#the characters' arcs and evolutions are SO well-written

[thenationofzaun]

Thoughts on Act 1 of Arcane Season 2

The positives:

- The animation is fucking incredible.

- Jinx and Sevika teaming up watered my crops and cleansed my skin.

- Underwater goodbye with Jinx and Silco. That scene was made specifically for me.

- Jinx's voice actress continues to be excellent.

- Loved the designs of all the Chembarons. The glimpse we got of the gang wars was also interesting. Unfortunately, too tiny a glimpse. Which brings me to...

The negatives:

- Too many plotlines. They stuffed the season with too much shit which is why each individual plot gets a much shorter screentime than it should. Smeech is introduced and killed in the same episode. Chembarons' gang wars, a huge issue which has repercussions on the entire Undercity, gets only one musical montage before moving on. And this is coming from someone who loved that montage, as well as the song. My favourite on the soundtrack so far. But musical montages shouldn't come at the expense of the story and definitely shouldn't replace the story. There are just way too many music video scenes in general that feel like a way to condense a storyline into the sparknotes version because they don't have the screentime to flesh it out. And they would have the screentime if they cut out all the extra stuffing. Look I'm happy for the League fans who are excited for the Black Rose and all that, but what the hell is it doing in a Piltover/Zaun show. And with zero foreshadowing in Season 1 too. It would definitely be easier to swallow if they had at least hinted at it in the first season. They could have kept Ambessa's beef with this magic cult for a Noxus show. The P/Z narrative has enough to deal with, enough characters to handle already.

- The new side characters are uninteresting and generic. Maddie and the two other enforcers (we don't even know their names after three episodes LMAO) are bland. We know nothing about their characters or personalities. Maddie looks like a rookie, and one of the dudes is an alcoholic, yet they get chosen for an elite strikeforce to capture Jinx? Isha is pretty generic too - the token cute kid that needs protecting. I get the role she will play in Jinx's arc. But that's the problem - she should be a character in her own right, not just a vehicle for someone else's character development. A good example is Mylo. He died for Jinx's arc, but when he was alive he was a distinct character with his own personality. We had a sense of his insecurities, his goals, who he was as a person. Name a single personality trait of Isha and Maddie other than "generically nice person". That's right. You can't.

- Whatever the hell is going on with Viktor. He wakes up from his coma and immediately rejects Jayce so quickly that it was funny. Apparently disapproves of Jayce using the Hexcore to save his life, but then immediately goes to use the Hexcore to save random Undercity people. Bruh. I also don't really like the way the fridged woman from last season seems to be his motivation so far. Nor the way he seems to have no agency in his Machine Herald arc. Instead of Viktor himself believing in transhumanism and mechanizing himself, Jayce does it for him. Instead of Viktor having an ideological drive and wanting a "Glorious Evolution", he is driven by guilt over Sky. Meh. Also he's not even mechanized, instead he's weirdly fleshy?? In a magical way?? More like The Magic Herald :(

- Vi. Her whole character is a mess. Insanely rushed arc which I find unacceptable for one of THE main characters and one of the faces of the show. She and Jinx are supposed to be the leads, their relationship the heart of the story, but so far only Jinx is a well-written fleshed out chaacter with a believable arc. I have too much to say about Vi so I'll expand more on this on another post.

- So much nuance and detail is missing. How does Heimerdinger feel about his ex-colleagues being killed? Does he care? Does he feel guilt? Relieved that he wasn't in the chamber when the bombing happened? No clue! Let's have comedy Mission Impossible instead! How does Ekko feel about the Council attack? Does he approve of it? Think Jinx went too far? How does he feel that she even survived their fight to begin with? No clue! Here, have him joking around with a Councilor for a bit (someone whom Ekko logically should despise), then he can talk Science with Jayce and all three get sent to another dimension together. Yay. What does Vi think happened to Ekko? The last time she saw him, he was fighting Jinx to the death to give Vi and Cait time to escape. He could be dead for all she knows and she doesn't give a fuck. Doesn't even think about him nor mention him once. It's like the writers forgot they're childhood friends. What does the entirety of Zaun make of Silco's death? I assume they heard about it from Piltover (who heard about it from Caitlyn), but how do they think it happened? His body is gone and to Zaun it seems he just mysteriously disappeared. Are there conspiracy theories? Conflicting accounts and rumours? So much nuance that would give the world and characters more depth, sacrificed so we can pack in more rushed subplots and music videos.

- Caitlyn "Wifebeater" Kiramman. And Caitvi in general. So far Caitlyn has guilt-tripped Vi, manipulated her into joining the enforcers, insulted her and then physically abused her. After Vi sacrificed everything for Cait, wore a badge she hates for Cait, even let Cait kill her own fucking sister (and only intervened when the random kid got involved). Why should I give a shit about such a one-sided relationship lmao. "B-but Cait's mom is dead so she's sad about it", every other fucking character in this show has dead parents. Half the cast has faced unfathomable amounts of trauma and pain that make Cait's pale in comparison. Nothing justifies her hitting Vi. "B-b-but it's a parallel to when Vi hit Powder", a shit parallel then. Because the circumstances are not even remotely comparable. "God forbid lesbians do anything🤪", give me a break with this corny bullshit. Be serious for a second. I'm not even a Vi fan and I think she deserves better than this mess of a relationship. The power dynamic between them makes it worse. The way Caitlyn is one of the richest people in the city and Vi is broke. The way Caitlyn is highly educated and Vi never went to school and spent her entire teen years locked in a box. Did the writers think about all this when writing their relationship? Keep in mind, Vi met Caitlyn like a week ago. She barely knows this chick. She's been out of prison FOR A WEEK. Where she was physically abused every fucking day. Putting her in a relationship with a cop who hits her would certainly be a choice! Do I have faith this show will handle it with care? Not really, no. They already ignore Vi's prison trauma. Most likely they will make Vi forgive Cait way too easily because "muh mummy muh grief".

[kaizokuou-ni-naru]

What! Are your top five reveals in One Piece! Which ones made you go “holy shit” or “hell yeah” the most!

i'm taking reveal here to mean 'points at which previously-hidden information is revealed to the audience,' not just where we're told something new. so:

THE FREEST MAN ON THE SEA: maybe not as dramatic or seismic as some other things on this list, but to me luffy telling rayleigh that to him being the pirate king just means being the freest in the world is the single most important thing we ever learn about luffy's character, and it defines the themes of the whole series. it recontextualizes everything about luffy and the way he interacts with the world and the way he pursues his goal because now we finally know what that goal actually is, and what it means to him. and for the whole first half of the story we don't know this! it's easy to forget because we're, what, six hundred chapters past it now, but we get all the way to sabaody without really knowing what drives luffy, and then we get it and it slides into place perfectly.

WORLD SANK: a recent one, but so satisfying and well-placed. the sunken world reveal is the best kind of big lore reveal, to me, because it's something that makes so much sense it was completely possible to predict it years ago (and people did), and now that it has been confirmed, it's opened up a massive world of implications and questions that are incredibly fun to think about. i'm really excited to see where the story goes with it.

NIKA: i'm sort of rolling everything we learn about gear 5/nika/joyboy in the 1040 chapters of wano together here; i've written at length before on this blog about why i like the nika reveal so much, so i'll just say now that it takes one piece's most fundamental and powerful themes and symbolism (liberation and joy and the sun) which have been built up across the story and reveals to you that those things are a real literal force in the narrative strong enough to turn a draconic tyrant into a garden snake. and having established what he has now about nika, the way oda has continued to explore the implications of that figure existing in the world has been absolutely fabulous to read.

RAIZOU IS SAFE: a smaller and more arc-specific one compared to some of the others on this list, but i just really like the way this reveal is done. the interval between the dressrosa team's arrival on zou and the reveal that raizou was there the whole time isn't even particularly long, but it's the execution which makes it; the devastation of the city, the solemnity of the whole moment, inuarashi and nekomamushi bowing their heads, luffy and the strawhats' reactions. i like the minks a lot, and this is the moment that defines them as a group, as well as establishing the themes of loyalty and sacrifice that will go on to become very prominent in wano.

ROGER WAS DYING: i've talked before about how i really like the handling of roger as a figure and how our knowledge of him evolves and becomes more personal and human over the course of the story. the turning point in that evolution is the introduction of rayleigh; his reveal that roger was not caught, that he turned himself in because he was dying, and that they found the truth of the world there at the end of the grand line. it shifts the whole presentation of the story; we've been told about roger from the very start of the very first chapter, and it's here that we learn the information we thought we had about him has been woefully incomplete. there's a bigger mystery here, one greater than just 'what treasure did roger leave.' and i really like we get this context about roger in the very same scene we learn what it means to luffy to be the pirate king.

[everykindofnerd13]

Dude I love haikyuu so much. That’s basically my catchphrase rn. I call my friend and open the conversation with “I love Haikyuu” and proceed to wax poetic about the intricacies of Kageyama and Hinata’s relationship. Or the parallels between Oikawa and Kageyama. Or how Haikyuu is such a perfectly written story because even though we will always want more we will never feel that we are left wanting.

Haikyuu had an incredible beginning, middle, and end. Every character and arc felt intentional and essential. And at the end of the manga there is not one character who I feel needed just that little bit more development. Sure would I have liked to see more timeskip? Absolutely. Would I KILL to see Hinata’s second and third years of highschool and the evolution of the Karasuno first year’s relationship, in a heartbeat. But I don’t feel like it was necessary.

That’s what makes Haikyuu so good, every moment felt necessary and it added to the plot. Even the dumb silly little moments where they’re just teenage boys being teenage boys. I fact that ADDS to it. So much of haikyuu’s story is about Hinata is learning and growing and improving, and it’s because he is meeting and loving and encouraging. Like how do I explain this? Hinata, to me, is a character who cares so much that it forces the people around him to care.

Especially his teammates. I’m sure there are arguments to be made for other characters, but Hinata is the HEART of Karasuno. He’s literally the one who gets their blood pumping. I MEAN COME ON IN THE NATIONALS NEKOMA V KARASUNO MATCH KENMA LITERALLY DESCRIBES THE TEAM AS A GROUP OF HINATAS WHEN THEYRE PUMPED UP. He is their energy. And in return they are his support. If Hinata is the heart then they are the rest of the body. I could give you an analogy for each one but I don’t have to because you can see it, once Hinata starts pumping up, everyone else falls into their role with ease.

He is such a perfect MC and I LOVE HIM. And I LOVE HAIKYUU. AND IM SO GLAD THAT IT DIDNT GO ON FOREVER OR END WITH HUNDREDS OF UNANSWERED QUESTIONS. The fate of a story is for it to end. And the purpose of a story is for it to teach. And the desire of a story is for it to create emotion. And Haikyuu did all of these things so well. I could go on and on, I’m sure as you’ve already noticed, but it’s just because I LOVE IT SO MUCH.

I genuinely recommend Haikyuu to anyone as a first anime, it’s entertaining, it’s reasonably concise, and it’s deeply moving. Haikyuu tells a good meaningful story with action and excitement and grief and despair all without ever causing any real harm. Haikyuu creates the feeling of a villain while also giving you the gift of another perspective on the court.

It is. Amazing. I love Haikyuu. If you made it this far, thank you and good night.

[technicallyfriendly]

I promised a while ago I would make a fanfiction rec list for lucemond, so here we go:

Star-crossed by DominaReginald

I have to say this is my all-time favourite lucemond fic. If you like the Lucerys-gets-kidnapped-instead-of-eaten-at-Storm's-End-trope, then this one is already worth a read, but what I love about this story is that it shows how the conflict really impacts lucemond's relationship, which is the focus of the plot. Much happens, of course, but the story focuses on how the war and Aemond's subsequent participation in it impacts his relationship with Lucerys. It's also very interesting how this story handles the marriage pact with the Baratheons. But really, a short summary will not do this master piece justice, so I urge you to go and read it yourself! For anyone who is hesitant due to the major character death warning: It's not the main couple, though the deaths occurring are tragic and happen to beloved characters.

the beast you've made of me by MotherMaidenCrone

I don't think anyone has walked past this amazing and beautiful fic in this fandom, but it still deserves its mention on this list as well. No other story has ever done a Team Neutral approach this well and nuanced. If you wanna see Lucerys girilboss his way through King's Landing politics and beat everyone at the Game of Thrones in a desperate bid to save his family from self-destruction, this is for you!

the tragic evolution of desire by toraophim

So I debated long and hard before I added this on because, boy, does this one make you feel stuff, and a lot of it is not great. It's an amazingly written story, and since I enjoy dark themes, I did like it a lot. Though, and this is important, the warnings are there for a reason, this dove is deader than dead. Also, none of the characters are having a good time here aside from Aegon for a time, which is why you should not read this if you are an Aegon stan. The author really turned him into a monster. If you are like me and enjoy an emotional rollercoaster with a somewhat happy ending, I say proceed with caution ;).

