#theyre taking up all the space in my mind rn i cant focus on anything else 😭😭😭

[echosdevil]

i posted a hades and persephone edit on my editing account if anyone wants to give it some love 🙏

[lunatic-fandom-space]

Comparing RWBY and YGO DM: The Handling and Evolution of Themes

Hey! Its been a hot minute since I last posted anything RWBY-related but Im laying in my bed right now and Im sick and bored so I guess we're doing this. Today I will do my best to analyze what I percieve to be the main themes and messages of both of these shows, or more specifically, how theyre handled narratively. Im mostly focusing on that part because, while these series do have similar themes and messaging, they are still a few things in which they are wildly different. And with that, lets start with this essay-post-thing!

1. Theres something we need to adress first

Okay so, before we can really talk about this, theres something I feel the need to clarify here: Neither of these stories was "planned from the beginning".

Now, I dont think a story being planned from the beginning or not nesscessarily makes the story any better or worse by default, however, it is still important to acknowledge because the way the story is planned is going to affect every facet of it. Things are not going to be foreshadowed properly, things are gonna be set up only for nothing to come of it, the story might drastically change directions, characters might act differently, etc, etc.

And, this is bit off-topic but, it's much better to just admit that the story was not planned than trying to pretend that it was. Like, there are a lot of reasons why I tend to be so forgiving towards YGO even though its not very good, but one of them is definitely the fact that, as far as Im aware atleast, the guy who wrote it isnt pretending to have had this big master plan all along and neither is the fandom. With RWBY on the other hand... yeaaaah, its kinda the opposite. From what Ive seen of RWBYs fandom, there seems to be this pretty popular narrative that everything was planned even though it clearly wasnt. Thats pretty bad and honestly lowers my opinion of the writers so much more than if they would just admit to not having a proper plan.

Like, I initially consumed YGO like this: Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters, Yu-Gi-Oh (aka Season 0), like, a quarter of the Yu-Gi-Oh manga (I still havent finished it)

In all three of these we have the character of Yami Yuugi, or just Yami. Broadly speaking, he is an ancient egyptian gamer spirit who lives in a magical puzzle that has not been solved for 3000 years until this highschooler named Yuugi Mutou comes along and solves it, thus setting him free and allowing him to possess Yuugi and have access to the vague magical powers of the puzzle.

In Duel Monsters he's perfectly fine most of time, morally speaking. There is an instance of him almost murdering a guy and its a bit unclear what exactly happens to those he mindcrushes but overall he's very much a pretty good guy. In Season 0 most of what he does is set up these games for bad people, where they will go insane no matter what they do. From how I understand this whole Shadow Game, Penalty Game stuff, if you lose a Shadow Game, you get violent and intense hallucinations and you will always cuz yknow, gamer spirit. But if you try to cheat, which most of the bad people do in this show, you get violent and intense hallucinations as a punishment.

Since the two anime are generally considered two different continuities, its perfectly fine that Yamis characterization is wildly different in both of them. But in the manga both of these characterizations appear, basically one after the other with no real arc or consequences, for that matter. Why is that? Simply put, someone thought it was a good idea to try to turn an episodic, very slice of life-y light-horror manga into a more traditional, more plot-driven battle shounen. From what Ive heard, it was apparently largely because of network interference or something, but the point is, it changed directions incredibly drastically with little planning and everyone knows this and I can understand that for the most part.

In RWBY we have the character of Blake Belladonna, who, in the first 3 volumes/seasons atleast, was this aloof, more toned down loner-type character with a pretty strong sense of justice. She's an in-universe marginilized racial minority and she clearly cares about racial injustice. The way its initially framed makes it seem like she had a very hard life and no stable support system, which is what eventually pushed her to join a Civil Rights group/Terrorist organization (good god, the Faunus subplot is so awful, I could write a whole essay about it but Im already de-railing rn so I'll just save that for later).

