#these characters are people to me it is so serious

[hhbluedynamite]

...Oh, dear God...

Do I have some words to say to those people villainizing these characters...

First and foremost, I haven't seen much of Beastars (I think I've only seen the first four episodes), am barely involved in the Sonic franchise, never seen Homestuck, and don't watch...whatever show that lady is in (Doctor Who?), so I can't really say anything for the characters from those shows.

But as for the others...

Mabel: A...CHILD!!! Children are inherently selfish! It makes sense for her to act the way she does (and Dipper's the same way! He's selfish too!). She was also MANIPULATED BY A LITERAL DEMON to give him a very dangerous portal that she had no knowledge of its importance because such knowledge was withheld from her! But what about Dippy Fresh? She's basically replacing Dipper! Mabel didn't make Dippy Fresh! It was Mabelland! And she was also under its influence too! Mabel Pines was a literal child! You are villainizing a kid for being a kid who was scared of change and growing up (something I relate to, honestly)

Rose Quartz/PD: Oh boy...where to start. Before abandoning her old life, Rose was emotionally abused by the very Gems that were basically her sisters/mother! She was belittled, neglected, felt like she had no place there despite wanting to be a part of what was basically the family business. Did Rose make questionable decisions? Oh, yeah. Big time. But, does that make her a bad person? Hell, no. She's just flawed. Which is a very...human thing.

Beatrice: ...Really? People are villainizing her? Have they not played her route? She's frustrated that she's stuck in a small dying town, she lost her mom to cancer like two years before the main story, is basically getting sexually harassed by someone she can't fire, and her dad is kinda neglectful about her needs. I would be bitchy too!

Gangle: ...Are you fucking serious? We're villainizing someone whose dreams were freakin' crushed for being "unrealistic" and spent an entire episode going through mania? The woman whose Digital design is a representation of masking your actual emotions, including depression? And she was told that she was annoying and was better sad?! Who was so, damn close to Abstracting (which can be seen as a euphemism to suicide)??!!!

Did these characters do questionable acts or say things they shouldn't have said? Yes. Does it excuse their behavior? Not really. Does that make them villains? Hell, no. These are flawed characters, like everyone else!

...Sorry for the rant, to the readers and to the person who made this post. I've just seen this a lot with Mabel and Rose Quartz and it pisses me off...and I didn't know that it happened to Bea and now Gangle?!?!?

I have opinions about the recent gangle hate

[numberonetacostan]

ONE HEADCANON FOR EVERY II CHARACTER!

Hello everyone!!!!!^^ For a little holiday season special, I’ve typed out a little headcanon for every character!!! By character I mean contestants + host + assistants!!!!! Sorry to all the Nick Le fans out there, he is not included. Since everyone is here, there are characters I may not know as well as my main roster, so if I get anything like, objectively wrong, feel free to let me know!!!^^ Please enjoy!!! (ﾉ´ヮ`)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ

Apple- Her favorite song is Pink Pony Club by Chappell Roan. She doesn’t really understand the lyrics but she really likes ponies!!!! I also think she’d start misspelling her name as “Appell” pretty often after she finds the song. 

Balloon- The first thing Suitcase does with her prize money is buy him a poetry book. He is so very moved by this and writes her dozens of poems with various styles he sees in the book within a few days. He’d read from the book and his own works to Suitcase every night before they go to bed. Some others could join in for a nice bedtime story :). 

Baseball- Once, while the hotel was under construction, Baseball fell down the stairs. And then kept rolling. And rolling. And bouncing. And rolling some more. Overall it set construction back two weeks and Paintbrush broke their leg trying to help stop him. Baseball was banned from the hotel until the elevators were finished. 

Bomb- He can’t eat spicy food. As in he’s banned from eating spicy food. If he gets too hot, he can accidentally set himself off, so despite his claim that he has a great spice tolerance, he is not allowed anywhere near the hot sauce. He doesn’t complain about the ban anymore post-canon, too risky, yeah? 

Bow- She watches so very many makeup tutorials, but being a ghost, can’t practice any of it on herself. That is, unless she possesses someone, like Marsh who would be very easy to put makeup on relative to other objects!!! She’d probably get pretty good at it, after some time, and Marsh would have some lovely new eyeshadow looks every day! 

Knife- He has a longer ghost tail than Dough and Bow do, so I propose him wrapping said tail around people and things he likes!!! Wraps around Pickle when they’re standing next to each other, wraps around Suitcase’s handle when they’re together, etc.!!! He’d get rather flustered if anyone called him out on it. 

Lightbulb- Gives incredible hugs. Incredible. How does an object made of glass and metal give such cuddly, warm hugs? Nobody knows. Sometimes she’ll turn herself on during the hug to make it extra warm!! As long as the person she’s hugging closes their eyes, it really elevates the already sacred experience of a Lightbulb hug. Luckily for everyone else, she is always happy to give one!^^

Marshmallow- She’s still pyrophobic after having been burnt all those years ago. As a very flammable marshmallow, fire would be scary to her anyways, but after having been roasted it’s a whole other story. She’d rather freeze than get close to a fire, but that’s not a problem since there’s a certain fruit always willing to warm her up with a hug <3!!

Nickel- He became very, very, very nervous to give his apology to Suitcase after she blew up Cobs and ate his corpse. He was planning to apologize either way, but clearly Suitcase could absolutely obliterate him if she wanted to do so, which means this apology has to be quite good or else. He has a serious amount of respect for her now. An upgrade, I’d say. 

OJ- His favorite Pokémon is Charizard. It’s orange, it’s very popular, OJ loves it. I know Justin has made a list of the contestant’s favorite Pokemon, but I have not read it in a while so Charizard it is!!!

Paintbrush- Experiments a lot with their image after season 3, mostly by dyeing their bristles with paint!!! Lightbulb helps :3!!! And by helps I mean makes it silly and very fun. Maybe she puts a little dot between Painty’s eyes to give them a “nose”. I think they’d try a solid color first, then maybe a fade, and eventually dye the nonbinary flag into their hair!!! They slay it of course. 

Paper- Pickle once wrote “Property of OJ” on Paper’s back and he didn’t notice for three days. No one told him it was there. When he asked everyone why in the world they would not inform him they said it was because they all thought OJ had written it and he was keeping it because he liked it. OJ did not know why Paper avoided eye contact with him for a week that one time but he did not like it. 

Pepper- Hotel OJ head chef. Yeah you heard me. Let me cook by letting her cook!! Salt wouldn’t like cooking, too much work, so this is something Pepper could enjoy on her own!! And it would be the sole reason that OJ has not yet kicked Salt out of the hotel- if he does than Pepper might be too sad to cook, and with the depressingly low amount of hotel residents that can make food, and the even smaller amount who are willing to make enough food for everyone, they need her. And, if Payjay help out, they can spend more time with her and get to know and enjoy her presence without Salt ruining it!

Pickle- With some help from Tea Kettle and Pepper, he makes Knife a new Dora doll post-finale, since it vanished with the rest of the stuff made by MeLife. He lets Knife possess him if he wants to hug the doll, but it also gets possessed by Knife so he can hug Pickle. Ah shit sorry my Knickle got all over the headcanon dang it. 

Salt- I headcanon her as the only cisgender, straight, alloromantic (I think that’s the right term?) member of the cast. Basically the only one who isn’t queer at all. But uh an actual headcanon for the ~60 or so Salt fans out there, both she and Pepper sleep with those little hair bonnets on to keep their salt and pepper from falling out of their heads in their sleep. 

Taco- This one is fitting for the winter season!! Taco is afraid of snow. Like, straight up terrified. I think she would grab a bunch of blankets and hide in the vents of the mansion whenever it snows, so she can be inside of the inside, as far and safe from the snow as she can be!! Having been homeless for years, she’s had some miserable experiences with hypothermia after it snows, and now that she has a home to live in, she’ll be staying inside until all the snow has melted. 

Mephone- I think he should have a pet bug post-canon. A little beetle or something that just chills on his head and feasts on the many crumbs he gets on himself while he eats. An intelligent one, like Baxter!!! Since we know Mephone will be stepping up into the more ‘big brother’ sort of role for 3GS, I think the bug would be a good outlet for Mephone to talk about his more intense feelings, specifically revolving around Mepad and the contestants. I also think, following his very creative naming of the contestants, the bug would be named Buggy. 

Box- I think she would be an insomniac. After years and years of living in an empty, timeless void-space thing, she’d have a lot of trouble getting to sleep!! She’d definitely need the whole works, warm milk, cheese, lullabies, etc., etc., just to get to sleep, and even then she probably wouldn’t sleep for very long. A lot of nightmares on this one, yeah? 

Cheesy- I think he’d actually quite enjoy eating cheese, as long as it’s not a chunk like he is. He’ll eat nachos, pizza, mozzarella sticks, grilled cheese, etc., etc., but he will not eat cheese cubes. He’d make approximately 5 cannibal jokes every time he does this, and this average goes up to 8 if Pickle is around. 

Cherries- They give Toilet their old Mepad mask post-canon, to try and make him feel better. Toilet might hang out with them a bit more after this- they can do some drawing together!! The more prank-buddies, the merrier, yeah? 

Dough- He eventually did get the recording of Bow saying that he was her brother!! Was it a cut-off version of her denying it yet again (though this time more playfully than anything)? Yes. Does that make him any less happy about having it? No. 

Fan- Out of everyone, he’s the most upset about II ending, and wants to find a new special interest!! He’d try a whole bunch of things, games, music, movies, TV shows, art, and I think it would be funny if he settled on the ii-universe equivalent of Survivor, since it was such a big inspiration for II!! He’d also occupy himself with being very interested in whatever Test Tube is doing and cheering her on!!! Also being a good Dad to Bot!!^^

Microphone- Has, on occasion, accidentally had her volume button pressed in her sleep and woke not only herself but everyone in the vicinity up with her snoring. The first time it happens post-canon it takes her a half-hour to get a very startled and scared but very sleepy and confused Taco to come out from her hiding spot under the bed. 

Soap- Her soap is french vanilla and rose scented!!! She’d find her own scent rather pleasant, yeah? I think being empty for her would have a similar effect on her as it does on objects like OJ and Test Tube, though if she’s in a real pinch she will use her own soap to get clean!! Letting someone use her soap would be a sweet gesture of love/appreciation from her!!!

