#wish we'd gotten to see more of them lmao

[kohakhearts]

mirror world and gates of warp are such beloved anipoke moments for me. like they're so much more fun in japanese than in english because of the speech patterns of the characters........but none of those changes combined is beating whatever the writers were doing when they had alternate world goh call himself ore-sama unironically

[housewarningparty]

Congratulations on finishing your rewatch!

If you're still taking questions:

(1) If Faith could have appeared in just one more episode of the show than she did, which episode should it have been and why?

(2) Is there any other character you wish we'd seen more of than we did?

(3) What is your favorite episode of Season 1, not counting the finale?

1) okay well, if we're going to do what makes the most narrative sense I'd say Faith taking Tara's place as intended in Restless is it. It's the easiest way to integrate her without changing what follows and I like that it would parallel the Graduation Day slayer dream sequence. Faith and Buffy have a tremendous, violent confrontation irl but in their shared dreams they are gentler, less hostile. It would have been a satisfying pin in their story until season 7.

But that's kind of a boring answer, if I could talk just in terms of vibes over logic I would have loved to see Faith in a The Replacement/Tabula Rasa style episode. I love the memory wipe trope when it comes to Faith and Buffy, the idea of seeing who they could be to each other without the things that complicated their real relationship. I also think Faith getting split into two people would have been an interesting way to literalize the fact that she's her own worst enemy and she scares the shit out of herself. That would have been cool.

2) Many characters! Coming off season 7 especially it's like - I wish we would have gotten a proper Wood episode, I would have liked an episode about one of the potentials. An episode about one of the former slayers that wasn't about Spike killing them would have been cool! Another Amy episode that's not about her being inexplicably evil! A proper Tara episode, especially post-breakup! Kendra! Jenny Calendar! PLEASE I'M DYING OUT HERE

3) I feel like I'm about to say some extremely unpopular shit here lmao but I honestly love a lot of the goofy stupid season 1 shit. "I Robot, You Jane" is so audaciously, charmingly dumb - it is a carnival fun house mirror of Internet stranger danger. It's a guy in a Sentai monster suit catfishing Willow. It fucking rules. I also think "The Puppet Show" is really funny! I refuse to apologize!

[burst-of-iridescent]

atla live action thoughts: episode 6

SPOILERS AHEAD

tw: opinions

things i liked:

love the moment where roku tells aang friends can be a liability and you can see in his face that he's thinking of sozin

koh lore is interesting. funnily enough i've also written koh being the son of the mother of faces in a fic before so i see netflix has been hitting up ao3

(for legal reasons, that was a joke)

i like zhao forcing zuko to turn aang over more than him capturing aang with the yuyan archers himself like in the original. this 100% feels like something animated zhao would do and it really drives home how much of a disadvantage zuko's at. this is the dynamic i wanted to see between the two of them

lmao @ zhao wanting to get every detail of his capture of the avatar in writing, and aang blowing air at him to send him falling over himself. they pulled that right from the original and it's great

BLUE SPIRIT TIME BABY

this fight (well the parts of it that i can see) is SO GOOD. pretty sure it's almost a shot for shot remake of the original and zuko and aang are working together seamlessly

oh i fucking LOVE that zuko and aang are trapped together and get to talk. zuko smiling despite himself... aang trying so earnestly to get through to him... the way zuko actually seems to be listening to him before he hears the word compassion... chef's kiss this was an INSPIRED change

"do you think we could've been friends too?"

the transitions from younger, happier zuko to older, traumatized zuko are fucking painful. the one where he looks into the mirror to see his unscarred, smiling self for just a moment before it flashes to his present reality... next time just shoot me netflix

"he will recover" "but he will never heal"

young zuko lying in bed sobbing as he's banished by his own father what if i killed myself

HIS CREW BEING THE 41st DIVISION HE LOST EVERYTHING TO PROTECT whichever writer suggested that needs a raise posthaste

"our prince" who is cutting all of these fucking onions

things i disliked/am conflicted about:

this is where the show suffers as an adaptation, because if the animation didn't exist, the agni kai would've been fine. zuko trying to dodge, having the chance to hurt ozai yet actively choosing not to out of love, being beaten up, pinned down and brutally burned as he whimpers in fear - all of that works on its own. it conveys zuko's compassion and ozai's brutality just fine, but not to the level that the cartoon does. the scene is brutal in both versions but animated zuko not even trying to fight, sobbing and begging on his knees, and being maimed anyway just hits harder than the netflix version

not sure if i saw it right but it seemed as though there were tears in ozai and azula's eyes??? i can maybe see it for this version of azula but in no world would ozai be crying over burning zuko. it feels like they're trying to make this version of ozai more complex but he was FINE as a classic villain

that being said, i do like ozai holding zuko's hand to his heart as he burns him. the symbolism of zuko trying to reach for his father's love while ozai permanently brands his cruelty on his son... ate

i don't even like roku in the animation all that much but his presence has been weirdly reduced in the show, even though he's the avatar aang is closest to. aang having to take on the burden of redeeming roku's failure is a significant part of their dynamic and i want more of that

hollywood i'm begging you to shoot night scenes that people can see because parts of the blue spirit and aang fight sequence were so dark i looked like the squinting lady meme

i really wish we'd still gotten the moment in the storm where zuko saved the helmsman. i know they kinda replaced it with the crew realizing they were only alive because of zuko's sacrifice, but they could've done both to show how much zuko still cares, even if he can't show it

how are we 3/4th of the way into the season and aang is STILL ONLY BENDING AIR

overall rating: 9/10. definitely the best of the series so far and i love how they expanded on zuko's backstory and his relationship to aang

[meyerlansky]

my mota hot take - if bucky hadn't imprinted on gale and declared them bfs grade school style, i genuinely don't think gale would have thought twice about him (judgy bitch). egan wormed his way into that boy's heart and grew on him like a fungus. curt, however, i think gale gelled with him from day 1. barry's performance (which You Get, King) is very genuine and straightforward under a veneer of bravado and i think that... solidity? appeals to gale even more than it does to bucky

JUDGY BITCH DKFNSKDNF okay but it's true. bucky's absolutely the one doing the heavy lifting to make clegan happen, platonic or otherwise. it's not even a contest. there's reasons it's unequal, some fairer than others, but it IS unequal, and if bucky hadn't called dibs i can't see gale putting in the effort on his own. more fool him 😤

i definitely get what you mean wrt curt being Solid, too, and it's........ interesting [lmao rant ahead sorry] that the fandom has decided that he's feral, when that's really not what i get from barry's performance At All. and we KNOW that man is capable of Absolutely Off The Wall Feral. dominic kearney is feral. the scavenger is feral. oliver quick is restraint-hiding-feral, and even more importantly, the amount of artifice in barry's saltburn performance is STAGGERING—masks behind masks behind masks—so he's EXTREMELY CAPABLE of playing a character that way, with that kind of complexity of layers. there's very little artifice to curt imo, which isn't incompatible with feral, exactly, but he doesn't really GO feral at any point; like you say, he's a straightforward kind of dude, especially with the buckies. there's no restraint-hiding-feral so much as curt is In Control, even when he's having fun and being a goofball. even the RAF fight is very Controlled. there's no impulse, there's no snap decision, he uses the RAF guy underestimating him to his advantage but he doesn't make any secret of the fact that he knows he's gonna win. my personal headcanon is that the fight's the first time gale really SEES that element of curt, but it's definitely the kind of thing i can see him picking up on earlier because... that control, that self-assuredness, it's what gale tries for too!

