#they made my goat relevant again

[luc3ks]

they're going to shoot that little white girl 🙁

[sanjisboyfie]

one piece smau: vacation edition

— strawhats being a cute friend group once again

— male reader, everyone having the tiniest crush on him too but thats only if u swuint (im a very selfindulgent writer sorry)

— also i imagine robin, franky and brook to be older than the rest of hte crew, but not like crazy older. its probably not really relevant, but like mid twenties insead of their thirties and forties LMFAOA the rest of the crew is young twenties

liked by ._.[name], princesanji, and 10k others

dni_nami: pre-7hr flight question, how long until we all start killing each other? everyone place your bets

tagged: ._.[name], freeluffy, and princesanji

uso_pp: we barely made it through the airport without losing luffy, so i'm placing my bet on one hour.

[liked by ._.[name], roro.zoro, and 20 others]

-> dr.law: i'm surprised you even made it through airport security....

-> freeluffy: TOORRAOO YOU SHOULD'VE COME IT WOULDVE BEEN SO FUNNNN!!!

-> dr.law: hard pass. good luck everyone else.

._.[name]: i think it's gonna be fine !!! what's the worst that can happen tbh

-> dni_nami: i could list 100 reasons why this is gonna go bad and all of them involve luffy.

-> robinkills: [name]'s right, i think this trip is going to be very fun !

liked by roro.zoro, robinkills, and 11k others

freeluffy: [name] rented bikes for us, but he won't let me drive :/

tagged: ._.[name]

SUPERCOLA: good job [name] for saving his life, much appreciated

dni_nami: i'm begging you two to not crash and make the expenses of our trip go up even more

-> princesanji: always thinking logically, nami, this is why i love you so much <333333333333333

roro.zoro: pick up some sake otw back

-> ._.[name]: yesyesyes we all know thats the only reason why you came anyway, i'll pick some up

-> roro.zoro: what. no way. i definitely wanted to be sat on a hours long flight next to luffy and be living in a small apartment with all of my friends who dont know how to speak quietly and wont let me sleep even when its already early morning. what. i am so excited to be here.

-> uso_pp: alright we get it please stop

liked by princesanji, SUPERCOLA, and 8k others

robinkills: thank you [name] for winning me the prizes :)

tagged: ._.[name]

._.[name]: anything for you robin <3 aka the person thats keeping all of us sane right now <3

princesanji: HOW DARE THIS BAFFOON STEAL YOU AWAY ROBIN PLEASE LET ME TAKE CARE OF HIM, I WILL MAKE SURE HE NEVER BOTHERS YOU AGAIN

-> uso_pp: when is sanji going to accept the fact that [name] is actually apart of this friend group and that he is also more favored by the women we interact with

-> ._.[name]: dw usopp he only puts on a hard front, he ltr begged me to room with him so he could cuddle w me at night. he's just being shy rn

[liked by dni_nami, roro.zoro, and 40 others]

freeluffy: [NAME] [NAME] DID YOU GET ME THEONE I WANTED TOO??!?!?! REMEMBER I SHOWED YOU

-> ._.[name]: yes luffy :) we are otw back and i have the one you asked for as well.

-> SUPERCOLA: [name] the absolute goat in dealing with luffy and his absurd requests so the rest of us dont have to

liked by freeluffy, roro.zoro, ._.[name], and 9k others

uso_pp: morning debrief where we all share embarrassing stories, like how [name] almost stripped completely naked drunk last night because an ice spice song was playing on the karaoke.

._.[name]: alright genuinely why the fuck did that have to be the caption you put on the internet for the whole world to see

-> roro.zoro: no dont be embarassed [name] it was funny watching you try and copy her signature pose

[liked by dni_nami, robinkills, and 90 others]

-> dni_nami: don't think about even crossing me in the future, i have a video of the whole thing bby

-> ._.[name]: GOD FORBID A GUY HAS FUN

skullnsoul: i found [name]'s dancing and singing quite endearing

-> ._.[name]: thank you brook :') you're so sweet

-> skullnsoul: yes, although i feel like you're much too old to be wearing underwear with hearts as the print, [name]. i suggest buying new pairs of boxers :)

-> ._.[name]: what the actual fuck

liked by princesanji, uso_pp, and 11k others

dni_nami: i really wish you could hear sanji cursing [name] outin this photo

tagged: princesanji and ._.[name]

._.[name]: me when im literally following the instructions that hes telling me and i somehow still get yelled at

-> princesanji: do you even understand hwo cooking meat works? everyone would have gotten salmonella and food poisoning if i didn't teach you how

->._.[name]: yelling is never the answer sanji

-> freeluffy: I THINK [NAME]'S COOKING TASTED REALLY GOOD

uso_pp: they acc cookeedddd tho like our food was so tastyyy

[liked by princesanji, ._.[name], and 9 others]

robinklills: sanji almost shoved [name]'s head into the griller, it was funny

-> ._.[name]: HE WHAT ??!?!?! I DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE THAT HE TRIED DOING THA TWHAT THE FUCK

liked by princesanji, ._.[name], and 12k others

roro.zoro: [name] told me to post this photo he took.

tagged: princesanji and ._.[name]

dni_nami: awww look all the boys finally getting along

[liked by robinkills, uso_pp, vivi, and 50 others]

-> princesanji: i would have much rather been in your presence my queen, i love you so much

-> ._.[name]: sanjii give up the bit for fucks sake

uso_pp: where was me and luffy's inv ??? ig its like that now ....

-> roro.zoro: you guys were playing mermaids in the pool at the apartment and explicitly told us to not interfere with your serious business

-> princesanji: and then you started getting mad at us for invitig you again right before we left

._.[name]: damn zoro u lookin mad fine in this photo shiiiitttt #smash

-> roro.zoro: i need you to make sure your door is locked later tn or else i cant promise you will wake up the next day

liked by dni_nami, vivi, roro.zoro, and 12k others

._.[name]: thank u nami for the photos

tagged: dni_nami

._.[name]: btw nami made me post this w that caption so it could "scare away the hoes"

-> dni_nami: im doing them a favor, they just dont know it yet cuz ur fucking insane

-> uso_pp: LMFAOAO

purrrona: can i bite it?

-> ._.[name]: BITE WHAT?????

-> purrrona: so is that a yes or a no?

-> uso_pp: professional dick rider alert !!!!

roro.zoro: why is your thirst trap the first thing i have to see when i open this app

-> ._.[name]: why are you acting like you weren't the first person to like this post???

[liked by dni_nami, robinkills, and 57 others]

portgasace: WHY THE FUCK WAS I NOT INVITED ON THIS TRIP?????

dr.law: id also like to thank nami for the photos

[raconteur-wanpi]

ONE PIECE 1126

Finally found the time to talk about this one. I already talked a bit about a certain character in an earlier post, but here we go into the full thing.

OK, starting off with where we left with Yamato in the cover stories -yep, it seems people in Wano are getting kidnapped and/or going missing. Last chapter we saw Minamoto the carpenter has disappeared as well. Honestly, as for who is doing the kidnappings, there's actually plenty of candidates. I think most of, if not all of the Beast Pirates were dealt with, so we might be dealing with somebody else. IIRC, the Big Mom pirates seem to have returned to Tottoland without their mother (we see Smoothie back with her siblings watching Vegapunk's message in Egghead, and she was leading the ship). It could be Perospero if he's alive somehow, but I think it'd be an interesting twist if it turned out to be something like the wild giant boar that Oden slayed back in the day, thus giving Yamato the chance to fulfill his role as a parallel to him or something. Who knows! We still don't know Kaidou and Linlin's fates, so Wano is a location to keep an eye out on for sure.

Anyway, getting in the chapter, it's so nice to see more of the classic Strawhat party celebration! Seeing them all together chilling like this is always one of the best parts. My circle has already plastered my timeline with Usopp and Sanji being inseparable again, of course. My foils meta keeps being fulfilled, let's see if Usopp ends up returning his favor and his words to him if this arc ends up mirroring Enies Lobby.

Hey what if I cried. I'm not going to sugarcoat it: I teared up like a child at this. They finally got to see the sky and the sun together, they got to sail together!!!!!!! Nobody talk to me, I think I will never recover after this page. God, if Kuma dies I'm going to be devastated. The theories around the number-named devil fruits going to the strawhats have destroyed me, and the Nikyu-Nikyu fruit being the last possible combination of numbers and the right shape for the tangerines is.... worrying me.

Bartooooo!!!! He is the GOAT of this chapter. He was already one of my absolute favorite One Piece characters, but this man's willingness to die on the spot for Luffy just cemented him even higher on the list. Thank god it was a fake-out! Everything's gonna be fine, right? Haha? Right?

