#this is actually the second time he’s been in criminal minds! different character tho... so that will be a different set

[eruptedinlight]

Doug Jones’ Face in Every Role | 3 / ?

Beanie - Criminal Minds s04 x e10

[winderlylandchime]

1/2 Hello, I’m finally getting around to sending you the Out of the Box review. I’m a bit late even tho this all happened on Wednesday(i think) but that’s due to the fact that afterwards we continued to watch B99 and during the ep found out about Andre passing away. So in true brother fashion, doctor check ups got postponed due to family emergency and he has been in mourning since. Also sorry this is so long:

I legit just sat him in front of the interview and pressed play. So I didn’t even give him the chance to be ready for it. These are just some of the highlights because he was watching so quietly, you’d think Gale would be able to hear him if he was too loud: ‘Bria- wait no, not Brian. But Brian suits him. Fuck it, look it’s my pretty boy but all grown up! WITH GLASSES!’ Not even a minute in and he paused it and went ‘he looks like he’d rather be waterboarded than be here in front of a camera’

Here is where I forgot that his sexuality gets brought up in the first two minutes where the interviewer says “playing gay characters particularly for non gay actors” and he loudly went ‘NON GAY?’ And looked at me in shock and confusion. But then the topic immediately goes to Gale’s upbringing so he actually thought the interviewer was talking about other actors and not Gale…*gale mentions that he grew up pentecostal* ‘he grew up in a CULT? (I swear i only looked at him) *points to me* its all a cult one way or the other. Especially if you go to church 5 times a week.’ And then after a minute of silence he went ‘from a cult to fake fucking guys on tv *raises his soda* my man!’

Gale says he can’t really talk about his brother ‘me with you…but not for whatever reason he has which b-t-w *sings it out* shaaaaady, i just think people won’t care about the baby our parents found on a bus stop.’ He was just staring at the screen and then whispered ‘he’s pretty. How long ago was this filmed? I really fuck with the glasses. But a bit of a beard would be nice on him like in Criminal Minds (at this point im gonna give him your new fic to read since he’s obsessed with the beard/glasses) Gale says he went to San Francisco ‘i went to San Fran once, i did end up there cause I got lost though *long pause while he continues to watch* some very nice homeless people live there.. like my boy Ronny, i miss him’ They mention QAF ‘AH OKAY SHUT UP! Now we’re talking important stuff! Spill the secrets! Who hated who? Who fucked who? Who we still don’t like?’ *he actually scooted closer to the computer screen* (Gale mentions Aiden Gillen/UK qaf) ‘Aiden Gillen? The dude from king Arthur with the hot guy from Sons of Anarchy? Wait *pauses the video* there is a BRITISH version of it? Why?’ (Literally seconds later Gale mentions an ex girlfriend and he hits pause and stares at me) ‘girl….friend? Does he mean that like a girl thats a friend? Or like….they did kisses and stuff? Was he experimenting? You know what? We all have our moments, it’s okay’ Gale says that he has no personal knowledge about how it is to be a gay man and apparently my brother has decided to go full denial for some reason bc he lifts his soda and goes ‘ahhhh, yes, bisexuality’ and then just lifted his cast like a fist while sitting back. Gale mentions that he got blackout drunk before starting to film and he goes ‘i like him. I love him but i also like him. Two different things. I want to hang out with him in a non creepy way, i swear I’m capable of it but also if i had to date him id be down’ Gale is asked if Randy knew he was straight: *hits pause* ‘straight? STRAIGHT?! AS IN HETERO?! LIKE ME? STRAIGHT? LIKE…like..STRAIGHT?! *looks at me in disbelief and whispers* straight? STRAIGHT?! *gets up and immediately sits down* straight? Like he likes women? Like as in like huuuh?’ He then just stared into the screen with paused Gale on it and then whispered to himself ‘straight’ then he rubbed his whole entire face with his hand and then looked at me and went ‘oh this changes so fucking much. I have to alert my boys…and my girls…fuck what is mom gonna say to this? I feel….lied to. Not by him. But by you! *takes a deep breath* its okay..its cool..straight. Just like me….i think..Oh fuck’ Then he sat back on the couch, covered his face with his cast and after like 5ish minutes went ‘soooooo, i guess him and blondie fucking flies out the window, huh? Boy, i was way off with that one, huh’ I need you to know that trying not to laugh during all this was the biggest challenge in life. When I described this to our cousin, she compared it to the Bone scene with Holt and she was pretty spot on. Gale is now talking about working with Randy: ‘He IS extremely talented! (Gale mentions they have similar taste in stuff) *looks at me* do you think he listens to Lil Nas X as well? Please tell me they’re still friends. I need to know if they hang out. Or at least hung out. I got scared cause theres so little bts moments of them but they hung out all the time. I mean i could tell they were friends duuuh’ This is a moment i never even caught but when talking about Sharon, i think Gale messes up Vic/Jack names and my brother goes ‘who the fuck is Jack? Did i miss something or is my very pretty boy forgetful?’ The interviewer starts bringing up the prom scene and he says the he wants to talk about something that for viewers was the most difficult to watch and my brother goes ‘ahh yes, the proposal’ (interview says Brian going to prom) ‘oh yeah, that was also tragic’ ‘we need to watch the prom episode later. They were friends! He cared about him!’ A few minutes later the interviewer says “before we leave babylon” ‘lets NOT leave it. I left it once and it fucked me up for life’

Welcome back dear sweet anon and brother anon!

Are you watching B99 for the first time? I have a friend who’s watching right now for the first time. Either way, so very sad about Andre’s untimely passing. I’ve been devastated and rewatching my fave Captain Holt episodes.

I love your brother calling pentecostal being in a cult. I’m not going to disagree.

“There’s a British version? Why?” Does your brother know that the “British version” is actually the OG version?

His denial about Gale being straight is HILARIOUS. He’s twisting everything like people do for gay people “girl friend… like a friend who’s a girl” and “ahh yes bisexuality.”

And then “straight. Just like me….i think” DID GALE AWAKEN SOMETHING IN YOUR BROTHER?

STRAIGHT!

Captain Hold BONE is so absolutely the correct response to this both timely and accurate.

Here’s the thing. If you’ve listened to the Call Me By Your Shame or any of the subsequent episodes where Randy discusses the artist, you absolutely over to over enunciate LITTLE NAS X the way Randy does. I don’t know about Gale listening to LITTLE NAS X but I think they both listened to Bjork while filming.

“something that for viewers was the most difficult to watch and my brother goes ‘ahh yes, the proposal’ (the interview says Brian going to prom) ‘oh yeah that was also tragic’ CERTIFIED ICONIC. The proposal was hard to watch (for my prince) and also tragic for many reasons. But, yes, Brother Anon most people would say prom.

he looks like he would rather be waterboarded than be here in front of the camera. WELL if that doesn’t sum up Gale, I don’t know what does.

I’m glad your brother is here for glasses and beard. I have always said he has good taste.

[arillusionist]

s&b season2ep4 reaction!! book update: i finished seige and storm. it was lwk boring and im literally so mad bc alina deserves SO much better than mal hes such a hoe. anyways

help whats going on i kinda forgot what happened in the last episode

time to go read my own reaction

HELL NAH ITS BEEN A WHOLE WEEK SINCE I WATCHED THIS SHOW?? anyways i kinda remember the last ep now but my reaction is mostly crows stuff so it wasnt That helpful

ANYWAYS

even though mal is muchhhhhh better in the show i like the direction theyre taking with alina actually marrying nikolai

then again i havent read the kos duology (yet) so i dont know anything abt his real romance story so thats probably why i dont mind

stop mal telling alina shes his nation is so cute unlike in the books

and the way they actually do have some chemistry?? im sorry for ever hating you show malina 😔😔

is that the brother i cant tell

why does baghra lwk piss me off ...i cant tell if its because she wont stfu or because shes js boring

GENYA ☹️☹️

🥱🥱

FINALLY

"it'll give me some comfort to know you're with me" ohhhdhfmyygodddd and then her smile ahhhh

i cant tell if inej is mistaking kaz telling her to leave the city as him wanting her gone, when in reality hes js tryna protect her

or if shes just not promising it because she cant

theyre so complicated they make me sick (i love them 😭😭😭)

AWW THE I LIKE YOUR STUPID FACE LINE its different but whatever

WAITT JESPER BASICALLY CALLED HIM AND KAZ BROTHERS AND KAZ DIDNT EVEN DISAGREE?? HE LITERALLY AGREED

no cuz i actually thought kaz was gnna punch him or something but thats nice

no mourners no funerals 🙏🙏

NINA DECKING KAZ HELL YEAH I NEEDED TO SEE THAT

Dont take this as me disliking kaz btw hes my 2nd favorite character i js need to see him being put in his place

i have the most out of pocket thing to say but im not gnna say it

there are two heartrenders right there why dont they just check his pulse to see if hes lying

oh now they do it

i feel like maybe this is how they incorporate the crows into alina's plot - they'll ask them to find the sword since theyre criminals and know more than just the "wider black market"

IM LITERALLY A GENIUS HELLO????

NOT ME PREDICTING IT LIKE 2 SECONDS BEFORE HE SAYS IT

they cant just show kaz and nina for two seconds and then cut to another scene hello

OH NVM its an inej scene 🙏🙏

its so dark i can barely tell whats happening

oh they did the pox thing too they really taking half of crooked kingdom's plot huh

yeah now they decide to explain the plan

kaz is actually being so much like book kaz in this scene

"the trick is not to love anything" YEAH YOU KEEP TELLING YOURSELF THAT... and with nina in the background too?? i wish inej was here tho like in the books

i think shes busy saving those randos

"something you'd sacrifice everything for and it makes you weak" stop projecting

SIX FEET DEEP

see inej really needs to be here now nina and jesper kinda know his backstory but she doesnt

then again its more meaningful if he tells her on his own time

HIS SMIRK

"im begging you" "are you?" hes not begging but i can

sorry

HIM ASKING FOR THE QUITCLAIM DEED FOR INEJ 🥺🥺 him liquifying everything he owns in the books is still better tho

THE LOOK IS HIS EYES - this is not freddy carter acting as kaz this is LITERALLY kaz

lmfaoo the offended look on toyla's face

WHYD THAT ACTUALLY SCARE ME (the guy sneaking up behind mal)

ok so i have a class so i'll watch the rest later

im backkk

seeing that vasily guys face after a few hours is such a jumpscare like why is he so ugly

bruh i jus realized theyre not gonna do the thing where inej cuts a line above pekkas heart 😐another kanej moment wasted

hjdkfk wylan hiding under the table when jesper asks him out

this conversation is so awkward i keep pausing it 😭

its cute tho

omg just kiss already the tension is getting to me

finally!!! 🙏🙏

WAIT FUCK I JS REALIZED THATS ANOTHER MOMENT WASTED CUZ THEY CANT DO THE JESPER KISSING THE WRONG GUY THING IF THE SPINOFF HAPPENS

im not really liking how they did wesper anyways.... with the whole one night stand thing... 😐

ok. yeah. wow. go from super cute fluffy wesper to kanej angst. yeah. remind me of what i dont have.

kaz saying that theres a weak link in the crew and inej thinks it means her but hes actually talking ab HIMSELF because shes his weakness and shes the person he would sacrifice everything for and AUGHHH

the difference between the show and the books when kaz gives her the paper is crazy

wish they had kept the book's scene fr

waittt is nikolai adopted??

oh he is

tamar and nadia definitely have something going on its already canon that nadia is into girls so!!

did the vasily guy die i hope he did 🙏🙏

why didn't baghra just. do that before. yk BEFORE she got her damn finger cut off

"your obsession with the fold is naive" is bro talking about alina or himself

and thats it watch me wait another week again before watching the next episode 💀

[loyally-unfaithful]

barnaby brooks jr. relationship hc

word count: 1.2k

pairing: barnaby brooks jr. | bunny x gn!reader

genre: pre-relationship, fluff

desc: pre-relationship & general dating hc with barnaby brooks jr.

a/n: okok so i’m not the most familiar with writing bunny (i’m an ivan enjoyer), so i hope this was in character :)

pre-relationship

oh boy

you’re in for one hell of an emotional rollercoaster…

if we’re talking about pre-episode 25 bunny, uh. good luck.

if we’re talking about post-episode 25 bunny, uh. good luck.

the tricky thing about falling in love with barnaby is that he’s impossible to read and you can’t really trust 100% that what he says is genuine and not just his ‘hero’/’idol’ persona.

and tbf part of it is what charmed you in the first place? like, he’s a hero, he catches criminals, he must be a reliable and nice guy.

and you were right (?)

he would be polite and courteous with you, but not any different than how he behaves around his other (primarily female) fans.

tragic, but expect a bit of heartbreak at first when you develop a crush because he’ll give you enough to start hoping and then dash your reverie right away by being just as convivial with someone else.

i just know he has a practiced smile and laugh, so it’s really hard to tell when it’s genuine or if he’s just putting an amical front to appease you.

a lot of confusion and mixed messages will come.

barnaby before the end of the series would’ve been impossible to approach tbh. he’s too obsessed with finding his parent’s killer and avenging them for the thought of caring for someone else to even cross his mind.

after the end of the series, he begins to allow people to get close to him, so there’s a chance there to finally learn who he is truly.

but again, it’s still a mixed bag because you just can never be sure.

if barnaby returns your feelings, he has a funny way of showing it fr.

actually, if barnaby likes you back you’ll begin to think he has something against you.

he’ll begin nitpicking and nagging you, but it’s because he cares somewhere deep down.

like, he wants the best for you and wants to bring out the best out of you, but his emotional constipation and (surprising) social awkwardness makes him sound like he’s complaining lol

tbh, he won’t realise that what he has is a crush at first.

he probs think that this is how you’re supposed to feel with friends because he also nags kotetsu, it’s just that he chides you a bit more often.

and it’s not like he always picks on you. you’d have a perfectly good time and then you’ll do one (1) innocuous (or you think it is) thing and he’ll try to correct you.

in these times, patience is key.

if he didn’t care he would actually just let you be and absentmindedly nod and play along just so you would shut up. but he’s actually trying to be honest, in his, own way…

so you have to read between the lines and decipher what he truly means deep down.

once you can understand him without any hesitation, able to understand what he hesitates to say or ask for out loud, that’s the sign that you’ve forged an unbreakable bond.

honestly once he entertains the thought that maybe?? he does like you??? he’d be so lost lmao

it would take him a while to actually ask you because he’s constantly second guessing his feelings.

like, “what the hell is this” (he’s experiencing love).

i imagine he probs confides in kotetsu, especially since he knows tiger has been through something like this.

you might actually go mad waiting for him tho HAHA

you’ve considered taking things into your hands and asking him out.

and nothing is stopping you. it’ll surprise him, but like, happy surprised :)

if you do wait for him tho, his confession is probs gonna be so elaborate. it’s something he has meticulously planned and overthought weeks prior.

but it paid off because it worked lol

dating

mk so,

first thing first, if you date him, you gotta be confident in yourself and your worth. there’s no time for insecurity,,, or like, if you get self-conscious and insecure (about yourself or the legitimacy of your relationship) quickly/often, this ain’t the relationship for you.

barnaby won’t stop being a hero on your account (and you wouldn’t want him to anyway), but that also includes being a bit (lol) of an icon/celebrity.

he’ll appear often in magazines, for advertisements or like, interviews/columns, and ppl will continue to simp and thirst after him.

you do go through fanmail together and laugh at some of them; he’ll open them and then show you the ones he thinks are ok to be shared. peer reviewed fanmail :)

oh, but the both of you hide your relationship as best as you can because he needs to maintain the “single, prince-charming hero” facade for ratings and also it might be dangerous for you (fangirls/boys are scary).

so no cute dates out in public places like cafes, amusement parks/festivals, cinema, etc…

i mean, u can go out together, but in quotation mark because you have to pretend you’re not an item and go through him being stopped every 2 seconds by fans lol

barnaby probs make a private reservation as a bougie restaurant tho

u can probs go there somewhat safely…

hmm,

he likes trying to cook new recipes, so that will probably be something you do together. you’ll experiment and fuck around with some new dish.

barnaby finds that it’s definitely a new experience trying to cook something with someone by his side, but it’s good new :)

the dish will either come out flawless or edible. many laughs will ensue.

sometimes he’ll try to surprise you by preparing you your favourite food (after many hours of intensive practice).

so for the most part, dates or time together is spent in his house or him in your house.

on that note, can you please convince him to invest in some furniture for his flat???

it’s so bare pls just tell him it’ll do wonders for his mental health to own more furnishings…

tbh i see him as someone who doesn’t rlly get/considers physical affection at first? so you have to be the one to introduce it to him.

he’s definitely the type to kiss the inside of your palm,, or graze his lips on your knuckles,,

i feel like he knows he’s hard to date, so he’s lowkey highkey afraid you’ll leave him after getting fed up with dealing with… everything.

so when you start dating he spoils u a lil bit: he buys you nice clothes and expensive things. if you mention that you’re marginally interested in something or stare a bit too long at something while you’re out, he’ll buy it for you.

which is… nice? you won’t turn down to being pampered.

but also it’s fine? you don’t need these things because you’re not with him because of his wealth.

and you gotta reassure him that yeah it’s not the easiest relationship, but you knew that when you signed up for this. you won’t be leaving anytime soon.

it’ll lift a great deal of weight off of his shoulders (but he’s still gonna treat you by getting flowers every once in a while <3).

another hurdle that you two have to work together on is his inability to open up when he’s struggling or in difficulty.

communication is key, but you’ve gotta… communicate about how he needs to communicate more (especially about his emotions).

he’ll begin to try, but it’s a slow process. it’s not that he means to hide things from you, he’s just not used to having someone else.

please be patient with him lol

if you can help him from bottling up his feelings, there’s really not much else you won’t be able to surmount together :)

LIKE MY WORK? CONSIDER BUYING ME A COFFEE // CHECKING OUT MY MASTERLIST | LINKS CAN BE FOUND ON MY DESC

[why-this-kolaveri-machi]

we are our family, even if we don’t want to be.

