#the dramatic elements of this show are so incredible and everyone knows that

[lesbinewren]

andor does not get credit for its comedy

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Jane Fonda (Barbarella, Sunday in New York, Barefoot in the Park)—Feminist icon, LGBTQ+ rights activist since the 70s, Civil Rights and Native American rights advocate, environmentalist… she really is THE woman ever

Eartha Kitt (Anna Lucasta, St. Louis Blues)—My friend and I have a saying: NOBODY is Eartha Kitt. A thousand have tried, and they've all come up empty and will continue to do so. Everyone knows her for something: from "Santa Baby" to Yzma in Emperor's New Groove to Catwoman to making Lady Bird Johnson cry for the Vietnam War. She was a master of comedy and sex, an extremely vocal activist, and she aged like fine wine... I honestly don't know what I can say about her that hasn't already been said, so I'll stick to linking all my propaganda. Like what else do you want from me. She was iconic at everything she ever did. Literally name another. How can anyone even think of her and not want to absolutely drown?

This is round 6 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Jane Fonda:

"I assume she's already been submitted but I gotta make sure. I think there's an element to movies like Barbarella or her segment of Spirit of the Dead of those having been directed by her husband, who famously made movies about her being hot, and the incredible costume design also helped, but good lord. Look at her"

"She was so pretty, dear lord! She was and still us stunning. She’s great at comedy and drama."

"Shes so hot im so gay for me i will let her hit me with hers car"

"Gorgeous and also still getting arrested at climate protests, which is sexy behavior"

"Watching her in Barefoot in the Park seriously made me, a straight woman, question things"

"PLEASE I LOVE HER SO MUCH"

"Her vibes in these movies are so interesting because she, the daughter of an Old Hollywood star, went on to make both poignant dramatic movies and the some of the silliest things you've ever seen but even in the silly space adventures and sexploitations there's always this undeniable gravitas to her. It's like she's able not to take herself very seriously but at the same time never stops having this grace and elegance and makes it all work together. And she's always been very politically active which is also sexy. Her famous mugshot is from 1970 so right at the cutoff mark but come on"

Eartha Kitt:

"A hot vintage woman who was not just known for her voice, beauty, poise, and presence, but also her unapologetic ways of speaking about how she was mistreated in the show business as a girl who grew up on cotton fields in South Carolina in the 1930s through the 1940s coming to Broadway first and then Hollywood."

"Have you watched her sing?? Have you seen her face?? Have you heard her talk?? How could you not fall instantly in love. She makes me incoherent with how hot she is."

"She can ACT she can SING she can speak FOUR LANGUAGES she is a GODDESS!!! Although she is (rightfully) remembered for her singing, TV appearances (Catwoman my beloved), and later film roles, her early appearances in film are no less impressive or noteworthy!! She’s an amazing actress with so much charisma in every role. She was also blacklisted from Hollywood for 10 years for criticizing the Johnson administration/Vietnam War, so. Iconic. Also Orson Welles apparently called her “the most exciting woman in the world.”

"She had such a stunning, remarkable appearance, like she could tear you to shreds with just a glance- but the most undeniable part of her hotness was her voice, and it makes sense that it's what most people nowadays know her for. Nothing encapsulates the sheer magnetism of her singing better than this clip of her and Nat King Cole in St. Louis Blues, she pops in at 2:49. Also I know it's post-1970 but her song that was cut from Emperor's New Groove is likely to make you feel Feelings."

"Even with as racist as Hollywood was in the 1950s and 60s, Eartha Kitt STILL managed to have a thriving career. She also once had a threesome with Paul Newman and James Dean, and called out LBJ over the Vietnam War so hard that it made First Lady Johnson cry. Eartha Kitt was talented, sexy, and a total badass activist."

[canmom]

Comics mini-Comints: Dungeon Meshi

reread dungeon meshi through to the end. still such a great manga. here are immediate thoughts - if I end up having time and energy I hope I can write something that goes deeper!

ironically i was only a few chapters from the end when I stopped keeping up, but I was struggling to remember all the characters and context, so reading it through in one go was definitely an ideal way to achieve maximum impact there.

ryoko kui does a very elegant job of handling a transition from 'silly antics' to 'big dramatic fantasy' while still keeping the central thematic throughline - eating and being eaten, belonging to an ecosystem, the significance of sacrificing others to achieve your own desires. a lot of setups pay off in a way that feels meticulously planned - and of course the crux of the final showdown revolves around characters attempting to eat each other, of course the big payoff is a huge feast that symbolically unites all the conflicting factions. it is maybe a bit too neat and happy for my taste, but it's undeniably tightly executed - it never loses sight of what it's about. especially compared to something like Frieren, it's an incredibly coherent serialisation, up there with e.g. Fullmetal Alchemist.

kui's art style deserves all kinds of praise - it feels effortlessly simple, but it clearly communicates all sorts of different shapes and body types and it's really fun to see her play around with remixing the different visual elements when she switches the races around. in general Laius's autistic monster loving ways clearly reflect kui's own deeply felt appreciation for all the ways people and animals live (accentuated further by all the extra sketches the scanlators tuck in). in a way you could kinda call it like Parts Unknown the fantasy manga.

the stakes of the final conflict are interesting - there is much to be said about the framing of 'desire' and its fulfilment, of this occult idea of 'the infinite'. lots you could put in relation to other manga, and also buddhism. (in particular I really want to develop a comparison to Made In Abyss, there are so many parallels, it just might be too spicy for tumblr lmao).

one thing I really like about it is how much its fantasy dungeon-exploring setting owes to D&D and other TTRPGs, rather than videogames. monster ecology has been a fascination of that game since the early days of Dragon magazine, and Kui sharply zeroes in on some of the intrinsic conflicts baked in to that fantasy milieu, notably the lifespan thing, while smartly avoiding the traps of 'evil races'. there's some really fun nods to the weirder monster manual entries. and in a story with so many characters and factions, it does a genuinely incredible job of furnishing everyone with understandable, reasonable motivations, conflicts drawn from their context just like the monsters are explained by their ecology.

and one thing that I particularly appreciate is like... how much it is able to simultaneously understand and sympathise with a character and also show us how and why they'd rub others the wrong way. it's impossible not to like our main group, they're all such charming dorks and the manga leads you along with all the crazy rpg party shit they do, but at the same time you definitely find yourself thinking 'guy's got a point' in the kabru chapters lmao. I'm projecting hard bc i don't really know a thing about ryōko kui but laius def feels like the sort of depiction of having an autism that you can only do if you've lived it.

but yeah, it's a fuzzy ending where it all turns out well. but what's the deeper thrust of it all? there's a funny moment where marcille is like 'maybe in the end our journey is about learning to accept death' and the grouchy old gnome guy completely laughs this off as naive, because death doesn't mean anything. and indeed their big plan pays off, and falin does indeed come back just fine. but still, through all of this it asks you to bite the bullet that being a living creature means eating to survive, at the cost of other creatures, with the other side being that one day you too will be eaten. in contrast to this honest way of being is the beguiling fantasy of infinity, where all your desires are immediately fulfilled - this is shown as a dangerous path of corruption that produces madness and manipulability. having limits and rubbing up against the wishes of others, or 'doing things you don't want to do' as izutsumi's arc puts it, becomes necessary for having some kind of definition as a subject. the thing that makes the demon concrete as an entity is a desire, or appetite, that can't immediately be fulfilled.

