#this was going to go at the end of my liveblog thread but it got long enough that I thought I should just make a separate post

[iridescentscarecrow]

I saw on twitter that you caught up with mtefil and i'm so glad since so few people know about it. What do you like about it? Personally I love it's rendition of the fallen angels, so vile and pathetic yet human.

hello!!! i kind of regret keeping the small liveblog thread i did on my priv and not posting on main, since i ended up having a lot more things to say than i expected. i'm still sorting out my thoughts right now, and i want to go back and reread some stuff with context, but here's a quick summary of what i felt:

i like the fallen angels a lot too, but my favourite aspect of mtefil is probably the depiction of the sins, it's wonderfully clever. i think the order of my interest goes lust (aria arc specifically ) > sloth > gluttony > greed > envy.

for lust, i feel like i might appreciate it more than other people because i was very interested in the "agelessness" associated with "sexiness" vis a vis idolhood and the creation of aria as someone "bottomless", as these are themes consistent with some of my favourite things in fiction. asmodeus is one of the characters i ended up liking the most because of this. her inflicting violence onto priest as a expression of her love for sarah, and the propertyship there was very good. asmodeus is constantly seeking worth & dignity! her connecting with priest through like a shared sameness really got to me. i liked how imuri was the audience proxy for our knowledge that aria was actually priest's assaulter, it made for some really horrifying moments of tension, i was kind of shaking through it, also, i think it contributes to my idea that imuri is the protagonist (the first page of the manga is literally her painting) and priest is the "love interest" - also a fun concept because of how bel frames him as a romcom protagonist later on? but that's just extended thoughts. the ending scene of the arc with him fantasizing about imuri and then throwing up was very powerful to me, because i think the gendering of priest is essential to the series. him being disgusted with himself because he feels like a predator, and immediately giving up the caregiving role (of gendered labour) that he assumed over imuri earlier stuck to me.

i like how gender entwines with every aspect of MTEFIL, tbh. its very well planned, even if it does end up beating you over the head with its themes at time lol! the sins are one thing - most of the male ones are dimensions of patriarchal abuse, and the two female ones we've seen are leviathan with her ill fitting motherhood, and asmodeus, who like i said, is focused on Worth through sexual conquest. the church refers to the "father, the son" & the witches to "evil" feminine figures. a lot of the manga discusses how the witches are alienated & considered inhuman, and their struggle is a tussle over humanity. verge literally brought up "storytelling" !! and this makes sense because imuri's Role is the "femme fatale", that she constantly refers back to and describes herself with, and that's essentially story trope.

sloth was the depiction i was most impressed by when it came to inventiveness. i was reading through the files intently before he was revealed since they're all written very well, so when he showed up, i assumed he was writing the child's room ones almost immediately. the scapegoating of women, paired with the eternal childhood of it all and priest's own exhaustion is all very fun.

gluttony being a grooming allegory is honestly insane. i often feel like depictions of gluttony end up imagining it as a kind of Greed Lite - but with a focus on food, which is boring TBH. the manner in which the sin of taste is presented as experienced/practiced by the abused & the way this connected to leah's "forbidden love" as described by the files... i really liked leah in this arc. beelzebub talking with her and saying,, this is just human nature,, centering her shame... it made me feel very ill if i'm being honest.

greed is a typical depiction but the way it's fleshed out connects really well to the manga's themes, although im more interested in tachibana than the actual character of greed. i feel she represents it in a more nuanced way than him, although that's probably whats intended. the file about her with the line referring to "the womb" and the one file conversation she has with verge really sticks to me. she's obviously portrayed as the sole woman in a room full of men and the way she revels in her success when it comes to The Meritocracy fascinates me. i hope we get more of her

envy is probably the one i have the least thoughts on: leviathan as the state & the sea monster connect to motherhood is kind of apparent but i wish i had more to chew on with respect to how that ties to the sin of envy. but that's a minor nitpick, and i'll probably understand more later.

overall, i'm kind of happy with how these themes are being tackled in a shounen manga, and i had tons of fun with it. i wish it had more attention! i like priest a lot, i think he's incredibly well written but my particular tastes in characters mean that my favourites right now are imuri, asmodeus, leah, and verge. the latter is probably biased by the fact that i'm deeply invested in the weird yaoi he and dante have going on, it's so fun?

this is everything that i could think of for now, but i'm considering talking about newer chapters when they drop on my main, perhaps? thank you for the ask, it gave me the opportunity to go on about it a little :D i liked it very much!!

[aihoshiino]

Episode 3 Rewatch: "Manga Based TV Drama"

YEAH WE'RE BACK ON THESE AGAIN!!! As much fun as the liveblog format was, I found it was actually getting in the way of me *doing* the liveblog (it could take multiple hours for me to watch and queue up One Single Episode) so I've decided to return to a format a bit more like my chapter reviews just in the desperate hopes of getting these actually done before season 2 airs. In the immortal words of Brian H oobh i got plany off time. But let's get to it real quick anyway!!!

I have a really soft spot in my heart for episode 3 in particular because it was the first episode I actually anticipated watching after I got into the show - episodes 1 & 2 were already out when I fully contracted brainworms so episode 3 was the first one I had to actually wait for. A lot of the cuts from it are like carved into my brain because I watched that episode preview so many times while waiting for it to air lol…

I've said this before but the anime's take on her really is what turned me into an active Kana Enjoyer. Megumi Han's delightful performance and her character acting an animation all combine to make it really hard not to be endeared to her. Her excitement at being reunited with Aqua is really cute, too - I remember Han saying that she was specifically told not to play Kana as a girl meeting an old crush but as someone excitedly reuniting with an old friend and I think that's particularly sweet. The AQKN dynamic at its heart is kind of just two lonely kids who don't have a lot of other connections that aren't couched in transactional utility creating a space together where they can just exist without any ulterior motives.

gotanda's words being visualized as literally skewering kana is so fucking funny too. bro killed her. you really can't blame her for biting back during dinner later lol

Kana's putting on a pretty positive face about it, but knowing how deeply alone and abanoned she feels by her parents, it's hard to not feel really sad about this scene. She's chipper about it but this is the first hint towards Kana's current honestly kind of dire circumstances we'll see get expanded on all the way to the end of the anime.

Aqua's refusal to let Kana see his old acting is also really interesting to me. Intentionally or not, it feels like it's sewing the seeds for some stuff in Tokyo Blade; Aqua respects Kana's acting and Kana herself as a professional to the degree that he doesn't want to 'lose' to her in that sense. Or rather, he'd be embarrassed to have someone he respects seeing him stumble like that - a little like Ruby's freakout in episode 1 over the idea of Ai, specifically, seeing her be bad at dancing.

Aqua trying to play it cool and then immediately nerding out when Kana mentions Sweet Today is so so so so soooooooo cute. I love it when that side of his personality pokes out…

KABURAGI NAMEDROP JUMPSCARE!!!!! i made the same face, aqua... I won't go into my Kaburagi Villain Propaganda here, but it really is so deeply suspicious that Kaburashi was on her oldest, most private phone…

KANA'S LITTLE 'I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE' MOMENT………. AQUMELT REAL AFTER ALL…. (NOT CLICKBAIT)

ruby's lain brand milk vexes and haunts me

Aqua's quietly pained, guilty expression when Ruby misreads his intentions for becoming an actor is so good, as is his cold internal dismissal of Ai's wish… it's funny to see him insisting he's not doing this for Ai's sake when really, everything Aqua does comes back to his mom.

Man, though. What even is there to say about the Sweet Today bits lmao. Holy shit. Particular shout out to Melt's seiyuu, Seiji Maeda, for making his in-character acting so authentically awkward and clunky without it coming off as overwrought or like he himself was giving a bad performance. That's suuuuuch a delicate thread to weave but he does it exceptionally well.

This scene also has one of my all time favourite punch ups from the manga - in the original, Ruby just kind of gets the manga from nowhere and makes the comparisons that way but the anime makes Aqua the one to go get his copy and start silently flipping through it to compare until Ruby snatches it… it really is the perfect teeing up for him to run off and tattle to Kana even though he was pretending he didn't give a shit lol. Dork ass boy.

This talk at the karaoke bar is really good, too. The directing is pretty simply but I feel like the anime producton really shows off just how strong its expression and character acting work is here which does a lot to help along what's otherwise a very static conversation. The contrast in Aqua and Kana's energy is also very fun - Aqua's really still while Kana's very animated.

