#the hardest fight so far imo

[atoriv-art]

what are your thoughts on the hyuga siblings and their relationship

OOF now thats one of my favorite naruto dynamics lmao. i think neji and hinata have a very interesting relationship and i say that as someone who really didn't (and tbh still doesn't) love how that relationship developed in canon

i really like the hyuga fight in the chunin exams because the way it's perceived is sooo interesting to me.. neji comes off as an outright bully and i don't even blame the kids for calling him an asshole after all of that, but from reader's perspective it's really obvious that his animosity only exists because of a larger issue...

neji shouldn't treat hinata the way he does, but he does so because of her unique position as a scorned heir. she still benefits from everything that makes his life awful - her life is still valued more than his - but hiashi hates her enough that he won't care if neji dishes out verbal abuse on her. it's an awful dynamic and definitely contributes to hinata's terrible self-worth, but it's a symptom of the life they have been forced into by the man who the manga is intent on letting escape all of the blame for this situation lmao

(hiashi himself can be a really fascinating case honestly. i think he fully means everything he says, which is what makes him so grating but fun to me LOL. his apology to neji is entirely sincere AND it completely misses the point of all of the issues, but neji is young and deprived of acknowledgement enough that he accepts it wholeheartedly. hiashi thinks he's the best uncle of all time.)

hinata herself has so little belief in her own worth that she just sits there and takes whatever abuse people throw at her... i don't actually think neji's anger towards her was a constant - i think some people interpret it that way - rather i feel like it was something that came up whenever he was pushed too far. in more normal circumstances where he's not being made to fight her directly, he was likely more detached than anything. he wanted nothing to do with her.

in one of the filler mini arcs ive mentioned before (i think. the one that focuses on hanabi and hinata) there's a scene that rang very true to me (and im gonna recount this without rewatching it atm so sorry if i get details wrong,): neji was being made to train with hinata, asked to be allowed to leave because he felt his time was being wasted and correctly noted that it doesn't have to be him here, was told no by hiashi and then he started getting vicious and violent. towards hinata, of course, not hiashi. he then got horribly punished for it LOL i think that's the general dynamic they were living in, neji reaches a limit of disrespect that he can take and explodes on the nearest most acceptable target (we loove a boy with no emotional regulation <3), goes too far and suffers the consequence of it while nothing else changes. to him interacting with hinata at all is just asking for pain, either emotional or straight up physical

But, for hinata, she saw herself and neji as similar (the black sheep of the family i suppose), and would have liked to bond over that fact; theyve known each other since they were very little and she outright refers to him as a brother. it's clear to me she's always cared a lot about neji and imo feels responsible for what happened to his father (something that hiashi doesn't help with. Dad of the year), so she saw their match in the exams as a chance to close the distance between them and get neji to see her as a person, an equal instead of a symbol to lash out on.

but, you know, she was 12 LMAO so she ended up pressing all of his buttons instead and it led to his famous outburst, which led to the famous moment of Every Single Jonin (other than asuma.) coming to stop him and further cementing his belief that her life is seen as special. i think (and this is a mix of Shit I Made up, and Me trying to make sense of the manga's insane mishandling of their plotline) that despite her trying her hardest to reach neji she didn't really grasp the horror of his situation. that's the tragedy of neji's life really LMAO, no one really tries to grapple with the severity of what having that curse mark does to a person. she thought of his fatalism as more of a psychological, metaphorical way of dealing with hurt and not like... "my life literally does not belong to me no matter how much i try to fight it"

this is loooooong take this readmore.

i think hiashi-hizashi were hoping that the cousins could have had a better relationship than they did... letting them hang out often and stuff, introducing them early, hizashi not discouraging neji from being friendly with her, to me it all reads as very "ok well this didn't work for Us, but what if it works out for them... even though literally nothing has changed". they were proper family once and hizashi wanted to die for his brother, not his leader, so that just makes sense to me.

i do nautttt like the naruto vs neji fight so to keep the post positive i will gloss over it <3 but hinata and neji's relationship post-chunin exams to me is peak like. God i wish this was done better because it could have been soooo good

neji realizes that his anger is consuming him and adjusts his behavior accordingly, getting a lot of his kindness back, and he becomes intent on fixing his relationship with hinata... i don't hate that premise at all, it's just the way it's executed that bothers me!

the impression i got (and i could be mistaken im in the process of rewatching the anime + rereading the manga) is that their relationship getting better is done exclusively through like. neji repenting for being mean to her. which, don't get me wrong, he SHOULD apologize (AND THAT WOULDVE BEEN A COOL THING TO SEE ONSCREEN, BTW) but you CANNOT divorce his behavior from the hyuga system in general. from the way they act after the exams you would think their issues were born solely from neji being a bully for no reason, and not, like... him lashing out on her because his uncle is literally the devil.

i don't think hinata has the power to change a lot in her clan on short notice (she did get disowned. did that un-happen offscreen? we will never know. Hiashi gets to be a grandfather to her children btw.) but i certainly would have liked to see her standing up for branch members and in the stuff i draw that's the story i have in mind LMAO. like, her gaining a deeper understanding of neji's situation and trying to work against her father trying to make her cousin's life better? i think that would have been really sweet and even show her gaining more confidence in herself and her beliefs. you can still have neji fussing over her and being protective because he feels bad for how they used to be, i actually really like that because neji IS a very sweet person, i just reject the idea that it's his sole Moral Obligation to put everything aside and make things better by the power of I Will Die For You Now, But This Time, For The Right Reasons

as for hanabi i wish she had more screentime soooo bad because i'm obsessed with how she gives off Haunted Child vibes lmfao. talking abt her requires me to expose myself a little bit and have to admit hiashi is kind of a blorbo to me because of how much he sucks ass, but like. Essentially his insane resentment of hinata was born when hizashi died, it doesnt matter it wasn't really her fault, he needed someone to blame and he would never blame himself, at least not outwardly lol. hiashi did genuinely love his brother, it just didn't stop him from being a monster to him, and he is certainly not gonna grapple with that now that he's dead!

(and, you know, the whole "sorry we sent a guy to kidnap an heir. you do need to die for killing him though" thing is really dumb but if we stop at every single stupid thing in naruto we will be here all day.)

with all that being said i think hiashi tries his best to make hanabi everything hinata isn't, and he has very little interest in having her and hinata have any bond at all. he just left neji and hinata to fester in that god-awful dynamic with no supervising, and took hanabi as the best direction for the clan to head towards. but, you know, father of the year is very demanding and doesn't seem to be very fatherly to her at all from the little we see of them. she's just like. a good soldier, and that's what he needs.

i think hanabi growing to resent her sister for the situation she's been put into (if hinata weren't 'weak' she wouldn't have so much responsibility) is very interesting! by the time we meet her i think she's learned that the best thing to do wrt her sister is to just ignore that she exists. as for neji he barely registers as a presence to her; neji has no reason to interact with her and hiashi has no reason to incentivize it. it's very fun to me!

in general i really like all of their dynamics can be used to explore how hurt and trauma drive people apart, i could talk about them for hourssss LMAO i love the suna family for the same reason!

