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sophia-sol · 1 year ago

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TGCF volume 1

Over on mastodon I'm participating in a group readalong of TGCF, one chapter per week, and a few weeks ago we finished the first volume of the official translation so I might as well crosspost all my thoughts over to here as like, my book review? Yeah okay here we go! Putting it all below a read more to save your dash.

PROLOGUE

I've read the whole book once before, and I just finished the prologue for this read-along, and it's fascinating to read now in the full knowledge of things that get revealed later; on my first read I absolutely did not realize how much backstory was just glossed over here!

It's fascinating how it both reads very differently and also still entirely the same when you know more!

this is one of the bits that uhhhh really strikes differently!!

[Only then did the crown prince realize that he had just encountered the Heavenly Emperor, who had personally descended to the Mortal Realm to subdue evil. The deities had already taken notice of this exceedingly outstanding God-Pleasing Warrior since his time in the Shangyuan Heavenly Ceremonial Procession. After the meeting at Yinian Bridge, they asked the Heavenly Emperor, "How does My Lord find this Royal Highness?" The Emperor answered, "This child's future is infinite."]

CHAPTER ONE

ok and now I've read chapter 1! ahhhh I just love xie lian so MUCH, what a guy, what an endless delight. Both the hint we get of wee baby newly-ascended 17 year old xie lian earnestly introducing himself to every single other heavenly official, and the current xie lian, cheerfully accepting of his misfortunes

Also: ling wen my beloved <3

also, this time I vow that I WILL keep Mu Qing and Feng Xin straight, no matter how much I have to work at it!

I also love in this chapter how indications given from early on that xie lian is unusually unlucky and also has no spiritual powers, but it's just breezily passed over as if it's no big deal and to be expected under the circumstances....oh ho ho

I do love how much xl and his pov just like....avoid noticing or expending attention on the things that suck in xie lian's life!

Mu Qing (tgcf) and Mu Qing (nif) have impressively divergent character vibes, to the point that I literally didn't even notice they have the same name until it was brought to my attention today!

CHAPTER TWO

Interested by the detail about how much extreme effort even a fairly well-placed lord has to go through in order to get the attention of any of the gods in heaven. Really checks out with respect to how much the heavens seem more interested in their own interpersonal dynamics than in, like, actually doing things for their followers!

It is extremely funny to me that Fu Yao is capable of criticizing the Nan Yang statue for 2 hours straight, and that that's how long it takes before Xie Lian thinks it might be time to change the subject

Kind of heartbreaking how completely Xie Lian doesn't consider that someone might be upset by seeing how injured he got from his fall from heaven! what? little ol' him might matter to someone?!

I was talking last week about how to keep track of which names go with which of Mu Qing and Feng Xin, and I'm very sad to report that my strategy does not completely hold up, because Ju Yang has a u in it, and is a name for Feng Xin. Mu Qing does not have a monopoly on u names after all :( RUDE

CHAPTER THREE

Fu Yao criticising the inefficiency of Ling Wen's palace...as if Mu Qing's palace is able to do anything useful in this situation!

Xiao-Ying is delightful. Willing and able to stand up for herself, but also happy to lend assistance to people who need help, if they were kind to her. But assistance only on her own terms!

hua cheng introduction!!

ahhhh when hua Cheng first finally encounters Xie Lian, he holds out his hand in offer, and doesn't demand or force anything. of course!

"If he was a real groom, then he'd genuinely be a most gentle and considerate one."

Xie Lian is just full of thoughts about how wonderful this mysterious person is, in character and appearance and action, despite the context of meeting him

what a meet-cute! lol

I am really loving #TGCFReadAlong ! such a good way to inspire lots of conversation about this book that I pretty much always want to talk about!

CHAPTER FOUR

I loved Xiao-Ying, how brave and how kind she is, how hard she tries to do what's right, and it's very sad that she ends up dying :(((((

This is the chapter where we get introduced to Pei Ming's womanizing misogyny. Xuan Ji....you could have done SO much better than him! What IS it that makes so many women actually attracted to him?!

But I also do wonder what it was that led Xuan Ji to such an extreme response to being abandoned and rejected by her lover. She was apparently a very capable general, previously, so what led her to all these bad decisions!

CHAPTER FIVE

I do find human face disease to be kind of a silly concept. Like it's developed in interesting ways over the course of the book but the defining symptom has always seemed just a bit silly to me.

I genuinely do not remember though how this kid ends up with human face disease though, all these centuries after the plague! too many things happen in this book lol

ahhh on first read of the book when you see xie lian's reaction to the boy's face, you're like, oh it's a combo of body horror plus fear of the plague that destroyed his home. On second read.....oh it's The Trauma.

It's so sad, too, that it means he doesn't manage to have a chill reaction to this kid who was so worried about showing his face!

on another note, I love how thoroughly hua cheng managed to trounce the 33 gods, and how thoroughly he punished them afterwards when they renege on the parameters of the challenge

it's so funny to me how it makes so much of the heaven terrified of hc, even though hc was behaving perfectly honourably. he issued a challenge and he abided by the agreements in the challenge, that's only scary if you plan to do dishonourable things yourself!

during this week's reading I went back and forth approximately a thousand times about whether Xie Lian has already recognized Feng Xin and Mu Qing or not! I just CANNOT decide. I will be keeping my eyes peeled for further clues as we continue in this book

CHAPTER SIX

it's so funny and charming how xie lian's efforts to engage with the communication array basically come down to those spammy email forward chains that old people used to send all the time!

(I suppose that that energy has been redirected to facebook or something these days?)

I'm also super charmed by how xie lian has basically made himself immune to feeling awkward about things he does. everyone else is super embarrassed for him, to be his own only worshipper, but xl is chill. And thinks "amusing himself could be fun"!

but ohhhhhh xl's inability to come up with anything to say about why he should be worshipped, when the villagers ask him about his shrine! this is what you need hua cheng for!! xl might be chill about many things but it's because his self esteem is in the basement

oh man thinking from hua cheng's perspective about this meeting between him as san lang and xie lian, it's so cute. He looks languid and carefree on the other side of the cart, seems to only start talking with xie lian out of boredom, but you KNOW how carefully he orchestrated this meeting!!! (him and his attractive legs in tight-fitting boots, which he absolutely chose to make sure he looked good for dianxia)

I've been wondering for a while already just how early on xie lian figured out the identities of fu yao and nan feng, but now I also need to remember to pay attention to how early I think he figured out san lang's identity! If he knows it right from the start, it's pretty cheeky of him to be questioning him so thoroughly about hua cheng :P

awwwwww interacting with san lang is the first time in centuries xie lian feels really embarrassed!! because san lang's good opinion actually matters to him!

CHAPTER SEVEN

I love how Xie Lian is already so sure that San Lang is going to be sticking around, that he's not just a transient part of Xie Lian's life. And throughout the chapter it's so clear how Xie Lian just likes San Lang so much!!!

he does his due diligence by testing sl and so forth, but doesn't let that stop him from simply liking and trusting sl regardless, and enjoying his mean streak too lol

and San Lang has such swagger, I love it. He makes it look like he couldn't enter the shrine with the seal on the curtain-door, but actually he just wanted the opportunity to flex. He's just like constantly showing off in this chapter, and making it clear that he doesn't care about anything except Xie Lian

Anyway it's time for the intro of the next plot arc, Banyue Pass, now that the ghost groom is resolved. Nan Feng and Fu Yao are sooo uncomfortable with the fact they're volunteering to help - whether it's bc of the specific mission or bc it's to help Xie Lian is unclear, but could well be both!

Also it's clear to me that nan feng and fu yao recognize san lang & vice versa and they're all mad about it. Xie Lian's uphill battle to get them to peacefully coexist begins!

One question I had was that earlier it seemed evident that Puqi Shrine was named after the fact that the villagers gave Xie Lian water chestnuts, but now apparently the village is named Puqi, so is the shrine just named after the village after all?

First mention of state preceptor Fangxin! If I'm remembering right, this is actually Xie Lian. Love the way that the complex parts of xl's history get seeded in from so early on without, like, making it clear what the actual situation is. This happens a lot in the book iirc, with things being casually referred to early on and then later when you get into it there's like a whole well of trauma for xl!

and one final small observation. xl's perspective on his own cooking: "unable to bear the sight of such a tragedy" ahahahaha

CHAPTER EIGHT

the ongoing attempts to unmask San Lang are sooooo funny

it reminds me a bit of the sort of fairy tale involving endless tests to try to prove that a character is actually a woman dressed as a man, which the character always passes easily but the testers are never convinced. same vibe!

the captain/general the stele is remembering is a guy who tried to keep civilians from being killed in war. this is very like the teenage Xie Lian wanting to save the common people! and Fu Yao criticises the captain's actions, which xl both expects and doesn't seem happy about :( though he doesn't say anything against Fu Yao

and then San Lang cheers Xie Lian up (who had been feeling "a bit woeful") by being mischievous and by convincing the merchants to prostrate before the stele! ahhh I love how attentive sl is, and how much he knows just what to do for xl!

and then San Lang's REACTION to xl being stung - and stung because xl was trying to protect sl! "the expression on the youth's face was /off/" and then the vibes remain off balance for the rest of the chapter and xl is toootally bewildered. what could have upset San Lang, xl???? what could it POSSIBLY have been?? don't strain yourself too hard in wondering!!

anyway I do not remember lots of what happens next in this particular arc, except BEEFLEAF and also chekov's pit of snakes, so I'm looking forward to reacquainting myself with the rest of it as we continue!

CHAPTER NINE

To start, I do not love the othering framing the narrative uses to discuss the Banyue people and language, which from what I understand ties into common stereotypes in China about northern people groups. Huge dark-skinned people who are beast-like, and the language is "ghastly, guttural, and heavy with tongue rolling." Not great.

xie lian your trauma is showing again 😭

[He stepped forward and said in a small voice, "Don't worry. If anything happens, I will go forward first." Xie Lian thought that if they all must fall, he might as well be the first one to check things out. It couldn't be worse than venomous snakes and beasts or menacing ghosts. He couldn't die from the fall, from getting beaten, from bites, or from poison. As long as it wasn't lava or fire, or some pool of corpse-dissolving water, it shouldn't be too terrible when he jumped down.]

San Lang continuing to act way too unbothered, then coolly throwing himself into the pit -- at first it seems to accomplish what xl wanted to do but couldn't (keep the mortals from having to be thrown in first) but then it becomes clear that sl is fully aware of how likely xl is to end up in the pit in short order and wants to be in there first to clean up the mess and CATCH XIE LIAN. (and then xl immediately jumps in after sl, no thoughts present, so good work there sl)

hahaha xl, head empty, taking the opportunity to feel sl up. and then he gets the opportunity to feel awkward for the first time in centuries. sl has inspired him to rediscover embarrassment!

[Maybe it was because the stench of blood here at the bottom of the pit was heavy and disorienting. Who knew what was going through Xie Lian's head, but his hands continued to roam upward until he reached a strong, hard Adam's apple. He snapped out of it in shock and immediately reprimanded himself, withdrawing his hands.]

ahh xl just finds everything about sl so attractive

["Don't worry about him," San Lang said, still holding Xie Lian tight. he made a small sidestep and spun around. In the dark, Xie Lian heard a series of fine clinking sounds: pleasant to the ear, clear and intense, swishing here and there.]

xl is sooooo not used to someone taking care of him!!!

["Why can't I get down?" Xie Lian asked in spite of himself. This guy couldn't possibly enjoy fighting while carrying someone, could he? He didn't need to go that far to look down on his opponent, did he? San Lang's answer was only two words: "It's dirty." "..." Xie Lian had never imagined that would be the answer -- and said with such seriousness too. He thought it was a little funny, but it also made him feel inexplicably strange, his chest growing slightly warm for some reason.]

and then xie lian and san lang's conversation after kemo is defeated!!!!! xl's main concern: making sure sl is safe in the future. sl's main concern: xl judging him for showing irrefutable proof that sl's not actually human. to the degree that sl actually prompts xl with a question about it because he's SO confused that xl isn't concerned!! SAN LANG!!!

Our first encounter with someone xl knew during his time of banishment in the mortal world! Poor Banyue had a rough childhood.

(but also: Banyue kingdom's state preceptor has the same name as the kingdom? Why was she named that? It does allow for xie lian to not realize until now who the state preceptor is, because he thinks people are referring to her by the kingdom she's state preceptor for, rather than by what her name is, but it's weird to me that she'd be named that?)

I had forgotten that xl was actually the general-captain of the memorial marker from the cave in chapter 8! I went back to reread the scene where the captain's story is told and xl's reactions are very illuminating in light of this knowledge. He's not just identifying with the captain for also being a person who wants to save everyone; he IS the captain

"around two hundred years ago, due to certain reasons, Xie Lian couldn't muck around in the east anymore and decided to stay out of sight for a while." HMMM I'll look forward to being reminded later of what those certain reasons were! Gonna guess: one of the various other horrible traumatic experiences from his past that he doesn't like thinking about.

or actually - does anyone know of a good resource that lists out all the relevant events xl's life in chronological order, unlike the reveals of backstory that happen in all kinds of different orders in the book?

CHAPTER TEN

Now that we are at the end of it, I feel like one of the main themes in the Banyue arc is about how much the heavenly court sucks. Which like. YEAH. and WHO'S ALLOWING that unpleasant culture to flourish, hmmm jun wu?!??

(context for the third quote is that Xie Lian is worried the Wind Master will put all the blame on Preceptor Banyue to protect Pei Jr)

["I knew that for close to two hundred years there was something causing havoc, but none of the heavenly officials cared, and no one dared speak of it. So there had to be someone no one wanted to offend keeping this scandal under wraps."]

[The Upper Court wouldn't bat an eyelash at something like this; everyone needed to spill some blood if they wanted to do great things. But slaughtering a city wasn't anything glorious, after all. If the story spread too far, it would affect the number of new believers, so of course there would be some cover-ups after ascension.]

[Xie Lian relaxed. "Much ashamed! I was suspicious." "It's normal to be suspicious," the Wind Master said. "There's certainly an unpleasant culture in the Upper Court, after all."]

The other thing this arc is about is solving a mystery from hundreds of years ago, and relitigating the past between ghosts and gods. Do I see thematic foreshadowing? :D

I love seeing Xie Lian get his first new human believer! and telling the kid his title is the Scrap Immortal - but taking so much convincing to give any name at all, and telling it in the narrative in such a sideways way that it took me a moment to realise what was even meant, lol. xl has Issues around being worshipped

and then of course I LOVE the name reveal at the end of the chapter. it's so them!!!!

[He turned to look at the youth next to him and smiled cheerfully. "He's not hungry, how about you?" San Lang smiled cheerfully back. "I'm starving." Xie Lian grinned and stood up again, before turning around and casually tidying the altar table. "All right, then. What do you want to eat, Hua Cheng?" Behind him, there was silence. Then chuckling. "I still prefer the name 'San Lang.'"]

but my favourite thing about this chapter is that BEEFLEAF ARE INTRODUCED. Hiiiiiiii beefleaf my beloved! Cannot wait to watch that spiral out in the way it inevitably must

CHAPTER ELEVEN

I did my reading last night for #TGCFReadAlong for this week, but what I did was take pics of the sections of text that I had thoughts and feelings about and wrote zero notes....so I am going to have to formulate my thoughts into something coherent now

In this chapter we got to explore a bit more about Xie Lian's current feelings about himself back when he was still the god-pleasing crown prince! Between his feelings about being called "Your Highness," his embarrassment at having told someone to make himself that person's reason for living, and how he reacts to the idea that he used to have as his goal in life to save the common people....it's a lot.

But I appreciate that Hua Cheng pushes back on all of these! hc calls xl "Your Highness" in complete sincerity, and tells xl that his goal was a good goal, and that it is not embarrassing for xl to be someone's reason for living. hc is just like: "you're worthy of being admired!" without ever coming on too strong about it.

It's interesting though - xie lian has complicated feelings he doesn't want to look at about Hua Cheng calling him "Your Highness" in earnest, but he flat out does not want Banyue to do the same thing.

(also, shout out to Ling Wen for not making a thing in any direction out of xie lian's title! she calls him your highness simply because that's his title and then moves on with things.)

can't not point out more content in my "heaven sucks!!!" agenda

[Hua Cheng replied quietly, "They're heavenly officials. Mortals are nothing but ants in their eyes."]

also my hualian being cute agenda!

[That's not necessarily true," Hua Chen said. "Besides, you can always kick me out." Xie Lian replied, "You're so powerful. Even if I kicked you out now, if you really wanted to do something bad, wouldn't you just change your skin and come back?" The two met eyes and grinned.]

