#this do be an analysing moment

[lemongogo]

maybe this is my curtains are blue moment, but its so fascinating to me that we are withheld from seeing wolfwood’s likeness again (from the moment he dies) until vash kills legato. after which, we see him multiple times in the closing act of the manga, as is . complete and all.

surely nightow drew that last panel the way he did bc it was aesthetically pleasing, easier to draw, or perhaps more relevant/emotional for the situation, but i reaally really like what it accomplishes in portraying vash’s grieving process . by remembering him through inanimate objects like his gravesite , through the punisher, or through unmentionables (constantly referring to wolfwood as He, or Him) as opposed to his own Body or Self, you feel a sense of distance and detachment . its something vash doesnt really unpack until that critical moment where he has to, as wolfwood says, make an important and complicated choice . & by that point, having honored his sacrifice and finally Answered wolfwood’s dilemma, we see ww again. in full. CRAZYYYYYYYYYYY literally so cool and awesome 2 me

[featheredmoonwings]

Here's a thought.

Sam has been irrevocably changed since his coming back from hell (and jumping in of course). So often I find myself looking at later season's Sam, a Sam who's not a firey rebel against what the world wants of him, a Sam who would fight for himself. This is a quietly submissive Sam who can't stand to disappoint Rock No.1. Someone who takes on pain again and again and again because he's so used to it.

Sam from the first seasons it's not the same Sam as the later. This is a broken, traumatized man who excels at being high functioning and I am SO sure of it.

He LOOKS resigned and tired a lot of the time. And it reminds me of hell!Sam begging himself not to remember. hell!Sam knew what he was talking about and what we're seeing in later seasons is his reflection.

And let me throw in a Silmarillion reference because why the heck not. Like the souls of elves go to Mando's halls, Sam's soul needed to go to heaven and heal from all the years of hell he suffered (earthly ones and hell ones). He was not ready to be reembodied in earth and now he's come wrong.

Like 5 different entities warned us about Sam's shredded to ribbons soul. To me, that doesn't sound like a soul that should've been put back in a body.

[bisexualmultifandommess]

I’ve been updating my Charles Xavier Spotify Playlist and I’ve found songs for my three favourite Charles relationship dynamics that makes me sad 😭 these are going to include headcanons probably but most are close to what Charles really goes through

My Only Friend by Amy Shark (Ft. Tom DeLonge) - I feel like this song really fits Hank and Charles’ relationship before and during Days of Future Past. They’re my favourite friendship and I love seeing their dynamic explored in fics because it’s such a complicated relationship but for the longest time they were definitely each other’s person.

Dorothea by Taylor Swift - This song really made me imagine it as Charles talking to Raven or thinking about Raven when he misses her. He wishes he still had his sister and reminisces about their youth and the way things used to be. It really fits the sad feeling over her leaving as well as the hope of reconciliation one day.

Now with Erik I have so many that could fit different aspects of his relationship with Charles and how Charles feels about him so I’m going to list songs that I think fit the different emotions Charles may feel in regards to their relationship and especially the events in FC and DoFP.

The Grudge by Olivia Rodrigo and First Burn from Hamilton - These two songs definitely fits the anger Charles feels in regard to his relationship with Erik. He obviously loves Erik a lot but I believe that at least in the early years he felt so much anger and sadness over the miscommunication and his sister leaving that he must’ve occasionally had angry thoughts that he usually wouldn’t have. It’s an anger that he would later move on but I think it’s definitely shown in DoFP and I headcanon anyway that he felt so angry at times at Erik. The Grudge definitely feels more like Charles getting upset at Erik but saying these things to himself about what happened to him and trying to come to terms with what happened and First Burn feels more like he’s actually talking to Erik.

