#the more I think about the ending the more things I find to nitpick further back too

[nyan-bynary]

I'm gonna have to wait out a few weeks to be able to complain about jjk's ending bc rn half the ppl are bashing everyone who expected more as ppl who just wanted gojo back

[princessgarnetxvi]

Everything Johan did was For Anna/Nina

Everything Johan did was for Anna. 

                      A “Monster” capable of love.

“What I’m most afraid of is…forgetting Anna. The strange lessons we have everyday… are making my memories fade. Please, don’t make me forget Anna. It’s only Anna and me in this whole world. Just give me that - please. Please.”  – Johan Liebert”

I was very confused about the complexities of Johan's character up until the last handful of episodes. After rewatching the series for a 3rd time and exploring how Johan is portrayed in the manga, it became very clear to me that my initial opinions about Johan were basic and devalued the intricacies of Naoki's writing. From the beginning we are only TOLD by conflicting views, who Johan was. His character, in the fictional world as well as our own, is simply defined by an individual's perception of him and the story presented. However, if we dissect ALL of the themes and even the undertones Naoki presented to us through the world of characters; I think it would be evident that Johan was not committing heinous acts for superficial reasons such as simply being evil to be evil.

So what was the method to his madness? 

I believe... Everything he did was for Anna.

(Yes this includes erasing himself from existence too )

Author's Note: I want to preface before you read on that although these essays are written in a sympathizing light that Johan has done PLENTY of wrong. This is not written in an attempt to dismiss his heinous acts lightly, but to simply understand the "Monster" of the series by tackling Johan's crimes deeper than the surface. I tried to make sense of Johan's every action in regards to his OVERALL PLAN and why Naoki presented them to us as viewers. For those who will nitpick the term "everything" quite literally, I want to make it clear that not E V E R Y S I N G L E A C T I O N Johan has taken coincides with his love for his sister; his actions towards the children specifically - because there are some things that had nothing to do with his "perfect plan" but more to do with attempting to build Johan's character and his view of the world us as viewers. Justifying ones actions vs. rationalizing ones actions are completely different. I am in no way attempting to discard the accountabilities that Johan should face for his actions, but instead trying to make sense of it all. I've analyzed Johan's crimes against children here: https://xprincessgarnetxvi.tumblr.com/post/691678531250487296/i-really-love-reading-your-essays-i-can However, this will explain the root of Johan's character and the core of his overall plan(s) that was committed for the sake of his sister from the very beginning to the end. The overarching theme and message of Monster is that there are no such thing as Monsters, only broken human beings capable of great evil; so we will humanize this great Monster in order to understand not only Johan Liebert, but the hows/whys Tenma/Nina was able to forgive him and ultimately find value in saving the life of this supposed Monster.

Before we begin, I'd like to take the time to thank you for reading! I can't wait to review your comments and further discuss this magnificent series of Monster!

-

Anna was set up from the beginning to become The “Monster” given she was the one who actually endured the experiments. Her tendencies are shown in glimmers throughout the show. The heartbreaking twist to it though... is that the only reason why she DID not become the beast, was because SHE ( unlike Johan ) HAD KNOWN REAL UNCONDITIONAL LOVE.

-Johan’s love and sacrifice is what kept her safe from the darkness he knew very well. He got his hands dirty to shield her. He chose to leave her behind in the care of her foster parents, knowing she would forget him, in order to heal.

He chose her than himself over and over; becoming her shadow; choosing to lose his only attachment to his already weakened identity in order for her to heal.

His love for her is why she never became a monster...and tragically, why Johan had.

Which reflects exactly what Mikhail Petrov (whose real name is Reinhart Biermann) said about his "PROFOUND DISCOVERY" concerning his current experiment on the children he had in his home; he said the children did not become animals because he gave them LOVE.

(Mikhail Petrov telling Grimmer how the children in his current experiment did not become Monster - it was because they had LOVE.)

In his own twisted way and view on things, he was protecting her. He killed every "parental" figure they had because he was betrayed by every adult figure in his life so far. People who mentioned calling the police, ended up finding out about their past - anything that could lead the man, who Johan referred to as “The Monster” into finding them, he disposed of.

The adults in their lives thus far would betray them, torture them, hurt them, throw them away- and forcefully separate them. In his severely abused mental state, any adult figure was a potential threat to his and Anna’s safety. So he’d kill in order to runaway from "the monster" and protect Anna. Then when Anna found out about the blood on his hands that fateful night the Monster paid them a visit, he realized that now he had become someone Anna feared - a different kind of Monster but all the similar to the one they were running from.

So he rationalized that now he needed to die.

In that moment, I think we should focus on his body language and expressions. Johan faced the ground. hardly picking up his eyes. His shoulders were sunken and he did not have that menacing little smile he usually had. Johan has killed in secret various times with Anna and back at Kinderheim.

So why was he so messy with the Lieberts?

Because he did not want to kill them - he said HE HAD TO.

It was not a calculated murder, because he was not truly calm and collected; He was afraid.

Lets not forget who Johan was up until that moment: the infamous little boy who provoked an entire riot and massacre by simply opening his mouth. With mere words he was able to sway the adults and children into doing what he wanted. BUT IN THAT MOMENT when Anna caught him red handed, he could not, or rather, would not - try and manipulate Anna.

(He has never once been shown trying to manipulate or abuse her throughout the entire series as he has done intentionally with the rest of the world.)

Instead, he asked her to shoot him and run - in an attempt to finally liberate her from the horrific life they had to lead up until now - blaming his existence for the constant chase their predator (Bonaparte) gave way to them as prey because in that moment, his memories were distorted and he believed he was the one who went to the Red Rose Mansion. **** (X) (this theory is challenged referenced below)

To Johan, him living was a danger to Anna and that night made it evident to him.

But when he was brought back to life and realized the gravity behind his methods, seeing how terrified Anna was of him - he started to cry. Because despite his initial feelings of finding his death absolutely necessary for her to be safe, he still wanted what he had with her; the only bond of love he ever knew.

What set his entire ADULT plan into motion (wiping out everyone who ever hurt Anna and created HIM) was Anna's rejection at the hospital. That was when he realized internally, he was beyond forgiveness and that he was nothing more than a monster. A Nameless monster in her reflection that needed to die in order for her to live in peace. (Referencing the God of Peace storybook. )

Johan was the one who gifted the God (Anna) her hat and then she saw herself as the Monster she was supposed to be due to the Red Rose Mansion experiments. This would NOT have happened if Johan did not give her the hat (the red hat which can symbolize the blood he spilled for her. ) so in this instance, Johan is also the reflection (you are me and I am you. They are both nameless monsters)

From that moment on, he wanted to wipe out his entire existence, and that meant those who ALSO "created" him so that Anna could heal as Nina.

I believe this is what is depicted in the Nameless Monster storybook. 

Initially, we are made to believe Johan wanted to “consume everyone” so he would be the last one standing. The Monster known as Johan in the book also devours his counterpart, the Monster who went West and then there is no one left to call him by his name. But clearly, Johan never does this, because Johan never attempts to kill/devour Anna/Nina - because what it symbolizes is entirely different in nature regarding Johan’s intention. 

A quick reminder that both Johan and Anna were considered Nameless Monsters. HOWEVER - by Johan’s hands, Anna does not remain “Nameless” nor does she ever become a “monster” the moment Johan decided to not only leave her behind in the hands of a loving family, but by her changing her name and her identity to Nina. The Fortners never made any implication that they knew of Nina’s past concerning the Lieberts murder and I believe this is because Johan introduced her as Nina to the Fortners and never allowed them to see the trail behind her identity as Anna Liebert. 

Symbolically, Johan, as the Nameless Monster, consumed the Monster inside of Anna and became the only Monster left. This is what is mirrored in Johan’s intentions and the Nameless Monster storybook. 

With Anna forgetting him and Johan leaving her behind thus losing his only connection to someone who truly knew him, now all that is left is Johan, without absolutely anyone to call him by his name - the one and only Nameless Monster.

And this is heavily referenced in Another Monster:

(This reinforces that Johan was trying to make Nina forget her past as Anna)

There wasn’t some sick satisfaction from any of his killings done when he was a child. To him, it was needed for the sake of her safety. This was Johan’s initial “plan.” set in motion. He wanted to be the only one left in the world with his sister - so that they wouldn’t have to be afraid anymore. 

(I also believe at that point when they were kids, Johan's very first plan he referred to when telling Anna "Remember, I have a plan." was to run to another country with her so that the Monster will never find them. It is the only logical idea of a plan that a child could conjure following what he actually leads them to do, which was cross the border. Simply destroying the world is unreachable in his current state and Johan is smart enough to not be delusional in his endeavors. With that being said, he had to kill that old couple to erase any trail they may have left of "two beautiful blonde twins." But this plan fails because they nearly die at the Czech Border and was discovered. )

(Johan telling Anna he has a plan.)

RUHENHEIM:

One of the biggest moments in Ruhenheim has been misinterpreted and lost due to the mistranslations in both the English Dub and the Japanese subtitles. 

I clarify and mend this by breaking down what Nina unraveled in Boneparte’s house when she looked at the portraits by correctly translating the Japanese script/text in depth here on this post:

 But to summarize it for the purpose of this essay, it was revealed to us as viewers that Johan apologized to Anna when she returned from the Red Rose Mansion, revealing the overwhelming weight of guilt he carried when Anna had been taken that day. 

(That day depicts the moment their mother made the terrible 'Choice')

and then Johan accepts his mother will never return to them (assuming she abandoned them) and goes on to tell Anna this:

Johan is the one crying because soon after, Nina tells us that Johan was in that room crying.

This information provides clarity as to why Nina was finally able to understand Johan, empathize with him enough to be able to forgive him. She remembered he was a boy who felt guilty over what happened to her; a boy who cried when he realized they were now all alone in the world.  She understood that Johan desperately did anything and everything to ensure he and Anna survived despite it all.

That Rainy Night:

I want to GREATLY EMPHASIZE the important factor I missed my first time watching the scenes with Johan/Anna - the scenes shown to us were ONLY through her recollection as fragments due to her memory loss. They were told from what she COULD remember, so her take on what really happened that rainy night the first few times the events are unfolded before us should not be taken as absolute. At least...up until it is revealed in the final episodes that Anna realized that on that night instead of seeming like an empty shell of a person asking for death, Johan was crying and crying before she shot him.

The scene where Anna finds the portraits reveals what truly happened between them and its so important. She said “Johan was crying “here” just like before.” She was mimicking a memory she had just recalled in its entirety. “Why are you crying, why are you crying?” She sounded in distress. Directly after she reveals that she remembers him crying, it shows the image of him pointing at his head that rainy night.

Even though Johan told her to shoot him, it is IMPORTANT that he was crying and the author highlights this for a reason.

I believe that, finally being able to vividly remember that day finally revealed to her that Johan wasn’t the “face of absolute evil” she initially dismissed him to be; he was a boy/man who could cry and mourn - he was human. He was a terrified boy protecting Anna and himself the only way he knew how. and instead of showing him forgiveness/love - she added on to his collection of wounds scarred upon his soul from everyone else who chose to harm him.

Tenma...was ultimately the ONLY one in his life who showed him kindness.

Johan's intentions and reasons behind many crimes: Essay II.

( I will summarize it here as the extension essay was far too long to put on this post)

**** (☓) I want to ask, did Johan truly believe he was the one who went to the Red Rose Mansion or was that simply a masquerade he performed to make sure Anna did not remember?

(I wrote an essay on this being a possibility here: PART 2 OF THIS ESSAY. This will explain Johan's intentions in depth)

(this is a theory I FIRMLY believe and have completely adopted. But for the sake of argument, I will entertain both concepts behind Johan's memory in this essay.)