[If anything must be blamed, it would have to be the look on Hua Cheng's face, like he was welcoming Xie Lian to test it out himself. Without thinking, Xie Lian raised a finger and poked Hua Cheng's face. After poking, Xie Lian snapped back to himself in shock, yelping /Oh no!/ in his head. He was only curious to see what a supreme Ghost King's fake skin would feel like, but apparently, his body moved faster than his mind and poked him! How extremely outrageous of him! To have someone suddenly poke him, Hua Cheng looked somewhat shocked too, but he was always calm and collected, so his expression cleared instantly. He didn't say anything, but his arched brow raised even higher, as if waiting for Xie Lian to explain. The laughter in his eyes was apparent. of course Xie Lian couldn't explain himself. He looked at his own finger then hid it away, betraying nothing of his thoughts. "...Not bad." Hua Cheng finally burst out laughing, and he crossed his arms with his head tilted. "What's not bad? Do you mean this skin?"]

[Xie Lian was thunderstruck. He flipped over and curled into a shrimp, wishing for another pair of arms so he could cover both his face and his ears. He groaned. "...San Lang..."]

I didn't quite understand this bit though - why does hua cheng laugh in response to xie lian's reassurances about hc's appearance?

["...Well, we're sort of friends now, right? So if we're friends, then we should be honest with each other. My wanting to see your true appearance has nothing to do with how you look. You asked what I would do, but of course I won't do anything. Don't worry, as long as it's your real face, I'm sure I'll... Why are you laughing? I'm being serious." When Xie Lian reached the last part, he could feel the youth next to him shaking. He froze for a moment, and thought, /Are my words so moving that he's touched like this?/ and was too embarrassed to turn around to see. But after a while, the soft laughter from next to him very obviously leaked out. Xie Lian felt rather deflated and placed a hand on his shoulder to give it a little push.]

and then we end with the RING!!!!!

#tgcf #mo xiang tong xiu #heaven official's blessing #book thoughts

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vaibhavkwrites · 8 months ago

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In literature, music, and popular culture, love is often used as a metaphor, a trope or figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between two unlike things that actually have something in common. However, is love about finding that common ground or it is rather a celebration of the differences that exists between two souls? It is even just about two souls or could be about just one soul loving another? Tan't it an arcane?

But how can it be? for, too many people know about it, feel it, live it; do they really though? Do people understand what love is? Well, very few does. Exactly why the rest are often searching to read about it, or to see it, to witness it, all of these efforts to understand just one more thing about it that they think they are unaware of. That is the beauty of this great metaphor. Love.

And I felt Loving someone doesn't necessarily has to be two people. It could be just you. And it never change. When you tell someone that you love him/her, it specifically means you have fallen for that person. It doesn't warrant a reply. How can a simple acceptance warrant a reply? Rather, what warrants a reply is a proposal, asking the person in front whether he/she would like to share a part of her/his life with you. Both are interrelated yet totally different concepts. One is independent, another depending. One liberates, one binds. Exactly why love is a paradox. It is two totally opposite things arranged in one. And it completes the whole. How Ying Yang is. Exactly how yin yang is.. If I feel for someone that I am in love with, for me, it will be a celebration of her existence as a person, rather binding her to be with me, when all she seek is a liberation. Sometimes, we ourselves are not aware of ourselves, not realising what we want out of it, what we feel for someone, and it is all normal.

I would rather say, that love shouldn't warrant someone's freedom rather you can keep loving that person without letting that person realise it! Just see her, and feel the vibes, be grateful for her existence and smile to yourself. Isn't that an beautiful preposition? It will never harm the bond, the person will not have to worry about the bond being weakened, and you can always exist.

Well, there is one possibility of that person missing out on an opportunity to learn about your affection towards her/him. Well, then you can always accept your feelings in front of her/him, if he/she seems matured enough to handle it. The condition will be to not expect anything from that person, no yes or no, no conditions nothing. Just a plain acceptance, conveyed from one to another and celebrated. This form of love is so rare yet so commonplace.

For, one can only love one person at a time. To be honest one loves only one person in the entire lifetime. Rest are all just misconceptions, attachments wrongly taken as being love. Well, what is love then? Well, to put it very simply, it is them butterflies, them subtle exchanges through eye contacts, feeling of belonging in each other's company! It is that simple, yet very complicated. Because, that is what love is A Paradox.

#literature #love #blogonlove #about love

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dryades-angeli · 11 months ago

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I saw your post and would like to comment. My post is not intended to launch a counterattack, but to contribute my thoughts. ~*~ First. Not every NaruSaku shipper is automatically as you described. Personally, I enjoy this shipping, but I would never resort to such anti-social methods. Although I can understand their displeasure to a certain extent. According to Kishi, NaruSaku was never planned and Sakura was actually supposed to be a side character. Strangely enough, Naruto was still in love with Sakura right up until the moment he met Minato. Link <- Naruto answers his father's question in the affirmative with shining eyes and Minato draws a comparison to Kushina.

Source

Source And there are enough parallels between MinaKushi and NaruSaku. These images serve as an example. Especially since Kushina also told Naruto that he should date someone who is like her. And if we speak of similarities... Borusara isn´t Sasukarin coded, but more Sasunaru.

Source And Sakura is like her, Hinata on the other hand...

...is the wheird one, that Naruto shoudn´t pick. Jokes aside. I and a few others didn't expect Naruto to suddenly change his mind. And this change of decision was really short-term. As I said. Naruto was still quite obviously crushing on Sakura during the same fighting event, when he suddenly discovered his feelings for Hinata. And she had made a declaration of love to him long before (during the fight with Pain). - To which he didn't respond. And as proof that Hinata was planned to be Naruto's waifu from the start, we are shown a picture of her wearing a necklace with an Uzumaki symbol. A symbol that is not exactly unusual in Konoha. Also to say that Sakura is just a side character is a joke, since she is the kunoichi who has the most screen time and has also done the most character development alongside the male protagonists. This made many fans feel ripped off. Ultimately, selling manga comes before telling a good story. That's why Kishimoto decided to implement the pairings most liked by fans. And that's SasuSaku and NaruHina. And that's why Borusara will also become canon with 100% probability, because it is the most popular ship in the Boruto fandom. ~*~ Your Ying-Yang theory sounds very nice, but it doesn't quite work. So Sasuke would have to be shy too. Additionally, Choji and Karui are both quite extroverted and harmonize well together as a couple. The symbol that you immediately think of when you hear the word Yin Yang consists of a black and a white part. The black area (Yin) stands for darkness, calm, passive reception, the feminine and soft. However, white (yang) means sun or brightness and warmth, active giving and masculinity. - Source I wouldn't really call this kind of outburst shyness, but rather that she might be embarrassed by some situations. But I'm not a fan of drawing parallels between Hinata and Sumire anyway, as for me the two are completely different characters. ~*~ When you mention that Sumire confessed her love for Boruto... It's pretty strange why she asks Sarada if she has a thing for Boruto.

And she wasn't the only one who asked Sarada about her feelings for Boruto. Aida and Mitsuki (2x) also asked about it. Sumire gave a very knowing smile, when Sarada answered "No" a´la "You're not kidding me." Sometimes Sarada reacts very nervously or blushes. And if I remember correctly, in the Boruto movie, Sarada often blushed when she saw Boruto, so it had some Hinata vibes. So Sarada is obviously in love with Boruto. ~*~ I don't know whether it's a counterargument that Boruto calls Sumire class representative. After all, the rest of the class does it too, apart from her teammates, who actually call her by her first name. For me, however, that feels a little distant. In Japan it is customary to address the person by their title. In Sumire's case with class representative. However, Sumire's teammates don't. And that gives me the feeling that the two ladies are closer to Sumire than the rest of the class. But everyone can decide for themselves. ~*~ Borusumi is a pretty sweet Shipping. I can understand why people ship it. And if you enjoy it, I'll give it to you. <3 For my part, I prefer to ship Kawasumi.

Why I Ship BoruSumi

No hate

In Naruto, it was all about shipping. People love watching Naruto or other characters having romantic relationships with others and ship baits and it was exciting to see what would be end game. It was all about the fun. But a part of the fandom took that fun and made it a nightmare (NaruSaku/Sakura) fandom. They sent death threats to Masashi Kishimoto and the team to make NaruSaku canon and loved hating on any other character that interacted with Naruto, mostly Hinata Hyuga. But after the ending of Naruto, some of the fandom can’t seem to accept that. They moved onto the kids, hoping to live out their delusions through them (Boruto and Sarada). After Boruto the movie came out, most people speculated that they would be canon, and because the next gen wasn’t planned yet, they had no one else to pair Boruto up with, so that’s why there are a lot of blushing scenes.

But while the anime was undergoing, there was a beautiful character who showed up in chapter 19 of the Boruto manga, and episode two of the Boruto anime. She was Sumire Kakei/Shigaraki. The reason most of the NaruSaku/BoruSara/Sakura/Sarada fandom hate on her is because she’s the biggest threat to their ship, just like Hinata was. Other than that side of the fandom, most people liked her and Sarada was hated by most of the fandom (like Sakura and Hinata situation).

Now, BoruSumi is one of Boruto’s most popular ships, along with BoruSara. Here's why I ship BoruSumi:

Opposites:

Ever heard of the saying, “opposites attract”. Yeah, well, that’s true in this case. Most Naruto/Boruto couples are yin and yang. Yin being quiet, emotionless, and shy. Whereas yang is loud, obnoxious, and easily angered. Boruto was quickly ruled out as yang, whereas Sumire was ruled as yin. Boruto often pulled pranks and would shout and have random outbursts. Sumire was shown to be quiet and shy and scared whenever her class was having fall outs, which was easily shown in one episode where the class was having a girl VS boy battle. Even after her arc, she was still shown to be scared about other people and what they think of her and a shy and caring person:

Now, every Naruto/Boruto character get their personality from either their mother or father and Naruto and Sasuke got theirs from their mothers and married someone like their fathers (Hinata/Minato and Sakura/Fugaku). Even Itachi got Mikoto's personality and Izumi had Fugaku's (it was confirmed that Itachi loved her). It's only fair since Boruto inherited his father's personality that he marries someone like his mother, that being Sumire. Sarada, in contrast to what people think, actually inherited her mother's personality.

2. Treat each other differently:

Sumire is kind so she treats everyone equally, but she has confirmed her feelings towards Boruto twice, but this one's mostly pointed towards Boruto.

Chocho: Shouted at her, angry at her, called her a liar, etc:

Namida: He's barely had any interaction with her but she is a friend of his. But in this scene, he didn't have a direct conversation with her, but still wanted to help. But judging from his calmness, her wanting to not be a ninja didn't bug him much. He has also seen to tease her and Wasabi:

Sarada: He didn't see her as a normal girl and hated her guts, vice versa. But as the anime/manga went on, he became comfortable around her and saw her as only a teammate:

But with Sumire, he listens to her like she's his mom, which Sumire is technically the mom or big sister of the group:

3. He doesn't call her by her name:

People may think this is a con to the ship, but it's actually a pro. In Japan, calling someone by their title has shown to be respectful and calling people like how Boruto calls Kakashi, Konohamaru and Hanabi is shown to be disrespectful. Now, he probably thinks he's not close or not good enough to call her by her name. But he always respected her, more than I can say for Sarada and his own sensei. He only called her by her name once and that was when he had saved her from darkness, but it was also life-changing for him, meaning her name meant something to him. That was when Sumire started having feelings, too.

4. Jealousy:

Sumire has shown jealous (the scene where Boruto was chasing Sarada on the boat in the Kiri arc), but it was barely displayed. Boruto, however was shown jealousy over her two times (probably even more but I haven't watched the whole show, just up to episode 232, but these are the scenes I can remember):

5. Boruto was worried for Sumire when she was in trouble:

In the first scene, Boruto was upset (and in the novel, he even cried for her) and blamed himself for her getting hurt. In the second scene, Boruto refused to let her go after Nue, afraid he might lose her again. The third scene shows he was protecting her from Nue and there is a scene where he goes into Nue's dimension blindly just to save her. Next scene was in the Jugo arc when they were attacked, he didn't want to let her go after Nue again, knowing she might get herself killed. Next is after Kawaki attacked her. He tried convincing her that Kawaki was bad. After that, he was worried about Sumire even though there was Sarada and Chocho to protect her. In the last scene, Boruto was worried about Sumire after Naruto's stone face collapsed, but then again, that could've been because she was on a different level then him and because she was the only girl. There was also another scene (couldn't find it). It was there purification incident, Boruto was really worried and rushed off before the news was even done and Shikadai had to calm him down.

6. Boruto blames himself for Sumire getting hurt:

In the novel (as mentioned earlier), Boruto cried for Sumire in the novel, but in the anime, it showed him as worried. It got so bad that Sarada had to drag him out. He then vowed to stop the guy who hurt her.

7. Those around Boruto seem to know he gets a bit overprotective of Sumire:

Shikadai:

He was worried about Boruto's reaction when Inojin said that Sumire might be transferring.

After Inojin opened his big mouth, Boruto instantly became angry and tried getting her back.

Mitsuki:

Mitsuki is a bit different because he doesn't know but he does, if that makes sense. It's obvious that Mitsuki likes Boruto (I'm pretty sure it's confirmed), so that technically makes Sumire his rival. But Mitsuki still seemed to know that whenever Sumire was involved, Boruto would act differently and rush over to her. He knew he acted differently around her. He even went as far to ask her about Boruto when she was in the hospital, all because he took Inojin's words out of context and assumed she liked him.

Naruto:

Boruto's own father seemed to know how much Boruto cared for her. Naruto probably realized this when Boruto asked him to use his Hokage title. You could see the realization on his face and the smile he gave him was a "I will, trust me" one (there is a pic, but I can't find it).

Hinata:

A mother knows her child best, right? Hinata had been in love with Naruto since childhood, so she knew about young love. She didn't know Sumire in person, but she knew that she was important to Boruto since he rarely ever asks anything from his father.

7. Boruto trusts Sumire:

Now, Boruto trusts all his comrades, but he trusted Sumire even after everything that she did and his trust in her was unbelievable. He put his life in her hands even though she tried to destroy his home and family. He even put faith in her and wanted to protect her and couldn't chose between her and the village.

8. Parallels:

KawaSumi is parallel with SasuHina (purple being mc's rival and lover, but Kawaki's and Sasuke's are leaning towards black, but at one point was purple) and BoruSara is parallel with SasuKari/NaruSaku.

10. Confessions:

Sumire has confessed her feelings like Hinata has.

11. Data book:

In Sumire's data book, it was confirmed that she loved Boruto, just like Hinata's and Sakura's confirmed their love to their respective partners.

But this is all my opinion and why I ship them. But if you ship BoruSara then that's fine. But these are my reasons for shipping this ship and I'm pretty sure it's canon because of the last point. I don't think that Ino or Karin's have confirmed their feelings for Sasuke when the series was going on. And I know Sarada's definitely hasn't. But ship your own ship.

Only time will tell, I guess. and the decisions for Kishi to decide and some rabid fans sending death threats to him to make their ship canon won't change his mind.

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mxtxnovelrealm · 2 years ago

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Heavns Official Blessing's Chapter 2 review!

Chapter 2 starts simple with them at the cafe still and discussing the last bits of the mission of the ghost groom. We see a bit more of Nen Feng and Fu yao's personality here. One is sipping the tea that is offered while the other is ignoring it while whipping off his fingers.

I think the both really do want to help his Highness with this task but I also think one wants to more than the other. At this point its hard to say what they could be thinking. However Fu Yao is more sarcastic and gives off the 'lets get this over with type of vibes.'

Right at this Xie Lian is like 'ok I'm done for now I'm going to lay somehwhere.' and he really meant anywhere because he was heading for bushes! This just shows how much he got used to just laying wherever in the last 800 years! While the other two are like 'No. Let's get a temple!'

They find a Nan Yang temple and settle in there. This is where is different to the Donghua differs from the book and Manhua. Which I am not sure if it has to do with censoring or to speed up the plot point or a bit of both?

For example in the book and Anime this is where we first see the young maiden where in the Donghua we meet her right off the bat outside the tea shop.

Of course before she enters we learn why the temple of Nan Yang has meny female believers as once a time his temple was the temple of 'Dick Yang' which is funny and it was a delightful bit of humor there that I enjoyed.

That is of course when the young Maiden enters and right off the bat Fu yao calls her ugly. Another difference is her appearance. In the Book she is read to have a flat face with a crooked nose. In the Donghua she is just plane looking with freckles but the Manhua she is actually drawn kind of cute. I don't know why the change? I just thought it odd? But yeah she is pictured be a bit more.... Odd looking in the book. If I think about it later I'll post screen shots of her in both appearances along with Xie Lian's description about her.