The manga hasn't really touched on this in a while but the content of the conversation here also starts a thread that I really liked in the early parts of Oshi no Ko about how hard it is to create good art in an environment like the entertainment industry. Tokyo Blade centers this more and is almost explicitly a follow up to Sweet Today's exploration of this idea but the seeds are sewn here, of the necessary compromises that need to be made just to get something out the door and how that can ultimately destroy the final product no matter how many well-meaning and passionate people are doing their absolute best to make something worth engaging with.

i'm also pretty sure this talk is the first time we see aqua smile after episode 1… cute.

The directing also really shines in that little moment at the end where Kana grabs Aqua's hand. In prior cuts, the two are visually separated in that they're both sat apart and there are multiple lines running between them in the background to section them off from each other.

But then just as Kana breeches Aqua's defenses and disarms him, she physically reaches past all these little barriers to finally get into his space. It's subtle but well done.

His wide-eyed slightly stunned face is also really sweet. We see this look on Aqua a lot when it comes to Kana and it always makes me smile a bit. She's excellent at getting under his skin whether she means to or not.

"now my body has caught up with my mental age" says aqua, confirming his mental age is that of a teenager, and mfs are still out here acting like he's a 30 year old man.

Oof, oof and oof. Kana's little speech here already makes me so soft and knowing how it's going to be utterly spat upon in just a moment by Kaburagi's callousness towards her just makes it hurt even more. We continually see reference to this supposed good relationship between Kana and Kaburagi during this episode and so knowing that he's ultimately just another shitty adult taking advantage of her clear desperation… masaya kaburagi when i see you it's on sight

This is also a really fantastic character moment for Aqua, I think. He himself says he's done everything he needed to do on set, so there's no need for him to start shit like he does. It's purely out of respect and fondness for Kana as a person and anger on her behalf as a fellow actor. For as much as Aqua likes to convince himself he's a coldhearted bastard, he really just cannot help himself when it comes to leaping in and helping people. He's a lot like Ai in that once somebody has his heart, he's theirs for good.

i also just have to fucking Scream at this cut of him. it hit me like a fucking TRUCK when this episode dropped. because it doesn't quite look like the equivalent panel of the manga, does it?

But doesn't it feel super familiar, even so? Doesn't it remind you of something? I wonder wh-

OSHI NO KO ANIME STAFF, WHEN I GET YOU!!!!!! (ENRAGED) (POSITIVE)

[seventhdoctor]

Just saw you started Go Rush recently! Love it very much and I hope you enjoy the ride :))) was wondering what you think of Zwijo??

Full disclosure, I come into Go Rush with vague (sometimes not that vague) foreknowledge. I read through a couple friends' liveblogs/theory talk before starting Rush era Yugiohs, mostly balanced out by the fact that ADHD brain dumps out most details without proper context. I read an entire Twitter thread someone linked at some point about why Zwijo was a good character with a strong arc and retained nothing about him from it. I have retained (as far as Zwijo things go) that 1) Yudias gives him a love confession in a flower field and 2) at some point he runs a bagel shop, because I've seen friends go wild about both points.

As of episode 9 I don't have strong opinions on Zwijo yet but I suspect he's gonna hurt me [positive]. It's right there in the opening.

Most of his appearances so far have been brief and mostly of him being A Fucker (i.e., up to something I'm very sure the plot will get to later). Episode 6 is the primary reference for his character so far, and the first half of his air time is being cryptic before inviting Yudias to join him in using Rush Duels for violence (ow) and the second half...

Yeah, I know what Yudias is gonna say in that flower field. I'm ready to eat this up when the time comes.

To focus more on actual impressions, although there isn't a lot of concrete information on Zwijo by the point I'm at it's not hard to guess that he and Yudias have had equal but opposite reactions to the trauma of war. Yudias seeks Rush Duels as a tool of peace to end the fighting, and Zwijo seeks them as a tool of domination to the same end. Very simple - and yet.

It's also interesting to me that thus far, finding out Zwijo has the opposite goal in mind for Rush Duels hasn't changed Yudias's view of him. Or at least, he takes Zwijo testing him in stride and seems genuinely regretful that he can't join Zwijo on his mission. Zwijo steals his buddy's treasure right in front of his eyes and Yudias yells after him HEY WAIT UP I JUST WANNA TALK??? His memory of training in episode 7 frames Zwijo pretty fondly, too.

And I mean, Yudias is pretty good at brushing off trauma anyway ("NBD this isn't as bad as fighting on -800 degree planets") but still. While I don't feel like I have a direct grip on Zwijo yet, my impression so far is that he's meant to be a sympathetic foil to Yudias who's probably going to have a big flashback segment in 10-30 episodes about how he got worn down by the horrors of war and has concluded that the best way to save their people is to efficiently crush the enemy with Rush Duels, Yudias don't you understand that by trying to reach peace you're just delaying the inevitable conflict?

And then Yudias does the thing in the flower field and they kiss probably, if the queer Yugioh server hasn't led me astray. And then he makes bagels.

[phosphorus-noodles]

Hi everyone!!

Lots of people asked for the pattern I used for my Joel and Lizzie dolls, but due to my mental unwellness, my "pattern" was actually a chaotic blend of multiple patterns, as well as my own spontaneity.

Nonetheless, I am going to attempt to explain the method to my madness in this post! (Fair warning, it will get long.)

(If you actually want to try to recreate this please PLEASE reach out to me!!! I can go into way more detail and do diagrams and whatnot if you really wanna see the full idea!!!)

I'm gonna do my best to divide this up into sections based on how I made them, but because I modified a lot of things and Joel and Lizzie are clearly not the same, it may get a little muddled along the way, but here goes!

The Bodies

First thing's first, this is the link to the tutorial I used for the basic body shape. Super great video, easy to understand, fantastic starting point for any doll!! :D

For Joel, I followed the tutorial pretty exactly, minus that middle seam for a belt. I changed colors for the boots, pants, and coat and kept all the measurements the same.

For Lizzie, I modified her pattern to be a little bit bigger bc haha funny tall wife. On parts of the pattern where the stitch count stayed the same, I added a few more rows to make them longer. I added 4 rows to the legs, 3 rows to the chest, and two rows to the arms.

Like this!

listen I had to visualize it somehow-

I also did a gradient for Lizzie's arms/legs/tail! Here is the video I used to figure out how to do it (I don't have the measurements for where I changed colors I'm sorry I'm goofy </3)

Also, here is a link to a post where I half-heartedly liveblogged the early stages of making them. You can kinda get a rough idea of where I changed colors for different parts of their outfits, etc. but I only got two steps, really- oops.

The Clothes

Now, this is the part where I documented virtually nothing, but honestly, it still turned out just fine!

For Joel, I made boot and sleeve cuffs by just single crocheting a chain to fit around his arm/leg and adding a couple of sc (single crochet) rows. Then I sewed the ends together with a long yarn tail, used thinner gold yarn to add some detailing (look up backstitching! it works really well!!), and sewed the edges on.

His coat ends were made in the same way, but bigger, and instead of sewing the edges fully together, I only connected the top stitches when I was attaching it. And because I'm a messy sewer, I easily hid the seam with a black sc-chain belt :)

The gold details of his coat is also a sc-chain just sewed on. The edges at the bottom... were sorta a sc-hemming type deal-? I don't know, I winged it and I don't like how it turned out </3

The shoulder pads I actually can tell you! It's 5 sc in a magic circle, sc around, and then I picot stitched around in each stitch. Then I tied off a long tail and sewed it onto the top of the arms before I attached them. The badge/flower is the same pattern, but without the sc round in between the mc and the picots.

The sash was a little wonky doing it as a full loop the whole time, so it was basically a long rectangle and when I was attaching the ends together I did it under the shoulder things so it wouldn't be bulky and ugly on top. I think it's decently easy to understand from the pictures in the original post, but if not lmk! (if any of this is coming across at all then bless you tbh.)

The collar is just two rectangles I sewed side by side, they don't continue to the back at all bc they were ugly /lh

And this is the tutorial I used for the crown! I threaded a little piece of green yarn through to make the jewel and tied a knot in the back :)

For Lizzie, I literally made the skirt up as I went along, but it was roughly based on this video. I started with a sc chain to get the right size, then made it a rectangle for a couple of rows (maybe like four?) before joining it together. (That way, I could make the skirt separately and still be able to get it back on her when I was done without being too tight!)

At some point, I picked a stitch as my "center point" and started going back and forth from about that point instead of completing the full circle, doing half double crochets close to it, then double crochets, then triple crochets, then back to dc and hdc as I got close to it again. I think I did about 6-8 for each stitch type section? The GOAL was to make the skirt's hem asymmetrical, which worked, but it's hard to explain bc I literally made it up.

Then I made another sc chain for the belt thing after I attached it :)

The top detailing is also a sc chain, but with some joined yarn above the arms for extra color. There's also bits of yarn that are supposed to be straps, but you can't really see them in any of the pictures, so that's optional rip.