Set fire to the rain by baby345

This is a collection of a few short stories about lucemond. I really enjoy the writing and its variety!

Blood for Blood by GoddessofRoyalty

The way the author puts it in the summary is actually the best way to describe this fic: Aemond is not cruel, but he is also not kind (and Lucerys has both none of and all the power). And that is also how I like their dynamic. The story is told in snippets of their life together before and after the marriage, and the writing is really enjoyable!

all I had to give by monkkeyslut

This one starts out as one-sided love despite Aemond trying really hard, in his own way of course, but it's not just about their relationship but also about dealing with the aftermath of the war and the current unstable position of Lucerys due to the continued absence of an heir. This fanfiction is not only well written and a great ride, but the author also has an interesting take on Alys before we got even got introduced to her in HotD.

Office Lucemond by Avonne

This is a collection of ModernAU!Lucemond fanfiction about lucemond matching each other's freak told through the eyes of their stunned and slightly terrified coworkers and through the eyes of a very unimpressed Vharga.

Borros and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by lucerysinthesky

This is the funniest lucemond fanfiction I've ever read, which is why it gets a place on this list despite being tragically unfinished, but I have not given up hope quite yet! Maybe one day we'll get the last chapter. Still even unfinished, it is awesome, and it'll make you cry laughing, I promise. The title says it all already, and Borro's does suffer a lot while also having a full character arc and all while trying unsuccessfully not to die.

For now, I'll finish this rec list here, but there are still many more great stories out there that I haven't mentioned. Maybe I'll update it in the future or make another one for the once that I did not include here. For the ones reading this, I wish you a lot of fun reading the stories!

[lookingforhappy]

The Birth Locations/Suitcase Reveal Sucks

before you read please don't take this too seriously, I don't have a problem with people who enjoy this reveal I just wish more people would consider/analyse this as I feel like it's very half-assed and not at all well thought out

I know I've written something like this before and i'm sorry to write this again, but I think my arguments have developed and I want to explain better why I hate this decision.

I am referring to this set of posters for season 3

as the stickers on the suitcases were revealed to be their birth locations by Jeff King (executive producer and director) on instagram

the actual answer to his question is "lila's sticker" but semantics/specifics who cares (me)

why I distrust the theory/trivia as a whole

something I think should be considered here is that this is the only confirmation of this piece of trivia.

another example of TUA trivia that has been confirmed by the creators is the statement by Blackman (god ik just ignore that part for now, that isnt the point of the post & he's still a/the creator) on a reddit AMA that Grace helped the siblings choose their names based on their birth countries

however, these are both poorly researched/prepared pieces of trivia because they blatantly contradict each other

Luther's birthplace is Sweden, but Luther isn't a Swedish name, nor was is popular in either 1989 when he was born or 2002 when he was first seen using his name.

Diego is always a fairly popular name in Spanish speaking countries like Mexico but it's hardly high on the list (only statistic I can find is ranked at 31.)

Allison is neither a South African name nor is it listed as it's top names.

Klaus is Germanic (kinda fits the theme) but as far as I can see Klaus is not a biblical name which is much more typical of the Amish. Klaus is also not listed amongst the top Amish names that I've seen.

Five obviously is an outlier here.

Ben is clearly not Korean, and while I have had fun discussing the roots of his name with others (Jae-min becoming Benjamin, and Bin becoming Ben) I don't think that there's any way that the creators will acknowledge this. Ben has origins in Hebrew and is not at all popular in Korea.

Vanya (the applicable name, as Viktor wasn't yet revealed) is a male name in Russia. it's female in other countries like Bulgaria, but not Russia. It's a nickname/evolution of the name Ivan. Vanya is also not a popular name in Russia, but Ivan does seem to be. And I seriously doubt that they're going to reveal that Viktor originally named himself Ivan while he was identifying as female and then decided to change his name anyway?

which is to say, the word of the creator cannot always be trusted/believed, because that's not necessarily what will be reflected in canon or by the other creators.

there is quite a history in fandom of creators not understanding the themes/plotholes of their own creations, so i'm a little stunned at how quickly everyone integrated this into their canon without a second thought.

i have arugments as to why these locations are bad choices for the characters, but first lets take a look at what i believe these stickers were meant to represent

Placing down a read more because this became huge.

what the other stickers reference/mean

it's no secret that i think the stickers were hints to the events (related to each character's arc) of season 3.

but before i get to that let's breakdown the rest of the stickers and their meanings:

all of the umbrella's have an umbrella sticker. Lila is the only one who doesn't (so if we're playing the "who is the odd one out" game then it still falls as Lila because she is the only one without the umbrella sticker)

Luther

Luther dies in Hotel Obsidian, and never makes it physically inside Oblivion or has any part in powering it - so his sticker has the colours/design of Obsidian.

Diego

Diego is one of/the first to discover Hotel Oblivion, so he has the Oblivion colours and logo.

Allison

Allison is involved in Reginald's plot to use Oblivion to reset thte universe, so gets Oblivion's logo instead of Obsidian.

Klaus

Klaus was the one to know and direct them to Hotel Obsidian, so he has that logo.

Five

Five's revelation that he was the Founder of the Commission, and the impact of that discovery, links him to the Commission more so than either hotel.

Viktor

viktor has the hotel Obsidian logo because he has very little impact on anything to do with Oblivion and is one of the votes that decides to remain and die in Obsidian.

Lila

Lila has the Commission because she was raised in the Commission, not the Umbrella Academy.

Lila has the Obsidian logo in opposition to Diego's Oblivion logo as she chooses the opposite of Diego (I personally believe they should have swapped these two but..)

why the birth locations are more likely/appropriate as hints for the events of season 3

Luther - Stockholm, Sweden

This is probably my strongest argument: He is made fun of for having "Stockholm Syndrome" within the show

found: Season 3, episode 3, minute 13.

Luther, obviously spends all of his character development/moments with the Sparrows and Sloane - being kidnapped by them and developing "Stockholm Syndrome" for Sloane (romantic) and for the Sparrows as a whole (platonic/idealism/escapism)

Luther's mother's newpaper cutting also mentions 911 being called, but 911 is not the emergency number of Sweden, 112 is. Argentina, Canada, Dominican Republic, Jordan, Mexico, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, the Philippines, Sint Maarten, the United States, and Uruguay use 911 but not Sweden.

If Monica wasn't in Sweden at the time of Luther's birth, then Stockholm is hardly his birth location.

throughout the seasons we get a few instances of Diego, Ben and Viktor speaking their native languages, hinting that the 7 were all taught their mother's languages (with Allison at least likely learning all 7)

But if Luther is Swedish, why didn't he or Diego know what Oga For Oga meant if that's Luther's mother's language? and why was Five the only person who seemed to understand Swedish when he's not the Swede of the family? Why did Diego not at least recognise his brother's supposed second language? Or Luther for that matter?

Luther was a part of the Academy for 23+ years, longer than anyone, yet Reginald (who expects the best of his children) didn't bother enforcing this as a part of his education? his number one had a worse education than his number 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7?

Diego - Mexico

Diego apparently doesn't even get the luxury of a city, place or region. But I can confirm that his mother's newspaper cutting states that he was born in a "small town in Northern Mexico".

However, Diego's sticker could instead be a reference to the Aztecs or Mayans - his sticker has mayan/aztec pyramids on it, I believe maybe Chichen Itza specifically?? Ancient civilisations that were very advanced for their time, and that are somewhat frequently involved in alien conspiracies.

Diego is one the one to open Oblivion when he removes the harpoon, and is the first to enter it and confront the Guardians.

Oblivion is an Ancient building/place built by an Ancient civilisation of what is assumed to be aliens, and Reginald (confirmed alien) is the one to have directed them into Oblivion at first as well.

Allison - Cape Town, South Africa

Nelson Mandela is pretty famous for his part in the anti-apartheid (segregation) movement, helping to end segregation in South Africa. He was jailed in a Cape Town prison for attempting to sabotage the pro-segregation government, and then later his office as president was located in Cape Town.

an easy connection to make with Allison's arc in season 2, and the significance of it in her arc in season 3, with her dealing with PTSD, grief over Ray, and feeling alienated by her family who didn't have the same experience as her in the 60s.

Allson's mother has nothing connecting her to South Africa outside of this, as far as I'm aware.

Klaus - Pennsylvania, USA

This one I will concede is about his birth location. But in this case, it's also heavily related to his season 3 arc, as he is the driving force of the mothers plotline and literally travels to Pennsylvania.

PA is a strong and relevant hint for his s3 arc.

Five - Dublin, Ireland

Five could be connected to Ireland in multiple ways.

(there is a link between Five and JFK, "the 1st Irish American President" but I can't see the link to s3 here so honorary mention only).

A link that I understand is a somewhat touchy topic for any Irish citizens is the stereotype of drunkeness in Ireland. While there have been studies to prove that Ireland doesn't drink more than other countries such as England, it remains a well-known stereotype and the Irish people are statistically more prone to alcohol dependency/addiction.

There is also the phrase "make it Irish" which means to put alcohol in a drink, one of the more popular drinks to do this to is coffee. Which brings us back to Five - he is known for his love of coffee and for getting spectacularly drunk.

season 3 in particular features his drinking addiction in it's full glory. it's also plot relevant as his drunkness causes the murder mystery setup of the final episodes.

(also, while it's not great to have Ireland be the hint to alcohol, it's also not great to have Five, the alcoholic of the series, be the Irish representation)

Another interpretation could be the root of the name "Dublin" meaning "black pool". It was likely derived from the River Poddle which would have been stained black with peat. This could be a hint towards Five's elusive role as the Founder, as his life so far has been stained with childhood abuse, the apocalypse and his foray as an assassin, making the reveal of the Founder a shock.

One other interpretation is the Irish vs. English. Five is perhaps the most skeptical of Reginald throughout season 3, moreso than even Luther or Diego. While England has enraged many countries, Ireland is one of the most well known for it's dislike of the English, and has a lengthy history of war and altercations with England. So Five's sticker may be a hint for his re-ignited distrust of Reginald. It also works well as a predictor for Five and Lila's (English) bathroom fight.

Five's mother's newpaper cutting has several contradictions to the Ireland, Dublin location. First and foremost being that she is cited as being from both a "small seaside community" and from "county clark".

There is no County Clark in Ireland, but there is a County Clare and a County Cork. However, County Clare is on the opposite side of Ireland to Dublin and County Cork is even farther away,

Dublin, as the Capital City, is also not a "small seaside community" by any stretch of the imagination.

And the Irish police would likely not be referred to as "provincial" but instead be called Gardaí or The Garda Síochána.

Viktor - Moscow, Russia

Moscow is seen in season 1, episode 1 very briefly as Reginald arrives to adopt Viktor. You can see both the Spasskaya Tower and St Basil's Cathedral. Viktor also speaks Russian, something that none of his siblings have demonstrated.

However, this is not actually Viktor's birthplace (if we believe that the props have canon information, as most argue that Diego is definately from Mexico due to his cutting stating his mother was in Northern Mexico, etc) as according to his book Viktor was born in "small town off the Southern coast of Russia".

Moscow is nowhere near the coast and is not exactly southern either, nor is it a small town. And while this isn't exaclty specified that the "small town" he visits is the place he was born, it wouldn't make much sense if it wasn't, as Viktor was able to track his mother down via newspaper articles about his birth.

Moscow could mean a lot of things for Viktor's arc:

it could be a reference to s1, ep1 but instead of his exact birth location, it could simply hint to his mother's country and toward Harlan's involvement in the mothers' deaths - and the long reach of his powers from America to Russia.

It could also be a hint to Viktor's significance as a much more involved and aware plot driver this season as Moscow is the politcal centre of Russia as its capital city.

It might also hint at his disconnect from his family (not being a part of the Academy and not understanding the hard decisions and necessary teamwork that come with it) causing tensions, as while Moscow is the political capital, Saint Petersburg is considered the cultural capital.

Plus Moscow's history as the capital works well as a parallel to his journey with his powers, and works as a hint to Viktor developing his powers with Harlan because Moscow also briefly lost its status as the capital to Saint Petersburg, possibly a parallel to Viktor, the most powerful of the Umbrellas, losing his powers to Reginald's drugs. Moscow was later restored as the capital, paralleling Viktor's regaining of his powers.

Lila - Berlin

Lila is nice and simple, she was considered the outlier by Jeff King anyway as her suitcase doesn't match her confirmed birth place (London), and instead is a pretty obvious hint to her time in West Berlin, Germany, with Trudy and Stan.

why i dislike the chosen locations as the birth locations

in general I think it's silly to choose almost all capital cities: Dublin, Moscow, Cape Town, Stockholm, Seoul..