Then, in volumes 4-5 it turns out her father is actually like, the mayor or chief of this island-place called Menagerie and she grew up in this big mansion with multiple guards/servants. Oh and also, apparently "space is a commodity" on there, so theres that. She still retains large parts of her personality but she's kinda like, worse somehow I think. I cant really describe it in a meaningful way but I hope you get what Im saying anyway. Then in Volume 6 she confronted her emotional abuser Adam (sorry for not mentioning him sooner but yeah, he was like, her abusive boyfriend, which is something that a lot of people disagree with but I wont really say anything about it either way because I dont really feel any specific way) with her friend, Yang, and ended up killing him.

After all that, she pretty much lost the rest of her personality, as well as her arc about all the Faunus stuff. She just kinda became the meek, generically nice, recovering abuse victim. Why? Well, the actual reason is that they didnt plan out shit and are just kinda flying by the seat of their oversized clown-pants and if they and the fandom just admitted it, I would have less of an issue. I still wouldnt be as forgiving towards RWBY as I am towards YGO because the crux of the issue, for me, is just that I dont particulary like RWBY but also like. Do you really expect me to take MKEK seriously as writers after admitting to not have a timeline because iT wOuLd CaUsE pLoThOlEs?

However, since they want us to believe that everything was planned out from the beginning, the explaination would be.... Idk, they deliberately butchered one of their main characters?? Because.. they hate her?? Maybe????

So yeah, that was quite a detour however, I would like you to keep this mind going forward.

2. Themes of the Early Series'

First, what do mean by 'Early Series' for both of these shows respectively? Well, for YGO that would have to be Season 0 or if youre reading the manga, everything pre-Duelist Kingdom. Basically, the part of the series thats a episodic, very slice of life-y light-horror series.

For RWBY that would be the first three Volumes, also known as the Poser-Era. Back then it was just kinda an action series that took place at Anime Warrior Academy (also known as Beacon) with some pretty bare minimum worldbuilding, character-driven plots and developments but now its more of an epic high-fantasy story with more of an emphasis on plot as opposed to just action.

The themes and messages in Early YGO are kinda vague, very confusing to me and if you were to follow any of it literally that would be pretty bad. For now Im just gonna say the main themes are Friendship and Identity and mostly focus on the Identity aspect.

Now, it took me a little while to figure out RWBYs deal but I think the main themes for Volumes 1-3 are also Friendship and Heroism. Once again, I'll mostly focus on Heroism and touch on Friendship more briefly later.

I dont have much more to add to YGOs themes right now, so I'll briefly go over Heroism in RWBY.

In RWBYs setting there are these man-eating monsters called Grimm that have basically infected the planet. In order to deal with that, they have people called huntsmen and huntresses that kill them and protect people. Theyre trained at special academies like Beacon and go on missions there and stuff like that. Our four main characters, Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang, are training to become huntresses and one day they go on this mission to clean up a grimm infested city block with one of their teachers. Obviously, that takes a long time so they have to camp out in one of the empty houses. Weiss, Blake and Yang cant sleep because theyve been thinking about this question that their teacher asked them when they were fighting grimm: "Why do you want to become a huntress?"

They have a heart to heart and we find out about their motivations; Weiss wants to bring honour back to her family, Blake want to distance herself from the White Fang (that terrorist organization I mentioned earlier) and as an extension from Adam, Yang wants to have a life of adventure. They also talk about why Ruby wants to be a huntress and it turns out that she judt wants to help people. Unlike the others, she has no motivation besides that. We're meant to listen to that and look at her as a sort-of personification of Heroism: kind, but not naive, strong and most of all, selfless. The others on her team are not portayed as bad for not being like Ruby by any means but we are clearly meant to admire her the most out of all of them.

Okay, now comes the part Ive been looking forward to the most:

3. How did these themes evolve in the Modern Series'?

Alright, before we can really delve into the way they evolved in YGO I'll have to give you a brief summary of the character progression. At the start of DM, during the Duelist Kingdom arc, Yami Yuugi is just that; A darker Yuugi. Hes more confident, bolder, his voice is deeper, hes somehow taller, more ruthless, all that good stuff. Notably, he doesnt actually seem more skilled than Yuugi even at the start of this story, but he's still dependent on Yami. Yami on the other hand, has no identity of his own or even hints at one at this point. He's just The Other Yuugi.