For the frilly hem, I joined the yarn at the "center point" and basically just worked around the whole hem repeating (1 dc, 2dc inc) to make it all wavy and fun!

The Hair

The pattern I based the hair off of was from this kpop star doll that I was originally going to base my entire Joel doll off of.

The difference is I changed the lengths of the strands (I did it based off looks, so all of them are slightly different in length to look more natural) and also color changed the very front few strands of Joel's hair to be green. I also put two strands in a few of the back stitches instead of just one so they completely covered the back of the head (so there are 15-16 strands instead of 14.)

To attach the hair, I used pins to mark out where I wanted to place each strand. Here's a quick progress shot I sent to my friends:

Now, I wasn't smart, and used long pieces of thread from tying off the "hair mop" to sew all the strands onto the head individually. It took forever and make it kinda messy in the back because of weird overlapping. If I could redo it now, I'd use fabric glue or something to glue each strand so it lays flat, although if you don't have it or want to avoid the potential mess, sewing it does in fact work just fine.

Extra Bits (mostly for Lizzie)

Lizzie's tail is more or less the same as her arm, but it starts thinner and goes for longer at the end. For the frilly edge, I remember using a crochet beta fish fin design, but I can't for the life of me find it in my history now?? But it was essentially joining the yarn a few stitches from the point and crocheting (hdc, dc 2x, tr, dc 2x, hdc, dc 2x, tr) and mirroring it on the other side so it looked like this:

Here's a closer view of both the tail and the skirt's hem.

Lizzie's fins were made by making a magic circle, chaining 4 and sc-ing back, and slip stitching back into the circle three times to make the three points. Then I joined onto one point with the lighter color and sc-ed along to the other point to make it more detailed.

Here's a cursed image I sent to my friends of bald Lizzie and her fins.

Lizzie's space buns were a fever dream to me because I made them at 1 am, but I did something that looks similar to this puff stitch flower with only three "petals." I attached it to the head and then used a short chain of another color to add some color and detail.

Here's a view of a bun from the top.

---

I think that's just about it! If I missed anything or want to know how I did something better, please please PLEASE reach out to me!!

I'd love to go into more depth on things, but I predict this post will top off at 5 notes so I don't really want to spend hours explaining something that'll go completely unseen /lh

Nonetheless, I hope you enjoyed this little insight into the inner workings of my brain! Feel free to share and tag me in anything if you decide to try to do this yourself.

Cheers!! <3

[turtlesocksv2]

Liveblogging Dead Friend Forever Ep 4

Here we go!

No shit White can't thread a needle with you pointing a gun at him, Fluke! Hell, it takes me like 50 tries in optimal conditions.

"It's alright you're safe with me" because Phi is one of the killers. so he won't let the other killers get Jin. So smart knocking the coffin over to escape.

"We all are sad you know" bullshit. none of you care about Non at all except you're scared of it getting out and facing consequences. anyway, Fluke still has bloody hands despite saying earlier he was going to wash them. You can't wash away what you did, Fluke!

now we've got another uncle in a mysterious newspaper clip. Tee keeping secrets from White. What does it say? It wasn't angled properly for my Google Translate to get. something about something costing 300 baht I think?

"three years ago we did that to him that's why Non -" Fluke is ready to fucking shoot Top so he doesn't spill the beans around White. what the fuck did you guys do!!!!!

love the reveal over the walkie talkies. also, if it turns out there's really a ghost or demon or whatever possessing people I'm gonna laugh so hard. Way to go White, hitting Top like that. You might just survive! RIP Por, maybe in the next life don't hang out in Creepy Cult Woods.

Fluke, no one gives a shit about your reputation, and in fact you won't HAVE a reputation or a career if you can't leave! worry about that later, you're spiraling! I do feel a bit bad for him here even despite the crazy and misplaced priorities. He just lost his first patient! Who was his friend! that's gotta be a mindfuck. But for real dude, get it together.

Ooo, Fluke dropping secrets. Trying to distance himself from the rest of the older group I see. This friendgroup absolutely does NOT actually like each other as people, they are just bonded by evil deeds. Fluke is straight up accusing Tee of being a killer and the worst of them. Also, if I was the guy on the other end of the walkie talkie I'd be so suspicious.

Flashback episode next! I KNEW IT! I knew that they weren't Non's friends and were just using him!!! I cracked the case it was me!

[got-into-worm-by-mistake]

Arc 27, Reflections

So, I was definitely expecting something a little different for this first round of fighting against Scion.

I think part of it is that I ended up kind of mixing up the Arc 25 and Arc 27 Cauldron meetings, just a little - people talked about 'The' Meeting At Cauldron, but there's two, and each time I saw it may have been about the one, but they each said, or implied the 'The'.

The biggest thing is I honestly wasn't expecting for a big quasi-organized effort to be tried at all. Given the running theme of Worm about Parahumans being unwilling to work together, the fact that they were able to organize this coherent, organized effort to try and fight Scion at all is kind of unexpected. Logical, for once. Understandable, very, but unexpected for the story.

I really got the vibe that like, every group or cluster of groups was trying their own thing and Eidolon is rushing in all his own so sure he's gonna be the one to do it.

My perspective on Eidolon is now significantly different from where I started - sort of hinted at it in earlier liveblog posts, and we'll see more of that change in a bit as the details are revealed to readers not thoroughly spoiled like me, but we'll save the full exploration of that for the retrospective when I'm done reading. (I intend to do a whole 'here's how my opinions of various characters changed from before reading Worm to after reading Worm. And also what didn't change' section of that retrospective).

Scion is almost... pointlessly OP, but that's rather the point, and also just more of a me thing. It's not that I really want every conflict to be resolved by who can conjure the bigger boom but like - Worm really does spend a lot of time on the fight scenes, for all that they are often almost irrelevant in actually resolving the major conflicts of the story. They're both really well written, but also like... do we really need them, in some ways?

I am probably going to be a bit exhausted by Scion's OPness by the time he's finally dead, but we'll have to see.

Knowing what I know, the 'run away and reduce down to village level without trying to fight Scion' approach seems honestly rather silly? Like, can humanity really run and repopulate fast enough to outrun Scion killing them? I really doubt it. And he's got to have all sorts of powers that will let him find where people are hiding, whatever Earth they go to. Once he's out of obvious targets, he's not gonna just stop, one assumes?

(Though really, fuck if anyone knows, because the idiot doesn't really have any purpose in killing either, he just... kills because Heroing wasn't making him feeling better, so let's try killing. Would he eventually realize that won't make him feel any better? How long would that take? For that matter, is there any way Scion could have felt better, ever? Or was him feeling better always going to be impossible? Inquiring minds want to know.)

(I joked over on an SB fic thread that maybe getting a pet would have helped Scion... after suggesting that a well spoken parrot would probably be as good at manipulating Scion as Jack Slash was, because Scion appears to be both incredibly easy and incredibly hard to manipulate. He also seems to have a fondness for listening to complete and utter fucking losers, since Norton was... well, Norton, and Jack is... well, Jack.)

That's all sort of off topic, but anyway...

The return of Sophia was... weird. Taylor is sort of over her, but there really is no narrative resolution to her here and there's no real narrative resolution to Emma. Which like... yes, fine that's realistic, but reality isn't a fucking story? Stories do actually have to follow certain general principles reality doesn't?

It's not so much that I think it's impossible to have a story that doesn't really resolve every detail, and a lack of narrative resolution for Emma/Sophia/Madison is, overall, fine, but like... I am baffled by the people who don't get why a lot of fanfic writers take the time to provide a resolution the canon doesn't.

Cauldron's just... absolutely terrible management of... everything continues to be both hilarious and sad. I just... this is not a group qualified to decide the fate of the world, guys? Granted, you never really can construct a group actually qualified, but the insistence that Doc Mama had on not bringing more people in is weird, and saying that it's out of fear of another Manton feels incredibly weak. She had over a decade of operation before Manton went rogue, why not anyone else?

(Also, How exactly did Mr. Numbers end up working for Cauldron? His interlude didn't really explain that).

But, in Cauldron's defense, they are trying and they are trying hard here. I have no real objections to what they're doing in the 'present day' of Arc 27, broadly speaking their strategies are the best they can do, beyond perhaps their slight overparanoia about drawing Scion's eye too early, I think that was too much concern, but that's a fairly minor quibble by this context.

[saintmouthed]

dtcfdp chapter 2 (author commentary)

I fear it is time to Reread dtcfdp Again and I'm going to be so annoying about it, actually. Anyway I'm gonna basically reread my own fic and liveblog the experience. Chapter 2 commentary starts under the cut, but you can find chapter 1 commentary here if you're interested!

