#which has always been a prop imo

[kamisadopteddaughter]

In my opinion, Rhea v Liv no longer needs the title and neither of them should be carrying it into or winning it at WrestleMania.

[adonneniel]

Ok, nevermind, I am going to try and put my complicated thoughts on paper.

So, about Dragon Age elves being intentionally inspired by Jews.

Like, on one hand they’ll always hold a special place in my heart because when do Jews *ever* get to be portrayed as elegant and mystical and beautiful? Even if modern DA elves are a fallen, oppressed people, those vibes are still present. And even if it’s not always handled well, the struggle between the more assimilated city elves and the more traditionally minded Dalish is very real. The longing for a lost homeland. The ache and resentment and fear that nothing is stable & people could turn on a dime. The isolationist tendencies that arise as a consequence of that. Perhaps prickly and defensive to outsiders, but loving and community-centered to their own.

In short, it resonates, and I always felt like I had room to roleplay and embrace these concepts, particularly in the older games.

Tbh even the Dalish clans always on the verge of dying felt real. Perhaps too real. And I think the main problem (for me), was that it was never treated with the gravity and respect it should’ve been. The characters shrug and move on.

Even Davrin’s distaste for his people’s focus on the past doesn’t bother me. Because not only do people like that exist, they still made him unapologetically Dalish (he even named his gryphon Assan! An elvish word!) It’s obvious he still cares deeply about elves, and he was the only one who consistently expressed concern for modern elves when the topic came up. If they’d handled the rest of the elves in the game better (which I’ll expand on in a second), I think he’d actually serve as a great constrast to Bellara.

But then we get to the Evanuris, constant victim blaming, and the inexplicable white-guilt projecting the writers added in Veilguard. (And that last one stings because minorities are never treated as individuals—a bad apple is always turned into a representive of the collective.)

Choosing to make the Evanuris the root of Thedas’ woes might be a neat twist in isolation, but it’s *not* in isolation. Not when Jews are at the center of every conspiracy theory and often painted as this nebulous, shadowy cabal controlling society for their own nefarious means. And to then have the gall to paint *all* modern elves with this brush? As if they’re responsible for a few shitheads that existed thousands of years in the past (that also happened to enslave them). As if they’re somehow complicit when past games have made it abundantly clear that elves are treated like trash with ZERO institutional power? (And Veilguard conveniently brushes this under the rug).

It’d be one thing to make Bellara apologize—because it’s kinda in character—but there’s no meaningful pushback. And elf!Rook has at least three opportunities to spout those same bullshit white-guilt apologies. Tbh, it soured me to Harding’s entire questline.

And the distressing reality that the Evanuris might make people even more distrustful and violent towards elves? It’s practically framed as a *new* fear. Which is utterly ridiculous when even an elven Inquisitor can state that people will always find a way to blame elves (with an appropriately resigned anger)

And going back to Bellara, I hate hate hate that her questline almost encourages us to throw away the Archive, as if this monumental resource is selfish to want to preserve? And why do we get to make this choice? Rook might not even be a elf! It’s similar to the framing of Merrill’s quest to restore the eluvian, but at least Merrill fights tooth and nail for it. Why is the desire to reclaim and discover lost knowledge always presented as stupid and dangerous?

One last thing: Epler said they were trying to give the Dalish a win in Veilguard, and I assume baking in a “save the Dalish!” quest was an attempt to make up for the potiential massacres in past games, but, uh…it failed imo. How is it a “win” to make them nothing more than poor little props for the Big Hero to swoop in and save? They have no agency. They’re shown no respect. We don’t even get to talk to them!

Anyway, I’ve seen some excellent takes on the anti-indigenous racism baked into the elves, but not one from a Jewish perspective. So here’s me, a Jew, venting about a series that’s somehow still near and dear to my heart, and probably always will be, despite the racism and antisemitism. (Though whether I’ll replay datv or buy any future games is up in the air. Right now veilguard feels like the last straw��the mediocre writing failed to make up for the highly questionable & infurating choices made).

[genericpuff]

Oh nooo the mention of the XIV figures is a grim reminder that the sample LO piece in photos is most likely the best looking on ;-;

HAHAHAHAHAHAH

okay but have you seen the new alisaie and alphinaud dolfie dream figures

now THAT'S expensive, holy fuck 😭 but to their credit, they're also like, fully poseable dolls with props, the LO figures just stand there and they don't look great for the cost they're demanding (it's the fact that they're limited edition and are only making like 800 of them that they're likely charging so high to ensure they make back the production costs)

a better comparison IMO would be to SE's static figures which are still often either poseable (usually just the heads / arms ) or come with additional accessories that can be swapped out like the faces / weapons / etc.-

unfortunately due to manufacturing costs (and shipping when they offer free shipping deals) figures are always pretty expensive, but they could at least, idk... look a little better for that price? I'm gonna assume the solo figures will at least be cheaper (but boy do they look cheaper to boot) and honestly the H x P figure isn't awful, I'm just not a huge fan of the faces (again Persephone has that Tim Burton face going on and I've just never really been into that a whole lot tbh). A pal actually pointed out that you can see a little crater where Hades' nose is displacing Persephone's skin and that's just so fucking funny LOL (and when you see it up close, again the characters look like they would be gross to touch, they look sweaty) 🤮

It seems to at least be a decent size as well but it's hard to tell from the photo comparisons. I said it in my previous post and I'll say it again, even the figures aren't consistent in their designs and that's all owed to Rachel's lack of character design consistency throughout the series LMAO

Again, I'm not planning on spending my money on this, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little tempted. But that's the ADHD "must hoard all the things" brainworm taking shape as the Vow of Resolve at play, definitely not the Vow of Reason if you catch my drift LMAO

[googledetective]

my thoughts on the new episode as always, as I am currently losing my shit lol. I know a lot of people dislike me after last ep when I spoke up about my thoughts, but this time I'm ready to be more mature about it.

1. I love the Hu argue uhhh thingy! I forgot what it's called ngl! I love her and Nico's new sprites too, they were really all amazing and conveyed so much emotion!

And then Hu said this 💀

genuinely insane analogy to make here. I'm sorry, but that was actually insanely uncalled for imo.

2. I think everyone forgot Hu's custom weapon is wire, (if you realized and predicted this, huge props to you), and I did not expect Nico to try and frame Hu for murder like that. NicoHu divorce arc when??? Just kidding, but they're much more cruel then I originally thought. I completely understand trauma from not being accepted as the person you are which was likely in the form of bullying/abuse, but I was genuinely surprised that they really try and murdered Ace just because they didn't like him and they didn't want to go through that again. Very interesting. I also feel very bad for Hu, because she's poured her heart into trying to protect Nico, and even though her methods are EXTREMELY flawed, it must hurt to know someone you really tried to help would try to frame you for murder. This makes me wonder if Nico felt Hu was a threat to their sense of self like Ace was, if they were going to try and pin a murder on her. I'm glad Charles and J told Hu to shut up though, because she was becoming unreasonable. I really hope things turn out the best for her though, because it's clear she's coming from a place of kindness, even if her kindness is mostly self-serving.

3. As much as I don't really like the guy, I'm very glad to have seen Ace pop off. Everyone has treated him like shit, and even if he's treated everyone like shit back, he did not deserve to be almost murdered and then for people to just not care. I really hope Ace ends up making a friend if he isn't the killer, because he really deserves someone to care about him the way mostly everyone in the cast already has someone.

4. They both make very good points here. I think Ace deserves an apology, but a real one.

5. "of course I regret doing it, I'm not Levi" - Nico

THATS ACTUALLY INSANE- but that may be my favorite line of the ep. I'm glad Nico regrets the crime though, because I was scared for awhile they didn't and there might be another incident of the same thing again. This makes me think they won't try and kill again, but it's drdt so you never know, and I think they're a definite threat if they get provoked to that point so easily.

6. I feel so bad for Rose, but let me say, dare I say, I think Whit asking if Rose is okay might've been the sweetest thing Ive ever seen. A lot of people tend to forget that Whit is actually very compassionate, so I'm glad to see that part of him shine through again. Rose is so human, and I think she may be the most realistic character I've ever seen portrayed in a fangan. A lot of characters are able to just get back up after a murder, but she's stuck, and I think I would be the same way. Unfortunately there's zero mental health professionals (obviously, cause they all need to be in a ward) in drdt, but I hope that she maybe can come to cope in a healthier way with what's going on around her, because she doesn't deserve this mess. I didn't actually realize before that the cast had put her on a bit of a pedestal due to her amazing memory, but it makes sense. I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but I hope that Rose comes to peace with the turpentine and the tape thing because it really isn't her fault and that she can get help for her trauma due to Min and Xander, and Teruko's almost death. No matter how much people expect her to memorize a crime scene, she's human, and we all take things at much different paces.