I know these are populous places but there must have been some variation? (aside from Klaus, who has plot armour for this point due to his Amish origins, and Diego, who is the only non-capital city purely because he wasn't given the dignity of a named city/town/village)

it's also lazy writing (and i believe somewhat racist?) to have every sibling come from the country/continent you'd expect?

the latino is mexican

the black woman is african

the asian man is asian

the blonde haired/blue eyed man is scandinavian

even Klaus, Five and Viktor are all white men from predominantly white countries.

at least try to subvert expectations?

to an extent i understand that they were trying to incorporate the actors ethnicities with Justin having korean roots, and David being raised in mexico. But the only irish thing about Aidan is his surname, and Emmy has no known connection to South Africa. I'm also pretty sure Tom isn't swedish at all and Elliot isn't russian.

it's lazy, poorly planned and honestly highly questionable writing at best

[reiderwriter]

Hello!!If you were part of the writers on criminal minds,what would you have done differently when it came to the romantic relationships of it all and whats your opinion on some of the ships?Which would you erase and which are your favorites?I'm willing to read as much details and analysis you are willing to give on this lmao😂I loved the analysis on Reids sexual evolution season by season and am really curious on what you think on the ships like Reid and JJ,Reid Lila,Reid and Maeve,Reid and Elle😂Personally I would have created a diffrent character as a love interest for him all together.

This is practically an essay so I'm just going to apologise in advance of this. I'm not going to say I'd change much because the end product we got is my favorite show for a reason but yes, here is me talking about all the romantic relationships I can think of in CM and my opinions on them!

(Spoilers for season 1-15 of CM, CME, and season 8 of NCIS - yeah that's how long this post is).

Reid Ships

I think Reid ships are the ones most people have issues with in Criminal Minds so I'm going to start here with personal headcanons and my personal highlights. It's going to become clear that my biggest pet peeve in CM is when the writers want to give the characters a love interest and then just gender-bend their personalities, so let's start with Maeve and Spencer.

I've already talked at length in other posts about how I think the Maeve/ Zugzwang plotline wasn't my favorite. It was some amazing acting from MGG and Beth Reisgraf, but personally, I think it suffered from "serialized cop drama" plot line status. This show airs week after week with another case to solve in 45 minutes and they don't have the time or the format to pause through moments that in a standard drama would be very impactful.

To go on a slight tangent, that is partially why the relationships between the main cast are usually the only ones developed very well over extended arcs (I'll return to this when I talk about Jeid).

So, when you're trying to have an emotionally resonant moment, and you only have a handful of cold opens and one full episode to do it, you're going to have to make the characters motivations, personalities and back stories mesh in a way that makes you think: "holy shit they're perfect together."

Maeve and Spencer aren't that. I hate to use this term, but Maeve is like a manic pixie dream girl for Spencer? She's written as if she's too good to be true, which is why we're supposed to feel so sad when she dies. But they also tried to make her a complex character and didn't have the time to really do it, which is why we're given a back story that makes no fucking sense (as Spencer's DOCTOR no less) and some hints that she probably doesn't feel the same way as Spencer does for her (fiancé she never told him about etc.)

When Spencer's character starts evolving in later seasons to being more than just a genius, but a genius with trauma, they pull a similar stunt with Cat Adams/ Max

The show runner Erica Messer did mention that the Maeve plotline was always designed to be a three act plot: she's introduced, Spencer is in love with her, she dies. But, in my opinion, we didn't get enough of an introduction to her for me to feel really all that bad about it? They banked a lot on the audiences attachment to Reid, so when you feel bad about Maeve's death it's all about Reid - why do bad things keep happening to HIM, I wonder how HE will get through it - when she is the one who was just murdered. Those kind of dynamics always kind of throw me in romantic relationships.

I'm going to be clear, I do not ship Cat Adams and Reid either and I have pretty much no opinion on Max other than that if she were real I'd probably avoid her (teachers who hate teaching and blame the kids are weird! And I'm a teacher so I can say that I think lol).

Cat Adams is girl-Reid if he had a villain arc. She's 100% again there to push Reid's character development, and she's used as an action rather than a character. Max is the same. In season 15, with the entire team at a crossroads, they have to allow Reid two outs: one villain arc where he gives into his lust for Cat Adams, and one happy ending where he gets to start something with someone who is totally normal and a way out of the BAU the way Savannah was for Morgan. But it can't be as easy for Reid, and that's why we're left with the Cat/Max dilemma because he is really attracted to Cat, despite the fact that she was threatening to end the lives of members of Max's family.

By the end of the show, Reid had been actively on the team the most out of all the cast members (bar Penelope, but she wasn't out on cases first hand, so there's not as much emotional baggage there for her). He can't have an easy exit, so I kind of view this "love triangle" bullshit as a metaphor for Spencer choosing a normal life vs a continuation with the BAU.

Which is why I think that if CME continues, I think we're unlikely to see or hear from Max, because that means he's picked the BAU.

Okay now, not to sound like a broken record but, Jeid:

Before Truth or Dare, there is one single suggestion of Jeid being a possibility and it's a suggestion, from Gideon of all people, in season 1. It is CRAZY to me that after thirteen seasons they just decided to develop that one plotline again because jesus CHRIST.

My main problem with Jeid is that, actually, I think it had a lot of potential. Like I said, serialized dramas only have time to develop relationships between their main cast members, which is why we end up with a pseudo-found-family vibe no matter who happens to be on the team at any given point. A lot of similar dramas go down the route of coworker/ team mate relationships (think Ziva and DiNozzo in NCIS or Mulder and Scully in The X Files).

There was absolutely the potential for an opposites attract relationship with Jeid, but I think the minute they abandoned that after that small dialogue we got something WAY FUCKING BETTER. Their friendship is entirely underrated, Spencer regularly babysits her kid, she comforts him after Emily "dies," enough for them to have arguments about it after the fact. Your honor they are SIBLINGS. That is UNCLE SPENCER. Not your future step-dad.

When they decided to commit to JJ and Will, they should've stuck to it, and as a big fan of the Season 7 finale + Hit and Run it is very shitty seeing them trying to retcon both of these characters amazing developments and growth over 14 seasons and have them regress to shit tier versions of their Season 1 selves.

"But Kacie, there must be some Spencer relationships you like," I hear you ask. And there ARE:

Lila Archer is a great foil for Spencer. She has a happy, glamorous life until their paths cross, and then we can assume from dialogue in season 6 that she continues having a pretty fucking glamorous life after everything goes down. I don't think Spencer works best with characters that are traumatised or overly smart the way he is, because he needs something to return to after the cases that switch off that part of him, to help him forget the horrifying shit he sees on the job.

So Lila Archer was kind of a great love interest.

Another one that I'm so annoyed they didn't explore more is Austin. She's the bartender in the Season 4 Episode "52 Pickup" that is charmed by Spencer's card tricks. She is never mentioned again, but they had a great chemistry, she was quick on her feet and managed to spot the unsub first, and she was a really great foil for Spencer as well; it was a street smarts/ book smarts kind of dynamic. If they'd carried that character forward and had her reappear a few times, it could've been a great romantic plot.

I will just quickly note that the reason we most likely didn't see many romantic plots for Reid was because Matthew Gray Gubler didn't like the idea of giving him a romantic plotline, stating that there were so many more interesting things to do with the character - and he's right!

I'm a fanfiction writer, and the allure of characters like Spencer Reid is they are mostly romantic clean slates - you can write whatever you want for them within reason without having to disregard canon relationships. This is why similarly, Steve Harrington, Eddie Munson, Venom, and young "Marauders" fanfictions are pretty popular here imo too - canon compliance isn't disregarded, the reader is just written in. So I don't think I'd change a thing for Spencer to be honest (apart from maybe not kill Maeve off and give her the actual villain arc, but I say that so regularly I'm beginning to sound like a broken record).

Also I'll just quickly mention Elle because you mentioned her - outside of fanfiction there are literally zero hints (imo) of a thing between Elle and Reid lmao there's more of a case to be made for Elle and Morgan, but for some reason, writers and fans alike don't like committing to giving Morgan more than simply platonic connections. THEY SHOULD!! THE MAN IS SEXY AS HELL!!!!!!! GIVE ME A MORGAN WHO IS REGULARLY FUCKING!

Hotchner Ships

Speaking of characters that have a long time where they are single! Aaron Hotchner is another fandom favorite to write self-insert fanfiction for, because of the gap between Haley Hotchner's death in 100, and the introduction of Beth in season 7.

In general, I like the way Hotch's relationships play out on screen. Let's start with Haley:

You can tell that the writers really enjoyed the dynamic between work Hotch and home Hotch, because they played on it so much across the four first seasons. The very first time he is introduced he's in his bedroom picking out baby names with his childhood sweetheart, so any further scenes of him being more stern or serious are always in contrast with that introduction. It's a cold open to his character that immediately let's you know that there is more going on in his world than just the BAU, and he is the only member of the season one team that has that.

Then, they really LOVE taking that shit away from him. I'm not going to go into detail here about how fucking wack the time line is for Criminal Minds, but it is stupid and that's important here because:

I think Haley's reasons for divorcing Hotch are stupid.

She says that she married a man who was a prosecutor, not a man that was an FBI Profiler but realistically by the time of their divorce, he'd been in the BAU like 10 years. They rely more on the audiences sense of time (we're two years in, so they've all been on the team two years etc) to push this character motivation off. And for a while it makes sense that they were separated, until the events of 100. But also: in sickness and in health, for better and for worse, you literally signed up for whatever the FUCK happened, that's what a marriage vow IS.

Now I'm a sucker for the angst of 100,but would it not have felt 10x more emotionally disgusting if Hotch and Haley were talking about reuniting? If they had never celebrated in the first place, and had just finished working through their marital issues when Foyet comes back into their lives and Haley has to be whisked away again? Yes. Yes it would.

There's an episode in season 9 that really pisses me off, and it's the one that Hotch passes out from an old tear in his Foyet stab wounds and he goes into surgery and talks with Haley and Foyet in heaven while watching the rest of his life after the events of 100 on a cinema screen. It's cliché and also has no pay-off because it doesn't change the way he views his relationships after that, and it's not like he's at a crossroads at that point, so it means nothing to the audience except as a remembrance of an issue and an episode so far in the past that it feels like flogging a dead horse. They do this twice, btw, and this is the more successful use of this plot (the first time they do it to Elle in Season 1/2 during the events of The Wicker King - she talks to the father we didn't even know was dead, who died decades ago in an unrelated time. Not to keep bringing NCIS up, but I think the only time I've seen it done well is whenever Gibbs kept seeing Mike Franks in the diner scenes). They do not out enough effort into these plots to achieve the emotional resonance they are aiming for in my personal opinion.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think this could've been the beginning of the era where Gibson was having a lot of issues with the cast, because it just felt like they didn't want to use him in the on-location shoots for a while lmao. Anyway, all that to say, Haley should've stayed dead, and not come back as a stupid phantom.

After the dust has settled on Haley and Hotchner though, we get Hotchner and Beth:

This is going to be a short note, because I actually really like the relationship between these two characters. They have the very slow cold-open build up that Maeve and Spencer get, but there's a lot more and a lot less to Beth's character that makes the dynamic between them really enjoyable to watch.

We're once again treated to the out-of-work Hotchner that had been missing since Season 4 (his in between scenes with Jack are cute but there's always the tragedy hanging over them). Beth is running a marathon in honor of her dad, Hotch is doing something similar for the FBI Triathalon, they train together the tension builds, they start dating. Now obviously it wasn't the purpose or aim of this character introduction to build to tragedy, and I think they just genuinely wanted to show a happy Hotchner again, but its still a valid criticism of the weird voyeuristic Maeve build-up that they literally succeeded a more sympathetic and audience engaging late minor-recurring-character EARLIER THAN THE MAEVE ARC.

I'll shut up now, but yeah, I like Hotch and Beth.

Penelope Ships

This post is getting ridiculously long, so much so that I'm even contemplating adding a fucking word count, but let's continue and dive in to my next issue.

Penelope's romantic life is used as a punch-line for the first 11 seasons and I HATE it.

There is no easy short to say this, but I despise Kevin. He is stupid, and a joke, and I hate him and I am SO HAPPY that she dumped him. They made her really pathetic about him for a few episodes, and then he kept fucking coming back too which was even worse.

Kevin is literally male Garcia but with all the worst attributes. He's clingy, and needy, and he may be smart but in a very "incel" way. In my opinion, Kevin is less a fully fledged character and more a joke line/ convenient plot point for when they need more tech analyst work. The best moment in the Kevin/Penelope arc is during the The Gathering, where she really lays into him and tells him off for being jealous of her ukelele instructor AFTER THEY'D BROKEN UP.