FLIRTING DISGUISED AS NEGOTIATION...oh I see that's always been a favorite of mine.

"But it’s difficult not to feel like life is passing him by, stuck in this temporary place between all the milestones of ‘average’ adulthood and unable to find his way to the next stage, watching everyone else leave him behind. With jobs, with relationships, with careers. If not with those things, then at least they know what they want and how to get it."

yeah I was going through it in early adulthood, how did you know? (I wanted this fic to like... explore that more thoroughly, but I had SO MANY threads going on in this fic, and the most interesting was the goofiness and the kink, so that's what we got)

(though this does remind me that I found my notebook where I brainstormed dtcfdp in the first time,,, perhaps I will share some of those notes as a DVD extra at the end of the commentary)

It was fun. It was kind of silly, though, because that’s just the way that we were, and I don’t think I necessarily left those encounters feeling like I got everything I could from it. R.

baby masochist R my beloved. SOOOO much projection in this fic, except my adventurous partner (the one that inspired this ex-boyfriend of R's) was too embarrassed to even admit they were into That even though it was so obvious and I knew.

Aren’t you a sadist? Do you even know the meaning of the word? R. For the sake of making sure you’re comfortable playing with me at the end of the week, I absolutely know the meaning of the word. Ange. What about for the sake of honesty? R. Rarely. Ange.

been talking about this a lot lately. Another thing that I wanted in the fic but it never made it into the actual text. I always imagined that Enjolras had a nasty breakup with someone in the scene before he met Grantaire and he blames himself, and that's why he's holding back so much and trying so so hard to be careful with Grantaire's boundaries. Of course that's part of where the whole mess comes in, they're both so worried they're doing something Wrong that they don't want to Talk to each other. lmao.

Besides, Fantine lets him use the wheels after-hours and on his days off so long as he pays for the clay, and sometimes he really fucking misses the ceramics lab.

I FORGOT ABOUT THIS...oh Grantaire and Joly and Bossuet only drink from Grantaire's hand thrown mugs. When he first started working at the Paint and Party, they were so wonky and small because he was out of practice. Now they're increasingly elaborate, to the point where Joly and Bossuet still use the wonky ones because they're afraid of dropping the pretty ones.

If you’re asking me if I’m attracted to you, though, the answer is yes. Ange

writing dtcfdp enjolras is soooo fun. Especially when I get to write his POV, because to Grantaire he's always trying his best to be suave and charming and mean, meanwhile mentally he's swearing up a storm.

Mhm. There’s nothing quite like it, and I am all kinds of mean there is. Ange.

LIKE THIS

“You feed your adventure to a hungry dragon,” Bossuet adds, helpfully. Grantaire doesn’t know how he manages to sound so excited. Bossuet has consistently gotten terrible rolls no matter the game or the dice, and out of the four of them, even with as much as they play together, he’s the only one who’s had multiple characters die in-game due to unfortunately timed crit-fails.

I STILL HAVEN'T PLAYED THIS GAME RIP....poor Grantaire having all his TTRPG characters die. That was cruel of me

the negotiation... tearing up, remembering my early forays into the scene,,, wow

Not this time, he says. R. This time? Ange.

as much as Grantaire goes insane for Enjolras saying "next time" in this fic... you just KNOW that Enjolras is frothing at the mouth at this mention.

Which is fine. He's fine (section break) He is not fine.

this never fails to make me laugh.

“This is my cue to remind you that everything about this is up to you.” “I know.” Grantaire says, voice muffled against his shoulder. “You can go home right now, if you like.” “I know.” “I absolutely will not ask you to do anything you don’t want to do.” “I know.” Grantaire says, once more, with a huff of laughter.

Ange runs his hand up and down Grantaire’s back in a comforting gesture before pulling away to look at his face. “Good. It’s always worth repeating just once more. Now, what would make you feel most comfortable? Do you want to call it off for today, or try another time, maybe?”

genuinely crying now....I love them and also just, agh. I loved getting to write him as gentle in these crucial moments. I love a sadist as you probably know but I also love a "hey, reminder, you're safe, you're in control" sweetness.

“That’s cute.” Ange says. “But unnecessary. Save your ‘sir’s for when I actually punish you.”

was just talking about this too!!!! this was legitimately my favorite thing to play with in this fic. Grantaire constantly throwing around sarcastic "sir yes sir"s and Enjolras tolerating it.... until That Scene

“Words, please.”

fucking menace. I hate when they do this (by which I mean I think it's mean, by which I mean I love it) but also I LOOOOOVE saying it myself. So. The duality of man.

“How are you feeling?” “…A little bit…fuzzy.” Ange chuckles, resting his hands on Grantaire’s thighs. “Happy?” Grantaire has to think about this for a moment. “Yeah, I guess so. Why?” “Because you’re grinning like crazy.” Grantaire touches his face to confirm that he is, in fact, grinning a wide smile. “Oh.”

SCREAMS... I forgot about this. FUCK. I love this. SO MUCH.

I'LL HOLD YOU AS LONG AS YOU NEED....do you ever CRY. I love the chapters that end like that. it's so CUTE.

this was so fun. I love reading over this fic, and lately people have really been flattering me telling me they reread it too. <3

next chapter commentary coming soon!

[prismatoxic]

tox. tox. tox. i cant even. THE LATEST CHAPTER???? HELLO???? i was gonna comment but i felt like i wouldnt be able to get my energy across- OUFUGGHPGIHGHO???? OUHOGIDHAJAIGOHA????;!??!!?? THE CALL!!?!??!!! "wow, you really ARE different..." "whats that supposed to mean?" AREUGGGOGFURHHHGFRGHTH

CHIL REPEATING THE WORD "DOG" IN HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE. I CAN HEAR IT. well i mean i actually hear it in Filipino because thats my native language but still. i can imagine it so well. i love them your honor... they are silly...

also:

"what are you even doing???"

"dont worry about it. anyways let me send you thousands of dollars-"

"THOUSA-??!??!"

"DONT WORRY ABOUT IT"

I KNOW THATS NOT THE ACTUAL VIBE THATS BEING AIMED FOR HERE BUT THE PHRASING MADE ME GIGGLE BECAUSE CHIL.... YOU SOUND SO SUSPICIOUS. BY NOT ANSWERING THE QUESTION YOU MAKE IT SOUND A MILLION TIMES WORSE THAN IT ACTUALLY IS

anyways great chapter thank you thank you thank you 🫶🫶🫶🫶

~ phio phoefickle ✌️

(p.s. meijack you are in SO much unserious trouble....)

both direct comments and tumblr asks are good for me, it's serotonin right to my veins either way :3 there's a thread in my chilaios server where people also just liveblog their thoughts at me and i'm very hinged about the praise (<- lying)

honestly i love when people think of chilchuck in their own culture... i've seen some friends talk about latino chilchuck, it's so fun. and it's not like we have a tolkien-esque dictionary of half-foot so imagining it in your own language makes sense to me!!

AND YEAH... HONESTLY... you have picked up on something there that i did intentionally, LMAO. so while it's not the vibe chilchuck intended, it's the one that's going to get him in trouble later <3 puckpatti may be willing to gloss over all of this in the name of her dad being happy, but there are others who may take it as something to be concerned about... :3c

i've started chapter 7, and your ask made me very happy so how about i share the beginning with you:

The night before the trip, Laios invites Chilchuck out to Senshi’s, and he finds himself agreeing far more readily than he did the first time. What’s more, everyone can make it; it’s nice to see Falin again, but he also gets to see Marcille when she’s not tired and overworked.

He’s not actually sure if that’s a good thing, in the end.

She hugs Laios when he and Chilchuck arrive (not as tightly as Falin does, but still with a certain degree of overt fondness), then sits herself down and immediately launches into the friendliest interrogation Chilchuck has ever found himself subject to. He can barely half-answer her before she’s launched into another question; about where he’s from, about what he does, about how Laios has been treating him… She asks about his family, too, but it’s Laios who gently deflects her when Chilchuck stalls out about it.

“He’s kind of a private person,” Laios laughs, raising a glass of soda to his lips. “Let him actually get to know you first, Marcille. Then he’ll tell you himself.”

Chilchuck doesn’t want to tell anyone anything about his life without prompting, but he thinks Laios knows that; the easy escape from the line of questioning is appreciated, either way.

“I hope you stick around long enough for that to happen!” Marcille enthuses. “You seem like a really interesting person, Chilchuck. And clearly you’ve got Laios under control.”

