channeling a lot of the things that make Fate soundtracks so good while mixing it with the more streamlined flow of Demon Slayer battle music to make her appeal stronger as it mixes with her ribbon dancing inspired fighting style and cheesy stupid technique names to make her extremely charming and fun to be around even when her story is also very lacking an nonsensical with the people considering her brutish and ugly for some reason when before this even during the previous events of the arc everyone find her incredibly attractive so I don’t know I guess the author just didn’t know how to write backstories in general because almost all of them are pretty bad and mostly a vehicle for stupid plot contrivances (see being resistant to demon poison because Inosuke grew up in a mountain) but whatever as again it’s not what we come here for. As for Tanjiro he is alright, he fights with an upper moon by himself mostly and besides Mitsuri stalling the ultimate super form of it does most of the work defeating it as Genya and Nesuko are mostly tools to enhance him because of course, his choreography is pretty good but lacks the impact that made the earlier seasons work especially at the end when they try to shoehorn a sad scene with Nezuko that completely fails to manifest any emotion while he delivers the final blow making it feel less important and then completely demoting the moment when it's revealed that for some reason she is now immune to the sun and can talk kind of normal (the way they make her speak is really annoying) so everything that made her different is kind of gone, she is just a demon human ally now which is fine but less interesting than what we had before when she still had a few issues that dragged her back.

Again as said previously its fine but nothing special, if you crave action shonen garbage and have a few hours to burn it's a fun watch but don’t expect anything special out of Demon Slayer.

[kisari]

ramblings on my personal feelings about my GG fave

i have such mixed feelings about testament's redesign. before i get too much into it. this is the internet so in case any rando sees this and doesnt know me: there is no wrong or right way to be nonbinary. there is no wrong or right way to present or feel yourself. i am against binary completely. i do not believe in transa/ndrophobia garbage.

i also wanna state i am a long time testament fangirlie. i love testament. i am happy testament was added. im happy they came out and said testament is x-gender/nb. testament in the old GG games partially helped me realize i was transmasc/nb. i think maybe thats why the redesign makes me feel a bit strange. first, a comparison.

Testament's general goth vibe and outfit basically never changed until Strive. I do think it's very interesting that from GG-->GGIsuka, Testament gained a six pack and yet also somehow became much skinnier and looks almost emaciated. Original GG Testament was very much a softer type build with no abs. I'd even say in Strive, their body shape became closer to how it was in the original GG.

Along with that, a lot of the design elements are still there, which I think is really impressive. The boots, the skirt, the gloves, and their new corset has the same arm flairs/wraps as their old tube top did. Really, they did a great job keeping the same vibe but showing that Testament has changed. So what's my problem? I've been trying to figure it out for a while. And seeing this concept art for Strive I think kinda cemented my feelings.

It was clear from the beginning they wanted Testament to have a more "fancy" look(lol the hat). In fact the one on the right is almost the exact same outfit but their body is drastically different... And I think this might be why I feel so mixed. GG creator has said Testament was always X-gender, and I think this comes through from their design from the very start. Back in ye olden days, before the Strive redesign, Testament 100% received transphobic comments that I shant repeat. But I'm sure you can imagine the sort of hatred and slurs a transfem would receive. having testament's redesign be clearly, much much more feminine isn't necessarily a bad thing- in fact i dont think its bad. again... being nb doesnt mean someone has to look any certain way. but testament isnt a real person. testament is a character designed by people. how would people have reacted if Testament was more masculine, but they still came out and said they were nb? The poses, the voice... it was all the same but Testament wasn't clearly much more fem? the way nb feels like something only allowed to more fem presenting people i guess makes me a bit concerned. go to any post about testament and look at the comments. its all "SEXY MOMMY THIGHS THEY SLAYIN" type shit. testament p much never received this attention beforehand. testament was also just... not as popular as other chars such as brisket who received the majority of attention in this way.

where am i going with this... idk. in a way, i have a lot of not clear thoughts and no where to put them. again maybe its just because i saw testament as gender goals before strive. and as someone that is nb but wants to be more masc it makes me a bit upset. there is absolutely a pattern of what is acceptable for a nb person to look like(especially when you are transfem), and i guess it just sucks that it happened to testament who i thought was perfect in the beginning. ngl i do also miss their edgier parts also. they def moved away from edgy to a fancy/posh vibe. testament's scythe used to be made of their own blood, and they'd cut off their body parts and remove skin for attacks. i can, obviously accept that this can be a reflection of them growing as a person and no longer self harming now that they are happy... or maybe it was too hard to animate in 3D... teehee....

this walk cycle literally cannot be beat it is the best.

i wanna be them so bad again tho i wanna reiterate. testament is my #1 fave guilty gear char forever i love them. this will not change. i just have many thots and feelings

[temporalbystander]

So. I have, once again, come to the conclusion that the reason why we can't have the best in life is because people have copyrighted the good and refuse to let anyone make it better... This is gonna be a gaming ramble btw. A long one.

Anyway let's begin with what started the realisation this time. A few days back, probably prompted by my rebinge of TGSAnime's Yu-Gi-Oh videos, I was suggested to watch a couple videos of someone playing tag force. It was okay, not the greatest, but I liked how the character models of the duelists had an animation for everything from drawing, setting a card and activating a spell. It was cute.

Well about an hour ago I stumbled across a video title that REALLY caught my attention. One that was talking about the Tag Force series, which holy shit there's more than one game, while also calling them dating Sims. As a romantic (read, guy who really crushed on Alexis Rhodes when GX first came out) I decided this video needed a watch through and.... Well damn if it wasn't the most amazing game I've ever heard of. Not only do you get to go through Duel Academy, and all the events of the show, as your own original character. But you get to interact with the characters and bond with them! Then, in the sequel, you get your own little unique story lines with them after the show plot is over! And in the third and final one (final GX one I mean)? All that growth from the first two games carries over into the final season 4 plot along with you, feeling like your own complete character, graduating duel academy.