7.

Hey David, didn't Whit teach us that trauma is a serious thing? You know I've been defending this guy a bit because of how he helped Eden and how I think he's trying to do what's right, but NEVERMIND. Because what the actual fuck is wrong with him to say something as messed up as these two statements. Rose and Arturo do not owe you anything, and they deserve to heal healthy, and at their own pace.

8. Teruko defending Rose was not in my ch2 trial bingo card, but oh my god, that really is sweet. I think Teruko really has started to change from talking with Rose.

I'm running out of images so I can't include her monologue, but it genuinely makes me happy she's starting to get some sort of character development. She really deserves it, and Charles really deserved being so fucking right about being social, lol. Also Teruko thanking Rose with that genuine smile on her face- brought me to tears. I hope they become friends :)

9. Ace and Eden, huh? To be honest, I'm completely torn and I can't see it being either one of them, but then again, I can't see it being anyone. I know so many people are complaining about not having a culprit reveal this ep, but I'm fine. I could wait another year and a half for the reveal. Actually, I don't think we need one at all. Maybe the true drdt is the friends we made along the way. Maybe it's better to choose delusion that nobody could've done it than it to have been Ace or Eden. Maybe, I killed Arei.

(I'm not that smart so I don't think I should be making killer theories, lol. I think it's safe to say I should stick to memes.)

10.

LMAOOOO. She right though.

11. "It pains me to come to Ace's defense" - David

another laughable moment, but a win for the Acevid shippers, I guess. I don't think David was lying though, and it was my suspicion all along that he had seen the body before anyone. I'm not very smart so I'm a bit confused as to whether later they're saying David actually did see her body (which is weird bc he'd have an alibi), or if he thinks someone else might've seen it and wanted to include that as a possibility.

12.

Teruko handled this whole situation super well, I was very impressed with her. Obviously you can't rule Eden out as the killer and Teruko explained that, but she was so compassionate and understanding about it that it made me cry. I never thought I'd say this, but here's a Teruko W. As for Eden pleading... I wish I could say more and I'm sure I'll be able to later, but it's just so likely she could be the culprit that I can't take anything she says at face value rn, and I was having trouble empathizing with her. Of course that's just my take, and I have already chatted with others who felt the whole scene was just a heartwarming experience, and that makes me really happy. This being said, the fact Teruko immediately turned to Ace as her main suspect TOOK ME OUT. I feel so bad for him he has literally done nothing but be suspicious to warrant this, while Eden is at the same level of suspicion. I really like that Teruko is playing favorites now, because Eden's been so good to her all this time.

13. I forgot to include David trying to get Teruko to not trust others!!! Shit!!!

Is that seriously how he plans to end the kg.. I can kinda see what he's going for bc so far the trope is in most danganronpa that you need to trust others to live and be fulfilled (not saying drdt is gonna follow that trope though). Hm.

Bro is actually down horrendous for Teruko though 😭

tierlist after watching this ep (kill me now)

[perenial]

gene im so glad you said this cause I haven't seen anyone else comparing it to the book as source material for like character and tone but i am So sure that if terry was alive the season would not be like this but i fear good omens fans dont realise how big a factor the lack of terry's influence is?? or like they forget that good omens was never just neilman???

ok before i go any further: i rly don't want to detract from anyone's enjoyment of the season and everything im going to say comes from a place of love for a) the original novel (& season 1 to a certain extent bc it got me back into it lol) and b) tv as a medium so like peace and love on planet let people enjoy things etc etc

but

like u said, terry's influence on the book was enormous – what makes gomens gomens is the balance of his genuine warmth and precise understanding of humanity tempered with neilman's sardonic voice and general like.....savvy approach to storytelling? i guess u could call it? anyway what rly helps the book is that it took them years to write it, passing ideas back and forth and rewriting each other's work until their voices blended seamlessly and a well structured capital-s Story was created. when i praise the book for being self-contained i think a huge part of that comes from the circumstances in which it emerged: two authors with complementary styles writing in a v particular time period where they had both the space to play with their ideas and the constraints of the novel as a storytelling format from which to craft something extremely specific.

adaptations are a tricky business and a tv version of gomens produced literal decades after the book was always going to have some unique challenges, but i don't think that's a bad thing bc the challenges could prove to be creative opportunities to take both the established audience and those new to the story by surprise. my biggest hot take here is that i don't think translating a story into a different medium means it has to follow the original narrative exactly, bc each medium has its own ways of communicating information and these structures, rules and traditions in turn inform what that story is. what matters more than following a story beat-by-beat is capturing what that story is about at its core, what themes and messages and ideas it works through and how.

all this is to say i never expected tv gomens to be a perfect reproduction of the book and if it had it been, it probably would have been worse off for it. that being said, there are parts of the book – like u said, its tone and character – that needed to have some fidelity in order to pull it off, and for the most part s1 did that bc it was still working predominantly within the bounds of the novel & its core ideas. while i did have some issues w how neilman & amazon adapted some details and characterisations, i generally rly liked s1 – it reminded me of why i loved the book and it was just generally fun to watch.

s2 was. not that fun to watch

a few positives before i go ham w the critiques:

the hair & makeup + costumes were fantastic (although i feel like s1 was slightly better re: makeup?)

the sound design & score made some of the more awkward scenes bearable and thats no mean feat imo

david & michael gave incredible performances w what they were given – michael especially managed to salvage aziraphale enough that his complete 180 didnt feel completely tonally dissonant (more on this later)

the detail of the sets is NUTS and i genuinely want to see more of hell bc of how intricate and fun the props look

i actually like gabriel/beelzebub!! their getting together montage worked for me, although they could have spent sliiiightly more time establishing what it is they like abt each other so much + why gabriel wanted to stop armageddon 2.0 so suddenly

the opening scene, although not on par w the novel's & s1's, was visually gorgeous and thematically resonant (although neilman owes me royalties for ripping it off from this shitty fic i wrote back when raphael!crowley was all the rage lol)

now w THAT being said:

like i said yesterday, the pacing was fucking awful. flashbacks are hard to work w at the best of times and the way they were used in this season felt so needless, especially the 40s one in ep 4 that takes up like 90% of the episode. in both flashbacks + present day there were scenes that dragged for no real reason, dialogue that looped back around on itself to stretch out the runtime, and weirdly enough places where there should have been character & plot work where there just,, wasn't any?? for example, maggie & nina's night locked in the café – some parts of the dialogue in later episodes made out that they'd had some rly deep conversation abt how they feel about each other or even that they'd had an affair, but that isn't clear from those scenes in the café. i'm not saying we had to see that conversation in its entirety but that there needed to be more connective details – either in dialogue or direction – that gave that part of the story coherence.

(there were pacing issues w the editing too but i don't want to jump down the editor's throats on this one bc im more focused on writing & direction issues)

the second major problem that i mentioned in my tags yesterday is the protagonist shift, which is an issue that started in s1. aziraphale & crowley are side characters in book gomens – significant ones, yeah, but still somewhat peripheral to adam (& anathema who counts as a deuteragonist imo). this works incredibly well w who they are as characters: they're Just Some Guys who happen to be involved in this epic biblical-level bureaucratic nightmare and importantly, they don't want to be in the spotlight. the arrangement was created so that they could explore what it meant to be themselves away from the Big Narrative; literally any time they get involved in larger affairs is bc the plot is alive and caught them unionising on company time. the last fucking chapter is adam (& god) being like haha u guys are alright keep it sleezy and letting them go. like. hello. neil u let them go.

but then!! tv gomens s1 does something interesting at the end w the body swapping addition that i dont totally hate – it gives aziraphale & crowley the extra bit of character work that brings them slightly more adjacent to their book selves. see i kinda view tv a/c as the younger, less settled versions of book a/c; they're still caught up in the immediacy of being key players and haven't fully realised that earth is their home. i haven't watched s1 in a while but one scene i remember rly clearly is crowley throwing all those astronomy texts in the air and angsting abt when he was an angel; i remember it bc his anguish in that scene feels a lot newer and rawer than book crowley's feelings about falling. when tv a/c do their bodyswap, it gives them the chance to land a blow against heaven/hell in a way that solidifies their allegiance to earth in a way that more closely resembles what book a/c have been abt the entire time (still adjacent, though. not parallel).