Chilchuck laughs at that, and he’s not the only one; Falin and Namari laugh too (and even Shuro smiles a little). A glance Laios's way reveals he’s flustered, but similarly amused. “He’s not hard to direct,” Chilchuck muses over the rim of his water glass. “He just needs to be told exactly what to do.”

He pretends he doesn’t notice the look Falin gives her brother.

[queernoctis]

i did it.... im free of rebirth spoiler hell... a collection of unfiltered thoughts below [spoilers obv]

first off here's my stupid long liveblog thread on twitter. lots of screenshots of sephiroth there.

-glennseph on main BUT GOD I FEEL SUCH A WAY ABOUT SEPH USING GLENN TO FUCK WITH RUFUS.... BUT DUMB LITTLE RARE PAIR GETTING SOME FOOD

-Every cloud ship ate in this game oh my god. i think clerith prob got hte Most but sefikura, zakkura, cloti, fucking roche/cloud even love and peace on planet earth

-ZACK ZACK ZACK ZACKARY FAIR THE MAN THAT YOU ARE his little depression shack in midgar, feeling torn between helping biggs and helping cloud BEING WILLING TO GO TO HOJO TO HELP CLOUD ugh. and seeing biggs shot right in front of him in one world too. my man is truly experiencing the horrors. love to see that if he lives he'll be a dilf tho.

-ough the northern crater and cloud handing over the black materia is going to be so fucked and so tasty in r3 i just know it. he's already acting so fucky. i cant wait to see him beg hojo for a number.

-sephiroth clone roche.... oh my boy what did you do....

-gongaga was everything i wanted and more. cissnei. the cc music. just. ough.

-speaking of cc tho.... where is he..... my beloved fruit....mr drama king himself..... god the whole Loveless play was just teasing me the entire time. especially summonign fuckig Phoenix at the end. if genesis isnt in R3 im going to sue. idk who but someone.

-cloud actually remembering zack and then "remembering" a death for him.... ough that shit hurted

-jut. fuck. the Everything from the temple of the ancients to the end. it was all so much but it was all so good.

-i feel like overall it was easier than remake?? but that might be because i beat remake on hard not too long ago. now i have to debate if i want to beat This game on hard. [pls tell me not too]. the final boss still took me like five tries tho.

-Elena's pink girly pop gun. that is all.

[maifandom]

Fifteen Years Later...

15 years ago today, ATLA's finale aired. In commemoration, I dredged up my initial reaction to the finale, which I posted in the shipping thread of ye olde AvatarSpirit.net's forum. Consequently it's very shipping-focused and includes a billion portmanteaus. But it's the closest thing I have to a liveblog for ATLA, and I love nostalgia.

A little context, first. I found Avatar through Zutara fanart at the end of 2007 and caught up on all the existing episodes in probably January 2008? Disappointed that Kataang was so obvious, I turned to Sokka ships and decided I liked Tokka best. I lurked in the fandom for a few months, joined the forum shortly before everyone found out that the Boiling Rock was going to get a DVD release on May 6, two months before it actually aired on TV. I spent a lot of downtime debating the merits of Tokka and making predictions about the show based on random commercials and then the finale trailer. On the shipping side of things, my reaction was kinda negative. I was increasingly disappointed leading up to the finale. Don't worry, it gets better.

Brackets indicate present day edits or comments.

[Begin finale reaction]

OH MAN, WHERE TO START? [...] I guess I'll start from the beginning.

Zumo! ♥

Harutara, ahahahaha.

Nylappa! ♥♥♥ (Ahahaha.)

Irko reunion! ;_; Oh man, I cried. xD

Maiko reunion. xD Seriously, Zuko's eyes. Zudorko. ♥

Okay, I guess it's time for Sutokka stuff, right?

Sukka... were practically glued together. Seriously. And I'm sorry, much as I try to be unbiased, I just really didn't like it. D: There were moments. Mere moments, like back before I had a particular bias. I don't truly dislike it, but when it's so constant and final it's hard to ignore.

It made Tokka moments hard to come by. Or in fact, many other character interactions. Sokka was seriously obsessed. @_@

Did anyone else notice the only time we got Tokka moments was when they were separated from Suki? Dx Aside from the Tokka hand-leading seconds previous. I dunno. I suppose I should be thankful that they made a point of including Tokka. But much as I ADORE this scene:

[Image - probably Sokka covering Toph from debris]

*Insert fangirl scream that gets cut off*

...well it didn't really lead to anything else. ;_;

See, I wanted angst! And drama! And depth! And at least someone acknowledging it. ANYONE.

Frankly, I hated the apparent Toph x everyone-ness. [Zuko, The Duke, and...?] I'm fine with those ships. In fact, I ship more than one of them. But when they're all there? That just says Toph is fickle or childish, to me. D:

I would have liked it better if Tokka was never a romantic ship. Or if we were shown Toph was boy-crazy from the beginning -- with Taang, or some random one-shot character. Why did they save it all for the finale?

But I don't think that's necessarily what's happening. (Reminder to self: don't listen to every conclusion the fandom comes to. >.>) In which case, we still have Tokka disappearing as if it never happened, and Toph doesn't care one iota.

Apparently I came in at just the right time to stew in all the Tokkaness, come to all these conclusions, and then have pretty much everything I ever thought about Tokka or Sutokka be completely undermined. :P

I get the sense that M & B were looking over my shoulder at the things I listed that I didn't want to happen with Tokka, and thought it was a recommendation. :P

However, much as I must seem to be ranting, I'm far more apathetic than angry. Some of that fan depression I had after I watched EIP -- I got this sense I lost my favorite characters, because what I thought was there no longer was. D: [Particularly the way Sokka is characterized, since he's my favorite.]

So, oddly enough, the Sutokka plotline was probably the one I was least interested in, except in with glimmers of hope that those characters I loved might come back. (And they did. Some.)

But, oh man, you should have heard my breathing when Toph got in her metal armor. :P Sutokka got some of the best action EVER.

Wait a second. Pretty much EVERY moment in the finale that had action in it was better than everything else in the whole series. Where can I begin?

[I rambled about staying on topic.]

Except... Crazula? Seriously, I can't say enough how astdirl,dtbmortsnehjAMAZING Crazula was. AZULA, where did you GO? ;_;

And the Kazuko [platonic Zutara] was better. :D

Okay, I'm still not done.

Kataang?

Yeah, it's okay. (Best in EIP.) [Eh???]

Remember the Kataang commercial?

"I won't let him fight alone?" :P

I find it highly ironic that Katara was on ANOTHER CONTINENT THE WHOLE TIME.

Heh. Oh, well. I'll just pretend there's a little extra Kataang in there more along the lines of EIP. ^_^ And then I might be able to say I officially like Kataang, or something.

[End finale reaction]

Years later, I'm rather bemused by some of my thoughts. My disappointment in Tokka makes sense, since they would be so awesome. :P During ATLA, I assumed that shipping details were done very purposefully and would lead somewhere, even if it was just a character arc. After watching LOK, I came to understand better how the writers used shipping more for fun, especially with secondary characters. Part of the magic of shipping or just being in a fandom in general is the fans' imagination. I've been (more or less) happy to continue Tokka using my imagination. I can even imagine contradictory scenarios - angsty, happily ever after, silly, serious - so it really doesn't matter what happened in canon after ATLA.

I don't think Toph was boy crazy, but I do think Sokka will forever care about her well-being. Nowadays Sokka, Suki, and Toph's side plot might be my favorite plotline in the last two episodes, but it's really hard to choose. The Agni Kai is beautiful, the Old Masters are powerful, and Aang's battle against Ozai is intense and important.

My original thoughts on Kataang are really weird to me now. I think I finally warmed up to them a couple years later. I'm not sure what I thought was so good about them in EIP - maybe the fact they actually talked a bit about their relationship? But watching Aang kiss her prematurely is so cringy to me now, and like many I would have liked some sort of interaction before they kissed in the final moments. But I can enjoy it now!

I might dredge up more old posts from the days of great debates, or try to find my first impressions of a few more episodes. (I know I've always loved the Boiling Rock.) Let me know if that's of interest!

In other news, Kataang week is next week, and I am plotting to participate for once.

Now... back to drawing!