At this point they notice she has a tear in her skirt. Nen Feng becomes very nervous at this and Xie Lian seem to notice as he quickly tells him not to be nervous. Though the Junior is so nervous he can't even speak.

Xie Lian takes action here. He takes off his outer robe and tossed it down to Xiao-Ying. She takes it off though unsure where it came from and lays it out on the alter. This of course causes Xie Lian to jump down with Hsi chest bare and try again to get her to cover. Of course Hsi luck is bad and he ends up with a slap to the face! Poor guy!

Here we see that Xie Lian is covered in bandages from his chest, neck, and arms are wrapped in bandages and some cuts could be seen underneath. We read here that Xie Lian had actually sprained his neck even! It's healed by now but still! He fell that hard! At least he says he fell. Nan Feng and Fu Yao don't believe it of course. However Xie Lian states (at least to himself) that if it was a fight he wouldn't have been so hurt. Which means he has confidence in his abilities. (why wouldn't he though? Being alive 800 years! He should have Amazeing skill!) This is also when we see the cursed shackle. Which is described as a collar. It's also mentioned later that it's something Xie Lian can feel. However again in the Manhua and Donghua it looks more like tattoo markings? I am guessing that will be changed later? I mean I am not sure. Though even the drawing in the book it looks like a plane black band around his neck.

They two 'juniors' stare at it and Xie Lian thinks it has to do with them never seeing one before? Though I have a hunch it's something else.

When that is settled and Nen Feng grabs robes for Xie Lian they sit and talk again only for the two 'Juniors' to start fighting. And what do they fight about? The Crown Prince Xie Lian himself!

They fight and throw stuff and Xie Lian thinks about eating a meat bun that is old only for one of them to fling it from his hand. They even scold him about it being dirty. It's a very fun read and you really can see dispite 'first time meeting one another' that they are all also comfortable with one another. At least that is how I see it? It must also help that they are not on the heavenly realm and can be more relaxed? I am not sure. However it's enjoyable to read and I really like the interactions between all three men here. It ends with Xie Lian scolding them only for Men Feng to scold back about eating dirty food.

It skips to the next day here. They are back at the tea Shop. Fu Yao asks why they are discussing the mission there in the open and Xie Lian simply explains 'If people over hear us they will just think us insane.' Which I love him for. Like this and that is no big deal hahah!

Then Xie Lian asks simply what do they do with the creature once it's found.

Fu Yao: Kill it

Nan Feng: No shit.

I died. Like Can you be any sassier? I love these two and their bickering with one another. 'No shit' hahaha.

Then Xie Lian is like 'Dont be rude. What did Fu Yao say that was wrong?' like Seriously tho. Haha!

Of course the fun banter is interupted with the men of the town pretending to do a wedding to lure out the Ghost Groom. Ah the leader I off the bat don't like.

Poor Xiao Ying gets pushed about to and she is just trying to stop them from hurting a possible inocent person only for it to be a wooden puppet of sorts. It's honestly pretty poor attempt and they are blinded by greed to see that this plan won't work. Fake bride, fake wedding, and roudy men. Xie Lian sees it off the bat.

The chapter of the book actually ends here with the fake bride's head falling off and rolling out of the sadden.

I want to review Chapter 3 however seeing as it's also the introduction of Hua Cheng (so to speak) I want to really focus on it and make it nice.

However Chapter 2 was a fun chapter. We really get to see Nen Feng and Fu Yao's personality in this and just how much they seem to be annoyed to be there. Are they actually annoyed to be helping the Prince or to be partnered together? Xie Lian really seems to think it's helping him but I think it's the other. It's protrayed as they are annoyed to be helping Xie Lian but the way the two argue it seems like it's more working together. However Fu Yao seems to be perhaps a bit of both? Like he is just annoyed in general? Where Nen Feng seems more serious about the situation.

Non the less it was a fun chapter and one of the more shorter ones of the book! Review on Chapter 3 and probably 4 will be coming soon!

#heaven official blessings #tiān guān cì fú #Xie Lian #hua cheng #Nen feng #Fu Yao #Hulian #book review

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wizenqamot · 4 years ago

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I rate Tony Stark ships bc why the hell not, I’m not feeling the aesthetic blog vibe lately

Iron Husbands (Rhodey/Tony): My preferred ship. Rhodey is calm, collected, isn’t afraid to call out Tony’s bullshit (see IM2). My man is so smart too. RHODEY IS A LITERAL ROCKET ENGINEER. He can keep up with Tony’s intellect, keeps him grounded, also enough of a little shit to make it fun. Ying to his yang. In 2/3 of Iron Man movies, this man was looking for Tony when he went missing. HE SEARCHED TONY FOR THREE MONTHS IN THE DESERT. He’s Tony’s oldest and best friend. Was there for every shitshow Tony went through and stuck around. Absolute friends to lovers excellence. 10000/10

Bruce/Tony: I feel like this ship is very unnecessary, no hate if you like it though. I just think it was created out of necessity because none of the other characters were smart enough to keep up with Tony, but that was completely disregarding Rhodey. Sorry to circle back to that, but consider this: Bruce is smart. Bruce stays around for two hot seconds before fucking off to SPACE, even though it’s unintentional. Rhodey is also smart. Rhodey met Tont circa 1984. Tony dies in 2023, meaning they were friends for nearly FORTY YEARS. I rest my case, but overall a 4/10 bc I do actually love Bruce

Ironpanther? (T’Challa/Tony): I don’t know how this ship happened. I don’t know why this ship happened. Can somebody explain? There is no reason for these characters to be together, no chemistry either. Let’s not forget that T’Challa harbored the Rogues. I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing, I’m just pointing it out. 1/10

Pepperony (Pepper/Tony): Listen, I love Pepper. She could step on me and I’d thank her. I like this ship too, and I feel like it made Tony really happy so I’m glad it happened. But it just doesn’t get me too excited. MCU has been there, done that. Also the superhero gig isn’t good for Pepper’s heart. 7/10

Peter Quill/Tony: Totally see the dumbass energy going on, but Tony is a genius dumbass while Quill is a complete himbo who also happens to be very in love with his gf. I feel like if something happened, it would be a brief hookup that ended amicably and Quill would send weird memes to Tony sometimes. 5/10

Ironstrange (Stephen/Tony): I just think they’re wayyy to similar for it to work. I don’t really have much to say about this ship. Maybe a 4/10

Ironfrost (Loki/Tony): Pretty hot couple. Good chemistry. Not sure if it could actually be a solid relationship considering the gap in life expectancy and the violent history in the first Avengers movie, but a good 6/10 for me.

Winteriron (Bucky/Tony): I know that Bucky is a nice person. I know, trust me. But honestly, I wouldn’t fall in love with a person knowing that they killed my parents with their bare hands. I couldn’t. I’m pretty sure I have the right to speak about this, considering I don’t have to use my imagination about this particular issue. Comment wisely even if you disagree. Overall, 2/10 for both of them being good people

Starker (Peter Parker/Tony): Okay, let’s just put this out there: MCU Peter Parker is 15 years old. This ship is pedophilia. I understand that most men in these movies are hypermasculin and it’s hard to find representation, but a LITERAL CHILD is not the right outlet. Just no. -10000/10

Stony (Steve/Tony): There is enemies to lovers chemistry, then there is this, which is basically a big ol’ yikes. Let’s discuss: We know that Howard was an abusive father and idolised Steve. Tony grew up in Steve’s shadow. That must leave some lingering resentment. Steve woke up in a new era, and hoped that this Stark would at least resemble the old one he remembered, but that didn’t work out for him. Their personalities are very different, but they clash instead of completing one another. They started raining down insults from the first time they met. I’m not gonna even get in the whole Civil War mess. I’m pretty sure beating someone to death and leaving them to freeze isn’t a love language. Overall, -10000/10

#mcu #tony stark #rhodeytony #iron husbands #pepperony #rhodey #not gonna tag the other ships cus i don’t wanna have a discourse #mine

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cto10121 · 4 years ago

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ok fine FINE here's a review on shadow and bone, good, bad, and ugly

the good

mal. almost everything about him is improved from the books and his POV is fully expressed here. the childhood bf to lovers trope is finally justified

the casting. spot-on for the most part, especially jesper, everyone really works well together.

there is an obvious sense of the show being conceived by people and portrayed by actors who actually like the original material, which is refreshing af. must approve

ben barnes

no seriously everything about ben barnes

alina and the darkling. these two, i just can’t

the crows were consistently good and they were well-integrated with the main storyline for the most part. that they they didn't accomplish much i don't even mind much, since they were enjoyable enough

the darkling being such an unabashed simp for alina is beautiful and hilarious and i am here for it. i am the elmo basking in hellfire with his hands outstretched for this

alina has more agency here, especially in her relationship with the darkling, which is passionate and sexy completely consensual. my oh my

the ~diversity~ being natural and organic for once. actually alina’s and mal’s biracialness does justify their outsider status, more so with alina. it gives an extra dimension why alina is so resistant to new life at the little palace and why she clings to mal instead of ugly-duckling thing from the books

the goat

but now the bad

in changing the relationship dynamic between alina and mal from plain-girl-with-unrequited-crush-on-jock-childhood-bestie, the show inadvertently removed genuine conflict and rationale for certain plot beats. here there is no real reason for alina and mal not to have gotten together—they clearly liked each other, alina is not under the impression mal doesn’t like her, mal passes up a chance to hook up with zoya to get her food...what gives? and so the malina ship feels more like a sibling/familial relationship because it lacks tension and genuine conflict. even when alina admits to something happening between her and the darkling, mal is immediately and unconditionally supportive. you’d think a teen boy would at least struggle a bit to accept his crush with a hot older grisha general whom he distrusts. i don't know, it feels way too idyllic. mal is just too damn perfect. there’s just no place their relationship can go from here story-wise but down

the darkling’s character is still very ambivalent. fun as it was to see, in making the darkling an (almost) total simp, barnes removes the chance for some inner conflict. book!darkling clearly felt conflicted over his attraction towards alina and the obstruction it had on his plans. show!darkling meanwhile is nigh planning the wedding from the war room scene on, and he was clearly taken with her beforehand. this succeeds not only in audience-baiting darklina something awful, but it makes the plot twist of his villainy something hard to accept. before this the only thing obviously manipulative the audience knows that he does is the blue iris thing—and that scene is hilarious in its comic timing. add in the strong beauty-and-the-beast/hades-persephone vibes, the symbolism of light/dark, ying/yang, the coolly composed ruthlessly villainous sophisticate versus the fiery orphan pure of heart naïf...yeah. suffice to say, darklina is the most popular ship for a good reason. sometimes, and only just sometimes, the fangirls are right.

speaking of which. the baghra tells alina about the darkling scene. the most fucked up plot point of the books, and they not only kept it in, but kept it in faithfully with few to no alterations. *facepalms* suffice to say, alina trusting baghra so readily makes even less sense in the series than in the books. they even included a flashback scene of the origins of the fold that subtly contradicts baghra’s account to alina (the darkling didn’t create the fold on purpose, it was an accident). if the plan was to make the darkling into a full-out series villain, they definitely failed

not only that, but it threw away the growth of alina’s arc!!! she was just coming to accept and own her powers, making friends at the little palace, pursuing the darkling, etc. she was a much more interesting character than the whinefest (safety and luxury, o heavy burden) of previous episodes. and now, knowing the books, they will start her out in the same position again in the second season, suppressing her powers yet again, and all for basic beefcake mal. i hate this direction, i hate it to bits, fuck it fuck it fuck it

the crows felt like comic side characters here instead of the more well-rounded figures they are in soc. which isn't a bad thing and actually the show did benefit a lot from their comedy, but it did make them much less compelling. hopefully season two will delve deeper

the ugly

i remember baghra telling alina that to seek refuge with some grisha faithful to her by going right at the fork of the tunnel, but instead alina chooses to go left on her own???? and this is not explained??? am i misremembering or???

a lot of beautiful shots interspersed with weirdly clumsy shots and direction? is it just me or did some of the blocking feel off?

the worldbuilding, albeit more consistent and unified, still lacks depth and is a trifle incoherent, but that is again something that plagued the book series as well.

the writing was a bit uneven; some strong, sharp lines but also quite a bit of weak lines i had to mentally rewrite.

alina's antler flesh necklace. they really went there, didn't they?

this is a malina show all the way, and for reasons i have already explained...yeah. there is still a chance, of course, that they do not do malina endgame, but with bardugo involved, it's doubtful. only if they do come to conflict over creative differences and bardugo leaves would the show be able to go in that direction, (or bardugo simply giving up and accepting this show as the canon-divergent fanfic it is). but one thing i am absolutely sure they will do is bait the audience with darklina.

mal fighting the darkling in the fold (!!) and actually holding his own. what malina propaganda dumbfuckery is this

this show probably did need to be at least ten episodes. the eight we got were fine and tight, and i don't blame the showrunner in the least for opting for the high budget, but again, some plot beats did not feel as natural or organic as they could have been. could have used the extra time

so my fix-it for season two regarding the alina-darkling-mal drama: have an actual good-guy (or even worse-bad-guy—maybe a hitler-type royal who begins to ramp up on oppressing and maybe even killing off all grisha after the darkling’s betrayal. maybe vasily? vasily sounds right) alternative to the darkling and not just "gather up the amplifiers and destroy the fold and discount lord voldemort." continue with the arc of alina learning and controlling and overall owning her powers, the force connection with the darkling, and mal torn between his fealty and his fear over her powers (maybe alina realizes sooner that she can control the darkling's powers too, muddy the waters a bit). maybe he and alina have a genuine falling out, he defects (temporarily before he comes to his senses) to the hitler guy, and alina and darkling, both hurt over their respective betrayals, come to a middle in their respective sides (alina realizes that hatred towards the grisha is a very real problem and the darkling realizes, from watching alina do her thing, maybe even with nikolai, of a different way towards grisha-acceptance, and alina and he are not really on different sides) and reluctantly team up or work together at the some point. oh, and the crows get involved somehow. i don't know. just something different from the mess that was siege and storm and ruin and rising.

#shadow and bone #meta #cristina meta #cristina reviews #this show i swear #a lot of things realized and a lot of potential squandered #it just depends how they are going to handle season two

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astrologysvt · 5 years ago

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Wonwoo’s Ideal Type - Natal Chart Reading

For ideal types, I’m not going to be doing specific placements of their ideal partner. Instead, I’m gonna be listing personality traits I think would mesh well with them, as well as focus on their needs and the kind of person who could meet them. what this reading cannot account for is the compromising the members would do on their end for their s/o. so just keep in mind this is only half of the whole picture!

honestly, based solely on his chart, i imagine wonwoo’s type to be EXACTLY the opposite as how he appears.

someone fun, bright, talkative.

i could even see him with someone who is a bit flashy, as his leo moon and mercury would like to be with someone he can show off and be proud of.

someone who’s a great listener and great conversationalist.

you can’t tell me with all that leo and gemini that wonwoo isn’t talkative, energetic, and excitable.

not only would he want someone he can joke around with and talk with for hours, his leo placements need a great deal of validation and would be outraged if his significant other were to gloss over what he has to say.

not to mention his cancer sun wouldn’t take well if he felt his feelings weren’t being taken into account.

his moon is trine saturn which is a great aspect for emotional control and responsibility.

so he may also want to see a mirrored kind of tact in his partner, while also wanting someone who can help him let loose once in awhile.

just someone really fun to be around, ready to challenge him, but also incredibly reliable.

his cancer sun makes him a homebody — he loves comfort and security and would definitely be one for lazy dates where ya’ll do nothing and just chill.

his leo placements also play into his love with being lazy and luxuriating and being comfortable so someone who is an ultra-extrovert who only wants to go out may not vibe with him as he’s in constant need of places/periods of rest, security, comfort in order for him to be that fun, playful person he wants to be.

cancer suns get crabby (please don’t acknowledge the word choice) when they feel like they’re being pushed out of their comfort zones against their wishes, so his s/o should be able to help him balance his need for that comfort and his want for excitement.

it goes both ways, where if his s/o only wanted to hang out at home and play video games he’d eventually feel his life/relationship was getting stale.

someone loyal.

anyone with a strong leo influence doesn’t take to commitment lightly.

they are highly attracted to individuals who are just as committed and loyal in life as they are.

and with a leo moon, wonwoo would very unlikely feel comfortable being in an intimate relationship with someone who he felt was flighty (even if, solely to him, they appeared loyal.)

ironically, however, he has both venus and mars in gemini which can notoriously make him pretty flighty himself.

this is obviously toned down a great deal due to his leo placements, but independence will certainly be an important value to maintain in his relationships as these placements don’t like feeling restrained.

he may also be very hard to pin down, although I don’t necessarily like thinking of gemini placements as “flighty” as in unreliable and self-serving, but rather as having very active minds that need to be both entertained and reeled in every once in awhile.

so his leo placements may make him acknowledge his commitment and loyalty, but if certain conditions and understandings aren’t met, then he may end up growing insecure in the relationship.

not to mention a gemini venus and mars will literally REVOLT if they feel as though they don’t have options.

so it’s important that you take things at a gentle bace and do check-ins, allow him to come to his own conclusions without added pressure and this should be easy for someone who similarly values independence.

he needs to feel confident that he has autonomy over his actions.

with gemini placements, if you don’t reaffirm to them that their opinions matter and that the choice is equally their’s, they will FIND and MAKE options for themselves.

like they may very well be happy with the circumstances they’re in, but a lack of wiggle room will make them start to resent it.

so it’d definitely be important that he’s with someone who understands that and reaffirms that they’ll be there for him as he does his own thing, and that it is a happy partnership more than a kind of contract.

someone affectionate.

leo placements love affection and attention, and his venus conjuct mars creates a strong connection between the romantic/intellectual and the passionate/physical.

meaning that, while he may have a strong desire for communication and strong intellectual connection thanks to his gemini placements, he will also equally need a strong physical connection and understanding with his partner.

i think it’s a very cute placement to have.

venus softens the aggressive mars and creates a very nice free flow between the passionate and the tender. softens the barriers between the emotional, physical, and intellectual -- meaning, he can freely express and accept love in a multitude of ways.

he’s really and honestly a really tender and loving partner.

inversely, he’d be very good and accommodating to someone who struggles to express themselves in either which way.

so if his s/o can’t say it in so many words, he’ll be able to understand and acknowledge their attempts at communicating to him through affection and body language.

this aspect is also super interesting because it blurs the lines between femininity and masculinity. and, in astrology, when I talk about “femininity” and “masculinity” I don’t mean gender, I mean energies solely.

since we’re all a mixture of different energies and situations activate certain aspects of ourselves differently, this placement in particular could mean he could take up either “role” within a relationship.

i know this sounds mad problematic but thing of it more as ying and yang.

certainly that could mean he could be either the super soft and nurturing presence that’s more “feminine” or ying, or the more assertive “male” yang presence.

but instead of thinking of it as a light switch where he can only be either or at a given time. i see it more as he’d feel most comfortable in a relationship where both him and his partner offer each other both energies freely.