the reason why this works is that it does one final pivot to orient aziraphale and crowley as almost-main characters in a manner that makes sense in relation to a) their book selves and b) the position the tv show has placed them in. a combination of factors made tv a/c feel a lot less mature than their book counterparts but at the end of s1 they're sort of facing the same direction the book ended in, albeit through their own flashy late 2010s means.

when s2 was announced i was.......apprehensive bc to me, that felt like a satisfactory ending. i get the impression that amazon saw how wildly successful the adaptation was and was like oh shit we could make way more money out of this and neilman, having all those undead darlings that he and terry killed in the process of whittling the book into a workable novel, jumped at the chance to resurrect all those half-realised ideas. but not only were those ideas probably discarded for a reason, they've either been laying in wait for years unworked or they're new inventions, which means they weren't molded in the way that the book had been. like i said before, book gomens underwent years of rewrites and creative collaboration, and i think that process was what made it so good; s2 didn't have that. even if some of terry's ideas made it into s2, his influence is still missing bc he and neilman weren't in dialogue the same way they were in the book (and in some ways s1 bc i know terry was involved in the process of adapting gomens to screen before his death).

i don't think it's a case of newer fans forgetting terry so much as it is the context of terry's involvement being so removed from the current circumstances that certain aspects & discourses (i.e. is the s2 finale queerbaiting (no), does binge watching change the viewership experience (yes), etc etc) about the show overshadow other discussions that would usually be taking place. and before anyone says it's a case of neilman forgetting terry, i definitely don't think it's that either bc thats. yknow. wildly disrespectful. but also there are larger systems and structures at play than one writer no matter how much beef i have w him and his decisions, bc ultimately he's just one guy (a powerful and wealthy guy, but just a guy) and there's a wider cultural shift happening rn towards rehashing old stories without understanding what made them successful in the first place, and that same culture just doesn't allow for much, if any, constructive discourse analysis

so yeah

[toychest321]

L.U.V. Dolls - Initial thoughts

(Special thanks to @dollsinvogue for notifying me about these and clarifying their names! And credit to youloveit.com for most of the info I'll be going over)

For anyone not in the know, the creators of Glo Up Girls are releasing a new doll line named L.U.V. (Limitless, Unique, Vibrant) Dolls, coming May 1, 2024

The most notable aspect of this release is the fact that the dolls' outfits were displayed at New York Fashion Week!

To add onto the line's central high fashion aesthetic, the dolls' boxes (from what we've seen) are made to resemble magazine covers

Already I'm giving them major props for such a bold choice in marketing!

I also admire how while the brand has a clear theme (with bold prints and ruffles in particular being a running motif throughout designs), most of the characters have styles that speak well to their individual personalities! It makes me want the line to succeed so we can see the second outfits in doll form as well, and speaking of which...

The first design we have is for the character Harper. I absolutely ADORE both of her looks here, I'm guessing she'll have a very soft and sweet personality between the use of light colors, lace, and puffed sleeves! I'm also detecting some slight 1950s inspo with the a-line silhouettes, sinched waists, polka dots, and large collar! I also really hope the dolls come with the purses shown! Easily an 8/10 design here.

This character Londynn's designs are probably my second favorite, and another good example of consistent characterization! The hot pink pops without distracting from the bold prints on display, and the use of colors like black, brown, white, and beige tie them all together! I'm also wondering if this character might be an adventuring type between the animal motifs (fur on the first coat and a pale pink zebra print on the second jacket) and knee-high tan boots. While the doll's style doesn't look to be exactly for me, I appreciate the thought put behind it! Also I'm giving a bonus point for giving the doll textured hair as well, 7.5/10.

In third we have Brooke, and I find I'm somewhat conflicted with these designs? Both of these respective designs are fairly well-executed imo, but I'm not sure they give off the same character. The left honestly kinda reminds me of Karma Nichols but slightly edgier with the sleek material and black accents. The right, meanwhile, gives me girlboss vibes. I will give it that they were able to make a professional look without being too boring (side-eyeing Barbie Style rn), by adding the ruffles at the jacket and pants for a unique silhouette. Maybe the inconsistency in style is for a day-to-night look? Honestly the only thing I'd change are the puffed sleeves on the first designs. Overall I'd say this is a solid 7/10.

And lastly we have Autumn's looks, and honestly? I kinda hate it. The first look is decent, but sorta comes across as too similar to the first two's outfits between the pale tones and the pink? That second look though is atrocious. The skirt looks like a puffer jacket and doesn't match at all with the pattern, and asymmetrical sleeves have always been a pet peeve of mine. It's a Barbie Extra look, in a bad way. 5.5/10

Despite my negative thoughts towards the end, I have high hopes for this line! With Rainbow High abandoning its High Fashion aesthetic for an uglier child-friendly sparkle rainbow slime vibe, I feel like these dolls could take up the hole it's leaving behind if they play their cards right!

I look forward to what this line has to bring!

[codenamesazanka]

I'm trying to stay optimistic but the recent chapter was such a letdown after all of this speculation, and I'm really not ready for afo gave tenko decay to become canon :(

So, same as you, I've always hated the 'AFO gave Tenko Decay' theory, but I think it’s important to examine why. 

What I hate is less of the actual act - it is incredibly possible, after all, that AFO just gave this kid descendant of a hated enemy such a deadly quirk for his own twisted ends; and more in fear of what the confirmation of it might signifies - cheap 'easy-way-out' writing that would pretend to solve the problem of Shimura Tenko/Shigaraki Tomura while not actually doing so:

If Tenko was given Decay, then it means the Shimura massacre and then The Walk could've been avoided! 🎉 Because Tenko's hurt and anger at being repeatedly rejected by his father and family would not have manifested in such a lethal way, and so... what? Could've been ignored for a little longer? Wouldn't have sent him to the streets, where people should've helped him but didn't, and now Shigaraki's making them paying for that? (Somewhat related, I’ve seen people suggest that Decay makes Tenko itch because his body isn’t compatible with it, a la Aoyama - the itch is caused by the quirk. However, the day AFO brought Tenko home and Tenko was locked outside, Tenko already had scars around his eyes, and his mom was worried about “his allergies getting worse”. This suggests Tenko was already itchy and scratching at himself before he ever met AFO (and received the quirk that day). And given how the itch represents Tenko/Shigaraki’s frustration and anxiety, that Tenko says he’s only itchy in the house, demonstrates the Shimura household problem was a thing that hurt him long before AFO ever showed up that day.)

If Tenko was given Decay, then it means Shigaraki/Tenko is not innately a destructive and twisted child! Such a sweet kid would not have such a evil quirk! And he has no good reason to want to destroy stuff! 🎉 Because we're going to believe in the idea that ''Bad' Quirks Makes You A Bad Person’. And throw kids who do have unpleasant traits for whatever reason under the bus. And act as if Shigaraki wants to destroy because he's beholden to a gene inside of him, instead of having perfectly valid reasons to be angry and want to lash out.

If Tenko was given Decay, it means we don't have to worry about the 'what ifs' of having a deadly quirk like this even if the massacre never happen! 🎉 Because what if Decay was a naturally-occuring quirk? How would Heroes that aren't Eraserhead have dealt with an accident from such a quirk? Would Tenko have been forced to enroll in Quirk Counseling, which we know from Toga is such a great program? Would Tenko have grown up discriminated against, much like Shinsou, or worse? And these things are absolutely factors that would make someone feel ostracized in society and lash out, even without the backing of a crime lord?

If Tenko was given Decay, we have thee easiest way to deal with Shigaraki Tomura: the story can blame AFO for being the instigator of all tragedy and suffering - without Heroes needing to own up to the fact the society they've have been propping up for a century might play some role in creating Villains through countless, unintentional ways. The focus - the supposed real tragedy - becomes the fact that AFO gave Tenko a scary quirk, and Deku can focus his energies on that… instead of where, imo, the actual tragedies lie - an unhappy and dysfunctional home of generational trauma that was never dealt with, a city full of people who ignored an injured five-year-old because they put off all communal responsibility on Heroes*, and how this can all happen in a 'Hero-saturated society' without Tenko being helped in any of the multiple steps it took to get him to where he ended up under the bridge, being hugged by AFO.

* bonus: none of the people on the street knew what quirk Tenko had, so… what are we to make of this fact? Tenko could've easily been injured in a car accident, walked away, and still be ignored if AFO isn't revealed to made everyone ignore Tenko as well? But that would've been okay, Shigaraki would've been less pissed off, because it wasn't part of a villainous mastermind plot? 