[lambment]

As a resident Kallamar officianado (and fanboy) I can help give some details about Kallamar to help with characterization. Squid failwife is a coward but he's considered, by me at least, to be the hardest bishop to fight. So he failwife but he still bishop for a reason. He blusters about how you will fail and that all the past vessels were failures during the first two runs in Anchordeep, but on the last one will ACTUALLY begin freaking out and even go so far as to say "take Shamura not me!!!" Mystic Seller also describes Kallamar as "Foolish but never discriminated when it came to using the power of the crown." Lastly, confirmed to be canonically polyamorous!

Kalamazoo officinado I love you,

I agree Kallamar felt harder than Shamura imo, failwife ✍️ but bishop ✍️ for reason ✍️.

Okay I do remember him being like “plz no, take my sibling instead” and was like, damn…. Alright.

okay my man didn’t use his powers indiscriminately I can respect that. He said plague be upon ye, not you.

In the kindest way, making the most rizzless (in my minds eye srry) one poly, is killing me. I cannot imagine that man with a spouse, let alone several, but that would be a fun little twist.

Incredible info, okay I have to cook with this now

[reginalusus]

power scalling gotham crime lords: two face versus all the non meta criminals like black mask, joker etc. how far does he go before he gets defeated? everything counts like skills, number of goons and 1v1 etc.

Harvey solos.

Serious answer under the cut.

What the fuck do you mean 'before he gets defeated', that MF is winning. He has blackmail on everyone, a 1983 Milkor MGL and a AA-12 shotgun at his disposal. Everyone is dying.

Ok, ok, sorry for my bias. It would be silly and unfair, yes. I'll give a more comprehensive answer. Also, I love how people throw fighting questions at me specifically because I don't stop yapping about how Harvey is physically capable and should be in a fighter game and shit (he should be).

Anyway, I'm only counting Joker, Penguin and Black Mask as to not get too convoluted. Harvey canonically dismantled the old crime mobs almost single-handedly and ushered in the era of crazies, we all know that, so I'm not counting them either. He has that behind him. So consider that also.

I think out of those three, Black Mask would probably, maybe, be the easiest to take down. 'Easy' is not too easy, obviously. Roman is a petty pyscho and if he has his False Face Society backing him, he's gonna have some loyal grunts at his side. Roman himself is also a pretty good criminal strategist, but Harvey is just better IMO: he's been in the game longer and knows an uncanny amount about how the underground operates, an underground which cannot completely hide Roman. Harvey has, and could gather, information on everyone. Harvey is known for having loyal men (just look at the Arkhamverse), and I do think Harvey's influence stretches farther than Roman's. Harvey himself also has more combat training than Roman, better gun handling too, so I am very confident he'd whoop Roman's ass 1V1, sorry, Roman.

Next is Oz. Oz is a lot trickier to tackle as an answer because, while obviously Harvey could one-shot him, it's the power that Oz has under his belt. He has guys everywhere, he controls gun operations in Gotham, he is surrounded by protection, he is extremely manipulative also, and has a SHIT ton of money. I think the hardest thing Harvey would have to do is actually get *near* him. However, again, I think Harvey's wit and knowledge could allow that. He could find a way to 'meet' Oz through bargaining and blackmail, if he has any, though the latter may be a mistake since Harvey and Oz normally don't get along. At all. So that may have future repercussions. If we go by the Arkhamverse again, a lot of Oz's men are quite fickle, with some even betraying him to join Harvey's side. So perhaps Harvey could take advantage of that, take him down from the inside. And then, when he finally does get into close proximity of Oz, boom, it's over, really. However, it's *still* not that simple. Oz has enough money to build himself an impenetrable fortress, really. BUT, Harvey HAS got the drop on him before. So this is difficult. It'll boil down to Harvey's prep. The dreaded 'prep'.

Oh, boy, then there's Joker! The issue with Joker is that he plays dirty and has gadgets and toys to use. He is unpredictable, and also extremely powerful in Gotham's underground scene. I am going to completely disregard modern takes on the Joker, including my beloved Arkhamverse Mark Hamill version, because modern depictions make him far too OP IMO. He is a twink clown with a lot of guys, gadgets, and a clever, criminal wit. Harvey could physically solo him, but it's the trickery and dirty play that he'd have trouble with. Harvey, again, is better with gun handling, so ehhhh. It's 50/50 here, ironically.

I'd say the one to defeat him, if it does result in that, would be Oz. But, again, it comes down to SO many variables. You could twist it any way to make any of these characters win TBH.

But Harvey solos in my heart.

[hopeymchope]

I wish Spike Chunsoft would just go full "Persona" with Danganronpa and milk it with tons of spinoffs.

I'd be there for every goddamn one of them on DAY ONE, you know. Pick your genre! The minute they figured out how to make a decent third-person DR action game with Ultra Despair Girls, that should've opened the floodgates wide IMO. In fact, if you take any given Persona spinoff, I can tell you how easily/naturally they could develop (and I could get super-hyped for) a Danganronpa equivalent.

Danganronpa Arena is SO obvious. It's the MOST obvious spinoff, and it has been sitting there waiting to be creating for seven goddamn years now. Ever since Kodaka said he wants a DR fighting game. Hey, remember that official DR3 Staff Book art that showed Nanami dreaming about it? Many of us have shared fan ideas for the story and/or for character moves. COME ON, y'all. What's the holdup?? DO IT! DO IT NOW!

Danganronpa: Dancing? FUCK YAS. I mean, there's already some wicked dance remixes of the game soundtracks in that Crypt of the Necrodancer DR content, so why the hell not?? And I recall that @dreamrlu did some great fanart (1) for how the (2) V3 crew could dress (3).

Danganronpa Q, a dungeon crawler? Despair Dungeon already exists, so it's COMPLETELY NATURAL. It's just a higher-quality production of that same concept! And if you haven't seen that fanmade version of the first "Persona Q" opening where it's the casts of DR1 and DR2 meeting up? It's AMAZING.

Danganronpa Tactica? Imagine leading squads from the Future Foundation (including DR1 and DR3 cast members) in missions against remaining Remnants of Despair. I've been playing a lot of tactical RPGs lately, and there's a lot of room to tell a ton of story in this format... plus it's not like you even have to make complex graphics to make it work, so SC doesn't have to worry about struggling with 3D renders if they don't want to. Just consider how Digimon Survive pulled this off with 2D sprite art!