(as, honestly, most relationships should. he’s just REAL good at it).

there is an inherent understanding within him in how to bring a sense of passion/stability to his relationships as well as the softer/romantic/lighter parts of it as well.

his gemini placements love the chase and his leo placements want to be wooed.

so someone whose assertive and charming enough to try and woo him, but they should also be intelligent, clever, and deep-thinking enough to keep his interest once the initial spark has dissipated.

there is a part of him that 100% is very hard to read, pin down, and satisfy.

with his sun, moon, and mercury opposite uranus, he will often feel a strong desire for freedom, eccentricity, and uniqueness to the point it may cause him to feel restless if these things are threatened.

his s/o should be patient, and willing to allow for a great deal of freedom in the case these placements act out.

not only that but they should be open-minded individuals from the get-go.

someone too concerned with meeting norms, or someone who is unaccepting of people’s eccentricities and different walks of life would definitely leave a negative impression on him.

his moon is sextile venus which is adorable 🥺

having the moon (comfort and security) in soft aspect to venus (love, friendship, and pleasure) means that he has a great deal of understanding for his emotions and their connection to his need for intimacy.

he is truly a very loving and soft boy.

this aspect would also make him just a very calming and endearing presence to have around.

he would definitely not do well in a relationship with someone who was overly cold, stoic, and serious (lmao, like how he appears sometimes).

but this aspect in particular craves emotional closeness, while his venus conjuct mars would crave both that and physical affection, and all of his leo and gemini placements would lose their minds being with someone who wasn’t reactive enough, not to mention his cancer sun would crave the security of a responsive s/o.

summary: soft, soft boy. handle with care and make him laugh.

i imagine his relationships would have a very long, very enjoyable honeymoon phase.

primarily because everything having to do with affection, intellectual connection, and playfulness is all very well aspected and comfortable for him. It’s once things get a bit more serious after the initial wooing and honeymoon phase that this chart starts to get challenged.

his s/o should be prepared for that, but also very well versed in communicating these things. if his s/o is someone who wants commitment and things like “i love you’s” “you’re the love of my life” to even marriage, they should be prepared to wait a little bit.

they shouldn’t be someone who gets anxious, paranoid, jealous, possessive, or upset because he isn’t ready to state his commitment in so many words.

of course, it’s natural to be a little disappointed. but in the mean time, it’d truly help for them to continue to enjoy the aspects of the relationship that come easy to him as they are still very important things to maintain regardless how serious the relationship is.

and truly, the key to ensuring that he doesn’t get overwhelmed and restless in a relationship while also making him feel comfortable enough to say and feel those things sooner, is in maintaining this light and free dynamic.

his gemini placements will give his more committed and attached tendencies through his cancer and leo the thumbs up to do their thing, once he feels he’s positioned in a place with his s/o where he doesn’t fear that they’ll hold onto him tighter if he tries to express independence.

they should just have fun, enjoy each other’s company whether they’re talking, playing a game, or just sitting around doing their own thing and breathing each other’s air.

#svt #seventeen #wonwoo #jeon wonwoo

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kingluffy · 4 years ago

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It might just be me but I feel like oda is now focusing a little bit on romance since dressrosa, and is nearly like putting endgame ships together but not fully trying to give it away, like with sanji for example I think it’s clear now that his two realistic end partners are either pudding or viola since he’s kissed both of them and generally if we being honest been less of a pervert (well sexually) around them especially pudding, but I think it’s clear pudding would end with him just because they technically got married (an official marriage is complete when the vows are done) their wedding got interrupted when they were about to kiss which they did later on and I think that pudding did that so at least to her they are married.

With ussop I think it’s clearly kaya but you know the more I think about it he might just might have an outside chance with nami but if I’m being honest they give me more of a friends and sibling vibe.and with kaya both her and ussop has shown feelings for each other but you never know this is Oda we are talking about.

For robin I think it’s going to be franky, now hear me out if I’m being honest I didn’t think robin would get an ending partner until very recently, I always heard of zoro and robin but I never really felt that ship like I wasn’t against it but I wasn’t for it. Then the colourspread where she was holding frankys face came like a punch to me 😂 all of a sudden I was like omds how didn’t I see that coming because I started to remember how their interactions where during water 7, Ennis lobby and thriller bark was like we all know how she made him join the crew ouch, when she got her wings she made him blush and only him in thriller bark, they both have sleep on each other or with each other (not sexually) loads of times actually some with brook, however so yeah and in wano you could now see their interactions too, franky offering to give only robin a ride on his motorbike, kinda cliche but hey it it works it does

Next is chopper I think he has two realistic options because most of the others would be beastiality which I highly doubt oda would include in the biggest manga of all time, so anyways I think he’s two options are carrot and the reindeer mink but I think if he was to have a pairing it would hands down be the reindeer mink because number one chopper actually has a crush on her and number two they are both in the same profession with her being a nurse and so on it’s almost as if oda made the mink just for chopper. And for chopper and carrot I get the same vibe as with nami and ussop friends/siblings vibes and the fact carrot calls chopper “chobro” shows she feels it’s like that too but I would rule it out.

Now for zoro there isn’t much to say here I already said my opinion on zoro and robin which is I don’t feel they have had enough moments especially recently too be considered endgame, don’t get me wrong it’s a big ship with loads of fans so I could see it happening I just doubt it same with zoro and tashigi with them I just don’t think they could happen ,because they are on two different sides pirate and marine, like their pairing is heavily reliant on the marines and world gov having a major reshaping. And I’m not gonna lie I thought and still have it in my mind just not as strong that zoro is asexual like I’ve never seen him show interest in other females or anything a prime example of that was the happiness punch in alabasta everyone went to see it even chopper did but zoro was the only one who didn’t and people would say what about luffy isn’t he asexual which I’ll touch on later but no luffy isn’t asexual and there’s evidence for that but none for zoro. That being said can still see zoro ending with someone that being hiyori because let me get this out there I think there’s a 0.1% chance of zoro asking a girl out and I just feel it more likely a girl would like aggressively love him (like be getting them into awkward situations time and time again to express her feeling) and the only girl who I think would do that is hiyori, tagashi is too tsundere to do it and robin is too composed and calm to do it too. I’m just thinking about the personalities with this one because I don’t really think zoro has had a lot of moments with girls apart from tashigi and you know about my problem with that ship so yeah hiyori for me.

Now the last one this one I can go on for literal days on this ship but this post is already long so I’ll try and summarise as best I can and if you want me to go in detail just tell me. So now for luffy. Now with luffy as most of you know I can only see him ending with nami like yeah girls like mageret have an outside chance but I can only really and truely see luffy and nami, let me just talk about personalities not even moments yet, they are the perfect example of opposites attract, ying-yang, definition of completing one another with luffy and nami they are my otp because of this reason mainly because unlike other anime’s and manga you can clearly see this and you could see it develop each arc and saga like for luffy every attribute he lacks like intelligence, craftiness, intimidation, etc nami compensates with him and teaches him about them and for nami her lack of bravery, see people’s true intentions luffy compensates for her teaching her and showing her it let just list a few of this moment : nami showing luffy how normal pirates behave after ussops arc, luffy showing nami his bravery in arlong arc, strong world etc And where we see them develop for nami we saw nami show her bravery for luffy in whole cake island when she fough cracker knowing she had no chance of winning or when she fought big moms army too. For luffy we see him becoming smarter and see his enemies true intentions in arcs like zou where he suspected sanji was taken against his will. Then we got how their goals and personality’s intertwines with each other because luffy wants to become pirate king and nami what’s to map the whole world, one of the things luffy loves the most is adventure and what adventure is bigger than exploring the whole world? Maybe love😂😂 (cringe I know but had too). Now people might say hancock but let me just say this I think the chances of hancock ending with luffy is so low that I believe yamato has a better chance than her and we’ve only seen Yamato for like 6 chapters so let me explain the main reason why I think she doesn’t have a chance is simply because luffy rejected her now to people that might not be a lot but it really is simply based on the fact that in nearly 1000 chapters and 15 movies luffy has never ever changed his mind. When he says something it happens or in this case does’nt for example when he said he’ll get a musician he did, when he said he’ll beat people’s asses he did even when he said he’ll save ace he did do it unfortunately ace went back, so when luffy has numerously told hancock he won’t marry her he really won’t. Now people can say that just means he won’t marry her but that doesnt mean they can’t be together but my response to that is simple what pairing in one piece aren’t married or engaged? So far in one piece every couple have been married or at least engaged. So that’s why I think hancock is out of the runnig or at least has a much less chance than nami does for ending with luffy. I didn’t even go into detail for luffy and nami but I’ll probably do that later. But please remember this is just MY opinion about the pairings in one piece you are free to disagree with it you can even comment to me why you disagree but I don’t want people to start acting toxic please. The reason i didn’t include brook or jimbei is because I don’t see them ending with anyone

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whateverthedragonswant · 4 years ago

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and the rewatch continues

So rewatching most of season 5 and dipping into season 6, after coming from season 4, I found some things very interesting, things I actually had forgotten about and some that just hit differently now that the show has ended:

Season 4:

Brothers - different iterations: Had that finale happened after this season, it might have made better sense (though I STILL say the manner of Dean’s death is laughable)

Destiel & Cas: While Cas and Dean have some uncomfortable staring contests and there’s chemistry, I didn’t get the whole Destiel vibe (this is just my personal take), yes there’s a bond there, a growing partnership so to speak but I feel like Cas is not around enough for it to be in the forefront of the story or even to demand Dean’s attention in a way. Like Cas made his big entrance in 4x01 and we saw how things took off from there for the story and for this connection/bond between he and Dean but Dean is early season Dean and Cas is early season Cas. Though I found Cas’ interest in everything Dean Winchester to be intriguing (and he put Dean back together with his own hands, I just...this really does become the greatest love story ever told, I swear), I personally didn’t get the whole UST vibes that has been talked about. I actually found myself wanting to go deeper into Cas’ story (a la 6x20 style) aside from Dean’s and Sam’s.

Anna: That whole night with Anna was purely that: a night. There wasn’t a whole lot of chemistry between Jensen and Julie and it’s very clear that this whole sex-on-last-night-on-earth thing is for comfort, for both characters. I kind of get why they switched up gears there for Dean’s angel role, even if they didn’t intend for Destiel to read as romantic at all initially. 4x09 & especially 4x10 were so obviously trying to ying and yang the brothers and the sides that had chosen them/complemented them: Anna | Ruby, Heaven | Hell -> eventually Michael | Lucifer. But back to Anna, while I enjoyed her character and would have loved to delve deeper with her, I am glad Cas was the one who got to stay. Anna and Dean had no chemistry, outside of a couple of glances before the big hookup/last night on Earth deal, there wasn’t really anything there. Tbf, they didn’t have a lot of private time before that, except maybe one convo. To me, in this scenario, Anna was a source of comfort (after she tells Dean he needs to forgive himself for what happened in Hell which I very much appreciated, someone had to tell him that) and attraction, letting her have her last night on Earth, a hookup, etc. But there was nothing deeper there. And for this bond with an angel to happen, there needed to be something deeper there. Perhaps had Anna been around longer and didn’t go the way she did in season 5, it might have but I honestly tend to doubt it. We all know Cas and Dean’s (Misha’s and Jensen’s) natural chemistry is off the charts. I’m not sure Anna (Julie) could have competed with that had both Cas and Anna stuck around together. I know I’m completely biased here, but I almost felt like Anna and Cas had more chemistry together, it might have been because they got more face time, I’m not sure. But I thoroughly enjoyed watching it all go down again.

Adam: Omg I forgot about how Adam wasn’t Adam when Dean and Sam first met him. That was heartbreaking on so many levels, but mostly for Adam and his mom dying the way they did and of course, for Dean and Sam. Namely Dean because he was the most affected by finding out about Adam’s existence. And I swear I fell in love with Dean more in that episode as a character because despite his pain, his anger, his hurt, he still tries to do the right thing by Adam, to honor his dad’s wishes. And John...that mf’er doesn’t deserve any of those boys as his sons. What an asshole through and through.

Season 5:

Destiel & Cas: And now we see Cas becoming a bit more forefront and the vibe has changed...slightly. Now it’s a partnership turning into a friendship. Dean and Cas get a bit more face time and it shows. 5x03 was awesome and of course the wholly unnecessary line of “One, Bert and Ernie are gay” -- like where did that come from? I still loved it. It was tough to see Dean and Sam go their separate ways in the beginning but we still got some gold out of it with 5x03 and 5x04. And thankfully, we get more into not only more of the angel and apocalypse lore this season, but we also get to see how Cas’ relationship with the Winchesters is changing and more of what makes Cas tick as a character in his own right. And of course, bamf!Cas was very present.

Brothers: Once again, had that finale happened after this season, it might have made more sense (sans the junk death) - because it’s very obvious that the co-dependency is alive and well here and it would have made more sense for their characters - while they have others outside of the two of them they are caring about (Bobby, Ellen, Jo just to name a few), it’s still the exclusive Winchester-only club. I truly enjoyed watching these two working together and moving towards the season finale. Dean’s memory of Sam and the fireworks, Dean talking about how Sam’s best memories weren’t the same as his (shocker, John Winchester is a d-bag, I’ll keep saying it), Dean struggling to make the decision to say yes to Michael, having to agree with the plan for Sam to say yes to Lucifer to try to trap the latter, Dean showing up to the cemetery -- all of it was incredible and the two of them were the beating heart of the show at that point. 5x22 will always be one of my favorite season finales for that show. It was pure awesomeness, truly epic and perfect.

Dean: holy hell, they really, really threw a lot into Dean this season - not that they hadn’t before, but damn. Each season just amps up the Dean game, just like I remember, and I am happily here for it again. No offense to Sam at all, but Dean is just so complex, so complicated yet straightforward, and there’s so many layers to him that they just keep peeling back and they feed us well each season. I swear, if you turned the sound off and just watched that scene where Dean tells Zachariah to call Michael, where Dean and Sam go their separate ways, you would know exactly everything Dean is feeling and thinking thanks to the incredible talent of one Mr. Jensen Ackles. Just really incredible. How this man never got nominated for an Emmy at any point for this show just astounds me. Yes, I know that show wasn’t considered a contender for that type of award run, but dammmnnnn. He deserves it and more. Watching this season and season 4 really brought back the original reasons I fell in love with Dean as a character in the first place. One of the best characters ever, I’m telling you. And may I just say, I hated that they brought back John’s leather jacket for him in the season finale but I get it, it was Kripke’s swan song (did I just do that? I believe I did) so we of course went back to core Winchester things, not just in story but every element. I’m ngl, I was so glad to see Dean shed it though when he is sitting down to dinner with Lisa and Ben.