Aaand there it is. Wow. OK. I cannot lie this caught me so off guard I am still reeling from it. This, is the part I made an earlier post about. Yasopp, of his own accord, after Shanks decided to spare the Barto Club and even seemed to be charmed by them, chose to shot them down. Shanks clearly didn't give the order, and it seems Yasopp might have been going for the kill, too. Perhaps he was just trying to destroy the ship, but seeing that explosion... Not to mention the narrator says after this "it is unknown if there were any survivors". This is such a merciless act from him. And for me, the reading I have of it is that it's setup by Oda for us to start feeling (even more) conflicted about his character, and this is going to be relevant going forward in Elbaf as an Usopp arc. This is a reminder of how different he is from him, he brutally shot down the Barto Club knowing well they are his son's allies and friends, with no remorse. Usopp has shown mercy and compassion most of any strawhat, I think he would be mortified by this. I wonder if this begins the setup of Usopp realizing he has put his father on a pedestal, and the idealized image of him in his head doesn't reflect reality. A lot of people didn't like Yasopp already, but this is going to put him on a looooot of fans' shitlist. Anyway, if Barto is dead I am going to jump into the ocean. Fingers crossed harder than his when he puts up his barriers.

Going back to the Blackbeard pirates; Garp's alive!!!! It seems that Kuzan couldn't take his life after all. He says "he survived", but in my eyes, he definitely chose to spare him, perhaps even unconsciously.

PUDDING CAMEO!!!!!!! MY SPECIALEST GIRLIE IN THE WORLD!!! Oh my god I'm glad she's still OK. Pudding get him. Bite him. Scratch him, do something, get his ass. Stay away from her get a joooooob. Jokes aside, I am curious about what the Big Mom pirates are planing; between their mother being Put In the Soup in Wano (status unknown), their eldest brother being well... status unknown, and Pudding getting kidnapped, they have too much going on on their plate, and I do wonder which thing they are trying to deal with first. I am not jealous of the mess poor Katakuri has to deal with right now, assuming he has been put in charge at the moment. I like to imagine he is definitely planning for ways to get Pudding back; his siblings are the most important thing in the world to him, after all.

Sigh. Caribou is still here too. For some reason. Like some sort of cockroach that just won't croak. The information he has on not one, but two ancient weapons is very concerning, and the fact he is about to deliver it to Teach of all people is definitely gonna be a big, terrifying development.

This isn't plot or anything but please look at this image of tiny Bonney holding on to Jinbe's robes. Her collection of big dads grows ever steady. That is all.

And here is our conclusion! The group of strawhats that was on the Sunny has disappeared together with it, while the rest of the crew and the giants where knocked out from the booze. They wake up looking for them and the Sunny all baffled. It seems Jinbe, Robin and Franky are the only strawhats left with the giants, although I saw some people say Brook might be with them as well. Nami, who was with those missing, wakes up in Elbaf-style garb already, inside some sort of toy-lego-house... I wonder if this means our missing strawhats have been kidnapped by another group of giants!? A toy-like dollhouse is where you'd put a tiny person in, isn't it? Dorry and Broggy and their crew said that Elbaf is still days away, even with their ship's speed, so could someone from there have somehow hijacked them in the middle of the journey? Could it be Loki himself? I guess we have to wait to find out!

[kiiecarrera]

it's been a week and i guess it's finally my turn to talk about outer banks season 4 and That Plot. brought to you by me reading the article on netflix's website here, specifically this part:

"Once they talked about it with Pankow, Jonas Pate says that Rudy embraced the “powerful way to end” the character’s journey. The co-creator remembers a great line that Chip Esten (who plays Ward Cameron) shared: “You got to end well. Your character’s got to end well.” "

it is absolutely insane to me that they would bring up chip and try to use that as some kind of connection to validate their decision to kill jj. they're not comparable at all.

on one hand we have ward cameron who was a bad guy. we saw that he was corrupted by power and greed and it made him a terrible person for the first two and a half seasons. when he died, it made sense. he died saving sarah's life, choosing his daughter over the gold and redeeming himself to her because that was what was important to him. it gave him peace and closure and brought his story full circle. what else was there for him to do? go to prison for killing peterkin, since he had taken the fall or go into hiding with a new identity? neither of those are satisfying endings.

on the other hand we have jj maybank. he's a kid who has been abused his entire life, judged for the family he's from and struggled with his self worth. after season three and the timeskip (which imo was dumb because it left so much unseen/untalked about for all the characters that were important) we're lead to believe that he has grown past all of that. he's built a stable home for himself and been given a chance to actually be happy. all of that is completely destroyed in season four. instead of showing any growth at all, he actually goes backwards and we see him spend the last weeks (days? the timeline on this show makes no sense to me) of his life getting drunk, treating his friends like crap, being emotionally neglected by his friends (which is a whole other issue because every single character this season was out of character, imo) and just generally having a bad time only to snap out of it for seemingly no reason. then when he's back on the right path (again, for no reason or on screen development) he's killed pointlessly by one of his abusers. he didn't die protecting anyone and he didn't die doing anything reckless despite what the writers keep trying to say. he died for no reason and as a character he didn't deserve that.

and honestly, storywise it makes no sense either. what plot is this driving forward? they need to get revenge on a character we just met eight episodes ago and don't really know anything about? why was that needed? also why did they bother making jj a genrette if it wasn't going to be relevant to anything in the long run? why are we supposed to give a fuck what happens to goat island now? part one felt like a completely different show because it really felt like it was shaping up for jj to get an inheritance, to get out of luke's shadow and be able to figure out who he was as himself, not as his family name and clearly that didn't happen. i don't see where we can go from here in ten episodes that make any of this satisfying or give any of the characters (especially kiara) the ending that they deserve.

[amemenojaku]

I saw umineko stage ep3 today!! it was amazing. the quality level is insane. I got goosebumps several times and it even managed to make me tear up... everyone's performances felt like they all know their characters so well now 🥺🙏 the lights, costumes and choreography were all perfect too

some thoughts (major umineko spoilers obviously):

young eva/evatrice's performance in particular was just. literally perfect? the way she delivered her lines, carried herself, her laugh resounding onstage and the little things she did when she wasn't the center of attention were all 100% in character. she was adorable during the ceremony where she becomes the new beatrice, introducing herself to the goats and giggling w the 7 sisters, and she was absolutely terrifying in rosa's and maria's death scene. also mad props to the costume designer(s) who did her sailor outfit that turns into the witch outfit almost instantly

everything beato's actress did had me go :] there's a lot of cute beato scenes in ep3 and she was adorable in the goofy, endearing way og beato is in the story while still being cool and fun when needed in the other scenes

and last but not least eva's actress did an amazing job too, especially during the emotional scenes of her character (when she solves the riddle, finds the gold, hideyoshi's & george's deaths). her lungs' strength is impressive lol. it's been 4 hours and I still clearly remember her screams

overall I loved the way so many of the actors and actresses would just do little things when they were on stage but not in the spotlight/not talking, like the chiesters whispering in each others bunny ears instead of their human ears/covering their bunny ears because of loud noises, or the 7 sisters just jumping around and messing w each other, maria taking her notebook out of her bag and reading it, etc. they weren't just standing doing nothing and it always felt very in character, too. there was always something new no matter which part of the stage you're looking at

rudolf's actor looked and acted like he came straight out of a yakuza movie? ik he was already like that in the previous episodes but for some reason I felt it even more this time. might be because of the fight against the sisters before he and kyrie die (which was probably my favorite action scene btw. really cool choreography). I'm not complaining though. made me like the character even more

speaking of rudolf. at some point during one of the scenes where the adults discuss beato's first letter, he just... started massaging hideyoshi's shoulders? he did that for at least a full minute before hideyoshi's actor nodded as thanks and he stopped. I have no idea if this was part of the script or if the guys just decided it on their own??

when gohda does his night check of the mansion right before his death he was actually walking in the aisles with his lantern before he got up on stage!! he got to tell a joke and do some fun stuff before being killed and never being relevant again. rip

beato asking battler to give her a new name now that evatrice inherited hers, ronove on the side of the stage writing a stupid nickname on some paper to show her only for her to get annoyed, rip the paper from his hands and stomp on it

I don't know if this was done on purpose or not, but when eva fires the shot that blinds jessica and jessica accuses her of being the culprit, pointing at some random direction since she can't see anymore, she actually pointed at shannon's corpse on the sofa behind her. it could very well just be a coincidence. but. yea

krauss drinking straight from the fucking bottle during the golden land party scene at the end and getting completely smashed

ange!! she was so cool and cute. she punched the goats. I can't wait to see her in ep4 😭

battler literally Just Standing There at the very end, when ange and beato start duking it out before the episode's over 🧍

the curtain call was super cute. everyone got together to pose for the cameras before they realised beato wasn't here so they had kinzo cry for her in the infamous kinzo way and she graced them (and us) with her presence :)

battler's actor: "so we'll need your support -and- your gold for episode 4 to happen"

cat nanjo be upon ye

[adracat]

GWitch: As Above, So Below

Hermes Trismegistus is the syncretism of the Greek god Hermes(Roman Mercury) and the Egyptian god Thoth. His name means thrice great, an epithet shared between both figures. Their combined worship was observed in Hermopolis and spawned Hermetic philosophy;  personal ascension from the constraints of physical being.

"As Above, So Below' is paraphrased from a Hermetic text known as the Emerald Tablet and gained great relevance in the occult, astrology, and alchemy-- All domains of Hermes/Mercury

Quod est superius est sicut quod inferius, et quod inferius est sicut quod est superius.