Danganronpa Strikers is, uh, maybe the hardest to justify — but if you set it in the virtual world, that could make it easy! Since Danganronpa S already took place entirely in VR and contained a load of combat encounters, why the hell not do a similar setup for an action game? And if you prefer to keep in the real world, there are still a number of characters I could easily justify making playable in such a scenario — Genocide(r), Sakura, Asahina, Mondo, Nekomaru, Peko, Akane, Great Gozu, Seiko, Munakata, Maki, Gonta, etc. I can even picture some more-unlikely candidates such as Kimura slotting into the roster. I don't even like musou games that much, but ofc I'd play the SHIT out of this one.

Look: I know I'm an insatiable fan who just wants more precious content with these characters. But you can't convince me that these things wouldn't also SELL. The brand reached new heights of awareness and sales with V3, and they haven't really capitalized on that at all aside from giving us "Danganronpa S." We haven't even gotten a new anime since DR3, FFS! And I'm confident that any one of the ideas listed above would sell far better than a weird digital board game with RPG combat set inside VR, frankly. :P

[6ad6ro]

my review of each game in UFO 50: BARBUTA - intentionally "hard and obtuse to reflect the era", but imo it works. haven't gotten far but i really appreciate it. BUG HUNTER - kinda hated it at first, but wound up really liking it once i understood the basics. NINPEK - controls great. appreciate the mr goemon inspiration. but sadly way too hard. PAINT CHASE - a fine game. sorta like pacman. MAGIC GARDEN - a really cool take on snake. took a minute to warm up to it tho. give it a chance. MORTOL - what a cool idea! lemmings combined with a platformer. gets hard fast but fine. VELGRESS - inverted downwell? it's neat. super hard but i'm just bad at it lol. PLANET ZOLDATH - an awesome bitesized roguelike. this game is sick, don't skip it. ATTACTICS - i'm too stupid to play this. but also i don't really want to learn. just okay. DEVILITION - seems more interesting than attactics, but i want to play it even less. KICK CLUB - bubble bobble clone, seems amazing at first. but all too quickly turns into tedious bullethell drop puzzles. after world 2 you'll wanna stop playing. too bad. AVIANOS - hard but kickass strategy game. has game customization and difficulty settings! MOONCAT - a big reason to buy ufo 50. weird and great! BUSHIDO BALL - do you like windjammers? this game kicks ass. gets real hard tho. BLOCK KOALA - i've never liked sokoban and i never will. seems fine if you do. CAMOUFLAGE - didn't wanna give it a chance at first, but it seems alright. lil stealth game. CAMPANELLA - it's probably a fine game but i hate playing it. maybe if it had a healthbar? GOLFARIA - amazing idea executed poorly. i wish i liked this more, but it's annoying to play. THE BIG BELL RACE - campanella combined with super off road (or sprint). better than campanella, but that "touch the walls and die" shit makes it way worse than it's inspirations. WARPTANK - seems cool. i def need to spend more time with it. WALDORF'S JOURNEY - good, cute game. hard but small scale, making it very fun. PORGY - an even bigger reason to buy ufo 50. small scale metroidvania. cherried it. ONION DELIVERY - god, what were they thinking? has so much potential but wayyy too hard. CARAMEL CARAMEL - such a good game ruined by a two-hit gameover. booooooo. PARTY HOUSE - this game is just really really good. hard to explain, just try it. HOT FOOT - imagine if super dodgeball had shit controls. why does my player autoswitch? i may never give it another chance… DIVERS - weird swimming rpg. i need to give it more time, but seems ok so far. (skipped over next 5) FIST HELL - a final fight clone? hell yes! but then i realized it was more like playing final fight on hardest setting with a single credit. aka "not fun". another example of a good game mossmouth ruined by making it too hard. (skipped over next 10) PILOT QUEST - tied with porgy for being my fav so far. zelda 1 combined with crafting. but you gain resources even when playing other games. kicks ass, PLAY THIS FIRST. cherried. (skipped mini and max) COMBATANTS - tbh i heard it sucked so i jumped ahead to it. they were right… (yet to play final 4) ??? - awesome but can't talk about it.

i'll update with the rest of the games once i try em.

[cutebottledspider]

GET TO KNOW YOUR MUTUALS 💋

Tagged by my beloved @violaobanion ❤️‍🔥 Thank you my boubou.

What's the origin of your blog title?

I’m a Richard III (the Shakespeare psycho boy) girlie. I love antagonists and anti-heroes as a general rule and well, he’s my boy, my blorbo, as the youth say. Richard is referred to as a bottled spider and my favorite interpretation of Dick (so far) was by Arthur Hughes *shocked gasp* and he’s very cute, so... Here we are, cutebottledspider. 🕷️

OTP(s) + shipname:

I don’t often ship characters but when I do, I do it hard. The hardest is Shardlake/Barak, from the Shardlake book series and cruelly cancelled TV show. Also, Richard with anyone.

Favorite color:

Black 🖤🕷️🐈‍⬛ ⚫️ (it is a color, I will die on that hill.)

Song stuck in your head:

I don’t have one rn but if I had it would probably be something by the Chemical Brothers or some Vladimir Cauchemar flute filled track. Also love me some Charli XCX and a ton of other stuff.

Weirdest habit/trait:

Not suuuuure. I guess wearing sun glasses inside sometimes when I’m alone and no one’s here to call me a weirdo lol. Also, I vomit quite often.

Hobbies:

Rather recently started making gifs and it’s addictive. Otherwise, reading, keeping a common place book, messing about on my computer (I love notion, obsidian and keeping up to date with front end dev in general). I used to love writing but I’m having a hard time doing it recently.

If you work, what's your profession?

Graphic designer and occasional front end dev (self employed).

If you could have any job you wish, what would it be?

Beach bum. I’m just glad I get to work in my pyjamas.

Something you're good at:

I don’t know. I’m not brilliant at anything imo but maybe I’m wrong.

Something you collect:

Nothing. I don’t like to have a lot of anything.

Something you forget:

Lol, everything, all the time, especially words.

What's your love language:

Feeling like people know you and knowing people in return, as in noticing and remembering little things and trying to understand even when it isn’t easy. When someone says « I know you » and I feel like it’s true, I feel all fuzzy. Paying attention and seeing the little things. It matters to me. Also I'll stuff you with waffles until you puke. I’m toxic like that.

Favorite movie/show:

There are way too many but I guess the most timeless things for me are Succession, It’s always Sunny in Philadelphia, Curb your enthusiasm, Back to the Future, Fight Club, Twin Peaks, LoTR trilogy, All about Lily Chou Chou, and I love anything with fucking Leslie Nielsen. There’s probably some stuff I’m forgetting because it also depends on my mood.