Obviously this sounded like the most amazing thing I had ever heard of in my life so, of course, I immediately started googling to see if anyone had taken this idea and pushed a little further with it. Made it into more of a fleshed out dating sim with unique interactions. The results? Not only do Yu-Gi-Oh and dating sim only bring you right back to Tag Force. But Yu-Gi-Oh and rpg seems to be just as barren a search. I'm sorry but I find it incredibly hard to believe that Im the only one who's interested in hearing about the characters of an anime interacting with you as you join them on their journeys. If Konami made a series out of it then clearly there's a target audience.

But nope. All I got were card game simulations. As if people no longer care about the characters and the stories. Bull. The card game sucks, it's beyond broken and the obsession with meta is garbage. It's the same thing that ruined competitive Pokemon for me, the top ten in every tournament using almost the exact same team of six (some of whom have even admitted to using hacked perfect IV and evs because they don't give a damn about the game and see if as an easy way to make money. I don't know if that's still the case but the fact a competitive scene could ever let it get to that point? Is disgusting.)

Anyway, my hatred of competition meta ruining fun games not withstanding, let's talk about this realisation. Konami clearly owns the rights to developing bonds as you interact and play alongside your favourite duelists. (I know that's not how copyright works but I swear it makes sense eventually.) Because of this? There is no chance of finding any other fanwork using this same premise but pushing it a bit further. Giving you minigames or other events you can spend with your partner beyond simple dueling or talking... Or giving them eggwhiches (my brain practically overloaded when I heard that was a feature.) Anything to develop the relationship further. Nope. The best we will ever get is Tag Force. Which, I mean, is still amazing and raises the possibility of Konami doing a remaster some day which I am all for. I just heard this existed and it's the best thing ever. I would die for a remaster.

But, as pointed out in my first paragraph, this isn't the first time I've come to the realisation that a system, which would be beyond amazing if manipulated a bit, will forever remain stuck with the original creators who don't care to improve on it. The other examples? Fire Emblem and Persona. Both of these series are God-tier. The social links and affinity systems are amazing! So, of course, you can imagine my severe disappointment when, after my first encounter with both these series, I saw nobody else had done anything like it. No social links that affect the story beyond a few optional scenes (though P5 using all the confidants to boost gameplay mechanics? *Chefs kiss* brilliance.) And no games where affinity rank ups are more than a few lines of dialogue that are almost exactly the same in spite of who the characters interacting are (most noticeable when dealing with the scenes between parents and children. The parent with the same class would get an incredibly detailed scene while the other parent just got the generic other parent scenes with maybe a line or two different. I don't even think there's anything special about siblings.)

Seriously. That is three separate series, with three separate mechanics that have so much potential. And nobody else is doing anything with them. How can we possibly still be getting inspired fangames based on the Gameboy Pokemon era graphics and yet nobody has touched these ideas? It could be so good. But it won't. Because the copyright holders don't care about improving it.

[mirqmarq428]

Anime review:

The Devil is a part-timer season 3

(or s2 part 2, or possibly just 2, the numbering is quite broken).

Apparently this just kinda came out and nobody talked about it. The first half of season 2 turned a lot of people off.

Tl;dr. in quantum superposition of 9 and 7 out of 10. State will collapse in accordance with viewer's subjective reading of Maou's possible aromanticism in light of alleged manga spoilers. I shan't burden you with those but there is stuff that happens under the cut.

So the central contradiction of this show has always been that Satan is the Demon King (the original season translated it as Devil but even in light of the show's heavy Christian imagery this doesn't make sense - his title is 魔王 which in everything else I've seen is translated Demon King (when there's only 1 at a time) or Demon Lord (such as in Slime where there's multiple). In season 2 we got hints from the dialog between Gabriel and Lucifer that our Satan is not the biblical Satan, just someone with the same name (while Lucifer is the original lucifer who served the original satan and has just been hanging around ever since).) and yet he's just this quite decent guy.

This season finally answers that contradiction. I don't see how else you could reconcile his history with his personality, and it dovetails shockingly well into the McDonald's thing. Maou isn't really a dynamic character this time, it's more that everyone else's arc is catching up to him. Which brings me to

Emilia (the Hero)

Her arc progresses quite a bit. I like the relationship between her and Maou, it's in a good place, but words must not describe it. Of course it helps that the grudge she held was based on false information...

Crestia Bell (the Inquisitor)

If you didn't remember, she's the one with the giant hammer. Always wears a kimono. Autistic coded. Best Girl. The way she overcomes having been a religious enforcer really spoke to me, and right at the end her simple logic just cuts right thru the conflict and it's so badass.

Chiyo (the coworker)

ngl she's kind of too normie for this show. Her arc is being brave and useful as more than just a hostage, and that's fine I guess. My problem is with how seriously the show treats her crush on Maou. She's literally a high school student and he's an alien warrior king who can't be younger than 25. If he weren't completely oblivious he would be seriously at fault for leading her on - I say this as a former crush bearer. Let us down quickly please. Speaking of which.

Sariel (the archangel, season 1 antagonist)

Apparently he was still working at KFC and gets fired. He is now totally devoted to the manager of McDonald's and a neutral party otherwise. Kind of pathetic but mans knows what he wants.

I don't have anything to say about the plot. It's a plot that makes the characters have arcs.

Overall this one is better than the previous season - more stuff happens, arcs progress, the mystery is closer to being revealed. It's still not what fans of the first season were expecting, and I suspect the next bit will start strong with revelations and fizzle out with too much slice of life.

I should clarify that I enjoyed season 2 just fine. It's not to be watched weekly, you have to binge it then it's fine. Same thing one punch man s2 - a Pretty Good sequel to a Godly pilot will be slandered as garbage due to overhype.

But this season was good again.