of course we can connect this to the idea of narrative conflict. a standard advice for putting together a plot is to ask what each character wants and why they can't get it. wanting something implies movement. and indeed over the course of this story, we see that while having too many desires fulfilled too readily leads to incoherence and callousness, equally a character who is left catatonic as their desires have been eaten by the demon must be reawakened to activity by finding a new desire.

it's kinda Buddhist innit. neither the opulence of the palace nor asceticism. desires are what tie you to the world. but mixed with ecology: what a creature does to find the energy to live is what defines its lifestyle, its form.

this is probably where I'd start talking about entropy gradients and shit if i wasn't typing this on a phone at 1:30am lmao.

but yeah - it's a powerful move to go from 'D&D monster recipe show sendup' to 'living with the inherently violent nature of being an organism fated to live in a finite sum game' and yet Dungeon Meshi makes it feel natural and convincing, while remaining tremendously charming and funny throughout. ryōko kui is definitely some kind of genius, and I can't wait to see what her next act is gonna be. it's all definitely making me appreciate the act of eating a lot more.

next story on my plate is probably The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere, which sounds like it will present a very gnarly thematic contrast.

[thewistlingbadger]

To me there is an element of something akin to tragedy when it comes to the relationship between Jayce and his mother. Calling it tragedy is perhaps a bit too dramatic but I don't know how else to convey the level of emotional potential these two had off camera.

Because even though we know Jayce had a father figure once the show paints it only ever being Ximena and Jayce. It was only them two caught out in the snow. When Jayce gets in trouble with the council she's the one pleading his case. When he finally makes it big she's the one sitting in the front row, eyes filled with love and pride. The tightness of their relationship is something that is very lovely and also very sad to me. Because even though they're always together in a sense, they always feel so isolated and alone. Alone in their experiences and histories. There isn't really anyone else in the story or perhaps throughout the entirety of Piltover and Zaun that can understand what they've gone through and how they feel.

Jayce and Ximena traveled alone through miles of snow, trying to go somewhere or trying to escape the place that was once their home. It was only a son crying for help in a frozen desert after his mother collapsed due to the cold. It was a mother and son that were saved from the jaws of death by a mysterious being. It was a mother and a son that arrived to Piltover, with no knowledge of the place and with nothing more than the clothes on their back. It was Jayce and Ximena, a son and his mother, who had to deal with the trauma of that event. Who had to cope with the knowledge that they would have died had it not been for a wizard, according to Jayce. Ximena had to go through losing two fingers with her only comfort being that her son lived. Her son survived unharmed. And she survived too. They both were complete outsiders in Piltover. They knew nothing of the city, its culture, its society, etc and they only had each other to navigate it through. Jayce and Ximena are the only latinos in the whole show. They are the only people in all of Piltover who sound like them, who look like them, who share their same culture. That is an incredibly isolating experience, especially for a child. Particularly for a child who already feels and is isolated from the rest of the world and their peers. Jayce was a bit of a nerd or rather an odd child growing up. He insisted that magic was real and good from ages 8 to 28. It's a belief that has cost him several potential relationships and the respect of others and yet he refuses to be disloyal to his principle.

Jayce by the start of season one already IS an isolated man. The only people he truly seems to interact meaningfully with are his mother and Caitlyn, a child. He is choosing to keep his studies a secret as to avoid further rejection from others. But ultimately his efforts are unsuccessful and he's discovered. Imagine how Ximena must have felt, to stand in a room of rich, self centered councilors rip into her son over his foolish idealism as a working class woman. An idealism that can be dangerous however it is an idealism that makes her son her son. She is the ONLY person who tries to defend him once he mentioned magic. It should have felt like she was coming to his rescue, but instead it felt like the ultimate betrayal. She essentially called him crazy in front of everyone and claimed his dream was only that- a dream. How heartbreaking that must have been for Jayce. To have the woman who has told him for years that she'd always be on his side, to have the only person he's ALWAYS had, turn on him, to hear her deny a magic that he swears by AND- by extension, deny a trauma that only they two share. Their little moment after the trial is so bittersweet. They clearly love each other but it's also clear that Jayce is hurt. "If my own family won't support me, then I'll find someone who will." OUCH. BIG OUCH. Jayce is coming from an understandable place but there's no missing how hurtful that comment was to Ximena.

So yeah. Ximena and Jayce have such a close bond and it's really sweet to see their deep love but there's also an element of sadness to their relationship because both characters are very isolated in their society. The notion that they are the only ones that fully understand each other is equal parts nice and tragic. Especially when we take into consideration their shared trauma and their shared origin. They are immigrants from a far off land who never get to go back home. Who never get to meet anyone from a similar background. Who are quite literally the only latinos in the whole show.

[holdy-caulfield]

My review on Star Trek book.

Dreams of The Raven by Carmen Carter

Genre: Sci-fi, drama, psychological, thriller elements

Pages: 255

Key words: amnesia, physical traumas, self-identity, character study, medicine, friendship, body horror, angst

TW: gore

Highlights: plot, mystery, atmosphere, very canonical characters, accuracy, dialogue, depth, drama, villains

Downsides: lack of some details, the reason of amnesia (far-fetched), McCoy being useless without 25 years of experience (exaggerated)

Vibe/tone: dark, serious, realistic

First, huge thank you to @very-bad-poetry-captain for their book review, because the amount of ST TOS books is a bit overwhelming so I follow mostly recommendations/reviews to choose what to read next. I will probably compare this book to Doctor’s Orders by Diane Duane, because it’s only a second ST book I read and both books are about Doctor McCoy, who’s my favorite character, so my excuses if you find it a weird comparison. Minor spoilers.

To put it shortly it’s probably one of the best ST TOS things I’ve read so far if I count fanfics. It is very good. Probably I will change my opinion ‘cause actually I have nothing to compare it with, but after reading it I felt pity it was finished and did not know what to do with my life for a few moments. You know that feeling if you a reader.

The story follows two plotlines: McCoy suffers amnesia (big amount of stress + alcohol + exhaustion + head trauma) and forgets everything that has happened for the past 25 years, so in his head he’s 23, and also a few ships Enterprise included were attacked by mysterious (and horrifying) aliens, so there’s Kirk & Spock dealing with those two problems.

First and foremost, the characters. They are very canon. And even more canon then in Doctor’s Orders. Spock and McCoy behave exactly like in the show, their relationships are ambiguous and not bubblegummy, as it shouldn’t be. It’s very much what you see in TOS.

And Kirk & Spock. One of the things I didn’t like about DO was that Spock got kinda lost in the background and it either was McCoy with Kirk or Spock and McCoy. Here Kirk & Spock have all these small details about them going on, like Kirk understanding Spock, caring about his feelings, Spock touching Kirk and very domestic scene of Kirk taking a shower while discussing with Spock matter of things while Spock is thinking about the next move of 3D chess. It was just very… Cute. Very TOS-y. Very t’hy’la. You can feel they are so at ease with each other.