Titans 3.07

a bit over halfway through the season, and we still don’t have all of our main characters on the board! i love this show.

as always, typing this up as i watch. live reaction, baby! *shadowboxes*

SPOILERS AHEAD

1. i don’t think i’ve mentioned this before, but i kinda miss the old ‘dc universe’ intro. it was cool! the whole idea of it was wild and waaaaay over-ambitious, but also very very on-brand because of it.

2. this is... the third time we’ve seen dick sleeping this season? that’s a record! checking another thing off my s3 wishlist...

2.5. i guess i rag on titans all the time for its wafer-thin plotting and bad pacing, but i have to admit that this season has been a step-up from the last one in this regard. titans has very reactive rather than proactive protagonists, and a lot of the last season seemed to be: x happened, the team reacted badly, then y happened, they reacted badly, etc. this time around, it’s not a huge leap up by any means, but at least they’re doing something about it. 

i do appreciate the focus on character arcs over everything else. and when i say everything else, i mean it: arcs that started two seasons ago with no big cathartic moments, intermittent payoff and multiple relapses. big bads have ranged from interdimensional demons to superpowered assassins to whatever in the world scarecrow is, but trigon’s big weapon against the titans was to... use their worst fears against them. slade’s was to... use their fears to break them up. crane’s is to... use red hood to use their fears to break them up. even the threat of gotham’s citizens being in danger doesn’t feel real: gotham is mythologised into an entity of its own, infecting our heroes like a parasite. like. this is not to say that most other superhero media aren’t big character arcs intertwined with the main plot, but titans doesn’t even make pretend that it’s anything but.

anyway. that’s my entry #2345 to ‘give a grand unifying theory for titans’. thanks. i’ll be back with more.

3. “anger is just fear in a little black dress.” god I HATE HIM

(what’s he doing with barbara’s likeness? oh... oh god. a terrible thought just occurred to me. what if they introduce hush at the very last minute for plastic surgery shenanigans? would you put it past this show?)

3.5. jason, nooooooooo

3.75. i mean, they’re making it very clear here that scarecrow is the one in control--the one who’s always been in control--and is manipulating jason and literally poisoning him, but i hope it doesn’t end up erasing nuance or jason’s autonomy. if jason’s to reckon with the issues that brought him here, then the lines of responsibility will need to be set somewhere. 

(this applies to dick as well but more on that later, i guess.)

4. just--the phrase “40% loss of income” is so funny to me. like, gotham is full of these larger-than-life characters who are idiosyncratic beyond belief, colourful and dramatic and creating chaos just for the sake of chaos, and then there’s the regular criminals and their henchmen who just want to make a quick buck sitting down with pie charts and graphs, griping about the joker reducing their returns or debating high risk investments in, i don’t know, two-face’s next scheme.

“yyyyeeeeeaaah, my financial advisor is telling me that going all-in with a guy who literally makes decisions on the flip of a coin is probably not the greatest idea.”

4.5. god i hate smug!smarmy!scarecrow so much

4.85. as big plans to “control” gotham go, it’s pretty bog-standard. clearly scarecrow has some bigger plan in mind but it really feels like we’ve got no clear insight into him and he’s this generic creepy mystery-man who knows more than he lets on and springs a twist/cliffhanger every now and then. i liked the scenes with him and dick in 3.04 where it seemed like he was genuinely on the backfoot and things weren’t going as he predicted. for all of his faults, dick is at least familiar with scarecrow’s bullshit and knows not to give what he wants.

5. i mean... i see where dick is coming from with the “he’s not jason anymore; he’s red hood” because his immediate glaring concern is scarecrow’s drug and the damage it could potentially cause gotham? i do not doubt that it’s something batman drilled into him, too, but when you’re expected to take point on a situation where the lives of an entire city weigh down on your shoulders, it’s better to simplify things and prioritise. i’m not saying it’s great or healthy! gar is absolutely right to consider this facet of the situation. it’s just dick can’t.

6. hmmmmmmm. HMMMMMMMMMMM. 

i don’t know that i’m super fond of this iteration of oracle???? it looks like a cross between cerebro from x-men and jarvis from iron man. it’s giving me second-hand embarrassment. somebody help me.

(at least they remembered dick’s middle name is actually “john”. i like to think bruce printed D in that contract because for a while he genuinely thought richard “dick” grayson was his full name. duck duck goose, dick dick grayson, i don’t know alfred, the kid was in a circus, maybe they thought it was funny. or maybe it was a test in anger control, who knows.)

6.5 “maybe you two would like some time alone?” even AI can’t help hitting on dick grayson in this universe.

“oh mr grayson, if i only had another eye to see you better...”

6.8. on one hand, it’s a bit disconcerting that the title of ‘oracle’ has gone from barbara herself to this gigantic machine; from my impression of the comics-verse, barbara had an extensive computing and surveillance system, true, but she was very clearly the brains behind the operation. on the other hand, i’m kind of glad that the ethical boundaries that this kind of surveillance violates is a sticking point for barbara. (tho let’s be real, the nsa would kill to have this in their arsenal).

6.9. also it’s now obvious that scarecrow’s big plan is to take control of oracle itself. it’s why he had lady vic take that picture of her eyes, or why he’s meddling around with it on his computer.

6.95. if only i could ‘command sleep’ anybody overstepping their boundaries re: personal information...

7. “you can just sit back and watch as the titans destroy themselves.” i mean... he’s not wrong

8. “dick’s parents were killed by a criminal mob; he won’t work with them.” it’s wonderful that you have this insight into dick, kory, i just wish we could’ve watched some of these conversations actually happen on-screen.

8.5. i’m glad that kom’s being treated with such nuance and understanding, though it’s obvious that she definitely has a Plan of her own. (and did i entirely imagine her ability to mimic other people flawlessly at the end of s2? or is that going to come into play at some point?) i think her story has the potential to be genuinely poignant, and in a universe where being Different, either because of mental health or physical differences or whatever else, leads a straight line to Evil, it’s important to acknowledge and then emphasise that the mere fact of your existence as a Different Person doesn’t predispose you to evil. maybe your act of destroying a system that has destroyed you and not scrambling to “fit in” is only evil as defined by that system. 

8.8. “you’re trespassing, i should call the authorities, i feel unsafe.” now this is a villain lady who’s definitely aware of her privilege.

8.85. kom smirking knowingly at her sister is everything.

“oooh that’s the kory i remember”

9. conner and dick working together woo!

9.25. god i hate a villain who’s always just a step ahead, no matter what. so crane anticipated dick using oracle to track his personal communications and set him up? how did he know when exactly dick would get to do this? how long did he have that poor man tied up in that van?

(the “save me, grayson” is a nice touch, tho. send dick spiralling even further! because if there’s one thing dick will do, it’s take responsibility for every goddamn thing that goes wrong.)

9.5. ahem. i’m going to need a million gifs of conner yeeting dick across that yard, fandom, thankyouverymuch.

(i understand conner is invulnerable to explosions, but how do his clothes survive??)

9.8. oooh crane is already in oracle! i’m just sitting here laughing helplessly because they’re overpowering this goddamned guy so much. he can build a lab in arkham’s basement! he has access to lazarus puddles! he has minions working across gotham, including a fully functional chemical laboratory staffed by chemists who only answer to him! he has the crime families of gotham quailing in his very presence! he has assassins at his beck and call! he’s enough of a manipulative bastard to have red hood under his thumb! and now he has enough of a tech know-how to not only be aware of oracle, but know how to hack into it! i’m sick of exclamation marks! i’ll shut up now!

9.95. dick leaving behind that smouldering grave for a person he failed to save without taking a second to process how he feels about it and running towards his next plan to corner scarecrow: a microcosm of where his head’s at right now.

10. really hammering in the themes of this season, aren’t we. 

10.25. the interesting thing is the titans repeatedly call themselves a family this season (none more so than dick) and while that found family has helped encapsulate and put away their traumatic experiences with their ‘original’ families, it’s meant that they’ve not really dealt with those issues. and dick and gar and jason come from ‘found families’ of their own: they are twice removed, traumatised two times over. they still cling to this identity however, and because of it they’re losing each other. a family isn’t static. it’s an ever-evolving dynamic and you have to put in work constantly to keep it healthy.

10.5. anyway, that’s entry #2346. i’m here aaaalll night.

11. lookit gar the detective! half-transforming and using his powers to deduce things! what a hero! i’ve said this for a long time, but gar is the bedrock of this team, and an unsung one at that.

11.25. i’m confused about him calling this room jason’s though. it seems to me that this is dick’s room that jason later used, and one that dick’s using now. so the unmade bed isn’t really jason’s fault; dick was woken by barbara that morning, and in his hurry, he left without making his bed.

(it still confounds me that bruce didn’t find jason another bedroom in that gigantic mansion of his. you really didn’t give this kid a chance, did you?)

12. oh well. so much for the oracle.

13. ... sorry, wait. you didn’t think i wasn’t going to address the bit with dick right now, did you?

12.5. i honestly don’t think it’s very complicated: dick’s been reeling from one traumatic thing to the next, and just when it seemed like at the beginning of the season, he felt happy and secure with his team and his place in the world, bruce ups and leaves gotham to him, specifically naming him a successor and calling him a ‘better batman’. he’s lost garth and jericho and donna and jason and now hank and dawn. he’s not even sure where rachel is or what she’s doing. after being told that batman was a psychopath for moulding him into a weapon, he’s also been told that his failure to be a ‘better batman’ lead to further disaster. of course he’s going to get batman-goggles. of course he’s going to be a prick. 

12.8. i don’t know what to say. i feel his frustration acutely. i don’t think he should’ve said what he said to barbara (can people stop pushing her around this season????) but that pressure to step in where your parent fails? to clean up their messes and try to think like them? to fall into habits drilled into you when you developed them as coping mechanisms growing up? I FEEL THAT. 

every step he’s taking he’s putting 110% of himself in it and scarecrow’s still playing mindgames with all of them: i absolutely feel his desperation to take control of that game and turn it on scarecrow, no matter what it takes.

and he did apologise almost immediately, and finally--finally--actually works with barbara. 

12.9. again, not excusing him! but i get it. and i think that’s a sign of great character writing.

“did you know i just reminded emmram of all of her daddy issues? what the fuck????”

12.95. i love that dick&barbara, kory&kom, and gar are all approaching solving this mystery from different angles, each as valid as the other. also, conner is there as... emergency bomb defuser man?

13. it’s like all fancy rich people in fancy rich houses do is pour fancy rich alcohol into fancy rich glasses on pristine, untouched tabletops. i wonder what it’s like to live like that.

13.25. I KNEW IT! poor michael. it was nice knowing you.

13.5. man, kory is contending with a lot of issues that she’s successfully bottled up and compartmentalised until now. the cold reality that a child can seek out their parents as refuge and they can view the child as a piece to be moved in a greater game (never out of cruelty, though, never, and somehow that makes it worse), that truth of blackfire’s treatment on tamaran because she’s different, and her own culpability in what happened. she exchanged one family for another, after all, and left that family to die and her sister to suffer. like dick, like gar, kory’s being forced to reckon with what the titans are meant to be, the larger implications of creating their found family in their own space.

14. it’s probably because it’s one in the morning and i’ve had two glasses of wine but i did not follow that bit of exposition at all and victor freeze??? what? 

anyway. look at them solving things! together! go team!

“you made a deal with the mob?” oh the sense of betrayal on his face! fuck off, dick, your issues aren’t kory’s. 

15. conner is really sweet and a bit of an awestruck crush on kom is to be expected. especially after that power rangers-esque transformation (i say this as a former huge power rangers fangirl. i’ve seen every series until 2007 including the original japanese versions and written fanfic for all of them. so i love a cool costume transformation, is what i’m saying.)

also?

FUCK YEAH

16. i love the gotham crime families just chillin’ around eating ice cream. I LOVE THEM

16.5. that was a fun fight sequence, if marred slightly by that bit of awkward flirting between conner and kom. i wonder if she’s really planning to use him in a larger scheme to get kory back to tamaran, or maybe something else. 

16.75. so i’m assuming that scarecrow has jason either so paralysed by fear that he can barely move, or jason’s withdrawing from the drug that he’s been sucking in every few minutes. 

17. it’s nice to see them chill after a successful mission! and it can be awkward, but conner’s crush on kom and him striving to impress her is also, well, uh... cute.

17.5. i guess the dick/barbara scene was inevitable, especially given the... unresolved nature of their relationship in the flashbacks? and they’ve been through a rollercoaster together this episode, discovering and then destroying an incredible tool within a matter of hours, re-discovering just how well they work together as a team. dick’s swimming in the nostalgia. i don’t expect it to last as a long-term relationship, but i totally get why this is happening now. and hey, they’re cute!

i have a weeeirrrrd feeling that kory is going to leave to tamaran at the end of the season and that dick and kory will rekindle--or rather realise--their relationship just before that. it’s going to be devastating and beautiful and painful and i will be writing essays about it which would be me just wailing into the screen.

18. gar found molly!!!!!!! MOLLY’S BACK! \o/ gar is the BEST

19. that was a fun episode! i love this silly show, even if it does destroy me sometimes <3

[neonwizardheehee]

ok since you've said you have something to say about The Penguin go right ahead xD I enjoyed you talking about The Riddler

This totally made my weekend for I've been thinking a lot about this (and also went to the cinema again to check if Penguin is wearing purple socks or not) and that's why it took me a few to answer :)

Okay firstly I gotta say that I'm pretty biased with dear Ozzie and with me rewatching Gotham over and over I def got used to his looks there. (fun fact: I didn't really care for the Penguin in Gotham at first bc I couldn't get my head around him looking pretty suddenly and now I'm simping over him bc he's so pretty XDDDD)

Onto the new movie now: (minor spoiler warning about characters and places) At first I wasn't too put off my his looks per se since it seemed they were going for a more "comic-accurate" appearance with the scarred face and disformed nose and such. It confuses me a bit why they took Colin Farell and made him look like this tho. That's why I watched Total Recall with him to have a bit more knowledge and views on him and boi he does he serve! Now, I'm even more confused why they took an actor with a vibe of a very handsome and charismatic guy to play Pengy XD

Nevertheless during the movie I was mostly confused by his height. in most of the media where Penguin shows up, he's tiny if not super-tiny. And in the current one, he's actually tall? Why? :'') Tbh during my first viewing of the movie I just put it aside like "okay maybe they are just going for a new Penguin thingy now. Kinda like going pretty with Gotham or going feral like with Batman Returns" since I was mostly just hyped to see my boi. During my second time viewing tho it bothered me quite a bit since I felt as if Oswald has been put as a brute - judging by his tall appearance and slightly "unnecessary" comments sometimes.

But the best things imo was seeing the Iceberg Loung! Sure it was totally new and different from previous ones but WOW it blew my mind and I didn't know I needed Techno(?) playing in the Iceberg Lounge until this movie!! That was AMAZING! This is a new route I def like and didn'T expect. Also Oz being SO SO smooth and cool in that scene just *chef's kiss* mans knows how to run a club and that's what I love him for. (him addressing Batman as "sweetheart" or smth makes me wanna go feral ;P)

In the end I was originally a bit sad that he wasn't the main villain of the story BUT since Riddler did it SO SO well I take that and I'm not mad at all bc they all deserve their limelight and it was SO well made. That's a cool thing about the Batman Universe that it's just reaccuring characters and places and they aren't necessarily main focus of the plotline but make a viewer feel like they are really in Gotham and not some random city bc ofc is the Iceberg Lounge on of THE places to be and ofc Pengy is involved when it's a story about Mafia and corruption.

A little background info I checked was that I (after one year) got my hands on the Penguin Pain & Prejudice comic which said on the back was an inspiration for the new movie - unfortunately I couldn't find any besides the penguin's facial appearance :(. It does make sense tho since the movie doesn't focus on Pengy at all while that's the whole purpose of the comic XD

Oz felt a bit too one-dimensional in the movie for me bc I am super used to his long development (in Gotham or Pain & Prejudice) and backstories. When I asked my sis she said she didn't mind the new Penguin at all and sees this movie as his start of climbing up the criminal ladder while I assumed he was already pretty high up. So ig we have to wait for more content (maybe the next movie?) for he's been clearly set up to be major crime boss from now on.