the operative word being TRIES. because for gale it IS artifice. gale, imho, is a scared little boy hiding behind his idea of Shoulds and Musts. gale has shoved his wants and needs down so deep—to cope, to keep himself safe, but he's done it nevertheless—that he can't actually register them as what they are without getting shaken into it. and then there's curt with a much quieter confidence about what he can do, what he's capable of, and what he wants than gale OR bucky, and it's not a facade. that's actually kind of what i think does appeal to gale about bucky too, that same lack of artifice. if curt says he's gonna do something, he does it. if bucky's angry, there's no guesswork, no eggshells like your drunk dad might have, you know it. i don't think gale is capable of accessing that kind of open unapologetic honesty about his own feelings and desires, not within the time frame we see in canon and imo not for a loooooooooong time after, which is why i can't see him being very kinky without like YEARS of Feeling Safe in a relationship but the guys he has the closest on-screen relationships with are all people who aren't quiet about Being Who They Are. so i definitely agree that solidity and that straightforwardness are things about curt that MAJORLY appeal to gale, and i wish we'd gotten more than THREE SCENES OF INTERACTION about it >:[

last tacked-on thought: curt also treats gale like a person and not an idol to swoon over, which seems VERY RARE among the ENTIRE 100th tbqh, and gale doesn't really seem to LIKE being idolized [self-worth issues ahoy!] so i think that plays in too.

[darkpoisonouslove]

When we're talking about Griffins color change...

Can we please talk about the fact that Darcys color of her casual outfit is light purple too? A outfit she wears in the first season a lot comparing to the other seasons where she only wears the dark purple one (I know she starts to wear it ik seaosn 3 again but after that we never saw it again)? Just like Griffin, she changes from light colors to dark and like Griffin she also stopped wearing her cute glasses (WHY both of them looked so good with their glasses!). It's like both want to stop being associated with that previous version of themselves while they still hold on to that color scheme bc not everything was just bad about it.

Griffin hated what she did but that doesn't changed anything about the feelings she had/has for Valtor and the moments they shared with eachother just for them. And Darcy maybe hated Griffin and everything that had to do with her when she kicked her and sisters out but she cloud tower was for several years still something like a home and maybe one of the safest places she was during her teenager years. Despite the ending I think she has some really good times there. And both hold on to that memories through the colors. Griffin a bit diffrently but still in the same way.

I hear what you're saying and it makes a lot of sense but Darcy's different outfits coexist in the first season. And the lighter civilian outfit vs darker battle outfit is true for Icy too while Stormy's are pretty much the same color which I think is exactly the significance here? Because the Trix were supposed to appear as random if even excessively mean-spirited school bullies in the first season who are then revealed to actually be villainous enough to want to conquer the entire universe and almost succeed. So Darcy and Icy have a lighter color scheme in their civilian outfits because they're putting up a front while Stormy doesn't even bother to do that as she's always a chaotic baby.

Also, their battle outfits are just more practical for... battle in season 2 as that's all they do. They don't have any chill time and they're always on missions when they leave Shadowhaunt. Only time they wear something else is when they're trying to be undercover at Red Fountain in 2x08. Compare that to season 3 where Valtor doesn't always need them and they are more comfortable in their hideouts so they just hang out in their civilian outfits again. (Lmao, "Valtor is a better boss than Darkar" is not the take I expected to emerge from this 😂 (considering all his manipulation of them while Darkar wasn't even trying in that department.))

I'm just analyzing canon here. However, I do think that you're right about Darcy (and the rest of the Trix) holding on to the good times they had in CT and feeling slighted by Griffin expelling them. They are always looking to muscle back in on CT and take control of it away from Griffin. First in season 2 through their Gloomix power-up and then instantly looking to make use of Valtor's unchecked power by having him secure it for all of them. While a big part of this is definitely their egos being hurt by being kicked out by Griffin, I think there's also a part of them that really perceived CT as their safe haven, their fortress. We don't know anything concrete about the treatment witches receive in canon (besides the ton of unfortunate implications) or about the Trix' lives prior to s1 but I think that they truly felt that with all their power and their ancestry, CT should sort of be like their birth right, that they have a claim on it. Which adds very interesting nuances to them as they seem to have gotten attached to it as not just a comfortable and convenient base of operations but as a stable home, implying they've never had that before. There's certainly a lot going on here!

P.S. The glasses were cool and I wish we'd seen more of them by virtue of more flashbacks with Griffin/more downtime for Darcy as I can't see Griffin making them work in her show outfit (they'd have to be redesigned too) and I think they could be a bit of a safety hazard for Darcy in battle.

[aihoshiino]

Hi, hello there! ^^ I hope you're doing well!! I been reading your blogs(?)/posts for a while now and I must say how much they have put into perspective for a lot of things, I really love your takes on stuff! Though with I suppose the lack of presentation and interaction of the HKAI relationship..(WHICH MADE TERRIBLY SAD BECAUSE IT WAS ONE OF THE THINGS I WANTED MORE CLARITY ON TwT) I wanted to ask, how would you interpret/rewrite everything about their relationship leading to the breakup?

Happy to hear u are enjoying my silly little thoughts!!!

A big part of the reason I was so annoyed with the reveal that the HKAI romance in 15YL was basically in-universe RPF was that its presentation of the relationship was super compelling to me and basically exactly what I'd wanted to see. It emphasized that both Hikaru and Ai were deeply vulnerable children being victimized and exploited by a system that saw them as commodities at best and tools for pleasure at worst and thus that they were uniquely equipped to each understand the others' pain - especially given that volume 14 is bookended with these parallel discussions of CSA - the reveal that Ai was the victim of inappropriate interest from her own to-be stepfather and then 15YL's depiction of Hikaru's abuse at Airi's hands. Not only did it make it clear what these two got out of their relationship in terms of the deeper emotional stuff, it did a really good job of giving them a cute and fun rapport that made it that much easier to want to root for them which helps amp up the dramatic irony of what we know the eventual ending will be.

So broadly, I think I would've stuck to all the same beats but made it. Not RPF, LMAO. I also really wish we'd gotten a good look at their breakup scene… I want to think we'll get a flashback to it during the final arc but who even fucking knows at this point.