[thegeminisage]

tng update time and oooooh am i ever mad about it. tonight we watched "hero worship" and "violations."

hero worship: i wanted to like this episode. but, firstly, it's just yet more evidence why children should not be on starships. this has been bothering me the entire time i've watched this fucking show. i hope there aren't any kids on voyager or whatever because this is literally fucking killing me

secondly, i felt really weird about everyone just...going along with this kid's idea that he was an android. i feel like there's a way to be lenient of his trauma without reinforcing the delusion or whatever sorry ik that's not how you're supposed to say it. it just didn't seem like solid therapeutical practice is all. i will admit there was also some secondhand embarrassment watching this kid's impersonation of data but i think it COULD have been cute (which seems to be what they were going for) with a better execution

i DEFINITELY think data's interactions with him should have been supervised too, not because i don't love and trust data wholly but because he has this way of missing certain emotional cues. and while that isn't a problem in day-to-day life, like, that's just the way he is and i resent anyone who would make him feel like it's a bad way to be/there's something wrong with him because he is PERFECT the way he is!!! for someone who is so vulnerable i think that data could accidentally do harm where it isn't intended (almost did a couple of times!), and data wouldn't be happy about that either because of course it would never be his intention. like i LOVE episodes where we just throw data into the deep end and let him figure it out, i love watching him go, but this is a child whose entire family/ship just DIED HORRIBLY who thinks he is responsible for the event. im not saying dont let data be his buddy data deserves so many buddies im just saying give data some INSTRUCTIONS at least. for both their sakes

anyway it was mid at best. it had a few good moments but ultimately not enough to salvage it for me

violations:

okay wait hold on i feel like i need to start a brand new text block for violations. you're only allowed 4000 characters per paragraph and i have stuff to say. i have Things To Get Off My Chest. please picture steam pouring from my fucking ears right now

actually forget the bullet list i don't need a bullet list this is not a normal liveblog Post. do you know every day i see threads on r*ddit and sometimes even tags here on tunglr dot edu about how people don't like tos because it's sexist. thats all well and fine and good. tos IS sexist. ARE WE SAYING TNG IS BETTER?????

tasha yar and the rape gangs. the naked time: 2! where both women got turned into insatiable sex object. deanna's impromptu and nonconsensual pregnancy. tasha's impregnantion by rape and her death at the hands of her rapist. that time they filmed deanna's feet. beverly crusher for all of season 1 having absolutely no personality outside of being a mother. lwaxana troi getting gang raped by ferengi for laughs. genuinely uhura on tos in the fucking 1960s got treated better than deanna troi on tng in the 1990s. yes tos has extremely bad moments sexism wise. JUSTICE for janice fucking rand. but truly how can you be as sexist against women when they aen't there. meanwhile, tng has women in every goddamn episode and all it takes is for one bad writer to

actually you know what is so funny. gene roddenberry and two women are credited with writing this episode. ALL of them are going to hell, gene roddenberry especially. i hate hate hate HATE his rape fetish. justice for janice rand AND tasha yar AND DEANNA TROI!

the thing about this episode is, it could have been good. there were good parts about it. for example: worf's joke about being probed. they knew what they were doing and it was hilarious. deanna getting to talk about her overbearing mother. riker's little speech to deanna when she was in the coma with literal tears in his eyes and this is a WHOLE separate rant but

my problem with tng is that you don't see them care about each other. we're TOLD that they care about each other. they SAY, "oh, x is worried about [character who's in danger this week]." but we almost never SEE them act it out. every once in awhile riker gets weirdly protective of picard, and worf seems kind of protective of everyone which i like, and picard also does a good righteous rage on behalf of others, but i don't usually get to SEE it. like when wesley goes missing or whatever he and his mom don't always immediately rush into each others arms on their reunion. when deanna passes out you don't always see riker abandon what he's doing and rush to her side. nobody asks "are you okay?" with genuine concern. and even when we DO get for example geordi driving himself crazy wondering what went wrong over data's fake death we don't get any follow-through - there's no reunion between geordi and data at the end the way there would be for kirk and spock.

BUT RIKER AT THE HOSPITAL BED. ohhh i was eating. it was so good. he wasn't even saying anything of merit but just the SIGHT of her passed out like that had him almost in tears. riker, who is the epitome of good humor and dealing with space horrors with laughter. IN TEARS. it was so good. a true show instead of tell moment. and in THIS fucking episode

my issue is: they had three on screen rape scenes. the first rape scene was extremely long. like they couldn't show anything explicit because this is 90s tv but it was VERY VERY LONG so it hardly seems to matter. and THAT was bad enough. but then they made us watch it AGAIN when he planted his dad's face in the memory and A THIRD TIME when he was like "ugh she's being so sweet to me even though i raped her i can't NOT rape her again." like at least that time she was able to hit him and get away but it feels like a hollow victory when he's already gotten away with it TWICE, AND!!! when worf had to come in and save her anyway at the end.

it was doubly horrible that he got away with the crime SO WELL that nobody suspected him - like, picard is out here asking deanna to let him into her mind a second time and she GOT RAPED. A SECOND TIME. deanna is like oh yeah you can come in! and it could have been a compelling mystery and plot twist to be like OH IT'S THE DAD but really it's the son except we SAW HIM DO IT the first time. there wasn't even any mystery to solve or anyone to suspect, he wasn't misdirecting US, we just got to watch him successfully misdirect this poor stupid naive trusting WOMAN

also, the thing about deanna's attack being a rape scene while riker's was someone dying under his command and beverly's was IDing her husband's dead body is that for riker and bev these are REAL THINGS THAT HAPPENED TO THEM. deanna never got raped by riker. like, he wouldn't do that and they wouldn't still be as close and comfortable with one another if he had. (i am mad on his behalf TWICE now that they left it open whether or not he committed that particular crime when every other piece of evidence says he wouldn't. the guy is not a closet serial rapist and leaving the endings open to be edgy is extremely poor form.) like, they literally JUST made deanna's attack a rape scene to sexualize her and feed roddenberry's fetish and HE'S DEAD. HE WAS DEAD WHEN THIS AIRED. HE CAN'T JERK OFF TO IT ANYMORE

they didn't even explain why that guy kept leaving people in comas. deanna i get because he was stalking her and wanted to fuck her but why riker? why beverly? that made it MORE suspicious. why all those other people on the other planets? was he raping every single one of them? how did he plan to keep going after he'd framed his dad for his crimes?

and it COULD HAVE BEEN GOOD. beverly's thing with IDing her husband's body was fun and terrifying. deanna could have gotten a memory that spoke to character development instead of being sexualized like this. in fact i think it was lowkey a pussy move not to deal with any of riker's close encounters because of the two of them riker is the one who has actually been raped! "someone died under my command" is generic and lame. but the way the telepathy worked was cool, the plot twist could have been cool, you could have felt real betrayal from liking this dude if he hadn't been all evil smiles from the beginning. and they dropped the ball SO HARD. and i could forgive them for doing that! i have given tng so many benefits of the doubt! BUT THREE RAPE SCENES IN 45 MINUTES?

the worst part is, there was no emotional resolution. they had that guy say the word rape out loud and then the credits rolled. deanna and riker didn't speak one word to each other. she was never like, i know you didn't actually rape me like that's not what happened. no one was like, beverly go have a hot drink and call your son. there's NO EMOTIONAL FOLLOWTHROUGH ON THIS SHOW. tos was guilty of that sometimes too but this level of it is fucking unreal

tng enjoyers im sorry for my meanie posts earlier. love who you love etc etc. i'm just. baffled. HOW IS THIS BETTER THAN TOS. at least what happened to janice rand (and uhura one time) was over quickly and didn't replay three FUCKING times!!! "tos is too/more sexist" I AM TURNING MY BRAIN INSIDE OUT TO TRY AND UNDERSTAND THIS FUCKING STATEMENT

[vynegar]

enduring light SSRs liveblog thread, will be updated as i read. screenshots and spoilers!

luke

adfjdaskj the card animation is so crazy there’s just so much motion in there xDDD

oh it’s set right before college graduation... rosa and luke will finally be able to graduate together :’) surely everything will go smoothly for them after graduating

MC HAD EXCELLENT MATH GRADES SO SPECIALIZED IN INTELLIGENCE STUDIES!!!

kiki is here but with no sprite ): and she likes drawing!! (but is putting that on hold to also work on codebreaking)

SHE!!!

oh i know luke must be sabotaging again for rosa to not have anyone ask to be her partner for the dance

KIKI SUGGESTING THAT SHE ASK LUKE

OKAY SO IT SEEMS LIKE THEY’RE NOT CHILDHOOD FRIENDS. IT’S HAPPENING IT’S HAPPENING IT’S HAPPENING

THEY’RE ALWAYS WORKING TOGETHER SO GRADUALLY THERE WERE RUMORS THAT THEY’RE DATING

luke rejecting a lot of girls’ invitations.... DON’T WORRY LUKE I’LL ASK YOU

kiki best wingman

EVERYONE IN THEIR CLASS HAS BEEN TRYING TO GUESS WHO WOULD CONFESS FIRST

A;LDSFKJA DK HE DID!!!! HE DID CHASE AWAY ALL THE OTHER SUITORS!!!!

oh luke has his parents in his universe :’) his dad got him a (rare and expensive) audio recorder pen before he started college (who wants to bet that it’s full of recordings of mc’s voice. and his parents)

also it’s probably a reference to the mp3 player in his 3rd bday card (which you can read my translation of *hint hint nudge nudge*)

oh mhy you’re mocking us with this. like this is literally my account description just one character difference

but he will. he will.

idealistic and a hero. yup.