Apocalypse: I thoroughly enjoyed this whole plot line - this really was high stakes, more than ever before, and though angels were dicks, there was Lucifer of course and a mysterious though mostly absent God behind the curtain - you just never knew what was going to be thrown at you next, just like the boys were going through.

Heaven/Mary: even though this definitely has to do with Dean more so, I did enjoy them seeing Ash and Pam, Ash’s setup, and of course Mary being there, seeing how such a good memory could be manipulated by the dick angels and the horrible things Mary said to Dean. Of course, I felt for Dean but it was interesting to see that whole scene play out. Plus we got even more confirmation of what we’ve known all along: John is a bonafide asshole and Dean really did experience facets of spousification, even before Mary died (which just makes me so sad for him, I swear if they don’t put a Cas vs John scene in the reboot... because you know Cas will win that thumb war)

Meg: ngl, I wasn’t really crazy about this iteration of Meg - I don’t mean Rachel Miner’s version, just this particular performance, which I chalk up to whoever decided they wanted her to go this route in her performance - I couldn’t believe it was the same character, the same actress - I am so glad the show/Rachel developed the character we all love to hate and secretly really love to how she was in later seasons

Jo: omg Jo. I have to admit, in season 2, in the first episode she showed up in, I despised her. She was like that bratty teenage kid who’s a real pain in the ass and whines and doesn’t get it. But after that episode, I grew to love her with each one she was in. She became a bamf in her own right and I loved seeing that come through this season especially. Her death was horrific (what is it with this show killing off bamf female hunters in such a gruesome way? it brought back horrible Eileen flashbacks for me personally, and for them to turn Meg and Ketch into somewhat redeemable characters after that... you know, I swear...) but heroic and I had never been more proud of my girl. Except the scene with Dean in the kitchen. As much as I love my chaotic hunter son, I was glad to see Jo flip him off in the way she did. So proud. And then her goodbye with Dean, I had forgotten exactly what he did so I was going “omg, she just saved you, Dean, this girl has feelings for you, she deserves at least a kiss, kiss her. right. the fuck. now!” and sure enough, he did, on the forehead, which I was like okay, well I get it, he doesn’t return those feelings but he does care about her but dammit, she deserved for him to plant one on her. and then he did and I was just gone, I was a complete bawling mess. And her goodbye scene with Ellen, and then her death along with Ellen’s sacrificing herself to stay by Jo’s side and give the boys a chance to get out of there...yeah, I didn’t stop crying for about five minutes. I cannot tell you how much I miss those characters and I would have sold someone else’s right arm to make their return in the series finale happen. Besides the obvious characters that should have been present, Ellen, Jo, and Ash deserved to be there (just not Samantha and Chad, if we can get a “Cas helped” for the third major character/lead, we can also get a “Ellen and Jo went to assist in setting up the honeymoon suite above the roadhouse - I said what I said).

John: usually, I cannot abide giving any time to this jerk, never mind talking about him, but I have to say I enjoyed seeing pre-loss John in 5x13. That conversation he has with Sam I think is so glaringly important. I know it was for Sam to forgive John and heal, but the fact that John himself is saying “how could he do that to you? he was supposed to protect you” -- yep, that was pure poetic cinema in my eyes. Because pre-loss John is right, how dare post-loss John do that to his boys? There’s no excuse anyone or this show can give him. As much as I love JDM, post-loss John Winchester will never be okay in my book.

Adam: omg Adam. First of all, I loved his dynamic with Sam and Dean. I really, really wish we could have had him around longer just for that alone. What an awesome character we could have had giving Dean and Sam a run for their money. “Well, we’re working on the power of love.” “How’s that going?” “Not so great.” -- give me an episode of the three brothers on a milk run hunt (sans generic mask-wearing vampmimes) with all of the fixings and I swear we would get done!Sam, consistently being roasted between Dean and Adam, and then Dean thinking he’s got a mutual now, a BFF, and Adam turning right around to roast him as well. It would be epic, I tell you, epic. I wish Adam had gotten a better end, this season and at the end of the series. He certainly deserved better. And this may be a random observation but why did Michael take Adam at all? I know the countdown had begun and he was desperate to grab a vessel so he could fight Lucifer at the appointed time and Dean was not giving in (that he knew of), but what chance of victory did he think he had without using his true vessel? Using that logic, I guess Michael’s end in the series makes more sense now...? Who knows.

Chuck: Swan Song (5x22) and the lines, “Endings are hard. Any chapped ass monkey with a keyboard can poop out a beginning but endings are impossible. You try to tie up every loose end but you never can. The fans are always gonna bitch. There’s always gonna be holes. And since it’s the ending, it’s all supposed to add up to something. I’m telling you, they’re a raging pain in the ass“ -- did anyone else feel like that was Kripke speaking or is it just me?

Season 6:

the whole Lisa thing: while it was nice to see Dean go domestic, I have to say I was more invested in Dean and Ben’s relationship development than I was with Dean and Lisa’s. The chemistry just wasn’t there, I have to be honest (he and Anna actually had more chemistry for a few minutes than he did with Lisa this whole season). I don’t doubt they loved each other, it was real, and Lisa was good for him at the time but it just didn’t have that spark. I loved Lisa as a character in her own right, but I was happy to see her and Dean eventually go their separate ways. Though my heart broke for Ben on that one. He and Dean really had a whole father-son bond happening there. I appreciated that when Ben called him, even that one time that nothing was really wrong, Dean dropped everything and headed right over. They had a bond of their own happening outside of Dean and Lisa’s. I think Dean ultimately made the right choice in the end to keep Lisa and Ben safe (though they should have been able to choose if they wanted this), but God did that cost him and we see it in that scene outside of the hospital with Sam. How much that hurt for him, and for us to see how it killed him to do it. I’m still grateful that he got to see what the domestic life was like and that he got a reprieve from hunting for a bit. It made complete sense as to why Cas didn’t want to pull him back in to ask for help with Raphael.

Destiel: Welp, now there’s definitely an emotional relationship happening. Meaning the bond has become even more forefront and not only is Dean affected, but we also see that Cas is, too. Dean’s reaction to finding out Cas was working with Crowley the whole time, Cas’ reaction to Dean choosing to save the two boys instead of focusing on finding Eve, Cas’ reaction to Dean’s stance on the Crowley situation, Dean’s finding out Crowley kidnapped Lisa and Ben, Cas asking Dean to trust him, Dean seeing Cas becoming the new God and needing to summon Death, etc. It was fantastic. While it hurt during some moments, I enjoyed seeing the dynamics and reactions to these situations play out. This is definitely a friendship now, a family relationship formed (and still forming) like Dean says in 6x20. Imho, Jensen and Misha knocked it out of the park this season when it came to that relationship. I loved it.

Cas: holy hell, 6x20 has become one of my all-time favorite episodes of SPN. I loved seeing Cas’ POV. Cas was already a fave character of mine but this episode made me fall in love with him all over again. This was incredible and I’m so thankful they fed us so well with this one. I really enjoyed seeing Cas as a character stepping into the forefront, right there with Dean and Sam. Yes, he was a part of TFW before this, but you have to admit that in this season, it becomes a whole new ball game. Really amazing stuff and of course, Misha slayed it all.

Meg & Megstiel: I was so happy to see the iteration of Meg return that we know from later seasons. Maybe I’m just too used to that version but to me this felt more effortless for the character and for Rachel, that really let both shine. Personally, I’m not a Megstiel shipper. While I love their dynamic, it just isn’t there for me, but I really did enjoy their scenes together. Cas felt as if he needed a little shaking up so to speak so I think she was perfect for that. Plus, I have a hard time forgiving those in the show that sic Hellhounds on my bamf female hunters so that might be partially the reason for my bias, just saying. (I never really forgave Ketch either)

Samuel...& Co: I just...why? Don’t get me wrong, I liked Mitch but this felt a bit...I don’t know...off? Other than some place for Soulless!Sam to go while Dean was playing house and for nabbing Alphas for Crowley, I don’t get what the point of this story line was? Was it to show us that Mary’s dad was a d-bag? Check. Was it to show us how people sometimes make the worst decisions when it comes to their family? Double check. Like, we kind of already got that and it was just unnecessary confirmation if that makes sense. And the thing that kills me is that Samuel was in Hell (or goes to Hell, I kind of did other things in the background during that arc) but he loved his daughter enough to betray her sons and do the wrong thing but John gets to go to Heaven? This still confounds me. Though I enjoyed Gwen and it was a shame she couldn’t be a family contact in another state for the boys later on to pop up every now and then.

Soulless!Sam: I enjoyed this part of Sam’s arc but I won’t lie, I was relieved like everyone else when he finally got his soul back though waited with bated breath for the other shoe to drop. But it was interesting to see this side of Sam.

Dad!Dean: I know I mentioned Dean and Ben above, but that one episode with the shifter!baby, that was priceless and God, did I love it.

I just loved going back to this for both boys

#spn posts #spn rewatch #episode mentions #spn 5x03 #spn 5x04 #spn 6x20 #spn 5x22 #spn 4x19 #spn 5x13 #spn 5x19 #this was in my drafts #i'm kicking it out #spn season 4 #spn season 5 #spn season 6 #destiel mention #anti john winchester #dean winchester

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carebooks · 5 years ago

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alright i watched the whole third season of House of Anubis

I first have to say how much I enjoyed the leads: Eddie and KT. They have such a good chemistry and they’re honestly hilarious together. As I mentioned before, I did ship them together when I was younger and first watched the show but with watching it again, I would keep them as friends. Best friends. (especially since KT is hella gay I don’t care what anyone says) They totally give me Cloak and Dagger vibes, especially in terms of partnership. At the start of the show, they were alone, they had no one to confide in, no one to be with, Eddie was torn about letting Sibuna know about Nina, still not over Patricia. KT just lost her grandfather and came to England on a quest with some key and vague warnings, she was hella confused but still did so out of loyalty to her grandfather (this baby is too precious and good for this world, i swear). And next thing you know, fate and Osirian visions bring them together. They form a partnership, they snoop around the Gatehouse, they form a bond. And I love it so much. What I love especially, is that at the end, when the sinners are everywhere and even the Sibuna members are taken as sinners, it’s down to Eddie and KT, just like the beginning. Sure, they get help from Willow and Harriet, but they lose Willow pretty quickly, and right at the end, Harriet sacrifices herself so they can get the other key and lock away the evil for good. And together, Eddie and KT join the keys and lock the evil as one. They started together, and they ended it together, and I think that was really poetic. I know that the Osirian and the Chosen One are meant to be the pair and the Ying & Yang, but in this particular case, Eddie and KT were a bond formed by friendship and hardship rather than destinies planned or written in the stars by the gods, yes fate brought them together, but only because they knew they could only accomplish their tasks with each other. I especially loved when they took down Ammut, and Robert tried a last ditch attempt to get KT to feel guilty over doing this, telling her that he would die if Ammut was locked away. It brings in KT’s loyalty to her family, even when it’s bad, but then Eddie yells during the commotion, “Don’t trust him, trust me!” And I think it really brings a full circle what a great partnership and bond they have.

Other than that, it’s really just random stuff I liked

i liked that Willow could sense bad vibes that Robert had whenever he was around Anubis House, as well as sensing the bad vibes that sinner!Victor and sinner!Patricia gave off. I kinda wished they could’ve looked more into that. Like she was naturally sensitive to these things or something.

Her relationship with Alfie was a nice touch, seeing him with someone who liked the same things that he did was real cute. Especially seeing them happy.

Victor and Sweet playing that card game gave me life.

Joy’s new attitude and look were certainly appreciated

While I preferred the Jerome that developed in S2 and won Mara over (especially over the course of the first season and second, i mean talk about a slow burn done right) and rather he didn’t cheat on her and Willow, the Joy+Jerome ship wasn’t terrible. I much prefer the developed S2 Jerome, I’ve said this twice now, but again, it wasn’t terrible. (but real talk? KT and Joy should’ve happened)

Amber being the one to bring Sibuna and the pair Eddie & KT together because *Amber Millington voice* “Hello people! Isn’t it obvious? Work together.”

Like that girl knew what was up. Well, she did invent Sibuna, not surprised.

Alfie was perfection this season, leave him be. Also, highlights of him:

“Crypts are for dead people!” “I’m afraid of everything.” “Guys, go! Get out of here! Sibuna! SIBUNNAAA!!”

I already talked plenty of Eddie and KT being the best, so yeah. But imma do it again anyway.

I have a theory that Eddie focused his primary Osirian instinct of being protective over the Chosen One to being protective over KT. Like he reffocused his powers to someone else for the time being. Nina wasn’t there, and when KT showed up in his vision it was almost like the house was telling him “You need to help her now. Keep her safe.” And I really like that.

It was especially shone a lot through out the season, and the last episodes too.

When sinner!Patricia and sinner!Fabian had KT and wanted to exchange an artifact that Eddie had discovered, she told him to run and get away, like they did when Alfie told them to leave him behind. And he says, “That was Alfie, this is you.”

And when Eddie, KT, Willow and Harriet went to get the sun key from Caroline, and she managed to take KT and Willow and turn them into sinners, Eddie says, “Not KT,” very worriedly. Later on he’s hard on himself, “I can’t believe they got to KT.”

It was interesting that half the season was awakening the man in the tank and the other half was releasing evil into the world. Like a different feel for half the season, not many shows do that.

I kinda despise the fact that the things I didn’t like are probably going to be longer.

Let’s go paragraph first so, how about that plot? First off, the whole thing is very weird for Sibuna. The first two seasons were about riddles and thinking things through. They were real mysteries. In this, it was more direct, they had an obvious problem, they had to stop the bad guys from waking up a bad guy, and then literal evil converted their own friends against each other. It sounds super interesting for a Vampire Diaries or Teen Wolf or even My Babysitter’s A Vampire plot line (or just one episode) since those shows were more active based. This season barely had any hidden things or riddles, and half of it had Sibuna paranoid and working against each other which I’m sure no one really loved. Not to mention that the action mainly happened at the Gatehouse rather than the actual Anubis House, the center for two of the last mysteries. Now I know, I know, the new season couldn’t just be a copy, and having a third mystery with hidden compartments over the house would certainly be a lot for Robert and Louisa. But I mean, didn’t Het Huis Anubis have four seasons? They couldn’t just do their version of that? I’m guessing that they did something different (I really hope so, because if not, this is embarrassing)

things i did not like at all about this season

the fact that they twisted Mara’s character up in their new ‘messed up girl obsessed with a boy’ like Joy in S2. just- why?

the fact that they undid a bunch of Jerome’s development.

or how about the fact that all Jerome got to do this season was be part of a love triangle cheat fest and then a love drama with Joy. In S1 he shoved himself into Sibuna and Rufus and it was bad for him, but he was involved. And S2, he was just amazing, they managed to connect his family and his family troubles with something that Sibuna would’ve needed for the Mask of Anubis: the Frobisher Gem. It all came together perfectly.

we didn’t get anything of Mr. Sweet telling Eddie about his Osirian thing or their family history.

The way they treated KT when they thought she was evil. It was so messed up, honestly, that poor baby. (though I did appreciate that the other residents noticed, like at breakfast when she sat down and no one looked at her, and he said, “Good morning, KT.” and he just noticed something was wrong. And then Joy and Mara noticed. I just really feel like that was the moment where Jerome and Joy coulda been more involved with Sibuna again- wait what am I saying)

No, when they and Patricia and Alfie were at the Gatehouse and they tried to warn them about the ceremony is when JOY AND JEROME SHOULDA GOTTEN INVOLVED IN SIBUNA AGAIN. Or like, at least be more aware, I mean come on?? Joy, you’re better than this. And Jerome, you’ve seen enough weird stuff to know when it’s Sibuna-related and usually that means deadly-related so you’re whole having two girlfriends thing can wait for a while.

Caroline Denby sucked. (And Caroline Forbes from TVD is a fan favorite of mine and not to mention that MY NAME IS CAROLINE so imagine that).

the fact that we got rid of the real Victor was kinda just wrong for me. I mean, Victor has always been a pain in the ass with the kids, and he’s usually wanted what they were after as well but he’d never resort to murder or anything like that, so when he got turned into a sinner and lost his friggin soul (yes, they said that, this is true) we truly lost Victor and I didn’t like that at all.