Kirk & Bones dynamic is also amazing. Kirk experiences a lot of angst with the loss of his friend, there are a few cute moments between them when Bones is Bones (because Bones McCoy and Leonard McCoy felt like two different people to the characters). Kirk is just so in character, even the small details of him hitting the turbolift doors out of frustration (he does it a lot in TOS), his endless questions, his battle tactics.

There’s also I have to admit enough presence of Scotty & Uhura, they both have good amount of scenes (separately), Uhura is just such a vibe and mood there as well. Also there’s a few scenes with Sulu and Chekov. Nobody was forgotten, everyone had their moment.

And then, let’s discuss Bones.

He is 25 years younger in his head, so he is slightly out of character obviously, but it’s just so realistic, recognizable, that I believed wholeheartedly that it is exactly how Roddenberry would direct/write him being 23 y/o. I can’t name it OOC even. Well, he acts like a 23 year old. He is a drama queen even when he’s older, so you can imagine how dramatic he acts thinking he’s younger (complaining also all the time that he’s old, like, boy, you’re 48) it all just feels very natural.

All the interactions and dialogue feel very natural, I must say, and I often noticed that in TOS too. So the author did an incredible job making such an accurate, emphatic and believable portrayal of my favourite character.

And I felt very sorry for McCoy. I sympathized with him completely. I actually felt a little bit sad when he regained his memory, but it is also thanks to the writer. The way it is worded is beautiful and bittersweet.

About an elephant in the room - romance. Well, I actually liked and understood it. At first, have you seen Bones? Second, those two are both in their 20s technically speaking, well, I understood she is (and if she was hitting her 30s because I am not sure about her being in her 20s, still point stands) so it was natural, the chemistry was there. Third, characters are allowed to act stupid, and Dyson acted stupid and she fully knew she was acting stupid, but she just wanted to have sex with him for a long time, so I understand and wish it was me. So it didn’t bother me at all and I actually awaited them to kiss. It is a flink, obviously, and Dyson knew that. So even if she’s heartbroken she should be fine, I think, plus she did act like she was half-expecting to not continue it with him. I hope though Bones never finds that out. So it is a good believably written part in my very humble and probably unpopular opinion. Good for her even.

The plot and the atmosphere. The plot, the mystery is amazing. It doesn’t let you put the book down. Also, the atmosphere of the book… Well, it is grim. Because the whole situation is not very fun. And also it has gore. Even though @very-bad-poetry-captain did mention the gore I didn’t expect it in so much detail, and at one point I was reading with such expression: o_O (I low key love horror, so it didn’t bother me). And then the aliens themselves… They are terrifying. They stepped out of some sci fi horror, and the author doesn’t hesitate mentioning dark details and I LOVED it about the book. I like when the villains are actually scary. I don’t wish those monstrosities to exist. There’s literally body horror elements in this book, and it’s one of my fave horror sub genres for some reason, so it’s also a positive point. TOS also has some very dark stuff going on, and the serious, darker tone suits it very well especially in the book form. The style of the author is nice. It’s straight to the point.

So it does feel like TOS but the sadder/darker episodes. And I liked that the book doesn’t feel short. It has a lot going on both plotlines are equally interesting. I wouldn’t mind book being even longer actually. Even more details. So if you enjoy a good mystery I recommend it.

Well, I guess I also have to point out some downsides. Well, the dreams in the title. Why dreams? No, literally, why? If it was like living in a dream then yeah, McCoy kinda lives in a dream, but what Ravens have to do with that? Book mentions nightmares, but give me those nightmares. Nightmares although are a cliche they work for showing character’s fears, doubts. So it felt like some portion was cut out. Because nightmares are mentioned a few times. Well, you could argue that the nightmares are because of the trauma. I guess. For me also the reasons of amnesia felt a bit far fetched. I would personally add some near-death experience of Kirk, to add to the stress or Bones seeing Raven do its thing (won’t spoiler it), just to make it really horrifying for him. He also is called “doctor” when he’s thinking he’s 23, so it means he would be able to still… Be a doctor. And he acts as if he’s in the second year of med school. Which according to the medical doctor isn’t realistic. Also, the ending feels a bit rushed. I wanted a bit more disorienting from returned McCoy. And some hello from Spock, maybe a surprise for Bones on why Spock is acting extra enthusiastic or friendly or smh like that. But on the other hand I didn’t feel like the book lacks something. It was actually more than I expected.

Hugely recommend, also wish the writer wrote more TOS books :(

And I also want to read more darker/serious TOS books like this :)

[shitpostingfromthebarricade]

what are your honest opinions on Les Mis 2000

Before receiving this ask, I had only seen a little under half of Les Mis 2000 (French version). In order to provide a fair and complete response to this question, I started over and watched the entire show from beginning to end over the course of 5/6 weeks.

I will provide more details below the cut, but my completely honest opinion on Les Mis 2000?

Looking at the show as a whole, without considering adaptational value, it's scattered and confusing. A lot of storylines get picked up or dropped with little to no explanation, the characters and their motivations make little sense, and the time skips are inconsistent at best (Félix abandons Fantine when she is still pregnant, JVJ is released after Cosette is already 4yo and just being left at the Waterloo Inn/Fantine is already on her way to Montrieul-sur-Mer, Immortal Gav is 12 for ten years, meanwhile Javert undergoes a dramatic appearance change many scenes into the time skip, Cosette ages up when I assume the time skip takes place, and Depardieu [I refuse to call him Valjean] never ages until after the wedding). If you look at the context, it makes sense: they decided to (rather than dubbing after the fact) shoot everything in French and then again in English, so of course performances are going to flag, editing is going to be a mess, and the storyline is going to get lost in the changes they've made while shooting two shows at once.

Which takes me to my next point: as an adaptation, it's also incredibly weak. I don't know if I should be blaming the writer, director, or a terrible combination, but so many elements are not only not accurate to the book (fair enough, if you want book accuracy watch '25 Les Mis or '64 I Mis, or '72 Les Mis for accurate barricades specifically) but seem to totally miss the messages of the book altogether! Fantine was always in trouble before she gets fired (undermines Hugo's message that even doing everything "right" Fantine was still put in an unwinnable position), Javert gets his usual "obsessed with JVJ specifically and also treated as unusually cruel by everyone else" treatment, Gillenormand looks out for this fellow old man who was a gardener and has now been joined into his family by marriage, and Depardieu's character is going to get an entire section below. The Thénardier sex scenes are a lot but ultimately harmless compared to, say, the part where Javert cuts his hair (?) and attends law school with Marius and Enjolras as himself (?), and then later arrests the entire class for treasonous speech. This kind of belongs in the previous editing section, but a lot of the reveals (Marius knowing his neighbors are the Thénardiers, the Thénardiers recognizing the old man in the sewers, Cosette knowing her dad saved Marius, Gillenormand and Marius knowing Cosette's dad's background, Depardieu's character knowing about Javert's death) happen WILDLY out of sequence, and since they are plot-driving sequences, the motivations become confused, the choices make no sense, and you get scenes like Éponine trying to coerce Marius into having sex with her. I kind of liked the switch from jet beads to stinging nettle fabric except again, it didn't matter because Fantine's downfall was so badly done (forget that she turns to sex work immediately, only later selling TEN TEETH and her hair to make ends meet — Javert threatens to [and later does] arrest her for the completely legal profession of sex work before showing her where she can sell her teeth???) and Madeleine was so opposite from everything his character is supposed to be and show.