[gen6boi]

And I want you all to know how happy I am that the game’s praises are finally being sung. All of the kids who grew up with Gen 6 are finally old enough for their nostalgia to have weight, we’ve gotten to the point where people are making retrospectives about it! That’s insane to me!

For reference, this is my save file.

I technically completed the dex aside from a few non essential mythicals I think.

And this, my trainer card. I named my trainer after my MLP OC at the time… I think the only thing keeping me from being gold is the Battle Maison milestone, I’m shite at playing competitively.

And my name for Arceus sake!! This account has been gen6kid/gen6boi for years!!

I’ve always been a ride or die but for 10 years I had to watch people shit all over it and do nothing about it!!

Not to say that the criticism isn’t warranted. I’ll be the first to jump down the throat of a million dollar company who underperforms, but I’m tired of pretending that the game is completely garbage with nothing to offer.

For many of my generation, X and Y was their first Pokémon game. I watched the anime, both Kanto and Unova, but seeing, feeling, and playing Pokémon is so much more intimate.

It was just the 4th grade, the only other game I had at the time was Nintendogs + Cats, which I loved dearly. One day during a movie day or something like that, my friend had his 3DS out and was trying to catch/defeat Yveltal in Pokémon Y. He saved right before and was passing it around to show off the boss fight, and eventually he let me play. I lost the battle like an idiot of course, knowing nothing about type matchups even with a Mega Lucario on my side. Still, my interest was piqued and I wanted to play more.

Then, miraculously, he offered to buy me a copy of X. Of course I accepted, and the very next day when I was walking home he gave it to me. It had the plastic wrapping still on it and everything, I have no idea if he had that kind of money or if his parents were just that kind, but sometimes I wish I still knew him so that I could thank him for the present. 10 years later I’m still here thinking about it.

I broke my coral pink 3ds at some point, but when Christmas came around that year they got me a new one. The limited edition Year of Luigi one to be exact. I got City Folk that same Christmas, and New Leaf the next, but I digress!

I was so happy that I would open up the game and just spend hours skating around Kalos. I missed it that much, and I finally got to finish the game too since my last 3DS broke before I could.

It’s crazy how long ago that was, and the fact that I’m still a trainer to this day. It almost doesn’t feel real, but at the same time it’s an honor to say I’ve been a fan for this long.

Regardless of the objective quality of the game, it holds a special place in my heart and mind. I will forever consider myself spiritually Kalosian, because no matter how many Pokémon games I play I still find myself booting up good ol’ X so that I can give my hometown a visit.

“Critically, X and Y are objectively bad Pokémon ga—“

Okay but did you stay up hours wandering the streets of Kalos pretending it was your home? Hm??

Did you weave your way through every single plaza and still get lost ? Wander through alleys just to see which trainers would spawn there?

Did you spend your time trying to get five stars in all the minigames?? Match the color of your poképuffs to the pokémon you were feeding? Visit the shops every day for new clothes? Battle your way through waiters to get Style Points? Talk to the citizens of Kalos, bike circles around Lumiose Tower? Did you hatch eggs for fun before you could even grasp the concept of shiny hunting, you simply hatched and hatched because you liked the pokémon and nothing more? Did you spend all night wondertrading just to see how many people across the world you could connect with, and what interesting pokémon they would give? Did you accidentally stumble across the Lumiose ghost girl prior to knowing she was in the game and nearly cry yourself to sleep that night you were so terrified? Did you cherish the random shinies you’d get through trade, regardless if they were hacked or not? Did you regularly visit Professor Sycamore just because you loved him and wanted to see how he was doing? Did you pummel the Elite Four time and time again not for the money but just to make yourself feel like a real champion and see the victory screen? Did you spend hours wondering who wrote that message on the time tables, waiting for an event that never happened? Did you race another person for a pokémon on the GTS? Did you spend hours making the perfect trainer PR video and constantly jump at the opportunity to show it off to some rando on the PSS? ?

Did you???? Did you?????

[crypticmedici]

a very mean rebuttal to the mary sue post

So in a desperate attempt to avoid looking my finals in the eye, I was scrolling through twitter and found out that “Mary Sue” was trending over the weekend. And came upon this gold nugget.

I should have left this well enough alone. Honestly. It’s already absurd that this man starts off a thread implying that Bo motherfuckin’ Peep is a Mary Sue. Halfway through reading it, I realized this dude switched the plot up on me to advertise his shitty ghostwriting services, so yeah, I guess he can be happy that this thread was enough for me to write some bullshit about nothing. But meh, I’ve been spending the last week writing in AP style about voter apathy in young voters from my state and how overwhelmingly depressing it is in the current political climate so maybe this was a sign. 

For me to absolutely wreck this man’s shit. I need a laugh.

Some caveats for this post: 

First, sans Rings of Power when it first released, it’s been a minute since I’ve seen any of the media he’s discussing so if there’s anything I got wrong, let me know. Like this man, I also left my brain cells at home. Even playing ground! 

Second, I’ll be sticking to screenwriting since he's focusing on characters from tv and film. 

Third, I’m only putting this on tumblr because I know it won’t get any notes and that way, I don’t give this moron any more attention past my rebuttal here.

I’m leaving his whole thread here in case anyone does has 5 minutes to read a redundant, barely put together frankenstein of an “advice column”. There’s some tweets here and there that I missed but honestly, most of the tweets he has are garbage anyway. But hey, I went through the headache and came out fine, right? He photoshopped the gigachad over his face when I took these screenshots but surprise surprise, it's a white boy with a receding hairline. It’s always the white boys with receding hairlines. Jester! A rendition of “gangsta’s paradise” on your smallest violin!

First, the irony isn’t lost on me from this idiot hijacking a term that originated in fandom and specifically fanfiction writing. 

Jesus, I’m about to date myself. Anyone remember Quizilla? That website was my introduction to fanfic. I wasn’t introduced to shipping though. I was introduced to OC x Canon Characters. Right after, I was introduced to Mary Sues. 