That which is above is like to that which is below, and that which is below is like to that which is above.

"As above, so it is below. That which has been, will return again. As in heaven, so on earth." - Helena Blavatsky

In the occult and witchcraft, it's taken to mean there exists a balance between the cosms. Macrocosm, the universe, and microcosm, the human body. That which happens as above, so it is below. They are one; a perfect union

Symbology

What is happening, has happened, and will happen again. As I've observed in my Cycles of GWitch analysis, this theme is very prevalent. Cycles themselves are a sign of As Above, So Below. The World Serpent and World tree are symbols of this principle, along with the sign for infinity 8, the caduceus, and circles.

One major sign is the Magician from the Rider–Waite tarot deck

The magician is signaling with his hands As Above, So Below and is haloed by the sign for infinity above. A pentagram lies to the left, depicting the tie to the mystic world. It's no accident that we have Prospera referred to as a magician with her gentle words; hinting at her significance through Mercury (god of communication and trickery) and the hermetic principle. She is the Magician. And an argument can be made that Suletta is also a magician (witch) who inadvertently influences rather than manipulates. But that line of thought is for another day

The Sabbatic goat Baphomet is another Symbol of As Above, So Below

They are a sign of a perfect union of opposites; Man/Beast, Female/Male, Dark/Light, etc. All while bearing Mercury's caduceus and mirroring the magician. Note the pentagram and torch pointed to the sky as the Magician does. As Above, So Below. The words on its arms are Solve (dissove) Coagula (coagulate). An alchemical principle that means to create something new, you must dissove what came before. The End must come before the Beginning. The Beginning must come before the End. A connected cycle.

Ragnarok is an obvious use of this concept but it also exists in Greek myth; Cronos who overthrew his father Uranus who was overthrown by his son in return. What has happened will happen again.

Notrette, the Hermetic Alchemist

This is more on the speculation side of things but considering ep23 and soft confirmation she resides in the GUND nexus and even more of a genetic genius than expected; let's assume she's the one who created Suletta, the 12th key.

In Alchemy, there exists something called the philosopher's stone. FMA fans are very familiar but in layman's terms it's the holy grail of alchemy. And one of the boons is the ability to create a clone/homunculus. Considering QZ, the ability to unnaturally extend life is similarly on the nose. The 12 keys of Basil Valentine is an alchemical text by which you can create the philosopher's stone

This is the image for the twelth and final step. Twelfth Key. Inside a laboratory an alchemist stands with tongs in his left hand, while with his right he points to a triangular crucible on a bench behind him, with two rose-like flowers growing out of it and the symbol of Mercury above it. On the left is a barrel-like furnace from the top of which flames emerge. On the right a lion devours a snake. Through an open window behind, the Sun and Moon are seen.

Mercury's symbol and 12th key are undeniably Suletta but the Snake and Lion are Shaddiq and Guel. The Moon is Nott (Notrette) and the Sun is her child Dagr (Miorine)

We are meant to associate both Notrette and Prospera as Hermetic Alchemists, and the pursuit of their craft has led to the events of GWitch and the perpetuation of numerous cycles. As Above, So Below.

I do find it intriguing that the stone is said to be not one, but two. A red stone and a white stone. It's not hard to equate our girls to both. After all, they too are a perfect union of opposites

[batsplat]

I keep seeing people say Agostini likes Marc and I think you had post which included what Agostini thinks about the rosquez situation.

I was wondering if you knew if they have actually interacted or how this fondness started. And if it's continued.

Apologies if you've already made a post about this and i missed it 😊

And thank you for all the responses to my prev asks!!! You are like my favourite grandparent i sidle up to and ask to reveal some new thing of the MotoGP world. Which you do so patiently 💛. ( I'm sorry for the grandparent comparison i couldn't find a better one 😔😔😔😔😔).

ahaha that's super sweet. and honestly, I don't think there's really a story here, beyond 'ago quite likes him'! they did a joint interview of sorts at the laureus awards in 2015 which is worth a watch - which came after that 2014 season in which a big talking point was how it looked like marc might be able to match ago's numbers in 'winning everything'... also you have that presser clip from 2013 where the riders are asked ago or hailwood, and marc says "if everybody say ago, ago" and laughs, which. I mean. I'm sure respected ago just fine but it's probably worth pointing out he's not exactly an enthusiast, is he

but yeah, beyond wading into a couple of marc controversies, ago's definitely spoken warmly about him quite frequently over the years. as early as 2014, he was saying that if marc matched his records, he deserved to do so - and in 2020, he said marc didn't need to switch bikes to prove his greatness. he compared marc to one of his own big rivals, hailwood, in 2019, he spoke with sympathy about marc's switch to ducati at the back end of last year and sounded confident marc could win again (+ here), and made similar comments early this year and likewise was fairly encouraging in may. in 2023, he also spoke about marc's capacity to put on a show. plus, he also said in 2018 that marc and valentino's relationship doesn't matter as long as "they both make us have fun and give us a show", and also that "they do not have to marry". giacomo agostini homophobic dog question mark

a lot of it just seems kinda generic 'legend of the past being nice about the new kid', like say doohan was with valentino but without the mentorship angle. but yeah, ago does seem fonder of marc than he does of marc's contemporaries? with valentino, let's be honest, part of it is that he was the first to really show up and challenge some of ago's records (even steal some of them like premier class wins) - plus he's italian so there's really more direct competition than there is with marc. but y'know, obviously ago's been asked about both of them gunning for his records (generally win number for valentino and title number for marc)

you can read tonal differences into those answers if you so choose, but you can also say he's expressing roughly the same sentiment for both (if you so choose). ago did also joke in early 2020 that he'd beat them both:

(again, this is obviously a joke and I'm not going to read anything into it lol, just thought I'd include it)

ago does have retired athlete talking head syndrome where he does... y'know, have a lot of opinions and has shared quite a lot of those opinions. which... okay, I'm aware this isn't really what this ask was about, but. look. I just have to bring in jorge lorenzo at this point. this is only tenuously relevant, but I think it kinda provides a fun contrast with how utterly drama-free the dynamic between marc and ago is... AND gives some much needed context for how ago was relating to some other star riders of this century

ago and jorge had always gotten on pretty well - and ago joked back in the day that jorge had to stop valentino from getting too many more wins. it is probably worth mentioning that in that 2013 clip I linked to above, all the riders at the presser were asked the 'ago or hailwood' question. in response, jorge, that old simp, essentially went 'actually the goat is valentino'... but that's really isn't about ago as much as it is about jorge's relationship with valentino being *gestures vaguely* complicated. weird. complicated. anyway, look, ago and jorge got on well, had done so for years. then, in may of 2020, shortly after jorge's retirement and with no racing whatsoever going on during lockdown, the two of them got into a PUBLIC SPAT!! (low key between this and the dovi feud picking up again at the end of the year, jorge was really working overtime to make motogp less depressing that year)

the argument was prompted by ago's comments about jorge's time with ducati and honda:

so basically he's saying jorge was mid for three years because his head wasn't in it. which is... a debatable assessment of jorge's 2017-19, but let's just run with it. now jorge obviously isn't the type to just let this kind of thing go unchallenged, so he hit back:

for some reason. jorge's father also got involved, as he has an unfortunate tendency of doing:

(I'm gonna be so real, personally I wouldn't be particularly flattered if one of my parents suggested I could challenge one of my main career rivals 'on my day'. but anyways)

and then mr agostini in turn doubled down and told jorge that 'the truth hurts':

note the bit about how ago had sided with jorge against valentino! it is broadly true that ago has often been very complimentary of jorge, including to the detriment of valentino - and apparently that might have created tension with valentino's team. ago also added the following bit and it's kinda even more brutal:

so basically - ducati didn't pay jorge that much to win three races. funnily enough. jorge did not take kindly to these comments... and then he hit back on instagram (all of this is still in may 2020 btw, literally the only thing we had going for us). here's the text from the post:

jorge lorenzo a proud fellow warrior in the 'it's useless to compare different eras' campaign, saluting a real one

so, after jorge had said that ago doesn't know what he's talking about, that this kind of criticism was 'improper' from a legend like ago... we'd actually finally gotten to the point where ago wanted to clamp down on the controversy. here's what he had to say:

he doesn't want controversy! it's not his fault jorge didn't win! jorge didn't win a title with either ducati or honda! what a shame!

okay, there is arguably a slight difference in rhetoric between saying 'well I can't say he won at honda when he factually didn't!!!' and 'ducati paid him a lot and got nothing out of it' - BUT obviously this was still a bit of an olive branch from ago. unfortunately, we've gotten no updates on whether ago did ever reach out privately, but we did get jorge's response. and jorge... kinda accepts the peace...? but also not really!

so to paraphrase jorge here, he's basically going 'sure fine I'll accept the peace but I also know ago will start the same shit again when he has a microphone in front of him!!' - and also makes it clear that jorge will not shut up about ago chatting shit, unlike those other cowards who just let ago get away with it (including other champions). jorge then goes on to talk about their personal relationship and ago's past support of him:

and then jorge goes on to stridently defend his time with the ducati project - pointing out that, without detracting from what casey had done, it was a very good bike back when casey won the 2007 title:

