#the curse plot continues to be hilarious

[mask-of-anubis]

Fabian:

[queenpiranhadon]

A/N: The chokehold this man has on me…sorry ik I haven’t been writing in a hot minute so bear with me 😭😭 I’ll resume writing some Katsuki fics too but I’m in a slump so send me requests I beg 🙏🙏Here's the masterlist!

Warning(s): f!reader, no curses au, Satoru and Suguru are basketball players, reader has a really crappy boyfriend, Satoru kinda kisses you without consent on a big screen but it’s okay because it’s cute lmao, this is seriously Wattpad Y/N coded but shush lemme fantasize, cursing, Satoru calls you pretty girl, ooc Satoru?, I know next to nothing about basketball

Pairing(s): Gojo Satoru x Reader

•─────•°•❀•°•──── ᴋɪꜱꜱ ᴄᴀᴍ ────•°•☁︎•°•────•

Can’t stop thinking about those kiss cam fails that expose a shitty boyfriend and it got me thinking..

Now, I have no idea if they do kiss cams at basketball games, but for the plot, let’s say they do.

It’s halftime- the players are resting before they continue on in the third quarter and thus for the span of the next fifteen minutes, the gigantic screen was showing funny prompts comparing audience members to popular characters and media personalities- going so far as to show Iori Utahime, manager of the Kyoko team as Kanae Kocho from the popular show Demon Slayer.

You thought it was amusing- the halftime entertainment on the jumbotron was most likely your favorite part about the game- considering you had come here with your boyfriend for a date. 

It wasn’t that you didn’t understand the game itself, basketball had very simple rules that you could follow and you found yourself very invested in the game…but so was your boyfriend. 

A little too invested, to be honest. He was always aggressive when it came to sports, you remember watching the World Cup at his house with some friends and he ended up physically breaking the TV once the team he was rooting for lost. You knew his anger issues were well…an issue, but you looked past it- he treated you decently and you weren’t entirely unhappy, so everything was fine.

Recently however, the both of you started to drift apart, and in fear of losing the man you had been dating since high school, you finally bought him tickets to the Tokyo vs Kyoto game. 

And well that was your first mistake. You were developing a migraine by the end of the first quarter, your boyfriend’s incessant screaming making you sink into your seat in embarrassment.

By now, the Jumbotron had moved into a different prospect- a kiss cam.

You felt your heart warm as an elderly couple kissed sweetly on camera- a testament to their long lasting love, only for the feeling to end once one of the cameras trained their focus on you and your boyfriend.

You couldn’t help the goofy grin that stretched across your face as you nudged your boyfriend, but the man in question was too engrossed in his phone call to notice his own face on the giant screen for all to see. Your smile died down a little as he waved you off for the third time now, and the camera decided to not embarrass you further by choosing a new target- hilariously a pair of siblings who understandably looked repulsed at the thought of complying.

To your dismay, not all of the cameramen that weaved their way through the masses took the hint, and another one circulating the stands puts you and your boyfriend on the screen again.

You managed a weak smile for the camera trained on you as you nudged him again, only for the asshole to wave you off yet again with a pissed off look on his face.

The audience pitied you, seeing your boyfriend disregard you completely - however, they weren’t the only ones who noticed.

“That bastard is a shitty asshole, eh Satoru?”

“Asshole is sugarcoating.” the snowy haired male mutters, wiping his forehead with the damp towel Shoko gave him. “ Tch. Look at how he’s treating her. Pretty little thing doesn’t deserve this.”

Suguru blinks. “Damn dude didn’t think you’d get so worked up about it.”

Satoru watches as you helplessly try to get your boyfriend to at least look up to no avail, annoyance bubbling inside him along with second hand frustration as he can physically see your heart break through your eyes.

Why was the cameraman still recording?!

Satoru always has good eyes- maybe that’s why you stood out to him so much, even before the kiss cam flashed your pretty face across the entire court. Your boyfriend was wearing a Kyoto jersey, and yet… your eyes were on him, intently watching the game with such a fervor that one would think you were playing the game yourself. All of his fans were obsessive, he knew that- most of the stadium comprised of his fans alone- thought that was probably because of his looks. However, you seemed to be interested in him for his skills,  instead of his looks, years of hard work and patience finally being recognized.

It was…refreshing.

And yet seeing that heartbroken expression on your face was like a dry desert wind, scratchy and arid, sweeping away the energizing feeling that came from you.

It wasn’t like him to get so worked up about a fan of all things…and yet, he couldn’t yet it. There was just something so captivating about you.

Before he realized what he was doing,  he got up and started walking towards you rapidly, ignoring the yells from Suguru, Shoko, and Coach Masamichii.

His long legs allowed him to make his way to your row quickly, and thankfully you were on the end, easier for him to reach.

You looked at him in shock, eyes wide and lips parted in surprise, just before he swoops in and presses his lips against yours.

“Wha- what are y- mmph!”

Your boyfriend stares at the both of you, aghast, his face turning bright red in anger but Satoru doesn’t care.

Neither does the audience, the stadium erupting and whoops and cheers and you’re saved by none other than the star player of the Toyko team, Satoru Gojo - both of your faces loud and clear on the Jumbotron.

Your brain isn’t able to process anything, starstruck and grateful and flustered and pissed at your boyfriend and…happy.

Satoru kissed you lovingly- which you thought was impossible considering the two of you had just met, but it was happening.

He tasted like candy, you think, kissing him back timidly - because this was wrong, you knew that, but why did it feel so right? His large palm snakes around to the back of your neck, slowly running his long fingers through your hair, before parting, your faces only millimeters away from each other.

You’re both left breathless, but not for long because Satoru regained his composure, squeezing your shoulder before swiftly grabbing the bucket on popcorn your boyfriend (soon to be ex) and dumping it on his head.

The audience roars in approval and you wanted to snort at the star basketball player’s childishness, before you remembered that the white haired man in front of you was a star basketball player.

You just kissed a star basketball player. On a Jumbotron.

Satoru turns back to you with a cheeky grin and you gape at him, awestruck.

He coos at your expression and takes your hand in his. “How about you join me up front, hm pretty girl? I’m sure you’ll have a way better view from down there.” He winks and you feel all the blood rush to your face.

“I uh…o-okay…” you manage to squeak out, letting Satoru lead you down to the benches where the rest of his team was.

Did…did that just happen?

[themindofachronicdaydreamer]

The Cat Distribution System

fluffy fluff fluff plot: you find a stray kitten and bring it home to Gojo content: alludes to smut, cats, mentions of violence (curses), established relationship, reader referred to as girlfriend word count: 3.1k satoru gojo x reader note: thank you for readingggg :) this is my first so be patient with me. it is purely self indulgent & I am still learning and trying to improve! not proofread super thoroughly so sorry for mistakes! love you <3

Of anything in the world, Gojo was certain he was cats were your favorite. 

This might be able to explain why you start smiling at your phone every time there’s a cat on it. 

This may explain your constant stream of texts to him of pictures of the most adorable cats from the internet or funny TikToks starring kittens being absolutely hilarious. 

It could explain why you constantly dragged him to places that have cats, whether it be a pet shelter or a newly popular cat cafe in the area. 

This might explain why you absolutely broke down when seeing a stray little kitten crying in an alleyway of Tokyo. 

It may explain how, in the middle of a mission, you dropped everything to go to the nearest convenience store, bought a bulk-sized pack of churu sticks to feed the lonesome kitten, and gave it all the pets it ever wanted. 

That also may explain why you just arrived back home earlier than expected - but with a cat. 

Walking into the door of yours and Gojo’s shared apartment, you shout, “I’m home!”

Gojo, who is sitting on the couch watching an old movie while eating a bag of gummy worms, is confused. It was his day off and he had been bored all day, not having you or anyone else available to bother relentlessly for his own entertainment. He had gone for a walk, tried a new restaurant, and came back home just as bored and with many more sweets. He could always sense your specific cursed energy from afar, so he knew you were nearing him before you even reached the door. While he’s in no way complaining about having more time with you, he’s still curious as to what cut the mission short. Before he could vocalize his question, you continue on. 

“Satoru! Where are you? You’ll never guess what happened. You’re a dad now!” You excitedly wonder aloud, knowing he’s home and that will catch his attention if you hadn’t already. 

Gojo is immediately confused. His mind runs a through a long list of possibilities to solve what riddle you just set in front of him. A dad? Yeah, you two may practice creating kids every now and then, but he was certain you weren’t pregnant the past nine whole months. He would know that, right? Wouldn’t it be noticeable? Not in a bad way, just in the nature of growing a human in you and the way your body would adjust to that. He’s sure you would tell him you were pregnant though, or that he would figure it out before eventual labor. Well, he knows you would tell him. You definitely would. You’ve talked about that before. So what isn’t he getting here?

“Sweetheart?” Gojo calls for you while quickly standing up and making his way toward the hallway at the entrance. He stops not too far from the couch when he hears a little squeak. 

Was that… a meow?

He doesn’t have time to think through the noise as you exit the hall and turn the corner toward him. A tiny fur ball is cradled in your arms, eyes wide in curiosity of its new surroundings. Immediately, any question in Gojo's mind was answered.

“Meet Suki!” Your face lights up as you move your arms toward your boyfriend, displaying the cat the best you can. Gojo smiles widely as he looks at your new little bundle of joy - a likely malnourished tiny kitten with a goopy right eye, dirty fur, and potentially (probably) fleas. Immediately he starts fawning over it. 

“Awwwwwwwwwe!“ Gojo said coos as he tilts his head and forms grabby hands reaching toward you and the kitten. With the sudden movement, the claws of the kitten dig into your skin a bit out of fear. She looks up at you, pupils dilated, seemingly asking for help. 

“Saturo, be slow and gentle with her, please! She’s a little nervous still,” you explain to him. The kitten was found alone and while she was not feral, it was obvious she had not had much interaction with people. Plus, when you stumbled on her, you were mid-fight. While the chances of her being able to see the curses are quite low, it felt like she could sense the tension in the surrounding atmosphere as she was cowering behind a dumpster, only coming out when she smelled the delicious churu you had in your hand.

“I’m sorry, baby. She’s just so cute!” Gojo exclaims, causing you to giggle and nod your head in agreement.

Gojo slowly and ever-so carefully reaches his hand toward Suki to allow the cat to sniff him. She recoils a bit, untrusting of the stranger. After thinking about it for a second, Suki sniffs Gojo’s hand, looking quizzically at his snowy white hair. She then turns and snuggles back into you and away from Gojo. He freezes in his position, mouth slightly agape due to the rejection. A small huh? escapes him. 

“I think she’s exhausted. She had a long day. Maybe she’ll be more comfortable after a nap,” you explain after seeing Gojo develop a pout from the rejection. You figured she was still sensitive to new people and was already tired, so you didn’t want to push her more than you already had when trying to feed her earlier. “I bought some stuff at a convenience store and stuffed it in my purse to take care of her before taking her to the vet tomorrow, so I’m gonna go run her a bath.” 

“Wait, wait!" Satoru exclaimed. He was already beginning to miss your attention being solely on him, so he prolonged talking to you and you leaving him to bathe the cat. "Let me guess - you were fighting, saw her, quickly ended the fight because you were only entertaining them to cure your boredom as the typical sorcerer does, helped her, and now you’re here?” Gojo guesses, causing you to gasp and shake your head no.

“No! That is absolutely not what happened. I saw her, immediately exorcized the curses, got her some food, and then I called Nanami to take over for me because of a ‘family emergency’,” you said while using finger quotes. You rolled your eyes in feigned annoyance as you continued, exasperated, “I wasn’t done with my mission, but I wouldn’t just leave it unfinished, Satoru! What kind of sorcerer do you think I am?” 