In the end I have to say that my happiness about seeing him on the big big screen again after so so many years outweighs pretty much everything but that fangirl in me def misses some of his iconic traits and his tiny appearance ;P

[vaguely-concerned]

R-r-r-rewatch thoughts for The Mandalorian S2 Ep2

(or Chapter 10 as they seem resolved to call it)

- can I just express my joy for a moment that in one episode we get peli, the answer to my pleas for female representation in the ‘sketchy middle aged car mechanic’ niche, and a female alien designed with no consideration towards sexiness. (I mean I’m sure there’s someone. There is always someone somewhere on the Internet, is the bitter truth history has shown to us. but it’s not the intention behind the design haha)  

- they do take great pains to deliberately show you boba’s armour several times both in the recap and in the episode itself, so never despair he is very likely still on his way onto our screens once more

- this dude holding the baby hostage wanting specifically the jetpack in exchange is the one (1) break this whole episode gave din lol 

also the Patented Mando Finger Curl of Stress while he talked softly and calmly to not promp this asshole to make a sudden move... the most endearing character tic, I love my space cowboy dad so much 

- fun continuity detail: din is all out of whistling birds now, and you can see it here!

I wonder if he could still use the same mechanism with different ‘ammo’, it’s just not as effective? from the way the armorer spoke whistling birds seem quite rare and it would be an inefficient use of beskar if that’s the only thing it can be loaded with

 - I love how after the last episode, a 50 min epic with a bunch of original trilogy significance and impressive technical achievements and exciting character reveals, I was like ‘yeah okay I suppose that is quite interesting’, and this mess/comedy of inconveniences is the thing that fully makes my brain tip into the obsessive ‘BABY AND DAD SHOW!! BABY AND DAD SHOW!!!!!’ mind state lol

- ah the traditional ‘mando trudging slowly but steadily through the desert’ montage we all love to see (I hope this is going to be a Thing for the second episode of every season from now on) 

Also I assume his suit has some sort of temperature regulation built in and that’s how he didn’t, y’know. die under the blazing desert sun

-

CAT FIGHT CAT FIGHT man I love the jawa. also mando doesn’t even glance over at them, really emphasizing how he’s like. done with this entire day (and it’s all barely even getting started din! i’m sorry)

 yodito’s look in this scene tho... he’s like ‘we’ve Seen some shit lady’ (actually I think he’s staring at ‘dr mandible’ like O___o. it’s been a long day for a lil boy) 

you get to see dr mandible’s cards a few times, so I assume anyone who knows the rules of... sabacc? probably? could figure out beforehand that he was in a bad spot. (the star wars fanbase is one of those where I KNOW the rules exist somewhere, and I know people who know those rules exist too)  

- that sound the baby keeps making -- the ‘boo-a’, sometimes with a p-sound at the end -- if that’s the precursor to him saying any variation whatsoever of ‘dad’ or ‘papa’ or ‘baba’ or even ‘buir’ or anything, I will die. I will sink to the ground in a heap and never get up (the way he keeps seeking out gaze contact with the helmet and seems perfectly satisfied with it too... fasdhfaskdjhl my FEELINGS)

- it seems confirmed in this ep that the mandos who died on nevarro did so while holding off the enemy so the rest(probably especially the children) could get away; some of them appear to have escaped. which I guess is a small relief

- 

frog lady stepping out of the shadows and into our hearts

I like that her firm nod after Peli translates ‘her husband has seen them’ lets us know she understands... basic? is that the common tongue thing in star wars there’s just so many to remember across fandoms lol? perfectly well, even if she can’t speak it. 

- mando might be running low on ammo for the pulse rifle, if the fact that he hasn’t replaced the missing cartridge on his... bandolier belt thingy is any indication

ETA: actually ignore me this has been a thing since the literal first episode of the show my brain just had a hiccup lol

- so baby seems to use a little bit of the force to pull the eggs towards him -- I wonder how often he ‘taps into it’ or if it’s always ‘on’ in the background for him. if so I guess there’s no wonder he’s so hungry (but also... kid you can’t end this lady’s entire family line like that one cat who singlehandedly made extinct a whole species of bird! D:)

- din so rarely gets openly angry, he just gets passive aggressive and grumpy. and that’s probably not the healthiest way to deal with things but I love him

- frog lady reacts so strongly to when din sends the ping when nothing else woke her up, I wonder if she can hear more frequencies than a human

- 

hello darkness my old frieeennnddd

- 

proof nr 1508 that din does not starve this baby you guys, he even has his own little tray just the right size for him! as it happens the baby simply seems to prefer eating things that are... still alive in some capacity. which, uh. maybe they can invest in some form of non-sentient crickets or something for him to hunt down and.... oh dear

- 

Look how they massacred my boy

By the way I finally managed to put into words why the Razor Crest -- and particularly the way it keeps getting beaten to hell and back and patched up again --  is so symbolically important and meaningful to me in this show in this post over here! it’s always a great relief to me when I can finally understand what the hell I’ve been going on about all this time and this was one of those lol

-  honestly if it weren’t for frog lady and (more importantly) the baby I think there’s a slight chance din would’ve gone ‘well I had a good-ish run of it for a while there’ and just let the ice claim him haha   

- “Why don’t you come over here and give me a hand. Make yourself useful” This is the one time in the episode I think he crosses the line into just being a dick for a moment (but noticeably the baby isn’t just a little hurt at this reaction, he’s clearly surprised and confused, which means this really does not happen often. after the time mando’s been having recently I guess a moment’s snappishness is understandable haha. he does follow up right after with being much more responsive and attentive when the baby toddles away from him, so it feels like it’s going to be okay)

also the ‘boo-ap’ sound is there again when he’s trying to get din’s attention. just sayin’ 

when din comes over to see the footprints baby makes a declarative little meep like ‘see??? I did tell you!’ haha

- it is very funny that mando is using all his technology meant to track down dangerous bounties in the grungy depths of the criminal underworld... to find a naked lady just chillin’ in a hot spring 

- 

cue the ‘father is evil?’ memes fsadfda. actually the funniest thing about this moment (apart from the fabulous finger acting) is that din actually snatches a few eggs out of the baby’s reach more subtly right before, and that baby only whines for ALL OF ONE SECOND before he goes to sniff around for other food possibilities fkadfhjkds. from my experience with human children he’s a lot less prone to tantrums. yodito doesn’t get mad, he gets even 

- baby running towards din through the hatching spiderlings like ‘DAD I FUCKED UUUUUUP’, din’s little strangled ‘ngh’ sound as he picks the baby up and watches all the creepy crawlies come out... *chef kiss* impeccable 

(that little ‘ngh’ and the soft shocked ‘ah ah AH!’s from when he goes flying at the beginning of the episode... pedro pascal and his voice work for this character gives me so much life. in some ways din has this sort of dignity and grace and in other ways he uh extremely doesn’t. he gets to be cool but also vulnerable in ways a lot of male main characters don’t and it’s probably why I love him so much) 

btw here is that moment when din moves to hold the baby tightly against him with both hands as the big spider appears, because it gets me right in the heart... it such an instinctive thing of holding on to the dearest thing you’ve got before something bad is about to happen

fdsafhsdakjlfhsdkjlhfsdajhf oh my god the baby is clutching din’s finger with his little hand during the chase!!!! 😭😭😭

this FUCKING SHOW has just WEAPONIZED putting in small details everywhere to convey the love and tenderness and attachment felt by a little muppet doll even where only weirdos like me will frame by frame their way through the video to see it I am so MAD

- frog lady going ‘fuck this’ and bounding along is  e v e r y t h i n g 

- din is an amazing shot, though, he doesn’t seem to miss a single one in this whole scene (then again there’s something to shoot at basically everywhere one can take aim so lol)

-

baby hiding behind/half hugging din’s boot as he tries to get the doors closed hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I can’t breathhhhheeeee 

honestly every single one of the baby’s proximity seeking behaviours in this ep has me on my knees 

- it’s very unfair to play the heroic happy mando music like everything is going to be fine and then have a huge fuck-off spider drop down from the ceiling and break it off mid-tune, the mandalorian, you have trained me in certain ways and now do you betray me??? how can I trust again

- the camera work in the scene with the new republic guys gives such a good sense of the discomfort of being judged from on high by someone or something you can’t really see -- the glare of the lights blocking out everything in the shots from din’s pov makes it feel like a tense interrogation (the new republic dude who is actually dave filoni has such a look of fondness as he watches din tho it’s kind of sweet)

- ...oh no I think baby was actually considering munching on that dismembered spider leg YODITO NO JUST EAT YOUR KRAYT DRAGON BABY

- hngh this is a weird filler episode and it has my entire heart. I suspect we might get some episodes of a more stationary baby between active ones like this -- you can tell a little bit in this episode that especially having him running around fast is quite difficult to have look natural, they likely save that effort up for when it best serves the narrative  

[grahamcarmen]

Hi, so I just finished the new season today! I have so many thoughts, the last few episodes felt kind of rushed? I wished they had gone about the whole situation between Gray and Carm at the end differently. More so on seeing them reunited. My biggest question, is why was he so quick on going back to VILE? He knew what they were capable of yes, was it to feed his criminal impulses? Why did ever want to steal in the first place? What led him to that conclusion and how did he learn of VILE? I was keen on seeing more of his backstory, and still need time to let the story simmer so I can analyze it more. It's just confusing. I guess it's just because the show ended that I feel so bittersweet y'know. What do you think Carmen would've done after they all disbanded? How could she leave them so quickly after she just got back to Team Carmen in the end? Besides wanting to see her mother. I was hoping they'd at least stay together.

i think that more than a few people feel that ( the knee jerk incredulity at her just leaving them a note and yeeting was real)

like disclaimer again: i do love carmen and this season this is just expanding on some little ??’s

on gray and “thinking gray.”: I was also feeling the lackluster on the payoff motivation wise for gray returning to VILE ( which was definitely needed as he was the secret weapon needed to finally get evil carmen back and at least partially inevitable due to ownership of the choices yadadadada )but like when he finally got his memories back he just repeated some things that i never really doubted. that gray did this of his own free will, he probably is of a lower empathy in general (which does not mean incapable of caring and doing the right thing. just that..~~~), that he regretted hurting carmen. in s1 he says his primary motivation as making more money and i was like”mmhmm fits.” being a thief and all and why not since they hadn’t introduced the big “needs to be able to tie up loose ends.” as a operative qualifier to anyone, including some of the recruits there. the only newer thing was his video that he seeked them out. which is interesting and all but sets him up as a go-getter so its so confusing that he’d choose to return to VILE ...a place where he was hurt and is so freaking selfish with what capers they choose to pursue. i kinda went on a tangent on another post that there is a theme of using a false sense of bonding to give them a little more loyalty which is like really heavy considering that means offering a “home” to what looks like operatives who might all be orphans but i don’t think it was highlighted enough to say “HEY YO” even tho GRAY LOOKS SO TIRED TO LEARN ABOUT HIS PAST WITH VILE

its really interesting because of the 3 people who had access to him/nature we got; carmen who only encouraged his desire to help (for the kiddos, for her safety, for assuring her that they were in...whatever... together, and make sure that they weren’t being secret spy jerks) ACME who got like...0 usefulness (riperonis ma guys), and VILE with maelstrom just hammering home all his shadier deeds with  “YEAH THIS IS YOU.”  AND HIM JUST ACCEPTING IT AFTER SITTING FOR A LONG AF TIME ALONE.

and when this was happening I was thinking about this analysis from another fandom about characters who resign to the law of the strong which could have been a reason for why gray doesn’t seem to hold the consequences for his failure against VILE even though he really should. (if they bothered but listen-)

its something that happens when characters choose to live in worlds they know are unfair, know that they choose to lie and steal and cheat, and thus should not be surprised or hurt when it happens to them in return. which of course lead to them not knowing where to draw the line on what happens to them...and i mean this in like some narratives usually go (hahaha no thats messed up please gtfo being treated like that is not ok and in allowing others to define your limits you are whittling yourself away). and they decide to live in resignation that. i am capable of bad... so i AM bad. (I am that guy. i’ve always been that guy) and makes them absolutely ripe for the (but you’ve been good . you can choose to be better.  it won’t erase the wrongs of the past but it will make for a better future)

but that still leaves exploration of “WHY WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO LIVE BY THE LAW OF THE STRONG??” and you know...not having anyone to rely on, poverty, or what was simple rebelliousness turning to darker and darker paths, are some easy reasons to put a spotlight on maybe our operatives having depth and like..arcs. especially any of those reasons combined. ESPECIALLY SINCE THEY’RE WHAT VILE CONSISTENTLY IS SHOWN OFFERING. (shadowsan really is their s-tier character huh)

which i really thought this show would go for when a shivering brunt who is loyal and protective asked if she was really going to be left behind or remember how unsympathetic most of them seemed to see carmen chloroformed because “she did interrupt our heist.” meaning that they understand this world. probably have understood it for longer than anyone should. (antonio being content as a “pawn” is the tenant in my head today) and why shouldn’t more money be important. or honestly how simple it was to accept that someone would just need more money.

with gray they introduced that he could be good and he could be bad but like leaned into “no all that niceness was fake and he’s bad.” due to the hyper specificity of the mind wipe apparently? which also leans into really flat interpretation of evil!carmen (i just mean that there is a lot there ...) meaning theres no really exploration of him and more of a judgment (even though he’s shown to be kind, snarky, and upfront, as himself without a mind wipe.) and then we wait...

the pacing of the last 2 episodes: adrenaline bebe!!! but also there were so many concepts being introduced and resolved and skimmed past so that it is a little confusing at some conclusions. like the scene you’re talking about where carmen just leaves a note and ghosts is like 30 seconds and thats a lot to unpack because ?? i’m really thinking that it might have been insinuating that carmen left them the pen specifically to give them a new home to wait for her because she was going on that little break like she planned (and they knew was the endgoal) because it was behind her note and presumably placed by her but because i was focusing on the letter goodbye like ??? i thought for some reason that it was zack saying he would now like to try ACME because HE thought of it and i was like ??when did you consider this?? and 3rd watch i was finally “ahhh ok ok i think i get it.”

another bitten off scene i think might have been when gray in his first mission is already exhibiting signs of going...”huh this is not good.”

from stopping carmen from unprofessionalism to seeing that new carmen is willing to up and leave the group for mental gymnastics instead of relying on them 100% to going to the ferris wheel where he DEFINITELY SAW HER TRYING TO KILL A CIVILIAN since it showed his reaction after ivy’s. and then it turn to team red because how they feel about it definately matters more than gray but its also so easy to miss that choosing to have gray witness that as the start of what makes him turn himself in (maybe this is just a possible interpretation and its midnight ok)

evil carmen! lost her empathy. ok. so then like thats a static judgment about how they’re gonna make her do bad stuff and she still absolutely cares about her history and VILE still needed to enforce bonding and giving her memories that they comforted her and gave her her coat so thats why she cares about it and her anger at betrayal and sense of loss that she still throws right in shadowsans face when “evil”

carmen thought she crossed a personal line?? like jeeeeeez that’s 6 months of crossing lines and the most recent and horrifying one happened like not even a minute ago and then 5 seconds later we get chief and her reconciling because yes it needed to happen so we’re not gonna address how traumatizing it was or

VILE JUST WENT ALL THE WAY DOWN HUH??

and all these things are important and have the groundwork for happening but man they just happen one after the other and its like

before moving on to the next thing and like let me breathe omg

and yeah that means that so many people were left confused because the show about family (carmen’s family that SHE built ) seemed to disband for carmen to go to see her mother at last alone, shadowsan to go to his brother and a heartbroken pair of red heads to join ACME

and we get a time gap before reuniting but only a few seconds to decide if reuniting was the plan all along(the pressure point)

and there is a lot of actual IN TIME that is broad strokes that many people have already picked whats going to haunt them that wasn’t explored more...

TLDR; i get it on both counts (gray and rushed)! glad there was some sweet in your bittersweet and since canon definitely had team red in the same place they absolutely reunited and moved back into the shop and carmen talked to them about how great her mom is and planned a dinner

[ikathemadhatter]

For the meme, top 5 Death Note characters and why!

I’m sorry for the late reply, you know I had a hell of months but here ich back  💪 Characters aren’t really in order of preferences tho, but here we go:

1. L Lawliet

Rather predictable, he was my favorite character since I watched Death Note for the very first time.

What fascinated me back then (aka 2008) was the fact L character broke the canon detective type I’ve seen in movies and series for a long while. In a typical crime story, the detective is the good dude chasing after the evil criminal and bringing back order -swaying indeed the flag of justice. Following the reasoning of several characters, especially some in the Kira Task Force, L is Justice while Kira is the evil criminal. Apparently -but, in my brutal and honest opinion, I don’t believe L is the emblem of justice. He is represented as that but Death Note is also a story that talks about justice and shows how justice, a misleading concept created by imperfection itself (humanity), is a tool to justify your actions. Because let’s face it, L used his power and all his means to confine and torture two young people just to prove his suspects were true, he wouldn’t mind using people to achieve his goal aka catch Kira. He represents justice because he’s the three world's greatest detective because he solves the most difficult cases but haha this is his main hobby, his reason to live and he doesn’t exactly empathize with other characters. There are some panels where he shows feelings, I think he truly respects some agents of the Kira Task Force and didn’t want anyone to die, but at the same time the most of his actions weren’t righteous at all. At least this is my opinion but this is also why I love this character; last but not least, his quirkiness is unique and funny and another fact that tickled my interest is what is shown of his personality... I like to believe that his truer personality is what we see in the Yotsuba Arc, but I also think he is rather good at adjusting his personality to the task. I would see it coming from a person really able to lie and doing it with no regret.

2. Light Yagami

To be rather honest, I relate to this character for a variety of reasons and this is probably why it breaks my heart to see his decline in the second arc. I’ve read tons of mangas and watched tons of anime in my life, but he keeps being the best protagonist of a shonen manga in my opinion.