(yes, obviously there is a rider who was doing rather a lot more with that bike during the same time span as jorge was there - who you'll note jorge very much does not name. I suppose jorge's argument would be that this particular rider had been with the team since 2013. without getting too much into 2017-18 discourse in a post that really isn't about that, it is broadly true jorge just Was Not Clicking with that bike for way too long, but he was running dovi pretty close in 2018 until he got injured at aragon. which is also because dovi was having a pretty ragged first half of the season himself but y'know, six of one half a dozen of the other. also low key those three jorge wins did get during his time at ducati massively flatter how that stretch of his career gets perceived a few years later, but again. this isn't all too relevant. just some historical context!)

and jorge rounds up the whole thing by demanding an actual apology:

and, lastly, here's what ago said in june:

anyway, that's basically it as the public spat went, but it did still give us some nice little gems. you'll note that jorge believes ago was supporting him against valentino - "what I know is that in the duel I had with rossi he wanted me to win races more, for the titles and all that". and then, of course, there's the fun bit where jorge says that ago has also said inaccurate things about valentino before: "because he has also said things about valentino many times that did not correspond to reality". jorge going full 'enemy of my enemy' about valentino on this issue is just extremely him, not least because that is a rivalry where, according to him!! ago basically always was rooting for jorge! and YET jorge's like 'valentino may not speak up on this issue but I!! will!!' I honestly have no clue if there's anything specific jorge's referring to here that ago is getting wrong about valentino... but again ago does have retired athlete talking head syndrome so really it could be anything

what this does do is give us a little bit of confirmation that ago probably isn't the world's biggest valentino rossi fan (obviously, valentino wouldn't let you know that kind of thing so it's great when you've got someone a little more talkative like jorge around). jorge didn't have to bring in valentino here - he did so of his own volition, because he apparently disagreed quite strongly with something ago had said about one of jorge's fiercest rivals. by contrast, there's nothing comparable you can point to with marc... which, given that we've established ago has run his mouth about past champions, would lead you to the conclusion that ago really is a bit of a marc fan. all things considered, ago seems genuinely fond of the little guy! he's never really talked him down, or taken another rider's side against marc! why? ... unfortunately, I have no clue. maybe it is linked to ago's feelings towards valentino, maybe it's completely unrelated and he just likes marc a lot, maybe he's a fan of him as a rider or his personality or something else. there's not really anything to suggest they're particularly close - for instance, I don't think marc has had dinner with ago's family like jorge has - but he generally always seems happy to offer up a lot of marc prop without any qualifications. it just seems like quite an uncomplicated relationship, and given ago's been fairly vocal within the past year about marc's switch to ducati, about how he could win again etc etc... he's perhaps quite enjoyed following that story. mostly, there's clearly just a lot of mutual respect there... and if ago did ever find cause to criticise marc as strongly as he did jorge, well, it's a lot less likely marc would decide to clap back on instagram. that'll help, I suppose

[podfeels]

Podfeels Season 1 Retrospective

4/13/2024 marked the two year anniversary of Podfeels’ first airing, and in August, we will celebrate the three year anniversary of its inception as a project. It feels so strange, looking back on it all. To me, it feels simultaneously like its always been in my life, and also like it just started yesterday.

I’ve spent nearly three years now spearheading this project, and we’ve expanded from a team of ten to a team of thirty in that time, and have put out roughly four hours of highly produced, full cast, full sound effect audio drama.

That may not sound like much, but for a team composed almost exclusively of first timers at its inception, and with two big hiatuses out of everyone’s control, I’m pretty damn proud.

With Season 1 ending back in January, us currently in the exact two month midpoint between anniversaries, and Season 2 being worked on behind the scenes, I thought now would be a good time to release a bit of a retrospective on our first season. Talk about the process, what went wrong, what went right, and also release our assets for the public.

I’m splitting this into three sections so you can skip around based on what you give a shit about. 

Looking 8ack

Reminiscence about how I got into godfeels through a series of insane coincidences that make my heart feel warm.

2. Adapt8ion

Discussing the process of adapting the work into our medium.

3. Portr8s, 8ackgrounds, and Sound8ites

A release of Season 1’s art and sound assets for your perusal outside of the videos, use as desktop wallpapers, or what have you. 

Looking 8ack

In March 2020, I got covid for the first time. My workplace had no protections for it yet, so I lost my job. And while bedridden with covid, subsisting off a diet of lukewarm broth, saltines, and nyquil, I set my youtube Watch Later (ok, thats a lie, it was my Likes, which i used ((still use)) as a watch later instead of using the actual watch later function, BUT-) playlist to shuffle. And in this fugue state, I stumbled on the video that would completely change the trajectory of my life.

“What I Learned Writing 50,000 Words of Homestuck Fanfiction”, by Sarah Zedig. I vaguely remembered her from some video about the McElroys and from Hbomberguy’s stream, and I had put off watching this because at the time of its release, I hadn’t yet finished Homestuck. So I shuffled it away for later, and it found its way back into my lap at the perfect time. Having now finished the comic, read the Epilogues, actively reading Homestuck ^2: Beyond Canon, and five months in to my first ever real creative outlet in my semi-abandoned video essay channel, I was interested to hear what this goat had to say.

In the video Sarah went into detail about a ton of wider context about the Homestuck Renaissance that I was fully unaware of, and made a very strong case for her own postcanon work, godfeels. Her passion bled through and I figured, sure, why not, I’ve got nothing better going on, I’ll read the story of Spiderjeggings’ No Good Very Bad Transition. Why not!

55,660 words later, crying alone in bed, I was now a girl. Reading the scene of June making her list of wants the morning after Terezi’s return, I said out loud to myself, hoarse as can be, “I can’t put it off any longer.” 

After reading to current I ended up joining the godfeels fanserver, and from getting settled in these circles I’ve met so many people I wouldn’t have otherwise, and come into myself in ways I can’t begin to fully quantify. I went from one relationship to fourteen to now a stable four, the other person in my head shook back loose after a decade of suppression by me (sorry again, Aegis), I’ve become more cultured, I’ve gained more friends, I’ve gained more hobbies, and most relevant of all… I’ve gained Podfeels.

Podfeels proper actually started in a really funny and impromptu way. In Sarah’s video she mentions wanting to start a podfic adaptation of it, but with that being two years past with no more word, a conversation about it cropped up in the server, and it was revealed that it had been canceled for various reasons. Everyone immediately understood why that had to happen. It was an insane amount of work, especially now that Godfeels was entering the territory of a space opera. But the demand was there among all of us, and after almost a dozen loops of us all going “drat, would be cool. I wish someone would take the helm on that!”, I just went ALRIGHT I GET IT and opened up casting. Podfeels was actually originally a joke name made by someone in the server before I even entered the conversation, but we used it for so long during development that by the time we came to release day it just felt wrong to call the project anything else. The name just stuck.

After a few hours of people daydreaming about it happening, and me encouraging other people to take the helm, I finally gave in and opened up casting. Now, it’s important to understand, I had never directed ANYTHING like this before in my life. I made a really terrible sketch in high school theater class and that’s about it. I’ve always been a bit of a natural leader but never anything with the kind of scale this would require, and it showed. I crowdfunded almost all ideas for what to do and how to handle it, and my best idea for how to do auditions was “just send in a few lines of you doing whatever character you want”. And my language was… insufferably fawning. I was hedging my bets at every opportunity. Every development in the project was “tentative”, I was the “director” until someone else took charge, etc. Looking back its actually kind of adorable? 

Look at that sweetheart. She’s so scared. She has no idea the beautiful changes she is in for.

The casting process was an unmitigated DISASTER. Nobody there knew how to audition, and I didn’t know how to wrangle. We were an unstructured gaggle of doofasses stumbling into each other. And due to the limited pool, I was stretched kind of thin on where to put people. Obviously I stand by all our decisions and love our cast, but because I was pulling entirely from the fanserver, options were very limited. I wanted to get everyone who wanted one into a role, but having to do the math of “this person is 40% good at Character A and 60% good at Character B, but this OTHER person is 80% good at Character B and the closest runner up for Character A is only 35% good” was agonizing.

We ended up deciding to make a few demos first, to test our chops as actors and mine as editor. We had four planned. But after we fully produced our first two demos and had recorded the third… I decided we should immediately start chronological production.

Why did I make this decision, you ask? Well. We had a few months until 4/13/2022. If we immediately all went overdrive, me especially, we had the chance to get our first episode out on the 13th 4/13 anniversary of Homestuck, and like HELL was I about to let us pass that up. 