If you read fanfiction in the early 2000’s, you definitely read lots of Mary Sues stories. They’re pretty easy to spot. Mary Sue is perfect, she’s an angel (no really she’s got wings), she volunteers at the animal shelter every thursday, she’s beautiful, she looks like Linda Evangelista, she’s a model- 

What was annoying about seeing Mary Sues in stories though, was how much they took away from either the main plot of whatever show/movie they were inserted in, or made each and every character (whether or not they were in love with said Mary Sue depended on the author) act like completely different people. I would describe inserting a Mary Sue into a fanfic the way I would describe death by black hole. 

Sure, they were annoying to read but like, look, listen. Everyone wants to be or feel powerful. Everyone wants to feel love, to be praised. We’re human beings. And I think a lot of these fanfiction authors that did write Mary Sue stories were pretty harmless. They were writing what they wanted, how they wanted, and exploring the art of writing. What’s not to love about that?

Leave it to dickheads though, to hijack a term from fanfic and turn it into “my peen doesn’t work so I have to resort to insulting fictional women :(”. 

But it’s interesting when we look to the other side of the spectrum, when we look at male writers and what we call male characters that are perfect, strong, dependable, have a 10 inch dick flaccid, the whole nine yards, right. Gary Stus is a thing, yeah, but you know what most people call these male characters? Power fantasies. Just look at this idiot’s next tweets.

I’ll never get this obsession with the Hero’s Journey. You know there’s other structures in place, right? Most film schools teach you other methods because guess what? Some stories won’t fall into the hero’s journey. Wow! What a concept! 

Also, what textbook is telling us the protag has to be weaker than the villain? Where’s this fundamental rule I missed while attending screenwriting class? (I love that he doesn’t use the term antagonist in this comparison either. Who says a story has to have a villain?)

This is a funny comparison to me. Rey’s establishing scene is literally her scavenging on a desert planet and being on her own. Yeah, she might not have technical training on how to wield a lightsaber, but you know what she does know how to swing? A fucking staff.

It’s believable to me that a woman who has spent her entire life fighting for survival can beat the absolute shit out of the entitled pissbaby that is Kylo Ren in the first movie. (Edit 1: a friend reminded me that Kylo also got shot by a goddamn WOOKIE BOWCASTER before this scene too. COme the fuck on guy.) 

Yeah, the fucking writing takes a nose dive in subsequent films because adult ass men can’t be bothered to write a fucking outline for their movie trilogy but that’s just me. Jfc I hate the sequel trilogy (Finn and Rose my loves they did you dirty) but I hate this dude more for making me defend them.

I hate the tone of this tweet. I’m sorry, random dude on the internet, you somehow became the leading authority on how any story starts now? If everyone used this convention, you have to understand how oversaturated the market would become? Hello???

Don’t get it twisted, Rings of Power is a HOT mess. I wouldn’t touch that show with a fucking suspension crane. But like. Look. Listen. 

This moron doesn’t know how to write.

I don’t want to be mean but come the fuck on. You’re seriously not going to look at this scene, of Galadriel (who has spent fuckall trying to find Sauron to avenge her brother’s stolen hairline) with a squad of elves she knows don’t wanna be there, who aren’t on her side, and see that she’s willing to sacrifice whatever it takes (her fellow countrymen or access to literal Heaven) to kill Sauron fucking dead, I don’t know. I don’t know what to tell you. You might actually have rocks for brains. 

Hell, I’ll put my money where my mouth is. I’ve got a screenplay that deals with a similar introduction of the main characters to that of Galadriel. Three necromancers in a graveyard in a post-apocalyptic world get attacked by chimeric monsters and you know how the scene goes down? They wipe the floor with the chimera. Cause you know. Necromancers. 

Adrian the character puts it aptly: 

There’s blood, guts, and death magic everywhere. It’s fucking sick. There’s no risk here to them but guess what I’m trying to do here: the scene is meant to show that the three mcs are both 1) young/immature and 2) deadly. You know what else I’m doing? I’m establishing the world the characters are in is a dangerous, violent place. Contrasting their ease in this first fight to their fights in later “episodes” with alchemists and literal avatars of gods, where they only get out of those situations alive due to intervention from their absent minded mentor, the chimera actually prove to be the least of the main trio’s problems.

Now, I have no idea if the scene from Rings of Power had any kind of thought put into it the way I’ve thought about my introduction scene (I stopped after the second episode) but idk, these types of scenes have merit if you just used your fucking brain, I think. Just because a fight scene doesn’t have any “risk” involved for a character in it doesn’t make it worthless.  

Also I don’t know about you but I would not run straight into a fucking troll. I’d let the bitch gnaw on Henry’s leg too if it meant not having it take a bite out of my ass. 

Don’t they mention that they haven’t seen a troll in centuries during that scene too? I’m sorry, encountering a fucking creature that hasn’t been seen in hundreds of years? And you’re expecting me not to shit my pants? I’m supposed to strike a pose and tell the short haired bitches behind me to squad up? They complained the whole climb up here! Of course I’m going to get my fucking bearings first! 

Anyone in any kind of military occupation (ew) will also likely never suggest you going Leeroy Jenkins on a troll when more often than not, hm, yeah, you’re gonna get eaten. 

You’re never seen combat. Pray you never do. STUPID POINT. MOVING ON. 

Further down the thread, this dude makes more reductive points about storytelling that is probably dryer than the women that have to deal with him on a regular basis. These women are in my thoughts. 

TO MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE PART OF THIS THREAD. This dude’s weird obsession with femininity. 

So this is a segway but this dude’s really weird feminine talk reminds me of a character from my aforementioned screenplay that is the exact thing this guy is looking for in a female character. 