Then during the Battle City arc, they find out that Yami was actually a pharao prior to being sealed in the puzzle, he just didnt know because of amnesia, I guess. So now they need to find out his real name and then send him to the afterlife because hes meant to be dead, but not before saving the world from being swallowed by darkness, which is also a thing they have to do now.

Then we finally get to the Memory World arc, where Yami, Yuugi and the rest of the gang astralproject to ancient egypt via puzzle magic. Yami is trying to figure out what the hell is going on and who all these familiar people are, while Yuugi & Co are trying their best to help him. Then some weird shit happens and it turns out that all of that is not just Yamis sealed away memories, but also a giant D&D Shadow Game that will destroy the world if Yami loses. So now theres Pharao!Yami who is still clueless on the metaphorical and literal playing field and Player!Yami, who is kinda controlling himself now? I guess?? Yamis opponent, The Spirit of The Ring, has something similar to that going on where hes both controlling and properly participating in the game. So Player!Yami is now fighting against Player!TSoTR, Pharao!Yami is now fighting against Thief King Bakura (who is like, the human, ancient egyptian version of the Ring Spirit) and Yuugi is now fighting against Yami Bakura (who is like, the human, modern japanese version of the Ring Spirit). Yuugi gets Yamis real name, he and the gang go over to Pharao!Yami and tell him his name, meanwhile Player!Yami is also somehow helping as well and they defeat the Ring Spirit, thus saving the world. Then they travel to modern Egypt, the Ceremonial Duel happens and Yuugi wins, sending Yami to the Afterlife where he can finally rest and that was the series!

I originally wanted to recount the stuff that was going on with the Ring Spirit and his host as well because they parallel eachother, but this summary is already far too long and I think youll get the point without me needing to explain any more.

My point here is, that the story went from being vaguely about Identity, maybe? to being very clearly about Self-Discovery and Learning to Be Independent. I think this is a very good way to evolve the messaging of your story. How does RWBY track on that?

Well, uh... its not great. I will acknowledge that they have tried to introduce new themes and ideas since, even though I wont really be talking about them in this post. But yeah, the whole Heroism thing really regressed.

Like, I didnt explicitly say it when I was explaining grimm earlier, but theyre not going away. The grimm have always been there and people who sign up to become huntsmen and huntresses are effectively signing up for a job that will never truly be done, no matter what they do. Characters like Ruby and even more minor ones like Phyrrah have shown us that that doesnt matter when youre a hero. No life isnt worth saving, no grimm isnt worth killing, no criminal isnt worth arresting. Then, in volume 6 they find out about Salem. Salem is the Big Bad of the show, shes immortal, controls the grimm and is supposed to be very powerful.

What do our heroes do? They give up. Sike! They were just mindcontrolled by monsters or some shit, of course they didnt give up their mission (which is to bring an Important Macguffin to a city called Atlas, sorry I didnt mention it)!

But then they arrive in Atlas (which is llike, a city thats floating over another city called Mantle) and yknow, they do some plot stuff thats not really important right now until the city gets invaded by Salem and this big grimm army she has.

What do our heroes do? Well, Ruby, Weiss, Blake and some side characters are chilling, drinking tea in a mansion and Yang and the B Team were actually trying to do something, but even those efforts seem incredibly minimal.

Oh wait, I also forgot to mention that Ironwood (a fairly minor, vaguely antagonistic character up until now) wanted to lift Atlas even higher to save Atleasian civilians from danger while leaving Mantle vulnerable to Salems invasion.

What would be the most heroic thing to do?

A) Let Ironwood lift Atlas, get as much support as they can down to Mantle and save as many Mantle civilians as they can from the invasion

B) Prevent Ironwood from lifting Atlas but then split up in order to protect both Atlas and Mantle civilians

C) Prevent Ironwood from lifting Atlas and then dont do anything else

Congrats! If you choose C, you think exactly like the writers!

And I just

This is so mindboggling to me, I feel like I shouldnt even have explain how this is bad. And like, it wouldve been so easy to actually make them seem herokc through their actions, to make it seem like they did try but no.