This was the right call, I think, but it did bring us into a BUNCH of complications. First off, it meant we never really tested our violence and drama chops on the houseraid. Second, if I had waited, we would have been able to dodge our first big hiatus, where I put us on pause for a couple months while we waited to see if our Terezi wanted to leave after she floated the idea, which she ended up doing. If we had stayed in prepro, we would have skipped a huge hiatus and not replaced a key character between episode one and two. It also meant that we didn’t fully solidify an editing pipeline, and I was handling practically all editing until around episode 3. Additional prepro time would have helped us iron that out, as well, rather than me breaking myself on the first couple episodes before bringing in help out of desperation. This rush ALSO led to us having to release episode 1’s video around a week after the audio’s release, and with a fucked up background because I was crunching so hard I didn’t notice I’d accidentally completely butchered John’s bedroom somehow! I think I somehow content aware filled the wall? Fucked if I know why!

This is an abridged version because I want to get us to the meat of the matter today and I feel a lot of the longer story is best saved for a video I plan on making down the line, when we’ve reached 50 hours of runtime. For now, let’s move on.

Adapt8ion

A few folks have asked for indepth adaptation notes for what we change in an episode and why. As a general rule, we make changes with three primary motivations. First, adjusting text-based ideas to sound-based. Godfeels plays with its medium in countless compelling ways that, when shifted to a different medium, are either clunky or incomprehensible. So our first job is to translate those into sound. Second, turning narration into sound effects. We don’t need to discuss sounds in the scene, or a character’s tone, when we can just hear it all ourselves now. This then expands into further issues, however, as some things DO need to stay as narration. There’s a lot of pathos in the narration, and often there’s details that can’t be conveyed through audio alone. But by removing just the audio cues, we are left with very clunky phrasing that does our source material no justice. So we have to rephrase entire sections to give them the same resonance, meaning, and clarity while also getting rid of all the things that are now extraneous in our medium. The third main type of edit is bringing it more in line with what comes later. Godfeels has been running a long time and has become a very different beast from where it began. I love this about it, but some ideas have ended up with insufficient preparation, and some thematic resonances are easy to see looking back but may be partially unintentional. We can take advantage of hindsight and bring certain things more in line with the work’s modern philosophies, such as putting an additional focus on the citizens of Earth C, introducing X as its own entity, playing with Dirk more as a villain, and introducing the question of “what happens to the leftover Junes in a retcon?”, all during Episode 6. 

I’ll be releasing a few other posts soon with detailed adaptation notes for every episode in the coming days, but I’ll leave it here for now and bring us to our final section-

Portr8s, 8ackgrounds, and Sound8ites

While the idea for video versions was a relatively late addition to our process, I’m very proud of the work everyone has put into making them what they are. Our art team and video editor do wonders. First up, we’ve got the talkpogs.

The talkpogs were my own invention, but I can hardly claim they’re an original idea. I’m sure something almost identical has been done before. What directly inspired me, though, was the old Polygon podcasts, where they’d have the hosts faces made out of polygons, with one loose and separated, synced to that host’s audio track. It was the first time I’d seen something like that and I knew I wanted something similar to indicate who was talking. From there it all fell into place pretty easily. The outer ring and the waveform is the character’s text color, and the background is their name color. If those two are the same (as they usually are), I apply a slight darkening to the background just for differentiation. The sprites, though, were all the art team. Unfortunately we didn’t have a base early on, so different artists drew to different scales. 

For the art style I told the artists to try to strike a middleground between Homestuck classic and girlpillz’s style which had just been shown in GF3.1.8.E, where godfeels got its first spritework. Otherwise, designs were largely up to the artists but we had conversations about them as a project. Overall I’m very satisfied with the work everyone turned in.

Backgrounds were a more complicated beast, but paradoxically also have less to talk about. We started out with one background per episode, which was pretty doable, but with the season 1 finale, and our expanded art team, we opted to expand out into a background per setting. The first two are just Pesterquest backgrounds I edited by hand, but after that we started having custom art. That was largely due to restraints lifting as the team grew, but it also turned out pretty good thematically, as the first episode with custom art was Episode 3, where June’s egg cracks. We left official art behind as June left the officially plotted course. I think it’s resonant.

Now we come to our latest introduction. KEY ART. We started doing this in Episode 6 and it’s so sick. Don’t expect these inclusions to be TOO common, but… we have some cool things in store here, and I think you’ll all be really excited to see ‘em. For now, here’s our first and so far only public piece of key art, Dirk menacing June against the tree. The final piece of art of Season 1, and the final piece of art of Season 1’s retrospective. It only seems fair.

Which now brings us to my own inclusion: sound assets. I’m very proud of the work I’ve put in to giving each character and concept their own unique aural profile. From the magical girl burning radiation of Jade’s magic, to the shattering static of June’s retcon, to threading the needle of Hammer, Sword, Plastic Toy, Dice, And Doomsday Device in June’s vrillyhoo. 

That’s all for today. In the coming week or so I’ll put together a few more posts, going over each episode in more detail, from point by point script edit notes, to specific art discussions. I also plan to bring in a few people who have been around since day one to talk about our experience setting up the project.

But for now, look forward to seeing more from us soon. Both in the upcoming devposts, and in Season 2. We've been on a hiatus to get our preproduction pipeline settled, and because we wanted to get a few episodes prepped so we can try to maintain a monthly schedule. But we're getting to the end of this phase now, and will be announcing Episode 7's release date very soon.

Until next time! :::;)

[beevean]

New discussion question: Considering that dumb af goat-fucking joke made it through over a dozen script revisions/rewrites, each CV games fan should come up with one stupid joke they would mandate into an adaptation if they got to write one. My personal mandated joke would be making Christopher "I named my firstborn a dad joke" Belmont do the Numa Numa dance as like, victory over some minor boss. Cultural relevance (Dragostea Din Tei is a Romanian song), character relevance (again. Chris named his son "sun") and goofy memery!

Haha, Romanian culture in my NFCV? As if :P

I think I'd go the DMC reboot route and make a meanspirited jab against NFCV's needless changes. For example, in my hypothetical perfect adaptation of CV3 and CoD, imagine Isaac panicking over the idea of shaving his head, or telling someone to shut up with the self-aggrandizing speeches :P

[assignmentimprobable]

I haven’t subjected anybody to my posting in the last month so it’s time to break my streak with a dose of word salad.

To Start… It really gets my goat that it’s sort of integrated into Wolverine lore on a fandom level now that Stryker was the Weapon X culprit. Not necessarily because ‘oh that’s not how it was in the comics!’, even though that’s part of it. More because I think there is something genuinely interesting in the kind of evil that Stryker presented in God Loves, Man Kills (1982), the story that made up half of the movie’s plot elements and themes.

More below the cut. Warning for discussions of eugenics, racism, mentions of lynching.

Yes. This comic.

There’s a lot to be said about the prevailing relevance of televangelists using religious hypocrisy and white supremacist ideology in mass media to spead bigotry and incite lynchings within their following.

I do actually recognize the value of compositing Stryker’s character with Dr. Thornton from the Weapon X (1991) story. You only get 2 hours to hash out what’s happening, the writers wanted to pick up the threads from the last movie. For the purpose of a movie, a military contractor and scientist is an easy evil to swallow, because duh, and an easier one to clean up. That said, I think it was only ever good for that one outing.

Seeing him again in Origins can be explained as taking us back full circle— But even then, it falls apart because there’s such a Nothingness to his inclusion. He’s a generic CO without anything to add to the overarching dialogue on mutants, or the underpinnings of the original Weapon X story (Which is a problem for another post because I’ve got some fucking WORDS to say about the entirety of… all that. And how the movie undertook it). I KNOW that you’re probably thinking ‘why would you expect intelligence from origins’, and it’s like, I don’t. I watched that shit when it hit bootleg fresh off the DVD guy’s trunk collection. But if you’re gonna make such a big change with these kinds of ramifications on a movie timeline and stand on it, then well. I’m gonna write about it. Especially when he’s in fuckin DOFP and I’ve gotta see his foreshadowed impact getting waved around.

The point of Stryker in GLMK was that he couldn’t be easily handled by sending the X-Men in, he’s a political figure using the cover of free speech, fundamentalist Christian “values” and gathering enough clout to perpetrate some heinous shit.

Stryker didn’t need to experiment on anybody or invade the X-Mansion to make their lives palpably worse. He was gathering up the already large following of people gung ho as fuck to legislate on mutant rights. I used the word “lynching” earlier with intent, because that’s exactly what he did: the comic starts with two black mutant children being lynched and having a sign with the mutant slur hung on the bodies. Which. Alright. The use of black pain and black death in a story like this inevitably serves the allegory and makes the conclusion inescapable for even the most braindead readers of 1982. Dare I say, inescapable for the braindead readers of 2024. That said, the margin of leeway you can give it (if you even want to) gets smaller when you consider Kitty Pryde dropping the n word to ‘prove a point’ in the same story. How the mutant metaphor constantly assumes the volatility and natural genetic power of the underclass. Or how the team never seemed to have more than one face of color at a time having something vital to do, if even that. Hm.