Suitcase- Balloon would write her a lot of poems once they’re back together post-canon, and she’d keep them all inside of her!! She’d keep a lot of special little gifts from important people inside of her. The stone that Knife set beside her the first time they spoke on the docks, a dried flower bracelet from Box, whatever suits her fancy! (Get it? Ge- ‘cause she’s a suitcase? okay ill leave).

Test Tube- I think she would make phones for everyone post-canon!!!^^ It’s a big island, yeah? And they really need to be able to contact each other in case of emergency, with them being able to truly die now. She could make a functioning rocket out of a vending machine, I fully believe she could make however-many functioning phones out of what she can find on the island. (Or even better, Mepple HQ. I think they all should loot it.)

Tissues- He likes coding :) I personally hate coding, because I sucked at it in school and never want to look at one of those evil “easy kids coding” websites ever again. HOWEVER coding is something he could still do while he’s feeling sick, most of the time!! And we have quite a few gamers living in the hotel, so it would be a great way for him to connect with others!!!

Trophy- He always enjoyed photography as a hobby, but very much threw himself into it after being freed from the elimination closet. After months of seeing nothing but the snotty closet walls, he had a lot more appreciation for scenic and natural photographs. He’d hang a lot of them on the wall of his room to look at as he sleeps, since the rooms don’t have windows. 

Yin-Yang- This one is from my partner @galacticrain!! Because I consider them my resident yin-yang expert^^ Yang isn’t actually gluten free, like he says in season 2 episode 5, he just knew that Yin would confess to the eating of Dough if he put any ounce of pressure on him to tell the truth. 

Mepad- Another cold weather hc! As a Mepple device, he doesn’t really get cold! However, during their first winter together, Toilet worries that Mepad has no winter clothing!!! He buys Mepad one of those super fluffy, pink cases. Mepad does not take it off for months, until his systems start to overheat because of it. 

Toilet- I think he would be rather curious about what having limbs is like. He wouldn’t be particularly upset about his own lack of limbs, just curious!^^ He would ask Mepad about his legs, (try to) ask Mephone about his arms, and maybe make a little doodle of himself with a lot of limbs. A biblically accurate Toilet, if you will.

Blueberry- I like to think his white eyes glow a bit. He functions best in pitch-black darkness, yeah? So imagine you’re walking in the dark and two white eyes are staring at you from the depths. He would love scaring people with it, I think. 

Bot- Hanging out with everyone post-season 3 finale and even more so post-canon, they discover that they really do love videogames, similar to what they told Cabby!! They would absolutely dominate in fighting games, and would main R.O.B. in Super Smash Bros.!!! A fellow robot with a 3 letter name? Sign them UP. 

Cabby- She is endlessly fascinated by how Taco’s arms work. They just…go back in? How? Could she pull them out backwards? Both on the same side? Could she reverse them? Taco does not know either, and the two of them spend a full day together just trying to figure out how they work. Cabby gets a lot of new info about them, and Taco in general, after that :). I’m projecting but I think Cabby would be curious too.^^

Candle- Her meditation training post-canon is what keeps like half the cast from losing their minds after everything that happens. She is very very much needed after… all that. Meditation would help her too, of course, in the way that it usually does, but being so helpful would probably make her feel better than that. 

Clover- She was once blown across the entire island because someone dropped a penny on the ground. It was a particularly shiny penny, though, and the year was one her many, many lucky numbers!!

Goo- My little fella!!! Uh obviously he and Bot would make comics together. They like to draw, he likes to write, it’s perfect!!!! They could help him condense his writing down into a comic format as well!!! They could also make fanart and fanfics together!!! Goo would be a shipper I think he already ships Silver and Painty if you sit that little guy down in front of Steven Universe he will explode. 

Lifering- With everyone losing their immortality post-canon, he quickly becomes one of the most popular among the contestants. Twisted your ankle? Go see Lifering. Migraine? Go see Lifering. Ate the mushrooms that Taco very clearly told you were poisonous? Hurry to Lifering!! He’s happy to be of so much help, but gives some long and rather informative lectures on proper safety checks. 

Silver Spoon- Fills his room with candles. Particularly purple ones. And ones scented with lavender and chamomile. He’ll go on and on about how much he loves candles. Particularly purple ones scented with lavender and chamomile. No one can tell if Candle is trying to politely turn him down or really hasn’t noticed. He progressively gets more and more obvious with his candle collection and nearly sets a building on fire. 

Tea Kettle- #1 Nickloon shipper. I’m serious. Whether they get together or not, she ships it. I don’t think she’d be pushy about it, insistent that they get together if they’re interested in other people, but… we know silly Nickel, always chasing a Balloon. And if he needs a little help catching it, TK will be there in a flash!!!! She’d make them a little romantic picnic complete with hors d’oeuvres! 

The Floor- My guy The Floor still visits Mephone almost daily post-canon. I really don’t see the guy being super upset or holding a grudge over Mephone having made him. He’s pretty cool, if he does say so himself!!^^ And they’re buddies, anyways, so Floory would want to check in on him after his abusive father killed everyone and then was exploded!!!! He might even befriend 3GS while he’s at it :).

[allpiesforourown]

I’ve been wanting to ask what’s your favourite fanfic trope? Mainly for svsss fanfics but any fandom works as well! Happy holidays hope you have a shizun blessed year

God there are so many I can't possible pick just one ... just a few I've said before I love (probably forgetting some I'll remember I love sooo much later)

villain with tragic backstory finds someone they can trust for the first time

character's best friend becomes their sibling in law and their best friend is hyped because now they're legally family!!

soft bullying their crush because they don't understand their feelings (this weird twist in my gut when I see them must be hatred??)

fuckboy nonstop flirting with guy who just replies with a deadpan glare because he doesn't think the guy's being serious (he is so serious. he's ready to give up his whore ways and get married right now)

when two people share a bed and the respectful pining one starts humping the oblivious one in his sleep while calling out their name

kid falls in love with someone older who did something nice for them thoughtlessly, then chases them when they meet again as adults. absolute classic

"if we were gay, this behaviour would be insanely possessive and worrisome, but he's straight so he's just worried about me!"

many more. this is all i've got rn

[mama-qwerty]

Sonic 3 - Knuckles

Okay, so I’ve been wanting to do some deep dives into the different characters of Sonic 3, addressing their motivations, reactions, and mindsets throughout the film.

And first, to absolutely no one’s surprise, is Knuckles.

Buckle up, kidlets. This’ll get LOOOOONG.

Sonic 3 spoilers ahead

At the beginning of the film, we see Knuckles being competitive, but not aggressively so. From the first few minutes we see him, we notice he’s not leaning hard into his warrior role. He’s not taking every competition as some serious challenge to his status, and overall seems much more relaxed than we’d seen him up to this point.

The events of the series helped to temper him, to show him that it’s okay to have fun, it’s okay to unclench sometimes, and it’s okay to be the kid he is. He’s part of a new family, a new tribe, and he’s thriving in it.

Yet when the opportunity arises to go into battle once more, he’s ready to do so. He’s eager for a challenge, and Shadow gave him more of a fight than he was expecting. He got his tail handed to him, and although he was likely injured to some degree, his pride was what really took the pounding.

But he shook it off.

Shadow kicked all three of their butts, easily, and instead of getting angry and losing himself to that rage, he followed Sonic’s lead to pull back so they could regroup and get some more information.

The Knuckles of Sonic 2 would not have done that. That Knuckles attacked Sonic without warning, without getting all the facts, without allowing his opponent to properly fight back. Picked himself back up after getting run over by a speeding car and gave chase. Attacked the car, holding on even when it flew over the edge of a cliff. Threw himself off a plane so he could attack a giant robot, without contemplating or coordinating any other plans or angles of attack first.

That Knuckles would have seethed after Shadow’s victory, angry that he’d been bested, and eager for a rematch as soon as possible.

But he didn’t. He listened to Sonic.

At the Chao Garden we see him having a little fun at Tails’ expense. They’d just engaged in a battle with a stronger, unknown foe, and lost, but he’s relaxed enough to engage playfully with his brothers, and take in the atmosphere of the restaurant.

Ya know what that showed? It showed that Knuckles had accepted Sonic and Tails as his allies, people he could trust and look to for alternate strategies in any challenge. Were he on his own, he would have hunted Shadow down endlessly, much like he did with the Master Emerald, to restore his perceived lost honor.

But he’s not on his own anymore. He looks to Sonic and Tails for their thoughts on a situation, and trusts them when it seems his own brand of dealing with something is ineffective.

Once they follow Stone and realize his identity, Knuckles doesn’t immediately engage in battle over the events of the last movie. Even when they go aboard the crab bot and see Robotnik, Knuckles still doesn’t immediately attack. He doesn’t threaten the man, or exhibit any anger toward him over the way Robotnik double crossed him, stole the ME right out from under him, and left him for dead.

When Tails admits that working with Robotnik is the only way to find who’s behind releasing Shadow, Knuckles agrees. He trusts his youngest brother’s ideas, as he knows the fox is more clever and able to see a bigger picture than he is. If Tails says this is a good idea, especially if it involves technology and finding a foe that seems otherwise untrackable, then Knuckles will agree.

Surprising no one, Robotnik double crossed them, and they only managed to escape thanks to Knux’s quick thinking and strong bite reflex.

Back home, he happily let Tails take the lead once more, concocting a plan to get into GUN HQ and retrieve the second key to prevent the use of the Eclipse Cannon.

Knuckles is a great warrior. He kept himself alive for the ten-ish years he traveled the galaxy, searching for Sonic and clues to the Master Emerald. He can face down nearly any foe. But his strength is a full frontal assault, not so much stealth and espionage. He himself knows this, but that doesn’t mean he has to like it.

It may have simply seemed like an easy few jokes regarding his desire to “break the glass”, but this is a dangerous mission, and he doesn’t like to feel like he’s simply sitting on his hands, waiting for his turn in battle. He knows Tails’ plan is a good one. He knows going in fists first isn’t going to get them anywhere. But it still bothers him that he is told to simply “wait until we need you.”

But he was there when they did. He acted the moment he was called into action. Everything he did was to further the plan, to keep his tribe safe. And to him, crushing the floor pad controller should have stopped the machine from functioning. When he’d accidentally crushed the toaster at home, it stopped working. Same with Sonic’s cell phone. And Maddie’s. And the VR headset that he totally didn’t freak out over.

Electronics are delicate, and if they are broken, then the thing they are designed to do will stop, too.