Meanwhile, Shigaraki would be only a sad little pawn, an empty victim crammed with a deadly quirk and engineered trauma and fake wrath, and once Deku saves him by telling him his entire life was a lie, that he actually has no reason to feel so betrayed and angry (can't even direct that at AFO anymore, because the man’s gone), Shigaraki can (selfishly!) forget his friends and his experiences and take pleasure in knowing he wasn't supposed to be a Villain. He was supposed to be a Good Person, without an Evil Quirk, and now he can assimilate back into his rightful, conforming proper place in society!

However–I don’t think that sounds like Shigaraki at all. It could happen! God forbid it, but that is how Horikoshi can end up writing the character and the conclusion. I don’t know how likely that is. 

What I do know, though, is that Shigaraki is someone who already knows AFO is a manipulative asshole:

In Chapter 237, while reflecting on his newly regained memories, Shigaraki considers, “If only, back then, someone, anyone, had reached out to help… then maybe the itch would’ve gone away for good.” That he specifically says this last part after remembering specifically how AFO had found him, Shigaraki knew AFO didn’t actually help him, else the itch would’ve faded. 

In Chapter 277, Shigaraki is not particularly surprised that the AFO quirk comes with AFO’s ‘too-strong’ will. (Then tells AFO is shut up.) 

In Chapter 298, after AFO gives a whole spiel about how Shigaraki asked for this power, Shigaraki declares that he’s not going to be AFO’s “stinkin’ pawn”. (And started looking for a way to undermine AFO’s control)

In Chapter 379, Shigaraki outright states that he knew AFO was manipulating him, especially trying to make use of the Shimura and All Might connection. (And defeats the AFO vestige from inside out, taking his body back.) 

Unfortunately, Shigaraki is also someone who knows all this, but will still continue to rely on AFO’s double-edged gifts - keeping The Hands with him all this time; partnering with the Doctor; utilizing Gigantomachia into his Deika plan despite not having gained Gigantomachia’s respect yet; undergoing the surgery to receive the AFO quirk.

And finally, Shigaraki is someone who has already regained all his memories, back in MVA. He remembers being five-years-old and still not having manifested his quirk. He remembers AFO telling him that his quirk is a rare variant mutation, just so happened to be one that no one has ever seen before. In the latest chapter, the vision of Tenko holding hands with a man in a suit - that is Shigaraki’s memory. Shigaraki remembers this moment, of being Tenko and walking home, escorted by a stranger in a suit. And it appears, right after Deku declares that he’s going to keep striking at Shigaraki until he reaches the pain Shigaraki has buried and covered up with a lid.

What I’m getting at is this: I think - I hope! - there is a possibility that, if AFO did indeed give Tenko Decay, Shigaraki already knows AFO gave him the quirk - figured it out when he got his memories back, most likely - but is beyond caring. He knows Decay was given to him, that AFO had that hand in causing the massacre; but still Shigaraki uses it, still decides to embody the quirk as his.

Because however Shigaraki got Decay, it really doesn’t change anything about how the world works. It doesn’t change how his dad was locking him out of the house before he ever got any quirk, simply because he couldn’t/didn't want to follow a rule; and it doesn’t change how he was ignored by everyone that day on the street, and no one knew at all what quirk he had or what he did. Manifesting Decay only punted him down into a miserable social position that already existed - not for him at that moment in time, but for someone else; only gave him the ability to witness something that had always been there all the more clearly.

Now, this is very much a cope. But I can cope with the 'AFO gave Tenko Decay’, if it actually ends up giving Deku a harder time saving Shigaraki, if it forces Deku to become unable to blame AFO, because that was never the real injustice Shigaraki has been lashing out against. That’s really the main thing.

Thanks for the ask, anon! Sorry it’s long and rambling. 

[ahoyimlosingmymind]

So your opinion on Sokeefe and Fitz like YES EXACTLY. .... What are your opinions on the contents of Keefe's character itself?

Tehe thank you <3

I'm SO glad that post was well received, because I was sweating BULLETS.

To preface this post, I must admit I have been a Fitz girlie since day one. A lot of my issues with Keefe stem from the WAY he is written, and the way the narrative favors him and justifies him. Fitz comes into play, because Fitz and Keefe are used as narrative devices to contrast one another. However that was not always the case. In the earlier books, when they were still close friends, they agreed on a lot and seemed to know each other well. And then BOOM- Neverseen hits, Keefe is super reckless (even if his heart was in the right place) and is immediately forgiven for it. He became a fan favorite, and thus the decline in Fitz's original character begins. Shannon had to ruin Fitz's character to prop Keefe's up in the later books-- which comes off as supremely lazy to me. And I just cannot get over the complete character assassination of Fitz. Which again, not really a KEEFE issue, but more so my beef with the writing and execution.

That was a giant preface. I'm sorry. anway-

In previous posts about Keefe, I've gone over the way he often airs out and announces Sophie's emotions to the room, and he uses the fact that he can feel her emotions to get her to share secrets with him that she otherwise wouldn't. This is never seen as a bad thing, but when Fitz- who is not privy to Sophie's emotions- asks her how she's feeling or for her thoughts, it's suddenly 'invasive' and 'pushy'.

I've also gone over how Keefe lets Ro, his bodyguard, just verbally insult and berate Fitz, his supposed best friend, and never comes to his defense. Keefe- while consumed with his own issues, is often dismissive of others' issues. Which I don't blame him for- but he's never held accountable for it.

With quotes like (and I'm paraphrasing) "Yeah but you get to go back to perfect Vacker Land when all is said and done"- this was directed at Fitz when Fitz was trying to bring perspective and comfort. I believe this happened in either Neverseen or Lodestar. He also refuses to relate to Fitz or meet him in the middle on any issues ever. When Fitz points out that they both have traitors in the family, Keefe is quick to scoff and dismiss this olive branch.

Another moment is when he tells Tam that the role of "Mommy/daddy issues is taken" and in inadvertent ways, pokes fun at Tam's coping mechanisms. in front of everyone.

And then you get moments, like in Flashback, where Fitz directly tells Sophie he doesn't feel like he's allowed to be hurt the way he is- because he doesn't have it 'as bad' as other characters. <- huh wonder where that comes from.

Just not a great look imo.

I am also just really tired of the 'I use humor to hide how broken I am' archetype often found in literature. And while it may be relatable to many people, and a reason why he is a favorite- I'm just tired of seeing it, and I think it could have been done better. But it is a middle grade series, so of course it's a bit dumbed down.

I also get annoyed when Keefe butts in to any moment concerning Sophie because he just HAS to get a word in. He HAS to prove why he 'Knows Foster best'. All of the characters do this to an extent, but he does it the most and it's like- STAWP PLEASE.

Keefe is also just... blatantly mean in his own POV? Especially towards Fitz. He calls him boringly perfect, mentions how he wants to punch him, internally agrees with Ro's jabs etc-

and the other half of his POV is just ruminating on his sucky life and the 'cute worry line between Foster's brows'

and maybe I'm not being fair to him. Because LISTEN- I don't want him to be a perfect character. My issue is that he's obviously NOT perfect, but the narrative never makes him out to be imperfect. It runs circles around itself justifying him and his actions- but doesn't offer the same grace to any of the other characters besides Sophie.

[leqclerc]

The entire picture around sainz amazes me. Like how you're going to rate him so high, how you're going to compare him against charles when he has one good race every 8 f1 weekends, how you going to call him better than Hamilton, how you going to say he's the best driver on the grid after max and then turn around and ask "is carlos sainz underrated"

Exactly. It's so funny imo for the media to be like "is CS underrated?" and make his ex/current teammate answer that question (which, like, wtf else are they going to say, they're hardly going to start beef in a press conference with him sitting right there lmao.) If anything he's overrated. As you said, he can be completely anonymous for multiple races in a row but one good weekend and he's suddenly better than Charles and basically on par with Max and should get the Red Bull seat. Not to mention Ferrari must be regretting "getting rid of the wrong driver." Okay? 🤨

Even at his lowest I think he gets a lot of grace. Outside the pool of British drivers he's basically the British pundit/journos golden child; the likes of Lawrence Barretto and Damon Hill consistently prop him up and add to this narrative of him being the "worthier" Ferrari driver, the faster one, the one with more prowess and exemplary leadership skills. Also the "consummate professional and dedicated team player." Yeah, until he starts binning planned strategies or impeding his teammate. 😑

The disappointing thing is, this is and will likely continue to be the mainstream narrative as long as these weekends happen. It's something I've noticed among "casuals" as well — unless you are deeply invested in the Ferrari ecosystem and constantly and closely following the developments, the interviews, the drivers' team radios, etc, the perception is basically: Even when Charles qualifies on pole he loses out to Max, sometimes even in the early laps of the race, and then can't manage to regain the lead, ergo he is ineffective; Carlos, meanwhile, "gets the job done" and, well, wins, ergo he is effective, Ferrari's sole hero, etc.