“Sorry, princess,” Satoru responds as he shakes his head with a chuckle. He watches as you lovingly look at the creature in your arms, mesmerized by the shape of your jaw and the soft smile on your lips. He gives your hair a quick tousle before continuing, “You’re m’favorite sorcerer. The best one out there. Other than me, of course.”

You look up at him, a faint blush spreading across your features. You gave him a disapproving look for his last comment, but the hue of your cheeks gave away the fact that you still get flustered when he compliments you. You gently push on the tips of your toes, lifting yourself up enough to lean toward your boyfriend. After a chaste kiss on his cheek, you hear a meow from your arms. Looking at the kitten, she repeats the same little sound. 

“What, you jealous?” Satoru teases the animal. “You want her attention? Can’t stand to spare a second for a kiss on my cheek?”

You let out a laugh as Suki gives Gojo what you would consider a dirty look. He picks up on it too, clicking his tongue at the kitten and again turning his attention to you. “Friendly, isn’t she?” he states, sticking his tongue out at Suki. 

“Right now, she's shy and nervous,” you answered, heading toward the guest bedroom in the apartment. You knew that at this rate if you did not leave now, you would never be giving her a bath. “I’m gonna use the guest bath.”

“Do you need help?” Gojo asked. He followed behind you, a puppy craving the attention of its owner.

“Actually, yeah. Look, I know it’s late and that this is a big ask, but I didn’t have the hands to get her more food and essentials. Can you go out for me and get some things? I’ll send you a list,” you give him pleading eyes you know never fail to make his knees weak and heart flutter. You wanted to grab these things before, but you could not bring yourself to leave the kitten alone for a second longer than she already had been for who knows how long. You were going to go later that night so as to not bother Satoru - but since he offered and you are a little tired, why not have him do it for you? A quick run to the pet store for some scratching boards, dry food, wet food, and other basics wouldn’t be the worst you’ve ever asked of him. 

“Yeah, honey, of course. Text me the list, yeah? I’ll get going now,” Satoru, your savior in flesh and bone, agrees as he flashes you a big, toothy smile, then moves to grab his keys.

“Thank you, Toru,” you say as you cuddle the kitten closer. 

Satoru smiles at the sight he knows he is going to grow to love; you looking at the kitten like she is your entire world, while he looks at you knowing you are his.

"Anything for you. I love you," Satoru says as he walks around to hug you from behind and not disturb Suki. He presses a kiss to your head, you melting into his touch.

"Alright, let me give her a bath! Stop stalling me," you say. Satoru releases you from his grasp. You turn to face him to see his face has a pout once again.

"Gimme a kiss before I go, please?" He says, then puckers his lips and leans forward.

"You're a dork," you say, but continue to lean in and kiss him. "But I love you too."

------

With Suki now bathed to the best of your ability and eating another churu stick while in a big fluffy blanket, you are beginning to wonder what is taking your boyfriend so long. The pet store is not a far walk and is an even closer drive, yet you finished the bath about an hour and a half ago.

Just on cue, you hear the front door open after a slight struggle. Suki's ears perk up, but she is too tired and invested in eating the churu that she does not even bother to glance in the direction.

You hear quick footsteps until Gojo appears from the hallway. With a big box under one arm and a couple tote bags full of things that you can't quite tell what they are, he stumbles into the kitchen. He quickly sets everything down, giving you a better sight of what all he has. You see the big box was a cat tree, and in the bags is a variety of canned food, wet food, treats, toys, tunnels, collars, more treats, multiple automatic food and water bowl sets, and a couple of outfits. This is why you never send Gojo on errands.

"Satoru, you bought way too much!" you say. You motion to the bags of stuff he put down as he walks toward you with an innocent smile on his face.

"I actually think I didn't buy enough. I figured you would want a say in some things though, so I held off. A little bit," the man in question responds. He then pulls out a little box of icing covered treats with sprinkles on them. "I even got her sweets!"

Suki - coincidentally - now decides to acknowledge her new father's presence, meowing at him from across the room in her blanket. Gojo looks over and coos as he walks over to her.

"Hi sweet girl, did you have a scary day? Do you want some delicious treats to celebrate you coming home today?" He opens the box toward the kitten, who stares at it, sniffing the aroma she finds so enticing. She then walks forward, rubs her head against the hand holding the box, and meows again. Gojo giggles as he takes the treat out of the container to help the cat.

Your heart feels like it is about to burst. Watching the two interact brings you so much joy, and with how welcoming Gojo has been ever since you spurred this on him, you could not be more excited. He takes his phone out of his pocket and takes a billion pictures of the new addition to the family.

"Tell me everything, baby. How'd you find her? How was the mission? I'm sure Nanami is pissed," Gojo says to you after he puts his phone away.

You had wanted a cat for a while, but it never seemed like the right time. With you and Gojo being jujutsu sorcerers, you had been worried about leaving a new cat alone for an extended period of time or not being able to come home to it. You had considered it once you and Gojo finally moved in, but life never seemed to give you a break, and here you are now.

Still, you did not yield even a single hesitation about leaving this kitten behind. The second you saw her, you were hers.

"Mission was easy, just annoying. Found her behind a dumpster in an alley. Nanami was only slightly irritated. I told him that it's just the cat distribution system, and that no one could deny fate," you shrug your shoulders.

"Oh yeah, like those videos you send me? Where cats just choose their new owner?" Gojo says, causing you to smile.

"You actually watch all of those?" You questioned.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I?" he says, appearing genuinely confused.

"Dunno, I just send them a lot. But yeah, you're right. The second I saw her, I had a feeling," you elaborated. "She was mine!"

Satoru thinks to the first time he saw you back at Jujutsu High on the first day there. He remembers every detail: how you did your hair that day (two braids with black bows at the ends of them), who you were with (Shoko, a childhood best friend of yours), the way you laughed (a cute little laugh, throwing your head back at Shoko's joke). He remembers time moving so slowly, he felt like he was staring at you for hours. Suguru Geto, his new friend, stared at Gojo's frozen features and sighed, waving Shoko, another new friend, over.

Gojo can recall clear as day how your hair framed your face, your eyes stared into his icey ones hidden by black shades, and how you introduced yourself to him.

He knew then that you were different. He knew you were going to be in his life for a while. You were his, and he was yours. He just had a feeling.

Who knew that one day comparing his love for you to your love for your new kitten you found, mid-fight and in a dark, Tokyo alley?

He just can't contain his giddiness toward you anymore. You were so cute, so soft, and so sweet. He wanted to dote on you and shower you in all of the love he could.

"God, baby. You are the cutest thing I have ever seen!" He exclaims as he pinches your cheeks.

"Stop, Toru," you wave him off. "I thought we were talking about Suki?"

"You were. You just distract me," he says, a hand coming up to stroke your cheek. He leaned in and placed a kiss on your forehead. "How could you not when you look so adorable?"

A little meow echoes throughout the room.

"Do not flirt with me in front of our child! She is clearly uncomfortable," You jokingly tease your beloved boyfriend.

Gojo glares at Suki, who is still eating her treats, content with her new life of luxury.

"Ugh. Way to cockblock, Suki," Saturo groans as he flashes the innocent kitten the finger

"First of many," You add, smiling. You swat at his outstretched hand, grabbing it and pulling it into you. You smile up at him, pulling his blindfold up so you can see his eyes, and giving him a loving kiss. "I love you, Toru."

"I love you more, cutie."

As much as you cats are your favorite of anything in the world, you know it is impossible to love anything more than you love Satoru Gojo. As you stare into his eyes, you know he knows that too.

Cats are a very near second place, though.

Bonus

Your phone rings with a familiar ringtone. You look down to see Megumi's contact staring back at you and press answer, lifting the phone to your ear.

Before you could even say hello, you hear, "Now why the hell did you get a cat?"

"Hello to you, too, Megumi. My day has been great, thanks!" You tease. "Yeah, yeah. Now why?"

"How do you even know? I was gonna tell you next time I saw you," you ponder, already having an idea of the answer to your question.

"Gojo posted it everywhere already. Every story. Every single one," Megumi confirmed your suspicions. "Answer my question, please? I am not the most fond of those things."

"It's the cat distribution system," Megumi hears another voice in the background say.

"The what?"

Suddenly, the phone is lifted from your hands, your boyfriend having replaced you in speaking to Megumi. "Hey, Gumi!"

"Gojo? I said not to call me that," Megumi groans, although you know he doesn't really mind the nickname.

"The cat distribution system is a phenomenon where stray cats choose a random owner, and the new owner must take care of the cat because simply, the cat decides it will!" Gojo explains. "Isn't that cool? My Suki-bear was all alone and my lovely girlfriend here brought her to the safety of our humble abode."

Megumi is silent for a moment before huffing, "There is no way you actually believe that."

A mischievous smirk appears on Gojo's face as he says "Megumi, are you afraid of cats?"

Megumi began stuttering nonstop as he said, "N-No, I... I just... I don't like them. Um. I... I'm allergic?" Gojo laughs at this response, causing Megumi to scoff. "Whatever."

The line goes silent, and Gojo hands you the phone. He looks at your irritated expression with an unwavering smile.

Before you could say anything, a little meow is heard, causing Gojo to laugh before saying, "Right, Suki? What a loser! Who wouldn't love you?"

-----

the ending isnt my fave but i hope you enjoyeeddddd thank you for reading all this way ilyyyyyy

[mask131]

So you want to know about Oz! (5)

Now that we looked at the MGM-continuity of movie and cartoons adaptation, I propose you in those post some adaptations that are either more in line with the original novels or... just not following either the novels or the MGM movie, and just doing their own thing. Since there is a lot of Oz adaptations, for this movie I will stay by American productions, post-1939.

First my three faves, and the rest will be under the cut.

2005's The Muppets' Wizard of Oz

This movie did quite poorly upon its release - and of all the Muppets movies, it is not considered to the best in any way. There is notable use of some old CGI that aged very poorly when it comes to the Wizard's scenes... But, not only does it have one of the most hilarious depiction of the Witches of Oz ever (what do you expect when they are played by Miss Piggy?) and some cool songs - this movie has the honor of being the most book-accurate, book-faithful adaptation of The Wizard of Oz there ever was. (Well outside of Japanese animes I'll talk about later). Yep... this Muppets parody is the closest you can get to experiencing the original novel as a movie. Crazy, right?

2011's The Witches of Oz

Originally it was released as a mini-series in two parts ; and in 2012 it was recut and edited as a single movie known as "Dorothy and the Witches of Oz" (but the single-movie version deleted a lot of scenes and segments from the complete mini-series). It tells a sort-of sequel to the Oz books (yes ALL of the Oz books), while mixing it with urban fantasy - as young real-life Dorothy, all grown-up in 2000s Oz, is depicted as the current author of Oz books, only for her to discover the fictional adventures in Oz that were written about her are real, and Oz is coming to New-York to get her...

Now... this mini-series aged VERY badly. The special effects are so cheap, most of the characters are insufferable, the plot is very weak... BUT! BUT this mini-series deserves to get some attention and to be known due to specific elements, such as, the most badass depiction of Langwidere ever ; Christopher Lloyd delightfully playing the Wizard of Oz... And the Wicked Witch of the West! This incarnation of the Witch is without a doubt one of my favorit reimaginings of the character, striking the perfect balance between the character of the original novel and the MGM Wicked Witch. Just in design she is the coolest Wicked Witch of the West there ever was. Too bad the rest of the mini-series is... quite cringe.