If we entertain the idea that Johan never misconstrued his memories about the Red Rose and pretended he did, I can dissect Johan’s intentions a bit more intricately.

Throughout the series you see that he is trying to wipe everyone who knew of what happened to Anna off the face of the earth, that included himself. He did not want Anna to remember. So when it was revealed she did remember, he mourned. It was subtle but evident in the anime when she reveals “you are wrong.” something in him shifted - for once he was reacting to the words of another.

She said "he had a smile but seemed like he was crying. I never seen such an expression on his face before." That entire scene, Johan’s eyes expressed something we’ve never seen from him throughout the series - a sense of mourning or longing?

Johan in front of Anna always appeared the most human and I feel Naoki did this with purpose.

(Naoki specifically told the directors/animators of the anime series to never stray from how he expressed Johan's eyes for a very important reason. )

Johan's expression finally meeting Anna after 13 years apart.

-

If, however, Johan DID truly think he was the one who suffered at the red rose mansion, his “perfect suicide” plan still relates to his twisted-selfless feelings for Anna.

Johan learns it was not him that suffered at the Red Rose Mansion...but Anna instead. and then Johan goes on to commit the "perfect suicide." In his plan to die, he wanted to take The Monster with him, forcing Bonaparte to endure the same exact hell he forced Anna to suffer as a child.

Call it an act of revenge. Some may think Johan is incapable of being vengeful but I cannot see this cruel and calculated act as anything other than malice. After Bonaparte was finally dead, the monster disposed of - Johan was ready to die.

But you can see his conviction began to slip away when Anna forgave him. What made it worse was realizing he was wrong about Tenma because even now, Tenma was still hesitating on killing him ruthlessly like he always presumed would happen. Johan thought he had humans all figured out - after all, all Johan has EVER known was the darkness in people’s hearts. That is why he was so confused/moved by Tenma and wanted so desperately to prove him wrong.

The manga portrays Johan’s expressions 1000X BETTER THAN THE ANIME. As soon as Anna arrives, Johan is just staring at the floor, unable to look at her - Repeating everything from that fateful rainy night when they were kids. But this time, Anna doesn’t kill him, she chooses love and compassion. and when she says she forgives him - his reaction is something the anime does not do justice

(The subtle shift the artist expressed in his eyes from her words is so significant but missed in the anime; but he reacts rather deeply, moved and shocked by her words.)

Because "Forgiveness is the remission of sins. For it is by this that what has been lost, and was found, is saved from being lost again."

In the manga he isn’t quick to reply. He ponders over her words carefully and I think this is when his mind starts panicking.

Anna realized that forgiveness was the one thing he wanted that night she shot him, despite him also thinking his death was needed. His value depended on her view of him; and what she once robbed from him was now returned - a human being worthy of forgiveness instead of a monster.

He is telling her the evident truth that he cannot turn back because he TRULY believes Tenma is going to kill him any moment.

Johan refuses her forgiveness not because he resents her or thinks its too late for her to redeem herself - but because he doesn’t think he deserves it. “There are somethings that cannot be undone.” Because it is too late, Johan is going to die - he WANTS to die. Then you see the fear and helplessness in his eyes after getting the one thing he always wanted [ Anna’s forgiveness] because he desperately wanted to die as the only thing he knew himself to be: the nameless, nonexistent monster. But both Anna and Tenma rob him of that by bestowing upon him the gift of compassion, mercy and empathy; for the first time treating and valuing him like a human being instead of a monster,god,experiment, devil etc., as everyone around him has his entire life.

(The Monster inside of Johan begins to crumble.)

Johan in his final moments was cracking and finally falling apart. You see it in the final expression he makes: the distraught, confusion and sadness. Because he realized, he was wrong about people, he was wrong about the world. But how can we blame him for his view on humanity when all he has ever been shown since birth was how ugly, selfish, cruel and inhumane people can be?

How can we expect someone who has only seen darkness to be able to find the light?

I want to clarify one thing I noticed: Johan has never shown to take any kind of sick satisfaction from killing unlike all the other serial killers being interviewed in the series. (aside from Richard) Specifically, Johan is without "the lust for murder" as Lunge explains in Another Monster - which is why Johan hired other people to kill for him instead. Especially contrasting Johan with Roberto, specifically, when Roberto tries to kill Anna.

(that is until Richard, which makes Johan's dealings with him stand out for a reason. He doesn't even take pleasure in killing the Red Hiddenburg, he leaves before witnessing her death instead of reveling in his 'checkmate' coming to fruition.)

Despite his callousness and his lack of care for life - Johan, despite how much of a "monster" he was, very clearly had humanity and had love....for his sister most of all. Johan saw when his mother choose, how little their lives meant to her and this instilled his nihilism at such a young age. He watched Anna get tossed to the wolves like nothing and in that moment, he probably thought his mother chose Anna over him for a reason. (even though the question on her intention would haunt him for the rest of his life) But her being able to choose is what hurt him the most and it's probably what instilled his self sacrificing mentality to care for Anna above the world in order to never make the same mistake his mother had.

That is why after she got back from the Red Rose Mansion, he cried for her story and apologized as if it was his responsibility to feel guilty over what happened to her. It should have been him that suffered. Then after, he treats her with the upmost care, telling her everything is hers, no matter what she will win everything because he would deem it so. He is kind to her, never letting go of her hand even when she is dragging behind - he sacrificed all of himself for her...

Because she deserved everything in the world to contrast their mother throwing her away.

(it should be noted that the Lieberts did not want Anna either but only adopted her because Johan refused to leave the orphanage without her. Which is also why I believe he killed them when Bonaparta came because he thought the Lieberts were conspiring with Bonaparta to get Anna)

🌰 (The ‘Acorn game’ represents their Mother's choice, a child in each hand. But in this version, Johan would ensure that no matter what hand Anna chooses, she will NEVER choose wrong. He manipulates the fate behind her choices by holding two acorns instead of one; never letting her make the same mistake as her mother.)

He wanted her to know above all else, she was loved.

A clear indication of this adoration/attachment he has for her is the fact that he DOES NOT forget her even after enduring the hellish experiments in Kinderheim that aimed at wiping out / messing around with his memories.

-

I wrote this because I was astounded to see various posts/Wiki pages implying that Johan’s intentions were to torture Anna and make her kill herself. Telling her to shoot him was his first attempt to drive her insane? They twisted a lot of things Johan did to try and make this statement true. But I cannot comprehend how they drew this conclusion? The series has characters mentioning on more than a few occasions that Anna is dear to Johan. "He is lost with you."

Everyone knew Anna was important to Johan, Professor Geidlitz was the first to mention this besides the old blind man. Roberto was aware of this which is why he tried to kill her as mentioned in Another Monster. Which is ALSO why Peter Capek tried to hold her hostage to prevent Johan from killing him.

and for the first time, Johan DOESN'T kill him.

Johan cried when he awoke at the hospital after he reached for his sister and she screamed in fear of him. His face full of tears - his heart completely broken. If his intention was to drive Anna insane, he would have triumphed in that moment she screamed and fell to the ground after he reached out to her. But instead he mourned.

Anna has mentioned several times that Johan has cried for her, like when he was in the room full of their happy portraits, he was crying. He never once tried to bring harm to Anna - not intentionally towards her person. Explaining the Fortners murder - either he killed the Fortners after they decided to keep lying to her, thus keeping him in the shadows when he wanted to return. OR he killed them because they were going to tell her the truth about her identity, which was something Johan worked to conceal. (this theory is explained thoroughly in essay #2 )

Regardless, if he wanted to torment her, he would not have tried to lure her away to the castle when he set up the Fortners to be killed.

They imply that Johan wanted to torture her and then kill her at the end. But that makes absolutely no sense. Where in the storyline does Johan give off this tendency towards her? Even at the end he told her where to meet him in Ruhenheim and not once did he try to shoot her or Tenma. Honestly, if he really wanted to provoke Tenma to shoot him, he would have held the gun to Anna instead of a random child. But even though being shot by Tenma was his greatest endeavor, he refused to point the gun at someone who was important to Tenma...because Anna, is important to Johan too.

To say Johan, despite being hailed as the Monster of the series, had no love or humanity in him and was merely the Devil himself...completely missed the point of the story...

I’d like to point out the constant mentioning of Hitler in this story and draw another important factor...Hitler brainwashed people to commit mass genocide. Under his rule, millions perished in horrific ways. But despite that...Hitler was capable of loving others. Hitler was also loved by others. The terrifying truth about people who commit atrocities...is that they are not monsters or demons or devils...

they are merely human.

-

Here’s two passages from ANOTHER MONSTER [novel post Monster written by Naoki] that really drives this point:

- PSA: My twin brother FINALLY finished his 2 HOUR Johan Analysis Essay, that dives deeper into Johan's character. This essay and essay #2 will be included in this analysis video as we both worked on it together. However, this lays out the details visually and with beautiful music. Please watch!

[iwritefandomimagines]

BLIND DATE — JAMIE TARTT

masterlist

pairing: jamie tartt x reader

description: you and jamie never saw eye to eye. when keeley offers to set you up on a blind date and it’s him that turns up, you’re irritated. but you’re soon to find out that maybe she’s right… maybe he has changed.

warnings: enemies to lovers if you squint bc there’s not much angsty content it’s more implied, swearing, alcohol consumption, fluff at the end because that’s my mf baby

author’s note: i live and breathe enemies to lovers jamie tartt content so this is sooo self indulgent and fluffy ish at the end.

———

“You have got to be fuckin’ kidding me?”

You’d already been reluctant when Keeley Jones begged you to let her set you up with someone she knew.

Your best friend had been going on at you about needing to ‘get yourself out there’ for ages now — and the only reason you had given in to her request was so that she’d back off a bit.

But now, as the one and only Jamie fucking Tartt approached your table, your dress felt especially clingy and your palms felt especially sweaty.

“Y/N,” Jamie smirked, having always enjoyed getting under your skin, “You look fucking stunnin’, and really fucking happy to see me.”

You rolled your eyes as he sat down, “Why the hell would Keeley set me up with you of all people?”

Jamie pushed his hair out of his face, and you couldn’t help but take his whole look in as he removed his jacket and adjusted his shirt.

Okay, he may have been a massive prick — but not even you could deny that he wasn’t exactly a chore to look at. Just a chore to listen to.

“See, Y/N, I hear ya voice complaining,” he quipped, leaning forward to rest his chin on his palm as his other hand waved over a waiter, “But you’re still checking me out. Like what you see, eh?”

Before you had a chance to snap back at the walking irritant in front of you, the waiter was at your table taking your drinks orders.

A large glass of wine to cool your nerves would do nicely was what you had decided before he’d arrived — but now a bottle seemed more appropriate.

Of course, when you asked for this Jamie just smiled smugly, “Yeah, you know what? Me ‘n the lady will share. Bring us your most expensive bottle of Pinot Grigio, yeah?”

You tried not to cringe at his mispronunciation.

You sighed, sipping at the table water you’d already been brought as the waiter nodded and rushed away.

“Now where were we, love?”

“You were being arrogant, I was still trying to figure out how I’ve ended up sat opposite you… Just like old times.”

Jamie scoffed, “Oh no, I was simply observin’ that you checked me out. Don’t worry, love, I was checking you out too. Like I said, you’re stunnin’.”

You hated that he could so obviously see his words had affected you — a crimson blush immediately staining your cheeks as he quirked his eyebrow in acknowledgement.

“I can think that you’re attractive and still think you’re a prick, Jamie,” you shrugged, a small smile on your lips as he screwed up his face, “I do have eyes.”