But it didn’t work that way, and instead he was lifted into the air, unable to help. His tribe was trapped, and the building he’d destroyed on the way in was threatening them. And he couldn’t help them.

And everything just went downhill from there.

Tom was hurt, and Maddie was . . . oddly quiet.

Knuckles was used to danger. To people getting hurt. He’d lost his tribe and his father all those years ago, so he wasn’t a stranger to feeling that fear or pain.

He himself had been on the receiving end of Shadow’s blows, and knew how painful it could be. But whereas he and his brothers could mostly shrug off those kinds of hits, push through those injuries within minutes, humans didn’t seem as resilient. Weren’t as ‘sturdy’ as they were. And there was a real possibility that Tom could die from such a blow.

A sobering idea.

The head of their tribe was gravely injured, and that meant Knuckles was the eldest warrior in charge. His whole demeanor changed the minute the ambulance pulled away. Gone was the more kid-like echidna, who let his brothers take the lead. He was now the eldest, the one who needed to look after the others.

Sonic was understandably angry, but when Tails tried to soothe him, the hedgehog turned his anger on the fox. Knuckles stepped between them, keeping Tails safely behind him as he focused Sonic’s anger on himself. He stayed calm and level-headed, trying to talk Sonic down. At the mention of using the Master Emerald, Knuckles still remained calm. He understood Sonic’s anger, his pain, but he knew from experience that did not make for good decisions.

And when Sonic insisted, when he threatened to fight Knuckles for it, Knuckles almost took the bait. He geared up, ready for battle, before backing down. Fighting would solve nothing. It wouldn’t take Sonic’s pain away. It wouldn’t diffuse his anger. It would only waste precious moments, and allow the Robotniks to continue with their plan to harm the planet unopposed.

Ultimately, Knuckles knew the only way to stop this weapon was for Sonic to go Super. And the only way for Sonic to go Super, was to use the Master Emerald.

And maybe, in that moment, Knuckles was hit with a sense of deja vu. It wasn’t that long ago that he himself had been so blinded by revenge he’d allowed an enemy to escape with a dangerous weapon. Had he not fought Sonic so hard, had he not been so focused on destroying the hedgehog, would he have recognized Robotnik’s plan to steal the Master Emerald for himself? Could he have stopped Robotnik before he got that close to the Emerald in the first place?

Yes. Yes he would have. If he hadn’t been so preoccupied with his anger toward Sonic—because of his association with Longclaw, and by extension the other owls—if he hadn’t been so enraged because his entire tribe had fallen that day, all those years ago, then he would have noticed Robotnik going for the Emerald. And everything that had happened after wouldn’t have.

And maybe it was that thought, that experience, that made him back off. He knew the anger inside Sonic. But he also knew Sonic’s heart, and it was that knowledge, that hope that Sonic was not so far gone, that the warrior’s heart that beat within the hedgehog’s chest would keep him from going too far.

And that was what made Knuckles let Sonic go. He didn’t approve of Sonic getting the ME while he was in that state, but they had precious little time to talk it over.

And he’d been right.

He wouldn’t quite know what happened between Sonic and Shadow, but seeing them work together to take on the Eclipse Cannon confirmed he’d made the right decision.

And when the effects of the Master Emerald wore off, and Sonic plunged toward the Earth, he trusted Tails’ idea to go after him. Sonic was falling too fast for both of them to leap out and catch up, but with that extra throw from Knuckles, Tails could reach him.

It was only a few moments later that Knuckles leapt from the failing ARK. He watched Tails grab onto Sonic, clinging to him as they plummeted, but then the fox went as limp as the hedgehog. The force of reentry had knocked him unconscious and now they both ragdolled in a freefall.

Knuckles fists were large enough to protect him as he entered the atmosphere, and he kept his eyes locked on the glint of gold as the portal ring slipped from Tails’ hand. His more streamlined form meant he descended faster, his experience with gliding aiding him as his tail acted as a rudder to maneuver the wind sheer to reach them.

Ring caught and thrown, and brothers safely tucked beneath each arm and held close to his body. The change between the atmospheres as they fell through the ring hit him like a punch to the chest, and he barely had enough time to spin them around so he took the brunt of the impact when they landed, before they hit the ground hard.

He had only one thought in his mind. PROTECT.

And when they awoke, and found that they’d been successful, he could go back to being pissed at Sonic for challenging him. Because even though everything had worked out, he didn’t like being put in the position Sonic had put him in. But when Sonic apologized, Knuckles believed he’d seen the severity of his actions. And his heart had stayed pure.

This movie proved that Knuckles is the bestest big brother, and will step up whenever necessary to ensure the safety of his tribe. That even though he’d lightened up, he will still kick ass, and take his role as protector very seriously.