I have never seen a central theme be this botched, how in the world did they do that? Why did they think it was a good idea for Ruby "The Embodiment of Heroism" Rose to sit in a mansion doing nothing, no planning, no organizing just ..... God, how are they this bad? Like, this doesnt even have anything to do with it being planned in any way, this is just straight up incompetence

4. Very briefly touching on friendship

The friendship is awful and its not solely because they all have the same opinions. They barely interact with eachother outside their designated pairs which leads to it all feeling incredibly hollow. Theyre also practically indistingushable from one another now, which is a shame because it wasnt always like that. Like, I dont think the characters were that well-developed in earlier volumes but they were very well-characterized. But now we've gotten to a point where you can literally copy and paste one characters dialogue onto another and literally nothing changes, it really sucks.

5. Some closing words

Damn, this took way longer than I thought it would and now Im pretty exhausted. I have no idea how yall always write these but props to you! I feel like this ended up a bit rambly but overall, Im pretty proud.

Please let me know what you think of the points I brought up! Id also really appreciate some tips on how to get better at these longer posts because I am planning on writing more in the future (not the near future, probably but yknow).

Thats all I have to say for now, thanks for reading!

[simbar4lifelol]

A huge Soy Luna S3 rant lol

Im not complaining about simbar rn, they've been the best. But i honestly cant believe the show is gonna be over on friday. Like what even happened in s3?!?! I always payed more attention to my ship obviously lol but since they would only come out for like two minutes each episode, I have to admit i was bored out of my mind with everything else that was going on:/

The flow of the story was so odd and i cant help but feel like this story is incomplete now. I know several people have pointed out that the story was over s2 and i have to agree. The real plot ended in s2 and we had a s3 with no direction of what the show was going to be about next. It literally was just about boys and revenge.

Of Course a show could be just about that, but since this is disney the way it was all presented wasnt interesting enough, especially with how long they dragged everything with just that. They definitely did not know what to do with their secondary characters and they just came across(well at least to me) like a waste of space. All the characters could have done more. And i feel this is why s3 doesnt feel complete.

Luna had nothing going for her but thinking about relationships. So, since she is the protagonist no one else was allowed to do anything else. These characters had so much potential and this is where i get disappointed with how s3 turned out. When they would do something outside of relationships, for example skating or the open musics, absolutely nothing would happen afterwards. The characters werent further explored and they just never grew. When you would think they would do something different, they would just go back to exactly how they were before. Like when the girls formed their own group for about 3 episodes and then they just broke up. And nothing came from that but one performance.

Nothing happened with the roller band either. Didnt they have a bunch of fans?!?! Nico is not even missed because he didnt contribute anything. Nina only ever wrote something in her blog thingy to blackmail gary and she was just put together with erik for her to do something else aside from just asking luna who she likes the whole season. Jim and yam started off trying to figure out what to do after graduation but ended up in the shadow of what does luna need. Ramiro went to the red sharks then nothing. He leaves the red sharks, hes forgiven then nothing. Jazmin, oh jazmin we know nothing of her only that she loves creating content for social media. nothing else happened with her except her meeting that guy. Pelfi although cute they also didnt do much but react to either lutteo or simbar. Delfi's only arc was the fight with jazmin. It was pretty entertaining so points for them. But this is my point when theyre not revolving around luna they had great content.

The downfall of this season was the writers forgetting their other characters and just constantly repeating storylines with the main characters. And everyone else just reacting to them. All of season 3 was so predictable that my only joy was simbar lol They were the only ones not just reacting to lutteo. which is why they were a breath of fresh air. Individually, simon was just reacting to lutteo and ambar was just reacting to luna. But as simbar they had their own thing. They were trying to figure the other out with the new dynamic of ambar going full "rebel".

It was different and new and exciting. To see these characters tease each other and seeing the tension of wanting to be together but both being stubborn. Simon knowing damn well ambar was in a path of self destruction but still trying to find a way in. Ambar telling simon he needed to stop lying about his feelings for her. My only issue was when bembar became a thing. Those episodes were so messy that they actually made me less enthusiastic about simbar because i didnt get ambar, but i feel it was needed to make ambar finally snap out of it and officially leave that behind her. These past 15 episodes had ambar in her own arc as her best self not worrying about luna and thriving as a character because of that.

