#unpopular opinion: this ep was... pretty ok

[sanchoyo]

arc v 22 - 30 thoughts!!! whew these eps. set up stuff is important. also, good masumi yuzu moments.

-my god. yuya literally accidentally taking yuzus polymerization card from her and making it his thing when she practiced so hard with it. FUCKing apt metaphor for how I feel she should be the protag and shes being robbed of her role (im sorry I genuinely have nothing against yuya but shes so much more interesting to me! she feels like a classic protag!) im glad he gave it back at least…I was afraid she'd refuse it for some reason…

-I do love yuyas random ITS SHOWTIME english. tmm moment. (theres a lot of random english mixed into this series actually and it always makes me like :D!!! lol I understand!!! hehe)

-uhhh the tall fortune teller lady trying to look at yuyas fate fr and the glass ball SHATTERING AND BREAKING IN HALF IS PROBABLY BAD, THOUGH.

-24 gave some veeeery interesting implications. yuto tells yuzu fusion is the 'enemy' and weve SEEN a synchro (guy on motorcycle, so I assume synchro at least) fighting yuto too!! so. oh my god it is all the dimensions vs xyz. WHAT DID XYZ DO. THATS MY FAV CMON!!! -also very um. interesting in the implications of gx and 5ds being on different timelines I think since the implication is theyre pulling from diff dimensions all at once, right? (possibly diff timelines on top of that, since im p sure even tho I havent seen him, that ive heard arc v kaito is Kind of a Different Kaito from Zexal Kaito. whatever that may mean. canon/timeline divergence???? im SO confused LMAO I thought 5ds was a straight shootoff from gx/dm! I know zexal makes things a bit fucky since I think it implied 5ds didnt Happen, but?? before that I assumed it was a straight line...am I wrong tho...(dont actually answer I wanna figure it out on my own..)

-masumi!!!! being a BOSS at dueling and her two lil dudes being SUCH hypemen for her. we love itttt

-idk if theyre setting shun up as a bad guy or whatever or deeply traumatized. but everytime he xyz summons im like yessss king slay (but not my girl masumi!!!) 16400 attack monster!!!!! with an epic fire bird!!! im obsessed w his aesthetics if nothing else. kinda epic hes putting ppl in cards actually to draw reiji out and wants to take him hostage. i think i side with him bc hes at least cool about it. if youre gonna be morally questionable your vibes better fuck severely, and his do.

-yuzu kinda having a hotgirl summer moment by falling in love with an emo version of her bff LOL get it girl!!!

-oh shit LMAO REIJI STRAIGHT UP SAYING 'no my dad doesnt give a shit about me, taking me hostage would not work' with a straight face!!! DUDE U OK. this IS ygo so daddy issues come standard with every character but CHRIST. and shun being like 'wtf do u mean' HE SAID IT OUTRIGHT DUDE. DONT BE DENSE.

-shun getting told by reiji 'i have ONE condition' then WALKING AWAY BEFORE TELLING HIM and shun being like HEY?? dude this guy has been assaulting ppl/trapping them in cards and ur just?? walking away??? reiji has massive balls and is so funny (I know its more intended to be a cliffhanger, but its ygo. the solution is gonna be to do a series of duels, of course)

-junior, jr youth, youth in the tournament, so being like, little kids (I assume like 5-12ish?) then middle schoolers 13-15? then the youth class beng teenagers up to 18? thats my assumption bc 'pros' seems to indicate adults, and pros arent in the tournament. reiji specifies this is a tournament to find 'spears to fight' for him. WHY are you using CHILDREN instead of pros dude??? christ with your resources theres no NEED for that right???

-but hes fighting his dad and claims to be on the same side as shun, which. surprised me ngl. reiji team xyz!!!! win for the gays everywhere!!! and he has daddy issues!!!!!!!!!!! king.

-honestly, it raises the question of who the 'good' guys are in this battle? reijis up to use child soldiers and to work with a guy who is willing to trap ppl in cards. yet yuto made a point to say its bc they lost friends and want to protect ppl. we dont know what the other side is fighting for. it FEELS like both sides are willing to do Whatever Morally Grey things they need to, which is SUPER interesting. I mean, we havent SEEN the other side at length yet! except sora, who it was on SIGHT for when he saw yuto! so I'm willing to bet hes got the same 'whatever it takes' attitude…I want to know WHYYYY theyre fighting!!!)

-theres a duel school where idols go to learn to duel??? THATS SO CUTE. mikiyo naname ilu i know ur gonna show up ONE time but cute design

-no one told yuya hed be doing the lil pre-tournament speech!! yes he might want to be an entertainer but my god anyone would be anxious with like zero prep or warning! tf nico

-one of the announcers says juniors solid vision ar stuff is 'very soft like a sponge' why the hell is all of it not like that?? its fine for anyone over like 13 to get injured dueling ig! lmao!

-omg masumi being like 'tf are u talking abt shun has always been on our team' GASLIGHT GATEKEEP GIRLBOSS MOMENT LMAOO (or some level of brainwashing, who knows, it IS yugioh)

-its refreshing to see some good parents in ygo who are involved for once, lol, all the kids parents there to watch them duel and cheer them on is sweet!

-layra is like. Deeply Traumatized and just seeing the councilwomen sends them into a PANIC I need to run into traffic to protect them (the subs call them a boy but?? quick google says girl so for NOW I'm being neutral w pronouns until further confirmation from the show ig) they were up there with reiji earlier too! tf are u making a traumatized child duel for dude! losing favor points with me very quickly reiji. putting ppl into cards is nbd but traumatizing kids? no. gotta draw the line somewhere man

-ayu's deck is aquarium themed!!! my god thats SO cute all the kids have rly cute themes. but she forgot she cant attack on turn one…girlie thats the basics…(everyone was cheering her on for the mistakes and encouraging her which is sweet tho)

-then its extra sad when ayu loses and still has ppl comforting her and being sweet and layra having NO ONE ???? EXCEPT REIJI WHO JUST OFFERS (1) HEADPAT. also 'niisama' yeah I expected as much, ygo rival Standard. give ur sib a HUG or something. (maybe theyre touch adverse, I dont know. they do seem. Deeply Traumatized sjfkjnkh)

-lmaooo sora and yuzus friendship Continues to grow on me. his pic of her in his contacts is her smacking yuya with her fan! and she calls him to be like 'YOU BETTER COME ROOT FOR ME OR ELSE' i love how she combats his very wishy washy noncommittal attitude…he says its bc hes her teacher but cmon u guys are friends, prob more than anyone shes soras friend fr by now right?

-YESSS YUZU MASUMI DUEL theyre both doing great I LOVE their dynamic in my mind THIS is what a ygo protag and rival should feel like (sorry to reiji, but he just doesnt feel rival-y enough yet to me!! cannot even explain it) the gay instinct to have a rival. the whole 'im better than you' attitude, the fiery competitiveness…wanting to prove them wrong, the thinking abt them so much u can predict their moves..its SO spicy. then the giving of the red rose card after getting saved by yuzu…masumi? are u perhaps. fellow gay?

-despite all of my efforts sora is growing on me. hes SUCH a brat and is honest about it (and doesnt rly do the whole fake cutesty thing as much as Id expected he would) I think hes actually been as honest as he can, maybe? like I assume theres a good reason he hasnt told the others hes..involved in some kind of?? inter-dimensional battle?? situation??? Im not entirely sure I think hes gonna be a full out traitor or anything, but the others will prob be upset when they find out he's been withholding info…but I 100% think hes some kind of child soldier who BELIEVES his side is right, just like im sure shun feels real justified sealing ppl into cards! (and unlike shun we havent SEEN sora DO anything bad yet. I just kinda think he HAS based on his deck being so creepycute and him not being straightforward, but again, him continuously asking if he was even allowed to be teachign yuzu stuff makes me think hes taking orders from..someone...) him so mad shun didnt stick around to see yuzu's duel was so funny. I dont WANT him and yuzu's silly lil friendship to end! im attached now! even tho I KNOWWW hes sus! :(

-in the crowd you can see ppl wearing cute duel monster accessories, like one girl had a dark magician girl headband/visor thing! very cute, wish we saw more things like that. in pokemon anime they do that a lot and its always such a delight…I want more duel monster cosplay moments! or references in charas outfits!

-ok yuya being the damsel during gongenzakas duel while yuzu is the one yelling, telling gon not to worry is……furthering my idea that yuzu is main chara and yuya is in the position of side character of different gender than main character (who is often a damsel or person to worry over the most). hes the anzu/kotori of the show. to me. JKJSDH (also, gongenzaka, is perfectly nice and fine but its so hard for me to care deeply about him aaaahg even with the episodes centered around him…hes so straightforward and steady, tho. good for him.)

-….the guy who gongenzaka's dueling should be disqualified. he had his goons try and jump yuya! god why isnt he automatically disqualified! doesnt the broadcast pick up audio?? he like, admits to it!

-....is shingo supposed to be yuya's rival actually, instead of reiji? ...he doesnt feel like a rival either though!!! or if he is it feels one-sided!!! yuzu was more ready to fight him than yuya was!!! jkahjkf anyway that duel is up next episode which I wont start tonight...but I'm excited to see more shingo. bc I think despite his best attempts at being a threat hes super silly actually...

[eldaryasharbinger]

MCL New Gen Ep. 4 Review

I played the episode on early access so now it's review time! Like last time, I'll give a more generic and spoiler free opinion and leave all the spoilers below the cut!

First thing I want to say is that this might be my favorite episode so far, I've gasped in surprise A LOT while playing it, due to all the information we get to know about all the other characters, like there's a lot to unpack from this episode... I can't wait to hear what others will think of it when it's avaible to everyone!

The episode costed me exactly 1716 APs, uncle Archibald included! (I also finally found him and got the right answer! I forgot to look for him in ep 2 and 3 and missed taki's costumes :( )

So far I've only seen Jason's, Amanda's and Devon's illustrations so I'm really curious about the others. Amanda's is very very pretty and the special scene was soo good,, Devon's is pretty cute as well, I liked the idea and I wonder what the interaction was like!

Jason's kind of let me down, I didn't have much expectations and I'm not saying that it's bad, I just wish it was a little bit... more? Still the special scene was so good it fit the way I see Petronilla's personality/way of thinking if that makes sense?? Also I really enjoyed the story so me being low-key disappointed by illu is probably a me-only problem because it was perfect for the context

I'd say more but idk what others might consider spoilers or not so I'm playing safe and leaving all the other details below the cut, spoilers ahead! From the future: It's super long I really had so much to say, so if you're stopping here, remember to come back after playing the episode!

OKAY BUT THE GASP I GASPED WHEN I SAW LYNN?? Absolutely loved seeing her animated, or yk, seeing her in general! I wasn't really expecting it but I loved the surprise!

Also lmao not Thomas just telling Lynn that he loved her as a kid I WAS SHOCKED but simply because the possibility never crossed my mind... Consider my flabbers, gasted...

Like when I said we'd be learning a LOT about the others, I MEANT IT!! I didn't know how we'd even end up in the situation to talk about love and relationship with our coworkers in the first place (which was the premise of the episode) but it basically started after Thomas randomly revealed he loved Lynn as a kid, Elenda teasing him and him revealing (kind of) that she had a childhood crush on someone as well which is, well, DEVON!! It was so much because at that point anything could've happened... I was already so surprised and impressed by what was going on... BUT THEN !!

I love how everyone was going crazy about Roy and Brune being in a relationship when these two have been together for two weeks, never kissed, slept together or anything

And we just have to watch these two having a the realization and simply breaking up like it was nothing...