Which brings us to our next point: yes, in both the English and French versions, Depardieu's performance falls flat, but more importantly, there is an inherent misunderstanding of who and what Jean Valjean is at each phase of his life. I'll be honest, there was a lot going on when he was in prison with Javert tormenting JVJ for fun and the fire that Cochepaille needed saving from and Myriel announcing that he was buying JVJ the same way Judas sold Jesus and Cosette already being with the Thénardiers, so I don't have much feedback about JVJ's characterization or the paper that was yellow like sunshine at that point, but (ignoring the fact that Fantine apparently shows up in Montrieul-sur-Mer with no established factory in sight) then he becomes the most corporate businessman possible, with no regard for the wellbeing of his employees or town who spends all of his time running numbers? The hospital is underfunded, he only rubs elbows with other government officials/bankers, he is painfully out-of-touch with the people of his town, and apparently he doesn't even pay enough for Fantine to be making ends meet even before she is fired. A big part of what JVJ goes through in the book is that he feels like he cannot safely express his feelings about the system to anyone, leading him to act like a scared animal after Petit-Gervais, living in constant fear of being kicked ( @secretmellowblog has a great post about this here), but this Madeleine is CONSTANTLY venting and complaining to anyone who will listen. Not only that, but after he leaves M-sur-M, the police admit to Javert that they knew who he was and just decided to ... leave him be? This isn't a man who's living in fear, and this isn't a man who has to make hard choices in order to do good and help his fellow man. For some reason, Sister Simplice seems to be like 85% of his morality? (and we are very much skimming over the romance subplot that was going on there) So it doesn't even feel like he helps Fantine altruistically, it feels like Sister said "Please help" and Depardieu sighed and went, "Fine, I'll see if I can't pull some strings." When he gets Cosette and begins taking care of her, it feels ENTIRELY self-serving and creepy, and he later confirms with his own words from his own mouth that his feelings for her are not fatherly. He cares about prison reform because he experienced it, not from any sense of altrustic human kindness, and Toussaint ends up robbing him for having taken a chance hiring an ex-convict? (because ofc this Toussaint is a mute manservant, not a maid who can actually help Cosette, because all of Depardieu-Dad's choices are to serve himself, not to keep Cosette safe or happy). By the time Marius is sending Depardieu's character away, it's the only only adaptation that you're cheering on Marius, because this man calling himself Cosette's father who bought her for 1500 francs and still sometimes shares a bed with her and locks her in various rooms and has just admitted his love is not fatherly needs to LEAVE.

Finally — and I will freely admit that this is the pettiest section — the historical accuracy is in shambles. Electricity in the 1820s? 1840s fashions in the 1830s? The hair and makeup are given as errors, but how do you have accurate men's shirts and repeatedly let them wander around without cravats? And no one, not a single person, thought to check 1800s French currency? Sending Cosette off to buy bread with FIVE FRANCS (~$100USD)? Leaving one hundred thousand francs for the funeral of someone who canonically doesn't even have a marked grave? Even the part where Fantine sells her teeth: these were simple numbers they could have checked (two teeth, one napoléon aka twenty francs each — not ten for four each). All of the prices and amounts were in the book. It is not that hard to call the imaginary coin being passed between two characters a sous instead of a franc: we couldn't even see it.

I spent a lot of time thinking about how I would respond to this ask before finally answering, but ultimately, I was asked for my honest opinion, and this is it: it missed the mark for me in every way. I'm sure there are some people who enjoy it, and I am happy for them, but it is not an adaptation that I would recommend to anyone looking for a good Les Mis adaptation or a well-executed show.

[fan-art-ic]

I really enjoyed Jentry Chau vs The Underworld!!!! I would say the visuals and fight scenes EASILY rival RotTMNT 2k18 which we all know went absolutely crazy. This also goes beast mode many times. The main character, somewhat obviously, is Chinese, and all of the show elements are from Chinese mythology. The depictions are incredibly original to Western animation and the absolute variety of demons and underworlds and crazy soul shit going on is some beyond awesome. It really has me looking up different names of beasts and spirits mentioned. The romance drama is also insane, I think it was pretty well handled and honestly very realistic to high school, everyone felt like actual 16/17 year olds who are capable but dramatic and terrified. The show, imo, has very great riffs on other pop culture in ways that aren't tired. Spoiler: final episode the high school gets sent to hell, completely paralleling Danny Phantom, or the cannonball to the school bus/climbing inside a giant robot/chimera appearance is all very Percy Jackson, and I'm sure there are tons of other moments I just am unaware of. And! I think it did pretty well bringing in social media and did very well bringing an air of gravity and solemnity. Despite its fast pace feeling like almost 1.5 seasons in 1, there are still moments of stillness and emotion that I've heard described as maat/space between claps, which really creates a beautiful ambience when paired with the STUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNING animation. And did I mention the fight scenes are so fucking tight absolutely sick and wicked cool

[mdhwrites]

Whats your opinion on Helluva boss's humor? Personally it kinda annoys me how the abuse so much the sex jokes. AND the swearing. It gets repetitive and tiring.

I actually don't think it's that bad. Not amazing or anything but the ensemble cast for Helluva Boss is well made. You essentially have your playful asshole with Blitz, your tsundere bitch with Loona, Millie being able to switch up roles between sweet heart and "I WILL RIP YOUR HEART OUT!" and then all the way on the other side of the spectrum is Moxxie who plays the fool and questions the violence and gratuitousness.

That is a pretty decent cast for most things honestly. It leans more mean spirited but that's in keeping with tonal priorities and humor priorities but it isn't all one note. Loona's comedy is different from Blitzo's. Blitzo and Moxxie do play off one another OKAY (I'll get to it) and Millie works well for bridging gaps. It's not doing anything brave but it's fine.

The problem actually comes more that the overall tone/setting doesn't create enough contrast from the comedy or character interactions and that is what causes the problem. Blitzo is harassed by Stolas. Stolas has a his own person who bitches at him. Blitzo is a dick with literally EVERYONE and picks fights constantly. The most effective contrast ever in the show is actually not even with the angels because of this, everyone just acts themselves and the angels are barely characters until they're assholes too which is a HUGE problem for Vivzie's works in general, but with Millie's family. Taking them out of the city and playing into city slicker vs farm tropes is actually the most varied character writing in what I saw of the show. Everyone is too samey otherwise. The nobles bicker like the commoners, their problems are just bigger. The commoners act as entitled or more than the nobles. No one gives a fuck about anything except their wangsting so they're assholes for no reason which is incredibly disinteresting.

Moxxie is the saddest of all of this because he is meant to be the straight man, the fool who is set up to be knocked down, but when people mock literally everyone around them, and Moxxie never gets shots back, he's literally just a punching bag, the point of a straight man feels kind of lost. He's a fool, like everyone else, he just has a lot more of it thrown at him to the point where it starts feeling like he's comic relief from how people treat him. The show doesn't want to frame it like that but it's not very interesting when it's not unique.