[hidingoutbackstage]

Okay I’m STILL procrastinating watching s15 bc I’m SCARED so here’s my extremely biased ratings/opinions on the episodes of s14 to help me procrastinate (episodes which are multiple parts of a single story will be condensed into one slot)

Room Zero: SO cute and good, I LOVED the animation style, it was simple and short but really well done with great colors, fun alien designs, and fluid animation, and I just like seeing the guys go on missions like that. It's a shame that the animated show never got picked up bc I would've adored seeing more of it. 10/10

From Stumbled Beginnings: Very cute and funny origin story for Simmons and Grif, and I love that they were p much always together since they enlisted lmao makes their dynamic rlly good and the humor actually got a couple laughs out of me. 8/10

Fifty Shades of Red: Sarge's humor never quite landed with me like is has for some people (my boyfriend lmao I literally have to pause episodes sometimes so he can stop laughing. Anyway) but it was a very humorous and in character origin for him as well. 5/10

Why They’re Here: Less interesting than the previous two, obviously just meant to fill in plot "holes" and to also show us the origins of the other characters. Also I am completely ignoring that one line from Tucker in the interview, just gonna chalk it up to the "edgy" humor it does not exist to me. 4/10

The Brick Gulch Chronicles: WONDERFUL stop motion, very fun and cute and entertaining, very wholesome and still in the vibe with what the show itself is. I appreciate the willingness to do stop motion for most of it. 10/10

Red Army Unit FH57’s Adventure: It was kinda interesting and kinda funny but I found myself kinda tuning it out cuz it just felt kinda whatever. The combo of the different animation styles was cool though and I thought the ship misunderstanding them was funny. 5/10

Locus and Felix: Okay I'm gonna be a black sheep for a second and say that I rlly don't care that much about Locus and Felix. I don't think Felix is a secretly deep sadboi whom I'm gonna spend an unnecessary amount of time thinking about, I don't think Locus as secretly good all along, and I don't care that much about their partnership and what they were like before Chorus. That being said, the animation here is absolutely gorgeous, this is probably my favorite animated story in the whole season, it looks awesome. The plot is nothing special but who cares like I said it's beautiful, 6/10

Fight the Good Fight!: VERY funny and well-executed propaganda video, short and sweet and nothing more to it. It does its job. 5/10

Meta vs. Carolina: Dawn of Awesome: Another one I really don't care for because literally everything leading UP to the fight between Meta and Carolina is a waste of time. Maybe some people really care about their weapons and stats, but I don't. And even then, you kinda know Carolina is gonna win the fight, the question is just how. 4/10

Grey vs. Gray: I don't know or care about the Game Grumps and the entire thing felt like a short gag that went on for way too long with a predictable ending. 2/10

Caboose's Guide to Making Friends: Again, ADORABLE art style and very cute having a story be told from Caboose's perspective. 7/10

Head Cannon: Kinda funny I guess. I wish we'd gotten it spread out more equally among the heads Omega jumped into. Ik he didn't spend equal time in there but who cares. Whatever, still funny. 5/10

Get Bent: I LAUGHED PROBABLY THE HARDEST AT THIS ONE AND THAT'S MOSTLY BC OF LESBIAN DONUT IT CAUGHT ME OFF GUARD AND IT WAS HILARIOUS (also hello, bisexual church?) 9/10

Red vs. Blue: The Musical: it was fine. it was creative. The dancing was well animated. Enjoyable. 5/10

Mr. Red vs. Mr. Blue: I haven't seen Reservoir Dogs but Kaikaina was in this which automatically boosts it to a 8/10 (I also like that they have movie nights it's cute)

RvB Throwdown: Fine but mostly forgettable. 3/10

The Triplets Story: REALLY interesting concept (y'all know I love the freelancers) that felt like it dragged on too long and only gave Ohio something to do. 4/10

Immersion: The Warthog Flip: I loved the costumes and the actual Warthog and it got a couple laughs out of me. 5/10

Red vs. Blue vs. Rooster Teeth: This was made for the fans/themselves. As someone who is neither, none of it was funny and I just kinda waited for it to be over. At least the animation of the armor irl looked rlly good

[snockpuppet]

Now that I've finished Veilguard and had a few days to stew on it, here are some thoughts. Gonna keep it spoiler-free.

-Story: Enjoyed it for the most part! I wish we'd gotten more about how Rook and Varric met, even if it was just a cutscene or something like that. And more explanation of the Rook nickname. I enjoyed that we got long sought answers for some things, while sowing the seeds for what will come after the conclusion of this arc. Pacing could have been a bit better; it felt like you unlock one story quest then a bunch of sidequests, over and over. Pretty similiar to DA2 in a way. I like that there are lasting companion consequences for a few of the big choices early on that don't just get brushed off.

-Choices: Some of the companion choices are harder than others. For some there seems to be a more natural answer if you're going for the "good" option. But there are a few where I had to sit there and really think it over before choosing. I absolutely will be picking opposites next time because I have to know how they all play out lmao. I like that the final choice for each companion's story also has an effect on their gameplay from that point forward.

-Companions: I LOVE the companions in Veilguard! They're a colorful bunch with a lot of personality and often I had a really hard time picking a party because I love them all so much. The party banter is really fun, and I'm glad it triggers more often than Inquisition and they even allow for banter to get interrupted and then get picked right back up where they left off. I also like that they don't always stay in the same spot in the Lighthouse. I found myself popping back after nearly every mission just to see what new little convos they were having. It makes them feel more alive. And I enjoy seeing the friendships forming between party members that don't rely on your character directing the conversation.

-Replayability: Listen, the second the credits were done rolling on my first playthrough I was immediately jumping back in on a new character. This is the first time a Dragon Age game has made me do that. I did do two full runs of Inquisition but those were months apart, and my second run of DA2 was a year after the first. I've never replayed Origins because I didn't really feel compelled to. With Veilguard, I've gotten the itch to try and do a run for every faction and romance every companion. I probably wont tunnel on the successive runs the same way I did with my first, but I do eventually want to see it all.

-Combat: My favorite combat in the series so far. I prefer more action oriented gameplay and while I suck at dodging and blocking I've really enjoyed what I've played of Mage and Rogue so far. And I love that each companion's skillset is unique and not based on player classes like they were in Inquisition. Pretty much any party comp can be viable and I didn't feel like I was being punished when I would have two companions of the same class in my party. I also enjoyed the primer+detonator mechanic, which is definitely a holdover from Anthem. I could do with less ranged enemies constantly shooting me though lmao.

Overall, I really enjoyed this game, and will still be playing a ton of it for the foreseeable future. In terms of rankings, for now I'd say probably just a smidge below DA2, which is my favorite of the series. Inquisition will always hold a special place for me since it was my first DA game, and Origins was more of a "play it to say I did, then leave it on the shelf" kind of game, but DA2 still stands out as my favorite. But who knows, maybe after playing more Veilguard it'll take the top spot. We'll see!

[xjustonemoremiraclex]

rwrb thoughts from someone who hasn't read the book (yet)

The good/general thoughts:

pleasantly surprised by the acting! which I know sounds mean, but listen, I saw these guys in other things and I wasn't suuuper into them, so it was a nice surprise lol

THE CHEMISTRY BETWEEN THE TWO again, pleasantly surprised by that lol they played off each other SO well

10/10 soundtrack, it definitely took inspiration from older rom-coms and I loved it <3

PS I really liked all the side characters! I wish we'd gotten to spend a little more time with some of them, but everyone was pretty great <3 also, all the women were awesome, and I am very gay and very in love <3

Ok, I really, REALLY liked how they showed the two of them texting each other, and the whole editing around it. It was pretty cute

I was living for all the latine songs at the new year's party, that was a nice touch

ok, when everyone was getting down at the party and alex and henry stayed up and stared at each other and time slowed down, I know it was supposed to be romantic, but I have to say it: it was also the funniest shit I've ever seen lol

henry at the party is giving both 'i have social anxiety and my only friend here is a social butterfly and keeps leaving to be with other people send help' and 'i thought you invited me here as a first date kind of thing but you're dancing and making out with other people and i'm feeling so betrayed rn :('

'christ you're as thick as it gets *kiss*' LMAO

Listen, I'm not usually into rom-coms (I say, like a liar), but I was pretty happy with the writing, in general. I laughed at all the funny parts, got emotional over all the dramatic ones and swooned at the romance bits. Great job, everyone