He licked his lips, “See, makin’ progress already. Never admitted you fancy me before, but if it helps, love, I fancy you too.”

You scoffed again, “I said you’re attractive, not that I fancy you.”

“Same thing,” he shrugged, leaning further forward, “Look, I know you think I’m a twat, but I’ve been working on how not to be.”

You looked at him for a moment, not sure what to make of his words.

He’d always been an egotistical arse, always convinced he was God’s gift to earth, and his shameless flirting whilst also being an arsehole had always just grated on you.

You’d had some semblance of a crush on him once, almost admiring his confidence (and of course how gorgeous he was) but his attitude had led you to a prickling disdain for the man instead.

He knew he got under your skin, so he would flirt outrageously and nitpick at things you did and said to piss you off and rile you up.

Keeley had insisted he took the whole childhood ‘if they’re mean to you they like you’ bollocks all too seriously, but you’d brushed that off considering the fact that he was still very much lapping up any and all female attention he received elsewhere.

Given that you only attended events as Keeley’s friend, it hadn’t been hard to avoid him since — deciding that it wasn’t worth letting him get to you.

“So Keeley’s been saying,” you narrowed your eyes, “I know you flirt with, like, anything that breathes, but I’m surprised you’re not more disappointed by her decision to set us up.”

It was Jamie’s turn to scoff now, his eyes never leaving yours as you felt suddenly shy under his close watch.

“She didn’t set us up, I asked her to.”

You furrowed your brows, confused as to why the fuck he’d do that. Sure, he’d flirted with you before but you were certain it was just to piss you off.

“What?”

“I knew you didn’t like me, ‘cos you only know the old Jamie Tartt,” he pouted, and you fought the urge to chuckle, “So I asked her to pretend it was just some mate of hers she wanted to send you on a blind date with. Just to see if you’d give me a chance, ya know?”

You were almost touched by his words, but still remained wary about his intentions, “Why— what made you that determined for a date with me?”

He laughed, a big loud laugh that drew the attention of many surrounding tables.

The waiter returned now, interrupting you again.

He poured you both a glass of wine and placed down the wine cooler as you and Jamie thanked him whilst never looking away from each other.

“For the third time tonight, you’re fuckin’ stunning Y/N. And I like that you never took my shit back then. Just figured it was time to try me luck and see if ya’d change your mind about me,” if you didn’t know him better, you’d think he was nervous, “‘S why Keeley’s been talkin’ me up to you so much. She’s known I’ve had a thing for you for, like, ages.”

You were gobsmacked — not only by his confession, but the sincerity his voice held.

“Why’ve you not reached out sooner, then? I haven’t seen you in months, not since the last charity gala,” you bit your lip.

You remembered that night very well, given that you’d almost shared a drunken kiss with him until you came to your senses and left the party.

He only smirked again, “You remember the exact last time we saw each other, huh?”

“Jamie…”

“Alright, alright,” he raised his hands in defeat, “I was gutted you didn’t kiss me at that party, even though it’s fair that you didn’t. Keeley told me you deserved better than how I’d been treating you, but that she knew if I got me shit together we’d make a good couple. So I waited ‘til me shit was, well, together. And now here we are. With my shit sorta together.”

You were almost speechless, “Jamie— that’s, well, that’s actually really sweet.”

He rolled his eyes with a smile, “Glad ya think so, love. Been hard as fuck and I’ve almost called you a fuck load of times, too, but Keeley and Roy have been really good with helping and that.”

Now you were really surprised, “Roy’s been helping you work on yourself? Fuckin’ hell, things must have changed since I last saw you!”

Jamie laughed, pursing his lips as he shrugged and let out a breathy sigh, “He won’t admit it but we’re, like, friends now. Don’t tell him I said that though. He’d go fuckin’ mental.”

“Oh I know,” you chuckled, “But I hope you’ve been doing this for yourself as well, not just trying to change to make other people happy.

The smile on his face spread warmth through your chest, and you could feel the walls you’d built up to protect yourself from Jamie’s old self beginning to crumble.

Your face was lit with a smile now, a wide and sincere smile that you could tell boosted his confidence about this whole elaborate plan.

“Nah, it’s been good,” he nodded, “And you’ve never smiled at me like that, not even when we first met and you were trying to be nice before I fucked things by being all Jamie Tartt. So I’d say it’s, like, more than worth it, to be fair.”

Your smile only widened at that, and his matched it almost exactly.

“I don’t even know what to say at this point, but I’d be lying if I said I’m not actually glad I’m here now,” you bit your lip, maintaining steady eye contact with him and placing your hand on the table.

He was quick to place his own hand atop yours, “‘M really glad to hear it, Y/N. Can we treat this like a fresh start or whatever? Like a real blind date? Want to show you I’ve changed properly, that I’m a new Jamie.”

You giggled, poking your thumb out to rub the back of his hand with it, “Sure. I’m Y/N Y/L/N, and it’s nice to meet you. Sorry if this is forward but you look really good tonight, stranger.”

He beamed like a proud child at those words, “Jamie Tartt. You look fuckin’ phenomenal, Y/N. Since we’ve like, never met, this might be weird,” you rolled your eyes with a laugh at how seriously he was taking the starting over thing, “But I hope this ain’t our only date.”

“Play your cards right, Jamie Tartt, and it won’t be,” you smiled, standing up and leaning over to press a soft kiss to his cheekbone.

“Because, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, I hope it isn’t either.”

———

eeeee i hope you enjoyed that, i love jamie tartt a ridiculous amount so couldn’t help myself ! here’s my masterlist if you want to read more of my jamie fics or any of my other stuff!

also kinda feeling a part two where you’re secretly dating and turn up to a richmond squad event with him? let me know if u would like that!!!

[mha-grievances]

All Might’s Final Fight with AFO:

So recently, All Might’s taken up arms and is fighting against AFO. Though All Might’s unable to use his quirk, he’s been fitted with a power suit.

Why am I dedicating a blog post to this? Well, it’s because I find it to be one of the best written parts of the manga. For starters, we get more backstory on All Might, who he was before he got his quirk and why he desired to be a hero in the first place. Even without a quirk, All Might still wanted to help out. Armed with nothing but a makeshift weapon, he began patrolling his neighborhood to fight against people who abused their power. His dream of being a Symbol of Peace was a result of him wanting to do good. Even when Nana tells him that he’d be extremely limited in how much he can contribute without a quirk, he still doesn’t waver, in fact claiming that normal people are “protecting their three meters area” and that he feels obligated to do so himself. This line of thinking is very similar to how Izuku feels as well, which further emphasizes the point on why All Might chose him as the next successor of OFA. We also get a great fight scene where All Might is able to damage AFO significantly using only his grit, determination, and support gear, which finally grants the audience on an answer regarding whether a quirkless person can be a hero. Sure, All Might’s power suit is probably expensive as hell, but the fact that he’s able to damage AFO, the guy who literally pulls quirks out of his ass to adapt to whatever Hori needs him to do, is a great showing. The line that All Might says about “protecting his 3 meters” also tells us that the quirkless can still function as underground heroes if need be. Finally, at the end of the day, this is meant to show how All Might’s answer regarding his signature “everyone can be a hero” line has come full circle. Prior to getting OFA, his answer would’ve been “yes”, claiming that even though they might not be able to handle certain threats, they could still protect people at a street level. After meeting AFO, the man who killed his mentor and crippled him for life, he loses sight of the bigger picture, how someone can still be a hero even though they can’t fight someone as powerful as AFO. Now, we see that with the aid of technology and having allies (Stain serving this purpose here), he can still stand up against AFO while remembering his humble roots.

Another thing I like about this chapter is that we see the true extent of All Might’s willpower. We see how he was still willing to fight even when he was bloodied and unable to use his lower body. He’s the (former) Number 1 hero for many reasons, and it’s not just because of his power. Here we see that on full display.

Now, I do have a nitpick about this chapter and it’s one that kinda ties into an issue I have with MHA as a whole. During the fight, All Might’s power suit “mimics” the abilities of 1-A’s quirks. This is meant to be seen as a fact that 1-A has inspired All Might to keep fighting. On paper, this would seem like a nice nod in showing how both 1-A (kids beginning their hero journeys) and All Might (who has technically ended his) have caused each other to grow. The issue I have is that we don’t really see 1-A and All Might have a heart to heart moment. All Might has really only consistently interacted with two of the students, Izuku (his mentee) and Katsuki (ew). Obviously he’s going to have a lot more moments with Izuku due to OFA, but there’s never really a scene where All Might gets to bond with 1-A. It’s kind of just implied. In a similar vein, Shota’s supposedly very attached to 1-A, but this isn’t something we see all too much. He has one real moment of teaching, which is when he and Izuku talk during the Overhaul Arc, but outside of that, we get almost nothing. Yeah, Ms. Joke mentions how he didn’t expel all of them like he did with his previous classes, but Hori goes on to retcon that by stating he only suspended his previous classes, making this moment feel out of place. Basically what I’m getting at here is that the relationships between the students and teachers are touted as this “big thing” but we get little to no showings as to why this is. In the instance of the reveal that All Might “copied” his students quirks, it’s nowhere near as emotional as it could’ve been. I’m not saying that a lot of time needs to be spent on developing said relationships, but one or two instances where Hori actually shows us the teachers bonding with the students instead of telling us about their bond would’ve elevated this scene to be much more impactful than it is now. Also, when I mean “show”, I mean actually show us in present tense, not in flashbacks that happen right before/after something happens. Flashbacks are a great tool when used properly but good god does Hori abuse flashbacks more than he has Katsuki abuse Izuku.

In conclusion, while it could’ve been more emotionally powerful if Hori developed the relationship between 1-A and the teachers more, quirkless All Might vs AFO is another Hori W, easily being one of the best written moments to come out of MHA.

[gwydionae]

King's Quest Fan Remakes

After talking about them a bit recently, I felt compelled to play through the old KQ fan remakes (1-3 from AGDI and 3 from IA), and I wanted to share my more in depth thoughts for anyone interested in these love letters to the original games.

King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown Remake from AGD Interactive

A lovely update to the original! While clearly the least polished of AGDI's offerings, it's nice to be able to play KQ1 with KQ5-style graphics and voice acting (the original voice of Graham, Josh Mandel, voices him in all four of the games in this post, ftr). There is an option to turn off any chance of softlocking yourself before you even start the game, which is a welcome feature. Puzzle-wise, this one stays the most faithful to the original out of the three from AGDI with a few updates here and there (like that stupid name puzzle! lol). The vocal performances and sound effects can be a bit fuzzy, but I found them enjoyable nonetheless.

Overall a solid fan remake with limited extra bells and whistles!

King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones from AGDI

Easily the most ambitious of the three from AGDI. Pretty much all of the core elements from KQ1 are further polished here - artwork, acting, music, and sound effects. The story and puzzles, however, have been changed enough that the end product is sizably different from the original. In some cases, this is fun and interesting (more lore and character interactions! new and unique puzzles!), but not everyone will enjoy all the changes. I, for example, find the underwater section kind of fun, but the new content around the count... not so much (for reasons I'll avoid due to spoilers, but know they're more mechanical than anything). There's less freedom in when you can do things, the added story making the game far more linear than it originally was. But then I'm sure many would agree that if any KQ game could do with extra content, it'd be 2, so I can't fault them swinging for the fences, even if not every hit was a home run.