2017's Emerald City

Yet another proof of the "Oz curse" that plagues most of Oz adaptations - because the series got cancelled after its first season, leaving the show unfinished.

What is Emerald City? It was an Oz television series from the era of "post-Game of Thrones". Since the success of GoT, every channel and network tried to create its own dark and gritty big-budgeted high fantasy series... And "Emerald City" is what happened when Oz got caught in the trend.

People were very divided on the show (hence why it ended up cancelled) - some people adored its beginning and got tired of it by the end, others hated the first episodes but by the final ones were eagerly awaiting for the next season. On one side, most people agree that it is too much and that the show handled itself in a strange way, everything being a bit crammed-in. This TV show is actually adapting simultaneously THREE different Oz novels (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Marvelous Land of Oz, Ozma of Oz), all mixed together in a new, dark, adult iteration of Oz, so yes, that's a LOT.

However the show does work out several very cool and interesting concepts, playing around with both the MGM and the novel heritages. And while the story can get a bit convoluted due to the so-many plots and subplots mixing each other in a complicated way and not giving each other enough time to breath, the visuals are 10/10. There was a real visual effort on this show that makes it entirely worth the watch, if just as an eye-candy. They literaly used GAUDI ARCHITECTURE for the Emerald City, come on, how cool is that?

And also it is one of these shows were several actually working languages were created by experts, so that's always cool. I always stand by fictional linguistics.

Now I'll go a bit quicker for these ones because else it's going to be one LONG post:

In the 1960s, there was one animated show that dominated the Ozian landscape. 1961's Tales of the Wizard of Oz.

One of the early creations of the future Rankin/Bass studios, it is a cartoon that reuses the settng and characters of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz"... But not the plot X) Basically Dorothy and Toto end up entering Oz by... by a hole, as if she was Alice. And there she meets her companions and each episode is about them trying to have a wish granted by the Wizard of Oz, or trying to avoid the schemes of the Wicked Witch. So... it is quite a VERY loose adaptation, and the modern cartoon "Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz" is kind of a modern heir to this old cartoon.

After 114 episodes, there was an animated special created to conclude the show. Called "Return to Oz", it IS actually an adaptation of the plot and events of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz"... But happening after all of the events of the cartoon, and thus taking a different direction in terms of set-up.

1969's The Wonderful Land of Oz

This low-budget movie was an adaptation of the second Oz book, "The Marvelous Land of Oz". There's quite a lot of interesting stories surrounding this production - from Judy Garland supposedly having been intended as the narrator, to the background actresses having appeared in nude films created by the movie's director... However the movie tend to be ignored or forgotten compared to the other 60s Land of Oz adaptation...

1960's "The Land of Oz". First episode of the second season of Shirley Temple's Storybook

This was a much more famous adaptation of "The Marvelous Land of Oz", if only because of Shriley Temple's name. Retrospectively, I should have added it in my previous Oz post because this mini-movie takes a lot of visual cues from the MGM's Wizard of Oz, such as the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman being designed after their MGM incarnation, or Glinda's outfit calling for the MGM Glinda's design.

1980's "Thanksgiving in the Land of Oz"

An animated special for Thanksgiving of the year 1980, which is - as the title says - about Dorothy going to celebrate Thanksgiving in Oz. In 1981 it was re-cut to become "Dorothy in the Land of Oz" (with most Thanksgiving references being removed so the animated short could be aired at any time of the year - which is quite a challenge since the special is ALL about Thanksgiving... Dorothy is literaly brought to Oz by a "giant green turkey ballooon", come on!)

1987's Dorothy meets Ozma of Oz

This animated middle-sized movie is an adaptation of the novel "Ozma of Oz", and remained for quite a long time the only adaptation of Ozma of Oz alongside Disney's Return to Oz.

1997's The Oz Kids

A direct-to-video cartoon series that is just what it says. We follow the adventures of the children of the various protagonists of the Oz novels. Dot and Neddie, Dorothy's children ; Bela and Boris the children of the Cowardly Lion ; Tin Boy and Scarecrow Junior ; the son of the Nome King, and more...

2007's Tin Man

Ah, Tin Man! A cult-classic a lot of people remember fondly - especially on Tumblr. This mini-series was part of the long suite of SyFy "dark sci-fi" fantasy reimaginings (2011's Neverland ; 2009's Alice, etc).

Described as an "adult steampunk reimagining" of the Wizard of Oz, it depicts the adventures of DG, a waitress of Kansas, as she gets taken by an interdimensional storm to the otherwordly "Outer Zone", and there befriends a telepathic leonine humanoid, a man who lost half of his brain, and a former cowboy-like law enforcer of the dictature a wicked witch-queen set upon the Outer Zone...

Speaking of steampunk, the last two Oz adaptations I want to talk about are...

2015's Lost in Oz

This animated show was part of Amazon Prime Video early days at producing its own content. Originally it was just a pilot episode released in 2015. Since the pilot episode proved good, it became a three-episodes mini-series in 2016. Since THIS mini-series proved good, it became a full season in 2017. And since this first season proved good, a second season was released in 2018. And then they stopped.

At first it seems that this show is just an "updated" version of The Wizard of Oz: Dorothy and her dog Toto gets transported to the Land of Oz, and must find a way to get back home while making friends and all together fighting through the many plots and scehmes dividing the land... Except that this Oz is a more modern and updated Oz filled with magi-tech, and Dorothy's companions are not exactly your traditional band... Turns out Dorothy has to team up with Ojo, here depicted as a "giant Munchkin", and a teenage witch by the name of... West. Yes, she is the (not so) wicked witch "of the west".

And thus starts a quite unique retelling of Oz where the three teenagers must face various threats taken from later Oz books: Langwidere, here West's evil aunt ; the mysterious Crooked Magician ; and Roquat, the Nome King.

And a last steampunk Oz for the road: 2018's "The Steam Engines of Oz". This Canadian animated movie is actually an adaptation of an Oz graphic novel of the same name, by Erik Hendrix and about a modernized Oz set after the events of "The Wonderful Wizard". A young mechanician of the Emerald City, Victoria, is chosen by the Good Witch of the North to help fight the ever-growing expansion and industrialization of the Emerald City, pushed by a Tin Man who became a cruel dictator of Oz...

[capsensislagamoprh]

My thoughts on this awesome art.

JJ ( lesser noble's son/ mayor's kid or something like that) is just trying to help his friend (Otabek) but he has the worst understanding of boundaries, subtly, and gets caught up in the drama so fast it's tragic. Hilarious, but tragic.

Minami is an elf. Come on now. Look at him! He works with Christophe as an apprentice. Just is suddenly there with whatever is needed. Has a massive break thrugh to become an official court magician apprentice by learning that illusive spell at a crucial time.

Pitchit is all about that tea. Him and Chris have serious side eye when everyone else needs help because of their dramatic selves, but boy do they thrive on it. These two might secretly be the source of all the rumors and spontaneous dance numbers in town.

Christoph is the fairy godfather/court official magical person with all the gentle magic and blatant flamboyancy such a position requires. Somehow he's always there. You just don't notice until he makes himself known. It's creepy, until you realize it's actually to help and protect, and part of his magic. Also, half the time it's Pitchit eaves dropping and using clever mirror placement to get that pipping hot constant comet (tea).

You know that Georgi is so into singing his massive hit (backed up by JJ) that a 'captured' Otabek just unties himself and walks out with Yuri as the villains hold the long note before they even notice. They are well across the dangerous bridge before the song ends and JJ discovers they slipped out. Georgi has to double take, blinks and is secretly impressed and chagrined because damn it that was a GOOD SONG! He worked on that all week! Sends JJ to get them back for the plot to continue.

Yuri hates that everything causes spontaneous songs. Especially when his parents sing them because they are always sappy wake you up at dawn with thrown open windows and birds and suddenly he's dressed and on a horse and what the hell?! Why are they on the way to town? What even is life? Someone HELP! Gets chased because plot demands it, winds up in woods. Hears BEST music. Follows it.

Otabek lives in the woods in an oddly fantastical 'cabin', that would be a massive magical castle if he'd just flip the fuse box switch, but he wont because it causes questions and matinence issues, and he just cannot with these sudden laps of logic for fairy tale rules. Why it all so convoluted? You could just like, not? He's gonna get caught up in the plot and wonder what the heck happened. Otabek helps. Everyone. Because common sense is apparently his alone, WTF people? W. T. F. Finds Yuri trying to escape town folk trying to mob him. Helps. Tried to get him back home. Adventure and secret (is a high rank) noble reveal because Georgi is not as bad as he seems. He's like Christoph's counter part. They both mean well. It's just that one is goth af about it.

Victor and Yuuri are just trying to throw a frikin birthday party for their feral son. He's cursed, but like, in a good way. Some day his prince will come (wait until they meet the guy from the woods and start the betting pool on how long it takes for the curse to break because they are keeping him) and they have SO Many Songs About It. Ah, how will they ever lift this (dramatic, tragic, so exciting) curse? With SONG! Wait... where did Yuri go? LE DRAMA! *smooch smooch* Los DRAMATICA! *kissy kiss kiss kiss* OH How Will They Ever Make it to That Fateful Day?! *aggressive making out*

[aita-blorbos]

AITA for going right back to causing chaos after the important missions were done?

I (30, M) am a member of an intergalactic team led by a kid (5-10?, M) that kicked most of our asses in the past, because a lot of us were enemies with him before. I was the one that tricked him into granting a wish to a comet, to make it clearer who I am.

Most of those guys who were enemies with the kid are now friends with him as they've tried to become better people.

Not me though.... hahahahaha! I never cared to become a better person. Truthfully, the only reason I tagged along in the group because the new threat was too big to ignore, although they did reward me with food! Can't say no to rewards like that. But regardless, I didn't join to be some sort of hero, and instead only because I didn't want the universe to be destroyed.

I love chaos and mischief! And I can't have my fun in a universe that's destroyed. Why let the universe be destroyed when there's fun to be had? I can't plot my own sketchy ambitions with all this other evil shit around!

The reason why the team was formed was because we needed to stop a doomsday cult that put the whole universe at risk. Their leader was hilariously unhinged, and after we whooped him, he sacrificed his followers to summon their god. We beat their god, too.

But it wasn't over. The toddler then made us all go to a twisted dimension to save that exact same cult leader with his three loyal followers. So we did that, too.

Once we completed the task of saving those four, though? I was glad that it was over. I was getting bored of having to go along with the rest of the group, but at least I was finally free to do what I want after that was all dealt with.

And so I went right back to causing chaos. I even went as far as to mess with the rest of the intergalactic team shortly after we were done! Hahahahahahahahahaha! It was so much fun!

They all got soooo mad! It was so hilarious to see the looks on their faces when I went right back to mischief. A lot of them cursed me out. Not that I cared, honestly. A lot of them didn't even get along with me beforehand, anyways. The only real friend I had in the group was a blue-cloaked guy (32, M) that also once betrayed the toddler like I did, although he didn't cause trouble to the rest of the group at the end like I did.

It was pretty funny that they thought I actually tried to become a better person. Nah, man, I don't give a crud. I only joined along to help ensure the new baddie got rekt, that doesn't mean I was gonna continue playing nice afterwards!

AITA or did you agree that it was annoying to go along with them and was relieved it was finally over?

[explaininghellaverse]

Hiya! Names Jax I go by she/they pronouns! This page is just to talk about hellaverse and Hazbin. Specifically rebutting some common very bad interpretations and bad faith takes I always see bouncing around.