'I just can't afford for you to fall in love with me' LMAO babe, we're WAY past that. On both sides

ok, full disclosure: I don't really like sex scenes all that much (there's nothing wrong with them, I'm just very ace lol), so I usually just use my phone while they're happening, and while I did that a little bit here too, I was still paying attention, and honestly, they were pretty sweet. They did a good job. And, like, I have no idea why the film was R-rated lol you literally don't see anything

again, love the little montages that show the passing of time, while also showing they're keeping in touch and getting to know each other better and stuff. It makes the relationship between the two and the way it's developing feel a bit less rushed, which is nice

ZAHRA MY MOST BELOVED

YES PLEASE I WANT TO SEE THAT POWERPOINT PRESENTATION THANK YOU

KARAOKEEEE

alex giving an impassioned romantic speech to henry, about to confess his love: // henry:

'I didn't want to break his heart' - oh, honey, you already did :(

'to tell you that I love you, knowing that you wouldn't say it back' brb sobbing

NOT CAN'T HELP FALLING IN LOVE 😭😭😭

'because when they write the history of my life, I want it to include you and my love for you' help i'm dying 😭😭😭😭😭😭

MIGUEL DON'T THINK I DON'T KNOW IT WAS YOU please die in a fire <3

alex's speech was really good by the way 🥺

LOVESICK HOMOSEXUALS LMAO ZAHRA MY BELOVED

'baby' screaming crying throwing up jgdkfk

I FORGOT THE KING WAS STEPHEN FRY why is this so funny to me

SEQUEL WHEN

The... less good?/general questions:

Kinda wish there'd been a bit more enemies in my enemies-to-lovers film

'he just grabbed my hair in a way that made me understand the difference between rugby and footbal'' - please, I beg you, someone smarter than me - what the fuck does this mean 😭 ppl are LIVING for this quote and I'm like ??????

this is probably me being stupid and ignorant lol but why would alex's relationship cost his mum the election? like, from what I've seen, her government has been very pro-queer, that's not really a secret, so her son being queer and in a relationship with a man shouldn't lose her any voters..? the people who are against 'the queers' were not going to vote for her in the first place, soooo..? me is confused

honestly, this is probably an unpopular opinion, but... the king was not that bad? like, i'm not saying he's not kind of homphobic and kind of a dick lol but i get the impression that everything stems from the whole thing about sticking to tradition and public image and bla bla. Like, again, obviously, part of that involves homophobia, but I think that on a personal level, he... doesn't really care? Even at the end, he's like 'ok, are you absolutely sure about this, cause there's no going back. Yes? Really? Well, go off I guess *long-suffering sigh*'. Like, I got way more homophobic vibes from phillip than the king idk 🤷‍♀️ (I really hope I don't have to clarify that this only applies to the film, and not like, the real life crown lol)

Sooo, as I said, I haven't read the book yet, but I've seen some posts about it, and I think after watching the film I've realized that it's biggest flaw is that it's that - a film. It's a great film, don't get me wrong! And it's pretty obvious I really liked it. But damn, I'm a firm believer that book adaptations only work as series. They don't have to be super long or anything, but there is just no way to fit everything in a book in a two hour film. And yeah, when you're adapting something you have to make some changes, but Idk, it's kind of a shame that you lose so much (and even without reading the book, I can tell there's a lot of stuff missing). In any case, I can't talk too much about it until I read the book, but yeah 🤷‍♀️ It does seem like they did a good job, though - like, it genuinely can stand on its own really well, but I guess I'll have to find out for myself

Also, tagging @silassstingy bc I promised her my thoughts on the film and she might give me some interesting insights on some of the stuff I mentioned, cause she's a queen like that <3

[coredrill]

okayyyyyyyy initial bravern finale thoughts. i think i will be thinking abt this show for the next 7-10 business years so more to come ofc but. AH!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ISAMI SINGING THE OP LET THAT BE DIEGETIC TOO!!!!!!!!!! AND ALSO ON SPOTIFY!!!!!!!!!!

isami off his Fucking rocker at that one point like Yeah you deserve it king go OFF LMAO. i found that quite satisfying :] real talk tho for as much as i call him baby rice cracker all the time i really love him as a protagonist? like he just feels so damn human in the way he struggles so much but tries his best and then gets hit AGAIN but keeps trying again and again anyways. it's really good! and his whole arc of like. learning that he Can rely on others and with that reliance brings mutual care..............sobs

i love that piloting these fucking things just makes your hair grow. LMFAO

okay i know i've been complaining abt the translation of "bang brave" or whatever tf smith keeps saying before he dies BUT the reveal that that is just ANOTHER thing he's doing bc he's a Fucking Freak and isami thinks it's weird too KILLED ME. smith: "brave bang :]" isami: If You Say That Shit One More Time You're Sleeping On The Couch Tonight". what is wrong with you lewis smith!!!!!!!!!!

i wouldn't be atall surprised if this show got the ssssg treatment and got four million random manga/light novel spinoffs especially considering it's consistently like the most popular show in japan lmao. the lulu-superbia spinoff sounds like a lot of fun so i'd def be interested to see more in that vein!!! i need to learn japanese tho cause no way they're getting eng translations!!!!

i feel like. there is a specific Vibe of mecha thing that verum vita fits which Also includes dissonanza backarrow and uhhhh idk the name but that one mf who pops up in ep30ish of gaogaigar and is just kinda like. observing? like verum vita is not a court jester like the other two and this analysis does not go any deeper than Vibes but. it had me leo dicaprio pointing like. another one!!!

i'm literally obsessed with the unhinged worldbuilding in this show. like?

population is nine billion???

the suez canal is still blocked????

if you're gay you can just. Do That ???

like i love that they don't explain this shit either it's so funny to me. LMAO

something something smith can only express himself and his love for isami as bravern not just bc it gives him as a character/person separation from his Human Self but also. bc i wouldn't be surprised if that was The Way to get the queer stuff so blatant, bc he was in robot form rather than one human man saying "i love you" to another and then glomping him in an explicitly romantic sense after all the talk of riding and him being inside him. LMAO. this isn't a complaint beyond a vague shake of the fist at Corporations and TV Censors, just smth i think is REALLY interesting and which i had a surprising amount of fun watching play out from a story perspective :]

i feel like my hottest bravern take is and will always be that i really don't mind the 12eps LMAO. like i thought it provided a fun variety of Situations with which to deal with the DDs and it didn't give it enough time for the gimmick or mystery elements to start to feel old. also i am just generally of the opinion that most stories would work better if you wrote them to be told in X amount of time and then had to trim off like. 40% of that. so i know it's a personal thing but i think it worked well for bravern!!