As for more recent stuff, I loved the Substance, quite enjoyed Nosferatu, looooved Ripley (Andrey Scott my beloved) and well, I thought Shardlake was an okay adaptation and deserved more that one season. It was an extra special treat to have an actor I adore play two of my favorite characters ever. And Antony Boyle (phroar) was a perfect Barak. The casting was the best thing about this show.

Favorite food:

Favorite animal:

Cats and Dogs. Also rabbits.

What were you like as a child:

Quiet and shy.

Favorite subject at school:

None, hated school. Being done with school was like being born a second time.

Least favorite subject:

Above all, I hated P.E.

What's your best character trait?

I’m rather generous I think. Maybe. I tend to be a glass half full person most of the time (don’t count PMS lol)

What's your worst character trait?

When I hate, I hate hard. Also I might be quick to judge sometimes. Also it’s only bad for me bu I eat my feelings andI get easily addicted to various things.

If you could change any detail of your life right now, what would it be?

I’d want to be skinnier and more athletic. In better physical condition as a general rule. Also can someone pay for permanent hair removal for me? It’s okay, you can PayPal me.

If you could travel in time, who would you like to meet?

Shakespeare I guess. Also I’d want to see what my parents were like when they were young. I feel like my wee mom would have been adorable.

No pressure tag: @attaboylew @yourfriendlyneighbourhoodsimp @peachessndreamss @beforeviolets

[zahri-melitor]

Babs for the ask meme, 7, 17, 25 \o/

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

I am fond of the parts of the fandom that have spent a lot of time working out ways to portray Babs' disability as ongoing and variable, given the chip. Also fond of the fight to restore Oracle, which honestly I think most people who are still complaining about are now being pretty picky about. It's not perfect but what we have is a pretty good compromise.

17. What's a ship for this character you don't hate but it's not your favorite that you're fine with?

Do you know, I just opened Babs' AO3 page to try and get a vibe for what ships people write that aren't Dick/Babs or Dinah/Babs (both of which are precious to me) and of the ten relationships listed as top in the sidebar, only TWO actually list Barbara? And they're both the / and & relationships with Dick. (Jason is involved in THREE of the top five ffs) I had to filter out TWENTY FIVE relationships until I finally got a set of 10 all featuring Babs, and most of THEM are still &s.

Okay, I finally got a set of ships to look at, and I think I'm going to say Barbara/Kara Zor-El. It's...fine. Largely dependent on being set in Bronze Age or flashback stories generally, given how far Kara's been deaged compared to Barbara. Superior to Barbara/Kara Zor-L imo.

In terms of actual ships for Babs in canon, I'm probably going to say Barbara/Jason Bard. Look, n52 tried its hardest to make this toxic, but it's...fine. I like them best as exes who have moved on, but of all the 'Barbara ends up dating someone like her father' ships, Jason Bard's probably the one with the most depth and complications to it.

(somehow I managed to make AO3 spit out Barbara/Helena Kyle ahead of Barbara/Helena Bertinelli or even Barbara/Helena Wayne, and I'm now gritting my teeth and not being brave enough to investigate if anyone using that tag is aware Helena Kyle is a TODDLER, and even if they do mean Helena Wayne, she better have time travelled/world hopped. ... Oh wait. It's the BOP TV show, so it's just TV Helena B. Thank god for that)

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

Babs is my girl and the reason I'm in this fandom to begin with. I think the first thing I ever saw her in was the Batman & Robin movie, when it originally came out? So, hmmm, probably not the most comics canonical portrayal ever.

I still love her, in all her complexities and stubbornness and issues and the way that the narrative is often written around her not for her.

[kaylinalexanderbooks]

For the Writeblr asks:

hand-written love letter: what do you think is the best part of your wip

sewing machine: what scene do you think was/will be the hardest to write

Thanks for the ask! (From this game)

hand-written love letter: what do you think is the best part of your WIP?

I think the best part of TSP is the dynamics between the characters and their individual voices. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm very proud of the dialogue and the interactions I've gotten between everyone. I spent a lot of time focusing on the characters in the background to get them right in the draft. And so far, it's turned out very well!

I did write myself into a bit of a corner with multi-POV in first person, but the voices are much more distinct now, and I've grown as a writer because of it! I have to think so hard about how this character will say something, or their thought process given an event. It's great. I love it. It's growing every day. What was once a burden is now a strength, imo. Is it perfect? I'm not so proud to say yes. But it's improving. And that's what I'm taking away from this.

sewing machine: what scene do you think was/will be the hardest to write?

Oh 100% breaking into places and stealing shit.

So far the hardest scenes to write have been ones with excessive world building and fight choreography. But nothing will be compared to the infiltration in Parts 3-5.

First - plots are coming along and not 100% clear to me, even if I have a broad idea. But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. The main issue is that I am in a world where people have POWERS.

In the "Draft Four" of Pts3-4 that I have, I bullshat a lot of it. I had the main group use their powers to break in, knowing full well Alium would have security measures in place. Of course they'd have sensors that prevent people who can turn invisible from sneaking undetected! So how are they getting in????

I'm....working on it. It's not for a while but that's not the point!!

Hopefully I'll have a better understanding of Alium tech by then, since I'm working on world building right now.

Thanks for the ask!!

TSP intro

TSP tag list (ask to be +/-): @thepeculiarbird @illarian-rambling @televisionjester

[omgeto]

I read your tags on the smut tips post so I’m here to ask, how do you write a good angst to fluff piece? 😌

idk what possessed me to say my angst to fluff pieces were my true calling BUT since thats what literally ALL my Haikyu fics are and all my non full smut fics are I might as well. AND I LOVE SHARING MY WISDOM I FEEL LIKE A GURU hehehehe.

FIND THE WRITE ANGST TO FLUFF BALANCE: like tbf this one is just down to personal preference of what you want to write. since at the end of the day angst to fluff fics are just fics that start with angst and end with fluff BUT imo to make it sweet and juicy you really need to find the write balance, have you ever read and fic and thought damn this barely had any angst or vice versa. so when it comes to writing NON smut angst to fluff fics I think depending on how heavy the angst is you wanna do like a 60% angst 40% fluff or 70% angst and 30% fluff. but this point kinda leads into my next one...

BALANCING UR SHIT RIGHT: so with this, I think the hardest part of writing angst to fluff fics is that you have to find a problem that angsty enough to be worth writing about but not TOO angsty that it makes the reader look dumb for forgiving the character and having a fluffy ending. to combat this, I usually just make the 'fluff' part of my endings the apology and always kind of imply or just straight out state that not EVERYTHING is cool but you'll work towards fixing it and you can still have a sweet moment come from that.