I do want to be clear this is not me in anyway saying you have to like or support the show, BUT making up things or taking the worst possible bad faith argument to ‘prove’ that the show is bad is not good.

I’m also not going to be getting into controversy surrounding Vivzie herself as there is so much misinformation that it’s honestly hard to dig out what’s real and what’s not. I know some stuff was apologized for some stuff wasn’t and some stuff was blown out of proportion and a lot of it was when she was a teen. Whether you support her or not is up to you.

Personally from what I’ve seen, she’s done a lot less controversial things compared to like- a majority of major celebrities people follow so I think the pitchforks are wild. It’s also funny because Hazbin is literally about ‘bad’ people trying to get better and yet people won’t let the creator have her own character development lol.

Anyway onto to talking about the shows in general for a moment. With a quick interlude into common complaints done in a Q&A format for quick ease.

Hazbin and Helluva is just Gen Z Family Guy!

No! Family Guy is a straight comedy with no furthering plot and 50 ‘jokes’ per minute. If anything Hazbin and Helluva is Gen Z Bojack Horseman or Rick and Morty! An adult show with adult humor where there is a continuous story as well as ‘edgy’ humor!

Hazbin and Helluva are ugly!

That’s up to opinion! Personally I love the art style and think it’s one of the best drawn shows as far as adult animation though!

Eeeww why is there so much red!?

This complaint is so silly to me! Hell has been represented in popular media especially cartoons as being mostly red with red demons for so long that is just default look people think of for hell!

Eeeww why is there so much cursing and violence?

It’s an adult show about demons and the complexities of good and bad in this type of environment. It would be weird if there wasn’t cursing and violence without specific lore reason why there would be. Again this is just kind of the default interpretation of hell we’ve had for many many years!

Why are some of the characters toxic/Bad even the main ones clearly this is supporting the behavior!

This is literally just how stories work! If everyone got a long and had no toxic traits the show would be boring! With no plot!

Yeah well why is Blitzo like that he’s the main character and he’s the worst!

Main character does not mean good character! Again this more Bojack Horseman/Rick and Morty kind of story he is an awful but complicated person for the majority of it and that’s the god damn point, but seems the show is going in the direction of him trying to redeem himself. (There is a trend with people getting redeemed in these shows lol)

Why is Charlie like that she’s so boring!

This is hilarious to me people complain about her being the far reaching opposite of Blitzo! She’s just an optimistic person who wants to see the best in people! People like that exist! She’s just preppy!

People when character is mean and does bad stuff on purpose >:(

People when character is generally nice and wants the best in people >:(

It fetishizes gay men!!

The ‘straight’ couple kisses and engages in make out sessions and implied *cough* stuff on screen more often than the gay couples? Also I say ‘straight’ in quotations because Moxie and Millie are not straight but are a M/F relationship.

Fetishize implies a difference in treatment for the sole purpose of arousal. That is not what’s happening simply showing something in a sexual setting is not fetishizing you dingus.

Honestly I could put a lot here about media purity and having to be ‘the good queer’ because that’s what a lot of these criticisms boils down to. Do you want queer people in media to only hold hands ever?

It’s Transphobic!

Hi! Both me and my my partner are trans! I can extra talk about this!

No! It’s not! Where are people getting this from? Are there a lot of confirmed trans main cast characters. No as far as I know the only one is Sally Mae (Millie’s big sister). Which I might add is still more than most shows honestly haha!

What Helluva and Hazbin are good at though is there is a TON of trans background characters that just exist! No big deal made about them or nothing! If you don’t know Imps are a sexually dimorphic species specifically there horns are different depending on the sex. We see a great deal of imps that are girls with the male horns or are boys with the female horns. This a quick subtle giveaway that hey this character it trans. And honestly I love how casual it is! Even with Sally Mae the plots with her so far have nothing to do with her traness they just let her be a person! That’s amazing!

I also know some of the rhetoric comes from Angel Dust a lot of people think he’s a trans man. He is not, and if he was there would be nothing wrong with that and I stand by that. See his chest fluff makes him have a busty appearance and because of that people went off, but uh- even if he was canonically trans guess what! Trans guys can have busts! Trans guys can like pink! Trans guys can be hot and horny! That’s not transphobia!

People be like “We need more trans rep where they don’t look cis.” And then when giving an inkly that something might be interpreted that way go “HOW DARE YOU!!” Calm yourself.

There is not a lot of body shape differences!

There actually is a lot of body shape difference between characters? Just in general there is a lot more than most shows honestly. Is there a lot of fat characters in the main cast of either show no, but then again most shows don’t have any to begin with either so that’s a weird hill to die on for specifically this show.

But also to add people saying chubby/fat characters don’t exist at all in this style or don’t fit this style are also willfully ignorant- again the background characters in this show tend to be incredibly diverse.

Would I like to see more main characters be chubby, yeah absolutely but if your going to die on this hill you need to die on this hill for *every* show. And I don’t know about you but I don’t want diverse characters to be made to fit a quota, that’s weird no one really wants that.

They’re queer and in hell clearly this queerphobic!

Just say you want the show to be about straight people and move on. We are allowed to exist in fantasy shows we are allowed to be written as bad people. Again any character that can’t be described as ‘the good one’ is bombasted with being bad reputation. You can’t say you want more queer people in media and then get upset when they are not the most digestible character to the masses. That’s how you get queer characters but boring characters.

[emilyofthegreenwood]

"Queen of the May" by Denée Cody

Zebra Books, 1997 || Read and reviewed in November 2024

Introducing my first foray into the classic genre of paperback romance! As this is my first paperback romance, I can't compare it with any others. There might be better ones out there. There might be worse. I've been interested in trying one of these out for a while, particularly because these are books made and marketed for women, specifically for the sake of having fun reading. The marketing is shamelessly up front about what they are and what they offer, and there's something badass to me about grandmas having a casual romance novel in their yarn basket, with a fabulously erotic clinch cover on full display.

So, the other week, I wandered into the most embarrassing aisle at Half Price Books with the goal of finding a paperback romance to try out. To my surprise and delight, I stumbled upon "Queen of the May", which features Robin (spelled Robyn here) and Marian as secondary characters. I knew it would be a hoot, and I was right. "Queen of the May" follows our two protagonists, Giselle and Alexander. Giselle, although not really an outlaw herself, lives in Sherwood Forest with Robyn Hood and company. Her best buddy is Marian. Alexander is the lonely baron of Wolfhurst, a fictional village near Sherwood, and he's back in England after twelve years on crusade. For inexplicable reasons, Giselle accidentally shoots him with a poisoned arrow and then takes him back to her cave to heal him. And so, they immediately fall in lust with each other, and we're off on the grand nonsense ride of this book! I didn't crack this open expecting anything particularly good, and fully expected to find some distasteful tropes along the way. (And, oh boy, did I ever.) To be honest, that was half the fun. This book was hilarious and deserved every eyeroll. Let's look at some highlights.

Hot tub sex in Sherwood! Oh, I'm sorry, it's a hot spring. Okay, sure.

Alexander and his family have some kind of emergency whistle protocol and it's absolutely hilarious.

Every character's favorite curse is "God's feet!" for the first two thirds of the the novel. And then in the last third, everyone graduates and uses "God's blood". I was so relieved. I was sick of hearing about his feet.

The absolute low point is when Giselle doesn't want to marry Alexander because she thinks she'd be an embarrassment of a wife, and he decides to "wear her down with persistence" until she agrees. "I'll accept nothing less than total surrender." Yikes, buddy. Maybe not? Villain behavior. Seems it was all talk though, because nothing actually happens in that vein.

The standout character is honestly Marian, and I swear I'm not being biased. She didn't get to do much, plot-wise, but she was great fun every time she was on the page. Which is more than can be said of anyone else.

Just as a fun throw-in, Marian is pregnant for the entire novel, although we are only told a few times, and there doesn't seem to be any purpose to it. Over the seven months of this novel, she continues to exist without so much of a mention of a baby bump or any other changes. During a horrible winter storm, Giselle (in the castle) worries not a whit for her pregnant best friend living in the woods. Robyn, bless him, is the only one who seems worried about Marian having a baby in the forest. Meanwhile, Marian does not mention the baby even once. So.... why?

What little character Robyn was allowed to have was good enough, and he seemed mostly like himself. I liked this bit of internal reflection from Alexander: "Robyn had proved an able and reliable man, intelligent and with a mischievous sense of humor." Sounds like Robin Hood to me. :)

As a Robin Hood book, it's very periphery. Then again, the pages are filled with Robyn, Marian, Tuck, and Guy of Guisborne. Heck, Guy is the primary villain! Other characters who get a mention or more are Little John, Alan, and Alan's lover (here named Alice). The focus, as expected, is the romance between Alex and Giselle, and it's more physical than emotional so there's not much to really bite into. The muscles are firm, everyone's hot to go, the bedroom is the goal, and Robin Hood stuff happens on the edges of it all. I would recommend this only if you, like me, have an interest of some kind in paperback romances and are willing to put up with the negatives that come with that. Go have fun! Read some silly, pulpy books. I approached this book with completely unserious expectations and had fun. I think that's enough. Robin Hood shelf: for more Robin Hood book reviews (eventually)

[kmze]

Thoughts on 5x01 - 5x11 again SO MUCH FUN watching this half season. Does the plot make sense? Not really. Was it a compelling storyline? Not so much. Did I laugh a lot? YOU BETCHA! The thing with this season (at least this half) is you cannot take it seriously, it is the most this show has ever been "meta" because this was just episode after episode of laughing at the Triangle of Doom. I would say DE got it the worse but even SE got hits against it too. Stefan was mocked by having amnesia Stefan point out all his worst qualities. Damon was mocked relentlessly via his insecurity. Elena was mocked by being the flip flopper that she is. It was beautiful. Silas and Tessa were great as scorned lovers/enemies and I truly enjoyed the doppelgänger shenanigans. Amnesia Stefan you will always be famous! Of course there's bad stuff, like Bonnie's storyline and Jesse's treatment and sadly that's not surprising because Dries (racist) was in charge. I touch on all of this below!

5x01

LMFAO at Elena’s little shimmy

Damon is such a moron that is obviously not Stefan, when would Stefan ever say “Chateau Salvatore” thank god Jeremy could tell. Katherine too like when has Stefan EVER blatantly flirted with her like that, but Katherine was just thinking with her downstairs brain I understand.

Poor Caroline, but at least Jesse is smoking hot.

Random observation: last season the beginning of the season did not look like it was filmed in the summer like every other season and I've always kind of wondered why that is. I think I read somewhere that they continued filming the beginning of S4 when S3 ended and that's why you never get the summer attire in S4 like we do here again in S5.

5x02

Elena coughing up blood/water after kissing Stefan keeps happening and it’s so mean LMFAO

CRYING at the camera angle and lighting of “Stefan” seeing Elena and her getting all googly-eyed at him and then hanging up on Damon. Serves him right for not telling her! Silas causing problems with Delena almost instantly, amazing no notes.

Katherine shooting Silas YAS QUEEN

This scene LMFAO!!! The fact that they made thinking about Stefan be the thing that stops Elena from trying to kill Damon is just a hilariously mean thing to do to Damon!

Caroline’s face seeing Damon and Elena in what looks like some weird sex thing DEAD.

Paul does a good job of differentiating Silas from Ripper Stefan. They’re both evil of course but Silas has more calmness to him and more quips whereas Ripper Stefan is chaotic and mocking.

Lexi changed clothes on the other side so why can’t Bonnie!