Anyways, in invoking the imagery for this murder: The story illustrates that Stryker’s ultimate conclusion is 1-to-1 with his real life counterparts. It’s the last stop on the train to annihilation, and it never stops at just one group of arbitrarily picked undesirables. Bigotry never has one layer . You peel it back and you get another. You get down to the root of eugenics, the exclusion it’s all white supremacy. The same fire and brimstone preacher tactics, the same righteous indignation about problems that aren’t even Real. Designations of ‘natural’ that are presupposed by European defaults. The front runners of it have just gotten enough fucking simpletons thinking that they won’t be next, or not even *caring* that they’ll be next, as long as the object of their hate gets to suffer. It all comes down to the fuckin race science with these people. It does stink something fierce that FOX/Marvel were so afraid of pissing off evangelists that they bit the bullet and changed things up. It’s really a disservice to the story it’s adapting, and I LIKE X2! It’s probably my favorite of the movies?

TLDR: Corporations are cowards when it comes to standing on business. The Strykers of the world were real 42 years ago and they’re real now. Oh, and if I never see William Stryker again in an X-Men film, it’ll be too soon.

[fromtheboundlesssea]

HOTD Season 2 Episode 4 Live Watch Thoughts

I would love if they redid the opening credits of Game of Thrones in this tapestry style of HotD. Love it so much.

Wish Laena and Rhea would haunt Daemon too. They deserve to haunt him.

Oooo Milly should have been wearing dresses like this instead of that awful yellow dress.

Young Alicent should have haunted Viserys.

OH MY GOSH!!!!! He just beheaded her!!!!! I AM IN SHOCK

BLOOD ON HIS HANDS!

“Sad news about the usurper’s son” HE WAS MURDERED

Black goat was ominous.

Oscar! Baby!

King consort? Don’t think that’s the right title.

Aw! Little Oscar looks a little like Rickon’s actor.

Daemon asking a child to kinslay his grandfather. Good lord.

Why is House Tully heads always sickly during a time of war.

DOGS! I think those are Scottish dogs.

Oooooo Alyn and Rhaenys are going to talk!

OH SHE KNOWS?!?!?? She knows now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!

“Your mother must have been very beautiful.” 🫥

WASN’T RELEVANT!!!!!!??????

Let women be more angry!!!!!!!!

No! I wanted Alicent to break it purposefully!

Oh? So Alicent is going to have moontea?

Grand maester is hot, not gonna lie.

Man this is probably the first time Alicent has had autonomy over her womb for the entirety of the show.

Note how the women of color are the only ones who are allowed to want violence for more than a single scene.

Why could you not have at least focused on Jace’s hand on Baela’s that would have been nice.

Why isn’t Jace placed more in charge? He is the crown prince?

How fast are these ships or did Corlys ride with Rhaenys?

Rhaenyra’s council is honestly doing pretty much the exact thing Viserys’ did.

Asking for people to bend the knee without a dragon really does feel less threatening.

And ooooooo Criston being called Kingmaker.

And Criston listening to the man’s last words while taking the head himself. Very Northern of him.

“That castle is more crippled than I am” is kind of funny tbh.

I hate that the Greens can’t be united. Why can’t they be united after the death of Jaehaerys.

Ooooo does Aegon not speak Valyrian?

Also, not Aemond saying something similar to Daemon in the first episode of season 1

So he can speak a little? Just not well?

STAY AWAY FROM HER LARYS!

OH HE NOTICED! STAY AWAY FROM HER!

I am going to reach through the screen and strangle Larys myself.

No you may not be bold, Larys!

Oh, interesting, she’s saying this to Larys. The trailers made it seem she was talking to Otto.

Is Rhaenyra suited? Literally neither of his children showed any suitability for the throne.

“The significance of Viserys’ intentions died with him.” YES IT DID

Man, Daemon is not having a good time right now.

Oh? Aemond?

Oh? Daemon as Aemond? The heck?

Oh, so it wasn’t an American accent?

“Do you now try to make your own claim?” Yes he is.

“A girl child you bounced on your knee.” 🫥

Oh? Is Alys going for him because he looks like Aemond and isn’t sure who she is supposed to be projecting into?

Daemon really is not having a good time. Good lord. This man is getting drugged.

OH THIS IS THE GUY THAT MURDERED SOMEONE ON THE TOUR!

LAENA!!!!!!!

Laena serving as a cupbearer!!!!! I AM SCREAMING!!!

What were the dragons doing before to be fed?

Why isn’t Aemond on the council?

Why isn’t Alicent and Helaena on the council? Didn’t the book say Aegon listened to them?

Is this the same day?

Also, again, this is how Viserys was treated. He didn’t really do much either.

VISERYS WAS HARDLY A KING

RAT CATCHERS THAT KILLED YOUR GRANDSON!

I like that Aegon still called Alicent his mother. I noticed that Jace seemed to stop calling Rhaenyra that.

Why have I seen Gwayne’s actor? Was he in Witcher? He looks so familiar. I’ll have to look it up later.

And now Rhaenyra is back. That took forever.

And yep, Jace is no longer calling her “mother”

Jace is really channeling his inner Daemon.

Was it necessary?

Alicent isn’t queen anymore? She’s the queen mother? Helaena is the queen?

Your caution isn’t weakness, you have literally just not been doing anything.

JACE LACKS THE EXPERIENCE????? SO DO YOU RHAENYRA!

Emma channeling their inner Elsa with that braid though.

Ooooo it’s rather symbolic of Aegon pushing aside his wine thing. Honestly Rhaenyra and Aegon should have been better parallels.

Oh? So Rhaenyra is going to tell Jace the stupid prophecy.

SUNFYRE! Aw, Sundyre loves his rider! That’s so cute!

Jace learning the prophecy (which is about an enemy to the NORTH) would have been great to know before he went there.

The prophecy really is stupid.

Like, it’s stupid. It’s pointless. It’s lazy storytelling at its finest. And we know that it went nowhere because in the show Arya, without a drop of Targ blood, is what destroys the enemy to the North.

Did Meleys’ design change?

Old lady Vhagar about to wake! She is so done with people waking her from her nap.

And I hate that that Aegon going to fight wasn’t planned. Rather him acting on his own decision.

Dang Sunfyre is a sure shot with fire.

I hate that this is the one and only time we will get a Sunfyre. I know that Sunfyre was Martin’s favorite.

And ah, Aemond is doing this so that he gets glory and proves himself more worthy than Aegon. *sigh*

Also, props to Aegon for holding on.

Ugh. So they’re having Aemond be the reason his brother is scarred. *sigh*

This is the battle that was being hyped up? This is the battle? Didn’t people say it was going to be like Battle of the Bastards level? Because…. Yeah no. No it’s not. This is our second “battle” with dragons fighting and it’s not great.

The Field of Fire was also better.

They were hyping up this battle far too much.

I feel sad that Rhaenys died, do not get me wrong, but the whole battle just didn’t feel climactic. I didn’t feel like I was on the edge of my seat in the way I was for GoT battles.

That was a cool shot though, of Criston tapping the soldier on the shoulder and him crumbling.

How they are treating the Greens is what they did with “Dark” Sansa and the stupid Starkbowl, pointless. Utterly pointless.

That was another disappointing episode.

Promo Thoughts

I don’t even know.

I don’t understand what they are doing. And I feel like a lot of people will be leaving after this season. Half of it is over and I feel like we’ve covered very little time at all despite covering so much time last season. It all feels disjointed.

[ahyesmygoodomenssideblog]

Goats and forgiveness

Season 2 expands on Aziraphale's thing with forgiveness. It starts off with Aziraphale being a very nice landlord:

M: You can't just forgive me eight months' rent! A: Oh, I can. I'm very good at forgiveness. It's one of my favorite things!

Then it gets brought up again in the Job minisode, under very different circumstances. Here, God made a deal with the devil to test Job's faith. Aziraphale goes along with it up until he knows they're permanently killing 3 children. Gabriel tells him: "What we are doing is simply not stopping hell. What they do is up to them." From there, Aziraphale is able to shift the blame off of God and onto Crawly, and we get this exchange:

A: I get to do what God wants. C: Like killing innocent children to win a bet with Satan? A: I… I don't think that is what God wants. And I don't think you want it either. C: What do you know about what I want? A: I know you. C: You do not know me.  A: I know the angel you were. C: The angel you knew is not me. A: Then… Then you tell me that you want to do this. You look me in the eye and tell me. C: I want to. I long to destroy the blameless children of blameless Job, just as I destroyed his blameless goats. A: Then God forgive you.

Aziraphale decides that God doesn't actually want Job's children killed, so he asks God to forgive Crawly for (by all accounts) fulfilling God's will.

This is also the first time (chronologically) that we see Aziraphale reference the angel Crowley used to be. It comes up again in the bandstand fight. Crowley curses God's plan to *checks notes* end the entire world, so Aziraphale says:

A: May you be forgiven. C: Oh I won't be forgiven. Not ever. That's part of a demon's job description. Unforgivable, that's what I am. A: You were an angel once. C: That was a long time ago.

Here, forgiveness is tied directly to Crowley's status as a demon/former angel. The exchange hints at a fundamental difference in their views.

There's a scene that isn't talked about much, but it seems particularly relevant given that s3 is set to be about the Second Coming. Forgiveness does come up in it. When Jesus is getting nailed to the cross, he says:

Father, please, you have to forgive them! They don't know what they are doing!