I miss you, I’m sorry by Gracie Abrams and The Moon Will Sing by The Crane Wives - These are definitely the sad aspect which I always love looking into because I love angst. I miss you, I’m sorry is more of a mourning the relationship song where Charles thinks back on before everything went wrong and how happy he was with him and how upset he is over the separation. The lyrics “I don’t wanna go, think I make it worse. Everything I know brings me back to us” to me show how dependent they are on each other and that they’re always going to be a part of each other no matter how many years go by. He’s always going to be connected to Erik and miss him even if things originally ended badly. The Moon Will Sing feels like it’s fits the trope of a character helping another find their spark but losing their own in the process. Charles loves Erik and Erik loves Charles but their relationship has made things difficult and Charles kind of lost himself for a bit after everything but he did eventually find his way back.

[ghostieblotts]

WHY IS EVERYTHING AI BULLSHIT

[bogkeep]

in the most recent patreon exclusive bonus episode of the very good podcast "if books could kill" michael hobbes has a very long tangent about a separate book he read for research (manhood in the making by david d gilmore) which is like, an anthropological study in what manhood means in various cultures across the world, and I Need This Book So Bad. i crave anthropological analysis of socially constructed gender roles in non-western cultures. but i must be patient. i found this book on a swedish bookstore but at the cost of too much money for a single book, and for a much more agreeable price on a norwegian bookstore - but they only ship to norway. in two months i will return. surely i can wait to months. i shall be so good and so patient

[akkivee]

choose your fighter: ichikuu lyrics edition

[itsalwaysforyou]

jay not asking coach about letting lonnie onto the team bc he doesn’t want to do anything coach might disagree with…….

[medilies]

Do you ever watch s3 and s4 and realise you're not enjoying it that much

[tyhi]

the thing i hate most right now about how stressed and fucked up and burnt out i am is that i cannot even form a take or viewpoint on my situation

[enconfess]

i am so frustrated by people who dont seem to understand that the amagis are ainu.

like sure, part of it is that the story itself is often not the best about it, because the !! main story conflates their ethnicity with some weird vague idea of old traditional values that are “bad” and that doesn’t really work in a narrative sense! because while Hiiro is struggling against the mindset that his only value is as Rinne’s second (ie the bad traditional values) his story is also about trying to find a middle ground in existing in the es as an idol and being indigenous - which is very very important to him!!!! the part where Rinne disowns him is often read as just Hiiro losing the framework of where his place is in the world, but it is very specifically him also losing his identity. his family and village and ethnic background is very very important to Hiiro and people wouldn’t downplay this so much if they just remembered that he. is. indigenous.

this ramble is already a bit long so i’m not going into Rinne’s side of it but it is similarly often forgotten by fans how his story is about a person who thinks the only way he can have value in this world is by renouncing his heritage and assimilating. and the fact that he basically canonically has a gambling addiction is either played for jokes or totally downplayed like ohh he is just trying to get money for his friends. like no! he is struggling and while a gacha game of all things will not admit this, fans should!!

….oh no i did go into Rinne’s deal too whoops.

sorry, being a mod for a page like this must be tiring

- 🫧 (i’m gonna sign of with this in case i want to come back here to vent a bit again… or talk about something a bit more positive)

added!

[widevibratobitch]

hooohoooohoooooo i think i need to go back to therapy im starting to have Thoughts that im too stupid for again

[lord-squiggletits]

I wish to love and appreciate idw optimus more too. But I also don’t want to read through the entirety of IDW 1.0. Can you please recommend me any specific issues/parts?

My best friend and fellow IDW Optimus lover made a post compiling all the comics with major story beats involving Optimus. Her list has a lot of the same things mine does, but also a lot more specific issues because she actually knows which specific issues of which series you can read specifically for ones focused on IDW Optimus. We don't agree on everything (I love some comics she dislikes and vice versa), but I would recommend her list simply because it's the most well-documented and thorough. Link I also have a lot of far less coherent but still genuine posts about IDW OP on my #idw op love tag.