The Rule of Threes exists in comedy for a reason. By then, you can have built up a joke enough to really have it hit hard but repetition, like horror, kills comedy. You already know what the joke is. This I think is MUCH more the problem of Helluva Boss than the cursing. Like Dane Cook, people focus on the cursing when the bigger problem is that you remove all the cursing and what you're left with is very boring scripts that are very repetitive in their jokes. I bet you could make a fucking flowchart for how interactions between the main cast go which is true in a lot of sitcoms but usually takes longer than SEVEN EPISODES to get the vibe of. Let alone in a show that is not a sitcom but trying to be deep and dramatic as much as it's trying to be comedic.

But it has potential so if someone told me it got better in the long run, I'd be inclined to believe them. However... Most sitcoms, or even just comedies, have a Barney or a Kramer for a reason. This one character who is way more exaggerated than the others and is the one with the most outside perspective that others can react off of, if not be challenged by. Almost any action they make is unique because of these two elements when compared to the rest of the cast. They're not entire jokes but dynamic forces that push against the other characters in a way that otherwise wouldn't exist.

For Vivzie's works, these characters are meant to be Charlie and Moxxie but... They're boring. That's the thing everyone makes fun of them for. They don't do jack shit and they're the least exaggerated characters in their shows. As such, their voices vanish and all you're left with is the status quote.

And well, stagnancy and status quote are the death of comedy. I guess that's why it's in Hell though. See you next tale.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[voxofthevoid]

Some people seem to forget that Yuji isn't the classic golden-hearted talk-no-jutsu forgive-and-forget-everyone MC like Naruto or the likes

Yes, he's incredibly kind and if given the possibility he can be open to giving a second chance (like we see with Sukuna at the end) but he also won't hesitate to punch the shit out of those who end up on his (s)hit-list

Yuji meeting Geto "Cult Leader Genocidal Racist (towards non-sorcerers) Delusional Queen" Suguru would absolutely hate him, and yes, maybe it could change over time if Geto showed signs of genuinely changing his views and methods for the better... But otherwise he would be kinda like Yuta was in the movie, who listened to him talk at first because he was hella confused when Geto first arrived but as soon as Geto started insulting Maki he switched immediately and basically told him to fuck off

I also don't think he would take it upon himself to make Geto a better person, either Geto gets his shit together on his own (or maybe with Gojo's help since, when it comes to Geto, Gojo is much more likely to actually care if he changes for the better) or Yuji isn't gonna do shit I fear

And now I'm imagining Yuji and Geto fighting/sparring (Gojo probably convinced Geto into partecipating) and since Geto hates non-sorcerers so much I could see Yuji punching the shit out of him with his raw strength, no divergent fist or curse energy-enhanced hits, just the pure strength he had when he was a "monkey" like everyone else

Negative talk of "sunshine Yuuji" characterization and Getou Suguru to follow. I'd recommend stopping here if you're a fan of either.

And previous anon, my rant below isn't directed at you but at certain JJK fandom trends I hate. I know you were just trying to help.

Some people seem to forget that Yuji isn't the classic golden-hearted talk-no-jutsu forgive-and-forget-everyone MC like Naruto or the likes

Would you care to guess why I say I don't read much fic in JJK? Because this is why. Sunshine Angel Yuuji, who shits out rainbows and cries if he hurts a fly, is going to be my villain origin story.

(Yes, there are plenty of stories that do characterize him right differently, but they're in the minority. I ran out of patience very quickly in the tags and no longer bother.)

He's a very compassionate, very forgiving kid who's boyishly charming and easy to love—the sunshine elements are certainly there, and I enjoy them. But reducing him to those does him a gross disservice. Yuuji's also extremely comfortable with violence, whether that's lethal violence toward curses or training/sparring with peers and mentors. The little we know of his pre-canon backstory features him beating up bullies, and he may not have been as dramatic about it as Megumi was, but the look on his face was sure something else. This is also the same kid who declared his intent to kill Mahito and said that it felt so true that it made everything else he'd ever said feel like a lie. And toward the end of the manga, we have him straight-up admitting that he could've been like Sukuna if not for luck and the man who raised him.

I find Yuuji to be such a fascinating character because his capacity for compassion is matched by his capacity for violence. He actively chooses the former over and over, but dear lord, he's not shy about using the latter. Even outside of physical violence, his personality isn't what I'd call soft. He's friendly and good with people, but he's also snarky, blunt, and at times rude. Also pretty damn insane. I could also go into how a lot (but not nearly all) of Yuuji's cheery demeanor seems like a mask; that kid is repressed as hell, it's just not obvious the way it is with other characters.

Anyway, the people Yuuji wants/resolves to kill are few and far in between, and he's fairly quick to forgive slights against himself, but he's got his lines in the same when it comes to other people's lives and he's willing to enforce them violently.

Personally, I think how he treats Sukuna at the end shows a degree of leniency he wouldn't extend to most people who'd kill indiscriminately. That was influenced significantly by his and Sukuna's respective situations in life and also possibly the intermingling of their souls. Like, nothing Mahito could've done would've spared him from Yuuji.

Getou would likely fall in between the two. His ideology is destructive and cruel (and fucking stupid, how the hell has no one poked holes the size of Texas in it), but it arises from a place of pain and compassion, which opens up certain avenues for discussion that would be lacking with, say, Mahito. Plus, in that fic scenario, Getou's essentially neutralized, and Yuuji's not confronting the direct effects of his actions the way he did with Mahito or Sukuna. In sum, he's not the kind of person Yuuji would write off, but he's also someone who thinks people like Yuuji's grandpa are "monkeys" who should die. I have zero intentions of wrangling their relationship into something good, functional, or mutually beneficial.

Re sparring, Getou's CE is blocked in that fic. Yuuji would devastate him. That's not even in question seeing that, without CE, no one except Tōji and post-awakening Maki would be able to handle Yuuji. This is also likely to make the situation worse, given Getou's experiences with Tōji. That whole angle will depend a lot on how Gojou handles/arranges the situation, which is something I'll likely only find out when I outline or write this properly.

[colorfullyminded]

PLSS TELL ME UR STILL DOING KISS THE COOKK!! its almost gunna b a year since ep 6 and i rlly need to know if the other 14 in the works. (take ur well deserved break u dont need to be making fics 24/7)