i do wish we'd gotten to see smith and isami hug if only cause i think isami fuckin needs it. LMAO. but overall i'm satisfied w their arc, especially bc i think the whole "beyond bang brave" thing works REALLY well w smith returning to his human body. like as soon as superbia kicked it i had a feeling that would happen, and obv it's textually referring to isami/bravern/lulu's massive super robot powerup, but i also think it can just mean like. what happens After? cause smith keeps saying "bang brave" or whatever tf when he dies but to go Beyond that is to come back to life and experience a life where he can receive love, too (i.e., via cooking and food AND ALSO via Literally being brought back to life from bravern's heart. who had just merged with isami on a particle level or whatever lmao). so i'm rly satisfied with how it played out in the end :]

overall i think my only real complaint w the show on the whole aside from the military propaganda was that the boys looked like such fucking DERPS in half their shots. lmao. like obviously i'm biased cause i'm a sakuga whore and i actually rly do like their more realistic style a surprising amount cause i usually don't go for that sort of thing but uh. there's a reason that lulu is the human i gif most often and it's cause she always looked better than them by a long shot FSKDLJH. her character animation was consistently the best & most expressive and she was always the most on-model which. FUCKING DESERVED BTW. her arc was incredible and i'm so excited to rly think about her some more and dig into her as like. a rei ayanami clone (maybe even specifically rebuild? w the "your hair grows long inside your mecha" thing) but who takes control of HER OWN STORY TOO and is able to grow wildly beyond being that story point. like i love that she's taken care of too. agh she's really such an amazing character maybe i'll have to cosplay her too FKLDJSHF i'm rotating her in my brain So Much

overall that was really good and i really enjoyed it and i can't wait for the blurays <333 i love it when robot shows are made by people who love robot shows!!!!!

[thatgirl4815]

The finale was really underwhelming, more than I thought. I didn't get the pool scene? Why did ray kiss boeing? also he seemed really into the kiss idk why the kiss was like that lol for example when sand kissed boeing you could see he wasn't into it. Sucks that boeing was involved in sandray's scenes i wanted more lovey dovey scenes from them. Idk overall it was meh i dont want a second season cuz I really dont care about the other couples specially topmew lmao

The pool scene caught me off guard too, especially because though I know Sand has a hard time saying no to Boeing, he just let that kiss happen. The way Sand kissed Boeing and then Ray was a pretty good indicator of where his heart truly lies, but Ray kind of blew that up when he initiated the kiss with Boeing; I think that was coming more from a place of anger that Sand kissed Boeing (even if he encouraged it), so Ray wanted to level the playing field It might've also been the showrunners' way of hinting at the threesome that everybody has been going on about. I took Ray's behavior as more aggressive than anything, and I don't think he genuinely wanted anything to do with Boeing there, he just wanted to get back at Sand somehow. Immature but very in-character. "You kiss your ex, I kiss your ex too."

The Boeing conflict resolution felt a little quick, and it ended up being relatively surface-level anyway. I just wish we'd gotten to see why Sand feels so strongly about this relationship after all this time. I understand a lot of that can be inferred, but that doesn't change the fact that it would hit a lot harder/be more understandable if the audience could feel it too. More showing, less telling.

I also have had a hard time with TopMew, because it's something I could like but I just...don't. It's just very dry to me. It doesn't help that the series often goes back and forth between their scenes and SandRay's, and SandRay's plot has always had more drama, more angst, and if I'm being honest--just more chemistry.

Overall, I liked where each of the couples ended up, but the execution was off at some points, which I'm mostly chalking up to time constraints. That could've been handled better. Also, BostonNick had some issues towards the end that I think needed to be addressed better. Still trying to get all my thoughts together on it.

[autobot-ratchet]

Lost Light 22-25

Lost Light 22

love how pissed Magnus is at Megatron lmAO he talks to Megatron like a jilted ex

I will admit, it does kinda suck that we never got the time to address that it was Terminus's fault Megatron got stuck in the functionist universe, Roddy and Magnus think Megatron ran away and Megatron thinks Roddy and Magnus abandoned him and I don't remember this ever being cleared up

damn this thing can just punch a planet to pieces, no wonder both Drift and the Grand Architect were like “we gotta do something about this thing”

aw man, that casual drop that Terminus and alternate Orion Pax are dead... lines like this make me wish we weren't forced to jump to the end so fast, we could've maybe expanded on this if we'd been given the time...

it was very likely not on purpose but it is kinda funny that Drift is the first one to get shot on not-Pharma's order lmAO especially after he “needed to see the prisoners (Ratchet).” Some part of Pharma was just like “this fuckin hand-slicing boyfriend-stealing bitch”

ADAPTUS, that's the name of the god that took over Pharma's body, I could NOT fucking remember lmAO

aww, cute that Megatron remembers the Scavengers

I also wish that we could've gotten more between Megatron and Drift, but again, we were forced to jump to the end and honestly I'm grateful we got these two panels at all

god. Still so fuckin wild that not only are the guiding hand still around, we've already fuckin met them all. I remember not taking the news that Rung is Primus very well lmfAO

Lost Light 23

this fuckin panel of everyone reacting the the reveal is so funny gdhfsjk Whirl thinks this is exactly as funny as I've been finding it throughout this reread, Tyrest is in the back quietly having a crisis, this is great

ghfd Rodimus being like “yeah yeah shut up for a second Adaptus, we're still processing the whole Rung is Primus thing”

IT WAS HIS HAT MR. KRABS, HE WAS NUMBER ONE!!!!!!!!

wild that Drift's account of the Guiding Hand and the birth of Cybertron wasn't too far off, but it was Adaptus that betrayed the others and not Mortilus

also wild that literally everything about Rung has been foreshadowing for this reveal, his serial code, his coming back from the brink of death, the jokes about how forgettable he is

“Not even my beloved Ratchet will be able to...” oouUUGHGFHDFJ in a way, Pharma ended up helping us stop Adaptus... by being so gay for Ratchet that it distracted him long enough for Tyrest to kill him dead lmAO

still so thankful for this

“Hey, Froid? Shut up.” lmfAO GET HIS ASS

love the squad coming up with their own plan despite “The Magnificence” telling them they have to do things exactly as they say. Hell yeah, fuck destiny, make your own destiny

So Epistemus was the one who ACTUALLY orchestrated all of this, or rather the Omega Guardians speaking through what's left of Epistemus. I'm not gonna lie, this is definitely a bit of the lore that just went in one ear and out the other, especially since Nickel just unceremoniously crushes the shit immediately after it shows its true colors and then we go do our own plan lmAO so like. Truly none of this monologue matters beyond telling us this thing is why this is happening and being a cool little bit of lore if you care about that kind of thing

Lost Light 24

god, Rung still breaks my heart, he tells Rewind and Chromedome they're lucky... he puts their hands together........

fuck I forgot about Fort Max and Red, okay NOW the whole gang's all actually here for real this time lmfAO

oughfdhj Rung deleting his patient files and reminiscing about the first time he met Skids... he loved that guy........

aaaaAAUUUGH GOD... HE GAVE EVERYTHING HE HAD TO MAKE THOSE MATRIXES........

love Drift being unable to really explain what is meant by “be a good person,” and I love everyone else chiming in with more nitpicks about how to define “a good person.” It's a good question! And there's not really a set answer! Which is why that's not really what the morality lock's truly about, it's about being at peace with yourself, and that's what makes the part where everyone manages to open their respective matrixes hit so hard. It means that, if only for that moment, they all felt okay enough about themselves to bypass the lock, tangible proof that they are indeed good enough despite everything