I loved the way they portrayed him. He was so perfect.

~~~

Check out my other Sonic 3 analysis posts

[kalinara]

So as someone who immensely enjoys disliking Charles Xavier, I have to admit, I was utterly delighted when the X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic (in Krakoa age, one of the rare times it did not involve Nature Girl murdering people) decided to do what is, essentially, an "It's a Wonderful Life" plot for the guy.

So if even if you've never seen the original movie that the plot comes from, you've undoubtedly seen a parody or homage, (at least if you're American). Sitcoms particularly like to use the idea, but occasionally even serious shows will do it too. A character goes through some shit, is dreadfully unhappy, and is shown what life would be like without him.

Now the thing about X-Men, is that we did see what the world would be like without Charles Xavier in the Age of Apocalypse storyline. And admittedly, it's pretty bad. Scott has long hair. Enough said.

And of course, the gist of this story is that Xavier ends up in the Age of Apocalypse world (or maybe just dreaming about it), and introduces them to the Krakoa concept and gets a big ego boost.

It is what it is. The part that amuses me is what drives Xavier to the point of needing this ego boost. And it is an AMAZING level of petty.

Since there are a lot of scans, I'm going to put them behind a cut. Enjoy! (These are all from X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #62, by the way.)

So we start off with Xavier's daily schedule:

It's a pretty busy itinerary, admittedly. So now, let's see how Xavier's day actually goes.

We actually start off with Xavier waking up, disgruntled, at 6:00 AM. I'm not actually going to show this, because I am not a morning person either and can't make fun of him for it.

Also, he's shirtless, and not being named Max or Erik, I am not into that. Sorry.

But, let's look at the rest.

6:30's resurrection of Rusty Collins

Xavier was apparently a bit slow, and Hope decided to resurrect the dude without him. That happens. You can hardly blame a teenager for leaping at the chance at grown-up responsibility.

Also, she's a Summers. So it's pretty much inevitable.

--

So then we get the 7:45 meet and greet.

A small child adores Kitty. Kitty is a little meta here, but not wrong. After all, part of what the Marauders do, at this point, is rescue people.

Now, Xavier looks kind of neutral here, but given that this is part of the litany of disappointment, contextually, one must interpret this to mean he is disappointed.

But here's the thing, Chuck. You're not an "X-Man". You're the dude who sends them out from the shadows. You didn't even publicly admit to being a mutant for decades. And while, yes, you did have some physical issues that made being a field operative impossible, it's not like you're going out on rescue missions NOW.

Sorry, I shouldn't rant. There's more to mock.

--

So how does the 9:15 teaching session go? We don't actually know. Presumably it's not notable. Despite the fact that teaching is the one thing Xavier can claim he actually does.

Instead, we skip ahead to the 11:05 parole hearing:

I mean, you can't actually be surprised by this. I'm not even sure that Sabretooth is still IN there. But he's busy torturing people, if he is. So no, he's not getting out.

You could let the kids out though. Poor Idie.

--

This bit makes me laugh:

Got stood up by the guy whose mind you forcibly wiped. You can't be shocked by this, Chuck. That was a fucking dick move and you know it.

(Especially since you decide that Franklin isn't a mutant after all.)

--

How about the X-Corp Review?

Huh, who'd have thought that multi-millionaire business people would have the business shit handled?

I mean, to be fair to Charles, he does seem to never lack money, so he likely has business sense himself. But meh. I can't blame Warren and Monet for wanting to go off and canoodle or whatever.

--

I admit to some sympathy here, just a bit:

I've mentioned that I'm not a really a fan of the Arakko focus on Omega mutants, and how that kind of spoils my enjoyment of Storm basically being amazing up there. (I feel like it'd be more satisfying to have a non-Omega show them that sheer power isn't the only measure of awesome. I did like watching her use teamwork to kick Vulcan's ass though.)

That said, why did you not realize this would be a thing, Xavier? Arakkans make no secret of how their society works.

--

Now, sadly, we skip the legal conference about the X-Babies. Presumably it goes well and no one mocks Xavier, but I'm kind of fascinated by the idea.

But then we get the official Treehouse lighting ceremony:

...are you really feeling left out because your two former child soldiers are getting honored as "mutantkind's greatest heroes".

Fucking REALLY?

Are you living among humans and saving them from various threats? Heck, are you sticking around to help hand out meals, as the mayor mentions? Because you're not down there, and your itinerary says you'll be having a meeting about Orchis with Beast in like an hour.

It presumably goes well, because we skip ahead to sparring with Logan.

This goes pretty straightforward. They have a heart to heart, which I appreciate, because I'm still utterly boggled by that bit in X Lives of Wolverine where he claims that, despite their respective ages, Logan sees Chuck as a father figure.

By the way, Logan doesn't act like a "son" in this scene at all. He does give some legitimately good advice though and asks the question that's the point of all this:

And for FUCK'S SAKE, Xavier. The fact that this is apparently an armor piercing question, after a day where the WORST thing that happened to you was having a few appointments go on without you, getting stood up by a dude who's got every reason to dislike you, and seeing Kitty, Scott and Jean get SOME MEASURE of weak recognition.

THAT's what leads to the "It's a Wonderful Life" moment?

I mean, presumably, the interview with Trish Trilby which happens before the sparring match goes well. Meaning you're going to be on the fucking news as the face of Krakoa again. But that hardly matters because the Mayor of New York considers your SURROGATE CHILDREN to be the greatest heroes.

You couldn't even be HAPPY for them?!

(I also can't help but note that upon meeting AoA Cyclops, who assumes Xavier is an escaped clone and tries to kill him, we see no sign of the ACTUAL character's complexity or depth. He's just a random villain here. Because in the end, it's all about Xavier's ego.

He does refer to Scott as "the most pragmatic man I've ever known", which is a really interesting description that I'm not sure I agree with. But that's an analysis for another day.)

Anyway, as mentioned, the rest of the story is basically just fueling Xavier's ego. I mean, Age of Apocalypse IS a hellhole. (Though a friend of mine suggested once that possibly the only thing Age of Apocalypse proved that Xavier was necessary for is preventing Mr. Sinister from regaining control of Cyclops. I think I'd have to reread the story to see if I agree, but since I hate Xavier, I DO like that thought.) And he does bring them Krakoa and joy.

But I'm just going to bask in the fact that Xavier's deepest pain on Krakoa is that someone occasionally recognizes other people instead of him. I bet he hated Scott's Rolling Stone cover too. :-D

[flowerismi]

Sonic 3 Spoilers Ahead ⚠️⚠️⚠️

I wish and I beg and I pray...

That movie Amy Rose doesn't become the Stereotypical Girl Boss!

I think the stereotypical girl boss in media today is portrait to be perfect and have no flaws. Nothing to improve or better themselves. Successful and strong who never loose.

And I think that is the most boring traits for a female character!

Amy is so much more than a typical girl boss. She makes mistakes. She has moments of weakness and insecurities. She gets beaten and scared. But Amy is also loving and caring. She believes in the best of people. She can be goofy and funny. While also serious and stern. She stands up for what she believes in and is willing to sacrifice for the greater good. She's strong while also super feminine. I mean she even stands up to her closest friends when she believes them to be wrong. That takes a lot of guts if you ask me. Did I mention stubborn and persevering! And soooo much more hahah...

In every media she has positive and negative character traits. And that should not be taken from her!

And I still prefer the many fan made Amy Rose designs so far 😅 But I do believe they will create a new design like they did for all the others (end credit vs final).

Vs

... 😶

[epickiya722]

Quit throwing your pointless headcanons, you're not Gege Akutami, he made YutaMaki Canon. End of discussion, you and your shipping fandom are the worst, ignoring Canon stuff for the sake of stupid ships, NO ONE in Gege's work is gay, those are just sick and stupid headcanons, if you all are so pressed about making up stuff that you claim Gege making, show the proof. Show the proof where it says he stated everyone are gay come on. I dare you

Anon, come here. Come give me a hug, okay? You seem like you need it. Are you having a bad day or something? It's okay, we all have our bad days.

Now, Anon, if you saw my headcanons "pointless", why didn't you just ignore them?

You called me "pressed" but I'm not the one sending a raging message in someone's inbox over, what did you say, headcanons. Anon, I'm very disappointed in you, honestly.

You demand of me to show "proof" for my headcanons, but why? I genuinely don't understand why should I do that. They're headcanons, right? Based on feeling and interests, right? Why do I need evidence for feelings?

Now, I feel like it's only fair that you show me how that ship is canon. Maybe I read the wrong manga, but I didn't see them kiss or anything. Maki didn't even get mentioned in any of the epilogues that I can recall.

"Ignoring canon stuff for the sake of your stupid ships". Actually, Anon, a lot of why people ship is because of canon material. People ain't shipping NobaMaki out of nowhere. In canon, we literally have Maki and Nobara having that cute scene back in season 1. ShokoHime are freaking drinking buddies and are always happy to see each other. I could go all day about the canon stuff between ItaFushi and don't get me started on SatoSugu. Do not get me started!

Seriously, Anon, what could have I possibly have done to you to attack me? Rather aggressive, you know. It's actions like that is why shipping culture ain't getting better.

Think, Anon, think!

Which is worse? Someone posting their headcanons that could easily be ignored and scrolled past? Or someone sending angry messages to someone's inbox over said headcanons that again can be easily ignored?

I don't know about you, but I'm choosing the latter.

I'm guessing, just a guess now, you're one of those Yuta/Maki shippers who get mad that not everyone ships them, right? If like people should only stick to "canon" because "it's what's right, no gay"! On the side, maybe only acknowledges that "Maki loves Yuta and she's only meant to be his wife" and sees her as such and not the great female character she is? Hm?

In your spare time you purposely scroll through the tags of ships you "hate" to target people because maybe you're bored, want to start a little chaos? Feeling miserable that not everyone cares about your ship?

Again, just a guess.

I'm still trying to figure why you came at me all hostile. Like if your ship is "canon" you shouldn't feel threatened by anything I post about my ship. You "won", right? Why are you wasting time here and not celebrating? You can't allow me to suffer in sadness, oh woe is me, Gege didn't make my ship canon? By the way, that's sarcasm.

Unlike you, I'm not angry over people shipping whatever is canon and not canon. I'm rather more interested in posting about my ships. Rather be happy than angry. Try it, Anon. No, I am serious. I think of you stop worrying about what other people ship, you'll be genuinely happier.

Anyways, I hope you have a nice day! (˶ˆᗜˆ˵)

[girl4music]

“So why does She-Ra’s power of love ending work? The simplest way to put it is that She-Ra is a show about love (among other things), so rather than seeming forced and incongruous, making love the heart of the show’s climax makes perfect sense.”

Simply put. As you said.

Because the entire show as an emotional resonance for the audience that is watching is a complex love story.

“Is Power of Love stronger than the Love of Power?”

Nailed it!

And yes. The fact that it is a queer love story between 2 lead female characters adds on to the Power of Love theme because there is more challenges in queer love.

It’s not as easy as straight love and it should be depicted that way. She-Ra pulls no punches on it.

The ending in the theme of Power of Love hits and lands because they really make it something to work towards as a victory by employing how hard and scary it is to love and be loved as a queer person throughout the entirety of the TV show. It’s a real triumph as a culmination of so much difficultly and hardship both lead characters have dealt with - and kids show or not - are honest with. Indy knew this was the RIGHT ending.

The Power of Love is a theme or trope that’s exploited in TV so much that I always just groan and roll my eyes whenever I see it used as a “conclusion” because in essence, it’s just not used in the RIGHT way in that it’s not taken seriously as the very complex theme that it is and it’s why I can’t stand watching pure romance TV shows/films or just romance storytelling in general. The stakes are never high enough so it all just falls very flat.

She-Ra takes the Power of Love theme and trope as a serious conclusion and it resonates so very strongly and powerfully emotionally, narratively, thematically, sonically… Characteristically…

It just works because the show itself is all about love and the power that it can have on an individual life.