Oh wow, I wasn't sure if people still wanted that. To be honest, we actually have written up to chapter 8 (9 technically because there's an 8.5). All I really need to do is finish editing them before posting them. The reason I've been so hesitant is also my feelings towards the fic. I both love the fic and also feel incredibly self conscious with some of the decisions I chose in the fic (especially later chapters--some of which haven't been posted yet). I love writing smut, and I do think Wirt deserves to be written more unhinged than people allow him to be (he's a poet for godsake, if he can be so despondently dramatic laying on a couch-- you know his yearnings are just as fantastical, dramatic, and probably hella thirsty. And let's not mention Dipper's search history). I love writing these two because they're so multifaceted and I love trying different perspectives of their personality. Also writing with my friend Clubs has been amazing and I genuinely enjoyed his help with this fic! I want to continue this series when I'm more motivated to write. But again, for how much I love this fic, there are moments where I go back and read and blush and go "I'm sorry, I made Wirt say what? I made him do what?! IS THIS HOW HE WOULD ACT?! THIS DOESN'T SEEM RIGHT? WHATTHE FUCK WAS I ON TO THINK THIS WAS OKAY?!" (I'm in charge of Wirt's dialogue/actions in this story, Clubs does Dipper, and occasionally, though very rarely, we may also add something to the other's characterization). There are times I worry I've made him ooc. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that. I was having fun, I'm enjoying my extra smutty era (where all I wanna write is to be a problem) and honestly if I wanted to explain my reasonings I probably could make an accurate presentation on why Kiss the Cook is not that out of character. But I also do pride myself on my fics and a lot of comments I've received are about how well and real the characters feel. I feel so good that I'm able to articulate and present them in a way that feels genuine and makes the readers feel like it's just another adventure-- but with the two. I like bringing that feeling into my writing. And Kiss the cook, some elements do feel very much like the characters (Clubs does amazing with an older Dipper), but I do start to doubt some of Wirt's actions or my writing in this particular fic as being too "Horny on Main". So it's kind of a love/hate relationship I currently have with this piece of work. But if people do still love this fic and want to continue this adventure, maybe I should go back and get these chapters prepped for posting? Despite my fears, everyone who has commented on KTC have been very supportive and encouraging and sweet. So this whole anxiety and self doubt is probably just in my head. I shouldn't be so hard on myself. I do have other smut WIPS that tackle different layers and so I can always finish those up if I need to take a break from the wildness of KTC. So to answer your question, yes, we do have more in store, and maybe it's time I show you what we've cooked up (no matter how embarrassed I make the reader...or myself)

[jacenbren]

Ok I’m real sorry to everybody who came to my blog for trigun and shit but my Ninjago hyperfixation is coming back with a vengeance so I’m subjecting y’all to another Nonsensical Insomnia Rant!!! this time it’s about my favorite little greasy dead bitch Morro and how freaky powerful he could’ve been (and definitely already was)

Spoilers for the entire Ninjago series ahead lol

So yeah. Morro. Ninjago’s biggest cautionary tale. He is everything Lloyd feared becoming and everything Kai could’ve became. His jealousy and desperation for approval killed him, and his inability to understand that love isn’t won purely via accomplishments ate him alive (he’s an icon for burnt out gifted kids everywhere lol), and most of all: he died tragically, and before he could reach his true potential.

So in the series, we never really got to see any other masters of wind before, and thus we didn’t have any strong guidelines for Morro’s inherent power level. All we know is that he was a prodigy at both martial arts and his elemental powers, so much so that Master Wu assumed that he’d be the Green Ninja (until the Golden Weapons didn’t react, that is). Even in death, Morro was easily one of the ninjas’ more challenging opponents, especially with his great tactical intellect factored in. In a nutshell, he was powerful, skilled, and more than determined to get his revenge on Wu, and the ninja were very lucky that Nya figured out her powers in time to be able to stop him.

Now, going back to the original point, we had no idea if Morro’s power level came from his ancestry, or from his prodigious skill. We do know that he died before he fully mastered his powers, and even then, he’s incredibly powerful. When he first showed up at the tea shop while possessing Lloyd in season five, rocked everyone’s shit almost effortlessly, easily besting all of the ninja in hand-to-hand combat. A case could be made that he was able to defeat them so easily because he was possessing Lloyd’s body, but then again, when they fight him later in the season while he’s not possessing a body, he seems to be just as, if not even stronger. Morro displayed incredible control over his elemental powers as well, being able to summon tornadoes, rip apart buildings, achieve sustained flight, and even alter the weather to his liking, all while canonically having died before he could fully master his abilities. Not only this, but his physical abilities also seemed to have been hampered slightly by being a ghost, which Morro voices frustration about, if I remember correctly.

So, for the longest time, therein lies the question: is the elemental power of wind always that strong, or was Morro’s prodigious strength biasing us? Now, with the introduction of Euphrasia in Dragons Rising, we kinda have an answer: yeah, the elemental master of wind is pretty much always gonna be scary fucking strong.

Forgive me for any errors since I’ve only seen the first season of DR, but from what we’ve seen of Euphrasia, she’s had her powers for a few years at most and is already a force of nature. With minimal to zero training, she was able to achieve sustained flight, finely control wind currents and air pressure, and even use her powers to help seal an interdimensional rift. She’s already easily on par with characters we’ve seen training for most of their lives, and if we compare her to Morro, they’re pretty damn close when it comes to raw prowess. In a fair fight Morro would likely beat her due to having superior experience and training, but it would still be close. So it’s not unreasonable to assume that wind is a powerful element in its own right, and with the right master, it can be really fucking deadly. For example:

Sucking all of the air out of an opponent’s lungs and suffocating them on dry land, á la Zaheer in Legend of Korra

Causing the air pressure in a given area to drop dramatically, inducing hypoxia in everyone present and rendering them unconscious

Manipulating wind currents in a given area on a large scale, altering weather patterns to a high degree

Emitting hyper-compressed blasts of pressurized air that break the sound barrier and rupture the eardrums of everyone in the area, as well as slicing through many materials like a knife through butter

Creating pockets of air in someone’s brain or bloodstream, resulting in an instant embolism

So yeah! The ninja are damn lucky that a) Morro died before he could unlock his true potential, and b) that Euphrasia seems to be on their side, because if not… oh boy.

[squipedmew]

Behold, the updated team OMEN lineup! (click for better quality)

I ended up revamping the designs pretty much completely because, if I'm being honest, I feel like the originals were too boring, especially for the world of RWBY, not to mention my character design skills have improved a lot since I first designed them.

I'm super happy with how all of these have turned out, and I think they're finally starting to look like a semi-cohesive unit (as much as these dysfunctional dorks can anyways)

individual designs/design notes under the cut!

Oscar's obviously undergone the most change in this AU, so it makes sense for his outfit to be the most radically different. However, I still wanted you to be able to tell this was still Oscar, if that makes any sense. As such, I wanted to incorporate some elements of his other outfits into this one.

I leaned WAY more into the steampunky vibes with this design, and I ended up using the shade of red that's on his Atlas jacket.

Since he tends to associate green with Ozpin (he barely had any green on his v4 design, and only started wearing it after he started coming to terms with the merge) I wanted to incorporate the autumn colors of his v4 design in. Lots of dark reds and browns, though with a much more muted color palate than before.

He's still got that pop of green w/ the patch on his leg tho

The goggles are to hide when the grimm starts to show in his eyes.

The gear pin is actually a gear he took from Long Memory as a memento!

The bag on the back of his belt is for carrying Dust rounds.

He tends to have most of his body covered, as to hide the scars he got from the grimm and his time with Salem

The whole team have their emblems slashed for symbolic reasons (and also b/c merc thought it looked cool.) his is on the back of his jacket!

Mercury is arguably the character who's design went through the biggest changes over the years. Truth be told, I had a lot of trouble designing him when I first started, considering his Vale outfit was so bland and didn't give me much to work off of. Thankfully, V8 picked up the slack and gave me a better idea of what to go for.

I designed him to invoke a sort of beat up vigilante kind of feel - someone who's roughing it most of the time, and doesn't really have the time to care about appearances.