To be honest I didn't even find it strange or weird although the other characters were kind of annoying about it, and that just because they were so chill with it?? Like, not every break up has to be screams and tears idk, maybe I didn't find it strange because I've only had good breakups? (lots of heartbreaks from relationships that never even started too ofc) Like, once two people both agree that the love is gone/was never there or anything like that I think it's only normal for it to go ok? idk I found it very icky how literally no other character said anything like this, they were all shocked because of the lack of drama? Honestly, Brune is a queen for saying "go watch a soap opera if you want drama" lmao, I love her (unpopular opinion?)

Yeah you guessed it, I gasped AGAIN when Jason arrived at the café!

AND I GASPED AGAIN WHEN THOMAS SAID THIS??????? HELLOOOOOOO??????? LMAO IDEK WHAT TO SAY I'm on cloud nine y'all with how the story with Jason is going, I'm THRIVING, my brain is getting back into brainrot, like everything I could've wanted, like this kind of silly fanfic trope, I'm loving it

Okay Brune, ouch, but I still love you, you can call me anything lol

AND ELENDAAA!! SAME AS THOMAS !!! Yes keep saying these things as if we're teenagers/pos it's so so funny to me it gets me giggling and kicking my feet,, Like oooo he has a crush on you hehehehe hohohoho,, yeah I think it's the worms writing rn, they got control of my brain ;w;,

Okay so next, after we all saw Jason, we stayed on theme and Thomas started talking about how he follows him on insta in secret and how he's seen him with A LOT of women but never twice with the same one... then...

I kind of felt bad for him because seriously, they not only started talking about his private life, they were also saying bad things about him and were so judgemental, and I get not liking the guy but at the same time it felt uncalled? all he did was go to cozy bear cafe at the same time as us and he didn't even approach us,, come on y'all no one taught you how to behave?? There's this saying that basically says "don't speak about those who are not here to listen" or something like that and I believe in that, if I'm with people who start doing this I either stay shut or remind them that they're being mean, they're supposed to be adults but some of them really think in a rather "twisted" way, like Thomas for instance, he said that since Jason uploaded those pictures himself, it was public (therefore they were allowed to talk sh*t) and man... that's such a scary way to think (I'm not calling him a creep, I get why he might htink that way), I've already stated before that I'm very paranoid and knowing that some people actually think this way (with evil intentions) is the reason why I feel so scared to post anything online, I want my life to remain private,, (these are just my experience with the situation, I'm not trying to make it sound like a big deal it just made me uncomfortable because of my personal beliefs)

Imagine "poor" Jason going for a coffee and then finding your rivals gossiping about your love life etc, and honestly the fact that I like Jason so much isn't even important because I swear I would've felt compassion for him even if I hated him with all my guts... BTW I'm not complaining about the writing, the story was very intresting and I wouldnt've wanted for it to go any diffrent!! "But Kaf! How can you say you liked it if it made you uncomfortable?" you see, I'm a weirdo and got questionable taste, I love me a pityful, loser and not really evil character, this is only making me root for Jason more, as well as making me want to put him in my mouth (means nothing I say this about all things I like so much that I just feel like I have to eat them,,)

Now get ready because next up we have the answer to Candy's question "why do we hate Jason?"

Guys.

GIRLS.

Y'ALL.

HE'S EVEN MORE PITIFUL TO MY EYES THAN BEFORE, LITERALLY MY FAVORITE KIND OF CHARACTER!! THE UNSUFFERABLE, MISERABLE BUT ACTUALLY JUST VERY VERY SAD ONES!! (I have decided he's like this, just my interpretation/headcanon)

They werent even friends to begin with, Jason was just this random guy who worked there, probably done with his job he saw Devon's file and decided to Plagiarise and try to get a chance at a better job, got caught, fired and decided that he was now enemies with this other random guy as if he didn't literally steal from him because HE IS A SORE LOSER!!!!!!!! He's unsufferable on purpose, probably very very sad inside and he kind of showed that when he caught them talking sh*t because he looked very serioius, no smile or anything

today is a great day for me, because I've now decided that I'm 100% right and this is how the story goes for Petronilla's story, even if in the future we might a diffrent story, this is how it is in my mind :D!

I love how she's like "i'm just investigating the rival! I'm totally not zooming in on each and every picture!" she's so real this is 100% 'Nilla behaviour (me too)

This is Jason's illustration and now you can understand what I meant with "I wish it were more"

More than a picture of a picture on my phone!! It's still accurate so I can't really complain about it too much, in the end I think it's good to have different perspectives (Also how pretty is he... wow...)

Girl you're cooked

yeah well, in my head I've already estabilished that Jason saw that and that he'll be overthinking it so much or he'll be like "ha ha, of course she liked this picture of me on purpose to send me a sign, she wants me, but of course cause she can't resist my charm! no one can!" and then feel so confident etc (a loser)

Now let's fast forward to sharing a taxi ride with our beautiful Amanda!

do you want to kiss already or

LMAO THIS IS WHERE MY STUPID ASS THOUGHT THAT SHE WAS ASKING ME OUT

I don't even know why I thought that but with how things were going... the atmosphere yk... And yeah, I gasped about this too

;A;, (yes, that's all the commentary I have left)

The illu is so cute and I loved the outfit, just like last time I ended up buying the illustration becase the outfit was different for Jason... Although I think that this one is pefert for Petronilla! (I unlocked it in the shop with 150 hearts at the end of the episode)

aaand this for last! to back up one of my recent reblogs talking about how Amanda isn't that bad and had her reason to be upset (in case you had the party at your house, I didn't)

That's all and wow, it's a lot

[where-theres-smoak-2]

HOTD 2X01 Review/Thoughts (SPOILERS!)

Finally got to watch 2x01 of HOTD and I must say, it was an ok episode. I feel like this was more of a catch up episode, establishing where all the characters are after the events of the season 1 finale, but it wasn't my favourite episode, it was a bit slow and underwhelming at times and there were other moments where it was just too rushed, but I am hoping the action will pick up more as the season goes on, as I said I think this episode was just kind of showing us the aftermath of s1 ep 9 and 10. But anyway lets get into my thoughts on the episode, as I always say before every review, these are just my own thoughts and opinions and this is your official spoiler warning.

New Opening Credits

So we got some new opening credits, it was cool, a tapestry that is slowing being soaked in blood and showing what I think were scenes from targaryen history and scenes of the dance itself. Like I said it was very cool to look at. However, and this may be an unpopular opinion, but I think I preferred the original credits with the old valyria model and rivers of blood and I kind of miss that title card. I think the original title card showed the bloodlines more, it was almost like a family tree with each cog representing a character. The new title card is more focused on historical events. I think both are interesting to look at though.

The North

I liked the start of the episode and how it showed us a raven, one the was bearing the news of lucerys' death, flying through the north. It was good to see the north again and I found it really interesting to learn that in the past house stark would send one in every ten of their men to the night's watch to keep their numbers boosted and how it was seen as an honour. It was an interesting comparison to the night's watch in GOT which was mostly made up of criminals who were looking for an alternative to being jailed or executed. It showed how over time as the belief in the white walkers existence faded so too did the fear of them and the belief of the night's watch's necessity.

Another thing I liked was Cregan Stark pointing out that the old king in the north knelt to Aegon the conqueror out of fear. I personally feel like both in the show and in the fandom there's this romanticisation of Aegon the conqueror and people seem to think that the lords and kings of Westeros bent the knee to him because they believed he was a good and just man who would unite the realm if he was king. When lets be honest when Aegon first arrived in Westeros nobody knew what kind of man he was or what kind of king he would be, all they knew was that he and his sister wives had three big ass dragons that would burn them all to ash if they resisted him. I spent years studying history, through school, college and university, and one thing that was always drummed into us is that history is written by the victors, so when looking at historical sources we are taught to assess three things, 1 is the source contemporary ie were they there at the time to witness it themselves, 2 is the source accurate and consistent with other sources and 3 does the source have a bias ie whose side was the source on etc. Considering Aegon the Conqueror was the victor it makes sense that he would have everyone saying that he was a good and just king and that's why people bent the knee and would gloss over the part where he was eradicating entire bloodlines and houses as he went around on his dragon burning anyone who got in his way, he won Westeros with fear, fire and blood. Just to be clear I am not saying that Aegon wasn't a good king but just that we shouldn't forget that he was also a conqueror from another land who invaded on a dragon and did some pretty horrific things in order to get the crown.

So I liked that conversation between Cregan and Jace where Cregan pointed this out and I think he also did it in a very diplomatic way. I also think it makes sense that they both have different views on that historical event, Jace knows the victor's version being an ancestor of Aegon means the sources he had access to were the ones that showed Aegon in a positive light, its possible those sources were contemporary to the time but not necessarily to the place and might not have been first hand witnesses, they also likely would have been written by the supporters of the Aegon so would have a bias. Cregan on the other hand would have access to sources written by the northerners, some who may even have physically been there to witness the event, and so would know that the northern king bent the knee in order to safe his people from being burnt by the hundreds and not the targaryen propaganda that it was because they considered Aegon to be the person to unite the realm. I just thought that conversation was interesting. I do wish we could have spent more time with Cregan and Jace in the north.

The Blacks and Their Grief.

Ok so I'm not going to lie, I was in tears almost every time team black were on screen, they were all really feeling their grief at Lucerys' death and it was so painful to watch. Some moments in particular that really hit me hard were:

When Corlys is given the dagger that he had made for Lucerys, it was such a simple moment but it was played so well, like you can see the grief and pain in Corlys' eyes as he looks at the dagger and its just a gut punch.

When Rhaenyra finds arrax's wing and Lucerys' cloak on the beach and she just sinks to her knees and weeps, this moment I just couldn't deal with it, I was full on weeping right with her. Just the complete despair and heartbreak, emma really did an amazing job. They played it so well. First when she sees the fishermen in the distance you can see that flash of pure rage, then when she approaches the wing she has that moment of realisation that Rhaenys was telling Daemon about earlier, that her son really and truly is dead and you see her grief take over as she just collapses and sobs, then there's the moment when Syrax responds to Rhaenyra's grief and pain by letting out her own roar of grief. Just that whole scene really got to me.

The next moment that had me bawling was the moment Jace returns and goes to meet Rhaenyra. There was that tiny moment between him and Baela were she rubs his shoulder before leaving, but then you have Jace trying his hardest to hold it together while telling Rhaenyra that he got the Vale's support and that Cregan was sending men and he's just slowly breaking down along with rhaenyra and she just comes over and wraps him in such a tight hug. I knew when I saw that still it was going to be tough to watch but it was somehow even more heartbreaking than I imagined it being. I think it was the way Jace slowly broke down as opposed to him just coming in and immediately crying, it was his effort of trying to hold it together for his mother. Also the way he just collapsed into his mother's arms when he couldn't hold it in anymore. Ok I've got to stop because I am getting teary eyed just thinking about it.

Then there was the funeral scene. Just the fact that they were burning his clothes and toy because they didn't even have his body to burn already made it more heartbreaking, but then seeing the grief and pain of all those who loved Lucerys. Seeing Rhaena crying because that was her betrothed and she was so happy when their engagement was announced and she must have imagined them having a happy life together and now that is all gone along with Lucerys. Then there was Jace, I swear Jace really is the main cause of my pain this episode, the way he picked up joffrey to help him throw the toy onto the pyre and the way he held him and cupped his face, I just ahhh, Aemond Targaryen when I find you I swear.