All in all, this version of KQ2 doesn't really work if you're simply looking to experience the original game with updated graphics, but it's a fun playthrough nonetheless, and newcomers might enjoy the added lore/story bits. Just be aware that I could probably sum up the original game's story in about two sentences while this one would take far longer. XD

King's Quest III: To Heir is Human Redux from AGDI

If KQ1 wasn't fully polished and KQ2 was a little overworked, then KQ3 is juuuuuust right! (For anyone who knows the game, yes, this is a purposeful pun. XD) The graphics, sounds, music, vocal performances - all are the best yet (though still with some minor hiccups as any fan game is wont to have - the music was sadly cutting out during the climactic sequence for me). It even has a neat little feature where the timer changes color depending on how close you are to being zapped into oblivion that is not only useful but adds a sense of urgency in it's own way (especially if you forgot the item that makes travel a lot easier for like 2 meals I mean what lol). While it does carry over some of the story threads from AGDI's second entry, this game still works well enough on it's own, with the majority of the new content being added in naturally rather than supplanting whole sections of the original. In fact, personally speaking, I think the added content only enhances the game, your encounters with Medusa and the yeti especially getting a nice boost. And the extra lore only helps you feel for the protagonists plight all the more. The ending is a bit drawn out, perhaps, and I may not agree with the order you're supposed to choose the four items in to get the treasure (insert rant here XD), but those are minor nitpicks at best.

This is easily the best of the three, AGDI having perfected their KQ formula at this point. It works as a remake of the original while still adding in a bit of new content that doesn't feel unwelcome. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in giving the King's Quest series a try.

King's Quest III: To Heir is Human Remake from Infamous Adventures

Look. I know that it's not as impressive as AGDI's version. The time limit is laughably long, the spells are impossible to mess up, and some of the clickable areas can be a bit wonky. But I really like this version, ok?? I like the design and voice of Gwydion, I like the storybook quality that the cutscene art has, I like that it feels lonely when it should. And as much as some of the changes in AGDI's version were really nice, I like that it's basically just the original game without extra stuff added in.

This is like AGDI's KQ1 - a really solid remake of a game that gives you the feel of the original but with an updated interface and graphics. It's not as impressive as the one above, but it doesn't have to be. The original KQ3 is an awesome game, so an update of just that can't be bad. It can easily be played as a standalone game, and I will continue recommending this version 'til I die, lol.

[laithraihan]

I'm the anon who sent you the long message that apparently came off "pompous & infantilizing" and more to your followers.

I find it interesting that that message sparked such a flood of defenders, when I did not send it in bad faith at all. From your answer it seems I'm lacking context so sorry if I took some of your statements the wrong way, but nonetheless I just found the parental love addition strange and reacted to that, that was all there was to it. I clearly stated (three times) I'm not taking any issue with your headcanons.

By saying they are far removed from canon I did not mean to say they are "too unrealistic" or something is wrong with that, I literally said the opposite. I meant just that, that factually, this will not be a common interpretation for someone who is familiar with the source material but not your blog. This is not a statement that I made with any judgemental value and I thought I made that very clear but apparently not.

So I'm sorry for the additional ask.

Have a nice day.

Thank you for the response.

I was fully aware you said there was no issue with what I drew, but the way you wrote everything else sort of negated that statement. At least that's how me and many other people saw it.

If someone finds what I drew strange or confusing then they could always just... block me or ask me about it (and btw I expected people to be confused, otherwise I wouldnt have labeled it "non-coupling" as soon I posted it lol)

Someone did ask me about it, and you seem to have already seen that response, yet you still felt the need to send another message basically implying that an explanation wasn't enough (turns out it actually wasnt enough because people said I was lying and in denial) and that my explanation was weird too? Which is whatever I already ended up clarifying that, English is not my first language and I type things with the help of a translator (I wish people could actually keep this in mind. I only type in English because it'll reach a wider audience and it's the language most of my followers know. Often I have to google words people tell me online, or I ask my friends fluent in English to explain things for me)

You can say "that's not what I intended" but that's how it came across... you wrote a lot of nice words while also saying it was understandable that people were ganging up on me over a drawing, it seemed patronizing.

That's why me and others took offense to it, but I think it's difficult to tell tone through text so I don't want to keep nitpicking this any further. If you say you had no ill intent then I believe you.

The following will just be me adding more context and not necessarily aimed at you: Again I understand the lack of context of my account can make people confused about my art, Ive made that clear many times.

The art I made where I said "if your parents didnt love you then it's obvious" was a direct response to people who were mocking me specifically for tagging the art as "non-coupling" because they didnt believe me. They got the context and decided I was trying to hide a fetish because a kiss on the cheek was "obviously shippy". They proceeded to compare this to drawing NSFW of Mob and Reigen by labelling it "non-ship" as if it was comparable to tucking a child into bed, that's what upset me. I did absolutely nothing to these people, I dont know them, if they said this privately I wouldnt care but it was public, and they also targeted another friend of mine for no reason.

All Im gonna say is that my drawing shouldnt have caused this much controversy in the first place. I labeled it "non-coupling" as soon as I posted it, which should've been enough honestly. It's not like I posted porn or anything like that, I got the idea from something Ive experienced in my family as a teenager and I could easily google stock images of the exact same scenario to use as reference, like I really didnt think it was that bad.

Anyways I think I've explained myself many times already. Im not gonna be hostile and say to people "roh t9awed dont ever send me anything else related to this" but just.. check if Ive already answered your question so that it doesnt end up being repetitive. If you have a question about this that I havent answered yet, then feel free to ask.

[dust-jacket-analysis]

So this post is for Day Five of Freakblr Month, and I'm putting it on here because I just KNOW it's gonna be a long one. One I may end up getting analytical with. Sorry for being late lol, and without further adieu:

Likes:

Now, I will say, Jake is one of my favorite characters. In my top five for sure. I think he just has a wonderful storyline and great character development.

I have been in a Jake type situation before. Torn between two friends, not wanting to choose, but having to. I relate heavily to it. Jake learning how his attempts to stay neutral really just hurt everyone in the situation is so well done.

I like him realizing that just because he cares about Drew and all of them, doesn't mean he can excuse their actions and let them hurt his other friends. I

His arc of not only knowing that he's been wrong to not say anything, to actually doing something about it, it's amazing. It's the way I aspire to be.

I also like how he actually owned up to his actions, and apologized for real. So often in media we see the main character do something wrong, be sad about it, and the side characters end up being the ones who have to apologize. For being upset, even if it's justified. So to see Jake be the one to fight for them, and to apologize. To see an MC actually be accountable? It's great, and so refreshing.

Finally, I really like Jake's humor. He's actually really fucking funny. And a lot of his lines make me chuckle to myself. Witty Jake is best Jake.

Dislikes:

So...

Jake is quite a flawed character. So there are a lot of things I could probably nitpick and find to say for this category. But at the root of it all, the thing I dislike most about Jake (and a lot of characters int he series, but this is about Jake rn), is his lack of communication.

I love this boy, but he is unable to healthily communicate for shit.

He constantly pushes down his own wants and needs, his own feelings. All in favor of trying to make others happy. To attempt to keep peace.

The issue is, this only causes Jake himself to build a slow resentment towards the people around him. We see it when he explodes at Drew during the Drakeup. That slow building anger at Drew, for something he didn't even realize was an issue for Jake. (Parallel to Drew, and his slow building resentment to Jake for abandoning him, but we're not talking about that rn).

So by attempting to disregard his own feelings to make others feel better, he only intensifies those more minor feelings and ends up lashing out on the very people he sought to keep happy.

And as someone who hates, dare I say despises the miscommunication trope, this frustrates me too now end. I am constantly wanting to reach through the screen and shake the boy into speaking his mind. Into expressing how he actually feels.

Part of the reason this frustrates me, is because I see so much of my past self in him. Bits of my future self. I know personally that not communicating properly not only harms yourself, but the people around you. It serves no one.

As we can see, I'm extremely passionate about this particular subject. So much so that I probably will make a whole sperate post about just that subject.

[chronothread]

On Cloud Nine

…. …. .. ..

No no no…busy busy. No time for that.

Time for what? For that of course, you know what it is, I mean you’re…you. No time for that. There’s so much to do, so many threads to follow. So many loose ends to tie up, I have a duty to fulfill after all. Still have to take care of my mother, and follow up on the other houses. And I need to give Gale my notes, the web goes further than we thought. And I need to figure out the specifics of the wedding this spring-oh Fury my dress! Gale cannot see that, not supposed to see it before it and…Twelve they are going to nitpick every detail at the altar aren’t they? And I need to feed…I need to…

….. 

.. .. …. … … .. ..

. .. …..  ….. . ..

… … …. .. ….. .. … ..

What? No…don’t be ridiculous. I’m still here, aren’t I? True enough I’ve always been prone to injury but…I always bounce back quickly. It’s why I’ve always been so successful on the field. Easy to break, but quick to put back together you know? Pull me out of one battlefield, give me my sword and shield back and stick me into another one, ready to do Halone’s will. And I am ready, I am willing and I am able to do that. I’m useful, truly! I can do good, I am doing good. There are yet lives to save and…

……  … … ……. ….. .. … …..  … ….. …. … ….

…    ….. …. … …. .. ….. …….

… ….. … … .. .. … …….?

But I…I can’t. I’ve made a mess of things. I’ve left it all unfinished. What about Gale?! I can’t leave them! I’ve made a mess of their life and I’ve caused them so…so much trouble. Gods…I’ve made them more miserable than even the Holy See has. What have I done? What have I done?! And now I…now you’re telling me to leave them? After all I’ve done? The least I can do is stick around so they can yell at me! The least I can do is answer for everything that I’ve done! They deserve the time to scream, to shout, to punch and kick and hate me! 

I…I can’t be dying. I can’t. I have to be there for them. Whatever happens. To the bitter end. I made them promise! And I…I wouldn’t make them promise anything I wouldn’t do. So that means I have to do it, it’s a knight’s oath. I don’t break my oaths I…

……  …. ….  … …. …. …. ….. … …. …..

… …    .. .. … …

… … …… …. ….

.. … …… …

I…I’m afraid.

For Gale. How are they going to make it without me? There are so many out there…scavengers swarming, waiting to make carrion out of them. I won’t be around to protect them anymore. I can’t clear their path. I can’t be their shield. 

I can’t be their comfort.

.. … ….. ….?

What? Of course! More than anyone else in the world.

…. …. …. .. ….

…. …….. … ….. …

…I’m sorry Gale. I wanted to grow old with you. Fight and die alongside you. Forever be frustrated with you. Loved you, kissed you. Protected you.

……. ….. ….. …… ….?

….. …. … … ……… …..

I…I suppose you’re right. Then…maybe I can smile. And be happy.

I think…I won’t be so busy anymore from here on out.

Can you please just give me a few more moments. So I can say goodbye?

Of course. I’ll give you as long as you need.

——————————————————————————————————

“...cien”

“Lu…en”

“Lucien!”

I feel something warm on my skin, on my stomach. Was that…a sword? Two? Why wasn’t it painful?

“Hey…hey! Wake up, stay with me sweetheart, okay? You…you lost a lot of blood but I have some potions left. Just stay awake. Because…b-because um…s-s-sideffects if y-you’re asleep. Y-yeah!”

It’s cold. I never really liked the cold here Coerthas. In Ishgard. 

A little warm on my face…what’s that on my cheeks?

…oh. Gale. Crying? I can’t have that.

“Is…that…you, Gale?”

“Ah…uh, y-yes! Yes it’s me Lucien. I’m here, I-I’m here!”

“Can you…come closer? Finding it…difficult. To be loud.”

“N-nonsense, Lucien y-you should really rest hahaha…i-it’s for your own good, recovery. So don’t worry, I-I’ll take care of everything you just rest a-and keep your eyes-”

“Gale.”