As for specific parts I would recommend... since you don't want to read through all of IDW1, I'll go ahead and recommend you things based on in-universe chronological order rather than story release order, but if anything here interests you then I would recommend reading IDW1 in release order so that you get a better grasp of the story's context and how new lore was given out over time:

Chaos Theory and Police Action by James Roberts (The Transformers 2009 issues 22-23): I love love LOVE the way JRO writes Optimus talking to Megatron during the present day, it's very IDW-Optimus flavored because of how blunt, abrasive, and snappy Optimus is. There's a part in the comic where Megatron claims that he "knows [Optimus] better than anyone else," and he's right, but it's also true that Optimus knows Megatron well enough to see that he's bullshitting and it's very entertaining watching Optimus slowly lose his patience with him. I love the dialogue especially, no one (canon or fandom) has ever quite written the same IDW OP who's in this set of comics. It's also the most MegOP comic of all time because the sexual tension and the subliminal imagery of them doing BDSM together is unreal, plus it really captures their dynamic of two old soldiers who snap together with chemistry despite (or perhaps because of) being such long-time enemies. They just UNDERSTAND each other so well. Also, as a bonus point, Chaos Theory is where the pre-war lore for IDW1 began being published, so if you read Chaos Theory then the context for future pre-war lore makes a little more sense.

Shadowplay by James Roberts (More Than Meets the Eye issues 10-11): More pre-war lore that picks up where Chaos Theory/Police action left off. Important because it establishes a lot of IDW OP's character relationships, especially with "the Senator," Roller, and to a degree Ratchet and some minor side characters. I don't really know what to say about this besides it's just really fucking fun to read and features IDW OP getting to do cool shit like fight bad guys, investigate conspiracies, and do heists while also establishing one of his key character traits: being disastrously gay for suspicious men that he places entirely too much trust in to tell him what the right thing to do is.

Spotlight: Orion Pax by James Roberts: Okay, I'm really sorry for recommending JRO's stuff because it feels like favoritism and I don't even think JRO does the best version of IDW OP, it's just going in in-universe chronological order means that a lot of JRO stuff ends up first on the list. This one doesn't really have much of consequence in it and is honestly one of the weaker Spotlight issues, but like Shadowplay, it involves Orion Pax doing fun action shit and having way too much trust in a suspicious man (a new one from the suspicious man in Shadowplay).

The Autocracy Trilogy (Autocracy, Monstrosity, Primacy) by Chris Metzen: Oh my fucking god this is THE IDW Optimus to me, this trilogy is literally what made my ears perk up to even start liking IDW OP because it's what took me from "Optimus Prime, that's the guy who's the super awesome leader that everyone likes and is a paragron to everyone, yeah I know him" to "Oh.... holy shit this is such a good plot/worldbuilding, Optimus has so much CONFLICT and DRAMA with other people." It covers one of my favorite periods of the general Transformers formula, namely pre-war and early war plot events as conflicts come to a boiling point, there's political conflicts and personal conflicts, the planet is falling to shit and everyone is trying to escape and things are as depressing and scary as you would expect for a war that's literally about to consume a whole planet. I found the general plotlines to be gripping and intense (Autocracy is the weakest in this regard, but the writing gets better with each book) and I really like seeing how Optimus grapples with leadership. Especially the negative parts where people hate/fear him because of his association with Zeta's regime (the previous Prime, who Orion worked for), call his judgment into question, refuse his calls to action or waver in their faith in him, and so forth. I found it to be a really nuanced yet sympathetic view of IDW Optimus that made me fall in love with him. Because really, the thing that humanizes a character the most is making them flawed, and Autocracy trilogy Optimus is so incredibly flawed and conflicted. And also it shows him being shit on by other characters in a way that's well written in a plot that makes sense and doesn't feel like the entire plot is conspiring to shit all over him.

The Death of Optimus Prime by James Roberts and John Barber: This comic is basically the transition from phase 1 to phase 2, it establishes the branching plotlines of MTMTE and exRID, so this is another one of those comics that will help you understand IDW1 better if you want to read for more than just Optimus. Anyways, DoOP is great because it has a similar vibe to the Autocracy trilogy in that society is chaos and full of people who fucking hate Optimus' guts for the role he played in the war. You can also compare/contrast the way OP was before the war and early in the war versus the way he is after the war and see how much the war changed him (Chaos Theory also kind of is like this but it more shows bitchy Optimus specifically in his dynamic with Megatron). It also features a fair amount of Optimus Heroic Moments, Optimus Brooding, and Optimus being so fucking depressed he's literally sad when he wakes up and realizes he's not dead dude get some fucking therapy please I'm begging you--