Daemon and His Grief

Ok so I want to talk about Daemon separately here because I haven't been in the HOTD tag yet as I've only just finished watching the episode and I wanted to write this review while it was still all fresh in my mind, but I suspect I already know what I am going to find and it'll be a load of posts talking about how heartless and unfeeling Daemon is about his stepson's death and how all he cares about is the war and he's blaming everyone else la di da di da. But here's the thing, in my opinion its the complete opposite. It not that Daemon is heartless and doesn't care about Lucerys, he cares too much, this is how Daemon processes grief, it was the same when his brother and unborn daughter died. The way Daemon deals with his grief is by going into protective mode, his mind is set on one goal right now and that is to ensure the safety of Rhaenyra and the rest of his family. We saw him do this after Viserys' death his immediate course of action was ensuring there were dragon's patrolling Dragonstone so that his family was safe. His plan here is similar and actually makes sense too, Vhagar is the main threat to his family right now, so going and killing Vhagar and her rider will not only serve to protect his family from that threat but will also allow him to exact revenge on Aemond for Lucerys death. Daemon couldn't protect his brother and he couldn't protect and save his unborn daughter, and he couldn't protect Lucerys, he has, like rhaenyra and the rest of the blacks, had loss after loss after loss, all in the space of a few days. Of course he is reeling from it and is frustrated by it, the thing that Daemon struggles with the most is feeling useless and helpless and being inactive so honestly his actions in this episode make perfect sense for his character.

So let's talk about the whole him blaming everyone else for Lucerys death. Firstly when he tells Rhaenys that if she had acted at the coronation then Aegon's line would have been wiped out and Luke would still be alive. Honestly here he does have a point and lets be honest we were all saying the same thing after that episode aired, I mean there was a collective frustration at that scene because they were right there, one moment, one dracarys and the war would have been avoided. Personally I blame the writing but for arguments sake lets look at it from the character's pov. I did understand where Rhaenys was coming from when she said it wasn't her war to start, she doesn't have foresight so she couldn't have known that Luke's death was coming and I am sure looking back part of her now regrets not acting. But if she had acted she would have been a kinslayer herself and the whole thing is a complicated mess. However I can also understand that in his own grief and pain Daemon is looking for someone to blame, its a natural part of grief to be honest, and so I can see why he was frustrated that Rhaenys didn't take that opportunity to kill the greens.

I think its that same reasoning when he says to Erryk that he had the opportunity to kill Aegon and didn't. Again I can see both sides, because yeah Erryk could have killed Aegon and that might have averted the war or they might have put Aegon's son or Aemond on the throne instead. Erryk also had an excellent point when he said that he swore an oath as a king's guard to protect the royal family so what was he supposed to do when that family turned on each other, again complicated mess of a situation. The point is that its all woulda, shoulda, coulda, and its pointless dwelling on it, however its also a natural response to a situation like this and to grief, so to me it makes sense that Daemon is displaying these very normal, natural and human emotions in his time of grief.

However I think the person who really hit the nail on the head when it comes to Daemon's behaviour is Mysaria. When he turns the blame and anger on her and blames her for not doing anything to stop the coronation and for giving Aegon back to the greens she tells him that he is directing his anger at her because the ones he is really angry at are out of his reach. My god when she said this I was just like, yes exactly. It was so on point with what I was thinking myself. He really blames Aemond and the Greens for Lucerys death, for Rhaenyra's throne being usurped and everything else that has happened, his anger is really with Aemond and the Greens, but at this moment he can't get to Aemond and the Greens, he knows that Aemond, Vhagar and The Greens are a threat to his surviving family too, but he can't get to them and so he can't protect his family and all of this is making him feel useless and helpless and more and more frustrated and, as we all know from season one, a angry and frustrated Daemon is a Daemon that lashes out.

This is also reaffirmed for me when we see Daemon's reaction to Rhaenyra saying that she wants Aemond, this is it, the moment he was waiting for, the moment where he now has permission and orders to go after the person who he is truly angry with and who he truly blames, finally he has something to do and that is why he has that smile/smirk as Rhaenyra is walking away.

Rhaenys

There are a couple of moments here that I want to talk about some good, some bad, or more where I can see where the writers were coming from but it just didn't make sense for me. The first thing is when Rhaenys says that she thinks its a good thing that Rhaenyra isn't acting out of vengeance, this was obviously a dig at Daemon and she was basically saying that he is hot headed for wanting to go hunt down Vhagar and Aemond and he was letting vengeance influence his actions whereas Rhaenyra is showing restraint etc. And I get the message the writers are trying to get across here, revenge bad, revenge leads to more trouble, war bad, think things through carefully blah blah blah. But let's be real here this comment is stupid because the only reason Rhaenyra isn't seeking revenge right now is because she is too lost in her grief and in searching for Lucerys' remains to act on her revengeful feelings, its not a case of Rhaenyra is angry but she is showing restraint anyway situation, I mean the moment she finds arrax's remains and knows for sure that her son is dead she is right in her vengeful 'I want Aemond Targaryen' era.

Another line I didn't think made much sense was the 'if only you were king' line, again I get it is supposed to be a badass moment for Rhaenys, ain't no man going to tell her what to do, the problem is umm Daemon kind of is the king, well the king consort at least, right? Not only that but in the conversation before this line they establish that Rhaenyra is absent/indisposed and as we saw from season one when Viserys was indisposed its usually the hand and the consort who give the commands and run things. So Daemon as consort would be able to give commands in Rhaenyra's absence, so that makes the line fall a little flat, as Daemon gives a command which as Consort during the absence of the ruling monarch is a perfectly reasonable thing to do and Rhaenys response was kind of oh if only you were in a position of power where you could give out commands, except he is in a position of power where he can give out commands. To be clear I'm not saying that Rhaenys wasn't right to refuse to go to King's Landing without Rhaenyra's say so, I just think the line was a little too on the nose. I mean they could have written it differently and still got the same effect, I take no commands but from the queen herself, I'll not act until the queen returns etc. They've done this a few times with Rhaenys where they give her these lines that are kind of like a mouthpiece for their own political views and opinions but it often comes across as too forced in my opinion, kind of shoehorned in. Rhaenys is already a badass female dragon rider they really don't need to force it.

One scene I did really like though was the one where Rhaenys talks about what it was like for her to receive news of Laena's death through a raven and how she spent weeks unable to accept it was true, that it was only once she saw her child's remains that she was able to accept the fact and that was what Rhaenyra was currently going through. I thought it was interesting that you could see the joint grief her and Daemon were sharing at the mention of Laena, I mean you see Daemon's entire demeanour change at the mention of Laena's name. I also thought it was interesting that Rhaenys used such a vulnerable and personal example to help Daemon understand what Rhaenyra is going through. It was a really interesting moment between those two characters and I do wonder if its because Rhaenys can relate to not just what Rhaenyra is feeling at the moment but also what Daemon is, after Laena's death Rhaenys too found people and things to place the blame on, she blamed the maesters of essos believing they weren't qualified enough to save Laena, but she mostly blamed Daemon for not letting Laena come home when really it was just a crappy situation, complications in childbirth and she could have still lost her life even if she was at driftmark. So I think she can understand Daemon's frustration at not being able to do anything and failing to protect Lucerys but also how in his anger he is blaming whoever he can in an attempt to make sense of his loss. But she also isn't going to put up with his crap either and that's what we love about her.

Aegon The Magnanimous.

One thing this episode did make me sure of is despite his best efforts, Aegon is so not cut out to be King. Like it was nice that he wanted to give the sheep back etc, but I didn't get the impression he really knows much about ruling, he didn't seem to think about it much before giving an answer, it was just yes of course you can have your sheep back but then Otto had to remind him that the crown needs those sheep to feed the dragons who are now exerting more energy flying patrols and in the war etc, so Aegon had to take his word back which isn't a great look. Then there was in incident in the small council where he brought his son jaehaerys, who was clearly too young to be at the meeting and just caused distractions. Don't get me wrong the kid was cute and it was kind of funny seeing Tyrell struggling with the kid, but Aegon's suggestion that Tyrell give him a pony ride was not good. As king you don't want to be humiliating members of your small council and this could definitely be seen as an act of humiliation which is why Alicent had to step in to avoid a problem coming up and to diffuse the situation.

We also see that he is rather hot headed as his response to any problems seems to be lets just send Vhagar and our other dragons to burn them all to ash and again Alicent had to interfere and point out that it wasn't the best course of action.

It was also kind of funny to me that you had Larys whispering in Aegon's ear that Otto was controlling him just like he did with Viserys who was seen as a push over and he didn't want to be see the same way as his father, as someone who is pushed around and controlled by others. Yet the whole episode and even in this moment with Larys we see Aegon being controlled and managed by others. I do wonder if he will at any point start pushing back and ignoring everyone else's advice, even if its good advice.

All of that being said one thing I will say is it does seem to me that Aegon at least wants to try and be a good king. But he just doesn't seem to have any idea what he is doing, he thinks he needs to keep the small folk happy, which is true keeping the small folk happy is important but you also have to measure that up against other elements and factors such as feeding your dragons. It's a balance. He also thinks that its important to prepare his heir for when they take the throne, again true, but again he doesn't realise that Jaehaerys is just too young to be at a council meeting and isn't going to learn anything beneficial there just yet and he also removed him from his classes in order to take him to the council meeting when the classes are something that would benefit him right now, small council meetings come later when they are old enough to understand what is actually happening. As cute as it was to see Aegon so happy and delighted with his son, this was a miss-step on his part.

I feel like ultimately Otto and the others spent so much time plotting to put Aegon on the throne and not enough time actually preparing him to be on the throne. Also the fact that Rhaenyra was the named heir is playing a factor in this, because she was the named heir she was the one attending small council meetings and who ruled over dragonstone and so has an understanding and training in how to rule, Aegon wasn't the named heir and so never attended the meeting or given any experience ruling, he was given no formal training at all and I think Otto is starting to realise the repercussions of that.

Alicent and Cole

Honestly I can't say I was that surprised that these two got together, all the way back in episode 1x01 it seemed like Alicent had a bit of a crush on Criston and there was definitely some tension between them in the 1x09 where she says everything you feel for me as your queen scene, however I am in two opinions on this one because on one hand I'm like good for Alicent, she took control of her own sexuality and had a pleasurable experience, or many experiences possibly seeing as we don't know how long this has gone on for, with a partner of her choosing. But then I think about all the times she and Cole slut-shamed Rhaenyra for having sex outside of marriage, of the fact that Alicent is now doing the very thing that she judged Rhaenyra for back in 1x04, something that she then pretty much publicly declared war on rhaenyra at her engagement party over, I remember how Cole reacted so strongly to the suggestion that he and rhaenyra could continue with their intimate relationship in private with anger and accused her of making him her whore and that he had sullied his white cloak and yet here he is conducting an intimate relationship with the queen and I guess continuing to sully his white cloak and I'm like HYPOCRITES! But then I sit and think about it some more and I realise that Alicent and Cole have always been hypocrites and this is old news, honestly that white cloak of criston's is just seeped in blood and hypocrisy at this point, so honestly on point for their characters.

I also think there was an interesting parallel in that in 1x04 we see Rhaenyra helping Criston remove his King's guard uniform and cloak and in this episode we see Alicent helping him put it back on. With Rhaenyra it was him making that choice to shed the uniform and forsake his oath so that he could be intimate with Rhaenyra, almost like he was shedding that identity as a pure, dutiful and honest King's Guard, here he is continuing to forsake his oath and so to me it felt like Alicent was helping him put a costume or disguise back on, like he's getting back into playing the role of a King's guard.

I am curious to see where they take this relationship as it already seems like they feel some conflicting feelings over it, on one side they clearly have an attraction to each other, it feels good when they are intimate and they have that pull towards each other, but they also seem to have that guilt as well, Cole for breaking his oath and Alicent because of her religious views around sex and marriage etc. I feel like that guilt is going to increase even more giving the end of the episode.

Blood and Cheese

Ok so I haven't read the books but I did get spoiled a week or two ago on some of the details around blood and cheese, I am going to put a quick book spoiler warning here because I am going to discuss the book version of Blood and Cheese so if you don't want to know that info skip to the *. What I knew going into the episode was that Aegon's son is killed by assassin's hired by Daemon in an act of revenge for Lucerys death. That was it. After watching the episode I did do a quick google search and read the wiki page covering this event because I was curious to know how it happened in the book. In the book it is so much more horrifying because Helaena has three children not two and has to choose between her two sons as to who dies. She chooses the younger one but blood and cheese instead kill the older, Jaehaerys and so not only does Helaena have to live with this horrific choice she was forced to make but her son Maelor also knows that his mother chose him to die. The whole situation is just awful. However in the show it was really underwhelming.