I hate cutting them off. But they talk too much sometimes. I want to hear them, but they always get up in their own head. Especially when it comes to goodbyes. They hate goodbyes.

“...yeah. Lucien. I’m here.”

“Good…good. Listen, for me…please?”

Ah…that’s better, I can see them. Did I take a dive in the snow? So…cold. But I guess…it’s not so bad when they lean in to kiss me like that. Their kiss is warm, and their embrace. Always so warm…

“I’ve gotten…many things wrong. In my life.”

“But here, at…at the end…”

“It’s not the-”

“Here…Gale. At the end…with…you?”

“I’ve never been so…happy…”

“To be wrong…about my purpose…”

“And to be right…about you…”

I raise my hand and hold their cheek, and I give them a smile. How happy I am to know…that they’re okay. I don’t remember my arm being so heavy.

“Learn…to smile again. No more tears.”

“I always loved seeing you smile."

I feel their hand on mine. I…

It’s warm.

[twilightknight17]

The Promised Day - Part 3

Man, I left this for a while. God. Too much to do, too little time, and work is fucking exhausting. But let’s talk about the ending, finally.

Where last we stood, the Great Seal was cast, and everything faded to white.

Probably the closest any of you will ever get to seeing the Sea of Souls.

It’s crushing, how upset they are that everyone made it but one person. Honestly, I get the sense that any number of casualties would have been too much. This was an all-or-nothing fight. It was supposed to be that everyone goes home, or no one does.

But no, the one person they lost was their leader. In the end, there was nothing they could do.

…….it’s not the Sea of Souls, it’s the Universe. Oh god. Of course he can hear them.

Stop talking like you and Nyx are the same. T_T You’re not!

He does sound proud of them, though.

SEES is returned to the front of the school, Tartarus dissolves into light, and Minato walks out of the now-normal building so that everyone can hug him and cry all over him. If I didn’t know how this ends, I’d be really mad about ten minutes from now.

I do like that, after the timeskip, this version of the ending starts the exact same way as the other one, since they still don’t have their memories in this version.

Man oh man am I popular, though. This isn’t even all my social links, and look how many people want to talk to me!

It’s morbidly hilarious that this game literally started the trend of “walk around and talk to everyone the day before the ending”, but Minato’s the only modern protag who wasn’t going to leave. Not by choice, anyway.

You and your girlfriend can’t both have amnesia, my guy. Get it together.

We find out that Kenji is excited because apparently there are going to be three new teachers next year, and they’re all hot. So he has learned nothing. Lots of social links sent letters, because the end of their link was literally them leaving town.

(Minato wasn’t going to leave, everyone else was. Inverse Persona ending. X’’’D)

The Gourmet King is gone (no tears here). Maiko’s dad says she’s doing well but also says I’m absolutely not allowed to marry her. We’re able to give Akinari’s mom the notebook with his story in it. Mamoru and Kaz are doing fine. Bebe, tragically, has decided not to come back to Japan right away. He’s gonna stay with his uncle for a while so they can grieve his aunt together.

Ms. Toriumi is taking the accidental revelation that I’m her MMO buddy very well.

God I laughed so hard.

All the cats I saved from Tartarus are vibing in the back alley!

I think I saved eight total? I wonder if there’s more. Secret cat ending. Fill the whole alley.

And…

...can I listen to my music box now? Please. T_T

As Mitsuru makes her graduation speech, SEES starts to remember, and rushes for the roof, where Aigis and Minato are already skipping the ceremony.

That’s a long time.

I ended up dating Aigis just because I actually maxed her link, and I think the only other girl I maxed was Yuko? Maybe? And Maya, but that wasn’t a romance option, which I still think is weird.

So, the credits. They, uh, didn’t have to do that. Like, it’s brilliant. Having his silhouette sinking deeper and deeper and gradually fading away to represent him doing the same. He vanishes completely and only then does it end, and we get to see SEES reach the roof just barely too late. Beautifully done, Atlus, I started tearing up, how dare you. X’D

And then the main menu is no longer the Dark Hour.

So, overall, other than some nitpicks, I think this was a really solid game. But as a modern remake of a preexisting game, I think they could have gone further. Why NOT just make your male teammates possible social links? Why NOT include Hamuko? Why NOT include The Answer with the base game? Why lie and say you want the “core” (read: original base game) P3 experience, but then add new things?

Why make Ryoji tell you he wants to be more than friends and then not give you a third dialogue option?!?!?

(I know the answer is money. It’s always money. I am just salty.)

But I could forgive more of that if they hadn’t nerfed the final boss. I did some googling, and pinpointed some other things about the Nyx Avatar fight that didn’t line up. Before, he could attack twice per turn. This one can’t. They gave the Death Arcana an extra thousand health, but the old version automatically took half-damage from EVERYTHING except almighty. They took away Moonless Gown, and therefore took away his ability to become invulnerable. Apocalypse can reduce your HP to 1%, but if he’s not attacking twice per turn, someone always has time to heal, so who even cares?

(Shoutout to the Fandom wiki for being like, “It is strongly encouraged to heal when it uses this skill”. No shit, guys. Wow.)

And yeah, they buffed his spells up a level, but ultimately, all the things that might have actually made the boss genuinely hard got nerfed.

It kind of sucks. They gave him a cool new color scheme for the final arcana and then weakened him. Why even.

Anyway, gonna do NG+ on hard mode to finish all social links and the compendium, and also probably going to do something really stupid like solo the Avatar with my level 99 Minato and Thanatos just for giggles.

Because hell yeah. :D

[seeingteacupsindragons]

I saw your post about line editing and I hope it’s okay for me to sneak in here ☺️ (I’m not sure if this question completely qualifies …)

Do you have any advice for someone who is a serial edit-as-they-go-er? I really struggle not to stop every page or so and go back through it with a fine comb and line edit, and sometimes I think this hinders progress, although others I find it gives me more motivation to continue when I know I’m happier with what I’ve just written.

The problem is, every time I have to break from writing for more than a few hours, I then have to reread when I return, and I just can’t seem to manage a reread without tinkering with things.

I still go back and do a further edit once the full thing is written, of course, but editing as I go is a serious habit of mine and I’d love to be able to try writing a full piece without doing so until the draft is done 🤦🏼‍♀️

Well, I mean, I do edit as I go. Sometimes you need to. Sometimes "that bit right here isn't right, and it's throwing off my ability to get back into the story and write, so I'm going to redo it and it's going to be better and the bumps will even out."

And, sometimes I just realize that whole plot point isn't going anywhere and I just cut it early before getting to involved trying to figure it out. Also helpful.

That said, things like Scrivener and Word's "Pick up where you left off" are helpful for this. Scrivener saves the scene I was working on and opens right back up to it. Word's thing just scrolls me right back down to where I was. So I don't have to scroll/re-read/trying to figure out where I was. I'm just there now, and there's less I'm staring over to start picking at.

But if you don't have a function like that on your word processor, and you still find you're spending more time fussing with word choices than actually moving the story forward, then there's a few things you can try:

Make notes of where you left the scene and what the plan is when you close it. Again, Scrivener makes this easy by attaching a "notes" section to each scene, but you can just put it in a weird font or color where you left off. Therefore, when you open the thing again, you're not trying to figure out what to do or noodling around refamiliarizing yourself with the project and where you were. You have a little summary right there from yourself

Writing warmups. I find a lot of the nitpicking editing at the start of a writing session is because you're easing into the writing session. That's fine and good, and the line-editing is a low-key way to remind yourself you know how words work and get back into the writing mindset. So if you open up a different document and just free write some completely new nonsense or do a little scene practice or writing exercise, then you might be able to stave off the editing. And you get practice doing a weird thing or stretching some writing muscles or end up with a new story idea or scene to use later. You might have to time yourself on these to not get too wrapped up in them

Also why would it not be okay for you to send me an ask? O_o

[biilssst]

Nitpicking, Lily talking about Steven universe again?

for those who don’t know Lily Orchard made a video call Steven universe is garbage and here’s why. For myself, I would say it’s was probably OK but I had problems with it that I couldn’t help but keep thinking about until several videos and forms talking about why her video on Steven universe is actually kind of flaw going from not really knowing exactly how productions work to just really not really getting the LGBT themes of the show. but at the very end of all of this, I don’t really hate that. Lily made a video talking about Steven universe but apparently she really hates it when people are talking about her video and stating that it’s bad because of biases against her or just straight up making up stuff like the show creator being affiliated with World War II Germany. Yes, it interesting conversation to have. I most likely going talking about a small part of a much more bigger picture heck this small part might not even be finished or might even and will get more attach to it as time goes on but I feel that I want to talk about this mostly because it’s interesting and relatively speaking I didn’t really have a problem with Lily for almost nearly a month mostly until now she decide to talk about Steven universe and to be fair she did change it’s just at the changes kind of boring.

So, without any further, do let’s nitpick lily talking about pearl from Steven universe

All right, we start things off of an analogy mind you I don’t think having a treadmill for character is overall a bad thing. you can argue that their story should end with them getting off of it, or trying to find a center of peace, then Lily says “man you know that one episode that you guys like and that song well I don’t like it. No not one bit you guys may like it and may have your exclamations about it but you know there’s this other episode that I like and you know it’s like a lot more deeper by like a lot and a lot more grounded and it doesn’t have all these lights and anime stuff all around it” and that’s where I feel like a boil down most of it

And I’m gonna be honest here, reading all of this this is pretty meh really this comes across as “I don’t really like the flow of a Steven universe episode where they spend a little bit more time setting up the thing and then they immediately pay it off and I don’t like it did I say I don’t like it yeah I don’t like it” and in all honesty this criticism is the most meh thing I’ve ever read and it’s probably the main reason I’m probably not gonna read any more of Lily stuff because it’s just gonna be a boring massive mess meh. A lot of it is the exact same thing that she talked about in the video where she doesn’t like that one of the main aspects of pearl is that she talks about Rose a lot, but there’s so many other aspects to her character outside of that I’m genuinely bored and wondering what is the point of this hardly any of it is new it’s just the exact same thing but more.

[scribby-wibby]

I just completed The Talos Principle 2 100%, so it's time for an unsolicited review of the game. Bottom line(s) up front: I enjoyed this game and some of the narrative features that could be seen as "flaws" really helped characterize the world. There are a few things that I would nitpick though, given that it's a more character-driven game than its predecessor yet there are inconsistencies and a lot of moments that made me roll my eyes or dislike a character outside of the game's intentions.

More thoughts under the cut.

Starting with the good stuff:

The puzzles were far more streamlined than Talos 1, and while the difficulty was lowered, the learning curve was far smoother. Talos 1 started with very basic puzzles and then very quickly ramped up the difficulty and stayed like that for the rest of the game. Talos 2's puzzle progression was wonderfully linear (except for a few puzzles here and there which would be stupidly easy), with the first area having simple puzzles that can be solved in under 30 seconds, to the golden puzzles being the hardest in the game. I never used the flame mechanic (though heavily considered for one of the gold puzzles, Thrust Vector, which I had to redo three times because I couldn't run fast enough), but I think it is a good addition. It takes away some of the frustration for people who might be able to solve all the puzzles but are particularly struggling with just a few. 