Season 1 was all about a mystery but also partly conspiracy, there was a moment between all five of Sibuna where they got proof and realistic statements after Joy lied to them (at the insistence of her dad) they were starting to think that the mystery wasn’t real and almost backed out of the search. Remember? Nina said, “You guys aren’t giving up on me, right?” Anyway, that was that. It was all about finding more information about what really happened and what’s really going on. About finding answers.

Season 2 was darker, it was a race against time because unlike the mystery of the first season, this one was more about saving themselves. Nina’s life and her friends and Gran would’ve died, it’s a great motivator to go through the tunnels. And there were moments where we see just how serious this is, there’s one shot where Nina is in a dream sequence in the house and all her friends are running away from her, terrified. And even when Victor sees her, he backs away in fear and hides himself in his office and then in the mirror it’s revealed Nina’s dressed and appears as Senkhara. And then when Senkhara freezes Vera, Victor knows it’s time to back away, he’s scared, he’s worried, so we see him do what he has to do to get Vera back. And when he’s playing the game? With Sibuna as his game pieces on the huge board? When Alfie disappeared, he backed out, he knew when to stop and almost considered calling Mr. Sweet to do something about it.

Meanwhile, Season 3 was all dark evil stuff, run for your life or your literal soul will be taken. It’s the end of the world if they awaken this sleeping dude, we need heroes to stop the bad team. Oh no, he’s awake, now he’s going to unleash hell and evil and it’s the end of the world, only now everyone’s converted to the evil and it’s real bad, we need heroes desperately.

This season might’ve been more dark or good vs. evil type of thing but it just didn’t feel right for HOA. The show has always been subtle, it’s quiet and the kids solve the mystery and they do everything very hushed and private, this season sort of felt like WHOAH PIE IN YOUR FACE GUESS WHAT IM A SIBUNA what with turning the whole school into sinners, I just didn’t like the whole school being this active. but that’s me personally.

Robert Frobisher-Smythe being the one in the tank is ridiculous considering wE SAW HIS FRIGGIN GHOST AT THE END OF S1. And honestly, bringing him in and saying that he’s going to bring forth a darkness to make people evil and bring the apocalypse is just a really bland plot. It’s no mystery, it’s legit good guys vs. a villain. It’s a ‘save the world’ plot, yeah like we’ve never seen that before.

We love the mystery, where was it? oh right, nowhere.

When the four descendants of Robert’s expedition party were revealed: Patricia, Joy, Alfie and Jerome, there could have so much content.

The four of them speaking in unison while they sleep should’ve been used more.

Remember the childhood lullabies they were supposed to use to find a random artifact? Those lullabies were riddles and other than that cylinder that KT opened using her synesthesia, it was the only thing that made it feel like good old days of House of Anubis.

again, making Robert the man in the tank and then evil was just stupid. im not gonna approach the fact that he took the punishment meant for his expedition party and that’s why he’s cursed, and now he’s evil? oh gods

again, seeing the three OG Sibuna gang members evil and not on Sibuna kept killing me.

that ending bugged me

like oh no! everyone’s gone insane, we gotta shut this thing down before it devours more souls. TWO HOURS LATER and now it’s time to enjoy fireworks and Fabian and Mara and flirting and its so unnecessary, whyy??

Leave Mara with Jerome (in which he didnt cheat) and Willow is happy with Alfie and KT and Joy are out there being gay as hell. Those are the ships that shoulda happened.

Honestly, when I think back at S2 and Amber and Nina are there, it just brings back such good vibes. S2 really is the best season, but I stand by my love for Eddie and KT. Friendship goals AF. Like I said before, the third season was in your face, it was loud and it was telling everyone ‘end of the world’ and when you think about it, it’s perfect for the characters they introduced. S1 and S2 fit so well for Nina, because she’s like that, she’s quiet yet badass and is about riddles and mysteries. Meanwhile, Eddie is loud and wants to get this over with, LET’S BREAK INTO OUR TEACHER’S HOUSE BECAUSE I HAVE A HUNCH. YOU WANNA SEE THE SLEEPING MAN’S FACE, FABIAN? LET’S REMOVE THE GLASS. LET’S STEAL THE TANK WITH THE SLEEPING MAN IN BROAD DAYLIGHT. LET ME JUST BARGE INTO VICTOR’S OFFICE TO TAKE YOUR KEY BACK, KT. LET’S DO WHATEVER IMPORTANT TASK OR MISSION WE NEED HAVE TONIGHT. LET ME BANG AGAINST PIPES AND BRICKS REALLY LOUDLY. And let me tell you, it just makes me laugh how into it he gets, like “why not?” it’s just so funny for some reason. Anyway, I think they decided to make this season fit what they wanted Eddie to be and that’s what they did. I loved Eddie’s performance, I loved him so much, I loved KT more. But I just didn’t love this season.

#carebooks #house of anubis #eddie miller #kt rush #my opinions #season review #this isn't an analysis

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arabian-bloodstream · 5 years ago

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Why I love ‘Attack of the Clones’

I think that Attack of the Clones is the underrated gem of the Star Wars universe. Yeah, I said it. And here is my review of the film and why I think so!

The beginning of the film sets up the rest of the film so well. It's beautifully done. We begin with Amidala's attack, which is a neat reference to how Padme had her bodyguard/double all throughout The Phantom Menace. From that we get the concise, digestible explanation of the Separatist vs. the Republic, and why the Jedi Knights are needed and why Amidala specifically needs Jedi protection as well. It wasn't ham-handed, it wasn't confusing, it flowed so naturally. By the way, it also proved how wrong the Machete Cut is (which cuts out TPM). You *need* TPM for the moments between Amidala/Palpatine to work, and boy, do they work.

Speaking of Amidala needing Jedi protection, what that scene also gave us what further insight into Anakin and Obi-Wan's relationship. Further insight because our first introduction to the two with Anakin as a young man was fantastic. Say what you will about Hayden Christensen's acting–and, no, I don't blame him, I've seen him in other things, he's been good–but he and Ewan MacGregor are fantastic together. Great chemistry, wonderful ying and yang. Their quick ride in the elevator showed a bit of sibling, but also a touch of a father/son vibe, with a dose of mentorship. Overall their friendship shone through. Ah, until that scene with Amidala when the mentorship came into strong play and whoo, boy! that little "discussion" about what a Jedi mandate is and is not right in front of Amidala and her entourage was the very definition of AWKWARD! It set up the differences right off the bat between Anakin and Obi-Wan and really Anakin and the Jedi.

OK, fine, the scene could have been better (as so many in this film--but the same could be said for Revenge of the Sith) had Hayden Christensen done a better acting job. However, as I wrote above, it's really not that Christensen is a bad actor, it's that he's an actor who truly needs direction. For example, Samuel L. Jackson is not a bad actor. At all. And, yet, he's kinda dreadful in these films. Frankly, I never thought I'd think that SLJ is a bad actor. However, He is in this Prequel Trilogy and that's because George Lucas is not a strong director for actors. So Christensen's acting woes can be laid at the feet of Lucas. MacGregor, Natalie Portman, Ian McDiarmid are simply the types of actors who can deliver a performance without the aid of director to guide them. Some can do so better than others. Christensen isn't one of them. So essentially I just accepted that I could harp on the less than stellar acting coming from the co-lead thanks (or no thanks) to the direction or enjoy the overall storytelling, the brilliant weaving together of the threads and how well the characters, the plots and the action pieces worked.

Yes, the actions pieces... like the chase sequence with Obi-Wan, Anakin and Amidala's would-be assassin. That was awesome. Thrilling, sharply-directed and I just loved the humor. The banter was just top-notch between Anakin and Obi-Wan. When Obi-Wan asked what took Anakin so long, had he stopped with just saying he was looking for a speeder he liked it would have been eh, a one-liner without any punch but he kept it up while Obi-Wan was giving directions, with bits about what he liked in a speeder which gave just enough resonance that it had the feel of a long-running joke. This gave it a touch of realism, familiarity to their relationship. It was great, and, again, Christensen and MacGregor are just so good together. Lucas wrote these two so, so well.

And he knew how to twist the knife! Obi-Wan to Anakin: "Why do I think you're going to be the death of me?" {SOBS}

OK, so I wrote above about how if one can put aside Christensen's acting issues it is very possible to see the good of this film. A shining example of this is the juxtaposition of Kamino and the Lake Country on Naboo. Firstly, let's just talk about the awesome of Kamino itself. I simply cannot get over how GORGEOUS everything about Kamino is. The aliens, the design of the infrastructure, the costuming, it's just all top-notch gorgeous. I love every single, solitary moment of the Kamino stuff. The creation and history of the clones, Boba Fett's backstory, him being a clone of Jango–the one who wasn't changed or accelerated, how it so naturally fit into the introduction of the Clone Wars. So brilliant. And also how Jango and the clones were tied into that exhilarating open sequence/attack on Amidala. Aah, just so good.

Now, let's tie that brilliance in with Lake Country... because it *does* tie into Kamino and that is a big reason why I just can't hate on the love story as presented in Attack of the Clones. Because of *how* it's presented. By giving us Anakin and Padme falling in love in the Lake Country at the same time we (through Obi-Wan) learned about Kamino and the clones we saw love and war side by side. It made perfect sense juxtaposing the Lake Country and Kamino. You have the two young lovers falling on the one side, and the Clone army, set up for war, on the other. We know that Anakin falling in love with Padme is going to eventually lead him to take the Dark Path, and the Clone Army is going to turn on the Jedi somehow. Having the introduction of the clones and the introduction of the love story juxtaposed is brilliant because here you have the two key forces that BRING THE JEDI DOWN: Order 66 and Anakin Skywalker falling in love. It's so perfect.

Yes, yes, again, the love story section probably features Christensen's worst acting, but again, I blame Lucas. As for the actual scenes themselves (outside of his acting), well, I like them. I'm fine with the over-the-top dialogue. I don't think there was anything wrong with it. Was it extra? Yes. Is he a Skywalker? Yes. Are Skywalkers extra? Is the sky blue? It's who he is, he's gonna go overboard with his exclamations. It's completely in character for the Skywalkers and for Anakin Skywalker. Totally. Also, in addition to his over-the-top exclamations of love, these scenes also showed us that before he went fully Dark Side, yes, Anakin already did believe in the idea of someone like the Emperor. That idea was something he was for.

Oh, and biggie here, I absolutely think that the "I don't like sand" was a fantastic line. It was about Tatooine and all that it represented, and like he said the opposite of what Padme was. It just meant so much and was (a) a callback to his childhood as a slave, being owned by someone, and the freedom that his mother never got, and (b) foreshadowing for what was to come with Shmi's death because "sand" was representative of Tatooine. *sigh* Yeah, Shmi. Man, oh, man. Shmi's death scene just guts me every time. Seriously, it makes me cry. Now, this... this is easily Christensen's best acting in the entire trilogy. The love and connection is just immediately there between them and when she's gone his devastation is so real and that switch from pain to anger is just ON! Ugh, and when he starts killing and then it swipes to Yoda and we hear Qui-Gon crying out "Anakin! Anakin!" it just breaks my heart. This is one of the best scenes in the entire Saga.

And then were back to the action. The "machines making machines" set piece and the arena sequence are both awesome and fun, with Anakin, Padme and Obi-Wan showing off their skills, wit, bravery, bravado and just overall awesome. And in between the two, oh, I loved, loved the scene between Anakin and Padme before they were brought out into the arena where she confessed her love ("I truly, deeply love you"). It was a beautiful scene, my favorite Anakin/Padme scene. I don't think that Christensen and Portman had the best chemistry or that Anakin/Padme love story was the best written, but this scene was one that I think showed the best promise of what could have been had a better director (sorry, George) and a better love story writer had taken on that aspect. Anyway, back to the action, past the arena battle where the trio were losing despite a valiant effort before the Jedi showed up was awesome, but then they were losing too... until Yoda showing up with the clones and took over and that was awesome!

OK, we're reaching the end now and still we're continuing to get those signs of what's to come. Anakin is truly caught between love over duty, wanting to save Padme over going after Dooku and Obi-Wan is witness and has to really push to keep him on the right path. But wait there's more goodness ahead! Oh, yeah, the triple header of a lightsaber duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan and Dooku! But wait! There's even more! And better! I just... man... I will never not love the Yoda/Dooku lightsaber fight because, dude, Yoda in a lightsaber fight is AWESOME!

Finally, we reach the end and for those who have seen the Original Trilogy we know where this all leads and so it's perfect. This wedding of Anakin and Padme with no dialogue, just the two at the Lake Country on Naboo where they fell in love. It's perfectly done because it should be a happy occasion, but it's a somber affair. Even during their wedding kiss, neither is really smiling. The final long shot of the two, with R2 and C3P0 as their only guests on the balcony where they shared their first kiss against that gorgeous backdrop is so lovely... ah, but we know, we know there is no happy ending here. As the overall feel of the scene tells us despite the visual beauty of it.

So, yeah, this is why I love this movie. This is all the good, the great I see in it.Attack of the Clones: Underrated gem of the Star Wars universe.

#attack of the clones #star wars #anidala #anakin x padme #anakin x amidala

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butterflydm · 5 years ago

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The Untamed Rewatch (ep 10)

Previous Episode | Index | Next Episode

There's a lot of plot movement in this episode! Plus not one, not two, but THREE of WWX's antagonist parallels feature in it, in addition to the partnership parallel of SongXiao. Very exciting for me. ❤️

Xue Yang is revealed on a roof. There are… there are a lot of important roof moments in CQL. I also just straight-up love the composition of this shot, it has a lot of depth. There's Xue Yang on the roof, the hanging bodies in bright red under him, then Lan Zhan and Wei Ying in the foreground.

So… Xue Yang is a terrible person but a really great character. Here, though… ah. The man in black waits on a roof, standing elevated over the bodies of his victims and ready to challenge the people who are here to call him to task for his crimes, then a hero dressed all in white flies in to challenge him. From the point of view of the cultivation world, that's the story that started to (was supposed to) happen during the fight in eps 31-32.

Xue Yang and Wei Wuxian are only superficially alike. Their hearts are very different. But that's one of the themes that I enjoy — how differently things look when you only see them from the outside. Visually and on the surface, WWX & LWJ match up to either Xue Yang and Xiao Xingchen or Song Zichen and Xiao Xingchen. But once you scratch the surface, it becomes more clear that WWX's heart is nothing like Xue Yang's.

I love that WWX wants to stand back and observe before acting, here. Contrary to what might be assumed about his impulsive nature, he's very perceptive and strategic, and it's enjoyable to watch that here. He acts to level the playing field, then stays out of the fight to assess the fighters and when he does act, it's very calculated. This is one of the things that makes him a good teacher way later on, I think.

I also like that we see Xue Yang appreciates WWX's skills and more whimsical approach to things. So, one of the things that separates WWX from Xue Yang is that WWX has a sense of perspective and proportion (...actually, now that I think about it, this is also one of the things that separates WWX from MY/JGY, though in a different way). Like, one of the reasons XY is fun to watch is that he's generally always having a good time even in situations when it's extremely inappropriate. Whereas that may be what LWJ thought about WWX when he first met him, but he realized there are things (moral and ethical things) that WWX is quite serious about and doesn't joke over.

I also love the mutual admiration society that goes on after Xue Yang is captured, and Xiao Xingchen says nice things about our kiddos and then Lan Wangji turns it around and says nice things about him back. It's polite but it's also very sweet.

Xue Yang laughing over the hypocrisy of the honored cultivators — another WWX/Yiling Patriarch parallel moment there.

We also get another early moment of Lan Zhan currently refusing to do a thing that he will do with all his heart in the future, which is hold Suibian for WWX.

And then we get more detective work from WWX & LWJ — searching Xue Yang, realizing that the evidence no longer points to Xue Yang still having the Yin Metal, WWX working through his thoughts about it out loud. I really do love the partnership vibe.

I also have feelings about Jiang Cheng on one side of WWX, LWJ on the other side. They're in pale blue outer robes of slightly different shades, but the color underneath is very different and matches their clan. The color choices for the clothes on this show feel very deliberate, so while I might read the wrong things into it, I don't think I'm wrong for reading into it at all.

Xue Yang and WWX's outfits are so similar. Really, the main differences are WWX having red accents and Xue Yang having gold ones. But the main colors and silhouettes just… yes. The conversation here, about personal vs the wider picture, is a reoccuring theme as well. Because those things are hard to separate — the personal grudges affect the world as a whole when people with power are the ones with the grudges (again, a theme that will come up with JGY). Xue Yang doesn't have political power, but he has a skill and knowledge set that are useful to people in power, so he has more freedom to do terrible things and get away with it than something without those skills and knowledge would.

Meng Yao and Nie Huaisang are here!