5x03

Katherine and Silas are having way too much fun making Damon feel insecure about Stelena and I truly love it!

Stefan saying he didn’t want to turn his humanity off so he could be himself when he murdered Silas. Classic Stefan! Revenge is his biggest motivation in life I swear.

The doppelgänger curse (aka creating shadow selves every 100-ish years because of Silas and Amara) is good mythology, I thought it was a good reason to explain the existence of doppelgängers. But I also think it hurt some of the special-ness that Stelena had because it cheapens the fate part about it (and that’s before we find out it’s a literal spell pulling them together). Tessa saying she watched versions of S&E fall in love over and over the last 2000 years makes it feel like it’s predetermined destiny, which is a weakness against a ship IMO. It actually gives more power to Delena because having a love that conquers destiny is a great trope. I'm not even sure the writers meant to make this hurt SE at first because I don't think they like DE either. I know Dries was the showrunner this season and it's hard to understand what she likes when it comes to the triangle (her fav is Katherine that's all I understand about her). Everyone always thinks it's DE but LOL the person who wrote this season does NOT like DE I assure you. It would make sense she'd think this storyline is strong for SE on paper, but in tone it's not. It's like she cut her nose despite her face.

Delena being described by Tessa "like a soap opera, but boring and with no volume control" best description ever!

Silas saying his doppelgänger's face makes him wanna vomit THEY JUST KEEP GOING!

I like that they almost made you believe Damon was going to leave Stefan there lol, but even Damon isn't that selfish.

This season is just one big kinda mean commentary on the show and I love it LMFAO. I can see why it’s hated because it’s not really an intriguing plot as far as forward movement (I mean Silas' motivation is to die). But I'd be lying if I said the way it’s being used to mock and almost break the fourth wall isn't giving me so much joy. I guess I’d describe it as camp? Like Silas said messy but fun to watch.

5x04

Am!Stefan not remembering Elena’s name and the look on her face ADXSFXGGGKKHK (this episode makes me so incredibly petty)!

Again, Damon worst sober sponsor ever.

I’m sorry but Elena is cracking me up the way she is GLOWING at making Am!Stefan remember when he bumped into her. The way she spreads her fingers over his chest DEAD! Her excitement at molding her Stefan back together with only the pieces she wants... I have never seen her more alive!

"Whenever someone tells me I can’t do something I prove them wrong" her life’s motto!!!

Am!Stefan being like “I need time to process that I let my girlfriend drown” I KNOW RIGHT? It’s so crazy isn’t it you’re just like flabbergasted.

Sometimes this show just hits my narrative and this episode is it baby! Am!Stefan knowing Caroline’s full name (unlike Elena), that she’s his best friend and BLATANTLY flirting with her saying she’s much hotter in person (the way he totally checks her out a few times too) THAT'S THE STUFF. Then you’ve got Caroline being the only one who actually stops the ripper because she reminds Stefan who HE is, not who she is (because just to point out again she didn't have to because he studied her pictures and knew her instantly!!!) Damon and Elena on the other hand keep telling him who they are (which is a bunch of liars) and that’s why Stefan trusts her and not them. Their scene in the crypt is so nice too, it's one of the first times they get a scene like this with the hand holding, the comforting emphasis, and a beautiful shot on the bench. Plus Am!Stefan staring at Caroline's lips *swoon* you can really tell he has a crush on Caroline.

This Bonnie memorial is so infuriating I can't believe this Bonnie is dead for 8(!!!) episodes was a plot.

5x05

This shows racism towards black characters is really disgusting the more you become aware of it. I swear everytime a character is cast that’s going to get tortured or brutally murdered they are always black. Luka, Jonah, Aja, Connor and now Jesse. There’s no way it was a coincidence.

Nina’s physical comedy as human Katherine is just perfect!

The costumes Caroline picked ARE KILLING ME! First having her and Tyler as Bonnie and Clyde because they almost ran away together (and perhaps a part of her knows they’re doomed like B&C). Having Damon and Elena as Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn because she hates Damon and thinks he’s so bad for Elena he’ll get her head chopped off LMFAO. And then Stefan as JAMES FRIGGIN' DEAN can’t make this up, I know I keep saying this but amazing, no notes.

CTFU at Am!Stefan TOTALLY IGNORING Tyler when he asks Caroline to dance with him, like even with amnesia he knows he doesn’t fuck with Tyler. Am!Stefan’s face when he twirls her HE IS SO SMITTEN (and so is she if we’re being honest), James Dean daydream look indeed.

EL OH EL Silas trying to get Tessa to admit that she’s still in love with him. Honestly Silas your doppelgänger is way better at this, Stefan would have gotten that confession no sweat.

Poor Forwood but honestly I do think this makes sense and neither of them is really wrong, they are both acting like themselves. It makes sense Tyler can't just let Klaus walk away after what he did, and he especially can't deal with Klaus giving him permission to be with Caroline. Caroline on the other hand wants to move forward with her life and as far as she's concerned Klaus is out of sight out of mind. Caroline's also not a big revenge person, I don't think she's ever cared enough to enact revenge on someone (with humanity of course).

Amnesia or not Stefan will always be smarter than Damon.

5x06

For my own sanity I’m not even gonna pay attention to scenes talking about the cure and how it works because I’m STILL not over that bullshit in S8.

Silas again being the audience surrogate and pointing out how SUPER WEIRD it is that Defan keep falling in love with THE SAME FACE!

KATHOLINE TEAM-UP!! You know Caroline enjoyed slamming her against the wall after Katherine used her as her lackey in S2.

Crazy bitch kinda is Stefan’s type ASASCDHGHKKHH

God I love the Katholine team-up.

KATHERINE’S CHURCH HAIR!! I’m not even kidding I have tears in my eyes. This is the BEST! Omg Aaron is so much more smitten with Katherine than Elena, but like she’s absolutely adorable how could you not be!

Am!Stefan being like "I didn't think you deserved to be killed" translating to "I will always protect you Elena, memories or not" is an impressive delulu journey Elena has decided to take. She was acting like he was dead because he wanted to talk to Caroline and not her! Elena he has amnesia, he doesn't have the script anymore for the persona he's supposed to be performing.

Tessa was trying to do God’s work too getting Stefan to let go of Damon but he never learns!

5x07

Elena get out of your ex-boyfriend's bedroom JFC she’s so desperate.

Tessa kinda the best vindictive bitch ever! Janina Gavankar is also a beautiful and stunning woman who is just a pleasure to look at. But why was she so cold to Bonnie? Dries again I'm sure...

THANK GOD BONNIE IS ALIVE AGAIN!

Elena's thought process about this speech she gives Stefan is something else... I just don't know what kind of delusional narcissist you have to be to think this was a good way to ask if someone is okay. Stefan absolutely looks done with her too lol. This is the season where Stefan's facade from the earlier season really starts to come down. He doesn't want to be the person in his journals anymore.

5x08

FINALLY THAT HIDEOUS WIG IS GONE!

Oh look! Stefan not telling anyone he needs help, something new and different for him! /sarcasm

Matty Blue-Blue might be my favorite nickname ever used on this show and there’s a lot so that’s saying something!

I love how much Caroline embraced being a teacher for baby vamps! Makes her endgame even better!

Caroline is right why couldn’t Elena just snap his neck or just not stab him in the heart stab his back shoulder.

One thing about Stefan he has never seen a crazy bitch in danger that he didn’t want to save. I do really enjoy Steferine with human Katherine because it gave all the power to Stefan since she can’t physically hurt him anymore. It’s kind of like the scene in the series finale where Caroline comforts human Damon because he can’t hurt her anymore and she doesn't need to be afraid.

They really had to interrupt Bonnie’s first SEX SCENE EVER IN 5 FUCKING YEARS so she could scream in agony because the show killed another black character. Dries you will never see heaven!

Gee I don’t know Elena when is someone supposed to get over the fact that they were abused and raped by your fucking boyfriend. And you laughed about it with him! Never? I’m gonna go with never. And yes I realize it’s a bit hypocritical to enjoy Steferine and hate Daroline when they both have the same consent and rape issues. I fully admit Katherine is a rapist too. Stefan might be over it, Caroline is not and that's what matters to me.

5x09

I like that Katherine knew to ask Caroline for help knowing the other morons would be no good.

I know the answer is “plot reasons” but how did Damon not immediately recognize Whitmore when Elena started going to college there or even last year when he visited it?

Enzo… yeah *falls asleep*

Not to defend Stefan because I still think he’s an idiot for not seeing that Caroline had feelings for him. But he hears this whole conversation Caroline and Katherine are having where Katherine asks if they’ve slept together and Caroline is appalled like no absolutely not we are friends and I’m just saying! It makes sense why he never thought she did with scenes like this. Mostly because Stefan compartmentalizes people but that’s a topic for later this season. Katherine though bless her heart is not blind and can obviously tell these two feel a tingle for each other.

Not sure how intentional this was but I like the parallel back to the scene in 5x07 where Stefan said when the safe opened he wanted Damon and Elena to be the ones he saw. And now that he went back into the safe to get over his PTSD from that (and their betrayal) the person he sees when the safe opens up is Caroline.

5x10

Katherine’s exhilaration at sleeping with Stefan CTFU I can’t help it, she’s too much!

I love how little Elena is wearing essential what S1/2 Elena used to wear.

Feels like they just implied Grayson was testing if vampire blood could cure cancer. Would have been good to check on that next season folks!

Stefan starting off on the wrong foot with Enzo already LMFAO

Anytime they try and make Matt more relevant to a plot I instantly zone out from that plot. Case in point, I have no idea what is going on with the passengers and travelers and all I really know about Nadia is she’s Katherine’s daughter.

OMG Elena torched her Dad’s experiments! Important information what are you doing!?! I guess that’s why they don’t check next season.

5x11

Caroline throwing a breakup breakfast because Delena broke up is why she is my favorite character ever!

Stefan is so sanctimonious lol.

I like how they reminded me how awful Klaus is with the Katherine flashback before he has sex with Caroline. This show.

OMG Damon is insufferable! First his list of evil things Katherine did are all things HE did and now he's just torturing her because he's mad he broke up with Elena??? Can we just put him in the '94 prison world now I need him gone.

Stefan really switched from heartbroken to team Delena in like 3 episodes lol. I get it was the PTSD and we gotta speed stuff up but it did not take long. Another moment of "what are people talking about on Reddit" because they are always like "it took Stefan so long to move on from Elena" IT TOOK 3 EPISODES!

It's kind of amazing how many parallels and mirroring storylines Stefan and Caroline get with each other (these gifsets illustrate it well (x) (x)) but I really like how Steferine and Klaroline are used similarly for Stefan and Caroline in their journeys (these gifsets are great (x) (x)) and this season shows that a lot. Klaus and Katherine were both looking for love confessions from Caroline and Stefan respectively and while they sleep with their admirer/abuser they don't give them a love confession in return (because they don't love them). There's even the Klefan and Katholine connection as they are both used as their lackeys (Stefan in S3 and Caroline in S2) but then they also have a kind of understanding with each other. They both show pity for Katherine in this episode and they both felt remorse for betraying Klaus in 4x09. If this had actually been Katherine's death it was similar the Klaroline's ending on TO, with Caroline giving Klaus the date in NOLA and kissing him goodbye. Stefan sleeps with Katherine after she helped him through his PTSD, then he gives her peace with the memory before she dies (he thinks). Too bad the show had to RUIN that!