“Ratchet, if this is it, I...” “I know. Me too.” This is another moment that, now, is very sweet and gay, but when this first came out it still hadn't been explicitly confirmed that Drift and Ratchet were in love with each other so I was burning alive inside from wanting so badly to believe they were canonically together but not wanting to get burned lmAO not to mention how many people were insistent that they weren't gay and therefore would never believe that they were unless it was quite literally shoved right in their faces lmAO I wanted both confirmation and indisputable proof that Dratchet was real

that being said, as much as I personally wanted that proof, I'm glad Anode and Lug are the ones to get an on-screen kiss and an explicit “I love you,” the trans lesbians deserve that W

love that Ratchet is the first one to open his matrix, he really is soft at heart and that kicks my ass every time a piece of transformers media confirms it lmAO soft old man full of love... a romantic underneath it all........

love that Swerve and Misfire open their matrix together, love how excited Lug is to open hers, love that Tailgate gets to open a matrix just like how Ten drew him doing on his skateboard, love that Whirl gets to open a matrix at all

fuckgfhdajsk Roddy's speech is hitting me just as hard as it ever did. I've teared up a handful of times, but so far only two parts of this comic have made me full-on cry during this reread, Rewind's final message and this speech from Rodimus, they're both so fucking good, so filled to the brim with love I can't fuckign stand it lmfAO

as cool and dramatic as it would've been to have Megatron be able to open the matrix (for real, like how striking of an image would that have been, on par with/parallel to him standing in the Necrobot's flower field), I'm so fucking glad Rodimus got to do it instead, he deserves to feel okay about himself after how much has been stacked against him

get vaporized, idiots

“Don't forget me” I wON'T!!! I WON'T EVER FORGET YOU RUNG

Lost Light 25

still absolutely hysterical that after so many crumbs of Dratchet and begging for explicit confirmation, I finally got it on the same page that reveals that Ratchet's fucking dead lmfAO I'll take it, it's still a W because it means that all their previous interactions throughout the comic are now romantically tinged as dictated by canon so I was right all along lmAO Fandom interactions aside, I like. Still can't believe this, I had already read Chromedome and Rewind's interactions as romantic and turned out to be right about that, then Cyclonus and Tailgate's, then Drift and Ratchet's, but because I personally liked Dratchet the most and their buildup was a bit more subtle than CDRW or Cygate (though not by much if we're being honest, they just never had a big plot-relevant death scare that forced them to explicitly declare their love like the other two couples did) I didn't want to just assume they'd also be canon because it would break my heart if they weren't. But they WERE... I WAS RIGHT ABOUT ALL THE GAYS........ and more than just going “neener-neener” at the fandom, it makes me happy to be right about all of them because like. It feels good to have seen the love present between all these sets of characters and for it to be properly realized in canon instead of just remaining platonic because no gays allowed or brushed off for different cishet pairings that fit the status quo more. It's not about fitting in, it's about the love, they're misfits who are happy because they love each other dearly and they're like that on purpose and how is that not the best fucking thing ever

ugh, hate that Prowl's right about everything he's said since he showed up in this issue lmAO and even though the Knights of Cybertron turned out to be a bust, at least the crew had something good to bring back home in the form of a whole 'nother Cybertron filled with new life, we achieved something on more than just a personal level so ha ha fuck you to everyone who had no faith in us lmAO

god, everyone's going through it in the non-quantum duplicate ending, I definitely understand why this upset so many people lmAO

absolutely fucking obliterates my heart that nobody remembers Rung. I vaguely remember there being some sort of scrapped arc or dialogue or something that implied there was still a trace of Rung left and the quantum duplicate version of the crew that travels to another universe had to go find him and I cling to that idea very hard lmAO I can't stand the idea of everyone just forgetting and moving on from him forever, especially after he left that final message

“And this is my wife, Anode.” BEATS MY CHEST LIKE A GORILLA I know that the words “conjunx endura” would function just the same but. “Wife” hits different and I am about it

lmAO AWW I said earlier that Fort Max and the Scavengers were cute, I forgot that they literally do have a moment where they talk again and become friends

oh I forgot we actually get somewhat of an explanation as to how exactly Drift started getting future visions. Granted it's more of a theory but I've been paying attention this time around and it makes sense to me lmAO

“Treat him well, doc. He's a keeper.” awwWWWUUUHHHH ❤️❤️❤️ I remember a lot of people assuming there would be/wanting for there to be drama between Rodimus and Ratchet over Drift and I'm still so grateful for this panel for being like “nah fuck that” lmAO everyone involved in the Roddy/Drift/Ratchet trifecta is a good person who loves the other two and that's that on that *bangs gavel*

hjfsdk love all these moments they're reminiscing on that we didn't get to see, here you go kids, have some fanfic material

MAGNUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSS ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️WAAAGHFGSHFDJAGFDJfsdhj

god same Swerve, I'm not ready for this reread to be over, what if I just reread it again after this lmAO

absolutely wild that after all the on-screen romance between Cyclonus and Tailgate, Rodimus is the one who gets a kiss from Cyclonus lmAO don't get me wrong, this kiss is everything, it is an unbelievably powerful and sincere gesture coming from Cyclonus but it's just very funny to imagine Tailgate being like “where's MY kiss?????”

“A present from Ratty. Sorry- from Ratchet.” god... that is still such an ugly-sounding nickname lmfAO the thought/reasoning behind it is very sweet, I remember Jro saying on twitter he got it from an old children's story that he liked, but. I hear the word “ratty” and I think of a wet chinese crested dog

ohh my god I forgot that Roddy lied and said that Megatron opened the matrix when he himself couldn't... swEETHEART........ urgh and the parallel between this and when Rodimus spoke to him before the first trial...

oughfsgjd Magnus and Megatron... it's like. Honestly fucked up how sweet they are together lmAO like could you fucking imagine in any other continuity

at least CyWhirlGate is winning in the sad ending lmAO

god the fuckin one-two punch of Rodimus clearly not being happy in this universe and Whirl refusing the gift of Ratchet's hands... Good for Whirl for knowing he's not broken and I'm sorry Roddy baby you deserve better

I fully understand why a lot of people were upset by the sad version of this comic's ending, especially since we see it in so much more detail than the happy quantum duplicate ending, but like. I dunno man I like that it's left so open for this version of them. I remember it being explicitly stated that this was done on purpose as a way to hand this series off to its fandom and let them make whatever kind of continuation they want, and I really love that a lot. In fact, it's kinda got me looking at some now four-year-old notes I jotted down about some ideas for fics to write. I love that it's presented as “not quite right” to have everybody go their separate ways and to have things end “more realistically” and that even though there was only the slimmest chance of the quantum duplicate trick working, it worked because that WAS the right ending. This comic's story was always more about the journey than the destination, more about the characters and the love between them than about completing our objective, and I think this ending reflects that perfectly

For as much as fandom keeps killing my passion, art is still so fuckin good and worth making and engaging with lmAO rereading this comic was an excellent decision, I really needed this to help reignite my passion, and fuck I gotta make something again lmAO

[askauradonprep]

Rise of Red Liveblog Part 3

Oh, the Tremaines place does not look good. I wonder if they'll be around?

And yes they are and they are the worst.

I like that Red and Chloe connect over their moms sucking. Chloe is TRYING XD

Good question about rewards and being a good person but it depends a lot on how's, why's and contexts. I feel like a parent should be rewarding and encouraging that.

I like talking about how hard it is to be kind to people who are awful, but I'd also point out that that can easily go too far and lead to being a doormat.

I do like how Red sees how villains think.

Well, Chloe tried. You probably could've offered to pay for a new one.