It’s the right ending for She-Ra - for the lead characters especially - because it concludes their individual arcs.

Adora learns that she can have love and she doesn’t have to throw away her destiny or duty to have it. That it doesn’t have to be either one or the other. It can be both and that she deserves to have both as a person.

Catra learns that love has always been at the forefront of what she wanted, most desired, she just needed to be brave enough to reach out for it and grab it and hold it and it will be what replaces that dark empty unsafe void that abuse and trauma and hardship has put there.

What they’re saying isn’t just that love wins (that’s obvious), but love heals too. Love is what heals pain.

Whether it be romantic love, maternal love, familial love,… it doesn’t matter. The Power of Love is the point.

The fact a kids show can do that and so many adult shows struggle like hell really just goes to show that people do really believe that love is weak and finite.

I pity those people so much. I know why I’m not like that and it’s because of another TV show where the Power of Love - redemptive love in particular - is present and done so well that I am grounded in its lessons and it will always be what I believe in most.

And She-Ra very much reminds me of that TV show. A children’s animated version of ‘Xena: Warrior Princess’.

@boopblep

@sevenlascaras

@itsaboringname

This is the final post of my not-quite-thesis on why Catradora is the greatest love story in the history of kids TV and arguably the greatest love story in TV history, period. In the first installment, I covered how Catra and Adora’s character arcs compliment each other and how they come apart and together over the course of the series. In the second, I covered how the ambiguities and conflicts of their relationship deepen their story and, by making their relationship conflict the central conflict in the story, make the relationship itself the center of the story. In the third I talked about how important Catra and Adora’s (intense) desire for each other is both in the show’s plot and in its themes. If you want to read these, I’ve linked them below. To tie these together and wrap everything up, I’m going to talk about what these elements add up to on the screen: She-Ra is the rare show that actually pulls off a Power of Love ending. More than pulling it off, She-Ra makes the power of love one of the most inspiring and stirring and exciting themes I could imagine. And I hate power of love endings. So how did they do it?

First, let’s talk about the power of love as a trope in the conclusion of action/adventure fantasy or sci-fi stories. So to clarify, when I say ‘the Power of Love’ I mean the use of love as an explicitly or implicitly magical source of power (or, in more realistic stories, inspiration) that allows a hero to overcome their final challenge and triumph. It’s common, perhaps particularly common in kids media. I suspect one plus it offers to writers is that it gives a romance sideplot more narrative significance, thus tying it into the main plot, plus it’s inspiring and warm and fuzzy and optimistic. But it’s deployed so often that it’s essentially a cliche, and if we look at how it’s used I think we can see why. Here are several ways in which The Power of Love doesn’t work. Most of these involve it not fitting with the rest of the story, or seeming contrived, IE a Deus Ex Machina, but the different reasons for this are important:

Most mundanely, the Power of Love couldn’t have any place in the story’s world. Introducing love as a powerful force at the conclusion of your story when you haven’t mentioned it beforehand can feel like a worldbuilding Deus Ex machina as you change the rules to suit narrative convenience.

More deeply, sometimes The Power of Love doesn’t fit thematically or tonally with the rest of the story. If a story is emotionally realistic and fraught, with lots of shades of gray, pain, and even atrocities, and doesn’t include notes of hope or humanism, throwing in ‘and then he was saved by the power of love’ at the end is practically a Deus Ex Machina, thematically. If you’ve created a cynical world, a gushingly optimistic ending is jarring. It may outright contradict a lot of the show’s other themes. A milder example are shows that are optimistic but not particularly concerned with love, thematically, and how these may do a disservice to their other themes by placing so much emphasis on love (particularly romantic love) in their conclusion. Ideally, a story’s ending should wrap up the themes its concerned itself with - it should provide the audience something to take away. This doesn’t have to be a decisive or triumphant conclusion, it could be an open question or even something that is quite disturbing, but the ending of a story should be -about- the same things that the story was about, generally speaking.

On a similar note, sometimes The Power of Love doesn’t fit narratively. If a romance plot is a fairly minor part of a work of fiction, having the final battle hinge on the power of love derived from that romance plot feels like a -narrative- nonsequitur. If a TV show has spent most of its run time on political plots, training montages and action sequences and three episodes on a romantic arc and then it’s the romantic arc that turns out to be the most decisive in the end, there’s a disconnect between the emphasis that the narrative itself puts on the various threads of the plot, versus what the ending is -saying- their importance is. 

Relatedly, On a character level, if most of the story has been about a character’s growth as an individual and if that has no connection to their romantic relationship then a power of love ending is irrelevant to that development, and might even subvert it (as might be the case if a straight, female protagonist whose been presented as independent is saved by the power of her love for a minor male character). Digging deeper, if characters aren’t motivated by love, if it isn’t want drives them through the story, then making love the narrative hinge of the story’s climax doesn’t fit with what the characters want and thus who they are.

Finally, and more philosophically, generally speaking these kinds of endings just feel kind of glib and false. Not only optimistic, they feel naive or even dishonest in telling us that the power of love can save us. Because nothing is ever that simple in our lives, is it? Love isn’t simple. It is often painful, fraught, and difficult. Stories that ignore this and simply celebrate love’s power aren’t true to our experience. Put another way, stories can fail to land a power of love ending when they don’t understand what love even is.

Now all of these reasons are closely related. A story that doesn’t provide much narrative emphasis on love probably doesn’t have love as a major theme. And a story that hasn’t explored love in any kind of depth will naturally feel kind of false and glib when it concludes that The Power of Love WIll Save Us. Really, this applies to any thematic conclusion, not just this one - whenever a story’s ending doesn’t reflect what the story itself is about and whenever it doesn’t show thought and depth in how it delivers it, it feels false and hollow. Looking back at how much I’ve enjoyed, or not enjoyed, various endings, I think that this explains a lot of my reactions.

To use an example, Steven Universe was a great, complex, emotionally nuanced and often very dark show with a lot of fascinating themes and insights into human psychology and relationships that ended its Diamond Age arc on a simple message about accepting yourself, and I feel like that’s one of several reasons the Diamond’s ‘redemption’ (such as it is) rings hollow (there’s more wrong with that than this, though). None of that complexity or nuance or darkness or depth was addressed, let alone incorporated into the actual ending of the original TV run (I won’t get into Future and the Movie). At least, I didn’t see it (then again, this is very much tied in with my larger feelings about SU, which is my frustration that it didn’t double down on and follow through with my favorite elements and characters, which I loved so much, and instead began to emphasize simpler and more easily digested themes and easier answers).

So why does She-Ra’s power of love ending work? The simplest way to put it is that She-Ra is a show about love (among other things), so rather than seeming forced and incongruous, making love the heart of the show’s climax makes perfect sense. But this is me, so let’s dive into the details of this - how is She-Ra about love, and how does Catra and Adora’s relationhip’s culmination in the kiss tie that up?

The first key is that She-Ra is -narratively- and structurally a love story, not simply an adventure story with a romance plot. As I mentioned in the first essay of this series, Catra and Adora’s arcs are interwoven as they diverge and then converge over the show’s run. More than that, their arcs are compliments to each other, and at the end of them Adora and Catra have grown into more compatible people. Seen through the lens of their relationship, both Catra and Adora’s development is about them growing into women who are capable of loving each other (as well as growing into their own women, and these two are linked). 

In addition, from the very outset the show has established how central Adora and Catra are to each other, and has also shown just how big a hole they leave in each other’s lives, and how only their reconciliation can fill that hole. Put another way, the converse of Adora’s statement in The Promise that ‘Nothing bad can happen as long as we have each other’ is proven in the worst way possible when Adora and Catra both nearly self-destruct when they are apart from each other, because they are missing the person who understands them well enough to help them when they need it most. That, and Adora and Catra -want- each other so much (see the third part of this series), and its established so clearly that to be loved and wanted is central for both of them. Catra doesn’t think she deserves it, and Adora doesn’t think she can even -ask- for it (or even fully think about it) without betraying her destiny or her duty. It’s only at the heart that this central question is answered with their kiss. By making both the depth of their affection and the strength of their desire for each other clear throughout the show, Noelle and the showrunners sell us on how much this relationship and that kiss mean to these characters.

Moreover, because the conflict between Catra and Adora drives the central conflict of the story (as I mentioned in my second essay), the final and decisive resolution of this conflict (indeed, it’s transformation into love) in the kiss is the perfect culmination to the show’s central arc. Rather than a final fight, Season 5 of She-Ra shows Catra and Adora working through the root causes of their conflict now that they’ve grown as people - it is a dramatization of a couple working out their relationship problems, and somehow it is actually riveting TV as opposed to feeling like a John Gottman book in narrative form.

Just as She-Ra is narratively a love story, thematically it is also a Show About Love, or perhaps more precisely, about relationships and how people can relate to each other in healthy and unhealthy ways. So much of what all the characters struggle with are relational questions - questions of how they can be a good friend, how they can be loyal yet true to themselves and their ideals, how they can honor other people's autonomy while also looking out for them, etc. Not just Catra and Adora but all the characters have learned more about being there for each other, about respecting themselves, and about admitting when they’re wrong and making it right. More mundanely, the power of love (as an inspiration and also a source of magical power) has been present since the first season.

While a lot of this exploration has been about friendship, the show has also explored the power of desire as well as the things that keep us from naming and acting on our desires. Catra and Adora’s love for each other, while appropriate for a Y-7 show, is not desexualized or abstracted, and this also gives it a realism and a poignancy, as well as a power. Among other things, it very much feels like a real relationship between two early 20-somethings.  

Moreover, She-Ra has not pulled its punches about how messy all of this is, and I think this is key. Like I said earlier, She-Ra understands that love isn’t always a good thing. It understands the power of love, good and bad - “for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.” The show has explored obsession, jealousy, control, incompatible values and the psychological hang ups and traumas that keep us from being vulnerable, as well as the havoc that can wreck. Instead of showing all the relationships in the show as uniformly good and supportive, its explored dynamics that are unhealthy or even disturbing, and in Catra’s case, we’ve seen just how twisted love can become, and how closely linked it is with hate. But then the show has shown how people can choose to grow and change and heal. The show, and its characters, have confronted the dark side of human relationships head on and triumphed. So instead of feeling glib, naive and possibly insincere, the ending of She-Ra feels hard-earned and triumphant as well as genuinely moving and insightful.