Maria the character (lol) is kind, brave, she wears really cute accessories in her hair, she always gives her support and aid to any that need it, her main priority is her family and she’s the deadliest antagonist in the screenplay. The whole time she’s been playing on the mcs’ (and the "audience"’s) assumptions that she’s a soft cottagecore uwu dream girl and manipulating them, reading the characters’ minds without them knowing to make sure she is always saying the things they want to hear from her. And that’s before she unveils how fucking good she is with spacial magic (basically a portal gun made into a spell) and beating one of the mcs to near death for “picking up the wrong spoon” during tea time. 

At one point I made it so in her backstory, Maria led three separate planets to fucking ruin because she’s the leader of hundreds of cults. These cults are all the same: they believe in only ever being kind and generous and loving your fellow man, but they also believe the same thing Maria does: if you’re not 100% of the time being kind and giving then you’re better off dead. She was killing children for not wanting to share candy with each other before the main antagonist showed up and “redeemed” her. (She was a girl ♪♪ he was a frankenstein human with a god complex ♪♪) Love this journey of a fellow Piscean going, “wait, maybe I can be fixed” and then being made worse. Now she wants to meld the entire universe together into a fucked up hivemind to achieve true understanding amongst mortals. I had to include the “killing children” part because I know some of you mfs would look at this small Mexican woman, with her baby face and flowing skirts and kind voice, and take her side, even as she led you to your demise. Actually, hell, some of you might even excuse the “killing children” part! In my heart I know this fucking dude would fall for Maria’s whole schtick immediately.

(That’s how you write villains btw.)

Anyway, my main point: Femininity is not soft. 

My favorite scene that I’ve written with Maria the character so far is when the main cast realize she’s been orchestrating the end of the world behind their backs alongside the main antagonist. As she’s leaving the scene with one third of the main trio with her (Cora, the one beat to near death over a fucking spoon) and the main antagonist (who is also near death because we like symmetry in this house!), the other two necromancers (Adrian + Maxwell) obviously try to stop her. The way she gets them to let her leave with their companion is masterful. 

Because she doesn’t threaten them with violence, doesn’t hoist their friend up in front of her like a shield. 

No.

She tells them she’s pregnant.

At this moment in the screenplay, Maxwell the character has been heavily relying on religion to grant him comfort from a world where the end of humanity is in sight and he has to see people stop looking like people the more desperate they get. I explore the concept of survival a lot in this screenplay. At the end of the world, what are you willing to lose? How far are you willing to go before you stop acting like a person?

Maxwell, at this point, doesn’t know. He’s terrified about the prospect of it. 

And here? Maria doesn’t even mock him for it. But the way she asks him, forces him to realize he has to decide between the love of a God (because they both know it’s to the death if combat is introduced) and his friend, well, it breaks him.

What an evil bitch. I love her so fucking much.

Femininity is not soft.

And that’s how I know this stupid motherfucker can’t write. Because women aren’t a monolith, the same fucking way men aren’t a monolith. He’s putting very clear misogynist ideals onto these fictional women because what? He has a narrow view of the world and if a woman in a movie or tv show somehow manages to get a sniff of agency (and that’s if the writers somehow manage to rub two brain cells together to even get to that point), suddenly she’s a Mary Sue? 

At this point, what the fuck does this dude want? 

This is literally Galadriel. All these traits and ideals can be attributed to Galadriel too LMAOOOOO

Kinda telling in this freudian slip here, where instead of referring to them as protagonists (which they are in their respective stories), this dude would refer to Galandriel… as the antagonist? The mislabeling, bruv. Muddling terms used as foundation for storytelling just to dunk on female characters isn’t a good look.

Patrick Bateman is an investment banker that kills people. He stabs a homeless man and kills his dog because his colleague’s business card was nicer than his. He is still the protagonist because he is the central character of American Psycho and we are following his story.

I also refuse to believe that the mislabeling is intentional on his part. I don’t think this man has the brain cells to understand themes. Or irony, if that’s his angle here.

Great advice, guy. Riveting. I love that he’s saying this when his occupation is literally a ghostwriter lmao. Think about your job security, guy!

I love the extra heap of irony that he's instead pivoted to writing... a memoir? Why the fuck is a memoir ghostwriter trying to give me advice on how to write a story lol

Hopefully these people are cool with the fact that this dude admitted that he ghost writes for them. I really hope they were told he was going to admit that. Ghostwriting is a fine occupation but people lose a lot of credibility when it’s revealed they have a ghostwriter. Lord knows I’m not gonna trust their advice when they went to this guy to write for them. Oof.

(What the fuck is a memoir mashup. I’m not being facetious here, I actually don’t know what this is. Help?) 

I love that this dude just randomly talks about getting the “strongest possible emotional” response from readers. Then. Shares this screenshot. Of a guy being like, “yeah i bought three copies from you. And a book from a separate author. The separate author mention is the most interesting part of this tweet.”

(EDIT 2: I JUST REALIZED THIS TWEET ISN’T EVEN DIRECTED AT HIM??? I’M SCREAMING, WHY DID HE SHARE THIS IF IT’S NOT DIRECTED AT HIM????????)

Like. My guy. You really think I’m opening my wallet up and… getting advice from you? I’d rather redo coverage of an old classmate’s fantasy screenplay with characters that didn’t have names and instead were referred to as “KNIGHT” or “THIEF” the entire time. They all talked the same. He sent the screenplay as a google doc.

I’d rather do that. 

God, I love when idiots need to advertise their shitty services. 

This added with a gross transphobic tweet that he liked from someone dumb enough to reply in agreement with him, I mean. You know this. I know this. This guy has a receding hairline, can’t get bitches, can’t write, and is releasing youtube videos on how he utilized “cancel culture” and turned it into profit. 

(Yeah, cause getting 10M impressions and less than 10k likes on the start of your thread is really sticking it to the mob.)

He’s a goddamned loser. And not even like… a sexy loser. Like me. I’m a loser. You can say, “Mars don’t say that'', but I literally almost got kidnapped a month ago and the only reason I didn’t is because I told the dudes telling me to look at the back of their car for “cheap designer clothes” that I was actually late for work so I couldn't but “thanks for offering”! Also this rebuttal is over 3k words long. Trust me. I’m a loser. I still get bitches though. They let me hit it cause I’m goofy and forklift certified. 😎 (I have the glasses on because i cry every time I have to use a forklift.)