Penelope deserved so much better than what they gave her romantically in these seasons. First, her date tried to kill her, her boyfriend was a joke, etc. She never gets the serious romantic plotline that her other teammates do (Hotch/Haley, Spencer/Maeve, Derek/Savannah, JJ/Will, Emily/being a big old lesbian etc). Penelope is really great levity for the rest of the cast because she is happy and she is positive and she is unapologetic in her positivity. It's annoying that they don't let her be more than that in the romantic relationships they give he during these seasons.

Then Luke Alvez is introduced and there is some hope! Galvez truther's please, rise they are so adorable.

Anyone involved in the writing of CME - what the hell was that? Now I haven't seen it myself, to be completely fair, but I know enough to ask the question - really what the HELL was that?

Tl;dr Penelope's sexuality and romantic relationships should not be used as punchlines.

The Aversion to Homosexuality

This is just a general note, but the writers originally did plan to have Emily Prentiss be gay - amazing, great, it's a completely different time now, please let her have a gay awakening soon. It was obviously scrapped early in, but there's a lot of subtext that can be interpreted in that way.

They did commit with Tara, and she gets a gf in CME, so I want to see some Temily in the future if we do get more CM seasons.

So just so you know, everytime I mention Emily flirting with someone in my fic, assume it's a woman if you aren't already, lmao.

(They did also talk about making Reid bisexual as well, which would've also been great, but again, I don't think we're ever getting any more romantic plotlines from Reid).

Other Characters

Here's just a rating and short mention for all the other character couples I can think of in Criminal Minds, because this is already thesis length lmao:

Morgan + Savannah - 8.5/10, no notes, really just the gender bent love interest but done right.

Alex Blake + Husband - 7/10, solid couple, very much enjoyed when they started bringing in the people in established relationships again lmao.

Kate Callahan + Husband - 5/10, same as above but I wasn't as attached to her character rip.

Matt + Kirsty - 10/10 really no notes, I too would be called a breeder if I managed to lock that man down, damn.

Rossi + His 3 Ex-Wives - Make total sense for his character, very enjoyable to me, love that he has a nice moment with most of them again throughout the series, not going to rate it lol.

Rossi + Strauss - 3.5/10 - Last ditch attempt to make Strauss a sympathetic character, but I felt more attached to her growth after being called out by Derek rather than the effect that her death had on Rossi.

Gideon + the friend of his who is murdered by that Frank guy at the end of season 2 - stupid, worst way to go out, made no sense for the character, but I know Mandy Patinkin wanted OUT and honestly, anything for you Inigo Montoya.

Why I think Criminal Minds is Better Without Romance

Generally, I really do agree with Matthew Gray Gubler when he said that there were more interesting things to explore with these characters than their romantic attachments. It does frustrate me to no end that they focused on some of them more than others, and that post Henry, most of JJ's big moments are tied to motherhood and being a mother/ wife, but that change in her character is still amazing and leads her to a lot of growth (not mentioning Truth or Dare again, sorry it doesn't exist at this point in the post)(also I didn't have much time to mention Will and JJ, but I do love them).

Their best moments are the ones we get of them together as a team, saving people and putting away murderers for life, it's a perfect Found Family!!!

Also, no more romance = Spencer Reid can be mine. In conclusion, I am delusional. Thank you for reading this far.

[kideternity]

Digimon adventure 02 review time! Similarly to the adventure review, this one will be written in a less concise way / more of a ramble of bullet points- August was a very hard month for me TDLR, so this led to another weird watching experience. But as a whole, I really loved this season, and It helped me through the month.

Full thoughts under the cut;

-Similarly to the original adventure, 02 has a very charming art style, arguably even more so charming for me personally then the original. The animation stays roughly the same- the same style of reusing various shots and scenes from previous episodes- but I did notice here and there some areas of somewhat higher quality. The new Digimon designs of the season I was worried I was going to hate, but I ended up liking all of them a lot more then I expected, and I enjoyed the beastly or slightly strange nature of a lot of them.

-Music was the same as adventure for the most part that I noticed, though I personally prefer the main theme songs for 02 over Adventure. I like the upbeat and dance nature of them

-Compared to the rest of the seasons, 02 had the least amount of focus when it came to the children’s families and parents. Outside of Iori and Ken, we never properly meet the parents of Miyako or Daisuke, and rarely see them, and Daisuke's sister exists purely for comedic relief then as a substantial character. Iori and Ken explore new dynamics however, that being the experience of being a child who grows up with a dead parent (and one whose death affects the overall narrative) and that of being a child who grows up in a dysfunctional or potentially neglectful home- we see characters like Jyou and Sora who have problems with their parents, but those are swiftly resolved in an episode or two. Ken's dynamic with his parents is more complicated, and we see throughout the series the repairing of their relationship comes more gradually. I didn’t really end up finding that the lack of any sort of major familial aspect a failing of the show, and I found both Iori's and Ken's relationship with their families engaging, particularly Iori's perception of his father in the last few episodes

-I love the worldbuilding and I'll always love the global aspect. I definitely wish the world tour arc, and generally the existence of the worldwide chosen children was explored more thoroughly- In general, I wish the chosen children as a lore concept was explored more in depth, since 02 makes various changes to it (some that contradict each other), and takes instead the approach of “anyone can be a chosen child if they truly desire to be so” which I much greatly prefer then the way adventure presented it as a “Following Your Destiny” storyline. 02 follows in the footsteps of Adventure's world, and expands on it in a way that I really enjoyed- I loved seeing the existence of proper towns and societies in Digimon, the armour evolutions and Jogress, the existence of Qinglongmon and the holy beasts, even the fact that different worlds even existed such as Dagomon's ocean.

-As a whole, I would consider 02 EXTREMELY ambitious- from worldbuilding, to characters, to themes and plot. It had a LOT it wanted to do- many various different goals it had set for itself to accomplish- which leads to a watching experience where for the most part, they achieved, but still inevitably along the way ended up getting burned and not being able to properly answer all of the questions it asked of itself. It gets messy, and contradictory, and some arcs will probably never get a genuine conclusion to them. But personally, I think I do prefer for a series to try and do as much as it possibly can, even if it may get overwhelming and they fall short of what they wanted, over a series that plays it safe.

-Pacing was a mixed bag- I find that 02 had a hard time starting arcs, and ending arcs (Most notably the first BWG arc) as well as a problem of certain arcs ending up being just a bit too long or way too short (Again, BWG, the world tour). Tone was also somewhat of a issue, as there was a tendency for out of nowhere comedy and filler episodes to be written in usually in the middle of or just after otherwise serious storylines, which can get frustrating. The same applies for weird, out of nowhere joke scenes being added to episodes that very much did not need them. I really, REALLY liked the main themes for 02 though- there’s a large emphasis on redemption, change, connection, violence/morality and mortality, and I would honestly argue that 02 tackles the theme of violence and power way better then Tamers ever did! There’s genuine care and discussion given to exploring the nature of violence and what violence can do, as well as having the kids ACTUALLY give a shit about killing Digimon, and ACTUALLY explore their feelings about having to ultimately kill Digimon for the sake of protecting others. It’s great. I absolutely love it. And I feel like not enough people give 02 it’s flowers for it.

-The same writing problems that plagued the original season still persist, such as the sloppy and inconsistent writing, but as a whole I definitely think overall plot and character writing improved. 02 tries much harder to actually tie its story arcs together, and to give the impression that it is an actual cohesive narrative. And I just- GOD, I love the characters of 02 SO much. I love Daisuke, I love Ken, I love Miyako, I love Iori. It’s nice too, seeing older versions of the characters, who aren’t overbearing on the other characters or treated as innately more special (ignoring that one scene with Takeru and Hikari that thankfully goes nowhere). I also generally liked Takeru better this season, and seeing his complex feelings about the power of darkness, and I wish it got properly resolved. Hikari was nice too I guess. But returning to the main group, all of them are such engaging characters, and generally 02 cared a lot more to give all of its characters more equal development instead of focusing on one over the other or suddenly cutting arcs off short- Miyako's and especially Daisuke’s development near the end of the season takes a backseat in favour of Ken and Iori, but it never felt the two were somehow now suddenly More Important. The only big complaint I have, is that the writers felt particularly mean sometimes to the kids, for seemingly no reason whatsoever. Not enough to ruin the series, but definitely noticeable. #Justice for Daisuke

-Continuing off the characters bullet point, 02 also prioritised very heavily the interpersonal relationships for everyone. To me, 02 definitely has the best writing of the friendship between cast members- we get to see each character's unique dynamics with one another, explore their thoughts and emotions about each other. The original adventure has a major habit of either writing about the characters individually, or sorely as a group, and even Savers and Tamers didn’t bother trying to explore the intricacies of certain potential relationships/prioritised certain relationships over others. Adventure 02 really did care to represent its core theme of connection with others, and it did it well.

-02 thankfully forwent any overt horny jokes, at least with the kids, but it did have a higher emphasis on romance. It was still mostly a backseat thing, and isn’t really relevant or necessary by the end of the series. Daisuke's crush on Hikari definitely got grating at times, but I forgive it more then other times when seasons try to talk about romance, since at least they tried to explore Daisuke's character through his crush.

-Compared to the original season, 02 put a LOT of stock into having much more complex antagonists, and focused heavily on redemption as a theme, from Ken to BlackWarGreymon to even Oikawa in the finale. I personally liked how they handled the redemption aspect- a lot of people really harp on the idea “it was possession all along” being a big part of how they redeem the characters, at least in Ken's case, but IMO, the dark spore + Oikawa's involvement existed not as a get out of jail free card, but instead as a metaphor for grooming- Ken's story and Oikawa's behaviour reminded me a lot of the stories of groomed children and their groomers, and I think it does a disservice to act as though the writers were simply being lazy in this regard, especially since the grooming metaphor becomes even more apparent during the dark spore arc. Also, I hate Mummymon, I liked Archemon and thought she deserved better, and I hope I never see Vamdemon ever again in my life.

Im sure, again, as always, Im missing stuff or have forgotten stuff I wanted to say, but I think this covers my main thoughts and pondering I had. The idea of Adventure 02 being seen as a “bad season” is CRIMINAL to me- I think it is legitimately a fun, interesting, even arguably well made show, better then the original, and I wish more people appreciated that! It was a blast to watch, and I'm really glad I was able to go through it

[girl4music]

This was a great moment for Ares' arc. The moment where he decides to sacrifice his immortality as a god and become mortal all to aid Xena in fighting against and killing his own olympian sister because he's figured by that point that they're all just causing themselves all the torment and the only way to survive is to just leave well enough alone. Leave Xena and her daughter alone. Stop interfering, stop pushing for something Xena will never allow to happen. He is so in love with her by this point that he's just like "Nah, Xena's already won. Time to surrender and just live like she does."

The primary reason was to save Xena's life, of course, but he revives both Eve and Gabrielle because he knows how much both of them mean to Xena and knows she ultimately cannot live without both of them. But it's true that that's never communicated to the audience.

Why would he go against his own health and well-being to revive Eve? His own family? Well, the answer was because he didn't really care anymore. Being mortal might suck but he just might have more of a chance that way. He might just be able to get Xena to come around to him. It's still an Ares thing to do because it's still selfish as all he wants is just for Xena to love him. But it's also a beautiful evolution in him too because he is willing to sacrifice his immortality and lose his family who he believes is just going about this all wrong. He doesn't care anymore because he believes they're just creating their own demise and he isn't about to be one of them. He won't die along with them. It's better to be mortal and be at risk of death than to be assured it.

And I love that little arc for Ares. I love that he finally makes a move even if it is always a move always in his favour because that's Ares. He is always going to do the self-serving and conditional thing but he is going to do it in a way where you can see constant growth in him. But then that's also why he will never win Xena's affection over Gabrielle. It's because he keeps doing the thing that's best for him instead of her and Xena recognizes that respectfully and is like "Yeah, I know. I wouldn't expect anything less from you you stubborn son of Zeus."

I like that. I like that they keep to that dynamic and don't have Ares change his selfish, manipulative ways because it's just what he does. But I like that you see him struggle with what to do and how to do it all the while. I like that you can see that conflict in his nature anyway because you know it's something Xena will understand about him and even though she will never go with him in the way that he wants them to go, she learns to respect him as the god of war and vice versa. By the end of the show they have a mutual respect with this. I love that.

I love that a romance never really develops between them. I love that he confesses the reason for that is because he cannot ever provide Xena with what she needs but someone else can and he begins to respect Gabrielle for that reason. For Gabrielle giving Xena what he knows she needs. For making her happy. It's about as selfless as he is capable of being as a man that was born as an olympian god who has only really ever known getting his way and also how to get his way.