Jesus' crucifixion is immediately followed by the Rome scene. The Rome scene has a notable distinction in that the title card for it doesn't give a specific year; it's instead defined in relation to the previous scene:

8 years after Jesus died on the cross, Aziraphale greets Crowley like this:

A: Crawly- Crowley? Well, fancy running into you here! Still a demon, then? C: What kind of stupid question is that, "Still a demon"? What else am I going to be, an aardvark?

It's a strange thing to say after knowing Crowley as a demon for ~4000 years, unless Aziraphale believes the Christian tenet that Jesus died to forgive everyone's sins. Crowley doesn't seem to consider this a possibility at all. But if it is true, then all that's preventing everyone from salvation now is simply asking God to forgive them.

Forgiveness is one of Aziraphale's favorite things.

Aziraphale seems to view Crowley as redeemable. He knows on some level that Crowley is a good person who doesn't deserve eternal damnation, but he's unable to reconcile Crowley's fate with his own concept of a kind and loving God. This can really only be resolved if Crowley is either forgiven for his sins or if Crowley is the one who chooses to remain a demon when he could be saved.

Crowley first brings up goats in the Flood scene. They play a bigger role in the Job scene. Crowley brings them up over and over again. The Job episode actually starts off with him talking to the goats directly:

You should know why you're about to die. God has abandoned you. The God who claims to love you, who demands your praise, has given you up to be destroyed.

Fun fact: the term scapegoat originally referred to literal goats. It was standard practice to sacrifice animals to God as atonement for sins. To clarify: slaughtering innocent creatures was a requirement to remain in good standing with God.

(Scapegoats specifically were goats burdened with the sins of the town and then cast off to wander the wilderness alone.)

These harsh methods of atonement became unnecessary under Christianity due to Jesus' crucifixion. Jesus was a scapegoat. He died for our sins and we continue to honor his sacrifice with the symbol of the cross he was executed on.

After Jesus died, forgiveness became easy. God became generally more palatable. Aziraphale loves forgiveness. He's very good at it. He's a kind person.

Thousands of years before Jesus' death, Sitis begged for her children to be spared:

S: But they've done nothing! They're innocent! C: So were the goats.

There are fundamental differences in Aziraphale and Crowley's belief systems. Aziraphale defines right and wrong based on whether an action is in accordance with God's will. Crowley defines right and wrong based on whether an action is right or wrong. He is against innocent people suffering regardless of whether or not it's what God wants. This matters because Crowley and Aziraphale both know firsthand that their God is willing to punish good and innocent people. They were there for the Flood. They were there for Job. They were there for Jesus' crucifixion.

Aziraphale is a bad angel. He has doubts. He tries to protect humans when he can. When push comes to shove, he'll defy God to do it.

But Crowley is a good person. Crowley does good despite being punished for it. He continues to do good despite the risk of further punishment. And when it comes down to it, Crowley was the only person in Heaven and on Earth who would defend even the blameless goats.

Aziraphale forgives Crowley several times in the show, and never for very good reasons. Crowley apologizes to Aziraphale when he wasn't really wrong. Crowley doesn't apologize to God. He never asks God for forgiveness. And by the time they part ways, Crowley rejects Aziraphale's forgiveness, too.

[chowmoon2]

Alrighty,here is the outline of my ao3 rhythm heaven goat story,I would make this into a actual fic but I’m currently VERY unmotivated, Still,I hope you enjoy this outline of what I have of this weird fic I made up that probably doesn’t make that much sense,(under the cut)

•Story starts with a tale about a race of holy goats that used to fight off demons of all kind but have since been extinct in present day but their descendants still remain… (Probably will not be in the actual story though since it not that relevant to the story)

•Then it cuts to the main goat of our story just after being born in the Stomp Farmer’s Farm alongside her siblings

•Should be noted that she is never really given a name and just refers herself as “The Goat”

•The Goat then describes her life in the farm,with the Stomp farmer taking great care of her and The Goat wanting to explore outside the farm

•She also notes how the Farmer thinks she is a bit different from her siblings by her liking eating a lot more and growing more bigger but brushes it aside

•Then one day,The Goat decides she wanted to sneak out of the farm so she can take a walk and see the outside,Just for a while!

•So when her family and the Stomp Farmer sleep,she sneaks out of the farm’s fence and spots a city not too far from here so she pays a “quick” visit

•While quietly exploring,The Goat gets distracted by a animal (like a bug or a small bird) and goes after it

•Some Goat shenanigans happen

•Eventually she gets too exhausted to go back to the farm and sleeps in a alleyway

•Then when she wakes up,The Got realizes that she is lost in this crowded city

•Some goat angst happens

•Then she encounters The Gatekeeper Trio who is slightly younger and The Goat bonds with Saffron in particular

•After a bit,The Trio try to give her back to the Stomp Farmer but after some consideration,He allows them to keep the Goat mainly because he thinks she is old enough to be taken care of by somebody else

•And so,After a while of being cared for by Saffron,The Goat mellowed out,having a more relaxed and lazy personality in her adulthood

•Then she got sold to the Barista and I’m sure you know the rest

•A epilogue involving the Stomp Farmer perhaps?

And that’s it! If you read to the end,thank you,I apologize if this was a bit messy,then again,this is just a outline so there is a possibility that I could alter/expand of some things, nevertheless I hope you enjoyed this <3

[howhow326]

Some of yall bout to be real mad at me...

Breakdown under read more.

Percabeth Energy: True love, made for each other, perfection, flawless, wholesome, zero bad vibes (Note: I planned to leave this part empty, but changed my mind when I saw these two ships)

Julerose is like a star in the void. In a show full of weirdness, these two are proof that an unproblematic relationship trumps all! For that, I give them the honor of Percabeth energy.

Tom and Sabine are just straight Julerose with the added bonus that Tom kicked his racist dad to curb and never looked back. Of only Marinette never found that guy again.

Lumity Energy: Full love, realistic problems but like not in an abusive way, the only reason these ships aren't giving Percabeth is because the show ruined them, yes that is what I'm going with, No I don't think Lumity is bad the name is just a joke

Alya x Marinette is a goated ship, fight me! "bUt WhAt AbOuT lIlA", everyone is an idiot in those episodes! Forgot Lila and remember that Marinette and Alya have a very supportive relationship that's mutual. Although, I couldn't completely forget about Lila which is why it's down here.

Lukanette was robbed. Luka x Adrien was also robbed.

So I don't dislike the gay boys but that one time Nathaniel ripped Marc's sketchbook just sticks in my head even tho he said sorry. It's not even in character for Nathaniel to do that! Oof. Still goated in the sauce.

I used to hate Marichat but then it went on to become the best side of the love square because it got so little focus?! More is less, and Elation is better than three thirds of the love square episodes.

Marinette and Kagami used to be such a wholesome relationship but then season 5 kept dragging out Kagami's kiddie pool sized jealousy for bad Lila episodes. At least I can pretend they don't exist.

Nooro and his only friend in the world. And now they've been separated 😭

BMBLB Energy: Not half bad, just not for me, may or may not be canon/developed well, I'm not criticizing BLBMB its just a joke

Adrien x Juleka could be cute, but it's one of those things that you have to accept will never be canon or even get episodes for it.

All of the other Lovesquare ships got dropped down here because of Arc Fatigue. Ladrien didn't even get a kiss!

Marinette and Marc got better development in Reverser than Nathaniel and Marc did.

"Back in my day, we used to ship Marinette with Nathaniel!" "Sure grandpa, let's get you to bed."

Ivan and Mylene wishes they could be the straight version of Julerose. These two are just weirdly codependent to the point that Ivan's last focus episode was like... season 1?

Skip

Adrien/Chat Noir and Alya/Rena Rouge had more chemistry with each other in two episodes than Alya had with Nino in the last 5 years (Yall bout to be really mad at me)

Adrien x Nathaniel could be cute, but it's one of those things that you have to accept will never be canon or even get episodes for it. Huh, deja vu.

Adrien and Nino had more chemistry with each other than Alya had with Nino in the last 5 years. Now I'm just doing it on porpoise.

"Oh look, a boy and a girl being friends? Not in my Westboro baptist church cartoon!!! They need to be married and have 8 children now!!!" Is the vibe this ship gives.

Past this point I don't really care about kwami shipping.

The only reason these two are up here is because the darkest skin background character managed to snag some sense of relevance. Good for him.

Klance Energy: waif like and blind, child like and bitter, guant visage, smoking mirrors, you have erased yourself, you learned to hate yourself, burning on the inside, he's tried so many times to take my life away, but he'll be the first to die tonight, I promise my dear

Remember when Chloe actually cared about Adrien before Astruc retconed her to be his spin on Marie Antoinette?

I stopped shipping it after Lies and you should too. Adrien was horrible to her.

Remember when Chloe actually cared about Sabrina before Astruc retconed her to not care about Sabrina at all and then he executive producers had to rerail her character by showing that she did care about Sabrina in her final moments?

GIRL, WHY ARE YOU WITH HIM???

Dosen't exist in canon, poor man's Lukanette in fanon.