Just putting out there - I'm like 99% sure Lady Tremaine stole Ella's inheritance too.

"VKs" existing before the Isle is so stupid.

I see having an awesome song is in Uma's family! <3

Yeah, Revenge is a bop.

I don't totally get why Ulyana isn't just Ursula but I like her so far.

Ahhh, bonding over saving each other. Works every time, just like true love's kiss.

Wow, Chloe just is coming for Red's whole life and innermost desires.

And yeah, okay, apparently it is a boarding school for some.

I love Bridget making her cards into a fan

Awwww, Bridget is so cute with Red here. But jeez, girl, LOOK IN THE GLASS.

Daaaaamn, Charming hurt my heart there.

"No troublemaker can get their hands on each other" - CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

I love how much Chloe loves her mom

And Red, hon, can I just point out you're the one who said what happened (granted, under duress).

I appreciate Ella's advice here. Although I'd point out selling dangerous potions to provide for your kids may be grey but it's a pretty damn dark grey. And I'm not a fan of 'bad people don't think they're bad' type rhetoric. Caring about being bad or good isn't always enough. You need to put thought and consideration for others into what you do and say. Sometimes we use thinking we're bad as an excuse to keep doing hurtful things. I know it's for kids and so it's a simplified lesson but shhhh, I'm having fun adding nuance to the nuance.

I have to admit, I don't really think this particular lesson is one Auradon needs to learn. Like ...Cinderella really hasn't had this talk with her before about Robin Hood or Aladdin or Eugene? Or even Queen Mal? I think this is a type of nuance that Auradon and Chloe should already be very familiar with.

See, Cinderella, it's well and good to talk about doing anything to save someone you love and in this case it's fitting, but....you can't ACTUALLY do 'anything' for someone you love and be justified. You can do a lot more harm to other people that way. We literally have a Star Wars trilogy about this where someone can't accept they might have to let go of something and it starts a totalitarian mess!

LMAO I love Red and Chloe.

DAMN now we know why people don't steal from Merlin's office.

XD I love the trap for Uly and her friends.

Heeeeelp Chloe and Red are so CUTE!

Pffft, oh Morgie!

I'm really not sure how this'll wrap up in only a few minutes.

....Huh. Well, that was abrupt. I don't know how I feel about it. It felt like something was missing between them leaving and going back. I'd have liked to see what happened with Bridget.

AH! Okay, I see. This is a set up for more and there is another shoe that will drop. I thought that was a little too neat of a way to end things. Okay, fair play pocket watch.

So! Overall, I liked it. It felt a little simplistic compared to the rest of the movies though and it definitely felt more....childish? Like, this definitely FELT more like a little kids movie than the others. I think the ending was rushed and that the songs, while I really like the music style, were more used to push along the narrative than to explore where the characters are at than the other movies. Red and Chloe are great and I love the Queen of Hearts, but I wish we'd gotten more of her. What can I say? Evil mom extraordinaire.

This is definitely a new writer and I'll be honest, I don't think this movie could have inspired Ask Auradon Prep the way the first and second one did. BUT I don't regret watching it and my curiosity is piqued enough that I am eager for a sequel!

That all being said - yeah. No. Unless they sort out this timeline really well, this is DEFINITELY an alternate timeline of the first three movies. As far as I'm concerned, the merge happened about 30 years ago, the Queen of Hearts and Red lived on the Isle until Red was 13 and there is no Merlin's Academy. These will be referred to as the Original Verse and the Merlin Verse. I will not be taking alternatives at this time.

[sirenemale]

WARRIOR CATSSSSSSSSS LETS GOOOOOOOOO ❓️💢

I was hoping someone would ask for theseee YAY

❓️ : fav total background character (im not talking minor characters like say. whitewing or moonlight, i mean cats with like...3 lines tops)

This is sooo hard actually. I think most of mine still fall into minor adjacent cause they get some focus and lines. But I've always really liked Ashfoot, literally one of the only wc map parts I've made was about her. I always thought the windclan family dynamic of her being related to onestar was really fun. She just seems very together and competent and idk, I like that she and her husband were both deputies with a foot suffix.

I also always really liked breezepelt's kids, idk what they ever really got up to in canon but Smokehaze, brindlewing, appleshine and woodsong are such cute names. There's probably a lot to explore with how he'd approach parenting with how he grew up. I also think it's really cute that the older sisters ended up mentoring their younger siblings.

Also not super minor, but I guess semi-minor in terms of how often I see fan stuff for them. Pretty much every side or minor character in Graystripe's vow i really liked. Gremlin, Fury, all of warriorclan. Petunia especially, I think all of them you can draw some really fun parallels with first arc characters, I almost wish we'd gotten some kinda soft reset where we start following them instead of the kinda giant extended never ending conflict we have in the main clans. Fury is the antagonist obviously but I don't think she made any kinda impact on the fandom really, I just think she's fun. At the end when she's mostly defeated and bleeding out she crawls to the top of the high rocks in thunderclan camp and I was hoping soooo fucking bad she'd be deranged enough to just stand up there boasting until she died. Not what happened but it's what happened in my heart, not deep at all as a character I just liked that she got to be kinda crazy.

OTHER than thattt. I can only think of Red from Skyclan's destiny. There was a rogue camp and she had drama with her dad bc she had a boyfriend, then her dad Stick tries to kill that guy and she jumps in front first and dies and everyone regrets it lmao.

💢 : what scene made you the most irrationally angry upon first reading

The entirety of Squirrelflight's hope for 1. It was such a viscerally deeply upsetting book to me.

The scenes of Bramblestar demoting squirrelflight to children's tasks, not letting her leave the camp without telling him because she Challenged him, taking her autonomy away, guilt tripping her, telling her she's selfish for not wanting to kill pregnant woman who is going to leave in Less than a MONTH anyway. The whole book just made me feel crazy. It's crazy how uncharacteristically sadistic every character becomes JUST so squirrelflight can be made to look inconsiderate for Embarrassing her husband in public by telling him they can just Wait for them to leave. And it's worse because it does completely break her down, Bramblestar completely shatters her sense of confidence, her sense of safety and personality ALL for the book to treat it like it was two-sided, all for her to apologize to him for speaking up and then the book ends. I don't think warrior cats has ever written anything more vile than this genuinely.

I remember that scene where she brought one of the sisters, who was dying, into camp for Leafpool to treat. and bramblestar threatened leafpool, his sister-in law and their DOCTOR not to heal an outsider. when squirrelflight argues and protects leafpool, fights for sunrise, bramblestar asks Why are you doing this to me. Guilting her and forcing her to choose between saving a woman's life, protecting her sister, AND listening to him beyond all reason. Choosing anything else except him is Hurting him. That's the framing. And it's crazy bc this isn't normal for warrior cats either, again it's uncharacteristically sadistic, it goes against the code, and it's all so they could write this scene, so bramble could say that, So it would Hurt squirrelflight, and punish her narratively.

You'd think it's intentional writing but then you remember this is the last book he's meant to be Good, because the next arc he's possessed by ashfur and is meant to actually be abusive and possessive and terrifying, which he is. But it's just fucking mortifying that the writer's idea of Bramblestar at his best, at the point where everyone missed him, is this. That they consistently do believe their relationship is healthiest and most equal when she is completely submitting to him.