I do love this for Nie Huaisang's characterization — he was hesitant to come when it was just him and just a few young cultivators his own age, but once he has some serious backup, he immediately came to help. He does want to be helpful but he knows his own strengths.

We get the second mention here of Nie Mingjue being known for being forthright and honest with his judgements (Lan Xichen had mentioned it previously). It's something he's widely known for, it seems.

...I hadn't remembered that Wei Wuxian had said his bit about himself and Lan Zhan working together out of like-mindedness in front of Nie Huaisang and Meng Yao. I remembered Jiang Cheng, of course, but I hadn't remembered the other plot-important people who heard that said. The show really does set up this specific dynamic where the people who are involved in the main plot are all very aware that there's a special bond between WWX and LWJ. And Jiang Cheng's reaction is also in front of Meng Yao — I'm sure that he remembered this moment in the future, when he was poking at Jiang Cheng's ego-related issues about WWX. Because just like he did in front of Nie Huaisang in the earlier episode, here WWX separates himself out with Lan Wangji specifically, excluding everyone else from their partnership.

I love this lovely moment of validation that WWX gets from XXC, where XXC says that Baoshan would be happy to know him if she had the chance to meet him. And, again, I love that the person connected to WWX is the LWJ parallel. This is one of the moments when CQL just feels like a show that… even though many sad or terrible things happen in the story… the show wants to give these characters moments of kindness and absolution. It just feels very… affectionate. The show feels like it was made with real, genuine love and sympathy for the characters. That's one of the things that I like best about it, honestly. It feels tender, even in the hard parts. It wants to be kind.

Nie Huaisang really does admire regal gentleman. He was all admiring over LWJ, and now he's the same over XXC and Song Zichen. And I also absolutely love how much this meeting affects both WWX and LWJ. WWX is the talker, so he gets the lines about how he wants to have that kind of life, but we can tell LWJ is just as deeply affected by how he watches them leave. And I assume the show already knew it couldn't actually show WWX and LWJ as full-on cultivation partners in the end, so they used this as a way of showing us that this is the path (being partners together) that they're both starting to desire, and they trust us to do the math at the end of episode 50.

Meng Yao is the one who passes along the information about the Wen Clan demanding every great clan to send at least one 'direct disciple' (important? full-fledged? family? I'm not certain of what it means exactly, though Nie Huaisang says he's the only one for the Nie clan, so family seems likely) for training. I love how WWX immediately takes this opportunity to say nice things about the Lans. He whined when he was there, but now that he's not in Gusu anymore, he's already nostalgic over it. Oh, honey.

So, Meng Yao must already be formulating his plan to… hmm, go undercover? Play both sides? He's always looking for opportunities to advance himself. I feel like we can safely assume that. He's already been rejected by his father and is probably trying to think of ways to prove himself in order to get the public recognition that he wants. Those are the assumptions I'm currently making.

WWX is so thrilled to addressed directly by NMJ, wow! Look at that smile. Then NMJ says nice things about him and Jiang Cheng, and WWX is just over the moon. Cute, cute, cute! Meanwhile, NMJ addresses LWJ just as 'Wangji' like LXC does, so they know each other a lot better. Yeah, unless I get contradictory info, I am on the 'NMJ went to the Cloud Recesses and he and LXC became good friends and this is part of why LXC thought to suggest a similar idea to his brother' train of thought.

Then we have the sentencing of Xue Yang. It's interesting that we see both WWX and Meng Yao react similarly to Nie Mingjue wanting to immediately kill Xue Yang, though I'm not sure if Meng Yao would have spoken up if WWX hadn't — he might not consider his position secure enough to do that. Once WWX makes the initial argument, Meng Yao backs him up, but, yeah. I'm not sure if he would have made the initial argument himself.

Ah, it makes me quite sad, honestly, to see Nie Huaisang, Wie Wuxian, and Jiang Cheng being so admiring of Meng Yao's arguments. Because Meng Yao really did screw himself over. He was talented and smart and capable of winning admiration from others, but he was so focused on what he didn't have that he couldn't see what he'd already achieved. He threw away a good position with a good family in hopes of winning recognition from someone who didn't even deserve an ounce of admiration.

But I do… understand why he felt like it wasn't enough? Because even though he had won admiration from strong cultivators, many people still looked down on him for being a "prostitute's son" and he didn't have enough power to make that stop (as we see in the next scene). And I do think that's… I mean, that's what it was about for him (I mean, that and his incredible ability to hold onto a grudge no matter what. that's also a factor). Just trying to get enough power and enough reputation to make the whispers stop. And there's never enough power for that. No matter how much power he amassed, it would never be enough. Becoming the actual leader of the entire cultivation world still didn't give him the power to make people not judge him for his parentage, and he wasn't, for whatever reason, capable of being like LWJ or WWX and saying 'screw reputation, I want to do what's right'. And so he trapped himself into a doomed cycle that elevated him up higher and higher but then inevitably led to his own destruction. A tragedy, yes, but one built by his own hands.

Still, you know, I watch that scene with Meng Yao and the guard captain and I'm like. okay, yeah. I get why he killed the guy and tried to frame him for Xue Yang's escape. It was awful and he shouldn't have, but I understand the motivations. Just having to be polite and give out a customer-service smile, over and over, to people who are disrespecting you (and your mom)… it's exhausting and soul-killing.

Hmm, when WWX first crosses over to stand next to LWJ, the timing felt a little random, but then I realized it's connected to the whole thing he's been stressing since the Yin Metal trip started.

He sees himself and LWJ as the partners on this, and everyone else is a little bit on the outside.

I like Nie Mingjue's facial hair — it does a good job, I think, of displacing him forward in time compared to the rest of the cast, and making them all seem like agemates compared to the slightly older NMJ. I like his whole character design, tbh.

Oh my god! WWX suggests here turning a piece of Yin Metal into a weapon. Which is. Exactly what he does later on. He literally suggests right here the thing that he does later on that wins the war. Huh.

Another important rooftop scene — WWX goes to sleep on the roof over LWJ's quarters, instead of sleeping in an actual bed. These ridiculous boys with their ridiculous crushes, I swear. And LWJ is already falling hopelessly in love with him. My heart overflows. They are so incredibly, ridiculously romantic and I will never recover emotionally.

I like the confrontation between Wen Chao and Nie Mingjue. There's a lot of tension in the scene. In terms of the antagonist characters, Wen Chao isn't my favorite but he is very sharply defined and I feel like I get a good sense of who he is as a person. And we get the introduction of Wen Zhuliu here, as someone who can go toe-to-toe with this Sect Leader that our protagonist characters are all impressed by and respectful towards. So that setup works for me really well. And it's very telling of Wen Chao again as someone who talks big but likes to send in other people to fight his battles for him.

Most of the Wen sect wear black and red in equal amounts, while Wen Zhuliu is mostly black with just a hint of red accents… like WWX does in this episode. I've talked about this character comparison briefly, I think, and it'll come back later but — Wen Zhuliu plays the second fiddle to the direct son of the sect leader, despite being clearly far more powerful a cultivator, but he believes he owes a debt to the family for taking him in so he suppresses his own potential ambition or choices for the sake of the sect. Now, this is not what WWX does, but it's the situation that WWX is in, or very similar. But WWX chooses to act against the interests or orders of his sect when it conflicts with his ethics.

And I note — in this time of crisis, WWX instinctively gives Jiang Cheng an order and it's followed. And WWX is his head discipline, it makes sense! But that's also a habit that can be hard to transition out of once Jiang Cheng becomes Sect Leader in the future. Like, even if everything with the Wens hadn't shaken out this way, they still might have come into conflict due to WWX being a natural leader.

The mess of Meng Yao getting caught killing the guards and trying to lie his way out of it, then throwing himself in front of Wen Zhuliu's sword, then WWX challenging Wen Chao and everyone hearing that his brother, Wen Xu, is off to destroy the Cloud Recesses… it is a lot, though the pacing of the scene works for me. It's just that a lot of things are piling over and over on the characters (oh, and we get Meng Yao noticing and being concerned about Lan Xichen after he hears about Gusu).

Hmm, so the final scene with Meng Yao and Nie Mingjue. It does… ah, echo for me with how Meng Yao ultimately dies, with regards to how he acts with Lan Xichen in their final scene. Here, he tells Nie Mingjue that meeting him means he has no regrets. At the end, he will tell Lan Xichen that LXC being willing to die for him is 'enough'. In both cases, there's a sense of… Meng Yao knows there's a good chance he might actually die here, so I feel like he's doing his best make to try to make it so that at least this person will carry him with them the rest of their life, that he will impact them by his death. Which ties into his deep, deep desire to matter. Nie Mingjue dismisses it as — the viki translation says 'this little vanity' — but. I mean, it's easy for a sect leader to dismiss someone else's desire to be seen as important? Nie Mingjue has never been unimportant a day in his life. This doesn't excuse Meng Yao's actions, of course, but, I do think dismissing something that is clearly the cornerstone of someone's life doesn't lead to understanding. And Nie Mingjue does want to understand why, but I think his and Meng Yao's lives are just so different that the gap was just too wide to bridge with the tools that he had at his disposal.

I do think that both Nie Mingjue and Meng Yao are clearly emotionally marked by this confrontation/breakdown of their previous relationship. I didn't know either of the characters very well in my first viewing, so I'm just… I'm a lot more emotional about this scene now than I was the first time.

Next time: Lotus Pier! Excited to be seeing it again for the first time in the rewatch. And all the painful/fascinating family dynamics.

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#mdzs meta #cql rewatch #wangxian #the untamed | chen qing ling #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #wei wuxian | wei ying #lan wangji | lan zhan

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darkpoisonouslove · 5 years ago

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Winx Club Season 2 Thoughts (4kids) Part 1

I already posted some thoughts on season 2 last year when I legit just clicked through he episodes rather than actually rewatching them so I am back to give a more in-depth look on this season! (And, hopefully, it won’t end with disappointment for me.)

2x01:

- Eww, why voiceover? It just seems so unnatural since we’ve never had it before. Not to mention that Bloom told us what each of the other girls has done during the summer but she didn’t tell us anything about herself. Like, she set out to find out more about her origins back in the first half of season 1, and I know that she did learn about being the princess of Domino but she still has no fucking idea who her parents are as individuals apart from them being the rulers of Domino. Considering how big of a plot that is later on, it just doesn’t sit right with me that she doesn’t seem remotely interested in it currently and didn’t mention anything about it. It’s like that plotline is closed for her which we all know is not true. So I am having some issues here, not gonna lie (not with Bloom but with her inconsistent writing).

- Aww, am I the only one who thinks that Stella buried herself in fashion rules all summer because she didn’t want to think about her parents’ divorce? Poor baby has been going so hard with no rest to keep herself from grieving over it. But at least she did something! (Proving she’s not lazy and spoiled; she practically had a job. Her dream job. You go get it, girl! (but also take care of your mental state, please.))

- Why is Bloom so eager to learn her fortune? Has she not read Greek Mythology? Bad idea, hon. Bad idea. (The thing with the magical reality mirrors was cool, though!)

- (Is that a new secret library or is it the regular library? I’m confused. Does anybody have a handy layout of Alfea for me?)

- She just fucking told her everything! I’m not a fan of knowing your future tbh. It really messes with your head and you start thinking “Will my actions have a negative impact on it? Will I somehow change my own destiny for the worse?” and then you go and do exactly that. Not to mention that it would be so weird to stare at Layla and just feel the pressure of being told that you’ll be best friends. Like, what if it doesn’t work? And what if it is just the fact that you were told so that pushes you to seek the friendship of that person? I don’t know. It’s just not my thing.

- Layla is awesome, though! Climbing those rocks with no equipment, not to mention with so little power left. She probably couldn’t even transform and fly if she fell. That was dangerous but did she care? Nope. She was there to save the pixies! Brave little soldier. Too good, too pure for this world.

- Ugh, Darkar managed to annoy me with his very first sentence ever. Nice job. You are a loser, loser. So deal with it! God, how will I take all that narcissism for 25 more episodes? Oh god, oh no, please, no! Whyyyyyyyy?

- Ugh, Bloom, that diadem is doing the opposite of wonders for your hair, please! At least Stella had the common sense to remove it.

- Speaking of Stella, that moment with the multiplying beauty was so cute! I love how she complimented the others while complimenting herself! But guys (Stella & Bloom), you’re not discreet with the groping. Seriously.

- Oh, hey! Riven won! And Sky only came in third! Nice! But lbr here, Timmy is the real victor! The others came in on hoverbikes while he had an entire ship that he modified himself. I mean, idk about anyone else, but I would definitely go for the ship.

- Of course there’s Diaspro drama. God, can they not for literally five seconds? And also, “we’re just friends”? Wtf? Did you fall on your head this summer, Bloom? You were calling him your boyfriend last time I checked. And you were fawning over the romance in your future. Can you just drop the pretense already?

- Ooh, Layla is so smart! She managed to outsmart all the monsters and win even when she barely had any magic left! You go, you absolute badass!

- Did they even make any changes on that new wing at Alfea? I mean, besides the name.

2x02:

- How did Tecna know that Layla was the princess of Andros? Did she hack the interdimensional FBI system? Wtf.

- They could’ve showed some other things we hadn’t seen that Layla had to go through but, of course, why would they do that when they could just use the same footage and draw less animation, bruh?

- And we’re getting to the opposites. Right on schedule when the Shadow Phoenix has shown up. You gotta love how convenient those school lessons are (not to mention that Bloom suddenly started feeling her opposite out of nowhere. Nice!) At least we got a cool magical lesson. Though, idk how to feel about the ying-yang symbol. I mean, it is a perfect representation of what they’re talking about but kind of weird to see something so earthly in Alfea. Though, Earth did have magic so... Hmm. Okay, anyway. Moving on.

- Um, question, why do Stella and Layla not know each other? And in the first season Stella and Musa and Sky didn’t know each other even though they were all royalty (I am still unclear on whether Musa is a princess or not btw but anyway). Don’t they, like, have royal meetings with other kingdoms? (which they even did in season 5 when Domino was back. What, is Domino the center of the universe and they can’t function without it? I mean, come on!)

- The talk about love is getting on my nerves and I literally have “love” in my url and it is my fave word. So what is wrong with that? I do love that guard there. Heck, yeah, it’s a prison (it’s worse than that tbh). And the fact that they’re trying to make it out not to be is extremely fucked up and sickening if you ask me. Not to mention “You can force people to be happy. It just takes time.” I really hope whoever had the idea of that place (in-verse) is going to hell.

- They legit just kept recapping season 1 for a solid minute? Aaaaaaaand... SKIP.

- Can I say that a 30-page report is an actual living nightmare. Thanks.

- The girls are all friendly with Layla (well, outside of a slip-up or two). That’s cute. But where the hell is Tecna? Can the animators only animate five Winx girls at a time? What the hell, you guys?

- So the Pixie village is on Andros (if Layla found it accidentally. I don’t imagine she realm-hopped at will)? Why don’t I remember any of that? But hey, finally some flashbacks that we haven’t seen before!

- Oh, look! My guy Kerborg is here! (the only good part of this whole Darkar thing tbh)

- The Trix finally thought of trying to pretend to be happy in order to get out of there. Well, better late than never. Though, watching how it’s going I can understand why they didn’t try before that. It is, in fact, hopeless. (But at least Darcy is handling it! She always was a bit more controlled.)

- I am so majorly creeped out by Darkar. He just met them and he’s like “You belong to me! Mwahahahaha.” Ummmm? Can you calm down? But I loved Icy’s response. Though, it didn’t stick. And he’s at it again. Seriously, this is really giving me some major off vibes. He said they were going to be the queens of Shadowhaunt which, considering he’s the king, would imply they were his wives. Now there’s a mental image that I am not even going to let inside my head, thanks. Although, having in mind that he just kept buttering them up, I would say it was just him stroking their egos to get them to join him. Not to mention that his later treatment of them supports that theory. And of course, he had to test them first and see how they’d do.

2x03:

- Please, tell me that they’ll tell someone about the Pixies and won’t just go to Shadowhaunt on their own initiative.

- O!M!G! They actually told Faragonda! I can’t believe this! Finally doing something smart, I can’t! And of course she wasn’t going to just let them go. Though, did she really think they weren’t going to want to take the test?

- Shouldn’t Stella be weakened by the darkness of Shadowhaunt? I kinda wish she’d stayed at Alfea if that would’ve spared us from the arc that is coming. (Why?)

- Okay, but it was kind of rude of Layla to just overtake Riven’s hoverbike like that. I wouldn’t appreciate it if I had to give someone a ride and they shoved me out of the driver’s seat and occupied my car, thank you. I’m surprised Riven agreed to let her drive.

- I don’t really have much to say about this episode tbh.