Might it be a controversial opinion or not, I don’t think Light is an evil character -especially he’s not a sociopath or a psychopath. Death Note’s plot marks perfectly how much the use of a simple tool like the notebook itself corrupts the soul no matter how good their intentions are; it’s a magic object, but most importantly it’s a tool that lets you kill someone by not effectively showing you’re committing murder. I think the human mind is affected in a different way if murder means washing your hands with blood, visually doing it, instead of simply writing down a name on a notebook and waiting for that person to die of a heart attack. This means I guess Light wouldn’t go that far if he has to actually kill people with his own hands; at the beginning of the manga he realizes what he did -killing people-, but he ‘recovered’ rather quickly from the shock because of two reasons:

- he didn’t physically kill them so his mind didn’t process the action of murder in that sense

- he found quickly a coping mechanism aka he rationalized the Death Note as a holy tool that would serve for a better purpose

Light is in fact a character with pure idealism. He killed most wanted criminals who actually deserved to die in order to make the world a better and safe place. Every one of us, at least once in our life, has thought a rather evil criminal should deserve to die -because we’re humans and our emotions may be harsh and strong even towards our similar. It’s within our nature. And so it was within Light’s nature, to naively believe that killing criminals the world would be better. He also did kill people coming in his way, yes, and he also knew that it was wrong to kill those innocent people meant to be a threat to him. Why did he do it anyway? Because at some point he knew he was a martyr, someone who had the responsibility to sacrifice for the sake of the whole world. He is more selfless than other characters I might say, rationally avoided any futile emotion that could hinder his actions and plans. I mean, try to think what it means to push back your emotions, to block out everything that makes you human in a sense. Someone else would have probably gone crazy... This is why I believe his last speech is much more a liberation like he’s spitting out everything he’s held back and carried alone on his shoulders for years. At some point you want people to understand your achievements, your ideals.

Light is indeed a controversial character, rather complex and there’s a lot you can tell about him. He did bad things, I  know but... I admire his will, to be honest.

3. Naomi Misora

MY QUEEN. I still think her death is the most brutal one... And even if I understand why her character needed to leave the main plot, it would have been rather interesting to see her interacting with L and the Kira Task Force. 

I thank the existence of Another Note, because we can form a better idea of her possible personality. She’s absolutely a strong woman, intuitive and her kind of reasoning follows L’s investigations somehow. It’s that kind of character who’s able to balance rationality and acumen, which makes her surely a good FBI agent; her only flaw, probably, but it’s also the reason I love her, it’s her empathy and ability to feel. It’s also true that in the Death Note she was veiled by the loss of her fiancee and she was too reckless at following Light, but it showed how fragile and human she could be.

Speaking of Another Note, I loved all those scenes where she follows B’s weird suggestions -like pretending to be a corpse or sitting in a crouch- because even she knows it might be stupid she’s also like ‘Okay let’s try’. Demonstration of a kind of open-mindedness.

4. Aizawa

I love the critical thinking process of this character. He never takes things for granted and let’s remember he even left the Kira Task Force because he didn’t agree with L’s me and methods. In the second arc, he suspects of Light, senses that something is off, and trusts his guts enough to make some researches on his own. He incarnated the typical detective character who really wants to bring back order and justice and probably his way to clash with L and Light’s way of thinking made me like this character. It wasn’t love at first sight, in fact, I appreciated him more reading the manga (which I read after watching the anime) but it’s a character you learn to respect.

5. Ryuk

Just look at him. At his design, at the weird way he twisted his body or when he goes crazy eating a delicious apple, at his stupid jokes and any silly moments... and you think he’s just a goofy character when bam! the least you expect he reminds you he’s a Shinigami, a very bored one, and as a Shinigami, his task is to write down some human being’s name. Light’s included -though in this case, he did say till the beginning he would be the one writing Light’s name when the moment would come.

What can I say? Look at him, he makes you laugh, he’s the Boogeyman, he’s goofy, he’s fucking scary.

In this list I should also add Beyond Birthday, but probably I like the idea I have of him. Anyway I love him we all know it bye haha-

[featciren]

It was sooooo happy to see the premier of the part4 trailer after finishing part3 of the show so I didn’t have to wait long. This show is too exciting to watch that I couldn’t sleep well every time I finished one episode. Although there’re indeed some plot holes and quite a lot of unnecessary sex scenes, the characters are good enough to make it addicting.

The Professor: My fav character. He’s clever, he’s smart, he’s thoughtful. Being the mastermind of the rebellion but is actually a soft good boi. He has a high moral standard and is patient with everyone. He’s awkward during some social situations which is adorable. He’s definitely demisexual too which makes me love him more. The only thing that I’m not happy about is that he went to have sex with his opponent during the heist when his crew are battling in the Mint... And why going on another heist with the same crew knowing that this crew had fucked up big time during the last one where three members of his crew, including his own brother were dead and the rest had barely escaped? (his choice of recruitment for the first heist is questionable as well...)

Tokio: Idk if she’s one of my fav. She’s got beautiful face and body and is very brave and fearless. She’s good at intimidating ppl but it’s she who caused most of the troubles. Moscow fucking died bcoz of her impetuous decision of driving straight into the entrance of the Mint which was completely unnecessary. She could’ve waited outside and found somewhere to hide after getting rescued from the Serbians. She had little contribution to the crew after she was back as well except firing to the police with Rio. Not to mention she’d disclosed the Professor’s real name to the police... However most of my fav scenes in the whole show have her in them so I can’t hate her much. I do like her interactions and father-daughter kind of relationship with the Professor. But is it the only way to make the show more interesting? by making Tokio do so many stupid things and putting everyone in danger?

Raquel: She’s fine. I like her sticking to the police protocols and being very moral towards criminals. I can’t say her changing sides wasn't smooth at all. Her romantic relationship with Professor has a solid foundation but being an upright officer I don’t think she can be convinced to change sides at once with juz a few words. Maybe her character isn’t actually very into the job of being a police officer to restore justice and love life is more important to her? I juz think she can be a more interesting character if she sticks to be a police officer and keeps chasing them (like Ángel) even she’s in love with the mastermind. She had become much much more boring in part3 as the assistant of the Professor. Her existence can be absent and the story wouldn’t be affected at all (except for the last plot where her “death” made the Professor decided to go on a war). Their relationship is fine tho. They got along well and are perfect for each other. But I’m juz not into it at all.

Berlin: One of my fav. He always had the ultimate goal in mind and was determined. He did every thing solely for the sake of the success of the heist. I had totally no problem with him ordering Denver to kill Mónica or threatening to kill Rio or pushing Tokio out of the Mint coz it was indeed the right thing to do if they wanted to prevent more chaos. Despite being ruthless and a psychopath in common ppl’s eyes, he was very loyal and affectionate to his brother that he quickly got over it even the Professor exposed his identity to the police on purpose to punish him. His kind of understanding of love lead to his tragic relationship with Ariadna which I feel very sorry for him. (I know I should feel pity for Ariadna too but...) I thought there was enough time for him to go into the tunnel and escape with the others?? Like if he ran with Nairobi and Helsinki they could blow up the tunnel at once even the SWAT team were already close behind coz it���s a bomb that could block the whole tunnel? I know his death is necessary if they wanted more chaos in part3 but it’s juz too sad... I’m happy every time he appeared in the flashbacks in part3 and was totally a loving brother throughout the show. I don’t think his character had changed at all coz he was with his brother all the time and he treated his family and the others differently after all.

Moscú: A good dad who wanted the best for his son and everyone. His death was so sad and also unnecessary except for making everyone cry and making Denver uncontrollable in part3. I see no problem with him escaping with Denver and Mónica and living a happy life with them... He wouldn’t have special use in the Bank coz there was no tunnel to dig but he could wait outside and be the loved ones waiting for his son and daughter-in-law to come back safely...(and he could be the one looking after their son as well. damn it)

Denver: I like him being the fighter with a certain level of moral standard. I really like his sweet sweet relationship with Mónica. Him confronting Moscow was heartbreaking and I can’t believe how fast he forgave Tokio for causing his father’s death. It makes sense with his kind of personality tho. That’s why he was happy to see Tokio again for the first time after so long but got sulky again after getting into a high pressure environment which reminded him of his father. He had a child to take care of and a wife to protect and he didn’t want to participate the second heist but he had to for the sake of their safety. He finally saw a bright and wonderful future of himself with his new family but the capture of Rio took everything from him. All these had made him becoming a more interesting character in part3. And his laugh is hilarious.

Nairobi: I love love love her so much. She’s so fierce and she’s perfect for the heist. She believed in the Professor all the way and was very loyal. She had a mistake she wanted to make up for which had made money more important to her. She is sympathetic that she even taught Alison Parker to stand up against those who bullied her (although I really doubt if it was a good idea coz if she learnt how to stand up she could be a threat to the heist...) However it could be her stubbornness in printing more cash that had indirectly caused Berlin’s death. And why would she go out of the Bank to grab that bear knowing it’s clearly a trap...? It was indeed Alicia’s ruthlessness that caused her gunshot but it could’ve been prevented if she had thought for one more sec... I mean you’re in a big heist in a danger zone you have to act rationally... Hope she’s alright in part4. She’s one of my fav pls don’t kill her despite her doing only one silly thing.

Rio: Could be a good boi but too emotional. He lacked the attitude in being a kidnapper. He was all buddy and loving with the hostages especially with Alison Parker which had only made them look down on the crew... If the hostages knew the kidnappers wouldn’t kill them then why would they fear them? His love story with Tokio was quite annoying to be honest. Their love towards each other caused too much trouble and conflict. I appreciate his decision in breaking up with her in part3 but such bad timing is unbearable. I mean you’re in a heist... and you know very well that Tokio was a timed bomb... why would you trigger her knowing that it could send everyone to hell? He was too immature and I agree with the Professor that he should be kicked out of the crew (including Tokio actually. I honestly dunno what their purpose for the heist was)

Helsinki: Is cute and loyal. Had become a cinnamon roll in part3 when he asked Nairobi not to leave him alone in the shared bedroom. Lovestruck with Palermo which is sad coz it’ll most probably be unrequited. Also very sad when he had to kill his cousin but his determination was very admirable. Hope he won’t have to face the death of his best friend and most importantly pls don’t kill him...

Arturo: Probably the most hated character in the whole story but is also a very real character. He wanted to go out by all means including ordering others to do dangerous things for him. But he did stand up for himself sometimes and did the most dangerous part when he confronted Denver so he was actually quite brave. It was a little bit sad to see he was in despair after the first heist and had to boost his fame to hold on to his life even his talk shows were pathetic. But then if he wasn’t such an asshole who told Mónica to have an abortion and being mean and selfish throughout his life he wouldn’t end up like this.

Suárez: Is very handsome. I like to watch him getting real pissed every time when he got back to the tent after the missions were fucked. I understand his anger towards Raquel coz it’s very reasonable towards traitors. I wish he would have the chance to fight the Professor sometimes where the Professor would want to avenge his brother. (Him killing Berlin was also a reasonable thing to do so I have no special thoughts on it)

Palermo: Is a player but actually loves Berlin so much that he’s been in despair for the whole 2 years after his death. He does have the charisma in giving speeches which makes him an intimidating kidnapper. It was so unfortunate for him to be almost blinded in the beginning of the heist but it was probably serving the purpose of him losing control. However his personality juz didn’t fit well in the crew...I know the heist of the Bank is his original idea so he should be involved but he couldn’t get along with the others. Why sending him into the Bank seeing them constantly having conflicts during those 4 months before the heist? (but then the Professor is a very bad matchmaker...) Him punching that one hostage (forgot his name but saw him having a big part in part4′s trailer) was satisfying to watch. Hope he won’t die too I want to see him living for Berlin.

Mónica: Is a poor soft lady with traumatic experience in romantic relationship. Her falling in love with Denver was a natural thing waiting to happen and was very sweet. She had become braver in part3 but she was kinda forcing herself to be. She was juz too sweet to intimidate anyone. Hope she or Denver won’t die coz it would be too too sad. Can’t this kind hearted lady have a peaceful and decent future with her loved ones?

Alicia: The most most hated character in the whole story LOL I hate her to the core. I despise cops in the very first place and this is exactly the kind of cops that I hate the most. Not following protocols, doing every kind of immoral ruthless cruel things juz to accomplish her missions (or fulfil her sadistic desire) and even covering up dirty things done by the govt. I don’t care that she’s pregnant, fucked up sadistic assholes like her shouldn’t have kids in the first place okay? However I understand her existence boosted up the tension in part3 and was very successful coz it’s more challenging for the Professor to deal every kind of situation...(Raquel was a good cop but she wasn’t his opponent at all. She caught him only bcoz he fell in love with her) I enjoyed watching the Alicia series videos on the official Youtube channel tho. Those are kinda cute.

Alison Parker: I don’t like her too although knowing this kind of character should be admired. Being fearless even in danger and giving no fucks to her kidnappers most of the time. She was only trying to get out afterall (although not taking any actions unless Arturo told her to). She was basically useless for the crew too except for the recording part between the Professor and Raquel which was probably an accident) I would start to like her if she managed to stand up against her classmates but that scene never came so I think that’s it for her. (Also why the fuck would you agree with dating your classmate who you know little about and have sex with him in a bathroom in a few hours and take sexual pics with your shirt opened? LOL Even when you have no friends and desire love that’s juz too brainless I can’t even...)

Ángel: Is loyal to Raquel and only wants the best of her. It was smart of him to follow the Professor and got his fingerprint. He was the first to find out who the mastermind was which was pretty amazing. Him having a car crash and went into coma didn’t make me feel sorry tho coz it was jealousy that drove him to investigate the Professor in the first place... and it was also his love towards Raquel that made him keep the information from the police even it violated his principal. I’m glad to see him reappearing in part3 coz he’s actually a good cop and it’s interesting to see him being missioned to chase down Raquel.

Before the trailer was released I was wishing I could see some breaking new things being done. Like the Professor being captured (but got away eventually) and confronted Alicia face to face or going into the Bank by himself to be with the crew physically for the sake of the plan, no longer staying in somewhere else depending on the CCTVs and phone calls to help. I want to see Nairobi live :’( I want to see Palermo sacrificing himself for the crew (not by dying tho) and apologising to Helsinki I’d be okay if Raquel give away the crew to Alicia coz that suits her character and it’s a forgivable thing to do (coz that’s the pressure of the whole world when she’s threatened with her family) I want to see Tokio and Rio being mature and helping out everyone instead of being sulky and losing control I want to see Denver and Mónica walking out of the Bank to reunite with their child in the end :’( I want to see Bogotá and Marsella having more screen time and doing some epic stuff Basically I don’t want anyone to die okay (except for that fierce hostage) And I want to see Alicia having trouble with her pregnancy and finally gets what she deserves LOL that’s a horrible thought but I can’t help

And of coz

Flash backs with Berlin!! Yay!!

There’re a lot of bombing and shooting and fighting in the trailer hope those are not the only things in the whole season

[lucy-shining-star]

So, I rarely do episode reactions but this is finale, so I need to do it:

Mingo, Zoom and Estrella <3

Hi Marlena. I think Marlena is my one of my favourites minor characters for if only because I think she has sibling like relationship with Mateo. So I’m glad she did get lowkey bigger role this season even though it’s still small.

I must note despite everything kids didn’t boo at ‘lying cousin Esteban’

Shuriki from Spirit Wolrd: I do not do high-fives, and did you just make me dance? And I wouldn’t let Esteban dance also. 

Puppets facial expressions are something else

I love how Armando had puppet Gabe on his head for a moment

Lmao, I think getting public to not be angry at Esteban wouldn’t be that hard if now it can be singed ‘Poor Victor and Carla Delgado’ after they have been wanted criminals for like...two years?

Puppet Esteban hiding behind puppet AshXD

Armando and Marlena are so cute

I love the parts when kids are singing

I really love ‘long may she reign’ part

Also, I was confused everytime when someone was singing/saying ‘four years’ cause I was not sure if that was ‘four years’ or ‘for years’

Zuzo, don’t scare her

‘You can’t believe everything a whispering campfire tells you’ I love Zuzo being dissmisant of prophercies.

Elena with that excited ‘I waited four years’ 

I saw that people were worried that Francisco was dying because of that and later and I’m like...it didn’t cross my mind that it could mean that.

Well, it’s not last

Naomi,Isabel,Gabe and Mateo are relatable.

Sorry, Dona, Zuzo ruined your chance in previous episode

How Elena doesn’t know she has to do these things? She was heir to throne since birth? She was so busy preparing two episodes ago? HOW litterally everyone else knows and treats like it’s obvious!? 

Elena making Gabe and Mateo hold hands <3

Royals <3

‘I can’t wait to try your fine cuisine’ I see king Toshi has same priorities as me.

I see Alonso looks slightly different than last time?

Valentina being in carriage with Alonso and his father <3 Now that I think about it, Cordoba and Paraiso are both close to Avalor, so they are probably close to each other too?

Hector in carriage with these two kings who he used to boss around until Elena came. I assume they made up and now are equal friends?

Poor Armando. Also, Valentina little too late to say thatXD

Wait, what they were about to do? What runthrough?

That looks beautiful

Lmao at Ixlan not caring

Warning isn’t enough, but does that mean they didn’t warn her? Or they did? Though, if they did they shouldn’t be surprised that she came

Lmao at them knowing she will go anyway

So...that means when Craig said that Franciso may now be ashamed (that was what he wrote?) of his vote about Esteban he was probably just tired of that question and decided to troll?