HOW TO WRITE A FLUFFY REUNION: since I realised that some people actually struggle writing the actual fluff part. but deep it if ur writing x reader fics you just gotta ask your self "if someone did *insert whatever angsty thing they did* to me, what would I want them to do to fix it" tbf half of the time the angst I write in my fics id dump a dude for, but when ur writing for the masses and writing a fluffy ending that cannot happen lol. but usually like just ask urself what you'd want and its 8/10 the right answer. but if u have no ideas then, just start with AN APOLOGY (surprise surprise) a heartfelt apology and some promises to do better and be better and all that lame soppy crap, THAT ALWAYS GOES A LONG WAY and then boom.

HOW TO WRITE ANGST: now I could do a whole separate post on how to write angst, since I actually think my angst is stellar. but so I dont bore you, I'll just say for me personally ITS ALL IN THE DIALGOUE. like yeah descriptions go a long with in any form of writing but for a real juicy piece of angst you have to make them verbally fight (or physically fight if u REALLY WANNA GO THERE but we do not beat up eachotehr so no thank you) but yes the key is in the dialogue like and it doesn't have to be long dialogue but a good back and forth argument which REAL EMOTION THATS WHAT COUPLES AND PEOPLE DO.

BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY MY OVERALL POINT IS JUST TRY AND MAKE IT REALISTIC. HOW? ASK YOURSELF "HOW WOULD I FEEL IF THIS HAPPENED TO ME" OBVIOUSLY SOMETIMES THE SITUATIONS ARE FAR FETCHED AS HELL BUT IT SEEMS U GUYS FORGET THAT UR ALSO HUMAN BEINGS JUST AS UR READERS ARE SO.... DO THAT AND ITLL ALL BE FUN.

[im-no-jedi]

the (true) problem with the TBB season 2 finale

the more I’ve been thinking on it and pondering wtf happened and why the fandom is reacting the way that it is, I’ve come to a conclusion about the season finale that I think explains it all.

over the years, I’ve been able to train myself to separate my personal opinions from things and look at them from an artistic perspective, despite the subject matter. things like blood and gore - although they still gross me out - aren’t as bothersome to me since taking theater classes in college and learning the science of how things like that are done in media. I’m able to look at things and critique them artistically as opposed to with pure emotion.

while I do still react on pure emotion (as some of y’all witnessed last Wednesday 😝), I also try to look back on things with that artistic perspective in mind. which is what I’ve been doing with The Summit and Plan 99. and while I can appreciate everything that happened artistically and dub each individual thing that happened as nothing short of a masterpiece, there’s one major issue that I realized right from the start that has been solidified now for me more than ever.

it was way too much content.

I’ve said already that I thought The Summit was done really, really well. the pacing was good, and it felt like the high-stakes TBB episodes we’re used to. but then Plan 99 hit. and golly gee, did it hit hard.

pardon the comparison, but everything that happened in Plan 99 was a literal train-wreck. Tech’s sacrifice. everyone getting injured. Cid’s betrayal. the Empire invading Ord Mantell. Hemlock capturing Omega. Crosshair and other Clones being experimented on. Emerie’s reveal of her true identity. and to top it all off, it ended on a cliffhanger.

that.... is WAY too much to absorb in one episode. like... waaaaaaaaay too much.

let’s just look at the fandom itself as an example. what’s everybody focused on right now more than anything else? Tech’s sacrifice. that in of itself is the hardest hitter here, by far. that alone was enough to carry the finale in terms of emotional intensity. but no, it didn’t stop there.

the team came out of the whole thing battered and bruised, with Omega seemingly taking the hardest hit. not too terrible, it’s happened before, like when Omega got taken by Cad Bane right after the whole Bracca endeavor. but here’s the thing. they barely had time to even grieve the loss of Tech before the Empire showed up on Ord Mantell. adding that plot point in so soon after losing Tech was literal lemon juice on our open wounds.

and then they had the gall to slap us in the face with everything on Mount Tantiss. do you know I’ve seen literally NOBODY talking about Emerie? we literally got confirmation of another female Clone, and NOBODY is talking about it???

this is what I mean. individually, on their own, these plot points are good and were done well imo. but geez louise, I felt like I went through a Super Saiyan fight having all of that thrown at me in one single episode. I feel like even if something like Tech’s sacrifice had been put at the end of The Summit as opposed to Plan 99, it might’ve alleviated things just a tad. still would’ve been too much though.

I’ve been absolutely blown away by every story choice made this season. I feel that way about the entire show, honestly. but I also think the finale was a misstep, solely in terms of the amount of content shown. I feel like this should’ve been the opener for season 3 as opposed to the end of season 2. at least have Omega getting captured be put off until then. cause right now, despite Omega being one of my favorite characters, I’m also still more focused on what happened to Tech more than anything else! and don’t even get me started on the Emerie thing, good GRIEF 🙄

again, individually, these plot points are GOOD. very good imo (except maybe the Emerie thing but I digress 😝). but man... why did we have to get them all at once. I remember, I literally stopped breathing at one point while watching Plan 99; that’s how bad it was. I was so overwhelmed and overstimulated and emotional that it was hard to even function. @jam-n-ham and I just sat in silence for like a full minute once the episode was over, unable to process what had even just happened. and well... I don’t necessarily count that as a good thing 😬

so yeah. all this to say, despite how good the individual plot points were in Plan 99, it was just far too much content for one episode. I think the whole thing with Ord Mantell and Mount Tantiss should’ve been held off for the beginning of season 3. because putting all of that immediately after the loss of Tech made it nearly impossible to even absorb properly as an audience. and the fandom’s reaction is proof of that.

[boopernatural]

Thoughts on the last of us part 2?

Omg… you have no idea what you’re walking into anon…

It is far and wide the most impactful game I’ve ever played.

There is a lot of criteria in which I could judge it and you asked and I have the day off so…

Firstly, the gameplay!

In my opinion, the gameplay in this is some of the smoothest, most fun of any game. Just like the first game, the transition from cutscene to gameplay is so fucking seamless I was sometimes taking a minute to realize I was in control again. The vast map and wide variety of controls you have over the character to me is incredible! Playing as Ellie is my favorite, she moves so fluidly and the jumping, climbing, ducking, crawling all of it feels so natural and immerses you so much. The highest difficulty I’ve beaten it on is hard so I can’t speak to the grounded or survivor challenge, but for me hard was perfect balance of challenge while still being fun and not too frustrating. The fight near the end with Ellie as the boss was the hardest one for me. And the rat king was a good chase scene/fight too.

Secondly, the visuals.