The plot line felt complete and complex, with meaningful endings. I read another review here that mentioned that the dialogue fell flat as if the authors were trying to tell you their viewpoints rather than letting you figure out your own, as there weren't dialogue options to argue against ideologies. While I am a radical humanist, and enjoy a lot of Jonas Kyratzes' work, there were still some viewpoints (Miranda's in particular, which I found extremely childish and benign) I disagreed with. Unlike the first game, where you could argue and present evidence for and against claims with Milton, this game only lets you agree or disengage. It might come off as ostensibly lazy writing, but the fact that you can't argue with some of the characters helps characterize the functions of this new society. There is a terminal you can access in the interactive fiction exhibit called "Argument Simulator" that explains this exact thing. The simulator is an endless loop of "you're wrong because x" and the only way to escape is by selecting "let's find something we can agree on". The citizens of New Jerusalem have founded their society on the tenants of respect. Even characters with different views like Byron and Al are close friends because disagreement is not arguing against an idea, but choosing not to further it. I do wish there were more dialogue options for exploring character's viewpoints though (especially Yaqut, whose character I didn't fully understand except as someone confused about different ideologies and in staunch agreement with Miranda).

The small things in this game really made it stand out. The cat photos in Milton's rest, the text adventures in the Interactive Fiction exhibit, and especially the somnodrome plot line. The concept of the robots not being able to access their source code and creating a machine to circumvent said blackbox makes for a good side quest, even if it has little impact on the main story. Tom Jubert wrote the dialogue for Milton in the first game, and seeing a similar dialogue style in your chat with MILTOHIM was a cool throwback to the first game.

Now for the things I didn't enjoy:

The Theory of Everything plot point had no foreshadowing or lead-in, making it very difficult to conflate three-fourths of the way through the game. Let me clarify that I don't mean that it felt like a cop-out or retconned, just poorly introduced. In the lost labs, you can view updates on the experiment, but these are useless since they don't explain anything. Just "lack of power" or "unstable infrastructure". There isn't anything substantial that clues the player into the fact that what Athena is trying to solve is basically the universal equation. So when the game reveals The Theory of Everything, the player has to suspend a lot of disbelief. Furthermore, none of the other characters seem shocked enough by this, and you cannot engage them in conversation beyond their initial thoughts. Putting in a few extra files that show some preliminary research or philosophical texts on the "theory of everything" would have helped relieve this issue. 

The maps. Holy fucking shit why were they so large. I can understand that the developers wanted to create vivid landscapes and give the game an open-world feel, but there was just way too much running around. It quickly became annoying. The Prometheus stars (and really all the stars, to be honest) were more exhausting and tedious than challenging. At least this is consistent with the insanity of stars in Talos 1, where some of the stars were nearly impossible unless employing sheer luck or trial and error. 

The whole Athena, Miranda, and Cornelius storyline was just weird. I mean, Athena gets tired of people treating her like a prophet and the citizen's self-hatred, so instead of dealing with it naturally or listening to Byron (who warns her of the citizens' nihilism in a memory), she runs away to start a nuclear family? She then has a daughter (which I will discuss later in my confusion about why the robots have gender, or at least conform to some aspects of it without any explanation.) who Cornelius and her infantilize (even though we know that the concept of "children '' doesn't exist in New Jerusalem, as per a conversation with Yaqut, which makes sense given you are born with the same capacities as everyone else). She then acts surprised when the person she treated like her child, acts childish and blows herself up. This is never elaborated on, instead, Cornelius theorizes that Miranda thought herself above death as she perceived some special purpose in her design, likely a symptom of not being raised in society. Again, this might be nitpicky, but I was weirded out by the whole thing. 

This segues into my next nitpicky point: the robots are somewhat gendered, and it's never shown how or why? I get it, you're going, "Oh boy, another trans person is complaining about an innocuous detail in a game because it didn't match their viewpoint", but it's just strange that the game goes into detail about menial things like Atal and his cat, or the dome, or even Helga's whole shop for which she re-invented the concept of money, but doesn't explain this one reoccurring detail? We know that the robots can choose their name (shown when Byron explains that he named himself after Robert Byron, not Lord Byron), and their voice pack (shown when Ovis mentions that they can switch to Alexanda's voice and say whatever), but not this? Most likely their pronouns just come with their voice pack, and can be changed at will, but it would be cool to have some confirmation or discussion. The player character is also referred to as he/him and with the name 1k throughout the game, and you never get a chance to ask why. I know, I know, this is not a very salient point of dislike. It's just odd that the game discusses so many aspects of what makes society, but doesn't explain an extremely benign factor that heavily dichotomized the preceding society. But whatever, this didn't hinder my enjoyment of the game. 

Overall, Talos 2 was an amazing game and a worthy sequel to the first game. It has its shortcomings, but I was blown away by the game's ingenuity, both from a writing and design perspective. If anyone else has any other insights or opinions on the gameplay and storyline, I would love to hear them. Great game, 9.8/10. 

[pianostarinwonderland]

Little Mermaid Live Action Opinions

Hey guys! I don't usually watch much movies, nor have I ever written any opinions about it. And on Tumblr of all places. 🧍

However, as an Octavinelle stan and in particular an Azul stan, I really wanted to watch this movie and talk about it here. Here's a disclaimer that these are all my opinions, and you are free to agree or disagree with me. You can also argue or discuss with me about the movie, as long as we keep things civil. :>>

The bulk of my thoughts shall be under the cut for people to scroll past this post easily if they want to. But tl;dr, I can see why there are mixed opinions about the movie. Some said it was good, some disliked it. When the movie released, I was pretty surprised that there wasn't much discussion on my timeline. Which I'm not complaining about, because that made avoiding 'spoilers' really easy. But it also meant that the reactions must have been really mixed. Little Mermaid was not bad enough that it garnered so much dissatisfaction, but it also wasn't the masterpiece that got people celebrating on the streets.

Now personally for me, I think I enjoyed the movie. I cried three times. There were a lot of good things that I think they did pretty well, but I also found things that I disliked or nitpicked. I will add, though, that I watched the movie without having watched the animated sequel and prequel in full and only really heard and seen bits and pieces of other Little Mermaid material (i.e. how some comics mention Ursula as Triton's sister, how the prequel delved into Ariel's mom).

To make this post a lot more organized, I'll divide it into 4 parts that will be found under the cut:

Main Things I Liked

Small Things I Liked

Nitpicks

Main Dislikes

Main Things I Liked

The first thing I want to mention is Ariel's character. For me, she's the best thing that the movie had. Now I want to make this distinction early on that I'm not really referring to Halle's acting, I'm referring to how Ariel is characterized in the live action.

Her desire to go up to the surface and live in the human world is not only kept but also more focused on. I love that we get to really see her curious nature even more, I love how adventurous she is, I love how much she explores the human world more than she did in the animated movie. I love that her love for the human world felt palpable. Somehow, I felt like I connected to her more because the movie really took the time to pace itself to really show her fascination and desire for the land in the smallest things: from how she was looking around nature to her exploring the markets.

A big part of why that happened is because Ursula attached a spell to her that made her forget that she had to kiss Prince Eric (which I have many words about later on). Don't get me wrong, I really really love that in the animated movie, Ariel would do anything to stay on land, which meant fulfilling her end of the deal and getting to know Eric and getting him to like her. But I also love that we really get to see why and how she loves the human world. It was always clear from the animated movie, but it was further expounded on here.

I also absolutely love that she felt the weight of her choices. OG Ariel did for sure, but I found that the live action Ariel really felt it. They added a new song to show that ("Realize the price that you paid with your voice as he turns away from you"). Personally, I liked that touch.

Another thing that I love is Eric's character. He has a more palpable fondness for traveling and voyaging and adventure than in the animated movie. He collects things from the sea just as Ariel collects things from the land. It adds not only so much more to him as a person but also adds a dynamic to their relationship that is sweet and really allowed it to bloom more naturally.

I also love how he was more desperate to find the 'mystery girl who saved him'. He'd send out carriages to find her. He'd willingly go back out to sea to find her. He even had a song about it, which while I don't particularly love it, the fact that he got his own 'I want' song really makes me happy because it solidifies that his personality is definitely getting more fleshed out through the establishment of his wants. It's very reminiscent of the original prince in Hans Christian Andersen's story.

Also, I'm personally weak to the trope of 'free spirit who wants to go out but is trapped by an authority figure', and giving Eric that makes me feel some type of way. It's also my favorite part of Ariel's character, and for him to have that adds a flavor to him and his relationship with her.

Speaking of, I just love Ariel and Eric's relationship development. The scene where the two of them were in Eric's room, that was really cute because they really bonded over Eric's collection of underwater items. Ariel got to share her culture through the little things, like the rock and the shell, Eric shared to her his love for the sea and his knowledge of the world. They really bonded, and I ate that.

I also love how we see in more depth their exploration around the places Eric showed her on the map, as well as the dancing they did, and the famous boat ride they had together. And as small as it is, I absolutely adored Ariel putting that hat over Eric. It was so cute, it was a really sweet gesture that communicated a kind of fondness that words didn't have to be there to say. Even when she was mute, Eric really liked her for her, and I really ate that shit up.

Now some might disagree with me when I say this, but I personally found that Ariel and Triton's relationship felt stronger, at least conceptually speaking. I say conceptually speaking because the acting didn't execute it well enough in the most emotional moments, which is something I'll go over later. But in terms of concept and the story of their relationship itself, it felt a little stronger.

But I love the tensions they had and especially how they brought up Ariel's mom often. Triton brings up how his wife died thanks to humans, and Ariel would argue how her mom would feel seeing him now. That was yummy.

Something that really shocked me (heh) was that they actually let Triton. die. Like. Right in front of us. He got electrocuted in exchange for Ariel's freedom. And he just. died. Like. Damn Disney. He didn't even get turned to a polyp, the man just died and sunk to the bottom of the sea if it meant his daughter could live. That was crazy.

And personally, I cried at the end when he met Ariel and Eric. At the part where Triton gave Ariel her legs for real, I was already breaking from that because as he gave her what she wanted, he looked sorrowful, but he did it anyway. I felt that. And in the end, when he talked to her, that tenderness and that father's love for his daughter while also trusting that she can now take care of herself and she knows what she wants? As well as saying that he'll support her? And also the way he says, “You shouldn’t have had your voice taken away for me to hear you”? 🤠 I'm glad they didn't take that closure out from the original animated movie and that they made it better.

In terms of music, I need to dedicate an entire part to Part of Your World. I am very emotional about Part of Your World. The two times I cried was because of it. I love how Halle sings the song, especially the middle part. When it gets to the "I wanna be where the people are", I tear up. There's something with the way she sings it. There's this longing that she's able to convey that tugs at my heart so bad that causes me to cry. Ariel's desire, her longing, it's so palpable that it really makes me want to root for her, to watch her be part of the human world.

A huge part of the emotions as well is knowing fully well how much Part of Your World has changed the world. Part of Your World changed the landscape of music and Disney. The reason why the Disney Renaissance started is because Howard Ashman was looking at musicals and thought, "What if we bring in the concept of the 'I want' song to this movie?" Part of Your World is the first 'I want' song in Disney and it's so successful because it makes the audience connect with Ariel and her desires and thus they want to root for her.

And I just get emotional hearing 1989 Part of Your World and 2023 Part of Your World. Times change but the magic of this song continues to last, and I love it.

Lastly, something I really like was the way Ursula introduced herself to Ariel. In the movie, she's Ariel's aunt, and she initially fulfills that role. She mentions how Triton banished her and how she ends up suffering, and connects her experiences with Ariel's, how her life is getting controlled by the same person. "You and I are alike." And I absolutely love that she makes Ariel feel like she can trust her auntie because she supposedly went through a similar struggle. This way, it also shows off Ursula's brilliance in manipulating her.

To summarize this part, generally I found that the main protagonists felt stronger as characters. Ariel and Eric in particular for me were the best parts of the movie.

Small Things I Liked

This part is more on things like the music, the voices, the tiny little moments and additions that I like in the live action.