NOT LUKE JUST CASUALLY INVITING HIMSELF ON OUR (MC’S) PLANS FOR THE FUTURE TTTTTTTTTT OH HE’S SO DOWN BAD

aaron and younger luke but we don’t get sprites, just silhouettes. fine. whatever. just give me vincent in marius’s card and it’s all good.

wow. so mc asks to practice self-defense and luke IMMEDIATELY keeps his right behind him as a handicap, not even stopping to ask or offer. i hate him. that’s so hot of him

sorry i’m being so messy in the liveblog but if you’re scrolling this far then be ready

luke’s eyes described “as if they had absorbed the milky way” hmm okay writing team i may love you for that

AND we get fake relationship as their cover in this card?? thank you for the feast mihoyo 🙏

not another imagery of a cemetery in the rain

NO!! NO!!! NOT THIS FACE!!!! YOU PUT THAT BACK WHERE IT CAME FROM OR SO HELP ME

(i call it luke’s despair expression and it kills me every time)

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO DON’T TELL US TO KEEP THIS SAFE FOR YOU

okay. yeah. i teared up. bad end ✔

anyway i enjoyed the card story. i think most of it was a lot of fun, the action/tension moments were well executed, and the last twenty minutes or so were definitely brutal, oof. i’ll consider saving for this card but it’s definitely not a necessity. also i don’t think i’ll be translating it, or at least, it wouldn’t be a priority for me to translate.

unfortunately i actually DO have to sleep instead of reading the card stories all night like i would prefer :’) might watch some vyn bc i have no self-control but vyn/marius(/artem?) cards tmrw!

vyn

not a proper “live”blog since i read this at work so this is more of a review

but i really liked the story. possibly loved it, i’ll have to think about it a bit more

vyn’s personality is like... a little different in here. his earlier scenes have a LOT of his mocking unscrupulous people and not bothering to hide his disdain for them. remember how he was with that PUA in his personal story and that very disdainful expression he had? that energy x10. also a wider range of emotion/sprite expressions used with him

so honestly it’s VERY tragic that this was AI voiced bc it would have been so awesome to have jiang guangtao actually voicing him TT i’ll probably rewatch at least parts of it when other dubs release

the story reminded me a bit of his desert card since mc helps him unveil a conspiracy and he and mc need to work together to take down the true threat. like, this one definitely feels more gritty and grounded, and imo that’s closest in tone to the desert AU card; gufeng AU is meant to be like a myth/legend, and bakerlon was almost... whimsical? ANYWAY back to the main point, i liked how it felt more serious, they had to test each other a bit because trust (at first) isn’t certain, and i liked that a lot because doubt was such a big thing for their canon storyline. also i really like how they feel more like equals in this story! usually there’s a bit of an imbalance in identities where vyn is more powerful, but it definitely feels different in this one. maybe also because they made vyn more emotional/unstable (and have a very... luke-esque trope) in this one?

anyway, i liked it more than i thought i would. definitely considering saving for it and/or translating

marius

ALRIGHT SPY!MC ENEMIES TO LOVERS ROUND TWO LET’S GO

oh my god. are they giving us a taste of marius as the ~domineering CEO~? I’M HERE FOR IT

vincent has me DISAPPOINTED when marius appears in the scene instead of him. I WANT TO SEE HIM SO BAD

it’s SO weird having rosa call him “mr. von hagen” (she’s his secretary :3)

NO!!! FUCK!!!! DAMN IT!!!! NO SPRITE FOR VINCENT!!!!!! 0/10 CARD!!!!!

wowww we got this sprite too 😍 spoiling us with these cards

YANG TIANXIANG’S VOICE ACTING TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT LEGEND!!!!!

okay i think it was a good card but tbh i feel like his desert card just outshines. i feel like the plot was too similar in this one, and the parts that i were most interested in were done better in that card. but like it’s still a really good card!!

artem

them SHARING “cloudbreak” as their codename...... TTTTTTT

sdjflkajdsfk rosa get it together!! why is she so much more coolheaded in the other cards

yesssssssssssss when the highlight leaves their eyes >>>>>>>>

so many cold/humorless laughs from artem

omg he’s really panicked. so much. he spent like the last ten minutes with either that^ sprite or this sprite

OH WHAT THE FUCK

not sure of my opinion on this card plot bc dang this is kinda messy TT but zhao lu’s voice acting is godly so i’ll enjoy it

what the hell i think this is actually the bleakest ending. i think we both died TT

ok so. this is an interesting card. i can’t decide if/how much i would say that i like it but it definitely gives you sth to think about

(also like. i do Not think that my confusion about this plot is solely from il/literacy because one of the highest comments is someone trying to explain the plot of the card)

but anyway unlike the other cards where they’re kinda forced in situations with no better choice, i think artem and mc’s flaws and mistakes play a part in causing their bad ending. like. they were not on their game tonight. i’m sorry to say it’s an L for team cloudbreak

and that’s not always a bad thing!!! it’s very cool to see a character cause their own downfall!!!

but i think the flaws in question are ones that aren’t necessarily present in their canon personality, so YMMV on whether it’s an interesting character interpretation or if it crosses the line of ooc

this may be bc i JUST reread my post about artem’s personal story, him hiding something so important from mc and in that way holding her back is a little immersion-breaking for me. and mc being rather inexperienced and letting emotions win out when she needs to take action was also a bit much for me

but ALSO maybe that criticism is largely due to bias on my part, because you could probably make a really similar argument about gufeng marius, but i liked that card. maybe because it’s marius and i’ve been wanting tot to go yandere for so long i would reread it so i could analyze it more clearly but I DON’T HAVE THE CARD YET

honestly the more i think about it in comparison to gufeng marius the more accepting i am of the card

overall (my opinion)

vyn > luke > marius ?? artem

vyn’s card gets the highest ranking because i was invested the entire time and i can’t remember any major complaints about it (or at least about the story, i’m still sad that we had AI voicing for such emotional scenes)

luke and marius are pretty similar. not really any complaints but also not as much that lingers in my mind. i think luke edges out marius for me because there’s better foreshadowing with things that appeared earlier in the card showing up again later.

artem depends so much on how you feel about the direction they took with the characters that i can see it varying wildly. for me it’s still near the end though

ok to be FAIR. there could also be an argument made that vyn is a little ooc here. but he also had a very different background; instead of growing up as royalty and being instilled with gentlemanly manners, he grew up being told he would die at age 9 and still had his death predicted in the year the card happens and lived his whole life conscious of his mortality. and he used this borrowed time to heal as many injured people as he could, even against the wishes of powerful underground organization/s. so yeah i can believe that he could be rougher, sharper in tone, a little less coolheaded. also, consider : it’s very entertaining to see him like this

[multitrackdrifting]

gacha game anon - you have my full encouragement on going back to fgo! for some of the faults with it, the writing in Camelot (chapter 6) and onwards is amazing, and from what I know it just keeps getting better from then on. im on anastasia at the moment and it hasn't dipped in quality for me so far! it's a bit of a slog until it gets good but when it gets good it gets REALLY good. and good luck on your protoarthur rolls! i don't remember when he's on gacha but if you've got $15 to spare the guaranteed SSR is going on right now and im 80% sure he's on one of the banners that's up right now.

i haven't played granblue yet but with that endorsement i want to check it out! im always on the lookout for new gacha games, I started nikke myself recently but nothing else has much caught my eye. i completely agree though localization being trash is the number one reason I usually quit on games I think I otherwise would have loved. but I've generally heard great things about granblue and would love to try it out. if you like I will keep you updated on that!

and totally take your time on mahoyaku, when you get to it I recommend watching a video of the game, or playing it alongside if you can get your hands on it as it's jp only at the moment. i went in with no visuals and it took me a lot longer to put names to faces and stop getting everyone confused with each other haha.

enstars is a very good game but the lack of access to translations and the subpar level of quality for the English version has been really hurting it. the rhythm aspect is fun, actually, but my heart will always be with enstars basic. which has no rhythm elements, but mirrors the original idea for the game, which was an idol game where people who can't play rhythm games could still participate. unfortunately they didn't even try to give that version an english release, probably because they would have to translate a good five years worth of event stories from the previous game that are hosted on that version. which is really unfortunate because id love to read the official translations for those. and thank you for that image lol im definitely going to be saving that for future use!