Reread the last sentence. Also, I dislike the pare the spares thing.

Just wait until I get to Dj wifi.

GIRL, WHY ARE YOU WITH HIM???

Plagg/Tiki x Adrien/Marinette would be a good ship if half of the pairing weren't Fire emblem dragon wifu's that are 7,000 years old... but that's not going to stop some of yall, is it 😞

Skip

Reylo energy: forbidden, horrifying, abusive, wtf, GIRL WHY ARE YOU WITH HIM, unlike the other names I actually do hate Reylo

I do not ship canon Lila with anyone except the devil because she belongs in Gehenna. Reread this every time she shows up.

I do not ship canon Kim with anyone except his right hand because he deserves a kick in the teeth. All of the fanfictions that made him a mean jock were basically right. Reread this everytime he shows up.

Hi! It's me! I'm the guy who wrote Nino salt, it's me! I made a fic, where Alya punches him in his teeth! He should have never stalked her and assumed she was cheating on him; He should have never revealed her cover without her consent; why dafaq is Alya even still with him?

I refuse to ship Chloe with her victims.

Again, I refuse to ship Chloe with her victims.

Chloe is too toxic to be with prince Ali (Sabrina is also toxic so it balances out).

Kagami is too good for Chloe.

Three times the charm, I refuse to ship Chloe with her victims.

Max is Ace Me being an idiot

Does anyone even care about this AU anymore?

I am a big dumb dumb that confused Asexuality with Aromanticism. Whoops.

Marinette x Max does have some chemistry in the Gamer episodes. Unfortunately, Max stopped having episodes with her for some reason, and I blame the robot.

Boring

Do these two ever talk, or...

Well apparently the writers do because we're getting a special about them.

WTF IS THIS PICTURE???

WHY IS LUKA CHOKING NATHANIEL??????

[kimberlyannharts]

So...............this is a series that exists!

Between the mainline series and The Return (which, I should note, isn't even officially released yet), Ranger Academy is already kind of the underdog of Boom's releases right now. And it's not really hard to see why; it's a completely original story set in some part of PR universe, not connected to any unfilled plot holes from the show or unexplained lore from the comics, cast with completely original characters not from any established planet we know. On top of that, it's more for younger readers than the older demographic the comics typically skew towards. If not for the giant PR lightning bolt they paste everywhere, it would be very easy to forget this has anything to do with Power Rangers.

But hey, apparently Zordon founded this school, so that makes it okay, right?

Now I've had my quibbles about this series and just the concept of a Power Rangers school in general; as of the third issue I think it's.....pretty good. But I figure we should give it a fair shot in discussing it (and there's no M/tt) so that means comic recaps!

Let's begin at the beginning with Ranger Academy #1!

= This will be the first of many examples of these Ranger Academy cadets (or just Rangers in general) being referred to as "knights", which I, a bit cynically I must admit, feel it's a way to avoid comparing them to cops. I feel it's not totally incorrect, though

= let Sage say fuck

= MATHIS NO NEARLY EVERY NON-BINARY CHARACTER INTRODUCED IN THESE COMICS HAS DIED IT'S STARTING TO FEEL A LITTLE PROBLEMATIC

= me about to infodump to some poor soul

= while this first issue is basically just the FCBD book with some additional pages, it's worth noting that Mathis's dialogue is slightly edited here.

= i'm not sure the significance of this yet, obviously, but I'm assuming "battling your inner morphin beast" has something to do with how cadets here get their Zords. The series has been taking its time it really laying down how its whole........system works, which is both good and bad, imo

= DILF ALERT! and he'll immediately correct himself if he gets your pronouns wrong. a real man

= when you save some kids' lives it's completely within your rights to call them dumbasses

= Sage my darling you do not want to learn physics. I guarantee it

= I know I've already talked about how this made me hope that part of this book will be about pointing out the flaws in Ranger Academy's system rather than just framing Rhianth as a quitter buuuuuuuuuut future issues have already made some cracks in that. It's to be expected, I guess

= I know when this book first came out the Merrick namedrop caused a bit of a stir, but as of the third issue it hasn't really been elaborated on. I guess with the confirmation that Ranger alumni do guest lectures at this school, this is indeed meant to be Wild Force Merrick, but it's hard to say since a) he hasn't shown up officially and b) other show cameos follow the red/black/yellow/pink/blue color scheme. (Even Cruger does, as he's kind of confirmed to be a black ranger.) Mathis directly talking to him through coms about some random goat story also implies more of a close mentor/apprentice relationship rather than just a random guest lecturer?? But again, nothing like that has been shown, yet. I guess we'll have to see if it becomes relevant later or just an example of Early Installment Weirdness

= Tula you're giving him a bit too much credit there. Though admittedly Tula seems like the type to suck up to teachers by calling all of them the best

= though I agree that she needs to study up on Ranger history a bit more because nearly all the best Rangers got their powers by sneaking, lying, stealing, or all of the above. Rhianth's right that this Academy isn't making REAL Rangers!

[popculturebuffet]

Since it was fun doing Cartoon Network, let's try another network of shows. You already talked about The Hub/Discovery Family original cartoons on another ask, so gonna try Nickelodeon original cartoons next (split up by era). Who is your favorite character from each of the Nicktoons from the first half of the 90s from the shows you've seen like: Doug, Rugrats 1991, The Ren & Stimpy Show, Rocko's Modern Life, Aaahh Real Monsters, Hey Arnold, and KaBlam?

LIke last time (Which wasn't commented on) I'll also give my general thoughts but I was hoping this would happen. Doug: Doug himself, a relatable likeable guy and one of Billy West's breakout roles. Though Roger is a close second as while he's an ass, he's one of the better bully characters out there. The show itself was nice, calming and pretty decent all things considered, a grounded slice of life show that paved the way for others. IT's outclassed by some later ones to be sure, but it's still pretty neat. Rugrats: Chucky. He was this when I was a kid, he still is now. I love this neurotic little mess. The show as a whole was pretty great.. I went through a phase of not liking it and while I still like most other nicktoons on this block better, I can't deny Rugrats staying power, classic characters or all time banger episodes. The Movies are also pretty good and something we may be covering at some point. The Ren and Stimpy Show: Not sure if I have a faviorite here. As for the show I didn't really watch it much as a kid or as an adult: I can admire it's craft, and the gag from sven hoek "BUT FIRST, BUT FIRST, BUT FIIIIRRRSSST I"m gonna take a whiz! Don't you go anywhere", was a thing with me and my friend mars back in the day but I just never was that attached. Which is probably good as John K is a monster, but the rest of his crew did a good job as was the voice acting. It was just never really for me.

Rocko's Modern Life: Rocko Himself. Yes once again i'm picking the main character though out of the side cast, you all know who my boy is

But Rocko is such a relatable shy little guy he's hard not to love. Though again Wild Pig will always be goat too so they can share it I suppose. Point is Rocko is the best: a relatable show that hits for both adults and kids. As a Kid I watched it but wasn't really in love with it. As a young adult on the n, this thing became my religion and remains one of my faviorite nicktoons. A true classic with humor, relatablity and a whole lotta 90's nostalgia while still being mostly relevant. Watch this one if you haven't. Aaaah Real Monsters: Hard to say as it's been too long. I like Ickis design but all the design work here is awesome. The show itself is one worth revisiting, with great designs and a truly unique style. Wish I had more to say about it as I don't think Kid me was super on board.

Hey Arnold: Honestly? Harold. I thought this would be hard as the cast for Hey Arnold is truly one of the best in animation history, no exageration the amount of spotlight episodes means just about everyone's fleshed out. But Harold's tend to stick out the most with his Kitten Hostage Situation, Bar Mitzfah and especailly his job with Mr Green being some of the series best episodes. The kid was the right mix of obnoxious jerk and heart of gold. Also before we move on can we just.. appricate that the show has an episode where a child basically kidnaps a kitten, has the police called.. and he's STILL the most sympathetic one in the room next to the kitten's owner? It's a tesitament to the show's power: Hey Arnold is a charming, wonderful little show, one of the best slice of life shows period. Part of the reason doug isn't as good as it was in it's heyday.. is it made room for shows like Hey Arnold to exist. A truly wonderful show that gave depth to just about every damn character it had over time, had a lot of heart, charm and creativity. It's honestly one of the best cartoons period and I stand by that, also having a knack for atmsophere along with it's wonderful cast and shocking maturity (Seriously I had no idead Miriam was an alcholic as a kid or Mr Simmons was gay and had a homophobic mom but both are handled well for the time). True classic.

KaBlam: Character wise let's go by short: June (If Narrowly), The Chief (Tends to get the best lines and is enjoyably Da Chief type character boiled down to it's most hliaroius form), Sniz, Prometheus, Loopy Herself, Race Rabbit, and Tommy. As for the show I did a whole ass retrospective, but in short, it's fantastic. Not the biggest fan of prometheus and bob, but the rest of the recurring segments are all bangers on some level, though P and B is still gorgeously animated, it's simply not for me. It's a fantastic show, animation showcase and time capsule and well worth your time.