Something that got me really weak on the knees was Eric's way of guessing Ariel's name. He was showing her constellations because as a traveler, he'd need to know the stars to navigate. And he was showing her the constellations, like Orion, Aries, Cassiopeia, etc. And she made him guess her name using Aries. 🥺 Girl, that was so cute. And when he went, "Written in the stars", that was the cutest shit ever. I love the stars so much, I love the night sky, so I really adored that addition. It's great brainrotting material too for the Octa fics—

Eric's voice was also a really neat surprise for me. I don't know movies and actors that well, so I didn't really know Jonah Hauer-King beyond his role and that I didn't like his looks for Eric (please. animated Prince Eric is so much hotter and I will personally die on this hill). But when he sung, I was really wowed by his voice.

I could also really see Lin Manuel Miranda's love for Sebastian because they popped off with the music of Under the Sea and Kiss the Girl. 😂 They went off with the instrumentals in a way that I cannot explain because I'm not that knowledgable in music, but I felt it. The visuals for these songs were especially really showy. I could really feel how much they were trying to show off the live action, but also, it was really nice. I especially love how much Under the Sea was a motif that played when Ariel was exploring the hustle and bustle of human life. In its little way, it united both the sea and the land. Under the Sea describes the beauty of the sea, but as it plays during the scenes where Ariel was exploring the land, it also implicitly describes the beauty of the human world.

Visuals-wise, I'm actually glad that it generally wasn't as bad as the trailers made it out to be. Many scenes definitely felt brighter and more magical. They also really played with brightness and color in storytelling. There's the obvious with Ursula's grotto since she's the villain and she has to be menacing. But also, the palace is dark because to Ariel, Triton is controlling and trapping her from what she wants to do. The scene with the sisters cleaning the coral reefs was dark because they were all like, "Of course humans would destroy our reefs", and Ariel was uncomfortable with that discussion. Of course, there were scenes that I wished that it wasn't so dark, which I'm going to get to in the next part.

Nitpicks

Every movie is not perfect, of course, and I have my own little nitpicks and dislikes.

Talking about visuals first, I really wished that the scene where Ariel and Eric were going up against Ursula wasn't so dark. I could barely see Ursula's face in the cinema, and I was pretty close to the screen. 😭 It was the climax of the movie, yet it was dark. I know that there was an intention to make it dark to make viewers feel the tension of the scene and the darkness of Ursula, but it went to the point that it was a bit hard to see what was happening.

Onto the music, I'm well aware that a lot of people did not like Scuttle's rap. For me, I'm rather neutral about it. I can see why the dislike was there, since an important plot point like that was probably more suited for talking than singing. But for me it wasn't that bad, and honestly I kinda liked the transition to the song. But yeah that's about it.

I don't know why, but as much as I love the fact that Eric got his own 'I want' song, I don't super like Uncharted Waters. Alone, it's beautiful and I like it. But in the movie, something about the way it transitioned from the queen scolding Eric to him singing felt a little off. I can't pinpoint exactly what it is, probably the chord progression, but there's something about it that felt a bit meh when it's in the movie. It's not bad, but it's not good either. That being said though, I absolutely love that Ariel's melody plays in the background, a representation of how her song is looping in Eric's mind.

Under the Sea, I personally didn't like that Ariel was singing along towards the end of Under the Sea. In the first place, she wasn't super interested in what Sebastian had to say. As much as the sea was nice, she also didn't really want to listen to him. So her singing along was a little off to me. I'm guessing her intention was to distract him, but also in the animated movie, Sebastian was distracted by his own music already. I don't think Ariel really had to distract him.

As for Kiss the Girl, I also found it off that Scuttle was singing along in an actually on-key voice? 😭 This is definitely nitpicky, but because Scuttle's described to be off-key and not on the right page, it was weird that he was actually singing along with the others on-key instead of being off-key like in the animated.

On appearances of characters, the daughters of Triton... yeah. Don’t get me wrong, they’re gorgeous. I know Disney was probably trying to be woke, but the fact that they all looked like different races has a lot of implications for Triton. 😂 Maybe some magic could be involved, but I don’t think the process of genetics would be any different with merfolk. >_>

The appearances of Scuttle, Flounder, and Sebastian... yeah, I am not the biggest fan of them either. I guess it could be worse, but there's also a lot left to be desired. They made me miss the animated movie for sure.

And one of the limitations of the live action was definitely their facial expressions. I really saw this in the scene where Sebastian was planning out what to do to get Ariel to win her end of the deal, but she fell asleep. And he goes, "Oh you are hopeless." In the animated movie, he said this with a fond smile that showed how much he cared for Ariel. In the live action, however, it doesn't even pan to his face, so when you hear him saying that line, it sounds like he's criticizing her but without that fondness. It was just sad.

I'm also a little sad that Les Poissons was cut from the movie. That was a fun song, and I loved Sebastian's panic as he tried to get away from the chef.

On any particular non-music scenes, I personally didn't like that they changed the beginning entirely. Instead of the concert, it was a meetup during the Coral Moon. The problem I have with that is that the concert was how Ariel's talent in singing is established. And that's an important talent of hers because it's what she gives up. It ends up being explained that she has a siren voice, but then it no longer feels unique to her because it implies everyone has a siren voice.

And at the end of the movie, when Triton turns Ariel’s tail to legs, the camera pans specifically to his face. I love that, I really do. But I also wished that they showed Halle’s face brightening up too. A happy daughter, a sorrowful but loving father. That would have been so nice. 😭

All in all, my nitpicks are mostly really about the music. It's a bit sad since I had really high hopes for the music, but you win some, you lose some.

Dislikes

🤡

I have a Lot to say about this part.

First off, among the castings, my least favorite was definitely Scuttle. 😭 Like... why? That's all I want to know. Why? Why does he sound like that? Why doesn't he sound like the dumb but lovable guy that I remember? Scuttle was funny. He added to The Little Mermaid's charm with his dumbassery, and he was dumb in the way that it was funny. Part of it is his appearance, but a big part of it is in the way he spoke and how he sounded. But in the live action, not only does he look so different, but he's given a voice that doesn't encapsulate his dumb but funny charm. So when he's saying something stupid, he doesn't come off as hilarious. 😭 The comedic relief... gone...

I brought up earlier that I love Ariel and Triton's relationship in the live action. I mentioned as well that the acting did not execute it well, and here's what I mean by that.

The scene where we really see and get to feel the clash between the two of them was when Triton destroyed her whole collection. In the animated movie, you could see his anger, you could see Ariel's desperation and hurt, you could really see how her things were destroyed because they put focus on the destruction of her collection. In the live action, it wasn't as felt. Halle's and Javier's acting in the scene felt stiff, and it did not help that the camera did not focus either on the destruction, more of how they showed Javier Bardem aiming his staff at anything and everything in the grotto. And when the destruction was all over, Halle's crying was really stiff. She was barely sobbing, versus in the animated where Ariel really cried out her tears. You couldn't feel for the scene. It was supposed to be dramatic, but the stiff acting made it feel like nothing, which is painful because that's a very important part of the story and the reason why Ariel turned to Ursula.

The scene where Triton was telling the sisters to continue searching for Ariel. When he was left alone, he was supposed to look so heartbroken and regretful. But he didn't. He was just. kinda staring off to space. It couldn't be felt. The "What have I done" part kinda made up for it, but still.

Most importantly, though. And the thing that I dislike the most in the movie: how the movie treated Ursula and the way Poor Unfortunate Souls was shafted.

I am actually mad about it. 🤠 It's not exactly the casting because I think if you made Melissa McCarthy act out the original Ursula, she really can. It's just that whoever envisioned Ursula to be the way she is in the live action, their vision of her was absolutely downright shitty.

There was a Little Mermaid novel that was published prior to the live action that shows how the live action story will go, and one of the changes it shows was that Ursula would place a spell on Ariel to make her forget that she had to kiss Eric before the sun sets. I was really hoping that they would take that out because that inclusion ends up undermining Ursula's brilliance.

Unfortunately, not only did they keep it, they also further shafted her character.

See here, in the animated movie, the deal was really just this: a pair of legs in exchange for Ariel's voice. If she kisses the prince before sunset of the 3rd day, she gets to keep the legs. If she doesn't, she belongs to Ursula. It was just that. It was a fair exchange.

And the reason why it undermines Ursula's brilliance is because the contract was fair on paper. Meaning that she has to work hard to win her end of the deal. She gets Flotsam and Jetsam to stop them from kissing, she woos Prince Eric with the voice she stole from Ariel. By adding an amnesia spell, it takes away from her perseverance in getting what she wants. Heck, it kind of undermines the need to even turn into Vanessa in the first place. As long as Ariel doesn't remember that she needs to kiss Eric, there's less for her to worry about. She didn't have to turn to Vanessa, she just has to stay put or maybe just be more watchful.

And the part I am most disappointed about: Poor Unfortunate Souls. Now don't get me wrong, the first half was amazing. Melissa McCarthy killed it.

But then it gets to the part that she explains the deal, and this is where it went downhill from there. Like, she mentions the whole I'll turn you to human for three days, and you have to kiss the prince to stay human permanently before the sun sets on the third day. If not, Ariel will belong to her. But see: Ursula does not mention that she'll take her voice. She only mentions it... when singing the final stanza of the song. And okay, Ariel's doubt was good. And the way she was going to quit was also good.

But it's the omission of the part of the deal that she'd take her voice. That was ??? that was a very important part of the deal. And what makes it worse is that it then leads to the total omission of the two stanzas that builds up to the final stanza of the song. Ariel leaves, so Ursula just snaps at her. So the song ends up not only being cut short but there's no buildup to its final stanza. It just jumps from 0 to 180, instead of jumping from 0 to 45 to 90 to 135 to 180.

This also takes away the part of Ursula that has to act kind and compassionate. Remember that she is also Ariel's aunt in this version, so she's trying to be that good auntie and connecting with her. The two stanzas are meant to add to that compassionate side of her as she convinces Ariel that she'll do alright without her voice and thus make her feel secure in signing the contract while the final stanza is where she gets forceful. But they just omitted them...

The worst part is that they had all the capability to rewrite those missing two stanzas to fit into the situation. Poor Unfortunate Souls is commonly rewritten, often in covers. Even the Broadway Little Mermaid had its lyrics rewritten, particularly with how Queen Latifa sang about the deal in a way that it rhymed. That version also had one of the stanzas removed, but see, they were still able to keep a buildup to the final stanza. It's like they realized shit, our runtime is too long, and they chose to shaft Poor Unfortunate Souls.

It's so upsetting to me because Poor Unfortunate Souls is just as legendary as Part of Your World. Yet they really lifted up Part of Your World to the point it got a second reprise and set aside Poor Unfortunate Souls. What makes Part of Your World legendary is that it's an 'I want' song, which was never really part of Disney movies until then. It was what brought Little Mermaid its fame and thus the Disney Renaissance. But Poor Unfortunate Souls is important too because it's Disney's first villain's song. You can argue that Pinocchio and The Sword in the Stone technically had a villain who sang their own song. But those songs have a certain happiness to them, like they can't really fully express their villainy in both song and lyric. Some may even argue that Madam Mim doesn't even 'sing' her own song. But Poor Unfortunate Souls sets itself apart as a villain's song that Ursula completely owns. It is where her personality and villainy shines. It's not cheery, it's very much deceiving, and it's very theatrical. Part of Your World and Poor Unfortunate Souls completely changed the landscape of Disney music. And that's why I'm so pressed about the way Poor Unfortunate Souls was treated in the live action. It deserved better.