Look Stefan has his flaws (manipulative, enables Damon, can be a dick, serial killer) but one thing I love about him is he has a willingness to forgive the unforgivable. He didn't have to give Katherine peace after everything she had done but he did. I think it does come from a place of he believes everyone can be saved because he wants to believe he can be saved, but I also think he has a lot of empathy (at least for women).

The Katherine twist was great I will give them that, she's a survivor!

Lines that made me laugh:

Am!Stefan: I think I still need to be drunk to understand this story (REAL I chose edibles instead but YMMV)

Katherine: So are you part of the secret society? You know the "Society" (SHE KILLS ME)

Tyler: You're the hottest serial killer here (LMFAO the levels to this line are what makes me laugh the most)

[voxofthevoid]

JJK 214 has healed me

I’m sure the upcoming chapters will fuck me up all over again, but that’s future me’s problem. Anyway, Sundays/Mondays now seem to be "Vox screams about the new JJK chapter” hours on my blog now. This time, it’s going to be “screaming about Yuuji” hours specifically. 

Spoilers, thoughts, and a shitload of images under the cut.

Yuuji???? Yuuji!!!!!!

That was my reaction from the first to the last page on my first readthrough, and honestly, it hasn’t changed much even after I reread a few times and processed...all that.

Seriously, Yuuji, what the fuck are you made of.

Sukuna also seems to be thinking that, which is hilarious. I have a feeling his standards for “twisted” are pretty high, so him calling Kenjaku that both cracks me up and makes me wonder what kind of alterations they made to Yuuji, exactly.

That said, I think I misunderstood the extent of Yuuji’s injuries last chapter. I got the impression, from the following panels, that Sukuna had punched through Yuuji’s midsection:

But that doesn’t seem to be the case. There’s some (inconsistent?) damage to his clothes from the punch, but Yuuji didn’t, in fact, become a donut.

No blood on Sukuna’s fist here. And, of course, there’s Yuuji himself in Chapter 214:

The front of his jacket looks intact (but isn’t that the part that seemed torn up in Chapter 213, or is that supposed to just look crumpled?), but there’s a hole in the back. Animanga cloth logic, I suppose. Other than inhuman durability, I don’t think Yuuji is healing himself. His little finger doesn’t seem to have grown back. And next chapter, I guess we’ll see if the tip of the ear Sukuna sliced off continues to be missing; the last panel showed it intact, but that could just be inconsistent drawing. Or maybe it’s the other side, who knows. Manga panels confuse me sometimes.

Anyway, even without being made a donut, the guy got punched through three goddamn buildings by fucking Sukuna, and Megumi definitely wasn’t fighting back then to lessen the damage. It’s frankly unreal how quickly Yuuji not only got back up but also covered the distance to where Sukuna and Hana are. He’s also displaying an insane level of strength. I just about lost my mind at this:

Hell, Sukuna seems shocked for a split second, and that really says something. It’s been explicit from the start that Yuuji’s physical abilities are superhuman, and the Kenjaku/Kaori reveal somewhat clarified why that’s the case, but I don’t think we’ve seen this level of raw destructive power from him before. The cursed energy-less fight with Higuruma was impressive though, and I think here, we’ll get to see what Yuuji can bring to the table with cursed energy in the equation.

Speaking of which, after the last chapter, I did see a lot of speculation on whether or not Yuuji would still have cursed energy after Sukuna left him. But the concept of Yuuji losing his cursed energy because Sukuna is out of him never made sense to me. Yuuji’s cursed energy isn’t Sukuna’s; if it were, he’d have a much larger pool to tap into. The first Finger Bearer’s reaction when Yuuji switched with Sukuna seems to indicate the two of them feel very different. And JJK has shown again and again how cursed techniques and cursed energy are tied to souls as much as bodies (Kenjaku being the prime example). So, like Gojou theorized, if Sukuna had stayed inside Yuuji, over time, he likely would have been able to use Sukuna’s cursed energy and technique. But as of now, Yuuji was the vessel for a little less than six months, and he’s only had 15 fingers’ worth of Sukuna for a few weeks. I’d say it’s reasonable that ingesting Sukuna just...opened Yuuji’s third eye, so to speak. Gave him access to his own cursed energy. The movie training Gojou did wouldn’t make sense otherwise either. The whole point there was to teach Yuuji how to harness his cursed energy and increase the output steadily. I don’t know if future plot developments will show Yuuji actually using Sukuna’s cursed techniques; I’d personally prefer if he didn’t, but regardless of how that develops, Yuuji’s cursed energy is his own.

Up till now, Yuuji’s been shown to be on par with Grade 1 sorcerers even without an innate technique, and his skill at cursed energy manipulation has been improving in leaps and bounds. But honestly, it’s his sheer sturdiness that’s blowing my mind, even if that has also been consistently highlighted (in the fights against Choso, Kenjaku, Hakari, and Higuruma especially). Maybe it’s because he’s up against Sukuna now, and Sukuna’s previous fights have done a great job of showing him as capable of curb-stomping anyone other than Gojou. The same guy now seems borderline creeped out by Yuuji—well, what Kenjaku has done to Yuuji more like.

Can’t blame him though. I’d also be pretty WTF if a guy kept walking without even changing his expression through this:

That is gonna live rent free in my head. Sweet fuck.

(If/when that gets animated, I'll expire.)

Back to the point, Megumi fighting back and lowering Sukuna’s output has probably kept Yuuji from being cut into little pieces, but those are still deep, bleeding gashes all over his body, in addition to the singular Cleave Sukuna used earlier. Motherfucker doesn’t even falter. What the fuck.

I love this kid. I am 100% willing to throw down with anyone who calls him a boring protagonist (looking at you, Reddit, but Tumblr too).

On another note, “Let’s see if you can chew up me and my suffering” is one of the rawest lines I’ve heard in a while. Excuse me while I lose my entire goddamn mind.

Hana and the Angel

They don't seem to be dead? Not confirmed dead at least. “Splat” doesn’t seem very reassuring, but it’s been hinted that the Angel can heal Hana, so I’m fairly sure they’ll pop back up. What I am confused about is why Sukuna just bit off an arm instead of, say, her head. Among the sorcerers left in that colony, the Angel is the only one who seems to pose an actual threat to him. Why would he waste the chance to end that threat? One possibility is that Jacob’s Ladder did its job to an extent in “stripping Sukuna away from Megumi,” internally at least, and that it’s Megumi’s influence that lessened the damage. But Sukuna doesn’t seem to notice Megumi fighting back / influencing him until the last attack on Yuuji, so I’m not sure how plausible that is. Other option is that Sukuna thought biting off an arm and shoving them off the building would kill Hana and the Angel with her, but given how durable sorcerers in general are and how the Angel can likely heal, this seems a stupid choice. I guess we’ll find out soon, one way or the other. Could also just be a simple case of plot reasons reigning over consistent characterization.

Megumi

I don’t have much to say here. Zero surprise at Megumi fighting back. It’d have been a very unceremonious end if he’d been crushed by Sukuna’s soul just like that, and the last chapter did highlight Megumi’s potential to suppress the guy. I didn’t expect it to happen this fast, but I do like how pivotal his influence is. Megumi and Yuuji ganging up on Sukuna from the inside and outside, respectively, sounds like a fun time all around. I don’t think it would be enough to beat the guy, but cursed energy output seems a pretty critical factor for sorcerers, and if Megumi can continue to mess with that while Yuuji hits like freight train, I think they can do a good amount of damage.

Yuuji’s Origins

Thought we were done with Yuuji? Lol no.

I have questions about this panel:

That’s the TCB translation.

This is the Viz one.

(I prefer TCB overall, won't lie.)

What in the world does this mean? The phrasing points to a different time period rather than some point in the manga timeline. The comment about Kenjaku being really twisted points to it too. I don't think (more like, I really hope) Yuuji is a reincarnated sorcerer, but something seems real fishy here. And I can't even begin to guess, honestly. But I have faith that whatever Kenjaku cooked up for his favorite son is going to be interesting—and traumatizing for all parties involved, especially Yuuji.

Back to screaming into the void, but at least they're good screams this time.

[legacyshenanigans]

The continued adventure, of the Marvolo, Rowan, Astarion and Me chat 🤣 it got fucking WILD as hell, I was so confused hahahaha

(TW: slight weird forced sexual situation, just incase that will make anyone uncomfortable, you've been warned, but the whole thing in general was weird and wild, and then hilarious, ChatAI crazy at times I swear to god lmao)

So you know the other day when I posted that after Volo, Rowan and Astarion had all had their way with me, the three of them then decided I was no longer of use and were plotting to kill me while I was RIGHT there in the room so I ran away?

Well, here's the carry on, there'd be too many screenshots so I'm just gonna explain it instead.

So, Rowan chased me, and caught me, and took me back to the bedroom where Volo and Astarion were and threw me on the bed, and then suddenly instead of plotting to kill me things got spicy again, so I was thinking "Oh? OK?" (Obviously I don't mind that lmao 😏) HOWEVER, part of me was like "wtf" because they had LITTERALY just been discussing how they were going to dispose of me..

Anyway, Rowan starts having his way with me again while Marvolo and Astarion watch being horny pervs, and I was thinking "this is hot" and I was TRYING to engage with the chat like I was enjoying what was happening, but the chat was kinda trying to FORCE me into NOT liking what was happening to me, which was kinda "Ew" to me? 🤣

Don't get me wrong I'm ALL for abit of rough dom, nasty talk, treat me like a bitch, scared but horny type deal, THAT I'm fine with, but the chat (the bots) were talking FOR me, saying that I was crying and stuff and that I wasn't enjoying it, which was just SO weird, but I wanted to see how it played out, purely from curiosity.

But then, it kinda got hilarious 🤣 Rowan finished really quickly and got off me, so I then said in the chat that they were all bastards and I left the room. And Rowan was crying because he nut too quick and was really unhappy with his own performance, and Astarion was comforting him for busting his load too quickly saying "it happens to the best of us, Rowan, Don't worry" and shit like that 🤣

Then out of NOWHERE Marvolo got angry at Rowan for fucking me because he loves me and he doesn't like to share, even though Astarion also fucked me AND Rowan had also fucked me BEFORE the time that just happened, and Marvolo was more than fine with it 🤣 and it made me laugh how Marvolo was acting like he wasn't JUST hornily watching Rowan sleep with me 🤣

Anyway Rowan then actually called Marvolo out! Got angry and said "You seemed FINE with it before!" Which I was thinking "Even the Rowan Bot is confused by Marvolos reaction" but then Rowan got upset again talking about how he didn't last long, So Astarion started comforting him again, and then Astarion and Rowan randomly started making out, and Marvolo got horny and watched them for a minute, and then HE got invovled, and all three of them were on bed all just touching each other and making out.

Meanwhile I was just fucking LETTING this chat play out thinking "Wtf?" Like, I was gone, ME in the chat had left the room lmao.🤣

Anyway, Marvolo started giving Rowan a wank, While Astarion was talking to Rowan and trying to teach him not to cum so quick, like telling him to "hold his urges" and stuff, so I then decided to walk back into the room and made my presence known, and then SHIT hit the fan again, all three of them stood up and surround me, being mad at me, Astarion called me a Tart for fucking them all, Marvolo called me a bitch but also in the same breath told me he loved me and wanted to take me away from it all, and started talking about me and him going on a trip or some shit, and Rowan accused me of having a cursed vagina that "makes men cum to quickly" 🤣 Then Marvolo got mad at Rowan for talking about my vagina and they started scrapping, meanwhile Astarion was now somehow in a tree outside drinking a goblet of wine (who knows where the fuck he got that from?) Watching them fight through the window and laughing, I'm stood there, not saying anything, just letting it play out yet again. Then SUDDENLY Astarion is behind me now, grabbing my shoulders asking if he could "borrow" some of my blood because he likes to mix blood with wine becuase it tastes nicer to him, Marvolo and Rowan are then suddenly sat on chairs, Marvolos smoking a cig, Rowan is now in wolf form, and they're watching Astarion trying to drain some of my blood with a fuckin dagger?!