Punishment by John Barber: This skips ahead quite a bit in the story but I think stands decently well on its own without having to understand the wider context. It's one of Barber's best-written stories and one of the only ones I've come back to reread for its own sake. It features Optimus trying to solve the murder-mystery of a bunch of Decepticons, featuring really cool plot conflicts like Optimus trying to navigate post-war society and the tensions that still linger from the Autobot-Decepticon war. I really like this one because it has that whole "not everyone loves OP and a lot of people hate him for justified reasons" thing that makes IDW OP a much more 3D character, PLUS it has some politics with the way Decepticons are treated post war. And I think it does really interesting things with Optimus in terms of showing how he DOES have this idealistic, merciful side that wants people to choose peace and letting go of vengeance, but of course it's not so easy to expect that of people after a 4 million year war. So when people inevitably choose violence, Optimus gets frustrated and angry and lashes out in a way that feels very real and understandable. It's a really good example of a comic that shows IDW OP in a nuanced way, showcasing both his virtues and flaws in a complicated situation that shows that there's no easy solution to these problems and no way for Optimus to escape without getting his hands dirty. Unlike future comics which involve OP being in complicated situations but instead the plot is super contrived and seems to overwhelmingly shit on OP without ever mentioning the very obvious ways that he could be defended, creating a story that's conceptually fascinating but incredibly mediocre in execution.

If I had to recommend any single one of these to read, I would recommend the Autocracy trilogy the most because it's literally the story that made me love IDW Optimus and made me realize "whoa, this guy is super nuanced and not what I expected of him." That's not to say that no other Optimi have depth and nuance, but I think the Autocracy trilogy was great for me personally as one of the first IDW1 comics I read. It struck a really good balance between "uh Optimus was part of some bad things that warrant being shit on" and "Optimus is struggling to overcome those bad associations he did, succeeding with some people and failing with others" and "Optimus is an optimist who has faith in others even when they don't have faith in themselves." Also, as a bonus, the Autocracy trilogy also features cunty murder-husband Megatron, an interesting character arc for Hot Rod, and the Dinobots as really interesting supporting characters (including their leader, Grimlock, having a cute veteran-rookie dynamic with Hot Rod that I wish we got more of).

[goldenkid]

people comparing wild blue yonder to midnight like yeah they're both good scary and unsettling BUT the huge fundamental difference between them is that wild blue yonder is about being trapped in a huge empty space with your friend and this scary thing that wants to kill you and not recognising your friend/your friend not recognising you, whereas midnight is about being trapped in this tiny space with a group of strangers and an unknowable entity and instead of fear of not knowing your friend the fear comes from the doctor not having ANY friends there, from the paranoia and mob mentality. it's a very group-focused story as opposed to wby which is only really commenting on the doctor and donna and their relationship.

there are obvs lots of similarities: twisted reflections, a monster that we never truly see or understand, a 'bottle episode' set in one location, unease and building tension and fear, paranoia, but to me at least wild blue yonder is about friendship and being with your friend but also maybe not with them, and worry that maybe you don't know this person that you love as well as you wanted to think you did...but midnight is very much about not having any friends or allies, and how groups can dissolve into paranoia and blame. wby has no 'one-off' characters whereas in midnight the one-off characters are everything. in wby you're alone in this maze of rooms and corridors...in midnight you're trapped with other people in this tiny little shuttle

tldr midnight is very mob mentality/'little pocket of humanity' focused whereas wby is all about the doctor and donna's relationship, and the different sets - one small and crowded, the other huge and empty - show this off pretty well

[lilacerull0]

nešto pametno i od tebe da čujem

[pinktinselmonstrosity]

wooooo had my second interview for my dissertation!! your girl's a proper researcher now 😌

[international-repeater-station]

decided to revive my kuro sideblog because i figured this thing (kuroshitsuji, that is) is too intense to be subjecting my current mutuals and followers to it after all. and anyway, to make kuro happen to other people is cruel indeed /j . so i'll post the link here as soon as i finish setting things up over there