*Before the episode aired I made a post explaining how I was worried that blood and cheese wouldn't make that much of an impact because the writers didn't spend enough time with Aegon's son and children for us as an audience to gain a personal attachment to them and unfortunately I think that is still true. There were also alot of posts talking about how blood and cheese was going to be HOTD's version of the red wedding which I think made the scene even more underwhelming. With the red wedding we had spent three seasons with the characters involved, we were strongly attached to them and on top of that the scene was brutal and bloody and very, very shocking. This scene didn't even come close to being comparable.

Not only did we not have a personal attachment as an audience to Jaehaerys, we had only gotten a few minutes of him in this episode which were cute but not enough to make a strong attachment, but the scene just seemed very rushed and they removed a lot of the more horrific and shocking elements of the book, it was very tamed down. I kind of got what they were trying to do but they failed massively.

So lets talk about it from the beginning, Daemon's role in it. You know what, after learning about b+c, I was talking to a friend about the show and all the 'accidents' that happened last season like luke's death etc and I joked that if it was team green that had orchestrated blood and cheese then the writers would somehow make it an accident, like they would hire someone to just scare the greens but the guy would trip and accidently cut off Jaehaerys head or something, which didn't happen but they still made it a mistake which I low key find hilarious. I mean the scene is ambiguous I guess. But Daemon is actually after Aemond, which to me does make more sense in terms of getting revenge for Lucerys death as Aemond is the one that actually killed him, so I would think Daemon's retaliation would be against him directly. But then there is that moment where they ask what if they can't find Aemond and Daemon doesn't respond and they cut away so you don't know for sure what he said. They do this alot with Daemon's character, like they cut away from the heir for a day speech so we don't know if he really said it or even how he said. I think Matt may have confirmed that he did say it but it was more in a sorrowful way and to honour his lost nephew and not to celebrate his death, but I am not 100% sure on that so don't quote me. They also cut away when he killed Rhea Royce so we don't know for absolute sure that he killed her, but I mean it seems obvious that he did considering we see him pick up a rock and I think the writers and ryan have said that he did. But now they've done it again here and at first it was kind of interesting and made his character a bit of mystery, but honestly now its starting to feel a bit like lazy writing. But hey that's just may opinion.

As for what I think Daemon's response to the question was, I really don't know. There was one moment where blood, I think it was blood anyway, says you heard the prince no head no money, which made me think ok well then that was what Daemon's response was, what if we can't find Aemond, no head no money, that simple and then Blood and Cheese just decided to kill Jaehaerys because cheese got caught by Helaena and there was a male targaryen there so this will have to do, we've been seen now so we've got to wrap this up quick if we want to also get away and claim our money.

But then we also hear Blood say it has to be a son for a son, which is makes it more ambiguous because again we didn't see this part of the conversation so we don't know if Daemon also said no head no money and then added but if you don't find Aemond any male will do just make it a son for a son. Personally I don't think it really makes sense for Daemon to be happy with anyone else's head, I mean his whole attention up to this point was on killing Vhagar and Aemond, Rhaenyra specifically said she wants Aemond and it was in response to this that Daemon went out and hired blood and cheese in the first place. I personally don't think Daemon would settle for just anyone else's head so long as it was a son. Daemon just does not seem like the kind of person who settles so to me the more likely scenario is this, Daemon goes to blood and tells him to bring him Aemond's head, even goes so far as to describe what Aemond looks like and points out that he shouldn't be hard to spot. He gives him half the money and promises the other half once the deed is done, blood asks what if he can't find Aemond and Daemon's response is basically find him or else you ain't getting no more money and maybe says something like he said to rhaenys like I'm making it a son for a son, or it must be a son for a son, meaning nothing is acceptable but aemond's head and the son part is only in reference to aemond saying an eye for an eye before killing Luke. Blood and cheese enter the keep, cheese stumbles into the children's quarters and is caught by heleana, realising that they have little time now that they've been seen blood figures well Daemon said that thing about a son for a son, completely misinterpreting it and thinking so he'll be ok with it being this son's head instead of Aemond's. I mean I'll be honest blood and cheese did not seem like the brightest bulbs in the box so I could see them thinking Daemon would be happy with this alternative. But as I said the writers made it really ambiguous so who the hell knows what really happened, I mean we as the audience don't need all the details anyway right.

Ok so lets talk about the actual scene itself. As I said above I do kind of understand what they were trying to do here. they still wanted helaena to make a difficult choice and so they added this whole thing about how the twins look exactly alike and so you can't tell which is which, so this creates the situation where Helaena has to choose to tell blood and cheese which one is the boy, so basically they've changed the choice to Helaena has to choose whether to save the boy or the girl, maybe they changed this to make some commentary on how more value is put into boys than girls, I guess. It's still a heartbreaking choice for Helaena to make, she is put into this position because they've threatened to kill them all if she doesn't tell them, so its basically she chooses to tell them which one is the boy and her child dies or all of them die. She tries offering them her necklace and tells them its very valuable which makes sense in that she's aware they've been paid or will be paid and so she is hoping that the value of the necklace will spare her children. However they just take the necklace so she still has to make the choice. I do think they played Helaena's terror and horror at what was happening very subtly, she wasn't screaming or begging really, she seemed very disassociated from the situation but you could still see the terror there in her eyes.

When she runs to Alicent and tells her they killed the boy I did, at first, think it was odd that she said the boy and not like her boy or her son, like she wasn't sobbing saying they killed my boy, she looked shellshocked and said the boy. Then I realised why she said this. When she makes the choice and she points at Jaehaerys, blood says she is lying that she wouldn't give up the heir that easily. Which I think is actually true, I think her actual choice was the girl but she knew that blood and cheese wouldn't believe her, that they would assume she was lying, so she choose to sacrifice the girl but believed that if she pointed to the girl that blood and cheese would think she was lying and kill the other one, the boy. So instead she pointed to the boy thinking blood and cheese would then kill the girl. Hoping that I'm making sense here. But cheese then realises that this is what Helaena is trying to do and they kill the boy. So when Helaena says 'they killed the boy' she actually means it as I chose the girl but they killed the boy. Almost like they killed the wrong one, not that I am saying Helaena wanted her daughter to die obviously she didn't want any of her children to die but I think she was just in shock because she was confronted with this choice save the girl or save the boy, she chose to save the boy but he was killed anyway and so now she's just on the floor rocking the child that lived and trying to process through this trauma and process what just happened, so its more like she's telling herself, they killed the boy and she can't really believe that it really happened, I think the term the boy really is because of that choice she was presented with, the horror of having to choose between her children was so traumatic that its just there in her mind, if I am making sense.

Another possibility is that it seems like Helaena may have seen a vision of this happening, she says to Aegon that she is afraid of the rats and I think this is clearly in relation to blood and cheese, seeing as cheese is a rat catcher and they come in posed as rat catchers. So its possible that she had a vision but it only showed her up to the point of her making the choice. She saw herself in the vision choosing to save her son and sacrifice her daughter so her fear was that her daughter was going to die at the hands of 'the rats'. But then when her vision comes to pass it is actually her son that is killed and so as she is trying to process everything she is thinking about how she had expected and maybe even partly prepared herself for her daughter to die but then they kill the boy and this just completely breaks her mind.

All of this being said, when it comes to the scene as a whole, as I said, it was underwhelming and it felt rushed, the sounds of Jaehaerys being killed as helaena ran from the room clutching her other child was the only moment that particularly had an effect on me when I was watching it. Like that was disturbing to me and I felt that horror starting to creep in but that was then totally thrown away when Helaena runs into Alicent's room and Alicent is literally riding Cole, so Helaena who is already traumatised and is clutching a young child, then panics again and tries to turn away but like where the hell is she supposed to go, her son is literally being murdered as they speak, she's under threat and trying to get her child to safety and then she walks in on that, knows its supposed to be a secret and not something she was supposed to see but can't possible process that right now because of all the other trauma she is currently experiencing and so she just collapses on the ground and rocks her child while Alicent and Cole look on awkwardly. It was a very weird way to end the episode if I am being honest.

I just feel like if I sit and think it over, yes I can see what they were trying to do, I can see how horrifying the choice Helaena had to make between her children was, I can see that a young child being held down in a bed whilst their throat is cut, and possibly their head cut off is truly disturbing, the sounds were horrifying, I can see how Helaena happening upon Alicent and Cole could lead to them both fearing Helaena speaking on it later and revealing their secret and how the guilt will plague them because they were being intimate at the same time that such a terrible act was happening. But it just did not work on screen for me, the concept was there the execution wasn't and in the moment I really didn't feel much. Like I said the only moment when I felt a stirring of horror was when Helaena was fleeing with her child. It was just too rushed and too poorly written I think.

Anyway those are my thoughts on the episode so far. It really was a mixed bag because there were some moments, particularly when dealing with the aftermath of Lucerys death that were really great and really moved me, but then there were others where they fell short. Despite that I am curious to see what will happen next episode and what the repercussions will be, Maybe seeing everyone's reactions to Jaehaerys' death will make it have more of an impact and maybe Daemon's reaction will give as more clarity on whether he did give the go ahead for it to be any male heir or not. We'll have to see.

[california-112]

For the ask game:

If you were a character, who would you be and why?

Very unpopular opinions? Share them here!

Have fun:)

Hi, hello! Thanks for the ask!

This is the list they're from, and I'm still (always!) open to more :)

If you were a character, who would you be and why?

Mulder. Next question...

No, I'll elaborate. For my first reason, I'll quote my own post:

"Imagine. Going through your whole life looking like that." Yeah I can imagine going through my whole life looking like Fox Mulder, it's called gender eurphoria

I spelt euphoria wrong waaah

Apart from the looks, though, he seems to have a pretty cool life. UFO hunting, investigating the supernatural, cool apartment, great partner, fun basement office, action and adventure...of course, there are downsides (missing sister, constant brushes with danger, frequently hunted by the government, paperwork, etc.), but overall it looks very interesting.

However, we're also already not dissimilar. I may not be quite as much of a conspiracy nut as he is (though of course I believe in aliens 🛸), and I'm certainly not about to join the FBI even if the 'uniform' does look hella cool, but we apparently both have issues with sleeping, eating, trust, fire, and obsession/hyperfixation (e.g. Grotesque and his whole search for the Truth), at least. [Let me know if you think my assessment of his character (and/or mine?!) is unfair or wrong; I can't remember exactly what's in canon and what appears more in fanon.]

The most random similarity is that both of us have used the sound of a light aircraft to locate something. In Mulder's case, during S01E15 'Lazarus', it's a sound caught on a recording that helps him find Scully. For me, I was hiking with a group a few years ago and we were mildly lost. However, when I heard a light aeroplane doing spin training, I knew that it could only being doing that over certain areas in our locality, and from the map we had I could work out our location more accurately, the result being that we made it home that evening.

I can also blame Mulder for my new sunflower seed addiction! Thanks a bunch.

Of course, if I were actually to turn up in a TXF episode, it would probably be as background character #3 who has a couple of lines being questioned by Scully whilst Mulder waits moodily in the background, but hey. I want to believe.

Very unpopular opinions? Share them here!

Look, this show may be a new love of mine, but yes, I do already have some potentially unpopular opinions. Buckle in...

I'm not a fan of MSR. You said unpopular! I've really enjoyed the early seasons of the show for the friendship between Mulder and Scully, and I see that as just continuing. Yes, they get closer, how could they not? But I dislike the fact that they (apparently) actually get together in the end and it's canon.