But of course i understand the show is called Soy Luna. I like luna. The first two seasons revolved around her being a happy girl with loving adoptive parents starting a new life away from home. She eventually gets curious about her origins and sets out to find out where she came from with the help of her best friends. While every other character did their own thing.

The problem came about when in s3 they didnt know what to do with their protagonist. The first 5 episodes were her feeling overwhelmed with finding out she's Sol Benson and remembering a bit of her past. But that's it after that shes okay. "She's the same luna except now she's rich." Thats the whole story. Oh and she has three love interests. Oh and shes gonna bring the jam&roller team together but no one gets to shine except her and all the opportunities will go to her only. They're gonna have rivals and theyre just gonna go back and forth forever without any consequences till episode 40. The open music will have cool singing and dancing numbers and they will serve no purpose but to fill in things in the episodes except episode 10 when luna will confess her feelings for simon but jk nevermind she doesnt. Nothing ever changes.

The main focus was her love life and honestly that could have worked if it wasnt the exact same formula as season 2 with matteo. The hot and cold relationship yes no yes no. Ugh i dont understand how lutteo fans have survived for so long. I wish they had given her something more to stand for. A different character arc that wasnt just about her and matteo. Because thats what the whole season has been about. Everyone else are just there getting 1 or 2 episode arcs that really don't matter because everything will go back to normal. Simbar was lucky to get a continuous arc however they only got one or two scenes per episode and that was the highlight. Soy luna comes to an end in two episodes. And this whole week has everything revolving around luna and matteo realizing their dreams in the last 5 episodes. Just them. Jk we still have two episodes and im sure theyll show the rest "realizing their dream too" but i just cant believe they made 60 episodes of nothing.

The adults took up a lot of screentime in a storyline that just sucks. The only thing sharon's been good for is to give luna nightmares. Again everything has only been a huge plot device for luna and things a lot of times felt forced.

Well all of this was my main issue with season 3 and i wanted to share my personal opinion. Im sorry this is so long. Season 3 had its great moments but as a whole was really disappointing. I hope no one takes offense to this and although im here complaining soy luna finishing is still bittersweet. You can love something but still recognize its flaws.

[groundramon]

I’m only writing this down here because I have shit to do and cant sit pondering on things for the time being, but:

I’m currently trying to figure out why certain things bother me in Steven Universe and Voltron that are also present in Teen Titans, but I find endearing in Teen Titans.

I’ll start with Voltron because I actually have an answer to that one.  Voltron’s tendency to switch between comedy and seriousness at the drop of a dime always bothered me a lot.  It’s not as present in the 3rd season because that season is just straight drama (ironic considering Shiro was missing for most of it, and ill get to why thats ironic in a minute) but it is in the other seasons.  The best (and by that I mean clearest and also funniest in the contrast) example of this is the Space Mall episode.  While everyone else minus Allura and Shiro are fooling around in a mall and doing mostly comedic shit, Shiro is nearly killed by the big bad of the series in a beautiful but pretty dark scene.  (And Allura is also off doing something funny and cute, its worth mentioning).  This perfectly highlights the tonal differences and what causes these differences - its whether Shiro is in a scene or not.  Like I love Shiro, I love Shiro a lot, but...giving all your serious scenes to one character, or worse killing the mood of a scene just by his meer presence, is...bad writing.  The only three other characters that have really had any serious backstory or serious moments are Keith, Pidge, and Allura.  But I can basically never take a scene with Lance, Hunk, or god forbid Coran seriously.  Coran is okay because no show ever develops the Old Crazy Uncle comedy relief character (but i will love this show forever if they do that honestly) but Lance and Hunk?  It’s appalling how little development they’ve been given.  To be fair it looks like theyre building up to /something/ with Lance, but honestly?  That should’ve bubbled over two seasons ago.  You establish your characters’ problems and struggles in the first season, not season 4 or later.  Sorry not sorry.