Another way of looking at this is to say that She-Ra has been deploying the Power of Love all along - seemingly naively in season 1, but with the disintegration of Catra and Adora’s relationship serving as a kind of tragic, sinister counterpoint to all the Princess Alliance’s celebrations of togetherness and friendship. Then it complicates the Power of Love in season 2, especially showing how it fails (or perhaps betrays) Catra when she lets what I think is her lingering love for Shadow Weaver make her vulnerable to manipulation. Ironically, so much of Catra’s schemes in the first parts of the show only work as well as they do because she’s similarly exploiting Adora’s feelings for her, though unlike Shadow Weaver I don’t think she fully understands that’s what she’s doing (but Catra has very much adopted Shadow Weaver’s view that Love is a Weakness). And the Power of Love isn’t enough to keep Adora and Catra together in the portal - indeed that ends with Adora decking Catra, Angella sacrificing herself and Adora sending Catra off with a death glare. Season 4 is very much about the -failure- of the power of love, perhaps because both Glimmer and Catra choose power over trust and connection. This is shown most brutally in ‘Boys Night Out’, which plays like a dark parody of the sometimes too-pat, too-simple conclusions of Season 1 episodes, and leads right into Fractures. So after 13 episodes celebrating the power of love (with those weird undertones from Catradora’s...complexity), the show spends 26 episodes subverting the original optimistic set up and pointing out that it’s much more complicated than that, and sometimes people who love each other hurt each other, and somtimes love isn’t enough to fix it (which to be fair, is very much present in Season 1 in Promise, which is hindsight sets up the tone of the show much more than the cheery end of The Battle of Brightmoon). But Season 4 ends with DT’s speech making the subtext of Season 4 text - that Catra’s domineering and posturing are there mostly to cloak her underlying need. Season 5, then, is all about repairing the rifts of the past 4 seasons (starting with the wreckage Glimmer leaves at the end of S4) and making something better. 

Indeed, the question ‘Will Love Win?’ and ‘Is Power of Love Stronger than the Love of Power’? Is central to the show. As I mentioned above, this is spelled out most explicitly by Shadow Weaver, but it is an idea held by Hoard Prime as Well: both believe that Love is a Weakness, an irrational prejudice or a passion to exploit. Both Catra and Adora have internalized this, in different ways - Catra perhaps has better internalized the idea that love is an exploitable weakness, while Adora has internalized the idea that it is an irrational distraction from What Must be Done. Throughout the entire series, we see characters destroy themselves by following the logic of Shadow Weaver and Prime, and finding redemption and grace when they embrace love and vulnerability instead. There is so much more to say about Shadow Weaver and her importance, here, and more about Prime, but this is a Catradora essay, so let’s just say that Catra and Adora’s narrative arc is a refutation of both Prime and Shadow Weaver’s worldview. They are at their lowest when they reject  their love for each other, and at their strongest when they embrace it (and each other). So when Catra and Adora kiss, they’re not just answering the great question that the narrative has been setting up in our minds (when are these two just going to make out already!?) but answering the question the show’s been posing all along. Love wins.

Last but not least, it’s important that the ending of She-Ra is queer as all hell. This isn’t a story about the power of straight love, and that’s important. Not only is the power of heterosexual love is a cliche; when used to reinforce the primacy of monogamous heterosexual marriage and normative family structures (and their implied gender roles), it can be downright oppressive.* By contrast, celebrating the power of queer love is inherently a rebellious, defiant act of joy. This is especially true when queer love has been shown in its warts-and-all, messy, passionate fullness. Because that reflects our own love when it isn’t neat or tidy or perfectly well-adjusted. It reflects us when we’re not well-adjusted or self-aware or ‘together’. And it affirms that there is still so much power in our love, in us. Maybe the power to save the world.

And it’s so fucking hokey, and so fucking sincere, and yet so thoughtful, and that’s why I love this show. So much media for adults is one step away from being some James Incandenza film from Infinite Jest - a meaningless stylistic exercise or homage to some other, more sincere, more meaningful work of art (Quentin Tarantino, I am looking at you. Yes you.) She-Ra has the fucking guts to be about something, even something as mushy as The Power of Love, and to mean something. It goes for it, and it sticks the landing. And in times like these, that’s what I fucking need, and I don’t think I’m the only one.

Well Noelle, you Magnificent Bastard, you pulled it off. I’m still kind of blown away.

*Yes, you could do a non-terrible story about the power of heterosexual love - in many ways a lot of the novels of Ursula K LeGuin and the films of Jane Campion are about this, and I fucking love both as you may have noticed. But celebrating queer love will have another element that makes it more interesting. Queer love stories are operating on an additional level.

Previous essays in this series:

[whatdidtheydotomygirljinx]

Why Episode 7 is the worst episode in all of Season 2.

This fuckass Timebomb ship is the worst thing to ever happen to Jinx's character.

Ok so finally we're gonna talk about Boy Savior Complex and AU Girl Next Door Powder

This is gonna be long. Also, we're not only talking about Episode 7 and Timebomb, we're also discussing Jinx's suicide attempt and how her character's resolution is actually really sad.

First of all, Jinx never liked Ekko back. Season 1 makes it pretty clear that they're friends, and that Ekko has an unrequited crush on her. His feelings are clear, but she never shows any reciprocation. And, no, the art book that came out after season 2 concluded doesn't count. You can't just put "the boy with the unrequited crush" trope in your story and then retract it.

And now to get to the serious part... who the fuck is AU Powder?

Ekko gets transported into this alternate timeline where we the audience soon realize everyone is happy and none of the conflicts that plague the original story exist and everything is perfect and "as it should be". So this is the ideal world and the one where all these characters reach their highest form of happiness. Even Silco is back with Vander.

And in this ideal world Powder is... a waitress at The Last Drop? I rewatched this episode and I genuinely tried to pay attention to see what does she actually DO. Like what occupies her time in this universe. And between Vander's line about how she's "too smart to be spending her life in a bar" and the fact that she is at one point behind the counter (while Ekko is studying his books... imma get back to that) and the fact that we never see her in any other places besides the bar and her hideout and that one time Ekko takes her out... this seems to be it.

So in the perfect timeline, Powder has decided to stay back with her family once she's grown up, to remain with Vander and help him run his bar, and implicitly has no big ambitions of her own, and definitely no ideas that she would sacrifice her family life for.

Now... Powder/Jinx as a family person is not actually wrong characterization. This is pretty congruent with her character in season 1. Her entire story and literally everything revolves around her family and not much else. When she's Powder she's attached at the hip to Vi and when she's Jinx she doesn't seem too interested in the world outside of her hideout and Silco's office. So considering all we know, yes, Jinx does place family first.

And this is pretty assumed by the show. Now, I also characterized her like this in season 1! She is a family girl. And Jinx happens to have all these people with big revolutionary ideas around her, be it Vander or Vi or Silco or Sevika, but she herself never actually seems much interested in that. She has a small moment in arc 1 of season 1, which i think it's significant to mention comes right after Vi plants the idea in her head. It would've been one thing if these ideas stayed with her, but post time-skip she doesn't bring anything like that up again. She mostly acts like a bored teenager whenever Silco drags her to the river to tell her all about his tragic past that radicalized him. Overall, any time she exhibits any revolutionary spirit, it seems to actually be more of a personal vendetta for her.

So, okay, Jinx is a family girl and she's never really actually been about all these big ideas, I can agree with the writers that this represents her character.

It's just that... this much?

Man, COME ON. There were people making "Everything's Perfect" AUs since season 1, and they almost all had Powder be a student at the Academy. This girl was clearly passionate about her little inventions, her bombs didn't work but she kept and kept trying. You're telling me she would be completely uninterested in learning more about engineering, in getting a formal education in that, in doing anything with it? Since in this world, there's peace between Piltover and Zaun, we can't talk about any barriers to her becoming a student. And, for that matter, in League lore there's an academy in Zaun, too, that she could have attended.

Even Ekko points it out, man. Now, to the writers' credit, the story acknowledges quite clearly that Powder choosing to stay with Vander and help him run the bar is weird. It just... never explains it. Like why is she like this, though? Let's throw out some possibilies:

(1) in some scenes, there seems to be a little "jinxiness" in this Powder, too. maybe she's aware of that side of her, and doesn't like it, and fears that if she went off and did what she wanted, and was truly herself, it would ruin what she has, "things are good now" (in this case, this Powder is actually a tragic character. nowhere near ideal timeline stuff.)

(2) in act 1 of season 1, the reason Vi makes Powder stay back is because she fears losing her, after Vander tells her that she might lose Powder in a confrontation with Piltover. since Vi dies in this universe, on a job, maybe in that moment Powder internalizes that rocking the boat in any way is bad. Vi was spirited and had big ideas and wanted to be someone and it led to her death. so maybe this Powder gave up on all of that then. Vander seems like the type to give her a "look what happens" speech, too.

But these are just my theories. This doesn't ever get properly explained in the show. So then maybe Powder is actually content like this and likes this and maybe these people constantly pestering her that she could do and be more are just annoying nuisances to her, same as Sevika is an annoying nuisance to Jinx in the original timeline (although there it makes significantly more sense).

(Also, why is Vi even dead in this universe? They could've easily found another way for Piltover and Zaun to make peace. Guess Jinx doesn't even get to be happy in the Perfect Timeline, goddamn, girl really is cursed after all.)

If you're gonna spend an entire episode on fix-it fanfiction that is supposed to pander to fans and give them, on screen, what they always wanted to see, why didn't we get grown up Powder in a cute academy uniform, being a top student and working on school projects and being loved by her professors cause girl was a prodigy.

Instead... this is Ekko in this universe, actually.

Ekko is the "big idea guy" and he's working on an entry to the innovations fair and he gets to be Heimerdinger's pupil. To her credit, this Powder still seems to be very smart, Ekko comes to her for help cause he can't actually build his invention alone. But she only uses her intellect to help Ekko. I always thought it would be Powder who would be Heimerdinger's pupil. Instead, here, she's hanging off Ekko's arm, and being all cute, as he discusses Important Stuff with Heimerdinger, stuff that she doesn't get to be privy to, but that she is expected to help them with anyway.

So AU Powder is this very smart girl who is helping her boyfriend build his entry for a contest because he can't actually do it himself but it's okay she'll help him of course and no he can take all the credit she doesn't want to be recognized or anything or to go to like University that would be crazy she's doing it cause she loves him and she's sweet like that and she likes to help others and she doesn't have any character traits that make her difficult she's just a cute funny and relatable down-to-earth girl and she pokes fun at Ekko but like in a loving way and she likes being a waitress and she'd rather be recognized for her dancing skills and................ I'm sorry.....................

So you're telling me Ekko gets transported into an alternate timeline in which his childhood crush who never liked him back is stripped of all her personality, has no goals or ambitions of her own and has no interests besides being his supportive girlfriend, is devoid of all the traits that might have made a relationship with her difficult, and despite the fact that she never showed interest in him in the original world, here she is head over heels for him, always acting all lovey-dovey with him and being nothing but a cute and affectionate puppy.

This is every little boy's with an unrequited crush dream right here. Man, Ekko won more than any other character in this show. And she's mentally ill, too! He's hit the jackpot. Y'all what the fuck am I watching.

I'm sorry but literally ALL I COULD FUCKING SEE WHEN I WAS WATCHING THIS STUPID DANCE SCENE was that in this universe Powder is a good christian girl who stays home with her dad and loves her boyfriend and is always happy to help WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS GOOD GIRL PROPAGANDA get this bullshit OFF my fucking screen I cannot fucking believe what I'm watching here

Moving on.

Ekko has hurt Jinx more than any other character in the show.

Physically speaking.

Ekko is the one who does this.

Which leads to this.

Which ultimately leads to this.