Obviously there's lots of factors that influence a race weekend or result. Hell, things might have looked different if Ferrari hadn't implemented team orders pretty much as soon as Max was out of the picture. We know this. But a lot of people don't, either through plain ignorance, or because they willingly dismiss the context in favour of the face value results, and the face value results say Carlos is the only non-RB race winner in the past year. And unfortunately the only way for this narrative to change is for Charles to, well, win. (I know we're only three races in and by all accounts Ferrari seem better equipped to challenge Red Bull this year than last year, so he may get a few opportunities to do so, but yeah. Carlos has been undoubtedly very lucky to always be in the right place at the right time to take advantage of the rare Red Bull mishap, and Charles needs to make sure he's putting himself in that position too, especially if the car is struggling in dirty air. Figures that the one time he broke his front row streak Max would have reliability issues 😭)

Also imo the hype is magnified by the fact that he's the someone other than Max that people desperately want to see winning. So much so that the "how" doesn't even matter anymore. The race was objectively boring but a lot of people are hyping it up and artificially bumping up the enjoyment meter just because the end result was a non-Max win. So he's got that on his side as well. But for me, I think how the race is won matters as well. Both times he took advantage of Max/Red Bull having a rare off day. Which, fine, this sport is about luck and capitalizing on these opportunities when they present themselves, I get that. But the real breakthrough will come when Ferrari is able to keep up with and beat Red Bull in the race on merit, not because they just got lucky. The closest we got to that so far is Vegas. If they can do that this year then we can start saying that Red Bull's got serious competition. Making thinkpieces out of hypotheticals because Max had a debilitating, race-ending issue with his car is not it.

[haircoveredwriter]

Caryl going forward in S2

Now that the season is over, I've had a chance to collect my thoughts on the direction I think they are looking to go for S2 and I am even more convinced everything we've seen was linked and deliberately choreographed to highlight the upcoming Caryl payoff. This includes the season as a whole as well as the finale and the Book of Carol promo. I'm going tag it but keep in mind this discussion will assume things from having watched the season finale and contain spoilers as such, so you have been warned.

It's a known fact at this point Daryl's intent on going home. The man is on a mission. He wants to get the kid to where he needs to go, then he wants a radio to contact home or a boat to get him there. Regardless of whatever anyone said to him or deceptive manipulation attempts used the man stayed steadfast in his desire. And while he may have begun to care about Laurent over the season, at each turn brought forth by various others; Isabelle (multiple times), Fallou, Azlan, Laurent, and Lasong, Daryl once again repeated himself like the looped tape recorded message he made in episode 1.

They've also made it abundantly clear through parallels, name dropping, and actual conversations/on screen appearance that for Daryl, Carol is his home. Nothing could have personified this better than the scene we got with Sylvie in the car. She asked if he had ever been in love ... words we have only ever heard him fathom to mention to anyone except Carol; his distant gaze and physical reaction all we'd need to see to know who he was thinking about. IMO there is no other option. If they had truly wanted to do any ship baiting their chance to do so was sitting in the damn backset and it would have taken nothing but a change in camera angle to do so. They didn't because it isn't ... the focus and end point is/has always been Caryl. (That is all I am going to say on this because my focus is Caryl). The tag line plastered across the season 2 promo of "To find home is to find each other" both confirms this as the plotline's intent as well as stands in direct contrast to everything everyone tried to convince Daryl of in the finale. He may listen to Isabelle and Lasong but neither were effective in changing his mind because it was never a possibility.

Daryl wants to go back to Carol.

Now I don't believe for a second Lasong has no other motives besides "nurturing the next messiah" which he proved by trying to guilt Daryl into staying at the Nest. He reminds me of the overly religious zealot in The Mist, putting on a nice act until shit hits the fan and what others want goes against their objective. These are the very same kind of tactics Isabelle has been using from the beginning - either admitting to faking the ocean drawing and then her abhorrent attempt to imply Daryl was abandoning Laurent like his grandfather did to his family. Newsflash guys, Daryl is only a "father figure" to Laurent because YOU made him so with lies and with-holding the truth before Daryl ever got there. The only way anyone in France can seem to grasp changing his mind is to resort to lying or low blows which only serves to lessen the strength of their stance, and thankfully Daryl saw through it each time. (Props to & exclusion from this crappy sect goes to Fallou because he seems to be the only one listening).

All of this would have been great by itself and I was in LOVE with TBOC promo beforehand but it got even better post finale watch. "I don't know if this is the place I'm supposed to be." The voiceover gives me the impression that after being forced by fate to stay in France and not let Laurent be the latest walker snack, Daryl still isn't buying the whole where you find yourself might be your home line. He's still worried about Carol, still possibly field the ever constant questions from Izzy about "maybe he belongs in France". (I'm really getting tired of hearing that from her ... no means no, woman). This line from Daryl in itself shows that we are continuing with the shows main constant. Daryl Dixon wants to go home. He's not staying to make a new family, he's not forgetting about the people who matter most to him. The man is stuck and literally being fucked over by fate at every turn.

I have theories about how the Laurent managed to track Daryl down to the beach and none of them are good for other characters but fall in line with what they have done in the past - we'll leave those under a pin for now. None of the characters are named fate lol.

Take away for season 1 and heading in to season 2, Daryl wants to go home and looks to continue his search on ways to get himself there. Luckily for him, home (Carol) is in the process of making that trip shorter.

[secretlythatsme]

i really love dc x dp tbh but i hate how so many fics end up making the batfam dumb as shit. and i don't mean in a "loveable goof" kind of way but in a genuine "these people don't have the skills or intelligence to be heroes" kind of way. which is just antithetical to their entire thing

sometimes it's because the writer just genuinely doesn't know anything about the batfam or what they've been through so they come across as idiots. and other times it's because the writer is writing op ghost king danny or just generally op danny and they genuinely think he could outsmart or beat them. more often than not, it's a combination of the two.

it's just so sad. like not only is it disrespectul to the batfam, essentially getting rid of all the skills and experience they have just to prop up danny, but it also makes things a lot more boring imo. don't get me wrong, i don't mind the occasional "main character is super op" kind of story, but it's boring when like 70% of fics are like that and there's no real challenge or obstacle for him. part of why the show danny phantom was so fun was that it was exciting and chair gripping to see danny have to deal with his new ghost powers, figuring out how to deal with ghost attacks or vlad, and dealing with school and his parents on top of that.

but often, dc x dp fics just,, get rid of any challenge for him. sure batman is a skilled detective but danny will always be able to trick him! sure cass has been trained since birth to read people's body language but this random ghost teen knows how to conceal and control everything!! yeah damian has also been trained since birth to fight and kill but this random guy from the midwest who just started fighting in his teens is so much better!!! like, alright. it's fun every now and then but it sucks when so much of the dc x dp content is just people acting like the batfam are the worst vigilantes/detectives in the world.

and honestly i still feel this way even with the ghost king danny fics because how? he's never had to deal with people obsessively reading his body language or reading between the lines. he's had to deal with hiding stuff sure but his parents aren't the most observant people - their whole deal was being neglectful. even as a ghost king, why would he know how to outsmart, take advantage of, or beat the batfam in any capacity when he would still mostly deal with ghosts. it's a completely different skill set here - one that he likely wouldn't be prepared for. it'd be fine if they at least attempted to explain why danny would have those skills (like league danny aus) but most of them don't.

and i'm not saying danny couldn't do it at all, especially if it's a ghost king au, but i'm just tired of seeing the batfam constantly downplayed in these fics Just to make danny look better, smarter, stronger, etc. ik most people in the fandom are just danny fans but it really shows with how they treat, characterize, and shit on the dc characters just to prop danny up. it also serves to occasionally make danny look like an asshole when he intentionally messes with them and basically commits psychological torture for a goof.