Naughty Dog never disappoints me with how fucking stunning their games look. The map of Seattle is seriously an amazing feat. Even during gameplay I’m struck by the beauty of the surrounding world, just like tlou1(esp after the remaster). I play on PS5, and so the graphics are just fucking phenomenal imo. My normal gaming experience is decent quality visuals in a cutscene and then clear jumps to gameplay more focused on function. TLOU2 (and 1) doesn’t make you choose. I seriously want to shake the creatives at Naughty Dog and just thank them for all the late nights and missed family dinners they must’ve had to create such intricate and well made visuals.

Some examples of shots I just think are neat:

Thirdly, the story/character arc.

I’ll admit it. The first time I played through this game I was miserable. Joel’s death was a nightmare come true, for Ellie and me. The scene was so well crafted, the dread building up to it, everything. Joel finally settling in and opening himself up to kindness and even heroism (in saving Abby) was his fucking demise. I don’t know what that says but… well, that’s what happened.

I was able to shelve my grief and enjoy the Seattle bits with Ellie and Dina because like her, I wanted those fuckers dead. The drama between Ellie, Dina and Jesse somewhat mirroring Mel Owen and Abby was interesting, but I felt our Jackson trio was much kinder to each other and healthier and would have worked it out a lot better. Jesse dying was so unfair.

The flashback scenes with Joel broke me. The entire museum arc… god. I’ve never played a video game that devotes an entire chapter to gameplay of something mundane and fun, no threats, no fights, the only interaction is climbing a big t-Rex or spinning a planet diagram. The dialogue is amazing, shows how comfortable they are with one another and that they’re really operating like a father and daughter. Things weren’t all doom and gloom. Joel getting her the tape, encouraging her to wear the helmet and close her eyes and Ellie being fully immersed into this fantasy (similar to what Riley does for her in the DLC with the arcade game!) I just love that the people who love Ellie foster and groom her creativity and imagination.

Ellie was trying so hard to ignore the lie between them, to pretend things were okay, and sometimes she could. Sometimes she forgot that this horrible thing existed underneath the surface.

But of course, it festers and rots when it’s untouched. The finding strings portion was amazing. Joel was OP as hell and I like that the game really shows how nothing will stop him from keeping his girl safe. He fucking kills a bloater with a machete and doesn’t get hit once. Unheard of?! The ending sequence where she confronts him was hard to watch. You feel what both of them are feeling and are somehow rooting for both of them to not have to address this pain.

Ellie returning to the firefly hospital… Joel racing after her, pulling her in for this hug like they’ve done it plenty before, you talk to me…

The devastation in both of their faces when the truth does come out. They both want so badly for this thing not to be here. For everything to be okay.

Then, you get to the theater. Abby is there. I’m thinking: I’ve reached the end! Let’s fucking kill her.

And then….3 years earlier.

I was angry, actually. I did not want to redo these three days as this character I despise! Even though Abby had great gameplay and some awesome fights that were really fun, I found myself just waiting for it to end. I was like game, this bitch killed Joel, sorry but I don’t care about her or her people.

The Tommy sniper bits were amazing and made that all feel worthwhile. Seeing him on the warpath to avenge his brother, and seeing his real darkness through all the evidence he left behind was amazing.

I liked the storyline with Lev and Yara, didn’t like the Owen/Abby abrupt back shots scene. Felt like a very NSFW siblings or dating moment. Not an Owen fan one bit! Felt bad for Mel, even though I didn’t like her as a person. Felt worse for Ellie when she realized what she’d done to her.

Then, finally got back to Ellie at the farm. I was pleading right alongside Dina for her not to go. Joel would have wanted this for her, this safe quiet life with her family. Everything would still be worth it to him if she stayed. He would have fulfilled his purpose. To give Ellie a life.

And then she fucking leaves…even though I knew she would, I was devastated for my Ellie. All I’ve ever wanted since I saw that lil switchblade-wielding lunatic is for her to be safe and happy. But it is in character for her to get in her own way.

Santa Barbara was fun, the Rattlers made me full of rage bc they were so difficult lol but a super unique concept and I enjoyed the play through of those parts a lot.

Ellie being the one to save Abby’s life. I love this. I am biting this I am chewing it I am swallowing it whole. I have so many thoughts on this one choice that I could write another way too long post about it.

Ellie and Abby finally have a fair fight. Even ground, both wounded and weak, both tired of all of this.

I wanted her to kill Abby. Still do, actually. I personally think… you’ve already killed hundreds of people who weren’t even the ones who directly killed Joel lol… but ok. I get what the game was trying to do. I just didn’t roll with it. That’s really my only story critique. And it’s barely a critique cause I like the ending as it is too.

Especially because, after my 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc play through, I grew to like Abby. I enjoyed her scenes and gameplay much more the second go through when I knew what to expect and where it was all going. I always thought her revenge on Joel was fair bc an eye for an eye, he’d do the same thing and Ellie did worse. But looking at her differently helped me enjoy the story more.

It would have hurt a lot more I think, to watch Ellie murder this girl I liked, and in doing so doom the little boy she’d sought to protect. Abby and Lev at the end as a mirror for Joel and Ellie in tlou1 was just… how can I make out with a concept? So. Good.

Ellie’s ending is so gut-wretching and sad I can barely even talk about it. 

She lost everything. Her biggest fear was ending up alone. Joel died before she could make things right with him, she lost Dina and Jesse and JJ and Tommy.

The flashback with Joel to the night before he died did provide me a little solace. Merely in the fact that Ellie was able to come out to him, something she was scared to do, and knew that he loved and accepted her as she was. (Honestly how could she ever doubt that?) and that he died knowing she still cared for him and wanted him in her life. I just know he must’ve spent that whole night feeling hopeful and anticipatory for the future. Fucking crushing.

When she picks up that guitar, a gift from Joel, the first bridge he rebuilt after their tenuous return to Jackson, the connection he forged between them when something unspoken was trying to pull them apart, the only way he could truly express to her how much she meant to him, and obviously a way Ellie reciprocated that…

Gone. She can no longer do the one good thing that threaded between them even after his death. And she abandons it.

She leaves the guitar there. The guitar she loved so fucking much she got the moth from it tattooed on herself forever.

I don’t know where she’s going. I’ve seen some say maybe she’s going back to Jackson to try and make things right. Unfortunately… that isn’t the interpretation I had.

I do know that this game made me feel things a video game never has. Living with these characters for so long. I felt Joel’s pain when Sarah died in the first one, and that was a sorrow that carried over into every scene of every game. I felt -viscerally- the horror and agony and pure unbridled rage at Joel’s death. I felt each misstep, each loss, each success and each surprise. These characters are not avatars to be played, they are people, and it’s fucking incredible. This story is complex and huge and sometimes really frustrating and unpleasant, and sometimes you hate it and sometimes you love it.

Neil Druckman said that whether people like his stories or hate them, as long as they’re not ambivalent, he’s done his job.

To me, Neil has done his job tenfold.