It has always confused me and it continues to confuse me why no one in this fandom treats Jinx being injected with shimmer as a big deal, when this is the worst thing that happens to her post episode 3. And it's a point of no return for her character, she can't undo this. And yeah I know everyone thought Shimmer Jinx was cool in season 2, but her being turned into a half-dead monster is not a good progression for her character. She also goes through agonizing pain in the process.

Singed agrees.

It's Ekko who forces Jinx between death and being turned into a half-dead corpse. It's actually insane to me that no one in the fandom considers this and that this is never brought up in the show. If they wanted Jinx and Ekko to be a thing, you'd think this would be a big deal in their relationship. Ekko has changed her irreparably, for the worse.

Idk, is the guy who beat you up and left you for dead really boyfriend material?

This is the first moment Jinx shows any interest in Ekko. Interesting timing.

I'm pretty sure she doesn't even mention his name post act 3 of season 1. She doesn't wonder about whether he's alright after the bridge fight (for that matter, neither does he). The first time when Jinx looks at him with any hint of affection is when she's standing on a ledge, ready to throw herself off.

Jinx has no one anymore at this point. Her old family is long gone. Silco is dead. Isha is dead. Vi has decided having a good time with Caitlyn is more important than her. This is Jinx at her lowest moment. Does she like him back or is he just the only one who showed up?

Ekko is a winner once again. His crush has been abandoned by everyone, and he is the only one left to comfort her. Luck like this is hard to come by. And of course, she's gonna be super impressed and touched by any sliver of affection now. Probably gonna look at him with big, grateful eyes, and see him as her savior. I'm disgusted.

By the way, this should have never been Ekko. If Vi was too busy with fucking Caitlyn, this should have been Sevika. Sevika is the only character who has known Jinx since she was a child, and who has been with her through every iteration. And she's the only character who has never cared whether she's Jinx or Powder or any other persona she decides to take up, to her she'll always just be an annoying kid. And to Jinx this might actually be comforting. Sevika is the only one who has a realistic perspective on Jinx, and recognizes her flaws, so her talking her down might have actually been very touching, and there are things she could tell her that neither Vi nor Silco could.

(The fuck could Ekko tell her, honestly? That he went off to an alternate universe where she was his perfect girlfriend, so she shouldn't kill herself actually? What the fuck.)

I also wanna talk a bit about Jinx's resolution as a character. Not her fake-out death, but her in the last episode. I think it's interesting that everyone who had a connection to Jinx is gone, namely Silco and Isha. Silco and Isha are both people she chooses, actively, and she is herself around. Instead, now, she's back to Vi and Ekko, the same people that were with her in her childhood. This is a full circle moment for her.

This is Powder right here, guys. Powder was a little girl who made a mistake and then she went off on this journey where she met new people and she was someone else and it was fun for a while but ultimately she realized what she was doing was bad and she came back to her family and is ready to be that little, sweet girl again. The problem with the Powder-Jinx dichotomy is that Jinx, as much as she represents all this bad stuff that the show has made clear, also represents Freedom and Power, two things that Powder definitively lacked. Her coming full circle, coming back to Powder, is not actually a good resolution for her. She's right back where she started, with Vi and Ekko. Her venturing off on her own and making her own decisions was ultimately a mistake that only lead to her suffering. We can take this all the way back to when she decides to venture off on her own with that bomb, despite Vi's disagreement, and the consequences plague her for the rest of the story.

I know everyone thought it looked super cool when she lifted off that hood, but I could only think it was tragic.

[commsroom]

What is it you love so much about Eiffel? Asking as a fellow Eiffel Lover, I'm just interested in your response!

i've been holding onto this one for a while, in part because i know there's no complete answer to this and i could probably just talk forever, but it's almost his birthday, so... in the spirit of dougmas:

what i love about eiffel as a character is that he feels like a real person. he's full of these very human contradictions: he's a coward, he can be exceptionally brave, he's considerate and thoughtful, he's got his head up his ass, he's a mediator by nature, he's frustratingly stubborn and will dig his heels in about the pettiest things, he's very technically capable, he's a master of weaponized incompetence. he's stupid in ways only a very smart person can be, and has a certain kind of self-hating self-centeredness. he has very firmly held morals and wants to do right by people, and he struggles to reconcile those beliefs with the unforgivable things he's nonetheless done; he has very real and serious flaws that the narrative doesn't flinch away from, but neither exonerates nor condemns him for. he's so entangled with the heart of the show, its themes and relationships, that you couldn't have wolf 359 without doug eiffel, and - as a friend of mine once said - if you put eiffel in any other show, he'd turn it into something resembling wolf 359 as well. and as gabriel urbina said about pan-pan: "he's the communications officer; without him, they stop communicating." he's a compassionate portrayal of an addict, and a very real and nuanced example of a kind-hearted man who's still used to thinking of himself as the "default" kind of person, and is still learning how to deconstruct the biases that come with that.

what i love about eiffel as a person is that he's someone i'd want in my life. he's a very sincere and emotionally honest person; he doesn't have hidden agendas, and you know exactly where you stand with him. he hates authority, he hates work, and he won't suck up or pretend otherwise - in fact, he'll create more work for himself if it means he can avoid doing his job, on principle. if he has a grievance about something, oh, you'll know. at the same time, he has this infectious enthusiasm about the things he loves, and the things that excite him, and he's a geeky guy into primarily 80s/90s nostalgic media who doesn't feel the need to gatekeep. i love his voice, i love how expressive he is, i love how you can hear the same mannerisms you can see in the live show just in the very open-body-language way he emotes. he has a very distinct former class clown type of energy, and i think that goes hand in hand with an underlying loneliness. he can be pretty clueless, he speaks before he thinks and has chronic foot-in-mouth disease, but… doug eiffel is the kind of person who would notice if someone was standing alone in the corner at a party, and would go out of his way to make them feel included. he's good at getting people to open up, even if it's in spite of themselves, even if it's while they're rolling their eyes at him. he's a staunch pacifist who - even when things piss him off - doesn't react to conflict with violence or threats of violence, and he can't stand to have things stay bottled up: if there's one thing eiffel wants everyone to do, it's talk about it. whatever it is. he has a good balance of traits that make him feel genuine and warm without coming across preachy or suspiciously softened; he's also very much still a gross dirtbag with a lot of annoying flaws typical of some average guy, and that's a huge part of his appeal to me. he's good with his hands. he likes building stuff and taking things apart. he's rough around the edges in ways that reflect his life experience, and he's just… a guy who has lived a life, who has a lot of life experience, but hasn't made a lot of true friends in the process. he's gotten used to being lonely, and gotten used to telling himself he's fine with it, and something in me really aches for that.

his birthday is a good - and timely - example: he's a man in his 30s still holding onto childhood hurt, having his birthday forgotten and overshadowed by christmas. i'm also a christmas hater, so it's nice to have something else to celebrate and prioritize, and i like imagining his disgust at all of the unavoidable holiday trappings; it makes me feel less alone. i wouldn't say i relate to eiffel, more that i feel we have compatible issues, and it's not a secret that he's the type of guy i find attractive. he feels like a real person that i already know and love, and at the same time he's representative of the kind of person i'd like to know, like his life would fit comfortably into mine.

[ilikekidsshows]

This is related to something mentioned on one of your asks (apologies if you did talk about it and I just didn't understand) but do you think calling Adrien a sexual harasser is comparable to calling Marinette a bad leader in terms of criticizing characters?

--

This is literally what I meant with my big rant on people who use “it's all just bad writing” to sweep aside bigger and bigger problems with the show. We're all used to excusing some level of bad writing from this show, but, like, usually people have a threshold for how much bullshit they're willing to swallow. I could excuse Cat Noir not getting the hint, just like I could excuse Marinette following Adrien everywhere and knowing his schedule (this is the actual equivalent point of comparison). They were quirky about it. Ladynoir was mutually flirty even if Cat Noir was too serious with it sometimes, and Marinette's nonsense was often funny. I mostly treated the stalker/harasser takes as opinions. I could see why people would view the characters that way, but I could see enough outside it to look past it. It was beneath my bullshit threshold.

“Marinette does practically everything wrong on screen but we praise her for things she didn't do so she did everything right actually” is past my bullshit threshold. You can't show the exact opposite of what you mean on screen and then claim something different is going on. Ladybug treats her teammates with different expectations, her rules are situational and conditional, she picks favorites, she keeps valuable information from her teammates, making it harder for them to do their jobs. Her failures directly lead to bad consequences. But, because she cried about it and was instantly forgiven while taking no steps to improve, that means she's actually the greatest superhero and leader ever. Like, that's a big plate full of bullshit and I’m done eating it.

Also, like, we really need to take the level of my personal betrayal into account when it comes to willingness to swallow bullshit. Like, Marinette being a bad leader and a terrible hero wouldn't bother me nearly as much if she wasn't also an abuse apologist. Marinette, when faced with the choice between doing what Adrien's abuser wanted and considering literally anyone else's opinion on what Adrien might need or want, picked the abuser’s opinion. Marinette picked Adrien's abuser over him. Like, if that hadn't happened, I wouldn't be near this angry. If Astruc hadn't smugly tweeted about how perfectly this decision ties in with her choice in The Bubbler, retroactively ruining one of my favorite episodes for me, I wouldn't be looking back at all of Marinette's failings and seeing how they led her to that moment. The writers practically invited me to do so. Even fans who still adore the show and Marinette think Marinette turning to abuse apologia makes sense. A lot of Marinette's character flaws lead to her making that choice.

Stalking Adrien > disregard towards Adrien's personhood > not considering what Adrien would want when she makes excuses for Gabriel

Lying/secret-keeping > constantly keeping things from people when the truth makes her uncomfortable or look bad > lies about Gabriel because she thinks it will make Adrien's emotional reaction less volatile

Repeatedly insisting kids are safe with their parents regardless of evidence to the contrary > discounting victims’ testimonies > trusting Gabriel's opinion on how Adrien should be treated

Unequal leadership > treating people as objects to be controlled instead of equals to negotiate with > thinking she even has the right to lie to Adrien about his dad

As you can see, a lot of the patterns of Marinette's flaws lean on attitudes that explain almost too perfectly why Marinette would trust Adrien's confirmed abuser's opinion on things relating to Adrien, even when she sees the sensory deprivation chamber Gabriel put Adrien in. Almost all of the bad writing choices regarding Marinette now connect to one of the worst, if not the worst, moments of the entire series so far. And, because it's all so interconnected and all-encopassing to Marinette's character now that I can't just ignore it. I can't ignore any part of it. The writers are making me question Marinette's integrity all the way back in the first season, because many of her flaws were already established from the start of the series.

In addition to all this, Miraculous functions on Protagonist-Centered Morality, aka, the things the protagonist does are meant to be seen as the morally good thing to do or at least a valid choice even when the consequences are "unexpectedly" bad. Adrien’s “harassment” is never framed as the right way to act, but Marinette’s abuse apologia, disrespect of Adrien’s personhood and abuses of power as team leader are all treated as morally being on the same ground as not doing those things. “Lying to him or telling him the truth will lead to very different consequences with their share of happy and sad moments,” my ass.

Adrien being a sexual harasser, Marinette being a stalker, Marinette being a bad leader and hero and Marinette’s abuse apologia are all bad writing, but not all bad writing is written equally bad, if you catch my drift.