I really do think they make all the RIGHT moves with Ares because you still get to see a multidimensional character without OOCing him and he is very well written in the sense that all of his arc makes sense. They're able to keep to the core of what the character is but still give him decent development all the while so he isn't static and boring. But ultimately he does have to remain... ares: the god of war... of course.

[aspoonofsugar]

do you have a favourite RWBY arc?

Hello anon!

Do you mean story-arc or character arc? I am just gonna go with character arcs because I feel like it :) Here is my list. It combines my personal taste with those I think are best written.

1- Penny Polendina

Penny's arc is the best complete one in the series so far. It is thightly written and very powerful. Her final choice does what every character arc's climax should do: it ties togetyher all the thematic threads explored by Penny's arc in one incredibly meaningful moment. In the end, Penny chooses to be a friend, shows she is an adult and affirms her own humanity. Her choice is meant to be tragic and bittersweet because humanity can be both. Still, it is definately worth it.

1 - Cinder Fall

Cinder's arc isn't complete, but there is already enough for her to get first place together with Penny. Midnight is the best written episode of the series in my opinion and it manages to tie together all the pieces of foreshadowing and subtext present in Cinder's story up until that point. It is also a pivotal point in Cinder's story, where she has to make a choice. Will she recognize she is still a prisoner of abuse or will she ignore this truth? She chooses to repress and fails to develop positively. As a result, she has prepared her own tragedy.

Cinder's story is key to the whole series and it has the potential to end up above all the other arcs, if well executed.

3 - Weiss Schnee and Yang Xiaolong

Ice Girl and Fire Girl are tied for third place! (together with Jaune)

Weiss's arc has a very strong set-up and beginning. She gets a lot of focus at Beacon and quickly develops. After such a solid start her development can take the time to happen slowly, so that we can see how she has silently and beautifully evolved throughout the volumes. She is now warmer, kinder and happier than ever. Points for her having some of my favourite motifs.

Yang's arc is kind of the opposite, in my opinion. She gets the least focus among the 4 main girls in Vale. Still, the moment her arc decides to roll, it gets central stage. Her focus in Mistral is wonderful and her development is beautifully conveyed in volume 5 and volume 6 climaxes. Her confrontation with Raven is especially one of the best scenes of the series.

3 - Jaune D'Arc

Jaune's arc is one of the best executed both in terms of pacing and evolution of the character. If he keeps going this way, he might climb to first place tbh.

6 - Ruby Rose

I am expecting her to climb higher. Her focus in volume 9 was great and a beautiful first step in her development. The choice to mask her LRRH's story behind Alice in Wonderland references was wonderful and brilliantly executed. I think the ending could have been conveyed more powerfully, but the final result is still great. I am looking forward to how her arc will continue!

7 - Blake Belladonna and Oscar Pine

Blake's arc is beautiful and it ties together many thematic threads. Maybe a little bit too much, which is why it is below the other main characters. She is still wonderful though! And the more one analyzes her story, the more gems are found!

Oscar is one of the best written characters in my opinion, as his story is thight and perfectly intertwined with the main plot. Still, I think it has still to enter its climax, hence why he is only 7th place. Totally expecting him to climb higher, though.

9 - Emerald Sustrai

Emerald's arc has still to climax, but I like her set-up a lot and she is slowly going through a beautiful inner growth. There is already enough meet and actual development for her to just make the top 10 :P

9 - Pyrrha Nikos and James Ironwood

Both have masterfully written arcs and in terms of writing they could be higher. Still, I am less involved in their stories compared to others. In any case, they are two perfectly executed examples of tragedies. And different kinds of tragedies, as well.

Pyrrha's tragedy lies in the world around her. Ironwood's tragedy lies within himself.

11 - Lie Ren and Qrow Branwen

Both Ren and Qrow have beautiful arcs, but I am less involved with them when compared to others. So, here they are.

I would highlight this list doesn't consider characters like Salem, Nora, Raven, Summer or Mercury because even if set-up, their arcs still need to properly happen on-screen. Among them, though, I would say that Raven and Mercury especially have wonderful set-ups.

Raven's characterization and focus in volume 5 makes her one of the best written characters tbh. She is despicable, flawed, a coward and a hypocrite. And this is precisely why she is so great. She is very human and layered. It is clear she cares about Yang. Still, it is also clear she is too selfish and scared to act on her feelings. The way the narrative peels away her powerful mask to reveal a weak soul behind it is great. As it is the challenge for her to overcome her fear and make amends.

Mercury has so far one of the best set-up arc. His writing has been extremely thight and almost every scene he is in gives additioinal information on him, his background, his bonds with others and his feelings. All in a very subtle way. Basically, his writing is very rich and we can infer a lot, despite his arc having yet to start. He is the embodyment of the cycle of abuse and I am curious to see how this concept gets explored.

Finally, shout outs to Neo and Ilia. Their arcs aren't as complex or long and have less bits than the main characters'. Still, they are thight and perfectly executed.

Thank you for the ask!

[justatalkingface]

The 'Great' MHA Read Along, Part Three (Chapters 8-11): "Support" Gear and Dodging Death.

Well. You asked for this, so I deliver; upon your head be it.

So. We start off with talking about costumes... actually pretty interesting, though, with companies doing these costumes, I'm kind of surprised there's not brand names on them; All Might, Brought To You By Sony, or something. I guess that was a level of realism Hori wasn't prepared to deal with.... (Note Bakugou's costume comments; 'kill with my knees'?) but then we get to Izuku. And I can't help but feel jipped by this, in a couple of ways. Izuku ends up looking... well, like his mom made his costume, a sore, underdressed thumb compared to all the professionally dressed heroes... and he's also the only one whose face is entirely covered for some reason?

On the other hand, though, it is a nice touching scene, the family reconnecting, Inko admitting her mistakes and that she'll support Izuku.... but couldn't it have been done differently? As is, it feels like Inko is being used as a blatant emotional tool to make Izuku different, and that's rough since her character is barely existent in the first place, and quickly fades away into oblivion as time passes. In the same way that Izuku is the only one who can't actually use his Quirk, the same way he's the only one who is so completely unprepared for UA, he's now the only one who who doesn't actually have a proper costume.

I mean, I get it; on one hand, it's symbolic, and the way he eventually updates it shows his evolution as a hero. But at the same time, I've already made it clear what I think of Izuku starting off so behind, so I don't actually like that symbolism, and even if I was, the narrative feels like it's going a little too hard on the 'he doesn't belong' thing at this point. First time around, I was fine with how Izuku was, and even now my dislike of the starting situation is more on a meta scale than anything, despite the bad logic behind it, because it's written in so engagingly, but I never once liked the costume thing.

There's also the question of why she's OK with Izuku going to UA with either, A, no Quirk that she knows of, or B, a Quirk he just... randomly got, somehow, while applying? When, according to a literal doctor (Dr. Diabolus Ex Machina himself; is the fact that AFO's most loyal minion apparently was Izuku's doctor going to be relevent at some point or...?), that was never going to happen? Ever?

There's... there's a lot of questions she should be asking, here, and as far as we can tell, that just never happens. This whole dynamic here, there was all sorts of room to play with it, expand it, develop Inko as a character and Izuku's background more (and look at the fact that she found out her son was Quirkless and... got fat? Because she handled that guilt badly? The way they talk is like they never talked about Inko saying he couldn't be a hero until just then. Did they... did they really just never ever talk about this again until just now? The more you think about all, the more things don't make sense) and Hori didn't just drop the ball with this, he spiked it into the ground rather than use it.

I'm... sort of grudgingly OK with All Might being a not great teacher here, but not really. I mean, it's still in line with how his brain got ripped out of his head after Arc One, which at this point is something I have a well established history of being... not well pleased about, but it'd track that he wouldn't know how to train students in basic heroism, unlike exercising....

But that leads back to the question of, 'Then why is he a teacher if he can't teach?' Him doing something he explicitly has no idea how to do makes no sense. It's super double dumb though since, again, this is All Might's precious powered-time, and he's using it to... not just to teach kids when he could be saving lives, but teach kids badly, and again, that's stupid, and everyone involved, including Nezu, Super Genius, should realize this.

God, he's so badly shoe-horned into all this I'm actually wondering if he was supposed to die in Arc One and pass on his Quirk to Izuku that way, and him being in at all is Hori changing that plan at the last minute.

So, before I start on Bakugou vs Izuku... let's pause it here so I can go on a tangent: Bakugou's support gear.

There's several problems with it as an in-setting item, all focused around a simple fact: they're not there for 'support', they're weapons. Fundamentally, Bakugou's Gauntlets are just... giant explosive cannons, just like the literal grenades he gets, or the edgy machine guns in late story. No other hero's support gear we see are like that, pure weapons based only around harming others (I remember later, a Random Civilian gets his hand on support gear, I think from Detnerat gear, and that's a weapon, but A, that's from Detnerat, and so made to bring society to its knees, literally, and two, the entire point of that little scene was to show how stupid and helpless civilians are, and how they should dare get above themselves and try to defend themselves (which is clearly set up to support sheep narrative of civilians Hri loves to pull, while also making it make less sense since, if civilians doing anything backfires that badly, then yeah, maybe they're right to do literally nothing so they can't fuck it up) and so I am far from giving it the benefit of the doubt.)

I know later, Bakugou take one off and Izuku uses it, and so they're just... literally giant explosive guns, literally just a pair of guns he has strapped to his arms. Everyone else has gear that supports their Quirks, even Snipe with his actual gun (which enhances his Quirk, which is dependant on a projectile), while Bakugou alone has something that replaces it.

Thematically, that's weird and has bad vibes. On a more practical level, someone, somewhere, must have approved this thing, looked at this design with the more or less literal description of 'giant bomb', and said, 'Yeah, this is OK, let's do it'. This basiclly has no purpose other than to kill people or to cause massive property damage; there's no... safe mode, no limiting, it's just point and FIRE EVERYTHING!!! Why? Why did they just hand it to him? (And, as a side note, how was it full enough to use when Bakugou had just got it? There's no way he sweat enough to fill that thing; otherwise he would have collapsed from dehydration.)

So. Yeah. I have problems with that. And now the fight, and I find this fact distinctive:

Bakugou starts off this fight by proclaiming he's going to use this to beat up Izuku. I'm going to be honest here; if I was a teacher? I would absolutely respond to that, somehow, even if it's simple as, 'Bakugou, no, also now I'm watching you'. It's not exactly a reach to call that an obvious red flag.

(Side note; 'Rage You Damn Nerd' or 'Ferocity of a Fucking Nerd'? Really? What the hell is this chapter title.)

Flashback: Bakugou, as a kid, saying to murder those villains. God, really? Was nobody ever concerned about that?

And then Izuku counters Bakugou, and he just... loses it. Completely. Because of course; how dare Izuku fight back! How dare he resist Bakugou's righteous anger?!

And yet another reminder of the cringy fact that Bakugou was first place, despite the fact it's against his narrative set up of being the little fish, just because of how much Hori hypes him up.

Bakugou: I've been torturing you for all these years, and you've been sitting back and taking it. Clearly, you've been hiding your Quirk all this time, just so you could laugh at me!

Me: ????

Holy fuck, the ego on that comment. I've heard about 'everything being about you', but this is nuts.

Izuku builds up courage to face his fears/bully, and meanwhile Bakugou flashes back to how useless everyone else is, and how great he is, and how dare Izuku stand up to him, when he gave him the perfect name to describe how worthless he is? How dare he try to rescue him that one time when they were kids?! How dare he have concern?!?!?!

*leans back in chair*

Hoolyyy fuck, Bakugou, that is a lot of clusterfuck in such a small, three page sequence.

'Ah, Iida. What a wholesome palate cleanser', I think, more or less in lockstep with Uraraka. I love how his big plan is literally cleaning; I mean, I get the logic, but still.

Alas. All good things end.

So, for a lot of people, the big, defining moment of Bakugou's story and how bad they think he is is Chapter One and the suicide baiting. That's obviously shit, but to me, this is the big moment, the, if you pardon the drama (I can't think of a way to phrase it better), the 'original sin' of MHA as a whole: Bakugou tries to kill someone, and absolutely nothing happens.

This isn't an exaggeration, BTW; let me lay out the scene here:

Bakugou is armed with, as I said before, an insanely aggressive weapon, one that has no purpose other than to kill people or destroy things. He is given this weapon with, apparently, absolutely no comments about being careful with it, not to harm someone with it, or anything, and then takes it into an exercise with his classmates.

This exercise takes place in a building, one that can easily be damaged by the blast of that thing. As this is a multi-story building, even a blast not aimed at someone could easily get someone killed if part of the building collapses on top of them.