I will add the disclaimer that, yes, I am only up to S05E09 at the moment, and I suppose that the storyline could lead very nicely into it. However, at the moment from what I've seen in content on here like gifsets and edits, I don't think I'll like it, and I prefer the vibe of the show as it now is.

This marries up (!) with my dislike of many of later parts of the mytharc that I'm coming to now. It's probably because I personally prefer monster of the week episodes, but especially the S4 mytharc eps were among my least favourites, and some of them were bordering on a struggle to watch.

Which leads into my general dislike of S4, definitely an unpopular opinion according to the poll that happened recently. I won't go on too much as I've said this in some tags before, but I find it hard to believe that S4 is a favourite season. Yes, there are some good eps! Demons is my favourite of the season and among my top episodes of the show so far, and Tempus Fugit/Max was excellent. But there was also The Field Where I Died, Never Again, Memento Mori, Synchrony, Zero Sum...some of my least favourite episodes so far, that I would probably avoid on a rewatch.

Ok, rant over. Thank you for this ask, it was great fun to think about the answers! :D

[dio-the-thot-exterminator]

For the character meme: beast wars dinobot

-cybertron-after-dark

hiiiiiiiiiiiii :)

How I feel about this character

Love Pink!

I think everyone's love for him was the reason why I decided to watch beast wars in the first place. And i almost quit the show after he died so i'd say i like him a normal amount (lie).

I have a love hate relationship with his design cuz its sooooo hard for me to draw like why did he do that he should have chosen something simpler. 

His mannerisms and how tall he is makes everything in the show 10 times more funny(to me). ohhhhh I'm fixed on his voice and vocal tics it really does make him stand out from the rest of the cast.

He’s so mean too, a hating ass bitch, I can respect that. He’d be the best fast food coworker (he’d still work at popeyes!!). And sometimes he be loud and wrong, like ok CLOWN.

How do I say this nicely? Making fun of him is my favourite thing to do. Also since he is the fan favourtie (am i correct in assuming this?) everyone makes fire ass art involving him. always a treat, he never let me down.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

A good fight would make him hooooorny.

Tarantulas - one, I just think it's funny and two, that one episode when he was complimenting tarantulas's hunting skills?? Can you imagine them hunting things together??? I need it!! Dinobot in his evil cannibal twins era <3

Tigatron - uhhh the solitude uhh the warriors bond the best slow burn ever. They are opposites and dont understand each other at all. LITERALLY Law of the Jungle ep is just: tigatron doesn't behave the way DB wants him to so Dinobot is thinking “ *snorts* i can fix him!!”. It’s peak to me…

Tigatron so calm and wholesome, and Dinobot is…NOT pfttttt  AHHH LIKE FIRE AND ICE FIRE AND ICE!!!!! They clash but go togetherrrrrr *sigh* who sees my vision 🥹

thats all my brain could come up with aack

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Cheetor and Dinobot lol hi grandpa take his ass to hot topic 

My unpopular opinion about this character

Dinobot would not make a good leader. He’s not emotionally considerate and does not have the skills to “think past the battle”. He can fight, anticipate an ambush, command some soldiers but that's pretty much it.

Actual diplomacy, or caring about the health of his teammates? HA! 

He constantly wants to abandon people, or overthrow someone, switching sides like crazy. Nigga never been loyal…and he likes to talk about his “honor”.

Now I really need some insight on what “predacon honor” is cuz wtf?? Rattrap was lowkey right, how could we trust him? 

I was sad when he died but ion really feel like he needs to come back, you know? You could kind of sense that there was no direction the show could take his character.

And getting rid of him was the logical choice. He a lil self destructive and got some issues (that's why I love him) but after a while it got repetitive for me. I don't think this show was equipped to handle the characterization they were building up to so him dying was kinda a good thing dare i say. 

He's a bottom 🏳‍🌈

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

More predacon interactions that hint at what his life was like before they crashed on earth.

The lil nuggets we get are so interesting to me, I need to see how the dynamics were before he ‘betrayed’ them.

He knows these guys so well im so madddd i missing out on all the dramaaaaaaa

i also wanted him to interact more with rampage...i cant explain it but....there's something there that needs to be explored

Eat more people

be weird

be a freak

Nerd out tenfold about history

Should have killed silverbolt whaaaa who said that

Thats all i can think of off da top of me headdd, thanks for the ask @cybertron-after-dark 💜

sorry for typos!

[dreamedofyou]

OF Favourites Rankings (Halfway Point)

Got tagged by @thatgirl4815 and thought it'd be fun to do but as usual I'm a bit late, as this was supposed to be done before ep 7 aired. 😅 Ah well, I'm still going to rank the characters only up to the halfway point of the series (aka the end of ep 6) so bear in mind that this was my list before ep 7 (and it did slightly change since).

Ok, let's get into the rankings, from last to first place:

7. Boston

Said this before and I'll say it again: I enjoy having Boston on my screen because he always makes things interesting and entertaining. He's just a character I absolutely love to hate. As a person, though, he is just so rancid that he takes my last spot in the ranking and I base most of that on the way he treats his friends tbh. If this is the shit he does to people he's supposed to be close with and care about, then I dread to think how he treats those that mean absolutely nothing to him. The thing is I'm usually a huge fan of characters who do bad/toxic stuff (as you will see later on in my ranking) but they need to have reasons other than their ego for it and at the halfway point I don't see that in Boston. This might change by the end of the show, of course.

6. Cheum

I have two main reasons why she's so low on this list, the first of which being that she simply doesn't have enough screentime/storylines for me to form a strong attachment to her character, and the other being that she sometimes annoys me with her remarks. I enjoyed the conflict we got between her and April but it was so brief, I wish the female characters got the same treatment as the male ones instead of feeling like an afterthought. This is actually my one major criticism of the show but unfortunately it's a problem most BL shows suffer from.

5. Nick

I sympathise with Nick but at the same time I'm also like "you kind of brought this on yourself, my guy." The way he's either blinded by Boston's sweet-talk or just doesn't mind Boston's assholery frustrates me so much sometimes, which is why he's only nr. 5 for me. That and the fact that we don't know that much about him (yet) either. I need more to fully connect.

4. Top

I feel like this is an unpopular opinion but I think Top gets too much shit from the fandom. Yes, the reason he started pursuing Mew was shitty, but along the way he did genuinely develop feelings for Mew and imo him wanting to change and settle down is sincere. I'm a big believer in second chances if people are genuinely willing to change and better themselves, which I do think Top wants. Obviously, him sleeping with Boston (and lying to Mew) was shitty and it's one of the reasons why the nr. 4 spot is probably as high as he can go for me but I'm way more lenient there than most people because he was heavily manipulated into it by Boston and then regretted it and felt guilty about it. This isn't an excuse on my part, btw, I'm not absolving him of blame, but context makes a difference for me personally. I also think his character has the potential to grow a lot and I'm a hoe for character development (as you'll also see later).

3. Mew

Same as with Top, I feel like my opinion on Mew is somewhat unpopular, especially when it comes to his relationship with Ray. Basically, I don't think he's a bad friend at all and I believe he genuinely wants to help Ray but sometimes goes about it the wrong way (possibly due to previous experience). I think his heart is in the right place when it comes to most things and he's just like... a pretty normal dude, which I appreciate. That doesn't mean he has no flaws and can't be petty or nasty if he wants to be, however. I guess my one problem with him is I sometimes struggle to see why he fell so hard for Top specifically (what was so special about Top) because we weren't really given much of a reason. Unless it's just one of those situations where you fall for someone's looks/vibes and like that they're nice/sweet to you, and it isn't much deeper than that (because that happens to people, but Mew doesn't seem like the type to fall for those reasons). Basically, I like Mew much more when he isn't with/around Top.

2. Sand

I don't even have much to say here because I literally love everything about Sand, flaws and all. The only thing that slightly irritates me sometimes is the fact that he (unintentionally) self-sabotages by not wanting to talk about his feelings, probably because he wants to appear as if he's fine all the time even when he's clearly not. Sand is also the character I relate to most. Honestly, if it wasn't for my tendency to obsess over "broken" characters who do destructive things but are otherwise not bad people (and have a huge character development potential) then Sand would be my nr. 1. But, alas...

1. Ray

Ah, yes, we've arrived to the aforementioned "broken" character. This man has more issues than all the other characters combined and it's exactly what makes him my favourite character, oops. Unlike Boston's shitty behaviour, which is driven by ego, Ray's is driven by loneliness, abandonment issues, a lack of love, the list goes on. I genuinely think he's not a bad person, but he's self-destructive (which ends up endangering others as well) and obsessive/unable to let go (particularly when it comes to Mew), which is a recipe for disaster. He wants to be loved so badly but he wants it from the wrong person (Mew) in the wrong manner (romantic). As I said before, I'm a hoe for character development and Ray's potential on that front is off the charts. I want to see him deal with his numerous issues and grow from it as a person. What can I say, I'm just a sucker for those types of characters.

I want to conclude this by saying that there are two wolves inside me: one is a Sand Protector and the other is a Ray Apologist. They are at constant war with each other. Whichever one wins a battle at any given moment determines which of the two characters is currently my nr. 1 and which my nr. 2. That is all. 🙃

Since I'm late with this, I won't be tagging anyone but if you see this post and want to do your own ranking, feel free to consider yourself tagged.

I wonder if my list will change after the series finale.

[dittolicous]

i guess unpopular opinion at this point but i think we need to acknowledge buddy daddies is like. a C/C- anime at best. it was cute but its not a game changer or anything.

the ending was actually enraging for me cuz. it literally makes NO SENSE. ok, rei has handicapped himself so he's useless to the organization. good metaphore i guess.

but.

nothing we know about his dad suggests he gives a shit about metaphors. ok, yup, rei is no useless to him (supposedly). yknow what happens next? his loved ones are taken, tortured, and killed as punishment for his disobedience and then he's killed (or trained to work with only one arm). look at what happened to his mentors wife and misaki. killing them wasnt necessary, but it was to make a point. killing miri was to make a point. killing kazuki was to make a point. every suffering in reis life was to make a point.

all he did is make it harder for him to protect them.

there is zero reason to believe his father wouldn't send someone out to finish the job as mere punishment and to make an example of him. and it doesnt even kill his bloodline, cuz lbr, he could very easily sire another child and just be 1000 times worse.

along with that, the relationship between kazuki and rei was a pendulum between eps swinging between 'practically strangers' and 'life partners'. sometimes itd ferl like they were hella close, then theyd suddenly be just coworkers/roomates and were kinda bummed about moving apart. do they care about each other or not? you cant say that they do and then not show it. and no, flashbacks and pretty speeches dont count. we need action and interactions. they most likely didnt have the time to really delve into their relationship, but they still could have done better than what we got

they didnt do a terribly good job balancing both of kazuki and reis storylines and blending them together to get a satisfying ending. kazuki felt pretty one dimensional towards the end and even when they were on the same page, it felt forced and unearned.

and why did such a short anime get a freaking *recap* episode? that was a wild waste of time and energy. it did not bring anything of substance into the story that could not have been placed elsewhere.

plus you have the average misogyny and mishandling of misaki and yuzuko. there was no reason to give misaki cancer! sogh. it was expected, but still disappointing.

so like. i dont hate buddy daddies now, it was cute and fun, but i doubt I'll rewatch it much. good idea, bad payoff. they needed more time and funds, i suppose.

[perelka-l]

Orochimaru for the ask game!

the original he/him genderfuck mommy

favorite thing about them

Oro is a bit of an acquired taste for me tbh but hey, look, I got into Boruto in summer of 2018 because I heard he has a kid and I just went to check it out, since I used to like Naruto when I was a babie and didn't go far though so I was curious how that went.