Conclusion of Thoughts

Overall, Little Mermaid was pretty enjoyable for me. It's definitely one of the better Disney live actions. It was magical, it was romantic, it was beautiful. I loved seeing Ariel's journey in a different light, I loved seeing Prince Eric's personality further fleshed out. I wouldn't say that it was perfect, and there are undeniably a good number of things that I wasn't too happy with, but my enjoyment of the movie was still pretty high.

[caatws]

I'm not sure my thoughts on Gamora and vol 3 will be welcome because I'm not a die hard fan. But I do think after reading the many questions and comments about it there is one crucial thing people are missing that maybe would help others see why Gamora's treatment in vol 3 isn't so great.

In Infinity War Gamora's death reduced her to a tool for Thanos and to make him sympathetic. This was obviously horrible. But the more concerning issue is how the mcu never moved away from using her as a tool.

In Endgame she primarily exists to show how far Nebula has come in her development. We see the contrast between past and future Nebula but also how future Nebula has grown in regards to her relationship/feelings towards Gamora. There are some decent story elements for Gamora too and Endgame would have been a new starting point if vol 3 had used it as a stepping stone to build a bigger story focused on her. But that's not what went down.

Instead vol 3 brings her in primarily to have a push and pull dynamic that serves as a way for Peter to start healing. You'll notice hardly anyone else interacts with her. We never get to explore or hear about her time after Endgame. How the guardians coped with her future selfs death is completely absent from the plot. That's because non of this matters to the story since her purpose is mostly bringing Peter closure. Her dynamic with the ravagers is barely explored because they don't exist to be a real fleshed out family. They exist for her to have a place to go back to once everything is done. There are a few strong moments for Gamora but it's like she's kept from fully integrating so that we as the audience will let go and come to not care the same way most of the guardians don't care.

Gamora was one of the strongest characters over the course of vol 1/2 and the start of Infinity War. She was a survivor who had hurts and pains as well as healing and growth. She formed the guardians. She supported and maintained the family they became. She mended her relationship with Nebula and had a lot of heart. She exemplified the themes of gotg. Then because of Thanos they tossed all that and her over a cliff. It's awful, but what makes it crushing is that they never went on to have her family mourn her and never bothered to have any real investment in her past self coming to the future. She mostly stayed the tool Thanos turned her into. It's also upsetting that they didn't further explore her relationship with Nebula given it was one of the most defining relationships for both of them. Instead they have Nebula become part of the family and be treated as if she's always been there helping and supporting them while both past and future Gamora were treated like some outsider they all barely knew and didn't care about.

Like I said I'm a casual fan so maybe I don't count but I think the way Gamora ended up being handled from her death onward is some of the most thoughtless and mean treatment I have seen for a character. Especially one who was an abuse survivor. (I'm sorry this is long but I wanted to break down all the points as clearly as possible)

your pov is definitely welcomed and encouraged here anon! i think there's a lot of value in considering perspectives of more casual fans with this as well bc it can rly show the extent of the issue. like, it's one thing if the more diehard fans are the only ones to find an issue with a work, as that suggests the issue could be more on the nitpicking side of things, but if all kinds of viewers with different amounts of familiarity with and investment in the work are seeing the same issues, then that probably more strongly indicates that those issues exist.

so in a way, it's validating to hear that others are finding these issues—which you laid out so clearly and thoughtfully, thank you!—without necessarily having the same close relationship with the franchise.

[justmybookthots]

This Time It's Real

5/5 stars

I AM SCREAMING. I AM SCREAMINGGGGGG.

You know, I’ve always thought the fourteen-year-old romantic I used to be was dead? But maybe… it isn’t?? How is it that this cute little YA made me feel a gazillion more things than most adult romances? 

Ann Liang, I love you so much. I’m officially a hardcore fan now after I read If You Could See The Sun (which I reviewed) and this book. And there’s another book of hers coming next year (I weep! I WEEP! Why are all the books I’m looking forward to only out next year?) which I will DEFINITELY be reading. I am so excited. 

This book. This book. I am incoherent. I am squealing. And this is coming from a person who hates the fake dating trope, and YET. There is definitely an exception to every rule. Maybe it’s because Ann Liang writes her stories in Beijing, with a Chinese cast and setting (I love the personal rep). Or maybe it’s because Caz, AKA the male lead, is soooooo cute. Oh my gosh. CAZ.

Okay. Okay. Let me get my thoughts together before I spiral. The premise is simple: two Chinese high-schoolers, one an aspiring writer, the other a teenage heartthrob actor, fake-dating. I have to say that Eliza's reasons for needing to fake-date sound very valid, but I wasn't convinced by Caz's. All he gets out of it is… Eliza writing his college applications? There's also another reason—him cleaning up his image because of this "scandal"... which never gets touched upon again later in the story, so I don't count that.  

But whatever. I didn't dwell too much on it, because there are so many things I loved:

Caz trying to make Eliza jealous (LMAO) by going into lurid detail about his kiss scene with a girl and getting disappointed when she doesn't seem to care

Caz getting worked up over a pimple and not going to school

Caz being a vain little shit, period

Caz telling Eliza that he wanted her (for real, and not pretend), point-blank. T_T

Caz helping Eliza find her friendship bracelet 

Eliza trying to jog and getting outrun by an old man

Eliza and her PowerPoint Presentation.

Eliza and Zoe. PLATONIC BREAKUPS ARE HARD, IN A WAY HARDER THAN FALLING OUT WITH CAZ. THIS PARAGRAPH GOT ME:

What Eliza's dad said about girls in romance dramas because it is SO TRUE (for the non-Chinese folk out there, 'jiayou' means to 'keep fighting/going'):

My main complaint about this book is really how it ended. I think that Ann Liang ends her books in a really abrupt way, to the point where I don’t feel I got enough closure. The story just concluded about a chapter after Eliza agreed to be with Caz for real, and then… the end. Listen, I think that the build-up is always the highlight of a romance, but I still would have liked for a bit more closure. At least let me see them on one real, proper date before ending the book! 

(Since I'm on the topic of complaints—this one isn't from me, but from some reviewers: they say that Caz isn’t very different from Henry from If You Could See The Sun but I don’t agree? Henry isn’t anywhere as vain as Caz, and he is definitely academically more brilliant than Caz, lol. I thought they were notably different, and I was quite surprised by it. I actually found Caz somewhat more immature... but I adored him just as much as Henry.)

One final mini-complaint of mine before I wrap up this entry: I don’t think that Eliza’s hangup about being with Caz is ever truly addressed. She frets that, yes, Caz may love her now, but they’ll grow apart like she did with Zoe because she’s always on the road (and he is, too). In the end, she changes her thinking to: yeah, maybe I was just afraid all along that he really never did love me but now I’m sure he does. To me, that’s two completely different concerns, and the first still isn’t solved. 

But of course, this is just me nitpicking, and I can shut one eye about it because the rest of the book was just so, so lovely. If I were to nitpick further, I'd say boys like Caz really do not exist (re: young heartthrobs who are so swoony both inside and outside) but the fiction is fictioning, and that's how I LIKE IT.

And you best believe I will be eyeing Ann Liang’s next book when it’s out. In the meantime, I just need to make sure I make it till 2024. 

- 19 Aug 2023

[thowawayuntilfurthernotice]

So, I finally watched Velma.

Before I go any further I just want to make something clear, no I’m not defending this show against criticism, nor am I trying to convince you that it’s some sort of hidden gem. I’ve watched all the episodes that have been released at the time of writing, and in all honesty, I think Velma is pretty mediocre. 

Not good, but nowhere near as bad as people are making it out to be. So, if you just wanted my honest thoughts about Velma, there you go, you can stop reading now, go back to whatever it is you’re currently doing. As for everyone else, get comfy, because this is gonna be a long post.

I wanna get the positives out of the way first, I genuinely like the show’s artstyle, in an era where every single “adult” cartoon has to look like Rick & Morty, this show stands out from the rest by having its own unique artstyle, that being said, Norville does look weird whenever he’s facing forward. But that’s a minor nitpick. 

Kinda wish the quality of the animation was a bit better though, but it’s an animated show made specifically for streaming, so the animation quality was always gonna be so-so.

As for the characters, I didn’t find them as unlikable or annoying as other people did - mostly because I never really had that much of a personal attachment to the Scooby gang to begin with - though if I had to pick a favorite I’d have to go with Norville, I find that his optimism and general good nature is a breath of fresh air, as I’m so sick of every modern adult animated series having every character be an unlikable asshole or a complete dumbass.  

Nevertheless I do agree that the “Look at how much of a loser Fred is!” jokes got old real quick, and I’m saying this as someone who doesn’t even like Fred. But those jokes weren’t bad enough to make me want to quit watching. 

As for the other jokes, they’re super hit and miss, I do feel like if the first two episodes just toned down the raunchy/”meta” jokes then the backlash wouldn’t have been so bad, because there were some jokes that made me chuckle, like Brenda’s funeral, Norville’s hair brained schemes to win Velma over, the school fighting tournament name being too long etc. But sadly, those types of jokes are few and far between. 

Oh, and the hallucination sequences are pretty cool. 

Now that we got the positives out the way, let’s talk about the negatives. I really don’t understand why this show needs a recap at the start of each episode. Did the showrunners think people were gonna watch the show out of order? Or did they do that because they were planning on airing the show on Adult Swim in the near future? Either way, it’s super annoying.

Also, I really hate how the show just awkwardly cuts to the end credits. I know Harley Quinn also did this, but it’s way more noticeable here. Almost like the end credits are trying to jump scare you to death. 

But I think my biggest issue with the series as a whole is its obsession with trying to be as “meta” as possible, it really got on my nerves, to the point where I legit wanted to yell out “I get it! You’re self aware.” 

Thing is, I don’t mind meta humor. Archer and American Dad are two great examples of how to properly implement meta humor into a sitcom narrative, but what makes those two shows work is that they’re not trying to impress the audience by showing how smart they are. 

Simply having the characters point out tired old cliches and tropes isn’t clever, it’s taking the easy way out. I honestly wouldn’t have minded this as much if Velma was the only character who was making “meta” references, but every single character does this. To the point where I was expecting someone to look directly at the camera and say “Are these self aware meta jokes doing anything for you?” 

Look, I get it, the reason why they’re doing this is because of Rick and Morty, a network executive most likely looked at the meta humor from that show and said “Do that for a Scooby Doo spin off aimed at adults.” 

If the show would just tone down the “We’re so meta” gimmick and put more effort into fleshing its characters and story out, then I honestly think it could be pretty decent. But as of this writing, it just feels like it’s struggling to find its own identity. 

Who knows, maybe the writing will get better down the line, but as of right now it’s a mess. 

Alright, time to talk about the “controversy” surrounding this show - because that’s all anyone wants to talk about - so here goes……

I don’t give a shit about any of this culture war nonsense, nor do I give a shit about these Twitter threads over analyzing every single joke, and I certainly don’t give a shit about Mindy Kaling or her political views, so why am I bringing any of this up? Because the discourse is annoying. 

It’s okay to just admit that you don’t like the show, or that you think it’s “cringe” or whatever, but all this discourse has become unbearable. You cannot go anywhere online without running into someone complaining about the show. It’s Ghostbusters 2016 all over again, and I’m just so tired. 

I’m tired of the internet latching onto a piece of media and creating never ending discourse about said media, I’m tired of seeing people who genuinely liked working on shows/movies get bullied and harassed. And I’m just tired of people being unwilling to say “Wow, this looks like shit” and moving on with their lives. 

Yes, no media should be immune to criticism, but going out of your way to ruin someone’s livelihood because they created or worked on something you hated just makes you an asshole who deserves no sympathy.