Bakugou takes this weapon, and he aims it at a human being. To top it off, All Might, who by all means should be an authority in, 'Yeah, this could definitely kill someone', explicitly tells him that, 'No, you'll kill him!' before he fires.

Bakugou's response? 'He'll be fine if he dodges!"

And then he fires.

And the fact that, not only does this happen at all, but this fight continues afterwords, is inexcusable. Blatantly, obviously, inexcusable. This is, unironically, Bakugou attempting to kill someone.

On tape, no less!

I mean, hell, with this one chapter, we have the means (the gauntlet), the motive (Izuku's... existence? The fact that he dares to stand against Bakugou?), and the opportunity (this entire exercise), along with witnesses watching him do it in real time. If this had hit Izuku, the trial against Bakugou would have been a cakewalk.

And the thing is? Everything before this, everything, is something that could be excused. Granted, it would strain the suspension of belief to the breaking point at times, but everyone could be that stupid and/or that biased, in theory.

But this? There is absolutely no way that this could happen, and be acceptable in the logic of this story. I don't care if All Might is literally missing his brain, I don't care if Aizawa just.... hates Izuku with a deep and unexplainable loathing (BTW, I think I forgot to mention last time that Aizawa sabotaged Izuku's scores? Well, considering how Izuku with his super toss was in a contest against a girl that only is invisible, there's no way he was in last place, so... yeah. Aizawa sabotaged him). Forget their heroic instincts, forget all of that; if they let this happen, everyone involved with this would have their lives destroyed. They can't cover it up, because at some point, Inko is really going to wonder, 'Hey, where is my kid at?' and the second she asks that everything crumbles.

That, and why would they try to cover it up? Bakugou's character is, in many ways, the cliche of the sports star from a small school, who the entire school, if not the town, bends over backwards to keep him in that position (which, ironically, never would have helped Aldera that much, because Bakugou, as is, would never give them credit, respect, or money. Bakugou, if he improved enough to give them that? Would give them shit for what they let him do instead. That plan was doomed from the start). The thing is? That tolerance only goes so far; sure, he can bully the nerd all day long, and hell, he can beat him half-to-literal-death if there's no one there of importance to serve as witness, but this? This isn't just attacking the nerd. This is chasing him in a car. And, when the nerd escapes into the school? The jock then drives into the school, and only stops when the car itself gets jammed in a wall.

There's a point, in other words, where all that tolerance ends. This is waay past that point.

That, and the fact that UA isn't a small school, with a sports department propped up by their one good athlete; UA is the school that athlete wants to go to. To UA, Bakugou the metaphorical athlete is completely replaceable; how many students were trying to get in again?

And all of that? All of that is assuming that every single one of them is, in fact, the absolute worse, trash, shallow self-serving shit versions of them possible, instead of being heroes, in a school for heroes, for whom there should be standards all over the place.

So the fact that he fires this shot, and that the flash-stepping All Might doesn't just bitch slap him out of it beforehand, or at least make it clear if he does his heroic life is over, and then afterwards he allows this fight to continue, and then after that, there's barely even a harsh word said in response to this, by anyone, much less any sort of consequences for it, school based or otherwise, shatters my SOD into dust.

The logic and foundation of this setting can not support this sequence of events. So... why? Why did this happen? Why was this allowed to happen?

Bakugou. The completely irrational, completely assholish Bakugou, who would do this, because this falls in line with his behavior from what we've seen of him thus far... if he was held to account for this? Given consequences, realistic consequences, for his realistically horrific behavior? He'd be gone, at least. Out of UA, out of Izuku's life (if only), and out of the story.

But... for whatever reason, even before all the polls came in (I think), Hori just wanted Bakugou to stay in the story. Why? Maybe there was a more proper redemption arc in the works. Maybe it was always going to be like it was now. Maybe Hori just likes Bakugou. Who knows?

The point is Bakugou, The Living Idiot Ball, is born into the story at this moment, a character who makes everyone around him their impossibly worse selves. His behavior will improve, somewhat, but the behavior of those around him won't.

Well, thankfully, the building doesn't collapse on all of them after that (thought maybe it should have? I'm not an expert, but that is a big hole there)... and here's something else that bothers me.

I can't understand All Might's motivation here for not stopping the match, as in I'm looking at his stated motivation for that, and it doesn't make sense.

In his head, he's talking about this will fuel Izuku's growth, basiclly. And, maybe it does, but that's not the problem here. The problem is Izuku could die, and is getting some serious injuries as Bakugou beats the living shit out of him; it's not worth all of that for some extra growth now, when he still has his entire school life to improve. And sure, we know that, in a meta sense, this is A, prep for the villains soon to show up, and that, B, Izuku does not, in fact, have his entire school life to get better. But All Might doesn't know that; All Might doesn't have any reason to think AFO is still alive, much less masterminding an attack. So... why the rush?

Before, he was rushing Izuku's training, but there was a concrete reason: Izuku needed to get into U.A. Well... mission accomplished; he's in. So why the push?

To give a somewhat in character reason, I guess, to try and excuse Bakugou, The Living Idiot Ball.

Meanwhile, all the characters can't stop talking up about how great a fighter Bakugou is, because it's not enough to excuse him from a murder attempt, apparently everyone needs to make sure the audience knows about how much of a 'beast' Bakugou is!

And, all of this, while Bakugou has this crazed sounding rant about how Izuku is 'looking down' on him, when until five seconds ago he thought he was beneath your boot. Even while they're fighting, Izuku can't help but talk up the person who single handedly ruined his entire life.

*sighs for forever*

Anyways, Izuku barely claims a win with teamwork, determination, and the magically ability to remember what his objective is!

(cue funny little omake where Mt Lady breaks her office with puns)

And... the last chapter of this arc: 'Bakugou's Starting Line'. Ugh.

Anyways, Bakugou beats Izuku half to death, but he loses. He loses, and has a mental break down because of that, and All Might is remarkably fine with this whole situation.

Then, Momo proves that she's smart and on top of things (enjoy that while it lasts), the other fights happen, which... brutally honest, I can't care much about, beyond Todoroki proving that, suprise suprise, he's actually the big fish in the 1A lake (enjoy that while it lasts as well! The nerfs are coming for everyone not named Bakugou or Izuku), which is yet more mental damage on Bakugou's oh so sensitive ego.

Izuku, unsurprisingly, ends up needing to be put back together after all that, and Recovery Girl has a rare positive portrayal where she says that Izuku getting beat to hell and back is, in fact, bad, which All Might agrees with like a sheepish child rather than an adult who has carried massive responsibilities for years now and who, need I remind you all, was not too long ago competent and did in fact avoid letting Izuku be permanently harmed... you know, the good old days.

Anyways, everyone is impressed by Izuku, cool, cool, and then... Izuku shits on it by telling Bakugou, 'This isn't my Quirk!', thus locking in his participation in late story stuff forever.

And again... why? Why does he feel responsible for this? Why does he need to make sure he's not... accidently, tricking Bakugou by letting him be an idiot and think he was just... holding back his entire life, and instead all but blows a secret of nigh incalculable value. To his bully. Because his bully felt bad.

*resists the urge to scream into my desk*

And, for a second time this sequence... why? Why would he do that? Why is he simping so damn hard for him?

*spreads hands*

Bakugou, The Living Idiot Ball, whom proximity to drives idiotic and irrational behavior into all.

And then Bakugou has tears in his eyes as he realizes he's not the top dog, and we're apparently supposed to feel sorry for him, and then All Might shows up, burning more of his precious time to talk to Bakugou, not long after his murder attempt, and rather than trying to... chastise him or anything, he rushes to tell Bakugou to cheer up!

I don't know about you, but if I could only give Bakugou one piece of advice, it would definitely be, 'protect your ego!'

Then Izuku affirms to the audience that Bakugou is still the standard he's chasing after, just in case we didn't get the message that Bakugou is the best, because Hori wants to make that very clear in our minds.

Finally: villians. ...Why is the mindless Nomu in the bar?

[la-cinephile]

The Rings of Power 02x07 - 100% subjective review (minor spoilers)

I just watched episode 7 and I wanted to share what I think about it so let's go for a (not so) long text!

Firstly, I have to say that I wasn't prepared for this! I knew it was going to be intense but it went beyond my expectations and I think I won't stop thinking about it until next week, when episode 8 is released.

This episode gave me chills a lot of times like during the charge or the scenes at Khazad-Dûm and it was also so emotional, especially when Celebrimbor realized what's going on. Once again, Charles Edwards is fantastic in this episode and Charlie Vickers is still very impressive as Sauron.

I also really like the narrative arc of Adar and how it's evolving. His arc is so good, I mean it's not a well-written character, it's a perfect-written character and Sam Hazeldine is amazing in the role, but I would like to also mention the evolution of Glûg (Robert Strange), Adar's right hand man who is questioning the love of the Lord Father (as the orcs call him) for his children. After this episode, we may assume that Glûg is going to betray Adar in the next episode by giving Morgoth's Crown to Sauron and even though this theory is wrong, there will definitely be a scene between Glûg and Adar and I don't think it will end well (please don't make Glûg Jr fatherless).

I was surprised by THAT brief moment between Galadriel and Elrond (if you watched the episode, you know what I'm talking about) and I didn't really know how to react at it.

The ending is amazing, it plays with our expectations and if there is something that I really enjoy in this show, it's the fact that we know that the heroes won't win, at least not now, and so it allows the creators to trick us by using well-known tropes to make us be like "oh yeah, so this thing is going to happen" and the creators are like "Well, absolutely not!"

Also, I think this episode is one of my favorite of the season but also of the whole series because it focuses on one event with the same group of characters and it's not like the other episodes where we see Númenor then Eregion then Rhûn... It's better for the pace and it keeps our attention.

And I will finish with this : metal song for the end credit?! This is such a cool idea so thank you Bear McCreary and Jens Kidman for "The Last Ballad of Damrod" 🤘

I'm so excited to see the season finale but if episode 7 was emotional, I think episode 8 is gonna destroy me.

Thanks for reading this long text. I had to express my feelings about this episode and I hope it wasn't boring 😅

[shurisu]

Idk if you had already talk about this but i read your recent ask about the ship shurisu and I'm truly interested to read about the potential Shun and Alice had, individually and together, but with your POV

I've got so much to say about this topic that I don't know where to start.

To be honest, I  liked them both  the moment i first saw them but getting to know these characters what solidified my love .

For example Shun may seem like the classic silent guy at first glance but when you get to know him you will see that he's actually a heavily traumatized boy.Before his mother's death he still seemed to be a  "demure"  type, but you can also see  he was happy for doing what he likes with his friends.After his mother passed away, he holds onto the only thing his mother left for him, Skyress, because he doesn't know how to deal with it.And because of how broken he is, he  avoids bonding with people, which i belive, stems from his fear of losing them and going through the same feelings again.That's why he refused to be part of the team and even considered leaving almost half the season.S1 had done a  fairly good job with his characterization, you could see that he was trying his best to be as stoic as possible but people who knows him(Dan,Skyress,his mother) or someone who can observe people really well(Alice) could see through him  easily, afterall he was just a little boy.

If bakugan was targeted to an older audience and they gave importance to the plot , I believe we wouldn't get the Shun we had in NV and onwards. I get their biggest concern was to introduce more bakugans (=sell more toys) and to do that, they also had to introduce newer characters.Of course there's no problem with new characters but they just couldn't give them spotlight without butchering the older ones.Since the target audience is little boys,the girls got written off and Shun got to stay.But  because of the reasons i said above, it  costed him to his characterization being butchered, and he actually turned into  the silent guy arche type.He used to be the best brawler in the world , and the moment he gets dethroned by Masquerade it was easily acceptable, because he is also one of the best (well,imo the best)  brawlers ever existed. Of course, it would be no fun if he were to win all the time, and new characters need to shine as well, but BB Shun and NV onwards Shun  are like different brawlers. BB Bakugan was more of battle of wits; through Shun and Masquerade, Dan learned that power alone wasn't enough and he needed to know how to yield it.It was also no surprise that the best brawlers were also the best strategists. But after 1st season, gimmicks like Bakugan traps were a huge cross out on everything S1 standed for.So looking back at Shun,what happens to a character if you took away the area he shines the most?If we got to see his evolution both as a brawler&as a character,I believe he would contribute greatly to the show,even more than he did.