His coat is SUPER torn up due to his fighting style, being incredibly close quarters. The rips on the bottom are unintentional, but I imagine that when they got to Vacuo, he just cut the sleeves off it himself.

I wanted to turn the saturation of his colors WAY UP, not only because it looks more interesting this way, but because it's also indicative of the headspace he's in by the time he gets this outfit, which is to say, a lot brighter.

I also wanted to make his face a LITTLE bit more distinct, so I gave him an eyebrow slit and a mole on his cheek, along with a lot of scars from all the fighting he’s done over the years. I imagine Neo helped him with the eyebrow.

The jacket actually has ice Dust woven on the inside, to keep him cool. Nevertheless, he loves to fling it off dramatically during battle, Edward Elric style.

Emerald gifted him the dog tag - it was one of the first pieces of jewelry she ever made.

His emblem is on the back of his coat - he wanted it to stand out from everyone else's, so he slashed it twice.

And on the other hand, Emerald's design is probably the one that's changed the least. I kinda struck gold with the mark 2 outfit, so I didn’t really feel the need to deviate all that much.

I wanted her design to be one that gives the impression of mobility - light, simple enough, with lots of arm and leg room to maneuver around (and yes I know the heels aren't practical for that, let me have this)

I changed the black color to have a hood on her top instead because I thought it fit the character better. Em is a thief after all - hoods are good for stealth.

The biggest change is, of course, the undercut. Out of everyone in the group, Emerald's the most accustomed to the heat, so she'd probably cut it a bit to keep her head a bit cooler.

All the bracelets and earings she's wearing are handmade, probably out of scrap metal she’s found while on the streets. I imagine that Emerald is pretty crafty, and likes making stuff like this in her spare time.

The red accents in her previous outfits were there to match with Cinder (who, noticeably never had any green accents in return) As such, this design lacks any red accents, as she's trying to move on from that toxic relationship.

Her pockets are actually pretty deep, and hold things like bandages and emergency mini smoke grenades.

Her emblem is also on the back of her jacket, matching Oscar's.

And finally, best girl Neo. TBH, I VASTLY prefer her Vale design to her Atlas ones (it's my fave in the whole show) so I drew more from that than the other one.

I was kinda trying to go for a magician's assistant vibe with this outfit, with the bowtie and gloves and all that.

Neo's not very experienced with the heat, being Atlesian, so she didn't really dress properly. As such, she ended up putting her hair in a ponytail.

A fun idea I got right away were slits in her sleeves and pants, but then I one-upped myself, and thought; what if they were lace?

The original design had way too much black and not enough brown, so I tried to incorporate more of that into this design, since, y'know - Neapolitan ice cream and all that.

She's changed the band of her hat to be a more reddish shade, in remembrance of Torchwick, and she's also swapped out the feather to match the rest of her outfit.

And yes, she swapped the sides of her hair each color was on to see if anyone would notice. (No one has said anything yet.)

Her emblem is a pin on the side of her hat. Neo didn't strike me as the type of character to wear an emblem, but I still wanted to incorporate it, so I figured something subtle like a pin would work.

[kyepha]

I Completed My Animal Crossing Island

I finally have my Animal Crossing video up!! It was supposed to be out a couple weeks ago but I had a few delivery delays with some equipment I needed to record the in-person quips.

Yes that’s right, this is the very first video where I am not an animated character and strangely enough, it feels so right to be. I enjoyed animating and it was a really fun era of content in my creator journey but over time I did get incredibly burnt out and it meant 2022 and 2023 was just a both barren and erratic year creatively for me.

This year has felt like a renaissance of sorts. I’m really getting into my element with these videos now, and I hope everyone is enjoying them. Even though they’re not as popular as my old videos I’m still going to make them because I have a renewed passion for making videos and there are still so many games I need to show everybody.

Funnily enough, this was meant to be a video for 2022. My sister planted the idea and we started working on my island that night in a Discord call (i had to teach her how to make an account and she deleted the app after our call LMAO). I did work on little bits here and there but after I got my new switch at the end of that year, I never transferred my island and I quite literally stopped playing for a whole year. I know I said it was two years in the video but hey, I’m dramatic.

Still so psyched that my island is done, I got a lot of help with funding the project from some really awesome people in my Twitch community, I was given at least 7 million bells to fund all the island renovations. Thank you, Twitch fam.

I’m currently playing Wild World and I might make a video on that, not too sure yet. My Halo series is still on! I have Halo 2 coming up and I currently have it planned for an end of April release. Next up however will be WarioWare! It’s not a full retrospective style video like my Rhythm Heaven one but I’ll go through the GBA games in full detail so I hope you look forward to that!

Thank you for reading this little blog post, it’s nice to have a place to recount thoughts and also give a bit of insight into what goes into each video and what my process is with making them. Also it’s a great place to share secret details about upcoming videos so it’s like an exclusive scoop for those reading 😁

I appreciate all the support, as always! Take care and I’ll see you in the next video ✨

Ngā mihi nui,

~Ky

[raayllum]

just want to say thank you so much for appreciating season 4 so much tdp <3 i dont really understand why it is so disliked;  not without his problems, but still sweet, sad and thoughtful

Yeah it's like... 4x01-4x02 is the only time the show is presumably going to have any time for anything remotely resembling filler, which the previous three seasons also had some brief shares of (1x05, 2x04, honestly 3x01 for how much its two plotlines are drawn out the whole ep, and Rayllum's plot line in 3x02). So just like those filler eps, early S4 spends time getting us re-acquainted with the bulk of the main cast (everyone but Rayla really) and the ways they and the world are either different now, or have stayed the same, i.e.

Corvus and Callum have more than two lines of dialogue with each other, Soren is fully integrated as a crown guard, Ezran is being king in a very Ezran-y way (both good and bad), Callum is the same but also fronting and much more serious, and Claudia's stability is hanging on by a thread. Then 4x02 kicks off the plot for Claudia's side of things, and technically also for Callum (and Rayla) with Rayla's arrival, but 4x03 has to accordingly deal with some of that fallout. Claudia's actions directly kick off the plot, and then it's travel and stopping Aaravos time from 4x04 onwards (which again, is structured very similarly to 1x01-1x03 and 2x01-2x03 being the Castle / Moon Nexus arcs respectively). 4x04 gets the audience caught up with the fanatics (S4 is the first season to actually explain what type of elf Aaravos is - a Startouch elf - that he's ancient, etc etc), and Claudia and co. are also given what they need (Sir Sparklepuff) to be set into motion.

As you can see, I don't think the plot of the season bothered people (something if not multiple things are established every episode) but I do think people found some of the character interactions lacking. Which - I'd rather have people be awkward and unfair and not entirely honest with others than themselves and acting like people than anything else. Claudia can be awkward with over sharing (per usual) and Callum can be shut down (it's an interesting character turn and not an entirely unexpected one).

Like I genuinely feel bad for people who were disappointed or didn't like S4! It sucks when a show you love has a bad season you didn't enjoy, and it's not as though that's never happened to me. I just think I've typically either 1) borne it better, 2) got over it and looked at what the show was trying to do to, or 3) saw it coming ahead of time and left, lmao.