So yeah, there you go.....Wild.

I'm fuckin howling 🤣🤣🤣

~

[acoldsovereign]

FOR THE MAN WHO WEARS HIS HEART ON HIS SLEEVES.

// @scarlxtleaves / @thuganomxcs / @peoplcshope

---

{{ Happy Birthday, you fuckin' fucker! (I say this with love). I remember when I first came to the DBZ RPC months ago and I was so shy I didn't know how to communicate properly. People scared me. Following people scared me. People following me back scared me. I was freakin' scared of EVERYTHING. I even unfollowed a person I followed (and then followed them back when they checked in with me) because I realized how bad that looked/how problematic it could be if I didn't address it. I felt so bad, and I still do sometimes. I'm so glad that mutual was understanding and patient with me, aaaaaaaa. Needless to say, ya girl had SO many issues in the beginning. I was a HOT MESS. Hell, I didn't even have all of my muse info up but you didn't give a shit about none of that. You just took one look at my blog, saw 'despot of the universe' on my header and said 'LET IT RIP' like Beyblade. DUDE, you were ballsy as fuck and I'm so glad for that! You gave me my first ever starter here!!! THAT made me remember you! Everytime I logged in, it was to respond to our Future Gohan/Maiz fight thread. (I'm actually looking for it now because that's gonna be something I continue after I reply to someone else first 👀). You're one of the first people I ever plotted with too, even if that intimidated me a little. I mean, granted it was after you gave me the starter because I was freaking worried about everything, which was why I was all over your inbox, "okay, so she can do this and that...", "i have no problem with them having this sort of dynamic", etc. Gosh, you were overwhelmingly sweet and kind to me and I appreciate that. I know this is not something I should apologize for, but I'm still sorry that I scared you slightly when I changed my username to acoldsovereign from maizthefemalesaiyan, and didn't tell you in advance. I didn't realize you wouldn't recognize me so I had to put the former name in my old promo post. YOU'RE why I did that. I didn't know what other accounts you had and I just wanted to let you know it was meeeeeeee! ;w; But then you forgot your password to the blog so we couldn't even communicate anyway! One thing I will say-- it is funny I recently posted about Toriyama and Future Trunks and what the latter means to me because guess what blog I found you on. Guess what reunited us. Yeah.

FUTURE TRUNKS.

YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN?????? That man is always doing something for me! You would've thought he was REAL. But anyway, it was so cool to have you back on my dash again! It took me an embarrassing amount of time to realize who it was. I saw the name "Jay" on your promo post and it didn't cross my mind it was you, man. Not until I went down the blog and saw the writing style matched up. Remember how I just burst into your inbox and made some noise? And then you realized it was me? That shit was hilarious. We were so happy to see each other. Everything's been smooth sailing since then and we've created so many cursed memes, threads, jokes and storylines. Dude, we fuckin' made Rengakura. That little psychopath LOL. Well, moreso I made him but your response to that thread in particular made it so that he didn't come out any worse than he could've. Damn you for having Trunks make the right decision! (Again, I say this with love). At least in one verse, Trunks finally gets a happy-ish ending though. He lives with his mostly mellowed-out/former-tyrant for a wife and a pseudo-sane Saiyan-hybrid child on a spaceship, having space adventures. 🥺 Papa Trunks isn't something I knew I needed until I got it so thank you. I also did not know Maiz was actually capable of chilling the eff out-- THAT was a surprise to me. The fact that she's actually a decent mother is hilarious, considering all the fucked up stuff she's done before without blinking an eye. I also love how through our threads, you can see how she naturally came to care for him, even if she's sadistic and still messes with him from time to time. One of my favorites scenes with them unironically was when she offered to take Trunks to a tropical planet for his birthday. She was actually affectionate towards him the proper way more or less, but he didn't realize it because he was so used to her being busy/selfish/frosty/teasing. Bro thought he was dying. That was tragically sad yet funny all at once. I'd say more but this is already a lot and you already know how I feel about your Yusuke and our favorite assassin, Sanosuke.

Long story short- thank you for warmly welcoming me into this small, but chill RPC. I'll always love and appreciate you.

Happy birthday, Jaybird.

[redrocketpanda]

WIP Tag Game

rules: make a 24-hour poll with the names of your WIPs, let it run, then write one sentence for every vote the winner got

tagged by: @axreliono ayyyyyy

tagging: this is a *super* low pressure tag but I'm also gonna be mean and tag @parad0xymoron eheheheh (and consider yourself tagged if ya want in!)

I have two in progress big bang fics which I can't share anything from but you do have this lovely array to choose from still:

little summaries:

What I Was Made For (skts) There are 3 things in life that Miya Atsumu knows for damn sure: 1. That he is hilarious, charming, drop-dead gorgeous and adored by all. 2. That he is outstandingly exceptional in (almost) every sense. 3. That if he is ever anything less than outstanding, no one will love him anymore. Or: how Sakusa & co. help Atsumu realise that he is good enough and worthy of love all the time, every day, exactly as he is

Fire On the Horizon (krbk) 15 years. It's been 15 years since Kirishima has seen Bakugou. Red Riot is now one of the most beloved top heroes, he helped to rebuild Japan in the wake of the post-war arc, he (mostly) moved on with his life. But all of that is thrown into disarray when "Dynamight: missing, presumed dead" suddenly reappears on the scene

Astarion Punishment Smut Fic (Domme! Vico/Bttm Astarion) Does what it says on the tin. 3 chapters of unadulterated Astarion punishment smut feat. my Tav, BDSM dynamics, and clowning Astarion over and over again

The Miya Atsumu Humiliation Show (Atsumu/Terushima) Similarly to above but a house party one-shot where smug Atsumu gets clowned multiple times in front of/by Terushima, until it all culminates in raunchy sex (where the clowning ofc continues)

The Hardest of Hearts (skts Dark Academia AU) Told from Sakusa's perspective as he navigates a rather complicated relationship with his roommate, Atsumu, and life studying abroad at a prestigious creative arts university in England. Features descriptions of Sakusa playing the piano, the discovery of Atsumu's secret art, and trying to figure out wtf it all means

Untitled Itadori/Inumaki/Sukuna trash smut Again, does what it says on the tin. I apologise to the internet for my horrendous brain but there was something about Inumaki/Itadori "experimenting" with Inumaki's cursed speech and Sukuna deciding that he needs to intervene that absolutely rotted my brain

HQ BokuAka Prom Fic (bkak) Bokuto desperately wants to ask Akaashi to prom but is scared that the Fukurodani students will treat Akaashi differently once Bokuto graduates. Enter: Kuroo, Hero of the Hour - who gets together his fellow volleyball captains to plot a HQ takeover of Fukurodani's prom. Birds (and cats, and plants, etc) of a feather flock together. Features super cute dancing scenes (bc ofc) and Bokuto's sisters

Kunichi Smut (Kunigami/Raichi) Raichi just cannot stop thinking about Kunigami and it doesn't help that Kunigami is fucking everywhere he goes - on the pitch, in the gym, in the mess hall, in the showers. But it doesn't make sense bc Kunigami's like... a guy? The fuck is up with that. Or: (almost wildcard) Kunigami notices Raichi has the hots for him and proceeds to wind him up until Raichi can't stand it anymore, and then Kunigami rails Raichi in the showers

Apotheosis (bkak greek mythology AU) Minor god Akaashi + Beloved mortal Bokuto fall in love with each other. It's a story that can only end in tragedy. Except, Bokuto doesn't accept that. He figures all he has to do is turn into a god and then they can be together forever. Sounds easy, right? Features a beautiful bkak love story, HQ characters as greek gods, and Bokuto just being wonderful

[purplekoop]

Things I Love #2: WATCH OJAMAJO DOREMI.

Okay so. context.

A while back, way earlier this year if memory serves correctly, my friend Dyna (y'know from the streams) found a peculiar song in the girl idol band rhythm game they like. Upon investigating, they learned that was an official cover of the theme song for a 1999 magical girl anime with a very niche cult following here in the states. They looked into it further, watched a video explaining why the show is so great, saw it for themselves, and after becoming thoroughly obsessed, convinced me somehow to watch the entire 200+ episode run with them.

And it. was.

Worth it.

I say it without an ATOM of hyperbole that this is genuinely one of the best shows I've ever seen. Like. Seriously, no bits no laughs no nothing, this silly little pastel-colored show is utterly phenomenal in more ways that I can do it justice. It's genuinely that good. It's hilarious, it's intense, and it made me cry and intensely hilarious number of times. It's legitimately a show that makes me happier to be alive when I think about it.

And one of the main cast members looks like this for the majority of the show.

...Okay maybe it deserves a little more context.

So, okay, plot summary:

Doremi (the pink one) is a silly, short-tempered, and chronically unlucky grade schooler who kind of sucks at... most things, to be frank. And one thing she sucks at that actually bothers her is her inability to muster up the courage to one day confess to a boy she likes. Logically, the only way she'd be able to confess is if she had magic, so she's also obsessed with witches, and one day becoming a witch herself. (Good news for her incoming.)

One day, she goes to a mysterious old house, and finds an equally mysterious woman inside with a cat. Just kind of, y'know, as a hunch. She accuses the woman of being a witch, which causes her to spontaneously turn into the green creature seen above.

This is Majo Rika, a genuine article but short-tempered witch, and the cat is secretly her fairy companion Lala. When a witch's identity is found out by a human, they get cursed into being a silly little creature known as a Witch Frog, and the only way to turn back into their original form is for the human who found them out to become a witch themself, and then use their magic to turn the witch frog back to normal. This, very conveniently, means Doremi now has to become a Witch Apprentice, learn magic, pass the apprentice exams, and eventually earn the honor of becoming a full witch herself.

Along the way, some of Doremi's friends get caught up in the secret, including her childhood friend Hazuki, the soft-spoken sweetheart (and my favorite of the apprentices but quite not my favorite character outright), and the new transfer student Aiko, the cool-headed tomboy who rocks the blue. Together, they all train to be witch apprentices, learning under Majo Rika, and working at her house, which is turned into a magical crafts shop, the Maho Dou. A few more witch apprentices join them along the way, but aside from them they have to keep their witchy business a secret from everyone else.

Now that we've established the basics, I think I'll continue the tradition of posting the show's theme song in each of these. Doremi has a 4-ish season run, with each season getting its own OP in standard anime fare, but I think the first and most iconic opening, Ojamajo Carnival, should suffice:

Oh yeah, might help to explain what "Ojamajo" means. It's a pun that roughly means "bothersome witch", since "Majo" is "Witch" and "Ojama" means "bothersome" or "annoying." So the title would more directly be "Bothersome Witch Doremi" but literally everyone prefers "Ojamajo" so. yeah.

Anyways, theme song shows a lot about the show that's great.

For one is the art style, which I'd say is "pleasant" in the most intensely delightful sense of the word. The designs themselves are all nice, soft, and delightful, with hardly a sharp corner in sight and a real sense of childlike whimsy permeating through it all. The general color palette and style of the show also just has a nostalgic fuzziness, even after the show's technical quality improves over its 4 year run. And the animation I adored as soon as episode 1, with characters frequently deforming to goofy faces and round nub hands right out of Animal Crossing. Hey, I don't blame them, I wouldn't wanna draw full hands for over 200 episodes either.