ANYWAY that;s not even the actual last scene that broke me irt actually reading warrior cats myself LMAO.

it was similar though it was the way they handled shadowsight in the broken code. Similar thing of a character who is being so outrageously abused, other characters around him are suddenly far more sadistic and cruel than they've been before just to further beat him down While also having it be narratively justified.

Anyway it's the scene where Shadowsight, mothwing (i think), lionblaze and willowshine are trying to access the dark forest or starclan to get bramble's spirit back. No one trusts shadowsight, they all literally hate him, especially Lionblaze. Shadowsight offers to go to the dark forest, knowing there's a good chance he'll die there. He does this because he's basically suicidal at this point, so wracked with guilt over unknowingly creating this situation and having everyone Blame him for it that he's like Let me make it right. Lionblaze refuses because he doesn't trust him, so Willowshine offers instead. Willow lies down and closes her eyes so she can dream herself into the dark forest and in one of the fucking rawest scenes they've had in a MINUTE she dies on the spot. Ashfur killed her spirit in the darkforest so fast that barely a minute after she closes her eyes her physical body DIES. Lionblaze immediatelyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy blames shadowsight for this and is like it should have been you why did you let this happen. And at that point i was really like. if i keep reading this series I am Actually going to smash my head into a walllllllllll. I think I did finish the book a while later and idk.

It's hard knowing so much of this could be really hard hitting writing about abuse and complex situations. I think the meta of warriors is really interesting, the way the authors misogyny and absurd hate for abuse victims literally warps the world and character morals book by book. The way it literally gets worse as the books continue. I can't stomach reading it myself anymore LMAO. But I also have permanent brain worms for warriors so I still keep up with the character drama in the new books, there's stuff that's really interesting to me. Looking at curlfeather, frostpaw and splashtail's stuff. But yeah

[musical-chick-13]

For the ship ask game the Ponds Doctor Who? I was going to say DoctorRiver but that felt too obvious (feel free to add them to the chart if you want anyway though)

send me ships for the shipping grid

YES. BLESS YOU.

(Sorry, if I have the chance to include Doctor/River in ANYTHING, I'm taking it, lmao)

I ACTUALLY DON'T TALK ABOUT AMY/RORY ENOUGH. But I cannot TELL you how many feelings they've given me over the years. He waited for her for 2000 years! Just to give that little extra assurance that she would be safe!! She remembered him even when he was erased from existence!!! Even when that remembrance was subconscious!!! That's my shit!!!!!!!

That scene in "Asylum of the Daleks" where she talks about how she can't have kids anymore and wants him to be able to have that, so she's trying to let him go, and then he tells her he already knew anyway. And that they'll figure it out, because the important thing is the relationship they built. The ENTIRETY of "The Girl Who Waited" (which, hmmm, did I set the "giving her my days" speech to music for a project in theory class where we had to write a chorale, yes I did!!!!!!). I also have a whole separate folder on my computer of "Amy/Rory fanvids/fanfics" so.

"TOGETHER OR NOT AT ALL" OH MY GOOOODDDDDDDDDD. 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 YOU WILL PRY TATM FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS.

They're not Grade-A Deranged™ in the way that the Doctor and River are (which, I think in order for a ship to completely reach the upper left corner, that has to be present) but I LOVE THEM. Amy learning that maybe someone human and grounded (who would, in most other stories, be left as the Buzzkill Second Choice) can be extraordinary and emotionally fulfilling and compelling. Breaking down the idea of what "ordinary" really means, because look at who Rory became! Amy had a lot of confusion to work through re: the state of her romantic feelings, and that kept being a source of insecurity for Rory, even after they DID get married. But they got there. And after she made her choice, she stuck to it; and even in spite of her Mess™ he was ALWAYS there for her. There was something just...very real, about their relationship, even though one of these people had two lives courtesy of a rift in the universe feeding into her brain and the other one died like ten separate times over the course of them both traveling through time and space.

Someday, I will discuss all of my Thoughts™ on Doctor/River, but that is. A giant far-reaching project for another day. But tldr, I completely understand why these two characters fell in love with each other, and it makes me into a mess at every conceivable turn. (I do wish we'd had more episodes of them, though; and I wish we'd gotten to see more of the aftermath of TATM. I think they would have benefited from both of those things.)

[dinoburger]

None of us really know either way, but I do remember speculation in the mid-late 2010s re: whether or not the TF2 comics were leading into something space-related (between what happened to Sniper's mom, the spaceships located in several in-game maps, and the perpetually-unfinished valve map rd_asteroid that used to be in the game's playable map rotation). Entirely guesswork, plus a dash of hope that Valve would continue the storyline post-comics.

:\ yeah, though, ultimately… the comics really shook up the status quo of the game and the established setting, but it's hard to see what conclusion they could've been barrelling toward. Real intrigued by that comics/Helen infographic you posted a few days ago -- I've likewise been puzzling over what Helen's debt could be (for all of the comics' hiatus and then some, lmao). Either way, I don't believe there's enough foreshadowing for us to have figured out whatever-it-is, and then there's the eternal question of "What Comes After?" (both in-universe and regarding Valve's seemingly-dwindling interest in the IP) looming over it all.

(like tumblr user milfy, I'm not really sure what comic 7 could've done to conclude things in a satisfactory way. ngl, sometimes I wish we'd gotten something set during gravel war or mvm -- at the risk of sounding overly critical, I'll admit I personally feel like the fandom missed out on getting some more gravel war era/group-focused content.

though with the then-ongoing [and, hell, somehow-currently-ongoing] status of the game itself, I also feel like the comics ending on too Final a conclusion would've soured some folks' milk. perhaps this is why I continue to entertain the "it was leading into another update" train of thought -- the idea of the comics smacking a big old super-conclusive "The End" onto everything seems unlikely to me, but I cannot fathom what would have come afterwards. or how any currently-raised plot threads would be resolved, if at all.)

… This ask was a whole lotta reiteration/conjecture, so I want to add that I love the TF2 stuff you've been drawing/writing. The classic team and Conagher family lore are so, so fascinating to me, so it's been Like Christmas Morning to me for months lmao. have a good one -🍊

oh man, I would've loved to have more stuff that actually delved into developing the characters during the Gravel wars/MvM... hell, they could've even played off the Scream Fortress shenanigans and have like, a big, ridiculous magical adventure

I also didn't know about the space stuff, that also could've been a cool direction

there's part of me that wants to hope they had some idea of what they were doing but the more I look at it, the more the plot feels like it dissolved more into "stuff that feels really big and important happening" rather than one coherent mystery to unravel, which... the journey should also be important. This is the stuff people criticize Marvel movies for, the twist becomes more important than the actual story. Putting all the eggs in that basket.

I definitely agree... idk like. I think they even could've gotten away with having different canons and not feeling like they had to pin the ultimate resolution of the entire game to the comic, either. Comics can be like that! Different iterations and interpretations of the same universe, that's cool too! IPs get revised and retconned and improved all the time, tbh I think like... the current obsession people have with canonicity can be grating at times.

I think in some ways it's even harder to get past that with an inconclusive work like this because yeah, it does end up being that everyone hopes whatever the conclusion is will be worth the wait, that it'll scratch that itch, and the longer folks go imagining some grand conclusion the higher expectations end up being. You can't really blame them either, at a point, because that's all they really have to go off.

and thank you so much! I love those guys, so I'm grateful when it's appreciated!