I didn't mind the first few arcs in FGO, but I've read a lot of manga in my time including a lot of bad shounen and romcoms so my pain tolerance is pretty high. My brain is just like oh man time to read more fgo *burns all my AP on farming mats* . I will probably make a liveblog tag at some pt though I probably need a theme so I can just put a page up with different threads im running through since I use my pinned for my videos rn

Granblue is honestly very dear to my heart but the like "end game" cycle is very unappealing bc its super grindy - that said the story stuff [the main attraction imo] is not power-gated so you're not forced to engage with the worst aspects of the game (i.e. multiplayer/ranking called "unite and fight" or guild wars, kind of similar to how idol game card farming works). The event stories & main story are for everyone, so that's fun :' ). Also they do fun character themes, which I love - I think most people got hooked once they did What Makes The Sky Blue Parts 1-3 (it's like an epic about fighting for the fate of the world but in a more direct sense than most of the early conflicts in the story) which you can do in the event archive nowadays once you pass a certain chapter I believe. The art style might seem somewhat familiar bc the art director used to work for Square Enix

Granblue is kind of funny because just, one day they decided "yeah we will support eng" but the login stuff & lack of a localised app. It's just a web-game so they never released it in other regions, it just has full english language support - thankfully it's just like a g-mail signup process not as annoying as like doing lottery for an account like kancolle was

Mahoyaku I'll have to just login to my jp itunes acc dl it and play along or st so I know what people look like

[starswordneo]

--- Chapter 15

And so we reach the final chapter. I gotta say, kinda sad it's close to ending already. I wanna know morrrrreeee... Well, after this chapter, I'll do a new thread, and explore the wiki and a couple recs after finishing this up!

And without further ado...

So, now we get a conversation between Elvira and Kazia, two different viewpoints, one changed, and one not (but soon to be) changed.

And semi-surprisingly, Elvira is 100% on Akash's side and not even going against herself, even pretty lucid all things considered. But, this is definitely another test I think. And I feel it's going to play out similarly to Mara & Elvira.

And now Akash returns, and the arguement flutters away to be in the background to be there for her mistress. Very doglike to be excited for your owner when they return home haha

---

Elvira!!! Dont you know that snitches get stitches? Smh smh, tattletail.

And not to mention, times ticking Kazia.... You got 20 minutes left to escape.... (Not that you'll be doing so!)

And timeskip, ITS SHOWTIME! Kazia, you're becoming a little pet wether you like it or not. The entire procedure of becoming a pet is mildly horrifying, especially when you're not wanting it, but I'm sure its a very big interest for some, haha.

And despite what Kazia said, Elvira comforts her, aww :)

--- CHAPTER 15.. =[END]=

Well thats all folks. All in all, I enjoyed this! It has a mix of horny and horror, and I hope to see more! Though that might be a little while it seems, hehe.

Though I have to wonder, Affini as I know are very loving and caring, yet Akash seems to not really give a fuck about Kazia. With Elvira, despite the troubles she gave her, Akash seemed to have some care for her, but the disinterest comes up quite often. Is she only keeping Nakia around because she's already started with her?

I'm kinda mixed on reading the wiki, I want to know more, I love learning about alien races, their backstories, rules and such, but also, i love mysteries and theorizing for myself, or even discussing with others, bah! Decisions decisions...

But, to everyone who followed me for my silly little liveblog of HDG, thank you very much! And thanks for reading my silly words! I had fun liveblogging. I might read a few fics that were reccomended to me, I saw foone talk bout Wellness Check, so I'll check that out, plus a couple that were recc'd to me in the comments.

If anyone has good fics for me to read, I'd like to see em! Hell, maybe I'll even write a fic for fun. Though it'd probably be on tumblr, considering I have no idea on how to get an AO3 account, and I'd feel bad if i made 1 story and left lmao. Actually, Might actually use my Neocities for that story......

And with a bow, I take my leave....

===[ END OF THREAD 2 ]===

Can't sleep. So, I'm gonna continue my read through of HDG, finally got the time to continue reading, considering yesterday was pretty hellish. But, from nice commenters on my previous post, I learned a couple things about HDG! Spoilers, ramblings & meme under the cut.

So, to recap my knowledge, Affini have been taking over terrans for a little while now, they managed to get Elvira and Mara

They use drugs to sedate more troublesome terrans, and, if REALLY need be for the especially fighty kinds, Class O's, which leave you completely mind melted, AND they make you touch starved so you're forced to accept them and be needed

Elvira & Mara lived on Space MRE's, barely got cared for by anyone besides them. With just a few drugs, Elvira completely folded and waived all rights to herself, officially becoming Akash's pet.

Anyways, Elvira be like:

Art used: https://www.tumblr.com/degeneratederg https://www.tumblr.com/sheepwavehdg

Anyways, back to the garden I go!

[shadow-and-purgatory]

Overall thoughts on episode 4 of rings of power: bad. Lazy writing, but that’s nothing new. It wasn’t even all that funny. Exceedingly bland in every regard. Nothing felt like it mattered, even though it clearly was supposed to. A bunch of things happened, but none of it felt earned.

Galadriel got thrown in a cell, but she got out almost immediately, so who cares. Theo used a morgul blade and then had to hide from orcs, but the scene lacked tension, and left me wondering how he knew how to use the blade to begin with. Isildur got himself and his buddies dismissed, and his friends are clearly upset with him about it, but we never see any consequences for it. Miriel is accompanying Galadriel back to middle earth to help fight Sauron, but her changing her mind feels like it came out of nowhere, and unearned. Durin is angry with his father, but it gets resolved in a single scene and there was no prior set up. There’s a new romantic subplot on the horizon, but I care about the characters involved so little that I can’t even be bothered to look their names up. Mithril is introduced, but the vein is immediately shut off. There’s a prophecy that numenor is going to fall, but I have no reason to be concerned about that, because basically all of the numenorians we’ve met suck, and I feel no attachment to them.

Ill give an example that’s sort of a microcosm of the whole episode. Theres a group of dwarves secretly mining for mithril when part of the tunnel collapses. Durin rushes into the collapsing tunnel, saying that there are four dwarves inside. Cut away. Later, we’re with elrond and disa, and they’re both worried. Durin comes back, saying that he pulled the last one out and they’re all alive. all of them surviving is clearly supposed to relieve the audience, but instead the beat rings hollow, because it doesn’t matter. we don’t know those dwarves. They haven’t been shown or named. And that isn’t even necessarily a terrible thing in and of itself. If this were a GOOD show, where things that happen mattered, this could have actually worked really well.

We don’t know these dwarves, but we do know Prince Durin, who DOES know them. If they had Durin rush in to save these dwarves, it would show us that he cares about them, and therefore that WE should care by extension. It would establish that Durin is a good leader who doesn’t abandon his fellows, that he cares about other dwarves, that he’s loyal. If they showed us Durin desperately digging through the rubble to reach them, it hammers in that Durin put these dwarves at risk, it’s his fault they’re in danger, and that now he’s trying to save them because he cares. Then, even though the audience still doesn’t know who these dwarves are, the outcome of this scene matters to us because we see that it matters to the characters. The relief when durin returns and informs us that they’re all alive would feel earned, and if they ARENT all alive, wed feel at least a little sad.

But that’s not what happens, and that’s like. The most infuriating part of all of this. I can SEE the potential in this scene, and none of it is realized. It wouldn’t have even been that hard to do! But we don’t see prince durin desperately trying to dig them up, he just… says that he got the last one out and they’re all alive. The show doesn’t show us that durin cares about these dwarves, so I don’t care either.

I don’t care very succinctly sums up how I felt about this whole episode. Nothing that happened in it made me feel anything. Honestly, it’s how I feel abt the show as a whole, but this episode was particularly guilty of it. There was a palantir and my only response was “neat. :|” And I KNOW that’s almost certainly wasn’t the intended reaction!! They probably wanted it to be a dramatic ✨reveal✨ moment! But it’s not, and I KNOW what a palantir is! I KNOW it’s a powerful, dangerous magic item, and it shouldn’t be taken lightly! I could tell I was supposed to be awed, but instead I was bored. This episode was boring. Every conflict felt completely meaningless, even though I could tell that things were SUPPOSED to be important. I know I’m supposed to care about these characters succeeding or failing, but I just… don’t.

TLDR: nothing in Rings of Power seems to mean anything to the characters, and therefore none of it means anything to me.

[foxstens]

.......3 choices away from the end of nami-sensei’s route