Ooh boy  it already got this long, and I didn't even get to mention Alice.I believe   just like Shun, Alice is also a MC worthy character. Of course whole "Masquerade" situation gives her some extra points.I am not a writer but i can only think of countless scenarios a writer could benefit from  a character with split personality; the deeds she's done unwillingly haunting her,and eventually facing herself and healing period.But if I had to talk about Bakugan only, my thoughts on her and Shun are similar since both of them were quite alike as brawlers.Alice got to short end of the stick in two matters though, for reasons:

1) She's a girl in a shounen anime (a genre which is very  rare for a woman to get to shine, or even be useful)

2)She would be  OP as a brawler, so including her would require more complex writing:

Their decision was to  conclude her character arc after  she became one with Masquerade.We know that she was already brilliant as a strategist  and now we see that she's far more confident as a brawler, so that would be basically Masquerade being back in  his original appearance and i don't think there's anything should be holding back her at that state.Even today most of people rightfully don't accept how she's lost in her NV battle, because of how great brawler Alice/Masquerade is and how it didn't make any sense plot wise.She's  imo even more MC worthy character now and still could grow as a character but as i said before,the creators were focused more on commercial success instead.

So long story short, Shun and Alice could've been doing much better if Bakugan didn't change so drastically (as in game logic) , because they would be needed more.And them being active would probably helped a lot to their team mates as well since they are both  supposedly the "demure" and "observant" members of the team which really helped in group dynamics, understanding what kind of rival they're against and how should they approach them.

If we were lucky enough and actually got to see them end up together, i  believe they would have a solid relationship. Their personalities are  compatible so they could  evolve into a really beautiful couple.Since we know Shun is a man of few words and bottles up his emotions most of the time, Alice would quickly become "that" person for him, the one  who  truly understands him the most. It's not even my hc, we already saw how she can see through him, but with them becoming a couple she would probably take that to another level and of course become the dearest person for him ever.Alice is also is healing from her past traumas, and being a loner just like Shun would make her understand him a lot more.But the difference is unlike Shun, she wants to bond with people more so being with her would change Shun on that matter .I can definitely see  him being a lot more comfortable with expressing himself.Since he's also an observant person, he also would be the same with Alice as she's with him,so he would try his best at supporting her at anything.

To sum it up, they are striking me as a kind of couple  who would be each other's rock and kind of couple who would bring the best in each other. Maybe that's why i always dreamed of them being MCs of their own show with a story about them.And I know that would be fire since they have some of the best fics of their own out there.

[sneezemonster15]

Hi! I enjoy your posts and sorry if my english is unclear but i was curios how the characters in naruto will have reacted if they knew about sasuke and naruto true relationship. And if kishi didn't have to pare them in couples to make money

Hi, don't worry about your English. It's cool. :)

Given Konoha is a heteronormative, and prejudiced society, it would have not have reacted positively to the union of Sasuke and Naruto. Hinata is a stereotypical female hentai bait character whose whole purpose in life is to get a husband of her choice. Her choice happens to be Naruto, and the idea that her love should be ideally reciprocated by her object of desire doesn't really occur to her. She is portrayed as a typical Japanese girl. In Japanese society, women are fairly traditional (not counting exceptions). They typically adhere to traditional gender roles and having an individual ambition or evolution is not at the top of their priorities. She portrays such a woman, whose only purpose in life is to secure a marriage with the guy she likes. In one of his interviews at the end, Kishi said about her character that she would be really pathetic if she didn't get rewarded at the end. What was her reward? Naruto. She was not the only character to get rewarded for doing absolutely nothing, or nothing good at least. She is shown as someone unintelligent and proportionately unskilled, who doesn't move a finger unless it is to show off to her object of desire. If Naruto ended up with Sasuke, her reaction would be the same as when Sakura hugs Naruto at the end of Pein arc.

Just - Naruto kun....

And then - .....

And nothing else. She would mope about and do nothing about it. Just like she didn't in Naruto the last movie. Except maybe knit a scarf. :/ Would it end in her character's resolution, some kind of realization? No. Kishi never showed her as having a capability to introspect and deduce calmly, she never thinks or even wonders about Naruto's feelings for her, she just thinks of her own.

Sakura? She already knows that Naruto and Sasuke's bond is special. But if they were officially united, it's pretty obvious that she would throw tantrums, like she does. She would get upset and angry, she would probably accuse Naruto of stealing Sasuke from her (yeah, she has very limited self awareness, also she is very good at repressing or dismissing stuff that doesn't benefit her objectives), she would probably abuse Naruto some more, she would whine and cry in front of Sasuke. Either that or she would outwardly show happiness for them but inner Sakura would be resentful, bitter, jealous and vengeful. Sakura is a malicious character, make no mistake. Her priority is her happiness, her pleasure, her ego. Like Hinata, she places her own ego satisfaction over the happiness of Sasuke, Sarada or her own long term happiness.

And these ladies had to be written this way to facilitate the Brokeback Mountainesque situation post Shippuden, two entitled and self centred women with very limited amounts of self awareness, who will be happy with their one sided love as long as their egos are satisfied, as long as they get to 'have' the men they like and want.

Where some characters show some awareness/knowledge of Naruto and Sasuke's special bond, such as Gaara, Itachi, Orochimaru, Kabuto, most others seem pretty heteronormative and consequently oblivious. Gaara loves Naruto but his happiness is in Naruto's happiness, so he will be happy to see Naruto happy. Neither does he disrespect Sasuke, like other characters do. Itachi suspected that there was more to Naruto's feelings for Sasuke. And he seems to know that Sasuke has feelings for Naruto as well. Itachi told Sasuke that Naruto will take care of everything, so I think Itachi will be happy to see Sasuke's happiness. Itachi does have a very twisted understanding of love and loyalty, but towards the end, he understands his brother and the world a little better.

Characters such as Kakashi, Shikamaru, Kiba, Sai, Suigetsu (who constantly push the characters of Naruto and Sasuke towards Sakura, Hinata or Karin irrespective of Sasuke's or Naruto's own disinterest or apathy) could never really tell whom Sasuke or Naruto loved, despite seeing how crazy and absolutely single mindedly obsessed Naruto was about Sasuke or that Sasuke would pro actively show concern for Naruto and Naruto only, especially in Shippuden. So characters like these would simply be surprised, and then blanch at Sasuke and Naruto getting together, and some would possibly show disapproval. Characters such as Jiraiya certainly would, who have a very narrow minded belief system about how men and women should be, and what their roles are in society.

Ino would cry and whine, but then accept the status quo. Her interest in Sasuke was also very fangirlish, she wouldn't suffer for long, and certainly get over it as soon as she manages to find another male romantic interest who is good looking.

Naruto's parents are also quite heteronormative, but I think they, at least Kushina will be eventually happy that her son is happy and thriving with Sasuke, that she who could not be there to provide a family to her only child, Sasuke took that role on and satisfied it. Minato would also follow suit. Doubtless, Naruto would be infinitely happy with Sasuke. Sasuke is his oxygen.

Oro and Kabuto would smirk, given they had always known it. Kakashi would probably introspect about how wrong he was about so many things, just like he was wrong about his father, Obito, shinobihood, and making Sakura false promises about Sasuke after the hospital fight.

Tsunade would be mildly surprised but won't have any malice or prejudice. The elders (and Danzo) would disapprove in a major way. Obviously. They represent the traditional and corrupt ways of the shinobi world.

Iruka would be genuinely happy (even if surprised) because his only condition is Naruto being happy. And Naruto will be happy with Sasuke. Tenten would say - Kawaai, and will continue playing with her weapons. Neji won't say anything, would probably just smile, and probably worry looking at Hinata's pathetic self, Neji knows she has feelings for Naruto.

Akatsuki members (except Itachi) won't give a shit. Hahahaha. They are non conformists, disillusioned, they don't care what society thinks. They very well know how hypocritical and unjust their world is.

Kurama would approve and be happy for Naruto, since he knows how much Naruto cares for Sasuke. Karin would also react dramatically, she'd be taken aback, get angry, then sad, but would eventually accept the status quo. Juugo wouldn't care as long as Sasuke is well. Hashirama and Madara would have a fleeting thought/regret about how Sasuke and Naruto achieved what they couldn't. The general population of Konoha would also disapprove, Naruto is their hero, as a hero, he serves their needs, and they won't be happy seeing Naruto breaking convention flagrantly. Also, they are wary of Sasuke, Sasuke's role in the war is not revealed to them, they think of him as a nukenin that Naruto forgave. They were seen approving Naruto and Hinata's union because Hinata is a princess heiress, and it's a fairytale wedding, and Naruto is a hero who eventually ends up with the princess. Typical heteronormative society.

Temari and Kankuro would be surprised, Temari would be subtle about it, Kankuro would be loud and perhaps a bit vulgar about it. In good humor though, I think he knows about Gaara's feelings for Naruto. But Temari and Kankuro would be pleased for Naruto's happiness but probably a bit sad for Gaara? Heheh.

Okay who else, who am I missing?

But yeah, that's how it would be.

[gamesception]

Sception Reads Cass Cain #34

Robin (1993) #88 - May 2001 Story: Chuck Dixon & Scott Beatty Pencils: Pete Woods, Ink: Andrew Pepoy Letters: Willie Schubert, Colors: Noelle Giddings

Guest appearance again this week. A bit more of a notable one because as far as I know this is officially the first time Cass Cain and Stephanie Brown meet. Kind of more significant in retrospect than in the moment, as they don't exactly hit it off right away, but still.

So the basic setup is that Bruce has decided Stephanie isn't going to just go away and stop doing Spoiler stuff so he might as well take her on officially and train her, a decision spurred on by Tim working more and more on his own & not answering Bruce's calls. When Tim disappeared from the country completely without telling Bruce where he went Bruce turned to Stephanie to check up on him, in the process telling Steph Tim's secret identity, which iirc (my Robin knowledge is limited, I could have this wrong) previously Tim had used as the reason they couldn't be in a relationship. Like "I can't date you, you don't even know who I am, and I can't tell you that even though I want to because it might give away Batman's identity, which isn't my secret to share. Also my life is super dangerous, and Batman doesn't think you're ready, and as much as I like you I have to respect his professional opinion on this"

On the one hand it's dicky of Bruce to not respect Tim's privacy the way Tim respected his, but on the other hand Tim blowing up about it kind of implies that all those things he told steph were excuses, and the real reason he didn't want to date her was that he just wasn't that into her. Or maybe he was, but got mad at her for getting pregnant by someone else after he rejected her and now doesn't want to date her because of that? Did that happen already, or after this? Again, I don't know the details of Robin Lore, but reading just this issue and the previous one for background, Tim is absolutely the one who comes off as worse here between him and Bruce.

So anyway that's what's going on. Cass shows up in all of this when Bruce takes Stephanie to one of his training caves and has Cass demonstrate a training routine that Steph is struggling with.

Which, yeah, I guess this is pretty badass or whatever,

But if this were a real life situation, Cass would have just decapitated like seven dudes. 100% fatality rate for the criminal dummies. You'd think Bruce would be a little less glowing in his praise over that, considering how much of his shitty behavior towards Cass started when he found out she might have (definitely did, but denial is a powerful drug) killed somebody.

Cass gives Steph the cold shoulder. Giving Dixon & Beatty the benefit of the doubt for a moment, this does fit very much into the recent evolution of Cass's character, becoming harder and harsher as she gets more isolated. She also may be picking up on and echoing Batman's lowish opinion of Stephanie as a vigilante / person, even if it has softened enough for the moment that he's willing to train her.

And it sets up for future interactions where Stephanie basically puts in the work to break through Cass's walls, despite her initial frosty attitude, to become the friend Cass needed when when she didn't have any others. The whole arc is honestly pretty touching and really speaks to Stephanie's character, and it isn't possible without this initial attitude from Cass.

....

On the other hand, this plays into an obnoxious trend of the entire bat family being written as incredibly rude and dickish towards Stephanie, in ways that very often feel completely out of character. Even (especially) Tim, her supposed love interest. Even Alfred!

Yes, calling Alfred 'the Butler' is rude, but Alfred was uncharacteristically rude and dismissive to her first in this scene.

And since it so often feels out of character, you get the impression that the people who actually hate Stephanie aren't the characters themselves, but rather the writers and editors at DC. That is eventually undeniably the case, once DiDio is in charge and War Games is happening.

But that's still 3 years away! I had to check, because the way the narrative is treating Stephanie right now, the way all the characters we're supposed to think are in the right here are treating her (Alfred, Tim, not Bruce), feels very much like the build up to War Games, with Stephanie finally getting a chance to shine and getting some respect from bruce, but with the overall narrative implying that's a bad thing somehow and that she isn't worthy, that despite all her work and earnest commitment she's somehow only coasting on hubris and setting herself up fro a fall, one that we as the audience are supposed to find, like, cathartic, or maybe at best tragic but in a cosmically justified sense that she brought on herself.

And it all kind of sucks, because no, she really doesn't deserve any of it. Or rather she hasn't been written to deserve any of it. The differences between her and Bruce's other sundry teen sidekicks and hangers on have overwhelmingly been in how others have been written as treating her, not the things she's been written as doing or in her personality or whatever.