Elena’s ‘Not anymore’ is kind of scary.

I still can’t believe how naive Ash is

Chatana...Tziloco found it? Okay, he didn’t notice that he found it, but still, that was joined effort.

How did she know it’s under the ocean not on it?

I love how they look at Isa with such admiration cause she invented poisonous arrows.

Only Antonia from the rest of the guards?

Ooo...you are both adorable sidekicks.

Esteban and Elena conflict third season is really direct opposite of Cassandra and Rapunzel conflict in tangled third seasonXD I mean in how how traitor-antagonist and protagonist react to each other.

I’m lowkey surprised that Mateo is surprised that she got his name rightXD 

Esteban and Ixlan sceneXD

I think Isa also thinks that jellyfish is a baby.

Marissa!

Poor Carla.

Why Esteban teleported there?

Wow, Elena really control her emotion powers.

Unforunately, she still let emotions decide for her.

Lmao at Shades renaming themselves.

Mateo, sweetie, that was stupid.

Ixlan finally seeing challenge.

Mateo with glowing green eyes looks nice. Scary, but nice.

Isa already taking charge.

At first I thought Elena’s angery magic started kicking in here. Also her angery face here is glorious.

Okay, Vuli’s face colours changing are like Elena’s dress, but his main colour is green so...I dunno,it’s kinda weirdXD

I think that is my favourite song in whole episode. 

Those Shades really likes to invade Esteban’s personal space

I heard Ozai with angery ‘Tell us!’

I see Hetz actually have to think about what to sing.

Cahu’s voice hypnotizes me. Like when she talks also,but singing is double powerful. Also, I’m not sure if she is the most powerful? Like,on one hand, her powers is the scariest. On the other,she is the only one that needs a tool.

Oh, even Cahu saluted

I love how Cahu sang ‘We’ll meet them’

‘So you can rule your subjects like their puppets on a string’ I see Yolo is planning Esteban rule to be like this Zuzo au.

Did Esteban realize something is off when Cahu sang ‘And we’ll finish what we started long ago?’ I guess he did and then forgot the second she finished that line.

I’m sad we didn’t get to see Ash face when Bobo said ‘The one and only’. She was probably like ‘Hey,that’s my line’

...Now I’m imagining Ash trying to rule the Zanies. Just out of spite.

I wonder, did Isabel and Elena tell anyone else about that vision?

I see Naomi remembers Valentina’s got magic since I guess it’s like ‘Valentina definitely can help, and maybe someone else’

Elena finding out she has more body count than she thought.

‘Oh,drama’XD He is so happy about it

She plays pretty well for someone who can’t stand it.

‘Us probably’ it’s great line,but they are already looking away.

So the answer is Valentina.

Do they know Marissa? Also it’s nice to see Naomi and Marissa coming here together after Naomi hated Marissa that much.

Lmao at Raul and Lucia’s reactions.

Hi Orizaba

First of all: Zoopitole is Mateo’s body count

Which makes me remember I used to think Mateo is ‘looks like cinammon roll,is a cinnamon roll’ while Naomi is ‘looks like they could kill you,can actually kill you’ but it sure looks different. Naomi, you dissapointed me.

So I need to completely change how I see this meme when it comes to all four amigos. So Mateo ‘looks like a cinammon roll,could actually kill you’, Naomi is ‘looks like they could kill you, is actually cinammon roll’ Gabe is ‘looks like a cinammon roll, is a cinammon roll’ and Elena is ‘looks like could kill you,could actually kill you’

Although actually I think they are all capable of killing.

Second of all: Here they should be Flo shouting ‘I was right!’

‘Elena victims club up high!’ is great, tho.

Oh, I didn’t notice earlier that Cahu did little ‘no,don’t say that’ geture to Vulu after he said ‘let’s make it ours’. It looks kinda cute.

‘It’s that you,moustache’ ‘That’s king moustache too you’ lmao

‘They are our allies’...um,Esteban? 

It kinda looked like Vuli is about to touch Abigail’s bust

They are pretty calm for being touched with chaos touch. Like they just hit the hitting bals with clubs.

Chloe and Dona hereXD

Also, is Dona escaping and Naomi right after saying she has some ideas finale foreshadowing on her being new chancellor?

‘If I told you,you wouldn’t let me do it’ ‘What? Isabel!’ Isa, he has enough of this with your sister

‘Your forecast, looks bleak’ I like that line

Isa on her way to have body count

Isa killing powerfulf shade. Gabe and Luna being proud of her <3

Yolo getting scared and Hetz appearing in spirit world immadietely. I love this whole sequence

Hi,Cacahute

Elena looks so cute here when she realised she should go after Ash

‘If you keep hearing in the darkness of your past, you will never see a brighter future’? Though I’m not sure if hearing was the word used here

Wait, that’s still don’t explain everything. Did Esteban make deal with Shuriki knowing that she would invade anyway hoping if he help her she wouldn’t hurt his family? Did he try to convince her to not attack and then she manipulated him with saying she is going to listen to him when his family didn’t?

Vuli really likes to sing.

Ixlan is sure confident.

What exactly Valentina wanted Alonso to do? He has no magic, no sword, no lasso, no fancy cool inventions? I doubt he has much body strenght?

Oh, Vuli being sad for Hetz <3

Oh, Alonso protecting Valentina <3 

Did Esteban just...slide down the railing?

Luisa had great speech 

Esteban really did not realise he is a villain? 

Cahu summed up Esteban great.

But that also mean they saw everything...I think they know that is was really Ash who freed them.

Also, Elena is too focused on revenge, is too emotional, and too focused on past, and Esteban trusts who pretends to listen and wants power to be heard...

They are both Anakin 

That’s why everything ended well in episode with Mark Hamill XD

When you walk in to some evil lady being dangerously close to your first cousin who happens to be often swayed by evil ladies (oh,and also you grandparents are turned to a stone right next to it). No, but seriously she really was close. Isa is going to have trauma

Some time later:

‘Isa: Please tell me you are a gay or ace.

Esteban: What? Why...I’m...

Isa: Please!

Esteban: Okay...So...I’m ace?

Isa:That’s a relief, thanks.-she goes

Esteban:What was that about?

Elena,seeing scene from some distance:No,seriously, what was that about?

Naomi,Mateo and Gabe who know what this is about exchanging”we are not telling her” looks in the bakground’

Rafa didn’t notice something is wrong?

Hi,Alacazar

Flo making sure she annoys Grand Macaw enough she would let her out too

...Actually Elena could just tell him she brought Flo to life with her emotions and he would kick her out to not risk having more creatures like this in his nest.

Thank you Bobo for vocalising your irritation with that. You saved Elena

Didn’t Ash find it suspicious that Elena stopped Bobo or she didn’t notice?

Hi Sanza 

Hi Shuriki, I see you saw that kid eating popcorn during the song in the beggining and decided you want it too.

Also, she is probably happy right now that Elena loses only to find out Elena goes back to real worldXD Unless she knew it, Troyo didn’t seem surprised.

Also, I wonder how music and dance hater feels about being stuck at eternal party. I suppose she found that olaball game moment of relieve

Zoopitole, that was harsh. I can’t believe they made me feel sorry for Ash. I hope she didn’t hear ir.

Mateo’s sad voice when he told shades had taken over Avalor :(

Isa’s sad voice when she said ‘I’m sorry’ :(

‘Pride had put my heart to sleep, but now I’m wide awake. I have hurt everyone, the damage is done’ I love this part. Also love Esteban’s eyes when he opens the door.

The change of scene with fountains is beautiful.

I’m little dissapointed that Isa didn’t talk during that part so I would have all main characters kinda-shared song. Even though only two sing, but still that would be little something.

Elena hugging Skylar <3

Esteban on that throne :(

Carmen’s face after little touch of chaosXD

‘You don’t wanna mess wtih Vuli’ ‘Okay’ I love Migs here

Vuli, you really are attacking your friend for accident?

I love that Gabe didn’t use tamborita in the finale but got his main skill show off just with his tool powered up by a Mateo. 

Also love that got to use his signature move that got stolen by two peopleXD in real fight.

Also, Antonia used tamoborita...I’m kind of starting to think there is some general rule that women more often have natural talent for magic.

‘Or send us’ and not reacting to Elena’s ‘wait, you didn’t mention that’. Same feral energy as Isa’s earlier.

Oh, Yolo (Vulu too? I’m not sure) is happy to see Hetz again <3

Mateo and Gabe turned into a stone right after their sucess :(

Also, I think they are the only one besides Francisco and Luisa to be two people turned into same stone? That’s kind of shippy

Elena’s face after that

Skylar :(

That’s sadistic on one side, but on the other,good that she decided to torture her before killing

Good choice, Esteban. Extremely predictable way to reedem him but that’s a good thing.

Congratulations Esteban on earning your redemption.

Hmm, now all of show main male characters are turned into stone. 

<3

The forgivness dress is white! Yeah, I thought so for longer time!

Though the reason is most probably either cause white is angelic colour or mixed coulour of rainbows I thought this because of that dress (and...that might be foreshadowing of white forgivness dress?):

And to lesser extent that:

Because of that first dress being in episode where Esteban after making mistake decided that he (well,and Naomi and Mateo and Luna.Though not really Luna) owes her more than apology, and also because that’s where we got little more of his backstory.

And the second because Esteban was reffering to this episode in his clue, even though she didn’t have that dress in scene he was reffering to. Also, in that episode Elena was especially worried about being noble leader, and she was afraid of losing everything again even though there was no real threat at those point.

Also, that’s why I kinda tried to find connections to certain episodes in Elena’s other colours. 

'You can’t change what you did before, but you can change what you do next’ right?

Wow, how she control that. And it’s beautiful <3

Oh, and she remembers that others need to be saved to without having to see them

Valentina hug-spinning Alonso <3

Gabe and Mateo nicely landed.

Also, I was lowkey surprised here that Naomi first checked on Mateo, despite being suggested to being in love (in relationship?) with Gabe, but since every other from amigos ships was teased, and that was only Naomi and Mateo one-on-one interaction in the whole special, I’m happy with that.

...How Esteban managed to aim correctly when Elena has to work on that pretty long?

Elena:Well, I let you use my tool, so now I’m going to use yours

Did flames told Quita Moz after the test what it was or he just didn’t tell Elena earlier? Or he figures out himself what test was?

Wow, Luisa is surprised that Elena forgave Esteban

Elena and Esteban hug <3

Elena and Isabel hug <3

Amigos hug <3

We have a queen to crown <3

That pose during changing of the scene is cute:

Mingo, Zoom and Estrella <3

Hector bowing <3

Tomiko doing ‘<3′ <3

I love how all teen(wait,no...young adults?) royals are in the same shot <3

Elena looking at Esteban and he bowing <3 Dona smiling <3

Hi Sofia! And Amber! And James! And Miranda! And Roland!

Although James, Sofia and Amber look kinda weird

Technically, Elena isn’t one yet too, since she isn’t crowned yet

 Also now I kinda wish we had seen Vor in spirit world cause I still don’t know if Sofia has body count or that was just exorcism

‘Elena,queen of Avalor’<3

‘All hail the queen’<3

Lmao at Gabe and Mateo

I saw people saying it looked like marriage proposal before I saw episode, and I thought it was just shipping googles, but damn, it really did look like that.

Daniel and Scarlett already proud in the background

‘With the best insticts in the kingdom’ Naomi, you are awesome

‘Gabe,you’ve been by my side since my first day of rule’ <3 Love Gabe’s eyes here. 

‘Mateo,we’ve been through so much together, you and I’ <3

Mateo is so cute here

Okay, so that was like super cute and ship teasing all ships between Elena and her amigos,but...Does Gabe and Mateo’s new titles change anything for them? Or was Elena just like ‘Okay, I’m going to be queen, I’m going to make Naomi chancellor and Isabel royal inventor...boys would have feel left out. My boys also need fancy titles’

Isa being royal inventor and that hug <3

Elena teasing Mateo and Gabe XD

Kinda thought she might choose Esteban. Still,cute <3

Four servants giving guitars, to four people, and one of them isn’t even from royal family. Wow

Elena touching all amigos hands <3

For some reason I kinda don’t like line ‘And now you’ve crowned me’ but like. Literally only that line. And I don’t know why.

Elena dancing with Francisco <3

Elena hugging Isa and Luisa <3

Elena twirling with Naomi <3

Gabe and Mateo twirling Elena in the while lifting her <3

Gabe putting his hand on Mateo’s shoulder <3 

Elena hugging Skylar <3 Luna being only one eating, relatable. And Skylar coming for more hugs <3

She seemed surprised that they started signing here. But only for a moment

That hand move with ‘I know we gonna be alright’ looks so cool

Mateo and Gabe lifting Elena while she is sitting<3 

Esteban breakdancingXD Though, for being such major character there was very little of him in that last song.

I love the way Naomi pulled Gabe into dance

Isa and James look cute

Lmao, Craig said that he THINKS Ixlan and Antonia share some scene when they actually had a dance with in which Antonia holds Ixlan down with that face? 

Also, Ixlan is impressed

‘Are you ready for day two?’ ‘I am!’ <3

Mateo and Carla buming heads and holding hands <3 I was hoping for some positive interaction that could be seen as ship tease with tight shipping googles but turns out googles didn’t need to be that tight. Also I think I would be happy if that actually means they are confirmed. Like, eleteo is still my otp, but I really love this one too. Kinda like I’m happy with ichihime being canon depsite ishihime being my fave Orihime ship also though it probably helps that ichiruki is my notp and renruki is my otp for whole manga but also why i’m taliing about bleach while didn’t read most of it. Altough that could be just, okay now let’s dance together like normal people

Alonso and Valentina being their extra selves together <3 I waited for any interaction for so long, and now I’ve been fed so much <3

Oh, Hector and Abigail walking-jumping hand in hand. Cute

Marissa twirls beautifully. I lowkey laugh at Marzel’s walk though.

Dona seemingly kissing Julio behind that fan really took me by surprise. I didn’t expect that level of ship tease.

Elena and Sofia being last dance <3

I didn’t notice earlier Naomi threw scepter to Elena

That beautiful spoiled shot <3

Elena’s crown falling down, and she having to adjust it, and Naomi’s face and Isa laugh <3 

Wow,background to credits is stunnigly beautiful.

So anyway, I really love the finale! It’s so emotional and beautifully concludes everything. 

[codenamesazanka]

I know this is a really vague thing to ask, but do you have any tips for writing Shigaraki? I know Echodrops made a whole meta about fanon Shigaraki vs canon Shigaraki but do you personally have anything in particular you'd want to mention yourself about the portrayal of Shigaraki in fanfics?

(Here’s the link to @echodrops‘s post! It’s really, really good, and helped me figure out Shigaraki a lot in the first place. thank you!)

oooh! Not at all a vague thing, this is a great question. I started all this meta because I wanted to figure out how to write Shigaraki as well. A word of caution tho, because this would be my personal interpretation of Shigaraki, though I’ll try to use as much manga examples as I can. As always, super long post. 

Note: images are edited to fit exact quotes to relevant and reasonable sized images, instead of a whole manga page

Here’s some hand man characteristics/traits that I think are overlooked:

Shigaraki Tomura, in his beliefs/values, has a tendency for all-or-nothing thinking, to be extreme in his actions. In all three of his incarnations - the oneshot Tenko, the draft Sazanka, and this current one - a core of the character is 1) finding something flawed/bad/had hurt him somehow 2) completely loathing it 3) vowing to destroy it. 

Tenko despised samurai and their warring, and wishes to rid the world of swords. Sazanka is on a quest to kill quirk-users with quirks he deems too dangerous for society. And Shigaraki has decided that the Heroes and justice system is a farce, and is out to destroy it. 

Kinda fitting for a guy with his quirk - he either doesn’t destroy something, or destroys it completely. The moment he makes his decision, it’s fast and permanent. 

For Shigaraki, murder is murder, destruction is destruction, violence is violence, no matter how you dress it up. That’s why he couldn’t see the difference between him and Stain. That’s why he can’t see that Bakugou, as aggressive and vicious as he is, still wants to be a good guy. 

Now this is my take, but I think his mindset is: Because All Might can’t save everyone, he’s a fake, he’s trash; because everyone will say they condemn murder yet go about their lives carefree even though they know logically someone is out there getting killed, morality and justice is an illusion; because justice is so fragile and flimsy, I will expose it and destroy it. 

Not in any goodwill or for a better society, mind you. He just hates it. 

He also has no illusions about himself or his actions, he knows he’s evil.

Shigaraki is a lot more sarcastic and sardonic than usually portrayed in fanon. He’s very rude and can be foul mouthed, but the real insult comes from his tone and behavior. He condescendingly calls Eraserhead cool. He calls Stain the ‘Great Senpai of scoundrels’. He points out to Overhaul how a wakagashira/underboss like him should be more polite. Just about half of everything he says is dripping with mockery, and he’s very breezy and irreverent. So a bit less ‘I hate you, fuck off’, and more cheek.

Adding to that, if I’m reading my Japanese right, Shigaraki can change how he addresses people depending on the person and situation. His default speech is rude, but he’ll talk somewhat (barely) politely-ish if needed; it’s just it’s very obvious he’s not taking it seriously. 