Writing conventions are conventions for a reason. They’re an establishment. So please, don’t take my proverbial beatdown to heart. (Unless you’re OP of the thread, I hope this makes you cry. <3) For all my bitching, there’s a reason why the Hero’s Journey is still taught in school. But do you have to necessarily follow long established conventions? Nah. 

I would get constant notes from my professors about needing to stick to conventions because it was a good way to tell a good story. And yeah, I semi-agree. But when I would get coverage from my peers, the other students in my classes? They loved the shit out of my stories. They loved the fact that I subverted conventions. Because that’s the type of writer I am. And there’s plenty of writers out there that only write conventional stories, but it’s through their execution that the story still ends up becoming a fulfilling experience. 

For all of my bitching of the writing for these female characters, people still enjoy all the media discussed here. There will always be someone that looks at something you wrote and think, “this is amazing”. I promise you. Even if you’re writing the most cliche story in the world or the most ridiculous out of control story in the world, there will always be someone willing to love your work, exactly the way it is.

There is no right way to tell a story. Don’t let dickheads tell you that there’s a clear cut way to write a story. Not even dickheads like me!

Now go write some Mary Sues, bitch. 

[river-bottom-nightmare]

i want dick grayson to be annoyingly perfect in the smallest of unimportant ways. and i want it to irritate the living hell out of everyone around him

every now and then, jason and dick will go to different chili dog carts around the city, and dick will sit and nod in agreement as jason nitpicks the food, occasionally offering his own two cents. the conversations are tense and if the topic strays from anything except food jason books it, but it’s progress, and dick’s grateful. but he doesn’t understand why jason always growls at him when he’s preparing his chili dogs, chalking it up to jason’s obsessiveness about that food in particular. dick figures he’s probably doing it wrong. until one day, jason bites out a rough question, asks him how he did that. dick’s confused, until jason points out, “you tear open the top of the ketchup packet in a perfect line every time. and you get all of the ketchup out of the packet in one smooth squeeze, and you never get any on your fingers, and i don’t understand how.”

roy was, arguably, a better archer than ollie. green arrow had been birthed from the island, from the trauma of survival. roy, however, had been practicing since he was a kid, and now that he was well into his twenties, he could safely say he was one of the best shots in the world. he could beat all his friends at darts, shoot an apple off wally’s head, and was generally pretty awesome. or, he would be awesome, if only dick fucking grayson would stop making every single shot of anything he threw in a trash can. no matter what he was throwing away, no matter the angle, no matter the wind or rain, as long as the trashcan was in eyesight, anything dick tossed would inevitably end up inside the garbage. sometimes, dick barely even glanced at the damn thing, just took note of it a threw the trash, expecting it to land in the proper place. and it always did. the worst part was, dick didn’t even seem to notice it. he wasn’t actively trying to make every shot. when asked, dick just shrugged and said “we had some pretty good knife throwers in the circus.”

tim’s memories starting out as robin were a whirlwind, a push-pull of bruce’s mistrust, then bruce’s acceptance, of dick’s fear and hesitation, then of dick’s love. he still remembered dick making the two of them hot chocolate in the kitchen after a day of training, tim’s muscles sore and entire body aching but the feeling of pride, because he was good enough to be robin, he knew he was. he hadn’t expected that to happen anytime soon again, given the way their relationship had fractured after tim had left dick’s batman, a terrified fury in his eyes. yet, he’d been proven wrong when, after a particularly rough arkham breakout, alfred asked both dick and tim to stay instead of returning to their own apartments. just because the manor brought back a feeling of warm nostalgia, however, doesn’t mean it kept the nightmares away. he came down to the kitchen and saw dick already up, moving around the stovetop. with a knowing look in his eyes, dick grabbed another mug to make tim some hot chocolate. tim was washed over with a feeling of relief, of acceptance. dick slid the mug towards him and tim took a sip, letting the rich chocolate warm him up from the inside. it was delicious. his little sigh of pleasure must have been audible, but then he remembered something he noticed. “dick. did you use alfred’s recipe for this?” and dick laughed, responded with, “nah. too much work. i just sort of tried to remember what was in hot chocolate, and eyeballed most of the ingredients. i’m glad it turned out good though. no clumps too, that’s good.”

donna didn’t care how old she got, playing in the park with dick never got old. as one of her oldest friends, the two of them could just walk around the park, in companionable silence, just letting themselves relax and enjoy the moment. so, of course, dick would break the silence and ask if she had any earbuds, because it was getting to quiet for him. donna laughed, and reached inside her pocket, fingered past the keys, and grabbed the headphones. the tangled little ball that came out made her sigh, and she pulled on an earbud to loosen it, only managing to make one of the many knots tighter. then, dick took the headphones out of her hands with a here, i got it, and with a few quick tugs, the tangled monstrosity unraveled easy as breathing. then, completely unaffected, he handed her an earbud, putting the other in his own ear. “i’m the one who’s got a lasso,” she said, ignoring dick’s snort and quip about how earbuds and a lasso are two completely different things, donna.

cass hadn’t expected to enjoy such a gentle, graceful form of athletics, but after a few lessons, it had become apparent that ballet could be far from gentle. it pushed her, made her practice and strengthen herself, and she’d fallen in love with the art quickly. however, the most frustrating part of the entire thing had little to do with actually dancing. the school bruce had helped pick out was prestigious, which meant a strict dress code, which meant her hair had to be in a bun. unfortunately, her hair never seemed to want to cooperate. after her latest attempt, falling into a mess of hair at her nape that had so many locks falling out, cass contemplated how mad the teacher would be if she showed up in a ponytail. at that moment, dick peeked into her room, having heard her frustrated noise, and asked if he could do anything to help. cass pointed to the mess of hair, not even remotely contained by the hair tie, and blew a strand out of her face. dick smiled with understanding, then came into her room, grabbing the comb on her bed and standing behind her in front of the mirror. he smoothed her hair with the comb, then pulled it this way and that, twisting and turning and wrapping until, two minutes later, a picture perfect bun sat atop her head. cass blinked with surprise. “first try,” she said, staring up at him, but he just shrugged and said, “it’s not that hard. you want me to drop you off?”