And look at me now. I owe this guy a lot uwu

least favorite thing about them

Is there anything I don't like about Oro, really? Nothing comes to my mind. I want more of momma in boruto. Gimme more milf!!!! I must have more milf!!!! maybe then I wouldn't be 200 eps behind wwwwww

favorite line

Ok I will go Boruto way but frankly I don't give a fuck

HE IS JSUT SO PRETTY AND HE LIEK THSI CONFIRMS THAT HE TRUSTS KONOHAMARU WITH MITSUKI I JUST DJSKGDGKJHSDKJFHSJKFH *cries* mommy

brOTP

I like his interactions with all ex-Taka, though it's clear they are no bros of his ;w;

OTP

Sasuke. Duh. Baby's first problematic power imbalance ship uwu Same goes for Kimimaro, but that's a very different dynamic.

Also, him with sannin. Plenty of complicated story, plenty of stuff done away from Hiruzen's very interested eyes, plenty of stuff to consider really.

nOTP

Admittedly, Kabuto, but that's because I don't like Kabuto lol

random headcanon

*scratches head* nothing comes to mind, admittedly I don't think much about oro ;^;

unpopular opinion

*more scratching*

song i associate with them

I'll go with Momma Sed (Tandimonium Remix) by Puscifer lol

favorite picture of them

From what I see I didn't do much caps during my nart watch, or maybe I just lost them since I did that on a different computer. But I just wanna say that I adore the way he looked in older animated scenes ;w;

[oodlyenough]

What did you think of TLOU ep5 and the changes to the game? I honestly thought they did things better in the show.

Honestly same, I really liked it. This segment of the game is fun to play but much of the story would be lacking on screen without that gameplay, and the action would've felt/looked too unrealistic on tv I think... like, Joel and co escaping a gazillion-strong army and infinite infected lol.

This got really long so it's under a cut. At the end I talk a bit about tlou2 spoilers although it's marked:

I thought Sam and Henry were great and I liked the changes that were made there, although I have to admit I'd actually forgotten the finer details of their story, eg I had forgotten there was more tension between Henry and Sam in the game. I don't mind them replacing it. I also thought Sam being Deaf and the use of ASL brought an interesting element to their story that wasn't in the game. I thought Sam and Ellie's bonding was adorable. Also... henry... 👀

In my ep 4 post I was worried maybe they'd make Henry somehow "deserving" of his fate, vs game Henry being an innocent. And I suppose they kind of did make him guilty... but it was an extremely sympathetic reason VS Kathleen being utterly unreasonable (more on that below) so I was fine with it in the end.

I gotta say even though I knew it was likely Sam and Henry would have the same fate as their game counterparts, Ellie's "my blood is medicine" got me fhklghldfkg I was like well that makes no sense but I'll allow it" bc I wanted poor Sam to be ok :( Ellie sis I feel u.

My #unpopular opinion, I think, is that I don't really like the angle the show is taking of "the infected are still themselves inside". I guess it's meant to be part of the body horror and stuff. Maybe I'm just being a game purist. It just seems a bit goofy to me and I can't really embrace it lol. Reminds me of the James portions of TWDG s4 which I fucking hated.

The action sequence at the end was incredible imo, felt simultaneously very game-like (Leo pointing meme @ the sniper) while improving adapting the source material well. The infected surging out of the ground, the Bloater, etc, were all really well done I thought. Also the child clicker omg hats off to the baby gymnast bc her movements were creepy as shit.

Joel nailing every shot made me laugh a bit because I fucking suck as the sniper LOL I always get everyone killed sooo many times.

Probably the most contentious bit of the episode is Kathleen. I think she served her purpose well enough -- I've seen plenty of complaints that she wasn't compelling, or that she was too cartoonishly evil, and then I think about how in the game, Philly is just run by an-entirely-men-only military armed force who hunts down Joel+Ellie and every other "tourist" with completely unjustified determination because... uh.... because ? (I get they kill tourists for resources. Surely Joel, Ellie, Henry and Sam are not worth the resources expended to track them down across the fuckin' city lmao. It only works because video game.) So obviously the show had to do SOMETHING else

Anyway, I think Kathleen mostly worked. I don't think she was sympathetic at all but I don't think she needed to be -- whatever sympathy you might briefly feel about her brother is pretty quickly extinguished by her saying she knows he'd want forgiveness but she doesn't give a shit, and then again later by her being like "lmao fuck them kids". I also thought casting Melanie Lynskey to use her softest soccer mom voice while saying heinous shit was great... I feel like the "well she's not threatening" stuff is totally off base lmao I don't know how anyone could draw that conclusion tbh. Are entitled """""nice"""" white women leading a lynch mob not terrifying...??

TLOU2 discussion/spoilers:

Obviously the natural comparison here is Kathleen and Ellie and/or Abby. I think her story hits a lot of those similar notes -- she's blinded by her revenge to her own destruction and the destruction of those around her, etc. So I understand where people are drawing those connections. I don't think it's really, like, fair/accurate to Ellie or Abby to say that Kathleen is exactly the same. I don't even think it's a case of "well if we spent time in Kathleen's shoes we'd understand", a la what TLOU2 did/wanted to do with Abby. Neither Abby nor Ellie mobilize and jeopardize their entire community to exact their revenge -- the former Fireflies come by choice, and so do Dina/Tommy/Jesse. Clearly the collateral damage of their revenge is a huge part of the game, but Ellie and Abby also don't have any "Fuck them kids" scenes where they expressly want to murder children as a punishment for their guardian's sins, lmao. The closest you get is Ellie threatening Lev, which is the bottom of the barrel low point for her character and then she turns it around in the end.

So... I don't know. I mean yes obviously Kathleen serves as a bit of foreshadowing or a "parallel" or whatever, but I do think it's inaccurate to pretend it's hypocritical to judge Kathleen but like Abby or Ellie lol.

My final general thought/slight criticism is that the show isn't especially subtle. I've become a bit more sympathetic to television's lack of subtlety over the years as it has uhhh become clearer to me how much an audience will just straight up miss stuff, lmao, and I think part of the stuff that feels un-subtle feels that way to me as someone who already knows the story intimately and perhaps doesn't read that way to a first time viewer.

[shinidamachu]

Maybe kinda unpopular opinion but : Miroku wasn’t toxic

Yes, he was flirting with other girls in front of Sango , but first of all

•they haven’t been in relationship for most of the show

•it took Sango a lot of time to express her feelings openly to Miroku too.

• i bet Miroku had no idea for most of the time that Snago felt smth to him. I mean it is kinda shown in some ep when we first time can see Sango feelings towards him and Miroku… well… being dumbass and didn’t notice anything

But even after he had to know about her feelings he still continues to flirt with other women. Why? Well my theory is his number one fear: his death…

Miroku is not stupid. He knows what kind of destiny he has and what kind of death he is gonna die. (Mind you that when Sango SAW a illusion of Miroku father death… IT BROKE HER! She started yelling and crying after she realized that the same brutal death waits for her loved one). I feel like what Miroku was trying to do was to push Sango away and discourage her from him. Because honestly if I would be on his position I would kinda act as worse as possible to let people see me in worse light and for them to loose interest in me. I wouldn’t want to to give them hope, when i know that i will die by literally DISAPPEARING soon (miroku father was actually pretty young when he died. Miroku was still A CHILD! Probably 7-8 years old). If Miroku would give them a chance, that would be a red flag to me, because knowing Sango, she would give her all to this relationship and have already vision of them having family and getting old together. Sango loves with all of her heart, so now imagine that ONE day , she experiences Miroku being sucked by his wind tunnel and being left alone with everything… pretty brutal if you ask me…and From my POV this would be toxic and not ok…

I mean if Miroku actually for those time would be with Sango, then It would definitely be red flag … but he wasn’t. Until the “confession episode”, those two never actually sat down and expressed their feelings, so Miroku was single and ready to pringle lol. I feel like some fans forget that after that confession ep, Miroku changed. He wasn’t flirting really with women as much (or never, I don’t remember that well). Even the ep with that big fish from the lake and miroku “past lover”. Well… miroku was right “smth from the past”. He didn’t even knew Sango back then, so I didn’t understand when sango got upset with him and said “i feel like nothing changed at all”. Like??? He didn’t flirt with her? Was actually trying to say that Sango is someone important to him… but well… got interrupted

Imo MirSan is actually really Healthy relationship and if only Sango would express her feelings earlier , then maybe Miroku would realize faster that he feels something more to Sango than just “weapon friends”, because let’s be real…. Both Miroku and Inuyasha are kinda oblivious and stupid when it comes to SOME topics

Bonus:

Miroku is 100% a masochist. He literally melted when Sango got him a dead look and he red from her eyes “die. Dummy”. … miroku is a MASOCHIST

I agree with you, at least to some degree. Miroku flirting with other girls, even in front of Sango, isn't a problem considering that they weren't together for most of the series and Sango was adamant on rejecting his advances, which might have given him the wrong idea about her true feelings at first.

Especially because Miroku is the kind of character who is effortless charming. Being smooth is his second nature and he doesn't really seem to think twice before flirting. The biggest proof of this is the fact that he never effectively acts on it – in the sense of actually putting his money where his mouth is – despite coming across many women who were, in fact, willing to bear his child.

It was very clear, from the beginning, that Sango was special to him, an exception. Maybe because he unconsciously saw in her the potential to be his something more, the real deal. I distinctly remember an episode where Sango even points out that he never asked her to bear his child and he quickly rectifies that mistake by doing just that. It was for comical reasons, but it doesn't take away from the fact that he treated her differently from other people.

He put her happiness above his own even though he wanted nothing more than for her to be at his side.

And he knew how to keep his hands to himself when the moment called for it, understanding that sometimes all she needed was his support, for him to just be there for her. And he always was.

Then, of course, there's the whole ordeal with his curse and impending death. It played a huge part on his backstory and, naturally, it has to play a huge part on his relationship with Sango, which I think you've explored beautifully.

The interesting thing about Miroku's character is that he is so much more than what reaches the eyes – Kagome herself noticed this when they first crossed paths. There's not really telling how much of his personality is really his and how much of it is a defense mechanism to keep people away.

Because even though he is a social butterfly, he never really used to stay long enough to actually make meaningful bonds until the Inugang came along. He had Mushin and maybe Hachi, but other than that, was always in the move, always charming people without actually building a relationship with them.

Because the more people he lets in, the more he has to lose. He is the kind of man who will gamble his own life, but not the life of others and as far as he knows, his days are numbered anyway, so why even bother?

Which is why he makes a point out of sleeping in the best huts and eating at the best tables. It's not just luxury for the sake of luxury, is that the future is uncertain and tomorrow might never come so he might as well live to the fullest.

Now, I do have a problem with him still flirting with other woman after he and Sango made it official. Not because of the flirting per se, but because Sango explicitly asked him to stop and he was reluctant even though he didn't have to be, since Sango had already agreed to having his babies.

It would have been one thing if Sango had recognized his flirting for the unthreatening, meaningless thing that it was, but she was clearly bothered by it and rightfully so, now that they were engaged. From the moment she let him know her feelings on, he should have been more sensible, respectful and attentive of them.

I remember him drastically changing his attitude, to the point that he, in fact, wasn’t flirting with women as much, but – and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong – I was left with the sensation that it never fully stopped until they got married for real.

That being said, I still wouldn't call it toxic – altough I understand why this would turn people off Mirsan and or Miroku's character. To me, it's just a relationship issue they can and should work through together. In fact, it seems like they have, because I just can't picture curse free, married, father of three children Miroku still behaving the same way and Sango dealing with it by getting violent and calling it a day.

No relationship is perfect and when it comes to fiction, the ones that do are just plain boring. Much can be said about Mirsan and how it was handled in canon, but calling it toxic feels like a reach to me because even though the canon material was lacking in some aspects of their relationship, it can be very easily fixed in fanworks, since the substance for a great pairing is still right there.