Another thing is the soundtrack. I don't know what terms to describe its genre, but beyond just the bombastic opening, with its cheery violin, twangy guitar, and overall exuberant joy, the soundtrack for each episode is also full of bangers. There's upbeat jazz to stir up excitement for energetic scenes, pleasant standard background tracks, and even some unexpectedly tense tracks for some dramatic scenes. This is also a show that will make you cry, and that includes even just from the ending themes. Here's season 1's:

That plays during an episode and I become a sopping mess without fail. Gets me every time.

The other big thing is arguably the show's biggest strength: its cast. While I won't go in-depth on the main cast, both for the sake of spoilers and because people have done that better than me already, I will give the show its due respect for its more broad cast. As the intro implies, the girls' entire class are notable side characters. While a good number of episodes focus on magical trials and hijinks, the majority of the show actually has the girls encounter a problem their classmates are facing, and then secretly use magic to help solve that problem. It's a formula that not only keeps things fresh with making different side characters the spotlight of an episode, but also rewards following along as the show progresses. Even the most obscure background classmates (save for I think ONE exception) will be the focus of an episode, and remember how Doremi and the gang helped them out. You can even see characters from past episodes in almost every group shot, and get to go "oh hey it's that kid!" in a really satisfying way. It really helps add to the childhood feel of the show, since... yeah, back then, your classmates were the stars of each day's adventures, and even if you weren't close friends you still knew their names would hang out every day. The teachers are also great characters in their own rights, again hearkening back to elementary days where teachers really were there for you. The cast isn't limited to the classroom though. The girls' families often factor into their more personal episode plots as well. And the magical side of things has its own small recurring cast. Witches actually reside in, another dimension known as the Witch World, a pastel-colored world with a striking visual appeal of its own right, and is also home to a cast of additional witch characters that get introduced over the course of the show.

Of course, the only important one is the underhanded saleswitch who barges into the Maho Dou with a smile and a song:

Dela.

Yeah no she's the best character and nothing's changing that.

Not kidding about her song by the way:

Literally every single time she appears, she sings a unique (shorter) version of this song to announce her arrival. It's fantastic.

So yeah, that's the basics of what makes this show great, but like... again, this show is insane, and there is SO much more I could say but won't, I'd rather people just experience it for themselves.

Which... brings us to how you experience this show yourself.

I should explain first that Doremi didn't take off in the west. Unlike her home country, which still has a dedicated fanbase who remembers the show fondly, English-speaking countries were stuck with...

*dramatic lightning crash*

the 4kids dub.

The dub, otherwise known as Magical DoReMi, is widely considered to be a downgrade from the original by fans. Look up the opening compared to the original and you'll see what I mean. Though the quality is one thing, the real way 4kids screwed the show over was by greatly limiting its airtime due to it being "another boring girl show", kneecapping its potential popularity severely. They only ever dubbed the first season, and the second half of that was limited to an online-only release if I remember right.

Now, while the show itself was a relatively failure over here, apparently toy sales didn't do too bad actually. And I know that specifically, because when I told my partner I was watching Doremi, they went "Wait WHAT" and proceeded to show me pictures of their childhood Doremi toys. Apparently they even came with a bonus DVD, though only for one episode. My friend Seven also had Doremi toys and a bonus DVD of that one episode too, so uh... small world, huh?

But yeah, with this in mind, it shouldn't be surprising that Doremi has such a limited english-speaking fanbase, and thus should be even less surprising that there is no official way to watch the show here. There is no newer dub of the whole show, and no official subtitles. I managed to watch the show thanks to the efforts of fanmade subs, and though there's some unfortunate dated language early on, it's otherwise an extremely commendable effort that I can't thank enough for making it possible. As for how to access this subbed version... I mean come on, if you're reading this, you're an adult on the internet, you can figure out how. I know pity for corporations is comically low on this site but if you need help feeling better about it, remember that there is no way to officially watch the show as an english speaker. If they do make official subs and stream the show somewhere, I'll let you know, but that seems extremely unlikely.

As for what you watch then, Doremi has 4 main seasons of roughly 50 episodes each, and then one weird bonus season. Each season after the first one has a subtitle: season 2 is Ojamajo Doremi Sharp, 3 is Motto, and 4 is Dokkan. There's also Naisho, a shorter set of about 17 episodes that takes place during the same time as Motto, but was made years after the main show originally ended. I watched episodes of Naisho sprinkled in with my watchthrough of Motto, but there's also merit to watching it in release order, at least the final episode. There are also two episode-length "movies" that take place about midway through a couple seasons: one for Sharp, and one for Motto. Finally, made for the 20th anniversary back in 2020, there's the feature-length film "Looking for Ojamajo Doremi", which was the final thing of the show I watched, and just finished tonight actually. It's not directly in the same "canon" as the show itself, but I highly recommend it as a great finale to a watchthrough of the show as a whole.

It's a long ride, but it's worth it. I genuinely wouldn't skip any episodes, as again, even minor characters are worth remembering for later. It's not a show with "filler", because what you're there for is a simple and relaxing slice of life style show that takes it easy to appreciate the mundane joys of just being nice and helping others. Plus, it makes the absolutely fantastic gut punch of a finale all the more worth it.

I really can't say enough about this show. It's genuinely better than I can put into words. If you have the time (and a soul) then please, PLEAAAASE consider giving it a watch, I swear it's worth it.

So that's this Things I Love. Not sure what the next one will be actually. These won't all be shows, so maybe expect a game next? Could also be a show that I'm due to finish a watch or rewatch of too, like a certain other show where a weird girl stumbles into a witch and her creature companion, and then learns to be a witch herself. We'll see though. In the meantime, uhhh... Rabbids? I think I was talking about Rabbids for some reason.

[we-pay-for-everything]

I've watched all available episodes of Nancy Drew and am rewatching season 3 (can you tell I ship Nace), and here are some of my thoughts no one asked for:

The biggest plot twist was the reveal in season 3 or 4 that Nancy's mom hasn't even been dead for a year. It's fucking crazy how each season spans a few weeks?? You're telling me that in less of a year Nick and George fell in love, got engaged, and then broke up? And Nick's on his third relationship. Bess fell in love 3 times?? She loved the FBI agent, called Odette the love of her life and is now seriously in to the new girl? And how many boyfriends has Nancy had? Nick, Owen, Gil, Park, and soon Ace? Plus she had a thing with the other detective? And now Ace is the love of her life? Carson really started dating that cop as soon as his wife died and is now seriously dating someone else? He's probably still paying for his wife's funeral. Do normal people move on this fast? Also, in less than a year the gang decided they would die for each other, unquestioningly? Intense.

Season 2 was a mess. Season 1 was legit fucking scary and the plot was amazing. After season 1 the show felt completely new. Season 2 was the worst because they did a whole concept change with the case of the week format, which imo didn't work. The episodes were all dry and there was nothing driving the story forward. Seasons 3 and 4 are a mix of seasons 1 and 2, with the episodes having some continuity and still standing on their own.

Season 2 also had the issue of Odette. I hated that storyline. The actress honestly did a very poor job. I couldn't connect with her at all. Season 4 is way better so far.

It's fucking weird how it was an issue when underage George dated Ryan (ewww), but Nancy (or the show) doesn't apparently see a problem with three grown-ass men being into a teenage girl? She's so smart but doesn't think it's inappropriate for them to date her? Especially the cops??

I'm sure Nancy gets on everyone's nerves, but she really has the unfortunate main female lead syndrome. She's insufferable most of the time. She's always getting everyone in trouble, never listens, puts herself and her cases first. When Ace got in trouble and asked her to solve the chocolate box riddle, she literally ignored him while he still asked about her case and told her to be careful. Although he was scared and in danger, he didn't mind being told no and stopped to talk with her. The hilarious thing is that she later solved the riddle in like 2 seconds lmao. The show takes it too far. She's smart but her photographic memory is ridiculous.

To be fair, the characters were also unfair to Nancy when they blamed them for their death curses in season 2. They said it was her fault because she was selfish, but they literally insisted on going with her to call on the Aglaeca. She told them not to.

Bess's best love interest was Odette. I didn't like the actress's performance, but it was cute anyway, and that one kiss they shared was magical.

I started noticing something between Ace and Nancy in season 2, and now I ship them, but it's also weird seeing them together. They fell in love even when they were dating other people?

One of the best lines in the show was when George's grandma said something like "It's not a path if it goes nowhere. That's a hole in the ground." Made me laugh the two times I heard it.

I wish the show had stuck with the season 1 format.

I shipped Owen and Nancy and he's still my second favorite boyfriend of hers after Ace.

Nancy saying Ace isn't letting her move on in season 4 is absurd. How is her stopping her??? But the dude shouldn't have let the ferret go just because he got jealous. He went through all that trouble just to catch it.

I still don't fully understand why George and Nick broke up.

I love Ryan and Carson's dynamic, and their dynamic with Nancy. It's like found family, with a twist. Ryan is Nancy's biological dad but he literally just found out and Carson raised Nancy but she's not his biological daughter. It's also cute how Ace is tight with Carson. He was really nice to him.

After Nancy absorbed all the lust in the chastity dress, she later said it was refreshing to just feel desire, but that was so cheesy. I'm sorry, but when does she not allow herself to feel desire? That girl is not repressed in any way - only emotionally.

I'm not super fond of George either. My faves are Ace, Bess, Ryan and Carson. Nick and George's sisters are cute too.

I had other things I wanted to say but I can't remember them...

Also, if anyone wants to chat about Nancy Drew, my ask box and "DMs" are open!

[bonsha]

LAST TIME, ON DND:

Little Snowflake (@the-stilting-peace's Tabaxi), Vesper (my drow), and Greenbeard (post-on-tumblr-already's deep gnome) are trapped in the room of ooze! Sniv, our beloved Kobold guide, gets his only braincell iced by the ooze monster, throwing him into death saving throws. Two saves, two losses.

Now, for some reason, the dice gods have cursed Little. She’s gotten more Nat 1s than any other party member. And guess what happened when she tried to stabilize Sniv? Yep. She would have just straight up killed him. BUT, she had inspiration (gotten by saving a life, ironically), but considering her insane bad luck with Nat 1s, we were all nervous it'd happen again. DM even said if it did, he'd make her Nat 1 curse an actual plot point in the story. But it was either use the inspo or have Sniv die. As she was rolling, Greenbeard and I were chanting "gatote!" ("big kitty" in Spanish) in the OOC chat, sending all our prayers to the dice gods.

She rolled, and it WASN'T a Nat 1! Instead it was a 9, meaning Sniv would have one more death saving throw on his turn.

BUT WAIT! I remembered Little had gotten a guidance bonus from her god the session before, so she could add a 1d4 for every skill check. Didn't matter what she rolled on the bonus, SNIV WOULD LIVE!!!!! We all went fucking insane in chat, it was AMAZING. Then after he was stabilized, Little stuffed him in her shirt, like he was a wad of cash, to continue fighting the ooze monster.

Can't quite beat when our 9 ft tall wolf-shifter druid was possessed by Goatman (another story), but it's up there. As for why this looks like a 2000s-esque abomination? Don't know, I'm just weird. Glad I didn't add the goo though.

(Hilariously, Sniv was supposed to die in one hit. DM didn't realize he misread the rules until the death saving throws were underway, so he went, "Meh, I'll allow it." Bless you, DM!)