bruce could admit that he rather enjoyed undercover missions. it was an extended game with high stakes, a test of his own acting skills. with makeup changing his face, an expertly made wig, and a demeanor completely different from both brucie wayne and from batman, he swept through the crowd of greasy men, looking for a specific contact. then, he caught sight of someone specific indeed, though they weren’t his contact. eyebrows raised in a what are you doing here? gesture, he slid onto a barstool. from behind the bar, dick offered him a blinding smile, cleaning a glass. he tapped his wrist twice, a clear message. undercover, same as you. then, dick grabbed a couple bottles from underneath a shelf, flipping them in his hand and pouring with grandeur. bruce noticed he hadn’t put any alcohol in his little mixture, only making it seem as if he had. the flashy moves were entertaining, bruce could give him that. dick slid him the drink and bruce took a sip, eyebrows raising in brief surprise. “this is good. bartending?” dick put the bottles and the lemon away, unimpressed. “it’s not like it’s hard. just mixing a couple ingredients. no biggie.” bruce was fairly certain bartending was more difficult than that, but just then, his target came into view. 

steph understood some of the bats’ frustration with dick, she really could. he hadn’t exactly been a welcome and opening batman, that’s for sure. regardless, as the few masks left in gotham had to work together, and she’d gotten to know the man pretty well. and she enjoyed his company as nightwing much more than batman. she dropped onto his balcony in his bludhaven apartment, announcing her presence in that loud-subtle way. dick was nestled in a couple blankets on the couch, going over a couple files, apparently just back from patrol if the small bandage on his neck and bags under his eyes were any indication. nevertheless, he brightened when he saw her and she nodded when he asked if she wanted to spend the night. he moved some of the papers to make room for her on the couch, but she flitted into his bathroom, going through the nail polish bottles she knew he had, and grabbing a shade of red that caught her eye. she tossed him the bottle and put her fingers in his lap, talking aimlessly about a movie she watched with cass. dick seemed to relax amidst her jabbering, and he shook the bottle a couple times before opening it and focusing on her right hand. but as he started, steph paused her rambling and focused on him instead, holding her hands gently and brushing paint onto her nails. he managed to cover her entire nail in three easy strokes, smooth and glossy, not a hint of paint on her skin. the nail was practically perfect. oh god she was jealous. “got a lot of practice with this, grayson?” she asked, and laughed at dick’s mock-offended of course not!

damian wasn’t one for photography, and he could grudgingly admit drake was far better at that particular skill than he was. however, his art class had promised to cover all types of media, and had upheld that pledge. the next two weeks were dedicated to photography, and their final project for the unit had to be a small collection of photographs. animal photography, of course, was damian’s chosen subject, and the knowledge that animal photography was one of the hardest skills to master only had damian wanting to do it more. days later, however, he could admit that it was trickier than expected. how had he never noticed how active his animals were? they never sat still, and every single picture came out blurry. grayson, upon coming across him in the manor grounds, noticed his futile attempts and asked if he could help. damian acquiesced the camera to grayson, who looked through the lens, finding the right angle and background, adjusting the focus settings slightly. then, he let out a sharp whistle and snapped his fingers. in nothing short of a miracle, damian’s pets pasued to look at him, only for a second, and the shutter clicked furiously. damian flipped through the photos, a good many of them clear and wonderful. damian snapped in irritation when dick ruffled his hair and said, “now you try!” it definitely wasn’t as easy as grayson made it look.

babs didn’t really know what she was expecting when she broke up with dick. there was hurt on both ends, and distance for a while, and she had no idea how much she’d miss him. but after a couple months of working together, of remembering that underneath the romantic tangles, their friendship was strong, she’d gotten to the point of dick randomly dropping by her apartment again. the downside was, dick kept randomly dropping by her apartment again. he stole her snacks and messed up her filing system and was so irritating that barbara almost forgot how relieved she was at having one of her best friends back. fortunately, it did come with benefits, because when he was bored, he did some of her chores for her. pausing in the doorway, she smiled at the sight of dick folding her clothes and putting them away. the gesture was platonic now, but no less appreciated. she pushed her wheelchair forward, and in greeting, dick told her how much he wanted to steal all her patterned socks. babs reminded him they wouldn’t fit, and laughed at his pout. dick grabbed one sock off the top of the laundry basket, then dug his hand into the pile of clothes randomly, coming up with the second sock in an instant. folding them together, he repeated the process for each pair. “that...that was fast. you got all of them?” babs asked in confusion. “yes? why, did you expect some to be missing?” was dick’s reply as he shook the wrinkles out of a sweater.

wally was never surprised. he knew dick better than probably most people in the world. he’d gone from frustrated and jealous of dick’s random talents, to admiring and appreciative, to just accepting them as a fact of life. dick’s phone never cracked if he accidentally he dropped it. dick never buttoned up shirts wrong, aligning each button with the right hole perfectly on the first try. dick could plug in usb ports the right way. dick always remembered which light switch was for which room, no matter whose house they were at. dick could pop a cd out of its case without ever smudging the disk, holding it by the rim perfectly. and dick always seemed to know when wally needed a day off, to just visit their old haunts, grab some ice cream, and spend the day talking away on a rooftop. that was just something his best friend could do. and wally would never tell dick, but underneath his fake irritation at it, but he loved him for it.

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[phoenixkaptain]

No you know what? The Faithful Wookie short is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen, but not for the reasons you’d expect.