But comparing that to Teen Titans, okay.  So Voltron’s problem is that instead of its serious moments vs its comedic moments being situational, they’re character driven.  They dont treat all their characters equally; they act like they have a cast of comedic characters and then a cast of serious characters.  Teen Titans, meanwhile, relies on all of its main characters as a source of humor.  Robin gives bad puns, Starfire is the quirky alien, Beast Boy is the Typical Teenage Boy(tm), Cyborg is his slightly chiller and cooler sidekick, and Raven is the emo kid that cant stand the Typical Teenage Boy(tm).  And all of its main characters also have a darker side that fits into these comedic topes that they fall into, that makes them overall well-developed characters and fitting for the tone of the show as a whole.

Now onto Teen Titans and Steven Universe.  I’m starting to absolutely despite Steven Universe’s filler episodes.  Like, sincerely, there are so many episodes in Steven Universe that bore me, the “stupid” episodes especially.  So why do I hate SU’s filler episodes but not Teen Titans’?  Well first off, I said Teen Titans’ make me laugh, not that I like them.  There are a lot of episodes that I didnt even find that funny, I just found myself laughing as a reflex because my brain was stuck in a loop of “what?? what the fuck??? this is borderline kinky”  Secondly, the reason I can laugh at Teen Titans’ is 1. because they purposely dont take themselves seriously in those episodes, and 2. because they dont take away from screentime that should have gone to the shit pacing of the serialized story.  Control Freak is my favorite (irONICALLY) but I’d prefer to see Slade terrorizing the Teen Titans with his latest plan over another Control Freak episode any day (except yesterday because i watched a lot of depression shit yesterday).  Having said that, I dont mind watching Control Freak because (USUALLY) by the time they get to a filler episode, the main plot has hit a stopping point where a filler episode is okay (IE the titans cant do anything about it), or the “filler” episode actually is the plot.  Because the Titans stopping Control Freak from robbing a bank IS their job, so it IS the plot, regardless of where Slade is at.  But yknow how I mentioned usually?  Yeah well, as much as I love Terra herself, I had a LOT of problems with her arc because the writers gave her five (5) episodes and four of those were inherently linked despite there being two filler episodes sandwiched between them.  Winner Take All was the one I had the biggest problem with, because she was around for ONE (1) episode before her betrayal and she wasnt even a focus in it?  Like really??  You gave yourself a new character to work with and you didnt even explore the possibility of “filler” episodes with her???  And Fractured is a bit more understandable (well, plot progression wise - the episode itself is basically a drug trip) but even then, I feel like...that wasnt really a good place for that episode.  I feel like taking out those two filler episodes, and maybe taking out another one or two earlier on and moving her first episode as a Titan up further, and dedicating those episodes to filler episodes involving her would be much better for her overall arc.  But I digress, it does it right MOST of the time, where as Steven Universe basically hasn’t done it right since the second season.  The problem is that the filler episodes are interrupting the plot, instead of the plot stalling and leaving room for filler episodes.  And the moral thing - there’s no fucking moral to Fractured or even Winner Take All, but Steven Universe acts like there’s some kind of moral to episodes like Onion Friend.  I dont know, I just feel like the show tries to say “be nice to people who are different!” about a character that really is the embodiment of being MEAN to others who are different.  And I dont mean he’s mean to others (he is, but he doesnt discriminate), I mean that he himself is the embodiment of the “weird kids are weird and nobody should like them” kind of trope.  Onion isn’t just some quirky child, he feels like a creepy autistic stereotype - and this is coming from someone who isn’t good at picking up on these kinds of things and really hasnt heard much about Onion from anyone else other than “hes annoying”.  He puts me very, very off and I know the writers had good intentions, but Onion was very much the wrong character to do with this - or he needs to be more redeemable and less psychopathic.  Like you cant say “oh he’s just different and does strange things [implied because hes autistic]!! uwu” and then show him robbing an arcade a few episodes later.  You need to commit to how you’re portraying a character.  But I feel like Onion could be comparable to like Starfire, since Starfire’s status as an alien is treated both seriously and is generally the source of her jokes, but this already got too long and i dont have time to pinpoint the exact difference right now - but I guess for the time being you could say that “starfire saying weird things because shes a cultural minority, both on earth and in space” is a lot less harmful than “mentally ill people like to rob arcades”

I’m gonna write a more articulated version of this some time but rn I’m not satisfied about how I’ve highlighted the differences between SU and teen titans and like i said i dont have time right now so