Like S4 of Infinity Train is really good but not nearly (to me) on the same level of S3, yet I know people how prefer it, and yeah - it does come down to preferences. JWCC S4 feels like it lost sight of what the show was (a simple fun premise executed very well) by adding in too many elements; I didn't make it past ep3, and the previous season had wrapped up 90% of what I was emotionally invested in anyway and works pretty well as a total finale. TDP wasn't this, as there were still a lot of loose ends following S3, and I think S4 carried them on just fine as well as setting up so many interesting things ahead (much the same way S1 did, and kind of to be expected when Arc 1 was so wrapped up). Getting to see the characters (somewhat) enjoy peace while not knowing the events were in motion to see it all come crashing down was a great sense of dramatic irony, iMO.

Anyway, I loved S4 plenty when I watched it for the first time, and I love it even more now! It's my 3rd fave season, which considering how much I adore and have nostalgia for S1, is saying something. If this is the show's 'lowpoint' I can't think of how even more incredible it's going to be

[stormyoceans]

There's a fan theory on twitter that says what if Mork somehow responsible for Day's accident and i so do not want this to happen 🥺 i want them to be completely new to each other, i want snarkiness at the start, unfamiliarity, uncomfortableness even. All this feelings transforming into acquaintance, comfort, love, acceptance. And i have a feeling bl fandom doesn't have enough critical thinking for this kind of ambiguity with its black or white thinking so no please. Tell me your thoughts dear Monica 💓

I MEAN LOVE AND LIGHT TO ALL I RESPECT EVERYONE’S TASTE AND OPINIONS BUT IM VERY MUCH WITH YOU ON THIS ANON

the thing is.. i do enjoy my fair share of angst and drama from time to time, however i do need it to be functional to the story and the characters to like it, and i just don't think that this particular plot point would serve any purpose in mork and day's relationship. don't get me wrong, im not saying that a story about character A causing a life altering accident to character B and the complex relationship that could develop between them isn't an interesting idea to explore, and i know we have no idea what p'aof wants to do so i might be wrong, but i simply don't think last twilight is gonna be this kind of story

mork being responsible for day's accident would also become part of a series of more.. 'controversial' topics that i tend to have a lot of reservations about, mainly for two reasons:

1) while it's true that the fandom tends to have a very black and white mentality (and in my experience this is true for every fandom, not just the BL one), it’s also incredibly hard to write certain kind of storylines in a satisfactory way, because there are just so many things to take into account: the characters, the motivations, what you want to say as a writer, what is perceived by the viewers.... if you don't find the right balance between all these different elements, things could easily go wrong (take dan killing sean's dad in not me, for example: the writers wanted us to sympathize with both characters, but the issue lacked any kind of resolution because they clearly didn't know how to give it a proper one, which only ended up disappointing and dividing the fandom even more)

2) i do understand how this kind of.. extremely dramatic stories can be appealing or even seem more realistic to people, but on one hand i always thought that if i wanted realism i would just watch the news instead of a BL show, and on the other i often find that overdramatic plot points usually add very little to the story itself, except creating unnecessary complications that are hard to deal with. tian not being behind the wheel of the car that killed torfun in a tale of a thousand stars doesn't lessen the guilt that he feels for being somehow responsible for her death, and wen not cheating on alan in moonlight chicken doesn't make their relationship any less complicated (i actually think that showing how you can fall out of love with someone and finding it hard to let them go because in a way you still care about them is far more compelling than a cheating plot, but that's a whole other matter). similarly, i don't think that mork not being responsible for day's accident would take something out of their story

from what we saw in the trailer i think last twilight is gonna be about two very different people being thrown together by circumstances and helping each other rediscovering themselves and life and a future that they didn't think they could have, and like you said that's what i want to see

[lakemichigans]

hey i'm back to clear things up, i was just so quick to get my thoughts out i didn't think to properly explain them

i wanted joel to seem more dramatic was what i meant. yell leave and then turn his head to the side bc he can't look at her go, or smtn like that. idk maybe i'm too hung op on this i'll rewatch the ep tmrw to see if i still feel the same

i liked the funnier in her head line too, but the fake bite was soo cute

ok fedra time this is gonna be a long one lol. i totally got what why ellie was saying those things, it's more so about the "rules" of the show. yk how every piece of media has it's own rules about the world and how the ppl in it are allowed to function. ex if someone other than the main cast shows altruistic intentions they're hiding something (spn), everyone lies for their own benefit to some degree (house md), the people can't rule themselves (got) etc. the rules of tlou (so far at least) are that there can't be an uprising without one firm hand who has clear and realistic end goals which happen to coincide with the morals of the writers. no one firm hand and no realistic goals means the fireflies are idealistic and ineffective. the morals don't coincide with the writers and no clear end goal means kc is brutal and senseless. it's not so much about these specific groups, but what they stand for. further examples for the fact that the people can't rule themselves. (ps jackson has council representatives which is called council communism and again proves the point that in the world of tlou there need to be people who make decisions for the majority)

i totally got the type of crush you were explaining for riley, i was just lacking the feeling like the actress was actually about to blush and then try to hide it and then lovingly look back etc. idk this one is really personal i think

sorry this was so long and i also hope this doesn't come off as me arguing i'm really happy just to be sharing my thought with you <3 excited for next week!

i think it's just up to personal interpretation! maybe i'm just not looking into it hard enough, but i felt that since this is a TV show, they can only focus on a few characters at a time. even if they wanted to show us a positive society without any sort of leader, it would be difficult to follow the story if we were bouncing around through a whole bunch of people, each with their own lives and ideas about the world they live in. it's a cool idea that i would happily watch, but it wouldn't fit with the (mostly) linear story they're trying to tell here. like, it was much easier for them to give maria this sorta-leader role because then she can be used for plot purposes and exposition about jackson. and there's always going to be some element of politics involved in apocalypse stories, but tbh covid has jaded me because i saw so much selfishness and greed arise from that, to the point where i'm burnt out and uninterested in the government systems and i'm much more concerned with the individual stories within. i probably should care more considering this show is so popular and definitely has an impact, but.... idk. maybe someday i'll rewatch and skip all the emotional scenes so i can focus on the rest of the show's message!

i think where we differ is that i like a more subtle type of acting. overacting is much more egregious to me than underacting. if joel had been sobbing or screaming his head off i would've been like.... 🤨 also it's worth pointing out that riley is a bit older than ellie and she's getting ready to do this very adult thing (essentially being deployed for war), so she's not in the same headspace as ellie is for most of the night. ellie is excited that her best friend just came back into her life, she's doing all these incredible fun things, and she's got butterflies in her tummy ;-; but riley knows what this night is really about. she's just trying to give ellie a good time, she's not focused on her own feelings yet. if everything had gone as planned, riley would've walked ellie back to the dorm, left boston, and then probably would break down and feel all her feelings when she's alone. i don't think she ever expected ellie to kiss her or for their relationship to go past friendship, so she didn't even bother getting hopeful about it. it's possible that i'm projecting a lot onto riley because this is exactly how i act when i'm interested in someone lol. sometimes i over-correct so hard that it seems like i don't like you at all, let alone feel romantic feelings towards you 😭

but either way i love talking about tlou in any capacity so please always feel free to share your thoughts!!!