[bethhiraeth]

A literary reading of byler

so in school (and outside of it) most of the subjects I am taking and my interests are some form of literature, so I thought I'd share my thoughts on byler from a literary analysis standpoint

when you are analysing literature, it can be divided into three major buckets: narrative, aesthetics and text. Let me quickly break down what they actually mean

Narrative: This one is pretty self explanatory. It is how the overall structure of the story fits together, including plot, character arcs, and all that big picture stuff that spans the whole text.

Aesthetic features: Also sometimes called stylistic devices, they are the artistic elements that contribute to the text, often adding new meaning/emotions/ideas to it. In the case of cinema, these are pretty much everything you see on camera, like lighting, costuming, props, camera angles, etc. Often these are used to establish literary techniques such as symbolism or narrative foils.

Text: This one is also pretty obvious- it is all the words and actions of the characters. Dialogue and movement are what primary make this up. Think of it as anything in the script (or what the actors say/do if it is improvised), and any directorial choices relating to that.

What I find so interesting about byler is how it has tons of supporting evidence in all of these. What you will see with most ships that are non-canon is that they have a few bits of 'evidence' in one, or two at most, of these categories. Within the fandom, steddie is probably a good example of this. In canon they are physically positioned close to each other a lot of the time, and a lot of their shared dialogue could be read as 'flirty'/having romantic connotations, so they have the textual box checked. However, there is really no grounds for thinking it will be canon (even putting aside eddie being dead) because there is arguably nothing that could really be considered 'evidence' in either the aesthetics or narrative.

Which brings us back to byler. I am going to list a few examples of evidence supporting their endgame for each of the categories just to provide some context, but this is definitely not all of it.

Narrative

In my opinion the most conclusive evidence for byler endgame narratively is the character arcs of mike, will and el. this has been gone over many times and there are many great posts that explain this in more depth, so I won't go into detail, but all three of them have been following their own character arcs since the beginning. in essence, will's is about accepting that he is not broken/a mistake and deserves a happy ending, el's is about finding her independence from the abusive men/other people that have controlled and learning to be herself, and mike's is about realising that conforming to societal expectations is not the path to happiness. they obviously each have other sub-arcs, but imo these are the main ones that are followed throughout the whole show.

Basically what this achieves is setting up a satisfying ending for each character. And really the only way to resolve all three of these in that way is for el to be on her own, and for mike to accept that he does not conform (is queer) and for him and will to be together. that is the only way. any other ending would be wildly unsatisfying

Other evidence within the narrative includes things like tropes, eg a love triangle with childhood best friend and seemingly perfect person, and how the best friend is always the one that ends up with the protagonist.

The overall themes of the show also tie into this. Arguably the whole show is about 'freaks and outcasts', and how "forced conformity is killing the kids". therefore it doesnt make sense thematically for the one (currently) canonically gay boy to end up alone and rejected after going through his whole arc, or for one of the main characters to have nothing really defining him as an outcast if he is not queer.

Lastly, to quote that one person, who the fuck writes a slowburn rejection? It makes absolutely no sense to drag out will's feelings for so long if they are not reciprocated.

Aesthetic

This is my favourite section for byler evidence. There is just so much of it. Which is extremely interesting because in every other non-canon ship I can think of, this is the area where they fall woefully short.

The first thing that springs to mind is the queer imagery constantly associated with mike. He is repeatedly placed in front of closets, his wardrobe is s4 is almost entirely the colours of the gay flag, he is associated with rainbows, fruit, triangles and words like 'men' and 'boy', etc. These were intentional choices made on the part of the production crew.

The blue and yellow motif also deserves a mention here as well, given how prominent the association with them is in their costuming, lighting, etc. There are many aesthetic devices that are used, eg symbolism like mike's flowers to el dying in her hands, byler always being blocked together alongside other couples, using the same music in a scene with mike as they did when robin told steve she was a lesbian, I could go on.

What is so interesting about these is how intentional everything has to be, especially when there is this much of it. You don't accidentally have a light focusing only on two character's faces during an emotional scene, or dress a character in a particular colour scheme or have them looking at another character's lips. With textual and narrative features, you can fuck up or have a coincidence fairly easily, but it is an obviously deliberate choice to have a character standing in front of an open closet the first time his girlfriend tells him she loves him.

Textual

These features are the most obvious to the general audience, so often they have to be a bit more subtle.

Every scene in the show uses dialogue and/or action, so there is plenty to draw from. The 'crazy together' scene is a really good example on multiple levels. Not only is it a very emotional scene that shows mike deeply cares about will via dialogue, the line itself (crazy together) calls back to the audience's mind other scenes that establish the word 'crazy' as a stand-in for 'love', such as the jancy scene in the police station in s1.

Additionally, a very clear shot is shown of mike reaching out to grab will's hand, something that is likely to be intended to be read romantically, due to the parallels with other canon couples.

The same could be said for almost any other 'byler scene'; "cool" "cool", "we're friends", the van scene, etc. Speaking of the van scene, all the lip glances are fair game to include in this section too!

-----

The Duffer's arent stupid. They know this stuff. looking at this from a literature student standpoint, saying it is a compelling argument is a wild understatement, and I am certain any reasonable lit teacher would agree.

We are not the delusional ones. At this point, if byler isn't canon the show was written wrong. Its as simple as that

[angelsdean]

less than 2 hrs til the winchesters finale so here are my quickfire last minute predictions / theories / questions

we'll find out where this is all *really* taking place. is this actually earth, 1972, canon timeline or are we in an alternate universe / is this all happening in the empty or fake heaven or some other third, fourth, fifth thing ???

we'll find out (some) of the reasons for dean doing this in the first place. why did he knock over that first domino? why is he here? what's his endgame? hopefully we'll get a CRUMB of an answer

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS DEANNA CAMPBELL??? for the past like week or so the deanna-is-the-akrida-queen-vessel theory has been growing large in my mind and i swear...........deanna is either gonna show up w/ samuel to help them take down the akrida or she will be revealed as the queen (and possibly be thee cliffhanger bc mary cannot kill her!!)

WHAT are the akrida and what do they really want? if this *is* the canon timeline on earth and not taking place in the empty / heaven / some illusion then my theory is that the akrida ARE somehow linked to the empty or chuck / amara.

will we see a surprise spn guest other than dean ?? since mary said they were 'out-numbered' in the trailer i've been thinking they're gonna try to get all hands on deck (which is why i think IF deanna is not the queen then we might see her come in to town to help with the fight). which also makes me think maybe they'll try to utilize ALL their resources and they *do* have a trickster god (who may or may not be an archangel) trapped in a mirror rn. and if they DO call on Loki to help them well that would fit nicely with my last big theory....

TIME LOOP FINALE. you can read my whole post about it here. but the gist of it is, they realize they can't stop the invasion or defeat the akrida but they *can* contain it, in a time loop. so as soon as the akrida start invading, the time loop starts (perhaps courtesy of Loki / Gabriel) and takes them back to the day john and mary meet (and the day john gets the letter from dean). this would be the easiest way imo to do what robbie said which is, close out the season in a way that it Could stand on it's own as an ending w/ not too many huge cliffhangers if they don't get renewed, but also remain open and with enough intrigue to allow for more seasons.

clownery and misc questions / theories i have that probs won't get addressed unless there's more season:

my main realistic destiel clownery / prediction is that we may hear dean mention his buddy / best friend in his narration (or when we see him in person). i could easily see him narrating and saying something like "my best friend once said good things do happen" or some other obviously cascoded quote about love / friendship / family / free will that we may not have heard in spn but like, you just know he's talking abt cas.

what is up w/ the samulet? is he using it to try to warn if god is near or is it literally just a prop to appease the sam girls / j//2s djfkdgfd

i think dean will leave the impala to john and mary creating a loop where the impala was always *his* baby. (also it fits well with that dream jensen had abt the spn finale)

rowena is *our* rowena and she's time-traveling / universe hopping / whatever too. possibly in cahoots with dean (tho it would be hilarious if not)

[notafraidofredyellowandblue]

I don't know why everyone's pretending and saying Till's scars are because of stage props. Some may be, especially back in the day, but definitely not now. We all know from what those scars are. And lately, for clearly obvious reasons, they've gotten much worse. It's truly horrible to look at and not be cause it's grotesque, but just how low was he feeling to have done that.

And tonight, with his arm profusely bleeding because one of the wounds opened...horrific!

It's really painful to see a man his age still going through it. In various ways, you can tame whatever is going on in ones head, but unfortunately, Till's never been successful.