Related, I feel like Shigaraki says a lot of things he doesn’t really believe. He tries out concepts, half-heartedly, on a whim. There’s that infamous speech at USJ about Heroes and Villains both using violence - which does seem to have some semblance to the actual ‘two sides of the same coin’ that even Best Jeanist talks about. 

And here’s him considering Stain’s effects on heroes, with gusto, before ditching it.

I know it’s Smash!, but here’s him reciting some sort of pseudo education philosophy he picked up somewhere??? to Kurogiri to get out of exercise. 

He’s a total smartass 

Of course, this brings up the question, is he genuine in his speech to Bakugou, or to Toga and Twice? 

 Like Echodrop notes, he can be in a good mood. He can be (seem?) happy, he can smile, he will acknowledge when someone does a good job of something. 

Sure, it’s got a manic edge to it, it’s probably not coming from a place of good, fluffy, innocent feelings, but he can laugh, enjoy the moment, be psyched about something. 

I really like this scene because he actually giggles a bit. He squeezes Midoriya, and he really does seem excited for a chat. 

He’s quick to go back to being default cranky tho. Quick to enjoy, quick to get irked.  

Shigaraki is a weirdo and I love him.

 My boy is smart. Really, Shigaraki is smarter than he looks. In the Ultra Archive, his profile lists his intelligence as ‘A’, ranking him above most characters, including Midoriya. I get that Deku’s whole thing is being the strategizing main character, but Shigaraki’s just as analytical. Even the Smash! Comic points this out. 

His room is filled with books, so either he reads a lot or he hoards them to look smart. I think it’s the former. Well, it’s not mutually exclusive, I should know.

He thinks and reflects and questions. He was super pissed about Stain, but he realized Stain was right and tried to figure out why. He went on a walk to calm down and just ruminate. He sought out Midoriya just to get second opinion. Afterwards, he quickly sees the bigger picture and realizes the issue is systemic and he’s gotta attack the structure. Of course, kinda shaky on the specific details and it’s not endgame long term, but still impressive. 

There’s a lot of Villain!Deku fanfics - and I like them a lot! - that turns Deku into the criminal mastermind or makes him the brains behind Shigaraki’s operations. Which is fair, Deku could totally be one! And also a lot of fics where Shigaraki is dismissed, with everything he does being AFO’s machinations. Again, fair. But Canon Shigaraki is AFO’s successor and leads the League for a reason.

This also means, I think, that Shigaraki isn’t as clueless to the fact that All For One is manipulating him. This point is entirely debatable, though. All I have to back this is how Shigaraki wondered if he was lied to in the USJ.

Even tho he’s facepalm crusty boi neet, Shigaraki is still a very dangerous S-ranked villain. I feel like sometimes people forget this. 

 He’s not that childish. He can be immature, he’s still learning the ropes of being a supervillain, he’s got an irritable and sullen disposition, but he’s not a five-year-old. He’s also not completely unhinged. 

When things don’t go his way, his first response usually isn’t to shriek or whine or immediately snap. He’s got a clear head and a good sense of what he can and can’t do. Kurogiri is down, All Might escaped their grasp, but Nomu’s still active? Cool, we got this. It’s only when Nomu gets team-rocket-ed that he panics. Stain stabs him? Doesn’t start a fight right there and then, asks Master for some Nomu, is patient enough to wait until he decides he really can’t stand Stain, then finally gives the go ahead for a rampage. 

Shigaraki knew from the start he can’t handle All Might. That’s Nomu’s job. As much as he hates All Might, he doesn’t jump at the chance to kill the hero personally. He’s not ruled by impulse or easy distractions, not really. And he will back down if Kurogiri reasons with him - see accepting Stain as a party member, see letting Toga and Dabi live. And after he got his motivation, he’s been very restraint since. 

He doesn’t immediately destroy his things in anger - we only see him destroy only few items pre-mall talk. He decays binoculars, a photo of Deku, maybe a newspaper, all quiet and deliberate. Kurogiri’s bar is intact and clean, despite being the long-time hang out spot of the destructive Shigaraki Tomura. Would he decay a controller after losing a game? Maybe, but also just as likely maybe not. 

Shigaraki will complain and bitch and sulk and hold a grudge, tho, yeah. He will lose it after a series of stressors/things gone wrong. He can be moody, cruel and sadistic, bloodthirsty and mayhem-loving. But he’s got himself under control more often than not. 

Finally, video games: My biggest pet peeve about portrayal of Shigaraki in fanfics: He’s super obsessed with video games, to the point that he plays them all day long, and he can’t stop using video game slang for everything - or so a lot of the fandom believes. 

I’ve pointed out before that we’re more likely to see him reading the newspaper and we’ve never actually seen him use a console ever in manga or anime. True, he likens scenarios to games frequently, but not all the time - the USJ fight was when he did that the most, then in his other appearances only once or twice during the whole scene (Doesn’t want Stain as a ‘party member’, none at all when meeting Dabi or Toga and then at the mall, camp arc has him seeing himself playing a Sim instead of an RPG, calls All Might ‘last boss’ during the raid, then nothing for his next appearances). At least not out loud. As fun as it is to imagine him as a geeky gamer, and he is, but he does more than just that. 

I think Shigaraki uses video games and media to create mental scripts for himself to understand/interact with the world, but it serves as a skeleton. He fleshes it out, always adding to that mental model to create a more complex one. He calls his change of strategy as playing a Sim game, but it’s a good analogy that works for him, and we see how layered his plan is - dealing a blow to UA that works whether the Vanguard succeed or not, kidnapping Bakugou and Ragdoll, in order to bring about the media and public criticism of UA/heroes, and had it not been for the raid, something would’ve happen to Bakugou that would’ve demoralized everyone. 

He def is grounded in reality enough to know what he’s doing is more than just a game. 

And that’s all I got for now! There might be a part two. idk, but I hope this was helpful! 

[advernia]

around june of last year, i decided to revive my writing blog as one of the many potential stress-relief methods i could think of.... i didn’t think i’d be able to keep it active for long since work + family duties keep me preoccupied most of the time, but eyyy!!! so far i haven’t lost the motivation to keep going back to this blog, and i even managed to keep it afloat for half a year!!! amazing!!! (•̀o•́)ง

and now here we are halfway through 2020!!! it’s waaaay overdue but here’s a big T H A N K  Y O U  V E R Y  M U C H ! ! ! to everyone and anyone who dropped by this blog last year + all them likes, comments, reblogs...... please know that i’m still i n c r e d i b l y grateful for the support & interest in the content i’ve posted up!!!! tbh my activity’s still hella sporadic so it’s really amazing for me that i even gained new followers.... i’m very honored to have all of you stick around my blog despite my irregularity!!!!!!!! (༎ຶ ෴ ༎ຶ)

it’s also overdue, but i slowly managed and finally cleaned up the blog like i’ve been meaning to do + changed the blog name to match my ao3 handle for consistency!!! i make no promises to be super active... but i’m sure that i still want to continue writing & keep this blog alive!!!! 

again, thank you all for your time + reading my works!!!!!!  ∩( ´∀` )∩ work commentary on the rest of my works last year follows under the cut!

oct 1 // hero’s journey

a drabble on blanc + oliver about the alices... now that i think of it, calling the first alice first alice is kinda funny considering that alice is really her name... or is it? 

i do hope blanc’s route talks about her a bit, haha! i mean, i wish cybird remembers that they’ve been dropping the occasional background tidbits about her... like for example, her pocketwatch (that she gave to blanc eventually) having a magic crystal engraved into it.... her potentially leaving a fucking globe in the black army’s possession (like... wow... u fell with that thing????????)....

plus, i just find it interesting that she was remembered by cradle as a heck of a troublemaker lol! it also makes you wonder who among the main cast met her, blanc aside... though it’s not stated when exactly she fell into cradle, so maybe only blanc had the opportunity of meeting her...

so does blanc speak of her fondly bc she’s a woman, or is there something else??? has he been frequently visiting the land of reason pre-game??? has he found the first alice’s antique shop / met her again??? does he still try to figure out the reason why there’s a magic crystal engraved into the first alice’s pocketwatch????? hmmmmm......

on another note, it would be hilarious if cybird pulls a peter pan 2......... since we can’t pull off a mother-daughter relationship like wendy & jane’s, what if alice the second is somehow actually related to the first alice?? and while she’s completely different from her predecessor, blanc finds himself falling for alice the second........ just like he fell for the first alice? drama!

that’s just a random thought but kidding aside, i do hope blanc’s route is hella interesting bc i think he’s our mr. exposition for knowing more about cradle itself lol

oct 1 // fair (?) ladies & phony (?) enchanters

a result of going manic a few days after seeing harr’s trailer + route release.... ahaHAHA I’M STILL WILLING TO PLAY UR ROUTE IN JP HARR (if i actually had time to sit down and translate gET REKT)

i liked writing these drabbles and i think they’re cute but tbh they did nothing to ease my curiosity about harr’s route.... if anything else, it became even w o r s e  haha........................

if i think of blanc to have a cradle-centric route, i do hope harr’s route is magic tower-centric! naturally it will be since he’s got history there, but i hope a lot of my questions about the magic tower will be answered.....

will harr’s perspective of the magic tower be in the eyes of a test subject or a disciple???? he was scouted by the magic tower, but it wasn’t stated what he was doing exactly..... going by hints + loki’s & zero’s routes, it’s more of him being a disciple, so there’s bound to be guilt.......

hopefully alice’s characterization in his route is good + we get a fun group dynamic with loki!!! their potential.... the most(?) notorious criminal of cradle, a sought after test subject, and that one girl who nullifies all magic; a renegade trio lurking around the forbidden forest.... what an odd bunch!

oct 4 // god is a five minute hymn

a religious themed fic with lancelot & alice - tbh i don’t even know why religion was the first thing that came into mind when liz and i were talking about cultural differences, lol.

on that note though! i personally like thinking that if ever cradle had a semblance of a religion, it would be polytheistic & nature-centric, and not strictly practiced - the stratocracy of both territories i’d like to think makes it harder for religion to have a voice, much less have one that is practiced by the general population. the only thing general about it is that the religion centers or has magic crystals as an important factor... or something. yeah.

that aside, i think i specifically chose lancelot in this piece for the sole reason that his canonically stated lack of common sense, in my opinion, gives him the curiosity of a child sometimes - there’s no sense of malice or doubt, just the pure innocence of wanting to know something....... religion does that to kids, especially when introduced to it at first.

rereading the fic makes me think of the instances where when faced with dire or unsettling situations, people turn to faith as a life line.... well, i’m not sure if i had that subconsciously in mind when writing alice, but that does give a spin to it....

oct 6 // flow like the river nile

a spontaneous red army-centric fic! it certainly turned out better than i expected... i liked the formatting i used for this one!

if cybird can give us more about the pre-game suitors it would be great, tbh! and while the stuff about them in school is interesting, i’d like to see more about when they assumed their positions + combat scenes! the neutrals are special cases, but knowing more about their living conditions + daily lives is also a treat...

i was thinking of adding one last snippet about lancelot in the eyes of the reds, but i scrapped it out and switched it to alice & lancelot’s conversation about duty - it could’ve worked better if i stuck to using the what is your duty? question, but i scrapped it eventually too. ah well. it does look good enough as it is. 

oct 7 // seeking out phantoms

a mandatory(???) odd one out aka content that’s not ikerev, haha! i missed fe:a all of a sudden...

i never got around to writing properly for this fandom tho, what a shame - i’ve got some bits of pieces in my drafts that looked interesting and easy enough to pick up, and this was one of them.

robin investigating more of their plegian heritage could’ve been a good subplot tbh... i still wish there was something like a paralogue or dlc about it, bc honestly the valm arc goes a bit slow until you get to the future past revelations. ah well.

and gaius bc first husband for the win.... not like i actually had the guts to marry anyone else in my other save files lololol

nov 7 // push me off a bridge (to catch me as i fall)

my longest project of 2019, holy shit! i didn’t know i still had it in me to write something past 10k... i need more of that motivation + energy....

there’s nothing much to say about this since i blabbed about everything in the post-reading notes, but as much as i fought myself to get this done, i really enjoyed writing a long fic again! hopefully i can get myself to write another one this year...

nov 18 // beloved, beloved, let me be clear

18 sentences on zero & alice + macross frontier references! man, when i really got to the point about the earrings i was thinking of sheryl a lot....

kept it in sentences cause i didn’t have enough time to put up a decent ficlet! but i really wanted to get my screaming out of my system....... i used to do sentences + three word sentences challenges before, and doing one again was pretty fun!

but really.... zero’s route kept me happy for days???? their buildup + dynamic was something i was totally w e a k for, no joke..... thank gods the collection event was going on, bc i really made good use of my stocked chapter tickets lolol!

i was especially excited come the ball scene, and that cg..... a h a h a.... i need more of those pretty cgs where i can see alice’s face + costume change....... 

nov 20 // coloring inside the lines

jonah + alice + makeup!!!! tbh this was really fun, i enjoyed writing this one - if i remember, this was a fic that i managed to continuously work on the day i thought it up!

jonah may not be my best boy but tbh i find writing him very easy - i guess it’s because i’m very fond of characters like him!!! those uptight nobles who are as prideful as hell but can definitely live up to their name + are more capable than their bragging suggests... idk if there’s a general trope name for these doods, but i especially like analyzing their motivations + convictions!!!

i liked how i ended it, but i apparently i made an actual ending that’s now a snippet in my drafts - jonah & alice head to the ball, and somewhere along some bystanders’ flow of conversation someone drops a comment about jonah’s lips looking... quite more luscious than usual, lolol. so t h i r s t y. upon hearing this, alice can’t seem to stop smiling for some reason..... 

nov 27 // blue fields, verdant skies

a practice drabble set centric on a ray/alice development that i liked so much i made it into a series - plus, it’s black army content and honestly i need to write more of them! my red army bias is showing whoooooops

it’s a feudal + arranged marriage au, with the latter... being quite spontaneous. it’s those types of marriages where neither have even met - not even once - only to face each other come the wedding... so it’s a given that audiences from both parties are rather curious how this will turn out.

since i had the theme of fate in mind, ray was the automatic pick for the male lead. the rest of the black army is a given and for kicks, i added dean and dalim! i actually want to write about them + mousse, but since i’m still unsure on their characterizations i’ve been holding them off.... but i gave in anyway.....

alice is again named for word count convenience purposes since it’s in actual 100 words aka drabble form! i have planned scenes + an ending already in mind, but going there is pretty hard bc.... i still have to write the scenes in between + resist temptation to expand further on other scenes, haha....

initially i was planning to keep it updated here as well, but any more updates of this are on ao3 instead! the formatting looks better there instead of my blog tbh, and it also gives it a sort of muted tone to the story that works with me!

this is also the 31st fic in this blog, marking an end of the challenge liz bestowed to me lolol - since i brought this blog back to life around june, i was dared that by the end of the year, i should’ve posted more than 15 fics to add up to the initial 15 i had already posted before, thus the numbers on my fics back then.... now that i actually succeeded, i can stop counting lololol!!!! tho hopefully i can still be pretty active this year....

dec 22 // duck, duck, bullet

oliver & fenrir on guns... this probably wins as the most spontaneous idea i had on my head - tbh, i wasn’t even sure where i was going with it at first! but i’m sure i was suddenly thinking about that one detective conan movie.... then it became kid!oliver with a gun.....

i wonder if he tests the bullets at night, when he’s in adult form.... then again, kid!oliver with a gun still works.... say that because he’s a genius inventor, he made some models to serve as his shooting targets.... but another thought that amuses me more is.... blanc does the bullet testing for him!?

lololol i already thought about blanc being oliver’s live target, but i also find blanc with a gun very interesting.......... i mean, blanc certainly doesn’t look like he can fight, but who knows??? i mean, mousse is the former ace of hearts, but i still can’t imagine him fighting..... appearances can be deceiving....

the two aside, i wonder how fenrir even met oliver and got him working on his bullets........ was it through blanc or other connections???? how long have they been seller and buyer???? does anyone else commission anything from oliver?????? hmmmm.....

dec 23 // terms of surrender

i’ve been told by liz + luci + other friends that i needed to practice writing more.... cheesy fluff. i’m not sure if this sirius/alice piece counts, lol. in fact, i think it’s my definition of fluff i see here - and it translates to not exactly fluffy at all!

tho if you want me to be honest about it - when i write suitor/alice stuff, how alice was characterized in the suitor’s route is still my basis for how i’ll write her, and sirius’ alice................ haha......... i think she’s the alice that’s honestly easy to write but i choose to avoid.......... 

i don’t dislike the sirius/alice dynamic per se, tho. i do find it cute, especially if cybird stops emphasizing the issue of maturity in the relationship on alice’s side. i understand - i really do - that it’s a potential issue in the relationship, but...... that’s not the only problem you can possibly have as time passes, right?????

on another note, it’s funny that only sirius gets to be harped about the maturity due to age difference issue - setting aside blanc, who heavens know how old he is, lancelot’s 29 and since alice is presumed to be around ray + fenrir’s age, you could say that she’s 24 or even 23 to be safe.... so that makes a 5 / 6 years difference but it’s never brought up, lol. but i guess it’s because unlike lancelot, the black army’s been making sirius’ age a running gag....

anyway, this piece is pretty decent! i was thinking of something along the lines of mornings between a “married couple”.... there were two scenarios i had in mind, and i opted to write this one out first.... maybe i’ll have the second one posted up here another day.

dec 28 // a chain of black thrones

pre-game!sirius & ray and bc i was thinking a lot about the previous chosen, the former jack of spades!!! i wonder if the armies have a set age for retirement lolol... it would be awesome if there was still a chosen who’s already past his 50s or something, haha!

since sirius was constantly badgered to take on the role of king, i was also wondering about how long the black army was ‘king-less’... i mean, if the tension between both armies was really as great as they say, having no king puts the black army at a precarious position... i also thought that ‘nah, maybe there was a king or something but maybe the black army didn’t like him or something so they insisted that sirius take it instead’ but sirius’ 1st anniv. epilogue says otherwise - there really was a period that the black army had no king, wow. how the heck did they deal with that???? surely the red army saw this as a display of vulnerability....

can the black army’s chosen choose to leave their posts when they feel like it??? when they’re defeated by a challenger, what happens to them - a demotion, or do they serve under the ‘new’ chosen??? does the black army’s chosen change constantly because of their meritocracy + challenger system??? like, how do they deal with that, and do they announce their changes in chosen each council meeting??? each new question just snowballed my curiosity, whoops...

there were so many angles i thought of but i decided to settle for addressing the king-less state of the black army... through the eyes of a veteran who’s probably served many kings throughout his time of service as part of the black army’s chosen.

i gave this jack of spades character a name, actually - garret folner. maybe someday i’ll write him again, bc i actually enjoyed thinking about the present + past chosen interactions - maybe i’d think about that for the red army, but this time i find the black army’s side more interesting for this situation.

dec 29 // steadfast tin soldier

a zero/alice piece for zeroweek - i was about to post pt. 1 as a standalone, but then i just thought about how.... zero bought alice a gown.... but never got to dance with her at the day of the ball..... so i rushed to add pt. 2 haha!

with the addition of pt. 2 it looks cut short tho - i did think of putting a scene in between, but no good ideas came into mind bc i was too fascinated with the dancing scene... i swear at some point i will find myself writing a fic or a part of a fic that’s a dance scene for the rest of the ikerev suitors + alice....

this is the kind of fluff i live for, actually... i’m totally fine with the steamy content cybird throws during events + bonus stories, but if i were to be honest i say.... where’s my non-sexual intimacy????? the simple, wholesome stuff?????????????????

man, i feel hilarious for typing that out..... but well, i guess it’s a matter of different strokes for different folks, lol!