- It was cute that Stella jumped off the cliff for Brandon but it was not the smartest course of action. It probably would’ve been easier for him to save himself if he was alone and they may not have ended up being brought to Amentia. God, I hate this. I don’t want to be bitching about this every other sentence so just know that I absolutely despise this arc from the very bottom of my heart and that will never change.

2x04:

- They have no powers and Darkar knows they’re there. Sounds like a great situation, doesn’t it?

- That amazing moment when you either have to marry a person you’ve just met or watch the one you love die and then be forced to get married anyway. You gotta love that! I hate this so much! (And this is different from my previous point. Or at least has a different angle.)

- Wow, Riven is absolutely handling being a boyfriend. Somebody get him a manual, the man is failing spectacularly.

- I am not quite a fan of Flora’s “Must be nice to have a shoulder to cry on”. Like, you have your friends???? No, I get that she wants a boyfriend, nothing wrong with that, but it came out like she has nobody. Which is absolutely not true.

- What a lucky save that Stella just arrived when they were about to become toast. Can anyone tell me why she didn’t just teleport them where the Pixies are? Or anywhere closer to them if she could do that all along?

- Am I distracted or is there nothing to talk about in these episodes? (Both. It is both.)

2x05:

- Seriously, why didn’t they at least mention the option to teleport using that gadget from the beginning?

- Aww, Brandon was trying to be noble and get out of the marriage but it backfired. Poor him.

- Why are the Pixies bickering like that? Is it Shadowhaunt’s influence or just the fact that they’d been imprisoned together for so long?

- Wait, did they just... kill a pixie? (Off screen of course, but still. Damn!)

- So Bloom and Stella did... interestingly with the boarding.

- Why is Stella afraid of heights? Also, that’s never been mentioned before. Especially not when she jumped off a fucking cliff! Wtf. They just keep throwing in new stuff without setting it up properly and I am getting annoyed.

- What happened to Tecna’s computer?

- Oh, look! Chatta lied to Darkar to protect Pixie Village.

- It’s the Trix! Finally some action! And they are harder to defeat now that they’re stronger! Nice!

- Damn! Layla was really determined to get the Pixies out of there. (Which wouldn’t have helped if Darkar hadn’t let her but she still gets points for trying.)

- Oh come on! Do I really have to deal with fake Avalon so early in the season?!?!?! Dammit! Also, wtf is up with Bloom and Stella? Like, you both have boyfriends. At least Layla’s not affected.

- “Stella returned a compliment. What is that about?” XDDD One of the funniest lines ever! And look at Amore! She is so cute!

2x06:

- But yeah, seriously, just go get Brandon, please! (Also, good that they noticed something’s fishy.)

- Aww, Stella is absolutely furious and determined to get her boyfriend back. She should’ve gone for a plan tbh since it could’ve helped them get to the palace faster.

- I love how Stella’s known Layla for a week (half of which Layla was unconscious) tops and is already making her her bridesmaid. Am I the only one who finds this weird? Like, this friendship train is moving way too fast for my trust issues.

- Poor Brandon. She’s going to stretch him, wtf? These episodes are a horror show.

- How bad can a guard worm be? Hm, gee, I don’t know, Layla. Enough to stop you perhaps since it is a “guard”, y’know.

- And Brandon is talking to a parrot now. I am losing it just like he is. How much longer will this torture go on? Please, tell me this arc is coming to an end.

- Okay, so the plotline with Amore’s magic is less problematic than I remember it. I thought she was going to make Amentia fall in love with the flower pollen but it only leads you to your soulmate. That isn’t problematic, actually. Nice!

- Wtf do you mean they’re going to eat Brandon if he’s not a good husband?!?!?! I am getting nightmares over here. Just feeling them forming in my head. Thanks.

- It must be horrible for Stella to be standing there and watching her boyfriend being forced to marry another woman. How are these people not psychologically scarred anyway?

- Aww, they’re back together! I love how Amore is just sitting in Stella’s lap! It’s cute.

2x07:

- I was not ready for the Kiko angst even though I knew it was coming.

- Faragonda really thought she could just dodge that question without them noticing, huh? Yeah, well, no.

- Oh, look! The Shadow Fire is sentient. This reminds me of LotR tbh but anyway, moving on. So Darkar is a man who is possessed by the Shadow Fire? I so did not remember that.

- Oh, no! Is it really time for Avalon already? Dammit! I was just getting thrilled there was no Darkar in these last two episodes and now I get Avalon. Uggggh.

- I get Bloom’s annoyance with this but why does she keep blasting it when that obviously doesn’t give results?!?!?! This reminds me of that quote by Einstein that madness is doing the same thing and expecting different results. “I feel tired.” You think? You’ve been out there blasting that thing for hours. Get inside and get warmed up, oh my god! Seriously, how are they even alive? They don’t take care of themselves at all.

- This might be my more advanced knowledge of what the future holds for them speaking but I absolutely do not get what is Avalon’s appeal.

- Oh, how convenient. He’s teaching magic connected to their origins. Amazing.

- “I don’t want to seem obsessive” *proceeds to spy on girlfriend* At least the show is framing it well.

2x08:

- Ugh, I really hate these Bloom and Avalon scenes. They just leave a bad taste in my mouth.

- Ugh, I’m gagging at Bloom’s obsession with Avalon. I get he promised to help her learn about her origins but she’s downright lovesick. I am so with Sky on this and I understand his frustration.

- Aww, Brandon immediately revealed his own nickname to help Stella calm down. That was so cute! I love them!

- I love how the fairies are always invited, of course, but the witches are only invited because they helped. I mean, yeah, they do cause trouble, but like, they’re witches? I think the show should have done a better job at specifying what exactly being a witch is because currently it’s like “hey, they’re evil but they can legally learn how to be evil in the legitimate school for witches!” How does that make any sense?

- Ewww, seriously? On the one front I have Bloom and Avalon and on the other Icy and Darkar. What is wrong with this season?

- Oh, hey! It’s Helia! Now only if we didn’t have to wait half a season for Flora to confess her feelings, that would be great! I love how she got mad at Stella for introducing herself to Helia. Don’t just glare there, Flora. Do something about it! (About Helia, I mean.)

- So Saladin is also a dramatic bitch. Good to know. XD But hey, the new Red Fountain looks so much better. Before I started the rewatch, I didn’t even remember the initial vision. I only remembered the one from season 2 onwards.

- Poor Timmy! But what was Tecna’s problem? Like, you dreamed of him. That’s cool. I mean, you like him. What’s the problem? I guess she’s just not used to emotions like that, though.

- “I think it was Darcy” Jeez, really? Why is the fact that she ran away not enough proof that it was Darcy? Why would she run away if she was just a random girl? But I guess it’s a good thing Musa recognized her voice because people can actually do that unlike what movies would have you believe.

- It’s Kerborg time. Nice!

- Oh, yeah, “let’s leave Bloom and Sky in charge here”. Now you trust her. Last time she was there he blamed everything on her but hey, whatever.

- I loved Sky being supportive of Brandon and then the team up with all the rest. And Riven showing a better side of himself. That was really awesome.

- Oh, I think Helia’s got his eye on a certain fairy too! ;)

- But seriously. Literally an entire army of Specialists can’t hold the monster down while Helia did it on his own. With his glove. Wtf?!?!?!?! Though really, why am I expecting anything to make sense at this point.

2x09:

- Okay, but as annoying as Darkar is, he at least knows how to steer the witches to do exactly what he wants.

- Really, Tecna, I think your facts are wrong. You aren’t completely grown up at 16, wtf.

- Who else is completely creeped out by Avalon? He really just gave all of his very female and very young students flowers. And he’s teaching them all individual things (which is just a cover so that his interest in Bloom doesn’t stand out, of course, but still). He knows they are all crushing on him and he’s exploiting that and doing his best to lead them on and reinforce those emotions. That is absolutely disgusting, thank you.

- Seriously, even Faragonda is falling victim to his “charm” (not)? I can’t with this episode anymore and it has just started. And here I thought Darkar would be the problem of this season. How was I so wrong????????

- Oh, he wants them to trust him as much as they trust themselves? How about they throw you off a cliff instead? Oh, wait, that won’t work because he has wings. Crush him with a boulder then? (This is getting very anti Avalon and I am so sorry for all the negativity but I don’t think I can stress enough how much this is upsetting and angering me.)

- Why do I feel like Avalon is the one who planted the book there so that Tecna could do all of that and embarrass herself so that she wouldn’t try it again and he could proceed with his real plans?

- Well, we finally got Bloom’s parents’ names and a very unclear peek at them. Though, props for having their designs figured out from the beginning, though I guess that is just thanks to the comics.

- Oh, hey! Palladium is back. (Why is no one crushing on him? He is so much better and more handsome than Avalon tbh.) Glow up time, bitches. XD

- Amaryl is being Amaryl, of course. But Palladium is having none of it anymore. And he saved Stella. Nice!

- The others trust Tecna, that’s great!

- (Honestly, Griffin is the only thing saving me from losing my mind in this episode tbh, Also the fact that she believes Tecna and that Tecna was suspicious enough to dig in the first place. At least someone hasn’t lost their common sense.)

- Oh, hey, how did Bloom get that medallion? Did she pull it out of the past? Pls, tell me that’s not what happened. It can legit mess the entire timeline.

- Wait, didn’t they start chasing him before midnight? Why is it suddenly morning? Wtf? You can’t tell me they chased him all night. Why is everything so wrong?

- Poor Wizgiz! Another invention is destroyed. I feel his pain.

- At least all parts of the episode came together nicely. The writing was actually good but I absolutely hate this episode, thanks! I still appreciate the effort with the script, though.

2x10:

- Seriously, why did Bloom instantly decide that Diaspro was involved in this? Ugh. Both she and Sky need to calm down with the jealousy.

- Omg, Griselda is so savage, I can’t! Her magic is so awesome. (Since when is Stella up for cooking? Or was it just because she wanted to see the cute guy that would teach them cooking? Ah, and she’s tired of take out.) I really loved how she used different methods to deal with the different powers of the fairies. Finally we’re getting all the magical lessons and it is absolutely glorious.

- (Btw, seeing Stella openly critique classes schedule makes it clear to me why she’s always been my favorite. That is such a me thing to do. I still can’t understand how teachers liked me since I was always arguing with them.)

- Of course. Sky wants to talk and Bloom immediately decided he wanted to break up with her. Why don’t you hear him out first maybe? (Sidenote: Stella and Brandon went on a date with unicorns? That is really cute!)

- Brandon is in his role of the wingman again. Considering he’s the only one having a steady girlfriend (and they’ve said “I love you” already), the rest should just listen to him.

- Mayhem globe? That’s really cool actually.

- Helia is here. Nice!

- Poor Stormy. She looked really hurt. I thought Darcy was the one with the illusions and riddles. Why did she get it wrong and why was Icy the one to solve it (through a detail that not only has never been shown but has been pretty much disproven by what we’ve seen)?

- Yeah. Tecna and Timmy were also knocked out, Bloom. Just in case you care about that.

- Kindness spell? And non-agression spell? That’s kinda cool actually. But problematic... again.

- I am not quite sure what Bloom did but I am actually glad to see they went with a hug there (and it was cute). But how many times are they going to become a boyfriend and a girlfriend? I thought we were over this.

2x11:

- Brandon is at it again. A true specialist... in dating tips. XD

- Wow, Flora. Nice Helia spell you got there. (Btw I am so loving that we get to see them in different classes and learning things! Yes, this is what I’m here for!) But Layla was so ready to help! And I also love that Flora went to Layla instead of anyone else. It’s really cute that they got so close so fast. (”He’s crazy if he doesn’t like you.” Perhaps Layla is the one who likes Flora. XD)

- Shoulda listened to Brandon, Timmy. (But Tecna so boldly went for the “us”. You go, girl!)

- Idk but to me “The Archaic Spells of Spheria” doesn’t sound any good tbh.

- Of course Stella is all about the romantic movies. But poor pixies. They had to imprison them to save them.

- Why did all of the boys know about the Codex in the previous ep but the girls have no clue about it? Why is Faragonda keeping it from them if everyone at Red Fountain knows about it?

- What was Faragonda doing? And why did she make Bloom look for the spell? Couldn’t she do that herself? (Also, she just threw the book like that on the floor. I get why it prompted her derision but damn, really?)

2x12:

- Flora and Helia are such romantic dorks. And they’re bringing their A game there. Poems and flowers... A beautiful romance blooms. (I’ll stop now.)

- This convergence talk is giving me all the friendship feels. Not just for Winx but also for Faragonda and Griffin since they have been spotted doing convergence too. Ugh, my heart!

- Wow, Riven sure has a lot of pictures of Musa, considering the way he’s acting.

- “Kind of involved”? Mhm, sure.

- So I understand Musa’s frustration with Stella’s meddling but on the other hand I can see Stella’s point. I love Musa x Riven but Riven doesn’t seem exactly present and Musa herself stated that she’s not really sure what the status of their relationship is so...

- Okay, but there is no way in hell that it is Darcy’s birthday. It is fall currently and Darcy’s birthday is May 5 according to Wiki. So yeah, no.

- I am getting a bit sidetracked again but can we talk about the fact that Bloom and Stella couldn’t do convergence after a simple disagreement even though they’re together like 24/7 while Griffin and Faragonda managed to do it seamlessly at the end of season 1 after not speaking to each other for years and kind of getting into a fight the last time they spoke at the Day of the Royals. Friendship goals (well, besides the silent treatment.)

- Okay but I think it wasn’t right to blame Stella. She didn’t say anything that was inherently offensive. She suggested that they try to get closer. That isn’t bad even if it upsets someone indirectly. There was no need to blame her. They should’ve just focused on making Layla feel better.

- Why do I feel like none of them really had friends before they found each other? But hey, they are this big found family now and that is awesome! (I am getting all the feels again.)

- And Darcy is messing up the magical reality chamber again. Didn’t we do that already? Also, why didn’t they try to... idk, take precautions and put better security on it considering how dangerous it can be? Like, those are simple things. Please, be responsible.

- Better not play Truth or Dare with Stella. Unless you wanna be kissing ogres. XD

- That was a good save Layla pulled off there. Also, I love how the girls are mad at the “technical” issues. Tbh they are right to. How many times are they gonna get stuck in the wrong world when sent into the magical reality chamber? Like, get your shit together teachers. Also, why don’t they simply do a test run before they get anyone inside it? You’d think they’d learn their lesson.

- Damn, they can be deleted if the program is turned off? Why didn’t Darcy just have Jarred unplug it then? Winx are erased forever. Boom, problem solved. For the Trix, I mean.

- Aww, the pixies were ready to go in. That was cute.

- I LOVED that convergence! It was such a cool idea to have them make a figure. Also, they just created life. Damn! I am impressed.

2x13:

- Poor Layla. She has all those nightmares. But at least Piff helps! That’s really cute.

- I see Flora still hasn’t solved the Helia problem yet.

- They just ditched school to go to a club. What chaotic dumbass energy, I can’t.

- Aww, Layla is sharing about her harsh childhood. At least she has friends she can talk to now. But damn the difference between Andros and Solaria is very striking in scenes like that.

- Layla totally nailed that improv. Nice, you go, girl!

- I love the difference between Griselda and Faragonda! XD

- I loved that convo between Bloom and Vanessa! Yes, thank you for that. I am a little confused as to when Bloom learned Daphne was her sister. Did I miss something or did the writers miss something? But aww, Vanessa can’t see Locket. That’s making me sad. :(

- They did go to the club, though, huh? Nice one, you guys.

- How will Faragonda learn if they use magic on humans but not otherwise? That doesn’t sound very logical to me. (Speaking of logic, where is Tecna? They didn’t show her in this ep.)

- Oh, no! Poor Layla. But damn, she’s powerful. And the others are there to help her. (The pixies can cause so much trouble considering how small they are.)

- I love how Faragonda and Griselda just showed up to get them. It was cute. Though, now they’re being punished. Well, technically, Bloom didn’t break any rules because she had permission to leave but I guess she’s also in this because she shouldn’t have taken the others with her. (Cheeky to welcome Faragonda and Griselda to Earth.) At least Faragonda managed to get them the permission for music back from Griselda. XD

- Aww, babies! They are so tired from cleaning the whole school, they fell asleep. And the pixies helped, too.

- I’m not sure how Flora got that Helia is “the one” from talking to him for half a minute, but damn, wanna share those powers with the rest of us so that we can know immediately when we’ve met the one as well? (It was so cute to see Flora lean on Layla to sleep with her. And Piff, too. If she weren’t just talking about Helia, they would’ve been like a picture perfect family.)

This got very long so I decided to split the post for this season in parts. Part 2.

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