(warning: skip this post and definitely the links if you are triggered by self harm)

It *is* horrific 🥺 very troubling to watch 🥺

Unfortunately Till gets hurt and hurts himself a lot, has for years and it is still the case. And equally unfortunate is that it's not just simply for one reason either, because if that were the case i would hope that someone would step in and just remedy that one cause.

We know that he did occassionally get hurt by problems with equipment, the Engel wings are said to have left their scars, and he has mentioned in interviews getting burned by pyro. If that were the *only* reason for his injuries, then Rammstein crew or management really would need to step up their game, and try to prevent that from happening.

We also know that some of the stage antics have left Till getting hurt as well, most noticeably Flake breaking a tl lamp on his back in their early shows as a regular act, they talked about it in Rammstein in Amerika (how US lamps are much tougher to break). We know Till in earlier shows made a habit of hitting his head against a microphone or a metal stand (vividly remember Schneider wincing at that) and laughing maniacly after it. This is imo part of the way Till likes Rammstein stage antics to be. Same with the videos, the band is always applauded for their integrity of doing everything 'real', but that also means selfflagellation in the Rosenrot video is part of it. This is Rammstein, they like to do things like this, even if it makes some fans cringe.

Then we have the offstage stories of Till doing a drunk bar game with Peter Tagtgren of who could hold their hand over a flame longer (no points in guessing who won, and as i remember it, had to have a skingraft afterwards). Or cutting himself to bleed over his poetry pages to make it less boring and his entourage helping to swap the pages (there's another video of this where we see the entourage actually laughing and enjoying themselves while doing so, but i can't find it right now, and to be honest...i didn't really look that hard...when i say i don't really like Till's entourage, this is one of the things i mean)

And then we also know Till has difficult times in his life of depression and extreme lows. These fuel his poetry in parts, he writes about his darkness, and imo that is a great outlet. But I could very well imagine that he hurts himself at those times as well, seeing how easily he hurts himself in other times. He has said before that he isn't one for therapy (i think said that he doesn't know anyone who got therapy and improved from it) but i really hope at some point he would find some way of dealing with what happens in healthier ways, without the need for self-harm. When a fan said something similar on one of Zoran Bihac's ig posts, Zoran replied something like "it's handled" with a picture of pills, which i understood in a 'Zoran and Till' kind of way (they both like to hurt Till in Lindemann videos imo) but it still made me feel uncomfortable..

The bleeding on stage in Paris was imo likely a combination of a recent arm wound (we saw it when he was photographed 'out and about') that had closed up, but that got torn open again when changing clothes or equipment, which i can imagine happens easily when your skin is damaged anyway.

And although i don't like to pull the 'age card', aging also has a detrimental effect on the skin, even a small bump can cause bleeding, let alone everything that Till subjects his body to..

Whatever the cause, the tour will be over soon, and he can be out of the limelight, doing stuff he likes. I hope if depression and dark times are the cause, that he is open to talking to friends or family about it Let's just hope that with age he will grow kinder with himself as well

Maybe he just needs to hear that he doesn't need to hurt himself for people to love him 🌺

[grievedifferent]

How do you feel about the dn demo musical depiction’s of Light? Specifically this song where’s the justice, just out of curiosity!

oh man, this is hard for me, and i'm definitely in the minority here. this literally could be just said yes or no but i also cannot not write 100 paragraphs:

i've kind of avoided it really addressing any LA adaption of DN (the best imo was the one that came out when i was in HS but the big deal about that was that the english cast actually did the dub for it and it was a theater release, i also wasn't looking for "good content", i was looking for more death note content in america when streaming wasn't as accessible, manga had to be illegally torrented or bought from a bookstore, etc. i come from a different time of media in a way than what a kid these days would go into. my nephew just got into death note and watched the whole thing right away, whereas i was waiting for releases of episodes and books thus having to sub in any content while i waited for the real thing.

i think childhood restrictions versus as an adult, i can stream any specific death note content i want basically at any time, makes a huge difference in how i perceived this media, thus why i'd "give the original a pass" but even that is ... i mean, it changes a lot, i don't know if light was cast correctly (though i don't really mind their L, i do like that actor so maybe that's a bias thing idk) but basically ... i don't really like any iteration that's live-action of any series that is typically animated. yes, there are exceptions, i think also that there is a divide in animated media of like "this would translate well to the screen in a live adaption format" versus "this looks goofy as hell, we can't make it realistic without diluting it but we can't stay true to the source material without pushing it into almost a goofy uncanny valley scenario that takes away central focus". take a series like ... idk, dbz. that's so hard to make live-action. now, take death note. that should be so easy, ryuk is the most complicated part of this project imo, like most of this story is just two guys' inner narratives fighting (stares into the void of the silence that is death note if you remove the narrative). yet, it always fails, or just never lands, or stays in japan only, etc. americanized versions flop or are taken off the table before they're allowed to really make it through any production. even the bioshock live-action adaptions have been promised for forever (don't get me started on this one haha).

is this to say that i think no animated material should be translated to live-action? not necessarily. but if it was supposed to be live action in the first place, why is the media of animation even necessary? some stories, to me, have to be animated in the way some stories have to be games or have to be novels or have to manga or have to be movies. adaptions are great, i get that, but like ... they usually just miss the mark. it's so rare to get a "live one".

like, ouran should have been easy to make a live-action, but so many of them have failed. arguably, the stage play is solid, which also ... ouran kind of lends itself to that, right? i'm not really considering stage plays as a whole. imo they always have better casting at least aesthetically and the props / costuming / etc is always superior. the yyh live action stage play is way more structurally sound in its aesthetics than the netflix adaption.

here is also my problem generally with other people taking properties in general and remaking them: they're always through a fan's eyes. that's great, i love fans, but also, sometimes i think it's almost better ot have someone that isn't a fan. it allows the lens of fanon to disappear, the fog of headcanon or "i think". sure, some adaptions have had the creators come back, even the original casts, but it's always awkward, isn't it? why is that? because that creator has not cared or touched that property save for some promo images maybe yearly or some callbacks or something because they have moved on. coming back? they aren't in the mindset they were writing it originally. they'll likely want to rewrite and change things. sure, it's "canon" because it's that author, but their intent is likely different now, or they just simply cannot remember the series the way they used to.

so that brings me here:

i was also never a theater person, my taste in musicals is kind of weird maybe or just small ... but getting more diverse bc of otter who lettered in theater LOL so i have more understanding of like what is theater especially compared to like ... what is movie production and tv show production, etc, then splitting into animation versus live action, so. now we're here:

the actual musical. i think that most retellings of death note really just cannot capture yagami's character be it in the acting or the intention. he is written so specifically by ohba and drawn so specifically by obata which is then translated into an animated style that's supposed to reference obata (it falls in that early 2000s thing, give it a pass rip) and basically, aside from maybe glossing up the ending a bit in a way that i think is pretty pivitol (yagami is given no pity in the manga, he's put down more honorably in the anime, which idc about i like that he barks like a dog and cries in the manga, but what i like in the anime is the scene where his dying self passes his younger self ... it's very intense to me). so, then you take mamoru's interpretation of yagami, the first one we get that isn't just text, and it's literally perfect. brad comes in second and nails it. they are arguably different yet so similar, i describe brad as accurately making yagami sound more natural in english than most can when relying on a japanese source. he just gets it, and he intentionally does emulate mamoru. i've spoken to him about this actually.

now, while i might not be a huge theater musical person, i love music. it's my main inspiration! i listen to it daily, it's a huge part of my life, and i'm not a musician at all.

lyrically, i get it. it's a little pointed, but i understand the message. it's fine as a song on its own, it's not like bad to me, but i have such a hard time seeing light as a character that sings. ironically, mamoru and brad can both sing (mamoru sings a lot in his roles, but think tamaki from ouran, while brad was in a band for a long time!). so, in a way, it's not really right or wrong for me to say one way or another that light is a bad singer or a good singer. i can see him having to go to karaoke socially, so maybe he is a good singer, or picks songs just in his range to "appear good enough" to get the pass a pretty boy.

overall, i'm not like anti musicals, nor am i anti-stage plays of anime because i think they're very pretty to look at and some (like mp100's for example) have huge creator input (and he is fresh off that project or was at the time) with like actual mob's VA (who the creator has said is mob) playing mob in the stage play with content that is considered basically exclusive but canon, like they "did something" with that whole stage play to add to the experience of mp100 and made each show different, so like, go all the way or not, right? again, kny, every anime has had a stage play, and typically you'll just see higher production in japan, but i also come from a time where i was pirating live action cutie honey and mirrored animated lucky star on youtube before it was "youtube" as we know it, so maybe my experiences are so specific that it's hard for me to adapt.