This was the first appearance of Boba Fett, which automatically makes it very funny to me because oh my god, why does he introduce himself like that?? The first time we meet Boba Fett, and it’s on this weird water planet that is almost entirely pink and also he is shooting the weird sea monster thing. The weird, dumb sea monster thing.

I love the sea monster things. They are dumb and they want food and they’re just hanging out. One eats Luke’s ship, but it isn’t even threatening. They all have this dumb, perpetual grin and I just trust them entirely. Do they even eat living things? Because they all just seemed interested in eating metal. Is that just them being dumb again? I mean this in the nicest possible way, like when your cat slides on the hardwood and crashes into the wall, or when a dog barks at its own reflection, or when deer jump when they shed their own antlers because they weren’t expecting it, that is what these things are like and I love it.

Anyway, not the point.

Boba Fett. Comes in riding the weird pink sea monster (my beloved). And he is just the most suspicious man on the planet. He is literally wearing a helmet. All the other characters in the series that wear helmets (at this point in ths series, back in the seventies) are literally evil. And Luke Skywalker takes one look at this suspicious fellow who sounds like the least trustworthy man in the galaxy and goes “Yeah. I trust this man :)”

Like ???? Luke, why do you immediately trust this helmeted stranger who tells you that lower, dumber life forms shouldn’t have supplies wasted on them???

This is made exponentially funnier by the fact that literally no one else trusts Boba Fett. C-3PO doesn’t trust him, R2-D2 doesn’t trust him, Chewbacca doesn’t trust him, Han knew him for all of fifteen seconds and so we don’t really know, but I’m pretty sure he probably didn’t trust him. Like, the only person who trusts the suspicious man is Luke. Every other character is very wary of the suspicious man, and C-3PO is like “Why do you trust him?” and Luke basically says “What do you mean? He’s friend-shaped :)”

Like, okay, they find out he’s evil and working for Darth Vader and all, but Luke just kind of watches as Boba backs out of the room, pointing a gun at him, and leaves. Mid explanation of why Boba is evil, and Boba dips. He’s out. And Luke just politely watches. Why does Luke just politely watch? He doesn’t even try to stop him!

Luke is like “He sure had all of us fooled” and Chewbacca is the one they say wasn’t fooled, but literally nobody else was fooled. Luke was the only one fooled.

I don’t know how to explain it. This thing is nine minutes long and the art style makes my head hurt but Boba Fett is the least friendly-looking thing in the entirety of ever and Luke takes one look at him and immediately trusts him completely. He’s not even angry Boba Fett turns out to be evil. He’s just kind of disappointed. It is literally so funny, I don’t even have words.

This was the best introduction to a character that I’ve ever seen, including how Boba either is the most talented actor ever or was actually legitimately concerned for the weird blond kid who immediately trusted him.

How to explain this. They walk onto the Millennium Falcon, where they know Chewbacca is and they saw Han upside down behidn Chewbacca during a transmission. Okay. Chewbacca is throwing the weird artifact out what I assume is the garbage shoot. Luke gets zapped by a weird laser and immediately sort of melts onto the ground (okay, he passes out, the animation is just silly). It looks like it came from Chewbacca and when I tell you that Boba immediately gets defensive, I mean it.

I think the whole plan was for Boba to show up, probably with Luke, and explain this whole mystical artifact that makes people sleep (and kills them unless they’re hung upside down, what type of artifact is this??? Who made this? I don’t mean Sith or Jedi or other, I want to know the specific person who exists in the Star Wars universe and who woke up one morning and somehow thought, “Hm, what to do today. Oh, I know! I’ll make a weird thing that makes people die in their sleep unless they hang upside down! Yeah, that’s what I’ll do :D” Who are you???) but did Boba not expect it to shoot Luke? Was that not in the plan? Why does he react so weird? Like, he immediately ties up Chewbacca like he thinks it’s him, is Boba Fett just a wonderful actor? Am I just dumb? Why is the scene so hard to comprehend?

The answer is: the animation is weird and the pacing is terrible and the whole story is convoluted and by God it was the best nine minutes of my life.

[voxvulpina]

Word of advice, like not in a bad way, but when you get asks like that from people who are genuinely horrified and feel like their childhood was ruined (rightfully) I think you should first and foremost point out and open with the fact that the sequel is not canon.

That alone is already a very efficient way to invalidate it, and it’s a very known thing in the anime world that a series not written by creator = not canon. It’s literally as simple as that, so it’s just the easiest way for everyone, I think.

For example, from my personal experience, friends who were genuinely disgusted with knowledge of the spin-off immediately disregarded it the moment they heard Sumisawa is the writer and pusher for this thing to be made, instead of Rumiko Takahashi the creator. It’s heaven and earth.

Shippers like to claim there isnt such a thing like “canon” in Japan, but there is, because it’s all about creator vision. So unless shippers believe Sumisawa and Rumiko Takahashi are the same person, their works are completely different, have different values, different treatment to characters and most of all — different understanding of the story.

I did point out that HNY is a spin-off not written by Rumiko Takahashi, but I reckon you have a point. Horrified!Anon, you may want to read this - as I mentioned in my previous reply, for some Antis, Sumisawa being the writer of HNY makes it easy for them to disregard the show entirely. It doesn't work for everyone (personally, I haven't touched my Inuyasha collection since episode 15 - I'm waiting for this nightmare to be over, I need to throw HNY in my mental garbage bin before going back to IY) - some of us are just too thoroughly sickened by Yashahime. We know it's not canon, we know the studio itself does not recognize it as such (they refer to it as a derivative work/spin-off/what-if), but it still grosses us out to the point we can't watch the original Inuyasha without thinking of HNY.

If it makes it any easier, Rumiko Takahashi herself came out and said that to her, Sesshomaru is Rin's "hogosha", aka her parental figure/guardian. Rin being a 15 yo child bride is exclusively Sumisawa's lolicon fantasy.