[wisegirl25]

I am SO tired of people comparing Timebomb to Ghostflower, do NOT insult my babies Jinx and Ekko like that

Timebomb absolutely clears Ghostflower anyday

First of all, I feel like most of y’all are just “drawing parallels” where there really aren’t many because they’re both animated interracial couples (black dude/white girl) with dimensional issues

Their actual relationships are NOTHINGGG alike

Timebomb has HISTORY. They were best friends, they were enemies, and they LOVE each other. They both have trauma and difficult situations. They live in a society where they face insane oppression and class struggle. THAT is their story.

No hate to Ghostflower fans but that ship is genuinely horrible and has nowhere near the level of connection that Timebomb does, it’s very surface-level imo like a silly little teenage romance.

And Jinx, as much as she was ready to kill Ekko, never sold his identity out to Silco even though she knew he was the leader of the Firelights…just saying. (Looking at you Gwen)

Timebomb is what Ghostflower THINKS it is

And when it comes to the actual characters, they’re not similar at all. You cannot tell me you can draw a SINGLE similarity between Jinx and Gwen (or even Powder and Gwen) that isn’t completely surface level. I can see where some people come from with Miles and Ekko (they both paint murals and are smart Ig) but still I feel like y’all are just saying this because they’re both black. Miles is an awkward teenager facing the burden of being Spiderman, whereas Ekko is the leader of a gang/group that is actively fighting against the oppression they as a group face to make their lives better. He’s shaped by his environment. Ekko is also genius on an insane level in comparison to Miles…

Anyways no hate to anyone who likes Ghostflower (or these characters because I may have dissed them a lil bit) but if I see one more person acting like the two ships are the same I’m actually gonna cry

And do not say “it’s not that serious it’s all for fun blah blah blah” because it is, to me it is

[thundergrace]

You guys aren't going to believe this.....I can't believe it myself, but this is an 8.5/10! Man, either my standards are lower or sapphic films have just leveled up in recent years! Both things could be true lol. These two have such amazing chemistry - like easy chemistry. It's been a long time since I wanted two people to kiss so badly. The key in this one was the dialog. The dialog is just so natural and it helps these two be so believable as you watch them just fucking vibe the fuck out and fall in love. The actress who plays Bailey wrote, directed, AND edited it so props to her. If these two actresses aren't dating in real life, I think their partners should be concerned. It's that serious! It's not even sexual chemistry, it's intimacy - like that "I know you on a spiritual level" type shit

The reason I didn't give it 10/10 is just that I just didn't find the backdrop of the story interesting, and the secondary characters didn't really do anything for me.

[anxiousalene]

The Ithaca Saga 👑🏹

*Warning mentions of SA and this is 2 parts*

Ok, let’s do this one last time. OK, SO THIS ENTIRE SAGA HAD ME IN TEARS LIKE THOSE LAST TWO SONGS WERE DEVASTATING. BUT TO GO IN PROPER ORDER, SO ANNA ABSOLUTLY COOKED AS PENELOPE AND IS ANYONE REALLY SURPRISED? WE GET TO SEE PENELOPE SING THE CHALLENGE AND ITS JUST AHHHH. I love how she sounds so determined in the beginning but after the storm she starts to sound slightly more resigned like she isn’t accepting the suitors but might slightly believe that Odysseus might not come back and she doesn’t know how much longer she can fight. ALSO JORGE WHEN I CATCH YOU JORGE FOR CONTINUOUSLY BRINGING BACK THE WAITING MOTIF AND IT HURTING ME EVERY TIME. AND HAVING THE SUITORS IN THE BACKGROUND LIKE THEYRE OUTSIDE HER DOOR. And then it’s hold them down, Antinous they could never make me like you. On a serious note, he’s honestly the scariest character in the show, because he’s so realistic. All the other monsters and gods are exaggerated to the point where they don’t feel realistic but I feel like almost everyone has met a man similar to Antinous who believes he’s entitled to power and women. Aaron Alexander does a great job of portraying darkness in his voice that Antinous would carry. I love the slight growls and cries in his voice when he sings. I know it’s just music but when Antinous talks about assaulting Penelope it makes me sick to my stomach as someone who has been SA’d. You almost have to appreciate how disgusting Jorge makes you feel with those lyrics. It makes the audience appreciate his death so much more. Back on a lighter note, Odysseus is probably one of my FAVORITE like fighting songs, like he is done playing games and just goes INSANE. I love how Jorge compares the palace to what they did to Troy. AND THE VOICES IN THE BACKGROUND SAYING HIS NAME BECAUSE HES THE MONSTER NOW AND LIKE IN THE PROPHECY. ALSO THE “We know these halls the odds can be tilted” and the response of “You don’t think I know my own palace? I built it.” GOES SO HARD, ITS UP THERE WITH “Next to my wife”. I love how one of the suitors is like hey you killed our leader like lets us go?? You know open arms? Which is really dirty tactic considering Polities And Odysseus goes F*** THAT and slaughters him. AND THEN ITS ATHENA’S MOTIF WITH TELEMACHUS AND I SCREAMED BECAUSE I KNEW SHE WAS COMING BACK I KNEW IT. Mico and Jorge sound so similar it’s not even funny. Then we get the “Hands in the air” line and Odysseus just really doesn’t like party people, or his idea of fun is slaughtering a bunch of predators and that I can respect. And when the suitors grab Telemachus in the weapons room, I love how it’s sped up so you can hear them being frantic AND THE ELECTRIC GUITAR IS GOING CRAZY WHEN ODYSSEUS SAYS “Mercy?” LIKE HE GOING TO TEAR THEM LIMB FROM LIMB, and the lyrics “my mercy has drowned, it died to bring me home” LIKE IN THE VENGEANCE SAGA WITH ALL THE CREW IS CRAZY. On a darker note again, I appreciate how Jorge straight up says what the suitors were planning to do to Penelope was rape and doesn’t dance around the topic anymore with the lyrics. Then, we hear all of the screams of the suitors as they are violently slaughtered as they should be. Then, it’s the first of the final two songs that made me SOB 😭 Like Mico and Jorge did this scene SO WELL. (go to the 2nd part)

[reallife6anoufriev6boy6]

father ts personal project?

i wanted to post a character i made to go along with one of my friends characters, so this is me posting it!

please note he is supposed to be an OVER EXAGGERATION of the tcc and what people think we are like. its not serious/how i see anyone - its all just jokes.

Kenneth Dylan Ainsley

18 years old

he/him

homosexual

୭ 💽 ✧ ˚. ᵎᵎ 📓

dylan was born into jewish, average american family and grew up lower-middle class. he lived(s) in a mediocre neighborhood in a somewhat okay house. its falling apart, but is good for the time being.

his parents fight constantly like the average american couple and theyve subjected dylan and his younger brother, mason.

his life isnt very eventful and he tries his best to keep it that way.

hes close with his grandparents who he calls “bubbe” and “zayde”. they are both retired school teachers and they help him with his extensive school work and school applications. he spends a lot of time at their house in the guest bedroom, but when his parents saw his columbine tattoos he was disowned and kicked out. he went to go live with his grandparents.

he no longer believes in judaism but instead believes in reincarnation and spirituality. he hopes to he reborn as black cat.

୭ 💽 ✧ ˚. ᵎᵎ 📓

dylan is 5’7 and rather chubby, weighing about 155 pounds rather then the average 148 for his height.

he has shaggy, long brown hair that almost looks black and he has plenty of acne and freckles on his face and body.

he wears brown, thin framed glasses and lots of flannel shirts with leather coats and jeans. he wears boots mostly as well and sometimes he will wear band shirts or ones that correlate with bis favorite crime cases.

he has self harm scars all over his body as well all varying in how bad they are. he has some words and symbols carved in as well.

he doesnt seem the type, but he also has tattoos. he has dirk striders shoulder tattoo as well as dylans cross and “wrath” tattooed on his body. he also has erics shotgun and dylans tec-90 tattooed.

he struggles with mental health disorders and asthma #nerd and is on a slue of medications and he always has an inhaler with him.

୭ 💽 ✧ ˚. ᵎᵎ 📓

dylan owns three pets. two rats and one black cat all respectively named “juke” “joint” and “jezebel” after the kmfdm song.

dylan is constantly studying and working on school applications. hed rather be doing that then hanging out with friends or meeting people. he cares too much about his grades and future. his grandparents try to push him to go out but he doesnt.

he is a total nerd and he loves superheroes and all of that kind of stuff. he collects comic books and cds and loves to watch shows like southpark and the simpsons.

he also really likes homestuck and the tcc. his favorite homestuck character is dirk strider and his favorite case is columbine.

he runs a blog website under the name “naturalwrath” and he frequently visits tumblr as well. he fangirls over dylan and his entire blog is facts and information about him as well as talking about how much he wants to date him. he has a delusional attachment to him.

he plays dnd and had a homestuck themed campaign with some of his nerdier friends.

when dylan falls in love, he falls in love HARD. he gets paranoid and obsessive, but he doesnt do anything with it. he typically just gets celebrity crushes and stalks famous people online.

when in relationships he is very distant and unavailable. hes terrible at them, but during sex he will be like a dog at the foot of your bed. he has a thing for worshipping his sexual partners and being treated as a follower.

his entire self esteem and mood depends on his relationships. if he gets broken up with then good luck getting him to even get out of bed.

he doesnt show ANY of this. on the outside he seems like a stuck up, lonely nerd who hates everyone and only wants to be in his books. he comes off incredibly boring and lame basically.

he had dated another boy named sascha who was an active juggalo. he reminded dylan of gamzee as well as the fact he had the same name as kmfdms lead singer so he was instantly hooked on him, but they werent good together.

they broke up eventually and it had made dylan spiral and be more on edge and agitated. he still kept all of his old clothes, pictures, and face paint containers too. it didnt help him feel better - it just kept him stuck in the past.

they broke up over the phone and dylan couldnt stop sobbing while begging sascha to give him a second chance, but he didnt.

he craves romance and sex so much that it would crush him and anyone hes with. hes so overbearing when it actually comes down to it/when hes not being totally distant.

he keeps several journals and notebooks for all of his thoughts and ideas. he then types them all out onto his blogs. sometimes he will print and cut out pictures of dylan and eric to put in his journal and he’ll rant about how cute they were and how much he misses them. its his coping mechanism.

hes into fandom spaces in general and sometimes he likes to do very basic cosplays and draw fanart.

on the note of drawing, he likes to draw his crushes as well. anytime he has a crush or partner thats all he will draw

sometimes his grandparents go out of town (more often then not) so he frequently has the house to himself. when he does he will typically wear his “wrath” tshirt and will blast kmfdm and other bands they enjoyed all while still studying and doing his nerdy things. he definitely wears that shirt to sleep too and holds onto a “natural selection” tshirt while he does.

he doesnt like drugs or alcohol or smoking, but on occasion he will indulge in cigarettes and vodka for the obvious reasons.

hes incredibly autistic if that wasnt clear yet.

he keeps razor blades, bandaids, and money in the back of his phonecase.

his ex boyfriend, sascha, made him earrings of dylans cross and he constantly wears them even though theyve broken up now. its just another thing for him to hold onto.

he works at a local used record/cd store and hes always breaking the rules and saving the cds and cool things that they get in.

he likes to bake and he uses that as his love language, although he doesnt have anyone to give it to so he typically eats what he makes anyway.

overall, his only coping mechanisms are cutting, eating his own baked goods, and blogging about school shooters.

he changed his name to dylan so that he would be more like dylan klebold. its his life mission to be like him.

he has a scent kink and loves the smell of sweat and cigarettes, but he would pretend he thinks its gross.

he pretends like he doesnt care in general, but he gets extremely hurt and upset easily. sometimes it all just spills out and he has a breakdown, but otherwise it seems like he has nothing else going on.

he has his drivers license and drives an old, red van that sort of looks like this. he keeps all of his tcc related things in there (clothes, books, etc) because he doesnt want his grandparents to find it too like his parents.

he uses an old busted up laptop that his littered with stickers and can barely run, but it works for his blogging needs. like this, but way more fucked up

he carries around an old backpack thats dirty and ripped up with plenty of pins and patches on it. kind of like this.

[rassicas]

splatoon fandom: please. someone please translate the marina acht story. please me: now hold on. wouldn't you guys rather read a boring newspaper article about the development of crableg capital. because i would