[hollow-knight-fights]

I'm taking the tags I put in one poll and putting them in their own post because I just want this said out loud

#dont feel bad that you aren't 'good' at the game! i have 500 hours in hollow knight now and i have a lot of trouble with a lot of boss figh #i still struggle with hornet sentinel sometimes #i personally ADORE mantis lords because i spent so much time fighting them and fighting nothing else that i can beat them with ease #and it took me 3 months of pure dedication and hours of fighting and working at it to be able to beat them once #and continuously making new saves just to beat them again and again (And i still failed a lot) in order to beat them #thats all to say that every player is going to have a different level of skill #most people who play hk play a lot of games and are innately better at it #hollow knight is the second game ive put more than 50 hours into#the first being skyrim and thats a game i play way too much #also not to mention the amount of time you put into a game does NOT equal skill!! like i said i have 500+ hours in hk and i struggle with a #lot of 'easy' bosses!! #i love this game! i love all the fights and tbh this round in particular has been hard bc i see people just. not liking certain fights and #dont understand that. i LOVE gpz even though its by far the hardest and worst fight in the game imo #its fun! its so much fun conceptually and i love the music and the design and even though his attacks SUCK i still love fighting him #anyways. dont feel bad that you have a hard time at a game that isnt easy :) #(i still have trouble with flukemarm lollll)

[bnhaobservation]

Another Shouto anti not tagging their anti Shouto shit properly. Plus is you're going to do anti-Shouto stuff then please learn to read because Shouto said his attack MIGHT not have worked. The MIGHT being the main word here. The point was not to say Shouto was weak and Dabi was strong. It was about Shouto making a stand and imo mocking Dabi as he did so and as he should. Plus we know it was all Shouto because in a previous chapter it was outright said the other Todorokis's ice wasn't doing a thing. It merely lowered the temperature temporarily before going back up again and did it look like they stopped the explosion before Shouto got there? I must have missed the part where the rest of the Todorokis stopped the bomb that was Dabi and while Shouto did nothing.

But leave your Shouto hate out of the Shouto tags no one needs it here and now kindly fuck off to the Touya Todoroki tags or Dabi tags where this piece of shit wankfest belongs.

Anon, if you were to have some basic reading comprehension you would have realized Shouto is my favorite hero and therefore that calling me an anti is beyond stupid and normally I would have just blocked you and ignored your ask but hey, a chance to talk about my fave hero? Of course I’m going to catch it.

Now… the difference between you and me is that you seem to think Shouto has to be the strongest hero and someone who act arrogant and likes to mock his brother and who won all on his own, while I think what makes Shouto the greatest hero is that he ran there, knowing his ice couldn’t compete with Touya’s fire, but still doing it because, guess what, fighting impossible battles in order to save people, is what heroes do and that cooperation with his family was what allowed him to triumph.

Because Anon, I never said it was Rei, Natsuo and Fuyumi who stopped Touya, I said it was Rei, Natsuo, Fuyumi and SHOUTO who did the trick, because the fact that friends (or, in this case family) help the hero to win is, guess what, a recurring trope of shonen manga.

The story keeps on stressing that nobody can win on their own, that they have to join forces, that they’ve to become the greatest heroes together.

Shouto is a goddamn amazing person, who basically faced the impossible and managed to save the day.

It doesn’t take from him that he did it with the help of his family, it was foreshadowed it had to be the family who would stop Touya and the family NEEDED him to do so, because Rei, Fuyumi and Natsuo alone wouldn’t have managed in the same way as Shouto alone wouldn’t have managed, because unity is strength and anyway it’s clear Shouto was the biggest contributor to the victory but, what’s more, finally Shouto’s whole family is united, it’s past of his own world, he’s no more cut from it because he’s part of the hero world.

It doesn’t take from him that Touya with his fire, to quote Shouto ���reached uncharted territory where he can’t thread’ because it actually shows how brave he was to go there and fight anyway.

It doesn’t take from Shouto how he acknowledged Touya’s fire was stronger because it shows that Shouto is finally seeing his brother, you know the same brother he wanted to eat hot udon with even though Shouto prefers cold soba, that Shouto is humble, that Shouto can acknowledge other people’s qualities.

It doesn’t take from Shouto how he occasionally makes mistakes, because he always works his hardest to fix them.

What’s more, despite having been groomed to become the strongest hero, despite having been cut out from the family by his father, Shouto managed to instead become the hero he wanted to be, a hero who uses ice instead than fire, a hero who’s not a bully who hurts others but who’s reassuring, a great friend and a great family member, a hero who’d great not because he sits on top of the mountain and looks everyone else from there, but who’s great because no matter how high the mountain is, he keeps on putting all his efforts into climbing it.

As far as I’m involved, Shouto is goddamn great.

If for you Shouto is someone who’s cool for something different, suit yourself, I don’t care, but keep your rudeness and your assumptions about me out of my ask box. If you can’t you’ll just be blocked.

[thatrandomlemononyourcounter1]

imo Quinn was really given gods hardest battles as an empath because like if Sophie was made into an empath she would have crashed out as soon as she manifested like. it's presumed (basically canon) that empaths can not only tell what others are feeling (like they can feel if someone is being sincere) but they feel what the other is feeling as well (like Keefe ending up laughing and crying when he manifested because he was experiencing others' emotions so intensely)

which, as an ability (even in the original series!!!!!), is like...holy shit. How do you even go out in public ever again. especially at foxfire where you're surrounded by hundreds of other prodigies all just feeling stuff?? and do not get me started on being in public spaces in foxfire during stressful events like finals or midterms if I was an empath I would curl up in a bathroom stall and never come out again ever. And according to Keefe, human emotions are a lot LOT stronger even to a really *experienced* empath (and experience means he has been an empath for longer and has been trained as one for longer) who KNOWS what certain emotions feel like, like happiness or anger as a spike of adrenaline and probably hundreds of other emotions (would dread or anticipation feel like you're slowly suffocating? would impatience make it seem like the entire world is slowing down around you? no one knows). Even to Keefe, with we can presume a lot of training, who knows that x feeling is happiness and y feeling is sadness, being around humans is really really hard. which means for Quinn who has not been trained, she's just feeling Stuff™️ sometimes and no one can tell her why (she's no doubt figured out that they're emotions but seriously the way Shannon wrote empaths they must be immune to pain by now bc holy shit). And if we say that something like fear or impending doom (/lh) is like a sort of pain in your chest where writers sometimes write that your heart is sinking in your chest..like I am genuinely giving Quinn a standing ovation (my ass would have googled the symptoms and thought I was having a heart attack ngl).

which is to say oh my god how did Quinn make it through the first six years after manifesting like. she may not have manifested as many abilities as Sophie but imagine if the black swan chose to wait bc if she could master control of her empathy she would be better prepared for other abilities..but like living in the human world especially after just manifesting at SIX YEARS OLD would have felt like actually dying. in my opinion she has it harder than Sophie bc at least sophies physical pain is mostly affecting her head but feelings like adrenaline, which isn't exactly pain but could be if there was enough of an adrenaline-fueled emotion, would affect Quinn throughout her entire body.

and that's not even considering the fact that she can read emotions from a really far distance...Quinn Parker tell me how you survive I direly need a YouTube tutorial stat /silly

seriously though I applaud her strength. ik her most sensitive flaw is that she's useless ability wise compared to Sophie but endurance wise she is probably the strongest of the gang which is like!!! Yes!!! she is probably the most useful person in the gang in that regard!! I absolutely love characters whose strengths that aren't the same but compliment each other!!!!!!