However, innocent flirting is not the main critic when it comes to Mirsan and Miroku specifically, but rather the actual issue of groping and the pervert character trope.

Or extending the – until then – harmless "will you bear my child" running gag to a eleven years old. I don't care that the narrative painted it in a bad light through the characters, I could still have gone without it.

So once again: it's understandable having a problem with his character, it's understandable to walk away from Mirsan because of it. Not every pairing will be everyone's cup of tea and that's okay.

I just think that we should put things is perspective because Inuyasha is filled with outdated jokes. It was published in the 90's so of course some running gags didn't pass the test of time now that we know better, but that's still what they are: distasteful running gags.

I'm not saying it was okay, I'm saying that it comes from the very same place as Kagome's sitting commands, Inuyasha spanking children and Sango rightfully slapping Miroku's face.

Of course the groping issue stands out, in a fandom composed majority by women, in a time where the importance of consent is constantly debated, but it doesn't seem very fair to take this so seriously while simultaneously pretending the other running gags don't exist.

If you feel more uncomfortable with Miroku's actions than with the other examples I listed, not only your feelings are valid, but I also agree with you. However, that's very subjective – other people's personal experiences might make them think Inuyasha hitting Shippo's head is worse, for instance – and who are we to tell them otherwise? One action is not more excusable than the other, they're all wrong in their own way and this is a story about dog demons and magic wells, you know?

TLDR: Miroku is a complex and interesting character that you don't have to like, but should also not reduce to a single problematic running gag. It's not his fault that the author had a questionable sense of humor and he probably wouldn't be characterized the same way if Inuyasha was written nowadays. Or by someone else.

Bonus: he is, indeed, a malewife, Sango simp with a degradation kink and no, I won't elaborate.

[blueiight]

touga for the send me a character game

my normal boy<3

First impression

i was rly under the impression touga was gonna be utena’s love interest at first idk how the hell i got there but i thought thats how it was gone go

Impression now

bigender totally normal boy & my dear friend

Favorite moment

ok its either ep36 when hes riding the bike with saionji or somewhere in that same ep range where he meets with utena at the duel tower and desperately tries to ‘save’ her bc hes under the impression that shes naive about akio. and him punching a kangaroo. i honestly love all his moments w/ saionji bc hes so delightfully condescending<3. ep11-12 when hes pretending to be a prince too with anthy theyre doing a skit there i know touganthy is😂😂😂

Idea for a story

i had an idea about him somehow surviving adolescence of utena. id have to do a rewatch but i was rethinking my belief of him dying there when it could be him simply disappearing from ohtori. theres no grave or explicit sense of his demise twofold the way there is akio’s (akio being buried once and stabbed through by the car at the end). his ‘demise’ is more abstract in a way of show mikage’s and utena’s in that its more of a disappearance from ohtori than it is a Death Death? idk. id have to see. but its that or an after the revolution prompt

Unpopular opinion

I rlllyyy do not like how ppl seem to think hes on the way to become the next eotw or the next bride when its pretty clear he is also a victim to eotw’s game and is also primed to escape ohtori thru the bonds he has with nanami and saionji

Favorite relationship

nanami, saionji, utena & anthy

Favorite headcanon

he becomes a super clingy brother to nanami post ohtori while nanami’s like touga onii sama. can you pick up my order from dulce and banana ( the in universe rip off of dolce and gabbana ) and touga’s like yes my dear little sister nanami ^_^ shes milking tf out his generosity

[sidsinning]

This is not going to be an extremely thorough essay about why my opinions of mlb are completely right from every angle you could ever think of its 10 am and I'm running on 0 hrs

This is just what I've been thinking about the show

I feel like every time the show defies a gender stereotype it doubles down on like 5 more at the same time

VERY unpopular opinion: sometimes the stalker trope can be funny but I feel like the creators don't do it well which is why everyone shits on Mari for it so hard + they overdo it

I really don't think Mari's shtick is actually making kids think diving into trashcans to spy on your crush is ok to do- everything she does is cringe on purpose so I don't see kids aspiring to be like her in this way

Felix's intricate arc felt so abruptly cut after he became Kagami's boyfriend; I feel like it's a shame Feligami were so rushed bc a slow development of their relationship could've strengthened his character arc even further. I feel like it merced both their characters by having it be so quickly put together. Bc why is Kagami saying she loves him enough to defy her mom already and why are they making out all the time. Like I didn't need that personally

Lots of missed opportunities in general regarding Felix

Kagami telling Felix Marinette is Ladybug after 1 ep he got with her like what the hell kind of insane betrayal??? They try to brush off???? Hello????

The way she found out was so stupid too

Man I will miss the -will they, won't they- Ladynoir; I feel like they were the most entertaining and well developed pair in terms of the LS, with the most addicting dynamic

I'm pretty sure most of us were drawn in by "cute flirty cat boy simping for our badass heroine who playfully rebuffs his advances" in the first place

Season 5 was batshit and filled with plotholes like holy

Idek what to think about Chloe now it's messy

The most corrupt adults getting abrupt redemption arcs (principal, mayor Andre, arguably Gabe)

Sabrina just decided to. Turn. Morality somehow appeared when the plot needed it to. Soccer

"I need to break up with Luka bc I am LB"

Tikki and Plagg: "Adrienette can't be together bc of the burden of LB and CN"

Then they get together just fine after becoming superheroes again where nothing about the stress of the job changed, so I guess Tikki and Plagg took away their miraculous for nothing

Luka in the guardian fit 💀

Idk man Kagami's resurfacing feelings for Adrien made me sigh ngl like did I really need this filling up screentime

Kagami being easily manipulated by Lila for plot bc their friendship was built off screen after their terrible interaction in Oni-chan

Lila in general

AI Adrigami taking over Paris' mind via fake AI video kidnapping on glorified apple watch starting the big finale 🧎‍♂️ like what even is this

Adrien being literally asleep for the finale- I get the message. Adrien shouldn't have to fight his dad. Adrien fighting his dad wouldn't be a moment of triumph for Adrien, only sadness. Adrien is a victim of abuse who wants to be rescued and that is ok. Mari rescuing him from his prison is beautiful.

But idk. Maybe have him help in a significant way before he gets neutralized for the whole finale besides providing Maribug with his ring? Idk I love love love Mari getting the spotlight in her show but. Hm. Cutting him off so clean like that is a lil weird considering how important he is, and how Ladynoir's relationship is so essential to the show? I'm still kinda torn on this

Bug Noir slayed at least

Other shit but yeah I'm just rambling

holding back on the surge of ml criticism my brain just produced

[why-this-kolaveri-machi]

Notes on SPN 14.02

So! I saw 14.01 yesterday, which was for the most part, surprisingly, a blast, and since I have a bit of free time today I thought I’d keep a hold of the momentum and watch and liveblog 14.02 as well. I’ve heard it’s one of those Buckleming plot-a-paloozas, but I’ll try my best to provide semi-reasonable commentary instead of incoherent ranting.

Right. As always, typing this post up as I watch. SPOILERS for the episode ahead.

1. We start with a recap of last season’s finale, and Show, do you really want to remind us this many times about that wire-fight?

1.25. Show’s lore regarding possession has been dizzyingly inconsistent, but the more I think about it, the less sense it makes to me that Nick is alive? Because Nick couldn’t actually house Lucifer for very long in s5—he was deteriorating, which was why Lucifer needed Sam so urgently. The last we saw of Nick, he was dead/dying in a dingy room in Detroit, when Lucifer jumped ship to Sam. Even if Lucifer assumed Nick’s visage in the Cage and afterwards when he was brought back, Nick-the-person with Nick-memories and Nick-feelings isn’t there anymore.

1.255. So what does this mean? Like, if this was explained away sometime over the last two seasons--I’m very sorry, I really wasn’t paying a lot of attention to large chunks of them—please let me know. If there’s no explanation, then has Lucifer disappeared inside a Nick-construct? Did he use a loophole to escape the worst of the Archangel Blade right at the moment Dean plunged it into his side? Lucifer was “human” for a while in s13, iirc. Did he have enough “human” to hide behind and recover? And has he filled that human with the memories/personality of one of the humans he knew best? Is it because he spent centuries assuming Nick’s body in the Cage that he’s most comfortable being him here?

… I don’t know. Maybe I’m missing something obvious, but, hey, it’s fun to speculate.

2. We start off with people artfully tied up in an artfully derelict church illuminated artfully by artful lightning.

… *groans* I hope we aren’t getting a torture scene already.

2.25. Well, Michael’s certainly chirpier than he was last episode.

2.5. Is he trying to make new angel minions, is that it, by feeding them blood and his grace? Leaving aside the lack of creativity in the mechanism, the whole thing kind of makes a weird sense. Michael is looking for those with purity of purpose—among religious leaders (and refugees, apparently), angels, and then finally monsters—and rejecting those ‘poisoned’ by nuance and experience and supposed sin. After all, no being whose wants are even slightly more complex than ‘food’ is going to be a perfect follower.

It also plays into his assholey, self-righteous personality and, well, god-complex.

(Dean would’ve appreciated this quest for pure purpose.)

3. There’s a kind of sitcom-y vibe to this little expository scene: Bobby talks shit about angels only for Castiel to walk in with a quirked eyebrow; the group talks about Jack and Lucifer only for Jack to walk in and go, “hey, you talkin bout my father again?”

(these are the tiny ways I feel SPN is at cross-purposes with its own theme of ‘found family’. Everybody’s obsessed with blood relations, to the point that Lucifer and Jack are constantly referred to as ‘father and son’ when there is no need to bring that relationship up. Last year, even Castiel referred to Jack while talking to Lucifer as ‘your son’ without any prompting from Satan. Words are so powerful, and so revealing.)

3.45. Castiel “as you know, Bob”-ing is hilarious. Oh, Buckleming.

3.5. Um, not to dismiss or compare Castiel’s considerable trauma at the hands of Lucifer, but is anybody going to acknowledge even once that Sam, who appears to have taken the brunt of caring for Nick so far, is also going to have trouble looking into his abuser’s face??

4. Nick continues to make no sense to me.

(I like little touches like Castiel telling him that he needs to remind himself to eat.)

4.5. I kinda like this scene, sue me. It makes sense to me that Nick would obsess over and over again about how he could’ve let himself say yes to Lucifer, although Lucifer is as old as time and had all the power in that situation. The ‘monster’ bit is a little too on-the-nose for me, but I like it. Really drives home what an intimate, horrifying violation possession is and how scarred and twisted it can leave the survivor who spirals down a well of undeserved guilt and self-loathing.

I wish Sam was the one talking to him now, or was at least present. He’d talked in the previous scene about how Nick was only ‘housing’ and deserved a chance to rebuild his life, and that hard-earned generosity of spirit would’ve been a balm to all three of them, I think.

5. ETA on the TOD, Bobby? *sporfle* Seriously though, I love this role-reversal: usually it’s Bobby who’s rolling his eyes at SamnDean’s eff-bee-eye shenanigans.

5.25. Ah, but where this Bobby has become an expert now is in telling the difference between smiting patterns!

5.5. I wonder if trying to appear non-threatening is just Sam’s default whenever he meets with, uh, ‘civilians’.

6. I really, honestly hate that the Bunker just happens to have ‘lore books’ on whatever the hell random question they’re having that day. I just kinda hate the Bunker in general, now that I think about it.

6.25. But doesn’t that ‘human component’ (lol) make a Nephilim strong enough to take down even archangels?

6.5. As pep talks go, that wasn’t bad. A few notes:

a) there’s an earnestness to the words that I’m sure that Castiel learned from Sam.

b) I think this is the first time that Castiel—or anybody—has referred to the events of 8.23 as “The Great Fall”. It’s interesting that it’s already gotten a name among angelkind and that Castiel would call it that, given how close he was to the events that led to it.

c) I want to both laugh and cry at Castiel’s assertion that Sam and Dean were there for him after he lost his grace. He was mostly left to fend for himself, obviously, but there’s no space for that in a pep talk.

d) Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Jack is actually just only a year old. Asking him not to dwell on something so… immediate is a tall ask.