I guess that's a free writer tip for you. If you want the reader to not like a character, write that character as doing or saying or thinking unlikable things, or acting for distasteful motives. Or give that character things they don't deserve or appreciate without having to work for them. Don't make them sweet and put-upon and have them try hard to do the right thing despite coming from a bad place and struggle to earn respect that others get for free only to have it denied to them anyway and then have all your main characters shit on them constantly for no reason or even explicitly for doing things that they all do and get rewarded for.

If you do all that, your readers will end up identifying with the character you want them to dislike and disliking the characters you want them to identify with.

EDIT: oh, I almost forgot, we do get this one cute 'proud papa' moment from Bruce:

Always nice to see those, especially amid all the less positive stuff going on with him and Cass right now.

[stillness-in-green]

Pair O' Geten Asks

Congrats on your newly discovered Geten Appreciation, anon! I too like Geten a lot and feel that he, like the rest of the MLA, was Robbed.  He really would have made an interesting foil to Dabi and I have only conspiracy theories about Editor Meddling to explain why we didn’t get that.  The Rei-like appearance?  The opposed power set?  The father figure to whom he’s incredibly loyal?  The focus on a powerful quirk as more important than anything?  Come on; why write all that if it’s only going to matter for one (1) fight that doesn’t even come to a conclusive end and before we even have a bunch of concrete information on Dabi’s childhood relationship with his father?

Also, Geten and Dabi trying to run a regiment together would have been hilarious and it is but one of many things we were cheated out of seeing by that bedamned three-month timeskip on the villain side.

As well, Geten’s interesting to me for the same reason that Mustard is: they’re the only two young villains for whom we just don’t get much angle on student parallels, rescue arcs, and/or sympathetic portrayals.  Geten at least has far clearer motivations than Mustard, but it’s really frustrating to see the both of them basically written out of the story when they both seem far too young to be deemed Not Worth Saving.  (I mean, I obviously don’t think anyone should be declared off-limits for saving no matter how old or how far gone they are, but it’s particularly egregious when it comes to the younger villains.)

As to his loyalty to Re-Destro, I'll fold some discussion of that into my answer to this other ask, answered below the jump:

(CW: discussions of child abuse and cult dynamics)

Ohhhhh my god, anon.  Thank you for coming to me with this so I can assure you that, yes, Re-Destro absolutely does have genuine affection for Geten and his intentions absolutely do not come from a place of malice.

The thing with the way people headcanon RD and Geten’s relationship is, I think, pretty straightforward: Toxic Blorbo Anxiety.  Modern fandom, especially on tumblr, has really co-opted a lot of social justice rhetoric to make what once would have been dead-ass basic character/ship flame wars sound more justified and meaningful; as a consequence, altogether too many people have this idea that one’s taste in fiction (characters, relationships, themes, whatever) is a direct measure of one’s moral character.  Ergo, it’s no longer okay to just like a character with significant flaws—you have to find some kind of reason why that character’s flaws aren’t actually their fault.

People who hate Geten have zero problems writing him off as a toxic ableist eugenicist.  People who like Geten—well, some people are perfectly capable of liking Geten while acknowledging that he’s a violent little shit who espouses quirk supremacist ideals that go considerably farther than the ideals professed by anyone else around him, even the people higher up the chain of command.  For the “my taste in characters mirrors my moral character” folks, however, liking Geten means an immediate need to find a likely character to offload all of Geten’s moral failings onto.

Re-Destro is the only character for whom Geten has any demonstrated feelings whatsoever; this makes him the only available scapegoat.

And it’s ridiculous!  It is pulled literally out of thin air.  As you said, the databook is explicit that Re-Destro gave Geten “lots of affection,” but you see echoes of it in the canon as well.  There’s the flashback Geten has to RD smiling and patting him on the shoulders and entrusting him with an Important Task, as well as the implication that Geten cares about RD so much that Re-Destro burning himself caused Geten’s quirk evolution.  Re-Destro himself gets this beat, indicating trust and high regard, just after Giran gets sassy with him about the MLA losing their number advantage to the Sad Man’s Parade:

Yes, absolutely, Geten is fucked up from being raised in a cult.  Re-Destro was raised in the very same cult, however, and with a lot more fuckery about his ancestors and identity loaded down on him to boot.  Geten at least can just be Geten, you know?  The very best version of Geten that he knows how to be!

Of course, an ideal version of Geten would, among other changes, probably be going to school.  Now, Geten’s schooling is not RD’s responsibility—so far as we know, he isn’t Geten’s actual legal guardian.  Nonetheless, I’m sure he could make Geten do it if he really wanted to press the issue, and it’s no credit to him that he hasn’t.

Still, before I condemn RD for that, I’d want to know what RD’s own schooling situation was, or what the MLA approach is to school in general.  One of the things that defines cults, after all, is limiting members’ access to outside information, which is why they’re all such proponents for homeschooling.  I would be shocked if Re-Destro himself wasn’t homeschooled for at least his younger years, and therefore lacks a full frame of reference for why that’s a problem.

Speaking of RD’s frame of reference for things, and getting back to your actual question about ReDadstro, while I don’t read RD and Geten’s relationship as explicitly having familial vibes, I do think they’re close enough that a lot of people in-universe probably look at them and wonder.  The main reason for that is that, well, look at Re-Destro’s whole scenario!  He’s the scion of Yotsubashi Chikara, a blood-descendant of the leader of the original Meta Liberation Army, and, oh, does the story never let him or us forget it.  His authority over the group is entirely rooted in that ancestry; he and they all believe that it must be Destro, no one else, who brings Liberation to Japan.

That all being the case, then, why on earth doesn’t Re-Destro have any kids?

Seriously, the guy’s got to be over 40, and if the lineage is that important—and it is; Skeptic says explicitly that he wants to recruit Twice so that the MLA never has to fear a repeat of Destro’s loss—why hasn’t RD secured the bloodline for the future yet?  Even if he’s fairly confident in his and his followers’ ability to ring the bells of liberation in his lifetime, you’d think some contingency plans would be in order!

I also think it’s fairly telling that a guy whose authority is so rooted in family doesn’t seem to have any of his own—not just kids, but siblings, a spouse, parents, grandparents, anybody.  While it could simply be a function of his limited screen time, we have at least some idea of what the family situation is for most of the other major villains.  AFO, Shigaraki and the rest of the League, Gentle Criminal, Overhaul—for all of them, we can point to at least one thing and say, “That’s the situation,” even if it’s as simple as e.g. the implication of Spinner becoming a hikikomori or Overhaul being an orphan.  It seems to me that if there was a family line in charge of the MLA, we would have seen at least one other member at some point.  That we never do[1] suggests pretty strongly that Re-Destro is the only Yotsubashi around at the current time.

My headcanon, then, is that Re-Destro, a man so psychologically burdened by the needs of being the Great Destro’s successor that he saw an omni-nihilist like Shigaraki as freedom delivered on divine wings, doesn’t have children because he doesn’t want them.  Or, more accurately, because whether or not he, Yotsubashi Rikiya, might want children, he’s unwilling to have them so long as there’s any chance his burden could become theirs.

And thus we get to Geten.  If Rikiya might have wanted children in other circumstance, it’s not so surprising that he’d have a streak of paternal instinct that came out with Geten, especially when Geten was younger.  Here’s someone who’s powerful but never going to be in any danger of inheriting all of Rikiya’s burdens, someone whose loyalty is to Rikiya personally, rather than to Destro’s blood.[2]  Of course Rikiya’s fond of him!  He’s not entirely free when he’s around Geten, but at the very least, Geten transparently doesn’t care about the MLA’s glorious history.

I have to think that everyone around them Feels Some Sorta Way about this, especially those shadowy figures we saw telling young Rikiya all about his “inheritance,” but the downside of raising a six-year-old to be the supreme leader of your underground army is that there’s only so much open pushback you can offer once the six-year-old turns forty.  If RD wants to maintain a close relationship with Geten, there’s not really anyone who can put their foot down about it beyond a certain amount of pointed-but-respectful questioning.

As for what Geten thinks of this state of affairs, the way I conceive of them, Geten is painfully aware that Re-Destro is heavily burdened, and Geten wants to relieve as much of that burden as he can.  However, one of the reasons RD might find Geten comparatively relaxing is that Geten doesn’t occupy a specific place in the MLA’s organizational structure.  That might be because Geten lacks the temperament for leadership, but it might also be because RD likes that Geten is a bit sideways of the power structure that defines so much of the rest of Rikiya’s life.  Geten’s closeness to the Grand Commander might be enviable to others in the MLA, but it doesn’t seem to come with any particular authority; Geten probably wishes that RD would give him more to do![3]

Hence, I assume, his single-minded fervor about living up to Re-Destro’s trust and eliminating the people in Re-Destro’s way and so forth.  If it’s somewhat rare for Re-Destro to give Geten actual tasks to fulfill, all the more reason for Geten to pounce so vigorously on what opportunities do arise.

In summary, while Re-Destro and Geten’s relationship has some pretty huge red flags in it—the lack of schooling, the way RD being Geten’s patron rather than giving him a real position keeps Geten dependent on RD’s favor, the way Geten is singled out as having this relationship with RD, the disconnect between the values they extol— in the context they live in, I think it’s pretty wholesome!  That is, they’re both pretty fucked up by the cult upbringing, in ways neither of them is fully capable of even recognizing, but I think they both mean well by each other, and their lives are stabler and happier for each other's presences than if they were still both MLA but weren't aquainted.

Could it be better?  Sure!  But there’s a nigh-unbridgeable canyon between, “Based on what we know about the characters’ circumstances, this relationship has some concerning elements,” and, “Re-Destro is physically abusive, thinks Geten is only valuable as a weapon, and has groomed Geten himself to believe that.”

The far side of that canyon must be in Narnia, because stepping through a magic doorway to another world where BNHA is a completely different story is the only way anyone’s going to be able to produce canon evidence for the Re-Destro As Abusive Groomer claim.  As Shigaraki and All For One prove, however, there’s no villain in this story that can’t be rendered more cloyingly, simplistically sympathetic by cramming a bunch of physical abuse into fanfic where none exists canonically.

Thanks for the asks, anons! Please go forth and continue loving Geten freely. And Re-Destro also, because god knows he needs more love.

---

[1] The closest we get is the family portraits the League find in the obviously-intended-to-be-Re-Destro’s-summer-home they ransack in the live drama reading from that LOV stage event back in 2021.  No word on whether Horikoshi had any input whatsoever on that script, however.

[2] The tell here is the consistency of Geten’s motivations.  He never connects Re-Destro’s authority to Destro Classic like Skeptic and Trumpet do, nor does his loyalty change to Shigaraki post-Deika as you might expect if quirk supremacy were really the only thing Geten used to measure worth.

[3] It’s very telling that when we’re being introduced to the heads of the MLA, getting their real names and day jobs, Geten isn’t included in the lineup; he remains an unnamed parka troll with bad table manners.  He does get a proper rank in the PLF, of course, but by that point Re-Destro has ceded control to Shigaraki, so RD no longer has to worry so much about how he defines or doesn’t define the relationship or what people might think of it.

[blackcur-rants]

So I pre-watched Lily Orchard’s “Top five best, worst, and blandest episodes of The Owl House” and this line just, pisses me off so freaking much.

“Around the time Dana decided she wanted the show to be Amphibia, there arose a conundrum that, unlike Amphibia, The Owl House was actually written very well, and so there wasn’t a lot to reveal that the audience couldn’t infer on their own”.

Cause yeah Lily, you’re right. “Amphibia” isn’t written all that well…except for the really powerful themes of change and growth and personal evolution. And the beautifully done portrayal of a toxic friendship slowly becoming more loving, warm, and healthy. And the strong arcs given to even tertiary characters like Tritonio and Wally and General Yunan (Scourge of the Sand Wars! Defeater of Ragnar the Wretched! And the youngest newt ever to achieve the rank of general in the Great Newttopian Army!). And one of the best-written antagonist characters in an animated show. And the spectacular world building of Amphibian society that’s done in a brilliantly casual and clever way.

And then there’s her continued bizarre grudge against Hunter. When the hell is that kid ever the Generic Angsty White Boy #780000000000? He’s like, still a big lovable doofus who gushes over not!Star Trek and adores his Palisman in “Thanks to Them”. He’s just dealing with a lot of difficult emotions because…well…everything. And like, Lily, do you just hate it when characters express grief or other “angsty” emotions even when it’s made very clear that those emotions are not the only things going on in their lives at the moment? Cause you act as if all Luz does in the show post-“Elsewhere and Elsewhen” is angst and be sad, when that really isn’t true in the slightest.

@lady-asteria @disregardcanon