i'm so manga and anime focused that it's hard for me to sit here and say "well, i disparage these versions" but i can be at least honest and say that none have (to me) held a candle to the original property. how can you? it's old now, so it's nostalgic, and it's iconic, so it has a lot going for it.

i actually also have to somewhat contradict myself here, i think if ohba went all in maybe something could happen because we see such solid continuity in the one-shots we get every 100 years from him, so idk. this is a rare thing to have, i think. like, look at rumiko and the follow-up series to inuyasha. she's done with inuyasha, so she didn't go back. eithe way, i don't think it would have landed well regardless if she was on the project.

tl;dr: it's not necessarily "for me" but i'm not anti any DN content. i'm just manga first, then anime second for my inspo. if i wasn't, i might go insane keeping track of the details of every iteration, especially playing not only the MC but also other characters (especially BB, he changes depending on where you're sourcing him from, which is why the novel is one of the few fanon pieces i accept as canon bc they make a point to mention it in the anime when it originally listed as "that case" in the manga when L refers to naomi and he working together in the past).

i get why we want more ... but i am also a person who's like "i've seen the story told the way it was intended, it was good the way it was, i liked it as it was, and it's okay for things to end". i'm like this with remakes, too. it's rare that a remake is necessary to me. but i understand the appeal as a logical person, it doesn't not make sense to me why it's a draw in for a crowd.

[fantasticalleigh]

October scary movie review roundup:

I decided to really put forth an effort to celebrate this being Halloween month by watching as many horror films as I can. requirements aren't too strict but i'm only counting movies that are new to me, not old favorites. youtube has a ton of movies for free so i've been sifting through those and found some decent ones. if anyone has any good recommendations please lmk!

(i'm not like a huge slasher/gore fan but i don't mind it if it isn't in excess in a film, which crosses out a ton lol. i'm unfortunately squeamish about that stuff but i've always prefered thrillers/psychological horror and stuff of that ilk anyway. )

list of films watched so far:

-The Terror (Netflix)

(actually started this last month, nearly done with it so i won't rate it yet. acting is great, but the CGI of the monster is kind of bad imo)

-Grave Encounters (Free on YT)

i love a good found footage film. this one was a pleasant surprise but too predictable. acting was good, ending was unsatisfying. 5/10

-The Haunting (Free on YT)

didn't know this was an adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House until it started, hated the changes they made. but it did solve a long childhood mystery of mine: once as a kid my fam and i went furniture shopping and this movie was playing on a huge tv. i paid attention to it only for a minute and saw the scene where Nell sees her reflection's pregnancy belly growing (for context Nell herself wasn't pregnant) and screams in terror and runs away and then i walked away. never knew it was from this movie but always wondered. mystery solved!) CGI wasn't terrible most of the time but when it was bad, it was bad. i hate what they did to the characters, hate the changes from the source material (wtf was that bedroom SA scene??? ...was the ceiling going to impregnate her???) all the iconic moments from the book that were added to the movie felt like flimsy afterthoughts. marcia gay harden, i can believe as Nell. Catherine Zeta Jones, I can believe as Theodora. Liam Neeson as the doctor, sure. Why the fuck is Owen Wilson in this. (3/10. watched on youtube.)

-Hell House LLC (Youtube)

another pleasant found footage surprise. i really enjoyed this one and will most likely watch again. good/decent acting and the suspense did get to me, particularly in the scenes with the basement/rising tension in the cast/clown statue. The found footage thing is most genuine here, where in the following sequels it feels hamfisted and not as genuine bc everyone and their mom is doing a fucking documentary or news bit on the hotel. also a bit predictable but they nailed the suspense and the buildup to the climax was pretty well done. CGI not good but briefly used at the end, didn't bother me like it did in the sequels. 8.5/10

-Hell House LLC-The Abbadon Hotel /Hell House LLC-Lake of Fire (Also free on YT)

notably worse than the original. acting was especially bad in The Abbadon Hotel. Both films suffer from "we-don't-trust-our-viewers" syndrome where they insert so many freaking flashbacks to the original that it feels insulting they don't expect the audience to remember what happened before. flashbacks could make up a good third of both movies. hated most of the cast for The Abbadon Hotel but Lake of Fire was much better. The actor for Tully was awful in all three movies. CGI was terrible but sparsely used, at least. Both movies relied on the creepy clown gimmick way too much which felt like a huge waste considering the setting is a demonic/haunted hotel full of other potential props/settings that could've been used more for a good scare. the ending to the trilogy as a whole was fine. Abbadon gets a 2.5/10 and Lake of Fire gets 5.5. I would def watch Lake of Fire again but Abbadon was a slog.

-In the Tall Grass (Netflix)

this has been on my netflix queue for YEARS and i literally only just watched it last night. based off a Stephen King work and I love SK so I had high hopes and wasn't let down. I haven't read the novella but this was a good movie on its own. normally i don't like time-loops as a plot device but it worked really well here and the acting was good. patrick wilson is a sleeper fave of mine, he was great in this and i've never seen him in such a charismatic to super super creepy role before so he nailed it although when that scene hit i was literally cringing away from my laptop. the child actor in this is also really good, i felt for him at the end. would definitely watch this again and i'm interested in the book now. really good suspense/acting/soundtrack. i like that they never fully explained the phenomenon behind the giant black rock/ time fuckery in the tall grass or the mysterious alien grass people. IMO horror works best sometimes when it is left to the audience's imagination or when there's gaps left empty in the lore. 8/10.

-Barbarian (Hulu)

i've been really interested in this for years but never got around to watching it bc i don't like sitting in movie theaters and i'm slow to gettting to new media. but i knew zach cregger from his days in the WKUK and loved that and had heard good things about this. (also apparently he's developing a new Resident Evil movie or something now?? I'm excited.) these days i don't/rarely watch full movie trailers because they give so much away so i tend to want to go in fresh. i've avoided full spoilers for this movie up till now aside from some vague mentions of stuff so i knew there was a certain theme in the movie. overall it was solid, really tense first half with that red herring and really good acting from the female lead, i don't recall her name. when act two came on i was genuinely shocked and thought the website had glitched out or something, wasn't expecting that.

Last Podcast on the Left just did a series on Josef Fritzl (huge trigger warning if you decide to look him up) and that case must have heavily inspired the movie because there were a lot of parallels I couldn't help but notice. Overall fairly disturbing but I do wish the ending was a little different. I like the significance of what happens but idk, felt like it needed a little something more. Even one line of dialogue could have bolstered that, because I know Tess was thinking it but I needed to hear her say it to REDACTED.

(and what happened to REDACTED'S body? he's never shown again. did the REDACTED eat it? was he buried? did i miss something?)

-The Fourth Kind (free on YT)

awful. awful. awful. maybe one truly scary moment. the ending was bullshit. acting was whatever. too much screeching audio and my ears can't handle that. this movie is always being hyped online as so intense and scary yet i couldn't stop rolling my eyes. huge disappointment. 2/10 and that's me being generous.

--The Omen (1976) (Hulu)

admittedly i watched this when i was a kid but i barely remember it so it counts. sound mixing was fucking awful, for starters. dialogue is a whisper yet the soundtrack (heavy on ominous chanting in latin and screaming and spooky music) is SO damn loud i kept having to raise and lower the volume. a good flick for its time, i guess, but I couldn't get into it. If there's a more modern version I might check it out. Gregory Peck is always a treat but man, I got so mad when he's safe in Rome and he calls his wife, who's in mortal peril with a half body cast and alone in a hospital, to meet with his contact and fly to him in Rome. You couldn't go get her yourself?? You just condemned her, idiot, and you knew she was gonna die. For fuck's sake. Then he has the nerve to get all droopy and sad when he gets the call like five minutes later that she's fucking dead. Not scary. Suspense is killed by goofy spooky music. Gregory Peck's silver-fox hotness is offset by his character's stupid reticence to believe the facts before him until it’s too late. 3/10.

-The Inkeepers (Peacock)

i didn't hate it but i also didn't love it. i love anything about a haunted house or a haunted hotel, and this one being a haunted hotel sounded intriguing but ultimately it felt like it fumbled itself over and over. kind of boring, tbh? really unsatisfying ended even if it was a bit gutsy to kill the main character. sorry for spoilers here but i don't think anyone's gonna race to watch this one lol. i'd never heard of this movie until it got recommended to me. didn't realize lena dunham was an exec producer on this until the credits rolled. 3/10