7. Ok, so that was a nice snappy little counterpart to Lucifer-talking-to-Sam-in-the-mirror from the s5 finale. I like how Michael is blunt and matter-of-fact while Lucifer relished in the moment, bragged about how he’d had Sam’s number all his life, and seduced him with violent revenge. This is nice.

I don’t know, guys, I’m really enjoying this episode so far!

8. Sooooo Lucifer is residing in some subconscious layer of Nick’s mind? Is this PTSD shaped by his possession? Is Lucifer bleeding through his own construct? Are we going to find that it was actually Nick who killed his own family? (I think we are.)

8.2. Castiel looking for residual Lucifer in Nick reminds me of when he was doing the same for Sam re: Gadreel, and that reminds me of Dean’s ‘teen mom’ joke from that episode and now I’m pissed off.

8.5. Nick is fascinating, but is he fascinating enough that I care about his little revenge sub-plot? Eh. Jury’s out. Plus I just can’t stand the actor anymore

9. Sam’s just kinda there to move the plot along. Give him some more character moments, episode!

10. Michael reminded me of Dean in the scene with the werewolf. I’m really not getting a capital P personality from Michael, though that may be due to a personal choice. Or maybe because Michael was never a distinct character to begin with, and this is far more noticeable when Ackles plays it and ‘Dean’ threatens to take over any minute.

Or going meta for a second—maybe Michael’s deliberately infusing some Dean into his persona. Possession isn’t simply putting a thing inside a box: both entities are influenced and informed by the other, but only one has all the power.

11. … ok, so my interest in this Nick subplot is rapidly decaying. Nick did it. He killed his family. It’s not a mystery.

11.5. The emotional dynamics of this scene… checks out, actually. Of course Nick is projecting all his rage on Castiel. And of course Castiel regrets destroying Jimmy Novak’s life the most. More than toeing the party line and being instrumental in almost bringing the Apocalypse about in s4; more than releasing the Leviathan; more than trusting Metatron in s8; more than killing his brethren, who’ve tortured him back and tried to kill him on more than one occasion. But Castiel has been both angel and human��both possessing and being possessed—long enough that he’s intimately aware of the devastation it leaves both within and without. And there are no excuses for the way he and other angels have done that damage—so carelessly, so casually. Even the most well-intentioned angels are deceptive and manipulative and give not a second thought about their hapless vessels. It’s a sign of Castiel’s growth and compassion that he recognises his responsibility in this and that he invokes Jimmy’s name with both reverence and regret. In all this shouting and crying that Show doesn’t acknowledge the deep-seated trauma of possession survivors, this is actually a great moment.

12. That werewolf leader looks familiar. Has the actor been on SPN before? He kinda reminds me of one of the leads on Suits.

12.5. That’s a lot of clunky dialogue, but Michael is basically confirming what I speculated in point 2. Cool.

13. How Jack managed to get away and find his grandparents is never explained, but that’s a familiar Buckleming trope���characters are put together in a scene without any regard to how it might connect to other scenes or how/why those characters might’ve gotten there.

13.2. That said, it’s kinda poignant that Jack, having lost his angelic powers, is now trying to understand the human side of his heritage. He’s trying his best to adapt to his situation; this one year old kid is more well-adjusted than most of the adults on this show.

13.5. Well, holy shit, Jack talking about Kelly to his grandparents is just… making me feel emotional in a way this show hasn’t made me feel in a long, long time. This Calvert kid is good.

13.6. It is bizarre that Kelly’s parents are mostly ok with not knowing Kelly’s whereabouts for over a year—I don’t think we ever found out what position exactly Kelly held in the President’s office, and I can picture them in a bit of denial by telling themselves the reason they haven’t heard from Kelly is because she is in the middle of super-secret government work. I don’t know! But it’s just about handwave-able though, and their scene with Jack is worth it.

14. Honestly, Castiel, how did he travel so far and for so long without you noticing? So much for “Don’t worry, Sam, I will babysit this defenceless creature.”

(Speaking of Sam, wheeeerrreee’s Saaaaammmm)

“I suppose there are worse ways to be human than to be kind.”

“Have you heard from Sam?”

I LOVE YOU, JACK.

14.5. No, actually, Dean wouldn’t want it any other way. He said as much when Gadreel took over Sam completely back in s9.

15. Shoo, Nick.

16. FINALLY MORE SAM. With only like 4 minutes of episode left. What, Show, did you think you spoiled us too much last episode with all that glorious, glorious Sam content?

16.25. And finally a bit of action! The rapid-fire editing is making my head hurt, though.

16.5. Soooooooooooooo Dean’s back? Obviously Michael is playing a long game here, but it says something about the show that they can’t keep Dean away for more than two episodes without getting the shakes. I honestly miss Sera Gamble and her desire to rattle the status quo: in s6, she kept the so-called ‘real’ Sam away for half the season, which gave us imo some of the best storytelling, characterisation and acting from both Padalecki and Ackles in the entire show. In s7 she took away all the Winchester markers: the Impala, weird motel rooms, Bobby’s house. Of course, after she left the show settled back into a familiar rut (substituting Bobby’s house with that thrice-damned Bunker). I wish the show would take risks with these two again. s9 and the beginning of s10 were so very promising but there was no follow-through.

I guess they want to MotW fillers for a few episodes and that would be weird without SamnDean SamnDeaning it in the Impala, but Show, why don’t you just say ‘fuck it’ and try weird on for size? What do you have to lose? I mean, seriously?

17. Nick’s the murderer—called it!

18. This wasn’t terrible, you guys. 95% of the episode was just people sitting around having conversations, the dialogue was clunky, ideas derivative, scenes progressed without any rational links between them, the pacing was wonky, and there was too much exposition. But the emotional beats were solid and the set up is reasonably intriguing. I’ve seen far, far worse BuckLeming episodes.

Pacing is a real issue in this season, though. And Michael is not remotely intimidating as a threat.

[sunflowers-on-fire]

ARCANE ACT 3 SPOILERS

Just some of my thoughts on Cait/Vi in the finale, please skip this if you haven't seen the eps yet

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Possibly an unpopular opinion, but I actually think it's better if they didn't kiss yet, with everything going on it would've been rushed and kinda out of place (ok maybe it could work in that scene where they're in Caitlyn's room, but tbh I'd prefer it to happen in some big moment rather than just get thrown in there just so that it happens). Pretty sure this is the first time I'm actually perfectly happy with the gays not kissing in a show because, for once, it's impossible to pass this off as a queerbait. It's so clear that they're in love, it's even a major plot point (the whole thing with Jinx feeling like Vi abandoned her for Caitlyn). And don't even get me started on all the soft moments between them, the face touches, the conversation in Caitlyn's room, the rain scene (still sobbing over that), holding hands for reassurance when they're in front of the council, Vi hugging Caitlyn and saying that 'it's been real' when they are about to say goodbye... Honestly, I'll take that over a single kiss that's thrown in there just to appease us anytime, it does a way better job showing how much they love each other. Tbh I don't think I've seen any show so far that did it this way, basically making a queer relationship this obvious without having to add in a kiss early on, and I think that in itself is a move in the right direction. Also let's not forget that they've known each other for, what, 2 days at this point? Not to mention that they have a lot of other things to worry about. The development between them we got in such a short ammount of time is already huge, anything more would've been rushing it imo. It feels very real and natural this way, and I absolutely adore their dynamic. That said, I'm definitely expecting a kiss in s2. Possibly more to make up for that Jayce scene in ep 5 because I'm still trying to unsee :''D Also lemme just say I appreciate Jinx referring to Caitlyn as Vi's girlfriend and Vi not objecting to that, I feel like this was added just to make it clear for the straights that they're a thing haha Pretty sure some people will still try to dance around that and refuse to see it but oh well, it's more than enough for me, for now at least XD

[jess-the-vampire]

Amity Blight

Send me a Character

First impression

tbh the first time i knew about amity was when i already knew she was being a redeemed bully character with implied romantic feelings for luz since the show was a good few eps in at that point.

So i kinda thought "Oh, so it's like what they did with pacifica but they actually went through with the romance kinda".

Impression now

She's alright, i don't think i have as strong feelings about her character as other people do. I might be just as neutral on her as i was when i first knew about her, don't hate her, don't love her.

She's an alright character, cool to see her dynamic with luz onscreen, even if it kinda was put on fast forward in places.

Favorite moment

Her fight with hunter is pretty great.

Idea for a story

Au idea, but her being a emperor's guard alongside hunter and they work together as partners, her family drama still sticks around as her parents pressure her to stay in the coven and she and hunter's partnership and friendship has a lot of fun and interesting drama.

Unpopular opinion

Ok, so, i kinda have a few unpopular opinions regarding amity, so i'm just gonna lay them out real quick.

For one, i kinda don't think they fully handled her bullying willow situation well, while her arc mostly works, the way she treated willow before was SO awful and cruel and i just don't think the show fully had her apologize and reconcile for it. Her parents as far as we know did not make amity be a bully to willow like this so this is something amity did on her own terms, and yet never really seems properly address.

2, and this might be super unpopular, i kinda want amity to take a bit of a backseat moving forward. She's just been in so many episodes and takes so much spotlight away from other characters that i feel moving forward she should take a few more smaller roles so other characters who desperately need screen time and development get time to shine. (Even in episodes where other characters are SUPPOSED to get spotlight or SHOULD get spotlight, especially willow and gus, amity overshadows them in the end and it can start to feel frustrating even if the ep is good).

3, if hunter and amity had been given a fair duel at EL, hunter would've wiped the floor with her and i won't hear otherwise. If Amity could just barely beat him at his worst there is NO way she would have stopped him if he had been at his best.

4, I know ppl like lumity, but if i gotta have more episodes with amity in the focus i'd prefer more with other characters who aren't luz, like willow or even her siblings. Pretty much all of her episodes focus on their relationship and not enough on others and it'd be nice if time was taken into focusing on her other important ones without luz at all. Not that they're dating, maybe we can get more episodes of amity with other characters, s2 did slightly better in that regard.

5, i don't think she hates hunter as much as ppl think she does after EL, i think she's mad with him, which is fair enough. But she witnessed enough about hunter to probably understand he's not coming from a malicious place either and felt he had no choice. I think she'll be mad at him for a lil while because of the threat, but i don't think she'll hold as big of a grudge as ppl assume either

might have others i'm forgetting, i probably have more hot takes on amity then other characters because of how she's written and how the fandom can be with her.

Favorite relationship

Tbh her dynamic with hunter is so interesting i kinda hope we get to see them get along at some point in the future.

Favorite headcanon

I like the idea of her dying her hair different colors on the regular from now on.

[bipirate]

i'm a little bit into ep 2 now, here's some more thoughts

The casting overal is okay! I particularly like sokka, which might be an unpopular opinion judging by what im seeing online

I also really like how they've written zuko so far, and his scenes with uncle iroh are great so far. They have really good chemistry. I also liked iroh's conversation with aang in the first episode, that was a nice addition

The sets are really pretty!

The cgi not so much though. Havent seen enough of the bending yet to say anything about that. I'm not convinced yet but im keeping an open mind

The lighting is really terrible

The way theyre writing aang doesnt sit well with me, the way he's immediately like 'ok my people are dead, and now i fully accept my responsibility' like bro... no? The whole point of his arc in book 1 is that he's a kid who wants to goof off and avoid his responsibilities. i know a lot of people have been talking about this since those articles dropped but its truly to weird seeing it on screen like who is that character.

Im uhh watching the avatar live action and im abt halfway through the first episode. And uh i gotta say its not great so far.