[pwnyta]

Nobody ASKED for any of my shitty Pokemon character doodles... BUT IM IN A MOOD.

SO yall have to deal with it.

This is under a read more so dont come at me about it being annoyingly long. Blame Dumblr. Theres a SHIT TON OF DOODLES UNDER THE CUT.

First off I wanted to give Holly a whole classroom of friends... it wasnt GONNA be an all girls school... but I kept crankin of little girly Mons....

I dont actually have a shiny Darumaka or Eevee... but theyre two of my favorite shinies...

I drew these four after so theyre a bit different in style. Shiny Swirlex has the same excuse as the other two shinies... I just love the shiny colors

They also needed a teacher so I repurposed one of my older characters because I thought itd be funny to have a swan teacher... cuz swans are so scary but they care for their babies well.

Darla and Delilah can be bothered with threats because theyre safe with Mr Shandra.

Mikhail only takes classes that are small enough to fit under his wingspan so he can keep them all safe. And Eva and Tiffany learn from the best and just get pissed off like their teacher.

((Hes more bark than bite though... hes not a great fighter and a double weakness to Electric? Garbo. But he puts up a convincing enough front.))

And because he was a swan I gave him a life mate. The only other being that gets any softness from him.

He was an ex pirate.

Mikhail has no interest in criminals!!! So the captain gave up the pirate life and married a very short tempered bird and gained a lot of weight...because I wanted him chubby.

---

‘’Spider’’, Esi, and dear ol Dad. Despite Reds best efforts to keep Esi out of Osborns hands he still ended up an immensely shady bastard but at least hes not as broken as ‘’Spider’’.

I didnt finish their moms because I couldnt settle on a design for Spiders mum....

Now Spider works for Caedere his beloved boss who would never ever lie to him ever. (Hint: Spiders nature is ‘naive’)

---

I tried revamping Ray and Hebanon...  but Ray still gay as hell for his boy.

I bullied Sparky a little. He’ll probably be fine even if Rays got a Mega evo. Its the name of the game Ray... hes supposed to knock his opponent out... you cant get pissed when ever Hebanon gets fucked up in battle.

---

Did I post these? Am I ever gonna finish these character sheets? No. And look I forgot the most pressing detail of Zippos and thats his fuckin Arbok mark on his back. IM A FOOL.

Kreetan and his mum and dad.

So many little comic things I’ll never finish because theres too many and instead of just stopping and finishing something I keep adding to my unfinished doodles instead. This is why I dont take requests or anything.

I time where Leif and Cyndy actually grow up?

THEY ALL HAVE CAT EARS.

Zippo is curious.

.....AS A CAT.

Polly is here too!! And shes ready to punch someone RIGHT IN THE NOODLE.

I also thought itd be nice to draw out some other Chars of Zippo and Crizs generation.

Theyre.. as you may have guessed are not finished yet.

Clem is a timid lad, Mira... not so much. Very brave

Addy is a modest princess type

Jubilee is a sassy lass.

And Criz. A sweet bashful boy whos never done anything wrong and certainly will not die because no one would be cruel enough to let that happen.

((EYES EMOJI))

Babby Clem, Addy, and Jubilee.

WHO’RE THESE ASSHOLES?!

---

Updated Mistletoe. One spooky righteous(in his own mind) lad.

She only looks stoic to start... but shes quite the weirdo.

She just got here and shes ready to go home. What a mood.

Now for some less polished individuals....

Meh meh meh lookit me IM OMI. Im gonna put three of the exact same Pokemon in the same group so Pwnyta has to suffer tryna come up with different designs.

...But I do like them. I imagine that they remain Ekans because they wont need the mark of their tribe so no one will no where they come from. So spooky.

I was torn between the codename ‘Sundown‘ and ‘Daybreak‘ for Crobat.

By day hes a wholesome trustworthy priest... by night he tortures people for a shady shady bug man. He’ll determine if youre truly innocent.

Doc has to deal with all these fuckin weirdos... he just wants to be a doctor... BUT AT WHAT COST DOC?!

This is a sequel to the doodle comic I was makin in a previous post... Kop and Doc develop an interesting friendship (In Kops mind. Its more a ‘stalker with a crush’ situation) But hey if Kops not being paid then hes got no reason to hurt Doc.

...Docs a fun character to bully because hes so smarmy and small.

---

AND NOW FOR SOME SCIENCE BITCHES.

A man of few words and an intense curiosity with mortal beings and his own existence.

A spooky lad who doesnt quite mean to torment his subordinates... its just his Pressure.

Id imagine his form changes are a bit like Iron Man in IW when hes fighting Thanos.

I drew some more science bitches...

Some casual clothes for the original three stooges.

Shes deaf Franz! She cant hear you.

Ya know IDK if itd be ‘canon‘ that they all met as kids... I just thought itd be cute. Little psychic babies all doofin off together... the most troublesome one being asleep 90% of the time due to being an Abra.... and narcoleptic. Abra sleep so much naturally... Geller sleeps even MORE... thats why hes so incredibly smart even for an Alakazam.

I had a whole little redo sketch comic idea of Mewtwo breakin loose and fuckin shit up.... (its never been finished)

Franz tries to put him to sleep. (it doesnt work. He needs Emanuel and Nola to save him and he gets his arm broken for bein such a cheeky lad.)

Mewtwo doesnt have too much of a problem with Geller due to his soft spot for kids and pure desire for knowledge... but if hes gonna protect the other assholes then PERISH.

Dont worry though big boss Deo wont let his subordinates die let alone the second smartest after him... and saves them all pretty easy. A sharp tentacle arm through the chest will stop even Mewtwo.

Some booboos happen tho...

But hes fine eventually and finds his ex wife home watchin the kids.

Shes promptly expelled.

Geller also goes back for Dilla and steals him. Lifes too short not to adopt an ancient fossil baby.

Emanuel isnt delighted... but he doesnt have the heart to call the authorities on a man who risked his life to save him.

Fossil Mons come in two types-- Resurrected fossils which have the skin color of the primary coloring of their Pokemon form so they can be solid black or blue or red or w/e... Ancestors of ancient Pokemon have normal skin tones.

And another comic sketch idea... where Geller and Roswell are gifted with some fancy new Mega stones... Ros? Not too keen on the idea hes seen what can happen to a bitch when they Mega Evo... he aint got time for that. Geller goes HARD for SCIENCE.

Ros: Geller I know your a spoon guy but stick a fork in that bastard cuz hes done. COOKED. If he thinks im riskin my ass for his bullshit. Lets go tell him off together (im scared to go without you...)

Geller: We experiment on living things all the time for the sake of scientific progress.... are we really too good to be subject to our own studies?

Ros: YES. ABSOLUTELY.

After seeing Geller use his without hesitation, putting his body through a world of hurt for the sake of SCIENCE!!! Ros couldnt pussy out on his boy...

His Mega is just FABULOUS and now he loves it.

--

I was also makin a team with the Pokemon that have the highest stats (non Legends/Psudos/Megas) but I got bored after Blissey. She has a Togekiss wife I didnt finish either... Oh well.

Shes a bold lass and prefers double battles with her support wife. She doesnt like using dangerous moves as its in her nature as a Blissey to heal.

---

(I forgot his whiskers... OH WELL)

I wanted to give Flaminio some people who missed him after he got spirited away by his Ghosts.

After he disappeared people looked for him but he was never found and years and years went by and people stopped looking. Even Clove and Ceto had to move on.

Koban is a loyal bitch though and he never let it go. He still wants his friend back. Hes an old boy now... so old people probably call him ‘Nekomata‘ and wonder when his tail is gonna split.

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

Persona 5 Problems: Are the P5MC’s parents good/bad/abusive/grey?

Hoooo boy I dunno if this is happening anywhere besides the confessions blog (btw leave the mods alone, they are good people that have to deal with all of our salty butts) but...... I guess we need to talk about it. I should note this isn’t my own personal “Persona Problem” it’s more of a “Persona Fandom Problem” (which I haven’t done one yet, or at least published....still working on the FeMC one 8U but that’s off topic). 

So if you don’t know things have been getting heated in relation to if P5MC’s parents are good or bad/abusive or grey, and so on. Everyone raises good points tbh! Some.....not so good (on all sides) I should note I’m completely neutral tbh (I prefer a more grey backstory, but I can swing any which way with this interpretation tbh!), as long as the interpretation is well written (by which it addresses some of the grey ares the game left), be it positive or negative, I think it’s fine. So this isn’t someone who is....like....super biased to one side (not that anyone can be unbiased but concerning this topic I’m as close as I’ll ever be to it). 

Anyway what is the answer to this question? Well I have your answer guys! It’s open and to be left up to the interpretation to the player! :D DON’T GO-! ;w; I’ll explain myself under the cut, I figured you’d at least like to know my answer going in. Even if you don’t want to believe it, it’s very much the fact that it’s left up to interpretation due to the sole fact there’s not enough info to go on (even if we nitpick the living shit out of it we don’t know the parents’ motives). Anyway, I found there’s some key info people missed out on (blame Atlus for keeping that tidbit a bonus missable quiz show thing) and also looking into the real life JAPANESE juvenile law (just....cause I’m afraid people are trying to use their own country’s law and try to apply it to Japan, and this required some research, tho I feel like I still have more to learn this is what I could find 8U)

Last thing I should note, a lot of this might come off as “defense for good/neutral” parents, but there’s something you need to remember. WE KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THEM. Not their personal reasons or mindset as to why the MC was allowed to move to Tokyo. We don’t even know if they do or don’t call him because they are unimportant to the story. Everything is left up to the player’s interpretation, and regardless of what route you wanna take, it will require SOME explanation. Good/neutral parents, you’ll need to explain why they are absent or why they chose what the did during the course of the game, but you don’t really need to explain the MC’s choice to go back to them (cause in his mind they are good). Bad/abusive parents, you won’t need to explain their lack of presence during the game (cause it’s really easy ‘they’re just bad’ see? not a whole lotta thought needed), but you’ll run into some issues as to why the MC returning home is a good ending (so you’ll need to explain that). Grey parents, you have no choice but to explain things for legit everything they do/don’t do in the game. Regardless of what you subscribe to, you’ll need to explain something that isn’t explained in the game....and guess what? Regardless of your explanation....it’s not canon. Because the game itself doesn’t explain it. You can headcanon as much as you want, it’s encouraged, all of them are valid, but unless Atlus remakes the game where they give the parents actual personality/character, nothing will be canon. And that’s ok. You can explore a lot of different things thanks to this, it’s frustrating but you have to take the good with the bad. Now, why am I explaining stuff that is inconsiquential considering nothing is canon (and everything is permitted, ...no AC fans?...ok ;w;) regarding this? Well call me a devil’s advocate, but it also shows how someone can come up with a valid reason rather than ‘just cause.’ Ex: MC’s parents don’t give him any money, what’s their financial standing? Side A: They are well off and are just assholes who don’t want to help him. Side B: They aren’t well off, I have no reason just....because. Not the best comeback right? Well what if we changed Side B’s answer to: They aren’t well off, because he’s going to a private school in the city and that might be siphoning more of their money than they originally were doing before and thus might be struggling. Gives more weight to Side B no? Both interpretations are valid, because we don’t know the MC’s parent’s financial situations of course (please remember we know nothing as I bring up things people may have missed/overlooked/didn’t know), but Side B now doesn’t sound like it’s just saying stuff ‘just cause.’ 

Anyway, all that preface out of the way, actual analysis under the cut: 

So.....let’s start off with analyzing what we do know about the game! P5MC’s court case went by faster than an episode of Law and Order (very unusual, I think even mentioned by the game, so some of the “hmm but couldn’t they have done had the MC be in a different school in his hometown under probation” is just game going to game so we won’t worry about that too much, his sentence was to Tokyo so that’s what we are going with! tho tbh the game does kinda handwave a little explanation as to why he’s in Tokyo, Principal literally says they are the only one who would take him....and well rather that’s realistic or not game gonna game so yeah moving on 8U) 

We know the MC’s parents sent him to Sojiro. We know Sojiro is a probation officer (something I noticed people seem to forget in the confessions). MC was sentenced to live in Tokyo via the courts orders, the parent’s agreed, and the parents made arrangements to stay with Sojiro due to a connection with a shared friend of their’s (also probably cause he’s also a gd probation officer but that’s not stated as a reason, just want to make sure you are aware Sojiro is a probation officer). MC is accepted to the only school (in Tokyo, or maybe the country not specified) that will take him, and will presumably be able to integrated in the school due to no one knowing about his criminal record (aka he gets a clean slate). During this time Sojiro state’s to briefing the player on the MC’s situation "*laughs (I think only in the JP ver)* In other words, they got rid of you for being a pain in the ass" (there’s a few things about this line I can mean a lot of things and I’ll get into it later). He says if MC causes any trouble he’ll throw him out......And then later saying if he problems he’ll be sent to juvie (wait....so doesn’t that mean he’ll just send him to Juvie? Not on the street? Sojiro you make no sense....just gonna bring it up here, ‘throw you out’ seems more in line with Sojiro being ‘tough love’ than actually threatening while the juvie is a legit warning to the MC, only way I can reconcile why he’s saying that, esp since he’s a lot more serious voice acting wise when talking about juvie and the two times he uses ‘throw out’ in the first two days he’s a lot lighter/flabbergasted/not as serious sounding, just a thing to note). The next day the principal states that if he’s kicked out, he’d have nowhere to go. Sojiro also states the reason he took the MC in was for money (as well as being asked and accepting, but keep in mind with the money, he kind of slides that in at a last second, this is key). 

So yeah it seems that the parents might have had to dump him there and might not be happy with him......Key words: “might” and “it seems.”

Here’s a few things the game.....doesn’t make clear, Sojiro’s attitude during this time as well as some key info you’d miss unless you’d look into it.

Let’s start with Sojiro’s attitude, he’s def taking the “tough love” approach to the MC (I think a lot of people can agree he’s being a hardass cause that’s what he thinks the MC needs right now...dunno why but yeah), and he’s also lying to the MC on at least one thing. Wait what? Lying? About what? The money. Surprised? I know this info isn’t mandatory in the story, it’s easily missable! Anyway, it’s very likely Sojiro isn’t getting paid (and this can both hurt and support the parents so don’t think this is an execution for the parents), and so he just lied to the MC. If you don’t believe me, here’s the game stating that probation officers (and with Mona’s commentary, including Sojiro) don’t get paid.  So....why lie? Well again he’s taking the tough love approach, and he’s def faltering on the 2nd day, and the way he stumbles to answer the MC and adding the money at the end might show him trying to keep up with the tough love act by showing he’s only in it for the money even if he isn’t (and thus lying). He could also be lying about the pain in the ass thing too, either cause he’s already lying about one thing so what’s stopping him from lying about another thing, or the fact that that in the original Japanese, he laughs when he says the MC was kicked out for being a pain in the ass (as well as his portrait changing to the smiling one)....meaning he’s either lying or just joking (not the best time to make a joke like that Sojiro 8U). All that being said, his words do not imply the parents said that, it could be all Sojiro. So saying “he got it from the parents” isn’t supported, not saying it’s false or you can headcanon it, but the text does not support the parents said that to Sojiro. So you can’t outright claim that as fact. I’m not saying the parents didn’t say it, but there’s nothing proving that they did nor didn’t.