(sorry for the ramble that turned into an entire essay I have become quite obsessed with your rewrite)

(more asks are coming tho)

(be prepared /silly)

-📄

OKAY I WAS SO EXCITED WHEN I SAW THIS IN MY INBOX

SO ACTUALLY HER BECOMING NUMB IS A PROBLEM LATER ON!

in fact she has to try a little bit harder, even in the beginning to read people's emotions because she's been blocking them out for so long. For the longest time, this girl had mood swings that tore her apart. She would come home from school feeling mellow, and then come home to her parents fighting and her mood would be ruined and she'd sit in her room and like. cry. (mood)

I feel like even though her and Keefe consistently beef (in like a slightly silly way) they also bond over how stressful it is to be an Empath. Like feeling other people's emotions is HARD!!

Quinn has definitely had moments where she stopped in the street and actually thought that her life was over and that this was where she died. Eventually she figured out that she was feeling people's emotions, and with Sophie's help, was able to differentiate them a little bit, but like you said, sometimes she just. felt things. And she didn't know what they were, except for the fact that it hurt.

I LOVE YOUR DESCRIPTIONS OF THE EMOTIONS AND HONESTLY I MIGHT STEAL/BORROW A FEW OF THEM

Quinn also like (in my canon) has ADHD. So emotions like, for example, adrenaline, make her body go even crazier than normal. So while she normally is already jittery and kind of shaky, adrenaline amps that up to 100. During tests at school, she used to ask to take them in the hallway just because all the nerves in the room were making her so nauseous.

Quinn is honestly not even sure how she's made it this long after all the shit she goes through (the shit that I put her through cough cough) but like I'm sure she'd appreciate a YouTube tutorial as well because like she's just slugging her way through life rn, trying to not die from the overwhelming amount of emotions at any given time. Once she gets into Empathy training, it starts getting easier, but in the first book, it's a little bit of an issue that she's showing signs of starting to go numb, just from all the chaos and craziness. Like, obviously the Black Swan has protocols that they put into her genes that kind of help prevent that from happening, but they didn't really account for the fact that Quinn had to deal with hormonal teenagers and an alcoholic father on the daily. Like the amount of shit this girl had to feel every day is insane.

I HONESTLY MIGHT USE THAT LATER (the whole 'she's the most enduring of everyone' :DD) cause that's honestly so true. She's been through SO MUCH and this is before the trauma really even began.

I LOVE YOU 📄 ANON

Do not ever apologize for dumping an essay into my ask box because I LOVE reading them :DD

[trivial-pokemon-ramblings]

I personally think Cynthia is overrated. I like her as much as the next person, but I think she’s overhyped. I played DPPt, and, yeah, she was hard, but is she worthy of having a whole section of the fandom worshipping every step she takes? No. I can’t really speak on the manga counterpart because I haven’t got to those chapters, so I’ll talk about the anime. I think the anime opened up a lot more of her character. She likes sweets. She is indecisive, warm, gentle, etc.

I heard about what happened in M8 in JN, but I myself refuse to watch JN until I find a subbed version for it because I like sub over dub. As for my very heated opinions on JN, I think M8 added on to my strong disliking of JN. I think I like BW more. As for the handling of Cynthia, I think we needed more time with her to really understand why she decided to retire I guess. Idk if it’s stated explicitly or I’m just pulling info out my ass. I think Cynthia is okay in the anime. Honestly, all the champions kinda suck in the anime imo. Diantha is probably the best out of all them.

In PMEX, the only side game I played other than Go, Cynthia gets way too much treatment. I saw there was an Aura alt for Cynthia. I will say, I am VERY biased since my no. 2 fav character is Riley. Like, do you know a character who is heavily associated with aura? Riley! No! It’s Cynthia! Uh?!?!? No? Riley fits the bill perfectly. It would’ve been cool to see Riley debut in PMEX through that event or smth idk. I’m not up to date with Masters.

I also think Cynthia is an easy scapegoat for people to hate characters. That doesn’t make any sense at all. What I’m saying is Cynthia is used to explain why people hate certain characters. For example, people meme on Diantha for being super easy, which is fair. What I don’t think is fair is to compare her boss fight to Cynthia. Cynthia is one of the hardest trainers in the series period. Comparing Diantha to the likes of, idk Lance(?) would be an easier connection.

Coming back to the M8, I heard of discourse about Cynthia vs Ash. As for the match itself, I think 1) that matchup is bullshit. 2) Steven or Iris should’ve fought her. Maybe Alain. As for what I’ve heard, I heard people say it was sexist that Ash won against Cynthia. I personally don’t see it. Cynthia, a woman, lost to a boy. Therefore it’s sexist doesn’t make sense to me. Don’t get me wrong. I think Cynthia losing to ASH of all people is stupid, but I wouldn’t go so far to call it sexist. What I will call sexist is if all the female trainers lost round 1, but that didn’t happen.

When I think of strong trainers, I think of Whitney, Norman (because I was a stupid kid), Winona, Sabrina, Morty, Lenora, Steven, Elesa, absolutely no one in XY, and Red. Cynthia too, but those trainers come to mind first. Cynthia is strong and tough to beat, but is she on the levels of Steven Stone for me personally? No.

Also, I think Volo’s character actively fails in regard to Cynthia. Like, Volo can’t really stand without context of Cynthia. The theme doesn’t make sense, nor the team without Cynthia. And I get that most if not all of P:LA doesn’t stand without context of DPPt, but I think all the characters stand on their own without their descendants as context. All but Volo, and even Cogita for that matter. Who is Cogita but a woman who lives in fuck off some where in Hisui? Well, she gives directions to legendary mons! Other than that, what else? Nothing. Kamado was a cool guy. He had a fear of Pokemon due to traumatic experiences in the past. He’s protective of the town he calls home. That is somewhat of a far departure from Rowan. I want the same for Volo.

[lockhvrts]

so.. the abhorrent beast boss fight in the ailing loran huh...