“Ok but why dump the MC with Sojiro? He’s just some rando right? A STRANGER! THEY DON’T EVEN KNOW HIM HE COULD BE A SERIAL KILLER-!” Ok let’s take a breath guys, yes Sojiro is only a friend of a friend but.....keep in mind....he’s a probation officer (hogoshi/保護司 specifically, ref original dialogue in this jp walkthrough/guide here) He’s not just “some rando” it’s his (volunteer) job (nonetheless it’s still a job) to look after kids like the MC. And not just any old job, the dude has to go through training for 2 years on top of having to take a test that’s looked over by the Japanese Supreme court it’s not something just ANYONE can be (source, pg 8, but also the wikipedia pages have shown this as well) Like 1) he’s qualified to take care of him, 2) MC needs an officer (or at least he’s getting one whether he wants one or not) tbh it’s kind of the thing I’ve found by via reading, 3) it really helps that he’s a friend of a friend that can vouch for him AND he’s an officer. There’s really nothing wrong sending the MC to Sojiro if he’s destined to go to Tokyo, Sojiro is literally better than sending him to a legit “some rando.” (I should note, while I can’t find the exact website that stated it, this one does also mention that there aren’t really enough probation officers atm, I dunno just something I came across so like that fact could’ve also played a role in the MC moving in with Sojiro due to not having a closer officer nearby but I dunno) (edit: also remember when I brought up the tough love thing in regards to throwing the MC out up top? I stated that because throwing him out would be.....well.....against his job, and unless he’s throwing him out to sending him to juvie, it would be....kind of unethical on his part to throw the MC out on the street and counterintuitive to rehabilitation that Japan really emphasizes).

But why send him to Tokyo? Well remember the court ruled it, I guess the ruling said “go to Tokyo” (probably cause there was a school and a probation officer that would make that possible). Sure his parents agreed, but can you really say no to a ruling? I guess you can, but let’s look at what they were probably facing. The courts probably ruled that they send him to Tokyo or to Juvie. Tokyo is def the better option (at least he’s not in basically jail, and Japanese juvie isn’t something to laugh at) so I can see why they’d say yes (Tokyo means he gets schooling and a clean slate and not in jail, and juvie means he’s in kid jail and....hooo boy not good and can screw him for a number of reasons). Or they could’ve appealed to the court instead.....except that Japan isn’t really.....all that great when it comes to appealing stuff, there’s also the fact the only school “nearby” that would/could take him was Syujin. As again, stated by the Principal that he’d have nowhere to go if kicked out of Syujin:

And considering how long the appeal process would be (like years), on top of the fact it would probably be fruitless due to how Japan is with this type of stuff (guilty until proven innocent), MC would miss out on an education. Which would be VERY BAD. So the parents probably were like, “Ok, clean slate in Tokyo, still gets to go to school and get an education, guardian seems good, and it’s only for one year.” It should be noted this was all done in a short amount of time (even mentioned in that very scene with the principal if you wanna cross reference). Regardless if they like their son or not at this point, this reasoning makes sense. They made lemons out of lemonade.

“Ok but why didn’t they contact him?” What makes you say that? It could happen off screen. “But that’s just such a bs explanation.” Yeah but they aren’t exactly super important to the story, no one really complained about the P4 MC’s parents doing that (I mean he has similar hc about neglectful parents, but not everyone subscribes to that), so does it matter? But....consider this, what if they COULDN’T call/contact him? By which I mean they legally couldn’t. This thought crossed my mind when reading about probation officers in the beginning pages of this pdf file. While it seems the probation officers will be in contact during an investigation period for a trial, we know the MC’s trial was very unique so they might’ve skipped/fast forward through it. But one of the things they do is investigate the home life situation. So consider this, what if the parents....were deemed the reason the MC got into that situation. I’m not saying they are violent, but maybe the MC got his mentality from his parents (aka, save the weak, or maybe a parent was an activist or an ex-delinquent but was a great parent) and the courts deemed that could’ve been why he got into trouble. Because from my research, Japan is about rehabilitating the youth/criminals. They want to find the source, and change it. If the courts decided he needed to get far from home and have limited contact with his family, that could be why. Not saying it is what happened, not saying it isn’t what happened. Not saying they didn’t call him, not saying they did call him. Again, this is grey area and open for interpretation. This is something that COULD happen irl, but I’m not saying it did happen in P5 (it could, you can headcanon it, there’s open room for it, but it’s a headcanon, not actual canon, and there’s not really anything that could....well.....oppose it but there’s nothing that outright supports it..... Again this thing is all grey and open 8U)

There is something else that had me wondering about something not explained in the game. It’s about the type of school the MC was going to.....and how much it costs. Because, in Japan you need to pay tuition to go to school! This is something I know from just....consuming media, it comes up, and after researching that’s kind of the norm. Why bring this up? Well...it’s because I want to explore the possibility of the MC’s financial situation (which, money is a whole freaking mess in P5, but one thing at a time). Anyway first we need to know what school the MC is going to. The Megaten Wiki (always take with a grain of salt keep in mind) states that it’s an “elite prep school.” Ok, well does that mean it’s a private school? Yes actually! It’s not going to outright say it in the speech bubble but the game does have a banner saying it:

Hidden but I found it gosh darn it! >:D As you can see, I was also researching what the tuition differences between public and private are....and well...it’s pretty big. There’s a few articles (here’s just one, mentions how lower income people can still attend, aka Ryuji and his Single mom....btw single moms are probably one of the poorest groups in Japan, also here’s another source) but it can double to quadruple depending on where you go. So if you want to go the “why aren’t they giving the MC more money” this might be why, because they are paying for the MC’s education. And/or maybe they are just paying Sojiro directly (we dunno if he’s telling the truth about that or not). Or MAYBE the parents aren’t exactly well off and are just trying their best. (of course maybe they just don’t give a shit and are footing the whole bill onto Sojiro, again we don’t know, there’s not enough info given about them or the financial situation, so....it shouldn’t be debated 8U).

“Ok but why aren’t they feeding the MC/taking care of him?” Why them? Right now it’s not their job, it’s Sojiro’s. It annoys me that no one blames Sojiro even tho THAT’S HIS JOB right now. “Sending only a small box of his stuff?” Can explain it as basic necessities, Japan tends to have small living spaces regardless so it could be just what the MC needs. “But can you argue that?” Yeah you can, but you can also argue that it’s not enough....but it’ll get us nowhere because there’s not enough info (which is pretty much this whole issue but yet here we are). (btw this is connected to another issue with how Persona, but specifically P5, handle money in the main story....which is poorly, esp since they are thieves and are earning money just.....sigh....that’s a separate issue but throwing that out there). Basically, anything aimed at the MC’s shitty living situation or poor health while in Tokyo can easily be pointed at Sojiro, because he is neglecting his duties to take care of the MC while he is in his ward. It’s not 100% the parents fault for not knowing Sojiro isn’t as great as they thought (it’s like thinking blaming them for sending MC to Kamo’s school, they didn’t know Kamo was a shit bag, maybe they didn’t even know who Kamo was or that he’s at the MC’s school, you can’t blame people who go info that this person is great and then they turn out that they aren’t behind closed doors). THAT BEING SAID, I’m not saying Sojiro is a shitbag or bad (if he is doing a bad job, it’s not the parents’ fault for like....believing the guy will do his job, it’s like expecting someone not to trust a doctor to do his job, but yeah I just want to specify when I said above “not their fault for not know Sojiro is doing a bad job” is for argument’s sake I don’t think Sojiro is), but if we ARE going to complain about the MC’s living situation....well....he’s the one to point fingers at. And are we going to complain that Sojiro doesn’t feed him? Actually I see that’s probably the next natural step as the next discourse, “He feeds the MC breakfast so we can assume he feeds him every day!” “Well Mona states the MC doesn’t eat well enough, so maybe Sojiro isn’t really doing that!” I personally think Sojiro feeds him, the game is just dumb with out it handles money and that’s a different argument for later, also please don’t make this the next discourse. 8U

So what have we learned from this? That the situation isn’t completely black and white, and that there’s not enough info from the parents to go on to be able to characterize them.

Basically you can have abusive/neglectful parents who are making Sojiro pay for everything and basically wanted to get rid of their kid ASAP. And only take him back because it’s proven he was innocent (I mean.....the game is a little weird and he basically got out by turning himself in as the leader as the PT but sure whatever game). 

Or you can have parents who are trying their best in a shitty situation (choosing the best option for him, while possibly being forbidden to contact him via the court), paying for his school (which either hurts them cause they are poor, or just because there’s just because school is so expensive) and assuming Sojiro is doing his job taking care of their kid. 

Either’s fine, as long as the grey area is explained it’s fine.

“But what about the roadtrip?!” Oh for the love of. Ok 1) Sojiro might’ve informed his parents (depends on if he was lying about not knowing where Futaba/Mona were at the beginning), 2) It’s probably not a roadtrip but a detour which isn’t a shocking thing by any account (reasons being a) Futaba didn’t tell Sojiro where she was going so she’d need to return at some point that day or else HE’LL be worried and are you going to argue Sojiro doesn’t care about Futaba too?, b) no one seems to be packed for anything longer than a day away from home), 3) and/or they could’ve texted them that he was going to be home a little late. 

Like train is def faster than car in Japan, but like......stopping to look at the ocean (or just drive by, or just taking the MC the long way home to spend a little more time with him).  It’s not anything scary, he’s getting to his destination. “But Ryuji said he wasn’t taking him straight home!” doesn’t mean it’s a roadtrip. Like calm down y’all. 

Also one last note, cause I feel like some people might bring it up, the anime, mangas, drama cds (at least P5′s atm), and anthologies aren’t outright canon, by canon I mean “the game is the main canon, everything else is just an outside interpretation.” In case people want to bring up P5′s one anthology chapter (that Saito made btw) where P5MC hints that the adults in his life didn’t believe him, or the P4 manga which actually goes into Souji’s backstory. Yeah those aren’t canon to the games. So don’t go using it as facts to back up your argument. Just....a warning. 

So yeah, tldr; everything is grey, it’s up to you! Don’t go around claiming your headcanon as canon, but your headcanon is valid! Also do go around shitting on other’s for having a different headcanon (esp if they aren’t going around claiming it as canon). And btw not saying I’m fool proof, if you guys have researched JJL and find something new that I missed, or just another side of the argument I didn’t address you can point it out and I’ll add it below this point! 

[batman-is-me]

Here it is everyone. My take and evidence of the Batman and No Killing/No Guns. Detective comics 27-46 (December ‘40) and Batman 1-4 (December ‘40).

Batman 4 is the stopping point because it is that issue where the rule is stated.

Detective Comics 27. Read it but everyone knows the deaths. So skip. We all know that none of the chemical syndicate makes it, but for the record 2 people. The guy he throws off a roof and the one he punches into acid. However, there was no guns used by Batman.

Detective Comics 28. Kicks a guy out a window. He was charging him right when he entered. So the simple throw is easily survivable but the fact the window was open and they where in the penthouse didn't help.

Detective Comics 29.Doctor Death in Detective Comics does not die at the hands of Batman. His death comes at his own hands. Jabah, Doctor Deaths assistant, isn't said to be dead. Suspected to be dead tho, due to Doctor Death not Batman. Except Batman cause him to be unconscious. So deaths being the caused by Batman. More like from Doctor Death.

Detective Comics 30, Batman, on panel 62, ends up killing Mikhail and implies that Jabah is dead. Killing him by kicking him way to hard.

Detective Comics 31. No deaths no guns.

Detective Comics 32. Batman ends up killing the Mad Monk. A vampire with two silver bullets. Up to this point Batman is not shown to have a gun since Detective Comics 28. This is the first time since Detective comics 28 Batman intended to kill a person.

Detective Comics 33. Batman is shown welding a Gun. Doesn't fire it. But is the source of the cause of death of the villain. He throws a chocking gas pellet into the cockpit of the plane the villain is flying. I mean he could have survived with a little thought. Hold your breath and continue to fly the gas would have disipatted fast cause of speed and open air.

Detective Comics 34. Batman is the indirect cause of death. Batman tussles with the villain in the car, saves the girl and gets out of the car and grabs the rope of the batplane with her before the car drives over a cliff.

Detective Comics 35. Batman is shown with no Gun. Again. One of the death in this issue is not at the hands of Batman it's in the hand of the other Sin Fang henchmen. Yes Batman did kick him back but the intention would not have been to kill. Just written so that he fell into his partners sword who could have easily avoided it. The other is at the hands of Batman when he hurls the idol of kali at Lenox (aka sin fang) and he falls out the window. Kind of weird. To be honest.

Detective Comics 36. So Batman has a gun. It seems like at this point the gun isn't an actual fixed point to his character. It's more or less there if needed. And he uses it signal the police. There is no deaths in this issue by Batman.

Detective Comics 37. No Gun. Three deaths. 2 cause by other henchmen to other henchmen. The 3rd was not the intentions of Batman. He punch Count Grutt into a door, that The Count stabbed into the door himself so he is the cause of his own death. Cause in the next panel Batman states that it is better that he died. It shows his intentions where not to kill.

Detective Comics 38. Famous for the first appearance of Dick Grayson. Now another issue of No Gun. Now Batman does not kill anyone in this issue. Robin does tho. Kills 2 of Zuccos henchmen and Zucco kills one of his own.

Detective Comics 39. Batman does a pretty big bad one here. Pushes a giant statue on some people. And yeah. Kills people. The other death in this issue is when Batman and the henchman both fell out of a window. Also no gun.

Detective Comics 40. Hey look it. No deaths in this issue. Also no Gun. First appearance of Basil Karlo. Very interesting issue with Clay face. Trying to not to give a way plot points in this one.

Detective Comics 41. No guns and deaths caused by Batman or Robin in this issue. Sort of follows the pattern of bad guy does something. Encounters Batman, escapes encounters Batman again, gets captured/killed.

Detective Comics 42-46. All of these issue have 2 things in common no deaths cause by Batman and no guns used by Batman. There are two apparent deaths in this span that one would say caused by Batman. Both characters actually are not dead. As evident by later issues. One being the Joker in Detective 45 and Hugo Strange in Detective Comics 46.

Detective Comics 46 Is the last in the span of comics (in Detective Comics) in the timeline till Batman 4 (released same month and year)where the no Killing rule is Stated clearly. Last seen being the cause of Death in Detective 39.

Batman 1. This one is interesting cause you get two Batman stories. One clearly made for Batman 1 since it's the first story in the book. No deaths, no Gun. The second Batman story is basically a different Batman. The writing, the art, and the overall fell is just different. He uses a gun on his Batplane to shoot one of the monster men and hooks/hangs the other monster man. The third Batman story in this issue is more like the first. Especially in feel, art, and tone. Plus a proto-Catwoman. The fourth and final Batman story in this issue is also true to form of story 1 and 3 in tone, art and feel. No death, no guns. Basically your basic hero captures bad guy.

Batman 2. I'm doing this one different than Batman 1, as in I'm just gonna say talk about all 4 Batman stories in general way with the overall purpose of this read through in mind on point out what is necessary with the specific story listed. So.... All stories in Batman 2 followed the model of Batman 1 (stories 1,3, and 4). All in tone, art style, and overall feel.

Batman 3. The four story share the same tone as the previous issue. All light hatred. No guns, no murders. It's basically the tone of the silver age but a little darker. Hell in the 3rd story of this issue Batman says he has a problem that points guns at him. Which is obvious since you know it's a gun and he is human and he probably gets it a lot so it's gotta get annoying.

Batman 4. Also like the previous stories in the first 3 Batman comics minis the 1 story in Batman, they all have that same light hearted feel. In the 4th story in this issue you see Batman wielding a gun but it's not his, and only used it to shoot gun put of another criminal. No death. Well not directly caused by him. The death comes from gangster on gangster violence Batman tried to stop. Now the most important panel comes in story 2. The “No killing with weapons of any kind."

Outside of That 1 story in Batman 1. The killing and use of gun are not seen since Detective Comics 39. And even with that it isn't all that common for Bruce to really kill anyone in that DC 27-39. It was more sporadic, just like the use of the gun. Hell even in DC 37 you can tell that he didn't intend on killing the bad guy. Now the time Batman 1 released was June of 1940 and Detective Comics 39 was May of 1940. So basically a month or two due to how dating of the books where not really exact in that time period. For example, a Spring issue (Batman 1) could be either May or April. So I find, like my opinion suggests, that using these comics as a legitimate argument for the character to kill are absolutely idiotic. Approximately 8 issues from this time period of pre-statement of "The Rule" (including Batman 4 in the timeline) had him kill/use a gun. Thus the DECADES of the rule being one of the Character's defining characteristics. It's what makes him better than the villain. It gives him a moral center. It shows that you can reform and be better if given the opportunity. This rule, as high top production (the video I shared) has said, it makes the death of his parents mean something in more ways than one. Hell even Frank Miller, had Batman say that guns are the weapons of the enemy as he snaps a shotgun in half. And the fact he is a writer that I absolutely dislike and is given more than necessary knew that. And people who think these rules are outdated and should be removed have no idea what Batman is all about. I don't care if they have been reading Batman for 40 years they completely missed the point and where not paying attention. They need to go back and reread them.